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St. Michael's Abbey Church in Farnborough, 2024 |
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St. Michael's Abbey Church in Farnborough, 2024 |
ST. MICHAEL’S Abbey, Farnborough, is a Benedictine monastery in Hampshire, 38 miles southwest of London. The principal work of the monks is liturgical prayer. The abbey was built from 1883 to 1888 by the Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III of France. Her intention was to create an “Imperial Basilica” to house the tombs of the Emperor Napoleon III, their son the Prince Imperial, and ultimately her own tomb as well.
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| NAPOLEON III | THE PRINCE IMPERIAL | EMPRESS EUGÉNIE |
ORIGINALLY a Premonstratensian foundation, the monastery became part of the Benedictine Solesmes Congregation under Abbot Michel Cabrol in the Eighteen-nineties, and is presently an abbey of the Subiaco Cassinese Congregation.
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MONASTERY From the South-East |
NORTH TOWER of the MONASTERY |
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| MONASTERY From the South-West | MONASTERY BUILDINGS in WINTER |
THE monastery is built in two starkly-contrasting but beautifully blended styles. The red-brick, French buildings came first. The French Benedictines then extended the monastic buildings, and clad the new tower and south end of the monastery in stone in a transitional (late Romanesque / early Gothic) style, reminiscent of their home, the Abbey of Solesmes.
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MONASTIC REFECTORY |
MONASTERY HOUSE CHAPEL |
IN addition to Farnborough Abbey press, which prints cards and liturgical and historical books, the monks keep bees and care for chickens and a large flock of sheep.
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THE ABBEY SHEEP and their |
SHEPHERD, ABBOT CUTHBERT |
RONALD Knox described the Abbey Church at Farnborough, where he was received into the Catholic Church, as “France transplanted into England.” The style is French Gothic, sprouting numerous gargoyles, and evokes the architecture of a number of different French churches.
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ABBEY |
CHURCH |
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| ABBEY CHURCH: Nave and Sanctuary | ABBEY CHURCH: High Altar from St. Joseph transept |
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| CORPUS CHRISTI MASS, 2024 | ABBEY SCHOLA, Led by Abbot Cuthbert |
THE community at Farnborough enjoys a well-deserved reputation for generous monastic hospitality and beautiful liturgy. Mass and the Divine Office are celebrated in Latin with traditional Gregorian Chant.
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ALTAR of OUR LADY of GUADALUPE |
NAVE STATUE of MARY |
ALTAR of SAINT JOSEPH |
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ALTAR of OUR LADY of GUADALUPE |
ALTAR of SAINT JOSEPH |
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SACRISTY VESTING TABLE |
PULPIT |
THE crypt under the abbey church houses the tombs of Napoleon III, the Empress Eugénie, and their son, the Prince Imperial, who was killed in 1879 during the Zulu wars. All three lived in exile in England after the fall of the French Second Empire in 1870. Napoleon III had risen to power in 1848, initially as elected President of the Second Republic, then as emperor following the coup and election that created the Second Empire in 1852. Napoleon III died in 1873. Eugénie died in 1920, having become a close friend of Queen Victoria, who provided the three granite sarcophagi in which the members of the imperial family are entombed.
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GARGOYLES on the ABBEY CHURCH |
ENTRANCE to the CRYPT CHAPEL |
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THE CRYPT CHAPEL:Tomb of the |
Empress Eugénie above the Altar and Tabernacle |
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| CRYPT ALTAR | TOMB of NAPOLEON III |
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| CRYPT NAVE | TOMB of the PRINCE IMPERIAL |
This Webpage was created for a workshop held at Saint Andrew's Abbey, Valyermo, California in 2015
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| THE PRINCE IMPERIAL ※ NAPOLEON III ※ EMPRESS EUGÉNIE |
