The Kaiser and the Nun

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 24, 18 June 1908, Page 15

The Kaiser and the Nun

The special correspondent of the ' Neves Wiener Tagblatt 'at Corfu relates the following interesting incident :— ' The German Emperor, since he came to Corfu, has visited various .ancient churches and monasteries to inspect old church paintings. He visited also " Death Island," where an ancient nunnery exists. The Royal visitors, arriving unexpectedly, found the Superior cleaning the church lamps and two nuns scouring the floor. The Kaiser entered • into conversation with one nun, while King George acted as interpreter. The Kaiser asked the nun, who is thirty-five years old, how long she had been in the convent. She replied, " Ahfout twenty years." The Kaiser remarked that she must have commenced her novitiate very early. She % said " At sixteen." ... ' ' His Majesty then asked, " What caused you, so young, almost a child, to renounce the world an,d its pleasures ? Some great misfortune ? " She answered, "No ; only love for God. And you, who nave remained in the world, what pleasure do • you' find* in it?" The Kaiser, without icplying, asked: "Did it cause you no sorrow Co sacrifice your youth'? " She said, " What is youth ? A dewdrop in the field, which Nature gives in the night and which disappears with the first rays of the morning sun." ' After" this the Kaiser left h,er,' shaking his head.'