York Carmelite Nuns celebrate Centenary of Foundation

Thicket Priory

Source: Discalced Carmelite Nuns of York

On 28th August 2026, the Carmelite community at Thicket Priory near York celebrated their Centenary of Foundation.

The Carmel of the Annunciation was founded by Mother Mary of Jesus (Madeleine Dupont), prioress of Notting Hill Carmel in London from 1883 to 1941. During that time she founded 32 Carmels throughout Britain.

In the early 1950s, plans for a new main road encroached on the Exmouth monastery's grounds and the community decided to relocate. Prioress Mother Mary of St John (Maud Vavasour) was a Yorkshirewoman and from one of the prominent Catholic recusant families. Her childhood home had been Hazlewood Castle near Tadcaster.

After a fruitless search for suitable properties in Yorkshire, Mother Mary of St John was directed to Thicket Priory, a Victorian stately home some ten miles south east of York, built on the site of a medieval Cistercian monastery for nuns which was dissolved in 1539. The owners, Sir John and Lady Isobel Dunnington-Jefferson, generously offered the house and 23 acres of grounds to the Carmelite community, accepting only the sale proceeds of the much smaller property at Exmouth.

The community moved again in 2009, this time only a few hundred yards to a new purpose-built monastery in the old walled vegetable garden. (See: www.indcatholicnews.com/news/14359 )

To mark the centenary, a commemorative Mass was celebrated on 24th August 2026, the feast of St Bartholomew the Apostle. This date is also significant for Carmelites as it marks the foundation of the first Discalced Carmelite monastery by St Teresa in Avila in 1562.

The Rt Rev Terence Patrick Drainey (Bishop Emeritus of Middlesbrough) presided and was joined by concelebrating clergy from the Dioceses of Middlesbrough, Leeds, Hexham & Newcastle and Salford and well as representatives of the Discalced Carmelites, the Jesuits and the York Oratory. All of the communities of female religious in the Diocese of Middlesbrough were represented: the Stanbrook Benedictines, Sisters of Mercy, Congregation of Jesus, Daughters of Divine Love, Sisters of the Sacred Heart and the Poor Clares.

Fr Paul Fletcher SJ (National Chaplain to the Catholic Deaf Association) proclaimed the Gospel powerfully in word and sign before Fr Tony Lester preached, drawing attention to the opening prayer of the Mass for St Bartholomew who 'clung wholeheartedly to Christ.' It is this clinging to Christ, Fr Tony suggested, which has enabled the sisters of this Carmelite foundation both to persevere in their vocation and to recognise Christ in each other and in the many people who benefit from their ministries of prayer, presence and welcome.

Over 150 friends travelled from near and far to celebrate with the Carmelite sisters, including not only people from the Catholic community which gathers regularly to pray at Thicket but friends from other local churches, of other faiths and of no particular faith, all of whom in some way are part of the extended Thicket community.

Everyone who attended the Mass received a small prayer card with a quote from St Teresa, taken from the Book of her Foundations (29:32): "We are beginning now, but let those who come after strive always to make a new start and to better themselves." Apt words to take to heart, keep in mind and put into action as the community begins year 101.

LINK

Carmelites: https://carmelite.org/