Stanbrook Abbey Press publications

Stanbrook Abbey was originally built as a contemplative house for Benedictine nuns. It was founded in 1625 in Cambrai, Flanders, then part of the Spanish Netherlands, under the auspices of the English Benedictine Congregation. The English Benedictine Congregation later re-located to Wass in the North York Moors National Park. The Abbey is famous for its printing shop and well known for its technical excellence. From the very beginning, it was dedicated to the art of fine printing and perfection in typographical design. These standards developed from the Benedictine philosophy that work is a pure form of worship, and that the products of work are the supreme expression of the praise of God. The Stanbrook Abbey Press was at one time the oldest private press in England, and acquired an international reputation for fine printing under Dames Hildelith Cumming and Felicitas Corrigan. The translations of the writings of St. Teresa of Avila are still in print a century after their publication. However, although digital printing and publishing continues at the Abbey on a small scale, the fine letterpress printing which made the Press famous had ceased by 1990.