St Michael's Abbey, Farnborough

Saint Michael's Abbey(French:Abbaye Saint-Michel) is aBenedictineabbeyinFarnborough,Hampshire, England. The small community is known for itsliturgy(which is sung in Latin andGregorian chant), its pipe organ, and its liturgical publishing and printing. This abbey is also known for enshrining a Pontifically crowned image ofSaint Joseph.

Saint Michael's Abbey

Saint Michael's Abbey Church
Location within Hampshire
Monastery information
Other names	Farnborough Abbey
Order	Order of Saint Benedict
Established	1881
Dedicated to	Saint Michael the Archangel
Diocese	Portsmouth
Controlled churches	Saint Michael's Abbey Church
People
Founder(s)	Empress Eugénie
Abbot	Dom Cuthbert Brogan
Important associated figures	Emperor Napoleon III Empress Eugénie Napoléon, Prince Imperial
Site
Location	Farnborough,Hampshire, United Kingdom
Coordinates	51°17′48″N0°44′59″W
Grid reference	SU873560
Public access	Yes
Website	https://farnboroughabbey.org

Public tours of the abbey take place every Saturday at 3pm, with the visit including a tour of the church and a visit to the crypt.

History

Following the fall of theSecond French Empirein 1870,Napoleon III(1808–1873), his wifeEmpress Eugénie(1826–1920) and their son thePrince Imperial(1856–1879) were exiled from France and took up residence in England atCamden PlaceinChislehurst,Kent, where Napoleon III died in 1873. He was originally buried atSt Mary's Church in Chislehurst.Following the death of the Prince Imperial in 1879, the grief-stricken Empress Eugénie set about establishing a monument to her family.

She founded the Abbey in 1881 as amausoleumfor her husband and son, wishing that the burial site should be a place of prayer and silence.The Abbey included an Imperial Crypt, modelled on thecryptofSaint-Denis basilicanear Paris, where the Emperor had originally desired to be buried.Empress Eugénie was later buried alongside her husband and son. All three rest in granitesarcophagithat were provided byQueen Victoria.

• 
  Thesarcophagusof EmperorNapoleon III
• 
  The sarcophagus ofEmpress Eugénie
• 
  The sarcophagus ofNapoléon, Prince Imperial

The Abbey Church itself was designed in an eclecticflamboyantgothicstyle by the renowned French architectGabriel-Hippolyte Destailleur,and it contains the thigh bone ofSt Alban,the largest relic of the saint in England. After the church and monastery were founded, they were initially administered byPremonstratensianCanons. In 1895, the Empress replaced them with French Benedictine monks fromSt Peter's Abbey, Solesmes.DomFernand Cabrol,a noted scholar, became prior and afterwards abbot (1903), remaining in the post until his death in 1937. DomHenri Leclercqand a small group of French monks joined the house at the same time, and Leclercq and Cabrol collaborated for many years in scholarly endeavours. ThemedievalistandliturgistDomAndré Wilmart(1876–1941) was a monk of the abbey.

The church's present two-manual organ was installed in 1905, built byAristide Cavaillé-Coll & Company.The instrument's origins are shrouded in mystery. Although installed after the death of Cavaillé-Coll, it bears his name rather than that of his successor, Charles Mutin, and the internal works are of a quality which identifies this model with the highest standards of workmanship of the high days of that company.

The community, once famed for its scholarly writing and musical tradition ofGregorian chants,became depleted in number by 1947, and most of the remaining monks dispersed to houses of the Solesmes Congregation, in particularQuarr Abbey.Farnborough was once more resettled, this time by a small group of English monks fromPrinknash Abbeyin Gloucestershire. The last French monk, Dom Leopold Zerr, for many years the abbey's organist,died in 1956. In 2006, the community elected the first English Abbot of Farnborough—the Right Reverend Dom Cuthbert Brogan.

Catholic National Library

The Catholic Central Library was set up by theCatholic Truth Societyafter theFirst World War.It was maintained for many years by theGraymoor Friarsin Westminster until they were obliged to withdraw. It moved into the care of St Michael's Abbey in 2007 for a probationary period pending a final decision on its future. In 2007, it was renamed theCatholic National Library,and it is one of the finest collections of Roman Catholic books in England. In 2015, the collection was relocated toDurham University Library.

National Shrine to Saint Joseph

The statue ofSaint Josephwas granted acanonical coronationbyPope Pius IXon 13 April 1874.

TheNational Shrine to Saint Josephat Saint Michael's Abbey is cared for by the monks of Farnborough. A statue ofSaint Josephin a side chapel to the right of the high altar in the monastery church initially belonged to theMill Hill Fathers,founded byHerbert Vaughanin 1866. At Vaughan's request,Pope Pius IXgranted acanonical coronationfor the statue, conducted byHenry Cardinal Manningon the occasion of the dedication of the chapel of St Joseph's College on 13 April 1874.

The Missionary Institute of London was established in the late 1960s to consolidate training facilities for the various mission societies in Britain. St Joseph's College was closed in 2006.The property was subsequently sold, and the Society relocated toMaidenhead.Farnborough Abbey agreed to receive the Shrine's statue and altars, and the present National Shrine was erected in 2008.(A second statue of St Joseph, formerly at the entrance to the Mill Hill property, was sent to the shrine ofOur Lady of Walsingham.)

External links

• Website about the Cavaillé-Coll organ in Farnborough Abbey
• St Michael's Abbey(Newsreel). British Pathé. 1953. Archived fromthe originalon 11 June 2011.Retrieved6 March2010.