| Belmont Abbey | |
|---|---|
| Abbey Church of St Michael and All Angels, Hereford | |
 View from the Abbey gardens | |
  Belmont Abbey Location inHerefordshire | |
| 52°02′21″N2°45′23″W / 52.0393°N 2.7564°W /52.0393; -2.7564 | |
| OS grid reference | SO4821038149 |
| Location | Hereford,Herefordshire |
| Country | England |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| Website | BelmontAbbey.org.uk |
| History | |
| Former name(s) | Pro-Cathedral of Newport and Menevia |
| Status | Benedictine monastery |
| Founded | 1859 (1859) |
| Founder(s) | Francis Wegg-Prosser |
| Dedication | St Michael |
| Consecrated | 4 September 1860 |
| Architecture | |
| Functional status | Active |
| Heritage designation | Grade II* |
| Designated | 22 October 1986 |
| Architect(s) | Edward Welby Pugin |
| Style | Gothic Revival |
| Groundbreaking | 1857 |
| Completed | 1875 |
| Construction cost | £45,000 |
| Administration | |
| Province | Cardiff-Menevia |
| Archdiocese | Cardiff-Menevia |
| Deanery | Herefordshire |
| Clergy | |
| Abbot | Rt. Rev.Dom Brendan Thomas OSB |
| Prior | Very Rev.Dom Alexander Kenyon OSB |
Belmont Abbey, inHerefordshire, England, is aCatholicBenedictine monastery that forms part of theEnglish Benedictine Congregation. It stands on a small hill overlooking the city ofHereford to the east, with views across to theBlack Mountains inWales to the west. The 19th centuryAbbey also serves as aparish church.
Francis Wegg-Prosser, of nearby Belmont House, who had been received into the Catholic Church, can be called its founder. He decided to build a church on his Hereford estate in 1854. He later invited the Benedictines to reside there so that there would be a permanent Catholic presence in the area.[1] In 1859, the Benedictines arrived and it became a priory. It was the Common Novitiate and House of Studies for theEnglish Benedictine Congregation. It was also a pro-cathedral for theDiocese of Newport and Menevia.[2] The BenedictineThomas 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 BishopBernard Collier, missionary inMauritius and BishopLaurence Youens 6th Bishop of Northampton.
Belmont was 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 inCanterbury,Winchester andDurham.[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. In 1920 Belmont was raised to the rank of an Abbey by the papal bullPraeclara Gesta.[2] 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 theArchdiocese of Cardiff and it was decided to makeSt. 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.[4]
The Priory was elevated to the rank of abbey byPope Benedict XV, who issued thePapal bullPraeclara 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.[5]
In March 2025 it was announced, that the Community of St Gregory the Great, formerelyDownside Abbey of the same Benedictine congregation, in upcoming summer will transfer for an experimental period of two years to reside at the Belmont Abbey, formally continue to remain as a separate community.[6][7]
The Abbey Church is a grade II*Listed building. Its construction began in 1857 and it was consecrated on 4 September 1860.[3] It was built to the designs ofEdward Welby Pugin, son ofAugustus Welby Pugin. Built in the decorated, early English style, it demonstrated the resurgent optimism of the restored Catholic faith.[8]
The exterior is in local pinksandstone, simple and unadorned, reminiscent of many classical monastic facades of the fourteenth century. The interior is faced with warmBath 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.[8]
The church is noted for the quality of its sculpture andstained glass. There are windows depicting angels with harps, cymbals and pipes.There are also a number of windows which depict English Martyrs. There is an angelreredos in the east end of the church and a Victorian glass window showing thearchangelsMichael (the abbey's patron, sword and shield in hand, trampling the dragon),Raphael andGabriel and the nine choirs of angels as an angelic orchestra sounding of praises of God.[9]
Under a wooden roof stands the monastic choir, where the community gathers five times a day for theDivine 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 were killed in theSecond World War. The North Transept was formerly a chantry chapel dedicated to the Welsh Saints.[8]
St Benedict's chapel, completed in 1875, shows the monastic founder in the central reredos.[8]
The churchyard contains threeCommonwealth war graves, of aRoyal Navy chaplain and a surgeon ofWorld War I, and aRoyal Air Force officer ofWorld War II.[10]
The monastic community follows theRule of St Benedict under the guidance of an Abbot, centred on the Divine Office and Mass prayed daily in the Abbey Church.[11]
The community currently numbers 35 monks in England and Peru. The current Abbot is Dom Brendan Thomas and the Prior is Dom Alexander Kenyon.
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 andLlanarth, Monmouthshire. These in turn were closed, and the school at Belmont was itself closed in 1993. Associations for former pupils still exist.[12]
Today the monks undertake numerous works including the pastoral care of the Catholics in Herefordshire, Cumbria, Worcestershire andSouth Wales. In addition the community maintains a small foundation atLurín nearLima,Peru, the Monastery of the Holy Trinity. The monastery is housed in the buildings of the formerCistercian monastery which was founded by the nuns of Las Huelgas Abbey in Spain.[11]
The monks also run the retreat, guesthouse and conference centre, Hedley Lodge. A programme of educational visits is offered to schools throughout theWest Midlands andWales.[11]
In 2006 theHeritage 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.[13]
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.[14]
The Abbey and the daily activities of a number of monks were the subject of 3 Episodes of the television seriesRetreat: Meditations from a Monastery, first shown onBBC Four in October 2017.[16]
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.[17]
| Augustinian |
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| Benedictine |
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| Cistercian | ||
| Cluniac | ||
| Dominican | ||
| Franciscan |
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| Grandmontine | ||
| Knights Hospitaller | ||
| Knights Templar |
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| Premonstratensian |
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| Sisters of St John of Jerusalem | ||
| Tironensian | ||
| Independent or Unknown |
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| Independent houses | |
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| Dependent houses | |
| Schools | |
| Former houses | |
| Churches | |
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