La Beata de Piedrahita

Sister María de Santo Domingo, "La Beata de Piedrahita" ("the "holy woman of Piedrahíta") was an untutored Spanish mystic (born ca. 1485 — died ca. 1524) of the early 16th century, born in the village of Aldeanueva. Her particular visionary character links her with the much earlier Cathars of southern France and demonstrates the continuity of Catharist beliefs in some strata of Spanish society despite the Inquisition. In Roman Catholic theology, "Beata" commonly denotes a "state of grace" just inferior to that of saint.

Piedrahíta, near Ávila, where the Inquisitor General Torquemada had gone to live in the Dominican monastery, was the spiritual home of this visionary who confounded and scandalised many of her contemporaries in the early sixteenth century, who denounced her as a self-seeking fraud and labeled her ecstatic behavior "lascivious". [Jodi Bilinkoff, "A Spanish Prophetess and Her Patrons: The Case of Maria de Santo Domingo" "Sixteenth Century Journal" 23.1 (Spring 1992:21-34) p 21.] The daughter of a local peasant, she became a tertiary sister [Tertiaries are affiliated with a religious Order but do not take formal vows of profession. Jodi Bilinkoff (1992:22 note 3) notes that the acceptance of such a young woman as a tertiary, rather than the more usual "widows of mature age and unblemished reputation", was somewhat unusual and notes the example of Catherine of Siena] in the same Dominican order in Piedrahita that had fostered the young Torquemada, taking the name María de Santo Domingo. Soon she transferred to Ávila.

María's charismatic personality ["By 1507 María's strong and controversial personality had begun to assert itself, and she gained a reputation as a charismatic holy woman." (Bilinkoff 1992:23).] expressed itself in numerous revelations, in which she held celestial converse with the Virgin Mary and the Savior. She informed her contemporaries that Christ was with her, that she "was" Christ fact|date=January 2008, and that she was Christ's bride, a concept that offers parallels with her neighbor in Ávila, Saint Teresa of Ávila. For hours she would remain in an ecstatic trance, unmoving, her arms and legs rigidly extended, dissolving herself in the arms of the Deity. Though unlearned she was reputed to be the equal of the most sophisticated theologians, her supernatural lights easily compensating for her lack of schooling. At Ávila, Diego Magdaleno, Provincial of the Dominicans sent her to Toledo to inspect the Orders houses there and initiate ascetic reforms, a move that was still shocking in its inherent impropriety to the Dominican historian Beltrán in 1939. [ "Sor María por su calidad de mujer no era elemento aduecado para implantar la reforma" ("Sister María by her quality of a woman was not an adequate element to implant reform"), remarked Vicente Beltrán de Heredia, "Historia de la Provincia de España (1450-1550)" (Rome: Istituto Storico Domenicano) 1939, noted in Bilinkoff 1992:23 note 6.]

News of her deeds reached Ferdinand II of Aragon, who summoned her to his court at Burgos, where she stayed during the season of 1507-08, impressing king and courtiers and meeting Cardinal Cisneros. Some theologians, including the new Master General of the Dominicans, Thomas Cajetan suspected that she was inspired by the devil rather than God, and restricted her access to the friars of Santo Domingo, who were agitating for ascetic reform in the Dominican Order and for whom she was spokesperson; the Duke of Alba, [Among his grander titles, Don Fadrique Alvarez de Toledo, 2nd Duke of Alba, was "conde de Piedrahíta" and lord of Aldeanueva. As a patron whose piety was reflected in the "beata", Jodi Bilinkoff has pointed out, (Bilinkoff 1992:26 and note 18) he has a recent model: Ercole d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, had championed the visionary Lucia Brocadelli of Narni during the years 1497-1505, and word of his public defense of her had reached María, who had visions that involved Lucia da Narni.] one of whose palaces faced the monastery at Ávila, took a patron's interest in the affair. Serious charges were made regarding her orthodoxy, culminating in four trials between 1508 and 1510.

Three influential patrons, the Duke of Alba, his cousin King Ferdinand and Cardinal Cisneros recently regent of Castile, convinced the episcopal hierarchy that she enjoyed a special inspiration available to very few; their support was largely responsible for the failure of La Beata's critics to bring about her downfall as a heretic. She was absolved of the charges and her life and doctrine pronounced exemplary. She went on to rule as prioress in a convent founded especially for her by the Duke of Alba in her native village in central Castile. [Jodi Bilinkoff, "A Spanish Prophetess and Her Patrons: The Case of Maria de Santo Domingo" "Sixteenth Century Journal" 23.1 (Spring 1992:21-34).] Jodi Bilinkoff has demonstrated that La Beata's pronouncements and actions helped the establishment consolidate power, endorsed their policies and reinforced their sense of identity.

Her "Book of Prayer", stream-of-consciousness utterances that were transcribed by Antonio de la Peña and her apologist Diego Victoria were printed around 1518. It was thought that all copies had been lost, but a copy was discovered in Zaragoza and a facsimile edition published in Madrid (1948). An English translation appeared in 1992. [Mary E. Giles. "The Book of Prayer of Sor Maria of Santo Domingo: A Study and Translation" (Albany: State University of New York) 1992.]

The name of "alumbrados" ("illuminati") is severely criticised by the orthodox "Catholic Encyclopedia" (1908) as assumed by some 16th century Spanish "false mystics" who claimed like "La Beata de Piedrahita" to have a direct connection with God. "They held that the human soul can reach such a degree of perfection that it contemplates even in the present life the essence of God and comprehends the mystery of the Trinity. All external worship, they declared, is superfluous, the reception of the sacraments useless, and sin impossible in this state of complete union with Him Who is Perfection Itself. Carnal desires may be indulged and other sinful actions committed freely without staining the soul."

"La Beata" was not alone. At Toledo, which was one of the main centers of these Spanish illuminati, "Isabella of the Cross" is said to have actively proselytized, and "Magdalen of the Cross", a Poor Clare of Aguilar, near Córdoba, was even more famous. The Inquisition convinced her to abjure her heretical errors in 1546, however. Such ideas found wide responses among Spanish Catholics though the Inquisition proceeded with relentless energy against all suspects, reputedly citing before its tribunal St. John of Avila and St. Ignatius of Loyola.

References

External links

* [http://www.ku.edu/carrie/texts/carrie_books/longhurst2/07.html John Edward Longhurst, "The Age of Torquemada"]
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/16046a.htm "The Catholic Encyclopedia", 1908: Illuminati ("Alumbrados")]

Further reading

* Suirtz, Ronald E. "writing Women in Late Medieval and Early Modern Spain: the Mothers of Saint Teresa of Avila" (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press) 1995. María de Santo Domingo examined in the context of five Castilian "beatas" of the fifteenth and sixteenth century, advocates opf spiritual reform.