The Nuns of Sant'Ambrogio

The True Story of a Convent in Scandal

By: Hubert Wolf

Narrated by: Paul Boehmer

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.

©2013 Verlag C. H. Beck oHG (P)2015 Tantor

Critic 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)

good. interesting.

it goes on for quite a bit. If you're into history, you'll really like it. But the names and places are a bit tricky to follow, so you must focus on the info. it is nice and scandalous though ;)

Unbelievable!

If someone approached me with a script that included a lesbian/bisexual predatory nun on a mission to fool everyone in the church hierarchy that she was a living saint, while trying to poison those who doubted her holiness, I would have said “Seriously? Don’t you think thats a bit over the top?”
But it’s a true story from the 1860-70s that is just now coming to light. The author has clearly done his homework with records that come from the Vatican itself. The research is deep and academic, the characters as numerous as a Russian novel, but I could not put it down.
My only complaint is that as an audio book, it was sometimes hard to understand the latin, Italian and German words used. The narrator, while decent with all 3 languages, sometimes broke sentences up at odd places, I assume, to take a breath. Still a very worthwhile read.

OMG so boring

Even as a religious scholar (studied at Harvard Div), I was expecting a far less narrative. This puts me to sleep within 30 minutes every time I try to listen.

So boring.

I couldn't get through much without giving up. I appreciate many genres, including nonfiction and history generally, but this is unbearable.