BRITISH NUNS OBSERVE THEIR 500th ANNIVERSARY.

New Zealand Tablet, 15 July 1920, Page 35

BRITISH NUNS OBSERVE THEIR 500th ANNIVERSARY.

The Bridgettine Nuns of Syon Abbey, Chudleigh, have just celebrated the 500th anniversary of the first professions taken in their community. These nuns trace back their spiritual ancestry to the ancient days when England was a Catholic country, and they preserve an unbroken tradition from that time, an honor claimed by no other religions com-' community in this country. In 1408 the first Bridgettine monks came to England from the celebrated monastery of Wadstena in Sweden to make the first foundation of their Order. At the time of the dissolution of the religious houses the Bridgettines possessed a magnificent house at Isleworth, When they were driven out by Henry VIII, the nuns took with them the capital of a carved column, and this they have carried with them in their wanderings in different parts of Europe holding it still in their possession. The column, of which the capital is preserved, was that which supported the quartered body of the Blessed Richard Reynolds, called the Angel of Syon, a confessor for the faith, who was hanged and quartered at Tyburn. The capital was carried by the nuns in their exile to Termonde in Flanders, Zurich Zee, Antwerp, Mochhn, Rouen, Lisbon, and after many more centuries once again to England. _ . Among the treasures of the nuns is a statue of St to 1536 Which °° d in their church at Isleworth previous to lodo.