A NUN who has spent more than a decade travelling the world in the name of religion stopped off in Malvern last weekend.

Sister Ruth Augustus aims to visit every country in the world and has been to 200 in the past 13 years.

Her visit to Malvern was part of a year-long tour of Britain.

Everywhere the 62-year-old missionary goes, she carries with her a 3ft statue of the Virgin Mary, whose arm was lost after being broken off in Amsterdam's red-light district.

Sister Ruth takes the statue to bars, pubs, hospitals and even prisons and says it encourages people to talk to her.

"People see the statue, tell me their problems and I pray with them," said the Birmingham-born nun, who was in Malvern from Friday to Sunday.

She began her epic round-the-world journey after reading about the Apocalypse in the Book of Revelations, an event she believes will take place as the result of nuclear war in 2006.

During her travels, Sister Ruth said there had been several attempts on her life, from poison in her drink to being pushed down the stairs. However, she was not expecting her time in Malvern to be quite as dangerous.

"It's very beautiful, one of the most beautiful places in England," she said.

The next stop on Sister Ruth's evangelical journey was Hereford.