Cardinal Vincent Nichols will mark the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Community of St Edmund at Douai Abbey today. The cardinal will join the community for vespers at 6pm, at the abbey in Berkshire, where he will also bless a statue of St Edmund. The Benedictine community formed in Paris in June 1615, moved to Douai following the French Revolution and finally arrived at Woolhampton, Berkshire in 1903. The community is marking the occasion with a colloquium at 4pm given by Abbot Aidan Bellenger, followed by vespers with Cardinal Nichols. On Saturday, there will be three-nocturne Matins, and Pontifical Lauds, with Abbot Emeritus of St Paul’s outside the walls. Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor will read a papal greeting at the Mass, which will be followed by lunch and second vespers. Cardinal Nichols will also bless the community’s new six-foot statue of St Edmund by Peter Eugene Ball.