Caldey, Abbey of
CALDEY, ABBEY OF
Cistercian house, on Caldey Island, which lies southwest of Tenby, a small town on the Pembrokeshire coast of south Wales. Celtic monks settled this abbey in the 6th century. During the reign of Henry I it became a cell of the abbey of Tironian Benedictines (see tiron, abbey of) then recently founded at Saint Dogmaels, near Cardigan, Wales. In July 1534 Caldey acknowledged the royal supremacy and passed at once to lay ownership. It was purchased in 1906 by a community of Anglican Benedictines, the greater number of whom submitted to Rome in 1913. The trappists bought it in 1928, and the Benedictines moved to Prinknash Park, Gloucestershire.
Bibliography: p. f. anson, The Benedictines of Caldey (London 1940). w. dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum (London 1655–73); best ed. by j. caley et al., 6 v. (1817–30) 4:129–131. w. d. bushell, "An Island of the Saints," Archaelogia cambrensis, 6 ser. 8 (1908) 237–260. d. knowles and r. n. hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses: England and Wales (New York 1953) 102. j. m. canivez, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912–) 11:375–376.
[a. byrne]