To Serve God in Holy Freedom

This book presents one of the first accounts of Christianity in colonial India by a nun. Set in Goa in the early eighteenth century, this translation of Soror Magdalena’s account from Portuguese brings to life a watershed moment in the politics of Christian faith in early colonial India.

The volume recounts the nuns’ rebellion against the then Archbishop of Goa, Dom Frei Ignaçio de Santa Teresa. In...