{"id":14655,"date":"2025-05-30T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=14655"},"modified":"2025-05-26T17:47:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T17:47:11","slug":"17th-century-nuns-loneliness-coping-history-may-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/17th-century-nuns-loneliness-coping-history-may-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"A\u00a0not-so-modern epidemic: what\u00a017th-century\u00a0nuns can teach us about coping with\u00a0loneliness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n \n
\n La Religieuse Tenant La Sainte Croix (The Nun Holds the Cross), Jacques Callot, French,1621\u201335.\n The Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n Claire Walker<\/a>, University of Adelaide<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n

Is loneliness a modern epidemic<\/a> as we are so often told? Did people in the past suffer similar feelings of isolation?<\/p>\n\n

The word \u201cloneliness\u201d was not common before the 19th century. Cultural historian Fay Bound Alberti argues<\/a> it was rarely used before 1800. <\/p>\n\n

This does not mean people didn\u2019t feel alone. They just had different names for it \u2013 and they didn\u2019t always think it was bad. Modern people living hectic lives in bustling cities often yearn for peace and tranquillity; so did our forebears.<\/p>\n\n

From the hermits of the early Christian church escaping society for lives of solitary prayer, to medieval anchorites in secluded cells, isolation was a prerequisite for spiritual success. <\/p>\n\n

But were isolated monks, nuns and hermits also lonely, as we would understand the word today? And do early modern nuns offer solutions for our own loneliness epidemic?<\/p>\n\n

Searching for solitude<\/h2>\n\n

Early Christian religious thinkers and medieval churchmen viewed voluntary loneliness positively, with successful practitioners becoming saints. But religious solitude was not without its problems. <\/p>\n\n

Holy recluses<\/a>, far from escaping society, were pursued for spiritual advice. Some, like Simeon Stylites<\/a> (390\u2013459), went to extraordinary measures<\/a>, living atop a pillar near Aleppo for 30-odd years to achieve solitude.<\/p>\n\n

Monasticism provided an alternative. Monastic rules, like that of Benedict of Nursia<\/a> (480\u2013547), institutionalised isolation. In Benedictine monasteries, solitude was created through seclusion from society, strict silence, and prohibition of close friendships. <\/p>\n\n

Yet, like hermits, monks and nuns couldn\u2019t escape the world completely. Monasteries constituted vital spiritual resources, providing multiple services and conducting business for wider society. <\/p>\n\n

\n \"A<\/a>\n
\n Nuns at Work, Follower of Alessandro Magnasco (Italian, Milanese, first half 18th century).<\/span>\n The Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

Over the centuries, reforming bishops believed there was too much interaction between monasteries and the wider community. This led to repeated church reforms<\/a> from the 10th century onwards to secure separation. <\/p>\n\n

Male members of the clergy were particularly worried about nuns who were considered \u201cless capable\u201d of maintaining holy solitude. As a result, women had to observe strict enclosure behind convent walls, limiting their economic and spiritual capacity. Reforms in the 16th century upheld nuns\u2019 incarceration<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

Many women resisted, but others embraced isolation as spiritually liberating. <\/p>\n\n

Isolation in exile<\/h2>\n\n

Early modern English convents, exiled in Europe after Henry VIII\u2019s dissolution of the monasteries, shed light on nuns\u2019 experiences of loneliness<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

The convents were subject to traditional rules of enclosure and silence. To become nuns, women left their homeland, family and friends. They joined English houses, so they were not alone among strangers, but they had to remain emotionally distant from one another, despite living in a community where they did everything together. <\/p>\n\n

Women wanting spiritual fulfilment often sought additional solitude. <\/p>\n\n

Benedictine mystic Gertrude More<\/a> (1606\u201333) praised prescribed periods of silence because in them she might hear her Lord\u2019s whispers. <\/p>\n\n

Carmelite prioress Teresa of Jesus Maria Worsley<\/a> (1601\u201342) took time from her busy administrative role and hid from the other nuns to pray in solitude. <\/p>\n\n

\n \"Drawing,<\/a>\n
\n The Nun in Count Burckhardt, from the periodical Once a Week. After James McNeill Whistler, American. Associated with Dalziel Brothers, British. September 27 1862.<\/span>\n The Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

Not all women found seclusion and silence so fulfilling, however, with some experiencing bouts of spiritual doubt and poor mental health. Many missed their family and homeland. <\/p>\n\n

This was particularly common among young sisters and those in convent schools. In the 1660s, Catherine Aston<\/a> returned to England to recover after suffering poor health and depression.<\/p>\n\n

Alone in a crowd<\/h2>\n\n

Nuns\u2019 diverse experiences of monastic solitude reflect modern urban loneliness.<\/p>\n\n

In 1812 Lord Byron expressed the contradictory nature of loneliness in the poem Childe Harold<\/a>, juxtaposing the positive solitary contemplation of nature with its negative counterpart \u2013 aloneness \u201cmidst the crowd\u201d. <\/p>\n\n

In the present day many people feel alone in cities, even domestic households, as Olivia Laing<\/a> and Keith Snell<\/a> have shown. <\/p>\n\n

How might this be countered? Do early modern nuns offer solutions?<\/p>\n\n

A study<\/a> of 21st century Spanish monks and nuns found monastic training, prayer and silence create feelings of spiritual satisfaction and purpose which lessens loneliness. <\/p>\n\n

Prayer is not the answer for everyone because modern isolation is caused by multiple factors in a largely secular society. There are alternative paths to meditation, however, through yoga or mindfulness<\/a> which can provide feelings akin to monks\u2019 and nuns\u2019 \u201cspiritual satisfaction\u201d.<\/p>\n\n

Similarly, the nuns\u2019 sense of \u201cpurpose\u201d might be achieved through nostalgia. Nostalgia is the longing for an idealised and unobtainable past \u2013 a time when life was better. Research by psychologists<\/a> suggests nostalgia can be beneficial in counteracting loneliness, even enabling forward-looking and proactive behaviours.<\/p>\n\n

\n \"Photograph:<\/a>\n
\n Nuns at Mass, Amedor, Spanish, 1900.<\/span>\n Getty Museum<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

This was certainly true for the nuns exiled in Europe following Henry VIII\u2019s abolition of monasticism in England. They dreamt of a future when their convents would return to England, family and friends. All nuns prayed both communally and in private for this outcome.<\/p>\n\n

Some went further, engaging in missionary work and political intrigue to achieve their goal. <\/p>\n\n

We cannot know whether this stifled loneliness, but by combining the benefits of meditation and activism it likely fostered a shared sense of purpose<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Just as Gertrude More and Teresa of Jesus Maria Worsley found solitude essential for spiritual satisfaction, activist nuns believed they might reverse the English reformation from their exiled convents. Solitude, prayer and political engagement gave them a sense of purpose.<\/p>\n\n

Everyone\u2019s situation is unique. There is no single solution for resolving isolation in the contemporary world. But the knowledge that it can be positive is perhaps a step towards countering the modern epidemic.\"The<\/p>\n\n

Claire Walker<\/a>, Associate Professor, School of Historical and Classical Studies, University of Adelaide<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"La Religieuse Tenant La Sainte Croix (The Nun Holds the Cross), Jacques Callot, French,1621\u201335. The Metropolitan Museum of…\n","protected":false},"author":1215,"featured_media":14657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/f\/f6\/Moniale_Augustine_priant_%28Claire_de_Montefalco%29.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[11100,11086,11099,11102,11088,11080,11087,11096,11106,11110,11083,11085,11091,11108,11109,11092,11081,11095,11097,11082,11089,11098,11105,11103,11093,11104,11111,11090,11094,11084,11101,11107],"class_list":{"0":"post-14655","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-history","8":"tag-benedictine-monasteries","9":"tag-convent-life","10":"tag-cultural-history-of-loneliness","11":"tag-early-christian-hermits","12":"tag-early-modern-nuns","13":"tag-exile-and-loneliness","14":"tag-female-monasticism","15":"tag-isolation-and-mental-health","16":"tag-loneliness-and-activism","17":"tag-loneliness-and-purpose","18":"tag-loneliness-and-spirituality","19":"tag-loneliness-before-19th-century","20":"tag-loneliness-history","21":"tag-loneliness-in-history","22":"tag-loneliness-solutions","23":"tag-medieval-anchorites","24":"tag-meditation-and-loneliness","25":"tag-mental-health-in-monasticism","26":"tag-mindfulness-benefits","27":"tag-modern-loneliness-epidemic","28":"tag-monastic-reforms","29":"tag-monastic-solitude","30":"tag-monastic-training-benefits","31":"tag-nostalgia-and-loneliness","32":"tag-nuns-isolation","33":"tag-prayer-and-loneliness","34":"tag-silence-and-solitude","35":"tag-social-isolation-history","36":"tag-solitude-in-religion","37":"tag-spiritual-satisfaction","38":"tag-spiritual-solitude","39":"tag-urban-loneliness","40":"cs-entry","41":"cs-video-wrap"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1215"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14655"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14656,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14655\/revisions\/14656"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}