Wendy Beckett

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Wendy Beckett , also commonly known as Sister Wendy , (* 25. February 1930 in South Africa ; † 26 December 2018 in East Harling in the English county of Norfolk ), was a British hermit and consecrated virgin who in the 1990s by their moderation a series of BBC documentaries and the release of several works on art history to an international audience.

Life

Wendy Beckett was born in South Africa and grew up in Edinburgh . She had wanted to be a religious since her early youth; In 1946, at the age of 16, she joined the School Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur . She sent her to England after her novitiate , where she began her studies at St Anne's College , Oxford, from which she graduated with a bachelor's degree with honors in English literature. Sister Wendy graduated from her training as a teacher at a college in Liverpool , which she began in 1950, with a diploma in 1954. She then returned to South Africa to teach English and Latin at the convent girls' school in Constantia in Cape Town . When the convention was abolished in 1967, she was sent to Johannesburg , where she lectured at Witwatersrand University .

The Carmel of Quidenham Hall, where Sister Wendy had lived since 1970

Several generalized seizures and the subsequent diagnosis of some form of epilepsy forced Sister Wendy to stop teaching in 1970. At around the same time, she expressed a desire for a life of greater privacy and prayer. After she had in 1970 received papal permission to leave the Sisters of Notre Dame, to live as a consecrated virgin, she returned to England, where her Carmelites of Quidenham Hall permit in Norfolk on which the exam lying grounds of Klosters to lead a life as a hermit. Sister Wendy lived there in a trailer. Instead of the habit of the sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, she wore a black one of her own design until her death.

For several years she translated manuscripts from the High Middle Ages before devoting herself mainly to a subject in 1980 that had long fascinated her: art. From the mid-1980s she wrote short articles for British magazines; In 1988 her first non-fiction book was published, Contemporary Women Artists . Not long after that, she discovered the BBC for television. In 1992, the series Sister Wendy's Odyssey of art criticism began , in which Sister Wendy stood in front of a work of art in a habit and shared her thoughts on the work with the audience, showing her humor and a strong gift for telling a good story. Sister Wendy became known nationwide through two further art-historical series, Sister Wendy's Grand Tour and Sister Wendy's Story of Painting , which were broadcast first on the BBC in 1994 and 1997 and then across Europe. From 1997 the series were also shown in the United States; Subsequently, Sister Wendy also discussed the works of well-known American museums. Sister Wendy donated the royalties and income from these activities to the Carmelite Order because of the commitment of the consecrated virgins to a simple lifestyle.

Due to deteriorating health and a desire for greater solitude, Sister Wendy stopped filming her series in 2001, but still appeared on television occasionally. Since 2006, their audio guide, Sister Wendy's Sistine Chapel Artineraries Tour, has been available to visitors to the Sistine Chapel . She also continued to work as a spiritual writer, during this time several works on prayer were created . Sister Wendy died on December 26, 2018 in East Harling at the age of 88.

Publications

Sister Wendy's reflections on St. Paul in art were published on the occasion of a Pauline year of the Roman Catholic Church in 1980 by the London publishing house St. Pauls. In May 2009, Encounters with God: In Quest of the Ancient Icons of Mary was published in London , published after a pilgrimage to the oldest Byzantine icons that survived the iconoclasm .

Publications in German (selection)

Documentaries

  • Sister Wendy's Odyssey (1992)
  • Sister Wendy's Grand Tour (1997)
  • Sister Wendy's Story of Painting (1997)
  • Sister Wendy's American Collection (2001)
  • Sister Wendy at the Norton Simon Museum (2001)

musical

  • Postcards From God: The Sister Wendy Musical was written by Marcus Reeves and Beccy Smith and performed at the Jermyn Street Theater in London's West End in 2007.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Interview with Clive Anderson, BBC Radio 2, January 28, 2007
  2. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/dec/26/art-historian-sister-wendy-beckett-dies-aged-88
  3. ^ Mark Shenton: Reviews: Postcards from God. In: The Stage. January 11, 2007, archived from the original on January 16, 2007 ; accessed on December 27, 2018 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Beckett, Wendy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sister Wendy; Sister Wendy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African art expert, consecrated virgin and hermit
DATE OF BIRTH February 25, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH South Africa
DATE OF DEATH December 26, 2018
Place of death East Harling