Messages from around the world flooded Twitter when Sister Catherine Wybourne nicknamed “Digitalnun” or “Digital Nun” died of cancer on February 24, aged 68.
Sister Wybourne was born in Catham, England in 1954. Wybourne studied history at Cambridge University and later became a banker. In 1981, at the age of 27, Wybourne decided to leave the financial world to join the Benedictine monastery of Stanbrook.
The Benedictine nun took an interest in technology when she ran a printing press in Stanbrook. In 2004, she founded Holy Trinity Abbey, now Howton Grove Abbey, in Herefordshire. That's when she wanted to make sure the monastery had an online presence. The nuns built their own websites, created podcasts, videos, and included interactive elements like forums and online meetings.
Sister Wybourne took to Twitter in 2009 and became known as “Digitalnun”, which means digital nun. With more than 28,000 followers, she tweets about life as a nun and world happenings. Her daily tweets ask to know the prayer intentions of her followers and her prayers for the world are unceasing. She also runs a blog.
In a 2015 interview with The Telegraph, she said, “Being informed doesn't mean you have to have a closed mind, or a closed approach to things. We describe the Internet as the fourth wall in our corridor and it is open to everyone.”
The nun continued to tweet until a few hours before her death. In her final moments, she expressed grief over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Even when she had to visit the hospital and suffer, she welcomed her death with joy and humour. In December 2021, Sister Wybourne received word from the doctors that there was nothing they could do for her medically and that she was close to death.
In one of her last blog posts, after receiving the news, she wrote, “Catholicism can be a difficult religion to live in but a beautiful religion to die.”
She went on to thank God, writing, “The God I believe in is so much greater and so much more joyful than we often think. I thank him for making me a Benedictine nun, it has been the greatest joy of my life, for the friendships he has inspired and the graces he has bestowed upon me in spite of all. my stubbornness and lack of cooperation.”
“I should also thank him for the difficulties.”
VietcatholicNews/ Conggiao.vn