i'm afraid the word brings up the most unpleasant connatations in this day and age.
you can call me sister.
you must have tons of questions. you may smoke if you want to. just don't tell any of the sisters.
two packs a day.
unfiltered.
no-one.
she undressed alone.  she bathed alone.
yes.
she could have hidden a machine gun in here if she had wanted to.
we're examined once a year. her pregnancy fell in between the doctor's visits.
i haven't a clue.
none as far as i know.
yes, but i.
father martineau, but i don't see him as a candidate.
obviously there was.
believe me, i've done everything possible short of asking agnes.
she can't even remember the birth. do you think she'd admit to the conception?
yes, but that was some ten months ago. i fail to see that the identity of that somebody has anything to do with this trial.
don't ask me those questions dear, i'm not the patient.
look doctor, i don't know how to tell you this politely, but i don't approve of you. not you personally.
exactly. i want you do deal with agnes as speedily and as easily as possible. she won't hold up under any sort of cross examination.
and i am not from the middle ages. i know what you are! i don't want that mind cut open.
well.  what do you think? is she totally bananas or merely slightly off centre.  or maybe she's perfectly sane and just a very good liar.
i believe agnes is different.
from other people! i believe she is not crazy, nor is she lying.
because she's an innocent. she's a slate that's hasn't been touched except by god.
in her case it isn't. she's had very little schooling. her mother kept her home almost all the time and when her mother died agnes came here, to us. she's never been out there doctor. she's never seen a movie or a television show. she's never even read a book.
she didn't! this is manslaughter, not murder. she didn't consciously kill that baby. she'd lost a lot of blood. she was unconscious by the time we got to her.
no.  not in the eyes of the police.
i've already told you what i thought.
you don't really believe something like that happened do you?
who?
that's absurd!
no-one knew about agnes' pregnancy. no-one. not even agnes.
this convent is locked solid. the only one that has a key is sister marguerite and she wouldn't let christ in after dark.
oh come on, you've talked to her. she doesn't even know how babies are born, let alone made.
shortly after she came to us.
i was appalled, just as you are now.
she stopped eating completely.
about two years before.
agnes, it has come to my attention that you have stopped eating. why is this?
he talked to you himself?
through someone else?
who?
why?
one of the other sisters?
who?
oh, for heaven's sake.
agnes.
why does it matter whether you're fat or not.
 you needn't worry about being attractive here.
he loves you the way you are.
who told you this?
why?
agnes.
who tells you these things?
that's not what he meant.
agnes dear, heaven is not a place where.
oh my dear child.
who?
your mother tells you this?.  agnes your mother is dead.
nonsense, i'm your mother now and i want you to eat.
you've got to eat something agnes.
my dear, i don't think a communion wafer has the recommended daily allowance of anything.
yes, of god.
why?
dear jesus.
it was healed by the following morning and she started eating again.
but she didn't.  did she. if anyone had seen what i'd seen she'd be public property.  newspapermen, psychiatrists, ridicule. she doesn't deserve that.
i know what you're thinking, she's a hysteric pure and simple.
i saw it. clean through the palm of her hand. do you think hysteria could do that?
god's victim. that's her innocence. she belongs to god.
you bet i am.
you hate us don't you?
nuns.  you hate nuns.
the catholic church.
catholicism is not on trial here. i want you to deal with agnes without any religious prejudice or you turn this case over to someone else.
it's my affair too.
i'm only interested.
she is not a child.
???
i am not a virgin, doctor. i was married for twenty three years, two daughters. i even have grandchildren.  surprised? it might please you to know that i was a failure as a wife and mother. my children won't even see me any more, that's their revenge. i think they tell their friends that i've passed on. and don't tell me i'm making up for past mistakes doctor freud.
i am.
what good would it do. no matter what you decide it's either the.  the prison or the nut house and the differences between them are pretty thin.
what?
how?
all right, what do you need.
oh, some time in january.
earthquakes?
nothing.
yes.
there's nothing here.
oh, dear god.
the sheets.
oh, dear god, i should have guessed.
 i should have suspected something.
sister marguerite says you have been sleeping on a bare mattress sister. is that true?
why?
we're not in the middle ages, sister.
it made them uncomfortable. and if
then tell me. where are your sheets?
why?
how many times have i burned into your thick skull and the thick skull of your fellow novice, that menstruation is a perfectly natural process and nothing to be ashamed of.
say it!
mean it!
a few years ago one of the sisters came to me in tears, asking for comfort, comfort because she was too old to have any children. not that she wanted to, but once a month she had been reminded of that possibility.
what do you mean?
should you see a doctor?
for what?
that was the beginning, the night of the conception. that's why she burnt the sheets.
the twenty third of january. on that night one of our elder nuns passed away.
yes. i don't remember where agnes was. i was needed in the sick room.
about what?
i didn't tell you because i didn't think it was important.
i never saw agnes until she set foot in this convent. my sister ran away from home. we lost touch with her. and when my husband died and i came here, she wrote to me and asked me if i would take care of agnes in case anything happened.
it could have been any one of a dozen men from what my sister told me.
yes.
she drank too much. that's what killed her.
i don't think i care to know.
oh, dear god.
oh god, if only i'd known.
i knew that after the fact.
because i didn't know.
and my permission?
we'll see about that.
i haven't decided yet.
her spiritual health.
i know you don't.
i am saying a beautifully simple woman.
she's happy with us and she could go on being happy if she was left alone.
because i am a moral person.
bullshit yourself!
who said anything about the catholic church.
what the hell has the catholic church got to do with you?
what have we done to hurt you? and don't deny it, i can smell an ex-catholic a mile away. what did we do? burn a few heretics, sell some indulgences? that was in the days when the church was a ruling body. we let governments do those things today. so what did we do to you eh? you wanted to neck in the back seat of a car when you were fifteen and you couldn't because it was a sin?
stupid woman.  and that's all?
and what has that to do with it?
so you left the church because you had freckles?
when i was a child i used to hear my guardian angel. she sang to me 'till i was six years old. that's when i stopped listening. but i remember the voice. a few years ago i looked at myself and saw nothing but a nun who was certain of nothing. not even of heaven. not even of god. and then one evening i saw agnes standing by
no, it reminds me.
i'd love one.
i'm out of prac.  .  practice.
fine thanks.
undoubtedly. not the ascetics of course but, well saint thomas more.
saint ignatius would smoke cigars and stub them out on the soles of his bare feet. and of course
even christ would partake socially.
pipe!
mary magdelen?
and saint john would chew tobacco.
there are no saints today. good people yes, but extraordinarily good people.  those i'm afraid we are sorely lacking.
yes i do.
become? one is born a saint.
yes, but goodness has very little to do with it. not all the saints were good, in fact some of them were a little crazy. but.  they were still attached to god. agnes has that birth.
listen to her singing.
begin what?
would it stop you if i did?
may i be present?
then let's begin.
stop her!
stop this, she'll hurt herself i'm not going to allow this.
is the doctor in her office?
general macarthur.
i've just met with the bishop. we're taking you off the case.
if we want to hire a psychiatrist for agnes. we'll find our own, thank you.
one that will approach this matter with some objectivity and respect.
for agnes.
she's been touched by god, yes.
the father!
why must he be anybody?
stop laughing, i don't say it's the truth, i'm saying.
don't be ridiculous.
a miracle is an event without an explanation. if she's capable of putting a hole in her hand without benefit of a nail, why couldn't she split a cell in her womb?
there as no man in the convent on that night and no way for any man to get in or out.
no, that's as much as saying father martineau did it. i'm saying god permitted it.
you'll never find the answer for everything god did.
but i want the opportunity to believe. i want the choice to believe.
she is an innocent.
that's what you believe she is? the sum of her psychological parts?
then why are you so obsessed with her? you're losing sleep over her? you're thinking about her all the time. you're bent on saving her. why?
that's crazy. how could she find out about it?
who? that tun.  that tunnel hasn't been used in fifty years.
why would i lie?
i'm concerned about her health.
if you believe this is murder, it is the crown attorney you have to talk to, not me. and definitely not agnes.
this is permission to take her apart.
hasn't she had enough?
my god, but you're determined.
why do you insist upon pressing.
is it because she's a nun?
yes.
i didn't guess until it was too late.
oh, don't be ridiculous.
i don't know.  too late to stop it.
the scandal.
she didn't want any help.
that's a lie.
i didn't hide it. i put it there for the blood and the dirty sheets.
no!
i wanted her to have it when no-one else was around, they would have taken the baby to a hospital and left it with them, but it was such a difficult birth, there was so much blood and i panicked.
i left it with her and i went for help.
then she's a liar.
that's enough.
she can't remember.
oh, don't do this!