Mount Melleray Abbey to close after almost 200 years with a final Mass

Several pilgrims are expected to visit the site throughout the week, with the order saying that there have been many enquiries regarding times of Masses and other ceremonies

Crowds gathering at Mount Melleray Abbey for the consecration of the church and the feast of Saint Bernard, circa 1952. Picture: Waterford County Museum

Pilgrims are flocking one last time to one of Munster’s best-known abbeys, run by the Cistercian monks in Waterford.

Mount Melleray Abbey, near Cappoquin, will close on Saturday, almost two centuries after it was founded in the 1830s by an Irish-born monk who returned to Ireland from the Cistercians’s monastery in Melleray, France. 

The monk, Vincent Ryan, was the first abbot of the monastery in Mount Melleray in the Knockmealdown mountains. However, the abbey will mark its closure on Saturday with a final Mass at 11am. 

Throughout this week, several pilgrims are expected to visit the site, with the order saying that there have been many enquiries regarding times of Masses and other ceremonies at the venue in its final days as an abbey.

Masses will take place at 7.45am each morning until Friday, while the onsite shop will remain open from 11am to 5pm each day.

The order says that “there will be no Liturgy of the Hours on Saturday, January 25, and no Mass on Sunday, January 26”.

Last December, the Cistericans announced that the popular site will be closed this month following a decision in November by the monks of Mt Melleray Abbey, Mt St Joseph Abbey in Roscrea, and Mellifont Abbey in Louth to form a union. 

Group of monks outside church at Mount Melleray Abbey, circa 1900. Picture: Waterford County Museum

The group, to be known as the Abbey of Our Lady of Silence, will relocate to Roscrea on a temporary basis from Sunday next.

The plan, according to the union, is to remain in Roscrea for “at least a year, to begin the life of the new community”. During this time, a decision will be made on where the full-time location for the new community will be.

The statement from the Mount Melleray monks said: “These changes are being made to help us to live the monastic life better, and to give a better formation and monastic life to those who are entering. 

At present, we have three novices with others expressing interest in joining us

The new grouping is made up of 26 members, including the three novices.

The Cistercians’s two other abbeys in Ireland — in Moone, Co Kildare, and in Portglenone, Antrim — will continue to operate autonomously, according to the order.

In its statement, the order said: “In the context of our decision, we must rationalise our use of the three properties formerly associated with the three pre-existing communities in line with our present day needs and resources. 

"No final decisions have been taken at this stage regarding any of the properties which may be vacated in the near future, however as decisions are made further announcements will be forthcoming. Cistercian College, Roscrea, continues to go from strength to strength and will not be impacted in any way by decisions in the future.”