Book Review: The She-Apostle: The Extraordinary Life and Death of Luisa de Carvajal by Glyn Redworth

By Angela Youngman Apr 20, 2009, 17:11 GMT

Here is the full-length biography of Luisa de Carvajal (1568-1614), possibly the first female missionary of modern times. Born into a great Spanish family, Luisa suffered an abusive childhood, dreamt of martyrdom for the Catholic Church and smuggled herself into England in the year of the Gunpowder Plot. The book explores her courageous intrigues on behalf of the Catholic cause in Protestant England, from distributing banned books to preserving and ...more

The incredible story of a seventeenth century female missionary attempting to maintain Catholicism in England. Born in Spain, Luisa de Carvajal was attracted by the religious life from an early age. 

How much of this attraction was to due to the fact that she was being abused is hard to say. Eventually she left Spain for England, becoming a Jesuit supporter and
searching for martyrdom in the year of the Gunpowder plot. 

She spent the rest of her life working with Catholic priests in hiding, often being responsible for taking care of their remains after they had been executed. It is an extraordinary story, and you are left with a feeling that her life had offered so much promise, yet all choices had been steadily restricted more and more during childhood. 

It is as though her life choices became almost inevitable. Controversy continued even after her death as there was a sordid argument over where she would be buried with locations including London, Louvain and various convents in Spain.

Very well researched and extremely detailed this is a book for a keen historian, particularly those interested in religious and political history of the seventeenth century.

As you read, you get a sense of the drama and confusion over ideas, religious concepts and politics which was endemic at that time. 

And what of Luisa herself? It left me with a picture of a woman who had character and strength to take on roles unusual in her day, yet overall a feeling ofsadness permeates the entire story.