Unexpected Connections. The Benedictine Abbey of Maredsous and Christian Architecture in China, 1900-1930s

Recent research has revealed that the Benedictine abbey of Maredsous exerted significant but conflicting influences on missionary architecture in China through two different channels. These influences were by no means the result of a strategy pursued by the abbey of Maredsous. After having introduce...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Coomans, Thomas 1962- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brepols 2021
In: Revue bénédictine
Year: 2021, Volume: 131, Issue: 1, Pages: 264-299
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Kloster Maredsous / Reception / China / Benedictines / Mission (international law / Church building / Architecture / History 1900-1932
IxTheo Classification:CE Christian art
KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history
KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history
KBD Benelux countries
KBM Asia
KCA Monasticism; religious orders
KDB Roman Catholic Church
RJ Mission; missiology
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Summary:Recent research has revealed that the Benedictine abbey of Maredsous exerted significant but conflicting influences on missionary architecture in China through two different channels. These influences were by no means the result of a strategy pursued by the abbey of Maredsous. After having introduced the interwoven Belgian and Benedictine missionary networks in China, this article focuses on the two architectural connections of Maredsous in China. First, the missionary-architect Father Alphonse De Moerloose, who was not a Benedictine but a Scheut Father; he exported the Gothic Revival style of Augustus Pugin and Baron Bethune to northern China in the years 1900-29 and referred to the abbey church of Maredsous for his major projects. Second, Dom Adelbert Gresnigt, a monk-artist from Maredsous who stayed in China from 1927 to 1932 and developed an indigenised architectural style. Known as the “Sino-Christian style”, it was the antithesis of the style of the abbey of Maredsous and the Belgian Gothic Revival exported to China by Father De Moerloose.
ISSN:2295-9009
Contains:Enthalten in: Revue bénédictine
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1484/J.RB.5.124394