Mount St Bernard Abbey
Mount St Bernard Abbey
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 Location within Leicestershire
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| Monastery information | |
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| Order | Cistercian Trappists |
| Established | 1835 |
| Abbot | The Rt Rev Dom Erik Varden OCSO |
| Site | |
| Location | Near Coalville, Leicestershire, United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 52°44′29″N 1°19′23″W / 52.741352°N 1.323072°WCoordinates: 52°44′29″N 1°19′23″W / 52.741352°N 1.323072°W |
| Public access | yes |
Mount St Bernard Abbey is a Roman Catholic (Cistercian) monastery of the Strict Observance (Trappists) near Coalville in Leicestershire, England, formerly in the parish of Whitwick and now of that in Charley, in Charnwood Forest, founded in 1835. The abbey has the distinction of being the first permanent monastery to be founded in England since the Reformation and is the only Cistercian house in England.
The early history of Mount Saint Bernard Abbey is inextricably linked with an earlier, short-lived foundation of Cistercian monks in Lulworth, Dorset and the Abbey of Mount Melleray in Ireland. Following the suppression of monasteries in France, a small colony of dispossessed Cistercian monks had arrived in London in 1794, with the intention of moving on to found a monastery in Canada. Their plight came to the attention of Thomas Weld of Lulworth Castle, Dorset, a Catholic convert and philanthropist who distinguished himself in relieving the misfortunes of refugees of the French Revolution and who then provided them with land on which to establish a monastic community on his estate in East Lulworth.
The monks remained at Lulworth until 1817, when they returned to France to re-establish the ancient monastery of Melleray in Brittany, following the restoration of the Bourbons. This affair was short-lived however, when during the French Revolution of 1830, the monks were again persecuted and left to found Mount Melleray Abbey in Ireland (1833). It was from the Irish monastery of Mount Melleray that a small colony of monks was dispatched to found the monastery of Mount Saint Bernard in 1835.
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