HAEFTEN, BENEDIKT van. - Prior of the Benedictine monastery of Afflighem, in Belgium, born at Utrecht in 1588, died at Afflighem on 31 July 1648. He studied philosophy and theology at Louvain; in 1609 he entered the Benedictines of Afflighem; there he made his solemn profession in 1611 and received priestly ordination in 1613. He became prior in 1616 and provost in 1618, succeeding Mattia Hovius, archbishop of Malines. Under him the abbey of Afflighem attained considerable temporal and spiritual prosperity. Adhering to the reform movement that had begun in Lorraine, in 1628 he founded the Belgian Congregation of the Presentation of Mary, in which perpetual abstinence, rising at 2 o’clock in the morning, and intellectual and manual labour were prescribed. But the new Congregation, opposed by the archbishop of Malines, came to an end in 1654.
Among H.’s various writings, special mention should be made of: Den lusthof der Christelijke lecrurghe beplant (Antwerp 1622); Propugnaculum reformationis Ordinis S. Benedicti, (ibid. 1634); Benedictus illustratus sive dispositionum monasticarum libri XII, quibus s. p. Benedicti Regula et religiosorum rituum antiquitates variae dilucidantur (ibid. 1644).