When In Rome, Do As The Lesbian Nun Murder Cults Do

Katherina von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was a German princess. A devout, liberal Catholic, she was twice married and, sadly, twice widowed by the age of thirty-six. Upon the passing of her second husband, Princess Katherina decided that she wanted to devote herself to the papacy in Rome. Cardinal August Reisach, a trusted man of the cloth for Katherina, recommended that she join a convent. The princess was happy for the referral, but little did she know she would spend the next fifteen months trying to escape with her life. Sex, lies, theft, and murder. This is the story of the nuns of Sant’Ambrogio.

Sant’Ambrogio’s Creation

The community of Sant’Ambrogio was founded by a young nun named Sister Maria Agnese Firrao in 1806. Sister Firrao was a visionary who did not play around. She walked around with a penitential iron mask containing 52 nails turned inward. She claimed to have visions and receive miracles including the Stigmata on her hands, feet, and side. Sister Firrao’s confessor both supported and championed her. Bishops and Cardinals traveled to Sant’Ambrogio just to pray at her feet. To them, she was a living saint. To them, she was the “Beata Maria”.

The Rumors

There were some other women in the church; however, who were suspicious of Sister Firrao. There were rumors that the saintly nun was engaging in sexual acts with her confessors and the miraculous wounds of Christ that appeared on her body were actually self-inflicted.

An inquisition was launched in 1816 which exposed Sister Firrao as a fraud. She was also convicted of “feigned holiness” as well as “lewd behavior” with her confessors. As punishment, she was banished to another convent for life and the nuns of Sant’Ambrogio were nearly shut down. There were many high-ranking figures in the community; however, that petitioned to keep the convent open. They were successful and the convent went on operating without incident for the next 42 years. Sister Firrao. on the other hand, died while in banishment.

Katherina’s Arrival

It was 1858 when the enthusiastic princess (now Sister) Katherina arrived at Sant’Ambrogio. She had been looking forward to a life of prayer, simplicity, and servitude, but quickly realized there was something strange happening in the convent. The first thing she noticed was that the head mother did not actually control anything. The nun who was actually in charge was a beautiful and well-spoken twenty-six-year-old novice named Sister Maria Luisa.

Sister Maria Luisa

Sister Maria Luisa had a reputation in the convent for being a saint. The Jesuit confessors for the nuns of Sant’Ambrogio supported her claims of having visions of Christ and of other saints. She also said that she received gifts from heaven. These included locks of Our Lady’s hair and hand-written letters from the virgin Mother Mary herself. If this isn’t impressive, she also received jeweled rings which were to represent her marriage to Jesus. Lastly, she claimed the heavens bestowed a “heavenly odor” upon her body. That’s right. She smelled like rose blossoms.

For all of her spirituality, Sister Maria Luisa did not exhibit the expected behavior of a saint. For example, she rarely attended chapel services and she ate meat on Fridays. Perhaps most egregiously, she often welcomed Father Giuseppe Peters (her confessor) into her room to stay over night. The saintly nun also had a relationship with an American man who left his wife and children in the U.S. just to spend time with her in her bedroom.

Katherina’s Nightmare Begins

It didn’t take Sister Katherina long to realize that the nuns at Sant’Ambrogio were still involved in the cult of “Beata Maria”. She wanted nothing to do with them. The former princess denounced Sister Maria Luisa as a fake saint and made repeated complaints to the Senior confessor, Father Giuseppe Leziroli. Unfortunately for Sister Katherina, the Father was in full support of Sister Maria Luisa and insisted upon her sanctity. Father Giuseppe Leziroli told Katherina that she was delusional and that her impure thoughts about Maria Luisa were brought on by the devil.

Uncovering the Nuns of Sant’Ambrogio

Sister Katherina began documenting the nuns of Sant’Ambrogio. She noted everything and anything that would support her claim that the head vicaress was a fraud. This included the letters from the Virgin Mary, which were actually written by another young nun who had beautiful hand-writing. Sister Maria Louisa had used these fake “holy” letters to demand things she wanted at the convent. In fact, it was a letter from the “Virgin Mary” that convinced the head nun at Sant’Ambrogio to give Maria Louisa the position of head vicaress at the age of twenty-five.

Another discovery was the way in which Sister Maria Louisa obtained her jewelry. Though she claimed it had come to her through some divine means, it had actually been purchased with embezzled convent funds.

Initiation Rites

Perhaps the most disturbing discovery; however, was the forced lesbian initiation rites of new sisters entering the convent. Sister Maria Luisa required every single girl in the convent to have sex with her before they could pronounce their final vows. The head vicaress also took a liking to several of these girls, and for them, the sexual encounters did not end on their initiation night. Willingly or not, Sister Maria Luisa kept these girls as long-term lovers.

The Saintly Premonition

When Sister Maria Luisa had enough of Sister Katherina’s meddling and complaints, she began to have miraculous visions predicting the former princess’s death. To the convent’s delight, and serving as further evidence that the living saint was real, Sister Katherina became deathly ill. Katherina was told by one of the other sisters that Sister Maria Luisa had had these premonitions about three other nuns before. All three women did indeed pass away, but Sister Katherina was no fool. She was certain that she had been poisoned and refused to eat or take any medication.

Escape

It took Sister Katherina fifteen months to smuggle out a small note to her cousin, Bishop Gustav Adolf zu Hohenlohe und Schillingfürst. It contained only two words: “Save me”. The Bishop rushed to Sant’Ambrogio, took Katherina, and brought her to his estate in Tivoli where she recovered and shared her story with another confessor named Maurus Wolter. It is Wolter who helped Katherina bring her complaints to the Holy Office and expose the cult hiding under the guise of the Catholic convent.

The Nuns of Sant’Ambrogio Are Investigated

The investigation was lead by Vincenzo Leone Sallua. He concluded that Father Giuseppe Leziroli and the senior Father Giuseppe Peters both actively promoted the cult of Maria Luisa and validated the sexual initiation rites for nuns to enter the convent. When Vinvenzo presented his findings to Cardinal Patrizi (the nuns of Sant’Ambrogio’s cardinal protector), the Cardinal asked Pope Pius IX to refer the complaints to the Inquisition. The Pope agreed; however, he turned around and put Cardinal Patrizi and Cardinal Reisach (the same man who placed Katherina in the convent) on the court of the Inquisition. This way, the Pope could maintain control of the outcome, or so he thought.

The Inquisition

The Inquisition uncovered everything. The extortion, the sexual abuse, all of it. Through witness interviews and confessions from the nuns, they also discovered that senior Father Guiseppe Peters wasn’t even a real priest and was using a fake name. His real name was Joseph Kleutgen, a theologian and professor at the Gregorian University. He had been having an affair with one of the nuns, though he insisted that it was for spiritual purposes. The Inquisition also believed he was aware of the poisonings that resulted in the deaths of three nuns and the attempted murder of Katherina.

The Verdict

By the end of the Inquisition, the convent at Sant’Ambrogio was shut down for good. The building was re-purposed and is now known as Sant’Ambrogio della Massima church.

As for the Nuns…

Maria Luisa was sentenced to be confined in a monastery for twenty years where she became deranged and violent. She was eventually sent back home to live with her parents, but soon became unmanageable and abusive to them as well. She did; however, manage to win a lawsuit to reclaim her convent dowry, though it was not significant enough to sustain her. She ultimately died in poverty.

The figurehead mother of the nuns of Sant’Ambrogio was stripped of her title, though she was permitted to continue on as a nun in another convent.

Katherina von Hohenzollern moved back to Germany where she became a distinguished Benedictine nun. Using her royal fortune, she founded the Monastery of Beuron.

As for the Priests…

As for the priests who supported and promoted the cult, Father Leziroli walked away with a slap on the wrist. The fake senior Father Peters (actually Joseph Kleutgen) was supposed to be confined in a Jesuit house for three years, but because the Pope liked him so much, he reduced the sentence to two years. After this, his career flourished and he went on to shape the course of Catholicism.

Reflection

The story of the nuns of Sant’Ambrogio was kept under wraps by the Catholic church until 1998 when Pope John Paul II allowed Hubert Wolf to examine the records. Wolf is a professor of ecclesiastical history at the University of Münster and he detailed the full story in a book called: The Nuns of Sant’Ambrogio: The True Story of a Convent in Scandal .

What do you think about the final outcome? Were the punishments appropriate? Why do you think the church released the files to Wolf so many years later? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

References: https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/nuns-santambrogio https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/29/the-nuns-of-santambrogio-the-true-story-of-a-convent-in-scandal-hubert-wolf-review https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sant%27Ambrogio_della_Massima https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/beuron-abbey