Les Misérables, Book 6: Le Petit-Picpus, Chapter 2 summary

What happens

1. The narrator traces the community’s affiliation to Saint Benoît and explains Martin Verga’s place among related religious orders.
2. The sisters wear prescribed habits, fast, endure physical discomfort, and submit completely to their elected prioress.
3. They perform twelve-hour prayers of reparation and maintain continuous adoration through hourly turns.
4. Shared language, open cells, ritual greetings, and hourly prayers regulate their possessions, privacy, speech, and thoughts.
5. Government restrictions prevent burial beneath their altar, leaving them a separate burial arrangement at Vaugirard cemetery.
6. Public confession, voluntary penance, and restricted visits reinforce discipline; the account ends with three nuns becoming mad between 1825 and 1830.

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