Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1869-08-18
Vienna Correspondence, London Times.l
Revelations Of Convent Life In Austria.
A Nun Imprisoned for 2I years.

A Nun Imprisoned for 21 years.
While passing i'm the neighbOrhOOd
of CracOw on Friday last, l heard
that the whole town was in a ferment
owing to the following shocking story
that was just coming to light, and to
which further particulars are now add
ed. The papers have since been full
of il =
A few days ago an anonymous let
! ter, apparently written by a woman's
| hand, reached the Court of Corree-
| ton, stating that IN the Carmelite
| Convent a nun named Barbara Abryk
had been kept for years walled up in
dark cell. Accordingly the Vice Presi-
dent of the court placed the informa-
/ ton in the hands of an officer, who
went to the bishop and requested all
admission to the convent. The bish-
| op represented that il was sure to be
all an invention, but that since the
court pressed il he would allow il, and
thereupon handed over the officer to a
| priest.
The nunnery of the Carmelites
stands prettily situated in a suburb of
the town, and close by are the botan-
/ ical gardens and the promenade Ofthe
!
| inhabitants of CracOw; and often and
often on fine summer evenings have
they passed beneath these gloomy
walls without ever dreaming of the
sad and terrible tragedy that has been
silently passing there for the last
twenty-One years.
The officer came to the door with
the commission, knocked, and was
answered by FORTRESS, to whom he
said he had come there to see and to
speak to the nun Barbara. The port
ress drew her breath with astOnish-
ment, fell back a step or two, and said
it was impossible; but while she was
turning herself about to go away, the
officer put his hand on her and for
babe her, in the name of the law, to
stir from the spot. The party then
entered and was shown through a
| long corridor to the room of Sister
Barbara. 1t was a cell eight by six
feet in size, next the sink; the win
dow had been walled up, and a mar
row chink furnished the only aper-
ture through which, now and then, a
ray of light fell upon the gloomy
prison. go on in the words of a
Vienna paper:-
ain a dark, sinking hole, on aheap
of straw, sat, or rather covered, a
naked, wild-grOwn, half-witted wO-
man, who, at the unusual appearance
of light and human beings, dropped
her hands andimplored piteOusly. az
am hungry; pity me, give me meat;
L will be obedient." This dungeon,
with its little straw and much filth,
and dish of mouldy potatoes, with
out fire, bed, table or even a chair,
which no sunstreak cheered or fire
blaze ever warmed, had the inhuman
Sisters" chosen as the dwelling
place for their should be companion;
there had they imprisoned her year
after year since 1913. For twenty-One
years did those dreadful Sisters pass
| that cell, and to none of them had it
ever entered to take compassion on
their poor victim. And now, half
human, half beast, with her body
covered with dirt, with her legs
shrunk and withered, with her head
squalid, diseased, year upon year long
unwashed, a terrible being revealed
herself, such as Dante himself, with
all his powers could not have depicted
or imagined. So kneeled there that
woful victim in the Convent of the
Carmelites."
The officer Immediately ordered a
chemise to be given the wretehed
creature, and himself went to fetch
the Bishop. At the sight of the poor
sufferer the Bishop was deeply moved
called the nuns together, and, re-
preaching them violently for their
inhuman treatment, said, SIS this
your sisterly love? Is this the way
you think to come to heaven? Furies
not women" And when they would
have excused themselves, "Silence,
miserable ones! you who disgrace re-
ligion, away from my sight"
He suspended them, and then the
Confessor and the Lady Superior
talked of breaking up the nunery,
and sent Barbara to be clothed and
fed. While she was being led away,
she asked, anxiously, won't they
take me back again to my grave?"
and inquired why she was shut up
there. al have broken my vows, but
these, these" darting wildly round,
and glaring furiously on the Sisters,
''are no angels" Then springing at
the ConfessoT, she shrieked, "You
beast!"
On examination the Lady Superior
said she had shut up Barbara on the
Doctors recommendation in lS4S. The
present doctor, who has held the posi-
ton seven years, stated that he had
never even seen Barbara once.
In the evening the poor creature be-
came wilder, and it was settled to
move her next day to the mad-house.
On Friday, therefore, the 23d, the
commission came again to take her
away. On seeing the sunlight and
green grass of the convent garden she
convulsed with extreme Joy, and when
one of the Sisters who accompanied
her to the gate ran out, when the 9TH
ers turned back, embraced and kissed
her, she was so touched with the
strange sympathy that she implOred
the author of it to come away with
her, and incessantly called for her
afterwards on the road. The fresh air
was too much for her, and during the
the journey she tainted.
In hernew home Sister Barbara was
provided with everything cOmforta-
BILE; but at first she kept frequently
rising from her bed to lie on the bare
floor, as she had been used. Since
being properly washed and dressed,
the wildness has quieted down, and
the doctors have hopes of eventually
restoring her to her senses.
In the meanwhile, from the time of
the first visit of the officer, theknow-
| ledge of this awful revelation began
| to spread abroad and create a sensa-
! ton of indignant horror throughout
the whole town, On Friday morning
hundreds of people had assembled be-
fore convent, smashed all the win
dows, and crying, away with the
nuns" had already broken into the
interior, when body of soldiers az
rived in time to protect them. On
| Saturday the same thing was repeated,
in spite of adjurations of the papers to
the people to wait calmly. By the
evening two detachments of soldiers
had been called out, for the mob,
which had swelled to 1000 people,
after doing what more mischief it
could to the Carmelite Convent, went
off to attack that of the Jesuites and
that of the Franciscans. 1t was a
critical hour for the whole monastic
orders of Cracow. The Jesuit rector
| was insulted, many Jesuits wounded
with stones, and every pane of glass
in the monastic house was broken to
pieces. For these manifestations of
their Indignation an immense number
of people have been arrested, but a
/ l.. 4.