Abstract
In a period spanning the years 1624-1631 the mystic nun, Ana María de San José of the Discalced Franciscan Convent of the Immaculate Conception in Salamanca, Spain, sent some twenty-two letters of spiritual counsel, vocational support and mystical revelation to her Franciscan friend and confidante, fellow contemplative and male religious superior, Brother Martín García. It is within this context, therefore, that Ana's own spiritual development and mystical theology should be understood.5 Ana's language and imagery in her autobiography and in her letters to Brother Martin, as well as her principal spiritual doctrines of "love and the surrender (or abandonment) of the soul to God,"6 all point to Ana's familiarity (whether direct or indirect) with the Golden Age of Spanish mysticism's principal texts on contemplative prayer.