The Doms Aelred, Graham and Wall

This year marks the 40th year since the passing of two Aelreds, monks sharing the same patronage and, for a time, sharing the same monastic community here at Portsmouth. Despite the ideals of stability, obedience to vocation at times means movement. For one Aelred, it meant traveling across the ocean to take on the leadership of an American community within the English congregation. For another, it meant becoming uprooted from this monastery and School, which had fostered his vocation, moving across the continent to help establish two new communities, both of which still exist. The passing trajectories of these two Aelreds crisscrossed here at Portsmouth for some time over the 1950’s, with one serving as the community’s superior while the other served as the head of the School. Of interest to our St. Louis friends, Aelred Wall, one of the first graduates of Portsmouth Priory, was from St. Louis. He would ultimately land in Mexico, establishing a hermitage. This Aelred was nurtured from within here at Portsmouth, a product of the School who joined the monastery, though finishing his earthly journey abroad. Aelred Graham was sent here from another house, Ampleforth in England, and returned there for his final years. Portsmouth thus had two Aelreds in this house for much of the decade of the 1950’s. We remembered them this year to begin these Archives, as both passed to eternity in 1984, now 40 years ago. We provide below the reflections offered by Dom Damian Kearney in the monastery Newsletter at the time of the passing of these two extraordinary Aelreds.

Dom Damian Kearney, 1984

Aelred Graham, O.S.B.

On August 13, Dom Aelred Graham, former Prior of Portsmouth, died at the age of 77 at Ampleforth Abbey. In 1951 he was appointed superior of Portsmouth after serving in a number of capacities in his own abbey: as guestmaster, teacher in the school, village priest, professor of theology, and most notably as a distinguished author. In many seminaries in this country, he was known for his book used as a text, The Christ of Catholicism. Most recently, he had been engaged in a controversial correspondence in “The Times of London” stemming from an article which led to a heated exchange from a wide range of readers and ultimately published as “Catholicism Today.”

Early yearbook image of
Dom Aelred Graham

Shortly after he came to America, Dom Aelred published “Catholicism and the World Today,” which was inspired by this series of letters. He next wrote a widely publicized article for The Atlantic Monthly, questioning the validity of Thomas Merton’s interpretation of the Holy Rule. This led to a friendship which was later enhanced by their mutual interest in Buddhism, a subject which played a large part in the declining years of both. Dom Aelred’s most original book, Zen Catholicism, reflected this interest, and one which was perpetuated in the creation of a Zen Garden adjoining the Abbey church, designed by Dom Hilary Martin. He was frequently called upon to give retreats and lectures throughout the country. Under Dom Aelred’s leadership, the monastic lands increased to their present size, several legal battles were successfully fought against encroachments by companies which threatened the existence of the school and monastery, a master plan of buildings was formed under the inspiration of the distinguished architect Pietro Belluschi, Dean of the School of Architecture at M. I. T., and an impressive start made in the construction of the principal buildings: the monastery and church, dining hall, administration building, science laboratories and auditorium, all of which have set the tone and standards for subsequent structures.

For two eight-year terms, he served as prior, after which he returned to his mother house in Yorkshire where he resumed his study of Buddhism, having completed an extensive tour of the Orient for this purpose. While on this journey, he met the Dalai Lama, who in July returned the visit to Ampleforth and spent some time with Dom Aelred in dialogue and meditation. On his return to England he was given the honorary title of Prior of Chester, later changed to Winchester. Over the past few years his health had steadily deteriorated, and he was largely confined to his room. The funeral mass was celebrated, with all the monks of Ampleforth attending, by Abbot Patrick Barry assisted by Cardinal Hume, the former Abbot. On August 17, a memorial Mass was sung by Abbot Matthew Stark at Portsmouth.

Dom Damian Kearney, 1984

Yearbook dedication for Aelred Wall upon his departure

News of the death of Dom Aelred was received on November 6 from Mount Saviour. He had died the day before, after a long illness, of a heart attack in his hermitage in Mexico, where he had retired for reasons of health from the monastery he had founded in New Mexico, Christ of the Desert. Within the past year, his stability had been transferred from Portsmouth to his foundation in Abiquiu, which he began in 1964.

Born in Saint Louis, Mo., in 1917, he was one of the first graduates of Portsmouth Priory, a member of the class of 1935. From Portsmouth he went onto Princeton, after which he entered the monastery in 1941. Upon completion of his studies for the priesthood, he served as Housemaster of Saint Benet’s and was appointed Associate Headmaster of the School. In 1951, Dom Aelred Graham, the Prior, named him Headmaster, a position he held for nearly seven years, during which a gymnasium and Saint Bede’s dormitory were constructed.

In 1960, he left Portsmouth for Mount Saviour in Elmira, New York, with the intention of founding a small community without having a school attached. This he was able to realize when he and a group of monks set out for New Mexico, where they established themselves under particularly austere conditions at Abiquiu, a remote settlement in the desert, 100 miles from Santa Fe. George Nakashima, who had designed and executed much of the church and monastic furniture at Portsmouth, was engaged to plan the chapel and adjacent monastery, which were kept deliberately simple and in close harmony with the surrounding terrain. Until the permanent buildings of adobe were erected, the monks lived in tents and a reconditioned farmhouse.

Aelred Wall at Mass in New Mexico

Dom Aelred sought to realize the primitive monastic experience in two ways: by locating his monastery in an inaccessible place, not to discourage visitors or escape from the world, but rather to symbolize the separateness of the monk from the world and to make the peace of the desert the milieu for the peace of the contemplative house of prayer. His second aim was to reaffirm the practice began at Elmira and observed by Saint Benedict of doing away with the distinction of lay brother and choir monk by having a single standard of profession; no longer would a monk be required to take Holy Orders; the vocation was primarily to the monastic state, and this was to emphasize a return to manual labor, cultivation of the land and a strong commitment to poverty and simplicity of lifestyle. For ten years, Dom Aelred served as a prior, when failing health forced him to retire to Mexico where he established a hermitage at San Miguel de Allende. There he worked to alleviate poverty until his death earlier this month. On November 12, a Mass of Requiem was celebrated at Portsmouth. He was buried in Mexico at San Miguel.
 

Dom Damian Kearney (1928-2016) served in many roles in this monastery, including Prior, Director of Oblates, and for many years as editor of the monastery’s Newsletter.