27 April 2021

Praying in Lent and Easter 2021:
70, Saint Benedict’s Abbey, Ealing

Ealing Abbey is the first Benedictine abbey in Greater London since the Reformation (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

During the Season of Easter this year, I am continuing my theme from Lent, taking some time each morning to reflect in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship that has been significant in my spiritual life;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

This week is Holy Week in the Orthodox Church. My photographs this morning (27 April) are from Ealing Abbey, where I spent two weeks studying some years ago, following the daily cycle of prayer with the monks in the abbey, with the psalms, canticles, antiphonies, Scripture readings and prayers.

During those two weeks, I was reminded each day of the shared tradition in the Benedictine offices and the Anglican offices of Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer.

Ealing Abbey began life as Ealing Priory over a century ago in 1916. When it became Ealing Abbey in 1955, it was the first Benedictine abbey in Greater London since the Reformation. I was there to study Liturgy in the Institutum Liturgicum, based in the Benedictine Study and Arts Centre.

I was reminded too that Benedictine spirituality approaches life through an ordering by daily prayer that is biblical and reflective. At its base, Benedictine spirituality is grounded in a commitment to ‘the Benedictine Promise’ – an approach to spiritual life that values ‘Stability, Obedience, and Conversion of Life.’

The Benedictine motto is: ‘Ora et Labora.’ This does not present prayer and work as two distinct things, but holds prayer and work together. For Saint Benedict, the spiritual life and the physical life are inseparable. As he says: ‘Orare est laborare, laborare est orare, to pray is to work, to work is to pray.’

There was an old cutting from the Daily Telegraph on the desk in my room that says the Benedictine tradition is so rooted in English life and culture that: ‘Some claim to see the Benedictine spirit in the rules of Cricket.’

Dom James Leachman, a monk of Ealing Abbey, Director of the Institutum Liturgicam, and Professor of Liturgy at the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy in Sant’Anselmo, Rome, says the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches are ‘two vigorous traditions’ on these islands that ‘nourish the life of learning and prayer of millions of Christians.’ Writing in the Benedictine Yearbook, he said, ‘Both traditions find shared and deep root in British and Irish soil and in the history of our islands … we are constantly present to each other.’

Ealing Abbey is just half an hour from Heathrow Airport, and the idea of a monastery close to a busy airport and in heart of suburban London seems a contradiction in terms to many. But Saint Benedict’s Abbey in Ealing is one of the largest in Britain and the main work of the monks is parochial work.

The monastery was founded in 1897 from Downside Abbey as a parish, at the invitation of the then Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vaughan. Building work on the church began two years later, and the school was started by Dom Sebastian Cave in 1902.

Ealing Abbey has been the home at times for many notable monks, including Dom David Knowles, the monastic historian and later Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge, who lived there in 1933-1939 while he was working on his magnum opus, The Monastic Order in England.

Dom Cuthbert Butler (1858-1934) also lived at Ealing following his retirement as Abbot of Downside from 1922. His books included critical editions of the Lausiac History of Palladius and The Rule of Saint Benedict, and he was the author of Western Mysticism, Life of Archbishop Ullathorne, and History of the Vatican Council.

Dom John Main (1926-1982), who wrote and lectured widely on Christian meditation, was a monk at Ealing in 1959-1970 and 1974-1977. He graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1954, and taught law there from 1956 to 1959 before joining Ealing Abbey, and he was ordained priest here in 1963. He was strongly influenced by the writings of the Desert Father John Cassian, and he began his Christian meditation group at Ealing Abbey in 1975.

John Main’s teaching methods are now used throughout the world, and those who have acknowledged his influence include the former President, Mary McAleese, Archbishop Rowan Williams and Metropolitan Kallistos Ware.

Ealing Abbey began life as Ealing Priory over a century ago in 1916 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 10: 22-30 (NRSVA):

22 At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.’ 25 Jesus answered, ‘I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; 26 but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. 2 7My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. 30 The Father and I are one.’

The stillness and quietness of the abbey gardens make it easy to forget that Heathrow Airport is only a few miles away (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (27 April 2021, South Africa Freedom Day) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for continued peace and reconciliation in South Africa.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Working in the book-lined Scriptorium … once the research workplace of the Biblical scholar Dom Bernard Orchard (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

There was a warm welcome from the monks of Ealing Abbey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Canon Island: a monastic
retreat among 29 islands
in the Shannon estuary

Inside the abbey church on Canon Island … an Augustinian foundation dating from 1189 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

It was a warm, balmy weekend, and it felt as though summer had broken through too early in these closing days of April.

On Sunday afternoon (25 April 2021), some of us went out on a boat from the Deel Boat Club on the banks of the River Deel, north of Askeaton, and followed the course of the River Deel north into the estuary of the River Shannon, with the afternoon sun sparkling on the waters and on the islands.

At times, it seems there are as many islands in Askeaton parish as there are townlands, including the islands and islets of White Island, Holly Island, Greenish Island, Aughinish Island and Lisilaun.

Three of us rowed from the boat in the Shannon estuary onto Canon Island (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Anglo-Normans approaching from Limerick along these waters imagined the shore of Co Clare on the north side of the Shannon as an archipelago. They picturesquely named it ‘the cantred of the isles of Thomond,’ a name still preserved in that of the barony of Islands.

As the boat rested in the waters between Inishmacowney and Canon Island, three of us rowed out to Canon Island, a 270-acre island in the estuary, about 2.5 km east of Kildysart, Co Clare, and about 1.5 km from the shore on the mainland.

Canon Island is east of Inishtubbrid Island, south of Inishmacowney, and east of Inishloe or Loe Island. It is the largest of 29 small islands that span the crossing of the Shannon and Fergus estuaries, and the abbey ruins stand on the north-east corner of the island.

Canon Island Abbey on Canon Island … Canon Island was granted to the monks of Clare Abbey by the O’Briens of Thomond (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Canon Island is home to Canon Island Abbey, a ruined Augustinian monastery built in the late 12th century at the north-east corner of the island. Canon Island, or Innisgad, sometimes referred to as Canons’ Island, was once known as Elanagranoch.

The island was granted to the Augustinian Canons of Clare Abbey in 1189 by Domnall Mór Ua Briain (Donald O’Brien), King of Thomond . The abbey was founded in the late 12th century, but it was a separate community and was not dependent on the larger Clare Abbey.

The Canons Regular of Saint Augustine originated in a reform movement instigated by Pope Leo IX (1049-1054) and aimed at restoring religious discipline among parish clergy in Italy by grouping them into regular communities. Although they lived collegially, the canons were not monks but secular clergy whose primary function was parish ministry and pastoral care.

The East End of the abbey church … Canon Island may have been a key part of the diocesan reorganisation in the late 12th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Augustinian canons were introduced to Ireland in first half of the 12th century after Saint Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh, visited the Augustinian canons in Guisborough, Yorkshire, ca 1126-1127, and visited the abbey of Arrouaise, in north-west France, in 1137-1138.

After Saint Malachy’s death in 1148, the Augustinian order continued to spread, and many new houses were sponsored after 1176 both by the Irish and by the Anglo-Normans. By the end of the 12th century, the canons regular had become the predominant order in Ireland.

Clare Abbey was founded in 1189, when the short-lived diocesan status of Saint Senan’s island monastery of Iniscathaigh (Scattery) and its attached churches was under review. Scattery was too small a territory to survive as a viable diocese. When the death of Bishop Aodh Ó Beacháin in 1188 provided an opportunity to revise the diocesan boundaries, Scattery became a rural deanery, and its ‘termons’ or outlying churches were subsumed into the Dioceses of Killaloe and the Diocese of Limerick on either side of the Shannon Estuary.

The West End of the abbey church … there are no written references to the abbey until the late 14th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The foundation for Canons Regular at Clare Abbey in 1189 may have been part of redrawing and reforming diocesan boundaries, and many parishes attached to Clare Abbey had previously been linked with Scattery.

The island is one of the endowments included in the charter granted by Domhnall Mór to Clare Abbey, but a date for building the abbey on Canon Island is uncertain. Thomas Westropp, the Limerick historian and antiquarian, described the abbey ruins in the late 19th century. He places some portions of the buildings in the late 12th century. There are no written references to the church, however, until the end of the 14th century. By then, it had already fallen into disrepair.

A papal document in 1393 describes the abbey as ‘so destroyed alike in respect of its buildings as of its books, chalices, and likewise of its temporal goods as to be threatened with ruin.’ The papal letter offered indulgences to any who helped repair the abbey.

An ogee-shaped tomb niche in the abbey church … the monastery is called ‘Monasterium Beatae Virginis’ in Papal letters (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

In the papal letters, it is invariably called Monasterium Beatae Virginis. Later papal mandates to the abbots indicate Canon Island was one of the major religious houses in the Diocese of Killaloe.

The Mac Giolla Pádraig (Fitzpatrick) family and the Mac Mahon family, the ruling family of Clonderlaw frequently contested the control of the abbey in the 15th century.

Dermot Mac Giolla Pádraig was abbot from 1426-1478. Serious charges were brought against him in 1452 by Thomas Mac Mahon who is described as ‘a deacon of Killaloe.’ Thomas Mac Mahon accused the abbot of wilful murder or of having aided or abetted murder as well as breaches of the vow of celibacy and of simony.

A papal mandate was issued to the Precentor of the Diocese of Emly to look into the case and, if he found the complaints true, to remove Mac Giolla Pádraig, and install Thomas as abbot instead. The complainant, Thomas Mac Mahon, had received a dispensation from a ‘defect of birth’ or canonical illegitimacy as ‘a child of unmarried noble parents.’

Eleven years later, in 1463, another Dermot Mac Giolla Pádraig, perhaps the abbot’s son, was also a dispensation from ‘defect of birth’ as the son ‘of an Augustinian abbot and an unmarried woman.’ Indeed, the position of abbot remained in the Fitzpatrick family for virtually the whole of the 15th century.

Vaults in the refrectory area of the abbey … the canons served as the working clergy of the neighbouring parishes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

For the greater part of the 15th century, the canons served as the working clergy of the surrounding parishes, including Kilmaleery on the opposite side of the Fergus estuary.

The Augustinian canons of Canon Island were involved in the parochial life of the hinterland along the estuary to Killofin and as far north as Kilmurry and Kilfarboy in Ibrickane. A number of earlier churches once stood on Canon Island and on some of the other islands nearby.

Westropp mentions a local tradition that five churches on the neighbouring islands, including Saint Senan’s oratory at Inishloe, were demolished, and the material used for the new foundation.

A mediaeval grave in the abbey church … Bishop Mahon O Griobtha of Killaloe, who died in 1482, is buried in the abbey but his tomb has not been identified (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The neighbouring island of Inisdadrum (Coney Island) had two early churches, one of which was a parish church united in cure to Inisgad in the 15th century. There was also a church on Inisloe – penitentiaries de Inis-Luaidhe – which tradition ascribed to Saint Senan, but all traces of this have disappeared. Another church on Feenish island was ascribed to Saint Brigid, ‘daughter of Conchraidh of the family of Mactail,’ a contemporary of Saint Senan.

Bishop Mahon O Griobtha of Killaloe, who died on the island in 1482, is buried in the abbey, but his tomb has not been identified.

Westropp failed to find any trace of an older building on Inisgad itself, but an aerial survey by the late Leo Swan in the 1980s shows that the abbey was built on the site of what seemed to be an extensive monastic enclosure.

In the sacristy and chapter house … the monastery prospered until it the dissolution in 1540 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The remaining abbey buildings include a church with Romanesque windows, two adjoining chapels, a belfry, a cloister and a large square tower. Roofs are missing from all of the standing buildings. Buildings to the east would have had a sacristy, chapter house and dormitory for the monks. The south range had a kitchen and refectory.

The side chapels, tower and cloisters were added ca 1450. An early cashel wall partly surrounds the abbey. The abbey’s cemetery has several graves.

The monastery prospered until it was dissolved during the reign of Henry VIII in 1540. At its dissolution, the abbey consisted of four acres of arable land, 14 acres mountain and pasture, together with some islands nearby and the tithes of Kildysart and the vicarage or vicar’s share of the tithes of Kilchreest (Ballynacally).

The modern bell at Canon Island Abbey … the Cromwellians are said to have returned to the island when the monks rang the bell (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The island, monastery and its assets and income were granted to Donogh O’Brien, 4th Earl of Thomond. In Elizabethan documents, it is referred to as ‘Desertmorehely’ or Diséart mór-thuille (‘Monastery of the swollen tide’).

The Augustinians continued to live on the island until it was attacked by Cromewellian forces in 1651. Local folklore says Cromwell came up the River Shannon by boat in 1651. He decided there was nothing of importance on Canon Island. The Cromwellians were on their way back down the river, it is said, when the monks rang the bell. The Cromwellians returned and killed 27 monks, only three escaped.

Tradition says the three fleeing monks buried chalices, holy books and manuscripts but they have never been found. The monastery ceased the function after that time.

Canon Island remained part of the Thomond estate until the late 17th century, when Henry O’Brien, 7th Earl of Thomond (1620-1691) granted the property to Richard Henn of Paradise, Ballynacally, and the island eventually passed to local families.

The walls around the monastic site … the last families left the island in the early 1970s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The island population was at its height in 1841 with 54 residents. Canon Island was uninhabited by the time of the 1966 census. However, the last families did not leave the island until the early 1970s.

Canon Island is part of the parish of Kildysart. It has continued to serve as a place of burial and it remains a traditional pilgrim site for people on both sides of the estuary. An annual pilgrimage of island descendants and nearby villagers have travelled to Canon Island since 1990 to celebrate Mass at the abbey.

The pilgrimage was revived by the late Father Michael Hillery, Parish Priest of Kildysart. The journey from Kildysart to Canon Island takes about three-quarters of an hour. Pilgrims gather in Kildysart, Bunratty, Foynes and Askeaton and travel by currach and boat to the island.

In the cloisters of Canon Island Abbey … the pilgrimage to Canon Island was revived in the 21st century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

During the pilgrimage in 2013, Seán Óg Cleary was baptised on Canon Island on 17 August 2013. During the Baptism, Father Albert McDonnell, parish priest, said there are more islands than townlands in Kildysart parish.

Canon Island was put up for sale by private treaty through John Casey of Lisdoonvarna at the end of 2010, with an asking price of €485,000. The island includes old dwellings and about 112 acres of good-quality land.

The boat anchored between Canon Island and Inishmacowney (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)