St Frideswide's Priory was established as a

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of ...

of Augustinian

canons regular Canons regular are priests who live in community under a rule ( and canon in greek) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religious life, such as clerics regular, designated by ...

, in 1122. The priory was established by Gwymund, chaplain to Henry I of England. Among its most illustrious priors were the writers Robert of Cricklade and Philip of Oxford. The original nunnery founded by Frideswide was destroyed in 1002. After that there was a monastery of

Augustinian canon Canons regular are priests who live in community under a rule ( and canon in greek) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religious life, such as clerics regular, designated by a ...

s. In 1524, Cardinal Wolsey dissolved the Priory, using funds from the dissolution of Wallingford Priory and other minor priories. He then used its premises, together with those of other adjacent religious houses, to found a new college to be called Cardinal College on the land where the Priory once stood. After Wolsey fell from power in 1530, King Henry VIII took over the nascent foundation, which he renamed Christ Church ("''Aedes Christi''"). The Church's five western bays of the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

made during the time of the Augustinian canons were demolished to make space to build the main quadrangle of the new college (now called Tom Quad). The intention was to demolish the remainder of the Church and replace it with a chapel on the north side of the quadrangle. That never happened, and the surviving portion of the Church, including the five remaining bays of the nave, became both the chapel for the new college, Christ Church and the cathedral for the new

Diocese of Oxford The Diocese of Oxford is a Church of England diocese that forms part of the Province of Canterbury. The diocese is led by the Bishop of Oxford (currently Steven Croft), and the bishop's seat is at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. It contain ...

which Henry VIII had separated from the Diocese of Lincoln.

Burials

* Frithuswith * Lady Elizabeth Montacute * William Orchard (architect)

Notes

External links

British History Online - The priory of St Frideswide, OxfordSaint Frideswide's Monastery at Oxford: Archaeological and Architectural Studies
from ''Oxoniensia'' vol. 53 {{coord missing, Oxfordshire Religious organizations established in the 1120s 1524 disestablishments in England Christian monasteries established in the 12th century Monasteries in Oxford Augustinian monasteries in England 1122 establishments in England