News & Events 2024 | THE SYON BREVIARY

QUEEN CAMILLA

Her Majesty receives our Breviary.

SECRETARY of our Facebook Group, St Bridget's Friends, is Joy Hanson.

She took the initiative to send a copy of The Syon Breviary to Queen Consort Camilla in March 2024. And since St Bridget's Friends encourages Christian Unity, Joy was able to get it signed not only by our Patron, Sister Anne Smyth, but also by friends and clergy from different Christian traditions in and around her home town of Totnes and Dartington.

"This is the first time," she explained, "that a reigning monarch has had a copy of our ancient Breviary since Queen Elizabeth I in the sixteenth century."

This is the letter of thanks to St Bridget's Friends from Queen Consort Camilla.

ST RICHARD REYNOLDS

New video released for his 2024 Feast Day

This video about Syon's holy relic was released on his feast day (memorial) on 4th May 2024 at Blessed Sacrament Church, Heavitree.

Click H ERE to review the previous Events Page.

She added that the signatures of friends and clergy from different denominations celebrated the fact that, at the time of the foundation of Syon Abbey in 1415 by King Henry V, we were all united in faith anyway.

Included with The Syon Breviary was a rosary as Her Majesty is herself a regular church-goer and a committed Christian.

Joy sent another Breviary as a gift to Princess Charlotte, via her parents, Prince William and Catherine, the Prince and Princess of Wales. Charlotte is their second child and only daughter and she has just celebrated her 8th birthday on 2nd May 2024.

To join St Bridget’s Friends, e-mail joyhansonuk@gmail.com

6 MAY 2024: Queen Consort Camilla is pictured at Buckingham Palace on her return from the Coronation of King Charles III and herself at Westminster Abbey a year ago today. Today also their Majesties were presented with the Coronation Roll: the state record of their coronation and a tradition dating back to the 14th century.

LATEST NEWS from the Syon Abbey Archives at Exeter University's Special Collections, is that they now have this ancient prayer book.

It is inscribed: 'Sister Kitty Witham, a Sister of Sion, her Book, 1761' and became the property of a Benedictine nun in 1861.

This is the same Sister Kitty (Catherine) who wrote such a graphic letter to her mother when, at Syon in Lisbon, she recounted her experience of the great earthquake of 1st November, 1755.

This episode in the saga of Syon Abbey
is told in our TIMELINE display.

1761: Holy Week prayer book.

PARISHIONERS of Blessed Sacrament Church, Heavitree, Exeter, had a special treat after they attended the morning Mass on 4th May this year.

They were the first to see our new video which tells the tale of the sacred relic from Syon Abbey which is now safe in their custody at the back of their church. This is the holy pillar or finial from the ornamental gateway of the original Syon Abbey, located on the bank of the Thames at Isleworth.

It is believed that, after St Richard Reynolds' cruel martyrdom on 4th May 1535, a part of his dismembered body was attached to this very pillar. Thus it became a contact relic of some distinction which was venerated by the Sisters of Syon for centuries and displayed in their chapel(s) until Syon Abbey finally closed in 2011.

Click HERE or on the image above to watch the video.

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