Mount Melleray Abbey

Mount Melleray Abbey is a Trappist monastery in Ireland, founded in 1833. It is situated on the slopes of the Knockmealdown Mountains, near Cappoquin, Diocese of Waterford.

Mount Melleray Abbey
Location within Ireland
Monastery information
OrderTrappists
Established1833
DioceseWaterford and Lismore
People
Founder(s)Sir Richard Keane
Architecture
StatusActive
Site
LocationCappoquin, County Waterford, Ireland
Coordinates52°11′15″N 7°51′27″W
Public accessYes

It is famous in literature due to Seán Ó Ríordáin's poem Cnoc Mellerí in Eireaball Spideoige (1952).[1] James Joyce mentions Mount Melleray in the final short story of his 1914 collection, Dubliners. In this story, entitled "The Dead", the monks of Mount Melleray are noted for their exceptional hospitality and piety.[2]

History

The Cistercian order itself dates back to the 12th century and the Trappists to the mid-17th century.

Following the suppression of monasteries in France after the French Revolution, some dispossessed Trappist monks had arrived in England in 1794 and established a monastic community in Lulworth, Dorset.[3] The monks returned to France in 1817 to re-establish the ancient Melleray Abbey in Brittany, following the restoration of the Bourbons. Within ten years, the restored monastery had two hundred members, of whom up to seventy were Irish.[4] During the July Revolution of 1830, the monks were again persecuted and Waterford-born Father Vincent Ryan was sent by Dom Antoine, Abbot of Melleray. to found an abbey in Ireland.[5]

Father Vincent initially rented a property in Rathmore, Co. Kerry.[6] Sixty-four Cisterican monks landed at Cobh from France on 1 December 1831.[7] The land in Rathmore proved unsuitable for housing the monastery and Fr Vincent looked to Co. Waterford, where Sir Richard Keane of Cappoquin had offered a tract of 600 acres of barren mountain land.[8]

The monastery was founded on 30 May 1832 at Scrahan, Cappoquin. In the work of reclaiming the soil, the brethren were assisted by the local people. A number of "work pilgrimages" were undertaken by members of nearby parishes, the first by the parish of Modeligo.[9]

On the feast of St Bernard, 1833, the foundation stone of the new monastery was blessed by Dr. William Abraham, Bishop of Waterford and Lismore. It was called Mount Melleray in memory of the motherhouse.[10] In 1835 the monastery was created an abbey, and Father Vincent, unanimously elected, received the abbatial blessing from Bishop Abraham, this being the first abbatial blessing in Ireland since the Protestant Reformation. It was from Mount Melleray that a small colony of monks was dispatched to found the English Mount Saint Bernard Abbey in 1835. Abbot Vincent vigorously undertook the work of completing the abbey, but died 9 December 1845.

His successor, Dom M. Joseph Ryan, resigned after two years. To Dom Bruno Fitzpatrick, who succeeded as abbot in September 1848, it remained to consolidate. He devoted his energy to missionary work (see below). Building resumed in the late 1920s when Dom Marius O'Phelan bought the great cut limestone blocks from Mitchelstown Castle (28 miles west), which had been burnt by the local IRA on 12 August 1922. In 1925, the owners of Mitchelstown castle dismantled the ruins and the stones were transported from Mitchelstown by steam lorry, two consignments a day for at least five years. As the Abbey was being laid out, Dom Marius died and his successor, Dom Celsus O'Connell, continued to the monumental task. He opted for a more prominent site directly over the mortal remains of 180 of his fellow Cistercians. The monks ended up with far more stones than they needed and these were eventually stacked in fields around the monastery.

In 1838 Daniel O'Connell, visited the Abbey, O'Connell was a supporter of Fr. Vincent, in establishing a Cistercian community in Ireland.

In 1849, Dom Bruno Fitzpatrick, who had become abbot the previous year founded New Melleray Abbey, near Dubuque, Iowa, U.S.A., and, in 1878, Mount Saint Joseph Abbey, Roscrea, Co. Tipperary, Ireland. He also founded the Ecclesiastical Seminary of Mount Melleray. Originating in a small school formed by Abbot Vincent in 1843, it was developed by Abbot Bruno and his successors.

During his July 1849 visit to neighbouring Dromana House, Scottish essayist Thomas Carlyle paid a visit to Mount Melleray and described the abbey in some detail, noting particularly the huge vats of "stir-about" or porridge the monks prepared for a large number of famine refugees that waited for food at the entrance to the monastery: "Entrance; squalid hordes of beggars, sit waiting" and "nasty tubs of cold stirabout (coarsest I ever saw) for beggars"(p. 90). He notes that the monastery "must have accumulated several thousand pounds of property in these seventeen ... years, in spite of its continual charities to beggars" (p. 92). Reminiscences of My Irish Journey in 1849. Thomas Carlyle, 1882.

In 1900 five stones with Ogham letters carved into them, which were found in 1857 (The Kilgrovan Stones) were transferred to the Abbey by Rev. Dr. Patrick Power.[11]

Abbot Bruno died 4 December 1893, and was succeeded by Dom Carthage Delaney, who was blessed 15 January 1894, and presided over Mount Melleray for thirteen years; his successor was Dom Marius O'Phelan, solemnly blessed by Dr. Sheahan, Bishop of Waterford, 15 August 1908. Dom O'Phelan is credited with resuming the building programme at Mount Melleray in 1925.

In 1954 six monks (eight more in 1955) went to found a small Trappist abbey in a remote, rural area of New Zealand, the Southern Star Abbey.[12]

Dom Eamon Fitzgerald, abbot of Mount Melleray, was elected abbot general of the order in September 2008.

Abbots
  • Dom Vincent de paul Ryan (1833-1845) - prior and founder of the abbey[10]
  • Dom Joseph Mary Ryan (1846-1848)
  • Dom Bartholomew (Bruno) Fitzpatrick (1848-1893)
  • Dom John (Carthage) Delaney (1894-1908)
  • Dom Richard (Marius) O'Phelan (1908-1931)[13]
  • Dom Stanislaus Hickey OSOC, BA(RUI) (1931-1933)
  • Dom Celsus O'Connell (1933-1957) - formerly Abbot of Mount St Bernard Abbey
  • Dom Finbar Cashman (1957-1971)
  • Dom Pól Ó hAonusa (Paul Hennessy) OCSO (1971-75) [14]
  • Dom Edward Ducey (1976-1980) - he had earlier founded New Mellifont Abbey in Co. Louth
  • Dom Justin MacCarthy (1980-1989)
  • Dom Eamon Fitzgerald (1989 - 2008) - appointed Abbot General of the Cistercians worldwide.[15]
  • Dom Augustine McGregor (2010-2014) - previously Abbot at New Mellifont (2004-2010)
  • Br. Boniface McGinley OCSO acting abbot
  • Dom Richard Purcell (2017-present)[16] previously Abbot of Mount St. Josephs Roscrea (2009-2017).

Boarding School

Since its early days, Mount Melleray educated both clerical and lay students. In 1972 it was announced that the boarding school was to close and it closed in 1974. In June 2019 the Mount Mellery College Past Pupils held its reunion in Melleray.

In 1977 the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland held its jubilee celebrations at Mount Melleray and in 1979 the former boarding school was acquired by the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland now part of Scouting Ireland and developed it into Mount Melleray National Scout and Activity Centre.[17]

Past Pupils of Mount Melleray College

See also

References
  1. "Art in the form of artefact". The Irish Times.
  2. "Text of the story" (PDF). www2.hn.psu.edu. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  3. "Archived copy". Retrieved 12 October 2019.
  4. Moloney, Stephen (1952). The History of Mount Melleray Abbey (PDF). Cork: Paramount Printing House. p. 5. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  5. Moloney, Stephen (1952). The History of Mount Melleray Abbey (PDF). Cork: Paramount Printing House. p. 5. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  6. Moloney, Stephen (1952). The History of Mount Melleray Abbey (PDF). Cork: Paramount Printing House. p. 6. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  7. Moloney, Stephen (1952). The History of Mount Melleray Abbey (PDF). Cork: Paramount Printing House. p. 6. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  8. Moloney, Stephen (1952). The History of Mount Melleray Abbey (PDF). Cork: Paramount Printing House. p. 9. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  9. Moloney, Stephen (1952). The History of Mount Melleray Abbey (PDF). Cork: Paramount Printing House. p. 15. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  10. Mount Melleray Ordre Cistercien de la Stricte Observance.
  11. Sport Cultural Waterford www.census.nationalarchives.ie
  12. Matthews, Richard (1995) James K. Baxter and Kopua, Journal of New Zealand Literature: JNZL, No. 13, pp. 257-265
  13. Fr. Marius O Phelan Irish Script on Screen, Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies
  14. A humble, unconventional abbot, who chose exile in Africa Irish Times, 2 July 2004.
  15. https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/mount-melleray-abbot-first-irishman-to-head-cistercians-26475386.html Mount Melleray Abbot first Irishman to head Cistercians by John Cooney, Irish Independent, 9 September 2008.
  16. New Abbot Elected News Mount Melleray Abbey.
  17. Mount Melleray National Scout and Activity Centre Scouting Ireland, www.scouts.ie
  18. Bolton Abbey Moone, Co. Kildare.
  19. Mellifont Abbey www.mellifontabbey.ie
  20. St. Mary's, Glencairn Abbey
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