The Outlaw Nuns

For 600 years, the Sisters of the Order of Poor Clare had lived at their convent in the quaint city of Bruges in Belgium. It was a picturesque existence, and simple life for these nuns, known as the Coletines or Clares, who lived cloistered, minimizing their contact and communication with the outside world.

The Poor Clares, officially the Order of Saint Clare (Latin: Ordo Sanctae Clarae) – originally referred to as the Order of Poor Ladies, and later the Clarisses, are members of a contemplative Order of nuns in the Catholic Church.

I solemnly swear that I have nothing to do with this Order and that its name does not originate with me, but it could. On the other hand it begins to become common the healthy witnessed madness of many Belgians, if it's due to the beers or the chocolates or both, we still don't know.

In the late 1980s, when these Clares nuns heard whispers of their bishop’s plan to snatch away their convent and sell off the artwork and holy relics, they decided that just wasn’t in God’s plans. That is it, way to go!

The rumor was that the Bishop desired to take the convent from them, break up their order and distribute the Clares through various other church convents. Their priceless art collections and holy relics amassed over centuries would be sold for profit; then, the Bishop would sell off the convent to local businesses that coveted the land.

The nuns talked among themselves about the bishop’s plans and came to their own decision, which was, essentially, “fuck that”. Because the nuns owned their convent, they changed the bylaws in order to secure their rights to the property and land. With a local lawyer's help, the nuns began to sell off their art collection and holy relics. Lastly, they discreetly sold their convent for a cool €

1.2 million.

After they amassed their small fortune, the nuns started spending their profits. They bought an old, crumbling castle in the South of France. They purchased a fleet of cars, including a Cadillac Seville and six Mercedes sedans, one of which was a limousine that featured a wet bar and television and cost $110,000. The nuns, who had for decades led a humble, minimalist life, also secured an ambulance for their caravan so that the oldest of the group, Sister Agnes, could make the trip with them to their new home. It didn’t matter that none of them knew how to drive. Next, they bought a stable of 11 racehorses.

There was then for some years a legal struggle between the bishopric and the sisters, with rough edges and dirty tricks on the part of the ecclesiastical authorities, which I will be able to report later.

There is one happy ending to this story. Sister Anna, the Mother Superior, left the convent struggle behind and started a new life with Guillaumine Lambrechts, one of her nuns. They were in love and retired together to a pretty farmhouse on the edge of a small stream, in the heart of the Ardennes, where they wanted “nothing more than to live together, far from all hassle.”

I wan to be clear than when I talk bout inspirational bold women, this is who I mean.