1797. Carta de Juan Ximénez Llamas, presbítero de la villa de Belmonte, para Juan Manuel de Alcantud, franciscano descalzo.

Letter from Juan Ximenes, a presbyter from Belmonte, to Juan Manuel de Alcantud, a barefoot Franciscan.

The author explains to Juan Manuel de Alcantud that he has taken into consideration all what the addressee tells him in a previous letter regarding the Blessed María Isabel Herráiz and her spiritual direction. Ximénez Llamas also explains he has witnessed the extraordinary phenomena that continue occurring around María Isabel Herráiz.

Following an accusation for «alumbrados» against María Isabel Herráiz, the Blessed of Villar del Águila, a trial took place between 1802 and 1808. The trial broadened to include many other people accused of being complicit in her delusions. Maria Isabel Herráiz believed that Jesus Christ was within her and, as a result, she would not take communion. Some of the other accused stated that they could see Jesus as a child appearing on her chest. When she renounced the faith she admitted her mistakes. All the signs, visions and revelations she had received as true and given by God, were the work of an evil spirit. She also blamed this evil spirit for tricking her into believing that the Lord had materialized in her body in order to accomplish an overall reformation and to establish a new apostleship. She declared she had to die in Rome and ascend into heaven three days afterwards, and these facts were announced in the Apocalypse and other sacred books. Maria Isabel Herráiz also argued that the Devil was to blame for all these thoughts, since her imagination had been transformed and warmed by him. She admitted that her accomplices were looked for and incited by her. In her statement, she argued that she did not make a pact with the Devil, but she was possessed by him. Furthermore, she admitted to allowing worship of herself, although she insisted it was all a diabolical artifice. According to her, she was blameless regarding the uproar in the village. Apparently there were disturbances among her followers, the «endiablados».