Names In The News : Nun Quits Protest, Leaves Convent

The youngest of five rebel nuns who locked themselves in a monastery nearly six months ago to protest the modernization of their cloistered life style has abandoned the protest and left the convent, saying the stress of the widely publicized conflict damaged her health.

Nicole Prescott, 28, formerly known as Sister John of the Cross, left the Monastery of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and returned Sunday to her family’s home in Hillside, N.J. “It was for reasons of health,” Prescott told the Record of Hackensack, N.J. “I wasn’t recuperating in that atmosphere. It was too much pressure.”