Paula Kane’s new book, Sister Thorn and Catholic Mysticism in Modern America, tells the story of a Manhattan woman, Sister Mary of the Crown of Thorns, born Margaret Reilly (1884–1937), who at age thirty-three, began to exhibit sacred markings on her body. A bloody cross is suddenly and mysteriously etched into her chest. These mystical experiences propel her to enter the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Peekskill, New York, where, for the rest of her life, she suffers from intense physical pain. At various times, she bleeds profusely from wounds to her hands, side, and feet that imitate Christ’s wounds from crucifixion. She is tormented by demons, who assault her physically and sexually, and who destroy convent property. She is paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair and suffers from painful digestive ailments. While the United States undergoes a dramatic loosening of social mores during the Jazz Age, this sister prays for her pain to be intensified in order to offer up her suffering for Catholics who are in danger of losing their spiritual anchor.