Caldey Island

Website - www.caldey-island.co.uk

Caldey Island lies some three miles from 'Tenby' Harbour.  It is one and a half miles long, three quarters mile wide with an area of five hundred and fifty acres. Monks of various Orders have worked at Caldey for over fifteen hundred years. From 1136 it was a Benedictine Priory of the Abbey of St. Dogmael's near Cardigan.  In 1536 Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries and the 'Benedictines' were expelled from Caldey.  For the next three hundred and fifty years Caldey was in lay hands until it passed into the hands of Benjamin Carlyle in 1906.  It was then that Carlyle established an Anglican Benedictine Monastery on Caldey. In 1910 the community had grown to almost forty monks.

The present Monastery was built between 1910 and 1913 and restoration work was carried out on the older monastic buildings.  Soon there was strong disagreement within the Church of England regarding the nature of the religious observances adopted by the Anglican Community at Caldey.  This disagreement led to Fr. Carlyle and twenty-two of his monks being received into the Catholic Church.  In 1914 he was appointed the Catholic Abbot.

In 1928 the monks moved from Caldey to 'Prinknash' Abbey near Gloucester where the Monastery still remains.  Caldey was sold to the Order which still occupies the Monastery, the Order of Reformed Cistercians.  These monks came from the Monastery of 'Chimay' in Belgium and on 6 January 1929 the Cistercian Foundation at Caldey was formerly established.

At the present time, the monks on the Island live by the Rules of St. Benedict. They have to support themselves by their own labour.  It is impossible to make a living in farming on the Island so they have to turn to other things.  In recent years, they have been producing their well-known chocolate and perfumes. During the summer months, Caldey is always a popular place for holiday visitors. The Monastery also contains a Guest-House and many people, individuals and groups, come there for retreats.  Caldey Island is in fact the only fully inhabited and working island in Wales and the only Monastery in Wales.

Throughout the middle ages, it was the Cistercian Order which played a very important role in the cultural and economical life of Wales.  Therefore it is wholly appropriate that Wales' only Monastery should be a Cistercian one.
 

 Holy Cross Abbey, Whitland, Pembrokeshire
 

The Abbey

The Community of Cistercian Nuns at Holy Cross Abbey, Whitland arrived in West Wales in 1991.  The Community was founded at Stapehill in Dorset in October 1802.  In 2002 2003 the Community celebrated its bi-centenary.  Reverend Mother Augustin de Chabannes had come to England, seeking asylum with other refugee religious who had fled from the horror of the French Revolution.  It was Madame de Chabannes who led the small group which became established at Stapehill.  However, the property in Dorset, including farm and farmland, became too big for the present community to manage. It was sold in 1989 and a smaller property was purchased in Whitland.

The monastery at Whitland is set on the side of a hill overlooking a broad valley with the Prescelly mountains as a backdrop beyond.  It is a place of peace and great natural beauty and provides a perfect environment for a monastic life of prayer.  Across the valley lie the ruins of the old Whitland Abbey, a Cistercian monastery founded by Bernard of Clairvaux in 1141.  Within a few years Whitland Abbey had itself founded three important Welsh monasteries - Cwmhir, Strata Florida and Strata Marcella.  All four were suppressed in Cl6th.

The Cistercian Order was founded in 1098 by Benedictine monks from the Abbey of Molesmes in France, who wished to return to the original simplicity of gospel living according to the C6th Rule of Saint Benedict.  These monks, led by their Abbot Robert and Prior Alberic and Stephen Harding, an Englishman from Sherborne in Dorset, chose an isolated spot, Citeaux in Burgundy, for the site of what was called the 'New Monastery'.  The Order flourished, houses of monks and nuns blossoming across Europe.  We glean some idea of the vitality of the early years in the writings of the first generations of Cistercians and in the architectural simplicity and harmony of what now lie as ruins at Fountains and Rievalux in Yorkshire and Tintern in the Wye Valley.  From the outset Cistercian women, or 'White Ladies' as they were often known because of their cowls of unbleached and undyed wool, formed an integral part of the Order.  Houses were founded between 1180 and 1200 at Llanllugan and Llanllyr and these houses continued until the suppression of the 1530s.

This heritage roots the present day Community in an ancient monastic tradition from which it seeks to discern its vision for living the Cisterican charism in the C21st.  The Community seeks to foster an atmosphere of silence in the monastery listening to and pondering upon the word of God, working at various tasks in a way that does not hinder this but enables each member of the Community to make her individual journey to the Trinity in company with her sisters.  Speech is valued and dialogue developed as a way of promoting mutual understanding and sharing the fruits of the Spirit in joy, love, patience and kindness towards one another.

The Cistercian vocation is to follow Christ along the way marked out by the Gospel, as interpreted by the Rule of Saint Benedict and the tradition of Citeaux. Benedict, the Father of Western monasticism, addresses his Rule to those who truly seek God and who take up the invitation to listen to the words of Christ, the Master, in the silence and solitude of monastic living.  The monastery is seen as the school of the Lord's service and it is in the daily round of prayer, both liturgical and private, of lectio divina, an attentive reading of the word of God, of manual work and of community living that Christ is formed in the heart of each nun.

The Community earns its living making altar breads, used at the celebration of the Eucharist.  Each member of the Community has some involvement in this industry.  There is a small guest house, where retreatants and those coming for a 'quiet day' are welcomed.  Since the monastery is an expression of the mystery of the Church, where nothing is to be preferred to the praise of the Father's glory, we are happy to share our times of praise and prayer with all who come to visit us.

Coming to Wales has been for the Community a source of grace.  Whilst it was a great pleasure to return to Stapehill in 2002 for a day of bicentennial celebration, nevertheless the Community recognises that it has sunk its roots deep in this land of ancient faith.  Other bicentennial celebrations included a Mass of thanksgiving with religious sisters from the locality and a summer festivity with the brethren from Caldey.  The celebrations offered each sister an opportunity to give thanks for a grace received, to say thank you for the fidelity of the sisters who lie buried at Stapehill and Whitland, and to respond anew to the Lord's invitation.

 

The Community