I have no time for more. I shall always pray for you, and love you, and you must think of me as always
Your affectionate, but disappointed Father,
Ignatius, O.S.B.
Most of the readers of this book will probably know the meaning of the letters “O.S.B.” They mean the “Order of St. Benedict.” Now, although Sister Mary Agnes never became what is called in conventual phraseology a “professed” nun in that Order, that is to say, she never “took the black veil,” yet for all these years she was a novice nun, and was always looked upon and called a nun.
In a letter Father Ignatius wrote to her in the year 1879, whilst she was in the convent, this sentence occurs: “You are really a little nun”; and again: “If I find you really grown in a nun-like spirit, I really hope we may fix (D.V.) your profession, say, this year.”
I might very easily add more to prove that this simple story of seventeen years of convent life is not a fabricated one, but the evidence I have produced, out of a mass which I have at my disposal, will surely be enough.
Miss Povey has decided to make known her life as a nun, in order that others may take warning, and profit by her experiences. No young lady who may become acquainted with this book can ever say, should she be deluded into taking the veil, that she took that terrible leap, as I fear many do take it, in the dark.
Convents, or sisterhoods, in connection with the Church of England, are by no means few and far between, and it is to be hoped that this book will bring conviction to many of the transparent fact, that the teaching and practices within their walls are not so widely different from the same within the walls of Roman Catholic convents.
I hope that Miss Povey’s work may do good in making known the danger of being misled by the apparently pure evangelical teaching which Father Ignatius is said to give. Now, it seems to me, that here in this book we have the means of subjecting this specious-looking metal to a severe test. His so-called Gospel sermons and orations contain some good metal with which the counterfeit coin is covered and made to pass as genuine.
It is an incumbent duty to let her revelations be known far and wide, so that souls be not led astray.