The Demands of Rome: Her Own Story of Thirty-One Years as a Sister of Charity in the Order of the Sisters of Charity of Providence of the Roman Catholic ChurchSchoffen, Elizabeth
Religion
The Demands of Rome: Her Own Story of Thirty-One Years as a Sister of Charity in the Order of the Sisters of Charity of Providence of the Roman Catholic Church
Schoffen, Elizabeth
Ex-nuns -- United States -- Biography; Monastic and religious life of women
Imagine, if you can, the terrible conditions I had to contend with at
this school. There were about sixty girls, ranging in age from five to
twenty-five years. They all slept in one large dormitory with beds so
close together, that there was barely passing space, and I occupied one
corner of that room. The accommodations for cleanliness were very poor,
and the stench in that sleeping room was simply nauseating, and there
was no remedy for it, with the existing conditions. In the morning, I
had to dress about twenty-five of these girls, and care for the running,
mattering sores of many, who were diseased (scrofulous), with an
ointment supplied for that purpose by the government physician.
After this doctor had made a few visits and I had become a little
acquainted with him, the superior came to me and asked me about our
conversation. When she found out that we had talked about some things
that were not strictly business, I was not allowed to be in the room
when he came again. She told me that I should be very careful around a
man, that I might lose my vocation.
I had to take my turn in the laundry nearly every week, and I remember
one instance which occurred which will illustrate how the Roman Catholic
system makes a "mountain out of a mole hill" and causes so much sorrow
over practically nothing. I had damaged a little red-flannel shirt
belonging to one of the children, while washing it, and I never heard
the end of this terrible thing until after I wrote to my father and
asked him to send me five dollars, that I might replace it. A very
trivial thing in itself but the superior kept talking about it, causing
me very much sorrow and grief that I shed many tears over it.
While I was at this Mission, I received a letter from my father
informing me that my mother was very ill, and that in all probability
would soon pass away. This letter had been addressed to Vancouver, and
my Mother Superior had opened it and knew the contents. When she
forwarded it to me, she inclosed a letter to my superior at Tulalip,
telling her to tell me that if I could get some one to take my place and
get the money necessary for my fare from my father, she would give me
permission to go home to see my mother before she died. She knew very
well that it was an impossibility to get any other to take my place, as
I did not have the assigning of sisters to work of any nature, and none
but sisters were allowed in the Mission. The answer was simply that my
mother died and I never saw her after the day I left home to enter the
"holy" convent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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