David Charlesworth | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Church | Catholic Church |
| Elected | 9 April 2021 |
| Predecessor | Richard Yeo (Abbot Administrator) |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 24 June 1984 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | October 6, 1951 |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | Newman College of Higher Education |
David Charlesworth, OSB (born 6 October 1951) is the Abbot of Buckfast Abbey in Devon, England. He is a member of the Order of Saint Benedict. [1] [2]
In September 1970, Charlesworth joined Buckfast Abbey and the Order of Saint Benedict as a novice. [3] From 1974 to 1977, he studied at Newman College of Higher Education, a Catholic teacher training college. [3] [4] From 1977, he taught maths and science at Buckfast Abbey Preparatory School. [3] He was ordained to the priesthood in 1984 [3] and became abbot of Buckfast in 1992. [5]
Charlesworth commissioned Torbay-based theater-company Unleashed Productions to adapt the stories in Philip Yancey's book What's So Amazing About Grace? into a play, which they did and then performed at the abbey in 2010. [6]
Charlesworth commissioned a 79-year-old nun, Mother Joanna, to paint an 18 x 26 ft acrylic mural on twenty wooden panels for the abbey's restaurant, the Grange. [7] When the mural was unveiled in April 2014, Charlesworth called it "a monumental effort by Mother Joanna depicting the extraordinary work of a handful of monks who built the present church on the 12th century foundations in only 32 years". [8]
In 2013, Alex Neil, Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Sport, contacted Buckfast Abbey and said that they should stop making Buckfast Tonic Wine. Charlesworth later said to the media, "If you ban Buckfast, ban Scottish whisky. It's alcohol, much stronger. But oh no they wouldn't do that. So they are picking on a particular thing as a conscience salver." [9] In response, Member of the Scottish Parliament Elaine Smith said that Buckfast Tonic Wine is more problematic than Scotch whisky because of Buckfast's caffeine content. [10] Charlesworth said that blaming Buckfast Tonic Wine for alcohol-related crime, violence, and anti-social behaviour within the "Buckfast Triangle" of Scotland [11] is "not fair", as the tonic wine is legal and "not made to be abused". [12]
Charlesworth is one of the founders of the School of the Annunciation. [13] In 2014, Charlesworth invited Robert Atwell, the new Bishop of Exeter, to spend some time in reflection with Buckfast Abbey's monks, and Atwell accepted. [14] On 9 April 2021 Charlesworth was re-elected Abbot of Buckfast. [15] [16]
The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict, are a mainly contemplative monastic religious order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. The male religious are also sometimes called the Black Monks, in reference to the colour of their religious habits, in contrast to other Benedictine orders such as the Olivetans, who wear white. They were founded in 529 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.
Buckfast Abbey forms part of an active Benedictine monastery at Buckfast, near Buckfastleigh, Devon, England. Buckfast first became home to an abbey in 1018. The first Benedictine abbey was followed by a Savignac, later Cistercian, abbey constructed on the site of the current abbey in 1134. The monastery was surrendered for dissolution in 1539, with the monastic buildings stripped and left as ruins, before being demolished. The former abbey site was used as a quarry, and later became home to a Gothic mansion house.
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.
Buckfast Tonic Wine is a caffeinated alcoholic drink consisting of fortified wine with added caffeine, originally made by monks at Buckfast Abbey in Devon, England. It is now made under a licence granted by the monastery, and distributed by J. Chandler & Company in Great Britain, James E McCabe Ltd in Northern Ireland, and Richmond Marketing Ltd in Ireland. It is based on a traditional recipe from France. The wine's distributor reported record sales of £43.2 million as of March 2017.
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) unites autonomous Roman Catholic Benedictine communities of monks and nuns and is technically the oldest of the nineteen congregations that are affiliated in the Benedictine Confederation.
Subiaco Abbey is an American Benedictine monastery located in the Arkansas River valley of Logan County, Arkansas, part of the Swiss-American Congregation of Benedictine monasteries. It is home to thirty-nine Benedictine monks. The abbey and the preparatory school it operates, Subiaco Academy, are major features of the town of Subiaco, Arkansas. It is named after the original Subiaco, Italy, where the first monastery founded by Saint Benedict was located.
Quarr Abbey is a monastery between the villages of Binstead and Fishbourne on the Isle of Wight in southern England. The name is pronounced as "Kwor". It belongs to the Catholic Order of St Benedict.
St. Anselm's Abbey is a Benedictine Abbey located at 4501 South Dakota Avenue, N.E., in Washington, D.C. It operates the boys' middle and high school St. Anselm's Abbey School, which was ranked by the Washington Post as the most challenging in Washington, D.C., and as the most challenging private high school in the U.S.
Robert Ronald Atwell is a British Anglican retired bishop, writer, and former Benedictine monk. From 2014 until 2023, he served as the Bishop of Exeter; from 2008 to 2014, he was Bishop of Stockport, a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Chester.
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.
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 Swiss-American Congregation is an association of Benedictine monasteries founded in 1881 in the United States, as a part of the international Benedictine Confederation of monasteries.
Hugh Gilbert OSB is an English Catholic Benedictine monk who currently serves as the Bishop of Aberdeen. He previously served as the Abbot of Pluscarden Abbey, of which he is a member, also in Scotland.
Boniface Natter, christened Anthony, was a German Benedictine Monk who became the first Abbot of the newly reformed Benedictine Abbey of Buckfast in Devon, England.
Bruno Fehrenbacher was a German-British Benedictine monk and Abbot of Buckfast Abbey in Devon, England.
Ansgar Vonier, engl. Anscar Vonier, O.S.B., was an Abbot of Buckfast Abbey (1906–1938).
Buckfast is a small village near Buckfastleigh in Teignbridge district, Devon, England, on the bank of the River Dart. It is the home of Buckfast Abbey, an active Benedictine monastery, which gave its name to Buckfast Tonic Wine, originally made there, and to the Buckfast bee, a bee breed originally developed at Buckfast Abbey.
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.
His bee research ended in 1992 because the monastery's new abbot, the Right Rev. David Charlesworth, insisted the main function of the abbey apiaries was honey production, not research.
The monks get a royalty for every bottle and last year made more than £6m. Their Abbot, David Charlesworth, claims to be upset by the Buckfast Triangle. "I don't want Buckfast Abbey to be associated with broken bottles and drunks," he says. "But is the product bad? No."
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