María Vela y Cueto

María Vela y Cueto (1561–1617) was a Cistercian nun born in Cardeñosa, Spain and raised in Avila for most of her young life.

[1] Both of Vela y Cueto's parents raised them in a strictly religious household which explains the careers paths that she and her siblings took.

Although born in Cardeñosa, she was raised the majority of her young life in the nearby provincial capital of Avila, Spain.

During her stay in Santa Ana, María Vela y Cueto started experiencing signs that claimed to come from God.

The spectacle of her mortified flesh brings the image of Christ's passion before the eyes of her community, which responds with ridicule and scandal.

[5] In 1603 Vela y Cueto crossed paths with Dr. Miguel Gonzalez Vaquero became her spiritual supervisor and sympathizer of sorts.

As time went on Vela y Cueto slowly found herself to be a respected member of the convent through her involvement with the novitiates the leading of worship through song while playing the organ.

With her life and writings taken over by hagiographers, Doña Maria's body and clothes were soon sought after by relic-gatherers and, instead of being buried in a simple shroud and an insignificant grave as her sisters Jeronima and Isabel had been, her corpse was honoured in the grand ceremonial of a funeral which the Bishop of Avila organised and attended, before her burial in an imposing tomb.

ISBN 0-7546-4010-8 Rees, Margaret (2004) Dona Maria Vela y Cueto, Cistercian Mystic of Spain's Golden Age.