Chapelle des Jésuites de St Omer (Pas de Calais)

Consecrated in 1636, the Chapel of the Jesuits reflects the history of Saint-Omer, Britain and even the U.S. After the Protestant Reformation, England had established penal laws against Catholic education in the country. The college operated in Saint-Omer until 1762, when it migrated to Bruges and then to Liège in 1773. It finally moved to England in 1794, settling at Stonyhurst, Lancashire.

Three of America’s Founding Fathers were educated in Saint-Omer at the Jesuit College. Charles Carroll, signer of the Declaration of Independence, Daniel Carroll, one of the Constitution’s two authors, and John Carroll who became America’s first Catholic Bishop and founder of Georgetown University, all spent many years in the school and chapel.

After restoration the chapel will be used as a performance and cultural venue and is part of a larger vision for the city’s development where heritage plays a major role.

Elements of the sculpted décor, stone facing and marble flooring.

$250,000

The Florence Gould Foundation

2017