Catherine Coldstream Publishes Memoir After 12 Years in Carmelite Monastery
Updated
Updated · NPR · Jul 24
Catherine Coldstream Publishes Memoir After 12 Years in Carmelite Monastery
3 articles · Updated · NPR · Jul 24
Summary
Catherine Coldstream’s memoir “Cloistered: My Years as a Nun” recounts why she fled a Carmelite monastery after entering at age 24 and spending 12 years in religious life.
The book centers on her years of prayer and obedience inside the enclosed order, framing her departure as a break from the life she once embraced.
Originally published on March 20, 2024, the memoir brings renewed attention to Coldstream’s account of leaving the monastery and the personal costs of cloistered life.
After 12 years of silence, what dark reality about human leadership forced a devoted nun to flee her cloistered sanctuary?
With centuries-old monasteries permanently closing, is the extreme isolation of Carmelite life fundamentally incompatible with modern human psychology?
Does absolute obedience to human authority in a closed community inevitably lead to the destruction of a person's deepest spiritual ideals?