Maria de Agreda and her bilocation

[poche]

I wasn't sure where to place this but here goes.

Sor María de Jesús is credited by some with contributing to the evangelization of the Jumano Indians in what is today Texas. Between 1620 and 1623 she reported that she was often "transported by the aid of the angels" to settlements of a people called Jumanos. She reported further visits afterwards, but they were less frequent. These reported visits occurred while María physically remained in the convent at Ágreda.[5] They have been cataloged as bilocation, an event where a person is, or seems to be, in two places at the same time.

The Jumanos of New Spain (modern New Mexico and Texas) had long been requesting missionaries, possibly hoping for protection from Apaches. Eventually a mission led by the Franciscan Friar Juan de Salas visited them in 1629.[6] Before sending the friars, Father Alonzo de Benavides, Custodian of New Mexico, asked the natives why they were so eager to be baptized. They said they had been visited by a Lady in Blue who had told them to ask the fathers for help, pointing to a painting of a nun in a blue habit and saying she was dressed like that but was a beautiful young girl.[7] The Jumanos visiting Isleta indicated that the Lady in Blue had visited them in the area now known as the Salinas National Monument (an area settled by the Spanish) south of modern day Mountainair, New Mexico, located 65 miles south of Albuquerque. At the same time, Fray Esteban de Perea had brought an inquiry to Benavides from sor María's confessor in Spain asking whether there was any evidence that she had visited the Jumanos.

As reports of her mystical excursions to the New World proliferated, the Inquisition took notice of her, although she was not proceeded against with severity.[8] Later, however, Sor María denied that her visitations had happened, although she changed her story several times.[5]

This part is from the Notre Dame Archives:

Perea, el Padre Fray Estevan de, Guardian of the province of New Mexico.

To Very Rev. P.Fr. Francisco de Apodaca, Commissary General of all New Spain.

Fr. Francisco de Perea with Andres Gutierrez priest and Cristoval de la Concepcion, lay brother left Fr. Roque (de Figueredo) at Zibola. Twelve soldiers were in the company. They arrived at the province of Moqui on the feast of St. Bernard, the name now given to that town. The climate is moderate. The inhabitants are good farmers but are given to drunkenness. A Christian apostate had preceded the fathers and set the Indians against the Spaniards. The disturbed Moquinos secretly summoned the neighboring Apaches. The Spanish frustrated attempts to surprise them. The fathers fearlessly went abroad to preach. Men and women from the town and environs came to hear the priests who then distributed beads, bells, hatchets, etc. which the Indians refused to take. A great miracle whose authenticity is not yet fully established lead to conversions. The apostate returning to Fr. Roque de Figueredo in Zuni ordered the Indians to send away the priests. Two chiefs of a second village placated the chiefs of the first. Not only the chiefs but also the whole village desired baptism. The baptism of several chiefs and eight children took place on the feast of St. Augustine, 1629. The principal chief was baptized Augustin and returned to the town exhorting the people to be baptized. At this time the Apaches also came to ask peace of the Christian Indians and of the Spanish asking for priests although there were already two among them. They gave the priests an escort and one boy to learn the Spanish language and teach his own, which boy the priests took to Santa Fe. There they tried to obtain necessaries for a return to Humanas in the following March. Cattle and fruits abound and the land is fertile. It is also rich in metals, precious stones and silver.

Could the great miracle that is referenced have something to do with the bilocation of Maria de Agreda?   

[mikemac]

Here's the Audio Sancto sermon on Maria de Agreda.

Blessed Maria de Agreda: The REAL Flying Nun
http://www.audiosancto.org/sermon/20080921-Blessed-Maria-de-Agreda-The-REAL-Flying-Nun.html

The sermon says she bilocated over 500 times bringing about the conversion of over 10,000 natives.  She also wrote the Mystical City of God.
http://www.sacredheart.com/MysticalCityOfGod.htm

This happened just about 100 years after Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego.  It sounds like Our Lady, the Spanish and the French were doing a pretty good job of bringing the Catholic Faith to North America before the American Revolution.