English Benedictine Congregation

The English Benedictine Congregation (abbr. EBC) unites autonomous Roman Catholic Benedictine communities of monks and nuns and is technically the oldest of the 18 congregations that are affiliated in the Benedictine Confederation.

History and administration

The EBC claims technical canonical continuity with the congregation erected by the Holy See in 1216, which survived in hiding and retreat during and after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1535–40.

At the beginning of the 21st century the EBC has Houses in the United Kingdom, the United States, South America and Africa.

Every four years the General Chapter of the EBC elects an Abbot President from among the Ruling Abbots with jurisdiction, and those who have been Ruling Abbots. He or she is assisted by a number of officials, and periodically undertakes a Visitation of the individual Houses. The purpose of the Visitation is the preservation, strengthening and renewal of the religious life, including the laws of the Church and the Constitutions of the congregation. The President may require by Acts of Visitation, that particular points in the Rule, the Constitutions and the law of the Church be observed.

The current Abbot President is Abbot Christopher Jamison, former Abbot of Worth Abbey.

Houses

Houses of the Congregation in exile
Religious house in Europe Location Dates Successor house in England
St. Gregory's Priory, Douai Douai, France 1607–1798 Downside Abbey
Dieulouard Priory France 1608–1798 Ampleforth Abbey
St. Malo Priory St. Malo, Brittany c.1610 – late 17th century n/a
St. Edmund's Priory, Paris; later St. Edmund's Abbey, Douai Paris 1615–1798 (Paris); 1818–1903 (Douai) Douai Abbey, Woolhampton
Cambrai Priory Cambrai, Flanders 1625–1794 Stanbrook Abbey
Our Lady of Good Hope Priory, Paris Paris 1651–1794 Colwich Abbey
Lamspringe Abbey Lamspringe, Lower Saxony 1630–1803 Broadway Priory, 1826–34; Fort Augustus Abbey, 1886–1998

United Kingdom
Defunct

United States

Peru

Zimbabwe

See also

Sources
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