Sancta Maria Abbey, Nunraw

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Nunraw Abbey or Sancta Maria Abbey, Nunraw is a working Trappist (Ordo Cisterciensis Strictioris Observantiae) monastery. It was the first Cistercian house to be founded in Scotland since the Scottish Reformation. Founded in 1946 by monks from Mount St. Joseph Abbey, Roscrea, Ireland, and consecrated as an Abbey in 1948, it nestles at the foot of the Lammermuir Hills on the southern edge of East Lothian. The estate of the abbey is technically called White Castle after an early hill-fort on the land.

Sancta Maria Abbey, Nunraw
Monastery information
OrderOrder of Cistercians of the Strict Observance
Established1946
Disestablishedextant
Mother houseMount St. Joseph Abbey, Roscrea
DioceseArchdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh
Site
Coordinates55°55′17″N 2°39′07″W / 55.9213°N 2.6519°W / 55.9213; -2.6519

History

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Originally owned by the Cistercian Nuns of Haddington, the area that they settled becoming known as Nunraw (lit. 'Nun's Row'). The Nunnery of Haddington was founded by Ada de Warenne, Countess of Huntingdon and daughter of the Earl of Surrey, soon after the death of Bernard of Clairvaux, and the small evidence that is available suggests that Nunraw was a grange of that convent.

The modern monastery was built between 1952 and 1970 (but is unfinished as the abbey church was never built) by architect Peter Rice Whiston (1912-1999).

List of Abbots

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The modern establishment has had four Lord Abbots since its inception:

  • Father Michael Sherry, O.C.S.O. (d. 2003) Superior of the foundation between 1946 and its inauguration in 1948. Father Michael was the Prior, never the abbot. Nunraw was elevated from a priory to an abbey in 1948, Dom Columban Mulcahy being the first abbot.
  • Dom Columban Mulcahy, O.C.S.O. (1900-1971), Lord Abbot between 1948 and 1969
  • Dom Donald McGlynn, O.C.S.O., Abbot-emeritus and Lord Abbot between 1969 and 2003, an honorary "Chief" of the Igbo people in Nigeria.
  • Dom Raymond Jaconelli, O.C.S.O., Lord Abbot from 2003 to 2009
  • Dom Mark Caira, O.C.S.O., Lord Abbot from 2009

See also

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References

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