Ursula de Jesus dating history

Details

Ursula de Jesus (1604–1668) was a Roman Catholic mystic of African descent in 17-century Peru. She was born in Lima, Peru, and was the legitimate daughter of Juan Castilla and Isabel de los Rios. Isabel de los Rios was a slave, leaving Ursula to inherit her mother's status. Ursula de Jesus was an African Peruvian who rose out of slavery to become a donada (religious servant) in the Roman Catholic Church. She lived under her mother's owner, Gerònima de los Rios, until she was roughly eight years old. The daughter of slaves, her first experience with mysticism was when she became the property of Luisa de Melgarejo Sotomayor, a mystic and beata, lay pious woman, in Lima. In 1617 she went to the Convent of Santa Clara in Lima as the servant of Ines del Pulgar, a 16-year-old novice and the niece of the woman who owned her parents. She labored as a slave for forty-three of her sixty-two years.