Quarr and Ryde

This morning I did make it to Vigils at 5.30, as well as the rest of the round of Offices and the Conventual Mass at 10 here at Quarr, at which there was clearly a regular congregation drawn from the area round about, as well as visitors such as ourselves.

 

We have continued our conferences from Fr Jerome, as well as keeping silence and reading in the guest house, and also visiting the monastery bookshop, walking around the grounds, and observing the monastery's herd of swine - Gloucester Old Spots in a variety of sizes from piglets upwards.

 

This afternoon we travelled into Ryde, passing on the way a very handsome Anglican church by Sir George Gilbert Scott, with a spire which is a real landmark and with a nave elevation clearly derived from Merton chapel in Oxford, and other elements from fourteenth century Lincolnshire churches. 

 

 

All Saints church, Ryde, built 1868-72

 

Image: Wikipedia

 

Our objective in Ryde was St Cecilia's Abbey, where we were welcomed by the Extern Sister and provided with tea and biscuits before going to Vespers sung by this enclosed Benedictine community of Nuns. From the north trnasept we had a good view through the grill into the dignified chapel as the sisters processed in and sang the Office with really great beauty. We were able to follow in the excellent Office books produced by Solesmes for their Congregation. In addition we had the particular interest that one of the Sisters is a former member of the congregation at the Oxford Oratory.

 

The Abbey's website is here  and there is an online account of the community here. Afterwards we had time to walk along the seafront, looking across the Solent towards Portsmouth before retrning to Quarr.

 

The retreat has been, I think, extremely beneficial. We have had interesting and insightful conferences from Fr Jerome, enjoyed one another's company, but also enjoyed real monastic silence, had time to reflect on our own lives, and participated in the life of Benedictine monastery. It has also been a break in the normal routine of life for all of us, and that is refreshing and renewing. Tomorrow we are returning to Oxford and the usual routines, but I do think we shall take something with us in our minds that will work as a leaven within us.

 

Quarr Abbey - new and old

Today has been our first full day on retreat as Brothers at Quarr Abbey.

The abbey was founded as a refuge from the French Third Republic by the monks of Solesmes in 1901, and used by them until their return to France in 1922. There is an illustrated account of the history of the abbey here.

The abbey church from the west.

The Guest wing is in the range on the left.

Image:Wikipedia

The buildings were designed in 1908 by one of the monks, Dom Paul Bellot, and the church was built in 1911-12 as part of the second phase of construction. Dom paul was influenced by Moorish architecture in Cordoba, and his brick church is strikingly original. The low, attenuated nave leads into a large choir, and with the sanctuary placed under a short tower with transeptal chapels to north and south. The effect of the ever taller building - enhanced when incense rises from the altar at Vespers - is very dramatic indeed.

The interior of the abbey church

The hanging crucifix has now been removed

Image:Wikipedia

Today there are eight monks in residence, but a full observance of the monastic offices is maintained, using both Latin and English. I did not get to Vigils at 5.30 this morning, but I did attend Lauds at 7, and  Terce before the Conventual Mass at 9, as well as Sext, Nones, Vespers and Compline.

In 1963 the installation of a new abbot was the first occasion in this country that concelebration, other than for an Ordination, occurred at Mass here - so Quarr has a place in modern liturgical history.

This morning as retreatants we had our own Latin novus ordo Mass after the Conventual Mass. It was celebrated by Fr Jerome for the admission of Daniel Nicholls, an Oxford undergraduate, as our latest Brother.

After lunch - taken with the monks in the very impressive refrectory - and Nones we went for a walk in the drizzle to view the nearby remains of the medieval abbey. This was founded by Baldwin de Redvers in 1132, and was originally Savignac - a community which merged later on in the twelfth century with the Cistercians. In addition to Baldwin as founder the abbey also contained the grave of King Edward IV's second daugher Cicely, who was married off by her brother-in-law King Henry VII to his mother's half brother, John Viscount  Welles, about whose father, Lionel, who is buried in my home area, I have posted before. So here lies King Henry VIII's aunt. 

The abbey was excavated in 1891 and the plan recovered, but the site invites further exploration and conservation - and this is clearly a concern to the present monks of Quarr.

Further along the path, which runs across the site of the monastic church, we came to Binstead, whose church preserves its medieval chancel and bell, but the remainder is a mid-nineteenth century rebuilding. In the graveyard is the recently cleaned and restored grave slab of Thomas Sivell who, at the age of 64,was shot on board his sloop in 1785 by Portsmouth Customs officers. The text of the inscription and old photographs of both abbeys at Quarr can be seen here.