The Order’s Carol Service will take place on 10 December 2025 at St James’s Spanish Place at 7pm.

This candle-lit service marking the Advent season and the approach of Christmas, will include traditional carols, beautiful choral music, and scripture, and conclude with Benediction.

You can buy tickets here. Proceeds go to support the work of the Companions of the Order of Malta with the poor and marginalised across the country.

The Priory will mark the beginning of Advent with a traditional, candlelit, Mass of Our Blessed Lady, on Tuesday 2 December, which is also the feast in the Order of Our Lady of Liesse. This beautiful custom is called a “Rorate Mass”, after the first word of the Introit for the Mass, Rorate caeli de super et nubes pluant justm - “Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness.”

The Mass will be celebrated at 8am on Tuesday 2 December at Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street, and be followed by coffee and pastries in the Chapter Room. All are welcome to attend.

The next in our series of Chapter Room Talks will be given by Dr Rory MacLellan on the topic “Crusading on the Home Front: The English Hospitallers in the Countryside”. Dr MacLellan is a Cataloguer and Manuscript Researcher at the British Library. He holds a PhD in Medieval History from the University of St Andrews for a thesis on the Knights Hospitaller and has published on the crusades, the Templars, and Hospitallers. He is the author of the recently-published Warrior Monks: Politics and Power in Medieval Britain (2025), of which there will be a small number for sale after the talk.

About this series:

The Grand Priory’s Chapter Room talks address topics relating to Christian culture, heritage, and history, looking not only at the Order of Malta but more broadly across time, place, people and institutions. It is hoped that the exploration of cultural phenomena and the way in which the Church has influenced and engaged with them will complement the ongoing formation of Members. Understanding our Christian culture will give us more of the tools we need to understand our Faith and communicate it to others, pursuant therefore to the Order’s charism of ‘Tuitio fidei et obsequium pauperum”. The talks also give Members, volunteers, friends, guests, and others interested in the Order the opportunity to meet informally.

The Order’s annual Day of Recollection at the well-known recusant house, Harvington Hall (Kidderminster, Worcester, DY10 4LR), will take place on Wednesday 19 November 2025, the feast of All Saints of Our Order.  The day will be led by Fr Edmund Montgomery.

Harvington Hall was built in the 1580s by Humphrey Pakington and passed to the Throckmorton family in 1696. The Hall is renowned for the number and diversity of its priest’s hiding places, most likely by St. Nicholas Owen. It has fascinating early wall paintings, and more renovation has taken place since we were last there. There will be ample opportunity to explore the house during the day.

RSVP is required, so if you are interested in attending, please contact us.

The annual Requiem Mass for deceased members and benefactors of the Order in Britain will take place on the evening of Monday 10 November 2025, at 6:30pm, at Our Lady of the Assumption & St Gregory, Warwick Street.

All are welcome to attend.

There will also be a Requiem for the same intention celebrated in Scotland, on Wednesday 5 November, at the Gillis Centre.

The Order’s next Day of Recollection will take place on Saturday 25 October, at our Chapter Room at 23 Golden Square and the adjacent church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street.

Days of Recollection are miniature retreats for Members of the Order and those who wish to strengthen their spiritual life. Over the course of the day, we sing the Divine Office together, attend Holy Mass, listen to two spiritual conferences, and adore the Blessed Sacrament.

The day will be led by Fr Albert Robertson OP, a Dominican friar and long-time volunteer with and supporter of the Companions of the Order of Malta who is now Assistant Chaplain at the University of Cambridge.

If you are interested in attending, please contact us via this website.

The Grand Priory will mark the feast of Blessed Gerard, who founded the Order in 11th century Jerusalem, on 13 October 2025.

A solemn Mass will be celebrated at 6:30pm at the church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street, at the end of which a relic of Blessed Gerard will be venerated.

In addition, after Mass, the Grand Prior will confer the Medal of Merit of the Grand Priory of England on this year’s recipients.

All are warmly invited to attend, and clergy and members of the Order should wear choir dress.

The Order will celebrate Mass especially for all its members in Scotland and the Borders on Monday 29 September, at the Chapel St Margaret, in the Gillis Centre, Edinburgh at11:30am.

After Mass, awards will be made in the knightly order pro merito Melitensi to those who have brought honour to our Order, served Our Lords the Poor and the Sick with distinction, and promoted the Christian Faith and values.

Our next Day of Recollection will be the annual visit to New Wardour Castle in Wiltshire, and will take place on Saturday 27 September 2024. 

Wardour Chapel was built as part of Wardour Castle, near the small town of Tisbury, by the recusant Arundell family in the late 18th century, and is a masterpiece of the neo-classical style.  Tisbury can be reached by car via the A303, or by train.

The day will be led by our confrère, Fr Richard Biggerstaff. 

Horarium (choir dress will be worn for those parts marked with an *):

• Gather from 10am at the Chapel

• 10.30am - *Lauds

• 11.00am - First Spiritual Conference

• 12.00 noon - *Holy Mass

• 1pm - Lunch

• 2:30pm - Second Spiritual Conference

• 3:15pm - *Vespers, Exposition, & Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament

A donation of £25 per head will be asked for on the day, to cover the costs of the clergy and of lunch. RSPV required. 

The Priory will keep the great feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 8 September 2025 with a solemn Mass at 6:30pm at the church of Our Lady of the Assumption & St Gregory, Warwick Street.

The Order venerates Our Lady under the special title “Our Lady of Philermo” after the miraculous icon of that name to which we have a particular devotion: read more about this here.

The Mass on this day is called the Victory Mass because, on this day in 1565, the Great Siege of Malta by the Turks was finally lifted by Our Lady ‘s intercession.

All are welcome to attend. Clergy and Members of the Order should wear choir dress.

The annual meeting of the General Assembly of the Grand Priory of England, consisting of all the members of the Order resident in Great Britain, will be held at 5pm on Monday 8th September in the church of Our Lady of the Assumption & St Gregory, Warwick Street. Choir dress is to be worn.

The meeting will be followed at 6:30pm by Holy Mass of the feast, the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, one of the great celebrations of the Order’s calendar.

We will keep the feast of the Decollation (or Passion) of St John the Baptist, our Holy Patron, on Friday 29 August with Mass at 6:30pm at the church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street. All are welcome to attend, and clergy and Members should attend in choir dress.

The Priory’s next day of recollection will be held at Farnborough Abbey, by kind invitation of Father Abbot. The day will be led by Fr John Hemer MHM, the noted Scriptural scholar. If you are interested in attending, please contact us.

Blessed David, one of our three Reformation martyrs, was executed during the Henrician persecution of the church, on 12 July 1541 at St Thomas Waterings, Southwark. Our annual pilgrimage will begin with Mass and Sermon at 11:30am at Our Lady of La Salette & sSt Joseph, Melior Street, near London Bridge Station, followed by a silent walk to the site of the Martyrdom.

The Grand Priory will keep the feast of Blessed Adrian Fortescue with Holy Mass on the evening of 8 July 2025 at Our Lady of the Assumption & St Gregory, Warwick Street. Blessed Adrian was martyred by Henry VIII, and in 1993, when the Grand Priory of England was restored, was named our patron saint.

All are welcome to attend.

The Priory will keep the its patronal feast, that of the Nativity of St John the Baptist, with a solemn Mass and the customary investiture of new Members of the Order. The Mass will take place at 10:15am at the London Oratory, Brompton Road, and be celebrated by Abbot Hugh Alan O.Praem. At the end of Mass, recipients of awards in the order of merit ‘Pro merito Melitensi’ will be honoured.

All are welcome to attend.

The Order will begin the celebration of our great patronal feast, the Nativity of St John the Baptist, with solemn First Vespers of the feast on Monday 23 June at 5:30pm at Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street.

All are welcome to attend - members of the Order and clergy should bring choir dress.

The Order of Malta will once again be playing a leading part in the annual Central London Corpus Christi procession, bringing together parishes and religious orders in the centre of our capital to honour Our Lord truly present in the Blessed Sacrament.

The procession will be in two parts: the procession will leave the Diocesan Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament, Corpus Christi on Maiden Lane in Covent Garden, after a pontifical Mass at 11am, heading via Trafalgar Square to the church of Our Lady of the Assumption & St Gregory, Warwick Street, arriving at c.1:30. The Blessed Sacrament will then be enthroned for adoration until 3:30pm, at which time the second part of the procession will take place from Warwick Street, via the Ukrainian Cathedral in Duke Street, to St James’s Spanish Place, where solemn benediction will be given.

All are encourage to take part. Clergy and members of the Order, and members of other religious and equestrian orders should wear choir/church dress.

The second in the 2025 series of Chapter Room Talks will be given by Dr G.E.M Lippiatt on the subject ‘The Cloister, the Castle, and the Court: The Origins of Sovereignty in the Twelfth-Century Order of St John of Jerusalem’.

Dr Lippiatt is a senior lecturer in medieval history at the University of Exeter.  His research focusses on the political activity of French-speaking aristocracies in the twelfth- and thirteenth-century Mediterranean, particularly in relation to Christian reform movements.

The talk will take place at 7pm on 11 June 2025, at the Priory’s Chapter Room, 23 Golden Square, London W1F 9JP. After the talk there will be opportunity for questions and discussion, and a glass of wine. All are welcome - and attendees are invited to make a suggested donation of £10.

About this series:

The Grand Priory’s Chapter Room talks address topics relating to Christian culture, heritage, and history, looking not only at the Order of Malta but more broadly across time, place, people and institutions. It is hoped that the exploration of cultural phenomena and the way in which the Church has influenced and engaged with them will complement the ongoing formation of Members. Understanding our Christian culture will give us more of the tools we need to understand our Faith and communicate it to others, pursuant therefore to the Order’s charism of ‘Tuitio fidei et obsequium pauperum”. The talks also give Members, volunteers, friends, guests, and others interested in the Order the opportunity to meet informally.

Mass will be celebrated in our Conventual Church at the Hospital of Ss John and Elizabeth, St John’s Wood, on 7 June 2025 at 11am. This is the anniversary of the death of Sir George Bowyer, who founded the Hospital and re-founded the Order in Great Britain in 1875-6. His heart is buried beneath the sanctuary of the Hospital Chapel, and so the Mass will be a Requiem Mass for the repose of the soul of this great benefactor of our Order.

We are very grateful for the cooperation of the Hospital trustees, especially Bishop Sherrington (soon to be Archbishop of Liverpool) for facilitating this Mass, the first for a number of years, and to Fr Hugh Mackenzie, the Hospital’s chaplain, for celebrating the Mass for us.

The arrangements are as follows:

• Access to the Church will be via Circus Road and Cavendish Road and the west door only - attendees should not use the entrance to the Hospital on Grove End Road and this must be strictly complied with.

• Choir dress will be worn by members of the Order. Vesting will take place behind the altar. Please arrive in good time before Mass (from 10:30am onwards) to vest quietly before taking a seat in the nave of the Church.

• Mass will start at 11am promptly and conclude not later than 12 noon.

• Please inform us if you think you would like to attend, including if you have any access requirements. There are steps into the chapel.

If you are unable to attend, please remember the repose of Sir George’s soul in your private prayers or at Mass that day.

The Order will pray for the repose of the soul of Pope Francis on the ‘month’s mind’ of his death, 21 May 2025, with a sung Requiem Mass at the church of Our Lady of the Assumption & St Gregory, Warwick Street, London.

(Featured image © Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk)

The Priory’s monthly Conventual Mass for May will take place on Monday 12 May at 6:30pm at Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street.

The Mass will be celebrated, with permission, as a Votive of the Apostles Peter & Paul in thanksgiving for the election of our new Holy Father, Leo XIV, and will conclude with a Te Deum.

As members of the Order, including the Professed, do not live together in community, the monthly Conventual Mass is an opportunity to worship together. These liturgical celebrations are public, so all are invited to participate.

The first of the 2025 series of Chapter Room talks will be given on 23 April, St George’s Day, by Eleanor Walker, an art historian and specialist in the art of the Italian Renaissance, and Collection Manager for Christian Levett’s private collection in Florence. She will examine why Donatello’s sculpture of Saint George is hailed as one of the early Renaissance masterpieces. Why was he favoured as a hero over images of David at the beginning of the 15th century? To celebrate this masterpiece on the saints’ name day, Eleanor Walker will explore why this sculpture is so celebrated to understand why he can be considered as the ‘original’ hero of Renaissance Florence.

All are very welcome to attend the talk and to bring guests. The talk will last c.45 minutes, questions will be welcome, and formal proceedings will be followed by a glass of wine. A voluntary donation of £10 is suggested for attendees.

About this series:

The Grand Priory’s Chapter Room talks address topics relating to Christian culture, heritage, and history, looking not only at the Order of Malta but more broadly across time, place, people and institutions. It is hoped that the exploration of cultural phenomena and the way in which the Church has influenced and engaged with them will complement the ongoing formation of Members. Understanding our Christian culture will give us more of the tools we need to understand our Faith and communicate it to others, pursuant therefore to the Order’s charism of ‘Tuitio fidei et obsequium pauperum”. The talks also give Members, volunteers, friends, guests, and others interested in the Order the opportunity to meet informally.

Each Friday during Lent, the Grand Priory will be joining with the parish of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory for sung Stations of the Cross, veneration of the Priory’s relic of the True Cross, and a Votive Mass of one of the mysteries of the Passion.

This Friday of Passion Week, the Votive Mass will be that of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Each Friday during Lent, the Grand Priory will be joining with the parish of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory for sung Stations of the Cross, veneration of the Priory’s relic of the True Cross, and a Votive Mass of one of the mysteries of the Passion.

This Friday in the Fourth Week of Lent, the Votive Mass will be that of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord.

The Grand Priory’s February Day of Recollection will take place on Saturday 22 February at our Chapter Room and Library at 23 Golden Square. Days of Recollection are miniature retreats for Members of the Order and those who wish to strengthen their spiritual life. Over the course of the day, we sing the Divine Office together, attend Holy Mass, listen to two spiritual conferences, and adore the Blessed Sacrament.

On 25 January, the Day of Recollection will be led by Mgr Philip Whitmore, rector of St James’s Spanish Place and quondam rector of the Venerable English College, Rome.

Horarium:

10am           Arrival from this time

10.30am       *Lauds

11am           Spiritual Conference

12 noon       *Holy Mass

1pm            Lunch

2:15pm        Spiritual Conference (Chapter Room)

3pm            *Vespers (Parish Church)

3:30pm        *Holy Hour & Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament (Parish Church)

4pm            Ends

Please note:

• If you are a Member of the Order you should bring choir dress – it will be worn for those parts of the day marked with an *. 

• Please bring food and drink to share - we will eat together in a picnic-style lunch in the Chapter Room.

• A collection with a suggested donation of £10 per person will be taken during lunchtime to defray the costs of the day.

If you are interested in attending this event, please contact us via our website.

Each Friday during Lent, the Grand Priory will be joining with the parish of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory for sung Stations of the Cross, veneration of the Priory’s relic of the True Cross, and a Votive Mass of one of the mysteries of the Passion.

This Friday in the Third Week of Lent, the Votive Mass will be that of the Five Holy Wounds of Our Lord.

Each Friday during Lent, the Grand Priory will be joining with the parish of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory for sung Stations of the Cross, veneration of the Priory’s relic of the True Cross, and a Votive Mass of one of the mysteries of the Passion.

This second Friday of Lent, the Votive Mass will be that of the Holy Lance and Nails.

Each Friday during Lent, the Grand Priory will be joining with the parish of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory for sung Stations of the Cross, veneration of the Priory’s relic of the True Cross, and a Votive Mass of one of the mysteries of the Passion.

This first Friday of Lent, the Votive Mass will be that of the Crown of Thorns, to which the Order has had a deep devotion for many centuries.