Gerard van Caloen

In 1893, Caloen was tasked to help revive the Benedictine Congregation in Brazil, which had previously been negatively impacted by anticlerical legislation.

To this end, he founded, on land donated by his family, St. Andrew's Abbey in Zevenkerken to train monks for the Brazilian mission.

Joseph's cousin was Hildebrand de Hemptinne, who had been instrumental in the founding in Belgium of a daughter house of St. Michael's Abbey in Beuron.

On May 25, 1874, he made his profession and was ordained a priest on December 23, 1876, in Montecassino[2] and the next day named prior and master of novices at Maredsous.

[5] (Years later Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, of St. Andrew's Abbey, Zevenkerken, would make significant pastoral contributions to the liturgical movement by publishing from 1920 to 1959 biligual missals from Latin into English, French, Dutch, and Italian.

"[7] In 1886 Caloen was named Procurator General for the Beuronese Congregation and sent to Rome, where he participated in the establishment of the Benedictine College of Sant’ Anselmo on the Aventine.

Caloen was a chaplain to university students and began the initial planning for a monastic foundation from Maredsous to be made in Louvain.

[9] Caloen was sent with fellow monk Jerome Kiene, to assess the situation in Brazil, having first stopped at Portugal to study the language.

They arrived in early 1894, and returned in July to report their findings to the General Chapter of the Beuronese Congregation which convened at Maredsous.

His uncle, Léon Ockerhout, donated seven acres of the Beisbroek area for the construction of an abbey complex, which was built in 1899–1900.

Besides the mission at Rio Branco, the monks had charge of the church at Alto Boa Vista, and extended pastoral care to the naval base on the Ilha das Cobras, as well as the garrison, prison, and hospital.

[15] By a Decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Consistory, 15 August 1907, Santa Maria de Monserrato was erected into an territorial abbey.

The same Decree separated the District of Rio Branco from the Diocese of Amazones and subjected it to the jurisdiction of the Abbot of Santa Maria de Monserrato.

After the outbreak of World War I, he resigned from all offices in March 1915, but remained Vicar General of the Apostolic Administrator Laurentius Zeller in the Rio Branco mission area.