Portret van Benedictus van Haeften, RP-P-OB-15

Benedictus van Haeften (1588 – 31 July 1648) was the Provost of Affligem Abbey and a writer of religious works. Haeften commissioned

Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...

and De Crayer to decorate the church and the monastery in Affligem.

Biography

Van Haeften was a

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

writer, provost of the

Abbey of Affligem Affligem Abbey ( nl, Abdij Affligem, french: Abbaye d'Affligem) is a Benedictine abbey in the municipality of Affligem, Flemish Brabant, Belgium, to the north-west of Brussels. Dedicated in 1086, it was the most important monastery in the Duch ...

. He was born in Utrecht, 1588, and died 31 July 1648, at

Spa, Belgium Spa (; wa, Spå) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium, whose name became an eponym for mineral baths with supposed curative properties. It is situated in a valley in the Ardennes mountains sout ...

, where he had gone to recover his health.Ott, Michael. "Benedict van Haeften." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 25 October 2022 After studying philosophy and theology at the

Catholic University of Leuven University of Leuven or University of Louvain (french: Université de Louvain, link=no; nl, Universiteit Leuven, link=no) may refer to: * Old University of Leuven (1425–1797) * State University of Leuven (1817–1835) * Catholic University of ...

, he entered the Benedictine

in 1609, took

solemn vows A solemn vow is a certain vow ("a deliberate and free promise made to God about a possible and better good") taken by an individual during or after novitiate in a Catholic religious institute. It is solemn insofar as the Church recognizes it a ...

on 14 May 1611, and was ordained priest in 1613. He then returned to Leuven to continue his theological studies, but was recalled to his monastery when he was about to receive the

licentiate in theology The Licentiate in Theology or (in Britain) Licence in Theology (LTh or, in Australia, ThL) is a non-degree qualification in theology awarded in Canada and previously awarded in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. A qualification simil ...

. In 1616 he became

prior Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be l ...

, and in 1618 Matthias Hovius,

Archbishop of Mechelen In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdioc ...

, who was at the same time

Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...

of Affligem, appointed him provost of his monastery. Affligem at the time belonged to the Bursfeld Union, and under the prudent direction of van Haeften was in a flourishing condition. Jacob Boonen, who had succeeded Hovius as archbishop and abbot in 1620, desired to join the monastery to the new Congregation of St. Vannes, in Lorraine, which had a stricter constitution than Bursfeld.Calderón, Carme López, ''Applied Emblems in the Cathedral of Lugo'', Brill, 2021, pp. 42-50
After some hesitation, van Haeften agreed to the change, and on 18 October 1627, began his

novitiate The novitiate, also called the noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a Christian ''novice'' (or ''prospective'') monastic, apostolic, or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether ...

under the direction of a monk of the Congregation of Lorraine. Together with eight of his monks, he made confession according to the new reform on 25 October 1628, and founded the Belgian Congregation of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin. The new reform enjoined perpetual abstinence, daily rising at two o'clock in the morning, and

manual labour Manual labour (in Commonwealth English, manual labor in American English) or manual work is physical work done by humans, in contrast to labour by machines and working animals. It is most literally work done with the hands (the word ''manual'' ...

joined with study. The new congregation was of short duration. Archbishop of Mechelen brought about its dissolution in 1654. Van Haeften is the author of a learned and painstaking work of monastic researches in the life and

rule of St. Benedict The ''Rule of Saint Benedict'' ( la, Regula Sancti Benedicti) is a book of precepts written in Latin in 516 by St Benedict of Nursia ( AD 480–550) for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot. The spirit of Saint Benedict's Ru ...

. Professor Carme López Calderón suggests that the engravings in Van Haeften's ''Schola cordis'' were used as a reference in the decoration of the "Chapel of Nuestra Señora de los Ojos Grandes" in

Lugo Cathedral Saint Mary's Cathedral ( gl, Catedral de Santa María), better known as Lugo Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic church and basilica in Lugo, Galicia, north-western Spain. The cathedral was erected in the early 12th century in a Romanesque style, w ...

. Those in ''Regia via Crucis'' found their way into French emblem books of the seventeenth century.Adams, Alison et al. ''A Bibliography of French Emblem Books of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries'', Librairie Droz, 1999, p. 556

Works

* * *

References

Sources

* adapted from Latin ''Schola cordis'' below * Latin original in four books subdivided in classes of multiple readings * historical facsimiles of other works held by private/public libraries in various languages * {{DEFAULTSORT:Haeften, Benedictus van 1588 births 1648 deaths Belgian Benedictines Clergy from Utrecht (city) Writers from Utrecht (city)