Ampleforth Abbey | |
---|---|
The Abbey Church of St Laurence, Ampleforth | |
54°12′06″N1°05′05″W / 54.2018°N 1.0847°W | |
OS grid reference | SE598788 |
Location | Ampleforth, North Yorkshire |
Country | England |
Denomination | Catholic Church |
Website | Ampleforthabbey.org.uk |
History | |
Status | Abbey |
Founded | 1802 |
Founder(s) | Lady Anne Fairfax |
Dedication | St Laurence the Martyr |
Architecture | |
Functional status | Active |
Heritage designation | Grade I [1] |
Designated | 9 September 1985 [1] |
Administration | |
Province | Liverpool |
Diocese | Middlesbrough |
Deanery | Central |
Clergy | |
Abbot | Robert Igo |
Ampleforth Abbey is a monastery of Benedictine monks a mile to the east of Ampleforth, North Yorkshire, England, part of the English Benedictine Congregation. It descends from the pre-Reformation community at Westminster Abbey through the last surviving monk from Westminster, Sigebert Buckley (c. 1520 - c. 1610). As of 2024 the monastery has 41 monks, and sometimes will have 50 nuns of the monastery organization. [2]
The Abbey was founded in a house given to Father Anselm Bolton by Lady Anne Fairfax, daughter of Charles Gregory Fairfax, 9th Viscount Fairfax of Emley. [3] This house was taken over by Dr Brewer, President of the Congregation, on 30 July 1802. Since leaving Dieulouard in Lorraine, where its members had joined Spanish and Cassinese Benedictines to form the monastery of St Laurence, the community had been successively at Acton Burnell, Tranmere, Scholes, Vernon Hall and Parbold Hall, under its superior, Dr Marsh.
On its migration to Ampleforth Lodge Dr Marsh remained at Parbold and Father Appleton was elected the first prior of the new monastery. Shortly afterwards Parbold was broken up and the boys of the school there were transferred to Ampleforth. The priory was erected into an abbey in 1890 by the Bull 'Diuquidem' and an important and flourishing college was founded. John Cuthbert Hedley, Bishop of Newport, was an alumnus, as was a superior of Ampleforth, Abbot Smith. The monastery was completed in 1897. [4] The first abbey church was begun in 1857 and demolished in 1957. The existing Abbey church was begun in 1924 and consecrated in 1961, having been designed by notable architect Giles Gilbert Scott, replacing the mid-19th-century church of Charles Hansom. [5] [6]
Blazon: Per fesse dancetté Or and Azure a chief per pale Gules and of the second charged on the dexter with two keys in saltire Or and Argent and on the sinister with a Cross Flory between five martlets of the first. (College of Arms, London 1922). Ensigned with an abbot's crosier in pale behind the shield Or garnished with a pallium crossing the staff argent and a galero with cords and twelve tassels disposed on either side of the shield in three rows of one, two, and three all Sable.
The college buildings were begun by Charles Hansom in 1861 and have been enlarged on numerous occasions. The woodwork in the cafe and library is by Robert Thompson. [9]
The church is a grade I listed building. It was designed by Giles Gilbert Scott, and built in two phases, from 1922 to 1924, and 1958 to 1961. It is built in limestone and has roofs of various materials. The church has a cruciform plan, with a sanctuary at the crossing over which is a tower, a retrochoir to the west and a nave to the east, both with side chapels, and a narrow north aisle. Underneath is a crypt with 25 chapels. The tower has clasping buttresses, three pairs of bell openings on each face, and a lightly embattled parapet. [1] [10] The woodwork is by Thompson. Some of the stained glass is by Patrick Reyntiens, and other ones by Herbert Hendrie. [9]
The monastery founded a school at Ampleforth in 1802. [6] It is now the coeducational independent boarding school Ampleforth College, with about 600 pupils. In 2017 the college separated from the Abbey by splitting the site and each having its own independent governance. [11] Monks from Ampleforth Abbey continue to oversee the spirituality scheme of the College. [12]
In addition to the work at Ampleforth, some of the monks are assigned as parish priests to parishes across four dioceses. [13]
Ampleforth had a permanent private hall at St Benet's Hall, Oxford, which was founded in 1897 for the purpose of enabling monks to study for secular degrees. It accepted lay undergraduates and graduate as well as monastic members. [14] It ceased operation as a permanent private hall at the beginning of October 2022. [15]
Ampleforth founded a daughter house, the priory at St Louis, Missouri, in 1955. The priory gained independence in 1973 and became Saint Louis Abbey in its own right in 1989. [6]
In 1996 Ampleforth set up the community of Christ the Word in Zimbabwe, which had three members as of 2020. [16]
In November 2017, as part of its larger mandate, the national Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) undertook an investigation into the prevalence of paedophilia in the English Benedictine Congregation and its failures in protecting young people over many decades, focusing on the abbeys of Downside in Somerset, Ealing in London and Ampleforth in North Yorkshire. The final report outlined a series of failures at Ampleforth but also noted the ongoing efforts of both the Abbey and College to address the safeguarding concerns. [17] It found credible allegations of physical, emotional and sexual abuse perpetrated by monks and lay members of Ampleforth. In addition safeguarding concerns were noted about some monks relating to grooming, inappropriate touching and pornography addiction. The Ampleforth monks named in the report included: Piers Grant-Ferris, Gregory Carroll, Bernard Green (deceased 2013) and a number of unidentified monks referred to as RC-F3, RC-F8, RC-F27, RC-F16, RC-F18, RC-F91 and RC-F95. [18]
Abbot Christopher Jamison, then newly elected President of the English Benedictine Congregation, welcomed the report, apologising for the abuse and the congregation's failure to address it and urging other victims to come forward. [19] Piers Grant-Ferris was convicted in 2006 of twenty counts of indecent assault. [20] Peter Turner, formerly known as Gregory Carroll, was jailed for more than 20 years for his offences of child abuse. [21]
The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict, are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, they are the oldest of all the religious orders in the Latin Church. The male religious are also sometimes called the Black Monks, especially in English speaking countries, after the colour of their habits, although some, like the Olivetans, wear white. They were founded by Benedict of Nursia, a 6th-century Italian monk who laid the foundations of Benedictine monasticism through the formulation of his Rule. Benedict's sister, Scholastica, possibly his twin, also became a religious from an early age, but chose to live as a hermit. They retained a close relationship until her death.
St Benet's Hall was a permanent private hall (PPH) of the University of Oxford, originally a Roman Catholic religious house of studies. It closed in 2022. The principal building was located at the northern end of St Giles' on its western side, close to the junction with Woodstock Road, Oxford.
Ampleforth College is a co-educational fee-charging boarding and day school in the English public school tradition. It opened in 1802 as a boys' school. It is located near the village of Ampleforth, North Yorkshire, England, on the grounds of Benedictine monastery Ampleforth Abbey. The school is located in a valley with state-of-the-art sports pitches, wooded areas, and lakes. The school holds the oldest purpose-built school theatre in the United Kingdom, a dedicated student pub, and its own infirmary. It is known as the Catholic Eton.
George Basil Hume was an English Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Westminster from 1976 until his death in 1999. He was a priest of the Benedictine Order and was made a cardinal in 1977.
Downside Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in England and the senior community of the English Benedictine Congregation. Until 2019, the community had close links with Downside School, for the education of children aged 11 to 18. Both the abbey and the school are at Stratton-on-the-Fosse, between Westfield and Shepton Mallet in Somerset, South West England. In 2020, the monastic community of Downside Abbey was home to fifteen monks. In 2022, the community moved to Devon.
Augustine Baker OSB, also sometimes known as "Austin Baker", was a well-known Benedictine mystic and an ascetic writer. He was one of the earliest members of the English Benedictine Congregation which was newly restored to England after the Reformation.
Downside School is an 11–18 mixed, Roman Catholic, independent, day and boarding school in Stratton-on-the-Fosse, Somerset, England. It was established in 1614 and is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Clifton.
The Abbey of Our Lady, Help of Christians, commonly known as Worth Abbey, is a community of Roman Catholic monks who follow the Rule of St Benedict near Turners Hill village, in West Sussex, England. Founded in 1933, the abbey is part of the English Benedictine Congregation. As of 2020, the monastic community had 21 monks.
The English Benedictine Congregation (EBC) is a congregation of autonomous abbatial and prioral monastic communities of Catholic Benedictine monks, nuns, and lay oblates. It is technically the oldest of the nineteen congregations affiliated to the Benedictine Confederation.
The Abbey of Ealing is a Roman Catholic Benedictine monastery located on Castlebar Hill in Ealing, England. It is part of the English Benedictine Congregation.
Dom Columba Cary-Elwes, OSB was an English Benedictine monk who professed vows at Ampleforth Abbey in York, England. As a missionary he travelled to Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya and has written books on Christianity. He was the founding prior of the Priory of Saints Louis and Mary in Saint Louis, Missouri.
Henry Wansbrough is an English biblical scholar, Catholic priest, and monk of Ampleforth Abbey. From 1990 to 2004, he served as Master of St Benet's Hall, Oxford.
The Abbey of Saint Mary and Saint Louis is an abbey of the Catholic English Benedictine Congregation (EBC) located in Creve Coeur, in St. Louis County, Missouri in the United States. The Abbey is an important presence in the spiritual life of the Archdiocese of St. Louis. The monks of the Abbey live their faith according to the Benedictine discipline of 'prayer and work', praying the Divine Office five times daily, celebrating daily Masses in English and Latin, and working in the two parishes under their pastoral care and in the Saint Louis Priory School, which the Abbey runs as an apostolate. The Abbey and its school sit on a 150-acre (0.61 km2) campus in west St. Louis County, in the city of Creve Coeur.
Lamspringe Abbey is a former religious house of the English Benedictines in exile, at Lamspringe near Hildesheim in Germany.
Christopher Jamison, O.S.B. is a Benedictine monk and former Abbot of Worth Abbey in West Sussex, England. He currently serves as the Abbot President of the English Benedictine Congregation.
Sigebert Buckley O.S.B. was a Benedictine monk in England, regarded by the English Benedictine Congregation as representing the continuity of the community's tradition through the English Reformation.
The sexual abuse scandal in the English Benedictine Congregation was a significant episode in the series of Catholic sex abuse cases in the United Kingdom. The dates of the events covered here range from the 1960s to the 2010s.
Clement Reyner D.D. (1589–1651) was an English Benedictine monk, who became abbot of Lamspringe in Germany.
Edward Bernard Green OSB was an English Catholic priest, Benedictine monk of Ampleforth Abbey, and historian.
Dominic Terence Joseph Bellenger,, also known by his monastic name of Dom Aidan Bellenger, is an English historian and former Benedictine monk and schoolmaster. He was headmaster of Downside School from 1991 to 1995 and later Abbot of Downside Abbey from 2006 to 2014.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "The Abbey of Ampleforth". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company.