Lanherne Convent

The building in St Mawgan that is now Lanherne Covent, which is over 800 years old, originally belonged to the Arundell family and was the servants' quarters for their Manor House. Lanherne is a cloistered Convent, which means the Sisters never leave the grounds unless they need to go to hospital. In between worship, they live a subsistence lifestyle: cooking, cleaning, sewing and tending the gardens, orchards, ducks and geese. The Sanctuary light, before the Blessed Sacrament, has remained alight for hundreds of years.

For two centuries, it was home to The Carmelite Sisters, but numbers dwindled, and in 2001, the ageing nuns eventually handed it over for use by the current Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate. However, recently, the Carmelite order expressed their desire to sell the property, and the Friends of Lanherne charity has been set up to preserve the use of the building as a Convent (by Sisters of the Immaculate). One complication is that as Franciscans, the Sisters are not allowed to own any properties and nor do they have any money to purchase it. Hence they need a little help from their Friends. The campaign has even given rise to a spot of blogging and a YouTube video from the Sisters in between prayer, picking apples and tending geese.