Seduction, passion, and betrayal are not words typically used to describe a nun's experience, but that's exactly what Mariana Alcoforado (1640-1723), a Portuguese religious, went through with her lover Noel Buoton de Chamilly, a famous and dashing officer in the French army.

SYNOPSIS:

Mariana Alcoforado, was a 17th-century Portuguese nun who was seduced by, and fell deeply in love with, a dashing and famous French officer, Noel Buton de Chamilly. Portugal was at war with Spain and they had enlisted the French to assist them. Beja, Portugal, home to Mariana, had been torn apart by war so long that the families began to house their girls in the local convent to keep them safe.

Highway robbers ruled the countryside, men paraded multiple swords at their sides, illegitimate children were common among the clergy, and the term nun-lover was coined to describe the seducing of the girls and nuns housed in the convents.

Mariana was placed in the convent of the Poor Clares as a child, and soon realized that the strict regulations read to her upon her arrival here were not enforced. The nuns were the only well-educated women in Portugal at the time, and were also allowed to negotiate with purveyors of goods and services. Mariana, brilliantly adept with herbs and potions, was nursemaid to many of the injured men. Tending to wounded soldiers is when she first meets Chamilly, the dashing officer.

Their love affair, although brief, is intense and passionate, and when word gets out of Chamilly’s transgressions, he is sent back to France. The separation tears at Mariana and this is when she pens love letters to Chamilly, entrusting her brother Balthasar, who is a soldier, to deliver them.

Balthasar, furious at the affair, does not deliver the letters, and so Mariana is unaware that Chamilly will be marrying the General’s daughter to ensure himself a promotion to Marshall. Determined to see him, she dresses as a young French soldier and pays another one to be her guide to Paris where she plans to marry Chamilly and denounce her vows. Her brother, Balthasar upon learning of Mariana’s departure, leaves for Paris to bring her back with him.

After an extremely dangerous journey to France, during which Mariana is forced to murder a highway robber to save her guide, she makes it to Paris and reunites with Chamilly.

Mariana and Chamilly have one passionate night together, but then Mariana learns from Chamilly that he felt forced into marrying General Schomberg’s daughter. Mariana, broken-hearted, escorted by her brother, Balthasar, returns to Portugal and is allowed to return to her convent by a very forgiving Mother Superior.

Her letters are stolen out of Balthasar’s possession by a French soldier, with a personal vendetta against Chamilly, and to destroy Chamilly’s reputation he has them published. The letters are read by all those in French society and soon attributed to both Mariana and Chamilly. The scandal rocks the convent and all those associated with them, but influenced the literary world for centuries and inspired Elizabeth Barrett Browning to write her famous Sonnets from the Portuguese…. How do I love thee let me count the ways.

Although Mariana and Chamilly never reunited, her story of unwavering love for Chamilly, and her powerful journey to heal her heart, resonates deeply with anyone who has experienced love and loss.