Maria de Agreda

In a historical compendium that has just been published on the life of Maria de Jesus de Agreda, we find an extraordinary fact of bicorporeity, which proves that such phenomena are perfectly accepted by religion. It is true that, for certain persons, religious beliefs are no more authorities than spirit beliefs. But when those beliefs rest upon the demonstrations given by Spiritism, upon the patent proofs it furnishes, by a personal theory, of their possibility, without derogating from the laws of Nature, and of their reality through analogous and authentic examples, it will be necessary to yield to the evidence and to recognize, outside the known laws, the existence of others that still belong to the secrets of God.

Maria de Jesus was born in Agreda, a city of Castile, on April 2, 1602, of noble parents of exemplary virtue. While still very young she became superior of the monastery of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, where she died in a state of spiritual perfection. Here is the account found in her biography:

“However great our wish to summarize, we cannot fail to speak here of the absolutely exceptional role of missionary and of apostolate that Maria de Agreda exercised in New Mexico. The fact we are about to narrate, whose incontestable proofs would prove, by themselves alone, how elevated were the supernatural gifts with which God had enriched his humble servant, and how ardent the zeal she nourished in her heart for the salvation of her neighbor. In her intimate and extraordinary relations with God, she received a vivid light, with the aid of which she discovered the whole world, the multitude of men who inhabited it, among whom were those who had not yet entered the bosom of the Church and were in evident danger of being lost for eternity. At the sight of the loss of so many souls, Maria de Agreda felt her heart broken and, in her pain, multiplied fervent prayers. God made her know that the peoples of New Mexico presented fewer obstacles to their conversion than the rest of men, and it was especially upon them that the divine mercy wished to pour itself out. This knowledge was a new goad to the charitable heart of Maria de Agreda who, from the depths of her soul, implored the divine clemency in favor of that poor people. God himself ordered her to pray and to work to that end. And she did so in so efficacious a manner that the Lord, whose reasons are impenetrable, operated in her and through her one of the greatest marvels that History can relate. “One day, the Lord having rapt her in ecstasy, at the moment when she was praying insistently for the salvation of those souls, Maria de Agreda felt herself suddenly transported to a distant and unknown region, without knowing how. She found herself, then, in a setting that was not that of Castile and experienced the rays of a sun more ardent than usual. Men of a race she had never encountered were before her, and God ordered her to satisfy her charitable desires and to preach the law and the holy faith to that people. The ecstatic of Agreda obeyed the order. She preached to those Indians in her Spanish tongue, and the infidels understood as if she were speaking to them in their mother tongue. Conversions in great number followed. Returning from the ecstasy, this holy woman found herself in the same place where she was at the beginning of the rapture. It was not only once that Maria de Jesus performed this marvelous role of missionary and apostle among the inhabitants of New Mexico. The first ecstasy of the kind occurred in 1622; but it was followed by five more ecstasies of the same type, over the course of about eight years. Maria de Agreda found herself frequently in that same region to continue her apostolate. It seemed to her that the number of the converted had increased prodigiously, and that an entire nation, with the king at its head, was resolved to embrace the faith in Jesus Christ. “She saw at the same time, but at a great distance, the Spanish Franciscans who were laboring for the conversion of that new world, but who still were ignorant of the existence of that people whom she had converted. Such a consideration led her to advise the Indians to send some of their number to those missionaries, to ask them to come and administer baptism to them. It was by this means that Divine Providence wished to give a spectacular manifestation of the good that Maria de Agreda had done in New Mexico, by her ecstatic preaching.

“One day the Franciscan missionaries, whom Maria de Agreda had seen in Spirit, but at a great distance, found themselves approached by a group of Indians of a race they had not yet encountered in their excursions. These announced themselves as envoys of their nation, asking the grace of baptism with great insistence. Surprised at the sight of these Indians, and still more astonished by the request they made, the missionaries set about to learn its cause. The envoys answered: that for a long time a woman had appeared in their country, announcing the law of Jesus Christ. They added that this woman would disappear at times, without anyone being able to discover her retreat; that she had made known to them the true God and had advised them to go to the missionaries, in order to obtain, for the whole nation, the grace of the sacrament that redeems sins and transforms men into children of God. The surprise of the missionaries grew still more when, interrogating the Indians on the mysteries of the faith, they found them perfectly instructed in all that is necessary for salvation. The missionaries took all possible information about this woman; but all that the Indians could say was that they had never seen a similar person. Nevertheless, some descriptive details of the garments led the missionaries to suspect that this woman wore the habit of a nun, and one of them, who had with him the portrait of the venerable mother Luisa de Carrion, still living, whose sanctity was known throughout Spain, showed it to the Indians, thinking, perhaps, that they might recognize some features of the woman-apostle. These, after examining the portrait, answered that the woman who had preached to them the law of Jesus Christ did indeed have a veil, like this one whose image was presented to them; but that, in the features of the face, she was completely different, being younger and of great beauty. “Then some missionaries set out with the indigenous emissaries, to gather among them so abundant a harvest. After several days of journeying they arrived in the midst of the tribe, being received with the most vivid demonstrations of joy and gratitude. On the journey they were able to verify that in all the individuals of that race the Christian instruction was complete.

“The chief of the nation, the object of the special solicitude of the servant of God, wished to be the first to receive the grace of baptism, with all his family, the entire nation following his example within a few days.

“Notwithstanding these great events, they still did not know who was the servant of the Lord who had evangelized these peoples, and a holy curiosity and pious impatience to know her was nourished. Above all Father Alonzo de Benavides, who was the superior of the Franciscan missionaries in New Mexico, wished to break the mysterious veil that still covered the name of this woman-apostle, aspiring to return momentarily to Spain to discover the retreat of this unknown nun, who had cooperated prodigiously in the salvation of so many souls. In 1630 he was able, at last, to embark for Spain, and he went directly to Madrid, where the General of his order was then located. Benavides made known to him the object he had proposed to himself in undertaking his voyage to Europe. The General knew Maria de Jesus Agreda and, in accordance with the duty of his office, had had to examine to the bottom the inner life of this nun. He knew, therefore, her sanctity, as well as the sublimity of the paths in which God had placed her. The thought soon came to him that this privileged woman might well be the woman-apostle of whom Father Benavides spoke, to whom he communicated his impressions. He gave him credentials, by which he constituted him his commissary, with an order to Maria de Agreda to answer with all simplicity the questions he should see fit to address to her. With such dispatches, the missionary set out for Agreda. “The humble sister thus found herself obliged to reveal to the missionary all that she knew with reference to the object of his mission to her. Confused, and at the same time docile, she related to Benavides all that had happened to her in her ecstasies, adding frankly that she completely ignored the manner in which her action had been able to exercise itself at so great a distance. Benavides also interrogated the sister on the particularities of the places she must have visited so many times and perceived that she was very well informed about everything connected with New Mexico and its inhabitants. She set forth to him, in the smallest details, the topography of those regions and revealed it to him, making use even of the proper names, as a traveler would have done after several years spent in those regions. She added even that she had seen Benavides and his religious several times, indicating the places, the days, the hours, the circumstances, and furnishing special details about each of the missionaries.

“One easily understands the relief of Benavides at having, finally, discovered the privileged soul of which God had made use to exercise his miraculous action upon the inhabitants of New Mexico.

“Before leaving the city of Agreda, Benavides wished to draw up a declaration of all that he had verified, whether in America or in Agreda, in his conversations with the servant of God. In this document he expressed his personal conviction concerning the manner in which the action of Maria de Jesus had made itself felt upon the Indians. He was inclined to believe that such action had been material. On the subject the humble nun always kept a great reserve. Despite the countless indications that led Benavides to conclude what, before him, the confessor of the servant of God had already concluded, indications that seemed to point to a bodily change of place, Maria de Agreda always persisted in believing that everything took place in Spirit. In her humility, she was strongly tempted to think that the phenomenon was nothing but mere hallucination, though, on her part, innocent and involuntary. But her director, who knew the bottom of things, thought that the nun was transported bodily, in her ecstasies, to the places of her evangelical labors. He supported his opinion on the physical impression that the change of climate had produced on Maria de Agreda, on the long series of her labors among the Indians, and on the opinion of several learned persons, whom he had consulted in great secrecy. Be that as it may, the fact remains always one of the most marvelous of which one has spoken in the annals of the saints, and it is very fitting to give a true idea, not only of the divine communications that Maria de Agreda received, but also of her candor and of her amiable sincerity.”