Spirituality and Everyday Life in Nuns, Donadas, Beatas and Tertiaries’ Writings in South America along the Colonial Period

Abstract

Th e aim of this article is to recover for History and Literature, the writings of fi ft een “religious women” –nuns, donadas, tertiaries and beatas- along the Colonial period in South America. A group of women living in diff erent cities from Bogotá to Buenos Aires who decided to write about both God and themselves. I deal with sources placed in diff erent archives, libraries and in the website, sources that I have gathered along two decades. I am interested in knowing the reasons and aims of their writings, understand the importance of the European infl uence in their works, know the socio-economic and educational level of this group of women and the historical contexts they lived in, the literary genres they appealed to, the confessor or spiritual director role in their life and writings, and the possibilities of having their works published and made known.