NUNS WHO NEVER SEE A MAN.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1692, 31 January 1888, Page 3

NUNS WHO NEVER SEE A MAN.

The Via Merulina Convent, in Borne, will remain in possession of the nuns until the death ot the last of them, when the property will go to the city. The sixteen remaining .Franciscan nuns, who are called the Sepulte Yives arc still in the old monastery, where they once received a visit from the Princess of Wales. These nuns, some of them ladies of noble families, observed a strict rule. Once entering the convent they never leave it alive. They never see men, not even the priest who says mass in the chapel. The altar is screened off, and they can just see the elevation of the Host. Through a small aperture they receive holy communion. Iron gratings and a linen veil guard the small openings throughwhich they make confession. They never undress for repose, but spend half the night in prayer, and keep, except in extreme cases of illness, a perpetual abstinence from meat. They make almost everything they use, even to .‘• hoes and medicines. If a parent of one of these nuns dies the announcement is not made to the nun herself, but in general terms it is said that one of them has lost by death a father or mother, as the case may be.