THE INCARCERATED NUN.

Southland Times, Issue 1151, 22 October 1869, Page 2

THE INCARCERATED NUN.

I (to xhb bditob op thi inns.) Sir,— ln the Times of yesterday, you have reproduced, from the European Mail quite sensational news, with an. avalanche of testimonies, which makes one almost believe that the English paper had the desire of making a little scandal. What is the morale of all that? That there tnay W bad nuns ?_;Who .d®.^* 8 that? neither you nor T certamTyYand though I never: .met any, I sincerely believe that among the hundred-thousand nuns that are perhaps; over the world, there are some who entered the, religious life without vocation*, or who have lost it. It would be astounding if it were not so. Our Saviour chose twelve Apostles, and one proved false, and so false that his name is the synonym of what is most abject. "Why then show so great animosity? for animosity such a gathering of testimonies seems to be. As a consolation for your Catholic readers who may have been somewhat painfully startled by yesterday's paper, will you be kind enough to reproduce a word of defence, I cut it from the Tablet of the Bth August, I am sorry that it will not be so-exciting as the article published by the European Mail, for in what we have read yesterday there were very beautiful scenes indeed. Who could help being moved on seeing that poor woman with her folded arms, saying: "lam hungry; have pity on me !" I am not quite sure that I did not cry when I read it. The indignation of the Bishop is also most pathetic. The news taken fro <n the Czar were rather sad;: Budden death, instruments of torture, four coffins which had no reason to be thereat; all; that is not pleasant. No, I prefer the nice little anecdote from the Kraj t the night, the patrol, the travelling carriage, the young woman with a nun's dress and a night-cap, crying out: " I am lost !" and fainting in the arms of the guardsman. Now is not that nice ? Quite romantic! quite a charming picture seen with advantage in the dim and dreamy light of a remembrance of 21 years, as the scene is supposed to have taken place in 1848. The Carmelite Nttk at Cracow.— The Uhivers of the sth instant gives some information received by it from a correspondent who,' when an inhabitant of Cracow, had been acquainted with the unfortunate nan, whose case has been turned to such bad account by the

enemies of Chris tianity. It appears that she belongs to an honourable family, and had received an excellent education. Under the impression that she was called to a religious life, she first inteuded to enter the Convent of the Visitation. After several trials, however, she wns thought to be mistaken as to her vocation. Her piety was fervent, and, in many respects, she showed great merit ; but she was so excessively scrupulous that the Sisters feared she would lose her senses. At a later date she offered herself to the Carmelites, and, by this time, her attacks of scruples bad probably become less frequent or more under control, for she was received iuto their convent. Her mental infirmities, however, eventually returned and grew worse and worse until scrupulosity ended in absolute madness. There was no other cause whatever for her becoming deranged, and there is not a syllable of truth in the filthy stories invented on this occasionby liberal journalists, who are incapable even of respecting the chaste reputation of a poor mad nun. When a daughter unhappily loses her senses, her family is filled with a natural repugnance to send her away from home to a madhouse. The good Carmelite Sisters of Cr.cow obeyed the. human feeling, and, under the just and kind idea that their insane sister would fare better in their hands than under the care of a mad doctor, they kept*' her in their convent. It was a heavy cross to them, but Carmelites only five to carry the cross. Had they, tin the other hand, sent her away from them, they would inevitably have been accused of want of sisterly charity. It is asserted that she was ill-treated, and the nuns are accused of endless atrocities towards her. But is there any foundation for these most unlikely stories? What man of sense will believe them on the strength of newspaper paragraphs, picked up no one ! knows where ? ' These writers first stated j that the poor mad woman had lived 21 years in a hole so small and so filthy that a strong man would not have existed 21 days in it. They have since been compelled to acknowledge that the "filthy hole "is in fact a clean and well-aired room, and, in a word, so unobjectionable a chamber, that the authorities allowed her to remain in it during the 36 hours which elapsed between their first visit and her. removal. The same journalists have also admitted that a close examination of the poor nun's body has disclosed no traces of the tortures she was at first said to have suffered for 21 years. But these odious calumnies were invented for the purpose of exciting the people to a riot, and, by the help of the Polish Jews, they were successful. The Austrian Government is indebted to these worthies for having supplied the long-expected pretext for attacking the religious bodies. It baa been immediately laid hold of ; and on the 29th of July, Dr. Giskra, the Minister of the Interior, wrote to the chief of the Administration at Lemberg, to enquire whether any motive could be suggested for delaying the withdrawal of the yearly allowance of 1,800 florins which had previously been granted to the convent, and also whether either the Bishop of Cracow (Mgr. Galecki) or the adminis trator thought it desirable that the existence of the convent itself should be prolonged. The reason given in this letter is simply the excitement occasioned by the Carmelite affair, together with the " revolting facts " of the case : — and this, without any enquiry into the truth of the story, -and without any opportunity of defence being allowed to the sisters. It appears to the TTnivers, in conclusion, that there is not the shadow of a proof against the Carmelite Sisters of Cracow, and that they have been made the victims of an abominable combination of intriguing Jews, Protestants, and free-thinkers, with the complicity, if not under the direct inspiration, of the Austrian Ministry. — I «n, &c., Philalkbie. October 19, 1869.