More on Why (Habited) Nuns Rock
Nun saves burning man with her habit - The Daily Record
So this sister did not only save a man by smothering the flames on his body with her habit (was she really wearing wool during spring in Italy?), but also visits him every day to offer him spiritual support. How beyond-words cool is that?
I’ve found out that she belongs to the “Istituto pedagogico e linguistico del Bambin Gesù”, or the “Pedagogic and Linguistic Institute of the Child Jesus”. Unfortunately they don’t appear to have a web page.
April 10, 2008 at 9:42 pm
I have just read a novel, a Western called “St Agnes’ Stand”. An escaping outlaw ends up helping out three nuns (habited) with a group of children, who have been ambushed by Indians. At one point, the big chief Indian creeps up to kill the outlaw. Sr St Agnes gets in between them and, as it appears to the Indian, takes two arrows at point blank range without being hurt. At which point, the Indian turns tail and runs. The explanation? Sr held up her arms in a cross like gesture, which spread out her habit to a rather wider diameter than her body. The arrows went through the habit but missed her body … The novel expresses some interesting ideas on poverty, on Sr St Agatha’s concern for the souls of those who have died, of self sacrifice for others. It goes a bit awry though when Sr St Agatha, thinking they will all die within a few hours, baptises the children with what little water is left (OK, good on the importance of baptism for eternal life, but perhaps not altogether respectful of the freedom of the children)and celebrates Mass for them (the novel was written in 1994, though set in the times of the “wild West”, so I suppose the author may have come across a women priests group somewhere …