Legends of Texas

THE MYSTERIOUS WOMAN IN BLUE

Reading edition

By Charles H. Heimsath

So far as I know, the first mention of the legend of the “Blue Lady” is in the Memorial of Fray Alonso de Benavides, 1630. Benavides was (1621–1629) Father Custodian of the province of New Mexico, and his Memorial was written to present Philip IV of Spain an account of the “treasures spiritual and temporal” which that remote province contained. In the course of this highly entertaining document Benavides recounts at length, and with pious zeal, the miraculous conversion of the Jumano tribe of Indians. Benavides was at that time (probably 1629) somewhere in the upper Rio Grande valley. In this region, he states, the Jumano Indians had been demanding missionaries for “years back.” Finally he granted the missionaries.

Another early reference to this mysterious lady appears in a letter of Fray Damian Manzanet to Don Carlos de Sigüenza y Gongora, 1690. In it the writer goes on to say as follows:

And in the same letter a little further on Manzanet recounts this incident:

The story must have reached America quickly. Manzanet, in the above quotations, speaks of it as being in general circulation thirty years later. That it spread is also indicated by the fact that De Leon in a letter, May, 1689, accounts for the religious knowledge of the Texas (or Tejas) Indians through the ministration of a woman. The following extract from his letter reveals the fact that he was not so well acquainted with the Benavides account as Manzanet had been:

So far as I know, the identity of the Blue Lady has been accounted for by no one except Benavides. What is the real basis of the story? Could there actually have been a female missionary who labored in the wilds of New Mexico and Texas before the coming of the Fathers? Or was there some young priest whom zeal led into that romantic region ahead of the most daring, and whom the natives mistook for a beautiful woman because of his youthful face and priestly robes? I wish I could answer.

Notes in this chapter

Note 1 · Benavides, Alonso de: The Memorial of Fray Alonso de Benavides, 1630, translated by Mrs. Edward A. Ayer; annotated by F. W. Hodge and Charle Note 2 · Casis, Lilia M.: “Letter of Fray Damian Manzanet to Don Carlos de Sigüenza Relative to the Discovery of the Bay of Espíritu Santo,” Texas St Note 3 · Casis, ibid., pp. 311–312. ↑Note 4 · A copy at St. John’s College, Fordham, New York. ↑Note 5 · “Carta en que se da noticia de un viaje hecho a la bahía de Espíritu Santo, y de la población que tenian ahi los franceses.” In Buckingham S Note 6 · Shea, John Gilmary: The Catholic Church in Colonial Days, New York, 1886, p. 197. Vol. I of A History of the Catholic Church Within the Unit Note 7 · Bolton, H. E., Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XVI, No. 1, July, 1912, pp. 8–9. ↑Note 8 · Chapman, Charles E., The Founding of Spanish California, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1916, p. 333, footnote. ↑Note 9 · Hodge also recounts the legend in his “Bibliography of Fray Alonso de Benavides,” Indian Notes and Monographs, Vol. III, No. 1, pp. 11–13. [Note 10 · “And before they went,” to quote the document literally, “[we] asked the Indians to tell us the reason why they were with so much concern pe Note 11 · “At that time I was living in the Mission Caldera, in the province of Coahuila, whither I had gone with the intention of seeing whether I co Note 12 · “For lack of more time I shall only add what is the most noteworthy of all, namely this: While we were at the Tejas Hasinai village, after w Note 13 · It appears, therefore, that after the publication of his Memorial in 1630, Benavides visited Maria de Jesus de Agreda. She was already famou Note 14 · “They [the Texas] are very familiar with the fact that there is only one true God, that he is in Heaven, and that he was born of the Holy Vi Note 15 · And Shea asserts that “the Franciscan writers all from this time [when Benavides published his account] speak of this marvelous conversion o