Venerable Marina de Escobar

Marina de Escobar Montaña (8 February 1554 – 9 June 1633) was a Spanish Catholic mystic of the Counter-Reformation era. Restricted in her activity due to poor health, she devoted herself to prayer and contemplation under the guidance of her Jesuit confessors and spiritual advisors. Marina experienced visions of a number of saints, and within her lifetime she acquired a reputation throughout Spain as a holy woman, especially in her home city of Valladolid. Despite taking a vow of chastity, spending her life in prayer and service, and gathering a small community of other women around her, Marina never joined a religious order. After a 1615 vision, she worked to found a modified branch of the Brigittine Order, but died before she herself could join it. She was popularly venerated after her death, and her confessor, Luis de la Puente, collected and prepared her accounts of her spiritual experiences. After a lengthy investigation by the Spanish Inquisition, these were published, and Marina was declared Venerable. Marina was born in Valladolid, Spain, on 8 February 1554. Her father, Diego de Escobar, was a professor of civil and canon law, a lawyer in the Royal Chancellery of Granada, and, for a time, governor of Osuna; her mother was Margaret Montaña, daughter of the Emperor Charles V's physician.: 427  Marina was their fourth daughter; her parents had hoped for a boy.: 202  Between the ages of one and nine, Marina lived with her grandmother. After she returned to living with her parents, her father criticized her for taking care with her appearance and for insufficient asceticism. About this time, Marina made friends with another young girl, who influenced her away from the intense devotion her family cultivated.: 202  Her father, displeased, chose her a confessor who pushed her towards greater austerity.