The Devil, Women, and the Body in Seventeenth-Century Puebla Convents

Author(s): Rosalva Loreto Lpez

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Source: The Americas, Vol. 59, No. 2, The Devil in Latin America (Oct., 2002), pp. 181-199
Published by: Academy of American Franciscan History
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The Americas
59:2 October2002, 181-199
Copyrightby the Academy of American
FranciscanHistory

THE DEVIL, WOMEN,AND THE BODY IN

SEVENTEENTH-CENTURYPUEBLA CONVENTS*

The

mystical and supernaturalexperiences that many nuns faced in

seventeenth-centuryconvents in Puebla shaped New Spain's spirituality. These experiences and the way they were recountedprovided
the elements for an archetypeof conduct and for socially accepted virtues.
Using their imagination, these nuns, servants of God, enlightened and
morally exemplary, maintaineda direct relationshipbetween the convent,
the supernaturalworld, and colonial society.
Anthropological studies of popular religion have emphasized, almost
exclusively, the collective and public aspects of religious expression but
have ignored private, individual piety.1Yet collective and private religious
expressions have been linked throughouthistory.When individualmanifestationsof religious expression were socially endorsed,these privateforms of
piety influenced the creation of identity and models of behavior.Because
these archetypesof religious conduct were so importantwithin colonial culture as a whole, it is importantto gain an understandingof the events that
led to their formationand the way in which they travelledfrom the culture
of the convent to that of the largersociety.
In this articleI focus upon the lives of individualnuns and how events in
their lives influencedthe creationof a religious identity and an ideal of feminine conduct in the colonial period. I concentrateupon the way in which
some seventeenth-centuryPoblano nuns struggled against the Devil, especially as he appeared in animal form. These battles occurred within the
norms of the prevailing culturalimaginationand religiously accepted prac-

* Translatedby Sonya Lipsett-Rivera

1 For a critiquedealing with Spain please see Elias ZamoraAcosta, "Aproximaci6na la religiosidad
popularen el mundo urbano:El culto a los santos en la ciudad de Sevilla," in La religiosidadpopular,
edited by Alvarez Santal6et al. (Spain:T.I., 1989), p. 528.

181

182

PUEBLACONVENTS
THE DEVIL IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY

tices. Out of their victories over the Devil, these nuns and their adherents
created a prototype of desired female bodily control and constructed models
of accepted feminine gestures.
In the local culture of seventeenth-century Puebla, residents identified
with the nuns' private lives and accepted these women as symbols of religious perfection. The convent's cultural influence linked individual nuns to
the community around them. This culture provided a framework within

which individual nuns' feats became extremely significant for society at

large. It was in this way that particularreligious practices that developed
behind the convent's cloistered walls were communicatedand became an
importantpartof local religiosity.The supernaturalexperiences reportedby
nuns were apparentlyrare,but they became partof the local urbandevotion
and Creole culture.The hagiographiesof nuns emphasizedthese apparitions
as part of a culturalprocess. The supernaturalevents, properlyinterpreted,
directed women towards the kind of goals, methods, and values to which
they should aspire in order to conform to the model of ideal femininity
establishedby the nuns.
The sources for this study consist primarilyof letterswrittenby the nuns'
friends or companions who were following their confessors' orders. These
documents differ from the printed hagiographiesin that the authors were
closer to the protagonistsand their writingsare thereforemore revealing. In
the biographiesthat came at a latterstage, confessors interpretedthis material and adjustedit to the pertinentreligious canons.Althoughthe confessors
who wrote biographies of the nuns used the materials produced within the
convents, they left aside many aspects of the "marvellous." They tended to
focus on the ordering of information to convey the story and the miracles
that supported doctrinal conventions.
Three nuns who experienced these visions, and who were recognised as
visionaries by the society of Puebla and the official church, took their vows and
lived in the convents of la Purisima Concepciin, Santa Teresa, and Santa
M~nica. Some of the other nuns who wrote about Isabel de la Encarnacifn2and
Maria de Jesus3 did so at the behest and under the direction of their mutual con2 She was born in 1596 in the city of Pueblade los Angeles, the daughterof Melchor de Bonilla and
Mariade Pifia, both originally from Brihuega. On May 19, 1614, she took her vows in the convent of
the Discalced Carmelitesand she died as an exemplary nun on February2, 1633.
3 Mariade JestisTomellinwas the daughterof the captainSebastianTomellinandFranciscaCampos.
She professed her vows as a nun of veil and choir on May 7, 1599 and she died in 1637. Her sister was
Ana de San Sebastianwho was a nun in the same convent. The first referencesto her life were compiled
and transcribedby her cell companionAgustina de Santa Teresawho took her vows twenty years later.
These materialsbecame the basis for severalbiographiesafterher death.For this studyI have relied upon

ROSALVA
LORETO
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183

fessor and spiritual director, Father Miguel Godinez.4 The life of Maria de San
Jos6 (1656-1719) also provides some examples of supernaturalmanifestations.
She joined the cloistered Augustinians in the Convent of Santa M6nica.5
These documents are generally extremely rich in detail but they all share
one fundamental and invariable feature: they report the astounding events
that formed the basis of the Convents' constructed imagery. The supernatural manifestations experienced by these visionary nuns6 were a fundamental
part of the path towards a life of perfection.7
Apparitions, visions,8 and revelations9 reproduced the culture of the mar-

vellous in the convents. In the seventeenthcenturythe supernaturalformed

the interpretationof JestisMariade Felix Vida,virtudesy dones sobrenaturalesde la Ven.Sierva de Dios,
Sor Maria de Jestis, religiosa profesa en el V monasteriode la InmaculadaConcepcidnde la Puebla de
los Angeles de las Indias Occidentales, sacadas de los procesos formados para la causa de su beatificacidn y canonizacidn(Rome: Imprentade Joseph y Phelipe Rossi, 1756).
4 A Jesuit priest originally from Ireland,FatherGodinez (1591-1644) had a master's degree in philosophy and was the prefect of study in the Seminaryof San Pedroy San Pablo in the city of Puebla.His
best known work is the Prdctica de teologia that was translatedinto Latin by Ignacio de la Reguera.
Around 1620, as the confessor of the CarmeliteIsabel de la Encarnaci6n,he also published an original
manuscriptentitled "Dichos del PadreMiguel Godinez, var6n muy espiritualde la Compafifaacercade
la vida y virtudesde la VenerableM. Isabel de la Encarnaci6ncuyo padreespiritualfue." For more information on Miguel Godinez and Isabel de la Encarnaci6n,see Manuel Ramos Medina, "Isabel de la
Encarnaci6n,monja posesa del siglo XVII," in Manifestacionesreligiosas en el mundocolonial americano (Mexico City: UniversidadIberoamericana,InstitutoNacional de Antropologiae Historiaand Condumex, 1994), pp. 41-51.
5 Mariade San Jos6 was the daughterof Luis Palacios y Sol6rzanoand Antonia Berruecos,both the
childrenof Spanishimmigrants.She professed as a nun of veil and choir in the Conventof SantaM6nica
and laterleft this Conventto found anotherin Oaxaca. She wrote autobiographicalmaterialat the orders
of various people including the Bishop of Puebla, Manuel Fernindez de SantaCruz and her confessors.
See KathleenMyers, Wordfrom New Spain. The SpiritualAutobiographyof Madre Maria de San Josd
(1656-1719) (Liverpool:UniversityPress, 1993). For this partof the articleI consulted the first five sections of Myers' transcription.
6 The term Illuminati,used to refer to these visionary nuns, refers to the processes that were theologically recognized as "Illuminativa."In this definition the supernaturalphenomenaare more palpable
and are presentedas partof the proofs that lead to the mystical phenomenacharacteristicof the 'unitive'
life. See A. Tanquerey,Compendiode teologia ascdtica y mistica (Madrid:Sociedad de San JuanEvangelista, 1930), p. 622.
7 The life of perfection is also known as 'unitive' and is defined as the habitualand intimateunion
with God. Such a life presupposesthat the individualin question has previously experienced a series of
stages of purificationand ordeals in their exercise of moral and theological virtues to reach a stage in
which they live solely for God. See Tanquerey,p. 822.
perceptionof objects thatarenormallyinvisible to humans.They
8 Visions representthe supernatural
are not revelations unless they reveal some hidden truth.Visions that are felt physically are also called
apparitions.The vision does not need to be physical; it can also involve the perceptionof a luminous
form. See Tanquerey,pp. 952-3. The etymological roots of these visions suggest that they are fundamental to the notion of apparitions.See Jacques LeGoff, Lo maravillosoy lo cotidiano en el Occidente
medieval (Spain: Gedisa, 1986), p. 13.
9 Divine revelations are the supernaturalmanifestationsof hidden truths that God does by three
means: visions, supernaturalspeech, and divine touch. See Tanquerey,pp. 952-3.

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THE DEVIL IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY PUEBLA CONVENTS

the core of this set of ideas. The confrontationsof visionary nuns with the
actions of beings and objects of a diabolicalor a celestial naturewere of fundamentalimportance.Only God could be the cause of these confrontations.
Isabel de la Encarnaci6n,in an exemplaryfashion, "hada great appreciation
for the way of the cross, which she wanted to experience."In her desire to
die or suffer, "which God granted her," she followed the example of her
mother, Saint Teresa of Avila. As her confessor and biographer Miguel
Godinez notes: "thereare few souls about whom we read in ancient history
who suffered more than Mother Isabel de la Encarnaci6n."He relates that
when it appearedthat she was dying, "it seemed that the demons hurried
there in orderto tormenther, but Our Lord permittedthem to do so."'o
Religious authoritiesfrom the Holy See examined and endorsedthe various supernaturalexpressions that came to be considereddivine manifestations upon the human consciousness. This symbolic-religious experience
was always characterizedas coming from the celestial world, something
given by "divinegrace"and not inherentto the nun.Godinez recognizedthat
"revelationsare not essential or integral parts of the spirituallife, as Saint
Bonaventurenoted quite clearly,because they are not acts of virtue, nor are
they meritorious... but ratherthey are an accidentalornamentof the spiritual life.""
Theologians recognized the nuns' visions as a valid mechanismfor communication with God. These visions became part of the convent's culture
and that of the monastic community as a whole. The nuns aimed to use the
lessons impartedby these sacred messages. But since they were integrated
into the theological model of punishment and mercy, these supernatural
manifestationsalso served to reaffirmthe convent's methods of devotion.
Dreams, metamorphoses, hallucinations, sensations, and trips to and
visits from these other worlds were the source of the marvelousin the nuns'
hagiographies. These supernaturalmanifestations were categorized and
defined symbolically and culturally.They formed an importantelement of
New Spain's religious culture because it was throughthis culture that the
secular as well as the religious lives of Christianswere given shape.12
In the nuns' visions, typically,one or more divine figures appeared.These
divine figures would talk and, sometimes, touch the nuns. Very frequently
Miguel Godinez, "Escritodel PadreMiguel Godinez, c. 1630 (unfoliated).
" Ibid.
12 Josep Maria Feriglia, "Bases para entender una prospectiva de la religi6n," in Santal6 Op. cit.
1989, p. 594.
10

ROSALVA
LORETO
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185

they would walk beside the nuns and would show them things or entrust
them with sacred objects. Those who experienced these apparitionsfelt
emotions, sensations, and bodily reactions that supplementedthe visions.
Emotions, such as fear or solace, were evidence thatthe visions were benevolent. Certainmanifestationsseemed to have moral significance; for example, pain in the heart, a sensation particularlycherished by the nuns. But
such pains were not real in themselves. Like dreams,they were partof their
contact with God and a type of divine message to decipher.
These unusualsensationswere partof a moral etiology in which illnesses
or other physical symptoms were part of a divine logic. In the seventeenth
century,this set of attitudeswas part of the road towarda life of perfection
leading towards the consummationof a spiritualmarriage--the transforming union in which the life of the nun was fused to that of her Beloved.'3
For these women such supernaturalmanifestations were external and
formed part of their individual corporealexperience. They were part of a
practiceof mental control;the productsof trainingand preparationin which
images were ranked in order to establish systems of communication.The
power to perceive these visions, or to have extraordinarybodily experiences
on an individual basis, presupposed the possibility of separatingthe real
world from that of the imagination.At the same time one had to be able to
articulatethis imaginaryworld within oneself. Messages received could be
differentiated,but they all formed part of one field of significance: the
supernaturalworld. In this context, the nuns functioned as intermediaries
between God, the convent community, and society. As receptors of the
divine message, the nuns could decode God's word and apply it to their
everyday existence.14
Catholicism deliberately encouraged these mental images through its
promotion of the saints' lives as models. In the saints' hagiographies,the
miraculous and the wonderful were possible. Individuals could reproduce
the saints' experiences by stopping the normalfunctioning of their nervous
system and preventingit from controllingtheir senses. They did so through
fasts, penance,and the wearingof hair shirtsor spikedbelts. The images that
individualsperceivedwere rankedin a hierarchyof significance.The visionary nun accepted what she saw as a valid experience, endorsedby the reli13 Manuel Espinoza, La religiosa mortificada (Madrid:ImprentaReal, por Pedro Juliin Pereyra,
Impresorde Cdmarade S.M., 1799), p. 298.
14 According to Feriglia, the nuns discerned the dimension of the world in which they lived and
interpretedthe messages that they received in their imaginationand translatedthem into ordinarylanguage (p. 591).

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THE DEVIL IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY PUEBLA CONVENTS

gious system, and confessors played an important role by encouraging these

experiences.15
For the visionary nuns these interior images were as real as the things they
saw around them. The apparitions could be spontaneous and they could
include dreamlike visions. It was important to analyze the elements of these
visions in order to categorize and rank them according to their symbolism.
One night, for instance, Mother Maria de Jes6s opened her eyes and saw a
beautiful vision of the child Jesus. Upon seeing it, she immediately knelt down
and received the blessing that this divine visit imparted. The child Jesus disappeared and "she was filled with so much strength. It was as if she had experienced beautiful dreams all night." Before the child disappeared, he made her
understand what the colors of his tunic meant: "White signified purity and that
He suffered, purple meant love..,. and red signified the compassion of generous redemption that He provided with the spilling of His blood."6

When the vision's informationwas interpreted,it became partof a system

of categories that were thematically organized. The biography of Isabel de
la Encarnaci6n, for example, had a section that specifically explained "the
various guises under which demons appeared and the innumerable torments
that they caused."'17These apparitions provided a medium for the construction of a sacred world.
THE DEVIL AS A CHARACTER IN THE CONVENT'S MARVELOUS IMAGES

As the instigator of the apparitions and miracles, God controlled and regulated all of the nuns' supernatural experiences. The system of symbolism
permitted specific functions for each character that formed part of the convent's images. As well as Christ and the Virgin Mary, the saints, the souls in
purgatory, and the angelic soldiers also mediated the nuns' experiences with
the Devil and the demons.
Apparitions, hallucinations, temptations, and diabolical torments were
constant elements of the nuns' imagination. Because they were on the path
15 Godinez warnedof the dangersthese visionarynunscould risk if they fell into the handsof an uninformed confessor.Isabel de la Encarnaci6nhad some confessors who "harmedher considerablybecause
they did not recognizeher spirit.It is a terriblething to put an upliftedandextraordinaryspiritin the hands
of an uninformedconfessor... ibid non est scientia animae... non ests bonumwhere thereis no science
and knowledge of the soul there is no good for the poor penitent,ratherwhen God puts the soul in...
some terriblepurgatory,afterwardsthe same God feels obliged to save that soul from such a person and
directthe soul to experiencedpeople who understandand console thatperson,"Godinez (unfoliated).
'6 Agustinade SantaTeresa,"Cuadernoprimerosobrela vida de la VenerableMadreMariade Jestis"
c. 1630, fol 4.
17 Godinez (unfoliated).

LOPEZ
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187

to perfection, the nuns were sensitive to visions and supernatural phenomena. God took advantage of their obsession as a purifying mechanism and

used it to preparethem for their mystical union with Him.18In this way the
Devil was part of the divine plan because Satan's torments "seemed to
increase in proportion to the degree of virtue and patience with which they
are tolerated."'19Father Godinez noted that "demons are like God's ministers
in that they carry out His orders; sometimes God assigns them power over
His servants' bodies reserving their souls for Himself."20 This was often the
case in the experiences of the nuns studied in this article.
The early modem development of concepts surrounding the Devil and
demons was part of a long process that included the transformation of the
culture of magic and the supernatural through a Christian spirituality that
tended towards introspection and individual internalization.21 Outside of
sensuality, in particular the temptations that could threaten purity and
chastity, the Devil was powerless. As long as the Devil only tormented his
victims physically, this suffering was part of a divine plan. The Devil could
defy the laws of nature. He was not, for example, governed by gravity, and
he could move people from one place to another in a moment and transform
them into animals.22
One of the Devil's "pemrnicious"
qualities was to provoke false visions. St
Vincent Ferrer had warned in two chapters of his Tratado de la vida espiritual that visions, revelations, hallucinations, and demonic temptations could
be false. Most other spiritual manuals of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were equally cautious.23 This logic dictated that, at any given moment,
the Devil could, through an angel's intervention, negotiate for either the
freedom of his victims or the degree of torment applied. Mortification,
18 See Rosalva Loreto L6pez, "La sensibilidady el cuerpo en el imaginariode las monjas poblanas
del siglo XVII" in Actas del II Congreso Internacionaldel Monacato Femenino en el ImperioEspafiol
(Mexico City: CONDUMEX, 1995), pp. 542-3.
9 FernandoCervantes,"El demonismoen la espiritualidadbarrocanovohispana:"in Manifestaciones
religiosas en el mundocolonial americano,ed. ClaraGarciaAyluardoand ManuelRamos (Mexico City:
UniversidadIberoamericana,InstitutoNacional de Antropologiae Historiaand Condumex,1993), p. 132.
20 Godinez (unfoliated).
21 FernandoCervantesThe Idea of the Devil and the Problem of the Indian. The Case of Mexico in
the Sixteenth Century(London: Instituteof Latin American Studies, 1991) and "El demonismo en la
espiritualidadbarrocanovohispana,"in Ramos Medinaop cit., p. 139, also states thatthis transformation
was broughtaboutbecause of a shift from a system based on the seven capital sins to one based the Ten
Commandments.The obsession with the Devil coincided with the establishmentof the Decalogue as the
center of Christianity'smoral system.
22 JOS6 Sanchez Lora, "Claves migicas de la religiosidad barroca,"in Santal6 Op.cit., pp. 126-45.
See also Jean Delumeau,El Medio en occidente (Madrid:Taurus,1989).
23 William Christian,Apariciones en Castilla y Cataluiha(siglos XIV-XVI) (Madrid:Nerea, 1990),
p. 244.

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THE DEVIL IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY PUEBLA CONVENTS

sacred relics, holy water, or the cross could sometimes limit his power. On
the other hand, since a human soul was the Devil's most precious prisoner,
the loss of a soul throughthe intercessionof the nuns' prayerswas a great
defeat for the fiend.
Certain images that were used to represent the Devil in the baroque
period-animals, dark-skinnedmen, imaginary beings such as dragons,
goblins, or griffins--were part of a medieval heritage. Table 1 provides a
breakdown of the most common ways that the Devil appearedto seventeenth-centurynuns in Puebla,includinghis actions, assaults,the location of
the events and, finally, the defensive strategyused by the nun.
This article will focus specifically upon the animal forms that the Devil
could take. These representationsexemplified a particular stage in the
images used in convents and they were a partialmedieval heritagethat was
adaptedin the Baroqueperiod to concrete local situationsin Mexican convents.24The analysis and iconographicinterpretationof animals within different culturesas well as within their art is a hugely complex topic. For our
purposeit will suffice to point out that one single animal could have values
thatare in opposition.As Olivier Beigbedernotes, if "we examine bestiaries
seriously it is obvious thatthe animalsmost frequentlyrepresentedare most
of all lions, snakes, and dragons, which ordinarily have a double meaning:
they alternate between good and evil, harmful and benevolent."'25 For the
sake of clarity, the animals will be placed within the context in which they
appeared to the nuns.26
As part of the natural order, beast-like natures had certain symbolic elements that were related to pejorative or punitive aspects. Savage animals
were generally used as their representations since they were the incarnation
of fear,27evil, or uncertainty. Within this model, animals performed a double
function. On the one hand, they represented a direct assault on the bodily
nature of the nun. On the other, they represented a moral confrontation with
24 Seventeenth-century
visual representationsof the Devil used in this articleseem to be derivedfrom
the Old Testament.Bad demons aredescribedin a languagestemmingfrompaganreligionsthatportrayed
them as animals like hyenas, wild cats and owls and refersto their lairs. (Is 34, 14), G. Barbaglioand S.
Dianich, Nuevo Diccionario de Teologia(Madrid:Ediciones Cristianidad,1982), p. 965.
25 Olivier Beigbeder,LIxico de simbolos (Madrid:Ediciones Encuentro, 1989, vol. 15), p. 45.
26 In the analysis of architecture,"whatis most importantbefore all else..,. is the disposition of the
animals,whatevertheirnature."Beigdeber,p. 46. This principlecan be appliedequally well to the examples in this article.
27 From a psychoanalyticalperspective, animals that appear in the zoological phobias of children
substitutethe father,just as in ancienttimes they were relatedto a totemic animal. SigmundFreud,"Una
neurosis demoniaca en el siglo XVII" in Psicoanalisis aplicado y tecnica psicoanalitica (Madrid:
Alianza Editorial, 1974), p. 71.

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LORETO
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TABLE1
Defensive
Strategy

Figure

Action

Location
or Assault

Man
Nude black
man
Satan
Ghost
Demon
Hermit
Boy
Dog
Scarabs
Flies
Worms
Bull
Cicadas
Horse
Tigers
Lions
Serpents

sin-knockdown
death

cell
corridor

prayer
holy water

sin
confuse
sicken
noise
assault
rip apart
torment
swarm
chew
immobilize
deafen
avenge
avenge
avenge
encircle

sin
mental
body
brain
strangle
bite
brain
abcess
wounds
stairs
choir loft
cell
cell
cell
head

mortifications
prayer
blessed cross
holy water
prayer
holy relics

holy water

Sources: Miguel Godinez, "Escrito del Padre Miguel Godinez, var6n muy espiritual de la Compafifa
acerca de la vida y virtudes de la VenerableM. Isabel de la Encarnaci6ncuyo padre espiritualfue." c
1630, Agustinade SantaTeresa,"Cuadernoprimerosobre la vida de la VenerableMadreMariade
Jests."
c 1630, Francisca de la Natividad, "Su vida de la Madre Francisca de la Natividad escrita sobre ella
misma."c 1620.

the nun's human nature: as a result of the animal's assault, the nuns no
longer stood straight,but adopted positions and gestures that brought into
question their humanitythroughthe adoptionof conduct that was morphologically like that of an animal.
The nuns tried to fight the animal-like natureof their bodies suggested
throughthe Devil's actions. The way in which the Devil entered into their
imagination in animal form certainly reinforced the bodily attitudes and
norms of behaviorthat were consideredcorrectin termsof postureand gesture. The scenes that the nuns describedinspiredfear more because of their
form than because of their content. They were associated with irrational
thoughtsthat directly threatenedthe human sentimentsof the nuns.
The documentsprovide multi-facetedsemantic values to the animalsrepresented. What was most fearful was not so much the animal itself as its
action upon the victim's body. Domestic animals inspired sentiments that

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THE DEVIL IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY

PUEBLACONVENTS

differed from those of aggressive animals, the latter provoking powerful

emotions that were beast-like and hostile. The multiple animal descriptions
in the visions of the nuns embodied a discourse on evil's many faces. They
were "one of the many figures that devils had" and the cause of "interminable torments."28Thus the narratives of the nuns often portrayed these
animals as a threat to the eternal order.
In the nuns' dreams or imagination, these animals were invertebrates,
mammals, or reptiles. The invertebrates were associated with an accelerated
motion-movements
that were synonymous with ant-like agitation,29
swarming and chaotic. It was a projection of anguish about change and
destruction which was associated with the departure of animals connected
with devastating actions. The move of the Discalced Carmelites to Puebla
provides a very clear example of this type of image. Among the reasons for

leaving Veracruz,the nuns mentioned that in that port city "the climate is
very hot and the earth very humid which, along with the heat, causes corruption."They noted that their residence was afflicted with a "blight:"
of ants that of all kinds is the most bothersomeand damaging,because they
explore and upset the whole house, and those they call chichimecas cause a
great burning and stinging sensation when they bite, that can be alleviated
with coolness .... [T]he ants became so numerousthat it became impossible
to keep the food needed for sustenancefrom one day to the next; the ants even
ate some orangesthat were in the patio: afflicted by this blight, we prayedfor
the protectionof... Saint Joseph .. and with an admirablesuccess, the ants
all fled.. .30
The nuns imagined that, apart from the capacity to swarm, insects were

able to enter a victim's body and inflict damage upon it. One description
noted that a nun "felt swarmsof beetles in her brainthat tormentedher head
gravely.The demons definitely ... grabbedthe fabricof her brainand managed to twist it, causing excruciating pain, and producing intense agony."31
28 Godinez (unfoliated).
29 One of the early manifestationsof this phenomenonwas the characterization
of the anthillemphasizing the dynamic swarmingaction of the ants ratherthan their work. On the positive side the ants provide an example of hardwork and foresight because they store provisions for the winterover the course
of the summer.SerafinAusejo, Diccionario de la Biblia (Barcelona:EditorialHerder,1966), p. 872.
30 The miracleconsisted in the departureof all ants except for one ant colony in the patio. These ants,
known as arrieras, became a kind of pet for the nuns. They threwthem breadand biscuit crumbsto feed
them and the ants harmedno one. From that time, the nuns dedicatedthemselves to Saint Joseph.Joseph
G6mez de la Parra,Fundacidny Primer siglo, del muy religioso convento de Sr. S. Joseph de Religiosas
Carmelitas Descalzas de la ciudad de Puebla de los Angeles en la Nueva Espatia, el primero que se
fundd en la Amedrica
Septentrional,27 de Diziembrede 1604 (Puebla:Miguel de Ortegaen el Portalde
las Flores, 1731), p. 29-30.
31 Franciscade la Natividad, 1614, folio 5v.

ROSALVA
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191

The nuns' bodies thus became a kind of battleground for the prevention
of a beast-like nature. As part of this struggle, diabolical beings were capable of provoking anarchy from within the victims' bodies. It was the disorderly movements of the afflicted that revealed, at first, the animal-like nature

of their imagination, and suggested a pejorative attitude towards those

organismsthat were agitatinginside the body. These descriptionsallow for
a driftingof the imaginationtowards animals, such as flies, that were associated with sin.32Those individuals who were tormented by flies could
demonstrate"their great and unbeatablepatience." If God willed it, "not
only were they tormentedby greatpains but even in the very wounds where
demons caused most agony."The demons then became flies. They afflicted
the nun so unbearablythat "she called on God... asking for his mercy and
grace to help her endure this torment,as it was so great and caused her to
scream many times and fall unconscious .

. .

because of the sheer agony."33

The image of swarming that came to represent the Devil's actions prevented any kind of verbal or bodily communication that followed a logical
and coherent pattern. In some of his victims the Devil's intervention became
obvious to the religious community because they could no longer perform
the daily activities that required the bodily control demanded by the rules.
One such example was assistance in the choir. A victim described how "as I

was prayingthe divine office ... it seemed that there were so many cicadas
in my head and their noise deafened me so that I could not hear a word.
Other times it seemed that beetles were swarming in my brain."34 In this
case the animals symbolized internal chaos. While Hell was portrayedin
iconographyas a chaotic and disturbedplace, in these passages bodily putrefaction also symbolized a clear and disturbingdiscordancewith the sacred.
Swarminganimals were associated with the body's materialdestruction
in a concrete manner--in fact they "ate" it and caused putrefaction.35 The
32 Ancient demonology always used flies to symbolize demons. Artists usually depicted them next
to the ear of a Christianwho was in the process of being temptedby Satan-they were "lendingan ear"
as Saint Gregory said "of the carnal desires." There are two infernal entities--although they are really
one and the same-Asmodeus and Beelzebub who were representedas flies. L. Charbonneau-Lassay,
El
bestiario de Cristo.El simbolismoanimal en la antigiiedady la edad media (Barcelona:EditorialSophia
Perennos, 1997, vol. II), p. 869. Flies are also emblematicof discomfort,anxiety,or disgust. They symbolize constant persecution;buzzing and hovering without ceasing. They multiply in decay and putrefaction and transmitthe worst germs. Iguacen, 1992, p. 598.
33 Natividad,folio 3.
34 Textual citation from a note that Isabel gave to her confessor. Godinez (unfoliated).
35 Many times demons "caused [Isabel] to throw up bits of abscess and other times to vomit worms
that were gnawing her day and night." Natividad, folio 3v. In this passage the worm fits into the symbolism of the "voice of conscience" thatrepeatsa reproachin orderto bring aboutrepentance.Charbonneau-Lassay,p. 841.

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forms in which animalspresentedthemselves were not only imaginary.Personal experience,throughthe mortificationof the flesh, endowed them with
attributeswhich were quite common in the narrativesof the period and
allowed them to be directly representedin such a way. Maria de San Jose,
for example, wrote that when she first put on her spiked belt, it was so large
that much of it was left over. She continuedto cinch it tighterand tighterso
that over time "the spikes bit into my flesh." She had numerousfleas living
in the spiked belt "althoughthis was more common for those who wore
wool or linen and Hollandcloth."As a result she sufferedgreatly;she could
feel the insects "walkaroundlike ants in the wounds aroundmy waist. They
were nearlyeating me to my chest bones. I would wake up in puddlesof pus
that flowed from my wounds onto the floor where I slept."36
Among the larger animals, it was the horse that was most often represented.
Horses were commonly associated with funeral corteges or with the underworld.37 Isabel de la Encarnaci6n, for instance, made just such a connection
when she described death's omen as "demons in the form of naked black men
on horseback." They rode through the cloister and, as they came parallel with
the cross, they all fled; but some entered the sacristy where she was, grabbed
her and attacked her with such cruelty that a short while later she died.38

The horse was particularlyfeared duringthis time because it represented

movement, and also because in daily life horses were associated with the noise
of constant trotting. Metaphorically, "demons traveled like carts" over the top
of Isabel de la Encarnaci6n's cell, while "below it they opened the walls with
picks and made such noise that they bothered all the sisters who thought they
were thieves. They walked in circles like a pack of mares threshing."39
The bull represented a further set of natural symbols. Because of its
bellow, people associated the bull with thunder or a furious hurricane. A passage from Marfa de Jes6s's narrative uses elements of the symbolism of both
bulls and horses to represent evil under different guises. She combines different symbolic images, but a humanized "demon" in the form of naked
black man provides the active voice of communication with her. She
recounted that one day, at ten o'clock, after a flagellation exercise, she was
36 Cited by KathleenMyers, Word
from New Spain, p. 117. Isabel de la Encarnaci6nprovides a similar description.Godinez (unfoliated).
37 In the Apocalypse, death's horse is remarkablysimilarto a lion and has the teeth of a dragon.The
horses of exterminatingangels have "lions' heads" and their power is located in their mouth and neck.
They are also connectedwith evil and death. In the Apocalypse, deathis mountedon an emaciatedhorse.
Ausejo, p. 250-251.
38 Godinez (unfoliated).
39

Ibid.

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in her cell when she saw three demons enter. One demon had taken the guise
of a horse, another one of a bull, and the last of a large, naked black man.
She was terrified. One of the demons began to call her. The demons disguised as the horse and the bull attacked her and the black man told them
not to give up. The other two pointed out that "she had flesh from our
enemy, and that it was the flesh of St Teresa of Avila," because one of Maria
de Jes6s's relics was indeed from this holy woman.40
Animal symbolism was accompanied discursively with metaphorical messages that complemented the connection between animal actions, substances,
and qualities. For example, in order to stop a procession that he "hated," the

Devil "putthe figure of a black bull in the street where it [the procession]
would pass ... paralyzing Isabel in such a way that the nuns could not move
her from that spot. The procession had to pass ahead, leaving her there, like
a statue, until she was finally able to move."41 The image of Isabel, lying in
the street, recalls the weight, the texture, and the temperature of death. The
symbolism of both bulls42 and horses was associated with the anxiety caused
by certain attributes of nature. The noise of thunder and hurricanes could be
interpreted as a manifestation of God's anger and, at times, as a collective
punishment. On one occasion, Isabel de la Encarnaci6n "saw the Devil... in
the figure of a black bull..,. foaming at the mouth, and angrily going up the
stairs towards the upper dormitory." The nun warned her prelate that "the
Devil, in the guise of a black bull, was going upstairs..,. and a short while
later the convent was subjected to a terrible storm."43
Because of actions such as clawing, as well as their sounds, groans, and
sinister howls, dogs and felines represented the concentration of all the terrifying nightmares that animals could evoke. More aggressive animals were
often portrayed in the form of dogs, lions, and tigers. There was a very clear
association between the bite of these mammals and the fear of their attributes, which could be easily connected with the Devil's desire for vengeance
and punishment. His goal was to destroy, to "tear apart" those who stood
between good and evil-in this case, the nuns. The way the nuns could intervene to prevent the Devil's triumph is illustrated in an example recounted by
40 Agustinade SantaTeresa,"Cuadernoprimerosobre la vida de la VenerableMadreMariade
Jests"
circa 1630, folio 14-14v.
41 The procession in question was for the Virgin's Assumption. It was held every three years.
Godinez (unfoliated).
42 In polytheistic cults the bull was a symbol of virility. In Antiquity,its sacredness was linked to
fecundity. The association of harmful powers with the negative values of animal symbolism can be
observed in the way that so many demons are seen as the freed spiritsof animals,especially those feared
by humans.See Ausejo, passim.
43 Godinez (unfoliated).

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Francisca de la Natividad. A group of people, she tells us, went by day and
by night to the house of a couple to play cards "to the great offense of God"
who showed them to her "hugging each other at the gates of Hell." In

response, Franciscaasked the communityto pray for them in orderto save

them from this danger.The nuns did so very earnestly.Throughthe prayers
of Franciscaand the other nuns, they were able to wrench these souls from
the demons' grip. "The demons avenged themselves for this assault. As a
result two demons in the form of tigers came and attackedFrancisca and
they tore at her with such fury that they rippedher to pieces taking out their
vengeance on her because she saved these souls."44
Snakes representedfear of evil45 and the three nuns studiedin this article
constantly discussed their appearance. They could hide death's secret, fertility, and the life cycle.46 The structureand shape of their body and its movements made them seem like animals that could enter into the nuns' intimacy.
They could also attack the nuns' heads making them lose proper bodily control and position. Indeed, the Devil, under various animal guises, affected
different parts of the nuns' bodies depending upon the shape he took. Isabel
de la Encarnaci6n, for example, recounted that she was once in the presence
of three individuals, two of whom were demons. One took the form of a
snake and "encircled her forehead making her bray." The other turned into a
leach and "entered her eyes and sometimes her nose, moving about in her
nostrils." Because of her terrible torments, she made a horrible sound and
the other nuns had to take her to the furthest comrner
of the convent where she
could "bray, and shout, and throw her head around like those with rabies,"
while biting her own hands and furiously attacking her own body.47
Other beings taken from the medieval traditions such as mermaids,
griffins, and dragons, also appeared in the nuns' accounts but less frequently.
The devil tormented Isabel de la Encarnaci6n as God willed it, "so that His
servant would act as an example of what happened to souls who suffer." Our
Lord gave the demons plenty of latitude to persecute her under various
guises. They appeared in the figure of a dog, a pig, a cat, a bull, a turtle, a
cicada, a lion, a grasshopper, a black soldier, a naked man, and a beautiful
44 Natividad,fols. 10-1lv.
45 In ancientmythology,the snake was often a demonic image or a cosmic monsterof chaos. In Genesis 3 it is representedas a symbol of sexuality and humanambition.The Apocalypse identifies Satanas
the snake in Genesis, cf. Barbaglio,p. 966.
46 Ausejo, pp. 1835-1839.
47 Natividad,fol. 25v. In a similarincident,demons attackedIsabel de la Encarnaci6n"firstin the face
as a snakeencircledher foreheadand head tormentingher senses and makingit hardfor her to breathe...
and the demon enteredher ears and tormentedher to such a degree that it was as if a dagger had been
plunged into her brain,so that she could not move any limbs and was as if dead."Godinez (unfoliated).

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mermaid from the sea.48 The animals that appeared in the nuns' narratives
served as an incarnation of the struggle between good and evil; this was their
most important role. Thanks to the spiritual strength of the nuns, their
patience and virtue, and God's grace, lust was vanquished and an orderly

daily life was reestablishedin the convents.

THEDEVIL,BODIES,ANDDEPORTMENT
One of the Devil's most persistent tricks was to oppose and frustrate the
nuns' efforts to control their own bodies. As they tried to exert bodily discipline through a subordination of body language, the Devil upset this poise
by continually unbalancing their movements. The struggle to control their
own bodies was also reflected in the images used by members of the convent. Its importance lay in the fact that the feelings and the emotions of the
individual and the group were expressed through the way they held their
bodies.
In the narratives consulted, the nuns took particular pains to specify the
body's dynamic and to create a selective vocabulary of bodily movements.
The reader must then decipher these movements within a coded system. A
straight body, for example, indicated "superiority" in contrast with a fallen,
lowly, or inferior one. These contrasts entered into the judgements made by
the nuns about themselves and about their sisters. Images of a fall or the loss
of an erect position, for instance, could represent human anxiety; the act of
falling often functioned as a metaphor for hell and perdition. For vertical
bipeds such as humans, the feeling caused by a fall brought to mind a fear of
their resemblance with animals. Thus, the Devil threw Isabel de la Encarnaci6n to the floor and "under the guise of a horrible ghost, from on top of her
body, he grabbed her wrists and made her so cold that she got goose bumps."49
For the nuns, an erect body faithfully reflected their human nature, and
the maintenance of a straight position was part of the training imparted in all
cloisters.5? The loss of the proper bodily position did not necessarily mean
that the nun had to lie on the floor. Rather, as soon as her vertical axis was
deformed, the body took on a more animal-like quality. The following example shows how, metaphorically, the Devil acted upon one of the body's most
48 Godinez, (unfoliated).In this case the animals symbolize the deceit and seductionassociated with
the Devil. See Damiin Iguacen, Diccionario del patrimonio cultural de la Iglesia (Madrid,Ediciones,
1991), p. 897.
49 Godinez states that, since her childhood, she received a special assistance from God to fool the
Devil and triumphover his "schemes"(unfoliated).
50 See Kendon Adam, Conducting Interactive Patterns of Behavior in Focussed Encounters
(London, CambridgeUniversity Press, 1990).

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THE DEVIL IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY

vulnerable points, the neck. In this case, the Devil's action made the nun's

head rotatein such a way as to resemble a spool of thread:

The Devil places many obstacles in my way. When I pray the Divine Office
or when I enter the choir loft, he makes my head burn so that I lose my balance and my head becomes so heavy that I have to lower it because I cannot
hold it straight.... On other occasions he makes my head whip aroundwith
such speed that it seems to be a bobbin, and when people look at me, they
think my head was disappearingand if they succeeded in holding my head
still, I would lose consciousness.51
The sense of "falling" was directly related to the body's centers of equilibrium. The Devil's object was to upset any of the bodily postures that were
accepted as correct.
Along with the head and the neck, the waist was considered one of the
most important centers of a female body. Because it represented the central

axis of vertical balance, a woman's waist played an importantrole in the

maintenanceof a propererect position whether standing, seating, or kneeling. When the waist was out of line, bodily discomposure was the direct
consequence. Isabel de la Encarnaci6n suffered greatly because of "the
demons who tried to stop her from participatingin the convent's devotions.
When she was about to bow before the Blessed Sacrament,the Devil bent
her body backwardswith such speed and violence that an abscess inside her
body broke."52
Feet, although appearing infrequently, represent the other extreme of the
loss of equilibrium. Apart from being necessary for movement, feet supported the body. They could fail by causing uneven or disjointed steps, by
not keeping the body erect, or by an unsteady rhythm. In causing such failures, the Devil could intervene through actions, objects or animals. Agustina
de Santa Teresa, for example, recounted that on the feast day of the Holy
Innocents, after praying to prepare herself for communion, she tried to leave
her dormitory but "in front of these holy martyrs" she felt the Devil's presence and fell down. Because of the pain she could not put on her shoes. Yet,

despite the pain, with assistance, she took communionand offered it to the
others, and "Our Lord demonstrated His benevolence."53

Godinez (unfoliated).
52 Godinez (unfoliated).
53 Santa Teresa, fol. 19. Another vengeful demon showed up in the Carmeliteconvent where "the
demons made Isabel feel the consequences of any good acts accomplishedin the convent. There were
demons thattormentedthe sisters,who walked among them, some in the form of dogs, othersas cats. But
the demons made all the nuns dementedby trippingthem and makingthem fall." Natividad,fols. 6v-7.
5'

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Apart from its connection with body parts, the symbolism of the body
was linked to its functions-breathing, the circulationof the blood, digestion, etc.- and to the senses. The following example illustrateshow this correlation was constructed.The Devil would place himself "underher soles
and from beneath she would feel an infernal gasping. Then her feet would
become inflamed, and the humors would become unbalanced.She became
gravely ill until she was able to evacuate this influence."'54
Falling was associated with walking quickly and moving rapidly.Isabel
de la Encarnaci6n,for instance, felt the very agitationof the underworldas
it "beather head and throatso rapidly,with such speed, and excessive harshness .

. .

that the other nuns were not able to help her." The nuns watched

how, "with such speed, her head went back and forth for so long and with
such violence, thather brainsseemed to rattlein her head like nuts."On one
of these occasions, one of the sisters triedto stop her head's movementwith
her hand. The moment she touched Isabel's head, the nun fell unconscious.
From then on, when this happened,the nuns did not touch Isabel "despite
the extreme tormentsshe suffered."55
Falling meant loss of an uprightposition. Vertigo was a particularthreat
to properpostureand, as such, behavior.Commonly associatedwith illness,
it was a warning to sinners of women's fragility. On one occasion, for
instance,MotherMariade Jests was at the grille, talking to her motherand
a letrado who fell in love with her and tried very hard to convince her to
reciprocate.In the end, he accepted that all he could expect was merely to
see her once in a while. One day, he was at the grille with his sister, "when
OurLord appearedto the holy Mariade Jests and she felt herself drop. She
left the grille and never again spoke to the letrado."56

The snake, also a symbol of penetrationand of the Devil, appearedwithin

the cell's intimacywith a sinuous anarchicmotion.When Isabel de la Encarnaci6n "felt these different kinds of torment, certain chosen nuns always
rushed over to help her. They tried to hold her while she levitated, moving
her body like a snake .... Some demons lifted her in the air so thatit seemed
that she would break throughthe cell's roof while others threw her against
the walls."'57
54 Godinez (unfoliated).
55 Ibid.
56 SantaTeresa,folios 9-9V.
57 "It took many nuns, with all their strength,to preventher from hitting the walls, so much so, that
when I was walking with the same nuns, she would throwus all to the ground,andjump. She hit her head
against the wall so many times that it was pitiful. It took so much strengthto hold her so that she would
not hit herself any more."Natividad,folios 4-4v.

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A fall represented all of nature's feared elements and the feeling of imbalance caused by losing contact with the earth. Circles, circular objects or circular body movements expressed time and instability. For example, one
account stated that "this particular night, before sunrise, the demons began

to tormenther furiously.They lifted her body in the air as if it was a feather

caught in an eddy. They turned her around so many times that it seemed that
they wanted to rip apart her body from her soul."58Other similar metaphors
portrayed the body rolling like a sphere or a ball of wool.59
Clearly, the body was not only the place where the battle between good
and evil took place but also an object of great tension upon which the nuns'
imagination centered. In their imitation of Christ and their search for perfection, women blended metaphors and genders in their most profound
experiences. In a way, it could be said that they could become Christ's body

because, to a certainextent, they experiencedChristin their own bodies.

CONCLUSION

My contention has been that the particular events that occurred privately
to some nuns in the convents of Puebla had a larger significance for seventeenth and eighteenth-century society as a whole. The publication and reediting of the nuns' lengthy biographies during the eighteenth century, the
many attempts to beatify some of these women, and the numerous contemporary references to these women in the writings of Poblanos themselves
confirms their cultural significance.
Resistance to the Devil and its symbolism has been a recurring image of
these narratives. The evidence suggests that gender is of primary significance in the analysis of this phenomenon since the experiences described
occurred particularly to women. The connection between bodily weakness
and women was accepted as a historical constant and contrasted with the
religious state of the virtuous nuns who always triumphed over the Devil.
Gender was also implicated in the product of these struggles. The nuns' conduct became an idealized feminine model in which bodily behavior played
an important role. The regulation of the body as well as the battle to maintain these positions became associated with certain types of actions and
values. Just as there were bodily gestures associated with evil, others were
considered adequate for virtuous and religious women.
58 Godinez (unfoliated).
59 Some of the other tormentsincluded trying to choke her, dragging her along the ground,playing
with her as if she were a ball, making her bustle about, "finally they treatedher like anotherJob, causing her more pain than she could ever explain in words."Godinez (unfoliated).

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The conversion of a private, individual, and feminine event into a socially

accepted cultural value (in a public and collective way) required a certain
process. First, the apparitions, despite their inherent threatening nature, had
to fulfil certain religious and cultural conditions for the community to consider them valid and believable. The Church had a whole set of procedures
to accept or reject the inclusion of supernatural events within the framework
of faith. The publication of the nuns' biographies suggests that the events

described in them conformed to certain requirementsthat had been previously agreed upon. If they had not, then they would not have been made
available to the public in the seventeenth- and eighteenth-centuryNew
Spain. This suggests that, between the events that these nuns experienced
and their transformationinto a socially accepted archetype,there was a previous process. At a first level, the community within the convent judged
whether a supernaturalevent was valid and worthy of consideration.The
Church,throughits system of censorshipand the authorityof confessors and
biographers,provided the next and most decisive stage for the acceptance
and then the propagationof the event and its implications. It is in this way
that we can explain how the very privateand individualevents that occurred
to a particulargroup of women became transformedinto the elements of a
widely socially accepted model of feminine virtue.
BenemefritaUniversidadAut6nomade Puebla

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