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Maarten Janssen, 2014-

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

Autor(es) Francisca Josefa do Evangelista      
Destinatário(s) João Álvares da Mata      
In English

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

The author expresses her anger for not having the help she had asked for, and threatens to kill herself.

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.

If there is no translation for the letter itself, you may copy the text (while using the view 'Standardization') and paste it to an automatic translator of your choice.

Page 38r

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Mto Rdo Dor e Snr João alveres da mata athe aqui cudava eu

[2]
do seu escrito e obrigação q na exzicução dela tratava as
[3]
almas com verdade mas se Vmce nos emganos da minha
[4]
tambem a sua pertende emganar, perdoeme de q me a
[5]
demiro ja tenho experiençia clara dos seos emganos
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e q não importa se perca a minha alma nem o seu
[7]
Ds seje ofendido visto isto asim ser porem Vmces epon
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hão termo os seus tratos e todo mal em q emcorrer
[9]
a minha vida corpo e alma a sua cosiençia deicho
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e eu; obrarei, o q devo em tal cazo Vmce de nenhuma
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sorte ca venha q se quer fengir o seu papel dele po
[12]
de fiar o q me queria dizer sempre eu emtendi do bom
[13]
zelo de Vmces o qto bem parada tinha a minha alma
[14]
o seu Ds lho premeie de q eu Renego como de quem
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nele cre pois tal he ele como os seus menistros, e pior
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q satanas ele o q em cumcluzão digo e so quero se ca me
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apareser como não seje pa ifeito de salvarme saiba ei
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de renegar publicamte e matarme como lhe tenho dito
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pois sou mais rezeluta q Vmces verdadeiros N S
[20]
Espra oje 3 fa

[21]
De Vmce serva
[22]
Soror Franca jozepha

[23]

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