“María of Agreda, Mystical Lady in Blue,” by Marilyn H. Fedewa. University of New Mexico Press (Albuquerque, NM, 2009). 355 pp., $29.95.
Sor María de Jesús de Agreda is a saint.
That is the inescapable conclusion one gets after reading “María of Agreda, Mystical Lady in Blue,” by Marilyn H. Fedewa. Regrettably for devotees and admirers of Sor María, 346 years after her death in 1665 the Holy See has not seen fit to canonize her.
I first became aware of Sor María a few years ago while researching the American Southwest. Imagine my astonishment when I read an account by noted Catholic historian Carlos Castañeda about a Spanish nun who bilocated to America and catechized the American Indians before the arrival of the Franciscan missionaries. (Castañeda, Carlos Eduardo. “Earliest Catholic Activities in Texas.” In Preparing the Way, Preliminary Studies of the Texas Catholic Historical Society I, ed. Jesús F. de la Teja, 213-231. Austin: Texas Catholic Historical Society.)
Bilocation is being in two places at the same time. Author Marilynn Hughes points out, “Bilocation has been reported in the lives of many saints by many credible sources throughout time. Although a controversial gift of the Holy Spirit, many instances of bilocation have been reported by valid witnesses in both locations where the saint was seen to behave and act normally at the same time as the other sighting.” (Hughes, Marilynn. “The Unusual Gift of Bilocation: Saints who were Known to be in Two Places at the Same Time.” http://bit.ly/pxYZJJ, (accessed September 24, 2011.))
Indeed witnesses verified Sor María’s bilocation. The Indians had knowledge of her and she knew things about them that only people in contact with each other would know. Since Fedewa’s book received the Father Paul J. Folk Award for making the most important contribution to Texas Catholic history, I was anxious to read it to find out more about her missionary work in Texas.
Unfortunately, the book has scarce information about Sor María’s Texas appearances. Fedewa teases the existence of much more information available in documents from the Spanish Inquisition and other sources but fashions her book as a more global biography of Sor María’s life.
Still, except for a fascination with Sor María’s correspondence with King Felipe IV, the book is an excellent read. It provides a complete outline of Sor María’s life, from her beginning as Franciscan nun, to her periods of levitation and then bilocation, to her correspondence with the king, her investigation by the Inquisition and her writing of the “Mystical City of God,” which are accounts of mystical encounters Sor María had with the Virgin Mary and Jesus.
Sor María was made Venerable shortly after her death. Efforts to beatify and ultimately canonize her met into problems when some clergy and university theologians questioned claims in “Mystical City of God” and her theology regarding the Immaculate Conception of Mary. The Church has not made the same claims, in fact in 1854 Pope Pius IX proclaimed the Immaculate Conception of Mary as doctrine.
Like many Saints before her and since, Sor María’s body has been incorrupt since her death in 1665. While, the Church used to consider incorruptibility a miracle it no longer does so. Sor María, however, is credited with a number of miracles—from the time before her death to more than 100 years after her death.
She had the ability of bilocation, in the manner of Padre Pio and a number of other saints. She was a mystic in the league of Teresa of Avila. Her theology, being that of a mystic is “poetic and metaphorical” but based on scripture.
Her disciples have been urging for her beatification for nearly 400 years and while nothing is certain, they take heart that a month after being named by Pope Benedict XVI as prefect of the Congregation of the Causes of Saints, Archbishop Angelo Amato celebrated Mass at Sor María’s convent in Agreda.
Cárdenas is editor of the South Texas Catholic, and a graduate student in history at Texas State University-San Marcos.