News of Maria of Agreda's exceptional attributes spread from her cloistered convent in seventeenth-century Agreda (Spain) to the court in Madrid and beyond. Without leaving her village, the abbess impacted the kingdom, her church, and the New World. Spanish Hapsburg king Felipe IV sought her spiritual and political counsel for over twenty-two years. Based upon her transcendent visionary experiences, Sr. Maria chronicled the life of Mary, mother of Jesus of Nazareth, in Mystical City of God, a work the Spanish Inquisition temporarily condemned. In America, reports emerged that she had miraculously appeared to Jumano Native Americans--a feat corroborated by witnesses in Spain, Texas, and New Mexico--where she is honored today as the legendary "Lady in Blue." Lauded in Spain as one of the most influential women in its history, and in the United States as an inspiring pioneer, Sr. Maria's story will appeal to cultural historians and to women who have struggled for equanimity against all odds. Marilyn H. Fedewa skillfully reconstructs a historical and spiritual backdrop against which Sr. Maria's voice may be heard.(Paperback)