Before 2007 the abbey was home to nine Benedictine nuns, who were members of the wider Subiaco Cassinese Congregation in West Flanders.

[3] According to some sources[4] the Benedictine monastery was founded by Edith, a daughter to Bertolf of Gistel by his second marriage, which was to the woman who later became Saint Godelina.

Edith was born blind, but received her sight when she washed her eyes in water from the pond in which the body of her mother, the murdered Saint Godelina had been thrown.

The abbey church in Gistel was reconstructed in 1614/15 and became a pilgrimage destination, particularly popular in July when St Godelina's Day is celebrated.

[1] In 1815, following the forced sale of the assets of the bankrupted Anselme de Peellaert, the site came into the hands of a man called Louis Joseph Bortier.

On 2 July 1891 the bishop was able to consecrate a rebuilt monastery, in the neo-Gothic style, using plans drawn up by Bethune.