Twice ToldBenavides's letter to the New Mexico friars, 1631: the abbess's habit (Mexico reprint, 1730)
- Language
- Spanish
- Reading
- transcribed from the page image
- Translation
- ours
- Retrieved
- 10 October 2026
A paragraph of the letter that Fray Alonso de Benavides wrote from Madrid in 1631 to the friars of New Mexico after visiting María de Jesús at Ágreda. It is the only place in the texts we read where a blue garment belongs to the nun. The pamphlet is the 1730 Mexico printing, “Tanto que se sacó de una carta”, and the page begins mid-sentence.
para obligar à la Bendita M. por obediencia, que me manifestasse todo lo que sabia a cerca del nuevo Mexico: a cuya comission fui de esta Corte, y llegué à Agreda vltimo dia de Abril de 1631. y antes de decir otra cosa, digo: que dicha M. MARIA DE JESVS, Abbadesa que es oy del Conveto de la Concepcion, &c. serà de 29. años, que no los tiene cumplidos, de hermoso rostro, color muy blanco, aunque rosado, ojos negros, y grandes; la forma de su Abito, y de todas las Religiosas de aquel Convento, que por todas son 29. es solo el Abito nuestro, esto es de sayal pardo, grueso, a raiz de las carnes, sin otra tunica, saya, ni faldellin; y sobre este Abito pardo, el de sayal blanco, y grueso con su Escapulario de lo mismo, y Cuerda de N. P. S. Francisco; y sobre el Escapulario su Rosario, sin chapines, ni otro calzado, mas de vnas tablas atadas à los pies, ò vnas abarcas de esparto; el manto es de sayal azul, grueso, y velo negro.
Translation
…to oblige the Blessed Mother, by obedience, to tell me everything she knew about New Mexico. I came from this Court on that commission, and reached Ágreda on the last day of April 1631. Before I say anything else, I say that the said Mother María de Jesús, now abbess of the Convent of the Conception, must be 29, though she has not yet completed that age, with a beautiful face, very white skin though rosy, and large black eyes. The form of her habit, and of all the nuns of that convent, who are 29 in all, is just ours: that is, of thick grey-brown sackcloth (pardo), next to the skin, with no other tunic, skirt or petticoat. Over this brown habit comes the one of thick white sackcloth, with its scapular of the same and the cord of our father Saint Francis, and over the scapular her rosary. They wear no clogs or other footwear, only some boards tied to their feet or some esparto sandals. The cloak is of thick blue sackcloth, and the veil black.
Notes
- Transcription conventions: spelling and abbreviations are as printed, with the long s printed as s. “Conveto” is “Convento” with a tilde over the e.
- “Sayal” is coarse woollen cloth. “Pardo” is a dull brown or grey; the 1945 English translation renders it as “gray”.
- The text before “para obligar” is on the previous page, which we did not transcribe.
- The 1945 English translation of the same letter is in Appendix XI-A, p. 138 of Hodge, Hammond and Rey.