Catherine Coldstream On Cloistered | 5x15

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Catherine Coldstream grew up in London and converted to Catholicism in her early twenties. She was a Carmelite nun for twelve years. Since leaving the monastery, she took an undergraduate degree as a mature student, at the University of Oxford, and taught theology, philosophy and ethics for ten years. She has never stopped thinking about her life as a nun and wrote about it as a way of understanding the experiences that shaped her. In her striking memoir Cloistered, she describes life as a contemplative nun in the 1990s, and the dramatic events which led to her flight from the monastery on the brink of the Millennium.
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[@hamishclifton9523]

Wonderfully lucid and informative, thank you!

[@MFLimited]

I know an ex-nun who went through terrible abuse in an American benedictine Convent.
She barely survived both emotional and physical abuse. She finally got out when she called the suicide hotline and they convinced her to call an ambulance. Then the sisters would not allow her to transfer to another Convent, or even collect her own belongings. The police had to be called in order for her to get even an overnight bag. They were a cult.
Legally they settled with her out of court but the church refused to acknowledge that anything wrong had been done to her, in spite of proof, police reports, photographs of injuries from other nuns, the fact that they settled with her out of court on a personal injury claim, et cetera.
I will pass this on to her.

[@annelanearts7762]

I would love to share with you my experiences - I also spent 10 years in a cloister in New Mexico - everything you say resonates with me.

[@mtnshelby7059]

I'm listening to the book on audio now. My closest experience to this kind of life is 4 years at a woman's college. Very strange behaviors manifested in many of these women. I opted for a solo life rather than a cloistered community.

[@Saffron-sugar]

Your book covered the abuse of power that existed for you and can exist within monastic life. I wish I could discuss that with you.

[@speciallion1135]

Thank you for sharing your experience , it resonates. The ‘cell’ is quite thought provoking & fascinating to observe & contemplate, particularly in the vein of sacred geometry & in the surroundings you describe. Being free of worldly distractions is home & a sacred space, to feel the cymatics, frequencies & vibrations of a world we cannot see.
“Silence is the language of God, all else, is poor interpretation” (unknown)