arrow The Whitehaven News arrow September 7, 1905 arrow Revival of the Abbeys
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The Whitehaven News - September 7, 1905

REVIVAL OF THE ABBEYS.


       There will be a big national gathering in the Roman Catholic Church on
the 20th of the present month, that has some local interest. The new choir
and chancel of the famous Benedictine foundation of St. Gregory's, Downside
Abbey, will be solemnly dedicated. The English hierarchy will be represented by
Br. BOURNE, America by Dr. GLENNON, Archbishop of St. Louis, and Ireland by the
Archbishop of Cashel, while the Primate of the Benedictines and the numerous
other Abbots will add to the imposing character of the solemnities.

       The attendance of the clergy and laity will be very large, and the
Downside community is making provision for 100 gentlemen as it's guests at the
Abbey. One of the hundred will be Mr. J. G. DEES, of Whitehaven.

       Further local interest attaches to the event because all the Roman
Catholic  Churches of West Cumberland are attached to the Benedictine Abbeys. St.
Beghs Church, Whitehaven is a parochial church attached to  Downside, and is
served exclusively by it's college professors. The Rev. H. G. MURPHY, the
present incumbent, spent 32 years, man and boy, at Downside, where his brother, 
the Rev. J. B. MURPHY, was president for eight years, and commenced these
buildings  which are now almost completed.

       Egremont is also attached to Downside. Workington, Harrington, and
Maryport, are attached to Benedictine Abbey  of St. Lawrence's, Ampleforth; and
Cleator and Frizington are attached to St. Edmund's, Woolhampton. The clergy
sent out from these and other monastic missioning centres, are the "religious"
as distinguished from the "secular" clergy who are under the Bishops.

       In England, since the Reformation and the disappearance of the
monasteries, these distinctions have not be conspicuous; but there appears now to be
a considerable revival of the abbeys and the monastic system in this country.
The Downside Abbey which is near Bath, is built on the lines of the old abbey
churches in England, and is very beautiful.


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