Father Malachy Lynch

Just as in Lahore Shri Babaji Maharaj had the intense desire to meet a genuine seeker of God and he personally went to Amire Kabul. Similarly Shri Nathji’s quest for a genuine soul in England was to be fulfilled in father Malachy, a catholic priest of repute who live din the isolated area in Maidstone, Kent in a large stone castle. (On the right in the photo of the castle were Shri Nathji went) Many people has as great a reverence for him as for the pope. He had heard about Shri Nathji from George korab De Moers and invited Shri Nathji to his sanctuary. It was snowing heavily in London onthat day Shri Nathji wen t to meet Father Malachy. The road was dangerous and narrow and visibility poor. But Shri Nathji risked the journey. He was going with great eagerness to satiate the thirst within Him for a thirsty soul. It was the ocean going out in search of water.

  Father Malachy was sick at that time. He brought tea for Shri Nathji and Mateshwari and Pran Nath. He handed a cup of tea to Shri Nathji and said “Prey for me”. The pent –up outpourings of Shri Nathji’s heart gushed forth into a flow of Devine Love, and Father Malachy’s soul was flooded with spiritual light. He wrote his spiritual experience of his meeting with Shri Nathji in his published newsletter, which is printed in the Mahagranth – God Incarnate  on page 1057.

Father Malachy  was for the order of the Flairs. The Friars was founded in 1242 when the Carmelites arrived in England from the Holy Land. They came under the patronage of Richard de Grey, a crusader, who gave them a small piece of land at his manor of Aylesford. In 1538, during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, The Friars passed into the hands of Sir Thomas Wyatt of Allington Castle. . The Wyatts lost their lands under Queen Mary. Later, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Sir John Sedley took over the property. He made considerable alterations to the buildings in the 1590s. A fire in 1930 caused immense damage but the restoration work brought to light many original features. Then when this property was for sale the Flairs got a change to buy their land and Castle after four hundred years. In 1949, The Friars was put up for sale, and the Carmelites were able to buy back their motherhouse, with Father Malachy Lynch, the first Prior, as its head. He began the task of restoring the buildings. In partnership with Adrian Gilbert Scott. (In the photograph we can see Father Malachy on the right, working on plans to restore the castle.) Father Malachy conceived the idea of the open-air shrine and he gathered craftsmen and artists to help him. Outstanding among the artists were Adam Kossowski, who made the ceramics, and Philip Lindsey Clark and his son Michael Clark, both sculptors. Father Malachy described The Friars as "a prayer in stone".