Our Abbot General
Our Abbot General
Most Rev. Abbot Michael Kelly was born in 1946 at Parramatta, NSW. He had his Primary schooling at St Monica’s, North Parramatta and secondary at Marist Brothers Parramatta.
He entered St. Benedict’s Monastery Arcadia, NSW in 1964 and professed in 1965. He completed Philosophy and Theology at St. Columban’s College Turramurra, NSW. He was ordained in 1970 at St Monica’s, North Parramatta. He Graduated at the University of New England Armidale, NSW in Arts and Tertiary Education and in Spirituality at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome.
He has worked in different capacities as a formator, a bursar, a parish priest and a part-time lecturer teaching Christian meditation (in his two visits to East Timor) and Lectio Divina (at the programme for the Year of Faith organized by the Archdiocese of Adelaide). He served as the Conventual Prior, Arcadia from 1984-1996 during which he also served as a member of executive committee of Conference of leaders of Religious Institutes (NSW) and in the Priests’ Council of the Broken Bay Diocese. He has published a number of articles in various reviews. He was elected Abbot General in 2007 and was re-elected in 2013.
He has a deeply rooted interest in the origins of Monasticism and in its contemporary expression. This interest includes Desert Spirituality. Through his interest in Monastic Spirituality, he has contributed enormously to the Church and the world. The revitalization of the Monastic life in the universal Church is the contemporary challenge of a Monk, he believes, because the Monastic Spirituality which began in the East popularised in the medieval West and now is seeking expression in contemporary cultures. He earnestly prays and toils for the accomplishment of this Monastic aspiration.