Colonial School. Possibly Mexico. 18th century. "Venerable Lady Mary Jesus of Ágreda evangelising American Indians" Oil on canvas. Signed and dated "Jossè .. .Icarus? I fect.t ann. D. 1776. 54.5 x 35cm. With handwritten motto, in the lower margin: "divinitus translata ad Indosamericanos corun complures ad Catholicam religionem adctursifse perhibetus In Summario Processus Apostolici num XIV. S. IX. XII. XVII et seqq. Alma Provinciae Burgensi tantae Filiae Parenti Felicissimae F. Franciscus Xaverius de Cadiñanu Ord. Min. Obser S. Franc. S. ejusdem Provinciae Alumnur Cause that Bftulatur. D.D.D." This painting is based on Pietro Leone Bombelli's engraving of Missionary Sister Mary, made in Rome in 1761, at the initiative of the postulant of the Cause of Saints, from a drawing by Mariano Salvador Maella. A copy of said engraving is in the National Library of Madrid. This painting is especially important, because apart from the engravings, there are very few pictorial examples on canvas and only some sculptures of the Venerable Mary Jesus, in which she is usually portrayed in her role as a writer. Even so, they are scarce, and most of them are devotional. Legend has it that Sor Mary Jesus of Ágreda taught the Faith to the Indians of Southern Mexico through bilocation, since she never left Spain. Sister María Jesús de Ágreda (1602-1665) was just one of the many cloistered nuns who were said to be able to unfold and visit distant places to evangelise. As Andrés González indicates: “Throughout her life we ​​can highlight three aspects: her strong spirituality, marked by moments of ecstasy and penitential acts; the phenomenon of bilocation, by which she participates in the evangelization of the California area; and her facet as a writer, both of books and epistles. In the first years of her cloistered life, we find one of the most interesting aspects of the venerable Lady, her bilocating capacity, for which, without leaving the convent of Ágreda, she appeared in America catechizing the Indians. Circa 1620, in the northern part of South America, the Indians went to the Franciscans voluntarily asking to be baptized, surprising the missionaries because they had not come to them to instruct them. The Indians reported having received a visit from the "Blue Lady of the Plains," a beautiful woman dressed in blue, who had instructed them to go and be baptized. These events ceased in 1623.” Reference bibliography: Patricia Andrés González : “Iconografia de la Nenerable María de Jesús de Agreda”