The Nympho Nun Imprisoned by Nuns for 21 years, Barbara Ubryk
By: Oskar Bogdanowicz
Tags: Crime, History, Tragedy, Prison, Religion

The Nympho Nun Imprisoned by Nuns for 21 years, Barbara Ubryk

1800s Polish monasteries had brutal ways of making bad spirits leave victims bodies, in this case, it meant imprisonment for over two decades

A drawing of today’s subject, Barbara Ubryk

Anna Ubryk was born in Poland on the 14th of July 1817 to Jakub and Marianna Ubryk. Unfortunately during her youth, her parents died forcing Anna and her three sisters to fend for themselves.

Until their untimely demise, Annas parents were extremely religious, as was very common in Poland at the time. Due to this, religion became a very large part of the four Ubryk sisters’ lives.

In 1838 when Anna was 21 she decided to join a Monastery and dedicate her life to God. She spent the two-year preparation stage for joining a monastery, the “Nowicjat”, in Warsaw with the Wizitek sisters. Unfortunately during this two year preparation period, Anna displayed symptoms of mental illness. Mental health was not understood nor accepted as it is in modern times and so this worried the nuns.

It was unfortunately common to outcast people displaying any characteristics of mental health struggles. Being related to or even knowing a person with such complications often brought shame upon a person. Due to this Anna never completed her Nowicjat with the Wityzek sisters.

After a short break in 1840, Anna decided to try to join a monastery again however this attempt would be in Krakow. This time it would be with the Karmelitan Bose Sisters monastery in the free city of Krakow. This monastery was different from most monasteries in Poland as it involved much stricter rules especially when it came to contact with the world outside of its walls.

Monestary of the Karmelitan Bose sisters

The nuns who were a part of this monastery were banned from ever leaving the monasteries’ grounds. Anna spent about a year completing her preparation to join and by its conclusion took her vows and accepted a new name, Barbara. As mentioned previously Barbara was very religious throughout her life and the decision to enter a closed monastery was certainly a calculated one.

The beginnings were good for Barbara however after a few months her mental health problems started rearing their ugly heads. It would later be agreed by historians she was suffering from an extreme form of Nymphomania, an uncontrollable or excessive sexual desire, which she was unable to satisfy and would lead her to become mentally unstable.

Things she would do during her outbursts would include; laughing out loud in church, not reacting when called by her name, running around completely naked and dancing and singing. She would also sometimes turn aggressive and throw roofing tiles at her fellow sisters. As previously mentioned treatment of the mentally ill was very different back then and within religious circles, such behaviour would often be accredited to the possession or the work of dark spirits.

As knowledge on how to treat such illnesses was very limited people turned to other methods for treatment. In religious circles, total isolation was very commonly used in order to rid the victim of dark spirits. During this process of isolation, only certain people designated to care for the ill were allowed into the isolation room to see the patient as well as doctors. In some instances, this was deemed to not be enough as the possession was too powerful, in these cases, torture was used to move the process along. These tortures included but were not limited to bloodletting and leaches to suck bad blood out and in the most extreme cases victims being burned at the stake.

Slow Descent into madness

Barbara was subjected to this form of isolative treatment however after it had concluded it proved to be ineffective. 1848 after having spent 8 years of her life at this monastery she started to isolate herself out of her own will, purposely locking herself in her room and refusing anyone entry. One day her bedroom door was opened with force and the nuns greatest fears came true, she was naked, dancing in her room and completely ignoring any calls.

Following this incident and the several before it, the nuns decided Barbara must be isolated in order to preserve the monasteries good name. Fortunately for the nuns, the monastery possessed a room which heavily resembled a jail cell, with a small surface area and lacking even a bed. She was placed in this cell as a doctor had concluded she should be placed in a psychiatric hospital however the monasteries strict rules on leaving its grounds forbade that, so Barbara ended up locked in the cell until further notice.

The nuns originally anticipated this would last a short while until Barbaras’ mental state became better, they never expected that this would turn into a 21 year-long torture. The cell did possess two small windows however these would soon be walled shut as Barbara would often stand before them naked and disturb anyone walking past, this made the cell terribly dark even during daytime.

A drawing from a contemporary newspaper showing Barbara

According to eye witness accounts at the time the isolation had the opposite effect on Barbara. It became very common for Barbara to attack anyone who entered the room to take care of her or feed the isolated woman. After a while, all furniture or items which could be used as a weapon or thrown were removed until finally all attempts to enter the room were ceased due to the risk of being attacked. Food was delivered through a special hole in the door, Barbara was completely isolated within the very monastery she so desperately wished to join.

Long Term Effects of Isolation

Humans are extremely social creatures, all humans need at least a small dose of contact in order to function properly. If a perfectly sane human was placed in the situation an unwell Barbara was placed in they would sooner or later go insane.

Barbara would spend 21 years of her life in that room, she would have more than likely spent the rest of her life within those walls until one letter changed everything. Barbara’s existence and circumstances were known by all of the nuns in the monastery as well as a few select outsiders. Unfortunately, most of these people just wished to forget she existed and none dared intervene until one day.

On the 20th of July 1869 a few days after Barbaras 52nd birthday the Krakow courthouse received an anonymous letter. The letter described how Sister Ubryk was held in monstrous conditions for many years unlawfully by the nuns. The letter gained the court’s attention as it mentioned Barbara’s surname, something which nuns very rarely used since they changed their first names upon being accepted into the monastery.

Gaining access to a monastery was not an easy process as it required the permission of Bishop Antony Galedzki however upon hearing about the letter he gave permission for the committee without hesitation. A small committee was gathered who would go and investigate the monastery. Upon arriving they asked to see Barbara Ubryk by name as fortunately, the letter contained it. At first, the nuns were hesitant but finally gave in and led the committee to a small cell in the monastery.

An interpretation of the committee in the cell

Members of the Committee claim that when the door was opened a terrible stench hit them, a combination of rot and faeces. Directly below the cell was the main sanitation tank which stored all the waste from the whole building. The cells toilet seat which would have typically lessened the stench had been removed years prior to reduce the risk of Barbara using it as a weapon.

In the far corner of the room lay a very undernourished Barbara, when found she weighed barely 34 kilograms. She was naked and dirty, her hair was cut short and her body covered in dirt and bruises. Unfortunately, she was still not allowed to leave the monastery under its rules so the committee couldn't get her out, the next day a doctor visited to investigate the starved woman.

Once the bishop heard that the letter was indeed true he immediately raised the ban on Barbara leaving and she was taken to the hospital. This was the first time in over 20 years she had seen sunlight and could breath healthy air. Doctors concluded she was not healthy psychologically but could not determine whether that was from her own nature or the prolonged isolation.

The Bishop reprimanded the nuns for this crime against Barbara. Unfortunately, news quickly broke to the press which caused a massive public outrage as to what had happened within monastery walls for so long. On the 24th of July a mob, few thousand men strong broke the gate and stormed the building which Barbara had been held in, the Polish military had to intervene to calm the riot down.

In the meantime, a police investigation had been started and managed to find out who was directly involved in Barbara's unlawful imprisonment. Four nuns were found to be involved and as a result, were charged. Later the author of the original letter was discovered, it was an accountant working in the monastery by the name of Antoni Gasiorowski. He had never actually seen Barbara but the third party accounts and rumours were enough to convince him he had to do something and save the poor woman.

In court, none of the nuns were actually charged as the court could not determine whether the psychological damage to Barbara had been caused by Barbara's condition before or whether it was an effect of the prolonged imprisonment. The nuns were even praised for taking care of one of their own when no other options were available to them. This seems obscene with a modern perspective but legally the nuns had done nothing wrong as they were only following the strict rules of the monestary which they had sworn under oath to uphold