The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-07-23
LIFE OF A CARMELlTE nun.
PRIVATIONS or THE ORDER
WHICH SEEKS A FOOTING HERE.

Prayer and Work Their Occupatio ns-Ali
Save an Hour Of the Day Spent In
silence vi the Time They Fast,
and Their Food IL Coarse and Scanty.
The Roman Catholic churches In New
York celebrated last Sunday the feast OF
Mount Carmel and the foundation OF the
order OF Carmelite nuns, the most rigid
religious order In the world. The cole
bration In this diocese was Of especial
interest this year, owing to the project To
establish q branch OF the Carmelites In
New York. There is already house OF the
Carmelite fathers here, but their rules and
obligations are much moro secular.
Little OF the life OF a Carmelite nun Is
known to the world this side the bars
Imagine eleven women entirely cut of
from the world outside living se5 days IN
every year OF their lives In almost absolute
silence, penance. fast and self-denial;
every hour of the day and much OF the
night spent in oft repeated prayer, with no
food except the coarsest; wearing rough
wooden clothing next their skins winter
and summer, frequently adding to this
discomfort sharp instruments Of torture.
The order still retains the term dis
calced," which was applied In the early
days when the nuns went barefooted.
However, Saint Teresa, on an occasion when
she was travelling, overheard complt-
ment Of young cavalier on her we'll turned
ankle, and thenceforth she ordained that
the members OF her order should wear
stockings. These are made Of rough wool,
and are fashioned in loose baglike form.
The dress OF the Carmelite Is Of coarse
wool, with brown scapular, which reaches
from the throat to the hem Of the garment.
Over white bands which frame the face
il worn long black veil.
The Carmelite Is received into the order
robed in white like bride, symbolic Of a
discarded, and with them all intimacy with
the world.
The day Of the Carmelite nun begins long
before the world outside her cloister is
astir. Their fast Is broken at O'Clock
with black coffee and bread eaten In silence
their refectory Is a human skull, reminding
them to prepare for death. They abstain
| from meat except In case OF sickness, and
fast rigidly eight months in the year.
Following the morning repast, the black black
t tSeir long ns Office Of prayer: The morning
hours are filed with work on vestmentss
and scapulars. These nuns are noted
throughout the world for their exquisite
needlework. One Of their .strictest rules
| is that no one Of them shall ever be idle,
and even when they are i'll, some bit Of sew
| ing il ever at their side.
Tho MONDAY meal Of Carmelite con-
sists Of two boiled vegetables. bread and
tea and sometimes Goldfish. Then, and In
the afternoon hours OF prayer and labor
evening meal and the night prayer close
the day and with the exception Of little
hour before retirement when the nuns are
allowed to talk, the day Of silence passes
into q night Of even greater solitude. -.
| The sleeping apartment OF q Carmehte
| is not much larger than grave. The bed
ia composed Of two pine boards laid across
two wooden benches, coarse tick filled
with straw, a straw pillow, sheets OF Saxony
wool, winter and summer. and brown
bed is hung a wooden cross without an
image to remind the Carmelite that she
herself must be attached to the cross OF
Christ. A plain table. sometimes rough
box turned on end, wooden chair without
cushion and picture representing some
peta the appointments of the cell.
After the last chant. between 0 and II
o'clock at night. the nun makes a strict
examination OF her conscience, closing her
night supplication with an act of con-
triton There is an hour Of vigil kept on
agony in the garden. OF Olives. In the
silence of midnight the yelled nun elides
down the dark passage to the chapel and
there, in the dim light of the sanctuary
lamp, prostrates herself in long hour of
PRAYER. =.
When a Carmelite consecrates herself
TO the cloister by solemn VOWS to God
she prostrates herself upon the earth under
black pail as dead to the world The
habit she wears is also her shroud and she
is laid to her final rest with feet all bare,
as having followed Christ in the path OF
poverty. When dying, white roses are
strewn over her virgin couch and in death
she Ia crowned with flowers.