Sóror Mariana Alcoforado was a Portuguese nun living in the convent of the Poor Clares in Beja, Portugal. She was a writer of "the Letters of a Portuguese Nun".
Background
Mariana Alcoforado was born on April 22, 1640 in Beja. She was a daughter of landed proprietor of Alentejo Francisco da Cunha Alcoforado, born at Cortiços, Macedo de Cavaleiros, and first wife Leonor Mendes. She had three brothers: Baltasar Vaz Alcoforado, Miguel da Cunha Alcoforado and Francisco da Cunha Alcoforado, and two sisters: Anna Maria da Cunha Alcoforado, wife of Rui de Mello Lobo Freire, and Maria Peregrina Alcoforado. Her father later remarried and had two more daughters, Maria da Conceição Alcoforado and Catarina Alcoforado, and was also made a Knight of the Order of Christ on December 15, 1647.
Education
Mariana's widowed father, occupied with administrative and military commissions, placed her in the wealthy convent of the Conception for security and education.
Career
She made her religious profession as a Franciscan nun of the Poor Ladies at sixteen or earlier, without any real vocation, and lived a routine life in that somewhat relaxed house until her twenty-fifth year, when she purportedly met the young French nobleman Noël Bouton. This man, afterwards known as marquis of Chamilly, and marshal of France, was one of the French officers who came to Portugal to serve under the captain, Frederick Schomberg, 1st Duke of Schomberg, the re-organizer of the Portuguese army, campaigning against the Spanish army in the Alentejo.
During the years 1665-1667, the marquis of Chamilly spent much of his time in and about Beja, and probably became acquainted with the Alcoforado family through Sóror Mariana's brother, who was a soldier. Custom permitted those in religious orders to receive and entertain visitors, and Chamilly found it easy to get round the trustful nun. Before long their affair became known and caused a scandal, and to avoid the consequences Chamilly deserted Soror Mariana and returned to France. This resulted in Soror Mariana writing the letters.
After a life of rigid penance, accompanied by much suffering, she died, aged 83.
The letters’ effects were great. They were praised for sincerity and passion by many—including Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon (who brought evidence to support the identification of Chamilly), Jean de La Bruyère, and Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve—and they influenced writers from Stendhal to Rainer Maria Rilke. Regardless of their authenticity, the Lettres portugaise remain a powerfully moving account of love and betrayal, and they were often republished throughout the 20th century, appearing in English translation under such titles as The Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun and Letters from a Portuguese Nun.