Quote of the Week: Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
I confess, also, this being true, as I have said, that I did not need models, since many books, secular and sacred, have continued to help me. I see Deborah giving laws, both military and political, and governing a people with many learned men (Judg 4-5). I see the wise queen of Sheba, who was so learned that she dared to test the wisdom of the greatest of wise men with riddles and she was not reprimanded for doing so; rather, because of it she became the judge of unbelievers (1 Kings 10; 2 Chron 9). I see so many women and so many illustrious women: some adorned with the gift of prophesy, like Abigail (1 Sam 25); others with the gift of persuasion, like Esther; still others with piety, like Rahab (Josh 2); others with perseverance, like Hannah, mother of Samuel (1 Sam 1 -2), and an infinite number of others excelling in other types of accomplishments and virtues.
If I turn to the pagans the first I find are the Sibyls, selected by God to prophesy the principal mysteries of our faith in learned and elegant verses that filled all with admiration. [...] I see the Egyptian Catherine lecturing and confounding the wisdom of the wise men of Egypt. I see Gertrude lecture, write, and teach. So as not to search for examples beyond home, I see my holy mother Paula, learned in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, and with a gift for interpreting Scripture. As her biographer, St Jerome, who hardly considered himself worthy to be such, said with the lively praise and efficacious energy characteristic of his style: ‘If all the members of my body were tongues, they would not suffice to publish the wisdom and virtue of Paul.’ Blesilla, widow, and the enlightened virgin Eustoquium, daughters of St Paula, both receive similar praise. The former was called Wonder of the World for her learning. Fabiola of Rome was also very knowledgeable in holy Scripture. Proba Falconia, a Roman woman, wrote an elegant book with verses from Virgil that illustrated the mysteries of our holy faith. [... and so on -- ed.]
Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, “Response to the Very Illustrious ‘Sor Philotea’” in Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz: Selected Writings. trans. Pamela Rappaport (New York: Paulist Press, 2005), 275-6.
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Written in the 17th century by a Mexican nun, I thought this was an excellent discussion on the kinds of examples learned women had to use from history to justify such study.
Sor Juana de la Cruz was terribly persecuted by the Church establishment in Mexico City–and, in particular, by the Archbishop–and was eventually “silenced” by them.
Digby, while it is indeed clear she got into some sort of trouble, we do not know the full of that trouble — but it seems it did lead to her being silenced before her early death. I do expect if she had lived to an older age, her fame and popularity abroad might he helped fix the situation. In either case, I thought her written response here was worthwhile and indeed important (even if it seems it got her in trouble).
I do not doubt that Western philosophical and theological thought would be much improved had more women’s voices contributed to it throughout its history.
Sor Juana’s case is heartbreaking. She was basically made to feel that being right with God required that she make no use of her truly formidable intellectual gifts – mainly because she was a woman. Even though Catholicism is not nearly as tainted with anti-intellectualism as fundamentalist strains of Protestantism tend to be, one can still find traces of it here and there, sadly.