ABSTRACT
On October 14 1689, the nuns in Munich’s cloister of Poor Clares watched Sister Clara Hortulana fall down from the choir onto the floor of the convent church where she drew her last breath amidst a pool of blood. Convent sources describe Hortulana as an ecstatic mystic who long felt a burning wish that was difficult to fulfil in monastic enclosure: she wanted to suffer literal martyrdom. Opinions about the specific circumstances of Hortulana’s fatal tumble from the choir differed. Yet the surviving accounts all concur that the nun ultimately had her way and indeed died like a true martyr, shedding blood for Christ.
