English Benedictine Congregation

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The English Benedictine Congregation (abbr. EBC) comprises autonomous Roman Catholic Benedictine communities of monks and nuns and is technically the oldest of the 21 congregations that are affiliated in the Benedictine Confederation.

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[edit] History and Administration

Although the EBC claims technical canonical continuity with the congregation erected by the Holy See in 1216, that earlier English Congregation was destroyed at the dissolution of the monasteries in 1535-40. The present English Congregation was revived and restored by Rome in 1607-33 when numbers of Englishmen and Welshmen had become monks in continental European monasteries and were coming to England as missioners. It is thus arguable whether there is any real continuity of life or tradition between the pre-Reformation and counter-Reformation English congregations.

At the beginning of the 21st century the EBC has Houses in the United Kingdom, the United States, South America and Africa.

Every four years the General Chapter of the EBC elects an Abbot President from among the Ruling Abbots with jurisdiction, and those who have been Ruling Abbots. He is assisted by a number of officials. Periodically he undertakes a Visitation of the individual Houses. The purpose of the Visitation is the preservation, strengthening and renewal of the religious life, including the laws of the Church and the Constitutions of the congregation. The President may require by Acts of Visitation, that particular points in the Rule, the Constitutions and the law of the Church be observed.

The current Abbot President is the Right Reverend Dom Richard Yeo, former Abbot of Downside Abbey.

[edit] Houses of the English Benedictine Congregation

[edit] Houses of the Congregation in exile

Religious house in Europe Location Dates Successor house in England
St. Gregory's Priory, Douai Douai, France 1607-1798 Downside Abbey
Dieulouard Priory France 1608-1798 Ampleforth Abbey
St. Malo Priory St. Malo, Brittany 1610 approx. -late 17th century n/a
St. Edmund's Priory, Paris; later St. Edmund's Abbey, Douai Paris 1615-1798 (Paris); 1818-1903 (Douai) Douai Abbey, Woolhampton
Cambrai Priory Cambrai, Flanders 1625-1794 Stanbrook Abbey
Our Lady of Good Hope Priory, Paris Paris 1651-1794 Colwich Abbey
Lamspringe Abbey Lamspringe, Lower Saxony 1630-1803 Broadway Priory, 1826-34; Fort Augustus Abbey, 1886-1998

[edit] Houses of the present Congregation

United Kingdom:

United States:

[edit] Notes


[edit] Sources