"Check Out" Sacred Hearts

Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant
Reviewed by Cathy S., Librarian

In 16th century Italy, there are only two respectable outcomes for a woman of means who reaches marriageable age: an arranged marriage or entrance into a convent, both of which involve a bridal dowry. Isabetta’s father arranged for her, as the elder sister of the family, to be engaged to a gentleman of some wealth and family name. But Isabetta, already in love with her music tutor—a young man with a glorious voice—will not acquiesce. Instead, her younger sister becomes the betrothed, and Isabetta is sent off against her will to Santa Caterina, the convent in Ferrara.

Desperate, Isabetta—now the novice Serafina—rails against her incarceration, setting off much discord in the usually tranquil convent. The Abbess Madonna Chiara, whose responsibility it is to maintain order and discipline among the many residents, assigns the dispensary mistress to oversee Serafina and to aid her transition into life as a novitiate. Suora Zuana, educated by her physician father, holds deep knowledge of the healing powers of herbs and plants, as well as the healing power of an unshakeable faith in the suffering and risen Lord. The convent relies on her abilities to calm and heal through her knowledge, as the Abbess also relies on Suora Zuana’s intelligence and discretion.

Music is an integral part of life at Santa Caterina and is a large part of its fame and reputation. The Choir nuns have heard that Serafina possesses the voice of an angel, but she refuses to share her gift, until an encounter with Sister Magdalena, an ancient mystic who possesses the gift of visions. Serafina seems to begin to settle into her new life—learning the medicinal arts under Suora Zuana’s tutelage and becoming one of the Choir’s featured singers as they prepare for their festal performance during Carnival time— but underneath still boils her determination to escape her confines and reunite with her lover. Could there possibly be a future for her and her true love?

Set against political upheaval, the purging of the Catholic Church during the Counter Reformation, Sacred Hearts is a beautifully drawn portrait of a woman’s life during this time. With clarity, Dunant shows us the conflicts and personalities of the convent’s residents against internal and external societal and religious mores. Serafina, Suora Zuana, the Abbess and Suora Umiliana, mistress of novices, are fully drawn women living fully their lives in the only way each understands their place to be.

Click here to reserve your copy of Sacred Hearts from the the Chester County Library System. To learn more about author Sarah Dunant visit her website.