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St Benet's Hall, Oxford

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St. Benet's Hall, Oxford
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College name St. Benet's Hall
Aula Sancti Benedicti
Named after St. Benedict
Established 1897
Sister College None
Master Fr. Leo Chamberlain
JCR President Nicholas Kazaz
Undergraduates c. 50
MCR President None (united common room)
Graduates c. 10
St. Benet's Website
St. Benet's
Boat Club

St Benet's Hall is a Permanent Private Hall (PPH) of the University of Oxford.

Contents

[edit] Composition and status

St. Benet's Hall is a Benedictine establishment, whose principal function is to allow Catholic monks (primarily Benedictines and related orders, most notably the Premonstratensians of England) to study as undergraduates within the University. In addition, it admits men (principally but not exclusively Catholics) both as undergraduates and post-graduates.

As a PPH, St. Benet's does not have the status of a College of the University of Oxford, but those of its members who have matriculated are full members of the University, and able to supplicate for degrees on the successful completion of their studies.

Members of the Hall are individually members of the Oxford University Student Union (OUSU), but, following a dispute over OUSU's policy on reproductive health, the Hall dissaffiliated in 1997, and is not represented in the OUSU Council. Students at St. Benet's are eligible for life membership of the Oxford Union Society.

The Hall is known as "Benet's" within the University, and has the distinction of being the only constituent body of the University open to the laity of only one gender.

[edit] History

The Hall was originally established in 1897. It took on its official name "Aula Sancti Benedicti" ("St. Benet's Hall") in 1918.

Prior to this date, Permanent Private Halls of the University of Oxford took their name from their Master, and the Hall was known successively as Hunter-Blair, Parker, and McCann Hall.

The Hall always been primarily a venue for monastic study, but the falling number of vocations led to the admission of lay men to fill vacant places, which have over time come to be the majority of the Hall's undergraduate members.

[edit] Masters

St. Benet's has had nine Masters since it was established in 1897:

  • Abbot Oswald Hunter Blair OSB (1898–1909)
  • Father Anselm Parker OSB (1909–1920)
  • Father Justin McCann OSB (1920–1947)
  • Father Gerard Sitwell OSB (1947–1964)
  • Father James Forbes[1] (1964–1979) OSB (famed pottery expert and Knight of Malta)
  • Father Philip Holdsworth OSB (1979–1989)
  • Father Fabian Cowper OSB (1989–1990)
  • Father Henry Wansbrough OSB (1990–2004) (Editor of the New Jerusalem Bible)
  • Father Leo Chamberlain OSB (2004– )

[edit] JCR

Like other Colleges and PPHs, St. Benet's has a united common room of which all students at the Hall are members. The JCR, MCR and SCR are united. Thus the three are one.

The present JCR Committee is :

  • President: Nicholas Kazaz
  • Treasurer: Conradin Graf zu Castell-Castell
  • Secretary: Nicholas Hanson
  • Social Secretary: Robert Hayward
  • Welfare Officer: Robert Stroud
  • P.R. and Graduate Officer: Fr Edward Mazich
  • Food Liaison Officer: Henry Jordan

[edit] Rowing

St. Benet's is noted for its rowing team, the self-proclaimed 'Benet's bisons'; despite the small size of the college a consistently strong team has been fielded for many years, and in recent years it has an all but consistent record of winning 'blades', the trophy awarded for 'bumping' (rowing past teams ranked above) every day in a regatta. Recently, one of the Light-Weight Blues Team came from St. Benet's.

[edit] University life

Despite having a small number of members, Benet's has been surprising successful in university socities. Several Presidents of the Oxford University Newman Society, a President of the Oxford Law Society, several Officers in the Oxford University Conservative Association, several Returning Officers and Chairmen of the Consultative Committee of the Oxford Union and officers of the Light Entertainment Society have come from St. Benet's.


Colleges of the University of Oxford

Arms of the University

All Souls | Balliol | Brasenose | Christ Church | Corpus Christi | Exeter | Green | Harris Manchester | Hertford | Jesus | Keble | Kellogg | Lady Margaret Hall | Linacre | Lincoln | Magdalen | Mansfield | Merton | New College | Nuffield | Oriel | Pembroke | Queen's | St Anne's | St Antony's | St Catherine's | St Cross | St Edmund Hall | St Hilda's | St Hugh's | St John's | St Peter's | Somerville | Templeton | Trinity | University | Wadham | Wolfson | Worcester

Permanent Private Halls at the University of Oxford

Blackfriars | Campion Hall | Greyfriars | Regent's Park College | St Benet's Hall | St Stephen's House | Wycliffe Hall

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