Catalina de Erauso was born in 1585. When she was 14 she escaped from the nunnery to which she had been sent, resewed her habit as men’s clothes, and boarded a ship bound for Peru disguised as a manservant. There she lies, steal, murders, and occasionally behaves nobly for the next decade.
On one occasion, she recaptures her company’s flag from the enemy in battle:
“When I saw the flag being carried off I rode after it, with two horsemen at my side, through the midst of a great multitude of Indians, trampling and slashing away and taking some wounds in return. Before long, one of the three of us fell dead, and the two that remained pressed on until we overtook the flag. But then my other companion went down, spitted on a lance. I had taken a bad blow to the leg, but I killed the chief who was carrying the flag, pulled it from his body and spurred my horse on, trampling and killing and slaughtering more men than there are numbers - but badly wounded, with three arrows in me and a gash from a lance in my left shoulder which had me in great pain - until at last I reached our own lines and fell from my horse. A few men came to my side, among them my brother, whom I hadn’t seen in a while, and this was a great comfort to me. My wounds were tended to, and we stayed quartered there for nine months. At the end of that time, my brother brought me the flag I had rescued, a present from the governor, and I became the lieutenant of Alonzo Moreno’s company, which soon came under the command of Captain Gonzalo Rodriguez - the first captain I had ever served under - and all in all I prospered and was well taken care of.
I served as a lieutenant for five years. I was there at the battle of Puren, where my captain fell, leaving me in command for some six months…”
After she kills a man in a brawl, she Catalina has to take refuge in a church for six months. At the end of that time, the vigilance of the law decreases and she begins to have visitors.
” One of the friends who came to see me at this time was don Juan de Silva, a full lieutenant, who told me he’d had some words with a certain don Francisco de Rojas, a knight of Santiago, and that he had challenged him to a duel for eleven that night. Each man was to bring a second, he said, and he had no one to turn to but myself.
I didn’t answer at first, thinking it was some sort of trap. Juan de Silva guessed what was on my mind, and said, “If you are not with me, so be it, I will go alone. There is no other man I trust at my side.” I said to myself, “What can you be thinking?” and accepted.”
The night was so dark that Catalina suggests that she and Juan tie their handkerchiefs around their arms so that they would not mistake one another. Don Francisco arrives, announces himself and begins the fight with don Juan while she and the other second stand silently by. When don Juan takes a hit, Catalina enters the fray, as does the other second.
“…we parried two on two, and before long don Francisco and don Juan fell to the ground. My opponent and I kept fighting, and my point went home below his left nipple, as I later learned, though a double thickness of leather, and he fell to the ground.
“Ah, traitor,” he said, “you have killed me!” I thought I recognized this stranger’s voice.
“Who are you?” I asked, and he answered, “Captain Miguel de Erauso.” [her brother]
She watches her brother buried, is charged with rebellion, maintains her refuge in the Franciscan monastery until Juan Ponce de Leon offers her a horse and his protection to get out of Conception.
In 1619 she is finally apprehended in the city of Guamanga. She easily decides to turn herself in to the saintly bishop rather than the secular law.
“And seeing that he was such a saintly man, and feeling as if I might already be in the presence of God, I revealed myself to the bishop and told him, “Senior, all of this that I have told you…in truth, it is not so. The truth is this: that I am a woman…”
The next day, she suggests that the bishop have other women examine her to allay any doubts.
“…two old women came in and looked me over…[and] found me to be a woman… - and that, what’s more, they had found me to be an intact virgin, as on the day I came into the world…. This piece of news touched His Eminence [the bishop]…
“Daughter,” he said, “my doubt is gone. I believe you now…”
The bishop then sponsors her entrance to the nunnery of Santa Clara. she transfers to the convent of the Most Holy Trinity and remains there for two years and five months. Then word comes from Spain that she had not actually been a nun, but only a novitiate. She then leaves the convent and sets out for Spain.
In 1624 she makes it back to Cadiz, where two of her brothers were commanders in the armada. By this time she is famous, and people line the roads to try to get a glimpse of her in men’s clothes.
In 1626 she makes it to Rome, killing several more people in quarrels on the route.
” I left Genoa for Rome. I kissed the feet of the Blessed Pope Urban the Eighth, and told him in brief and as well as I could the story of my life and travels, the fact that I was a woman, and that I had kept my virginity. His Holiness seemed amazed to hear such things, and graciously gave me leave to pursue my life in men’s clothing, all the while reminding me it was my duty to lead an honest existence from that day forward, that I must refrain from harming my fellow creatures and that His commandment, Thou Shalt Not Kill, carried with it the vengeance of God for those who transgressed.”
A few days later.
“…At one point, during the afternoon, I found myself chatting with three cardinals, one of whom, Cardinal Magalon, told me that my only fault was that I was a Spaniard.
To this I replied, “With all due respect, your Holiness, that is my only virtue.”
In 1630 Catalina de Erauso returns to the New World, Mexico this time, with a pension from the King of Spain and her Permiso from the Pope to live out the rest of her years as Antonio de Erauso a merchant and mule-driver.
“Lieutenant Nun” by Catalina de Erauso, translated from the Spanish by Michele Stepto and Gabriel Stepto, Beacon Press, 1996
