Overview

In 1858, a German princess who had been recently inducted into the convent of Sant'Ambrogio in Rome wrote a frantic letter to her cousin, a confidant of the Pope, claiming that she was being abused and that she feared for her life. What the subsequent investigation by the Church's Inquisition uncovered were the extraordinary secrets of Sant'Ambrogio and the illicit behavior of the convent's beautiful young mistress, Maria Luisa. Having convinced those under her charge that she was having regular visions and heavenly visitations, Maria Luisa began to lead and coerce her novices into lesbian initiation rites and heresies. She entered into a highly eroticized relationship with a young theologian known as Padre Peters--urging him to dispense upon her, in the privacy and sanctity of the confessional box, what the two of them referred to as the special blessing. What emerges through the fog of centuries is a sex scandal of ecclesiastical significance, skillfully brought to light and vividly reconstructed in scholarly detail. Offering a broad historical background on female mystics and the cult of the Virgin Mary, and drawing on written testimony and original documents, Hubert Wolf tells the incredible story of how one woman was able to perpetrate deception, heresy, seduction, and murder in the heart of the Church itself.

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Reviews

"This sordid tale of sexual indecency, false saints, and murder within a 19th-century convent in Rome has all the trappings of a good thriller.-- ""Publishers Weekly Starred Review"" ""Hubert Wolf [has] found something that, as they say on the Internet, will blow your mind."" -- ""Time"" ""Hubert Wolf, a German papal scholar, deftly balances this juicy history with a raft of serious (yet accessible) research."" -- ""Boston Globe"" ""Hubert Wolf's The Nuns of Sant'Ambrogio offers a learned yet fascinating account of this incident...Wolf, who found the records of this investigation in an unlikely corner of the Vatican archives, makes the most of his story."" -- ""Salon"" ""This sordid tale of sexual indecency, false saints, and murder within a nineteenth-century convent in Rome has all the trappings of a good thriller...Wolf (Pope and Devil), a professor of ecclesiastical history at the University of M�nster, adds detailed historical context and careful explanations to elevate this tale beyond sensationalism into a more serious study of a fascinating real-life melodrama."" -- ""Publishers Weekly, starred review, book of the week"""

Author Information

Hubert Wolf is the author of Pope and Devil: The Vatican's Archives and the Third Reich and a professor of ecclesiastical history at the University of Munster. He was awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize in 2003. He was also honored with the Communicator Prize and the Gutenberg Prize, and he was a fellow at the historical society in Munich. After his Abitur in 1978, he studied Roman Catholic theology at the University of Tubingen and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1985. In 1992 he became a professor at the Goethe University Frankfurt, and in 1999 he moved to the University of Munster. J. Paul Boehmer is an American actor best known for his numerous appearances in the Star Trek universe. Hkis audiobook narrations have garnered nine AudioFile Earphones Awards and two prestigious Audie Awards for Best Narration, besides being a finalist for the Audie Award in 2012 and 2015. Between narrations, he is active in regional theaters across the country. His television appearances include guest spots on Nip/Tuck and Numb3rs.

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