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Maarten Janssen, 2014-

PSCR2512

1745. Carta de Francisca Josefa do Evangelista, freira, para João dos Querubins, padre confessor.

Author(s) Francisca Josefa Evangelista      
Addressee(s) João dos Querubins      
In English

Private letter from Francisca Josefa do Evangelista, nun, to João dos Querubins, confessor.

The author asks the recipient to help her and to give her a remedy to her pregnancy.

The defendant in this process is Francisca Josefa do Evangelista, a nun in the Order of St. Francis, who was born and who resided in Abrantes. Though she was the daughter of Feliciano Mendes da Rocha (muleteer) and Maria da Silva, Francisca Josefa do Evangelista was raised from an early age by Leonor Catarina do Avelar, the widow of Francisco Soares Galhardo, who had no children of her own. When Francisca was 17 or 18 years old, she went to the convent, where she professed her faith and from where she never got out again. Accused of witchcraft, heresy and sacrilege, the defendant was arrested on August 3, 1745. On December 17, 1745, she was sent to prison in her monastery, described as very wet, narrow and with low light, and forbidden to see or talk to anyone besides the nun who held the key to her cell and brought her food. During all this time, she was obliged to fast on bread and water, alternating fasts with two or three days of normal eating. In her letters, which were given to the table of the Inquisition by the recipients, Francisca Josefa do Evangelista shows her desire to be transferred to another monastery, claiming that the nuns of her current one wanted to kill her. She also said that she once had given her food to a dog and he died soon after, which would be evidence of an attempt to poison her. At issue were still other behaviors of the defendant, namely: a) in her letters she said that she mocked the Holy Office; b) she had given a profane use to the consecrated particles; c) she stated that she had had intercourse with the devil and experienced a delivery every three months, giving birth to hideous creatures; d) she had made a covenant with the devil, making a written statement with her menstrual blood, and had made novenas to St. Helena in conjunction with the repetition of the same covenant; e) she tried to know the future through a profane divining formula that involved fresh eggs in a glass with water; f) she wrote a small book of prayers that she herself had adulterated; g) she had had lustful dreams with the devil in human form in the figure of a black man. Still, the defendant later dismissed what she had said, claiming to have invented everything just to be moved to another convent. The doctors trained at the University of Coimbra, António dos Santos (family member of the Holy Office, cousin of the defendant and who participated in some of the letters) and João Gomes Pimenta Grandio, attested on October 29, 1745, that the defendant was mentally well and that there had never been signs of mental disorders. In the process, however, it is also said that the defendant used to leave the convent shouting, declaring that they wanted to kill her in there, and that she had already shown a priest one paper with the blood pact she had made with the devil. On February 14, 1746, the defendant was sentenced to the payment of the court costs, to spiritual penances. She also could not go to the bars for a period of six months.

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Mto Rdo Snr vejo a carta de Vmce q estimandoa por sua me escandeliza, por outro modo pois ou Vmce não podendo cudar eu sou criansa cuda sou tão velha q destampo ou q istou Louca na verdade q as consternasois em q me vejo em remedianca q daqui la vai pouco porem inda me não falta o juizo eu avi de aperzentar no tribunal do sto ofisio seminhantes couzas qdo eu nem por sonhos la quero hir bem sei eu suposto he sabeo do corpo q pa alma miseria so ificas remedio mas como eu nunca ei de comfesar o q a Vmce tenho dito so porq la me não levem e menos ao casere deste musteiro q em mto perigo ando eu de renegar por instantes quanto mais vendome preza no poder das snras deste comvto q era o mesmo q algumas comsomiremme e eu fazelo antes q elas o fizesem nem falar niso he bom, q ja lhe digo tal acuzação não ei de fazer o q tomara q Vmce me de com mta brevidade algũ remedio pa o q toca ao ventre fora este tive mais tres como lhe dezia na carta q se perdeo porem estava nese tempo em huma sela fichada q por algum me fizeram favor de me emprestar q estava dezolapada e la tive boa ocazião de emcobrir iso, mas agora q istou em huma publica q he a q inda me cabe, não sei como isto a de ser se Vmce me não da algum meio, como tão esperitual eu vendome em tal comflito me mato e perco vida e alma o q he snr na verdade a minha ultima rezulução; os ventres q tenho tido tem sido tres mezes quada e o q naseo erão humas couzas piquenas como monos os quais custuma levar qm Vmce pode comsiderar os gera agora pa se completarem os ditos tres mezes não faltão mais q quinze dias veja Vmce em q apertos esta a minha vida e alma, neste comvto; não ha parte de q me eu valha e menos pesoa de quem me fie q são mais as emnemigas q as amigas, pois se estas se conhesem pela lei eu as não tenho e asim veja Vmce meu Snr como isto a ser se me da remedio mto a tempo pa q a minha ultima disgrasa se não aporpinque oFrigame e o escandalo e openião a q agora neste jubileu me comfese mas como a minha alma esta emremediavel por comprir com estas obrigasois detremino comfesar o leve o q a Vmce não escandelize bem sei lhe a custar pois eu ja de alguma sorte soube o q he amar a Ds e sou reformada q por ele o fis e o mesmo comtinuara se alguem deste comvto me não obrigasem os seus persepisios, ou os em q me pos ao estado em q istou i so da mudansa da freira por serto na comsiençia q não ha mais urgente cauza q a salvação mas como eu sou disgrasada, como Vmce ve não avia de ter esa ventura e asim q por nenhum prensipio eu avia de fazer o q Vmce me acomselha veja se me pode acudir doutra sorte mto a tempo q com falar eu iso le debalde Snr inda Vmce não sabe bem o como eu istou e por iso lhe peso me acuda como lhe for posivel, antes q se completem os quinze dias q so faltão q inda q Vmce estorve algũ tempo dos seus exzersisios, por rispeito da minha alma tanto não pela q fas mais servisos a Ds como Vmce milhor sabe pois isto não são couzas q tenhão espera nem hus instante, se for posivel Snr eu sempre escrevo tanto a presa como as escondidas pois não tenho sela capas, asim disculpe o hir a carta fichada do seu sobreescrito q não tenho aqui outro papel. Ds gde a Vmce como lhe dezo etc Esperanca oje sabado de manham

mto capta e obrigada soror Franca jozefa do Evanga


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