Mother Juana de la Cruz, 1481–1534 – Visionary Sermons

Jessica A. Boon is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at The University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. She is the author of The Mystical Science of the Soul: Medieval Cognition in Bernardino de Laredo’s Recollection Method. Ronald E. Surtz is Professor of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Cultures at Princeton University. He is the author of The Guitar of God: Gender, Power, and Authority in the Visionary World of Mother Juana de la Cruz (1481–1534) and Writing Women in Late Medieval and Early Modern Spain: The Mothers of Saint Teresa of Avila.Nora Weinerth is an independent scholar who lives in New York.

• List of Illustrations xiAcknowledgments xiiiIntroduction 1Preface to the Translation 34Prologue 35Sermon 1: IncarnationIntroduction 37Translation 40Sermon 2: Nativity of JesusIntroduction 67Translation 71Sermon 13: Losing Jesus in JerusalemIntroduction 101Translation 104Sermon 19: Good FridayIntroduction 125Translation 129Sermon 20: ResurrectionIntroduction 151Translation 154Sermon 22: Exaltation of the Holy CrossIntroduction 183Translation 186Postscript by the Translator 215Bibliography 221Index 235

This superb edition presents to English-readers the extraordinary Mother Juana de la Cruz, whose visionary sermons and ecstatic “body language” fascinated Spaniards from villagers to Charles V. Ronald Surtz and Nora Weinerth provide masterful translations of Juana’s transcribed sermons and Jessica Boon contributes an insightful introduction to the mystic’s life, religious milieu, and theological discourse. This book will be of great interest to scholars and students of religion, gender, and materiality in Spain at the dawn of its Golden Age. Jodi BilinkoffUniversity of North Carolina at Greensboro