Douai Abbey is a

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 ...

Abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...

Upper Woolhampton Upper Woolhampton is a village in the English county of Berkshire. It is situated on higher ground, to the north of the parent village of Woolhampton. Both the Grade II listed parish church of St Peter and the village school are located in Uppe ...

, near

Thatcham Thatcham is an historic market town and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire, centred 3 miles (5 km) east of Newbury, 14 miles (24 km) west of Reading and 54 miles (87 km) west of London. Geography Thatcham straddles t ...

, in the English county of

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

, situated within the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth is a Latin Church Roman Catholic diocese that covers the Channel Islands as well as parts of England (Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and parts of Berkshire, Dorset and Oxfordshire). The episcopal see is St ...

. Monks from the monastery of St. Edmund's, in

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, Dou ...

, France, came to Woolhampton in 1903 when the community left France as a result of

anti-clerical Anti-clericalism is opposition to religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historical anti-clericalism has mainly been opposed to the influence of Roman Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secularism, which seeks to ...

legislation. The abbey church is listed Grade II* on the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, an ...

History

The community of St. Edmund was formed in Paris in 1615 by Dom

Gabriel Gifford Gabriel Gifford OSB (also known as Dom Gabriel of St Mary or french: Gabriel de Sainte-Marie) (1554 – 11 April 1629) was an English Roman Catholic Benedictine monk who became Archbishop of Reims. Life Born William Gifford in Hampshire to ...

, later

Archbishop of Rheims The Archdiocese of Reims (traditionally spelt "Rheims" in English) ( la, Archidiœcesis Remensis; French: ''Archidiocèse de Reims'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastic territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France. Erected as a diocese ar ...

and primate of France. With his backing the community flourished. Expelled from Paris during the Revolution, the community took over the vacant buildings of the community of St Gregory's in

in 1818. Amid the political upheavals caused by the

Dreyfus affair The Dreyfus affair (french: affaire Dreyfus, ) was a political scandal that divided the French Third Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. "L'Affaire", as it is known in French, has come to symbolise modern injustice in the Francop ...

around the turn of the 19th century, the French prime minister

Waldeck-Rousseau Pierre Marie René Ernest Waldeck-Rousseau (; 2 December 184610 August 1904) was a French Republican politician who served as the Prime Minister of France. Early life Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau was born in Nantes, Brittany. His father, René W ...

introduced an anti-clerical Law of Associations (1901) that "severely curbed the influence of religious orders in France". This led to the community being given the minor

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

of St. Mary in Woolhampton by Bishop Cahill of Portsmouth, moving from Douai to Woolhampton in 1903. The abbey church was opened in 1933 but only completed in 1993 due to financial constraints. The monastery was greatly expanded in the 1960s with the building of the new monastery designed by Sir

Frederick Gibberd Sir Frederick Ernest Gibberd (7 January 1908 – 9 January 1984) was an English architect, town planner and landscape designer. He is particularly known for his work in Harlow, Essex, and for the BISF house, a design for a prefabricated council ...

. The abbey had in its charge

Douai School Douai School was a public (independent) school run by the Douai Abbey Benedictine community at Woolhampton, England, until it closed in 1999. History 1615–1818 The monastic community was founded in Paris in 1615 and moved to Douai af ...

until the latter's closure in 1999. In 2005, two monks returned to Douai, France to form a community there and restore the historic links to English monasticism.

Jacobitism

The monastery and its community have traditionally maintained strong links to the Stuart dynasty and the Jacobite cause; with King

James II of England James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Gloriou ...

buried in the monastery in

Saint-Germain-en-Laye Saint-Germain-en-Laye () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the centre of Paris. Inhabitants are called ''Saint-Germanois'' or ''Saint-Ge ...

, near Paris (the community's home from the early 17th century till the French Revolution and the community's relocation to Douai in northern France), members of the

House of Wittelsbach The House of Wittelsbach () is a German dynasty, with branches that have ruled over territories including Bavaria, the Palatinate, Holland and Zeeland, Sweden (with Finland), Denmark, Norway, Hungary (with Romania), Bohemia, the Electorate ...

(present pretenders to the Jacobite claim) being educated at the community's former boarding school (at their present location), and the immediate past abbot, Geoffrey Scott OSB, is a member of the Jacobite Society.

Present

In July 2014 a monk was ordained priest, the first priestly ordination since 2007. As of 2020, the community consisted of 23 monks. The monks serve in parishes across five dioceses. The patron of the monastery is St Edmund King and Martyr, whose feast day is 20 November.

Music

The Abbey Church houses two

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...

s, a smaller organ of 1978 in an Italian style by

Tamburini Tamburini is an Italian surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Adrian Tamburini, Australian bass-baritone singer with Zelman Symphony * Antonio Tamburini (baritone) (1800–1876), Italian operatic baritone * Antonio Tamburini (racin ...

and a larger organ of 1994 in a modernised English Classical style by Kenneth Tickell. Because it contains these organs, and especially because of its unique and reverberant

acoustics Acoustics is a branch of physics that deals with the study of mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician ...

, the Abbey Church is frequently used as a recording location by musical performers. Commercial albums recorded there include: *

Carlo Gesualdo Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa ( – 8 September 1613) was Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza. As a composer he is known for writing madrigals and pieces of sacred music that use a chromatic language not heard again until the late 19th century ...

- Tenebrae by

The Hilliard Ensemble The Hilliard Ensemble was a British male vocal quartet originally devoted to the performance of early music. The group was named after the Elizabethan miniaturist painter Nicholas Hilliard. Founded in 1974, the group disbanded in 2014. Although ...

(March 1990). *

Pierre de la Rue Pierre de la Rue ( – 20 November 1518) was a Franco-Flemish composer and singer of the Renaissance. His name also appears as Piersson or variants of Pierchon and his toponymic, when present, as various forms of de Platea, de Robore, or de Vic ...

- Missa Cum Iocunditate, Motets by

(1997). * The Old Hall Manuscript by

(1990). * Cristobal de Morales - Mass For The Feast Of St. Isidore Of Seville by the Gabrieli Consort & Players, directed by

Paul McCreesh Paul McCreesh (born 24 May 1960) is an English conductor. Paul McCreesh is the founder and artistic director of the Gabrieli Consort & Players. With them he has performed in major concert halls and festivals across the world. He has been the ...

(2003). * A New Venetian Coronation 1595 by the Gabrieli Consort & Players, directed by

(2012). * Handel Organ Concertos by Baroque Belles and

David Willcocks Sir David Valentine Willcocks, (30 December 1919 – 17 September 2015) was a British choral conductor, organist, composer and music administrator. He was particularly well known for his association with the Choir of King's College, Cambr ...

(1999). * MacMillan And His British Contemporaries by the choir of

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...

(2006). * Rutter: Requiem by the choir of

Clare College, Cambridge Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. It was refound ...

(2003).

List of Abbots

* 1900–1904: Lawrence Larkin * 1904–1905: Ambrose Bamford * 1905–1913: Stanislaus Taylor * 1913–1921: David Hurley * 1921–1929: Edmund Kelly * 1929–1969: Sylvester Mooney * 1969–1989: Gregory Freeman * 1989–1990: Leonard Vickers * 1990–1998: Finbar Kealy * 1998–2022: Geoffrey Scott * 2022-present: Paul Gunter.
Monks of St Edmund's
from ''douaiabbey.org.uk'' retrieved 14 March 2018

Gallery

File:Douai Abbey by Edmund Shaw Geograph 3900102.jpg, Abbey File:Douai Abbey view by Bill Nicholls Geograph 2723831.jpg, Abbey and school File:Douai Abbey Chapel by David Lally Geograph 3019406.jpg, Abbey church

References

External links

*
Douai Parish WebsitePhotographs of the Abbey
* * * * * * {{authority control Christian organizations established in 1903 Benedictine monasteries in England Grade II* listed churches in Berkshire History of Berkshire Grade II* listed Roman Catholic churches in England Monasteries in Berkshire Monasteries of the English Benedictine Congregation Organisations based in Berkshire Roman Catholic churches completed in 1933 Roman Catholic churches in Berkshire 1903 establishments in England 20th-century Christian monasteries 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom Woolhampton