History
The first church was founded on this site as a Catholic church in the tenth century and was dedicated to Willibrord, the first bishop of Utrecht. The current church is a single-nave Gothic building that was given its current form around 1400. At the time, it was one of the six mother churches of Drenthe and, as a Dingspil church, also served as the seat of justice.
Dingspilkerk
The Stefanuskerk is one of the six Dingspil churches in Drenthe, the oldest ecclesiastical foundations in the province. The church is centrally located in the then existing north-south and east-west connections and will have originated from a chapel for passing travellers.
On behalf of the Bishop of Utrecht, lord of Drenthe since the middle of the 11th century, justice was administered three times a year in the Dingspil churches. Once every four years, the bishop also came to Drenthe himself and sat in the "seendstoel" to deliver a verdict.
The church of Beilen was owned by the bishop and he gave his income from that church, the “Valkengeld”, as a kind of subsidy to other churches under construction. They were also allowed to determine who would become pastor in the village.
Eventually, the monastery in Ruinen, the later Dikninge Abbey in de Wijk, received this income via the church of Steenwijk (1206/1207). After that, the religious services in Beilen were led by priest-monks from the monastery.
Around 1415, the monastery also received a farmstead in Beilen, as accommodation for the visiting priests. This “costeryen-huys” was built by villagers and was therefore also used as a village inn, which in turn led to conflicts.
After the great village fire of 8 August 1820, Beilen no longer has an old parsonage with archives, but fortunately the church was preserved. It is a reminder of the otherwise completely disappeared old village and its ties with the Dikninge Abbey.