Nun the wiser? How ‘seven sisters’ found fame online

DEDICATING their lives to prayer, silence and solitude and leaving their cloisters only rarely, the Carmelite nuns may seem to be the antithesis of the modern age.

So when they ventured into London and stood waiting to catch a train at Seven Sisters station, they would not have realised what would ensue.

But the timing was not lost on one commuter, who could not resist taking a photograph, which was shared widely across social media

The group, which actually numbered eight from Ware Carmelite Monastery – one was obscured by a pillar – had been to a meeting for enclosed religious orders where they were addressed by Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster.

It was the first time such a meeting had ever been held, a spokesman for the Diocese of Westminster confirmed.

The nuns were making their way back from the Notting Hill Carmelite Monastery in London to their own establishment in Hertfordshire when they passed through Seven Sisters.

Sister Fiona, who belongs to the Ware Monastery, said: “They had simply been to an important meeting in London.

“They are not often out, we go out for medical appointments and that sort of thing, but we do make the exception for important meetings.”

When asked how the nuns felt about their newfound fame, Sister Fiona said: “I don’t tend myself to look for publicity, we tend to lead more of a hidden life.”

However, Ben Patey, 33, could not resist taking the photograph and sharing it on social media when he saw what he thought was seven nuns as he travelled home from work.

He said: “I did a double take. It was one of those strange but amusing moments. It is not something you see every day and when I realised it definitely wasn’t a hen do I decided I had to capture it.”

Founded by hermits in the 13th century, the Carmelite nuns still live by a set of principles set out more than 500 years ago in a “small community of friends entirely dedicated to prayer, silence and solitude”.

There are 15 Carmelite monasteries in Britain, which are home to 200 nuns. They had met on Thursday morning with a group of around 50 sisters from different orders all of whom live enclosed lives separate from the community.

The group were discussing guidelines about their way of life issued by Pope Francis last year.

Sister Francesca, from Arkley Poor Clares in Barnet, said that the meeting was “wonderfully successful”.

‘It’s not something you see everyday and when I realised it wasn’t a hen do I decided I had to capture it’

Acommuter at Seven Sisters station on the London Underground looked up and noticed seven nuns sitting waiting for a train. He snapped them, to the wide delight of folk who saw the photo on the internet. No doubt there is many a dog baying for a train at Barking, and at the end of the platform at Burnt Oak a strange pile of powdery wood ash. There’ll be a bit of a squash in one unlucky carriage at Elephant on the Bakerloo line, even if someone unstraps its Castle.

Undergrounds are not a monopoly of the capital, of course. Bede with his beady eye is often to be spotted on the Newcastle Metro, and when the Glasgow Subway train calls at Cessnock, entire carriages chorus Burns’s lyric: “On Cessnock banks a lassie dwells; / Could I describe her shape and mien...” With this vision, the London Underground could only perhaps compete when it reaches the Angel. The real rush-hour crush comes, though, when the doors open for All Saints.