News

Wedding and beatification

Brother Michael went up to London to watch the Royal Wedding from the Mall. He took a few hundred photographs and was impressed with the atmosphere.

Fr Abbot and Brother Michael went to Rome for the beatification of Pope John Paul. It was a first  visit for Brother Michael.
They bumped into a number of ‘friends and family’ (as BT used to call them) on the way. The first was the Archbishop of Westminster at Gatwick airport. Another was Dame Catherine of the Monastery of the Holy Trinity, East Hendred (left – she will try to supress this photograph when she learns of it.) Dame Catherine was in Rome for the Bloggers’ Meeting at the Vatican.

Fr Abbot met some of his Maronite and Ukranian friends, and nun of Stanbrook who is working at Santa Cecilia, the Archbishop of Toulouse (a Benedictine and old friend of the abbot – he was at the abbot’s ordination), and many French friends who had invaded Rome from Paris. The liturgy of the beatification bore the firm stamp of Pope Benedict. There was a wonderful sense of joy and of the Church. After a visit to the coffin of the new beatus in the basilica, we were delighted to be invited by Polish and Czech priests to venerate the first class relics which they would next day take to Poland.

St Cecilia’s Abbey, Ryde

They have just updated their website. (An example for us all!) It is well worth a visit.

http://www.stceciliasabbey.org.uk

Also, the Portsmouth People features an article about them (and us) this month.

http://www.portsmouthpeople.org.uk/editions/16-portsmouth-people-february11-april-may.pdf

Within the last year our two communities collaborated on a new book. In the Heart of Christ is an illustrated history of St Cecilia’s. Buying it directly form the nuns helps their finances and supports their work. http://www.stceciliasabbey.org.uk/site.php?menuaccess=22

The image shows Sr Mary David, the novice mistress and prioress. Don’t tell her her photo is here. She’ll insist we take it down!

Slovakia

Our abbot sang the seminary Mass in Latin and Brother Michael translated a short sermon in which the abbot spoke about the Papal visit, the English martyrs, and the Ordinariate newly-established in England.

Brother Michael’s parents were very welcoming and their food was delicious!

EWTN Lenten broadcasts

Television doesn’t really play a part in our monastic life, though we sometimes do get to see a film at recreation on big solemnities. We have a TV set which we bought to see the funeral of Pope John Paul, and we dusted it for use again for the election of Pope Benedict and then for his visit to England.

In the next weeks our monastery will be featuring on EWTN. Our TV expertise doesn’t stretch to helping you find this, but we are told certain satellite channels can pick it up in the UK. Along with Arundel Castle, our abbey church was used to film a series of Lenten meditations by various priests. We have seen clips and the photography look magnificent. Happy Lent!

Ever before our eyes.

Two of our monks went to the funeral today of a friend of our community. Kathryn was 34 and leaves a husband a baby, and two other young children. Fr Gordon -a monk of Ampleforth and Kathryn’s parish priest – preached a splendid sermon pointing to the cross as the key to understanding the mystery of Kathryn’s life.

St Benedict tells us that monks should have death ‘ever before their eyes’. He doesn’t mean this in a morbid way but exactly in the way which Kathryn’s young widower spoke of today. Once death is the focus of our vision then all accessories are relegated to their rightful place and what is central is seen in its proper perspective.

We give thanks to almighty God for the life of Kathryn and we ask the Lord to have mercy on her soul, to sustain her husband and to bless her children. And we monks thank her for the lesson she has taught us about our monastic vocation in these last eighteen months of her life.

Requiescat in pace!

Our Carmelite friends

The Benedictine Torch

Lots of monks and nuns were at the Abbey (we saw Belmont, Downside, Minster, Ramsgate, Quarr, Stanbrook-Wass) for the lighting. The following day the archbishop of Westminster celebrated the Mass at the cathedral with a number of monks there to fly the flag.

Hymns Ancient and Modern

Monks, friars, and other religious are what our guest brother calls ‘low-maintenance’. They know the ropes and fit in very easily. Some years ago our little community was thought by some to be backward in our use of Latin for Mass and Office, and our Eastward-facing celebration of the Mass. Now we find ourselves quite fashionable. Love of the Church’s liturgy is not about politics, its about God, about reverence in prayer.

We are not so fashionable of course as the Franciscans of the Renewal who are great friends of ours. Some of their brothers come from Canning Town in London and from Bradford, for their retreat days. Although their liturgical life in a bit more ‘modern’ than ours they fit in seamlessly here. This week we were pleased to welcome their Brother Christopher. Also in the course of the week, we welcomed Bishop Richard Moth of the military diocese, who came to show the abbey church to friends who were staying with him.

Our Norbertine beginnings.

Religious life at Farnborough did not start with the Benedictines. Premonstratensian Canons or ‘Norbertines’ were the pioneers here. There is no evidence of an approach to other orders, though the Norbertines later asserted that Dominicans, Jesuits, and Capuchins had all been asked but that their cause had been advocated by the Duke of Norfolk who had installed them at Storrington in Sussex. Two canons came from Storrington on April 30th 1887 to inspect the property and after much ‘cogitation,’ as Carey puts it, Abbot Paulin of Frigolet and the Empress agreed. The monastery would be theirs when completed the following year.The Norbertines were founded in the twelfth century and suppressed in French territory by 1791. Napoleon III’s reign had been a generally happy one for the French orders and among the foundations of the 1850’s was included the old Augustinian Abbey of Frigolet, which had been suppressed at the Revolution but had kept its buildings intact. In 1858 Edmond Boulbon, a former Trappist of Gard, at the instigation of Saint Jean Vianney installed a little community there with a Rule based on the statutes of Saint Norbert. The splendour of the liturgy was emphasised, and – as was the case with so many revivals – his rule was filled with rigorous fasts, silence, the common dormitory, night office, and a return to the primitive habit. Frigolet became an abbey in 1869 and dependant foundations were made. In 1880 there were about a hundred in the community, but the decrees of a Masonic government brought all to ruin in 1880. For three days the expulsion order was resisted by the community. The King of Spain offered Abbot Edmond a home at the Escorial but he refused. Two years later Storrington was founded. In 1883 the founder died. Under Abbot Paulin Boniface as Abbot General the community returned to Frigolet and foundations abounded.

had been accused of harbouring French troops, and was carried off as a hostage by the Prussians with forty of his parishioners

On the 31st August 1887 he, together with Edouard Pierre, Juston Guyomard, Pierre Gouzer, and a cook called François, left Storrington early and arrived around midday. They lunched at The Imperial Arms near Farnborough North (!!!).

Garreau, as first prior, was well aware of the complexity of his obligations. He was a man of some experience. He entered Frigolet late in life (in 1877) and was procurator general of their Order in Rome in 1884. A Norbertine biography of him says that he knew better than anyone how much tact he had to employ to gently heal the wounds of an Eugénie robbed of her rôles of both wife and mother. He and his little pioneer band were put up in one of the Farnborough Hill lodges till the prieuré was habitable. Theirs was the genesis of the Farnborough Hill daily Mass, since the Empress came to the priory church only for the Grandes Fêtes and messes anniversaires. On 4th October the priory house was handed over, though work in the church continued. The marble floors were not finished till the end of the year, when two boys were employed for several days in polishing the wainscot floors of the sacristy nave and choir.

The Priory was a dolls’ house of a foundation. With only eleven cells it was not destined to be numerous. A contemporary journal describes the house as ‘having a degree of comfort compatible with the religious life.’ Furnishings included the Emperor’s death bed and bits and pieces from the villa at Biarritz.

Since the canonical life involved the Divine Office and daily Mass, the obligations placed on them of Masses for the Imperial dead and the intentions of the Empress cannot have been particularly burdensome, and the Bishop of Portsmouth was quick to fill any time they might have had on their hands. Bishop Vertue visited on October 29th, 1887 and expressed a hope that the canons would throw themselves into parochial responsibilities. They, of course, were French-speaking and there is no evidence that they spoke much English. A valid Mass was within their competence, but was a comprehensible English sermon?

While the acceptance of pastoral responsibilities was clearly within the tradition of the canons, it had not been part of the Empress’ vision of things. It would later lead to trouble.

The Premonstratensian moment of glory at Farnborough was the reception of the bodies of the Emperor and the Prince Imperial at the start of January 1888. The train left Chislehurst at half-past ten in the morning and  arrived at Farnborough at one o’clock. Abbot Paulin himself came to greet the bodies at the Abbey doors. There was no Empress there to greet them that day. Eugénie was at home suffering, but in her presence Paulin celebrated a solemn requiem at the Abbey the next morning.

The community’s life must have had a strong monastic character to it, but their religious retirement was both punctured and punctuated by a succession of distinguished visitors. In 1888-1889 alone Queen Victoria, Princess Beatrice, the King of Sweden and numerous other personages were given the grand tour. As if this were not enough, the poor canons also found themselves regularly invited to the ritual of Imperial tea time. A distraction or an honour?

In an England which was still little more than mission territory for Catholics, the presence of a community and well-performed liturgical ceremonies brought visitors from far and wide. Some would come on the high festivals to glimpse the Empress, others would come to hear Mass sung with a dignity not easily found elsewhere. Fr Evermode, the second prior, wrote in 1890 for Christmas,

‘…the church was decorated with exquisite taste under the directions of Her Majesty, full of lights, flowers and greenery.  The Solemn Day Mass, followed by Benediction was celebrated in the presence of the Empress and the Imperial household. The chant was executed with a rare perfection.’

All seemed rosy in the Norbertine English garden. In 1894 their catalogus recorded growth in the community. There were seven canons and two lay brothers. But the Annals of Frigolet in 1895 describe a sudden departure from Farnborough, back to Storrington. Something had clearly gone wrong. The departure was certainly brusque and where evidence is lacking, gossip has not been short. The first Benedictines of Farnborough record that the Canons were well-liked and fondly-remembered in the locality. The clash seems to have been with the Empress. Was it that ‘her’ community was too involved outside the priory? A French Norbertine tradition says that she ‘micro-managed’ the poor fathers, and gave them no peace.

Welcome to our new blog

Wecome to our blog. For some time we have been pressed by our friends and our relatives to allow them an internet window into the life of our little monastic family at Farnborough. We hope to include not only news, but also occasional articles about our history and our work. And so we begin…

This last week has seen us busy with visitors. Our guest house at the moment is closed for refurbishment, new bathrooms and heating, but we managed to find room for a number of monks (and a nun!) of our order who passed through this week.

The abbot of Kergonan in Brittany was the first. Dom Philippe stayed a night with us whilst in England on business. He was followed on Tuesday by two more abbots, a prioress and a German monk who came to Farnborough for a meeting of monastic superiors. On Thursday the abbot of Ealing came to luncheon and on Saturday the abbot of Saint-Pierre de Solesmes came for a fraternal visit with another English Congregation abbot. We have been quite ecumenical in welcoming monks from the Subiaco, Solesmes, and English Benedictines!

Benedictine monks vow stability to one monastery for life, but this does not cut us off from the wider monastic family. On the contrary, our monastic profession unites us with the whole order and its whole history. We rightly speak of the monastic ‘family’, and it is always a joy to visit other communities and to welcome monks of other monasteries to our little house here on the Hampshire-Surrey border.