George Brown (died 21 October 1618), who later adopted the religious name Gregory, was an English Benedictine and prior of St Laurence, Dieulouard. He was for some time identified as the anonymous translator of Life of St Mary Magdalen de' Pazzi (1619), an identification that is now challenged.
Brown was born in Essex, and spent two years at the English College, Douai. After this, he left to join the Order of Saint Benedict in Spain. In 1605, he was professed at the abbey of Santa Maria, in Obarnes, where he took the religious name of Gregory. From 1609 to 1610, Brown was the prior of the monastery of St Laurence, Dieulouard, in Lorraine. [1] This monastery was occupied by English Benedictines, founded in 1608 by monks fleeing the English Reformation, and trained Catholic missionaries for the conversion their home country. [2] According to Athanasius Allanson, Brown was "a diligent promoter" of Benedictine religious houses in France and the Low Countries. From 1613 until his death, Brown resided at Chelles Abbey, joining Francis Walgrave and Augustine Bradshaw, who had been invited there by Abbess Marie de Lorraine as chaplains to the monastery. [3] Here, Brown died on 21 October 1618. [1]
The English translation of the Italian biography of Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi, Life of St Mary Magdalen de' Pazzi (1619), was attributed to Brown by 19th-century Catholic Historian, George Oliver. This identification was based on Oliver's misidentification of Brown as chaplain of the English Benedictine monastery, St Benet, Brussels, established by his misreading of the monastery's convent chronicle. As the original translation had been dedicated to Lady Mary Percy, abbess of the Brussels monastery, [4] Oliver identified Brown as its author. This identification has been contested by A. F. Allison and D. M. Rogers, in their Contemporary printed literature of the English Counter-Reformation (1989), instead identifying Tobie Matthew as a more likely candidate. [1]
The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict, are a monastic religious order of the Catholic Church following the Rule of Saint Benedict. They are also sometimes called the Black Monks, in reference to the colour of their religious habits. They were founded by Saint Benedict of Nursia, a 6th-century monk who laid the foundations of Benedictine monasticism through the formulation of his Rule of Saint Benedict.
St Benet's Hall is a Permanent Private Hall (PPH) of the University of Oxford. Established in 1897 by Ampleforth Abbey, it is a Benedictine foundation whose principal historic function was to allow its monks to be able to study for secular degrees at the university. Today, most members of the hall are not monks, but lay undergraduates and graduates. The hall, which is still owned by Ampleforth Abbey, has a Benedictine and Roman Catholic ethos. However, there is no requirement that members of the hall should be Catholics.
The Bridgettines, or Birgittines, formally known as the Order of the Most Holy Savior, is a monastic religious order of the Catholic Church founded by Saint Birgitta or Bridget of Sweden in 1344, and approved by Pope Urban V in 1370. They follow the Rule of Saint Augustine. There are today several different branches of Bridgettines.
Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi, was an Italian Carmelite nun and mystic. She has been declared a saint by the Catholic Church.
Dom Augustine Bradshaw (1575–1618) was a Benedictine monk. Born John Bradshaw near Worcester in 1575 to recusant Roman Catholic parents, he was sent to Royal Grammar School Worcester. He was sent to St. Omer by the Jesuit Edward Oldcorne and then in 1596 to the English College, Valladolid.
Fr. Augustine Baker OSB, also sometimes known as "Fr. Austin Baker", was a well-known Benedictine mystic and an ascetic writer. He was one of the earliest members of the English Benedictine Congregation which was newly restored to England after the Reformation.
The English Benedictine Congregation unites autonomous Roman Catholic Benedictine communities of monks and nuns and is technically the oldest of the 18 congregations that are affiliated in the Benedictine Confederation.
The University of Douai is a former university in Douai, France. With a medieval heritage of scholarly activities in Douai, the university was established in 1559 and lectures started in 1562. It closed from 1795 to 1808. In 1887, it was transferred as University of Lille 27 km away from Douai.
Douai Abbey is a Benedictine Abbey at Upper Woolhampton, near Thatcham, in the English county of Berkshire, situated within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth. Monks from the monastery of St. Edmund's, in Douai, France, came to Woolhampton in 1903 when the community left France as a result of anti-clerical legislation. The abbey church is listed Grade II* on the National Heritage List for England.
Stanbrook Abbey is a Roman Catholic contemplative Benedictine nunnery with the status of an abbey, now located at Wass, North Yorkshire, England. The community was founded in 1625 at Cambrai in Flanders, under the auspices of the English Benedictine Congregation. After being imprisoned during the French Revolution, the surviving nuns fled to England and in 1838 settled at Stanbrook, Callow End, Worcestershire, where a new abbey was built. The community left this to relocate to Wass in the North York Moors National Park in 2009; the Worcestershire property is now (2020) operated as a luxury hotel and events venue named "Stanbrook Abbey Hotel".
Alban Roe was an English Benedictine priest, remembered as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
Lamspringe Abbey is a former religious house of the English Benedictines in exile, at Lamspringe near Hildesheim in Germany.
Douai School was a public (independent) school run by the Douai Abbey Benedictine community at Woolhampton, England, until it closed in 1999.
Ampleforth Abbey is a monastery of Benedictine Monks a mile to the east of Ampleforth, North Yorkshire, England, part of the English Benedictine Congregation. It claims descent from the pre-Reformation community at Westminster Abbey through the last surviving monk from Westminster Sigebert Buckley. As of 2020, the monastery has 53 monks.
Mother Lettice Mary Tredway, C.R.L.,, courtesy title Lady Tredway, was an English canoness regular and abbess who founded a monastery for the English members of her Order in 17th-century Europe.
Gabriel Gifford OSB was an English Roman Catholic Benedictine monk who became Archbishop of Reims.
Clement Reyner D.D. (1589–1651) was an English Benedictine monk, who became abbot of Lamspringe in Germany.
Elizabeth Knatchbull religious name Lucy was the founding English abbess of the Convent of the Immaculate Conception in Ghent.
Joanne Berkeley was an English abbess of the Convent of the Assumption of Our Blessed Lady, Brussels which was established by and for English Catholic women.
Catherine Gascoigne was the English abbess of Cambrai from 1624 to 1673.