Mary Agreda

Mary Agreda was a nun in the 17th century and known to the Native Americans of the West and Southwest as "the Lady in Blue." Sister Mary Agreda claimed that while deep in prayer, in Spain, she ended up in New Mexico and brought Christianity to the Indian tribes there. Strangely enough, when Spain did discover Native American tribes they were familiar with Christianity, lending credence to Sister Mary’s story. The Native Americans themselves witnessed a beautiful white woman wearing a blue cape that exactly the same description as Mary Agreda came down from the sky and spoke to them in their own language. She then, they insisted, disappeared back into the clouds. Nor did this happen just once but over and over again. How did Mary, without ever leaving Spain, manage to cross an ocean and a continent? In particular, incidents like the one involving Sister Mary Agreda, became used as evidence that teleportation existed. The idea of teleportation has been one used in science fiction, and also been the subject of many claims throughout history.

Teleportation is the transfer of matter from one point to another, more or less instantaneously. The word "teleportation" was coined in 1931 by American writer Charles Fort to describe the strange disappearances and appearances of anomalies, which he suggested may be connected. Fort suggested that teleportation might explain various allegedly paranormal phenomena, although it is difficult to say if Fort took his own "theory" seriously, or instead used it to point out what he saw as the inadequacy of mainstream science to account for strange phenomena.

María Fernández Coronel y Arana, Abbess of Ágreda or, known in religion as Sor (Sister) María de Jesús de Ágreda (2 April 1602 – 24 May 1665), also known as the Lady in Blue and the Blue Nun, was born and died in Ágreda, a town located in the province of Soria, Castile and León, Spain. She was the daughter of Don Francisco Coronel and his wife Catalina de Arana.

In 1670, five years after her death, Samaniego told how at the age of twenty-two she had been miraculously conveyed from Spain to Texas and New Mexico, to convert a native people, and had made five hundred bilocations for that purpose in one year. This was recounted more than 200 years later in the first edition (in 1888) of Michael Muller's book, Catholic Dogma. Throughout her life, Maria de Agreda was inclined to the "internal prayer" or "quiet prayer" for which the Franciscans are noted. Why is the obscurity around her paranormal activity on American soil only now lifting? The most obvious answer is that none of her writings, or those about her, were translated into English until the twentieth century, even though her New World activities had been thoroughly investigated, documented and published in Spain as early as the 1630’s.

The discovery of her identity is a fascinating story in itself. During the years of her appearances, members of one tribe presented themselves at a Franciscan mission near Albuquerque and asked that priests return with them to their tribal lands some three hundred miles away. They tried to explain to the padres that the one known to them as "the Lady in Blue" had instructed them to come and make the request. And perhaps they could have made themselves understood had there not been a credibility gap as well as a language barrier. In any event, the tribal emissaries returned with the same request for six consecutive summers, until finally, the story came to the attention of Alonso Benavides, custodian of the North American Franciscan missions.

From the tribal people’s description he recognized the blue cape as that of a Franciscan nun. On this basis he determined to return to Spain in order to seek out the woman held in such high regard by the native peoples of his own mission field. Following the clue of her habit, he discovered the mysterious "Lady in Blue" to be none other than Sister Mary Jesus of Agreda, abbess of the Poor Clare convent there.

For two entire weeks Benavides carried on his interrogation. In the end he was convinced the accounts were true. What convinced him, he explained, was that Mary, under her vow of obedience, knew more about his mission territory than he himself did! He concluded that she must have traveled there bodily. Mary, however, said she couldn’t answer with certainty as to whether her visits were in the body or out of the body. "God knows," she replied and quoted St. Paul who wrote of a similar experience. However, it would be impossible to travel from one point to another instantaneously; faster than light travel, as of today, is believed to be most likely impossible.

Sources :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleportation;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar%C3%ADa_de_Agreda;
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-teleportation.htm;
http://clcpress.com/agreda/agreda.htm

Pic source :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mar%C3%ADa_de_Jes%C3%BAs_de_Agreda