CONVERSION OF ANGLICAN BENEDICTINES

New Zealand Tablet, 17 April 1913, Page 53

CONVERSION OF ANGLICAN BENEDICTINES

The following announcement was made on Tuesday, February 25, from the Anglican Benedictine Abbey of Caldy Island 'For more than a year the Anglican Benedictines of Caldey. Island have been in communication with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Oxford with a view to electing the latter as episcopal visitor-to the community, and the correspondence has now come to an end because the community cannot conscientiously submit to the conditions which the Bishop found it necessary to impose before consenting to accept the office of visitor. These conditions, if acceded to, would practically imply for the community a denial of their faith and practice, which they have held and taught for the last' fifteen years. Under the circumstances the community feel they can no longer remain in the Church of England, when by doing so they would be untrue to what they believe to. be vital principles. They have decided, therefore, to ask to be received into the Roman Church' and will seek admission to the Benedictine Order.' It is understood (adds the London Times) that all except young members of the community have decided to submit to the Roman Church. About thirty monks remain. The nuns of St. -Bride's, Milford Haven, formerly of Mailing Abbey, Kent, have also decided, with two exceptions, to enter the Roman Church. From references to the Caldey community which have appeared in our columns (says the Catholic Times) our readers will be aware that its establishment, like that of the community founded by the late Father Ignatius, of Llanthony, was an attempt to conduct a religious Order on Catholic lines in the Church of England. Indeed, after the death of Father Ignatius, it was a continuation of his experiment. The Abbot, Mr. Carlyle, a man of ability and strong character hoped to familiarise Anglicans with Benedictine traditions, and, strange to say, though of course St. Benedict was a most loyal son of the Holy See, thought it was possible to observe the spirit of his rule, whilst refusing to accept the authority of the Pope. According to the Churchman's Year Book, the community came into existence in 1895. Mr. Carlyle was clothed as a novice in 1896, and, with the sanction of Dr Temple, then Archbishop of Canterbury, made his profession as an Anglican Benedictine monk in 1898 The community first went to Caldey, off the Pembrokeshire coast, in 1901, and in the following year moved to Pamsthorpe, Yorkshire. While the brothers were at Pamsthorpe, the Archbishop of York approved of the election of Dom Aelred Carlyle as Abbot, and allowed him to be ordained in America. The community returned to Caldey as a permanent home in 1906, when, it was stated, they bought the island In 1907 the community of Anglican Benedictine nuns at Mailing, which has since removed to St. Bride's Abbey, Milford Haven, was affiliated to the congregation. In 1910 the community at Caldey entered upon the use of a new and beautiful chapel, and the Chapter House and other portions of the temporary monastery have since been completed. Besides attending to their spiritual affairs, the members of the community occupied themselves with various crafts, such as vestment-making and gardening. For many centuries from the fifth onward the island was monastic property. A Celtic monastery under St. Illtud's Abbacy trained there many saints including St. David, Patron of Wales, St. Gildas, the historian, St. Paul de Leon, St. Samson of Dol, St Malo, and St. Brieuc; in fact Caldey has been called ' The Island of Saints.' From the twelfth to the sixteenth century it belonged to the Benedictines, and a contributor to the Catholic Fireside, referring to the old priory church, wrote in 1909 :—' Would that money could have secured it for the service of the old Faith and the Perpetual Sacrifice for which it was destined by the good monks.' Possibly, owing to the change that is taking place, £he building may belong once more to Catholics in communion with the Holy See.