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The Community, now at Curzon Park, Chester, began as an Anglican Benedictine foundation at Feltham, Middlesex, on 24th June, 1868. After several moves, including Twickenham, West Malling and Milford Haven, the Community settled in North Wales, having been received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1913.

Bishop Francis Mostyn, who had accepted the new Catholic Nuns as his special charge, also found them a home when his family residence, Talacre Hall and Estate had to be auctioned in 1919. The Community moved to North Wales in 1920.

The early years in Wales were ones of growth but also of hardship as the Community struggled to establish itself. In 1921, the Nuns were accepted as members of the English Benedictine Congregation, thus inheriting a venerable tradition and a more deeply-rooted Catholic identity. The changes heralded by Vatican II led to an increasing simplification in the state of monastic life.

The Community, now at Curzon Park, Chester, began as an Anglican Benedictine foundation at Feltham, Middlesex, on 24th June, 1868. After several moves, including Twickenham, West Malling and Milford Haven, the Community settled in North Wales, having been received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1913.

Bishop Francis Mostyn, who had accepted the new Catholic Nuns as his special charge, also found them a home when his family residence, Talacre Hall and Estate had to be auctioned in 1919. The Community moved to North Wales in 1920.

The early years in Wales were ones of growth but also of hardship as the Community struggled to establish itself. In 1921, the Nuns were accepted as members of the English Benedictine Congregation, thus inheriting a venerable tradition and a more deeply-rooted Catholic identity. The changes heralded by Vatican II led to an increasing simplification in the state of monastic life.

The Benedictine Life

Whatever the size of the Community, the basic Benedictine life remains the same. The day alternates between prayer and reading, the celebration of the liturgy, and working in meditative silence at ordinary tasks. While the nuns work with their hands, their minds are free to ponder on the word of God, to reflect on daily events in the world, and to pray for the needs of humanity.

The large garden helps the nuns in another form of prayer, that of simple contemplation.

Benedictines are taught to see creation as the good gift entrusted to humanity to cherish and sustain. The world is sacramental, touched by God, and capable of revealing Him. This reverence extends to the work of human hands: indeed, in his Rule, Saint Benedict states that we should regard 'all the monastery's utensils and goods as if they were the sacred vessels of the altar.' (RB 31).

Visitors To The Abbey

'All guests are to be received as Christ. (RB 53). Guests are attracted by the warm friendliness of the nuns they meet, and the almost tangible sense of peace. Sharing in the Liturgy can be a profound grace to the ecumenical groups who come. The fruit of meditative reading or lectio divina is a constant awareness of God present in all circumstances, and this relationship with God is the heart of all Christian endeavour. Silence and solitude, life in Community, all foster the individual growth of those called to the monastic way of life.

Daily Eucharist and Cycle Of Prayer

The daily Eucharist nourishes and sustains every aspect of the nuns' community life, and the sense of communion is increased by sharing in work, recreation and study.

The rich liturgical cycle of prayer, the annual cycle of spring, summer, autumn and winter, all nourish the prayer life of the individual and keep all praying Christians in deep spiritual communion. Both solitude and Community are essential to all forms of balanced living, and monastic life provides that. In this, too, guests are happy to immerse themselves.

Our Holy Father Saint Benedict

The witness of Christian monastic life is that of faith, faith in the God who created the world and redeemed it, and calls all into the fulness of being. Benedictine nuns have the vocation to follow Christ in a way of life which has endured in the Church for more than fifteen hundred years. This is not an easy way of life to describe, but for those who are called to it, it is their way of loving God and their fellow human beings.