Rebellious Nuns The Troubled History of a Mexican Convent, 1752-1863

by Chowning, Margaret

• ISBN13: 9780195182217
• ISBN10: 0195182219
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-11-10
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Nuns are hardly associated in the popular mind with rebellion and turmoil. In fact, convents have often been the scenes of conflict, but what went on behind the walls of convents was meant by the church to be mysterious. Great care was taken to prevent the "scandal" of factionalism in the nunneries from becoming widely known. This has made it very difficult to reconstruct the battles fought, the issues debated, and the relationships tested in such convents. Margaret Chowning has discovered a treasure-trove of documents that allow an intimate look at two crises that wracked the convent of La Purísima Concepción in San Miguel el Grande, New Spain (Mexico). At the heart of both rebellions were attempts by some nuns to impose a regimen of strict observance of their vows on the others, and the resistance mounted by those who had a different view of the convent and their own role in it. Would the community adopt as austere a lifestyle as they could endure, doing manual labor, suffering hunger and physical discomfort, deprived of the society of family and friends? Or would these women be allowed to lead comfortable and private lives when not at prayer? Accusations and counteraccusations flew. First one side and then the other seemed to have the upper hand. For a time, a mysterious and dramatic illness broke out among the rebellious nuns, capturing the limelight. Were they faking? Were they unconsciously influenced by their ringleader, the charismatic and manipulative young women who first experienced the "mal"? Rebellious Nuns covers the history of the convent from its founding in 1752 to the forced eviction of the nuns in 1863. While the period of rebellion is at the center of the narrative, Chowning also gives an account of the factors that led up to the crises and the rebellion's continuing repercussions on the convent in the decades to follow. Drawing on an abundance of sources, including numerous letters written by the bishop and local vicar as well as nuns of both factions, Chowning is able to give us not just the voices but the personalities of the nuns and other actors. In this way she makes it possible for us to empathize with all of them and to appreciate the complicated dynamics of having committed your life not only to God but to your community.

Author Biography

Margaret Chowning is Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Wealth and Power in Provincial Mexico: Michoacan from the Late Colony to the Revolution (1999).

Table of Contents

Introduction	3	(18)
PART I---Rebellion
An Ill-fated Convent for a Pious Town	21	(250)
The First Crisis in the Convent (1756--1762)
Reforming Abbesses and Rebellious Nuns	61	(40)
``Seminary of Discord''
La Purisima under Phelipa de San Antonio, 1769--1772	101	(50)
PART II---Struggle
``To live happily and in peace within . . . their enclosure''
Changing Relationships among Bishops, Abbesses, and Nuns, 1772--1792	151	(32)
Phelipa's Vision Triumphant
The Abolition of the Vida Comun	183	(36)
La Purisima after Independence
Toward Extinction	219	(44)
Epilogue
The Convent of La Purisima Concepcion in Post-Reform Mexico	263	(8)
Appendix Bishops and Abbesses, 1756--1863	271	(2)
Bibliography	273	(10)
Index	283