The nuns were wrapping up their night prayer when I entered the chapel at Tyburn Convent. I couldn’t see them but heard their soft voices singing the last phrases of the ‘Salve Regina’: ‘O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.’ Across the road in Hyde Park, an outdoor concert heaved. What was I doing, spending my Friday night here instead?
I had come to see if the rumours of a ‘nun girl summer’, as it’s being called on TikTok, were true. Earlier this year, a video of two nuns discussing their ultimate frisbee skills went viral: ‘Sister, you are so good at that!’ ‘Sister Miriam, you also are!’ As the pair record an episode of the podcast Dominican Sisters Open Mic, they’re filled with the kind of blissed-out giggly joy you really only see in nuns and people on edibles. I then heard stories about young women moving into convents, and of silent monastic retreats getting booked up months in advance. Bibles are said to be flying off the shelves, with record sales in both the US and UK last year.
When I hear my friends talk about having a ‘celibacy era’, they sound more relieved than repressed
As I might have expected, the Tyburn chapel was half-filled with little old stockinged ladies and their inexplicable number of shopping bags (‘We’re small in numbers so we’ll all have to sing a bit louder this time,’ the usher said). But even if the ‘nun girl summer’ trend has not resulted in overflowing pews or more women taking the veil, it points to a spiritual ache among young women that is real. Nuns, we hope, can offer some guidance.
