M. Roelands

A little history

Machtilt Roelants (+ 1396), after whom this room is named, was a Beguine in Leuven’s Grand Beguinage, and came from a leading Leuven family. Among other things her family donated a window to the Church of St John the Baptist, but unfortunately this has been lost. Machtilt is buried at the church.

St Augustine

St Augustine, or Aurelius Augustinus, also known as Augustine of Hippo, lived from 354 to 430. He was bishop of Hippo and a theologian and philosopher. The precise origin of the marble sculpture of this church father, who was an influential early theologian and writer, is unknown. The seventeenth-century statue, which is missing one hand and the mitre, is in the Baroque style and may at one time have been part of the furnishings of the Beguinage church.

Small beer to quench the thirst

Most houses in the Grand Beguinage originally had a plaque or a statue in a niche whose design referred to the name or purpose of the building. One of the finest preserved examples is a terracotta relief showing the Presentation of Mary in the Temple, which comes from the Convent of Our Lady of Presentation (house no. 27). The Convent was built after 1638 when Anna van Asseldonck from ’s Hertogenbosch made a bequest for bursaries and for a house in which eight girls were accommodated under the supervision of a meesteresse or mistress. The girls learnt to read, write, sew, and do needlework and other women’s work, and were also given slapinghe, vier ende light, potagie ende cleyn bier voor de dorst (‘sleeping quarters, four meals, soup and small beer to quench the thirst’). This façade relief from around 1640 depicts St Anne with her daughter Mary in the temple, framed in a cartouche with foliage and floral sprays. It is an attractive Baroque sculpture from the heyday of the Grand Beguinage.

View of the Grand Beguinage

The Roelands Room also has a painting by Ernest Faut (1879 – 1961), showing a view of the Grand Beguinage.

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