by Hubert Wolf
87. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. X: Esame di Sr. Agnese Celeste, March 29, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
88. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. X: Esame di Sr. Giuseppa Maria, March 31, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c. Subsequent quotations also taken from this text.
89. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. X: Esame di Sr. Maria Fortunata, May 7, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
90. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. X: Esame di Sr. Maria Fortunata, May 14, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
91. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. X: Esame di Sr. Maria Veronica, May 23, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
92. Relazione informativa con Sommario, Titolo IX: Disonestà con false massime praticate da Sr. M. Luisa con alcune religiose; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c. Subsequent quotations also taken from this text.
93. Text by Maria Giacinta, added to the files at her hearing on March 24, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 e, fol.77r–79v.
94. Cf Scala, Exorzismus, pp. 357–86.
95. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. XIV: Esame di Sr. Giuseppa Maria, April 2, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
96. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. XIV: Esame di Sr. Maria Francesca, February 22, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
97. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. XIV: Esame di Sr. Agnese Celeste, March 27, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
98. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. XIV: Esame di Sr. Maria Fortunata, May 7, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
99. Relazione informativa con Sommario, Titolo IX: Disonestà con false massime praticate da Sr. M. Luisa con alcune religiose; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
100. Esame di Franceschetti, September 12, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 m.
101. Relazione informativa con Sommario, Titolo X: Massime erronee e pratiche perniciose; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c. Subsequent quotations also taken from this text.
102. Regola della Riforma delle Monache del Terz’Ordine di S. Francesco, Cap. V: Del Confessore, e dei Sagramenti della Confessione, e Comunione; ACDF SO St. St. B6 r 1. See also Cornelius M. Rechenauer, Seelenleitung, Beichte und Kommunionempfang in Frauenklöstern und den übrigen religiösen Genossenschaften mit Laienoberen (Regensburg, 1909), pp. 9–18.
103. Regola della Riforma delle Monache del Terz’Ordine di S. Francesco, Cap. VI: Del cibo, e dell’astinenza; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 r 1.
104. Relazione informativa con Sommario, Titolo VIII: Perquisizione degli oggetti; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
105. Relazione informativa con Sommario, Titolo X: Massime erronee e pratiche perniciose, Sallua’s closing votum; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
106. Esame di Sr. Giuseppa Maria, February 18, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B6 h, fol. 104–5. Giuseppa Maria stressed that she was repeating Maria Luisa’s address word for word.
107. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. XV: Esame di Sr. Maria Veronica, May 19, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
108. Relazione informativa con Sommario, Titolo X: Massime erronee e pratiche perniciose; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
109. Relazione informativa con Sommario, Titolo VI: Affettata Santità della M. Vicaria Sr. Maria Luisa, Sallua’s introduction; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
CHAPTER FIVE “An Act of Divine Splendor”
1. Ristretto con Sommario dei Costituti Sr. Maria Veronica Milza, Sommario VI: Estratto dagli Esami di Sr. Maria Ignazia; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 d.
2. Relazione informativa con Sommario, Titolo XI: Avvelenamento, Sallua’s introduction; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
3. Sallua accorded this matter its own, short charge: “Relazione sospetta di Sr. M. Luisa con un tal Dottore di medicina Mario Kreisburg,” within the larger context of Titolo XI. Relazione informativa con Sommario, Titolo XII; ADCF SO St. St. B 7 c. Subsequent quotations also taken from this text unless otherwise stated.
4. Cf. “Teufel,” in Gerlach, Lexikon, pp. 200–3; Dinzelbacher, Realität, pp. 151–75; Schwerhoff, Hexerei, pp. 325–53, and the relevant articles in LThK, 2nd ed., vol. 10 (1965), pp. 1–5.
5. Marshman, Exorcism, pp. 265–81; William Nagel, “Exorzismus III,” in TRE 10 (1982), pp. 751–56; Rituale Romanum Pauli V Pontificis Maximi iussu editum (Rome 1614–15), Tit. VIII; Adolf Rodewyk, “Exorzismus”, in LThK, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1959), pp. 1314; Scala, Exorzismus, pp. 350–436.
6. This refers to the Spiritus Sanctus College in Brig, founded by the Jesuits in 1662. In 1773 it was dissolved following the prohibition of the Jesuit order. After the ban was lifted, many well-known personalities studied at the Jesuit boarding school, until it was finally nationalized in 1834. Cf. 300 Jahre Kollegium Brig. 1662/63–1962/63. Festschrift zur Jubiläumsfeier der kantonalen Mittelschule des Oberwallis (Brig, 1963); Strobel (ed.), Regularklerus, pp. 384–407. The lists of pupils still available contain only the names of students who received a prize for their final exams. The archive material therefore doesn’t prove whether Kreuzburg attended the college.
7. Cf. Michael Rosenberger, “Levitation,” in LThK, 3rd ed., vol. 6 (1997), p. 864.
8. Cf. Relazione di Luigi Franceschetti al Santo Uffi zio intorno a cose intese ovedute di una persona creduta indemoniata, June 19, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 m, fol. 52r–65v.
9. The biography of Kreuzburg that follows is based on various sources: Census 1850 and Census 1860; NARA Washington. Passport applications for Peter Kreuzburg and his children; ibid, Death Register of Pau for the year 1889; Archives de la Communauté d’agglomération Pau-Pyrénées, online: http://archives.agglo-pau.fr/ (5/2/2012).
10. Relazione informativa con Sommario, Titolo XI: Avvelenamento; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
11. The feast of the Immaculate Conception (Immaculata Conceptio) is celebrated on December 8. Cf. Theodor Maas-Ewerd, “Marienfeste,” in LThK, 3rd ed., vol. 6 (1997), pp. 1370–74, here p. 1371; Franz Courth, “Unbefleckte Empfängnis Marias,” in LThK, 3rd ed., vol. 10 (2001), pp. 376–79.
12. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. XXIII: Esame di Sr. Giuseppa Maria, April 2, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
13. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. XXVI: Esame di Sr. Maria Giacinta, March 17, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
14. There are many references in the literature to this ritual as a sign of penitence, for example in the Barnabite orders. Cf. Wilhelm David Fuhrmann, Handwörterbuch der christlichen Religions- und Kirchengeschichte, vol. 1 (Halle, 1826), p. 208; Pierre Hélyot, P. Hippolyt Hélyots ausführliche Geschichte aller geistlichen und weltlichen Klosterund Ritterorden führ beyderley Geschlecht, vol. 4 (Leipzig, 1754), p. 129. The ritual was also used by the Benedictine nuns of the Perpetual Adoration. Cf. Joseph Huguet, Die Andacht zum allerheiligsten Herzen Jesu in Beispielen. Oder die Vortrefflichkeit der Gebete und Andachtsübungen zu Ehren des allerheiligsten Herzens Jesu, nachgewiesen durch viele Beispiele und Wunder aus dem Leben der Heiligen unserer Zeit (Regensburg, 1863), pp. 164–66.
15. Cf. Paolo Regio, La miracolosa vita di S. Francesco di Paola (Naples, 1581), p. 91; Giuseppe Maria Perrimezzi, La Vita di San Francesco di Paola, fondatore dell’ordine de’ Minimi (Venice/Milan, 1764), p. 279.
16. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. XXV: Esame di Sr. Maria Francesca, February 21, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c (printed version); ibid., B 6 d, fol. 34r–40r (original).
17. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. XXV: Esame di Sr. Maria Francesca, February 22, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c; ibid., B 6 d, fol. 40r–45r (original).
18. Relazione informativa con Sommario, Titolo XI: Avvelenamento; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
19. Esame di Sr. Agnese Celeste, March 27, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 e, fol. 52–54. Cf. also Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. XXVII; ibid., B 7 c.
20. On the individual poisons used, see the relevant entries in the various volumes of Hagers Handbuch; on the use of quicksilver and atropine, see Eikermann, Frauen, here also especially the general remarks on murder by poisoning.
21. The statements from the nuns were very reliable, and corroborated each other in detail, in terms
of the poisons used, their preparation, the places where the poisons were mixed, and where the ingredients came from. But regarding the dates of the individual acts of the tragedy, and therefore the chronology of the whole affair, the statements differed quite fundamentally. They mixed up days of the week, confused the sequence of events, and made a jumble of the dates. But this was by no means intentional; it is quite typical of witness statements during police investigations or before a court. Recent neurological research suggests that this is simply an effect of the way human memory works. Places and things are frequently remembered exactly, while dates are easily confused. In recent historical research, this means that the chronological value of sources reliant on memory, like autobiographical texts and witness statements, is regarded with a certain degree of skepticism. Cf. Fried, Schleier, pp. 49–56 and passim.
22. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. XVI: Esame di Sr. Maria Giuseppa, April 2, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
23. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. XXVI: Esame di Sr. Maria Giacinta, March 21, 1861; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
24. Sommario del Ristretto dei Costituti Sr. Maria Veronica Milza, no. VI: Estratto dagli esami di Sr. Maria Ignazia; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 d.
25. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. XXVII: Esame di Sr. Agnese Celeste, March 27, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
26. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. XXVII: Esame di Sr. Maria Giuseppa, March 9, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
27. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. XXVI: Esame di Sr. Maria Giacinta, March 21, 1861; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
28. Faiola and the surrounding mountains were notorious in Italy as the home of bands of robbers. See Hermann Reuchlin, “Das italienische Brigantentum,” in Unsere Zeit. Deutsche Revue der Gegenwart. Monatsschrift zum Conversationslexikon New Series 6 (1870), pp. 145–66; Heinrich Wilhelm Thiersch, Friedrich Thiersch’s Leben. Vol. 1: 1784–1830 (Leipzig, 1866), p. 247.
29. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. XXVII: Esame di Sr. Agnese Celeste, March 28, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
30. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. XXVII: Esame di Sr. Maria Giuseppa, March 9, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
31. Sommario del Ristretto dei Costituti relativi a Sr. Maria Veronica Milza, no. VI: Estratto dagli esami di Sr. Maria Ignazia; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 d.
32. Relazione informativa con Sommario, Titolo XI: Avvelenamento; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c. Subsequent quotations also taken from this text.
33. Sommario del Ristretto dei Costituti relativi a Sr. Maria Veronica Milza, no. VI: Estratto dagli esami di Sr. Maria Ignazia; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 d.
34. Relazione informativa con Sommario, Titolo XI: Avvelenamento; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
35. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. XVII: Esame di Sr. Agnese Celeste, March 28, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
36. See Judith 13:8. Judith decapitated the warlord Holofernes to save the besieged people of Israel.
37. Opium was administered to Katharina in two different forms. First she was given opium tincture, then raw opium, shaped into balls—called opium pills in the source material. In both these forms, opium tastes bitter enough to be disgusting. The two ounces of raw opium that Franceschetti was told to procure is a huge amount, given the fact that the daily dosage should be a maximum of 500 milligrams, any higher dose being lethal. Mixing the opium with cassia was a promising strategy, because the pureed flesh of the cassia fistula pods was both very pleasant-tasting and the same color as raw opium. Katharina had been given cassia several times as a laxative for her digestive problems, and the cassia made an excellent base for the opium because it was impossible to taste the drug in this mixture—particularly when it also had tamarind mixed with it. The “sour date” was taken for a “lovely sister” to the cassia, and also had a laxative effect.
38. Sommario del Ristretto dei Costituti relativi a Sr. Maria Veronica Milza, no. VI: Estratto dagli esami di Sr. Maria Ignazia; ACDF SO St. St. B7 d. Subsequent quotations also taken from this text unless otherwise stated.
39. Relazione informativa con Sommario, Titolo XI: Avvelenamento; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
40. Esami del Dr. Marchi, December 3 and 5, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 m, fol. 81–87.
41. Esame del Dr. Riccardi, December 5, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 m, fol. 85.
42. In the nineteenth century, illnesses like neuralgia and “weak nerves,” which could lead to mental and physical breakdown, were increasingly treated with strong stimulants or sedatives. Chloroform, which was used as a narcotic for the first time in 1847, was used both for these cases and in women’s medicine, where it was frequently used to treat menstrual cramps. In many cases, medicinal use turned into addiction, as for Georg Trakl, who turned to chloroform in periods of nervous tension. Cf. Mike Jay, High Society: Mind-Altering Drugs in History and Culture (London, 2010); “Report of the Committee on Chloroform,” The Lancet, July 1864, pp. 49–50.
43. Relazione informativa con Sommario, Titolo XI: Avvelenamento; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c. Subsequent quotations also taken from this text.
44. Cf. John 13:1–17; Thomas Schäfer, “Fußwaschung,” in LThK, 2nd ed., vol. 4 (1960), pp. 476–78.
45. Relazione informativa con Sommario, Titolo XI, Sallua’s introduction to this charge; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
46. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. XXVIII: Esame di Sr. Maria Ignazia, March 2, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c. Subsequent quotations also taken from this text.
47. Veronica Giuliani lived from 1660 until 1727, and received the stigmata in 1696. It was only after a long struggle, against opponents including the Roman Inquisition, that the Capuchin nun was beatified in 1804, and canonized in 1839. Maria Luisa was drawing a parallel with a female mystic whose recognition from the Church had been the result of a long fight. On Veronica Giuliani, see Ekkart Sauser, “Giuliani,” in BBKL 12 (1997), p. 1277.
48. The Lives of S. Veronica Giuliani, Capuchin Nun: And of the Blessed Battista Varani, of the Order of S. Clare, the Saints and Servants of God, Second Series (London, 1874), pp. 126–27. (Text taken from the original Italian by the Abate Filippo Maria Salvatori, Rome, 1839.)
49. Relazione informativa con Sommario, Titolo XI: Avvelenamento; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
50. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. XXIX: Esame di Sr. Maria Ignazia, March 7, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
51. Relazione informativa con Sommario, Titolo XI, from the subtitle: Sr. M. Luisa tenta con veleni ed in altre maniere procura ed influisce nella infermità e morte di altre religiose; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c. Subsequent quotations also taken from this text.
52. This was probably Vincenzo Stocchi, who was born in Sinalunga in 1820, entered the Jesuit novitiate, and was ordained as priest in 1851. Stocchi spent three years teaching rhetoric in Senigallia, was later employed in practical pastoral care, and died in 1881. Cf. Sommervogel, Bibliothèque, vol. 7, pp. 1582–83.
53. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. XXVII: Esame di Sr. Maria Giuseppa, March 10, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
54. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. XXIX: Esame di Sr. Maria Ignazia, March 5, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
55. Relazione informativa con Sommario, Titolo XI: Avvelenamento; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
56. Sommario della Relazione informativa, no. XXX: Esame di Sr. Giuseppa Maria, April 3, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
57. Relazione informativa con Sommario, Titolo XI: Avvelenamento; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c. Subsequent quotations also taken from this text.
58. Relazione informativa con Sommario, Titolo XIII: Sr. Maria Luisa più volte ha fatto comparire somme di denaro ricevute miracolosamente dal Cielo; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c. Subsequent quotations also taken from this text.
59. A Scudino is a gold coin from the Duchy of Modena, worth two thirds of a Roman scudo. Cf. Oskar Ludwig Bernhard Wolff, Neues elegantestes Conversations-Lexikon für Gebildete aus allen Ständen, vol. 5 (Leipzig, 1842), p. 369.
60. Sommario d
ella Relazione informativa, no. XXXI: Esame di Franceschetti, September 12, 1860; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
61. Relazione informativa con Sommario, Titolo XIV: I Padri Confessori Leziroli e risultano fautori, complici e conniventi; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c. Subsequent quotations also taken from this text. On the role of the Jesuits as confessors for nuns, see Moos, Disziplinierung, pp. 82–86.
62. Relazione informativa con Sommario, Titolo XI: Avvelenamento; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c.
63. Relazione informativa con Sommario; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c. Subsequent quotations also taken from this text.
64. Decision by the Assembly of the Cardinals, Feria IV, February 27, 1861; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 w f.
65. Cf. ACDF SO St. St. B 6 z, fol. 1. Bambozzi, who was born around 1795, was director general of all prisons in Rome from 1856. He died in 1863. See Wolf (ed.), Prosopographie, pp. 103 and 1609.
66. The assessor’s private audience with the pope, and the latter’s decision, Feria IV, Febraury 27, 1861; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 w f.
67. Decision by the cardinals, Feria IV, March 6,1861; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 w f.
CHAPTER SIX “It Is a Heavenly Liquor”
1. Decision by the pope, December 6, 1859; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 wf. Fascicolo dei Decreti, Decretum Feria III. Loco IV, December 6, 1859; ibid., B6 wf. Relazione sommaria degli atti principali, Sua Santità ordina che Sr. M. Luisa sia traslocata in altro monastero; ibid., B 6 e1. The convent of Purificazione was a former nunnery with a church attached. The Roman nobleman Mario Ferro Orsini bought the land from the Carthusian monks of Santa Maria degli Angeli alle Terme, and had the church and convent built. The sisters of Saint Clara of Assisi moved in in 1600. Cf. “Purificazione della B. V. Maria. Congregazione di monache,” in Moroni, Dizionario 56 (1852), p. 99.
2. Ristretto dei Costituti di Sr. Maria Luisa con Sommario, Parte I: Atti spontanei emessi da Sr. M. Luisa durante la sua dimora nell monastero della Purificazione; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 u. Cf. also Esami di Sr. Maria Luisa, March 20 and 26, 1860; ibid., B 6 f. Subsequent quotations also taken from this text unless otherwise stated.