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Welcome to
the Downside Abbey website! Downside Abbey is a Roman
Catholic monastery. It is the home of a community
of Benedictine monks, and on this website we shall
try and give you some idea of what a Benedictine
monk is, why we have come to live together to live
in a community, what we believe in and what we do.
We shall also try and tell you something about our
own monastery, which is located not far from Bath,
in the south-west of England.
We are called “Benedictine” because
we, like hundreds of other monasteries
of monks and nuns throughout the
world, follow the Rule
written by St Benedict in the sixth century. Benedictine
monks own nothing as individuals. Instead, we rely
on the community to provide us with what we need.
We devote a lot of time to prayer (both together
as a community and on our own). This is the most
important thing we do.
All Christians are called to spread the Gospel -
the good news which Jesus brought us. The main ways
in which the monks of the Downside community work
to spread the Gospel are through the witness of our
life and our prayer, through education, especially
in the school which we run, and through serving in
the parishes which have been entrusted to our care.
Most of the monks of Downside Abbey live in our monastery,
though a number live elsewhere, helping us serve
the Church in parishes and in other pastoral work.
I hope you enjoy your visit to our website. We monks
are trying to listen to what God is saying to us.
We have found that our monastery is a place where
many people come to pray, and where they also try
to listen to God's voice and get to know and love
him better. I hope that you will also be encouraged
to listen to what God has to say to you, and I pray
that God may bless you and ever keep you in his love.
Fr Aidan Bellenger
Abbot of Downside
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