The Mystic Nuns of Colonial Colombia

This work explores the religious experiences of five cloistered nuns in Bogota and Tunja, New Granada (present day Colombia), during the 17th and 18th centuries. Nuns played an important part in a multiethnic colonial society where convents were sites of financial and political power. Their writing inspired their religious communities and lay citizens, and exhibited clear influence of art, music and literature.

Included here are the first English translations of several texts and the literary criticism of Colombian scholars. The spiritual biographies of Johanna de San Esteban and Maria Gertrudis de Santa Ines, considered to be models of piety, were written by their confessors. Francisca Josefa de Castillo y Guevara (Madre Castillo) and Jeronima Nava y Saavedra, as consecrated brides of Christ, wrote about their relationship with Jesus in their own words. Maria de Jesus, a white veiled sister, was ordered to write by her confessor. This book includes the first English translations of several texts and the literary criticism of Colombian scholars.