Woman, virtue, and desire: The female icon in New Spain

This is a case study of the representation of female sanctity in New Spain. The three sacred biographies about Catalina de San Juan (1605?–1688), the veneration of her image, and the censorship of her cult by the Spanish Inquisition, offer a faithful approach to the New World\u27s concerns in the XVII century. Ascetical-moral prescriptions by the ecclesiastic ministry through catechisms, confession manuals, and, especially, novenas and various devotional works, also outline the expectations of a behavior that would lead to sanctity, the primary goal in life. Purity, fasting, silence, prayer, maceration, and obedience are inherent aspects of the one who bore the name of Christ and aspired to His imitation. This ascetic program fell with particular rigor on women, thought to be prone to the weaknesses of the flesh. Thus, the purification of the corporeal is the obligatory passo toward a mystical union that recreates the sensuality of mysterious struggles, in which Christ is manifested primarily as Lover, Sor Juana\u27s Divine Narcissus, enacting, once more, the erotic melody of the Song of Songs. ^ The XIX century saw la Santa China de Puebla with new eyes. The image of beatitude so exalted by her confessors is then transformed into a national icon and a symbol of independence, whose coquetry and frivolity were already far from the Baroque ideal of sanctity. Upon comparing the historical person to the legend of the China Poblana, transmitted by tradition and literature, the life of this holy Hindu woman adopted by Puebla de los Angeles emerges even more clearly: a patent manifestation of the Prodigios de la Omnipotencia under the fervent direction of the Society of Jesus. Such was the feeling in New Spain, getting ready to propose this convert slave and favored neighbor to the dignity of the altar, the privileged space of the European, old Christian, and consecrated man. The awaited process of her cause would have meant the acceptance of a maturity of faith that called for independence—to which the Crown, unfortunately, was not willing. Catalina\u27s Life remains in history as an “epic story of New Spain\u27s identity” (Myers, “Testimony” 277).