Susan Saurin ( Susanna Mary Saurin, alias Mary Brown, religious name Mary Scholastica; 21 September 1829 – 10 February 1915) was a British Roman Catholic nun. She was the subject of the "Great Convent Case" which found that she had been mistreated by her convent and that the church had failed to give her justice. The case was a cause célèbre in an anti-Catholic Victorian society. Life Saurin was born in Duleek. Her parents were Brigid and Michael Saurin, landowners in Duleek, County Meath, Ireland. Four of Brigid and Michael's children opted for a religious life. A fifth child, Patrick, opted to become a lawyer. After two of her sisters decided to become nuns, her parents wanted Susan to choose a different life, but she insisted. In November 1850 Saurin made her commitment by joining a convent in Dublin where she was trained with Mary Starr and Julia Kennedy. The three of them adopted the names of Sister Scholastica, Sister Joseph and Sister Magdelen. Saurin's vows were accepted on 3 October 1853 and in 1856 the three of them were sent to found a new convent in Clifford in Yorkshire. Mary Starr (Joseph) was placed in charge with Julia Kennedy (Magdelen) as her assistant. In time the new convent would move to Hull. Mother Mary Starr (Joseph) and Saurin came into conflict. Starr was unhappy with many of the tasks that Saurin undertook and she accused her of breaking her vow of obedience because she would not tell her of conversations she had in the confessional or of letters that she had written including a letter asking her uncle to try and arrange her transfer to another convent. Starr was annoyed and turned to the Bishop to ask that he have Saurin evicted from the convent or she would resign. The Bishop had an obligation to oversee the convent. The Bishop of Beverley, Robert Cornthwaite had conflicting requests from Starr and Saurin's family who wanted him look at Saurin's treatment within the convent. Cornthwaite appointed five priests to investigate. They found "extraordinary and unexemplary severity" but only interviewed one of the nuns, Saurin. Individually the priests had doubts but their agreed advice was that Saurin should be obliged to leave the convent. Saurin refused and she believed that the Bishop lacked the power to intervene in her vows given at the convent. For over a year she lived in the