A community of Benedictine monks are leaving their temporary home in Devon to take up residence at an historic abbey in Hereford.
The last eight monks of Downside Abbey have been homeless since they left Stratton-on-the-Fosse, Somerset, three years ago.
They have been living temporarily at Buckfast Abbey, Devon, also a Benedictine monastery, while they searched for a permanent home.
They have now announced that they are leaving Southgate House at Buckfast to join the 30-strong community of St Michael and All Angels at Belmont Abbey in the summer.
In a statement the Downside monks, who call themselves the Community of St Gregory, said: “Our two communities have voted to begin a two-year period of living together.
“During this time St Gregory’s will nonetheless continue to be a separate and independent entity under the provisions of Canon Law.
“Our shared hope is that we will be able to support and strengthen each other in faithfulness to our Benedictine vocation and that eventually we will form a single, united community at Belmont.
“We will announce the exact date of our move to Belmont when we have settled the practicalities.”
The statement continued: “Three years ago, our move to Devon allowed us up to five years in which we could discern the way forward.
“We are grateful to Abbot David and the Buckfast community for their generosity in giving us the use of their former retreat house for this vital period.
“Here we have enjoyed the opportunity of leading a simpler and more intense community life, less overwhelmed by the buildings and grounds at Downside that were too big for our current needs.
“Our discernment has encouraged us to continue the mission of our monastic forebears, a mission that our patron, Pope St Gregory the Great first entrusted to Benedictine monks at the end of the sixth century under the leadership of St Augustine of Canterbury.”
The statement said: “We now have the opportunity of beginning a joint project with the Community of Belmont Abbey.
“Together we can explore fresh ways of providing the pastoral care and formation that have always marked the English Benedictine Congregation.”
It added: “St Gregory’s community remains committed to their current pastoral outreach undertaken by the monks in the United Kingdom and abroad, through their oblates and parish, and to sharing and developing the important heritage that we are still responsible for at Downside Abbey.
“Our common hope is that this new project will invigorate our two communities and contribute to the mission of the Church at a time when the witness of monastic life is so essential.”
Abbot Brendan Thomas of Belmont said the monks of his abbey looked forward “to this new and exciting chapter in the life of our communities”.
He said: “Strengthened by the arrival of St Gregory’s we will continue to build on the Benedictine tradition of hospitality, retreat-giving, pastoral care and outreach. We look forward to opening our new guest facilities this summer.
“The foundation of our life will continue to be our liturgy and prayer. The tradition of our two houses, together with the rich history of English monasticism with its saints is there to inspire us. The Rule of St Benedict will unite us in this endeavour.”
He added: “We know that the wider Belmont family, our friends, oblates and parishioners will make the Community of St Gregory’s and in time the wider Gregorian family very welcome at Belmont.”
Downside Abbey was founded in 1814 by monks who fled from Douai during the French Revolution.
It boasted the largest neo-Gothic church built in England since the Reformation, with a 166ft tower designed by Sir Gilbert Scott, and was described by architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner as “a splendid demonstration of the renaissance of Roman Catholicism in England”.
The abbey also housed most of the relics of St Oliver Plunkett, the martyred Archbishop of Armagh.
Among those to be received into the faith at the abbey was Siegfried Sassoon, the war poet and author, who became a Catholic in August 1957 after he was instructed by Downside monk Dom Sebastian Moore.
In 2018, Downside was severely criticised by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse for allowing Fr Nicholas White to continue to teach in spite of allegations of sexual misconduct by a student. The monk was jailed for five years in 2012 for abuse of boys.
The inquiry was also critical of the burning of the personal records of the monks and teaching staff at Downside in a bonfire of 2012, ostensibly to create storage space but which added “to the perception of cover-up”.
The Belmont community goes back to the 13<sup>th</sup> century but the extant congregation have their origins more closely rooted in the Common House of Studies for Downside, Ampleforth and Douai abbeys that was founded in 1859.
In 1917, the General Chapter of the Congregation declared Belmont to be an independent Priory, and in 1920 the Holy See raised it to the rank of an Abbey by the Papal Bull <em>Praeclara Gesta</em>.
Buckfast Abbey was built a century ago largely by French and German monks on the exact River Dart site of the original dissolved foundation.
It was improved extensively over the last 15 years, mostly in readiness for 2018, the celebratory millennium year of its foundation by a charter from King Canute in 1018, and is home to the hair shirt worn by St Thomas More, which is venerated in a side altar.
<em>(Photo of the tower of Downside Abbey church by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)</em>
