Maria Monk, however, does most accurately describe all the Priests in
the preceding catalogue, and repeats them at the expiration of weeks
and months; and the question is this: how is it possible that she could
have become acquainted with so many of that body, and by what means can
she so precisely depict their external appearance?--The startling, but
the only plausible answer which can be given to that question is
this:--that she has seen them in the Nunnery, whither, as she
maintains, most of them constantly resorted for licentious intercourse
with the Nuns.
One other connected fact may here be introduced. Maria Monk well knows
the Lady Superior of the Charlestown Nunnery. That acquaintance could
not have been made in the United States, because Saint Mary St. George
as she called herself, or Sarah Burroughs, daughter of the notorious
Stephen Burroughs, as is her real name, removed to Canada at the latter
end of May, 1835; nor could it have been prior to the establishment of
the Charlestown Nunnery, for at that period Maria Monk was a child, and
was not in any Convent except merely as a scholar; and Mary St. George
was at Quebec. How then did she become so familiar with that far-famed
lady as to be able to describe her so exactly? The only answer is, that
she derived her knowledge of the Charlestown Convent and of its
Superior, from the intimations given, and from intercourse with that
Nun in the Hotel Dieu Nunnery.
Young females often have been sent to the Nunneries in Canada under the
fallacious hope of obtaining for them, a superior education; and very
frequently, they are suddenly removed after being there but a short
period; because the persons to whose partial guardianship they are
committed perceive that they are in danger of being ensnared by the
Chaplain and his female Syrens.
But there are two other particulars in American Nunneries, the
toleration of which almost surpasses credibility.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account