The site of St Philip's Priory was formerly a private house, but was brought by Mr. Henry Shepperd in 1927 for the purpose of installing a community of Servite nuns.
The priory and chapel were solemnly blessed and opened on 15 September 1927, the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, by Arthur Doubleday, Bishop of Brentwood.
The Servites ran the priory and an adjoining school until the 1990s when the house was purchased by the diocese for use as a presbytery for the nearby parish of Our Lady Immaculate.
The Premonstratensian community, which had originally been founded in 2004 in Manchester, established their home at the priory in October 2008 at the request of Bishop Thomas McMahon of Brentwood.
[2] Before the Reformation the Premonstratensians had a house at Beeleigh Abbey in Maldon and owned land throughout Essex, including in the Moulsham area where St. Philip's Priory stood.