100 years ago today, priest-poet August Cuppens died in Loksbergen (Limburg). Not a well-known name, although many have sung the song for which he wrote the lyrics: Our Lady of Flanders. Cuppens wrote the text (Love gave you a thousand names…)Lodewijk de Vocht the music.
Cuppens’ parsonage in Loksbergen in Limburg was a meeting place for Flemish writers, artists and musicians. He wrote prose, poetry and theater and, as an admirer of Guido Gezelle, was a sensitive poet’s soul. But above all, August Cuppens remained a popular pastor, who liked to wear clogs among his parishioners. He died 100 years ago, on May 1, 1924.
Flamingant
August Cuppens was born in Beringen on May 22, 1862 and grew up as the eldest of seven children in a deeply religious family. It was almost written in the stars that he would become a priest. Mother Rosalie read from the Bible every evening. For his studies in philosophy, August went to the Minor Seminary in Sint-Truiden, and for his theological training to the Major Seminary in Liège, where he was viewed with disdain as a Flemish.
“It was therefore not surprising that he soon contributed to several Catholic-Flamingo magazines,” says Fernand Cuppens (86) from Hasselt, whose grandfather Ferdinand was the second youngest brother of August Cuppens. Today, De Hasselaar has various archive documents of the Flemish priest, documents that he inherited from his father.
Fan of Gezelle
During his priestly training, August Cuppens founded the magazine together with fellow students Jacob Lenaerts and Jan Mathijs Winters. ‘t Daghet in the East op, a linguistic and folkloric weekly. The first issue appeared in 1885, the last in 1914. ‘The magazine immediately received a lot of sympathy from the West Flemish priest-poet Guido Gezelle, who assisted the three with advice and assistance,’ says Fernand. ‘August made no secret of the fact that he was an admirer of Gezelle, even before his mastery was recognized.
He would later translate 58 of Gezelle’s poems into French.
French speakers should also become acquainted with Gezelle’s poetry, he thought.’
On April 11, 1886, August Cuppens was ordained a priest in Liège. Like most Limburg priests who stood up for the social emancipation of the Flemish, he was sent to Liège. Initially as a chaplain in Ans and Verviers, later as rector-chaplain in the convent of the Sisters of the Poor in Cornillon in Liège. ‘He was also a social worker. The fate of the Liège miners was close to his heart,’ says Fernand.
In 1899 Cuppens was appointed pastor in Loksbergen near Halen, a place with a humiliating gap between the nobility and the working people at that time.
The priest did everything he could to improve the interests of the parishioners.
He was loved there and built a school, founded a youth movement and a brass band and wrote folk tales and plays for young people.
Song contest
In the village, the parsonage has since grown into a meeting place for Flemish writers and other artists: Guido Gezelle, Stijn Streuvels, Hugo Verriest and Lodewijk de Vocht, to name just a few. At the same time, Cuppens maintained a special friendship with Marie-Elisabeth Belpaire, a campaigner for Catholic girls’ education and the Flemish Movement. “She had a huge impact on August’s life,” says Fernand. ‘To such an extent that he would later call her Mieke Moeke or sometimes also General, because of her dominant personality. Belpaire in turn felt that if Gezelle was ‘the nightingale of Flanders’, Cuppens is the ‘happy lark’. Thanks to her financial support, August helped found the Dietsche Warande and Belfort, a magazine that supported Dutch-language literature and played a role in the Flemish struggle for emancipation.’
And yet August Cuppens is mainly known as a writer of Our Lady of Flanders, a distinct Marian classic with Flemish feelings, composed by Lodewijk de Vocht. The song was written in 1910 for a song competition on the occasion of the golden jubilee of the coronation of the statue of Our Lady of Flanders. ‘Emiel Fleerackers won that match with O Mother with the Virgin’s Crown, but history has since proven the jury wrong,” Fernand concludes.
The text
Love gave you a thousand names, great and noble, beautiful and sweet.
But none that makes the hearts of the Flemish rejoice as much.
As the name, O Virgin Mother, which you bear in our land,
it sounds more beautiful than all the others:
Our Lady of Flanders
Our Lady of Flanders
Where one goes along Flemish roads, old farm, house or stump,
When people come across you, Mary, your image is on display.
Smiles at us from lime green, flower wreath or happy festoon.
May things never change here
O Thou Lady of Flanders
O Thou Lady of Flanders
Remain enthroned in the Flemish heart as the highest Queen,
live as the best mother in every Flemish household.
Help us in all distress, now and at the hour of death,
us your children, and also the others:
Dearest Lady of Flanders
Dearest Lady of Flanders
Below you can listen to a performance by Wilfried Van den Brande with Bart Rodyns at the organ.
