Benedictine monks leaving historic English abbey (CNA)

The Benedictine monks at Downside Abbey have voted to leave the monastery and seek a new home. The abbey was founded in Somerset in 1814, and its chapel is a minor basilica. The community at Downside Abbey—now consisting of just eight monks—is England’s oldest Benedictine establishment, tracing its history to Douai, and the priests who traveled from the Netherlands to keep Catholicism alive during years of persecution.