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Luisa de Carvajal's Counter-Reformation Journey to Selfhood (1566-1614)*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Elizabeth Rhodes
Elizabeth Rhodes*
Affiliation:
Boston College
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Abstract

Luisa de Carvajal y Mendoza, a wealthy Spanish noblewoman, lived as a missionary in London preaching, teaching, and doing charitable work on behalf of the Catholic underground from 1605 to 1614. Although the early loss of her parents and other close family members in rapid succession and the abuses she suffered at the hands of her guardian uncle might appear to have disadvantaged her, Carvajal transformed her misfortunes into advantages by using them to intensify her embrace of penitential piety and traditional Catholic virtues as exemplified by saints' lives. Her manifestation of those virtues inspired religious authorities to accept her as a missionary, against substantial odds. She thus provides evidence of how Counter-Reformation practices and beliefs facilitated some exceptional women's achievements.

Type
Studies
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 51 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1998 , pp. 887 - 911
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1998

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Footnotes

*

I am indebted to Leticia Sanchez, curator at the Patrimonio Nacional, for her generous assistance and permission for access to documents at the Convento de la Encarnación in Madrid, and to Sor Maria Asunción de la Trinidad, for invaluable help with the manuscript consultation upon which this study is based.

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