The monastery was founded in 1918 as Portsmouth Priory by Dom Leonard Sargent, an American monk of Downside Abbey in England.

In keeping with the congregation’s early history, the monks run a college preparatory boarding school for boys and girls.

A tradition revived by Fr Augustine Baker in the early 1600s laid great emphasis on contemplative and mystical prayer.

Its mission statement is based on reverence for God and the human person, respect for learning and order; and responsibility for the shared experience of community life.

For the monks themselves, the school provides work in a task that is fully human and that is not escapist from social obligations or fostering "a fugitive and cloistered virtue".