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Stanbrook Abbey is a
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
contemplative In a religious context, the practice of contemplation seeks a direct awareness of the divine which transcends the intellect, often in accordance with prayer or meditation. Etymology The word ''contemplation'' is derived from the Latin word '' ...
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 ...
women's
monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...
with the status of an
abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...
, located at
Wass, North Yorkshire Wass is a village in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England, in the North York Moors National Park. A short distance from the village lie the ruins of Byland Abbey. Despite the small size of the village (population about 100) there i ...
,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. The community was founded in 1625 at
Cambrai Cambrai (, ; pcd, Kimbré; nl, Kamerijk), formerly Cambray and historically in English Camerick or Camericke, is a city in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, department and in the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, regio ...
in
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(then part of the
Spanish Netherlands Spanish Netherlands (Spanish: Países Bajos Españoles; Dutch: Spaanse Nederlanden; French: Pays-Bas espagnols; German: Spanische Niederlande.) (historically in Spanish: ''Flandes'', the name "Flanders" was used as a ''pars pro toto'') was the Ha ...
, now in
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
), under the auspices of the
English Benedictine Congregation The English Benedictine Congregation (EBC) unites autonomous Roman Catholic Benedictine communities of monks and nuns and is technically the oldest of the nineteen congregations that are affiliated in the Benedictine Confederation. History and ...
. After being imprisoned during the
French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
, the surviving nuns fled to England and in 1838 settled at Stanbrook,
Callow End Callow End is a constituent village of the civil parish of Powick in the Malvern Hills District of Worcestershire, England. It is located on the B4424 road about to the south of its junction with the main A449 Malvern to Worcester road. The Riv ...
,
Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...
, where a new abbey was built. The community left this to relocate to
Wass Wass or WASS may refer to: People * Wass de Czege, a Hungarian noble family in Transylvania In arts and entertainment * Albert Wass (1908–1998), Hungarian nobleman, forest engineer, novelist, poet and member of the Wass de Czege family * Ashle ...
in the North York Moors National Park in 2009; the Worcestershire property, as of 2020, was operated as a luxury hotel and events venue named Stanbrook Abbey Hotel.


History


Foundation

The future abbey was founded in 1623 at Cambrai as the monastery of " Our Lady of Consolation", catering for English
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
expatriates. The project was initiated in 1621 by an English Benedictine (EBC) monk called Dom Benet Jones, who had been in contact with several interested young women in England while on mission duties there. The nine original members were escorted by him from England to Cambrai (which the English then called ''Camerick''), where they took over the ruined town-house of the defunct Benedictine abbey of Saint-Étienne-de-Fémy, restored it and moved in at the end of 1623. Since they were still laywomen they had to serve a noviciate, so three nuns from the English monastery at Brussels were lent to provide the formation. Two of them later joined the nascent community, including Dame Frances Gawen who served as the first superior. The monastery was only considered to have been formally founded when the noviciate was completed and the novices made vows, at the start of 1625. The most notable among the foundresses was 17-year-old Helen More,
professed A vow ( Lat. ''votum'', vow, promise; see vote) is a promise or oath. A vow is used as a promise, a promise solemn rather than casual. Marriage vows Marriage vows are binding promises each partner in a couple makes to the other during a weddin ...
as Dame Gertrude More, who was the great-great-granddaughter of St
Thomas More Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VIII as Lord ...
; her father, Cresacre More, provided the original endowment for the foundation of the monastery. Solemnly professed Benedictine nuns of the English tradition use the
honorific An honorific is a title that conveys esteem, courtesy, or respect for position or rank when used in addressing or referring to a person. Sometimes, the term "honorific" is used in a more specific sense to refer to an honorary academic title. It ...
"Dame" in the same way that EBC monks are called "
Dom Dom or DOM may refer to: People and fictional characters * Dom (given name), including fictional characters * Dom (surname) * Dom La Nena (born 1989), stage name of Brazilian-born cellist, singer and songwriter Dominique Pinto * Dom people, an et ...
"; they are not
Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire ''Dame'' is an honorific title and the feminine form of address for the honour of damehood in many Christian chivalric orders, as well as the British honours system and those of several other Commonwealth realms, such as Australia and New Zea ...
. In the same tradition, abbesses used to be referred to as "Lady" which echoed the noble status of
abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...
s and abbesses in pre-Reformation England. The English Benedictine mystical writer Dom
Augustine Baker Fr. Augustine Baker OSB (9 December 1575 – 9 August 1641), also sometimes known as "Fr. Austin Baker", was a well-known Benedictine mystic and an ascetic writer. He was one of the earliest members of the English Benedictine Congregation ...
trained the young nuns in a tradition of contemplative prayer which survives to date. The other eight foundresses were:
Catherine Gascoigne Catherine Gascoigne (1601 – 21 May 1676) was the English abbess of Cambrai from 1624 to 1673. Life Gascoigne was born in Yorkshire. Her parents were Lady Anne (born Ingelby of Lawkland Hall) and Sir John Gascoigne who was the first Baronet of ...
, Grace and Ann More (cousins of Dame Gertrude), Anne Morgan, Margaret Vavasour, Frances Watsonthese were choir nuns; and two claustral or extern sisters, Mary Hoskins and Jane Martin. The latter were not bound to the Divine Office or to keep monastic enclosure, so were responsible for shopping and for routine contacts with the outside world.Weld-Blundell, Edward. "Stanbrook Abbey." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 27 October 2022


Life at Cambrai

The first abbess was elected in 1629. Lady Abbess Catherine Gascoigne was to serve for forty years, being re-elected every four years as is the peculiar English Benedictine custom (Benedictine
abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...
s and abbesses are traditionally elected for life) She had to obtain a papal dispensation when first elected, as at age twenty-eight she was below the statutory age of thirty. The community members were very young then. A daughter house in
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
was founded in 1651, which became independent in 1656 and was eventually to become
Colwich Abbey Saint Mary's Abbey in Colwich, Staffordshire was a monastery of Roman Catholic nuns of the English Benedictine Congregation, founded in 1623 at Cambrai, Flanders, in the Spanish Netherlands, and closed down in 2020. During the French Revolutio ...
in England.Eaton, Robert: The Benedictines of Colwich Sands & Co 1929 pp. 24, 28 The two communities were to come together again in 2020, 364 years later. The nuns were in Cambrai for 170 years, but little is known of their history because of subsequent destruction of records. However, the community had a good reputation for strictness of observance and for keeping enclosure. One oddity was that they ran a small school for girls inside their enclosure, with the pupils being subject to the monastic routine. As well as school fees, the sisters did the traditional remunerative work of enclosed nuns which is fine needlework and embroidery, especially on vestments and liturgical textiles. One unusual source of income was from ''fine paperwork'', which involved cutting sheets of paper into complicated patterns and figurative depictions for decorative purposes. The nuns also had active intellectual lives, for example in translating French spiritual writings into English. A good library was accumulated. A report preserved in the city archives has this: Despite the cramped site, the nuns had their own cemetery. Since they were under the authority of the Abbot President of the English Benedictine Congregation and not that of the bishop, they had no right of burial at the local parish church. The nuns became French subjects in 1678 when Cambrai was annexed by France. A memory of the monastery is preserved at Cambrai in the street name Rue des Anglaises, or "Englishwomen Street".


Imprisonment and exile

In 1793, during the
French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
, the twenty-one nuns were arrested and evicted from their original monastery on 18 October, all their property being confiscated. They were taken to
Compiègne Compiègne (; pcd, Compiène) is a commune in the Oise department in northern France. It is located on the river Oise. Its inhabitants are called ''Compiégnois''. Administration Compiègne is the seat of two cantons: * Compiègne-1 (with 19 ...
and imprisoned there for eighteen months in the former Convent of the Visitation, during which time four of them died from the harsh conditions which included inadequate food and the presence of epidemic typhus. Among their fellow prisoners were the future Carmelite
Martyrs of Compiègne The Martyrs of Compiègne were the 16 members of the Carmel of Compiègne, France: 11 Discalced Carmelite nuns, three lay sisters, and two externs (or tertiaries). They were executed by the guillotine towards the end of the Reign of Terror, at ...
. After petitioning to be allowed to go into exile in England, the seventeen survivors were released in April 1795 and put on a boat at Calais, which took them to Dover where they arrived destitute on 2 May. They were wearing lay clothes left behind by the Compiègne martyrs, which hence became second-class relics. One of the nuns died in temporary lodgings at London. Their monastery at Cambrai was looted and turned into a prison; it was subsequently demolished.


Nuns at Woolton

The community was taken under the care of the English Benedictine (EBC) monks in England, who sent them to the EBC mission at
Woolton Woolton (; ) is an affluent suburb of Liverpool, England. It is located southeast of the city and is bordered by Allerton, Gateacre, Halewood, and Hunt's Cross. At the 2011 Census, the population was 12,921. Overview Originally a standalone ...
near Liverpool on 21 May. There they were given a domestic house, and a pre-existing girls' school to run. They were also told that they could not wear the
religious habit A religious habit is a distinctive set of religious clothing worn by members of a religious order. Traditionally some plain garb recognizable as a religious habit has also been worn by those leading the religious eremitic and anchoritic life, ...
- the EBC monks did not do so themselves back then. There were no English sumptuary law against the habit, as Blessed
Dominic Barberi Dominic Barberi, CP (22 June 1792 – 27 August 1849) was an Italian theologian and a member of the Passionist Congregation prominent in spreading Catholicism in England. He contributed to the conversion of John Henry Newman. In 1963, he was ...
was the first to prove, but popular anti-Catholic hostility could have led to habited nuns being charged with
breach of the peace Breach of the peace, or disturbing the peace, is a legal term used in constitutional law in English-speaking countries and in a public order sense in the several jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It is a form of disorderly conduct. Public ord ...
. The community occupied two houses, 45 and 47 Woolton Street, and later expanded into number 43. They initially had to depend on donations to survive, but the government granted the sixteen of them a generous pension of one and a half
guineas The guinea (; commonly abbreviated gn., or gns. in plural) was a coin, minted in Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from the Guinea region in West Africa, from where m ...
(£1.575) per month for each nun, which gave the community an annual income of £302.40 (or £36,617 in 2020 values). Their small school, for girls aged five to thirteen, was a success and had eighteen pupils by 1807, each charged 18 guineas per annum (£18.90 , £2 289 in 2020 values). As well as girls, the nuns taught a few little boys. One of these was to become a monk at
Downside Abbey Downside Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in England and the senior community of the English Benedictine Congregation. Until 2019, the community had close links with Downside School, for the education of children aged eleven to eighteen. Both t ...
and later, as
John Bede Polding John Bede Polding, OSB (18 November 1794 in 16 March 1877 ) was the first Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Australia. Early life Polding was born in Liverpool, England on 18 November 1794. His father was of Dutch descent and his mothe ...
, the first Roman Catholic archbishop of Sydney in Australia. In 1807, the nuns decided to move. They had regarded themselves as refugees waiting to go home to Cambrai, but attempts to reclaim their property from the French government had proved futile. Meanwhile, four had died but seven had joined.


Nuns at Abbots Salford

An interim home was found in 1808 at Salford Hall, Abbot's Salford, Warwickshire which was a mansion built in 1602 by a
recusant Recusancy (from la, recusare, translation=to refuse) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation. The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign ...
family, the Stanfords. Hence it contained a
priest hole A priest hole is a hiding place for a priest built into many of the principal Catholic houses of England, Wales and Ireland during the period when Catholics were persecuted by law. When Queen Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558, there were se ...
, and a public Catholic chapel fitted out in the early 18th century and served by EBC monks from 1727 until the end of the century. The nuns took their school with them, but were able to resume wearing the habit and created a mitigated enclosure (they divided the chapel with a grille). However, the house was only lent to them and was not for purchase. So, the nuns bought a property for a purpose-built nunnery twenty-eight years later, in 1835. The EBC monk chaplain at Salford Hall from 1822 until he died in 1830 was Dom Augustine Lawson, who was helpful in trying to find the community a permanent home. As he was dying he asked that his remains should accompany the nuns, so when they moved in 1838 he was disinterred and re-buried at their new home. His body was found to be
incorrupt Incorruptibility is a Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox belief that divine intervention allows some human bodies (specifically saints and beati) to completely or partially avoid the normal process of decomposition after death as a sign of their ...
. In the same year of 1830, the last Cambrai nun died. Salford Hall is now a hotel and is a Grade I
listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
.


Stanbrook construction phase 1

In 1835, with the encouragement and agency of the EBC monk Dom Bernard Short based at
Little Malvern Little Malvern is a small village and civil parish in Worcestershire, England. It is situated on the lower slopes of the Malvern Hills, south of Malvern Wells, near Great Malvern, the major centre of the area often referred to as ''The Malverns' ...
(later the abbey
chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...
), the nuns bought Stanbrook Hall at
Callow End Callow End is a constituent village of the civil parish of Powick in the Malvern Hills District of Worcestershire, England. It is located on the B4424 road about to the south of its junction with the main A449 Malvern to Worcester road. The Riv ...
in the parish of
Powick Powick is a village and civil parish in the Malvern Hills District, Malvern Hills district of Worcestershire, England, located two miles south of the city of Worcester, England, Worcester and four miles north of Great Malvern. The parish include ...
, (), near
Malvern, Worcestershire Malvern is a spa town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England. It lies at the foot of the Malvern Hills, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The centre of Malvern, Great Malvern, is a historic conservation area, which grew dr ...
in the
Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...
Valley. This was an unpretentious country mansion, built by an
alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many Jurisdiction, jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council membe ...
of
Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...
called Richard Case in 1755. He had purchased a pair of pre-existing smallholders' cottages at a locality called Stanbrook End and incorporated one of them into his construction The nuns decided not to live in the hall, but to keep it as the presbytery for their EBC priest-chaplain and his domestic servants. For their own residence, they employed as architect the
county surveyor A county surveyor is a public official in the United Kingdom and the United States. United Kingdom Webb & Webb describe the increasing chaos that began to prevail within this same period in field of county surveying in England and Wales, with c ...
for
Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...
, Charles Day who was brother to one of the nuns.Ecclesiology Today, Issue 38 May 2007 p. 37 He added a separate range abutting the west wing of the Hall, comprising two conjoined blocks one of which was for the nuns and the other for the school. The former contained a nuns' chapel, an extern chapel (for visitors) and a
chapter room A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room that is part of a cathedral, monastery or collegiate church in which meetings are held. When attached to a cathedral, the cathedral chapter meets there. In monasteries, the whole communi ...
as well as domestic facilities, while the latter had two school rooms. This two-storey edifice in red brick was also unpretentious and had no traditional monastic features. It was finished in 1838 when the nuns moved in. The nuns' chapel, although lacking a distinct structural identity, is significant in the architectural history of the period owing to its
neo-classical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing style ...
and the role of
Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
design influences on its interior. Day also designed St Francis Xavier Church at
Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...
, St Edmund's Church at
Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...
and the
Shire Hall, Worcester The Shire Hall is a municipal building in Foregate Street in Worcester, England. It is a Grade II* listed building. History An Act of Parliament in 1831 allowed for ''"erecting a County Hall and Courts of Justice, and also for providing Accommo ...
. The original entrance to the new abbey precinct was to the south, on Upton Road, where a pair of semi-octagonal gate lodges survive and are Grade-II listed. To the north of the Abbey and in its grounds, a house called the Hermitage was built 1865 for one Lady Henrietta Mary Crewe, who had obtained permission to live with the nuns as a
corrodian Corrodians were in essence pensioners who lived in monasteries or nunneries. They were usually well-to-do elderly lay people who paid or were sponsored for accommodation and food for the rest of their lives. This payment might be in cash but would m ...
but then changed her mind. The house that she built became the abbey's guest house, and later part of St Mary's House when guest facilities were expanded in the 20th century. The northern part of the area between the Presbytery and Abbey was laid out as the nuns' graveyard, with Dom Augustine re-interred there. The west wing of the Hall was still extant in 1885 but had been demolished by 1903.


Stanbrook construction phase 2


Proposal 1863

In 1863, the EBC monk Dom Laurence Shepherd was appointed as chaplain and served until his death in 1885. He helped the nuns to establish themselves as noted practitioners of
Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainsong, plainchant, a form of monophony, monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek (language), Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed ma ...
and imbued them with the ancient monastic liturgical tradition being revived by Dom Prosper Guéranger of
Solesmes Abbey Solesmes Abbey or St. Peter's Abbey, Solesmes (''Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes'') is a Benedictine monastery in Solesmes (Sarthe, France), famous as the source of the restoration of Benedictine monastic life in the country under Dom Prosper Guà ...
in France. He also aided them in revising their monastic Constitutions or practical rules of life in line with Guéranger's ideas. Most importantly, he encouraged the community to begin a project to build a complete new abbey from scratch, in plan echoing a high-status medieval monastery with a proper church and three ranges of buildings around a square
cloister A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...
. The community was growing rapidly, as vocations to the religious life were plentiful at the time. The basic plans for the scheme were drawn up by Dom Laurence himself with the assistance of Dom
Hildebrand de Hemptinne Hildebrand de Hemptinne (10 June 1849 - 13 August 1913) was a Belgium Benedictine monk of Beuron Archabbey, the second Abbot of Maredsous Abbey, and the first Abbot Primate of the Order of St. Benedict and the Benedictine Confederation. Biograp ...
, a Belgian Benedictine monk from
Beuron Archabbey Beuron Archabbey (in German Erzabtei Beuron, otherwise Erzabtei St. Martin; in Latin ''Archiabbatia Sancti Martini Beuronensis''; Swabian: ''Erzabtei Beira'') is a major house of the Benedictine Order located at Beuron in the upper Danube va ...
. The architectural work was entrusted to the family of the late
Augustus Welby Pugin Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin ( ; 1 March 181214 September 1852) was an English architect, designer, artist and critic with French and, ultimately, Swiss origins. He is principally remembered for his pioneering role in the Gothic Revival st ...
, which was based in
Ramsgate Ramsgate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the district of Thanet District, Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2001 it had a population of about 40,000. In 2011, according to t ...
. The elder son,
Edward Welby Pugin Edward Welby Pugin (11 March 1834 – 5 June 1875) was an English architect, the eldest son of architect Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin and Louisa Barton and part of the Pugin & Pugin family of church architects. His father was an architect an ...
, was responsible for the building of St Augustine's Abbey and the abbot there provided the recommendation. Work was to continue until the end of the century. Unfortunately, the project was then left unfinished.


Church 1869

The abbey church was the first to be begun, in 1869 during the term of office of Abbess Scholastica Gregson. The site was just to the north of the graveyard. The edifice was to the designs of Edward Welby Pugin, in
Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
style, but his first design (for which a drawing survives) was too expensive at £4 200 and he was told to limit the cost to £3 000. Dom Laurence also insisted that a proposed large bell-turret over the west end had to be replaced by a traditional tall church tower with a clock and that the proposed open roof was to be provided with a ceiling vault for acoustic reasons (he was worried about the plainchant). Work was completed in 1871. A set of human remains from a Roman catacomb, a
virgin martyr The title Virgin (Latin ''Virgo'', Greek ) is an honorific bestowed on female saints and blesseds in some Christian traditions, including the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. Chastity is one of the seven virtues in Christian tr ...
given the name St Fulgentia, was enshrined under the high altar. Two ambulatories or covered corridors were built by the same architect to link the new church with the already existing buildings. The Presbytery was linked directly to the sanctuary of the church by one of these, while another ran north of the old Abbey to a stand-alone printing shop before turning east to the west tower entrance of the church. This latter section was fitted out as a Via Crucis (Way of the Cross), with sculpted Stations of the Cross.


East range 1878

Work on the three cloister ranges to the north of the church began in 1878, under the collaboration of
Peter Paul Pugin Peter Paul Pugin (1851 – March 1904) was an English architect. He was the son of Augustus Pugin by his third wife, Jane Knill, and the half-brother of architect and designer Edward Welby Pugin. Life and career Peter Paul Pugin was only a ...
, Cuthbert Welby Pugin and
George Ashlin George Coppinger Ashlin (28 May 1837 – 10 December 1921) was an Irish architect, particularly noted for his work on churches and cathedrals, and who became President of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland. Biography Ashlin was ...
from Ireland. Abbess Gertrude d'Aurillac Dubois was in office. The east range, containing the main abbey entrance and the parlours, was finished by 1880. Only the basement of the north range, to contain the kitchen and
refectory A refectory (also frater, frater house, fratery) is a dining room, especially in monasteries, boarding schools and academic institutions. One of the places the term is most often used today is in graduate seminaries. The name derives from the La ...
, was finished when work was then paused. A plan of the project, together with a drawing of the east range, was published in "The Architect" magazine in 1881.


Holy Thorn Chapel 1885

The Holy Thorn Chapel of 1885-86 was added to the south side of the church by
Peter Paul Pugin Peter Paul Pugin (1851 – March 1904) was an English architect. He was the son of Augustus Pugin by his third wife, Jane Knill, and the half-brother of architect and designer Edward Welby Pugin. Life and career Peter Paul Pugin was only a ...
, and made accessible to the public through the church's extern chapel. It was in the style of a medieval
pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...
shrine, and housed the Holy Thorn, which was a relic of the
crown of thorns According to the New Testament, a woven crown of thorns ( or grc, ἀκάνθινος στέφανος, akanthinos stephanos, label=none) was placed on the head of Jesus during the events leading up to his crucifixion. It was one of the in ...
from
Glastonbury Abbey Glastonbury Abbey was a monastery in Glastonbury, Somerset, England. Its ruins, a grade I listed building and scheduled ancient monument, are open as a visitor attraction. The abbey was founded in the 8th century and enlarged in the 10th. It wa ...
(not to be confused with the
Glastonbury Thorn The Glastonbury thorn is a form of common hawthorn, ''Crataegus monogyna'' 'Biflora'Phipps, J.B.; O’Kennon, R.J.; Lance, R.W. 2003. ''Hawthorns and medlars''. Royal Horticultural Society, Cambridge, U.K. (sometimes incorrectly called '' Crataegu ...
, which was a tree). Dom Laurence Shepherd was buried here in 1885 and Abbess Gertrude d'Aurillac Dubois in 1897, and both given sculptural tombs as being those responsible for the new abbey. In the same year, Peter Paul Pugin blocked up the tower entrance of the church with a huge, monumental abbatial throne which dominated the choir and rivalled the high altar at the other end of the church.


North range 1895

The north range was resumed in 1895, and completed in 1898. The last addition to the main abbey buildings was the sacristy, in 1899. After this, the original mansion was referred to as the "Old House", its chapel became the abbey's chapter room and its refectory became the library. The original entrance driveway to the abbey, from the south, was blocked up and the pre-existing access to "The Hermitage" was utilised to lay out a new access way from the north.


Work abandoned 1900

Work on the grand project then ceased. The west range was not begun, which would have included a new chapter house, library and infirmary, and neither was a proposed school range which would have been a westward continuation of the north range. Another omission was an ambulatory from the proposed chapter house to the east range, forming the south side of the cloister.


Activities

Stanbrook Abbey has been celebrated for its traditions of
Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainsong, plainchant, a form of monophony, monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek (language), Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed ma ...
(otherwise known as plainchant), the publication of devotional literature and fine printing. The translations of the writings of St Teresa of Avila are still in print a century after their publication. The Stanbrook Abbey Press was at one time the oldest
private press Private press publishing, with respect to books, is an endeavor performed by craft-based expert or aspiring artisans, either amateur or professional, who, among other things, print and build books, typically by hand, with emphasis on design, gra ...
in England, and acquired an international reputation for fine printing under Dames Hildelith Cumming and
Felicitas Corrigan Dame Felicitas Corrigan OSB (6 March 1908 – 7 October 2003, Kathleen Corrigan) was an English Benedictine nun, author and humanitarian. Biography Corrigan was born in Liverpool in 1908 to a large family. She learned to play the organ at an ...
. Although digital printing and publishing continues at the Abbey on a small scale, the fine
letterpress Letterpress printing is a technique of relief printing. Using a printing press, the process allows many copies to be produced by repeated direct impression of an inked, raised surface against sheets or a continuous roll of paper. A worker comp ...
printing which made the Press famous had ceased by 1990.


20th century

The community believed they were keeping papal enclosure from 1880 when they moved into their new quarters. However, the rules of papal enclosure are not compatible with running a school. The new abbey project had envisaged the school expanding in a proposed separate wing, but this would have split the community between those strictly enclosed and teaching externs.
Hazel Hastings Hazel Mary Hastings born Hazel Mary Daunais (November 8, 1897 – January 27, 1993) was a Canadian teacher and Roman Catholic laywoman. Life Hastings was born in Battleford in 1897. She had an unusual childhood as her father died in 1901 and he ...
was one of the later pupils as her mother had become a nun. She said there were about twelve pupils who wore black habits and veils and the learnt liturgy, plainsong, Latin, calligraphy, heraldry, and astronomy. She left in about 1911. In 1918 the school (which had always been small) was closed.Anson, Peter F: The Religious Orders and Congregations of Great Britain and Ireland, Stanbrook 1949 p. 165 In 1923, the nuns commissioned the furniture maker Robert "Mouseman" Thompson to fit out their
refectory A refectory (also frater, frater house, fratery) is a dining room, especially in monasteries, boarding schools and academic institutions. One of the places the term is most often used today is in graduate seminaries. The name derives from the La ...
with tables, chairs, wall panelling, a crucifix and a huge pulpit for reading a book aloud during meals (a monastic tradition). These items feature his signature carved mouse. The tables and chairs were taken to Wass when the community moved. In 1935, when the abbey was at the height of its career, the community numbered eighty-two. This total comprised fifty-two choir nuns, nineteen conversae, seven novices and four extern sisters. The 'conversae' or claustral sisters were not bound to the Divine Office and did the domestic and manual work, but stayed in the enclosure. The externs were the ones who ventured outside as necessary. The community had two EBC monk-chaplains resident at the Presbytery. This was because Roman Catholic priests are not permitted routinely to celebrate more than one Mass a day, except if there is a shortage of priests. One priest celebrated the Sung High Mass (the full ceremonial form of the
Tridentine Mass The Tridentine Mass, also known as the Traditional Latin Mass or Traditional Rite, is the liturgy of Mass in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church that appears in typical editions of the Roman Missal published from 1570 to 1962. Celebrated almo ...
) which was the focus of the community's liturgical life, and the other celebrated a
Low Mass Low Mass (Latin ''Missa lecta'', "read Mass") is a Tridentine Mass defined officially in the Code of Rubrics included in the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal as a Mass in which the priest does not chant the parts that the rubrics assign to him. A ...
in the extern chapel for local people, employees and those nuns who wished to receive Communion. The height of Edward Pugin's grand Gothic high altar obscured the great rose window at the church's east end which contained stained glass in honour of Our Lady. As a result it was cut down in 1937, a project executed by
Geoffrey Webb Geoffrey Fairbank Webb CBE (9 May 1898 – 17 July 1970) was a British art historian, Slade Professor of Fine Art and head of the Monuments and Fine Arts section of the Allied Control Commission during World War II. Early life Webb was born in ...
. The monstrance throne cavity was filled with a sculpture of ''Christ the King'' by
Philip Lindsey Clark Philip Lindsey Clark (1889–1977) was an English sculptor. Background Philip Lindsey Clark was born in London. His father was the sculptor Robert Lindsey Clark. He worked with his father at the Cheltenham School of Art from 1905 to 1910 an ...
.Ecclesiology Today, Issue 38 May 2007 p. 41 In 1950, the community was still flourishing and comprised around seventy, a number it kept for the next twenty years. This made it the biggest women's monastery in Britain. Around this time, the lush decorative wall stencilling in the church sanctuary, which included depictions of Christ and the saints, was partly painted over. The failure to complete the new buildings left the abbey's facilities awkwardly spread between two adjacent but disjunct sites. Getting from one to the other was awkward in bad weather, so ambulatories in red brick occupying the missing two sides of the cloisters were designed by Martin Fisher in 1965.
Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...
dismissed this work as "not considered to be of interest". In that year of 1965, the community numbered seventy-one: forty-four choir nuns, eighteen conversae, three novices and six externs. The church sanctuary was re-ordered in 1971 by Anthony Thompson, with the loss of the original Pugin fittings including the cut-down high altar and the surviving wall paintings. The former was replaced by a very plain free-standing altar in white stone, and a tabernacle stand in the same style. Also, the Minton encaustic floor tiles were taken up and replaced with plain ones (some of the removed tiles were stored, and later relaid in the church at Wass). The
wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag Inclusion (mineral), inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a ...
rood screen was donated to
Birmingham Art Gallery Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BM&AG) is a museum and art gallery in Birmingham, England. It has a collection of international importance covering fine art, ceramics, metalwork, jewellery, natural history, archaeology, ethnography, local ...
, and the altar in the extern chapel (dedicated to the
Sacred Heart The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus ( la, Cor Jesu Sacratissimum) is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devo ...
) was also removed. The community was notable in the last third of the 20th century for setting liturgical texts in English to music in the plainchant tradition. A growing public interest in the "monastic experience", to be enjoyed by staying as a guest in a monastery, led the nuns in this period to extend their guest facilities. The original 1865 Hermitage guest house was supplemented by a conversion of stables next door, and this became St Mary's House, which could accommodate eighteen guests of both sexes.


Relocation

The 1971 sanctuary re-fitting mentioned above was in the context of a revision of Roman Catholic liturgical practices after the
Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st Catholic ecumenical councils, ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions) ...
, 1962-5. However vocations to the religious life began to decline in the UK as of 1966, and this drop became permanent. Monasteries which were used to having several novices, year on year, found themselves receiving none. Although the initial reaction tended to be to hold on to the optimism and "wait for better times", the substantial and persistent decrease in vocations meant that monastic institutions became less viable. Of the eleven Benedictine women's monasteries in England in 1950, seven have shut down, two have moved (including Stanbrook Abbey), and only two remain on their original sites ( Ryde Abbey and Minster Abbey. As of 2002 the community numbered twenty-eight professed nuns, also two postulants (the monastic term for those resident who are "thinking about a vocation"). The community had lost 60% of its membership in 25 years, and those left were ageing. About 120 lay people known as oblates (the Benedictine term for tertiaries) were affiliated with the monastery. The community announced in April 2002 that it would be moving out. Abbess Joanna Jamieson made the announcement that the Abbey would move from its Victorian abbey, with its . of monastic buildings "to make the best use of its human and financial resources" (running the oil-fired central heating was costing £6000 a month). This was controversial because some argued that the preservation of the institution had to be the nuns' first priority rather than the welfare of the monastic community, and ''The Times'' newspaper published the following letter on 23 January 2006: Three nuns (one being Sister Catherine Wybourne, also known as 'Digitalnun') had left the community, and in September 2004 founded Holy Trinity Monastery at
East Hendred East Hendred is a village and civil parish about east of Wantage in the Vale of White Horse and a similar distance west of Didcot. The village is on East Hendred Brook, which flows from the Berkshire Downs to join the River Thames at Sutton C ...
in
Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...
. They moved to
Wormbridge Wormbridge is a village and former civil parish in Herefordshire, England, about eight miles south-west of Hereford, on the A465 road at (). The neighbouring villages are Kilpeck, Didley, Howton, Treville, Ewyas Harold, Pontrilas and Crize ...
in
Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire ...
in 2012, and are now (2020) known as Howton Grove Priory. They have received no vocations, were down to two in 2020, and with Wybourne's death in 2022 only one remains. The Abbey looked at possible sites all over the country until it bought Crief Farm at
Wass Wass or WASS may refer to: People * Wass de Czege, a Hungarian noble family in Transylvania In arts and entertainment * Albert Wass (1908–1998), Hungarian nobleman, forest engineer, novelist, poet and member of the Wass de Czege family * Ashle ...
in the North York Moors National Park. Construction of the new monastery began on 18 June 2007. The building work was to be completed in four distinct phases. The community moved into this new "Stanbrook Abbey" at Wass on 21 May 2009, after the first phase had been completed. The architects were
Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (also known as FCBStudios) is a British architectural design firm, established in 1978, with offices in Bath, London, Manchester, Belfast and Edinburgh. The firm is known for its pioneering work in sustainable desig ...
. The monastic tradition is that, if a monastery moves, it takes the name of its new location. However, the Stanbrook community decided not to do this and so is Stanbrook Abbey, not Wass Abbey. The cost of the first phase was £5 million. After May 2009, the original abbey church was formally deconsecrated in preparation for the sale of the property. The relics of St Fulgentia were taken out of the altar when it was dismantled, and put into store until the new abbey church at Wass could be built.


Life at Wass

The old monastery was put on the market at £6 million in 2009, but only sold in August 2010 for £4.5 million. Phase 2, the building of a new church, could then be entered into and was completed in 2015. This cost £2.5 million. The relics of St Fulgentia were enshrined under the new altar. The resulting set of new abbey buildings, by
Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (also known as FCBStudios) is a British architectural design firm, established in 1978, with offices in Bath, London, Manchester, Belfast and Edinburgh. The firm is known for its pioneering work in sustainable desig ...
, were given a
RIBA National Award RIBA National Awards are part of an awards program operated by the Royal Institute of British Architects, also encompassing the Stirling Prize, the European Award and the International Award. The National Awards are given to buildings in the UK w ...
in 2016. Phase 3, the construction of a new library, and phase 4, an expansion of the guest accommodation, were not begun by 2020. In 2019 with the closure of
Oulton Abbey St Mary's Abbey, Oulton is a suppressed Benedictine monastery located in the village of Oulton near Stone in Staffordshire, England. The Abbey church is Grade II* listed, and other buildings are Grade II. History The community was founded in ...
as a monastery, the last two remaining nuns affiliated to Stanbrook Abbey (just as, in 2002, Oulton received some members of the closed
Fernham Fernham is a village and civil parish about south of Faringdon in the Vale of White Horse, Oxfordshire, England. Fernham was historically part of the parish of Shrivenham. It was within Berkshire until the 1974 local authority boundary change ...
Priory which used to be Princethorpe Priory). One went to live there, the other was caretaking the Oulton property pro tem. In 2020 the community numbered nineteen, including one oblate not in vows but sharing the life in all respects. The Abbey is now only the second largest Benedictine women's monastery in England, as Ryde Abbey has twenty-eight. In the same year,
Colwich Abbey Saint Mary's Abbey in Colwich, Staffordshire was a monastery of Roman Catholic nuns of the English Benedictine Congregation, founded in 1623 at Cambrai, Flanders, in the Spanish Netherlands, and closed down in 2020. During the French Revolutio ...
was similarly dissolved and its nuns transferred. This monastery had originally been a daughter house in
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, which was founded from
Cambrai Cambrai (, ; pcd, Kimbré; nl, Kamerijk), formerly Cambray and historically in English Camerick or Camericke, is a city in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, department and in the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, regio ...
in 1651 and which became independent in 1656. The two communities were to come together again 364 years later, as the two remaining able-bodied nuns at Colwich went to live at Wass.


Stanbrook Abbey Hotel

In August 2010, the Grade II-listed Worcestershire property was sold to Clarenco LLP to be converted into an events venue and luxury hotel called the Stanbrook Abbey Hotel. The nuns had been neglecting necessary maintenance for half a century, and so the property was affected by leaky roofs and dry rot. Hence, they received only three-quarters of the £6 million that they were expecting to raise on sale. The company erected an impressive entrance gateway west of the unassuming original one, laid out car parks and began to convert ranges of nuns' cells with no plumbing into en-suite bedrooms. The grave markers on the nuns' graves were removed to allow the layout of a lavender garden on the graveyard, and attached to a nearby wall. Since the abbey entrance in the east range was wholly inadequate, a monumental new entrance portico with attached champagne bar and roof terrace was added to the west end of the north range. A large marquee-style hall to serve as an events venue was attached to the Old House, and both of these additions were deliberately done in a style giving great contrast to the original buildings. The hotel was opened in 2015. In 2017, the hotel was sold to Hand Picked Hotels, which continued the conversion of cells to bedrooms in the north range and fitted out the former refectory as a fine-dining restaurant. in 2020 there were seventy bedrooms.


List of Superiors

Previous superiors include (in alphabetical order of surname): * Dame Gertrude d'Aurillac Dubois 1872-97 (Oversaw erection of conventual buildings at Stanbrook) * Dame Clementia Cary * Dame Barbara Constable * Dame Catherine Gascoigne 1629-73 (First Abbess.) * Dame Margaret Gascoigne * Dame Frances Gawen 1623-9 (First superior, originally at Brussels. Prioress.) * Dame Scholastica Gregson 1846-62 and 1868-72 (Oversaw erection of church.) * Dame Cecilia A. Heywood * Dame Joanna Jamieson * Dame
Laurentia McLachlan Dame Laurentia McLachlan, OSB, ''née'' Margaret McLachlan, (11 January 1866 – 23 August 1953) was a Scottish Benedictine nun, Abbess of Stanbrook Abbey, and an authority on church music. She became posthumously known to a wide public when po ...
* Dame Agnes More * Dame Bridget More


Daughter Houses


Jamberoo Abbey

The first Roman Catholic archbishop of
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
in
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
,
John Bede Polding John Bede Polding, OSB (18 November 1794 in 16 March 1877 ) was the first Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Australia. Early life Polding was born in Liverpool, England on 18 November 1794. His father was of Dutch descent and his mothe ...
, had been taught by the nuns as a little boy. In 1849, he appealed to the abbey to provide nuns for a monastery that he was founding at
Rydalmere, New South Wales Rydalmere ''(formerly "Field of Mars")'' is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Rydalmere is approximately 21 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Parrama ...
, to be called Subiaco after the Italian location where
St Benedict Benedict of Nursia ( la, Benedictus Nursiae; it, Benedetto da Norcia; 2 March AD 480 – 21 March AD 548) was an Italian Christian monk, writer, and theologian who is venerated in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Orie ...
had begun monastic life. In response, Dame Magdalen le Clerc was sent to join Sister Scholastica Gregory from Princethorpe Priory (not of the English Benedictine Congregation, hence not a Dame), and the two founded what is now
Jamberoo Jamberoo is a village on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia in the Municipality of Kiama. It is approximately 11.3 km inland from Kiama. At the , Jamberoo had a population of 1,667. The town's name is derived from an Aboriginal ...
Abbey.


Abadia de Santa Maria, São Paulo

In 1907, a group of young women from
São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...
in
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
entered the noviciate in order to become the founding community of the Abadia di Santa Maria in their city. This was founded in 1911, and itself became the mother-house of three other women's monasteries in Brazil as well as one in
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
, Abadía de Santa Escolástica in
Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
. From the latter are descended six monasteries: four in Argentina, one at
Montevideo Montevideo () is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...
in
Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
and one in
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
. One of the Brazilian daughter houses, Abadia de Nossa Senhora das Graças in
Belo Horizonte Belo Horizonte (, ; ) is the sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population around 2.7 million and with a metropolitan area of 6 million people. It is the 13th-largest city in South America and the 18th-largest in the Americas. The metropol ...
, has itself given rise to four further foundations in Brazil.


In popular culture

* Stanbrook Abbey was the model for Brede Abbey in
Rumer Godden Margaret Rumer Godden (10 December 1907 â€“ 8 November 1998) was an English author of more than 60 fiction and non-fiction books. Nine of her works have been made into films, most notably ''Black Narcissus'' in 1947 and '' The River'' in ...
's 1969 novel, ''
In This House of Brede ''In This House of Brede'' is a novel by Rumer Godden published in 1969 by Viking in the US and by Macmillan in the UK. Synopsis The novel is a portrait of religious life in England that centers on Philippa Talbot, a highly successful professio ...
''. Godden, who had asked the nuns of Stanbrook for prayers when her elder daughter was facing a risky pregnancy, gifted the Abbey a share of the copyright on the novel. *
Iris Murdoch Dame Jean Iris Murdoch ( ; 15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999) was an Irish and British novelist and philosopher. Murdoch is best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her ...
's novel '' The Bell'' is said to have been partly inspired by Stanbrook Abbey. *
Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
folk singer and
Celtic harp The Celtic harp is a triangular frame harp traditional to the Celtic nations of northwest Europe. It is known as in Irish, in Scottish Gaelic, in Breton and in Welsh. In Ireland and Scotland, it was a wire-strung instrument requiring grea ...
ist
Mary O'Hara Mary O'Hara (born 12 May 1935) is an Irish soprano and harpist from County Sligo. She gained attention on both sides of the Atlantic in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Her recordings of that period influenced a generation of Irish female singer ...
spent twelve years as a nun at Stanbrook Abbey. *The pseudonym "Benedictine of Stanbrook" was used by Werburg Welch for a number of pieces of art.


Publications

* * Meinrad Craighead. ''The Mother's Birds: Images for a Death and a Birth.'' Worcester: Stanbrook Abbey Press, 1976. *


See also

*
List of abbeys and priories List of abbeys and priories is a link list for any abbey or priory. , the Catholic Church has 3,600 abbeys and monasteries worldwide. In Europe Armenia * Akhtala Monastery * Gandzasar monastery *Geghard *Goshavank * Haghartsin Monastery *Hagh ...


Notes


References

* ''Stanbrook Abbey: a sketch of its history, 1625-1925'', by a Nun of the same abbey. London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne, 1925. * *
Full account from contemporary sources of the early history of the community and the sufferings of the nuns in Cambrai, from ''Miscellanea VIII'', (Publications of the Catholic Records Society, 1911-12, vol. XIII)
*


External links


Stanbrook Abbey site

Friends of Stanbrook Abbey

Feilden Clegg Bradley article on the design and construction of the new abbey

Stanbrook Abbey Hotel
* Stanbrook Abbey collection, at the
University of Maryland libraries The University of Maryland Libraries is the largest university library in the Washington, D.C. - Baltimore area. The university's library system includes eight libraries: six are located on the College Park campus, while the Severn Library, an of ...
. {{Coord, 54.2073, -1.15051, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title 1625 establishments in England Religious organizations established in 1625 Monasteries in Worcestershire Benedictine monasteries in England Organisations based in Worcestershire Small press publishing companies Christian monasteries established in the 17th century Monasteries in North Yorkshire Monasteries of the English Benedictine Congregation Gothic Revival architecture in Worcestershire E. W. Pugin church buildings