Our Lady's iconOur community consists of Catholic women who have come together from many different backgrounds and previous religious experience to live together the Teresian Carmelite vocation. Its aim is to enable us to support each other as we endeavour to witness to the gospel through the complete gift of ourselves to God in a life of love and service. Inspired by the spiritual way marked out for us by Saint Teresa of Avila, our primary mission in the Church is one of contemplative prayer.

The origin of our Order stems from a group of hermits living on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land in the twelfth century. Much later, during the period of the Reformation in Europe, a Carmelite Reform was initiated in Spain by Saint Teresa of Avila whose monasteries – amongst whom our monastery at Quidenham is included – are today a worldwide presence.

The Carmelite monastery at Quidenham is situated twenty two miles from the cathedral city of Norwich at the hub of the diocese of East Anglia. Established here since 1948, the Carmel represents the spiritual heart of the diocese, serving it with its intercession and prayer even as it witnesses to a living tradition of Carmelite life in Britain today.