Publication and study day at the Catholic University of Leuven.

The research network 'Jesuits in the Benelux' organised a research day on the rich heritage of the Jesuits in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg at the Catholic University of Leuven (KU-Leuven) on 18 December.

The initiative comes from the research network "Jezuïeten in de Lage Landen" (Jesuits in the Low Countries), created in 2018 by the KADOC-KU Leuven (Documentation and Research Centre for Culture, Religion and Society of the Flemish Catholic University of Leuven), in collaboration with the Jesuitica project of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Sciences and researchers of this university. The aim of this network is to support research on Jesuit history in the Benelux by promoting the archives deposited at KADOC by the former Jesuit Provinces of Flanders (BSE), French-speaking Belgium and Luxembourg (BML) and the Netherlands (NER).

Several interventions focused on some of the riches kept in these archives. A first one focused on documents concerning physical education and sports, as well as games in the curricula of the colleges to show the importance given to them by the Jesuits. A second one showed in pictures some of the richness and enormous diversity of the audiovisual collections: films, audio cassettes, posters, souvenirs... A last one presented the new research platform "Ignis - Leuven Centre for Jesuit Studies" whose project is to valorise the rich collections of archives and writings of the Jesuits of the Benelux, and to stimulate international and interdisciplinary research with an emphasis on history, spirituality, education, missionary activities and heritage.

Leaving the framework of the KADOC archives, Sarah Barthélemy (Catholic University of Louvain) developed some aspects of her recently defended thesis around the appropriation of the Jesuit model as a founding act in "The Faithful Companions of Jesus" (1820), founded by Marie Madeleine de Bengy de Bonnault d'Houët. Historical journey in the relations between the foundress and the Jesuits of her entourage, the institutionalisation of a new female congregation before the Society of Jesus and the Congregations of the Roman Curia. Barbara Baudry (Jesuit Archives EOF, Vanves) took the listener to the Jesuit Archives preserved in Vanves to reveal its richness - pointing out the rich collections of the missions -, and to propose some avenues of research.

The Survival of the Jesuits in the Low Countries, 1773-1850

The day ended with the presentation of the book The Survival of the Jesuits in the Low Countries, 1773-1850, the fruit of a colloquium organised on 23-25 October 2014 by the KADOC-KU Leuven and the University of Namur. It deals with the difficult period that the Jesuit order experienced in the Benelux, between the suppression in 1773 and the creation of the new Province of the Netherlands in 1850. After the presentation of the new book by the scientific editors, Leo Kenis and Marc Lindeijer SJ, the authors present suggested avenues for future research.

Michel Hermans SJ, Archivist, Lecturer at the University of Namur and at the Centre Sèvres (Paris)

Photo: From left to right: Thierry Dobbelstein sj, Barbara Baudry and Michel Hermans sj, participants and representatives of the EOF Province at the colloquium.