Visionary Preaching of Juana de la Cruz (1481-1534)

Winner of the 2026 Hagiography Society Book PrizeStep into the world of 16th-century Castile, where a devout community of Franciscan women preserved the public preaching of their visionary abbess, Juana de la Cruz (1481-1534), through writing. This groundbreaking book uncovers how her sermons were recorded, explores the materiality of the surviving codices, and reveals their role in the controversial censorship and blocking of Juana’s canonization. Tracing the rich tradition of the liturgical vision (12th-16th centuries), it delves into female literacy and the creation of collective knowledge in female religious houses around Europe. Featuring rare insights and fresh evaluations of historical texts, this volume illuminates the intersection of female prophetic preaching, community, and the written word at the end of the Middle Ages.Hagiography Society Book Prize Committee's statement:This exceptionally well researched and documented book achieves two key objectives, on the one hand offering readers an invaluable reappraisal of the life and works of Juana de la Cruz, while on the other, locating her production within the broader international perspective of mystical female spirituality and visionary experience. Throughout the book, the author demonstrates considerable investigative skill and conceptual subtlety, questioning and challenging existing critical commonplaces to produce an innovative and groundbreaking study that will make it an essential point of departure for the elaboration of future work on sermon literature, the history of preaching, and studies on female mysticism more broadly—both within Iberia and beyond.