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Apostle of Christian Unity Researched by Sister Dominic Savio [Dr E. Hamer] CP Mt St Joseph Convent, Bolton BL3 4HF Blessed Dominic Barberi was born in 1792 near Viterbo in the Papal States in Italy, where his parents were farmers of an olive-growing estate. He was orphaned, however, when he was ten and his uncle, who adopted him, although a gentleman farmer of independent means, did not appreciate the value of an academic education and so neglected to send Dominic to school. Thirsting for knowledge, with an old Latin dictionary and a Bible as his textbook, Dominic became erudite in both Latin and Sacred Scripture. Later he became familiar with the library of a group of Passionists, whom Napoleon’s suppression of religious orders had forced to live nearby. Endowed with rare supernatural gifts, Dominic was already advanced in mysticism when he entered the Passionist novitiate in 1814. He had even already received a mystical understanding that he would be both a priest and a missionary. Shortly after his admission, he received another mystical understanding that he would evangelise England and other places in North West Europe. From then, like St Paul of the Cross before him, he found it impossible to pray without praying for England. After years as Professor of Theology or Philosophy or Sacred Eloquence and as Rector and Provincial, as well as a wonderful missionary and retreat-master, at last in 1840 he led a small group of Passionists to make a foundation in Belgium. From there, later that year, he visited England, the first Passionist to set foot in this country. In April 1841 he began to correspond with the Anglican John Henry Newman and his followers in Littlemore, near Oxford. In October 1841 he came with one companion to stay in England and in February 1842 he opened the first Passionist monastery, or retreat, in England at Aston Hall, near Stone in Staffordshire. It was in Stone that he would have met Elizabeth Prout, the future Foundress of the Sisters of the Cross and Passion, and at Aston Hall that Father George Spencer, the future Father Ignatius, entered the Passionist novitiate in 1846. Blessed Dominic met Newman face-to-face for the first time in 1844. On 9 October 1845 he received him into the Catholic Church at Littlemore. Blessed Dominic built a church-school in Stone and the Church of St Michael beside Aston Hall, as well as a new chapel in Aston Hall. With the help of William Leigh, he also built the Church of the Annunciation, a school and a retreat at Woodchester in Gloucestershire and, with the help of John Smith, founded the mission, with church, school and retreat, and later a convent, at St Anne’s, Sutton, St Helen’s. Working with endless zeal for the Conversion of England, he gave a hundred missions and retreats over the country, before dying of a heart attack at Reading, whilst travelling to Woodchester, on 27 August 1849. First interred in the Church of St Michael, Aston Hall, his incorrupt remains were later translated to St Anne’s, Sutton. Declared ‘Venerable’ in 1911, Father Dominic Barberi was declared ‘Blessed’ by Pope Paul VI in 1963. Researched by Sister Dominic Savio [Dr E. Hamer] CP Mt St Joseph Convent, Bolton BL3 4HF The present Shrine of Blessed Dominic Barberi was built in 1973. Blessed Dominic Barberi (1792-1849) was the Passionist priest who in 1840-41 brought the Passionist Congregation to England. ThePassionist Congregation had been founded in Italy in 1720 by St Paul of the Cross (1694-1775). Shortly before he died in 1775 he said that for more than fifty years he had never been able to pray without praying for England; and about the same time he had a vision of his Passionists in England. That vision was fulfilled in 1840-41 when Blessed Dominic Barberi arrived in England and founded the first Passionist monastery at Aston Hall, near Stone, Staffordshire. Between 1840 and his death in 1849 Blessed Dominic gave a hundred missions and retreats all over England, as well as one in Dublin, preaching to clergy, to nuns and to people of every walk of life. He began the foundation of a monastery at Sutton, St Helens, near Liverpool in early 1849 and, as he chose the site, he said that this would be his resting-place for ever. When, however, he died of a heart attack in Reading on 27 August 1849, he was buried at Aston Hall but a few years later the Passionists decided to close Aston Hall and so they removed Blessed Dominic’s corpse to their monastery at St Wilfrid’s, Cotton. In removing it, they discovered his body was incorrupt. Again a few years later, they decided to close St Wilfrid’s, too, and so, in 1855, they brought Blessed Dominic’s body to Sutton and placed it in the crypt below the old St Anne’s church. Blessed Dominic’s Cause for Canonisation was opened in 1889 and he was declared ‘Venerable’ in 1911. From 1923 there were big, public pilgrimages to his tomb, reaching 8,000 people on 27 August 1933. By then, however, the church was being affected by mining subsidence and in 1934 the tower had to be taken down. At the same time changes were made in the crypt to make it easier for pilgrims to visit Blessed Dominic’s tomb. Even then it was still difficult for disabled and elderly people to go down the dark steps into the crypt and so when Dominic was Beatified in 1963 he was given a new tomb and a shrine in the Chapel of St Paul of the Cross in the old St Anne’s Church. By 1971, however, it was clear that the old St Anne’s Church would have to be demolished on account of all the damage from mining subsidence. That meant that the tomb and shrine of Blessed Dominic would have to be removed again and that the coffin of Father Ignatius Spencer would have to be moved from the crypt. Hence, when the new Church of St Anne and Blessed Dominic was planned, a large Shrine was also designed, not only to hold the tomb of Blessed Dominic but also to provide sepulchres for Father Ignatius Spencer and for Elizabeth Prout, Mother Mary Joseph of Jesus, the Foundress of the Sisters of the Cross and Passion. Their remains were brought here, like the tomb of Blessed Dominic, in 1973; and so today, whilst the chapel is the Shrine of Blessed Dominic, it is also the focus of devotion to Father Ignatius Spencer and Mother Mary Joseph Prout. # 0003 |
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St.Anne and Blessed Dominic Monastery Lane, Sutton St.Helens WA9 3SP Telephone: 01744 811935 |