Mellifont Abbey Today

After the suppression of Mellifont Abbey in 1539 by King Henry VIII, the Abbey and its lands at the end of the Nine Years War came into the ownership of various families. In 1603 Hugh O’Neill, came to Mellifont, then in the ownership of the Moore family, to make his submission to the Lord Deputy Mountjoy. He returned to Mellifont in 1609 to bid farewill to his close friend Sir Garrett Moore, Viscount of Drogheda, before setting out on the voyage which was to become known in history as the “Flight of the Earls.”

In the early part of the seventeenth century a part of the original estate including the greater part of the townland of Collon passed into the hands of the Foster family, an English family who had settled in nearby Dunleer. By now the Abbey was derelict and the surroundings very sparsely inhabited. Anthony Foster brought in French and English Protestant families and invested huge sums of money in land improvements. His son John, born in 1740, was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1785 and was Speaker of the House of Commons from 1785 until the abolition of the Irish Parliament by the Act of Union in 1800. His wife became Baroness Oriel and their estate was named Oriel Demesne. The last owner of Oriel Demesne and its residence was Thomas Alexander Rudd. When Mr Rudd died in 1936 the estate was taken over by a Government agency known as the Land Commission. By this time both the residence and the land were in very poor condition.

In May 1938 Cardinal McRory, making the canonical visitation to the parish of Collon, visited the then unoccupied Oriel Temple estate with the Parish Priest, Fr.Corcoran. He was immediately struck by the suitability of the site for a monastic foundation. Mount Melleray in Co. Waterford was contacted and before the end of the year both the Chapter of Armagh and the Cistercian Order had approved of the reestablishment of the Cistercian Order and the return of the monks on lands which had been part of the property of Mellifont four centuries before.

On the 22nd November 1938 the first monks of the new community under the leadership of Fr. Benignus Hickey, who later became its first Abbot, arrived to take up residence at Collon. The new monastery was seen more as a reestablishment of the old Abbey of Mellifont rather than as a totally new foundation.

Today the monks of Mellifont Abbey number 15. in all, The monastery manages a large farm of approx. 1000 acres with dairying, tillage and forestry as main activities. Mellifont Abbey Press and Mellifont Abbey Garden Centre also contribute to the maintenance and upkeep of the monastery and the employment of about 25 loyal employees. Our small Guest-house accommodates 7 guests and is open all the year round except for some days at Christmas and during our time of annual Retreat.