Saint Gregory's Abbey, commonly known as Downside Abbey, is a Benedictine monastery of the English Benedictine Congregation. One of its main apostolates is a school for children aged nine to eighteen. Its graduates are known as Old Gregorians. A Benedictine is a person who follows the Rule of St Benedict. ... Monastery of St. ... The English Benedictine Congregation (abbr. ...

Both monastery and school are located at Stratton-on-the-Fosse, southwest of the English city of Bath. Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location (dark green) within the United Kingdom (light green), with the Republic of Ireland (blue) to its west Languages None official English de facto Capital None official London de facto Largest city London Area – Total Ranked... For other uses, see Bath (disambiguation). ...

Abbey Church

Downside Abbey Church was built in the Nineteenth Century, and the Nave was built after the War. The Abbey Church also houses the relics of St. Oliver Plunkett, an Irish martyr, who entrusted his body to the care of a Benedictine monk of the English Benedictine Congregation. The church is one of only two in the United Kingdom to be designated a minor basilica by the Roman Catholic Church. Saint Oliver Plunkett Saint Oliver Plunkett (1 November 1625 - 1 July 1681) is an Irish saint. ... St. ...

The School

Downside School and Abbey is a Benedictine Abbey and Roman Catholic Public School near Bath. Monks from the monastery of St. Gregory's, Douai, in Flanders, came to Downside in 1814. In 1607 St. Gregory's was the first house after the Reformation to begin conventual life with a handful of exiled Englishmen. For nearly 200 years St. Gregory’s trained monks for the English mission and six of these men were beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929. Two of these monks, SS John Roberts and Ambrose Barlow, were among the forty English and Welsh Martyrs canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970. For other uses, see Bath (disambiguation). ... Flanders (Flemish, Fleming) (Dutch: Vlaanderen (Vlaams, Vlaming)) has two main designations: a geographical region in the north of Belgium, corresponding to the Flemish region, a constituent part of the federal Belgian state. ... Pius XI (born Achille Ratti May 31, 1857 - Rome, February 10, 1939) was Pope from February 6, 1922 until February 10, 1939. ...

Driven from France following the French Revolution, the community settled for twenty years at Acton Burnell, Shropshire, before finally arriving at Downside in 1814. The Monastery was completed in 1876 and the Abbey Church in 1925, being raised to the rank of a minor basilica in 1935 by Pius XI. Liberty Leading the People, a painting by Delacroix commemorating the July Revolution of 1830 but which has come to be generally accepted as symbolic of French popular uprisings against the monarchy in general and the French Revolution in particular. ... Pius XI (born Achille Ratti May 31, 1857 - Rome, February 10, 1939) was Pope from February 6, 1922 until February 10, 1939. ...

The School attached to the Monastery is for Roman Catholic boys from the age of 10 to 18 years and one of Britain's most distinguished Catholic schools. The school began accepting girls in certain year groups from October 2005. As in most Roman Catholic schools in the 20th and 21st centuries, non-Catholic students are accepted.

During the nineteenth century Downside remained a small monastic school. It was Dom Leander Ramsay who was the founder of modern Downside. He planned the new buildings that opened in 1912 and now form two sides of the Quad.

The current headmaster is Dom Leo Maidlow Davis.

Superiors

• Prior/Abbot Edmund Ford (1894-1906)
• Abbot Cuthbert Butler (1906-1922)
• Abbot Leander Ramsay (1922-1929)
• Abbot John Chapman (1929-1933)
• Abbot Bruno Hicks (1933-1938)
• Abbot Sigebert Trafford (1938-1946)
• Abbot (later Bishop) Christopher Butler (1946-1966)
• Abbot Wilfrid Passmore (1966-1974)
• Abbot John Roberts (1974-1990)
• Abbot Charles Fitzgerald-Lombard (1990-1998)
• Abbot Richard Yeo (1998-present)

The Right Reverend Dom John Chapman OSB (born 1865, died 7 November 1933), a convert from the Anglican to the Roman Catholic Church at the age of 25, was a Roman Catholic priest, the 4th Abbot of Downside Abbey of the English Benedictine Congregation from 1929 till his demise, an... Abbot, later Bishop, Basil Christopher Butler OSB (May 7, 1902–September 20, 1986), a convert from the Church of England to the Roman Catholic Church at the age of 26, was a Roman Catholic priest, the 7th Abbot of Downside Abbey, one-time Abbot President of the English Benedictine Congregation...

External links

• [1] Official website of Downside Abbey & School
• [2] Downside on the website of the English Benedictine Congregation
• [3] Downside Abbey in the Catholic Encyclopaedia

• Grid reference ST656507