 Tyburn Convent Chapel exterior | |
 | |
| Formation | c.AD 1898; 128 years ago (1898) |
|---|---|
| Founder | Mère Marie de Saint-Pierre,Adèle Garnier [fr] |
| Type | Catholic religious order |
| Headquarters | Marble ArchLondon |
Main organ | Tyburn Convent |
| Website | Official website |
TheTyburn Nuns, formally,Adorers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Montmartre, is aCatholic congregation ofBenedictine nuns. The congregation was originally founded inParis but was obliged to find a new Mother House due to French legislation passed in 1901. Two years later it relocated toLondon and subsequently established additional convents in nine other countries. The nuns at the London convent practice thePerpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and maintain a shrine dedicated to theCatholic martyrs of the English Reformation.
A Frenchwoman, Adèle Garnier, in religion, Mother Marie de Saint-Pierre, established the community inMontmartre (Mount of the Martyr), Paris in 1898.[1] In 1901 the French legislature passed theWaldeck-RousseauLaw of Associations which placed severe restrictions on religious bodies such as monasteries and convents and caused many of them to leave France. Mother Garnier relocated the congregation to London in 1903, to what became theTyburn Convent inBayswater Road, nearMarble Arch. The reason was because it was close to the site of theTyburn tree, where 105 Catholic martyrs, includingSaint Oliver Plunkett andSaint Edmund Campion, were executed during theEnglish Reformation from 1535 to 1681. The newly arrived nuns established the Martyrs' Shrine to honour the more than 350 Catholic Martyrs who were executed in England during and after the Reformation.[2][3] AfterWorld War II, when France had relaxed its laws regarding the independent sector, a number of native French sisters elected to return and set up in France once more. There was a split.[4]
The Tyburn Convent is now the Mother House of the London-based congregation.
Mother Garnier founded the Adorers to carry outAdoration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the exposed Blessed Sacrament, originally in theBasilica of the Sacred Heart in Montmartre. When the community moved to areligious enclosure, the Adoration shifted to the conventual setting, with numbers gradually increasing to allow forPerpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament by the community.
The aim of the Adoration is to ask God for theatonement for offences against theSacred Heart of Jesus and theBlessed Sacrament. Mystical experiences in the original congregation in France indicated that Adoration was needed to atone forsacrilege andblasphemy committed by priests and lay people against the Blessed Sacrament. At that time the Foundress also discerned a particularcharism of prayer for priests.
Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament has continued ever since the convent was established in London, except temporarily duringwartime when the convent building was bombed and Adoration was relocated toWadhurst in Sussex. Pilgrims and tourists from all over the world visit the shrine.[5]
The Congregation follows theRule of St Benedict as its guide for life. This is supplemented bynorms, an additional manual and book of customs specific to the congregation.
The sisters wear the traditional black Benedictine habit, but with a modernised veil andguimpe.Postulants wear lay dress and a short black veil.Novices wear the habit with a white veil and white choir cloak. Junior professed sisters wear the black veil and congregation medal and white choir cloak. Perpetually professed sisters wear the black veil, medal, ring, and white choir cowl.
The Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours are recited in the vernacular (English, Spanish).
The Tyburn community has opened other convents in:
TheRome convent has been temporarily closed,[when?] and the Riverstone convent inAustralia relocates closer to theBlue Mountains.
Although the Congregation was founded to carry out Perpetual Adoration, today each convent only carries out Adoration mostly during the day, and shares it with the laity.[5] A new foundation in Africa opened, but had to closed again soon afterwards. The Congregation has also offered assistance to ageing Benedictine communities in Europe.
The Congregation numbers around 60 professed sisters worldwide in total, plus some sisters in formation.
Following the split in the congregation confirmed and announced by theHoly See in 1947, between the Montmartre Benedictines in England and those who had returned to France, the FrenchBénédictines du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre [fr] branch numbered 107 sisters as of the end of 2005, all of them in ten foundations within France.[4]
