Soleilmont Abbey

According to the foundation tradition, of which there is no confirmation, Soleilmont Abbey was founded in 1088 by Albert III, Count of Namur, and the earliest community supposedly consisted of women whose husbands had joined Godfrey of Bouillon on the First Crusade.

On account of their lack of resources the nuns were exempted in 1640, for example, from their dues to the Cistercian Order, and their poverty was often mentioned in the assessments of goods that were customarily made at the elections of an abbess.

Prominent abbesses of the 16th century were Oda de Virsel and Madeleine Bulteau (resigned 1603), whose successor, Jacqueline Colnet (d. 1639), was a friend of Albert VII, Archduke of Austria and his consort, the Infanta Isabel of Spain, to whom she gave, from the relics of the abbey, a Holy Nail.

She was principally remembered in the region however for twice ending attacks of the Black Death in the town of Châtelet, in 1628 and again in 1636, by having the abbey's famous image of Our Lady of Rome carried through the streets.

However, in the belief that they had moved for no good reason, they then returned to Soleilmont in 1794, just in time to be caught up in the Battle of Fleurus of 26 June 1794, which was fought literally beneath the abbey walls.

In 1837, however, with the help of the Cistercian nuns of Mariënlof Abbey [nl] at Borgloon, they were able to buy back the premises, and, in order to generate income, opened a girls' boarding school.

Every year, on the last Sunday of August, the image of Our Lady of Rome is carried in procession round Châtelineau nearby in memory of the protection received by that town in 1628 and 1636 against the outbreaks of the plague.