The Religious Community
Members of the community
The community, which arrived at Spettisbury under Abbess Mary Joseph Carter, consisted of eight Choir Sisters, two Choir Novices and two Lay Sisters. For a month the two communities, Augustine and Bridgettine, lived together at Spettisbury until the Canonesses left for Abbotsleigh on 2nd October 1861. The early years were times of great anxiety for the community, due to the difficulty in obtaining payment from the purchasers of their property in Lisbon and for some years they were in very straitened circumstances and became involved in debt; fortunately some kind friends came to their assistance and tidied them over their difficulties so the convent settled down to a life of uniform religious peace. During the occupancy by the Bridgettines the Priory was known as Syon House.
The names of the sisters who first arrived at Spettisbury in 1861 were as follows:
In 1881 a rather unsympathetic report appeared in the local press written by a reporter who had visited the chapel for a service. (Appendix 37) He starts by describing the “huge, gloomy old building …surrounded by high and jealous walls” where “within those murky walls about 18 sisters live their secluded lives, some of them doubtless ‘resting in the Lord and waiting patiently for Him’, and others are just as probably ‘eating their hearts out’ with the monotony of each recurring day… They never go out … save and except the father confessor, and his clerk or the priest, who performs mass, no one ever sees them, speaks to them, or knows scarcely anything of them.” He goes on to say “The building is large and roomy, and as may be supposed, old-fashioned, standing in its own grounds, with extensive gardens reaching to the river Stour, which meanders at its back, and renders complete on that side a privacy which we have never heard has been intruded upon. But with all this separateness and exclusion, on Sundays and fete days its doors stand open, and not only permit but invite entrance. For the chapel is to the fore, and by an easy descent of a few steps admission to it is gained, the back part of the chapel being even visible from the road through the open doorway.”
He describes the chapel as “an unpretentious, rather low room capable of holding, at the most, about 150 persons; but in the present instance, as we believe is very often the case, nearly destitute of worshippers. A marble image, of life size, of Christ on the Cross is fixed at the end of the chapel facing the altar, and on the walls are coloured pictures of the sort seen in all Catholic chapels – of the progress to Calvary, the Crucifixion, &c. The Apotheosis of the Virgin and images of the Virgin and child Christ were the prominent features here, the Communion being railed off and relieved by flowers in pots. In a side gallery, so placed as to gain a view of the altar and, yet to be unseen by the congregation, were the nuns. These, we judged, formed the choir, performed on the organ, and conducted the choral parts of the service. Somewhat unpunctually entered the priest on duty, habited in coarse drab sackcloth robes.” “He commenced intoning in English what appeared to be a sort of litany to the Virgin, commencing “Hail Mary, Mother of God,” with almost endless repetitions of the same prayer…. Nearly all the time the music and singing and music continued in the upper gallery; the responses from the congregation being fervent and audibly devout…. During the incense burning and elevation of the Host, the priest changed his coarse raiment for sumptuous robes of gold and crimson embroidery. To this succeeded the collection, inevitable with all sects and parties and places. In less then 35 minutes all was concluded and we escaped from the incense fumes and the constraint of the place to the upper world; to the calm, cool quiet of the evening of that hot summer’s day, thankful that it had not fallen to our lot to pass our existence ‘inside a convent.’”
On a happier note, the Blandford Express in 1882 stated that “Last Sunday the Roman Catholic Bishop held a confirmation service at the convent chapel which included several converts to the Roman Catholic church.”
Another interesting article appeared in the Blandford Express in 1881. “The first funeral in this village under the new Burials Act, took place in the parish churchyard on Tuesday last, when a daughter of Mr. Hooper, carrier, etc., was interred with the rites of the Roman Catholic Church, of which she had been a member. The coffin was carried to the Convent Chapel at a quarter past ten, where already a large congregation of friends and spectators had assembled… The service in the Chapel lasted about an hour. They then proceeded to the churchyard, when the priest consecrated the grave, first of all sprinkling it with holy water, then he sprinkled the coffin with the same, and walked once round it with incense. After some more Latin prayers the coffin was lowered into the grave.” The article continued with a very critical tone and was clearly written by an Anglican who did not approve of the Catholic Church and Latin services! (Until the Burials Act of 1881 only an Anglican priest could officiate at burials in the parish churchyard.)
Removal to Devon
In many ways the buildings at Spettisbury were inconvenient for a cloistered community. They were too large (the building had 79 rooms) and too public – the road through the village ran alongside and the railway was very near. In 1885 it was resolved to leave Spetisbury and move elsewhere. Thanks to the generosity of Mr. Evan Baillie of Filleigh, near Chudleigh in Devon, who gave a site of three acres, the community transferred on 16th June 1887, after building a new Abbey on the hillside above Chudleigh. The Bridgettine nuns moved out to take possession of their new Abbey at Chudleigh and the Canons Regular of the Lateran moved into the Priory on the same day.
The names on the conveyance of the property on March 4th 1887 were: from Elizabeth Budd, prioress, Ann Carter, religious nun, and Clara Heys, religious nun, to the Very Reverend Pascal Felix Menchini, the Reverend Henry White, the Reverend John Higgins and the Reverend Francis Belton.
The Bridgettine community remained at Chudleigh for 38 years. In 1925 they moved again to Marley House in South Brent, Devon and in 1990 into the former stables of Marley House where they are still living. The community now numbers just four sisters (2002). Syon Abbey is the only English community with an unbroken existence up to the present since its foundation before the Reformation. The Syon community has always been known and respected for its zeal, its loyalty to the Church, and its observance of the rule and contemplative ideals of St. Bridget.
Less than two months after their arrival, one of the nuns was dead. In a Liverpool newspaper it was announced that “Sister Mary Bridget Milner, youngest daughter of the late John Milner, died at the Bridgetine Convent, Sion House, Spetisbury. of a rapid consumption on 30th Oct 1961”
The census taken on April 2nd 1871 showed 15 nuns, a chaplain and a female servant living at Sion House. Three of the original community had died (and were presumably buried in the burial ground) but six more had joined the community. The chaplain, the Rev. Sabbé came from Belgium and most of the nuns originated from the North of England, nine of them from Lancashire. Ann Carter was still the Abbess.
Sion House, Middle Street 1871
In 1879 Mary Richmond (Sister Mary Lucy) died at the convent aged 76. Her funeral was reported in a local newspaper. “In the secluded village of Spetisbury is a convent called St Bridget, where the remarkable event of a funeral has just occurred. One of the sisters, who had been a nun over 50 years, and who was called Sister Lucy, died last week, and the funeral was of the most solemn character. The coffin containing the body was placed on a bier fronting the high altar and two sisters then came forward and placed on it the crown worn by the deceased on attaining her fiftieth year as a sister. Masses for the dead were chanted, and the body conveyed to the graveyard, the Lady Superior and the sisters bearing lighted candles. The ceremony was performed by the Very Rev. Father Edwards, who was assisted by the Revds. Father Higgins and Father Hayes.”
In 1881 the community had changed very little. There were still fifteen nuns (six of them from the original group that came from Lisbon 20 years earlier). Mary Roper had taken over as Abbess and Elizabeth Budd was Prioress. The Chaplain, now described as Catholic Priest for Spettisbury, was Frederick Edwards.
Sion House 1881
The first Abbess in Spettisbury was Sr.M. Joseph Carter (1860-1863). She was followed by Sr.M. Lucy Richmond (1863-1866) and Sr.M. Winifred Roper (1866-1869). Sr.M. Joseph Carter was again Abbess from 1869 to 1878 and Sr.M. Winifred Roper again from 1878 to 1882. Finally, Sr.M. Magdalen Heys (1882-1897) was the last Abbess of the Bridgettines in Spettisbury and oversaw the removal to Devon.
Little is known of the chaplains to the community. In 1863 there was a priest of the name of Father Debbiendt at Sion House. He wrote a letter from Spettisbury to the Bishop of Adelaide, Patrick Bonaventure Geoghegan (Appendix 34) expressing his disappointment at not being sent out to the Australian Mission. In a Dorset Directory for 1865 the Rev. Parke is noted as being the Roman Catholic priest for Spetisbury (the same Canon Park that helped the sisters in their removal from Lisbon in 1861). Joseph Parke had been trained at The English College in Lisbon and was ordained as a priest in 1837. After working at Lichfield and then Poole, he was with the Bridgettines in Spetisbury from 1861 until his death in September 1866. He was also a Canon of Plymouth from 1861.
The Catholic Directory for 1865 gives two priests at Sion House, Spetisbury, namely, the Very Rev. Canon. J. Parke and the Rev. J. B. Rey. The census of 1871 gives us Father Alphonsus Sabbé as chaplain. The Rev.J.Sabbé is also noted in local press reports of 1871 and 1873. As a ratepayer Rev. Sabbé was entitled to attend Spetisbury Vestry meetings but when the Vestry met to discuss the 1870 Education Act he “declined to attend.” In a Dorset Directory for 1880 and in the 1881 census the Rev. Frederick Edwards is the Roman Catholic priest for Spettisbury.
The Bridgettine Office
Syon Abbey, South Brent, Devon
The garden at the back of Syon Abbey, Spettisbury
Life of the community
Since the Bridgettine sisters led very secluded lives at Spetisbury, it is impossible to imagine their life within the convent. They had little contact with the village although on Sundays and fete days, their chapel was open to the villagers.
Press reports from the Blandford Express in 1871 and 1873 (Appendix 35) and (Appendix 36) show that support was given by the convent to the local Temperance Society, which appeared to have an annual demonstration and tea meeting in the village every May. In 1871, during the procession, “An invitation to visit the convent was next complied with, the inmates of that place enjoying the sight from the windows. The priest, Rev.J.Sabbé, addressed the visitors in kindly terms, and testified his approval of the cause by the gift of 10s.” and in 1873 “thence to the Convent, where they were not only welcomed but had into the large School-room and addressed very forcibly on the value of total abstinence by the Rev.J.Sabbé, who at the close of his address congratulated Mr.Durant and others on their success in the village, offering (subject to the consent of the Lady Abbess), the use of the room in which they were then assembled at any time for temperance proceedings. The rev. gentleman also gave a donation of 10/- on behalf of the Society’s funds.”
It is thought that while the Bridgettines were at Spetisbury they may have run a poor school for the village children. The log books of the Hall and Sloper village school in Spetisbury record children leaving the Convent school to attend the village school and vice versa. In 1878 and 1881 three and six children respectively were admitted from the convent to the village school; in June 1881 one child, Sam Fripp, left the village school to attend the convent. In 1887 eleven children from the convent school were admitted to the village school which must have been the result of the closing of the school when the Bridgettines left Spetisbury for Devon. Mother Anna Maria, the present Abbess of Syon Abbey in Devon, tells me that she can find no evidence of the Bridgettines running a school while they were in Spetisbury, although this does not prove that such did not exist! As she says, this is contrary to the Bridgettine way of life (which is primarily contemplative) even though members of the first group who returned from Lisbon did teach in order to survive. Perhaps they still needed to teach in order to survive while they were living in Spetisbury.
