AN EAST Lancashire councillor was among 100 virgins who attended a mass to celebrate the revival of their ancient tradition.

Coun Winifrid Lesley Jackson, the sister of Labour's high flying Margaret Beckett, is a consecrated virgin of the Roman Catholic Church.

The virgins, who remain strictly pure but lead active and successful lives, gathered this week at Plymouth Cathedral for the ceremony.

Coun Jackson lives alone in Rishton, where she represents the Eachill ward as a Labour representative on Hyndburn Council.

The Roman Catholic rite, by which women worshippers undertake to become consecrated virgins, was revived by the vatican in 1970 after dying out 1,000 years earlier. All those involved take a vow of celibacy and dedicate their lives to prayer and good work.

The virgins are aged from 21 to 65 and are answerable only to their diocesan bishop, having no rank or official organisation.

Coun Jackson has remained close to her sister, Margaret, who was recently made President of the Board of Trade in Labour's new government, despite taking different paths in life.

The pair, and their other sister, Eileen, were brought up in Ashton-under-Lyne by a Protestant father and Catholic mother.

Coun Jackson read economics at the London School of Economics before becoming a nun at an Isle of Wight convent.

She also taught maths and economics at St Wilfrid's High School - the Blackburn Church of England school - until her retirement two years ago.

A spokesman said: "We never knew why she left the convent to take up teaching but she never forced her religion on anyone at the school."

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