Ascetic Purification, Mystical Union, and Feminine Actualization in the Coloquios Espirituales of Sor Marcela de San Félix

I. Introduction

As a member of the Discalced Trinitarian nuns in Madrid, a respected dramatist, and the daughter of Lope de Vega, Sor Marcela de San Félix (1605-1687) is arguably the most recognized figure of Spain’s convent playwrights: an understudied group of monks and nuns who composed religious plays to be performed by and for their communities.^[1] However, in analyzing and interpreting her theatrical works, literary critics such as Christopher Gascón and Susan Smith have tended to focus primarily on Sor Marcela’s coloquio espiritual titled La Muerte del Apetito, which, as the title suggests, features the practice of mortification heavily. Thus, the studies conducted by these critics have generally emphasized the presence of the struggle of Good against Evil and the necessity of killing bodily desires in order to quell sin and enter into more intimate contact with God within Sor Marcela’s works. La Muerte del Apetito, however, is only one of Sor Marcela’s four Coloquios del Alma, which dramatize the journey of ‘Everynun’s’ soul on the path to perfection.

I would like to suggest that the tendency to read Sor Marcela’s works through the lens of La Muerte del Apetito has resulted in an overemphasis on the purgative element in her Coloquios. In other words, while purgation is an essential part of Marcela’s spiritual worldview, it is not the ordering principle behind her understanding of spiritual perfection. A more general analysis of Sor Marcela’s four colloquies within the context in which they were composed, coupled with a holistic reading of her third colloquy, De virtudes, which is also known as Del Amor Divino,^[2] reveals a dramatization of the full Mystical Way exemplified in the works of San Juan de la Cruz and Santa Teresa de Jesús. Within this via mística, the purgation of sinful desires is essential, but only inasmuch as it serves to purify human nature to enable it to enter more fully into a perfective union-by-participation with divinity. Thus, in De virtudes and across the Coloquios del Alma, Sor Marcela represents the perfection of the Christian religious woman not simply as a via purgativa, but as a holistic deification or ‘Christification:’ a perfection of body, soul, and relationships through a participation in the Divine Nature, whose transformative unification of the divine and the human is often described in nuptial terms. In other words, reading the Coloquios through the lens of the entire via mística reveals the presence of the mystical wedding as a central theme.

II. Religious and Literary Context: The Mystical Way and the Coloquios del Alma

The path of the Mystical Way and its nuptial language of perfection and union were not only central to the works of Sor Marcela and the Discalced Trinitarians, but to Christian spirituality in general, especially in Golden Age Spain.^[3] According to Bernard McGinn:

For centuries Christian Mystics had employed threefold itineraries to give an overhead view of the path to union [with God]. The most common was the distinction of the purgative-illuminative-unitive ways, which was also seen as representing three groups of persons: the beginners of the purgative way, the proficient of the illuminative, and the perfect of the unitive. John of the Cross uses the schema often. (262)

In a key passage of his chapter on San Juan de la Cruz, McGinn goes on to outline the basics of each of the three steps of the Mystical Way as employed by Juan and his associates, stating:

John [San Juan] reprises the three stages leading to the final earthly union: first, exercises in mortification and meditation; second, entering the contemplative way, which culminates in spiritual betrothal; and now advancing to the unitive way and the visits of the bridegroom and spiritual marriage. (293)

Several important points can be drawn from this summary. First, the via mística is based on an acknowledgment that the final end and the highest good for humanity is a loving union with God, a loving union consistently and explicitly described by Christian mystics in nuptial terms as a sort of mystical wedding between the individual and Christ.^[4] However, because of humanity’s sinfulness, vice must be cast out and virtue cultivated before such a union can occur. Thus, the first step of the mystical way, the via purgativa, can be seen as a purification of the human person by eliminating sin and vice. Once the soul has been purged of its sinful tendencies, it is ‘elevated’ to the second step of the mystical way: the via iluminativa. While the via purgativa is concerned with the purification of the body and its accompanying senses, in the via illuminativa the soul focuses on choosing Christ by means of embracing various virtuous and religious activities. In other words, it deals with a sort of contemplative perfection and therefore with choosing to live a life of worship, love, and service to God. Finally, the via unitiva follows. This final step of the mystical way is separated into two parts: spiritual betrothal and spiritual marriage (McGinn 292). For San Juan, this third step of the mystical way is characterized not by an absorption of humanity into divinity but by a loving, perfective, union with God, in which the individual “está su alma y cuerpo y potencias y toda su habilidad empleada…[en] servicio de su Esposo… cuando el alma llega a este estado, todo el ejercicio de la parte espiritual y de la parte sensitiva, ahora sea en hacer, ahora en padecer… siempre le causa más amor y regalo en Dios… ya todo es ejercicio de amor” (Cántico Espiritual 64–65). Many critics have interpreted San Juan de la Cruz, “mistakenly, as a world denying opponent of the goodness of the created universe” (McGinn 250) in which spiritual perfection implies the total rejection of the physical. However, McGinn notes that such an interpretation is too narrow in its focus, stating:

A careful reading of his writings shows that John has a holistic view of the union of the soul and body as a single suppository, or concrete subject. John often speaks of the alma, or soul, when he refers to purification and transformation, but this is synecdoche for the whole human person. It is important to remember that both the sense part of the person and the higher part, the spirit, need to be purified in order to attain God… sense and spirit must both work to overcome the false self and to realize their true unity. (253)

In other words, the peak of the via mística is a relationship of love which envelops the entire human experience: body, soul, and relationships. According to McGinn, this state consists of varying degrees of “union with God, deification, that is, participation in the divine nature, as well as transformation into God- four related aspects of the deep merging and communion between God and the soul” (McGinn 293). Through this union, the individual is holistically elevated through grace to participate in the Divine Nature itself both in this life and the next through a sort of divinization, whereby the soul: “queda esclarecida y transformada en Dios…. Y el alma más parece Dios que alma, y aun es Dios por participación” (de la Cruz, Subida 5.7).^[5] While I have focused primarily on San Juan in this summary of the Mystical Way, it is important to note that this same holistic transformation of the whole human person is clearly presented in the writings of Santa Teresa and Fray Luis de León as well.^[6] For a great many of the Spanish Mystics, therefore, human perfection existed on both a spiritual and a corporeal level as the perfect ordering of the entire person towards loving union with God.^[7]

This same Mystical Way can be found in Sor Marcela’s four Coloquios del Alma, a collection of plays that “siguen una trayectoria temporal en la vida de la protagonista, Alma. A lo largo de la serie, Alma nos presenta la vida de una mujer que desde joven escoge una vocación religiosa, entra en el convento como novicia, toma el velo y, al final, vive en la comunidad con todas las dificultades y las recompensas de dicha vida” (Smith and Sabat de Rivers 21). These four plays fit into the larger dramatic genre of the coloquio espiritual, a didactic, allegorical drama defined by Gascón as:

a theatrical work of middling length written in the convents to be performed at ceremonies or on special occasions, such as Christmas, the feast of Corpus Christi, a novitiate taking her vows…. This type of work [is…] characterized by allegorical characters, very little action, doctrinal content, and poetic language. (40)

While two of Sor Marcela’s coloquios, El nacimiento de Jesús and El Santísimo Sacramento, were clearly written for specific liturgical feasts (Christmas and Corpus Christ, respectively), her other four dramas – La Muerte del Apetito, Estimación de Religión, De virtudes, and Celo Indiscreto- more generally dramatize the journey of ‘Everynun’ on the path to spiritual perfection. Despite their more universal message, Smith and Sabat de Rivers note that these works still closely follow the two traditional themes of the allegorical religious drama: “la lucha por la perfección del alma y la búsqueda por la salvación” (18). More specifically, “los dos primeros dramas se enfocan en… la lucha de Alma contra la atracción del mundo, mientras que los dos últimos se enfocan en… la búsqueda de la perfección” (Smith and Sabat de Rivers 24). In addition, Smith notes that Marcela’s coloquios “emphasize the traits of humility, self-knowledge, and self-denial with echoes of the mystical writers of the previous century” (Colloquies 8).^[8] In fact, various critics have recognized the influence of the teachings of Santa Teresa and San Juan on Sor Marcela and the centrality of the Mystical Way to Sor Marcela’s life and writings, to the extent that Arenal and Sabat de Rivers note that her “obras dramatizan las etapas de la oración empleando el modelo teresiano” (26).^[9] Thus, the spiritual perfection to which Everynun aspires in Sor Marcela’s works is the same spiritual perfection to which the via mística calls its followers: the mystical wedding of Christ with the Soul.

The first drama, La muerte del Apetito, has been the focus of the majority of the scholarship on Sor Marcela, and its central message is clearly one of purgation, in which the soul is called to purge itself from unholy, disordered, and vicious inclinations.^[10] This drama is written in the popular style of the dama-galán plays of the secular stage and features a battle between Apetito and Mortificación (a representative of Christ) for the affection of a young Alma who is discerning whether or not to enter the convent.^[11] The conflict of the work is resolved when the sister virtues Mortificación, Desnudez, and Oración prevail upon Alma to choose Christ and band together to kill Apetito.^[12] Given the violent end to this drama, it is not surprising that critics such as Gascón claim that Sor Marcela teaches that “the aesthetic should aspire to liberate herself completely from desire. Instead of striving for holiness, she should make emptiness the center of her existence” (Gascón 57). Thus, in interpreting Sor Marcela’s plays as a representation of “the schism that exists between humanity and divinity” (Gascón 2), many critics see the divine and the human aspects of her plays as opposing poles forced into a baroque intermingling in the stage’s ambience of drama.^[13] Nonetheless, the aforementioned theological, literary, and cultural contexts in which Sor Marcela composed her plays has shown that although mortification is an incredibly important part of Sor Marcela’s didactic intentions, it is set within a larger path of the mystical perfection of the entire person.^[14]

Sor Marcela’s second coloquio, which is titled Estimación de la Religión and which likewise features a dama-galán plot (Smith and Sabat de Rivers 31), reveals a dramatization of the second step of the Mystical Way: illumination. This work recounts the efforts of the antagonist Mundo and his assistant Mentira to wrench Alma’s loyalties away from Religión and Verdad. Smith and Sabat de Rivers sum up the action of the play as follows:

Mentira le presenta a Alma su compañero, Mundo, que intenta convencerla de que vivirá mejor con él. Verdad responde presentándole a Religión quien trata de convencerla del contrario, de que vivirá mejor con ella. Al final, la desengañada Alma puede ver claramente la falsedad de Mentira y Mundo. No sólo decide vivir con Religión, sino que escoge la Orden de las Trinitarias Descalzas de Madrid. (32-33)

In other words, in this drama Alma chooses to embrace a life of religion, and therefore a life of spiritual perfection. Thus, the plot of Estimación de la Religión mirrors the second stage of the mystical way, especially due to the fact that at its end, Alma chooses to become a Bride of Christ by professing final vows, an event traditionally conceived as a symbol of spiritual betrothal and thus representing the end of the via iluminativa (McGinn 293).^[15]

Sor Marcela’s third and fourth coloquios together appear to represent the third stage of mystical, nuptial union. More specifically, it can be argued that the first part of De Virtudes more or less represents the stage of spiritual betrothal, with its resolution presenting the mystical wedding, and that Celo Indiscreto represents the fullness of the spiritual marriage on earth. McGinn notes that although the spiritual betrothal and the spiritual marriage are the same in essence -that is, both describe the perfective union of the individual with God- they differ in the degree and intensity of this union (191). In the case of betrothal, separation between the soul and God could potentially still occur (McGinn 204), whereas, in the case of the full mystical marriage, the soul’s will is so identified with Christ’s own will that such a choice would be seen as completely abhorrent (McGinn 293).^[16] In both cases, however, the soul undergoes a certain degree of ‘deification’ of the soul and the body (McGinn 352). Although the plot of the third coloquio, De virtudes, will be analyzed in depth in the second part of this article, its central theme is the perfection of Alma by means of a greater union with God through prayer, or Oración. Because Alma is not yet totally married to God at the beginning of the work, she still struggles with the temptations of infidelity presented by the vice Tibieza. Nonetheless, Alma’s relationship with God is clearly defined as a nuptial one, and the drama ends with a wedding feast celebrating the union of Alma with Amor Divino, or Christ (Arenal and Sabat de Rivers 44).

The theme of unity is presented in the fourth coloquio, Celo Indiscreto, as well, although with a different focus:

Reaparece un antagonista masculino… un clérigo… Esta figura causa daño al perturbar la paz de la comunidad. Al principio, Alma lo admira por su celo, pero al cabo de 100 versos queda desengañada y en el resto del drama, junto con dos virtudes, Sinceridad y Paz, hace planes para echarle del convento. (Smith and Sabat de Rivers 33)

In this final drama, the focus of the via unitiva shifts from personal to communal, as Alma, who “vive en la comunidad con todas las dificultades y las recompensas de dicha vida” (Smith and Sabat de Rivers 21), strives to help rectify a problem which is afflicting the general peace and wellbeing of her religious community and therefore the vocations of each nun in the convent. Thus, the ‘unity’ at stake is both unity with God through the ability to live out one’s calling and also the unity of the convent as a whole. The lack of Christ as a character in this drama suggests that Alma in a certain sense is the Christ-figure, albeit in an incomplete manner. In other words, her own actions can be seen as an extension of the will of God in her community, in which she strives to help herself and her sister nuns on their way to perfect union with the Divine. In addition, the perfection of Alma as already married to Christ is shown by the fact that, unlike the previous three dramas, there is no inkling of a dama-galán plot in Celo Indiscreto (in other words, Alma is not tempted by infidelity to her Spouse); in fact, the only sign of ‘weakness’ that Alma shows at all is a temporary admiration for a quality that, which practiced in moderation, can result in virtuous actions.^[17] Thus, whatever other messages they may contain, the central theme that unifies the plots and actions of Sor Marcela’s four coloquios is the mystical wedding. By presenting this Mystical Way in a dramatic fashion, Sor Marcela would be teaching her nuns to embrace the words of Santa Teresa, who states: “es muy cierto que, en vaciando nosotros todo lo que es criatura y deshaciéndonos de ella por amor de Dios, el mesmo Señor la ha a hinchir de si” (quoted in Gascón 57). Such an exhortation is not merely a command to divest oneself of desire, but to direct and increase one’s desire towards love of God, which for San Juan and Santa Teresa was the ultimate inclination of the human being.

III. Analysis of De virtudes

The ‘Christification’ of the individual through the mystical marriage can be found in Sor Marcela’s coloquio commonly referred to as De virtudes. In this drama, “una monja floja (Tibieza) muestra flaqueza en sus ejercicios espirituales y trata de convencer a Alma que no es saludable tanta perfección” (Smith and Sabat de Rivers 33). To begin, it is worth noting that even though De virtudes is not explicitly a drama in the style of the dama-galán plays, many of the same themes apply. The major difference, of course, is that since Alma has already professed vows, she is seen as the spouse of Christ at least to a certain extent (as his betrothed), and not a dama over which two eligible bachelors fight, as in the first two coloquios. Nonetheless, the primary manner in which Christ and Alma refer to each other is still nuptial; thus, Tibieza’s temptations can be interpreted as an attempt to convince Alma to be unfaithful to her (future) spouse.^[18] The nuptial character of the relationship between God and the soul can be seen in the words of Oración, who refers to Amor Divino as Alma’s “esposo” (v. 332), and who likewise states regarding him:

Tiene tu esposo querido,
Alma dichosa, un palacio
digno de su majestad
con soberano aparato.
Las puertas son de cristal,
margaritas y topacios
las guarnecen y hermosean
con artificios muy raros.
…………………………
No hay en esta casa luz,
que el cordero soberano
es la antorcha que la da. (vv. 475-95)

These verses are a direct allusion to Revelation 21: 1-20, which describes the preparation for the wedding feast of the Lamb of God, who is Christ. Likewise, the use of nuptial terms such as ‘esposo’ to refer to Christ and his relationship with the soul is a continuation of the language employed in the Song of Songs.^[19] In other words, the Biblical context of De virtudes is clearly nuptial in character. It is also mystical, as in characterizing the love between the soul and God as erotic, Sor Marcela followed in the footsteps of Santa Teresa.^[20] This mystical characterization is furthered by the words of Oración regarding the presence of Tibieza in Alma’s life. She informs Alma that “no llegarás tú jamás/ a espíritu verdadero/ si no sacudes primero/ la Tibieza” (vv. 333-336),^[21] and she likewise declares: “para disponer, primero,/ es fuerza [es necesario que], toda la casa/ esté adornada y compuesta,/ limpia y desembarazada/ como conviene a posada/ de tan gran rey y señor” (vv. 394-99). These words hearken back to the purgative and illuminative steps of the mystical way; in order for Alma to be perfectly united with Christ in the fullness of the mystical wedding, her whole person (body and soul) must be rightly ordered towards Him.

The nuptial characterization of the relationship between Alma and Amor Divino is further supported by the words of Alma herself, who states: “el Amor desnudo y fuerte/ anhelo con tanto afecto/… confío en mi esposo” (vv. 549-552), and in the words of Amor Divino near the end of the work, when he exclaims: “ven, Alma mía, y haré/ que descanses en mis brazos” (vv. 779-80). In addition, this nuptial union is identified by Oración as one of deification; that is, of the participation of the individual in the Divine Nature. Oración declares that those who come to Amor’s palace “a Dios ven, con Dios están/ unidos y transformados” (vv. 503-504). According to A. A. Parker, “the concept of transformation is central to the experience of mystical union… the universal principle that governs love is that it creates a likeness or similarity between the two persons who love: the more perfect the love, the more perfect is the likeness” (99).^[22] In other words, in the full perfection of the mystical marriage, which is found at the end of Alma’s journey, humanity is not annihilated but perfected and transformed through its union with divinity. Thus, although its presence may not be always explicit, marriage can be understood as a principal theme of De virtudes that strengthens the work’s dramatic unity.

In addition to functioning as a dramatic theme within De virtudes, marriage also serves to unify and integrate the divine and human elements of Sor Marcela’s drama, elements that were often interpreted as being in conflict. In order to understand how the wedding acts as a unifier of the spiritual and the material, it is necessary to analyze the role of Tibieza (the antagonist of Alma in the work) and the differing conceptions of virtue presented by Sor Marcela in more detail. In her attempts to sway Alma in her devotion to Amor Divino, Tibieza claims that Alma has lost all balance in her life and has devoted too much time to prayer and fasting. She states:

Alma, que no te conozco
solías ser más tratable,
más cortes, más agradable,
……………………………
casi no te puedo hablar,
tan extraña, tan austera. (vv. 20-28)

In other words, according to Tibieza, Alma’s extreme devotion to austere monastic life is making her unpleasant and difficult to be around. Insisting that she has Alma’s best interests in mind (vv. 44-46), Tibieza states that in her current situation Alma is living dangerously:

Como con ella [Oración] te veo
las horas y los momentos,
presume que te trae cuentos
dañosos para tu vida,
que te gasta sin medida
el tiempo, y que no le tienes. (vv. 107-114)

Two items must be noted regarding this passage. First, Tibieza clearly sets herself in opposition to Oración and, by extension, to Amor Divino. Thus, her view of virtue cannot be the one which Sor Marcela wishes to recommend to her spectators. Second, the main argument presented by Tibieza is not just that Alma’s fervent devotion to prayer and fasting makes her unpleasant to be around, but that it is actually harmful to her life, which she is spending without reserve. Although she resists at first, Alma is eventually swayed by Tibieza, and exclaims:

Y, considerando todo,
parece que estoy más tierna,
que si Oración me gobierna
con tanta severidad
pienso que me ha de acabar
las cortas fuerzas que tengo. (vv. 131-37)

In other words, Alma fears that submitting herself to the rigorous life required of her by Oración will in effect end her own life by overwhelming her. By claiming that she desires balance for Alma, Tibieza is actually identifying herself with the classical understanding of virtue, defined by figures such as Aristotle and Aquinas as “the mean between the excess and the defect” (Rziha 113). According to Rziha, “the virtues that perfect the appetitive powers (will and emotions) exist as a mean between an excess and a defect… too much or too little desire of a particular good… is a vice” (129). In this sense, Tibieza claims to make an excellent point; although an Alma who shuns human necessities completely and fasts and prays constantly might fit the stereotype of the self-denying female ascetic of the Golden Age, this is an unsustainable and inhuman lifestyle.

With this context in mind, it is especially noteworthy that of all the virtues Sor Marcela could have placed in opposition to Tibieza, she chose Oración. Prayer is, of course, a central virtue for the nun and for the Christian in general, as “the soul communes with and imitates Christ through meditation and prayer” (Gascón 45). In fact, Arenal and Sabat de Rivers note that within the specific spiritual outlook of the Discalced Trinitarians, “oración comienza una relación de lo que será la ‘casa’ celestial” (270). In other words, prayer is a virtue ordered towards love and worship of God with the ultimate goal of union with him. When Oración arrives and finds Alma shunning her prescribed religious activities, she exclaims: “el remedio de este daño solo puede ser Amor” (360-70). This point is significant, as, according to Rziha, “the theological virtues of hope and charity [love of God] do not have a mean… there is no limit to how much humans should love God… there is no limit to how much humans should desire to be with God” (131). In other words, a finite creature whose very existence and salvation depend on an infinitely loving God is literally unable to love that God too much. By setting Tibieza against Oración, Sor Marcela is specifically creating a situation in which the ‘balance’ between excess and defect does not exist. Sor Marcela confirms such an understanding of the virtue of prayer when, at the mention of her spouse, Amor Divino, Alma is brought back to her senses. In anguish, she repents of her lapse, exclaiming to Oración:

¡Ay, mi querida Oración,
quién la viera ya en su pecho,
que de contrición deshecho
lágrimas destila y vierte
…………………………..
¡Ay mi amor, ay mi querido [Amor Divino],
qué ingrata he sido! (vv. 400-411)^[23]

The fact that Alma repents not merely of her lapsed fidelity to Amor Divino’s wishes, but also of her ingratitude towards Him, reveals her understanding of God’s love as one which is infinite and which can never fully be reciprocated. This same boundless love that inspires charity is demonstrated when Amor Divino arrives soon after. He dispels Tibieza (vv. 427-35), forgives Alma, and, in the drama’s central passage, instructs her further on how to love Him best and therefore unite herself to Him most fully:

La mayor ciencia y el arte
más breve y de más primor
es ejercitar a Amor
en palabras y en acciones,
el sufrir persecuciones,
el abrazar las virtudes
todas, y, en particular,
las que son de más estima.
Esta es la cumbre y la cima,
del monte de perfección. (vv. 629-39)

In the words of Amor Divino, the perfection of the soul’s mystical union with God is not manifested in a total negation of self or in a quiet slipping into the nothingness of meditation but rather in the active exercise of virtues within one’s state of life. This perfection is most fully achieved in the spiritual marriage, a state that Alma reaches near the end of this coloquio. Amor Divino encourages Alma to live virtuously specifically so that “mi esposa te nombres” (v. 756), after which Oración declares: “parece ya, gran señor, / que os esperan con la fiesta” (vv. 769-70). In their notes, Smith and Sabat de Rivers state that the fiesta mentioned could allude to the celebration for which the coloquio was composed, possibly the profession of vows of a nun (181). However, it is also important to note the Biblical-mystical connotations of these verses, which could simultaneously refer to the wedding feast between Alma and Amor Divino (an interpretation which could easily coexist with the practical meaning suggested, as the profession of a religious sister would also be understood as a nuptial event). Finally, as the play draws to a close, Amor Divino exclaims: “ven, Alma mía, y haré/ que descances en mis brazos” (vv. 779-80), a clear allusion to the marriage bed, to the ‘consumation’ of love described by San Juan as indicative of the mystical marriage, and to the accompanying state of peace, or Paz, that Alma then seeks to maintain in Celo Indiscreto.^[24] Thus, Bárbara Mujica recognizes that “al aceptar entregarse a Oración y rodearse a las Virtudes, Alma llega a ser una verdadera esposa de Amor” (197), and Arenal and Sabat de Rivers likewise declare:

El premio que se gana escogiendo a oración es el más hermoso y perfecto amante, Amor Divino. Amor Divino es figura del amor Cortés tanto como del amado del Cantar de los Cantares y de San Juan de la Cruz. Aprovechando el aspecto humano de su papel que lo saca al escenario de Galán, habla amor de decapitar a Tibieza. Y pronto el coloquio acaba con el matrimonio feliz de la amada con el amado. (44)^[25]

In other words, the happy ending of De virtudes is clearly the mystical marriage between Alma and Amor Divino, a marriage that brings about a perfect union and active reconciliation between the divine and the human, the sacred and the profane.

By characterizing this nuptial union of Alma with God as one of fruitful, active, and virtuous living, Sor Marcela follows in the footsteps of Santa Teresa. According to Smith, “to reach the top of the mount of perfection takes strength, hard work and sacrifice… as Santa Teresa advocates, spiritual devotion requires a mujer varonil” (The Colloquies of Sor Marcela 129). This mujer varonil is not the female character who is at times presented negatively in the secular comedia, but rather the woman of valor mentioned in the crowning chapter of Proverbs and by Fray Luis de León:^[26]

Lo que aquí decimos… mujer varonil… llama a las casadas perfectas; así que, esto que decimos varonil o valor, en el original es una palabra de grande significación y fuerza… Quiere decir virtud de ánimo, y fortaleza de corazón, industria y riquezas, y poder y aventajamiento, y, finalmente, un ser perfecto. (283)

This ‘active’ understanding of the reality of the nuptial union of the soul with God is particularly unitive, as it insinuates a transformation of the entire human person (virtues cannot be lived out on this earth without a body).^[27] In addition, this union is paradoxically both erotic and agapeic; that is, it mirrors the perfect ideal of Christian love described by Benedict XVI in Deus Caritas Est: “the one God in whom Israel believes… loves with a personal love. His love, moreover, is an elective love… God loves, and his love may certainly be called eros, yet it is also totally agape” (24).^[28] Thus, the loving union of the soul with God transforms the soul to become an instrument of God’s will through acts of service to his or her community (as is seen to some extent in the fourth coloquio, Celo Indiscreto). In fact, McGinn notes that for Fray Luis, “our union with Christ involves the body as well as the soul” (350); for this reason, he speaks of a “deification (y aqui se deifica el alma y la carne), or perhaps better as a ‘Christification,’ because it involves soul and body” (352). In characterizing this nuptial union, Oración declares that those souls which are united to and transformed by God “cantan y alaban a un tiempo/ entonando; ‘Santo, santo,’/ que, repetido tres veces,/ lo Trino manifestando,/ dan al Alma más aprecio/ de este misterio sagrado” (vv. 529-35). As this passage shows, this paradoxical love is also profoundly Trinitarian; that is, Sor Marcela emphasizes that union with God is specifically union with the Trinity, and therefore a union based in community. Alisa J. Tigchelaar, a critic who has extensively analyzed some of Sor Marcela’s theatrical works which are not part of her four Coloquios del Alma, has arrived at an almost identical conclusion regarding Sor Marcela’s unitive and Trinitarian understanding of the relationship between divinity and humanity. Tigchelaar has noted the influence of Augustine’s understanding of the Trinity on Sor Marcela,^[29] and in her analysis of Sor Marcela’s colloquy Breve Festejo and the nun’s mystical characterization of the soul’s union with God, she states:

Christ’s perfect corporeality determines ours… we do not fundamentally degrade ‘God-Love’ with our own imperfect mirroring. These truths, going back to the nuns, unproblematically permit transfigured human flesh into mystical exchange… They allow the communication of Marcela’s mysticism to be distinctly corporeal… Far from excluding the corporeal, biblical Trinitarian theology embraces it… Christ, through His Ascension, remains embodied, even as the entire Godhead does. This divine Corporality, in turn, anticipates the End Times, a point at which all believers will reflect the Godhead wholly (in spirit and body), perfectly and eternally. (“Redemption Theology” 123-24)

The analysis offered by Tigchelaar clearly reveals that the cosmovision presented in Sor Marcela’s other dramas is also one where the divine and the human are not essentially opposed. Sor Marcela’s Trinitarian, or relational, description of the soul’s mystical union with God highlights an obvious connection to the special devotion of her order. However, it also hearkens back to the Biblical imagery of the bride of Christ (as an individual and the entire Church)^[30] and calls Sor Marcela’s theological and mystical sources, such as Fray Luis and Santa Teresa, to mind as well.^[31] For example, Parker notes that:

Luis de León says that there are three things to be considered in the marriage of Christ and his church. The first is the ‘uniting and close union,’ and the word he uses for ‘uniting’ is ayuntamiento, which was the word for copulation. The second is ‘sweetness and delight’ that results from this union. The third is the circumstances in which marriage finds its expression. Since… Christ is the husband not only of the Church as a whole, but also of each one of its members, these factors must all combine in the relation of the believer to Christ. (88)

Thus, for Sor Marcela, the perfect union to which the soul is called is that of participation in the eternal relationship of the Trinity, and it is a union which, although infinitely personal, does not come at the exclusion of one’s community. A Trinitarian understanding of deification and the mystical wedding is likewise unitary in nature because, as Rziha states, “not only are humans made in God’s image as persons, but they are also in God’s image as a community. Just as God is three persons who are united, humans are made to be united within loving relationships” (16). In other words, an understanding of nuptial union which includes the active practice of virtues in loving service of one’s peers is one which is based on the ‘perfection,’ or ‘telos,’ of the entire human experience: soul, body, and relationships. In sum, Sor Marcela’s De virtudes manifests a profoundly non-competitive understanding of the relationship between divinity and humanity, individuality and community, and it utilizes the theme of marriage as a unifier of the many facets of the human experience.

IV. Conclusion

As a final note, it is worth pointing out that a debate still exists over whether figures such as Sor Marcela should be properly considered as mystics, especially due to the lack of an abundance of ‘mystical encounters’ found in what is known of their lives, as well as to their rather ascetic, practical approaches to the everyday workings of the convent (Tigchelaar, “Mystic Theology” 41-43). However, regardless of the unknowable nature of Sor Marcela’s personal spiritual life, a mystical characterization of the nuptial union of the soul with God is clearly present in her works in a manner which is in no way diminished by her communal life in the convent, but rather expanded when applied to it. Thus, while it might be impossible to clearly define her as a mystic, it is imperative that she be recognized as a mystical writer. Lamentably, Sor Marcela is not well-known for any visions she may have experienced. However, within an understanding of mysticism that recognizes the communal, nuptial, and Trinitarian end of humanity both in this life and the next, Sor Marcela can be classified at the very least as a commentator on the mystical way and thus a figure to be studied and acclaimed with renewed literary, academic, and spiritual interest. In her coloquios espirituales, the nuptial reality functions as a thematic space in which divine love and human desire intermingle and bear fruit both in this life and the next through the practices of prayer and virtue.