Stanbrook Abbey
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Stanbrook Abbey was founded at Cambrai, Flanders, then in the Spanish Netherlands, in 1625 under the auspices of the English Benedictine Congregation as a contemplative house of Benedictine nuns.
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[edit] History
The chief foundress was 17-year-old Helen More, professed as Sister Gertrude More, who was great-great-granddaughter of St Thomas More; her father, Cresacre More, provided the original endowment for the foundation of the monastery. She eventually became Dame Gertrude More. The English Benedictine mystical writer Dom Augustine Baker trained the young nuns in a tradition of contemplative prayer which survives to the present (as of 2007). (Solemnly professed Benedictine nuns are always called "Dame", as Benedictine monks are called "Dom")
In 1793, during the French Revolution, the 22 nuns were ejected from their original house and imprisoned in Compiegne for 18 months, during which time four (4) nuns died from the harsh conditions. The survivors returned destitute to England and, with the encouragement of Dom Augustine Lawson, eventually settled in 1838 at Stanbrook, Callow End, near Malvern, Worcestershire, in the Severn Valley.
The present abbey church was completed in 1871 to the designs of Edward Welby Pugin in Gothic Revival style.
Stanbrook is celebrated for its traditions of Gregorian chant, 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 is the oldest private press in England, and acquired an international reputation for fine printing under Dames Hildelith Cumming and Felicitas Corrigan.
[edit] Today
The community announced in April 2002 that it would be moving. Abbess Joanna Jamieson made the announcement that the Abbey would move from its landmark Victorian abbey, with its 79,000 sq ft (7,300 m²). of monastic buildings 'to make the best use of its human and financial resources'. The Abbey looked at possible sites all over the country until it bought Crief Farm at Wass in the North Yorkshire National Park (see [1]).
Construction of the new monastery began on 18th June 2007. Progress of the building work, which will be completed in four distinct phases, is being recorded by the Friends of Stanbrook Abbey.
As of 2002 the community numbered 28 professed nuns and two postulants. About 120 lay people, known as oblates, are associated with the monastery.
Previous abbesses include:
- Dame Frances Gawen, first abbess
- Dame Catherine Gascoigne, abbess, 1629-1676
- Lady Cecilia A. Heywood
- Laurentia McLachlan
- Felicitas Corrigan
- Hildelith Cumming
[edit] Trivia
Stanbrook Abbey was the model for Brede Abbey in Rumer Godden's 1969 novel, In This House of Brede.
