Caldey
[Caldey Island, Wales]: Printed by the Community, [1931]. Octavo (8 1/8 inches tall), staple-bound in original decorated paper boards. Faint foxing to preliminary leaves, gentle toning to spine, slight bumping to upper corners, gutter cracked at half title. A near-fine copy. Item #1148
"THE 'ISLE OF SAINTS' AS IT HAS BEEN CALLED, FRAGRANT WITH FLOWERS AND THE MEMORY OF HOLY LIVES"
Charming guide to the natural and spiritual beauty of Caldey Island—printed and illustrated by the island's Cistercian monks—for the benefit of pilgrims to "The Isle of Saints." A brief Notice prefaces the text with an admonition: "Visitors are not permitted to speak to the monks, nor take photographs of them, and are requested to refrain from leaving paper about."
In 1906, the monastic revival in the Church of England crested with the establishment a new Anglican Benedictine community on Caldey. In March 1913, on "the feast of St. Aelred of Rievaulx, took place what became known as 'The Caldey Conversions,' i.e., the reconciliation of Abbot Aelred and twenty out of thirty-three members of his community with the Roman Church" (Peter F. Anson). This natural and spiritual history of Caldey Island, situated off the Welsh coast, was printed shortly after the 1929 transfer of the final Benedictine monks of Caldey to Prinknash Priory in Gloucester. The Benedictines were replaced by Cistercian monks from Chimay Abbey in Belgium.
The guide is divided into several short sections: Isle of Caldey - Natural History - Prehistoric Remains - Monastic History - Abbey Church - St. David's Church - Old Priory - View from the Lighthouse - Cistercian Life: "The monk is hidden from the eyes of men, but through his prayer God's Grace descends upon the world just as the sun's heat and light saturate the earth's surface. That is the Contemplative Life." Bound in decorated paper boards with a map (to the verso of the title page) and illustrated throughout by the Cistercians with a series of humble yet deeply affecting woodcuts connecting pilgrims with the contemplative spirituality of one of Britain's holy islands. Approbations. Anson. Building Up the Waste Places: The Revival of Monastic Life on Medieval Lines in the Post-Reformation Church of England.
Price: $150.00