Abilene teen's baptism in Spain links her faith, heritage to Lady in Blue

In her recurring dream, Elizabeth Flores is holding her baby daughter, Harley, in a small room in Agreda, Spain, waiting for a priest to take her.

“I’m handing her over to be baptized,” Flores said.

In reality, Harley Flores is 15 and a student at Abilene High School. But in May, Elizabeth and Harley actually were in Agreda and Harley was baptized by a Catholic bishop in a basilica.

“It just seemed so familiar, the place,” Elizabeth said, comparing it to her dream. “It was very humbling, very spiritual.”

Continental connections

It was not by accident that Elizabeth and Harley were in Spain last month. And it was not by accident that the baptism took place in a particular location.

Both are descendants of the Jumano Indians, who populated the desert southwest in the 1600s, including the San Angelo area. Legend holds that a mysterious Lady in Blue made more than 500 appearances to the Jumanos between 1620 and 1631.

The Lady in Blue was identified as Sor Maria de Jesus de Agreda, a Franciscan nun who lived in Agreda, Spain — where Harley Flores was baptized.

“She was baptized in the same basin that Sor Maria was baptized,” Elizabeth said. “It’s like full circle — we’ve delivered a baby back to Agreda, Spain, to be baptized.”

The trip to Agreda for the baptism was part of a larger venture by a group of about 50 people from the Diocese of San Angelo, first to the Vatican and then to Agreda, to promote Sor, or Sister Maria, for canonization.

Sor Maria’s mysterious appearances in the Southwestern United States in the 1600s is explained as “bilocation,” a phenomenon that some believe allowed her to be in North America while it's said she never left Agreda.

Mystical experience

Harley Flores had her own other-worldly experience when she was baptized from the same basin as Sor Maria. Harley felt as if someone was watching her the entire time and that something was changing within her.

She remembers the sensation as the priest put his hands on her head during the baptism and then lifted them.

“When he removed them,” Harley said, “it felt like someone’s hands were still there.”

The mystical experience came as no surprise to the others on the trip, which was planned by the Historic Beginnings of San Angelo/Lady in Blue Committee. The committee consists of people from all walks of life in San Angelo, primarily Catholic, who are interested in preserving the history of the Jumano Indians and the story of the Lady in Blue.

The trip served two purposes — to take documentation about the Lady in Blue to the Vatican in hopes that Sor Maria might one day be canonized and then to fly to Madrid and ride a bus four hours to Agreda for Harley’s baptism and to visit the convent where Sor Maria lived.

While in Rome, a contingent of the Texans presented the documents to Pope Francis outside St. Peter's Basilica and Harley got a close encounter with the pope when he rode around the area in his popemobile.

The legend of the Lady in Blue is as popular in Agreda as it is in the Diocese of San Angelo. Sor Maria’s incorrupt body lies in a coffin in the basilica and is on display to the public. There are tapestries on display that Sor Maria made that depict cactus, live oak trees, birds and other plants and wildlife native to Texas but not to Agreda, Spain.

While the San Angelo folks were in Agreda, they witnessed quite a spectacle.

Nuns at the convent processed from the basilica after the baptism, all wearing blue capes just like the Lady in Blue wore. Children turned out in hordes to witness the baptism and Harley’s first communion.

“They would walk up and lightly touch our hair and run away,” Elizabeth said.

The reason for their fascination, Elizabeth said, is because of her Jumano ancestry and the vital role the Jumanos play in the legend of the Lady in Blue.

A fan in Pfeifer

The mysterious Lady in Blue probably has no greater fan and promoter than the former longtime bishop of the Diocese of San Angelo, Michael Pfeifer.

In 2009, Pfeifer, who was bishop of the diocese at the time, and others formed the Lady in Blue committee and planned a celebration for June 20, designated as Lady in Blue Day, which is repeated each year close to that date.

Since 2009, much has happened.

Three bronze sculptures related to the Lady in Blue have been erected near the Concho River and a three-day conference involving high-level international Catholic representatives was held in San Angelo in May 2018. This year, adocumentary debuted this year in San Angelo on April 7, and a resolution honoring the Jumanos and The Lady in Blue was adopted by the Texas House of Representatives in May.

Elizabeth and Harley Flores, as well as Pfeifer, were all present when the resolution was adopted. A copy of the resolution is being cast in bronze to place near the Lady in Blue sculptures in San Angelo.

“There’s a lot of things coming together,” Pfeifer said from his home in San Antonio, where he lives in retirement.

Originally, the bronze copy of the resolution was to be set in place June 22 but it wasn’t completed. No new date has been set.

The documentary and a copy of the resolution were among the documents presented at the Vatican as part of the canonization process. Pfeifer was unable to make the trip but has been to the Vatican many times, and also to Agreda.

Pfeifer believes strongly that Sor Maria de Jesus de Agreda will someday be canonized. She is said to have spoken to the Jumanos in their native language, beginning their conversion to Christianity.

The first Franciscan missionaries to the area were puzzled, Pfeifer said, when they were approached by Jumanos asking to be baptized and to get additional religious instruction. They claimed that the Lady in Blue had talked to them about Christianity in their own language.

A historical marker in San Angelo denotes where the first Mass was celebrated in the area, Pfeifer said, and where Fransciscan missionaries met with Jumanos, a meeting said to have been arranged by the Lady in Blue.

“I call her the messenger to the missionaries,” Pfeifer said.

And so is 'Saint Tilly'

Another woman who might be considered a saint in the process is Tilly Chandler of San Angelo, who at 82, made the trip to Rome and Agreda.

She is chairperson of the Historic Beginnings of San Angelo/Lady in Blue Committee and has been from the beginning. She helped make it possible for Elizabeth and Harley Flores to go on the trip and for Harley to be baptized at the basilica, a process that involved hours of research and mounds of paperwork.

Since the committee was formed 10 years ago, Elizabeth and Harley have been regular attendees at meetings and have gotten to know Chandler well. Harley called her to ask for her assistance in being baptized in Agreda. Chandler knew after listening to Harley’s request she couldn’t deny her.

“God and Maria want me to be baptized there,” Harley told Chandler.

The trip was an extraordinary event for Elizabeth and Harley Flores. They are members of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Abilene but Elizabeth said her daughter never had been baptized.

“There is no excuse,” Elizabeth said. “I acknowledge that.”

But as Elizabeth learned more about her Jumano ancestry and the connection to the Lady in Blue, she knew she wanted Harley to be baptized in the same place as Sor Maria. In addition to the baptism, Harley received three other sacraments at the basilica in Agreda--confirmation, first communion, and anointing of the sick. Harley suffers seizures due to tumors on her brain and spinal cord, Elizabeth said.

The story of the Jumanos and the Lady in Blue will not be forgotten because of the work of Pfeifer, Chandler, Elizabeth Flores and hundreds of others who have worked the past 10 years to preserve the history and the legend. Because of her own Jumano blood, Elizabeth is grateful.

“There is a time and place for everything,” she said. “It’s a time to bring back something people thought was forgotten.”