María de Agreda
| Venerable Mary of Jesus of Ágreda, O.I.C. | |
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| Virgin and religious | |
| Born | 2 April 1602 Ágreda, Soria, Spain |
| Died | 24 May 1665 (aged 63) Ágreda, Soria, Spain |
| Venerated in |
Catholic Church (Conceptionists) |
| Major shrine | Monastery of La Concepción, Ágreda, Soria, Spain, Spain |
| Feast | – |
Mary of Jesus of Ágreda (Spanish: María de Jesús), OIC, also known as the Abbess of Ágreda (2 April 1602 – 24 May 1665), was a Franciscan abbess and spiritual writer, known especially for her extensive correspondence with King Philip IV of Spain and reports of her bilocation between Spain and its colonies in New Spain (now New Mexico and Texas). She was a noted mystic of her era.
A member of the Order of the Immaculate Conception, also known as Conceptionists, Mary of Jesus wrote fourteen books, including a series of revelations about the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Her bilocation activity is said to have occurred between her cloistered monastery in rural Spain and the Jumano Indians of central New Mexico and West Texas, and inspired many Franciscan missionaries in the New World. In popular culture since the 17th century, she has been dubbed the Lady in Blue and the Blue Nun, after the color of her order's habit.
She was born María Coronel y de Arana, the daughter of Francisco Coronel, a converso of Jewish descent, and Catalina de Arana, in Ágreda, a town located in the Province of Soria. The couple had 11 children, of whom only four survived into adulthood: Francisco, José, María and Jerónima. Maria later described her mother as the more lively of the two, though both were very fervent in their faith. The family had close ties with the Franciscan friars of the Friary of San Julián, which lay on the outskirts of the town. Either the mother would go to the friary with her children for Mass and confession, or the friars would visit the family home. Nonetheless, Mary later recalled that, as a very young child, she felt her parents were very hard on her.
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