Anyone visiting this palatial Jacobean-style mansion, set in 15 acres behind a high stone wall in the Oxfordshire village of Burford, could be forgiven for thinking they had stumbled on the family home of a City slicker, a supermodel’s retreat or perhaps the status symbol of a Russian oligarch playing country squire. In fact, the crenellated house, built of golden Cotswold stone, is home to an Anglican Benedictine community of men and women whose daily life is ruled by prayer, silent contemplation and manual work, all guided by the words of St Benedict: “Prefer nothing to the love of Christ.”

Despite their ascetic lifestyle, the owners of Burford Priory - a community that grew from an order of Anglican nuns who bought the property in 1948 - have found themselves sitting on a Grade I-listed property valued at £6.5m. With their ranks having dwindled over the years to just four men and three women (the novitiate opened its doors to men in 1987 in an attempt to boost flagging numbers), they are selling up.

The scale - and style - of the house is impressive. The priory itself, a three-floor, 22-bedroom building spanning more than 17,000 sq ft, dates from the 13th century, but has had additions made in most of the centuries since. It features every conceivable architectural device: the centralporch, with a heraldic shield and carved figures above; mullioned, dormer, arched and bay windows; ornate stone cornices and parapet walls. The ground floor alone has seven reception rooms, including a library and loggia. Features include original piers, flagstone floors, linen-fold panelling, barley-sugar balusters and elaborate Tudor plastering.

Joined to the priory by an ornate link on the first floor is the formal place of worship, the 484 sq ft gothic-style Chapel of St John, a Grade II*-listed building dating from 1661, with a barrel-vaulted ceiling and rosette windows. Also dating from the 17th century, and both listed, are the six-bedroom Old Rectory, used to house guests, and the three-bedroom Old Rectory Cottage, home to the head gardener. These are for sale for £2m; the priory and chapel are available as a separate lot for £4.5m. Then there are the formal gardens, with their topiary hedging, mazes of pathways and ponds.

“People who visit are amazed at the condition of the priory,” says Rupert Sweeting, head of the country-house department at the estate agency Knight Frank, which is selling the property. “All the buildings have been kept in remarkable order. Although it is, at present, sparsely furnished, it’s easy to see how the addition of period paintings, pictures and tapestries could create a quite spectacular country house.”

Sweeting is keen to see the property - which lies just off the Tudor high street of one of Britain’s most sought-after villages - used once again as a family home. Despite the site’s original use as the Hospital of St John the Evangelist, back in 1226, it has been the home of the nobleman William Lenthall, whose family entertained Charles II there in 1681, and, in the early 20th century, of a Colonel and Mrs de Sales La Terrière, who based the design of the present gardens on the medieval originals. The house was sold to the nuns by Sir Archibald and Lady Southby, who were responsible for much restoration work on the chapel.

A buyer who wanted to convert the property back to ordinary residential use would require permission from the planning department of West Oxford-shire district council - which could be complex. “It would depend on what the new owner wanted to do,” says John Westerman, the council’s area planning manager. “But the council would be keen to work with any prospective purchaser to find ways to preserve the priory’s historic fabric - be that as another residential institution, a hotel or a single family home.”

After 60 years in the order’s ownership, there may be some fundamental alterations a less religious resident would be keen to make. For example, one of the main building’s pine-panelled reception rooms - the Great Chamber - has been transformed into a place of worship, with pews, an altar anda cross. The buyer may also want to knock out some walls: on the first and second floors, those 22 bedrooms have been subdivided into smaller sleeping quarters (the men and women sleep under the same roof), some as cramped as 10ft x 8ft. Any changes would have to be in accordance with the Grade I listing.

So, what does the future hold for this group of Benedictines? “This has been a long and careful decision for our community to make,” says their leader, Abbot Stuart Burns, who, with his grey beard, traditional hooded robes and wooden cross about his neck, seems a figure from the Middle Ages. “But the decision marks a new chapter in our history, and we are looking forward to welcoming visitors to our new home in the near future.” Emma Cleugh, head of Knight Frank’s institutional consultancy department, who is advising on the sale, says she has “her eye on something” substantially smaller, which will require considerable refurbishment, but create ideal accommodation for them.

For the Benedictines, it is business as usual until they sell up. They will continue to care for their historic buildings and the grounds, which include a large, organic kitchen garden, formal gardens and woodland. Though intensely private, they will still welcome visitors in need of somewhere peaceful for spiritual contemplation, asking for a donation of just £36 a day. They have a full calendar of events planned for visitors this summer, including open-garden days, guided retreats, and a “painting and decorating week”.

The new owners, whoever they might be, should prepare for the sight of hooded figures wandering in the grounds. They needn’t panic: it won’t be the spirits of dead monks haunting their old home, merely a former resident come to tend the burial sites of past community members in the priory’s graveyard. It is the only condition of sale on which the owners have insisted.

Burford Priory is for sale with Knight Frank; 020 7861 1078, www.knightfrank.co.uk

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