Steps of being a Nun

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SurfinNan

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I like doing Family History at present I am studying the life of an ancestor of my husband who was a Sister of the Bon Secours Order in Ireland. What I am wanting to know is the process of a woman becoming a nun and a nurse.

I know this:
  • Entered in 1915 in Belfast & Cork
  • Received 1916
  • 1st Profession 1919 in Cork
  • Final vows 1924 in Paris
  • Her placements between 1936 - 1949
  • Died 1954
What I do not know
  • What the progression from Entering to Final vows means, the process and education she had to fulfil these steps as well as being a nursing sister. I endeavour to understand the person and to do this I need to be informed on what it all means.
  • There is a gap between 1924 and 1936 that the Order of Bon Secours could not tell me about and this may be due to her dealing with private family matters back in her home County.
Terminology
Is being a Nun considered a vocation?
Charism is this their calling as a Nun - hers being nursing

As long as someone can explain to me about becoming a “fully fledged nun” and what it entails, It would surely help my understanding of her as a woman with strong spiritual beliefs, which I presumed she had to go through nearly 10 years of training.

My only source of knowledge has been the movie “A Nun’s Story”; and the TV show “Call the Midwife”, so can not be considered “well informed”. I am in Australia and do not know who I can ask.

Thank you
 
SurfinNan said:
What the progression from Entering to Final vows means, the process and education she had to fulfil these steps as well as being a nursing sister.
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There is a discernment period where the community evaluates the candidate and the candidate discerns both the call to vocation as well as fitness in the community. During that time, the candidate participates in the life of the community and is assigned a spiritual director to guide their journey. It is something like a probationary period of exploration and either can find that it is not workable.

The first profession is somewhat like we might think of an engagement in a vocation to marriage. It is an expressed commitment, but there is still discernment and spiritual formation before the final and permanent commitment.

In orders that have a certain charism such as teaching or nursing, the work in that charism/ministry is part of the formation process. A person could have a calling to be a nun, but may not serve well as a teacher or a nurse, so a different community might be more appropriate. The training in the service work goes hand in hand with the spiritual formation.

Every community has their own process and requirements ,but there are aspects common to all. You can read more about the Bon Secours here:



Commitment to the religious life is considered permanent, just like marriage. Nuns are considered married to Christ. They also take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. They are under the authority of their superior throughout their life.
 
@SurfinNan

A nun is a member of a religious community of women, typically one living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in other words is a woman who has discerned a call to live within an abbey, a monastery, or priory, as a contemplative religious in or in a convent.God Bless

Aspirancy / Pre-Candidacy (more to come on each of these)
Postulancy / Candidacy
Novitiate
First Vows
Final Vows

Steps and stages of the formation

The word “formation” refers to the stages of discernment as women advance toward making a lifetime commitment to a particular Catholic religious community. While the length of the steps vary and are shaped by the distinct tradition, the process of discerning a call both to religious life and a particular community is similar.

The entire process can take as long as a decade or more, involving both the woman and the community. There are canonical requirements regarding certain stages, but communities have some discretion about the length of the discernment process.

Words used to describe the first stages of formation may vary.

Candidacy or postulancy 1 to 2 years approx

Prior to officially entering, the woman and community members get to know each other. Some communities call this stage “candidacy” while others use that term for the first stage after formal entrance.

When a woman formally enters the community, she is usually called a postulant or candidate. This stage may take six months to several years. During at last part of this time, the candidate/postulant lives in community.

Novitiate

When a woman enters the novitiate, she is known as a novice and is called “Sister.”

The canonical novitiate is a year especially dedicated to prayer, exploring the meaning of the vows and delving more deeply into religious life and the charism (unique spirit or character) of the community.

Some communities add an additional year to the novitiate during which the sister engages in ministry.

Temporary vows

At the conclusion of this time of prayer, study and community life, the novice professes temporary vows, commonly called first vows, which are canonically binding for a particular length of time, often ranging from one to three years. During this time, the sisters engage in ministry and live in community. At the end of this period, the vows can be renewed.

Perpetual vows

Perpetual vows, commonly called final vows, are professed anytime three to nine years after temporary vows. The time may vary according to the tradition of the community. Perpetual vows are professed for life. (In the case of the Daughters of Charity, a society of apostolic life featured in this series, the sisters do not profess perpetual vows, but renew them every year.)

Nursing is there job or professional careers ,either they work in a hospital run by the nuns or close by hospitals.
Yes Being a Nun is her religious Vocation.

Charism is their specialized care or work eg
Areas of ministry include:Healthcare: hospitals, long term care, hospital chaplaincy, home nursing, pastoral services
Social Services: addiction counselling, adult literacy
Parish Ministry: parish sisters, evangelization, home visitation
hope it helps.
 
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Your relative would have been entering under a different code of canon law, and non-Vatican II practices, so whatever you’re reading today probably would not be applicable to her situation.

Women had a choice of either wife or nun. That was it. If they didn’t want to be a wife, then they had to enter a convent. Unmarried women in those days was actually rather rare. That being said, she may have entered Bon Secours straight out of high school. There wasn’t the discernment process then that we have today. She would have entered on a particular day, with a group of girls, usually called a “band”, and would have spent six months to a year in the first stage known as postulancy. She would have been taught the ins and outs of convent life, which is very regulated. Her garb was likely all black, with a capelet, and possibly some kind of head covering, esp in chapel.

The second year is known as Novitiate, and she would have had her external activities curtailed and spent more time in prayer. This year would have started with her receiving the Bon Secours habit, only with a white veil. Bon Secours had a very unique habit, in that it had a large hanky known as a “fichou” (sp?) over the shoulders. Their headpiece is likely based on that of the bonnets of secular women.

During these two years, depending on the length of the nursing program (which was likely in-house at one of the congregation’s hospitals), she probably would have done her training.

After the first couple of years, she would have been judged worthy or not of making more progress, and would have been admitted to temporal profession. Her vows would have been made for three years. She would have received the black veil at this time.

I’m not sure if the Bon Secours sisters received wedding bands when they made final vows or not.

There is a book on Google Books called “Guide to Religious Sisterhoods” by McCarthy. There should be a description of the Bon Secours sisters there. There’s also “Religious Orders of Women” by Dehey.

I’m not sure who the founder of Bon Secours is, but if you Google them, you might find a good biography which would describe the foundation of the community.

There should be many pix of the Bon Secours sisters online.

Australia has religious communities. Not sure if Bon Secours is represented, but there are others who have been there quite some time. The Good Samaritan sisters are indigenous (founded there, but probably don’t have aboriginal sisters) to the country. Google “vocations Australia” and a list of communities should come up.

Blessings,
Mrs Cloisters OP
Lay Dominican
http://cloisters.tripod.com/
http://cloisters.tripod.com/charity/
 
Thank you for your explanations it has helped me tremendously to understand what I had found through google. I had noticed that the Bon Secours Nuns did wear a different kind of head covering. I have read up on the history the order was founded in France to care for the sick of the poor and needy. Ireland was their first country to branch out in. A lot of the pages actually dwell on the happenings at Tuam in Ireland at St Mary’s Home for Children. Much good that the Order did do is now tarnished by that event. I will look those books up to get more of an insight. Thank you for referring me to them.
Now I will have to determine if the 10 year gap was due to the reasons I presume, as the Archivist at the Order in Ireland could not say why. As it is personal perhaps no record was kept of why she went away to her family.
Thank you all again for your info.
Evelyn
 
Ah, mystery. Would like to get my head wrapped around this one. Surely there would be traces of her somewhere in her home county. A sister being on home-leave for that amount of time would have been significant. newspapers.com could be a place to start. Or I could post something on my organization’s Yahoo group called The Religious Habit. Not sure if anyone would have any leads, but it’s a well-read group, and the only one dedicated to the religious habit on Yahoo groups.
 
For 40 years we tried finding the mother of my father in-law, Dora
Mitchell. Story went that she married and had gone to the US but there were
no records of any marriage or her going to America. If she had married we
didn’t know the name. Then last year after a few coincidences someone
contacted a brother in-law introducing themselves as a second cousin. She
was from England of Irish parents and her mother was a cousin of Dora. Dora
had been a nun. From there we have been trying to find out more about her.
My husband and his four siblings would like to know “who” their grandma was
as a person. That explains her personal family business I spoke of.

Sister M. Benedict made her final vows in 1924 and Dora Mitchell gave birth
to a son in 1926. My husband was told that the parents of Dora raised the
child until he was about 6 years old, when a foster family took over.
Perhaps those years were spent with his mother . Although father in-law
said he’d never met her. So 1924-1936. It would be nice to know if she was
looking after him or why there is a 12 year gap.

Thank you for your interest, I have emailed back because its a delicate
situation and the world does not need to know. These things happened, and
have happened, and will happen again but some persons react differently,
and it is a private matter.

Evelyn
 
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