History Main / TakingTheVeil

* In Creator/PoulAnderson's "The Live Coward", a GenderFlip and unusual use. Wing Alak defeats Varris in a duel by injecting him with a substance that makes him suggestible. When he is tended for his injuries, he listens to the abbot and takes vows. This makes him legally dead.
* In ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'' (at least in the book), Scarlett's youngest sister, Carreen, becomes a nun after her sweetheart is killed in the CivilWar. The deaths of the O'Hara parents and other war-related trauma probably didn't exactly argue against retreat from the secular world, either.

* Averted in ''Series/CallTheMidwife''. The nuns of Nonnatus House all feel the religious life is their vocation; even [[spoiler:Sister Bernadette, who leaves the Order to get married, is incredibly conflicted, and it's possible she'll have some sort of relationship with the Order later on (potentially as a Third Order sister)]]. On the other hand, Chummy, a devout Anglican, seriously considers joining the Order when [[GrandeDame her mother]] tries to shoot down her plans to marry Constable Peter Noakes; she thinks better of it, and instead marries Peter and takes a six-month trip as a midwife-missionary in Sierra Leone. On the other hand, [[spoiler:Cynthia]], who gave no particular indication of devoutness before this point, ends up coming to the conclusion that she was being called to the religious life, and ended up taking vows.
* ''Series/OneLifeToLive'' Gabrielle Medina runs to a convent to take vows because she's so terrified of her feelings for Max Holden. Him tracking her down and them going at on the grounds of the rectory changed her mind. Years later, Maggie Carpenter is already enrolled in the convent when she meets Max. She abandons her studies to pursue a relationship with him but leaves town to resume them when it falls apart.

* Averted in ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' where joining the Adepta Sororitas is anything but a quiet life (they're called the Sisters of Battle for a reason). Essentially the Imperium's SeriousBusiness outlook on religion up a notch, the nuns take to the battlefield in PowerArmor and lots of flame-based weaponry, all the better to burn the heretic, kill the mutant, and purge the unclean with. While there are some Sororitas in non-combat roles, they still serve the Inquisition in some way, like decyphering xenos messages or running the Black Ships that bring potential psykers to Terra for training.

* In ''Theatre/TheComedyOfErrors'' Egeon and his wife Emilia were separated at sea during a storm and both think the other had perished. Emilia entered a convent and eventually became an abbess (Mother Superior).

* One medieval saint hung outside her window holding on with her fingers until her family thought she had fled and then dressed as a man and ran off to get to the convent and escape her ArrangedMarriage.
* ''[[Film/TheSongOfBernadette Bernadette Soubirous]]'', who had eighteen visions of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes when she was fourteen, entered a hospice school at 16 and at 22 joined the Sisters of Charity and Christian Instruction. Fictional accounts aside, her own writings show that she wanted to do this, rather than being forced into it. Her friend Antoine Nicolau [[JustFriends really was just a friend]], and in fact was married before the visions began. However, her story codified the Vocation type where seeing the Blessed Mother means the visionary/visionaries have to Take The Veil and die young, preferably of TB. (Bernadette, an ''already'' physically frail girl, died of bone tuberculosis when in her 30's.)

* The cultural trope of Marian visionaries joining a convent/monastery and/or dying young is so codified and ingrained in everyone's minds that visionaries are often criticized or flat-out disbelieved if they stay in the secular world or directly intervene in secular or religious matters. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanie_Calvat Melanie Calvat]], one of the visionaries of La Salette, got lambasted for either trying to intervene in the French state's relationship with the Church, or being used as an UnwittingPawn by conservative politicians. The little visionaries of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Beauraing Our Lady of Beauraing]] were raked over the coals for getting married and having normal family lives. Benedictine scholar Hughes Delogne points out that Mary herself was married, and asked Christ to do his first miracle (water into wine) at a wedding, something a lot of people seem to forget. A priest who'd studied the visitations defended the children and issued a snarky comment about the stereotype causing people to expect all Marian visionaries to follow the same pattern.

* Saint Therese of Lisieux (formerly Marie-Therese Martin), three of her sisters (Pauline, Marie and Leonie) ''and'' one of their cousins (Marie Guerin) became nuns at one point or another. Therese herself had allegedly wanted to do this ever since she was a kid, but she was turned down by the local Carmelite convents for her youth and didn't get her wish granted until she was at least fifteen. Her sister Leonie, learning disabled and likely autistic, became TheDeterminator by entering convent after convent and getting booted out until she finally made a home for herself with the Sisters of the Visitation. Her cause for sainthood was finally turned in in 2015. Today's [[http://cloisters.tripod.com/blherman/ Leonie League and Brother Herman's Eremite Network]] are preparing to form monastic orders expressly for autistic and Down's Syndrome people who feel called to holy service.

* UsefulNotes/CaterinaDeMedici spent about four years immured in various convents as a hostage for the rebels that overthrew her family to use for leverage. Historical fictional accounts of her life usually portray her time in Santissima Annuziata delle Murate as the brightest spot in her turbulent life. (Some of those same accounts also say she briefly became a nun-or at least pretended to do so-to preserve her life after some of the rebels wanted her killed or raped, but that seems to be apocryphal.)

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Alice_of_Battenberg Princess Alice of Battenberg]], [[UsefulNotes/BritishRoyalFamily Prince Philip]]'s mother, took her vows later in life, after her husband's death. She founded a religious order in Greece, and ran an orphanage, sometimes pawning trinkets from her royal past to support the order. She kept up many of her habits from before the religious life, to the puzzlement of many (including her mother, who famously commented, "What can you say of a nun who smokes and plays canasta?"). It was a capstone to a colorful life that included sheltering Jews from Nazis in Athens and being named as one of the Righteous Among the Nations. (Her last years are a main source for a few episodes of ''Series/TheCrown2016'', particularly S02E04 "Bubbikins".)

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duchess_Elizabeth_Feodorovna Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna]], sister-in-law to the last Tsar of Russia and aunt to the above mentioned Princess Alice, became an Orthodox nun [[TheMourningAfter after the murder of her husband, Grand Duke Sergei, by an anarchist]]. She became famous for her kindness and charitable works - as well as her physical beauty. In 1918 she, a fellow nun and a group of nobles were subjected to a CruelAndUnusualDeath by the Bolsheviks.[[note]]First they were [[BuriedAlive thrown down a mine shaft]], then [[StuffblowingUp two hand grenades were tossed in after them]]. When Elizabeth and others could still be heard singing Orthodox hymns, [[KillItWithFire the mine was set on fire]]. Even this didn't kill them, as it was later discovered most of the victims died slowly, either from wounds sustained by their being thrown into the mine, or from starvation. Vladimir Lenin paid her a twisted compliment by particularly rejoicing at her death, remarking, "Virtue with the crown on it is a greater enemy to the world revolution than a hundred tyrant tsars."[[/note]]
* One of [[UsefulNotes/JulieDAubigny Julie d'Aubigny's]] lovers was sent away to a convent by her parents (due to homosexuality being frowned upon at the time). Julie entered the convenant and faked her lover's death before running away wtih her.

* ''LightNovel/MariaWatchesOverUs'' takes place in a Catholic school. It's shown in flashbacks that Sei's previous girlfriend left her to become a nun.

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]

* In ''The Saint of Bleecker Street'' by Gian-Carlo Menotti, visionary IllGirl Annina says she will take the veil one day. She ultimately does, but dies during the ceremony.

* ''[[Film/TheSongOfBernadette Bernadette Soubirous]]'', who had eighteen visions of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes when she was fourteen, entered a hospice school at 16 and at 22 joined the Sisters of Charity and Christian Instruction. Fictional accounts aside, her own writings show that she wanted to do this, rather than being forced into it. Her friend Antoine Nicolau [[JustFriends really was just a friend]], and in fact was married before the visions began. However, her story codified the Vocation type where seeing the Blessed Mother means the visionary/visionaries have to Take The Veil and die young, preferably of TB. (Bernadette, an ''already'' physically frail IllGirl, died of bone tuberculosis when in her 30's.)

* In ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'' (at least in the book), Scarlett's youngest sister, Carreen, becomes a nun after her sweetheart is killed in the CivilWar.

* Averted in ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' where joining the Adepta Sororitas is anything but a quiet life (they're called the Sisters of Battle for a reason). Essentially the Imperium's SeriousBusiness outlook on religion UpToEleven, the nuns take to the battlefield in PowerArmor and lots of flame-based weaponry, all the better to burn the heretic, kill the mutant, and purge the unclean with. While there are some Sororitas in non-combat roles, they still serve the Inquisition in some way, like decyphering xenos messages or running the Black Ships that bring potential psykers to Terra for training.

* The Australian sex comedy ''Film/AlvinPurple'' (1973) has the CluelessChickMagnet falling in love with the one woman who's irresistible to his charms. At the end of the movie she becomes a nun, so Alvin gets a job as the gardener at the nunnery to be with her. Where he gets [[NunTooHoly eyed by a lot of appreciative nuns]].

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duchess_Elizabeth_Feodorovna Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna]], sister-in-law to the last Tsar of Russia and aunt to the above mentioned Princess Alice, became an Orthodox nun [[TheMourningAfter after the murder of her husband, Grand Duke Sergei, by an anarchist]]. She became famous for her kindness and charitable works - as well as her physical beauty. In 1918 she, a fellow nun and a group of nobles were subjected to a CruelAndUnusualDeath by the Bolsheviks.[[note]]First they were [[BuriedAlive thrown down a mine shaft]], then [[StuffblowingUp two hand grenades were tossed in after them]], and ''then'' [[KillItWithFire the mine was set on fire]]. Even this didn't kill them, as it was later discovered most of the victims either died of wounds sustained by their fall into the mine, or from starvation. Vladimir Lenin paid her a twisted compliment by particularly rejoicing at her death, remarking, "Virtue with the crown on it is a greater enemy to the world revolution than a hundred tyrant tsars."[[/note]]

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duchess_Elizabeth_Feodorovna Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna]], sister-in-law to the last Tsar of Russia and aunt to the above mentioned Princess Alice, became an Orthodox nun [[TheMourningAfter after the murder of her husband by an anarchist, Grand Duke Sergei]]. She became famous for her kindness and charitable works - as well as her physical beauty. In 1918 she, a fellow nun and a group of nobles were subjected to a CruelAndUnusualDeath by the Bolsheviks.[[note]]First they were [[BuriedAlive thrown down a mine shaft]], then [[StuffblowingUp two hand grenades were tossed in after them]], and ''then'' [[KillItWithFire the mine was set on fire]]. Even this didn't kill them, as it was later discovered most of the victims either died of wounds sustained by their fall into the mine, or from starvation. Vladimir Lenin paid her a twisted compliment by particularly rejoicing at her death, remarking, "Virtue with the crown on it is a greater enemy to the world revolution than a hundred tyrant tsars."[[/note]]

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duchess_Elizabeth_Feodorovna Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna]], sister-in-law to the last Tsar of Russia and aunt to the above mentioned Princess Alice, became an Orthodox nun and dedicated herself to charity [[TheMourningAfter after the murder of her husband, Grand Duke Sergei]]. But in 1918 she, a fellow nun and a bunch of other nobles were subjected to a CruelAndUnusualDeath by a Red Army group.[[note]]First they were [[BuriedAlive thrown into a mine]], then [[StuffblowingUp two hand grenades were tossed into the pit]], and ''then'' [[KillItWithFire the mine was set ablaze]].[[/note]]