Erauso stayed with him for three months, learning some Latin, but when Cerralta became abusive, Erauso left. In Vitoria, Erauso met a doctor and professor, Francisco de Cerralta, who was married to Erauso's mother's cousin but took Erauso in without recognizing him. Travels around Spain įrom this moment on, Erauso began the life of a fugitive, later narrated in the autobiography that gave him great fame. With short hair, Erauso easily passed as a boy there. Erauso spent a week fashioning boy's clothes, and headed for Vitoria, staying off the main roads. On March 18, 1600, the eve of San Jose, Erauso found the keys of the convent hanging in a corner, waited for the other nuns to be at morning prayer, and escaped. At 15, after being beaten by one of the older nuns, Erauso decided to escape.

Erauso grew into a strong, stocky, and quick-tempered individual, Lacking religious vocation and as a result feeling imprisoned and refusing to take vows, Erauso was detained in a cell and constantly fought with a widowed novice named Catalina de Aliri. Life at the convent Īround the year 1589, at age 4, Erauso (together with sisters Isabel and Maria) was taken to the Dominican convent of San Sebastian el Antiguo, where Erauso's mother's cousin, Ursula de Uriza e Sarasti, held the position of prioress. From an early age, Antonio trained with his father and brothers in the arts of warfare. Miguel was a captain and military commander of the Basque province under the orders of King Philip III of Spain. Erauso's parents were Miguel de Erauso and Maria Pérez de Arce Galarraga, both of whom had been born and lived in San Sebastián. Early years Įrauso was born in the Basque town of San Sebastián, Gipuzkoa, Spain, in either 1585 (according to some sources including a supposed autobiography of 1626) or Febru(according to a baptismal certificate).

Erauso's story has remained alive through historical studies, biographical stories, novels, movies and comics. de Erauso was originally an unwilling nun, but escaped the convent and travelled around Spain and Spanish America, mostly under male identities, in the first half of the 17th century. He is also known in Spanish as La Monja Alférez ( The Ensign Nun or The Nun Lieutenant). Portrait attributed to Juan van der Hamen, c.1626Īntonio de Erauso, born as Catalina de Erauso (in Spanish or Katalina Erauso in Basque) ( San Sebastián, Spain, 1585 or 1592 - Cuetlaxtla near Orizaba, New Spain, 1650), also went by Alonso Díaz and some other masculine names, later taking on the name Antonio de Erauso which he went by for the remainder of his life.

Memoir of a basque lieutenant nun