St Beuno's Jesuit Spirituality Centre, known locally as St Beuno's College, is a spirituality and retreat centre in

Tremeirchion Tremeirchion (previously known as ''Lleweni'') is a small residential community (Wales), community in Denbighshire, Wales. It lies on the B5429 road, to the north east of Denbigh and to the east of St Asaph. The community includes the village of ...

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. It borders the Irish Sea to the north, Flintshire to the east, Wrexham to the southeast, Powys to the south, and Gwynedd and Conwy to the west. Rhyl is the largest town, and Ruthi ...

, Wales. It was built in 1847 by the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

, as a theology college. During the 1870s the Victorian poet

Gerard Manley Hopkins Gerard Manley Hopkins (28 July 1844 – 8 June 1889) was an English poet and Society of Jesus, Jesuit priest, whose posthumous fame places him among the leading English poets. His Prosody (linguistics), prosody – notably his concept of sprung ...

studied there. Since 1980, it has been a spirituality and retreat centre. Standing on the

Clwydian Range The Clwydian Range (; also Clwydian Hills or Clwyds) is a series of hills in the north-east of Wales that runs from Llandegla in the south to Prestatyn in the north; the highest point is Moel Famau. The range forms the north-western part o ...

, the front of the building faces west towards Snowdonia and overlooks the

Vale of Clwyd The Vale of Clwyd () is a tract of low-lying ground in the county of Denbighshire in north-east Wales. The Vale extends south-southwestwards from the coast of the Irish Sea for some 20 miles (about 30 km) forming a triangle of low ground bo ...

. The building became a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

and a Welsh Historic Monument in 2002.

History

Foundation

In 1832, Following the Act of Catholic Emancipation of 1829, the Jesuits came to North Wales and founded St Winefride's Church in nearby

Holywell, Flintshire Holywell ( ; ) is a market town and community in Flintshire, Wales. It lies to the west of the estuary of the River Dee. The community includes Greenfield. In 2011, it had a population of 8,886. Etymology The name Holywell is literally ' + ' ...

. In 1846, Fr Randal Lythgoe, the

Provincial Provincial may refer to: Government & Administration * Provincial capitals, an administrative sub-national capital of a country * Provincial city (disambiguation) * Provincial minister (disambiguation) * Provincial Secretary, a position in Canad ...

of the Jesuits in Britain, visited Holywell and toured the neighbouring area. When he came to Tremeirchion, to see farm land which the Jesuits owned, he quickly resolved that this should be the site for a new college to train Jesuit recruits for the priesthood. The college was named after a local saint, St Beuno.

Construction

St Beuno's was designed by the architect Joseph Aloysius Hansom, known for the

Hansom cab The hansom cab is a kind of horse-drawn carriage designed and patented in 1834 by Joseph Hansom, an architect from York. The vehicle was developed and tested by Hansom in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England. Originally called the Hansom safet ...

. He went on to design many churches for the Jesuits, such as the

Oxford Oratory The Oxford Oratory Church of St Aloysius Gonzaga (or Oxford Oratory for short) is the Catholic Church, Catholic parish church for the centre of Oxford, England. It is located at 25 Woodstock Road (Oxford), Woodstock Road, next to Somerville Col ...

St Walburge's Church St Walburge's Church is a Roman Catholic church in Preston, Lancashire, England, northwest of the city centre on Weston Street. The church was built in the mid-19th century to a design by the Gothic Revival architect Joseph Hansom, the designer ...

in Preston. In the late 1870s, Gerard Manley Hopkins while studying there, described the building, as "built of limestone, decent outside, skimping within, Gothic like

Lancing College Lancing College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Private schools in the United Kingdom, private boarding school, boarding and day school) for pupils aged 13–18 in southern England, UK. The school is located in West S ...

done worse." Originally, St Beuno's College was a quadrangle enclosing a garden. The outside walls were made of stone, with Gothic gargoyles and stone carving, and inside were broad corridors and large but simple rooms. There were classrooms, a library, parlour and recreation room, all connected by a basement corridor on the west side of the building. On the south side, the highest part of the quadrangle, were three galleries which housed the teachers and the students. On the north side was the refectory. Heating for the lower floor was provided by heat being channelled into the house from a greenhouse attached to the front west side of the building. Fresh water was provided from local streams and kept in tanks, which still exist above the terraces. Food was grown locally both in the college's grounds and on the adjacent college farm. The college had its own gas works. Furthermore, within the grounds, close to the entrance, a small school house was built to serve the local population. Twenty years after its construction, St Beuno's College needed to be extended to accommodate the increased numbers of Jesuits training there. Extra rooms were added in the attics and a new North Wing was built to the left of the tower. From 1862, the Tremeirchion Cross stood at the entrance of St Beuno's. It is a medieval stone carved cross. In the 16th century, it was described in his writings by the poet, Gruffydd ab Ieuan ap Llywelyn Fychan of Llanerch. It was originally in the churchyard of the local parish Corpus Christi Church in Tremeirchion. In 1862, the church sold it for £5 to raise funds to buy new lamps. It was bought by a Mr J. Y. Hinde of

Rhyl Rhyl (; , ) is a seaside town and community in Denbighshire in Wales. The town lies on the coast of North Wales, at the mouth of the River Clwyd. To the west is Kinmel Bay and Towyn, to the east Prestatyn, and to the south-east Rhuddlan ...

who then gave it to St Beuno's. In 2002, St Beuno's gave it back to the local church, where it now stands in the churchyard, where it is a Grade II listed monument.

Developments

In 1926, the site ceased to be a training college. The Jesuit students were moved to

Heythrop College Heythrop College, University of London, was a constituent college of the University of London between 1971 and 2018, last located in Kensington Square, London. It comprised the university's specialist faculties of philosophy and theology with soc ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

. Instead, St Beuno's became a place of study for the final years of the long Jesuit training, the

tertianship Tertianship is the final period of formation for members of the Society of Jesus. Upon invitation of the Provincial, it usually begins three to five years after completion of graduate studies. It is a time when the candidate for final vows steps ...

. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

it was a place of refuge to many Jesuit

novices A novice is a person who has entered a religious order and is under probation, before taking vows. A ''novice'' can also refer to a person (or animal e.g. racehorse) who is entering a profession with no prior experience. Religion Buddhism ...

who were sent from Manresa House in Roehampton, during and after

the Blitz The Blitz (English: "flash") was a Nazi Germany, German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, for eight months, from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941, during the Second World War. Towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940, a co ...

. After the war it reverted to its role as a tertianship centre.

Retreat Centre

From 1970 the house began to host its first retreats. It originally received

religious sisters A religious sister (abbreviated: Sr.) in the Catholic Church is a woman who has taken public vows in a religious institute dedicated to apostolic works, as distinguished from a nun who lives a cloistered monastic life dedicated to prayer and lab ...

for 8-day and later, for 30-day retreats. Whereas the training of Jesuits became increasingly difficult in the countryside, far from city centres, the retreat work grew in popularity. In 1980, St Beuno's became a retreat centre. St Beuno's runs a programme of retreats all the year round, ranging from short weekend retreats to those which last 30 days. It also offers courses in

Ignatian Spirituality Ignatian spirituality, similar in most aspects to, but distinct from Jesuit spirituality, is a Catholic Church, Catholic spirituality founded on the experiences of the 16th-century Spanish Saint Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order. The ...

of one to six months' duration. From 2018 to 2020 a large-scale renovation was undertaken to add en-suite facilities to rooms, create larger rooms for meetings and modernise the front entrance. In the 2010s, retreats at St Beuno's began to be featured in the national media. In 2010, it was a location for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

series ''The Big Silence'' where participants spent 8 days on a silent retreat at St Beuno's. In 2017, two actors also did an 8-day retreat there in preparation for the Martin Scorsese film ''

Silence Silence is the absence of ambient hearing, audible sound, the emission of sounds of such low sound intensity, intensity that they do not draw attention to themselves, or the state of having ceased to produce sounds; this latter sense can be exten ...

''.Ben Butler
'No surprise' Hollywood actors 'lost their minds' during stay at St Asaph silent retreat, says director
'' Daily Post'', 6 February 2017, retrieved 23 December 2020

Rock Chapel

In 1876 the 'Rock Chapel' was built on a wooded hill to the south of St Beuno's. It was designed by a Jesuit student,

Ignatius Scoles Ignatius Scoles SJ (1 December 1834 – 15 July 1896) was a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest, architect and writer. He designed churches and civic buildings and was the son of Joseph John Scoles.Guyana Times International' accessed 26 March 2013 Earl ...

, who had followed the footsteps of his father,

Joseph John Scoles Joseph John Scoles (1798–1863) was an English Gothic Revival architect, who designed many Roman Catholic churches. Early life and education Scoles was born in London on 27 June 1798, the son of Roman Catholic parents Matthew Scoles, a joiner, ...

, as an architect before joining the Jesuits. Ignatius went on to design St Wilfrid's Church in

Preston, Lancashire Preston () is a city on the north bank of the River Ribble in Lancashire, England. The city is the administrative centre of the county of Lancashire and the wider City of Preston, Lancashire, City of Preston local government district. Preston ...

Brickdam Cathedral Brickdam Cathedral, more formally known as the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception, is the Roman Catholic cathedral in Georgetown, Guyana, and is the leading Catholic church of the country. Built in the 1920s, it is constructed in a Romanesque a ...

and Georgetown City Hall in

Guyana Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...

. From the Rock Chapel it is possible to see the village of Tremeirchion and the

. In 2020 repairs were made to the roof and stonework, and an appeal launched to fund improvements for furniture and access.

Grounds

St Beuno's Jesuit Spirituality Centre garden steps.jpg, Steps in the garden St Beuno's Spirituality Centre in snow 2.jpg, Garden in snow Eglwys y Garreg-fawr St Mary's (The Rock Chapel), Sant Beuno, Tremeichion 03.jpg, Pathway to grove Resurrection at St Beuno's P1000787.jpg, Stations of the Cross in the woodland garden: the 15th station - "Resurrection"

References

External links

Official site
{{Jesuits in Britain , state=autocollapse Grade II* listed buildings in Denbighshire Religious buildings and structures completed in 1848 Tremeirchion Spiritual retreats Ignatian spirituality Buildings by Joseph Hansom Catholic Church in Wales Registered historic parks and gardens in Denbighshire