A Benedictine abbey near Guildford, home since 2011 to the Subiaco Cassinese monks who moved from Ramsgate.
What it needs
For 2026 the monks are running the Abbot Paulinus Silver Jubilee Thanksgiving Appeal, aiming to raise £6,000 to fund six months of accompanying young men from poorer parts of South America who are discerning a Benedictine vocation (travel, pastoral visits and practical support), so that poverty does not decide whether someone can test a vocation.
Before you act. A small, specific appeal; the abbey also sells cards and monk-made beeswax goods.
The Friars is an independent charity that says it is not financially supported by the Catholic Church and costs over 2,000 pounds a day to keep open. A chapel roof repair program estimated at 350,000 pounds has begun, on top of continuous repairs to the medieval and modern buildings. Its 2024 accounts say the estate is too large to be maintained from local income alone.
The abbey's 'Two Abbeys Project' aims to secure both the modern abbey and the medieval ruins before the 900th anniversary in 2032. It lists repairs to church windows and roof leadwork, a full repair of the Old House roof, then the cloister ranges and guesthouse, and consolidation of the ruins; grants require match funding the monks must find. The abbey says running costs exceed 1 million pounds a year and that a guesthouse refurbishment is planned.
