Cloistered

My Years as a Nun

De: Catherine Coldstream

Narrado por: Catherine Coldstream

Long-listed, NPR Best Book of the Year, 2024

This program is read by the author.

"A profoundly moving memoir which gripped me . . . It’s about spirituality and asceticism and silence and sisterhood, but also about how flawed human beings can abuse power and how hermetically sealed communities, which should care for and protect their members, can be dangerously vulnerable to threats from inside their walls.”—Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, The Porpoise and others

An astonishing memoir of twelve years as a contemplative nun in a silent monastery.

Cloistered takes the listener deep into the hidden world of a traditional Carmelite monastery as it approaches the third Millennium and tells the story of an intense personal journey into and out of an enclosed life of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Finding an apparently perfect world at Akenside Priory, in Northumberland, Catherine trusts herself to a group of twenty silent women, believing she is trusting herself to God. As the beauty and mystery of an ancient way of life enfold her, she surrenders herself wholly to its power, quite unaware of the complexity and dangers that lie ahead.

Cut off from the wider world for decades, the community has managed to evade accountability to any authority beyond itself. When Sister Catherine realises that a mesmerising cult of the personality, with the distortions it entails, has replaced the ancient ideal of religious obedience, she is faced with a dilemma. Will she submit to this, or will she be forced to speak out?

An exploration of the limits of trust, Cloistered shows us how far youthful idealism can take us along the road of self-surrender, and of how much harm is done when institutional flaws go unacknowledged. Catherine’s honest account of her time in the monastery–and her dramatic flight from it–is both a love song to a lost community and an exploration of what is most compelling, yet most potentially destructive when closed human groups become laws unto themselves.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.

©2024 Catherine Coldstream (P)2024 Macmillan Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

"This is a memoir of emotions felt viscerally. But there are also remarkable spiritual insights, intellectual reflections on life and death and, of course, plenty about the intense relationships that developed between Catherine, and the other sisters. Engrossing and moving.” - Belinda Jack, Author of George Sand: A Woman's Life Writ Large and The Woman Reader

“A profoundly moving memoir which gripped me . . . It’s about spirituality and asceticism and silence and sisterhood, but also about how flawed human beings can abuse power and how hermetically sealed communities, which should care for and protect their members, can be dangerously vulnerable to threats from inside their walls.” - Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, The Porpoise and others

Fasinating and thoughtful

This book is beautifully written and performed. It provides a detailed story of cloisterd life and of a vocstional journey that evolves and changes much within a deep trusting faith and love of God.

Fascinating memoir

First of all, the author gave a wonderful performance in reading her book. Very well done!
Being a spiritual seeker myself, I so related to the author’s life and search for her life meaning. The description of the religious community and relationships was very interesting. Yes, dysfunctional but sadly, not all that unique. I’ve been a part of and have read of many such organizations. As the author observed……it’s human nature.
Thank you, Catherine, for sharing your amazing story!!

Amazing story

The author provided the narration for this story. It started off a little bit slowly but it picked up the pace in the second half of the narrative. Her experience, to say the least, was shocking, especially her description of the beating she took at the hands of the now deceased prioress.

Overall, the narrative was quite captivating. I would strongly recommend it

Monastery or North Korean Prison Camp?

She went BACK!? Where the lunatics truly run the asylum?

Brainwashing and off the charts levels of mental illness and sadism used against the vulnerable. Meets all the criteria for a CULT of the most insidious kind.

Beautifully written however.

The book I needed at this time

As a 70 year old woman who spent her whole life working for the Catholic Church (but not a nun!) this book gave an honest picture of the struggles so many of us faced. It was the final personal victory and sense of peace and forgiveness delivered by the author that can give us hope.