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The Abbey Church is magnificent. It is a Grade One Listed Building, designed by the architect Gabriel Hippolyte Destailleur, who came to Farnborough after completing Waddesdon Manor for the Rothschilds in Buckinghamshire. Monsignor Ronald Knox, who was received into the Catholic Church here, described it as "utterly, irreclaimably French." It is Gothic in style, with a renaissance dome reminiscent of that of Les Invalides in Paris. Numerous details of churches along the Loire are \'quoted\' in the architecture.

The building combines the splendour one might expect of a royal foundation with the austerity of a monastic church. Simple, lofty arches and an Italian marble pavement tantalise the eye to the richly decorated corona above the High Altar with the French inscription on its beams 'St Michael our glorious patron, pray for France and for England'. The Archangel's statue is above the organ. Eagles and bees - the imperial emblems - decorate the walls surrounding the High Altar.

In the north transept is the monastic choir where the monks chant daily the Divine Office, and in the south transept is the Natinoal Shrine.

The church was extensively renovated in 2000-02 with the aid of English Heritage and The Heritage Lottery Fund. Thanks to the help of these and other bodies, the monks are able to maintain their buildings and preserve them for the purpose for which they were originally intended. Often visitors come to us and, knowing something of the richness of our history, wonder if we are more museum than monastery. This myth is quickly dispelled when they experience the prayerfulness of our church.

Dom Cabrol, our first abbot, put it well. "What you see before your eyes," he said, "is no mere monument to the glories that once belonged to France, but is built of greater stones - those of the daily sacrifice of Christian Prayer."

 

 

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For further information or comments please contact info@stjosephshrine.org.uk