Princethorpians were saddened to hear on 28 November 2019 about the death of Sr Mary Lawrence OSB, formerly of the Benedictine community at Princethorpe, which moved to Fernham in Oxfordshire in 1966. Sr Mary Lawrence last visited Princethorpe in 2001 when she attended the Mass commemorating the centenary of the church of Our Lady of the Angels, when the chief celebrant was the then Archbishop of Birmingham and now Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols.

Shortly afterwards, when the house at Fernham was dissolved because of a diminishing community, Sr Mary Lawrence and Sr Mary Placid, joined the Augustinian community at Boarbank Hall in Cumbria, where they quickly settled. Sr Mary Placid died a few years ago, but Sr Mary Lawrence lived with the community for over fifteen years where, strong in faith, she continued to receive visits from Princethorpe friends and past pupils, but became increasingly frail in recent years.

A Requiem Mass will take place in the Chapel of Boarbank Hall, Allithwaite at 11am on Wednesday 11th December, 2019, with Dom Bede Leech of
Ampleforth as chief celebrant, after which Sister Mary Lawrence will be interred with her sister, Sr Yvonne, in the cemetery at Boarbank.

We extend our condolences to the former Fernham community and that at Boarbank Hall, but give thanks for a long and fulfilled life devoted to prayer and charity.