A review by ameyawarde
The Nuns of Sant'Ambrogio: The True Story of a Convent in Scandal by Ruth Martin, Hubert Wolf

4.0

Wow. This story is unbelievable. How one young nun was able to trick a whole convent into believing she was a saint, including the two confessors believed her and protected her, and one who helped her cover up her sloppy poisoning of several other nuns (and an attempt on a princess-nun who blew the whistle on the whole convent), while also having an affair with her because he did seem legitimately convinced that the Virgin Mary had told him to.. is just mind boggling. And religious higher-ups all the way up to the pope's close friends were involved in this scandal and had a hand in letting it go on as long/far as it did.

The story is super interesting, and it was written very well. I don't know a whole lot about the inner workings of the catholic political machine, but when it was relevant, complicated bureaucracy was explained in a simple and clear manner. I was also impressed with how the author did not make excuses for the inexcusable behavior of anyone involved, including the church and pope themselves, even though Hubert Wolf was(is?) a Priest.