Belmont Abbey
Belmont Abbey (dt. Abbey Belmont ) in Herefordshire , England , is a Roman Catholic Benediktinerkloster . It belongs to the English Benedictine Congregation .
location
Belmont Abbey is perched on a small hill overlooking the town of Hereford , with a view over the Black Mountains to the west.
history
After the Reformation, members of the English Benedictine Congregation, whose history dates back to the 13th century, returned to England and Wales in the 19th century. This congregation founded Belmont in 1859 as a study house for the three existing monasteries ( Downside Abbey , Ampleforth Abbey and Douai Abbey ). The only Catholic church building in Wales and Herefordshire at that time was the cathedral of the Diocese of Newport and Menevia .
In 1917 the general chapter of the Congregation declared Belmont a priory , and in 1920 the Pope elevated it to the rank of abbey with the Bull Praeclara Gesta .
Father Aelred Kindersley , a monk from Downside Monastery who had become the last prior in 1915, was elected its first abbot in 1920 by the newly formed monastic community . He led the community for fourteen years and died in 1934 after the number of monks had increased significantly.
The study house was closed in 1994, but the educational work of the monastery continues with visitor groups and catechesis on site. The Hedley Lodge guest house offers groups and individuals opportunities for set-up times, meetings and holiday stays.
In 1981, at the invitation of the Archbishop of Piura, three monks started a monastic life in Tambogrande in northern Peru . This resulted in a daughter monastery.
In 2001 Abbot John Mark Jabalé was named Bishop of Menevia .
Today (2016) the Belmont Benedictine Abbey has around 45 monks, 18 of whom live in the monastery. Other brothers work outside the monastery walls and in Peru.
Monastery church
Building history
The abbey church was built according to plans by Edward Welby Pugin , a son of Augustus Welby Pugin , in the English neo-Gothic style and shows the newly awakened pride of the re-established Roman Catholic Church in England .
description
The exterior of the church is made of local pink sandstone and largely dispenses with ornamental jewelry. It was on September 4, 1860 inaugurated .
Inside the abbey church is determined by the warm tone of the Bath Stone . The room is dominated by four slender pointed arches that support the crossing tower and direct the gaze skyward. Originally this was the crossing , after the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council , a modern stone altar was set up there in the middle of the church . On it there is a relief of the Lamb of God . The symbols of the four evangelists - a person for Matthew , a lion for Mark , a ( Hereford ) ox for Luke and an eagle for John - can be found on the consoles of the central pillars and are reminiscent of the Book of Revelation and the veneration of the Lamb ( Revelation 14.3 EU ).
Originally, the high altar stood under an altarpiece with images of angels in the church choir. This now forms the sacrament chapel , in which convent masses are often celebrated.
All around the church there are side altars dedicated to the Virgin Mary , St. Joseph and St. Benedict , as well as a memorial altar for those alumni of the school who perished in the Second World War .
The play of light in the room is characterized by the richly painted choir windows, which depict the archangels Michael , Gabriel and Raphael as well as the nine angel choirs . Below the window, this motif is continued with an angel orchestra playing in praise of God. The latter was rewritten in 1978 with paint and gold leaf. Under a wooden canopy are the choir stalls , in which the convent (monastery) | convent gathers five times a day to celebrate mass and to pray the hours .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f A Short History. ( Memento of the original from April 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. The Abbey of St. Michael and All Angels, Belmont, Herefordshire, accessed April 12, 2016
- ^ Entry on Menevia on catholic-hierarchy.org ; Retrieved April 12, 2016.
- ↑ a b c d e Inside the Church. ( Memento of the original from March 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. The Abbey of St. Michael and All Angels, Belmont, Herefordshire, accessed April 12, 2016
- ↑ Vincent Nichols : 150th anniversary of the Dedication of Belmont Abbey Church. Cardinal Nichols' website, accessed April 12, 2016
Coordinates: 52 ° 2 ′ 21.5 " N , 2 ° 45 ′ 23" W.