Llanthony Abbey

Last updated
Llanthony Abbey
The Monastery, Capel y Ffin (geograph 5444178).jpg
The monastery buildings
Monastery information
Order Anglican Benedictine (unrecognised)
Established1869
Disestablished1908
People
Founder(s) Father Ignatius (Joseph Leycester Lyne)

Llanthony Abbey is a former Anglican monastic institution founded in 1869 by Joseph Leycester Lyne (Father Ignatius), in the Welsh village of Capel-y-ffin, a few miles from the medieval Llanthony Priory. It survived until 1908, after which it was the home of artist Eric Gill. It is now holiday accommodation.

Contents

It was also known as Llanthony Tertia – following on from the nearby original medieval Llanthony Priory, and its Gloucestershire offshoot Llanthony Secunda – or New Llanthony Abbey. The surviving buildings are now referred to as Capel-y-ffin Monastery.

History

Father Ignatius

Father Ignatius of Llanthony Ignatius of Llanthony.jpg
Father Ignatius of Llanthony

In 1869, Joseph Leycester Lyne, self-styled "Father Ignatius", purchased 32 acres (130,000 m2) of land at Capel-y-ffin in order to build an Anglican monastery near the ruins of Llanthony Priory.

The cloister was begun in 1870, and the church in 1872. John Loughborough Pearson succeeded Charles Buckeridge as architect in 1873. [1]

In 1880, Lyne's religious convictions were confirmed by visions of the Virgin Mary seen in the monastery and nearby fields by monks and local farm boys. [2]

Building stopped in 1882. [1]

The eccentric version of monastic life practised at the abbey was observed and recorded in the diaries of Francis Kilvert. [2]

After Lyne's death

Lyne died in Camberley on 16 October 1908, and was buried in the church at Llanthony Abbey. [3] : 496 

In his will he stated:

I leave the Monastery of Llanthony, the convent and monastery church thereof, and the garden and other lands (if any) now held and enjoyed therewith, including the farms of Trecas and Ty-Gwynne, and all that they contain (save those few things hereinafter mentioned and specifically bequeathed) unto Alfred Harris (Father Asaph) and Jessie Dow (in religion Mother Tudfil) of the Convent of Llanthony, absolutely, as joint tenants, subject to the right of my adopted son, William Leycester Lyne, to continue farming the lands of the said monastery as he is now farming, at a nominal rent of one shilling, in return for the services which he renders and shall render to the monastery as before

— Will of Joseph Lyne [4]

Shortly after Lyne's death, the community – then consisting of Father Asaph, Mother Tudfil, four monks, two nuns and two sisters, elected the Rev Richard Courtier-Forster, then a curate at St Giles' Church, Cambridge, to succeed Ignatius as Abbot. Receiving no objection from the Bishop of St David's, he accepted. [4] However, shortly afterwards, Asaph Harris went to Canada to be ordained by wandering bishop René Vilatte, who had earlier ordained Lyne. When Harris returned to England, Courtier-Forster resigned, and all real hope of regularising the Llanthony Benedictines as an Anglican foundation ended. [5]

In 1911, the abbey passed into the hands of the Anglican Benedictine community of Caldey Island. [3] : 496  The Caldey Benedictines, including Asaph Harris, collectively submitted to Rome in 1913. [6] Harris lived until 1960 as part of the Caldey, and later Prinknash Abbey, communities. [7]

Fr Ignatius's abbey church, which was never completed, fell into disrepair before the Gill family arrived [8] and the roof was removed during the 1930s.

Eric Gill

Eric Gill (self portrait) Eric Gill - self portrait.jpg
Eric Gill (self portrait)

From August 1924 to October 1928, the artist Eric Gill and his followers, associated with The Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic, lived in some of the former monastery. [1] [9] It was here that Gill designed the typefaces Perpetua and Gill Sans. With him was the poet and artist David Jones, who painted the local scenery. [10]

Later use

For two years or so around 1969, the monastery was the home of the controversial Carmelite friar and writer Father Brocard Sewell, who withdrew there after he had written to The Times questioning Catholic teaching on birth control and criticising the papal encyclical Humanae Vitae; though in the end no sanction was imposed on him. [11]

In 1967 responsibility for upkeep of the church was transferred to a new ecumenical body, the Father Ignatius Memorial Trust, of which Sewell was a founder member. Extensive restoration work was subsequently carried out on both the surviving abbey walls and Ignatius's grave within. As the structure was fundamentally unsound, this work has been only partially successful, and as of April 2018 public access is denied.

The trust also cares for a statue of the Virgin Mary commemorating her alleged apparitions at the monastery in 1880, as well as a memorial calvary opposite the site of the related ‘holy bush’. A considerable collection of archives and artefacts has been assembled under the auspices of the Trust, most of which is housed at the Abergavenny Museum. The tabernacle which formerly stood on the high altar of the abbey church and various pictures are cared for by the present owners of the monastery but are not normally on view.

The monastery is now holiday accommodation. [12]

The church and monastery are both grade II Cadw listed buildings. [1] [13]

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caldey Island</span> Island in Pembrokeshire, Wales

Caldey Island is a small island near Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales, less than 1 mile (1.6 km) off the coast. With a recorded history going back over 1,500 years, it is one of the holy islands of Britain. A number of traditions inherited from Celtic times are observed by the Cistercian monks of Caldey Abbey, the owners of the island.

Curzon Park Abbey is one of three monasteries of nuns in the English Benedictine Congregation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tironensian Order</span> Medieval monastic order

The Tironensian Order or the Order of Tiron was a medieval monastic order named after the location of the mother abbey in the woods of Thiron-Gardais in Perche, some 35 miles west of Chartres in France). They were popularly called "Grey Monks" because of their grey robes, which their spiritual cousins, the monks of Savigny, also wore.

Michael Seymour Gerveys Sewell, usually now known by his religious name Brocard Sewell, was a British Carmelite friar, priest and literary figure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Leycester Lyne</span>

Joseph Leycester Lyne, known by his religious name as Father Ignatius of Jesus, was an Anglican Benedictine monk. He commenced a movement to reintroduce monasticism into the Church of England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pluscarden Abbey</span> Benedictine monastery in Moray, Scotland, UK

Pluscarden Abbey is a Catholic Benedictine monastery in the glen of the Black Burn, six miles southwest of Elgin, Moray, Scotland. It was founded in 1230 by Alexander II for the Valliscaulian Order.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Llanthony Priory</span> Grade I listed priory in Wales, UK

Llanthony Priory is a partly ruined former Augustinian priory in the secluded Vale of Ewyas, a steep-sided once-glaciated valley within the Black Mountains area of the Brecon Beacons National Park in Monmouthshire, south east Wales. It lies seven miles north of Abergavenny on an old road to Hay-on-Wye at Llanthony. The priory ruins lie to the west of the prominent Hatterrall Ridge, a limb of the Black mountains. The main ruins are under the care of Cadw and entrance is free.

St Mary's Abbey, also known as Malling Abbey, is an abbey of Anglican Benedictine nuns located in West Malling, Kent, England. It was founded around 1090 by Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester and dissolved in 1538. The site became a monastery again in the late 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Order of St Benedict (Anglican)</span>

There are a number of Benedictine Anglican religious orders, some of them using the name Order of St. Benedict (OSB). Just like their Roman Catholic counterparts, each abbey/priory/convent is independent of each other. The vows are not made to an order, but to a local incarnation of the order, hence each individual order is free to develop its own character and charism, yet each under a common rule of life after the precepts of St. Benedict. Most of the communities include a confraternity of oblates. The order consists of a number of independent communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capel-y-ffin</span> Hamlet in Powys, Wales

Capel-y-ffin is a hamlet near the English-Welsh border, a couple of miles north of Llanthony in Powys, Wales. It lies within the Black Mountains and within the Brecon Beacons National Park. The nearest town is Hay-on-Wye, some 8 miles (13 km) to the northwest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vale of Ewyas</span> Valley in Monmouthshire, Wales, UK

The Vale of Ewyas is the steep-sided and secluded valley of the River Honddu, in the Black Mountains of Wales and within the Brecon Beacons National Park. As well as its outstanding beauty, it is known for the ruins of Llanthony Priory, and for several noteworthy churches such as those at Capel-y-ffin and Cwmyoy. It is sometimes referred to as the "Llanthony Valley" as Llanthony is the village situated at the valley centre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prinknash Abbey</span> Roman Catholic monastery in Gloucester, UK

Prinknash Abbey is a Roman Catholic monastery in the Vale of Gloucester in the Diocese of Clifton, near the village of Cranham. It belongs to the English Province of the Subiaco Cassinese Congregation, which is itself part of the worldwide Benedictine Confederation. It is noted for its manufacturing of incense.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scourmont Abbey</span>

Scourmont Abbey is a Trappist monastery on the Scourmont plateau, in the village of Forges which is part of Chimay in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. The abbey is famous for its spiritual life and for running the Chimay Brewery, one of the few producers of Trappist beer.

Aelred Carlyle OSB founded, around 1895, the first regularised Anglican Benedictine community of monks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caldey Abbey</span> Church in Pembrokeshire, Wales

Caldey Abbey is an abbey of the Trappists situated on Caldey Island off the coast of Pembrokeshire, Wales, south of Tenby.

The Subiaco Cassinese Congregation is an international union of Benedictine houses within the Benedictine Confederation. It developed from the Subiaco Congregation, which was formed in 1867 through the initiative of Dom Pietro Casaretto, O.S.B., as a reform of the way of life of monasteries of the Cassinese Congregation, formed in 1408, toward a stricter contemplative observance, and received final approval in 1872 by Pope Pius IX. After discussions between the two congregations at the start of the 21st century, approval was given by Pope Benedict XVI in 2013 for the incorporation of the Cassinese Congregation into its offshoot, the Subiaco Congregation. The expanded congregation was given this new name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pill Priory</span>

Pill Priory is a Tironian house founded near Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, South West Wales in the late 12th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caldey Priory</span> Church in Pembrokeshire, Wales

Caldey Priory is a Grade I-listed priory on Caldey Island off the coast of Pembrokeshire, Wales, some 300 metres (330 yd) south of the modern Caldey Abbey. The priory gardens are listed on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Cadw. "The Monastery Church, Capel-y-Ffin (16103)". National Historic Assets of Wales.
  2. 1 2 "Capel-y-ffin". The Cistercian Way. Archived from the original on 2010-03-02. Retrieved 2009-07-16.
  3. 1 2 Woods, G. S (1912). "Lyne, Joseph Leycester"  . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). Vol. 2. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 494–496. OCLC   9509803.
  4. 1 2 Anson, Peter (1973). Building up the Waste Places: the Revival of Monastic Life on Medieval Lines in the Post-Reformation Church of England. Wipf and Stock. p. 214.
  5. ↑ Calder-Marshall, A, 2000, The Enthusiast: An Enquiry into the Life Beliefs and Character of the Rev. Joseph Leycester Lyne Alias Fr. Ignatius, OSB Abbot of Elm Hill, Norwich and Llanthony Wales, Llanerch Press, Wales, facsimile ed.
  6. ↑ Anson, P.F, 1940, The Benedictines of Caldey, published by Prinknash Abbey.
  7. ↑ The Catholic Directory, 1961.
  8. ↑ Gill, E. 1941, Autobiography, London, Cape.
  9. ↑ MacCarthy, F. 2003, Eric Gill, A Biography, London, Faber and Faber
  10. ↑ J. Miles, Eric Gill & David Jones at Capel-y-ffin, 1992 ISBN   1-85411-051-9
  11. ↑ Sewell, B, 1987, Frances Horovitz, a Symposium, Aylesford, Aylesford Press – includes an account of Fr Sewell's time at Capel-y-ffin.
  12. ↑ "The Monastery and Grange, Capel-y-ffin (C) Colin Park :: Geograph Britain and Ireland". Geograph.org.uk. Retrieved 2017-03-19.
  13. ↑ Cadw. "The Monastery (6619)". National Historic Assets of Wales.

51°58′33″N3°05′27″W / 51.97593°N 3.09094°W / 51.97593; -3.09094

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.