Douai Abbey
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Douai Abbey is a Benedictine Abbey at Woolhampton near Reading, Berkshire. Monks from the Monastery of St Edmund's, Douai, France, came to Woolhampton in 1903 when the congregation was expelled from France by anti-religious laws.
The community of St Edmund was formed in Paris in 1615 by Dom Gabriel Gifford, later Archbishop of Rheims and primate of France. With his backing the community flourished. Expelled from Paris during the Revolution, the community took over the vacant buildings of the community of St Gregory's in Douai in 1818.
Expelled from France by the anti clerical laws of 1901, the community was gifted the school of St Mary's in Woolhampton by Bishop Cahill of Portsmouth, moving from Douai to Woolhampton in 1903. The Abbey church was opened in 1933 but only completed in 1993 due to financial constraints.
The Monastery was greatly expanded in the 1960s with the building of the new monastery designed by Sir Frederick Gibberd. In 2005, two monks returned to Douai, France to form a community there and restore the historic links to English monasticism.
