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The exiled community suffered the harsh consequences of the invasion of Belgium by the Germans. On 15 August 1914, battle was joined at Dinant. After being pushed back by the French army, the Germans invaded the city on 21 August and between 22 and 24 August, 674 civilians were executed and 950 houses set on fire, in reprisal for the murder of German soldiers by alleged guerrilla fighters.

Two religious who wanted to flee by the Leffe below the Abbey, were killed by the Germans, but among the inhabitants of Leffe brought along by the Germans on the morning of the fatal day, 43 men including the Abbey gatekeeper, were ordered to come out and were shot in the Abbey square, together with 31 others. With its total of 227 civilian victims, Leffe holds the sad record for the number of victims in the Dinant area.

 

Father Adrien Borelly, then prior of the Abbey, has given a discursive account of the tragic events which took place on 23 August 1914:

On 23 August 1914 at about 7 o’clock in the morning, German soldiers arrived at the Abbey and breaking down the doors and penetrating by force into the houses, drove before them groups of inhabitants whom they had brought, terrorising them and forcing them to keep their hands raised above their heads. At around 9 o’clock, the cloister was already sheltering over three hundred panic-stricken people. Some time later, an officer came and gave the order to assemble all the men. The religious, convinced that this was roll call, rounded up all the men dispersed over the house. All the men, forty-three in number, paraded before the officer. One minute went by... a cry of terror was heard... from these forty-three men... shot in the square of the Abbey, against the white wall of Servais house. On the same day, 23 August at about midday, an officer of the 178th Saxon regiment, introduced himself to the Most Reverend Father and said to him: “You must pay 60,000 francs, for having fired on our troops. If that sum is not paid within two hours, your house will be burned”. Father Abbot vainly protested that they were all innocent but the officer persisted in his demand. The Most Reverend Father then asked for at least a reduction of a sum which would not be found either in the house or outside it. Finally, the officer agreed to refer the matter to the superior who had sent him. He returned after a while and announced that they would be satisfied with 15,000 francs and that he would return at exactly 3 p.m. at which time, in the absence of payment, the monastery would be immediately set afire. It was necessary to yield to the threats. The women prisoners were told about the situation, which was so critical for everyone. They clubbed together in order to collect he sum, which the Abbey safe could not supply. We thus managed to collect, with considerable difficulty, 15,000 francs. At the appointed hour, the officer returned, this time accompanied by soldiers with fixed bayonets and by other officers. He himself pointed his revolver at the Most Reverend Father, then placed it on the desk within reach, removed his gloves and counted the 15,000 francs spread on the table, coin by coin. He then put all the money in his pocket, declaring that he did not want to accept ecclesiastical money. He gave a German receipt, written in advance and left with the revolver in hand.

 

On 24 August, a search was conducted and the discovery at the Abbey of a rusty pistol and an ancient halberd used by the Abbey verger, supplied a pretext for accusing the Fathers of rebellion. The religious, driven from the Abbey, were imprisoned in a regimental school. On 28 August, seventeen religious swelled the column of prisoners leaving for Germany. The prisoners stopped at Marche in Luxembourg. There, they found the Carmelites of Tarascon, in exile in that town. The German authority made them prisoners on parole and on 24 September, General von Lonchamp restored their freedom and exonerated them. The community took refuge with the Benedictines of Ligugé, in exile at Chevetogne and remained there until December.

The then prior, Father Adrien Borelly, went to Leffe to check on the state of the place. The Abbey had temporarily been converted into a prison for 1800 women. Some days later, the community returned to Leffe. Of the sixty religious who had left Frigolet in 1903, only thirty survivors remained in 1919. Father Adrien Borelly, newly elected abbot, re-established his community in Provence in 1920. Father Léon Perrier, later abbot of Frigolet, remained at Leffe as superior, until his election to the abbacy in 1928 and was replaced at Leffe by the retired Father Abbot Adrien Borelly.

 

[updated on the 15.11.05]

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