page_title: Belmont Abbey, Herefordshire
section_title: The Abbey Church
hierarchical_section_title: Belmont Abbey, Herefordshire / The Abbey Church
caption_attribution_description: English: SS Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and angels in a 19th-century stained glass window in the Roman Catholic church of St Michael and All Angels, Belmont Abbey, Herefordshire
context_page_description: Belmont Abbey, in Herefordshire, England is a Catholic Benedictine monastery that forms part of the English Benedictine Congregation. It stands on a small hill overlooking the city of Hereford to the east, with views across to the Black Mountains, Wales to the west. The 19th century Abbey also serves as a parish church.
context_section_description: The Abbey Church is a grade II* Listed building. Its construction began in 1857 and it was consecrated on 4 September 1860. It was built to the designs of Edward Welby Pugin, son of the great Augustus Welby Pugin. Built in the decorated, early English style, it demonstrated the resurgent optimism of the restored Catholic faith.
  The exterior is in local pink sandstone, simple and unadorned, reminiscent of many classical monastic facades of the fourteenth century. The interior is faced with warm Bath stone. The church is dominated by four elegant, steeply pointed, arches which support the central tower. Originally this was the crossing, but now the altar stands here at the centre of the Church. The whole church was expensive for its time costing £45,000.
  The church is noted for the quality of its sculpture and stained glass. There are windows depicting angels with harps, cymbals and pipes. There is an angel reredos in the east end of the church and a Victorian glass window showing the archangels Michael (the abbey's patron, sword and shield in hand, trampling the dragon), Raphael and Gabriel and the nine choirs of angels as an angelic orchestra sounding of praises of God.
  Under a wooden roof stands the monastic choir, where the community gathers five times a day for the Divine Office and Mass. Side altars are dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, St Joseph, and a memorial altar commemorating the former pupils of the school who lost their lives in the Second World War. The North Transept was formerly a chantry chapel dedicated to the Welsh Saints.
  St Benedict's chapel, completed in 1875, is shows the monastic founder in the central reredos.
  The churchyard contains three Commonwealth war graves, of a Royal Navy chaplain and a surgeon of World War I, and a Royal Air Force officer of World War II.
caption: Stained Glass of Ss Raphael, Michael, Gabriel and angels
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