Sor Margarida Ignácia's Apologia a favor do Reverendo P. António Vieyra: An Eighteenth-century reply to Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz's Carta Atenagórica

This article offers a close reading of the 1727 Portuguese text Apologia a favor do Reverendo P. Antonio Vieyra da Companhia de Jesu da Provinica de Portugal. The lengthy tract, although signed by a nun, Sor Margarida Ignácia, was in fact written by a cleric, Luis Gonçalves Pinheiro, in support of renowned Portuguese Jesuit António Vieira and in strong condemnation of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz's polemical Carta Atenagórica (1690) in which she had challenged Vieira's theological position in his Sermão do Mandato (1650). My reading will demonstrate the longevity and geographic extension of the dispute as well as shed further light on the intricacies of the theological and gender questions surrounding Sor Juana's engagement with Vieira in her Carta Atenagórica.