From churchyard to cemetery
For centuries the churchyard lay around the church, inside a wall. Around 1680 soldiers destroyed the enclosure, and in 1695 the churchyard had to be consecrated again because blood had been shed there. In 1819 the large bluestone steps to the north portal were built. In 1904 the municipal council judged the churchyard unhealthy and an obstacle to new streets. In 1906 the municipality bought almost 82 ares of land on the Haachtsesteenweg, and the first burial took place there in December 1908. In 1929 the remaining graves of the old churchyard were moved. In 1975 the construction of the motorways cut the cemetery in half; it was extended towards the Zaventemsesteenweg, with a new entrance in 1980.
Two grave crosses stand outside the cemetery. In 1974 a bluestone cross inscribed ‘Raphaele Maria, 14 January 1848’ was found in a garden in the Paulusstraat. In the wall on the old Haachtsesteenweg, between houses 36 and 38, is a cross with the words ‘Hier is doodgeschoten Judocus Van Vaerenberg’ (here Judocus Van Vaerenberg was shot dead), probably from the late 18th century.
The lords' gravestones
To the left of the high altar stands a fine, coloured gravestone with coats of arms. It commemorates Karel van Brecht († 10 June 1595, aged 77), his son-in-law Alexander Oudart († 11 June 1594, aged 51) and Karel Oudart, who in his will ordered the stone to be placed and founded a daily Mass; he died in Frankfurt in 1610. Beside each inscription are the arms of the four grandparents.
A second gravestone, of Filips Happart († 16 January 1631, aged 65) and Catharina Oudart († 25 June 1629, aged 60), who had been married for 23 years, lay in the middle of the choir on a 65 cm base. In 1674 the priest complained that it spoiled the choir and got in the way of the clergy. The family opposed moving it, and in 1779 only the base was removed. In 1823 the church council decided simply to leave the stone under the new floor; in 1839 Jacquelin of Tournai laid that floor. Since then the gravestone has lain hidden under the marble star in the chancel.
Memorial stones on the church walls
Many stones still hang on the outside walls. In the south wall: the resting place of the Van Doren-De Coster family, millers of the Cleyne Molen, and the vault of the Le Boucq de Beaudignies family, who in 1850 founded, for 60 francs a year, an anniversary Mass and a hundred loaves for the poor. Three stones recall the Kickx family: Joannes Kickx (1775-1831), pharmacist and botanist, described 823 plant species in his Flora Bruxellensis (1812), including some from the Woluwe valley; his son Jean became a professor in Ghent in 1841.
On the east side, next to the Calvary, are two stones of the Anneet family, owners of the paper mill, among them Jacques Anneet († 1834, aged 86). In the north wall, plaques recall parish priest Norbertus Vanden Broeck († 1828) and Joannes Benedictus de Fierlant († 1823), son of the lord of Diegem and Regina Happart. Beside the platform at the north portal is a large bluestone slab with the four evangelists and 37 names, from Josine Fremineur (1720-1788) to Eugénie De Hase (1827-1907): the residents of the De Reine castle and their families.