In this third installment of my series on Barking Abbey, I look at whether nuns were artists or patrons of cultural activities in any way. Surely, life couldn’t only be about the tedium of prayer and work, could it?
Barking Abbey had several such manuscripts. Prior to the use of the printing press in the mid-1400s in Europe, all such works of art were handmade, mostly in monasteries.
Statues and stained glass, found in all medieval cathedrals. The Church viewed these as important aids for instructing the largely illiterate congregations about their faith.
A rosary strand. Simple and yet beautiful and probably possessed by each and every nun at Barking Abbey.
A gilded chalice and paten, beautiful art that was critical for the Eucharist in the medieval Catholic Mass.
Stars on the chapel ceiling at Hampton Court in London. Perhaps like the stars on the parish church ceiling whose loss was lamented by some after the Protestant Reformation.
Stone outlines on the ground…all that is left of the once large and impressive Abbey church at Barking.
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