The communities of Mount Melleray Abbey (diocese of Waterford and Lismore), Mt. St. Joseph Abbey, Roscrea (diocese of Killaloe), and Mellifont Abbey (diocese of Armagh), all in Ireland, have for some time engaged in a process of reflection and discernment about a union of the three communities.
On 3 November 2024, feast of St Malachy, following votes of the conventual chapters of the three communities, Dom Rufus Pound (monastic commissary of all three communities) requested the union of these three communities, by which is meant the suppression of the three existing communities and the establishment of one new community. On the same date, the Abbot General and his Council, acting in the name of the General Chapter, approved this union. The new community is called Our Lady of Silence and has the rank of Abbey.
The Abbot General and his Council then appointed Mother Marie Fahy, abbess of Glencairn, to exercise the authority of Father Immediate of the community of Our Lady of Silence until the General Chapter of 2025.
Mother Marie, having obtained the permission of the Abbot General to appoint a superior ad nutum, consulted the brothers of the conventual chapter of O. L. of Silence, and appointed the same Dom Rufus Pound as superior ad nutum.
The brothers of O. L. of Silence will come together in one of the existing monasteries to begin the life of the new community as soon as possible. The definitive location of the new monastery will be decided later.
Let us pray for the brothers of this newest community of our Order!
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