ABSTRACT
In her autobiography the future Saint Teresa of Avila recalled a pivotal moment around 1560, when ‘the Lord was pleased that the author becomes friendly with a widow of high nobility’. Between 1463 and 1512 the five widows, Catalina Guiera, Elvira Gonzalez de Medina, Maria Davila, Mencia Lopez and Maria de Herrera, from Avila decided to spend at least part of their inherited wealth in a specific way: by founding a religious house of some sort, usually for other women. In making this choice they were hardly alone: a quick survey of recent research on early modern Italy, Spain and Spanish America reveals that female founders and patrons of religious institutions were virtually always widows. The author examines the foundational efforts of these widows, and attempts to look at class, family strategies and religious expression in a traditional Catholic society. Founding religious houses also gave Avila’s elite widows a way of providing for needy women.
