Josefa de la Provincia

Other names/titles:
Gender: F
Ethnic origin: White

Biographical details

She was a nun at the austere Carmelite nunnery of Beaterio de Las Nazarenas of El Callao (founded around 1680, and recognised by the church in 1738). Inmates went barefoot, and wore coarse robes with a rope around their necks. Under their veils were crowns of thorns. When they appeared in public for some functions they carried wooden crosses. Fasting was encouraged, silence imposed. Inmates slept on wooden boards. The convent was small; spurned by the upper classes. In 1790 Josefa de la Providencia wrote of it: “In the beginning the Lord brought Las Nazarenas neither countesses nor marchionesses, only poor and humble women.” If small, the convent was respected and admired. It survived Independence and Martín wrote “it remains to this day a fine example of female monasticism in the heart of old Lima”. (Martín, 202-205)

Life Events

Other

1790

She wrote about her life in the nunnery.

References

Martín, Luis, (1983), Daughters of the Conquistadores: Women of the Viceroyalty of Peru

Publications

There is no writing by this subject in the database.

Links

Resource id #21 (80)

Resource id #25 (38)

Gendering Latin American Independence

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