Vocations from St Mary Magdalens

Do you have a vocation?:

Do you think God might be calling you to the priesthood or religious life?  Speak to Fr Paul or contact the Diocesan Vocations Director, Canon Patrick Cleary, by email - [email protected]

• Pauline Richardson, who lived with her parents in the parish and attended the Convent School of Jesus and Mary in Woodbridge Road, became a nun in the order of Jesus and Mary on leaving school in the mid 1950s. She served with her order in Bolivia and more recently in Syria.
• On 16^th December, 1978, Fr Patrick Cleary, son of one of the founding families of the parish, was ordained priest by Bishop Alan Clark at the Cathedral church of St John the Baptist in Norwich.
• Iain Mathew, son of a prominent Ipswich catholic family who regularly attended St Mary Magdalens, became a Carmelite and was ordained priest July 2^nd, 1986 at the Carmelite church in Gerrards Cross.
• Fr Michael Collis, a parishioner of St Mary Magdalen parish, was ordained priest for the Diocese of East Anglia by Bishop Michael Evans, July 10^th 2010.
• More recently, Paul Nelson, a parishioner of St Mary Magdalens, became a religious brother. He is now Brother Dunstan OSB in the Benedictine community at Belmont Abbey, Herefordshire, having taken his vows Sunday February 2^nd 2014.

Fr Patrick Cleary on the occasion of his first Mass at St Mary Magdalens 17^th December 1978, on the day after his ordination. To his right is Fr Sketch, parish priest and to his left is Fr Lane from the seminary where Fr Pat trained.

Souvenir prayer card from Fr Pat Cleary's ordination, 16^th December 1978.