The Sisters of the Christian Retreat
The Christian Retreat (a Roman Catholic Congregation) was founded in 1789 by Father Anthony Receveur. In an age when faith and moral values were in decline, he offered to ordinary people a means of drawing closer to God. Through practising meditation and making a spiritual retreat, lives were transformed. Today the Sisters, the House of Prayer community and their friends, carry out his vision by their work and mission in the House of Prayer.
“The aim of the Congregation is to lead people back to thoughts of faith and meditation on the Word of God and the Great Truths about humanity; to spread the Gospel by all the means in its power, especially by Spiritual Retreats and Christian Education”.
Father Anthony Receveur
The Christian Retreat
A History of the Sisters of the Christian Retreat
The Christian Retreat was founded by Father Anthony Sylvester Receveur (1750-1804). Fr Anthony was born in 1750 in Bonnetage, a little village in Northeast France, and his life was spent in the shadow of the French Revolution. It was a time of huge social upheaval, transition and violence. In 1776, Fr Anthony was appointed parish priest of Fontenelles, and he preached – like thunder, some said – about the importance of meditation, retreat, and reflection as essential to religious and lay Christian life. Inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius, Fr Anthony gave retreats in the towns of the ‘plateau’ of the Franche-Comte, accompanying thousands of ordinary men, women and children. He wrote letters to those who had made retreats, writing to his ‘dear associates’ words of encouragement in the spiritual journey.
The number of followers around Fr Anthony grew. On the night of 18th November 1789, Father Anthony went round the village knocking on the doors of his followers, saying: ‘Come, this is God’s hour’. Under the safe cover of darkness, men, women and children followed Fr. Anthony in freezing conditions to reach their nearly-built retreat house in Les Fontenelles. On entry they went to the chapel, knelt, and with arms outstretched said five Our Fathers and five Hail Marys and sung the Te Deum. On the morning of the 19th November 1789, the bell from the Chapel rang out across the village of Les Fontenelles to announce that the Christian Retreat had been born.
However, when the first ‘solitaries’ – as they were then known – entered the retreat house, they were soon threatened with death by revolutionary troops and forced to flee their sanctuary. In 1792, throughout France, bishops, priests and nuns were massacred by angry mobs and others imprisoned. In the same year, a revolutionary decree was passed to close the retreat at Fontenelles and a price was placed on Father Anthony’s head. The solitaries roamed across Europe in groups across modern-day Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Serbia and Montenegro. Without warm and secure shelter, with scarce food and little to combat illness, over two hundred of Fr. Anthony’s followers died wandering in exile at the end of the eighteenth century. Those who survived prayed daily and made frequent retreats, and Fr. Anthony and other priests encouraged them to write down their ‘resolutions’ to serve God.
In 1803 the solitaries arrived in Rome after years of wandering and, following an investigation in which Fr. Anthony was cleared of all charges of heresy, Pope Pius VII declared his support for the followers of the Christian Retreat. Aged just 54 years, Fr. Anthony died in 1804 after delivering a Holy Week retreat in the cathedral of Autun. His last words were ‘My God pardon’. In 1883 Pope Leo XIII declared Fr Anthony a Venerable Servant of God.
In 1848, seven Sisters of the Christian Retreat travelled from Fontenelles to London and founded Nazareth House in Peckham. Working among the poorest communities of the capital, the Sisters responded to the need for education and quickly learned English and opened a school. As more women jointed the Retreat, more communities and schools were established in different parts of the country, including: Shepherd’s Bush, Kennington, Bethnal Green, Rugeley, Manchester, Bolton, Redhill, Broadstairs and Kearsney.
Angle House & St Joseph’s Convent School
In 1935, the Sisters moved to East Molesey following the closure of their convent and school on Claylands Road, Kennington. They moved to Angle House, which stands today as the House of Prayer. Angle House was built around 1900 for Henry Benjamin Vogel and his family. Henry was a journalist and newspaper editor, and the son of Sir Julius Vogel (Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1873 to 1876). The 1911 census recorded the House as ‘Angel House’ - perhaps, a foretaste of the future! From the Angle House, the Sisters founded St Joseph’s Convent school and built a two-storey building on one side of the house to contain classrooms, a gym, a chapel, and dormitories.
After the war, numbers dwindled and a preparatory section for girls and boys aged 5 to 11 was formed, later becoming St Joseph’s Preparatory School. Following the restructuring of the Catholic school system in 1969, St Joseph’s became part of St Thomas More Middle School and the land was acquired by the Diocese. The Sisters retained the original house, which continued as a preparatory school, and moved into a new convent built on Beauchamp Road (now home to the Kiltegan Missionary Fathers). As vocations to the Congregation became fewer after the 1950s, the school became expensive and more difficult to run. In 1992 the school was closed.
At the General Chapter of the Congregation in 1988, a resolution was passed that the Congregation should once again offer retreats in response to the growing need for quiet spaces where people could ‘come away’ to renew themselves and deepen a relationship with God. It was agreed that the then Regional Superior, Sister Melanie Kingston, could use the building, now the House of Prayer, as a space for people to make a spiritual retreat.
The House of Prayer
Today, the House of Prayer is a space for prayer and meditation run by the Sisters of the Christian Retreat and supported by a wider community of spiritual directors, retreat leaders, employees and volunteers. We offer a prayerful space, a breathing space: a space of silence and solitude to support and deepen the desire for a developing life of prayer and relationship with God. The House of Prayer is ecumenical and welcomes Christians of all denominations and people of good will.
A visit to the House of Prayer is an opportunity to set aside time from the stress and strain of daily life, to renew yourself, and to deepen your relationship with God. As well as providing a tranquil and peaceful environment close to London, the House of Prayer offers an annual programme of retreats and days to help people on their spiritual journey. Details of our programme can be found on our website (www.christian-retreat.org).
