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Belmont Abbey, also known as Saint Michaels 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, Wales to the west. The 19th century Abbey also serves as a parish church.

Background
When Catholics in England were deprived of the normal episcopal hierarchy, their general pastoral care was entrusted at first to a priest with the title of archpriest (in effect an apostolic prefect), and then, from 1623 to 1688, to one or more apostolic vicars, bishops of titular sees governing not in their own names, as diocesan bishops do, but provisionally in the name of the Pope. At first there was a single vicar for the whole kingdom, later their number was increased to four, assigned respectively to the London District, the Midland District, the Northern District, and the Western District. The number of vicariates was doubled in 1840, becoming eight: the apostolic vicariates of the London district, the Western, Eastern, and Central districts, and the districts of Wales, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and the North. As part of this increase, the Holy See decided that one of these should have a Benedictine bishop. Joseph Brown was consecrated as bishop to the titular see of Apollonia and appointed Vicar Apostolic of the Welsh District from 1840 to 1850.

In 1850, the Universalis Ecclesiae resulted in the return of Catholic bishops to England and Wales for the first time since the death of the last Marian bishop in the reign of Elizabeth I. With this Joseph Brown was appointed as Bishop of Newport and Menevia. Looking to strengthen the congregation in the diocese, whilst also contending with loosing the northern half of Wales to the Diocese of Shrewsbury, Bishop Brown wrote to the Regimen of the English Benedictines encouraging them to make Wales a focus of their work in restoring Catholicism to the United Kingdom.

Whilst the Benedictine's made a vague promise to support the bishops efforts, Brown wanted to go further. In 1851, Brown invited the Benedictines to form the diocese Chapter, seeking to emulate the monastics Chapters found frequently prior to the English Reformation. Despite initial reservations, the scheme was approved in December 1851, with goal of building a monastery. It was initially planned that the monastery would be built in the Welsh city of Newport.

Origins of the abbey
Francis Wegg-Prosser, of nearby Belmont House, who had been received into the Catholic Church, can be called its founder. Francis' hope was to found a mission to engage the local Protestant community. After invitations were declined by the Jesuits and Marist, he later invited the Benedictines. He became aware they were looking for site to build a monastery on due to a letter Francis received from Bishop Brown, enquiring whether the church might be used by the diocese as an interim cathedral. The need for an interim was due to the challenges in securing the necessary funding to build a monastery in Newport.

In response Francis offered seven aces of woodland to the Benedictines on a 999 year lease, for a peppercorn rent, along with £100 a year contribution towards the upkeep. The Benedictine chapter agreed in 1854 that the monastery would be built at Belmont. The nature of the new house would be both a House of Studies and a Common Novitiate for the English Benedictine Congregation, despite this running against Benedictine tradition.

Whilst the land was available, the Benedictines did not have the necessary funding for the abbey. This was almost entirely met by Bishop Brown. £3000 came from the Bishops funds in the form of an endowment for maintenance. £5000 was granted from funds of the near defunct English Franciscan Observants of which Bishop Brown had been made administrator of. Brown also managed to raise an additional £2000 from the Catholic laity, leaving the Benedictine congregation only need to provide £1000 in funds for construction.

Whilst there was indecision between the Bishop, Francis and the Benedictine Congregation; the first foundation was laid on November 15, 1854. The exact position of this foundation stone is unknown, but is thought to potentially near "the last station of the cross, on the outside angle of the transept". On May 13, 1855, a Decree from Rome was granted that the church at Belmont would temporarily designated the Cathedral of the Newport Diocese. The temporary nature of the designation was based on a request that a Cathedral be built in the city of Newport, as soon as was possible. The church was completed in under three years.

Plans for the monastery buildings remained in flux as late as September 1857. A few months after construction of the monastic buildings has started, it was discovered that no damp course had been put in place. All the progress had to be undone with the walls brought down, foundations raised and a new slate and cement damp course put in place at a cost of £70. This, along with old quarries found at Spring Grove, enabled the refectory to be increased in size. The monastery buildings were mostly complete by October 1858 but another year would go by before the buildings were ready for habitation.

The Benedictines arrive
In 1859, the Benedictines arrived and it became a priory, the first catholic priory in the United Kingdom to exist in 300 years. The church hadn't originally been designed as use for a cathedral, omitting provisions for a choir and a chancel only 10 ft deep. Even though as the churches use by the Benedictines and the bishop became, changes were made, when the congregation took over the churches, additional changes were needed. The monastery was also unfurnished and only just habitable. Lawns, trees and the south garden were initially installed the following year in 1860. In the same year the church would be consecrated along with the official opening of the Monastary. The north garden would remain unfinished until 1868, and until then consistent of waste rubble from the buildings construction. By September 1860, the choir and sides chapels were constructed at a cost of £700; and he High Altar was provided as a gift at a cost of £200. Both were funded by Frances Wegg-Prosser. Given the immaturity of the gardens, the quality and quantity of food was frequently in shortage and the feeling of a hunger was a common one for the monks at the monastery.

Belmont's youth as an institution meant that it could forge different paths compared with older monastic houses. Belmont is attributed with having a significant influence in bringing about the Abbatial System.

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.

Belmont became 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.

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. 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.

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.

The Abbey Buildings
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, with the designs on the monastery prepared in consultation with Provincial Hepstonstall and Anselm Cockshoot. Built in the decorated, early English style, it demonstrated the resurgent optimism of the restored Catholic faith.

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.

The church is noted for the quality of its sculpture and stained glass. There are windows depicting angels with harps, cymbals and pipes. 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.

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 lost their lives in the Second World War. The North Transept was formerly a chantry chapel dedicated to the Welsh Saints.

St Benedict's chapel, completed in 1875, is shows the monastic founder in the central reredos.

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.

Monastic life
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.

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.

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.

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.

The community currently numbers 27 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 Brendan Thomas.

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.

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.

List of Abbots (until 1920 – Priors)

 * 1859–1862: Norbert Sweeney
 * 1862–1873: Bede Vaughan
 * 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: Mark Jabalé
 * 2000–present: Paul Stonham

Burials

 * Joseph Brown (bishop)

Parish of St Michael and All Angels
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.