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Spiritual Diaries of Doña María Vela y Cueto

Author: 
Year:
Pages:164
ISBN:0-7734-5500-0
978-0-7734-5500-9
Price:$159.95
Following an earlier monograph,Doña María Vela y Cueto, Cistercian Mystic of Spain’s Golden Age (Edwin Mellen Press, 2004), in which the life and spirituality of this almost unknown Cistercian nun living in the Spanish Golden Age, Dr. Margaret A. Rees now reproduces two works by Doña María Vela y Cueto. The first volume presents her Libro de las Mercedes, consisting of the spiritual diary of this nun who, being cloistered in the city of Avila, had witnessed the reforms and influence of St. Teresa d’Avila and St. John of the Cross who recalls and records her own mystical experiences. Included in the second volume is her Vida, an autobiographical work composed in obedience to her spiritual director and reflecting the trials which could afflict a nun striving to stretch the boundaries of convent life as she aimed for sainthood.

Reviews

“The publication of these texts will give pleasure and instruction to many of us interested in spiritual writers – particularly writers who were monastics and women – at what was an exceptionally fertile period for such things in Spanish culture.” – Dr. Eric Southworth, St. Peter’s College, Oxford

“Dr. Rees’s prefaces to both Mercedes and Vida are written in a lively scholarly style. They draw on a wide range of references to other mystical texts and traditional and modern approaches to mysticism, thus making María Vela’s texts relevant to readers of different ages and backgrounds...”–Dr. Elena Carrera, Oxford Brookes University

Table of Contents

Preface by Eric A. Southworth
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
The Monasterio Cisterciense de Santa Ana
‘Tan cansada de padres ...’. María’s spiritual advisors
Convent Routine
Fasting and Food
The End of Life and the Process of Beatification
Note on the Present Edition
Vida
Actos Para Actuar El Amor
Select Bibliography