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Dona Catalina de Erauso, known as the Lieutenant Nun, was born in San Sebastián de Guipúzcoa, Spain, in about 1592. When she was four years old, she was entered into the convent of San Sebastian el Antiguo. The day before she was to take her vows, at age 15, she fled from the nunnery, disguised herself as a man, and joined the Spanish Army to fight in the New World. Erauso fought in the New World in 1602 under the alias Alonso Díaz Ramírez. While there, she was named the second lieutenant of the infantry of Captain Gonzalo Rodríguez. She was known as “Alferez.”
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While fighting in Guamanga, Dona Catalina de Erauso was captured. Because of that capture, she decided to reveal to Bishop Fray Agustin de Carvajal that she was in fact a woman instead of a man. She was finally allowed to return to Spain in 1624. After a few years, she moved to Nueva España to spend the rest of her life working as a muleteer under the name, Antonio de Erauso. Dona Catalina de Erauso died in about 1650.
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