After Ursula had served as a slave in Santa Clara, one of the largest colonial convents, a nun purchased her freedom, which allowed the Afro-Peruvian woman, while working as a cook, nurse, messenger, and laborer, to take vows. Van Deusen advances a thesis that while Ursula de Jesus expressed obedience to colonial racial hierarchies and sought to fit into the devotional models of her contemporary female visionaries, she criticized her society through the same acts.