Lady Aloysia Brenan was the 16th Abbess, from 26/02/1851 - 11/10/1870. She removed the Community from Winchester to St Mary's Abbey, East Bergholt, 16th June, 1857.
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Lady Aloysia Brenan was the 16th Abbess, from 26/02/1851 - 11/10/1870. She removed the Community from Winchester to St Mary's Abbey, East Bergholt, 16th June, 1857.
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 Lady Elthelreda Mannock, 11th Abbess of Brussels [19/02/1762 – 15/11/1773] with the crozier [Pectoral Staff] and veil, which are now preserved at Downside Abbey. The image of Lady Ethelreda is preserved in the Douai Abbey archive.  The Pectoral Staff, held at Downside Abbey - photographs will follow.
Found out today via Sr Benedict at Kylemore Abbey that the image of Lady Mary housed at Kylemore Abbey is the one I have been searching for. It was given to/purchased by the Kylemore Community when Haslemere was suppressed in 1975/6.
 Lady Abbess Mary Percy, Foundress.
[This image comes from Kylemore Abbey, and I am grateful to Mother Maire for permission to use it.] It has been suggested that this is an earlier image of Lady Mary and that her habit and veil were over-painted at a later date. It does appear that some of her hair is visible on the right of the image. In 1597, Lady Mary Percy’s Monastery of the Glorious Assumption of Our Blessed Lady became the first English convent founded in Brussels: it marked the re-establishment of monasticism for English women, and initiated a process which was to be followed by other establishments across Flanders and France. By 1675 there were fifteen enclosed English convents in Flanders alone and by the end of the century, more than thirteen hundred women had been professed there. Lady Mary was the youngest daughter of Thomas Percy, seventh earl of Northumberland, and Anne Somerset, daughter of the Earl of Worcester. After the earl's execution at Tyburn on 22nd August 1572, as a result of his involvement in the Northern Rebellion [1569], his wife fled abroad, remaining in Flanders as a pensioner of the King of Spain. Mary was educated in a succession of Belgian and French convents before returning to England at some time, for we find her living with one of her sisters, Lady Elisabeth Woodroffe, who had conformed to Protestantism, and here Mary suffered imprisonment for her religion. She finally settled in Brussels in the mid-1590s. Having decided to become a religious, Mary first tested the conventual life with the Augustinian Canonesses in Brussels and Louvain (the latter a house with many English members), but never made vows in either. However, these were not English convents and it was at this time she determined to establish a monastery specifically for Englishwomen. Although not professed as a nun until 1600, she was persuaded by an English Jesuit, Fr. William Holt, to join with Dorothy and Gertrude Arundell to found the convent in Brussels dedicated to the Glorious Assumption of Our Blessed Lady. She told Fr. Holt: Henceforth I promise to devout my fortune and all that I possess towards founding a Benedictine monastery beyond the seas where English hearts and voices shall join together in singing the praises of God and praying for our unhappy country. This foundation would follow the Rule of St Benedict, which, in the words of Abbess Neville, ‘had heertofore, most flourished, in that now hereticall kingdome’.  This is the seal of Bishop [later Cardinal] Nicholas Wiseman. It can be found on a letter from the Bishop confirming the election of Dame Aloysia Brenan as Superior. By the time of the Bishop's first Visitation to Winchester, in early February, 1848, Lady Benedict’s bodily and mental faculties became so impaired that she took the occasion of the Bishop’s visit to tender her resignation. He noted that
'...the pious and venerable Lady Abbess,[Lady Benedict MacDonald] of your house, of her own free will and full accord, signified unto us her earnest desire to be forthwith relieved of the heavy burthen of the government and administration thereof, on account of her great age and growing infirmities'. And, '...deeming this to be a matter of the greatest importance and worthy to be before all others entertained, but not to be decided without mature deliberation, and consideration had thereof, we proceeded to call before us separately each and every of the Religious and took her opinion thereon'. [1] He was able to confirm the election of Dame Aloysia Brenan as Prioress, ‘declaring her constituted, Prioress extraordinary and Superior of the Benedictine Convent at Winchester’. After some discussion with the Community he acceded to her request. It was, the Bishop wrote ‘expedient to allow the free election of a new Prioress…who should have full power & jurisdiction to rule in & over the house and Community without appeal or further reference for a period of three years, or till the election of a new Abbess.’ [2] The election of Dame Aloysia Brenan as Prioress took place in February and was followed immediately by the triennial change of Offices. In June, Wiseman made a further Visitation, the previous one having been taken up with the resignation of the Abbess. [1] Letter from Cardinal Wiseman to Prioress, 7th March, 1848, VI. C 3111 [2] Letter from Cardinal Wiseman to Prioress, 7th March, 1848, VI. C 3111 |
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