The Church of St Mary and St Michael, Llanarth,

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...

, was built as the family chapel for

Llanarth Court Llanarth Court is a late-18th-century country house with substantial 19th-century alterations in Llanarth, Monmouthshire, Wales. The court was built for the Jones family of Treowen and was subsequently the home of Ivor Herbert, 1st Baron Treowen ...

. It was the first

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

church constructed in the county since the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the mid-16th century. Built circa 1790, some decades before the

Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 The Catholic Relief Act 1829, also known as the Catholic Emancipation Act 1829, was passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1829. It was the culmination of the process of Catholic emancipation throughout the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

, it was designed to look like an

orangery An orangery or orangerie was a room or a dedicated building on the grounds of fashionable residences of Northern Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries where orange and other fruit trees were protected during the winter, as a very large ...

, or barn, in order not to attract

anti-Catholic Anti-Catholicism is hostility towards Catholics or opposition to the Catholic Church, its Hierarchy of the Catholic Church, clergy, and/or its adherents. At various points after the Reformation, some majority Protestantism, Protestant states, ...

hostility. It is considered one of the oldest, if not the oldest, Catholic churches in Wales.

History

Following the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

, and particularly the north of the county, became an area of significant

recusancy Recusancy (from la, recusare, translation=to refuse) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation. The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign ...

. The Joneses of Llanarth Court were an old Catholic family, and had supported a priest at Llanarth since 1781. In the late 18th century, the family chapel at the Court became insufficient to accommodate the numbers of worshippers and the family constructed a larger church in the grounds. Tradition suggests the building was disguised as a tool-shed, although later authorities suggest the scale of the church indicates it is more likely to have been constructed to look like a barn or an orangery. Following the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829, the Herberts felt able to be less circumspect as to their Catholic faith and the church was extended, and decorated internally, in 1829. In 1947, the last of the Herberts to live at Llanarth Court, Fflorens Roch left the Court, and the church, to the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of Cal ...

, which operated a school in the buildings. After closure in 1986, the church came under the responsibility of the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cardiff The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cardiff ( la, Archidioecesis Cardiffensis; cy, Archesgobaeth Caerdydd) is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church which covers the south-east portion of Wales and the county of Herefordshire in ...

. St Mary and St Michael is one of the oldest Catholic churches in Wales.

Architecture and description

The building is a long, single-storeyed, structure covered in white render. The architectural historian John Newman suggests its design ensured the building; "could be mistaken for an orangery, as was doubtless intended." It has six, rounded, windows on its west façade. There is a small

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

at the western end, and a projecting

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

. The interior has much, original, 19th century work and

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

dating from the 16th to the 20th centuries.

Notes

References

* {{Archdiocese of Cardiff History of Monmouthshire Roman Catholic churches in Wales Llanarth Grade II* listed Roman Catholic churches in Wales Benedictine churches in the United Kingdom