Westvleteren Abbey, located in the town of the same name in the province of West Flanders and is an abbey of the Cistercian Order. The first mention of the abbey dates back to 1260, although its constitution, according to local tradition, dates back to the 9th century.
The Abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren History
In the winter of 1814, Jan-Baptist Victoor left Poperinge to settle in the woods of San Sisto and spend the rest of his life as a hermit. A few hundred meters from his new hermitage, two monastic communities had already been established in previous centuries: from 1260 to 1355 the so-called "Sisters of the House of San Sisto" and from 1615 to 1784 a community of monks of the Tyrolean Order.
When in the summer of 1831 the prior of the new Catsberg monastery and some of his monks settled with the hermit, a new Cistercian monastery was born.
The first years of this Cistercian foundation were difficult. However, there has been a steady growth of the community. For example, there were 23 members in 1835 and 52 in 1875.
Twice the community gave up the monks: in 1850 16 brothers went to Scourmont to found a daughter house, and in the years 1858-1860 about 20 brothers were sent to Canada to revive a languishing monastery in Tracadie (now Spencer). In the United States).
Other important events of that early period are the construction of the abbey church in 1840, the founding of an elementary school around 1840, the opening of the first brewery in 1839, the donation of the monastery site by the Lebbe family in 1860, the elevation of the priory to an abbey in 1871 and the development of the farm as a model company for the region in the years 1875-1878.
The Second World War proved to be a period of great difficulty for the abbey from an economic and political point of view. The period after the Second World War was very decisive for the community. Very important options were taken back then and are still decisive today:
The then Abbot Dom Gerardus Deleye made the radical decision in 1945 to reduce the ever-expanding brewery to smaller proportions.
With its current annual production of around 6000 hectoliters, the brewery is still a small company.
The construction of the guesthouse in 1964. Before then and certainly for the community of that time it would have been called "spacious". It illustrates the importance that the community attaches to hospitality: openness to the outside is an essential element of our monastic life.
An unstable condition of the monks' residential buildings led to new construction in the years 2008-2011. Part of the abbey was demolished and a new and spacious building was built, based on a design by Bob Van Reeth. The former abbey church has been transformed into a library and refectory. Together with the new abbey church that has been preserved, it joins the monastery square, where there are also the chapter house, the scriptorium, the novitiate, the common room and the infirmary. On the first floor there are the rooms for the brothers and the shops in the cellars. The guest house has also been refurbished.
Due to the growing secularization of our society, the abbey has had fewer entrances in recent years than in the past. With the new buildings of the abbey, however, the community is a clear sign that it looks confidently to the future.