Bruno Fehrenbacher was a German-British Benedictine monk and Abbot of

Buckfast Abbey Buckfast Abbey forms part of an active Benedictine monastery at Buckfast, near Buckfastleigh, Devon, England. Buckfast first became home to an abbey in 1018. The first Benedictine abbey was followed by a Congregation of Savigny, Savignac, later ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

, England.

Biography

Bruno Fehrenbacher, born (as Hermann Fehrenbacher) on 27 July 1895 in Mengen, Württemberg, was one of five children of a German Catholic family. At the grammar school in Mengen he came into contact with a Benedictine monk from Buckfast; at the age of 15, he – like numerous other young men from the south of Germany – became a member of the Buckfast Abbey community. At that time this community was looking for workers to help with the rebuilding of the abbey which had been in ruins for centuries. The then-Abbot Ansgar (Martin) Vonier and his predecessor Abbot Boniface Natter came from the same area of Württemberg. In 1919 Fehrenbacher was ordained a priest. He then studied philosophy at the Benedictine college of St. Anselmo (Rome) where he obtained his doctorate in 1922. Back in Buckfast, he became a British citizen in 1935. Between 1937 and 1939, he taught Syriac clergy at the Benedictine seminary in Jerusalem and in Charfet. After the death of Abbot Vonier on 26 December 1938, Fehrenbacher was elected as his successor and so returned to Buckfast. Abbot Bruno was installed on 24 February 1939 by Dom Adrian Taylor, abbot of

St Augustine's Abbey, Ramsgate St Augustine's Abbey or Ramsgate Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey in Ramsgate. It was built in 1860 by Augustus Pugin and is a Grade II listed building. It was the first Benedictine monastery to be built in England since the Reformation. In ...

; the abbatial blessing followed on 23 March 1939. During the war, Buckfast did not suffer bomb damage and thus was able to provide a refuge for the staff and pupils of

St Boniface's Catholic College St Boniface's Catholic College is a secondary school for boys, under the direction and trustees of the Roman Catholic Community in the Plymouth area in the South West of England. Founded in 1856 as an independent boarding and day school for "you ...

, Plymouth. After the war Abbot Fehrenbacher succeeded in extending the monastery buildings considerably and in rebuilding and enlarging the organ. In 1956, he resigned from his position as abbot because of ill-health. He then served as assistant chaplain to the Benedictine nuns of Stanbrook near Worcester, and was titular abbot of

Tavistock Abbey Tavistock Abbey, also known as the Abbey of Mary, the mother of Jesus, Saint Mary and Saint Rumon, is a ruined Order of Saint Benedict, Benedictine abbey in Tavistock, Devon. The Abbey was surrendered in 1539 during the Dissolution of the Monaste ...

. In 1964, he returned to Buckfast. He died on 18 July 1965.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fehrenbacher, Bruno 1895 births 1965 deaths People from Sigmaringen (district) People from the Kingdom of Württemberg Benedictine abbots 20th-century Christian abbots 20th-century German people 20th-century British people German abbots English abbots