A true if unlikely tale: Young woman enrolls at a drama school sponsored by nuns, where the artistic director is a former Italian erotic film actress who redirected her career after a religious awakening. The students are selected to perform before the pope at St. Peter’s Square, but during rehearsals the young woman fractures an ankle.

Unable to perform, the young woman, Cristina Scuccia, acts on a persistent spiritual tug and commits to becoming a nun. She travels to Brazil to work with poor children and then returns to Italy to live quietly in a convent in Milan. Except she is still a talented singer, so talented that she wins a Christian singing competition, and then auditions on March 19 for Italy’s version of the television show “The Voice.”

There, dressed in a full habit, with the crowd on its feet and a tattooed rap-star judge fighting back tears, she belts out a hip-shaking rendition of “No One,” by Alicia Keys, that brings down the house and quickly goes viral on the Internet, topping 47 million views on YouTube. Gossip magazines have splashed her on their covers in her habit and featured her in articles.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/07/world/europe/a-singing-nun-for-a-reality-tv-world.html?smid=tw-share&smv1&_r=0