Parish Priests
Fr Francis Burdett, 1926 - 1928
He was the first parish priest at St Mary's. He was responsible for the building of the first St Mary's church in Dec 1926. In 1928, Father Francis Burdett commissioned Eric Gill to carve a 75cm high statue of Madonna and Child out of Portland stone for a niche on the outside of the west wall of the old church. In 1927, Christopher Hollis, who was born in Wells, wrote a book about Glastonbury entitled “Glastonbury and England”, and it was dedicated to Father Burdett.
Fr Patrick O'Beirne 1929 - 1938
Fr Michael Fitzpatrick 1938-1944
He was responsible for getting the present St Mary's church and presbytery built. He worked tirelessly to raise the money to see the church built. The total cost was £11,000, with over £900 being raised by the parishioners themselves. Work started on the church in 1939, and although World War II commenced that year, the church building work went on. A couple of weeks after the official opening, a party for the parishioners was held at the Drill Hall in Glastonbury. Here, Fr Michael was thanked for all his hard work in raising the money for the church and he was presented with furniture for his new home. Also, various items were presented to the church, including the altar and stained glass window in the Lady chapel in memory of the late Miss D'Abreu (former boarder in the convent). The window in the Sacred Heart chapel was donated by Mr Gilmer, a jeweller from Bath. At this party, Fr Michael hoped that all the debts would be cleared on the church by the end of 1941, in fact they were cleared by July 1941, when the church was consecrated.
Fr William Ryan 1944 - 1948
Fr Joseph Sheehan 1948 - 1952
Fr James O'Brien 1952 - 1962
Fr Sean McNamara 1962 - 1967
Fr John O'Connor 1968 - 1982
Fr Nicholas Tranter 1982 - 1984
Fr Paul Sankey 1984 - 1998
Fr Kevin Knox-Lecky 1999 - 2012
Fr James Finan 2012 - 2017
Fr Bede Rowe 2017 - 2019
In 2019 Bishop Declan entrusted the Parish of Our Lady of Glastonbury to the Community of Our Lady of Glastonbury, a Diocesan Benedictine foundation. you can visit their website here.