Wendy Beckett
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Sister Wendy Beckett (born February 25 1930) is a South African-born British art expert, consecrated virgin and contemplative hermit who became an unlikely celebrity during the 1990s, presenting a series of acclaimed art history documentaries for the BBC.
Biography
![Sister Wendy Beckett standing in front of Francisco de Goya's painting, [The Colossus]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:WendyBeckett.jpg "Sister Wendy Beckett standing in front of Francisco de Goya's painting, [The Colossus]")
She was born in South Africa and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland. She became a nun in 1946 in the order of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. She was sent to England to begin her novitiate and studied at St Anne's College at Oxford. Outside of her academic studies, she lived in a convent that maintained a strict code of silence.
After completing a teaching diploma in 1954, she returned to South Africa to teach at the University of the Witwatersrand. Health problems in 1970 forced her to abandon teaching and return to England to live in the grounds of a Carmelite monastery. She spent many years translating Medieval Latin scripts before deciding to pursue her favorite subject of art in 1980.
She has since left her religious order, and is therefore no longer a nun, but her bishop has accepted her as a canonical consecrated virgin and hermit, allowing her to wear religious garb and use the title "Sister." Seeking a contemplative lifestyle, she currently lives in a trailer on the grounds of a Carmelite monastery at Quidenham, in Norfolk in the east of England. Besides receiving the Carmelite prioress and a nun who brings her provisions, she dedicates her life solely to monastic solitude and prayer, but allows herself two hours of work per day.
Documentaries
In addition to writing more than a dozen books, Sister Wendy has narrated the 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)
Notoriety
Her brief brush with notoriety came when she voiced her approval of Andres Serrano's Piss Christ whose public exhibition offended many moderate and conservative Catholics.Miscellaneous
- Nathan Lane does imitations of Sister Wendy, habit and all, on TV.
References
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