Quiet Visitations

I wander by the narrow private laneway to this cloister several times a week and always pause for a few minutes, drawn by the stillness of this secluded enclosure in Westboro Village, a place apart which is bounded by high stone walls and fences, whiskery old trees, dense grapevines and ivy. It is one of my favorite places in the village, and I wish I could capture its peaceful ambience on film.

The cloister is the residence of the Sisters of the Visitation, a Roman Catholic religious order founded by St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal in the early seventeenth century at Annecy, France — the Ottawa community was established by sisters from the French motherhouse at Annecy in 1910 and is situated in a magnificent old stone mansion off Richmond Road which dates from 1840. The Sisters of the Visitation are an old contemplative religious order composed of two distinct entities: the cloistered nuns of the First Federation (of which the Ottawa monastery is a member), and the uncloistered Visitandine (or Salesian) sisters of the Second Federation, who do not live "behind the walls" and work within their local communities as teachers, counsellors and caregivers.

One can see little of the monastery from the street, brown sandstone walls, roof tops, gables and upper level windows, and I suspect there are many Westboro residents who are not aware that the place exists — for me that is part of its appeal. Just visible over the vines and the edge of the white roof in the second photograph is a statue of the Madonna of the Visitation which closely resembles Tara, the Buddhist deity known and loved in so many different cultures as Kannon or Kuan Yin — Our Lady exudes a timeless sense of peace and serenity in her quiet place above the monastery entrance, and a few moments spent nearby are as restful and soothing as time in a faraway mountain temple or sanctuary garden. The best "long view" of the monastery church is from across the soccer field at nearby Hilson School.