Nuns Navigating the Spanish Empire tells the remarkable story of a group of nuns who traveled halfway around the globe in the seventeenth century to establish the first female Franciscan convent in the Far East.
In 1620 Sor Jer�nima de la Asunci�n (1556�1630) and her cofounders left their cloistered convent in Toledo, Spain, journeying to Mexico to board a Manila galleon on their way to the Philippines. Sor Jer�nima is familiar to art historians for her portrait by Vel�zquez that hangs in the Prado Museum in Madrid. What most people do not know is that one of her travel companions, Sor Ana de Cristo (1565�1636), wrote a long biographical account of Sor Jer�nima and their fifteen-month odyssey. Drawing from Sor Ana�s manuscript, other archival sources, and rare books, Owens�s study offers a fascinating view of travel, evangelization, and empire.