Nuns of Saint Ursula

The Nuns of Saint Ursula are presented in Hafen Slawkenbergius’s embedded account of the Strasbourg nose uproar as the religious community that responds most sensibly to a night of widespread disturbance. While other nuns lie awake in agitation, they do not attempt to go to bed; the next morning, the cathedral clergy wish they had followed the same example.

Identity and Setting

The Nuns of Saint Ursula appear among the religious communities affected by the stranger’s arrival in Strasbourg. Their episode belongs to a comic catalogue of orders whose members are troubled by the public fascination surrounding his nose. The account gives no further institutional history or description of the order; its focus is their conduct during that particular night.

Conduct During the Uproar

The other nuns described spend the night tossing and turning, unable to sleep. Against this shared restlessness, the Nuns of Saint Ursula take a different course: they do not go to bed at all. The narrator explicitly marks this as the wisest response, making their restraint a practical contrast to the unsuccessful attempts of other communities to sleep through the disturbance.

Recognition and Narrative Role

The following morning, the dean, prebendaries, capitulars, and domiciliary clergy assemble to consider the matter of buttered buns. In the confusion, the bakers have forgotten to prepare them, and the cathedral precinct remains in commotion. The assembled clergy then wish they had adopted the Nuns of Saint Ursula’s example. Their brief appearance gives the embedded episode a comic measure of judgment: the community that avoids an impossible night’s rest is vindicated by the clergy’s regret, while the larger city’s disturbance spills from private sleeplessness into the ordinary business of breakfast and cathedral life.