TONGERLOO. — Premonstratensian abbey near Antwerp in Belgium. It was founded in 1128 in honor of the Blessed Virgin by Giselberto, with religious sent from the abbey of St. Michael of Antwerp.
The foundation charter was subscribed by St. Bernard and Blessed Waltmann; the first abbot was Enrico, companion of St. Norbert. The bishop of Cambrai granted privileges to the abbots, who soon made the monastery of T. one of the most flourishing spiritual centers of these regions; before the end of the thirteenth century it had more than 20 parishes, which later increased to as many as 40. T. was then obliged to transfer its revenues to the bishop of Bois-le-Duc until 1590.
In 1572 the Huguenots killed the priests Pietro Janssens, parish priest of Haarenby-Oisterwijk, Enrico Bosch, parish priest of Nispen-Roozendaal, and Pietro de Calmphout, who refused to renounce his faith (J. Van Spilbeeck, Les martyrs de T. au XVIe siècle, Bruxelles 1890).
From 1569 to 1590 it was incorporated into the diocese of 'S-Hertogenbosch. From 1626 to 1812 the abbey had a theological college in Rome. In T., in 1793, volume VI of the octavo edition of the Bollandists’ Acta Sanctorum was published.
The abbey was suppressed in 1796 and partly demolished; it was restored in 1848 and damaged by a fire in 1929. It still preserves its ancient enclosure; access is through a large portal (fifteenth–sixteenth centuries); the prelature building of Kerrièx dates from 1725 and contains a picture gallery (sixteenth–seventeenth centuries) and a series of Brussels tapestries from 1686. The hospice has a turreted wing dating from 1473, restored in 1930, which houses the library and infirmary.
The present abbey church, in Gothic style, dates from 1851–58; it contains a sixteenth-century copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper. The cloister, too, has been entirely rebuilt.