page_title: Greyfriars, Canterbury
section_title: Greyfriars Chapel
hierarchical_section_title: Greyfriars, Canterbury / Greyfriars Chapel
caption_attribution_description: English: Picture of Greyfriars Chapel, Canterbury.
context_page_description: Greyfriars in Canterbury was the first Franciscan friary in England. The first Franciscans arrived in the country in 1224 and the friary was set up soon afterwards. The Order of Friars Minor or ‘Greyfriars’ were so named because their habit was of grey cloth with the traditional belt of rope with three knots symbolising their vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Vowed to poverty, the Order made a point of living in the meanest of buildings. However, by 1250, they recognised the practical need for land and buildings to sustain themselves. Beginning in 1267, the Canterbury house was rebuilt in stone, supported by the donation of land by Alderman John Digge, a former Bailiff of Canterbury. From here, the friary was erected, with the great Church within the friary consecrated by Archbishop Walter Reynolds in 1325.
  In 1498 the Canterbury house was formally confirmed as a Province of the newly-established Observant Franciscans, a reformed, more rigorous branch of the order introduced to England in the previous decade. This building fell under the patronage of King Henry VII of England.
context_section_description: In 1919, Major HG James, the owner of the Greyfriars estate, attempted to restore the single surviving building from the estate to its original form, and commissioned some excavation of the grounds. This building was the former guesthouse, which is now known as the Greyfriars Chapel. 
  This was modernised by Dr John Burgon Bickersteth and Harry Jackman QC in the mid-twentieth century, developing the upper rooms into a vestry and chapel. This renovation was completed in memory of Julian Bickersteth, Archdeacon of Maidstone from 1942-1958. 
  In 1958, the Greyfriars estate and Franciscan Gardens were purchased by the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury Cathedral.
caption: Greyfriars Chapel
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