This week Kylemore Abbey saw the Blessing of its twentieth Abbess, Mother Karol O’Connell OSB.
Elected to the role on September 25, Mother Karol was blessed by The Archbishop of Tuam, His Grace, Francis Duffy, as part of Mass in the Monastic Church in the Monastery of the Immaculate Conception.
Kylemore’s Benedictine Community were joined by Abbots and Abbesses from the Benedictine world as well as local clergy, and Mother Karol’s family and friends in celebrating the day. The homily was preached by Bishop Tom Deenihan, Bishop of Meath.
Speaking on the occasion of the Blessing, Mother Karol O’Connell said “today is a day filled with joy and gladness, which leaves me full of hope for the future.”
Raised in Midleton, Co Cork, Mother Karol was educated by the Presentation Sisters and went on to study music in the Liszt Academy, Hungary.
She entered the Monastery in 1978 on July 11, the Feast of St Benedict. Much loved by her many music students over the past four decades, Mother Karol has been community organist, choir mistress, cook, gardener, artist, and has published a series of music literacy books as well as holding the office of Prioress for 16 years.
The Office of Abbess is a twelve-year term and with Prioress, Sr. Jeanne Bott, and the support of the entire Benedictine Community at Kylemore Abbey, Mother Karol hopes to continue the legacy of Kylemore’s 19 previous Abbesses and to build and grow the Community in a peace-filled and joyful way.
The Benedictine nuns of Kylemore Abbey have a long history, beginning at Brussels in 1598. During the late 1500s, following religious suppression, many Catholics left England and opened monastic houses in Europe. A number of monasteries originated from one Benedictine house in Brussels, founded by Lady Mary Percy in 1598. This included one at Ypres in Belgium in 1665.
Through the centuries, Ypres Abbey attracted the daughters of Irish nobility, as students and postulants and enjoyed the patronage of influential Irish families living in exile. Known as The Irish Dames of Ypres, the Benedictine nuns moved to Dublin in 1688 at the request of King James II but returned to Ypres following James’s defeat at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.
After more than two centuries in Ypres, their Abbey was destroyed during World War 1, and the nuns fled as refugees - first to England, later to Wexford before eventually settling in Kylemore in December 1920.
At Kylemore, the nuns established an international boarding school and day school for girls. They ran a farm and guesthouse; restored the ruined Victorian Walled Gardens and the Neo-Gothic Chapel, and established craft and hospitality enterprises. In 2010, the school closed, and since then the Benedictine nuns have developed new education and retreat activities, while welcoming thousands of visitors to their shared home.
