Fr Rupert Everest OSB, Benedictine monk of Ampleforth Abbey, died
peacefully in the monastery infirmary at Ampleforth Abbey on 9 August
2013 at the age of 82. His death was marked with the traditional tolling of the bell in the abbey church tower, with one toll for each year of Fr Rupert’s life.
He was born in London in June 1931, was educated at Ampleforth College, and joined the monastic community in September 1950. He went to St Benet’s Hall, at the University of Oxford, and studied Geography, and was ordained priest on 19 July 1959.
For the next twelve years Fr Rupert had a number of roles at Ampleforth, including Senior Geography Master in the school, chaplain to the domestic staff, and Assistant Procurator.
Fr Rupert then devoted more than thirty years of his monastic life to work in a number of parishes, beginning first with St Peter’s in Seel Street, Liverpool.
In his four years there he also wrote a weekly column for the Liverpool Diocesan newspaper, the Catholic Pictorial. From 1978-1979 Fr Rupert had a year’s sabbatical at the Irish Institute of Pastoral Liturgy, Carlow, where he gained a Pontifical Diploma in Sacred Liturgy.
Back on the parishes, Fr Rupert worked in St Mary’s, Bamber Bridge; St Mary’s, Leyland; Our Lady of Lourdes and St Gerard Majella, Lostock Hall; Our Lady Star of the Sea and St Michael’s, Workington, and finally Our Lady and St Benedict’s, Ampleforth.
At the age of 75, Fr Rupert retired as parish priest in Ampleforth village, but continued to work as chaplain to one of the school boarding Houses.
In recent years he had suffered ill health and died peacefully on 9 August 2013.
Fr Rupert’s body will be received into the Abbey Church at Ampleforth at 8.15pm on Thursday 15 August 2013.
His funeral Mass will be celebrated in the Abbey Church on Friday 16 August at 11.30am, followed by burial in the Monks’ Wood.