Female agency and the sculptural object in Agostinho de Santa Maria’s hagiography of Filipa Ferreira (?–1626), the Augustinian Soror Filipa da Trindade

This text address the role played by Filipa Ferreira, Soror Filipa da Trindade, with regard to her astute and gradual elaboration of a mode of agency that permitted her to overcome the restrictions imposed by her personal situation and the social status quo, which constituted the structure and functioning of Goan society during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Through her agency, she forged an image she could use to address her own concerns, one that conformed to the Augustinian order’s inherent gender hierarchy and the religious-political propaganda it disseminated across the Portuguese empire. It will be shown that devotional artworks that were a part of both the secular and religious phases of Ferreira’s life served as instruments of her agency, as well as a means to align herself with Iberian visual culture. They also provided key elements of a discourse legitimizing female spirituality, one which echoed the hegemonic concerns of both Church and Empire yet was not confined to either. My argument is based on three objects, two sculptures and a girdle, probably made of leather. These help to illustrate how Ferreira’s actions and her mystical experiences provided a fundamental basis to ensure her authority and establish a pious identity for Goa’s Convent of Santa Mónica.