XIII. To Dom Anschar Hoeckelmann, Abbot of Erdington

This strange mélange of German and English names may be explained by the fact that Erdington Abbey (near Birmingham) was founded by Beuron Abbey in 1876 following Bismarck’s May Laws, which suppressed the mother abbey and scattered its community.

On several scores the history of Erdington had close links with that of Maredsous. Among the first group coming to this foundation from Volders in Austria (where the Beuron community exiled by the Kulturkampf had found refuge) was Dom Hildebrand de Hemptinne, who was prior at Erdington from 1879 to 1881, or until he was recalled to Maredsous as prior and then elected abbot in 1890.

Furthermore, Maredsous sent to the aid of Erdington three professed English-speaking monks —the two convert Anglican priests, Dom Bede Camm and Dom John Chapman of England, and Dom Patrick Nolan, an Irishman.

During the first years of his assignment to Louvain as prior of Mont-César, Dom Marmion went several times to Erdington to preach the annual retreat: in 1899 (the first retreat he gave in English), in 1902, 1907, and 1915; and he often visited the monastery on other trips to England.

The Erdington community returned to the Continent in 1922, and exists today as Weingarten Abbey in Germany.

• Benedicite Regina Coeli. 1 Sept. 1899 Rt. Rev. and Very dear F. Abbot,

Allow me to unite with our Rt. Rev. F. Abbot in wishing you from my inmost heart every benediction and joy on this day of your mystic expousals with the Community which God has destined to be yours from all eternity.’

I am exceedingly grateful to you for your very kind invitation to

? This refers to the Blessing of the first abbot of Erdington. 86 assist at the ceremony of your benediction; but circumstances render it quite impossible for F. Abbot to allow me to absent myself at present. I must be at Maredsous next week,” and it would scarcely be worth while to travel so far and remain but a day. I hope that one day I may be able to visit my dear brethren at Erdington. Although absent in body, I shall be with you in spirit; and offer my best prayers to God that He may give your Paternity the grace to make the Community of Erdington a real paradise of delights for Our Dear Lord.

I am so sorry dear little W |. . .| had to leave. I am sure it is for the best. He wrote me a very beautiful letter by which I saw that there has been no resistance to grace on his part; but that God calls him to another life.

Please present my affectionate and fraternal love to the Community.

Begging your Paternal benediction, believe me with profound respect,

Your most humbly devoted in J.C. fr. Columba, Prior O.S.B.

• Benedicite Abbaye Regina Coeli, Louvain. Oct. 22. 1899. Very Rd. and dear Father Abbot,

Father Abbot has just told me I am to give the retreat this year at Erdington. This news was a very agreeable surprise for me; for not only it is a great joy for me that God should deign to employ me for His glory, but it will be a very sincere pleasure for me to see again my brothers who are so dear to me in J.C.

I must not conceal from you that I foresee considerable difficulty, at least at the beginning; for it is now so many years that I have been away from my native land, that I find very considerable difficulty in expressing myself in English. However, I have very great confidence in work undertaken through Obedience, and with the blessing of Superiors. May I ask your Paternity to recommend me to God in

• For the Blessing of Dom Robert de Kerckhove, first abbot of Mont-César. holy prayers that I may receive the light to know and to say what will be most for His glory.

I propose travelling in the habit," (kneebreeches and all, just as we are over here); with, of course, a long over-coat. I expect there is nothing during the journey, nor at Erdington, which would require any change. Is it better to go by Harwich, or by Dover? The journey by Harwich is cheaper; but at this period of the equinoctial-gales not very agreeable; besides I fear I should have to omit H. Mass. However, I shall let myself be guided in that matter by your experience and advice. I am a good sailor, and am seldom ill on sea. I shall ask F. Abbot to allow me to arrive at Erdington a day before the retreat begins, in order to take a little rest after the sea-trip; and pick up my English a bit. I suppose the retreat begins Friday evening (Dec. 1), and ends Friday morning (8th). So I could leave the same evening, and be back here at Louvain for Sunday.

If you have any suggestion to make, or remark to offer, I should be most grateful to receive it.

I remain, dear F. Abbot, with profound respect,

Your unworthy, but sincerely devoted in J.C. fr; ColumbassPrag) saa

Benedicite Regina Coeli. Dec. 23. [1899] Rt. Rd. and Very dear F. Abbot,

Please accept my most sincere thanks for your letter and Xmas greetings. May the Divine Infant pour out His most abundant graces on your Paternity, and on the monastic family He has committed to your care. Since my visit to Erdington, I never fail to recommend all my dear brothers there in my prayers, and more especially your Paternity as I promised. May God one day unite us all around His Throne, never to be separated.

As I said in my letter to dom Bede,’ I got back all right; and have been at work ever since.

*In his monastic habit, a rare sight in Ireland and in England, where priests and religious appear publicly in a clerical suit; in Belgium, however, the cassock and religious habit are worn on the streets.

*Dom Bede Camm, monk of Maredsous, lived at Erdington at the time. See Section XIV for letters to Dom Bede Camm from Dom Marmion.

The more | think of Erdington, the more I am convinced that it is necessary to enlarge the buildings; if you are not content to remain at a standstill for the future. You should have a Chapter-room; and more room in choir. I will pray that God may give you light to solve the problem; as I have very much at heart the development of our dear Congregation in England.’ I have written to Father Abbot- Primate, and to F. Archabbot telling them of all the charity and edification I received during my visit to S. Thomas.’ *

Would you be good enough to thank D. Subprior * for his letter; and wish him for me a very happy feast. Tell him I will remember him, and his little flock, specially at the Altar on that day.

Begging your paternal blessing, and recommending myself to your prayers,

I remain, with profound respect,

Your unworthy servant in J.C. fr. Columba, Pr. O.S.B.

• Benedicite Abbaye Regina Coeli, Mont-César. 2. 1. 1900. Right Rd. and Very dear F. Abbot,

Please accept my respectful and most sincere wishes for a joyous and holy feast. Since I had the happiness of passing a few days with your Paternity at Erdington, I have been faithful to my promise of recommending you and your intentions to God in my most unworthy prayers; but on your feast I shall be specially earnest in my petitions that the “Father of Lights from whom all good gifts descend,”* may pour out abundant benedictions on you and on your dear Community.

Here, D.G., all are well; and God is blessing us, not in temporal goods, but in great peace and in holy union in Charity, and, as we seek this in the first place coetera adjicientur nobis.” Our studies are

• Beuronese Congregation.

• St. Thomas of Canterbury was patron saint of Erdington Abbey.

*Dom John Chapman, whose feast was celebrated on December 27. He was also a Maredsous monk who had been loaned to the Erdington community, as noted in the Introduction to this section.

Jas. 1:17.

? “And all these things shall be added unto you” (Matt. 6:33). progressing in every way. There is a great deal of “go”; the results are very satisfactory.

The Anglo-Boer war is most dreadful: such sacrifices of life! My sister writes to me from Dublin that the whole city is in mourning; so many fine young fellows are missing. May God give them peace! It is a terrible humiliation for England; and I must say, I am beginning to think that God is fighting on the other side. It seems difficult to explain such a series of disasters in any other way.

I am sorry to see that Dr. St. George Mivart ® is going adrift. I admire some of his works greatly; and always looked on him, up to this, as a most loyal searcher after the truth. Wounded self-love is a sad thing, and makes even clever men do very foolish things.

I hope I shall have the happiness of meeting your Paternity at the General Chapter.‘ I think it is the tradition that the Priors go as well as the Abbots. I have heard nothing on that subject as yet; but it would be a great happiness for me, if God so wills it, to see Rome once again, to gain the Jubilee® and, though last, not least, to meet your Paternity. :

Please present my affectionate and fraternal regards to all your dear Community, and believe me, with profound respect,

Your unworthy in J.C. fr. Columba, O.S.B. Pr.

• Benedicite Louvain. [about 1901]. Right Rd. and Very dear F. Abbot, Please accept my respectful and most grateful thanks for your kind

• St. George J. Mivart (1827-1900), learned English convert, biologist and philosopher, and a Protestant convert to the Church. For a long time he opposed Darwinism most vigorously, then partially changed his mind in its favor. Toward the end of his life he adopted a modernist position on religious questions, and “was buried without ecclesiastical rights,’’ according to the Catholic Encyclopedia account, although Cardinal Gasquet wrote on January 16, 1900, “I got him to see a priest and receive Extreme Unction.”” When Cardinal Bourne succeeded Cardinal Vaughan his case was reopened, and his body was reinterred in consecrated ground. See Sir Shane Leslie, Cardinal Gasquet. A Memoir (New York, Kenedy, 1953), p. 198; also article in Catholic Encyclopedia (New York, 1911), X, 407.

“General Chapter of the Beuronese Congregation, to which Erdington and Mont- César belonged at that time.

° Holy Year indulgence. go remembrance of me. For my part, I don’t forget your Paternity and the little flock committed to your care. I am sorry you are not getting vocations. Perhaps St. Joseph will help you, as he has done at Maredsous, if you invoke him. We are not doing much in that line either. We have but one vocation, a Dutchman; and he has not yet arrived. But new foundations must pass through many tribulations. I am not surprised that the English Bishops have begun to move in the question of Ponztificalia.’ It will be a consolation to have something certain; and also that our Ceremoniale * has not been printed till this question had been settled once for all.

I am sorry you had not a retreat to your satisfaction. It is so necessary for most of us to be wound up once a year. I think a Benedictine is always best for Benedictines. We had a retreat some years ago from a Dominican, who had a great reputation for learning and sanctity, but many of his conferences were beside the question for us, and didn’t tell. F. Thomas® of Maredsous would give you an excellent retreat. Our studies are getting on well, D.G., though I have not all the time I should require to prepare for my class.*

God is chastising Portugal.° Our work there, to human eyes must seem a failure; but we know that no effort, no prayer offered to God is lost. And so the prayers and fatigues of our fathers there, shall bear their fruit later on. Recommending myself most humbly to your prayers, and begging your benediction, I remain with great respect and affection

Your humble servant in J.C. ir. Columba, OS.Ba Pr:

• The use of pontifical insignia which abbots enjoy by privilege. The suppression of the monasteries by Henry VIII had interrupted this tradition.

• The book of ceremonies in use in the Beuronese Congregation. It was published in 1908.

’Dom Thomas Elsaesser was a pious monk of Maredsous and a distinguished latinist who published Nos in schola latine loquamur (1906 and 1909), and Linguam discito lingua (1910), two handbooks of conversational Latin.

“At that time Dom Marmion was teaching theology to the young monks from Maredsous who were at Mont-César for their studies.

Antireligious laws inspired by the Masons had closed the monasteries in Portugal. Beuronese monks sent there in 1894 to help their brethren had been forced to leave and return home. This news was sure to cause special distress to Dom Anschar Hockelmann, for in 1895 he had been sent to the Portuguese monastery of Cucujaes as prior. He remained there till 1899 when he was elected abbot of Erdington. gI

• Benedicite Mont-César, Louvain. 21 Oct. 1902. Right Rev. and dear F. Abbot,

Please excuse my delay in writing. Since my return from Metz, where I have been giving a retreat, I have been ill, and am only just beginning to get into form again. I am delighted at the prospect of seeing your Paternity again, and of spending a few days with my brethren at Erdington, who are very dear to me, though I so seldom write.

As I have been ill, and am still weak, Father Abbot wishes me to say that I may not give the retreat to the Oblates, but only the retreat for the Community; that is, two instructions a day. I shall arrive at Birmingham from London, Sunday, 30 Nov. at 1.43. And I suppose we can commence the retreat the same evening. I have permission to remain Saturday — Nov. 29—at London, where I have a matter to arrange with some friends.

It is a great consolation for me to know that Dom X |. . .] is doing so well; and that Br. Y |. . .] is giving satisfaction. However from what I know of both, I am convinced that it is important that they should, at least for some years, remain as much as possible in the Monastery, and be employed seldom in exterior work. The Irish character is so impulsive, that unless a man has been rendered stable and mature by long years of discipline and fidelity, you can never be quite sure that they won’t pass all at once from one extreme to another.

Please give me your blessing, and remember me at the altar, that Our Lord may deign to speak words of life through my mouth; for without Him all our efforts are sterile, even though people may admire and praise us.

My fraternal love to all.

With profound respect,

Your unworthy servant in J.C. fr. Columba, O.S.B. Pr.

Q2

4 Benedicite Louvain. 12 Jan. 1903. Right Rev. and dear F. Abbot,

Please forgive my delay in answering your most welcome letter. I had been hoping to announce that |. . .] was about seeking admission into your dear Community, and was waiting till I had a definite answer. Hence my delay. I have just received a letter stating that there are obstacles, and that it does not seem to be God’s Will, at least at present.

Please accept my most sincere wishes and prayers for your Paternity, and for your dear Community; that we may all advance in God’s love, and in the spirit of our H. Father St. Benedict.

I was very ill on my way back,’ as the sea was rough; but in the end it rather did me good, and I have been much better since my return.

All here are doing well, and God is blessing us both as regards our health; and as regards the union and good spirit of our clerics.

The theological Commentary which I recommended was that by Billot, S.J. It is an excellent synthesis and luminous explanation of the text of S. Thomas’ Summa. It is published at the Propaganda, but any book-seller will have it sent to you. His volumes on De Deo Uno et Trino. De Verbo Incarnato. De Sacramentis, are the best. He treats the B. Eucharist in a most masterly way; and certainly follows St. Thomas step by step.

The commentary of a Piconio on St. Paul’s Epist. is profound, and full of piety and doctrine.

Most humbly recommending myself to your prayers, and thanking you ex immo corde® for all the kindness and charity you showed me during my last visit, I remain

Most humbly devoted in J.C. fr. Columba O.S.B.

*T.e., on his return from Erdington, where he had preached a retreat at the end of December, 1902. “From the bottom of my heart.”