The nun who became a soldier of the Empire

Catalina de Erauso was born in San Sebastián around 1592 and was placed in a convent as a girl. At fifteen she escaped, cut her hair, sewed herself men's clothes out of the cloth of her habit and vanished.

She reappeared across the Atlantic as a soldier of the Spanish Empire. She fought in Chile, rose to the rank of ensign and earned a reputation as a dangerous swordfighter. Nobody suspected a thing for nearly two decades — until, cornered after a brawl, she confessed her story to a bishop.

Far from ending up in a dungeon, she became a celebrity. Philip IV granted her a military pension for her services, and Pope Urban VIII received her and gave her express permission to keep dressing as a man.

She ended her days in Mexico, driving mules under the name Antonio de Erauso. All of this in the middle of the 17th century.