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A rhetoric of joy
Following the enchanted pace of successive matins, the autobiographic narratives
underline the intensity of the amorous transports and of the extraordinary
visions, in a writing dominated by pleasure and joy.
Mother Mariana da Purificação states: “Depois que estou neste retiro, a
maior parte dos dias passo-os todos naquela união do meu divino esposo, toda
unida e abrasada em seu divino e puro amor, sem me lembrar cousa desta vida,
nem deste mundo, como se para mim o não houvera.” 20
Expressions giving account of the happiness abound: consolation, favours,
glory, delights, pleasure: “Estava tão fora de mim com o júbilo que gozava
minha alma, que não podia tomar assento o discurso” 21 , writes Sister Isabel
do Menino Jesus.
Weaved in the intimacy of the cell, these texts speak, therefore, of women
who, through the exercise of writing, set out on a quest to find a “different
way of saying things”. Experiencing the unknown, the unspeakable, the
inexplicable, they lived the “syntax of fire” that passes through these mystical
accounts, that “writing of the hearth” mentioned by Teresa Joaquim. 22 Sister
Maria Josefa says: “Outra noite antes de tangerem as matinas, senti junto a mi
um anjo de pequena estatura e grande formosura e alegria interior e tão ágil e
ligeiro que me lembrou com quanta razão o Profeta chama aos anjos ministros
de fogo. Trazia na mão um molho de setas; Com algumas me trespassava o coração,
lançando uma e outra com grande pressa, de sorte que, quando tangiam
a matinas, com grande trabalho estive nelas e não sei se entendi o que rezava,
porque desejava a alma não sair daquele exercício amoroso. 23
In that quest for loving speech, the game of metaphors succeeds; as if
hallucinated, it runs at every moment into the limits of language, unable to say
what cannot be said, or understood.
20
[“Since I am in this retreat, I spend most of my days in that union with my divine spouse, fully united and
inflamed in His divine and pure love, without reminding the slightest thing of this life, or this world, as if it would
not exist for me.”]
21
N.T.: “I was so completely out of myself with the delights my soul was enjoying that I could not make use of
speech”.
22
Teresa Joaquim,”O coração e a escrita ou um outro tipo de saber”, in Mulheres que escrevem, mulheres que lêem:
Repensar a literatura pelo género (Lisbon: 101Noites, 2007), 145-153.
23
[The other night before the matins sounded, I felt near me an angel small in height but big in beauty and inner
joy and so agile and swift that it reminded me of how right the Prophet was to call angels the ministers of fire. In
his hand he carried a bunch of arrows; he pierced my heart, with one arrow after the other, and when the matins
sounded I had a difficult time attending and I am not so sure I could understand what I was praying, since my soul
desired nothing but not to abandon that loving exercise.”]
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