What a Nunderful World

When I was a little girl I wanted to be a nun.

I knew nothing about nuns. My entire knowledge of nun life came from the "Sister Act" movies and from a library book that I can't remember the title of now about a young girl in medieval times. I knew that they got to all live in a convent together and they didn't have to marry men, facts which were very desirable to my young gay heart. (I didn't yet know about the lesbian nun Benedetta Carlini, but I guarantee you if I had it would only have furthered my desire.)

"It's okay to kiss a nun. Just don't get in the habit." ~ Sarah.

I eventually came to my senses (the whole giving up all my material possessions thing wasn't very exciting for an 8-year-old, and a week later I decided I'd rather be a mortician. Plus, you know, I'm not Catholic.) but for that short time period nun life was just fascinating, and some small part of me has never fully lost that fascination.

So when a coworker told me there happens to be a monastery just a couple miles down the road from our work, I knew I had to visit...

So follow me through the pink doorway and under the text cut for a lot of pictures of this beautiful little hidden gem of Santa Clara. As long as no one finds out I'm a non-Catholic lesbian, we'll be nunstoppable!

(I refuse to apologise for the nun puns.)

Well, I didn't immediately burst into flames when I stepped onto this sacred ground, which was a good thing because really the grounds of the monastery are quite beautiful! Immediately upon walking through that door, this is what you see. A charmingly old world brick path, and just a sea of clover and trees. That's not even a lawn, that's all clover. I looked in vain for a 4-leaf one. Someday...

According to the website, this particular nunnery was founded in 1908 (so... contemporary with when the Winchester House was still under construction a couple miles away - I contextualise local history based on Sarah Winchester, so sue me) by Mother Augustine of the Mother of God, (Eulalia Tuckerman), Sister Agnes of Jesus (Ada Sullivan), Sister Raphael of Divine Providence (Teresa McSorley), Sister Mary of the Incarnation (Bridget Gallagher) and Sister Gertrude of the Heart of Jesus (Mary Donovan). If I were a nun, I have no idea what my nun name would be because it doesn't look like there's any rhyme or reason to choosing them. Sister Agatha maybe. Though is picking a nun name based on a "Paranorman" reference allowed? Does the head nun pick it for you? I don't know. But I do know I'd be an awful nun - do you know how much time I would spend climbing those trees in that sea of clover or looking for a four leafed clover? Too much time.

 As you can see from the photo at right, there was also a driveway for cars. The church itself was beautiful, though I didn't step inside it. I was too shy to knock on the doors, and I didn't think I looked convincingly Catholic. According to my coworker, when she went, a nun asked her if she'd like to go inside the chapel to "talk to Jesus". My very atheist coworker politely declined. As for myself, no one asked me and I'm not sure if I would have gone inside either, for similar reasons. I have no reasons to talk to Jesus. I'm not one of his. It was pretty enough on the outside anyway - look at all that beautiful wisteria! And besides, though I was exploring the grounds for about an hour, I didn't see any nuns, though I would have liked to. I searched for them, but alas, there were nun to be found!

Okay, okay, I think that's the last of the nun puns.

 This was the first of many shrines that I saw. Most of the others seemed to be to Mary, but I didn't know who this beautiful little wall nook is meant to portray. (The plaque down below only told me it was in memory of someone). I guess Mary is a big saint for these Carmelite nuns? I'm not sure, their website has a tab for "Our Saints" but there's no info offered on that tab.

I don't know a lot about the Catholic concept saints to be honest. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me, and the only saints I really know of are Saint Francis because he's the one with the statues that depict him with animals and Saint Hedwig of Poland, because she's actually King Jadwiga of Poland, one of my historical idols. (I have a thing for female kings...) Buuuut this clearly isn't either of them.

 I've actually been poking about the monastery's website, and there's a schedule for what the nuns who live there actually do. According to this schedule - or "Horarium" if I wanna use the fancy church Latin...

5:30 AM - Rising
5:45 - Community Prayer
6:45 - Morning Prayer
7:15 - Holy Mass and Thanksgiving
8:00 - Breakfast
          Visit to the Blessed Sacrament
          Spiritual Reading
9:30-11:30 - Midmorning Prayer
                     Novitiate Studies
                     Work Time
11:40 - Midday Prayer
12:00 PM - Dinner
1:00-2:30 - Free time for Reading
                   Visit to the Blessed Sacrament
                   Midafternoon Prayer

 2:30-4:30 - Work Time
4:30 - Evening Prayer
5:00-6:00 - Community Prayer
6:00 - Supper
6:45 - Recreation
7:45 - Night Prayer
8:15 - Time of Great Silence
           Free to read, pray, or retire
(And then on Sundays, morning mass at 10:30 AM)

Just looking at that schedule, I already know I could never be a nun. How can one spend so much time a day praying? Even if you were doing it in Latin - which I have no idea if they are - wouldn't you eventually run out of things to say? Apparently not. Also, I'm not sure what the difference is between community prayer and other types of prayer, but I'm imagining community prayer as all the nuns getting together to pray.

I tell you what, if you had shown this to me as a child, that would have been the end of my nun fantasies. Only one hour of free time and two hours of reading time? And what do nuns read, anyway? No, far better that I only visit the monastery for about an hour or so and admire the scenery and then leave to make a blog post about it.

And here's my other photos, with individual captions, so one can click through to read them if one so desires. Sorry for the weird formatting that my computer won't let me change:

I can't say I've ever seen a "Reserved for Clergy" parking sign before.

A lemon tree!

This was a beautiful walkway

The first of many shrines to Mary

This was the smallest of the shrines, and had a real "Street Shrine" feel to it.

I was curious about what this bell was for but I didn't dare ring it!

Spot the little dove at this shrine?

Like I said earlier, just a sea of clover and climbable trees!

Of all the shrines this was the prettiest

I think this is where the nuns' rooms are?

A sign by one of the entrances

 All in all, I'm glad I visited, but it's not the life for me.

~Sister Nym~