Word: sisterly
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Monza, by Mario Mazzucchelli. Based on archives opened six years ago in Milan, this book takes a fresh look at a lurid story that shocked 17th century Italy. It takes 14 years of solitary penitence before Sister Virginia of Monza is finally forgiven for her passionate, protracted love affair with a reckless nobleman...
...early phases of the quarrel, Diem probably could and should have conciliated the Buddhists. But he vacillated. His brother and sister-in-law, Ngo Dinh Nhu and Mme. Nhu, insisted that unless the Buddhists were crushed, there would be a coup threatening the very existence of the family's rule. Mme. Nhu's fiery philippics lent impetus to the Buddhist movement just as it appeared to be flagging. By last week, after three Buddhist suicides spurred new protest demonstrations throughout the country, it was clearly too late for conciliation. Even if Diem had wanted it, the Buddhist leaders...
...Sister Virginia fought the Devil. She locked herself in her cell, flogged her naked back until the blood came, sent precious gifts to Our Lady of Loreto, prayed endlessly that "the Lord would free me from that passion." But several nuns who were Sister Virginia's close friends acted as if they were on Satan's payroll: when the time came, it was one of them who tossed the convent key over the wall to Osio...
Though not as wellborn as Sister Virginia, Osio belonged to a gang of reckless noblemen who "did nothing night and day but roam the streets armed with forbidden weapons, breaking into houses, assaulting now this one, now that, giving them wounds." To accomplish the seduction of the nun, Osio frequently attended Mass at the convent, sent intermediaries with gifts of silver crucifixes and other valuables, and even employed a licentious priest to help him achieve a persuasive elegance in his love letters...
Into the Well. Once started, it seemed the affair would never stop. Sister Virginia had two children; the first died at birth, the second was smuggled out of the convent and raised in Osio's home. For seven years everyone in town knew what was going on but did nothing about it. In the convent itself, the nuns divided into accomplices, neutrals and enemies. But the enemies, inside and out, were immobilized by a major deterrent: since her father's death in 1599, Sister Virginia had been virtually governor of Monza...