St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-04-29
CLUSTERED tNUNS.
Father Cleary's Eloquent Ser
mon on Their Life and
Character.
OF THEIR OWN ACCORD
Do They Withdraw From a
World Of Pleasure to Do
Good.
STORIES OF ESCAPED NUNS
Products Of Diseased Imagi-
nations or the Malicious
Inventions of Fiends.

Nuns and Nunneries' was the
subject discussed by Father Cleary
last evening. An immense audience
crowded his church and manifested
the most intense interest in his lucid
explanation of the religious life among
|. the sisterhoods of the Catholic church.
The following is brief outline of
his discourse:
The religious communities of wom-
en- in the Catholic church have never
failed to challenge the admiration of
all honest and pure-minded people of
every class and creed, Only the ig-
norant, the vicious or the vile have
been unable to admire and reverence
the exalted type of Christian virtue
presented to a selfish world by de-
voted women in our religious COM
munitieS. Base and vulgar magma
tons can conceive of no noble motive
in the lives of the fairest of Gods
children. Depraved and sensual souls
are incapable of approaching the
pure and spiritual lives led by the
consecrated virgins of the Catholic
cloister.
The sister or nun-nowadays the
terms are used in similar sense-in
the Catholic church, of her own free
choice, without restraint or compul-
sion, retires from the attractiins of the
world, and dedicates her life to the
service Of God and her fellow Great
ures, under the vows of poverty,
chastity and obedience. The canons
of the church strictly forbid, under
the severest penalties, the receiving
or the retaining of any one III a con-
vent against her own free will. No
nun or sister is accepted as a pro-
fessed religious until after she has
undergone a term Of at least two or
more years-generally more-of ex-
perimental life in convent in order
that she may heve ample opportunity
of knowing whether convent life may
suit her tastes and inclinations, and
that the superiors of the convent may
learn whether the candidate has the
proper qualifications for the religious
life.
All the sensational gossip that has
been recklessly banded about in
society concerning escaped nuns
and nuns held under restraint in con-
vents is the product of diseased
imaginations or the malicious inven-
ton of unserupulous fiends.
There are in the United States to-
day more than $4,000 nuns, or sis
ters, in the converts of the Catholic
church, the noblest army that has
and unselfish souls, who spend their
sinless lives in the service of God
and humanity. They care for the
aged, they nurse the sick, they shell
ter the outcast, they give homes to
the homeless, they comfort the dy-
ing, they teach the ignorant and
they edify the world by the lowell
ness and sublime devotion of their
pure lives.
There is no misfortune to which
poor humanity falls heir that is
not alleviated by the sisterhoods of
the Catholic church. The soldiers of
the republic VINO offered their lives
in defense of the nation bear willing
and generous testimony to the de-
votedness of the Catholic sisters to
the sick and dying soldier. In their
miniStration of Christian charity our
sisters know no class or creed dis
tinctions; they serve with equal gan
crosby alike the believer and un-
believer, Protestant and Catholic,
whit and black.
In their vow Of voluntary poverty
they solve the meaning of our Sa-
vior's words: Blessed are the poor
in spirit In their abandonment of
the world, and in severing family
ties, they tell wondering world the
meaning of the Savior's declaration
that HE that loveth father and
mother more than me is not worthy
of me- They confide in the promises
of Christ made to those who have
left all things and followed Him.
duke xviii, 25-3O)
The Catholic church honors mar
rage as it has never beeen honored
by any other religious institution in
the world before. But Christ himself
led the life of a virgin; his ever
blessed mother was nevertheless a
virgin. The self-immolation of a yir-
ginal life, in order to devote all the
best energies of mind and heart to
the service of God and humanity, is
the noblest sacrifice that the human
heart can offer to God. By a life of
voluntary chastity. the Catholic nun
prepares herself while here to ''fol-
low the Lamb wherever He goeth''
in the brighter world beyond. BY
her vow of obedience for Gods sake
to the rules and constitutions of her
community, approved by the church,
the religious offers that generous
service of obedience which the Holy
Ghost tells. us is better than sacri-
flee. q. Sam. XIV, 22)
No baseness is more despicable and
vile than that of which those are
guilty who willfully malign and
calumniate the noble women OF any
church or ci,eedi who spend their
lives in personal sanctification, I'M
selfishly, and without hope of human
reward, serving God and ministering
to human misfortune. Honest people
are often deceived by the vile insinua-
tons and bold Misrepresentation of
INSCRIPTIONS enemies of religion and
exalted virtue. The escaped num-
has been abroad in the land, and to
the everlasting shame. of some de-
signing ministers of the gospel, the
more vile and revolving her disgusting
story, the more encouragement she
has received at their hands.
In 1886 coarse and vulgar book
was issued from the publishing house
OF Harper Brothers, of New York.
bearing the sensational title of Awful
Disclosures" by Maria Monk. II nre-
tended to unveil dark and hideous
crimes committed in a convent at
Montreal. Col. W. J.. Stone. editor
OF the Commercial ADVERTISER"
MADE a personal investiga ton of the
vie and repulsive charges contained
III CnlS volume. Be xyaS No f,.;.x,