|
You are here:
Visitors
(6/6)
Visitors to Roche may have occupied the area
to the rear of the lay-brothers choir,
the furthest position from the High
Altar. The Cistercians did not encourage outsiders and forbade
their admittance to the Canonical
Hours, Mass and Communion,
but there were times when visitors were anticipated. The twelfth-century
Customs acknowledge their possible presence on great occasions
such as Palm Sunday, Ash Wednesday, Easter and the Purification
of Mary (2 February), and their probable attendance at the Blessing
of the Water on Sundays.
Women were initially strictly forbidden from
entering the Cistercian precincts, but by the mid-twelfth century
external pressure forced the General Chapter to modify its position
and allow women to enter the church on the day of its dedication,
or within the octave.
This concession did not extend to those who were breast-feeding,
and women were still, in theory if not in practice, prohibited
from all other parts of the precincts.
<back><new
section> |