Summering With Nuns Is the Hot New Trend This Year

As a Catholic High School Survivor, I’m never going to think nuns are cool. They will forever be mostly mean and kind of scary. Clowns ain’t got nuthin’ on the sisters.

Initially, I could not understand anything about this story in Vice about Gen Z women choosing to cloister themselves over the holidays instead of going on proper vacations that involve bathing suits and parties.

The “vow of silence summer” has women giving up speaking for days at a time while living with nuns in Catholic convents and monasteries. According to one TikToker cited in the article, the trend is going so fast, she wasn’t even able to make a booking in the upstate New York monastery she’s been to previously.

@mc667868 turned away from the inn #monasteries #catholicism #newyork ♬ original sound - mc

Her cadence makes her sound exactly like someone who would find spending a summer with nuns “fun.” There are no phones or social media. Activities in the convents include gardening and praying. I like gardening, but I usually do it with a cocktail, or at least someone to chat with while I’m out there deadheading and watering. And the only praying I do is for my hydrangeas not to wilt too much in the afternoon sun. Does that count?

My mind immediately leaped to the idea of this being an influencer marketing campaign to convince more women to become nuns. The number of Americans who identify as Catholic has been steadily dropping in the 21st century. The number of women called to become nuns has declined even faster. A 2022 study found the average age of nuns was 80, and less than 1% of nuns were under the age of 40.

The American Catholic Church is also broke. Since the 2018 sex abuse scandal, fewer people have been attending church. And those who do tithe less money. Schools are being consolidated, and some dioceses have declared bankruptcy.

The Catholic Church doesn’t have a snappy slogan like the Army, and doesn’t seem likely to invest millions of dollars in a recruitment campaign for nuns. A social media influencer campaign that looks like an organic trend is exactly what they need to boost interest in living la vida convent. We’re probably months away from a reality competition show about young women trying to outlast each other in vows of silence and chastity on a desert island. The winner will get a lifetime supply of rulers, a scapular, and a rosary. It will be called Get Thee To A Nunnery! It will run for 22 seasons.

I understand the desire to unplug and remove yourself from the brutally hectic pace of society, especially as a woman, moving through the world with an already heightened sense of awareness and anxiety. But I’m concerned that these women think peace is only available through paying for religious retreats. The Holy Mountain Franciscan Retreat Center in Garrison, NY, charges $305 per person for two nights. The Center at Mariandale, in Ossining (where Sing Sing is!), offers private retreats priced at $125 per weekday/night and $155 per weekend day/night, including three meals.

There are plenty of less expensive, secular ways to unplug and reconnect with the natural and spiritual world. Gen Z needs to go back to the basics and read some Thoreau to learn about living deliberately. Get a tent and go sleep in the woods. Bring a fishing pole or a few cans of beans. Throw your phone in a lake, run naked through the night, and howl at the moon. You’ll feel a whole lot better if you do.