María de Santo Domingo

María de Santo Domingo (b. c. 1486–d. 1524) was a Dominican tertiary who acquired extraordinary fame for her prophecies and revelations. She gained support from powerful figures such as Cardinal Cisneros and King Ferdinand the Catholic and participated in the reform of the Dominican order. She was, along with her contemporary Juana de la Cruz (b. 1481–d. 1534), one of the most renowned Castilian visionary women before Teresa of Avila and an author of spiritual works. However, María de Santo Domingo (like Juana de la Cruz) did not write the works herself; rather, it was her Dominican followers who recorded her words. The main information about her life and spirituality comes from the records of the last of the four trials or examinations held to decide on the sanctity of her life (1509–1510), and from the two texts she composed: the Book of Prayer and the Revelations, both of which have recently been edited. Secondary sources include the accounts of the foundation of her convent, exchanged letters, and chronicles of the Dominican order. She was called the Beata of Piedrahita (Avila) because of the support given to her by the reformist friars of the Piedrahita convent, which was where she took the habit of the Third Order around 1504, and where the fame created by her supernatural experiences began. After living in the beaterio (a house for women of the Third Order) of Santa Catalina (Avila), traveling to the itinerant court, and visiting convents with the purpose of reform during years of controversial activity, around 1514 she moved to the convent of Aldeanueva (Avila), built for her community by the Second Duke of Alba. Despite her fame, the Order of Preachers did not initiate a beatification process after her death, likely because she had contributed to the schism within the order by supporting the reformers. Although an ecclesiastical court acquitted her, her revelations were ultimately prohibited from being spread, and she was forbidden from communicating with the outside world. From the end of the nineteenth century until the 1990s, María de Santo Domingo was linked either to a heterodox movement (Alumbradism) or to the reform of the Dominican order encouraged by Cisneros. This selective bibliography shows how not only did the political and theological circumstances surrounding María play a significant role in her life and works, but so did the inspiration of other notable female mystics in medieval Europe, such as the Italian “living saints.”