The Mystic Nuns of Colonial Colombia

This work explores the religious experiences of five cloistered nuns in Bogotá 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 María Gertrudis de Santa Inés, considered to be models of piety, were written by their confessors. Francisca Josefa de Castillo y Guevara (Madre Castillo) and Jerónima Nava y Saavedra, as consecrated brides of Christ, wrote about their relationship with Jesus in their own words. María de Jesús, 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.

RoseAnna Mueller is professor emeritus of humanities at Columbia College Chicago.

RoseAnna Mueller
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 205
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2025
pISBN: 978-1-4766-9672-0
eISBN: 978-1-4766-5465-2
Imprint: McFarland

Preface       1
Introduction       7

1—The Role of Convents in New Granada       25
2—Convent Life in New Granada       36
3—Forces Shaping the Path to Perfection       51
4—Two Exemplary Lives       79
5—Jerónima Nava y Saavedra (1669–1727), Gerónima del Espíritu Santo       95
6—Madre Castillo, Francisca Josefa de la Concepción de Castillo y Guevara (1672–1741), a Challenging Mystic       123
7—María de Jesús       155

Conclusion: It Seems to Me       177
Chapter Notes       183
Works Consulted       191
Index       197