Saint John the Baptist Church: a color feast

On the spacious village square stands the yellow-white, picturesque church of Walsbets. The church was dependent on the Order of St. John, which already owned a farm with a watermill in Janshoven in the 13th century. This order appointed its patron John the Baptist as the protectorship of this church. The Romanesque-Gothic church was built from local ‘tuff stone from Lincent’. The building has two aisles and a ‘southern tower’ whose base consists of hard, gray quartzite from Tienen. The unusually placed tower with numerous light openings likely served as a refuge for the surrounding inhabitants due to its defensive character. The tapered steeple dates from the 17th century. Among the church treasures, the 13th-century block altar made of tuff stone from Lincent, together with the monolithic altar slab made of Gobertange stone, is particularly special.

If you get the chance to visit the interior, the colorful stained glass windows will surely stand out. In the chancel, the oculus or round window refers to the creative hand of the Father and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. The adoration of the Lamb as the second person of the Holy Trinity is expressed in the three-light window. Finally, the side windows depict Pope Clement, Deacon Laurence, King Louis, and Joseph the Worker. In the eastern glass pane under the tower, the life of St. Blaise is illustrated in four scenes. The small window in the Blaise Chapel shows the saint with two candles in hand and at his feet the kneeling beggars, the parish church, and the woman with her sick child. The window on the southern wall depicts the Sacred Heart of Jesus. All the aforementioned windows were completed in 1934 and were created by the artist Joep Nicolaas from Roermond. The tracery-profiled stained glass windows by R. Daniëls (1947) add a colorful dimension to the side aisle.

Above the triumphal arch, the coat of arms of the Order of St. John is prominently displayed. The maltese cross, which also adorns their red mantle of a Maltese knight, reminds of the eight beatitudes that Christ set as a rule of life. Because the church of Walsbets is the only one in Belgium that belonged to the Knights, they have a special connection with this community. They have been gathering here annually since 1980 to celebrate the feast of St. Blaise.

In 1994, Pastor Lammers described St. Blaise for Walsbets in the brochure "Parish of St. John the Baptist Walsbets". It is likely that a relic of St. Blaise and the veneration of it were brought to this region by the hospital knights of St. John of Jerusalem. They owned property here - as previously mentioned - including the nearby St. Janshoven, and they possessed the right to bestow the church in Walsbets. We know little about the veneration of this saint in the ancien régime.

In 1903, Pastor Descheemaecker founded a brotherhood of St. Blaise. The aim was primarily to fund the restoration of the church. A calendar of saints was also offered for sale for this purpose. The saint was fervently venerated until 1994. He was invoked against whooping cough, croup, convulsions, and infantile paralysis.

Jan Rymenams