author
O.S.B. Father Ignatius
1837–1908
A vivid and controversial figure in Victorian religious life, this Anglican Benedictine monk set out to restore monasticism in the Church of England. He is especially remembered for founding a monastic community at Llanthony in Wales and for the forceful personality that made him both admired and resisted.
1 Audiobook
The Holy Isle: A Legend of Bardsey Abbey
by O.S.B. Father Ignatius
About the author
Born Joseph Leycester Lyne in London on November 23, 1837, he became widely known by his religious name, Father Ignatius of Jesus. He was an Anglican Benedictine monk who launched one of the best-known attempts to revive monastic life within the Church of England in the 19th century.
His work was bold, public, and often controversial. After earlier efforts in Norwich, he founded the community at Llanthony in the Welsh village of Capel-y-ffin, a place closely linked with his name. Supporters saw him as a passionate restorer of religious life, while critics viewed him as theatrical and divisive.
Father Ignatius died on October 16, 1908. Even so, his unusual career kept a lasting place in Anglican history, not only because of the monasteries he tried to build, but because he helped reopen the question of whether monasticism could belong again in modern Anglican life.