Plymouth, England, Oct 18, 2017 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In 2018 one of England’s historic monasteries will celebrate the millennium year of its foundation, offering a prime example of the contribution of monastic life to society amid an increasingly fast-paced world.
For the Benedictine monks who inhabit Buckfast Abbey in Devon, reaching such a significant anniversary means “we are the inheritors of a great tradition,” Abbot David Charlesworth told CNA.
“Place matters for Benedictines, so the fact that we are in a place that has been established for many centuries before we came is important.”
Not only to Benedictine monks take the traditional vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, they also make an additional vow of stability, meaning that when they are assigned to a monastery, they stay there. While they might travel or even spend time in other monasteries, they will always be attached to the original, as an individual would be to their family home.
Charlesworth, who served as Abbot at Buckfast from 1992-1999, and was re-elected in 2009, said that in general, human beings “like the idea of roots.”
The concept of monasticism is ultimately rooted in the Gospel and expressed through the Rule of St Benedict, he said, but it is also rooted “in place, in a place, and it is from there, out of that place, that we then live our Baptismal vocation expressed through our monastic vocation.”
When it comes to living this vocation in modern times, the millennium landmark “helps to sort of galvanize our approach as to what we’re doing for the future,” Charlesworth said. This, he added, encompasses “what we’re doing personally, what we’re doing as a community, and what we’re doing as members of the Church of the Southwest of England.”
The abbot spoke to CNA about the millennium anniversary during a sit-down interview inside one of the two main guest houses at Buckfast Abbey, located in Buckfastleigh, about 25 miles northeast of Plymouth.
The abbey was founded in 1018 during the reign of King Cnut and entrusted to care of the Benedictines.
The monks who inhabited the monastery followed the “Regularis Concordia” rule, which was drafted in Winchester around the year 970 for all Benedictine monasteries in an effort to re-establish, in a sense, monastic life.
Just over 100 years later, in 1147, Buckfast became a Cistercian monastery. The Order was founded in 1098 by a group of monks seeking to live a simpler life in more strict observance of the Benedictine Rule.
Under the Cistercians Buckfast thrived, exporting wool to Italy by the 14th century. By the 15th century, the monastery had in essence become a wealthy landowner, while continuing to run an almshouse and school, and support local parishes in the area.
But in 1539 was shut down by the commissioners of King Henry VIII during the dissolution of the monasteries in a bid to confiscate the wealth of the country’s religious institutes during the English Reformation.
The monastery was immediately vacated, stripped and left to decay. During the more than 300 years that Buckfast was without monks, the monastery changed hands four times, eventually landing in those of Dr. James Gale in 1872, who decided to sell the property, but wanted it to go back to a religious community.
Just six weeks after putting an advertisement in the paper, Buckfast was purchased by monks, who moved in shortly after, bringing a close to the 343 year gap in monastic presence at the abbey.
That first group of monks who returned to Buckfast were Benedictines who had been exiled from France and had made their way to Ireland. They moved to Buckfast in 1882 after acquiring the abbey, and began the process of restoring the property.
As the work was being carried out, the ruins to the original Cistercian design from the 1100s were discovered, and the monastery was constructed in its modern form from the ancient layout. The abbey was consecrated in 1932, with the final stone of the large bell tower being laid in 1937.
Now in 2017, the monastery is again a thriving presence in Devon. Not only does Buckfast represent a silent spiritual hub for tourists or visitors who want to get away for a day of prayer, but it also boasts of several other major activities available for people throughout the area.
The Buckfast monks essentially serve as the board of trustees for the St. Mary’s grade school that sits on their property, and the abbey hosts a center for evangelization called the School of the Annunciation, which was established as a response to Church’s call for a new evangelization.
The school offers formation to adults from all walks of life, and it also holds the status of a Catholic Institute for Higher Learning, providing distance-learning opportunities for students to obtain Master’s Degrees in Catechesis and Evangelization, validated by the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio.
Buckfast also has a large conference center where they host various congresses and retreats throughout the year, including for non-Catholic groups.
The monastery also offers two refurbished guest houses for pilgrims and tourists to stay. They also have private houses available to rent if people want a longer get-away.
Buckfast also has a cafeteria and an adoration chapel open to visitors. Monks also offer pilgrims the opportunity to pray Vespers with them every evening.
The abbey is known throughout the UK for a tonic wine they brew called Buckfast Tonic Wine. Originally brewed for medicinal purposes, the wine is controversial in some areas of the UK due to its unique recipe, which contains high amounts of alcohol infused with high levels of caffeine.
Reminiscent of the monastery’s early centuries, Buckfast, which is strategically placed beside the River Dart that runs through the area, also generates their own power with a water turbine that provides enough energy not only for their own grounds, but for locals in the nearby area who want to purchase it for their own homes and neighborhoods.
Another means of income for the monastery is renting grazing ground for local farmers.
Several acres of land had been purchased for Buckfast when it was established in order to preserve the silence of the monastery and ensure that the monks were truly removed with few distractions. However, since the swath of land owned by Buckfast largely serves as a buffer-of-sorts from the outside world, they rent out certain patches to local farmers who need fresh grazing land.
And while Buckfast can’t quite claim to be celebrating 1,000 years of having monks on the property, the millennium anniversary of the monastery’s foundation is recognized as a monumental event not only for the abbey, but the entire region.
Preparations for the anniversary have been underway for 10 years. According to Charlesworth, “not only do we reassess the physical environment of the monastery, but we reassess our spiritual lives as well.”
“Everything is integrated, it’s an integrated system,” he said, noting that while the monks themselves have had retreats and meditations to reflect on, the structure of the monastery itself has also been cleaned and renovated, from the base of the Church floor to the top of the bell tower.
Paintings depicting the history and reconstruction of the monastery have also been produced, and vestments woven in honor of the upcoming anniversary. Exhibits on Buckfast and monasticism are also set to be unveiled, and study workshops are scheduled exploring the role of Christian monasticism both in the past and in the present.
The famous image of Our Lady of Buckfast that greets visitors as they approach the monastery was also redone. Crafted by a local artist with her neighbor and her neighbor’s baby as models, the statue depicts a smiling Mary holding a smiling infant Christ in a relaxed pose on her hip.
Based on the medieval original, which was destroyed during the sacking of the monastery in the 1500s, the statue, according to Charlesworth, is meant to depict “the joy of motherhood.”
“You don’t typically see statues like that,” with Mary’s soft but full smile, and her relaxed pose, he said, explaining that when he initially commissioned the statue in 2012, “I specifically asked that be emphasized…the smiling motherly face of Mary and child.”
When pilgrims arrive, he explained, they see Christ “smiling and looking at them as a child – because he was a child – and there is Mary looking at her Son in the joy of motherhood.”
Various liturgical events are also set to take place, with three major Masses scheduled throughout the year. The first will take place on the May 24 feast of Our Lady of Buckfast, which will mark the diocesan celebration.
The bishops of England, Wales, and Scotland will all be invited to the Mass. Parish priests and representatives of parishes in the area will also be invited.
The next major liturgical event will be the singing of Vespers by the abbey choir on the July 11 feast of St. Benedict. Members of both civil society and the Church of England will be invited for a civic and ecumenical celebration of the anniversary.
Another Mass will be offered on the Aug. 25 feast of the Dedication of the Abbey, which will be more of a community celebration for the abbey parish staff and their families.
On Oct. 27 a Votive Mass will be offered for the Oct. 27 feast of Saints Simon and Jude, which will be celebrated by the Benedictine Abbot Primate, Gregory Polan of Conception Abbey in Missouri, who will come in from Rome for the celebration.
The Mass will primarily be for the monks and nuns o the Benedictine family, particularly those from France and in Germany, since the first monks to re-settle Buckfast in the 19th century were French and German.
With around 120 employees on staff and 3-400,000 visitors a year, Buckfast is far from a small presence in the area. However, there are only 15 monks, including Abbot Charlesworth, who live in the enclosed monastery of the abbey.
But according to Charlesworth, “the vitality of a monastic community witness does not depend so much on the age or number of members as on their manner of living the monastic life.”
Going into the future, he hopes Buckfast Abbey is able to offer a concrete service based on “Christ-centered hospitality” to the mission of the Church as a whole, but specifically the pilgrims who come.
“The monastic life itself is our way of participating in the mission of Christ and his Church,” the abbot said, adding that it offers both the Church and the world “a strong clear sign of the very nature of the Christian life.”
Though the monks are enclosed, that doesn’t mean they are inactive or that their presence isn’t felt, he said, because if lived properly through a life of prayer and asceticism, monastic life “assumes an evangelical importance, being the attitude and behavior which demonstrates our faith at the point of contact with each other and the world.”
“To witness the contentment and pleasure that others experience here is a great joy,” he said, noting that for many of Buckfast’s visitors, the monastery is a place “where they are uplifted and find peace,” which in itself is “an important source of encouragement.”
This opportunity for peace, joy and renewal is a primary way to evangelize, particularly amid a busy and often hectic rhythm, he said.
Evangelization, he said, “should seek to orientate our human freedom towards God, who is the source of truth, goodness and beauty.”
Because of this, a life of prayer is also a mode of evangelization, he said, explaining that “the Spirit given to us in prayer and the sacraments encourages us to spread the Good News of Jesus in word and deed” to the community, and to visitors.
“For us, the three-fold mission of liturgy, hospitality and evangelization helps us to express our commitment, through our monastic calling to the life of the Gospel,” Charlesworth said, stressing that “we do not have to work away from the monastery to bear witness to Jesus.”
“Within the monastic enclosure, if we are willing to cooperate with each other and collaborate with those who share our vision, we have the resources to bring hope and joy to those in need.”
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If I were in GB, I’d organize protest against an unjust law and entitle it, “One Arrest Per Day.” I’d make sure the jails would be increasingly populated by praying protesters until this evil law was rescinded.
The UK is a disgrace. Police officers who abduct, murder and rape go undetected despite warning signs. Pray silently to save a life and they respond. Say a nasty tweet and the force will be with you. One day everyone will look back and be incredulous how these times were acceptable.
This is common practice in Canada. You cannot loiter within 200 meters of an abortuary. I am ashamed of Canada and its culture of death.
I am so sorry to observe that the Brits have become increasingly unhinged in this area, with a resultant loss of freedom of speech, assembly and religion. Why, yes, lets not just arrest folks for what they say and do but also for what they THINK!!! Disgusting. They closed down churches during covid and kept them closed long after the need was passed. They fully supported transgender surgeries etc for underage children, up until a recent clinic closure. They have tip-toed around the violent grooming actions against under-age girl perpetrated by Muslim immigrants.God forbid you make any anti-immigrant observations, even if proven TRUE. The patients are running the asylums there now. It is heartbreaking to see the oldest leading nation of western civilization and thought come to this pass. Brits can expect to lose more and more freedoms unless they wake up.
I read recently on the BBC’s site that a Scottish grandmother with asthma discovered she’d been given a “Do Not Resuscitate” status without her knowledge nor consent. She suffered from asthma which made her prone to respiratory infections, but she was not terminally ill nor greatly advanced in age. She had a daughter & several grandchildren she was looking forward to spending time with. Much to live for.
Per the article the DNR designation is completely up to the healthcare professionals. It’s not negotiable with patients or their families & doesn’t require their permission or being made known to them.
I can’t presume anything for sure from the article, but I have a feeling from the names & photos of the family that they’re likely Catholic working-class folk of Irish origin. Not amongst the Scottish elite.
When you hear about the NHS & the good it’s done there’s also a dark side. Just as there is in most healthcare systems.
The first thing to focus on is the long journey by which the political and legal powers have emancipated themselves from the contents and placed themselves on a level of “neutrality” with respect to them. This is the long process of secularization of our legal civilization that Carl Schmitt and Wolfgang Bökenförde have well described.
Carl Schmitt illustrated the legal-political perspective of Thomas Hobbes and how it is the basis of every form of “legal positivism”.
Leviathan is like a God on earth, given its functional artificiality it is a machine, and since Descartes had said that man is an “intellect in a machine”, Hobbes’ Leviathan is the great man who coincides with the great car.
If the State is “magnun artificium,” then it is a technical-neutral instrument whose value lies in being a good machine independent of any content of political ends or beliefs and acquires neutrality with respect to the values and truth proper to an instrument technician.
With the State-machine of Hobbes the “neutrality” is lucidly and tragically founded, according to which the “State has its order within itself and not outside itself”. It can demand unconditional obedience and if today the State does not allow conscientious objection it is because the Leviathan cannot admit a “right of resistance”, of which conscientious objection is an expression.
The majority “will never commit injustice, but will transform every action into law and legality”. But, this is precisely the worst tyranny. That of modern liberal, constitutional, bourgeois democracies: the rule of law.
I think you just described Governments
as Artificial Intelligence!
Yes. Böckenförde thinks that at a certain point, the secularized state could decide to live as if this corrosion of the nonnegotiable principles had not occurred. This means that the breakdown of the unavailable at a certain point, it is not known for what reason, stops and a system of freedom is created which is also favorable to Christianity. But the postmodern scenography denies all of this: today the anti-life legislation wants to reshape human nature and annul God’s presence in the world. In secularization, there is therefore a coherent and unstoppable soul which, tends towards the final solution. The phase of “neutrality” was a prelude to the next phase of the systematization and institutionalization of evil. At first, political thought dispenses with God, but then fights against Him to eliminate Him; at first, it dispenses with nature, but then fights against it to eliminate and reshape it. Positivism, including most moral positivism an legal positivism, Kelsen for example, is commonly held to be an example of neutrality. On the other hand, when reason, in this case, juridical reason, detaches itself from religion, it cannot fail to become anti-religious. Both Augusto Del Noce and Cornelio Fabro, two great Italian thinkers, had warned us against this possible misunderstanding, inviting us not to fall into the trap.
Prayer scares them. Please continue.
A recent celebrant on the EWTN mass commented that when Damar Hamlin collapsed, (paraphrasing) prayer was mentioned/needed and requested repeatedly, yet there always seems to be controversy and sometimes fines in the NFL.
Leftist regimes use George Orwell’s dystopian novels as how-to manuals on governing (cf. Biden White House).
On the other hand, violence against abortion clinics is well documented, as is harassment of persons. It’s a bad look for the political pro-life movement and seems counter-productive if conversion of heart is the goal here.
It’s a Matthew 6:5-6 moment. Pray somewhere private, then perform some hidden act of charity.
“Pray somewhere private, then perform some hidden act of charity.”
**************
Because that worked so well for the civil rights movement…
God bless this British gentleman. His arrest & comments have done more to shed a light on the barbarism of feticide than anything else recently in the UK.
The difference is that the mainstream civil rights movement in the US adopted non-violence. That has not been the case for the pro-life movement. I recall in the mid-90s Cardinal Law advised a ban: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=5272
It is always a matter of prudence, and given the violent tendencies in our culture, often from the Right, there may be better choices afoot. The topic of the civil rights movement is otherwise unhelpful to the discussion.
I would appreciate specifics on your accusation of violence against abortion clinics. Shouting at people from across the street may not be pleasant but in todays world, when senators kneel in support of burning and looting riots, it does not qualify as violence. What is happening in Britain to people silently praying is unconscionable and morally reprehensible. Clearly, those who ACTUALLY appear to be the subject of attack are pro-life center ( and churches) , which do nothing except provide support to pregnant women, hardly a nefarious activity. The murder of babies on the other hand, does tend to disturb people who actually have a sense of morality or conscience. I also find disturbing so=called Catholics who support the Pro-abortion democrats. How do such people support a party whose primary purpose is to ensure that women can murder their children???? Dem’s stand on abortion has morphed from “rare and safe” to “anytime, anyplace, even after birth, honey!! Party on!!” The damage done and threats made by the rabid pro-abortion “Jane’s Revenge” group comes to mind.Its a small comfort to think that such people likely have no interest in breeding. Those perpetrators remain unidentified, in yet another case of ineptitude by the Dem controlled FBI.
Yes, we have whataboutism.
A BBC survey in 2015 found an increase in “American style” protesting. If, LJ, you have doubts about violence and the threats of violence, I suggest you read about it. Cardinal Law certainly considered it in 1995.
As a pro-life Catholic I object to bad behavior. It reflects badly on the Church and the effort to people who sit on the abortion fence.
The conspiracy theories do us little good. Silly stuff: space lasers, pizza parties, Republicans dressing in drag. Oh wait, that last one was confessed.
Mr Todd,
Perhaps you could clarify how the civil rights and prolife movements don’t have intrinsic connecting threads both in human rights intention and non violence?
I hope the gentleman in this article inspires others to publicly witness in the same way. That’s how it worked for civil rights.
Sure. By now, almost three generations have passed. Bad actors in the pro-life movement have sullied the effort. Some of them support laws and policies that actively discourages women from having children. Some of them have stances that aren’t pro-life–in favor of the death penalty, or the ill treatment of prisoners or refugees.
The pro-life protesters march, as civil rights advocates did.
The largest difference between them is significant. Clinic demonstrators intimidate women, those at the very bottom of the abortion food chain. The operators are inside, safe and insulated. The civil rights movement bothered–and still bothers–the powerful: police, government officials, business leaders. The houses those marches passed? Even if they were inclined to racism, they could always close their windows, draw the curtains, and be at their business.
I support the March for Life and encourage people to go. As Cardinal Law suggested in 1995, clinic protesting is a prudential choice. It’s not bad. But it’s not the best. I’ve never heard of pro-lifers protesting pharmaceutical companies for producing abortion drugs, or medical instrument makers for their contributions. They are the ones making money off the misfortune of women. Why not pick on and picket them? And all those made-in-China goods some pro-life people buy? The Chinese government actively coerces and forces women to have abortions. Why buy Chinese made goods, even if they are cheap? Why not protest at the Chinese embassy for their government’s culture of death?
Frankly, I think the political pro-life movement is spent. Y’all need new ideas. Creativity. Intimidating women, especially by large-ish men? Bad look.
Cd Law asked (one of numerous errors of governance by him) for a moratorium on NON VIOLENT pro-life demonstrations for fear that PRO-ABORTIONISTS will be violent to THEM. The exact opposite of your preposterous claim that mainstream pro-lifers endorse violence.
The 1960s Civil Rights movement had proportionately far more violence than the pro life movement has ever had. Never heard of Malcolm X?
This would be fake news.
Given that Card. Law received death threats because of his work within the civil rights movement, the issue is relevant.
Card. Law did not condemn prayer or prayerful protest of abortion. He called for a prudential moratorium in the immediate aftermath of the fatal shooting of two abortion workers by a mental wacko who later killed himself in prison…this wack-job was not ‘prolife.’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Salvi
How does that violence compare to the violent deaths suffered by the victims of abortion? One comparison? One group communicates its status as ‘victims.’
Um, Todd.
Are you sure you’re commenting on the right article here?
By definition, silent prayer is “private,” wherever it is you’re praying. It’s *silent* prayer, you see?
And where do you see violence or harassment mentioned in reference to those apprehended? They were engaged in *silent* prayer!
Finally, is “conversion of hearts” the goal here, or is it a needless diversion?
Isn’t the goal really ending the most horrific crime against humanity ever conceived, the killing of one Billion-plus innocent children worldwide over the past half century?
How can you possibly object to two people engaging in silent prayer to combat that?
Or do you think it’s overreacting?
(Sigh.)
Not a question of how, but where, sir. CCC 1759.
So, Todd. You’ve lost me here.
You cited CCC Paragraph 1759. Which reads:
1759 “An evil action cannot be justified by reference to a good intention” (cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Dec. praec. 6). The end does not justify the means.
So tell me. How is silent prayer “an evil action”? *Wherever* it is prayed?
It depends on the intent. But the essence is this: the ends do not justify the means.
Please cite all the instances of pro-life supporters doing violence against abortuaries in the past 5 years, even 25 years. You won’t because you can’t. Sorry, you lose.
Well, no, I’m not going to do the work for people who close their eyes, plug their ears, and repeat their mantra, nyah, nyah, nyah. I will cite a celebrity, Frank Pavone, who committed blasphemy, disrespect of a corpse, and disobedience to lawful church authority as a person who acts as if he believe the ends justifies the means, in direct opposition to CCC 1753 and 1759. Case closed, deacon. Bette rluck next time.
I never saw the video of Fr. Pavone with the body of the aborted child but I’m not sure in what way he disrespected human remains that had likely been retrieved from the rubbish.
In whatever ways he may have failed in good taste & prudence he was drawing our attention to the humanity of the tiny victim. I see a parallel to making public the photos of concentration camp victims. As long as inhumanity & evil are abstract, we feel no urgency for change.
Or how is it bad behavior?
If he was standing there, quietly praying to himself, not saying anything, how does anyone know he was praying?
Maybe he was thinking about his girlfriend.
Yet again democracy is clearly an illusion. The robber barons in poitics clearly only serve self and nothing like the 99.9999% of the rest of us in the nazi state that is Uk. The lapdogs in power make the old criminal lags like the krays et al puppies in comparison. They have billions ££££ taxpayers money to spend on their arms trade paymasters making war all over the globe and nothing to spend on the poor. The state police have not served Mr Average for over 40yrs. This example proves a deviant minority have total free reign over the stasi state UK. Once again WHERE IS THE CHURCH when it needs to stand and be counted?