A MONK who helped set up St Bede’s Pastoral Centre in York has died at the age of 91.

Fr Aidan Gilman, a Benedictine monk of Ampleforth Abbey, died in the monastery infirmary on December 15.

He was born in Leicester in March 1927 and educated at Ampleforth College.

From 1945 to 1948 he served in the Royal Marines, before joining the monastic community at Ampleforth in September 1948. He was ordained priest in 1958. In the early 1960s he was part-time chaplain first at RAF Topcliffe and then RAF Linton before becoming a housemaster of St Thomas’ House in the school.

After a spell as a hermit near Hawnsby, he worked as a novice master at the college before setting out to work at Eke Priory in Nigeria. In 1977 Fr Aidan joined a small experimental religious community and then served as chaplain to Stanbrook Abbey.

He returned to Ampleforth in 1987 and helped establish St Bede’s Pastoral Centre on York’s Blossom Street, served by a resident community of monks from Ampleforth. Fr Aidan’s health declined in recent years and he resided in the monastery infirmary.

His funeral mass will be celebrated at 11.30am in the Abbey Church tomorrow, followed by burial in the Monk’s Wood.