Sister Wendy Beckett Interview by Bill Moyers

A reclusive nun lives in near-total solitude for 30 years…speaking only when required.

She’s never seen TV.

She then captivates 25% of the UK when the BBC puts her on, of all things….her own TV show.Wendy was now a TV star.

Thanks to Henry Oliver of “Second Act” for the tip on Wendy’s story.

Watch the Sister Wendy Beckett Interview by Bill Moyers

This interview of Sister Wendy by Bill Moyers was reportedly 1 hour long but the only video I could find is 41 minutes & 25 seconds. I’m not sure why — but it’s the best I could find. It was filmed at the Morgan Library in New York City.

Ratings:

  • My Rating: 98/100
  • IMDB Rating: 8.6
  • Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: na

Release Date: 1997

Great Sister Wendy Quotes (from the Interview)

Here are some highlights for me from the Moyer interview. Bill Moyers asks all the questions below.

There are some awesome Wendy quotes.

How did the BBC discover you?

[At the 3:12 mark]

“I think it happened through my writing for magazines…which a very intelligent young researcher read and thought she writes simply…she can communicate her ideas clearly and with a bit of sparkle. And perhaps she’d be good on television.

And he asked if he could come to the monastery and see me. And then he went back and told the producer who was making a film on the National Gallery and said Sister Wendy would be very good on the film.”

— Sister Wendy Beckett

My most likely guess is that Nicholas Rossiter was the researcher Sister Wendy is referring to (source: The Independent Obituary on Sister Wendy).

And I’m guessing that the magazine whose writings of Wendy that Rossiter read was Modern Painters Magazine (source: The Telegraph Obituary on Sister Wendy).

But the researcher’s boss, to get the researcher off his back, did agree to let Sister Wendy to the National Gallery Museum.

And Sister Wendy won over the Producer and the rest of the BBC team.

I love that story!

Many nuns in this country have abandoned their British habit…has that occured to you? as you began this series?

[At 4:42]

“The reason why I wear a habit is simply for the practical convenience — I never have to think about what I’ll put on. I shaved my head so I don’t have to worry about a hairstyle.”

“And since I wanted to give all my time to prayer, the less time I needed to spend upon myself I the better. And that’s why I wear a habit.”

— Sister Wendy Beckett

What do you do every day?

[At 9:56 mark]

Well, I pray a lot. Basically that’s what I do. Pray. I live in the sunshine of God’s presence…it’s absolute bliss.”

Living in solitude, how did you study the art?

[at 10:15 mark]

Books. Books and cards (post cards).

Mostly, I was given art magazines by friends.

And anything I liked the look of I’d write to the gallery and say have you got a card of that artist…and they’d send it back.”

…and then I began to amass quite a lot of books because people wanted to give me an expensive present.”

— Sister Wendy Beckett

What would you do with them (the postcards of art and books)?

[at 11:22]

Books, of course, read and re-read…and prop them up to look at the pictures.

Cards: put them on a little stand…and contemplate them…look at them.”

— Sister Wendy Beckett

You talk about surrendering to the wonder of the story. What do you mean by that? Surrendering.

[at 16:30]

To me, it’s a crucial…noun or verb. You’re not going to have labels. You’re not going to defend yourself by the ramparts of your own ego.

You’re going to open yourself to what this has to give you. And that’s not easy to do.”

— Sister Wendy Beckett

So when you asking me to give myself, to surrender to a work of art, what are you asking me to.

[at 17:35]

“I’m asking you to let this work speak to you without setting up pre-conditions.

Without you in any way defending the fragility of your ego.

Because works of art can often teach us things about ourself that we’d rather not know.

There going to take you to another’s vision. Only to bring you back to your own truth.”

…Just try to see as a child sees…a child sees innocently…a child sees what’s there…it doesn’t see what labels and prejudices because it doesn’t know about them…it’s just there.”

— Sister Wendy Beckett

How do you feel when you discover a discrepancy between the character of the artist and the quality of the work? David [Jacques-Louis David] during the French Revolution had no second thoughts about thousands of people going to the guillotine. Picasso… truly mistreated women. What does it say that a dreadful immoral person…can produce great art?

[at 24 min]

“I think one has to make an absolute distinction between the what the artist is like and what the work is like.

All that concerns us…is the work.

Either an artist creates art of the good in them…or an artist creates out of a desire of a good that isn’t in them.”

— Sister Wendy Beckett

What is your favorite sacred art that does this for you?

[at 30:15]

“I’m torn between saying Poussin…and Cezanne. I think those are two profoundly sacred artists.”

— Sister Wendy Beckett

The rest of the interview is equally awesome.

Thanks for reading!

Rob Kelly

Chief Maniac, Daily Doc