There is a story I heard years ago in the oral tradition in a small New Mexico town.
Life was very lonely in early New Mexico The Spanish priests came to convert the savages. Sometimes ln 1700s nuns trained in Santa Fe went out among the small setletments.
At one such settlement two nuns arrived to minister to the people. One was elderly and the other a new nun was young and beautiful. Late in the fall the elderly nun took ill and died. The young nun stayed on but no replacment arrived.
It was a cold winter in the hills of Northern New Mexico and blankets were few.
To stay warm at night the priest and the young nun shared a bed. Soon The two fell into a forbidden love. When spring came the nun was with child and had to be sent away. It was a sad and tearful parting.
Later the priest was sent to a new larger parish and requested a housekeeper. he said his young neice recently widowed needed work to support herself and 4 year old son.
As the years went by the boy became like a son to the priest. Some say the neice was really the former Nun and the lovers were reunited. *I have wanted to paint this for years.