Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 August 1898 — Silent Nuns. [ARTICLE]

Silent Nuns.

There are several communities of silent monks, as, for Instance, the Trappists, but these are not at all surprising in comparison with a community of silent women, such as are to be found In the convent near Biarritz. These silencieuses, or silent sisters, never speak except to their mother superior, and then only upon necessary business. When they are at meals a book is read, and every Friday they eat tlielr dinners kneeling. If one of the sisters lose her father or mother, she is not told of the loss. The mother superior simply assembles the community and says, “The father or mother of one of you is dead.” In this way the silent women cease to have Individual Interest in anything, or anything to talk about. Seven hours is spent in prayer, and the rest of the day in cultivating gardens and doing different kinds of laborious work. They wear white flannel clothes with a cross of black on their backs when at work on week days. On Sundays and festivals they wear black.—Tid-Blts.