SWEETHEART ABBEY

Early in my novel, ‘Elizabeth’s Daughter’, I use Sweetheart Abbey as the setting for Elizabeth’s burial. I was surprised recently when I  was offered a rather sarcastic comment by an editor about the name I ‘chose’ for the abbey. I agree that perhaps not many people have  heard of it, but in fact it is a real Abbey, named by its founders, the Cistercian monks, in 1273. It’s proper name is St Mary the Virgin of Sweetheart .

Sweetheart Abbey is in New Abbey, so called so as to distinguish it from the ‘old’ abbey at Dundrennan.

Actually, it was given the rather unlikely and non-religious title of ‘Sweetheart’ because  Lady Dervorgilla [Dervorguilla] founded the Abbey in honour of her husband, Lord John Balliol, who died in battle 1268. {The 750 year old Balliol College in Oxford was founded by this Lord Balliol as an act of penance – apparently he offended a bishop – but its future  was secured by his wife.}

 Lady Dervogilla had her husband’s heart embalmed and preserved in an ivory casket. She had this casket buried with her in the Abbey when she died in 1289.

Lady Dervogilla is probably not really here anymore

 

Like many Catholic monasteries  it suffered the vicissitudes of wars. The Abbey was attacked by the English before it was even finished during the Wars of Independence between Scotland and England. The battles, at one point, were between Edward 1 of England and John 1 of Scotland  (the sweethearts’ son).  Then, of course, much of the Abbey was destroyed during the Reformation.  After the Annexation Act of 1587, the Abbey’s Abbot Gilbert eventually lost his fight to stay and practice his faith and had to flee to France after his Popish books, copes, chalices, pictures, images and other such Popish trash  was found. All but the books were publicly burned. [www.historic-scotland.gov.uk.]

Eventually a lot of the local stone used to build the Abbey was carried away by villagers who were building their homes nearby.



View from the graveyard

I may have been too hasty in condemning that editor who wanted to question me for employing such a unbelievable name for my church. While I was looking for evidence for  the few Catholic churches in Scotland in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, I did read references to this Abbey. I now have to ‘fess’ up to the truth. I didn’t know it was so close to Dumfries. Initially, my Scottish setting was in Dumfries for two reasons. It is close to the English border and its first Catholic Church, St. Andrews, was built in 1815 so it worked well for my context.

While I couldn’t see any references to a graveyard at St. Andrews, I dismissed that as inconsequential. That is, until I went to Dumfries and a helpful librarian at Ewart Library told me that, in fact, St. Andrews didn’t have a graveyard.  Catholics were not allowed to be buried in their own church. Instead, they had to be buried at the Church of Scotland’s St. Michaels. It has a very large graveyard still and, at the time my novel is set, there was a special section set aside for the burial of Catholics. Wow, I thought! What a treasure of information I could use – in one sentence at least.

In almost the next breath the librarian then casually mentioned that Catholics could be buried at Sweetheart Abbey, which was nearby! I drove to New Abbey pronto and, sure enough, there stands the imposing and beautiful ruins of ‘my’ Abbey.  After a long and contemplative stroll through the graveyard I walked through the Church’s once sacred ruins. The enthusiastic custodian told me that only Catholics who lived within one and half square kilometres of the Abbey could be buried there. Out went St. Andrews and Dumfries. Instead, I moved my setting about five miles south to New Abbey. I mean, who wouldn’t use this setting when they genuinely had the excuse? Isn't it beautiful?

 

Inside those imposing ruins