Read The Nuns of Sant'Ambrogio: The True Story of a Convent in Scandal Online
Authors: Hubert Wolf
The Nuns of Sant'Ambrogio: The True Story of a Convent in Scandal (41 page)
By claiming that the initiative had come from the late Maria Saveria, Maria Luisa was trying to shift a portion of the blame away from herself. Sallua could, after all, neither interrogate nor punish a dead woman. But something in this testimony caught his attention: For the first time, Maria Luisa had provided a concrete motive for the murder, even if she had placed it in the mouth of a deceased nun. The princess had wanted to harm Maria Luisa and Padre Peters, and ultimately bring ruin on the whole convent. This was probably a reference to the vicaress’s clandestine relationship with Peters, which would have caused a scandal if it had become known outside the walls of Sant’Ambrogio.
But, as Maria Luisa stressed many times over, it wasn’t for her own sake that she had tried to poison the princess. She was only doing it to protect her confessor. “I decided to release Padre Peters from his fears, because he told me that if the princess left the convent, she would ruin him, me, and the whole community. I thought it was now necessary to put Sister Maria Saveria’s plan into action. I went to the convent dispensary and inquired about some medicaments.”
But in spite of the poisons she had been fed, Katharina didn’t die. It was looking increasingly unlikely that the prophecy Maria Luisa had spread throughout the convent—that the princess would be dead by Christmas—would be fulfilled. Maria Luisa was now forced to
claim that Katharina’s survival was the result of her intercession with God. Once more, she stressed that Padre Peters would have been the only one to benefit from the princess’s demise.
The investigating judges remained skeptical about the truth of this statement. Maria Luisa had lied to the court too often already, or told them only half-truths. And her claim that the Jesuit confessor was the sole instigator, and would have been the one to profit most from Katharina’s death, was a very serious allegation. When they interrogated Padre Peters about this, the tribunal wanted to be as certain of the facts as possible. But as they started to press Maria Luisa on this point, she stood her ground, saying: “I confirm everything that I said in the previous hearing.”
On July 6, the defendant finally cracked and gave a full confession. For the inquisitors, this was definitive proof that she had made several attempts to murder Princess Katharina von Hohenzollern, using various poisons: tartar emetic; ground glass, with and without spongia; alum; opium; quicklime; and oil varnish. She had also obtained turpentine and belladonna (deadly nightshade), but had not used them. The only reason she stopped giving the princess the brown opium powder was because the doctors stopped prescribing cassia, into which the drug could easily be mixed. And when she came under suspicion as a murderess, Maria Luisa shifted the blame onto the devil, who she said had assumed her form.
She also described how her accomplice Maria Ignazia had gradually distanced herself from her. “Maria Ignazia was distraught by the whole affair, and told me I should be careful, as I was in danger of ending up before the Holy Office. Anyone who killed other people would be punished by death.” Finally, this was the proof Sallua needed that Maria Luisa had forced one of her charges into becoming her accomplice by invoking the religious duty of obedience.
Maria Luisa also confessed to the renewed attempts on Katharina’s life in the summer of 1859. She had “administered further poisons to the princess during her final days in the convent, putting them in her chocolate and other things. However, this was not done with the intention of killing her. The aim was to make her so ill that she was forced to remain in her cell, and was thus unable to leave the convent.” Maria Luisa had been terribly afraid of Katharina going. Padre Peters had said to her several times: “If she leaves, and talks about our
affairs—the extraordinary blessing, the mother founder, and so on—it will spell the end for us both, and for the whole community.”
She then returned a third time to her confessor’s involvement in the poisoning attempts. “I alone am guilty of carrying out the poisoning—but the reason for it and the decision to do it came from the great fears that Padre Peters expressed to me. As a result of what I said to him in general, and what he learned from other nuns, a few facts about the poisoning of the princess were certainly known to him.” This statement seriously incriminated Padre Peters. He had the most to fear if Katharina should leave Sant’Ambrogio and talk. He had been the real
spiritus rector
of the whole poisoning campaign.
Maria Luisa finally reinforced her point a fourth time:
What you have read out about Padre Peters is also true. Since I have sworn to tell the truth, you should know that in his replies to my letters, he said I must pray to the Lord and ask Him to do away with the princess at once (he really wrote this), to save us all from the ruin that was to come.
As I wept to see the princess dying, he saw me and said: “You are mad! There have been so many prayers for her to die; it is a mercy.”
It is the truth and nothing but the truth that, having uttered these words, he expressed his regret that she was not yet dead.
After the princess had left, he said he always trod warily when he entered the convent. If the princess had gone straight to Austria, we would have had nothing to fear, but the fact that she had gone to Tivoli and then to Rome made him suspicious that something might happen to the convent.
It was only at the very end of her interrogation that Maria Luisa was finally prepared to admit what the real catalyst of the whole affair had been.
It is true that I received the letter in German from the above-named Pietro Americano. I took it to the princess, so she could read it to me. The princess was troubled by the letter and told me that bad things were written in it and I should throw it away. I took the letter and sealed it and gave it to the padre, so he would not suspect I had shown it to the princess. When the princess told
Padre Peters about it, I claimed it had been the devil in my form. Padre Peters had sworn me to the strictest silence on the subject of this Pietro. I invented this story about the devil so that nobody would find out I had spoken to the princess about it—which I had in fact done.
In conclusion, Maria Luisa asked the court to inform Katharina von Hohenzollern and her cousin, Archbishop Hohenlohe, of her confession and her regret. “I would like to beg both of them for forgiveness.” Here the notary added, by way of commentary:
“She wept as she said this.”
She also begged forgiveness for making the novice Maria Ignazia into her accomplice. The notary commented:
“Here, she wept and sobbed even harder.”
At the end of this interrogation, the defendant was subjected to intense questioning about the attempts on other nuns’ lives. “I am guilty of many murders, I committed such crimes many times.” She admitted she had been afraid Maria Giacinta might tell the princess about the poisons she had given her, and the shameful acts she had committed with Giacinta. She had therefore tried to induce her death, using a drastically increased dose of a strong medicine. Maria Luisa also confessed that she had prevented anyone calling a doctor for the sick Maria Costanza in time to save her. And she admitted to murdering Sister Maria Agostina, because she was envious of her visions and ecstasies. Having heard everything the judges had read out to her from the files, she confirmed that she had developed an intense dislike of Maria Agostina. She had systematically humiliated and bullied the young nun, eventually destroying her both psychologically and physically.
In Maria Agostina’s case, the poison had been the “Elixier Le Roi.” Exactly what this was is no longer clear. Suggestions range from a highly alcoholic monastic liqueur, made in Chartreuse and called “Elixier,” to a secret potion made from all kinds of unknown ingredients. The sick woman had told Maria Luisa it was “like a bolt of lightning that set her on fire from head to toe.” This reaction could well have been the effect of high-percentage alcohol, and the essential oils contained in the Elixier Le Roi, on a person who was already in a weakened state.
The Inquisition had now obtained a confession from Maria Luisa
on all the charges. She didn’t demand to have the witnesses reexamined in her presence—which meant that she also didn’t make use of the grace period to which she was legally entitled, to prepare a written counterstatement. She turned down the offer of a defense counsel, despite the prospect of draconian punishments. Her defense was handed over to the court-appointed lawyer for those who had been accused by the Holy Office, Giuseppe Cipriani.
57
He reviewed the
Ristretto
and signed it off.
Maria Luisa’s concluding statement read: “Filled with disgust at my offences, I acknowledge that I deserve all punishments that will be visited upon me by the popes. I therefore request that they may be exercised without delay, for I seek only forgiveness and salvation.… My only defense is Jesus Christ.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
“That Good Padre Has Spoiled the Work of God”The Interrogations of the Father Confessor and the Abbess
GIUSEPPE LEZIROLI: A CONFESSOR BEFORE THE COURT
According to canon law, there were two people responsible for everything that had happened in Sant’Ambrogio: the abbess, and the convent’s spiritual director. The nuns were duty-bound to obey them in all things, and had to follow their instructions as if they came from Jesus Christ Himself. This was particularly the case for the spiritual director, who, as an ordained priest, acted
in persona Christi
. While the mother superior was responsible for maintaining discipline and ensuring strict adherence to the Rule, the confessor’s area of responsibility was faith and pastoral care. There had to be a clear division between these two spheres. In particular, the nuns had to be sure that what they said in confession would be kept secret, and not passed on to the abbess or her vicaress. There had already been a serious violation of this basic Church norm. And in the course of the informative process, further serious allegations had been made—both against Abbess Maria Veronica, and the principal confessor and spiritual director, Giuseppe Leziroli. Therefore, the Inquisition brought charges against them both on February 27, 1861.
1
Leziroli had been born on March 19, 1795, in Rimini. He entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus in Reggio Emilia in 1817.
2
Having
been ordained as priest in February 1822, he spent two years working in Terni, three in Fano, and a further year in Tivoli. In 1831, his superiors sent him to Rome. He was first employed as a spiritual director in the Collegio Romano, and its seminary. In 1839, he was installed in Sant’Ambrogio as the principal confessor and spiritual director. He was always assisted in this task by a second Jesuit padre. From 1856 to November 1859, this was Padre Giuseppe Peters.
Leziroli’s interrogations extended over roughly four months, from March 16 to July 19, 1861.
3
Like all defendants who appeared before the Holy Tribunal, he was first given the opportunity to speak spontaneously. His defense strategy was very simple: “What I can say about myself is that I started well, but was deceived in the end.” This deceit was connected with a nun to whom he had been a “spiritual companion,” and who, he soon saw, “possessed gifts and was capable of extraordinary things.” He promptly informed Cardinal Patrizi of this, and Patrizi advised him to be cautious. But the cardinal vicar apparently left it at that. At least, Leziroli didn’t mention any other interventions by Patrizi.
As Sallua noted in his report, Leziroli claimed to have instructed this nun that, were she to be visited by an apparition, she should defend herself by speaking the following words:
“Our Father, may the sign of the cross release us from our enemies.”
Five months later, Saint Stanislaus appeared to this sister.
4
He led her to the place where the late abbess, Maria Maddalena, subsequently started appearing to her on a regular basis. “When she came to this place with Saint Stanislaus, Maria Maddalena appeared to her with a cross in her hand, and commanded her to venerate it with the words
Adoramus te Christi
.” As they venerated the cross together, she spoke the words Leziroli had given her. This convinced him that “it could not be the work of the devil, but must be the work of God.” He therefore “always believed what she told him” about all her subsequent visions, and “never doubted her honesty.”