Fake Former Nuns!!!!!

[mioque]

In the 19th century there were a few women who made a living by claiming to be former nuns, publishing books and traveling the PC* lecture circuit, shocking (well o.k. tittelating) their audiances with lurid tales of lusty priests and sadistic mother superiors.
Maria Monk, Rebecca Reed and Barbara Ubryk were the most famous, but there were others like Saint Francis Patrick (a.k.a. Frances Partridge).

I had always assumed that by the 20th century this line of employment had basically dried up and had been replaced with women who claimed to have been the high priestresses of Satanic/Witchcraft cults.
Well maybe not.

Both the late Charlotte Wells and Mary Ann Collins, are possibly fake former nuns.
http://www.speroforum.com/wiki/default.aspx/SperoWiki/MaryAnnCollins.html
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idcategory=33&idSub=134&idArticle=1799
http://www.angelfire.com/ms/seanie/forgeries/charlottewells.html

*that's Protestant Christian not Politically Correct.

 

[D28guy]

mioque,

I dont know anything about Charlotte Wells, but concerning Mary Ann Collins, if she were a fake why would she do it in this way?

Meaning...explaining it this way:

(from your link)

"I was in religious life for a little over two years. I was a novice but I never made vows. A novice is someone who has entered a religious order and has been given a habit. He or she undergoes training and "religious formation" in preparation for taking vows. (There are novice monks as well as novice nuns.)

Some people have asked me why I call myself a former nun when I never made vows. According to "The Catholic Encyclopedia," if a monk or a nun has been accepted by a religious order (which I was) and has been given a religious habit (which I wore), then he or she is a monk or a nun in the broad sense of the term. [Note 1] So I refer to myself as a former nun."

What would be the point of that if she were faking it? If one were faking it they would want to be as much of an "insider" as possible, in order to have as much credibility as possible. If someone were faking it I would think the thing to do would be to go "the full 9 yards", and say something like...

"I was a fully ordained Nun for 25 years. My ministry involved not only teaching but also much work done for the needy. I also had extensive first hand experience with, etc etc etc."

As one who was born and raised Catholic I havent seen or read anything on her site that didnt square with my experiences. Of course I have'nt had all of the experiences she shared, but much I did encounter and she is "spot on" regarding all of those.

Mike

 

[mioque]

D28guy
The only reason to shy away from faking a complete insider with decades of experience is that such insiders know a lot more about how things work on the inside than people on the outside.
Any small mistake a supposedly experienced fake nun is going to look very supicious to a real RCC insider and they will use such mistakes to make mincemeat of the fake's reputation.

Charlotte Wells and (the almost certainly completely imaginary) Barbara Ubryk were supposedly were such veteran nuns. Their testimonies contain the sort of errors no real nun would ever have made.
That's why it's much better to pretend to be something more modest, say a former novice from an undisclosed order, instead of something grandiose, a Carmelite with 3 decades of experience under her belt.

It's the only reason I can think of and I think it's a good one.

Ofcourse a worrying question remains.
Since the early days of nunneries, a steady stream of disgruntled former nuns have left them.
So why bother making up fake former nuns in the first place?