St Botolph's Priory

St. Botolph's Priory

Pardon Door of the Priory Church
Monastery information
Order	Order of St Augustine
Established	c.1100
Disestablished	1536
Dedicated to	St Botolph, St. Catherine of Alexandria
People
Founder(s)	Ainulf
Architecture
Status	Dissolved
Heritage designation	Grade I
Site
Location	Colchester, Essex, United Kingdom
Coordinates	51°53′15″N 0°54′17″E / 51.8874°N 0.9046°E / 51.8874; 0.9046
Visible remains	Large portions of the nave church
Public access	yes

St. Botolph's Priory was a Medieval Augustinian religious house in Colchester, Essex and had the distinction of being the first and leading Augustinian convent in England until its dissolution in 1536.

A Saxon church dedicated to St Botolph originally stood on the site of the priory, with a tower which resembled the Saxon tower of Holy Trinity church in Colchester. The church's conversion to an Augustinian priory began with a Kentish priest called Norman, who had studied under Anselm of Canterbury in France before returning to England and settling in Colchester. There, he joined a college of secular priests at the church of St. Botolph who had resolved to join a religious order, and whose leader, Ainulf, turned to Norman for advice on the matter. When Norman suggested the Augustinian order, which at the time had no Houses in England, Ainulf and his followers agreed, sending him back to Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, who gave Norman a letter of recommendation to take to the abbot of Mont-Saint-Éloi. Norman and a companion took this letter to the France, first to Chartres and then to Beauvais, where they learned the Rule of St. Augustine before returning to Colchester. There they transformed the church of St Botolph into St Botolph's Priory, with Ainulf as its first prior; this must have occurred sometime between when Anselm consecrated the undertaking in 1093, and William II's granting of a charter of protection to the canons of the Priory, which was before his death in 1100. Later, in 1108, Norman left Colchester with the Ainulf's blessing to become the first prior of Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate.Pope Paschal II later confirmed the creation of St Botolph's Priory in a papal bull in August 1116. With this, they became the first Augustinian institution in England. As well as St Botolph the priory also honoured St Julian and St Denis.