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    PAINTED GLASS WINDQWS. 317

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    Having Church - Windows Seen In The Were...

    iriends and relatives at Nantes , concerning individual sisters in that conventwhichthough pertaininto private life and therefore

    unsuited for , communica , tion hereexci g ted in me an ardent desire to see what such religious women , could produce in religious art .

    Each community pursues some industrial calling connected with the sacred mysteries of the Roman Church . Nearly all the wafers

    used in the ceremony of the mass are made by Carmelite nuns . In some establishments embroidery of exquisite beauty is executed for

    altar cloths , priests' vestments , & c . We so arranged our journey that , on the 1 st of last July , we found

    ourselves in the comfortable Hdtel _JBoule d'Or at Mans ; and on the following morning stood on the threshold of the door by eight

    o ' clock , asking directions of the pleasant landlady . " Ah ! you . wish to see the establishment of these ladies ? " said she , in answer to our

    inquiries . _" It is a long way to walk , but it is worth any trouble ;" and she went off into a rapturous eulogy on the lives of these

    Carmelite nuns , telling us how she had once been admitted into the convent , on occasion of a general houleverseinent caused by the

    consecration of the new church , for which the sisters had painted the windows , and she had then talked with them as she had to prepare

    an immense dinner for the town authorities , who were all invited to the great ceremony . She characterized these ladies as distinguished

    pious , rosy _, and gay , and said it was charming to see them . They , had evidently impressed her as something superior to common

    humanity . After a pleasant walk through inside streets lined with villas and

    gardens , we came to a large mass of buildings surrounded by a wall . We rang at a small door , and after waiting for some time

    in long white passages and a small cell-like parlor , -we were admitted to an upstairs roomin the wall of whichwas a black

    grating Lined with a black curtain , . The room contained , specimens of . painted glass and a few chairs . On the white wall two sentences

    were inscribed : " Mon joug est doux et monfardeau leger . " "Souffrir . ou mourir . "

    Presently a figure robed in black lifted the curtain , and a sweet voice answered all our questions , while another sister , who had

    been cloistered forty years , asked news of a friend of hers who was now on the other side of the world in Cochin China , and considered

    in Brittany as a veritable saint . _•& _# ¦ * * _* *

    By the direction of the sisters , glass windows of all sorts and in every stage of progress were shown to us by an intelligent young

    , man—one of the artists in the employ of the convent . He told us there were twenty-seven employes , two of them . German artists ;

    but the sisters arrange everything , carry on all the immense correspondenceand execute orders not only for Francebut for

    _^ America , Rome , , and England , and other countries ! Three , of the nuns are iedin painting lass themselvesbut the

    prin-• occup , upon g ,

    Painted Glass Windqws. 317

    PAINTED GLASS _WINDQWS . 317

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Jan. 1, 1862, page 317, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01011862/page/29/