Sister Nazarena of Jesus: American Who Lived Forty-Five Years As a Recluse in Rome

An amazing story to be sure. Not much is known about her other than that she left her home to live a life of ascetical solitude in the cell of a Camaldolese convent in Rome where, in 1990, she died after forty-five years of religious solitude. She led a life of astounding mortification, a modern day anchoress, fasting on bread and water and occasional cooked herbs. She spoke to no one but her superior and, once a year, her confessor. The only exception was a visit from Pope Paul VI. She was served through a grill and, through another grill, she attended Mass and received Holy Communion. Her life story was written by Father Thomas Matus, a Camaldolese monk and it is available here from Amazon.

CityDesert: “Nazarena of Jesus, O.S.B. Cam. (October 15, 1907 – February 7, 1990), was an American Roman Catholic Camaldolese nun, who spent most of her adult life in a monastery as an anchoress, or recluse.

She was born Julia Crotta on October 15, 1907, in Glastonbury, Connecticut, the United States, to Italian immigrant parents. Brief bio is here.