Rude Awakenings

Roundups that changed lives and congregations forever.

The search of convents and monasteries was incessant. Sisters were often aroused from their sleep in the middle of the night and ordered to leave.  They were moved constantly from one place to another, for no apparent reason.  A Sister of St. Basil the Great from Ukraine said that she had 22 searches in one year.  To scare sisters they were ordered to stand facing the walls during searches and they had to stay in this position for a couple of hours; sometimes throughout the entire night.  Another sister from Hungary said that troops came to their motherhouse at midnight where about two hundred sisters lived, with trucks waiting outside.  “They rang the bell and when the superior answered, she was so traumatized that she dropped dead.”

Sister Fidelia, Daughter of St. Francis was a young
nurse in Bratislava who told of a bus coming at
midnight, police surrounding the convent.  “It was
raining very hard and we were taken to a castle.
The next morning we were taken to the fields where
we did heavy work.  The guards never struck us.
Once a month a high official came and the guards
reported everything.  When a guard did something
good for a person, he was called Bratislava and asked
why he did the good deed.”

Abandoned properties of the sisters were taken over by the Religious Public Register, an arm of the communist party.  Whether a castle or an empty monastery, places where sisters from multiple congregations were taken were called centralized or concentration convents. These dwellings offered few amenities; lack of heat in winter; crowded living and sleeping conditions; outdoor toilets. The multi-congregation situation was a benefit as sisters were strengthened by one another which helped them to sustain some of the extreme suppression in which they found themselves.  A Slovakian sister said: “This forty year experience united us, caused us to value our vocations, taught us to appreciate other religious.  We supported each other and recognized the richness in one another.”