Saint Mary's Abbey, sometimes known as Glencairn Abbey, [1] is a monastic community of nuns located in the townland of Glencairn, County Waterford, in Ireland. The community belongs to the Trappist branch of the Cistercian order, thus the nuns are also referred to as Trappistines.
The abbey is located in the townland of Glencairn in County Waterford. [2] The townland, which is in electoral division of Castlerichard [3] (the original name of part of the abbey complex), [4] had a population of 59 people as of the 2011 census. [5]
The original community of this monastic tradition had been welcomed to Ireland by St. Malachy in 1142. The monastery was founded in 1932 by nuns of Holy Cross Abbey—located at that time in Stapehill, Dorset, England—which itself had been founded in 1802 by a small group of refugee nuns from France, led by a nun who had been imprisoned in the Bastille during the French Revolution, and narrowly escaped being sent to the guillotine. [6] The land for the St Marys Abbey, had been bought for them by the Cistercian Mount Melleray Abbey. [7] The monks from Mount Melleray used to operate the farm. The chapel at Glencairn was built in 1930. [8]
This community was the first house of Cistercian nuns to be founded in Ireland since the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII (1536–41). To date it remains the only Cistercian community of nuns in Ireland. It went on to found Mount Saint Mary's Abbey in Wrentham, Massachusetts, in 1949, the first community of Cistercian nuns in the United States; and St Justina's monastery, Abakaliki, Nigeria in 1982. [9]
In 2014 the abbey featured in the RTE Would you Believe documentary School of Love. [10] [11]
The community consists of 29 nuns, who support themselves in standard Cistercian practice through the farming of their 200-acre farm, [12] the baking of altar breads and providing greeting and spiritual cards for all occasions, both printed and handcrafted. [9]
In 2019, Sr. Marie Fahey was re-elected abbess, for her fourth six-year term. Former abbesses and superiors include:
The Trappists, officially known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance and originally named the Order of Reformed Cistercians of Our Lady of La Trappe, are a Catholic religious order of cloistered monastics that branched off from the Cistercians. They follow the Rule of Saint Benedict and have communities of both monks and nuns that are known as Trappists and Trappistines, respectively. They are named after La Trappe Abbey, the monastery from which the movement and religious order originated. The movement first began with the reforms that Abbot Armand Jean le Bouthillier de Rancé introduced in 1664, later leading to the creation of Trappist congregations, and eventually the formal constitution as a separate religious order in 1892.
The Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani is a Catholic monastery in the United States near Bardstown, Kentucky, in Nelson County. The abbey is part of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, better known as the Trappists. Founded on December 21, 1848, and raised to an abbey in 1851, Gethsemani is considered to be the motherhouse of all Trappist and Trappistine monasteries in the United States. Gethsemani is the oldest Trappist monastery in the country that is still operating.
Mellifont Abbey, was a Cistercian abbey located close to Drogheda in County Louth, Ireland. It was the first abbey of the order to be built in Ireland. In 1152, it hosted the Synod of Kells-Mellifont. After its dissolution in 1539, the abbey became a private manor house. This saw the signing of the Treaty of Mellifont in 1603 and served as William of Orange's headquarters in 1690 during the Battle of the Boyne.
Timothy Clement Smyth was an Irish born 19th century bishop of the Catholic Church in the United States. He served as the second bishop of the Diocese of Dubuque following the death of Mathias Loras.
Mount St Bernard Abbey is a Trappist monastery near Coalville, Leicestershire, England, founded in 1835 in the parish of Whitwick and now in that of Charley. The abbey was the first permanent monastery to be founded in England since the Reformation and is the sole Trappist house in England. The monks brew the only Trappist beer in Britain.
Mount St. Joseph Abbey is an abbey of the Trappist branch of the Cistercians located in County Offaly, near Roscrea, County Tipperary in Ireland.
Our Lady of Bethlehem Abbey, a Cistercian monastery in Portglenone, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, was founded in 1948 by the Cistercian community of Mount Melleray Abbey in County Waterford. The monks bought Portglenone House, a country mansion built c. 1810 by the Church of Ireland Bishop, Dr. Alexander who demolished the local castle. History records that Sir Roger Casement often stayed in the house in the early years of the 20th century.
The Abbey of Our Lady of the Mississippi is located near Dubuque, Iowa. The nuns there are members of the branch of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, commonly referred to as Trappistines. They are a part of the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Dubuque.
Cistercian nuns are female members of the Cistercian Order, a religious order belonging to the Roman Catholic branch of the Catholic Church.
Mount Melleray, also spelled Mountmelleray, is a townland situated in the Knockmealdown Mountains near Cappoquin, County Waterford, Ireland. It is in the civil parish of Lismore and Mocollop in the historical barony of Coshmore and Coshbride. The townland, which is 2.25 square kilometres (0.87 sq mi) in area, had a population of 31 people as of the 2011 census. It is home to the Cistercian monastery, Mount Melleray Abbey, and a Scout centre operated by Scouting Ireland.
Mount Melleray Abbey is a Trappist monastery in Ireland, founded in 1833. It is situated on the slopes of the Knockmealdown Mountains, near Cappoquin, Diocese of Waterford.
Soleilmont Abbey is an abbey of Trappistine nuns situated in the forest and commune of Fleurus, at Gilly near Charleroi, Belgium, founded, according to tradition, in the 11th century, which became Cistercian in 1237. The nuns were expelled as a consequence of the French Revolution in 1796, but soon re-established themselves in 1802. The community became Bernardine in 1837, and Trappist in 1919.
Mount Saint Mary’s Abbey is a monastic community of some fifty Trappistine nuns in Wrentham, Massachusetts. The more complete, formal name of the Order is the Cistercians of the Strict Observance, whose founding at Cîteaux, France dates back to 1098. This community follows the reforms of the Cistercian Order as established by the 17th-century Abbot Armand de Rancé at the Abbey of La Grande Trappe.
The Southern Star Abbey, is a Cistercian monastery located in a remote, rural area of the North Island, New Zealand in the Diocese of Palmerston North. The monastery supports itself by operating a dairy farm. It is located at Kopua, between Takapau and Norsewood.
When referring to Roman Catholic religious orders, the term Second Order refers to those communities of contemplative cloistered nuns which are a part of the religious orders that developed in the Middle Ages.
The Abbey of Our Lady of the Redwoods is a monastic community of the Trappistine branch of Cistercian nuns located in Whitethorn, California, within the Diocese of Santa Rosa.
The Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity was a Trappist Cistercian monastery in Huntsville, Utah, United States. They were Catholic contemplative monks of an enclosed religious order known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (OCSO).
The Santa Rita Abbey is a monastic community of the Trappistine branch of Cistercian nuns located in Sonoita, Arizona, within the Diocese of Tucson.
Rawaseneng Monastery is a monastery complex of the Catholic Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (O.C.S.O.), popularly known as the Trappists, located in Temanggung Regency, Central Java, Indonesia. The monastery was officially established on 1 April 1953 as a daughter house of Koningshoeven Abbey in Tilburg, Netherlands. Apart from being a residence for the monks, there are also a church, prayer garden, retreat houses, coffee plantations, dairy farms along with the processing industries within the monastery complex. Ronald Bell, a pilgrim from the United States, shares his impression about this place, "You will get all the stages, praying, meditating, contemplating sacred readings, and working. All of those constitute an inseparable part of the experience." Not far from the monastery complex, it lies the Church of Santa Maria dan Yoseph as the center of the Rawaseneng Parish, just ahead of the Kindergarten and Elementary School of Fatima Rawaseneng which are managed by the Dominican nuns.
Population [..] Townlands [..] Glencairn, Castlerichard, Co. Waterford [..] 59
