The Winter Travel Issue
For Some Nuns, Baking Is an Act of Devotion
In convents across Spain, the tradition of selling sweets is alive and well.
nytimes.com/…25/11/10/t-magazine/nuns-convent- …
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ON A RECENT morning in Seville, Spain, a city crowded with churches and ceramic tiles depicting the Passion of Christ and the suffering of saints, some visitors slipped into a 14th-century convent and gathered in the shady corner of a courtyard. One rang a bell by a wooden turnstile built into the wall and called out, “Hail Mary, most pure!”
“Conceived without sin,” responded a disembodied voice from the other side.
What seemed like the start of a prayer was instead the beginning of a pastry order. Patrons at the Convent of Santa Inés asked the cloistered nun for Santa Inés cookies, a lighter, sugar-sprinkled version of shortbread; magdalenas (golden muffins); and other treats from the convent’s ovens. They put down their euros. The turnstile spun, the money vanished and clear …More