Meet the Team
The first point of contact for all Ampleforth Society members is Lizzie Rohan, Alumni Relations Manager at Ampleforth College. The Ampleforth Society email is societymail@ampleforth.org.uk & telephone 01439 766400.
Abbot Robert Igo OSB
Patron
Abbot Robert Igo OSB is the ninth Abbot of Ampleforth Abbey, elected by the monastic community in 2021.
Born and raised in Manchester, Abbot Robert began his professional life in healthcare, working as a student nurse at Manchester Royal Infirmary during the 1970s. He was ordained as a priest in the Anglican Church in 1980 and served in parishes in Sunderland and Hartlepool before being received into the Catholic Church in 1987. A year later, he entered the monastic community at Ampleforth.
In 1996, Abbot Robert was sent to Zimbabwe, where he was Prior of The Monastery of Christ the Word, Ampleforth’s dependent foundation in Africa. He spent 25 years there, deeply immersed in the life, culture, and spirituality of the region, which he often describes as a profoundly formative chapter in his monastic journey.
A gifted retreat leader, Abbot Robert has led retreats and spiritual missions across Africa, India, and Europe, and continues to offer individual and group retreats at Ampleforth Abbey. His style is marked by warmth, insight, and an attentiveness to the human and spiritual needs of those he serves. He meets regularly with the College Headmaster and Governors.
As Abbot, he is shepherding the Ampleforth monastic community through a time of renewal, grounding them in the Benedictine monastic life and opening the Abbey to the needs of the contemporary Church and world.
