that the remains were not connected with any crime. The community decided to put back the bones where they had been found and held a simple religious ceremony. Abbots and superiors Initially, the monastery of Mount St Bernard was subject to the jurisdiction of the Very Reverend Vincent Ryan, Abbot of Mount Melleray in Ireland, which was regarded as the mother house of the new settlement. The small, founding colony of monks at Mount St Bernard was originally led by Father Odilo Woolfrey, who also assumed the duties of parish priest for the neighbouring Catholic churches of Grace Dieu and Whitwick. Odilo's brother, Father Norbert Woolfrey came to St Bernard's and acted for a while as parish priest at Loughborough. Both brothers later embarked on missionary work in Australia. Odilo Woolfrey died on 31 March 1856 and is buried with his brother Norbert, in the churchyard of St Thomas Becket's, Lewisham, New South Wales. In September 1839, Abbot Ryan sent over Father Benedict Johnson, who had been cellarer of Mount Melleray, to replace Father Odilo as superior. Reports had apparently reached Abbot Ryan that Father Odilo was introducing 'strange practices' and that the lay-brothers had become practically choir monks. Father Benedict, who had joined the monastery at Lulworth in 1813, died at Mount St Bernard in 1850. A member of the community wrote: "Never will the writer of these lines forget the fervent manner in which he thanked God, a few moments before his death, for having called him to the holy state of religion, and for having given him the grace of perseverance to the last hour of his life". He was succeeded as superior in 1841 by John Bernard Palmer, who had entered the monastery at Lulworth in 1808. He had left with the community for Melleray in 1817, but in 1836 was asked to join the new community of Mount St Bernard. In 1848, the monastery became an abbey and Dom Bernard Palmer was elected as its first abbot. Dom Bernard is described as having been, "a simple, almost unlettered man but one who was known for his holiness and deep purity of life. He was the unanimous choice of his brethren as their first abbot. He was, until his death in 1852, the only mitred abbot in England, and the 'Abbot of Mount Saint Bernard' was widely known, but it was for his humility, charity and