Read Online The Nuns of Sant'Ambrogio: The True Story of a Convent in Scandal by Hubert Wolf - Free Book Online

right path, she placed Agostina under massive psychological pressure. She was evidently trying to drive her to madness, and ultimately to death.
    In her hearing, Maria Giuseppa recalled that “last summer, the late Sister Maria Agostina … fell ill. She was young, robust and in good health. But it seemed that her illness had an unnatural cause, and I later began to suspect that something had been mixed into her food. This sister had a constant fever, and she pined away.… The sick are usually given Holy Communion every eight days, but I remember that she was not given it for quite some time. Around last October, she was taken ill with a severe fever, and they said it brought on a stroke. She was 21 or 22 years old. The stroke left her dazed, and she stuttered. Ulcers built up in her mouth and throat. She wasted away to a skeleton in just a few days, and finally died.” 53
    Several witnesses confirmed in their statements that the novicemistress had a crazed notion that Maria Agostina was out to get her. They expressed their unanimous conviction that Maria Luisa had poisoned her. The vicaress hated Agostina so much that she had forbidden Maria Ignazia, the mortally ill woman’s biological sister, from visiting her in the infirmary. Maria Ignazia’s testimony shows how obedient she was to Maria Luisa: this was the reason the latter had recruited her as an accomplice. 54
    I never visited my sister, as I knew this would not have pleased the mistress. But in the end, the father confessor and the mistress went to my sister. She made her confession and took Holy Communion. Then I visited her too, but she was close to death, and I do not think that she recognized me.
    The reason the mistress brought Padre Peters in to take my sister’s confession, was to free her from the demons. The mistress told me that Peters laid a stole on her head and she resisted strongly. Padre Peters drove out her seven demons, and the mistress told me she saw them. After this, my sister lived another eight days, but she was no longer sensible.
    Giuseppa Maria was convinced that Maria Luisa had made the sick woman “take a powder orally. This led to inflammation of the chest, made everything appear yellow, caused ulcers in her throat and left her completely dazed.” 55 The second nurse was absolutely certain of her facts: she had taken the same powder as a medicine, and had observed the exact same symptoms in herself as in Maria Agostina, with whom she had spoken several times as she was nursing her. In her hearing, she stated: 56
    So I harbored the suspicion that the mistress had poisoned her food: a few days previously, something similar had happened to me. The doctor prescribed an infusion for my stomachache, of corallium and wormseed. This was prepared in the sick room, where the mistress was always around. The first time I took it, I felt nauseous, got a headache, and my vision misted over in a yellow color. But I said nothing.”
    The symptoms Giuseppa Maria describes here, in particular the colored vision, confusion, and affected speech, suggest she was poisonedby the santonin contained in the wormseed. Giuseppa Maria went on:
    The following day, I took another dose of the medicine. I felt exactly as I had done the day before; everything looked yellow. I was supposed to take the medicine eight times, but decided not to take it any more.
    A day later, I was still feeling bad, and when the doctor came, the mistress was occupied with something else. So I was able to describe my condition to him in person, and Doctor Marchi was astonished. He said this medicine was very mild, and could even be given to animals. It should not have any of these side-effects, and I should stop taking it. It also made me vomit, and I spewed up stuff that burned and caused ulcers in my mouth and throat.
    But it didn’t end with the murder of Maria Agostina. Maria Felice’s death in the fall of 1859 can also be chalked up to Maria Luisa’s account. She had been one