MOST of Romsey’s La Sagesse Convent is to be demolished, including its famous Miracle Room.

The room was the site of a miraculous cure in April, 1927. Sister Gerard of Calvary was on her deathbed, suffering from bacterial consumption of both lungs, when she saw a vision of the Blessed Louis Marie de Montfort and made a sudden recovery.

The room was a place of pilgrimage until 2008, when Abbey House was declared unsafe and the public could no longer visit the spot where the miracle happened.

Louis Marie de Montfort was canonised in 1947, 231 years after his death. Before he became a saint, the church needed evidence of miracles and Sister Gerard’s cure was accepted as one of those.

Convent owners, the Daughters of Wisdom, want to redevelop the site off Abbey Water and their plans include building a small extension to St Joseph’s Romsey Catholic Church next to the old convent.

And the bed where the miracle happened will be moved to a dedicated area of St Joseph’s where the public will be able to sit and reflect on Sister Gerard’s cure.

Only the Victorian façade of Abbey House will be retained and a new home for the nuns will be built immediately behind it.

A design and access statement submitted to borough planners by Surrey-based RHA Architects Ltd said Abbey House was unsafe for the frail and elderly sisters to use and it had to be “mothballed”.

Lathe and plaster ceilings had collapsed in the building, dating back to the 1890s.

Both Abbey House and St Joseph’s Church are owned by the order and neither are listed buildings.

Managing director of RHA Architects Ltd, Richard Heath, said: “After six months of careful historic research, consultation and assessment, it is proposed to carefully remove about 60 per cent of the building group comprising the La Sagesse Convent and St Joseph’s Church.

The latter is to be kept in its entirety. The bed on which the miracle occurred is to be moved into a new special place made for it in St Joseph’s.”

Mr Heath, who said it was important to retain the site’s historic links with the past in the proposed new building’s design, added that the public would have far better access to the miracle bed in the church.

He also added that the proposed development would allow the Daughters of Wisdom to stay at the site, which the order has occupied for the last 109 years.

Sister Jean Quinn, provincial leader of the Daughters of Wisdom, said: “It is the common aim of the Daughters of Wisdom, the parish and diocese that St Joseph’s be retained as the parish church at the heart of the Catholic Community in Romsey.

“With that aim firmly in mind, detailed discussions are currently under way which we are confident will result in the development of St Joseph’s, with enhanced facilities for the use of the parish.”

Many services at St Joseph’s have been transferred to St Andrew’s at North Baddesley, because the church is not big enough to accommodate the growing congregation.

The Catholic Church had previously looked into the possibility of building a new church in the Romsey area.