Chapelle St-Louis

According to tradition, woodcutters were once felling a tree at the entrance of the city, and a great hollow piece of wood, in the vague shape of a statuette, came loose; The pious workers took their findings to a monk of the abbey, known for his skillful hands, who carved a little virgin, whom he even sent to Rome to be blessed by the Pope. On his return from the holy city, the statue was placed in a niche made in the old oak tree. Candles were lit there on the feasts of Our Lady and almost every day people came to kneel at the foot of the tree that was the setting for the Madonna.

A stone's throw away, the Blasius family had a garden where the owners' children and grandchildren frolicked. At the end of the last century, the naive story of the foundation of the chapel was told. The founder belonged to the Blasius-Marbaise family and lived in the 18th century. One day a child of Blasius was in the family garden with his governess and shoved a pea in his nose. Despite the best efforts of the governess and the child's mother, it could not be removed. The grieving mother held a novena at the foot of the Madonna of the Oak, and on the ninth day the pea came out without any intervention. In gratitude, the Blasius family built a chapel to Our Lady and the statue was moved from the oak tree, its ancient shelter, to the modest sanctuary.

It is generally agreed that the chapel was built around 1740 under the patronage of Saint-Louis, King of France.
Louis IX, who was born in 1215 and became king at the age of twelve, was piously raised by his mother, Queen Blanche of Castile. After an illness, he swore to undertake a crusade, the seventh, to conquer Jerusalem. Victorious at first, he fell into the hands of the Saracens due to a battle setback. He was liberated in 1249 by giving the city of Damietta (Egypt) as a gift. At the age of 55, in 1270 he undertook his eighth and final crusade, but an epidemic decimated his army and himself. He gave his soul back to god in Tunis that same year. His feast day is August 25.

But later the chapel was placed under the protectorate of Saint-Louis de Gonzague, for no apparent reason. He was born in Castiglione in 1568 and devoted himself to the plague victims. He himself died of the plague at the age of 23. He is the patron saint of youth with feast day on June 21.

In the chapel there are effigies of Saint-Louis and Sainte-Apoline. She was thrown into the fire after her teeth were pulled out. That is why she is the patroness of dentists.

Willem Vandenameele