Wendy Beckett


Wendy Mary Beckett, better known as Sister Wendy, was a British religious sister, and art historian who became well known internationally during the 1990s when she presented a series of BBC television documentaries on the history of art. Her programmes, such as Sister Wendy's Odyssey and Sister Wendy's Grand Tour, often drew a 25 percent share of the British viewing audience. In 1997, Sister Wendy made her US debut on public television and that same year The New York Times described her as "a sometime hermit who is fast on her way to becoming the most unlikely and famous art critic in the history of television."

Biography

Early life

Beckett was born in the Union of South Africa, and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland, where her father was studying medicine. In 1946, she entered the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, a Roman Catholic congregation of religious sisters dedicated to education. She was sent to England where she completed her novitiate and then studied at St Anne's College, Oxford, where she was awarded a congratulatory first class honours degree in English Literature. J. R. R. Tolkien was president of her final examinations board and asked her to stay on at the University, an invitation which she declined.
Outside her academic work, she lived in a convent which maintained the strict code of silence typical in convents prior to the changes following the Second Vatican Council. After attending the Notre Dame College of Education and earning a teaching diploma in 1954, she returned to South Africa to teach at Notre Dame Convent, a school for girls in Constantia, Cape Town, where she taught English and Latin. Later she moved to Johannesburg where she was appointed the superior of the local convent, while she also lectured at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Return to England

In 1970, health problems forced Beckett to abandon teaching and to return to England. She obtained papal permission to leave her congregation and to become a consecrated virgin and hermit. She began living in a caravan on the grounds of a Carmelite monastery at Quidenham, Norfolk, and her caravan was later replaced by a mobile home. Besides having received the Carmelite prioress and a nun who brought her provisions, she dedicated her life to solitude and prayer, but allotted two hours of work per day to earn her living.

Interest in art

Sister Wendy spent many years translating Medieval Latin scripts before deciding, in 1980, to pursue art. Her first book, Contemporary Women Artists, was published in 1988. Sister Wendy Contemplates Saint Paul in Art was published in 2008 to celebrate the Year of Saint Paul. In May 2009, Encounters with God: In Quest of the Ancient Icons of Mary was published, which follows Beckett's pilgrimage to see the earliest icons of Mary which had survived the Byzantine Iconoclasm. Beckett continued writing about her interest in icons in the second volume of her Sister Wendy Contemplates series, published in July 2011. This book, entitled The Iconic Jesus, takes the reader through scenes from the New Testament, accompanied by Sister Wendy's reflections. Her next book, published in 2011, The Christ Journey, consists of her commentaries on the artwork of Greg Tricker.
Beckett required medical treatment as an outpatient at a local hospital. The television chef Delia Smith, a Roman Catholic convert, volunteered to drive her there each week. Smith also drove her around the country to meet the artists when Beckett was writing her book about contemporary women artists. Through this the two became good friends.
Having overheard her commentary while attending an art exhibit, a film crew asked to videotape her. This brought her to the attention of a BBC producer and led, in 1992, to the debut Sister Wendy’s Odyssey.
Sister Wendy was often effusively verbal about her descriptions of the human body in paintings, both male and female. In view of her religious state, this came as a surprise to some viewers. She insisted, however, on describing art history's visual accuracy of the human anatomy where called for, and was quite insistent on it, stating that "God did not make a mistake when He created the human body, so I am not making a mistake by describing it."

Television and media work

Beckett narrates the following documentaries:
In 2006 she narrated an audio commentary for tourists to the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican:
Additionally, she features in the following:
As a television presenter, she is known for having had a distinctive speech impediment which affected her pronunciation of Rs.

Other media

A musical, Postcards from God: The Sister Wendy Musical, written by Marcus Reeves and Beccy Smith was performed at the Jermyn Street Theatre in the West End in 2007 and Hackney Empire Studio Theatre in 2008.
In December 2012 Sister Wendy was the guest for BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. Her favourite choice was "Serenade" by Franz Schubert, her chosen book was "an enormous book of logical puzzles", and her luxury item was a "refrigerated tabernacle".

Death

Beckett died on 26 December 2018 at the Carmelite Monastery in Quidenham, Norfolk. She was 88.

Publications

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