A Mirror of Shalott

In a candlelit gathering of priests and one layman in Rome, a lively debate over miracles, ghosts, and spiritual phenomena sets the stage for a sequence of uncanny confessions. Monsignor Maxwell urges the company to tell personal stories over successive evenings, arguing that supernatural events must be approached with humility rather than forced into easy theories. Against Father Brent's skepticism, he insists that the unseen world is real, though only partly grasped by human minds, and that even frightening or confusing signs may belong to a greater divine order. What follows is a collection of Catholic supernatural tales where faith is tested by doubt, suffering, and spiritual warfare. A priest recounts the ruin of a devout brother who tries to bear another's temptation and descends into despair, while another pastoral encounter ends in tragic ambiguity as hope, marriage, and belief collapse. Father Meuron then describes a lonely house where an unseen presence turns domestic life into terror, drawing him into an exorcism-like struggle between grace and evil. In the most harrowing account, an aging priest faces an overwhelming assault on mind and soul, glimpsing two vast powers locked in silent conflict. Witty, atmospheric, and metaphysically charged, these stories probe the boundaries between mystery, evidence, and belief. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.