100 Years of Dominican Presence in Het Zoute

In the summer of 2025, it will be exactly one hundred years since a Dominican friar celebrated Mass for the first time in the little church of Het Zoute. Welcome to “this little ‘all-white’ corner of St Dominic’s realm”!

Through this exhibition, we wish to express our gratitude for a century of Dominican presence in Het Zoute. Each of the ten panels tells the story of a person who left their mark on this place’s history.We also dare to look to the future: the friars, the many volunteers, and the entire community that gathers here have no intention of stopping any time soon!

We wish you a peaceful and inspiring walk through the cloister as you discover these glimpses of history.

Curious to know more? You can purchase the commemorative book: Les frères prêcheurs à la plage. Les Dominicains, un siècle de présence à Knokke-Le Zoute (Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 2025).

This exhibition was designed by Father Anton-Marie Milh, O.P., and Mrs Geneviève Iweins, and was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Friends of Het Zoute and the Dominican friars in Belgium and the Netherlands. It was officially inaugurated by Bishop Lode Aerts of Bruges on 14 August 2025.

A few key dates

1 May 1908
Founding of the Compagnie Immobilière du Zoute, a company with the aim of developing Het Zoute into an elegant seaside resort. Cousins Raymond and Maurice Lippens act as managing directors.

September 1911
The parish priest of Knokke meets with Raymond and Maurice Lippens to discuss the idea of establishing a church in Het Zoute.

August 1913
The Bishop of Bruges gives his approval. The Compagnie du Zoute commissions an initial design from the Bruges-based architect Jozef Viérin.

12 May 1914
The Knokke town council deems a second parish within its territory unnecessary. A few months later, the First World War breaks out.

1920 and 1922
The Compagnie du Zoute makes new attempts to revive the church project.

10 January 1924
Founding of the l’Association pour le service et l’entretien du culte catholique au Zoute in Het Zoute.

June 1924 – June 1925
Construction of the church by contractor Daveloose from Heist, based on plans by Jozef Viérin.

Autumn 1924
The Lippens family struggles to find clergy to serve the church. The superior of the Blessed Sacrament Fathers suggests turning to the Dominicans, “who seem particularly well suited to minister to a worldly population such as that of Het Zoute.”

January 1925
Dominican friar Georges Ceslas Rutten agrees to celebrate Sunday Mass at the church in Het Zoute during the tourist season, starting in July.

25 June 1925
The church is blessed by the parish priest of Knokke and dedicated to Saint Philip and all the Apostles. The next day, a diocesan priest celebrates Mass there for the first time.

5 July 1925
Father Rutten presides over the first Sunday Eucharist in Het Zoute.

18 April 1927
The Dominicans take full responsibility for the management of the Association for the Service and Practice of the Catholic Faith in Het Zoute.

Autumn 1927
Construction of the presbytery, also designed by Jozef Viérin.

Spring 1928
Construction of the cloister by contractor De Cuypere from Knokke, based on plans by Luc Viérin, son of Jozef.

12 September 1935
The church is consecrated by Bishop Constant Lagae, a Dominican missionary bishop in the Congo, and dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary.

October 1944
At the end of the Second World War, the church suffers significant damage during the liberation.

Good Friday 1948
Inauguration of the Way of the Cross by Émile Raes, installed in the cloister.

1993–1994
Renovation of the church and bell tower.

27 January 2004
The Flemish government designates the entire site (church, presbytery, and cloister) as a protected monument.

2016
Renovation of the presbytery.

2018
Formation of the first pastoral team: four Dominican friars entrusted with the ministry at the Zoute church.

August 2023
First edition of Domifiësta, a Dominican family festival held in and around the church.

Illustration: Drawing of the cloister and church by Émile Raes.

The Freemason Who Wanted to Build a Church

Even before the First World War, Maurice Lippens (1875–1965) was actively involved in the plans to build a small church in Het Zoute. He put the brakes on when the bishop proposed a church that could accommodate two to three thousand people. Lippens instead advocated for “a charming little chapel”, in harmony with the landscape of Het Zoute—certainly not a basilica by the sea.

After the war, Maurice and his cousin Raymond revived the project by founding the Association for the Service and Practice of the Catholic Faith in Het Zoute. This non-profit association was handed over to the Dominican friars in April 1927.

When the cloister was built in 1929, Lippens personally financed a stained-glass window depicting Saint Christopher, which included his own coat of arms. This gesture characterises his Masonic affiliation in two ways: he did not want the window to be installed in the church proper, but was content for it to be placed in the cloister, a kind of threshold. And though not a Catholic himself, his commitment to the project made him—quite literally—one who carries Christ (Christó-foros).

In the years that followed, Lippens remained closely involved in the life of the little church. He did not hesitate, for example, to express his displeasure to the friars when he heard that a sermon had gone on far too long!

Illustration: Maurice Lippens, photographed in his uniform as Governor-General of the Belgian Congo, a position he held from 1921 to 1923.

Illustration: Father Louis Vincentius De Wilde, praying in the cloister before the stained-glass window of Saint Christopher.

The Baroness Who Went Door to Door

Cherchez la femme… The little church in Het Zoute would never have come into being without the tireless dedication of Baroness Ghislaine de Béthune (1889–1969). She married Raymond Lippens in 1909. Both were devout Catholics, and the fact that certain branches of their family were not was a source of sorrow and frustration for her.

During the construction of the church in 1924–1925, she went from door to door among wealthy residents and regular visitors to Het Zoute, as well as hotels and restaurants, to seek financial support. People could make a one-time donation, commit to an annual contribution, or donate liturgical furnishings.

Although she raised a fair amount of money, she did not retain fond memories of the fundraising campaign. Years later, she wrote in her journal that she had “received more insults, humiliation, criticism and complaints than help or money!”

Once the church was completed, she insisted that it be dedicated to the apostle Philip, the patron saint of her eldest son Philippe. She also requested that her youngest son, Léon, be allowed to serve at the first Mass. She would later become godmother of the large bell, which was blessed in April 1926.

A Family of Architects

In August 1913, the Compagnie du Zoute commissioned Bruges-based architect Jozef Viérin (1872–1949) to design a church in the English neo-Gothic style for Het Zoute. They were asking him to reproduce what he had accomplished in 1904–1905 with the Christ the King Chapel in Duinbergen.

By then, however, Jozef Viérin had developed a preference for the neo-Romanesque style. When the church was finally built, between June 1924 and June 1925, he closely supervised the entire process, including the interior design—no small feat given his heavy involvement in the post-war reconstruction of West Flanders.

In 1927, he also designed the presbytery. The cloister, located in front of the church, was designed in 1929 by his son Luc Viérin. Luc continued to oversee the buildings until his death in 1979, when the responsibility passed to his son Piet. To this day, the Viérin architectural firm—now led by the fourth generation—is consulted for any works carried out on the site.

Illustration: Design drawing of the church by Jozef Viérin.

Illustration: Front door of the presbytery, drawn by R. Quintyn.

The White General

It was on its own initiative that the Compagnie du Zoute undertook the construction of the church in Het Zoute. Feeling bypassed, the bishop of Bruges refused to appoint a priest to serve there. The Lippens family therefore contacted several religious orders and congregations, asking whether they could send clergy. It was the Dominicans who eventually accepted—through the person of Father Georges Ceslas Rutten (1875–1952).

A doctor of political and social sciences, Father Rutten had been actively involved, both before and after the First World War, in the organisation and centralisation of Catholic trade unions, which led to the founding of the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions and the Christian Workers’ Movement. From 1921 to 1946, he served as a co-opted senator for the Catholic Party.

Thanks to his spiritual authority and political influence, he became known as the White General. In Het Zoute, he is remembered as the pioneer of the Dominican presence, shaping both the site and its pastoral ministry over a period of fifteen years.

Illustration: Father Rutten with his dog on the terrace of the presbytery in Het Zoute.

Illustration:In April 1927, the Dominicans officially take over the church in Het Zoute.

The Bow-Wielding Friar

From Christmas 1928 onward, Father Rutten was assisted in pastoral ministry by Father Vincentius De Wilde (1898–1953). He would go on to live in Het Zoute for nearly two decades, leaving a lasting mark on the church, the presbytery, and the local community.

The son of a florist, he planted the rose bushes around the church and laid out the friars’ garden. He acquired a small carillon for the church, which came from the Hotel Plaza, where the sound of its bells had not been particularly appreciated by the guests. He was also responsible for installing Émile Raes’s Way of the Cross in the cloister.

Father De Wilde was an active member of Knokke’s St Sebastian archery guild—a bow-wielding friar was already quite a photogenic figure in the 1930s and 1940s!

After the war, he promoted the idea of a joint political list uniting Catholics and liberals in Knokke, playing a founding role in the creation of the Gemeentebelangen (“Local Interests”) party.

Illustration: Father Vincentius De Wilde

Illustration: Father Vincentius De Wilde with André Dryepondt, both faithful members of the St Sebastian archery guild.

The Bishop with the Automobile

Maurice Lippens repeatedly expressed the wish that the church be served by former missionaries. One such man arrived in 1948—and he was no ordinary friar. It was Bishop Constant Lagae (1882–1966), apostolic vicar of the Dominican mission territory in Eastern Uele, in the northeast of Congo (today the Diocese of Isiro-Niangara).

He was no stranger to Het Zoute either: in 1935, he had consecrated the church and dedicated it to Our Lady of the Rosary. After forty-three years on mission, he returned to Belgium and lived in Het Zoute until his death. He became a familiar figure in the area, affectionately called “our Monseigneur” by the locals.

In 1950, on the occasion of his silver episcopal jubilee, he was admitted to the Royal Order of the Lion for his merits in Congo, thanks in part to the intervention of Maurice Lippens, former Governor-General of the colony.

Each morning at 8 o’clock, Bishop Lagae would celebrate Mass at the Zoute church. He also presided at pontifical celebrations on Christmas and Maundy Thursday. A garage was even built next to the presbytery for his car—a highly unusual personal possession at the time.

Illustration: Bishop Lagae in the presbytery garden. Behind him on the left stand Maurice and Léon Lippens; on the right are Father Van Turnhout and Father Goethaert.

Illustration: Blessing of an automobile in front of the Zoute church.

A Passionate Artist

Since their arrival in Het Zoute, the Dominicans had been searching for a Way of the Cross for the church, but without success. It was only in 1947 that Father Vincentius De Wilde was contacted by the artist Émile Raes (1907–1986), who lived in Duinbergen. He showed the friar a pietà carved from heavy, dark Congolese wenge wood. The friar was immediately enthusiastic and, after receiving approval from the Compagnie du Zoute and architect Viérin, commissioned Raes to create fourteen stations in the same style.

The Way of the Cross was inaugurated on Good Friday 1948 during a service that was also broadcast on the radio. For his stations, Raes departed from the traditional scenic settings, depicting only hands and faces. This sober, “compact and direct” style gives the artwork a powerful intensity, which at the time was met with both praise and some consternation. The Way of the Cross at Het Zoute, a testimony to the artist’s personal faith, has become his best-known work.

Summer Poem

I entered the nave
on tiptoe, softly.
My approach was not betrayed by the half-open door,
while the wind blew through the cloister passage
and sighed within the church of distant things:
the city and the sea where the body bathes.
Beneath the vaults, in the waiting air,
I offered my prayer in thanks, Lord,
for welcoming my tortured woodwork, forever
in your house here at Het Zoute.
— Émile Raes, 22 June 1948 (free translation)

Illustration: Émile Raes surrounded by the stations of his Way of the Cross.

A Flemish Nationalist Preacher in Le Zoute

The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) brought many changes to the life and thought of the Church. Among these, the liturgy in Flanders was Dutchified—a sensitive issue in Het Zoute, where a large part of the population and visitors were and still are French-speaking.

In September 1965, the then superior of the Dominicans, Father Remi-Valeer Vanden Bussche (1908–1968), refused—following the bishop’s directives—to proclaim the Gospel and preach in French. This provoked strong protests from some French speakers. However, Remi-Valeer Vanden Bussche, a committed Flemish nationalist, remained unyielding.

In response to the French-speaking protests, a flamingant counter-reaction arose. On 10 October 1965, around a thousand Flemish activists gathered at the small church. Some of them rioted and had to be dispersed by police using tear gas. A journalist present sarcastically referred to the event as a “punching mass.” Incidents concerning the language used in the liturgy continued sporadically until the early 1970s.

Illustration: Father Remi-Valeer Vanden Bussche

Illustration: Discussion with demonstrators after Sunday Mass (HEY Museum Knokke-Heist Collection)

The Organist and Choir Director

The Zoute chapel has a long tradition of concerts and musically enhanced high Masses. In 1994, Jacques Maertens (1932–2025) was appointed organist. Together with the then superior, Father Olav Van Outryve, he ensured that the church received a new organ, installed where the former royal gallery had been.

Maertens was a teacher of music theory and pedagogy at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, a composer of numerous musical works, and the founder of several choirs. To support the Sunday liturgy at Het Zoute, he founded the mixed choir Domini Canentes and a men’s choir, the Schola Gregoriana Dominicana (1996). Since 2020, the latter has been led by Ad van de Wege and continues to accompany the Sunday 11 a.m. Mass to this day.

On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Zoute chapel in 2000, Maertens composed a Dominicus Cantata, in which he offered a fresh interpretation of pieces from the traditional Dominican Gregorian repertoire.

Illustration: Jacques Maertens at the organ in the Zoute chapel.

Illustration: The Schola Gregoriana Dominicana, conducted by Ad van de Wege.

Dominicans Today

The friars, also called Dominicans after their founder Saint Dominic (1171/2–1221), form a religious order within the Catholic Church. Their life is based on four pillars: prayer, community, study, and preaching. The order counts about five thousand brothers worldwide. There are also Dominican sisters (both contemplative and active), as well as diocesan priests and laypeople who live according to Dominican spirituality.

In Belgium and the Netherlands, the Dominicans are present in many places, proclaiming the Gospel in various ways. In recent years, they have sought to bring new energy to the Zoute chapel by establishing a pastoral team and organizing their own family festival, Domifiësta, which will hold its third edition in August 2025.

Support us?
You can make a donation to BE58 7360 4671 6779 (in the name of PP. Dominicanen in Het Zoute).

Or perhaps you would like to help write the next chapter of Dominican presence here and elsewhere...Considering becoming a Dominican? Feel free to contact us without obligation at roeping@dominicanen.org.