Westminster, Archdiocese of

WESTMINSTER, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - Archdiocese with its seat in London, England, created in 1850. It comprises the London counties north of the Thames, Middlesex and Hertfordshire.

It has an area of 221,284 sq. m. with a population of 4,500,000 inhabitants, of whom 345,000 are Catholics, distributed in 164 parishes served by 435 diocesan priests and 311 regulars; the Seminary of St. Edmund is at Old Hall Green near Ware. It has 60 male religious communities and 167 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 453); in 1951 there were 1,335 conversions. It succeeded the apostolic vicariate of the London district. Since 1943 the archbishop has been Card. Bernard Griffin (cardinal in 1946), whose predecessors were Nicholas Wiseman (1850-65), Henry Manning (1865-92), Herbert Vaughan (1892-1903), Francis Bourne (1903-35), Arthur Hinsley (1935-43), all cardinals. The present archbishop is assisted by his coadjutor Msgr. Edward Myers, titular archbishop of Beroea, and by the auxiliary bishop Msgr. George Craven.

From 1850 until 1917 W. included the county of Essex, which then became the diocese of Brentwood. Its suffragan dioceses are Brentwood, Northampton, Nottingham, Portsmouth and Southwark.

Card. Wiseman (v.) founded many churches and schools and introduced popular devotions; his illustrious successor Card. H. E. Manning (v.) continued this progress. Card. Herbert Vaughan (v.) erected the magnificent cathedral of W. and founded the Crusade of Rescue against new attempts at proselytism. Card. Francis Bourne (v.) was able in 1910 to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the English hierarchy (1850-1910); Card. A. Hinsley spurred on the courage of the faithful and of the entire nation in the Second World War and became a typical figure of England. He promoted parish and diocesan missions. Card. Griffin celebrated the centenary of the restoration of the hierarchy in England at Wembley (1950) and inaugurated the Rosary Crusade in 1950-52.

W. contains the convent of Tyburn where the English martyrs are especially honored, and is the center of many national Catholic activities, such as the Apostleship of the Sea, the Catholic Evidence Guild, Catholic Parents' Association, Catholic Education Council, Catholic Social Guild, Catholic Record Society, Catholic Women's League, The Society of St. John Chrysostom, Pontifical Court Club, and many others. In the archdiocese the principal Catholic magazines and newspapers are published, such as the Dublin Review, Month, Clergy Review, Universe, Catholic Times, Catholic Herald.

Of the ancient churches, that of St. Etheldreda, Ely Place, Holborn, has been reacquired for the Catholic faith, since 1876 the church of the Rosminian Fathers. Among the modern churches one may recall, for example, those of Farm Street (Jesuits); Haverstock Hill (Dominicans); St. Mary's (Chelsea); St. Ignatius at Stamford Hill; The Holy Road at Watford; the Oratory Brompton Road (Oratorians); St. Joseph, Highgate (Passionists). The cathedral of W. (1895-1903) is an eminent architectural work.

Enrico E. G. Rope

THE ABBEY OF WESTMINSTER

It is situated north of the Thames; its first mention appears in a document of King Offa dated to 785, in which the monastery is so named to distinguish it from that of St. Paul situated to the east. A legend, probably arising in the 13th century, attributed its origin to the Saxon king Sebert, who is said to have dedicated it to St. Peter. After the primitive buildings were demolished, King Edward the Confessor began the reconstruction of the choir and transept in 1055; the consecration took place in 1065. The nave was executed between 1110 and 1163; the Lady chapel was consecrated in 1220. In 1245 King Henry III began a new building; the choir and transept were finished in 1258, but a fire also devastated the monastery, which was partly rebuilt in the time of Abbot Lityington between 1362 and 1386, together with part of the nave. In 1502 King Henry VII began the Lady chapel; the nave was completed in 1517; it is a model of English Gothic. In 1540 the abbey became the seat of the Protestant Church. In the interior are some tombs executed by Roman marble-workers, namely the one believed to be that of the daughter of Henry III between the chapels of St. Edmund and St. Benedict; in the ambulatory of the apse the monument of Henry III (d. 1273); in the chapel of St. Edward is the shrine of Edward III the Confessor, the work of the marble-worker Peter, brought from Rome to England by Abbot Ware in 1258. Around it the pavement is in opus alexandrinum, executed by a "magister Odericus". The abbots of the monastery of W. belonged by right to the Lords; among them are remembered Crispin Gilbert (ca. 1084-1117); Richard Ware (1258-84): from his time is the consuetudinarium (ed. by E. M. Thompson, London 1904); Simon of Langham (1349-62), then bishop of Ely, then archbishop of Canterbury, finally bishop of Palestrina (d. 1376). The monastery was suppressed in 1539 and the monks dispersed.

Enrico Josi