The poet progresses toward the Word; the mystic tends toward Silence.
For the first time ever, the Global Catholic Literature series will ponder the paradoxes of poetry in Poetry & Mysticism in Maritain, Mistral, and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Centuries before Latin America became known as the land of magical realism, she gave birth to the mysticism of St. Rose of Lima and the poetry of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the “Phoenix of the Americas,” whose poems about love and loss, the toils of women and the experience of God inspired generations of Latin American poets. Foremost among Sor Juana’s literary daughters was Gabriela Mistral, the Chilean poet and Nobel laureate deemed "the spiritual queen of all Latin America" by the Nobel Committee. Bearing all the marks of a mystic, Mistral grew from a young girl "deep in conversation with the birds and flowers of the garden" to a disconsolate young woman who "like Job...cried aloud to the skies." Formed by these experiences, Mistral's poems strike mystic chords and mournful strains.
These poems in turn caught the attention of Jacques and Raïssa Maritain, who formed a friendship with Mistral at the peak of her poetic powers. So deep was this friendship that Jacques Maritain came to Mistral's deathbed where the pair talked "like two Christian poets...about God, life, and death, all the religious questions that were so close to their hearts." In this summer season of Global Catholic Literature, we will read selections of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and Mistral's poems paired with Raïssa Maritain's thought-provoking essays in Poetry and Mysticism published by Wiseblood Books.
June 2: Maritain’s Poetry & Mysticism: Facilitated by James Matthew Wilson (University of St. Thomas, Houston)
June 9: Mistral’s Mourning: Facilitated by Oso Guardiola (Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi)
June 16: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Mistral’s Literary Mother: Facilitated by Jane Clark Scharl (Plough)
• June 23: Mistral’s Mysticism: Facilitated by José Pérez-Benzo (Collegium Institute)
Registration:
Early Bird Registration: $65 through May 9
Regular Registration: $75 through May 26
To learn more and register, click the button below. Questions? Contact Joe Perez-Benzo (jperezbenzo@collegiuminstitute.org).
Collegium Institute will provide copies of the readings to all participants in the United States. International participants are welcome to join, but please note that we can't guarantee that we will be able to send you a copy of the texts if you live outside of the US.