In the decades after 1560, female conventuals in Catholic Europe experienced a sharp increase inthenumber of visions with a divine or diabolic content. The increase was partly due to renewedattention to medieval mysticism and to new contemplativemethods. In the eyes of many theologians, visionssoon became an exclusive and dangerous feature offemale spirituality. Some of them led to exorcismor even accusations ofwitchcraft. However, most have escaped the attention of historians because they did not result in prosecution. This project studies the religious visions of Discalced Carmelitenuns in the order’s convents in Spain and the Spanish Netherlands between 1560 and 1700. It will analyze and classify the content of the visions, relate them tothe circumstances in which they manifested themselves, and trace models in contemporary written andiconographic sources. It will further historicizeby studying the visions’ roles in the livesof these women, particularly the gendered role inthe confrontation between the nuns and theirmale superiors, as religious authorities increasingly sought to control their spirituality by imposing on the seers the official, male-authored discourse of the Church. This project uses a bottom-up approach that puts the nuns and their writings at the center of the research and examines how they described and experienced their visions, giving meaning to their experiences before their male superiors did so in their role as church officials