Works of Lady Lucy Herbert of Powis, recusant in Bruges.

[Recusants] / Lady Lucy Herbert of Powis. Several Excellent Methods of Hearing Mass With fruit & benefit according to the institution of that Divine Sacrifice and the intention of our Holy Mother the Church With Motives To induce all good Christians, particularly Religious Persons to make use of the same. At Bruges: Printed with permission by John de Cock, 1742. 8vo [15.5 x 9.6 cm], 140 pp, [1] f. index, 114 pp., with woodcut title vignette and initial.

[Bound with]:

Lady Lucy Herbert of Powis. Several Methods and Practises of Devotion: Appartaining To a Religious Life.

At Bruges: Printed with permission by the Widow of J. de Cock, 1743. 137 pp. [3] pp. index, [1] f, [“A Prayer for our King and Countrey”], with woodcut title device, head-piece, initial. Bound in contemporary mottled calf, gold-tooled spine and boards, red sprinkled edges. Spine and boards quite rubbed, joints tender. Remnants of label over device on first title page, occasional minor edge wear and staining, minor toning.

Second editions (firsts in 1722) of the recusant nun Lady Lucy Herbert of Powis’s two works on Catholic devotional practice, Several Excellent Methods of Hearing Mass (1742) and Several Methods and Practises of Devotion (1742), both published in Bruges, where she was prioress. Both the first and second editions of these titles have become very scarce in commerce: Rare Book Hub lists no auctions since 2005.

In Several Excellent Methods of Hearing Mass, Lady Lucy recommends strategies for spicing up one’s attendance at mass by imagining it as, e.g., a way to free souls from purgatory, to honor Christ’s Incarnation & Nativity, prepare oneself for death, etc.

The second title, Several Methods and Practises of Devotion, provides methods for general Prayer, Meditation, Thanksgiving, “The Manner of making Colloquies,” “Some methods Which may serve in Desolation and Dryness,” a weekly program of visiting the Sacrament, “Motives for loving and hounoring our B[lesse]d Lady and to raise a high esteem for the devotion of the Beads,” “A Practice of Devotion to our Angel Guardian,” etc.

The book closed with “A Prayer for our King and Countrey,” asking God’s protection for “your anointed our Sovereign King James, and all the Royal Family,” i.e., the Old Pretender.

“Lady Lucy Herbert (1669–1744), prioress of St Augustine, Bruges, and devotional writer, was born in Redcastle or Powis Castle in Montgomeryshire, the fourth daughter of William Herbert, first marquess and titular duke of Powis (c. 1626–1696), politician, and his wife, Elizabeth Somerset (c.1634–1691), younger daughter of Edward Somerset, second marquess of Worcester, and governess to James II’s children. Born into a Roman Catholic family, Lady Lucy decided that she wanted to become a nun, and she spent some time touring English convents on the continent. In February 1692 she visited the priory of the English canonesses of St. Augustine at Bruges and, struck by their simplicity, she decided to enter their order. She was admitted the following month and was professed on 1 June 1693, taking the name in religion of Sister Teresa Joseph. Lady Lucy had a long and successful life in the convent. Having been elected prioress on 5 March 1709 she made many improvements, increasing convent membership, erecting a new chaplain's house, and rebuilding the convent church. In 1738 she also installed a fine marble altar imported from Rome. After the Jacobite rising in 1715 her sisters, Lady Montagu and Lady Nithsdale, paid her a long visit at the convent … She died in Bruges on 19 January 1744 and was buried, probably in the convent, on 23 January” (DNB).

OCLC and KVK locate U.S. copes of these works at:

Several Excellent Methods of Hearing Mass: Georgetown, Emory, Newberry, UT Austin, and Xavier (Louisiana).

Several Methods and Practises of Devotion: Newberry, Notre Dame, UT Austin, and Penn.

The 1722 first edition is held at UCLA, Harvard, Ave Maria (Florida), Emory, Texas Austin, Yale, Newberry, and Stanford.