Saint Andrew of Clerlande

Hidden in the Bois de Lauzelle, the broad university forest near Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, lies the Benedictine monastery of Saint Andrew of Clerlande. It is an oasis of silence and prayer, born of the history of the neighbouring university: when the University of Leuven was divided in 1968, its French-speaking branch chose a new site, and as early as 1967 the first monks settled here.

The monastery buildings were raised in 1970–1971 to the designs of the architect Jean Cosse and Father Frédéric Debuyst, a fine connoisseur of modern liturgical art. In June 1971 a first group of monks from the Abbey of Saint Andrew of Zevenkerken, near Bruges, moved in, giving the place its dedication. The canonical foundation as a priory followed on Christmas Day 1972.

The monastery belongs to the Benedictine Congregation of the Annunciation and today gathers a small community of monks and oblates. In 1978 it was from here that a daughter monastery was founded near Kinshasa, in the Congo. So Clerlande remains a place of hospitality, recollection and openness to the world.