Benedictine Bath

During the first week of July, St Johns Foundation, Bath Abbey and Downside Abbey worked together to deliver Benedictine Bath Festival, a celebration of the little-known Benedictine history in Bath. The festival this year began with Vespers, which is an evening song of worship. The music from Downside’s monastic community and the choir from St John’s Catholic Church was beautiful and, at times, haunting to hear.

The following day we opened the exhibition in the chapel. This allowed St John’s to show some of the history of the Foundation. Downside presented the story from Douai to Downside and Bath Abbey explored the way their community takes part in the cycle of life to death.

On Tuesday, Ollie Taylor from Bath Abbey delivered a fascinating talk on Bath’s Benedictine monastery and Sarah Exton at St John’s ran a workshop on creating impressive medieval-inspired canapes. A tour of the impressive Downside Abbey was also popular.

This is the fourth year Benedictine Bath has run and it is a pleasure to see Bath looking back to a little-known but significant part of its past. It is also a reassuring glimpse of the future as St John’s continues to work in partnership with organisations around Bath and the surrounding area to do our part in building a thriving community.