The Mystical City of God

The Mystical City of God is a 17th-century work by María de Agreda, a Spanish mystic and abbess. The book is presented as a biography of the Virgin Mary, based on divine revelations received by Agreda. Despite its historical and chronological inaccuracies, it is valued as a mystical and ascetic treatise.1

It is important to distinguish this work from Saint Augustine's philosophical treatise, The City of God (De civitate Dei contra paganos), written in the 5th century CE. Augustine's work, a response to pagan claims that Rome's fall was due to the abandonment of old gods, argues that Christianity saved the city and that Rome's decline stemmed from moral decay. He outlines two symbolic societies: the "City of God" and the "City of Man," representing faith and unbelief, respectively. This influential work shaped medieval thought on church-state relations and human destiny.23