THE GREYFRIARS

St Patrick's is served by the Conventual Franciscans, or Greyfriars to give them their original name because of the colour of their religious habit.

The Friars arrived in England in 1224, having been sent by St Francis himself.

Nine friars crossed the Channel and came ashore at Pegwell Bay, near Ramsgate. They walked to Dover and were immediately arrested, charged with spying for the French because their grey habit was unknown in England at the time. Having convinced the authorities of their genuine identity as 'poor penitents from Assisi', they took the road to Canterbury where they established their first friary in Britain, part of which can still be seen to this day.

Five of the friars stayed at Canterbury while the other four journeyed on to London. For two weeks they stayed with the Blackfriars (the Dominicans) on the north side of Blackfriars Bridge. During the next fifty years the friars increased so rapidly

increased so rapidly in numbers and popularity they were given Christchurch on the north side of St Paul's, just off Newgate Street, close to Holborn Viaduct.

Greyfriars friary was built between 1306 and 1325, when it was consecrated. There the friars remained until 1538 when an Act of Parliament forced the surrender of the Friary to the King. The friars fled abroad as anti-Catholic legislation took hold in England.

The King gave the Friary and its grounds to the Mayor of London and its citizens, who converted it into an orphanage. Christchurch and the old Greyfriars were destroyed during the Great Fire of London in 1666.

It was in 1964 that the Greyfriars returned to London and arrived at Waterloo to care for the church of St Patrick on the other side of the River Thames to which their brethren first came to London in 1225.