The English Benedictine Congregation (EBC) unites autonomous

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 ...

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

communities of

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

s and

nuns A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

and is technically the oldest of the nineteen congregations that are affiliated in the

Benedictine Confederation The Benedictine Confederation of the Order of Saint Benedict ( la, Confœderatio Benedictina Ordinis Sancti Benedicti) is the international governing body of the Order of Saint Benedict. Origin The Benedictine Confederation is a union of monasti ...

History and administration

The EBC claims technical canonical continuity with a congregation of Benedictine abbeys in England erected by the Holy See in 1216, and which ceased to exist at the dissolution of the monasteries in 1535–1540. The actual origins of the present congregation lay with Catholic English expatriates in France, the Low Countries and Italy at the start of the 17th century, and the first monastery was founded at

Douai Douai (, , ,; pcd, Doï; nl, Dowaai; formerly spelled Douay or Doway in English) is a city in the Nord département in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe some from Lille and from Arras, D ...

in 1606; this is the ancestor of the present Downside Abbey. English exiles also joined the Italian

Cassinese Congregation The Subiaco Cassinese Congregation is an international union of Benedictine houses (abbeys and priories) within the Benedictine Confederation. It developed from the Subiaco Congregation, which was formed in 1867 through the initiative of Dom Pietro ...

, and in 1607 two of these were "aggregated" to the extinct English congregation by the last surviving member of it, Dom

Sigebert Buckley Sigebert Buckley (c. 1520 – probably 1610) was a Benedictine monk in England, who is regarded by the Benedictines and by Ampleforth College in particular as representing the continuity of the community through the English Reformation. Although ...

. He had been a monk of the

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

re-founded by Queen

Mary I of England Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, and as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain from January 1556 until her death in 1558. Sh ...

, but dissolved again by

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

in 1550. The EBC's claim of continuity depends on this deed of aggregation, rather than survival of monastic life after the Dissolution. In 2020 the EBC had houses in the United Kingdom, the United States, Peru, and Zimbabwe. In 2022, three communities of nuns –

Kylemore Abbey Kylemore Abbey ( ga, Mainistir na Coille Móire) is a Benedictine monastery founded in 1920 on the grounds of Kylemore Castle, in Connemara, County Galway, Ireland. The abbey was founded for Benedictine Nuns who fled Belgium in World War I an ...

(Ireland), Mariavall Abbey (Sweden) and Jamberoo Abbey (Australia) – were accepted into the EBC, bringing the number of houses and communities to 17. Every four years the General Chapter of the EBC elects an Abbot President from among the ruling

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...

s and former ruling abbots with its jurisdiction. He or she is assisted by a number of officials, and periodically undertakes a Visitation of the individual houses. The purpose of the Visitation is the preservation, strengthening and renewal of the religious life, including the laws of the Church and the Constitutions of the congregation. The President may require by Acts of Visitation, that particular points in the Rule, the Constitutions and the law of the Church be observed. The current Abbot President is Abbot

Christopher Jamison Christopher Jamison O.S.B. (born 26 December 1951) is a Benedictine monk and former Abbot of Worth Abbey in West Sussex, England. He currently serves as the Abbot President of the English Benedictine Congregation. Early life Jamison was born i ...

, former Abbot of

Worth Abbey The Abbey of Our Lady, Help of Christians, commonly known as Worth Abbey, is a community of Roman Catholic monks who follow the Rule of St Benedict near Turners Hill village, in West Sussex, England. Founded in 1933, the abbey is part of the En ...

Sexual abuse scandal

The sexual abuse scandal in the EBC around the turn of the 21st century was a significant episode in a series of

Catholic sex abuse cases There have been many cases of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, nuns, Popes and other members of religious life. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the cases have involved many allegations, investigations, trials, convictions, ack ...

in the United Kingdom. The events concerned ranged from the 1960s to the 2010s, and led to a number of EBC monks being

laicized In the canon law of the Catholic Church, the loss of clerical state (commonly referred to as laicization, dismissal, defrocking, and degradation) is the removal of a bishop, priest, or deacon from the status of being a member of the clergy. The t ...

, convicted and imprisoned for the sexual abuse of children and vulnerable adults.

Houses

Houses of the Congregation in exile

Houses of the present Congregation

United Kingdom

Ampleforth Abbey Ampleforth Abbey is a monastery of Benedictine monks a mile to the east of Ampleforth, North Yorkshire, England, part of the English Benedictine Congregation. It claims descent from the pre-Reformation community at Westminster Abbey through th ...

, fdd 1608 at

Dieulouard Dieulouard (; formerly Dieulwart) is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France. Dieulouard is located between Pont-à-Mousson and Nancy, on the left bank of the Moselle. It is the location of the Gallo-Roman city of ...

* Belmont Abbey, fdd 1859 *

Buckfast Abbey Buckfast Abbey forms part of an active Benedictine monastery at Buckfast, near Buckfastleigh, Devon, England. Buckfast first became home to an abbey in 1018. The first Benedictine abbey was followed by a Savignac (later Cistercian) abbey cons ...

, fdd 1882 *

Curzon Park Abbey Curzon Park Abbey is one of three monasteries of nuns in the English Benedictine Congregation. History It began as an Anglican Benedictine convent at Feltham, Middlesex, founded by Father Ignatius on 24 June 1868. Feltham Priory, or Feltham Nu ...

(nuns), fdd 1868 *

Douai Abbey Douai Abbey is a Benedictine Abbey at Upper Woolhampton, near Thatcham, in the English county of Berkshire, situated within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth. Monks from the monastery of St. Edmund's, in Douai, France, came to Woolhampton ...

, fdd 1615 in Paris *

Downside Abbey Downside Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in England and the senior community of the English Benedictine Congregation. Until 2019, the community had close links with Downside School, for the education of children aged eleven to eighteen. Both t ...

, fdd 1607 in Douai *

Ealing Abbey Ealing Abbey is a Catholic Benedictine monastic foundation on Castlebar Hill in Ealing. It is part of the English Benedictine Congregation. As of 2020, the Abbey had 14 monks. History The monastery at Ealing was founded in 1897 from Downside ...

, fdd 1897 *

Stanbrook Abbey Stanbrook Abbey is a Catholic contemplative Benedictine women's monastery with the status of an abbey, located at Wass, North Yorkshire, England. The community was founded in 1625 at Cambrai in Flanders (then part of the Spanish Netherlands, ...

(nuns), fdd 1625 in Cambrai *

, fdd 1933

United States

* Portsmouth Abbey, fdd 1918 *

Saint Louis Abbey The Abbey of Saint Mary and Saint Louis (French: L’Abbaye Sainte Marie et Saint Louis) is an abbey of the Catholic English Benedictine Congregation (EBC) located in Creve Coeur, in St. Louis County, Missouri in the United States. The Abbey ...

, fdd 1955 *

Saint Anselm's Abbey St. Anselm's Abbey is a Benedictine Abbey located at 4501 South Dakota Avenue, N.E., in Washington, D.C. It operates the boys' middle and high school St. Anselm's Abbey School, which was ranked by the ''Washington Post'' as the most challengin ...

, fdd 1923

Ireland

(nuns), fdd 1665 in

Ypres Ypres ( , ; nl, Ieper ; vls, Yper; german: Ypern ) is a Belgian city and municipality in the province of West Flanders. Though the Dutch name is the official one, the city's French name is most commonly used in English. The municipality co ...

Sweden

* Mariavall Abbey (nuns), fdd 1957 as Lutheran

Australia

* Jamberoo Abbey (nuns), fdd 1849 in Rydalmere

Dependent communities

Peru

* Priory of the Incarnation, fdd 1981 in

Tambogrande Tambogrande is a small town in the Piura Province of the Piura Region in northwestern Peru. One of many small towns chosen as a site for mining development during Peru's mining boom in 1999, Tambogrande achieved prominence for successfully opposin ...

, from 2006 in

Pachacamac Pachacámac ( qu, Pachakamaq) is an archaeological site southeast of Lima, Peru in the Valley of the Lurín River. The site was first settled around A.D. 200 and was named after the "Earth Maker" creator god Pacha Kamaq. The site flourished ...

and from May 2018 transferred to Lurín, in the buildings of the former

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

nunnery

Zimbabwe

* Monastery of Christ the Word, fdd 1996

Defunct houses of the present Congregation

Colwich Abbey Saint Mary's Abbey in Colwich, Staffordshire was a monastery of Roman Catholic nuns of the English Benedictine Congregation, founded in 1623 at Cambrai, Flanders, in the Spanish Netherlands, and closed down in 2020. During the French Revolutio ...

(nuns), fdd 1651 in Paris; merged to

and closed in 2020 *

Fort Augustus Abbey Fort Augustus Abbey, properly St. Benedict's Abbey, at Fort Augustus, Inverness-shire, Scotland, was a Benedictine monastery, from late in the nineteenth century to 1998 that also housed a school for young boys until 1993. Inception It owed it ...

, fdd 1630 at Lamspringe, Scotland; closed in 1998

Membership

In 2020, membership of the constituent houses was as follows. The table does not include the three houses added to the community in 2022.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Religious organizations established in the 1210s 1216 establishments in England 16th-century disestablishments in England 17th-century establishments in England Benedictine congregations Christian religious orders established in the 13th century 13th-century establishments in England es:Congregación Inglesa#top