INTERVIEW: Mother Abbess of thriving traditionalist order in US discusses their move to a 19th-century abbey in England

The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles are one of the success stories in the contemporary Church.

Going from strength to strength, they buck trends in mainstream Catholic women’s religious orders that have seen vocations dry up and schools, hospitals and orphanages run by sisters close all across the old Catholic heartlands.

Not so with the US-based Benedictines of Mary. With a median age well under thirty, they are a departure from anything considered standard in the last six decades. They wear the habit that their foundress, Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, OSB, fought vociferously to keep – and even at the bleakest points resorted to making her own – they sing the Old Liturgy of the Hours and attend the Traditional Latin Mass.