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Maarten Janssen, 2014-

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[1574]. Carta de Francisca de Ávila (o de los Apóstoles), beata, para Pedro Chacón, religioso.

Author(s) Francisca de Ávila      
Addressee(s) Pedro Chacón      
In English

Letter from Francisca de Ávila (also known as 'Francisca de los Apóstoles'), a lay sister, to Pedro Chacón, a priest.

The author informs Pedro Chacón about the latest news from her sister Isabel Bautista. She seems to be happy about the news she receives and about the way things are going.

Between 1574 and 1578, Francisca de Ávila (also known as 'Francisca de los Apóstoles') was accused of being a deceiver and a deceived. She was eventually condemned and considered a heretic, an apostate, a blasphemous and an excommunicated, who pretended to have revelations, ecstasies and to witness apparitions. She claimed to experience visions of God, levitations and ecstasies, not accepting that what she related was defined as inventions or as 'feminine things', and she affirmed her innocence, as other 'alumbrados'. Her sister, Isabel Bautista, was a very important figure in this process, because she also was arrested and condemned for having claimed to have had mystical experiences, who had once provoked her a complete paralysis, and sometimes had led her to be seen walking daydreamingly in the streets of Toledo. She had been helped by exorcisms made by Miguel Ruiz, a priest of the Misericordia Hospital, who afterwards became her confessor. The two sisters affirmed to have had mystical experiences similar to those experienced by Catherine of Siena. Between 1555 and 1563, they had both lived in the lay sisters' convent of Santa María la Blanca, in the parish of Santo Tomé. Afterwards, they had earned a living teaching needlework. In 1573, Isabel Bautista went to Rome to request the licences she needed to found a monastic rule. The letters she wrote from Rome show that she was very disheartened because she did not manage to obtain the licences, but her sister encouraged her telling her that she saw in her visions that everything would have gone well. When Isabel Bautista came back from Rome, without having obtained the licences, they opened a convent, which was open only for some months in 1575, after which Isabel Bautista was arrested and imprisoned by the Inquisition. The two sisters publicly declared to be 'alumbradas' in various occasions, which led to their imprisonment, together with Miguel Ruiz, in 1575.

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Page 151r > 151v

mi qrido hermano

la condicion del amor es de tal suerte q no me da lugar a menos q darme contento la pena q dice q tiene de nuestra ausencia por hallarme pagada de la misma deuda no quiero hablar mas d esto por dalle parte de como rrecebimos cartas de nuestra Al hermana ysabel batista la fecha d ellas a beynteynuebe de m junio y dice q con el correo pasado escribio dies cartas y q como no la emos rrespondido q ya era tienpo a madrid enbiamos a buscallas en casa del correo mayor porq si se an detenido a sido la causa no benir con las de don pedro dice en las de aora q esta muy buena y muy qrida y rregalad a alma y cuerpo del señor don pero gonzalez y lo mismo escribe el q tiene por sumo contento el tratalla dio mucho credito a la carta q yo enbie el y don pedro de lo q yo dije a vmd en secreto tanto q no se la quiso dar a mi hermana hasta mostralla al arzobispo el qual a rrespondido q todo lo q mi hermana le pedia era muy justo y q el le prometia se lo daria todo en fin de todo digo a vmd que escribe mi



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