From the cult of Saint Anne to the devotees of the Virgin of Guadalupe, from Saint Anthony who competed with Christ for popularity in Brazil, to Jesuits who mixed freely with shamans that talked with the gods, this exciting new anthology examines the conversion of the colonized. The essays examine how New World spirits transformed into Old World saints - for example, the spirit of love transfigured into the Virgin Mary - as well as the implications of the canonization of the first American saint. Colonial Saints illustrates the complex and intimate connections among confessional life writing, canonization, and the practices of the Inquisition. There was a dynamic exchange involving local agendas, the courts in Spain and France, and, of course, Rome. This bold collection clearly shows the interplay between slavery and spirituality, conversion and control, and the links between the sacred and the political.

Allan Greer is Professor of History at the University of Toronto. His areas of expertise include Canadian social history, colonization of the Americas, and cultural encounters between Native Americans and Europeans.
Jodi Bilinkoff is Associate Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. She was a Fellow at the National Humanities Center. She has published widely on the social history of women and religion.

List of Illustrations, Preface, Allan Greer, Introduction, Jodi Bilinkoff Part 1: Cultural Mixing, 1. St. Anne Imagery and Maternal Archetypes in Spain and Mexico. Charlene Villase; or Black 2. Querying the Spirit: The Rules of the Haitian 'Lwa'. Joan Dayan 3. Diego de Ocaoa's Hagiography of New and Renewed Devotion in Colonial Peru. Kenneth Mills, 4. Old Bones and Beautiful Words: The Spiritual Contestation between Shaman and Jesuit in the Guaran; Missions. Dot Tuer 5. Saint Anthony in Portuguese America: Saint of the Restoration. Ronaldo Vainfas, Part 2: Holy Women, Holy Men 6. Francisco Losa and Gregorio Lopez: Spiritual Friendship and Identity Formation on the New Spain Frontier., Jodi Bilinkoff 7. In the Shadow of the Cloister: Representations of Female Holiness in New France. Dominique Deslandres,8. Isaac Jogues: From Martyrdom to Sainthood. Paul Perron,9. Martyred by the Saints: Quaker Executions in Seventeenth-Century Massachusetts. Carla Gardina Pestana,10. Saint Palafox: Metaphorical Images of Disputed Sainthood. Antonio Rubial Garcia Part 3: The Uses of the Sacred 11. Writing a Relic: The Uses of Hagiography in New France. Julia Boss,12. Iroquois Virgin: The Story of Catherine Tekakwitha in New France and New Spain. Allan Greer 13. Redeemer of America: Rosa de Lima (1586-1617), the Dynamics of Identity and Canonization. Kathleen Ann Myers 14. Mexico's Virgin of Guadalupe in the Seventeenth Century: Hagiography and Beyond. William B. Taylor, Contributors, Select Bibliography