Belmont Abbey, in Herefordshire

Herefordshire

Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 is a Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 Benedictine monastery that forms part of the English Benedictine Congregation. It stands on a small hill overlooking the city of Hereford

Hereford

Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, southwest of Worcester, and northwest of Gloucester...

 to the east, with views across to the Black Mountains, Wales

Black Mountains, Wales

The Black Mountains are a group of hills spread across parts of Powys and Monmouthshire in southeast Wales, and extending across the national border into Herefordshire, England. They are the easternmost of the four ranges of hills that comprise the Brecon Beacons National Park, and are frequently...

 to the west. The 19th century Abbey

Abbey

An abbey is a Catholic monastery or convent, under the authority of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community.The term can also refer to an establishment which has long ceased to function as an abbey,...

 also serves as a parish church

Parish church

A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....

.

History

The monastery was founded as Belmont Priory in 1859 to be the Common Novitiate and House of Studies for the English Benedictine Congregation. Francis Wegg-Prosser, of nearby Belmont House, who had been received into the Catholic Church, can rightly be called its founder. In 1855 the church became the pro-Cathedral of the diocese

Diocese

A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...

 of Newport

Newport

Newport is a city and unitary authority area in Wales. Standing on the banks of the River Usk, it is located about east of Cardiff and is the largest urban area within the historic county boundaries of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent...

 and Catholic Diocese of Menevia. The Benedictine Thomas Joseph Brown was its first bishop, who is buried in the church. Belmont was unique in England by having a monastic cathedral chapter along the pattern of the Benedictine cathedral priories of mediaeval England, such as Canterbury, Winchester and Durham. The monks were the canons of the Cathedral.

A move to transfer the training of monks to the individial 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. The Church ceased to be a Cathedral, it being transferred to Cardiff.

The Abbey Church

The Abbey Church is a grade II* Listed building. Its construction began in 1857 and it was consecrated on 4 September 1860. It was built to the designs of Edward Welby Pugin, son of the great Augustus Welby Pugin. Built in the decorated, early English style, it demonstrated the resurgent optimism of the restored Catholic faith.

The exterior is in local pink sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

, simple and unadorned, reminiscent of many classical monastic facades of the fourteenth century. The interior is faced with warm Bath stone

Bath Stone

Bath Stone is an Oolitic Limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate. Originally obtained from the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England, its warm, honey colouring gives the World Heritage City of Bath, England its distinctive appearance...

. 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.

The church is noted for the quality of its sculpture and stained glass

Stained glass

The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...

. Dedicated to St Michael and All Angels worshippers are surrounded by angels with harps, cymbals and pipes to accompany the monks and worshippers in their prayer. The finest stone angels are those in the nave, but the eye is drawn to the angel reredos

Reredos

thumb|300px|right|An altar and reredos from [[St. Josaphat's Roman Catholic Church|St. Josaphat Catholic Church]] in [[Detroit]], [[Michigan]]. This would be called a [[retable]] in many other languages and countries....

 in the east end of the church and fine Victorian glass showing the archangel

Archangel

An archangel is an angel of high rank. Archangels are found in a number of religious traditions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Michael and Gabriel are recognized as archangels in Judaism and by most Christians. Michael is the only archangel specifically named in the Protestant Bible...

s Michael

Michael (archangel)

Michael , Micha'el or Mîkhā'ēl; , Mikhaḗl; or Míchaël; , Mīkhā'īl) is an archangel in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic teachings. Roman Catholics, Anglicans, and Lutherans refer to him as Saint Michael the Archangel and also simply as Saint Michael...

 (the abbey's patron, sword and shield in hand, trampling the dragon), Raphael and Gabriel

Gabriel

In Abrahamic religions, Gabriel is an Archangel who typically serves as a messenger to humans from God.He first appears in the Book of Daniel, delivering explanations of Daniel's visions. In the Gospel of Luke Gabriel foretells the births of both John the Baptist and of Jesus...

 and the nine choirs of angels as an angelic orchestra sounding of praises of God.

Under a magnificent 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 old boys of the school who lost their lives in the Second World War. The North Transept was formerly an elaborate chantry chapel dedicated to the Welsh Saints.

St Benedict's chapel, completed in 1875, is a colourful gem of its own showing the monastic founder in the central reredos. The chapel offers a history of monasticism in the west through the saints portrayed there.

Monastic life

The monastic community follows the Rule of St Benedict under the guidance of an Abbot, centred around the Divine Office and Mass prayed daily in the Abbey Church.

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 prep schools were also founded, Alderwasley

Alderwasley

Alderwasley is a village and civil parish in the Amber Valley district of Derbyshire, England. Alderwasley Hall is the home to one of the sites of Alderwasley Hall School which is a special school for children and young people with Aspergers and/or Speech and Language Difficulties...

 and Llanarth, Monmouthshire

Llanarth, Monmouthshire

Llanarth is a privately owned estate village within a conservation area in the Welsh county of Monmouthshire roughly halfway between Abergavenny and Raglan.- Rural Location :...

. These in turn were closed, and the school at Belmont was itself closed in 1993, but there is a loyal association of old boys and girls.

Today the monks undertake numerous works including the pastoral care of the Catholics in Herefordshire, west Cumbria and South Wales

South Wales

South Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of...

. In addition the community maintains a small foundation at Pachacamac

Pachacamac

The temple of Pachacamac is an archaeological site 40 km southeast of Lima, Peru in the Valley of the Lurín River. Most of the common buildings and temples were built c...

 near Lima

Lima

Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...

, Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

 - the Monastery of the Incarnation.

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

West Midlands (county)

The West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a 2009 estimated population of 2,638,700. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, formed from parts of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. The...

 and Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

.

The community currently numbers 39 monks in England and Peru. In 2001 its former Abbot Mark Jabalé was appointed Bishop of Menevia. His successor as Abbot is Paul Stonham. Current Prior is Dom Nicholas Wetz.

In 2006 the Heritage Lottery Fund

Heritage Lottery Fund

The Heritage Lottery Fund is a fund established in the United Kingdom under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. The Fund opened for applications in 1994. It uses money raised through the National Lottery to transform and sustain the UK’s heritage...

 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 is to commence in August 2008.

Sexual Abuse Scandal

Father John Kinsey was 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.

Kinsey attacked three schoolboys while a monk at Belmont Abbey during a two year period, grooming and attacking victims during bell ringing lessons, carrying out altar service duties and while playing the church organ. The frequency of his attacks increased to a weekly basis before Kinsey was sent away from the Abbey for a short period to train as a priest.

Due to falling pupil numbers Belmont Abbey closed the school in the early 1990s.

List of Abbots (until 1920 - Priors)

• 1859–1862: Norbert Sweeny
• 1862–1873: Bede Vaughan
  Roger Vaughan
  Roger William Bede Vaughan was an English Benedictine monk of Downside Abbey, and the second Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney from 1877 to 1883.-Early life:...
  
  
• 1873–1901: Wilfrid Raynal
• 1901–1905: Ildephonsus Cummins
• 1905–1914: Clement Fowler
• 1915–1934: Aelred Kindersley
• 1934–1940: Romuald Leonard
• 1940–1948: Aidan Williams

• 1948–1953: Anselm Lightbound
• 1953–1955: Alphege Gleeson
• 1955–1966: Maurice Martin
• 1966–1970: Robert Richardson
• 1970–1986: Jerome Hodkinson
• 1986–1993: Alan Rees
• 1993–2000: John Mark Jabalé
  John Mark Jabalé
  John Mark Jabalé, OSB is the Bishop Emeritus of Menevia. He was installed as bishop on 12 June 2001. Prior to appointment as Ordinary of the Diocese, he had been abbot in Belmont Abbey during 1993-2000, and then coadjutor bishop from 7 December 2000...
  
  
• 2000–present: Paul Stonham

External links

• Abbey website
• Belmont on the website of the English Benedictine Congregation