The Visions Of Sor Mar A De Agreda

Sor María de Agreda (1602-65) was a Spanish nun and visionary who is best known as the author of the widely read biography of the Virgin Mary, The Mystical City of God, and as the missionary who "bilocated" to the American Southwest, reportedly appearing to Indians there without ever leaving Spain. Her role as advisor to King Philip IV contributed further to her legend. Clark Colahan now offers the first major study of Sor María's writings, including translations of two previously unpublished works: Face of the Earth and Map of the Spheres and the first half of her Report to Father Manero, in which she reflects on her bilocation.

An award-winning historian’s examination of impossible events at the dawn of modernity and of their enduring significance Accounts of seemingly impossible phenomena abounded in the early modern era—tales of levitation, bilocation, and witchcraft—even as skepticism, atheism, and empirical science were starting to supplant religious belief in the paranormal. In this book, Carlos Eire explores how a culture increasingly devoted to scientific thinking grappled with events deemed impossible by its leading intellectuals. Eire observes how levitating saints and flying witches were as essential a component of early modern life as the religious turmoil of the age, and as much a part of history as Newton’s scientific discoveries. Relying on an array of firsthand accounts, and focusing on exceptionally impossible cases involving levitation, bilocation, witchcraft, and demonic possession, Eire challenges established assumptions about the redrawing of boundaries between the natural and supernatural that marked the transition to modernity. Using as his case studies stories about St. Teresa of Avila, St. Joseph of Cupertino, the Venerable María de Ágreda, and three disgraced nuns, Eire challenges readers to imagine a world animated by a different understanding of reality and of the supernatural’s relationship with the natural world. The questions he explores—such as why and how “impossibility” is determined by cultural contexts, and whether there is more to reality than meets the eye or can be observed by science—have resonance and lessons for our time.

News of María of Ágreda's exceptional attributes spread from her cloistered convent in seventeenth-century Ågreda (Spain) to the court in Madrid and beyond. Without leaving her village, the abbess impacted the kingdom, her church, and the New World; Spanish Hapsburg king Felipe IV sought her spiritual and political counsel for over twenty-two years. Based upon her transcendent visionary experiences, Sor María chronicled the life of Mary, mother of Jesus of Nazareth, in Mystical City of God, a work the Spanish Inquisition temporarily condemned. In America, reports emerged that she had miraculously appeared to Jumano Native Americans - a feat corroborated by witnesses in Spain, Texas, and New Mexico, where she is honored today as the legendary "Lady in Blue." Lauded in Spain as one of the most influential women in its history, and in the United States as an inspiring pioneer, Sor María's story will appeal to cultural historians and to women who have struggled for equanimity against all odds. Marilyn Fedewa's biography of this fascinating woman integrates voluminous autobiographical, historical, and literary sources published by and about María of Ágreda. With liberal access to Sor María's papal delegate in Spain and convent archives in Ágreda, Fedewa skillfully reconstructs a historical and spiritual backdrop against which Sor María's voice may be heard. "Marilyn Fedewa has written a stirring portrait of María of Ágreda, a brilliant . . . remarkable player in major spiritual and secular events of [her] age." - Kenneth A. Briggs, former religion editor for the New York Times "A fascinating biography of an extraordinary woman told from the perspective of her 17th-century Spanish religious culture." - Clark A. Colahan, author of Visions of Sor María de Ágreda: Writing Knowledge and Power

The accounts, representing the experiences of girls and women from different classes and geographical regions, include the trials' vastly divergent outcomes ranging from burning at the stake to exoneration.

Publishes general papers and a section on English politeness: conduct, social rank and moral virtue.

More than half of American adults and more than seventy-five percent of young Americans believe in intelligent extraterrestrial life. This level of belief rivals that of belief in God. American Cosmic examines the mechanisms at work behind the thriving belief system in extraterrestrial life, a system that is changing and even supplanting traditional religions. Over the course of a six-year ethnographic study, D.W. Pasulka interviewed successful and influential scientists, professionals, and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who believe in extraterrestrial intelligence, thereby disproving the common misconception that only fringe members of society believe in UFOs. She argues that widespread belief in aliens is due to a number of factors including their ubiquity in modern media like The X-Files, which can influence memory, and the believability lent to that media by the search for planets that might support life. American Cosmic explores the intriguing question of how people interpret unexplainable experiences, and argues that the media is replacing religion as a cultural authority that offers believers answers about non-human intelligent life.

This mystical work describes the revelations that Sister María de Jesús received from the Virgin Mary about the life and mission of Jesus, as well as the role that Mary plays in the redemption of humanity. With a lyrical and devotional tone, Sor María de Jesús invites readers to contemplate the mysteries of faith and to deepen their relationship with God. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

The Mystical City of God is a monumental four-volume history of the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as revealed by Our Lady to Venerable Mother Mary of Jesus of Agreda (1602-1665), a 17th century Spanish nun. María Fernández Coronel y Arana, Abbess of Ágreda (2 April 1602 - 24 May 1665) was a Catholic Franciscan nun and author known for reports of bilocation between Spain and New Mexico and West Texas in the 17th century. In religious life, she was known Sor (Sister) María de Jesús de Ágreda. Popular culture since the 17th century has also dubbed her as the Lady in Blue and the Blue Nun. She wrote a series of books about the life of Blessed Virgin Mary. Throughout her life, María de Ágreda was inclined to the "internal prayer" or "quiet prayer". Like her countrywoman St. Teresa of Avila a generation earlier, these prayerful experiences led religious ecstasies, including reported accounts of levitation. María de Ágreda is known for writing the Mystical City of God (Spanish: Mistica Ciudad de Dios, Vida de la Virgen María), consisting of 8 books (6 volumes). De Ágreda reported that she received a lengthy revelation, about the terrestrial and heavenly life of Blessed Mary. That revelation was received directly from the Blessed Virgin Mary. The revelation also included information about the Blessed Virgin's relationship with the Triune God as well as the doings and Mysteries performed by Jesus as God-Man in flesh and in Spirit. The information was revealed with extensive detail in a narrative that covers the New Testament time line. The narrative was also accompanied by doctrines given by the Holy Mother on how to acquire true sanctity. It is that narrative that comprises the Mystical City of God. She attributed her writings to visions and dictations (word by word) from the Virgin Mary. Written in elegant Spanish, they contain both terrestrial and spiritual detail. Those details were either not known or not totally accepted at the time. These included the way the earth looks from the space (contained in her unpublished 17th Century "Tratado de rendondez de la Tierra"), the Immaculate Conception of Virgin Mary, the Assumption of Mary, the duties of Michael the Archangel and Gabriel the Archangel, and meticulous detail on the childhood of Jesus. Other detail that Sor Maria provided included the Christ's Passion, Resurrection and Ascension. Sor María's importance in religion, Spanish history, and the history of the American Southwest, is based on three grounds: She was a prolific author, with fourteen books to her credit. Her signature work, Mystical City of God, the biography of Mary, (mother of Jesus), is now frequently studied in college and university programs of Spanish language and culture, for its contribution to Baroque literature. At the request of King Philip IV of Spain, she served as his spiritual (and sometimes political) advisor for over twenty-two years, as documented in over 600 letters between them during that period. Accounts of her mystical apparitions in the American Southwest, as well as inspiring passages in Mystical City of God, so stirred 17th and 18th century missionaries that they credit her in their own life's work, making her an integral part of the colonial history of the United States. Less than ten years after her death, María de Jesús de Ágreda was declared as Venerable by Pope Clement X, in honor of her "heroic life of virtue." Although the process of beatification was opened in 1673, it has not as yet been completed.