The borderlands story of Sor María de Ágreda (1602–55), also known as the Lady in Blue, begins in 1628, when “a woman dressed in blue or gray religious garb appeared to the Jumano tribe of eastern New Mexico” (1). The moment marks the first reported visit to the Americas by the Spanish nun, who did not cross the Atlantic by boat but was transported by six angels. Even more remarkable was her continuing presence inside her convent in Spain, while she traveled to New Mexico. Known as bi-location, this phenomenon occurs when a person is said to be in two places at the same time. Nogar's book details the life and circulation of Ágreda's literary work, in addition to presenting the folklore surrounding her multitudinous bi-locations throughout the US southwest. These reportedly continued until the mid twentieth century. Known as the Lady in Blue because of her blue nun's habit, she visited indigenous tribes and assisted in their conversion to Christianity.

Ágreda's bi-locations are only a fraction of her remarkable narrative, making any biography a significant challenge. A prolific author from an early age, she is best known for La mística ciudad de Dios (1670), a six-volume tome in which she transcribes her communication with the Virgin Mary. Much of the attention brought to La mística ciudad emanated from Ágreda's position on the controversial dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which proposed that the Virgin Mary was conceived without original sin. The Conceptionist debate consumed the early modern Spanish Church. It was so divisive that deliberations at times led to violence (see Herrero 2008).

The life of Sor María was unusual in a number of ways, most of all that as a woman she entered the male world of discourse with significant respect, so much so that her writing came to the attention of the Spanish monarch. They began a correspondence that lasted 22 years, during which time she was his spiritual and personal advisor. Felipe's support proved invaluable, especially while Sor María was being investigated by the Spanish Inquisition. Without Felipe, it is likely the Inquisition would have found her work heretical, placing in jeopardy her writing, and perhaps her life. In spite of the controversy (or perhaps because of it), La mística ciudad circulated throughout the Americas. Her apparitions in Texas and New Mexico intensified interest in her narrative and have kept her story alive to the present.

Nogar's text is a welcome addition to scholarship on the history of the Church in northern colonial Spain. Chapter 2, “Sor María's Rise as Mystical Writer and Protomissionary in Early Modern Spain,” is especially informative and well-written. The author provides a detailed study of Ágreda's life and her writing as a theologian and a woman. In this section, Nogar analyzes the work of a number of early modern scholars who reference Ágreda's writing. These include Agustín de Vetancurt, Pablo de Écija, Alonso de Benavides, and Cayetano Veriguer. In an important later chapter, Nogar notes that the famed Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz perceived Sor María as an “educated” woman, and saw her as an example for herself and others. Sor Juana incorporated a number “of [Ágreda's] ideas in … her own theological works” (156). Ágreda's writings were so well respected that many convents instituted their regulations based on La mística ciudad.

There are numerous threads to follow in studying Sor María. In response to this, Nogar judiciously covers most, if not all aspects of Ágreda's life and writing, at times presenting a text that seems almost encyclopedic. Although certainly commendable, the reader may at moments wish that Nogar had selected fewer aspects of Ágreda's narrative. A more limited focus would have enriched the book with further detail and deeper analysis. Perhaps the life, writings, and bi-locations of Sor María de Ágreda are so rich that a second volume is needed.

Nogar produced an excellent study that lays out the entrance of Christianity into the northern borderlands. Most important, as a text on Ágreda's life, writings, and apparitions, it clearly documents her significance to the history and colonization of New Spain's northern frontier.