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Visitors to Rievaulx
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The General
Chapter discouraged lay visitors
to Cistercian abbeys and forbade their attendance at the Canonical
Hours, Mass and Communion. Nevertheless, it was officially recognised
that on great occasions such as Palm Sunday, Ash Wednesday, Easter
and the Purification of Mary (2 February), guests might be present.
There were initially strict rulings against the admittance of women,
but by the mid-twelfth century external pressure forced the General
Chapter to compromise and it was conceded that all women, except
those who were breastfeeding, might enter the church on the day
of its dedication or within the octave.
It is not clear where in
the church visitors were seated when they attended services. They
may have occupied the area of the nave
that lay to the west of the lay-brothers’ choir
and was the furthest point from the High
Altar; they may have been directed
to the porch that extended west of the church, known as the galilee
or narthex. The surviving remains of the galilee date to Aelred’s
abbacy (1147-67) but the building was adapted and remodelled throughout
the Middle Ages. The galilee was also a popular place for lay burial
and remains of at least eight graves can be seen. These include
the tomb of Isabella Ros,
who was buried here in 1264. Isabella was a member of the Ros family,
the patrons of Rievaulx, and is
the first known member of her family to have been buried here.(7)
[Read more about
burials in the church at Rievaulx]
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