The limits of the arch: Saint Rose's oral and visual declarations of her spiritual experiences

Abstract

This paper is an exploration of Rosa de Lima‘s expression both in her oral declarations to an off-records test of consciousness before members of the Santo Oficio of Perú and her icon-lexical expression in her two holographs «Heridas del alma» and «Escala espiritual». The Boricuo-Peruvian saint makes use of Golden-Age emblematic language and unprecedented collage to communicate fifteen extraordinary experiences with Jesus Christ. Focusing on the disparity of the content, attitude, and density of these two testimonies, hypothesis are exposed to justify an aforethought discursive strategy —according to the advisory of the confessor— which could be congruent with the expectations of her addressees of these spiritual communications.