A life of ecstasy: images and words of divine origin in confessional dialogues between confessors and nuns

Abstract

This article examines female mystical writing in Baroque New Spain, focusing on confessional dialogues between nuns and their confessors as spaces of control, symbolic creation, and spiritual experience. The authors analyze how convent life offered women an alternative to marriage and family, enabling the development of intense inner lives, albeit under strict ecclesiastical supervision. The study situates this phenomenon within the historical context of the Counter-Reformation and the consolidation of the Church’s ideological project in colonial society, where female mysticism played a key role in shaping models of sanctity and spiritual authority. Through the analysis of autobiographies, confessional writings, and spiritual texts—particularly those of Mother Francisca de la Natividad—the article explores the use of images, metaphors, and divine symbols as rhetorical strategies for articulating ecstasy, suffering, and union with God. It also highlights the ambivalent role of the confessor as both spiritual guide and censor, as well as the function of writing as an act of obedience, penitence, and literary creation. The article concludes that these writings not only illuminate the spiritual lives of Novohispanic nuns but also constitute a valuable literary corpus for understanding the intersections of power, gender, religion, and writing in colonial culture.