St Radegund's Priory, Cambridge was a Benedictine nunnery in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England. It was founded before 1144 (probably in the late 1130s) and dissolved in 1496 by the initiative of John Alcock, Bishop of Ely. [1]
Radegund was a 6th-century Frankish princess, who founded the monastery of the Holy Cross at Poitiers. Between 1159 and 1161, Malcolm IV of Scotland, as Earl of Huntingdon, gave to the nuns 10 acres adjoining Grenecroft (Midsummer Common) on which to place their church; the dedication to St Mary and St Radegund was probably connected with Malcolm's visit to Poitiers, "the special centre of the cult of St Radegund", in 1159.
Jesus College was founded in 1496 on the site by Bishop John Alcock of Ely. It has been traditionally believed that the nunnery was turned into a college because the nunnery had gained a reputation for licentiousness. Contemporary churchman John Bale dubbed it "Spiritualium meretricum cœnobium" (lit. "a community of spiritual harlots"), while both King Henry VII and Pope Julius II consented to its dissolution. [2]
The College's full name is "The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge".
When founded in 1496, the College took over the buildings of the nunnery: namely the Chapel, and the Cloister attached to it; the nuns’ refectory, which became the College Hall; and the former lodging of the prioress, which became the Master’s Lodge. These conventual buildings remain the core of the College, and account for a distinctly monastic character which sets it apart from other Cambridge colleges. A library was soon added, and the Chapel was considerably modified and reduced in scale by Alcock. Founded in the mid-12th century, the Chapel is the oldest university building in Cambridge still in use. [3]
Curzon Park Abbey is one of three monasteries of nuns in the English Benedictine Congregation.
Radegund was a Thuringian princess and Frankish queen, who founded the Abbey of the Holy Cross at Poitiers. She is the patron saint of several churches in France and England and of Jesus College, Cambridge.
Sopwell Priory was a Benedictine nunnery founded around 1140 on the site of an ancient hermitage in Sopwell, Hertfordshire, England. After the Dissolution, the priory was torn down and a Tudor manor house constructed in its place.
Marienrode Priory is a Benedictine nunnery in Marienrode, a district of Hildesheim in Germany.
The Priory of St. Mary the Virgin and St. Martin of the New Work, or Newark, commonly called Dover Priory, was a priory at Dover in southeast England. It was variously independent in rule, then occupied by canons regular of the Augustinian rule, then finally monks of the Benedictine rule as a cell of Christchurch Monastery, Canterbury.
Amesbury Abbey was a Benedictine abbey of women at Amesbury in Wiltshire, England, founded by Queen Ælfthryth in about the year 979 on what may have been the site of an earlier monastery. The abbey was dissolved in 1177 by Henry II, who founded in its place a house of the Order of Fontevraud, known as Amesbury Priory.
Amesbury Priory was a Benedictine monastery at Amesbury in Wiltshire, England, belonging to the Order of Fontevraud. It was founded in 1177 to replace the earlier Amesbury Abbey, a Saxon foundation established about the year 979. The Anglo-Norman Amesbury Priory was disbanded at the Dissolution of the monasteries and ceased to exist as a monastic house in 1539.
Westwood Priory was a priory of Benedictine nuns founded in 1153, near Droitwich, Worcestershire, England. It was a daughter house of Fontevraud Abbey, seized by the English crown in 1537 during the Dissolution of the monasteries.
Rosedale Abbey is a village in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. It is approximately 8 miles (13 km) north-west of Pickering, 8 miles south-east of Castleton and within Rosedale, part of the North York Moors National Park.
Cannington Court in the village of Cannington, Somerset, England was built around 1138 as the lay wing of a Benedictine nunnery, founded by Robert de Courcy. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building.
Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes from the name of its chapel, Jesus Chapel.
Armathwaite Nunnery was a Benedictine nunnery in Cumbria, England. It was situated near the confluence of the rivers Croglin Water and Eden in the southern angle of the parish of Ainstable, and was first known as the nunnery of Ainstable.
King's Mead Priory was a Benedictine Priory situated west of Derby, in the area currently known as Nun's Street, or Nun's Green. It was the only Benedictine Nunnery in Derbyshire.
Various monasteries and other religious houses have existed at various times during the Middle Ages in the city of Exeter, Devon, England.
St. George's Priory, Thetford was a Benedictine priory on the Suffolk side of Thetford, England. It was located at the current site of the British Trust for Ornithology, South of Nuns Bridges Road.
Monks Kirby Priory was a Benedictine priory established in 1077 in Monks Kirby, Warwickshire, England. The priory was suppressed in 1415 when its estates and revenues were given to the Carthusian priory of Axholme in Lincolnshire, in whose possession they continued until the Reformation. Remains of the priory form part of Monks Kirby village church today.
The Abbey of the Holy Cross was a French Benedictine monastery of nuns founded in the 6th century. Destroyed during the French Revolution, a new monastery with the same name was built in a nearby location during the 19th century for a community of Canonesses of St. Augustine of the Mercy of Jesus.
Stowbridge or Stow Bridge is a village in the parish of Stow Bardolph, extending into Wiggenhall St Mary Magdalen, in the English county of Norfolk. The parish of Stow Bardolph also includes Barroway Drove. Stowbridge is between Downham Market and King's Lynn on the banks of the River Great Ouse. For the purposes of local government, it falls within the district of King's Lynn and West Norfolk. The Great Ouse, the Relief Channel and the mainline railway from King's Lynn to Cambridge run through the heart of the community.