Elizabeth Knatchbull

Elizabeth Knatchbull religious name Lucy (1584 – 5 August 1629) was the founding English abbess of the Convent of the Immaculate Conception in Ghent. Life Knatchnull was born in 1584. Her parents were Ann Elizabeth (born Crispe) and Reginald Knatchbull of Saltwood Castle. In 1604 she joined the English Benedictine convent in Brussels in 1604 and was professed seven years later when she was given the religious name of Lucy. She would write of the anguish she felt at the commitment she had made but in time she took the idea of being a nun joyously. In 1608 Mary Lovel/Roper became a nun at the English Benedictine convent in Brussels. She left the convent in 1609 as the prioress Joanne Berkeley did not agree with her view about confessors being Jesuits. Berkeley had wanted to found a new convent to house difficult nuns such as Lovel, but she could not get permission. Berkeley had decided to ban Jesuit special assistants at confession and this caused Lovel, Knatchbull and Elizabeth/Magdelan Digby to leave. Another sister interceded for the prioress and Knatchbull and Digby returned in 1609 - but not Lovel.