Do you sing Latin hymns to Our Lady? Do you know what the words mean? Our Lady in Latin is a residential weekend retreat designed to enable complete beginners in Latin to learn all the Latin they need to sing three of our best loved Marian Antiphons.
It takes place at Boarbank Hall, Cumbria from 10th to 12th/13th July 2026. Boarbank Hall is near Grange-over-Sands, overlooking Morecambe Bay, and for nearly 100 years, has been the home to a community of Augustinian Sisters who also run a highly regarded nursing home: Marymount.
In addition to expert tuition on Latin, this weekend retreat will include talks on the musical settings of the Marian Antiphons, with musical illustrations and an opportunity to practise singing them alongside supportive leaders and participants.
The course will be led by Alison Samuels, who taught Latin and Classics for many years for the Open University and many institutions in Oxford, where she lives. Most of her current teaching is online, with a global outreach. She will be assisted by Sr Margaret Atkins OSA of the Boarbank Community; she and Alison met as post-graduate Classicists in Cambridge. Alison’s husband, Robert Samuels, a Senior Lecturer in Music at the Open University, will lead the musical part of the weekend.
There will also be time to walk, relax, pray, Mass and sing Daily Office with the resident Community of Sisters and enjoy the warm hospitality and good food of the Boarbank Guest House.
For more information about this and other events at Boarbank Hall please visit: https://boarbankhall.org.uk/whats-on/
…or contact Sr Margaret directly: margaret@boarbankhall.org.uk.