Les Misérables · Chapter
The Obedience of Martin Verga explained
This chapter describes the convent of the Bernardines-Benedictines of the obedience of Martin Verga, located in the Rue Petit-Picpus in 1824.
What happens
This chapter describes the convent of the Bernardines-Benedictines of the obedience of Martin Verga, located in the Rue Petit-Picpus in 1824. It details the order's history, its strict rule derived from Saint-Benoît and Martin Verga, the nuns' austere dress, perpetual adoration, rigorous fasting, silence, and practices such as public confession and the 'coulpe'. The chapter also explains the nuns' limited contact with the outside world and their pale, grave demeanor.
Themes in this chapter
Suffering and Sacrifice
The chapter details the extreme ascetic practices of the nuns, including fasting, sleeping on straw, scourging, and wearing drugget chemises, highlighting their suffering and sacrifice as part of religious devotion.
The Human Condition and Fate
The description of the nuns' pale and grave demeanor, and the note that three went mad between 1825 and 1830, reflects the psychological toll of such a harsh rule on the human condition.
Key passages
“These Bernardines were attached, in consequence, not to Clairvaux, like the Bernardine monks, but to Cîteaux, like the Benedictine monks. In other words, they were the subjects, not of Saint Bernard, but of Saint Benoît.”
These Bernardine nuns were part of the Benedictine order, following Saint Benoît rather than Saint Bernard.
Clarifies the order's affiliation.
“The Bernardines-Benedictines of Martin Verga practise the Perpetual Adoration, like the Benedictines called Ladies of the Holy Sacrament...”
The nuns of Martin Verga, like the Ladies of the Holy Sacrament, engage in continuous worship of the Eucharist.
Highlights a shared practice between distinct orders.
“To make one's coulpe means to prostrate one's self flat on one's face during the office in front of the prioress until the latter... notifies the culprit by a slight tap of her foot against the wood of her stall that she can rise.”
Performing the coulpe involves lying face down before the prioress during service until she taps her foot to signal the nun to get up.
Describes the ritual of self-imposed penance for minor faults.