Dom Bernard Wassall RIP

Abbot Brendan Thomas • September 5, 2020

Monk and Oblate Master

It is with great sadness that we announce the sudden death of Br Bernard, a much loved figure in the community. He collapsed at home in Barrow, where he had gone for a few days to see his mother. 

Dom Bernard was Oblate Master, and widely appreciated for his friendliness, care and good humour, his love of monastic history (that he taught the novices), and the creative gifts that he brought to Belmont in over 40 years of monastic life.

Pray for him. May he rest in peace.


Further Reflections

A large number of people have written to express their condolences with recollections from all different periods of Br Bernard's life. It is no surprise that there is such a response because he always had time for people and was willing to stop and have a chat. Someone sent this photo of him taken recently in church. It goes well with the following comments made by some other regular guests.

"We met him a few of times but he was always so cheerful, in a true northern sense, and left us feeling happy. The first time I met him, was on our first visit to Belmont shortly after the BBC broadcast about the monastic life. After an initial greeting he asked if we had met before, I told him no this was our first visit, but that I had seen him only a couple of days beforehand on the television.  With a face as straight as a die he said “Would you like my autograph?” 


As you can imagine for a moment I was completely floored and didn’t know what to say – I mean, was he being serious?  Was he joking?  For a moment I was completely panicked.  I don’t remember how I got out of it, but each time I think of him I am brought back to that moment but only with laughter and joy – no panic.  


"We will certainly miss him, for us he was a great character, very welcoming and very much a part of Belmont.  We always looked for him at prayer time, just waiting for him to appear and take his place, nothing more.  But there was a kind of reassurance that everything was normal when he came, rather like a child who when visiting family checks that everyone is there and finding it so, then relaxes, everything is normal and how it should be, nothing to worry about! And he was always around after Holy Mass ready for a chat. It was a great blessing to have met him and enjoy his company, I’m glad he was a part of our life albeit a fleeting one."  

That email, sums up for how we now feel at his passing from this life.


All that laughter, cheer and joy that he brought to the monastery.


But now, sadly, we look up, and he is not there. The empty chair. It is not normal. He is no longer there for a chat. We feel his loss as so many do, as a loved one passes away.


We pray that he is on his way to God, and as St Thomas More puts it "we meet merrily in heaven."


Fr Brendan

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