[www.dailymail.co.uk]- An Italian nun has revealed how she renounced 20 years as a lapdancer to join a convent.

Anna Nobili, 38, spent two decades dancing for men in seedy clubs but then decided she wanted more from life and joined the Sister Workers of the Holy House of Nazareth order.

And now she is putting her past life as a dancer to use as a ‘ballerina for God’ in a show for cardinals and bishops called Holy Dance dedicated to episodes from the Bible.

Sister Nobili, who is originally from Milan, turned to a life of spirituality after being ‘inspired’ during a visit to the shrine of St Francis at Assisi, Italy.

She said:’I was throwing away my life dancing for men. I was throwing away my life in clubs.

‘There was sex without love and there was drugs, I was being used as a drug by people who wanted to see me dance.

‘But now my life has changed , I have been reborn, I still dance, I have never given up dancing but now I dance for God.

‘All my steps and moves, all my choreography is dedicated to Him – I am like St Paul who was converted on the road to Damascus.

‘Now I use dance as a form of prayer – through dance I enter into harmony with the Word of God.’

She added: ‘I really liked my old life – I was at the centre of looks but then I realised I was throwing my life, my body and my sexuality away.

‘The nights were dark they were filled with evil, with sex and with drugs.
Anna Nobili

Anna now puts on shows for cardinals and bishops called Holy Dance which is inspired by stories from the Bible

‘I would dance nonstop in another disco. I would even go to places outside Milan, for example, Amsterdam, where I would stay for four or five days.

‘Then one day I went to Assisi and I was struck by how beautiful the sky was.

‘I saw something fluorescent within the clouds, a cascade of coloour and I felt the presence of God, the Creator.

‘I started dancing and people were looking at me – I got on the train back to Milan and I felt as if God was in me.

‘It was such an emotional moment – when I looked at myself in the train toilet mirror I didn’t recognise myself.

‘It was a transfiguration – I danced in the club one more night and the men were just looking at me, trying to take me to bed and I knew that was my goodbye.

‘I called my boss and I said to him I found a new clean treasure and it was God.’

Sister Anna is due to dance on Tuesday at the Holy Cross in Jerusalem Basilica in Rome on Tuesday where among the guests will be archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Vatican’s Cultural Department.

The dance programme is called La Bibbia Giorno e Notte (The Bible Night and Day).