Reverend Mother Marija Benedykta Eisenberg has been beaten twice in Poland for her Catholicism, and her convent repeatedly bombed by communists in Riga, Latvia.
Now she has been forced to defend her identity in a different manner at the University of Oklahoma.
A police brief printed in the Wednesday edition of The Oklahoma Daily reported an OU staffer believed a woman was posing as a nun on campus Friday in order to receive help.
The brief reported an OU staff member told police a woman who she believed was possibly posing as a nun had received a pair of crutches through her assistance.
The brief stated, "The staff member found out that the woman may not be a nun and may be mentally unstable."
Ilgvars Vermelis, an international translator who is centered in Norman, said the statements by the staffer are completely without merit.
"I met her myself in Latvia working in a Roman Catholic convent," Vermelis said. He said he delivered a letter to her from her father, an Oklahoma resident.
"These are provable facts, not just speculation," he said.
Jon Vittitow, an attorney, was contacted by the nun in question, and in his presence she agreed to speak about the incident.
"This upsets me because the people I've met at (OU) have been very kind," Sister Benedykta said.
Sister Benedykta, of the Monastic Order of Saint Paul of the Cross in Riga, Latvia, has been researching at the OU library while recovering from developing osteoporosis and a second thrombosis of the leg.
She said cannot understand how the misunderstanding came about. She describes a conversation between her and a staff member of OU Student Support Services Friday that led to the discussion of health problems.
Upon hearing that Sister Benedykta had left her crutch in a train compartment a few days earlier, the staff member offered to locate a crutch for her.
At 10 p.m. the staff member returned with the crutches "which I did not ask for," the sister said.
Sister Benedykta said she has offered to return the crutches rather than risk being accused of stealing them.
Her research at the OU library and through the philosophy department are for an outline thesis to apply for graduate work at the University of Wales.Sister Benedykta took her vows in Madrid, Spain, and worked in Eastern Europe after the fall of Gorbachev. She was invited to work under the Polish archbishop.
"We are at loss to understand how someone could mistake her for a fraud," Vittitow said.
This story originally appeared in The Oklahoma Daily at the University of Oklahoma.