The Abbey, in common with all Cistercian foundations, is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The earliest feasts relating to Mary grew from the cycle of feast days that celebrated the birth of Jesus. To these were added celebrations of Mary’s life - her conception, birth, presentation in the Temple in Jerusalem, and her death.

September 8th celebrates Mary’s birth, known from the 6th century as Marymas and recorded in a hymn of that era. It falls nine months after the feast celebrating her conception.

In France, Marymas is known as Our Lady of the Grape Harvest and the best bunches of grapes are taken to churches to be blessed. Not unlike our celebration of Lammas - loaf mass - on 1st August when the first bread from the first harvest of barley was blessed.

The Birth of Mary

The Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary
by Giotto, in the Scrovegni Chapel
Padua, Italy (c. 1305)