As most of you know I attended The Convent of the Visitation for junior high and senior high school. Visitation is a French order of cloistered nuns. In 1966, my parents and I sat in a room facing a wooden grate that separated us from Sister Mary Helen on the other side. I was being interviewed to see if I would be a good fit for the Visitation community of young women. My sister was already there so I wasn’t too worried about getting in, but it was my first experience of being interviewed with a possibility that I may not be allowed on the other side of the grate! (Many Americans don’t get the experience of being kept out or having to apply to get into a sovereign nation, even Trump.)
It turns out even when I got in to the school, getting into the “cloistered areas” was still off limits; But provided endless curiosity for all questioning young minds to find loop holes and excuses to see beyond the grates and walls that kept us out. The old Visitation campus was far more interesting to explore after it was abandoned for the new school in 1967, but we were sure there were tunnels to St. Thomas’s campus, up the hill and to the far side where the old nuns lived nonetheless.
In my imagination, the nuns lived in small cells with a bed and a crucifix.
What I knew they had, were elegantly furnished parlors. If you were bad, or they were concerned about your faith, or wanted you to do a special mission for the community you got invited to tea there. I spent time there fairly often but that’s for another blog. Looking back, I realize these rooms were for visitors and fundraising of course.
In Arequipa, thanks to our Peruvian student/son Nestor’s grandmother we got to go into the very old convent of Santa Catalina. It was built in the16th century and was like a city unto itself in the middle of Arequipa. It is important because it is 20,000 sq. mentors and built over several centuries. The world Heritage Center has helped to reconstruct and save it after several earthquakes. It was very clear the more money you had the bigger the “cell” you got. Some had their own kitchens and bathrooms, if you were really special! We saw pictures of whips, hair jackets which are metal tacks strung together to sleep on, to show devotion and penance. All in the name of worshipping a god. The goal seems to be to get sainthood but that would never be said out loud. They do lay claim to one nun that was honored with sainthood. She was especially beautiful and very into self-flagellation.
I never could get a clear understanding at Vis why praying day in and day out was helping all the social ills in the world. I will admit age and experience has convinced me that when you feel truly powerless it is sometimes peaceful and helpful to allow time, prayer, meditation and other forms of acceptance to show another path to improvement and movement.
You can see why Sister Mary Helen, my parents and I would often have tea together. After a while Sister Perone Marie and Sister Jean Charlotte took me under their wings and my parents stopped having to come in. My mother, a Presbyterian, was very relieved as she had done her duty by sending us to Catholic schools. I suspect she was secretly pleased when none of us wanted to become nuns, and that I was her last one at Vis. Now none of us are even practicing Catholics. The boys were never really apart of this equation. They had a different Catholic experience.
In Ecuador we learned you were either Catholic or Christian/Evangelical. In Peru, it seems more Catholic but nowhere near like it permeates in Mexico. Any way On this trip we have been to the first church built in South America and many old, small and huge ones. Most are on the main squares in towns and cities. Maybe that is where community centers should be placed in neighborhood squares. The churches did bring people together or at least out.
A big Thank You to Nestor’s Grandmother!
What a perfect summary of your experience at Vis (and the ever burning social justice streak in you!)… Wisdom is a lovely outcome of aging. Well said.
Glad to hear more about your youth experience and then to see today’s beautiful pictures of this ancient convent. Was this because you were guided by your friend’s grandmother?
Is it usually open to the public?
Nestor’s grandmother goes to mass across the street everyday. Some of her best friends live at the convent. She has a bit of pull, so got us in free. But she had Nestor give us the tour.
All the posts from both of you are very interesting, but I found this one especially so. Thanks for sharing your trip with us!