GROENENDAEL (« Green Valley »). - Monastery (Lat. Viridis vallis) situated 8 km from Brussels, in the Soignes forest. In 1304 it was a simple hermitage. With the favor of John III, Duke of Brabant, in 1343 three priests from the Collegiate Church of St. Gudula retired there, two of whom, Francene di Coudenberg (d. 1386) and John of Ruysbroeck, founded in 1350 a prepositura of Augustinian Canons Regular, subject to the Abbey of St. Victor in Paris.
The famous mystic Ruysbroeck was its prior until his death (1381). G. gave rise to new foundations: the priories of Rubea Vallis or Rouge Cloitre (1374), of Sette Fontane (1389), of Corsendonck (1398), of Bethleem (1407), and the prepositura of Eemsteyn (1382). Around 1400 it numbered about 20 choir religious and an equal number of lay brothers and oblates. The Congregation of Windesheim, approved in 1395, was incorporated into G. in 1412, after which G. remained a simple priory.
Cardinal Peter d’Ailly and Pope Eugenius IV granted G. privileges and indulgences; Charles V frequently visited II. Plundered by Calvinists, it was later restored by imperial authorities (16th century).
The Windesheim priory of G. was in decline when it was definitively suppressed by the law of 15 Fructidor Year IV (1796). Its religious had distinguished themselves as copyists and writers; the library of G. was very rich.
The Viridarium of Jean Jonchère (d. 1510), a chronicle of G., is lost. The history of G. is followed, with abundant information on the religious and benefactors, in two customary or necrology books, the first of which was begun in 1386 by Francene Zeedelere (d. 1401) of Louvain; the second was compiled from 1401 to 1414 by Sayman van Wijc (d. 1438). These two precious registers were continued by other religious; the oldest up to 1750, the second up to 1623. They have been critically edited by the Jesuit Marc Dykmans.