Born in 1602, the venerable Sôr María de Ágreda was a seventeenth century cloistered nun and abbess in Ágreda, Spain. She was the author of many spiritual treatises, including The Mystical City of God, and was a spiritual and political advisor to King Philip IV of Spain. Beginning when she was 18, María is reported to have experienced being mystically "transported by the aid of the angels" to New Mexico and other places in the American southwest and Mexico while in a trance in her convent in Spain. At the same time, the Native people of Gran Quivira, Quarai, Abó and other locations reported encountering a "Lady in Blue" who advised and educated them on the virtues of Christianity. This story became a legend that inspired future Franciscan missionaries in New Mexico and many of the faithful in Spain and throughout Europe and the New World. Her cause for beatification is supported by many around the world.