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Henry Coombe-Tennant went from fighting Nazis on the front line to monkhood - rescuing a queen and escaping prison in betweenFew people in the world, never mind Neath, have a life story as impressive and boast-worthy as former Welsh Guard Henry Coombe-Tennant. Born in 1913 in Cadoxton, Neath, Henry was something of a James Bond of his time. After joining the Welsh Guards in 1939, he fought Nazis on the front line, escaped a prisoner of war camp and spied for MI16, and when all of this perhaps became a bit too much - he put down his rifle and...

On May 19th, 1917, at the height of World War One, Swedish steamer S/S Kyros set its course to Petrograd (today known as St Petersburg). It was delivering 50 cases of cognac and 15 cases of liqueur from France to Russia through neutral Swedish territory. But just off Åland island in the Baltic Sea, it was stopped and checked by German submarine UC-58, whose captain decided to sink the steamer because the alcohol was considered an illegal contraband product. The crew were transferred to another ship and were able to return home to Sweden safely – but the cognac and...

Benedictine monks in Chama Canyon, New Mexico, encounter God through work, prayer and silence in the wildernessIn 1964, Father Aelred Wall, OSB (1917-84), and two other monks left Mount Saviour Monastery in New York to scout out remote locations to establish a new “daughter,” or off-shoot monastery. After visiting Maine and Minnesota, the monks came to northern New Mexico and laid eyes on a rancho in the wilderness of Chama Canyon, 75 miles north of Santa Fe. They declared, “This is it!” and established the Monastery of Christ in the Desert of Abiquiu (www.christdesert.org). At a time when religious communities...

Stratton-on-the-Fosse, England, Oct 19, 2017 / 12:54 pm (CNA).- A new BBC series will depict the daily life of Benedictine monks in a few UK monasteries, taking camera crews to capture a lifestyle normally hidden from the public’s eye. A three episode mini-series called “Retreat: Meditations from the Monastery,” the broadcast will explore the life of three different abbeys: Downside, Belmont, and Pluscarden. Produced without a narrator, the series aims to portray the quiet contemplation of the monks’ daily routines using only the natural sounds of the monasteries. Viewers will be able to experience the sights and sounds of meals,...

Dear friends, Around 7:40 AM, a powerful earthquake struck close to Norcia. The monks are all safe, but our hearts go immediately to those affected, and the priests of the monastery are searching for any who may need the Last Rites. The Basilica of St. Benedict, the historic church built atop the birthplace of St. Benedict, was flattened by this most recent quake. May this image serve to illustrate the power of this earthquake, and the urgency we monks feel to seek out those who need the Sacraments on this difficult day for Italy. Relying, as ever, on your prayers...

The centuries-old Basilica of St. Benedict in Norcia — already damaged in a spate of strong quakes in central Italy — was "destroyed" early Sunday in the latest and greatest of tremors, its monks said. The monastery was among dozens of building in towns scattered throughout the mountainous region to collapse during the 6.6-magnitude quake that struck around 7:40 a.m., according to reports. There was no immediate reports of fatalities, but officials with Italy’s civil protection agency said there were injuries following the seismic activity. First responders rushed to piles of rubble searching for trapped victims after the tremor woke...

What’s that old saying? You can attract more with honey than with vinegar? Brother Victor Antoine d’Avila-Latourrette proves it wrong.That long French name might ring a bell with readers who are familiar with a number of spiritually-themed cookbooks that were published in recent years, Twelve Months of Monastery Soups and The Monastery Garden Cookbook among them.But to locals in the lower Hudson Valley region of New York, Brother Victor Antoine’s name conjures up images of an essential ingredient. Turns out this hermit monk has what aficionados call a “mother,” with a lineage going back four decades.“The term refers to the...

I first met Brother Augustine Wilmeth when he was one of the students where I served as chaplain. As a convert, he was intensely interested not only in his new Catholic faith but in the more traditional expressions of life and worship.I followed his progress through the years and had the chance last summer to visit him a few months before he took his first vows as a monk at the Benedictine monastery that has been reestablished at Norcia in Italy.Brother Augustine spoke to me for Aleteia about his vocation, his life in the monastery and his work brewing...

ou are listening to one of the 33 songs from the album "Benedicta.” Those voices belong to the Benedictine monks of Norcia, and they are singing sweet words and pious prayers to the Virgin Mary. The album begins like this. Those are bells from their monastery. When they stop ringing, the monks intone responses and hymns in the grand tradition of Gregorian chant. They provide for many of their community's needs with profits from sales.

Brother Andre Love, a Benedictine monk, sits in the church after praying at the Mount Angel Abbey on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2014. Love, a former tattoo artist, still has tattoos on his hands, arms and neck. Six years ago, Mount Angel Abbey's serene hilltop campus shook, as leather-clad Bobby Love rolled in on his motorcycle. Love removed his helmet revealing pierced ears and a mop of dreadlocks. With tattoos on his hands, arms and neck, he looked like an extra on "Sons of Anarchy" not a someone attending a retreat for those who might become Catholic monks. "One of...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Even before retired Pope Benedict XVI set up a pontifical council for new evangelization and convoked a world Synod of Bishops on the theme, a new group of Benedictine monks was using Latin and liturgy to reach out to those whose faith was weak or nonexistent. Now they've added beer to the blend, and people are flocking to the monastery in Norcia, the birthplace of St. Benedict, about 70 miles northeast of Rome in the Umbrian countryside. snip

On a hill overlooking the Fraser Valley in Mission, British Columbia is a remarkable center of life, prayer, work, hope, and peace known as Westminster Abbey. Considered to be Mission's most famous landmark, with its striking bell tower and austere yet modern church, this renowned Benedictine monastery attracts thousands of visitors annually. Why do so many people make the journey up the hill in such great numbers? What are they seeking? Whom are they seeking?Monasticism, though still a curiosity, is more and more an attractive curiosity. Monasticism sinks its roots into the real world of God by seeking an...

The old liberals command the Church is increasingly without reservation. But the boring mush they produce doesn't attract anyone any more. [kreuz.net] "The Cloister, which young people today are drawn to, is something which the most traditional societies offer." Trappist, Father Guillaume Jedrzejczak explained on July 2nd, to the article appearing in the Catholic daily 'La Croix'. Father Jedrzejczak is the former Abbot of the French Trappist Abbey Mont-des-Cats.

Children were "sadistically tormented and also sexually abused" at a Catholic monastery in Pope Benedict's native Bavaria, according to a new report commissioned by the Roman Catholic Church. World A lawyer investigating accusations of abuse in a Benedictine monastery school in Ettal presented a final report to the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising Monday, including 173 pages of victims' accounts of abuse. "My investigations quite clearly show that for decades up until around 1990, children and adolescents were brutally abused in the Ettal monastery," Thomas Pfister said in a statement. "The number of victims' accounts has increased significantly since the...

Hitler dispatched aides to swipe the sacred relic - believed to have been used to wrap the dead body of Christ - after visiting Italy in 1938.Vatican officials had it moved south from Turin to the Montevergine monastery in the country's Campania region, but the Fuhrer's henchmen eventually stumbled across the shroud's hiding place.However they were unable to find it because of a group of brave monks who surrounded the altar in which the artifact was stashed and pretended to pray, Italian news agency ANSA reported today.Their quick-thinking meant Hitler - who historians say was obsessed with religious symbols and the...

How Catholic religious communities are trying to attract young people again. The Catholic Church has always seen the contemplative life as the "Air Force" in its spiritual struggle, as the Rev. David Toups of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops commented—a conduit of spiritual power. Though the number of young people entering monasteries, convents, and the priesthood has drastically dropped from the mid-20th century, some new approaches to religious vocations have inspired some young people in America to embrace this idea, replenishing several of the older religious orders and filling new ones. One such community with a young population,...

Catholic prelates and traditionalists from around the world are gathering at St. Madeleine du Barroux monastery in France today for the funeral of Dom Gerard Calvet, the founder of the post-Vatican II traditional Benedictine movement. Father Calvet, whose influence in contemporary Catholic traditionalism trailed only that of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, died Thursday at age 80. His health had been in sharp decline since he suffered a stroke in the late 1990s.

HULBERT -- A vision born 35 years ago on the campus of the University of Kansas and nurtured in a monastery in France moved closer to reality this week, as monks at Our Lady of Clear Creek Monastery moved into their new residence building. The building is the first part of a monastic complex that will include an 80-by-180-foot church with a 110-foot bell tower. "This is a dream come true," said the Rev. Phillip Anderson, the prior, or leader, of the Benedictine community living at the monastery. "All of a sudden, after all these years, it's happening," he said....

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CULLMAN — Sara Burress could have been the poster child for a modern woman making her way from pew to pulpit. But... [snip] After years of working in Christian organizations, including Campus Crusade for Christ, Burress went to seminary. She became a preacher and pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Her career growth came as women clergy were expanding in number and influence. But... [snip] Burress left her pulpit, sold her house, put her belongings in storage and gave away her beloved cat. She began converting to Catholicism. She is not a nun, although she is going through a discernment...