The Jesuit University of Antwerp

BELGIUM, 2002, the 150th anniversary of the UFSIA, Scott 1899

In 1852 the Jesuits founded a college for higher education in commerce and trade in Antwerp, one of the first business schools in Europe. In 1965 the college was granted university status by the Belgian government and renamed Universitaire Faculteiten Sint-Ignatius Antwerpen (UFSIA), also known as the Jesuit University of Antwerp. UFSIA offered degrees in applied economics, language, literature, philosophy, law, and social and political sciences. From the early 1970s UFSIA and two public institutions, the Rijksuniversitair Centrum Antwerpen (RUCA) and the Universitaire Instelling Antwerpen (UIA) formed a confederation, which merged into the public Universiteit Antwerpen (UA) in 2002. The Universitair Centrum Sint-Ignatius Antwerpen was established to continue the Jesuit tradition of the UFSIA.

The Church of St. Charles Borromeo, Antwerp

RWANDA, Church of St. Charles Borromeo, Antwerp
from an illegal "Millennium" sheet, "Architecture of XI - XIXth Century"

The Jesuit church in Antwerp is a Baroque church with a spectacular facade, built by the Jesuits between 1615 and 1621. It was first dedicated to the Virgin Mary, but was rededicated to St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, the first church to be so dedicated after Ignatius was canonized in 1622. After the Jesuits were suppressed in 1773, the church was again rededicated, this time to St. Charles Borromeo. The church was designed by the Jesuit Brother Pieter Huyssens, SJ, though the design is also partly attributed to Peter Paul Rubens. The facade is based on the Church of the Gesu in Rome, the first Jesuit church. The interior was designed to look like a Baroque banqueting hall, providing a foretaste of the heavenly banquet. The opulent decoration gave the church the nickname "the marble temple."

   
SIERRA LEONE, 2006, Christmas issue, note the differences between the single stamps and the souvenir sheet stamps, Scott 2861-2864a

Sierra Leone's Christmas issue for 2006 features a design by Peter Paul Rubens for the crown of the main altar of the Jesuit Church in Antwerp. Rubens accepted a series of commissions in Antwerp during the years 1609 – 21 . They included altarpieces and sketches for 39 ceiling paintings for the new Jesuit church in that city. On July 18, 1718, lightning struck and the 39 ceiling paintings were tragically lost in the subsequent fire, but the small oil sketches survive, mainly in the Vienna Academy, the Courtauld Institute Galleries, and the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Most of the original marble was also destroyed. However, the apse of the main altar and the Mary Chapel were spared and they provide visitors with an idea of the church's former splendor. Larger restoration works took place in the 1980s when the church was rebuilt in the way it was before the lightning. One of the church's most unique features is the interchangeable painting above the altar, which uses an original mechanism which is still in working order.

Collège Saint-Michel, Brussels

 
BELGIUM, 2005, for the centenary of Collège Saint-Michel
a personalized label, the creation of Roland Francart, SJ, se-tenant with Scott 2111
BELGIUM, 2007, two of the three stamps in this tourism issue were Jesuit schools, Scott 2250

BELGIUM, 2005, for the centenary of Collège Saint-Michel
personalized labels, the creation of Roland Francart, SJ, se-tenant with Scott 2111

BELGIUM, 2005, for the centenary of Collège Saint-Michel
personalized label, the creation of Philippe Capart, se-tenant with Scott 2111

BELGIUM, 2008 Collège Saint-Michel on a
personalized label, the creation of Roland Francart, SJ

On October 3, 1905 Collège Saint-Michel in Brussels, a secondary school run by the Jesuits, opened its doors to some 400 students. It was two more years before the red brick facade was completed. The school's Church of St. John Berchmans was built from 1908 to 1910 and consecrated in 1912. In 1906 the school moved from the center of town to a suburb of Brussels, Etterbeek. One wing of this new building was dedicated to the work of the Bollandists. Msgr. Georges Lemaître, Belgian mathematician, and Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant and heir to the throne of Belgium are both alumni of St. Michel.

The Old English Chapel, Chevremont

  
BELGIUM, 1948, Scott B452-53

The above semi-postal issue was to help the Carmelites rebuild their church at Chevremont, a long time center of Marian devotion near Liège. Two of the stamps pictured the old pilgrimage chapel built here by the English Jesuits in 1688. They were doing their studies in exile in Liège and came to this spot to work on the chapel. The chapel (see detail) is in the lower left of the rose stamp and behind the image of Our Lady in the blue. Note the Jesuit monogram IHS and the date 1688 to the left of the statue.

The Jesuit College, Namur

 
BELGIUM, 2007, the buildings of the Athénée Royal François Bovesse de Namur pictured here were originally the Jesuit College of Namur
BELGIUM, 2011, a personalized stamp, 27th in a series of Historical Monuments of Namur
also marking the 400th anniversary of the school

The Jesuits came to Namur in 1610. The following year they began the buildings of Jesuit College in the very heart of old Namur, a school comprising five humanities classes. By 1620 the school, Jesuit residence and tower were completed. Next to the school, the Jesuits built a Baroque Collegiate Church (below) between 1621 and 1645. It still exists and is reckoned among the most beautiful jewels of Namur artistic heritage with its superb recently restored confessionals. The school and church were both lost to the Society with the Suppression in 1773. The school buildings, however, have kept their original purpose as an educational institution, eventually becoming the Athénée Royal François Bovesse de Namur. The Church, originally named for St. Ignatius, in 1777 became the parish church of St. Loup.

After the Restoration the Jesuits returned to Namur in 1831 and settled in rue de Bruxelles in the buildings of the Benedictine Abbey of Notre-Dame de la Paix, where they built the "Notre-Dame de la Paix" school. The school would then split into three separate entities: in 1927 the boarding school moved to Godinne (Saint Paul School), in 1968 the boarding school moved and became the Jesuit Collège Notre-Dame de la Paix Erpent, and the Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix, today the University of Namur (FUNDP). In 1935 the Jesuits opened the "Saint Bellarmin" institute in Wépion to house the Jesuit students of FUNDP. In 1971, the institute was converted into a Spirituality Centre (La Pairelle).

The Church of St. Loup, Namur

 
BELGIUM, 1975, a series on the architectural heritage of Belgium, Scott 927
BELGIUS, 2009, a view of St. Loup and the roofs of the area.

This Jesuit church in the Rue du College is considered the most perfect example of a Baroque-style church in Belgium. It was designed by the Jesuit brother and architect, Pieter Huyssens, SJ, and built between 1621 and 1645. It was originally named St. Ignatius Church. Next to the church was a Jesuit college begun in 1610 (see above), whence the name of the street. After the Suppression of the Jesuits, the church became the parish church of St. Loup. The college building became the home of the Athénée Royal. The Jesuit college, Collège Notre-Dame de la Paix, was reestablished in in 1831 and moved to Erpent, Belgium in 1971.

The Church of Ss. Peter and Paul, St.-Séverin-en-Condroz

BELGIUM, 1994, Scott 1558

The town of St.-Sévérin is now part of the larger municipality of Nandrin in the region of Condroz. It originated with the foundation here in 1091 of a Benedictine Priory. For reasons not completely clear, the Benedictines left the priory in the early 1500s. Various administrators ran it until 1574 when the Prince Bishop of Liège, Gérard de Groesbeek, entrusted it to the Jesuits of Liège who oversaw its administration until the Suppression in 1773. The Abbey was restored in 1996.

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