St. Ignatius of Loyola had, from his infancy, contact with the Poor Clares. His cousin María López de Emparan founded the monastery of the Most Pure Conception in Azpeitia in 1497. These nuns today profess the Conceptionist Poor Clare Rule. There were a number of Poor Clares who defended the mystery of the Immaculate Conception, which was not proclaimed a dogma until 1854. One Poor Clare Abbess of the monastery of Santa Clara de Carríon, Madre Luisa de la Ascensíon (1565-1636). “When she learned that the defenders of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God at that time met with opposition from some, she made a vow and an oath to believe and to defend that the sovereign Virgin was conceived without original sin,” wrote Father Daza. She even became the foundress of a confraternity of the Defenders of the Immaculate Conception which at one time numbered 80, 000 people. This zealous nun was defamed and denounced before the Inquisition, and she died in disgrace, confined to an Augustinian monastery. Later, Father Balbas succeeded in establishing her innocence. Her remains were brought back with great devotion to the monastery at Carríon de los Condes on February 5, 1649.