Cruel and Unusual Convent

On Saturday, August 7, 1869, The Illustrated Police News (IPN) designated a ¾ column to recognize the harsh treatment of a nun in an article titled “Horrible Treatment of A Nun.” Naturally, we think of nuns as nurturing, pure, motherly figures. Those qualities don’t pair up with the word “horrible” which is why this article stood out to me. Nuns are also women which caught my eye that specifically a woman would be treated so poorly.

A nun (unnamed) was found locked up in a room in the Carmelite Convent  by the judicial commissioner and his clergy. They found her almost fully naked and having lost her mind (The Illustrated Police News, Saturday, August 7, 1869). The article also states that she had been locked up in there for about 21 years. Once the Bishop heard of this news, he immediately suspended the Confessor of the Convent for placing such conditions in order. As more research was underway, it was found that this was not a rare case. Other nuns have experienced similar treatment. It was discovered that Barbara Ubryk, another nun from Carmelite Convent, was kept in confinement in a tiny, barren cellblock with very little access to light. She had also remained in those conditions for many years (The Illustrated Police News, Saturday, August 7, 1869). The mistreatment of nuns at Carmelite Convent was brought to court and the case was stated before a judge. The judge blamed the poor treatment on Bishop Galecki and ordered that all nuns be 
clothed and brought into larger, furnished rooms. The current style of living is truly disgusting and unlivable. It's as if the women were being treated like animals. Women were still seen as property at that point, like animals, but the conditions were unhealthy and unacceptable.

The one key component of the story that the article did not touch on was the reasoning for this poor treatment. Yes, it is possible that the nuns did nothing wrong and there was no reasoning for this cruel and unusual punishment, but I believe the story still must be deeper than that. The Bishop or the Confessor of the Convent must have had some reasoning in the back of their mind for this. I also don’t believe the Bishop is as innocent as we believe. He must have known about what had been going on for it had been occurring for at least 21 years. I truly feel that an important piece of the puzzle is missing to this story.

What I see in this story is a problem with power and gender. When you take religion out of it, it’s clearly an issue of power and gender. The Bishop and Confessor of the Convent are men. They are well-known and liked men in their community. They are also well respected due to their roles and titles within the church. They feel that because they are men, they have the power to treat the nuns like such since they are women have have no right or access to power. By locking them in a room, they are also taking away the women’s right to live. I  my personal opinion, the article made it seem like the Bishop had no idea and he is just a third party. I don’t see how that would be possible. I believe he knew exactly what was going on but because of his title, he played stupid to keep is name in the clear and reputation safe.