Because Of ... — Sister Efner- Falling Into Darkness

The other sisters noticed the change. Sister Efner, once the gentle gardener of souls, began to wither. Her eyes, which had held the soft light of stained glass, turned into chips of flint. She stopped singing the office. Her voice, when she did speak, was a dry rasp.

Born on Good Friday 1277 into a wealthy patrician family in Nuremberg, Christina was steeped in piety from her earliest years. She inherited a deeply religious spirit from her mother, and by the age of seven she was already asking to enter the convent. Her parents honoured that wish, and in 1289, at just twelve years old, she crossed the threshold of the Dominican monastery of St. John the Baptist in Engelthal, just outside the city walls. The young Christina must have thought she was stepping into a life of quiet prayer and contemplation. Sister Efner- falling into Darkness because of ...

Sister Efner falls into darkness not because she is wicked, but because she is flawed—and therefore, human. The ellipsis in the title represents the infinite complexities of life that refuse to be categorized by strict religious law. Her descent is a tragedy of circumstance, illustrating that the line between the saint and the sinner is often drawn by the arbitrary nature of consequence rather than the intent of the soul. The other sisters noticed the change