Venerable mary of agreda incorrupt body

Along the Concho River in downtown San Angelo there is a statue of the Venerable Sor Maria de Jesus de Agreda, otherwise known as the Lady in Blue.  Next to it are statues of a Jumano native and a Jumano girl.

The unveiling of these statues on May 20, 2018 is a historical moment for San Angelo, because it honors Sor Maria, whose appearances before the Jumano Indians are considered the beginning of Christianity in this part of the world.  

The story of the Lady in Blue starts in Agreda, which I had the opportunity to visit nine years ago. 

Agreda is a small municipality in the province of Soria which was once a part of the kingdom of Castille in Spain. During the middle ages Agreda was an important center of the arts and handicrafts where Christians, Jews and Arabs lived in peace.  For four centuries the municipality has been an important site because of the Monastery of the Conception and its founder.

The monastery was founded on January 13, 1619, by Maria Fernandez Coronel y Arana.  After she donned the habit of the Franciscan Order she was known as Sor Maria de Jesus, and in 1627 she became the abbess of the monastery.

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In one of the rooms of the monastery lies the miraculously incorrupt body of Sor Maria de Jesus. She was born on April 2, 1602 and died on May 24, 1665.  Less than ten years after her death Pope Clement X declared her Venerable, in honor of her “heroic life of virtue.” 

On display in another section of the convent are copies of some books she wrote during her lifetime.  As a prolific writer and a visionary of her times she has fourteen books to her credit.  Among them is the famous "Mistica Ciudad de Dios: Vida de la Virgin Maria" consisting of six volumes.  (The abridged edition in English is "The Mystical City of God," translated by Rev. George J. Blatter).

Her unpublished book, "Tratado del Redondez de la Tierra," is

Spanish nun (1602–1665)

Mary of Jesus of Ágreda, OIC, also known as the Abbess of Ágreda (Spanish: María de Jesús de Ágreda; born María Coronel y de Arana; 2 April 1602 – 24 May 1665), was a Franciscan religious superior and spiritual writer. She is best known for her extensive correspondence with King Philip IV of Spain and her reports of bilocation between Spain and New Spain. She was a noted mystic of her era.

A member of the Conceptionists, Mary of Jesus wrote 14 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, as well as Tucson, 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.

Life

Early life

She was born María Coronel y de Arana, the daughter of Francisco Coronel 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. The family had close ties with the Franciscanfriars 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.

Mary of Jesus' biographer and contemporary, the bishop José Jiménez y Samaniego, was a longtime friend of the Coronel family, and wrote that even as a young girl, she had ecstasies and visions in which she felt that God was instructing her about the sinfulness of the world. At the age of four, she was confirmed by Bishop Diego de Yepes, the biographer an

Saint Agnes of Montepulciano - St. Agnes, blessed with many visions, received the Holy Eucharist from an angel and held the Infant Jesus in her arms. She died in the year 1317, and her body was incorrupt for nearly 300 years. Parts of the remains of her body are now enclosed in a figure, but her visible hands and feet are still incorrupt and can be viewed at the Church of St. Agnes in Montepulciano, Italy.

Pope St. Pius X - Pope St. Pius X was the 257th Catholic Pope, reigning from 1903 to 1914. He passed away on August 20, 1914 and was buried in the crypt below St. Peter's Basilica. On May 19, 1944, Pope Pius X's coffin was exhumed and was taken to the Chapel of the Holy Crucifix in St. Peter's Basilica for the canonical examination. Upon opening the coffin, the examiners found the body of Pope Pius X preserved, despite the fact that he had died 30 years before and had made wishes not to be embalmed.

St. Vincent Pallotti - Died in 1850 and was exhumed and found incorrupt and sweetly scented in 1906 and again in 1950. His body is on display under the main altar in the Church of St. Salvatore in Onda, Italy.

Ven. Mary of Agreda - Died in 1665 and was later discovered incorrupt. Her body has been examined again in later years, including in 1909 and 1989 with no degradation to the body. Her body has remained incorrupt for over 340 years and is kept in a convent in Spain.

Saint Mary Mazzarello - Died in 1881 and was later discovered incorrupt. Her incorrupt body is venerated in the Basilica of Mary Our Help, in Turin, Italy.

Saint Cecilia - Died in 177 and her body was discovered incorrupt in 1599. St. Cecilia is known to be the first saint to be incorrupt. Below is a statue of St. Cecilia created during the exhumation of her incorrupt body in 1599. The position is the same as the actual body and is believed to be the position in which she died. The statue is located in the Basilica of St. Cecilia in Rome.

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