The community was founded in Paris in 1651 by the English nuns at Cambrai, and flourished as a completely English, enclosed, contemplative community. At the French Revolution the nuns were imprisoned in their monastery and the Chateau de Vincennes. When released in 1795 they settled in England, first in Dorset and then at Cannington in Somerset. Here the community pioneered day and night adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, which continued for 125 years.

In 1836 the community moved to Colwich. A daughter house, at Atherstone in Warwickshire, continued as a separate community until 1967. Colwich returned to the English Benedictine Congregation in 1926, having left in 1657 at the insistence of the Archbishop of Paris. It became an Abbey in 1928.

Mass and Office are sung largely in English. There is all day Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament every Thursday, and on the first Friday and third Sunday of the month. Benediction also on Sundays and Solemnities.