Clare Priory is a religious house in England, originally established in 1248 as the first house of the Augustinian Friars in England. It is situated on the banks of the River Stour, a short distance away from the medieval village of Clare, Suffolk. The friary was suppressed in 1538 and the property passed through many hands until it was again purchased by the Augustinian friars in 1953. Today the Priory offers modern retreat facilities for guests.
Clare Priory was established 1248 by Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Gloucester, as a friary for the Order of St Augustine and a cell of Bec Abbey, Normandy. [1] It was the first house of the Augustinian Friars in England. [2]
In 1326, Edward II reconstituted it as a cell of Westminster Abbey. [1]
By the 14th century the Augustinian order had had over 800 friars in England and Ireland, but these priories had declined (for other reasons) to around 300 friars before the anti-clerical laws of the Reformation Parliament and the Act of Supremacy.
Clare was one of the first English monastic houses suppressed in 1538 in the Dissolution of the Monasteries during the English Reformation. The partial list of monasteries dissolved by Henry VIII of England alone includes 18 Augustinian houses such as Bourne Abbey, Newstead Abbey and Waltham Abbey.
In 1604 the priory was converted into a home for Sir Thomas Barnardiston, grandfather of Sir Thomas Barnardiston, 1st Baronet. In the 17th and 18th centuries it belonged to the Baker family. [1]
In 1953, the Irish Augustinian Friars purchased the house with the help of the family who then owned it, and returned it to use as a religious house.
Clare Priory is a Grade I listed building, first listed in 1961. [1] It retains some original features, such as the little cloister with the shrine, the vaulted porch, and stained glass. The shrine contains a relief of the Mother of Good Counsel by the religious artist, Mother Concordia OSB, based on the original fresco at Genazzano near Rome. [3]
Signs at the priory, now corrected, previously included Elizabeth de Burgh, 4th Countess of Ulster among those buried there; she was actually buried at Bruisyard Abbey. [5]
The Order of Saint Augustine, abbreviated OSA, is a mendicant religious order of the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1244 by bringing together several eremitical groups in the Tuscany region who were following the Rule of Saint Augustine, written by Saint Augustine of Hippo in the fifth century.
Augustinian nuns are the most ancient and continuous segment of the Augustinian religious order. Named after Augustine of Hippo, there are several Catholic religious communities of women living according to a guide to religious life known as the Rule of St. Augustine. Prominent Augustinian nuns include the canonized Italian mystics Clare of Montefalco and Rita of Cascia.
Maud of Lancaster, Countess of Ulster was an English noblewoman and the wife of William Donn de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster. She was the mother of Elizabeth de Burgh, suo jure Countess of Ulster. Her second husband was Sir Ralph de Ufford, Justiciar of Ireland. Their daughter was Maud de Ufford, Countess of Oxford. After Ufford's death, Maud became a canoness at an Augustinian nunnery, Campsey Priory, in Suffolk.
The Augustinian Province of England and Scotland is an administrative unit for the Order of Saint Augustine that covers England and Scotland. It comprises all the Augustinian works that take place in England and Scotland.
The Augustinian Friary of the Most Holy Trinity was an Augustinian Roman Catholic Priory, founded c. 1259, by the family of Talbot on the south bank of the river, in what is now Crow Street, Dublin. At the time the priory was built, it was just outside the city walls. The Friary most likely followed the design of the parent priory Clare Priory in the town of Clare, Suffolk (England). The Friary was suppressed in 1540 when it was described as a "church with belfry, a hall and dormitory". The friars continued to operate in secret within the city. and there are several mentions of them in the city archives until the late 1700s when they consecrated a new church.
The Abbey of Bruisyard was a house of Minoresses at Bruisyard in Suffolk. It was founded from Campsey Priory in Suffolk on the initiative of Maud of Lancaster, Countess of Ulster, assisted by her son-in-law Lionel of Antwerp, in 1364–1366.
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