Sr Philippa

There are several Sisters who have spent only a few years in the Community. For some, such as Sr Martha, this was due to an early death, but others, such as Sr Philippa, left. It is often difficult to follow through the lives of these Sisters after they left, and to know what happened. There will be something in the Minutes of the Community Chapter about the fact of their leaving, but very seldom are any reasons given, although the Sisters may have been aware of them at the time. But here is what I know about Sr Philippa.

The oldest child of Edward and Emma Norman, Philippa Ida Caroline Manners Norman was born in 1871, and baptised in Goadby Marwood, Leicestershire, as were most of her siblings. The family were living in London at the time, where Edward worked as a clerk in the War Office. Two more children followed not long after Philippa’s birth: Otho, in 1873, and Winifred in 1875. There was then a gap of several years before Dorothy was born in 1885, and the youngest child Alma in 1890 or 1891. Edward continued to work for the War Office, and the family lived in London. In 1891, all the children are registered at home. For some reason, I do not have the 1901 census, but we do know that Philippa made her vows in the Community of All Hallows on the feast of the Conversion of St Paul in 1899; this would have been late January, and, as a Choir Sister, she would have had a two year Novitiate, implying that she joined in 1896 for a few months as a Postulant, before being clothed as a Novice, although we do not have those dates. In 1901, she is at the Community House, aged 29, although the Census does not give details of the work of Individual Sisters, so I do not know what her responsibilities were. She left around, or not long after, December 1906 and she would have been officially released from her vows by the Bishop.

What happened afterwards? The only definite piece of information I have been able to find is that Philippa ICM Norman died aged 63 in Shanghai at some point between 1936 and 1940. Even this proves slightly confusing, as the dates do not add up. If she was born in 1871, she would have been 63 in 1934, so either I have transcribed something wrongly (perfectly possible) or there was some confusion as to her age. It is also possible that these are two different people, but given her initials, this seems less likely. What happened in between these times? Well, I know that she is not registered with her family in either 1911 or 1921, nor in the 1939 register.  Her sister, Mildred, married Frank Jarvis, and they lived in Wimbledon; Emma continued to live with her younger two daughters, and by 1921 all three had moved in with Otho, along with Alma’s husband. The family’s history does give some indication as to why Philippa may have left: as far as I can tell, Edward died in 1906. He had GWR shares, which were left to Otho, who was working as a motor engineer. It was also in 1906 that Mildred married. These two events, coming in the same year as Philippa applied to leave, may or may not have been linked, but I do wonder whether they forced her to think about her life, and her future.

I can speculate, but that is unlikely to bring us any further. That Sr Philippa left would have been a source of sorrow to the Sisters, but may have been the right decision for her. It may be that her time in Community led her to a point where she needed to go forward beyond the Community. We will never know. Leaving the Community may sometimes seem like a failure, especially for those who made life vows, but I think this is to view it wrongly. The Community has always had Sisters who left, and I think to an extent this is positive. To remain in a place which no longer fits who you are is damaging to yourself, and to the Community. To be able to leave implies a setting free, where hopefully those women who left can find a truer path; a place where they, and their faith, can flourish, and where they can serve God. That is not to imply that a Sister leaving always felt positive; I know the Sisters themselves were often quite distressed about it, and it can have been no easier for the Sisters who left, and who may have had a difficult path to get to that decision. To come to an ending, particularly of somewhere you felt God was calling you to, is distressing; but it may well be that God is calling a person onwards. We may in time come to realise that the place that felt like failure was exactly the place where God was with us and transforming us, however slightly, into becoming more that person who we truly are.  

Mother House with Sisters, around the time Sr Philippa was there