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4. Brother Luis Ferrer de Valencia, who is a great man, arrived and took my confession—and seeing as how I was about to die, I told him the truth about myself.

Although Catalina is ambiguous about whether or not she has told anyone before the bishop about her biological gender, she strongly implies in Chapter 18 that she reveals it to another priest as well. The clear implication of this statement—coupled with the astonishment the priest expresses at her words—is that she has told him she is actually a woman. Her downplaying of this possible first confession may stem from the priest’s failure to react expansively enough to her news. When she tells the bishop, she revels in his intense astonishment and offers to submit to a medical examination. She may very well have been disappointed when the first priest did not react this way—and so minimized the importance of the incident in her memoir, finding it lacking in drama and effect.

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