Mount Melleray Abbey is a

Trappist The Trappists, officially known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance ( la, Ordo Cisterciensis Strictioris Observantiae, abbreviated as OCSO) and originally named the Order of Reformed Cistercians of Our Lady of La Trappe, are a ...

monastery in Ireland, founded in 1833. It is situated on the slopes of the

Knockmealdown Mountains The Knockmealdown Mountains ( ga, Sléibhte Chnoc Mhaoldomhnaigh) are a mountain range located on the border of counties Tipperary and Waterford in Ireland, running east and west between the two counties. The highest peak of the range is Knockmea ...

, near

Cappoquin Cappoquin, also spelt Cappaquin or Capaquin (), is a town in west County Waterford, Ireland. It is on the Blackwater river at the junction of the N72 national secondary road and the R669 regional road. It is positioned on a sharp 90-degree b ...

Diocese of Waterford {{Use Irish English, date=February 2020 The Diocese of Waterford was established in the year AD 1096. It was merged with the Diocese of Lismore on 16 June 1363 to form the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore. The merged entity remained an independ ...

. It is famous in literature due to

Seán Ó Ríordáin Seán Pádraig Ó Ríordáin (3 December 1916 – 21 February 1977), sometimes referred to as an Ríordánach, was an Irish language poet and later a newspaper columnist. He is credited with introducing European themes to Irish poetry, and is wi ...

's poem ''Cnoc Mellerí'' in ''Eireaball Spideoige'' (1952).

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

mentions Mount Melleray in the final short story of his 1914 collection, ''

Dubliners ''Dubliners'' is a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. It presents a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. The stories were writt ...

''. In this story, entitled "The Dead", the monks of Mount Melleray are noted for their exceptional hospitality and piety.

History

The

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 ...

order itself dates back to the 12th century and the Trappists to the mid-17th century. Following the suppression of monasteries in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

after the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

, some dispossessed Trappist monks had arrived in England in 1794 and established a monastic community in

Lulworth Lulworth is the popular name for an area on the coast of Dorset, South West England notable for its castle and cove. However, there is no actual place or feature called simply "Lulworth", the villages are East and West Lulworth and the coastal f ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

. The monks returned to France in 1817 to re-establish the ancient

Melleray Abbey Melleray Abbey (Abbaye de Notre-Dame-de-Melleray) was a Cistercian monastery, founded about the year 1134. It was situated in Brittany, Diocese of Nantes, in La Meilleraye-de-Bretagne in the vicinity of Châteaubriant (in present Loire-Atlantiq ...

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...

, following the restoration of the

Bourbons The House of Bourbon (, also ; ) is a European dynasty of French origin, a branch of the Capetian dynasty, the royal House of France. Bourbon kings first ruled France and Navarre in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Spanish ...

. Within ten years, the restored monastery had two hundred members, of whom up to seventy were Irish. During the

July Revolution of 1830 The French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution (french: révolution de Juillet), Second French Revolution, or ("Three Glorious ays), was a second French Revolution after the first in 1789. It led to the overthrow of King ...

, the monks were again persecuted and Waterford-born Father Vincent Ryan was sent by Dom Antoine, Abbot of Melleray. to found an abbey in Ireland. Father Vincent initially rented a property in Rathmore, Co. Kerry. Sixty-four Cisterican monks landed at Cobh from France on 1 December 1831. The land in Rathmore proved unsuitable for housing the monastery and Fr Vincent looked to Co. Waterford, where Sir Richard Keane of Cappoquin had offered a tract of 600 acres of barren mountain land. The monastery was founded on 30 May 1832 at Scrahan, Cappoquin. In the work of reclaiming the soil, the brethren were assisted by the local people. A number of "work pilgrimages" were undertaken by members of nearby parishes, the first by the parish of Modeligo. On the feast of St Bernard, 1833, the foundation stone of the new monastery was blessed by Dr. William Abraham,

Bishop of Waterford and Lismore The Bishop of Waterford and Lismore is an Episcopal polity, episcopal title which takes its name after the city of Waterford and town of Lismore, County Waterford, Lismore in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The title was used by the Church of Ireland ...

. It was called Mount Melleray in memory of the motherhouse.Mount Melleray
Ordre Cistercien de la Stricte Observance. In 1835 the monastery was created an abbey, and Father Vincent, unanimously elected, received the abbatial blessing from Bishop Abraham, this being the first abbatial blessing in Ireland since the

Protestant 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 ...

. It was from Mount Melleray that a small colony of monks was dispatched to found the English

Mount Saint Bernard Abbey Mount St Bernard Abbey is a Roman Catholic, Trappist monastery near Coalville, Leicestershire, England, founded in 1835 in the parish of Whitwick and now in that of Charley. The abbey was the first permanent monastery to be founded in England ...

in 1835. Abbot Vincent vigorously undertook the work of completing the abbey, but died 9 December 1845. His successor, Dom M. Joseph Ryan, resigned after two years. To Dom Bruno Fitzpatrick, who succeeded as abbot in September 1848, it remained to consolidate. He devoted his energy to missionary work (see below). Building resumed in the late 1920s when Dom Marius O'Phelan bought the great cut limestone blocks from

Mitchelstown Castle Mitchelstown Castle, the former home of the Anglo Irish Earls of Kingston, was located in the north County Cork town of Mitchelstown in Ireland. 15th to 18th century ''White Knights, Dark Earls'' is to date the most extensive published accoun ...

(28 miles west), which had been burnt by the local IRA on 12 August 1922. In 1925, the owners of Mitchelstown castle dismantled the ruins and the stones were transported from

Mitchelstown Mitchelstown () is a town in County Cork, Ireland with a population of approximately 3,740. Mitchelstown is situated in the valley to the south of the Galtee Mountains, 12 km south-west of the Mitchelstown Caves, 28 km from Cahir, 50& ...

by steam lorry, two consignments a day for at least five years. As the Abbey was being laid out, Dom Marius died and his successor, Dom Celsus O'Connell, continued to the monumental task. He opted for a more prominent site directly over the mortal remains of 180 of his fellow Cistercians. The monks ended up with far more stones than they needed and these were eventually stacked in fields around the monastery. In 1838

Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...

, visited the Abbey, O'Connell was a supporter of Fr. Vincent, in establishing a Cistercian community in Ireland. In 1849, Dom Bruno Fitzpatrick, who had become abbot the previous year founded

New Melleray Abbey New Melleray Abbey is a Trappist monastery located near Dubuque, Iowa. The abbey is located about 15 miles southwest of Dubuque and is in the Archdiocese of Dubuque. Currently the Abbey is home to about 16 monks. Several of the monks work in the ...

, near

Dubuque, Iowa Dubuque (, ) is the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. At the time of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population of Dubuque was 59,667. The city lies at the junction of Iowa, Il ...

, U.S.A., and, in 1878, Mount Saint Joseph Abbey,

Roscrea Roscrea () is a market town in County Tipperary, Ireland, which in 2016 had a population of 5,446. Roscrea is one of the oldest towns in Ireland, having developed around the 7th century monastery of Saint Crónán of Roscrea, parts of which rem ...

Co. Tipperary County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. The county is named afte ...

, Ireland. He also founded the Ecclesiastical Seminary of Mount Melleray. Originating in a small school formed by Abbot Vincent in 1843, it was developed by Abbot Bruno and his successors. During his July 1849 visit to neighbouring

Dromana House Villierstown () is a village in west County Waterford, Ireland. It is situated on the banks of the Munster Blackwater, River Blackwater, and was founded in the 1740s by a local landlord, John Villiers, as a base for the linen industry, and init ...

, Scottish essayist

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy. Born in Ecclefechan, Dum ...

paid a visit to Mount Melleray and described the abbey in some detail, noting particularly the huge vats of "stir-about" or porridge the monks prepared for a large number of famine refugees that waited for food at the entrance to the monastery: "Entrance; squalid hordes of beggars, sit waiting" and "nasty tubs of cold stirabout (coarsest I ever saw) for beggars"(p. 90). He notes that the monastery "must have accumulated several thousand pounds of property in these seventeen ... years, in spite of its continual charities to beggars" (p. 92). ''Reminiscences of My Irish Journey in 1849''. Thomas Carlyle, 1882. In 1900 five stones with Ogham letters carved into them, which were found in 1857 (''The Kilgrovan Stones'') were transferred to the Abbey by Rev. Dr. Patrick Power. Abbot Bruno died 4 December 1893, and was succeeded by Dom Carthage Delaney, who was blessed 15 January 1894, and presided over Mount Melleray for thirteen years; his successor was Dom Marius O'Phelan, solemnly blessed by Dr. Sheahan, Bishop of Waterford, 15 August 1908. Dom O'Phelan is credited with resuming the building programme at Mount Melleray in 1925. In 1954 six monks (eight more in 1955) went to found a small Trappist abbey in a remote, rural area of New Zealand, the

Southern Star Abbey The Abbey of our Lady of the Southern Star, also known as Southern Star Abbey, is a Trappist abbey located in a remote, rural area of the North Island, New Zealand in the Diocese of Palmerston North. The monastery supports itself by operating a ...

. Dom Eamon Fitzgerald, abbot of Mount Melleray, was elected abbot general of the order in September 2008.

Abbots

* Dom Vincent de paul Ryan (1833-1845) - prior and founder of the abbey * Dom Joseph Mary Ryan (1846-1848) * Dom Bartholomew (Bruno) Fitzpatrick (1848-1893) * Dom John (Carthage) Delaney (1894-1908) * Dom Richard (Marius) O'Phelan (1908-1931) * Dom Stanislaus Hickey OSOC, BA(RUI) (1931-1933) * Dom Celsus O'Connell (1933-1957) - formerly Abbot of

Mount St Bernard Abbey Mount St Bernard Abbey is a Roman Catholic, Trappist monastery near Coalville, Leicestershire, England, founded in 1835 in the parish of Whitwick and now in that of Charley. The abbey was the first permanent monastery to be founded in England ...

* Dom Finbar Cashman (1957-1971) * Dom Pól Ó hAonusa (Paul Hennessy) OCSO (1971–75) * Dom Edward Ducey (1976-1980) - he had earlier founded New Mellifont Abbey in Co. Louth * Dom Justin MacCarthy (1980-1989) * Dom Eamon Fitzgerald (1989 - 2008) - appointed Abbot General of the Cistercians worldwide. * Dom Augustine McGregor (2010-2014) - previously Abbot at New Mellifont (2004-2010) * Br. Boniface McGinley OCSO acting abbot * Dom Richard Purcell (2017–2021) previously Abbot of Mount St. Josephs Roscrea (2009-2017).

Boarding School

Since its early days, Mount Melleray educated both clerical and lay students. In 1972 it was announced that the boarding school was to close and it closed in 1974. In June 2019 the Mount Mellery College Past Pupils held its reunion in Melleray. In 1977 the ''

Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland The Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland (CBSI; ga, Gasóga Caitliceacha na hÉireann) was an Irish Catholic Scouting organisation active from 1927 until 2004, when it formed Scouting Ireland by merging with the former Scout Association of Ireland ...

'' held its jubilee celebrations at Mount Melleray and in 1979 the former boarding school was acquired by the ''Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland'' now part of ''

Scouting Ireland Scouting Ireland ( ga, Gasóga na hÉireann) is one of the largest youth movements on the island of Ireland, a voluntary educational movement for young people with over 45,000 members, including over 11,000 adult volunteers . Of the 750,000 peo ...

'' and developed it into ''Mount Melleray National Scout and Activity Centre''.

Past Pupils of Mount Melleray College

* Tom Hayes - former minister of state, senator and TD for South Tipperary * Bishop

Clement Smyth Timothy Clement Smyth (February 24, 1810 – September 22, 1865) was an Irish born 19th century bishop of the Catholic Church in the United States. He served as the second bishop of the Diocese of Dubuque following the death of Mathias Loras. B ...

— first prior of New Melleray Abbey * Bishop James O’Gorman - second prior of New Melleray Abbey * Bishop

John Carroll John Carroll may refer to: People Academia and science *Sir John Carroll (astronomer) (1899–1974), British astronomer *John Alexander Carroll (died 2000), American history professor *John Bissell Carroll (1916–2003), American cognitive sci ...

DD - Bishop of Lismore, Australia * Bishop

Jeremiah Doyle Jeremiah Joseph Doyle (5 December 1849 – 1909), was an Irish born Catholic bishop, the bishop of Grafton. Doyle was born at Kilmurry, County Cork, Ireland. He was the son of Daniel Doyle and his wife Ellen (''née'' Murphy). He was educated i ...

DD - Irish missionary in Australia who became a Bishop of Lismore * Dom Eamon Fitzgerald OCSO - the first Irishman to serve as Abbot General of the order of Cistercians * William Henry Grattan Flood - author, composer and musicologist, student from (1872-1876) * Michael Hurley SJ, teacher, theologian, and co-founder of the

Irish School of Ecumenics The Irish School of Ecumenics (ISE) is an institute of Trinity College Dublin, dedicated to the study and promotion of peace and reconciliation in Ireland and throughout the world. The school is located in Dublin and Belfast, and consists of eight ...

* Bishop James Maher DD (1840-1905) - Bishop of Port Augusta, Australia (1896-1905) *

Bartholomew MacCarthy Bartholomew MacCarthy (12 December 1843, in Conna, Ballynoe, County Cork – 6 March 1904, in Inniscarra, Co. Cork) was a scholar and chronologist who wrote extensively on Early Irish literature. He was educated at Mount Melleray Abbey, Seminary, ...

- Historian and Irish Language Scholar * Bishop Daniel Mullins (1929-2019) - Bishop in the Archdiocese of Cardiff (1987-2001) * Msgr. Michael Olden - former president of

Maynooth College St Patrick's Pontifical University, Maynooth ( ga, Coláiste Naoimh Phádraig, Maigh Nuad), is the "National Seminary for Ireland" (a Roman Catholic college), and a pontifical university, located in the town of Maynooth, from Dublin, Ireland. ...

* Canon

Michael Kennedy Ryan Canon Michael Kennedy Ryan (4 October 1867 – 3 April 1925) was an Irish Catholic priest, teacher and supporter of the Gaelic Athletic Association. Biography Michael Kennedy Ryan was born at Knockfune, Newport, County Tipperary, on 4 October 1 ...

- priest, teacher, and Chairman of Thurles G.A.A. Club

References

;Attribution *

External links