Spain's Mary of Jesus: 1602 A.D. to Pentecost morning, 1665 A.D.
Spain. 1621 - 1631 A.D.: By verified and investigated historical report, a famous Christian "Mystic" named Mary of Agreda, while residing in her native Spain, traveled in the spirit hundreds of times to appear before and teach the Jumanos, a previously unreached tribe of Native American Indians in Texas and New Mexico, about Jesus. They referred to her as "the woman in blue" (the blue garb of her order) and confirmed that she visited them often. Mary never left Spain to visit the Americas. When questioned by skeptical Spanish church authorities she was able to describe the physical appearance of one of their battle-disfigured chiefs so well that missionaries who finally visit the tribe recognize the man immediately. The Inquisition became suspicious and investigated her, but ended up finding no crime.
Mary was born in 1602 A.D. Her parents were faded nobility, the Coronel family. Agreda was a small town in Old Castile, on the border of Aragon. There were reportedly 11 children born to this family, but most died young. From an early age Mary was very interested in Jesus and very devoted to Him. She loved the church. She was allowed to enter a convent, and did so with her mother and two surviving sisters...the order of the Poor Clares of the Immaculate Conception in Agreda. The men of her family, her father and two surviving brothers, reportedly became Franciscans friars at the same time. The whole family apparently decided to devote their life to Jesus. As for Mary, the life suited her wonderfully, and she was able to make her official profession at age 18, choosing the name Sister Mary of Jesus for herself.
She was especially devoted, even among her sister nuns, and was very kind and very well liked. She was very austere and hard on herself, in imitation of the sacrifices she felt that Jesus had made for those He came to save. She slept on a board, reportedly for only two or three hours a night and then used the extra time for prayer, contemplation and sacrifices. She did not eat meat or eggs or dairy. She also took on the most menial tasks and work available, such as tending to the sick and washing the dirty linen. It impressed the other Poor Clares. They chose her to be their abbess when she was only 25, and she held that post for 38 years, though she asked for and was allowed one 3 year period where she stood down from those duties so that she could concentrate on her devotions more fully. She was known to become engrossed in what people referred to as 'ectasies' sometimes while praying. These could last several hours, and she would seem to be entranced while looking up towards Heaven. Investigators said that she was observed to rise above the floor a small bit, and her praying body could be shifted by breezes during these times.
She was famously known for being exceptionally wise and having an almost palpable faith. It was reported that whenever she would speak about Jesus to people they would feel a strong and unusual passion stir in their chest. She therefore became well and widely known for her piety, and seemed very favored and blessed. Important bishops and notables within Spain sought to meet and speak with her. Phillip IV, the King of Spain came to know her well and they corresponded through written letters for about 22 years, and he valued her wisdom and advice. She was an important spiritual advisor to him and even gave advice on some matters of state.
Areas of the future United States were being settled by the Spanish during this time period, and many of the religious orders and church members in Spain were praying that the Native Americans would be won to Christ, and be baptized as Christians. Missionaries were in the Americas reaching out to tribes, but in many cases it was difficult work. Not all tribes were receptive. Mary never traveled to the Americas at any time during her life, but she was among those who prayed that many Native Americans would be won to Jesus there. Amazingly, between the ages of 19 to 29 she began to experience an amazing miracle when praying for these American tribes. She reportedly was given a vision of the planet, and she saw it as compressed at the poles a little, by report (which is interesting to note since that is now taught as fact.) God showed her the areas where the people were already reached with the good news about Jesus, and areas where they had not been. It was explained to her that in the North American southwest there were people who were ripe for learning about Jesus, and who would be inclined to believe if they were reached out to. After that vision, on other nights, she found herself traveling in the spirit, bilocating, to a far away desert setting and she found herself in the presence of a people who lived there. They were a real tribe, real humans, and she could see the individuals clearly, and she could talk with them in their language and tell them about Jesus. And they would hear her, see her, and listen. Then after a while she would return in the spirit to her home in the convent in Spain, and find herself kneeling still in prayer. She kept quiet about this, but for about 10 years it went on. There were hundreds of these visits, and to several different tribes in Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico.
The principal tribe she spoke to, the Jumanos, traveled as she advised them to in these strange visitations, to the location of some Franciscan missionaries in New Mexico and they explained that a very beautiful 'woman in blue' visited them and spoke to them about Jesus and told them that they needed to seek out Spanish priests and to become baptized in the name of Jesus. They said that is why they had come, to ask that some missionaries could come to them, and that she had appeared to them many times, speaking to them and being seen by them, just appearing, teaching, then leaving them when she was done teaching them. They described her appearance in great detail. The priests were happy to baptize them and teach them about Jesus, but were very curious about this 'woman in blue' and sent word back to Spain about it. An investigation was conducted, and as a noted religious figure who fit the description, Mary of Agrego was questioned, at which time she confessed that she did not know how it happened, but that she had indeed found herself visiting this tribe for years during her prayers. She described the appearance of certain individuals in the Jumano tribe in such detail that when the New Mexico missionaries working with the Jumanos were asked to verify the details, they reported that she was dead on, and that they knew the names of some of the exact people Mary spoke of because she described distinctive features of their individual faces in such detail. Here is an excerpt from a website discussing some of the details of Mary's bilocational visits to the Americas, and the evidence later gathered of the veracity of these occurrences. The website is https://www.goodshepherdlatinmass.com/post/venerable-mary-of-agreda-the-bilocating-flying-nun :
Between 1621 and 1631, when she was aged nineteen to twenty-nine years of age, Sister Mary of Agreda bilocated over five hundred times. It would happen while she was praying. Her body remained in the cloistered convent, but at the same time, she would find herself in the continent of North America, in an area of land stretching across East Texas, New Mexico and Western Arizona. She appeared to the Jumano Indians and other tribes by flying through the sky and proceeded to teach them about the Catholic faith. This resulted in many occasions of being tortured and left for dead, but she would return to her body in Spain, unharmed. Later, she would reappear to the same Indians who were completely dumbfounded as to how she was still alive.
Following the arrival of this letter, fifty Jumano Indians walked over five hundred miles and presented themselves to the Franciscan missionary where Father Benivedes was located. The Indians asked for priests to be sent among them, as they had been instructed by The Lady in Blue and all wished to be baptized. When the two Franciscan priests arrived, with their military escort, they were met by the whole Jumano tribe in procession behind a large, wooden cross decorated with flowers. Each person asked to be baptized; mothers asked for their infants. The priests catechized and baptized everyone. While this was happening, representatives from other tribes appeared, asking for baptism for their tribes as well. They too, had been instructed and sent by the Lady in Blue, though no one knew who she was. A total of ten thousand baptisms took place.
When the priests returned, they reported everything to Father Benivedes who wrote a lengthy report for church officials and the King of Spain. Father Benivedes carried the report to the Archbishop of Mexico City, before travelling to Spain. He visited the Superior General of the Franciscan order, who told him the identity of the Lady in Blue. Then in April 1631, Father Benivedes travelled to meet Sister Mary of Agreda and interviewed the humble nun. Under obedience, she told him all that she had experienced. She accurately described the appearance and face of the priests who had been part of the baptisms, she described Father Benevides' missionary work that she had witnessed with the Indians and told him so much more. Father Benivedes found her to be of such great virtue and wrote to Pope Urban VIII, King Felipe IV of Spain and the Franciscans back home in the New World.
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Did you notice that it reported that about 10,000 baptisms had taken place because of these visitations by Sister Mary? That's an even more impressive number considering it was about 350 years ago. All souls are precious to Jesus! Mary was used as a very effective tool by the Lord. The Jumano tribe, known as migratory traders during Mary's life, became very depleted over time and in the 1700's many of them merged with Apache and Wichita tribes. Some ethnologists believe they became part of the Kiowa also. Their exact language is unknown. But due to European disease and warfare, it is said their tribal identity dissolved, and they became a faction of other stronger tribes. Perhaps they were a Christianizing influence among these tribes?
Mary of Jesus wrote quite a number of books, including a book about other of her visions called The Mystical City of God that became quite controversial within the Catholic Church, so much so that it was forbidden to be published for a time. But the church authorities of her time did not dispute Mary's devotion and she was acknowledged by many as a great favorite of Heaven. When she died, at the moment that she died on the first day of the liturgical holiday of Pentecost, it was reported that an audible voice came from Heaven saying "Come on. Come on. Come on." Her body is reported to be incorruptible even now, as seen in the picture below, and there were reports of miracles occurring at her grave. She seems to have been an accepted and highly gifted servant of the Lord Jesus.