In 1833, after the Belgian Revolution of 1830 the Bishop of Ghent, Jan Frans Van De Velde, gave the school to the Jesuits.

[1] Maurice Maeterlinck, who was sent there in 1874 (then aged 14) disliked the fact that in Sainte-Barbe works of the French Romantics were scorned and only plays on religious subjects were permitted.

His experiences at this school influenced his distaste for the Catholic Church and organized religion.

[2] Though located in a Dutch-speaking Flemish city, the language of instruction at Sint-Barbaracollege was French, and as such it was considered in the 19th and early 20th Century as instilling a French cultural identity in its young Flemish pupils – though some of them later rebelled against this identity, such as Joris Van Severen.

[5] The school persists in striving to implement and update the principles of Jesuit pedagogy[6] in dialogue with Christian values as it addresses the challenges of a secularized and globalized society.