page_title: Colleges of St Omer, Bruges and Liège
section_title: Bruges, Liège, Stonyhurst
hierarchical_section_title: Colleges of St Omer, Bruges and Liège / Bruges, Liège, Stonyhurst
caption_attribution_description: English: Stonyhurst College, Lancashire
context_page_description: The Colleges of St Omer, Bruges and Liège were successive expatriate institutions for the Catholic education run by the Jesuits for English students.
  Founded in 1593 by Father Robert Parsons SJ as the College of Saint-Omer in Artois, France, the school was forced in the 18th c. to relocate twice due to the suppression of the Jesuit order, first to Bruges in 1762 and then Liège in 1773, before migrating a third and final time to Stonyhurst in England where it became Stonyhurst College in 1794.
context_section_description: In 1762, the Jesuits were formally expelled from France, beginning the college's decline and eventual end. The expulsion split the college. The Jesuit faculty and many of the students fled to the Austrian Netherlands, now part of modern Belgium, moving first to Bruges, and then to Liège, operating under the protection of the Bishop of Liège from 1773. King Louis XV continued the college at St. Omer, under the direction of secular clergy. When the Jesuit order was suppressed everywhere in 1773, the dual system ended, but the college never regained its prominence.
  In 1793, the French Revolution and the United Kingdom's declaration of war on France ended Saint Omer college. The English faculty and students were imprisoned until February 1795. English penal laws and resulting discrimination had changed regarding Catholic education in England, so once released, some of the staff and most of the then about 100 students went to England, to avoid the war on the European continent. A former student, Thomas Weld, donated a mansion and grounds at Stonyhurst, in Lancashire. The modern school, Stonyhurst College continues to this day as a direct lineal descendant of the College of Saint-Omer.
  The Lycée Alexandre Ribot now stands on the site of the former college in Saint Omer.
  Heythrop College, University of London, the now defunct specialist Philosophy and Theology constituent College of the University of London, shared its (1614) foundation in Liège with Stonyhurst College.
caption: Stonyhurst College
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