On November 2, 2005 two monks, Fr Finbar Kealy & Fr Peter Bowe,
seen on the right outside our former monastery,
started a small urban monastery, the Maison St-Benoît,
in Douai, 25 miles south of Lille.
In May 2008 Fr Finbar was called to become administrator of Quarr Abbey in the Isle of Wight.
- the parish priest & parishioners
of Douai invited us to re-establish a monastery,
100 years after our expulsion in 1903.
-
the archbishop of the local diocese of Cambrai gave his
blessing
- the venture has the support of the mayor and townspeople.
On Sunday February 5, 2006 the monastery was officially opened by the
Archbishop of Cambrai after a Mass in the collegiate church St-Pierre
. Click
to see photos and an account
of the event.
Sadly this house had to close in 2012. Since Fr Finbar was sought by the Solesmes
Congregation to
be superior at Quarr Abbey in the Isle of Wight in 2008, it has become increasingly
difficult to find monks, at Douai Abbey or elsewhere, who were sufficiently fluent
in French and who could be spared from other work.
A letter was sent to monastic
superiors in Europe, North America and elsewhere seeking a second monk. A number of
monks from other monasteries have come for short periods, but, it has not been possible
to find any monks to stay on a semi-permanent basis, and so with great sadness this
monastic cell had to close in January 2012.
A Mass of thanksgiving for the six years the monks haad been in Douai was celebrated
in church of Notre Dame on Saturday January 14, 2012, by the Archbishop of Cambrai, Mgr Garnier
and the clergy and peope of Douai.
Click to see
an account and photos of this Mass.
Nevertheless, the link with Douai, France, will be kept alive, thanks to the William
Allen Association. Hopefully, Douai monks will continue to go to Douai, France, to give
talks and conferences, and a group of Douaisiens is already booked to come to Douai, England,
in May 2012 for a retreat, and similar ventures will continue to be arranged in future years.
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