An abbess, also known as a mother superior, is the female superior of a community of Catholic nuns in an abbey.
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continual attempts to cover up its involvement in the June 17, 1972 break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Washington, D.C., Watergate Office Building.
A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent. The term is often used interchangeably with religious sisters who do take simple vows but live an active vocation of prayer and charitable work.
Dame Muriel Sarah Spark was a Scottish novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist.
Mother Joan of the Angels is a 1961 Polish art film on demonic possession, directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz, based on a novella of the same title by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, loosely based on the 17th century Loudun possessions. The film won the Special Jury Prize at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival.
A double monastery is a monastery combining separate communities of monks and of nuns, joined in one institution to share one church and other facilities. The practice is believed to have started in the East at the dawn of monasticism. It is considered more common in the monasticism of Eastern Christianity, where it is traceable to the 4th century. In the West the establishment of double monasteries became popular after Columbanus and sprang up in Gaul and in Anglo-Saxon England. Double monasteries were forbidden by the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, though it took many years for the decree to be enforced. Double monasteries were revived again after the 12th century in a significantly different way when a number of religious houses were established on this pattern among Benedictines and possibly the Dominicans. The 14th-century Bridgittines were purposely founded using this form of community.
Marfo-Mariinsky Convent, or Martha and Mary Conventof Mercy in the Possession of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna is a women's convent in Moscow.
Charlotte of Bourbon was a Princess consort of Orange as the third spouse of William the Silent, Prince of Orange, the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish. She was the fourth daughter of Louis III de Bourbon, Duke of Montpensier and Jacqueline de Longwy, Countess of Bar-sur-Seine.
Joseph Wilhelm Karl Kleutgen was a German Jesuit theologian and philosopher. He was a member of the Society of Jesus, and contributed significantly to the establishment of Neo-scholasticism.
The Catholic Church has been criticised in fiction, such as literature, film and television. Polemics have also been written on the Church and its practices. Some examples are the anti-Catholic stereotypes that filled Gothic fiction of Anglican England, the films of Luis Buñuel who took issue with the Church in Spain, the humor of some US television pundits like Rosie O'Donnell, and the rhetoric of some fundamentalist preachers.
Philomena is a 2013 film directed by Stephen Frears, based on the 2009 book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee by journalist Martin Sixsmith. The film stars Judi Dench and Steve Coogan. It is based on the true story of Philomena Lee's 50-year search for her son and Sixsmith's efforts to help her find him.
Nasty Habits is a 1977 British comedy film directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, starring Glenda Jackson, Melina Mercouri, Geraldine Page, Rip Torn and Susan Penhaligon. It is based on Muriel Spark's novel The Abbess of Crewe.
The Abbey of the Holy Cross was a French Benedictine monastery of nuns founded in the 6th century. Destroyed during the French Revolution, a new monastery with the same name was built in a nearby location during the 19th century for a community of Canonesses of St. Augustine of the Mercy of Jesus.
The Innocents, also known as Agnus Dei, is a 2016 French film directed by Anne Fontaine, which features Lou de Laâge, Agata Kulesza, Agata Buzek and Vincent Macaigne in its cast. The script is by Sabrina B. Karine, Pascal Bonitzer, Anne Fontaine and Alice Vial, after an original idea by Philippe Maynial. Maynial took inspiration from the experiences of his aunt, Madeleine Pauliac, a French Red Cross doctor who worked in Poland after World War II, dealing with the aftermath of mass rapes by Soviet soldiers.
Anna Germundsdotter or Girmundsdotter was a Swedish writer and Roman Catholic nun of the Bridgettine order and abbess of the Vadstena Abbey from 1518 until 1529.
Joan of Leeds or Johannas de Ledes was an English nun, who, bored with her monastic and enclosed life, at some point in 1318 escaped from St Clement's by York priory to journey to Beverley, where she was accused of living with a man. To escape, she feigned mortal illness and constructed a dummy of herself, which her colleagues buried in holy ground. When the Archbishop of York, William Melton, heard of this, he wrote to the religious authorities in Beverley expounding upon Joan's faults and instructing that she be returned forthwith to St Clement's. It is not recorded whether she ever did return, and all that is known of her life and career come from three letters found in Melton's archepiscopal cartulary.
Sister Cecily Dillon was an Irish co-foundress and first abbess of the Irish Poor Clares in Dublin, Ballinacliffey and Athlone.
Elizabeth Knatchbull religious name Lucy was the founding English abbess of the Convent of the Immaculate Conception in Ghent.
Mary Lovel born Jane Roper and aka Mary Roper and Lady Lovel was the founder of the English Carmelite convent in Antwerp.
Isabel Jordayne was an English abbess of Wilton Abbey. She was the penultimate abbess whose election was debated by Cardinal Wolsey and Anne Boleyn before Henry VIII, the abbey's patron, chose her.
