HERITAGE PEARL ~ Culture Chapel Saint Odulphus

Mathilde, Lady of Dendermonde and widow of William of Bethune, donated a meadow in palude sancti Odulphi to the collegiate Church of Our Lady of Dendermonde. The Sint-Odulfspolder is mentioned again in 1232 in a deed in which Robert of Bethune confirms a gift from Margareta van Dendermonde, his aunt, to the abbey of Zwijveke. These were her properties in palude Sancti Odulphi. These mentions indicate that the local veneration of this saint certainly goes back to the beginning of the 13th century or earlier, which can only mean that there was already a chapel dedicated to him and where he may have been venerated by the local fishermen.

The first known mention of the chapel itself dates from December 1306, when the dean and chapter of the Sint-Salvator church in Utrecht presented Jan van Dendermonde, parish priest of Jutphaas under Utrecht, with a relic of Saint Odulphus as a gift to the basilica of S. Odolphus near Dendermonde, under the conditions of participation in masses.

On Easter Sunday, April 8, 2007, the last mass was held in the chapel due to the lack of a successor for Dom Robert. After several years of searching for a suitable future destination, the church council of the decanal Church of Our Lady sold the chapel in 2013 to dike residents Dr. Dirk Van Nimmen and Marleen Uten, who had the chapel thoroughly and professionally restored and renovated in 2014-2015. From 25 October 2015, a new life will start for this centuries-old chapel as 'Culture Chapel Odulphus'.

LIFE SPARC