Penmaenmawr, Gwynedd.

The founding of this friary on the coast of North Wales was a thank-offering for answered prayer, for a restoration to health after ten years of sickness. The foundress, Mrs Charles Cubitt, was the widow of an Angli- can missionary; she and her husband had at one time lived in South Africa. When her husband died she settled at Hove, in Sussex, and there became so ill that she was bed-ridden. After some years she became a Catholic and the Sacred Congregation granted her a personal indult to have a private chapel in her house with reservation of the Blessed Sacrament since, as far as could he foreseen then, she would never be able to go to church. So it came about that she met the Capuchins from Crawley; Fr Augustinc and Fr Aloysius were among the first priests to say Mass in her chapel.

About this time, Pasquale, an old Italian servant of hers, decided to go hack to his native land, and promised to pray for her cure at the sanctuary of Our Lady of Pompeii. Sone time later there came a morning when Mrs Cuhitt felt so much better that she was able to sit up in bed, a thing she had not been able to do for years. Gradually her strength returned, and in gratitude to God she promised to found a friary and church under the title of Our Lady of the Rosary, in due course she obtained a house called 'Groesfford' in the lovely little Welsh town of Penmaenmawr. There the Blessed Sacrament was reserved, since as yet there was no Catholic church in the town. The Capuchins from Pantasaph went over each week-end to say Mass in her chapel. Not far from the house an old Calvinistic Methodist chapel was standing vacant. It was bought after many difficulties had been overcome.

That was in 1905; by May 1906 all the necessary alterations had been made, and the building was opened as a Catholic church by Bishop Francis Mostyn of Menevia. A resident priest, Fr Paul of Thetford, had been appointed for Penmaenmawr in the Capuchin Provincial Chapter of 1905. With him went Bro. Masseo. After the church had been opened the friars lived in a small four-roomed cottage attached to the east end of the church. Soon Fr Aloysius was sent to join Fr Paul, to look after the mission in nearby Conway (now Conwy) recently started by the friars. - The present church in Conway was built by Fr Wilfrid of Brooklyn.

The present friary in Penmaenmawr was built with funds started by a gift of nearly two thousand pounds from the Hon. Mary Stuart, a convert, who had been much edified by the poverty in which the friars were then living. The foundation-stone of this friary was laid on 8th October 1908. It was a new centre for the evangelisation of a large area of sparsely populated Wales. One of the more recent results of the labours of the friars there, was the opening by Bishop Petit of the new church at Llanfairfechan on 29th November 1954. The foundation of the fund for the building of this beautiful little church was a donation of five hundred pounds by Mrs Thomas of Llanfairfechan in 1932.

Strenuous efforts to increase this fund were made by Fr Ethelbert when he was given charge of the district in 1947. Help came from many sources outside as well as inside the area to be served by the church; from friends in America, Ireland and many parts of England and Scotland. Mass was first said in Llanfairfechan in 1917 for the benefit of a few Catholic residents who, on the Sundays when Mass was not said locally, would walk three miles to Penmaenmawr to assist at the Holy Sacrifice. At first Mass was said in a private house, subsequently in the pavilion, a casino, a hotel, a school, a café and finally in the local council chamber.

Like so many Welsh holiday resorts Llanfairfechan and Penmaenmawr experience a great difference in the size of their congregations at different times of the year.

Penmaenmawr is currently a House of Prayer

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