Sister to leave convent for first time in 84 years to meet Pope Benedict

AT 103 years old, Sister Teresita is set for the experience of a lifetime.

After spending the last 84 years in a convent, she will emerge today to meet Pope Benedict XVI in Madrid.

Sr Teresita lives at the Buenafuente del Sistal convent, 100km northeast of Madrid, which she entered at the age of 19, on April 16, 1927 — the same day Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, was born in Germany.

She only ever left the compound during the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War, for a few hours at a time, to escape the fighting.

But she will interrupt her isolation briefly to meet the Pope, who is to meet with nuns in Madrid as part of the World Youth Day festival.

“She said she thinks she will make the trip with her eyes closed, so that nothing will distract her,” said the convent’s mother superior, Maria.

Sr Teresita has been a minor celebrity since she was featured in a book, What Is a Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like That? in which the author, Jesus Garcia, recounted the lives of 10 nuns in the convent.

“Who can spend 84 years in a convent without being happy? Of course I’m happy,” she was quoted as saying in the book.

She said that her father, a farm worker, encouraged her and her sister to become nuns, perhaps as a way to escape extreme poverty.

“My father, seeing that the life that we were leading in the country and thinking that nuns did not work, asked my sister and myself if we would like to become nuns,” she said.

When she entered the convent, she only had a vague idea of what life would be like. But over the years, she has found happiness.

“You feel happiness when you follow your vocation,” she said.