The central buildings of the abbey, apart from the church, burned down almost to the ground on December 29, 1942. In 1945, a school in Brasschaat which was run by the abbey was hit by a V-1 flying bomb, killing a canon and three priests. The abbey reached its greatest population in 1959 with 242 people, 88 of which resided in the abbey. The others were divided over the missions, schools, dependencies and parishes maintained or serviced by Averbode. In the same year, a second Sint-Michielscollege was founded in Schoten, complementary to the one in Brasschaat. In Brazil, a new parish in Piracicaba was started, and an abbey was founded in Salto in 1963.