page_title: Belmont Abbey, Herefordshire
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Belmont Abbey, Herefordshire / History
caption_attribution_description: English: St Michael and All Angels Roman Catholic church, Belmont Abbey, Herefordshire: view from the nave toward the chancel and north aisle
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: Francis Wegg-Prosser, of nearby Belmont House, who had been received into the Catholic Church, can be called its founder. He decided to build a church on his Hereford estate in 1854. He later invited the Benedictines to reside there so that there would be a permanent Catholic presence in the area. In 1859, the Benedictines arrived and it became a priory. It was the Common Novitiate and House of Studies for the English Benedictine Congregation.  It was also a pro-cathedral for the Diocese of Newport and Menevia. The Benedictine Thomas Joseph Brown, who was its first bishop, is buried in the church. Also here, but in the Abbots' graveyard outside the east end of the church, is buried Bishop Bernard Collier, missionary in Mauritius.
  Belmont was unique in England for having a monastic cathedral chapter. This was the case in mediaeval England where monks were the canons of the cathedral, such as in Canterbury, Winchester and Durham.
  A move to transfer the training of monks to the individual monasteries of the English Benedictine Congregation led to Belmont being allowed to take its own novices in 1901, and become an independent house in 1917. In 1920 Belmont was raised to the rank of an Abbey by the papal bull Praeclara Gesta. In 1895, the Diocese of Newport and Menevia split and the abbey remained as the pro-cathedral for the Diocese of Newport. On 7 February 1916, the Diocese of Newport became the Archdiocese of Cardiff and it was decided to make St. David's Church in Cardiff the cathedral. On 12 March 1920, St. David's church officially became the cathedral for the archdiocese and the abbey ceased to be a pro-cathedral.
  The Priory was elevated in a rank of abbey by Pope Benedict XV, that issued Papal bull Praeclara Gesta on 21 March 1920 and immediatly, on 30 June 1920 the Community of St Michael’s elected Prior Aelred Kindersley as their first Abbot.
caption: The interior of the Abbey Church
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