Welcome to the Father Ignatius Memorial Trust website
The Monastery
The Monastery was founded in 1870 by Fr Ignatius with the aim of restoring monastic life to the Church of England, and it remained in monastic use for over forty years. Eric Gill, the sculptor and typographer, lived there from 1924 to 1928. It has been owned by the Knill family since 1986.
The Pilgrimage
The next Trust Pilgrimage is planned to take place on Saturday August 31st 2024. Background information is given on the Pilgrimage page, and more details will be available in the 2024 Trust Newsletter and on the News page in due course.
The Trust
The Trust’s objectives include the care of Ignatius’ ruined abbey church, and the nearby Wayside Calvary and statue of Our Lady, as places of pilgrimage, prayer and worship. Although the church is is now structurally unsound and unsafe for public entry, it remains a focus of the annual pilgrimage.
The Trust Archive
There is a collection of Father Ignatius Memorial Trust archive material at Abergavenny Museum. We have also made some documents and articles available on the website on the Documents page.
How you can help
We aim to keep the memory of Ignatius alive and to continue the annual Pilgrimage. You are warmly invited to make a donation and to become a Friend of the Father Ignatius Memorial Trust by subscribing to the Trust Newsletter.
(See the Help Us page).
Father Ignatius of Llanthony
Fr Ignatius OSB (Revd. Joseph Leycester Lyne, 1837-1908) was a prominent figure in the Catholic Revival which swept the 19th century Church of England. As a young man he resolved to restore to it the monastic life lost at the Reformation, and devoted the rest of his life to this aim.
Learn more
Fr Hunwicke, who first posted this article on this feast in 2016, writes from a Roman Catholic perspective, so is naturally concerned about the canonical status of apparently supernatural events occurring outside that communion. Leaving this question on one side we may profit from a consideration of the Apparition's *silence*, and from its resemblance to the events of 30 August 1880 and the following days.![]()
November 21: Our Lady of Light, 1924, and Unitatis Redintegratio, 1964
liturgicalnotes.blogspot.com
Ninety nine years ago tomorrow, on the Feast of the Presentation of our Lady, November 21 1924, in the little Anglo-Catholic mining village ...
This was where Fr Henry Bernard Ventham served as chaplain after his brief sojourn at New Llanthony.
Some photos from the partly relocated pilgrimage last Saturday, with thanks to Michael Woodward.
Apologies for the oversight by which no notice of this year's Newsletter was posted when it came out a few weeks ago. Here is the front cover; if you haven't received a copy, email our Secretary Dr Peter Davies and ask him to send you one (daviespll@hotmail.com).
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT![]()
2023 ANNUAL PILGRIMAGE SATURDAY 2 SEPTEMBER![]()
We have just learned that the road between Llanthony and Capel-y-ffin is completely closed while permanent repairs to the collapsed embankment are carried out. It is estimated that this will take some fourteen weeks, so the only vehicular access to Capel-y-ffin is over the mountain from Hay. The Eucharist will be celebrated at 11.30 at St David's, Llanthony, as previously announced, followed by the usual bring & share lunch, but Evensong has been relocated to St Michael's Church, Llanfihangel Crucorney, starting at the earlier time of 3.0. This will conclude with as much as possible of our customary devotions, and will be followed by refreshments. Grateful thanks to the church authorities for making this possible -- we hope to see many friends both old and new on the day.![]()
![]()
St Michael's is on the road through Crucorney village (off A465) not far from the turning on to the Llanthony valley road. Careful parking on the roadside is possible.