Mount Melleray to close after two centuries
It was called Mount Melleray in memory of the motherhouse
A Waterford Abbey will close after two centuries.
Mount Melleray is set to close this weekend due to falling numbers and an aging community.
The order merged three abbeys last November to ensure monks in Ireland have a future including Mount Melleray, Mellifont in Louth and Mount St Joseph in Tipperary.
Many people have been visiting the abbey since the news and there will be a final mass on Saturday at 11am.
Mount Melleray was founded in 1892 by a colony of Irish and English monks, expelled from the abbey of Melleray after the French Revolution of 1830, and who had come to Ireland under the leadership of Fr Vincent de Paul Ryan.
It was called Mount Melleray in memory of the motherhouse.
On the feast of St Bernard, 1833, the foundation stone of the new monastery was blessed by the Most Rev Wm Abraham, bishop of Waterford and Lismore.