So this question might be a little morbid, but it seems like nunneries would be easy /attractive targets for thieves, roaming hordes and rapists. A place filled with women, no men around, a lot of them old/frail. How were these places and the nuns themselves protected throughout more brutal time periods?
Was it simply isolation and dressing as nonsexual as possible? Seems like it had to be more.
EDIT: Thanks for all the comments. Convent was the word I was looking for, I just kept thinking of the “get thee to a nunnery” line in Hamlet. Everything I know about life in a convent is pretty much from Sound of Music and a handful of shows.
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In some cases, they learned to defend themselves.
The creation of the martial art style Wing Chun is credited to a Buddhist nun named Ng Mui or Ng Mei and focuses on close combat with few or no weapons. It was later made famous by Ip Man and Bruce Lee.
Granted, Buddhist monasteries have different rules and principles than western Catholic convents, but the Buddhist nuns were absolutely allowed to learn self defense in order to fend off attackers.
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