Melleray Abbey [SEP] religious order
Melleray Abbey
Melleray Abbey (Abbaye de Notre-Dame-de-Melleray) was a Cistercian monastery, founded about the year 1134. It was situated in Brittany, Diocese of Nantes, in La Meilleraye-de-Bretagne in the vicinity of Châteaubriant (in present Loire-Atlantique).
History.
Foulques, Abbot of Pontron in Anjou, which was founded from Loroux (itself a daughter foundation of Cîteaux), sent monks for the foundation of a monastery in Brittany. They chose a solitary location near
presided over Mount Melleray for thirteen years; his successor was Dom Marius O'Phelan, solemnly blessed by Dr. Sheahan, Bishop of Waterford, 15 August 1908. Dom O'Phelan is credited with resuming the building programme at Mount Melleray in 1925.
In 1954 six monks (eight more in 1955) went to found a small Trappist abbey in a remote, rural area of New Zealand: The Southern Star Abbey.
More recent history: Dom Eamon Fitzgerald, abbot of Mount Melleray, was elected abbot general of the order in September