I read this book every few years, since it’s publication in 1991, for two main reasons: Ron Hansen’s beautiful prose and compelling narrative structure, and the story’s exploration of the mystery of deep Catholic religious experiences. Hansen spins a well-constructed mystery around the question of whether the main character is experiencing ecstatic prayer, leading to her reception of the stigmata, or whether these are self-inflicted, theatrical performances, meant to seek attention.

Mariette Baptiste, an intelligent, beautiful seventeen year old girl from a well-to-do family, is accepted as a postulant in a local order of cloistered nuns, the Sisters of the Crucifixion, near her hometown in upstate New York, in 1906. Mariette’s father deeply objects, having given up his older daughter to the same order, who now serves as Prioress, Reverend Mother Celine, leader of this convent. His wife died when Mariette was four years old. A medical doctor, Dr. Baptiste believes his younger daughter is emotionally excessive, what was then called hysterical, and her religiosity is a manifestation of that. It appears that Mariette is genuinely pious, although suffering the loss of her mother and sister, and with an emotionally unavailable father, perhaps her experiences are an unconscious (or carefully rendered) ploy for attention. Hansen gives the reader small facts, tiny clues, nothing definitive.

A word about ecstatic religious experiences and the stigmata: ecstasies bring a state of unconsciousness to the person, usually produced by prayer, meditation, or other religious practices. In the Catholic Church, ecstasy is an uncommonly deep form of prayer, lasting minutes or hours, in which the person often reports experiencing locutions (inner dialogue with Jesus, the Blessed Mother, saints, etc.), or visible visitations by these same persons. While the ecstasy is occurring, it is as if their consciousness is in a different place, as they cannot hear, see, or sense other stimuli. Stigmata is mainly experienced by a small number of Catholics, most famously St Francis of Assisi, St. Padre Pio, St. Catherine of Siena, and in more modern times, Servant of God Maria Esperanza de Bianchini, to name a few. Stigmata can manifest in several ways, but it usually involves the appearance of Jesus’s crucifixion wounds on the person’s body, including the hands, feet, side, and sometimes, around the head (crown of thorns) and on the back (the scourging.) Usually the wounds appear when the person is in ecstatic prayer, are horribly painful, and are seen as a way to share in Christ’s suffering. Often the wounds will appear on a significant day, such as Friday, and will heal without a trace of scarring. Some stigmatists experience the pain, but not the physical appearance of wounds. Obviously, the Church is extremely careful in these matters, investigating the individual for emotional stability, frauds of self-inflicted wounds, and what the person has to gain for such phenomena. The faithful are often drawn to these persons, as their prayer is seen as rising to great levels, and whether people wish to witness the miraculous, or request intercessory prayer, it is a powerful magnet. For this reason, convents often try to hide such occurrences, so as not to disrupt the cloistered communities’ life, removing themselves from the world to live lives of prayer and sacrifice for the world.

Mariette experiences ecstasies that her spiritual director, Pere Marriott, orders her to record and give to him via Mother Celine, marked “Confessional Matter”, intended to be between Mariette and the priest. Mariette’s sister, as her concerns about Mariette grow, begins intercepting and reading these letters. Hansen does a great job of presenting some of Mariette’s thoughts, some of her interactions with other nuns and novices, and her conversations with Pere Marriott, all of which subtly support both possibilities: is Mariette’s stigmata real, or is it self-inflicted for some other reason? The convent is split right down the middle, her believers and supporters who feel their convent has been blessed with a miracle, and her detractors, who believe this is a ploy, a great and destructive deception. Half embrace her, and half wish to see her go. This is destroying the peaceful functioning of the community of prayer. When word gets out in the town, people pile in to Mass, at the convent bringing gifts, seeking either a blessing, or to gawk at a miracle.

I will not spoil the end here, but it is subtle, and is not completely clear, although I think I understand how Hansen wants to resolve this. This novel succeeds in so many ways. As a mystery, as a psychological study of rare religious experiences, as a study of human nature in response to supernatural phenomenon, as a study of the motivations and life experiences of those in cloistered religious life: in all these ways, Hansen does an excellent job. The writing is spare, describing what needs to be said with minimalism, appropriate for women who seek a life of minimal comfort as they strive to attain communion with God. He sets the convent in its natural setting, in the most beautiful and realistic way; again, as the convent is close to God’s creation, having given up all family, comfort, and worldly contact, except the natural world, seen through the lens of God. There is so much that I love about this book. I highly recommend it.