A Benedictine Restoration Alastair Tocher on the English Benedictines at Colwich

In 1623, following the dissolution of the English monasteries in the 1500s, a small group of women, three of whom were great-greatgranddaughters of St. Thomas More, gathered at Cambrai, Flanders to form a Benedictine community, subsequently moving to Paris under Dame Bridget More. French Revolutionaries later imprisoned the nuns and sent them back to England where they settled in 1836 in an 18th century house at Colwich just outside Little Haywood at the edge of Cannock Chase, in the Midlands, becoming St Mary’s Abbey in 1928. Sadly, owing to an ageing and dwindling community, the Abbey was closed and put up for sale in 2020.

The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles

The Benedictines of Mary were founded in 1995 under the aegis of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, in the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania. They later moved to the diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in Missouri and were raised to the status of Religious Institute of Diocesan Right in 2014. The year 2018 saw the community’s elevation to the status of Abbey, the consecration of their new Abbey Church, and the consecration of Mother Cecilia as their first Abbess. By 2019 the Abbey was positively thriving, and seven intrepid Sisters had left the Abbey to establish their first daughter house in Ava, Missouri where they have also flourished. They have recently been invited to establish a second daughter house in the US.

A Providential Misfortune

A few months had passed since Sister Wilhelmina, their African-American foundress, had been exhumed in April 2023 and found to be incorrupt, and the Sisters at the Abbey of Our Lady of Ephesus were already suffering from a lack of accommodation when seeming disaster struck: the Green Card application for one of several Europeanborn Sisters was denied and applications for all the other non-US-born nuns were placed in jeopardy. With all legal avenues exhausted, leaving the country was the only option and so three Sisters hastily took refuge in England with a family in Staffordshire who offered them a temporary home.

The Sisters soon discovered that a mere fifteen miles away lay the now abandoned St. Mary's Abbey and that the property was advertised for sale! Within a week of their arrival in the UK, the Sisters visited the Abbey grounds and were quite taken by the Abbey’s buildings, pastoral setting, and historical value. Adding to this a formal invitation from Archbishop Bernard Longley to remain in his diocese, it became clear that Our Lord desired the Benedictines of Mary to remain in Staffordshire permanently, and to restore Colwich Abbey to its former glory. As we went to press the Sisters were soon to move into the abbey.

Restoration

Initial visits to Colwich quickly revealed a great deal of work would be needed. The Sisters, who are well accustomed to hard work, will shoulder as much repair and restoration work as they can themselves; and helping hands are also on the way since the community receives vocation enquiries every day and, since word has spread about this new foundation, European enquiries have grown considerably. Over time, many more Sisters will therefore be welcomed to this revived English house as the accommodation is renovated.

Nevertheless, the Sisters will need to engage local tradesmen, despite the order already being financially engaged in two building projects in the US. It is to be hoped therefore that the unforeseen daughter house in Colwich will receive generous financial support both from across the UK and from Europe. Approximately £4 million will be required in total to cover:

• the purchase price of £2.5 million

• repairing and updating the buildings, including reconstructing a dilapidated covered walkway connecting the buildings and extensive renovation of outbuildings

• completely re-furnishing the Abbey since its contents were auctioned after it closed

• purchasing and installing a fitting High Altar for the church and accommodating the faithful to assist at Mass, which will be the final expenditure needed to return St Mary’s Abbey to full use

Details of how you can support this marvellous project will follow once a related UK Registered Charity has been set up. In the meantime, you can follow progress on the Benedictines’ website at benedictinesofmary.org

The Last Word

I leave the last word to Mother Cecilia: “The Benedictine order, the Church, and the whole world has been blessed by the flourishing of English monastic life. We are grateful and humbled to have the opportunity to ‘give back’ and to continue the great tradition through the rehabilitation of Colwich, to keep its fire burning and the praises of God unbroken. We hope to conserve the powerful witness of our forebears and their beautiful legacy for future generations.”