150th Anniversary of Monastic Life at Belmont

Abbot Paul's Welcome
4th September 2010

Abbot Paul welcomed all those who had joined the community for its celebration
with some words about the original dedication of the Church in 1860.

The annals relate how on 4th September 1860 this church was consecrated by Bishop Thomas Brown of Newport and Menevia after which a solemn Pontifical Mass of Dedication was sung by Abbot Prosper Guéranger of Solesmes, the first mitred ruling abbot to set foot in Britain since the Reformation. Cardinal Wiseman had originally accepted an invitation to sing the Mass, but ill health prevented him from keeping his engagement. Then on 5th September the entire hierarchy, except the Cardinal and Bishop Grant of Southwark, was present in the church. Bishop Brown officiated at a Pontifical Mass in the presence of a hundred monks, priests from all over the country and a large number of dignitaries and other guests.

The bishop's train was carried by the five year old son of the founder, Mr Francis Richard Wegg-Prosser of Belmont House. The sermon was preached by Bishop Bernard Ullathorne of Birmingham, like Bishop Brown a monk of St Gregory's, Downside. Afterwards two hundred gentlemen guests were served lunch in the cloister, while the ladies were entertained in the guest-rooms.

In the evening Bishop Brown presided at Pontifical Vespers, while the sermon was preached by Mgr. Henry Edward Manning on the history of the Benedictine Order in England and the prospect of the "Second Spring." We can well imagine what excitement was caused locally by these proceedings, and indeed interest was excited all over the country.

In addition to being the Common Novitiate House for the English Benedictine Congregation from 1860 to the end of the First World War, Belmont also became the mother church of what are today the Catholic Dioceses of Cardiff and Menevia and the centre of the mission to re-evangelise Wales and Herefordshire under two great Benedictine bishops, Thomas Brown and Cuthbert Hedley. The tomb of the formerand a monument to the latter can be seen in the North Transept.

Today it gives us immense pleasure to welcome the Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, who will preside and preach at the Solemn Mass of Dedication. We welcome several of his fellow bishops together with the Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Confederation, Benedictine abbots and abbesses and diocesan clergy. We welcome in particular the Lord-Lieutenant of Herefordshire, the Countess of Darnley, the High Sheriff and Deputy Mayor. We welcome the Bishop of Hereford and other ecumenical guests. Finally we welcome you all: oblates, parishioners from the many parishes for which Belmont has pastoral care, former pupils of our schools, relatives, benefactors and friends.

We ask you all to join with us in thanking God for 150 years' faithful service to Benedictine life and to the pastoral work of his Church. At the same time we ask your prayers that present and future generations of Belmont monks may continue the good work of their predecessors, building up the Church of Christ by their prayer and sacrifice and by their fidelity to the Rule of St Benedict and the teaching of the Catholic Church.

We also ask you to pray with us that the forthcoming visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Great Britain and the Beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman will strengthen our Christian faith and our resolve not only to preach but to live to the full the truth of the Gospel. May the good Lord bless and keep you all.