webpage: http://www.maredsous.be/index.php?home&L=2

THE Abbey of Maredsous was founded by the abbey of Beuron on November 15th, 1872, partly through the influence of Hildebrand de Hemptinne, then a monk of Beuron destined later to become Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Confederation. Financial support for the foundation came from the wealthy and influential Desclée family, whose home was in Maredret, a short distance from the site of the new abbey.

THE autodidact architect Jean-Baptiste Béthune chose to create an enormous neo-gothic building based in part on the Cistercian abbey of Villers-la-villeon, but heavily influenced by the cathedral at Tournai. The “hieratic” Beuronese school of art influenced some of the interior decoration of the abbey, although Béthune dismissed it as “Assyrian-Bavarian” (see the Maredsous webpage for details: http://www.maredsous.be/index.php?id=99&L=2  ).

AMONG the illustrious founders and abbots of Maredsous are the Wolter brothers of Beuron: Maurus who was the first Archabbot of Beuron and thus the abbot who founded Maredsous; and Placidus Wolter, the first abbot of Maredsous and later Archabbot of Beuron.

THE second abbot of Maredsous was Hildebrand de Hemptinne, who in 1893 was elected the first Abbot Primate of the newly-created Benedictine Confereration.  The third abbot of Maredsous was Blessed Columba Marmion.

IN 1893 the Benedictine abbey of St. Scholastica was founded at at Maredret, near Maredsous.

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