Westmalle Abbey

The Trappist Abbey of Westmalle, or Abdij van Onze-Lieve-Vrouw van het Heilig Hart (Abbey of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart) is a Cistercians of Strict Observance abbey in Westmalle in the Belgian province of Antwerp.

The abbey was founded in 1794, but the community was not elevated to the rank of Trappist abbey until 22 April 1836. The abbey is famous for its spiritual life and Westmalle Brewery, one of few Trappist beer breweries in the world. The three pillars of life in the Trappist monastery are a life of prayer, life in a community and a life of work (Ora et labora).

Twice in the 18th and 19th century the Cistercians (just like most other monastic orders) had been prohibited. In 1791 in the aftermath of the French Revolution, Augustinus de Lestrange Dubosc (1754–1827), the novice master of La Trappe Abbey (Soligny-la-Trappe) left France and went to Switzerland. He settled in the empty Carthusian monastery Val-Sainte (E: Sacred Valley) near Fribourg. As the senate of Fribourg put a numerus clausus of 21 monks and the refugees from France kept flowing in, Lestrange decided to send monks abroad to create new settlements, they left for Spain, Italy, and a third group to Canada. The group which was sent to Canada, would end up in Westmalle and laid the foundations of the present-day abbey. When the monks, on their way to Canada, passed through Flanders, the bishop of Antwerp, Cornelius Franciscus de Nelis, invited them to Antwerp. He wanted to ask Lestrange if they would be allowed to found a Trappist monastery in his bishopric instead of going to Canada. Lestrange allowed 8 of them to stay and to settle in Westmalle in the Campine region of Flanders.

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