Context
Buckfast Abbey is a Roman Catholic monastery, home to a community of Benedictine monks. The Community has lived at Buckfast since 1882 when it found a welcoming home here following expulsion from France at a time of religious persecution. The site which we occupy traces its monastic origins back one thousand years. In 2018 we celebrated a millennium of monastic influence at Buckfast; the earliest written record of a monastery here dates from 1018, but it is likely that its monastic roots go even deeper.
Today, the monastic community continues its life of prayer, study and manual labour according to the Rule of St. Benedict. We offer help to the public through our prayer and pastoral work. Following the Rule’s insistence that we make hospitality a special concern, the monks also work with a large, devoted lay staff to offer a welcome to the many visitors who come to Buckfast from near and far. We estimate that some 400,000 people visit us at Buckfast each year, for reasons ranging from pilgrimage to tourism, from attending conferences to school visits facilitated by our award winning education department.
One of our priorities is, of course, to provide a safe environment for all our visitors and especially for children and those who are vulnerable in any way. Our independent Safeguarding Commission, together with our Safeguarding Coordinator, is focussed entirely on promoting and facilitating this work at Buckfast Abbey.
Buckfast Abbey’s operations are conducted under the auspices of the Buckfast Abbey Trust, Registered Charity number 232497. Its trading activities take place through the charity’s trading company, Dart Abbey Enterprises Limited.
