Juana de la Cruz Vázquez Gutiérrez

Within the convent, Juana de la Cruz led a life of intense prayer, rigorous penance, and fasting. In 1509, she was elected abbess of the community. Under her leadership, the convent was reformed and elevated to the rank of a monastery of the Order of Poor Clares (Third Order Regular of Saint Francis). In 1510, Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, Archbishop of Toledo, who protected her and vouched for the orthodoxy of her ecstasies, granted her an extraordinary privilege unprecedented for a woman: he appointed her "párroco" (parish priest) of Cubas. This title, officially confirmed by a bull of Pope Julius II, granted her the spiritual and temporal direction of the local parish of San Andrés, as well as the right to collect its ecclesiastical benefits for her monastery. Juana was endowed with an exceptional gift for preaching. For thirteen years, with the authorization of her superiors, she preached publicly to strengthen the faith of the faithful. Her sermons, delivered during deep mystical ecstasies in which she appeared "as if dead," attracted immense crowds. Among her regular listeners were the highest personalities of Renaissance Spain, notably Emperor Charles V, Cardinal Cisneros, Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba (the "Great Captain"), and Don Juan of Austria. Her teachings and prophetic sermons were collected and transcribed by her secretary, Sister María Evangelista, in a monumental manuscript work entitled El Conorte (or Libro del Conorte).

The life of Juana de la Cruz is marked by extraordinary mystical phenomena. From her childhood, she claimed to benefit from visions of the Virgin Mary and her guardian angel. In 1507, she experienced her "mystical union" with Christ. During the Easter feast in 1508, she received the stigmata of the Passion. According to the testimonies of her sisters and her confessor, these painful wounds manifested visibly every week. Out of humility and to avoid any publicity, Juana prayed to the Lord to make these marks invisible, a grace that was granted to her although she continued to physically feel the pain. That same year, from February 11 to August 11, 1508, she completely lost the use of speech. At the end of this period of mutism and after her complete recovery, she received the gift of preaching that would make her famous. Juana de la Cruz passed away on May 3, 1534, the day of her 53rd birthday, at the monastery of Cubas de la Sagra, surrounded by an immense reputation for holiness. During the exhumation of her remains a few years later, her body was found perfectly incorrupt.

The cause for her canonization was introduced shortly after her death. The ordinary informative process took place at the ecclesiastical curia of Toledo from 1614 to 1616, followed by the apostolic process from 1619 to 1621. However, the process was abruptly interrupted in the 18th century due to the loss of the original documents required by the Sacred Congregation of Rites. These precious documents were finally recovered in 1977, allowing for the official reopening of the cause in 1996. On March 18, 2015, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic nature of her virtues, granting her the title of Venerable. On November 25, 2024, Pope Francis signed the decree confirming her immemorial cult (the procedure of equipollent beatification, dispensed from the presentation of a miracle due to continuous and documented popular veneration over the centuries), officially elevating her to the rank of Blessed. Her liturgical feast is inscribed in the Roman Martyrology on May 3 (the day of her birth and death). In the proper calendar of the Diocese of Getafe, her memorial is celebrated on May 5.

The spirituality of Juana de la Cruz is deeply Christocentric, Marian, and Franciscan, centered on the mystery of the Cross and the Eucharist. Her sermons recorded in El Conorte reveal a theology of great poetic and allegorical originality, using bold nuptial imagery to describe the soul's union with God. Considered one of the spiritual and literary "mothers" of Saint Teresa of Avila, she exerted a major influence on the development of Spanish mysticism during the Golden Age. Today, the monastery of Santa María de la Cruz in Cubas de la Sagra, rebuilt after its destruction during the Spanish Civil War, remains the historical heart of her memory and an important center of pilgrimage.