The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-01-24
CONTINUED from Page ~
STORY OF SYON MONASTERY.

AT nrSt they went to Flanders and
occupied a portion of the monastery
at Termond, and later a disused mon
astery near the Zuyder-Zee was given
them. This, however, proved I'M
healthy, and after four years they re-
moved to a new convent near Ant
werp. Hence they were driven by the
Professionals, seeking refuge in Ant
werp itself. In 1874 house was OBJ
tanned for them at Mechlin. Here
again after seven years they were
and when the city fell into the hands
of the Calvinists the religious only
escaped outrage through the protec-
tion of some English Protestant Off
GERS, who escorted them back to Ant
werp. Hence they sailed to Rouen,
where they arrived in 1880. In this
city the nuns found a friend in the
Rev. Joseph Foster, then on his way
as missionary to England Finding
the Sisters without chaplain, he re-
NAMED with them, and later, in the
year 1884, became a professed Bridget
tine monk Through the help of
friends a convent was built for them
in Rouen, where they remained till
1894, when, the Huguenots becoming
powerful in the city, they, fearing for
their safety, once more set out, this
time for Spain, narrowly escaping cap
ture at the hands of the English ships
as they made their way thither.
Sojourn in Portugal.
In the May of 1894 they landed at
Lisbon, and soon a chapel was built
for them on site presented by a
Portuguese lady. Troubles next arose,
owing to the singularity of the Bird
gettine Rule, with the ecclesiastical
authorities, and Father Foster was
obliged to appeal to the Pope, who
validated their Rule, and placed them
directly under his own authority. From
this time forward they passed their
time in comparative tranquility, and
from far-off England a steady stream
of novices flowed in through the long
sojourn of two hundred and sixty
seven years in strange land. They
had, however, at least one serious mis-
fortune, for in the year 1855 their mon
astery was destroyed by an earth
quake.
In the early part of the nineteenth
century the successes in Spain of the
revolutionary French army under
Bonaparte began to unsettle matters
in Portugal. This alarmed the Abbess,
who hurriedly, but not wisely, took her
departure with some of the nuns for
England. On their arrival here they
went to Cowpen Hall, then to Somers
Town, later to Peckham, and eventu-
ally settled at Aston Hall. But this
new foundation did not prosper, and
after few years ceased to exist
Meanwhile the community in Lisbon
were in the midst of the Peninsular
war. Wellingtons troops seized their
convent for military hospital, and
forced the nuns to take refuge with
the Irish Dominican nuns of that city.
On the restoration of peace, they re-
turned to their convent, and soon
fiourished again.
Return to England.
In 1861, the anti-religious laws of
Portugal having assumed an alarming
aspect-male communities were sup
pressed, and nuns forbidden to receive
novices-the Syon nuns, after being
frequently threatened, and only saved
each time by the Intervention of the
English Ambassador, decided to re.
turn to England. All permits from
Rome and the Portuguese Government
having been obtained for the sale OF
their property and their departure,
they sailed on August of that year
and settled at Spettisbury.
The house there was in many ways
unsuited to their requirements, so in
the summer of 1887 the community
finally settled at Chudleigh, on a site
given by Mr.. Evan Baillie, and Bishop
Vaughan himself superintended the
erection of the new monastery. II
seemed something more than a coin
cidence that when the workmen were
preparing the foundation they dug UP
gold coin engraved with the crown
ed eff1gy of Syon's royal founder, King
Henry V.
Here the same round of penance
prayer, and praise goes on as it has
done for the past five hundred years
The nuns chant the wonderful Bird
gettine Office (Which seems to have
anticipated the reform of the Roman
Breviary) to the same music which
the Sisters used in the far-off days
when England was a Catholic land
and, as we listen to the chant in the
quiet of the beautiful chapel, the minC
bridges the distance of time, and We
can in fancy see ourselves back agar
in the ages of the Faith.
Syon has borne splendid witnes!
for more than three hundred years
and is it too much to hope that it:
future shall be more glorious than tn,
past, and that Great shall be the
glory of this latter house more thar
of the first?"