Ancrene Wisse (or
Ancrene Riwle) is a thirteenth-century English guide for
anchoresses composed by an Augustinian canon for three
anchorite sisters. As an instructional or didactic work, the
author of the Ancrene Wisse was influenced ...
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Sometimes, when people come to me with worries and problems,
I suggest that they may need to find somewhere or something
which will both comfort and inspire them, as part of the
therapy which leads to wholeness and healing. For some that
is water - the sea-shore, a river, a lake or a stream. For
others this may be a mountain, a ruin or a favourite church
or building...
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Our Anchorhold is, as far as we know, the only south facing
Anchorite's cell in England.
This fact has led many to think that it may not be an
Anchorhold at all.
However, the evidence which is extant in the architecture
seems to bear witness to an
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Jesus, my holy love, my own sweetness! Jesus, mine heart,
my joy, my soul's health! Jesus, sweet! Jesus, my love, my
light, my healing oil, my honey-drop!
Thou all that I hope in! Jesus, teach me that Thou art so
soft, and so sweet, yet, too, so lovely and so lovesome that
the Angels ever behold Thee, and yet are never full of
looking on Thee!
The Anchorhold in All Saints church', King's Lynn, is quite
a unique feature, and possibly the only surviving Anchorhold
on the south side of a church anywhere in England.
The fact that it is on the south side of the church, has led
some to suggest that it is not authentic,
because Anchorhold's are generally on the north side of the
church. However, given that there are no remains of a
structure on the north side, and considering the documentary
evidence of wills, testifying to the presence of anchoresses
attached to the church, the Society of Medieval Archaeology,
who visited the church in 2001, were in agreement
that the room is a genuine anchorhold.
At All Saints, the Anchorhold was inhabited by women, living alone, spanning a period
of four or five centuries. Their daily routine was one of
prayer and possibly offering advice to those who came to the
external window. There is an internal window, which looks
into the Sanctuary of the church, through which the
Anchoress would have received the Sacraments and spoken with
the priest.
The Anchorite tradition, in medieval times, was much
encouraged by the Carmelites
or Whitefriars, who, after their leaving the hermitic
existence on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land in the early 13th
century, encouraged a similar 'spirituality of seclusion',
particularly amongst women, in England. It may be that the
later Anchoresses at All Saints' may have come under the
influence of this teaching as lay people in the parish,
given that the Carmelite Friar's lived in the town, only a
short distance from the church.
The Anchorhold
Video:
Father Paul introduces the Anchorhold Video presentation
optimised for Windows Explorer
Video
produced and offered here by kind permission of Arthur
Paynter
