Syon Abbey and Its Associates
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Syon Abbey Society; Vernacular Devotional Cultures Group
Organizer Name
Stephanie Morley, Brandon Alakas
Organizer Affiliation
St. Mary's Univ., Univ. of Alberta-Augustana
Presider Name
Catherine Annette Grisé
Presider Affiliation
McMaster Univ.
Paper Title 1
Fifty Shades of Syon Abbey
Presenter 1 Name
Jennifer N. Brown
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Marymount Manhattan College
Paper Title 2
Spiritual Exercises at Syon Abbey: Syon MS 18 and the Emergence of Ignatian Spirituality
Presenter 2 Name
Brandon Alakas
Paper Title 3
A New Syon Manuscript? The Carthusian Door Verses of Beinecke MS 317
Presenter 3 Name
Laura Saetveit Miles
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Univ. i Bergen
Start Date
14-5-2017 10:30 AM
Session Location
Bernhard 213
Description
This session, co-sponsored by the Syon Abbey Society and the Vernacular Devotional Cultures Group, comprises three papers that treat various aspects of writing associated with the intellectual and spiritual culture that flourished at Syon Abbey, a stalwart centre for orthodox reform and prolific source of vernacular devotional writing since its foundation in 1415. This session seeks to examine the channels of connection beyond the convent walls, both in terms of the abbey’s impact on contemporary thinkers, patrons, printers, and lay readers, as well as the influence—material and spiritual—the world beyond its walls may have exerted on the abbey. The papers respond to these connections in a productive range of ways, including: contemporary anxieties about double monasteries and the regulations in place to prevent potential transgressions; textual transmissions between the Bridgettines and the Carthusians at the dawn of the Counter-Reformation; and material and textual evidence suggesting a new Syon manuscript. For over a century, Syon both ministered to and depended upon a vast network of lay support for its pastoral initiatives and its commitment to reinvigorating—and, finally, preserving—monastic life. This session aims to probe the nature of this long-nurtured relationship between the spiritual and the secular which accounts for the formidable authority and longevity of Syon Abbey.
Stephanie Morley
Syon Abbey and Its Associates
Bernhard 213
This session, co-sponsored by the Syon Abbey Society and the Vernacular Devotional Cultures Group, comprises three papers that treat various aspects of writing associated with the intellectual and spiritual culture that flourished at Syon Abbey, a stalwart centre for orthodox reform and prolific source of vernacular devotional writing since its foundation in 1415. This session seeks to examine the channels of connection beyond the convent walls, both in terms of the abbey’s impact on contemporary thinkers, patrons, printers, and lay readers, as well as the influence—material and spiritual—the world beyond its walls may have exerted on the abbey. The papers respond to these connections in a productive range of ways, including: contemporary anxieties about double monasteries and the regulations in place to prevent potential transgressions; textual transmissions between the Bridgettines and the Carthusians at the dawn of the Counter-Reformation; and material and textual evidence suggesting a new Syon manuscript. For over a century, Syon both ministered to and depended upon a vast network of lay support for its pastoral initiatives and its commitment to reinvigorating—and, finally, preserving—monastic life. This session aims to probe the nature of this long-nurtured relationship between the spiritual and the secular which accounts for the formidable authority and longevity of Syon Abbey.
Stephanie Morley