Dame Christina Brent, abbess of Our lady of Consolation

According to Richardson Catherine was the third daughter of Richard Brent and Elizabeth Reade. Her name later became “Dame Christina.”

Biography

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Brent-455

In about 1619 the Brent family converted to Roman Catholicism. It appears that this occurred at the instigation of their third daughter Catherine who had recently converted and expressed her desire to become a nun. [1]

Eventually, Catherine and her sisters Elizabeth and Eleanor left their family home in Admington and travelled to Cambrai, in the Low Countries, to enter the English Benedictine Abbey of Our lady of Consolation.[1] Catherine entered into the religious life on 10 May 1628 aged 27 and professed a nun on 15 Aug 1629 aged 28[2]

Catherine became Dame Christina Brent and served as Abbess of that institution from 1641-1645 and then again from 1674 until her death in 1681. [3] She wrote of her life in the Abbey as havingleft the world and all ill things in it and are come into the monasterie to become wholly new creatures by leading a new life according what shall be taught us towards the reformation of it. [4]

Origins

• Richard Brent, Esq., Sheriff of Gloucestershire1
• M, b. circa 1573
• Father Richard Brent1 b. c 1548, d. 1587
• Mother Mary Hugford1 b. c 1551
• Richard Brent, Esq., Sheriff of Gloucestershire was born circa 1573 at of Admington, Gloucestershire, England.1 He married Elizabeth Reade, daughter of Giles Reade, Esq., Sheriff of Gloucestershire & Worcestershire and Katherine Greville, in 1594; They had 6 sons (Fulk; Richard; Col. Giles, Esq;William; Edward; & George) & 7 daughters (Margaret; Mary; 'Catherine, a nun'; Elizabeth, a nun; Eleanor, a nun; Jane; & Anne).1 Richard Brent, Esq., Sheriff of Gloucestershire was buried on 1 May 1652 at St. Mary's, Ilmington, Gloucestershire, England.1 His estate was probated on 21 May 1652.1
• Family Elizabeth Reade b. c 1572, d. c 16 May 1631
• Citations
• 1.[S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. I, p. 305.
• http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p4782.htm#...

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Disputed Origins

The database Who were the Nuns? A Prosopographical study of the English Convents in exile 1600-1800 gives William Brent of Lark Stoke, Gloucestershire as the father of Catherine, Eleanor and Elizabeth. An obituary written in Paris in 1660 on the death of her sister Elizabeth says The very Reverend Mother Elizabeth Brent de Sancta Maria was Borne in Gloscestersheir in England, of Catholicke and English parents of Good Quallity. Her Father was Mr William Brent, and she leaving the world went over to the English Benedictine Dames of our Blessed Lady of Consolation, (our Mother-house in Cambray) wher she espowsed herselfe to God by the voues of Religion and made her holy profession the 15 of August 1629, in the time of the first Lady-Abbesse of that house. This is actually the earliest source I can find that names their father.

• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Brent-455 cites

1. Kevin Starr Continental Ambitions: Roman Catholics in North America: The Colonial Experience Ignatius Press, 13 Oct 2016 Google Books
2. Who were the Nuns? A Prosopographical study of the English Convents in exile 1600-1800 Cambrai crs: 42. Nuns
3. Clare Copeland, Johannes Machielsen Angels of Light? Sanctity and the Discernment of Spirits in the Early Modern Period BRILL, 23 Nov 2012 pg. 156 Google Books
4. Susan Broomhall Gender and Emotions in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Destroying Order, Structuring Disorder Routledge, 3 Mar 2016 pg 201Google Books
5. Douglas Richardson. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 4 vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham. 2nd edition. Salt Lake City, UT: the author, 2011, vol. I, pages 305-306 BRENT 17
6. Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. I, p. 305.
7. http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p4782.htm#...