Cloister Cats

By Richard Surman

Stories of Cats with real character, living in some of the most interesting buildings and communities in the UK. A beautifully presented gift book and a great companion volume to Cathedral Cats.

Cloister Cats explores a wide range of cats and their buildings that are now, or have historically, been home to ecclesiastical communities.

From traditional monasteries in ancient settings to modern-day communities in suburban houses, and from followers of Celtic Christianity, via Anglican and Catholic monasticism, to Buddhists, the spread of geography, style and history here is wonderfully appealing.

With the addition of a “quick guide” to each place featured, and using quirky descriptions of the cats’ lives in and around the grounds to get across key points of interest about the buildings and gardens, this is not just a lovely gift, but also a fascinating insight into monastic life historically and today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Aug 27, 2015
• ISBN: 9780008144609

Richard Surman

Richard has been a professional photographer for 30 years, working for leading advertising agencies & magazines. He was also a founder member and artistic director of the Ledbury Poetry Festival. He has lived in Spain for the last five years, writing and photographing articles on monastic and church architecture, in northern Spain. Richard also leads tours of European historical houses. Richard and his family divide their time between London and the Asturian mountains of northern Spain.

Book preview

Introduction

Oscar of St John’s, All Saints Convent

Cloister Cats are, on the whole, modest creatures: eschewing the high profile of Cathedral Cats, Cloister Cats do not bask in public view, neither do they get much attention from the public, for the simple reason that by the very nature of the cats’ surroundings, they are set apart.

The cloister cats featured in this book live in very distinctive surroundings: some live in monasteries with fine traditional cloisters – others are part of communities that remain entirely set apart from the outside world. Yet others live in places that only used to be monastic buildings. But for the most part they are united in the sense of being part of a community in which there is an element of religious seclusion and contemplation. The places in which they live are extraordinarily varied; from modest surroundings like St Monica’s Priory in London’s Hoxton, to the grandeur of Mottisfont and Forde Abbey, and from the rural simplicity of Holy Hill Hermitage to the antiquity of Iona: places as different as the cats who live in them.

Many of the cats featured herein are foundlings, who, like pilgrims of old seeking sanctuary, have come in need of help, shelter, food or companionship (and sometimes all four). Often the cats have chosen the communities. Others, Leo at Blackfriars in Cambridge for example, have been sought out by the community. Other cats have arrived at a community with their human companions, like Bonnie at Walsingham Priory, and Splash at the Iona Community.

Life in a religious community can be very intense. Pressures of harmonious co-existence, of following vows of obedience, chastity and poverty, all have to be dealt with. Looking in from outside, many people have a rather rosy perception of the monastic religious life, but in some ways it must be pretty tough. Maybe that is why the cloister cat has such a major place in the affections of many religious communities in this country. One of the monks at Glenstal Abbey commented wryly to me that ‘Monks need cats, to remind them not to be catty’. In some communities, particularly those with nursing or care activities, their cats have brought great pleasure to the sick and the elderly. Oscar, at St John’s in Oxford, even gets to ride on an elderly lady’s electric wheelchair, to the delight of the all the residents. There is no rule that forbids a moment’s happiness, and for many people, the opportunity to stroke a cat, to spend a moment playing with one of these graceful and quixotic creatures, is an opportunity to take a moment out of the rough and tumble of everyday life, be it in monastic or secular surroundings.

The sign on the library door at Alnmouth Priory

Finding the cats portrayed in this book wasn’t easy. By definition they were not well-known, and I am grateful to the many people who gave me leads and suggestions that sometimes did, and sometimes didn’t, lead to discovering a cloister cat. There are many others whose help with this book was invaluable, in particular my editors Ian Metcalfe and Fiona Tucker at Collins, and my wife Blanca, without whose encouragement, and patience with my frequent absences, I could not have completed Cloister Cats. Finally I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to all the communities featured, for the kind and warm hospitality that was invariably extended to me.

Brother Pascal, the Guardian of Alnmouth Friary, summed up the spirit of Cloister Cats, in his account of the two Friary cats Agnes and Clare:

‘For 35 years Alnmouth Friary has been giving food and shelter to homeless men, wayfarers as we still call them in the Order, so it was natural for us to welcome Clare and Agnes, two rejected homeless kittens, into our midst! These two sisters, half Siamese, were rescued from life on the road.’

Agnes

Society of St Francis, Alnmouth Friary

‘May Thou be praised, my Lord, with all Thy creatures.’

From The Canticle of Brother Son, St Francis of Assisi

HISTORY

Alnmouth Friary was given to the Franciscan Friars in 1961. A rambling, late Victorian building set in extensive gardens, it overlooks Alnmouth village and the wild beauty of the Northumbrian coast. The surrounding area is steeped in early Christian history: St. Cuthbert was elected bishop here, and just up the coast lies the holy island of Lindisfarne.

The Northumberland coastline is dramatic and beautiful, but Brother Edward, who has been at the friary since its founding, told me that the climate varies from Mediterranean at best to Arctic rather too often – and he vividly remembers the bitter cold of the early days, when the friars slept on the floor in a house that had become near-derelict.

For many years the friary maintained the tradition of giving food and shelter to homeless men, known to the Franciscans as ‘wayfarers’; these days, the friars offer hospitality, retreats and day visits to those who want time out from the pressures of the outside world, and annually receive over a thousand staying guests, and many more who visit for the day. With such a tradition of hospitality and shelter-giving, it was only natural for the friars to welcome into their midst two homeless half-Siamese kittens. They were named after St Clare of Assisi and her sister, St Agnes of Assisi, two great followers of St Francis,

Reviews for Cloister Cats

[ponsonby_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very simple book: the story of some cats which for one reason or another have ended up living in the mostly peaceful surroundings of a monastery or convent in Britain or ireland. For each cat (or pair of cats) there are several photographs, and the story of how the cat came to be there and how it occupies its time. Something also about the particular monastery or convent. A peaceful book, easily read in less than an hour, but enjoyable to those who like cats and/or the quietude of monastic life

[jane3phillips-2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lovely book about some of the feline characters living in the monasteries and abbeys in the British Isles. Filled with beautiful photography.