St. Philip's Priory facts for kids
St. Philip's Priory situated on New London Road in Chelmsford, Essex, UK is a Premonstratensian priory of canons regular. It is dedicated to Our Lady Queen of Sorrows and St. Philip Benizi.
The site was formerly a private house, but was brought by Mr. Henry Shepperd in 1927 for the purpose of installing a community of Servite nuns. The priory and its chapel was solemnly blessed and opened on 15 September 1927, the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, by Arthur Doubleday, Bishop of Brentwood. The Servites ran the priory and an adjoining school until the 1990s when the house was purchased by the diocese for use as a presbytery for the nearby parish of Our Lady Immaculate. The Premonstratensian community, which had originally been founded in 2004 in Manchester, established their home at the priory in October 2008 at the request of Bishop Thomas McMahon of Brentwood.
The Premonstratensians serve the parish of Our Lady Immaculate on New London Road, together with that of Holy Name, in the Moulsham Lodge area of Chelmsford. The canons also function in other roles, such as in academia and chaplaincy work. The priory is also a centre of the Archconfraternity of the Mass of Reparation.
In 2016, Fr Hugh Allan OPraem, Prior of Norbertine Commuinity of St Philip's Priory, was appointed the Apostolic Administrator of the Prefecture of the Falkland Islands and Ecclesiastical Superior of the Missions of the islands of Ascension, St Helena and Tristan da Cunha. In keeping with his appointment, he was also given the title of titular Abbot of Beeleigh.
Before the Reformation the Premonstratensians had a house at Beeleigh Abbey in Maldon and owned land throughout Essex, including in the Moulsham area where St. Philip's Priory now stands.
