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A place of Prayer & Peace
Welcome to Jamberoo Abbey
We are an enclosed community of nuns and our vocation is a call to a life of prayer at the heart of the Church and at the heart of the whole world. We become Benedictine nuns in order to give our lives to seeking God. The enclosure enables us to be totally present to prayer and attentive to God. As Pope Paul VI said: Your prayer is for the entire world…it is not selfish and self-centered prayer…it is a vital and important apostolate within the Church. The apostolic role that is uniquely and especially yours, as contemplatives, is the very dedication of your lives to prayer.
History
Our community was founded from England in 1849. Our two founding mothers – Dame Magdalen le Clerc and Mother Scholastica Gregory – left England in 1847 and arrived in Australia in 1848. The community was founded at Rydalmere New South Wales in 1849 by The Rt Rev John Bede Polding osb.
During 1957, the community moved to Pennant Hills, north of Sydney. In Australia’s Bi-Centennial year, the community moved a second time, and bought a property on the Jamberoo Mountain Pass, below the Illawarra Escarpment, on the South Coast of New South Wales.
Dame Magdalen
Archbishop Polding
