BY Ian Dunn | November 13 | 
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Pluscarden Abbey rededicated by the Church after 600 years
Pluscarden Abbey was rededicated by the Church after 600 years last week.
Bishop Hugh Gilbert of Aberdeen led the special service at the ancient abbey, which was reoccupied as a ruin in 1948 after being empty for centuries.
Around 300 people where in attendance, including Bishops Joseph Toal of Motherwell and William Nolan of Galloway; some 30 priests; two deacons; representatives of other monastic communities, male and female; Religious Sisters; the Lord Lieutenant of Moray, and representatives of the Church of Scotland and the Scottish Episcopal Church, including Bishop Mark Strange of Moray, Ross and Caithness.
Father Abbot Anselm opened the Mass—believed to be the third in the history of the monastery—with a welcome at 11am. Bishop Gilbert, the former abbot of Pluscarden, then gave a homily before a prayer of dedication and the anointing of the altar and walls.
“We are a people who need comfort,” Bishop Gilbert said. “There can be great comfort in small things. It has been a comfort to many here to see the ruins rebuilt and living stones forming a living temple.”
“When I came back here now, it is often the older generation of monks who were here when I first came who fill my mind,” the bishop added. “There initial ruins shall be rebuilt. They shall rise up the foundations of many generations. And, today, it is good to seal all this with the rededication of this church and alter.”
Dom Benedict Hardy OSB, prior, novice master at Pluscarden Abbey, said everything that ‘could have gone well, did go well.’
“Surely the Liturgy of this day was among the greatest in Pluscarden’s history; comparing in importance with the formal opening on September 8, 1948,” he said. “All present commented on the great happiness and beauty of the occasion. Praise then and thanksgiving are due to God, source of all blessings, in whose honour, and for the upbuilding of whose Church, all this was done.“
Pluscarden was initially consecrated once it was completed following its foundation in 1230. A second dedication is believed to have occurred around 1454 after the abbey was re-built and made Bennedictine, following a devastating attack by Alexander Stewart, the Wolf of Badenoch, in 1390. As the only current Benedictine monastery in Scotland, Pluscarden Abbey is home to 21 resident monks and attracts an estimated 10,000 visitors every year.
Pic: Michal Wachucik
—This story ran in full in the November 13 edition print of the SCO, available in parishes.
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