Her biographer and a contemporary, Bishop Jose Jimenez Samaniego, was a longtime friend of the Coronel family, and records that even as a young girl she was filled with divine knowledge. From her early years, he writes, she was favored by ecstasies and visions and became a noted mystic of her era. At the age of four, Maria de Agreda was confirmed by Bishop Don Diego de Yepes, the biographer and last confessor of St. Teresa of Avila, because he was so impressed with Maria's spiritual acumen.