About Saint Michaels Abbey
Saint Michael's Abbey is a Benedictine abbey in Farnborough, Hampshire, England.
Saint Michaels Abbey Description
The Abbey was founded in 1881 by the Empress Eugénie (1826–1920) as a mausoleum for her late husband Napoleon III (1808–1873), and their son the Prince Imperial (1856–1879), both of whom rest in the Imperial Crypt, along with Eugénie herself, all in granite sarcophagi provided by Queen Victoria.
After the church and monastery were founded, they were initially administered by Premonstratensian Canons. In 1895, the Empress replaced them with French Benedictine monks from St Peter's Abbey, Solesmes. Fernand Cabrol, monk and scholar, became prior and afterwards abbot (1903); Henri Leclercq and a small group of French monks joined the house at the same time, and Leclercq and Cabrol collaborated for many years in scholarly endeavours. The community, once famed for its scholarly writing and musical tradition of Gregorian chants, became depleted in number by 1947, and was augmented by a small group of English monks from Prinknash Abbey in Gloucestershire. The last French monk, Dom Zerr, died in 1956. In 2006 the community elected the first English Abbot of Farnborough—the Right Reverend Dom Cuthbert Brogan.
Public tours of the Abbey take place every Saturday at 3pm, with the tour comprising a tour of the church and a visit to the crypt.
Reviews
Fr Abbot presided at Tyburn Convent in the heart of London, at the profession of temporary vows of Sr Mary John of Jesus. The Convent is located near to Marble Arch where more than a hundred of our English Martyrs died for their Catholic Faith. Fr Abbot has been a close friend of this community and has been their confessor for almost twenty years. https://www.tyburnconvent.org.uk/
On Sunday our Conventual Mass was sung by newly- ordained Fr Oliver Craddock of the Oxford Oratory. Fr Oliver has been a good friend of our community across the last six years, visiting often for retreats and breaks. Our monks have been privileged to enjoy his friendship and to watch his progress to the sacred priesthood. Having celebrated the Mass he helped in the kitchen. Ora et labora!
work on new gate system continues
Today we celebrated St Andrew Svorad and St Benedikt. We were pleased to have the Slovak ambassador with us at Vespers, who came to us after a long day promoting Slovakian interests at the Farnborough Airshow. Our Brother Benedikt was pleased to offer him the relics of these saints of Skalka for veneration. Bishop Viliam Judák and the diocese of Nitra are especially in our prayers today.
The weather has not been easy for our poor sheep. Today another load of hay was cut from our fields to give them a good supper.
Brother Benedict celebrating our feast “ora et labora” #saintbenedikt
A happy feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist to you all. This morning we celebrated with a solemn pontifical Mass, assisted by a crack team of servers from the Tatras mountains in Slovakia. The deacon was Br Oliver Craddock Cong Orat who will be ordained priest on Friday of this week, the assistant priest Fr Lukas.
Our Lady of Walsingham is visiting the cathedrals of England to encourage the faithful to make pilgrimage to England's Nazareth. With her are relics of our ancient saints. The reliquary of St Alban is shown in this photograph, containing a major relic taken from those revered at Cologne for more than a thousand years.
This morning the community celebrated a High Mass for the Feast of St Alban, protomartyr of England. The vestments are from material given the Empress Eugénie by the Sultan of Turkey during the State Visit to Constantinople during her trip to open the Suez Canal.
Brother Benedikt spent a profitable afternoon in the apiary.
Five of our monks assisted with the ceremonies of solemn profession of a nun at the Benedictine enclosed convent at Ryde this week. The chant was superb, our bishop presided, our abbot preached the homily. The photographs are of the beautifully calligraphed and illuminated Rituale used for the celebration.
Conventual Mass in the Octave of Easter MMXVIII.
Our thanks to all of who who have been so generous in this campaign to restore St Joseph's Shrine to its full dignity. We need only £3.38 now to complete this appeal - any stragglers?!