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4.6 Centenary 1903-2003 - This page

Abbots of Douai 1900-2003

Douai Abbey WOOLHAMPTON CENTENARY 1903 - 2003 Right Rev. Hugh Laurence Larkin DD OSB - elected 1900 Right Rev. Thomas Ambrose Bamford OSB - elected 1904 Right Rev. Augustine Stanislaus Taylor OSB - elected 1905 Right Rev. William David Hurley OSB - elected 1913 Right Rev. Walter Edmund Kelly OSB - elected 1921 Right Rev. Ignatius Sylvester Mooney OSB - elected 1929 Right Rev. Stanley Gregory Freeman OSB - elected 1969 Right Rev. Darragh Leonard Vickers OSB - elected 1989 Right Rev. John Finbar Kealy OSB - elected 1990 Right Rev. Geoffrey Scott OSB elected 1998

The celebration of the Community's residence for a century at Woolhampton will run from June 2003 until June 2004. The next major celebration will be in 2015, which will celebrate the fourth centenary of the Community's foundation in Paris. Details of the programme are summarised here: click items for further information.

• 21 June 2003: Mass - presided by Cardinal Murphy O'Connor, sermon by Abbot Primate Notker Wolf OSB
• Commemorative Volume and Music CD
• Installation of Bell in Abbey Church
• Exhibition throughout the year - including Illuminated Scroll 1903
• Commemorative Postcard - School entrance as it was in 1903
• Flower Festival in the summer of 2004
• Douai Society Mass and Dinner with Association William Allen
• Visit as guests of the mayor and municipality of Douai, France, in October
• Polish Benedictine Student Bursary at Oxford
• Course: 'Monks and Monasticism' given at University of Reading
• Hosting at Douai of EBC Monastic Theology and Liturgy Commissions and the History Symposium
• Lectures by Prior Edmund Power OSB and Mr John Trigg

EXHIBITION
An exhibition has been mounted at Douai and remain throughout the year. One item in the exhibition is an Illuminated Scroll presented to the Community when it arrived in London in 1903.
Other items include a sketch of the 1903 buildings annotated with the usage of rooms, and an architect's drawing of the proposed new monastic library 2003.

COMMEMORATIVE POSTCARD
A commemorative postcard, showing F.A.Walters' water-colour of the school entrance as it was in 1903 (see picture) has been printed and is on sale in the Abbey Bookshop price 15p.

FLOWER FESTIVAL
A flower festival was held April 30 - May 3 2004.

POLISH STUDENT BENEDICTINE BURSARY
A Bursary covering the tuition fees at Blackfriars, Oxford, for a monk from a Polish monastery, is being paid for the centenary year.

HOSTING AT DOUAI
The Monastic Theology and Liturgical Commissions and the History Symposium were held at Douai during Easter Week.

LECTURES
At the same time as the Commission and other meetings, lectures by Prior Edmund Power OSB, Mr John Trigg on Woolhampton in 1903 were held.Click Here.

ILLUMINATED SCROLL
A Scroll was presented to the Community as it arrived at Charing Cross Station from France on 18 June 1903. Below is a reproduction of the Scroll and the text.

To the Right Revd. The Abbot Very Revd.Prior, Community and Students of S.Edmund's Abbey & College, Douai. Expelled from June 1903, by the French Government in hatred of the Catholic Religion

We Catholics of England,

desire to offer our heartfelt sympathy, and our
deep appreciation of and gratitude for the splendid fidelity with which
you have carried on the glorious traditions of Douai to the close.
We look to you as the last of the Confessors of the Faith whom
Douai has sent forth to work & to suffer for Christ since 1568; a
period of 335 years. We greet you! we are deeply grateful to you! O Douai!

What shall we say of thee? how can one worthily write of thee? Though no English
name, yet dear beyond words to the Catholics of England! Alma Mater indeed to all
of us, though few of us comparatively, had the privilege of being educated within thy walls.

Thou wert England's Lighthouse in darkest times, when the storm was at its height.
From Thee beamed forth the Light of Truth when thousands were being shipwreck-
ed in a sea of error! Thou wast the shelter of the Exile, the safe rock which gave foot-
hold amid the quicksands of heresy! How many a drowning soul was rescued
from the deep by the strong hands reached forth to them from Douai! Thy Name is
written in letters of gold upon the saddest page of our history, shedding lustre where all
else was dim; and it is graven deep upon our grateful hearts, never to be effeced; to be
handed down to our children and our children's children, as the School of Martyrs, as
England's Hope in her direst need, as England's Glory to the end of time.

Salvete, Flores Martyrum! Flowers of Douai's 160 Martyrs! We greet you,
proudly we welcome you! We are grateful to you! And we wish you all God's bless-
ings in your new home in England. Here in the enjoyment of true liberty and freedom
from all persecution, may the Spirit of Old Douai flourish for many long years.

Signed on behalf of all Subscribers

For the Bishops and Clergy:
+ Richard Bishop of Middlesborough

For the Douai Society:
Joseph Cowgill - President,
A.H.Villiers - Secretary

For the Laity:
Norfolk E.M.,
James Sprankling - Hon: Treasurer,
Caspar J. Lutz and Philip Fletcher - Hon: Secretaries

London - 18 June 1903

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Dominus Mihi Adjutor - Lumen in Coelo - Adjutorium Nostrum in Nomine Domini

College founded 1568 - Benedictines entered 1605 - Benedictines left 1795 - Benedictines returned 1818 - Benedictines expelled 1903

S.Edmunde Ora Pro Nobis - S.Benedicte Ora Pro Nobis - S.Thoma Ora Pro Nobis

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SOME OTHER ITEMS IN THE EXHIBITION

A sketch of the 1903 buildings annotated with the usage of the rooms. For example (recent school usage in brackets):

Kitchen (linen room)
Refectory (Old Hall)
Monks' Rooms (Rice Dormitory and Prefects' Gallery)
Billiard Room, Library, Calefactory (School Infirmary)

 

 

The proposed new monastic library is to be sited to the north of the Abbey Church, near the place where the foundation stone was blessed. A Drawing prepared by David Richmond & Partners in 2003.

 

 

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LECTURERS:

Mr John Trigg is a local historian who has published many pamphlets on the history of Woolhampton and its neighbourhood.

Father Edmund Power is a monk of Douai and Prior of the International Benedictine college of Sant’ Anselmo in Rome.