St Mary and St Petroc Church RC - geograph

The Parish Church of St Mary and St Petroc is a congregation of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Bodmin Bodmin () is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated south-west of Bodmin Moor. The extent of the civil parish corresponds fairly closely to that of the town so is mostly urban in character. It is bordered ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, England, United Kingdom. The

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

is the former monastic church of the Abbey of St Mary, a community of

canons regular The Canons Regular of St. Augustine are Catholic priests who live in community under a rule ( and κανών, ''kanon'', in Greek) and are generally organised into Religious order (Catholic), religious orders, differing from both Secular clergy, ...

, whose origins on the site date back to the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

History

The village of Bodmin (which means "home of monks" in Cornish). A medieval ''Life of St Petroc'' describes how it was home to a

hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Chr ...

, St Goran (or Wron), during the early 6th century. In 518 he welcomed the Irish

monk A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...

, St Petroc, who was seeking to found a monastery in the area, which he did near Padstow. The destruction caused to the monastery in 981 by

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

raiders caused the monks to move their community to Bodmin.

The abbey

The Priory of St Mary was established by the Canons Regular of the Lateran during the 12th century. It grew to become the largest monastic community in Cornwall, but was suppressed on 27 February 1538 in the course of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The buildings of the priory were torn down, with the exception of the priory church, which was converted to the use of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

. The open practice of the Catholic faith in the town did not become possible again until a Catholic priest, William Young, bought some property in the town and had a Catholic church, with adjoining

rectory A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, p ...

, built in 1845. The availability of services, however, remained occasional and infrequent until 1881, when the Lateran canons were allowed to return to the region, their first modern foundation in the United Kingdom after the Dissolution, under the authority of the Bishop of Plymouth, William Vaughan. A small community of the Order was then sent from Italy and re-established the priory under the leadership of Dom Felix Menchini, C.R.L., accompanied by Dom Jean Giraud, C.R.L., and Brother Giovanni Baptista Pastorelli. By 1884, the new community had grown to 20 members, and Menchini was officially constituted as

prior The term prior may refer to: * Prior (ecclesiastical), the head of a priory (monastery) * Prior convictions, the life history and previous convictions of a suspect or defendant in a criminal case * Prior probability, in Bayesian statistics * Prio ...

and

Novice Master In the Christian Church, a novice master or master of novices (), is a member of an institute of consecrated life who is responsible for the training and government of the novitiate in that institute. In religious institutes for women, the novice ...

of St. Mary’s Priory, Bodmin, as well as Missionary

Vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English p ...

of the diocese in charge of the Bodmin and Truro missions. As their numbers and presence continued to expand, the canons took a major role in serving the surviving Catholic population of Cornwall. The community grew, until the house was raised to the status of an

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...

in 1953. Construction on a new church to serve the canons and the town had been begun in 1937, but had to be suspended due to

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and was not completed until 1965. It was built next to the already existing seminary of the English

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of the Order. Pevsner, N. (1970) ''Cornwall'', second ed. Penguin Books.Dyer, Peter (2005) ''Tintagel: a portrait of a parish''. Cambridge: Cambridge Books ; p. 119

The parish

When the canons had to close the abbey in 1976, due to dwindling numbers, they gave over the abbey to the Diocese of Plymouth and the complex was made part of the Roman Catholic Parish of St Mary and St Petroc, which covers a large area of North Cornwall. The parish includes churches in Wadebridge, Padstow and

Tintagel Tintagel () or Trevena (, meaning ''Village on a Mountain'') is a civil parishes in England, civil parish and village situated on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village and nearby Tintagel Castle ...

. The abbatial cloister was converted into private housing.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bodman, Saints Mary and Petro Christian monasteries established in the 12th century Augustinian monasteries in England 1538 disestablishments in England Christian monasteries established in the 20th century Roman Catholic churches completed in 1965 1976 disestablishments in England Saint Mary Roman Catholic churches in Cornwall 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom