The Nuns of Sant'Ambrogio: The True Story of a Convent in Scandal

by Hubert Wolf

  One morning, on the day of the Immaculata in 1858, I went down into the lower choir after Communion to call the mistress, who had remained there. There, to my surprise, I saw Luisa Maria, the princess, getting up from where she had been kneeling in front of the mistress, and taking a cord from around her neck.

  The mistress left the lower choir with me when I called her, with a distracted expression on her face. As we were walking, she said in a firm voice: “Whoever would have thought that such evil lurked beneath a mantle of goodwill?”

  A short while later I asked Maria Giacinta, who was ill, about what had happened. She told me Princess Luisa Maria had had the temerity to lay her cord around her neck in the lower choir, and tell the mistress she had made a full and honest confession about everything to the padre. She told the mistress she had been deceived, and was imagining things. The princess was praying for Maria Luisa, she said, because of all this and for other, similar reasons. She was worried for her soul. But the mistress replied that she had thought the princess was a novice, and the manner in which she had addressed her was presumptuous and rash. The following day, this same Maria Giacinta said that the mistress told her she had seen the Lord during Communion. He was outraged at what Luisa Maria had said to the mistress, and decreed that the princess would be punished with death.

  Two weeks prior to Giuseppa Maria’s hearing, on March 17, 1860, Sallua had questioned Sister Maria Giacinta himself. Her statement tallied almost word for word with Giuseppa Maria’s.13 She said that the Lord had appeared to Maria Luisa and revealed to her that “as punishment for her pride, the princess would die, and He had already arranged this.” Maria Luisa even told Agnese Celeste, with regard to the scene in the choir, that “the princess behaved among the novices as Judas among the apostles.”

  This way, the novice mistress was likening Katharina’s behavior in the choir to Judas Iscariot’s betrayal of Jesus. She saw the princess as a female Judas, who was betraying the community of Sant’Ambrogio by refusing to believe in Maria Luisa’s holiness. Katharina wanted to turn her over to the Church authorities, just as Judas had turned Jesus over to the high priests. In the world of Catholic ideas, the cord around Katharina’s neck was associated with the suicide of Judas Iscariot, who hanged himself when he realized the consequences of his betrayal.

  But within religious orders, a cord around the neck had a very different historical significance. Here, it wasn’t a sign of betrayal, but a gesture of great humility.14 When a monk or a nun put the cord or belt that held their habit together around their neck, it meant they were humbling themselves utterly, and putting themselves entirely at the mercy of their superior. This kind of ritual abasement was the only way for a novice to remonstrate with a superior like the novice mistress, to whom she owed strict obedience. The gesture of humility forced the superior to listen to her charge. And placing a cincture around one’s neck was a particularly expressive gesture of humility for the Franciscan orders. It was said that Saint Francis of Paola always received holy communion kneeling with his cincture around his neck, and advised his fellow monks to do likewise.15

  Katharina was consciously following this tradition. But why did Maria Luisa have such an extreme reaction to her remonstrations? The witnesses’ statements may not reveal the exact words the two women exchanged, but they were clearly talking about the letter from the Americano. The princess was disgusted by the letter’s indecent content, not least because the Americano was also making improper advances toward her, saying she could become a “mother without a husband” like Maria Luisa. She had made a point of this in her Denunzia. But why hadn’t the madre vicaria simply dismissed the obscene phrases as the sick sexual fantasies of a man possessed by demons, with no bearing on reality? After all, she couldn’t be held responsible for the crazy thoughts of a sick mind. Why hadn’t she immediately deplored the letter and its contents? The fact that she denied ever having shown Katharina the letter—and later, when the princess insisted she had, started blaming the devil—raises the suspicion that it wasn’t just a possessed man’s fantasy. There was something behind this crazy talk of “becoming a mother without a husband”: probably nothing less than a sexual relationship between the Americano and the madre vicaria.

  This was the subject on which Katharina had implored Maria Luisa to speak the truth. She asked her to repent of all her deceptions and lies, including the story about the devil. If she refused, Katharina would have to take up the matter herself, in order to save Maria Luisa’s soul. She would reveal the madre vicaria’s affair with the Americano. But Maria Luisa wasn’t prepared to repent. The attempt to persuade her failed, and the relationship between the two women was permanently destroyed.

  HEAVENLY LETTERS FORETELL KATHARINA’S MURDER

  Katharina’s impending death had hung in the air since the scene in the choir. Christ had already told Maria Luisa of it in a vision, and now all that was missing was written confirmation from above. Once again, the novice mistress set Maria Francesca to work writing letters in the name of the Virgin Mary. Maria Francesca told the investigating judge about the origin of these in her hearing on February 21, 1860.16

  What I am about to say is what I told Peters in the name of the Madonna in writing, in several letters: namely, that the devil was able to take on the shape of her favorite daughter, and to slander her in this way. In this form, he appeared hundreds of times to Sister Luisa Maria (the princess, who in the letters is called Katharina), and harassed her, so she would leave the convent. The letters called her Katharina because she always acted like that, prideful, stubborn and accepting nobody’s opinion but her own. Katharina was supposed to proclaim the glory of the daughter of God. The devil prevented this by appearing to her, but the glory of God only increased by this. God ordained that Katharina would die suddenly of a stroke, and would be damned.

  In the letters the Blessed Virgin also wrote that Peters should make Katharina’s fate known, and also that of his favored daughter, who foresaw Katharina’s fate; he might ask Maria Luisa to pray for the princess, as this was now the only thing that could save her.

  Another letter said that the Virgin’s first-born daughter had prayed for Katharina; she had spent several hours in hell and her prayers had ensured that although Katharina would suffer a stroke, through justice and mercy she would not then die.

  But in truth, Katharina (the princess) suffered such a serious attack that we thought she would die.

  I wrote several similar letters to Peters in the name of the Madonna: “The devil has taken on the shape of my favorite daughter and convinced the princess that she should be afraid of being poisoned.” He appeared in the same form to the novice Agnese Celeste (her father is a doctor) and asked her what the strongest poison was, which would kill a person. She answered him. Then the devil appeared in the same form to Maria Ignazia and the late sister Maria Felice, both of whom were novices at that time. He told them it was the will of God and of Padre Peters that poison should be mixed with the princess’s medicine, for she was a soul in God’s grace and would be saved through death. The devil, still in the same form, showed Maria Ignazia and Maria Felice, who were looking after the princess, where they should get the poison, namely from the box in Mother Mistress Maria Luisa’s room, where she kept her writing things, and from a tin in the pharmacy. I clearly remember writing that the devil in the shape of Maria Luisa went to Katharina’s chamber with the two novices and there, with his own hands, put the poison into the container where the princess’s medicine was being prepared. The devil also alerted the other nuns, Maria Giuseppa, Maria Giacinta and Giuseppa Maria … to what the above-mentioned novices Maria Ignazia and Maria Felice were doing, when they gave the princess the poisoned medicine. The three nuns noticed other deceptions by the devil, when they found other cups and little tins contaminated with poison.

  All these things happened while the princess was very ill.

  The letter from the Madonna ended by saying that Peters’ favored daughter knew what the
devil was doing, taking on her shape and going to the princess, but she herself remained hidden in order to pray for the princess and her daughters.… Finally, I would like to add that, when the princess was well again, Padre Leziroli preached to us that the devil could take on the appearance of people; he could touch and deceive, and therefore we should believe the servants of God.

  The following day, Maria Francesca resumed her testimony:17

  To go back to the matter of the poison and the princess, I would like to add by way of making things clearer, that during those days when the princess was ill, and people were talking about her being poisoned, I also wrote a letter to Peters, in the name of the Madonna, saying: “The devil has taken my box to the pharmacy and showed us there a tin of poison. But I would like the box to remain in my daughter’s room.”

  In another letter, the Madonna told Peters he should say to the princess that all the things she had heard from the mistress had been the devil’s illusions. Padre Peters should repeat this to his cardinal (His Eminence Cardinal Reisach).

  Another letter revealed that Peters was waiting for a sign from the Madonna … to convince the princess, as she refused to believe. But the Madonna answered: “No, I will give no sign! He who does not believe in the servants of God will not believe in miracles either.” Finally, she told Peters that the devil himself would give such a sign. This sign was the inscription of the name of Jesus on a brick in Maria Luisa’s chamber. A little later, an inscription of Mary’s name appeared on another brick. Padre Peters wrote a prayer to banish the devil, for him and his fellow confessor Padre Leziroli to repeat every three months. I copied out the aforementioned prayer from Padre Peters’ handwriting.

  Analyzing these supposedly divine letters from the Virgin brings to light the following course of events: Maria Luisa initially tried to protect herself from all future accusations by having the Madonna announce that the devil was appearing to people in her form. Then she built up a stark contrast between the “holy” Maria Luisa and the “unbeliever” Luisa Maria. The latter was condemned to die for her pride; the former was to be glorified by God. Finally, we glimpse how Maria Luisa set about the poisoning operation. Having inquired about strong poisons with Agnese Celeste, the doctor’s daughter, she recruited the two novices Maria Ignazia and Maria Felice as her accomplices, again saying this was a divine decree.

  The fateful letter was written on December 8, the day of the scene in the choir. Sallua obtained the date from the abbess, who testified that the day before the princess fell ill (meaning December 8) Maria Luisa had come to her looking very worried. She told the abbess:18 “God wants to punish the princess, and will send her an illness which will take her life.” She repeated this several times. “And in fact,” the abbess said, “the princess did begin to feel unwell the next day, after dinner, with vomiting and pain in her guts, and by the next morning she was in the grip of that serious illness.”

  The heavenly announcement of the poisoning was accompanied by prayers. Maria Luisa demanded that the novices pray a novena to the Precious Blood, asking the Lord to strike down a member of the convent with an illness. And the nuns knew very well that this meant none other than the princess.19 Repeated over nine days, this is a particularly intense form of supplicatory prayer, through which the faithful implore God to fulfill their wish. The fact that the nuns spent nine days wishing the princess dead represented a serious perversion of the Church liturgy, as the inquisitor noted.

  THE DRAMATURGY OF A POISONING

  Reconstructing the exact sequence of events for the poisonings presented Sallua with some not insignificant problems. Having spent more than a year questioning witnesses, the Dominican found very little agreement on this between the sisters’ testimonies. Many of the nuns and novices had only heard rumors and, two years after the fact, were simply padding these out. The information they provided contributed relatively little to the investigation of how the crime had been committed. The inquisitor soon realized there were only a few nuns and novices from whom he could expect a reliable testimony.

  At least Maria Francesca’s statements had told Sallua which nuns these were. First, there were Maria Luisa’s direct accomplices, the novices Maria Ignazia and Maria Felice—although Maria Felice had died in suspicious circumstances shortly after the dramatic events of December 1858. Then there was the doctor’s daughter, Agnese Celeste, the nurse, Maria Giuseppa—who was the only one to take a skeptical view of the heavenly letters—and finally Maria Giacinta, who had been ill and confined to bed in December 1858, like Agnese Celeste and Katharina. There was also Giacinta’s brother, the lawyer Luigi Franceschetti, who met with the madre vicaria regularly, and whom she could send on errands outside the convent without attracting too much attention.

  Extensive questioning of these witnesses provided the inquisitor with the crucial information he had been looking for on the poisoning plot. Their testimonies allowed him to trace how the whole campaign had been staged and, most importantly, to pinpoint a variety of poisons that had been used, in quantities that would have felled an elephant.20 However, he still failed to present the congregation of cardinals with a convincing chronology for the attacks.

  In part, this was because it was the first time the Dominican had been confronted with a criminal case. An experienced investigator would have reckoned with the inconsistency of the witness statements from the start, particularly with regard to timings, and would have attempted a critical comparison of these with the sequence of events presented in Katharina’s Denunzia. Doing this exposes some of their contradictions as failures of memory, and reveals a relatively clear chronology for the murder plot.21

  After the incident in the choir, Maria Luisa didn’t hesitate for a second before setting in motion her plan to murder Katharina. One of her first steps was to isolate the princess from the other sisters. She thus forbade Katharina from taking part in the deathbed prayers for the mortally ill Maria Saveria, for which the sisters gathered in her cell on December 8. As Maria Giuseppa reported, immediately after Maria Saveria’s death, the madre vicaria fell into a long swoon. When she awoke, she claimed to have been transported to heaven, where she spoke to Christ about Maria Saveria’s judgment. In what Jesus had said about Maria Saveria, she “also recognized his judgment of Luisa Maria.” The princess would “soon die and be damned,” because Maria Luisa’s “tears and prayers [had] achieved nothing with God.”22

  That evening, Maria Luisa turned her attention to producing a deadly brew for the princess. Agnese Celeste and some of the other novices observed the mistress breaking up shards of glass. The nuns thought the glass dangerous, and warned Maria Luisa to be careful of her eyes. Depending on their size, splinters of glass can injure the inside of the mouth, the stomach, and even the intestines, causing internal bleeding. The finer the glass is ground, the less obvious the bleeding. At around six o’clock in the evening, during Vespers, Maria Luisa put her plan into action. The nuns had to be in the choir of the church for Divine Office, and she thought nobody would observe her. When Maria Giacinta, who was lying ill in her cell, asked Maria Luisa why she had crept past on tiptoes, she replied sanctimoniously that she hadn’t wanted to wake her, as she was ill. “Then I started to suspect that somebody really did want to kill the princess. And more so when I noticed the novices Maria Ignazia, Maria Felice, Agnese Celeste and Mistress Maria Luisa busying themselves over the princess’s bed. They had declared themselves the only people responsible for the princess’s care.”23

  Maria Ignazia was to give the princess the gruel containing the ground glass on this Wednesday evening. She remembered the novice mistress summoning her:24

  Maria Luisa began speaking to me as follows: “My daughter, what I am about to tell you must remain absolutely secret; do not tell anybody. I will not say anything to Maria Felice, as she could make things difficult for me. You know that those who are obedient never do anything bad; now we are showing obedience to the padre (I think she meant Peters). So you must take a little
piece of spongia and put little bits of glass into it, and mix this with the gruel you are taking to Luisa Maria (the princess) this evening.”

  I was still very confused by her instructions, and answered as best I could: “My mother mistress, if the Lord has commanded you in this matter, it would be best for you to do it alone, for you know how the command should be carried out. You can well imagine that Luisa Maria might notice, and the matter would not stay secret.”

  The mistress said nothing to this. Shortly afterwards, she asked me: “Do you know which medicine is also a poison?”

  I replied: “Opium is a poison!!”

  This was how the matter was left on that day, and when Padre Peters came out of the princess’s cell, the mistress accompanied him to the door. Feeling anxious, I went into the little choir, to confide in the Lord and the Blessed Virgin, so that they might enlighten me as to whether I must obey the mistress or not—and whether the person who had spoken to me was actually the mistress.

  After Maria Ignazia’s hesitant reaction, Maria Luisa decided to take matters into her own hands. Agnese Celeste observed her outside the door to Katharina’s cell, “reaching under her collar and drawing something out” that she mixed into the gruel that was to be given to the princess.25 Katharina ate the gruel, which apparently caused her to feel unwell. On that Thursday morning, December 9, she asked for a cup of black tea, which was brought to her straightaway. But this made her feel no better: on the contrary, the tea caused severe stomach pains, nausea, and vomiting.