Bitter must have been the day of expulsion when this monastery, like all the others in the island, was suppressed in 1835.
The church of San Nicolas contains a statue of Santa Catalina, a Majorcan saint of great fame, and—incorporated in the outer wall, is the rock on which she was sitting in the bed of the Riéra at the moment when she was informed of her admission into the convent of St. Magdalen. The interiors of these southern churches are so dark that it is with difficulty possible to make out the statues that occupy the side chapels; here may be seen a black Madonna and child of miraculous power; there a group of saints laden with ex-votos in the shape of flat silver images of men and women and models of human limbs, hung upon their arms by grateful devotees; in another niche is a life-sized Christ upon the cross—wearing a fringed crimson petticoat to the knees and a broad silver girdle with a bunch of artificial roses stuck in it, while matted locks of real hair straggle out from beneath the crown of thorns.
“In the ancient monastery of S. Francisco a beautiful colonnade of slender gothic pillars encloses the monks’ garden....”
(page [18])
“From the upper corridor one looks out to where the cathedral spires rise dim and distant across half the city.”
(page [18])