Sr Wendy Beckett has died + video

The much-loved art critic, popular writer and hermit, Sister Wendy Beckett, died at 2.30 this afternoon at the Carmelite Monastery in Quidenham. She was 88 years old.

Sr Wendy was born in South Africa, and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland, where her father studied medicine. In 1946, she entered the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, and 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.

After attending the Notre Dame College of Education in Liverpool, and earning a teaching diploma in 1954, she returned to South Africa to teach English and Latin at Notre Dame Convent school for girls in Constantia, Cape Town. Later she moved to Johannesburg where she was appointed superior of the local convent, while she also lectured at the University of the Witwatersrand.

In 1970, health problems forced Beckett to leave 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 the Carmelite monastery at Quidenham, Norfolk. Here she dedicated her life to solitude and prayer.

After obtaining peimission to study art in the 1980s - largely through books and postcard reproductions of the great works obtained from galleries - Sister Wendy decided to write a book to earn money for her convent. She proved to be a very gifted commentator and teacher.

Her first work: 'Contemporary Women Artists' published in 1988, was a great success and was soon followed by more books and articles. In 1991 the BBC commissioned her to present a television documentary on the National Gallery in London. Sr Wendy went on to make many more programmes, filmed in galleries around the world. Dressed in her habit, she stood in front of paintings, and without script or autocue, discussed them to the camera. Her programmes included Odyssey, Sister Wendy's Grand Tour and Sister Wendy's Story of Painting.

Sr Wendy gave all her earning to charity. Although her programmes and books won her fame around the world, when she wasn't filming Sr Wendy always returned to her life of solititude and prayer.

She made a rare public appearance in 2011 at the launch of two of her books at the St Paul's bookshop in Kensington. Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor and Archbishop Vincent Nichols were among the guests who came to meet her.

See ICN report: 19 July 2011 - Cardinal and Archbishop attend Sister Wendy book launch

Sr Wendy was a long-time supporter of Aid to the Church in Need - helping them choose images for their Christmas cards are donating proceeds from her programmes and writing.

In one of her last interviews, in 2017, when asked for her prayer intention for Lent, Sister Wendy replied: "My great intention always is 'Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven'. Our Blessed Lord knows how ardently we long for people to love one another and the world to be at peace. Our prayer is all we can do to bring about this Kingdom of Heaven."

Watch one of Sr Wendy's programmes: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBv0HezlOBw