St John Berchmans University College, locally known as Jezuietenhuis or Lerkeveld, is an educational institution run by the European Low Countries Province of the

Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

Heverlee Heverlee () is a sub-municipality of the city of Leuven located in the province of Flemish Brabant, Flemish Region, Belgium. It was a separate municipality until 1977. On 1 January 1977, it was merged into Leuven. According to the official websit ...

, outside

Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...

. It was built in 1958 by Jos Ritzen, who worked with Alphons Boosten. It began as a philosophy and theology college for the Jesuits and housed their archives.Slechten, Bert, ''Kloosterbouw in de Gemeenten Heverlee Tijdens de 19e en de 20e eeuw'' (Leuven, 2012) pp. 104-123

History

Foundation

In the 19th century, the Jesuits had a building in Egenhoven outside Heverlee. It was a country estate and served as a training college for the Jesuits. The Jesuits also had premises which are now the

Evangelical Theological Faculty The Evangelical Theological Faculty (, abbreviated as ETF) is an Protestant Evangelical Theological Institute/University in Leuven, Flanders, Belgium and is recognised by the Federal Government of Belgium to award degrees and doctorates. It is a ...

in Heverlee. These two sites originally served as the philosophy and theological college for all the Jesuits in Belgium. Plans were made in 1931 to have one college for the French-speaking Jesuits and another separate one for the Flemish-speaking Jesuits. In 1935, these plans had not materialised and when the Jesuits created separate administrative units (or provinces) for the Flemish-speaking Jesuits and the French-speaking Jesuits, they both still shared the building.

Construction

In 1953, a site was found for the construction of the college, and the architect Jos Ritzen was contracted to design it. He had previously worked with Alphons Boosten. Together, they built churches in

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; ; ; ) is a city and a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital city, capital and largest city of the province of Limburg (Netherlands), Limburg. Maastricht is loca ...

and

Eygelshoven Eygelshoven (, , Ripuarian: ) is a village, since 1982 part of the town of Kerkrade, in the southeast of the Netherlands, close to the German and Belgian borders. It has two former coal mines, ''Laura'' and ''Julia'', which were named after th ...

in the early 1920s. Building work stated on 31 July 1956, and it was completed in June 1958. The cost escalated during construction and on completion it was BEF72 million, which in 2010 would be €11 million. As the French-speaking Jesuits had one tall building on one side of the

River Dijle The Dyle (; ) is a river in central Belgium, left tributary of the Rupel. It is long. It flows through the Belgian provinces of Walloon Brabant, Flemish Brabant and Antwerp. Its source is in Houtain-le-Val, near Nivelles in Walloon Brabant. Th ...

and the Flemish-speaking Jesuits had another on the other side of the river, students there would refer to the two buildings as the 'Two Towers'.

Expansion

In the 1960s, vocations to religious life fell dramatically in the Catholic church and they had to expand the building's usage. The building still contained the Jesuit archives, but it was adapted to contain a conference centre, a Jesuit retirement home and a student hostel. The Lerkeveld Student Hostel provides accommodation and study space for students of the

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven KU Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. Founded in 1425, it is the oldest university in Belgium and the oldest university in the Low Countries. In addition to its main camp ...

. The archive contains documents such as ones about education in the schools run by the Jesuits in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. In 2004, the Flemish Jesuits moved 15,000 books of a collection called 'Jesuitica and Ignatiana' to the Maurits Sabbe Library of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies of the

Parish

The Jesuit community there also serve the local Catholic population by regularly celebrating

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

. The nearby St. Lambert Church in

closed from 2013 to 2014, so the only Mass being celebrated was at the Jezuitenhuis. There, Mass is at 6:30pm from Monday to Friday and at 9:00am on Sunday.Kerkleuven
retrieved 28 October 2013

References

External links

*
Jezuietenhuis site

Lerkeveld Student Hostel site

Maurits Sabbe Library site

St Lambert Parish site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint John Berchmans University College Heverlee KU Leuven Jesuit universities and colleges Educational institutions established in 1958 Catholic universities and colleges in Belgium 1958 establishments in Belgium Buildings and structures in Leuven