Rumburgh Priory was a

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

priory located in the village of Rumburgh in the

English county The counties of England are a type of subdivision of England. Counties have been used as administrative areas in England since Anglo-Saxon times. There are three definitions of county in England: the 48 ceremonial counties used for the purpo ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

. The priory was founded in about 1065 as a cell of

St Benet's Abbey St Benet's Abbey, also known as St Benet's at Holme or St Benet Hulme, was a medieval monastery of the Order of Saint Benedict situated at Cow Holm in Horning, Norfolk, Kingdom of England, England. It lay on the River Bure within the Broads. St ...

Hulme Hulme () is an inner city area and electoral ward of Manchester, in Greater Manchester, England, immediately south of Manchester city centre. It has a significant industrial heritage. Historically in Lancashire, the name Hulme is derived from ...

in Norfolk.Page W (1975) 'Houses of Benedictine monks: Priory of Rumburgh' in ''A History of the County of Suffolk: Volume 2'', pp. 77–79.
Available online
at British History Online. Retrieved 2011-05-02.)Church of St Michael and St Felix, Rumburgh
British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 2011-05-02. At the time of the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

in 1086 it had 12 monks. The ownership of the priory was transferred to St Mary's Abbey in

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

towards the end of the 12th century. The monks of Rumburgh were particularly devoted to St. Bee, whom they commemorated at

Michaelmas Michaelmas ( ; also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a Christian festival observed in many Western Christian liturgical calendars on 29 Se ...

.Middleton-Stewart J (2001) ''Inward Purity and Outward Splendour: Death and Remembrance in the Deanery of Dunwich, Suffolk, 1370-1547'', p.29. Boydell & Brewer.
Available online
Retrieved 2021-03-02.) The priory had chapels at Wissett and Spexhall in Suffolk, but was "suppressed" in 1528 by

Cardinal Wolsey Thomas Wolsey ( ; – 29 November 1530) was an English statesman and Catholic cardinal. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the king's almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered and by 1514 he had become the controlling f ...

and used to provide funds for the building of his

Cardinal College Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

.Lewis S (ed) (1848) 'Rufford - Runwick' in ''A Topographical Dictionary of England'', pp. 711–716.
Available online
at British History Online. Retrieved 2011-05-02.)
Suffolk Churches. Retrieved 2011-05-02. The monks were directed to join other monasteries of the same order. The priory church survives as the parish church of Rumburgh, dedicated to St Michael and St Felix, and is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. It has a number of features dating to the 13th and 15th centuries, including an unusual 13th-century tower.

References

Monasteries in Suffolk Benedictine monasteries in England 1060s establishments in England Christian monasteries established in the 1060s 1528 disestablishments in England {{UK-Christian-monastery-stub