galileo's daughter.....

ok, so i have finished life of pi...only for bookclub to be postponed......and october's book.....angels and demons i have already 'listened' to....17 hours from troy ny to somewhere south of the ohio river.........and so i have picked up another future bookclub book......galileo's daughter...which is quite connected to angels and demons by content........angels and demons dwells on the particulars of galileo's inquisition trial that lasted 12+ years.....this book starts earlier.....about the time he consigned his 2 illegimate daughters to be 'brides of christ' because he felt they, as illegitimate, made them unworthy to marry................ok, so they cannot marry and have children with mortals, but they may marry christ............and live a life of celibacy and prayer.............ok.........at least in christian doctrine we do not promise these poor women 99 heaving athletes in heaven if they commit martyrous deeds on earth............... when i was in training to be a dietitian, i spent several weeks at mount st. joseph's, which was both a college and a nunnery........i once chanced upon their chapel, where they had on display the brides-of-christ dresses......and photographs of the commitment ceremony..............omg................i cannot imagine consigning a child...at the ages of what 9 and 11...to such a life.....................there is speculation that this was done purposefully...before he commited the heretical act of writing that the earth traveled around the sun.....and not vice-versa.......but this is speculative......as he did not cosign his illegitimate son to such a fate.....no...he bought this boy a position of importance...................and the mistress......well.....she was left to die on her own...................even though galileo was unmarried.....and could have legitimized each and every offspring...................i cannot even chalk this lapse up to the misorginization of the brilliant mind................i am quite familar with this malady................and that was not the case......he did not lose the papers, or miss the deadline.......he simply failed to do his duty..............for whatever reason.............and yet, this daughter who called herself sister maria celeste (no joke.......) loved him until he/she died.........and wrote to him faithfully...............his letters to her are not available for study........it is supposed that on her death the mother superior would have found them....and knowing her father to be a heretic.....would have burnt them posthaste.........so sad...............for both father and daughter.......................400 years ago...............these days.....the idea of sticking one's neck out for the notion of the earth rotating around the sun seems ludicrous.......but that really happened.........in the 1600's....to a learned man named galileo galilei...........