Margarita Agullona, also called Margarita Agulló or simply Sister Agullona or Beata Agullona (

Xàtiva Xàtiva (, es, Játiva ) is a town in eastern Spain, in the province of Valencia, on the right (western) bank of the river Albaida and at the junction of the Valencia–Murcia and Valencia Albacete railways. It is located 25 km west ...

, Valencia, 1536 - Valencia, 9 December 1600) was a Roman Catholic mystic nun and writer who lived in eastern Spain. She joined the Third Order of

Franciscan nuns , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

Life

As a child, Margarita expressed her desire to serve God. At the age of twenty, after refusing opportunities to marry, she made a perpetual vow of chastity and took the third secular order of

St. Francis of Assisi Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, better known as Saint Francis of Assisi ( it, Francesco d'Assisi; – 3 October 1226), was a mystic Italian Catholic friar, founder of the Franciscans, and one of the most venerated figures in Christianit ...

. When her parents died, she moved to Valencia to live in a

beguinage A beguinage, from the French term ''béguinage'', is an architectural complex which was created to house beguines: lay religious women who lived in community without taking vows or retiring from the world. Originally the beguine institution was ...

, where she practiced penance and prayer, and while doing so was said to be often thrown into "a state of ecstasy." She was a model religious, overcoming temptations and making extraordinary penances. Reportedly, her ecstasies were frequent and her prophecies proved to be true. She became widely known for her virtue, her dedication to the poor, and her ''

stigmata Stigmata ( grc, στίγματα, plural of , 'mark, spot, brand'), in Roman Catholicism, are bodily wounds, scars and pain which appear in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ: the hands, wrists, and feet. Stigm ...

s'' (red wound markings that appeared on her hands). This is how Pons Fuster documented it:

''Some of Agulló's biographers spoke of the stigmata that accompanied her: it was specified that they were In some cases the spiritual grace of the stigmata. This was the case with Blessed Margarita Agulló, although her biographer took great care to hide them under the euphemism of "a red sign" on her chest or of the simple feeling, which was not palpable reality, of stigmata.''

Archbishop Juan de Ribera of Valencia, arranged to house Agullona near the Real College of Corpus Christi (next to the Patriarch Church). There he personally witnessed her mystical raptures and for twenty-five years personally examined her spirit. Ribera asked the scholars Father

Louis of Granada Louis of Granada, OP (1504 – 31 December 1588), was a Dominican friar who was noted as theologian, writer and preacher. The cause for his canonization has been long open with the Holy See, with his current status being Venerable. Biography ...

, Blessed

Nicolás Factor Nicolás Factor (29 June 1520 – 23 December 1583) was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest and a professed member from the Order of Friars Minor as well as a painter of the Renaissance period. Factor served as an apt preacher across his region - de ...

, Saint Louis Bertran, and Rodrigo de Solís to thoroughly investigate and confirm her mystical experiences. The Franciscan Fr. Jaime Sanchis, who had been Margarita's confessor, was commissioned by Ribera to document the nun's life and to edit some of her writings. The first outcome of that work was titled ''Brief Relationship of Life, Virtues and Miracles of the humble Servant of Sister Margarita Agulló''. It was printed in Valencia in 1607 by Juan Crisóstomo Garriz.

Death

Agullona died in Valencia in 1600 at age 64 in the presence of Juan de Ribera after she had a premonition. He first had her buried in the Capuchin convent in Valencia, and then in 1605 he ordered that her body be transferred to the newly founded the Seminary and Real College of Corpus Christi in Valencia in the "old city." "He ordered in February 1605, that the body of the Venerable, who was

incorrupt Incorruptibility is a Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox belief that divine intervention allows some human bodies (specifically saints and beati) to completely or partially avoid the normal process of decomposition after death as a sign of their ...

, be moved, and arranged that a burning lamp always burned before her

sepulcher A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immuremen ...

." Painting of her were done by

Francisco Ribalta Francesc Ribalta (2 June 1565 – 12 January 1628), also known as ''Francisco Ribaltá'' or ''de Ribalta'', was a Spanish painter of the Baroque period, mostly of religious subjects. Biography He was born in Solsona, Lleida. Although his fi ...

, who made a great effort to reveal her mystical expression. Agullona paintings by Joan Sarinyena and Francisco Ribalta were preserved in Valencia's Patriarch Museum.

Works

All of Agullona's works were recorded and edited by her confessor Jaime Sanchís and were posthumous collections of her writing. * ''Demon Fights,'' (1604) * ''Chants and Praises of God Our Lord,'' (1605) * ''Preparation you made to receive the Sacrament, offer and thank you after received''. Valencia, 1607 * ''Method I kept in contemplating the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ,'' Valencia, 1607 * Copy of some letters or tickets that the Servant of God Sister Margarita Agulló wrote from her own hand to the Most Excellent Lord Don Juan de la Ribera, Patriarch of Antioch and Archbishop of Valencia

References

Bibliography

* Ehlers, Benjamin. ''Between Christians and Moriscos: Juan de Ribera and Religious Reform in Valencia, 1568–1614.'' Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. ''Project MUSE'', doi:10.1353/book. 3262. * J. Antonio Doménech Corral (2003). ''Singularities about the Royal College Seminary of Corpus Christi'' . Valencia: Edicep Editorial. * Pascual and Beltran, V. ''The venerable Setabense Sister Margarita Agullona, a Franciscan tertiary, her life and her writings'' by the RP Sanchis OM with a foreword by Blessed Juan de Ribera, 2nd ed. illustrated with appendices and notes, Xàtiva, 1921. * Sanchis, James. ''Brief relation of the life, virtues and miracles of the humble servant of the Virgin Sister Margarita Agulló, native of the city of Xátiva'', Blessed professed of the Order of San Francisco. Valencia: Juan Crisóstomo Garriz, 1607. {{DEFAULTSORT:Agullona, Margarita 1536 births 1600 deaths 16th-century Spanish nuns 16th-century Christian mystics 16th-century Spanish women writers Roman Catholic mystics Franciscan mystics Franciscan nuns Stigmatics