Louis Vanhaecke

Louis Vanhaecke attended secondary school at the Dunes college in Bruges. In October 1846 he started studying at the major seminary in Bruges, where Guido Gezelle was one of his fellow seminarians. In 1851 Louis Vanhaecke became a teacher of French at the college in Poperinge. He was ordained priest in Bruges on 21 May, 1853. He was subsequently teacher at the college of Saint Louis in Bruges (September 1852), curate in Roeselare (July 1855), teacher at the college in Oostende (September 1856) and the college in Poperinge (September 1862), habitant of Saint Jacobs in Bruges (August 1864) and curate of the Chapel of the Holy Blood (February 1865). In 1872 he was appointed honorary canon of Antioch. Louis Vanhaecke was a rather controversial figure who was well-known for his jokes and associated with satanism by Huysmans. Vanhaecke himself published various religious works.