Nuns changing names

[Beorning]

Out of curiosity, did they offer any interesting answers that you might care to share?  :)

Nah, these were specific question regarding the DoC order. Like, whether they used to change their names, whether they cut their hair etc. Nothing that interesting...

Also, did your letter include: "Hi, I'm totally not a Catholic and I'm just researching nuns for lesbian convent romance story. Could you help me out?"    XD

Well, I did mention I was writing a romance story and one of the characters in the story is a nun. I'm not sure how clear it was that the nun would be involved in the romance, though...

[Beorning]

By the way, I'll show you something interesting I found one some family's webpage:

http://www.maggieblanck.com/Mayopages/ClareWalsh.html

This woman was a nun in 1961, but then she got married in 1966.

I would be surprised, if I didn't know that Daughters of Charity don't make solemn vows...

[Oniya]

She may also have been a postulant (someone who enters a convent with the intent to become a nun).  Many people don't realize that there's a difference.  The famed Maria von Trapp was never a nun, but a postulant.

[Beorning]

No, she wasn't a postulant or even a novice... she wears the full habit.

I'd say she probably quit by not prolonging the annual vows. Or, maybe, she quit before she made them. From what I know, the DoC have a bit weird "progression path": first, you are a postulant (which lasts up to a few months), then you go to the seminary (which equals being a novice and lasts up to a year). Then, after you stop being a novice, you have an additional "trial period" of a few years and only then you start making the annual vows.

And coming back to the issue of name-changing: did you know that, at some orders, a new nun was *assigned* a name by her superior? No choice for her. A bit scary idea...