Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535 — John Shaqi
Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535Power, Eileen
History
Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535
Power, Eileen
Convents -- England; Monastic and religious life of women -- History
She, although the daughter of a powerful and wealthy man ... burned so
from her earliest childhood with zeal to be converted (i.e. to become
a nun), that she used often to say to her mother: "Mother, make me a
nun." Now she was accustomed with her mother to ascend Mount St.
Saviour, whereon stood at that time the convent of the sisters of
Burtscheid. One day she climbed secretly in through the kitchen
window, went up to the dorter and putting on the habit of one of the
maidens, entered the choir with the others. When the Abbess told this
to her mother, who wanted to go, she, thinking that it was a joke,
replied "Call the child; we must go." Then the child came from within
to the window, saying: "I am a nun; I will not go with thee." But the
mother, fearing her husband, replied: "Only come with me now, and I
will beg thy father to make thee a nun." And so she went forth. It
happened that the mother (who had held her peace) once more went up
the mountain, leaving her daughter asleep. And when the latter rose
and sought her mother in vain in the church, she suspected her to be
at the convent, followed her alone, and, getting in by the same
window, once more put on the habit. When her mother besought her to
come away she replied: "Thou shalt not deceive me again," repeating
the promise that had been made to her. Then indeed her mother went
home in great fear, and her father came up full of rage, together with
her brothers, broke open the doors and carried off his screaming
daughter, whom he committed to the care of relatives, that they might
dissuade her. But she, being (as I believe) not yet nine years of age,
answered them so wisely that they marvelled. What more? The Bishop of
Liege having excommunicated her father and those by whom she had been
taken away, she was restored to the place and after a few years was
elected Abbess there[115].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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