Sister Maddelena was created by Ralph Adams Cram and appeared in “Sister Maddelena” (Black Spirits & White, 1895). Cram (1863-1942) is better known for his non-literary pursuits: he is known as the best church architect America has ever produced. He was a proponent for the nineteenth century Gothic revival in American architecture and was widely read in his time as a cultural commentator and advocate for the ideals of the Middle Ages. But although Cram thought poorly of modern life and was reactionary in his political and cultural ideas, he was also a fine writer of horror stories. “Sister Maddelena” is the weakest of the three Cram stories described in this encyclopedia, but only by a matter of degrees.

“Sister Maddelena” is about a pair of men, the nameless narrator and his friend Tom Rendel, who visit Sicily to do some sketching and painting. While near Palermo they meet the Cavaliere Valguanera, an amateur archaeologist and patriot of the island. The Cavaliere knows some of Rendel’s acquaintances, and the three become fast friends. The Cavaliere begins telling the two Americans about the history of Palermo and invites the pair back to his home. One of the stories the Cavaliere tells is about his home, which was formerly the convent of Santa Catarina. It is haunted, which delights the narrator and his friend. The Cavaliere tells the story: over a century ago a young woman, Rosalia, was betrothed by her father, the Duca di Castiglione, to a Spanish nobleman. But Rosalia loved a young military officer, Michele Biscari, and planned to elope with him rather than marry the Spanish nobleman. A servant informed Rosalia’s father of Rosalia’s plans, and he, furious beyond measure, attempted both emotionally and physically to break her will and force her to marry the nobleman. Rosalia continued to refuse, so the Duca had the lover sent to the mainland and had Rosalia held captive in his castle. But she continued to refuse to marry the nobleman, so the Duca had Rosalia sent to a Carmelite convent, where she would be forced to take the name Maddelena and would be held as a prisoner.

Rosalia thought her lover was dead–her father had persuaded her of this–but refused to marry another and took to convent life as a relief from her father. But a change in political fortunes brought Michele back to Sicily, and he eventually discovered that Rosalia, now Sister Maddelena, was still alive. He found her and began visiting her at night. But eventually their nocturnal visits were discovered, and Sister Maddelena was imprisoned in one of the cells under the chapel and commanded to confess. She refused and was eventually told that either she would confess and Michele would be killed, or she would give up her own life. Sister Maddelena chose suicide, though the method was never known, and Michele spent his life trying to find out what happened to her. Since then, at night, her ghost has been seen by first-time visitors to Santa Catarina. She appears, gentle and harmless, looks at the visitor, says, “I cannot sleep,” and then vanishes.

The night after the Cavaliere tells the story to the narrator and Tom Rendel, the ghost of Sister Maddelena appears to the narrator. She seems beautiful and sad, and begins to move toward the door. The narrator follows her, and she leads him to a cell and then vanishes. The next day the narrator tells Tom and the Cavaliere about Sister Maddelena’s appearance and asks the Cavaliere’s permission to investigate the cell. Although the cell has been searched many times before, the narrator finds a section in the cell walls that is different from the wall around it, and opens it with the help of Tom. They find a vision of Maddelena in agony, an unchanging vision which does not disappear as they look at it. So they summon a priest, who performs the necessary rites and then gently sprinkles holy water on Maddelena’s face. The vision disappears. Later the priest says a midnight mass for Maddelena’s soul, and the cell is bricked up again, and a headstone is ordered for Rosalia.

“Sister Maddelena” is another fine story from Cram. As in “The Dead Valley,” Cram uses an unadorned and efficient style, but when more than that is called for in the story he displays a wonderful talent for description, poetically for the landscape and frighteningly for the vision of Sister Maddelena. The story of the ghostly nun is a well-worn chestnut that was commonly used during the heyday of the Gothic, and the victimized nun was a recurring character type in Victorian fiction and thought,¹ but Cram, a devout Catholic, adds a resolution to the clichéd plot and gives absolution to Maddelena. The story’s ending is predictable, but the story is well-told. “Sister Maddelena” is often described as Cram’s most moving story, but the story’s structure only tells Maddelena’s story and does not give the reader the chance to get to know her or to become emotionally involved in her story. Maddelena is nearly as much of a stranger to the reader at the end of the story as she was at the beginning.

Print: Ralph Adams Cram, Black Spirits & White. Leyburn: Tartarus Press, 2004.

[1] Rene Kollar, A Foreign and Wicked Institution? The Campaign Against Convents in Victorian England (Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 2011) is worth consulting on the subject of Victorian prejudices against convents taking the form of pretend concern for the nuns inside them.