Donahoe's Magazine, Volume 15, No. 4, April, 1886Various
Religion
Donahoe's Magazine, Volume 15, No. 4, April, 1886
Various
Periodicals
roadway up the whole steep mountain pass, nothing but large rocks and
broken marbles, though the traveller in search of the picturesque is
amply repaid the discomfort of the ride. But compared with the village
of Lutra, which was the destination of the nuns, this wild and
dangerous-looking path is a kind of preliminary paradise. No
word-painting of the most realistic school could do justice to the
horror of Lutra to-day--and what must it have been there before the
refining influence of those nuns touched it? This dirty stone-built and
tumble-down village the four nuns entered at eight o'clock, when
darkness covered its ugliness, but greatly increased its dangers. The
first entrance winds under an intricate line of narrow stone arches, the
pavement uneven, the mingling of odors unimaginable. Through this
unearthly awfulness they bravely struggled and reached their destination
at last. A Father from the neighboring community had heard of their
expected arrival, and was already superintending the rough and hurried
details of their reception. I saw the house which stands just as it was
when the Ursuline nuns first made it their residence. A mud cabin
containing two rooms: kitchen and dining-room, bedroom and chapel. The
roof is made of stones thrown loosely over wooden beams placed far
apart, the two rooms separated by a whitewashed arch instead of a door.
There are no windows; but spaces are cut in the walls which served to
let in the light and air, and at night were covered by shutters. Hail,
rain, or snow, it was necessary to keep these spaces open by day in
order to see, and it is not surprising that one of the nuns was soon
prostrated by a dangerous fever. The beds were mattresses stuffed with
something remarkably like potatoes, and laid on the mud floor at night,
upon which the nuns slept a short, ascetic sleep.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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