Vespers at St. Mark's Book

An extraordinary voice comes through in this history and necrology (essentially obituaries) by Sr. Bartolomea, a nun living in the Corpus Domini convent of Venice. Her chronicles of the founding of the convent and the trials of the years of the three popes offer a unique perspective on history, and her brief accounts of the lives and deaths of her sisters and others provide vivid portraits of holy life. The editor's introduction is good. The series introduction is feminist twaddle and should be skipped by those not in need of an ipecac.