Belmont Abbey | |
---|---|
Abbey Church of St Michael and All Angels, Hereford | |
Location in Herefordshire | |
52°02′21″N2°45′23″W / 52.0393°N 2.7564°W | |
OS grid reference | SO4821038149 |
Location | Hereford, Herefordshire |
Country | United Kingdom |
Denomination | Roman Catholic |
Website | BelmontAbbey.org.uk |
History | |
Former name(s) | Pro-Cathedral of Newport and Menevia |
Status | Benedictine monastery |
Founded | 1859 |
Founder(s) | Francis Wegg-Prosser |
Dedication | St Michael |
Consecrated | 4 September 1860 |
Architecture | |
Functional status | Active |
Heritage designation | Grade II* |
Designated | 22 October 1986 |
Architect(s) | Edward Welby Pugin |
Style | Gothic Revival |
Groundbreaking | 1857 |
Completed | 1875 |
Construction cost | £45,000 |
Administration | |
Province | Cardiff |
Archdiocese | Cardiff |
Deanery | Herefordshire |
Clergy | |
Abbot | Rt. Rev. Dom Brendan Thomas OSB |
Prior | Very Rev. Dom Alexander Kenyon OSB |
Belmont Abbey, in Herefordshire, England, is a Catholic Benedictine monastery that forms part of the English Benedictine Congregation. It stands on a small hill overlooking the city of Hereford to the east, with views across to the Black Mountains in Wales to the west. The 19th century Abbey also serves as a parish church.
Francis Wegg-Prosser, of nearby Belmont House, who had been received into the Catholic Church, can be called its founder. He decided to build a church on his Hereford estate in 1854. He later invited the Benedictines to reside there so that there would be a permanent Catholic presence in the area. [1] In 1859, the Benedictines arrived and it became a priory. It was the Common Novitiate and House of Studies for the English Benedictine Congregation. It was also a pro-cathedral for the Diocese of Newport and Menevia. [2] The Benedictine Thomas Joseph Brown, who was its first bishop, is buried in the church. Also here, but in the Abbots' graveyard outside the east end of the church, is buried Bishop Bernard Collier, missionary in Mauritius and Bishop Laurence Youens 6th Bishop of Northampton.
Belmont was unique in England for having a monastic cathedral chapter. This was the case in mediaeval England where monks were the canons of the cathedral, such as in Canterbury, Winchester and Durham. [3]
A move to transfer the training of monks to the individual monasteries of the English Benedictine Congregation led to Belmont being allowed to take its own novices in 1901, and become an independent house in 1917. In 1920 Belmont was raised to the rank of an Abbey by the papal bull Praeclara Gesta. [2] In 1895, the Diocese of Newport and Menevia split and the abbey remained as the pro-cathedral for the Diocese of Newport. On 7 February 1916, the Diocese of Newport became the Archdiocese of Cardiff and it was decided to make St. David's Church in Cardiff the cathedral. On 12 March 1920, St. David's church officially became the cathedral for the archdiocese and the abbey ceased to be a pro-cathedral. [4]
The Priory was elevated in a rank of abbey by Pope Benedict XV, that issued Papal bull Praeclara Gesta on 21 March 1920 and soon after, on 30 June 1920 the Community of St Michael's elected Prior Aelred Kindersley as their first Abbot. [5]
The Abbey Church is a grade II* Listed building. Its construction began in 1857 and it was consecrated on 4 September 1860. [3] It was built to the designs of Edward Welby Pugin, son of Augustus Welby Pugin. Built in the decorated, early English style, it demonstrated the resurgent optimism of the restored Catholic faith. [6]
The exterior is in local pink sandstone, simple and unadorned, reminiscent of many classical monastic facades of the fourteenth century. The interior is faced with warm Bath stone. The church is dominated by four elegant, steeply pointed, arches which support the central tower. Originally this was the crossing, but now the altar stands here at the centre of the Church. The whole church was expensive for its time costing £45,000. [6]
The church is noted for the quality of its sculpture and stained glass. There are windows depicting angels with harps, cymbals and pipes.There are also a number of windows which depict English Martyrs. There is an angel reredos in the east end of the church and a Victorian glass window showing the archangels Michael (the abbey's patron, sword and shield in hand, trampling the dragon), Raphael and Gabriel and the nine choirs of angels as an angelic orchestra sounding of praises of God. [7]
Under a wooden roof stands the monastic choir, where the community gathers five times a day for the Divine Office and Mass. Side altars are dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, St Joseph, and a memorial altar commemorating the former pupils of the school who were killed in the Second World War. The North Transept was formerly a chantry chapel dedicated to the Welsh Saints. [6]
St Benedict's chapel, completed in 1875, shows the monastic founder in the central reredos. [6]
The churchyard contains three Commonwealth war graves, of a Royal Navy chaplain and a surgeon of World War I, and a Royal Air Force officer of World War II. [8]
The monastic community follows the Rule of St Benedict under the guidance of an Abbot, centred on the Divine Office and Mass prayed daily in the Abbey Church. [9]
Following the post-Reformation English tradition, the monks have been involved in educational and pastoral work. In 1926, Belmont Abbey School was founded. This continued to expand in the post war years. Two preparatory schools were also founded, Alderwasley and Llanarth, Monmouthshire. These in turn were closed, and the school at Belmont was itself closed in 1993. Associations for former pupils still exist. [10]
Today the monks undertake numerous works including the pastoral care of the Catholics in Herefordshire, and South Wales. In addition the community maintains a small foundation at Pachacamac near Lima, Peru, the Monastery of the Incarnation, that in May 2018 transferred to Lurín, in the buildings of the former Cistercian nunnery. [9]
The monks also run the retreat, guesthouse and conference centre, Hedley Lodge. A programme of educational visits is offered to schools throughout the West Midlands and Wales. [9]
The community currently numbers 35 monks in England and Peru. In 2001, its former abbot, Mark Jabalé, was appointed Bishop of Menevia. The current Abbot is Dom Brendan Thomas and the Prior is Dom Alexander Kenyon.
In 2006 the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded Belmont Abbey a grant for their project 'Discovering Belmont Abbey', to make the Abbey Church more accessible to a wide range of people, to enlarge its educational activities and restore the fabric of the church. Work commenced in August 2008. [11]
A police investigation resulted in Father John Kinsey being sentenced to five years at Worcester Crown Court in 2005 by Judge Andrew Geddes for a series of serious offences relating to assaults on schoolboys attending Belmont Abbey School in the mid-1980s. [12]
The abbey is also the parish church for the Parish of St Michael and All Angels, part of the Herefordshire Catholic Deanery within the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Cardiff. Until 1859 parishioners used the chapel of St Peter & St Paul for Mass. That building is now used as the parish centre. [14]
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. Not all Benedictines wear black however, with some like the Olivetans wearing 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.
The Archbishop of Cardiff is the ordinary of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cardiff.
Francis Richard Wegg-Prosser, born Francis Richard Haggitt, was a wealthy Englishman and Roman Catholic convert who established the Benedictine community which became Belmont Abbey and so played a significant role in the English Catholic Revival.
The Archdiocese of Cardiff is a Latin archdiocese of the Catholic Church which covers the south-east portion of Wales and the county of Herefordshire in England. The Metropolitan Province of Cardiff therefore covers all of Wales and part of England. Cardiff's suffragan dioceses are the Diocese of Menevia and the Diocese of Wrexham.
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 eleven to eighteen. 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 announced that it would move away from the present monastery and seek a new place to live. In October 2021, the monastic community further announced that as part of their transition they would move in Spring of 2022 to the temporary accommodation of "Southgate House, in the grounds of Buckfast Abbey, Devon, where we will live as the Community of St Gregory the Great". As of 2020, the monastic community of Downside Abbey was home to fifteen monks.
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 Diocese of Menevia is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Wales. It is one of two suffragan dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of Cardiff and is subject to the Archdiocese of Cardiff.
The Diocese of Wrexham, is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Wales. The diocese is a suffragan in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Cardiff.
Roger William Bede Vaughan was an English Benedictine monk of Downside Abbey and the second Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Australia from 1877 to 1883.
Mark John Peter Jabalé, OSB, is emeritus Bishop of Menevia. He was installed as bishop on 12 June 2001.
Lamspringe Abbey is a former religious house of the English Benedictines in exile, at Lamspringe near Hildesheim in Germany.
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. As of 2024 the monastery has 41 monks, and sometimes will have 50 nuns of the monastery organization.
Saint Anselm Abbey, located in Goffstown, New Hampshire, United States, is a Benedictine abbey composed of men living under the Rule of Saint Benedict within the Catholic Church. The abbey was founded in 1889 under the patronage of Saint Anselm of Canterbury, a Benedictine monk of Bec and former archbishop of Canterbury in England. The monks are involved in the operation of Saint Anselm College. The abbey is a member of the American-Cassinese Congregation of the Benedictine Confederation.
The Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat, or Manila Abbey, is a Benedictine men's monastery located on Mendiola Street in Manila, the Philippines. The monastery was founded by monks from Spain in 1895, in the final years of Spanish colonial era in the Philippines and is dedicated to Our Lady of Montserrat.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Newport (and Menevia) was the Latin Catholic precursor (1840-1916) in Wales and southwest England of the present Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cardiff, with see in Newport, Wales, and was revived as Latin titular see.
The Benedictine Priory of Savannah is a Catholic monastery of Benedictine monks located in Savannah, Georgia. The priory was founded in 1877, and is a dependency of Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and thereby belongs to the American-Cassinese Congregation. It currently operates the Benedictine Military School for boys.
Holy Trinity Church is a historic Catholic parish church in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England. It is situated on the London road in the centre of the town. It was built in 1836 and is a Grade II listed building.