Oosteeklo Abbey was a

Cistercian nunnery Cistercian nuns are female members of the Cistercian Order, a religious order belonging to the Roman Catholic branch of the Catholic Church. History The first Cistercian monastery for women, Le Tart Abbey, was established at Tart-l'Abbaye in t ...

founded in

Oosteeklo Oosteeklo (formerly Oost-Eekloo) is a historic village in the Flemish province of East Flanders, Belgium, which since 1977 has been a subdivision of the municipality of Assenede. The village is situated 9 km east of Eeklo and 17 km nor ...

in 1217 and later moved to

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...

History

In the Middle Ages the lay brothers and the secular tenants of the monastery played an important role in the agricultural development of the sandy

heathland A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler ...

around the village of Oosteeklo. In 1577, during the

Dutch Revolt The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt ( nl, Nederlandse Opstand) (Historiography of the Eighty Years' War#Name and periodisation, c.1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and t ...

, the abbey was plundered and razed. Seven surviving members of the community regrouped under Abbess Elisabeth Fransmans and in 1585 moved into the Posteernehof in the city of

. Under Joanna de Hertoghe (died 1630), the abbey church was built in Ghent, and under Francisca vanden Steene (abbess 1636–1668) the refectory, chapter house and infirmary were built and the church decorated. While established in Ghent the monastery did retain extensive property and rights in and around Oosteeklo. Their former guesthouse in the village is now listed as built heritage. On 11 May 1666

Gerard de Baere Gerard de Baere, a native of Laarne, was the 43rd abbot of Ten Duinen Abbey in Bruges from 1653 to 1666. Life De Baere was professed as a monk in 1631. He was ordained subdeacon on 10 April 1632, deacon on 21 May 1633, and priest on 24 September ...

Abbot of Dunes 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 ...

, granted permission for a chapel with portable altar to be built on the former site of the abbey in Oosteeklo. In 1796 the Revolutionary authorities suppressed the house in Ghent and confiscated the building, which in 1797 was sold at public auction. The former nuns bought back the house through a front man, and continued to live in it as a clandestine community until 1814, when again officially recognised as a monastic house. Over the course of the subsequent few decades, the community died out. In 1842 the former monastery buildings were transferred to the Jesuits, and in the early 20th century to the

De La Salle Brothers french: Frères des Écoles Chrétiennes , image = Signum Fidei.jpg , image_size = 175px , caption = , abbreviation = FSC , nickname = Lasallians , named_after = , formation ...

Abbesses

The abbesses listed in the ''Gallia Christiana'', vol. 5 (Paris, 1731), 227-228, are as follows. * Isabella (died 1230) * Egidia de Salsyne (died 1267) * Lyna Trys (died 1286) * Lyna de Boulers (died 1288) * Ida Dammand (died 1290) * Agnes van Hove (died 1308) * Heylsoeta de Rocleers (died 1310) * Maria Keelcapons (died 1322) * Belina van Somerghem (died 1333) * Clara Tollins (died 1364) * Margareta vanden Berghe (died 1382) * Margareta van Wilsem (died 1405) * Catharina d'Appers (died 1440) * Margareta vanden Voorde (died 1442) * Catharina Seysens (died 1468) * Clara Smeyers (died 1478) * Christiana Laus (died 1488) * Catharina van Raveschot (resigned after 14 months) * Margareta Poleyts (died 1492) * Agnes Cabelliau (died 1499) * Gentina de Mastin (died 1504) * Catharina de Beer (died 1527) * Anna de Pottelsberghe (died 1531) * Philippina de Mastin (died 1536) * Johanna Sanders (died 1583) * Elisabeth Fransmans (died 1610) * Joanna de Hertoghe (died 1630) * Maria de Brunswyck (died 1634), daughter of the Duke of Brunswick * Francisca vanden Steene (died 1668) * Isabella Clara Eugenia de Huchin, a goddaughter of

Isabella Clara Eugenia Isabella Clara Eugenia ( es, link=no, Isabel Clara Eugenia; 12 August 1566 – 1 December 1633), sometimes referred to as Clara Isabella Eugenia, was sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands in the Low Countries and the north of modern France with ...

(died 1722, aged 92) * Juliana vanden Bogaerde of Bruges (died 1725, aged 66) * Maria Alexandrina Coene of Ghent (enthroned 2 September 1725)

References

{{coord missing, Belgium 1210s establishments in Europe 1796 disestablishments in the Southern Netherlands Cistercian monasteries in Belgium Christian monasteries established in the 13th century