God's Mighty Servant

The riveting portrait of a powerful woman in a man’s world – the Vatican under Pius XII.

For forty years she remained at Pope Pius XII’s side. Never before did a woman yield such power in the Vatican as this nun who came from Altötting, a little Bavarian site of pilgrimage. In 1919 she took a post as housekeeper to Nuntius Eugenio Pacelli and went on to become the influential private secretary of Pope Pius XII. She accompanied the holy father on his apostolic voyages and ran the papal charitable organization in Rome. She was a close associate of cardinals Faulhaber from Munich and Spellman from New York. Martha Schad charts the path through life taken by Sister Pascalina on the basis of hitherto unknown archive material.

Dr. Martha Schad, born in 1939, studied history and art history at Augsburg. The author of numerous books lives near Augsburg. Previous publications with Langen Müller: »›My First and Only Love‹. Richard Wagner and Mathilde Wesendonck (2002), »Marie Valérie. The Diary of Empress Elisabeth’s Favourite Daughter« and »Empress Elisabeth and Her Daughters«.