THE BUILDING OF BUCKFAST ABBEY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 26 June 1926, Page 4

THE BUILDING OF BUCKFAST ABBEY

THE WORK OF SIX MONKS Here is* (lie true story of a, truly marvellous and magnificent church, tho handiwork of six men of them "unskilled" workers who hot only attempted this stupendous achievement, but have almost carried their work through. In less than 20 years in a quiet valley in the County of Devon, has arisen a glorious cathedral built in its entirety by six monks of the Order of Saint Benedict upon the exact spot where the old abbey stood for many centuries before its final and complete overthrow in the reign of King Henry VIII when all monasteries, small and great, fell in the macjstroni of the Relormatiou. The idea of six men building a cathedral seems so utterly absurd to our minds to-day that we can well appreciate the ridicule of those who heard of its proposal in the year 1906, when the Abbot Vonier, with a single sovereign in Ins pocket, set about the great work, which had been his hope and the hope of his brethren since they had first settled at Buckfast, 20 years before. In their vvorldy assets were found an old horse and cart, and one monk knew how to use a hammer, chisel and trowel. But even these poor instruments with faith added, was enough, and they set themselves to the seemingly impossible task for which there is no precedent in history to-day. Their almost finished church attests the truth of this wonderful story. In five or six years from now ti is expected that the last touches will have been given to the Abbey and the ringing out of its bells will summon men and women to see its glory demonstrate the power of Faith and tho grand achievement, of the men who in that valley have given us one of the wonders of our age, and the marvel of those destined to follow after us in the years to come.

Here indeed is the literal and actual fulfilment of Christ's own words that 'faith can remove mountains." The monks of Buckfast have brought us back again to those "dark ages"—that same period when Salisbury, Lincoln, Canterbury, much of Westminster Abbey, and the Saint Paul destroyed in the great fire of London were built. To me it was for many years a great puzzle to know how these glorious "poems in stone" could, have been built at all. In tho cloisters of Westminster, I think, it first dawned on me that men who could build like that, surely could not have been altogether "dark." It struck me that their souls must indeed have been enlightened by wisdom from on high ; but for a long time afterwards it was a great puzzle still to me to know "where the money came from." We measure, in these'days, everything by the money standard. "There are more things in heaven and in earth than are found in our monetary sysfem," perfect as it is said to be. •In their work these early builders mixed faith with their work. Religion ,vas real. God was a reality and not a dubious myth. Heaven was real. Hell was real. Life to them was something more, much more, than a vanishing shadow. Death was the portal to either bliss, or to woe. An unmutilatcd Christianity enfolded them from the cradle to the crave, and the value of this remarkable achievement in • Devon seems to prove the continuity of that same Christianity. Tt is not yet dead. Jt's spirit and its essence has built Buckfast Abbev. It's alive! It is "going strong!" HISTORY OF BUCKFAST The historv of Buckfast. goes back to 'he very earliest dawn of Christianity in England. The abbey was the centre of a small communitv in the times when tho nonulalion of the entire country could be counted in thousands rather than in millions. From Saxon. Danish and Norman invasions it suffered severely, but outlived them all find in. the 12th century came info the possession of the monks' of Saint Benedict who had come to England. From that period onwards to the days of the Eight Henry the Abbey flourished, tbe lands were extended, the building enlarged, particularly the church which developed into the magnificent cathedral, which went down into utter destruction under the order of this King. So complete, indeed, was its overthrow that barely one stonewvas left standing upom another, and even these, as the centuries passed, crumbled slowly away. The present monks came over from France. They first settled in Ireland, but learning that the old Abbey lands at Buckfast were for sale obtained them and crossed over to take possession immediately. They camped amidst the ruins sleeping on some blankets they had purchased and daily praying together near the site of the cathedral, A'hose ruins had heard no chant nor Psalm for three hundred and fifty years. Year by year they succeeded in having suitable accommodation erected for themselves, and thus they lived, following their rule and in harmony with "lie traditions of the centuries of faith. It was more than 20 years before their dream began to be realised. As soon as the Abbot made it known that the cathedral was to be built, the first Godsent help came in. There was a good supply of st-PTic in a. local quarry. A lady promised Hie first. 100 The brothers pot permission to die in a sandpit. Some friends gathered around and promised out of their humble means to guarantee £7O per year. A fiiendly architect prepared the plans. Brother Peter was a mason: he said ho could tench another to build with him, and he did. Another Brother went to Exeter to learn stone carving and on the 15th of November 1906. the first load of stones was carted in that old cart l.hrongh the abbey orates and laid before Brother Peter. Sixleen years later in the midsummer of 1922. the church ivas two-thirds finished and was opened. No public appeal had ever been mi'de. yet in the course of years, marvellotic as it may well seem to us, the Abbot's original and solitary sovereign had frown into £20.000. The entire work ha« been ablv carried out on mediaeval lines. Tn those days when the people lived.in villages and towns around the abbeys, there was food and work for all. and that is more than many /.'ct to-day. even in our own favoured land of "Labour laws." The Monks and the Priests not onlv taught the peor.li> their rebVions duties, but their social needs and obligations as well, and from them the people learned the Communal Laws on which the best porf'niis of our social fabric rests fo-dav. The polplc then built the Catbedraln. with the monks and priests, and learned Cue inv of buildinL' in faith and in love and in unison, the houses of God. There were no laws then by which one man could do onlv one thine;, and another >nme(hiiis else. The whole community turned out to heln; rich man and poorman, anil learned, in common labour. for a fommoii cause—that "One is vour Master, 'n-en Christ, and all ye •ire brethren:" nncl furthermore tbev learned true social enuality. rarely trained under modern methods. The church when it is completed (which will be in about five years) will be 240 feet lorn* and about 65 feet wide. There will be nine bays in the nave, and three in the sanctuary. Behind the TTicrh Altar there will b« sis rbariels. The vaulting of the church is Particularly noteworthy. There is one larTe tower in which a of 14 bells will rincr out in unison for the first

time when the last stroke of work is done. Tn the church there are many examples of very beautiful wood-carv-iiipr: the Abbot's Throne being a particularly fine pice? of craftsmanship. This Cathedral equals nnv built in recent centuries, both in its size and in its beauty. The style of the church in its softened tone of white stone is what is known as "Romanesque." and there is an air of graciousness about if such as it not always observable in the exterior of similar sacred'buildings. This wonderful work is going on today, in that, quiet valley, amidst the green fields of Devonshire. The task is not yet finished, but in that same sure way Brother Peter and his fellow workers are continuing day by day, as they have for fully 20 long years, and I think there is something more than mere patience and perseverance to be learned in this truly remarkable and wonderful' achievement. R.S. 18 '6/26.