The Spanish ‘Shulamite Brides’: The Song of Songs in Teresa of Ávila, Mariana de San Joseph and María de Jesús de Ágreda

Abstract

This essay examines the use and influence of the Song of Songs in the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century writings of three Castilian nuns. The biblical love poem provided a constitutive narrative that shaped the spiritual identity of the early modern religious who sought to become God's perfect spouse through imitation of the Song's protagonist, the Shulamite bride. Understanding the poem primarily as a portrayal of love between God and the soul, Hispanic nuns replicated the Shulamite bride's words, actions, and desires, which they refracted through their early modern spiritual concerns. In Meditaciones, Teresa of Ávila viewed the Song as a script through which to guide her mystical ascent, thereby establishing an interpretive precedent for other nuns and religious to follow. Mariana de San Joseph's unique exegetical commentary, Sobre el libro de los cantares de Salomón, situated the meanings and messages of the Song within the context of daily convent life. In her Mística ciudad de Dios, María de Jesús de Ágreda promoted the Virgin Mary as the quintessential bride and role model. A fertile paradigm for spiritual advancement, the Song of Songs supplied significant elements that shaped and influenced early modern Hispanic spirituality.