Women and literate liturgical culture at Syon Abbey in the late middle ages: the Syon Processionals

In this article, we explore the creative liturgical and scribal activities of sisters at Syon Abbey, one of England’s largest and most wealthy late-medieval religious houses. Founded by Henry V in 1415, Syon Abbey was a Bridgettine double house, governed by an abbess.2 Here we demonstrate ways in which Syon's nuns were musically and liturgically creative. To what degree religious women at Syon engaged with writing, however, is contested. By conducting the first comprehensive paleographical study of one of Syon Abbey's processionals, we show that Syon's nuns were active as both music and text scribes, and argue that their scribal legacy reveals new aspects of the nuns’ role as agents of liturgical change.