The times., 1898-11-14
MoNTREAL's STRANGE CONVENT
The PLY hysicinn-Founder Is the Only
Male Occupant.

Ottawa. Nov. l3-The city of Montreal
can boast of the strangest convent that
can probably be found in the civilized
world. i is known as the Convent of the
HOLY Face. 1t is a very strange place.
and very few persons have ever got much
farther than its reception room An old
French-Canadian doctor founded the
convent in his own house, where at the
same time he keeps up the practice OF
medicine. The first members of the COM
munity were the five daughters OF cou-
pie whom he had known for years The
eldest of these was. at the time of the
inception of the institution, not over
eighteen. These girls lead a lie OF reh-
sious rigor, in which scourges and chains
and coffins as beds. and skulls as ora
n ents of their cells play part. AL
though they have a mother superior in
the eldest sister the doctor is final ar
bitter of all questions that pertain to the
management of the community in whlch
he the sole male in the place lives.
Many of the good Catholics of Montreal
have declared when asked that the insti-
tuition is a very proper one and hundreds
of women go there monthly to have
prayers repeated and to obtain roSarles,
which the little nuns make.
An English woman who visited the
place in company with French-Canadian
describes it as being more like a children's
home. The nuns, some of whom are not
more than fourteen years of age, laugh
and play about the house like so many
happy little ones who are quite contented
with their lot. The two women managed,
after some difficulty, to obtain an inter-
view with the superioress, young wo-
man of about twenty-five years. From
what she told them it appears that there
are at present about fourteen nuns, most
of them under eighteen years old. They
take them as young as fourteen. The
black dress is the regular everyday uni
form. but at night and on feast days they
pat on a dress with crimson front, upon
which is painted the saint face"-the
face of the Saviour-and wear crimson
veil. Dressed like this they sleep in their
coffins After some trouble permission
was obtained from the doctor to show the
visitors his cell. They first entered the
chapel, which was made out of fairly
large-sized room, with benches at the
side. A little altar was erected against
the rear wall, containing an altar lamp,
some wax candles and life-size statue
of the Virgin Mary. To the right of the
chancel was the doctors cell.
The doctors coffin had small cushion
at the top and blanket, and the whole
was covered with a black pail and deco
rated with large silver cross. The su-
perioress explained that their cells were
exactly the same, only more narrow, and
their collins contained nothing. When
she was asked if they did not find them
uncomfortable and horrid to sleep in. she
replied that, although at the beginning
the coffins were rather creepy and
strange, they had become so accustomed
to them they would be really sorry if
they would be obliged to do without
them.
In Summer they have beautiful gar
den behind the house, with the stations
of the cross, but beyond going there and
to mass the nuns never go out. Every
Friday they chain one another up and
scourge one another. but their appear
ance does not show that these harsh
measures have either affected their physi-
cal welfare or their good spirits.