Douai Abbey

History

The community of St. Edmund was formed in Paris in 1615 by Dom Gabriel Gifford, later Archbishop of Rheims and primate of France. With his backing the community flourished. Expelled from Paris during the Revolution, the community took over the vacant buildings of the community of St Gregory's in Douai in 1818.

Amid the political upheavals caused by the Dreyfus affair around the turn of the 19th century, the French prime minister Waldeck-Rousseau introduced an anti-clerical Law of Associations (1901) that "severely curbed the influence of religious orders in France".{{cite journal | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070812154933/http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/1999/1999-7.html | archive-date = 12 August 2007 | url-status = dead

The monastery was greatly expanded in the 1960s with the building of the new monastery designed by Sir Frederick Gibberd. The abbey had in its charge Douai School until the latter's closure in 1999. In 2005, two monks returned to Douai, France to form a community there and restore the historic links to English monasticism.

Jacobitism

The monastery and its community have traditionally maintained strong links to the Stuart dynasty and the Jacobite cause; with King James II of England buried in the monastery in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris (the community's home from the early 17th century till the French Revolution and the community's relocation to Douai in northern France), members of the House of Wittelsbach (present pretenders to the Jacobite claim) being educated at the community's former boarding school (at their present location), and the immediate past abbot, Geoffrey Scott OSB, is a member of the Jacobite Society.

Present

In July 2014 a monk was ordained priest, the first priestly ordination since 2007. As of 2020, the community consisted of 23 monks. The monks serve in parishes across five dioceses. The patron of the monastery is St Edmund King and Martyr, whose feast day is 20 November.

Music

The Abbey Church houses two pipe organs, a smaller organ of 1978 in an Italian style by Tamburini and a larger organ of 1994 in a modernised English Classical style by Kenneth Tickell.

Because it contains these organs, and especially because of its unique and reverberant acoustics, the Abbey Church is frequently used as a recording location by musical performers. Commercial albums recorded there include:

• Carlo Gesualdo - Tenebrae by The Hilliard Ensemble (March 1990).
• Pierre de la Rue - Missa Cum Iocunditate, Motets by The Hilliard Ensemble (1997).
• The Old Hall Manuscript by The Hilliard Ensemble (1990).
• Cristobal de Morales - Mass For The Feast Of St. Isidore Of Seville by the Gabrieli Consort & Players, directed by Paul McCreesh (2003).
• A New Venetian Coronation 1595 by the Gabrieli Consort & Players, directed by Paul McCreesh (2012).
• Handel Organ Concertos by Baroque Belles and David Willcocks (1999).
• MacMillan And His British Contemporaries by the choir of New College, Oxford (2006).
• Rutter: Requiem by the choir of Clare College, Cambridge (2003).

List of Abbots

• 1900–1904: Lawrence Larkin
• 1904–1905: Ambrose Bamford
• 1905–1913: Stanislaus Taylor
• 1913–1921: David Hurley
• 1921–1929: Edmund Kelly
• 1929–1969: Sylvester Mooney
• 1969–1989: Gregory Freeman
• 1989–1990: Leonard Vickers
• 1990–1998: Finbar Kealy
• 1998–2022: Geoffrey Scott
• 2022-present: Paul Gunter Monks of St Edmund's from douaiabbey.org.uk retrieved 14 March 2018

Gallery

File:Douai Abbey by Edmund Shaw Geograph 3900102.jpg|Abbey File:Douai Abbey view by Bill Nicholls Geograph 2723831.jpg|Abbey and school File:Douai Abbey Chapel by David Lally Geograph 3019406.jpg|Abbey church

References

References

1. {{NHLE
2. ''The Rt. Rev. Abbot Geoffrey Scott, O.S.B.'', [http://www.douaiparish.org.uk/history.html The History of Woolhampton Parish] {{Webarchive. link. (21 October 2016 November 2005)
3. ''April 2011'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20120304112239/http://www.douaiabbey.org.uk/Newsletter%2040.pdf Douai Abbey Newsletter archived].
4. ''April 2011'', [http://www.douaiabbey.org.uk/Newsletter%2040.pdf Douai Abbey Newsletter]. Retrieved 6 February 2013
5. ''James II'', [http://www.britroyals.com/kings.asp?id=james2 British Royal Family History]. Retrieved 6 February 2013
6. (2020). "The Benedictine Yearbook". English Benedictine Congregation Trust.
7. (2020). "The Benedictine Yearbook". English Benedictine Congregation Trust.
8. ''NPOR N09904'', [https://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N09904]. Retrieved 10 March 2021
9. ''NPOR D03336'', [https://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=D03336]. Retrieved 10 March 2021
10. ''Hilliard'', [http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=10045 Gesualdo: Tenebrae]. Retrieved 25 February 2021
11. ''Discogs'', [https://www.discogs.com/it/label/324528-Douai-Abbey-Church-Woolhampton]. Retrieved 10 March 2021
12. ''Discogs'', [https://www.discogs.com/it/label/324528-Douai-Abbey-Church-Woolhampton]. Retrieved 10 March 2021
13. ''Discogs'', [https://www.discogs.com/it/label/324528-Douai-Abbey-Church-Woolhampton]. Retrieved 10 March 2021
14. ''Discogs'', [https://www.discogs.com/it/label/324528-Douai-Abbey-Church-Woolhampton]. Retrieved 10 March 2021
15. ''Discogs'', [https://www.discogs.com/it/label/324528-Douai-Abbey-Church-Woolhampton]. Retrieved 10 March 2021
16. ''Discogs'', [https://www.discogs.com/it/label/324528-Douai-Abbey-Church-Woolhampton]. Retrieved 10 March 2021
17. ''Discogs'', [https://www.discogs.com/it/label/324528-Douai-Abbey-Church-Woolhampton]. Retrieved 10 March 2021