A MONK of Ampleforth Abbey, near Helmsley, has died at the age of 68 after losing his fight against cancer.

The body of Father David Morland will be laid to rest in the monastery, where he was a senior classics master for more than ten years before going to work in parishes. He died peacefully at the abbey in the early hours of Monday, October 17.

In accordance with the tradition at Ampleforth Abbey, his death was marked with the ringing of the death knell, ringing one toll for every year of his life.

He was born as William Morland and went to school at Ampleforth College. He joined the monastic community in 1961, when was given the monastic name David.

He studied at Oxford, and returned to Ampleforth in 1972 and took up a teaching role. In 1984 he became a senior classics master, a post he held until 1997.

At the end of his teaching career he began parish work, before being appointed assistant priest at St Austin, Grassendale, Liverpool, and was appointed parish priest there in September 2005.

The following year he was diagnosed with cancer, but remained working in the parish until early 2011, when he returned to the monastery infirmary at Ampleforth Abbey.

A funeral took place in the Abbey Church at Ampleforth yesterday morning, followed by burial in the Monks Cemetery at Ampleforth.