The Abbey of Our Lady and Saint Peter at Prinknash is home to a community of Roman Catholic Benedictine Monks belonging to the English Province of the Subiaco Cassinese Congregation of the Order of Saint Benedict within the International Benedictine Confederation whose headquarters is at Sant'Anselmo, Rome.
Our life is inspired by the Rule of Saint Benedict written 1,500 years ago in Italy. This document was, after the Bible, the most influential piece of Christian literature in Europe during the Middle Ages and even today continues to invigorate the lives of thousands of monasteries throughout the world.
A Short History
Our community began life in the Church of England when our founder, Aelred Carlyle, set up a small community in the Isle of Dogs, London, in 1896.
After many wanderings, including sojourns in Dorset and Yorkshire, they eventually settled on Caldey Island off Tenby, South Wales, in October 1906.
Disagreement with the then authorities in the Church of England led to almost all of them becoming Roman Catholics in March 1913.
Financial and other difficulties forced the community to look for another home, and in December 1928, they came to Prinknash Park, where we have been ever since. Caldey Abbey was taken over by another branch of the Benedictine family, the Trappists.
The Prinknash community flourished in the mid-20th century, building a large monastery on the far side of the estate in the 1960's. Although this was abandoned when the community moved back to the Old House in June 2008, it is currently being refurbished so that it will soon be able to house a community of Benedictine Nuns from Kingstanding in Birmingham, the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
In 2008, the community moved back across the estate from the 1972 Abbey to the "old house", Prinknash Park, where they had lived from 1928 until 1972.
Though small, the community continues to flourish in collaboration with the Abbey of St Michael, at Farnborough, Hampshire, whose Abbot is also our Major Superior.
Subiaco Cassinese Benedictine Congregation
The Subiaco Benedictine Congregation started in 1851 as a Province within the ancient Italian Cassinese Benedictine Congregation (founded by Pope Gregory XII in 1408). Since this new Province, with its leader Abbot Pier Francesco Casaretto, followed a much stricter observance of the Rule of Saint Benedict, with a strong missionary thrust towards distant parts of the world outside Italy (something unknown in the Cassinese).
It gradually became impossible for it to remain within the Cassinese framework, and a new Congregation was formed in 1867 (The Cassinese Congregation of the Primitive Observance) which received full Papal approval in 1872 and, in 1959, changed its name to the Subiaco Benedictine Congregation.
With the passage of time, the “mother” and “daughter” Congregations were gradually reconciled and, in 2012, the Subiaco General Chapter voted the incorporation of the Cassinese Congregation into that of Subiaco, and Pope Benedict XVI put this into effect in February 2013.