The highly acclaimed and provocatively rendered story of a young postulant's claim to divine possession and religious ecstasy. In 1906, a beautiful seventeen year old postulant enters the convent of the Sisters of the Crucifixion in upstate New York. When she begins to bleed from her hands, feet, and side, the entire community is thrown into turmoil. Is Mariette a cunning sham, or sexually hysterical, or does God stalk her like a pitiless lover? Mariette in Ecstasy is a stunning immersion into the society of a small convent at the turn of the century, where a mysterious and ultimately harrowing world lies beneath the lovely, placid surface of everyday life. This is an intimate portrait of a fascinating young woman in the grip of an intractable fate, and it raises provocative questions about the complex nature of passionate faith.
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In 1906, seventeen year old Mariette decides to leave her life of wealth and privilege as the pampered daughter of a successful daughter to enter the Our Lady of Sorrows convent in Arcadia, New York. Serving as a postulant for the Sisters of the Crucifixion order, Mariette begins to show signs of stigmata. Mariette also confesses to having conversations with Christ that escalate into an all-consuming, nearly sexualized level of religious ecstasy. As Mariette's behavior and emotions become increasingly erratic, her explanation is that she desperately wants to experience the literal suffering of Christ. The nuns are beside themselves trying to figure out how to handle this. Once the story moves beyond the walls of the convent, a panel of church officials is pulled together to come in and interview the nuns to ascertain if Mariette is truly having a powerful religious experience or slipping into insanity.
Geraldine O'Rawe the 1996 film adaptation of Mariette in Ecstasy
From the childhoood of Mariette down to the nuns in the convent she joins, imagery of self persecution plays heavily into the whole novel. In fact, the novel opens with scenes of each nun starting her day and from the very first introduction to Mother Saint Raphael, we read of her practicing self penance through the wearing of thorned rosebush branches under her habit. There are also descriptions of nuns participating in flogging or various other forms of self-persecution or lying on beds of thorns to strengthen their commitment to the vow of chastity.
Mother Saint Raphael tugs her plain white nightgown up over her head. She is hugely overweight but her legs are slight as a goat's. Tightly sashed around her stomach just below the great green-veined bowls of her breasts are cuttings from the French garden's rosebushes, the dark thorns sticking into skin that is scarlet with infection. She gets into a grey habit, tying it with a sudden jerk. She winces and shuts her eyes.
The entire novel spans the time period of a few months. Even for a brief story, there are some slower moments here, but the intensity certainly picks up the closer we come to the end! One incident and its aftermath are reminiscent of the stories of the Witch Trials era, as Mariette's life before and after entering the convent are investigated. The church panel wishes to determine: are her behaviors are a detailed hoax? Or is she being consumed by the Devil? Should she be kicked out of the convent? Committed to an asylum?
I did feel for Mariette's father, the little we get to know about him. Being a doctor, he's a man of science who gravitates towards the tangibly provable. He struggles to understand Mariette's deep devotion to the religious world, he misses being able to have a normal, friendly father-daughter relationship without all the rules about contact, but he tries to be there for his daughter as much as convent protocol will allow.
Mariette In Ecstasy does go to some WEIRD places at times, but what keeps it highly readable is Hansen's wonderful, slow-brew way with prose. And that last line! Love!
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EXTRAS
* Author Ron Hansen himself is an ordained Deacon in the Catholic Church.
* Ron Hansen wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of his book. His characters were portrayed by quite a few notable names such as Rutger Hauer, John Mahoney, Mary McDonnell, and Eva Marie Saint.
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