3 June 2025

By Göran R Buckhorn

The Right Reverend Mark Jabalé, OSB, Emeritus Bishop of Menevia, passed away on 9 May at age 91. He had been a monk of Belmont Abbey for 73 years, a priest for 67 years and a bishop for 24 years. For HTBS Types, he should be remembered as a rowing coach of distinction as he coached a British coxless lightweight four to a gold medal at the 1979 World Championships. The same year, Father Mark also assisted Dan Topolski in coaching the Oxford crew for the Boat Race. He was also a Henley Steward, and he wrote two articles for HTBS.

It was on 21 May 2022, I received an email from “+Mark” asking if HTBS would be interested in an article about his involvement in the sport of rowing. Of course, I said “yes”. His splendid article “Mark Jabalé: My Conversion to Rowing” was published on 24 May 2022.

John Peter Jabalé was born on 16 October 1933 in Alexandria, Egypt. His father was Lebanese/French and his mother British/Greek/French, Abbot Brendan Thomas writes in an obituary published on Belmont Abby’s website. The obituary continues:

He attended the Lycée Français in Alexandria until 1948, when he was sent to England, having expressed a desire to join the Navy. He enrolled at Belmont Abbey School and, upon leaving school, joined the Abbey, taking the religious name Mark. He was ordained to the priesthood on 13 July 1958.

He was then sent to the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, where he obtained a Licentiate in French Literature, writing his thesis on Joseph de Maistre, the French counter-revolutionary. He later completed a Diploma in Education at St Mary’s, Strawberry Hill, where he also played rugby for the University.

From 1964, he taught sport and served as a housemaster at the school. In 1969, he was appointed Headmaster of Alderwasley School in Derbyshire, though he held that post for only half a term before being recalled to Belmont to serve as Headmaster there, a role he held – apart from a sabbatical – until 1983.

It was during his sabbatical, he coached some GB crews, among them Colin Barratt, Stuart Wilson, Ian Wilson and Nick Howe in the coxless lightweight four who won a gold medal at the 1979 World Championships. The same year, Oxford’s coach Dan Topolski asked him to assist him in coaching the Dark Blue crew (Oxford won the Boat Race!).

He was invited to coach for the Olympic Games in Moscow, but he declined as he remained committed to Belmont, Abbot Brendan Thomas writes.

He was sent to Peru in 1983 to buy land and to oversee the building of a new monastery. While still in Peru, he was elected a Henley Steward in 1985. The following year, at the Regatta Service, he became the first Roman Catholic to preach at St. Mary’s in Henley.

In 2018, at St Paul’s Cathedral, while holding a service commemorating 200 years of Leander Club, Mark Jabalé, then Emeritus Bishop of Menevia, told the gathered congregation that he was wearing the badge of a Henley Steward alongside his crucifix. HTBS’s Chris Dodd was present at St Paul’s Cathedral and in a HTBS article he tells the story…

The coveted badge remains the property of the regatta, and so when a Steward dies his or her badge is returned and passed on. When Father Mark was elected there were no badges available, so he was given a new one. When his friend Richard Burnell died, he told us, he traded his badge in for Richard’s, which in turn had been passed down from Don Burnell, Richard’s Dad, who had won Olympic gold under the Leander flag in 1908.

Read Chris’s article here.

In an email exchange, I told Father Mark – as I came to call him during our contacts – my connection to Wales, that I had studied at University of Wales at the Lampeter campus throughout the academic year 1997/98. He responded: “Yes, indeed, Lampeter was in my diocese; although I did not actually become the bishop of Menevia until the year 2000”.

He resigned as Bishop of Menevia on his 75th birthday, 16 October 2008.

His background in rowing is best described by Father Mark himself, in his HTBS piece “Mark Jabalé: My Conversion to Rowing”. He also published a second, entertaining article that year, “Henley 1981: Belmont, Peter Coni and a Re-Row”.

Father Mark’s Requiem Mass and Burial will be on Thursday 5 June, at noon, Belmont Abbey.

John Peter Mark Jabalé, born on 16 October 1933, died on 9 May 2025.