A BENEDICTINE monk from Ampleforth Abbey has died peacefully in the monastery infirmary, aged 89.

Father David Herbert O’Brien's death was marked with the traditional tolling of the bell in the Abbey Church tower, with one toll for each year of his life, and his funeral takes place today.

Born in Lancashire, Fr David served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War and then worked as an insurance broker before joining the monastic community at Ampleforth, near Helmsley, where he became a monk in1954.

He spent some of his monastic life working in Ampleforth’s parishes, first of all in Helmsley, Kirkbymoorside and Grassendale.

But in September 1963 Fr David became assistant priest in St Mary’s, Warrington, and then seven years later moved to St Mary’s, Cardiff.

In 1973 he returned to Lancashire and became parish priest in Parbold, where he remained for nearly 20 years.

In February 1990 he retired from the role of parish priest in Parbold due to ill health, but he continued to work as an assistant priest and giving retreats well into his 70s.

In 2002 he joined the small community of Ampleforth monks in St Benedict’s monastery at Bamber Bridge, Preston, where he worked tirelessly as Chairman of the Lancs Interfaith Prayer and Dialogue Group and Chairman of the Lancs Support Group for Deafened People.

But with his health failing, he returned to the monastery at Ampleforth in September 2013, and died there last month.

Fr David’s body was received into the Abbey Church at Ampleforth at 6 pm last night and his funeral Mass will be celebrated in the Abbey Church at 11.30 am today, followed by burial in the Monks’ Wood.