Newspapers / Asheville Citizen (Asheville, N.C.) / Oct. 26, 1922, edition 1 / Page 16
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Monks Astonish England By Marvels 1 1 Of B 11 ! OMOing Unique In Modern Times After 40 Years of Labor. Exiled Benedictines Complete First Restoration of Ancient English Monastery Ever Ac complished and Erection of Biggest Church in England . Outside London. MONKISH BUILDERS MERE HANDFUL Rebuilding of Ruined Abbey of Buckfast, Begun in 1882, Was Carried On at First by Single Monk Mason with One ' Assistant and at No Time Have There Been ' More Than Six Monks at Work Ish West Africa, and a number ID the United BtaUi and Canada. Until 1912 it was unrepresented la England, but tben a little body of lu missionaries arrived In this country and established a centre at Dotwell House, Hayes, an ancient family mansion whose "newest" part, the drawing room,, was added In 1818. It stands in very beau tiful grounds of about four acres, the church and presbytery being, entirely bidden from the prying eyes of the world by Immense cedar and 11 r trees. The community now. consists of Ave priests, two students and three lay-brothers, one of these latter being the extraordinary Brother Raymond. Forty-eight years old, this wonderful monk and expert craftsman, Is, he told me In his tunny broken English, a native of the Spanish province of Catalonia. He has been a monk erer since he was 17, and before coming to Eng land ten years ago belonged to a branch of his order at Gibraltar. ANOTHER WONDER MONK FROM SPAIN Working Single-Handed, Lay-Brother from Catalonia Has Built Big Church Hall From His Own Designs and Simultaneously Enlarged and Decorated Roman Catholic Chapel. -Has Fitted Each With Lighting , and Heating Apparatus and '.' Water Supply and Laid Parquet Flooring Containing Over 5,000 Blocks. In His Spare Time This Monkish "Admir able Crichton" is Doctor, Dentist, Nurse and Barber to the Other Member of His Community, Makes His Colleagues' Clothes and Vestments and Darns Their Socks, Does Sculp ture Work, Teaches French, Spanish and Music, Prunes Vines and Brews Beer, and Incidentally Helps to Edit the - Parish Magazine. r By HAYDEN CHURCH Copyright, I9tt, ty The'McClure Newtpapt Syndicate. ,-et.. f- vflfPfM LONDON.--I have just met Sir Tames Baffle's Admirable Crichton In the flesh. But Bafrle, it proves, was mistaken about the Identity of the aston ishing master of many crafts w-hom he took as the hero of his famous play and who later, under Amor can auspices, made his appearance on the movie screen. His name Isn't Crichton really, lie isn't Eng lish, but Span lull, and instead of being a butler he Is a monk. ated the character of his famous butler hero. Brother Raymond stands out as an individual. But monks as a class have, as It happens, been do ing wonderful things in England of late, the achievement of one Benedictine community particular ly having also made a sensation. This community, expelled from France a little more than forty years ago, acquired in issz me site of the ruined Abbey of Buck- rr. - , H ' -'', '"''"1 led,t The Roman Catholic Church es tablished by the Sons of the Sacred Heart of Mary is the only one In i Hayes, and the monks' parishion ers now number upwards of 3,000. The beautiful little church of the order, which Brother Ray mond recently enlarged and whose rich decoration is also partly his handiwork, la the former drawing room of Botwell House. As the congregation grew, however, a church hall, to be used for enter tainments and other gatherings, was needed badly, but alas, the community dTdn't have money to enable one to be built in the or dinary way. So Brother Raymond volunteered to built one all by himself. "Some" Job For One Man When he started work a bit more than three years ago, the ground on which he built his church hall was decupled by some stables and cowsheds. These Brother Raymond tore down, and utilised the bricks in constructing the ntw building, which is 60 feet long, about 20 feet wide and high in proportion. It Is panelled all round to about three-quarters of the height, and Is lighted natur ally by four small windows and one big oriel, and artificially by three magnlflclent chandeliers,. which were constructed and ex quisitely decorated by the monk ish artisan. The ceiling Is panel- too, and the parquet flooring contains about 6,000 oak blocks, colleagues' hair, brews the non-al-cohollo beer which the community dispenses, prunes the vines In tns garden, makes the clothing for the rest of the community, makes the rich vestments that are worn by the officiating priests, has made a gorgeous canopy for the church, and helps to edit the parish maga zine! He also does a good deal of sculpture work, teaches music, Krench and 8panisb, and acts as dentist for the community. He not only darns his colloagues's socks but knits them, does all the marketing, was cook for a whole year, and in his "spare time" man ages a bit of boot-repairing. All this work has to be done In be tween his religious duties. With his companions he rises at 4.30 a. m., and goes to bed at 10 p. m. The things that stumps me most of all Is how he ever gets to bed. Among other things Brother Raymond Is responsible for the fit ting of the water supply to the house. He showed me yesterday a design of his own for a beauti ful church with a tower, buttresees and flying arches.1 "We have the site here," he said, "but we have no money." And this amazing man assured me that he is prepared to start on building the church of his imagin ings alone If only the money for the materials is forthcoming. Handful of Manks Re-Build Great Abbey Somebody has described Brother Raymond's church hall as "a little This Admirable Crichton of real 'fast, which in its time was oho of life is one Raymond Tons, who la 1 1 he largest in England. For morp mi. i iimi i ii m - - .. jT ,i..frr,-.tTr ,i .' A'i . 1'IHM-:? ir? "fed: : K ' 17 MtM. -vvA'ia known to the otlu'f members of the little monastic community In Eng land of which he is a member uimply as "Brother Raymond." than a decade they devoted them selves to it partial restoration and in addition they have nearly completed a wonderful church thirt ineDDey cnurcn; ouck fast, .the building of which represents twenty years of labor on the part of Bene dictine Monks, no more than six of whom . were working at any one time. This church, the largest outside of London, except ing the cathedrals, is unique as the only re-building of any ancient English abbey. A, , 1 , ried out, single-handed, at Bol- Until yesterday he was an obscure i alone reprtsonts twenty years of lay-brotber of this community, a j labor mi the part of the monk? branch of the Missionary Sons ot j themseh en, nnd that has just been (he Sacred Heart of Mary whose (inaugurated by Cardinnl Bourne,: "house," as it. is called, the only Archbishop of Westminster. I one that this famous Spanish order j And nnother Benedictine "con- has yet established In this conn- Igregalion," which Is now to r -turn try, though It has hundreds in 'to France after twenty-one years; oiner parts or tne world including j or exile on tin.' suie or trie tngitn . W(l olSe in Hayes. The feat of the United States, is located at .Channel, not only built thenmelve jn,jivj,lui monk, however, i:i Hayes, an ancient and historic a new and beautiful abbey in tjn -' ox t i-iit r til ixa.r enough. It mad" Tittle village ' irrli(ldlese, not ;sle of Wight, but have. It p- to"- aiacover what man- many mile? from London. ! pears,-established there u mu-iic-. DPI. 0flimn it was who had accom- . x To-day, however. Brother Ray-; library which now eontains wliai pi1!i!locj )t realizing as I did that " motid has become famous from , must be one or the most woiulerful lp innrl ho a type of the other j Knowing what I did of the stunts one end of Kngland to the other, j collections of music manuscripts. 10i;ig, builders whoso perform- J he has to his credit, f had expected the story of an accomplishment on .both ancient and modern, in ex-'Hnr, an, ,he winder or the coun-to see a man in the full flush of his part which is really stupendous j iotence any where. ,v A,u( )iavi,g fPen him andijouth. but Brother Raymond's when considered us the work of, AltoKeili.-r what we have heard heard from his colleKueS of bisthair U irou grey and he looks all one man. having only recently be-j recently of the achievements of olll(,,. HfComplishments in many j of his years. But he is a rhan of come generally known. Summed ' monks as architects, builders a-nl : whlety different "lines," I came ! brawn, all right, who stands close up in few words it may not seem laborers, as well as in other linos, uuav wondering If there can exist on six feet and whose muscles particularly spectacular, cousist- ! is almost enough to mak one ' uny whore else in the world as as- stands out like whipcords. In the lng as it does, of the designing, j imagine that we Hre back in the tonishing an all-around genius in j white smock and coarse black trou building and embellishing, single- Middle Ages, when the. life of his way a this . humble Spanish jeers he was wearing when I talked handed, ot a large "church hall"! whole communities centred about lay. brother, now verging on his! with him he looked much more and the simultaneous enlargement the local monastery, when monks ' tif,ttn mile-stone. 'like a- Russian peasant than a ;nd decoration of a Roman Cath- j worked in the fields and were- iwore 1 tell you of all t hat Spanish monk, especially when, nib- chapel. It is only, in fact, j shepherds and artisan, nnd when ; n,tMer ftaymond has done, how-; vastly entertained bv my wonder ,,!; ...v. , ( v,,r ft IMe HKeicn a naMj pic-.ai ins acnievements. nin oroau Spanish !of the yeoman claw, were those 'tare of the engaging little com- face broke into a smile that neinity tliM, because of him. his show-.! all of his strong, yellow 4 '.dy- M 4v mm!M.tr' Brother Raymond, the Monk who is master of all the crafts, carrying wood for the church hall that he built, single-handed, in three years. Brother Raymond and his fellow monks in front of the church hall at Hayes, Middlesex, which he has taken three years to build. Buckfast." The meaning of this designation in clear, for If the re building of the famous Abbey of that name In Devonshire by a com munity of Benedictines who have been engaged thereupon these for- tions remained, with the excep tion of a single tower, still stand ing. Out ot these rains there was built, on the site, a private house, and the decay and destruetloa was then so complete that even the foundations of the old Abbey were not longer recognisable. In 1813 a congregation of Bene dictine monks, expelled . from France, bought the site of the Abbey and a portion of its posses sions, with the view of establish ing thereupon their own religious system. The remaining tower was restored, the domestic buildings ot the Abbey were rebuilt, and a tem porary church waa erected. Be fore any of the work could be be gun, the foundations of the Abbey and Its church were larfd bare, and the whole of the re-building was raised on the ancient walls. This portion of the Abbey was re-opened In 1816, and the Benedictine monks have since continued the services of the Roman Catholic Church which were suspended at the Dissolution. In 1899 the set tlement was restored to the full dignity of an Independent Bene dictine monastery. The next work was to rebuild the Abbey Church, and for nearly twenty years past this work has been going on in the true medieval fashion. The design was that of Frederick Walters, F. S. A., ar chitect of the Abbey buildings, who has also designed the church of Our Lady' of Ransom at East bourne, (notable for the extremo beauty of the coloring of the stonework) and the Franciscan Friary at Chllwortn, In Surrey. All the work from 1883 has been car ried on under his superintendence. At first the actual building was done by a single monk mason with one assistant. At no time have there been more than six monks at work, and-so the building has been carried., on ,a money came,. Under ordinary ' building condi tions, the work would have, cost at least 8100,000. What it has actually cost has. been a mere frac tion of that sum, . The whole building, when com plete, will consist ot a nave of nine bays with aisles, . transepts with eastern chapels, and choir with an eastern square-ended projection or transept of six chapels, the whole surmounted by a-' square central' tower and spire. Its Internal di mensions will be: Length, 240 I feet; width, M feet; length of j transept, 85 feet; height, 49 feet. The whole of the eastern portion, I the transepts and crossing, and two nays ot the nave are coair pleted. Fonr more bays of the nave are linisbed to the clerestory, and that is the portion that has Jimt been opened. The building follows the Ktylc of the original church, (Transition Norman) which wan built 'abput the middle of the twelfth century. The lu tings of the church will he of a beauty and dignity consistent with the building, and they include an abbot's throne, reconstructed from fifteenth century carved wood- work. A fourteenth century statue of Our Lady recovered (In frag ments) from the ruins, has been . restored and plaved In the north transept, chapel. Is I'nique Achievement This noble building occupies an when the details of the extraordl- j the only schools for nary work which this monk, who is now close on 50, car- in which monks wore' the tenchers. ried out without any assistance whatever, and that kept him busy Type of the Monk-Huil'lcr tor more than three years, ave known, and when one discover There Is i u compai i.n. of also, as I did yesterday, wha-t an rou:?c. between he restoration ot all-around genius generally is this the ancir-nt Abbey of Il'irkf.iFt, monkish native of sunny Cistill" which represent the only re-build-that one lecognlzes him as a sure- in.i on record of an ancient Tng enough Admirable Crichton, evenhlsh monastery, by monks of the if he Isn't th one that Sir Jamei Benedictine order and the wor': ly years represents a uniotie I exnulsltelv- hnmittfni i- achievement, it Is easier of com-1 the valley of the Dart, near to the prehension when one considers poet Herrlck'S Dean Prior, and to what one monk alone has accom-; Dartington, where Froude the historian, spent his childhood, The islte (with the ruins of the old every one of which was made and nttea Dy urotner Raymond. plished in the little Middlesex Just as he had got going well ; town of Hayes. With this single with th church hall, moreover, j observation, one may go ahead the church itself had to be en-j with a story that is surely one of larged to accommodate the rapidly ; the most romantic of modern growing congregation, so Brother j church life and building. uaymona tackled that job, too, and ; n0 one seems to know exactly I elevated churchyard of Biickfa-st-got it off his hands before ho when the original Abliev nf rturv. i tii, . " -- i-.p.., imuii n iuukh a selling as iasi was lounaea, nut mere ts good Abbey) forms the foreground of one ot Turner's wonderful draw ings of the great gorge of the Dart, nnd, as seen from the started on' the hall again. suddenly been brought Into the;teeth. liiiuligh'. The. Missionary Sons of! "The fact that he has never had Hit' Hhicivtf Heart of Mary, a mon-'any special training in the differ-as- order founded In by a'ent crafts he practices," sa4d farious archbishop of Santiago de Caba. t lip Venerable Anthony Mary Hiiro', miow numbers over 2.000 members, scattered the world over. It has alone. Father Joseph Pinella,. the Su perior of the Botwell House com munity, "makes the work that he lias done here the more surpris- dfty many "houses" In throughout Spain ! ing." Sontn ' tlm Banie had in mind when he ere- i w hich Brother Raymond Tons niw J America and Cuba, others In Span-1 Brother Raymond. And then he told me about multifarious activities ot Mere are just a few of the things he has done during those throe years of amazing Industry. He has built the church hall, a porch for the church Itself, an altar and out-buildings; done the work of a sanitary engineer; installed 13 hot water radiators; put in a new boiler; fitted the church and house throughout'with electric light; put in the ventilators; drawn all bis own plans; designed the build ings; laid the wood block flooring; fitted all the windows and doors; reason for believing that It could not have been established later than the eighth century. From then on until the Dissolution In 1539 the Abbey was the centre of religious life in the beautiful val ley of the river Dart, and its pos sessions Included great stretches of Dartmoor,, with granges and out-lying cells for the occupation that of any abbey In Kngland. The church which has now arisen Is unique as the only re building oT any English abbey, and It forms one of the most Im portant ecclesiastical buildings of modern times. No existing church outside London, except the ca-. ' thedrals, Is so large. The tower. , as shown in the accompanying , photograph, Is temporarily finished '. in Its upper stages. It holds a fine of the shepherd lay-brothers; for it was from wool that much of the: peal of fourteen hli. TTn..i Abbey's income was derived. Una handsome features of. the In- After the Dissolution, the Ahhev : tarin .- .i.- ,. . .. done all the glaring work, snd laid th, the wfu. 53 on me gas. course, passed into private owner-! around h , . ' . , If thnre In .ncihini- ihi . , , , arouna the transept and a similar K there is anything this ex- ,hlp. They were left to decay and gallery on the internal faces of the tr.ordinary man can't do. I didn't by the beginning of the 19th cen- tower walls , nfeSent seV . discover what it is. ,11. cut. hi. tury nothing but walls and found.- rlnglngali'e 1 ml m m 4. m EE 0C 'f s. ;
Asheville Citizen (Asheville, N.C.)
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Oct. 26, 1922, edition 1
16
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