Black Bride of Christ: Chicaba, an African Nun in Eighteenth-Century Spain

Black Bride of Christ: Chicaba, an African Nun in Eighteenth-Century Spain

Black Bride of Christ: Chicaba, an African Nun in Eighteenth-Century Spain. Edited, translated, and with an introduction by Sue E. Houchins and Baltasar Fra-Molinero. Vanderbilt University Press, 2018, xii + 307 pp. $34.95 (paper). ISBN 978-0-8265-2104-0.

Chicaba was born in West Africa (c. 1676), and at age nine, stolen and enslaved, surviving the journey to Spain. She was purchased by a member of the nobility and brought eventually to Madrid. Chibaca, who would then be known as Teresa Chicaba, absorbed the piety of her mistress. When the marchioness...