Although Ealing Abbey itself is relatively new, there have been monastic links to Ealing going back over twelve hundred years, when the king of Mercia, Ethelred, gave Wealdhere, Bishop of London from 693-704 AD, land at Ealing for ‘the increase of monastic life in London.’ Unfortunately, we do not know the location of this monastery.

In the early 19th century the monastery of St Adrian and St Denis was founded at Ealing Broadway, by monks returning from Germany. Around the same time Downside Abbey (St Gregory’s), which had also recently returned from the continent, set up a mission in Acton, close to Ealing. By the end of the 19th century the monastery at Ealing Broadway had closed.
In 1892 Herbert Vaughan was appointed Archbishop of Westminster and created a cardinal the following year. One of his first priorities was to build a cathedral. Since one of his brothers was a monk at Downside Abbey, the cardinal asked them to supply monks to sing at the cathedral services. About 15 years the District Line of the London Underground had been extended to Ealing, so a mission was set up on Castlebar Hill. Prior Edmund Ford of Downside insisted on the monks at Ealing also having a school and the local parish. The Ealing Mission opened in 1897, with monks seconded from Downside. Two years later the church was registered for Catholic worship and the school opened in 1902. Despite Cardinal Vaughan’s wishes, the monks were never a major part of the liturgical services at Westminster Cathedral.

Both the school and the church congregation grew in numbers in the early part of the 20th century. The school moved to larger premises in 1906 and the church building had an extension in 1914. Two years later, in 1916, the Ealing Mission became a dependent priory of Downside Abbey. This meant Ealing once again had a monastery, some twenty years after the closure of the one on the Broadway. More building work followed: an extension to the monastery in 1929, and more work on the church and the school in the 1930s.

The Second World War created some disruption. Four monks volunteered as army chaplains and one of them, Dom Gervase Hobson-Matthews was killed when he chose to remain behind with the troops at Dunkirk. A few months later, a bomb destroyed a large part of the church. This, however, was not enough to prevent the marriage of Betty Ingram and Charles Farnden, who were determined to be married in their church by their priest. The Daily Mirror report of 21st October 1940 described the wedding as taking place in a church n London; it is not named to prevent the enemy finding out where their bombs had landed.

On 19th December 1947, after 50 years as a dependent priory of Downside Abbey, Ealing became an independent priory. At last, we could elect our own prior and people could apply directly to become monks at Ealing. Prior Charles Pontifex and thirteen other monks transferred their stability to Ealing. The first four novices were clothed on 13th September 1948; the last of them died in 2021. Eight years later, in 1955, we were raised to the status of an abbey. Charles Pontifex became the first abbot but, sadly, was seriously injured in a car crash shortly after. In 1967 Francis Rossiter became the third Abbot of Ealing, the first to have made his profession at Ealing. He went on to be Abbot of Ealing for 24 years, Abbot President of the English Benedictine Congregation for 12 years, and Pro-Primate of the Order of St Benedict for a year following the death of the Abbot Primate. He died in 2022, having spent all his life in the monastery, having joined it straight from our school. One of his early tasks as abbot was implementing the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

In the 1950s and 1960s the church was extended again, including gaining two transepts which are now the Blessed Sacrament Chapel and the Lady Chapel. In the 1970s the monastery needed an extension because of the number of monks and novices. At the same time, the altar was moved forward to allow Mass facing the people. This also made it easier for the next building work, at the very end of the century, which put in the monastic choir behind the sanctuary and also built a new chapel (the Newman Chapel), a new cloister, and a new sacristy. The monastery also got a new front door and wheelchair access.

Despite the vow of stability and the seeming unchanging monastic life, Ealing Abbey today is very different from the mission first set up in 1897, and even from a century ago. The parish is much larger, the school is now a separate charity, and, since the early 1990s we have run a study centre, the Benedictine Institute, which has courses in icon painting, liturgy, Latin, Syriac, and spirituality. Additionally, we set up the Ealing Abbey Counselling Service, which is now an independent charity. We continue to adapt to the changing needs of a city mission while retaining the monastic way of life.