The Brunswick Estate had been developed from 1824 onwards at the eastern edge of Hove, on the border with Brighton, on land originally belonging to Wick Farm.

[2] This made it unsuitable for the lower-class, poorer residents of the new development, so an Irish-born priest, Dr James O'Brien, decided to build another church in the area.

As with several other churches in Brighton and Hove at that time, this was a proprietary chapel which he owned and ran himself, gaining an income from pew rents, marriage and funeral fees and various other sources.

[5][6] In the late 20th century the parish was amalgamated with that of St Andrew's Church on Waterloo Street,[7] which was closed and declared redundant in 1990.

He had been involved with parish during the 1980s and '90s and in 2002 had submitted a successful PhD thesis (Kings's College London) which was concerned in part with the life and worship of St Patrick's.

[3] Kendall adopted the Early English Gothic style and used Kentish ragstone with stone dressings and a slate roof.

Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel dismissed it as "spacious without grandeur and ornate without grace"; the early interior decorations and fixtures were described as "primitive"; and although there is now a large array of stained glass,[11] it was all installed some time after the church opened.

[4][11] In 1985, Dr Eric Kemp, the Bishop of Chichester, invited an Anglican monastic community, the Community of the Servants of the Will of God (CSWG), whose principal monastery was at Crawley Down, thirty miles north of Brighton & Hove, to be involved in St Patrick's, and in June 1985 six monks took up residence at 23 Cambridge Road, converting the house into a monastery.

The origins of this are from the winter of 1985 when the priest, Father Alan Sharpe, allowed two homeless people to sleep on the floor of the church after they went to the vicarage.

[14] The Lorica Trust was set up for this purpose; it consisted of three divisions, offering night shelter and hostel accommodation to homeless people; providing services to people with learning disabilities in East Sussex, West Sussex and Surrey; and operating church-based community projects and helping churches work together with their local communities.

[15][16][17] Fr Sharpe always denied the allegations: "Everything I have done has been open, as a genuine, heartfelt Christian response to the needs of marginalised people.