La clausura monacal: hierofanía y espejo de la realidad

This article deals with the complex lifestyle of nuns in the cloister. It portraits the habits of a group of religious women who daily created a place of selfgovernment in spite of, against, or due to the external influence, when the Bourbon Reforms were enforced in late colonial Buenos Aires. A conflict at the convent of Nuestra Señora del Pilar, of Capuchin nuns -1769-1789- is taken as the main point of the analysis. The apparent cause of the tensions being anlysed include: the entrance of a presumed mixed-blood, the imposition of constitutions different from the ones the nuns had promised to accomplish, the irregular appiontment of confessors. Yet, I consider the real cause of the unrest the manifested abuse of authority inside the cloister on the part of the bishop of Buenos Aires which resulted in acute consequences. The nuns deeds allowed me to persue the analysis of every day life of a group of women who were able to react, design strategies, and appeal to the King, their Royal Patron. The local conflict evolved to such an extent that other social actors participated to add more complexity to the inicial incident. This factor enabled me to think about the cloister both as a manifestation of the sacred and as a mirror of the secular society.