The Major Seminary in Bruges, in Dutch Grootseminarie, is a centre for training and formation in the

Catholic Diocese of Bruges The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

, formerly used as the

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

for preparing candidates for the

diocesan priest In Christianity, the term secular clergy refers to deacons and priests who are not monastics or otherwise members of religious life. A secular priest (sometimes known as a diocesan priest) is a priest who commits themselves to a certain geogra ...

hood. It is located on the Potterierei in

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...

History

Since 2018, candidates for the priesthood from all Flemish dioceses have been trained at the Johannes XXIII Seminary, Leuven, but the Major Seminary in Bruges continues to provide other educational opportunities, such as the ''Theologische academie'' and the ''School voor geloof''. The seminary has a large library and is housed in the 17th-century buildings of the former

Ten Duinen Abbey Ten Duinen Abbey or the Abbey of the Dunes ( nl, Abdij Ten Duinen) was a Cistercian monastery at Koksijde in what is now Belgium. It was one of the richest and most influential religious institutions in the medieval County of Flanders. It later rel ...

, established in Bruges by

Bernard Campmans Bernard Campmans (died 1642), a native of Douai, was the 40th Abbot of Dunes from 1623 to 1642. He reclaimed the rights of the defunct Ter Doest Abbey for the mother house, and was responsible for the community's re-establishment in Bruges after ...

in 1627. The buildings also house a branch of the

United Nations University The (UNU) is the think tank and academic arm of the United Nations. Headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, with diplomatic status as a UN institution, its mission is to help resolve global issues related to human development and welfare thro ...

which works closely with the

College of Europe The College of Europe (french: Collège d'Europe) is a post-graduate institute of European studies with its main campus in Bruges, Belgium and a second campus in Warsaw, Poland. The College of Europe in Bruges was founded in 1949 by leading ...

Presidents

The president of the seminary was one of the leading priests of the diocese and usually an

honorary canon A canon (from the Latin , itself derived from the Greek , , "relating to a rule", "regular") is a member of certain bodies in subject to an ecclesiastical rule. Originally, a canon was a cleric living with others in a clergy house or, later, i ...

of the

cathedral chapter According to both Catholic and Anglican canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics ( chapter) formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese during the vacancy. In ...

. The presidents: *

Louis-Joseph Delebecque Louis-Joseph Delebecque (1796–1864) was the 21st bishop of Ghent, in Belgium, from November 1838 until his death.A. Simon, "Delebecque, Louis-Joseph", in ''Biographie Nationale de Belgique''vol. 30(Brussels, 1958), 323-327. Life Delebecque was ...

(1798-1864) - president 1833-1838 * Livinus Bruneel (1798-1885) - president 1838-1869 * Petrus Dessein (1811) - president 1869-1884 * Henri Delbar (1833-1894) - president 1884-1899 * Henri Vanden Berghe (1848-1932) - president 1899-1907 * Kamiel Callewaert (1866-1943) - president 1907-1934 * Achiel Verhamme (1891-1959) - president 1934-1952 * Maurits De Keyzer (1906-1994) - president 1952-1961 * Joris Van Eeghem (1921-1999) - president 1961-1970 * Paul Declerck (1922-1981) - president 1970-1981 * Adelbert Denaux (born 1938) - president 1981-1992 * Eric Vanden Berghe (1948-2006) - president 1992-2006 * Koen Vanhoutte (born 1957) - president 2006-2016 * Philippe Hallein (born 1972) - president 2016-2018

References

External links

Official website
{{coord, 51.2181, N, 3.2305, E, source:wikidata, display=title Catholic Church in Belgium Former Catholic seminaries Catholic universities and colleges in Belgium 1833 establishments in Belgium Educational institutions established in 1833

History

Presidents

References

Further reading

External links