On this Sunday's Lyric Feature, writer Sara Baume and radio producer Regan Hutchins visit the nuns at St Mary's Abbey, the only Cistercian monastery for women in Ireland, located in Glencairn, County Waterford - listen to Out Of The Marvellous above.
Below, Sara tells us what inspired their pilgrimage...
One afternoon late in August, walking in a loop around a forest with my friend, Regan, we started to have one of those conversations that could have gone on forever.
Some detail of the rutted path, perhaps, or the way the light fell through the canopy had led us to the topic of prayer, and I remember him telling me how he would occasionally repeat the Hail Mary in Irish as a means of calming his mind, and I told him how I had spent the summer attempting to knit together some kind of a tailor-made prayer, mainly out of short quotes from writers and artists I admired: Annie Dillard, Agnes Martin, Gerard Manley Hopkins, with a bit of Buddhist scripture and Julian of Norwich thrown in.
There is something distinctly special, in my experience, about the projects that stem from a conversation with a friend, a position of mutual curiosity, a foundation of symbiotic understanding.
Why, in 2025, had I felt suddenly moved to design a prayer? In the early months of the year, my mother had undergone surgery and I had spent a period of time staying in my childhood home, caring for her. By the summer my mother had one eye less, but was well again, whereas my old dog, who only ever had a single eye, was perilously close to death. It was such a sad summer, watching him deteriorate and constantly trying to weigh his quality of life against his capacity for suffering. 'I no longer feel protected from random misfortune,’ I confessed to Regan that afternoon in the forest, ‘and I desperately want to be.’
In retrospect it was odd that we had never discussed religion before, because it is a recurring theme in each of our respective practices. Regan has produced radio documentaries about pilgrim paths and churches, and in all of his work there is an attention to stillness, a sense of awe for nature, an unforced empathy for the belief systems of the people he talks to.
In my artwork I have long been interested in sacred objects and iconography, and in my writing I continuously circle around the idea of daily ritual; questioning how to pursue a life of meaningful observance minus the constraints of organised religion, and outside of the refuge of a cloistered community.
There is something distinctly special, in my experience, about the projects that stem from a conversation with a friend, a position of mutual curiosity, a foundation of symbiotic understanding. When Regan and I set out to make the Lyric Feature that became Out of the Marvellous it was with the modest intention of seeking out artists and monastics who might have a different and deeper perspective on our recurring theme, and of allowing our conversation in the forest to go on, if not forever, then at least for a little while.
Out of the Marvellous with Sara Baume and Regan Hutchins is the Lyric Feature Sunday 22nd of Februray at 6 pm - listen to more from The Lyric Feature here
