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Like something out of a religious rom-com, a nun and a monk had the ultimate meet-cute as they fell in love after accidentally brushing sleeves.
Lisa Tinkler, who went by Sister Mary Elizabeth, met friar Robert Opala for the first time at a Catholic convent in Preston in 2015.
Tinkler had been a nun in the Carmelite order for 24 years at that point, while Opala had been a Carmelite friar for 13 years.
Before she met Opala, Tinkler told BBC Radio 4's Beyond Belief programme she lived 'like a hermit' from the age of 19, spending 23 hours a day in silence in her 'cell' and only speaking to others during recreation periods which lasted for two half-hour periods each day.
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She had seen Opala, who had to commit himself to celibacy, as he conducted sermons, but Tinkler was only able to watch them through a grille.
Their lives changed one day when Tinkler was asked by the prioress - the monastic superior for nuns - to accompany Opala as he ate. They were left alone when the prioress left to take a phone call in another room, but didn't speak to one another at the time.
Their only real encounter came when Opala went to leave, with Tinkler explaining: "The prioress didn’t come back so I had to let him out."
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As she opened the door, Tinkler brushed against Opala's sleeve and felt 'a chemistry'.
"I was a bit embarrassed. And I thought, ‘Gosh, did he feel that too?’ And as I let him out the door it was quite awkward," she said.
Tinkler wore a veil during her time at the convent, so Opala didn't know so much as her hair colour.
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"He knew nothing about me really . . . He didn’t even know my worldly name," she said. In spite of this, a week after their first meeting Tinkler received a message from Opala asking if she would leave the convent to marry him.
The nun didn't reply immediately, but eventually told her superiors she was in love.
Her revelation prompted the prioress to ask Tinkler how she 'could have fallen in love with so little contact', with Tinkler explaining: "The prioress was a little bit snappy with me, so I put my pants and a toothbrush in a bag and I walked out, and I never went back as Sister Mary Elizabeth.”
In November 2015, Tinkler walked to a pub where Opala was meeting a friend.
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“When I saw her, my heart stopped,” Opala recalled. “I was paralysed by fear not by joy, because I knew in that moment I had to be entirely for Lisa, but I also knew we were not practically ready for that.”
Though both members of the couple found it hard to adjust to their new lives at first, they managed to get through the hard times and remain together years later.
Opala is now a rector in a Church of England church in Hutton Rudby in North Yorkshire, while Tinkler is a hospital chaplain.
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Commenting on their love, Tinkler said: “All through your religious life, you’re told your heart is supposed to be undivided and given to God.
“Suddenly I felt like my heart was expanding to hold Robert, but I realised it also held everything else that I had. And I didn’t feel any different about God, and that was reassuring to me.”
Topics: Sex and Relationships, Life
Emily Brown