Hermenegildo in Mexico: Sor Juana and the Sacramental Shift

Abstract

While the 1590 Jesuit tragedy La tragedia de San Hermenegildo from Spain emphasized the importance of sacrifice as a paradigm of salvation, Sor Juana’s drama, written at the end of the 1600s, focuses on the Eucharistic sacrament, shifting the core of the Hermenegildo trope from bloodletting to redemption. Sor Juana, who was profoundly influenced by Jesuit spirituality, subverts the trope’s underlying assumption that deliverance is only available through death and concentrates instead on Hermenegildo as a martyr of the Eucharist. Her treatment of the hagiographical narrative is viewed through the critical analysis of convent life in Mexico and gender and ethnical biases within the Catholic Church of colonial times.