PENTAX Image My first visit to a Benedictine monastery was while I was a student at Oxford. I travelled down on the train first to Reading and then to the little station of Woolhampton, and set out to hike the mile or so up the hill following the old sign that pointed, "To the [...]
Maxime the Stylite of Katskhi in Georgia lives here. Learn more.
Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire, England After a dispute and riot in 1132 at the Benedictine house of St Mary's Abbey, in York, 13 monks were expelled (among them Saint Robert of Newminster) and, after unsuccessfully attempting to return to the early 6th-century Rule of St Benedict, were taken into the protection of Thurstan, Archbishop of York.[3] He provided them with land in the [...]
Cloister, Mont St Michel, France When I lived in England I made my annual retreat with the small community of Benedictines at Mont St Michel. The architecture is a Gothic marvel of economy and engineering brilliance. The lower levels with thick walls support common rooms with thinner walls and pillars and the whole living [...]
Rievaulx Abbey, Yorkshire, England BARE RUIN'D CHOIRS That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou seest the twilight of such day As after sunset [...]