Abstract
[...]it is significant that, following Ana's death, Niño secured the publication of her autobiography through the patronage of another of his confessants, the Infanta, Sister Margarita de la Cruz of the Descalzas Reales Convent in Madrid. [...]although Ana María de San José herself never mentions Angela specifically in her autobiography, one might assume that she probably had some access to Angela's writings, if not knowledge of them, through this spiritually fervent and contemplative Franciscan Discalced network, extending from Gandía to Madrid and to Salamanca in the early seventeenth century. (42) As this study has shown, Angela of Foligno furnished an important feminine model available to Spanish Franciscan women in their cultivation of visionary mystical spirituality. [...]Angela's feminine precedent and the defense that her male disciples made of her mystical spiritual authority and teachings also served to validate Spanish Franciscan women's mystical discourse and spiritual leadership in the eyes of early modern male Franciscan authorities. (38) The relationship between Niño and Ana was a long-term one. Since she was already the mistress of novices at her convent and known for her supernatural gifts at the time the relationship begins, I speculate that Niño, himself a great contemplative, was probably drawn to Ana in virtue of the spiritual reputation she had achieved.