The gripping portrait of an influential woman in the male-dominated world of the Vatican during the time of Pius XII: She stood by Pope Pius XII for forty years. Never before had a woman held so much power in the Vatican as the nun from Altötting, who entered the service of Nuncio Eugenio Pacelli in 1919 and rose to become the influential private secretary of the future Pope Pius XII. She accompanied him on his apostolic journeys and directed the papal charity in Rome. She was closely acquainted with Cardinals Faulhaber from Munich and Spellman from New York. Martha Schad traces the life of Sister Pascalina based on previously unknown archival material.