Acknowledgments xi
Abbreviations xiii
Introduction 1
Translations and Transformations: Sister Margaret of the Mother of
God beyond the Brussels Carmel. An Essay by Paul Arblaster 47
Translator’s Note 61
Sister Margaret of the Mother of God (1587–1646)
Autobiography of 1635 65
Diary of 1636 133
Diary of 1637 175
Letter to Her Confessor (1643) 235
Devotions 239
Appendix A: Report of the Last Illness and Death of Our Sister
Margaret of the Mother of God, Lay Nun in the Convent of the
Discalced Carmelites of Brussels 251
Appendix B: Testimonies to Sister Margaret’s Virtues 259
Appendix C: Signs after Death from Sister Margaret 273
Appendix D: Letters concerning Sister Margaret’s Writings 277
Glossary 287
Bibliography 293
Index 311
Cordula van Wyhe is a Senior Lecturer at the History of Art
Department, University of York, UK. She is the editor of
Isabel Clara Eugenia: Female Sovereignty in the Courts of
Madrid and Brussels (2012).
Susan M. Smith is Elliott Professor of Modern Languages at
Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. She is the editor of Los
coloquios del Alma: Cuatro dramas alegóricos de Sor Marcela de
San Félix, hija de Lope de Vega (2006).
Cordula van Wyhe’s edition and Susan Smith’s translation of
Margaret of the Mother of God’s Spanish texts give voice to
the unique life of a religious laywoman from
the seventeenth-century Low Countries. Writing from the
kitchen of her Discalced Carmelite convent in Brussels, Sister
Margaret documents topics including her early life as the daughter
of a Flemish military officer, her spiritual growth, and
her battle with chronic illness. Translations and commentary
of other texts written posthumously about Margaret are also
provided. This superb edition offers a valuable contribution
to the study of early modern women living within the
Habsburg Empire and the far-reaching effects of a larger Teresian
community in northern Europe
Sarah E. Owens, Professor of Spanish, College of Charleston
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