La Pairelle or its full name Centre Spirituel Ignatien La Pairelle is a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

spirituality and retreat centre in

Wépion Wépion () is a district of the city of Namur, Wallonia, Belgium. Located south of the city centre, it is considered as Belgian's strawberry capital, with the Wépion strawberry an established concept in Belgian cuisine. The strawberry has bee ...

, Namur, Belgium. It was built in 1932 by the

Jesuits , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders = ...

and was designed by Albert Ghequière with a chapel built in the Gothic Revival style. It is located off Rue Marcel Lecomte on a hill in the district of Wépion in Namur, overlooking the

River Meuse The Meuse ( , , , ; wa, Moûze ) or Maas ( , ; li, Maos or ) is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a ...

. It is the only French-speaking Jesuit retreat centre in Belgium.

History

Foundation

In 1611, the Jesuits arrived in Namur and founded the College of Namur at a site next to current Church of Saint Loup in the centre of the city. In 1773, the Jesuits were suppressed and the college became the Royal College. In 1831, the Jesuits returned and opened

Collège Notre-Dame de la Paix Collège Notre-Dame de la Paix is a mixed Catholic primary and secondary school in Erpent, Namur, Belgium. Its origins go back to 1610 and the creation of the College of Namur by the Jesuits in the centre of Namur. After the suppression of th ...

on rue de Bruxelles. Over the next 100 years the college expanded with new faculties and programmes, eventually becoming the

Université de Namur The University of Namur or ''Université de Namur'' (UNamur),New name since September 2012, formerly ''Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix'' (FUNDP)/ref> in Namur (Belgium), is a Jesuit, Catholic private university in the French Communi ...

. In 1932, La Pairelle was built. It was originally the St Bellarmine Institute (French: ''Institut Saint-Bellarmin''). Named after Robert Bellarmine, it was a residence for the training of Jesuits who would study at the Université de Namur. In the building is a chapel in the Gothic Revival style. The building was designed by Albert Ghequière who also designed the Church of the Sacré-Cœur de Saint-Servais in Waterloo and Chapel of Saint-Thérèse in Namur. According to the ''Inventaire de patrimoine immobilier culturel'' of

Wallonia Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...

, the style of the building is "neo-traditional".92094-INV-1391-01
from ''Inventaire de patrimoine immobilier culturel'' of Wallonie Patrimoine AWaP, retrieved 29 October 2022 From 1935 to 1971, as part of the training for Jesuit missionaries in India, an Indological course, which included the teaching of

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

was taught there.Winand M. Callewart, "Indology Studies in Belgium" in De Jonckheere, Gorisse, Rostalska ed.
Puspikã: Tracing Ancient India, through Texts and Traditions: Contributions to Current Research in Indology
', Vol. 5, Oxbow Books, Oxford, 2020, p.8

Retreat centre

In 1971, the building was no longer used as a

formation Formation may refer to: Linguistics * Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes * Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes Mathematics and science * Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...

centre for Jesuits and instead became a retreat centre. Since then it has offered retreats and courses to people in

Ignatian spirituality Ignatian spirituality, also known as Jesuit spirituality, is a Catholic spirituality founded on the experiences of the 16th-century Spanish saint Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order. The main idea of this form of spirituality comes from ...

, which is inspired and taken from the ''

Spiritual Exercises The ''Spiritual Exercises'' ( la, Exercitia spiritualia), composed 1522–1524, are a set of Christian meditations, contemplations, and prayers written by Ignatius of Loyola, a 16th-century Spanish priest, theologian, and founder of the Soci ...

'' by

Ignatius of Loyola Ignatius of Loyola, S.J. (born Íñigo López de Oñaz y Loyola; eu, Ignazio Loiolakoa; es, Ignacio de Loyola; la, Ignatius de Loyola; – 31 July 1556), venerated as Saint Ignatius of Loyola, was a Spanish Catholic priest and theologian, ...

.Anne-Françoise de Beaudrap
Agée d’un demi-siècle, La Pairelle invite à jubiler avec elle !
''Cathobel'', 6 July 2022, retrieved 29 October 2022

Developments

In 1999, the Sisters of Saint Andrew moved into a house called Béthanie, which was once a farmhouse at La Pairelle. They also help with giving retreats at the centre. On 25 September 2022 it celebrated fifty years as a retreat centre with a

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...

presided by the

Bishop of Namur The Diocese of Namur is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Belgium. It is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels. The diocese is a suffragan in the ecclesiastical province in the metropoli ...

, Pierre Warin.Découvrez la vidéo de la fête des 50 ans de La Pairelle
''Cathobel'', 6 October 2022, retrieved 29 October 2022

References

External links