Mount St. Joseph Abbey, Roscrea

Mount St. Joseph Abbey is an abbey of the Trappist branch of the Cistercians located in County Offaly, near Roscrea, County Tipperary in Ireland.

Mount St. Joseph Abbey, Roscrea
Monastery information
OrderTrappists
Established21 March 1878
DioceseKillaloe
People
Founder(s)Count Arthur Moore MP
Architecture
StatusActive
Site
LocationRoscrea, Co. Tipperary, Ireland
Public accessYes

The abbey was founded in 1878 by a group of 32 monks from Mount Melleray Abbey, County Waterford, a number of years earlier Arthur John Moore MP of Co. Tipperary visited Mt Melleray petitioning for it. The church was opened for worship in 1883, on 600 acres in Mount Heaton, Roscrea, and a Boarding school - Cistercian College, Roscrea - was founded in 1905. The first superior was Dom Athanasius O'Donovan (born Daniel O'Donovan).[1]

Mount St. Joseph contains several stained glass windows created by Harry Clarke or his studios. Three windows in the infirmary, three later windows in the chapel of the college and a 1960s window dedicated to St. Patrick for the abbey church.[2]

Three foundations have been made from Mount Saint Joseph - Nunraw (Scotland) in 1946, Tarrawarra (Australia) in 1954, and Bolton Abbey, Moone, (County Kildare) in 1964.

The Nationalist, Home Rule supporting MP the Catholic, Count Arthur John Moore who donated the six hundred-acre property, and buildings to the Cistercians, where the Abbey and College is, is buried in Mount St Josephs.

Abbots
Rev. Cornelius Claffey (Abbot from 1944 to 1962)
  • Dom Athanasius Donovan (Prior)
  • Dom Camillus Beardwood (1887)
  • Dom Justin McCarthy (1911)
  • Dom Camillus Claffey (1944)
  • Dom Eugene Boylan (1962)
  • Dom Colmcille O'Toole (1964-2000)[3]
  • Dom Laurence Walsh (2000)[4]
  • Dom Kevin Daly
  • Dom Richard Purcell (2009-2017) - became Abbot of Mount Melleray
  • Dom Malachy Thompson (Superior)[5]

See also

References
  1. Genealogical Memoir of the O'Donovans,Ch. 6. by Rev. Michael O'Donovan, published 1902
  2. http://www.msjroscrea.ie/index.php?zmienne=news,10,harry_clarke_windows_tour
  3. 'Gregory's Angels: A History of the Abbeys, Priories, Parishes and Schools of the Monks and Nuns' By Gordon Beattie OSB, 1997.
  4. Abbot of Mount St Joseph, Roscrea, installed Irish Times, August 21, 2000.

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