[12] In the “Little Manual of Devotions,” for the use of the “Pilgrims” to Llanthony Abbey, Father Ignatius teaches that—“It is a pious custom of devout Christians, on seeing a monk, _to kneel and kiss the hem of the sacred habit_; if done from love to Jesus, _and reverence to the habit_ of the Consecrated Life, _a great blessing will be received_” (page 6).—EDITOR.
[13] At that period my letters were not kept back; but you will see that at any time that suits the Superiors letters may be and often are never sent.
[14] In the _Church of England Catholic and Monastic Times_ for June 24, 1884 (which was the organ of Father Ignatius), there appears an article entitled “Lent at the Monastery.” It is stated that in the evening of Ash Wednesday, “Compline was said, and then, while the nuns retired to their Priory for the Service of the _Discipline_, the monks proceeded to the Discipline in the solemn choir” (page 5). This confirms the statement of Sister Mary Agnes that the “Discipline” was in use at Llanthony.—EDITOR.
[15] This last event, I should mention, took place in Devonshire. There are no stairs at the Llanthony convent.
[16] In the article on “Lent at the Monastery,” which we have already quoted from the _Monastic Times_, it is stated that on Ash Wednesday, at Llanthony, “First the Superior [Father Ignatius] received the holy ashes on his tonsured head, then the monks; after this the nuns descended.… One by one they knelt before the priest, received the ashes on their veiled heads, and disappeared behind the Great Shrine.… Nones, Litany, and the seven penitential Psalms were said; the latter kneeling or _lying prostrate in the ashes_ in the centre of the choir.”—EDITOR.
[17] Probably few people credit what I know to be a fact, that such instruments of torture are in use in probably all monastic and conventual institutions. I have by me now a book called “Priests, Women, and Families,” by J. Michelet, published in 1874 by the Protestant Evangelical Mission.
In the editor’s preface to this book there are two sets of engravings of “Articles of Piety”; or, Instruments of Torture in English Convents. Under the first set of engravings, I read thus:
“Instruments of torture are _now_ practised upon nuns in Romish convents in London, and in all parts of the country.”