CIBI

On August 11, 1921, the law was passed imposing military duties on priests. They would receive training from a military stretcher-patient nurse in a specially reserved training center: the Centre d’Instruction Brancardier Infirmier, CIBI for short.

On December 1, 1921, the first 88 recruits, called Cibists (or conscripted clergy), arrived at Camp Beverlo.

From 1922, the Cibists first found shelter in 25 hastily built wooden barracks, which were located next to the military bakery behind the military hospital. These barracks were arranged in three large blocks around a central square.

In 1922 the priest Eduard Poppe was appointed as the first spiritual director. He was the founder of the Eucharistic Crusade and the Karmel Monastery at Leopoldsburg.

In 1935 a new accommodation was built at this location, the later “Quarters IJzer”.

In 1939 the CIBI moved to Bruges and a few months before the outbreak of the war to Ghent.

https://www.3970leopoldsburg.be/karmel/?lang=enkarmelCheck out the old postcards too