"Obedience, Poverty, Chastity"

The heavy Gothic doors of the cloister trembled, slowly closed, were locked. Inside remained 15 quiet women dressed in white robes, wearing black hoods and capes, carrying rosaries, like strings of beads, with a pendant crucifix. They were nuns of the Dominican Sisterhood, located at Corpus Christi Monastery in Menlo Park, California. They had pledged themselves to the perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, to obedience, poverty and chastity. Never may they leave the cloister (except because of fire, leprosy, contagious maladies, or analogous circumstances).

"Bernard loved the valleys, Benedict the mountains, Francis the towns, Dominic the populous cities"--but the sisterhood established in St. Dominic's name, lead solitary, meditative lives, hearing not even overtones of the thronging metropolis. Last week, at Menlo Park, this renunciation of the world began with the dedication of the chapel by San Francisco's famed Archbishop Hanna. With special mass and a Feast of the Dedication the nuns entered into their new home. Plain chant and the mellow chiming of bells echoed from the vaults. The ceremonies over, the portals of the cloister were sealed. Henceforth the nuns' only communication with friends or relatives is by mail or through the solidly grated windows of the cloister parlor.

Superstition has it that nuns who break their vows are subjected to ghastly Gothic penalties, such as burial alive in the walls of a monastery. Superstition errs; the apostate nun undergoes no stipulated censure. If she suffers at all it is from the barb of conscience or the irrelevant condemnation of busybodies. Having obtained a dispensation from Rome she may even re-enter the cloister, no matter what prompted her to abscond. Penitent, she is easily forgiven.

Florence Hayes, 20-year-old niece of Cardinal Hayes, took vows and became a member of the Sisters of St. Francis, situated at Mount St. Clare, New Hamburg, N. Y. Hereafter she will be known as Sister Michella Marie. The Cardinal assisted.