Carmelite Priory, Kensington
The Carmelite Priory of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Simon Stock has been a presence in the local area for 150 years. Through our way of life we hope to enable people to experience prayer as a way of life for themselves. We hope you will enjoy your visit among us and leave with a greater sense of the call to prayer. Come and join us celebrate God’s presence within and without. We are located 500 yards from Kensington High Street. We minister to the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel & St Simon Stock (Carmelite Church).
Carmelite Priory
41 Kensington Church Street,
London
W8 4BB.
Ecclesiastical Location: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Westminster
For information about us Mass times, Parish activities and contacts, please click the following links :-
The ‘Cross of the Triumphant Christ’
at the Carmelite Church in Kensington
The ‘Cross of the Triumphant Christ’, is now installed above the Tabernacle in the Sanctuary of the Carmelite Church in 41 Kensington Church Street London W8. This a 2m high x 1.50m wide cross by artist and expert in sacred art Dr Guillem Ramos-Poquí
The cross is based on the revival of 13th century Italian art of the Umbrian School, when the Saviour was depicted with his arms spread open on the cross looking at us and showing his wounds. He is flanked at either side by Mary and St John pointing to Him as they invite us to pray and join in the contemplation of the Mystery. This central part of the Cross follows the influence of the Master of Bigallo, active in the first half of the 13th c., who had organized workshops before Cimabue.
The surrounding five small panel sections, whilst developing a narrative of Christ’s death and resurrection, follow the styles of the period. The bottom panel is influenced by Duccio’s representation of the three Marys with an angel pointing to the empty tomb, (depicted in his ‘Maestá’ altarpiece in Siena 1308-1311). The panel depicting the three angels around a table is taken from the Old Testament theme of ‘The Hospitality of Abraham’, considered a ‘pre-figuration’ of the Holy Trinity, the style of the narrative draws its influence from the mid-6th century mosaics in San Vitale, Ravenna. At either side of the hands of Christ depicted in two small panels, are two angels, red seraphim’s which traditionally guard the gates of Paradise which the Risen Christ has opened to us.
Fr Iain Matthew ODC commented as follows: ‘The living Christ, the risen Jesus, came to the troubled disciples with his wounds displayed. The print of the nails and the opening made by the spear are there in his risen body. The same Christ comes to us now, in the power of his crucified love. His Passion is not simply past. What he did then, for them, he does now for us: loves to the limit, destroys the power of evil, opens our lives to hope; he comes to take us with him as he passes from this world to the Father. The Mother of the Lord and the beloved disciple gaze at us, inviting us to trust this truth. The crucified, risen Jesus gazes at us, asking us to let him embrace us’.
Guillem Ramos-Poquí has an MA from the Royal College of Art London and a PhD in Fine Art Painting at Barcelona University. In London, he was the Head of Fine Art at Kensington and Chelsea College (1990-2004). His book ‘The Technique of Icon Painting’ was first published in 1990 and translated in seven languages. He has undertaken church commissions, including several in London and Dublin. For many years he has been a Reader and Eucharistic Minister in the Carmelite Church in Kensington.