Barbara Mujica's Sister Teresa

Barbara Mujica’s 2007 novel Sister Teresa, details the lives of Sister Teresa of Ávila as well as her companion Angelica del Sagrado Corazón growing up in Spain and being nuns during the Spanish Inquisition. Throughout her life Sister Teresa (also known as Teresa de Ahumada); is often looked down upon by society due to her Jewish ancestry. The only thing that keeps herself and the rest of her family from being under total persecution is the fact that her father, Don Alonso, bought a patent of nobility which allowed him to work as a tax collector and surmount a substantial amount of wealth. On the other hand, her companion and longtime friend Pancracia (later to be named Angelica) comes from a relatively poor family of seamstresses who survive
Teresa also notices that she sees visions and has convulsions and eventually is able to perform miracles. After multiple uphill battles concerning her health, family, confessors, and her methods of practicing her faith; Teresa decides to open convents throughout the area that are ran by traditional standards. However, some men and high nobles find issue with this and label Teresa as the devil. This doesn’t stop Teresa from doing what she feels she is called to do, and she dies while getting ready to go on a mission to establish another convent.
Publisher’s Weekly described the novel as “...light and entertaining” and they also said that even though the piece was unconventional due to its description of Teresa as both “a human saint-in-the-making” and “self-loathing”. On the other hand, they also said that Angelica’s role as Teresa’s maid/best friend creates a unique and earthy dynamic in the
Mujica developed her characters in such a way that they are historically accurate for the time, but they can also appeal to a broad audience of today. Like Publisher’s Weekly, I find the relationship between Teresa and Angelica to not only to be a nice character foil, but I also think that it frustrates the reader because of how dependent on each other they are. I think it would have been nice to see how things would have panned out is either one of them got married and moved away from Ávila, or if Sister Teresa was never put in the convent. I also did not particularly enjoy the fact that every time the two got into an argument, they would always make up relatively quick and be best friends again. I also think that the way that Mujica formatted the plot in such a way so that it was able to flow in a diary entry style was a nice touch, and it added to her character development. Overall, Barbara Mujica’s novel was an interesting and modern twist on a story that might come off as dull and boring if it was described in a more traditional