ABSTRACT
In 1663 a former Jesuit, Francisco de los Rios, appeared before the Holy Office of New Spain. After his recent expulsion from the Society of Jesus in Manila, he returned to Mexico armed with information he believed would be of interest to the inquisitors. To discharge his conscience, he related how he had identified a group of alumbrado heretics living near and even within the Jesuit school in Manila. He told of an indigenous woman, Luisa de los Reyes, who experienced raptures and visions, and convinced a number of his ex-colleagues that she was blessed by God and was even a saint. 1 The inquisitors were intrigued. How had a heresy that originated in Spain nearly a century and a half earlier arrived at the farthest outpost of the Spanish Empire? So began the cases of the only individuals accused of alumbradismo across the Pacific.
