Farnborough Priory
FARNBOROUGH PRIORY
Benedictine priory under prinknash, 37 miles southwest of London, in Hampshire, England; dedicated to St. Michael; it was formerly an abbey in the solesmes congregation (1903–47). Empress Eugénie, in residence at Farnborough Hill from 1881, built the neo-Gothic St. Michael Church (1886–87) as a mausoleum for Napoleon III (d. 1873) and their son Prince Louis (slain in the Zulu War 1879). Eugénie was buried there in 1920. French Premonstratensians were replaced as custodians of the shrine by Benedictines of Solesmes (1895). The conventual buildings were completed by 1911. Fernand cabrol, Henri leclercq, Marius fÉrotin, and André wilmart were among the scholars of Farnborough who produced the Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie and other works. After World War I the abbey declined because of the lack of English and French novices. In 1947 the French monks withdrew and were replaced by monks from Prinknash.
Bibliography: r. gazeau, Catholicisme 4:1103–04. a. schmitt, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 4:27.
[j. stÉphan]