Awful Disclosures of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery of Montreal. Maria Monk Monk
of Nuns—St. Pierre—Gags—My temporary Confinement in a
Cell—The Cholera Season—How to avoid it—Occupations in the Convent
during the Pestilence—Manufacture of War Candles—The Election
Riots—Alarm among the Nuns—Preparations for defence—Penances
CHAPTER XIX.
The Priests of the District of Montreal have free access to the Black Nunnery—Crimes committed and required by them—The Pope's command to commit indecent Crimes—Characters of the Old and New Superiors—The timidity of the latter—I began to be employed in the Hospitals—Some account of them—Warning given me by a sick Nun—Penance by Hanging
CHAPTER XX.
More visits to the imprisoned Nuns—Their fears—Others temporarily put into the Cells—Reliques—The Agnus Dei—The Priests' private Hospital, or Holy Retreat—Secret Rooms in the Eastern Wing—Reports of Murders in the Convent—The Superior's private Records—Number of Nuns in the Convent—Desire of Escape—Urgent reason for it—Plan—Deliberation—Attempt—Success
CHAPTER XXI.
At liberty—Doubtful what to do—Found refuge for the night—Disappointment—My first day out of the Convent—Solitude—Recollections, fears, and plans
CHAPTER XXII.
Start for Quebec—Recognised—Disappointed again—Not permitted to land—Return to Montreal—Landed and passed through the city before day—Lachine Canal—Intended close of my life
CHAPTER XXIII.
Awake among strangers—Dr. Robertson—Imprisoned as a vagrant—Introduction to my mother—Stay in her house—Removal from it to Mrs. McDonald's—Return to my mother's—Desire to get to New York—Arrangements for going
CHAPTER XXIV.
Singular concurrence of circumstances, which enabled me to get to the United States—Intentions in going there—Commence my journey—Fears of my companion—Stop at Whitehall—Injury received in a canal boat—Arrival at New York—A solitary retreat
CHAPTER XXV.
Reflections and sorrow in solitude—Night—Fears—Exposure to rain—Discovered by strangers—Their unwelcome kindness—Taken to the Bellevue Almshouse.
CHAPTER XXVI.
Reception at the Almshouse—Message from Mr. Conroy, a Roman priest in
New York—His invitations to a private interview—His claims,
propositions, and threats—Mr. Kelly's message—Effects of reading the
Bible
CHAPTER XXVII.
Proposition to go to Montreal and testify against the
priests—Commencement of my journey—Stop at Troy, Whitehall,
Burlington, St. Alban's, Plattsburgh, and St. John's—Arrival at
Montreal—Reflections on passing the Nunnery.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Received into a hospitable family—Fluctuating feelings—Visits from several persons—Father Phelan's declarations against me in his church—Interviews with a Journeyman Carpenter—Arguments with him
CHAPTER XXIX.
A Milkman—An Irishwoman—Difficulty in having my Affidavit taken—Legal objection to it when taken
CHAPTER XXX.
Interview with the Attorney General of the Province—Attempt to abduct me—More interviews—A mob excited against me—Protected by two soldiers—Convinced that an investigation of my charges could not be obtained—Departure from Montreal—Closing reflections The truth of the work demonstrated
APPENDIX—Reception of the work—Affidavits—Criticisms of the press, &c.
PREFACE.
Here is the reprint of one of the most formidable books against Nunneries ever published. It has produced powerful impressions abroad, as well as in the United States, and appears destined to have still greater results. It is the simple narrative of an uneducated and unprotected female, who escaped from the old Black Nunnery of Montreal, or Hotel Dieu, and told her tale of sufferings and horrors, without exaggeration or embellishment. Though assailed by all the powers of the Romish priesthood, whom she accused, and by the united influence of the North American press, which, with very small exceptions, was then unenlightened by the discoveries of the present day, the book remains unimpeached, and still challenges the test of fair and open examination.
Many an American female, no doubt, is now living, who might justly acknowledge that she was saved from exposure to the suffering, or even the ruin, often the consequences of a Convent education, by the disinterested warning given in this book; while its author, disheartened at length by the powerful combination of Protestants and Papists against her, led to distrust even the few who remained her friends, destitute of the means of living, and alternately persecuted and tempted by her ever watchful and insidious enemies, died some years since, under condemnation (whether just or unjust) for one of the slightest of the crimes which she had charged against them—thus falling at last their victim.
American parents have here a book written for the salvation of their daughters; American patriots, one designed to secure society against one of the most destructive but insidious institutions of popery; American females, an appeal to them of the most solemn kind, to beware of Convents, and all who attempt to inveigle our unsuspecting daughters into them, by the secret apparatus of Jesuit schools. The author of this book was a small, slender, uneducated, and persecuted young woman, who sought refuge in our country without a protector; but she showed the resolution and boldness of a heroine, in confronting her powerful enemies in their strong hold, and proved, by the simple force of truth, victorious in the violent conflicts which were waged against her by the Romish hierarchy of America and the popular press of the United States.
The publishers have thought the present an opportune period to place this work again in the hands of American readers, with such information, in a preface, as is necessary to acquaint readers of the present day with the leading circumstances attending and succeeding its original publication. They have examined most of the evidence supporting the truth of the narrative, of which the public can judge as well as themselves. The details would be voluminous, even of those portions which have been collected since the heat of the controversy which the book long ago excited. Suffice it to say, that undesigned and collateral evidence in corroboration of it has been increasing to the present day; and that the following brief review of some of the early events will afford a fair specimen of the whole.
In the year 1835, Maria Monk was found alone, and in a wretched and feeble condition, on the outskirts of New York city, by a humane man, who got her admitted into the hospital at Bellevue. She then first told the story in outline, which she afterwards and uniformly repeated in detail, and which was carefully written down and published in the following form:—she said she was a fugitive nun from the Hotel Dieu of Montreal, whence she had effected her escape, in consequence of cruelty which she had suffered, and crimes which were there committed by the Romish priests, who had the control of the institution, and to which they