In medieval France, a nunnery was suddenly swept by a mass outbreak of nuns meowing like cats. Life in medieval convents was no bed of roses. Many nuns were there against their wills by their families, and found themselves in an environment they deemed disagreeable. Confined in prison-like conditions and forced to lead lives not of their own choosing, many were, understandably, stressed out. So stressed out, that many lost it, resulting in outbreaks of hysteria like that of the “meowing nuns”.
The Medieval Meowing Nuns
The “meowing nuns” was one of medieval Europe’s strangest and most frequently cited examples of collective behavior, or collective hysteria. The story survives only in later retellings, not in detailed contemporary records. However, many abnormal social behavior experts deem it plausible, and illustrative of the intense psychological pressures within some medieval convents. According to the account, some nuns in a medieval French convent began to meow like cats for hours each day. The practice spread rapidly throughout the community, and became so disruptive that local authorities had to intervene.
The origins of the story are generally attributed to a sixteenth-century report by German physician Johann Weyer. He compiled numerous examples of unusual mass behaviors in his works challenging witchcraft accusations. Weyer wrote that in a French convent, one nun began to meow, seemingly without reason. Her behavior soon spread to other nuns. In an odd #MeToo pileup, some began to imitate her, then others, and soon, the entire convent was meowing together. It ended only when the authorities called in soldiers, and threatened to whip any nun who continued the behavior. Although sparse in detail, Weyer’s telling is consistent with other known outbreaks of collective behavior in enclosed religious communities.
Medieval Convents Could be Highly Stressful
The social dynamics of medieval convents can help contextualize the meowing nuns incident. Many convents were highly disciplined, hierarchical environments filled with young women who had little autonomy in daily life. Some were placed there against their will, whether due to family decisions, dowries, or social pressures. Daily schedules were rigid, silence was often expected, and emotional expression was limited. The nuns had to submit to poverty, hard work, and unquestioningly obey authority figures. Compliance could be enforced with coercive measures such as extra labor, confinement in cells, and withholding food and water.
If such measures were not enough, then physical punishments such as canning and whipping were options. If those still did not work, a stubborn nun could be turned over to ecclesiastical courts. There, in worst case scenarios, a hardheaded nun could end up burned at the stake for witchcraft or demonic possession. Unsurprisingly, in such circumstances, psychological stress sometimes erupted in odd ways. Strange episodes of ecstatic visions, uncontrollable laughter, biting, or other forms of involuntary behavior were not uncommon.
The meowing nuns fit into a broader pattern of what scholars today call “collective psychogenic illness”. Basically, individuals in highly cohesive or stressful groups can adopt and spread unusual behaviors. The symbolism of the cat may also have played a role. Cats in medieval European folklore were sometimes associated with the devil, witches, or nocturnal danger. Yet they were also everyday animals whose behaviors were familiar and easy to mimic. For nuns immersed in religious imagery, meowing could have been interpreted by outsiders as either mischief or diabolic influence.
Legacy of the Meowing Nuns
Weyer wrote at a time when witchcraft panics were intensifying. He wanted to demonstrate that episodes like the meowing nuns were natural and psychological, not supernatural. In that sense, the story is part of his broader argument against attributing strange behaviors to demonic possession. The intervention by soldiers illustrates another common feature of collective behavior outbreaks: pressure from external authorities often ends the behavior. It doesn’t resolve its cause, but it ends the symptoms as fear disrupts the social contagion that sustains the episode. Similar patterns emerge in later well-documented cases such as a laughing epidemic at an East African school in the 1960s, or twitching outbreaks in early-modern European convents.
The meowing nuns story should not be taken uncritically. Especially since the account comes to us from a single secondary source, written decades later. It is quite possible that the details could have been exaggerated or adapted for argumentative purposes. Nonetheless, the story fits with what is known about medieval convents’ psychological pressures, and the mechanisms of mass psychogenic episodes. Medieval religious communities were not as stoic or placid as they sometimes appear in formal records. Instead, they were human institutions, with more than their fair share of anxiety and repression. In such settings, social contagion could combine with those pressures to produce moments of striking and memorable strangeness.
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Some Sources & Further Reading
History Halls – Public Panics: The Great Poisoning Scare of Milan
