For all that the name of Father Mark Dilworth is inextricably linked with Fort Augustus Abbey and that he lived most of life there, this monk was a true internationalist, who yet would not deny the possibility of existence of a Loch Ness Monster. No cloistered cleric, his name is known through education and academia, far beyond Fort Augustus.

Historian, author and ecumenist, it was said that he could make himself understood in every European language, as well as being a non-native speaker of Gaelic. Eighth and last abbot of Fort Augustus, Mark Dilworth suffered personal agony six years ago at the closure of the Benedictine monastery with which his name is chiefly associated.

Gerard Dilworth - Mark was his priestly name - spent his life secure in the Catholic faith. As a 13-year-old in 1927, his parents Henry and Rose enrolled him as a boarder at the Benedictine abbey school, and by his final year, he had taken the decision to enter holy orders.

His brand of unswerving commitment coupled to formidable intelligence puts his legacy beyond faith alone. Demands of religious life did not inhibit scholastic output.

His prolific pen produced several books and strings of articles, and he secured for the nation much of the precious contents of the abbey library. His love for his native land encouraged him to learn

Gaelic, with such proficiency that he became an enthusiastic member of An Comunn Gaidhealach.

His profession and his appearance - bearded and ascetic - belied the warmth of his personality. The same humour was sorely tested when towards the end of his life plans to close Fort Augustus Abbey were bruited. ''They have taken the abbey out of God's hands and put it in the care of accountants,'' he stated, getting as close to anger as he could.

Dilworth made his final profession in 1942 and was ordained a priest five years later. He never forsook the abbey, for he remained part of the abbey Benedictine community during his time at St Benet's Hall, Oxford, while reading French and Italian, and later at Edinburgh undertaking post-graduate study for a doctorate. His choices of subject reflected the eclecticism of the man: he shone at science at school, intending to continue in the subject at Oxford. But at the last minute he changed to modern European languages.

He moved again, this time to history, under Professor Gordon Donaldson (later Historiographer Royal in Scotland), taking as research ''The Scottish Abbey in Wurzburg 1595-1696'', and employing archives from Scottish, Swiss and Roman to help make up the gaps in German sources destroyed by Allied bombing in 1945. His bent for history had been fired when in 1958 he spent a sabbatical surveying monastic archives in Germany.

The thesis for his doctorate in 1967 earned him the Hume Brown Prize and publication two years later by Scottish Academic Press as The Scots in Franconia.

Dilworth was an impossible subject to fit into a ready pigeon-hole, yet many associate his primary vocation as that of schoolmaster. His infectious enjoyment of life shone most in teaching. He taught first at Carlekemp, the little preparatory school just west of North Berwick used by Fort Augustus, before moving to the abbey school itself, returning to what became a lifetime habit of walking the banks of the Ness. While he never reported encountering Nessie, he refused to quash the claim of another monk who said he had.

Later as headmaster of the abbey school, he held a research fellowship at Edinburgh University, his area of interest establishing him as an authority on sixteenth-century monasticism in Scotland. His studies included administration of monasteries in Scotland and changes wrought on monks by the reformation of 1560. This latter typified his bent for publishable scholarship, as well as earning him the David Berry Prize of the Royal Historical Society in 1985.

His prodigious output ensured that his work constantly featured in the Innes Review, the Oxford Companion to Scottish History, the US Encyclopaedia of Monasticism and the Dictionary of National Biography, as well as radio and television appearances in matters of Scottish history.

His was an inspired appointment as Keeper of the Scottish Catholic Archives in 1986. His penchant for research and familiarity with use and conservation of archives made his four years in the Edinburgh archive a satisfying time, particularly as this followed his period as a board member of the National Museums of Scotland.

Father Dilworth was elected abbot of Fort Augustus in 1991, the eighth in the post, but his final years at his beloved abbey by Loch Ness were painful for him. The school roll fell, as did boarders, visitors and novitiates. On paper, the abbey was no longer viable as a going concern.

He abhorred closure, confident that he could provide the abbey with fresh blood. When the die was cast in 1993, and final departure of the last monks mooted within five years, the buildings and site were put up for sale in 1999.

That might have been the end of Fort Augustus, but Abbot Dilworth had other ideas before asset-strippers arrived. He contrived to put into the safekeeping of the National Library of Scotland the bulk of the items of value in the abbey library, including the deposition in 1992 of some 6900 mainly eighteenth-century volumes.

He warned that abbey treasures were being plundered as a matter of accountancy, and had there been time, then perhaps more might have been saved. Yet despite the personal pain he was suffering, he somehow managed to produce Scottish Monasteries in the Middle Ages.

On his enforced retirement from the abbey in 1998, he was appointed titular Abbot of Iona.

His travels included a lecture tour of the US to celebrate his silver jubilee as a priest and a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The result of these was In The Heart Of His House, a personal account of charismatic renewal.

He was admitted to hospital in Edinburgh on New Year's Day this year, and died there in his 80th year. In accordance with his wishes, he was buried in the monastic cemetery within Fort Augustus abbey.

Rt Rev Dom Gerard Mark Dilworth OSB MA PhD FRHistSoc FSAScot; born April 18, 1924, died February 28, 2004.