2025 sees the 150th anniversary of Abbot Anscar Vonier’s birth in 1875, and to mark the occasion a group of the Abbey’s own choristers – children aged between 8 and 13 who are drawn from local schools in Devon – returned to Swabia to sing, honouring a powerful legacy and the connection between Buckfast and this region of Germany.
Over five days this July, the Abbey Choristers have been touring Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany. Based at the former Benedictine monastery of Ochsenhausen, where there is now a music academy, they sang Sunday Mass at the Basilika St Georg, an evening concert at the Aufhofener Käppele in Schemmerhofen and a Votive Mass of Our Lady followed by a short recital at the birthplace of Anscar Vonier, the former Abbot of Buckfast whose sesquicentennial anniversary we celebrate this year, in Ringschnait.
The choristers also made a pilgrimage to the nearby town of Biberach, where they were given a tour and visited the Schützenfest. The choir received a very warm welcome at their performances, where descendants of both Anscar Vonier and Buckfast’s first Abbot, Boniface Natter, were in attendance. Thank you to our generous hosts and the chorister staff for facilitating such a memorable trip for our choristers!
