The convents of great britain

Front matter

Paes

7 Bi * BY + i

NAZARETH COLLEGE OF ROCHESTER

Preface

IF the question were to be asked what is the most striking feature of the religious history of the nineteenth century, I think I should be tempted to answer that nothing in the last hundred years has been more remarkable and on the whole more far-reaching in its effects than the incredible growth and multiplication of congregations of religious women. Over a great part of Europe, which Protestantism had spared, the French Revolution and the wars of Napoleon swept like aflame. Behind them was left, religiously speaking, nothing but ruin and desolation. Only here and there in sheltered nooks and corners a green spot was to be found upon which the eye could rest with pleasure; but for the most part the very promise of the future seemed to have been withered to the roots. A few years passed, peace was restored, and lo! on every side the land was verdant again with a hardy and luxuriant growth vi PREFACE.

far surpassing all that had gone before. There was a vigour hitherto undreamed of about the new life. It was in touch with the needs of men. It seemed almost to be fostered by the sin and suffering and indifference of the world around it, and it throve just where these made themselves felt most keenly. It sent out offshoots into distant lands, which in turn germinated and grew and spread, and by the power of very sympathy, it seems to have quickened some kindred vital spark even in the hitherto sterile soil of Anglicanism, to which all growth was strange.

Such in general terms has been the history of that extraordinary revival of religious life of which the Church has been witness since the beginning of the nineteenth century. So luxuriant has been the undergrowth of new foundations, so manifold the needs to which they minister, and so various the qualifications which they ask in their subjects, that to those outside, who would fain know them more intimately, the task of distinguishing between one and another is not a little bewildering. No accurate information is anywhere to be obtained either as to the exact names and numbers of those Institutes which have been approved in Rome, or as to the nature of their Rule, or as to the relative size and importance of the communities connected with

PREFACE. vii them. The Histoire des Ovdres Monastiques of Helyot, even as re-edited by Badiche, is now, of course, hopelessly antiquated. The courageous undertaking of Dr. Max Heimbucher, entitled Die Orden und Kongregationen der Katholischen Kirche, of which the second portion dealing with the more modern Congregations was published a year after the first, has provided only partial and inadequate materials for such a task as the compiler of this little book has taken upon herself. Dr. Heimbucher’s work may be recommended as the best general view of the subject, but it would need to be at least twice as big as it is to supply any detailed account of the Congregations now domiciled in England. So again, although Mr. J. N. Murphy's Terra Incognita! is consecrated more especially to the United Kingdom, it is obvious that things have developed greatly since the publication of his excellent work.

It seems impossible then to procure any sort of statistics as to the precise number of new Religious Institutes which have been founded in the past century, still less as to the number of settlements which they have made or of the nuns _ that are resident in each. But we may obtain some

41 Mr, Murphy’s book, though extending to nearly 800 pages, deals only with some twenty different Congregations of nuns.

viii PREFACE.

imperfect ideas as to the development of Religious. Orders for women in one particular country by an examination of such a work as that of M. Emile Keller, Les Congrégations Religieuses en France, Paris, 1880. We find that this writer as a result of his painstaking but incomplete researches enumerates nearly four hundred distinct Institutes of religious women then established on French soil. Of course many of these are very small, confined only to a single diocese and often to a single community, but they have seemingly a distinct Rule, and for the most part a distinct approbation from the Holy See. From a rough calculation founded upon the very imperfect data which M. Keller provides, I should judge that more than half of them have come into existence since the French Revolution. The confusion of names owing to a very natural tendency in the founders of such Institutes to select the same patrons, and to invoke them under the same titles, is almost incredible. There appear to be for instance more than thirty different Congregations bearing the designation of Sceurs de Notre Dame, or Religieuses de Notre Dame, neither are these in all cases adequately distinguished by fuller or more familiar appellations. There are Sceurs de la Charité de Notre Dame, and there are Sceurs de Notre Dame de Charité,

PREFACE. Pe the one a Congregation founded in the seventeenth, the other in the eighteenth century. Both these, of course, are quite distinct from the Sceurs de Notre Dame de Charité du Bon Pasteur, so well known in England as the Good Shepherd Nuns; and from the Sceurs de Notre Dame de Charité du Refuge, the original Congregation of much older date,—represented here by a convent at Bartestree, near Hereford,—as also from the Filles de la Charité de Ste. Marie. Besides all these, we have of course the Filles de la Charité de St. Vincent de Paul, the famous ‘‘ white cornettes,”’ who alone in England are commonly known as Sisters of Charity; while again there are three or four distinct Institutes of nuns called simply Sceurs de la Charité, without any addition, the best known of which is a modern Congregation founded originally at Besancon, but now widely spread in Italy and along the shores of the Mediterranean.

In this country, of course, with our more restricted numbers there is not the same danger of confusion; still, the variety of Religious Institutes even in England is sufficiently great to render such a directory as Miss Steele has provided in the pages which follow acceptable for many reasons. Not least in importance among thé useful purposes which it may serve is the help offered to those who are perplexed about x PREFACE.

the choice of a state of life, and whose acquaintance with the interior of convents or with the work and spirit of the different Religious Institutes is often of the vaguest. It need hardly be said that, if a girl were to offer herself to a religious community, merely because she liked the account given of their work in such a handbook as the present, she would under ordinary circumstances be acting very foolishly. But while a volume of this kind is no more intended to determine religious vocations without further advice, than the pharmacopeia is intended to enable patients to do without physicians, it may nevertheless be very useful to the perplexed as a preliminary guide, and as a basis for further inquiry.

Writing in the year 1900, at the turn of the century, one’s thoughts naturally travel back to the centennial years that have preceded it, and one is led to contrast the prosperous condition of the Religious Orders now with thier condition in past.

In the pages which follow, Miss Steele enumerates over ninety distinct congregations of women settled in Great Britain. The number of separate communities, nearly all of them possessing a chapel of their own, where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved, and Mass is at least occasionally celebrated, is over 600. It does not

PREFACE. x seem excessive to allow an average of ten or twelve Sisters to each establishment. Weare thus led to the conclusion that the number of nuns at present domiciled in England and Scotland must exceed six or seven thousand and may possibly amount to ten thousand. It will be understood of course that here, and throughout the volume, there is question only of Religious Congregations approved by the Holy See in the Catholic Church, and never of Anglican Sisterhoods.

Now in the year 1600 there seem to have been but two convents in existence founded by English ladies. The one was that of the Bridgettine nuns from Sion, near Isleworth, who after settling a short period in the Low Countries and at Rouen, had finally established themselves in Lisbon. The other was the Convent of English ‘‘ Benedictine Dames” which had been begun only two years before in Brussels. Both these communities have survived to our times. The nuns from Lisbon, after a residence of some years at Spettisbury, have established themselves at Chudleigh, near the Devonshire coast; the Benedictines are now at East Bergholt, in Suffolk.

One hundred years later a curious wave of religious excitement seems to have passed over England. Many pamphlets were published at the time expressing alarm at the growth of xii PREFACE.

Popery, denouncing the audacity of the Papists, and, in particular, calling attention to the danger which threatened the State from the numerous English seminaries and religious houses for women existing on the Continent. Speaking of England itself, the writer of one of these pamphlets remarks: ‘‘The Popish Bishops and priests are everywhere at liberty to make what converts they can. There are not fewer than twenty priests about one chapel in Lincoln’s Inn Fields every Sunday, part of whose business is to say the Masses, and another part to make converts. Have they not carried their converts in triumph to their Mass at Durham? Do they not brag at the Sister Lanes’ Mass-house, or rather nunnery, in Winchester, in the very face of the Cathedral, of the converts they make there ?

“They have their Popish schools in London and too many other places. They have their nunneries at York for instance and at Hammersmith; and the latter nuns live in hopes of a better accommodation at a noble house not far from them, which I think is called Sion House and they say belongs to the nuns of St. Bridget.”

Regarding ‘“‘the Sister Lanes’ Mass-house, or rather nunnery, in Winchester, in the very face of the Cathedral,” I have no information to give.

PREFACE. xili

The nunnery at York is the famous Bar Convent, which still stands upon the same site which it occupied then. The convent at Hammersmith has also never passed out of Catholic hands. Towards the end of the century it became the home of the exiled Benedictine nuns from Dunkirk. More recently it was known as St. Thomas’ Seminary and was tenanted by the ecclesiastical students of the diocese of Westminster. But since then it has again come into the possession of a community of nuns, and now, beautified and renovated by its new owners, it forms a spacious convent-school for the Dames du Sacré Coeur. The two communities at Hammersmith and York, the only two which existed in England at the end of the seventeenth century, both belonged to the Institute of Mary, a Congregation founded by an Englishwoman, Mary Ward, and known to this day in Germany by the name of the Englische Fraulein. In 1669 a party of these Sisters courageously came over to England and established themselves first at Hammersmith and afterwards at York. In 1703, the year in which the pamphlet quoted above was printed, the Hammersmith community numbered fourteen and that at York eleven. Despite the reference to the Sister Lanes’ at Winchester, these were probably at this period xiv PREFACE.

the only nuns to be found in the whole of Great Britain.

On the Continent, of course, at the time of which we are speaking there were communities of English women. More than one of the pamphlets just referred to gives a complete list of them. Benedictine convents cf English foundation existed at Brussels, Cambray, Ghent, Paris, Pontoise, Dunkirk, and Ipres. The Bridgettines were still at Lisbon. There were Augustinian nuns at Louvain, at Bruges (where even now they are found within the same enclosure beside ‘‘ Carm Street’’), and at Paris. The Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre were at Liége, and there was a convent of Dominican nuns at Brussels. There were three communities of Discalced Carmelites, or Teresians, as they were then commonly called, at Antwerp, Lier, and Hoogstraet. There were also three convents of Poor Clares, viz., at Gravelines, Dunkirk, and Aire in Artois, besides a community of Collettines at Rouen, one of Conceptionists, best known as the ‘‘ Blue Nuns,” at Paris, and one of the Third Order of St. Francis at Bruges. In all there were not less than twenty-two English convents abroad, and in some of them the communities seem to have been fairly numerous. The pamphlet already quoted tells us that in Paris the Augustinian

PREFACE. XV community numbered sixty Sisters, the Benedictines thirty, and the ‘Blue Nuns” twenty, though these figures are possibly exaggerated.

Another pamphlet of about the same date, The Danger of Popery, may be quoted a little more at length. The writer has been speaking of the political menace of Jacobitism, and he continues:

‘But as the Ladies contribute as much to keep up the Spirit of Party in England as the men, you will soon perceive from what source that proceeds, when I assure you that at Dunkirk there are two English Seminaries for ladies—that called the Dames, being all women of quality governed by the Lady Cerrell (Caryll?). Each lady that stays to be a nun brings a £500 portion with her. And the young ladies who are pensioners and return to England, pay by the year.

“At Gravelin there is also a very large one. And at Aire another.

‘At Bruges there are two very fine Seminaries for English ladies, the one the Augustinians, governed by Lady Lucy Herbert, sister to the present Lord Powis, and the other by Mrs. Roper, of the Lord Tenham’s family.

‘‘T have seen often the English ladies of the first in their choir, with magnificence, and their pensioners [the children of the boarding-school]

xvi PREFACE.

placed in great order, of which there are seldom under fifty at this house, besides what are at the other. ;

‘“‘ At Ghent there is also a nunnery for English ladies where there are abundance of pensioners.

‘“‘At Brussels, two. At Antwerp, one. And at Louvain a most celebrated one, all English ; besides the Blue Nuns at Paris, who, now that we have peace, will breed up more of our young ladies than any other boarding-school. Also a rich nunnery of Augustines in that great city, seldom under sixty ladies, nuns; and abundance of young ladies, pensioners. Another of Benedictine nuns, in number thirty, and many pensioners.”

When we pass to the year 1800 the number of English convents seems not to have increased, but the situation was very different. Forced to fly from France and the Netherlands, often amid great hardships and suffering, the majority of these communities had sought refuge on their native soil and had been welcomed with generous charity... They settled down here and there

1 Some of the English communities abroad must have been in sad pecuniary straits for some years before they actually left the country. The following notice appearing in the Laity’s Divectory for 1791 has a melancholy significance: ‘“ Please observe that the report of English houses in France and other

PREFACE. xvii throughout the country where Catholic gentlemen of position had furnished them an asylum, trying for the most part to support themselves by teaching. The advertisements which they inserted for this purpose in the Laity’s Directory enable us to locate the whereabouts of all of them, and to count accurately the number of communities then in England. Some of the advertisements are very quaint. The following emanating from the Poor Clares, formerly of Rouen and then settled at Hagerstone Castle, near Belford, Northumberland, deserves to be cited as a specimen. It appeared in exactly the same terms for three or four years:

**These ladies reducing Mr. Pitt’s hint, when speaking of the employment of youth, to practice, have blended education with lessons of industry ; so that the young ladies under their tuition learn everything which on their tender minds can be impressed, to form the good Christian and the industrious house-wife. The recent events on the Continent show the advantage of not only parts being soon to undergo a suppression, is entirely without foundation. On the contrary, these places expect daily a decree in their favour, which will place them in the most permanent situation and secure their little property. The pensions are as usual.” It is obvious that the terrible state of disturbance on the Continent had led English Catholics to infer that their children could no longer be safely sent to school abroad.

b xviii PREFACE.

knowing what should be done, but also how to do it; they have taken the neighbouring poor children gratis.”

The following seems to be a complete list of the convents existing in England in the year 1800. The reader may be interested to compare it with the information set forth in the body of this work. I preserve as far as possible the language of the Laity’s Directory.

1. The Bar Convent, York.

2. The English Benedictines at Hammersmith, late of Dunkirk.

3. The Ladies of the ancient English community of Brussels (Benedictines), “‘now by the providence of God established in Bishop’s House, St. Peter’s Street, Winchester, in a retired and healthy part of the city.”

4. The Ladies of the Princenhoff, Bruges (Franciscans), at the Abbey House, Winchester, Hants.

5. Newhall, near Chelmsford, Essex. ‘‘ The Ladies from Liege have opened their school in a healthy situation, where airy and commodious apartments are fitted up for the immediate reception of young ladies.”

6. The Ladies from Louvain (Augustinians), at Amesbury Abbey, Wilts.

PREFACE. xix

7. The Benedictine Dames from Cambray, at Woolton, near Liverpool.

8. The Benedictine Dames from Ghent, in Chapel Street, Preston, Lancs.

g. The Bernardine Dames from Abbey Deprez, Douay, at Cuming’s Place, Pentonville, near Islington. They are said to ‘‘ board and educate young ladies on the same plan they were in such esteem for in Douay.”

10. The Ladies of the Order of St. Francis of Sales, at Salesian House, South Row, Queen’s Elms, near Fulham Road, Little Chelsea. [An address evidently not intended for telegraphic purposes. | _ 411. The Poor Clares from Dunkirk, at Church Hill, near Worcester.

12. The Poor Clares from Gravelines, at Gosfield, near Halstead, Essex.

13. The Poor Clares from Rouen, at Hagerstone Castle, near Belford, Northumberland.

14. The Poor Clares from Aire, at Britwell House, near Wallington, Oxfordshire.

15. The Benedictine Dames from Paris, at Marnhull, near West Stour, Shaftesbury, Dorsetshire.

16. The Austin Dames from Carm Street, Bruges, at Hengrave Hall, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. |

XX PREFACE.

SE ee

17. The Dominicanesses from Brussels, at Harpury Court, near Gloucester.

18. The Benedictine Dames of Montargis, at Bodney Hall, near Brandon, Norfolk.

1g. The Teresians from Antwerp, at Lanherne, near St. Columb’s, Cornwall.

20. The Teresians from Hoogstraet, at Cantford House, near Wimborne, Dorsetshire.

21. The Teresians from Lier, at Auckland St. Helen’s, near Durham.

The writer of this Preface cannot in any way make himself responsible for the correctness of the information given in the pages which follow. It is almost inevitable that such a volume should contain some, if not many, inaccuracies. Moreover, in a book compiled from data supplied largely by the convents themselves, there is bound perhaps to be some lack of due perspective. The Institutes, which, numerically at least, are less considerable, are a little prone to write voluminously, and to magnify their office. Those that are busy and thriving can hardly snatch time from more important occupations to furnish even a meagre outline of the points that are most essential, while they are also justly conscious that their work is too prominently before the Catholic public to need much description. At the same time, it

PREFACE. xxi should be said that all reasonable pains seem to have been taken by the compiler to make the book correct, and as far as possible, complete. Those who are best acquainted with the very unsatisfactory execution of other works, both English and foreign, of kindred purpose with the present, will be least disposed to criticize harshly such imperfections as may be found in it.

HERBERT THURSTON, S.J.

Contents

page

Introduction 5 ¥ : ; : : I Benedictines ‘ . z 22 Canonesses Regular of the Holy Sepaicue ; c 30 Cistercians : ; 5 dj : ; 35 Trinitarians : : - : : : 39 Dominican Nuns. Second Order . - , ‘ 41 Dominican Sisters. Third Order . : : : 45 Poor Clares and Poor Clares Colettines x : c 48 Bridgettines ° : : - : 54 Canonesses Regular of the ae 4 ; : 64 Carmelites . : a . 5 ‘ : 69 Franciscans. Third Order Regular é A é 74 Ursulines . < 4 5 5 3 79 Notre Dame Nuns . a c o 5 82 Sisters of St. Catherine . S a 5 ; 84 Sisters of the Temple : A 5 f : 86 The Company of St. Ursula ; : : é 87 Visitation Nuns 5 ; ; ; 5 “ 92 _ Servite Nuns. Second Order ‘ : : : 95 Servite Nuns (Mantellate), Third Order . : 4 99 Sceurs dela Croix . é “ - : 5 105 English Institute of Mary . : ; 107 Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul 5 : é III Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament . 5 ; : 117 Our Lady of Charity and Refuge . : : : 120

Sisters of St. Joseph - : : ; . 123