Papal Legate attends millennium celebrations at Buckfast Abbey

Dom David Charlesworth, Cardinal Arborelius, Cardinal Arinzi, Archbishop Smith, Archbishop Stack with Bishops O'Toole, Lang, Burns, Kenny, Budd, Mgr Newton and other celebrants

The Pope has sent a papal legate to Buckfast Abbey, the Benedictine monastery in Devon, to represent him at the millennium celebrations of the abbey's foundation and to confer his apostolic blessing on the event. Pope Francis chose Cardinal Anders Arborelius of Stockholm, Sweden, to act as his envoy at the Mass of Thanksgiving for the Millennium of the Foundation of Buckfast Abbey in 1018.

During the Mass in the abbey church on May 24th - Feast of Our Lady of Buckfast - Cardinal Arborelius read out a letter from the Pope in which the Holy Father said he greatly rejoiced in the millennium anniversary.

The Pope explained to the congregation that he had chosen Cardinal Arborelius as his "Extraordinary Delegate" because he knew he could testify to the historic links between Sweden and the "marvellous missionary work of the monks in England at the time of the first evangelisation of Scandanavia".

The chief celebrant of the Mass was Cardinal Francis Arinze, the Prefect emeritus of the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship of the Sacraments. In his homily, Cardinal Arinze praised Buckfast as a "spiritual oasis where people visit for rest, reflection, prayer, spiritual consultation or simply leaving oneself open to the action of Divine Providence".

"It is no surprise that the Holy Father honours this special occasion by sending his special envoy," Cardinal Arinze said. "We thank God therefore for Buckfast Abbey. This millennium celebration is an important milestone in which to thank and adore God in this abbey and to congratulate the Abbot and the monks for who they are and what they do."

Cardinal Arinze said: "This abbey has come a long way from the granting of the foundation charter in 1018 to the painful dissolution in 1539 and the happy return of the monks in 1882 and the flourishing in the work of God that we have in front of us today ."

He continued: "This church is in itself like a silent call to God's transcendence. This church and all around is like saying, 'Lift up your hearts' without words."

Dom David Charlesworth, the Superior of Buckfast, said it was a great privilege for Buckfast to be honoured by the presence of the Papal Legate and of Cardinal Arinze. He said that the millennium anniversary was an extremely important event to the abbey because without the royal charter of 1018 "we would not be here today".

Fr Charlesworth added: "May the Lord bless us and help us to be his presence in this part of the world."

The Mass was also attended by Archbishops Peter Smith of Southwark and George Stack of Cardiff, Bishops Mark O'Toole of Plymouth, Declan Lang of Clifton, Tom Burns of Menevia, as well as Auxiliary Bishop William Kenny of Birmingham, Bishop Emeritus Christopher Budd of Plymouth and by Mgr Keith Newton, the Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

Fifty-three priests of the Diocese of Plymouth attended the Mass with 18 deacons and 30 nuns.

Her Majesty the Queen was represented at the event by Robin Barlow, the Deputy Lieutenant of Devon, and Lord and Lady Clifford of Chudleigh, whose family has helped in the reconstruction of Buckfast, were also among the guests.

Buckfast Abbey has established a Millennium Fund as part of the celebrations of its millennium year. Anyone who wishes to express thanks for the 1,000th anniversary of the foundation of the abbey is invited to make a contribution to the fund.

At the end of the year donations received will be shared between five local hospices - Rowcroft Hospice, North Devon Hospice, St Luke's Hospice Plymouth, Hospiscare and Children's Hospice South West.

LINKS

Buckfast Abbey - www.buckfast.org.uk
Millennium Fund - www.buckfast.org.uk/buckfast-abbey-millennium-fund

Twitter: @BuckfastNews
Facebook: www.facebook.com/buckfastabbeyofficialsite/

Buckfast means a stronghold, or possibly an island, associated with deer. The first monastery at Buckfast was legally established in 1018 on the bank of the River Dart in Devon by a royal charter issued by King Cnut at the request of Aethelweard, chief royal officer in the south west of England and a wealthy landowner.

Until St Nicholas's Priory was founded at Exeter following the Norman Conquest, Buckfast was the sole monastic foundation in Devon for 70 years. The monks there were initially Benedictines. But in 1136 Buckfast was granted to the Abbey of Savigny in northern France and soon afterwards became a Cistercian house and the only one in England to have been transferred into the more austere Savignac and Cistercian orders.

The last Cistercian Abbot of Buckfast was Gabriel Dunne, who on 25th February 1539 surrendered Buckfast to Sir William Petre, the royal commissioner, at the dissolution of the monasteries under King Henry VIII.

Over the following centuries the abbey crumbled to ruins. Then in 1882 a small and exiled group of Benedictine monks from France began to rebuild the abbey in 1907, a project which took them about 30 years. When the abbey church was consecrated in 1932, in the presence of a papal legate, Buckfast Abbey became the only dissolved monastery in England to be rebuilt and reopened on its exact site.

Much of their work has been improved or completed over the last decade as part of the preparations for the millennium year celebrations.
Most recently, such projects have included the installation and blessing of a statue of Our Lady of Buckfast; the opening of a new interactive exhibition centre, the laying of a new Purbeck floor in the church and the construction of two magnificent organs designed by Fratelli Ruffatti, the celebrated Italian organ builders.