Carvajal y Mendoza, Luisa de

(1566-1614)

   Spanish religious poet. Born into the powerful Mendoza family and reared by relatives after she was orphaned, she felt a strong calling to religious work but was not willing to become a nun. Instead, she lived an austere single life and ministered to the poor. Distressed by the loss of Christian unity, she decided to travel to England and work for the reconversion of the English to the Catholic faith, a plan that she carried out beginning in 1605, with the encouragement of the Jesuit order. She was twice imprisoned for preaching in the streets and attempting to form a convent in her home but managed to remain in England until her death. Her religious poetry, published posthumously, includes sonnets and ballads and often took the form of dialogues.