Magnus Lundberg, Uppsala university

2009-2014

The project's aim was to study contemplative women in the Spanish Empire during the 1600s and 1700s, and examine their role in the missionary enterprise. The group consists mainly of nuns, but other types of contemplative women as well: beatas, recogidas and donadas. Previous researchers have often argued that colonial women had no role in the missionary work. But this conclusion is due to the fact that that they consider "mission" as the work with non-Christians on a "mission field." In my study, I have instead defined "mission" as a person's conscious acts, which are perceived as contributions to other people's conversion and salvation. Using a large source material, I have distilled themes that are of importance to the study of the relationship between contemplative and apostolic life.

The project has essentially followed the plan, but I have made some adjustments. My chronological delimitation has changed from 1680-1800 to 1630-1800. This is because the types of sources that I have been particularly interested in emerged around the year 1630, the number of documents written before 1680 and after 1770, however, is small. The geographic area has been broadened. In the project plan I stated that I would focus on Mexico and Peru, but I have also chosen to include texts from other parts of the Spanish Empire: Ecuador, Guatemala, Colombia, Chile and the Philippines. In all these cases, however, there only exist a small number of writings and my focus is still on Mexico and Peru.

As sources, I use texts by 20 contemplative women (autobiographies, spiritual diaries and letters). I also use writings about women written by churchmen, including 40 hagiographies and 25 funeral sermons. In addition, I build on a number of other textual genres: rules and constitutions, confession manuals, chronicles, and profession sermons. The empirical material is thus very extensive. Many writings have been preserved only in a few copies, but I have been able to consult them in libraries in Chile, Spain and the United States. The number of digitally available publications has also increased rapidly during the last couple of years.

Without doubt the most comprehensive outcome of the project is a monograph of 300 pages. Currently (August 2014) I have finished the text and only the language check remains. My other publications can be seen as developments on aspects that I deal with in the monograph. Early on, I contacted an international publishing house, which wanted to publish the book, but I have come to the conclusion that I will rather make the book freely available online. A book will be printed, but it will also be downloadable through relevant databases. This way, the number of potential readers will naturally be much greater.

The discussion of the project's main result is intimately connected with the arguments presented in the monograph. There, I use three analytical concepts: gender, agents and space. Most of the book consists of a discussion of the five mission-related themes: love, prayer, suffering, teaching and spiritual flights. The project has not been quantitatively oriented, but I have found relevant themes in most texts I have studied. My observations in the pilot studies have become much clearer. Missionary themes are certainly not peripheral, but central in order to understand Spanish-American women's contemplative life.

As a background to the discussion of the mission-related themes, I make a study of the detachment from the world which was regarded as an ideal for contemplative women, particularly nuns. I analyze the religious vows: poverty, chastity, obedience and enclosure. They emphasize women's submission and humility. Still, to reach perfection an active struggle was needed. Women's withdrawal may appear to be the opposite of an active, outward-looking religious life, but it is that view I have tried to problematize through my project.

The five chapters dealing with mission-related themes have a common structure. They contain an overview of relevant theological themes found biblical, early church, medieval and early modern texts. This part is followed by studies of individual contemplative women's spirituality, based on texts by and about them. Each chapter ends with an analysis of the common sub-themes, and in these parts, I complement the case studies with examples from texts on or by other women. It is important to present common features, but these must be related to specific cases, where I put the individual texts in a historical and literary context.

A basic image in the source material is that the church is the Body of Christ, where all Christians (Catholics) are limbs with different tasks. There can be an exchange between the body parts. There is a "spiritual solidarity" or a "spiritual economics". The body includes not only living people but souls in heaven and purgatory. The basic idea is that some people through their holy lives produces a surplus of merits that can be transferred those in need to contribute to their salvation.

The love of God and neighbor was stated that the main driving force for mission engagement. The initiative came from God and the women responded by loving God and neighbor. Women realized that all human beings were not Christians and that many Catholics were sinners or suffered in purgatory. Therefore, they felt a vocation to contribute to their salvation. They expressed a desire to go out and teach, preach and die a martyr's death. But as women, they had no opportunity to do so. The inability to express their love led to frustration and this frustration contributed to their search for other ways to contribute to humanity's salvation.

In my study, the concepts of agency and space are key analytical terms. Early Modern Catholic women were not granted any formal ecclesiastical authority. However, the chosen ones could have charismatic authority, founded on gracious graces which God had given them to be used for the good of others. Prayer for other human beings was an important part of the contemplative mission. Women could pray for other Catholics, but also for non-Christians, missions and missionaries. Through divinely conceded knowledge they could observe people's spiritual needs, both those living on earth and those in purgatory. Through suffering they sought to imitate Christ, who had suffered and died for humanity's salvation. They resisted diseases, demonic temptations and exposed themselves to self-inflicted pain and fasts. The merits of their suffering could be conceded to others, and the women became a kind of co-redeemers. The knowledge that God had given them, gave them the opportunity to teach and be spiritual advisers. With the grace of God they had greater abilities to understand and help people than many priests. Through spiritual journeys to mission fields, they oversaw the missions and missionary activities, but during their flights they could also interact with people through preaching, baptizing and teaching, tasks which was otherwise reserved to men. Overall, they had a kind of boundless, divinely conceded, spiritual agency. As God always was presented as real, ultimate actor, for women, agency was mediated or indirect. Still, they were effective agents.

The second analytical concept is space, which have both geographical and social aspects. Nuns who lived in enclosure had a very limited physical mobility. When they professed, they would remain within the convent walls until their death, and their contact with the outside world was limited. But even in the monastery were some border areas where they could meet people. Hidden behind grilles and thick curtains they conversed with men and women, laity and clergy. These border areas became a sort of pulpit, even if the activity was not described as a preaching. Still, in the hagiographical accounts, their advice and instruction was presented as very effective and contributed to conversions. Prayer and suffering took place within the convent walls, but the spiritual space included both earth and purgatory. They could travel to purgatory and souls from there could visit them in the convent. They could also travel to heaven and hell. The most obvious transgression of the limited space were the spiritual flights to mission fields.

By its nature, the project has international connections. Above all, I have been in touch with individual researchers in Chile, Peru, Mexico, the United States, Great Britain, Spain and the Philippines. I am also a member of an international research network (GEMELA), which focus on women in the Spanish-and Portuguese-speaking world before the year 1800. The project has been presented in academic contexts, both in Sweden and other countries, but also for a wider audience through public events at Uppsala University, at seminars arranged Swedish Americanists and in Swedish Catholic contexts.

The completed project has further deepened my interest in the relationships between mission, contemplation and gender. I have developed a new project on male missionaries in South America. Using a large textual corpus from the 1600s and 1700s I plan to analyze how these relationships were treated in colonial writings. The new project can be seen as a continuation of the recently completed, where I want to study masculinity, contemplation and mission.

For more information, se my web site: http://katalog.uu.se/empInfo?id=N4-234

Publications

Mission and Ecstasy: Contemplative Women and Salvation in Colonial Spanish America and the Philippines (monografi, cirka 300 sidor)

”Guds sargade atlet: Isabel de la Encarnación och demonerna”, i: Susanne Olsson, Olof Sundqvist & David Thurfjell (red.) Zlatan Frälsaren och andra texter om religion och idrott, Stockholm, 2014.

“Contemplative Women with Wings: Spiritual Missions in Colonial Spanish America” [accepterad för publicering i konferensvolym, Krakow]

Ett flertal recensioner i Kyrkohistorisk Årsskrift 2010-2013.