Mary Percy (1570–1642) was an English noblewoman who founded an English

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

Monastery in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

and served as its abbess.

Life

Mary Percy was born on 11 June 1570, the youngest daughter of

Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland, 1st Baron Percy, KG (152822 August 1572), led the Rising of the North and was executed for treason. He was later beatified by the Catholic Church. Early life Percy was the eldest son of Sir Thomas ...

, and his wife Anne Somerset. Her father was executed for his part in the

Rising of the North The Rising of the North of 1569, also called the Revolt of the Northern Earls or Northern Rebellion, was an unsuccessful attempt by Catholic nobles from Northern England to depose Queen Elizabeth I of England and replace her with Mary, Queen of ...

and her mother who had been involved, left the country with the infant Mary. Her siblings were left in England and brought up by their paternal uncle,

Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland, 2nd Baron Percy (153221 June 1585) was an English nobleman and conspirator. Origins He was born in about 1532 at Newburn Manor (Northumberland), the second of two sons of Sir Thomas Percy (c. 1504–15 ...

. Feeling called to religious life, she first spent some time with the Flemish Augustinian Canonesses. Finding this unsatisfactory, she decided to establish a Benedictine convent for English women. She purchased a house in Brussels and asked Benedictine nun

Joanne Berkeley Joanne Berkeley (1555/6 – 2 August 1616) was an English abbess of the Convent of the Assumption of Our Blessed Lady, Brussels which was established by and for English Catholic women. Life Berkeley was born in Beverston Castle in Gloucestershire. ...

to be abbess. Percy was joined by her sister Gertrude and Dorothy Arundell. This was the first community of English nuns to be established since the Reformation. The Convent of the Assumption of Our Blessed Lady was established in Brussels on 21 November 1599. Percy was clothed as a nun and made her profession of vows on 21 November 1600. The first abbess was

. Percy brought to the monastery a dowry of 5000 florins. Difficulties arose between those nuns who wanted a Jesuit confessor and those who preferred a different spiritual approach. These disagreements persisted into Percy's subsequent tenure as abbess.Blom, Jos. ''Catherine Greenbury and Mary Percy'', Routledge, 2017
Berkeley died in 1616 and Percy was elected abbess, serving until her death in Brussels on 13 September 1642. The convent had the support of the Infanta Isabella.

Works

* ''Innocency Justified and Insolency Repressed'' (1632),

Harley MS The Harleian Library, Harley Collection, Harleian Collection and other variants ( la, Bibliotheca Harleiana) is one of the main "closed" collections (namely, historic collections to which new material is no longer added) of the British Library in ...

4275 * Isabella Berinzaga, ''Abridgement of Christian Perfection'', translated by Mary Percy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Percy, Mary 1570 births 1642 deaths Benedictine abbesses

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

English Roman Catholic abbesses