New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-08-23
EXILED NUNS HERE.
Dominican Sisters Settle in Ne1o
Home Near Baltimore.

In a severely unpretentious house, whose incur
| tanned windows blanky out on Mount Druid
Hin Baltimore, the first of the eHiled nuns or
France have found temporary shelter. The house
is now called the Convent Of the Perpetual Rosary,
and the Sisters are the Dominican nuns OF Rouen.
whose convent of Bon SecOurs was closed by order
of the French Government II is evidently their
intention to settle permanently in the United States
fer they have purchased picturesque Irvington.
near Baltimore, thirteen acres Of ground, on which
IS a pretty house containing sixteen rooms. The
11perty cost SIS 000 and architect has been in
structed to prepare plans for a chapel and other
i'm prove1nents at cost of 100000.
The nuns could scarcely have found prettier
spot for their future home than that selected in
Maryland The house stands isolated on an emf
nence. ard commands a magnificent view OF the
surrounding country Adjoining it is The College
of Mount ST. Joseph the bell tower of which can
be seen through the trees. and in the near neigh
borhood the summer homes of many wealthy
Baltimoreans.
The house is occupied present, but the tenant
VIII vacate it at the enc Of month, and then
the work of transforming it into convent Will be
begun. When ali is ready the Sisters in the Old
World will be notified and general pilgrimage to
America win be begun. By that time the convent
grounds win be inclosed by a wall twelve feet
high. which viii shut from the view of the world
the Sisters of the ancient Order Of St. Dominic.
When the gates have closed the exted nuns they
Will seldom afterward be seen outside their convent
grounds.
The order or st. Dominic curious one IN tnaI
its discipline is little elastic than that of
most bodies Of the kind. The aim of the founder
appears to have been to consecrae to the service OF
the Church such talents and women pos
sessed rather than 10 cloister beings who would
thereafter be of little use to humanity, and the
Dominican nun who has talent for art III any
form may devote her life to its cultivation. The
French nuns enbToider the magnificent vestmentS
worn by dignitaries of the Church and fashion
statues and paint pictures TO adOrn sacred struct-
ures The order is one of the most progressive in
the Roman Catholic Church, and there are already
many Dominican Sisters in American cities.
They visit the sick. teach in school, act as moth
ers' in the institutions for founding waits pro
vide employment Tor old women and homes for
working girls. In appearance they are scarcely 10
be distin guished from other Roman Catholic orders
for over the ghostly white costume which is said
have been revealed TO St Dominic by the Blessed
irgn herself they wear whenever they leave their
converts black mantle, which nearly covers it,
Always worn conspicuously, however is the rosary,
for St Dominic is credited with having introduced
this religious symbol although The Jesuits have
lately disputed this point.
At the little convent Mount Druid Hill the
Sisters declined discuss their plans for life in
this country or the causes which led to their emf
grafton L-iey declared that they bore no i'll will
TO their prosecutors in France, and even regarded
the action OF the French Government with
degree OF satisfaction, since it had led to their
coming To America and finding ideal home
Their only desire now, they say, is to retire from
the world and fulfil their various missions quietly
and without oStentation.