Commissioned · Trappist (Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance)

The Blazer Is Under Written Review

Bernadette handles all external correspondence for an abbey whose community conducts its business in writing. Our request that she remove her blazer was submitted in March. It was acknowledged in April. In June it was placed before the Abbot's council, which meets without speaking and resolves matters by note. Three notes have been returned. Two concerned the format of the request. One concerned whether Bernadette, being neither monastic nor enclosed, falls within the council's competence at all. That note is now itself before the council. Bernadette continues to answer the abbey's post at a rate of forty letters a week, blazer on.

“They have not said no. They have not said anything. That is rather the point of them.”— Bernadette, Lay Correspondence Officer to the Abbey Guest…