Brides of Christ : conventual life in Colonial Mexico

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Brides of Christ : conventual life in Colonial Mexico

Asunción Lavrin

Stanford University Press, 2008

  • : cloth

Available at  / 3 libraries

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Note

Bibliography: p. [445]-484

Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Brides of Christ invites the modern reader to follow the histories of colonial Mexican nuns inside the cloisters where they pursued a religious vocation or sought shelter from the world. Lavrin provides a complete overview of conventual life, including the early signs of vocation, the decision to enter a convent, profession, spiritual guidelines and devotional practices, governance, ceremonials, relations with male authorities and confessors, living arrangements, servants, sickness, and death rituals. Individual chapters deal with issues such as sexuality and the challenges to chastity in the cloisters and the little-known subject of the nuns' own writings as expressions of their spirituality. The foundation of convents for indigenous women receives special attention, because such religious communities existed nowhere else in the Spanish empire.

Table of Contents

Contents Acknowledgments 000 Introduction 000 1 The Path to the Convent 000 2 The Novice Becomes a Nun. 000 3 The Spiritual Meanings of Religious Life 000 4 Government, Hierarchies and Ceremonials 000 5 Daily Life in the Convent. 000 6 Body, Soul and Death 000 7 Sexuality: A Challenge to Chastity 000 8 Indian Brides of Christ 000 9 The Struggle over Vida Comun 000 10 Writing in the Cloisters 000 Epilogue 000 Appendix Convents of New Spain: Foundation Date and Religious Affiliation 000 Notes 000 Bibliography 000 Printed Primary Sources 000 Index 000

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