Eleven sisters from one of the first orders of Anglican nuns to be
established after the Reformation were received into the Catholic Church
at the Oxford Oratory this past Tuesday morning.The sisters, from the Community of St Mary the Virgin in Wantage, Oxfordshire, have joined the Ordinariate established by Pope Benedict XVI for former Anglicans.
Following their reception the new community - made up of nuns aged between 45 and 83 - will be formally known as the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
They will return temporarily to Wantage until a permanent home is found.
In his homily Fr Daniel Seward, Provost of the Oxford Oratory, welcomed the sisters into the Church and said that they had come home.
He said: "What you are joining is not anything alien or foreign, but your own birthright. The spiritual genius of St Benedict, under whose Rule you are to live, the study and practice of the sacred liturgy, and the veneration and love given to the Mother of God - Our Lady of Walsingham - these are all part of the ancient glory of this country, which was once an island of saints and Mary's dowry."