The embodiment of exile: relics and suffering in Early Modern English cloisters

Abstract

This chapter considers the ways exiled English nuns articulated the anguish of exile and developed consolatory strategies for enduring separation from kin and country. It focuses on convent relic collections, embedded in the fabric of monastic buildings, which provided a key devotional focus. These holy objects not only connected cloisters with the torments of Christ and his saints and martyrs, but also provided templates for fashioning communal and individual narratives of pain and alienation. Relics inspired a piety of suffering but also encouraged the religious women to engage in political actions aimed at ending their exile.