An abbess is the female superior of a community of nuns in an abbey.
The dissolution of the monasteries, occasionally referred to as the suppression of the monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541, by which Henry VIII disbanded Catholic monasteries, priories, convents, and friaries in England, Wales, and Ireland; seized their wealth; disposed of their assets; and provided for their former personnel and functions.
The Bridgettines, or Birgittines, formally known as the Order of the Most Holy Saviour, is a monastic religious order of the Catholic Church founded by Saint Birgitta in 1344 and approved by Pope Urban V in 1370. They follow the Rule of Saint Augustine. There are today several different branches of Bridgettines.
Syon Abbey, also called simply Syon, was a dual monastery of men and women of the Bridgettine Order, although it only ever had abbesses during its existence. It was founded in 1415 and stood, until its demolition in the 16th century, on the left (northern) bank of the River Thames within the parish of Isleworth, in the county of Middlesex, on or near the site of the present Georgian mansion of Syon House, today in the London Borough of Hounslow. It was named after the biblical holy "City of David which is Zion", built on the eponymous Mount Zion.
A double monastery is a monastery combining separate communities of monks and of nuns, joined in one institution to share one church and other facilities. The practice is believed to have started in the East at the dawn of monasticism. It is considered more common in the monasticism of Eastern Christianity, where it is traceable to the 4th century. In the West the establishment of double monasteries became popular after Columbanus and sprang up in Gaul and in Anglo-Saxon England. Double monasteries were forbidden by the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, though it took many years for the decree to be enforced. Double monasteries were revived again after the 12th century in a significantly different way when a number of religious houses were established on this pattern among Benedictines and possibly the Dominicans. The 14th-century Bridgittines were purposely founded using this form of community.
The status of Women in the Protestant Reformation was deeply influenced by Bible study, as the Reformation promoted literacy and Bible study in order to study God's will in what a society should look like. This influenced women's lives in both positive and negative ways, depending on what scripture and passages of the Bible were studied and promoted. The ideal of Bible study for commoners improved women's literacy and education, and many women became known for their interest and involvement in public debate during the Reformation. In parallel, however, their voices were often suppressed because of the edict of the Bible that women were to be silent. The abolition of the female convents resulted in the role of wife and mother becoming the only remaining ideal for a woman.
The Abbey Pax Mariae, more commonly referred to as Vadstena Abbey, is situated on Lake Vättern in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Stockholm and is a monastery of nuns within the Bridgettine Order. It was active from 1346 until 1595 and has been active since 1963, regaining status as an autonomous abbey in 1991.
St Mary's Abbey, also known as Malling Abbey, is an abbey of Anglican Benedictine nuns located in West Malling, Kent, England. It was founded around 1090 by Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester and dissolved in 1538. The site became a monastery again in the late 19th century.
The Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas is a monastery of Cistercian nuns located approximately 1.5 km west of the city of Burgos in Spain. The word huelgas, which usually refers to "labour strikes" in modern Spanish, refers in this case to land which had been left fallow. Historically, the monastery has been the site of many weddings of royal families, both foreign and Spanish, including that of Edward I of England to Eleanor of Castile in 1254, for example. The defensive tower of the abbey is also the birthplace of King Peter of Castile.
Events from the 1530s in England.
Mariager Abbey was a Bridgettine abbey founded in 1430 which became an important pilgrimage site, in the present town of Mariager in northern central Jutland, Denmark.
Maribo Abbey, established in 1416, was the first Bridgettine monastery in Denmark and became one of the most important Danish abbeys of the late Middle Ages. It was located in the present town of Maribo on the island of Lolland in southern Denmark. The monastery is in ruins, but the abbey church still remains in use as Maribo Cathedral.
John II was the Count Palatine of Simmern from 1509 until 1557.
Sir Thomas Palmer was an English soldier and courtier. His testimony was crucial in the final downfall of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset in 1551–1552. Palmer was executed for his support of Lady Jane Grey in the succession crisis of 1553.
Gerdeka Hartlevsdotter, or Hartlefsdotter, also called Gerdica (1370–1438), was a Swedish Bridgettine nun. She was the abbess of Vadstena Abbey from 1403 until 1422.
Marienbrunn Abbey also called Fons Mariae and Triumphus Marie was a double convent for women and men of the order of the Bridgettines, situated in Gdańsk between 1391 and 1833. It was the first convent of the order founded outside of Sweden, and the second convent of the order altogether.
Agnes Jordan was the last pre-reformation Abbess of Syon Monastery. It was she who had to sign the deed of surrender on 25 November 1539 which brought to an abrupt end the life of the abbey and granted all its property and wealth to Henry VIII. She was the sister of Isabel Jordan, prioress and later abbess of Wilton Abbey.
Joanne Berkeley was an English abbess of the Convent of the Assumption of Our Blessed Lady, Brussels which was established by and for English Catholic women.
Elizabeth Sander was an English Bridgettine nun and writer. She joined the Syon Abbey nuns, who were in religious exile, and then returned to England where she was imprisoned and escaped in 1580. She then escaped from imprisonment in Winchester Castle before she surrendered to her jailors. She died in Lisbon in the only English community of nuns to survive unbroken after the dissolution of the monasteries.
