Prinknash Abbey (pronounced locally variously as "Prinidge/Prinnish") (
IPA
IPA commonly refers to:
* India pale ale, a style of beer
* International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation
* Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound
IPA may also refer to:
Organizations International
* Insolvency Practitioners ...
: ) is a
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 ...
monastery
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...
in the Vale of Gloucester in the
Diocese of Clifton
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Clifton is a Roman Catholic diocese centred at the Cathedral Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Clifton, England.
The diocese covers the City and County of Bristol and the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire, ...
, near the village of
Cranham
Cranham is a residential area of east London, and part of the London Borough of Havering. It is located east-northeast of Charing Cross and comprises an extensive built-up area to the north and a low density conservation area to the south sur ...
. It belongs to the English Province of the
Subiaco 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 Piet ...
, which is itself part of the worldwide
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 ...
Confederation. It is noted for its manufacturing of incense.
History
Early History
For nearly 900 years the land known as Prinknash has been associated with Benedictine monks. In 1096 the Giffard family, who had come to England with
William the Conqueror
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...
, made a gift of the land to
Serlo,
Abbot of Saint Peter's, Gloucester. A large part of the present building was built during the abbacy of
William Parker, the last Abbot of Gloucester, around the year 1520.
It remained in the abbey's hands until the
suppression of the monasteries in 1539 when it was rented from the Crown by
Sir Anthony Kingston
Sir Anthony Kingston (ca. 1508 – 14 April 1556) was an English royal official, holder of various positions under several Tudor monarchs.A.D.K. Hawkyard, 'Kingston, Anthony (by 1512-56), of Cadleigh, Devon and Painswick, Glos.', in S.T. Bind ...
who was to provide 40 deer annually to King
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
, who used the House as a hunting lodge. Prinknash Park continued to be used as a home for the gentry and nobility of
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
during the next few centuries and each generation left its mark on the property.
Recent History
On 1 August 1928 a
Deed
In common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered, and in some jurisdictions, sealed. It is commonly associated with transferring ...
of
Covenant
Covenant may refer to:
Religion
* Covenant (religion), a formal alliance or agreement made by God with a religious community or with humanity in general
** Covenant (biblical), in the Hebrew Bible
** Covenant in Mormonism, a sacred agreement b ...
was made out by the twentieth
Earl of Rothes
Earl of Rothes (pronounced "''Roth''-is") is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1458 for George Leslie, 1st Lord Leslie. He had already been created Lord Leslie in 1445, also in the Peerage of Scotland. His grandson, the thir ...
, the grandson of Thomas Dyer Edwardes, a Catholic convert, whose wish was that Prinknash should be given to the Benedictine monks of
Caldey Island
Caldey Island ( Welsh:''Ynys BÅ·r'') is a small island near Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales, less than off the coast. With a recorded history going back over 1,500 years, it is one of the holy islands of Britain. A number of traditions inherited f ...
. These monks had converted from
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...
to
Roman Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
in 1913 under the leadership of Abbot
Ælred Carlyle
Aelred Carlyle OSB (7 February 1874 - 14 October 1955) founded, around 1895, the first regularised Anglican Benedictine community of monks.
Early life and monastic profession
Born Benjamin Fearnley Carlyle, he was educated at Blundell's Sc ...
, although he left monastic life in 1921 to work as a missionary priest in Vancouver.
[Anson, Peter. ''Abbot Extraordinary. A Memoir of Abbot Aelred Carlyle, Monk and Missionary''. Faith Press, 1958, pp.131–132.]
Caldey Island was eventually sold to 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 ...
monks and on 26 October 1928 six Benedictine monks arrived from Caldey to convert the house at Prinknash into a monastery. The rest soon followed and after some years of poverty they managed to purchase all the land around the house to make Prinknash as it is today. Fr. Wilfrid Upson, who had been appointed Prior after Carlyle's departure, was elected the first Abbot of Prinknash in 1937.
The community continued to grow, beginning with 25 monks. In 1939 a foundation stone for a new abbey was laid at Prinknash by
Cardinal Hinsley, but the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
intervened and the previous impracticable building plans were eventually redrawn by
F.G. Broadbent. In 1947, they refounded St Michael's Abbey, Farnborough, Hampshire, and in 1948, refounded Pluscarden Priory, Elgin, Moray, Scotland. The monks moved into the new abbey in 1972 and the old abbey, was re-roofed, re-furnished, and converted into a
retreat and conference centre, known as "St Peter's Grange". However, by 2008 the now smaller community of monks had decided to move back to St Peter's Grange, and this took place on the
Feast of Saints Peter and Paul
The Feast of Saints Peter and Paul or Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul is a liturgical feast in honor, of the martyrdom in Rome of the apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul, which is observed on 29 June. The celebration is of ancient Christi ...
(30 June) in that same year. From being once 70 or 80, the monks number now only six in residence, and all in the upper age range.
Guests can no longer be accommodated at Prinknash Abbey.
Prinknash Pottery
In the early 1940s, one of the monks, Dom Asaph Harris, made experiments with clay from the foundations of the new abbey. Other monks, especially Thomas Morey, took this up and after World War II, Prinknash Pottery was set up on a commercial basis. This Pottery flourished exceedingly for fifty years, and then declined, being closed in 2003. The original clay items (pots made with red clay from the foundations of the 1972 Abbey) are now collectable, and sometimes appear on the Antiques Road Show.
The
Cinema Museum holds film of the Abbey in 1967. HMO363
Plans for the 1972 Abbey
It is intended that, by about 2025, the community of nuns currently at Kingstanding in Birmingham (Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary) who belong to the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham (Anglicans who have become Catholics) will take over the 1972 Abbey building, which is at present in the process of renovation.
Horarium
In addition to the daily
canonical hours
In the practice of Christianity, canonical hours mark the divisions of the day in terms of fixed times of prayer at regular intervals. A book of hours, chiefly a breviary, normally contains a version of, or selection from, such prayers.
In ...
, the monks pray
Mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...
at 8:30 am every day including Sunday. They no longer celebrate Mass in the Extraordinary Form.
Art
In 1972–3, Brother Patrick, a monk of Prinknash, contributed the design and manufacture of a number of items at
Clifton Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of SS. Peter and Paul is the Roman Catholic cathedral of the city of Bristol (not to be confused with the Church of England Bristol Cathedral). Located in the Clifton area of the city, it is the seat and mother church of the ...
, Bristol. These included the
votive
A votive offering or votive deposit is one or more objects displayed or deposited, without the intention of recovery or use, in a sacred place for religious purposes. Such items are a feature of modern and ancient societies and are generally ...
candelabra
A candelabra (plural candelabras) or candelabrum (plural candelabra or candelabrums) is a candle holder with multiple arms.
Although electricity has relegated candleholders to decorative use, interior designers continue to model light fixtures ...
hanging in the
Lady Chapel
A Lady chapel or lady chapel is a traditional British term for a chapel dedicated to "Our Lady", Mary, mother of Jesus, particularly those inside a cathedral or other large church. The chapels are also known as a Mary chapel or a Marian chapel, an ...
, made from twenty stainless steel
equilateral triangles
In geometry, an equilateral triangle is a triangle in which all three sides have the same length. In the familiar Euclidean geometry, an equilateral triangle is also equiangular; that is, all three internal angles are also congruent to each othe ...
(a
regular icosahedron
In geometry, a regular icosahedron ( or ) is a convex polyhedron with 20 faces, 30 edges and 12 vertices. It is one of the five Platonic solids, and the one with the most faces.
It has five equilateral triangular faces meeting at each vertex. It ...
), and the decorative screens to the Blessed Sacrament Chapel.
Dom Sylvester Houédard Dom or DOM may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Dom (given name), including fictional characters
* Dom (surname)
* Dom La Nena (born 1989), stage name of Brazilian-born cellist, singer and songwriter Dominique Pinto
* Dom people, an et ...
, d. 1992 aged 67, was a world-famous concrete poet and theologian who specialised in inter-religious dialogue. His archive is kept by the John Rylands University of Manchester Library. Dom Stephen Horton, living, is a noted local artist, watercolourist, and portrait painter, and a spiritual father to many people. He is also currently the local superior at Prinknash.
Notes
1. According to their website and their video about making incense
References
External links
Prinknash Abbey websiteBBC archive film of Prinknash Abbey from 1980
{{Authority control
Monasteries in Gloucestershire
Benedictine monasteries in England
681 establishments
7th-century establishments in England
Christian monasteries established in the 7th century
1541 disestablishments in England
1928 establishments in England
20th-century Christian monasteries
Grade I listed churches in Gloucestershire
Grade I listed monasteries
20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom