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Visitors to Rievaulx (8/8)
The General Chapter discouraged lay visitors to Cistercian abbeys and forbade their attendance at the Canonical Hours, Mass and Communion. Nevertheless, it was officially recognised that on great occasions such as Palm Sunday, Ash Wednesday, Easter and the Purification of Mary (2 February), guests might be present. There were initially strict rulings against the admittance of women, but by the mid-twelfth century external pressure forced the General Chapter to compromise and it was conceded that all women, except those who were breastfeeding, might enter the church on the day of its dedication or within the octave.
It is not clear where in the church visitors were seated when they attended services. They may have occupied the area of the nave that lay to the west of the lay-brothers’ choir and was the furthest point from the High Altar; they may have been directed to the porch that extended west of the church, known as the galilee or narthex. The surviving remains of the galilee date to Aelred’s abbacy (1147-67) but the building was adapted and remodelled throughout the Middle Ages. The galilee was also a popular place for lay burial and remains of at least eight graves can be seen. These include the tomb of Isabella Ros, who was buried here in 1264. Isabella was a member of the Ros family, the patrons of Rievaulx, and is the first known member of her family to have been buried here.(7) [Read more about burials in the church at Rievaulx] |
