María de Ajofrín (1455?íadeAjofrí–1489) was a Spanish beata of the Hieronymite order who became a well-known visionary throughout the fifteenth century.
Early life
María de Ajofrín was born sometime between the years of 1455–59. She was the daughter of Pero Martin Maestro and Marina García, two well-off commoners from the town of Ajofrín near Toledo, Spain. María had many suitors growing up, but at the young age of 13 she made a vow of chastity and was determined to enter a religious life. This was seen as a heroic act, and despite her parents' numerous attempts to marry her off, María resisted "with the strength of a man". As marriage was the ideal choice as a middle-class women in this time period her family began to detest her as she continuously requested to enter into a religious life. Finally, María convinced her father to take her to a cathedral in Toledo. María was instantly inspired to join the Hieronymite order, and joined the convent when she was 15 years old.
She joined a religious institute called "Casa de María García" after its founder, which eventually came to be known as the convent of San Pablo. Since, at her time of entering, this was a lay residence and not an official convent, the women who lived here were not nuns but beatas, or women who made a private vow of chastity and followed a religious rule of some kind. Although the beatas of the “casa de María García” were subject to the prior of the Hieronymite monastery of La Sisla, the residence was not fully incorporated into the Hieronymite order until 1506.
While in the convent María de Ajofrín spoke of her visions and her religious ideals to her confessor, Juan de Corrales, who in turn wrote a biography about her life. Corrales' text serves as an eyewitness account to the events of María's life, but there has been some question of validity due to the context. Raquel Trillia has suggested that since this biography emanates from a man of power, it has to be read cautiously as the purpose of Corrales was not to tell of María but instead to enhance God's greatness and protect the orthodoxy of religion as well as the ministerial role of the priest in the Church. María de Ajofrín had another text written by José de Sigüenza after her death, that recounts Corrales' story with some additional ones. His text is called Historia de la Orden de San Jerónimo.
Mystics
Christian women were not able to be ordained or administer the sacraments, but they found an opportunity to gain authority in the church through prophecy. It was recognized by Thomas Aquinas that prophecy is a gift straight from God, independent of church intervention, and therefore gender was irrelevant. According to Elizabeth Petroff, it is therefore not too surprising that Christian mysticism consisted mostly of women. Men of this time period had many religious options and abilities for leadership that women did not share. Women who wanted to live a religious life had one main option and that was to join a convent, where women would be cloistered from the world. Petroff suggest that this one option offers an opportunity for the development of mysticism and leadership abilities for women. Virginity or chastity was seen as a necessary prerequisite in order to have credible mystical vision. Cardinal Cisneros, confessor to Queen Isabella, supported female spirituality and female visionaries and encouraged women to teach men through their prophecies.
Visions
Gwenfair Adams describes visions as “events that were believed to involve direct encounters with or communications from the supernatural world”. A vision could be experienced by anyone, anywhere at any time. Generally, visions of the medieval time period had some type of religious, supernatural component consisting of a saint, angel, ghost or demon. It is unclear exactly how many visions María de Ajofrín had throughout her life, but majority of those which Corralez cites centralize around the theme of the immoral clergy in need of reform. María experienced her first vision in 1484, but first had to establish her credibility before the clergy took her visions as honest words from God.
On the day of Ascension in 1484 María received a vision in which she saw a cloister with five doors sculpted with the Annunciation. A procession of priests emerged from each door and into another building, where the clergymen prostrated themselves before an altar singing the Gloria. The Virgin Mary was holding Jesus at the altar, and addressed the clergymen by saying,