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Maarten Janssen, 2014-

PSCR2519

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

Author(s) Francisca Josefa do 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 that he meets her so that she can give him the consecrated particle that she had saved.

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 Meu Snr bem sei q a Vmce cauzara novidade esta minha deligençia pela falta não so de comfiança mas inda de conhesimto o q disculpara a vista da forsoza cauza q me obriga ele q como nimguem emnore o seu virtuozo porseder, e eu dele tenha larga notiçia esta obriga a hir como poso a perzença de Vmce a comonicarlhe debacho de comsiençia q por sertas sircunstançias, quinta feira Sta dipois de comungar tirei a particula da boca e arecadei e dipois de servirme dela a perdii, porq ficou amessa em livro depois diso outra q pelo snr pedro resebi, tambem a tirei da boca mas pa q se não perdese a piguei a livrinho q comigo tinha de letra de mão e dezapegando a folhinha dele donde esta a particula q a quis soparada em huã ultima q estava em branco a tenho com a referida pegada suposto com alguã deneficação asim rogo a Vmce por caridade a maior, e pela sua virtude me queira emcobrir o segredo de comsomila a minsa pa o q ou lha mandarei, ou darei mas de sorte q se não alcanse neste comvto q eu falo a Vmce pois não falo a pesoa alguã e dara mto em q emtender pelo q ou eu remeterei a referida dentro de carta ou quando Vmce queira vir buscala, pesolhe diga o noso donato q a trindades quando vem comsertar as alampadas quer de emportancia comigo hũa palavra e por ele q he fialisimo pode avizarme pa eu ir a porto falar a Vmce pa o tal ifeito adevirtindo a Vmce traga copote, pa q não seje conhesido asim de fora, como de dentro, pois so de Vmce fio primra carta emprezas tão fundas, pela singular virtude q a fama publica da sua pesoa Ds o leve avante e se posivel for em aumto e pesolhe pelas chagas do mesmo Snr de nenhuã sorte esta falta minha seje revelada asim pelo meu discredito, como por não aver neste comvento algũ levantamento contra mim ou me metão no casere donde vendome eu em poder de tantas senhoras humas pondenozas outras emnemigas, antes q elas me comsumão eu o fasa dezesperada a mim propria perdendo, não so a vida mas alma, pois vendome preza entre elas, sintome pa o tal fim huã rezelução a maior q se pode comsiderar, pois se me an de matar a mim sirei eu antesipada, asim q rogo a Vmce se porte neste particular, com a purdençia caridade q deve em todo o sentido, e me perdoe o emfado e deterimto q lhe podirei dar o Çeo me gde a sua pesoa como lhe dezejo. N S Esperança oje doze de julho de 1745

de Vmce Mais emdina serva e maior veneradora soror Franca jozepha do Evanga


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