Felix De Grendele

Felix De Grendele was the son of Ferdinandus De Grendele, weaver, and Coleta Degrendele. He was a laureate at the municipal school in Ardooie (1849) and the teacher training college in Torhout (1854). He was listed as a teacher at the Sint-Michiels institute (1853-1858) on the personnel list of the minor seminary in Roeselare. In the “palmares” he can only be located in rhetorica (6th year of secondary school) (1858) and the philosophy year (1859). On December 27th, 1861 he started teaching at the college in Tielt. He then was ordained priest in Bruges on December 18th, 1862 by bishop Delebecque of Ghent. De Grendele left Bruges after having studied theology for a year and a half. By then he was already in his mid twenties and definitely older than most of his classmates. Presumably he had already shown by teaching in Roeselare that he was capable of catching up on secondary education. He was probably allowed to do the same with his theology studies.
The teaching staff at the college in Tielt was a small but tight-knit community, living in a pioneering stage, interested in the English language and the English people and involved in the ‘press battle’ against the liberals. De Grendele did not only speak English, but he also actively pursued journalism, as we can gather from the correspondence between Aloïs Vandemaele and Guido Gezelle.
Writer Gezelle was his mentor and role model. Vandemaele's own talent and reliability may have been the reasons why Mgr Malou used him in the "press battle" so soon in those stressful years. He subsequently became principal at the Xaverianenschool in Wervik (23.07.1869), curate in Anzegem (14.09.1876), parish priest in Koolkerke (19.09.1881), Gijzelbrechtegem (27.06.1884) and in Oostkerke near Diksmuide (10.10.1894).