ANOTHER VERSION OF THE HORRIBLE DISCOVERY AT CRACOW.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1099, 9 November 1869, Page 3

ANOTHER VERSION OF THE HORRIBLE DISCOVERY AT CRACOW.

The following different version from that which appeared in the Times, and copied in the Herald of the 2nd instant, is from' the Tablet, August 7, and is published by us at the request of a correspondent:— The Univers of the sth inst. gives some information received by it from a correspondent who, when an inhabitant of Cracow, had been acquainted with the unfortunate nun, whose case has been turned to such bad account by the enemies of Christianity. It appears that she belongs to an honourable family, and had received an excellent education. Under the impression that she was called to a religious life, she first intended to enter the Convent of the Visitation. After several trials, j however, she was thought to be mistaken as to her vocation. Her piety was fervent, and, in many respects, she showed great merit ; but she was so excessively scrupulous that the Sisters feared she would lose her senses. At a later date she offered herself to the Carmelites, and, by this time, her attacks of scruples had probably become less frequent or more under control, for she was received into their convent. Her mental infirmities, however, eventually returned and grew worse and worse until scrupulosity ended in absolute madness. There was no other cause whatever for her becoming deranged, and there is not a syllable of truth in the filthy stories invented on this occasion by liberal journalists, who are incapable even of respecting the chaste reputation of a poor mad nun. When a daughter unhappily loses her senses, her family is filled with a natural repugnance to send her away from home to a madhouse. The good Carmelite Sisters of Cracow obeyed the humane feel' ing, and, under the just and kind idea that their insane sister would fare better in their hands than under the care of a mad doctor, they kept her in their convent. It was a heavy cross to them, but Carmelites only live to carry the cross. Had they, on the other hand, sent her away from them, they would inevitably have been accused of want of sisterly oharity. It is asserted that she was ill-treated, and the nuns are accused of endless atrocities towards her. But is there any foundation for these most unlikely stories ? What man of sense will believe them on the strength of newspaper paragraphs, picked up no one knows where? These writers first stated that the poor mad woman had lived 21 years in a hole so small and so filthy that a strong man would not have existed' 2l days in it. They have since been compelled to acknowledge that the " filthy hole" is in fact a clean and well-aired room, and, in a word, so unobjectionable a chamber, that the authorities allowed her to remain in it during the 36 hours which elapsed between their first visit and her removal. The same journalists have also admitted that a close examination of the poor nun's body has disclosed no traces of the tortures she was at first said to have suffered for 21 years. But these odious calumnies were invented for the purpose of exciting the people to a riot, and, by the help of the Polish Jews, they were successful. The Austrian Government is indebted to these worthies for having supplied the long-ex-pected pretext for attacking the religious bodies. It has been immediately laid hold of; and on the 29th of July, j)r. Griskra, the Minister of the Interior, wrote to the chief of the Administration at Lemberg, to enquire whether any motive could be suggested for delaying the withdrawal of the yearly allowance of 1,800 florins which had previously been granted to the convent, and also whether either the Bishop of Cracow (Mgr. Galecki) or the administrator thought it desirable that the existence of the convent itself should be prolonged. The reason given in this letter is simply the excitement occasioned by the Carmelite affair, together with the "revolting facts "of the case ; and this, without any enquiry into the truth of the story, ana without any opportunity of defence being allowed to the sisters. It appears to the Univers, in conclusion, that there is no! the shadow of a proof against the Carme 1 lite Sisters of Cracow, and that they hay« been made the victims of an abominable combination of intriguing Jews, Protest ants, and free-thinkers, with thecomplicity if not under the direot inspiration, of tn< Austrian Ministry.