Maria of Agreda: Mystical Lady in Blue

News of Mara of gredas exceptional attributes spread from her cloistered convent in seventeenth-century greda (Spain) to the court in Madrid and beyond. Without leaving her village the abbess impacted the kingdom her church and the New World; Spanish Hapsburg king Felipe IV sought her spiritual and political counsel for over twenty-two years. Based upon her transcendent visionary experiences Sor Mara chronicled the life of Mary mother of Jesus of Nazareth in Mystical City of God a work the Spanish Inquisition temporarily condemned. In America reports emerged that she had miraculously appeared to Jumano Native Americans--a feat corroborated by witnesses in Spain Texas and New Mexico where she is honored today as the legendary "Lady in Blue." Lauded in Spain as one of the most influential women in its history and in the United States as an inspiring pioneer Sor Maras story will appeal to cultural historians and to women who have struggled for equality against all odds. Marilyn Fedewas biography of this fascinating woman integrates voluminous autobiographical historical and literary sources published by and about Mara of greda. With liberal access to Sor Maras papal delegate in Spain and convent archives in greda Fedewa skillfully reconstructs a historical and spiritual backdrop against which Sor Maras voice may be heard.