The Abbey Saint-Paul de Wisques
General data
Order: Confederacy Benedictine - Solesmes's congregation
Access: Highway A26: taken out n°3, direction Saint-Omer, on 1800 m to the right. Of Saint-Omer: N 42 direction Boulogne; in about 4 km, one perceives the abbey on the left.

History of the Abbey
In August, 1889: Four monks of the Holy abbey Pierre de Solesmes arrive at Wisques to assure the functions of chaplains of the moniales of the Holy Abbey Cécile, arrived too from Solesmes some days earlier to base future Abbey Our Lady. They settle down in the "small castle".
In July, 1894: Hardly their new convent can shelter from the rain, otherwise the drafts, that moniales  leaves "the big castle"  and abandons it to the monks.
In September, 1894: reinforcements gradually sent by Solesmes allow the erection of the small community in simple prieuré, then on April 25, 1895, in conventual prieuré. The life gets organized slowly, laboriously , in the middle of many difficulties. The local vocations keep waiting.
September 1901: " By respect for the rights of the religious life and the integrity of their vocation ", like much of others, the monks of Saint-Paul choose the exile rather than the tender with persecuting laws, Belgium accomodates them, initially in Honnay, in the province of Namur, then in Montignies Saint Christophe, in Hainaut.
1906: It seems more reasonable to approach the moniales, taken refuge with Oosterhout, in Holland, aurpès whose, for five years already, two chaplains have been detached in turn. Dom Paul Bellot, monk architect, come to build Quarr Abbey, the monastery refuge of Solesmes in exile in the English island of Wight; one thinks of building in Oosterhout: it is quite naturally with him that one addresses oneself.
April 1907: Work, started just a year before, is sufficiently advanced so that one can leave Belgium. The applicants, as well French as Dutch flows so that, November 11, 1910, the monastery is set up in abbey. The community elects Dom Juan de Puniet like first abbot. The war, with its batch of mobilizations, mournings and various difficulties, does not stop the development of the new abbey, nor the growth of its radiation as well intellectual as spirituel. 
1919: In fact still the moniales open the way; this time, it will be that of the return. One could believe oneself returned 30 years behind; the "large castle" is still occupied by a Belgian orphanage, and it is necessary to camp while waiting for the release of the places and their reconditioning.
April 3, 1920: The community re-enters finally to it; but it leaves in Oosterhout part of itself, made up of the Dutch monks and some French, of which the Abbot.
July 11, 1928: The unfolding is canonically consumed: Saint Paul d' Oosterhout is set up in autonomous abbey; Don Jean Puniet remains the abbot about it. When with Saint Paul de Wisques, Dom Augustin Savaton, prior and Master of the beginners of Solesmes, accepts some the abbatiat. The monastic life finally will be able to organize itself peacefully, and one starts of course by arranging and increasing.