Dominic Aidan Bellenger

Dominic Terence Joseph Bellenger, (born 21 July 1950), also known by his monastic name of Dom Aidan Bellenger, is an English historian and former Benedictine monk and schoolmaster. He was headmaster of Downside School from 1991 to 1995 and later Abbot of Downside Abbey from 2006 to 2014.

Early life and education Bellenger was born on 21 July 1950 to Gerald Bellenger and his wife, Kathleen Patricia O'Donnell. He was educated at Finchley Catholic Grammar School and Jesus College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1972, promoted to MA in 1975. His first degree was in History. He later studied theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome.

In 1975, Bellenger took up an appointment as an assistant schoolmaster at St Mary's School, Cambridge, a high school for girls, where he taught until 1978. then was himself Abbot from 2006 to 2014,

Bellenger was monastic editor of The Downside Review for the year 2017–2018, and in 2018 The Tablet published an article by him on Buckfast Abbey.

A Senior Research Associate of St Edmund's College, Cambridge, Bellenger is a member of the Faculty of History, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, the Society of Antiquaries, the Royal Historical Society, and the Higher Education Academy. Downside Abbey: An Architectural History (Merrell, 2011, ) 'Religion on the Edge: Dissenting Congregations on the Somerset and Dorset Borders in the 17th and 18th Centuries', Somerset & Dorset Notes & Queries, 37, September 2012, 170–172 O.S.B. Monks with a Mission: English Benedictine History (Bath: Downside Abbey Press, 2014 ) Monastic Identities: Essays in the History of St Gregory’s, Downside (Bath: Downside Abbey Press, 2014 ) 200 Downside Monks (Bath: Downside Abbey Press, 2015 )