The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1869-09-02
REVELATION an CONVENT LIFE
Thurman Cruetties Inflicted Upon Nun.
Vienna Correspondence of the London
Times, July IS.

| Vienna Correspondence of the Londol
Times, July IS.
While passing in the neighborhood o
Cracow austrian Poland,) on Friday last
l heard that the whole town was in \ fer.
MENTIONING to the follow ing shocking story
that was Just coming 70 light, and to which
further particulars are now added: the pa.
| pers have since been full of Ii.
rev oFys ago an anonymous letter, APP
parently written by woman's hand reach
cd the court of correction, stating that in
| the Carmelite convent q nun named Barba-
IA Abryk had been kept for years walled uI
In dark cell. Accordingly the vice pres
/ ident of the court placed the information in
7 the hands of an officer, who went to the
/ bishop and requested an admission to the
| convent. The bishop represented that it
was sure to be all AN invention, but that
since the court pressed it, he would allow it.
and thereupon handed over the officer to q
| priest.
The nunnery of the Carmelites stands
prettiy situated in a suburb OF the town.
and close by are the botanical gardens, and
| the promenade of the observatory-a favorite
| resort of the inhabitants of Cracow; and
! often and often, a fine summer evening,
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 q years.
The officer came to the door with the COM
mission, knocked, and was answered by a
FORTRESS, to whom he said he had come there
| TO see and speak TO the nun Barbara. The
FORTRESS drew her breath With astonishment,
/ fell back step or two and said it was i'm
possible; but, while she was turning her
self about to 60 away, the officer put his
hand on her and forbade her, in the name
of the law, to stir from the spot.
The party then entered, and was shown
through long corridor to the room of Sis
ter Barbara. 1t was cell eight feet by six
pal in al he inE
been walled up, and a narrow chink furnish
ed the only aperture through which. now
and then, ray of light fell upon that
gloomy prison. go on in the words of a
Vienna paper:
In dark sinking hole, on heap of
straw. sat or rather covered, a naked, Wild
grown, half-witted woman, who at the un-
usual appearance oflight and human beings.
dropped her hands and implored piteousIy.
Il am hungry, pity me, give me meat: /
will be Obedient." This dungeon, with its
little straw and much filth, and a dish of
lnouloy potatoes, without fire, bed, table,
or even chair, which no sun-streak cheer
ed or ire blaze ever warmed, mad the inhu-
man sisters chosen as the dwelling place
tor their shOuld-be companion; there had
they imprisoned her year after year since
lS4S. For u years did those dreadful Sis
tiers pass that cell, and to none of them had
IL 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
squalld, diseased, year upon year long un-
washed, 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 con-
vent of the Carmelites."
The officer Immediately ordered chimise
to be given the wretched creature, and him
self 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: lis this your sisterly love
Is this the way YOU think to come to leav-
en-? Furies, not women" And when thew
would have accused themselves, s.Silence.
ones you who disgrace religion.
away from my sight"
He suspended them, and the confessor and
the lady superior talked of breaking up the
and sent Barbara TO be clothed and
fed. While she was being lead away, she
asked anxiously, Wont they take me back
again to my graves y and inquired why she
was shut up there. Il have broken nv
vows, but these, these" darting wildly
around, and glaring furiously OF the Sisters,
''are no angels Then springing az the
confessor, she SHREDDED, 'You BEAST
On examination, the lady superior said
she had shut up Barbara on the doctors |
recommendation in 1913. The present doc
tor, who has held the position seven years. |
stated that be had never even seen Barbara |
once.
In the evening the poor creature became
wilder, and it was settled to move her next
day to the mad-house. On Friday, there |
fore, the 23d, the commission came again to
take her away. On seeing the sunlight and
green grass of the convent garden she was
with extreme joy, and when one |
of the sisters who accompanied her to the |
gate ran out, when the others 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 |
called for her afterward on the |
road. The fresh air was too much for her,
and during the journey she tainted.
In her new home Sister Barbara was pro-
vided with everything comfortable: 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 doc
tors have hopes of eventually restoring her
to her senses.
In the meanwhile, FROM the time of the
first visit of the officer, the knowledge of this
awful revelation began to spread abroad
aud create q sensation of indignant horror
the whole town. On Friday
morning hundreds of people had assembled
before the convent, smashed all the windows,
and crying, Away with the nuns ~ had al
ready broken into the interior, when body
of soldiers arrived in time to protect them.
On Saturday the same thing was repeated,
in spite of adjuratious 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 peo-
pie alter doing what more mischief il could
to the Carmelite convent, went off to attack
that of the Jesults and that of the Francis
cans. 1t was a critical hour for the whole
monastic orders of Cracow, The Jesuit rec
tor 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 indigna-
ton an immense number of people have
been arrested, but large petition has been
sent up to the town council to remove the
Jesuits and Carmelites out of Craeow.
Far into Sunday morning the disturbances
were still going on. Later in the day the
lady superior and her assistants were taken
under military escort TO be kept in ward,