Joanne Berkeley

Joanne Berkeley (1555/6 – 2 August 1616) was an English abbess of the Convent of the Assumption of Our Blessed Lady, Brussels which was established by and for English Catholic women. Life Berkeley was born in Beverston Castle in Gloucestershire. Her parents were Frances (born Poyntz) and Sir John Berkeley. On 14 September 1580 Berkeley received the Benedictine habit at the French monastery of Saint-Pierre-les-Dames, Reims, in a clothing ceremony that was recorded in some detail. Berkeley spent seventeen years as a nun at Rheims. In 1598 Mary Percy, desiring to live as a nun in an English community, decided to found an English Benedictine monastery in Brussels. This was the first community of English nuns to be established since the Reformation, but it was followed by over a dozen others within the subsequent few decades. Percy asked Berkeley to join the monastery and lead it.