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Maarten Janssen, 2014-

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1745. Carta de Francisca Josefa do Evangelista, madre, para João Álvares da Mata, comissário do Santo Ofício.

Author(s) Francisca Josefa do Evangelista      
Addressee(s) João Álvares da Mata      
In English

Private letter from Francisca Josefa do Evangelista, nun, to João Álvares da Mata, a Holey Office comissioner.

The author wants to know if the recipient has forwarded to the right place a letter that she had sent to him, saying that, if he did not, she will discover it.

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 e Snr Dor João alveres da mata pa q saiba o q devo, a quem a mim deve tanto he me persizo fazer a Vmce esta deligensia, em q debacho de comsiençia procuro a Vmce se remeteo a minha carta com aquela fidialidade q deve a sua ocupaçao e totalmte a Ds sem a ver sem demora ou emonolação alguma porq me diserão quem tem rezois pa o poder saber q Vmce a vio indoficada e não remeteo e q se o fes q sempre foi disfazendo o q ela comtem eu não fio tal da comsiensia de Vmce alem dos mais predicados q logra mas a ser asim por Vmce emtender me faria alguma comveniensia olhe q tanto mo não fes q antes lhe emcarrego, todo o mal q tiver meu corpo, e alma, e sermea forsozo dar parte da empiadade de Vmce a quem não emnora, compete asim q estimarei Vmce me não negue a verdade tenha obrado, como deve o q eu emfalivelmte ei de conheser polos ifeitos porq esa carta a hir donde he persizo a minha salvação não fica la calada e comforme o ifeito se serteficara a cauza não molesto mais a Vmce o Ceo me gde a sua pesoa como lhe dezo N S Esperansa oje 2 de Agosto de 1745

de Vmce Emdina serva e obrigada soror Franca jozepha do Evanga


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