A FORGOTTEN CONVENT

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8748, 9 October 1906, Page 2

A FORGOTTEN CONVENT

CARDINAL MERRY DEL VAL SURPRLSED. , ROME, August 12.— One would say that it would be impossible for eight or ten people to live in a village without the knowledge of the inhabitants, each of whom knows all about his neighbours' affairs, but this miracle has been accomplished in Gastel Gandolfo, the secret rbeing kept for thirtysix years. After 1870, Pius IX. gave permission to some cloistered nuns from Teiuii to establish themselves in the Papal sum mer palace at Castel Gandolfo, and there they have bean ever since, notonly unknown to the villagers, but forgotten by the Vatican itself. When the Papal Secretary of State, Cardinal Merry del Val, went to the Palace for his " villeggiatura," what was his astonishment in going over the building to find at one point a locked door with a barred grill. Inquiry drew out the fact that there were eight or ten aged nuns livirig there, who for over thirty years had never set foot outside, even in .the garden, and had never received a visitor. They inhabited the darkest, ,;most dilapidated, and dampest part of the palace, and were reported to be poor to starvation, and in very infirm health. The Cardinal could not endure the idea of such neglect and misery, and, together with the Pontiff, took their interests in hand, so that they have been removed into more commodious quarters at their birthplace, Terni, where they have at least light and air. The poor old ladies were very grateful, but prayed to be left alone to die where they had lived so long. Their removal passed almost unnoticed in the village. Scarcely anyone knew of their resurrection, and they left after dark, heavily veiled and oh ! so frightened of everything, even their own shadows. They had probably 6een a railway before, but thirty-six, years of silence had dulled memory to the vanishing point. Their removal was the prime cause of the rumour that the Pope was going to leave the Vatican and go in the summer to Castel Gandolfo.