1777. Carta de María Joaquina de la Santisima Trinidad, monja, para Joseph Pérez, franciscano.

Letter from María Joaquina de la Santísima Trinidad, a nun, to Joseph Pérez, a Franciscan.

The author writes to Joseph Pérez telling him several things about the convent and about her everyday life.

María Joaquina de la Santísima Trinidad was a nun in the convent of Nuestra Señora del Rosal (Priego, Cuenca). Joseph Pérez, a Franciscan priest, spent there one year and a half in order to administrate the revenues of the convent. During that period, the nun went to confession with him. At the beginning she said it had been a year and a half without confessing because she was not at peace with herself. She also said, according to Joseph Pérez´s statement, that she did not want to go to confession with him, but to befriend him instead. Joseph managed for her to confess and she told him she had been accosted for solicitation years ago as well as other sins that were upsetting her. After the first confession, she kept going regularly, twice per week, and told the Franciscan priest she was having impure thoughts and other acts she did not considered sin. According to Joseph Pérez, he always tried to persuade her from it and he never denounced her to the Holy Office because he thought he could help her through the sacrament of penance. Once Joseph left the convent, he started receiving indecent letters from the nun. These letters were the reason why Joseph Pérez sent a letter to de Holy Office denouncing himself, in case he had committed any sin for not knowing how to react. Some of the letters he received from the nun were burnt and other were provided to the trial documentation. On the other hand, María Joaquina also wrote a self-incrimination letter to the Holy Office in which she also accused Joseph Pérez and Thomás de la Serna of soliciting her. This last letter gives rise to the trial. During the interrogations, María Joaquina stated that it was Joseph Pérez who used to talk indecently to her before or after the confession and he told her he had dreamt of her. Eventually, the trial led to Joseph Francisco´s acquittal.