Lap dancer-turned-nun to perform for cardinals, bishops

London, Apr 4 (ANI): An Italian lap dancer-turned-nun will be performing a religious dance in front of an audience of Roman Catholic cardinals and bishops.

Anna Nobili, 38, who has spent years working as an exotic dancer and striptease artist in nightclubs in Milan, decided to exchange her string bikinis and high heels for a nun's habit after a visit to the shrine of St Francis in Assisi.

After visiting the place of pilgrimage for millions of Catholics in Umbria in 2002, she joined an order of nuns called the Sister Workers of the Holy House of Nazareth, and came to be known as sister Nobili.

She still continues to dance, though she claims that after she was reborn by her faith in God.

She now practises a form of "mystical" choreography, which she calls "Holy Dance".

Sister Nobili is due to perform in front of senior Catholic clerics next week at the Holy Cross in Jerusalem Basilica, one of Rome's best-known churches.

The performance, based on stories from the Old and New Testaments, will be called: "The Bible: Day and Night".

Among the guests expected to attend will be Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, who is in charge of the Vatican's Cultural Department.

"I was wasting my life dancing for men in clubs. The nights were filled with sex and alcohol. It was an empty life but I liked it because I was the centre of attention," the Telegraph quoted sister Nobili, who now calls herself a "ballerina for God", as telling La Repubblica.

"But now my life has been transformed.

"I still dance but now I dance for God and I'm happy. All my choreography is dedicated to Him. My aim is to pray using my body," she added. (ANI)