Belmont Abbey, Herefordshire
[3] 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.[4] The Priory was elevated to the rank of abbey by Pope Benedict XV, who issued the 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, originally a monk of Downside, as their first Abbot.[6] The exterior is in local pink sandstone, simple and unadorned, reminiscent of many classical monastic facades of the fourteenth century.[7] Under a wooden roof stands the monastic choir, where the community gathers five times a day for the Divine Office and Mass.[8] 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.[10] Today the monks undertake numerous works including the pastoral care of the Catholics in Herefordshire, Cumbria, Worcestershire and South Wales.[11] 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.[12] The Abbey and the daily activities of a number of monks were the subject of 3 Episodes of the television series Retreat: Meditations from a Monastery, first shown on BBC Four in October 2017.
HerefordshireOS grid referenceHerefordDenominationRoman CatholicBenedictine monasteryFrancis Wegg-ProsserDedicationSt MichaelConsecratedArchitect(s)Edward Welby PuginGothic RevivalGroundbreakingProvinceCardiff-MeneviaArchdioceseDeaneryCatholicEnglish Benedictine CongregationBlack Mountainsparish churchDiocese of Newport and MeneviaThomas Joseph BrownBernard CollierMauritiusLaurence YouensCanterburyWinchesterDurhamArchdiocese of CardiffSt. David's ChurchPope Benedict XVPapal bullListed buildingAugustus Welby PuginsandstoneBath stonestained glassreredosarchangelsMichaelRaphaelGabrielDivine OfficeSecond World WarCommonwealth war gravesRoyal NavyWorld War IRoyal Air ForceWorld War IIRule of St BenedictAlderwasleyLlanarth, MonmouthshireSouth WalesLurínCistercianWest MidlandsHeritage Lottery FundDownside AbbeyBede VaughanArchbishop of SydneyAmpleforth AbbeyAlan ReesMark JabaléBBC FourJoseph Brown (bishop)Wayback MachineThe TabletCatholic Bishops' Conference of England and WalesCardiff CathedralHistoric EnglandNational Heritage List for EnglandHereford TimesMonasteries in HerefordshireAugustinianAconbury PrioryFlanesford PrioryLimebrook PrioryShobdon PrioryWigmore PrioryWigmore AbbeyWormsley PrioryBenedictineHereford PrioryHereford - St Guthlac's PrioryKilpeck PrioryKinsham GrangeLeominster PrioryMonkland PrioryOcle PrioryDore AbbeyCluniacClifford PrioryDominicanHereford BlackfriarsFranciscanGrandmontineCraswall PrioryKnights HospitallerDinmore PreceptoryUpleadon PreceptoryKnights TemplarSutton CameraPremonstratensianTironensianTitley PrioryLeominster NunneryMoccas MonasteryBuckfast AbbeyCurzon Park AbbeyDouai AbbeyEaling AbbeyKylemore AbbeyPortsmouth AbbeySt. Anselm's AbbeySt. Louis AbbeyStanbrook AbbeyWorth AbbeyMonastery of Christ the WordAmpleforth CollegeDouai SchoolDownside SchoolPortsmouth Abbey SchoolSt. Anselm's Abbey SchoolSt Benedict's School