Groot Seminarie Mechelen 6-07-2018 11-46-52

The Diocesan Pastoral Centre Mechelen is a centre for pastoral activities and ecclestical administration, which also houses the diocesan archive of the

Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated ...

. It is located on the two-acre (8,861 square metres) site of what was formerly the Major Seminary in Mechelen, an institution for the training of Catholic clergy in the archdiocese from 1595 to 1970. Since 1936, increasingly extensive parts of the site have been listed with the status of a protected monument.

History

Archbishop

Mathias Hovius Mathias Hovius (1542–1620), born Matthijs Van Hove, was the third Archbishop of Mechelen from 1596 to 1620. As Archbishop, Hovius presided over implementing the Catholic Reformation in the Spanish Netherlands. Early career Hovius was born in ...

founded the seminary in 1595 in accordance with the 1563 decree on seminaries of the

Council of Trent The Council of Trent (), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation at the time, it has been described as the "most ...

. Earlier attempts to establish a seminary had been prevented by the disturbances of the

Dutch Revolt The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt (; 1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish government. The causes of the war included the Reformation, centralisation, exc ...

. The seminary was first located in a boarding house founded by

Jan Standonck Jan Standonck (or ''Jean Standonk''; 16 August 1453 – 5 February 1504) was a Flemish priest, Scholastic, and reformer. He was part of the great movement for reform in the 15th-century French church. His approach was to reform the recruitmen ...

in 1500 for poor youths being educated at the city's Latin School. Candidates for the priesthood were to complete their humanities at the Latin School before receiving theological education at the seminary. Between 1746 and 1761, Cardinal d'Alsace had a new building erected to house the seminary, with a chapel and four three-floor buildings built around a central courtyard. The new chapel was consecrated on 22 July 1753. The seminary was closed down by the government of the

Austrian Netherlands The Austrian Netherlands was the territory of the Burgundian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire between 1714 and 1797. The period began with the acquisition by the Austrian Habsburg monarchy of the former Spanish Netherlands under the Treaty of Ras ...

in 1787, pursuant to a decree of

Emperor Joseph II Joseph II (13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from 18 August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 29 November 1780 until his death. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor F ...

, but reopened in 1789 after the

Brabant Revolution The Brabant Revolution or Brabantine Revolution (, ), sometimes referred to as the Belgian Revolution of 1789–1790 in older writing, was an armed revolution, insurrection that occurred in the Austrian Netherlands (modern-day Belgium) between O ...

. It was again closed down in 1798, during the

French period In Northern European historiography, the term French period (, , ) refers to the period between 1794 and 1815 during which most of Northern Europe was controlled by Republican or Napoleonic France.Eduard Rothert''Rheinland-Westfalen im Wechsel d ...

, and in 1799 the buildings were sold. They were rented back by the archdiocese in 1803, after the

Concordat of 1801 The Concordat of 1801 was an agreement between the First French Republic and the Holy See, signed by First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte and Pope Pius VII on 15 July 1801 in Paris. It remained in effect until 1905, except in Alsace–Lorraine, ...

, and bought back in 1806. The government of the

United Kingdom of the Netherlands The United Kingdom of the Netherlands is the unofficial name given to the Kingdom of the Netherlands as it existed from 1815 to 1839. The United Netherlands was created in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars through the fusion of territories t ...

again closed the seminary in 1825, and it was again reopened in September 1830, with a Junior Seminary established for the preparatory courses and the Major Seminary reserved to students of Philosophy and Theology. By the middle of the 19th century, the 18th-century buildings were becoming too small and in the 1840s and 1850s these were extended upwards with an additional floor. New buildings were added in 1887 to house a larger refectory and a large lecture theatre, and in 1900 a new wing was added. By the 1930s, the seminary was again too small, and a new seminary was established in

Sint-Katelijne-Waver Sint-Katelijne-Waver (, old spelling: ''Kathelijne-Waver''; , ) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the towns of Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-Waver and Sint-Katelijne-Waver proper. In 2021, Sint-Katelijn ...

to provide two years of Philosophy and a first year of Theology before seminarians moved to Mechelen to complete their training in Theology. In 1948 a new wing was added to the seminary in Mechelen and in 1955 a larger chapel was consecrated. With declining numbers of candidates for the priesthood, Cardinal Suenens closed the seminary in Sint-Katelijne-Waver in 1964, and in 1970 transferred the training of priests for the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels to the John XXIII Seminary, Leuven. The seminary library was transferred to Leuven, forming one of the core collections of the Maurits Sabbe Library of the

Faculty of Theology, Catholic University of Leuven The Leuven Faculty of Theology was a branch of the Catholic University of Leuven, founded in 1834 in Mechelen by the bishops of Belgium as the Catholic University of Belgium, that moved its seat to the town of Leuven in 1835, changing its name t ...

. Over the subsequent decades, the former seminary was renovated and transformed into the Diocesan Pastoral Centre.

References

{{Coord missing, Belgium 1595 establishments in Europe 1803 establishments in Europe 1830 establishments in Belgium 1787 disestablishments in Europe 1798 disestablishments in Europe 1825 disestablishments in Europe 1970 disestablishments in Belgium Buildings and structures in Mechelen Education in Belgium

Mechelen Mechelen (; ; historically known as ''Mechlin'' in EnglishMechelen has been known in English as ''Mechlin'', from where the adjective ''Mechlinian'' is derived. This name may still be used, especially in a traditional or historical context. T ...

History

Further reading

References