English Benedictine Congregation

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

English Benedictine Congregation
AbbreviationPost-nominal letters: O.S.B.
NicknameEBC
Formation1216
TypeBenedictines
HeadquartersUnited Kingdom
Region served
UK, USA, Peru, Zimbabwe
Members
246 monastics
Abbot President
Christopher Jamison, O.S.B.
Parent organization
Benedictine Confederation; Roman Catholic Church
Websitewww.benedictines.org.uk

History and administration

The EBC claims technical canonical continuity with a congregation of Benedictine abbeys in England erected by the Holy See in 1216, and which ceased to exist at the dissolution of the monasteries in 1535–1540. The actual origins of the present congregation lay with Catholic English expatriates in France, the Low Countries and Italy at the start of the 17th century, and the first monastery was founded at Douai in 1606; this is the ancestor of the present Downside Abbey.[1] English exiles also joined the Italian Cassinese Congregation, and in 1607 two of these were "aggregated" to the extinct English congregation by the last surviving member of it, Dom Sigebert Buckley. He had been a monk of the Westminster Abbey re-founded by Queen Mary I of England, but dissolved again by Queen Elizabeth I in 1550. The EBC claim of continuity depends on this deed of aggregation, not on any survival of any actual monastic life after the Dissolution.[2]

As of 2020, the EBC has houses in the United Kingdom, the United States, Peru, and Zimbabwe.

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 or she is assisted by a number of officials, and periodically 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.[3]

The current Abbot President is Abbot Christopher Jamison, former Abbot of Worth Abbey.[4][5]

Sexual abuse scandal
Main article: Sexual abuse scandal in the English Benedictine Congregation

The sexual abuse scandal in the EBC around the turn of the 21st century was a significant episode in a series of Catholic sex abuse cases in the United Kingdom. The events concerned ranged from the 1960s to the 2010s, and led to a number of EBC monks being laicized, convicted and imprisoned for the sexual abuse of children and vulnerable adults.

Houses

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 c.1610 – 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

United Kingdom
Defunct

United States

Peru

Zimbabwe

Membership

In 2020, membership of the constituent houses was as follows.[6]

House Bishops Monks Professed Nuns Novices
Downside Abbey01500
Ampleforth Abbey05201
Douai Abbey02100
Stanbrook Abbey00200
Belmont Abbey12702
Curzon Park Abbey0070
Colwich Abbey0050
Ealing Abbey01300
Buckfast Abbey01201
Saint Anselm's Abbey01300
Worth Abbey02100
Portsmouth Abbey0900
Saint Louis Abbey02500
Total1208324

References
  1. Benedictine Yearbook 2020 p. 97
  2. Benedictine Yearbook 2020 p. 19
  3. "English Benedictine History". plantata.org.uk. Ampleforth Abbey Trustees. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  4. Lamb, Christopher (1 August 2017). "Christopher Jamison appointed Abbot President of English Benedictines". The Tablet. London, UK. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  5. "Abbot Christopher Jamison elected new President". benedictines.org.uk. 1 August 2017. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  6. The Benedictine Yearbook. London: English Benedictine Congregation Trust. 2020. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-901089-58-8.
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