Averbode

A Premonstratensian abbey belonging to the circary of Brabant and situated near Diest in the Archdiocese of Malines. It was founded about 1132 by Count Arnold of Losen and continued without interruption till the general suppression of the Belgian monasteries in 1796. The abbey was restored in 1834, and comprises at present 82 priests, 20 clerics and novices, and 36 lay brothers. Of these, 27 priests and 21 lay brothers are labouring among the Indians in Brazil, where, at the request of Leo XIII, they established a missionary monastery at Pirapora in the Diocese ofSão Paulo, in 1896, and a college at Jaguarao in the Diocese of Sao Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul in 1901. Recently two priests and three lay brothers from Averbode opened a mission house at Veile in Denmark.