Cloistered Nuns

Went with some friends on an outing including a tour of an extensive underground shelter here in Malta.  It also included a visit to the Benedictine Sisters of Birgu at the The Monastery of St. Scholastica,  the first Holy Infirmary of the Knights in Malta.  

There was a service there and behind the altar there were two windows with gratings on them.  I realised that behind these gratings sat the cloistered nuns.  

It seemed medieval to see these women secreted away.   And indeed the monastery has been in existence for five hundred and fifty years.  In fact this was the hospital in Malta for the Knights even before Valletta was built.  A real sense of history and I was able to enter and have coffee and cake with the nuns.  Some have been there 60 years and the day begins early with 4.30 am prayers and ends equally early at 9pm.  There is a whole lot of praying in between.  There is a shortage of women entering the order, it has been twenty years since the last novice entered.  So they have recently created a website to entice new entrants.  There is a peculiar grating through which the cloistered nuns are allowed once a month to have visits from family members.  

Ancient wooden swivel windows allow things to be given in and conversations to take place.  I couldn’t find an actual ancient version like those used but here is a modern equivalent.  

A sense of history surrounds the place and a quietness.  The nuns seemed nice and kind.  So fascinating to meet people who have such a different life to the norm.  But am struck by the truth of the words.

“People must live for one another, and not live in seclusion as do the monks and nuns. People should not live solitary lives. Light is of no value in an empty room.”

           (Compilations, Baha'i Writings, p. 440)