Talk:Magdalena de la Cruz

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"honoured as a saint" -- dont you have to be canonized for that? Nateji77 12:03, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

I'd never heard that she was honored as a saint. The most sympathetic Catholic account I've heard is that she was deserves pity as the Medieval equivalent of a mental patient.--T. Anthony 03:36, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

The statement comes from the old Catholic Encyclopedia in its article on Imposters, the implication being that, in reponse to her apparent supernatural talents, she was treated as a ‘saint’ during her lifetime by many people, including the Empress Isabel. (The article comes down rather hard on the credulity of popular Spanish religion. I think we would call that POV, because magic acronyms make life simpler for us.) —Ian Spackman 13:20, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

I do not know if you have heard of the case of Magdalena of Cordoba. In case you haven't, Magdalena of Cordoba lived from the late 15th century to the mid-16th century. She joined the Poor Clares convent in Cordoba, Spain, and immediately became known for having mystical gifts: levitation, ecstasies, gift of healing and prophecy, and so on. It did not take long for Magdalena's popularity to spread all throughout Spain. For 40 long years, Spaniards from all walks of life visited her convent to see her and hear her counsel (even the reigning king of Spain visited her to seek spiritual advice). The Poor Clares, for their part, elected Magdalena as their mother superior a number of times. After 40 years or so, Magdalena fell gravely ill and, thinking she was about to die, revealed the terrifying truth to the horrified priest assigned to give her the Last Rites.

And the truth was this: All her mystical experiences, while genuine and real as far as being genuine and real go, were actually demonic simulations. As it turned out, Magdalena, as a youth, sold her soul to the devil in exchange for a lifetime of reputation of piety and holiness. The Inquisition immediately set out to condemn her experiences and revelations. Magdalena, for her part, recovered from her illness. She was dismissed from the Poor Clares and was sentenced by the Inquisition to life imprisonment in her former room at the convent and received nourishment solely from food passed on to her through a specially-made hole in the door of the room.

It was solely because of Magdalena of Cordoba that alarm bells started ringing in the heads of the members of the Inquisition in the late 16th century when a young Discalced Carmelite nun reported possessing mystical gifts, and these Inquisition people really made life miserable at first for this young nun because they feared that she was a Magdalena-in-the-making. This young nun was actually the young Teresa of Avila. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hliguori1 (talk • contribs) 05:47, 28 June 2010 (UTC)