Catalina d'Erauso, a Spanish former nun who lived as a male soldier in America. Lithograph by A.L. Noel, 1833, after F. Pacheco. Catalina de Erauso or Katalina Erauso, (1592-1650) was a personality of the Basque Country, Spain and Spanish America in the first half of the 17th century. She was expected to become a nun at a young age but abandoned the nunnery after a beating at the age of fifteen, just before she was to take her vows. She dressed as a man, calling herself Francisco de Loyola, and left on a long journey from San Sebastian to Valladolid. From there she visited Bilbao, where she signed up on a ship. She reached Spanish America and enlisted as a soldier in Chile under the name Alonso Diaz Ramirez de Guzman. She served under several captains in the Arauco War, including her own brother, who never recognized her. She went to Rome and toured Italy, where she eventually achieved such a level of fame that she was granted a special dispensation by Pope Urban VIII to wear men's clothing. This image has been color enhanced.