Abstract
When Henry V founded a house of the Bridgettine order for women and men at Syon Abbey in 1415, he gave rise to an institution that still exists today. In the fifteenth and early sixteenth century this establishment exerts enormous influence in English monastic circles, drawing nuns from other English houses as well as attracting new monastic vocations. Simultaneously, the Syon priests establish a reputation for extraordinary levels of teaching and preaching.1 Extensive extant sources from Syon Abbey provide marvelous documentation of its medieval practices, allowing us to understand in great detail how they carry out St. Bridget’s vision of unceasing worship with a strong Marian focus.
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Notes
These readings are available in Sten Eklund, ed., Sancta Birgitta, Opera Minora II: Sermo Angelicvs (Uppsala: Almqvist and Wiksells, 1972). They are
Rebecca Krug, Reading Families: Women’s Literate Practice in Late Medieval England (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002), p. 157. Chapter 4 of this book is devoted to reading practices at Syon.
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© 2006 Anne Bagnall Yardley
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Yardley, A.B. (2006). The Bridgettine Nuns of Syon Abbey. In: Performing Piety. The New Middle Ages. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-05733-4_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-05733-4_9
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-73175-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-05733-4
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