Dominic Barberi in Nailsworth Nailsworth’S Italian Missionary – Blessed Dominic of the Mother of God by Brian Torode and Richard Barton in 1987
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Dominic Barberi in Nailsworth Nailsworth’s Italian Missionary – Blessed Dominic of the Mother of God by Brian Torode and Richard Barton in 1987 (Copyright rests with Richard Barton) Tucked between the hamlets of Forest Green and Windsoredge and the heart of modern Nailsworth, overlooking the wooded hillside of Watledge, stands Northfields. The original house was built in about 1707 as the manse or parsonage for the minister of the Forest Green Congregational Chapel. From about 1800, the enlarged house served as a small grammar school which was first run by the minister and was, in 1820, known as Chapel House Academy. The house is situated along Northfields Road, the old road from Stroud into Nailsworth, which passes many of the old cottages that are situated along the spring line. This route would have been well-trodden by the many clothiers, weavers and cloth workers of the area prior to the turnpike roads being constructed along the valley bottoms. 1 Northfields Less than a quarter of a mile away, up the hill, the Independents used to meet in a forest clearing, from as early as 1672, and this outdoor gathering grew into the Forest Green Congregational Church. At this time, Nailsworth was not a town, as we know it today, but merely a collection of scattered hamlets. Forest Green was actually situated within the ancient parish of Avening and, because it was situated over two miles from the medieval parish church, there the practice of non-conformist or independent worship flourished. Quaker meetings thrived in Nailsworth from 1655 and warranted visits from George Fox on three occasions. The most successful church in the area was Shortwood Baptist meeting which boasted a congregation of nearly 700 in 1840 and a chapel which sat 1200. In fact, it has been said, that the established religion in the area was Baptist and the established church, Shortwood. Nailsworth was, indeed, an unusual place developing, as it did, around the textile industry, with clothiers and clothworkers worshipping side by side and participating with equal fervour in the life and worship of these chapels. It was not until the year 1794 that an Anglican chapel-of-ease was erected in Nailsworth by a group of the newly arrived, wealthy, factory mill owners. In spite of this development Nailsworth remained essentially non-conformist in its sympathy and practice. The fervent Baptist and Congregational chapels resisted the preaching of John Wesley in 1739 and George Whitefield, in 1743, at nearby Minchinhampton, although a Tabernacle was soon erected at Rodborough and Wesleyan chapels at Littleworth in 1790 and at Downend in 1820. Towards the middle of the nineteenth century the chapels of the Nailsworth area were to be threatened by a further intrusion. William Leigh was born in 1802 and educated at Eton and Oxford. Before settling at Little Aston Hall in Staffordshire. Whilst studying at Oxford he was influenced by Newman, Keble and other figures from the Oxford Movement. In 1844 he was received into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church, one year before John Henry, later Cardinal, Newman. Leigh’s conversion caused him to be ‘cold-shouldered’ by his neighbours and so, in November 1845, he purchased the thousand-acre Spring Park Estate from the second Earl Ducie. 2 Here, at Woodchester, Leigh intended to provide not only a stunning Gothic revival residence for his family, but he wished to establish a Catholic mission to be served by a community of religious. At this time, the nearest Catholic places-of-worship were at Gloucester, Cheltenham and Chipping Sodbury. To the east, at Fairford, was a new church, constructed in that year, by members of the Iles Family. There is a tradition that Mass was celebrated at a cottage in Nympsfield as early as 1842 but, other than the occasional celebration of Mass or a baptism in other private houses by visiting priests, there was no centre for Catholic worship in the Stroud area. When William Leigh acquired Spring Park he contacted Bishop Nicholas Wiseman who suggested that the Passionist Order might be interested in undertaking the proposed mission, ‘as the Catholic authorities had been anxious to see a mission established at Stroud, feeling satisfied that in it and its populous neighbourhood, if a chance was given, Religion would be easily established and flourish exceedingly.’ The Congregation of the Passion took fifty-five years to establish and was founded in the eighteenth century, in Italy, by Paul Francis Danei, known to us as St Paul of the Cross. To this Company belonged one, Dominic Barberi, who was born, north of Rome, on 22nd June 1792. He was orphaned at an early age and was compelled to provide for himself by working as a shepherd. During Napoleon’s occupation of Italy, he became acquainted with some Passionist priests whose company had been disbanded along with other religious orders. When allowed to re-assemble upon Napoleon’s exile, young Barberi presented himself and was admitted as a candidate for the Passionist order, taking the religious name of Dominic of the Mother of God. Since he had little education the Provincial admitted him as a lay- brother, however, the novice master quickly spotted Dominic’s intelligence and his potential and had him re-admitted as a clerical student. Dominic was a rapid learner and, ultimately, became a Professor of Philosophy and Theology in Rome. Drawn to missionary work his enthusiasm for England was kindled both by a series of visionary experiences and by friendships formed with English visitors to Italy, amongst whom was a later convert, Sir George Spencer. At this time the Catholic Church in England was regarded with much suspicion and not a little enmity. Its supporters were chiefly old Catholic families and their households. England as a missionary territory was divided into districts and served by bishops who were called Vicars- Apostolic. Gloucestershire was in the Western District and its Vicar-Apostolic lived at Prior Park in Bath and later in Clifton, Bristol. From the 1830’s this small number of Catholics was swelled by Irish immigrants as well as converts from the Church of England, many of whom had been influenced by the Oxford Movement. The Western District expanded from having about 5,500 Catholics in 1815 to a figure of 12,000 in 1826 and 24,580 in 1840. On Guy Fawkes’ Day, 1840, Dominic Barberi arrived in England and within a relatively short time established missions at Aston and Stone in Staffordshire. He must have appeared a most unlikely ‘Apostle to England’ even though he was a learned academic theologian. At Aston he became the laughing stock of the place as he looked funny, being short and rather stout of 3 body. We are told that his clothes never fitted properly and his squeaky Italian voice offered little magnetism. His gait was shuffling and his countenance appeared to be grieving and he was very often unshaved. He knew next to nothing of the ordinary life of Anglican clergymen nor much about the Church of England in general. Gradually, his sincere holiness and sincerity disarmed all and, in spite of his appetite for florid Italian devotions, which antagonized Protestants and traditional English Catholics alike, he made numerous converts, the most influential being Newman. Newman later wrote, ‘When his form came into sight I was moved to the depths in the strangest way. The gaiety and affability of his manner, in the midst of all his sanctity, was, in itself, a holy sermon…. I wish all people were as charitable as I know him to be…. He was a great lover of England’ On February 9th, 1846, Dominic Barberi made his first visit to Gloucestershire being met by William Leigh at Frocester. Barberi wrote later to his superior in Rome, ‘The place is very beautiful and suitable for us in every way. The country round about is thickly populated… but there is no city near at hand. The nearest town is about three miles away (Stroud) but it is not much more than a village. The house which it is planned to build for us would be very solitary, upon a slight eminence or hill, and overlooking a number of houses and distant villages containing a scattered population of about ten thousand inhabitants… The population is entirely Protestant, but there are well founded hopes that many would become Catholics with a little help and encouragement.’ In 1844 the minister of the ‘Pepper Pot’, the Anglican chapel-of-ease in Nailsworth, described the moral state of the population as being, ‘very low and their habits idle and thriftless.’ Dominic Barberi was also surprised to discover, ‘many non-Catholics here who could not tell me clearly who Jesus Christ was.’ The site planned for the proposed church was on land belonging to William Leigh in an area of South Woodchester. For the time being Leigh hired Northfields, at £20 per annum on a two-year lease, from the minister of the Forest Green Congregational Church, ‘who little suspected that his place was to be a receptacle for the professors of popery.’ Before occupying the house, Father Dominic spent a week in Gloucester with a lay-brother, Thomas. Before taking possession of the property Barberi wrote an assuring letter to Leigh, ‘Do not trouble yourself about the furniture; a very few things will suffice for poor monks accustomed to hardships of every sort… The most essential things would be an altar for Divine Service and some straw to lie upon. Other things such as chairs, tables, books and the like, will be provided by degrees. The nuns of Mount St Benedict have promised me a set of vestments and I shall carry a chalice and a little ciborium with me.