In Cadiz, a capital at the southernmost part peninsula of Spain, goes on the celebration of the bicentenary of the Constitution that was approved there on March 19, 1812. While the French forces of Napoleon conquered the whole Spanish territory, the representatives of the nation remained so strong in this part of Cadiz. They were not only the political leaders of the actual Spain but also those who represented the “Spaniards in both atmospheres”, as the constitution will dictate; in practice, the representatives of the whole Spanish speaking America

The anecdote that can be gathered during those almost four years (1810-1813) that the Royal Courts lasted is very extensive. And the novels inspired in this surrounding were not few. Later on there were others that run between fiction and reality, as in the case of an Augustinian Recollect nun who, after having an interview with Pope Pius VII, presented herself in Cadiz with a message that stirred the Royal Courts.

The message of the Pope

The person was Mother Rosa Maria de Jesus, born in Barcelona and a professed nun in the augustinian recollect monastery of the Inmaculate Concepcion, in Salamanca. She was barely five years there when she felt being called to travel to the Italian City of Savona, near Geneve, where Napoleon was keeping Pope Pius VII as prisoner. There, in various occasions she was able to see the Pontiff, from whom she received a supposed message for Spain; a message she intends to deliver in Cadiz for all the representatives of the Spanish people.

In Cadiz she writes various letter for the Royal Courts as well as for each of the delegates. She placed the remedy of Spain to be depending principally on the foundation of a new religious congregation, las Siervas de Maria Santisima de los Dolores. Neither her presence nor her messages, visionaries and apocalyptic, went unperceived among the people; the press itself took care of them. Her case was taken by nothing less than some of the commissioners of the Royal Courts.

Nothing much is known of the details of the stay of Mother Rosa in Cadiz. Yes, we know that by the end of 1813 she had already incorporated to the Augustinian Recollects of the monastery of Nuestra Señora de las Angustias de Cabra (Cordoba). Here she lived until 1842 when she transferred to Madrid. Four years after she died in the convent of Comendadoras de Santiago in this city. In no moment in time did she give up in her determination to found a new religious congregation that she saw as the will of God.