GARRIGA, Ana; URBITA, Carmen (eds.)
Convent Wisdom. How Sixteenth-Century Nuns Could Save Your Twenty-First-Century Life

“Profoundly useful and pleasure seeking.”
—Eileen Myles 

An infectiously edifying manual that mines the lives of 16th- and 17th-century nuns, offering advice for our modern age and proving one thing: no matter the century, nuns know best.

When most of us think of nuns, we picture solemn shuffles down cloistered halls and hands clasped in prayer. But what about the nuns who erupted into jealous fights over makeup or crushed on their girlfriends? In reality, these women were no one-dimensional martyrs. 16th- and 17th-century nuns were resourceful, rebellious and refreshingly relatable – and their lives hold surprising lessons for us today.

Convent Wisdom is your guide to navigating the chaos of the modern world with help from history’s most fascinating nuns. Struggling with money? Saint Teresa and her fellow Carmelites have some divine budgeting hacks. Drowning in FOMO while scrolling through social media? Mary of Jesus of Ágreda’s miraculous ability to be in two places at once might teach you how to finally keep up. Lost in the digital dating pool? Benedetta Carlini’s treatise on the seven ways to spot a lesbian nun may offer unexpected insights...

[publishers’ note]

Published by Bloomsbury, 2025
Essays / Philosophy / Religion / History