Standing in the shadow of Rievaulx (From Gazette & Herald)

Standing in the shadow of Rievaulx

ABBEY Cottage must rank as the dream of every estate agent, set as it is with breathtaking views on its doorstep of the majestic ruins of Rievaulx Abbey and the spectacular valley in which it is set.

In fact, it is the branch house of the Order of The Holy Paraclete, now celebrating 50 years. The 18th century cottage, with its idyllic gardens, is set in the shadow of the abbey, although it has no connection with it.

Two of its nuns have just moved. Sister Bridget Mary, who professed in 1939 and is one of the oldest nuns in the order, is moving to the order's mother house at Sneaton Castle near Whitby, overlooking the sea on Whitby's West Cliff. Sister Alison, a former prioress of the order, has gone to Johannesburg, where she formerly served, to be the pillar of a newly-built convent.

Sister Bridget Mary, a Londoner, went into the religious life at 21 and became part of the order which concentrates on teaching. She taught for many years and was sub-prioress of the order for eight years in the 1970s.

Last year, she celebrated the diamond jubilee of her service.

Sister Alison, who professed in 1957, was prioress from 1989 to 1994, spent 13 years in Capetown, then worked for eight years at York Minster, where she welcomed thousands of pilgrims and played a key part in a five-year-long project to restore the cathedral's central tower.

The Rev David Wilbourne, the Vicar of Helmsley, whose parish includes Rievaulx, holds a Holy Communion service at Abbey Cottage each Friday at mid-day, not only for the nuns but for other worshippers, some of whom travel scores of miles to the chapel in the cottage garden.

"Sister Bridget Mary is a real action nun who often walks around Rievaulx at a pace which would exhaust someone half her age.

"As a young nun, with the East Coast threatened with German bombardment and invasion in the Second

World War, she virtually single-handed took the girls from Sneaton Castle School to Liverpool, to sail to safety in Canada," he said.

"This act typifies her stamina and bravado, guarding the children of the nation, preserving what was effectively our seed-corn. Since then she has taught generation after generation of girls. My abiding memory of her is of a Christmas party at York when she danced gleefully around the tree with none other than the archbishop!"

Of Sister Alison, he says: "She has the wisdom of an archbishop, combined with the tenderness of a mother, and many inside and outside the parish have benefited immensely from her care."

A newly-arrived nun at Abbey House is Sister Rosa, who has been in the order for 51 years and spent 20 years teaching in Africa. She then spent nine years at Westminster Abbey working with staff and volunteers.

"I used to ride through the London traffic on a cycle," she recalls.

Another nun is set to arrive at the cottage shortly.

The cottage's old washhouse has been impressively converted into a chapel where the sisters hold offices several times a day. The original nuns at Abbey Cottage taught at the long-since closed village Church of England school at Rievaulx.

The order, which was founded in 1914 by Margaret Cope, and became a community two years later, has a world-wide reputation for its education, particularly in Africa.

"We certainly get inspiration from the ruins of the abbey. They are so wonderful whatever the time of year," said Sister Alison.

Updated: 10:33 Wednesday, November 05, 2003