Abstract: Mariana de San José (1568-1638), founder of the Augustinian Recollects, was an influential spiritual teacher and theological innovator in central Spain. Her writings illuminate the day-to-day devotions of contemplative nuns and portray mystical experience not only as an ecstatic, ineffable union with God, but also as the acquisition of transformative knowledge through biblical verses. This mystical path constituted, to Mariana’s eyes, a martyrdom for the sake of Church and Spain.
