ON ST. TERESA OF ÁVILA, VIRGIN, MOTHER OF THE CARMELITES OF THE STRICTER OBSERVANCE, AT ÁVILA IN SPAIN,
IN THE YEAR 1582.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Teresa, V., mother of the Carmelites of the stricter observance, at Ávila in Spain. (S.)
BY V. D. M.
§ I. The biographers of the Saint, and other sources for writing her life.
That in the holy Virgin Teresa, Foundress of the reformed Order of the B. V. M. of Mount Carmel, St. Teresa obtained illustrious biographers; an outstanding and altogether admirable combination is offered both of endowments of mind and of things done and written, and of virtues and holiness of every kind, is most well known to the whole world; so that it ought to seem strange to no one that she has been celebrated in the tongues of almost all. It would surely be long to review each of those who have pursued her deeds and virtues; since thus far
scarcely anyone reckoned in the roll of the Saints exists who has obtained so many and such illustrious writers of his life. I shall think it enough to record the principal among them, most commended for knowledge of the things done by the holy Virgin, for antiquity and authority. For these are like sources from which the later ones flowed down like rivulets, and from which chiefly, according to the norm prescribed from the beginning of the Bollandian work, I too shall be filled with a fuller draught, going to the younger biographers of the holy Virgin only when there will have to be discussion, or the posthumous glory of the Saint will have to be explained.
[2] among whom, besides the Saint, who wrote much about herself, And first of all, indeed, St. Teresa herself, who, by order of the directors of her conscience, wrote her life in Spanish, could lead the column, if the book to which posterity gave the title Life were rightly called a Life. But, not going beyond the year 1562 there, and consequently not reaching the last 20 years of her life, the Saint not only keeps almost no chronological order, but cites the name of none, if you take away St. Francis Borgia and St. Peter of Alcántara, of those men who were her counsellors, exhorters and helpers in building both lofty edifices, of her own holiness and of the reformed Carmelite Order. Moreover, the holy Virgin narrates there the gifts divinely communicated to her more than her virtues and the series of the things done by her. Nor had she any other charge, as she herself says, chapter XXVII, no. 6 of her Life: I was ordered to write the manner and way in which the Lord led me. Her inner and supernatural life, therefore, she unfolds more than she narrates her merely human actions. I indeed, since the spiritual life may eminently be called life, because it regards the actions of a man moved and led by God, shall relate this life too, but in compendium, because the supernatural manner of living exceeds the capacity and taste of the greater part of readers.
[3] we prefer Ribera It is true indeed that, besides the foundation of her first monastery of Ávila annexed to her Life, describing the foundations of 17 others, namely 2 of men and 15 of nuns, she supplies precious material from which her life may be composed, but an incoherent heap rather than a built order. Wherefore from these Foundations I shall take those things which make for composing the history, together with things to be excerpted from the other works of the B. Virgin, and above the rest from her 329 published letters and 87 fragments of letters; all of which I shall insert in the Preliminary Commentary word for word, as far as can be done, as often as they were not reported by Fr. Francisco Ribera, S. J., in the Spanish life which he published of St. Teresa at Salamanca in the year 1590. For his Latin version, no less polished than for the most part faithful, which Matthias Martinez published at Cologne in the year 1620, I have selected to be given above the rest, after I shall have again accurately compared it with the prototype Spanish edition, which, most kindly lent from the library of the University of Louvain, I first had before my eyes, and then received as a gift from Madrid. I know also that the same was selected by my predecessor, Fr. James Bue, from the single, and not even entire, surviving leaf about St. Teresa. This long lucubration, therefore, about St. Teresa, to be woven by my own effort, is the first service which I, recently enrolled in the revived hagiography, must earn, the grace of our Saviour Jesus Christ helping, as I trust and pray, who is God blessed for ever, and to whom, the King of ages, immortal and invisible, to God alone, be honour and glory.
[4] on account of the man's eminent endowments, namely his learning, Nor without cause was Fr. Francisco Ribera, S. J., Doctor of sacred Theology, preferred by Bue to Yepes, Fr. John of Jesus Mary and the other biographers of St. Teresa. For he wrote before the others, and was a man of excellent genius, keen judgment, tenacious memory, instructed in the reading and observation of the Holy Fathers, who published specimens of his exquisite erudition in five books on the temple and the things which pertain to the temple, and Commentaries on the holy Gospel according to John, on the Epistle to the Hebrews, on the Apocalypse of St. John, and above all on the twelve minor Prophets. These last commentaries were reprinted several times at Rome, Cologne and Douai. On account of his outstanding erudition Ribera was worthy to be deputed by the Society of Jesus, gathered at Rome in the year 1586, with eleven others to compose the formula of the Ratio studiorum of the S. J. (Instit. S. J. Congr. IV, Decr. 31), and to be called by Benedict XIV (de Synod. book XIII, chapter XI, no. 7) a most weighty theologian of the S. J. And in Spain itself too, so fertile in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in excellent theologians as well as interpreters of Holy Scripture, he was held an outstanding interpreter and theologian (see the Mémoires de Trévoux, year 1719, page 19 bis, and year 1721, p. 880).
[5] his holiness, even to miracles, Ribera was, moreover, of such piety towards God, and so heaped with heavenly gifts, that he is related to have become famous for miracles living and dead. The Ven. Luis de la Puente narrates, namely, among other things, in the life of Fr. Baltasar Álvarez, chapter XXXI, that Ribera was once seen in a sermon with radiant face and inspired by Christ standing beside him: which Fr. Philippe Alegambe also repeats in the Biblioth. Script. Soc. Jesu, article Francisco Ribera. Yet, as Fr. Frederick of St. Anthony rightly warns (Introduct. to the Life of St. Teresa, p. XLI, Rome edition 1837), one does not seem obliged to agree with Fr. Joseph Tournemine (Pref. to the Comm. of Menochius) and Fr. Nathanael Sotwel (Contin. Bibl. Script. S. J.), who assert that these prodigies of Ribera were seen and heard by St. Teresa herself, any more than with Fr. Matthias Tanner, who in the book Societas Jesu Apostolorum imitatrix (p. 350) exhibits the same in a plate engraved on copper. The reason for doubting is that Fr. de la Puente, earlier than the other writers adduced, and the source of the rest, in relating this heavenly illumination of Ribera, is silent about the name of the matron to whom that vision was communicated; which he surely would not have concealed if he could have ennobled and confirmed that prodigy by the name and authority of Teresa, the more so because in this book he often mentions St. Teresa. But besides, there is a reason, not now for doubting, but for flatly denying, that Fr. de la Puente says that Ribera was seen by that very matron who had this vision, on the third day after his death, enjoying heavenly glory. And this does not at all fit St. Teresa, who ceased from life nine years before Ribera.
[6] his industry, Further, Ribera was a writer no less diligent than pious and learned: he helped and consecrated his study with prayer, again and again asking light from God by careful prayer, and, if he ran into any harder knot, adding sometimes fasting and harsh vexation of the body. He who was furnished with these endowments and that skill, therefore, was strong in a right and critical method of writing history, whatever M. Boucher may say against it (pref. p. V) and MM. Collombet and Grégoire (pref. p. XVII), accusing him of not sufficiently exquisite writing and of lesser criticism. For we are unable to admit neither, unless perhaps, as regards criticism, regard be had to chapter 1 of book I, where Ribera, establishing at length the revelations of the Saints from many ancient writers, alleges some things which the more exercised criticism of today rejects. For the rest, this chapter taken away, in the whole life of St. Teresa, to use the saying of the Lyric poet, the matter has been chosen by him according to his power, and neither eloquence deserts him nor lucid order.
[7] and his sincerity: Finally, to the cultivation of letters, to perspicacity of judgment and experience of spiritual things, he had joined those two endowments by which full credit ought to be won for a historiographer furnished with them: namely a thorough knowledge of the things he narrates, so that he can say the truth, and ingenuous sincerity and candour, so that he will. For that he himself was not false in what he narrated is established from this, that, having conversed familiarly with the holy Mother, he was aware of very many of her affairs, and diligently and for a long time inquired into the rest before he committed them to writing, only in the fifth year after her death; indeed, that he at one time directed her confessions, as may be seen both in the Bibliotheca scriptorum Societatis Jesu and in the Bibliotheca Hispana nova of Nicolás Antonio. And how far he was from deceiving others he himself testifies in the Prologue, writing thus: Since anyone who desires to glorify God by the commemoration of the wonders which He has deigned to work through His Saints can by no means do this very thing by lying or inventing; then, since I myself by nature detest all that I know to be fictitious, and judge it most foreign to a wise man and most unworthy of him to thrust doubtful things on others as true; whatever is not most certain I shall omit; and the things which I am going to say will everywhere agree with the truth itself. And for this reason I write in the names of persons one by one, and often descend to minutiae; that it may clearly appear with what diligence I have inquired into the truth and certainty of the matter, even in those things which otherwise seemed of slight weight. Hence I shall keep my eyes always fixed on the truth of the narration, which has always been judged even by pagan writers themselves to be the first and chief part of history.
[8] so that he merited the highest praise from many. That published work of Ribera renowned and fitting witnesses praised highly with great encomia. Concerning which, first of all, hear Diego de Yepes speaking in the Proem to another life of St. Teresa, which he too wrote, having obtained new miracles and fuller arguments: Above the rest the most learned Father and Doctor Francisco Ribera spreads abroad and celebrates the holiness of the holy Mother Teresa of Jesus, who, with the great applause of all, published a Commentary on the twelve minor Prophets, St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews and the Apocalypse of St. John; and although he was occupied with other matters of great moment, he was yet moved with such affection of devotion and esteem towards the admirable holiness and virtues of the holy Mother, that, certainly with no other aim set before himself than the glory of God alone, and that her so great holiness might become known in the Church, and that, on account of certain particular graces which he himself had received from the Lord by her intercession, he might show himself grateful to her (which he himself confesses), that, I say, already older and heavy with years, he wrote an entire book about her life and miracles: in which, although he relates such lofty and heroic things about this holy Virgin, he yet always thinks that he says fewer things than the dignity of the matter requires, and below her dignity. And that greater authority may accrue to his writing, although the very authority of the writer would suffice of itself, since he is a man of great religion and very many virtues; he himself, in the testimony which he gives in the information which was made about her canonization, confirms under the sacrament of the oath
that whatever has been described by him in that book is most true. Indeed, whatever he wrote, he inquired into seriously and accurately, and committed everything to writing as faithfully as he could; so that this single testimony of his suffices for adding credit to so singular and admirable a virtue. With no less striking, although more compendious, suffrage was this work of Ribera approved by Cardinal Baronius, subscribing to its Italian version these words which follow: Cesare Card. Baronius. I judge the work most worthy of printing and profitable to the Christian Religion. Nor did it come out only in Italian several times, but also in Latin, French, Flemish, etc.; and it is among my wishes that a copy of it be made again for the public, by reprinting it in the now more polished languages of today; since, by the judgment of Baronius and very many others, that work is most profitable to the Christian Religion. For an example let there be the Flemish version which, in the year 1620, the Latin one having scarcely been brought into Belgium from Cologne, the Archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia, governor of Belgium, commissioned Trognesius, a citizen of Antwerp, to make and at the same time publish in print.
[9] Another life of the Saint was written very excellently by Yepes, We have set out the praises of Ribera more fully, both lest we be held guilty of an inept choice in reproducing his not slight offspring, and that we may wipe away the stain which certain recent men have wrongly sprinkled on his fame. Let us now point out the other sources from which we have drawn. The second writer of the life of St. Teresa was Diego or James de Yepes, a religious of the family of St. Jerome, confessor to Philip II and Bishop of Tarazona in Aragon (not of Tarragona in Catalonia, as several Italians and French have written, deceived by the likeness of the native name). Yepes digresses more than Ribera into pious commentaries, and is more ambitious than he by about a fourth part, if you look not at the matter but at the words: wherefore it is wrongly said in Vol. II, pt. 677 of the Speculum Carmelitanum that Yepes wrote a more compendious Life. He is said by M. Boucher and by MM. Collombet and Grégoire to labour under the same defects as Ribera; but here too we dissent from them. For the man, truthful and sensible, wrote things known to him, diligent besides and conspicuous for holiness of life. Nor indeed can we, with many of today, at once impute it as a fault to the past age that our forefathers admitted many and great miracles, if they were established to them by just arguments; but in our age we rather think it should be censured that many deny the operations of divine love and divine omnipotence in the holy friends of God for no other cause than because they are many or very prodigious, the testimonies meanwhile of perspicacious and truthful men, who assert them from sight or certain hearing, being neglected. Therefore, that you may judge Yepes no less aware of the things he records than sincere, hear him speaking in the Dedicatory Epistle to Paul V, Supreme Pontiff: What we have seen, he says, what we have perceived, what, to speak with the Apostle John, our hands have handled of the life and holiness of Teresa, that we announce in this work; … the rest, which we did not behold with our own eyes nor hear from her with our own ears, we have taken from authentic and trustworthy instruments … For more than 14 years I was her confessor, and she entrusted her soul to me to be directed both within and outside the sacramental tribunal. The spiritual treasures which God had deposited in her soul she unlocked to me, hoping that this would be to my profit also. And in truth, while she lived on earth, she won the greatest favours for me; and since she has been reigning in heaven, still much greater. In his deposition too, made under oath, no less learnedly than piously and faithfully, as is said in the Acts of the Beatification, he praised and approved Teresa and her divine spirit. Before he wrote this life Yepes had delivered a panegyric of Teresa in 1565, that is in the third year after her death, at St. Hermenegild's, in the new convent of the Discalced Carmelites recently erected at Madrid by the munificence of Philip II, before the court; and in a lengthy letter also, given in the year 1587 to Ludovicus Legionensis (as Nicolás Antonio and others name him, although his Spanish name was Luis de León, not from his homeland León, for he was of Granada, but from his ancestral surname), he had foretasted the praises of Teresa. He also afterwards founded a monastery of Discalced nuns in his episcopal city, and wished to be buried in the church of this monastery: which befell him according to his wishes, he having died on the 7th of May 1613, and having been forewarned by St. Teresa of his impending death, as Fr. Frederick of St. Anthony narrates in the Italian life of St. Teresa (book III, chapter XVIII) from the Chronicle, vol. III, book XI, chapter III. This life of St. Teresa has been published several times, and translated into several languages. It came out, e.g., in Spain in the years 1606, 1614, 1615, 1776; at Lisbon in the year 1616; in Italian, by the work of Giulio Cesare Braccini, in the years 1623, 1628, etc., and anew, by the work of Fr. Joseph de Castro, S. J., under the anagram of abbot Joseph de Trosca, in the years 1730 and 1733; in French from the version of Fr. Cyprian of the Nativity in the year 1643; etc., etc.
[10] [as a third the Fr. John of Jesus Mary, of whom a twofold compendium of Teresa's life is had.] In the third place comes the Ven. Fr. John of Jesus Mary, General of the Italian Congregation of the Discalced Carmelites, who composed an excellent compendium of the life of St. Teresa, Fr. John of St. Jerome, Procurator general of the Spanish Congregation, lending helping hands; and he offered it to Paul V in the year 1609, with this end, that he might move him to reckon St. Teresa among the Blessed. Several opportunely remark that it is by no means likely that he would have offered the Pontiff a history of his Mother which could have been convicted of falsehood. Further, there is no reason why this life should be held a trifling work because it is brief; but it is excellently and concisely worked out, and shines with the highest grace of Latin speech. The Pontiff deigned to read through that whole writing, and without doubt the testimony of so great a writer was of great weight in hastening the beatification of St. Teresa; for he was held to be excellently aware of the things he was writing, and was so learned that Card. Bellarmine took pleasure in reading his works, and that he is named by the illustrious Bossuet (in nova quaest. tract. I, chapter 15) a supreme theologian and supreme mystic; he was also praised by St. Francis de Sales in the preface to the treatise on the Love of God. This life was translated into German, and several times reprinted in Latin. Already in the year 1610 it is commonly said to have been republished at Brussels by the press of Roger Velpius, which edition, although I sought it, it did not befall me to come across. But I have in my possession an altogether different, still more contracted compendium of Teresa's life, composed by the same two authors, Frs. John of Jesus Mary and John of St. Jerome, and published for the first time in that same year with Roger Velpius by the care of Fr. Jerome Gracián. This little work, which is divided into no other than 105 paragraphs, they perhaps confused with the other, earlier, Roman one, which, divided into five books, consists of 71 chapters. Meanwhile neither the Bibliotheca Carmelitana, 2 vols. in folio of the year 1752, nor the Bibliotheca of the Discalced Carmelite Order, in quarto, of the year 1730, mentions it, nor do the other books treating of St. Teresa which I have turned over. I think the manuscript of this book, before Fr. John of Jesus Mary recast it, came into the hands of Gracián; and that Gracián had it published (January 1610) when he did not yet know the fuller Roman little work. And although the Roman one is almost twice as wide, it does not have several things which are in this one: wherefore this little book will from time to time come into use for me, whose title is: The Life and manners, spirit, zeal and doctrine of the servant of God Theresa of Jesus; the more so because Gracián, whom St. Teresa for a long time held above all others as the trustee of her soul and the director of her actions, testifies that the book is altogether truthful, speaking thus in his Dedicatory Epistle to Cardinal Bentivoglio: From treatises written with the purest truth and fidelity (published and unpublished), Brothers John of Jesus Mary and John of St. Joseph (by a slip, I believe, for the title has John of St. Jerome), Discalced, have reduced our Theresa into a certain summary divided into one hundred and five articles, and as it were into an epitome of those things which are scattered at length through various books. I have read almost all these books, and for ten years I heard the confessions of Theresa herself; she did not hide from me the hidden things of her breast and the secrets of her spirit; what she did and how she lived I saw with these eyes, drank in with these ears. This Compendium, therefore, since it greatly pleased me, it seemed good to me likewise to submit to the press and to present to the common light under your protection.
[11] There are, besides, other sources, which I shall approach; Finally, to these illustrious biographers could be added many other written records about St. Teresa; but it is pleasing to name chiefly only one or two. Namely the Relations of the life, virtues and manners of the Blessed Virgin Teresa made to our Most Holy Lord Pope Paul V by the auditors of the Holy Rota deputed for the solemn canonization, Barcelona 1621; likewise, the little book enlarged after the Canonization, Paris 1625, and Vienna in Austria 1628, under the title Acts of the Canonization, and, with the order changed somewhat, Antwerp 1680, Vol. II of the Speculum Carmelitanum. It is clearly established to any Catholic of how great weight the judgment of that sacred Tribunal is, and Gravina rightly says, Cath. praescript., Vol. IV, p. 333: Whoever, therefore, rejects those weighty witnesses, many, strictly examined in the Acts of Canonization, and strives to weaken their testimony, fights even against nature itself, overturns all tribunals, ruins the hierarchical order, and takes away human intercourse. But besides, we do not hesitate to affirm with the author of the preface of those Acts: Those more expert in the affairs of the Curia and the Apostolic attendants say that, one relation alone being excepted, which is that of the seraphic Bonaventure, no other more excellent has yet been seen than this which treats of our seraphic Teresa. Many singular things can then be drawn from the first volume of the Annals of the Discalced Carmelites, which Fr. Francis of St. Mary, great-grandnephew of St. Teresa through her grandmother, and clothed in the habit of his Order at Salamanca only in the fourth year after the Saint's death, wrote. He unfolded the deeds gravely and accurately; and he was so diligent in seeking the truth that he exacted an oath from those who, aware of either the actions or the graces of the holy Mother, reported anything to him, having also twice attentively examined the Teresian autographs which are preserved in the Library of the Escorial. Those Annals saw the light in Spanish under the title: Reforma de los Descalzos de nuestra Señora del Carmen, and were translated into the Italian and French idioms, but, as regards the French at least, much more freely, and not accurately enough. Five other
volumes produced the history of the Discalced Carmelite Order down to the year 1657. I forbear to enumerate the more recent writers who are at hand to me. One in place of many could have served me, Father Frederick of St. Anthony, an exact and eloquent writer and a prudent investigator of facts, who first appeared at Venice in the year 1754 in 2 volumes in-4°, dedicated to Benedict XIV, and whom I use as reprinted at Rome in the year 1837, for want of the earlier edition, although I suspect, from citations of the other edition which I find here and there in other books, that he has in some places been tacitly altered. Besides Father Frederick, however, I have frequently gone to consult another: for example, Mr. Boucher, Vie de S. Therese, Paris 1810–1828, 2 vols. in-8°, and R. P. Fr. M. de T., that is, Manuel or Emmanuel de Traggia, La muger grande, vida meditada de S. Teresa de Jesus, Madrid 1807, 3 vols. in-4°; although I have followed the latter in few things, inasmuch as he is more skilful in promoting piety than in searching out the truth.
[12] [who are referred to here in the manner in which they are designated in these commentaries.] Therefore, to weave together the historical series and to supply those things which are wanting in Ribera, I have taken many things from the biographers of the Saint later than Ribera, especially from Yepes and from Father John of Jesus Mary, to be interposed in this preliminary Commentary. Nor yet do I think it necessary to indicate, by continual citations of authors and places, whence I have drawn those things which are beyond controversy. But whenever there is to be discussion, and the authority of the writers whom I employ is to be invoked, I cite their names and places carefully and accurately. Meanwhile, to provide for brevity, and so that the books I cite need not be indicated six hundred times by a rather long title, I set down here how I designate those which occur more frequently in this Commentary. That is to say: I refer throughout to the Works of St. Teresa each by its own name, namely the Life, the Foundations, the Way of Perfection, the Castle of the Soul, etc., from the edition made at Madrid in the year 1793, in two volumes in-4°, which does not differ from the earlier edition of the year 1778. The Latin version of those works, which I quite often adduce, was published at Cologne in the year 1626, 2 vols. in-4°; the Flemish at Ghent, 1711, 2 vols. in-4°; the German at Augsburg, 1756, 2 vols. in-4°; the French at Antwerp, 1683, 3 vols. in-12°; the English, place uncertain, 1675, 2 vols. in-4°.
The Letters of St. Teresa are cited from the four volumes in-4° which were printed in Spanish at Madrid with the annotations of Palafox and of Father Anthony of St. Joseph at the same time as the two volumes of the Works mentioned above.
The Acts of canonization are cited from the Vienna edition of the year 1628.
Where Ribera is adduced, understand the Life of St. Teresa written by him under the title La vida de la Madre Teresa de Jesus, published at Salamanca in the year 1590, in-4°; whose Latin version, printed at Cologne in the year 1620 in-4°, we shall reprint here, not without emendations, with the division of the chapters somewhat altered: whence, whenever in this Commentary we refer to some chapter of Ribera, it will have to be sought in our edition. Other lives of St. Teresa I shall designate in like manner by the names of their authors, namely:
Yepes, in Spanish: Vida, virtudes y milagros de la B. Virgen Teresa de Jesus, Madrid, 1776, 2 vols. in-4°.
John of Jesus Mary, in Latin: Compendium vitæ B. V. Teresiæ a Jesu, which is to be found in volume III of his works published at Florence in the years 1771, 1772 and 1774, 3 vols. in folio.
Father Frederick of St. Anthony, in Italian: Vita di Santa Teresa di Gesu, Rome, 1837, 4 vols. in-8°.
Father John of St. Louis, in Spanish: Historia de la vida y muerte… de S. Teresa de Jesus, Valencia, 1813 and 1814, 2 vols. in-4°.
Villefore, in French: La vie de S. Therese, Paris, 1756, 2 vols. in-12°.
Boucher, in French: Vie de S. Therese, Paris, 1810 and 1828, 2 vols. in-12°.
Emery, in French: L'Esprit de S. Therese, Lyon, 1779, in-8°.
For brevity's sake I call the Chronicle the General History or Annals of the Discalced Carmelite Order, whose Spanish title is Reforma de los Descalzos de N. S. del Carm. The first volume of this work appeared at Madrid in the year 1644, in folio; and it was in part, as we have already said, translated into the French language under the title Histoire generale des Carmes deschaussez, Paris, 1655 and 1666, 2 vols. in folio.
The Annus Teresianus, in Spanish Año Teresiano, is a work composed by Father Anthony of St. Joachim, consisting of twelve volumes in-4°, printed at Madrid from the year 1733 to 1766.
The Bibliotheca Carmelitana, which was brought to light at Orléans in the year 1752, 2 vols. in folio, enumerates the writers of both Carmelite Orders, the Calced as well as the Discalced; and so it is to be carefully distinguished from the following.
The Bibliotheca Ord. Carm. Exc., or Library of the writers of both congregations and of both sexes of the Discalced Carmelites, by Father Martial of St. John the Baptist, Bordeaux, 1730, in-4°.
Montoya, formerly a priest of the Society of Jesus, after the suppression of that same Society published in Italian, under the pseudonym Giacinto Hoyoman (in which is contained anagrammatically his true name, Gioachin Montoya), the commentary L'amore scambievole e non mai interrotto tra S. Teresa e la Compagnia de Gesu, Lucca, 1794, 3 vols. in-4°.
Historical fragments of the Teresian books will also be given. Now therefore I stand ready to undertake the Life of our Saint, intending in this preliminary Commentary to set forth here and there the things worthy of relation which are wanting in Ribera. Among them I have thought fit to interpose whatever historical matter the autograph Life of the holy Virgin and her book of the Foundations contain. I should indeed have liked to imitate my predecessors who, at the 28th day of August, did not insert the first nine books of the Confessions of St. Augustine into their Commentaries, but set them alongside: but in the Teresian books there occur at length many spiritual instructions on the manner of praying and contemplating, which, however excellent and most worthy of reading, are not part of my undertaking, nor, according to the custom of our Elders, do they pertain to the plan of this work. Since these, therefore, have been cut away, the writings of Teresa break up into fragments, which, from the version of the same Martinez who made Ribera Latin, I have preferred to interpose each in its own place rather than to attach many of them uselessly to this Commentary without connection. Whenever, moreover, I cite the Saint, I shall bring forward her excerpts word for word, even when they are brief. Indeed I should be rash if I presumed to change anything in the writings of St. Teresa, much less to emend it; since everything there is exactly measured to the rule, nor does profane antiquity supply anything more knowing and more eloquent in native simplicity. Certain persons had dared this, when the books of the Saint were first circulated while still in manuscript. But Luis de León, ordered to publish them in the year 1587, thus inveighs against them in his dedicatory letter: Exceedingly great was the audacity of changing what the holy Virgin wrote, in whose breast God dwelt, and whom the Divine Majesty Himself (as is indeed probable) moved to write these things. Nay, it is an intolerable stupidity even to wish to correct her words alone, etc.
One thing I regret, that it is not given in this work to cite Teresa in the original language in which she wrote. For our Saint writes so elegantly that she has attained the true Atticism of her language. But concerning the style and the manly eloquence of this holy woman, as also concerning the help conferred on her from heaven for writing, more fully later on, expressly. Let us now set forth those things which may contribute to illustrating the Saint.
§ II. The lineage, great-grandparents, parents, brothers and sisters of St. Teresa.
On the noble lineage of St. Teresa, there have treated expressly That St. Teresa was sprung from a noble lineage is agreed among all her biographers, and the same is shown from the coat of arms which was to be seen carved in stone above the door of her paternal house, and is still seen both on the lintels of the chapel built in the place where the Saint first beheld the light, and on the front of the church adjoining that same chapel; namely in that form in which we here set it before the reader, cut in wood. But in demonstrating the origin of her nobility and explaining its insignia there is not one opinion among the writers: the same must be said of certain names of her ancestors, especially of those on the mother's side. Before others I have consulted for this treatment the first volume of the Chronicle of the Reformed Carmel, written by Father Francis of St. Mary, a kinsman and contemporary of the holy Mother; and likewise the preliminary reading of the book la Muger grande, by the author R. P. Fr. M. de T. (that is, as we have learned from elsewhere, Emmanuel of St. Thomas Aquinas, sprung from the family of Traggia, noble in Aragon and, as appears from the work itself, related by marriage to St. Teresa). That preliminary reading contains a fairly ample treatment of the pedigree of St. Teresa, to which is joined an elucidation of the quarterings of a certain new coat of arms, which the author had had arranged, on a scheme somewhat different from the older pattern, by Don Emmanuel Medina, king of arms at Madrid.
[15] in our own time indeed Father Emmanuel of St. Thomas Aquinas, Now Father Emmanuel employed for this labour not only the History of Father Francis, but also that earlier in time of Father Jerome of St. Joseph, which, because it did not please those of the household, was never, namely, permitted to be put into print (Biblioth. Hisp. nova). He testifies besides that he saw, in the monastery of the Discalced nuns at Madrid named after St. Anne, a genealogical tree of the Saint which in the year 1618 Father Lawrence of the Mother of God drew up, at the request of Father Jerome Gratian, for Mother Beatrice of Jesus, prioress of that same monastery, who had St. Teresa as her maternal aunt: but he affirms that this tree is patently faulty, both because it gives some names incorrectly, and also because, in assigning to St. Teresa brothers and sisters, whose number it increases above the true one, it takes no account of the different marriage-bed. The same Father Emmanuel also inspected at Córdoba the genealogical tree of Don Diego Antonio de León, marquis of Las Atalayuelas, whose wife Doña María Teresa de Navarrete y Valdivia numbers among her ancestors Fernando de Ahumada, full brother of St. Teresa. At Écija too he saw the genealogical tree of the illustrious count of Valhermoso, whose wife likewise, Doña Petronila de Mendoza Lope de Ávila, has a common lineage with the Saint, chiefly through the Ahumadas. And in the Córdoba tree indeed, besides the surnames Sánchez, Cepeda, Dávila and Ahumada, all of which were family names of St. Teresa, there are seen, on the testimony of Father Emmanuel, the names Soria, Ximénez, Claros, Coronado, Guerrero de Castro y Almagro, Escudero, Orta, Espinosa de los Monteros, Ruiz de Valdivia, Guzmán, Gabaldón y Vera, Traggia, Merlo, etc., by which, he says, both through the paternal and through the maternal line, those whom I have named (namely Don Diego Ant. de León and Doña María Teresa his wife) and their daughter-in-law are joined by various consanguinity and affinity to the stock of St. Teresa
Doña María de los Dolores, marchioness of Guardia Real. In the Écija tree, on the other hand, are found the names Pareja, Peralta, Arellano, Tabares, Carabajal, Torres, Zúñiga, Ponce de León, Castillo y Padilla, Villalón, Narváez, and the marquis of Las Amarillas, whose principal surname is Ahumada y Girón.
but formerly, and more accurately, Father Francis of St. Mary. These things, adduced last of all, I would by no means disapprove, since they are supported by the domestic records of these noble families; to whom indeed, as kinship or affinity with the great Mother Teresa is the highest honour, so also the memory of her sanctity ought to be an immense incitement to all virtues. But of the things adduced by the pious and most modest writer in the course of his work, whether from more ancient instruments or from conjectures probable to him, I confess that not all have seemed to me equally to be accepted: nor at all, if it is permitted in this matter to depart from the opinion of the king of arms or prefect of heraldry, would I have wished on any account that the quarterings of the older shield should have been, as was done, drawn away each from its own place. And I open my opinion here the more freely because the author himself has frankly asserted that he by no means flatters himself on having found the truth everywhere; and that, in order to attain it, he had even sometimes departed from the guidance of Fathers Jerome and Francis named above. Further, Father Francis brings forward fairly accurate matters, as it seems, concerning the lineage of St. Teresa; especially concerning the Cepedas, from whose very stock the mother of Father Francis was: and also with such neatness and elegance that I judge it will be pleasing to the reader that some things from his narration be rendered by me word for word into Latin. But what I have drawn from other authors and from the volumes of the Letters of St. Teresa, sometimes for the sake of fuller elucidation, will appear in the very context of the commentary which I now undertake.
[17] The father of St. Teresa, Alonso Sánchez de Cepeda, St. Teresa, says de la Rue in his Panegyric of her, had in her father another Jacob, parent of twelve children, whom he went before by example and directed by admonitions; in her mother a valiant woman, like Rachel in beauty, Leah in fruitfulness, both in piety and modesty. That is to say, she had for her father Alonso Sánchez de Cepeda, son of Juan Sánchez de Toledo and Inés de Cepeda. Juan's parents were Alonso Sánchez de Toledo and Teresa Sánchez; Inés's father (for her mother's name is unknown) was Luis de Cepeda, of Tordesillas, knight of St. James. These things are taken from Father Emmanuel; to which nothing, so far as I know, is contrary in the other writers. Now he assigns to Juan Sánchez de Toledo and Inés de Cepeda, besides the father of St. Teresa, five other children, of whom two are named by the biographers: namely Francisco Álvarez de Cepeda and Pedro Sánchez de Cepeda. For my part I should think that a third paternal uncle also is assigned by the Saint herself, named Rodrigo, since in a certain letter to her sister Juana she says: nuestro tio Ruiz Sanchez our uncle Ruiz Sánchez (vol. IV, letter 42, note 15).
[18] took twelve children from two wives: Further, Alonso Sánchez de Cepeda entered into two marriages. His first wife was Catalina del Peso y Henao, from whom he had a daughter, María de Cepeda, and two sons, of whom the elder is called by some Juan, by others Jerónimo, and perhaps would rightly be called Juan Jerónimo, as Father Emmanuel thinks; the younger, however, this same writer, following Father Jerome, calls Pedro, although he says that others are in doubt about his name and Father Francis (book 1, chapter III, no. 3) writes absolutely that it is unknown. Alonso's second wife was Beatriz Dávila y Ahumada, the happy mother of St. Teresa and of eight other offspring, whose names are these: Fernando, Rodrigo, Lorenzo, Antonio, Pedro, Jerónimo, Agustín and Juana. And it is established that Fernando and Rodrigo were born before the Saint, their full sister; and that Juana was the youngest of all.
[19] Catalina del Peso y Henao and Beatriz de Ahumada. Concerning the lineage and ancestors of Catalina del Peso y Henao I have found scarcely anything. Father Joseph of St. Teresa says (Chron. Carm. Exc. vol. III, book IX, chapter XIV, no. 1), on I know not what foundation, that the Henaos (so it was formerly written) are named from Hainaut, whence they migrated into Spain in favour of King Henry II, formerly count of Trastámara (concerning whom consult the histories of Spain), about the middle of the fourteenth century. As regards the great-grandparents of Beatriz Dávila y Ahumada, of whose nobility there will be talk later, Father Emmanuel weaves their series thus: Sancho Esteban Domingo gave his daughter María González in marriage to Vela Núñez: of these parents was born Fernando Blásquez Núñez, whose son was Juan Blásquez Dávila de Cordovilla. Juan, moreover, took to wife Beatriz de Ahumada, of whom was born Mateo (to some Juan, and perhaps rightly Juan Mateo) Blásquez de Ahumada. To this Mateo and to Teresa de las Cuevas there was a daughter Beatriz, the mother of St. Teresa.
[20] For this series let the credit rest with Father Emmanuel: for there is almost no other author for me who supplies anything on this matter. The authors disagree about the maternal grandmother of St. Teresa I shall only note that the maternal grandmother of St. Teresa is called by Father Ribera (book 1, chapter III), by Father Frederick (in a note to book 1, chapter XXIX) and by others not Teresa de las Cuevas but Juana de Tapia. In some place too Father Emmanuel saw de las Casas written for de las Cuevas, while in the Madrid genealogical tree and in the Chronicle of Father Francis (he does not indicate in what place) he saw Teresa de las Cuevas o de Tapia. And to show that one must stand solely by the name Teresa de las Cuevas, he speaks in this manner: Juan Blásquez Dávila de Cordovilla, besides the grandfather of St. Teresa, begot a daughter, María de Ahumada. She married Diego de Tapia, a most noble man, who was the king's accountant. Hence the equivocation of Father Francis of St. Mary and of the genealogical tree of the Discalced nuns of Madrid, as though the great-grandfather of St. Teresa had been Diego de Tapia, and her grandmother Teresa de Tapia, Diego's daughter. But that has greater foundation which Father Jerome asserts, calling the grandmother Teresa de las Cuevas, from the neighbourhood of Olmedo: since he inquired more curiously into the ancestors of the Saint, and unravelled all the difficulties; alleging also the instrument of nobility of Alonso de Cepeda together with the register of successions which existed in the time of Philip IV in the keeping of the kings of arms, and adding that he had seen authentic writings and testimonies for this genealogy. But against this is the fact that Father Ribera, after he had named St. Teresa's grandmother Juana de Tapia, says no less assertively: What we have brought forward here concerning the grandparents and great-grandparents of our Teresa has been drawn from the ancient registers and tablets of their nobility; which was indeed so evident and manifest that, although Alonso Sánchez de Toledo was not of Ávila, but a newcomer, he nevertheless placed his offspring in marriage with the most noble and foremost of that city (book 1, chapter III). Father Emmanuel also suggests a way by which he thinks the said tree of the Madrid nuns and the History of Father Francis can be freed from the error which he attributes to them: namely (these are his words) Diego de Tapia may have had Cuevas as a secondary name; in which case it would be credible that Teresa de las Cuevas was a kinswoman of her husband, the grandfather of St. Teresa, on the side of Diego, whom, he says, we have said was joined in marriage to María de Ahumada, one of the daughters of Juan Blásquez Dávila.
[21] and certain other kinsfolk. This controversy, therefore, I leave to be settled by those acquainted with the matter. But lest anything of what occurred to me in my inquiry be hidden from the diligent reader, I shall add to those things which have already been alleged another cause also of my perplexity. Namely, Inés and Ana de Tapia, who afterwards professed the Institute of the holy Mother and were called Inés of Jesus and Ana of the Incarnation, are said by almost all the writers to have been St. Teresa's primas hermanas, as they say in Spanish, and in Latin either patrueles or consobrinæ or amitinæ first cousins. Matías Martínez indeed in his version of Ribera wrote patrueles: but this proves nothing; because it is plain from elsewhere that the meaning of this word is extended by that interpreter more widely than genuine Latinity allows (for example, from book II, chapter II, where he writes as cousins of St. Teresa María Ocampo and María de Ávila, whom Ribera in his own idiom calls sobrinas nieces). Father Anthony of St. Joseph entangles the matter even more. For in volume II of the Letters of St. Teresa, note 12 to letter 53, he asserts that Inés de Tapia is the daughter of Francisco Álvarez de Cepeda, paternal uncle of St. Teresa; and in the same volume, note 1 to letter 78, he says that the same Inés and Ana, her full sister, are daughters of Diego de Tapia and María de Ahumada; and again in volume III, note 20 to letter 25, he says that Pedro Álvarez Cimbrón is the son of Francisco Álvarez de Cepeda and María de Ahumada. Meanwhile there occurs in Ribera (book II, chapter III) a Vicente surnamed de Ahumada, brother of the above-mentioned Inés and Ana de Tapia, and parish priest of the town of Villanueva del Aceral; and in the illustrious Palafox (note 1 to letter 35 of volume I) a Jerónima surnamed de Tapia, daughter of Francisco Álvarez de Cepeda. Is perhaps the María de Ahumada of whom Father Anthony speaks the maternal aunt of St. Teresa, namely the sister of her mother Beatriz; and accordingly to be distinguished from that María de Ahumada whom we saw a little before (no. 20) mentioned by Father Emmanuel? Or did that younger María de Ahumada marry twice, so that one husband of hers was Diego de Tapia (likewise to be distinguished from the elder Diego), the other Francisco Álvarez de Cepeda? Or is there attributed to María herself, besides the surname de Ahumada, also another, de Tapia, just as Beatriz too has two surnames, Dávila and de Ahumada? Or did either Father Anthony or Father Emmanuel or both err? Or was some mistake admitted in some book through the drowsiness of the typesetter? These are so many questions to which I have nothing to answer.
[22] The four principal surnames of St. Teresa: 1. Sánchez. Leaving these things, therefore, undecided, I shall now set out, as clearly as I can, what has been handed down by the historians concerning the four surnames of St. Teresa, namely Sánchez, Cepeda, Dávila and Ahumada, citing chiefly Father Francis, who depicted the matters, though perhaps not proved on every side, certainly in a style not without charm. The first surname of the Saint, then, Sánchez, is a patronymic among the Spaniards, formed from Sancho; as Álvarez
from Álvaro, Hernández from Hernando, Martínez from Martín, Pérez from Pedro, Rodríguez from Rodrigo, etc. I could wish that Father Francis had brought forward somewhat more concerning this surname of St. Teresa than he did. For he has only this about it: I do not treat of the surname Sánchez, because it is common to many houses, which are made illustrious by it through descent, as is said, from one of the Sanchos, kings of Castile or León (book 1, chapter IV, no. 4). Father Emmanuel, however: The surname Sánchez, he says, is noble in Aragon and Navarre, and still more at Ávila; in which city a certain Sancho or Sánchez is numbered among those knights who about the year 1083 chiefly procured its restoration and increase, as is established from the history of the people of Ávila: for there is named there Sancho Sánchez Zurraquines, a Cantabrian by origin, and cousin of Pedro Sánchez Zurraquines, bishop of Ávila. Another Sánchez, perhaps of the same lineage, was most celebrated in those famous quadrillas of Ávila: there is also named here Blasco Jimeno or Jimeno Blasco, and he traces his origin from Nuño Rasura, formerly judge of Castile (Ariza, Hist. Abul. part IV), from whom comes the house of the marquis of Velada, a grandee of Spain (grande de España). Some of these things, if anyone pleases, might hold good of Teresa Sánchez, the paternal great-grandmother of St. Teresa, perhaps a native of Ávila; but I should not think the same of her husband Alonso Sánchez de Toledo, since he, on Ribera's testimony, was not of Ávila but a newcomer; indeed Father Emmanuel himself affirms that he was of Toledo. I omit here what the same Father subjoins to the words just related; since they are more fittingly to be discussed hereafter, when we speak of the surname Dávila.
[23] [2. Cepeda, the name of a small place; from which place certain Cepedas in ancient times in the mountains of Burgos,] Concerning the Cepedas, Father Francis sets forth these things (book I, chapter IV, nos. 2, 3, 4): In the kingdom of León, near the city of Astorga, there is a small but ancient place whose name is Cepeda. It is established that the first knights of this surname sprang from here, whether they took their name from the place or the place from them. From there, further, very many families were derived, bound to one another by that name and that origin; although now some are far different from others through the vicissitudes of the times. Of these two are notable before the rest. The first is that which, they say, in most ancient times inhabited a place of Old Castile called Herrera de Río Pisuerga, near Aguilar (Aguilar de Campos); and after the devastation of Spain withdrew into the mountains of Burgos, where they fixed their seat about the Valley of Obregón and Castañeda, in the place which is called Santibáñez. From this family came forth distinguished knights; who, because they had for a long time deserved excellently of the kings of Castile and León, obtained for their deeds trophies and insignia by which they are distinguished from the rest: namely a red shield, in the middle of which is a silver tower, in the chief three golden stars. Later there was also painted under the tower a river, and above the tower a branch with a blue cloth adorned with three lilies. The causes of those devices the ages have buried in oblivion; which is what the inclemency of time has brought upon innumerable other insignia of illustrious stocks. Only this can be said in general, that from the capture of Toledo the distinctions of such devices began to be employed; whereas before, kings and knights were distinguished one from another in no other way than by crosses differing in form and colour.
[24] others however, and those better known, The other family of the same surname, which indeed seems to be the principal one and concerning which documents and books relate certain clearer things, is that of those Cepedas who retained their seat, together with the lordship of the place, at Cepeda in the mountains of the kingdom of León: that lordship is today in the hands of the marquises of Astorga, because, as is believed, they are of the blood of Cepeda. Further, the Cepedas of whom there is talk here, on account of the help given to their lords in the restoration of the kingdom of León and likewise of Castile, were granted a lion for their family device, a royal ensign namely; but without the castle, so that there might be a difference from the device of the kings. Around the lion were afterwards placed, in the bordure, eight saltire or St. Andrew's crosses, on account of deeds done at Biatia or Baeza, wrested from the Moors on the feast day of St. Andrew the Apostle (in the year 1227). For at that time crosses of this kind, in varied number and colour, were assigned by the kings to some illustrious leaders of armed men, in perpetual memory of the heavenly help obtained on such a day (See for example the insignia of the families of Avellaneda, Ayala, Azevedo, Bazán, la Cueva, Hinestrosa, Miraval, Saavedra, Vera, etc.)
[25] in the 14th century migrated to Tordesillas: When Vasco Vásquez de Cepeda was lord of the aforesaid house and village of Cepeda (in the 14th century), quarrels arose between him and Henry, count of Trastámara, afterwards king of Castile and León: wherefore he transferred the seat of his whole house and of his affairs to Tordesillas, a notable town of Old Castile. From that knight very many distinguished men draw their lineage, among whom it is pleasing to name Juan Vásquez de Cepeda, bishop of Segovia, who in that city was called Juan de Tordesillas from the place of his birth (Concerning him see J. de Ferreras, Hist. Hisp. at the years 1400 and 1423). So too was surnamed de Tordesillas Juan's brother Rodrigo Vásquez de Cepeda, steward of the table (maestresala) of King Henry IV; and thereafter his lineage was illustrious at Segovia under this surname, without, however, omitting the name of the Cepedas, through which it is adorned by kinship with St. Teresa. Juan and Rodrigo had as brothers Martín Vásquez de Cepeda, a knight of wonderful bravery, and another whose name has fallen away, who, after he had been secretary and major-domo to the master Álvaro de Luna, was himself also raised to the episcopal dignity. These four grandsons had the Vasco Vásquez whom I have named. From this noble family, therefore, originally sprung at Cepeda, and afterwards transferred to Tordesillas, descend the progenitors of Our Holy Mother Teresa of Jesus. For her paternal great-grandfather Juan Sánchez de Cepeda connected himself with that trunk by entering into marriage with Inés de Cepeda of Tordesillas. The proof is the family insignia of Alonso Sánchez de Cepeda, the father of St. Teresa. For from the fact that in one of the quarterings a lion is seen surrounded by eight St. Andrew's crosses, it follows that Alonso descends from the ancient Cepedas not through his mother Inés alone, but also through his father Juan, to whom, namely, that quartering belonged. Therefore, lest the ancient surname of Vasco Vásquez should perish, Alonso named his first-born Juan Vásquez de Cepeda. Add that, probably for the same cause, two lions of the Cepedas are seen in the coat of arms of the paternal house of St. Teresa, one surrounded with crosses, the other without crosses.
[26] from the same source sprang many noble Spaniards; The surname de Tordesillas is kept to this day, according to Father Emmanuel, by the counts of Alcolea and the marquises of Sanfelices: likewise he says that from the Cepeda stock have proceeded the counts of Mora and Villamena, the marquises of la Torre de las Sirgadas, Villecastel, Salar and others; and finally that from the same forebears the most noble house of Toledo drew its origin, the counts of Oropesa, the dukes of Alba and the marquises of Villafranca. And how the Pulgars, lords of Salar, were connected with the Cepedas, Father Francis teaches, being himself of the family of the Pulgars, ordered at long last to publish openly what for modesty's sake he had long concealed. Accordingly, by command of his General (whom Francis's brothers and other kinsfolk had solicited to order this), he says that his father Fernando del Pulgar entered into marriage with Jerónima de Cepeda, daughter of Catalina de Cepeda, granddaughter of María González de la Torre y Cepeda, great-granddaughter of Catalina de Cepeda. Now this Catalina whom I have named last was the great-great-aunt of St. Teresa, being the sister of Inés de Cepeda, who, as I have shown above, was the Saint's grandmother.
[27] and, according to some, the French Cepedes. Moreover, Father Louis of St. Teresa, in the Annals of the French Discalced Carmelites (Preface, chapter IV, no. 4), from Nostradamus's History of Provence (part VII, at the year 1613), asserts that those nobles who in France are surnamed de Cepedes or de la Cepède, and of whom mention is frequently made from the 14th century on in the histories of Provence and of its chief cities, drew their origin from those ancient Spanish Cepedas. Hence, according to Mr. Boucher, there was related to the stock of St. Teresa the illustrious C. F. Daviau Dubois-de-Sanzay, lately archbishop of Bordeaux, who died in the year 1826, whose acts and virtues you will find praised at length in the periodical L'Ami de la Religion (vol. LVIII, pages 209, 241, 273, 384; vol. LX, pages 213, 214), and whose sister in the year 1792 presided over the convent of Discalced Carmelite nuns at Poitiers. And these things indeed we have thought fit to bring forward concerning the paternal surnames of St. Teresa.
[28] 3. Dávila, the surname of most noble families, But the maternal nobility of St. Teresa, says Father Francis (place cited, nos. 6 and 7), is no less illustrious than the paternal. The surname Dávila flourishes among some grandees of Castile (grandes), who today hold kinship with the Saint as their highest honour; so that it is necessary to draw together in a few words what is to be found in various treatises on nobility. Under that surname, namely, are contained the Blásquez, the Núñez, the Velas and others originating from Ávila, likewise one of the richest of the Solariega houses, which are most highly regarded among the Castilians. And today indeed that surname Dávila is proper to the most illustrious houses of Velada, of San Román, of Las Navas, of Navalmorquende and of Villafranca; which are derived from those celebrated families of Ávila, namely of Blasco Jimeno, or Jimeno Blásquez, and of Esteban Domingo. For the descendants of these, in order to be distinguished from those who bore the same names, added to their other titles that "de Ávila", namely from the city of Ávila, where they held the chief offices (de donde eran Caudillos, Adalides y Governadores whence they were Captains, Leaders and Governors): and afterwards, from "de Ávila", with one letter cast off, "Dávila" was made… Of one of these houses of Dávila was Juan Blásquez Dávila de Cordovilla, great-grandfather of St. Teresa, descending through those two former surnames (Blásquez and Dávila) from the Navalmorquende origin, whose male progeny today shines with the highest splendour in the house of Velada and San Román. Hence the illustrious Don Sancho Dávila, bishop of Cartagena, Jaén, Palencia and Sigüenza, a son of the house of Velada, often when speaking with our Discalced Fathers gloried in his kinship with St. Teresa. The third surname, de Cordovilla, Juan Blásquez took for himself from the place of his birth, so as to be distinguished from other Dávilas and Blásquez. And what I have said is confirmed by those six roundels which were seen in the maternal device of St. Teresa, and are proper to the house of Velada.
[29] to which what family device belongs Here, then, Father Francis and Father Emmanuel are openly set against one another: while the one indeed, as
the reader has just noticed, in clear words assigns to St. Teresa's maternal lineage, Dávila, that golden shield furnished with six blue roundels, while the other had that very shield moved from its place by the king of arms, and set in the very first quartering as the ensign of the Sánchez, for the reasons which I announced above were to be discussed here. That is, after the words which I adduced from him at no. 22, he proceeds thus: Its (namely the house of Velada's) eldest son, Gómez Dávila, second marquis of Velada, was the brother of Sancho Dávila the bishop, to whom St. Teresa wrote letters as to a kinsman (6 and 7 of volume I); and indeed he had for his family insignia six blue roundels on a golden shield, as they are set down by Martín de Ximena in the Annals of Jaén. Since, therefore, the Saint's father, grandfather and great-grandfather are distinguished by the surname Sánchez and at the same time by the other, de Toledo, as was explained above, it follows that kinship exists between her house and the houses of the Veladas, the Toledos and the Sánchez, which all go back to one stock: although we have not wished this proper name Sánchez to be abolished, which is namely seen in the series of St. Teresa's paternal ancestors; since we rather reckon that surname to be the primitive one of the Veladas and of the Toledos, as those six roundels of the shield indicate: which roundels, however, those families afterwards increased up to thirteen or more. The six roundels which I have mentioned are also displayed in the shield carved in stone over the door of the paternal house of St. Teresa: with this difference nevertheless, that there, for I know not what cause, they occupy the lower quartering on the left, while in the new shield Don Emmanuel Medina placed them in the upper right; in which place, namely, it seemed fitting that the paternal insignia should be set, especially since they are so illustrious.
[30] It is disputed with certain arguments. Let it be so indeed, that the paternal insignia are to be set before the maternal; but I contend that nothing prevents its being declared that this rule was observed in the old stone. For whatever may be the case about the connection between the Veladas, the Toledos and the Sánchez, this certainly does not clearly show that the quartering in question is to be called that of the Sánchez rather than that of the Dávilas. And as for Sancho Dávila the bishop, brother of Gómez Dávila, marquis of Velada, having borne such a shield for his family device, I hardly know whether it can be drawn from this that one must adhere to the opinion of Father Francis rather than to that of Father Emmanuel. For in the first place, it is manifest that the surname Dávila was most of all proper to the Veladas; although it cannot be denied that certain of their ancestors bore in addition the surname Sánchez, just as others of them too were surnamed Blásquez, Jiménez, Gómez or by some other patronymic name. Secondly, the Spanish work Monarquia Española, blason de su nobleza, by J. F. F. de Rivarola y Pineda (Madrid 1736), in volume II, chapter XXXIX (in which the Navalmorquendes are treated, and in whose no. 12 Blasco Jimeno, third lord of Navalmorquende, is called head and chief parent of the stock of Dávila), has this for its heading: Insignia and arms of Dávila and title of marquis of Navalmorquende (namely, before that there had been not marquises but lords of Navalmorquende), which King Philip IV granted to Don Diego Dávila Coello: on the shield a golden field, thirteen blue roundels, etc.; and as often as six or thirteen blue roundels of this kind occur in that work, so often are they ascribed to the surname Dávila (See vol. I, p. 125, Astorga; p. 128, Velada; p. 276, Santi-Esteban; p. 336, Uceda; p. 341, Las Navas, Risco, Villafranca). Thirdly, Father Emmanuel himself seems to pass over plainly to our opinion, writing these things at the beginning of his § VII: We have shown that many families are contained under the appellation Dávila, which used it in order to be distinguished from others not belonging to the quadrilla of Ávila; and that from them descends the often-mentioned Juan Blásquez Dávila, maternal great-grandfather of St. Teresa: thence were taken the roundels of the Veladas and others. It is true that soon after he subjoins to these: Similarly there belong to him, and are family arms, the three bars (blue on a silver shield) which in the stone of St. Teresa's house constitute the lower quartering on the right. There are those who think these bars are to be attributed to the Toledos, that is, to the Saint's paternal lineage. They also suit the Muñoz, Gothic knights, from whom were begotten the marquises of Las Navas, head of the quadrilla of Ávila through Esteban Domingo, the parent of Blasco Muñoz. Finally they also suit St. Teresa through Dávila and Ahumada, as one descending from Blasco Muñoz, etc. But what these things hint at or what they prove, I do not altogether perceive. This alone I take from them for myself, that there are others with me who think these bars are to be attributed to the Saint's paternal lineage. Accordingly the two upper quarterings of the older shield will be ascribed to the Cepedas; of the lower right I should not dare to decide plainly whether it is owed to the Toledos or to the Sánchez or to some other surname; the lower left I scarcely doubt is uniquely proper to the surname Dávila. It remains to speak of the Ahumadas, to whom belongs the castle or tower placed above the shield in the old stone.
[31] 4. Ahumada, likewise most noble, but of uncertain origin. The lineage of the Ahumadas, says Father Ribera, both in nobility and in antiquity easily holds the first place among the families of Ávila. But Father Francis, alluding at the outset to the word Ahumada (since it is derived from ahumar, that is, to smoke): Time, he says, has turned into smoke the origin of the surname de Ahumada. What has been passed about on men's lips concerning its mysteries, the gravity of History does not admit. Thus stands what has remained by tradition rather than in writing. Namely, a certain knight, named Fernando, is said, together with his three sons, to have defended a certain tower or fortress against the Moors; and when it had been set on fire by the Moors, to have rescued himself from the flames through the darkness of the smoke: hence the surname de Ahumada was taken, and as a token of honour a tower was granted by the kings to Fernando, from whose gates and windows flames should burst forth: thereafter various insignia were set beside the tower by the families sprung from that stock. One of these families settled in the valley and district of Antezana, in the mountains of Burgos; another in the same mountains, in the village of Ahumada, of the district of Villadiego (Villa-Diego), below the Rock of Amaya (Peña Damaya). From which of these the Ahumada knights of Ávila descend, and so Beatriz, the mother of St. Teresa, is unknown. Indeed it may be that they came forth from a certain village named Fumada, which in the time of Liutprand was known as situated near Ávila, but now has no remaining traces. This Liutprand assigns as the place of martyrdom to St. Secundus, the Apostle and Patron of the people of Ávila: and if the appellation of the Ahumadas be from there, it must be called older than the Ahumada tower.
§ III. Certain particulars about the Saint's brothers, sisters and other kinsfolk.
[Of St. Teresa, called in the world de Ahumada, eleven brothers and sisters are numbered; namely:] St. Teresa bore, according to the custom usual among the Spaniards, this surname of her mother, de Ahumada, until, on the founding of the first monastery of her Reform, she substituted for that secular appellation the most sacred name of Jesus. The same surname de Ahumada was borne not only by her sister Juana, but also by four brothers, Fernando, Antonio, Pedro and Agustín; the other brothers (unless perhaps the second, born of Catalina del Peso, concerning whom nothing is established, is to be excepted), and likewise her sister María, were called de Cepeda, and indeed the eldest of all Vásquez de Cepeda, as was explained above from Father Francis. I shall do, I believe, a thing not useless nor altogether foreign to our undertaking, if I gather together the chief things which I have found concerning St. Teresa's brothers and sisters and their progeny, both in her letters and certain other works, and also in the writers praised in the first paragraph. I have judged this ought to be done chiefly for this reason, that the things to be brought forward concerning their life and manners often contribute to the honour of St. Teresa herself, and sometimes also hold out a not useless torch for the elucidation of her history. Concerning the excellent piety of her parents, by which St. Teresa was assured by divine revelation that they had obtained eternal salvation, I deliberately omit to speak here, namely lest the same thing be set forth twice. For their splendid encomium, written by the very pen of their holy daughter, will be more fittingly set forth in the following paragraph.
[33] [the first Juan Vásquez de Cepeda; the second of uncertain name; the third María de Cepeda, an excellent woman,] The eldest son of Alonso de Cepeda, then, was, as we have said, Juan or Juan Jerónimo Vásquez de Cepeda. This one thing is known of him, from the Chronicle (book I, chapter III, no. 2), that he was a captain of infantry in the Spanish army. Of his younger full brother so little is established that even his very name is uncertain, not to say altogether unknown. Their sister María de Cepeda, to whom St. Teresa was very dear and whom she commends for her singular uprightness and goodness, married Martín de Guzmán y Barrientos, a man notable for virtue and wealth, and lived with him in the little village called by the Castilians de la Cañada. There, so far as is known, St. Teresa stayed with María three times: first when, before taking the habit of Carmel, she was convalescing from sickness; again when, having already made her profession, she went from the monastery of the Incarnation at Ávila to Becedas to be cured of new infirmities; and lastly five years before María's death, for a reason to be alleged presently. Now it appears from a certain letter of the Saint to her brother Lorenzo (Vol. I, letter 29) that the household fortune of Martín and María, at first quite ample, had in the lapse of time been somewhat afflicted; and finally, when Martín had been carried off by an unexpected death, that the excellent María laboured under want, so that she needed the help of Lorenzo, then living in America. St. Teresa foreknew by divine means that María would likewise die suddenly. Wherefore, by the counsel of her confessor, she set out to visit her; and, though concealing the heavenly vision, she sweetly urged upon her that she should arrange the affairs of her soul with the greatest care she could. And indeed María passed the remaining five years of her life so holily that after her death she remained not more than eight days in purgatory, as Father Ribera and Father Francis of St. Mary relate that it became known to St. Teresa as she withdrew from the Eucharistic table.
[34] mother of Fr. John of Jesus of the Order of Friars Minor and of Diego de Guzmán; Two sons of María de Cepeda are named, Juan and Diego; perhaps also that Magdalena of whom St. Teresa speaks in letter 38 of volume III is her daughter. Juan took the habit of St. Francis of Assisi in the convent of Arenas, and, imitating the example of his holy maternal aunt, wished to be called Fr. John of Jesus. So Father Anthony of St. Joseph, commenting on the letter in which the Saint treats of the said Fr. John with Father Anthony de Segura, a Discalced Franciscan (vol. II, letter 15). In the notes to this letter it is further read that Juan, especially in the exercise of the interior life
made very great progress amid many dangers and concluded his course of religious perfection with a blessed death, in which he beheld his maternal aunt, already enjoying heaven, assisting him. Juan's brother, Diego de Guzmán, took to wife Jerónima de Tapia, whom the most illustrious Palafox (Vol. I, letter 35, note 1) calls a cousin of St. Teresa, as being the daughter of her paternal uncle Francisco Álvarez de Cepeda: the same is confirmed by Father Anthony of St. Joseph (Vol. III, letter 38, note 1), who adds that a dispensation of the second and third degree was given for this marriage at Ávila in the year 1564, naming also the vicar-general and the notary. We have two letters of St. Teresa to Diego (just cited), written about the year 1676 or 1677: each is consolatory, on the death of his wife and of his little daughter. A certain daughter of Diego received as husband at Ávila Juan del Águila, and bore him Constanza del Águila, mother of Nuño Ordóñez del Águila, knight of St. James, who lived in the time of Palafox. That Constanza and her husband José Ordóñez Orejón had other offspring besides, and namely two daughters, Eufemia and Teresa, Father Anthony relates from manuscripts.
[35] the fourth Fernando de Ahumada; the fifth Rodrigo de Cepeda; We proceed now to St. Teresa's full brothers, of whom the first is Fernando de Ahumada. He was among the companions of the Pizarros in the Peruvian expedition: he is said to have excelled in warlike valour, and to have obtained a portion of the lands acquired by the Spaniards in war in America. The genealogical tree of the marquis of Las Atalayuelas, according to the testimony of Father Emmanuel of St. Thomas Aquinas, indicates (a thing which is found by me nowhere else) that Fernando de Ahumada had as wife Leonor de Jerez of Ávila, and by her a daughter, Leonor de Ahumada; whose progeny has lasted down to our own time, carried down namely to Doña María Teresa de Navarrete y Valdivia, wife of the aforesaid marquis. Fernando is followed by Rodrigo de Cepeda, loved by the girl Teresa before her other brothers; what he did at a tender age together with Teresa, we shall hear her narrating at the beginning of her life in the following paragraph. Following in his brother's footsteps, Rodrigo too sailed into the New World, having made Teresa heir of his paternal goods if he should die without offspring; and he perished drowned in the River Plate, to which he was leading a company, by a death miserable indeed in appearance but most happy in reality, which namely St. Teresa did not hesitate to compare to martyrdom: in what sense the Saint could do this will be explained in the annotations to Ribera.
[36] the sixth Lorenzo de Cepeda, These brothers whom I have just praised preceded St. Teresa in order of birth: next after her, at an interval of about four years, was born Lorenzo de Cepeda; and since the holy sister herself wrote very much about him and to him, she supplies us with fuller and more certain knowledge of him. He set out for America about the year 1540, and remained there beyond 34 years, as is established from St. Teresa's book of the Foundations (chapter XXXV, no. 3). On the testimony of Father Francis of St. Mary, Lorenzo in the Indies commanded a company of soldiers and afterwards presided over the treasury of the province of Quito. In those lands he married a wife born in a notable station, Juana de Fuentes y Guzmán; and he seems to have begotten seven children, of whom four did not pass beyond infancy: of the other three, Francisco, Lorenzo and Teresa, I must speak later, when I have spoken of the life of their parent Lorenzo. María, Lorenzo's wife, ceased to live at Quito toward the end of the year 1567, as a certain paper written in Spanish by Lorenzo records; from which it is pleasing, in commendation of both spouses, to render the following into Latin: She died so holily that I would wish God might grant me, if it please Him, to rest in the same death. Amen. The splendid example with which she shone before me during the whole time of her life, she gave also in her death. And twice indeed she admonished me that I too would have to enter upon the same way after her: and that, if I desired to be joined with her there, she exhorted me to be good and to spend my life in the service of God. She was buried in the monastery of Blessed Mary of Mercy, clothed in the habit of this Order; which the fortunate woman had wished for this reason, that she might obtain the indulgences granted to that place (Compare vol. IV, letter 42, notes 6, 7 and 8).
[37] a rich man, and both before Lorenzo was splendidly furnished with the goods of fortune; in which respect he far surpassed most, and perhaps all, of the kinsfolk related to him by blood. But, by no means puffed up by prosperous lot, he did not go after gold nor hope in money and treasures; but, obeying the precept of the Wise Man, he honoured the Lord with his substance. For with a munificent charity, which St. Teresa followed with very much praise and thanksgiving, he again and again sent abundant subsidies from those distant regions into his homeland, to be spent both on founding convents of the newly reformed Carmel and on relieving the want of some of his kinsfolk. Already at that time Teresa was calling Lorenzo into a share of her solicitude; communicating to him by letters the labours which she was undertaking for the glory of God, and ascribing to the singular providence of God that she had obtained so much help from her brother at such a time (for she was then undertaking the first foundation at Ávila) (vol. I, letter 29). Meanwhile he, his wife having died, had begun to think of Europe, where he might give himself wholly to piety and provide for the education of his children. St. Teresa vehemently approved this plan, in a letter written in the year 1570: and to entice her brother the more, she excellently praised the whole native city for its piety, the college of the Society of Jesus at Ávila for its sound instruction of boys, the school of the Fathers Preachers for its higher studies; and also toward the end of her writing she added these most sweet words: I believe it will be a great relief to me if I enjoy your presence. I receive so little solace from earthly things that I think this pleasure has been laid up for me by God, namely that I may be joined with you, so that together we may labour for the honour and glory of the Creator and also somewhat for procuring the salvation of souls. For this is what most of all torments me, that so great a number of souls perish: nor indeed do those Indies of yours cause me small concern; which, I pray, may God enlighten: for both here and there there is great misery (vol. I, letter 30).
[38] and most of all after his return from America to his homeland, most pious, Lorenzo landed at San Lúcar, a well-known port of Spain, with his children and his brother Pedro, about the middle of the year 1575 (vol. IV, letter 42); and in the month of August he met St. Teresa at Seville. From there in the month of October he betook himself to Madrid to the royal court, to transact some business; during which time Juana de Ahumada and her husband Juan de Ovalle came to Seville with their children, whom St. Teresa had summoned to visit their brother (vol. IV, letter 47), and between whom and Lorenzo there arose thereafter a most beautiful union of hearts (vol. III, letter 61). Returning from Madrid after some days, he accompanied the holy Foundress, whom he had helped at Seville, as far as Toledo, with great pleasure and solace to both; as the Saint herself testified to Father Gratian (vol. IV, letter 20). From Toledo he went to Ávila, where he had resolved to live, with his two boys, his little daughter Teresa remaining with her holy aunt. Shortly after, St. Teresa gave a letter to her brother, urging him to send the boys immediately to the college of the Society of Jesus, lest they suffer corruption from the company of the wicked, although he did not yet have at home the attendant whom she had sought out for them, and at the same time warning Lorenzo to abstain from excessive pomp, yet without omitting to provide fairly for his honour and esteem (vol. II, letter 49), and to order his house decently, as she bids in a following letter, according to his rank: only, she says, take care to make little of such trifles and not to cling to them (vol. I, letter 33). How much Lorenzo for his own part shrank from the business of the world is plain from this, that, on St. Teresa's testimony, he deliberated for some time about embracing the religious life (vol. III, letter 61): nay rather, when he had afterwards bought a certain country estate, called La Serna, not far distant from Ávila, at the price of 14,000 gold pieces, by which he might provide for his fortune and for the dignity of his family in future (vol. II, letter 82; vol. III, letter 66), this matter kept him so anxious, as though it were a too laborious care for reputation and gain, harmful to piety, that it was necessary for his holy sister to explode his scruples on these matters with strong reasons (vol. I, letter 31). The same happened too concerning the silver plate and tapestries, which the God-fearing man did not dare to use, until he received Teresa's answer that these things, provided they did not draw the mind away from God, did not touch the matter at all, and so were to be borne patiently, as she says, by her brother for the sake of the boys (vol. I, letter 33).
[39] devoted to prayer and penance, But it is altogether wonderful to what perfection of life Lorenzo ascended under St. Teresa's guidance in a short space of time. He had committed himself wholly to her, as to a mother and mistress, to be directed in the way of the Lord, ready to obey her in all things whatsoever: which plan, however, she did not much approve, nor held as ratified except reluctantly, providing by an express condition that he should not bind his will to anyone in particular by vow. The holy Mother therefore began to establish an intercourse in spiritual things with Lorenzo (vol. I, letters 31, 32, 33; vol. II, letter 40; vol. IV, letters 39 and 40). She taught how one should persevere in prayer; what was to be done when the most pious man felt impulses of divine love, which happened not seldom; what again was to be procured when his mind was dry or troubled by the infernal enemy. She also prescribed the measure of penance: how often the scourge was to be applied to the flesh; at what time and for how long the hair shirt was to be put on, which she herself had sent to her brother, repaying, as she wittily says, with a gift of this kind the little presents and medicines which she had received from him when sick. In things pertaining to afflicting the flesh, however, Lorenzo needed not a spur but a bridle. Teresa likewise frequently told him of the divine operations which she herself underwent; she explained to him, as to one understanding such things, the degrees of her contemplation and what bore upon them; she communicated her spiritual writings to him; finally she esteemed so highly his skill in the science of God that she challenged him, with three other men endowed with eminent knowledge of spiritual things, St. John of the Cross, Julián de Ávila the priest and Francisco de Salcedo the knight, to a kind of contest in interpreting these mystical words which she had heard from the mouth of the divine Spouse: Seek thyself in Me: to which refers that most beautiful letter to Álvaro de Mendoza, bishop of Ávila (vol. I, letter 5). That military and wealthy man is thus a splendid proof to what heights the grace of the Holy Spirit can raise not only a monk
or nun, or anyone else specially ordained to the worship of God, but any Christian whatever who has given himself over wholly to God and has studiously sought out the things that are pleasing to Him.
[40] conspicuous for charity and zeal, Nor could it happen that so ardent a piety toward God should remain within mere affections and the interior motions of the mind. Indeed, how effectively it came forth into deeds, very many pages of St. Teresa's letters testify. To not a few of his needier kinsfolk Lorenzo generously supplied a part of his means: such were, before the rest, his sister Juana de Ahumada, whose family he often succoured by sending gifts; likewise his brother Pedro de Ahumada, who, from the time he returned to his homeland, lived almost at the expense of Lorenzo alone; the two daughters of his other brothers Jerónimo and Agustín, for whom, assigning a suitable dowry, he procured honourable marriages (vol. II, letter 52). Besides these, for various monasteries of St. Teresa, when they laboured under want, Lorenzo was a ready refuge. How much money he spent especially for the monastery of Seville, and not only that, but also how grievous things he suffered, may be read in Ribera, book III, chapter III, and in Teresa herself, book of the Foundations, chapter XXV. See what the holy Mother, in admiration at Lorenzo's magnanimity in those circumstances, wrote to her daughter María of St. Baptist: Had my brother not been here, nothing at all would ever have been accomplished. He has suffered so much, and has spent his wealth and borne labours with so great a heart, that there is cause for us to praise God. It is certainly just that those sisters of ours should love him; for there was no help from elsewhere, and we had an immense trouble on our hands. At present he has withdrawn from here; for there was no lack of fear that he would be hauled off to prison, which here is like hell. Justice counts for nothing in this place: things we do not owe are demanded of us and of my brother, as being the surety. These things cannot be finished unless we appeal to the supreme court: this business has no measure. But that good man has borne the vexations with a willing mind for God's sake. Just now he is staying with our Father among the Carmelites: and the rain of troubles that has fallen upon him is like hail. Why then should not I too lift up my spirit, when meanwhile this man is more affected by our sorrow than by his own? (Vol. I, letter 47). Lorenzo's testament too is itself a monument of his remarkable piety: for besides the things which pertained to dividing the inheritance among his three children, of whom two at that time, namely Francisco and Teresa, seemed to wish to enter the Order of Discalced Carmelites, there were designated there by Lorenzo sums of money not to be despised, which he desired to be given both to the monasteries of St. Teresa and to be employed for pious foundations. Lorenzo had had a chapel built in honour of St. Anne, to whom he was singularly devoted (vol. I, letter 34). Likewise he ordered by his testament that a chapel of St. Lawrence, his patron, be built in the convent of St. Joseph at Ávila, where he should be buried after death. The vault of the larger oratory annexed to the same convent was to be constructed from the wealth left by Lorenzo: and if it should happen that his son Lorenzo died without offspring, what had been laid down concerning the vault was extended to the entire building of the oratory.
[41] after a happy death Having thus established his goods in the Lord, Lorenzo de Cepeda, plainly worthy that the whole Church of the Saints should declare his alms, departed this life unexpectedly on the 26th of June 1580. What St. Teresa wrote on her brother's death to Mother María of St. Joseph, prioress of Seville, deserves to be read: The Holy Spirit be with you, dearest Mother. God seems to wish that there should be almost no time in which I do not have something to suffer. Know that it has pleased Him to take to Himself His devoted servant Lorenzo de Cepeda. He afflicted him with a casting-up of blood so sudden that within six hours, his breath stopped, he was dead. He had approached the sacred banquet two days before, and dying he commended himself to the Lord with his mind present up to the very end. For my part I trust in the divine mercy that Lorenzo has gone to the enjoyment of God: for he lived with such a mind that he could no longer bear any things other than those which were of the divine service. Wherefore also he took much delight in his country house situated outside Ávila; because, namely, he said that there rest was granted him from the salutations of the town. His prayer was assiduous, since he walked always in the presence of God; and he was gifted by the supreme Majesty with such graces that they sometimes struck me with amazement. He was most addicted to penance, and indeed did more in that matter than I should have wished. For he was accustomed to communicate everything to me, and for the love with which he had devoted himself to me, he made very much of whatever I said to him. For this love I now repay him with my joy, namely that he has exchanged this miserable life for eternal security. This is not a form of speech; but truly, as often as that thought comes before my mind, so often do I feel myself refreshed. For his children indeed I am anxious; but for their father's sake, I believe, God will have mercy on them. I have written so much for the sake of consoling you; for I foresee how much you will grieve at this death; and it is indeed just that you should grieve, you and those sisters of mine, by whose troubles how much he was affected, and how much he loved them, is incredible. Now the time is here for you to pay the debt of charity by commending him to the Lord; on this condition, that if (as I should believe, and as one may think through faith) his soul no longer needs our help, what has been piously done may go to the relief of those souls which most of all have need of our suffrages. A few days before his death he had sent me a letter at Segovia, where I am still staying; in which he wrote in such a way that he seemed to foresee how little of life remained to him: which left me somewhat astonished (vol. I, letter 64).
[42] soon admitted into heaven, Thus far the holy Mother; who not long after wrote in almost the same manner to Lorenzo, the son of the deceased, then living in America: but she adds in this latter letter that there are certain particulars of which she was indeed aware, but which she could not commit to paper. These are perhaps the things which St. Teresa told to Lorenzo's other son Francisco, as Father Anthony of St. Joseph says is established from the testimony which Orofrisia, the wife of the aforesaid Francisco, afterwards gave in the informations for Teresa's beatification (vol. II, letter 55, note 10): namely, that at the hour at which Lorenzo ceased to live, the holy Mother, who was at Segovia with her nuns doing some manual work, having received a divine warning, at once called all her daughters into the choir to pray for her deceased brother; that a little later she was assured of Lorenzo's entrance into heaven after a short stay in purgatory; and finally that, when one day she was preparing herself for holy Communion, St. Joseph and Lorenzo were seen by her, having between them the Most Holy Eucharist which was being carried by the priest. This vision Father Francis of St. Mary also alleges (book 1, chapter III, no. 6); but this author errs in saying that the death of Lorenzo de Cepeda took place in the year 1579, deceived without doubt by the reading of letter 64 of volume I, which I cited above, and to which the year 1579 was added by another hand. That this was done by another hand is gathered from the juridical examination which, about the middle of the 17th century, the Illustrious Isidoro José Bustamante, bishop of Valladolid, ordered to be instituted by experts in old handwriting; indeed already before this Father Peter of the Annunciation, an eyewitness, had affirmed that the note of the year was not present originally in the letter in question. Moreover it is established that the letter of St. Teresa of which I spoke was written to the younger Lorenzo at Valladolid in the month of December; which could not have happened in the year 1579, when the holy Mother spent that month at Malagón, as is evident from her other letters. Add finally the inscription of Lorenzo's sepulchral stone, which Don Antonio Ponz (Viage de España, vol. XII, letter 10) reports to have been of this tenor: Fallescio Lorencio de Cepeda a 28 de Junio del año de 1580. Es fundador de esta capilla, y hermano de la Santa fundadora de esta casa y de todas las Descalzas Carmelitas. That is: Lorenzo de Cepeda died on the 28th of June of the year 1580. He is the founder of this chapel, and brother of the holy foundress of this house and of all the Discalced Carmelite nuns. Note, however, that Ponz has here by a mistake written the 28th of June for the 26th of June; since St. Teresa expressly affirms that Lorenzo died two days after the feast of St. John: dos dias despues de San Juan two days after St. John's. Moreover I have learned that it is a mistake from that inscription lately sent from Ávila, which had been added to Lorenzo's coat of arms. This shield is circular, and differs in its third quartering from the shield exhibited at no. 14, nor has it a tower set upon it: it is moreover to be noted that in the first quartering the lion is turned to the left, while in the shield of St. Teresa and of the others it is turned to the right. I suspect that the engraver of Lorenzo's shield, ignorant of the laws of heraldry, allowed himself this fault on account of the circular form of the shield. That quartering, adorned with a lion and eight saltire crosses, is borne by all the illustrious and ancient families of the city of Ávila, which rightly enjoys the surname Ávila de los Caballeros Ávila of the Knights.
[43] having left three children: Francisco de Cepeda, Francisco, the elder son of Lorenzo, devoted to piety from his tender years, and after his coming into Europe much beloved by his holy aunt, in the year in which his father died aspired ardently to the religious state, so that it appears from a certain letter of St. Teresa that no doubt any longer remained about his intention. Intending at last actually to carry out that intention, as the end of the same year was now approaching, he went with Father Jerome Gratian to Pastrana, for the sake of making trial of the new life which he was contemplating: but the matter did not have the outcome that was hoped; and Francisco, having made scarcely any trial, returned home after a few days from the convent of Pastrana. Nor is it obscure what St. Teresa felt about that matter: The story of Francisco, so she writes to Gratian, has struck us all. It appears that those people did nothing else but distract his mind in various directions. What pertains to his kinsfolk does not move me; but this moves me, that God has so abandoned a creature desiring to serve Him. His judgments are deep (vol. III, letter 26). A little later there is found for Francisco a bride born in a most noble station, named Orofrisia de Mendoza y Castilla, daughter of Francisco de Mendoza and Beatriz de Castilla, first cousin of the mother of the duke of Alburquerque, touching also by close consanguinity the duke del Infantado and other nobles of the foremost titles; among whom were numbered at Ávila
the marquises of Las Navas and of Velada, as well as the latter's wife, and above all Luis, son of Mosén Rubí, of an origin illustrious among the French. Orofrisia's age was fifteen years, her grace and discretion remarkable, her dowry four thousand gold pieces; her mother of exceptional prudence and fit for governing a household; her only brother enjoying an entailed estate, and if offspring should be lacking to this brother, the whole inheritance would pass to Orofrisia; she had likewise one sister, and she a nun (vol. II, letter 55). The betrothal was celebrated on the feast day of the Virgin conceived without stain, in the same year which I wrote above, 1580; and Francisco got on excellently with his wife and mother-in-law. But—as is the ordinary lot of those who do not obey God when He calls to the religious state—a change soon came over things which were flowing, as it seemed, so well. For in the following year 1581 St. Teresa was grieving that Francisco's household affairs were going to ruin; so that she said truly that the young man was born for God, not for looking after earthly things. In the year 1582 also St. Teresa had business with Beatriz, Francisco's mother-in-law; who, in order to remedy her son-in-law's want, was contending to take away its force from Lorenzo de Cepeda's testament, and was on the point of summoning the holy Mother to law, had not the latter written back to her no less firmly than sweetly (vol. IV, letter 16). At last Francisco, his affairs almost desperate, yet never having lost his piety and the friendship of St. Teresa, sailed to America; and he died at Quito, leaving no progeny, in the year 1617.
[44] Lorenzo de Cepeda More fortunate was Francisco's brother Lorenzo, to whom two letters of St. Teresa are addressed (vol. II, letter 55, and vol. IV, letter 43). He set out for America before the death of his father Lorenzo, to hold an office which his father had left him on this condition, that he should yield his right to the legitimate portion in favour of his brother, for whom it was hoped by that arrangement that the entailed estate would be obtained. Lorenzo contracted marriage with María de Hinojosa, born in the island of Hispaniola (commonly Santo Domingo or Haiti) of Pedro de Hinojosa and Ana de Esteves y Santistevan; and he managed his affairs so prosperously that already in the year 1581 he enjoyed an abundant income. His father-in-law had previously been an auditor, as they call it, in the audiencia of the aforesaid island, and was then presiding over the audiencia of Quito, and, the viceroy having died, was administering the province of Peru as deputy. To Lorenzo thereafter an honourable office was committed by the king, with a most ample revenue. Following the example of his excellent father, whom St. Teresa again and again set before him for imitation, Lorenzo spent a part of his riches in succouring poorer kinsfolk and in procuring other good works. María de Hinojosa bore him four sons and two daughters; whence the noble lineage of the Cepedas was propagated in America. In the year 1666, as Father Anthony of St. Joseph relates (vol. II, letter 49, note 15), one of Lorenzo's grandsons came to Spain to seek a prebend of the Church of Quito; and, because he was descended from St. Teresa's brother, he obtained it by the vote of the Council of the Indies before many senior to himself: afterwards he was also presented with a canonry, by the munificent devotion of the queen of the Spains toward St. Teresa.
[45] and Teresa of Jesus the younger; More fortunate than Francisco and Lorenzo was their sister Teresa. She had for her natal year 1568, at Quito. Left at Toledo with St. Teresa, she was in the year 1576 adopted as a spiritual daughter by the Saint, who was very greatly delighted with her most sweet manners and excellent disposition and other endowments for serving God, as Ribera speaks, and was committed to her nuns at Ávila to be brought up and formed to holiness. There the girl made such progress in every kind of virtue, and especially in humility, that those most perfect virgins by whom she was being brought up testified that they were suffused with blushes on seeing her manner of acting. Thus prepared as a bride for the Lord Jesus, she put on the habit of the Discalced Carmelite nuns in the year 1581 in the same convent of Ávila; and was thereafter called Teresa of Jesus. While she was in the novitiate God proved her by many trials and permitted her to be tempted by the infernal enemy; and meanwhile St. Teresa sustained her by wonderful written counsels and exhortations. The holy Foundress wished herself to receive the solemn profession of her most beloved brother's daughter; but she died before she could obtain her wish. This profession, therefore, after the most happy passing of her aunt, the younger Teresa made on the 5th day of November 1582; and thereafter spent the whole time of her life at Ávila, as Father Joseph of St. Teresa relates that the holy Mother ordered in a certain apparition after her death (Chron. vol. III, book XIII, chapter XIII, no. 7). Teresa at one time discharged the office of mistress of novices; in which office, as in the other actions of her life, she shone with splendid holiness (Ibid. no. 8). At the same hour at which she died, on the 10th day of September 1610, she is related by the cited writer (Ibid. no. 9) to have presented herself to be seen by the Venerable Servant of God Anne of St. Bartholomew, most dear to her, then living in France.
[46] the seventh Antonio de Ahumada, a religious; We have treated sufficiently at length of Lorenzo de Cepeda and his children. Concerning Antonio de Ahumada, to whom the fourth place among St. Teresa's full brothers is assigned, not so much is to be said. Teresa brought Antonio to this, that on the day on which she entered the Order of the Carmelites, he too should betake himself into a religious house, namely that of the Fathers Preachers of Ávila. But the opinions of the authors on this matter vary, which Father Frederick of St. Anthony sets out thus (in a note to chapter IV, book 1 of the Italian life of St. Teresa): Father Ribera writes, he says, book 1, chapter VI, that Antonio de Ahumada went straight from the convent of the Incarnation, to which he had brought his sister, to St. Thomas of the Order of St. Dominic, to ask for admission: but that, that admission being put off by the Fathers of that house, who wished first to explore the mind of his father, whom they knew familiarly, Antonio betook himself into the Order of St. Jerome; but that, having fallen into sickness during the time of his novitiate, he could not keep to the manner of life he had begun. There are other writers who have handed down nothing at all to memory concerning Antonio. Finally Father Francis of St. Mary, book 1, chapter VII, and Philip López, chapter 11, were led to believe that Antonio was in fact clothed in the habit of St. Dominic; and the former indeed, although he alleges the opinion of those who think he lived among the monks of St. Jerome, nevertheless writes that the young man, having led an excellent life in the Institute of the Fathers Preachers, died before he had yet made his profession.
[47] the eighth Pedro de Ahumada, who returned from America and died poor; Antonio de Ahumada is followed in order of birth by Pedro, likewise called de Ahumada, and no less notable for warlike valour in the overseas expeditions than the three brothers who had preceded him. That Pedro returned from America with his brother Lorenzo I have shown before. The reward of his merits, which he had intended to claim on returning to Spain, he does not seem to have obtained as he hoped; by which repulse it came about that through the whole rest of his life he laboured under a sickness of mind, not a little troublesome both to himself and to his kinsfolk. His brother Lorenzo most generously relieved his necessity, giving him everything he needed for food, clothing and household matters, and sharing his own house with his brother as long as the latter wished. The same hospitality, if only he had wished it, Pedro could have enjoyed either with his sister Juana de Ahumada or with his sister María's son Diego. And as her compassionate charity toward Pedro stirred up much care for St. Teresa, so too it inspired in her a most eloquent letter; than which I doubt whether anything more beautiful, or more apt for persuading and moving, can be found in this kind of writing (vol. III, letter 35). After the death of his brother Lorenzo, Pedro lived with Francisco, Lorenzo's son; and administered his household affairs, both before and after Francisco entered into marriage, in part together with Francisco's mother-in-law Beatriz de Mendoza: in which administration I conjecture that Pedro died at Ávila a little later.
[48] [the ninth Jerónimo de Cepeda, and the tenth Agustín de Ahumada, each of whom died holily in America;] Fernando, Rodrigo, Lorenzo and Pedro were emulated by two other brothers of St. Teresa, of whom we must now speak, Jerónimo de Cepeda and Agustín de Ahumada. It is gathered from the holy Mother's letters that Jerónimo set out on the American expeditions in the year 1562 (vol. I, letter 29), and after nearly twelve years spent in them, about that time namely when his brothers Lorenzo and Pedro were preparing their return to their homeland, died in the name of the Lord as a saint (Vol. IV, letter 42): and that Agustín in the year 1572 was staying with the viceroy of Peru (vol. II, letter 52). Jerónimo had a daughter named Juana, Agustín likewise a daughter Leonor; both of whom, as I related above (no. 40), were given in marriage by their uncle Lorenzo: who their mothers were, and likewise whether and how many other children their parents begot, I have nowhere found out. Further, concerning Agustín de Ahumada Father Francis of St. Mary puts forth the following (book 1, chapter III, no. 8): Agustín was a most brave commander of soldiers in Chile and came off victor from seventeen battles. And when he had been set over the governing of a certain place in Peru, he received a letter from his holy sister by which he was bidden to give up the command and the place, unless he wished his life and soul lost. The God-fearing man obeyed, disregarding the very rich revenue of his office; and indeed not long after the enemy came to that place, and slaughtered the governor substituted for Agustín together with all the inhabitants of the place. Agustín afterwards sought another office in that land; but again St. Teresa sent a letter to him, in which, among other things, she wrote this: "Do not take up, my brother, any office in the Indies; for I have received from the Lord that, if you die having taken it up, you will be damned." Then he, fearing the danger, cast away the plan of seeking office, and came to Spain, bringing written testimonies of the deeds excellently done by him, and intending to seek the reward of his merits. And when he saw that he could not obtain it elsewhere than in the Indies, he closed his ears to the voice of conscience, his sister being now dead; and accepted a command to be exercised in the province of Tucumán. He had already crossed the sea again, and had arrived at the City of the Kings (otherwise Lima), when behold, brought by sickness to the last extremity, recognizing the scourge of the divine mercy, he expelled all ambition from his mind, and prepared himself for death. At the end of his life he had his holy sister assisting him, and was brought by her into the sight of God; as Father Luis de Valdivia, a priest of the Society of Jesus, who had heard Agustín confessing his sins, testified in the informations for Teresa's canonization. These same things are established from the manuscript Summary on the gift of prophecy of St. Teresa;
in which Father Luis is designated as the 38th witness examined at Madrid.
[49] the eleventh, finally, Juana de Ahumada, the good wife of a good man, There remains, born in the last place among the children of Alonso de Cepeda, Juana de Ahumada, St. Teresa's dearest sister; whom the latter, since she was much younger than herself, had adopted as a daughter on their mother's death and had brought up with the greatest care in the monastery of the Incarnation. Juana entered into a most honourable marriage in the year 1553 with Juan de Ovalle Godínez, a nobleman of Salamanca, who for several years had served with praise under the standards of Charles the Fifth. There are said to have been begotten of this marriage two sons and three daughters: namely Gonzalo, whom his holy aunt is related in Ribera, book 1, chapter VIII, to have raised from death; José, whom the same aunt, when he had died in her arms, saw ascending into heaven accompanied by Angels, as Ribera records in the same place; Beatriz, whom St. Teresa, not without labour, gradually enticed into putting on the wool of her Institute; finally Constanza and Leonor, of whom I find nothing other than their names noted, and those in Father Emmanuel of St. Jerome alone, the continuator of the Chronicle (vol. V, book XXI, chapter XXXI, no. 4). At the beginning of his marriage Juan de Ovalle's fortune was fairly ample. He lived for one part of the year in the city of Alba, for the other on a country estate inherited by him near Alba, named Galinduste. He bestowed much on the poor; and he enjoyed the highest esteem with the Dukes of Alba; in whose court his son Gonzalo was first among the pages of honour, then among the noble attendants. But his fortune did not always stand firm for Juan; as is plain from this, that the two Lorenzo de Cepedas, father and son, succoured his family from their wealth. Many things, and those splendid, concerning Juan de Ovalle and his wife the reader will come upon in Ribera; which it was therefore superfluous for me to describe in this place. I shall relate, then, concerning their children Gonzalo and Beatriz, those things which Ribera either does not have at all or touches upon in only a few words.
[50] mother of Gonzalo de Ovalle And concerning Gonzalo indeed there exists a relation worthy of record by Mother María of St. Francis, a Discalced Carmelite nun of the convent of Alba. From this relation I shall transfer here what Father Anthony of St. Joseph took from it in his notes to letters 51 and 108 of the second volume of St. Teresa's letters. Namely, when one day the holy Foundress was staying at Alba, the boy Gonzalo addressed her thus: My mother and dearest aunt, commend me to God and pray, I beg you, that I may never offend Him and may be saved: for it is incumbent upon you most of all to do this, who prevented me from enjoying heaven at a tender age. O mother, he exclaimed, how many years by now I should have stood in the sight of God, had you not disturbed me from there! See then what you have snatched from me; see by how great a debt you are bound to me: which I ask and hope may be paid to me through your prayers. Gonzalo obtained, nor is there doubt that it was through St. Teresa's intercession, what he asked so anxiously and with such tender affection: namely in the year 1587, about the 28th of his age, he received a most blessed end of life. When he was about to come into the final crisis, having made a general confession, he was fortified with the Sacraments of the dying with great affection of piety; nor thereafter, as long as the use of life remained, did he cease to address God sweetly or to admonish the knights who visited him concerning the vanity of worldly things. He was heard at times complaining to the physician that the hour of death came too slowly: which he said he called for, not from weariness of his pains, but from the desire of seeing God by which he was driven. He also sent people to ask for a Carmelite habit from his sister Beatriz, then a nun. Clothed in it, after he had ordered the sacred Litanies to be recited for him, to which he himself answered Pray for me, he breathed his last placidly, a sweet odour being spread through the bedchamber such as the remains of St. Teresa had formerly diffused.
[51] and of Beatriz of Jesus, Disc. Carm. Beatriz de Ovalle, afterwards Beatriz of Jesus, first saw the light at Alba; and as a little girl of five was committed by her parents to the care of the Benedictine nuns of the same city, among whom she had two paternal aunts. It is related that to one of these nuns, who called her by the Spanish diminutive name Ahumadita, she replied: I am called Lady Beatriz de Ahumada; and that through those childish years she fostered very much in herself a love of petty glory, which she afterwards made good by an exemplary humility. She was also too immoderately given to music, profane little stories, playing cards and other trifles of this kind: by which she not a little exercised the zeal of her pious father and holy aunt, who busied themselves to extricate her from such miseries. This labour gradually gave way as desired: Juan saw his growing daughter increase daily, as in grace and prudence, so also in virtues; and Teresa already at that time foretold that Beatriz would one day be devoted to the monastic life: toward which life, however, she, though upright and modest, was at that time not in the least inclined. In the fifteenth year of her age, brought into danger of her reputation by the calumnies of a jealous woman, and rescued from it by God, the avenger of innocence, Beatriz began to give herself more fervently to piety, and to apply that dexterity of mind and hand which up to that time she had spent on elegance of dress alone, to adorning sacred images and altars and to making skilfully the linens of the Sacrifice; refusing meanwhile the noble knights who sought her in marriage, not only at Alba, but at Ávila also and Salamanca: and this not because she was already held by love of the monastic life, from which she was still far removed; but rather because she feared
GENEALOGICAL TABLE OF ST. TERESA OF JESUS.
Other near kinsfolk of St. Teresa, to whom we have been unable to assign a definite place in this table.
Vicente de Ahumada, priest.
Inés of Jesus, Disc. Carm.,
Ana of the Incarnation, Disc. Carm., sisters of the same Vicente.
María of St. Jerome, Disc. Carm., whose parents were Alonso Álvarez Dávila and Mencía de Salazar.
lest she should importunely forestall God's counsel concerning her. In the year 1581 St. Teresa persuaded her sister and her sister's husband to allow Beatriz to live for some space of time at Ávila with Pedro Álvarez Cimbrón, whom Father Emmanuel of St. Jerome calls the brother of Juan de Ovalle; and he seems to have on his side a fragment of some letter of St. Teresa to Beatriz, in which is read Peralvarez su tio, Pedro Álvarez your paternal uncle: Father Anthony of St. Joseph, however, will have it that the historiographer erred, and makes Pedro Álvarez a cousin of St. Teresa (see vol. 3, letter 30, note 19). But let this be said in passing. To return to Beatriz, she stayed at Ávila until after the death of her holy aunt. Then, having returned to Alba, when she had often prayed at the Saint's sepulchre during the novena prayers instituted there by María de Toledo, duchess of Alba, she at length began at some time to deliberate about embracing the religious life; and having been strengthened in that purpose by St. Teresa appearing to her in a dream, after some further delay she was at last happily carried into the harbour of the Carmelite Religion: Ribera relates this, book V, chapter II. How well thereafter she pressed on in the footsteps of St. Teresa, with what praise she discharged the various offices of her Institute, with what favours from God she was made illustrious both before and after her death, precious in His sight, has been written at length in the Chronicle, vol. V, book XXI, chapters XXXII and XXXIII.
[52] Many kinswomen of St. Teresa were nuns. This Beatriz of Jesus, daughter of Juana de Ahumada, is to be carefully distinguished from another kinswoman of St. Teresa who bore exactly the same name in religion. Father Anthony of St. Joseph suspects that this other Beatriz was the sister of Isabel of St. Paul, she who was the first of all to make profession in the first monastery of the Teresian reform; and that the father of both was Francisco de Cepeda, son of Francisco Álvarez de Cepeda, paternal uncle of St. Teresa. Another son of the same uncle, Diego, likewise had two daughters who were nuns; namely María de Ocampo or of St. John the Baptist, a Discalced Carmelite, and Leonor de Cepeda, whose beautiful death in the monastery of the Incarnation Ribera relates, book IV, chapter III. There were also other kinswomen of St. Teresa among the Discalced Carmelite nuns, such as Inés of Jesus, Ana of the Incarnation, María of St. Jerome; of whom not infrequent mention occurs throughout the life of St. Teresa. And so that you may see as at one glance those things which I have hitherto discussed concerning the lineage and kinship of our Saint, her genealogical table is at hand for you.
§ IV. The birth of St. Teresa, and the beginnings of her life.
The Saint was born at Ávila in the year 1515, St. Teresa was born at Ávila, a city of Old Castile, whose episcopal see was distinguished in the middle of the 15th century by Alonso Tostado, most famous to the world and, as His Eminence Cardinal Bellarmine calls him, the wonder of the world. This city is moreover eminent for its antiquity and for the piety and warlike bravery of its inhabitants, being called by the proverb Ávila, Santos y cantos Ávila, saints and stones, as though there were nothing there but Saints and rocks, though on fertile soil. Ávila brought forth Teresa not degenerate from her forefathers and fellow citizens, mother of an innumerable spiritual family, and reformer not only of nuns but also of an Order of men religious. She first saw the light in the year 1515, in which, as the historians note, Luther was brewing in his breast the venom which he was afterwards to vomit forth. For, as Caramuel rightly says in the Life of the Venerable Father Dominic of Jesus Mary (book III, chapter III, no. 240): Two years later Martin Luther did not begin to be a heretic, but to be insolent: for then he preaches and disputes publicly what he had previously done privately. And, as the anonymous author of the Annals of Torgau says (in Mencken, vol. II of the Res Germanicae, p. 583): In this year (1516) Luther began to dissuade his brethren from Tetzel's wares (so the follower of Luther names Indulgences): and further in the following year he publicly framed his theses against him. In this way, Luther destroying and Teresa building, there came to pass what Isaiah says, chapter LV, verse 13: Instead of the shrub shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the nettle shall grow the myrtle. It is not, however, that Teresa alone in that age compensated for the loss which the Church was suffering, by eminent sanctity and miracles or even by bringing forth a religious Order: for our Saint was the contemporary of many most illustrious men, even in Spain alone, already enrolled in the canon of the Saints, nay was the friend and familiar of not a few; among whom it may suffice to have named Sts. John of the Cross, Francis Borgia, Peter of Alcántara, Louis Bertrand, Thomas of Villanova, etc., of whom there will afterwards be frequent mention. Let us now treat of Teresa's beginnings.
[54] on the 28th of March; and was named Teresa. The day which brought her forth was the 28th of March, not, as slipped from Yepes, the feast, but the eve of the feast of St. Berthold, first General of the Carmelite Order among the Latins; and by no means the 12th of March, as Helyot and Nicolás Antonio stubbornly affirm and Baillet doubtfully, nor the 22nd of March, as Richard writes hesitantly in the Dictionary of the Ecclesiastical Sciences, article S. Therese. That natal day is established from Ribera and others; nay, Father Emmanuel of St. Thomas asserts (which I have not found elsewhere) that at Pastrana, in the monastery of the Carmelite Order, in his time (1807) there still existed a memorandum of St. Teresa's father, which, written in his own hand, runs thus: On Wednesday, the 28th of March 1515, my daughter Teresa was born at about half past 5 in the morning, that is, as the day was dawning. Her godfather in baptism was Vela Núñez, and her godmother Doña María del Águila, daughter of Francisco Pajares. On that very day she was cleansed from original sin by the sacred waters in the parish of St. John, where, as they relate, the ancient baptismal font still endures. Father Emmanuel of St. Thomas says that she was baptized on the 4th of April. But here and elsewhere throughout, where he asserts a thing without surety or contradicts the ancients, I shall henceforth pass him over in silence: for example when, erroneously, on one and the same page, he says that the birthday of Teresa alone was noted down by her father; that Teresa was baptized in the church of St. Bartholomew; that the church of the nuns of his Order was built on the ground of her paternal house; that Ribera derived the name Teresa from Thyrsus, etc. Which etymology I know indeed to have been indicated by Francisco Villegas and Alonso Bivar, but not by Ribera, who merely says that Teresa (or, as it is now commonly written, Teresia, and sometimes, especially by the French, Theresia) is a Spanish name rather than a Greek or Latin one. But whether our Saint had as patroness St. Teresa, sister of Alfonso V, king of León (whom the Latin authors wrote as Tarasia), or Teresa of Portugal, commonly called the Holy Queen, likewise first wife of Alfonso IX, king of León, or finally perhaps another Saint of the same name, escapes me. That name, met with sometimes in the old Annals of the Spaniards, after St. Teresa's canonization became common to very many, and familiar even to empresses and queens, who had been piously placed in baptism by their parents and godparents under the protection of that powerful patroness.
[55] The monument erected at her birthplace. Not only was St. Teresa's name made celebrated, but in the place where she was brought into the light a sacred and perennial monument was also raised. I can consign nothing more accurate or more recent about this to writing here than what the Reverend Father Ignacio Lerdo, from certain documents, or rather from those things which he had himself beheld, deigned to write out fully on the 24th of March 1840. That most obliging man was still living at Madrid when he wrote; but a little after he was summoned to Rome, to discharge the office of assistant to the Very Reverend Father General of the Society of Jesus. He writes thus: Concerning the place where she saw the first light, it is very well known that it is the very place where afterwards was built the church of the convent named after her, of the Discalced Carmelite Fathers; that Teresa's natal house, however, did not occupy the same space as the church, but only that which is filled by the left arm of the cross-shaped structure and the little sacristy adjacent. On the lower side of that arm of the cross there are two chapels, one dedicated to the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel, the other to Blessed Teresa herself. Behind the first of these, then, which is sacred to Blessed Mary and is the principal one, on the outer face of the wall, looking toward the west, there is seen, eight or ten Spanish ells above the ground, a white stone, not marble, yet polished and cut square, which appears to have been set there in the very construction of the building; and on it, in characters all capitals, an inscription, which is expressed here below, lies open to be read. Don Valentín Carderera, by whom you have several plates drawn in this Teresian life, and who himself also shared with us this inscription as copied out by him, observes that it is scarcely legible: and he notes that, if you consider its height, it corresponds on the inside to the altar.
IN THIS CHAPEL DEDICATED TO THE MOTHER OF GOD THERE ONCE STOOD THE HAPPY ENOUGH CRADLE IN WHICH THE THRICE-ILLUSTRIOUS VIRGIN ST. TERESA OF JESUS, HIS DEAREST SPOUSE, WAS BORN UNDER GOOD AUSPICES AND PIOUSLY BROUGHT UP; THE AUGUST MOTHER, FOUNDRESS AND TEACHER OF CARMEL RESTORED.
Not far from that part of the wall where the aforesaid stone is, in the angle lying between this arm and the head of the cross of the building, there is a space not large, entirely closed by a certain wall four ells high, without any entrance at all except from the upper part, which is covered by no roof: this place serves no use; it is said, however, to be the very one in which was planted the little garden where the infant Teresa, together with her brother, used to delight in building little hermit's cells, as though in prelude to her future vocation. Thus far the Reverend Father Lerdo. Namely, in the year 1629 the Illustrious Francisco Márquez Gaceta, bishop of Ávila, had obtained that, as had been so much among Ribera's wishes, the natal place of St. Teresa should be turned into a sanctuary, and that Don Gaspar de Guzmán, count of Olivares and duke of San Lúcar, the famous minister of Philip IV, should build there a church beautiful according to the rules of architecture, dedicated to St. Teresa, whose skilfully carved statue, a splendid work of Gregorio Hernández, stands in the Saint's own chapel. In the year 1640 the bones of Teresa's happy parents were translated from the church of St. Francis into these sacred buildings of their daughter. I shall exhibit a double view of this great monument raised to the perpetual honour of St. Teresa in the paragraphs where I treat of the Saint's posthumous glory, to which it belongs by reason of the time in which it was constructed. But let us return to Teresa's infancy and youth, which you may here receive as narrated from her own mouth with incomparable candour and humility.
[56] [The Saint explains how she was ordered to describe her manner of prayer and the graces received.] Prologue. I could wish indeed that, just as my superiors have commanded me, and have given me full power, to commit to writing both my manner of prayer and the graces which I have received from the Lord, so they had given the same power for opening one by one and most clearly my enormous sins and wicked life. This would have been, I confess, a very great consolation to me; but they themselves were unwilling to give me this faculty; nay rather they have bidden me to be much restricted in this matter. For this reason I ask, for the love of God, that whoever reads this account of my life may set before his eyes that this woman was so wicked that, out of all the Saints who have converted themselves to God, I have found none at all who could be a solace to me by his example. For I see that they, from the time they were called by the Lord, did not thereafter return to offending Him by sins: but I not only became worse, but even seemed to resist with zeal and of set purpose the graces which I was receiving from His divine Majesty; because I saw myself obliged to serve Him the more, and understood in fact that I could not pay, and ought not to pay less than I owed. May He be blessed for ever, that He waited for me so long a time: whom I beseech with my whole heart to grant me grace to make this narration of my life (which both my confessors have enjoined on me, and the Lord Himself, as I indeed know, long since willed to be written, but which I have hitherto not dared to undertake) with the clarity and faithfulness that is fitting; and then that it may turn to His glory and praise, and also that my confessors, having me henceforth better known, may help my weakness and feebleness, so that I may be able to render something of the very many things which I owe to the Lord, whom may all created things continually praise and bless. Amen.
[57] Her parents were pious: Chapter 1. If I had not been so bad and wicked, it would have been enough for me, with the divine favour toward me also added, for taking up the road of virtue, to have received from God pious and God-fearing parents. My father was wonderfully given to the reading of good books, and hence he had at home not a few such written in the vernacular tongue, so that his children too might become accustomed to reading them. This, with the care of my mother also added, by which she took care that we should all pray to God daily and be carried away with pious affection toward the Mother of God and certain of the Saints, began to stir me when I was already six or seven years old (as indeed it seems to me). It was no small help to me here that I saw my parents grant no favour to anyone except what he had merited for himself by virtue, since they themselves too were eminent cultivators of it. For my father was wonderfully affected toward the poor of every sort, and was of such compassion toward the sick, and even toward his servants, that he would never have bought slaves, because he pitied them greatly. Whence, when at a certain time a female slave of my uncle was staying in our house, my father treated her no less kindly and generously than his own children, and, for the compassion that was in him, said that he could not bear that she was not restored to liberty. Besides this he was above all a lover of truth in his words, hence I never heard him swearing or detracting from anyone; and moreover he was upright beyond measure. My mother too was endowed with very many virtues, and as long as she lived she struggled with grave illnesses. Besides, she was of the highest modesty, and although she was of a form somewhat beautiful, yet she was never seen or heard to exalt herself on that account or make much of it: for although, when she died, she was only thirty-three years old, yet her dress was so modest that it would have become an old woman. She was exceedingly placid and gentle, and of a very sagacious mind. While she lived she endured great labours and troubles, and at length concluded this very life by a Christian death.
[58] [her brothers and sisters too were upright, especially Rodrigo, associated with the Saint.] We were three sisters in number, and nine brothers; and all (such is the goodness of God) resembled our parents in the pursuit and exercise of virtues, except me alone, although otherwise I was dear to my father above his other children: and indeed, before I began to offend God, he seemed to have some reason for loving me. For I am now not a little grieved when I call to mind those inclinations to good which I had then received from the Lord, though I was able to use them badly. Moreover my brothers brought me no impediment at all to serving God. One of them was of nearly the same age as I, who was also dear to me above the others (although I loved the rest too exceedingly, and they me). He and I often ran through the lives of the Saints together: and when the martyrdoms and torments which for the love of God
holy men had suffered, I read, I judged that they had bought heaven and the enjoyment of God at a very cheap price, and thence there was born in me too a certain ardent desire of dying in like manner; not indeed from the immense love by which I thought myself borne toward God, but that at the price of such brief torments I might be made a sharer in those supreme goods which I read were reserved in Heaven. I often met with this little brother of mine, so that we might confer together by what way and means above all we might attain this. It was agreed between us that we should go together to the kingdoms of the Moors, begging alms in God's name, so that, when we had arrived there, they might cut off our heads. And (as it indeed now appears to me) the Lord was suggesting to us at so tender an age courage enough to accomplish this very thing, if only we had seen some convenient means of setting out thither: but the greatest impediment seemed to us to be that we had parents at home. But nothing in the things which we read moved us more than that the infernal punishment and heavenly glory were said to be everlasting. Hence we often spoke together of this very matter for quite a long time, and it was a pleasure to us to repeat again and again: "For ever, ever, ever"; and because I repeated this quite often to myself, it pleased the Lord that even then, in that childish age, the way of truth should remain impressed upon me. But when I saw that it was impossible for me to betake myself to those places in which they would put me to death for God's name, we resolved to lead a hermit's life, and in a certain garden of the house we began to build some little hermit's cells, in every way we could in our childish years, piling certain small stones on one another, which forthwith fell down, so that no means was available to us of fulfilling our desire.
[59] Teresa's innate inclination to good: Whence I am even now stirred to devotion when I reflect with myself how early and how quickly God then gave me what afterwards I lost by my fault and demerit. I gave alms to the needy as I could; but I could do very little. I sought solitude, so as to run through my customary little prayers, of which I had very many, and above all the Rosary of the Virgin Mother of God, to the recitation of which my mother was exceedingly devoted, and took care that we should be devoted. If at any time I played with girls of my age, it was a pleasure to me to build little monasteries, just as if we were nuns; and indeed I seemed to myself to wish to be a nun, although I did not wish this so ardently as those other things which I have already mentioned. When my mother departed from this life, I had completed the twelfth year of my age, or about (as far as I remember): and as I began to understand how great a loss I had suffered by her death, afflicted and grieving I cast myself down before a certain image of the Most Blessed Mother Mary, and with many tears I asked her to deign to be thenceforth my Mother and guardian. Although I did this then out of a certain childish simplicity, yet it seems to me afterwards to have profited me not a little; for I have experienced the manifest and open help of this most clement Virgin as often as, and to the extent that, I have entrusted myself to her protection. Whence at last she also drew me to herself. Wherefore it torments me wonderfully when I consider and think what was the cause that I did not persevere in the good desires and purposes which I then conceived and began. Since, O Lord God, Thou seemest to have resolved that I should come to salvation, may it please Thy Majesty, I beseech, that it may come about, and to grant me as many graces as Thou didst once grant me. I could wish indeed that Thou hadst not permitted—not for my own advantage and benefit, but out of reverence and regard for Thee—that the dwelling in which Thou wast to dwell so continually should be so foully defiled. It is a cross to me, Lord, even to relate this in speaking: for I know that it must be ascribed to my fault alone; for on Thy part there seems to have remained nothing further which Thou mightest do, to prevent my being able to be wholly Thine already from that age. If I should wish to complain of my parents, I cannot do that either: for I saw in them nothing but every good, and a remarkable care for my progress in good. Accordingly, when I had passed this age, and began to recognize the gifts of nature which I had received from the Lord, and which (as they said) were very many, so far was I from giving thanks for them to the giver (as I was indeed bound) that I began to use each of them to offend Him, as I shall now relate.
[60] but she grows languid in good by the reading of trifling books, Chapter II. What I shall now relate began, in my judgment, to bring me no moderate harm: whence from time to time I consider with myself how badly parents act who do not take care that their children always and everywhere see those things which in every way breathe of virtue: for granted that my mother, as I have related, was so devoted to the pursuit of virtues, yet I, when I came to the use of reason, did not draw so much from her goodness as I indeed ought, nay scarcely anything; the bad, on the other hand, which she had, harmed me exceedingly. For she herself read again and again, eagerly and with pleasure, the noble exploits of the old knights; but this kind of recreation did not harm her so much as me, because she did not on that account neglect the things she necessarily had to do, but gave us both the time and the opportunity for this reading. Perhaps she applied herself to this reading so that she might in this way forget the great troubles and afflictions which she had, and might occupy her children, lest, if they gave themselves to other things, they should be depraved. This was so grievous to my father that we had to read these things secretly and without his knowledge. Whence I myself took on a certain habit of reading those books, and that slight defect which I saw in my mother began, as it were, to throw cold water on my good and pious desires, and was the cause that I began to fall short in other things as well; nor did I think I was acting badly, even though I spent many hours both of the day and of the night on so vain an exercise, albeit without my father's knowledge. And so much did this reading delight and hold me that, unless I had some new book, I did not seem satisfied in any way. Thereafter I began to pursue elegances and adornment, and to please others by my beauty, anxiously taking care to wish to appear such, and to have neat hands, and hair skilfully arranged, and delightful perfumes, and the other vanities which I could have in this kind; which were indeed not few, because I was most curious about trifles of this sort: yet no sinister intention impelled me to these things; for I should not have wished that anyone should offend God by reason and occasion of me. Whence an excessive solicitude for neatness and elegance, and for things which seemed to me to involve no sin, clung to me for many years: but now I see how much they were joined with sin.
[61] and by the company of worldly kinsfolk: Certain cousins, sons of my father's brothers, often frequented my father's house: for access to it was not open to other persons, because my father was circumspect in that admission. Would that he had been circumspect in excluding these too! For now I see with how great danger it is joined, at that age at which the seeds of virtues must be sown, to have dealings with those people who have not yet perceived how vain the world is in itself, but who are, on the contrary, an incitement to others to follow it. These were of nearly the same age as I, or at least not much older than I: hence we were always together and conversed. They were wonderfully affected toward me, and in turn I talked with them of whatever things I knew were pleasing to them, and at the same time heard from them the progress of their affections and of their childish follies, little good; and what was worse, my soul applied itself of its own accord to those things which were the occasion of all its evil. If it were mine to give counsel, I would indeed counsel parents to reflect seriously, at this age, upon those who have dealings with their children; for much evil lies in this, because our nature inclines and is borne to evil rather than to good. So it plainly happened to me: for while I had a sister older than myself, I did not in the least imitate her modesty and goodness, which in her was singular; but I soon drank in the levity and every evil of a certain kinswoman of mine, who was often in my father's house. She was so light in her conversation and manners that my mother laboured greatly to exclude her from our house; so that she seemed even then to foresee the evil which her conversation would bring me: but she had so great a cause and occasion for frequenting our house that my mother could not conveniently exclude her from it. With this very woman, then, it was all my pleasure to be; all my conversation was with her, and my only dealings, because in all vain and recreational things she was both a help and an incitement to me, and, as it were in place of a mistress, made me also a sharer in her conversations and vanities. Up until the time, namely in the fourteenth year of my age, and somewhat beyond, as I believe, when I began to have dealings with her—more that she might cultivate friendship with me and make me a sharer in her affairs than for any other cause—I had not (as it indeed seems to me) deserted God through mortal sin, nor had I in any way lost the fear of Him, although I feared more lest I should suffer some loss of my honour. This fear of losing my honour was the cause that I did not lose it entirely; and I seem to myself to have been so disposed at that time that no thing at all in the world could have bent me in this respect, nor did I so love any man in the world that I would have allowed myself to be torn from this purpose for his sake. Would that I had had such strength and constancy for not violating the honour of God as my nature and disposition gave me for losing none of those things in which worldly honour seemed to me to consist: meanwhile, however, I did not see that I was suffering the loss of it in very many other ways. I was exceedingly anxious about not losing it, and (such was my vanity) excessive and extreme beyond measure; yet the means that were required for preserving it I employed none, being intent above all on this one thing only, that I should not go to utter ruin.
[62] which evil her father remedies. My father and my sister (Mr. Boucher wrongly has mother here) took this dealing of mine with my kinswoman ill, and repeatedly reproved me about it: but, since they were not conveniently able to keep her from the house and to cut off her occasion of coming there, all the diligence which they employed fell back in vain. For I was, for whatever evil
is, most sagacious. From time to time I weigh with myself, not without amazement, and, had I not experienced it myself, I should scarcely believe, how much harm dealings with someone depraved can produce, and especially in youth; for then the harm which comes of it must needs be greater. Would that all parents, taught by my misfortune and example, might learn to watch over this matter most of all! Truly this dealing and intimacy with my kinswoman so changed me that it left me scarcely any trace or sign of a good nature and of a holier soul; and both my kinswoman, and a certain other woman pursuing the same vanities and recreations, seemed to have stamped their own conditions and manners deeply upon me. And hence I easily understand how much good familiarity with some pious person brings; and if at that age I had had dealings with holy and pious people, I should doubtless have remained solid and entire in virtue. For if at that age I had had someone who taught me the fear of God, my soul would little by little have gathered such strength that it would have preserved it from falling. But since afterwards this fear of God had vanished entirely from me, there remained to me only the fear of losing my honour, which wonderfully tormented and lacerated me in all that I did. Hence, because I thought those things would not come to men's knowledge, I did not fear to commit many things which were at war both with this honour and with God. At the beginning indeed, so far as it seems to me, dealings with those persons whom I have already mentioned did harm; although this ought perhaps to be ascribed not so much to them as to me: for afterwards my own wickedness was great enough and sufficient for evil; not to mention that I had besides maidservants whom I found most ready for perpetrating every evil: if any of them had counselled me well, perhaps it would have profited me; but self-interest and their own advantage blinded them as much as my affection blinded me. And granted that by nature I never inclined to graver evils (because I naturally abhorred whatever savoured of unchastity, and sought only chatting and friendly conversations with some persons to while away the time), yet because I did not avoid this occasion, but thrust myself into it of my own accord, I was in most present danger of falling, and I was exposing my father and brothers to it at the same time: but from it God, Best and Greatest, kept me immune, so that it is plain to the eye that He, even against my will and contrary to my wish, took care that I should not wholly ruin myself.
[63] placing her in a monastery to be brought up; All things, however, could not be done so secretly that my honour did not thence contract a great mark of infamy, and that my father did not suspect something untoward about me: for, so far as indeed I remember, I had given myself to these vanities and trifles for scarcely three whole months when they placed me in a certain monastery of this city, in which girls of my condition and age, though not of the same depravity in manners, were brought up: moreover this was done so covertly and with such dissimulation that no one was aware of the matter except me and a certain one of my kinsfolk; for, lest the novelty of this thing should offend anyone, they waited for a convenient opportunity of doing it. My sister's marriage gave it: for, she being now married, it would have been unbecoming that I should remain at home alone, without a mother. My father pursued me with such extreme love, and my dissimulation was so great, that he could not believe so much evil of me; and so it happened that I never fell from his favour. And because I gave my time to vanities of this kind for a short time, hence, even if something was spread about me, all things were nevertheless carried about by uncertain rumour; for since I was excessively anxious about my honour, I took care in what way I could that all things should be done most secretly, not thinking meanwhile that nothing can be done secretly from Him who beholds all things. How much harm, O my God, follows in the world from this, that this is made little of, and men persuade themselves that something can remain hidden which is committed against Thee! Truly I persuade myself that we should not commit many evils if we understood that the very hinge of the matter turns not so much on our not being seen by men, as on not doing what offends Thy Majesty.
[64] where she betakes herself to a good way of life. For the first eight days the monastery was heavy and troublesome to me, but more because I somewhat suspected that my vanity had already become known to others than because I was shut up in that place: for I had already begun to weary of vanity; and although I offended God by sinning, I was nevertheless shaken by a great fear of Him, and I went to confession as quickly as possible. At the beginning I was restless, but before eight days, and even sooner (as indeed I believe), I experienced greater quiet than in my father's house. All the nuns too were much refreshed by my company: for I had received from the Lord that singular grace of pleasing and being agreeable to all with whom I stayed; whence it came about that I was acceptable to all the nuns. And although at that time indeed I greatly shrank from the monastic state, yet it was a pleasure to me to stay among such good, upright, religious and rule-observing nuns as these very ones were. The devil nevertheless did not cease from tempting me, and at the same time stirred up people outside, who interrupted my quiet with their continual addresses and messages: but because there was no convenience for these things, this hindrance was not long-lasting; whence soon my soul began to take up again, as by right of return, the good exercises of my early age, hitherto interrupted: and then at last I saw how much good God bestows on one whom He makes to stay among the good and to converse with the good. Even then His Majesty seemed to devise and seek out every way and manner by which He might draw me to Himself. Blessed be Thou, Lord, who hast borne with me so patiently. Amen. There was one thing which seemed in some way able to excuse me, had I not had so many other defects and faults, namely that this conversation and dealing was with one with whom it could be made honourable by way of marriage and have a good outcome: and when I had consulted both my confessor and others about this, they said that in many things of that kind I did not offend God. Now a certain one of the nuns slept among us secular girls, by whose work and assistance God willed (as it seems) to begin to give me some light, as I shall presently relate.
[65] The holy little girl gave many proofs of piety, Thus far we have allowed the holy Mother to narrate her youth without interruption. She had obtained, then, parents no less pious than noble; and she herself, as one who was one day to draw very many to virtue and piety by her example, had been abundantly adorned by the gift of divine Providence with endowments of nature suited to that end, and from her tender nails easily gave herself to piety and virtue, given even then not to childish trifles and rubbish, but turning over in her mind arduous and serious things. At six or seven, by her parents' care and example, she began to pray daily and to be borne with a pious mind toward the Mother of God and certain Saints, and to run through their lives, to meditate on eternal things, to seek solitude, to give her time to prayers, but above all to tell over the Rosary of the Virgin Mother of God, to build little monasteries, to be munificent toward the poor as far as her means allowed, to desire martyrdom, stirred up by the reading of the lives of the Saints. And here she did more than she relates, say Ribera (book I, chapter III) and Yepes (book I, chapter II): for she had not been ordered to relate her deeds, but the motions of grace. Namely, in actual fact Teresa and her little brother, girded for the journey and furnished with some sort of provisions, had gone out by the gate of the city, seeking the lands of the Moors and martyrdom, when they were checked and brought back by their uncle. This the hymn proper to the Saint in the Roman Breviary sings:
Herald of the King on high, Thou leavest thy father's home, Teresa, to barbarous lands To give either Christ or thy blood.
But a sweeter death awaits thee, A gentler punishment claims thee: Struck by the dart of divine love Thou shalt fall in thy wound.
[66] especially when she was about to go to the neighbouring Moors. Certain places in the process of Canonization, the very Bull of Canonization, the lessons of the Roman Breviary, Father Anthony of St. Joseph (vol. II, letter 80, note 7; vol. III, letter 36, note 4) and Father Frederick (book I, chapter I) say that they were going to cross over into Africa; but Ribera, Yepes, Father John of Jesus Mary, Villefore, Boucher, Butler, etc. set down only that they wished to go to the lands of the Moors: to reach which, says Boucher, it does not seem that Spain needed to be left. For the Moors were then still living in several tracts of Spain, although Granada, their principal seat, had been conquered 30 years before, that is in 1492. And from among the Moors that female slave in the Saint's paternal house, of whom above, seems to have been. Go to the work of Father Guillermo Bleda, O.P., whose title is Coronica de los Moros, toward the end. But, I confess, no one knows what lay hidden in the minds of the little ones. Meanwhile, among so many splendid deeds of the holy Mother, there was none which Pope Gregory XV admired more. For thus, in the public Consistory, upon the petition for the canonization of Blessed Teresa, his secretary Giovanni Ciampoli began his reply: The fortitude of the Spanish Virgin has offered a spectacle most pleasing to God and to be admired by men, surpassing the praises of all commanders in the very first apprenticeship of a life ever militant. And to this Our Most Holy Lord most willingly turns the eyes of his mind. At an age at which most of us dread even the darkness of our mother's bedchamber, a girl of seven, already sparkling with the splendours of the Saints, tears herself from her parents' embrace, to seek Africa, fertile in monsters, piety leading her and dangers inviting her, where, fierce with love of martyrdom, she might provoke the savagery of tyrants, crying out with Heaven applauding: "Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or danger, or the sword?" She had indeed set out on the short road, that she might seize the kingdom of God by violence; but the Father of mercies hedged it about with timely impediments, so that so great a virtue, destined to profit the world, might hasten to the palm of eternity by the longer paths of the divine commandments and counsels. The girl, says Father Martial of St. John the Baptist in the Bibl. Carm. Exc., exulted as a giant to run the way of perfection; and began there where the goal and completion of Christian and heroic fortitude is reached.
[67] Mr. Boucher is corrected. Here I note in passing that Mr. Boucher erred, translating the Spanish words of the first chapter, libros de Romance, by these French ones: des livres qui avaient des romances, sorte de poesie en petits vers, contenant quelques anciennes histoires [books which contained romances, a sort of poetry in short verses, containing some old stories]; as if St. Teresa's father had had books of this kind and had given them to his children to read: whereas the Saint says nothing else than that he had good books written in the vernacular tongue. For the Spaniards call their vulgar idiom Romance, which, like French and Italian,
takes its origin from the Roman or Latin. For the imperious city of the Romans, as St. Augustine says (City of God book XIX, chapter VII), imposed upon the conquered nations through the peace of fellowship not only its yoke but also its language. But when their power and dominion ceased, the language too degenerated, retaining only the Roman name. Thus James I, king of Aragon, says in the manuscript Constitutions of Catalonia (in the year 1247): We decree that no one shall have books of the Old or New Testament in Romance; and if anyone has them, … let him hand them over to the bishop of the place to be burned: and if he has not done so, whether he be cleric or layman, let him be held as suspect of heresy (See Du Cange's Glossary, article Romancium). Although that word is to be understood here in the sense which has been set out, it must nevertheless be admitted that it sometimes, especially in the plural number, means the same as the French romans, that is, fictitious and, for the most part, frivolous and lascivious stories. Elsewhere it also means a certain kind of Spanish verse.
[68] [The Saint, afterwards more sluggish in virtue, is placed in an Augustinian monastery,] From the time, however, when the pious girl saw herself frustrated in her wish of going to martyrdom, she held to the manner of life which I have described a little before, until the twelfth year of her age, of Christ 1527, in which she was bereaved of her mother. Struck thereby with grave sorrow, she besought the Virgin Mother of God, not without tears, that, since she had lost her mother on earth, she would not be loath to be in the place of a mother to her from heaven. That this prayer was not useless the rest of the course of Teresa's life has declared. These, then, were the beginnings from which, having started, she afterwards rose to the highest summit and pinnacle of Christian perfection. But such happy beginnings in the tender virgin, from whom he feared that many goods would one day be derived to others, the envy of the devil could not bear. Therefore, to lead her away from the right path of living, which Teresa had scarcely entered, he employs as his first engine the described exploits and loves of fictitious heroes, the reading of which is for the most part the more pernicious to good and pure morals, the greater the pleasure with which booklets of that stamp are devoured by youth. The girl therefore began to wear out such trifles with hand and eye, but secretly from her father, as she herself confesses in chapter 1 of her life. Further, Teresa lingered not only in turning over such rubbish; but, as she was of a ready and happy wit, she also began herself to compose odes in praise of fictitious heroes. And with what fruit was all this? She herself confesses that the handling of good books profited her less than that of bad ones harmed her. The devil, therefore, seeing that this engine constructed against Teresa had not been wholly without effect, added engine to engine: wicked company. Her cousins on her father's side, and especially a certain kinswoman, were the vessel by which the devil pledged her the poison, from which the incautious girl did not sufficiently abstain. Wherefore she soon slipped into a worse state, not, however, as I shall afterwards demonstrate with Ribera, into grave crime, from which, besides the uprightness of her nature, she was held back as by another bridle, the care of her honour, of which she was most desirous of preserving. St. Teresa was ensnared in these conversations when she had completed her fourteenth year, but for a space of three months only; which having elapsed, it pleased divine Providence, destining her for greater things, to loose the snares cast upon her by the devil. For her prudent and considerate father, scenting what vice could sprout from this germ, placed his daughter, aged about six months beyond fifteen years, in a convent of Ávila, where there was a genteel boarding-house in which freeborn young girls were properly brought up by the nuns.
[69] concerning which house more here. That monastery, formerly a mosque of Muhammad, was of the Order of St. Augustine, named after St. Mary of Grace, inhabited by forty nuns, and founded in the year 1508 according to Torelli in the Secoli Agostiniani, but in 1509 according to Ariz in the History of the city of Ávila (part 1, p. 51). The author of the Chronicle says (book I, chapter VII, no. 2) that St. Thomas of Villanova, in a certain sermon of his on the Holy Eucharist, made mention of that house with praise; and he further adds (which is also related by Torelli in the work alleged a little before, at the year 1508, nos. 41 and 42, and is repeated by the later biographers of St. Teresa) that that house at one time had St. Thomas as confessor and director. But from the life of this Saint, which our Predecessors accurately compiled at the 18th day of September, it can be deduced that he did not have leisure to discharge that office; since, having been initiated into the priesthood in the year 1517, he lectured on Theology at Salamanca, until from the year 1519 continuously to 1534 he either acted as prior, now at Salamanca, now at Burgos, or presided over the province of Castile, and thereafter was made archbishop. Nothing, however, prevents this Saint from having spoken from the pulpit in that convent on occasion, or even from having stayed there for some time. Although the building of that monastery was changed in the lapse of time, yet the confessional and various furniture which the young Teresa used are still preserved there today, as was written to me from there in the year 1840. That, then, was the house where the holy Virgin was recalled to her former fervour, chiefly by the help of María Briceño, a most zealous nun, who presided in watching over the secular girls. Which you will hear our Saint narrating more fully in the following §.
§ V. The inclination to the religious state is reborn in the holy Virgin, and she enters it.
By the conversation of good people holy desires return to her there, After the Saint has narrated the faults of her youth, and her first state of mind in the said monastery, she then proceeds thus in chapter III: When, therefore, I began to taste the good and holy conversation and familiarity of this nun, it was a pleasure to me to hear her speaking well and ardently of divine things; for she was exceedingly discreet and holy. Whence it was never (as indeed it seems to me) burdensome, but always sweet, to hear her speaking. At the beginning she began to tell me how, converted by the mere reading of those words of the Gospel, "Many are called, but few are chosen," she had taken up the monastic life: she added also concerning the reward which God has prepared for those who leave all things for His sake. This good familiarity began little by little to eliminate the bad habits which had been instilled into me, and to imprint anew upon my mind desires of eternal things, and somewhat to diminish that great aversion of mine from the monastic life, which in me was indeed extreme. But if I saw any religious weeping while praying, or having any other virtues, I envied her these not a little: for in this matter the hardness of my heart was so great that, even if I had read through the whole text of the Lord's Passion, I would not have shed even a little tear. Which certainly tormented me wonderfully. I lived in this monastery for the space of a year and a half, not without great amendment of my bad habits. I began then to run through many vocal prayers, and to ask every one of the household to commend me to God by prayers, that He would deign to call me to that state in which I might serve Him: yet I did not want the monastic one, so much so that I wished it might please God not to inspire it in me; although on the other hand I also feared to apply myself to matrimony. Toward the end, however, of the time I spent there, I was already inclining more to taking up the monastic state, though not in this monastery; because certain holy exercises, which I afterwards understood were practised there by the nuns, seemed to me too burdensome: and there were some of the younger ones who confirmed me even in this opinion; for if all had been of the same mind, it would surely have profited me not moderately. Added to this was the fact that in a certain other monastery I had a very dear friend, and this was the reason that, if I should at last wish to become a religious, I would not become one in any other place than that in which this friend of mine was staying. I was looking, namely, rather to the consolation of my sensuality and vanity than to the good of my soul. Those good thoughts of entering a monastery did indeed occur to me from time to time, but immediately went away; nor could I prevail upon myself to bring my mind wholly to it. At this very time, although I on my part did not neglect those things which were good and salutary for me, yet the Lord Himself strove more to dispose me to that state which would be most salutary for me.
[71] which then increase in her uncle's house by the reading of pious books, At that time I fell into a grave illness, so that I had to be brought back to my father's house: but when my health was restored, I was taken to my sister, who was living in a certain village, so that I might visit her, because she loved me wonderfully: and if I had listened to her and complied with her, I would never have returned from there. To her husband too I was most acceptable; outwardly at least he showed me great signs of goodwill. On which account too I owe very ample thanks to my God, that, in whatever place I have been, I have always found people kindly disposed; I myself, however, such as I am, repaid it badly. On the road by which we had to pass lived our paternal uncle, a prudent man and very zealous for virtues, and a widower, whom also the Lord was gradually disposing for Himself: for, being now great and mature in age, he left all that he possessed and took up the religious state; in which he ended his life so laudably that I believe he now enjoys the divine vision. He wished me to stay with him for some days: the time in which he was free from business he gave to the reading of pious books written in his native language: and all his talk for the most part was of God and of the vanity of this world: and in order to instil the love of divine things into me too, he bade me read those books in his presence; and although I was not much drawn to them, yet I pretended, so as to satisfy him: for I always strove as much as possible to please others and to comply with another's will, even if I thereby created trouble and weariness for myself; so much so indeed that what in others would have merited the name of virtue, in me merited reproof and was a huge vice, because in this I often exceeded the bounds of discretion. In how many manners and ways, O good God, did Thy Majesty gradually dispose me for that state in which Thou didst wish to use my service, so as to compel me, even though I was unwilling, to do violence to myself! May He be blessed for ever. Amen.
[72] so that she resolves to enter a monastery: Granted that I spent only a few days there, yet through the force which the words of God, both read and heard, put forth in my heart, and at the same time through good company, I began to understand that truth which I had once understood in my early childhood, namely that whatever is in the world is nothing, and nothing but mere vanity, and passes away in a moment; and at the same time to fear lest, if I went out of life
it should happen, I should be thrust down to hell. And although even then I could not prevail upon myself to apply myself to the monastic state, yet, seeing that that state was both better and safer, I gradually resolved with myself to do myself a certain violence in order to take it up. For three months and more I remained fixed in this conflict, urging and exhorting myself by this reasoning, namely that the labours and evils of the monastic life could not be greater than the pains of purgatory, and that, since I had deserved infernal pains by my faults, it was not much if I spent what remained of life as in a purgatory; that afterwards I should go straight to heaven, for this was the one thing I looked to and desired: and in this anxiety about choosing a state I seemed to be moved by servile fear more than by love. As I turned this over, the devil set before me that, because I had become accustomed to delights and a soft life, I should not be able to bear the burdens and labours of Religion: against which I set the labours and sorrows which our Redeemer Jesus suffered while living, and that accordingly it was not much for me to undergo some in His name and for His love; and that He would be a help to me in bearing them: I ought indeed to have thought this, but whether I thought this last thing I do not rightly remember. In these very days I suffered very many temptations, and was vexed with most grave fevers, to which were added long faintings of mind: for I have never enjoyed firm health. But what helped me most at that time was that I remained wonderfully drawn to the reading of good books.
[73] which she makes known to her father. Whence, having read the letters of St. Jerome, I was so moved that I at length decided to make this known to my father; which was almost the same as taking the sacred habit: for I was so high-spirited that, once I had disclosed my will in this regard, I seem to have been about to change it for no reason whatever. But my father pursued me with such love that I could by no means obtain it from him; just as neither could the prayers and addresses of others whom I sent to him as intercessors for me: the most that could be obtained from him at that time was that, when he himself had departed this life, I might do whatever I desired. But here I began to fear for myself and my weakness, namely lest I should look back; whence it seemed to me that this was little expedient for me, and so I tried to obtain it by another way, as I shall now relate. Chapter IV. In those very days, in which I was deliberating with myself about this purpose, I had persuaded one of my brothers to give himself to the religious life, setting the vanity of this world before his eyes. Whence we resolved together, one day very early in the morning, to go to that monastery in which that friend was staying whom I followed with a certain singular affection. For I was so disposed by this final determination of mine that, wherever I had thought I could serve God more, and whatever one my father had wished me to enter, I would have entered that monastery; because I was now attending more to the good and salvation of my soul than to interior satisfaction: whence I now made nothing of the latter.
[74] The Saint's narration is supplemented and elucidated, In this brief narration the holy Mother touches upon four years of her youth (1529–1533), from about the fourteenth and a half year of her age, in which she first dwelt with the nuns of the Order of St. Augustine, up to the eighteenth and a half year, in which, as will be established at the end of this §, she embraced the religious state. Teresa experienced at that time that man, especially in youth, associated with the good becomes good, but associated with the wicked becomes wicked. For before, although under the discipline of an excellent father, she had been on the point of being perverted by the mere familiarity of certain outsiders. But she saw, as she herself says, how much good God bestows on one whom He makes to stay among the good and to converse with the good. For, now living among holy nuns, she execrated the moderate vanity which she had drawn from the world, and was again affected with the love of Religion, which she had put off. She did not, however, wish to become an Augustinian, as Hippolyte Helyot wrongly asserts in his History of the religious Orders. Nor yet did she at that time desire the religious state so much as is affirmed by the not very faithful interpreter who turned the Chronicle into French, often departing more freely than is fair from the Spanish original, which is in general no less accurate than written in an elegant style. But let us return to our Saint. She devoted herself more and more to the interior exercises of the spiritual life, although she was tempted both by importunate thoughts and by gifts sent from outside, until, interrupted by a grave illness, she returned to her father's house. And after she had recovered from the illness, when she was being taken to the little town where her sister María de Cepeda was staying, she visited on the way her paternal uncle Pedro Sánchez de Cepeda in the town named Hortigosa, which is twelve miles or four leagues distant from Ávila; and she frequently practised the reading of pious books, to gratify not so much herself as her uncle listening, who took great delight in that pursuit. Teresa is here again a proof that a man becomes like the book or author that he reads, and that it can easily be discerned what kind of person one is either from his library or from the register of his reading; since books are a kind of companions, with whom we live and converse. The books which made her better while still a child were the Lives of the Saints and Martyrs; those which made her worse, the ones narrating the fictitious deeds of heroes, called romans in French; those which again made her better, as we shall soon see, were the Letters of St. Jerome; the book on the manner of praying entitled the Third Spiritual Alphabet; the Morals of St. Gregory the Great; the Confessions of St. Augustine; the Lives of the Saints, and the like: in which, she confesses here and there in her writings, she was greatly delighted and helped her whole life long. For once she had been untaught the most vain reading of books of chivalry, by the best counsel (would that all might imitate this to their great good in every kind of learning!) she spurned books of an inferior stamp, and read assiduously whatever is best in its kind, turning over treatises suitable to her from such great doctors as are Sts. Jerome, Gregory the Great, Augustine, etc. From which we perceive both whither her sound judgment bore her, and under whose guidance, the Holy Spirit's, she made her steps, she who was one day to occupy a sublime place among the writers of mystical theology.
[75] [especially as regards her entrance into the convent of the Incarnation of the Carmelite Order;] The space of time during which she remained with her sister is uncertain; but both then, and also when she had returned to her father's house, by the most salutary exercise of pious reading, she thoroughly understood that truth conceived in childhood but for some time interrupted, namely that all the goods of the world vanish, the eternal ones remain: and having struggled with herself for three months, looking now not to the consolation of her sensuality, as before when she lived with the nuns of St. Augustine, but to the good of her soul, she at length persuaded herself of the religious state and resolved to seize it. The causes which moved her, most prudently weighed by her in the balance of reason, she sets out above. Namely, she weighed heaven, hell, purgatory, the labours and sorrows of Christ, the grace of God that would be present to her in the burdens of the religious life, the brevity of her remaining life, etc.: until, after a space of three months, her mind was set, as she had read in St. Jerome (Letter to Heliodorus), to go on even over a trampled father, and fly to the standard of the Cross. She began, therefore, to urge her father for the fulfilment of her desire. But since she was most tenderly loved by him among all his children, she could obtain nothing. Then, as one endowed with magnanimity for undertaking arduous things, she thought of attacking the matter leaving her father behind; and at last she resolved, one day very early in the morning, with no one aware except her brother Antonio, the companion of her flight, to break out of the house and resolutely hide herself in the Monastery of the Incarnation, sacred to the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel. To make choice of this convent she was much attracted by the intimacy with which she was affected toward a certain nun named Juana Suárez, admirable Divine Providence so disposing that our young girl should prefer a monastery of the Carmelite Order, which she was one day to reform, to a monastery of the Order of St. Augustine, although the latter was founded upon greater perfection. Since the holy Mother inhabited that house for 32 years, 29 as a nun (1533–1562) and 3 as prioress (1571–1574), it is fitting that some things should be related concerning this dwelling of hers.
[76] concerning which house more here, In the year 1513, as Lezana says in volume IV of the Carmelite Annals, it was brought about by the most special Providence of God that the convent of nuns at Ávila, named of the Incarnation, should be added to our Order. For that house was like a pleasure-garden of paradise, in which the most beautiful flowers, namely very many virgins, breathing forth to God and to the Church a most sweet odour, shone out upon the world. Their parent and leader is rightly reckoned our seraphic Virgin St. Teresa, the most splendid radiance of Spain and of Religion. It had its beginnings from the piety of Doña Elvira de Medina, the foundress of the house, on the property of the entailed estate called San Miguel de Arroyo, not very far distant outside the city toward the north. In the course of time it grew into a very noble fabric, an excellent church, a singularly huge cloister, a spacious garden and pleasure-ground, workrooms and chambers so many and of such kind that about the year 1550 it could hold 190 nuns. And indeed the Chronicle asserts that it held so many; and the Saint herself (vol. II, letter 48, no. 2) says that she lived 25 years in a house where there were 180 nuns. But, as was written to me from there in the year 1840, the number does not now exceed twelve, and they are subject, according to custom, to the Ordinary. Although the house was erected in the year 1513, yet only two years afterwards, and indeed on that very day on which Teresa was baptized, the first Mass was celebrated in its buildings. And what Yepes (book I, chapter IV) says, that it is among the more notable convents of Ávila on account of its antiquity, seems to be understood of the known antiquity of the property or of the age of part of the buildings existing in his time. The Chronicle enumerates many nuns of that convent of eminent holiness, which shone forth there especially at that time when St. John of the Cross was cultivating them in the spiritual life. The holy Mother weaves the praise of that monastery in chapter VII of her Life, and in her Additions to it she says that the divine Majesty said that its nuns were held by Him as sisters, and ordered that she should take up the office of prioress there. During the whole time of her life Teresa loved that house as a mother; and sometimes she turned aside there when, the convent of St. Joseph having now been erected, she had to travel for founding new houses. Staying there once on such an occasion for eleven days, when the nuns marvelled that they were so graciously visited by the holy Mother, she replied: As a mother I honour and love this monastery,
and I turn aside to you, who are my sisters. In relating these things about the monastery of the Incarnation, I have preferred to adhere to Lezana, Ariz and the Chronicle rather than to Father Frederick, who, following, as he confesses, the memorials of that monastery, departs in some things from the other writers.
[77] shown in a double plate, of which one The pious memory of the places which the Saint occupied endures there even now, and there are still read today, both above the grille of the Communion and at the grilles of the parlours and in other places, several inscriptions which testify to the raptures, ecstasies and similar gifts received by her there. Thinking that I shall do a thing pleasing to the reader, I place that monastery before his eyes in a double plate engraved on copper, which Don Valentín Carderera, member of the royal Academy of History and of St. Ferdinand, very recently drew accurately, having obtained from the Illustrious bishop of Ávila the faculty of entering the cloister. The first plate shows the house as seen toward Ávila, that is, it was drawn by one sitting on the walls of the city and contemplating the northern part of the building. The church, which has been rebuilt and is of more recent construction than the house itself, does not betray a distinguished architect. On the other hand there is a large and sumptuous chapel, decorated with paintings not to be despised, at the end of the transverse wing of the church on the Gospel side. Almost at the end of the garden, before you reach the two trees, there is to be seen a little octagonal building, which is said to be on the spot where St. John of the Cross formerly lived for a long time, when he acted as director of the nuns: and it is said to have been built of the wood of which that house of his had been put together; for which reason that wood is preserved in its native colour without painting. Above the door of the church the Annunciation is carved in stone, well enough done, and by a hand, as Don Carderera judges, reflecting the sixteenth century: and on the doors of the church there is a double marble coat of arms, which is that of the foundress Doña Elvira de Medina; and the same is found in the cloister and in the outer portico.
[78] and the other is explained. The other plate exhibits the outer face of the convent. That part of the house which is marked with the letter A is the outer wall of the chapel which occupies the space of the destroyed cell of the holy Virgin. The walnut tree near the fountain, which even today spreads its vigorous branches widely, was, as ancient tradition holds, once planted in the earth by the hands of the Saint herself; and the fruits of that tree are devoutly distributed, and three years ago nuts plucked from it were carried even into Belgium, to the Carmelite nuns of Tournai. In the eastern wing of the house is shown a small chamber in which they relate that the Saint's heart was pierced by an Angel, and other monuments of Teresa's life are pointed out, little particles of wood and stone being sometimes cut from them for the piety of the faithful, for example from the door which leads from the house into the above-mentioned oratory, from which many pieces have been cut off, so that the whole door appears not moderately damaged. Concerning the double oratory built in the same area, lower and upper, we shall say more afterwards.
[79] A terrible struggle of nature before her entrance into the monastery: The holy Virgin, then, undertook a great thing; and, trampling on honour, wealth and pleasure, which goods she could certainly have enjoyed largely in the world, she went straight to the cloister with firm foot. Nevertheless in the very going out she felt an incredible sorrow of mind and such a battle of the senses that each bone of her body seemed to be dislocated and her limbs dissolved. On account of this contest perhaps, and her victory over herself, Father Pinamonti, S.J., in his little work entitled The Victorious Vocation (chapter IX) proposes our Saint as patroness for obtaining perseverance in one's vocation, and, speaking of this struggle of our valiant young girl, says: Who knows whether this remarkable victory won over human love was not perhaps the first stone of that lofty edifice which divine love raised in the Church through our Saint? But hear St. Teresa herself graphically narrating that terrible contest and the peace gained from her victory over herself, in chapter IV of her Life: So far as indeed it seems to me (and truly it is so), I remember well that then, when I was going out of my father's house, I was so affected that I do not think I shall experience a greater sense of sorrow when I die than I then felt in myself: for each bone of my body seemed to be torn from its place and joint. For since there was not in me that love of God which would make me forget the love toward my father and kinsfolk, hence I felt in myself such a repugnance against myself that, had the Lord not helped me, all my considerations and reasons would not have been powerful enough to obtain this from me. But He gave me such courage against myself that I at length carried out in deed what I had purposed.
[80] but a deep peace and joy follows that struggle. And when I took the sacred habit, at once, God enlightening me, I understood how He is present and brings help to those who do violence to themselves in order to serve Him. But this violence no one noticed in me, but all noticed a certain most ready will toward it. In the very moment of taking the habit there arose in me the highest joy from having taken up this state, which from that time down to the present has never departed from me, and changed the dryness with which my soul laboured into the highest tenderness of affection, so that whatever pertained to Religion was pleasant and delightful to me. At times, I confess, in those very hours which I used formerly to spend on the recreation and adornment of the body, I swept the house; and while I recalled to mind that I was now free from those things, a certain new joy sprang up in my mind, so that I myself marvelled, and did not at all understand whence it arose. When this comes back to my mind, there is nothing, however very grave and very hard, which, if it be proposed to me, I should hesitate to undertake. For I have now learned by the use and experience of many things that, if I help myself at the beginning in firmly resolving to carry something out (for when something is done out of a pure regard for God, He wills that the soul be terrified at the beginning by this fear, until it undertakes the thing, so that thus our merit may be greater; and the greater this fear is, the greater also is the reward with which it is presented if it nevertheless undertakes the thing, and afterwards it feels greater sweetness and pleasure from it), His Majesty repays me for it even in this life in certain ways which he alone understands who already experiences it in fact. This, as I have said, I have learned by experience in very many things of great moment; whence, if I were one who ought to give counsel to others, I would never counsel anyone, when some good inspiration occurs to him rather often, to neglect to put it into execution on account of the fear falling upon him at the beginning: for if it is undertaken purely and simply in the name of God alone, there is no reason for him to fear that it will not succeed happily for him, because God is powerful for all things. May He be blessed for ever. Amen.
[81] Further chronological matters concerning the Saint's first years, In bitter words, which I shall cite in the following §, the Saint exaggerates her neglect of graces in the religious life, of which she makes herself guilty chiefly for that time in which, as we shall see later, she deplores that she did not give herself sufficiently to prayer, that is up to the thirty-eighth year of her age, of Christ 1553. For if the twenty years of which she speaks here are taken away, we have the year 1533, in which I shall show by probable arguments that the Blessed Virgin embraced the religious life, after some other chronological matters about the Saint's earlier life have been set forth first, so that all things which pertain to the times of her youth may be reckoned here in one sweep. That our Saint was born on the 28th of March of the year 1515; that as a precocious girl of six or seven she was already turning over the lives of the Saints, by which she was induced to seek the lands of the Moors at a time scarcely later; that from the seventh to the twelfth year of her age (1522–1527) she delighted in reading and doing pious things; that then, when she had scarcely passed out of the years of infancy, she imitated the bad example of her mother; that she first sipped and afterwards devoured the futile books of fictitious heroes: all these things are beyond controversy from the places adduced above. It is likewise established that a certain ill-counselling kinswoman of hers frequented St. Teresa's house even before the death of St. Teresa's mother, but without great harm to Teresa at these beginnings, until, two years after her mother's death, when she numbered fourteen years, she contracted a closer familiarity with her, which she continued for another two years (1529–1531), until, three months before her withdrawal into the convent of the Order of St. Augustine, indulging the vanity which she had learned from that companion in dress and coiffure, she was in nearer danger of perversion, her sixteenth year being nearly completed, that is at the beginning of the year 1531. The reason why the Saint's withdrawal into that monastery of the Order of St. Augustine is placed so late is that Father Francis of St. Mary (Chronicle book 1, chapter VII, no. 4) asserts that there existed an agreement made before a notary by which, on the 11th of January 1531, the Saint's father, Alonso de Cepeda, bound himself to furnish to his eldest daughter, about to be married, a dowry of 600,000 maravedís. From which it follows that Teresa, who, it is established, did not leave home until her sister had married, entered the boarding-house for girls when she had nearly reached her sixteenth year, that is, at the beginning of 1531. And there she remained a year and a half, that is up to the seventeenth year of her age, or until the year 1532 was already declining into autumn. How long, having left there on account of illness, she remained either with her father or with her sister María is uncertain. That these stays in each of those places, however, did not last much beyond a year is concluded from the fact that on the 2nd of November of the year 1533 she betook herself into the monastery of the Incarnation: which I shall presently show by a short discussion to be not indeed certain, but more probable, and accordingly to be held by me hereafter. I set out first the various assertions of the principal biographers.
[82] [and before the rest concerning the year in which she embraced the religious state.] Ribera, book 1, chapter III, says simply that the Saint entered the monastery on the 2nd of November 1535; Yepes, however, book 1, chapter IV, that she took the habit on the 2nd of November of the year 1533, when, he says, she had not yet completed twenty years. But since both Yepes himself (book 1, chapter II) and others everywhere say that she was born on the 28th of March of the year 1515, Yepes would have been more consistent with himself, or at least would have spoken more clearly, if he had written that she entered the cloister in the year 1533, in the nineteenth year of her age. Be that as it may, I suspect that it was chiefly induced by this saying of Yepes, defective somehow and badly interpreted, that the Acts and Bull of canonization, and the lessons of the Roman Breviary, and many more recent writers too, assign her entrance into the monastery of the Incarnation to the twentieth year of her age. But Yepes himself clearly
explains himself at the end of the sixth chapter, where, speaking of her prayer and sickness, he writes: She was then twenty-three years of age, and five of Religion. From which it follows that, in the mind of Yepes, she became a religious in the nineteenth year of her age: which Father Pedro Ibáñez also says openly, in the place cited by Yepes himself at the end of the eighth chapter. The Chronicle (book 1, chapter VII, no. 5) holds that our Saint entered the monastery on the 31st of October 1536 and two days later, on the 2nd of November, took the sacred habit, and it founds this opinion of its own upon a double manuscript agreement which existed, as it says, in its time at Alba in the archive of a public notary. It says that each was drawn up on the 31st of Oct. 1536, and that by the one Teresa ceded all her right, while by the other her father bound himself to furnish to the monastery annually, as a dowry, 25 measures, half of wheat and half of barley, or, in default of these, 200 gold ducats annually. For the same day and year stands Father Frederick, he too relying on two written agreements, which he asserts he was informed existed at Madrid, of which one does not differ from the first mentioned above from the Chronicle. But the other is rather contrary to than in agreement with the latter adduced above, since according to it the agreement concerning the dowry between the monastery and the Saint's father was made only on the 23rd of Oct. of the year 1537. Wherefore one or the other of these alleged agreements, either that of the Chronicle or that of Father Frederick, is seen to be false. But indeed both, nay all three of the aforesaid agreements, seem to be rejected as spurious, and the Saint's entrance into the monastery to be assigned to the year 1533, not only on the opinion of Yepes, but also on account of a certain and clear place of Teresa's Life, in which she herself (chapter IV, no. 3) asserts that after her profession, when she had gone to the country for the sake of a cure, she had not yet completed her twentieth year. And this opinion too has been followed by Villefore, Emery, Butler, Boucher, Collombet, etc., however weighty the authors on the other side may be, for example Ribera, the Acts of canonization, the Roman Breviary, the Chronicle, Father Frederick, Father Anthony of St. Joseph (note 21 to the letters, vol. III), and in a certain way Teresa herself, if the beginning of her second letter to Father Rodrigo Álvarez, S.J. (vol. II, letter 19) is taken literally. Namely, she says there that she has been a nun 40 years, and a little after says that thirteen years had then elapsed since the foundation of St. Joseph's at Ávila: so that (since it is established that this monastery was founded on the 24th of August of the year 1562) that letter was written about the end of the year 1575, and accordingly, if she was clothed in the sacred habit 40 years before, she entered religion in the year 1535. But since Teresa is set against Teresa, that place surely must be bent which is less decisive. And she seems rather to have rounded the number of years in this latter place, where she says she has been a nun 40 years, than to have erred in the other, where she expressly asserts that she was not yet twenty years old, after she had already entered the monastery of the Incarnation nearly two or three years before. Nor is there reason why anyone should wonder that I depart from the Roman Breviary and the Acts of canonization, as I also departed when the little girl Teresa's going to the Moors was being treated: for the Church by no means disapproves that these and similar things be brought back to the balance of moderate criticism, since it is lawful to dispute even about certain chronological places of Holy Scripture. And this was the more lawful here because authors are set against authors, of whom I have mentioned above only the principal ones, omitting for example Luis Ariz, who in the History of the city of Ávila (part 1, page 49) has the year 1532; the little Chronicle of the Monastery of the Incarnation, cited by Father Frederick, which has 1535; the two Carmelite Libraries, which have 1535 and 1536: so that what the Breviary and the Acts of canonization have may perhaps be true, although it seems to me less probable.
§ VI. The Saint's novitiate and profession. Sick, she is taken to the country and converts a priest: more sick, she is carried back to the monastery, and at last is healed by the help of St. Joseph.
Although the Saint exaggerates her defects, We have seen our Saint, having received the sacred habit, affected with the most inward gladness (which is the custom of God, who consoles when the labour has been drained) on account of the religious state chosen and the world spurned. Take now from her own mouth how she passed her novitiate and made her solemn vows. But remember that out of humility she, as was her custom, much exaggerates her defects. In the very year of my novitiate, she says in chapter V of her Life, I suffered great disquiets and troubles, and indeed in things which in themselves were of little moment, but in which I was often reproved though innocent: I bore it indeed, although (such was my imperfection) with great vexation; yet that great consolation that I was now a religious made me tolerate all things with equanimity: for because my companions saw me seeking solitude and from time to time deploring my past faults, they thought that I was not content with my state, which they did not fear even to say openly. All the things that belonged to Religion pleased me wonderfully; yet those which seemed to include contempt of myself I could by no means bear. For I rejoiced to be made much of by all; and in all that I did I was careful and exact. This very thing, moreover, seemed to me to be a kind of virtue, although this will not exempt me from fault, that I knew very well how to pursue the things which looked to my recreation and convenience. And accordingly ignorance itself does not excuse me from fault here. It merits indeed some sort of excuse that this monastery was not founded upon great perfection: but I (such was my wickedness) followed what I saw was not good, and did not follow what was good.
[84] yet she passed her novitiate fervently; These are the humble Saint's testimonies about herself. But it is certain that she did not respond so badly to God's favour. She generously resolved with herself to observe the exercises of the religious life with as much fervour as she could, and to undertake great things for God. She applied herself very much to prayer, of which she was one day to be the mistress: to which end she had divided her time in many ways and spent many hours; and, so that she might further recollection the more, she betook herself to a place remote from the noise of the household. She often ran through the Rosary in praying, interrupting the recitation at times so as to weigh the mysteries by meditating. She was moved especially to compunction and love by considering the dangers of the world and that mercy of God toward her by which she had been snatched out of them. By these profound meditations divine love was so kindled in her heart that she thenceforth obtained from God the gift of tears. Since she had experienced how great a benefit there is in reading spiritual books, she applied herself to that reading with ever greater fervour, and especially to the histories of the lives of the Saints. In observing regular discipline she was very diligent, and especially in the ceremonies of the choir. And if at any time she erred in these, she humbled herself and asked for some penance for herself. She also gave herself to penance as far as was permitted by obedience and by her health, which already at that time seemed to be weak. But above the other virtues of the holy novice there stood out a solicitous and prompt charity toward her neighbour. She helped the nuns in all the offices of charity and humility that offered themselves. At stolen hours, so to speak, she betook herself to the choir, to arrange and neatly fold the cloaks left there by the nuns. And at those times which the nuns gave to sleep and rest, Teresa swept the house or discharged some other lowly office of another; which practice she afterwards happily transferred into her Reform. At night too, out of holy ambition, she wished to provide light for the nuns, to join herself to them as a companion when going to dark places, and finally also to lead them back to their little cells.
[85] nor was her neglect of graces so great as she says, In this way, though variously exercised, the Virgin completed the space of her novitiate with fervent piety, ever most grateful toward God for her vocation to the monastic state, but at the same time anxious about graces perhaps neglected by her in that spiritual course. O supreme Good, and my only rest! she exclaims in chapter IV, carried away, as often, into converse with God, the graces conferred on me up to that time ought to have sufficed, namely that by Thy singular goodness and greatness Thou didst lead me out of so many devious windings to a state so secure, and to a place in which very many of Thy handmaids dwelt, from whom I might borrow examples of virtues, by which being stirred up I might advance more and more day by day in Thy service: those, I say, ought to have sufficed. But how I am to proceed further from here I know not, when namely I call to mind the formula of my profession, and with how great resolution and consolation I made it, and also the espousals which I then entered into with Thee. All of which I cannot set out without tears, which ought even to be of blood, and my very heart to burst for sorrow; which sense of sorrow indeed would be all too small, if I consider how often and how gravely I have thereafter offended Thy divine Majesty by sinning. And indeed (as it now seems to me) not without great reason I did not wish to have so great a dignity, because I was going to abuse it; but Thou, Lord, for about twenty years in which I used this grace of Thine badly, didst will to suffer injury, so that in this way I might come to amendment. So plainly, Lord, did I conduct myself here (as indeed it appears) as if I had promised to keep none of the things which I had promised Thee by vow; although at that time indeed such was not my intention: but I see that my works afterwards were of such a kind that I altogether do not know what intention I then had; namely so that it may be more plain who Thou art, my spouse, and what I am. And truly the sense of my great vices is often diminished and tempered in me by that consolation which comes to me from this, that the multitude of Thy mercies becomes known in this way.
[86] which is plain even from her charity alone toward the sick. Among other pious exercises which the Saint had voluntarily undertaken in the apprenticeship of Religion had been the care of the sick nuns, whom she followed with the greatest love and solicitous charity: nay, she had devoted herself to God for every kind of disease, out of zeal and desire for eternal happiness, as she sets out in chapter V, speaking thus: A certain nun at that time lay sick with a grave disease, and was very troublesome to those serving her: for she had several openings in the belly, which an excessive obstruction of the bowels had formed, through which she discharged whatever she ate. Whence too she died not long after. I saw indeed that all who were in the house shuddered at that kind of disease: but I, envying her patience, asked the Lord to give me, with the same patience, whatever diseases He pleased. None (as
it seems to me) kind of disease did I then fear: for I was held by such a desire of acquiring eternal goods that I resolved with myself to obtain them at whatever price and by whatever means. Which very thing I now greatly wonder at, that I had not yet been touched by that love of God by which I afterwards, when I had begun to practise prayer, seemed to myself to have been touched: for I had nothing else but a certain light and knowledge by which I saw that whatever passes and has an end is to be made little of; and on the contrary that the goods which can be obtained by this are to be esteemed very highly, since they are eternal. The divine Majesty heard this wish of mine: for before two years had passed, I was made so sickly that, although the illness which I endured for three whole years, as I shall now relate, was not such as that nun's, yet I believe it was no less troublesome and grievous to me.
[87] She, then, sick and going to the country, advances in prayer Already in the very time of my novitiate, she says in chapter IV, the change of life and of food had been directly contrary to my health: for although I was flooded with the highest consolation and was content, yet I was not the better for it. For faintings and failures of spirit increased daily more and more, and there was added so great a languor of heart that all who saw me were astonished: soon other diseases too followed. So I passed the first year of my apprenticeship in not very firm health: but in all that time I seem not to have offended God much. And since the illness was so grave that it almost always deprived me of sense, nay from time to time even took it away from me entirely, hence my father laboured in every way that I might be restored to health; and because I felt no help from the physicians of this place, he ordered me to be taken to another place, in which there was a constant report that many afflicted with various diseases were thoroughly cured, because all thought that I too would be restored to health there. That friend of mine whom I said before that I had in this house, and who was of the number of the senior nuns, set out with me: for in this monastery the nuns did not bind themselves by a vow of enclosure… I was to be handed over into the physicians' hands at the beginning of summer; yet I went there at the beginning of winter; and all the intermediate time I stayed in the house of my sister, who, as I said, lived in a village, waiting for the month of April, which was at hand, so as not to go back and forth so often. When I had left the monastery, my uncle (who, as I said before, lived on the road) gave me a book whose name is the Third Alphabet, and which teaches a method of recollective and mental prayer. And although in that first year of my apprenticeship I had read various pious and holy books (for I did not wish to read any but pious ones, being well aware of the harms which I had suffered from those others), yet because I did not yet know how I ought to conduct myself in prayer and recollect my mind, this book was most welcome to me then, and I resolved to follow its way and method with every effort of mind. I had already then received the gift of tears from the Lord, and I was much refreshed by the reading itself: hence I began from time to time to cultivate solitude for a while, to make Confession more frequently, and to enter upon this very way, using this book in place of a master and director.
[88] by the help of good books and solitude. The Saint, therefore, as she confesses here, already rejoiced in the gift of tears, and used a double aid to perfection, namely solitude and prayer; but she was too infirm to employ many bodily penances. She walked in prayer by that way which the aforesaid book, written by Father Francisco de Osuna of the Order of Friars Minor, indicated, and she set before herself Jesus Christ, intimately present to her soul, placed in some moment of His passion. Entering with Him into the chamber of her heart, forgetful of all other things, she addressed Him and gazed upon Him lovingly and tenderly: which kind of prayer indeed is called by the mystical theologians the prayer of recollection. It was Teresa's custom for the beginning of prayer to look into the life and virtues of Christ and to consider the love with which He has pursued us: for it was not so much her practice to discourse and work with the intellect. For this reason she made use of good books here and there; which is indeed a great help for praying and persevering in prayer, and so one of the chief things which the Saints have commended in their writings. God therefore employed that book of Osuna as the instrument of His mercy; and Teresa, through its doctrine and the other aids which she received from God, so advanced that thereafter the supreme Majesty began to enrich her with such gifts that after nine months spent in this solitude she arrived at the prayer of quiet. Nay rather, she sometimes ascended to the highest and most perfect degree of contemplation, union, I mean, and the transformation of the soul into its God, though not with that fullness and perfection with which she did afterwards. By these graces she was led to trample the world underfoot and to esteem it at what it is worth. She pitied those whom she saw pursuing earthly things, even in lawful matters. Nor indeed was it a great thing that the vileness and littleness of the world should be despised by one who had already begun to contemplate the greatness of God in prayer. In it, namely, she renewed her spirit and united herself with ardent and fervent love to her Spouse. But although the favour of heaven was so great, the mercy of God so great, so lofty the kind of prayer by which the Lord raised up His bride; yet these things were not so continuous that God did not at times deprive her of such delight, and exercise her many times by His desertion and absence. And since she could no longer discourse with the intellect, and meanwhile the presence of God was not so ordinary as it afterwards was, it happened that she was very dry and distracted. Then books came into use: when she read them, her mind was at once stirred and she recollected herself in prayer; but when she put them down, she at once wandered off through the imagination and through various thoughts which made war on her.
[89] She is endangered by dealings with an abandoned priest; Let us hear the Saint again, who continues the course of her life thus in chapter V: When the time had now come, which I was awaiting at my sister's in the place I mentioned, for me to be handed over to the physician, my father and sister and that nun friend who had come with me, and who followed me with great love, took me there with great solicitude that I should be well cared for on the way and that nothing should be lacking to me. Here the devil began to disturb the quiet of my soul, although God drew much good from it. There was in the place to which I had gone for the sake of a cure a certain priest of birth and talent not to be despised, learned also, but only moderately. Him, then, I chose for my confessor, because I have always been a lover of lettered men, although confessors who were only half-learned have brought much harm to my soul: for I could not always find men as learned as I would indeed have wished. I have now learned by experience itself that it is better for them, provided they are good and of good conduct, to have no learning at all than only a little: for the unlearned, since they do not trust themselves, are under the necessity of consulting others more learned; nor would I trust them either. A well-learned man has never deceived me; nor did those unlearned ones wish to deceive me, but they did not know more… When, then, I began to confess to this man of whom I speak, he began to be wonderfully affected toward me; for at that time I did not have so much to confess as I had afterwards, as indeed I had not had from the time I had been a religious. His affection was not bad, but because it was excessive, it therefore degenerated into what was not good. He was persuaded about me that I would not wish at any price at all to do anything by which I should gravely offend God; the same too he affirmed about himself; hence a great intimacy began between us: but I was at that time so disposed in my conversation that, with that familiarity with God which I had added, nothing was more pleasant to me than to speak of divine things. Hence he, when he saw that I was so young, was not moderately confounded; so that out of that excessive affection and inclination of his toward me he began to indicate to me his ruin, which was indeed not small: for for nearly seven years he had remained in a most dangerous state, on account of an infamous and unchaste dealing with a certain woman of this place; and while he was in that state, he nevertheless did not fear to celebrate meanwhile.
[90] but she overcomes him, The matter was so widely known and talked of that he had lost all honour and reputation: yet no one dared to admonish him of this matter. But a great pity for him seized me, because I loved him very much. For I had this, savouring of no small levity and blindness, that I judged it a kind of virtue to be grateful, and that I must necessarily love him who pursued me with love. But cursed be that obligation which extends itself even to opposing what we owe to God. This is a certain madness, which is in use in the world, which maddens me too. For we owe to God every good that is done us by men; and yet we think it a virtue not to violate this law of human friendship, even if it is directly opposed to God. O intolerable blindness of the world! Would, Lord, that I were most ungrateful to the whole world, but to Thee not even in the least! But because of my sins exactly the contrary has come about. I began, then, to inquire more exactly from those of his household about the truth of the fact; from whom I understood his ruin, and that he was not so much in fault as was thought: for this wicked little woman had enclosed a charm in a certain little bronze image which she had asked him to wear around his neck for her sake; and no one had hitherto been able to take this from him. For my part, I do not at once persuade myself that what is said about enchantments of this kind is true; yet I shall say what I saw, so that men may beware of the use of those women who wish to have dealings of that kind. I would wish them to persuade themselves that, since women (who are always more obliged to preserve chastity than men) have lost all shame before God, they can by no means and in nothing trust them: for, in order to drive to effect and satisfy their cupidity and lust, which the evil demon suggests to them, they care for nothing. Granted that I have been wicked and bad, yet I never offended in a similar kind, nor ever induced anyone to do evil; nor, if indeed I could have, would I have wished to compel violently the will of anyone to pursue me with love: for God by His grace preserved me from this thing; but if He had deserted me, I should have fallen into this no less than I offended in the other things: for there is no reason why anyone should trust me.
[91] and plainly converts him. When, therefore, I understood this about him, I began to show him greater love. My intention indeed was good, but not the thing itself: for in order to do some good, however very great, it was not right for me to do even the least evil. For the most part I spoke with him of God, and this indeed ought to have helped him in some way; although I should believe that nothing helped him more than that he was affected toward me: for in order to gratify me he handed me that little image, which, having received it, I at once ordered to be thrown into a running stream. When it was taken away, like one who is roused from a deep sleep, he began to recall exactly each of the things which he had continually committed in those years; whence, astonished at himself and sorrowfully deploring his ruin, he began gradually to repudiate that little woman. That the Virgin Mother of God was a help to him in this matter is quite clear: for he was affected in a certain singular manner toward her Conception, and when her feast came round each year, he celebrated it with remarkable solemnity. At length he could not bear even to see that woman, and forbade himself the sight of her, and could not be satisfied in giving thanks to God that He had deigned to enlighten his mind. Then, a year having rolled round, precisely on that very day on which I first saw him, he departed from this life. He had by then served God much and diligently: for that remarkable affection by which he was borne toward me never seemed to me to have been bad, although it could have been somewhat purer. Added to this is that we had occasions of sinning, which, had we not had God very much before our eyes, would have led us to sin gravely against Him; but I was at that time so minded that I would never have done anything (as I have already said) which I knew to be a mortal sin. And I should believe that he, because he observed this caution in me, was moved the more by it to love me: for I think that all men are borne with more affection toward those women whom they see inclining to virtue; and that even for obtaining what they aim at in this world, women advance more with them by the way of virtues than of vices, as I shall show later. Accordingly I most certainly persuade myself that he is on the way of salvation. He died very Christianly, and entirely freed from that occasion of sinning; and the Lord seems to have willed that he should come to salvation by this means.
[92] Here Villefore's version is rebutted, by which she seems to deny sorcery. We have not interrupted the Saint, who with such humility and eloquence offers us in these first-fruits of her zeal a most noble specimen of those great things which she was one day to accomplish: so that you might rightly say, the lion is known from its claw. She who at scarcely seven years old had persuaded her little brother Rodrigo to martyrdom, intending to lead him with her to the place of their common execution, and who afterwards had put the courage into another brother to renounce the world, now, grown older, a virgin of 21 years, dares to attempt greater things: namely, she gains for God a lascivious priest, who for a whole seven years had been immersed, not without public scandal, in the mire of sacrilegious impurity, and bound to a woman by diabolical sorcery; and she brings it about that by the grace of God he perseveres in chastity and piety until death. But amid these things, which are so great an honour to the holy Virgin, we must censure in Villefore an unfair version of some Spanish words, which, though inserted only in passing in his French life of Teresa, are of a nature to sprinkle a stain upon her reputation. For it matters more to vindicate the Saint in such a matter than to emend a chronology or to restore some limping narration of a fact, in which history perhaps is injured, but the Saint uninjured. Here is the text of those words: Vi que el pobre no tenia tanta culpa, porque la desventurada de la muger le tenia puestos hechizos en un idolillo de cobre, que le habia rogado le traxesse por amor della al cuello; y este nadie habia sido poderoso de podersele quitar. Yo no creo es verdad esto de hechizos determinadamente, mas dire esto que yo vi. [I saw that the poor man was not so much in fault, because the unhappy woman had put charms on him in a little copper idol, which she had begged him to wear around his neck for love of her; and no one had been able to take it from him. I do not believe this about charms to be true in a determinate way, but I shall say this which I saw.] I would wish the reader to attend especially to yo no creo es verdad esto de hechizos determinadamente; which in Latin means: Not lightly, not indiscriminately, not without inquiry and discernment do I believe what is commonly told about sorceries or enchantments. And in nearly that sense very many of those whom I have seen render it, in Latin, Flemish, English, French, etc. But Villefore pronounces with a round mouth: Therese n'ajoutait pas foi a ces sortes de choses Teresa did not give credence to these sorts of things: which French phrase, badly rendering the Spanish words, hints that Teresa, after the manner of modern unbelievers, utterly denied all magic; whereas on the contrary the prudent Saint, conforming herself to the mind of the theologians and of the Catholic Church herself, says only that she receives with diffidence the particular sorceries of this kind which are commonly reported, but by no means affirms that she judges, just as if magic did not exist, that all credence must always be denied them. And here it was not so much a badly translated place of Teresa's Life that had to be corrected, as her manner of thinking rightly that had to be vindicated, in a matter in which one must by no means depart from the spirit of the Catholic Church. For since the Church has the Order of Exorcists, and allows exorcisms to be employed where magic has been established to the bishops, she openly acknowledges the sorceries of magic. Nor indeed will any man of sense deny that against which God Himself (Deuteronomy chapter XVIII, verses 10 and 11) threatens death; which Jews as well as Heathens assert; which the holy Fathers have abominated in innumerable places, and the Councils have transfixed with anathema; which innumerable judges, learned as well as just, have punished a thousand times even with capital sentence, and which so many laws divine and human, ecclesiastical and civil, tribunals sacred and profane, have prohibited; no one, I say, will deny it, much less St. Teresa, who says in chapter XXXIII of her Life that she would rather meet death a thousand times than violate even the least ceremony of the Church.
[93] Meanwhile the Saint, more and more sick, But let us return to our Saint, who proceeds thus in chapter V: For three months in that village (Becedas) I endured most grievous torments: for medicines sharper and harder were applied to me than my constitution could bear. In the second month, by the acrimony and force of the medicines, I had been reduced almost to the extremity of life; and the faintness of heart, for removing which I had been sent there, had become more intense, so that my heart seemed from time to time to be gnawed by most sharp teeth, and all most of all feared that the disease would degenerate into madness. On account of the huge failure and weakness of my strength (for I could swallow nothing into my stomach but liquids and things to be sipped, because I vomited up everything I took; and also the continual fever and the daily purgations, since for nearly a whole month the physicians had ordered me to take a draught every day, had plainly exhausted my body) I was so dried up inwardly that my sinews were now beginning to contract, with so great pain and torment indeed that I could find no rest, either by day or by night: to which there was added also a certain most profound sadness of mind. My father brought me back, so circumstanced, to the place from which I had come; where, when the physicians visited me again, they despaired of my health; nay, they asserted that besides the diseases I had, I also laboured under a hectic malady. I cared little or nothing for that judgment of theirs: but the pains themselves vexed me; for from head to feet they were everywhere equally grave and intense. And indeed, as the physicians themselves affirmed, pains of the sinews are intolerable, and the more so because they were all contracted altogether: which certainly, had I not deserved it by my faults, was a most grievous torment. I think I was in this extreme torment not more than three months: but it seemed impossible that I could bear so many evils and torments together.
[94] a huge paroxysm seizes her: Now I wonder at, and recognize as a singular benefit of God, that patience which His Majesty bestowed upon me: for it was clearly plain that it was given only by Him. It helped me not a little toward having it that I had read the life and history of Job described in the Morals of St. Gregory, so that both by this reading and by the pursuit of prayer, to which I had now begun to give myself, the Lord seems to have forearmed me for bearing these torments with such conformity of will. All my conversations were with Him, and almost always these words of Job: "If we have received good things at the hand of the Lord, why should we not receive evil?" I either turned over in my mind or had on my lips: for this seemed to add to me both courage and strength. Meanwhile there came the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin (for up to that point that torment had now lasted from the month of April, although in the last three months it was more intense), on which I hastened to make Confession of my sins; since I have always been most fond of frequent Confession. They thought I did this out of fear of death; and so my father, lest this thought or apprehension should create any trouble for me, did not permit me to make my Confession. O superfluous and excessive love of flesh and blood! for although it was that of so Catholic a father, and of so prudent a man as he was, so that it cannot be said that he did it out of ignorance, yet it could have harmed me very much. That very night such a paroxysm seized me that for nearly four days it rendered me deprived of all sense: during which I was fortified with the Sacrament of extreme Unction, and they believed that I would breathe out my spirit at every hour or moment: hence the articles of the Christian faith were again and again read out to me, just as if I had understood anything; nay, at times they believed me so dead that afterwards I even found drops of leftover wax on my eyes. It tormented my father not a little that he had not then permitted me to confess: hence he poured out very many prayers and pious cries to God for me. May He therefore be blessed who deigned to hear them. For when the grave had already been open for a day and a half in my monastery, the nuns expecting my body from hour to hour, nay, when in another monastery of our Order, which is outside this place, the funeral rites had been celebrated for me by the Friars as for one dead, it pleased the Lord to restore me to myself and to my senses.
[95] awaking from which she foretells several things. Besides these things which the Saint relates here, Ribera, Yepes and others record a vision which she then had and prophecies uttered. When she awoke, they say, complaining that she had been roused, she declared that she had been in heaven, and had also seen hell; and she foretold many other things which can be read below in Ribera (book 1, chapter IV), where that sound author also puts forth his judgment about them. Yepes (book 1, chapter VI) also confirms the truth of the matter, saying that all those things are established for him: and the outcome, he says, has demonstrated that they were not vain dreams or a play of fancy, but
had come from God. And the Chronicle (book 1, chapter XII, no. 4) says that the Saint in the course of her life disclosed these same things to several of her daughters, who testified to it in the process of beatification. Ribera reluctantly admits especially that vision by which the monasteries to be founded by her were shown beforehand to the Saint; because afterwards, when the first monastery had already been erected at Ávila, she seems to have laboured under ignorance of the others to be erected by her. The whole matter, however, is well explained, and Ribera, Yepes and the rest are reconciled with one another, if it be said that it was a representation truly sent into her from heaven, which the Saint knew for certain that she had had, yet not knowing whence it had come to her; so that she did not lie either in relating the matter or in imputing it to the delirium of sickness, since her humility shrank from believing that such great things as had been represented to her were revealed from heaven, and that she was destined by God for such great things. And in that way the ever humble Virgin, speaking of those four days, says thus: If it had happened to me to die then, I should not (as indeed I myself judge) have been so very secure and certain of my salvation, both because my confessors were little lettered, and because I myself was so wicked. And truly, when I weigh this with myself, and how the Lord (as indeed it seems to me) roused me as it were from death, so great an amazement seizes me that I tremble in my whole body. It would have been fit and just, in my judgment, for thee, O my soul, to think from how great a danger the Lord had snatched thee; and granted that thou didst not cease to offend Him out of love, thou wouldst at least have omitted it out of fear, because on a thousand other occasions, when thou wast in a worse state, He could have slain thee; nor do I believe I add much of my own if I say two thousand occasions, although he who bade me use moderation in relating my sins would scold me: and indeed they have been sufficiently marked and set in light. Whom I ask, for the love of God, to take nothing away from my sins; because in this way the very magnificence of God shines out the more, and how much He bears with a soul: may He be blessed for ever; and I earnestly ask that it may please His Majesty that I be annihilated before I ever cease to love Him more.
[96] The effects of the foregoing paroxysm: Chapter VI. From that four days' paroxysm I remained so badly affected that God alone can know the incomparable pains which I then felt in myself. My tongue was wounded here and there from continual biting: my throat, both because it had passed no food for so long a time and from continual weakness, was just as if I were being suffocated, so that I could not pass even water. All the joints of my bones too seemed moved out of place, not to mention that my head was so disturbed that I seemed out of my mind. Besides this I was contracted in my whole body like a ball or bundle, because in this the pain of those days ended, so that I could no more move an arm or a foot or a hand or my head by myself than if I had really been dead, except by others moving them: only one finger of my right hand did I seem able to move: so that there seemed scarcely any way for anyone to touch me; for I was so affected in my whole body that I could bear the touch of no one. Hence I had to be moved from place to place in a sheet, one person holding one side and another the other. This lasted until Palm Sunday. This one solace, further, I had, that if no one touched me, the pains were often mitigated; and so that they might give me even a little rest, I from time to time pretended that I was well, because I feared lest patience should fail me. Hence I rejoiced exceedingly when I perceived that my pains were neither so intense nor so continual, although with the vehement cold of a double quartan fever coming on, which I had very severe and long-lasting, I suffered them even intolerable, as also a great nausea of the stomach: at once, then, I so hastened to return to my monastery that I had myself carried there, affected though I was. Her, then, whom they had expected dead, the nuns received living only as far as the soul: for I had a body worse than a dead one, so that it moved horror and grief in those who saw it. Its supreme and extreme weakness can be expressed by no words, so that I seemed to consist of bones alone.
[97] which she bears patiently, In this state I remained more than eight months (as I have already said); and for nearly three whole years I lacked all use of my limbs, although it was restored to me more and more every day. As soon as I began to lean on wooden crutches, I gave thanks to God. All these infirmities, moreover, I bore with great conformity to the will of God, and indeed, except for those first ones, with the highest gladness of mind. For all things seemed to me nothing but play, compared with those pains which I had borne at the beginning. In all things I conformed myself in every respect to the divine will, even if He had allowed me to live perpetually in this torment. For no other cause, as it seems to me, did I desire to be restored to health than that I might give myself to prayer in solitude, as I had been instructed: for in the infirmary there was no convenience for this. I made Confession frequently; often likewise I engaged in talk about God, so that I edified all those of the house, who in turn were astonished at the patience which the Lord gave me: for unless He had given it, it seemed impossible to them to be able to suffer such great torments with such cheerfulness of mind. The grace of praying well, too, which He had given me, was of very great moment for this: for this made me understand what it was to love Him. For within that brief time I saw those virtues as it were renewed in me, though not yet strong enough: because they could not hold me firm in the state of justice.
[98] the desire of perfection also growing in her; I spoke ill of no one, not even in the least, but for the most part I hindered every kind of detraction and murmuring: for I had strongly impressed upon myself that I ought not to wish or say of anyone else what I would not wish others to say of me. This evil, therefore, I guarded against above all, because occasions of detracting from others occurred rather often; although not so fully and perfectly that from time to time, when a pressing occasion offered itself, I did not stumble in something: but ordinarily I did not stumble; hence I so persuaded this very thing upon those who served me and dealt with me that they put on a certain habit of not detracting, and kept it. Whence it came about that all commonly knew that, wherever I was present, they were safe from a detracting tongue, and that they thought the same also of those who belonged to me, either by reason of friendship or of blood, or were taught by me. Although I have many other things for which I shall have to render account to God, because in these I have been a bad example to them. I humbly beg His Majesty to pardon me: for I have been the cause of many evils, although my intention was not so wicked as was the work and effect which followed from it. A huge desire of seeking solitude remained in me; and it was so pleasing to me to speak and treat of God that, if I found someone with whom I could do it, it brought me far greater pleasure and recreation than all the civility, or (to speak better) stupidity, of worldly conversation. Besides this I rejoiced to confess and to receive Holy Communion more often than usual, nay I desired it exceedingly: the reading of good books too delighted me very much: finally, when I had offended God by sinning, so great a repentance and sorrow for it soon seized me that I remember that I often did not dare to begin prayer, because I feared that very great pain, which I knew I would feel from having offended Him, just as a heavy chastisement of the fault. And this torment afterwards so grew upon me and was so enormous that I altogether do not know to what I should compare it…
[99] and she takes St. Joseph as patron. When, therefore, I saw myself, and that so young, plainly deprived of the use of my limbs, and at the same time began to reflect how badly the earthly physicians had treated me, I resolved to take refuge with the heavenly ones, that they might restore health to me: for I was held by a great desire of recovering health in whatever way, although otherwise I bore these torments with great joy of mind, and from time to time thought with myself that, if when restored to health I were to be consigned to eternal damnation, it would be far better to remain in this state; nevertheless I thought that in health I could serve God better and more fervently. We do ill, therefore, and are deceived, in not resigning ourselves in all the things which God wills to determine concerning us, since He knows better than we what is more useful and more fitting for us. I began, then, to practise some devotions concerning the sacrifices of Masses, and certain others, most approved, concerning prayers: for those other devotions never pleased me which some, and especially silly women, practise with certain ceremonies employed, which I plainly could not bear: by which, although they themselves were stirred to devotion, yet afterwards it became plain that they were foolish and little fitting; because superstitious. But for patron and lord I chose the glorious St. Joseph, and commended myself solely to his patronage. I afterwards clearly perceived that this holy Father and my Lord delivered me both from this necessity and from other greater ones, in which there was question of the honour and ruin of my soul; and that to my greater good than I could have asked of him. I do not remember that I have hitherto asked anything of him which he has not granted me.
[100] Certain chronological knots are untied; Before I put an end to this paragraph, it is fitting to exhibit a chronological scheme of the four years which the present paragraph comprises: for here too the authors disagree on certain points. Here is how, having attentively compared and weighed the texts both of Teresa and of Yepes, I think the periods of the Saint's journeys or illnesses at that time are to be ordered. A year having just elapsed from her entrance into the monastery, she made her solemn vows in the year 1534, on the 3rd of November (not the 3rd of December, as Helyot writes by mistake). In the year 1535, at the beginning, as the Saint says in chapter IV, of winter, for example in November, she went, sick, a second time to her sister at Castellanos de la Cañada. Boucher (pp. 38 and 42) holds that she went away in the year 1534, when her vows had scarcely been made. But since nothing prevents me, either in the autograph life or in Ribera or Yepes, from following the Chronicle and almost all the other modern writers, I judge that that stay in the country must be put off to the following year, that is 1535, when she had spent two years in the monastery: and this all the more because the Saint in chapter VIII of her Life numbers 28 years from the beginning of her prayer. And taking these away from the year 1563, in which she seems to have written that part of her life the second time, we have
the year 1535, in which she learned to pray at her uncle's. In her sister's house she lingered until the spring of the year 1536. Then she went to Becedas or Bezadas, in which place of cure, which you might better call a theatre of torture, she underwent three months of butchery. In the month of July, as it seems, she was carried back to her father's house, where she was seized by a certain monstrous spasm prolonged for four days, the grave having already been dug in the monastery, and the corpse being expected in the cloister of the Incarnation; nay, as Father John of Jesus Mary and the Chronicle say, some of the nuns had already gone to the house of their companion, dead as they thought, to bring out the corpse or at least to accompany the bier. But Teresa awoke, and, drawing out most bitter pains, remained in her father's house until Palm Sunday of the year 1537. Nor does Teresa only hint at this; but Ribera too and Father John of Jesus Mary say in open words that she stayed so long with her father; wherefore I think that the author of the Chronicle, Father Frederick of St. Anthony and others, who write that she returned to the monastery a little after the paroxysm, are here to be abandoned.
[101] and the enormity of her disease is further set out. Further, since the Saint writes that that state of extreme weakness and torments lasted eight months, it seems that, when she returned to the monastery in Eastertide 1537, she gradually recovered. Yet the paralysis, as she herself says, lasted nearly three years, that is, as I reckon, from the middle of the year 1536 to the middle of the year 1539, when she confesses that she was healed by the help of St. Joseph, being already beyond her twenty-fourth year of age and passing the sixth of Religion. Nor is Yepes here contrary to me, saying at the end of the sixth chapter that she had reached 23 years of age and 5 of Religion; for he does not write distinctly that the Saint, when she had reached those years, had also reached the end of her sickness, but says only vaguely that she was of that age when she had already arrived at great patience and sense of gratitude. I shall abstain, however, from alleging various arguments to defend this opinion which I put forward and to show that Yepes (at the end of chapter VI) does not contradict me; for there is no leisure to linger over these lesser chronological knots in long dispute. Similarly, after this long discourse about the younger Teresa's illnesses, which I have drawn almost entirely from her own life, I judge it superfluous, I do not say to refute, but even to report what Father Frederick of St. Anthony in his Preface, page XLIV, cites from the thirty-third Discourse of J. B. Campadelli, a priest of Padua, who, as it seems, draws from his own store fictitious illnesses of St. Teresa and remedies applied for a whole eight years. I judge it better to bring forward here some things from Father Elias of St. Teresa in the Preface of his work which he named: Embassy of the Church triumphant to the militant for the liberation of souls from purgatory, where among other things he says: Holy Mother Teresa (in chapter VI of her Life) relates that she was miraculously healed of most vehement and most dangerous illnesses by which she had lain harassed for three years and a half and despaired of by the physicians. These were not only most grave, but also very many, inasmuch as nine or ten of them would each by itself have sufficed to bring her death. On the occasion of her recovered health the Saint pours forth a famous encomium of St. Joseph in chapter VI of her Life.
§ VII. What befell the Saint from her miraculously recovered health up to her fuller conversion to God, that is, from the year 1539 to the year 1555. The chronology of several matters for that space of time is fixed.
A compendium of the following 18 years of her life is exhibited: After a course of three years, then, released by the help of St. Joseph from the contraction of her limbs, Teresa began to walk, in the year, as we have reckoned, 1539, when her age had reached some months beyond 24 years. I shall now examine in one view a space of 16 years, that is up to the beginning of the year 1555, and accordingly up to the fortieth year of her age. These things occur in that time, among others: Teresa's fervour growing lukewarm from conversation with worldly people, and the omission of mental prayer: her father, his daughter's disciple, raised to the practice of a more sublime prayer and to great holiness, and helped by her in his mortal illness, and his pious death: the Saint indeed returned, by the counsel of Father Vicente Barrón, to whose guidance she had entrusted herself on her father's death, to the exercise of mental prayer; but her soul still distracted and in a certain way torn in contrary directions, whether when at the grilles of the vestibule, wasting time with seculars, she heard within herself the complaining voice of God neglected, or when in the oratory, as she dealt with God, her mind and heart wandered off to worldly chatter and affections; whence dryness and interior struggle: Teresa not corrected by the warnings of an upright fellow nun, nor overcome by the sight of Christ with a stern face reproaching her for the integrity of heart denied Him, and representing His immense sorrows and His flesh torn in the scourging, nor torn away from those meetings by the sight of a monstrous beast disturbing them: so limping on two sides for seventeen years and more, until, moved by looking at an image of Christ suffering and pierced with wounds which she had in her oratory (which shows the power of pious images), she most fervently besought God that He would admit her wholly bound to Him alone: now devoted to God entirely, and made solid in her purpose by reading the Confessions of St. Augustine, from which time she began to be flooded with heavenly delights, under the guidance of spiritual men rightly: and then, as she herself speaks in chapter XXIII, there began a new and altogether different life: for that which, she says, I had lived up to then was my life; but that which I lived thereafter was a life, as indeed it seemed to me, which God lived in me. Which happy change will be the matter of the following paragraphs.
[103] which she herself narrates more fully. She interrupts prayer. I shall allow the holy Virgin again to unfold these things with incomparable humility and eloquence, adding only certain comments, both for the sake of greater elucidation, and to vindicate Teresa from defects wrongly exaggerated by certain writers, and finally that the chronology may be fixed in the best way possible, in which the Saint's biographers, inverting more or less the aforesaid series of facts, disagree among themselves, and sometimes with themselves. The Saint, then, running over the time that followed her miraculous healing, speaks thus in chapter VII: I began, therefore, slipping from one recreation into another, from one vanity into another, from one occasion into another, so to entangle myself in the most present occasions of sinning, and my soul so to involve itself in the allurements of many vanities, that I was now ashamed to return and fly back to God through so singular a kind of friendship (as it is, to speak with Him through prayer). But nothing helped me more toward this than that, as my sins increased, so the spiritual relish, and that pleasure which I used to take from pious and virtuous things, began to fail me. I saw most clearly, my Lord, that it failed me for this reason, that I was failing in my part toward Thee. This was the most harmful of all the frauds by which the devil could circumvent me, and that under a certain appearance of humility; namely that, when I saw myself so desperate and lost, I began to fear to give myself to prayer: and it seemed to me much better to imitate the common manner of living of many in the world, and to conform myself to it (because among the wicked I was the worst), and to read those things to which I was bound by the prescription of the Order, and that vocally, than to make mental prayer and to frequent so great an intercourse with God; since I was one worthy to have conversation with demons, and so I was imposing on the people who knew me, because outwardly I displayed so great an appearance of uprightness and piety.
[104] Though she hated hypocrisy, she is still esteemed good. Yet the place and the house in which I lived are not to be blamed: for I took care (such was both my industry and my cunning) that all should have a good opinion of me; although not expressly and of set purpose, namely by professedly feigning piety. For as to hypocrisy and vainglory, I never remember, so far as I know, to have offended God (praise be to Him): for at the first motion and suggestion of vainglory I felt in myself such vexation and aversion that both the demon departed not without loss, and I made some gain from it; accordingly he tempted me in this kind only very rarely. If God had permitted him to tempt me so gravely in this matter as he tempted me in other things, perhaps I should have fallen in it no less; but His Majesty has hitherto protected me in this respect and kept me unharmed: whence may He be blessed for ever. Nay rather, it tormented me not a little that people commonly had a good opinion of me, since I thoroughly knew the inmost parts of my heart. And that I was not commonly held to be so wicked came about from this, that they saw me, so young and placed in so many occasions of sinning, often declining the company of the others so that I might pray hiding myself in solitude, reading much, and frequently treating of God; and likewise that they saw me taking care that His image should be painted in many places, having a secret oratory, and busying myself to have in it the things which provoke devotion; finally that they heard me detracting from no one's reputation; and other things of that kind which had a certain appearance of virtue: meanwhile, however (such was my vanity), I knew that I made much of those things which are wont to be made much of in the world.
[105] She grieves that she did not live in an enclosed monastery. Hence it came about that as great, nay greater, liberty was granted me than to the others, even the most senior, and they trusted me much. But that I should of my own accord and unasked assume such liberty, or do anything without leave, namely speak with someone through certain secret openings or walls, or even by night, I could never have been brought (as it seems to me) to do that in the monastery, nor indeed did I ever so speak: for the Lord preserved me from this fall by His own hand. Because I weighed many things with myself prudently and maturely, it seemed to me a very bad thing indeed that the honour of so many holy nuns should be called into some danger by the wickedness of me alone; as if the other things which I did had been good: to confess the truth, the evil which I did, granted that it was great, was not done with so much advertence, nor was there so much malice in it as there would have been in this. For this reason I think it harmed me very much that I was not in an enclosed monastery: because the liberty which those who were good could use well and rightly (because they were not obliged to more, since they had not promised enclosure to God) would doubtless have drawn me, who am wicked, to hell, had not with so many remedies and reasons
the Lord, out of His most singular grace, snatched me from this danger. Among which it seems to me by far the greatest danger is a monastery of women enjoying liberty, so much so that, being of this sort, it seems to those who wish to be bad rather a way leading straight to hell than any remedy for curing the infirmities which they have. I would not, however, have this understood as said of my monastery: for there are in it so many sisters who serve the Lord most sincerely and with the highest perfection that His Majesty, according to His goodness and mercy, cannot fail to be present to them with His grace; so that it is not to be numbered among the convents that are most free, as being one in which all religious discipline is most exactly observed: but I speak of other convents, which I have both known and seen. Whose inhabitants I seem able, not unskilfully, to compare with the wretched heretics, inasmuch as these wish to blind themselves, and to persuade others that what they themselves follow is good, and they even believe it themselves, so as nevertheless not to believe it: because they have within themselves someone who again and again suggests and urges that this very thing is evil.
[106] God tries to frighten her away from vain familiarity, by sending one When, therefore, I began to frequent these worldly familiarities, I did not think (because I saw them commonly practised by others) that my soul would suffer from them such detriment and distraction as I afterwards understood was wont to come from them. I thought that a thing so ordinary and common (such as is that frequent visiting of friends which has place in many monasteries) would bring no more harm to me than to others whom I saw to be good; and I did not notice that they were much better than I, and that what was dangerous and harmful to me could not be so harmful to others: for I do not doubt that at least some evil lies in it, even if it were nothing else than that time is spent uselessly and badly in this way. When dealings with a certain person pleased me, the Lord willed, right from the beginning when I began to know and deal with that person, to signify to me and as it were forewarn me that friendships of that kind were not expedient for me, and to give me some light in such great darkness. Whence Christ the Lord then presented Himself to be seen by me with much rigour and severity, signifying to me what in this matter displeased Him. I saw Him with the eyes of the soul more clearly and more intimately than I could have seen Him with those of the body; and so His figure remained impressed upon me, that, although twenty-six years have now passed since this vision, I believe I have Him present even now. I remained greatly struck and disturbed by this vision, and thereafter I would not see that person, with whom I had dealt more familiarly, any longer.
[107] and by another sight; But here it harmed me much that I did not know that it could happen that anything should be seen otherwise than with the eyes of the body; the devil, namely, impelling me to believe that this was so, and to persuade myself that it could by no means happen, and that I had been deceived in that vision, and that it had not come from God, and that perhaps the evil demon himself had appeared to me, and other things of this kind. It always indeed seemed to me, and remained impressed, that it was from God, and not some imaginary spectre; but because that reproof displeased me, hence I accused myself of lying: and since I dared disclose this vision to no one, and I was again invited with great importunity by some to the same intercourse, they asserting that there was no evil in my dealing with such a person, and that I suffered so little loss of honour by this intercourse that I even made it more illustrious, I relapsed into the same familiarity with that person, and afterwards into others with others, because for very many years I followed this pestilent delight in conversations, which, because I stuck so deeply in it, I did not believe to be so harmful to me as it really was, although at times I saw manifestly that it was by no means good. And the acquaintance of no one was the cause of so many distractions to me as that of the person I mentioned, because I followed that person with a peculiar affection. When at another time I was speaking with this very person, we saw (as did other persons who were present) something having the form of a huge toad making toward us, and that with a certain greater speed than toads are wont to crawl. I cannot understand how such a beast could be found in that place from which it ran out, and that at midday, when nothing such had ever been seen there; and from the operation which it worked in me it seems by no means to have been without a mystery, whence I have never forgotten it. With what solicitude and goodness, O immense greatness of God, didst Thou admonish me in diverse ways! But how little did I profit thereby!
[108] but in vain. I had there among the nuns a certain kinswoman of mine, heavy indeed with old age, but a fervent handmaid of God and of great religion. She too not rarely admonished me; but I not only did not believe her, but was even angry with indignation, and thought that she was scandalized without any cause. Now I have wished to relate these things about myself for this reason, that on the one hand my malice, on the other the wonderful goodness of God, may be made known, and on how many accounts I have deserved hell for so intolerable an ingratitude; and also so that, if perhaps the Lord should so dispose and will that some nuns in future times should read this writing, they may become more cautious by my danger: whom I wish to be asked, for the love of God, to flee recreations of that kind with oars and sails. May His divine Majesty grant that, of the number of those whom I made to err, some one may be recalled into the way of salvation by my little work; for by saying that this was no evil, and by making them, through my blindness, certain and secure in so great a danger (for I would not have wished to deceive them professedly and of set purpose), and at the same time by the bad example which I gave them (as I have already said), I was the cause of very many evils, although I did not believe I was doing so much evil in this.
[109] Meanwhile her father, whom she herself had led to prayer, When I was sick in those first days, namely before I could help myself, I was held by a certain ardent desire of helping others to salvation; which is the ordinary temptation of beginners at first, although the same turned out well for me: for because I loved my father exceedingly, I wished him the same good which I seemed to myself to have, namely the gift of prayer: for it seemed to me that nothing better than it could be had, in this life at least; so that by roundabout ways, and as it were from afar, as best I could, I tried to induce him to give himself to it. Hence I gave him books treating of the manner of praying, and because he was an upright man (as I have already said above), this exercise of prayer so pleased him that in the space of about five or six years he made such progress in it that I both praised God exceedingly on that account and it was the greatest consolation to me. He suffered great adversities and troubles, and of every kind; yet in all he conducted himself with great resignation of his will to the divine. He came to visit me rather often, because conversations about divine things brought him great pleasure. But afterwards, when I had given place so to distractions and had interrupted prayer, and saw moreover that he thought me the same as I used to be, I could not contain myself from disclosing the truth to him: for I interrupted prayer for a whole year and more, having supposed that this was a matter of greater humility. And this (as I shall record later) was the greatest of all the temptations I have had: for by this action I was tending to total ruin and perdition: for by the exercise of prayer, if perhaps I had offended God on this day, on the following days I recollected myself anew, and strove more and more to avoid the occasions of sinning.
[110] and who afterwards imputed her omission of prayer to her health, When, then, the good man visited me with this persuasion, I could not bear that he should be so gravely deceived and mistaken about me, thinking that I was still giving my time to prayer as I used to; hence I disclosed to him that I no longer applied myself to it as I had been accustomed: although I did not declare the true cause of the matter, saying that it came about through my continual infirmities that I could not give myself to it. For although I had been healed of that great infirmity which I mentioned before, yet I have always hitherto struggled with great infirmities, and struggle even now; although for a little time past their rigour has somewhat relaxed, yet they do not entirely leave me in every way. For above all, for twenty whole years I was subject every morning to vomiting, so that I could take no food until midday, sometimes even later; but since I began to approach holy Communion more frequently, those vomitings now return only about evening, before I go to bed, and indeed with greater pain: for I have to provoke them with feathers and other things of that kind: for if I hold them in, the ill I feel is very great. And truly I am almost never (as indeed it seems to me) without many pains and torments, which are at times even most grievous, and especially about the heart: although that faintness, which used to be continual and almost ordinary with me, has now much relaxed; that great paralysis too, the fevers, and other kinds of disease to which I used to be subject, now attack me more rarely, and I am often exempt from them. Now for eight continuous years I have laboured with these diseases; which I now make so little of that I often even rejoice in them, because God seems in some way to be pleased in this. My father, then, believed this to be the cause of my interrupted prayer, thinking that, as he himself was a stranger to every lie and sincere, I ought not to lie to him, given what I owed him and the way I dealt with him. I added, so that he might the better believe it (for I saw that I could in no way be excused as regards this negligence), that I did enough in being able to serve in choir. Although not even this was a sufficient cause for omitting anything, because for making prayer there is need not of bodily strength, but of love and custom alone: for the Lord always offers us the opportunity for it, if only we will…
[111] is seized with a disease, Further, my father, because of the good opinion which he had of me and because of the love with which he followed me, believed me in everything, nay he pitied me; but because he had already then arrived at so eminent a degree of perfection, he thereafter did not stay with me so long, but as soon as he had seen me,
he went away from there, saying that time was being uselessly lost in these vain conversations; but because I spent it myself on other vanities, I cared little for that. Nor indeed did I persuade my father alone, but others too, to practise the exercise of prayer, even at that time when I was following the aforesaid vanities: and, because I saw them delighting in vocal prayer, I taught them how they might make meditation (and indeed not without profit), and for this purpose I supplied them with the necessary books; for this desire, namely that others too should serve God, always remained with me from the time when I began to practise prayer, as was said before. For it seemed to me that, since I myself did not serve God as I understood I ought to serve Him, I ought at least to take care that what His divine Majesty had taught me should not go to ruin, and that others should serve Him in my place. I say this so that the huge blindness in which I was may appear, in that I let myself rush to destruction and strive to gain others. About this time my father was seized with that illness of which he died; it lasted some days. Whence I went to serve him and do what was necessary, but I was labouring more in soul than he in body, being entangled in very many vanities: yet so that, as far as I could understand, in all that time in which I was most lost (of which I speak), I was not in the state of mortal sin; for if I had known that I would commit it in anything, I would at once have withdrawn myself from it. In his illness I suffered great troubles: I seem to have repaid him to some extent for those which he had undergone when I was sick; and although I was otherwise rather weak myself, I nevertheless ministered to him diligently; and although, with him taken away, all good and solace was thereafter to be taken from me (for he was a consolation to me continually and everywhere), yet I showed myself so little moved and grieved by his illness (lest I should add any trouble to him, and so that I might be present to him until he died) as if I had felt nothing at all, though, when I saw him breathing his last, I thought my soul was being violently torn and drawn out of my body, because I loved him much.
[112] and, foreknowing his death, most piously The death which he met, and the ardent desire of dying which he had, was indeed a remarkable occasion of praising God, as also was hearing those salutary counsels which he gave us after he had been fortified with the Sacrament of extreme unction. Among other things he enjoined on us that, when he had departed life, we should commend him to God by prayers, beg the divine mercy for him, always serve God, and finally consider that all things which are in the world are momentary and pass away: and at the same time with many tears he testified to us the huge sorrow which he felt because he had not served Him as he ought: and he wished he had been a religious, and indeed of those who profess the strictest kind of life. I hold as certain and undoubted that the Lord signified to him beforehand, fifteen days before he expired, that he would shortly die: for although he was in rather bad health before, and very poorly, yet he did not believe that illness was mortal; but from that fifteenth day, even though he was a little better, and the physicians also asserted the very same, taking no account of their judgment, he desired before all things to provide for his soul, and all his care was about its good state. His principal illness was a most grievous pain in the shoulders, which never left him, and at intervals so tortured him that he felt most intense torments. Whence I persuaded him that, since he had always meditated with great feeling on the mystery of the Lord's carrying of the Cross, he should think that His Majesty now wished him to feel something of that pain which He Himself had once felt in carrying the Cross on His shoulders. Which words so consoled him that I do not seem ever after to have heard him complaining of the pain.
[113] departs this life. For three continuous days he was without all sense: but on the day on which he died he was so restored to all his senses that we all marvelled; the use of which he had entire, until in the middle of the recitation of the Apostles' Creed, which he himself was clearly running through, he gave up his spirit. When dead, his face shone with a certain angelic appearance, and in truth he seemed to me to have been an Angel, so to speak, if we look at his soul and its disposition. I do not know to what end I have related these things; unless perhaps that I may thereby the more beat down my own wickednesses: for having seen so holy a death, and understood so pious a life, I ought to have changed my own for the better, so as to resemble such a parent in some measure by imitation. His confessor, a man truly eminently learned, of the order of St. Dominic, said that he did not doubt that his soul went straight to heaven, because he had now been his confessor for some years, and he commended the remarkable purity of his conscience. The same Dominican, who was an exceedingly good and God-fearing man, profited me not moderately (because I confessed to him), and had the purpose of seriously helping my soul and of disclosing to me in what danger of perdition I was. He ordered me to approach the sacred table of the Eucharist every fourteen days, and beginning gradually to deal more and more with him about my affairs, at last I spoke with him about my manner of praying.
[114] On that occasion the holy Virgin resumes the practice of praying. He persuaded me, then, by no means to interrupt it, because through it I could not fail to profit. I began, therefore, to take it up again, yet not to cut off entirely the occasions of vanities; whence thereafter I never again interrupted it. I lived a most laborious and painful life at that time: for in prayer I perceived my defects more openly and more clearly. For on the one side God kept calling me, and on the other I followed the world. Whatever was of God and Divine was indeed a great pleasure to me; but the things of the world held me closely bound. I seemed, namely, to wish to bring into a certain concord and reconcile with one another these two things so discordant and hostile to each other, namely the spiritual life, and sensual delights, consolations and recreations. In prayer I suffered the greatest troubles and difficulties: for the spirit was not the master but the slave; whence it came about that I could not recollect and enclose myself within myself (which, however, was the manner of praying which I used to practise) without at the same time enclosing a thousand vanities within me. For many years I did thus in prayer, so that I now wonder how anyone's soul could bear it, so as not to desert one or the other of these extremes. I know that it was not then in my hand and power to interrupt prayer entirely, because He who loved me held me with His hand, so as to confer still greater graces upon me.
[115] It is asked when Christ appeared to her with a severe countenance Thus far the Saint. After this long discourse of hers, intending before all else to lay in this place of the commentary the foundation of Teresian chronology for these sixteen years, I must first set out when the Saint seems to me to have written her Life. Now she wrote it twice: namely first, by an order given her in the year 1561, which writing she finished in the month of June 1562; but the second time, in the year 1563 or 1564, or, if on account of the many occupations in the newly begun convent she still had to continue it in the year 1565, she had at least finished chapter XXXVII before the 28th of March of that year, since at the end of that chapter she says she does not yet have fifty years. See more on this in that § in which I shall treat specially of the book of the Life written by the holy Mother. Meanwhile the writing of the places which I have cited here from Teresa's Life seems able to be referred to the year 1563, since they belong to the earlier part of the book, the beginning of whose writing the most obedient Virgin certainly did not long postpone after the order given her in the year 1562. This being premised, the time can be fixed at which most of Teresa's affairs in the space of these years took place. And first of all it may be conjectured that she already in the year 1537, scarcely carried back into the monastery from her father's house, indulged too much in conversations with seculars visiting her. For in the seventh chapter she says that she had had more than 26 years before the vision by which she was rebuked by Christ with a severe countenance for worldly friendships of this kind: which vision accordingly falls in the year 1537, in the spring of which, according to the opinion which I embraced above, she was carried back paralysed into the monastery. And the Saint herself, treating of this time of sickness in chapter VII, although she was devoted to virtue and prayer, grieves that her confessors did not even then entirely remove the dangers of those conversations to which she exposed herself. Wherefore I judge that one must not have recourse, as Father Frederick of St. Anthony has (book 1, chapter IX), to a mistake by which the number of years 26 was set in place of 20, nor to a lapse of memory in Teresa, which the author of the Chronicle, who attaches that vision to the year 1542, says is probable. I confess indeed that the Saint sometimes hesitates in setting down days, months and even years themselves, nay even errs from time to time; but here the gap of lapsed memory would be too great to seem probable, namely of five or six years. One thing perhaps would somewhat stand in the way of the opinion I defend, namely that Yepes, the author of the Chronicle and other more recent writers say that this vision of Christ's stern face presented to her took place at the grilles of the cloister, in the place commonly called the parlour, to which the Virgin, crippled in all her limbs, was not able to creep: for they confuse this vision with another, in which she saw the Saviour torn, with a piece of flesh hanging from His lacerated arm. But Ribera doubts whether it is one vision or two, nor do I deny that I am inclined to distinguish them with Helyot and others, since the obvious sense of the first vision narrated by Teresa does not so square with the other vision, since the former displays more rigour, the latter more sorrow and friendly complaint.
[116] [at the grilles, which still exist even now, a picture of this vision hanging on them.] The apparition of Jesus Christ with a more severe countenance, which the Saint relates in chapter VII of her Life, you will now be able to see represented in a plate engraved on copper, which will be given later. Don Robustiano Boada very recently drew this vision from the picture which hangs in that very parlour which existed in Teresa's time, and in which parlour too, when she was not amended by the former vision, she afterwards saw a certain monster having the form of a huge toad. Here is what is read there in abbreviated form in Spanish under the picture there drawn, and which I also exhibit turned into Latin: Estando nuestra Santa Madre Teresa de Jesus en el principio de su vida en visita con una persona de las prendas que dice la Santa, se la represento Cristo con mucho rigor [Our holy Mother Teresa of Jesus being, at the beginning of her life, in a visit with a person of the qualities which the Saint describes, Christ represented Himself to her with much rigour]
en la forma que se ve, dandola a entender lo que de aquella no se agradaba; y aunque la Santa se turbo mucho, la parecio, como su intencion no era de ofender a Dios, seria antojo; y el demonio, que dice se lo hacia creer asi: con que perseverando en ver la misma persona, vio en este locutorio, otro dia volviendola avisar, esta sabandija, como lo dice la Santa en el capitulo VII de su Vida. [in the form that is seen, giving her to understand what did not please Him in that; and although the Saint was much troubled, it seemed to her, since her intention was not to offend God, that it would be a fancy; and the devil, she says, made her believe it so: whereupon, persevering in seeing the same person, she saw in this parlour, on another day when He was warning her again, this vermin, as the Saint says in chapter VII of her Life.] When our Holy Mother Teresa of Jesus, at the beginning of her (religious) life, was being visited by a person endowed with the attractive qualities which she mentions, Jesus Christ presented Himself to her with great rigour, with such a countenance as is seen here, signifying to her that this by no means pleased Him: and the Saint, although she was much troubled, because she had no mind to offend God, judged it a play of fancy; and she says that the demon persuaded her to judge it so. And as she went on receiving the visits of that person, on another day, as a new warning, she saw that toad, as the Saint narrates in chapter VII of her Life.
[117] Specially, as regards prayer neglected and practised, the time is inquired into: When afterwards Teresa had recovered her health by the intercession of St. Joseph, and could now receive visitors at the grilles, she entangled herself much more in those conversations. Namely—such are the devil's arts—that wily one, abusing Teresa's native inclination to win for herself the affection and friendship of men, and especially to gratify anyone for services and goodwill shown her, impelled her to waste time in familiar conversation with outsiders who kept coming to her, attracted by her excellent wit, the courtesy of her manners and the charm of her speech. When once the enemy had fettered her with these snares, he persuaded her to interrupt the exercise of praying, holding out the colour of unworthiness, saying it was a sin that she should approach Christ who did not withdraw from men. Therefore, improvidently listening to the one lying in wait, who is a liar from the beginning, and who, having first ensnared her in intercourse with worldly people, had then removed her from familiar intercourse with God in mental prayer, Teresa was on the point of going to ruin at some time, had she not resumed the exercise of prayer. And she resumed it on the occasion of the stay which she made in her father's house, assisting him as he was dying. For there she began to know his confessor, Father Vicente Barrón, O.P., a pious and lettered man, whom she also took as her own confessor. When she had explained to him that she had long since interrupted the practice of praying, because she feared to deal with God whom she had neglected, he disapproved of the preposterous humility; and Teresa, moved by his counsel, resumed that pursuit, never more to be remitted, yet without abstaining sufficiently from harmful familiarity, but she limped on two sides, accommodating herself in turn to God and to men, giving herself wholly to neither. Now in what year of her age Teresa omitted prayer is discerned from chapter XIX of her Life. For there she says that more than 21 years had then elapsed from the time when, deluded by the demon, she had abandoned that salutary exercise. And if you take 21 years and something more from 1563, it is plain that that unlucky time was about the year of Christ 1541, and the twenty-sixth of her age. Yepes, therefore, does not seem to say rightly (book 1, chapter IX) that the Saint, when she resumed prayer, was only 24 or 25 years old.
[118] in which matter the opinion of several is abandoned, and Kerbekius is censured. Wherefore I am forced here to depart from the author of the Chronicle, from Father Frederick of St. Anthony, from Boucher, etc., of whom I wonder that the two former, against the clear cited places of Yepes and of Teresa herself, would have the father dead and Teresa abstaining from prayer in the year 1545, and the third, Boucher namely, extends these two facts even to the year 1550. The occasion of their so opining seems to have been that the Saint says in chapter V of her Life that, through the fault of her confessors, who did not sufficiently instruct her on the gravity of sin (or more truly, on the danger of sinning gravely), she was blind for more than seventeen years, until she was taught better in some things by the Dominican Father (Father Barrón), and at length was frightened away from all dangers of sinning by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus. But since the clear places which I adduced above from Teresa and Yepes also stand, the place objected from chapter IV is to be interpreted so that it is understood that Teresa, in those first years of which she speaks, was untaught by Father Barrón the principle of false humility by which she had abandoned prayer, but that much later the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, by striking a salutary fear into her, brought it about that she abhorred every occasion of evil or even of danger. Meanwhile it will not be beside the point to cast an eye here in passing on the unfaithful version which Father Anton Kerbeck published at Mainz in the year 1603. Here is this place in Spanish from Teresa, and in Latin from Kerbeck: Dure en esta ceguedad creo mas de diez y siete años, hasta que un Padre Dominico, gran letrado, me desengaño en cosas, y los de la Compañia de Jesus del todo me hicieron tanto temer, agravandome tan malos principios. [I continued in this blindness, I believe, more than seventeen years, until a Dominican Father, a great scholar, undeceived me in things, and those of the Company of Jesus made me fear altogether so much, making me see the gravity of such bad principles.] In blindness of this kind, as I think, I remained more than 17 years, until a certain Father of the Order of St. Dominic, a man otherwise most learned, explained certain things to me, and some of the Society of Jesus, by striking great fear into me, and greatly aggravating my principles. And here the phrase is broken off. Kerbeck therefore insinuates that it should be imputed as a fault to the Dominican Father that he explained to Teresa that the practice of prayer must be resumed, as also to the Fathers of the Society of Jesus that they signified to her expressly and with great efficacy whither that fancy tended by which she supposed that she could deal familiarly with God and with men at the same time and serve both. But Kerbeck will get his drubbing later.
[119] And finally it is investigated how long her languor and dryness lasted. One thing now remains to be inquired into as regards this age of the Saint, namely how long she remained bound in these snares of human intercourse. In appearance indeed, but in reality saying nothing different, she says, when she relates that it lasted now 17, now 18, now 20, nay now 22 years. For since she entangled herself in that habit step by step, and did not disentangle herself wholly from it in one year, that time can be extended more or less without injury to the truth. You might say almost the same of the space during which she complains that she was not sufficiently instructed by her confessors, or during which she laboured under dryness in praying. Meanwhile these years of sterility are commonly numbered as eighteen, for example in the Bull of canonization and in the Roman Breviary, which has thus: For eighteen years, harassed by most grievous illnesses and various temptations, she served most constantly in the camp of Christian penance, refreshed by no food of those heavenly consolations in which sanctity is wont to abound even on earth. And this is in conformity with chapter VIII of the Life, where the Saint says that she began the exercise of prayer 28 years before, among which, she says, besides one single year and some months several times (when I had given more serious effort to virtue), for more than 18 years I had to struggle, wishing to deal with God and with the world indiscriminately. In the remaining years (namely apart from those brief spaces of fervour) the cause of that interior war, although it was not slight, was another: but because then (as indeed I think) I was in the service of God and had perceived the vanity of the world, all things were sweet to me. And in order that these later years of abundance, in which she can be said to have struggled no longer with the world but, as Jacob once did, with God, may be distinguished from the earlier ones of sterility, among other places of the Saint and her biographers there is one which settles the matter, so that the rest seem able to be neglected. Namely, in the letter to Rodrigo Álvarez, S.J. (vol. I, letter 19), the Saint speaks thus: Nearly eighteen years ago the foundation of the first monastery of the Discalced nuns at Ávila was treated of. Two or three years before (I believe it was three) she began (in this account of her conscience the Saint uses the third person) to seem to herself to hear at times interior voices and to have sometimes visions and revelations. Since, therefore, it may be conjectured that the foundation of St. Joseph's began to be treated of in the year 1559, the first-fruits of the supernatural gifts seem to be referred to the year 1556, and to the preceding year, that is 1555, that great motion in Teresa from the sight of the image of Jesus Christ and from the reading of the Confessions of St. Augustine. Nor do the reasons devised by the interpreter of the Teresian letters (vol. IV, on letter or writing 76) seem probable to me, by which he maintains that the Saint had already tasted those supernatural gifts in the year 1551. To adduce these, much less to refute them, I judge useless, the matter being sufficiently established from the clear place of Teresa cited above.
§ VIII. Continuation of the preceding paragraph. In all that time her sins were not grave. In what way she at length generously overcame all obstacles to virtue.
The holy Virgin wonders that she was even then made much of. Let us take from Teresa's mouth the rest of what befell her in those long years, in which, committing light faults at times, but more often acting most blamelessly, now dry, now flooded with divine solaces, she wove her life together. Soon we shall see that, however much Teresa is her own accuser, nothing shameful or grave was committed by her, and that very few days intervened on which she did not pray for a very long time. The Saint proceeds, then, in chapters VII and VIII of her Life: Good God, how shall I relate the occasions which God removed from me in all that time, and how I threw myself headlong into them again, and also from what dangers of losing my reputation entirely He guarded me? For I was doing those works from which it could be seen and gathered what I was; but the Lord covered my evils, and made some slender virtue (if indeed I had any) openly manifest, and made it seem great in the eyes of all, so that I was always made much of by all: for although my vanities sometimes appeared, yet because they saw other things which seemed to them good, they believed nothing of this kind about me. And this came about because God, the knower of all things, had already then foreseen that it was expedient so, so that in those things which I afterwards spoke of concerning His service, I might have some authority with them; and His supreme liberality looked not so much at my grave sins as at the desires which I often had of serving Him; and also at the sorrow which I felt because strength was lacking me to carry them out in deed itself.
[121] [The graces which she received from God were more bitter to her than chastisement itself,] How, O God of my soul, shall I worthily
weigh the graces which Thou didst confer on me in all that time, and how in that very time in which I offended Thee most by sinning, Thou didst dispose me most quickly, through a certain very great repentance, so that I might be able to receive Thy consolations and graces? And, to confess the truth, my King, Thou didst use for this that chastisement than which none could be either sweeter or more painful to me, as one who understood and knew what would be most bitter to me: so that Thou didst chastise my sins with great favours and benefits. Nor do I believe I am saying anything insane or foolish here, although it would be fitting that I should now be mad and lose my mind, when I call to memory anew my ingratitude and malice. It was far more grievous to me, given the condition of my nature, to receive graces from Thee at the time when I had fallen into grave faults, than to be scourged and afflicted: for in truth I seemed to myself to be more confounded and annihilated by a single grace which I received than by many infirmities and very many other troubles joined together. For I saw that I deserved affliction, and I believed that by suffering some troubles I made satisfaction in some measure for my sins: although that was all too little in respect of these, which were very many in number. But when I saw myself again and again affected with new benefits, though I made such bad satisfaction for the former ones which I had received, this was to me the most grievous cross of all, as I believe it will also be to all who have even some knowledge or love of God. And this can be perceived well enough here in those who naturally incline to virtue. For this reason, namely, I wept and was indignant, seeing namely what I felt: for I saw myself placed in the proximate, so to say, potency of relapse, although my purposes and desires were then, at that time, I say, quite firm. It is a great evil when a soul is alone amid so many and such great dangers. Truly, if I had had someone with whom I could confer about all these things, I believe I should have been restrained by his help from relapsing again and anew, at least out of a certain shame, since meanwhile I was moved by no shame before God… For my part, I can confess this about myself, that, had the Lord not opened this truth to me, and given me means of often dealing with those who were versed in the art and manner of praying, now slipping and now rising again, I should without doubt have fallen headlong into hell: for for falling I had many friends by whom I was helped; but for rising again I was so alone that even now I wonder how I did not always remain fixed on the ground in my fall: and I sing the mercy of God, because He alone stretched out His hand to me to rise. May He be blessed for ever. Amen.
[122] Not without reason have I so weighed and sifted this time of my life; because she seemed to herself not to respond to God in love. because I see that there will be no one who takes any pleasure from the account of a thing so bad and wicked. I would truly wish that those who read these things might conceive a loathing for me, seeing a soul so obstinate and ungrateful toward Him from whom it received so many graces and favours; and I could wish that leave were given me to declare how often, while that time lasted, I offended against my God, because I did not lean on that strong and solid column of prayer. I sailed this stormy and tempestuous sea for nearly twenty years, now falling, now rising in turn, but very imperfectly, because after rising I soon returned to the vomit and led a life so imperfect that I made almost nothing of venial sins, and as for mortal ones, though I feared them, yet I did not fear them as indeed I ought, since I did not avoid their occasions. This I know how to say, that this manner of living is so bitter and difficult that no more difficult one seems able to be imagined or given: for I neither enjoyed God, nor took any pleasure from the world. For when I was in worldly recreations, as soon as it came back to my mind what I owed to God, I felt a certain bitterness in them: but when I conversed with God, worldly affections and desires disturbed me. And this fight is indeed so painful and so very troublesome that I do not know how I could have borne it even for a month, much less for so many years. In this, however, I clearly perceive the great mercy of God toward me, that, although I had to deal with worldly people and live in the world, I nevertheless had the courage to practise prayer: courage, I say; for I do not know for what thing, of all that are in the world, there is more need of courage than for someone to treat of betraying his king, and meanwhile to know that this by no means escapes him, and never to lose His presence from his eyes. For although we are always before God, as many of us as there are, yet those who practise prayer seem to be present to Him in a far different manner: for they see assiduously that they are seen by Him, while others perhaps for many days do not even think that they are present to God.
[123] At length, however, frequent prayer again and again brings back her fervour, It is true indeed that in all this time, sometimes for many months, and I believe even for one whole year, I guarded myself from offending God by sinning, and applied myself much to prayer, and employed various diligences in diverse ways so that I might not offend Him anywhere (and because whatever I write coincides with the truth and is most true, therefore I now treat of this matter); but of those good days my memory is very slight: whence they must have been very few, but the bad ones very many in number. Scarcely a day went by on which I did not spend many hours of it in prayer, unless either sickly health or business pressing from outside hindered me. When the body was sick, the mind was stronger toward God and divine things, and I took pains that those who then dealt with me should also be well disposed as regards God; which very thing I also begged from God in praying, and spoke rather often with them about Him. So that (except perhaps that year which I mentioned) out of twenty-eight years (for so many there are since I began to exercise myself in prayer) I passed eighteen and more in this fight and conflict, because I applied myself now to God, now to the world, by turns: but in those years which still remain for me to record, the cause of the fight, though it was not small, was changed; but because then (as indeed I think) I was in God's service and had perceived worldly vanity, all things, as I shall relate later, were sweet to me. The cause, therefore, for which I have so particularly set out all these things is this: first, that both the mercy of God and my ingratitude toward Him (as I have said before) may appear: then, that all may understand that great good which God bestows on the soul when He disposes it to exercise itself in prayer heartily and with good will, though it be not so well disposed of itself as it ought indeed; and how the Lord, if only it persevere in it, notwithstanding the sins, temptations and divers falls which the devil will cause, at length (as indeed I certainly persuade myself) draws it to the harbour of salvation: just as (as indeed it now seems to me) He has drawn me thither by His grace. May His divine Majesty grant that hereafter I may not return anew to ruining myself…
[124] which she often approached with the greatest repugnance of mind. I truly do not understand what at last they fear who fear to apply themselves to mental prayer; and truly I do not know why they are afraid; but the demon deliberately causes this fear, so that through it he may truly harm us and do us ill, namely when through it he hinders me from reflecting how often and how gravely I have offended God, how much I owe Him, that there is a hell and a certain heavenly glory, and finally from thinking of those immense torments and labours which He underwent for my sake. About these things all my prayer turned, and turned as long as I was placed in those dangers; and these things, when I could, I ruminated again and again: nay, for some years I laboured more often to see the hour which I had fixed for myself for praying quickly passed, anxiously watching when at last the signal of its having elapsed would be given, than to give myself to other good things; and not rarely I would have more willingly undergone any penance however grave than recollected myself to pray. The violence, moreover, which the devil or my perverse habit did me to make me interrupt prayer, and the sadness which seized me when I hid myself within the oratory, were so great that I had to struggle with all my effort and courage to do it (which courage, however, I am said to have not small, and it was plain to the eye that it was given me by God more than womanly, except that I spent it badly); but God at length was present to me with His help. And after I had done myself this violence, I felt far greater quiet and consolation than sometimes when I was eager to read in a pious book. If, then, the Lord sustained me, so wicked, for so long a time, and it is evidently plain too that by this way a remedy was applied to all my evils, who, however wicked, should fear? No one surely: for, though he be the worst, he will at least not be wicked for so many years, after receiving so many graces from the Lord: or who can despair, since He sustained me for so long a time? and that only because I sought and courted some convenient place and time in which He might deal with me; and this often against my will; because either I or the Lord Himself did me great violence… This one thing I shall add here concerning prayer, namely that it was as it were the gate by which those great graces came which the Lord bestowed upon me, and that a huge good befell me from never having interrupted prayer and pious reading.
[125] [She is not quieted by the ill-considered words of a confessor, but is moved by sacred sermons.] I could wish indeed that I could in some way describe the captivity in which my soul was then held captive: because I knew and saw that it was indeed captive: but by what bond it was held bound I could not at all understand, as neither could I believe that what my confessors did not so exaggerate to me was so evil as I felt it to be in my soul. One of them, when, pressed by scruples, I had gone to him for the sake of counsel and help, did not fear to tell me that, even if I had been raised to the highest kind of contemplation, occasions and conversations of that kind could by no means harm me. This was now toward the end, when namely, the divine grace helping, I had already
been guarding myself more against the great dangers of sinning, although I did not yet entirely avoid the very occasion of sinning. And because all saw me having good desires and from time to time applying myself to prayer, I seemed to them to be doing much indeed; but my soul easily understood that this was not doing that to which it was obliged toward Him to whom it owed so much. Truly I now pity my soul, that it bore so many things then, and that so little help came to it from all except from God; and then that so much liberty was given it to pursue its recreations and consolations, by saying that they were lawful. The pain which I felt afterwards in sermons was not slight, and I was so affected in hearing them that, if I saw anyone preaching with spirit and well, I was borne with a particular love toward him, yet so that I did not procure it myself, and was altogether ignorant whence it arose in me. Almost never did any sermon seem to me so inept and unfitting that I did not hear it willingly; even if, in the judgment of others who had heard it, the preacher had not preached well: but if the sermon was good, I drew from it a certain particular pleasure. Almost never, from the time I began to give myself to prayer, was it tedious to me both to speak of God and to hear others speaking. The sermons, moreover, which I heard were sometimes a very great consolation to me, but sometimes tormented me greatly, because in them I understood how far I was from what I ought to be. I asked the Lord, therefore, to help me: but (as it now indeed seems to me) I must then have erred in this, that I did not put my trust wholly in His divine Majesty, and none at all in myself. I kept seeking, therefore, a remedy, and applied what effort I could: but it is probable that I did not understand that all things help little or nothing unless, distrusting ourselves entirely, we put all our trust in God. I wished, namely, to live: for I understood that I was by no means living, but struggling with a certain shadow of death; and there was no one who gave me life, and yet I could not take it from myself: and He who could give it to me, not without reason did not succour me, since He had so many times brought me back to Himself and I had basely deserted Him.
[126] Some wrongly exaggerate the holy Virgin's defects: Thus far you have this period of a laxer life in religion delineated by the Saint. Only, as everywhere, since I play the part of historian and not of ascetic, I have here omitted many maxims of the spiritual life, which I would wish to be read by all in Teresa's book itself. Having endeavoured in the preceding paragraph to shake out chiefly the chronological doubts, in the present one I have scarcely anything to add to Teresa's narration, since she herself unfolds amply and simply all her actions, and opens the inmost secrets of her soul. Meanwhile, however, one thing occurs which I should handle here, although you will find it performed broadly and learnedly in Ribera for his time, in which not all the arguments had been explored. Namely, some, taking literally all that the humble Teresa declares about the gravity of her sins, and not weighing the frequency of her prayer, and the exercise of charity and many other virtues, and her immunity from those blemishes by which the virginal chastity of body and soul is stained even most lightly, have imagined her much worse than she really was. Already Ribera and Yepes had vindicated the Saint from grave crimes; but after these distinguished biographers, on the occasion of the process of canonization, her perpetual purity from all deadly sin was demonstrated still more brilliantly. Nevertheless certain later writers seem to traduce her as a grave sinner. For even Catholic writers, drawn away by the example and style of the Jansenists, have not sufficiently guarded themselves against the habit proper to that sect, by which all things are exaggerated and counsels turned into precepts and ill is thought even of the good. You would surely say, according to the custom which harsh Jansenism introduced among the incautious—accustomed to air charity continually with puffed cheeks, and wishing all human actions to proceed from pure love of God unless they be sin, and in that way, from its preposterous charity, reprobating almost the whole human race as a kind of damned mass—you would say, I say, that some writers seem to themselves to be the better followers of holiness and judges of justice the more they extenuate virtues in others, and the more sharply they carp even in the Saints themselves at even the lightest faults. How false this is and how contrary to evangelical charity, everyone sees.
[127] which incautiously slipped from Father Helyot and others, In that way, in many writings about Teresa or versions of her works which have appeared in this or the preceding century, there are not rarely to be found certain things said against the Saint which are of a nature to sprinkle no light stain on her holiness, even if this is not done professedly, nor even intended. In this way Helyot ignorantly says that the Saint, when she was twelve, lost the sense of the fear of God which she had kept up to then. There would certainly be room for a kindly interpretation, and it could be understood that she did not lose sanctifying grace, but only the fervour of divine grace; as the Venerable Father John of Jesus Mary must be understood, when he writes in book I, chapter VI: Hence forgetfulness of the fear of God, vain affections, and excessive familiarity with others. For he immediately subjoins: Although, as she herself has consigned to writing, she never desired grave sin. For the most clement God, lest that sanctuary of His should be polluted by any contagion, fenced the virgin with a double armour, that is, a native hatred of lust and the virtue of honour, so that she might ward off all the blows of the vices. But an interpretation of this kind cannot be granted to Father Helyot, since what he says afterwards does not soften but further aggravates her defects, saying that Teresa at one time allowed herself a laxer life, and let the spirit of the world rule in her soul (which last part of the phrase I find cut off in the Paris edition of 1792). I pass over that this writer a little later expresses, by a formula unacceptable to Catholic theologians, that Teresa was brought back again to God by the natural inclination of her heart. Nor in a dissimilar manner do certain writers speak too crudely of Teresa's conversion. She can certainly rightly be said to have been converted, when from the circumstances the reader is not induced to believe that she had been previously turned away from God, but when it means only her fuller conversion to God, as it means in Ribera, and as my heading of the preceding paragraph also has it. But in certain writers, as the words lie, it is not obscurely hinted that she was at some time deprived of God's friendship through mortal sins.
[128] but what Villefore has dared in a plainly unworthy manner. But these things which incautiously slipped from the pen of upright writers are light, if they are compared with the texture of facts which Villefore fabricated, both about Teresa's youth spent in the world and about her first years in religion, in his French Life of the Saint. I am ashamed to repeat here the amorous levities which he does not fear to impose on a Virgin most upright and most chaste throughout. For a whole three years, while she was still in the world, he exhibits her as engaged in such ruin that, her heart softened by loves and the light and fervour of divine grace wholly extinguished in her, she turned out a mistress of adornment and blandishments: whereas in all her biographers, and indeed in the Saint's own writings—although out of the spirit of humility she certainly does not conceal or diminish, but rather increases, her defects—nothing such is found, and whereas the vanities in which she confesses she was engaged lasted not three years, as Villefore falsely says, but not even three months, as the Saint asserts in chapter II. Then the same author, when the holy Virgin had already put on the sacred habit and been bound by the solemn vow of chastity, fabricates in base calumny that she was frequented by a lover who held her heart ensnared. But away with this insult to the morals of a most chaste Virgin devoted to God, and to historical truth! For Villefore was the first to have hammered these things out of his own brain, who, from the fact that the Saint (chapter VII of her Life) simply relates that she clung with a particular affection to someone who frequently visited her, gratuitously, and without the Spanish text in the least hinting at this, invents that it was an unchaste affection in a nun and not a mere courtesy of excessive kindliness. And it was all the more necessary to castigate Villefore here because several more recent writers have imitated him in this, even adding new colours to his fiction: as does the author of the article S. Therese in the Dictionary printed at Paris in 1839 by the press of Belin and Mandar, under the title Dictionnaire de la conversation et de la lecture. Far be it from me, however, while I call Villefore reprehensible in these things, to deny that he is commendable in many others.
[129] The Saint was always immune, But let us turn the pen to better things: and in order that not only these grave gibes of Villefore against the Saint, but also the laxity of her life exaggerated by others, and the alleged conversion, and that absence of divine love in Teresa at some time which is affirmed by certain persons, may be exploded as they deserve, besides the arguments of Ribera, following chiefly Father Frederick of St. Anthony (book III, chapter XXV), I shall gather others here, from which it will be plain that our Saint never stained the whiteness of her baptismal robe with a grave blot, but that there can and must be attributed to her that more sublime glory by which the innocent shine above the penitent: which is indeed most worthy of demonstration, since it matters so much to the greater esteem of the Saint. By what species of sins, then, I ask, would you say our Saint was defiled? Of unchastity? But, beyond Ribera, who washes away this charge (book I, chapter IV), hear the Holy Father Gregory XV, who in the Bull of canonization, in most grave and most open words, asserts Teresa's angelic purity not only of body but also of heart. Among her other virtues, he says, with which, adorned as a bride by God, she wonderfully excelled, there shone forth a most perfect chastity, which she cultivated so eminently that not only did she carry through until death the purpose of preserving virginity conceived from childhood, but she preserved an angelic purity free from every stain in heart and body. Moreover the Sacred Congregation of Rites approved the prayer which is recited on the feast of the Transverberation of her Heart throughout the whole Carmelite Order and in many churches throughout the world, and in which she is declared immune from all profane love: O God, who didst pierce with a fiery dart the unblemished heart of Blessed Virgin Teresa, Thy spouse, and didst consecrate it a victim of charity, etc.
[130] not only from lust, By no thought or deed, therefore, did St. Teresa ever violate the laws of chastity. It remains for us to see whether it is to be imputed to her as a grave fault that she was at some time placed in danger of sinning. Fathers John of Jesus Mary (book I, chapter VI) and Francis of St. Mary (Chron. book I, chapter VI, no. 7) answer that Teresa had been furnished by the merciful God with two bridles against sin: namely, solicitude for her reputation
and a horror of any immodesty or turpitude whatever, as she herself testifies of herself in the second chapter of her Life; whence it may perhaps be lawful to conclude that there was not for her, in the matter in question, so proximate a danger of offending as there would have been for some others. Yepes moreover observes that the holy Virgin, although in her humility she vehemently exaggerates her faults, although she also seems to hint that the danger of mortal sin lay hidden in those conversations of hers, was nevertheless never brought to pronounce on the evidence of that danger or to acknowledge herself guilty of greater fault. And if anyone should believe that the greatness of the danger, whatever it was in the end, was perceived by Teresa when already of more advanced age; yet for the same Teresa while still young, ignorance was a certain and peremptory excuse. It is not a crime in a little boy to climb a rock which he does not know to be steep: and the same must be judged of our Saint; especially since she did not err by herself alone, but had confessors agreeing with her in the error, who denied, namely, that the things she did were unlawful: as is clear from chapters III and VIII of her Life. While those very persons to whom she had committed herself to be governed were thus deluded, who, I ask, would turn it into a grave crime in an inexperienced girl that she was ignorant of the right path? Who would not judge that Teresa acted in good faith, if attention is paid to chapter VII of the Life written by her; where she relates that she persuaded other nuns, not with the design of deceiving, but with an upright mind, that there was nothing evil in those conversations of hers? There will be no one, I believe, who would judge that the holy Virgin came to such malice that she sinned not for herself alone, but also with deliberate purpose gave others occasion of sinning.
[131] but from every grave sin, These things indeed suffice enough and more than enough for us to assert that Teresa was immune from every stain of unchastity, and altogether to deny that she ever injured this angelic virtue either by deed or by any thought. But what remains in which she is alleged to have sinned gravely? That she tore the reputation of her neighbours? That she transgressed the monastic laws with scandal? That she was defiled by envy or other vices of that kind? Let whoever will (I use almost the words of Father Frederick) drain the bilge of all sins: what will he find of which to accuse Teresa? I know indeed that the Saint bewailed the enormous offences which she committed; I know that there was shown her the place which she says had been prepared for her by the demons in hell: but beware of taking those formulas of humility in a stricter sense. The holy Virgin, most vile to herself, laments, laments and abominates her defects; she weeps for the exercise of mental prayer abandoned by her for some time, for time ruined in light chatter; she relates the reproofs made to her by the most kind Redeemer, who deigned to correct each of her minute imperfections and to show her the vanity of the life spent up to then, so that He might stir up His bride to generosity in His love: but so far is she from anywhere relating that she was accused by the Lord of having lost sanctifying grace, that she even affirms in express words in chapter VII of her Life that she committed no deadly offence in the most abandoned time of her life. Whence it becomes manifest that whatever she sets out about her crimes is to be equated with what the holy Fathers declare against men careless of amending venial sins. Namely, as it is false and heretical to maintain that all sins are mortal of their kind, so it is by no means unworthy of a Christian to reckon even venial sins as a grave evil; because by them the supreme and infinite Good is offended. Hell, however, was shown to St. Teresa not because she had already deserved to be thrust down there, but because she would have deserved it had she not cast off her former habits: since from lighter lapses, the horror of greater lapses being gradually diminished, according to that saying of the Holy Spirit, He that contemneth small things shall fall by little and little (Ecclus. XIX, 1), she would have been most miserably drawn on to total ruin.
[132] as Urban VIII himself affirmed. It is pleasing to join to the arguments hitherto adduced by me most august testimonies, by which it may be made most conspicuous that Teresa never removed herself from God, her last end, by grave sins. The auditors of the Sacred Rota, incorruptible and most rigid examiners of all the Works of St. Teresa, in article VII of their Report on her virtues, where her most perfect justice is treated, pronounce thus: Secondly, the same is drawn from the filial fear by which she always shuddered at the transgression of the law and commandments of God: which is so true that, although she exaggerated her faults in the account of her life (which argues profound humility), yet she is believed never to have committed a mortal sin, but to have most faithfully guarded the nuptial garment of grace received in Baptism. That he thought the same Urban VIII, Supreme Pontiff, showed most clearly, on the testimony of Philip López in the last chapter of his Teresian Life. Namely, in the first office of St. Teresa which was printed, toward the end of the sixth lesson it was said: The Lord enriched her so liberally with divine gifts that, often exclaiming, she asked that a limit be set to the divine benefits toward her, and that the memory of her crimes not be abolished by so swift a forgetfulness; which words the author of the office, who is believed to have been Father Louis of St. Joseph, a Florentine of the noble family of the Magalotti, had composed because they seemed conformable to the humble expressions of the Saint: but Pope Urban, taking up the pen, lest St. Teresa should be reputed by the unlearned to have ever been wicked, substituted with his own hand for the words of her crimes the words of her faults, which we still read in the Roman Breviary; and he broke out into these words most worthy of record: St. Teresa never committed a mortal sin: wherefore it is not fitting that what she out of humility attributed to herself should commonly become an occasion of suspecting that she was ever to be accused of grave offences.
[133] Nay, she never failed to shine with eminent virtues. And if we read attentively, either in the original language or in a faithful version, the things narrated both by Teresa herself and by her contemporary biographers, we shall find (as Father Frederick rightly observes) that the complex of virtues which the Sacred Scriptures adorn with the name of justice was not to be despised in her even at that very time in which, having abandoned mental prayer through an erroneous dejection of mind, she was accustomed to give herself only to vocal prayers. In the places cited by me here and there above, that ingenious self-accuser is seen by every sharp-eyed reader to be endowed with such virtue that, if you compare her with the common number of those professing the religious life, she seems to deserve to be called fervent and almost perfect. She was solicitous not to omit anything pertaining to monastic observance, nor to stumble against the laws of obedience; by contempt of herself and most sweet manners she made herself commendable to all; the things granted her for use she yielded most liberally to others; she shuddered at backbiting and discords; she succoured her companions with what industry she could; she withdrew frequently to pray or to feed her soul with spiritual reading; she spoke willingly of God; and, although she herself, as we have seen above, omitted the exercise of mental prayer at that time, yet out of her zeal for the divine service she diligently exhorted some others, among whom was her father Alonso, to give themselves to that same exercise. And how great an indication of virtue is it that she bore most bitter illnesses, anguish of mind, the absence of all external help and solace, very many assaults of the demon, so patiently, so constantly, so bravely! It is indeed permitted, in speaking of Teresa, to use what St. Gregory once wrote of Blessed Job: Let this man seem to anyone great in his virtues; to me certainly he appears sublime even in his sins (Moral. book XXII, chapter XV). Nay, I almost dare to say with Father Anthony of St. Joseph that Teresa's sins were worth more than our virtues, and that our perfections do not reach to her imperfections. She turned it into a fault for herself that she did not always burn with divine charity like the Seraphim; our virtue is comprised in a few acts of charity elicited now and then: she thought it criminal not to have always done what was best; we, if we do any good, think splendidly of our virtue. Such, then, was Teresa at that time in which she believed herself lukewarm; what she did when fervent is now to be seen in what follows.
§ IX. From the sight of a pious image she conceives the purpose of a more perfect life: she is heaped with sublime gifts of God in prayer: she chooses a confessor from the Society of Jesus.
Having seen an image of Christ wounded, How the conversion of our Teresa from the less perfect to the more perfect began, understand from her own pen: My soul, then, she says in chapter IX of her Life, was now weary and exhausted, and although it would itself have wished to rest a little, yet the bad habits and customs which it had allowed it no rest. And it happened that, when one day I had entered the oratory, I saw in it a certain image which had been placed there for safekeeping and had been borrowed for a certain feast to be celebrated in our monastery. There was painted in it our Redeemer Christ, disfigured on every side with wounds and stripes, so moving those who looked at it to compassion that, as soon as I cast my eyes upon it, I was wholly troubled within, because I saw Him in such a figure and form; for it represented to the life what He had suffered for us. I felt indeed such sorrow in my soul, because I had been so little grateful to Him for these stripes received, that my heart seemed to be split into two parts; whence I cast myself down before Him with many tears, begging Him from my heart to give me at once and once for all such constancy and strength of mind that thereafter I should offend Him no more. Further, I followed St. Mary Magdalene with a singular affection, and often meditated on her conversion with myself, and most of all when I approached the Eucharistic table. For because I knew most certainly that the Lord Jesus was then really present within me, I placed myself at His feet, hoping that my tears would not be rejected. And I did not know what I was saying: for He did more than enough who allowed me to shed them for His sake, since forgetfulness of this feeling and affection so quickly seized me; and I seriously commended myself to this Saint, that by her suffrage she might obtain pardon for me for my offences. But that last sight of this image of which I speak seems to have profited me more; because I now distrusted myself entirely and placed all my trust in God alone. Moreover I seem to myself to have then said to Him with certain trust that I would not rise from there before He granted me what I was asking of Him: and I certainly persuade myself that this profited me; for from that time I began notably to amend my life.
[135] The Saint begins to give herself to meditation more fervently than usual This manner of praying, moreover, I kept: for because I could not discourse with the intellect, the Redeemer
our Jesus within me, and in the meditation of those mysteries I seemed to find more relish and affection in which I saw Him more alone and deserted by others: and I believed that He, being thus alone and afflicted, as one placed in need, would not be loath to admit me. I had not a few simplicities of this kind; but above all the very prayer of the Lord in the garden of Gethsemane moved me, where I joined myself to Him alone as companion. Here I meditated with myself on His sweat and the anguish of soul which He felt there, and, if it had been permitted me, I would have wished to wipe away from Him that sweat so painful and bitter: but, as far as I remember, I never dared to propose to undertake it, because my sins so grave were again and again turning before my eyes: here I remained with Him in imagination as long as my thoughts permitted me: for these, very many in number, rent my mind not moderately. For very many years, on most nights before I slept, when I was commending myself to God by prayers before sleep, I always meditated for some space of time on this prayer in the garden, even before I was a religious; because ample Indulgences were said to be promised to those meditating on this mystery. And I firmly believe that my soul made no contemptible gain in this way, because on this occasion I began to give myself to prayer, though I did not know what it was; nay, prayer was now becoming so familiar to me that I omitted it no more than I omitted to fortify myself with the sign of the Cross when I settled myself to sleep.
[136] and by pious thoughts on Christ's humanity, To return, then, to the torment which I said I suffered from occurring thoughts, I say that it is ordinary and proper to this manner of praying without discourse of the intellect, that in it the soul either gains or loses much: consideration, I say, having been omitted, he who so advances advances much, because he is wholly occupied in loving. But no one arrives here except after great labour, and not without great cost to himself, except those whom the Lord deigns to lead to the prayer of quiet in the shortest time: for I have known some such. But for those who are such, it is expedient to take a book in hand, by the help of whose reading they may at once recollect themselves. It also helped me very much to see fields, water, flowers: for in these things I found the memory of the Creator Himself: these, I say, stirred me and made me recollected, and served in place of a book, even in my ingratitude and sins. But heavenly and sublime things my intellect (such was its dullness) could never imagine, until the Lord represented them to me by another way and manner: for I was so little skilled at representing anything to myself through the intellect that I had no help from my imagination, except only in thinking again on what I beheld with my own eyes, whereas others can make whatever representations they please, in which to recollect themselves. I could think only of Christ insofar as He is man, yet I could never represent Him to myself, however much I might read of His beauty, or however many images of Him I might see, except only like some blind person, or one who acts in darkness without any light, who, although he speaks with someone and knows that he is with him (because he most certainly knows that he is present, knows, I say, and believes that he is before him), yet does not see him. In exactly the same way it happened to me when I thought of the Saviour Jesus. For this reason I was so affected toward images and pictures. Woe to those unhappy people who by their own fault fall away from a good of this kind; whence it is clearly to be gathered that they by no means love the Lord: for if they loved Him, they would doubtless delight in His image; just as even among worldly friends it helps and is a pleasure to see the image of him whom we singularly love.
[137] and reading the Confessions of St. Augustine not without tears, At this very time the books of the Confessions of St. Augustine were given to me, the Lord (as indeed it appears) so disposing; for I had neither procured them nor ever seen them. Moreover I am of a singular affection toward St. Augustine, both because the monastery in which I had lived while still a secular was of the Augustinian Order, and because he too, while he lived, had been a sinner. For the Saints whom the Lord, after they had lived in sins, at length called to Himself have always been a very great consolation to me, because I believed that I ought to find some help in them, and that the Lord, as He had received them into grace, so would receive me too into grace. But, as I have said, this one thing cast me down and tormented me, namely that they were called by the Lord only once, and thereafter did not fall back again, but I, called so many times, had always returned to the vomit. Which indeed tormented me exceedingly. Yet when I considered the love with which He pursued me, I took courage again: for I never distrusted His mercy, but very often myself. How I wonder, O good God, at the hardness and obstinacy of my soul, when it had received so many and such splendid helps from Him! I cannot but fear and tremble when I think how little I could do of myself, and how I was as it were bound, so as not to resolve with myself to give myself wholly to God. When, therefore, I began to read those Confessions of St. Augustine, I seemed to see in them the image of myself, and I began seriously and from my heart to commend myself to this glorious Father. And when I had now come to his conversion, and how that voice was made to him in the garden, I was moved no otherwise than if I were being addressed by the same voice from the Lord: whence too for a great space of time I poured myself wholly out in tears, weeping inwardly within myself, not without great bitterness and anguish of mind.
[138] in the love of God How much, good God, a soul suffers, that it loses the liberty which as mistress it ought to have, and how many torments it endures! Now I wonder with myself how I could have lived in so great a torment. Blessed be God, who gave me life, that I might emerge from so deadly a death. It is probable to me that my soul then received great strength from the divine Majesty, and that God must have heard my cries and had pity on so many tears. Whence the courage and desire began to grow in me to deal longer with Him in prayer, and to remove the occasions of sinning from my eyes; for when they were removed and taken away, I was at once turned anew to loving His Majesty: for although, as far as it indeed seemed to me, I understood that I loved Him, yet I did not understand (as I ought to have understood it) in what it consisted to love God sincerely and heartily. I did not seem able to prevail upon myself to dispose myself to desire to serve Him, at the time when His Majesty began again to refresh me with new relishes: nay rather, what others strive to obtain for themselves with the greatest labour, the Lord seems to have willed to give me so freely that in a certain way He contended with me that I should be willing to receive it; so abundantly, namely, in these last years did He supply me with relishes and consolations of spirit. But to ask Him to give them to me, or some tenderness of devotion, I never dared; this only I asked of Him, that He would give me grace not to offend Him hereafter, and would pardon me my enormous sins.
[139] and advances in compunction of heart. Because I saw that these were so enormous, therefore I never dared professedly and advertently to ask Him for consolations or relishes: and it seemed to me that His goodness did far too much (and truly He used great mercy with me) in permitting me to be before Him and bearing to have me present to Him: for I saw that, had He not so greatly insisted, it would never have come about that I came. Only once in my life, as far as I remember, did I ask Him for spiritual relishes, because I then felt a great dryness of mind, and when I noticed what I was doing, I remained so confounded within myself that this very blushing, arising from seeing myself so little humble, gave me what I had dared to ask. I knew indeed that it was lawful and right to ask for relishes; but I thought this belonged only to those who are rightly disposed for it, namely those who have always striven with all their strength to procure the things which belong to true devotion (such as not offending God by sinning, and being excellently disposed and resolved for every kind of good). But these tears of mine seemed to me womanish and powerless, since through them I did not obtain what I desired; nevertheless I believe they profited me to some extent, because, especially after those two occasions which I mentioned, on which I felt in them great compunction and affliction of mind, I began to give myself more to prayer, and to deal less with those things which could be harmful and damaging to me: and although I did not yet leave them entirely, yet God, as I say, helped me in gradually renouncing them. And because His Majesty waited for nothing else than to see some preparation and disposition for this in me, hence spiritual graces began to grow in me, in the manner which I shall describe; which, however, is of such a kind that the Lord is not wont to give it except to those who are of a cleaner conscience.
[140] Wavering in mind on account of the sublime kind of her prayer, After this narration the Saint begins to set out the singular favours which God imparted to her in prayer, and to deliver the highest teachings of mystical theology; which, since they do not belong to this place according to my plan, I pass over from the end of chapter IX to chapter XXIII, in which the holy Mother, as she herself warns, resumes the thread of the history long interrupted. Now, she says, I wish to resume the thread of the narration of my life, which I had broken off: for I fear that in what precedes I have been longer than was fair, so that what will be subjoined might be better understood. What follows, then, is to be as it were a new book, a new, I say, and another life: for that which I have lived hitherto was my life; but that which I have lived from the time I began to declare this matter of prayer is that which God (as indeed it seemed to me) was living in me: for I believe it was plainly impossible for me to abandon in so short a time habits and works so depraved. Blessed be God, that He has freed me from myself. As soon, then, as I began to leave the occasions of sinning and to give myself more to prayer, the Lord too began to give me His graces, as one who seemed to seek nothing else than that I should be willing to receive them. His Majesty began, then, to give me very frequently the prayer of quiet and often also that of union; which lasted quite a long time.
But since at that time many women had been shamefully deceived by the devil with various illusions and drawn into fraud, I began to fear, because the pleasure and sweetness which I felt were all too great, and often so great that I myself could not hinder them. But on the other hand I felt within myself a great security that these things came only from God (especially when I was then applying myself to prayer); and I saw that a great amendment in my life followed from them, and that I was strengthened more in spirit. But if at any time even a slight distraction carried me off, I began again to fear and to think whether perhaps the demon was not thus suspending my intellect, persuading me that it was good, so as thereby to make me abandon mental prayer, and that I should not be able to meditate on the Lord's passion or use my intellect: which seemed to me, as one not understanding, a far greater loss and harm. But because His Majesty now wished to give me light, namely so as not to offend Him, and to recognize how much I owed Him, hence this fear so grew in me that it compelled me to seek out most diligently some spiritual men with whom I might confer about these things.
[141] and the Fathers of the Society of Jesus I had already then understood from some that the Fathers of the Society of Jesus had very recently come here (namely already to some extent in the year 1553, but then more stably in the year 1555, brought to Ávila at the request of the citizens, a certain hospice for the sick with the adjacent church of St. Giles having been granted them for the use of a college by a certain pious confraternity, as Father Niccolò Orlandini relates, Hist. Soc. Jesu book XIII, no. 43, and Cardinal Cienfuegos, Life of St. Francis Borgia book I, chapter VIII); toward whom I, although I knew none of them in particular, was wonderfully affected, only because I had understood their manner both of living and of praying, but I reckoned myself unworthy to speak to them, and not strong enough to obey them. And this made me fear the more: for it was grievous and hard for me, being such as I was, to speak to them and to confer with them. In this contention and conflict, therefore, I remained for some time, until, not without great repugnance which I felt in myself and fears, I resolved with myself to confer about my affairs with some spiritual man, so that by asking him I might know what kind of prayer I was following and having; and so that he might teach me, if I were erring in anything, to do whatever I could so as not to offend God. For the lack of fortitude and strength which I noticed in myself made me, as I have said, so timid.
[142] not daring to approach them, How grave and intolerable, good God, was the error that, in order to be good, I withdrew myself from the good! Without doubt the devil must apply himself to this matter as much as possible at the very beginning of virtue; for I could not prevail upon myself in this: for he knows that all the good and salvation of the soul consists in communicating with good men and friends of God; and so I could by no means bring my mind to do this. I was waiting until I should first have amended myself, as I had done on another occasion too when I had interrupted prayer, and perhaps I would never have done it: for certain bad habits, although small, had now settled in me so deeply that I could scarcely believe them to be bad, so that it was necessary that others should help me and stretch out a hand to me to rise. Blessed be the Lord, who at last first stretched out His hand to me. But when I saw this fear of mine so increasing (because prayer was increasing daily), it seemed to me that here either some great good or some very great evil lay hidden; for I already then understood that what I had was something supernatural: for at times I could not resist it, just as neither was it in my hand to have it when I wished. Hence I thought with myself that there was no remedy at all for helping myself unless I studied purity of conscience and withdrew myself from all occasions of any sin whatever, even venial: for, supposing it to be the spirit of God, it was evident that only good would come to me from it; but if it came from the evil one, while I took care to please the Lord and by no means to offend Him, he could not harm me much; nay rather, it was certain that it would turn to his detriment.
[143] Master Gaspar Daza, Having therefore resolved this with myself, and again and again beseeching the Lord to be present to me with His help, and diligently observing this for some days, I found that my soul did not have strength enough to arrive by itself alone at so great perfection, and that on account of certain excessive affections toward some things, which, although they were not very evil in themselves, were yet enough to hinder everything. I heard, therefore, of a certain very learned priest living in this city, whose holiness and upright life the Lord was now beginning to make known to the people. This was Gaspar Daza; who, as the Venerable Father Luis de la Puente relates in the life of the Venerable Father Baltasar Álvarez (chapter IX), had joined to himself upright priests in no small number, that they might labour together with him in procuring the salvation of other men and relieving the difficulties of the needy, not only within the walls of the city, but in the whole diocese; whom afterwards, out of the humility with which he was endowed, he handed over to Father Baltasar Álvarez to be directed and perfected.
[144] by the persuasion and help of Francisco de Salcedo, The acquaintance of and access to this priest, the Saint proceeds, was procured for me by a certain nobleman also of this city. This man (his name was Francisco de Salcedo) married a wife indeed, but is of a life so upright, and so given to prayer and works of charity, that his goodness and perfection shine out in everything, and not undeservedly, for by his help and work many souls have been called back into the path of salvation, and that on account of the singular talents which he has received from God; which, however much he is hindered from doing this by reason of his state, do not allow him not to work. For he is of a splendid and excellent wit and courteous toward all; his conversation by no means heavy and troublesome, but so sweet and pleasing to all (because it is both upright and holy) that he wonderfully pleases all with whom he deals, and directs all things to the greater good of the souls with whom he deals, and in all his zeal and work he seems to look to nothing else than to please and gratify all whom he can in any way. This good and holy man, then, by his industry seems to have been the cause and beginning of my soul's entering the way of salvation. I cannot but greatly wonder at his humility, that he was willing to come to me and visit me, when he himself had already (as far as I remember) applied himself to the pursuit of prayer for forty years (whether they are two or three fewer I do not know), and had always pursued every perfection of life which his state seems to permit and allow. For he has a wife so given to piety and so zealous for charity that she is no impediment to him in pursuing perfection; such a woman, I say, that God seems to have chosen her as wife for him whom He knew would be His so singular and untiring servant. Certain of his kinsfolk had contracted marriages with mine. I had besides acquaintance, and sometimes dealt, with another certain distinguished servant of God, who had married one of my kinswomen.
[145] she consults: Through these, then, I procured that the priest of whom I spoke, that great servant of God, I say, should come to me (for he was very familiar with them and known to them), resolving to choose him for myself both as confessor and as director in the affairs of the spirit. When, then, he came to speak with me, I felt myself flooded with great blushing, because I was appearing before so holy a man; and soon I gave him an account of my soul and prayer; but he did not wish to be my confessor, because he said that, being distracted with very many other affairs, he could not give time to it: in fact he was very busy. He began, then, to lead me by some holy and generous resolution as if I had been very strong (and indeed I ought to have been such, given the manner of prayer which he saw I held), namely that I should resolve by no means and in nothing to offend God. When, then, I saw his firm and hasty resolution even in small things, for which, however, as I have said, I did not have strength enough to fulfil them at once as perfectly as he wished, I began to be not a little saddened, because I saw him regarding the business of my soul as a thing which I could obtain and accomplish once for all at a single stroke, whereas I saw that I needed a longer cure.
[146] but neither Daza I saw, therefore, that I was by no means to be helped by the means which he suggested to me; because they suited a more perfect soul: for I, although I had somehow advanced in the graces of God, yet was very much stuck in the very beginnings of the virtues and of mortification. And truly, if I had dealt with no one other than him, my soul would never, I believe, have made any progress in the pursuit of virtues; for the affliction which I felt in myself, because I saw that I neither did nor could do (as it indeed seemed to me) the things which he prescribed for me to do, was more than enough for despairing of making progress and for breaking off all that I had begun. From time to time I wonder with myself why, when this man was endowed with a singular grace for drawing souls to God, it did not please the Lord that he should come to know mine thoroughly and take its care upon himself; but now I see that all this was done and directed to the greater good of my soul, namely that I might thus come to the acquaintance of such holy men as are the religious of the Society of Jesus, and confer with them about my affairs.
[147] nor Salcedo, who often visits her, When from that time I had asked that nobleman to come out to me sometimes for the sake of a visit, he promised he would do it. Here his remarkable humility shone out, that he was willing to deal with so wicked a person as I was. He began, then, to visit me from time to time and, encouraging me, to say that I ought not to think that I could leave everything at once in one day, but that God would do it gradually: for he too had hesitated for some years in certain very light things, and had not been able to leave them even with every effort applied. O how much good thou bestowest, humility, on those in whom thou dwellest, and also on all who run to those who possess thee! The holy
man (for I seem able to bestow this name on him deservedly) told me certain of his own spiritual infirmities, which indeed seemed to him, such was his humility, to be such (namely so that by telling them he might remedy my ill); by reason of his state, however, they were neither defects nor imperfection; but according to my state it would have been most grave to have them. Not without reason do I bring these things in here, although I may seem to dwell more than is fair on relating minutiae; for they are of such moment for a soul to begin to advance in spirit, and to learn to fly while (as is said) it is still unfledged, that no one would believe it except one who has experienced it in fact. And since a certain hope holds me, with the grace of God, that Your Reverence will profit very many others by these things, it has therefore seemed good to bring them in here; namely that all my good and salvation lay in this, that he knew how to help me, both because he had the humility and at the same time the charity to stay with me, and also the patience to bear with me, since I did not yet cut off my imperfections entirely.
[148] knew how to calm her mind. He proceeded gradually with discretion, suggesting to me ways and means for overcoming the demon. Whence I began to love him so that there was never greater consolation for me than on that day on which he came to visit me; but he came out to me very rarely. When he put off his visit somewhat longer, I was at once not moderately afflicted, thinking that he did not come out to me because I was all too wicked. When, then, he understood my imperfections so grave (and perhaps they were sins; nevertheless, from the time I began to deal with him, a great amendment of my life had followed) and also the graces which the Lord conferred on me, as I related them, so that he might bring me some light here, he denied that these two things could exist together and agree well: for these graces were given only to those who had already advanced farther and had all their passions subjected. Whence he could not but fear greatly for me: for in some things it seemed to him to be a diabolical illusion and imposture; yet he said that he did not wish to assert this plainly. This hallucination of Salcedo seems to have arisen chiefly from this, that he perceived the ways of God to be quite different in María Díaz, a virgin of more advanced age, whose life, splendid in virtues, which Father de la Puente describes (op. cit. chapter X), was an object of admiration to the whole city of Ávila.
[149] Meanwhile, as she marvels at the benefits of God Further, to Teresa's interior anxiety there were probably added at this time those various detractions against her, as though, by foul hypocrisy, devising novelties, she were hunting for a reputation for holiness, as a certain Magdalena of the Cross had done. Wherefore not without reason is the first speech of the Lord to His bride referred to here; which the Saint relates out of the order of events in chapter XIX of her Life in this manner: The evil demon stirred up a great struggle for me in this matter, and I suffered much from believing it to be little humility that I, so wicked, should apply myself to prayer: so that (as I said above) I interrupted it for a year and a half, or at least a whole year (for I am not so very certain about the half-year). If I had continued in this, I should have thrust myself straight down into hell (nay, I was in fact already thrusting myself down), so that there would have been no need at all of demons to lead me there. How great, good God, is this blindness! and how well the devil knows what he is doing, when he busies himself so desperately to hinder it! For this sacrilegious impostor knows that he can do nothing against a soul which perseveres constantly in prayer, and that he must almost despair of overthrowing it, and that every fall and ruin which he causes it afterwards helps it, so that, by the grace of God, it runs more fervently and is carried farther in the divine service: this, therefore, is of great concern to him. What is it, good Jesus, to see a soul that has arrived here fallen into some sin, when Thou in Thy mercy again stretchest out Thy hand to it and raisest it up! How it then recognizes the greatness and multitude of Thy mercies, and its own misery! Then, namely, it seriously annihilates itself, and recognizes Thy greatness: then it does not dare to lift up its eyes: then it lifts them no otherwise than to see how much it owes Thee: then it puts on an ardent affection toward the Queen of Heaven, so that she may render Thee propitious: then it invokes the help of the Saints who fell after they had been called by Thee, so as to have them as helpers: then it thinks all that Thou givest it far too superfluous for itself; for it sees that it does not deserve even the earth which it treads: then with living faith it approaches the Sacraments, since this remains to it here for recognizing the force and virtue which Thou hast willed to be placed in them: then, finally, it praises Thee, because Thou hast left such a medicine and ointment for our wounds, which not only heal them on the surface but take them away entirely.
[150] granted to her though imperfect, This, then, the soul marvels at: and who, O God of my soul, would not marvel at so great a mercy and so excessive a grace, after a betrayal so foul and abominable? so that I do not know how my heart does not burst as I write these things, because I am so wicked and bad. I seem to make satisfaction to Thee, through these tears which I shed here, and which Thou Thyself givest me (which are as it were water from so evil-smelling a well, as far as my part goes), for the so foul betrayals which I have committed; for I was always committing evil, and was labouring to destroy for Thee the graces and benefits which Thou didst confer on me. Do Thou, my Lord, add strength and value to them, make this water so turbid clear, at least so that I may not give anyone occasion of judging (as it was an occasion to me) and of thinking why, O Lord, Thou neglectest certain most holy men, who have always served Thee, always laboured for Thee, and who were brought up in Religion and are in fact true religious, not such as I, who had only the bare name of a religious; since I see openly that Thou dost not do them those graces which Thou hast shown to me. I see, O my Good, that Thou reservest a reward for them in the future, so as to repay them all at once, but that my weakness has need of this support of graces. They, as strong and generous, serve Thee without it, and Thou treatest them as robust and strong and serving Thee without any gain of their own; nevertheless Thou knowest, Lord, that I have often cried to Thee, excusing before Thee those who detracted from me and spoke against me, because I believed they were moved to this by good reason. This was, Lord, at the time after Thou didst sustain and hold me back by Thy goodness, so that I should not offend Thee so often, and when I was now beginning, on my part, gradually to withdraw myself from all that by which I thought Thou couldst be offended and provoked. For as soon as I did this, Thou, Lord, didst at once begin to unlock Thy treasures, so as to communicate them to Thy handmaid. And as Thou didst indeed begin at once and immediately not only to give them to me, but also to will that it should become known to all that they were given me by Thee, Thou dost not seem to have waited for anything else than that I should bring some will and disposition for receiving them.
[151] and assailed by detractions, When, therefore, all commonly saw this, they began to have a good opinion of one whom they had not yet understood to be so wicked, although my wickedness appeared outwardly enough. Whence suddenly there arose a sharp detraction and harassment against me, and, as it indeed seems to me, not without reason: whence too I conceived no hatred or enmity toward any of them, but asked Thee to look upon the reasons by which they were moved. They said, then, that I wished to be held a Saint, and was inventing certain novelties; whereas at that time I was not yet fulfilling in great part the things which my rule prescribed to be done, nor had I arrived at the perfection of certain good and holy sisters who were in the house, nay I do not think I shall even arrive at it, unless God in His goodness does everything on His part. But on the contrary I knew how to take away what was good, and to introduce in its place customs not good; at least I busied myself to introduce them as far as I could: for in evil I was powerful and strong enough. Wherefore they blamed me deservedly and through no fault of theirs; and not only the nuns of the house, but outsiders too, by Thy permission namely, disclosed to me the things that were true.
[152] The Saviour speaks to her for the first time. Once, when I was reciting the canonical hours (while this temptation seized me from time to time), and had now come to that verse, "Thou art just, O Lord, and Thy judgment is right," I began to think with myself how true this was: for in this respect the demon never had strength enough to tempt me, namely so that I should doubt whether Thou, Lord, didst comprise in Thyself all kinds of goods, or should somewhat doubt of any article of faith; nay rather, the more the things to be believed exceeded the limits of common nature, the firmer the faith I seemed to have, and it stirred great devotion in me to think that Thou art omnipotent: for through this thought I comprehended in myself all the great works which Thou didst, and in this respect (as I have said) I never doubted even in the least. As I thought, then, how (not without justice, however) Thou didst deny to many of Thy handmaids, who (as I have said) served Thee sincerely and ardently in this place, those consolations and graces which Thou didst bestow on me, such as I was, Thou didst answer, Lord: "Serve thou Me, and for the rest do not be anxious." This was the first word which I heard Thee speaking; whence too it left me sufficiently dismayed. For to the Saint's other troubles this too was added at that time, that she herself did not grasp the nature of her prayer, much less could she explain it to others. Nevertheless shortly after, God helping, she found its explanation in a pious little work, whose author, I conjecture from the Franciscan Library of Father John of St. Anthony, was Bernardino de Laredo, a lay Brother of the Order of Friars Minor, of whom Wadding (Annal. Min. at the year 1433) makes splendid mention.
[153] Finally the Saint, a book in which the nature of her prayer was explained, The Saint narrates the matter itself, with the circumstances which followed it, in her chapter XXIII, which she continues thus, still speaking of Salcedo: He advised further that whatever I thought pertained to my prayer I should diligently note, and then report to him; but the whole difficulty lay in this, that what and
of what kind my prayer was, I could not explain: for only very recently has the Lord bestowed on me this grace, that I could understand and explain what kind of thing it is. When, then, he said this to me, the fear also coming on which I had of myself, I began to be exceedingly distressed within myself, and dissolved wholly into tears: for I truly sought nothing else than to fulfil the will of God, and I could not persuade myself that these things came from the demon; I feared meanwhile lest perhaps God had blinded me on account of my sins, so that I should not understand this myself. Looking into various books, therefore, to see whether I might see the manner of praying which I had expressed in them, and so be able to explain it to others inquiring about it, at last, in the one whose name is the Ascent of the Mount, as far as concerns the union of the soul with God, I read all those signs which I myself noted in me in that union, namely that I thought nothing at all; for this was what I always said, that, when I held this manner of praying, I could think nothing at all. Wherefore, drawing certain lines under them, I marked those places in the book, and handed him the book, so that both he and that other whom I mentioned, a pious priest and servant of God, might look into it and teach me what I needed to do, with the mind and purpose, if it should so seem to them, of interrupting the pursuit of prayer entirely. For to what end should I cast myself into those dangers, when in the space of about twenty years during which I had used this prayer, I had brought back no other advantage from it than diabolical illusions? that it was better, therefore, to omit it entirely, although this too seemed grave to me: for I had already then experienced what the state of my soul was wont to be without the exercise of prayer; so that there were straits for me on every side, and to whatever side I turned I saw no quiet: like one who, placed in the middle of a most rapid river, to whatever part of it he goes, fears to incur there a greater and more evident danger, and is on the point of being swallowed up by the rush of the waters. This is a certain huge cross and anguish, and I have suffered very many of this kind, as I shall tell later: which, although it seems to matter little to know, may perhaps prove of use for knowing how the spirit ought to be tested.
[154] she shows her anxieties to her counsellors; And certainly great is the anguish which a person suffers there; whence the greatest circumspection is needed here, especially with women: for great is our infirmity, and huge evil could arise from it, if they were told openly that these things are done in them by the demon's authorship; but the matter itself must be examined exactly, and every occurring danger turned away from them, and they must be admonished privately and secretly from others to conceal their secrets, which confessors too ought to do: for so it is also expedient. I say and advise this, because in this matter I have suffered a good deal, since certain persons with whom I conferred about my prayer could not keep silent: for, consulting now this one, now that one, they were so far from profiting me that rather they harmed me greatly. For in this way many things were divulged which it would have been better to keep silent and conceal, since these things are not for all and anyone; and I seemed to be publishing them. I should indeed believe that the Lord permitted this, with no fault of theirs, so that I might have some matter for suffering. I do not say that they opened or revealed the things which they had received in Confession; but because they were persons to whom, on account of the fear which I had, I opened all my affairs, so that they might hold a torch before me and counsel me well, it seemed to me fitting that they ought to keep silent about what they had heard: meanwhile, however, I dared to conceal from such men nothing at all of what occurred to me. I advise, therefore, that they proceed circumspectly and with great discretion with women, always encouraging them, and waiting for the time until the Lord helps them, as He helped me: for otherwise, timid and somewhat fearful as I indeed was, this would have harmed me exceedingly, especially with that ordinary faintness of mine added: whence too I wonder that I did not receive still more harm from it.
[155] who, as one deluded by the demon, send her After I had handed him the book, and at the same time disclosed, as best I could, the account of my life and my sins in general (not that I confessed; for he was a layman: yet I declared to him sufficiently how wicked I was), these two servants of God considered and examined with great charity and love what I needed to do. When, then, they had decided with themselves what to answer me (which answer I was awaiting with great anxiety, since during those days I had enjoined very many people too to commend my business to God by prayers, and I had seriously commended it on my part by frequent prayers), one of them came to me with great anguish and sorrow of mind, and said that, after mature deliberation, it seemed to him and his companion to be an illusion of the demon; wherefore it seemed advisable to him that I should confer about this matter with someone from the Society of Jesus; that he would willingly be present, if I summoned one of those Fathers to declare my necessity to him; that I should render to him an account of my whole life and state in a general Confession, and that as openly and sincerely as I could: for through the virtue of the Sacrament of Confession he hoped that God would give him more light; for those Fathers were most versed in things of the spirit. He advised besides that in all things which he should suggest or counsel me, I should comply with him as exactly as possible; because, unless I had someone to direct me, I was in most present danger of falling.
[156] to Father Juan de Prádanos, S.J. In fact St. Teresa found among the Fathers of the Society of Jesus one who knew how to heal a too-affected mind: namely Juan de Prádanos; whom, young indeed in age but advanced in spirit, St. Francis Borgia had appointed in the year 1555, with Father Fernando Álvarez del Águila, for the foundation of the college of Ávila. He, having heard Teresa's general Confession, and having delivered to her (as Ribera and Cienfuegos relate, and after them the Imago primi sæculi Societatis Jesu) certain of the spiritual exercises of the Holy Father Ignatius, earnestly commended to her meditation on the humanity of Christ: but he ordered her to reject the relish which she drew in praying, until he should enjoin otherwise; and he exhorted her to austerity of life, which up to then she had little practised. The holy Virgin obeyed his admonitions: but she could not keep from passing the limits set to her prayer; because, namely, the more she struggled against divine consolations, the more abundantly was she flooded with them. At the same time she gave herself heartily to the affliction of the flesh, putting on a hair shirt of iron plates perforated in the manner of a grater or rasp, and frequently scourging herself either with bundles of nettles or with keys, setting before herself amid the pains of the blows the passion of Jesus Christ. Thus her prayer, more stabilized and resting on a firmer foundation, she began to advance wonderfully in the knowledge of herself and to be withdrawn from superfluous things: so that Cienfuegos truly declared (book 1, chapter XVII) that Father Prádanos was as it were the fire of St. Elmo by which that ocean, namely the soul of St. Teresa, previously stormy, seemed to blaze up entirely. But in this, as the Venerable John of Jesus Mary notes, the prudence of that Father especially shone out, that he did not at once bind the Virgin with severe laws; but, delaying, he observed God's work, examined her native disposition, and gradually, God going before, advanced her to further things. Let us now hear the Saint herself narrating this at the end of her chapter XXIII and at the beginning of chapter XXIV.
§ X. By a new judge of conscience she is wonderfully advanced in the pursuit of virtues. She deals with St. Francis Borgia, who approves her spirit. She bids farewell entirely to human friendships: she is freed from the fear of demons by one utterance of the Saviour.
Having heard Teresa's general Confession, After St. Teresa, then, has said that she was sent by Master Daza and Francisco de Salcedo to some priest of the Society of Jesus: So great a fear and anguish, she says, I conceived from this, that I plainly did not know what I should do: whence I began to weep abundantly; and when I was sitting much afflicted in my oratory, uncertain what was to become of me, having taken up a certain book (which the Lord seems without doubt to have put into my hands), I read in it that the Apostle Paul writes that God is faithful in the highest degree, so that He never allows those who seriously and sincerely love Him to be deceived and deluded by the devil. This was the greatest consolation to me. And so I began to think of making a general Confession, and of putting in writing all my evils and goods, and also the whole series of my life, as clearly as I could know and understand it, so that I should omit nothing of it. And I remember that, after I had re-read what I had written, namely so many evils and almost no good, I was overwhelmed with the greatest sorrow and affliction. It also tormented me much that those of the household would see me dealing with men so holy as the Fathers of the Society of Jesus were: for I feared my wickedness; and it seemed to me that I should thus remain more obliged to put it off and to bid farewell to all my recreations, and that, if I did not do this, greater evils might follow from it. Whence I asked the sacristan and the portress not to make it known to anyone, but this profited me little; for by chance it happened that, when I was called to speak with the Fathers, there was at the door one who soon divulged it through the whole monastery. Ah, how many delays, impediments and occasions of fear the demon throws in the way of those desiring to come to God!
[158] So I dealt with this great servant of God (for such he truly was, Father Prádanos judged that God was working in her; and a man of great prudence), and laid open to him the whole state of my life and the interior of my soul; and he, as one most versed in these things, clearly declared to me what the matter was with me, and encouraged me to proceed further, saying that the spirit of God was evidently working here; but that I must return anew to the pursuit of prayer, because I was not well founded, and had not yet begun to understand what mortification was (and so it was; for I seemed not to understand even its name), and accordingly that I should by no means interrupt prayer, but take courage, since God was doing me such singular graces: for who, he said, knows whether God wills many souls to be helped by your work? And he added very many other things of that kind; so that he foretold to me as a Prophet the things which the Lord afterwards did with me. Besides this, that I should be guilty of great fault if I did not respond to the graces received from God. He seemed, therefore,
to me that the Holy Spirit Himself spoke through his mouth in all things, for the healing of my soul: so did he insinuate and imprint himself on my heart. Here, then, he suffused me with great blushing, and led me by that way, so that he seemed to change me into a wholly other person. How great a good it is, moreover, to know and understand a soul thoroughly!
[159] he prescribed for her a method of meditating; He advised me to run through some mystery of the Lord's passion daily in meditating, and by this to help myself, and to think only of the humanity of Christ, but to resist those interior recollections and relishes as far as could be done, and to give them no place at all, until he should advise otherwise. He left me, then, wholly consoled and encouraged to greater things; and the Lord so wonderfully helped both me and him that he understood both my condition and state and how to direct me: and I firmly resolved with myself not to depart even a nail's breadth, even in the least, from all the things which he had enjoined on me; and so I have observed it up to this time. Blessed be the Lord, who gave me the grace of obeying my confessors, though imperfectly enough. And these were almost always from those blessed Fathers of the Society of Jesus; although, as I have already said, I obeyed them very imperfectly. Wherefore it came about that the state of my soul was rendered notably better, as I shall now relate.
[160] [and her, obediently struggling against interior relishes for the space of two months,] After that general Confession, my soul remained so serene and tranquil that nothing seemed able to be put before me and proposed to me which I would not have disposed myself most willingly to undertake: whence I began to change myself in many things, and I was another person, although my confessor did not urge me, but rather seemed himself to make little of all those things. And this moved me most of all, because he led me according to the norm and rule of the love of God, and as one who called to liberty, not to reward, unless I myself merited this through love. For nearly two whole months I conducted myself thus, labouring in every way to resist the divine consolations and graces; but as to exterior things, a notable change appeared in me: for the Lord was now beginning to give me strength and courage to overcome certain things which to those who knew me, and also to those of the house, seemed to be extremes. And, to confess the truth, as compared with what I did before, they judged rightly that they were extremes; but according to that to which I was bound by reason of my habit and profession, I was doing less than was fair. Through this struggle against interior relishes and sweetnesses I gained at least this, that I was instructed by the Lord. For before it seemed to me that, for feeling relishes of that kind in prayer, there was need of wonderful solitude and abstraction, so that I scarcely dared to move; but afterwards I noticed how little this was to the point: for the more I busied myself to distract myself and turn aside to other things, the more abundantly did the Lord rain down upon me that sweetness and glory; so that I seemed to be surrounded and overwhelmed by it, and unable to escape it in any way. And in truth it was so, although on my part I strove against it so much in the contrary direction that this too was painful to me. The Lord, on the contrary, in these two months seemed to pour Himself out more than before in ministering graces to me and revealing Himself, so that in this way I might understand better that it was no longer in my power to resist them.
[161] he advanced her in the pursuit of mortification: I began, then, to be affected with a certain new affection toward the most sacred humanity of Christ, and my prayer to be made more stable, just as a house or building whose foundation has already been laid, and also to be borne with greater zeal toward austerity and affliction of the body, which on account of the gravity of my illnesses I had hitherto neglected. That holy man who received my Confession said that certain things would bring me no harm at all, and that God perhaps sent me so many infirmities and diseases for this reason, that I did not treat my body more austerely, and accordingly that His Majesty, since I failed in this, wished to chastise and afflict it. He bade me, then, undergo certain mortifications, which were little pleasing to me, nay troublesome: nevertheless I fulfilled them all most exactly, because I thought both that they were enjoined on me by the Lord, and that grace was given to him by Him for prescribing them to me, so that in this way I might be obedient to Him. Now, then, my soul and conscience began to be tormented with scruples, if I committed any sin, however slight, against God; so that, if I had anything superfluous, I could not recollect myself in prayer and have attention before I had renounced it. Rather often too at that time I directed my prayer to this, that the Lord would deign to hold me in His protection, and, since I was communicating with His servants, not allow me to turn back; for I thought this would be a great and intolerable crime in me, and that they, on my account, would suffer a remarkable loss of the good name which they had with all.
[162] until at length St. Francis Borgia, At this very time there arrived at this town Father Francis, who, having been duke of Gandía, some years before had left all that he possessed and dedicated himself to the Society of Jesus. That confessor of mine took pains that he should speak with me once (and that nobleman whom I mentioned came to me for this reason too), so that I might declare to him the manner of prayer which I had: for he knew that he had received many graces and singular favours from God, as one who, because he had left much for His sake, was already then in this life receiving some sort of compensation from Him for it. He, then, after he had heard me speaking, did not hesitate to say that this was the spirit of God, and that it seemed wrong to him to struggle against it any longer and more, although in resisting it hitherto I had not sinned nor acted badly. He advised, however, that I should always begin my prayer from some mystery of the passion, and, if afterwards the Lord should suspend or rapt my mind, I should by no means resist Him, but allow His Majesty to raise it up, so that I myself should by no means procure the rapture. Here, then, he suggested to me salutary counsel and remedy, as one who was most versed in this matter. For experience does much here. He added besides that I should offend most gravely if I should hereafter resist the spirit of God any more. Whence I felt great consolation in my soul, as did that nobleman too; who also rejoiced greatly on hearing that the Spirit of God was working here, and was always a help to me as far as he could (and he could very much), both by words and by deed.
[163] coming to Ávila in the year 1557, St. Francis Borgia, appointed by St. Ignatius in the year 1554 as commissary for the affairs of the Society of Jesus in Spain, and confirmed in the same office on the death of the holy Founder, which took place in the year 1556, came to Ávila in the spring of the year 1557 from the monastery of San Yuste in the diocese of Plasencia, where he had spent three days with Charles the Fifth, who was living there after abdicating his kingdom; as our Bue established in the Preliminary Commentary to his Life (vol. V of October, page 201). Here must be marked the error of Villefore, who wrote provincial for commissary, and especially the anachronism into which Yepes and John of Jesus Mary have fallen, assigning already at that time to St. Francis Borgia the title of General of the Society of Jesus: which title, however, he did not obtain before the year 1565, on the death of Father Diego Laínez. Nor, as is plain, is the year 1558 to be approved, which Fathers Francis of St. Mary and Frederick of St. Anthony have assigned to this journey of Borgia; although the Saint could have come to Ávila again in that year too. On this first occasion he stayed fifteen days in the college of St. Giles.
[164] he fully approved the Saint's spirit. Further, Yepes (Prologue § III) and John of Jesus Mary (book 1, chapter 1) are authorities that Borgia, from the time he began to deal with Teresa, extolled her holiness with immense praises and cultivated a perpetual friendship with her by letters (would that they survived!). The same was declared in the Report on the virtues of St. Teresa before Paul V, Supreme Pontiff: That Father Francis Borgia, General of the Society of Jesus, and formerly duke of Gandía, most illustrious by birth, and so much the more rare an example of contempt of the world, a great master of prayer and contemplation, and conspicuous for holiness of life, not only approved the spirit of Blessed Teresa without any exception; but venerated her so much that he most devoutly saluted her by frequent courtesy of letters (part II, article II, §1). More special still is what Cienfuegos records (in the place cited), that the holy Mother sought the counsel of St. Borgia by letters about her foundations, and received from him an answer in which the man of God not only approved her undertakings but even urged them on. But as for what is said in the little work Vita et mores, etc. (article 17), that our Saint confessed to Borgia through the intervention of Father Baltasar Álvarez, this does not seem able to have happened at the time of which we treat, when she did not yet have dealings in spiritual matters with Álvarez; but it could have happened in one of the following years, perhaps in the year 1558, through some other journey of Borgia. For Teresa herself wrote in the year 1576 to Father Rodrigo Álvarez (vol. 1, letter 19) that she had dealt with Borgia twice: which I hardly know whether it is to be understood of only two conversations within these fifteen days; or rather so that St. Francis may be said to have come twice to Ávila and on each occasion to have visited the holy Virgin rather often, as the Chronicle has it at least of one or the other occasion (book 1, chapter XX, no. 4).
[165] Prádanos having been called away from Ávila, When St. Francis Borgia left Ávila, Father Prádanos too, who had now had the care of St. Teresa for two months, was called away from there; which afflicted her not a little, thinking that scarcely any other confessor would succeed to her liking. She found, however, by the help of a certain kinswoman of hers and another lady named Guiomar de Ulloa, another man from the same Society no less suitable; by whom she began to be incited to still greater perfection and to be more effectively withdrawn from certain friendships and attachments. That confessor does not seem to have been Father Baltasar Álvarez; although Fathers Luis de la Puente, Francis of St. Mary, Frederick of St. Anthony, Montoya and others have believed so. For, first, as Boucher notes from Luis de la Puente, Sacchini and Nieremberg, Father Baltasar was not enrolled in the order of priests before the year 1558. Secondly, Ribera not obscurely signifies that another certain Father between Juan de Prádanos and Baltasar
Álvarez intervened; especially in book 1, chapter VI, where he says: Another Father from the same college (namely that of Ávila), who had directed her before and now also sometimes, when Father Baltasar was hindered elsewhere, heard her confessing her sins, etc. Thirdly, the holy Mother seems to speak in the same sense: One, she says, of them (the Fathers of the Society of Jesus), who used to help me before, he to whom I sometimes confessed when the Father Minister (Baltasar Álvarez) was hindered, began to say, etc. (chapter XXIX of her Life).
[166] another of the Society of Jesus It is uncertain to me which Father is spoken of here; but in Cienfuegos (book IV, chapter VIII, § I) it is read that Father Fernando Álvarez, who was confessor to Francisco de Salcedo, sometimes heard St. Teresa at the sacred Tribunal. Boucher hesitates, undecided, between this Father Fernando and Father Antonio Araoz, a kinsman of St. Ignatius. That she had dealings with Araoz the Saint herself, he says, testifies. Rightly indeed; but it is very doubtful whether in the year 1557 or 1558. For the words of the Saint, writing of herself in the third person to Father Rodrigo Álvarez (vol. I, letter 19), are these: She began to deal with spiritual men of the Society of Jesus; among whom was Father Araoz, who was commissary of the Society, who happened to come there, etc. But Araoz took up the office of commissary in the year 1562 (Hist. Soc. Jesu, part II, book VI, no. 65), and was before that superior of the province of Castile from the year 1554 (Ibid. part 1, book XIV, no. 53): therefore it is not probable that he was ever St. Teresa's stable confessor; and if he heard her confessing at some time, he did this only as occasion offered in some particular case. These things I had to discuss to supply certain omissions of St. Teresa: let us now hear her again.
[167] Teresa chooses a confessor; But at this time my confessor was ordered to move from this city to another; which indeed, as it ought, befell me very troublesomely and was grievous: for I feared lest I should look back again and return to my bad habits, and it seemed impossible to me to find one equal to him. Whence my soul, left alone as in a certain desert solitude, remained very anxious and timid; so that I plainly did not know what to do with myself. Wherefore a certain one of my kinswomen did so much as to take me away to her house, where I at once betook myself to the Fathers of the Society, so as to choose another confessor for myself from among them. And it pleased the Lord here that I should begin to contract intimacy and familiarity with a certain noble widow of holy life, who often dealt with those Fathers. She made me confess to her confessor, and I spent some days in her house. It was very pleasing to me that she lived not far from their college, so that there might be greater opportunity of dealing with them again and again: for great profit came to my soul even from the bare report and mention of the holiness which they displayed in all their conversation. This Father, further, began to advance me to greater perfection: for he said that I ought to omit nothing at all by which I might please God entirely and in all things; to which end too he used great enough industry and gentleness: for my soul was scarcely strong and robust in any way, but very tender, especially as regards putting off certain particular affections toward some persons: for although by them I did not offend God at all, yet my affection toward them was great; whence it seemed to me that it would be a remarkable mark of ingratitude to break off those friendships. Wherefore I asked him why, since I did not offend God by them, he wished me to be ungrateful? He persuaded me, then, to commend this business to God for some days, and to recite the hymn "Veni Creator Spiritus," etc., so that He might deign to enlighten my mind, so that I might be able to perceive what was best to be done.
[168] and at the command of Christ speaking in a rapture, When, then, one day I had applied myself more frequently and more ardently to prayer, and had asked the Lord to help me in pleasing Him entirely, I began to recite the aforesaid hymn; in which, when I had advanced some way, so sudden a rapture seized me that I was almost wholly outside myself, so that I could in no way doubt of it; for the thing was all too manifest. This was the first rapture which the Lord gave me, in which I heard these words from Him openly: "I will not have thee converse hereafter with men, but with Angels." This dismayed me exceedingly: for great was the disturbance and commotion of my soul, and these words were said to me very deeply in the spirit. Whence a great fear came upon me, but on the other hand I was flooded with wonderful consolation: which, after the fear (which, as indeed I think, the very novelty of the thing caused) had now gone away, came and remained within me. And what was then said to me by mouth was thereafter fulfilled in fact: for from that time I could never again contract a firm intimacy with anyone, take consolation from him, or follow anyone in particular with love, except those whom I know to love God and seriously to wish to serve Him. Nor was it in my hand or power to act otherwise; nor am I moved more, whether they be kinsfolk or friends or not, unless I understand of him what I have just said, or unless it be someone who exercises himself in prayer: otherwise it is most grievous to me to deal with anyone else. Truly this is so, as it indeed seems to me, and there is no doubt about it.
[169] she generously abandons human friendships. From that time I remained so encouraged to leave all things for the love of God, as of One who was pleased in a single moment (for it did not seem to me to last longer) to change His handmaid into another person, that it was not necessary to enjoin it on me any further by any special precept. For because my confessor saw me so entangled and fixed in these things, he had therefore not dared to enjoin this on me openly and expressly. He had, namely, to wait for the Lord Himself to work in me, as He also did work, nor had I thought that I would prevail upon myself: for I had already tried this several times; but it was so grievous and troublesome to me that I at once omitted it and cast it off entirely, as a thing in which not much moment lay: but the Lord gave me this strength, and full liberty of carrying out in deed what I wished; wherefore I disclosed this to my confessor, and, just as he had enjoined on me, I left all things as quickly as possible. Whence those who dealt with me continually, seeing this resolution and generosity in me, drew from it not a little fruit. Blessed be God for ever, who in a single moment gave me that liberty which by all my diligence and effort, even applied through so many years, I could not obtain by myself; although from time to time I did myself such violence that it harmed my health not a little: but because it was the work of Him who is powerful and the true and absolute Lord of all, hence I now felt no pain or trouble in it.
[170] In the following two years That this rapture was St. Teresa's first is plain from her own testimony; but the words which she heard in it were not the first which the Lord spoke to her. This is clear from the fragment which I took a little before (no. 152) from chapter XIX of her Life. For there, after she has related these words, Serve thou Me, and for the rest do not be anxious, she soon subjoins, addressing the Lord: This was the first word which I heard Thee speaking; whence too it left me sufficiently dismayed. This is altogether worthy of note, especially because it escaped the most weighty biographers of St. Teresa, Ribera, Yepes and John of Jesus Mary; who affirm, namely, that the Lord addressed His bride for the first time in that first rapture. The author of the Chronicle, however, in his skill guarded himself from that error of his predecessors. And of what nature the speech of God to the soul is, the holy Mother explains at the beginning of her chapter XXV; carefully distinguishing it from a mere apprehension of the intellect and from the soul's discoursing with itself, and at the same time disclosing the way by which words and heavenly visions which are from above may be discerned from the frauds of Satan. Then through the rest of that chapter and through the whole of chapter XXVI she gathers together various utterances of God made to her over a period of about two years. Most think that to the same time is to be referred that celebrated vision of hell which the holy Virgin describes in her chapter XXXII; since she testifies that six years had elapsed from it to the year in which she wrote her life a second time. However, because she put off the narration of that vision until her chapter XXXII, not so much, as it seems, through lapse of memory as rather on account of its connection with the idea of reforming her Order divinely sent to her, I too shall omit it here, and shall religiously follow the order of things kept by the Saint herself.
[171] some grave men Having related, then, the things which we read a little above, our Teresa begins chapter XXV by explaining how the speech of God to the soul, which takes place without noise and as it were silently, is to be understood; then what illusions may lie hidden in that matter; and finally whence it can be known that such an utterance is truly divine. After which she continues the history of her life thus: The devil can construct various tricks and snares, and so nothing in this matter is so certain that it is not always safer and more secure to fear and to proceed with great circumspection and caution, and to have some learned and experienced director who boldly corrects one who errs; for thus it will come about that one incurs no harm at all; although I have very often suffered greatly on account of those excessive fears which some have. Once, among other things, it happened to me, namely when many of whom I had a good opinion, as was fitting, were gathered together in one place (for although I was then dealing with only one in particular, and spoke with no other except when he prescribed it to me, yet they often treated among themselves about helping me, because they both loved me much and feared lest perhaps the devil was deluding me; nay I myself too, when I was out of prayer, feared not moderately; for as soon as I applied myself to it, and the Lord began to give me some grace, at once all fear departed from me and I was made secure); I should believe there were five or six of them,
and all of them distinguished and zealous servants of God: and my confessor then affirmed to me that all of them were persuaded that I was being deluded by the devil; and that for this reason it seemed advisable that I should not so often receive the Sacrament of the Venerable Eucharist, and that I should distract myself in the handling of external affairs and avoid solitude.
[172] scruples and fear of diabolical illusion, For my part, as I have said, I was then in great fear and anxiety; to the increase of which my continual faintness of heart contributed not a little; so that often during the day I did not dare to be alone in any place. And when I saw such and so many persons saying this to me, and yet I could not bring my mind wholly to believe this of myself, I felt a most grievous scruple of conscience, because I thought this came from a defect of humility: for all were of incomparably holier life than I, and moreover were eminent in doctrine and letters; why should I not believe them? I tried as much as I could, even doing violence to myself, to believe them, and at the same time I reflected on my wicked life, and that therefore they judged truly of me when they judged so. Wherefore, thus anxious and afflicted, I betook myself from the church into a certain oratory; since I had now for many days abstained from Holy Communion, and had avoided solitude, in which nevertheless all my consolation and recreation lay, so that I had no one with whom I could confer; for all to a man were against me.
[173] her confessor conspiring with them in appearance, Some, when I spoke of these things, seemed to laugh at me, as if it had been only imagination and phantasm: others advised my confessor to beware of me: others asserted certainly and without doubt that the devil was working in me: only my confessor (although he conspired with the others; but only, as I afterwards understood, in order to test me) always consoled me, and said that, even if it were the devil, provided I did not offend God Best and Greatest by sinning, he could do me no harm at all; that he would at last depart from me; whence I should urgently beg this very thing from the Lord by prayers, which both he himself and all those to whom he gave ear in confession, and also very many others, seriously did. All my prayer too was directed to this aim; nay, I asked all the servants of God whom I knew to ask God that His Majesty would deign to lead me by another way. For nearly two whole years I continually commended this matter to God by prayers, asking this of Him again and again.
[174] cast on the Saint: But nothing could console me when I thought with myself whether it could be that the evil demon spoke with me so many times. For since I no longer had any time for recollecting myself by prayer in solitude, the Lord granted me that meanwhile, while I conversed with others, I could recollect myself inwardly; nay He Himself, though I struggled in vain, spoke to me whatever seemed good to Him, and I, however very grievous and very troublesome it was to me, was compelled then to hear Him speaking. But when I was alone, having no friend by whose conversation I might console myself, I could neither pray nor read in a book; but on account of so great tribulation and fear lest perhaps the evil demon was deluding me, wholly restless and afflicted, plainly not knowing what at last I should do with myself (and this anguish I felt several times, nay often, but never in my judgment so grave and excessive as then), I remained in this state for four or five hours continuously, so that no solace came or shone upon me either from the earth or from heaven; except that the Lord saw me suffering, placed amid a thousand fears of dangers.
[175] but the most kind Jesus How true a friend art Thou, O Lord Jesus! and how powerful! For when Thou willest, Thou canst, and Thou never dost not will, if only we will Thee. May all things that have been made praise and bless Thee, O Lord of the world! Would that I could proclaim with full voice through the whole world how faithful Thou art to Thy friends! All created things, Lord, fail and pass away: Thou, the Lord of them all, never failest or passest away. All too little is what Thou allowest him who loves Thee to suffer. How tenderly, courteously, caressingly and sweetly, O my Lord, Thou knowest how to treat and hold Thine own! O that one had never sought to love anyone but Thee alone! Thou seemest, O Lord, to test with the rod and with rigour him who loves Thee, so that, placed now in extreme affliction, he may understand the greater extremity and immensity of Thy love. O, my God, if one had at once the wit and the learning, and also new words, to magnify and extol Thy works, as my soul indeed understands them! All things desert me and fail me, my Lord, but if Thou dost not forsake me, I shall by no means fail Thee. Let all learned men rise up against me and attack me, let all creatures persecute me, let all demons harass me, only do Thou not withdraw from me: for I have learned by experience how great is the gain which those bring back who trust in Thee alone.
[176] so strengthened her by an interior utterance When, then, I was placed in that great anxiety (for no vision had yet been offered me up to then), these words alone were more than sufficient to take it away and to make my mind serene, every cloud being dispersed: "Daughter, do not fear: for it is I, and I will not desert thee; do not fear." I thought indeed (as I saw myself disposed) that a very long time would be needed to persuade me to compose my mind to quiet, and that no one could bring eloquence and wit sufficient for this; and behold, these words alone so calm, strengthen, encourage, make secure, quiet and enlighten me, that I saw my soul in a moment plainly changed and another, and, disputing against the whole world, I would have proved by reasons that it was God who was working in me. How good God is, how good and powerful a Lord He is! For He suggests not only good counsel, but a remedy; and His words are works. How, O good God, faith strengthens a person and through it love is increased! To confess the truth, I often called back to mind and memory how the Lord once, when a tempest had arisen on the sea, commanded the winds to cease; whence I said thus to myself: Who is this, whom all my powers so obey, and who in a single moment brings light and serenity into such thick darkness; who softens a heart which seemed to be of stone and marble; who lets loose streams of sweet tears where dryness seemed to have been long and was to be for a long time? Who supplies these desires? Who suggests this courage? so that I often thought within myself: What is it that I fear? What is this? I desire to serve this Lord; I want nothing else than to please Him alone; I desire no other recreation, quiet, good than to do His will (for of this, as it indeed seems to me, I was plainly certain, so that I can relate it here). If, then, the Lord is so powerful, as I see and know Him to be, and the demons are His slaves, and it is wrong to doubt of this (since it is among the articles of faith), and I am the handmaid of this Lord and King, what evil can they do me? Why should I not have strength enough to contend with all the cohorts of hell?
[177] so that she dared to challenge all the demons, I took a cross, therefore, into my hands: and the Lord truly seemed to me to inspire strength and courage; for in a short time I saw myself so changed that I did not fear even to come to grips and wrestle with all the demons: for I seemed able without difficulty to put them to flight and vanquish them with that cross. Whence, challenging them, I said within myself: Come now, all of you, as many as you are; I wish to see what you all can do to me, since I am the handmaid of God. And truly they seemed to fear me: for from that time I remained quiet and without fear, and ceased so to dread them, as many as they are, that all the fear which I had had hitherto ceased: for although, as I shall relate later, I still saw them at times, yet I no longer feared them, nay rather I thought I was terrible to them: and there remained to me, God granting it, a certain dominion over them all, so that now I fear them no more than if they were flies.
[178] They seem to me, moreover, so fearful and cowardly and them as cowards that as soon as they see themselves despised, they lose all their strength and power. These enemies know how to attack in fact no one except one whom they see giving himself up of his own accord, or when God permits His servants to be tempted and vexed for their greater good. Would that we feared Him whom we truly ought to fear, and persuaded ourselves that more harm can come to us from one venial sin than from the whole infernal multitude joined together: since this is truly so. How much, further, these evil spirits hold us in fear and dread, because through our appetites for honour, gold and pleasures we ourselves wish to make ourselves fearful and timid! For then they, joined with us and as it were with forces combined (for we are enemies and foes to ourselves when we love and pursue those things which we ought to hate), will without doubt harm us very much: for we ourselves are the cause why they attack us with our own arms, giving into their hands, as it were, those things with which we ought to defend ourselves against their force and assault; which is indeed to be deplored. But if for God's sake we repudiate all things, embracing the cross, and busy ourselves to serve Him sincerely and from the heart; then the evil demon flees these truths no otherwise than we flee a most virulent plague.
[179] and despised them as liars. For he loves a lie, nay is himself a lie; nor will he enter into any pact or dealing with one who walks in the truth: but when he perceives anyone's mind and intellect clouded over, he works together in every way to pluck out his eyes and make him plainly blind. For if he sees anyone already so blind that he thinks he will find quiet in vain things (for all things of this world are so vain that they seem nothing but childish rattles and trifles), as soon as he notices that a man of this sort is a mere child, since namely he lives in the manner of children, he soon conceives boldness and courage to
wrestle with him, not now once, but more often. God grant that I may not be of their number, but may His Majesty, I pray, give me grace, by means of which I may judge that to be quiet which is truly quiet; that to be honour which is truly honour; that to be delightful which is truly delightful, and not the reverse: and then I shall hiss off all the demons and care not a straw for them; nay rather, they will fear me. I do not understand this manner of fearing, that we should say "devil, devil," when we can say "God, God," and so strike fear into him: for we know already that he cannot even move unless the Lord permits him. What does this mean? That namely I now fear more those who so fear the demon than I fear him himself: for he can do me no harm at all; but these, especially if they are confessors, wonderfully disturb and disquiet a person. For my part, for many years I bore such troubles in this matter that even now I wonder with myself how I could have borne them. Blessed be the Lord, who has in fact made me so strong. Amen. Thus the Saint, in chapter XXV.
§ XI. She begins to use Father Baltasar Álvarez as confessor. She often enjoys the conversation and visions of Christ: she is pressed by anxieties and the detractions of men.
Great security Chapter XXVI follows, in which there is still talk of the utterances of God: One of the principal and greatest graces which I have received from God I think is this, is brought by true love of God, the generosity and courage which He gave me against the evil demons. For it is most harmful and most out of place for a soul to be cowardly and fearful and to dread anything other than offending God. For since we have an almighty King and Lord so great that He can do all things and subjects all to Himself, we have no occasion at all for fear, if only (as I have said) we walk before His Majesty in truth and sincerely and with great purity of conscience. For this I would wish (as I have said) to have all fear whatsoever, namely lest I should offend in anything Him who can at this very moment destroy us and reduce us to nothing: for if we have His Majesty friendly and propitious, all our adversaries will humble themselves before us with joined hands as suppliants. Someone will say to this that it is indeed so, but what soul will live so rightly and sincerely as to please God in all things, and, made the more secure on that account, fear nothing at all? Certainly not mine; for it is all too wicked and useless, and subject to a thousand miseries and infirmities: but God Best and Greatest does not conduct Himself toward the guilty as men are wont, for He knows our weakness. But the soul can gather in itself from evident signs and conjectures whether it loves Him sincerely and truly: for love in those who have come to this state is not dissembled and hidden, as at the beginning, but very impetuous; and they feel in themselves an ardent desire of seeing God, as I shall show more fully below, or have already mentioned above. Hence all things torment, afflict and torture a person, unless they are borne either with God or for God; every quiet too disquiets him, because he feels himself absent from his true and proper quiet. Accordingly the thing is manifest and, as has been said, does not proceed dissemblingly and hiddenly.
[181] the manner in which God strengthens or rebukes the soul, At a certain time, when I saw myself oppressed by great tribulations and various detractions of others, in a certain business which I shall relate later, in which I had both the whole city in which I am at present living and the whole Order resisting and opposing me, and I was in great anguish indeed, and not undeservedly, it happened that the Lord addressed me with these words: "What dost thou fear? Dost thou not know that I am Almighty? What I have promised thee I shall perform in fact." And this was afterwards fulfilled too. And at once such strength arose in me that, so that I might serve Him, I was encouraged even to undertake anew other very difficult things, although even greater trouble was to follow me from them, and they would have to give me new matter for suffering. This has happened to me so many times that I could not say the number: often too He has rebuked me, nay He rebukes me even now, when I fall into some imperfections; and indeed with words so sharp that they are enough to reduce a soul to nothing; at least they are of such efficacy and so powerful that it corrects itself: for, as I have said above, His Majesty gives counsel together with remedy. At other times He brings my past sins back to my memory, and then especially when He wishes to give me some singular grace, so that the soul now thinks it truly stands before His tribunal: for the truth is set before its eyes there so clearly and plainly that it altogether does not know where to betake itself. From time to time He has foreshown to me certain dangers impending both over me and over others, and also other future things, three or four years before they happened; all of which came about exactly and in order; some of which I shall perhaps relate later. So that there are so many signs from which it can be gathered whether it is God who speaks that I think no one can be ignorant of it.
[182] and above all recourse to the confessor. But the safest of all, as the Lord has often signified to me, is that we should not fear to open our whole soul and all the graces which we receive from God to the confessor: he, however, must be learned; and it is ours to comply in all things. This, moreover, I do myself, and if I did not, I should have no quiet; for it is not advisable that we women should enjoy full quiet, since we are both unlearned, and no disadvantage at all, but a huge advantage, follows from this. And this happens to me very frequently. I had a confessor who exercised me with various mortifications, and from time to time even afflicted me, and in a wonderful manner harassed me again and again: for he granted me no quiet. And he, in my judgment, was the one who helped me more than the others in the way of the spirit; and although I loved him greatly, yet from time to time I was tempted to leave him; for I believed that the troubles and afflictions which he caused me were an impediment preventing me from being able to apply myself to prayer. But as often as I proposed to do this, I was at once warned inwardly by the Lord speaking not to do it, and that with so harsh and sharp a reproof that His words rent my heart more than all the troubles which my confessor inflicted on me. At times it was grievous to me that on one side I was questioned, and on the other reproved. And truly it had to be done so with me, since my will was indeed little bent and compliant. Once the Lord told me that I was not truly obedient as long as I did not resolve and was not ready to suffer; but that I should cast my eyes on what He Himself had suffered for our sake, and then all things would seem to me most easy.
[183] Wherefore the Saint opened her whole heart Another confessor, further, namely he who had received my Confession at the beginning, at a certain time counselled me that, since it was now very well known that a good spirit was working in me, I should keep silent about it hereafter and say nothing of it to anyone, because it was better to keep things of that kind pressed down in silence and conceal them. This counsel did not displease me: for as often as I spoke to my confessor about these things, it was so grievous to me and suffused me with such blushing that I sometimes felt greater difficulty in declaring these things than in disclosing grave sins, and most of all when certain singular graces were to be declared: for I thought they would not believe me, and that I should be a laughing-stock to those who heard. This, moreover, troubled me, that this seemed to me to be a certain irreverence and contempt toward the great and wonderful works of God: and therefore I would have preferred to wrap these things in silence. Then at last I understood that that confessor of mine had counselled me very badly in this, and that I ought by no means to conceal anything from him whom I use as confessor; for this was by far the safest, and if I acted otherwise, it could happen that I should at some time be deluded and deceived. As often as the Lord commanded me something to be done in prayer, and the confessor did not wish it to be done, the Lord, when I afterwards had recourse to Him, ordered me to obey the confessor: and His Majesty then changed his mind, so that he now enjoined on me what the Lord had before ordered to be done. When at a certain time many Spanish books were taken from us by order of the Superiors and forbidden to be read, this seemed to me grievous enough, because there were some to the reading of which I was very much attached, and which it was now forbidden to read any longer, because it was lawful to read them only in Latin. Whence the Lord said to me: "Let this not torment thee; for I will give thee a living book." I did not know why or to what end this was said; for I had not yet then had any visions: but not long after I easily understood what it meant. For I had such matter for reflecting and for meditating on the things which I saw before me, and the Lord showed me so much love in instructing me in every way, that I had very little or almost no need of books. His Majesty was that true book in which I read the truths: and blessed be that book which so imprints on the memory what is to be read and done that no oblivion can erase it.
[184] to Father Baltasar Álvarez, an eminent director of souls, The confessor whom we have just seen praised I believe was Father Baltasar Álvarez, who already in the year 1559, to which the Saint has brought us, had been initiated into the Priesthood; namely after he had spent two years in theological studies under the teaching of the Dominican Fathers of Ávila. For, reckoning from then up to the beginning of the year 1566, when Father Baltasar was sent from Ávila to Medina del Campo to act as master of novices, we have six years in all; for so many years St. Teresa wrote, in the often-cited letter to Father Rodrigo Álvarez, that she used him as confessor. Through that whole six years Father Baltasar was minister of the college of St. Giles at Ávila: and meanwhile for a long time he held the entire administration of the same college, though without the title of rector; since through all that space of time only two rectors presided over its government, one for a year and a half, the other for only nine months. Besides, he assiduously helped the souls of outsiders: in which office he had persuaded himself that the primary pursuit of a labourer of the Society is to join himself most closely to God; and then that it pertains to the institute of the same Society (the words are Sacchini's) not to any degree of virtue whatever, but
to the very highest to which it may be lawful to lead men; and that there is no one in any order who cannot be perfected more and more in his state: accordingly one must not care how many penitents one numbers; but one must endeavour to make even a few better by continual increase: since God will gravely punish in masters of the spiritual life not only the faults from which they have not turned away those whom they instructed, but also the perfection omitted to which they have not raised them… Then, applying as it were the axe to the root, he took pains to withdraw them gradually from created things; especially from idle and superfluous familiarities, which he greatly detested in the Society too: affirming that it can scarcely be understood how much they hinder the course of souls toward God and the inflowing of God into them. Nor did he wish them to be humanly affected even toward himself, rejecting little gifts and all the allurements of private love, and professing that it would even be pleasing to him if at times they went to other confessors at will. Using this liberty, and exercising them not softly in the conquest of themselves, he drew them to the pursuit of prayer. Above all he had prescribed for himself the law not to speak with penitents except of divine things; so that not even the lords with whom he dealt dared to throw in other conversation. He, moreover, as he poured out words from a full and ardent breast, discoursed with such force, such sublimity, that by a single discourse he would kindle the hearer with the love of heavenly wisdom. Thus Sacchini (Hist. Soc. Jesu, part IV, book VIII, nos. 216, 217 and 218): which I have thought worthy of citation for this reason, that they depict Baltasar such as the studious reader will find him here and there in the writings of St. Teresa; and so that you may recognize the disciple from the master, and know the way which, indicated by her director, the obedient Virgin followed, and as it were the effect from the cause. For the rest, I shall not now say more about this Venerable Servant of God: both because mention of him will frequently occur in the rest of St. Teresa's life, and I shall discuss him by name elsewhere, as confessor of the holy Virgin; and also because the Venerable Father Luis de la Puente has recounted his deeds in a remarkable volume, to which anyone who desires to know the man more deeply can go.
[185] yet at that time somewhat austere, There is, however, still something which I cannot omit here. Namely, we read a little before that St. Teresa was treated rather severely by her confessor, at times tormented in a wonderful manner, not admitted for many days (Father de la Puente has twenty) to Holy Communion, etc. Now the cause of this austerity and of a certain as it were hallucination the humble Father Baltasar himself assigns, or more truly I should say exaggerates, in the account of his spirit which he sent to Father Everard Mercurian, General Superior of the Society of Jesus. For sixteen years, he says (namely from the year 1551 to 1567, as Father de la Puente reckons), I was exercised with labour, like one ploughing and not gathering: I was certainly then of small spirit; and I was most distressed that I was empty of those gifts of the others by which I might win for myself esteem and love from others: torn now by this care, now by that, very eager to give myself to prayer; quiet, where it was needed, neither placed nor found… At this same time I recognized that my faults of soul were to me a cause of bitterness rather than of submission; and by them the divine counsels seemed to me to be hindered: and in proportion to the narrowness of my mind I was tormented also by the faults of others whose care belonged to me; and I thought the best method of governing was to keep those subjects humbled and afflicted until they corrected themselves… I was too fond of myself, and at the same time I was of a most sick mind: for it seemed to me that I should never attain the perfection of the virtues; and that because the divine bounty did not impart itself to me as to the others… On account of my petty and narrow mind I feared wiser and holier men; before whom I did not dare to present myself, because I saw myself drained and exhausted, lacking among them in mind, speech and letters: nor did I seem able to discharge the duties of life unless placed between two men, one on this side fit in virtues, the other on that side in conducting business… And I feel that it was due to my intolerance to have taken so harshly those whom one must bear with, my gaze fixed least on them, most on God (In Luis de la Puente, chapter XIII, § I).
[186] Further, when she had long prayed God Now to return to the series of Teresa's history: the interior utterances, which had filled up nearly two years, were followed for two and a half years, namely from the year 1559 up to the year 1561, by very many and most remarkable visions. The first of them, in which, because it was neither imaginary nor sensible, she did not so much see Christ as know in wonderful ways that He was present to her, happened to her on a certain feast day of St. Peter, after she had earnestly prayed God either to lead her by another way or at least to make her plainly secure concerning the truth of the interior words; having invoked for this end the patronage of many Saints, especially St. Hilarion and the Most Blessed Michael the Archangel, whom the Order of Carmel honours with more solemn rite. This vision was followed after a few days by a threefold imaginary vision: first of the hands of Jesus Christ, then of His face, and finally of His whole Most Holy Humanity, as He rose glorious from the sepulchre. Here is what our Saint has handed down to memory about them, in chapters XXVII and XXVIII of her Life.
[187] that He would lead her by another way, I was in affliction and anxiety; and various prayers were poured out to God for me here and there, that He would deign to lead me by another way which would be safer, because they said that the one by which I was walking was suspect and full of dangers. I confess, however, that, although I asked this of the Lord as a suppliant and wished exceedingly to feel in myself the desire to enter upon some other way, yet because I saw my soul so bettered (except perhaps at times, when I was wonderfully distressed on account of the things that were said to me, and also on account of the fears which they struck into me), it was not at all in my power to desire it seriously, though I asked it of God again and again. For because I saw myself entirely changed, hence I could do nothing else than resign myself wholly into the hands of God, because He knew what was fitting for me; and therefore I asked Him to fulfil His most holy will in me in all things. I saw, moreover, that by this way I was tending straight to heaven, whereas before I had been hastening straight to hell; whence I could not prevail upon myself either to desire this very thing or to believe that it was a demonic illusion, although I applied whatever diligence I could both to believing the latter and to desiring the former; but this was by no means placed in my hand. Whatever I did (if only I did any good work) I offered to the Lord for this end; besides this I chose certain pious Saints for my patrons, that they might deliver me from diabolical illusion; I also undertook novena pilgrimages with this intention; moreover I seriously commended myself to St. Hilarion and St. Michael the Archangel; whom chiefly for this cause I had recently chosen as my patron, and had begun to invoke seriously: nay I also invoked not a few other Saints rather importunately, that through their intercession the Lord might deign to show the truth and that they by their prayers might beg this from the divine Majesty.
[188] Jesus Christ After, then, for two years both I and very many others had prayed most urgently that the Lord would either lead me by another way or declare the truth of the matter, because the Lord often addressed me in the manner I have described, this at last happened to me. When on a certain feast day of the glorious Apostle Peter I was engaged in prayer, I saw, or to speak better, I felt (for I saw nothing at all with the eyes of the body or of the soul), or rather it seemed that our Saviour Jesus Himself stood beside me, and I saw (as it indeed appeared to me) that it was He who spoke to me. I, as one who was entirely ignorant that such a vision could take place, began at first to be shaken with great fear and wept unceasingly: but as soon as He began to speak to make me secure, I remained, as was usual, quiet, serene and full of joy, and all fear soon vanished. The Lord seemed always to walk at my side, but because it was not an imaginary vision, hence I did not see of what form He was: nevertheless I perceived very notably and felt that He always stood at my right side and was an eyewitness of all that I did: and as long as I was even a little recollected, or not much distracted elsewhere, I could not be ignorant that He was beside me.
[189] by a certain sublime kind of vision Without delay, much afflicted and disturbed, I went to my confessor to relate this vision to him. He asked me in what form I saw Him: I answered that I did not see Him. He inferred, whence then did I know that it was the Saviour Jesus: I said I did not know; nevertheless that I could not but know and understand that He was beside me, and that I saw and felt this clearly, because the recollection of the soul in the prayer of quiet was much greater and very continuous, and the effects far different from those I used to have; so that the thing was most evident. Whence I brought forward one comparison after another to declare myself: but for declaring this kind of visions, I should think no comparison at all can be given which fits well enough or is apt. For since this is of the most sublime kind of visions, as a certain holy man of great spirit, called Fr. Peter of Alcántara (of whom I shall speak more fully later), and other most learned men afterwards told me, and also of the number of those into which the demon can thrust and mix himself the less, hence words do not come and occur to us unlearned women for declaring them here on earth: but lettered and learned men will explain them better. For if I say that I behold Him neither with the bodily nor with the interior eyes of the soul, because it is not an imaginary vision, how then do I know and persuade myself with greater clarity and certainty that He is beside me than if I beheld Him with my eyes? For if I say that it seems just as when someone, because he is in darkness or blind, does not see another man standing beside him, this does not fit well enough; it has indeed some likeness, but that is rather small: for there one perceives the man present by his senses, or hears him speaking or walking, or touches him; but here there is nothing such, nor does any obscurity seem to be here, but by a certain knowledge, which is clearer than the sun, the Lord represents Himself to the soul. I do not say that a sun or a brightness is seen here, but a light which, without any vision of light, nevertheless the intellect
illumines, so that the soul may enjoy so great a good. This, moreover, brings great goods with it.
[190] He presents Himself to her; But it is not like a certain presence of God such as is often felt in prayer, especially by those who have the prayer of union and of quiet; but here, as soon as we begin to pray, we seem to find One with whom we may speak, and even to understand that He hears us, and this may be gathered from the effects and from the spiritual affections and feelings of ardent love and faith and other purposes, with a certain tenderness of heart. This is a singular and great grace of God, whence he who has received it from heaven must make very much of it: for it is a very sublime manner of praying, but it is not a vision; namely, that one understands that God is present there through the effects which, as I have said, He works in the soul: for His Majesty wishes to reveal Himself to us in such a manner: hence it is clearly to be seen that Jesus Christ, the son of the most pure Virgin Mary, is present here. In that other manner of praying certain influences of the Divinity only put themselves forth; but here, besides those influences, we see that the most sacred Humanity also accompanies us and wishes to do us good. My confessor, then, asked me: "Who told you that it was Jesus Christ?" I answered: "He Himself often told me so; nay indeed, even before He told me so, it was impressed on my mind that it was He: nay, even before this impression He signified it to me, and yet I did not see Him"… For so evident and certain a knowledge is imprinted on the mind, even without seeing, that no doubt can remain. For the Lord wills it to be engraved so firmly on the mind that we can doubt of it no more, nay even less, than of what we see with our eyes…
[191] then His hands and face, I remained a few days in that vision of which I have spoken, which was very continuous, and profited me so much that I did not depart from prayer; nay, I laboured to do all that I did in such a way as not to displease Him whom I saw so openly to be its witness and inspector: and although from time to time I feared within myself, because so many things were said to me daily, yet this fear was not lasting, because the Lord made me secure. When, then, one day I was engaged in prayer, it pleased the Lord to show me only His hands; which were truly of such excellent beauty that I cannot express it sufficiently in words. Whence I began to fear: for every novelty always makes me very timid and fearful at the beginning, whatever supernatural grace the Lord may grant me. A few days later I also saw His divine face; the sight of which plainly, as it indeed seems to me, absorbed me. I could not understand why the Lord showed Himself as it were by parts and gradually more and more, since afterwards He was to do me the grace of seeing Him entire: until I afterwards understood that the Lord had conformed and adapted Himself in this to my natural weakness. May He be blessed for ever: for so bad and vile a subject could not have borne so great a glory putting itself forth all at once; and the Lord, as one who knew this well, so disposed it out of His goodness. I shall perhaps seem to Your Reverence not to have needed great strength for beholding hands and a face so beautiful: but you must know that glorious bodies are so beautiful, and breathe so great a glory on every side, that the sight of a thing so supernatural and so eminently beautiful as it were snatches a person out of himself and as it were makes him demented. Hence it came about that I so feared that I was troubled and dismayed with fear; although a little later I was made entirely secure and certain, and felt in myself such effects that all fear soon departed.
[192] and at last He shows her His whole Humanity One day sacred to St. Paul the Apostle, while I was hearing Mass, that most sacred Humanity of Christ the Lord presented itself wholly to my sight in exactly that form in which He is wont to be painted rising glorious from the sepulchre, displaying such beauty and Majesty as I then described in particular to Your Reverence, when you strictly enjoined it on me: which was indeed grievous enough to me; for no one can say it without inflicting great pain on himself: however, I then described what I could as well and as clearly as possible; wherefore it is not necessary to repeat in this place what has been said elsewhere: this only I say, that, even if in heaven there were no other delight of the eyes than the supreme beauty of glorious bodies, that glory would be all too great, especially to see the very Humanity of our Saviour Jesus Christ: this holds also even when His Majesty gives Himself to be beheld here on earth only according to the capacity of our weakness: what then will it be in heaven, where it is given to enjoy so great a good at once and once for all? But although this vision is imaginary, yet I never beheld it with bodily eyes, as neither any other, but only with the eyes of the soul. Those, however, who have greater experience of these things than I say that the vision of which I spoke before is more perfect than this, and this more perfect than those which are seen with bodily eyes; for they teach that this kind of visions is the lowest among visions, and more subject to diabolical illusions: although at that time indeed I could not persuade myself of this; but I wished as much as possible that, since such a grace was being done me, I might be able to behold it with bodily eyes, so that my confessor might not tell me that my eyes were held by a charm and deluded. Nay rather, when it had already passed, a certain thought occurred to me (and that at once) whether perhaps my eyes had been deluded; and it tortured and distressed me that I had made it known to my confessor, thinking with myself whether perhaps I had not deceived him. This, therefore, was new matter for tears and sorrow; wherefore I betook myself to him and told him the occasion of my sorrow. He asked me whether it only seemed so to me, or whether I had wished to deceive him on purpose. I told him sincerely what it was in fact: for, in my judgment, I was not lying nor had I wished to lie; nay, not even for all the things in the world would I have narrated one thing for another. He knew this, and tried to bring me back to quiet. So too on my part it was grievous and very troublesome to me to go to him with trifles of that kind; so that I plainly do not know how the devil could have suggested to me to feign that by which I should torment and torture myself: but the Lord Himself so hastened in granting me this grace and declaring this truth that this anxiety, and the scruple whether this was nothing but a mere illusion of the eyes, departed from me as quickly as possible; and afterwards I perceived my own stupidity and simplicity all too plainly. For although for many years I thought with myself in imagining how I might form so beautiful a thing, yet I could neither do it at all nor knew how; for it far exceeds all that can be formed here by imagination or thinking.
[193] in an ineffable manner, I would indeed wish to declare in what manner the Lord gives Himself to be beheld in these visions: I do not say that I shall show by what means so vehement and strong a light in the interior sense, and so clear an image in the intellect, that He truly seems to be present there, can be constituted: for this treatment belongs to learned men. And the Lord has not willed to declare to me the manner in which it is done; besides, I myself am so ignorant and of so obtuse a wit that hitherto I have not been able to understand it, however much others have tried to explain it to me. And this is certain, although Your Reverence thinks me of a happy and acute wit, that I am stupid and obtuse: for, as I have now experienced in many things, it comprehends nothing other or more than what (as is commonly said) is given it to eat. He who was my confessor wondered from time to time at my ignorances, and neither did he ever disclose to me, nor did I desire to know, in what manner God had done this or that, or how this or that could be: nor did I ever ask it, although, as I remember having said above, I had now for many years been accustomed to deal with most learned men. This, further, I asked, whether anything was a sin or not; but as for the rest I needed nothing other than to think that God had made all things; and I saw that I had no occasion for wondering, but a great occasion for magnifying and praising Him; nay, difficult and sublime things rather moved me to devotion, and the more difficult they were, the more I was moved.
[194] and with that majesty Would, my Jesus, that I could indicate in words with how great majesty Thou givest Thyself to be beheld, and how Thou showest Thyself to be the Lord of the whole world, of the heavens and of a thousand other worlds and of the infinite worlds and heavens which Thou couldst create: all of which the soul, in view of the majesty with which Thou givest Thyself to be seen, understands to be unworthy and altogether nothing, that Thou shouldst be and be called their Lord. Here too it clearly appears, my Jesus, how slight and nerveless is the power of all the devils, if it be compared with Thine, and how he who has Thee as friend can trample the whole force and wickedness of hell. Hence too it is gathered how rightly the evil demons, when Thou didst descend to the limbo of the fathers, feared, and wished for a thousand other deeper hells in which to hide themselves, so as not to behold so great a majesty face to face: and at the same time I see that Thou willest to declare to the soul how great is that most sacred Humanity, joined to the Divinity, and how great its power. Here likewise it appears what it will be, on the day of the last judgment, to behold the Majesty of this King, and His severity toward the damned and reprobate. Here too is the true humility which it leaves in the soul, namely that it beholds its own misery: for it cannot but behold it. Here, finally, is confusion and true sorrow and repentance for sins committed: for, although the soul sees itself held in friendship by the Lord, yet it does not know where to hide itself from Him; and thence it is that it is wholly annihilated.
[195] in which the demon cannot appear. This vision, moreover, is to be made very much of and (as it indeed seems to me) is subject to no danger; for it can be gathered from the effects that the devil can do nothing at all here. Three or four times (as far as I remember) he wished to represent to me in this manner the Saviour Christ Himself, in a false and lying representation;
he does indeed then assume a fleshly form, but that glory which accompanies this form, when this vision comes from God, he cannot imitate: and he makes these representations in order to destroy the true vision which the soul has had; but the soul so resists them, and is so troubled and becomes so nauseated and restless, that it loses all the devotion and relish of sweetness which it had before, and so remains entirely without prayer. This happened to me three or four times at the beginning, as I have said. This argument, then, as also others of that kind, I set against those saying that I was deluded and bewitched by the demon (which indeed was very frequently objected to me), and I also brought forward certain comparisons, as I could and as the Lord suggested them to me; but by all these I could prevail little: for because there were in this town many holy men, compared with whom I was nothing but mere corruption and rottenness, whom God nevertheless did not lead by this way, at once they suspected something bad of me; and my sins seem to have been the cause that this report and suspicion about me went round, as in a circle, from one to another; so that, although I disclosed it to no one except my confessor alone, or to those to whom he bade me declare it, yet this matter became known to all everywhere.
[196] The Saint, increased thereby in virtues, Among other things I once said to them that, if those who said this of me had told me, as I was just coming from a conversation with someone whom I knew very well, that this was not really the person whom I thought, but that it only seemed so to me, and that this was clearer to them than the midday sun, I would doubtless have believed this rather than what I had seen: but if this friend had moreover placed in my hands certain jewels, as pledges of his love, which I had not had before, and I now saw myself rich, whereas before I had been very poor, I could not believe it, even if perhaps I wished to. I added, moreover, that I could still show these jewels: for all who knew me saw with their eyes that my soul was entirely changed: not to mention that the judgment of my confessor about me was also the same. For this change of mine was so manifest and evident in all things that it struck the eyes of all everywhere. For I said that, since at the beginning I had been so wicked and accustomed to sins, I could plainly not believe that the demon, if he did this in order to deceive me and afterwards thrust me down to hell, would use a means and way so contrary to this, as was taking away my imperfections from me and suggesting in their place virtues and strength of spirit; for I saw more clearly than the midday sun that I had been changed in a moment by these things into a wholly other person.
[197] strips herself more of love of creatures, Among the wonderful effects, moreover, which the vision here spoken of produced in Teresa's soul, very much to be noted, as Yepes aptly advises in this place, is that which she herself describes in chapter XXXVII of her Life in these words: From the sight of Christ our Lord His eminent beauty remained impressed on me, and even today it clings living and entire to my memory; for this it is enough to have beheld Him even once: how much more, then, since the Lord has deigned to do me this grace so many times? A huge benefit, further, remained to me from it, which I shall now relate. I was subject to a certain very grave error, from which no small harms followed for me; namely that, as soon as I saw myself loved by some man or woman who was wonderfully to my liking, I was at once so affected toward that person that my memory was in a certain wonderful way compelled and as it were drawn to think of him, although I had no intention by this of offending God; yet I looked at him willingly, and to think of him and of the goods which I noted in him was most sweet to me. This was so harmful to me that my soul was on that account in most present danger of perishing.
[198] so that she turned her whole affection toward God: But after I beheld the unspeakable beauty of the Lord, I have thereafter seen no one at all who, compared with Him, seemed beautiful to me, or kept my memory occupied: for I have been made so free in this respect that, when I cast even the eyes of the mind and of consideration on the image which I bear engraved in my soul, from that time all the things which I see seem to me abominable and loathsome, compared with the excellences and graces which I have beheld in this Lord. There is no knowledge either, likewise no kind of pleasure, which in comparison with Him, that is, compared with the hearing of even a single word spoken by that divine mouth, has any place with me: how much more, then, since I have heard Him speaking so many times? Nay, unless the Lord, on account of my sins, should make me lose the memory of Himself entirely, I think it cannot happen that anyone should so occupy my memory that, if only I think even a little of this Lord, I should not at once be made free of his image and impression… I conceived greater love and trust toward this Lord after I had seen Him, as one who had such great familiarity with Him and conversed with Him so assiduously. I saw that He, although He was God, was also man, and did not shudder at the weakness of men, as one who has well perceived our frail and miserable condition, which through the first sin (which He came into the world to heal) is very prone and easy to falling. Although He is my Lord, I can nevertheless deal with Him as with a friend. For I understand well enough that He is not like those whom we hold here on earth as lords, who place all their lordship and magnificence in a certain affected and borrowed authority.
[199] meanwhile, however, And this and the other effects of her visions the Saint brought forward against those who contradicted her, to show that it was God's work that was being done in her. My confessor too, as I was just saying, she says at the end of chapter XXVIII, who was an eminently holy man of the Society of Jesus (namely Father Baltasar Álvarez), answered the same as I, as I afterwards understood. For he was a man of wonderful discretion and great humility: but this great humility of his was the cause of many troubles to me; for although he was most devoted to prayer and learned enough, yet he did not trust himself, because the Lord did not lead him by this way: whence he himself was distressed and tormented enough in every way on my account. I understood, therefore, that he had been told by someone to beware of me, lest he should be deceived by the demon, if he believed any of the things which I told him: they brought him the examples of others for this: which, like all the other things, tormented me exceedingly; so that I feared lest I should at last be unable to find anyone who would be willing to give ear to my confession, but all would flee from me as from a profane thing: and so I dissolved wholly into tears: but the providence of God so moved him that he was willing to bear with me patiently and give ear to my confession: for he was so zealous a servant of God that there was nothing he would not have attempted for His sake: wherefore he counselled me not to offend God by sinning, and not to deviate even a nail's breadth from the admonitions and counsels which he suggested to me; and that if I did this, there was no reason for me to fear being deserted by him.
[200] although her confessor consoled her, He always encouraged and quieted me; and he also commanded me to conceal from him none of the things that happened to me: which I also observed exactly. And he said that, if I did these things, even if this were an illusion of the demon, I should receive no harm from it, nay rather that the Lord would draw a huge good from the evil which the demon wished to aim at my soul: whence he laboured in every way he could to perfect it. I, for my part, because I was very anxious and timid, obeyed him in all things, though imperfectly. For three years and more, during which, while those anxieties lasted, he gave ear to my confession, he suffered troubles enough on my account and through me: for in the very great persecutions which I had, and in several other things in which, the Lord permitting, people thought and judged ill of me (in most of which I was innocent), recourse was always had to him; whence he himself, through no fault of his own, was variously accused on my account. And truly, had he not been a man of such holiness and had the Lord not strengthened him, he would have been unequal to bearing so many troubles and detractions: for on the one hand he had to answer for me to those who judged that I was rushing to destruction and did not at all believe him when he said otherwise; and on the other to make me secure, and to dispel the anxiety and fear under which I laboured, by striking a greater fear into me, at the same time also quieting me.
[201] great interior anxieties For after each vision, especially when something new intervened in them, the Lord permitted me to be distressed by great fears and anxieties; which doubtless proceeded from this, that I committed so many sins and had committed them at other times. He, however, consoled me most heartily and most kindly; and, if he had been willing to believe himself, I should not have suffered so many things: for God gave him to know the truth in all things; for the Sacrament itself, as I believe, suggested light to him. The servants of God to whom I was suspect often dealt with me; and, since I blurted out certain things simply and inconsiderately, hence they interpreted these very things otherwise than I had uttered them. Toward one of these I was wonderfully affected; for my soul was obliged to him on many accounts, and he was of great holiness of life: whence it tormented me exceedingly that I saw myself not understood by him; he, however, was very solicitous about my progress, and that the Lord would deign to enlighten me. And so it came about that what (as I have already said) I said inadvertently and without reflection, they judged to proceed from a defect of humility; and as soon as they noted any imperfection in me (which were indeed not few), at once they interpreted everything of mine as bad.
[202] and suffered the detractions of men. Accordingly they asked me certain things; to which, when I answered simply and without any reflection, they at once thought I wished to teach them, and regarded myself as learned and versed. All of which was soon reported to my confessor; for in truth there was none of them who did not labour for my good and progress: and he at once scolded me. And
this lasted long enough for me to be afflicted from many sides; but strengthened by the graces which the Lord did me, I overcame all things. I relate this so that it may be plain how difficult and troublesome it is when a person has no one who is versed in this way of the spirit: for had not the Lord upheld me so far with His help, I truly do not know what would have become of me. There were indeed some things which were more than enough to drive me to madness: nay, from time to time I felt myself so driven to it that I was entirely ignorant what to do except to lift up my eyes to the Lord: for the contradiction of good men against a wicked and weak little woman (such as I am) and a fearful one seems (so to speak) to be nothing; yet among all the very great afflictions and troubles which I have had in my life, I truly reckon this the most grievous: God grant that I may have rendered His Majesty some service in this matter: for I am certain that those who condemned and opposed me rendered Him remarkable service in this matter, and undertook and directed all this effort to my benefit and good.
[203] These visions from the year 1559 Thus far St. Teresa. But concerning the year in which the visions just described took place, and concerning the feasts of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul on which the first and fourth of them fell, there is not one opinion among the authors. Yepes, speaking of the first vision (book 1, chapter XIII), relates that the holy Virgin, while she enjoyed it, spent some days and almost nearly a year very content; because so good and so ordinary a company could not fail to be of great profit to her. Since, however, the same Prelate soon subjoins to these that the second vision, that, I mean, of the Saviour's hands, was shown a little afterwards, he does not seem to put an interval of nearly a whole year between the two; but rather hints that there were shorter and intermittent other imaginary visions during the same time, but that the former one, which was not imaginary, was longer-lasting and more continuously present to Teresa's mind. For the rest, the feasts about which I have raised the question this writer does not indicate. The author of the Chronicle (book 1, chapter XXIII, no. 7), with whom Father Frederick of St. Anthony agrees, represents the said visions as had in the year 1558, and confines them within the space of eight days, thinking that the first fell on the feast of the Chair of St. Peter at Rome, which we celebrate on the 18th day of January, and the fourth on the 25th day of the same month, sacred to the memory of the Conversion of St. Paul; and he endeavours to confirm this opinion of his from the narration of St. Teresa herself. And in truth the first three visions, if you attend to Teresa's words, seem able to be reduced conveniently to one week. For the Saint says that in the first vision she remained a few days (I have corrected Martínez, who had written many): Pase algunos dias, pocos, con esta vision muy contina I spent some days, few, with this vision very continuous: then, having narrated the vision of the Saviour's hands, she affirms that a few days later she beheld His divine countenance: desde a pocos dias VI tambien aquel divino rostro a few days after I saw also that divine face. But what the most deserving writer of the Chronicle subjoins, that likewise a few days intervened between the showing of the face and the exhibition of the whole Most Holy Humanity of Christ, is not so expressly said by the Saint; and accordingly nothing prevents us from admitting that the feasts of the Holy Apostles were separated from one another by a greater interval, especially since the feast of the Roman Chair of St. Peter was restored to the City and the World only in that very year 1558, by the apostolic letters of Paul IV given on the eighth day before the Ides of January (Bullar. Rom. vol. I, page 832, Luxembourg edition): unless perhaps someone can show, which I for my part have found nowhere, that that very feast, which already then, on the testimony of the same Paul IV, was celebrated in various parts of the Christian world, and especially of France and Spain, had long been customarily celebrated at Ávila too or in the Carmelite Order. Moreover, in order that the two years, of which the Saint rather often speaks, and which seem to have to be begun from the departure of St. Francis Borgia and of Father Prádanos (see the preceding §), may be made up, I think the visions of which we treat are to be referred not to the year 1558 but to the year 1559. Which Mr. Boucher also thought before me, who links them to the year 1559, about half of it having elapsed; whence one would have to adopt either the principal feast of St. Peter, the 29th of June, or the feast of St. Peter in Chains on the Kalends of August, and for the feast of St. Paul recourse would have to be had either to the day of the Conversion, the 25th of January, or to the day of the Commemoration, the 30th of June 1560.
[204] lasted up to the year 1561. Further, the vision which St. Teresa saw on the feast day of St. Peter, although it was not properly the first of all her visions, I have at times called the first in the preceding number, both so as to distinguish it from the three following by a short word, and also because, in the mind of Yepes, it was the first which the Saint understood to have proceeded from God; because, namely, when she beheld Jesus before (as we saw at nos. 106, 115 and 116), she had not held this showing for a vision, being, as she herself testifies, still ignorant of such things. As regards the kind of visions here treated of, and whose description the Saint had sent separately to her director, it was not shown once, but rather often, as she will say in chapter XXIX presently to be adduced, for two and a half years, that is up to the end of the year 1561; and that not rarely in the Sacred Host. Here and there the God-man gave Himself to be beheld by His bride in that form in which He rose from the sepulchre: yet at times also wounded, crowned with thorns, laden with the cross or hanging on it, placed in agony, etc., as St. Teresa's state required. And here indeed, had I not deferred the treatment of the holy Virgin's prayer to a more remote paragraph, I would call the reader's attention to the wonderful skill with which the truly prudent Virgin at once discerned the form of the Saviour usurped by the demon, and the false consolations of that malignant spirit, by its serpent's tail; and I would show how beautifully Sts. Ignatius and Teresa agree with one another on the rules of the discernment of spirits. But, these things omitted, I shall at least press to some extent the very strong argument which she used in this matter with her confessor and others: namely the amendment of her conduct and such progress in solid virtues as could by no means have been begotten of diabolical machinations. Namely, what she here alleges only in general, that the change of her life was so manifest, on the testimony of Father Baltasar Álvarez, that it struck the eyes of all, she unfolds more distinctly and part by part in her letter, already often cited, to Father Rodrigo Álvarez (vol. I, letter 19): that she conceived a huge fear of offending God and a generous will to serve His supreme Majesty; that she obeyed her confessors entirely and promptly in all things; that from the time she began to enjoy supernatural gifts she always tended to the most perfect things, and cherished a vehement desire of suffering with love of poverty, whence in every tribulation she abounded with joy, and was affected with special love toward her persecutors; that she no longer laboured under vainglory, because, although she did not forget the graces of God, she rather retained the memory of her past faults; finally, that, spurning earthly things, she assiduously longed for the praise and honour of God and the salvation of souls. Certainly by these signs, joy and trust in God and ineffable charity, according to the teaching of the great Anthony (chapter VIII of his Life, by St. Athanasius, in Bolland at the 17th of January), it is known that not an assault of Satan but heavenly help has come: because the security of the soul is an indication of the present Majesty; but the infernal enemy neither knows how to refresh, and drives even to the deep pit of impiety, so that men may prostrate themselves to him. And St. Teresa will exhibit a remarkable specimen of her patience and obedience at the beginning of the paragraph which now follows.
§ XII. Various judgments of confessors about St. Teresa's spirit, on the occasion of the one who ordered her to drive away the apparition with an insulting gesture.
The continual and familiar apparition of God to Teresa Further than was fair, the Saint thus proceeds in chapter XXIX of her Life, I have turned aside from the way proposed to me; for I had decided to give reasons from which it might be gathered that that former vision was not imagination: for how could we ourselves, by the operation and effort of the intellect, represent to ourselves the very Humanity of Christ, and conceive His eminent beauty through the imagination? Much time indeed would be needed, even to imagine something which might in some measure resemble it… For two years and a half it lasted that the Lord for the most part granted me this grace; but now for three years and more He has very ordinarily taken it away from me in this manner, through another far more sublime (as I shall perhaps say below): and although I saw that He addressed me, and I considered that supreme beauty, and with what sweetness He utters those words with that most beautiful and divine mouth (although at times He also displays rigour), and desired exceedingly to know what was the colour of His eyes, what their size, so that I might be able to relate this to others; yet I never merited to see it, and, in whatever way I try it, I have always been frustrated; in that very attempt the vision rather perishes from me entirely. At times indeed, I confess, I see that He looks upon me caressingly and in a friendly way; but this look is so powerful and efficacious that the soul cannot bear it, and so sudden a rapture soon follows it that, in order that it may enjoy Him wholly, it loses this beautiful look. So that willing and not willing have altogether no place here, and it appears clearly that the Lord wishes nothing else than that we should exercise humility and confusion of ourselves here, and enjoy what is given us, and praise Him who gives it… As often as the Lord gave Himself to be beheld by me, He almost always appeared in that form which He had when He rose glorious from the sepulchre: so too He exhibited Himself to be beheld in the Sacred Host; except that at times, in order to encourage and strengthen me when placed in some tribulation, He showed me His wounds, now placed on the cross, now set in the garden, rarely wearing the crown of thorns, sometimes too carrying the cross, and that (as I have said) on account of my necessities and those of others, but always displaying a glorified body and flesh. In declaring this to others I bore many reproaches, infamy and troubles; often too on this account I feared for myself, and was harassed by others. For they thought so certainly that I was beset by the demon that some even wished to drive him from me by exorcisms: but I cared little for this: but it was grievous to me that I saw my confessors deterred from hearing my Confession, or when I knew that something about me had been reported to them. For the rest
I could never repent of having seen these heavenly visions, and I would not have exchanged even one of them for all the goods and delights of this world; for I always interpreted it as a singular and great grace of God: and indeed it seems to me a certain very great treasure; nay, the Lord Himself often bade me be secure. I saw that I was advancing very much in loving Him: whence I set out all these afflictions of mine to Him complainingly in prayer; nor did I ever rise from it without having received consolation and new strength. I did not dare, however, to oppose them, because I saw that my contradiction was so far from doing good that it rather did harm; for they judged it to arise from a defect of humility: but I dealt with my confessor, who, when he saw me afflicted and sorrowful, consoled me again and again.
[206] by a certain confessor she is ordered to repel it insultingly. But when the visions increased, one of those who used to help me before (he to whom I sometimes confessed when the Father Minister was hindered) began to say that it was certain and evident that it was a diabolical illusion. He ordered me, since there was now no reason or way of resisting, as often as I saw any vision, to make the sign of the cross and to mock the demon by showing the thumb, because he believed for certain that it was an illusion of the demon, and so it would come about that he would come to me no more; but that I should not fear, for God would be a help to me and would free me from illusion. This was grievous and very bitter to me: for because I could not believe but that it was God, therefore to do this was horrible and impious to me; nor, as I have said, could I desire or wish that this should be taken from me: nevertheless I did what he had ordered to be done. I prayed God urgently, therefore, to preserve me from being deceived by the demon. This I prayed again and again and assiduously, and that with many tears; and I also begged the help of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul (whom the Lord, when He first gave Himself to be beheld by me on their feast day, promised would guard and protect me, so that I should not be deceived by the demon). Whence I often beheld them most clearly standing at my left side, though not by an imaginary vision. These glorious Saints, then, were my singular lords and patrons. But that showing of the thumb was most painful to me, when I saw this vision of the Lord: for when I saw Him present, I could by no means have persuaded myself that this was a demon, even if they had cut me in pieces. So this was a grievous torment and mortification to me; and so as not to sign myself so often with the sign of the cross, I took some crucifix into my hands. This I did almost always; but that sign of insult I did not use so frequently: for it was grievous and very troublesome to me. There came to my mind the injuries and grimaces which those Jews had once inflicted on Him, and I humbly prayed that He would pardon me that injury done Him, since I used it no otherwise than to obey him whom I had chosen in His place, and that He would not impute it to me as a fault, since these were His ministers whom He had established in His Church. He, however, said that I should care little for this, for it was so far from being a fault that I did well in obeying them; and that He would bring it about that the truth of the matter would at last lie open. But when they forbade me prayer, He seemed to have taken it ill: accordingly He said that I should answer them that it was mere tyranny. Besides, He suggested to me arguments and reasons from which I might understand that it was not a diabolical illusion: some of which I shall relate later.
[207] [An inquiry into the kind of insult which the Saint expresses by "dar higas".] The kind of insult with which the Saint was ordered to mock the Lord Jesus appearing to her, as though He were the devil, has been variously expressed by the translators. Martínez here uses the words exsibilatio hissing off and per sannas explosio driving off with grimaces, and in the version of Ribera he employs the phrase sannis nasoque suspenso apparentem excipere to receive the one appearing with grimaces and turned-up nose. Arnauld d'Andilly wrote paroles de mépris, words of contempt; Chanut moquerie, mockery, and also, which is better, signes de moquerie, signs of mockery; Father Cyprian of the Nativity, Discalced Carmelite, in the French version of Yepes, has faire la nique, which in general means to mock, to deride with grimaces, but specifically, according to the Dictionary of Trévoux, to thrust out the chin insultingly, to cast the chin at someone; the English translator of St. Teresa aptly used the phrases some exterior action of scorn, signs of scorn, signs of contempt. The Saint, however, and her Spanish biographers use no other phrase than dar higas, which her Flemish translator, Father Elias of St. Teresa, exactly expressed by de vyge geven, de vyge toonen, the German by die Feigen zeigen, the Italians likewise by far i fichi, far le fiche; just as in French too, in popular style, it is sometimes said faire la figue. In the Middle Ages the expression ficham facere or ficus facere to make the fig was in use, as Dom Carpentier, O.S.B., shows in the supplement to Du Cange's Glossary, alleging the following from the Stat. Pallavic. book II, chapter X, page 85: It is ordained that if any person shall make the fig against Our Lord or the Lady St. Mary His Mother or any of the Saints venerated by the Church, for each time he shall be punished and condemned in five pounds; and from letters of remission of the year 1449 in Register 180 of the royal Chartulary, charter XLVII: The said de Remato with both his hands made the figs at the said Sermes, despising him, saying to him: Je t'en fau la figua et t'en despiege I make you the fig and despise you. Among the English I have not found the same expression; but perhaps this is close to it: I do not care a fig for him, I do not make him of a fig's worth. Now the ficha or ficus is a sign of the hand most insulting in itself: whence it is sufficiently understood how grievous to the Saint was the command to make signs of this kind against Jesus Christ; and what certain of her biographers record will seem less strange, that she hid her hand, composed in this gesture, under her scapular.
[208] [It is investigated theologically how a person ought to conduct himself toward an image of Christ appearing to him:] Having related this fact and praised the obedience of the holy Mother, I for my part would refrain from all dispute about that precept of the confessor, had not many, discoursing at length on this occasion, not rarely brought forward false things, as will be plain in the course of this §. Wherefore I have thought it necessary to lay down certain principles and to elucidate the circumstances of the fact. I pass over the command which the confessor gave her to make the sign of the cross or to carry a cross in her hand; for there is nothing there to be censured, because that is indeed hateful to the demon, but not injurious to Christ the Saviour. And here belongs what the Venerable Mother Anne of St. Augustine, Discalced Carmelite, relates (chapter XXI of her Life), that the counsel was given her by the holy Foundress to hold out to Saints appearing to her the cross hanging from her rosary to be kissed; which the Servant of God actually carried into execution even toward St. Teresa, when she appeared to her glorious after her death, and toward the Saviour Jesus Christ Himself.
[209] [first, if it is established that it is from God; then, if it is established that it is from the devil;] An image presented to the mind in such extraordinary ways is either judged with certainty to come from God, the rules of prudence having been employed, as I suppose, such as attentive consideration, prayers poured out to God, and counsel sought from learned men. And then certainly it is wrong to insult such an image; but right to hold it in honour. Or such an image is judged with certainty to have been sent by the devil. And then, even if Christ or the Holy Eucharist or anything else whatever is represented, the deluding devil and the figure feigned by him are to be abhorred, whether the angel of darkness transfigures himself into an angel of light or God, or reproduces their appearance in any other way whatever. And certainly he would act very badly and would not be immune from the sin of idolatry who, though abhorring the one representing, should actually venerate such an image on account of the object represented: as will be plain from the teaching of St. Thomas and of Father Scaramelli, to be adduced in the following number. But he who should abstain from all contempt out of reverence toward the figure represented, but also from all worship out of horror of the one representing, could perhaps be excused on account of a scruple, though an empty one, by which he does not dare to distinguish the false image of Christ, produced by the devil as a means and instrument for man's perdition, from a carved and painted image of Christ, which, being made by man, is, so to speak, at its term, or which of itself does not tend to evil, but has its own end, which is to depict Christ in the fancy of man. But he acts rightly and prudently who, intending to break off all pernicious dealing with the devil, treats a form of this kind with insult, because he knows that either the devil lies substantially hidden under it, or at least that it has in some way been feigned by that unclean spirit in order that the man who lets himself be taken by it may be defiled. Hundreds of Saints are recorded who despised the devil or the appearance offered by him, or ordered it to be despised, even though it bore the person of a Saint, of the Blessed Virgin or of Christ, or had put on the form of the Eucharistic Species. I shall cite only one or two examples. St. Philip Neri judged that a figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary presented by the infernal enemy could lawfully be treated with insult, saying to his disciple Francesco of Ferrara: It was not the Most Holy Mother of God, as you think, but the demon in her form that offered himself to be seen by you. Therefore when that vision presents itself to you again, I bid you spit in the face of the one who appears (in his Life, by Gallonio, chapter IV). Nor otherwise St. Pachomius, who, as may be seen in his Acts in our Predecessors at the 14th of May (no. 55), when he perceived the devil standing by him, although he asserted that he was Christ, did not reverence that appearance of the Saviour, such as it was; but stretched out his hand as if to seize him, and blew into his face.
[210] and finally, if it is doubted whether it is from God or from the devil. Or finally it is doubtful whether that figure of God or of a Saint is from God or from the devil. Sánchez and Azor teach openly that it is wrong to give worship to an image, even though it represents God, whenever we are in doubt whether it is a demon or not who speaks through the image. And then there comes into use the rule which Father Scaramelli, S.J., gives in the Directorio mistico (treatise IV, no. 68). Let not the director of the soul, he says, allow one who has had a vision of Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Virgin Mary or of the Saints, to give them veneration or worship before the director himself has diligently weighed the said vision and the reasons on which it rests. St. Thomas asks whether it is lawful in apparitions or visions to adore the Redeemer or His Mother or the Saints in the act in which they
show themselves to the eyes, to the fancy or to the intellect; and he answers that, if that apparition is diabolical, and veneration is shown with the express condition, "If thou art Christ, etc.," nothing evil seems to be there. But if this condition is absent, he judges that that veneration cannot be exempted from sin and fault, although there is always underlying a habitual condition by which reverence would not be shown if it were known that a demon lay hidden under that figure: "It must be said that the devil appearing in the likeness of Christ cannot be adored without sin, unless the condition be explicit in act. For it does not suffice in habit alone: because that novelty of an unwonted thing requires consideration and attention; as it is said of the Blessed Virgin that she thought what manner of salutation this should be" (on 3 Sent. dist. IX, question I, article II). And this teaching of St. Thomas Benedict XIV says is not to be abandoned (de Beatif. et Canoniz. book III, chapter LI, no. 8); and he also confirms it from St. Bonaventure. But if it is not lawful to honour that doubtful image, so neither is it right to treat it with insult; as a certain theologian of the Carmelite Order, cited by Father Frederick, rightly says: Absolutely, unless there is moral certainty of the demon lying hid, those signs of mockery and insults are not to be made. It is one thing to injure the image of Christ, another to suspend worship. The first is a matter of imprudence, to spit upon an apparent friend not yet proved an enemy. The second is a matter of prudence, to test whether the one who appears is friend or enemy.
[211] [And it is inquired historically what judgment was passed on Teresa's visions about 1560,] These things laid down, before I touch upon two places of Teresa on this argument which at first sight may perhaps seem to someone to be wrongly interpreted, it is necessary to inquire to which of these three classes each of those who about 1560 (which time is to be well noted) governed the Saint's conscience referred those wonderful operations in her soul, that is, who judged that God was their author, who the devil, who finally remained doubtful whether to say God or the devil. First of all, as regards the Saint herself, she confesses in many places of her books and letters that, as long as the vision lasted, she was inwardly persuaded that all these things flowed from God; but when her mind was a little distracted, she was filled with anguish, and feared lest she was being deluded by the devil: as she openly affirms of herself even ten times from chapter XXIII to chapter XXX of her Life. Therefore the first to be corrected is Father Frederick of St. Anthony, who says in book I, chapter XVI, that the Saint was of the opinion that it was to be held infallibly that God appeared to her: L'opinione della Santa e del Bagnez era infallibilmente d'abbracciarsi nelle circonstanze si gravi di morale interna certezza, che chi le appariva, era Dio [The opinion of the Saint and of Báñez was that, in circumstances so grave of interior moral certainty, it was infallibly to be embraced that He who appeared to her was God]. But of those who judged that the things which the Saint experienced in herself in those first times were to be ascribed to God, scarcely any others are recorded than St. Francis Borgia and two confessors of the Society of Jesus, of whom one preceded St. Francis in that office with Teresa, the other succeeded. Almost all the rest suspected that she was ensnared by diabolical tricks; so that she herself feared lest at last a priest would be lacking who would be willing to give ear to her confessing her sins. And this was so far persuaded to some that they decided that she must be dealt with by exorcisms, and that one, as Perotti relates (in Father Frederick, place cited), with the stole thrown over his shoulders, was already hastening to that solemn act. By name five or six men of Ávila, led by Daza and Salcedo, after they had several times met to deliberate on Teresa's state, at last pronounced that she was being deluded by diabolical illusions. Yet among these misguided counsellors are not to be numbered the Saint's confessors of that time, as is wrongly affirmed by Father Peter of the Annunciation (in notes 3, 4 and 5 to letter 11 of vol. II, Brussels edition 1742). At least concerning Father Baltasar Álvarez, whom the Saint seems then to have used as her chief, not to say only, confessor, she herself relates the exact contrary in chapter XXVIII of her Life.
[212] and especially by Father Baltasar Álvarez, It is worth while to relate here in a few words what his judgment was about the Saint's spirit: from which it will be seen that he is to be numbered, if not in the first, at least in the third class, namely that of those doubting. At the beginning indeed his judgment was entirely favourable to the Saint, and he governed her according to this rule. But afterwards, when that six-man tribunal, of which above, had brought forth its severe decree, and when that confessor who ordered Teresa to repel the apparition with insult had supplied his place in his absence, Father Baltasar, who was a younger priest, out of his humility did not dare to go against the opinion of such great men, whom the Saint herself calls zealous, learned, spiritual, and distinguished servants of God. Inwardly indeed he favoured Teresa; but, in a certain way suspending his judgment, he directed her in appearance according to the mind of her adversaries, dissuading her from solitude (which is usually done with those who are deluded), and removing her for some time (for twenty days, it is said in the life of Father Baltasar) from Holy Communion, and even allowing the precept of his predecessor, namely of repelling the vision insultingly, to be carried into execution. In that way Father Baltasar was perhaps more timid than was fair; yet he does not deserve the harsh castigation which Father Peter of the Annunciation, in the place already cited, exaggerates against the Saint's confessors. And the humble Father continued on the same way until the better counsels of St. Peter of Alcántara overcame in his mind the authority of Salcedo and of the others to whom Teresa's spirit had seemed to deserve reprobation.
[213] [and then by that confessor who ordered Teresa to drive away the visions with insult:] Nor are certain Aristarchuses harsher against Father Baltasar alone, but several also exceed measure against the confessor who wrongly enjoined on Teresa to keep off the vision with insult, overcome, as I think, by the authority of others, or persuaded by I know not what arguments. Let them disapprove, for all I care, his hasty judgment; I shall agree with them if they say only that there was room for doubting, and therefore for suspending judgment, both on account of the Saint's humility and her virtue increasing daily, and on account of the contrary opinion pronounced before, chiefly by St. Francis Borgia. But in order that one may judge rightly, one must weigh the circumstances. Namely, the confessors had heard from the Saint's own mouth that the demon had several times mixed himself in her visions (chapters XXX and XXXI of the Life); they had the judgment of other very spiritual men agreeing with them (some of whom even wished recourse to be had to exorcisms), and namely of the holy knight Salcedo, who had applied himself to prayer for forty years and had come to great perfection and skill in spiritual affairs; they saw Teresa herself, although she said that at the time of the visions she was very secure of the presence of Christ (which men deceived by the demon too are not rarely wont to say), yet after those visions very anxious and timid, especially when something new had occurred in them, as we have just heard her narrating, and as she also narrated in the year 1560 in her letter to St. Peter of Alcántara (vol. II, letter 11). These and other things, which could certainly not unjustly stir suspicion of diabolical fraud, I would wish whoever desires to pass a fair sentence on that confessor, so gravely accused by certain writers, to consider diligently. He certainly exaggerated beyond all measure the fault of the holy Virgin's confessors who (note 2 to letter 11 of vol. II) called their counsel bitter, and the test which they instituted of the Saint's spirit cruel. And Father John of the Annunciation, General of the Discalced Carmelites, falsely asserted in his work Innocentia vindicata that the serene mind of St. Teresa was much disturbed by an imprudent confessor; whereas from the very testimonies of the holy Mother, repeated ten times and more, it is clearer than light that that alleged serenity was far exiled from her mind during that time; and not only then, but even after St. Peter of Alcántara had striven to make her quiet. And the same Father, a little after in the same work of his, no less falsely affirms that the Saint continued so long in making these insulting signs by order of her confessor until Father Domingo Báñez untaught her it, that is up to the year 1562. For this assertion can by no means stand with the subsequent narration of St. Teresa; since already in the year 1560 St. Peter of Alcántara had told her that it was the spirit of God which was acting in her.
[214] whose manner of acting the Saint disapproves in two places of her books. Now come to be declared two places of the holy Mother in which she treats of the famous order of the confessor. I place them here before the reader's eyes, one from chapter VIII of the Foundations, the other from chapter IX of the sixth Mansion. I knew, she says there, using the third person, a certain woman whom her confessors distressed and lacerated in a wonderful manner on account of visions of this kind; which nevertheless (as was afterwards to be seen, and was plain from the singular effects and good works which followed from it) came from God. She, then, when she saw His image in some vision, again and again fortified herself with the sign of the cross repeated, and repelled the one appearing with insulting signs, because she had been ordered to do it. But afterwards, communicating with a certain man especially learned, namely Brother Domingo Báñez, she heard from him that this was done wrongly, and that no one ought to do it. For wherever we see an image of our Redeemer, it is good that we show reverence and honour to that image, even if it were formed or painted by the evil demon himself; for he is an excellent painter, and does us gain rather than loss, while he thinks he harms us, if ever he expresses a crucifix or any other image to us so to the life that he leaves it engraved on our heart. This reasoning, moreover, pleased me wonderfully: for when we behold some excellent and outstanding image, even if we know it to have been painted by some wicked person, we shall not neglect to make much of it, but shall trouble ourselves little about the painter, lest our devotion be diminished on that account. For good or evil consists not so much in the vision as in the very one who sees, evil, I say, if he gathers no fruit from it with humility. For if this is present, the vision can bring no harm, even though the evil demon himself should appear; but if it is absent, even though it be from God, it will bring no fruit. For if what ought to conduce to humbling us (namely when we see that we by no means deserve this grace) becomes on the contrary an occasion of pride to us, we shall be like the spider, which turns into poison whatever it eats, not like the little bee, which makes all things pass into honey. Then the Saint declares it further by examples, urging obedience toward the confessor as much as possible. The other place of hers, from the Castle of the Soul (place cited), runs thus: A certain man especially learned
used to say that the devil is an excellent artist in painting; and he added that, if he should represent the Lord Jesus to him most to the life, it would by no means be troublesome to him, since namely by that figure he would stir up the spirit of devotion in himself, and would attack and slay the demon with his own arms. For, however unskilled and inept the painter may be, the image which he paints ought not on that account to be honoured and venerated the less, provided it be of Him who is our only good, namely Jesus Christ. Whence it could not but displease him exceedingly, what some counsel those under them to do, namely that, when they see some vision, they should repel it insultingly: for he said that, wherever we should see our King depicted, we owed Him reverence. And indeed I see that he rightly thinks so: for even in this world one would be indignant if he knew that his image had been treated with insults and injuries of that kind by one whom he held as a friend. How much more fitting, then, and by how much greater right, is it that we should always revere the very effigy of the crucified Lord, or any other image of our Emperor? Although I have written of this matter in another place, yet it has been pleasant and agreeable to me to repeat it here; because I saw a certain woman much afflicted by it, when she had been ordered to take this remedy. I do not know who first invented this manner, so proper and apt for torturing, and that a woman who can do nothing else than obey, if the confessor counsels her to do such a thing, and who thinks she is going to perdition unless she complies with him counselling it. But my counsel is that, even though they counsel some such thing, you should set forth this reasoning to them with modesty and humility, and not take that remedy. Those good reasons which he who treated with me of this matter suggested to me fitted me exceedingly well.
[215] [Yet from these places it ought not to be concluded that the Saint wishes an image of Christ known to be exhibited by the demon to be adored,] Intending to unravel the difficulties of these places, I first state that there are some who maintain the following opinion, which I think scarcely probable and judge practically dangerous, and which, as it seems to me, the human mind shrinks from embracing and judges absurd. Namely, certain interpreters and biographers of St. Teresa, and also certain theologians who understand the holy Mother's words too crudely and wrongly defend them so understood, stubbornly affirm that she teaches that an image of Christ, even one which is and is known to have been formed by the demon, is always to be revered. Whence it follows that, if the demon himself should appear to anyone and hold out a figure of Christ or delineate it on a wall, the one to whom the apparition is made would rightly adore it, nay ought to adore it, paying no heed to the malignant spirit who feigns and exhibits it, because wherever we see our King depicted, we owe Him reverence. Father Frederick (book 1, chapter XVI), Montoya (Diss. 1, p. 189) and many others think they find that sense in the aforesaid words of St. Teresa, as is plain openly from what those two authors discuss in the places I have indicated. Nor would there be need of dispute if they maintained only that the Saint teaches that an image which is judged to be sent by God can be venerated; for on this all theologians agree, with only this accidental difference in their opinions, that some wish the actual condition (If thou art Christ) to be set first, while others are content with a habitual one. Therefore, what must be especially noted, those writers hold not only that the Saint forbids such a diabolical phantasm to be hissed off; nor do they teach only that she does not allow one to abstain, as from insult, so also from worship; although the Church herself proposes to us the precept of venerating sacred images only, as the theologians speak, as a negative one, that is, of not inflicting injury or irreverence on them, and only as an affirmative precept, that is, of giving them due worship, for the necessary times, so that no one is obliged to show worship to each and every image: but besides they contend that she desires that such a phantasm should be honoured in act, because we owe veneration to our King wherever we see Him depicted, not attending to the wicked painter. But this opinion seems to be rejected for many and grave reasons; and accordingly St. Teresa ought to be exempted from it, if it is in any way permitted by a fitting interpretation, since she was a most enlightened mistress of mystical theology, and the censors who examined her writings before the process of beatification censured nothing in them. Here in summary are some arguments which militate against it. 1° The human mind, as I have said, feels an innate horror of such dealing with the demon, especially in sacred things. What concord hath Christ with Belial? 2° The Saints, for example Philip Neri and Pachomius, of whom above, St. Martin of Tours (in Sulpicius Severus, in his Life no. 25), and very many others always abominated the demon, in whatever form he appeared to them, whether sacred or profane. 3° St. Thomas, St. Bonaventure, Benedict XIV, and all the highest lights of theological learning, as many as they are, are so far from that opinion—shall I call it a monster or a fiction?—that even in those apparitions which seem to have God as their author they wish, even under guilt of sin, the condition to be expressly attached: If thou art Christ. 4° The danger of seduction from it is very great. Whence St. Athanasius, expounding that passage of Luke IV, 35, He rebuked him, saying: Hold thy peace, says thus: Although the demon confessed true things, yet Christ rebuked his speech, lest together with the truth he should also publish his iniquity, and in order to accustom us to disregard such things, even if he seems to speak true things. 5° All fellowship with the demon is superstition, as St. Augustine says (book II of Christian Doctrine): Whatever proceeds from the fellowship of demons and men is superstitious; and as Gerson does not fear to write (prop. XVIII of the Trilogium Astrologiæ theologizatæ): It is not lawful to have part with them (the evil angels), as excommunicated by God and the whole Church, and because they are deceitful, always desiring to deceive, not to help: whence, according to the common proverb, "they play at false fellowship."
[216] by one and another argument, Since, then, these things are so, it must be skilfully investigated whether the holy Mother so professes that opinion that her words bear no other just interpretation. But that one of this kind can be found, and accordingly ought to be admitted, will be made out from what I am about to say. The Saint, I confess, at first sight seems to say that she was induced by the reasons of Báñez to think that it is never lawful to mock an image of Christ, even if it is sent by the devil, but that it is always to be revered, even when it is and is known to have been feigned by the malignant spirit. But to one searching more deeply into the sense of those places, the Saint will be judged to speak only of such visions in which it can perhaps vaguely be doubted whether they are from God or from the devil, and in which a person, proceeding in good faith, venerates the image with at least that habitual condition: If thou art Christ; and she will by no means be judged to speak of an image certainly presented by the devil, which she would say is to be venerated; nay, she will not be found to affirm there that in a positive doubt (that is, in which a person, after the dictate of conscience has been tried, is still perplexed and hesitates, doubting whether to believe the image from God or from the devil) the image can lawfully be adored. The first point, however, which alone I have to prove against many interpreters of St. Teresa (namely that she does not teach that an image of God which is known to have been formed by the demon is to be honoured), I establish by the following arguments, noting beforehand that many translators do not everywhere render altogether what the Spanish text has. 1° In express words the Saint nowhere puts forward that opinion in such a way that a more benign interpretation can be refused: to which the beginning of the former chapter cited contributes, where it is clear that she speaks of a doubtful vision which afterwards was established to have come from God. 2° If St. Teresa compares an image of Christ presented to the mind in visions with the image of a friend who is indignant when it is spurned; this, like any other comparison whatever, limps. For that image of a friend which is spurned by the friend is harmless, and in it he is justly indignant at being spurned. But a pseudo-image of God, which His infernal adversary feigns in order to ruin man and to rival God and catch at divine honours, is harmful, at least in the intention of the demon who uses it. Wherefore, contrary to what happens with that friend, there is truly no reason why God should be offended with him who despises such a false image of Him, and so eludes the arts of the malignant spirit. So Christ Himself is read several times in the books of the New Testament to have repelled the demon with reproach and stopped his mouth even when that impure monster was proclaiming His praises. Further, when the Saint speaks of an image of Christ painted or carved by man, it must be attended to that a quite different account is to be taken of this than of that phantasm feigned by the devil: since there it is a question of a dead image, but here of a living one which can speak and seduce, and which is used and exhibited by the devil with this intent, that he may seduce a person; as the Salmanticenses say: Since the demon frequently addresses the soul through such an image, if it believes his words, it easily suffers deception (Theol. Mor. vol. V, chapter VI, no. 21): which is plain from the history of Secundellus, in St. Gregory of Tours (Life of the Fathers, chapter X), and of Valens, in Palladius (in the History of the Holy Fathers).
[217] and also by a third, it is proved: 3° Finally, in that phrase which seems able chiefly to raise difficulty, Wherever we see an image of our Redeemer, it is good that we show it reverence and honour, even if it were formed or painted by the evil demon himself, the last words bear a double interpretation. Namely, they can mean: Even if it were formed by the demon himself accidentally and without the knowledge of him who venerates it; or: Even if it were known for certain to have been formed by the demon himself. The former, however, is to be preferred, not only because it is conformable to sound theological principles (while the other is not conformable to them), but also because the former sense, from the circumstances which I shall presently explain, can naturally be judged to contain the doctrine in which the Saint was to be instructed by Báñez, and accordingly that which the Saint drank in, and which she wished also to set forth here, since she professes here no other than the doctrine of Báñez, nor cites any other than him as surety for her sayings. And his doctrine must be gathered not only from the literal narration of the holy Mother, but also from the circumstances in which both Báñez and the Saint were placed. Imagine, therefore, or rather recall, the circumstances in which in the year 1562 that counsel was both asked by her and given by Báñez
or answered. And what were they? As regards the holy Mother, at that time already, from her progress in virtues and especially in humility, and from the testimony of most holy and most perspicacious men, it was plainly established that she was ruled by a good spirit. Yet her mind was not so calmed that it was not still frequently agitated, whether on account of the contrary counsels and precepts formerly given her by Salcedo and others, or on account of her profound humility, by which her mind shrank from believing that she had been gifted from heaven with such great charisms. As regards Báñez, however, to whom both these things were known, namely that God was working in her, and that she was nevertheless still frequently and gravely disturbed, his part was not to discuss things past, but to offer present counsel, and to supply a remedy for composing the motions of her mind. Undoubtedly the Saint had disclosed to him that she had formerly been told by another confessor that it was the demon who was vexing her, and that it had been enjoined on her to drive off the one appearing with an infamous gesture. These things being so, then, Báñez, as is gathered from the whole narration of the holy Mother, did no less sagaciously than prudently what it was right to do. Namely, in that conversation with her he did not wish to lay down theological theses on apparitions, to be applied indiscriminately to each and every person, whether deluded by the demon or inspired by God; but he put forward his sentiments in the manner of an orator (for even in private conversation the arts of eloquence, within the limits of truth, have force and are permitted), and suggested to her anxious mind all those things which are to be read above in both cited places of the holy Virgin, so as to make her calm; he would certainly have spoken entirely otherwise if he had known that she was being deluded by the demon, and that the infernal enemy was presenting himself to her under the form of Christ. Nor indeed does any sagacious director of consciences act otherwise than Báñez; who, though most observant of truth, yet speaks one way to the scrupulous, another to the lax, keeping silent with one about arguments which he exaggerates with the other. It follows, therefore, that Báñez's counsel can be reduced to these words: You must be tranquil, even if the image were feigned by the demon. And by this natural explanation Báñez is vindicated, on whom, as a most learned and famous theologian, it is wrong without open cause to rub that absurd opinion, as if he had wished that an image of Christ ought to be venerated even then when it is established that the substance of the devil lies hidden in it, or at least that enchantment and wiles constructed by the devil for man's ruin underlie it.
[218] [so that here one must depart from the interpretation of many, and even of Father Frederick himself;] And also, in order that we may rightly understand and justly interpret St. Teresa in those two aforesaid places, these reasons and circumstances must be kept before the eyes. Because some, who took the holy Mother's words too crudely, did not attend sufficiently to this, they have put forward theological principles foreign to the mind of Báñez and indeed of the holy Mother herself, and opposed to those principles which we established above, relying on the authority of St. Thomas and other distinguished theologians. Nay, for this reason Father Frederick himself, otherwise an accurate writer and a most devoted son of his Mother, is seen to have commented on these places neither rightly enough nor favourably enough; and moreover, of the three propositions which he subjoins to his interpretation, the first is entirely erroneous. Here is how he himself reasons after the two places of the holy Mother cited by him: Not all perhaps will approve that argumentation of the Saint and of Báñez, and they will say that it is one thing to honour a picture which exists and is preserved without the devil's help, another to venerate an interior phantasm which is formed by the devil and depends on the devil, so to speak, in its essence and in its preservation, and tends to no other end than the harm and ruin of men. Meanwhile the opinion of the holy Mother is defended by grave and illustrious theologians, her own sons. But if I may be permitted to put forth my own sense, I shall say that the theologians seem to me, amid the apparently opposed propositions which they defend, to agree in this opinion of mine: namely, 1° that the opinion of the holy Mother (this I refuted a little before) and of Báñez was that in such grave circumstances of moral certainty it was to be held infallibly that it was God who appeared to her, etc.
[219] [who moreover wrongly turns back Báñez's judgment of Teresa of the year 1562 to the year 1558.] Father Frederick in this proposition of his wrongly confuses the times. For the judgment of Báñez, given in the year 1562 (since Báñez himself testified in the process of canonization that he had not known or seen Teresa before the year 1562), he wrongly applies to the year 1558 (to which year, namely, he himself attaches the mentioned command of the confessor), in which there was an entirely different ground of judging than in the year 1562. For in that interval of time, as Father Montoya notes (Diss. 1, page 192), a Seraph had pierced the heart of the holy Virgin (in the year 1559, according to Father Frederick, book 1, chapter XVI, whose chronology I follow in citing these things), and that prodigy had left wonderful effects in her soul; the Saint, with her confessors aware of it, had made the arduous vow of always doing what was more perfect (in the year 1559 or the following, ibid. chapter XVIII); St. Peter of Alcántara had singularly approved the spirit by which the Saint was moved (in the year 1560, ibid. chapter XX); she had overcome the demons who assailed her in visible form (in the year 1560, ibid. chapter XXI); St. Peter of Alcántara and St. Louis Bertrand had applauded her plan of reforming Carmel (in the year 1560, ibid. chapter XXIII); Father Pedro Ibáñez had examined and approved her spirit (in the year 1560, etc., ibid. chapter XXIV); and, to omit most other arguments, the Saint had recalled her sister's son to life (in the year 1561, ibid. chapter XXV). But if you turn to the times before these prodigies, to the year, I say, in which Father Baltasar Álvarez was exploring by what kind of spirit Teresa was moved, and in which the confessor substituted for him counselled her to make those reprobated signs, who would deny that those times were for the confessors most full of troubles and uncertainty? Namely, the demon, having put on the form of Christ, several times tried to seduce Teresa (chapter XXV of the Life, no. 6, and chapter XXVIII, no. 9); so many spiritual men, most worthy of credit, declared that all things proceeded from the devil; the Saint, who had not yet understood what kind her prayer was, nor had received the gift of explaining it (ibid. chapter XXIII, no. 5), out of humility seriously warned her confessors to beware lest she should perhaps impose on them, however unwilling and reluctant (ibid. chapter XXX, no. 9). From these things, therefore, it is evident that the ground of judging was quite different in the year 1558 from that in 1562. It is established that at this later time Father Baltasar Álvarez had long since shaken off all hesitation; and it is very probable that that other confessor, who had been the Saint's adviser in repelling the apparitions with reproach, himself too no longer then condemned the Saint's spirit. Nay, Father Frederick (book 1, chapter XVI) and Montoya (Diss. 1, p. 202) probably suspect that to this very confessor, or if perhaps not to him, to some other of our Saint's censors, there happened the thing which I shall now narrate, as it is handed down by many. Our Redeemer appeared to him one night, and by the showing of Himself struck great amazement into him. When morning came the good man met Teresa and told her what had happened. My Father, she said, do not believe it. Would Christ wish to appear to you? Beware, I pray, of believing it. He insists, brings forward arguments by which he persuades himself that Christ was truly seen by him. Then the Saint: I would wish you, then, to understand that, as you believe your visions to be certain, so others too who consult you hold their visions for certain. By which answer that Father's esteem of Teresa was changed, the Lord, namely, thus beginning to fulfil the promise which He had made to His bride, that He would bring it about that the truth of the matter would at last lie open. From all these reasons, therefore, which I have heaped together, it follows that the opinion of Báñez cannot be invoked when it is a question of explaining or reconciling the earlier opinions of the confessors. Meanwhile, however, this can and must be well noted, that the saying of Báñez mentioned above, taken in a strict sense (in which sense it was also taken by St. Teresa), regards the image only as a sign qua sign: which is plain from the Saint's words: Provided it be of Him who is our only good, namely Jesus Christ. And in this sense the demon is held only as a painter and as concurring only materially and extrinsically; and in that way the worship is by no means referred to the suppositum of the image, which the theologians condemn by common reckoning. But it is time to close this paragraph, which I have allowed to become somewhat longer, because several errors of rather weighty writers had to be corrected, and because this discussion will conduce very much to explaining the state of the holy Virgin in this long interior struggle, and the whole disposition of her soul; but much most of all because she was afflicted with an absurd opinion, from which, if a fitting interpretation is admitted, she could be freed.
[220] What has been said is confirmed from Father Liberius of Jesus. I had finished this paragraph when I came upon volume VIII of the Controversies (Milan edition, 1757) of Father Liberius of Jesus, who, treating this question at p. 1014 and following, follows the opinion which I have defended. For among other things he says thus: The state of the controversy is not whether it is lawful to adore an image of Christ or of the most august Queen of heaven under which a demon lies hid, if this is known for certain; for no one doubts that this is wicked: but the sense is whether, when it is not known whether the image has been wrought by the demon, those images can be adored absolutely, that is, with no examination made first. I say: absolutely, that is without examination, adoration is not to be paid to an image under which a demon lies hid, and he sins gravely who acts otherwise. And after he has proved this from Holy Scripture, from St. Thomas and from St. Bonaventure, he makes and solves this objection for himself: It is lawful to adore an image of Christ wrought by a very wicked sculptor for a depraved end; therefore it is lawful to adore an image (without any condition) formed by the demon interiorly with intent to deceive: for the demon is like a painter forming an image; but adoration is not borne toward the artist, but toward the exemplar set before it. Certainly there seems no greater reason concerning an image wrought interiorly than one wrought exteriorly on canvas or clay: but this second it would be lawful to adore absolutely, even if made by the demon; therefore the first too. This doctrine our Mother approves in Mansion VI, chapter IX, and reproves the unskilled who order insults to be offered to these images. Answer: I deny the consequence. Because in the case of interior images, whose coming to be, being and preservation depend on the work of the devil, the demon is not related purely extrinsically as a painter and artist, but lies hidden there and
is present; therefore the adoration is borne not only toward the exemplar, but virtually toward the demon himself, who uses the image of good in order to deceive: for this is a certain kind of fellowship with our enemy. Further, not only formal fellowship but also material, as happens in other superstitious things, is unlawful. Add that the argument would prove that adoration is lawful even when it is known for certain that a demon lies hid, just as it is lawful when it is established that an image was certainly wrought by an infamous painter. The second example, of a permanent image made by the demon, fits rightly with the example of the painter: and then it is granted that adoration is lawful, because he is related purely extrinsically; and this is what Our Holy Mother means, led by the example of the painter. For the rest, absolutely, unless there is moral certainty of the demon lying hid, those signs of mockery and insults are not to be made to it. It is one thing to treat the image of Christ with injuries, another to suspend worship: the first is a matter of imprudence, to spit upon an apparent friend not yet proved an enemy; but the second is the part of a prudent man, to test whether the one who appears is friend or enemy.
§ XIII. The Saint sees diamonds in her cross, and an Angel who pierces her heart. She makes a vow of always doing what should seem more pleasing to God.
The Saint sees diamonds in her cross. We now come to greater charisms which God deigned to work in His handmaid at the same time. When once, says the Saint in chapter XXIX of her Life, I had in my hand the cross which hung from my rosary, He took it from my hand with His own hand; and when He afterwards returned it to me, it was composed of four huge gems, which were much more precious, beyond all comparison, than diamonds, and, as far as can be seen, almost supernatural; nay, diamonds seem something counterfeit and imperfect compared with the gems appearing in that cross: and these displayed the five wounds of the Lord most skilfully expressed. And He said that thereafter I would see this cross as jewelled; and so in fact it came about, namely that I saw not the wood of which it was made, but these gems: but no one saw them except me. As Ribera, the Chronicle and others relate, Juana de Ahumada, aware (not, however, unaware, as the French version of the Chronicle has it) of the great value of this cross, extorted it from her sister by many prayers, dissembling. And the Chronicle adds that that cross is kept among the Carmelite nuns of Valladolid (contrary to what Father Frederick says: among those of Madrid) in a very rich silver case, and is the worker of many miracles, one of which you may read in Ribera book I, chapter VI, and in Yepes book II, chapter XXXIX.
[222] Receiving graces daily more abundant, Graces, the Saint thus proceeds, were given me daily more richly and abundantly; and when I tried to distract myself, I could by no means turn myself away from prayer, so that I seemed to pray even while sleeping: for here there was an increase of love, and my expostulation with the Lord, and that I could not bear it; nor was it in my hand (although I both wished it and strove for it as much as possible) not to think of it: nevertheless, as far as I could, I complied; but in this I could do little or certainly nothing at all. And the Lord Himself never took this from me; but, although He counselled me to do it, yet on the other hand He made me secure, and taught me what to answer them (as He does even now), and gave me reasons so sufficient and pregnant that they plainly convinced me and made me secure. Not long after His Majesty began (as He had promised me) to show more evidently that it was He who appeared to me: for so huge and ardent a love of God grew in me that I was entirely ignorant who put it into me; for it was in the highest degree supernatural, nor did I strive for it in any way. I was dying with desire of seeing God, and did not know in what way I might come to this life except through death. Certain great impulses of this love, therefore, seized me; which, although they were not so intolerable as those of which I have spoken elsewhere, nor so powerful, yet I did not know what to do with myself: for nothing delighted or refreshed me; but my soul truly seemed to be torn out of me from its inmost fibres. O supreme and eminent artifice of the Lord! With how subtle and sweet a skill didst Thou deal with Thy poor handmaid! Thou didst hide Thy face from me, and meanwhile didst urge me with Thy love, and didst inflict on me so sweet a death that my soul would have wished to live in it perpetually and never be without it.
[223] She sees an Angel piercing her heart. And the Lord willed that I should sometimes see beside me on the left side an Angel in bodily form: which I am wont to see only very rarely, although otherwise Angels often appear to me; but when these appear, I do not see them except after the manner of that former vision of which I spoke first. But in this vision the Lord willed that I should see him thus: he was not large, but small and of a most beautiful form, and with a face so burning and flaming that he seemed to be of the supreme and foremost Angels, who seem to be wholly on fire: I believe these are those who are called Seraphim; for they do not declare their names to me: yet I see that there is so great a difference in heaven between one Angel and another, and between these and those, that I could not explain it in words. I saw that he had in his hand a certain long golden dart, but at the iron tip inflamed with a little fire: with this he seemed from time to time to pierce my heart to its inmost fibres, and, when he drew it out again, to draw out at the same time certain pieces of them: which done, he left me wholly burning and inflamed with a huge love of God. So vehement, moreover, was this pain that it made me break out into these groans and expostulations; but the sweetness which this extreme pain brings me is so excessive that I would by no means wish it to be taken from me, nor does the soul seek a lesser pleasure and delight than God Himself. This pain, however, is not bodily, but spiritual, although the body is not wholly immune from it, but feels it all too much. This reciprocation of love between the soul and God is so sweet that I ask His goodness to make him taste it who will perhaps think that I lie. On all the days on which this lasted, I was as it were out of my mind; I would have wished to see or speak with no one, but only to embrace myself with my pain; which I thought to be a greater glory than all that could come from created things could be. This also happened to me at times, when the Lord willed that these so great raptures should come upon me, so that even when I was among people I could not resist them; whence, to my great sorrow and against my will, they began to come to people's knowledge and to be divulged: but since I began to have these raptures, I do not feel this pain so intense, but that other of which I spoke before in a certain place (for I do not remember the chapter); which is indeed in many respects different and far more worthy. Nay, when this pain of which I now treat begins to seize me, then the Lord seems to raise up the soul and place it in ecstasy; and so there is no occasion either for feeling pain or for suffering anything: for enjoyment itself at once follows. May He be blessed for ever, who bestows so many and such great graces on one who responds so badly to such great benefits of His. Whoever desires to know divine operations of this kind, as far as is given to human knowledge, let him go to the very works of St. Teresa, and also to the Directorio mistico of Father Scaramelli, especially treatise III, chapter XXVII (Naples edition 1768), where he has much on the spiritual wound such as St. Teresa enjoyed.
[224] An error is noted in most of the French. Ribera relates almost the same things (book I, chapter VI) as Teresa. Yepes too narrates this heavenly bounty in almost the same words as Ribera (book I, chapter XIV); but he omits the argumentation by which Ribera defends the truth of this sacred sight. Namely, what it seemed opportune to the Saint's first biographer, in those first times, to fortify with such a dissertation, seemed superfluous to the later one, since the most widely known prodigies in Teresa had made this prodigy too more credible to every sensible person. On the cited place of St. Teresa, however, I have certain things which I shall subjoin here. First of all, most of those who have translated this place into French are to be censured, deceived by the Spanish word largo, which means not breadth but length. Thus Chanut wrongly puts: un large dard (a broad dart); Arnauld: un dard dont la pointe était fort large (a dart whose point was very broad); Boucher and Villefore: un large dard qui me paraissait être d'or (a broad dart whose point seemed to me golden); I. D. B. P., author of the version published in the year 1601: un dard qui estoit d'or et large (a dart which was of gold and broad). Nor have a few painters too imitated with their brush the error of the pen, and shown short the dart which the Saint writes was long. I find this place rightly translated by Mr. Collombet, and also in the English, Flemish, German and Italian writers who are at hand to me. Baillet's silence would strike me here, who did not deign to utter one iota about this prodigious vision, were not the mind of the man well known, which, where miracles and visions are concerned, is often much more difficult and severe than the mind of the Church, and than the sound method of judging of prudent writers allows. The second thing I would note concerns that place where the Saint says that she saw the Angel in bodily appearance: which words, although in the obvious sense they seem to mean otherwise, are yet to be understood of an imaginary vision. For the Saint in the book of the Castle of the Soul (Mansion VI, chapter IX), which book she composed in the thirteenth year from the writing of her Life, expressly affirms that she never had heavenly visions represented in bodily appearance. Finally, I note thirdly, from her very words and from the Annals of the monastery of the Incarnation, that the beloved Spouse of Christ, not once but several times, struck by such a dart of divine love, as the Church sings, fell in her wound.
[225] The Saint composed a little song on that wound: That a poem was composed by the Saint on this prodigious wounding of her heart and was wont to be sung in a soft voice has long been known; and the sense of that poem Father Antonio Perotti, of the Carmelite Order, in the Teresian Life published at Turin in the year 1614, had exhibited in the Italian tongue in these verses (part I, chapter VII):
D'amor celeste son con morte e vita, Con ferro, fuoco, con amor ferita: Ferita, perch'io muoja, e viva insieme D'amor, che con amor il cuor mi preme.
Heavenly love joins me to death and to life: I am struck with steel, with fire and with love; Struck, that I may die and live at once By love, which with love presses my heart.
The sense, as I have said, not the words of this little song Father Perotti gave; for he himself confesses that the holy Mother (who, he says, was then deemed worthy of this wound by God when she was contemplating the glory which the Saints had acquired by most ardent charity) sang only in a whisper, so that the nuns should not understand; so that they could indeed perceive some understanding of the song, but not the articulate words. In fact the stanza exhibited by Perotti differs in its words from Teresa's poem, although it agrees with it in sense.
[226] which is exhibited in Spanish and in Latin. This canticle was found in the year 1700 in the monastery of St. Joseph at Seville, written by hand in Spanish verse: which they believe to be the original little work of the Saint. Here it is for you, as it is to be had published in print: for Father Emmanuel of St. Thomas, in his work La Muger grande, at the 29th of April, laments that the written copy was sought in vain in the year 1806.
En las internas entrañas Senti un golpe repentino; El blason era divino, Porque obro grandes hazanas.
Con el golpe fui herida; Y aunque la herida es mortal, Y es un dolor desigual, Es muerte que causa vida.
Si mata, como da vida? Y si vida, como muerte? Como sana cuando hiere? Y se ve con el unida?
Tiene tan divinas manas, Que en un tan acerbo trance Sale triunfando de lance Obrando grandes hazanas.
In the inmost recesses of my heart I felt a sudden stroke. That stroke was divine: For it worked great things in me.
With the stroke there came a wound to me: And though the wound be mortal, And the pain be beyond compare, It is a death which begets life.
If it harms, how does it give life? If it gives life, how does it slay? How does it at once afflict and heal? And how does life stand with such a wound?
Surely these are the arts of God, That through such bitter perils He should come forth triumphant from the struggle, And work such great things.
[227] It is proved that this wound was bodily: He errs who would understand these things allegorically and only of a spiritual wound of charity. There was a true and bodily transverberation of the heart; so that on both sides of it slits with half-burnt lips were seen after the death of the Seraphic Virgin, and, as I was informed from Ávila in the year 1842, are still clearly and distinctly seen. El corazon de la Santa, says Don Robustiano Boada, who drew it, se halla intacto, viendose bien clara y distintamente la herida de la transverberacion [The heart of the Saint is found intact, the wound of the transverberation being seen very clearly and distinctly]. So too says Father Scaramelli in his Directorio mistico (treatise III, chapter XXVIII): That wonderful stroke which St. Teresa received several times by the hand of a Seraph left in her heart a scar which is seen to this very day. Besides this, before the Discalced Carmel in the year 1726 obtained from Benedict XIII the feast of the transverberation of the heart of its holy Mother, the postulators, as Benedict XIV says (de Beatif. book IV, part II, chapter VIII, no. 3), having gathered judicial proofs, showed the impression of the wound still extant and visible in the heart. And when two years later the same Pontiff granted the proper lessons of that feast, he allowed the sixth lesson to close thus: And since the faithful of Christ venerate up to the present day her heart incorrupt and adorned with the marks of the transverberation,… all these things having been examined, Benedict XIII, Supreme Pontiff, granted that this solemnity should be celebrated yearly in the same Order to recall the memory of the remarkable prodigy. All of which I shall set out more fully when I treat of the Relics, where a plate engraved on copper will exhibit the sacred heart of the Virgin.
[228] and Mr. L. F. Alfred Maury gets a drubbing. But it is not right for me to pass over here in silence, without censure, L. F. Alfred Maury, who in his French writing, which he calls an Essay on the pious Legends of the Middle Ages, and which he brought to light at Paris in the year 1843, has thus: The celebrated painter Alonso Cano, who, according to Psalm XXXVII, "For thy arrows are fastened in me," wished to paint the arrows of divine love with which the soul of St. Teresa was pierced, showed her heart pierced with a dart. Thereafter the common people took the emblem literally, and the fabricators of Legends invented the tale that St. Teresa was a martyr dispatched by an arrow. So he. But almost a whole century before the picture painted by Alonso, which the author maintains gave occasion to the vain fiction, the Saint herself in the book of her Life had narrated the vision related above of the Angel transfixing her heart with a dart, and all her biographers long before Alonso had recorded the same vision. Moreover in the process of beatification this matter had been treated, and it had been testified by eyewitnesses that the heart had been materially perforated. Therefore the author wrongly feigns that Alonso Cano, who began to handle the brush only after the Saint's beatification, gave occasion to the common people to hold for a true fact what the painter had played at with allegorical artifice. Certainly Mr. Maury has drawn out a labour, laboriously writing, of which he ought to repent. For he does not so much separate in the Lives of the Saints the base lead of fictions from the precious gold of truth, as turn all the gold into dross, profaning with contempt even the most certain and most holy facts. I am accordingly an adviser to that man, if he will treat historical matters, and especially sacred ones, to set before himself an altogether different aim, and so to refute the fables which may perhaps have crept into the Lives of the Saints that the rights of truth may stand firm. Further, let him demand of himself an account of the writing already published by him, and with bended knee and having prayed for the light of God, let him consider with himself how unhappy is the sum of his work. For truth is a sacred thing: which being injured, God is injured, who declared that He is the essential truth: I am… the truth (John XIV, 6).
[229] [The Saint makes and fulfils the vow of always doing what is more pleasing to God:] Thus wounded, then, and burning in her whole breast, Teresa began to turn over with herself what she should render to the Lord for all that He had rendered to her; and, to use the words of the Auditors of the sacred Rota in the Acts of Canonization (Report II, article 5), she formed for herself an efficacious purpose, and took continual care of herself and of her actions and thoughts, in which she walked, not to offend God so beloved by her, not only by venial and light fault, but not even by any act of lesser perfection. From which proceeded that rare vow, worthy of note, which she made: namely of always doing what, among the many things which occurred to her, should seem to her more pleasing and acceptable to God. So that by the making of such a vow she willed not only to fulfil what would be pleasing to God, which would have been a great sign of that love, according to that of John chapter XIV, "If anyone love me, he will keep my word"; but also, as one burning amid those flames of love, she willed to carry out both what she should judge more perfect and what more acceptable to God, and to bind herself to it by vow. Which she also faithfully rendered to God out of the exceeding love with which she followed Him for His own sake: as the course of her whole life proves. For, as Yepes records, innumerable sworn witnesses in the informations for St. Teresa's canonization publicly affirmed that, as long as they had lived with her, nothing had ever been noticed by them in her which savoured of imperfection. Whence, the same writer continues, the very fruit and success of the vow clearly demonstrates that it was not conceived without a special counsel and inspiration of God: wherefore a thing must be ascribed to prudence and wisdom which otherwise could have seemed attributable to folly or arrogance. And to me indeed, Yepes further subjoins, this is the greatest argument of the admirable holiness to which Teresa was raised: namely that a vow so excellent and so difficult, suited rather to the strength of the Seraphim than of men, was paid by her through so many years.
[230] the excellence of which vow is demonstrated. How truly these things were said by Yepes, whoever looks even in passing at the nature of that vow will understand. For whatever God commands, and the rules of the Order prescribe, and reason dictates, and justice demands, and charity orders, and temperance measures, and patience counsels, and fortitude points out as arduous, and humility and whatever other virtues there are order and prescribe; all this, however much it is, and not in some common manner, but insofar as it is most perfect in every respect, was contained in that one vow. Truly such a thing could descend into the heart of St. Teresa from nowhere else than from heaven, nor be brought into act and effect without the help of the Almighty. Which I shall not now contend to argue by reasons, after it has been pronounced by the supreme oracle in the Church, by the utterance, I mean, of Pope Gregory XV in the Bull of Canonization, that Teresa, taught by God, made a most arduous vow, or, as it is said in the lesson of the Roman Breviary, by God's counsel. Wherefore a certain pious writer rightly notes that that vow was a bond by which she was united most closely to God, and was bound to exercise virtue in every action in a heroic degree, and by which, as Cornelius a Lapide says (Commentary on Matthew chapter III, verse 15), she fulfilled that word of the Saviour to John the Baptist: It becometh us to fulfil all justice. For, he adds, thus Blessed Teresa did all justice, because in every thing she did that which was more just, holier, more perfect and more pleasing to God. And indeed she bound herself by that vow in such a way (as the author of the Speculum Carmelitanum notes, vol. II, p. 734) that she was held not only as to the substance of works or actions, but also as to the manner or circumstances, and especially as to the intention, to do all things for the greater glory of God. A vow surely, exclaimed J. B. Millini, advocate of the Consistorial Court, in the public consistory before Gregory XV, unheard of up to that day, which this generous Virgin was the first to make! And St. Alphonsus de Liguori (in his novena Devotion to St. Teresa): A vow which filled even holy men with amazement!
[231] For just reasons, however, it is asked What I am now about to say, says Father Frederick (book 1, chapter XIX), whose words I shall now nearly use, belongs indeed to the year 1565; but since it pertains entirely to the argument of which we have just treated, it seems more opportune to note it in this place. The vow made in the year 1560
Teresa fulfilled faithfully: yet there were not lacking scruples by which both her own mind and the minds of her confessors, amid so great a variety and multitude of operations, remained in doubt as to what was more or less perfect. To remedy these, Father García de Toledo of the Order of Preachers and Father Antonio de Heredia, prior of the Carmel of Ávila, persuaded the Saint to ask her provincial for the dissolution of her vow and for leave to make it in another more opportune manner. The humble and obedient Virgin, complying with the counsels of her directors, sent a letter on this matter to the provincial, then staying at Toledo; from whom she obtained the following diploma: Fr. Ángel de Salazar, Superior of the Province of Castile of the Order of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel. By the tenor of these letters we give and commit our authority to the Reverend Father Prior of our Convent of Ávila and to the Reverend Father García de Toledo of the Order of Preachers, by which either of them, administering the Sacrament of Penance to our dearest sister Teresa of Jesus, Prioress of the Nuns of St. Joseph, may dissolve any vow whatever made by her or change it, as shall seem to them more expedient for the service of God and for the quiet of mind of our aforesaid sister. For which purpose, as we have said, we grant to the same Fathers the faculty and authority which we have from our office. Given at Toledo, on the 2nd day of March 1565. Fr. Ángel de Salazar.
[232] and leave is granted to change the form of the vow. To this diploma, then, Father García de Toledo added these words in his own hand: Having heard your Confession, as the Father Provincial requires, and because I understand that it is opportune for the peace and quiet of your mind, and also, which in this case goes joined with it, of your confessors, I dissolve and extinguish the vow made by you. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. And the manner in which it seems to me such a vow can be made by you anew is this: namely that you vow that, when you have laid the matter before your confessor in the Sacred Tribunal, whatever he declares to be of greater perfection you will carry into execution. For which three things are necessary: first, that the confessor know that you have made this vow; second, that you seek his opinion, and not otherwise; third, that he himself discern what is more perfect. With these three conditions let the vow be valid; but not on any other ground: for the vow previously made by you was a source of the greatest scruple, both to yourself and to a confessor who should have a delicate and subtle conscience. Fr. García de Toledo. This new form of the vow, by which the scruples indeed were lifted, but not the very obligation of the vow, the Saint afterwards submitted to the approval of the Most Reverend Father Giovanni Battista Rubeo, General of the Carmelites: and having received that approval, she added in her own hand to the provincial's diploma: The Most Reverend Father General gave me licence to make this vow, etc. Teresa of Jesus. Father Anthony of St. Joseph says that the original sheet, on which the writings of the provincial, of the confessor and of the Saint herself are contained, exists among the Carmelite nuns of Calahorra (vol. III, letter 74, note 16). But what Ribera and Yepes assert, that the Saint also asked leave of Father Pedro Hernández of the Order of Preachers, apostolic visitor of the Order of Carmel, cannot be reconciled with correct chronology, since Hernández did not receive the office of visitor until four years later, namely in the year 1569. Lest, however, I should rashly accuse most weighty writers of negligence and carelessness, it seems to me it can be said that Teresa asked the consent of the visitor not now for making the vow, but for continuing in it. For religious and careful souls, although they have long enjoyed some permission, are nevertheless wont to ask its confirmation from new and further superiors, so that they may be able to perform their actions with greater merit, as being more subjected to obedience.
[233] This new form does not diminish the perfection of the vow. Now if we consider attentively the conditions of the vow, it will be plain that nothing was taken away from its excellence. For by this second form of the vow the Saint was not exempted from the obligation of doing whatever was more perfect; nay, this obligation is openly supposed, with only this difference, that before she had to carry out whatever she judged more perfect by her own judgment, but thereafter those things which seemed more perfect in the judgment of others: which indeed can rightly be said to be much greater and more perfect. The Saint was subject to the opinion of others, and so had sometimes to do what some unknown or unlearned or inexperienced person had judged more perfect. How rare such a submission of one's own judgment is, and how difficult, especially in men of sense, these very men know best. There was lacking, if I am not mistaken, to the Teresian vow something which conduced most to increasing its perfection, namely the blinding of one's own and most perspicacious intellect in any action whatever. And this the reform of it, if one may so call it, made by Father García added to it.
§ XIV. She is visited by and receives solace from St. Peter of Alcántara. She suffers great straits of body and soul: she experiences in many ways the benignity of God and the rage of the demon: she makes remarkable progress in humility.
St. Peter of Alcántara I shall now copy out chapters XXX and XXXI of Teresa's Life, those things which are not historical, however, being cut away. When, then, I saw, says the Saint, how little or nothing I could hinder those huge impulses which I felt, I began to fear having them; because I could not understand how pain and joy could be at once in one subject: for I knew indeed that bodily pain and spiritual joy and delight can exist together; but I did not grasp, and it almost made me out of my mind, how so immense a spiritual pain could exist together with so excessive a sweetness: and although I laboured in every way to resist it, yet I made so little progress that from time to time I was wearied out. I defended myself, therefore, with the arms of the Cross, and wished to protect myself with it against Him who has freed and defended us all by the same. I saw, moreover, that I was understood by no one: but I understood it most clearly, yet dared to indicate it to no one except my confessor: for by indicating this to others I would have shown sufficiently that I lacked humility. And it pleased the Lord to take from me a great part of my labours, and then indeed entirely all of them, by bringing to this town the blessed man Fr. Peter of Alcántara. Among other things it has been affirmed to me for certain that he wore continuously for twenty whole years a hair shirt woven of plates of tin. He is the author of certain little books on prayer written in the native tongue, which are now worn by the hands of all: for because he had practised it well and was most versed in it, hence he wrote of it most usefully for those who practise it. He kept the first rule of St. Francis to the nail and in its rigour, and accomplished very many other things.
[235] comes to Ávila; When, then, that widow, the great handmaid of God and my friend, of whom I treated above, understood that so eminent a man had come here, and knew in what great necessities I was (as one who was witness and aware of my afflictions and troubles, and consoled me again and again: for so great was her faith that she could not persuade herself otherwise than that it was the spirit of God, which all the others said was malignant and diabolical; and, because she is of a good wit and wonderfully reticent, and was accustomed to receive many graces from the Lord in prayer, hence His Majesty deigned to enlighten her in that which learned men were not able to understand: hence my confessors gave me leave to acquiesce in some things which she told me; for for many reasons she was quite capable of them: at times too she was made a sharer in the graces which the Lord granted me, certain admonitions and counsels being added, tending to the great benefit of her soul), when, I say, she understood this, so that I might deal with him better and more freely, without my knowledge she obtained leave for me from my provincial to stay for eight days in her house: where, as also in certain churches, I met him rather often, for the first time that he was here; for afterwards on various occasions and at various times I communicated with him about my affairs.
[236] he gives much light to St. Teresa consulting him; When, then, I had declared to him in summary, with what clarity I could, the course of my life and my manner of proceeding in prayer (for this was always solemn with me, that with those to whom I declare and open my soul I should deal with all the clarity and truth I can; nay, I would wish that even my first first motions should lie open and become known to them; in doubtful and suspect things too I brought forward arguments and reasons against myself), so that I laid open to him the state of my soul without any duplicity and concealing nothing, I understood and saw almost from the very beginning that he understood me by experience; which was above all necessary to me: for then I could not understand myself, as I cannot even now, so as to declare it (for afterwards God gave me the grace of understanding and explaining the graces which His Majesty bestows upon me), so that for anyone to understand it well, and to be able to explain what it is, there would truly be need that he should have experienced it in fact. He enlightened and unclouded me not a little; for at least in the visions which were not imaginary I could not at all understand what this could be: nay, even in those which I beheld with the eyes of the soul I seemed to understand equally little how this could come about; but I thought, as I have said, that I ought to make much only of those which are seen with bodily eyes, and these I did not have. This holy man gave me great light in all things, and declared each thing, and admonished me not to afflict and torment myself, but to praise God, and to be so certain that His spirit was working here that, faith alone excepted, nothing could be of greater truth, or which I could more certainly believe. Further, he took great pleasure with me, and showed me all the favour and help he could, and from that time always took a singular care of me, and made me a sharer even in his own affairs and business: and because he saw that I wonderfully desired those things which he himself already possessed in fact and in reality (for the Lord gave me a very firm and solid desire) and at the same time was so well disposed, hence he dealt with me most willingly. For to one whom the Lord has led to this state no pleasure or consolation can happen greater than to fall in with someone to whom the Lord seems to have communicated some beginnings of this thing: for at that time indeed (as far as it seems to me) I could not have much more: but God grant that I may have it at least now.
[237] he speaks of it with her confessor and with Salcedo, And he pitied me greatly; and said that what I had suffered was among the greatest labours and afflictions that can be had on earth, namely the contradiction of good men; and that many things still remained for me to undergo (for I always needed someone with whom to confer, and in this town there was no one who understood me), but that he would deal with my confessor, and with one of those who afflicted me most, such as was that married nobleman of whom I have already treated above; for he, because he loved me wonderfully, made every war upon me: he is moreover a God-fearing and holy man; but because he had seen me not long before so wicked and bad, he could not but fear and hold me as suspect. The holy man Peter, as he promised, so also performed in fact, and met both of them, and brought forward to them many reasons and causes by which he might free them from all fear and make them secure, so that they should not disquiet me any longer hereafter. My confessor, moreover, did not much need this admonition; but that nobleman did, to whom, although it was not enough and did not fully satisfy him, it nevertheless helped in part, so that he did not hereafter intimidate me so much. We made an agreement that I should write to him whatever should happen to me in this kind from this time on, and that we should commend one another to God by prayers: so great, namely, was his humility that he held the prayers of me, a miserable woman, in some account; which was truly no moderate confusion to me.
[238] and consoles her. Departing, then, he left me filled with great consolation and joy, admonishing me to proceed in my prayer without fear and with the greatest security, and not to doubt that the Spirit of God was working here; but whatever I doubted of in any way, and indeed (for my greater security and quiet) whatever at last should happen to me, to refer to my confessor, and thus thereafter to live in quiet. To this security, however, I could by no means come. For the Lord was leading me by the way of fear, as it was to believe that the devil was working in me, since others said that he was working in me: so that neither fear nor security could be procured for me by any man, so that I could not believe them further than the Lord inspired me and put into my heart. Whence, although he consoled and quieted me, yet I did not believe him so much as to be wholly free from all fear and plainly secure, especially since the Lord still wished me to live in those straits of spirit which I shall now mention: nevertheless, as I have said, I remained having tasted great consolation. I could not therefore be satisfied in giving thanks to God and to my glorious Father St. Joseph, who, as it seemed to me, had destined this good Father for me: for he was commissary general of the custody of St. Joseph, to which Saint, as also to the most glorious Mother Mary, I assiduously commended myself.
[239] By interior and exterior straits, At times then (as also now, though not so frequently) I was oppressed by huge straits and pressures of soul; to which were besides added certain excessive torments and tortures of the body, so grave indeed that I was scarcely equal to bearing them. At times, however, the bodily pain itself was more intense; which, because I was then free from the pressure of spirit, I bore with a most even and cheerful mind: but when the ills both of body and of spirit fell upon me at once, the pain and pressure were so grave that it as it were overwhelmed me. Whence I entirely forgot all the graces I had received from God, so that only the memory of them remained to me, as of something which I had seen in a dream, which turned to my punishment: for the intellect is rendered so torpid and drowsy that it made a thousand doubts and suspicions arise in me, and I thought that I could not have understood it well, and that perhaps it had only so seemed to me and I had as it were dreamed it: and accordingly that it ought to be enough that I alone should be deceived, without drawing good people into error. Moreover, I thought myself so bad and wicked that I believed all the evils, and even the heresies which had arisen, had sprung up on account of my sins.
[240] and by a false appearance of humility, This is a certain false humility, which the devil tried to stir up in me for this reason, that he might disturb and disquiet me, and see whether he could thus draw my soul into the abyss of despair. For my part I now have so much experience that it comes only from the devil that he no longer attacks me in this respect so often as he used to; for he sees that I now know his arts and tricks thoroughly. And this can be clearly gathered from the disquiet and perturbation which it brings at the beginning, and also from the tumult which it stirs up in the soul as long as it lasts; besides, from the obscurity and affliction which it works in it; finally from the dryness, and the unfitness and indisposition for praying and for every good work: so that it seems to choke the soul and as it were to bind the body, so that it is useful for nothing at all.
[241] most harmful For true humility (granted that the soul acknowledges itself wicked, and it is grievous to us to see what we are, and we exaggerate our wickedness beyond measure, in the manner I have said, and truly feel this of ourselves) does not come with perturbation, does not disquiet the soul, nor render it obscure or dry; nay, quite on the contrary, it refreshes and floods it with wonderful quiet, sweetness and light. This pain, moreover, consoles the soul on the other side, namely when it sees how great a grace God does it, when He allows it to be afflicted with this pain, and how well it comes; hence it grieves that it has offended God, but on the other side His mercy expands and consoles it: there is added too a certain light, both for stirring up confusion of itself, and for proclaiming His Majesty, because He has borne with it so long. But in that other humility, which comes from the devil, no light is given to a person for doing any good, so that God seems about to lay waste all things with fire and sword: for it sets only justice before his eyes; and although he believes in mercy too (for the power of the demon is not so great that he can take away his faith), yet this faith and consideration brings him no consolation; nay rather, seeing so great a mercy, he is tormented and afflicted by it the more, because he thinks himself bound on that account to perform more goods.
[242] and artful, This trick and artifice of the demon, among the others which I have noted in him, is both most grievous and most subtle and most hidden: and therefore it has seemed good to me to indicate and disclose it to Your Reverence, so that, if perhaps the demon should attack you with this engine, you may have some light for discerning it, if only he leaves you the intellect for understanding and perceiving it. For I would wish you to think that not all things lie in doctrine and knowledge: for although all things are lacking to me, yet, since this has now passed, I understand that it is nothing but mere vanities and folly. This, however, I have understood, namely that the Lord God wills and permits it, and gives the devil as it were power, as He once gave him power to tempt Job, a most holy man, although with me, who am so miserable and wicked, He does not deal so harshly and savagely. This happened to me, and, as far as I remember, on the day before the vigil of the feast of the Venerable Sacrament (toward which feast I am wonderfully affected, though not as I ought); and then indeed it lasted only up to the feast: for at other times it lasted a whole week, or two, and sometimes even three, and I do not know whether even longer, and especially about the holy weeks, when I used to pour myself out more in devotion and piety. He seems, then, to occupy the intellect in a moment, and sometimes on account of things so light and slight that at other times I would laugh at them and hiss them off; and he then turns and twists it whithersoever it pleases him; and the soul is then so bound as with iron fetters that it is not master and mistress of itself, and can think nothing at all except the trifles and vanities which he throws in its way, and these so vain that they are of scarcely any moment, and serve for nothing but to bind and choke the soul so that it is all too narrow for itself. Moreover, I have felt myself at times so placed that the demons seemed to toss, turn and turn back my soul like a ball, and it meanwhile to be so powerless that it could not extricate itself from their hands.
[243] Teresa's mind at times miserably tortured, It cannot be said or explained what the soul suffers in this kind: it would indeed wish to be helped, but, God permitting, it comes about that it does not find a helper: only the light of free will is always present to it; yet that is not so very clear: but just as if its eyes were veiled, or as someone who has often passed through some certain place, who, although he walks through it by night and in darkness, yet knows from frequent previous reflection against what obstacles he might stumble, because he noted them by day, and so guards himself from that danger; so too the matter stands here, in not offending God, because it seems then to come about from a certain habit: not to mention meanwhile (which is indeed the chief thing here) that God is wont to preserve and protect us. Faith too then seems so dead and drowsy, and with it the other virtues, although not wholly lost (for the soul indeed believes what the Church proposes and teaches to be believed, but only as something pronounced outwardly by the mouth), that on the other side it seems to be as it were urged, pressed and made torpid, and to know God no otherwise than as a thing which it has heard of only far off and from a distance. Its love too is so lukewarm and flat that, if ever it hears it spoken of, it listens no otherwise than as to a thing which it believes to be what it is because the Church teaches it is so to be believed; but it does not remember what it has experienced in itself at other times: if it wishes to apply itself to vocal prayer, or to hide itself in solitude, it feels still greater affliction and pressure: for the torment which it feels in itself, without knowing its cause, is almost intolerable, and seems to me in a certain way an image and type of the infernal torments. And
I say the truth, as the Lord Himself declared to me in a certain vision: for the soul burns in itself, without knowing by whom or whence the fire is set under it, or how to avoid it, or finally by what means to extinguish it.
[244] nor in pious reading But to wish to find some remedy from reading is just the same as if one could not read at all: once it happened to me that, when I began to read the life of some Saint, to see whether I could drink it in and console myself with what he had suffered, and had already read the same lines four or five times, yet I understood what I had read less at the end than at the beginning, although they were written in my mother tongue: and so I broke off the reading. This indeed often happened to me, but I remember the occasion I mentioned more particularly. It is much worse still to wish to converse with anyone: for the demon pours into a person a spirit of anger so bitter and peevish that he seems to wish even to devour all, without being able to prevent it, although he seems to himself to do something while he struggles and fights against it, or rather the Lord Himself does, when He protects and defends him who is in this state, so that he may not say or do anything harmful and injurious to his neighbour, or by which he himself may offend God.
[245] nor in recourse to the confessor, And to have recourse to the confessor helps nothing: for what I shall now say, it is certain that it happened to me rather often; namely that they, although they were as holy as they are now, both those whom I had then and those whom I have now, nevertheless said such words to me, and scolded me so harshly, that they themselves, when I afterwards repeated these words to them, wondered, and said that it had not been in their power to speak more gently: for however firm a purpose they made of abstaining from those words, nay even afterwards, when, touched with pity for me and pricked by scruples of conscience, they resolved with themselves to console me gently when I was living in such pressure both of body and of soul, it was nevertheless impossible for them to do otherwise. They did not indeed say any bad words, namely by which they would offend God, yet words so bitter and harsh that more bitter ones could not be uttered by any confessor. It was, I believe, their purpose to mortify and humble me; and although at other times I rejoiced in such things and was ready to bear all, yet at this time all things were a cross and torment to me. Besides, it seemed to me that I was deceiving them: whence I went to them and seriously forewarned them to beware of me; for it could happen that I deceived them: I saw indeed that I did not deceive them or lie to them of my own accord and of set purpose, yet in all things there was something for me to fear. One of them, having heard my temptation, once said to me that there was no reason for me to torment or afflict myself on that account; for even if I wished to deceive him, he had wit enough not to let himself be deceived.
[246] but she finds relief in God alone. This sometimes, nay almost always, consoled me greatly: then at least for the most part I felt some alleviation when I rose from Holy Communion; and sometimes even, when I approached it, I was so suddenly invigorated and made serene in soul and body that I cannot sufficiently wonder at it: just as if all the darkness of my soul were dispelled in a moment; and, the sun having now risen, I perceived what fatuity and stupidity had occupied me. At other times, on hearing even a single word of the Lord, as when He said to me: "Do not torment thyself, nor fear" (as I have already said before), or on seeing some vision, I was so wholly restored to health as if I had had no ill before. I refreshed myself in God, and expostulated with Him about my ill, asking why or how He allowed me to be pressed by such grave evils. But these things were soon most abundantly compensated to me, since almost always thereafter heavenly graces flowed round me in great abundance. Whence such a soul seems to come forth as it were freshly from the smelting furnace; as one which, like gold, has been made purer and brighter for contemplating the Lord in itself. Whence it comes about that these labours are at length held as slight, although before they seemed intolerable, and a person would wish to undergo them anew, if that were the greater good pleasure of God. And although tribulations and persecutions be still more frequent, provided that he bear them without any offence of God, but also joyfully and willingly for His sake, they will turn to his greater advantage and benefit; although I bear them not as I ought, but with great imperfection.
[247] At other times she experiences torpor, At other times they fell upon me in some way, as they still fall upon me now, so that all power either of thinking or of wishing to do anything good seems to be plainly taken from me, but I remain altogether unfit, torpid and heavy both as to soul and body: but then I do not feel those other temptations and disquiets; but only a certain weariness, so that I altogether do not know what is the matter with me, and nothing at all satisfies or pleases my soul. I strove then to occupy myself with certain good exterior works, and partly against my will; but I easily understand how little the soul can do of itself when the grace of God hides itself: but this was grievous or troublesome to me; for that I saw myself so vile, miserable and abject in some way refreshed me.
[248] at other times distraction of the intellect At other times I find myself so placed that I cannot constantly and firmly have even one formal thought about God or any good thing, nor make prayer, even though I am in solitude; yet I feel that I know Him. As far as I indeed understand, the intellect and imagination harm me here: for the will seems to me good and disposed to every good, but the intellect is so distracted and lost that I can compare it with nothing better than with some raving fool whom no one can bind with chains; nay, not even for so little a space as that in which the Apostles' Creed could be run through can I bid it be quiet. Sometimes I laugh at myself, and recognize my misery, and inspect it more curiously, and leave it to itself, so as to see what it will do; and, praise be to God, it never (which is wonderful) applies itself to a bad thing, but to indifferent ones, namely whether something is to be done here or there or elsewhere. And then I understand better that very great grace which the Lord bestows on me when He holds this fool bound in perfect contemplation. I consider too with myself what it would be if those who look upon me as good should see me then, when I am in this delirium and wandering.
[249] and disquiet; I pity my soul as much as possible, because I see that it must live with such wicked companions: I would wish to see it free and in liberty: whence from time to time I address the Lord thus: "When, O my God, will that time be, in which I shall see my soul wholly united in praising Thee, so that all its powers enjoy Thee? Do not permit, Lord, that hereafter it be any more distracted as it were into parts." For each of its parts seems to be borne each to its own end and aim. And I myself frequently suffer this; but sometimes I see that indisposition and ill-health of the body contribute not a little here. Wherefore I often reflect with myself on that huge harm which came to us from the first sin; for from there it seems to have come to us that we are unfit and incapable of enjoying so great a good: nay, I can deservedly impute this to my own sins; for had they not been so many, I should doubtless have been far more constant in good.
[250] at times she thinks she lacks humility; I had also another affliction great enough: namely that I thought I understood all the books which treat of prayer sufficiently and enough when I read them, and that the Lord had given me that grace so that I no longer needed them; hence it came about that I no longer read them, but turned over only the lives of the Saints: for because I see that I imitate them so little in loving and serving God, hence I think some good always comes to me from that reading, and that I am encouraged not moderately. It seemed to me, however, a remarkable defect of humility to think that I had already then arrived at such a degree of prayer: but because it seemed to me altogether so, nor could I repel this thought from me, I was greatly saddened and afflicted; until certain learned men, and among the rest that blessed Fr. Peter of Alcántara, told me to make little of this thought and to pay it no heed. For my part I see well enough that I have not even begun to serve God sincerely, although His Majesty has done me graces neither less nor fewer than He has bestowed on many other good people, whereas I am nothing but mere imperfection, except that I have certain good desires, and love Him: for I know that the Lord has given me something in this kind by which I might serve Him at least in some thing. I seem indeed to myself to love Him; but my works and the frequent imperfections which I notice in myself sadden me.
[251] nor does she always feel that fervour At other times a certain simplicity of soul and as it were stupid dullness occupies me: simplicity, I say; for I seem to do neither good nor evil, but I follow others going before, and the common manner of acting of most people (as it is commonly said), nor do I feel any pain or glory; and the soul cares neither for life nor for death, nor does pleasure affect it nor sadness, but it seems to feel nothing at all, but to be like a little ass, which grazes and is fed with the fodder that is held out to it, and eats in a certain way feeling nothing: for there is no doubt but that the soul in this state receives some nourishment of certain singular graces of God, since it does not irk or weary it to live so bitter a life, and that with the highest patience and evenness of mind: but it feels in itself no motions or effects at all, by which it could understand itself.
[252] by which the mind of living water This now seems to me just as if someone, while sailing, should use a certain gentle breeze, by whose help he makes much way indeed, yet does not know whence this comes. For in those other manners the effects and operations are so evident that the soul at once notices that it is advancing and becoming better, because good desires boil up and at once put themselves forth, and the soul never satisfies itself, whatever
at last it does; for this is what those huge impulses of love, of which I have spoken above, are wont to work in those on whom God deigns to bestow them. The matter is no otherwise than in certain little springs which I have seen welling up, in which the sand, playing, is continually borne up and rises on high; which comparison and example seems to me to represent to the life the state of the souls which arrive here. For love always boils up, and continually devises what it will do, nor does it contain itself; and as the earth seems unable to contain and hold that water in itself, but casts it out and expels it, so too the soul is for the most part so placed that it is neither quiet in itself, nor can endure on account of the love which it feels, and accordingly, being as it were soaked through by it, since it has more than enough of it, it would wish others too to drink of it, so that they may help it in praising God. Ah, how often there comes to my mind that living water of which the Redeemer Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman! Therefore I am most affected toward that Gospel; and certainly, already from my earliest childhood, although I did not yet understand that good so well as I now understand it, I was wonderfully affected toward it, and therefore often besought the Lord to give me this water; and wherever I lived, I always carried about with me a picture of this woman together with those words with which she addressed the Saviour coming to the well: "Lord, give me water."
[253] and is made like a fire. Souls of this kind seem also to be like some great fire, which, so that it may not be extinguished, must always be fed with new fuel and material: for these would wish, even at great cost and labour to themselves, to gather and bring wood and material from every side, so that this fire should not be extinguished. But I am of such a kind that I should be content if I had even straw and twigs to throw on to feed that fire; and this happens to me from time to time, nay often: whence sometimes I laugh at myself on that account, sometimes I am wonderfully afflicted. For an interior motion stirs me to serve Him in something, namely, when I can do nothing greater, by dressing images with little branches and little flowers, or by sweeping, or by arranging some oratory, or by performing other ministries of that kind, so slight indeed and of so little moment that I should be suffused with shame. If I underwent any austerity or penance, it was all too small and moderate, so that I saw that all those things were of no moment, unless the Lord had accepted my will in good part: nay I laughed at myself.
[254] The devil now threatens Teresa, Since I have hitherto spoken of certain interior and hidden temptations and perturbations which the devil caused me, I now purpose to speak of certain others which he inflicted on me almost with others looking on, and so manifestly that there was no doubt that they came from him. At a certain time, when I was in the oratory, he gave himself to be seen at my left side in a foul and horrible figure: and because he was speaking to me, hence I looked particularly at his mouth, which he had very terrible and monstrous. And from his body a huge flame seemed to come forth, and that all glowing red and without any smoky soot. Soon, then, addressing me in a certain horrible voice, he said that for the present indeed I had escaped his hands, but that he would have me in his power again. Whence, terrified not moderately, I signed myself with the sign of the cross as best I could; at the sight of which he soon disappeared, but at once returned: and this a second time. And I, not knowing what to do, threw holy water, which was in that place, toward that spot: nor did he return to me thereafter at that time.
[255] now vexes and presses her; At another time for five hours continuously he vexed me with such intense pains, and pressure both interior and exterior, that I distrusted my being able to bear it any longer. The sisters who were with me were very dismayed and frightened, and did not know what to do, as neither did I know how to help myself. It is my custom, when the bodily pain and pressure is very intense, to make interior acts of the spirit within myself, as far as I indeed can, asking the Lord that, if it be His good pleasure, He would only give me patience, and for the rest allow me to remain in this pressure even to the end of the world. When, then, I saw that the pressure was then so vehement and intense, I busied myself to help myself by those interior acts and purposes conceived. And the Lord deigned to declare to me that it was a diabolical vexation: for I saw at my side a certain little black Ethiopian, of very horrible aspect, gnashing and snarling with his teeth like one in despair; because whence he hoped for gain, thence he brought back loss. When I saw him, I laughed and feared nothing; for there were with me some who were both failing in strength and did not know how to dispel so great a torment: for in my whole body, head and arms, I made, at his impulse, such vehement movements that I could not hold myself back, and (what was worst) the interior disquiet was so great that I could in no way arrive at quiet: yet I did not dare to ask for holy water, lest I should terrify them, and they should understand what was going on about me.
[256] but by the sprinkling of holy water I have often proved and seen that there is nothing which drives the devils to flight, never to return again, more than holy water: from the cross indeed they flee, but at once return. Whence I conclude that the virtue of holy water must doubtless be great: to me at least it is a certain singular and most manifest consolation of soul to take it: this is certain, that commonly and for the most part I feel from taking it a refreshment which I could not explain in words, and also a certain interior delight, which invigorates and refreshes my whole soul. This is not a dream or a thing which happened to me only once, but often, and upon which I have reflected seriously and diligently turned my mind: I say that it is just as if someone, very hot and thirsty, should drink a draught of cold water, whence the whole man seems to be cooled. I weigh with myself from time to time how much all the things instituted and ordained by the Church are to be esteemed; and I rejoice exceedingly when I see that these words have such force that they impart and put it into the water too, so that there is so great a difference between what is blessed and what is not blessed.
[257] he is driven off by it But because that torment still did not cease, I said to my companions that, if I did not fear they would laugh at me, I would ask for holy water. Then without delay they brought it, and sprinkled me with it; but in vain. I, seeing this, threw it toward that part where the devil was; who in a moment disappeared: and I was at once plainly freed from all ill, no otherwise than if someone had rubbed it off me with his hand; except that I remained as broken in the loins and nerveless as if I had suffered a long and hard cudgelling over my whole body. It profited me greatly that, having seen this, I thought within myself: if the devil, the Lord permitting it, inflicts so much ill on a person over whom he has no right as to soul or as to body, how much will he inflict when he possesses him as his own? This stirred up in me a certain new desire of freeing myself from so faithless a company.
[258] that stinking clatterer; Not long passed before this very thing happened to me again, although it did not last so long. I was alone in the place; and I asked for holy water to be brought me: and those who entered the room after his departure (they were two nuns worthy of credit, as ones who would lie for no cause at all) smelled a certain foul odour, as of sulphur. I, however, did not perceive it; yet it remained so long in the place that it could be easily perceived. At another time, when I was in the choir, I felt a great impulse and desire of recollecting my mind: whence I withdrew from there as soon as possible, lest the others should notice it; who, however, being not far from me, perceived a great noise of blows being inflicted in the place where I was; but I heard beside me a certain voice as of people deciding something among themselves, although I could not understand what they were saying; for I was so attentive in my prayer that I understood nothing and feared nothing at all. This happened to me almost always when the Lord did me the grace that by my persuasion some soul should return to a better way of life.
[259] who, on account of a priest converted by Teresa's prayers What I shall now record certainly happened to me, and there are many witnesses of it, and among others he who is now my confessor, because he saw it written in a certain letter; and although I did not tell him whose letter it was, yet he knew the man. There came to me a certain man who for two and a half years had remained in the guilt of mortal sin, and indeed such that I have never heard of anything more abominable; and in all that time he neither confessed it nor changed his life for the better, nevertheless he frequently celebrated Mass. And although he confessed his other sins, yet of this he said thus: "How could I confess a crime so foul and abominable?" He greatly desired indeed to be freed from it, yet in this respect he could not overcome himself. I pitied him as much as possible, and it tormented me greatly that the Majesty of God was violated in this way. I promised him that I would supplicate God to cure him of this evil, and that I would take pains that others too, who were better than I, should do the same. I wrote, therefore, to a certain person to whom he allowed me to send a letter. And behold, it came about that at the first Confession he confessed that crime: for it seemed good to God, whom many truly holy people, to whom I had seriously commended it, had moved by their fervent prayers, to show this mercy toward that soul: and I, though miserable, did whatever I could on my part with great effort of mind. And he wrote to me that he was now so changed for the better that he had now abstained from that sin for some days, but that he was so sharply attacked by the tempting demon that he thought he was in hell (so tormented, namely, was he); wherefore I should urgently commend him to the Lord.
[260] and freed from temptations, Accordingly I commended him again to the prayers of my sisters; by which the Lord, moved and soothed,
I believe, bestowed this grace on me: for, taking the matter to heart, they seriously commended him to God. And he was such that no one could either guess by conjecture or divine who he was. And I asked His Majesty that the torments and temptations which he suffered might be somewhat mitigated, and that the tempters who vexed him might come to attack and torment me, yet on condition that I should in no way offend the Lord. Whence it came about that for a whole month I endured most grievous torments and vexations, and then there happened to me those two things which I narrated before. And it pleased the Lord that the temptations should leave him (as was afterwards written to me): and because I told him what I was suffering during that whole month, hence his soul was invigorated; and thereafter he was entirely immune from diabolical vexations: whence he gave thanks again and again, as great as he could, to God, and also to me, as if I had contributed anything to it; unless perhaps the opinion which he had, that the Lord gave me some graces, helped him in some way: and he said that he read my letters when he saw himself sharply attacked by temptation, and was freed from it by reading them, and he wondered not moderately, both at what I had suffered on that account and that he himself had been freed from his evil: nay I wondered too; and I would have wished to suffer those things for many years more, so that I might see this soul immune and free. May God be blessed in all things.
[261] He exercises his hatred against her. Truly of great power and efficacy is the prayer of those who serve the Lord, as I believe the nuns of this place serve Him; but because I had procured these prayers, it was truly no wonder that the demons raged most of all against me: on account of my sins too the Lord permitted it. At this same time, one night, I thought I was being suffocated by them: whence, when they sprinkled me with much holy water, I saw a great multitude of them fleeing from me pell-mell as quickly as possible, just as if they had flung themselves headlong from some rock. Moreover, these wicked and accursed spirits infest me so often, and I fear them so little (because I see that they cannot even move unless the Lord permits it), that, if I wished to relate how often this has happened, I should both weary Your Reverence and refresh myself. But what I have said may be of use, so that the true servant of God may despise and make little of the bugbears which they set up and stir to terrify us: for let them know that, as often as we laugh at them and care little for their threats, both their strength is diminished and the soul becomes more vigorous. Moreover, great good always follows from it, which, so as not to be longer than is fair, I omit to relate here: this one thing I shall narrate, which happened to me in the night preceding the feast of the commemoration of the faithful souls, when I was in a certain oratory. For when I had recited the first nocturn of Matins, and was now reading certain pious prayers which are contained at the end of it in our Breviary, he sat upon my book, so that I should not finish the prayer. I fortified myself with the sign of the cross, and he took to flight. When I began to read again, he again gave himself to be seen (and I believe he did it a third time), nor did he withdraw before I sprinkled him with holy water; and at the same time I saw certain souls, at that very instant of time, coming out of the pains of purgatory, for whom not much must have remained to be expiated, and I thought whether he had perhaps wished to hinder this.
[262] The Saint sees a battle of demons against Angels, I have rarely seen him in an assumed form, but more often without any form at all, after the manner of a vision; for even without form it is clearly perceived that he is present, as I have already said. I wish further to relate this too here, because it struck great wonder into me. When on the feast of the Most Holy Trinity I was in the choir of a certain monastery, and had been rapt in ecstasy, I perceived a great battle and contention of demons against Angels: for my part I could not understand what this vision meant; but before fifteen days it easily became plain through a certain contention between certain people devoted to prayer and very many others more averse to it; from which no moderate harm arose for the house in which that matter took place. And this contention and strife was lasting and the occasion of great disturbances and troubles.
[263] and the light by which God keeps the demons from her. At another time I saw a huge multitude of them all around me: but I seemed to be surrounded on every side by a certain huge brightness, which did not allow them to approach nearer to me; whence I understood that God was guarding and protecting me, so that they might not so approach me as to provoke me to offend Him. And according to what I have from time to time experienced in myself, I easily understood that it was a true vision. Wherefore I now understand and see so openly how little they can do (if I do not have God as an enemy) that I scarcely fear them: for they are entirely powerless, unless they see certain souls giving themselves up to them of their own accord and fearful: for against such they put forth their strength and power. At times indeed, in the temptations which I have already mentioned, all the vanities and infirmities of former times seemed to revive and sprout again in me, so that I needed to commend myself to God as earnestly as possible. But soon this pressure vexed me, that I thought, since these thoughts came upon me, that whatever I did was diabolical, until my confessor calmed my mind and composed it to quiet. For I thought that I, who received so many graces from God, ought not to feel and have even the first motion of any bad thought.
[264] She grieves that she is made much of by men At other times it tormented me not moderately (as it torments me even now) that I saw myself held in some number and esteem, especially by men who are of great name, and that they related many good things of me: in this matter I have suffered much and suffer even now. Whence I at once turn my eyes to the life of the Redeemer Christ and of the Saints, and I seem to myself to be walking plainly by another way than they, since they walked only by the way of contempt, reproach and grave injuries: and this makes me walk with fear and trembling, and as it were not daring to lift up my head, and I would wish to be seen by no one at all. But this I feel in myself when I am harassed by persecutions: for then the soul is so powerful and masterful, although the body be in pressure, and I on the other hand feel affliction, that I altogether do not know how this can come about. Nevertheless, as I have said, so it happens: for then the soul seems to be in its own kingdom, and to press under foot whatever is in the world. This happened to me from time to time, and lasted even for many days; and it seemed to me a certain virtue and humility; but now I clearly perceive that it was mere temptation, as a certain eminently learned man of the Order of Preachers declared well to me.
[265] and that the graces done her by God are published; But when I thought that the graces which the Lord confers on me were to be made public and known to all everywhere, I felt in myself so intolerable and excessive a torment that it afflicted and disquieted my soul not a little: nay, the matter went so far that, when I considered this, I seemed to have preferred to be buried alive rather than that they should become known. Whence, when these great recollections or raptures first so seized me that I could not resist them in public, after them I blushed and was so ashamed that I would willingly have gone somewhere where no one would see me. When, then, on one occasion I was exceedingly saddened for this cause, the Lord asked me what I feared, since from this matter only one of these two things could follow, either that men would murmur and speak against me, or that they would praise Him; signifying that those who would believe this would praise Him, but those who would not believe would condemn me through no fault and desert of mine, and that both would turn to my good, and accordingly that there was no reason for me to afflict myself. This calmed me greatly, nay, as often as I still remember it, it wonderfully consoles me.
[266] and so she thinks of going to another monastery, Moreover, this temptation was so vehement that I had a mind to depart from here and transfer myself to another monastery, in which enclosure was kept more strictly than in that in which I was then living, and which I heard was much commended, and was of the same Order as that in which I lived, situated far from here (for it would have been a great consolation to me to live in a place in which I should have been entirely unknown); but my confessor would not permit it to me. These fears much diminished my liberty of spirit: for afterwards I understood that this humility was not good, because it so disquieted me; and the Lord taught me this truth, namely that, since I knew most certainly that no good was mine, but that all things came from God, just as it was not grievous to me to hear the praises of others, nay I rejoiced at it exceedingly, and it was a very great consolation to me that I saw God showing Himself in them, so it would be neither troublesome nor grievous to me that He should show His works in me too.
[267] and prays that her sins too may become known. I fell also into another extreme, namely that I prayed God, and that directing my prayer particularly to this, that, if ever anyone noted anything good in me, His Majesty would declare my sins to him, namely so that he might see how He conferred graces on me undeserving: for I ask this of Him again and again as earnestly as possible. My confessor, however, advised me not to do this any more: but almost up to this day, if I saw anyone thinking well of me and having a good opinion, I at once declared my sins to him by roundabout ways and circumlocutions, or in whatever way I could; and by this I seemed to myself to be calmed and quieted. But in this matter too they raised a great scruple for me, and this seemed to me to come not from humility but from a certain temptation. Many came to me, and I seemed to myself to deceive all these and to hold them in error: and, although they are deceived in thinking that there is something good in me, yet I never professedly wished to deceive anyone, nor was that ever my intention, but the Lord sometimes permits it for a certain cause. Whence I would never have conferred with my confessors about anything unless it was very necessary to me
had I seen it to be; for otherwise it would have been a great scruple to me. All these childish fears and afflictions and excessive humility I now see were a great imperfection, and flowed from this, that I was not sufficiently mortified: for the soul which has consigned itself wholly into the hands of God does not care whether good or bad things are said of it, provided it understands well, when the Lord wishes to confer some grace on it, that it has nothing at all of itself.
[268] By learning the manner of reciting the canonical hours Among other imperfections which I had was this, that I was little versed in the reading of the hours, and scarcely knew what I had to do in the choir, or how I ought to conduct myself in it, and that out of mere negligence and because I was occupied with other vanities; so much so that I saw even novices who could have taught me: but often I did not wish to ask them, lest I should betray my ignorance to them; and at once it came to my mind that I ought to shine before them by good example. But from the time the Lord opened my eyes somewhat, when I knew something in part but still somewhat doubted of it, I asked it of others, even of girls; nor did I on that account suffer even the least loss of my honour and authority; nay rather (as far as indeed it seems to me) it pleased the Lord thereafter to give me a more retentive memory. I did not know well how to sing; and when I had not learned well enough the chant prescribed for me, I was very solicitous and anxious: and that not because I feared to err in the sight of the Lord (for this would have been virtue), but because many heard me singing; for because I was held by mere desire of honour, I was thereby so disturbed that I even said much less than I knew. Wherefore I resolved with myself, when I did not know well enough, to say that I plainly did not know.
[269] and by folding cloaks she exercises humility. This indeed at the beginning was very bitter to me; but afterwards it was far most sweet. And in truth I noticed that from that time I was accustomed to say it far better, from the time I began to make little of my ignorance and unskilfulness becoming known to others; and that the foolish honour had been a great impediment to me in doing well that in which I thought my honour lay (for each places it in what he will): through these nothings, which are truly of no moment (and in truth I myself can deservedly be compared with nothing, since this was so grievous to me), and the frequent exercise of small things (such as these are), one gradually ascends to greater acts: for when these are exercised for God's sake, then He adds strength and value to them, and His Majesty helps one gradually to step up to those things which are greater and higher. And so it happened to me in things pertaining to humility: for seeing all the religious advancing in the way of virtues except me alone (for I was never useful for anything), when they had already left the choir, I folded the cloaks of all: in which office I seemed to myself to render service to the Angels, who praised the Lord with them, until they themselves, I know not whence, came to understand it; which truly filled me with great blushing: for my virtue was not so perfect that I wished these things to be known; and that not (as is probable) from a certain pure and sincere humility, but because I feared lest they should laugh at me, because these things were small and of no moment.
§ XV. From the vision of hell there arises in the Saint's mind the plan of reforming her Order; which she begins to carry into effect, with pious and holy men approving.
In the vision of hell We step to another epoch of St. Teresa's life, and that a very notable one. For hitherto she was given almost solely to the contemplative life; but thereafter she will join the solicitude of Martha with the sacred leisure of Mary, as Reformer of the Carmelite Order, and Mother in the Lord of very many offspring of both sexes. In how various and wonderful ways she was moved by the Most High to undertake the splendid work of her Reform she declares in chapter XXXII of her Life; and through some following chapters she pursues in a fairly ample narration the beginnings of the first monastery founded by her: to which if you add Ribera's narration (from repeating which here I shall beware, as far as can be done), you will want very few supplements from me. Thus, then, the holy Virgin writes, beginning from the vision of hell, of which I forewarned at no. 170: Long after the Lord had conferred on me very many of those graces which I have recorded, and also other singular ones, when one day I was engaged in prayer, suddenly and as it were in a moment I felt myself so totally placed (yet without knowing how) that I thought I was in hell. At once I understood that the Lord wished me to behold with my eyes the place which the demons had prepared for me there, and which I had deserved by my sins. For a very little time indeed I remained there; but even if I should prolong my life for many years yet, I shall never (as indeed it seems to me) be able to forget it.
[271] most bitter pains Its entrance seemed to me to be like a certain very long and very narrow path, just like a low, dark and confined furnace; and the bottom like a muddy and filthy water, which both exhaled a foul stench and was filled with venomous beasts: at its end, in a certain wall, there was an opening, like a cupboard, within which I saw myself thrust in very narrowly. And all these things were pleasant and delightful to see, if they are compared with those things which I felt there; although I have not exaggerated what I have said sufficiently, as indeed I ought. But for declaring that second thing as it ought to be and as it is, I could not find even a beginning, and no one could understand how it is: but such a fire I felt in my soul that I plainly cannot understand how I am to explain in what way it comes about. Those intolerable pains of the body which I have borne at other times in my life, especially when I laboured with paralysis and the contraction of all the sinews (which, as the physicians judge, is easily the most grievous among the pains which a person can suffer here), not to mention very many others of different kinds which I have suffered, some of which too (as I remember saying) the devil inflicted on me, are nothing at all, if they are compared with those which I bore there, most of all because I saw that those pains would have no end nor cease in any age.
[272] the Saint experiences. All these things are still nothing, compared with the agony of the soul, with the anguish, with the suffocation, with so sensible a straitness, with so despairing and distressing an affliction, that I altogether do not know how I should explain it suitably enough: for if I say that it is a certain continual uprooting and tearing out of the soul, I shall say all too little: for then life seems to be taken and snatched from you by another; but here the soul consumes and destroys itself. So that I altogether do not know how I am to express sufficiently enough that interior fire and despair which, besides those intolerable torments and tortures, I suffered there. I did not see who inflicted those torments on me; yet I felt myself burned and broken in pieces and ground small, as it indeed seems to me: but I say that that fire and interior despair are the most horrible of all. And in that pestilential place, in which there is no hope at all of receiving consolation, it is impossible for one who is there either to sit or to lie, nay there is no place there for sitting or lying; although I myself was placed there as in an opening made in the wall: for those very walls, which are horrible to see, press in; and whatever is there at last suffocates and crams. Besides, there is no light there, but everywhere the thickest and darkest gloom. And truly I am not able to understand how it can come about that, though there is no light at all there, yet whatever can torment the sight can be seen.
[273] She sees them again, The Lord did not wish me then to see more than hell itself: but afterwards I had another vision, and that of most horrible things, namely of the chastisements of certain vices: these, as to the sight indeed, seemed to me much more horrible; but because I did not at all feel that pain, hence they did not strike so much fear into me: for in that former vision the Lord willed me to feel in fact in the spirit those torments and straits, just as if the body truly suffered them. How it was done I do not know; this I know, that it is a certain singular grace of God, and that He willed me to behold as it were with my eye from what evils and torments I had been freed by His mercy. For whatever I have heard others saying about the various kinds of torments, and sometimes too have meditated on myself (although not often; for my soul did not wish to be ruled by the bridle of fear), namely how the torturers of hell lacerate the damned with red-hot pincers, and other various kinds of torments which I have read described in others, are nothing at all compared with this pain: for it is something far different: finally, there is as much difference between the two as between a painted image and the very truth; and to burn here is a slight and childish thing in respect of the infernal fire.
[274] and often thereafter remembers it with fruit. And I was so dismayed by it, and still am now, while I write these things (although six years have now passed since this vision), that the natural heat seems to fail me for fear, where I am here. And hence it is that, when placed in tribulation and anguish and pains, I never remember this without all that a person can at last suffer here at once seeming to me mere nothing: and so we seem in part undeservedly and in vain to complain of the pains which we suffer here. Whence I say again that this was one of the greatest gifts and graces which the Lord conferred on me; for this helped me wonderfully, both for dispelling the fear of the tribulations and adversities of this life, and for encouraging me to bear them with equanimity, and at the same time for giving thanks to the Lord, because (as it indeed now seems to me) He freed me from evils so eternal and horrible. From that time, as I have already said, all things seem to me all too easy, if they are compared even with a moment of the pains which I bore there. Whence too I wondered that, when I had rather often read books treating to some extent of infernal pains, I yet did not shudder at them, nor made as much of them as indeed I ought; and how I, placed in such a state, could take pleasure in anything which would at last lead me to so horrible a place. Be Thou blessed for ever, my Lord.
[275] The words of Nicole on this vision are alleged, To this tremendous vision, by which our Saint in some way experienced the truth of that saying of Tertullian speaking of hell, There they are struck by the whole right hand of the Divinity, she herself alludes in a certain letter to Pedro de Castro, canon of Ávila and afterwards bishop of Segovia: How great a thing, she says, is the mercy of God!… I saw myself outside hell, which I had long since deserved. Wherefore I gave my book (namely the Life) the title: Of the mercies of the Lord (vol. IV, letter 8). Nor will it be beside the point in this place to bring forward the most weighty words of Pierre Nicole, a man assuredly by no means suspect in an argument of such a vision, on the vision just related: This, he says, I do not hesitate to affirm, that if anyone does not tremble at this narration, and spurns it as a monster of the imagination, he is endowed with a most absurd fortitude of mind. For in order that we might have a just reason for spurning it, we would have to be certain that Teresa had been deceived by her fancy. But we are far from having this certainty about the visions related by her. Nay rather, since there are two things which, when visions are treated of, it is rightly permitted to call into doubt, one whether he who relates them is sincere, the other whether he is subject to illusion of the fancy, every most equitable judge of things, if he has examined the writings of that illustrious Saint, cannot but have her most perfect sincerity thoroughly ascertained, nor will he persuade himself except with difficulty that it can come about that by the help of the imagination a soul should be raised to that holy and divine state in which we see that Teresa was placed by God through these visions, or that God should have willed to attribute so many and such miraculous effects to fantastic illusions (Essais de morale, vol. IV, treatise I, book II, chapter X).
[276] and the admonitions of Łęczycki to seculars These things I would wish to be seriously weighed both by those men who strain all the powers of their wit to snatch from the Catholic Church, with the famous Magdeburg Centuriators, every supernatural revelation, and also by the most vain admirers of the Seraphic Virgin whom our age sees; who are wont, namely, to praise in her nothing else than I know not what poetic frenzy and splendid imagination, as they themselves speak; but of praising God in His Saint, according to the admonition of the royal Psalmist, they do not even think. But let those who, according to the mind and indeed the words of the Church, read St. Teresa so as to be nourished with the food of her heavenly doctrine and taught by the affection of pious devotion, turn their attention, I pray, to the salutary consequences which the pious Łęczycki draws from the vision praised above. One of which, most useful to every order of men without distinction, and especially to young people, is this: If, then, St. Teresa, never defiled by any mortal sin, never infested by any impure thought, and accordingly assailed by no foul temptations, through a conversation not evil in itself, not stained by dances, games of dice or cards, or touchings of hands or curious looks at persons of the other sex, by courteous kisses, would, had she persisted in that conversation, have gone by the judgment of God to hell; who will be so senseless and so little loving of his own soul that, when he has experienced that he has rather often fallen into mortal sins, or at least that he is subject to impure and angry temptations, he would wish to enter into such conversations as I have said are to be avoided not only by one wishing to enter Religion, but much more by one wishing to live in the secular state and to die in it? (Opusc. I, De recte traducenda adolescentia, chapter XIII).
[277] and to religious. The other, however, is accommodated chiefly to religious: namely the pious writer, when he has shown that St. Teresa never sinned gravely, but was culpable only in this, that she admitted certain idle and merry conversations with others of immature age and virtue, discourses thus: If, then, these things, permitted to her by superiors, and so light that certain confessors said they were not sins, would have led her to hell; what is to be said of the open sins of murmurings, of those sowing discords, distrusts, aversions, and of other more dangerous things? For sins are like certain links of a chain: one draws another, and at length leads to the losing of grace through mortal sin, and then at length to the losing of the vocation. For, as Blessed Lawrence Justinian says in the book on the solitary life, chapter IV, "in one chain of malignity the vices are leagued together for the ruin of souls, fabricated and woven by unclean spirits." Therefore a vocation is almost never lost, as Father Pedro Ximénez well said, except after many venial sins and mortal sins arising from them committed against the vows in Religion (Opusc. XVI, De fuga pecc. ven. chapter IV).
[278] Thence St. Teresa, But let us now see what fruits the showing of hell produced in Teresa herself. After, then, she says, I had seen these and other great secrets which the Lord out of His mercy deigned to show me, the glory, I mean, which awaits the blessed, and the punishments which await the damned and wicked; seeking some manner and means both of doing penance so as not to incur so great an evil, and of doing some good by which I might merit so great a good, I felt in myself a great inclination to withdraw myself from men and to abandon the world entirely. My spirit had no quiet: yet this was not a troublesome or afflicting, but a certain sweet disquiet; so that it easily appeared that this came from God alone, and that His Majesty was putting warmth into the soul for digesting other ruder foods than those which it ordinarily ate. I thought, then, with myself what I could do above all for the love of God, and I thought that the first among these things was if I followed the vocation of His Majesty, by which He had called me to Religion, by keeping my rule with the greatest perfection I could.
[279] and for other causes, And although in the monastery in which I lived there were many handmaids of God, and He was served well enough there, yet the nuns themselves, on account of the necessity by which they were then oppressed, often went out of doors to those places in which we could live in the highest uprightness and service of God: for this place had not been founded in the primitive rigour of the rule, but it was kept there as it was then commonly kept throughout the whole Order, namely according to the privileges and Bulls of relaxation; not to mention other inconveniences too, among which one was that I thought I lived there more comfortably than was fair and had bodily comforts. But that going out of doors, although I used it frequently, was very harmful to me: which came about because many busied themselves to have me with them, to whom my superiors did not dare to deny it; and therefore they enjoined on me to comply with them in this matter, so as to turn away all trouble from themselves. This custom, then, once introduced, I could rarely be at home and in the monastery: I should believe that the evil demon too could have co-operated in some way to this, that I should live out of doors and outside the convent. Yet, to confess the truth, because I passed on to others the things which my directors taught me, hence not a little good followed from it.
[280] conceives the idea of her Reform; But it happened one day that someone said, with me and others present, that if we wished to live after the rite and manner of the Discalced Clares, means would perhaps not be lacking for erecting such a monastery for us. And as I turned this wish and desire over again and again in my mind, I began to treat of this matter with that noble widow, my companion, whom I have mentioned; in whom the same desire had long since settled. Thereafter she began to think in what way she could establish it with perpetual revenues. But, as I now see, we were neither of us entering on a good way, although at that time indeed, because of our desire for this thing, it seemed otherwise to us; but on the other hand, because I felt great quiet and pleasantness in the monastery in which I lived (for it was to my taste and mind, and the cell which I inhabited was comfortable enough for me), hence I kept myself quiet and still undecided: yet it was agreed between us that we should seriously commend the matter to God by prayers.
[281] which soon by divine visions One day, after receiving Holy Communion, the divine Majesty enjoined on me to urge the erection of this monastery with the greatest effort I could, promising that it would be happily brought to completion and that He would be well served in that place, and that I should give it the name of St. Joseph: and He added that St. Joseph at one side of the gate and the Mother of God at the other would be as it were its guardians, and that Christ the Lord would be with us in all things: besides, that this place would be like a star which would diffuse the rays of its light in every direction. He added that, although the Religious Orders had fallen from their primitive flower and vigour, I should not on that account think that He received little service and worship from them; for what would become of the world if there were no religious in it? Wherefore I should indicate to my confessor whatever He enjoined on me here, and that He asked him not to oppose this thing or be an impediment to it. This vision was so efficacious, and this address of the Lord of such a kind, that I plainly could not doubt that it was He Himself who addressed me. But I was distressed and afflicted not a little, both because the huge disquiets, troubles and labours which this thing would cost me in part passed before my eyes, and because I was living willingly in that convent: for although I had treated of that matter before, yet not so confidently and certainly as if the thing were certainly going to be. Here, however, I seemed to receive some reward and wages; but because I saw myself undertaking a business which would be a seed-bed of many troubles, I doubted anxiously what at last I should undertake.
[282] and with the assent of the provincial, and also of St. Peter of Alcántara, Further, the Lord repeated this very thing to me again and again on different occasions, setting before me causes, reasons and demonstrations so evident that it plainly appeared that this was His will: whence I did not dare not to disclose it to my confessor, giving him the whole course of the matter in writing. He indeed did not dare to tell me plainly and promptly to desist from this purpose: yet he saw openly that the thing, naturally speaking, was altogether impossible; because my companion, who had to carry it out, had very slender, nay almost no means for carrying it out. He said, however, that I should treat of this matter with my superior, and that whatever he counselled to be done I should busy myself to carry out. I did not indeed indicate these visions to the superior; but that lady who wished to build this monastery treated with him. The thing pleased the provincial wonderfully,
as one who is wonderfully affected toward everything which regards the service and worship of God; hence he promised her help and favour as far as he could, asserting that he would admit that monastery if ever it were ready. They began too to treat between them of the revenue necessary for the annual expenses and sustenance: but we wished that not more than thirteen nuns should be admitted into it, and that for various reasons. But before we began to treat anything of this business, we wrote to Fr. Peter of Alcántara whatever was done in its handling. He, further, counselled us to urge the business begun vigorously, and wrote back to us his opinion on everything. Wherefore the Bull of Canonization of that holy man rightly says that he was such a help to St. Teresa that he is to be held the chief promoter of the Reform undertaken by her.
[283] of St. Louis Bertrand, With St. Peter of Alcántara is to be joined St. Louis Bertrand, a bright star of the illustrious Order of Preachers, who in the year 1560 was acting as master of novices at Valencia. Concerning him his biographer Father Bartolomé Aviñón (in our Predecessors, vol. V of October, page 413) hands down these things concerning our Saint: St. Teresa, Foundress of the Order of the Discalced Carmelite Fathers, in the first years when she began to institute the Order, consulted various spiritual persons about this purpose of hers; and particularly she wrote to Blessed Bertrand, setting out her desire and the reasons by which she was induced to undertake a thing of such moment, and which was subject to so many difficulties and disturbances. Having received this letter, the Blessed man commended this business to God; and after three or four months he sent her the following answer: "Mother Teresa, I have received your letter; and because the business on which you have consulted me pertains very much to the worship of God, I wished first to commend it to the divine Majesty by my lukewarm prayers and Sacrifices: and that is the reason why I have delayed to answer. Now in the name of the same Lord I tell you to take courage to undertake so great a work, that God will help you and favour you; and in His name I assure you that fifty [ ] will not pass before it is one of the more illustrious which the Church of God has, which, etc. Valencia, etc." Aviñón testifies that he took this letter from the Life of St. Louis by Juan Roca; where it exists in the language in which it was written, Spanish (treatise I, chapter XXII), as also in the Chronicle (book I, chapter XXXVI, no. 3). A Latin version differing only in words, otherwise similar to the one which I have exhibited, is given by the Venerable Father John of Jesus Mary in the Life of St. Teresa (book I, chapter I). The year of writing is everywhere absent; but the designation of the place implies that it was one of the three years 1560, 1561, 1562: for in the year 1560 the Saint returned to Valencia, from which he had been absent three years, and two years later he crossed over to America.
[284] To the same times also seem to be referred the letters of the holy Mother to St. Borgia, and perhaps of St. Francis Borgia, is confirmed. of which I made mention above from Cienfuegos (no. 164). But whether she wrote to St. Louis Bertrand, and awaited his answer, before she consulted her superior, Father Ángel de Salazar, governor of the province of Castile of the Carmelite Order, through Guiomar de Ulloa, seems to me, both on account of the uncertain year of the letter written by St. Louis, and also on account of this Saint's delay of three or four months in answering, too doubtful for me to affirm it with the author of the Chronicle and Father Frederick of St. Anthony. I should rather admit from Yepes that the holy Virgin, the mind of her confessor, her superior and St. Peter of Alcántara having already been explored and known, sought besides the opinion of St. Louis by letter. It matters little indeed; but nevertheless I wished to point it out, for the sake of pursuing historical diligence.
[285] Detractions having arisen in the city, The Saint proceeds: But as soon as the matter began to be known in the city and came to the ears of all, so grave a storm of those opposing and speaking against us arose that I could not touch briefly on all the detractions, mockeries, gibes and derisions. They said that I was well and quiet in my convent, and accordingly wished to move only out of levity; my companion, further, was so harassed that she did not know where to turn: I did not know what to do, and I judged that in part they spoke so deservedly and seemed well founded. Being in this strait, I implored the help of God, who at once consoled me and added courage: and He said that I should now see what detractions and persecutions those Saints had suffered who first founded any Religious Order: He added that I should have to undergo more persecutions than I could conceive in my mind, but that we should make nothing of them. He indicated also certain things which I should declare to my companion. And I wondered most both that at once, as regards the things that had already passed, we felt great consolation in ourselves, and that we were excellently encouraged to resist all who opposed us. And truly there was scarcely anyone among all those practising prayer, and almost in the whole city, who did not then oppose us, and hiss off our undertaking as supremely insane; nay, in my own monastery the detraction and disturbance were so great that it seemed all too difficult and grievous to our provincial to wish to go against the mind and will of all.
[286] the provincial changes his opinion; Whence it came about that he became of another opinion, and now would not admit the monastery: for he said both that the revenue was uncertain and all too slender, and that the detraction was great. And truly he seemed not to judge badly in breaking off the thing begun and refusing altogether to admit the monastery. This was very troublesome to us, who seemed already to have received the first blows, and to me above all, that the provincial himself opposed us: for while he wished and urged it, I was held by all as free from all blame: to my companion too the confessors would not give sacramental absolution until she should cease to urge the business begun; because they said she was bound to take away the occasion of scandal.
[287] but when Father Pedro Ibáñez, O.P., She went to a certain learned man of the Order of St. Dominic, a distinguished servant of God, to communicate with him about this whole matter; and that before the provincial had now set this business aside: for in the whole city we found no one who would counsel us in this matter and indicate what needed to be done: and this was the reason why they said that we were inventing this out of our own brain. The lady secretly gave that man an account of everything, at the same time indicated the revenue which she had from her patrimony, and earnestly asked him to stand by us; for he was at that time the most learned of the whole city, and there were very few more learned than he in his whole Order. I made known to him whatever we had decided to do, I added also certain reasons for my action: further, I brought forward to him no vision or divine revelation, but only the natural reasons which moved me to do it; and I asked him to indicate to us his mind and opinion, and what needed to be done, according to those, and not other, reasons.
[288] having maturely deliberated on the matter, He asked eight days for deliberating and answering: and at the same time he asked whether we were prepared to do whatever he should counsel us. I promised that we would be at peace: but, although I promised it, and, as it seems to me, would also have done it, yet there always remained in me a certain certainty, nor did I ever put it off, that the thing would without doubt be brought to completion. My companion, further, had greater faith; for, whatever at last was said to her, she would never wish to cast the thing away entirely: but I, although it seemed impossible to me, so that the thing plainly could not be accomplished, yet believe a revelation to be true insofar as it is not opposed to the things handed down in Holy Scripture or to the precepts of the Church, which we are obliged to keep. For although it seemed to me plainly and truly that this thing came from God, nevertheless, if that learned man had asserted that we could not do it without offence of God and the guilt of sin, I would at once (as it indeed seems to me) have cast it out of my hands, and have devised another way of carrying it out: but the Lord did not suggest to me any other than this very one.
[289] had approved the Saint's plan, This servant of God, further, afterwards told me that he had firmly resolved with himself to dissuade us in every way from this purpose and undertaking (for the voice and detractions of the people had already reached his ears; nay, to him too, as to all others, it seemed altogether foolish: and a certain nobleman, having heard that we had gone to him for the sake of consulting him, had signified to him that he should see again and again what he was doing, and should not hear or help us in anything); nevertheless, when he began to think with himself what to answer us, and to examine with himself the thing itself, and our intention and aim, and also the manner of living and the kind of Religious life which we had proposed to him, it seemed to him that it would be wonderfully for the honour of God and would most certainly be brought to completion: whence in his answer he persuaded us to hasten in perfecting and urging it, and at the same time disclosed the manner and method which we ought to keep in carrying it out. And that the slender revenue ought not to be the cause why the thing should be omitted, but that we ought to trust God in something: but if anyone wished to oppose or resist us, we should send him to him, and he would satisfy his arguments and objections. And so he helped us in all things and always, as I shall record later in its place.
[290] at length a little house is bought. This refreshed us wonderfully, as did also that certain holy men, whom we had hitherto felt to be adversaries, now in part thought in our favour, and some too helped us with their means and assistance: among whom not the last was that holy knight of whom I spoke a little before; who, when he perceived that this undertaking was a most convenient way to so great perfection (as indeed it truly is; for our whole foundation rests on prayer), yielded, saying that it could be that this thing was from God, although the means and ways of accomplishing it seemed to him very difficult and inconvenient. The Lord had doubtless moved his heart, as also that of that master, the servant of God and priest, to whom, as I have said, I first spoke, who is like a mirror to the whole city, and whom the Lord willed to dwell there for the good and help of many souls; and he was already then beginning to help and further our business. Things being thus settled, then, we, applying ourselves again and again to prayer, bought a house in a place convenient enough, although small: but I cared little for that; for the Lord had told me that, in whatever way
I could, I should enter into it; for I should see afterwards what His Majesty would do. And truly how I have seen and experienced it! And although I saw that the revenue was slender, yet I firmly persuaded myself that the Lord would further the matter by another way and means and would help us.
[291] It is disputed whether there ought to be ascribed to Ibáñez Francisco de Salcedo, whom Teresa honours with the title of the holy knight, likewise the pious master Daza, the reader already knows. But the Presentado who has just been mentioned was not Father Domingo Báñez, as Father Touron thought in his work on the illustrious Men of the Order of St. Dominic (vol. IV, book XXXII), but Father Pedro Ibáñez, whom Father Jacques Échard praises among the writers of his Order at the year 1565 with this encomium: Fr. Pedro Ibáñez, a Spaniard, professed the Order at Salamanca, a man conspicuous for innocence of life and no less for learning; he taught theology at Valladolid among his brethren, but was also a distinguished and experienced master of that which they call mystical, as one who applied himself wholly and assiduously to prayer and the meditation of heavenly things. Hence, chosen by the holy Virgin Teresa, when she had undertaken a more perfect life, as judge of the secrets of her conscience and mystagogue, he contributed not a little to confirming her in her purpose and raising her to more sublime things: and in turn he himself received no small gain of spirit from the more eminent fellowship and intimacy of that soul. Acting as prior of the brethren at Triana, he passed by a happy death to those things before, to which he had always stretched himself, in the year 1565. Concerning him are to be read López, Hist. gen. part IV, page 447 and following; Gravina, Voce turturis, p. 169; Altamura at 1565. A Treatise on the rules for discerning spirits was left written by him, divided into XI chapters, in the Spanish language; according to which, namely, he had weighed the conduct of the Virgin Teresa, who had then undertaken the spiritual life. Certain fragments of which treatise the bishop of Tarazona brings forward at the beginning of the Saint's works, adding that the entire manuscript is preserved in the monastery of the Teresian nuns at Ávila.
[292] the 33 articles on the spirit of St. Teresa, From this last phrase of Father Échard, Boucher draws out—what is evidently not contained in it—that there was written by Father Ibáñez the writing consisting of thirty-three articles on the spirit of St. Teresa, which Ribera inserted in his Teresian Life book IV, chapter IV, and Yepes likewise in his own book I, chapter XXI. Namely, to Boucher those articles seem to be nothing else than a compendium extracted by Ibáñez himself from the larger Treatise on the rules for discerning spirits and sent to St. Teresa in answer to a certain letter received from her; namely that which Ribera copied out in book IV, chapter XIII, Yepes book III, chapter XXVIII, the author of the Chronicle book I, chapter XXXI, and to which in these three authors is subjoined another letter of almost the same argument. But as gratuitously as this is asserted by Boucher, so gratuitously too it can be denied: all the more because Yepes, who read the larger treatise from Father Ibáñez's autograph, and recites some fragments of it among the various testimonies of men illustrious for learning and holiness about St. Teresa in § II, carefully distinguishes from that Father Preacher (in the Life of the Saint book I, chapter XXI) the author of the 33 articles; whom he suspects to have been a Father of the Society of Jesus, by whom they were directed to the Venerable John of Ávila: induced into this suspicion perhaps by this, that he saw the Fathers of the Society of Jesus specially named in articles 21 and 27; from which circumstance Boucher thinks the entirely contrary is to be concluded, namely that they were not written by a Father of the Society. Ribera teaches us nothing on this matter; since he confesses that he could not find out by what author that writing was put together.
[293] or rather to St. Peter of Alcántara. But if we consult the Chronicle, the collector of St. Teresa's Letters and the other more recent writers, we fall upon a third opinion, ascribing the articles not now to anyone of the Order of St. Dominic or of St. Ignatius, but to St. Peter of Alcántara. Several arguments indeed, though not unassailable ones, are brought forward to prove this opinion by the author of the Chronicle (book 1, chapter XXXII) and Father Frederick of St. Anthony (book 1, chapter XX); but we can forbear discussing these, since Father John of St. Louis entirely settles the matter, provided he is not deceived in alleging his surety, who in a certain note to St. Teresa's Life (book II, chapter IX) speaks thus: That these two writings, namely the account of the Saint and the approbation of St. Peter of Alcántara, are genuine is established from ancient documents of our Order and from the processes of beatification of both Saints; as the Reverend Father Fr. John of St. Bernard, procurator of his Order in the Roman Curia, and postulator of the cause of his illustrious Father Peter of Alcántara, testifies that he saw, whose Life, extracted from the acts of beatification, he himself published at the Naples press in the year 1667, at the urging of Don Francesco Fabes, secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Rites and of Francesco Cardinal Barberini. Since we do not have the said Life of St. Peter, I have not been able to inquire more diligently into this matter; but perhaps he of us will be able to do it who is to illustrate the acts of the same Saint at the 19th day of October.
[294] The eulogy of Father Ibáñez from the words of St. Teresa. Further, it is pleasing to return for a little to the praises of Father Ibáñez, from which we came into this digression, and to amplify them by the splendid testimony which St. Teresa renders of his holiness in chapter XXXVIII of her Life, in these words: At a certain time I saw how the Blessed Virgin put a most white cloak around that Presentado Father of the Order of Preachers whom I have already mentioned several times above; and she told me that she gave him this white garment in recompense for the service which he had rendered her, when namely he laboured vigorously that this house might be founded, and that in sign that she would thereafter keep his soul clean and immune from all mortal sin. I by no means doubt that it was so done: for a few years thereafter he died; and in the rest of his life and in death he displayed such austerity and holiness that, as far as I can gather from conjectures, there is no room for doubting about him. And a certain monk who had seen him dying affirmed to me for certain that he heard from him, a little before he gave up his spirit into the hands of God, that St. Thomas seemed to him to be standing by. And he died with the greatest joy and a most ardent desire of departing from this toilsome place of exile. Afterwards he appeared to me from time to time in great glory, and disclosed some secrets. Further, he was so devoted to prayer that even in the hour of death, when on account of the excessive weakness of his body he wished to abstain from it, he plainly could not, because of the frequent raptures which he then suffered. A little before he departed from this life, he sent me a letter in which he consulted me how he should conduct himself in the raptures, which befell him immediately after celebrating Mass and lasted quite long, so that he himself could not hinder them: but God at last rendered him the reward of all the labours and services, many enough, which he underwent in the whole time of his life.
§ XVI. The work begun, Teresa being hindered, Father Pedro Ibáñez of the Order of Preachers furthers: the Saint herself, labouring again at it, is encouraged by heavenly visions. Her brother contributes money, her sister and brother-in-law their labour. She is sent to Toledo.
The provincial, We have now come to chapter XXXIII, which is of the following tenor: When the matter was in this state, and was now so nearly accomplished that on the following day the deeds of the revenues were to be drawn up and confirmed, our provincial soon changed his mind. That he was moved by the divine will, as afterwards plainly appeared, seems likely to me: for because the prayers were intense and frequent, it pleased the Lord that the thing should be brought to completion gradually and in a far different manner. When, then, he would not admit the monastery, at once my confessor forbade me to treat further of this business, although the troubles and difficulties which the Lord knows I bore in order to bring it to this state and so far were huge. Because, then, the matter was broken off and not furthered any more, hence people were far more confirmed in that opinion in which they had said that it was nothing but a contrivance and invention of women, and the detraction and murmuring against me grew, although whatever had been done up to that time had been done by the order and leave of the provincial.
[296] the nuns of the convent of the Incarnation My sisters did not look at me with kindly eyes, and were ill disposed toward me, because I was striving to found another monastery whose enclosure should be stricter: for they said that in this way I was branding them with a mark of infamy, and that I could serve God there just as well as in another place, since there were others in it far better than I; that I did not seem to be well affected toward the monastery in which I had hitherto lived; finally, that it was far better to procure an annual revenue for this one than for any other. Whence some counselled that I should be thrust into prison; but others (who were very few) defended my cause. I saw that in many things indeed they complained of me rightly and deservedly (hence too I cleared myself before them from time to time): but because what was chief in this business (namely that I undertook it only at the Lord's command) ought not to be said, hence I did not know what to do; and so I kept silent. At another time the Lord granted me that grace, that this hindrance weighed on me not at all, and I broke off the business begun with no less ease and willingness than if it had cost me no labour or trouble at all. But scarcely anyone could bring his mind to believe this, not even those pious men, lovers of prayer, with whom I dealt assiduously: nay, they thought that I grieved greatly on that account and was not a little indignant.
[297] and the Saint's confessor My confessor himself too could not persuade himself otherwise. But because I had done whatever I could on my part (as indeed it seemed to me), hence I did not think I was bound further to fulfil the Lord's commands: and so I kept myself at home, calm and quiet; yet I could not at all persuade myself that it would not be fulfilled, and, although I saw no way or manner of fulfilling it, or how or when it would be, yet I most firmly believed that it would be accomplished. But nothing moved me more than a certain letter sent by my confessor, as if I had done something against his will and contrary to his wish (perhaps the Lord willed that trouble should be created for me from that quarter too, from which, coming, it would afflict me most), in which he
was so far from consoling me in this manifold affliction and persecution of mine (as indeed I expected) that he even wrote that I could now easily see from what had happened that all things were nothing but mere dreams; wherefore I should see that hereafter I should not take any more empty pains and labour, and should not treat of this matter any longer, since I now perceived clearly the scandal which had followed from it. He added other things too, but such as tended nowhere else than to afflicting and saddening me.
[298] they struggle against it: This one thing afflicted me more gravely than all the others even joined together; and I examined whether perhaps I had given occasion in anything, or had been in fault, why God should be offended; and I thought that, if these visions had been diabolical illusions, it could be that all my prayer too was mere imposture, and so I was most shamefully deceived and was in danger of perishing. And this affected me so vehemently and extremely that I was wholly troubled and was in the gravest strait: but the Lord (who never forsook me in all those grievances and afflictions which I have narrated, but often consoled me and suggested courage, which it would be too long to record here) then told me that there was no reason why I should be cast down or saddened on that account; for I had rendered God great service in this business, and had in no way offended Him; and that I should carry out to the nail and precisely what my confessor enjoined on me, namely that for now and at present I should keep entirely silent about this business, until there should be a convenient time for treating of it anew. And I was so contented by this saying and flooded with consolation that all the persecution and trouble which I had experienced on its account seemed to be nothing at all.
[299] while she obediently desists from the undertaking, Here at the same time the Lord showed me how singular a good it is to bear troubles, difficulties and persecutions in His name: for the love of God made such increase in my soul from this, as from many other things, that I was not a little astonished: and this is the reason why I cannot but always ask for tribulations and adversities. Others, however, thought that I was exceedingly indignant on that account; and in truth I would have been indignant, had not the Lord forestalled me so far with so great a grace. But at that time there began to fall upon me those greater impulses of divine love of which I have spoken, and more sublime raptures, although I kept silent about them, and said not a word to anyone about this spiritual gain. That holy Dominican too was as certain that this thing would be accomplished as I, and although I ceased to treat of it, namely so as not to oppose the precept of my confessor, yet he, together with my companion, pressed the matter most keenly: hence they wrote letters to Rome, and deliberated and consulted among themselves what needed to be done. The devil too co-operating and thrusting himself in, it came about that one learned from another that I had had some revelation in this matter: whence they came to me with great trembling and anxiety, saying both that the times in which we lived were dangerous, and that it could happen that someone might denounce and accuse me before the Inquisitors. This seemed to me plainly foolish and ridiculous (for I never feared anything in this matter; for I knew that in things pertaining to the faith I would rather have undergone death a thousand times even for the least ceremony of the Holy Church or for any truth of Holy Scripture than that anyone should have seen me sinning or offending against it): whence I said there was no reason for them to fear for me in this respect. For truly it would have been miserable for my soul if there had been anything in it on account of which I ought to have feared to fall into the hands of the Inquisitors: for if I had detected anything such in myself, I would of my own accord have gone to them, and if anything were falsely imputed to me, I trusted that the Lord would not only snatch me from that calumny, but would even grant me profit from it.
[300] Father Ibáñez vigorously urges the matter. I conferred about this matter with that Dominican Father: for since he was so learned, as I have said, hence I could safely rely on what he would say, and follow his counsels without doubt: at the same time too I then laid open to him, as clearly and plainly as I could, my visions and the manner of praying which I kept, and also the huge graces which the Lord did me, asking him to sift each thing exactly, and to note whether anything in them was repugnant to Holy Scripture, and at the same time to declare his judgment and opinion on each. He bade me be certain and secure; and I, as indeed I judge, profited him not a little in this way: for although he was very good, yet from that time he gave himself much more to the pursuit of prayer, and hid himself within another monastery of his Order, in which there was greater quiet and solitude, so that he might exercise himself in it better and more conveniently there: in which he spent two whole years, until his superiors (which was grievous to him) ordered him to move elsewhere; for since he was so great and such a man, they needed his work in another place. To me truly his departure from here was in part a loss; yet, although I was now to be without his remarkable help, I did not wish to hinder him, knowing that it would turn to his benefit. When, then, I was vehemently afflicted at his departure, the Lord told me to lay aside sadness and anguish, and to compose my mind to quiet, because he was going away well accompanied. For his soul returned thence so bettered and increased in spiritual progress that, when he had come back, he told me that nothing was dearer to him than this departure and that he preferred nothing to it. The same too I could say on my part: for whereas before he made me secure and consoled me only by his doctrine, now, having returned, he consoled me also by experience of the spirit, as one who had now acquired for himself a great enough experience of supernatural things. And God Best and Greatest made him return here at that time at which His Majesty knew he was required and needed, for co-operating opportunely in this His work (the furthering, I mean, of this monastery), which the same Majesty willed to be perfected and brought to completion.
[301] [At length a new rector of the college of the Society of Jesus, Gaspar de Salazar,] For five or six months, then, I thus kept silent, neither treating of this business nor saying a single word; nor did the Lord Himself command me anything further about it: and although I did not know nor understand what was the cause of this, yet I could not at all bring my mind to think that it would not be accomplished. At the end of this time, when the rector of the college of the Society of Jesus had now gone away from here elsewhere, the divine Majesty brought another here in his place, a wonderfully spiritual man, endowed with great courage and wit, and at the same time remarkably learned; and that at a time when I was placed in great anxiety: for because the one whom I then used as confessor was under a rector, and this virtue is holy and inviolate among the men of the Society, that they do nothing at all except as their superior wishes, although he understood my spirit very well, and desired exceedingly that I should accomplish the thing, yet in some things he dared to determine nothing certain, and that for very many reasons by which he was moved to it. Further, my spirit was at that time driven with such impetus that it was very troublesome to me to hold it so bound; yet I did not decline even a nail's breadth from his commands.
[302] both through her confessor, One day, when I was in the greatest strait, because I thought that my confessor did not believe me at all, the Lord told me not to afflict or torment myself, for this strait and pressure would shortly have an end. Whence I was wonderfully cheered, because I thought that by this it was signified that I would shortly die; and as often as this came to my mind, I felt great gladness in my soul: but afterwards I clearly perceived that the Lord had wished to speak of the coming of that rector whom I mentioned: for thereafter no occasion was any longer given me of feeling this affliction, because that recent and new rector by no means opposed the Father Minister, who was my confessor, but enjoined on him to console me, saying that no danger or occasion of fear lay beneath here, and that he should not lead me by so narrow and strait a way, and finally should let the spirit of the Lord work as it willed: for at times, on account of those vehement impulses of the spirit, the soul seemed not about to be sufficient even for drawing breath.
[303] and in person consoles Teresa; This rector came to visit me; and my confessor enjoined on me to communicate with him about my affairs with all freedom and clarity: and although I was wont to feel great repugnance in divulging things of this kind, yet when I then entered the confessional seat, I felt I know not what in my spirit, which I do not remember ever to have felt with anyone else either before or after; what sort and what it was I could not say, nay not even express by any comparison: for it was a certain spiritual joy and a certain hidden knowledge and understanding, by which my soul understood that it was to be understood by the rector's soul and that I was conformed to him, although how this came about, as I have said, I did not understand; for if I had spoken with him before or had heard wonderful things about him from others, it would not have been strange that I rejoiced because I knew I was to be understood by him; but he had not spoken a word to me, nor I to him, up to then, nor was he one of whom I could have had any knowledge before. Thereafter, further, I clearly perceived that my spirit had by no means been deceived in him: since it profited both me and my soul in every way to communicate and speak with him: for communication with him is most conducive to those whom the Lord seems to have advanced further already; for he puts spurs to them so that they run swiftly and do not go step by step, and he looks chiefly to this, that he may withdraw them from all created things and mortify them: for for this, as for very many other things, the Lord has given him a singular grace and talent. As soon as I began to deal with him, I at once perceived his manner of acting, his spirit and genius; and I saw that he was a pure and holy soul, and had received from God a certain wonderful grace for discerning spirits: and he himself brought me great consolation.
[304] and he is the author of her setting her hand again to the work. Not long after I had begun to deal with him, the Lord began again to press and urge me to take the business of the monastery into my hands once more, and to my confessor and to this rector with many reasons and
arguments to show that they should not bring any impediment to me in this; the force of which was such that some of them even struck fear into them: for this rector never doubted that it was the Spirit of God; for he weighed all its effects, examining them with himself very carefully and maturely. And so, after very many other things had intervened, they did not dare to put any impediment or delay in my way in this business; but my confessor himself again gave me full power to strive for it with all the effort and zeal I could. I saw indeed how great a mass of troubles I was summoning upon my head, both because I was entirely alone and because I could do very little. It was agreed between us, therefore, that we should do the thing as secretly as possible; whence I took pains that one of my sisters, who lived in another place, should buy a house and fit it up as if it were to serve her own uses, and that with the money which the Lord procured by certain means for buying it. For it would be too long to relate by what ways or manners the Lord procured it for us: for I took the greatest care not to sin against obedience in anything; yet I knew that, if I had disclosed the matter to my superiors, I should have lost all my pains, as on the other occasion, nay the business would be in a worse position than before. And often I bore great trouble and labour in procuring the money, in acquiring, arranging and fitting up the house; and that at times alone, although my companion did what she could: but she could do little in it; nay, so little that it was almost nothing, and only that it was done in her name and with her consent: but the rest of the labour fell upon me in so many ways that I now wonder not a little how I could have been equal to bearing it. Whence at times, afflicted and sorrowing, I said: "How can it be, my Lord, that Thou commandest me such things as seem altogether impossible? If I were free, though I am a woman, well indeed; but since I am bound on every side by various chains and without any money, and do not even know whence I am to get it, necessary both for the dispatch of the letters to be sent to Rome and for sustaining the other necessary expenses, how am I to perform or carry out anything?"
[305] The Saint is encouraged by the address of God Once, when I was placed in great necessity, and did not know what to do, or whence to pay their wages to some workmen, St. Joseph, my true Father and Lord, appeared to me, promising that money would by no means be lacking to me, and that accordingly I should agree with the workmen about their pay: which I also did, not having even an obol at hand. The Lord, further, provided me with the necessary money in such ways that whoever heard of it were exceedingly astonished. The house seemed to me all too small, and was in fact so small that it seemed altogether unfit for a monastery to be made of it. I wished indeed to buy another house too, but money was not available, nor did any means of buying it appear, so that I did not know where to turn: for there was next to it another little house, suitable for fitting up a church. But when at a certain time I was rising from Holy Communion, the Lord said to me: "I have told thee to betake thyself into that one, in whatever way thou canst." And as it were by way of exclamation He added: "O covetousness of the human race, why dost thou fear that even the earth will fail thee? How often have I slept under the open sky, because I lacked roof and house!" Having heard these things I remained much dismayed, and saw that He rightly complained of us. I went, therefore, into that little house, and dividing it into certain parts, I found that it was a perfect monastery, although very small and narrow; nor thereafter did I trouble about buying a larger site or property; I only took pains that in that which I already had a building suitable for habitation should be fitted, and that in a rough manner and without any art and ornament, adding nothing to it beyond what was necessary so that the health of the inhabitants should not suffer detriment: for always the consideration of health must be had first.
[306] and by the apparition of St. Clare; When on the feast of St. Clare I was approaching Holy Communion, the Saint herself appeared to me with great splendour, bidding me be of good courage and proceed with the work begun, and promising me her help and favour in it. Thereafter I conceived a great affection of devotion toward her, and what she then told me I have found so true that a certain monastery of that Order, which is not far distant from here, sustains us to some extent with its slender revenue. And, what was greater, she gradually brought this desire of mine to such perfection that the poverty which that holy Virgin kept in her convent is kept in this place too, and we live on alms: which indeed cost me no small labour, namely that it should be done with all firmness and by the authority of the Supreme Pontiff, and that nothing adverse or contrary to it should be committed, nor any revenue ever be admitted. Nay, the Lord does more (perhaps through the prayers and intercession of this blessed Virgin), in that His Majesty provides us abundantly, even when we do not ask, with all that is necessary for us. May He be blessed for all things for ever and ever. Amen.
[307] and herself with a splendid garment and a golden collar When at nearly the same time, namely on the feast of the Assumption of the Mother of God, I was in the church of the Dominicans, and was weighing with myself those sins, very many in number, which I had formerly confessed in that place, and also others which pertained to my wicked life, so vehement a rapture seized me that I almost fell into a swoon of mind. I sank down on the ground, and, what is more, I could not (as it indeed seems to me) see the Body of the Lord raised up at the Sacrifice, or hear Mass; so that this afterwards raised a scruple in me. Placed indeed in this state, I seemed to be clothed with a certain very white and resplendent garment. At first I did not see who put it upon me; but afterwards I saw standing at my right side the Most Holy Virgin Mary, and at my left my Father and Guardian Joseph, who were putting this garment around me: at the same time too it was given me to understand that I was now cleansed from my sins. And after I had now been clothed, and was flooded with great pleasantness and glory, at once it seemed to me that the Mother of God, having taken my hands, told me that I did a thing most pleasing to her in being a devotee of the glorious Confessor Joseph; that accordingly I should certainly persuade myself that the very thing which I had conceived as regards the erection of the monastery would be accomplished: she added too that the Lord Jesus and she herself, together with her spouse Joseph, would be most of all honoured in it; that I should not fear that that decree would ever be changed (although the obedience which I rendered was not to my taste), because both of them would guard us; for her son had already promised us that He would be in our midst, and that in sign of the truth of this thing she was handing me this jewel. And having said this, she seemed to throw about my neck a collar of most beautiful gold, from which hung a certain most precious cross: but its gold and gems differ so from earthly gold and gems that there is no likeness between the two; for its beauty is far different from all that we can imagine here; nay, neither can the intellect in any way conceive of what material that garment was made, as neither imagine the whiteness which the Lord wills to shine out in it; for whatever is seen here, compared with it, seems nothing but a rough sketch drawn with charcoal, so to speak.
[308] she sees adorned by the Mother of God and St. Joseph. The beauty, moreover, which I noted in the Most Holy Mother was most eminent and supreme, and although it lay in various features, yet I beheld none singly, but the whole form and shaping of the face at once. She was clothed in a white garment, and emitted the greatest brightness, which yet did not dazzle the eyes with its glare, but was bright with sweetness. The glorious Joseph I did not see so clearly and openly; yet I saw that he was present there in that manner of visions which I have said are not seen: but the Virgin Mother seemed to me very young. When they had thus been present to me for some little while, and I was in the greatest glory and pleasantness, than which (as it indeed appears to me) I never felt greater, and which was so singular that I would never wish to be without it, I seemed to see them ascending into heaven with a great company of Angels. For the rest, I remained very deserted and alone, yet so refreshed, uplifted, recollected in prayer and inwardly moved that for some time I could neither move nor speak, nay was almost outside myself. Thereafter there remained to me so great an impulse to annihilate and consume myself for the name of God, and also such effects, and all things happened in such a manner, that I plainly could not doubt (although I strove for this not moderately) that that vision came from God. The Queen of Heaven left me much consoled and wonderfully contented, on account of what she had told me about obedience. For it was grievous to me, namely, not to render it to the superiors of the Order: but the Lord had told me that it was not advisable to render it to them, and brought forward reasons why it would by no means be expedient for me to do it; but that I should send letters to Rome by a certain way, saying that He would bring it about that all things there should have a happy success: which also came about. For after we had sent letters to Rome by that way which the Lord had suggested to me, a joyful and desired answer was sent from there, whereas before we had never been able to receive any dispatch. Further, on account of what was afterwards done, it was most fitting and most expedient that obedience should be rendered to the bishop; although at that time indeed I did not know him at all, nor knew what kind of prelate he would be, yet, the Lord willing, it came about that we found him so propitious to us and so favourable to this house, and indeed on account of that great contradiction which afterwards rose up against it, it was necessary (as I shall relate later) that he should place it in that state in which it now is. Blessed be He who has thus furthered and directed all things. Amen.
[309] She receives money from her brother Lorenzo from Peru, Through those five or six months in which Teresa desisted from the business begun, we have been brought into the year 1561. In which year Father Gaspar de Salazar was substituted, to govern the college of St. Giles at Ávila, for Father Dionisio Vásquez, a man eminently learned and famous for his deeds, but, as is clear from the History of the Society of Jesus, very harsh toward his subjects; to the great joy and solace of St. Teresa, as we have seen. About the same
time too, namely at the end of the year 1561, there came to the holy Virgin a pecuniary subsidy not moderate, from the kingdom of Peru, from her brother Lorenzo de Cepeda, who was still unaware of the new foundation that was impending, sent so opportunely that all who knew the secret held it as a miracle. She gave most profuse thanks to her beloved brother, and disclosed and commended the whole business to him in a letter written on the 30th day of December (vol. I, letter 29). This letter, as we learn from the same place, had already been preceded by several other letters, and others were shortly to follow, which, if they all still existed, would perhaps shed much light on our history. But it seemed otherwise to God.
[310] and she is helped by her sister Juana and her husband. Likewise of very great help to the holy Foundress at that time were her sister Juana de Ahumada and her husband Juan de Ovalle; who had come from Alba to Ávila for this one reason, that they might buy the house in their own name and take care that it was fitted for the uses of the new monastery. For which charity they obtained from God, Teresa interceding, no small reward: especially when the holy aunt restored their little son Gonzalo to life, and obtained by her prayer for another infant of theirs that, only three weeks old, it should be received into heaven among the choirs of Angels. I for my part ought not to narrate these things more broadly, since Ribera has done it excellently (book 1, chapter VIII); who also relates with what magnanimity St. Teresa suffered both being publicly censured by a certain preacher, and the wall of her monastery being thrown down by demons. She herself meanwhile, out of her ingenious humility, presses these things, very honourable to herself, under deep silence: and as if forgetful of them, she at once transfers her pen in her chapter XXXIV to the journey to Toledo undertaken by her at the beginning of January 1562, and to her stay of six months with the noble widow Luisa de la Cerda, sister of the duke of Medinaceli.
[311] from Ávila to Toledo Although, she says, I strove with the greatest zeal that this matter should be done secretly from all, yet I could not carry it out so secretly that it did not come to the knowledge of many, of whom some believed it, others not at all. But I feared most of all lest, when our provincial had come and had heard something about this business from others, he should forbid me to proceed in it; for, at his command, I would have laid it entirely out of my hands, nor would I have done anything in it: but God provided for this fear by another way; namely, that in a certain illustrious city, more than twenty leagues distant from here, a certain noble lady was so saddened and afflicted by the death of her husband that all feared lest this grief should bring death upon her. It happened, further, that she came to the knowledge of this little sinner; for, God so disposing, it came about that various people spoke various things of me to her, and that on account of other goods which followed from it. This lady had great acquaintance and familiarity with our provincial: and because she was sprung from an illustrious family, and knew that I lived in such a monastery from which it was permitted to go out of doors, hence the Lord put into her a great desire of seeing me (as one who was persuaded that I could bring her some consolation by my presence); which could not otherwise come about than by her calling me to her as soon as possible, employing for this all the industry and means she could. For this reason, then, she wrote a letter to the provincial, who was farther away: who enjoined on me under the precept of obedience to betake myself to her as soon as possible with a certain other companion.
[312] she departs by order of the provincial On the night of the Lord's Nativity I received this message; which indeed disturbed me somewhat and afflicted me much, because I saw that they summoned me for this reason, that they believed there was some good in me: for because I saw myself so wicked and worthless, hence it troubled me that such an opinion of me was commonly held. When, then, I was seriously commending myself to God by prayers, it happened that I was rapt into an ecstasy, which lasted the whole time of the hours of Matins or at least a great part of them. The Lord admonished me not to neglect to go there, but not to listen to the counsels and opinions of others, because almost all would counsel me rashly; and that, although I should feel some difficulty and labour in this, yet it would turn to the great service of God, and that it was expedient and necessary for the good and progress of the monastery to be erected that I should depart from here for a time, until the Bull should be sent from Rome; for the demon had prepared great snares for me against the provincial's coming: but that I should act constantly and by no means fear; for He would be present to me in that place. I, excellently encouraged and stirred by these words, informed the rector of the college of the Society of Jesus of everything. He advised me not to omit this journey for any cause; but others dissuaded it entirely, saying that it was being contrived by the cunning and guile of the demon, so that some evil and danger might be created for me thereby; wherefore I should write back my mind to the contrary to the provincial. But I obeyed the Father rector, and, encouraged by what I had heard from heaven in prayer, I set out on the way without any fear at all; but not without great confusion and shame, when I saw by what title and pretext I was being summoned there, and how gravely those summoning me were deceived in this. And this was the cause why I cried more anxiously and urgently to the Lord that He would not desert me.
[313] to soothe the grief of the widow Luisa de la Cerda; It consoled me in a wonderful manner, however, that in the city to which I was going there was a college of the Society of Jesus; and because I was most ready to obey in all things which they should enjoin on me, as I was here too, hence I seemed to myself to be going to be secure in some way. And it pleased the Lord that that noble lady should gradually so drive away her grief through consolations that she evidently at once began to be better, and, the grief having been driven away, admitted consolation daily more and more. All, further, made much of this; because, as I have said, sadness and grief were rending her as much as possible. And truly it is probable that the Lord, moved by the prayers of very many good people whom I knew, which they poured out for me that this matter might succeed well for me, conferred this benefit on her. Besides, she herself feared God as much as possible, and was of such piety that her great piety and virtue supplied what was lacking in me. She began to be affected toward me with great love, as I too toward her, because I noted great goodness in her. But almost everything there tormented me: for that I was fed sumptuously and splendidly by her afflicted me much; and that I was held in such esteem kept me in great fear, and my soul was so fearful that it did not dare to neglect itself.
[314] and there she experiences the troubles of court life The Lord Himself too did not neglect me: for in all that time in which I lived there He conferred on me very remarkable graces, which both gave me such liberty and made me so despise whatever I saw (and the more I saw, the more I made little of all) that I dealt again and again with noble ladies of that kind with such liberty as if I had been their equal, whom nevertheless I could have counted it the highest honour to serve. Further, I made a gain there not to be despised, which I did not hesitate even to indicate to her. I saw that she, although so powerful, was no less subject to infirmities and passions than I, and how little all power is to be made of, and that the greater it is, the more cares and labours too it includes. For great people are always anxious to conduct themselves in all things according to their state and about the manner of maintaining their authority, which allows them no quiet; besides, they dine and sup outside time and prescribed rule (for all things must be done according to the reason of state, not as the complexion and disposition of nature demands): often too they must eat foods more conformable to their state than such as satisfy the appetite.
[315] and she loathes it more and more. Whence it came about that that state of the nobility plainly moved nausea in me: may the Lord free and protect me from such trouble. And although she is of the most illustrious of this kingdom, yet she is so humble, and so polished and well-rounded, that I believe there are few who surpass her in this respect: wherefore I pitied her lot, as I pity it even now, because I see her often acting contrary to what natural inclination dictates and counsels, so as to maintain her state and authority. Not to mention meanwhile how little one ought to trust menservants and maidservants, even though all she had were good and upright; one must not speak more to one than to another, nay he whom you hold dearer must in a certain way be treated outwardly with hatred. And such is this servitude and subjection that this is one of the lies which the world tells, when it calls men of this kind lords, whereas in truth (as it indeed seems to me) they are slaves of six hundred things. It pleased the Lord that in all the time in which I lived there all the household advanced wonderfully in the service and worship of God; yet I could not bring it about that certain difficulties should not befall me, which had their origin from the hatred and envy of some who saw that noble lady wonderfully affected toward me. They thought perhaps that I was angling for some little gain: and perhaps by the Lord's permission it came about that some troubles were exhibited to me, both in this matter and in others of that kind, so that I should not be sunk into the depth of pleasures by the allurements of that sumptuous treatment which on the other side I experienced there. And it pleased the Lord to lead me out of all with the gain and amendment of my soul.
§ XVII. At Toledo she deals with a distinguished man of the Order of Preachers: she foreknows certain future things: she resolves to admit no revenues for her monastery. She returns to Ávila; whither the apostolic letters are brought to her.
To a certain man of the Order of Preachers Here the Saint has interwoven into her narration an encomium of a certain distinguished man of the family of St. Dominic. Whether he was, as Yepes asserts (book II, chapter VII), Father Vicente Barrón, of whom treatment was had above (no. 117), or rather Father García de Toledo, sprung from the house of Oropesa and a splendid light of his Order, the author of the Chronicle doubts (book 1, chapter XLI, no. 2) and with him Father Frederick of St. Anthony (book 1, chapter XXVI). The just-named Father García, who will still be named with praise several times in the rest of Teresa's life, was the one who at the end of the year 1562 urged the holy Virgin to write out her Life a second time. Now the first writing of this Life,
undertaken at the command of Father Pedro Ibáñez, was brought to completion at Toledo in this very year, in the month of June; and St. Teresa at once had it carried to Ibáñez, together with a letter (vol. I, letter 15), which I shall give elsewhere. These things briefly noted beforehand, let us return to the Saint's narration.
[317] The Saint opens the affairs of her soul: Meanwhile, she says, while I was living at Toledo, there came there by chance a certain upright and pious religious, with whom I had dealt at times some years before. When, then, I was hearing Mass in a monastery of the Order to which he belonged, which was not far from the house in which I lived, there came to me a certain desire of knowing what was the state of that man's soul (whom I desired to be a great servant of God): wherefore I rose from my place to go and speak with him. But because I was already recollected in prayer, hence afterwards it seemed to me that it would be mere waste of time if I wished to mix myself in this business for that reason. Whence I composed myself again to pray. As far as I remember, three times I thus sat down and rose: but at length the good Angel prevailed more than the bad. I had him called, therefore; and he spoke with me in a certain confessional seat. We began to ask one another about the manner of our life: for much time had now elapsed since we had seen one another. I began to tell him that my life had been most full of miseries and troubles: but when he urgently asked me to disclose to him what these afflictions were, I answered that they were not known by anyone, and ought not to be told by me. He said that, since the Dominican of whom I had made mention to him knew them, he, because he was a friend of his, could without difficulty learn them from him; wherefore I ought to make no difficulty in disclosing them to him. And it was as little in his power not to ask this of me urgently as it was in mine (as it indeed appears to me) not to disclose it to him: for although I always treated of these things, both with him and with the rector whom I mentioned, only with the greatest repugnance and blushing, yet then I felt no difficulty at all in this, nay rather great consolation. I related it to him under the seal of Confession: and he then indeed seemed to me more discreet and prudent than he had ever been before, although I had always looked up to him as a man of great wit and prudence.
[318] to him, asking it, I looked at his splendid talents and gifts of nature, by the help of which, if he had dedicated himself wholly to the service of God, he could have made great progress in the pursuit of virtues. For this has now for some years been very familiar to me, namely that I see no one who greatly pleases me by gifts of nature without at once wishing to see him apply himself wholly to the service of God; and that with so ardent a desire and impulse that at times I cannot restrain myself: and although I wish all men, as many as there are, to serve Him; yet when I desire those who please me above others to serve Him, hence this desire falls upon me with the highest impulse: whence I cry to the Lord for them as urgently and fervently as possible. So it happened to me entirely with this religious of whom I speak: for he asked me to pray God fervently for him (which, however, there was no need to tell me: for I was already then so disposed that I could not but pray for him); whence, betaking myself to the place in which I was accustomed to apply myself to prayer alone in quiet, I began to deal with the Lord in the highest recollection of mind in a certain simple and childish manner (which is very frequent with me, so that I altogether do not know what I say): for love speaks, and the soul is so estranged and in a certain way outside itself that it does not notice how great the difference is between itself and God: for the love with which it knows itself to be loved by His Majesty is the cause why it forgets itself; nay, it thinks itself to be in Him, and, as if God were a certain proper and undivided good of its own, it utters certain foolish things. This I remember having said to Him at that time, after I had asked Him most earnestly with many tears that He would truly and wholly enrol this soul among His servants. For although I esteemed him as a good man, yet that was not enough for me; but I wished him to be perfect and excellent: whence I cried thus to the Lord: "Thou must not deny me this grace, Lord: look upon him, I beseech; for he is fit and suitable to be enrolled among Thy friends." O the huge goodness and kindness of God, who looks not so much at the words as at the desires and will with which they are uttered; and who is not indignant or angry that such a one as I am addresses His Majesty so boldly! May He be blessed for ever.
[319] by her prayers she obtains from God I remember that at that very hour at which I was pouring out that prayer by night, I was oppressed with great anguish and pressure of spirit, arising from my thinking whether I was in God's friendship. And because I could not know for certain whether I was in His grace or not (not that I wished to know this; for I would rather have died than lead such a life, in which I could not be certain whether I was dead or not: for no death could be so grievous to me as to reckon whether perhaps I had offended God) and this distressed me not a little, I asked Him not to permit this in any way, and that with a certain great sweetness and abundance of tears. Then indeed I understood that there was no reason why I should torment myself on that account, but that I could trust that I was in His grace: for it cannot be that a soul which follows God with such love, and also receives such graces and experiences from Him, should be allowed to fall into the state of mortal sin. A certain hope and trust thereafter held me that the Lord would without doubt grant me what I was asking of Him for that man. He told me to say certain words to him: but this was very troublesome to me, because I did not know how to say them to him. For this, namely to signify something to some third person, especially when I am ignorant in what sense he will take it from me, and whether perhaps he will hiss me off, always seems to me most hard and most grievous. I was very anxious indeed in this respect: nevertheless at length I resolved so firmly with myself that (as it indeed seems to me) I promised God that I would by all means say them to him; but because I blushed greatly, I committed those words to writing, and handed them to him.
[320] zeal for prayer, spiritual lights, It plainly appeared that this thing came from God, from what it worked in him: for he very seriously resolved with himself to give himself wholly to prayer, although he did not put this resolution into execution at once. But since the Lord desired to draw him to Himself, He willed certain truths to be signified to him through me, which, even without my knowledge, were so conducive to him that he himself wondered not a little. I should believe that the Lord gradually so disposed him that in this way he should persuade himself that these came from His Majesty; and, although I was most miserable, yet I most ardently asked the Lord that He would deign to draw him wholly to Himself, and put into him contempt of pleasures and of all the things of this life: which he so carried out in fact (for which may the Lord be blessed for ever) that, as often as he speaks to me, I am amazed as if struck; and, had I not seen it with my own eyes, I could scarcely believe that the Lord had so increased His graces to him in so short a time, and so drawn him to Himself, that he now seems to live for no thing at all of this world. May the Lord strengthen him: for if he proceeds in this way (as I hope in the Lord he will proceed; for he is remarkably and solidly founded in the knowledge of himself), he will doubtless be one of His most select servants, and for the benefit of many souls. For in a very short time he has attained a very great experience of things pertaining to the spirit: for these are gifts which the Lord is wont to give both when He wills and in whatever way He wills; nor does this lie in the very length of time or the greatness of services rendered.
[321] humility and other virtues: This religious, then, having received from the Lord this virtue of humility in many things, strove to perfect himself in this matter as far as was possible to him; because he is strong in learning, and what he does not have by experience, he learns from those who have it: the Lord too helps him, giving him great faith; and so he has wonderfully profited both himself and some others (among whom I too am). For since the Lord knew what difficulties were impending over me, and wished to snatch to Himself some of those who governed me, He provided (as it indeed appears) that others should be left who helped me in many difficulties and profited me wonderfully. The Lord entirely changed him, so that he scarcely in a certain way knows himself; and He gave him the bodily strength for undergoing austerities which he lacked before; and whereas before he was weak, he has been made vigorous and spirited for everything that is good, not to mention very many other things. Whence it plainly appears that this was a very singular vocation of God: may He be blessed for ever. All this good, further, I should believe flows to him from the gifts which the Lord conferred on him in prayer, because these do not cling to him lightly and as it were on the surface of the skin: for in some things the Lord has already willed this to be seen with the eye; for he, as by force, breaks through all things, as one who has now deeply and inwardly known how much merit lies in the endurance of persecutions. I trust (such is the power of God) that by his help a huge good will come both to some brethren of the Order to which he belongs, and also to the whole Order. This already then begins to appear to the eye. For I had certain notable visions, in which the Lord declared to me some things both about him and about that rector of the Society of Jesus whom I mentioned, which truly deserve admiration; and also about two other men of the Order of Preachers, and in particular about one, to whom the Lord has already in his progress shown certain things which I had understood from the Lord about him before. But about him of whom I speak at present, very many things were revealed to me in vision.
[322] she beholds his holiness by an interior light; One thing only I wish to relate here now: when at a certain time I was dealing with him in a certain place set apart for speaking, my soul felt itself burning with love, so that I almost failed from myself: for I was considering the power of God, seeing how in so short a time He had raised a soul to so sublime a state. He truly struck great shame into me then, because I saw him hearing me with great humility as I treated of certain things pertaining to prayer: but because there was very little of it in me, in that I dealt so freely with men of that kind, the Lord must have kindly tolerated this liberty of mine, on account of my ardent desire by which I wished him to make great progress in the things of the spirit. Further, his conversation and intercourse so profited me that he seems to have put a certain new fire into my soul, which inflamed me to serve the Lord as it were anew. I felt truly a huge joy in my mind when I saw that soul (for the Lord seemed to wish that I should behold those huge treasures which He had communicated to him), then when I saw the grace which He had conferred on me, namely that He had willed it to be done by my help and assistance, of which I recognized myself entirely unworthy: and this was the cause why I held the graces given him by God Best and Greatest in greater esteem, and believed I owed Him more for them than if they had been done to me, and gave the greatest thanks to the Lord, seeing that His Majesty was already beginning to satisfy my wish and desire, and had heard my prayers, by which namely I had asked Him to raise up men of this kind.
[323] and sees him raised up by Angels. When, then, my soul was thus disposed, and could no longer bear so great a joy in itself, it went out of itself, and lost itself so as to gain more; it likewise lost those considerations, and also the hearing of that divine tongue in which the Holy Spirit seemed to speak; but at once a great ecstasy and rapture seized me, which took away almost all my sense, although it did not last long. For I saw our Redeemer Christ in the greatest majesty and glory, giving signs of a mind greatly exulting and rejoicing on account of what was happening there; and this He also indicated to me, and wished me to see with my eye that He is always present in conversations and dealings of this kind, and how pleasing it is to Him that men so rejoice to speak of Him. At another time I saw how Angels raised this very man up in great glory, although at that time I was far distant from the place in which he lived: from which vision I gathered that his soul was making remarkable progress. And in truth it was so: for when a certain person, on whom he had previously conferred a remarkable benefit (for he had provided as much as possible for his honour and soul), fastened upon him an enormous crime, by which his honour was not a little endangered, even producing witnesses, he had nevertheless borne this calumny gratefully and with a glad mind. Not to mention that he did other good works too for the honour of God, and still bore other injuries and persecutions with equanimity. But to relate more seems by no means fitting for me at present; nevertheless, if it seems otherwise to Your Reverence (since you know them), they can afterwards be related for the honour and glory of God.
[324] [She foreknows many things about her future monastery, and the death of her sister María.] All the predictions, further, which I have hitherto related about this monastery, and also those which I am still to record both about it and about other things, have been exactly fulfilled; among which some were told me by the Lord three years, others more, others even less, before they became commonly known. And I always declared them to my confessor, and also to that friend of mine the widow, with whom I could speak (as I have said): and I knew that she was accustomed to disclose them to others; and these know that I by no means lie. And, venerating God, I pray that He may never allow me to speak of anything, much less of affairs of such moment, otherwise than the truth itself counsels me to speak. When a certain brother-in-law of mine had been carried off by sudden death, which greatly distressed me, because he had not had time to make his Confession, it was revealed to me while praying that my sister too would die by a sudden death, and that I should betake myself to her, and take pains as best I could that she should dispose herself for death. I told this to my confessor; but because he forbade me to go away, therefore the same was signified to me again: hearing which, he counselled me to go there, since no harm would follow to me from it. She was then living in a village. When, then, I had come there, yet without disclosing to her the cause of my journey, I tried as best I could to teach and enlighten her in all things, and was her adviser to confess more often and to keep an exact account of her soul: which she also did, because she was of herself good and pious. And four or five years after she took up the habit of confessing more often and watching seriously over her conscience, she was snatched from this life with no one present and without having made her Confession. It fell out well for her that (because she had by then grown accustomed to it) only eight days or about had elapsed since her last Confession; at which I rejoiced very much, hearing that she had departed from this life. For the rest, she was in purgatory a very short time. For scarcely eight days had passed (as it seems to me), when, immediately after I had received Communion, the Lord appeared to me, and willed me to see how He led her to heaven. From the time when the Lord declared this to me up until she died, I never forgot what had been told me, as neither did my companion, who, as soon as she learned that she had died, came to me, wondering that she saw all that had been said so exactly fulfilled. May the Lord be blessed for ever, who takes such care of souls that they may not perish. Amen. This sister of St. Teresa was María de Cepeda, widow of Martín de Guzmán, of whom in the third paragraph of this commentary (no. 33).
[325] Now chapter XXXV begins: Meanwhile, says the Saint, while I was living with that woman whom I mentioned (and I lived there more than half a year), She is visited by María of Jesus, a nun; by the Lord's doing it happened that a certain nun of our Order, who was more than seventy leagues distant from this city (her name was María of Jesus), came to know of me; wherefore she did not hesitate to hasten here to me, not fearing to turn aside somewhat from her way so as to come into conversation with me. The Lord had moved her to erect another certain monastery of our Order, and that in the same year and month in which He had stirred me to do this very thing: and having conceived this desire and purpose, she sold all that she possessed, and went barefoot to Rome to obtain letters of confirmation. She is a woman of austere life and wonderfully devoted to the pursuit of prayer; nay, the Lord has bestowed remarkable graces on her: the Virgin Mother of God too, appearing to her, bade her carry into execution the thing she was meditating: and she ran ahead of me in the service of God by so great an interval that I blushed to appear before her.
[326] by whose persuasion, She showed me the letters of confirmation which she had brought from Rome, and in the space of those fifteen days during which she was with me we deliberated between us how we should found these monasteries of ours. Before I met her, I had never heard up to then that by our rule, before it was relaxed, nuns were forbidden to have anything of their own: hence too my intention had not been that these monasteries should be founded without any revenue; for I looked to this, that we should not be distracted by any solicitude about things necessary for leading life: but I did not notice how much solicitude and care this possession and ownership of temporal goods drew with it. But that holy woman, as one taught by the Lord, understood very well (although she was not skilled in the art of reading) what I, having read and re-read our Constitutions so many times, was still ignorant of. When she had told me this, it pleased me wonderfully; although I feared somewhat lest the superiors should not permit it to me, but would say that I was acting foolishly and ineptly, and would forbid me to undertake anything by which I should be an occasion of scandal and a cross to others. Had I been alone, I would at once have carried the thing into execution without delay; nay, it was a great pleasure to me to think of exactly keeping the counsels of our Lord Jesus Christ: for His Majesty had already then inspired in me a huge desire of keeping poverty; so that (as far indeed as concerned me) I by no means doubted that this was far the best and most advisable. For I had now for a long time desired that my state should permit me to beg my food and all necessities from door to door for God's name, nay not even to have a house or anything else: but I feared lest the others, if perhaps the Lord did not inspire these desires in them, should be disturbed on that account, and this should be an occasion of some distraction to them. For I saw also certain monasteries lacking revenue to be little recollected and quiet; but I did not consider that poverty itself was not the cause why they were restless, but conversely that restlessness was the cause why they were destitute of necessities and lived in poverty: for neither do they grow rich through restlessness, nor does God ever desert him who loves Him seriously and from the heart. In short, my faith was slight and weak, but that of that handmaid of God huge and strong.
[327] although learned men dissuaded it. But although I always heard and sought the opinions of various people in every matter, yet I found no one who was of this opinion, neither my confessor nor any of the learned men whom I consulted again and again: for these brought me so many reasons that I altogether did not know what I should do; for, having now learned that poverty was prescribed by the rule itself, and that to keep it was of greater perfection, I could not at all bring my mind to take on annual revenues. And although from time to time they convinced me with their arguments, yet as soon as I betook myself to prayer and beheld Christ placed on the cross so poor and naked, I could not with an even mind admit the possession of riches: with many tears, then, I asked Him again and again so to dispose the matter that I might see myself poor and needy together with Him. And so many difficulties and inconveniences occurred to me in the possession of revenues, nay I saw that they were so great a cause of disquiets and also of distractions
that I continually disputed, contending with learned men about admitting them. Whence I wrote on this business to that Dominican who was handling our affair; who, answering my letter, disclosed his opinion on this business, by which he refuted mine, and confirmed it with theological arguments and reasons, with which he filled two sheets of paper; and so as to persuade me of it the better, he said that he had seriously sifted this matter and weighed it with mature judgment. To whom I answered again that I did not wish, as regards my vocation, and the vow of poverty which I had professed, and also as regards not following the counsels of Christ the Lord with the perfection which is fitting, to use theological science, nor to ask that in this case he should gratify and help me with his learning. But I rejoiced exceedingly if I found anyone who would be patron to me in this cause. In which that noble lady with whom I was staying rendered me very excellent help. Many indeed at the beginning favoured my opinion, and said I would do well; but afterwards, when they examined it thoroughly, they noted so many inconveniences in it that they now strove in every way to dissuade it and to counsel the contrary. To whom I replied that, since they departed so quickly from their own opinion and now defended another, I wished to adhere to the former.
[328] likewise at the exhortation of St. Peter of Alcántara, The holy Mother's constancy in this purpose was wonderfully strengthened by St. Peter of Alcántara, himself too an ardent lover of evangelical poverty and an exact observer of the primitive rule of the Seraphic Francis. For first, when he learned that Teresa had asked in writing Gonzalo de Aranda, a priest of Ávila, to consult some learned men for her, he without delay sent her a letter on the 14th day of April; by which letter, which exists in Yepes (book II, chapter VII) and in the Chronicle (book I, chapter XLI), he admonished her not to trust too much to the reasons of lettered men in this matter. Then he went all the way to Toledo, to strengthen Teresa's mind still more; as we shall presently hear, she herself narrating. Meanwhile, she says, the Lord namely so disposing, it came about that Peter of Alcántara, that holy man, at my request came to the house of this lady (for she herself had never seen the holy man). And because he, as a remarkable lover of poverty and for many years its untiring cultivator, knew most thoroughly how great a treasure lay hidden in it, he helped me not a little in this business, and enjoined as earnestly as he could that I should proceed courageously in defending the patronage and cause of poverty, and never fail. Having heard this opinion and patronage, namely of one who, because he had great experience of this thing, could know it best, I resolved with myself thereafter to ask no one's opinion about it any longer.
[329] [and at the command of the Saviour she resolves to found the monastery without revenue.] And when one day I was earnestly commending this business to the Lord in my prayer, He, appearing to me, commanded that I should by no means omit to found the monastery without any revenue and in poverty; that this was the will both of His heavenly Father and His own, and that He would be present to me with His help. This took place in a rapture, with such great and powerful effects that I could by no means doubt that it came from God. At another time He told me that confusion lay in annual revenues; and He also brought forward many other things in praise of poverty, and confirmed to me for certain that nothing of the things necessary for life would ever be lacking to him who served Him with his whole heart: whence I too (as I have said) never feared that anything would be lacking to me. Nay, afterwards the Lord changed the heart of that Dominican Father whom I said before had written to me that I should not found the monastery without certain revenues. Having heard these things, then, and the opinions of such men in this business also favouring me, I already then so exulted in my mind that I seemed to possess alone all the riches of the whole world, when I brought my mind to live on alms and begging.
[330] With the provincial permitting, At this very time my provincial released me from the precept and obedience by which he had ordered me to be with that lady for a time, and left me free either to go away from there if I wished, or to remain there for a certain further space. Now within this time a new election of a prioress was to be made in my convent: and I understood that many had resolved to impose this burden on me. Further, even to think of it was so grievous to me that, although I could without difficulty bring my mind to bear most willingly every kind of torment and martyrdom for God's sake, yet I could by no means prevail upon myself to take up this office. For, to say nothing of the burden and labour which this office brought with it (for there were many nuns), and to omit many other things on account of which I never desired any dignity or office, but always avoided it as I could, there seemed to me to be contained in it an evident danger of offending my conscience: whence I gave thanks to God that I was not then present there. I wrote besides to my companions and dearest friends that they should not give any vote for me in this election.
[331] her confessor exhorting, and God impelling her inwardly, When, then, I was rejoicing, congratulating myself that I was now safe outside that din, the Lord told me that I should by no means omit to betake myself there; and that, since I desired a cross, a remarkable one was being prepared for me there; that I should therefore not shake it off my shoulders, but go there courageously, and that as quickly as possible; and that He would be at hand and a help to me. Hearing these things I afflicted myself much, consuming myself again and again with tears; for I thought that by this cross the government and office of prioress was denoted: which, as I have already said, I could in no way persuade myself would be useful or suitable for my soul, nor find any argument by which I could be induced to take it up. I disclosed the whole matter, therefore, to my confessor, who enjoined on me to go there as quickly as possible, for it was plainly evident that greater perfection was contained in this. But because the heats were intense during those days, and I would be there in time enough if I were there when the election was to be made, he counselled me to put off the journey for some days more, lest this departure should bring some harm to my health. But because the Lord had ordained the matter otherwise, hence it had to be carried into execution: for the disquiet which I felt in my soul was so great that I could not give myself to prayer: nay rather, I seemed to myself to be opposing and struggling against a thing which the Lord had so manifestly enjoined on me, and to be unwilling, because I was living there quietly and being well treated, to offer myself to labour; and that all my dealings with God were nothing but words: then, why, when I could be in a place where there would be occasion of having greater perfection, I neglected to betake myself there; and if it should happen that I died there, it mattered little. Moreover I felt a most grievous strait in my soul: the Lord too had taken from me all the sweetness and relish which I was wont to feel while praying. Finally I was so placed, and felt so great a torment inwardly, that I asked that lady that with her good leave I might be allowed to go home; because my confessor too, having seen my bitterness, had now admonished me to go away: for God moved him inwardly in the same manner as me.
[332] but to the grief of Luisa de la Cerda, But that lady, having heard that I wished to prepare my departure, was so saddened by it that this was as it were a torment and cross to her: for this stay of mine with her had cost her great labour and importunate prayers with the provincial. For my part, I interpreted it as a singular benefit (so ill did she take my departure) that she gave me leave to depart: but because she feared God, and I said that my departure could tend to His great glory, and other things of that kind, and gave her hope that perhaps it could happen that I should visit her again, at length she consented to my going, though not without great difficulty. But I felt none at all in departing from her; for since I saw that it was a work of greater perfection and tending to the honour of God (because to please Him and to do His will in all things is far the most pleasing to me), I easily overcame the bitterness and trouble which on my part there could be in deserting this lady (whom I saw taking my departure so ill) and also very many others to whom I was bound on very many accounts, and especially my confessor, who was of the Society of Jesus and after my genius and taste. But the more consolation I saw myself giving up for the Lord's sake, the more joy I felt from giving it up.
[333] She returns to Ávila. How this came about I could not at all understand; for I manifestly noted in myself these two contraries, joy, I say, solace and pleasantness from that which tortured and tormented me in my soul: for I was well and quiet with that lady, and had a remarkable convenience of extending my prayer for many hours; but in going down from there I seemed to myself to rush of my own accord as into a kindled fire: for the Lord had already told me before that I was going to a huge cross (although I never thought it would be so great as I afterwards found it to have been). Nevertheless I undertook the journey cheerfully, and grieved that the contest and cross should be put off even so long, since I was being summoned to it by the Lord: and for that reason His Majesty suggested to me strength and vigour, and strengthened my infirmity. How this, I say, came about I was entirely unable to understand, but this comparison came to my mind here: namely if, while I possessed some precious jewel, or anything else whatever which was most pleasing to me, it were told me that someone whom I followed with greater love than myself, and to please whom was far dearer to me than my own recreation and pleasure, was seeking and desiring it, it would doubtless be far more pleasant to me now to be without it than it was before to possess it, so as to gratify that friend; and because this pleasure of gratifying him far exceeds my pleasure in possessing, hence it is that it is not grievous to me to be without the jewel or that other thing which I love, or to be cheated of the pleasure which I received from it. And so, even if I had wished to bear with difficulty and grief that I had to desert those to whom my departure brought so much grief (although otherwise I am by nature so grateful and mindful of benefits that this alone would at another time have been more than enough to cast me down and afflict me most vehemently), yet in the present case I could not at all be sad or afflict myself. So much, further, of this blessed
monastery did it matter that I did not put off the journey even for one day, so that, if I had stayed there longer, I plainly do not know how this business could have been accomplished as desired and happily.
[334] By apostolic authority, through letters of the Sacred Penitentiary, For the apostolic diploma sent from the Sacred Penitentiary, by which leave was granted for founding the new monastery, was, as we shall soon learn from the Saint herself, shortly to be brought to Ávila. I transcribe it here from the Carmelite Bullarium: Ranuccio, by divine mercy Cardinal Priest of the title of St. Angelus. To our beloved in Christ Doña Aldonza de Guzmán and Doña Guiomar de Ulloa, illustrious women, widows, inhabitants of the city of Ávila, greeting in the Lord. The petition offered to Us on your part contained that you, kindled with the zeal of devotion, for the praise and honour of God, desire to construct and build in the said city of Ávila one monastery, of a number and under an invocation that seem good to you, of the rule and Order of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel, and under the obedience and correction of the venerable Father in Christ, by the grace of God bishop of Ávila for the time being, with church, belfry, bells, cloister, refectory, dormitory, garden and other necessary workrooms, and also to erect in the same church one or more chaplaincy or chaplaincies, and to endow such monastery and chaplaincy or chaplaincies suitably from your own goods: yet you doubt that this is lawful for you without the special licence of the Apostolic See. Wherefore you have caused humble supplication to be made, that you might be mercifully provided with a fitting remedy on these matters by the said See.
[335] leave is granted the Saint to found the monastery, We, therefore, attending that in those things which tend to the increase of divine worship we ought to be favourable, and kindly inclined to your supplications in this behalf, by the authority of the Lord Pope, whose Penitentiary We have in charge, and by his special mandate, given to Us on this by the oracle of his living voice, by the tenor of these presents concede and grant to you that you may construct and build one monastery of nuns, of a number and under an invocation that seem good to you, of the rule and Order of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel, and under the obedience and correction of the said Lord bishop of Ávila for the time being, with church, belfry, bells, cloister, refectory, garden and other necessary workrooms, in some place or site, within or outside the walls of the said city of Ávila, that seems good to you, yet without prejudice to anyone; and erect in the same church one or more chaplaincy or chaplaincies, and endow such monastery and chaplaincy or chaplaincies suitably from your own goods; and that, after the aforesaid monastery shall have been constructed and erected, it and its nuns for the time being may and can freely and lawfully use, possess and enjoy all and each of the privileges, immunities, exemptions, prerogatives, liberties, concessions and indults which the other monasteries of the said Order of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel and their nuns by right, usage, custom or otherwise in general use, possess and enjoy, and shall be able in any way in future to use, possess and enjoy.
[336] and to frame constitutions. And to you, concerning such foundation and endowment, and to the prioress and nuns of the said monastery for the time being, concerning the things which shall concern the happy rule and government of the same monastery, We impart the licence and free faculty of framing any statutes and ordinances whatever that are lawful and honest and not contrary to canon law, and, after they have been framed and ordained, of changing them in whole or in part for the better according to the quality of the times, of reforming, altering, and even of taking them away altogether and abrogating them, and of framing others likewise. And We decree that such statutes and ordinances, as well those framed as those to be changed, reformed, altered and framed anew, have been and are confirmed by apostolic authority from now as from then and conversely, and ought to be inviolably observed; and that thus they ought to be judged, interpreted and defined by any judges and persons whatever, exercising any authority, even apostolic, there being taken away from them and from each of them any faculty and authority of judging, interpreting and defining otherwise: and also that it is null and void if it should happen to be attempted otherwise on these matters by anyone by any authority, knowingly or ignorantly.
[337] A penal sanction is added; Commanding and more strictly forbidding, in virtue of holy obedience, and under suspension from divine offices as regards bishops or other greater prelates, but as regards others under the penalty of the greater excommunication latæ sententiæ, which We will that those acting to the contrary incur ipso facto, and from which they cannot be absolved except by Us or the Apostolic See, save at the point of death, any judges and persons whatever, both ecclesiastical and secular, exercising any authority, even apostolic, that they dare or presume not, directly or indirectly, under any colour or contrivance sought, in any way unduly to molest, disturb or disquiet you and the nuns of the said monastery for the time being: and decreeing that it is null and void if it should happen to be attempted otherwise on these matters by anyone by any authority, knowingly or ignorantly.
[338] executors are deputed, Wherefore We commit and command, by the authority and mandate aforesaid, the discreet men the prior of the convent of Magacela, of no diocese, and the chief chaplain of the Church of Toledo and the archdeacon of the Church of Segovia, and each of them, that they assist you and the nuns of the said monastery for the time being with the protection of effective defence in the premises, and that each of them cause you and the aforesaid nuns peaceably to enjoy and inviolably to rejoice in such concession, indult, licence and faculty, and all and each of the premises; not permitting you and them to be in any way unduly molested, disturbed or disquieted on the aforesaid matters by the superiors, prelates, priors, reformers, visitors and brethren of the said Order of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel and of any other Orders whatever, or by others of whatever dignity, state, degree, order or condition they may be, and even if they shine with any pontifical dignity, or exercise authority even apostolic, publicly or secretly, directly or indirectly, under any colour or contrivance sought: restraining any gainsayers and rebels whatever by ecclesiastical censure and the other fitting remedies of law, appeal being set aside: invoking also for this, if need be, the help of the secular arm.
[339] and all things to the contrary whatever are derogated. Notwithstanding that of Pope Boniface the Eighth of happy memory on the one day's journey and that of the general Council on the two days' journeys, provided not beyond three, and other apostolic constitutions and ordinances, and the statutes and customs of this Order of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel and of its monasteries, even strengthened by oath, apostolic confirmation or any other firmness, also privileges, indults and apostolic letters granted, confirmed and even renewed several times to the same Order and monasteries, and to their Superiors and General, under any forms and clauses of words whatever, and derogatories of derogatories, and other stronger and more efficacious and unusual and invalidating clauses, and other decrees, even those called the Mare magnum, the Golden Bull or otherwise; to all of which, holding their tenors as fully and sufficiently expressed as if they were inserted word for word in these presents, they otherwise to remain in their force, We for this time only specially and expressly derogate, and to all other things to the contrary whatever. Given at Rome at St. Peter's under the seal of the Penitentiary, on the seventh day before the Ides of February, in the third year of the Pontificate of the Lord Pope Pius the Fourth.
[340] An inquiry into the cardinalitial title of Ranuccio Farnese, Major Penitentiary. It will perhaps seem strange to someone that Ranuccio Farnese, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church of the Order of priests, was distinguished by the title of St. Angelus (that is, of St. Michael the Archangel) in the Fish Market, which otherwise from ancient times, just as today, was customarily numbered among the diaconiae. On which matter there occurs to me in Mabillon, in the Preliminary Commentary on the Ordo Romanus (Mus. Ital. vol. II, page XVII), from Torrigio's work on the Vatican Crypts, Theodatus, Father of the diaconia of St. Angelus in Piscina under Gregory II at the beginning of the 8th century; and over the same diaconia, according to the conjecture of Father Fulvio Cardulo related by our Predecessors in vol. IV (page 357), Stephen seems to have presided, made Supreme Pontiff from deacon in the year 752. And if you go to the monuments of later times, for example the ancient Vatican Codices in Baronius (at the year 1057 § XXI) and Crescimbeni (Hist. Eccl. S. Joannis ante portam Latin. book V, chapter 1), the book of Pietro Mallio to Alexander III in Mabillon (Mus. Ital. vol. II, page 160), the Anastasian Life of Leo III in Bianchini (De Vitis Rom. Pontif. section 404), and finally Ciaconius's Lives of the Pontiffs from the time of Urban II, you will find that down to the 16th century the Cardinals of St. Angelus were always deacons, never priests. And according to this norm too Pope Julius II created Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg, elected but not yet consecrated bishop of Gurk, Cardinal Deacon of St. Angelus in the year 1511. But when Lang, two years later, had been sent by the Emperor Maximilian on affairs of the empire to Leo X, this Pontiff, as is read in Oldoini's Ciaconius (vol. III, column 304), ordered that the church of St. Angelus in the fish market, belonging to a deacon, should be among the presbyteral ones at the request of the bishop of Gurk, as long as he himself, who had been declared Cardinal of St. Angelus …, should survive: whence the reason is plain why Lang, adorned with the mitre of Salzburg in the year 1519, styled himself in the year 1522 Cardinal Priest of the Holy Roman Church of the title of St. Angelus in a mandate to his clergy, which may be read in Florian Dalham in the Councils of Salzburg (page 281), and is called archpriest of the Holy Roman Church with the same title by Ciaconius in the conclave of the year 1534 (vol. III, column 533). Further, after Lang the next to hold the cardinalate of St. Angelus was Alessandro Farnese as deacon; after him Ennio Filonardi as priest; then Ranuccio Farnese, first as deacon, then as priest; and again thereafter in various years and turns several others, now priests, now deacons. Nor did changes of this kind befall the diaconia of St. Angelus alone in that century, but several others, namely St. Mary in Aquiro, St. Mary in Cosmedin, St. Agatha, etc.; just as in turn, as will easily be clear to one turning over Ciaconius even in passing, the presbyteral titles of St. Onuphrius, St. Marcellus and others were held in place of diaconiae: until Sixtus V in the year 1587, by apostolic letters, with the Cardinals consenting and subscribing, decreed to take away the confusion for ever by a fitting distinction, as he himself says, assigning titles and diaconiae proper to each Order, fixed and distinct; so that never in future … shall diaconiae be granted to priests, nor presbyteral titles to deacons, in disturbed order or promiscuously (Bullar. Roman. vol. II, page 621, Luxembourg edition). But thereafter the distinction between presbyteral titles and diaconiae, made in the year 1602 by Clement VIII with a new designation, which Paul V confirmed in the year 1618, as is related in the Bibliotheca of Father Lucio Ferraris
(under the word Cardinales, article 1, no. 44), has persevered up to the present time.
§ XVIII. The foundation of the monastery of St. Joseph at Ávila: the Saint's interior struggle: external contradictions: the zeal of Father Domingo Báñez of the Order of Preachers toward the Saint. God strengthens her by visions.
Into the new monastery, admitted by the bishop of Ávila, From the middle of the year 1562, at which time St. Teresa returned from Toledo to Ávila, the present paragraph will run to the Lenten days of the following year, and will consist in great part of chapter XXXVI of her Life. When I had now departed from that city, she says, I felt great gladness through this whole journey, firmly resolving with myself to take up gratefully and with the greatest willingness of mind whatever at last the Lord should have decreed to impose upon me. On the very evening on which I entered this city, there were delivered to me the letters and apostolic Brief by which the foundation of the monastery was granted with ample power. Whence both I and all who knew how much the Lord had urged me to undertake this journey were not moderately astonished; seeing how necessary it then was for me to set out on the way, and also at how opportune and convenient a time the Lord had brought me here. For here I found the bishop of the place and the holy man Fr. Peter of Alcántara, and also that noble knight, the excellent servant of God, in whose house that holy man was lodging; for he was the common caretaker, patron and host of holy men. Both of them pressed the bishop so seriously for the admission of the monastery that he at length gave leave; which was truly of no small moment, because it was to be founded without any revenue. But he was so affected toward people whom he saw so encouraged to serve God that he at once brought his mind to be present to them with his help and to take up their patronage. But he who did everything, and was the cause that it was admitted, was that holy old man Fr. Peter of Alcántara, who addressed now this one, now that one, that they should render us help and favour. And truly, had I not arrived at that opportune time which I have mentioned, I do not know in what manner I could have accomplished the matter: for that holy man stayed here a very short time (for I think he remained here scarcely eight days, and that in health not very firm), and a few days thereafter the Lord called him to Himself out of this mortal body. Thus far truly His Majesty seems to have preserved him in life until this business should be fully accomplished: for for a long time already (nay, I do not know whether for more than two years) he had been of rather weak and languid health.
[342] and prepared by Teresa's care as secretly as she could, All things, moreover, were done as secretly as could be; for otherwise, given how much the people were indeed stirred up on that account (as afterwards appeared), the thing could never have been accomplished. But by the Lord's disposing it came about that my brother-in-law, his wife having gone away from home, fell ill; who was reduced by the force of the illness to such straits that leave was given me to stay with him: and hence it came about that the matter did not become so well known; although there were not lacking those who scented something by suspecting, but they could not at all bring their minds to believe it. It is truly not without wonder that he was not ill longer than was expedient for accomplishing this business; but as soon as it was necessary that he should be restored to health, so that both I should be freed from caring for him and he should leave that house, the Lord restored health to him, so that he himself wondered. Meanwhile I went now to these, now to those, and that with great labour, to beg for the admission of the house: I went also to my sick brother-in-law, and to the workmen and craftsmen, anxiously urging them that the house should be fitted as quickly as possible so far that it could have the form of a monastery; for much still remained to be done in it. My companion too was at that time absent from the city: for it seemed more expedient to us, so that the thing might be done more secretly and hiddenly, that she should leave the city for a while. And I saw plainly that the thing had to be done as quickly as possible and with the greatest haste, and that for various reasons; among which this was one, that every hour I feared lest I should be ordered to return to the place from which I had come. Further, I was so surrounded and oppressed on every side by troubles and straits that I began to think whether this was that cross which the Lord had indicated to me; although this seemed to me all too small to be understood by that great cross which the Lord had forewarned me was impending.
[343] four novices enter, the Saint rejoicing, All things, then, having been arranged and settled in some fashion, it pleased the Lord that on the very feast of St. Bartholomew some should take the sacred habit, and the Venerable Sacrament of the Eucharist should be placed on the altar with full authority and power; and so in the year of the Lord one thousand five hundred and sixty-two the monastery of our most glorious Father St. Joseph was completed. And when they took the sacred habit, I together with two other nuns of our own convent, who by chance had then gone out of doors, gave it to them. And because the monastery was being prepared in my brother-in-law's house (for, as was said above, he had bought it, so that the matter might be more hidden), hence I had received leave from my superiors to stay there: further, I did nothing without having first consulted learned men, so as not to offend even in the least against obedience. These, because they saw that it was of wonderful benefit to the whole Order for various causes, said that it was lawful for me, provided I did it only as secretly as possible, and took pains that the matter should not come to the ears of my prelates. For if they had said that even the least imperfection lay hidden in this matter, I would not, in my judgment, have wished to commit it even for a thousand monasteries, much less for one. This is most certain: for although I had most firmly purposed to sequester myself more from every created thing and to keep my profession and vocation with greater perfection and enclosure, yet I wished it in such a way that, if I had understood that it would be more pleasing to God if I gave it up entirely, I would have given it up (as I had done on another occasion too) most willingly and with the greatest serenity and quiet of mind.
[344] especially about the church erected in honour of St. Joseph. So I seemed to be as it were in the highest glory, when I saw the Venerable Sacrament placed on the altar, and four poor girls bereft of parents (for they were admitted without any dowry), but distinguished handmaids of God, helped and admitted into the monastery (for at the beginning it was most of all the purpose that such should be admitted as would be by their good example as it were a foundation, in which the end and aim of great perfection and frequent prayer, which was proposed to us, could have its effect), and then too because I saw already fulfilled a work which I saw tended to the service of the Lord and to the honour of the Order named after His most glorious Mother (for this alone I looked to). Besides, it was a great consolation to me to have fulfilled what the Lord had so urgently enjoined on me, and that in this town there was one church more than there had been hitherto, and that erected in honour of my glorious Father Joseph. It is probable, as Emery observes in the brief Life of the holy Foundress (which he set before his work on the Spirit of St. Teresa), that this church was the very first which the Catholic world saw dedicated in honour of St. Joseph. Certainly our predecessors, in their Historical Commentary on the life of the spouse of the most glorious Mother of God at the 19th day of March (nos. 56 and 57), did indeed mention chapels sacred to him (namely at Avignon in the 15th century in the church of St. Agricola, and at Rome in the year 1548 in St. Mary of the Martyrs); but of churches erected to him before the times of our Saint they seem to have found no trace. Therefore, just as this glory belongs to the Carmelite Order, that it first of all brought the cult of St. Joseph from the East into the Western Church, as the same predecessors of ours think by probable conjecture (nos. 14 and 15); so to St. Teresa above all must be credited that huge number of churches which we see standing today everywhere on earth in honour of St. Joseph. And let these things be said here in passing; since the most tender piety of our Saint toward the Foster-father of Christ is to be treated more broadly later.
[345] To the joy there succeed an interior struggle, And I rejoiced, she proceeds, not because I seemed to have done anything in this on my part (for this never seemed so to me, as neither does it now: for I always recognize and profess that it was the Lord who did this; and whatever was on my part teemed with so many imperfections that I see that I ought rather to be blamed and reproved on that account than that thanks should be given me by others), but because His Majesty willed to use me, although so unfit and miserable, for accomplishing so excellent a work: and this pleasure of mine was so great that I was carried away as it were outside myself through profound prayer. All things having now been completed, about three or four hours afterwards the devil stirred up a very sharp struggle for me as to the spirit, as I shall now relate. He cast a doubt into me, by which I began to doubt whether what had now been done had been done rightly, and whether I had sinned against obedience in having undertaken and carried out this thing without the provincial's command (for I did not doubt that he would take it somewhat ill that I had subjected the monastery to the Ordinary of the place without his being forewarned or consulted; yet because he had refused to admit it, and I was not altogether withdrawing myself from his obedience and subjection, hence he seemed to me likely to care little for this); whether likewise those daughters who had been admitted here would be content to live in such austerity and rigour of life; whether likewise food and things necessary for life would not be lacking to them; besides, whether I had not undertaken a foolish thing, and what had moved me to undertake it, since I had my own monastery.
[346] dejection of mind and anxiety; For the rest, all the things which the Lord had enjoined on me, all the opinions of others which I had heard, the prayers which I myself had poured out (for for more than two years I had commended this thing to God by prayers almost assiduously), had so fled from my memory, as if buried in oblivion, as if none of these things had ever been done concerning me; only my own opinion presented itself to my memory; all the virtues too, nay even faith itself, were at that time so suspended in me that I could not exercise even one of them in deed, or beat back these assaults of the adversaries by the help of any of them. The devil suggested to me besides why I wished to shut myself up in so narrow a little house, and that
oppressed by so many illnesses; how likewise I could bear so great an austerity, and why I should desert a house so ample and pleasant, in which I had hitherto lived so content and cheerful and had so many friends; that perhaps the nuns who were here would displease me, and would not be after my genius: finally, to sum up in a few words, that I had called down too heavy a burden on my shoulders, which could be the cause of my rushing headlong into the abyss of despair; and that perhaps the demon had driven me to this for this reason, that he might snatch from me peace and quiet of mind, so that thus, on account of this disquiet, I should not be able to apply myself to prayer; and so it would come about that I should lose my soul. These and other things of this kind the devil set before my eyes in a heap, so that it was altogether impossible for me to take up a thought of anything but this; and that with such straitness, gloom and darkness of mind that I cannot utter it in words. Whence, noticing myself so placed, I went to the Venerable Sacrament of the Altar; but I was by no means able to make any prayer. As far as I can attain by conjecture, I was then in such anguish as those in agony and already very near to death: nor had I dared to disclose it to anyone, because I had not yet chosen any definite confessor.
[347] but those clouds, Good God! How toilsome and miserable is this life! No secure pleasure is given here, and there is nothing which is not changeable or inconstant. A little before, I seemed not about to exchange my joy for any joy of the world, and now for altogether the same cause I was so tormented and distressed that I plainly did not know what to do with myself. If we weighed the affairs of our life attentively, everyone would see by experience how little all the pleasure, or trouble or grief, which we can have here is to be made of. Truly I seem to have borne, in all the time I have lived, no more vehement struggle or assault of the adversary than this; and my mind seems to me to have foreboded that grave passion which still remained for me, although that was not so grave as this, if indeed this had lasted longer. But the Lord did not allow His miserable handmaid to suffer; for He was always present to me in tribulations: so in this too He helped me; because He breathed into me a little light, so that I saw that it was the demon who was afflicting me, and could behold the truth, and perceive that he sought nothing else than to terrify me with certain lies.
[348] are dispelled, Teresa praying to God. Whence I began to remember the firm purposes of serving God which I had conceived at other times, and also the intense desires of suffering for Him which I had had; reflecting with myself that, if I wished to fulfil them, I must by no means seek quiet, and that, if any adversities should occur to me at times, merit lay in them, and, if I bore them patiently for the honour of God, it would be to me in place of purgatory: accordingly that there was no reason for me to fear; for, since I desired troubles and grievances, I ought now to rejoice when they were offered me, because these were all too great and grievous: for gain consists in the greatest assault and contradiction. I asked myself, then, why courage was lacking me to serve Him to whom I owed so much. Doing myself great violence with these and other considerations of that kind, I promised before the Venerable Sacrament that I would labour with all the effort I could to obtain leave to come to live in that monastery, and to vow enclosure, if ever I could do it with a safe conscience. This said, in a moment the devil withdrew from me, and left me quiet and in peace of mind; and so I remained quiet, and have always been quiet thereafter: and whatever is observed in this house as regards enclosure, austerity and the rest seems to me most sweet and all too slight; and the pleasure which I feel is so eminently great that from time to time I think with myself what sweeter thing I could choose and wish for on earth. I truly do not know whether this is in part the cause why I am now of better health than I have been hitherto, or whether the Lord wishes to give me this solace for this reason, that I too may be able to fulfil what all the others fulfil; since it is both fitting and consonant with reason that I should do so, although it is very troublesome to me: nevertheless all to whom my ill-health is known wonder that I can perform it. Blessed be He who gives all things, and by whose power we can do all things.
[349] The Saint is recalled to the convent of the Incarnation, This struggle cast me down and wore me out greatly: meanwhile, however, I laughed at the demon; for I saw manifestly that these were his tricks and contrivances. I believe indeed that all these things were done by the Lord's permission (for in twenty-eight years and more during which I have lived the monastic life, I had never, not even for a moment, experienced what it was to be saddened on account of having taken up the monastic life), namely that I might understand how great a benefit He had conferred on me in this, and from how great a torment He had snatched me, and at the same time that, if I should see any woman placed in this strait, I should not wonder, but should pity her and be able to console her. These things having now passed, when after dinner I wished to take some rest (for the whole preceding night I had scarcely had rest, nay on certain other preceding nights too I had never been free from labour and care, not to mention that every day I was exceedingly wearied during the day), behold, because what had been done had now become known both in the city and in my monastery, a great disturbance and commotion arose over it, for those reasons which I recorded above, which seemed to have some shadow of probability. At once, then, the prioress called me to her, that I should present myself to her without any delay. And as soon as I saw her command, I betook myself there at once, leaving my new nuns very sad and afflicted. I easily perceived that very much trouble was impending over me; but since the work was now done and accomplished, hence that matter did not greatly move me. I gave myself, then, to prayer, having besought the Lord to be present to me, and my glorious Father Joseph to bring me back to his monastery, and I offered to him what I was to suffer. And rejoicing and exulting that some occasion was given me of suffering for His name, and in which I could serve Him, I went there, believing that I would at once be thrust into prison: but this would have been (as it indeed appears) far most pleasing to me, because in this way I should have had occasion of speaking with no one and of resting for some while in solitude (which was indeed above all necessary to me; for on account of assiduous conversation with people I was almost exhausted and ground down).
[350] where she placates the prioress and the provincial. When, then, I came into the prioress's presence, and laid before her the reasons for my action, she, somewhat placated, began to act more mildly: but all referred this cause to the provincial. It then remained undecided, to be judged by him: and when he arrived, I presented myself to his judgment, rejoicing that I saw myself suffering something for the name of God; for I did not find that in this act I had sinned either against His Majesty or against the rule, but that I was striving with all zeal to increase the Order: nay, I would most willingly have offered my life for its sake; for this one thing I desired, that the rule should be fulfilled with the greatest possible perfection. There came to my mind here that judgment by which our Redeemer Christ was judged; and I saw that mine, in respect of it, was nothing. Here I acknowledged fault, as if I had been very culpable; and certainly I seemed such to those who did not know all the reasons for my action. After, then, he had sharply reproved me (although not with the rigour with which the offence deserved to be rebuked, and with which many told the provincial that it ought to have been rebuked), I would not have wished to clear myself entirely (for I had plainly resolved this with myself): whence I asked him to pardon me, a sinner, and to inflict punishment without anger. In some things indeed I saw myself condemned undeservedly; for they said that I had done it for this reason, that I might acquire for myself some name and reputation, and other things of that kind: but in others I saw most clearly that they spoke the truth, namely that I was worse than all the others, and that, since I had not been able to keep the good religious discipline which was kept among them as it ought to be kept, yet I believed I could keep it in another place with greater rigour; besides, that I was creating scandal for the people, and introducing certain novelties. None of these things disturbed or distressed me, although I showed that I was disturbed and distressed on that account, so as not to seem to make little of and hiss off the things that were said and objected to me. At length the provincial enjoined on me to defend myself before the nuns and to render an account of my action; which I also had to do. And since I was both inwardly quiet and the Lord helped me, I so pleaded my cause that neither the provincial nor the nuns who were present found any cause for condemning me. But afterwards, when I was with him alone, I spoke much more clearly: hearing which he showed himself milder, and came over so wholly to my side that he promised that, if the matter made progress and the talk of the city now ceased, he would give me leave to enter that monastery. For, as I shall now relate, that matter stirred up great disturbances in the city.
[351] [Before the hostile magistrates Father Domingo Báñez of the Order of Preachers pleads Teresa's cause.] Namely, two or three days afterwards, some of the governors of the city, together with the corregidor, and certain of the chapter, meeting together, said that this thing ought by no means to be tolerated by them (for the commonwealth was receiving evident detriment from it), that the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist must be taken away from there, and that they would by no means tolerate that the matter should make progress. Accordingly they ordered all the religious Orders to assemble, summoning two learned men from each, to give their opinion about the erection of this monastery. Of whom some kept silent, others condemned it; finally most agreed that it should be dissolved as soon as possible: but only one Presentado of the Order of St. Dominic (although it displeased him, not so much the monastery as that it lacked a fixed revenue), opposing himself, said that this thing did not seem to him of such a kind as to be dissolved so quickly, but that it should be maturely weighed and discussed, and that there was time enough for this, nor did haste seem needed, because this business belonged to the bishop; and he brought other arguments of that kind, so that by saying this he profited much: for otherwise (so vehement was the commotion and fury) it lacked little that what had been suddenly decreed should be at once carried into execution. But so it had to be done: for the Lord so willed;
nor were all of them joined together powerful enough to hinder His will. They brought forward their reasons: and because I saw that they were acting with good zeal, hence they made both me suffer without offence to God, and all those who were patrons of this business, who were in any case many and were harassed by various persecutions. That Father of the Order of St. Dominic who in those disturbances at Ávila so vigorously, and indeed alone against all (as he himself also testified in the process of canonization), took up the part of St. Teresa, and afterwards continually helped her with counsels, is the most celebrated theologian Báñez, who at one time discharged the office of apostolic visitor to the Discalced Carmel, Father Pedro Hernández substituting him as his vicar on the 20th of August 1569. And not only at Ávila, but, according to the same testimony of his, he also stood by the Saint in the foundations of Medina, Valladolid, Toledo and Salamanca. Moreover the Saint says (vol. I, letter 19, no. 13) that she confessed her sins to him for six years, and had continual correspondence by letters with him.
[352] God consoles her by speaking to her. The Saint continues: But the whole people was so stirred up and disturbed that there was common talk of nothing but this, and everyone turned it into a vice and fault in me, and very many came to the provincial and to our convent. Whatever they spread abroad and alleged about me moved me no more than if it had not been said; but only the fear which I had lest perhaps the monastery begun should be dissolved rent me exceedingly, and that the more because I saw that those who had taken up my patronage would lose their authority, and that they were being harassed by great troubles and persecutions: for from the calumnies which were spread about me I seem to have drawn more joy than grief; and truly, if I had had even some faith, I would have suffered no perturbation or emotion at all: but the defect of even one virtue is more than enough for the others too, as if overpowered with sleep, not to put forth their force. Whence in those two days during which that double assembly was held among the people I was much disturbed and anxious: but when I was exceedingly afflicted the Lord addressed me with these words: "Dost thou not know that I am powerful? What then dost thou fear?" and He assured me most certainly that this monastery would by no means be dissolved; which was the greatest consolation to me.
[353] While the matter is being handled in the royal council, Meanwhile they transmitted an information of the whole matter to the royal council; which, writing back, asked that it be committed to writing exactly from head to foot how it had been erected and established. Now behold, a great lawsuit had been begun: for on the part of the city certain chosen men were going to the council; whence on the part of the monastery too some had to be delegated: but money was lacking to bear the expenses, and I did not know where to turn. Further, the Lord so moderated the matter that the provincial never ordered me to lay the handling of the monastery out of my hand; for he is so great a cultivator of all the virtues that, although he did not wholly patronize my cause, yet he would not wholly oppose or resist it: but he would not give me leave to return here before it should appear what the outcome of the matter would be. These handmaids of God were alone and deserted, and they accomplished more by their prayers than I by all my urgency; although otherwise the greatest effort was needed for this business. At times the whole matter seemed to collapse entirely, especially on the day before the provincial arrived: for then the prioress commanded me by no means to mix myself in this business; and this was for this design to vanish entirely.
[354] Gonzalo de Aranda, Francisco de Salcedo and Gaspar Daza help the Saint; I betook myself, then, to God, saying: "This house, Lord, is not mine; it has been built and prepared for Thee: since, then, there is now no one who takes care of it, it is fair that Thy Majesty should take it upon Thyself." Having said this, I remained so enlightened and free of cares as if I had had all the men in the world wishing to patronize and favour me; and so I reckoned the business as already accomplished. A certain priest, an excellent servant of God, and a cultivator of all perfection (Gonzalo de Aranda), whom I had always found favouring and helping me, went to the court to further the matter by his authority; and he truly laboured in it untiringly. So too that holy knight (Francisco de Salcedo), whom I have mentioned rather often before, applied himself to our affair with all effort and zeal, and favoured it in every way, and underwent much labour and grave persecutions in furthering it: whom accordingly I have always held as a father, and hold even now. Further, the Lord inspired such fervour in all the promoters and helpers of this thing that each took it to heart as if it had been his own, and the danger of his own life or honour turned on it; whereas it concerned them by no other title than that they believed the worship and honour of God would be furthered by it. Everyone easily saw that His Majesty was present with His help to that priest the master of whom I have spoken (Gaspar Daza) (who also was of those who helped me remarkably): whom the bishop afterwards ordered to attend in his name a certain great assembly which had been called on account of the monastery; in which he alone, opposing himself to all, at length, when they were now somewhat milder, proposed certain means by which the matter could be accomplished: which indeed was enough at that time for suspending judgment and not proceeding further; but no one's power of speaking was so great that he could hinder them from wishing a little later to stake their life (as is said), so that the monastery might be destroyed. This servant of God of whom I speak was the very one who had given the nuns the sacred habit and had placed the Venerable Sacrament on the altar: on which account he incurred the envy of many and suffered much.
[355] which by the Saviour appearing to her, This persecution lasted almost half a year: for the rest, if I wished to record singly all and each of the grave troubles and difficulties by which we were tossed, I should be more diffuse than is fair. Further, I wondered what it was that the devil put forth so great a force against a few little women; and why all the adversaries believed that some intolerable harm to the commonwealth was impending from only twelve women with their prioress (for they cannot be more in number). And I speak of those whom they then opposed, and who lead so austere a life that, if any loss or error lay in it, this would fall back upon their own heads; but to say that a huge harm would come to the city from it is altogether improbable, and seems to fight with reason. Yet there were many to be found here who opposed this business with a good conscience. Further, they came at last to this, that they said that they would then admit the monastery and vote for its erection when it should take on a stable revenue. And it so weighed upon me that I saw my friends and patrons being traduced and suffering (nay, more than my own affliction and oppression) that I thought it would not be evil if the monastery should admit revenues for so long until the tumultuous people should be appeased; and that, when they had been appeased, they could be let go again: nay even to me, as one wicked and imperfect, it seemed at times that the Lord perhaps willed it so, because, revenue not having been admitted, we could by no means obtain the admission of the monastery; and I was now beginning myself to incline to this side and toward entering into this contract. But when on that night which preceded the day for confirming that contract, already begun to be entered into, I was engaged in prayer, the Lord appeared to me, and forbade me to enter into it; for if once we began to possess revenues, it would come about that we would not be permitted to give them up: He added to these some other things too.
[356] and also by St. Peter of Alcántara, now received among the Heavenly ones, On the same night too there appeared to me the holy Fr. Peter of Alcántara, who had already departed from this life; who also, before he went away to the Lord, having understood the great detraction and persecution which we were suffering, had written to me by letter that he rejoiced exceedingly that the foundation of this monastery was being made with all so unwilling and struggling against it: for this was a sign that the Lord would be remarkably honoured and worshipped in it, since the devil busied himself to hinder it with so great a force of means. Besides, he had admonished me by no means to allow a stable revenue to be brought in there; nay, he had repeated this very admonition a second or third time in this letter, asserting that all things would turn out for me as I wished in its foundation, if I followed this counsel of his about doing away with revenue. Already before this I had seen him twice after death, in that great glory which he had; and so I was by no means terrified at seeing him, but wonderfully refreshed: for he always gave himself to be seen as in a glorious body clothed with great glory, which also overflowed most abundantly in me from the sight of him. The first time he appeared to me, I remember that, when he was telling me many things about the great glory which he enjoyed, he said among other things that the penance and austerity which he had practised in life had been most happy, as having now been rewarded with so great a reward: but because (as I think) I have already said something about this before, hence I abstain from repeating it here; adding only this, that in this vision he displayed a stern face, and said nothing else than that I should by no means admit revenue, and why I refused to follow his counsel: having said which, he soon disappeared.
[357] she is strictly forbidden to admit revenue. Having seen and heard these things, I was not moderately astonished; and when day had now dawned, I told that nobleman (for all things were referred to him, as to the one who was most urging the matter) whatever had happened to me, saying that I plainly did not wish that the confirming of revenue should be treated of, but that one should proceed in pressing the lawsuit. And he was in this kind far more courageous and strong than I, and accordingly, hearing these things, he rejoiced greatly; but afterwards he told me how unwillingly and reluctantly he had come down to entering into any agreement. Further, the matter having now been brought to a more desired state, there arose another certain distinguished servant of God, who, moved by a certain good zeal, counselled that the matter should be committed to the judgment of learned men. This was truly an occasion of great disquiet to me: for some of my supporters were not altogether averse to this; and this, of all the snares and tricks which the devil ever set for me, was by far the hardest to digest. In all things, however, the Lord helped me. These things indeed have been said in summary; for it cannot be declared sufficiently in so few words whatever in the space of two years, from the
beginning of the monastery up to its completion, happened day by day. But the two middle half-years, namely this last and the first, were most grievous and painful to us.
§ XIX. The disturbances at Ávila are composed. The Saint returns to her monastery: she receives the apostolic Bull of Pope Pius IV.
After that storm, The holy Mother declares that this vehement storm, which we read at the end of the preceding paragraph, had been foreshown to her from heaven while she was staying at Toledo, in chapter XXXIX of her Life, in these words: When once I was applying myself to prayer, I saw myself placed alone in a certain open field, but around me a great multitude of people endowed with diverse manners, by which I was surrounded on every side: and all seemed to bear arms in their hands for wounding me, some lances, others swords, others daggers, others very long poniards: whence I could break through on no side without casting myself into most certain danger of life; and I was alone, so that there was no one to bring me help. My spirit, then, being placed in this affliction, so that I did not know what to do with myself, I lifted my eyes to heaven, and saw the Redeemer Christ (not indeed in heaven itself, but far above me, in the air) stretching out His hand toward me, and thence so helping me that I now feared no one at all out of all that multitude of enemies, and they, however much they desired it, could bring me no harm.
[359] which God had shown Teresa beforehand by a vision, This vision, although it may seem useless and fruitless, yet brought me great fruit: for afterwards it was declared to me what was represented by it; and a little later I saw myself placed in almost equal danger and conflict, and understood that this vision was a type and figure of this world: for whatever is in it seems to bear arms for offending an afflicted and desolate soul. For, to say nothing of those who do not serve the Lord much, nothing of honours, riches, delights and other things of that kind, by which the soul, when it does not watch cautiously and diligently, is doubtless ensnared and entangled, or which all at least try to ensnare it; friends themselves, kinsfolk and (what I wonder at most) even good men make war on it. By all these, then, I afterwards saw myself so attacked, while they meanwhile thought that they were doing this well and laudably, that I did not know how to defend myself or what to do. If I should tell, my Lord, how manifold and various were the labours which I underwent in all that time (even after those things which I related above), what a remarkable lesson and admonition it would be for deserting entirely all things that are! This was, as it appears to me, the most grievous and greatest of all the persecutions I have ever suffered. So, I say, I saw myself from time to time straitened and attacked on every side by enemies, so that no remedy shone upon me in anything except in lifting my eyes to heaven and imploring the help of God; and at the same time there came to my mind what I had seen in this vision, which salutarily as it were admonished me not to place much trust in men: for no one is constant and stable except God. In all these afflictions and pressures the Lord always (as He foreshowed to me) sent someone from His side who should offer me a helping hand (as He had shown me in that former vision), namely so that I should lean on nothing, but busy myself to please the Lord alone; which was enough for nourishing and sustaining this small and slight virtue which I had in desiring to serve Him.
[360] letters having been sent from Rome, And this especially befell conveniently for the Saint, that in the midst of these disturbances there came a second apostolic letter addressed to her, by which all controversy about revenues was settled. She herself too mentions it in the same chapter XXXIX of her Life which I was just citing, when she says: Very recently it happened that, when the letters had been brought from Rome by which it was granted that this monastery could be erected and founded without fixed revenue, it was fully completed, and that, as indeed it seems, not without some labour. When, then, I was rejoicing within myself at its completion, and also turning over with myself how many labours I had undergone for this cause, and was giving thanks to the Lord that He had willed to use my work at least in something, I began to reflect with myself what I had suffered here for Him. But in each of the things which I had done (which seemed to be something) I found very many defects and imperfections and from time to time even pusillanimity, often too very little faith. For up to this time, in which I now see all things fulfilled and completed, I could never fully and perfectly believe whatever the Lord told me about completing this monastery; nevertheless I could not doubt of it: how this came about I do not know; so that often on the one side it seemed to me entirely impossible, but on the other I could by no means doubt of it, that is, I plainly believed it would be brought to completion. I found at length that the Lord on His part had done all the good, and I on mine all the evil: and so I ceased to think of that matter, and would not remember it any longer, lest I should stumble anywhere on account of so great an abundance of my defects and imperfections. Blessed be He who, when it pleases Him, knows how to bring about benefit even from all things. Amen.
[361] by which the controversy about revenue Here now are the very words of the letters: Ranuccio, by divine mercy Cardinal Priest of the title of St. Angelus. To our beloved in Christ the abbess and nuns of the monastery of St. Joseph of Ávila, of the Order of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel, greeting in the Lord. The petition offered to Us on your part contained that, although you, by a special indult of the Apostolic See, in virtue of certain apostolic letters dispatched through the office of the Sacred Penitentiary, granted to the foundresses of the said recently erected monastery, are able to have and possess any goods whatever in common and in particular, nevertheless for the better fruit of life you desire to be by no means able to have or possess any goods in common or in particular, according to the form of the rule of the said Order, but to sustain yourselves from alms to be piously bestowed on you by the faithful of Christ, as other nuns of the said Order live in those parts; yet you doubt that this is lawful for you without the special licence of the Apostolic See. Wherefore you have caused humble supplication to be made, that you might be mercifully provided with a fitting remedy on these matters by the same See.
[362] was settled, We, therefore, inclined to your supplications in this behalf, by the authority of the Lord Pope, whose Penitentiary We have in charge, and by his special mandate given to Us on this by the oracle of his living voice, by the tenor of these presents concede and grant to you that you may by no means have or possess any goods in common or in particular, according to the form of the first rule of the said Order, but may freely sustain yourselves by alms and the subsidies of charity to be piously bestowed on you by the faithful of Christ; notwithstanding apostolic constitutions and ordinances, and all other things to the contrary whatever. Given at Rome at St. Peter's under the seal of the office of the Penitentiary, on the Nones of December, in the third year of the Pontificate of the Lord Pope Pius the Fourth.
[363] began gradually to be calmed; At whose persuasion the holy Mother sought these letters, by whose intercession she obtained them, is not clearly ascertained. But it may be conjectured that the excellent Father Pedro Ibáñez contributed some effort to it, as Father Frederick notes (book I, chapter XXXI), from the immediately following words of chapter XXXVI, which I shall now proceed to copy out: The city, then, being now somewhat pacified and quiet, that Presentado Father of the Order of St. Dominic who helped us took the matter so to heart that, even absent, he was present to us with his patronage and support; and the Lord brought him here at such a time and so opportunely that he profited us very greatly by his help: for His Majesty does not seem to me to have called him here for any other end; for he himself afterwards told me that he had had no cause at all for coming here, but had only learned of it by chance. Further, he stayed here as long as was needed: and when he had returned, he so dealt with the provincial in certain ways and by certain means that he gave me absolute leave to pass over to this monastery with certain others; though it seemed almost impossible to me that he would grant it so soon.
[364] the Saint, with the provincial's leave, In giving this praise to Ibáñez, the Saint certainly tells the truth: yet out of her zeal for humility she omits one circumstance, which he of whom there is talk here, the provincial Father Ángel de Salazar, afterwards attested in the process of canonization. Namely, after he had now been persuaded by Ibáñez's arguments that he ought no longer to resist Teresa's passing from the convent of the Incarnation to that of St. Joseph, he was nevertheless still wavering, and was delaying from day to day the leave so much desired by the holy Virgin, fearing namely lest those angers of many against her which we saw above were only lulled, not wholly extinguished. When, then, the good man was of this mind, by this one word of Teresa, See, my Father, that we do not resist the Holy Spirit, he felt himself suddenly so changed that he granted departure to the new house not only to her, but besides to four other nuns.
[365] in the month of March 1563 she passes The author of the Chronicle (book I, chapter XLVII), whom Father Frederick and Father John of St. Louis have followed, contends, contrary to what Ribera, Yepes, John of Jesus Mary and others of the Saint's first biographers teach, that these things happened in the month of December of the year 1562; and he endeavours to establish his opinion by the prologue of the book of the Foundations, where the Saint says: When in the year 1562 I was in the monastery of St. Joseph at Ávila (in which year it was also founded); Father García de Toledo … enjoined on me to commit to writing the foundation of that monastery with many other things … The praised author of the Chronicle namely denies that Father García could have enjoined this before the Saint was recalled to the convent of the Incarnation; since she could not then remain even one whole day in St. Joseph's. Did Father García, then, I ask, need a whole day for giving such a command? Nay rather, could he not have given it even before the foundation of the monastery of St. Joseph had been fully accomplished, that is, before the feast of St. Bartholomew, when by leave of her superiors the Saint frequently lived there, as in her brother-in-law's house? For my part, certainly, the argumentation of the Chronicle by no means convinces me; as neither does it seem to have convinced the diligent writer Boucher, who affirms from Ribera that the new convent of St. Joseph began to be inhabited by the holy Foundress in mid-Lent, or about the 18th day of March of the year 1563.
[366] into the poor house of St. Joseph, Further, the Saint, as the author of the Chronicle (place cited) affirms is established from a paper written in her own hand and signed with her name, brought with her from the convent of the Incarnation nothing except a certain straw mat, a worn garment patched with little pieces of cloth sewn on, and finally a scourge and a hair shirt made of iron chains. Which trifles indeed fitted excellently with the most slender furnishing of the little house into which she was betaking herself. For everything there breathed the greatest poverty, not in the little cells and workrooms only, but even in the little church itself. It is worth while to hear the author of the Chronicle speaking of this: The Saint, he says, arranged in that small cottage a very small church, and a little grille of wood, double, dense and open only with very narrow slits, through which the nuns could hear Mass. Besides this she made a vestibule truly very narrow; in which was the door both of the church and of the monastery. And she placed above it two little images, one of the Blessed Virgin, the other of St. Joseph, so that each, according to the promise of our Lord, should be guardian of the nuns: which little images indeed exist today among our Fathers at Madrid in the oratory of the sacristy. And for giving the signal for the divine office there served a little bell, of not more than three pounds' weight, hung in a certain hollow of the wall; so that there should be an indication of poverty on every side. This same little bell, which you might rightly number among the relics of the holy Mother, preserved up to the year 1634, the Reverend Father Stephen of St. Joseph, then Superior General of our Order, transferred from the convent of the nuns of Ávila to our brethren at Pastrana, among whom the general Congregations are wont to be held. And the custom has been kept from then to the present day that the Capitulars are called to their sessions by it; namely so that by this primitive sound, so poor and humble, the minds of the Fathers of our Order may be stirred to the remembrance and continuation of that observance and monastic discipline which flourished in the first times in our Reform. Thus he (book I, chapter XLIV).
[367] pleasing to God and men: On that very day, says the Saint, on which we came here to celebrate the sacred offices and to instruct those who were here, I felt myself flooded in mind with the highest pleasure. When, before I entered the monastery, I was praying in the church, I saw, being placed almost in rapture, our Saviour Jesus, who seemed to receive me with great affection and to place a crown on my head, as it were giving me thanks for what I had done for the sake of His Mother. At another time, when we were all applying ourselves together to prayer in the choir after Compline, I saw the Virgin Mother of God in the highest glory, clothed in a white mantle, under which she seemed to contain and as it were protect us all; at the same time too I recognized how sublime a degree of glory the Lord would give to the nuns of this monastery. And as soon as the sacred offices of Masses began to be celebrated here, the people began to be wonderfully affected toward this house: more nuns too were admitted; nay, the Lord began to move the minds of those who had before most opposed us, so that they both favoured us and succoured us with their alms: and so they showed that they approved what before they had so much turned away from, and gradually ceased from prosecuting the lawsuit, saying that they now saw with their eyes that this was the work of the right hand of the Most High, since His Majesty had willed it to be furthered and perfected through such detractions and repugnances; so that at this time there is no one who thinks it would have been better that it had not been built: whence all provide for us so well with alms that the Lord stirs them to send them without our asking or begging anything of anyone, and we are so well off that nothing at all of necessary things is lacking to us; which I trust in the Lord will always be so: for since the sisters are few in number, if they do what they ought (as by the grace of God they now do), I am certain that nothing will ever be lacking to them, nor will they themselves be importunate or troublesome to anyone by asking; but the Lord will take care of them, as He has hitherto taken care. And so it is the highest consolation to me to live among souls so stripped of and sequestered from all things.
[368] where she forms her nuns to the observance of the primitive rule, Their whole exercise is diligently to take care how they may always make some progress in the service of God: solitude, further, is their only solace; but to think of seeing any man, unless perhaps so that they may thus be stirred to love their Spouse more, is the greatest cross and trouble to them, even if he be most closely joined by blood. Hence too no one comes here who does not have this aim: and those who look to anything else neither bring them satisfaction nor find it in them. Besides, they have no other tongue than to speak of God; hence it is that they understand no one, nor are understood by anyone, except by him who speaks this tongue. We keep and profess the rule of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel, given by Albert, patriarch of Jerusalem, and that pure, primitive and without any relaxation, and such as Innocent IV confirmed and approved in the 5th year of his Pontificate, after the birth of Christ 1248. All the labours and troubles, further, which we have undergone seem to me to be going to be ample reward of the effort, and although the rule is already somewhat strict (for we never eat meat unless necessity counsels it, and we keep a fast of eight months, and also other things of that kind, as is to be seen in the primitive rule), yet to many sisters this rigour seems all too small and tolerable: hence too not a few other things are observed, which have seemed to us to be necessary so that the first rule may be kept with greater perfection and sincerity; and I trust in the Lord that the work which has been begun will have remarkable progress and increase, as His Majesty has signified to me.
[369] extolling God's mercy and goodness toward her. As a crowning touch I shall bring forward here part of chapter VIII of the Way of Perfection, in which the Saint pours out the grateful sentiments of her mind for her vocation to that holy place, addressing God. When, she exclaims, O my Creator and Lord, did I merit so great a dignity? Thou seemest to have made many circuits, turns and returns, seeking how Thou mightest render Thyself nearer to us: may Thy mercy grant that we may not lose this through our own fault. Understand, I pray, for the love of God, dearest ones, that great mercy and grace which the Lord has bestowed on those whom He has deigned to lead here: and let each one of you seriously weigh it with herself, since His Majesty has willed that, out of only twelve of us who are here, she should be one. And how many there are, nay in how great a multitude, better than I, who I know would most willingly take up this place! But the Lord gave it to me, who so ill deserved it. Blessed be Thou, Lord, and let all the Angels confess and praise Thee, and indeed whatever is created: for this benefit can scarcely be repaid by any service, as neither very many others which Thou hast conferred on me. For that Thou didst first call me to the monastic and religious life was a supreme and singular benefit: but because I conducted myself so badly in that state, Lord, hence Thou wouldst not trust me further; for in so great a multitude of good women gathered there my wickedness would not have appeared until I had already come to the end of life: for I would have concealed and hidden it, as I hid it for many years. But Thou hast led me, Lord, to such a place, in which, on account of the so great fewness of the nuns who are here, it seems impossible that anything can be concealed; and so that I may watch over myself with greater caution and circumspection, Thou cuttest off all occasions from me. Wherefore it must be confessed, Lord, that I can no longer bring forward any argument for excusing myself; whence I have the more need of Thy mercy, that Thou mayest pardon me in what I offend.
[370] [In the year 1565 Pope Pius IV, the indults long since granted concerning the erection of the monastery,] Finally the apostolic Bull subjoined was given in the year 1565, by which the two indults of the Sacred Penitentiary, long since sent to Ávila by Ranuccio, Cardinal of St. Angelus, are confirmed by Pius IV, Supreme Pontiff; and all things done in virtue of these indults are held anew as ratified. Pius, bishop, Servant of the servants of God. To our beloved daughters in Christ the prioress, or perhaps called mother, and the community of the monastery of nuns of St. Joseph of Ávila, and to Aldonza de Guzmán and Guiomar de Ulloa, widows, inhabitants of Ávila, greeting, etc. When what is just is asked of Us, both the force of equity and the order of reason require that it be brought to due effect through the solicitude of Our office. Indeed, the petition lately exhibited to Us on your part contained: that formerly, after you, daughters in Christ Aldonza and Guiomar, who, as you assert, are illustrious women and widows, moved by pious devotion, desiring by a happy exchange to change earthly things for heavenly and transitory for eternal, and from your goods conferred on you by God, for the salvation of your souls, had purposed and desired to construct, erect and build one monastery to the praise and honour of God Almighty, under a name and invocation that seemed good to you, and doubted that you could do this without a special indult of the Apostolic See, certain ones under a certain form then expressed from the Apostolic See or its Sacred Penitentiary, and among other things that there should be granted and indulged to you to construct and build one monastery of nuns, of a number and under an invocation that seemed good to you, of the Rule and Order of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel, and under the obedience and correction of the bishop of Ávila for the time being, with church, belfry, bells, cloister, refectory, dormitory, garden and other necessary workrooms, and also to erect in the same church one or more chaplaincy or chaplaincies, and to endow such monastery and chaplaincy or chaplaincies suitably from your own goods, and that, after it should have been so constructed and erected and endowed, its nuns being in it for the time being should use, possess and enjoy all and each of the privileges, graces, immunities, exemptions, prerogatives, liberties, concessions and indults which the other monasteries of the said Order by right, usage and custom or otherwise in general use and possess and enjoy.
[371] concerning the framing of constitutions, And that you and the nuns of the said monastery for the time being might, for its happy rule and government and direction, frame and ordain any statutes and ordinances whatever, lawful and honest and not contrary to canon law, and, after they had been framed and ordained, change them in whole or in part for the better according to the quality of the times, reform,
alter, and take away altogether, abrogate, and frame other like ones, should be imparted, and that such statutes and ordinances, as well those framed as those to be changed, reformed, altered and framed anew, have been and are confirmed by apostolic authority, from then as from now and conversely, and ought to be inviolably observed; and that thus they ought to be judged and interpreted and defined by any judges and persons whatever exercising any authority, even apostolic, there being taken away from them and from each of them any faculty and authority of judging, interpreting and defining otherwise; that it be also decreed and commanded to be null and void if it should happen to be attempted otherwise on these matters by anyone by any authority, knowingly or ignorantly.
[372] concerning penalties against those who disquiet them, And that it be decreed more strictly, in virtue of holy obedience, and under suspension from divine offices as regards bishops or other greater prelates, but as regards others under the penalty of the greater excommunication latæ sententiæ, which those acting to the contrary should incur ipso facto, and from which they could not be absolved except by the Apostolic See, save at the point of death; and that it be forbidden to any judges and persons whatever, both ecclesiastical and secular, exercising any authority, even apostolic, that they should dare or presume, directly or indirectly, under any colour or contrivance sought, in any way unduly to molest, disturb and disquiet you and the nuns of the said monastery for the time being; and that it be also decreed null and void too, if it should happen to be attempted otherwise on these matters by anyone by any authority, knowingly or ignorantly.
[373] concerning the executors to be deputed. And also to certain judges then expressed, that they should assist you and the nuns of the said monastery for the time being in the premises with the protection of effective defence, and should cause, or each of them should cause, you and the aforesaid nuns peaceably to enjoy and inviolably to rejoice in such indult, licence and faculty granted, and all and each of the premises; not permitting you and them to be in any way unduly molested, disturbed or disquieted on the aforesaid matters by the superiors, prelates, priors, reformers, visitors and brethren of the aforesaid Order of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel and of any other Orders whatever, or by any other judges and persons whatever, both ecclesiastical and secular, of whatever state, degree, order and condition they may be, and exercising any dignity, even pontifical, or authority, even apostolic, publicly or secretly, directly or indirectly, under any colour or contrivance sought: restraining any gainsayers and rebels whatever by ecclesiastical censure and the other fitting remedies of law, appeal being set aside; invoking also for this, if need be, the help of the secular arm, with other clauses and derogations then expressed.
[374] and concerning revenue not to be admitted, And you, daughters in Christ, the prioress and community, through other letters too, from the same See or the aforesaid Sacred Penitentiary, also under a certain form then expressed, even through which, for the better fruit of life, it was among other things granted and indulged that you should by no means be able to have or possess any goods in common or in particular, according to the form of the first rule of the said Order, but should freely and lawfully be able to sustain yourselves from alms and charitable subsidies to be piously bestowed on you by the faithful of Christ, obtained letters, as is said to be more fully contained in each of the aforesaid letters drawn up on these matters. All and each of which you have asked to be strengthened by Us with apostolic protection for their firmer subsistence.
[375] he ratified and confirmed. We, therefore, concurring with grateful assent in your just requests, holding ratified and acceptable the erection of the monastery, the indult, the will, the statutes, the obedience due to be given to the same Ordinary by virtue of the aforesaid indult over the said monastery and over Our beloved daughters in Christ Teresa of Jesus, now the present abbess, or perhaps called mother, María Isabel and Ana of the Angels, formerly in the monastery of the nuns of the Incarnation outside the walls of Ávila, but now living in the said monastery of St. Joseph, and over the other nuns of the said monastery for the time being, and the decrees, and all and each of the other things contained in the same letters, and whatever has followed from them, provided they be lawful and honest, as they have been duly and providently done, confirm them by apostolic authority and fortify them by the patronage of the present writing. Let it therefore be lawful for no man at all to infringe this page of Our confirmation and fortification or with rash daring to go against it; but if anyone, etc. Given at Rome at St. Mark's in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1565, on the sixteenth day before the Kalends of August, in the sixth year of Our Pontificate.
§ XX. She forms her first nuns to holiness and zeal for souls: she writes out her Life a second time, and composes the book on the Way of Perfection.
The four chapters which remain in St. Teresa's book of her Life contain various things, arranged here and there in no historical order. The holy Reformer Of these we have already sampled a few: but the rest will come into use hereafter, especially when we speak of her visions and prophecies. Now, however, in order that we may pursue the biographical series, the book of the Foundations fitly offers itself to us; which book, compared with that of the Life which we have used hitherto, has also this greater convenience, that most of the persons praised in it are called by their proper names, and the years and days of events are here and there marked more accurately: whence I shall now have to sweat less in inquiring into them among various writers. Teresa will besides hold out another torch for illustrating her acts: namely very many letters written to various people on various affairs from the year 1568 up to the year 1582, which was the last of her life.
[377] stays five years at Ávila She begins the book of her Foundations, then, thus: For five whole years after the founding of the convent of St. Joseph at Ávila I stayed in it, which years (as it indeed now seems to me) I think will have been the quietest of all that I shall still have in life, to whose quiet and tranquillity my soul often still aspires. At this very time certain girls outstanding in piety and young, whom the world already then (as it indeed seemed) possessed as its own, as they indeed displayed outwardly by dress and splendid and elegant adornment, entered this Religious house: whom the Lord, making them bid farewell to these vanities as quickly as possible, led to His house, endowing each there with such perfection that I, seeing it, was not a little confounded. When they were now thirteen in number, which was that which it had been determined not to exceed, I, living among souls so holy and pure, felt no moderate pleasure in myself; the care and zeal of all of whom was how they might serve the Lord and praise Him.
[378] among her nuns, of poverty There too His Majesty supplied us with the things that were necessary, even when we did not ask; and when at times they were lacking (which was certainly very rare), then they rejoiced the more. For my part I praised the Lord and gave Him thanks that I saw so many eminent virtues in them, and above all a certain neglect of all things except how they might serve Him. I, who acted as superior there, never remember having been anxious or having laboured about necessary things; for it was most certainly impressed upon me that the Lord would by no means fail those who were anxious or solicitous about nothing else than how they might please Him. And if at times what had been given was not enough for all, and I said that this was to be distributed and given to those who had more need, each one judged that she was not that one; and so it remained untouched, until the Lord sent alms sufficient for all.
[379] and of blind obedience, Of the virtue of obedience (toward which I am wonderfully affected, although I did not know how to exercise it, until these handmaids of God so taught me its use that I could not be ignorant of it, if I had the virtue) I could say many things which I have noted in them here. One thing comes to my mind here: namely, when one day we were sitting at table in the refectory, and our portion was cucumbers, there was given to me a very small cucumber, but rotten inside. For my part, using dissimulation, I called to me one of the sisters, one of those who seemed to have more wit and greater gifts of nature, so as to make trial of her obedience, and enjoined on her to plant this cucumber in the little garden which we had. She asked whether it ought to be put into the earth upright or crosswise. When I said she should plant it crosswise, she went away and fulfilled what had been ordered, so that it by no means came to her mind that its seed could not thus be dried, but, because this was enjoined on her out of obedience, she brought her natural reason into captivity in obedience to Christ; because she believed that it had been enjoined on her very deliberately and rightly. To a certain other I enjoined six or seven tasks very contrary to one another to be performed; which nevertheless she took up all in silence, because she believed it most possible for her to carry out all those at once.
[380] eager even to the point of a prodigy: There was in our house a well containing water (as those said who had made trial of it) rather insipid, and it seemed impossible to conduct it elsewhere, because it was very deep. I called, then, workmen to carry the thing out: and when they laughed at me, and asked why I wished to squander money in vain, I asked the sisters what they thought of this matter. One of whom said: "Let trial of the thing be made: for it belongs to the Lord to take care that we are provided with water, and that we have those things which are necessary for food; and since His Majesty can give us water at home at less expense, He will doubtless do it." Seeing, then, the great faith with which she said it, I persuaded myself of it as certain to be: and, contrary to the opinion of the water-engineer, I ordered the thing to be done; and it pleased the Lord that we should draw from it a channel of drinkable water quite sufficient, as we now have it. I do not reckon this among miracles, since I could tell many other things of this kind, but I relate it so as to show the faith which those sisters had, since it happened as I have said: since my primary aim is not to write the praises of the nuns of these monasteries; because, such is the goodness of God, all keep the same manner of living up to this day, and because it would be long to write of these and very many other things, although it would not be done without fruit: for it sometimes happens that those afterwards coming to the Order are encouraged to do similar things. But if it should seem good to the Lord that these things should be known and become known among the people, the prelates will be able to enjoin on the prioresses to commit these things to writing.
[381] into whose angelic minds she instils zeal for the salvation of souls, When, then, I was living among these angelic souls (for they seemed to me true Angels, because they concealed from me no imperfection, even interior; besides, the graces and ardent desires and the detachment from created things which the Lord gave them were supreme: all their delights too and
consolation was solitude; hence they assured me that they could never have their fill of solitude: and so it came about that it was a torment to them to be visited by outsiders, even though these were brothers and sisters; and she who had the greater convenience for doing so in a hermitage counted herself the more blessed), and when I considered the worth and value of these souls, and also the courage which God was giving them for suffering and for serving Him, which was certainly not a woman's courage, it often seemed to me that the treasures which the Lord was placing in them would one day tend toward some great end; although what afterwards came to pass did not then enter my mind: for at that time it seemed to me impossible, since I saw no beginning or foundation from which anyone could have imagined or inferred it. And so, as my desires grew along with time, and from day to day I desired ever more ardently to be of profit to some soul, and to be able to procure its good in some way or other, I very often seemed to myself like a man who possesses some great treasure, which he would gladly see poured out and distributed among all, but whose hands are bound so that he cannot distribute it. My soul therefore seemed to me as if bound: for the graces which the Lord was granting it in these years were very great; yet I thought them all spent badly and uselessly on me. I served the Lord, indeed, by my wretched and slender prayers, and I repeatedly saw to it among the sisters that they should do the same, and that they should be wonderfully devoted to the salvation of souls and the increase of the Church itself, and to the edification and good example of all who dealt with them; and in this I busied myself to spend my intense desires.
[382] [that by holiness of life they might make reparation for the injuries done to God by the heretics,] Indeed, not her desires and works only, but also the labour of writing. For, besides writing her Life a second time, she applied her pen to composing that most excellent Treatise which is entitled the Way of Perfection. Notable is the beginning of that Treatise, in which we are taught for what cause chiefly the holy Foundress resolved to bind her new monastery to so strict a poverty and to such severe laws. In the beginning, she says, when this monastery was being founded, for the reasons that were set out in the aforementioned book (which, as has already been said, I wrote), and also on account of certain great works of the Lord, by which He showed how greatly His name was to be glorified in this house, it was not my purpose or intention that so great an austerity in exterior things should be introduced into it, or that it should be founded without a fixed income: on the contrary, I would have wished it to have sufficient revenues, so that it should never lack anything. But I wished this as one weak and wicked, although many good reasons, rather than my own convenience, impelled me to do so. At this very time I learned by sure report of the immense losses of France, and how great evils the heretics had brought upon that kingdom, and finally how far and wide that wicked sect was spreading and creeping. This report indeed weighed down my spirit with incredible anguish: and, as if I had been able to do something, or had even been of any account, I cried out weeping to the Lord, and I besought Him most earnestly to heal so great an evil. I seemed to myself most ready to lay down a thousand lives for the deliverance and salvation of even one soul out of so great a multitude perishing there. But since I saw that I was a woman, and a weak one at that, and wholly unfit to carry out any of the things pertaining to the worship of God that I would have wished to carry out, and since all my desires also looked to this (as they still do), that, since the Lord has so many enemies and so few friends, these few at least should be good, I firmly resolved within myself to do the little that was in me, namely to follow the evangelical counsels with the greatest perfection I could, and to take pains that those few nuns who are here should do the same.
[383] and for apostolic men, This, indeed, I trust will come to pass through the most eminent mercy of God, inasmuch as He never denies His help to one who resolves to forsake all things for His sake; and I hope that (since they are such as I used to picture them in my desires) my defects and imperfections may have no strength among their virtues, and that in some thing at least I may be able to please the Lord Himself: and moreover that, since we all pray so constantly for the defenders of the Church, for the preachers and other learned men who fight for her, we may help, as far as we can, this same Lord of mine, who is so oppressed and straitened by those on whom He has bestowed so many benefits, while these traitors seem minded to fasten Him to the cross again, and not even to leave Him a place where He may lay His head… Help me, I beg you, dearest sisters in Christ, by praying to the Lord again and again for this matter: for it was for this cause that He brought you here and joined you together; this is your vocation; this must be your business and your study, this your desire; to this you must dedicate your tears, to this your petitions and prayers must tend, not to the business of this world, my dearest ones.
[384] The Saint indicates the same end of hers to Fr. Rodrigo Álvarez, who defend the Church of God as a fortress, writing thus of herself: Her prayer, and that of the nuns whom she established, looks chiefly to this, that it be directed to the increase of the Catholic faith, for which end also she began her first monastery, and also to the good of her Order (vol. I, letter 19, no. 16). That is to say, she esteemed religious houses, if discipline flourish in them, to be certain fortresses and bulwarks of faith and piety: which she herself expresses most beautifully in chapter III of the same Way of Perfection, speaking in this manner: To return, then, to the chief end for which the Lord has gathered us together in this house, and for which I too should most greatly wish that we might be something by which we could please His Majesty, since we see that the evils of this age are so enormous that many human forces are not enough to extinguish this fire of the heretics which is spreading so everywhere, it seems to me that we must do what is customarily done in time of war. For when the enemy are plundering the whole territory of some province, the prince himself, being now hard pressed, withdraws within some fortress or city, which he strengthens on every side with every art and garrison: from which its garrison soldiers from time to time make sallies against the enemy forces, and, because these few alone can do more (being all picked men) than very many fearful soldiers could, it often happens that they gain the victory, or, if at times they do not carry it off, at least they do not succumb: for, because there is no traitor among them, they cannot be taken at all, except perhaps by hunger; which, however, cannot in this place be so great as to force them to surrender to the enemy: it could indeed make them die, but not make them be called vanquished.
[385] against spiritual enemies, But to what purpose have I brought this forward? That you might understand, dearest ones, that we ought to ask this of God unceasingly: that, as is His mercy, no one may desert to the enemy out of this fortress of good Christians which is found today, and that He may deign to make the captains of this fortress or city, the preachers, I mean, and the theologians, courageous and as valiant as possible in the way of the Lord; and since the greatest part of them live in monasteries and Religious Orders, that He may will these same Orders to make great progress in their perfection and vocation; which is surely most necessary: for the times are now such that (as I have said) it is necessary that not so much the secular as the spiritual arm defend us. But since we women can help our King neither in temporal nor in spiritual things, let us at least strive to be such that our prayers may be found fitting and suitable for helping these servants of God, who have fortified themselves with so great labour, both by learning and by good life, and have toiled in every way to be a support to the Lord in this necessity.
[386] with great fervour, You will perhaps ask me why I make so much of this matter and esteem it so highly, and wish those who are better than we to be helped by us. I answer: because I believe that you do not yet sufficiently understand how much you owe the Lord for having brought you to this house, in which you live so set apart from all business, occasions and hindrances of worldly affairs. And this is a singular benefit, which those of whom I speak do not enjoy… Wherefore I would have you believe that for this contest which they undertake there is need, not of a small, but truly of the very greatest, help. That we may therefore obtain from God those two things which I shall name, I ask you to strive to be such that we may be found worthy to obtain them. The first of these is, that among so many learned and religious men who live today, there may be found many who have the endowments necessary for what I have said; and that the Lord may deign to dispose those who are not sufficiently fit or disposed for this very thing: for one perfect man will accomplish more in this matter than many imperfect ones. The other is, that after they have been set in the contest (which, as I have said, is surely not a slight one) and in the battle line, the Lord may deign to protect and guard them with His hand, so that they may both escape the great perils that are in the world, and stop their ears against the enticing song of the sirens on this scarcely safe sea. And in this matter, if we can obtain anything from God, we are fighting for Him, though shut up here, and not idly; and thus it will come about that I shall think I have spent most excellently all the labour which I underwent in building this little corner: in which also my aim and purpose was that this Rule of the Blessed Virgin, our Lady and Empress, should be observed in the same perfection in which it was first introduced.
[387] and as if forgetful of their own advantage, Do not think, however, that you are taking useless pains while you ask this very thing of God again and again and constantly: for there are not a few to whom it is a grievance not to be able to pray much to God for their own soul. But what prayer is better than this? Or perhaps it is a grievance to you that by this prayer nothing is diminished of the penalty owed by you in purgatory? Be certain that through this most just and most fitting prayer you will merit that it be lightened and diminished. As for the rest, whatever is lacking to its further remission, let it be lacking, in the name of the Lord. For what does it matter if I am detained in purgatory even until the day of judgement, if even one soul alone can be made a partaker of salvation through my prayer? How much
more, when it is a question of the advantage and good of so many souls, and of the honour of God, Best and Greatest? Make little of torments which have an end once and for all, when it will be permitted to render some greater service to Him who suffered so much for us. Always look and have regard to what is of greater perfection: next, what I wish to ask of you most earnestly, and for which I shall also give the reasons later, is that you always take care to deal with lettered and learned men.
[388] They should pray to the Father of mercies For the love of God, therefore, I beseech you to supplicate His Majesty that He may hear our prayers in this matter. I indeed, wretched as I am, ask this very thing of His Majesty again and again, since it redounds both to His glory and to the advantage of His Church. For this is the aim of my vows and desires. Yet it seems presumptuous to think that I can do or avail anything toward obtaining this. But I have confidence, Lord, in these handmaids of Thine who are here; who I know desire nothing else and look to nothing else than to please Thee: for Thy sake they have forsaken the little they had, and they would surely have wished to have more, in order to serve Thee. And I know, my Creator, that Thou art not ungrateful, so that I should think Thou wouldst neglect to fulfil their petitions; for never, Lord, while Thou didst live on earth, didst Thou reject the prayers and petitions of women, but Thou didst always show Thyself favourable and kind to them with great tenderness. If ever it should happen that we ask of Thee honours, revenues or money, or anything else savouring of the world, do not hear us; but why, eternal Father, for the honour of Thy Son, wilt Thou not hear one who would be ready to lay down both honour and life a thousand times for Thee? Not for our sake, Lord (for we do not deserve it), but for the sake of the blood and merits of Thy Son.
[389] through the merits of Jesus Christ and of the Saints. Consider, O eternal Father, that those many scourgings, mockeries and most grievous torments which He endured are not to be consigned to oblivion and neglected. How then, my Creator, can such loving bowels of mercy as Thine are bear that what was instituted by Thy Son with so ardent a love, and in order to please Thee the more (for Thou hadst commanded Him to love us), should be so despised and held in mockery, as indeed those heretics today despise the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, inasmuch as, while they demolish and destroy the churches, they snatch away its dwelling-places? It would be well indeed, if He Himself had ever left anything undone in order to please Thee; but He has now fulfilled all things most perfectly. Was it not enough, most beloved Father, that while He lived He had nowhere to lay His head, and that He was continually engaged in the most grievous labours, without His dwelling-places, which He has on earth for inviting and receiving His friends (since He sees that we are weak, and knows that those who must undertake labour need to be sustained by such food), being now snatched away from Him as well? Has He not made satisfaction more than enough, and most abundantly, for the sin of Adam? Must this most gentle Lamb atone and pay every time we fall into some new crime? Do not permit it, I beseech Thee, most clement Emperor; but let Thy Majesty allow itself to be appeased and made propitious again: look not, I pray, upon our sins; but cast Thine eyes upon Thy Most Holy Son, who redeemed us, and upon the merits both of Him and of His most glorious Mother and of so many Saints and Martyrs, who did not hesitate to meet death for Thy name.
[390] She also commends kings and prelates to their prayers. But alas! who, I pray, am I, Lord, that I have dared here to entreat and address Thee in the name of all? What an unfit and stammering advocate, O dearest ones, you have, that you should be heard through me as mediatrix, and who should put forth this prayer in your name! What if I should the more irritate this supreme Judge and provoke Him to indignation, when He sees this boldness of mine? And not undeservedly. But remember, I beseech Thee, Lord, that Thou art indeed the God of mercy: show it, I pray, toward me, a wretched little sinner and little worm, who deal so boldly with Thee. Look, most loving God, upon my desires and tears, with which I beg this thing of Thee: remember not, I pray, my works, as befits what Thou art, but let compassion for so many perishing souls touch Thee; look favourably upon Thy Church, and let no further evils or losses henceforth, Lord, come upon the Christian world: finally, illumine these darknesses as quickly as possible. For the love of God I beseech you, dearest ones, to commend this poor and bold little sister to His divine Majesty, and to ask Him that He may deign to bestow humility upon me; and if you do this, you will do what you are bound to do. That you should pray for kings and for ecclesiastical prelates, and especially for the bishop of this city, I do not here particularly enjoin on you; for all of you who are here at present I see so diligent in this matter, that it does not seem to me necessary now to enjoin it on you. But let whoever will come here after you, as long as they have some holy prelate, his subjects too will be holy. This matter, as being of such great moment, you will commend to the Lord again and again in your prayers: and if you do not direct your prayers, desires, disciplines and fasts to the aim I have named, be certain and consider that you are not doing nor fulfilling the end for which the Lord has gathered you together in this place.
§ XXI. She obtains from the Most Rev. Fr. Rubeo, General of the Carmelite Order, the faculty of erecting several monasteries of virgins and two of men of her Reform.
Nevertheless the zeal of the Seraphic Virgin did not stay within those limits; [The Saint is fired with greater zeal by the sermons of Fr. Alfonso Maldonado of the Order of Friars Minor,] but little by little it came about that she devoted her efforts to building more monasteries, and no longer of women only but also of men: which we shall now see from the remaining part of chapter I and from chapter II of the Foundations. After four years, she says, or a little more, as it seems to me (hence in the year 1567), a certain Franciscan religious visited me, called Fr. Alfonso Maldonado, a distinguished servant of God, burning with the same desire of helping souls as I: but because he himself was able to carry that desire into execution, I envied him not a little on this account. He had come not long before from the Indies; and he began to recount to me how many millions of souls had perished there for lack of teachers: and having preached a sermon to us, he exhorted us to undertake penance and austerity, and so departed. But I so pitied the loss of so many perishing souls that I could scarcely contain myself: whereupon I hid myself in a certain hermitage, and there with many tears I cried out to the Lord, asking Him to suggest to me some means by which I might bring over even one soul to His service, since the devil was drawing so many thousands to himself, and that my prayers might accomplish something in this respect, since I was not able to do anything more. Hence too I envied most greatly those who, out of the love of God, were able to spend themselves wholly on this matter, even if they had to undergo a thousand deaths here. Hence, when I read in the lives of the Saints that they gained souls for God, I conceive a greater love and tenderness toward them, and I envy them this more than all the martyrdoms they suffered: for the Lord has given me this inclination, that I think He values one soul which we gain by our prayers, through His mercy, more than any services we can render Him.
[392] And God foretells great things to her. As I was therefore feeling this immense pain again and again, and one night was engaged in prayer, the Lord appeared to me in the way He is accustomed, and, displaying great love, as if He wished to console me, said to me: "Wait a little while, daughter, and you shall see great things." These words remained so impressed upon my heart that I could by no means tear them out of my thoughts; and although I could not gather or work out (however much I thought about it within myself) what this was to be, nor could I even see from where I might arrive at it by imagination, nevertheless I felt in myself no common consolation, and at the same time I conceived the very greatest hope that these words would most certainly have their effect: but in what way this could come about never entered my mind or imagination. Half a year therefore (as far as it seems to me) passed in the meantime, and then there happened what I shall now relate.
[393] The Most Rev. Fr. Rubeo, General of the Carmelite Order, comes to Ávila; Our Generals always reside at Rome, and none of them had ever come into Spain: hence it seemed impossible that the one who now presides over us would come; but because nothing is impossible to the things God wills to be done, His Majesty therefore determined and brought it about that what had not been done until now should now be done. That is to say, as the author of the Chronicle relates (book 2, chapter 2), Giovanni Battista Rubeo, General Prior of the Order of Carmel, at the invitation of Philip II, the Catholic King, and by the power granted him through the Brief of St. Pius V, given on the 24th of February 1566, which may be read in Monsignani's Bullarium Carmelitanum, came into Spain in that same year 1566, in order to correct and amend the religious houses subject to him in that kingdom according to the statutes of the Order and the decrees of the Council of Trent. From the court of Madrid, where he had been received by the king with those honours which were customarily accorded to the grandees of Spain, he first betook himself to Baetica, or (to use a name now more common) Andalusia, and having convoked at Seville for the 20th of September an assembly of two hundred Fathers, and having created Fr. Juan de la Cuadra provincial of Andalusia, he enacted laws very well suited to reforming the Order: and the remaining time of the year he spent in visiting the same province. Then, the year 1567 having now begun, on returning to Madrid he found the mind of Philip somewhat hostile to him, since it had been prejudiced by the calumnies of the Andalusians against him. Wherefore, not being admitted to an audience with the king, he departed to Ávila to assemble the chapter of the Castilian province as well: and he then set Fr. Alonso González over that province in place of Ángel de Salazar, and there came to the knowledge of St. Teresa and of the Reform instituted by her, as we shall presently see. First, however, I would have the reader advised that the Generals of Carmel who preceded Rubeo were not always so accustomed to reside at Rome that they did not frequently go elsewhere, especially to general chapters; which were not then bound to any fixed place, but were celebrated now in this region, now in that, as the time allowed. Indeed, at least two of them were held among the Catalans: one at Barcelona in the year 1324, under the General Jean Alerio; the other at Perpignan (which city today obeys the kings of the French) in the year 1354 under
Fr. Raymond de Grassa. Hence, when the Saint says that the Generals of her Order had never come into Spain, understand it not of the whole of Spain as it now is, but rather of the kingdom of Castile only.
[394] and having heard St. Teresa's reasons, For my part, she continues, when I first learned of the General's coming, I seem to have been somewhat troubled and disturbed, because (as I remember having said in the account of the foundation of the monastery of St. Joseph) that convent, for the reason I gave there, was not subject to the Friars. Wherefore I feared two things here: first, that he would be angry with me; for, since he did not know how the matter had come about, he seemed likely to do so with good reason: the other, that he would order me to return to the monastery of the Incarnation, in which the mitigated and relaxed rule was observed; which would have afflicted me not a little, for various reasons which it is not necessary to relate here. This one was more than enough, that in that convent I could not have kept the rigour of the primitive rule, and also that there were more than a hundred and fifty nuns there, whereas where they are fewer in number, greater conformity and quiet is had. But the Lord disposed the matter better than I thought: for the General, since he was a distinguished servant of God and eminent in discretion and learning, saw that the work was good, and showed me no indignation or estrangement of mind for the rest. His name was Fr. Giovanni Battista Rubeo, of Ravenna, a man very illustrious in the Order, and deservedly so. When he had come to Ávila, I took care that he should visit the house of St. Joseph. The Bishop, moreover, thought it would be to our advantage that we should receive him with the same signs of good will and love as himself. For my part I opened everything to him with great truthfulness, candour and clearness, and gave an account of each thing: for thus, as my natural inclination is, I rejoice to deal with prelates, come what may in the end, since they are the vicars of God, and also with confessors. Unless I did so, it seemed to me my soul would not be secure. Wherefore I gave him an account both of this matter and of almost my whole life, although it is wicked enough.
[395] by letters patent of his own accord He for his part consoled me not a little, and made me certain that he would not order me to leave that place. Indeed he himself on his side rejoiced not a little, seeing our manner of life and also a certain pattern (although imperfect) of the primeval vigour customarily kept in our Order, and also that the first rule was kept here to the letter in the utmost rigour, which was done in no convent throughout the whole Order. And because he desired that this slender beginning should spread further and grow, he gave me very ample letters, by which he granted me the power of erecting more monasteries after the same form and pattern, adding moreover censures and penalties against provincials who might wish to oppose and hinder me. These, however, I did not ask of him; but he understood well enough from my manner of praying that those ardent desires of mine looked to nothing else than that I might be a support and instrument for some soul to draw nearer to God and be converted. These means, moreover, I was not in the least procuring; on the contrary it seemed madness and folly to me; for I understood that so weak a little woman, and of such slight strength as I was, could do nothing here. But when desires of this kind take possession of the soul, it is not in its power to drive them away or turn them aside: but, because it longs to satisfy God and the faith it has in Him, His Majesty therefore makes possible for it what, if we regard human reason, is not possible. And so, seeing the remarkable inclination and will of our Most Rev. Fr. General that more monasteries of this rule should be erected, I seemed already to see them erected: and, mindful of the words which the Lord had said to me before, I already saw some beginning of that which before I could not understand how it would be brought to effect. But seeing that Fr. General was preparing his return to Rome, I was saddened not a little, because I regarded him with a singular love; hence I believed I should be deprived of all help by his departure, since he had shown me the highest and most singular help, as well as very great favour. And as often as his occupations allowed him, he would come out to us to speak with us of spiritual things, as one on whom the Lord seems to have conferred great graces in this kind; and to hear him speaking of these things was a wonderful consolation to us.
[396] he grants her the power It is worth while, I believe, to present here for reading the letters of Rubeo which the Saint has just mentioned. Wherefore I shall render them into Latin from the Chronicle, where (book 2, chapter 3) they are extant in Spanish (transcribed, as the author advises, from the original documents given by Fr. Jerónimo Gracián after St. Teresa's death as a gift to Beatriz Ramírez de Mendoza, Countess of Castellar, and transmitted by this lady to the Madrid convent of nuns of the Order of St. Jerome which takes its name from Corpus Christi). Lest, however, the reader should wonder at seeing it said in them by Rubeo that Teresa is subject to his obedience and presides over the monastery of St. Joseph with his consent, I have thought it right to set first, from Yepes, the following explanation of this assertion: The monastery of St. Joseph was at that time subject to the Ordinary according to the apostolic letters which we mentioned above. Likewise the holy Mother and two other nuns, who had gone out with her from the convent of the Incarnation, renouncing, by the leave granted them by the Holy See, the obedience of the Order, because this was then expedient for the new Reform, had submitted themselves to the bishop. Nevertheless on the 29th (perhaps one should read, as in Rubeo's letters, the 27th) of April 1567, these three virgins, with the bishop's consent, returned to the obedience of the General: in the meantime, however, the jurisdiction over the new convent and over the nuns recently enrolled in Religion in it remained with the bishop, until the holy Mother, from a divine revelation, saw to it that these too should be made subject to the Order; in what manner we shall tell later. The Chronicle sets out the same thing at greater length; but since I doubt whether it does so accurately enough, I have preferred to adduce the words of Yepes.
[397] of duly founding more convents of nuns, Here now are the letters themselves: Fr. Giovanni Battista Rubeo of Ravenna, Prior and Master General and, by the grace of God, servant of all the Friars and Nuns of the Order of the ever most glorious Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, to the Reverend Mother Teresa of Jesus, prioress of the religious nuns of St. Joseph's at Ávila of the same Order, professed and adorned with the sacred veil in our monastery of the Incarnation, purity of mind and the fervour of burning charity. There is no good merchant or farmer or soldier or man of letters who does not take care and see to it, and use all diligence and endure great labours, to enlarge his house, his household estate, the esteem of his name, in short everything of his. And if they do these things, much more surely ought those who serve God to take care to acquire places, to raise churches and monasteries, and to obtain whatever they can for the benefit of souls and the glory of the divine Majesty. Constantly intent on this, the Reverend Mother Teresa of Jesus, Carmelite, our daughter and humble subject, now with our licence prioress of the reverend monastery of St. Joseph, has petitioned us that, for the honour and glory of God and of His Most Holy Mother, and also for the profit of devout souls, we should give her the faculty and power of making, in any place of the kingdom of Castile, convents of nuns of our sacred Order, to live according to the first rule, with the form of habit and the other holy usages which they hold and keep at St. Joseph's, and the rest that shall have been ordained: and all this under our obedience and that of the other Generals our successors.
[398] which should be immediately subject to the General, Since this wish seems to us most religious and holy, we cannot reject it, but rather cherish, embrace and increase it. Wherefore by the authority of our general office we grant and give to the Reverend Mother Teresa of Jesus, Carmelite and at present prioress at St. Joseph's, and living under our obedience, free faculty of taking and receiving houses, churches, sites and places in every part of Castile, in the name of our Order, for making convents of Carmelite nuns under our immediate obedience. They shall use garments of dark serge cloth; and they shall conform their life in all things to the first rule. No provincial, vicar or prior of this province shall be permitted to command them anything; but only we or he who shall have been appointed to it by our commission. The number of nuns in each convent shall be twenty-five, not more. Before the houses are accepted and the monasteries made, care shall be taken that the blessing be obtained of the Most Illustrious and Reverend Ordinary, bishop or archbishop, or of his vicars, as the Sacred Council commands. And that all things may be done with effect, we permit her (namely Teresa) to bring with her to each monastery that it may happen to be erected two nuns of our convent of the Incarnation at Ávila; namely those who are willing, and no others. Nor shall the provincial be able to hinder them, nor the prioress who shall for the time preside over them, nor any other person whatsoever subject to us, under penalty of deprivation of offices and other grave censures. And the monasteries shall stand under our obedience; otherwise we intend this our concession to have no force. When serge cannot be found, coarse cloth shall be used. And we shall give vicars or commissaries to govern them. Done at Ávila on the 27th of April 1567. Fr. Giovanni Battista Rubeo, General of the Carmelites.
[399] in both Castiles. But since it seemed that a dispute could arise over the name Castile, to forestall every occasion for this Fr. Rubeo issued the following declaration in the month of May: We, Fr. Giovanni Battista Rubeo, General and servant of the whole Order of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel, say: Since we have drawn up and delivered letters patent to the Reverend Mother Teresa of Jesus, prioress at St. Joseph's, so that she may receive, found and make monasteries of our Order in the kingdom of Castile, a doubt could arise concerning the parts of that kingdom, whether Old or New Castile is meant. In order therefore to declare our mind, we say that our licence is to be understood of all Castile, New as well as Old. And again by the authority of our office of General we grant the faculty and freedom to the said Reverend Mother, our daughter, Teresa of Jesus, of receiving, accepting, taking, erecting and founding in any place whatever of the kingdoms of Castile (provided it be outside Andalusia) convents of nuns which shall be under our regular obedience, and not otherwise: and they and their nuns shall be bound to live according to the first rule and our constitutions. And if she should wish to bring with her our most dearly beloved daughters Sister Ana de los Ángeles and Sister María Isabel, and they should be willing to go, this shall be entirely permitted. Likewise, if any others
nuns should wish to join themselves as companions to our daughter Teresa, it shall be open to them. Nor shall anyone of our inferiors, whether friars or nuns, make this our will void, under penalty of rebellion and of grave censures. Done at Madrid on the 16th of May 1567. Fr. Giovanni Battista Rubeo, General of the Carmelites.
[400] [Afterwards he praises her before the king; and what he had refused to the bishop of Ávila,] The General, as you see from this, went back again to the court of Madrid in the month of May. The Chronicle asserts that Fr. Rubeo on this occasion spoke with great praise of Teresa's affairs before King Philip, with whom he had at last been restored to favour; whence the most religious prince, carried away with admiration, asked Rubeo to commend himself and his kingdoms by letter to the prayers of the Saint and her nuns; that when Rubeo had done this, the Saint read these same letters aloud to her daughters; and that from this took its beginning the custom of praying for the king, which in the following times always flourished in a special manner in the reformed Spanish Carmel, and indeed even passed into law. But before the General went away from Ávila to Madrid, the bishop of Ávila, Álvaro de Mendoza (the words are the Saint's), out of his singular zeal toward all whom he sees wishing to serve God with greater perfection, asked him to give licence for founding in his diocese some convents of Discalced Friars observing the first rule, which others too afterwards asked of him. The General himself, indeed, was not averse to this, but because he perceived some opposition on that account in the whole Order, therefore, so as not to disturb the province, he was unwilling to grant it for the present.
[401] at Teresa's urgent request by letter, A few days later, when I was weighing within myself how necessary it was that, since convents of nuns were to be erected, convents of men observing the same rule should also be founded, and saw that these were so few in this province that they seemed about to fail and little by little to die out, having commended the matter to God more intensely in prayer, I wrote to our Fr. General, asking him this thing as humbly as I could, and at the same time setting forth the reasons for which I believed it would be for the service of God, and asserting that the inconveniences which could follow from it were not so great that so good and salutary a work should be given up on their account, and finally recalling to his mind how much it would promote the honour of the Most Blessed Virgin Mother, to whom he was most devoted. The Virgin herself without doubt brought the whole matter to the desired outcome: for when my letters had been delivered to him while he was at Valencia, from there he gave me by letter the power of founding two monasteries for men, as one who desired the greater observance and good of the Order; and, lest any contradiction or difficulty should arise, he committed the whole matter to the judgement both of the provincial who then held that office and of him who had most recently completed it: which was surely arduous and difficult to obtain. But when I saw that what was most weighty had been accomplished as I wished, I conceived the hope that the Lord would bring about the rest. And so indeed it happened; for with the help of the bishop, who held this business at heart quite as his own, both at length gave their assent.
[402] relying on nothing other than divine help, he grants: But although from this faculty received I felt a wonderful consolation in my mind, yet my anxiety and solicitude began to increase the more, because I found none of all the Friars of the whole province, at least of those whom I knew, who was willing to set his mind on passing from the milder rule to this new rigour, nor any layman either who would resolve to give a beginning to such a work. Hence I constantly asked the Lord that He would raise up even one man to begin this work. I did not yet have a house, nor did I know from where I should get one. Behold, then, a poor little Discalced nun, destitute of all human help, but relying on the aid of God alone, furnished only with the letters of her General and with good desires, yet wholly powerless to carry them into execution: and yet neither courage nor hope failed me; for I hoped that the Lord, since He had given the one, would give the other also: whence all things now seemed quite possible; wherefore I began to carry them out in deed. How, O divine Greatness, Thou showest Thy power, when Thou dost inspire boldness in a little ant! How, O my God, it is not owing to Thee that those who love Thee do not accomplish great and heroic works, but to our sloth and faint-heartedness, because we do not make a firm and solid resolution, but keep floating among a thousand fears, and lean too much on human prudence! And hence it is, my God, that Thou dost not work Thy wonders and great deeds. For who rejoices more to give than Thou, if there were one willing to receive? Who accepts services and acts of homage at such cost to himself? May Thy Majesty grant that I may ever have rendered Thee something, and that I may not still owe Thee more for the countless benefits I have received from Thee. Thus far the Saint, in chapter II of the Foundations.
[403] namely that, for the greater service of God, The letters by which Rubeo permitted convents of men to be founded have this tenor: We, Fr. Giovanni Battista Rubeo of Ravenna, Prior General and humble servant of the Friars and Nuns of the Sacred Order of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel, Mother of God, wish to all who shall read these our letters patent the sweet inspirations of the Holy Spirit. We say, and can say with truth, that zeal for the honour of God and for the progress of the religious men and women of this Order, so ancient and so greatly loved by the most serene Queen of Heaven, constantly devours our bowels and spurs us on to spiritual solicitude: and that we grieve greatly when we do not see abundant fruits in the vineyard of Carmel, planted and watered with tears and with the water and blood of the Side of Christ; indeed, with all the blood of His Most Sacred Body and with the pains and bitternesses of His Most Holy Death and Passion. We should wish that all the religious sons of this Order were clear mirrors, burning lamps, kindled torches and shining stars, to illumine and help those who are on pilgrimage in this world. And therefore we especially desire that they spend themselves wholly in continual and familiar converse with God; and that through prayer, intent on holy meditations and contemplations, they strive to unite themselves so closely to Him that their spirit, although still hampered by the flesh, may already live in heaven and serve the body only for mere necessity, and procure for it only those strengths which suffice for it to be filled with a multitude of holy works, not with fictitious titles, with abundance and display of food, clothing or other temporal comforts; but in spirit and truth, with the prudence of serpents and the simplicity of doves: so that they may live free from everything that could destroy and tear out of the soul the holy candour and purity of the burning love and charity of God, forgetful of themselves and absorbed in frequent and lofty elevations; which, indeed, because they do not come by the ordinary way, cannot be explained. Their light now passes swiftly, now clings to and is led round the soul, now withdraws and draws itself back into its inmost centre, now seems also to run about, to fly, to ascend and descend (without the mind most experienced in this life being able to grasp it), leaving tears in the eyes, and in the heart a most sweet and most profitable dew.
[404] two convents of men professing the primeval rule of Carmel may be erected. Moved therefore by these desires which we cherish for the increase of our Religion, we think we ought to assent to the just requests of certain persons, by which it is asked that we permit and give licence that certain houses of religious Friars of our Order may be made and accepted, in which they may be occupied in celebrating the Sacred Mysteries and in reciting and chanting the divine Offices, giving themselves at the fitting hours to prayer, meditation and other spiritual exercises, so that they may be called and may be houses and monasteries of Contemplative Carmelites; likewise that they may help their neighbours, if any offer themselves: living according to the ancient constitutions, in the form to be ordained by us, under the obedience of the Reverend Provincial existing for the time or who shall exist. Wherefore, moved by holy zeal, by the authority of our office of General, by the tenor of these presents we give faculty and power to the Reverend Fathers Masters Fr. Alonso González, provincial of Castile, and Fr. Ángel de Salazar, prior of our convent of Ávila, of receiving in the name of our Order two houses with churches, of our profession, of our obedience and of our habit, under the form contained and declared at length in our Acts; and of establishing in the said houses a Prior and Friars who shall wish to live in all reform and to advance in the perfection of the regular Carmelite life, of which it may truly be said that no other is found more perfect than it, as can be seen in the primitive rule. And that all things may be done with humility and obedience, we ordain that no house be accepted unless the blessing of the Most Reverend Ordinary shall first have been obtained. And none of our inferiors shall be permitted to hinder what the said Reverend Fathers, both joined in this work, shall do according to the form contained in our letters, under penalty of deprivation of place and voice, and of exile from our province of Castile. In faith of which we have ordered these presents to be written, signed with our hand and fortified with the seal of our Order. At Valencia, the 14th of August 1567. We command that it be so observed. Fr. Giovanni Battista Rubeo, General of the Carmelites.
§ XXII. She goes to Medina del Campo, where she founds a second monastery of virgins.
On the evening of the day on which the last letters of the General Rubeo that I have related were written, the holy Mother arrived at Medina del Campo for the sake of founding a new monastery. [At Medina del Campo, the way having been prepared by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus,] The Methymna which is called Campestris, in Spanish however Medina del Campo (for the name Medina, which in Arabic signifies a town, is common to many places throughout Spain: Medina Celi, Medina Sidonia, Medina del Pomar, Medina del Rio seco, Medina de las Torres), Methymna Campestris, I say, is an ancient city of the former kingdom of León on the border of Old Castile, midway on the road between Salamanca and Valladolid: according to the more recent division of the Spains, however, it is assigned to Old Castile itself. It was splendid in antiquity and much more populous than today, rich in markets and in the fertility of its soil; besides this, endowed with such great privileges that the citizens did not hesitate to inscribe on their shield: Ni el Papa beneficio ni el Rei officio, that is: Neither the Pope a benefice nor the King an office; famous finally, to pass over its other distinctions, as the birthplace of Ferdinand I, king of Aragon, and of Ferdinand I, emperor: now too it shines with the elegance of its buildings and other adornment. A college of the Society of Jesus was begun there in the year 1551 by the munificence of Rodrigo Dueñas, a pious and wealthy citizen; and afterwards Pedro Cuadrado, a merchant, enlarged it with revenues, a more ample house and a church, exactly as St. Ignatius had once foretold to the same Pedro at Antwerp. The Fathers of this college, therefore, St. Teresa
resolved to call to her aid. For those Fathers, she says in chapter III, were very acceptable and welcome to the people of Medina, and to them (as I remember having written in the foundation of the first monastery) I had for many years entrusted the state and affairs of my soul, and, since it had received much good through them, I have therefore always had a particular love and affection toward them. I therefore wrote to the rector of the college of Medina what our Fr. General had commissioned me to do. This rector was the one whom I had used as confessor for many years, as has been said elsewhere, though I did not name him: his name is Baltasar Álvarez, who is now provincial. He, then, and the other members of the Society said that they would do whatever they could in this matter; and certainly they applied themselves to it not idly, in order to obtain the faculty both from the people and from the prelate: for because the monastery was to live by begging, great difficulties arose on every side in admitting it; hence the pursuit of the business was put off for some days.
[406] and a certain pious virgin contributing money, To him, therefore, I sent a certain priest, a distinguished servant of God, most estranged from the things of this world, and wonderfully given to prayer. He was serving as chaplain in the monastery in which I was living. The Lord inspired in him the same desires as in me, and we both aimed at the same thing; hence he also rendered me signal service in this matter (as will be seen afterwards). He was called Julián de Ávila. But although I had the faculty of founding, I nevertheless had neither a house nor a farthing to buy one, and how could a stranger, such as I was, have a guarantor and credit (so that I should trust in nothing at all unless the Lord had given it)? The Lord therefore provided that a certain virgin, especially adorned with virtues, for whom there had been no room to be admitted into the monastery of St. Joseph, on hearing that a new house was being prepared, approached me, asking me to admit her into it. She had some money, which however was not so plentiful that a house could be bought with it, but only rented. Hence we rented a certain one, and the rest of the silver was to go to provisions for the journey.
[407] The Saint sets out with six companions; Without any help, then, apart from this, we went out from Ávila, two nuns of St. Joseph's, I, and four from the convent of the Incarnation (that is the place in which the mitigated and relaxed rule was observed, and in which I was living before the house of St. Joseph was erected), accompanied by our chaplain Julián de Ávila. As soon as this became known in the city of Ávila, the greatest commotion and murmuring was stirred up: for some said that I was mad, others thought that the end of this rash and foolish undertaking should be waited for. To the Bishop, indeed (as he himself afterwards told me), it seemed the greatest folly, although at the time he did not say so to me, nor did he wish to hinder me (because he loved me very much), nor to sadden me. My friends had told me as much beforehand. But I paid little heed to all these things; for what they held to be uncertain and doubtful seemed to me so easy and straightforward that I could not persuade myself that it would not succeed well.
[408] whom, while the purchased house was being made ready, she had intended there Before we left Ávila, I wrote to a certain Father of our Order, named Antonio de Heredia (who was then prior in the monastery of Friars of the Carmelite Order which was there, called after St. Anne), asking him to buy me a house. He dealt about this purchase with a certain lady devoted to him, who owned a house, but one almost collapsed from age, except for a fourth part, yet situated in a most convenient place. And she was so accommodating and good that she promised him she would sell it to him; and they even agreed between them on the price, no one being required to stand guarantor, nor any other security than his promise: and indeed, if she had asked for a guarantor or any pledge, we could have given none. But the Lord was disposing everything thus. This house was so ruinous and broken down that, while it was being repaired (and there were many things to be restored there), it was necessary for us to rent that other one. When, therefore, on the first day in the evening, and wearied by the hardships we had had on the road, we were entering Arévalo, a certain priest, a friend of ours, came out to meet us, who had prepared lodging for us with some devout women; and he told me in secret that we had no house, because the one we thought we had was next to a monastery of Augustinians, and these were opposing in every way our living there: hence it would be necessary to settle the matter by a lawsuit.
[409] to lodge for some time in a rented house. Good God, when Thou, Lord, givest courage, how little all the contradictions of adversaries can effect! Indeed this seems rather to have encouraged me, that the devil was even then beginning to stir up disturbances, because he saw that the Lord willed to make use of this monastery. I told the priest, however, to keep silent, so as not to disturb my companions, and especially two of the nuns of the convent of the Incarnation: for the others would gladly have undergone, for my sake, whatever labours might come. Of those two, one was then subprioress at the Incarnation, and various people had tried in many ways to persuade her not to depart from there: both, moreover, were related by blood and lineage to all the leading people in the city, and had followed me against the will of them all; for there was no one who did not think they were acting foolishly and inconsiderately. And afterwards I saw that they had reason to think so. But when the Lord wills me to found some monastery, it seems that my spirit can think of or admit nothing which would hinder me from founding it and carrying out the work, except after the matter is already accomplished: for then all the difficulties present themselves to me all at once, as I shall relate afterwards in its place.
[410] But, to avoid a lawsuit with the Augustinian Fathers, When I came to the place prepared, I learned that a certain Friar of the order of St. Dominic was staying in that place, certainly a distinguished servant of God, whom I had used as confessor while I was at St. Joseph's in Ávila: but because, in describing the foundation of that house, I have spoken much of his virtues, I shall say nothing else of him here than his name, which is Fr. Domingo Báñez. He is a man exceedingly learned and of singular discretion, by whose judgement and direction I did all my affairs; and he did not think the work I was undertaking arduous and laborious as the others did; on the contrary, he promised that its outcome would be easy: for the more one knows God, the easier His works are made for him. Hence, both on account of certain graces which he knew His Majesty had granted me, and on account of the wonderful things he had seen happen in the foundation of St. Joseph's, everything seemed to him entirely possible. When therefore I met him, I was refreshed not a little; for I was persuaded that by his judgement and direction everything would have the happiest outcome for me. When he had come to me, I at once disclosed to him how matters stood: and he gave me hope that the business with the Augustinian Fathers would be settled shortly and easily. But every delay seemed to me far too long, because I did not know what to do with so many nuns whom I had brought with me. Hence we all spent that night in great straits and anxieties, because the matter had by then become known to everyone in that house.
[411] she betakes herself to the purchased house But behold, the next morning Antonio de Heredia, the superior of the Carmelites living there, arrived, saying that the house he had bought, however it might seem, was suitable, and that it had a vestibule fit enough to be adapted as a chapel, with some hangings added. This plan, then, pleased everyone; to me at least it seemed the very best: for, because it involved the least delay and required less time, it was the very thing that was most convenient for us; both because we were outside our monasteries, and because some commotion and opposition had already been aroused, such as I had experienced in the foundation of the earlier monastery. And so I wished most of all that possession should be taken before the matter became known among the people; and that it might be taken we all strove and desired; and this was also the opinion of the Rev. Fr. Domingo Báñez.
[412] on the very night of her arrival; On the eve of the feast of the Virgin's assumption into heaven we arrived at Medina at the twelfth hour of the night, and first turned aside to the monastery of St. Anne, so that the whole affair might be carried out without any noise; and from there we soon went on foot to the house designated. It was moreover a great and evident proof of divine mercy that we did not run into any of those who at that same hour were going to shut up in their pens the bulls that were to be baited the day after the feast: for because we were so intent on the business we were undertaking and as if absorbed in it, we therefore reflected on almost nothing. But the Lord, who takes care of those who have His honour and service as their sole purpose, delivered us from every danger; for certainly we had no other aim and intention in this work. When therefore we came to the designated place, we were let into a certain open court, whose walls I saw collapsed here and there and very much dislocated; but at that time it did not appear so much as it did by day. It seems, moreover, that the Lord willed that good Friar to be blind, when he did not see that that place was most unsuitable and unfitting for placing the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. For when we had seen the vestibule, we found that it was filled with earth, and that this had first to be carried out; then that its roof was open to the injuries of the sky, and its walls not plastered at all.
[413] and adorns a chapel in it as best she can, What remained of the night was short, and we had only a very few hangings (I believe there were three) for covering all that bareness which the vestibule had round about; which were truly as nothing. For my part, I did not know what to do, because I saw that place was not at all suitable for erecting an altar. But it happened (God, who wished the matter to be accomplished as soon as possible, granting it) that the steward of that lady kept many of her hangings in this house, and even a bed-covering of blue Damascene silk: and she had enjoined him to supply us with whatever we needed; for she was very pious. When therefore I saw so good a furnishing, I praised the Lord, as I believe my companions also praised Him; but we lacked nails, nor was there time now to buy them, since it was night: but we drew them out of the walls, searching for them here and there. At length everything that was necessary was found with great labour. Thereupon all begin to apply themselves to the work with emulation: the men hang up the hangings, we clean the place, carrying out the earth. And we were so far from idle that, when day dawned, the altar was already adorned and furnished, and a little bell hung in a certain porch.
[414] into which the Most Holy Eucharist is brought in the morning. This indeed was enough for taking possession
; but we did not stop here, but also brought in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, and through the cracks of a certain door which was opposite we heard the Sacrifice of the Mass: for there was no other convenience for this. This was an occasion of great joy to me, and I rejoiced very much: for it is a very great consolation to me to see one more church in which the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist is kept. But it was very short-lived for me: for when, the Mass being now finished, I had looked down through a window into the court below, I saw that in some places its walls had fallen completely to the ground and were so laid flat that it seemed they could not be raised except by the work of several days. Ah, when I saw the most divine Sacrament of the Altar and the very Majesty of God exposed almost under the open sky and in the street, especially in these dangerous times because of the wicked boldness and licence of the abandoned heretics, what anguish and affliction seized my heart!
[415] Teresa's mind, then sorrowful and anxious, To these were added all those difficulties and contradictions which those could raise against it who had greatly opposed and spoken against this work: indeed I was so persuaded, and clearly understood, that they were not moved to oppose it without reason. Moreover, it seemed to me entirely impossible to pursue further and advance what had now been begun: for, just as at the beginning everything seemed to me exceedingly easy and straightforward, because the whole matter was being done for God, so now temptation so diminished His power that I seemed to have received no grace at all from Him; and my vileness and powerlessness alone were constantly before my eyes: and when I saw myself relying on a thing so frail and weak, what good success could I hope for? It seemed to me, moreover, that if I had been alone I should have been quieter and more tranquil; but because I feared that my companions, on account of that great attack which they had suffered from others because they had left their own monastery, might go back to where they had come from, I was not a little anxious in mind. It seemed to me also that, a grave error having been committed at this beginning, whatever I had before understood the Lord would do would come to nothing and vanish into the air. From this, too, there soon arose that fear that whatever I had learned until now in prayer was an illusion; which of all the pressures was certainly not the least but the greatest: for the greatest fear seized me that the devil was deceiving me by his illusions and tricks. What a thing it is, my God, to see a soul which Thou permittest to be afflicted and straitened! Truly, when I remember this affliction, and also some others which I experienced in the foundations of these monasteries, all bodily pains (although I have suffered very grievous ones too) seem to me nothing, if compared with these.
[416] [is raised up by the conversation of one of the Society of Jesus and by the pious flocking of the citizens to the chapel.] This pressure, however, which certainly tormented and tore me in no ordinary way, I concealed from my companions, lest, this new desolation being added to the former, I should overwhelm them and add grief to grief. It lasted until the evening, when a certain Father sent by the rector of the college of the Society of Jesus raised up my prostrate mind with his words and consoled my sorrowing spirit. To him, however, I did not disclose all the anxieties by which I was then oppressed, but only that which I felt from our staying as it were in public and in the open. I asked him, therefore, to seek out and rent for us a roomier house, to which we might move while these were being restored, and not to be concerned as yet about the price. From then on my anxiety began to be dispelled somewhat, because I saw many flocking to our church, but none of them rebuking our rashness and folly: which happened not without a singular providence of God; for if they had taken the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist away from us, they would have done so with full right and justice. Now indeed I consider my inconsiderateness and stupidity, and also the blindness and inadvertence of all, in that they tolerated it there. But I persuaded myself that, if it were taken away from us, everything would in a manner fall to nothing, and all that had been begun would be thrown into confusion. Houses of this kind for rent were sought with great zeal, but not found: hence a great solicitude held me night and day; for I feared lest, while the guards who kept watch at night in turn over the tabernacle were dozing, someone might steal it. Hence I often rose during the night, to look through the window to see whether they were awake; which I could easily see when the moon was shining. Through all those days many flocked to us, to whom it not only did not appear wrong, but even stirred them to devotion, that the most divine Sacrament had again been placed in that vestibule; and truly His Majesty (as one who is never wearied of humbling Himself for our sake) seemed unwilling to depart from there.
[417] The monastery is at length completed Eight days had now passed, when a certain merchant, seeing the straits of our house, told us to move into the upper part of his house (which he had quite convenient and spacious); that we could live in it as in our own. This had a spacious and gilded hall, which he yielded to us for use as a church: and a certain lady named Elena de Quiroga, a distinguished handmaid of God, told me that she would supply money, so that with it a chapel might be built as soon as possible for fittingly placing the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, and also that our other house might be so restored that we should be set apart from the people. Many others indeed supplied us quite abundantly with the necessaries of life by their alms, but no one was more lavish toward us than this woman. Then at length I began to have greater quiet; because in the house to which we had moved we enjoyed greater solitude and enclosure, and we now began to say the Office of the Hours. In restoring the other house, moreover, the good prior Heredia used wonderful speed; but although he pressed the matter on with constant labour, nevertheless the necessary restoration could not be completed before two months. But it, however it turned out, was nevertheless such that we lived there tolerably enough for some years; afterwards, however, the Lord supplying the means, everything was brought into better form.
[418] Fr. Antonio de Heredia promises to follow the primeval rule of Carmel Although I was then busy with these things, yet in the meantime I kept turning over again and again in my mind that former thought of raising up monasteries of men, and, because I knew no one at all whose mind was ready for it (as has been said), I did not know what to do. I resolved, therefore, to meet the prior Heredia on this matter, and to explore what he would advise me in it. When I did so, he began to be filled with incredible joy, and answered that he would be the first to inaugurate this institute. I paid little heed to his words and did not regard them: for although I was not unaware that he was both a good man and had been until then singular in religion and study and monastic solitude, yet he seemed to me of too delicate a nature, and not made for austerities, and unequal to the rigour and severity of life which had to be undertaken and borne continuously to the end. He, on the contrary, told me that he had long since, at God's prompting, aspired to a more austere life, and had therefore had it in mind to embrace the Carthusian Institute (to which he had already been admitted by them). But these words were not enough for me, although the man's generosity and purpose pleased me wonderfully. Hence I asked him to lay this business aside for a little while, and meanwhile privately, and as it were in the shade, to make trial of what he was going to promise by vow. Antonio complied, and underwent that novitiate for a whole year. In it he was harassed by such calumnies and persecutions of ill-wishers, and by so many and so frequent labours, that the Lord seems to have willed to test him. He, however, bore everything so manfully, and profited so much in spirit from it, that I praised the Lord in a wonderful way; so that His Majesty seemed even then to be disposing him for this.
[419] and St. John of the Cross. Not long afterwards, it happened that another religious of the same Institute, young in age, then studying letters at Salamanca, came here together with a companion. The companion told me many things of his uprightness and religion: and his name was Juan de la Cruz. I gave the Lord the greatest thanks I could on this account; and when I had met him in person, he pleased me wonderfully, and I learned from him that he was thinking of taking up the Carthusian Institute. At once I disclosed my mind, and asked him not to set his mind on taking up that new Institute until the Lord had given us some monastery; and I showed him that it would be far more useful and for the greater glory of God, if he aspired to greater perfection, to exercise it in the Order to which he had first been called. John gave his word, provided the erection of this monastery were not put off longer than was fair. Already I thought I had the whole matter accomplished, since I had two Friars for laying the foundations and for beginning, although Antonio did not satisfy me in every respect: and so I put the matter off a little, chiefly because there was lacking a place in which to inaugurate it.
[420] The esteem in which Teresa's nuns were held among the people of Medina. The esteem and name of the nuns was growing day by day among the people of Medina, and these showed a singular love and affection toward them; and, as it seems to me at least, deservedly: for each of them looked to nothing else for herself than how she might serve the Lord more. And they followed the same manner of life as those who lived at St. Joseph's in Ávila, because both had the same rule and constitutions. Hence too the Lord moved some virgins to take our habit; to whom He granted such singular and exceptional graces that I marvelled within myself. May He be blessed for ever. Amen. For He seems to look to and intend nothing else than to be loved in order that He may love. What the Saint here sets out in general concerning the holy conduct of the nuns of Medina, the author of the Chronicle demonstrates more particularly, adducing many examples (book 2, chapters VI and VII). These things, however, although they enlarge not a little the glory of St. Teresa, the Mother of such offspring, would lead me into too wide and laborious a field for me to be able to dwell on each; I shall rather treat of them together elsewhere: and I would have the reader similarly advised of this for the other foundations which will follow. Nor shall I say much in explaining what has just occurred, and will yet occur further on, concerning St. John of the Cross, lest I seem to usurp the part of him who, God granting, will comment on the life of that Saint at the 24th of November. Accordingly, omitting also the journey to Alcalá, which Ribera relates (book 3, chapter V) was undertaken by the Saint after the foundation at Medina, let us transfer our pen to Malagón and Valladolid. In these places, namely, in the year 1568 she made two foundations, which she describes in chapters IX and X.
§ XXIII. She erects a third convent for her nuns at Malagón: she sees to the creation of a school for girls there. She sends the book of her Life to the Ven. Juan de Ávila. At Valladolid she gives a beginning to her fourth monastery.
Luisa de la Cerda offering an annual revenue, The foundation at Valladolid was indeed begun to be treated of before that at Malagón; but the latter was brought into effect before the former, and therefore it is described first by St. Teresa in these words: There was then living at Toledo the sister of the Duke of Medinaceli (Luisa de la Cerda), in whose house I had stayed for some days by order of my superiors (as I declared at greater length in the foundation at Ávila). She, having learned that leave had been given me by my superiors to found other monasteries, began to press me with the most urgent entreaties to establish a convent likewise in her town of Malagón. At first I declined it, and would not agree, because that town was so small that the house would necessarily have to be established with annual revenues, so that the nuns might have the necessary means of life; from which I was most of all averse. Hence I conferred about the matter with learned men, and especially with one of my confessors: who asserted that I was acting wrongly; for since by the authority of the Sacred Council of Trent annual revenues were granted to monasteries, it did not at all seem that the foundation of a monastery, in which (as it seemed to me at least) so great a service could be rendered to God, should be omitted. To this were added the frequent and importunate entreaties of that lady; hence I could not but agree to it. She assigned most liberally whatever was necessary year by year. For I am always of the opinion that our monasteries should either be entirely without revenues, or, if they have them, that these should be so abundant that the nuns are not forced to beg the necessaries of their life from anyone.
[422] The Saint establishes a monastery at Malagón. For my part I strove with all the strength I could to bring it about that none of the nuns should possess anything of her own, but that each should keep the constitutions in all things, as they were kept in the other monasteries professing poverty. The deeds of foundation having now been drawn up, I summoned some nuns to lay its beginnings; with whom, together with the aforesaid lady, we went to Malagón. When we had arrived there, we stayed eight days and more in a certain part of the castle of that place, because the house designated for habitation was not yet prepared for religious uses. On Palm Sunday, therefore, in the year of the Lord 1568, a procession of the townspeople going before, clothed in our white mantles and with our faces covered with veils, we were led to the church of the place; from there, after a sermon had been preached, the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar was carried to our monastery, which moved a great feeling of piety in all. I stayed here some days; and once, when, having received Holy Communion, I was engaged in prayer, I learned by the Lord's revelation that great service would be rendered to Him in that house. I seem to have stayed there scarcely two whole months, because the spirit was urging and in a manner compelling me to go away to found the convent of Valladolid.
[423] To which, before she departs from there, Teresa, namely, left Malagón on the 19th of May, as is clear from the letter which she wrote on the day before that day to Luisa, then staying in Andalusia (vol. III, letter 4). Two days later, as another letter to the same lady shows (vol. IV, letter 11), she arrived at Toledo accompanied by the parish priest of Malagón, her health so gravely affected by the heat of the sun that it was necessary to relieve her in her illness twice by blood-letting and once by a purgative draught. On the day after the Ascension of the Lord, which that year fell on the 27th of May, she went from Toledo to Escalona, whither she was invited by the Marchioness of Villena and Escalona. Having spent the Sunday there, at length on the Wednesday, that is the 2nd of June, she reached Ávila (vol. IV, letter 12); intending from there to go to Valladolid after the feast of SS. Peter and Paul, as she wrote on the 23rd of that month to Luisa de la Cerda (vol. II, letter 10). But in the meantime, while she was staying at Ávila, Rafael Mejía Velázquez met her about raising up a convent of men at Duruelo, as will have to be explained elsewhere. From this true and certain chronology the author of the Chronicle went astray, since he was deprived of the help and light of many of Teresa's letters which we now have, and was therefore forced to pursue the matter by conjecture. From the same letters many other facts become known to us which escaped the old biographers of the holy Virgin either in part or altogether. Wherefore I shall note the chief ones here, adding also some drawn from elsewhere.
[424] she assigns a good confessor. And first as regards the foundation at Malagón. In this, excellent service was rendered to St. Teresa both by the parish priest of the place, to whom she is said in the Chronicle (book 2, chapter XI, no. 3) to have confessed, and by the steward of Luisa de la Cerda, and finally by Alonso and Antonio de Cabria, and also a certain Carleval, whose brother Teresa on setting out left at Malagón, to be confessor to the new monastery. This confessor is highly praised for holiness of life and exceptional experience of spiritual things; on account of which endowments he merited to be called by the holy Virgin a man of God, and to be said to be second in his office to none but Fr. Pablo Hernández S.J. The nuns for their part congratulated themselves on having obtained such a director; and as in number, so in religious perfection they grew wonderfully in a short time: so that the holy Mother testifies that there was nothing further she could have desired. It is credible that some spiritual service was also rendered to them by him whom I just named, Fr. Hernández, whom Teresa was accustomed to employ at Toledo as the judge of her conscience, and who also once went out to her when she was labouring at Malagón: but more will have to be said of him at the foundation of Toledo.
[425] She sees to the erection of a school for girls there Furthermore, our Saint not only adorned the township of Malagón with a monastery; she also endowed it with a certain useful institution, of which she herself records the following: We have resolved to send for a woman very much a "Theatine" (that is, imbued with the spiritual discipline of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus; for at that time these were commonly called Theatines in Spain), who, living at the expense of the house, may teach little girls women's work free of charge; and under that pretext may instruct them in Christian doctrine and piety, which is a matter of the greatest moment. Moreover, Carleval has ordered a boy and some orphan girl to be found to wait on them, he himself also intending to teach Christian doctrine together with the parish priest. I hope in the Lord that the matter will have a prosperous success. To embrace everything in summary, I applaud myself for this labour: and I would have you in turn applaud yourself, and not fear that anything will be taken from the observance of that house by my departure. For my part I am persuaded in God that, both by the piety of the nuns, which is very great, and by the efforts of the confessor as well as of the parish priest, who will not forget them, it will come about that they advance more and more day by day. Thus the Saint (vol. IV, letter 11).
[426] and the book of her Life to be carried to the Ven. Juan de Ávila, Something further which is drawn from the letters cited in this paragraph is what I shall now state. St. Teresa had entrusted to Luisa de la Cerda, when she was setting out for Andalusia, the account of her Life, to be examined by Juan de Ávila. The one who had urged the Saint to consult this celebrated master of the spiritual life was Francisco de Soto y Salazar, Inquisitor of the Faith (see letter 19 of volume I, which Ribera relates almost entire, book IV, chapter IV). Luisa was delaying the execution of the commission, waiting, for I know not what reason, for Fr. Gaspar de Salazar S.J., formerly rector of the college of Ávila, but then of that of Mancena in Andalusia (History of the Society of Jesus, part III, book 3, no. 194). Weary of the delay, Teresa wrote on this matter to Luisa in these very words (vol. III, letter 40), from which you may see how highly she valued the judgement and opinion of Juan de Ávila: I cannot understand why you still put off sending this account of mine to the master Ávila. Truly, for the love of God, send the writing this very hour: for I hear that it is no more than a day's journey there. If you are waiting for Salazar, you do wrong: since he will not be able, if he is rector, to visit even you, much less Fr. Ávila. Therefore, if the sending has not yet been done, let it be done as soon as possible, I beseech you. For in truth I have grieved that the thing has not been done until now, perhaps through the cunning of the devil. I had advised the lord licentiate (he was a certain chaplain of Luisa's) that, whenever he went there, he should carry the little book with him: but it is annoying to the demon, I believe, that it should be submitted to the eyes of the holy man. Again therefore, and again, I urge you to dispatch this business of mine, and to do what I had asked you at Toledo. For it matters more than you think. And again a few days later: I fear, she says (vol. IV, letter 11), that through the devil's arts the master Ávila will never see that writing of mine, indeed that he may die before he can see it; which would be entirely to be lamented.
[427] who approves it. The little book at length came into the hands of the master Juan; who, having read and examined it diligently, assured the holy Mother by a letter given at Montilla on the 12th of September 1568 that the whole matter was from God: wherefore she should fear nothing, but live altogether secure and tranquil. This letter, to use at once the example and the words of the Ven. Luis of Granada in the Life of the Rev. Fr. Master Juan de Ávila (part I, chapter III, § II), because it is rather long, and treats very spiritual and delicate subjects which not everyone is able to grasp, I forbear to place here. There is also read another letter of the Venerable man to St. Teresa on the same subject, which he wrote on the 12th of April 1569, a few weeks before his death. For on the 10th day of the following May he departed from this life.
[428] To free from purgatory the young nobleman who had given the house, We must now return to the book of the Foundations, in which the history of the foundation of Valladolid presents itself. About four or five months, says the Saint, before the house of Malagón was founded, a certain young man of noble equestrian rank had dealt with me, saying that he was most ready, if I wished to found a convent at Valladolid, to offer me for founding it the house he had there, and also a good and large garden adjoining it, which had a quite ample vineyard. He kept urging me again and again to take possession of it as soon as possible. It was certainly of great value. I, moreover, accepted it, although I was not much inclined to found a monastery in that place, because it was about a quarter of a league distant from the city: but I thought we could without difficulty move from there into the city, once possession had been taken there. Since he offered that donation so gladly and willingly, I could not refuse so good a work of his, or disturb his devotion. About two months had passed since then, when suddenly he was overwhelmed by an acute seizure, and one so sudden indeed that, deprived of all use of his tongue, he could not conveniently make his Confession of sins, although many signs of interior
sorrow for having offended God he gave. And so he was snatched from this life very quickly and suddenly, and far, moreover, from the place where I was staying. The Lord, however, showed me in a vision that his salvation had been in the greatest peril, but that He had had mercy on him on account of the service rendered to His Mother in offering her this house, in which a monastery was to be built for the members of the Order dedicated to her; and that he would not be freed from the fire of purgatory before the first Host was offered to God at the altar in that same house; but that, once it had been offered, he would come out from there.
[429] [The Saint hastens to Valladolid; where, the foundation having been made as quickly as possible,] The most bitter torments which that soul was suffering there were so present to me and as it were before my eyes, that, although I desired most earnestly to found the house of Toledo first, yet I then laid that care aside, and urged and spurred myself on to found that of Valladolid in whatever way I could. I could not, however, depart for Valladolid as quickly as I wished, because I necessarily had to stay for some days in the convent of Ávila, which had been entrusted to my care, and then in that of Medina (for I went there too). While I was at Medina and engaged in prayer, the Lord warned me to hasten my departure, because that soul was suffering very much. Hence, although I was poorly furnished for this, I carried out the matter in deed and entered Valladolid on the very feast-day of the Blessed Martyr Lawrence. As soon as I inspected the house in person, I began to be greatly troubled and distressed, because I saw that the nuns could not live there without enormous and intolerable expense: and although it would be suited to recreation of mind, because it had a very pleasant garden annexed, it could not, however, fail to be unhealthy, because it was situated beside a river flowing past. Although I was already wearied from the journey, I went to a certain convent of our Order, which was situated just at the entrance of the city, to hear Mass. It was so far distant from the house that this increased my pain; but I said no word about the matter to my companions, so as not to sadden them, because I had hope and confidence (though slender enough) that the Lord, who had told and signified those former things to me, would provide for everything. Hence I secretly summoned workmen, and ordered them to build walls here and there by which our enclosure and solitude might be provided for, and to prepare to begin the other necessary things. With us had come the priest I mentioned, Julián de Ávila, and one or other of those two Friars who wished to begin the Order of the Discalced; who in the meantime was inquiring about the manner of life which we observed in these houses. Julián, moreover, laboured earnestly to obtain the faculty from the Ordinary of the place, who even before I went there had given good hope of it. But it could not be obtained so quickly but that Sunday was already at hand: nevertheless the faculty was granted us for offering Mass in the place which we had prepared in the form of a church; and this was done.
[430] she sees that young man enrolled among the Heavenly ones. I was far, however, from thinking that by this Mass what the Lord had told me concerning that soul would be fulfilled: for, although I had been told that that soul would be freed by the first Host offered in that house, yet I believed that this would happen only at that Mass at which the Venerable Sacrament would at the same time be brought into the church for the first time. When, therefore, the priest was bringing the most holy food of heaven to the place where we were waiting to communicate, and was now preparing to make me a partaker of it, behold, that gentleman I mentioned showed himself to my sight beside the priest, with a comely countenance and a radiant and joyful face, and with folded hands, and gave immense thanks for the benefit he had received through my efforts of deliverance from the pains of purgatory. And so that soul soon flew away to the heavenly mansions. And certainly, when I first understood that he was on the way of salvation, and certain of it, I could scarcely persuade myself of it, and I was very anxious within myself; because, given the manner of life he had led, it seemed to me that he must meet another kind of death, by which he could attain salvation. For (to pass over other things) he had been wholly immersed in the vanities of the world; although (to confess the truth) he told my companions that, while he lived, he frequently kept the remembrance of death before his eyes. It is certainly wonderful and remarkable that whatever service is shown to His Mother is pleasing and acceptable to the Lord. Truly immense is His mercy. May He be praised and blessed for all things, that He so recompenses the vileness of our works with life and eternal glory, and, though they are of very slight value, renders them great and precious.
[431] This house, however, is afterwards exchanged for a better one. When, therefore, the feast of the assumption into heaven of the Virgin Mother of God was being kept, namely on the fifteenth day of August, in the year of the Lord 1568, possession of that house was duly entered upon. But we did not stay long in that place, because almost all of us fell ill. On seeing this, María de Mendoza, a woman of illustrious family, wife of the commander Cobos and mother of the Marquis of Camarasa, eminent in piety, religion and charity (which her alms, poured out quite frequently upon the needy, plainly declared), then rendered me the same offices of charity as before. For I knew her intimately: for she is the sister of the bishop of Ávila, and in the foundation of the first monastery she had rendered us signal help, and also in all things pertaining to the whole Order. Since, therefore, she was full of charity and affection, and saw that we could live there only with the greatest difficulty, both because the place was rather far from the city for receiving alms, and because it was unhealthy and liable to illnesses, she asked us to give this house up to her, saying that she would buy another in its place. As she said, she did. And the one she gave us was worth much more, because at the same time she gave everything that was necessary to us, and indeed gives it to this day, and will give it as long as she lives. On the feast of St. Blaise, with the solemn rite of a procession of the people, who were well disposed toward us, we moved there. This affection, moreover, the people always preserves toward us, because the Lord uses great mercy toward this convent, and has called to it such virgins that the holiness of their life will have to be described at some time in its season, so that the Lord Himself may be praised and glorified, who wills by means and instruments of this kind to exalt His works and to show favour to His creatures. To this narrative I have nothing to add; since what the holy Mother did not express entirely or clearly enough, the reader can easily supply from Ribera. Of the many letters, however, which the Saint wrote at Valladolid in this year 1568, only two remain to us: namely one to the pious gentleman of Ávila, Francisco de Salcedo (vol. II, letter 56); the other to the often-praised lady Luisa de la Cerda (vol. I, letter 10). The bearer of the former seems to have been St. John of the Cross, of whom it contains a most beautiful eulogy, and who is related in the Chronicle (book 2, chapter XIX, no. 2) to have gone from Valladolid to Ávila at the turn of September.
§ XXIV. St. John of the Cross and Fr. Antonio of Jesus lay the beginnings of the convent of men at Duruelo, procured by the efforts of St. Teresa. The same convent is afterwards transferred to Mancera.
To Teresa, about to set out for Valladolid, The holy Mother devotes the latter part of chapter X and chapters XI and XII to the eulogies of three nuns of Valladolid: namely Brianda de Acuña, Casilda de Padilla and Beatriz Oñez; who, on taking the religious habit, were called Teresa of Jesus, Casilda of the Conception and Beatriz of the Incarnation. Then, in the two following chapters, she unfolds the history of the erection of the first convent of men of the Order of Discalced Carmelites: which erection, since it was always held by her among the greatest benefits of God, she celebrates out of the fervour of a grateful heart with so brilliant and so flowing a discourse that scarcely anything needs to be noted by me on it. Before, she says, I went away to found the monastery of Valladolid, I had already agreed with Fr. Antonio of Jesus (who was then prior in the convent of St. Anne of the Carmelite Order at Medina) and with Fr. Juan de la Cruz (as I said before), that, if any monastery of Friars following the first rule of the Discalced should be founded, they would be the first to profess it. Since, however, I did not know where I could get a house, I kept commending that business to God in prayer; because (as I have already noted above) those two Fathers already pleased me. For the Lord Himself had wonderfully exercised Fr. Antonio of Jesus through various labours, which he had endured with great perfection, for a whole year (for almost that much time had already passed since the day on which I first dealt with him about this matter): but Juan de la Cruz did not at all need to be tested; for (although he had professed the Order of Calced Carmelites) he had always led a very exemplary and religious life.
[433] Rafael Mejía had offered the house at Duruelo: It pleased the Lord at length, since He had given me what was chief, the friars, I mean, to lay the foundations of the matter, to give the rest also. For a certain nobleman of Ávila, surnamed Rafael, with whom I had never dealt before, having learned from I know not where (for I do not remember) that there was talk of building a certain monastery of the Discalced, came to me of his own accord, and spontaneously offered me a house which he had in a certain hamlet of very few inhabitants (for there seem to me to have been scarcely twenty, for I do not now properly remember), for the use of a certain bailiff, who collected in his name the grain which fell to him there each year from his rents. I, though I saw what sort of house it could be, blessed the Lord and gave Him thanks. He said that those going to Medina del Campo passed through this hamlet; and that I, going away to Valladolid to make the foundation, must necessarily pass through it (for this was the direct road), and could then inspect it. I said I would do so, as I did; for in the month of June I departed from Ávila together with a companion and with Julián de Ávila (who was the priest I mentioned, and who rendered me diligent service on these journeys, the chaplain of our monastery of Ávila).
[434] and she herself had gone to inspect it on her journey; We set out on the journey very early in the morning, and since we did not know which way to go, we therefore strayed from the road; and because this hamlet was little known and obscure, we could not learn much about its situation: hence that whole day we underwent great labour and trouble in travelling, because the heat of the sun was violent and intense. And when we thought we were now near the hamlet, we were so far from it that we still had to cover as much road as we had already covered. The memory of the trouble, weariness and wandering which we underwent on this road is always present before my eyes. A little before nightfall
we came to that place: but when we had entered the house, we found it in such a state that we did not dare to lodge there that night, both on account of the countless filth with which it swarmed, and because a great number of reapers were lodging there. It had a porch of some size, and also a double room with its space between, and lastly a small kitchen. This was the whole structure and building of our monastery. I was determining that a church could be fitted up out of the porch, a choir, narrowly indeed, out of the intermediate space; and that the double room could be adapted as dormitory and refectory. My companion, although she was much better than I and very devoted to penance, could not bear that I should wish to adapt a monastery out of that place; hence she said to me: "Certainly, Mother, there is no spirit, however good, that could bear this: so do not, I beg you, treat of it any further." The priest, however, who was our companion on the road, although he was of the same opinion as my companion, did not oppose me at all when he heard my intention and purpose. We went at night into the nearby church for the sake of getting some sleep; for, because we were so wearied and exhausted with travelling, we should not have wished to pass it in watching.
[435] and, the Fathers ready to inhabit it having been advised beforehand, When we arrived at Medina, I at once spoke with Fr. Antonio, and disclosed to him how matters stood, and promised that, if only he had the courage to live there for some time, God would very soon bring help and remedy: there was need only of a beginning; for in that all the difficulty consisted. I seemed to have as present and before my eyes what the Lord afterwards wrought, and as certainly (so to speak) as I now see it, indeed even much more than I have seen done until now. For at this very time at which I am writing this, there are counted (such is the goodness of God) ten convents of the Discalced. I added moreover that he should be persuaded that the provincials, both the one who had most recently completed his office and the one now presiding, would by no means give us licence for this (for, as I said above at the beginning, the matter had to be carried out with their good leave) if they saw us inaugurating the matter in some large and spacious house; to say nothing of the fact that nothing better then presented itself to us: but while they lived in that mean hamlet and house, there would be no one at all to hinder them. God had certainly given him more courage than me: hence he said he was ready to live not only there, but even in a pigsty. Of the same fortitude and purpose was Fr. Juan de la Cruz also; so that nothing else remained for us than to obtain the faculty of those two Fathers provincial whom I mentioned: for it was on this condition that our Fr. General had given me the power of carrying this out. For my part I hoped in the Lord that this faculty would by no means be denied us. Hence I told Fr. Antonio to busy himself in the meantime with all his might to gather whatever furniture was necessary for the house, in whatever way he could: I, however, together with Fr. Juan de la Cruz, went on to accomplish the foundation of Valladolid, which has already been described.
[436] at the time of the Valladolid foundation Since for some days we were living among the workmen who were adapting the house, which was without enclosure, to enclosure, Fr. Juan de la Cruz meanwhile had convenient place and time to inquire into our whole manner of life, so that he might thus have our whole rule well understood, both as to mortification and as to the manner of mutual fellowship and the recreation which is sometimes had among us. For all recreation is granted with such moderation that it is understood to be granted only for coming to know the imperfections of the sisters on such an occasion, and for taking a little relaxation, in order the better to bear the rigour of the rule. He, however, was of so upright a life that I could learn more from him than he from me: but this was not what I had in view, but only that by this means he might see the manner and form of life which the sisters observed.
[437] she had obtained the assent of the provincial and of the prior of Ávila. God, moreover, so disposing, it happened that the provincial of our Order, whose good pleasure and faculty were required, Fr. Alonso González, an old man of the best disposition and free from all malice, then came there. I said so much to him, when I asked him for the faculty to inaugurate this work, and about the account he would have to render to God the judge if he hindered so good a work, that, His Majesty disposing him, because He willed this very thing to be carried into execution, he answered me very moderately and calmly. And when afterwards Doña María de Mendoza and the bishop of Ávila, who is her brother, and who has always favoured and helped us, had met him, they easily settled the business with him, and also with Fr. Ángel de Salazar, the former provincial, from whom I feared more difficulty and opposition was impending. But it then happened by chance that an occasion arose in which he needed the favour and help of Doña María de Mendoza; and I am persuaded that this conduced not a little to obtaining the aforesaid faculty: to say nothing of the fact that, even had this occasion not offered, the Lord would have inspired this will in his mind, as also our Fr. General, who seemed exceedingly averse to this proposal, changed his mind. How many things, good God, have I seen in these affairs which seemed altogether impossible brought happily to a conclusion by the divine Majesty, all difficulties overcome! Ah, how great is my confusion that I have seen what I have seen and am not better than I am! Certainly now, while I write this, I am still astonished, and I would wish the Lord to make clear to everyone in the world that there is almost nothing which we creatures have contributed in these foundations: for the Lord Himself alone has disposed all things, and that through certain beginnings and foundations so slender that His Majesty alone could have raised them to the state in which they now are. May He be blessed for ever.
[438] This new convent, therefore, When, therefore, I had these two wills in my power, nothing further seemed to me to be lacking. We decided, then, that Fr. Juan de la Cruz should go to the house I mentioned, and should so adapt and fit it up that it could be lived in in whatever way was possible: for I thought there was need of haste until the matter was once begun; for I feared not a little lest some unexpected obstacle should arise for us. And so the thing was done. Fr. Antonio had already collected some furniture necessary for use; and we too on our part helped him as far as we could (and we could do little). Soon he hastened to Valladolid to meet me with great jubilation of spirit, and told me what he had collected, which was certainly exceedingly little: he was well furnished only with clocks; for he had procured five for himself: whence he gave me a fine occasion for laughter. He said he had procured them in order to have the hours well regulated, because he did not wish to be overtaken by time and to do his tasks at unregulated times. I truly believe he did not even then have anything on which to sleep. In adapting the house for our use the work proceeded somewhat slowly, because money for building was lacking, although they wished many things to be done otherwise. The matter at length accomplished, Fr. Antonio, renouncing his priorship with remarkable readiness of mind and most willingly, bound himself by vow to observe the first rule; indeed he did not even wish first to make some trial of it in the shade, as I advised: hence he soon betook himself with the greatest joy and gladness of spirit to his new hut. Juan de la Cruz, however, was already living there.
[439] uncomfortable indeed for the flesh, This Antonio afterwards assured me that, as soon as he came in sight of that village, he felt the greatest interior joy, and it seemed to him that he had now completely vanquished the world, because he was now forsaking it utterly and hiding himself in that solitude. Hence that little house displeased neither him nor John; but they thought they were living in the highest and greatest delights. How little, O good God, these buildings and exterior delights and recreations conduce to interior peace! Hence for His love I beseech you, dearest ones, and you, Fathers, always to use all the moderation you can in houses large and costly. Let our true founders be before our eyes, who are those holy Fathers from whom we descend, who we know came to the enjoyment of God by this way of poverty and humility.
[440] but where spiritual delights abound. And truly, to confess what the fact is, I have always seen more spirit and also more interior joy flourish when the comforts and recreations of their bodies seem to be lacking to them than afterwards when they now have a large house and their comforts. However great it may be, what good or fruit follows to us from it, since we continually have the use of only one cell? If it be most spacious and well built, what does it matter to us, since we need not look at and contemplate the walls? If likewise we consider that it is not a house which is to last us for ever, but only for so short a time as our life lasts (however long it may be), everything will seem most sweet to us, knowing that the fewer things we have here on earth, the more we shall possess in that eternity, in which dwellings and mansions are given us according to the smallness or greatness of the love with which we have imitated the life of our good Jesus. If we have said that these are the beginnings for renewing the rule of the Blessed Virgin, His Mother, our Lady and Patroness, let us not, I pray, inflict this injury on her, nor on our holy Fathers who have gone before us, as to be unwilling to imitate their life: and, although on account of our weakness we cannot imitate them in all things, at least in those things which neither help nor hinder the sustenance of life we must proceed with great circumspection; since it is all nothing but a certain moderate labour, and that a savoury one, such as those two Fathers had at the beginning: and when once we generously resolve and purpose within ourselves to overcome it, every difficulty is already vanquished, since every pain is only something moderate at the beginning.
[441] is founded on the 28th of November 1568. On the first or second Sunday of Advent of this year 1568 (for I do not well remember which of these Sundays it was) the first Mass was celebrated in that little Bethlehem porch (for nothing seems to me to have been more precious than it). The holy Virgin's forgetfulness is certainly to be pardoned; but nevertheless it is to be made good where we can. She should have said the first Sunday of Advent, as is clear from the memorial book of the convent of Duruelo; at the head of which book, on the testimony of the author of the Chronicle, the following was set down: In the year 1568
, on the 28th day of November, in the place named Duruelo, this monastery of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel was founded; and in it the primitive rule began to be observed with its rigour, such as our first Fathers left it to us, with the favour and grace of the Holy Spirit. While the very Reverend Fr. Master Fr. Alonso González governed this province, Frs. Antonio of Jesus, Juan de la Cruz and José de Cristo began, with the grace of God, to lead a life according to the rigour of the rule. The house and site were assigned to us by the illustrious man Rafael Mejía Velázquez, lord of the said township. To the erection of the said house and monastery the Most Illustrious Lord Álvaro de Mendoza, bishop of Ávila, consented. Thus the record there. Let us return to Teresa's text.
[442] Passing through that place, the Saint marvels at the poverty, In the following Lent, when I was passing through that place on my way to the Toledo foundation, and visited it very early in the morning, I found Fr. Antonio sweeping the door of the church with a broom, his face composed to the greatest cheerfulness, such as he always shows. I said to him: "What is this, my Father? Where now is honour?" He at once replied, at the same time signifying to me the wonderful joy which he continually felt: "I curse the time when I ever made much of it." Entering the church, I marvelled at the abundance of spirit and devotion which the Lord had put into that place: and not only I, but also two merchants, who had accompanied me there all the way from Medina, and were my patrons, kept weeping: for everything on every side was full of crosses and skulls of the dead. Never, indeed, has there fallen from my memory a certain small cross carved of wood, beside the holy-water vessel, to which a certain paper image of Christ crucified was attached, which seemed to breathe greater devotion than if it had been made of precious material and most artfully wrought. The choir was that intermediate space, which was rather high in the middle, so that they could recite the Hours in it; but those entering and about to hear Mass in it had to stoop very low. They had there, in little corners extending toward the church, two little hermitages, in which they could stay only sitting or lying on the ground, filled with hay; for both the place was very cold and the roof almost touched the head. They had there two little windows looking toward the altar, and two stones for pillows; they also had their crosses and skulls there.
[443] the piety I understood that, Matins having been said, they did not leave from there until Prime, but remained there in prayer, which they made rather long; and that it sometimes happened that, when they went to Prime, they walked through deep snow with their garments, and yet did not feel it. They recited their Hours with a certain other Father of the mitigated Order, who had gone there to live with them (although he had not changed his habit, because he was of rather weak health), and with a certain other young brother, who had not yet been initiated into sacred Orders, and who also lived there. They went out preaching to many neighbouring places which were destitute of teachers and teaching; hence for this reason also I rejoiced that that house had been established there, because, namely, I understood that there was no monastery there in the neighbourhood, nor did any hope of having one appear. Which was certainly a thing truly to be deplored.
[444] and apostolic zeal of the companions. In a short time they had gained so great an authority among the country folk that, when I first learned of it, it was an occasion of the greatest consolation to me. They went, as I have already said, to preach, a league and a half, or even two, barefoot (for at that time they did not wear socks or sandals, which they were afterwards first ordered to put on), through deep snows and in the greatest cold; and, after they had spent the whole day in preaching and in hearing Confessions, they returned home only toward evening, to take some food. But the joy and pleasure which they felt from it made everything seem little and slight to them. The necessaries of life were sufficiently supplied to them: for more food was brought to them from the places situated round about than they needed; indeed some noblemen too, living in those places and hamlets, came to them for the sake of Confession; who at the same time already offered them more convenient and better situated houses.
[445] They move to Mancera, Among others was a certain Luis, lord of five towns. He had built a chapel for a certain image of the Most Blessed Virgin, which was certainly most worthy of all veneration and honour, and which his father had sent from the Low Countries to his grandmother or mother (for I do not well remember) by a certain merchant. He was moreover so attached to it that he kept it in his house for many years, and indeed afterwards at the hour of death ordered it to be brought to him. It is a certain large panel, than which, on my life, I have seen nothing either better or more elegant; which very many others also testify with me. Moreover Fr. Antonio of Jesus, when at Luis's request he had gone to the aforesaid place and had seen that image in person, began to be so attached to it (and not without reason) that he did not refuse to transfer the monastery there (the place is named Mancera), although it suffered from a lack of well-water, and there seemed to be no means of having any there. Luis built them a small monastery (in keeping with their vocation and profession); and he also added ornaments to the church, and completed everything well.
[446] where they find water in a wonderful way. I do not wish to omit relating here the way in which the Lord gave them water, because the thing was held to be a miracle. For one day, when Fr. Antonio, who was prior, was talking with his Friars in the cloister after supper, and was conversing about the lack of water from which they were suffering, behold, rising suddenly, with a certain staff which he had in his hands he formed the sign of the cross in a certain part of the court (as it seems to me at least; for now I do not remember well enough whether he made a cross with it: at least he marked the place with the staff itself), saying: "Now dig here." They had scarcely dug out a little earth, when so much water suddenly burst forth that its force cannot now be restrained even for cleaning the well: and this water is most savoury and most suitable for drinking; for during the whole time in which the building was done, water was drawn from there, and never (as I said) is the well emptied. But after they had enclosed a certain garden with a wall, they tried to have water in it and made various pits in it, spending much money, and yet until now (after all their labour) they have not been able to find it.
[447] Yet Duruelo, When, therefore, I saw that that little house, in which a little before one could scarcely live, breathed such devotion that, wherever I turned my eyes, I saw things that edified me, and at the same time heard what rule of living those first ones kept, and also how they applied themselves to mortification and prayer, and how good an example they gave to all (for a certain nobleman and his wife, whom I knew, and who lived in a certain neighbouring hamlet, came there to visit me; and they related to me many things of their holiness, and also of the exceptional fruit they were producing among the people of that hamlet), I could not have my fill of giving thanks to the Lord; and this with a certain very great joy of heart, because I saw that certain beginnings had already been given to a thing which would wonderfully serve the increase of our Order and the signal service of the Lord.
[448] where they had so fervently inaugurated a more rigorous life, May His Majesty deign always to advance it further, as indeed it is now proceeding: for then my thought and conception will prove most true. The merchants who had come with me said that not for the whole world would they have wished not to have come with me. How great a thing is virtue, that this poverty pleased them more than all the riches which they themselves possessed, and that this too satisfied and consoled their spirit! After those Fathers and I had treated of some matters, I asked them above all as earnestly as possible (weak and wicked as I myself am) not to be so rigorous with themselves in undertaking austerities as they were: for I feared lest what had cost me so many vows and prayers before the Lord, namely that He would give me someone to inaugurate the matter, and what was now proceeding so well, should utterly collapse, the devil seeking a means of finishing and overturning them before what I had conceived and hoped for should be brought to its outcome: but, because I was imperfect and of little faith, I did not consider that it was the work of God, and that His Majesty would advance it. But they (because they had what I lacked) paid little heed to my words about interrupting their exercises. Hence I departed from there with the greatest consolation of mind, although I did not give God thanks equal to those which so great a work deserved. May His Majesty grant (such is His goodness) that I may be worthy to repay Him some service out of the many I owe Him. Amen. For I understood well enough that this was a much greater grace than that which He granted me in order that convents of nuns might be erected.
[449] the sons of the holy Mother Teresa afterwards returned to. It is believed by some writers that the provincial González honoured the beginning of the convent of Duruelo with his presence: but others relate that he first went there when the foundation had already been made some time before; and that, having imparted with great joy of mind his paternal blessing to the new dwelling, he committed the priorship to Fr. Antonio of Jesus, the subpriorship together with the office of master of novices to St. John of the Cross, and the care of the household to Fr. José de Cristo (the one who afterwards returned to the mitigated rule of Carmel). As regards the removal from the convent of Duruelo to that of Mancera, which took place on the 11th of June 1570 (Chronicle book 2, chapter XXXIX), it has just been narrated by St. Teresa in passing fully enough for our purpose, and will further be narrated by Ribera (book 3, chapter II). The other removal, which was made from Mancera to Ávila in the year 1600 (Chronicle book X, chapter XXXI), and likewise the restoration of the first convent of Duruelo in the year 1637 (Ibid. book 2, chapter XL and book XX, chapter XXXIV), lie wholly outside the limits of this Commentary of ours; and they could more fittingly, if it shall seem so, be brought forward at the Life of St. John of the Cross. From this, however, beware of inferring that I am hinting that the reform of the men of her Order is primarily to be ascribed to St. John of the Cross rather than to St. Teresa: since, even by what we have seen so far, it is beyond all controversy that this signal glory belongs to the holy Virgin. For my part I judge thus: that St. Teresa can and ought to be called the Restorer of the Order of Carmel, of men as well as of women; St. John of the Cross the chief companion
given by God to the holy Mother, so that the primeval observance of the Order of Carmel which she (these are the words of the Roman Breviary) had restored among the Sisters, she might likewise restore among the Brothers, with John as her helper; likewise that the same St. John was the first Discalced Carmelite, since before all others he began to inhabit the convent of Duruelo and to observe the primitive rule there; finally that Fr. Antonio de Heredia, or of Jesus, because he was the first to offer himself to St. Teresa (as we read at no. 418), is not undeservedly called the πρωτόκλητον of the men of her order, the title by which the Greeks distinguish St. Andrew among the Apostles.
§ XXV. To establish the fifth monastery of her virgins at Toledo, the Saint struggles for more than a year with difficulties of every kind: at length she departs from there victorious.
Since, by the will of the late Martín Ramírez, There now follows the foundation of the convent of nuns at Toledo; the occasion of which the Saint relates at the beginning of her chapter XV, in these words: There was living at Toledo a certain honourable merchant and excellent servant of God, who until then had not wished to enter into marriage, but led a life most worthy of a Christian, a most zealous lover of truth and honesty, and unwilling to enter into any trade that was not lawful. He had the purpose of amassing wealth with no other aim or intention than to raise up from it some work most pleasing to God. His name was Martín Ramírez. When, therefore, he was already near death, Pablo Hernández, a priest of the Society of Jesus (whom I had used as confessor when I was at Toledo, hastening to the Malagón foundation), on learning of this, visited him: and, because he especially desired that a convent should be erected and founded at Toledo for Discalced nuns, he showed him how much this would serve the divine service; he added besides that the chaplains and chaplaincies which he had resolved to found could be founded in this monastery, and that certain solemnities, and all the other things which he had determined to bequeath and found in a certain parish of that city, could quite conveniently be celebrated there. His illness, moreover, was such that, since he believed the time necessary for arranging these things would by no means suffice him, he committed the whole matter to his brother Alonso Álvarez Ramírez, a man prudent, religious, sincere and lavish toward the needy, and following the dictate of reason in all things (praises which I can deservedly and truly give him, as an eyewitness, because I dealt with him quite often). When Martín departed from this life, I was still occupied in the Valladolid foundation: where letters from Fr. Pablo Hernández and from Alonso Álvarez were delivered to me, by which they informed me of everything that had been done, and invited me, if I wished to accept the Toledo foundation, to betake myself to Toledo as soon as possible: wherefore a little after the house of Valladolid had been set in order, I hastened there.
[451] two Fathers of the Society of Jesus taking care of it, The two letters of which she speaks were delivered to the holy Foundress at the end of November or the beginning of December of the year 1568. But since at that time she was distracted at Valladolid by many affairs and moreover was suffering from fever, she could not go to Toledo at once. For this reason she sent a power of attorney to the rector of the college of the Society of Jesus at Toledo and to Fr. Pablo Hernández, in these words: I, Teresa of Jesus, prioress at St. Joseph's in Ávila, say: since the Most Reverend General Master Fr. Giovanni Battista Rubeo has granted me a very ample faculty of founding and admitting monasteries of this primitive and sacred Order of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel: since I have learned that there are in the city of Toledo those who, moved by divine grace and with the help of the Most Sacred Virgin our Patroness, desire to bestow on the said Order a house with a church and four chaplains and the things necessary for the use of such a church; and since I understand that this looks to the service and praise of our Lord: therefore, having subscribed my name, I say that I accept that offer, as a work of so great charity and alms. And whereas it will be necessary, as is customary, that some agreement be made concerning this business, if the Father Superior and Fr. Pablo Hernández are willing, out of their charity toward me, to take the care of the matter upon themselves, I now bind myself to carry out whatever those Fathers shall determine, or, if they themselves are unwilling, whatever others shall have been deputed for this by them; so that the business may not suffer a longer delay, until it shall please God that I myself betake myself there. And because this is my will, therefore, having subscribed my name, I promise that I will carry the matter through. Done at Valladolid on the 7th day of the month of December 1568. Teresa of Jesus, prioress at St. Joseph's in Ávila, Carmelite.
[452] the monastery was to be assigned to St. Teresa, On the sixth day after, namely on the feast of St. Lucy, she wrote a letter to Toledo (as I have just mentioned at no. 431) to Luisa de la Cerda, in which among other things she asked that noble lady to intercede for her with the magistrate. In the meantime the Fathers of the Society of Jesus had agreed with Alonso Ramírez that he should cede the right of patronage of the new monastery to a certain relative of his, the son of Diego Ortiz and Francisca Ramírez. When the Saint learned this from Fr. Hernández, on the 9th of January 1569 she gave a very courteous and urbane letter to Ortiz (vol. I, letter 37), which it will be neither out of place nor unpleasant to read entire: May the Holy Spirit be always in your soul and impart to you His holy love and fear. Amen. The Father Doctor Pablo Hernández has written to me of the favour and alms with which you honour me, namely that a house will be prepared by you for this sacred Order. For my part I hold for certain that your mind was moved to so holy a work by our Lord and His glorious Mother, my Patroness and Lady; from which I hope that much service will redound to the supreme Majesty, and to you a great gain of spiritual goods. May God bring about what I and all my sisters ask for you, and what the whole Order will ask henceforth. I have truly taken great pleasure in this matter; hence I desire most earnestly to know you in person, so that I may offer myself to you present as your handmaid, as I now do absent.
[453] herself, as she had promised by letter to Diego Ortiz The Lord has deigned to drive the fevers from me: and I am now labouring with what diligence I can to set this house in fit order; and I think, God helping, that this will shortly be finished. And I promise you that I will not delay even the least point of time, but will come straightway to Toledo, indeed disregarding my health, if perhaps the fevers should return. For it is fair that, while you leave nothing undone, I for my part should contribute at least a little effort and labour; since we have nothing else to procure than that we may suffer something, we, I say, who desire to imitate Him who spent His whole life in sorrows, though undeserving of them. Moreover, I shall not gain this advantage alone from this business. For Fr. Pablo Hernández has written to me that you are a man whose friendship will be very profitable to me. For my part, that I have held up until now I owe to the prayers of others: wherefore I beseech you by God not to forget me in your prayers. I have hope, unless God shall have ordained otherwise, that I shall come there at the latest in the second week of Lent. For since I must visit the monasteries which have been founded in these last years by God's favour, although I shall dispatch myself from them as quickly as possible, yet it is necessary that I spend some days in them. Those days, however, will be as few as possible, both because you desire it, and also because those monasteries are already so well ordered and composed that I have scarcely anything to do there, except to admire and to praise God our Lord. May the heavenly right hand lead you in all your ways, and grant you life and health with the increase of grace which I wish you.
[454] and to Alonso Ramírez To this letter there seems fit to be appended part of another letter which the Saint wrote on the 19th of February to Alonso Ramírez: May the Holy Spirit be with you and reward you for the consolation which your letter gave me. Your notary came to me very opportunely, when I was anxiously seeking some way of writing to you about my affairs: in which office, indeed, I do not readily allow my diligence to be found wanting by you… I beg you, however, not to determine anything about buying a house until I come. For I should wish it to be most suitable for our purpose; since you and that blessed man, who now enjoys the glory of heaven, have deemed us worthy of such an alms. As regards the licences, the king's licence indeed, with God's good help, I shall easily obtain; though not without some labour. For I know by experience how unwillingly the devil endures houses of this kind, and how much he rages against us on their account: but since we have God, who can do all things, that wicked enemy is forced to retire with disgrace and ignominy. We suffered in this city a most grievous vexation, and that from men of the highest rank: but it has now all been repelled. You, meanwhile, beware of thinking that God will require nothing else of you beyond what you now have in mind. On the contrary, He will require much more: for He is accustomed to render this reward for good works, namely by requiring that we do greater things. For to give money is a small thing and of little labour: but when both you and your son-in-law and all of us, as many as shall give our efforts to this foundation, shall be overwhelmed with stones (which very nearly happened at Ávila, while we were building the convent of St. Joseph); then at length it will go splendidly with us, and so far from any loss, rather much gain will come from it to the monastery and to ourselves. For the rest, may God direct this business in the way He knows will be best: and do not be anxious.
[455] had promised, I am sorry that that Father of mine (Pablo Hernández) has gone away from there: if there is need, we shall see to it that he returns. Finally, the devil has now set his hand to the work. Praise be to God, who will certainly not fail us, provided we do not fail Him. Truly I am held by a great desire of seeing you, not only because I hope it will be a very great comfort to me, but so that I may answer your most kind letter in person. May God grant that I find you and your son-in-law safe in every respect. I commend myself to the prayers of both of you: see how much I need them for undertaking this journey, with the very bad health I have; although I have not fallen back into fever. For the rest, I shall take care, indeed I already am taking care, of the matters you commit to me: so will these my sisters too, who all wish to be commended to you. May the Lord always hold you with His right hand. Amen. (vol. I, letter 38).
[456] Two days after she had written this letter, after some brief excursions to other places namely on the 21st of February, which was the Monday of Quinquagesima, the holy Mother, having left Valladolid,
went first to Medina del Campo; then, the Lenten fast having already begun, to Duruelo (as we saw at no. 442); after this to Ávila, where she stayed some days in her first convent of St. Joseph. From there she set out for Toledo about the middle of the month of March, accompanied by Gonzalo de Aranda, a priest of Ávila, and two professed sisters, Isabel of St. Dominic and Isabel of St. Paul. Their road lay through the city of Madrid; where she had already spent almost the whole November of the year 1567 (namely when she was going from Medina to Alcalá, as Ribera relates, book 2, chapter V), having used a twofold lodging there, first namely the mansion of Leonor Mascareñas, then the royal monastery of Discalced virgins of St. Clare, founded by the most serene princess Joanna, sister of King Philip II. And on that occasion, indeed, while she was staying with Mascareñas, she had tried, by a singular device of humility, to elude the opinion of her holiness preconceived by the leading ladies of the kingdom. That is, when some asked her many things as one most expert in spiritual matters, others proposed doubts to be resolved, and others even urged her to foretell the future, Teresa is said, paying no heed to these questions, after receiving and returning their greetings with the greatest courtesy, to have exclaimed: What beautiful streets Madrid has! and soon to have disappointed the expectation of the curious women by conversation on so commonplace a subject that some of them, being less perceptive, began to think within themselves that she was perhaps a good enough nun, but certainly could not be a Saint, who chattered thus and about such things.
[457] From Madrid she arrives at Toledo: The holy Mother had not in the same way deceived the nuns of St. Clare and their abbess Juana, sister by the same father of St. Francis Borgia. These, namely, after Teresa had spent fifteen days with them at the request of the royal princess Joanna, had rendered immense thanks to God for having shown them such a Saint as all could imitate; since she ate and slept and talked like the others, and used no affectation or artifices: that this was plainly the spirit of the Lord, because it was sincere and candid, such as Jesus Himself, while He lived on earth, had been accustomed to show. Moreover, the friendship which Teresa had contracted in the year 1567, on the occasion I mentioned, with the king's sister, she bound more closely in this year 1569, when she came again to Madrid, as I have just begun to say. Indeed, on the testimony of the Chronicle (book 2, chapter XXIII, no. 7), she handed to Joanna counsels written at God's prompting, to be carried to King Philip. When the most religious prince found that these fully agreed with the inmost feelings of his heart, he vehemently desired to see the Virgin and to speak with her in person. But she had already left Madrid, hastening to Toledo: where she arrived on the 24th of March, as she indicates in a letter sent a little later to María de Mendoza (vol. IV, letter 13), and in chapter XV of the Foundations, which I shall now go on to transcribe.
[458] where in the house of Luisa de la Cerda, Coming to Toledo on the eve of the feast of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mother of God, I lodged with Doña Luisa de la Cerda, as I had also lodged at another time, when I was going away to the Malagón foundation. I was received by her most kindly and cheerfully; for she is very greatly attached to me. I had brought with me two companions from the convent of Ávila, excellent handmaids of God; to whom a secret and private room was soon assigned as usual, in which we might attend to our exercises without disturbance, as we were accustomed to do in the monastery. Thinking, therefore, that there must be no delay, I began at once to treat with Alonso Álvarez of the matters for which I had come there, and also with his son-in-law Diego Ortiz; who, although he was of upright life and versed in theology, was much more tenacious of his own opinion than Alonso Álvarez, and did not yield to reason as quickly as he. Wherefore they proposed many conditions to me, to which it seemed to me hardly fair to consent. Meanwhile, while we went on bargaining and seeking another house to rent, so that we might thus in some measure enter into possession, after diligent search we found none suitable and convenient.
[459] on account of the difficulties which arose against the foundation, Moreover, I could not obtain from the governor of the city the faculty of raising a monastery (for at that time the city had no archbishop), although it was most earnestly demanded on the one side by Luisa de la Cerda, on the other by a man distinguished in nobility, a canon of the church of Toledo, Pedro Manrique, son of the supreme governor of Castile, who was and still is an excellent servant of God (for he is still alive) and, although he was of not very firm health, some years after this convent was founded dedicated himself to the Society of Jesus, in which he still lives. This was certainly of very great weight in that place, because he was strong in judgement and authority: yet no licence could be obtained; for, although the governor was now somewhat softened and acted more gently, the assessors of the archiepiscopal court opposed themselves with the greatest vehemence. Besides, on the other side I could not come to terms with Alonso Álvarez, his son-in-law hindering it (to whom he had committed the whole matter): wherefore I at length abstained entirely from meeting and bargaining. I did not know, then, what to do or where to turn, because I had come there for no other cause; and I saw that it would be a signal disgrace to me if I went away from there with the matter undone.
[460] she spends a space of almost three months; But nothing afflicted me more than the denial of the faculty by the superiors: for, this once had and possession entered upon, relying on God, I hoped the rest would turn out for me as I wished, just as it had turned out in other places. Wherefore I resolved to meet the governor of the place; and for this cause, going to a certain church near his house, I sent a messenger and invited him not to be reluctant to come there to speak with me. Two months and more had already passed in the settling and negotiating of the matter, and daily the affair was going from bad to worse. When, therefore, he was present at the appointed place, I addressed him in these words: "That it seemed most harsh and unworthy that certain women had come there who, for the sake of God alone, were pursuing the utmost rigour of life, perfection, solitude and enclosure, and that those who practised none of these things, but rather aimed at the delights of life, should try to overturn a work instituted for so greatly promoting the glory of God." By these and other words of the kind, which I brought forward with a certain wonderful freedom and confidence, as much as the Lord put into me, I so moved the governor that before he departed from the church he granted the faculty. And this so exhilarated me that I already thought I had attained everything, when yet I had nothing at all: for the money I possessed amounted to three or at most four gold pieces; with which I bought two images painted on canvas (for I had no image to place on the altar), likewise two straw mattresses and a blanket. Of finding a house there was no hope at all; and the agreement which was to be entered into with Alonso Álvarez had now altogether fallen through.
[461] until, through the efforts of a pious young man named Andrada, There was living at Toledo at the same time a certain merchant, very friendly to me and unmarried, most devoted to the exercise of offices of charity toward those shut up in prison and other needy persons, surnamed Alonso de Ávila. He had told me not to trouble myself at all about a house, for he would provide one for me. But he soon fell ill. A few days before, a certain Friar of the Order of Minors, called Martín de la Cruz, a man of singular holiness, had arrived at Toledo: he stayed there some days, and when he was now about to depart, he sent to me a certain young man, to whom he was confessor, named Andrada, of no wealth, indeed rather poor, and gave him instructions to do whatever I should prescribe for him to do. One day, when I was present at Mass, he spoke to me, and related in order what he had been enjoined to report from that holy man; namely, that I should be certain that he would do whatever he could on my behalf, although he could favour and help us no otherwise than with his own self alone. For my part I thanked him for this; but I and my companions began to laugh, seeing what a helper and assistant the holy man had appointed for us: for neither by his outward clothing and appearance did he seem suited to deal with Discalced nuns. Since, therefore, I saw that I had the faculty indeed, but not a man to help me, I did not know what further to do or to whom to commend myself.
[462] sent by Fr. Martín de la Cruz of the Order of Minors, There came into my mind, then, that young man whom Fr. Martín de la Cruz had sent to me at another time; and I disclosed this plan to my companions. They laughed at me not a little, and dissuaded me from doing it; for it would be nothing other than to lay the matter open and divulge it to everyone. I for my part would not listen to them in this; for I trusted that (because he had been sent by that man of God) he would at least accomplish something, and that this had not happened without a mystery: hence, having summoned him to me (enjoining him most strictly to keep the matter secret), I disclosed to him whatever was going on; and accordingly I asked him to seek out a house for me, saying that I would procure a guarantor for the price of the rent. For this purpose I was intending the good Alonso de Ávila, whom I mentioned a little before had fallen ill. It seemed very easy to him, and he promised that he would seek out a house most diligently.
[463] at length obtains a house quite convenient But behold, the next morning, when I was hearing the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, he came to speak with me, and announced that he had already found a house, and had its keys with him, and that it was not very far from there, wherefore we should go away to see it; which we did: and it was so good and convenient that we lived in it almost a whole year. Very often within myself, when I remember this foundation, I marvel at the secrets of divine providence; that for a space of almost three months (at least more than two months; for I do not well remember) men so wealthy, searching assiduously throughout the whole city (as if there had been no houses anywhere in the city), could never find one: and behold, as soon as this rather poor and needy young man came, the Lord so willing, he at once found one; and although the foundation could have been accomplished without any labour, as indeed it could have been done, if we had come to an agreement with Alonso Álvarez, God willed that this transaction should not be made, but that this foundation should be accomplished with poverty and labours.
[464] by right of rent, When, therefore, the house pleased me, I took pains at once that possession of it should be taken before anything was adapted in it, so that no obstacle or delay should afterwards intervene. And not long afterwards the aforesaid Andrada came to inform me that on that day the house would be vacated by the tenants; and so we should move our furniture there. I told him we should not have much to move; for we had nothing else than two mattresses and one blanket. On hearing this he was doubtless astonished;
hence too it was a grievance to my companions that I had disclosed this to him: for they asked why I had said it; for he, on seeing that we were so poor, would be unwilling to help us any further. I paid no attention to this: Andrada himself also cared little about it; for He who gave him this good will was also going to advance and increase it in him further, until His work should be brought to its conclusion. And truly so it was: for he showed himself so active and diligent in fitting up the house and bringing in workmen that he seemed to yield nothing to us in this.
[465] and begins to use it Having borrowed the ornaments necessary for saying Mass, after sunset, with a certain workman, a little bell sounding before us, of the kind used at the elevation of the saving Host in the Mass (because we had no other), we went to the house, to take possession of it first. And when with great fear we had fitted it up and arranged it the whole night, we had no convenient place for preparing a sanctuary, except perhaps a certain room, to which access lay open only through another small neighbouring house, which some women inhabited and which had also been let to us. Everything then being ready, as soon as day was dawning (for we had dared to tell those women nothing, lest perhaps they should betray us), we began to open the door, which was in a certain wall of clay, through which one went into a certain small court. But when those women heard the noise, they at once rushed in alarm from their beds (for they were still sleeping), and could scarcely be pacified with many words. But when the hour for saying Mass had now come, although they made trouble for us: yet when they had seen for what cause it had been done, the Lord pacifying them, they showed themselves milder.
[466] not without new obstacles Afterwards, however, I saw how wrongly we had acted: for on account of the absorption of mind which God at first sends, so that the work may be put into execution at once, we do not attend to the inconveniences which arise from time to time. When, therefore, the owner of the house learned that her house had passed into a church (being the widow of a man who held an entailed estate), a greater difficulty arose for us. For she tried in every way to hinder and obstruct the matter. But because she thought that we would buy it dear, if it pleased us, at length, the Lord so willing, she ceased to disturb us. But after the counsellors of the archiepiscopal court learned that the monastery, the power of founding which they had previously flatly denied, had now in fact taken shape, they were exceedingly indignant, and went, raging, to a certain one of the leading ecclesiastics (whom I myself had secretly made a sharer and confidant of my purpose), to consult what they should do and determine: for the governor, after giving me the faculty, was at that time absent from the city, having undertaken a journey. When, therefore, they came to the man I mentioned, exaggerating before him the great boldness of a little woman who was building a new monastery against their will and opposition, he behaved as if he knew nothing of these things; and pacified them as well as he could, asserting that I had done the very same thing in other places too; nor did it seem credible that I had begun this work without the necessary letters. They, however, forbade (I know not for how many days), under the anathema of excommunication, that Mass should be celebrated in our church, until the letters of the power granted should be produced. For my part, I answered them kindly, saying that I would obey their commands; although otherwise I was by no means bound to comply with them in this matter. I therefore besought Pedro Manrique (him, I mean, whom I mentioned, the nobleman) to go to the counsellors and produce the letters I had. He pacified them, chiefly because the matter was already accomplished; otherwise we should have had to undergo not a little labour.
[467] and with great poverty, For some days we had no other furniture than those two mattresses and the blanket, and on the first day not even so much wood as would suffice to roast a sardine or a herring; and I know not whom the Lord afterwards moved to place a bundle of wood in the church, with which to relieve our need. At night we felt a good deal of cold, although we covered ourselves with that blanket and with the thicker mantles which we wear, which not seldom serve us for this purpose. It may perhaps seem incredible to someone that, although we had stayed in the wealthy house of Luisa, who held me in such friendship, we nevertheless lived in such poverty. What the cause may be, I do not know; unless perhaps that the Lord willed us to experience there in very fact how much good lies in this virtue. For my part I asked nothing of her: for I am most averse to causing any trouble and to burdening anyone. Perhaps she herself did not notice this: for I owe her more than she could give us. For us, certainly, it turned out most excellently and to our gain: for the joy, eagerness and consolation which we felt in our souls was so intense that I often turn over and recall within myself what treasures the Lord keeps shut up in these very virtues.
[468] which, however, the liberality of the citizens soon relieves. This want which we suffered produced in us (as it appears to me at least) a certain sweet contemplation. But this was not long-lasting: for immediately both Alonso Álvarez himself and others bestowed on us far more than we indeed desired. This, moreover, is certain, that the sadness of my mind was then so great that it seemed no different than if I had had many golden necklaces, and these had all suddenly been taken from me, and I saw myself destitute of everything. So grievous, namely, was it to me and my companions that our poverty now had an end: for when I saw them with rather sad faces and grieving, I asked them the cause of their unwonted sadness, and they said: "What have we left, Mother, since we no longer seem to be poor?" From that time onward the desire of having great poverty grew in me; at the same time there remained with me a certain mastery for making little of all temporal things; since the defect and lack of them wonderfully increases and makes grow the interior good, because it certainly brings with it a far different satiety and quiet.
[469] At length, while various people advised various things, Moreover, in those very days in which I was treating with Alonso Álvarez concerning the foundation of the convent, there were many to whom the matter was displeasing, and they told me so, because they denied that he and his family were illustrious and of equestrian rank (otherwise, as I said, they were honourable and excellent in their station); and they added that, in a city so populous and abundant as Toledo is, the advantage of an illustrious founder would by no means be lacking to me. I, however, cared little about this, because (praise be to God) I have always esteemed virtue more than lineage and family. But already so much had been said to the governor on this point, that he gave me licence to found here only in the way in which I had already founded in other places. I did not know what to do, because, the monastery having now been founded, they began to treat of this matter again: but, because the thing was now accomplished, I resolved to assign them the principal chapel, but that they should claim nothing for themselves as regards the monastery, as indeed is now the case.
[470] but God strengthening her mind, Already a certain nobleman had offered himself, asking that the principal chapel be assigned to him: and since the opinions of my friends on this matter were various, and I did not know to whom to adhere, the Lord Himself deigned to enlighten me in this matter: hence one day He told me how little these titles of lineages and families would profit in the judgement of God; and He rebuked me greatly for listening to those who spoke to me about things of that kind: for these were not of such a kind as became us who have now despised the whole world. By these and other arguments of the kind I was wonderfully confounded, and I resolved to carry out what had begun to be discussed concerning assigning the chapel to Álvarez and his family: of which thing truly I have never since repented. For we have seen with our eyes how difficult it would otherwise have been for us to buy a house. For with his help and support we bought that house in which we now live, to which Toledo has few equal, as it cost twelve thousand gold pieces. And because he founded a great many Masses to be celebrated with us every year, it is a very great consolation both to the nuns themselves and also to the people. But if we had attended to the vain opinions of the world, we could never (as far as we can understand) have obtained so good an advantage; we should also have inflicted a grave injury on him who conferred this benefit and charity on us so willingly and with so grateful a heart.
[471] The Saint, for more than a year at Toledo, Into this second house, situated opposite the mint, in that quarter of the city which takes its name from St. Nicholas, the nuns moved in the year 1570. That is, the holy Mother returned to Toledo from the double foundation of Pastrana (of which there will be talk in the following paragraph) on the 21st of July 1569, and there for the most part fixed her residence until the month of August of the following year. This is clear, first, from a letter sent to Lima on the 17th of January 1570 to Lorenzo de Cepeda, in which she says: I am now at Toledo, whither I came almost a year ago on the eve of the feast of the Mother of God in the month of March. I went away, however, to a certain town of Ruy Gómez, Prince of Éboli; where two monasteries have been founded, one of Friars, the other of Nuns: which indeed are getting on excellently. From there I came back here, to put the last hand to setting this house in order; which is rising in such a way that it seems it will be very splendid. And indeed I have enjoyed better health this present winter, because the climate of this region is admirable, etc. (vol. I, letter 30). Secondly, from the agreements made in the month of May 1570 between Teresa and Alonso Ramírez and Diego Ortiz, which Fr. Antonio of St. Joseph mentions from the Annus Teresianus (18th of March, no. 3) (vol. II, letter 68, note 2, and vol. III, letter 53, note 6). Thirdly, from a certain contract of St. Teresa concerning the temporal affairs of Juana of the Holy Spirit and Inés of St. John the Baptist, daughters of Diego de San Pedro de Palma; to which contract (see it in vol. IV, letter 54, note 3) is subscribed: Made at St. Joseph's in Toledo on the 11th of August in the year 1570. Fourthly, from the testimony of Fr. Ángel Manrique in the Life of the Ven. Handmaid of God Ana of Jesus, where he asserts (book 2, chapter II, no. 2) that St. Teresa, after Ana's entrance into the monastery of St. Joseph at Ávila, sent a letter from Toledo, in which she ordered that for the name of Ana of St. Peter already assumed by her another, Ana of Jesus, be substituted; and that the same Saint came a few days later from Toledo to Ávila: but from the book of professions of the monastery of Salamanca and other documents it is established that the Ven. Ana was professed on the 12th of October 1571, having completed in the novitiate, on account of a certain illness, about two months beyond a year, on the testimony of the author of the Chronicle
(book 2, chapter XLIV, no. 5); hence Ana must have entered the Order in the month of August 1570.
[472] although not continuously, having stayed, Yet within that interval which extends from the end of July 1569 to August 1570, Teresa sometimes made excursions from Toledo elsewhere: to Medina del Campo, to Alba, again to Medina, as Ribera has it, book 2, chapter VIII; then, on the same witness, to Valladolid, from where she sent a letter to Inés Nieto on the 28th of December 1569 (vol. II, letter 70); afterwards to Pastrana, where in the month of July 1570 she was present at the profession of Frs. Ambrosio Mariano and Juan de la Miseria, as the Chronicle reports (book 2, chapter XLIII, no. 1, and chapter XLIV, no. 7); then perhaps a third time to Medina, etc. These things having been noted for fixing the chronology, let us return to what remains to be said about the foundation of Toledo.
[473] concerning the house, the church Alonso Ramírez and his son-in-law Diego Ortiz, having at length come back to a fairer mind, as we have seen from Teresa's narrative, contributed twelve thousand gold pieces from the wealth of the late Martín for raising the new house with its church; and the Saint agreed with them (by the licence of the Most Rev. Fr. Rubeo, General of the Carmelites, afterwards confirmed by the apostolic visitor Fr. Pedro Hernández of the Order of Preachers) that certain chaplaincies should be founded in the same church for celebrating a great many Masses every year with solemn rite. More is said on this matter in various letters of St. Teresa to Alonso and to Diego; of which I shall here translate some into Latin, both in order to elucidate what I have just mentioned, and also so that you may see depicted in their native colours the holy Virgin's dexterity, her maternal care for her own, her solicitude for keeping the constitutions, and her grateful mind toward benefactors.
[474] and the chaplaincies to be annexed to the church In the month of August 1570, when she was on the point of going to Ávila, she thus discloses to Ortiz her intention as regards the chaplaincies: I wished the chaplains themselves to be bound to sing on feast days; since it is of our constitution that the nuns are not to be obliged, since by their rule they may either sing or not. For although singing is of the constitution, there is nothing which binds them to it under any sin. Consider, then, whether they ought to have been obliged by me. Indeed there is no reason why I should ever do it: nor did you ask it of me, nor any man; but only that I should so prescribe it for our convenience. And if I made an error in writing, they are not on that account to be forced by violence to a thing which lies within their free choice: and since they are ready to oblige you and to sing at Masses here and there, please be content also that they enjoy their liberty when it is necessary. Hold me excused that I have written by another's hand: for I am weakened by blood-letting, and my head is not equal to more. May our Lord keep you (vol. III, letter 53).
[475] she comes to terms with Ramírez and Ortiz in the friendliest way. Some time afterwards, while she was engaged on the foundation of Alba, on the 5th of February 1571 she wrote the following to Alonso Ramírez: Jesus be with you. If I had as much leisure for writing as you, I should be more diligent than you in this respect. Meanwhile I do not at all neglect to commend you to God. Since, however, I have learned from elsewhere about your health, I bear it less hardly that no letters are given me by you. May God by His power grant that you be well as I wish, and that with our Ortiz and the dearest Lady Francisca Ramírez you may greatly enjoy that building, that church, I mean, with its chaplains, which they say will be most beautiful. May the Lord be praised for ever. I rejoice that the matter was so well managed with our Most Reverend Father General. He is plainly wise and holy: God preserve him. His supreme Majesty knows how gladly I would be in that house of yours: but since I went away from there, no day has passed that was not very laborious for me. Two monasteries, glory be to the Lord, stand founded, of which this one (she means that of Alba) is the smaller. May God, the Best, grant that it be of some use to someone. I do not understand why the body of Martín Ramírez, for whom I pray and beg of God eternal glory, is not being transferred (to the new church). Write to me, please, what is the cause of the omission and whether the matter on which you had deliberated, as you once informed me, has attained its effect. O how often in the agreements which are offered me here I have remembered you, and blessed you, because whatever you had once said was carried through to the end, even if you had said it in jest! May God grant that I may enjoy you for many years, as persons whom I love very much in the Lord. Ortiz would do well to write to me sometimes. When he will not, do you order him to do so. I kiss your hands and those of your Francisca, and commend myself to those little angels of yours. May the Lord keep them, and especially our patron; and may He sustain you with His hand, and bestow on you all the good for which I pray. Amen. Today is the 5th of February. Juan de Ovalle, which I was forgetting, sends you his warmest greetings; nor does he cease proclaiming your kindnesses to him: why should I not do so too? As for your having received Isabel of St. Paul so courteously, there is no need for me to mention it: for I have so many debts toward you that I cannot but commit them to God to be paid. May He be blessed for so great an alms of yours. Please tell Diego Ortiz not to forget any longer to place the statue of St. Joseph at the doors of the church (vol. II, letter 68). Thus far the Saint; three of whose letters sent afterwards to Diego Ortiz (vol. II, letters 65, 66 and 67) are no less worth reading, and deserve to be held as examples of the epistolary style.
[476] Yet afterwards the site of the monastery is changed. But since in the course of time the chaplaincies instituted in their church and the celebrations of feast days caused the nuns very many inconveniences, in the year 1594 there was negotiation about changing their dwelling. The matter was thus settled with Diego Martín de Zayas, heir of Ramírez and Ortiz, that the oratory should remain with the chaplains, and the nuns should move from there into the house of Alonso Franco, situated in the square of Sancho Minaya near the hospital which takes its name from Mercy (Chronicle book II, chapter XXIV, no. 5). But not even here were the handmaids of God allowed to enjoy the desired quiet: both because they had only three cells in all, which therefore had to be inhabited by several nuns at once during the day; and also because the little dormitories, in which four at a time rested through the night, were so adjoining the dwelling of their secular neighbours that they could not but hear their conversations. Wherefore Beatriz of Jesus, daughter of Juana de Ahumada, sister of St. Teresa, set over that monastery as prioress in the year 1607, bought another house, which had once belonged to Fernando de la Cerda, brother of the Luisa often named by me, and maternal grandfather of the second Count of Montalbán, Juan de Pacheco y Toledo (Chronicle at the place cited and book XXI, chapter XXXIII, no. 18). This house was situated in the parish of St. Leocadia at the celebrated gate of the city commonly called del Cambrón. Antonio Ponz in his Spanish Journey (vol. I, letter 4, no. 19), where he gives a brief account of them, says that the church built beside that house is commonly and not undeservedly praised on account of the fine images of the Saints which are seen in it. The same author (Ibid. letter 5, no. 22) celebrates the elegant façade of the oratory of St. Joseph, which was commonly called the oratory of Martín Ramírez or of the chaplains of Martín Ramírez (Francisco de Pisa, Descripción de Toledo, book I, chapter XXVIII, no. 24). But enough on the foundation of Toledo: let us turn to the foundations of Pastrana, of which one was completed on the 9th, the other on the 13th of July 1569.
§ XXVI. At Pastrana, after three months spent in bargaining and suffering, she raises the second convent of men and the sixth of nuns. The college of the Discalced Carmelites at Alcalá is begun with the leave of the apostolic visitor.
Prince Ruy Gómez and his wife Ruy Gómez de Silva, Prince of Éboli, first Duke of Pastrana, controller of the treasury of Spain and of the Indies, counsellor to King Philip II in civil and military affairs, etc., had already from the year 1568, as we learn from a certain letter of St. Teresa to Francisco de Salcedo (vol. II, letter 56), resolved with his wife Ana de Mendoza y la Cerda, daughter of Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, Prince of Melito and Duke of Francavilla, to raise a monastery of Teresa's Reform, of which he had heard many splendid things from the General Rubeo, in his township of Pastrana; and soon afterwards the Princess Ana had urged this matter on the holy Foundress, but with a vain attempt; perhaps because that illustrious lady, being of a changeable and imperious temperament, had laid down conditions not fair enough. And so at that time the negotiation had been altogether broken off, nor did it seem likely to be renewed in a short time. But behold, after some months, in the middle of the year 1569, the Princess suddenly took up again the interrupted business; and to St. Teresa, who now expected nothing of the kind, gave a most beautiful occasion for remarkably increasing her Order, in the number both of men and of virgins: by a truly wonderful providence of God; as no one will be able to deny who reads the history of the matter, which the Saint weaves thus in chapter XVII:
[478] summon St. Teresa to Pastrana: The fifteenth day since the Toledo house had been founded was passing (it was the 28th of May), which fell on the vigil of Pentecost; in that interval of time, moreover, I had spent much labour in fitting up the little church, in fitting the iron grilles, and in completing other works of that kind (which were very many to be done): for (as I mentioned before) we lived almost a whole year in that house. And since in those very days I was wonderfully wearied by constant running about with the workmen; behold, everything being now finished, when that morning I was sitting at table in the common refectory for dinner, so great a consolation and pious delight of soul suddenly arose in me, because I saw everything now completed, and nothing further remained to be taken care of, and I, now free of all cares, might in these days of Pentecost attend to the Lord a little longer and enjoy Him to satiety, that through the greatness of the joy settled in my soul all appetite for eating as it were vanished. But this consolation did not last long: for meanwhile it was announced that a servant was present, sent by the Princess of Éboli, wife of Ruy Gómez de Silva. I went, therefore, to speak to him: and he announced that I was summoned by his mistress. For she and I had long since treated between ourselves about erecting a certain convent at Pastrana, although I did not think it was to be accomplished so soon. This was very grievous to me; for it did not at all seem to me advisable, nor free from danger, for a monastery so recently
founded, and with so much opposition from adversaries, to be left: hence I resolved not to go there at present, and I signified this to the servant. He would by no means admit my excuse, because the Princess had already gone there, and that for this cause alone, and my not complying with her would turn to her great disgrace. Nevertheless I had no mind to go there: and so I said that while he was taking food I would write to the Princess, and that he could depart with my letter. He was an especially honourable man; and although it was grievous to him that I should not accompany him, yet, having heard my reasons, he seemed to acquiesce.
[479] while she sets out thither by God's command, The nuns, who had very recently first come into this monastery, by no means thought it expedient that I should leave that house so soon. And so I cast myself as a suppliant before the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, asking that such things should be inspired in me as, when written to the Princess, would not at all offend her. For her favour seemed likely then to be useful to us, because the monasteries of the Friars were then first beginning to be founded; and moreover it was fitting that we should have the good will and help of her husband Ruy Gómez, who had great authority with the king and with all. I do not well remember whether I then remembered that matter; but this I know, that I did not wish to displease her. While I was turning these things over, it was suddenly said to me by the Lord: "That I should not neglect to go there: for I was being called there for more business than this foundation; wherefore I should bring the rule and constitutions with me." Having heard these things, although I saw weighty reasons for not going, I nevertheless did not dare to determine anything; but, as is customary with me in matters and perplexities of this kind, I resolved to seek the counsel and mind of my confessor. Hence I soon summoned him, without however signifying to him at all what I had understood in prayer. For thus I am always better satisfied, and remain content, asking the Lord that He may deign to enlighten them according to what they can understand naturally; and when His Majesty wills something to be done, He is then accustomed to inspire it in them. This has happened to me quite often, both in this matter and in others. It seemed good to him, therefore, that I should go there: wherefore I resolved to set out on the road.
[480] at Madrid she meets Ambrosio Mariano, And so I departed from Toledo on the second day of Pentecost. We had to pass through Madrid, where together with my companions I lodged in a certain monastery of Franciscan nuns, with Doña Leonor Mascareñas, who had built it and lived in it. She had been the nurse of the king in his infancy, a distinguished handmaid of God: with her I had also been lodged at other times, when, some business requiring it, I had to pass through there; and I always found her wonderfully kind and friendly. She affirmed that she rejoiced exceedingly that I had come there at so opportune a time: for there was a hermit there who greatly desired to know me, and it seemed to her that the manner of life which both he and his colleagues were adopting agreed excellently with our rule and was in conformity with it. I, since I had only two Discalced friars, began to think within myself that I should be doing something great if I could bring it about that he should join himself to them. He was living in a house which the aforesaid Leonor had assigned to him, together with his companion, commonly called Juan de la Miseria, who, although young in age, was a distinguished servant of God, and as ignorant as possible of earthly things. When that anchorite met me, he told me that he wished to go to Rome. But before I proceed further in this narrative, I have resolved to say whatever I know or have learned about that Father, whose name was Mariano of St. Benedict.
[481] an Italian by race, of outstanding piety, He was an Italian by race, a doctor of law, eminent in talent and in experience of affairs. He had once lived at the court of the Queen of Poland (whose chief steward he had been); and since he had always shrunk from entering into marriage, and moreover had been enrolled among the Knights of Malta, the Lord at length impelled him to renounce all he possessed, so that he might the better work out his salvation. After he had struggled with many hardships and been harassed in various ways, because he had been present at a certain murder, and on that account had groaned for two years in prison as one accused of the murder, yet he would not let any lawyer or anyone else undertake his defence, but committed the justice of his cause to God and His justice, even though witnesses affirmed on oath against him that they had been summoned and hired by him to commit the murder; it came about (as happened to the two old men, the accusers of St. Susanna) that, when they were questioned by the judge separately and apart from one another as to where he had been when he gave them orders for this murder, one answered that he was then sitting on his bed, the other that he was looking out through a window. At length they confessed that they had tried to supplant him, and had borne false witness against him. And he affirmed to me that he had redeemed their release with much gold, so that they should not be condemned by the judge for false witness; moreover, that the very man who had brought this lawsuit against him had afterwards fallen into his hands, and that he had had the power of inquiring into his doings; and that for this same reason he had laboured with all the help and expense he could so that the man should suffer no harm on that account. For these and other virtues (for he is a man wonderfully chaste and pure, and very averse to all company with women) he doubtless merited before the Lord to obtain from Him the light to know how great is the vanity of worldly things, so that he might free himself from them.
[482] a man of learning and industry; Let me be permitted here to interrupt St. Teresa's discourse for a little while, in order to relate briefly certain other things concerning Ambrosio Mariano. He was born at Bitonto in the kingdom of Naples, of parents distinguished in lineage, wealth and piety. Having run through the course of studies with much praise (in which he had as fellow-student Ugo Boncompagni, who was afterwards Pope Gregory XIII, and always kept Mariano in memory), and having obtained the laurel of doctor of both laws, he was present for some time at the Most Holy Council of Trent; and he wrote in elegant language a book on its acts and decisions, which the Bibliotheca Carmelitana asserts was preserved in the convent of the Discalced Carmelites at Seville. Sent afterwards by the Fathers of the Council into the Low Countries, Germany and other northern kingdoms, to treat certain affairs of the Catholic Religion, having accomplished these he remained in Poland with Catherine of Austria, wife of King Sigismund II, as supreme steward of the household. Departing from there, he enlisted in the sacred militia of the Knights of Malta; and in the year 1557 he was present at the celebrated battle at the town of Saint-Quentin in the Vermandois. In that town, when after the victory won over the French he was lodging under the roof of a certain respectable widow with another soldier, he protected two virgins, daughters of the said widow, from his comrade's lewdness, with drawn sword and ready to punish the crime with death. Not long afterwards he was shut up in prison though innocent, as our Saint has already related. Restored from there to his former liberty, he brought from Italy, whither he had returned, the younger Prince of Sulmona, committed to his care, into Spain by order of King Philip. At length, sent by the same king to Córdoba to explore whether the river Baetis or Guadalquivir could be made navigable from there toward Seville, he cultivated his soul with the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius under the Fathers of the Society of Jesus at Córdoba. What he did thereafter the Saint herself will now pursue, whose words I begin again to transcribe.
[483] who, the hermitage in which he had lived eight years, Mariano, she says, began to consider within himself to which religious Order above all he should dedicate himself; wherefore, examining and comparing each of them, he found in all something that displeased him, given the condition of his state and nature (as he himself told me). But learning that not far from Seville, in the solitude which they call El Tardón, certain hermits were living together under a superior and director, Fr. Mateo, a man of excellent holiness, he joined himself to them. Each of these had his own hut, separated from the others; they did not recite the divine Office, but they had a certain oratory in which all assembled to hear Mass: they had no revenues either, and did not even wish to live on alms, hence they did not accept those offered; but each procured his sustenance for himself by the labour of his hands, which they also took privately and alone, and that rather scanty. On hearing these things, I thought that the usage and rule of life of our first Fathers was represented by them. In this usage he lived eight years: but since every kind of anchorite was ordered by the authority of the Most Holy Synod of Trent to submit itself to some religious family, he had resolved to go to Rome, to ask of the supreme See the faculty of continuing the life which he and his companions had led until then; and he was in this purpose when I first met him.
[484] for a Carmelite convent of men After, then, he had indicated his manner of life to me, I in turn gave him our primitive rule to read, asserting that he could keep all this without so much labour, since the manner of life of both was the same; especially since living by the labour of one's hands (to which he was very much attached, saying that the world was corrupted by the covetousness of things, and that this was the cause why religious life was everywhere becoming cheap among worldly people) was customary with us too. Since I was of the same view and opinion as he, we at once agreed on this point, as also on all the rest: wherefore, when I tried in various ways to persuade him how great a service he could render God in this habit, he said that he would deliberate about it that night. Already I saw that he was almost inclining to it; and I understood that this at length was what I had learned from the Lord in prayer, namely that I was going away for far more than the foundation of a monastery of nuns. This was the greatest consolation to me, because it seemed to me that it would turn to the greatest service of the Lord if he should give his name to our Order. His Majesty, who willed this very thing, so moved him that night that the next day, now quite certain, he summoned me to him, marvelling not a little that he saw himself changed so quickly, and especially through a woman (which he is still accustomed to say to me from time to time), as if I alone had been the cause, and not rather the Lord, who can change the hearts of men.
[485] to be erected at Pastrana, Great indeed are His judgements, as appears from this, that although he had deliberated within himself for so many years, not knowing to which Religion above all he should apply himself (for that in which he was then living was not properly a Religion; because they did not take vows there, nor observe anything that included an obligation, except only that they lived there set apart from the people), yet the Lord moved him so quickly, and declared to him how much he would serve Him in this state, and that His Majesty willed to use his efforts for
the advancement of what had already been begun. And certainly he contributed excellent service to this on his part: for until now he has undergone very many and immense labours for the sake of the Order, and indeed is still to undergo them, until the matter itself is accomplished, as can be understood from the great slanders and contradictions by which this primitive rule is now assailed and harassed. For on account of his natural endowments, his talent and the holiness of his life, he enjoys great authority with very many who favour us and protect our interests. He told me, then, that Ruy Gómez had once given him at Pastrana (which was the very place to which I was then going) a convenient place in which to fix a seat for his anchorites; and that he was assigning it to this Order, and wished to take its habit in it.
[486] I gave him immense thanks on this account, and praised the Lord resolved to exchange. with my whole heart; for, although I had obtained from our Most Rev. Fr. General the faculty of erecting two convents, yet until then only one had been founded. Wherefore from this very place I at once asked by letter of the two provincials, namely the one who was then discharging that office and the one who had most recently discharged it, the faculty to do this (for it could not be done without their good leave), and at the same time I wrote to the bishop of Ávila, Álvaro de Mendoza, who favoured us wonderfully, that he should move them by his authority to grant this faculty. It pleased God that they showed themselves not difficult in granting it; perhaps because it seemed to them that, since this place was so remote, little loss could follow from it to themselves and theirs. As soon, then, as I had obtained the faculty of the provincials, Mariano promised me that he would join our brethren: and so with great joy I set about completing the journey which I had begun.
[487] But only after three months, When I arrived at Pastrana, I found the Prince Ruy Gómez and his wife, who received me in a friendly and kindly manner, and assigned us an apartment apart from the rest of the household, in which we stayed longer than we had expected. For the house which the Princess had assigned us was very narrow; hence she ordered many parts of it to be demolished, not however the walls or partitions, and to be restored anew. I stayed at Pastrana three months and more, though not without great difficulties, because the Princess proposed to me such conditions as were very foreign to our Religion and Institute: indeed I would rather have returned to Toledo with the matter undone than consent to them. But the Prince Gómez himself, by his prudence, in which he was very strong, since he followed the guidance of reason, effected so much with his wife that she now behaved more mildly. I too on my part complied with her in some things; because I preferred that a convent should be erected there for Friars rather than for nuns, knowing how much it was expedient, as was afterwards found.
[488] which, in dispelling the conditions proposed by the Princess, Thus the Saint; to whose words I shall add, as usual, the necessary supplements and elucidations, drawn from her biographers and other authors. And so, as regards the conditions proposed by Ana de Mendoza, they are said to have been chiefly two: one, that Teresa should admit into her convent a certain nun, named Catalina Machuca, from the convent of the Humility at Segovia of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, whom the Princess had brought from Madrid to Pastrana; the other, that Teresa should consent to the new monastery of her virgins being without revenue, as she had done elsewhere, except at Malagón. The holy Virgin rejected the former condition, because she knew neither the character nor the temperament of Catalina, offered to her or rather forced upon her, indeed was not even allowed to make trial of them; and then, and still more, because she wisely judged that those ill-considered and hasty transfers from one Religion to another were by no means expedient. And in order to support her reasons with a certain weighty authority, she consulted Fr. Domingo Báñez about the whole matter; and since he agreed with Teresa, the Princess ceased to urge the execution of this condition.
[489] the Saint spends, More difficult to refute was the other condition, inasmuch as it attacked Teresa as it were with her own weapons. For the princes objected that, since the Saint had expressly ordered the other convents of her Reform everywhere to be without revenue, this doubtless pertained to greater perfection: and that they would anxiously take care that nothing should ever be lacking to the sisters. But the prudent Virgin, considering on the one hand that the inhabitants of Pastrana were poor enough and would be little liberal toward a monastery which had such wealthy patrons, and on the other fearing for her nuns from Ana de Mendoza (namely lest at some time, on the pretext of some offence to the princes, rightly or wrongly, an end should be made of bestowing alms), alleged the example of Luisa de la Cerda, who had endowed the convent erected on her estate of Malagón with a suitable revenue. By that example and by certain concessions on Teresa's part, who, had not the hope of raising a convent of men at Pastrana shone upon her, was thinking of returning to Toledo with the matter undone, the noble couple were at length brought back to a fairer mind: Ruy indeed without difficulty, because, as the Saint says, he followed the guidance of reason; but Ana most unwillingly, both on account of her anger over the rejection of Catalina Machuca, and also for another reason, which I shall now disclose.
[490] at which time also, on account of the book of her Life, She had heard from some incautious narrator, I know not who, that the holy Mother had brought a written account of her Life: whence, as happens, a longing to read it had come upon her curious feminine mind. She pressed, therefore, first upon Teresa herself to give her the book. But when she refused modestly and with reasons adduced, the Princess then resolved to employ her husband as intercessor. For a long time this attempt too was in vain: but at length the Saint yielded, and the Princess obtained the desired food for her curiosity. The matter was settled on this condition, that Ruy and his wife alone should look at that writing: otherwise grave inconveniences would follow. But a few days later, behold the news, which was most distressing to Teresa: that the book was going about the whole household through the hands of the maidservants, was being made sport of with everyone's derision, and torn to pieces with gibes; moreover that the Princess had asserted that all Teresa's visions were nothing else than evil arts, most like the arts of the notorious Magdalena de la Cruz.
[491] she was assailed by calumnies from the same woman, How atrocious a sarcasm of this kind was can be well enough understood (not to bring forward more authors) from Ribadeneira and Bartoli, the biographers of St. Ignatius; of whom the former describes Magdalena de la Cruz thus (Life of St. Ignatius, book V, chapter X, or in the Acta Sanctorum, volume VII of July, page 767): She who had been consecrated to God from her very infancy, who was believed to be renowned for the severity of her penance, excellent in assiduity of prayer, singular in the praise of prudence; from whom (as if she foresaw the future, and with a mind conscious of the divine will foretold things to come) many sought answers; who finally flourished in the repute of all virtues, and was revered as a virgin fallen from heaven; was at length detected by sure traces, and it became known and established to all that by the fraud and artifice of the devil she had signally imposed upon men, and that she, a deceiver and a light woman, commended from childhood by a false opinion and the error of men, had covered her mind with her countenance, her life with walls, her crimes with the captious arts and illusions of the demon. For which reason, on the testimony of Bartoli (Life of Ignatius, book IV, no. 36), that witch and minister of the devil received from the sacred Tribunal of the Inquisition the reward worthy of her vanity. Moreover, as usually happens in a matter of this kind, the rumour about Teresa's book soon passed beyond the bounds of Pastrana and spread all the way to Madrid; and so the reproaches of Ana de Mendoza resounded through the royal court, especially by the mouths of women. Some say that this matter was chiefly the cause why in the year 1575 the Inquisitors decided that the Life of Teresa should be examined. But this must be set out more fully elsewhere; now the matter of this paragraph must be pursued.
[492] the beginning to two convents, Having therefore struggled through the said difficulties with God's help, Teresa entered into possession of the Pastrana convent destined for the nuns, the Most Holy Body of our Lord Jesus Christ having been brought there, on the 9th of July 1569. At this time, she thus continues, Mariano and his companion came to Pastrana (those very hermits, I mean, whom I mentioned above); and the letters of faculty of the provincials having now been received, those princes thought good to convert that place and hermitage which they had formerly granted him as a dwelling for anchorites to the use of the Discalced Friars. And when I had summoned Fr. Antonio of Jesus, who was the first and was still living at Mancera, to lay the beginnings of this convent, I meanwhile prepared for them habits and capes, and did whatever I could so that they might take the habit as quickly as possible. In the meantime I had summoned more nuns from the convent of Medina; for I had brought no more than two with me. There was then living at Medina a certain Carmelite of fairly advanced age, who was neither young nor old, but was an excellent preacher, called Fr. Baltasar of Jesus: who, having learned that this new dwelling was being founded at Pastrana, arrived here together with the nuns who had been summoned, having it in mind to join the Discalced, as he also did in fact after he came: and when he signified this to me, I gave the Lord the greatest thanks. He moreover clothed Mariano and his companion with the sacred habit, but with that which our lay Friars use: for Fr. Mariano did not wish to be destined for the Priesthood, but entered the Order with the intention of being the least of all; nor could I then obtain anything else from him by any reasons: but afterwards, at the added command of the Most Rev. Fr. General, he allowed himself to be initiated into sacred Orders.
[493] one of men, This taking of the habit was done in the private chapel of Ruy Gómez, most splendidly adorned for that solemnity as for the celebration of a feast day. Both princes were present, accompanied by courtiers and a throng of servants and neighbours. Fr. Baltasar of Jesus delivered an address on that occasion; by which all the hearers were vehemently moved, but above the rest a certain young man of noble birth, who afterwards joined the Discalced Carmelites, taking the name of Gabriel of the Assumption. A few days later, namely on the 13th of July, the religious were brought into the new convent with a solemn procession. But the holy Mother judged that the bringing in of the Most Holy Eucharist should be put off until the arrival of Fr. Antonio of Jesus, for the sake of honouring that Father who had deserved so well of her Order. And after, she continues, both monasteries had now been founded, and Fr. Antonio had arrived, such novices were soon admitted into the Order that I shall afterwards say certain things about some of them. At the same time these began to serve the Lord very sincerely and earnestly; as, if it shall please Him, one will describe who can do it better than I: for to this, to confess the truth, I am too unfit and inexperienced. What Teresa, inexperienced in her own eyes, most expert in ours, omitted in this place, Fr. Francisco de Santa María accomplished, as far as the plan of his Chronicle allowed; whom you may consult, if you please, book 2, from chapter XXXI to chapter XXXVII inclusive.
[494] the other of nuns, As regards, however, says the Saint, the convent of nuns
, it was erected there with the singular good will and favour of the princes; the Princess herself, moreover, did not cease to care for them in every way, and to show us every kindness, and treated us well, until the Prince Gómez departed from this life: for then she, whether under the pressure of a diabolical temptation, or perhaps by God's permission (His Majesty knows the reason), in a headlong passion of grief conceived at his death, wished to be a nun there, and took the habit: but because she was exceedingly oppressed by grief, that great solitude and enclosure of ours, to which she was not at all accustomed, could not please her or be to her taste; and because the prioress was forbidden by the Most Holy Council of Trent to grant her all the liberties which she desired, she began to be so estranged both from her and from the rest that even after she had put off the monastic habit and was now living in her own house, she repeatedly caused them trouble and was at variance with them.
[495] but to this one, which was not to last long, is given. Hence the poor religious suffered so much disquiet from her that I tried in whatever ways I could to bring it about, by asking the superiors most earnestly, that the monastery should be removed from there. Those sisters, therefore, at length went away to Segovia (as will be related later), leaving at Pastrana everything they had received from the liberality of the Princess, and even taking with them some nuns whom the Princess had asked to be admitted without any dowry at all. The beds, however, and the other little things and trifles which the nuns themselves had brought with them they carried away from there, not without great grief and bitterness of the inhabitants of the place, but with the greatest joy on my part, because I saw them now enjoying the desired quiet. For it was very well known to me that they had given no cause for the Princess to become more estranged from them and to be angry, but on the contrary that, while she lived among them in the religious habit, they served her no otherwise than before she took it: whence it is clear that the cause of the estrangement was only what I have said, and also the excessive grief which she herself had conceived at her husband's death. But the whole cause (as it was possible to understand afterwards) is to be ascribed to a certain maidservant of hers whom she had brought with her. In sum, it seemed to the Lord, who permitted it, that that monastery did not at all suit this place: for His judgements are great and deep, and far other than all the perspicacity of our wit can understand: I, however, relying on my own wit alone, would never have dared to do it, but in this I followed the judgement of men excellent both in learning and in holiness. Of this matter more at the foundation of Segovia: but here a few things more about the convent of men at Pastrana and about the house acquired for them in this very year 1570 at Alcalá.
[496] Fr. Pedro Hernández, apostolic visitor, Since the visitation of the Spanish provinces of the Order of Carmel, carried out by the Most Rev. Fr. Rubeo (as was said before), had not had the outcome that had been hoped, the most prudent King Philip II, out of the zeal for Religion with which he burned, had pressed anew upon St. Pius V, the Roman Pontiff, to see to it that a new visitation should be made. The Saint, therefore, by apostolic diplomas, ordered suitable men from his own Order of Preachers to be visitors of the Spanish Carmelites: namely for Castile Fr. Pedro Hernández, for Andalusia Fr. Francisco de Vargas, the latter prior of the convent of St. Paul at Córdoba, the former of the convent of Talavera de la Reina. Fr. Pedro Hernández, having received the Pontifical Brief about the month of March of the year 1570 or even before, made the beginning of the execution of his office at the convent of Pastrana. The good old man went there on foot in the time of Lent with a companion Friar and one beast of burden for carrying the cloaks; and to those who marvelled at this poverty and humility he said that one who was going to visit Saints should not travel in the manner of seculars. As long as he stayed at Pastrana, he lived no otherwise than if he had been one of Teresa's Discalced, observing all the domestic discipline and the Lenten austerities, to the great edification of all and with so signal an example of virtue: hence both the Friars and the nuns of Pastrana most willingly submitted themselves to his obedience.
[497] favours the Discalced Carmelites From this, then, first arose that tender good will of Hernández toward St. Teresa and her Reform, proofs of which will not be lacking throughout the course of our history. Indeed, as soon as the visitor arrived at Madrid, he acted as eulogist of Teresa's Institute before King Philip, before Ruy Gómez and the other chief courtiers: and moreover he commended the same very highly to the apostolic nuncio, Niccolò Ormaneto, the one who had formerly been attached to Cardinal Reginald Pole on the English legation, then deputed to the Most Holy Council of Trent, afterwards created vicar general of Milan by St. Charles Borromeo, and finally raised to the episcopal see of Padua, and who, on account of his zeal for the salvation of souls, was commonly called by the Romans, in laudatory irony, the reformer of the world.
[498] and of founding a college at Alcalá Meanwhile, under the prior Fr. Baltasar of Jesus, the number of men and youths beginning to live under the rule of St. Teresa was growing at Pastrana. The care of these, because Fr. Baltasar was often compelled to go elsewhere, was committed about the middle of October 1570 to St. John of the Cross; but for a very short time. For in those same days thought began to be given to creating a college at Alcalá, to which religious should go both for the sake of acquiring learning and of attracting to themselves many young men from the celebrated school of that city. There stood in the way the fact that in the faculty granted to St. Teresa by the Most Rev. Fr. Rubeo (which I brought forward at no. 404) the number of convents was restricted to two, not more: wherefore it was not open even to the provincial Alonso González, however well disposed, to permit a third to be added to the convents of the Discalced at Mancera and Pastrana. Besides, the rivalry between the Observants and the Reformed, which was shortly to grow beyond measure, had already begun little by little to sprout.
[499] grants the faculty. Nothing, therefore, seemed more advisable to the reformed Fathers than to ask of the visitor Hernández leave to make this new foundation: which he indeed, in accordance with his ample jurisdiction and his love for the Discalced, willingly granted. Thus the matter was very quickly settled: at the expense of Ruy Gómez and through the efforts of Frs. Francisco of the Conception and Ambrosio Mariano, the house of the Observant Carmelites at Alcalá, which they had already been thinking of abandoning, was bought. Thus a beginning was given to the college on the Kalends of November of the year 1570 by Fr. Baltasar of Jesus; and a little afterwards St. John of the Cross was summoned there with the office of vicar and first rector: in his place at Pastrana Fr. Ángel of St. Gabriel was substituted. The first name of the convent of Alcalá was from the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel: but in the year 1581 it received the name of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, because on the feast day of that Saint the Reformed, after they had become independent through separation from the Mitigated, celebrated their first general chapter there. What I have here narrated hastily is unfolded more fully in the Chronicle (book 2, chapters XXXVIII, XLII and XLIII), and will have to be taken up again at the 24th day of November for the Commentary on St. John of the Cross.
§ XXVII. The martyrdom of the Ven. Fr. Ignacio de Azevedo and others of the Society of Jesus, seen by St. Teresa in a vision. The Saint's journey to Salamanca.
The martyrdom of Fr. Ignacio de Azevedo and his 39 companions, Returning to the Saint herself, from whom we withdrew for a little while toward the end of the preceding paragraph, we must next speak of a certain remarkable vision which befell her in the month of July of the year 1570. It is known from the History of the Society of Jesus (part III, book VI, no. 208 and following), from the books of Ribadeneira and Cienfuegos on the Life of St. Francis Borgia, from our Bue's Commentary on the same Life, from Alegambe's Illustrious Deaths of the Society of Jesus, from Tanner's Society of Jesus Militant, and from a great many other writers, but especially both from the four books of Fr. Pierre Poussines on the Life and Death of Fr. Ignacio de Azevedo and his companions of the Society of Jesus, published at Rome in the year 1679, and above all from the juridical informations duly carried out by authority of the apostolic See; from all these, I say, it is very well known that forty men of our Society, partly priests, partly scholastics, temporal coadjutors and novices, on their way to Brazil in a Portuguese ship, near Palma, one of the Fortunate or Canary islands, on the 15th and 16th days of July, were inhumanly killed by the most cruel Jacques Sore, an arch-pirate, whom Coligny, the coryphaeus of the rebel Calvinists in France, had placed in command of naval affairs, in hatred of the Catholic Faith and of the Jesuit Order (as Sore himself boasted in express words, although the lying de Thou treacherously dissembles this): whose Martyrdom and the cause of whose Martyrdom Benedict XIV declared to be so proven that one may safely proceed to further steps, namely to the discussion of the signs or miracles; and, chiefly for the consolation no less than the encouragement of those who, for the sake of planting, propagating or defending the Catholic Faith, live in constant peril of life among idolaters or perfidious heretics, and also for the signal honour of the Nation and Religion to which the aforesaid Servants of God belonged and which they professed, a Nation and Religion that have deserved excellently of the apostolic See and the Catholic Faith, inasmuch as it bravely defends it, pouring out abundantly not sweat only, but also, where there is need, blood, he ordered the decree of this declaration (which may be read in volume VI, page 66, of the Roman edition of the year 1751, and volume VI, page 24, of the Venetian edition of the year 1788 of the works of the same Supreme Pontiff) to be brought to light and published on the 21st of September 1742.
[501] one of whom was a kinsman of the Saint, There was among those Martyrs a certain kinsman of St. Teresa, a native of Torrijos, a town of the diocese of Toledo, named Francisco Pérez Godoy, of whose vocation to the Society of Jesus and of whose life spent most praiseworthily in the novitiate at Medina Fr. Luis de la Puente in the Life of Fr. Baltasar Álvarez (chapter XX) and Fr. Poussines in the work already cited (book IV, chapter 1, no. 23 and following) deserve to be read. I shall relate here this one thing only: namely that in his last agony for the Faith he repeatedly exhorted himself and his companions, while they were being killed by the savage heretics, with these words, which he had very often heard from his master of novices Fr. Baltasar Álvarez: Let us not degenerate, brothers, from the lofty thoughts of the sons of God; and that with these sentiments and words, worthy of a kinsman of St. Teresa, he was run through and sunk in the sea.
[502] she herself, by God's revelation, beholds: Now this whole bloody spectacle, at the very time at which it was enacted on the Atlantic sea, our Saint, being engaged in prayer, knew by a wonderful revelation of God, and saw those forty men in heaven adorned with the crowns of Martyrs; and she informed Fr. Baltasar Álvarez of the whole matter before the news of it could be brought into Spain. The truth of this vision is most evidently proved both from Yepes, book 3, chapter XVII, which entire chapter was inserted in the Summary on the singular gift of Prophecy of St. Teresa,
since that most weighty author had affirmed, with God as witness, as I have already said elsewhere, that whatever he had written of the Saint's Life was true; and from the sworn testimony of Fr. Gil González de Ávila S.J. in the informations held at Madrid concerning St. Teresa; and finally, in the very cause of the aforesaid Martyrs, from the deposition of 36 witnesses concerning public voice and repute, some of whom also said that that matter had been manifestly notorious in the Sacred Order of St. Teresa and in the Society of Jesus.
[503] and this revelation For the sake of elucidation it seems right to bring forward a passage from the work of Fr. Poussines praised above, where this learned writer discusses expressly the subject we are treating. Namely, after he has alleged the testimonies concerning this revelation given by Yepes and González in the Spanish informations, he goes on to speak thus: The same revelation was afterwards at Rome, when the cause of canonization was being pressed more closely, discussed with the greatest rigour by the judges of the Sacred Rota, and admitted as validly proved, and from it that most weighty assembly judged it to be established that St. Teresa had been endowed with the spirit of Prophecy; as is attested by one who was present, Lord Coccini, then president of that venerable Council, being, as they commonly call it, dean of the Sacred Rota, in a writing set down in his known hand, which is preserved to this day. Those most wise judges were moved, namely, by the concurring assertion of the two weighty men whom I named above, Diego de Yepes and Gil González, each of whom they knew to have been employed by that most religious Virgin as judge of her conscience; to such it is established that she was accustomed to manifest at once all the divine illuminations and heavenly inspirations or wonderful sights which it befell her to experience. Hence there seems no doubt that what they relate they heard from her herself, as she declared to her directors, most candidly as was her custom, that about the middle of July in the year 1570 she had seen crowned in heaven with the laurels of Martyrs forty companions killed by heretics at sea while they were on their way to Brazil.
[504] to Fr. Baltasar Álvarez Nor is it an obstacle that both of them affirm that she communicated this to Fr. Baltasar Álvarez, her confessor at that time. For she could both have set forth to the one she then had present what had been most recently done, and could afterwards have declared to others, whom at various places and times she made acquainted with her inmost affairs, what had long since been manifested to her. Both, however, prudently in bearing testimony on this matter, alleged that the account of that fact was made not to themselves later, but long before to Baltasar Álvarez, because, when they heard this from the mouth of St. Teresa, the report of the slaughter of Azevedo and his companions had spread abroad, the news having been brought in due course. Wherefore the holy Virgin's narration then lacked the manifest proof of a prophecy: such as the same narration had irrefutably when heard by Baltasar Álvarez at a time at which by no human indication could a thing done far away on the Atlantic Ocean the day before be known in Spain.
[505] at once announces, for a particular reason; Nor does it seem that this should be omitted, that besides the usual cause of manifesting the inmost sentiments of the soul to directors, St. Teresa was moved by a particular reason to indicate this heavenly vision to Fr. Álvarez without delay; namely by the duty of the charity common to her and to him toward Francisco Pérez Godoy, one of the forty Martyrs seen in heaven, who, as has been said, was joined to St. Teresa by the domestic bond of kinship, and to Baltasar Álvarez had been a pupil and son in the spirit, having namely been formed for a long time under his care in the novitiate of the Society at Medina; so that therefore the most kindly Virgin could not but at once impart to Álvarez, who was conveniently present, and rightly anxious about the fortune of his dearest disciple, a little before exposed to the hazards of a distant voyage, the news brought her with certainty from heaven of his most happy departure from this life and arrival in the heavenly fatherland.
[506] as from sure testimonies Someone may perhaps wonder that the ear-witness testimony of Baltasar himself is not cited on so great a matter. But he will cease to wonder who reflects that Baltasar, having died a full two years before St. Teresa's death, could not, keeping faith with the secret, divulge what that most holy Virgin had committed to him in confidence. It is only credible that, after the public report had added its support to the vision secretly heard, he indicated to certain of his friends what he had known so much earlier. And that afterwards she herself declared what she had seen, with the same sincerity as all other things, to the directors whom she later took in the place of the deceased Baltasar, both that very vision of hers of the forty companions and the knowledge of it imparted by her to Baltasar, then her confessor. By which way Yepes and Gil, having learned it, afterwards brought it forward on oath at Toledo before the judges delegated by the apostolic See.
[507] it is most plainly established, Moreover, the same revelation, approved, as has been said, by the judgement of the Roman Rota, was finally consecrated by the greater authority of the Supreme Pontiff Gregory XV, who, moved among other things by this ascertained outcome of a prophecy, and by this proof established by testimonies judged suitable by the Sacred Rota, enrolled Teresa in the Album of the Holy Virgins, by a Constitution given at Rome in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1621, on the fourth day before the Ides of March, whose beginning is: "Omnipotens Sermo Dei," and the eulogy excerpted from it and inserted into the Roman Breviary by order of the Sacred Congregation of Rites professes, on the strength of this same proof explored by lawful inquiries, that that holy Virgin excelled in the gift of Prophecy. Whoever weighs these things fairly will scarcely be able, I think, to refuse to confess that the solemn enrolment of St. Teresa in the ecclesiastical calendars of the Saints was a most certain prejudgement of the true Martyrdom and glory of Azevedo and his companions, especially after the report, very widely spread concerning this very thing, celebrated it with the unanimous persuasion of all nations: as, besides the evidence of present-day experience everywhere, the sworn affirmations of thirty-six most weighty witnesses establish, taken down in the lawfully drawn up Acts of the inquiries held on this very business by apostolic authority at various places and times (Processes of Braga, Coimbra, Évora, Bahia, Additional Summary on supernatural signs, page 3 and following). Thus Poussines (book IV, chapter 3, no. 56 and following).
[508] although in certain circumstances some writers who treat of it err As for what is asserted (chapter XIV) in a certain History of these same Martyrs published at Venice in the year 1745, that the Saint had this revelation in her convent of Ávila, at the time when she was using Álvarez as confessor; this indeed, although it cannot be reconciled with the sequence of Teresa's Life, is nevertheless not of a nature to cast doubt on the truth of the revelation itself for any sensible reader: since it quite often happens that historians, being less careful in relating the incidental circumstances of things, are deceived; as not only Fr. Federico of St. Anthony rightly observes in Montoya (Amore Scambievole, dissertation I, chapter VII, §1, no. 19), but he himself also shows by his own example, when he wrongly says (book IV, chapter VI) that the Ven. Servants of God Azevedo and his companions were killed by Dutch heretics, whereas they were killed by French Huguenots. For my part I wonder that the note cited by Montoya does not appear in the new Roman edition of Fr. Federico, but is partly omitted, partly inserted into the writer's text itself. In which text there occurs besides another observation, and it is not to be passed over here.
[509] or certain writers dealing with it remain in doubt. Namely, since Fr. José of St. Teresa in the Flores del Carmelo (§1, no. 36) relates, from the assertions of certain others, that this revelation of which we are speaking occurred at Pastrana; it could be asked how St. Teresa informed Fr. Baltasar Álvarez of it, who was then director of the novitiate of his Society at Medina. Fr. Federico (or whoever else perhaps interpolated this passage of Fr. Federico) answers that the Saint could have done this either at once by letter or some months later by word of mouth. What he says, some months, does not much commend itself to me; because so long an interval does not agree with the testimonies of Yepes and González, and because already in the month of August the report of the killing of the forty Martyrs had begun to be spread throughout Spain, on the testimony of Poussines (book IV, chapter 2, no. 42). Wherefore, if one of these two answers of Fr. Federico must be admitted, I should rather admit that the Saint wrote to Fr. Álvarez. But I suggest another answer as well. The Saint was certainly at Pastrana in the month of July 1570, when she was present at the profession of Ambrosio Mariano and Juan de la Miseria, as I have already said before from the Chronicle (no. 472): but since this profession, as the author of the Annus Teresianus affirms from the register of professions of the convent of men at Pastrana, fell on the 10th day of July, it is not impossible that on the fifth day after the Saint was actually at Medina del Campo. Not impossible, I say, although I should not dare to assert it for certain: and this is the reason why at no. 472 I said by conjecture that she perhaps went a third time to Medina.
[510] After this, toward the end of the year 1570, We are now called to a town famous for its most celebrated university, Salamanca; where on the same feast day of All Saints on which possession of their college at Alcalá was entered upon by the Discalced Carmelites, St. Teresa made a new foundation for her virgins. To this, indeed, Ribera and Yepes assign the year 1569; but erroneously: as is clear from the chronology established above (no. 471) of the things done by St. Teresa during the first eight months of the year 1570; likewise, on the testimony of the author of the Chronicle (book II, chapter XLIV, no. 5), from the ancient records of the monastery of Salamanca and of the first chapter of Alcalá; and moreover from the fact that between this foundation and that of Alba, which took place on the 25th of January 1571, no more than the space of three months could have intervened, which will be easy to detect from the context of the Saint herself, when we come to it. The error of the said biographers probably arose from the beginning of St. Teresa's chapter XVIII, where the times are not altogether clearly distinguished.
[511] to Salamanca, with the bishop's consent, Here it is for you, with parentheses added by me for the sake of explanation: These two foundations (of men and of virgins at Pastrana) having now been accomplished, I soon returned to Toledo (on the 21st of July, the vigil of St. Mary Magdalen); where also I stayed some months (indeed more than twelve, though sometimes making excursions elsewhere), until the house I mentioned (with the money of the late Martín Ramírez) was bought and everything was set in order. While, then, I was engaged on these things, the rector of the college of the Society of Jesus at Salamanca (Fr. Martín Gutiérrez) wrote to me that I should do something worth while if I thought of erecting a certain convent of this Order of ours there: and he urged me with many reasons to do so (Fr. Gutiérrez wrote before the 17th of January 1570; for in the letter of that day to Lorenzo de Cepeda, which is no. 30 of volume I, mention is made of the house offered at Salamanca). Although, however, because that town was not so very rich, I had long since turned my mind away from founding a monastery there without any fixed revenues; yet, considering on the other hand that Ávila is no less poor, and yet that nothing was ever lacking to our nuns there (for I do not believe God will fail those who
serve Him sincerely), I resolved at length (after some months) to lead a colony there: especially since we need little, living sparingly as we do; moreover we are few in number; finally we support ourselves, as we can, by the labour of our hands. Having set out, therefore, from Toledo to Ávila (in the month of August 1570), I at once from that place set about obtaining the faculty of the then bishop of Salamanca (Pedro González de Mendoza, brother of the Duke del Infantado, and to be named with honour among the Fathers of Trent): who, because the Father Rector had informed him in person of many things about the institute of this Order, and what honour would redound from it to God, granted it without difficulty.
[512] and, the house having already been bought, The rest of the holy Virgin's narrative is plain enough in itself (and especially if you consult Ribera at the same time). Further, she says, I seemed to myself already to see the matter settled, already the monastery founded, the faculty of the Ordinary having been obtained (as indeed it then appeared easy to me). Hence I set about renting a house as soon as possible, which with the help of a certain lady very well known to me I soon found, though not without difficulty, both because I was arriving outside the season in which houses were customarily let, and because it was inhabited by some students; who, however, promised that they would leave it when those who were to inhabit it had arrived. They did not know for what use it was destined: for this was what I took the greatest care of, that the matter should not become known to anyone before possession was entered upon. For I already knew by experience with what vehemence the devil labours to hinder the erection of a single one of these monasteries; although at the beginning the Lord granted him no power to hinder it, because He willed it by all means to be founded and completed. But afterwards so many contradictions arose, and we had to suffer so many troubles, that not even now, while I write these things (although some years have already passed since its foundation), is the matter wholly accomplished, nor have they been able to be overcome. Hence I am persuaded that signal service is rendered to the Lord in it, since the devil can by no means endure it.
[513] the holy Foundress undertakes the journey The faculty, then, having now been obtained, and the house now had, relying on the mercy of God alone (because I had no one in that place to help me in anything, although I needed many things for fitting up that house), I went there with only one companion, so that the matter might be carried out more secretly; which I certainly held to be far better and more advisable than to take many companions with me until possession had been fully taken: for I remembered and knew how the matter had turned out for me in the Medina foundation, in which I had to undergo many difficulties and tribulations: for if any obstacle should arise, I preferred to undergo it alone with only one companion, whom I could not do without. On the eve of the feast of All Saints, therefore, we entered the town, having during the previous night, for the greater part of the journey, suffered the extreme inclemency of the winter cold and having slept rather uncomfortably, and I, moreover, not being in good health.
[514] with great, as also on her other journeys, Thus far the Saint concerning her setting out for Salamanca. Then, embracing all her journeys generally as it were in one glance, she adds: I do not mention in the description of these foundations the immense labours and difficulties of the roads, which I had to undergo from time to time on account of cold, heat and snow. For it happened sometimes that it snowed for a whole day without ceasing; sometimes that I strayed from the road; at other times that I struggled along the road with great discomforts and fevers: for it is ordinary for me (praise be to God) to have rather weak health; but I see with my own eyes that the Lord supplied me with strength and courage for great things. For it sometimes happened that, when the occasion of founding some convent had presented itself, I was oppressed by such torments and illnesses that I was not a little afflicted; so much so that it seemed I could not even stay in my cell without lying in bed: whereupon, turning to the Lord, I would complain to His Majesty, asking how He would have me do what I could by no means carry out. But His Majesty afterwards (though not without labour) supplied me with strength: so that through the fervour, and also the anxious solicitude which He put into me, I seemed forgetful of myself. Certainly, as far as I now remember, I never omitted any foundation for fear of any difficulties; although I felt great reluctance and resistance in setting out (especially if the place was rather distant): but when I had once begun to set out on the road, it seemed to me very short and nothing, especially seeing in whose name it was undertaken, and considering that in that house the Lord would be praised and the Most Holy Sacrament would be placed. For it is an occasion of a certain singular consolation to me to see one more church, when I call to mind how many churches the heretics everywhere cast down and overturn.
[515] eagerness of spirit. I do not know, truly, what labour, however great, ought to be feared, if regard be had to the immense good which results from it to the Christian world: for it ought to be a great consolation to us (although many of us do not reflect on this) that in many places our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and man, is present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the altar (as He truly is). Certainly I also often feel great consolation within myself in choir, when I see those souls so pure and clean occupied in singing the praises of God. For no one can fail to gather this from many things, seeing them both most prompt in obeying, and wonderfully cheerful in this strictest enclosure and solitude, and rejoicing greatly if any occasion of practising mortification presents itself: indeed, where the Lord grants the prioress greater grace for exercising them in these things, there their eagerness and joy appears greater. Hence it comes about that the prioresses tire and weary themselves more in exercising them than they do in obeying. For new desires and wishes of practising mortification are always arising in them. From here to the end of chapter XVIII there follow most wise counsels to prioresses on the government of monasteries; which I, as usual, omit here, nor shall I treat of St. Teresa's journeys either, since Ribera closes his book II with a special chapter on them.
§ XXVIII. The foundation of the seventh monastery of virgins at Salamanca: how laborious this was for the Saint.
The monastery of Salamanca, in the year 1570, At the beginning of chapter XIX the holy Mother returns from the digression undertaken in the preceding chapter; and thus unfolds the history of the Salamanca foundation: On the eve, then, of the feast of All Saints, in the year that has been mentioned before, about dinner-time we entered Salamanca; and from the inn I summoned to me Nicolás Gutiérrez, a distinguished servant of God, who by the manner of life he had led had received from His Majesty a remarkable peace and joy of mind in his labours and hardships, of which he had undergone very many (for he had once lived in the greatest prosperity, and was afterwards reduced to the greatest want, which he bore with no less equanimity than he had formerly borne wealth); to whom I had given instructions to get ready for me the house designated. He, moreover, applied himself seriously and diligently to accomplishing this foundation, and that with great devotion and readiness of mind. When he came to me, he told me that the house was not yet vacant; for he had not been able to obtain from the students that they should leave it. I told him, then, that it mattered very much that it should be made vacant for us as quickly as possible, before it became known to the public that I had arrived: for I was always afraid (as I related above) lest some impediment should come from elsewhere. He went, therefore, to the owner of the house, and so managed the matter with him that that evening, almost as it was growing dark, the students moved out of it. We went over to it, then. And it was the first which I founded without the bringing in of the Most Holy Sacrament: for unless It was brought in, I did not seem to myself to enter into full possession of the house; but I had already learned that this mattered little, which was certainly the greatest consolation to me. For those students, who are customarily not tidy, left the whole house so dirty and filthy that we toiled not a little that night in cleaning it.
[517] is begun on the Kalends of November, In the morning the first Mass was celebrated in it; and then too I summoned here more nuns, who were to come from Medina. On the night following the feast of All Saints, therefore, my companion and I remained alone in the house. Now when I remember the fear which my companion, María of the Blessed Sacrament, older than I and a distinguished handmaid of God, then had, I cannot help laughing. For because the house was large and rather dilapidated here and there, and also had many empty spaces in between, it kept recurring to her mind and thought that it might be that one of those students, because they had been forced against their will to leave that house, was hiding secretly in some hidden place. It would indeed have been easy for them, because that place was convenient enough for it. But we shut ourselves up in a certain room, strewn with straw that had been brought in: for it is my custom to bring this in as the first furniture into houses to be founded; and having this, we slept on it: that night, however, we had besides two blankets, borrowed.
[518] and thither the next day The next day certain neighbouring nuns (to whom, however, we feared that our neighbourhood might be a burden and trouble) supplied the furniture necessary for the companions who were to come from elsewhere, and even food, with a great show of kindness. They were called the nuns of St. Elizabeth, and during the whole time that we lived in their neighbourhood their greatest munificence and service toward us shone forth. When my companion saw herself shut in that room, she ceased indeed to be somewhat afraid as regards the bugbear of the students; yet she began to look about her fearfully here and there. And certainly the devil seems to have mixed himself in here, putting certain dangers before her mind and thought, so as to disquiet me through her: for, since I am liable to fainting and languor of spirit, the very least thing is usually enough to bring it on me. I ask her, then, why she kept looking about, since no one could get in there. Then she said: "I was turning over in my mind, Mother, what, if it should happen that I died in this place, you would do here alone. For if this should happen, it would be grievous and very hard for me."
[519] more nuns arrive from Medina. This answer made me somewhat thoughtful and uneasy, and even struck some fear into me. For although lifeless bodies strike no fear into me, yet they always bring me some faintness and weakness of heart, even when I am not alone. To this was added that in all the churches throughout the whole city a mournful sound was raised by the bells, because (as I said) on the next day the commemoration of the faithful departed was being kept. The demon, therefore, seized this occasion to unsettle us by these empty bugbears
the more to dismay us; for seeing that he is not feared, he seeks other occasions and windings for casting in fear. I said, therefore, to my companion: "When this happens, dearest, then at length I will consider what I must do; but for the present let me sleep, I beg you." And because we had slept rather badly the two previous nights, sleep, soon stealing upon us, dispelled all fear. The next day those new nuns arrived, whose coming made us quiet and secure.
[520] This, about three years later, The monastery was in that place for almost three whole years, indeed I do not know whether even for four, for I have retained little memory of this matter: for I was soon enjoined to return from there to my first monastery at Ávila, called of the Incarnation. Otherwise I would by no means depart from any monastery (as indeed is my will) without leaving it its own house, built and accommodated in every respect, nor have I ever departed otherwise. For in this the Lord granted me a singular grace, that I rejoiced to be the first in undertaking labours, and that I seriously procured whatever seemed necessary for the sisters' quiet and recollection, even every least thing, as if I were to live in that house the whole of my life. Hence too it was an extreme consolation and joy to me that they were excellently provided for and everything duly arranged. Certainly it distressed me very much that the sisters of that place were afflicted in various ways and suffered ills, not so much as regards what was necessary for food and use (for even from the place in which I myself was living I procured these things for them so that they might suffice: for this monastery was situated in a place rather unsuited for sending alms) as regards their health, because the place was damp and rather cold; for since the house was large, the cold could not be sufficiently kept out of it. But the most grievous of all was that they did not have the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar in the church, the privation of which is an occasion of great desolation to nuns so enclosed. This trouble they did not feel, but each one bore it with such pleasure and joy of mind that they even praised the Lord: indeed some of them told me that it seemed to them a certain imperfection to desire another house; for they lived here wonderfully content, provided only they had the Most Divine Sacrament of the Eucharist.
[521] into another house The Superior, then, seeing the perfection of the nuns, and also pitying the labour and affliction they were sustaining, summoned me there from the convent of the Incarnation. They meanwhile had made an agreement with a certain nobleman for another house to be sold to them: but it was of such a kind that it could scarcely be adapted into a convenient form for two thousand gold pieces. Moreover, it was entailed. He nevertheless said that he would allow us to move into it and to raise the walls higher, even though leave of alienation had not yet been obtained from the king. I therefore arranged that Julián de Ávila (who I said before was accustomed to accompany me in these foundations) should be my companion on this journey. We saw the house, then, in order to designate what needed to be fitted up in it; for experience itself was causing me to have now some knowledge of building. We went there in the month of August, and (although I pressed the matter as much as possible) yet before the feast of St. Michael (at which time houses at Salamanca are customarily let) it could not be prepared and everything fully fitted up as the matter required. But because we had not rented for the following year the one in which we had lived until then, another man had therefore rented it, who kept urging us to move out of it. The church was by now prepared after a fashion and almost whitewashed: the nobleman who had sold it to us was absent from the city; and indeed some friends of ours said that we were acting wrongly in wishing to move there so soon, when not everything was yet ready. But where necessity presses, there is no place for good counsels, unless they at the same time bring a remedy for the hindrances.
[522] they move; On the eve of the dedication of the Archangel Michael, therefore, we moved here very early in the morning: and for the following day there had been announced from the pulpit the bringing in of the Venerable Eucharist into that place, and the first sermon to be preached there. It happened, however, by the Lord's disposing, that on the day on which we moved, in the evening, so much rain fell that we had to labour exceedingly and undergo various troubles in transferring the necessary things. The church which had been erected was new, and so badly roofed that it let in the rainwater here and there. I must confess to you, dearest ones, that on that day I saw myself to be quite imperfect: for because the matter had already been divulged and proclaimed, I did not know what to do, but, afflicting and tormenting myself, I as it were remonstrated in a friendly way with God, asking Him either not to employ me as helper and minister in works of this kind, or Himself to provide by His help for this untoward necessity. But that good man Nicolás Gutiérrez, with his usual evenness of mind, as if there had been no difficulty, gently told me not to be distressed or tormented at all; for God would help. And so indeed it came about: for as soon as the day of St. Michael dawned, at the time when the people were beginning to flock together, unexpectedly the sun began to shine with brightness over the whole sky; which aroused great devotion in me; and I saw with my own eyes how much better that good man had done in trusting in the Lord than I in vainly tormenting and torturing myself. There was, then, a great concourse of all ranks, and with solemn chant and great pomp the Sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist was brought there. And because this house was situated in an excellent place, it began to be celebrated and frequented quite often by the multitude, and the people began to be more attached to it than usual; above all María Pimentel, Countess of Monterrey, and also a certain other lady, surnamed Mariana, whose husband was governor of that place.
[523] which, however, they are forced But the next day (so that the joy we had conceived on account of the Sacrament of the Altar received among us might be tempered in some way) the possessor and owner of the house himself arrived, who began to be so angry that I did not know how to pacify him: and, the devil doubtless instigating, it came about that he would not acquiesce in reason. For whatever we had agreed upon with him we had in fact fulfilled; but to relate this to him and recall it to his mind did little good to us at the time. But when others spoke to him, he began to act a little more mildly. But soon changing his mind again, he would not be pacified. I told him, therefore, that I was ready to give up the purchased house at once; but he would not have even this, but wanted the purchase price paid to him immediately. His wife (for the house was hers) had asked for it to be sold, so that from its price she might provide a dowry for settling two daughters in marriage: for under this title the licence for the purchase had been requested from the king (because it had been given into an entail), and the price had been consigned into the hands of the one to whom he himself had asked that it be given.
[524] after some years But although this was done three years ago now, the sale is not yet completed, nor do I know whether the monastery will remain in that place (that is, in that house) (for it is for this reason that I have related these things) or what at length is to become of it. This, however, I know, that in none of all the monasteries of this first rule which the Lord has founded until now have the nuns been harassed for the most part by such labours and vexations as those of this one have been harassed by: but, such is the mercy of God, they live there so good and patient that they bear all adversities with the greatest cheerfulness of mind. May His Majesty grant that in this very thing they may advance and grow more and more from day to day. For little depends on having or not having a convenient house: indeed it ought to be a pleasure to us when we live in such a house as we can always be expelled from; especially if we remember that the Lord of the world Himself had no house of His own or fixed. Indeed this very thing, namely living in a house not our own, has befallen us at other times too (as can be gathered from these very foundations): yet in truth I can say that I have never seen a nun who bore this grudgingly or was troubled on that account. May His Majesty grant, through His infinite goodness and mercy, that eternal dwellings and mansions may not be lacking to us. Amen.
[525] to exchange for a third house, I have thought that St. Teresa's narration should not be broken off nor cut into two parts, although the removal of the nuns of Salamanca into that second house properly belongs to the year 1573. But the outcome of the dispute with Pedro de la Banda, which was still uncertain to the Saint, is certain to us from Ribera and Yepes: that after some years the virgins were forced to transfer their seat elsewhere, namely to the hospital called of the Holy Rosary, near the convent of St. Stephen of the Order of Preachers. A fourth, and that a more stable, dwelling they at length obtained in the year 1614 (as the Chronicle teaches, book III, chapter XX, no. 3) outside the gate of the city called de Villamayor. There is extant a letter of the Saint concerning the purchase of the second house, written at Salamanca to Pedro de la Banda on the 2nd of August 1573 (vol. III, letter 48). On this letter Fr. Antonio of St. Joseph notes that the Saint was accustomed to say wittily that, if other houses had given her vainglory, this one at Salamanca would certainly have taken it from her. To other places she had had to go once to found; but she had come here three times, and when she had also made longer stays there than elsewhere, she was forced to leave her daughters without a house and without revenue. That is, as the same Fr. Antonio observes (vol. II, letter 29, note 9), she journeyed there in the year 1571, after the house at Ávila had been founded; in the year 1573, when she was governing the convent of the Incarnation; and finally in the year 1579.
[526] acquired with the greatest labour. Of this third attempt of hers, writing from Salamanca to Fr. Gracián on the 4th of October 1579, she says: O my Father, what labours the business of that house has cost us! For when it had now been entirely concluded, the devil brought it about that until now we are without it: although Salamanca has no house more suitable for us, and our purchase turns also to the advantage of the seller. See how little these sons of Adam are to be trusted. He who had offered us the house, and that of his own accord, is a man upright and honest in the judgement of all; of whom this was the one voice of the common people, that there was as much faith in his words as in public deeds: but indeed he had given his faith not in words only; but also, having called a notary, he had set it down before witnesses. Hence the whole city is astonished: nor is the suspicion absent that his mind has been changed by certain men who measure everything by their own advantage or that of their relatives; by whose authority, namely, he is moved more than by the reasons of sensible men and even of his own brother, who has helped us with great charity and now our misfortune
grieves with us. However, we have commended this matter to God our Lord; which was doubtless the best thing to do. But I am most distressed for this reason, that we do not find other houses at Salamanca, except the very worst (vol. II, letter 29).
§ XXIX. She erects the eighth convent of her nuns at Alba de Tormes. From there she returns to Salamanca, where she heals two sick nuns. She is set over the monastery of the Incarnation at Ávila.
The Alba foundation follows next after that of Salamanca. St. Teresa narrates it thus in her chapter XX: In the city of Alba Two months had not yet passed since the foundation of the Salamanca convent was accomplished on the feast of All Saints, when I was most urgently asked by letters and entreaties of the steward of the Duke of Alba and of his wife to establish a convent at Alba too. I, however, was not so very inclined toward this seat, because, since the town is very small, it seemed that it would have to be established with fixed revenues; and I preferred that it should be founded without any revenues at all. But Fr. Domingo Báñez, who was then my confessor, and of whom I made mention at the beginning of these foundations, and who happened then to be living at Salamanca, rebuked me, saying that, since the Council of Trent allowed monasteries to possess fixed revenues, it was wrong to give up the foundation of any convent for that reason; and that I did not understand the matter: for, even if it were endowed with income, the nuns who live in it would be no less able to practise poverty and to aspire to perfection.
[528] Teresa Laiz, who had placated her parents, hostile to her at her birth, But before I proceed further, I shall say who and what sort of person the foundress herself was, and by what means she was led by the Lord to found this convent. Teresa Laiz, foundress of this monastery of Alba named from the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, was born of noble parents and of illustrious blood. These, because their wealth and means did not correspond in all respects to the dignity of their blood and family, lived in a hamlet named Tordillos, about two leagues distant from Alba. It is truly a wretched thing that, since the things of this world include so much vanity and pomp, noblemen prefer to endure that absence of teaching and of many other things by whose help souls can be enlightened, which is found in those small hamlets and towns, rather than lose even a tittle of their points of honour, which carry with them what they themselves call honour. When, therefore, these already had four daughters, at the time when Teresa Laiz came into the light, her birth was not so very pleasing to her parents, seeing that a daughter was born to them again. A truly wretched and deplorable thing, that men, since they do not understand what is better for them (as being ignorant of the judgements of God, unaware and ignorant of those great goods which can befall them through daughters, and on the other hand of the immense evils which sons can bring them), are nevertheless unwilling to commit it to Him who knows and creates all things; indeed, that they as it were kill themselves through that which ought to bring them joy, as if they had a faith asleep or dead; that they do not extend their consideration further either, nor, finally, remember that it is God who disposes and orders all these things, so that they may commit all the outcomes and successes of things to His disposition: and although they are so blind as not to do this, it is nevertheless a signal and intolerable ignorance that they do not see how little this anxiety and solicitude profits them. How differently and better, O good God, shall we understand these ignorances on that day on which the truth of all these things will be laid open and known! How many fathers will then see themselves condemned to hell because they had sons; and how many mothers will see themselves granted heaven, through and on account of their daughters!
[529] by a miraculous speech in the cradle But to take up again the thread of the narrative begun, these parents behaved toward this girl in such a way as to show plainly that they cared little about her life: for on only the third day from her birth they left her alone in the cradle crying from dawn until evening, so that no one had any memory or care of her. This indeed they did well, that they had her washed with the waters of Baptism by a priest when newly born. A certain woman, then, to whom the girl had been entrusted, toward evening, when she had discovered how little care had been taken of the child, rushed into the room, to see in person whether she had not yet expired; and certain other persons accompanied her, who had come to visit the woman in childbed, and who are witnesses of what I shall now relate. She, then, taking the baby in her arms, began to ask her in a lamentable and tearful voice: "Are you a Christian, daughter?" complaining in a manner of this cruelty toward her as a Christian. The infant at once, raising her head, began to speak and to say: "I am a Christian." But from then on she uttered no further word, until she had reached the fixed age of speaking found in other children. All who heard this voice were filled with the greatest astonishment: and the result was that from that time her mother began to be more vehemently attached to her and to hold her dearer, and kept saying that she asked this one thing of God, that He would keep her alive until she might see what was to become of this girl. Hence her parents brought her up most honourably, teaching her whatever was pious and in keeping with virtue.
[530] and after contracting marriage When now they wished to settle her, being marriageable, in matrimony, Teresa at first resisted, and would not take up this state; until, having learned that Francisco Velázquez (who also, as her husband, became the founder of this house) was seeking her hand, she soon set her mind on marriage (provided she contracted it with him, though she had never before seen his face). But the Lord saw that this was so expedient and fitting, so that this good work, which both rendered for the service of His Majesty, might in this way be carried into execution. For, to say nothing of the fact that the man is commendable in wealth and virtue, he is so attached to his wife that he strives to please her in all things, and not undeservedly: for whatever can be desired and wished for in a married woman, the Lord has conferred on her most abundantly. For, to say nothing of her great care for domestic affairs and her skill in governing a household, she shone with such modesty that, when her husband had brought her to Alba, whence he was a native, and the quartermasters of the Duke of Alba had assigned lodging in her house to a certain young gentleman, she was so indignant on that account that she began to loathe all the people of Alba. For because she herself was a young girl and of quite handsome form, that young man tempted her chastity: and had she not been honest and chaste, she would perhaps have consented to his lust; so vehemently, namely, did the devil impel him to solicit her. On discovering this, yet saying nothing to her husband, she pressed him to move elsewhere from there. He, complying with her, moved with his household to Salamanca, and lived there very happily and pleasantly, and abounding in very many advantages of temporal things; for he held such an office there that all were eager to embrace him and to gratify and favour him in whatever way they could.
[531] had remained barren, This quiet of theirs, however, was disturbed by that anxious care that they had no offspring as heir of their fortunes, which Teresa sought from God with the most earnest prayers: whence too she endeavoured to soften Him by various pious services undertaken for this cause. But no other reason impelled her to desire offspring than that, when she had departed this life, an heir might survive who in her name and as it were in her place would continually praise His Majesty. For it seemed hard and grievous to her that her stock and family should fail in her, and that after her death she should have no one to worship His Majesty. Hence too she afterwards told me that in asking for offspring she had never had in view anything other than what I have said. And truly I know that she does not lie at all: for she is a woman most loving of truth, and so distinguished by so many Christian virtues and by religion (as I have just said) that, when I consider her works and the state of her soul, most studious of pleasing God and never neglecting to spend any time well, I often have occasion to praise God.
[532] by an apparition of St. Andrew the Apostle Since, then, this desire lasted with her for many years, and she had learned that the holy Apostle Andrew makes barren wombs fruitful by his patronage, she began to be carried away by a wonderful and inflamed devotion toward him, and to commend her childlessness to him again and again. After many prayers, then, and services to God and the Saint, when one night she was lying in bed, a voice came to her: "Do not desire offspring: for you would be condemned." Hence she was indeed struck and astounded: but she did not on that account cease to desire offspring; because it seemed to her that, since she was moved by so good an end in desiring it, she was by no means to be condemned for it: hence she went on further in asking God for offspring, and began to venerate the Apostle Andrew with a certain singular devotion. Wherefore once, when she had this very desire, a vision was presented to her, whether awake or asleep is uncertain: but yet she knew that it had come from God from the outcome which followed. She seemed to herself to be in a certain house, under the porch of whose court she thought she saw a well: not far from there she beheld a meadow in full spring bloom, covered with white flowers, so elegant indeed that she did not remember having seen the like, and did not know how to explain their elegance. Standing by the well she saw the Apostle Andrew, of venerable and comely form, so that the sight of him filled her who saw it with great delight; from whom she soon heard: "These are far other children than such as you ask for." She would indeed have wished that the delight which she perceived in this place had been longer, and had had no end: but it was not longer. Although the Saint appearing had not indicated his name, yet she easily understood that it was the Apostle Andrew, and moreover that God willed her to establish a monastery: whence it may be gathered that this vision was no less intellectual than imaginary, and was neither a phantasm nor a diabolical illusion. That it was not a phantasm is clear from the great effect it produced: for after it all desire of having offspring left her, and she was so certainly persuaded that this was the will of God that from then on she neither asked for it any more nor desired it; hence she began to consider within herself in what way she might carry the will of God into execution. That it was not a diabolical illusion likewise is clear from the effect which followed from it: for what proceeds from the devil cannot produce such a good as that monastery now built, in which so singular a service is rendered to the Lord. Add that this vision occurred six years and more before the monastery was founded: and the devil cannot foreknow such future events.
[533] and by other, of the divine will, Dismayed by this vision, she
began to discuss with her husband that, since God, the giver of all things, had denied them offspring, it seemed to her that they would be doing something worth while and a work worthy of God if from their means they erected a monastery for certain nuns. Nor did the husband refuse the pious desire of his wife (since he too was pious, and strove to comply with his wife), and they began to deliberate together in what place above all they should found it. She desired that it be erected in her native soil; but he, alleging various impediments, asserted that it would by no means be fitting for it to be erected in that place, and strove to turn her from this purpose. While they were discussing these things, the Duchess of Alba invited Velázquez to a conversation, in order to persuade him to move with his household to Alba, there to discharge the office which she had determined to give him in her household. When he had come to the Duchess, to see what office she wished to entrust to him, and had heard her, he did not refuse to undertake it, although it was not so profitable as that which he was discharging at Salamanca. On learning this, his wife was saddened, because (as I said) she was rather averse to that town: but being assured that no one would lodge with them any more from then on, she began to be somewhat appeased; although she was not so very content, because she lived more gladly and more according to her desire at Salamanca. Velázquez, then, having bought a house, invited his wife there by letter. She came indeed, though not gladly and against her will: but she was the more averse when she saw the house bought by her husband. For although it was situated in an excellent place, and was quite large, yet it was divided into few rooms; hence on the first night she was rather ill content.
[534] indications, When, then, at the next dawn she first went down into the court, and saw the porch and the well under it, it at once recurred to her mind that this was surely the very place which she had seen before in the vision, when the Apostle Andrew appeared to her: she saw, I say, the place, but not the Apostle, nor the meadow, nor the flowers, although she then had both him and these very well impressed on her imagination and still has them now. Having seen these things, she was not a little astonished, and at the same time resolved within herself to establish a monastery in that same place. And from then on her stay at Alba began to be a delight and pleasure to her, and she never wished to withdraw from there. Hence they also bought the adjoining houses, until the bounds of the monastery they were planning should be ample and wide enough. She kept thinking within herself, however, and turning over anxiously in her mind, nuns of what Institute above all she should bring there: for she wished them both to be fewer in number and most zealous followers of solitude. She communicated about this very matter with two members of different Orders, good and learned men. These asserted that it would be better to spend her means on other works of pious charity: because the greater part of nuns was scarcely content with their state, and other reasons of that weight were adduced. For because this work was displeasing to the devil, he was striving in every way to upset it: hence he made the arguments and reasons to the contrary which those men brought forward please her.
[535] moved, Wherefore, since these men had dissuaded her from this work, and the devil was pressing still more in dissuading her from it, she began to fear and be troubled, and to become more averse to founding a monastery: and she communicated this state of mind to her husband too. It seemed good to them, therefore, since men of this kind dissuaded it, and their own intention was to render a service most pleasing to God, to turn their minds from this purpose. Hence they came to the decision to spend the chief part of their fortune on the marriage which a certain kinsman of Laiz, on her sister's side, was about to contract with a certain kinswoman of Velázquez; and to dedicate the rest of their wealth to pious works, for the relief of their souls after this life. This indeed pleased both exceedingly, and they decided with equal consent to carry it out in its time. But since the Lord had determined to do something far different, their purpose availed little and vanished altogether: for scarcely fifteen days passed after this purpose when that kinsman suddenly fell into so grave an illness that not long afterwards he died of it and passed to the Lord. When this death had filled her with no small astonishment and fear, she at the same time began to reflect in her mind that, as the Prophet Jonah felt the avenging hand of God because he had struggled against His commands, not otherwise had this dearest kinsman been taken from her by death, God avenging it, because she had neglected to carry out the divine admonitions, and wished to give him what she had previously determined to dedicate to God.
[536] the monastery From that time she resolved within herself not to give up the foundation of the monastery for any cause; and this will settled in her husband too, although they were wholly ignorant how they should accomplish it in deed. For God seemed to inspire and suggest to her what we see accomplished today: but those to whom she indicated the matter, and described what sort of monastery she wanted, laughed at her, saying that she would nowhere find what she wanted; and especially a certain confessor of the order of St. Francis, a learned man of great name: hence she was not a little saddened. But when it happened that this priest went away elsewhere abroad, and heard in person many things about these monasteries of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel, which were then being founded here and there, and had himself accurately inquired into all their institutes, on returning to Alba he indicated to her that he had found those nuns whom she was seeking so anxiously; wherefore she should now found the monastery she wished, and in whatever way she wished. He related to her in order all the things he had heard, and persuaded her to treat with me about this very matter; as she also did.
[537] assigns to St. Teresa. We underwent much labour and trouble, however, in bargaining and stipulating with them. For I have always been of the opinion that those monasteries which do not live on the alms of the pious should be supplied abundantly with everything necessary, so that the nuns should not be forced, under pressure of necessity, to ask anything of their relatives or of anyone else, but that everything necessary for food and clothing should be given them at home, and the infirm and sick well cared for. For from the lack of necessary things not a few inconveniences are wont to follow. And certainly for building many monasteries not endowed with means and annual revenues, courage and confidence in God never fail me; for I am certain that He will never fail them or not give them what is necessary: but to allow revenues, and those modest ones, to be assigned to them I never have the heart; indeed I would rather they were not founded. At length, coming round to reason and fairness, they assigned us revenues sufficient for the number of nuns; and (on which account I owe them very much) they left their own house, in order to give it up to us, and themselves moved into another quite inconvenient one. And so on the day sacred to the Conversion of the Apostle Paul, in the year 1571, to the glory of God, the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar was brought here, and the foundation accomplished: in which place the divine Majesty is excellently served. May He grant that this service of His may become ever greater and greater.
[538] The Saint at Salamanca restores to health a woman The foundation accomplished, St. Teresa remained at Alba for some time; as may be seen from the letter recited by me at no. 475, which she wrote from that town on the 5th of February to Alonso Ramírez. But soon afterwards her presence was desired at Salamanca, on account of the troubles by which we learned above that the nuns there were afflicted. On that occasion the Count of Monterrey (Jerónimo de Azevedo, son of María Pimentel, of whom at no. 522) and his wife asked the provincial to be willing to order Teresa to lodge for some time in their mansion at Salamanca. The holy Virgin, obeying this command, not only consoled her noble hosts with her company and the examples of her virtues and helped them in running the way of salvation; but also refreshed them with a twofold miracle. María de Artiaga, wife of the tutor of the Count's children, lay prostrate with a malignant fever, and had already come to the gates of death; when, at the urgent request of her patrons, Teresa entered the sick woman's room and laid her hand on her face. As soon as María felt the touch of that most pure hand, she cried out: Who touches me? I feel that I am healed. This utterance could not but strike those standing by; nor did it profit the humble Saint at all that she at once said it might be that the sick woman uttered such words in delirium: for she, rising from her bed without delay, left no one in doubt that she was as sound in mind as in body.
[539] and restores a girl to health; This healing is narrated by Yepes (book IV, chapter I) and by the author of the Chronicle (book 2, chapter XLVIII). The latter, however, adds another too, which could have become known from no other source than the testimony of Fr. Domingo Báñez. Namely, at the same time the Count's little daughter, María Pimentel de Fonseca, who afterwards became the mother of a man most celebrated throughout Spain, and adorned by King Philip IV with very many titles of honour, Gaspar de Guzmán, third Count of Olivares, was likewise lying gravely ill. The pious parents, therefore, asked Teresa for her prayers to God for her, that, provided it should redound to the glory of the supreme Majesty, the term of life might be prolonged for their dearest child. To her as she complied with such just wishes, St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena showed themselves to the holy Virgin within her room, and announced that her prayer had been heard; but that it would be pleasing to God if for one year little María wore the habit of the nuns of the Order of Preachers. But since the Saint could not indicate this will of the Heavenly ones to the Count without at the same time disclosing the vision she had had, she went to Fr. Báñez on this matter; and through his intervention she easily obtained from her religious and grateful hosts that the little girl should wear the Dominican habit for a whole year.
[540] and at Ávila The time spent by the holy Foundress at Salamanca in this year 1571, partly with the Count of Monterrey, partly in her monastery, is nowhere accurately defined. That she came there before the 29th of March is demonstrated by the letter which she sent on that day to Diego Ortiz at Toledo (vol. II, letter 65). Further, from the said town she went to Medina del Campo, to bring back the prioress Inés of Jesus, whom she had brought with her from there to the Alba foundation, and to settle the disputes which had perhaps arisen in those days between Isabel of the Angels and her parents, of the graver moment because, while the Saint with her nuns defended Isabel's side, on the parents' side stood the provincial Salazar with the Carmelite Fathers. He, seeing that his own opinion and that of his party was not approved by the holy Mother, and alleging that Inés of Jesus had been absent from the monastery without his order, moreover taking it ill that the same Inés was now again elected prioress by the votes of the nuns, and that Teresa de Quesada, whom he himself was proposing, was rejected, was moved beyond what was fitting, and under severe penalties ordered the Saint together with Inés to leave Medina at once. Both obeyed
, and withdrew first to Alba, then to Ávila; and indeed they came to Alba, as the Chronicle relates, riding on two little asses which a carrier had supplied to them, since they lacked a more convenient means of travelling.
[541] the priorship of the monastery of the Incarnation, At Ávila there then first came to know Teresa by sight, who had previously known her only by repute, Fr. Pedro Hernández, the apostolic visitor of the Carmelites throughout Castile. By the authority of this man (which the Saint rightly asserts, as emanating from the Supreme Pontiff, to prevail over both the General Prior of the Order and the general chapter, vol. II, letter 66), the unanimous vote of the nuns concurring, she was set over the monastery of Medina in the month of August, from which Quesada had long since departed of her own accord. But in the month of October next following Hernández summoned the Saint from there, and ordered her to preside over the convent of the Incarnation at Ávila. How she entered upon the government of this convent, exceedingly difficult, against the will of the nuns, Ribera will teach you (book 3, chapter 1). To what he has, I shall add here only the holy Mother's address, by which, with the greatest simplicity indeed, she even then began to soothe the minds of the reluctant in the midst of that ferment. This speech is usually placed at the end of the first volume of the Letters, in the fifth place among the Counsels.
[542] Ladies, says the Saint, my Mothers and Sisters, God has sent me through obedience into this house to discharge this office, having delivered an address to the nuns, she takes up. which I by no means sought, much less deserved. This election befell me most grievously, both because it imposed on me a burden which I am unequal to bearing, and because the freedom of electing which you had enjoyed until now was snatched from your hands, and a prioress was given you against your will and unwilling, one for whom it would be a matter of much labour even to strive to learn from the least of you the great good that she has. For my part I come here for no other cause than to serve you and to accommodate myself to you in all things, as far as I can. And I hope that the Lord will help me very much in this matter; for in other things there is none among you who could not teach and reform me. See, therefore, my Ladies, in what way I can deserve well of you: even if I must shed my blood and life for you, I will do it most gladly. I am a daughter of this house, and sister of you all. I know the character and the needs of most, if not all of you; and so there is no reason why you should be estranged from one who is so properly your own. Nor fear my government so much. For although until now I have lived among and presided over the Discalced, yet I know, by the goodness of God, how those who are not Discalced ought to be governed. One thing I desire, that we all serve the Lord sweetly, and that we take pains to observe those few heads of our rules and constitutions for God, to whom we owe so much. I am not unaware how great our weakness is: but if by our works we do not reach the summit of perfection, let us at least reach it by our desires. For the Lord in His kindness will bring it about that little by little our works correspond to our intention and desire.
[543] The upper oratory is described, It is pleasing here to describe in a few words the oratory in which the Saint then presided, and which still exists, as you have it newly drawn in the plate here attached. Over the same area it is double, lower and upper. The construction of the upper must be traced back to the times of St. Teresa. On its altar stands a carved St. Mary, called of Clemency, and this image is held in great honour, inasmuch as it was brought by St. Teresa when she took the veil. The row of stalls too, of polished wood and of good carving, are held in veneration, because the Saint so often sat in them; and for that reason they are occupied by no one, but all the nuns sit on stools or lower seats, while the upper ones, niches for pious images, are adorned with garlands of flowers, each nun having the charge of tending and decorating one of those seats.
[544] and the lower, in which the Saint then presided. The lower oratory, floored and roofed with wooden beams, has fewer ornaments. But beside the altar, on the Gospel side, is a wooden statue of St. Teresa, the work of a good sculptor. She is clothed in a garment which both in form and colour recalls the habit she wore before instituting the Reform. She has, however, the appearance of presiding over the choir as prioress, and giving the sign with her hand for beginning the divine Office. That carving seems to have been made long after her death. The seat on which she sits is the very one she occupied in the time of her priorship; wherefore its little columns, many shavings having been taken off out of a feeling of piety, are very badly damaged, and therefore, so that the wounds of the seat may not show, they are covered with flowers, and the whole seat with the statue is now enclosed in a four-sided glass case, which however can be opened on every side. Its base is about two palms above the floor, somewhat lower than the stools of the nuns; for these too imitate the humility of the Discalced, who abstain from the seat which the Saint their Mother used; and the prioress remains at the side of the statue, so that the Saint seems continually to preside over the choir. In this lower oratory, midway between two windows, there is an opening or Communion bench, above which hangs a certain picture in which the Saint is represented receiving Holy Communion from the hands of Jesus Christ, beside whom stand two Angels with lighted torches. For a pious tradition holds that in that very place such a grace was conferred on her by God. Since, however, from the time of the delivery of the speech which I brought forward above, until the Segovia foundation, many things happened which Ribera nowhere touches, I shall gather them from elsewhere, as far as I can, into the following paragraph.
§ XXX. The Saint's useful labours in the monastery of the Incarnation; a rapture; the mystical espousals with Christ; the vision of the death of Fr. Martín Gutiérrez S.J.; memorable letters.
The holy Mother, oppressed by illnesses and cares, The Saint, in a familiar letter given on the 7th of March 1572 to María de Mendoza, not only describes with her native charm the state of her infirm health and of the poor monastery of the Incarnation; but also, beyond her intention, makes known more clearly and elegantly than could be done by a long panegyric her heroic patience and the abundant fruit of her charity and gentleness in governing the house committed to her. Wherefore I think I shall do the reader a favour by bringing forward this letter here: Jesus. The grace of the Holy Spirit be always with you. Amen. I have thought of you much in this weather, and feared that the inclemency of the air might harm your health: it has certainly, as it seems to me, harmed mine not a little. Praise be to God, since we shall see an eternity that has no changes of seasons: and may He grant that we so pass through temporal things that we may one day deserve to enjoy so great a good. To me indeed the land has so tasted that I seem not to have been born in it. I think I have enjoyed good health scarcely a month and a half, and that at the beginning; since God saw, I believe, that nothing could then be done without it. Today He Himself does everything: for I know nothing else than to care for my body. Especially for three weeks now He has added to my quartan fevers a pain in the side and quinsy. Even one of these ills would suffice to give me death, if it pleased God: but He does not seem so far to wish me to attain that good. Having been bled three times, I have recovered a little. The quartans have gone away, but the fever has not left me altogether: wherefore in the morning I take a purge. It wearies me to see myself so infirm that I cannot come out of my corner except to Mass. But greatest is the pain of my jaws, by which I have now been afflicted a month and a half. I enumerate all these things to you, so that you may not be angry with me for not having written to you, and so that you may see how liberally the Lord bestows on me those things which I always beg of Him. It certainly seemed to me impossible, when I came here, that this weak and infirm nature of mine should be equal to bearing so many labours. For besides the ordinary business, which is truly very great in these monasteries, I am troubled by very grave matters which do not concern this house: so that it truly appears that we can do all things in God, as St. Paul says. God grants me that, though enjoying so slight a health, I accomplish everything.
[546] discipline among the nuns of the Incarnation, Sometimes I have laughed within myself that I have been left without a confessor and so alone that I have no one with whom to deal for the sake of consolation other than by sight. Although, as regards relief of the body, great kindness and solicitude toward me has by no means been lacking. And in this very place they have given me much alms: for this house gives me food only; and I had not even desired this. The alms which the Lady Magdalena gave (this is probably Magdalena de Ulloa) is almost consumed: until now we had made our dinner from it; to which was added also what you and certain other persons bestowed with so generous a hand on the very poor nuns. When I see these nuns of the Incarnation now so calmed and good, it grieves me what they suffer. God is surely to be praised, who has so changed them that the very ones who were most rebellious are now most content and very fond of me. In the present Lenten season they visit no one, either woman or man; although, which befalls this house very troublesomely, they labour under great want. They bear everything with much peace: there are here most truly excellent handmaids of God, and almost all are advancing for the better. My prioress (she means the Most Blessed Virgin Mary) does these wonders. And that it may more plainly appear to be so, I, by God's disposing, am in such health that I seem to have come here only to shrink from penance and to care for my body (vol. III, letter 6).
[547] gently The Saint did not need a very long time to gather this fruit. For scarcely a few days had passed after that turbulent chapter which Ribera describes, when certain of the nuns who had been most opposed to her came running to the Saint, saying: You will do well, Mother, if you keep the keys of the parlours with you, and if you commit the domestic offices to such and such (they named the best and those pleasing to Teresa). To whom she answered gently: Since this seems so to you, O dearest Mothers, let it be done by all means, as far as I am concerned. In this way she appeared to arrive at the goal she had set herself, not so much by her own will as by that of her subjects; and the citadel which until then had been impregnable, the parlour I mean, she did not overcome by force, but received in surrender most peaceably. And so from that time the custody of the door, of the sacristy and of the other places in which danger could lurk was entrusted to the most faithful of the nuns. Whenever secular persons called one or another nun to a conversation, the holy Mother would dismiss them with a certain pious
device: by which the good being edified, but the bad affected with distaste, little by little both the one and the other ceased to frequent the monastery.
[548] and by acting firmly, restores, There were, however, a few rather obstinate young men, who thought they would carry off signal praise by overcoming Teresa's constancy. One above the rest, taking it ill that all dealings were forbidden him with a nun whom he shamefully loved, assailed the prioress, whom he had called into the parlour, with every insult and abuse. Teresa listened quietly and patiently to the man insulting her: but when he had made an end of speaking, she in turn, taking up the discourse, with an animated countenance and with the grave weight of reasons, forbade the shameless good-for-nothing ever again to set foot in the convent; and said that if he should try even one more time to disturb the quiet of the brides of Jesus Christ, she would use the royal authority against those rash attempts. Struck down by that thunderbolt of words, the impudent man muttered nothing in reply; but, withdrawing very quickly from the parlour, went to warn his companions that there was no place for jests with Teresa, that the conversations in the convent of the Incarnation were finished, and that those who still wished to amuse themselves must direct their steps elsewhere. Thus gradually, without its being noticed, withdrawn from worldly things and restored to God and to themselves, the nuns of the Incarnation began to give themselves so fervently to prayer and to interior and exterior mortification that there was now no other difference between them and the Discalced than that of dress. And they regarded their prioress with such affection of love that, if it had depended on them, they would never have allowed her to be torn from them.
[549] with the help of St. John of the Cross, Meanwhile Fr. Ángel of St. Gabriel, whom I showed above (no. 499) to have been set over the novices of Pastrana as master, led indeed by zeal, but not according to knowledge, had changed the face of the novitiate committed to him by an unwonted kind of mortifications. When the superiors noticed this, they sent St. John of the Cross there from the college of Alcalá, to restore by his diligence what had collapsed. Fr. Ángel bore with a not sufficiently mortified mind that the power of mortifying both himself and others was taken from him; and he complained by letter of this injury inflicted, as he believed, undeservedly, to Teresa, as the common Mother of all. The Saint sent this letter to Salamanca to Fr. Domingo Báñez, in whose prudence and religion no less than his learning she trusted greatly; and so she made him arbiter of the controversy that had arisen. On the 23rd of April 1572 Fr. Báñez answered with a letter which Fr. Francisco de Santa María took entire into his Chronicle (book II, chapter L), and whose substance was this, entirely in conformity with the mind of the holy Reformer: that Fr. Ángel had acted wrongly, St. John of the Cross rightly; because the latter, namely, had insisted on the Carmelite rule, while the former had been deceived by a zeal for imitating the Society of Jesus. However, the Saint did not stay long at Pastrana; but in the month of May, as it seems, he was summoned by St. Teresa to Ávila with Fr. Germán of St. Matthias, a religious of great virtue, so that together they might be Confessors to the nuns of the Incarnation: which office both discharged there with the highest praise for more than four years, using a certain little cottage near the convent as a dwelling. A longer treatment of these things pertains rather to the Life of St. John than to that of St. Teresa: but what follows is common to both.
[550] with whom she once suffers a rapture When one day in the parlour of the monastery of the Incarnation they had begun to converse most loftily and, as was their wont, most fervently on the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, and Teresa, fallen on her knees, was listening through the grille to John speaking sublimely; the soul of each grew so warm with divine fire that first John, together with the seat on which he was resting, as Elijah with his chariot, and then Teresa too, kneeling as she was, were caught up aloft. We have as a witness of this event Beatriz of Jesus (daughter of Francisco Álvarez, St. Teresa's cousin), then a nun at the Incarnation, but afterwards passed over to the Discalced with several others; who at the very time of the ecstasy had entered the parlour to bring some message to the Saint, and afterwards learned from her the cause and occasion of so wonderful a spectacle. That the same thing happened more than once is to be thought both from the trustworthiness of the historians and above all from the fact that they report that the holy Mother used to say repeatedly that one must speak cautiously of God with Fr. John of the Cross; since he not only was rapt himself, but made others too suffer raptures.
[551] in the parlour. That parlour with its grille is preserved to this day in the same state in the monastery of the Incarnation, as the plate here attached shows it, recently drawn on the spot by Don Boada and engraved on copper in Belgium. These grilles, however, are different from those at which the Saint had earlier been rebuked by the stern face of Christ appearing, and which you see drawn in the lower part of the plate, and of which I have already made mention in § VII. Both these grilles are about five feet wide and almost three feet high. The inscription of the upper picture, if you fill out the many contractions, is in Spanish as follows: Siendo priora deste convento de la Encarnacion nuestra Santa Madre, y vicario de dicho convento S. Juan de la Cruz, estando en este locutorio hablando en el misterio de la Santissima Trinidad, se arrobaron entrambos, y el Santo subio llevando tras si la silla, como se ve en la pintura. Which in Latin sounds thus: When our holy Mother Teresa was prioress of this convent of the Incarnation, and when St. John of the Cross was vicar of the said convent, both, at this grille, in the course of a conversation on the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, were caught up on high, and the Saint was lifted up together with his seat, as is seen in the picture.
[552] With Jesus, holding out a nail to her, And since our discourse has brought us to this matter, I shall gather in this place certain other things concerning the divine operations which the Saint is known to have experienced during this period of her priorship in the often-mentioned monastery of the Incarnation. One vision of hers, had on the eve of the 20th of January, which day is sacred to SS. Fabian and Sebastian, Ribera relates (book III, chapter I) in Teresa's own words, namely from the leaves which Luis de León added to the Life written by her. The same Ribera narrates (book IV, chapter III) how the Saint at this time saw the body of the deceased Leonor de Cepeda, her kinswoman, carried by Angels. St. Pius V, on the very day of his death, the Kalends of May 1572, appeared to the Saint; as the Ven. Mother Ana of Jesus testified on oath in the informations for the canonization that she had received from her mouth (in Manrique, book II, chapter VII). María of St. John the Baptist, own sister of the Leonor just named, and one of the first nuns of the reformed Carmel, likewise testified that there was in her possession a leaf written by Teresa's hand and containing, among other things, the following: When I was in the monastery of the Incarnation, in the second year of my priorship in it, one day, when I had been refreshed with the sacred banquet, God said to me: "Do not fear, daughter; since there is no one who can separate you from Me." And then indeed in an imaginary vision He gave Himself to me to be beheld very intimately, as He had been accustomed to do at other times too; and holding out His right hand to me, He said: "Behold this nail, in sign that from this day you are to be My bride: until now you had not merited it; but henceforth you shall take care of My honour, not only as of your Creator, King and God, but as My true and genuine bride: My honour is now yours, and yours Mine." This grace produced such effects in me that I could scarcely contain it and remained as if out of my mind, and I said to the Lord either to make known my vileness or not to grant me such a grace: for I thought my nature unequal to bearing it. Hence the whole day I remained as it were steeped in it and much absorbed. From it afterwards I felt great fruit and greater confusion of myself and grief of soul, because I saw that I did nothing worthy of such great graces and gifts.
[553] she enters into mystical espousals at the Eucharistic table. These are the espousals of Christ the Lord with St. Teresa, which Ribera mentions, alleging the same words, book IV, chapter V, indicating moreover that they took place in the octave of St. Martin, that is on the 18th day of November 1572. In the additions made by the care of Luis de León to the Life of Teresa the same day is designated, and certain antecedent circumstances are related besides; for there the Saint speaks thus: When I was living in the monastery of the Incarnation, in the second year of my priorship, on the octave day of St. Martin, and I was just about to receive Holy Communion, Fr. Juan de la Cruz divided the Sacred Host into two parts, of which one should fall to me, the other to another sister. For my part I thought he did this not so much because hosts were lacking as to mortify me, since I had told him that I gladly received large Hosts in Holy Communion; although I knew that this matters nothing, and that the Lord is no less present there whole and entire, even though the particle be the very smallest. But God said to me: "Do not fear, daughter; for truly there is no one who can separate you from Me": indicating that this was of no moment. And then indeed, etc., as above. That very Holy Communion table where this happened still exists and holds great veneration: and a picture hung beside it shows that vision, as it was narrated by the Saint. Both of these you see expressed exactly in the accurate drawing which in the year 1842 we had made by Don Robustiano Boada in the monastery of the Incarnation itself. The frame of the sacred table is on the outside 23 inches wide, 26 high; the little window which is in it, 12 and a half wide, 15 and a half high; the picture, however, is about 9 feet high, and 8 wide.
[554] An error regarding the sequence of events is corrected. At fault, if you regard the sequence of events, is the Lesson inserted in the Ambrosian Breviary (by force of a decree of Cesare Cardinal Monti, archbishop of Milan, in the year 1647), where the following is found: Christ called (Teresa) to Himself as bride by a new rite of espousals, namely with the nail of His passion in place of a ring (which took place on the 18th of November 1572); and thenceforth she burned with so great a desire of suffering that she exclaimed again and again: "Lord, either to suffer or to die." The Spouse did not fail her in her ardour; but through an Angel He pierced her heart with a fiery dart (which transverberation preceded the espousals by a full twelve years): and she responded to the Spouse with such charity that the unwonted and most difficult vow of always doing whatever she understood to be more perfect and to pertain to the greater glory of God,
she most constantly took (which likewise had already been done by the Saint twelve years before, namely immediately after the piercing of her heart). From which you see that the chronological order of events is there inverted.
[555] A certain little tale is related of a boy's conversation with Teresa. I do not know, however, whether these words of God to Teresa: My honour is now yours, and yours Mine, or rather those which are related in chapter XXXIX of her Life: Now you are Mine, and I am yours, gave occasion to a little story which certain preachers and writers of ascetical books have drawn from I know not where, and which Fr. Federico (vol. I, p. XLIII) relates thus: One day, as the holy Mother was walking about in the monastery, she met a beautiful little boy; and wondering that he had come into the enclosure, she supposed that he was the relative of some nun. She asked him, therefore, by what name he was called. To whom the little one said: "First tell me your name; then I will indicate mine to you." The Saint answered that she was called Teresa of Jesus. "And I," he replied, "am called Jesus of Teresa." But nowhere, as Fr. Federico aptly adds, will you find a fact of this kind narrated, whether among the biographers of St. Teresa or among other older historians of good repute. Concerning which there also occurs that other reason for doubting vehemently, namely that here an external and bodily vision would be in question; while yet the holy Mother herself declares in clear words in her Castle of the soul (Mansion VI, chapter IX) that she had no vision of that kind, but only interior visions, now intellectual, now imaginary, as I have already mentioned elsewhere (no. 224). For she speaks thus there: Of those visions which are apprehended by exterior sight I can say nothing at all; since nothing of the kind ever happened to the person I mentioned (that is, to the Saint herself, designating herself in the third person), and of whom I can speak here so particularly, nor can anyone give a sure account of a thing which he has not experienced. It is, however, quite likely that some eulogist of St. Teresa interpreted those most sweet words of the Saviour which I have just adduced by some oratorical paraphrase so as to say that Teresa was Jesus's, and Jesus Teresa's; and that from this, imperceptibly, new fictions being added in turn, the tale mentioned flowed out among the common people, which, for the rest, is of very slight moment indeed for the glory of the Seraphic Virgin, most renowned on so many other titles.
[556] The Saint quite often hears Jesus speaking to her. Furthermore, those mystical espousals of St. Teresa with the Saviour were a preparation for another still more sublime kind of prayer (the Saint herself calls it spiritual marriage) which she enjoyed during the last years of her life, on the testimony of Ribera (book IV, chapter 1). I shall not speak here of the nature of these things, since Teresa herself explains it in the Castle of the soul (Mansion VII, chapters I and II). I return to the leaf whose words María of St. John the Baptist produced before the informers, as I said a little before. Another time, says the holy Mother there, when I had recollected myself within myself with that company which I always carry in my soul, it seemed to me that God was in it; so that I remembered the words of St. Peter: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God"; since in my soul too the living God was. This vision, however, is not like the others, since it brings force with faith; so that it cannot be doubted that the Most Holy Trinity is present to souls by presence, essence and power. It is most profitable to grasp this truth. And when I was afraid, because I saw so great a Majesty in this most vile soul of mine, I heard: "It is not vile, since it was made in My image." Besides, I learned certain things about the cause for which God delights more in souls than in the other creatures: which indeed are so delicate that, although the understanding grasped them quickly, it yet does not know how to utter them. Another time, reflecting how hard a thing life is, by which we are hindered from always enjoying that admirable company of the Most Holy Trinity, I said within myself: "Lord, give me some way of shaking off the weight of this life." And God to me: "Consider, My daughter," He said, "that when you have finished your life you cannot serve Me as you now do. Eat for Me and sleep for Me; let whatever you do be for Me, as if it were no longer you that lived, but I, as St. Paul said." To this narrative written by Teresa's own hand María of St. John the Baptist adds further: One night of the feast of Corpus Christi Mother Teresa saw the Lord coming to her out of the Sacred Pyx, with blood flowing from His whole head; who, as if wearied, told her that He was in such a state through the heads of the Church too. I do not remember whether she was ordered to relate these words to them: but she narrated them to someone who drew great profit from them.
[557] Concerning the death of Fr. Martín Gutiérrez S.J. Finally, there comes to be recorded here the vision which the Saint had in the year 1573 concerning Fr. Martín Gutiérrez, recently her helper and confessor in the Salamanca foundation. He, while after the death of St. Francis Borgia he was setting out for Rome for the election of a new General of the Society of Jesus with Frs. Gil González, provincial of Castile, and Juan Suárez, accompanied also by Br. Diego de Ríos, a temporal coadjutor, was intercepted in France by Huguenot heretics: who, after they had already deliberated about putting the four innocent men to death unless they ransomed themselves with a large sum of money, and had gravely wounded Fr. Gil in the thigh, meanwhile kept them, afflicted with blows and insults, harshly in a hard prison at Cardaillac, ten leagues from the city of Rodez. From this, having contracted a great pain in the side together with fever, Fr. Gutiérrez died within the fifth day, on the 21st of February, in that very captivity, destitute of all the alleviations and comforts of illness; as he had formerly begged with much prayer of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, of whom he was an exceptional devotee. But behold, when his companions, now restored to liberty for the money promised, were deliberating in vain about burying his body in Catholic fashion in the midst of a wicked nation, there suddenly appeared a lady of august and modest appearance; and she first asked whether any of them had died whose body was to be buried. When they assented, she brought out a shroud and with her own hands wrapped the corpse most becomingly, and soon ceased to be seen: so that the Fathers had no doubt that this had been a kindness of the most benign Queen of heaven toward the remains of her client.
[558] she is admonished from heaven. All these circumstances of a death very near to Martyrdom Fr. Juan Suárez wrote down a few days afterwards and often narrated thereafter (consult the Life of Fr. Baltasar Álvarez, by Luis de la Puente, chapter XXVII, and the History of the Society of Jesus, part IV, book I, no. 2 and following). And Fr. Bartolomé Pérez de Nueros (one of the two companions whom, as Ribera narrates, book II, chapter VII, Fr. Gutiérrez had sent on the first night of the Salamanca foundation to set in order and adorn St. Teresa's chapel), in the informations held at Madrid for the Saint's canonization, testified that he had heard persons who related for certain that the glorious death of Fr. Martín had been divinely revealed to St. Teresa; and that the same Saint had sent a letter to Fr. Gil González, who was then acting at Rome as Assistant for Spain, in which she informed him that Fr. Martín had been shown to her by God, conspicuous in heavenly glory and adorned with the laurel of Martyrdom.
[559] She cares for her Discalced nuns of Ávila. But beware of thinking that amid so many visions and delights of the spirit, amid such great pains of body as she herself enumerated in her letter mentioned above, and finally amid her most laborious efforts to restore discipline in the monastery of the Incarnation, the holy Mother was unmindful of the daughters whom she had begotten to the Lord in the convents of her Reform. Of the convent of St. Joseph at Ávila she doubtless took special care in those times, when she lived so near it. Its prioress, María of St. Jerome, never ordered anything without consulting Teresa: indeed, on the testimony of Fr. Crisóstomo Henríquez in the Life of the Ven. Servant of God Ana of St. Bartholomew (book 11, chapter VI), the holy Foundress governed and consoled and taught her dear Discalced nuns of Ávila in the same way as if she were living in their midst. As a specimen there is in the same writer the licence which the Saint gave to María of St. Jerome, as her vicar, to admit to profession on the 25th of August 1572, by her authority and in her name, the Ven. Ana just named.
[560] She writes to María de Mendoza That the Saint then had the affairs of her convent of Alba too at heart is clear from two letters to Juana de Ahumada, given on the 4th of February and the 27th of September (vol. II, letter 52; vol. III, letter 36). The same solicitude for the sisters of Valladolid is shown by the letter to María de Mendoza, whose opening I have just alleged at the beginning of this §, and whose continuation I now exhibit, so that it may be evident how bravely the holy Mother provided for the good and discipline of her monasteries, and how prudently for cultivating the friendship of benefactors. Now, she says, so that I may suffer on every side, the prioress of that convent of yours (Valladolid) writes to me that you wish a certain nun to be admitted in it; and moreover that you took it ill that she told you that I had been unwilling, after you had sent the licence to receive her, to receive her, nor the other whom Fr. Ripalda desires to be admitted. I thought you had not been rightly informed; I should be sorry if you were striving for it in earnest. You can rebuke me and command me. Nor can I persuade myself that you are angry with me without your telling me so: I should rather believe that anger is feigned by you, so as to extricate yourself from the matter. If this were so, I should be greatly relieved. For I know how one must deal with those Fathers of the Society, so as to make them agree with me; since they themselves would not, in order to comply with my will, admit anyone unsuited to their Order. If you deign to write me your decided will, I will not say a word more: and in that house and in all the others you may command; I shall have to obey. Yet in this case I shall ask the leave either of Fr. Visitor or of Fr. General: for it is open to one or the other of these, but not to me, to receive that maiden of yours among the nuns; since the defect from which she suffers is contrary to the constitutions. For it is necessary that the nuns learn well to read Latin: since the rule provides that they are not to be received otherwise.
[561] concerning a novice not to be received at Valladolid, Meanwhile, for the sake of unburdening my conscience, I cannot help indicating to you what I, having commended the matter to the Lord, would do in these circumstances. I pass over, as I just said, that you desire me, unless I wish to provoke you, to be most ready for everything for you: nor shall I mutter any more about this. I only beg you
to consider maturely what I shall presently write, and that for the sake of your convent, which you would certainly not see without grief to be less than perfect in every respect. Where many nuns live together, some defects can be better tolerated; but there, where they are so few, they must all be most select. And I have always been persuaded that this is your mind, so much so that of the nuns who are available to me for offices of whatever kind I have not dared to send any into your convent: since, namely, none of them seemed to me to shine with those endowments which I wished to be in the virgins of your convent. In my judgement, therefore, neither of the two girls in question will be received there: for I do not see in them enough holiness or virtue, nor so much discretion or diligence, that they could be of profit to the house. Since, then, harm will come of it, why, I ask, do you wish them to be received? Other monasteries have abundant room to which they may resort, and where, on account of the number of nuns, as I said, the toleration of certain things is easier. But into your monastery only such should be adopted as are each able to bear the priorship, or any other office that may be offered her. For the love of our Lord, therefore, I would have you look well into the matter, and see that the common good is always to be provided for more than the particular; then consider how much it matters that all who have shut themselves in there should live with one another and bear one another's defects together with the other difficulties of the Order: and the greatest difficulty would arise if they did not manage their affair well. You, who hold us bound to you by so many benefits, favour your nuns in this matter too, I pray. If you please, commit the matter to me: for I, as I wrote above, will settle it easily with those Fathers. But if on the contrary you persist in your purpose, what you command will have to be done, as far as I am concerned: but it will fall back on you if the matter turns out badly. For the rest, the girl whom Fr. Ripalda proposes seems to me not ill suited to some other place; but we must take care, especially at the beginning, not to disfigure that house of ours. May the Lord order these things as shall most pertain to His glory, give you light by which you may do what is best to be done, and keep you safe for us for very many years: which I never cease to ask of Him, however ill I may be.
[562] to Fr. Ordóñez S.J. concerning the erection of a boarding house for girls, Perhaps not to be held inferior to this most eloquent letter is that which the Saint sent on the 27th of July 1573 to Fr. Ordóñez, a distinguished labourer of the Society of Jesus (vol. II, letter 17). It treats of a boarding house to be instituted at Medina del Campo, separate from the convent of nuns, for instructing younger girls in women's skills and forming them to piety. The expenses necessary for this purpose had been offered by the noble widow Elena de Quiroga and her daughter Jerónima de Villarroel y Quiroga (of whom the latter on the 13th of January 1575, under the name of Jerónima of the Incarnation, the former at the end of October 1581, under the name of Elena of Jesus, joined the Discalced Carmelite nuns), and they had committed the execution of the plan to Fr. Ordóñez together with Fr. Hernández the visitor. The visitor, however, had transferred his part to Fr. Domingo Báñez and St. Teresa; whence no slight labour fell on the shoulders of the Saint, already greatly burdened with other affairs. In the letter, therefore, which I mentioned, she treats the whole matter diligently: she teaches what seems right to her concerning the nomination of the mistresses to be made by the prioress of Medina, their number, likewise the number and endowments of the girls to be admitted into the boarding house, the manner of administering the temporal affairs of the new institution, and other things of that kind: she advises that prudent delay is needed, and asks that Fr. Ordóñez, having first weighed the matter maturely with Báñez, should moreover call into counsel two priests of the Society of Jesus, namely Fr. Juan Suárez, provincial of Castile, and Fr. Baltasar Álvarez. For the rest, it is very doubtful to me whether that boarding house ever existed; or certainly, if it existed, it was so quickly abolished that not even any trace of it survived. To what causes this is to be attributed is unknown.
[563] and to King Philip II concerning her Reform. There is almost equal ignorance about the subject of the letter written in the same year to King Philip in these words: Jesus. The grace of the Holy Spirit be always with your Majesty. Amen. It does not escape your Majesty, as I think, how constant a care it is to me to commend you to the Lord our God in my slender prayers. Although on my part, as I am most wretched, this is altogether a small service, yet it is something that I exhort the Discalced nuns of our Order, who I know serve God excellently, to do the same. And in this house too in which I am today we discharge that pious office not only toward your Majesty, but also toward the most serene queen and the prince, whom I pray God to bless with a very long life. We made a special prayer on the very day on which the solemn oath was sworn to his Highness. The same will always be done; so that the greater the increase this Order receives, the greater will be the return redounding from it to your Majesty. Wherefore I have dared to supplicate your Majesty to favour us in certain matters which the licentiate Juan de Padilla, to whom I have committed them, will set forth. Let your Majesty give him credence; for the exceptional zeal which I have observed in him invited me to make him privy to this business; which, if it were commonly known, would be wholly without all effect, which is none other than the glory and honour of our Lord. May the divine Majesty preserve you as many years as the Christian state requires, to which amid such great hardships and persecutions it is a great relief that so vigorous a defender and helper of Holy Church, your Majesty, I say, has been granted by God. From this house of the Incarnation at Ávila, the 11th of June 1573. Your Majesty's unworthy servant and subject, Teresa of Jesus, Carmelite (vol. III, letter 1). From the context itself it is clear that this letter concerns some matter of Teresa's Institute; but what sort of matter it was you will, I think, seek in vain. The prince of whom the Saint speaks was Ferdinand, son of Philip II and Anne of Austria, born on the 4th of December 1571, sworn heir of the kingdom at the end of May of the year 1573, but translated to heaven by an untimely death on the 18th of October 1578.
§ XXXI. The Discalced Carmelites acquire four houses in Andalusia. The Saint is sent to Salamanca; where she begins to describe her Foundations.
[The Discalced Carmelites receive the convents of the Blessed Virgin Mary del Socorro] We must leave the holy Mother for a little while in her government of the monastery of the Incarnation; in order to narrate summarily, as far as the plan of this Commentary of ours requires, the increase of her Discalced friars and the convents which began to be inhabited by them in the years 1571 and 1572. Among these the first place is held by the convent of the Most Blessed Virgin del Socorro, built in the mountains of Altomira, which divide the province of Toledo from that of Cuenca, by a pious cleric of Huete, named Diego del Castillo. Fr. Baltasar of Jesus, prior of Pastrana, whom Hernández, the apostolic visitor, had given as a kind of vicar provincial to the convents of Discalced Carmelites founded and to be founded, sent there, having obtained the licence of his prelates, and the donation of the said convent from Francisco de Fresneda, bishop of Cuenca, Fr. Francisco of Jesus (called by another name Francisco Capela, and by surname the elder) with six companions. Possession of the new house was entered upon with the customary rite, namely by the bringing in of the Most Sacred Body of Christ, on the 24th of November 1571, with a crowd of people flocking from the neighbouring places (if indeed I may rightly call them neighbouring, the nearest of which are a whole league distant) and greatly admiring the most religious men, who did not fear to go to inhabit so rough a solitude and mountains covered with winter snow. How bravely they bore the cold, how fervently they served God, what wonderful help of the Mother of God they once experienced, the author of the Chronicle relates through the last three chapters of his second book.
[565] and of San Juan del Puerto: About the same time some Andalusians who were living at Alcalá for the sake of their studies, having seen the splendid life of the Discalced, passed over to them from the Observant Carmel. Among them, above the rest, must be named Fr. Andrés de los Santos, who by prophetic light had foreknown the Teresian Reform as much as thirty years before and from that time had asked of his provincials leave to pass over to it. Hence there arose in many other Andalusians, and still more in Fr. Francisco Vargas, the apostolic visitor, the desire of summoning the Discalced Carmelites from Castile into Andalusia. Vargas accordingly wrote for this purpose to Fr. Baltasar of Jesus, whom not only his own religious, but the Calced Fathers too, esteemed very highly on account of his virtue and learning, well known formerly when he lived among them: who then indeed excused himself to Fr. Vargas on account of the very many occupations which lay upon him at Pastrana and elsewhere in Castile; yet he held out hope that he would use so fine an occasion of enlarging his Order as soon as time permitted. Not long afterwards it happened that Fr. Diego Heredia y Rengifo, called of St. Mary, formerly a son of the Observant Carmel, then of the Reformed, went back to his native Granada, accompanied by Fr. Ambrosio of St. Peter, with the leave of Hernández the visitor. When Fr. Vargas saw them at Córdoba, he ordered them to stay: and a little afterwards, having asked by letter the consent of his colleague Hernández, he received them into his obedience and presented them with new seats, namely the convent of San Juan del Puerto, between Niebla and Huelva, the Observant Fathers who had until then held this place being ordered to move elsewhere. These things were done in the months of October and November of the year 1572; and soon very many, partly from the Observant Carmel, partly from the world, joined themselves to Diego and Ambrosio as companions. You see already the first seeds of the dissensions between the Calced and the Discalced Carmelites, which arose in Andalusia first, but afterwards throughout the rest of the Spains.
[566] then, of Frs. Gabriel of the Conception Meanwhile Fr. Gabriel de la Peñuela, an inmate of the Carmelite monastery recently built at Granada, a native of Úbeda, and held in great honour by the leading men on account of the nobility of his family and still more on account of his virtues, chiefly his humility, when he heard that St. Teresa's Institute was being extended through Castile, began to turn over in his mind by what means he might bring it into Andalusia too. Having weighed the matter attentively, he communicated his plan to Pedro Guerrero, archbishop of Granada, and Pedro Daza, the magistrate of the city; and he had both as encouragers to set his hand to so pious a work, but first to go to Madrid, to ask for royal letters with which he could stop the mouths of the opponents. And so, with the licence of the apostolic visitor, Fr. Gabriel went discalced at the beginning of September of the year 1572, and, having taken
the surname of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin, set out on the road to the royal city. On that journey he happened to meet Diego de León, an Andalusian, raised from the Order of Carmel to the episcopal see of Sodor (concerning which consult our Predecessors at the 3rd day of July, page 667, and the additions to Camden's Britannia, volume III, page 701, London edition of 1789); from whom he heard that there were at La Peñuela in the Sierra Morena, in the territory of Baeza (the Spaniards say Peñuela de Sierra Morena), certain hermits not yet enrolled in any religious Order, who lived a life quite conformable to the primitive rule of Carmel, whence they could without difficulty be associated with the Teresian Discalced; wherefore he would do something worth while if he went to visit both these and those, and brought them to enter into fellowship with one another; that the Andalusian Discalced, who were at Pastrana and Alcalá in no small number, and especially Fr. Baltasar of Jesus, would not fail to carry out so good a thing.
[567] and through the efforts of Baltasar of Jesus, Conceiving new hope from this, and having successfully concluded his business with the king in the forest of Valsaín near Segovia, Fr. Gabriel of the Conception hastened to Alcalá and Pastrana; and settled with Fr. Baltasar of Jesus the manner of accomplishing his purpose. Then he went to the hermits of La Peñuela: whom, since they at once consented to his petition, he taught for some days the method of prayer and the regular observances of the Order of Carmel; and from there he brought with him one of them, Pedro of the Holy Angel, clothed in the habit of the Order, to the Ordinary of the place, Francisco Delgado, bishop of Jaén, whose licence had to be obtained for making the foundation. The prelate refused at that time, but was afterwards to assent, as we shall see: the city of Baeza, however, granted the hermits space for enlarging their dwelling; wherefore Fr. Gabriel had to return to Madrid, to see that the donation should be confirmed by the king. On this occasion, by order of Fr. Baltasar of Jesus, who at that time was attending to Prince Ruy Gómez in his illness, he stayed at Pastrana during the Lent of the year 1573. After Easter the prince betook himself to Titulcia (commonly Illescas), to fulfil a vow to the Mother of God for his recovered health, together with Fr. Baltasar; whom from there, with the consent of the provincial Ángel de Salazar, he sent into Andalusia, as if to settle I know not what business of his family with his son-in-law, the Duke of Medina Sidonia. Fr. Gabriel came from the convent of Pastrana as Baltasar's companion: at the same time other Andalusians, summoned from there and from the convent of Altomira, were ordered to go secretly two by two, partly to Jaén, partly to Baeza, to wait for the foundation to be made either at Granada or at La Peñuela.
[568] they obtain seats Frs. Baltasar and Gabriel, then, after they had turned aside from the road to La Peñuela and had joined one of the hermits, García of St. Luke, to themselves as a companion, came to Granada and presented letters of recommendation from the Prince of Éboli to the Count of Tendilla, Luis Hurtado de Mendoza, governor of the most celebrated citadel which is called the Alhambra. Received by him as guests, having discharged the offices of courtesy toward the archbishop and the president of the city, they presented themselves to Fr. Francisco Vargas the visitor. He, wonderfully delighted with Baltasar's character, delegated to him by diploma his own powers for visiting and governing all the monasteries of the Reformed Carmel that should exist in the whole of Andalusia. Meanwhile certain feuds which the Count of Tendilla happened at that time to be carrying on with the grandees of Granada stood in the way of the full success of affairs. Nevertheless Fr. Baltasar little by little won over the highest and the lowest, especially by his sermons; and in order that his efforts might be more useful to the citizens, he came down from the citadel of the Alhambra, at Fr. Vargas's command, into a house which the Observant Carmelites had formerly held. The archbishop indeed offered another house, near the parish church of St. Gregory the Great; but Fr. Baltasar did not accept this, because too difficult a condition was attached: namely that the Carmelites should administer the Sacraments to the Moors converted to the faith of Christ.
[569] on the Mount of Martyrs at Granada and at La Peñuela in the Sierra Morena. At length by the tireless care of the Count it was obtained that the clerics of the royal chapel of Granada should cede to Fr. Baltasar a notable hermitage, which the Catholic sovereigns Ferdinand and Isabella, after the city of Granada was taken in the year 1492, had caused to be built beside the old palace of the Moorish kings, in memory of the innumerable Christians killed in that very place (to which for that reason the name Mount of Martyrs is given) by the impious followers of Muhammad in hatred of our Faith. There are still seen there the caverns, the nightly dungeons of the captives, which the Moors in their language called mazmorras, and whose ground-plan Juan Álvarez de Colmenar exhibits in his Annals of Spain and Portugal (figure 112). The little church of the said hermitage had formerly had as its titular feast St. Peter in Chains; but afterwards it had received SS. Cosmas and Damian as patrons, with a notable relic of these two Martyrs and ample indulgences granted by Paul III, Supreme Pontiff. Moreover, the contract drawn up on the 19th day of May 1573, by which the royal clerics assigned the use of the hermitage of the Mount of Martyrs to the Teresian Carmelites, contained such burdensome conditions that, had not the hope shone that they would one day be abolished, they could scarcely have been accepted by Fr. Baltasar, and that indeed in the course of time the religious, excessively burdened by their execution, at one time thought of returning the place to its former owners. But Philip II annulled all those conditions in the year 1597; from which time the monastery, which until then the Carmelites had inhabited on sufferance, flourished excellently both by the enlargement of its buildings and by the accession of members and the concourse of the people. The Granada foundation having been accomplished after a fashion, as I said, and Fr. Francisco Capela, or of Jesus, having been left in it with Frs. Pedro de la Cruz and García of St. Luke, Fr. Baltasar of Jesus, accompanied by Fr. Pedro of the Angels, set out for Jaén, to ask the bishop again for the faculty of admitting the hermits of La Peñuela into his Order. After he had obtained it, hastening straight to La Peñuela, he clothed those hermits with the much-desired habit of Carmel on the feast day of SS. Peter and Paul; and set Fr. Pedro of the Angels over them with vicarial power. Nor was it then open to Fr. Baltasar to remain any longer in Andalusia; because the repeated and final illness of the Prince of Éboli was calling him to Madrid. And let these things which I have said briefly about those three foundations made in Andalusia suffice, which are unfolded at length in the Chronicle (book 3, from chapter I to XVIII inclusive).
[570] The Saint in the year 1573 We are now brought back from the Discalced Carmelite Fathers to the holy Mother Teresa by the mention which offers itself to be made here of a certain leaf of challenge to a pious contest of good works, which some of them sent to the nuns of the Incarnation at Ávila. Fr. Antonio of St. Joseph suspects that the challengers were the Discalced of Pastrana, chiefly under the leadership of Fr. Jerónimo Gracián, or of the Mother of God, who took the habit there on the 25th of March 1572 and made his profession on the 28th of March 1573, and who offered to the holy Foundress, while she was still holding the priorship at Ávila, a treatise with this title: Arte de esgrima de los caballeros de Jesus y la Virgen, desafiados en el cartel de Anastasio [The art of fencing of the knights of Jesus and the Virgin, challenged in the placard of Anastasio], under this name of Anastasio, as he quite often did, concealing his own name. It is to be regretted that the leaf which I have just mentioned has either perished or at least has lain hidden until now: but we have the answering leaf of the nuns in volume IV of Teresa's letters (writing 77), and indeed from the handwriting of St. Teresa herself, if you except some lines which seemed to have been written by another hand, and which for that reason Fr. Antonio of St. Joseph distinguished in the edition of the Letters with marks placed in the margin. Even this leaf alone, even if the other arguments which I have adduced above were lacking, shows most clearly to what great perfection many among the nuns of the Incarnation ascended under the government of our Saint.
[571] sets out from Ávila to Salamanca; After she had spent about twenty-one months in that government, namely from October 1571 to the end of July 1573, by order of Fr. Pedro Hernández she went away to Salamanca, to provide there for the afflicted affairs of her nuns, whose prioress Ana of the Incarnation had bought a house from Pedro de la Banda. What the Saint relates about that journey and about the things done by her at Salamanca, I gave to be read in paragraph XXVIII: Ribera treats of the same things, book 2, chapter VII. One circumstance, however, namely that of the unexpected change of the weather, briefly narrated by Ribera, hear here set forth at greater length by the Ven. Ana of Jesus in the juridical informations made at Salamanca for the canonization of Teresa: Among many occasions on which I experienced how much our Mother availed with God and obtained by her prayer, one presented itself altogether remarkable. When in this city in the month of September, on the eve of St. Michael, we had exchanged our former house for a certain house of Pedro de la Banda, and when the bringing in of the Most Holy Sacrament had been announced for the following day and a sermon to be preached by Fr. Estella (Fr. Diego de Estella, of the Order of Minors), a most famous orator, whence there was hope that the greater part of the citizens would be present at our ceremonies (as in fact they were); so great a rain fell, and the very chapel in which the Eucharist was to be placed, being scarcely brought up to the roof-ridge and not yet covered with tiles, was so soaked, that it seemed to be feared that, the entrance being wholly blocked, we should not be able to set our hands to adorning the three altars, which had to be arranged that very night. Evening was coming on, eight o'clock having already been heard; and the Mother was deliberating with two priests (these were Julián de Ávila and the licentiate Nieto, chaplain of our nuns at Alba) and other workmen about applying a remedy, if there were any: while meanwhile I and the other sisters, wishing to adorn the little church, remained uncertain what to do. And so with two sisters I entered the room in which the Mother was; to whom I said very boldly: "Since your Reverence knows what hour it is and how much labour remains for us before morning, you ought to ask God to stop the rain and give us time to arrange those altars." She, looking at me with a stern face as I spoke so loftily, said: "Do you yourself pray to God, if it seems to you that He will do this thing so quickly on account of my prayers." When I noticed that she took it ill, I went out at once: but lifting my eyes, before I had gone down into the nearby court, I saw the sky starry and so clear that you would have said it had not rained for many days. Wherefore, retracing my steps, I said before the same people who had heard my former words: "Your Reverence could surely have done this thing more quickly: for see, all the workmen, leaving us the care of adorning the chapel, have gone away." She laughed, and fled to her cell: we prepared the little church conveniently, hindered neither by the rain any longer nor by the water itself which had got inside. Thus, everything being arranged in good time, we kept the feast day with most solemn rite. This sworn testimony of the Ven. Ana is reported by Fr. Ángel Manrique in her Life (book 2, chapter VIII).
[572] where she begins to describe her Foundations Further, Teresa remained at Salamanca until the month of March; and in the meantime the beginning
she gave to writing the book of her Foundations, as she herself testifies in the prologue of this book: When, then, in the year 1562 I was living in the monastery of St. Joseph at Ávila (in which year it was itself founded), Fr. García de Toledo, a Dominican (whom I then had as confessor), enjoined me to commit to writing the foundation of that monastery, together with many other things which he who reads it (provided it comes to light) will see. Now, however, since in the year 1573 (that is, eleven years later) I am living at Salamanca, and confess to the rector of the college of the Society of Jesus, whose name is Ripalda, he, when he read this writing of the first foundation, thought it would be wonderfully for the service of the Lord God if I should commit to letters the foundation of the other seven monasteries too, which have since been founded through God's goodness, and also the beginnings and first origins of the Discalced Fathers of this first Order. Wherefore he did not hesitate to command me to do it. Since this seemed to me impossible for me to do, on account of the very many affairs which distract me, both of writing letters and of other occupations necessarily to be carried out, because they concern matters enjoined on me by my superiors, I commended the matter to God in prayer; and when I was somewhat distressed within myself, because I was so little useful and capable, and moreover of such slender health that even without this I seemed unable to sustain any labour, as indeed my natural weakness was, the Lord said to me: "Daughter, obedience gives strength." May His Majesty grant that it be so, and grant me the grace to relate and set forth, as is fitting, to His glory, the graces He has conferred on this Order in these foundations. It may moreover be held for certain that everything will be narrated here most truly, and without any exaggeration (as far as I myself know), but just as the thing actually happened. For even in a matter of far less moment I would not lie for any good of the world whatever; but in these things which I write so that God may be praised through them, to lie would make the greatest scruple for me: and I should be persuaded that this would be not only to waste time, but also to wish to deceive others by means of the things that pertain to God; and so far from His being praised by these things, He would even be offended: which would truly be a foul treachery. Would that His Majesty may not so forget me that I should ever do this! In all things, moreover, I submit myself to what the Holy Roman Church hands down and teaches, and I wish that, before these things come into your hands, my sisters and daughters, learned and spiritual men should examine them. I begin, then, in the name of the Lord, calling to my aid His most glorious Mother, whose habit I (though unworthy) wear, and also my glorious Father and Lord St. Joseph, in whose house (for this monastery of the Discalced nuns takes its name from him) I am now living, and by whose prayers I have been constantly helped. In the year of the Lord 1573, on the feast day Col. 245B of St. Louis, king of the French, that is the 24th of August.
[573] as far as that of Alba. On this occasion the Saint brought the book down to the end of the foundation of Alba, as far as we have cited it until now, and concluded it with this as it were epilogue: I had indeed begun to relate certain particulars about some of the nuns of these monasteries, thinking at the time that, when these very things came into the hands of others and were read here and there, the nuns who are now alive would be dead, and also so that those who are to come after might be encouraged to carry these good beginnings further: but afterwards it seemed to me that there would not be lacking someone who would do it better and more particularly, and without such fear as I had; since I think they would judge me to be a sharer in these things: hence too I have omitted to write many things which one who has seen and known them cannot but hold to be as it were miraculous (for they are quite supernatural). Of these I have not wished to relate any here, as also none of those things which it has been seen with the eyes and manifestly that the Lord did through their prayers. I truly fear and doubt lest I sometimes err in assigning the years in which these monasteries were founded, although I labour with all the diligence I can to remember them: but, because this matters little, and the error can easily be corrected afterwards, I put them as near as I can remember them. If any error should occur in them, the difference will truly be slight. In the third year after, however, she undertook to continue her work, beginning with the foundation of the convent of nuns at Segovia. Of that we shall treat shortly; but first the foundation of a monastery of men carried out in the city of Seville at the beginning of the year 1574 calls us there.
§ XXXII. The vocation of Fr. Jerónimo Gracián to the Order of Carmel, and his first labours. The beginnings of the dissensions between the Calced and the Discalced.
Fr. Jerónimo Gracián, Fr. Francisco Vargas, by a letter given on the 20th of June 1573, invited Fr. Ambrosio Mariano, or of St. Benedict, into Andalusia, from zeal for propagating the Carmelite Reform there; at the same time advising him to choose suitable companions for his journey, not from the number of those who had passed from the Observants to the Discalced, but rather from those whom the Reformed Carmel had received coming straight from the world. Ambrosio thought it right to satisfy the wishes of the excellent visitor; and thinking about bringing with him a man fit for managing affairs, he cast his eyes on Fr. Jerónimo Gracián, or of the Mother of God. He was, says the Saint in chapter XXIII of the Foundations, an exceedingly learned man, of the highest talent and of no less modesty; and throughout the whole time of his life so continual a cultivator and lover of all the virtues that the Blessed Virgin seems to have chosen him for the good of the renewed primitive rule of the Carmelites and of this Order. While living at Alcalá, he was rather averse to taking the habit of our Order, though not to professing the religious life. For although his parents, because they had influence in favour and good will with the king, and the excellent disposition of their son promised everything, intended something else, he himself was looking to things far different. His father, who was secretary to the king, wished him to do business with the pen, and not to accustom himself to soldiering, and accordingly designated him as his successor in the office of secretary. But he, while still younger in age, was so little inclined to this that, shedding a great flood of tears, he obtained from him leave to give himself to theology.
[575] who, while he was preparing to enter the Society of Jesus, He had already set his mind on the Society of Jesus, indeed he had already been admitted to it, but, for I know not what reason, they thought his entrance should be put off for some days. He told me that all the delights and recreations which came his way had always been burdensome and painful to him, because this way seemed to him by no means to conduce to heaven nor to be safe. He always kept his fixed hours of prayer and ordinary recollection of mind, and was most zealous in preserving purity in all things. At the same time, moreover, a certain very great friend of his took the habit of our Order at Pastrana, also a doctor of theology, called Fr. Juan de Jesús. I do not know whether for this reason, or because the latter had written to him about the greatness, excellence and antiquity of our Order, he began to be attached to it. For it was so pleasant to him to read everything that concerns it, and to prove these very things by the testimonies of illustrious authors, that he often said he had felt scruples of conscience because he was leaving off other studies and reading of greater moment, since he could not tear himself away from these, and spent all his hours of recreation on these alone.
[576] by the Blessed Virgin Mary, O the wisdom and power of God! How little can we escape and turn aside what He wills to be done! The Lord saw how much this work, which His Majesty had begun, needed a man of this kind. For my part I frequently praise and celebrate Him for the grace and benefit given us in this: for if I had wished to ask His Majesty with the greatest effort and earnestness to give the Order such a man, to dispose and direct, in these beginnings, everything that pertained to it, I should not have known how to ask of Him so great a man as He gave us in this one. May He be blessed for ever on this account. When, therefore, he was thinking of nothing less than of taking up this Order, he was asked to go to Pastrana, to treat with the prioress of our convent there (for that convent had not yet been dissolved and transferred), that she might admit a certain maiden into her community. What means does the divine Majesty not employ! For perhaps, if he had resolved to go there to take the religious habit, so many would have opposed him that he could never have accomplished it. But the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, of whom he is an untiring and most devoted cultivator, willed to reward the service rendered her in no other way than by bestowing her habit on him. I think, therefore, that she was the mediatrix through whom the Lord granted him this grace, and also the cause both of his taking it and of his having always been so well disposed toward her Order. For she did not wish an occasion of carrying it out in deed to be lacking to one who had so ardent a desire of serving her. For it is her custom and ordinary practice to give help and aid to those who take refuge under her protection.
[577] of whom he was a distinguished cultivator, When he was a boy at Madrid, he often went away to greet a certain image of the Blessed Virgin, toward which he was carried by a certain peculiar affection (where it was, I do not remember), and he used to call her his lady and friend, and visited her very frequently. That purity and chastity which he always cultivated as long as he lived, she doubtless obtained for him from her Son. He said that that image sometimes seemed to him to have its eyes suffused with tears, on account of the very many offences committed against her Son. Hence there arose in him a certain great impulse and desire of helping souls, and also an intense and vehement grief and feeling of soul when he saw God sinned against. And he is so inclined toward the good of his neighbour's souls that every labour undertaken for their sake, if he hopes that something can be profited through it, seems to him very slight. This I have seen by experience and in fact in the many labours which he has undergone.
[578] brought to Pastrana, When, therefore, the Blessed Virgin had brought him to Pastrana as it were by a stratagem (for he thought he was going there to obtain the habit for a certain nun), behold, the Lord so disposed the matter that he himself took the habit there. O secret judgements of God! How He disposes us against our will, so as to confer grace on us, and to that soul the good works it did, and
the excellent example of virtues which it had always given, and also the intense desire with which it wished to serve His glorious Mother, may be rewarded! For His Majesty is always accustomed undoubtedly to recompense these things with certain very great gifts and rewards. When, therefore, he had arrived at Pastrana, he spoke to the prioress, so that she might admit that maiden into her community; indeed, she seems rather to have treated with him so as to obtain from God by her prayers his entrance into our Order. For, by a grace given him by God, his conversation is so sweet and winning that most who deal with him love him: whence too he is exceedingly loved by all the religious men and nuns subject to him. For although he allows no fault to go unpunished (for he is always as solicitous as possible for the increase of Religion and of the Order, and assiduous in procuring it), nevertheless he shows such sweetness and gentleness of manner that no one seems able to have any occasion of complaining of him. Since, then, the same thing happened to this prioress as to all others, she desired exceedingly that he should give his name to this Order. She disclosed this desire, therefore, to her nuns, so that they might see again and again how much this mattered to them (for at that time the whole Order had very few, and almost no man like him) and might induce the Lord by their prayers not to allow him to depart from there except having taken the Carmelite habit.
[579] there he had joined the Discalced Carmelites, This prioress, moreover, is so distinguished and fervent a handmaid of God that I think even her prayer alone would have been worthy to be heard by God; how much more that of so many holy souls who were gathered there? There was none who did not take this charge upon herself, and with fasts, chastisements of the body and fervent prayers they continually importuned the divine Majesty: whence too they induced Him to grant us this grace. For when Fr. Gracián went to the convent of the Friars, and saw so great a religious spirit flourishing there, and also so signal an occasion and material for serving the Lord (and above all that the Order was dedicated to His most glorious Mother, whom he so longed to serve), his heart began to be moved to return no more to the world. And although the devil put many difficulties and delays before him, and above all the grief and cross he would bring to his parents, who loved him so much, and most certainly hoped that he would one day provide for and be a help to their children (of whom they had very many of both sexes); yet he, committing this care to God, for whose sake he was leaving all else, most firmly resolved within himself to be the servant, client and religious of the Virgin, and to take her habit. Wherefore he took it, with great applause and joy of all, and especially of the prioress and of all the nuns: whence these gave the greatest thanks to the Lord, because they thought that God, Best and Greatest, had conferred this benefit through their prayers and supplications.
[580] and had bravely overcome the difficulties of the novitiate, Throughout the whole time of his novitiate he showed the humility and lowliness of the least of the novices. But his virtue shone forth and was proved above all when, the prior of that place being absent, a certain very young Friar, scarcely learned, and endowed with very few natural gifts and with no prudence for governing, and without any experience (for he had lived only a very few years in Religion), was given to them as rector and superior. One would scarcely believe how rigidly he treated his subjects, with what austerities and mortifications he wore them down: and as often as I think it over within myself, I am astonished how the subjects could bear them, especially men of that kind; so much so that the spirit which God had given them was truly needed to sustain them. Hence too it became clear afterwards that that religious was very subject to the melancholic passion, so much indeed that wherever he lives, even as a subject, he is troublesome and burdensome to his brethren, and much more when he governed others; for the bad humour greatly dominates him. He himself is a good religious; but God sometimes permits such an error to be committed, such men, I say, to be put at the helm, so that those whom He loves may be exercised and perfected in the virtue of obedience. It is likely that this is what happened here. Hence, in merit of this, God conferred on Fr. Jerónimo of the Mother of God the greatest light in matters pertaining to obedience, for instructing his subjects afterwards, as one who had such good beginnings for exercising himself in it. And so that he might have some experience in all things that are needful to us, and that he might be tried in all things, for three months before he made his profession of vows he was harassed by the greatest temptations; but he, as one who was to be a valiant leader of the sons of the Blessed Virgin Mary, overcame them excellently and came out victor: for when the devil was striving most greatly and most vehemently to induce him to put off the habit he had taken, he, promising God that he would not abandon it, and pronouncing his religious vows, eluded his force and power. Afterwards he gave me to read a treatise which he wrote while those temptations lasted, which truly aroused in me a great spirit of devotion: at the same time it appears from it in what manner the Lord strengthened him in overcoming the temptations.
[581] for promoting the Teresian Reform It will perhaps seem to some of you unfitting and absurd that he should have disclosed so many secrets of his soul to me so in detail. Perhaps the Lord permitted it to be done so that I might record those things in this place, so that He may be praised and celebrated in His creatures: for I know that he did not disclose so much of them even to his confessor, nor to anyone else, as to me. He sometimes had some occasion for doing this, because, both on account of my more advanced age and on account of what he heard of me from others, I seemed to him to have some experience of things. On the occasion of other matters of which we treated, he disclosed these and other things to me; which, however, there is no need to describe in this place, lest I be longer than is fair. And certainly I have still held myself back much, lest, if perhaps these things should one day fall into his hands, I should cause him some trouble on that account. Truly I could not do less, and I thought it wrong not to make mention of or recall him who contributed and profited so much to the renewal of this primitive rule (since it will still be a very long time before these things fall into his hands). For although he was not the first who began it, yet he came at a time when it went ill with me that it had been begun, had I not had so great hope and confidence in the mercy of God.
[582] destined by God, I speak, however, of the convents of the Friars: for the convents of the nuns, such is His goodness and kindness, have until now always had a happy progress and success; and indeed the houses of the Friars were not proceeding badly, but they had such a foundation and beginning that they seemed likely to collapse shortly: for because they had no provincial of their own, they were governed by the Calced Fathers. Moreover those who could have governed them, such as was Fr. Antonio of Jesus (he, I say, who had begun the matter), did not enjoy this full power; nor did they have constitutions given and established by our Most Rev. Fr. General. In each convent the Friars did what seemed good and expedient to them; hence, until they were governed by someone of their own profession and rule, they suffered the greatest difficulties: for this pleased one, that another, and seemed to be followed; which certainly not seldom tormented me wonderfully. To this matter and inconvenience the Lord thought fit to bring help through Fr. Jerónimo of the Mother of God: for he was soon created apostolic commissary, and received full and absolute authority and power over all the Discalced friars and nuns, and drew up constitutions for the use of the Friars. For because we nuns had already received them from the Most Rev. Fr. General, he made none for us, but for them, and that by the power received from the apostolic See, and also by the excellent natural talents which, as I have already related above, he had received from the Lord. As soon as he visited them, he brought everything into so good an order and state that it sufficiently appeared that he was helped by the divine Majesty, and chosen by the Most Blessed Virgin Mother of God to take care of the affairs of her Order. Her, therefore, I humbly ask to deign to bring it about with her Son that He may constantly cherish, help and advance him, and give him grace to advance ever further in His service. Amen.
[583] he becomes the vicar of Vargas, the visitor in Andalusia; This man, then, most worthy at that time of the praises which St. Teresa bestowed on him, Ambrosio of St. Benedict, planning a journey into Andalusia, chose as the companion of his labours. Fr. Baltasar of Jesus, vehemently approving this plan, by a diploma written on the 4th of August 1573, conferred on Jerónimo (as being a priest; for Ambrosio was still a layman) all the right of governing the monasteries of his brethren which he himself had formerly received from Fr. Vargas (no. 568). But since it was not permitted to set out without the leave of some prelate, and there was fear that the visitor Hernández would not readily allow so useful a pair of men to leave Castile, they went to Fr. Ángel de Salazar the provincial, from whom Ambrosio, on the pretext of some business or other, and the more easily because nothing seemed to be feared from a layman, obtained permission to return to his native land with whatever companion he wished: for he had taken care not to name Fr. Gracián. Setting out, therefore, both from Pastrana at the beginning of September, they turned aside first to Toledo. In that city the order of the Most Rev. Fr. Rubeo, the General, is intimated to Mariano that he should pass from the lay state to the clerical: hence he had to remain there until the ember days, during which days he was to be promoted to the Order of the Subdiaconate at the hands of the archbishop of Toledo. The Sacred Ordinations completed, they hasten without delay to La Peñuela to greet the Friars recently enrolled in Carmel, and from there to Granada. Fr. Francisco Vargas, who at that time had been elected provincial of his Order of Preachers, received them in the friendliest manner and encouraged them to carry through bravely what they had begun; and he committed to Fr. Jerónimo Gracián, though most unwilling, the functions of apostolic commissary or visitor by vicarial delegation. Meanwhile letters of the provincial Salazar were brought, by which Mariano and Gracián were recalled to Pastrana; but these were made void by the superior power of Vargas, who ordered both, with a safe conscience, to keep themselves within the borders of the Andalusians.
[584] he restores the convent of San Juan del Puerto to the Calced; I mentioned at no. 565 that the Calced Carmelites, by the order of Vargas, had moved out of the convent of San Juan del Puerto, to give place to the Discalced. This matter had offended the mind of Fr. Agustín Suárez, provincial of the Andalusian Carmel; hence he did not get on very well with the Discalced prior of the said convent, Fr. Diego of St. Mary. Gracián, judging that the occasion of discord should be removed, met the provincial; and, having approved
his right of governing the houses of the Discalced, he restored the house in dispute to the Calced on the feast day of St. Luke. The restoration made, he wished some of his men to put on shoes again and remain with the Calced: the rest, and those the most select, he took away with him to Seville; where they were to be lodged in the convent of the Observant or Mitigated Carmel, until they should obtain a dwelling of their own. At first a brotherly union of minds flourished between the religious of the two habits, while meanwhile Gracián and Mariano, the latter by his most holy and gentle manners, the former by his apostolic labour, were winning good favour for themselves with the townspeople, highest and lowest. But behold, little by little a domestic war blazed up, which was not to stay within the walls of Seville only, but to wander far and wide through the Spains and elsewhere. Words are spread through the mouths of certain of the Calced: that the times did not need these reformers; that they did nothing else than deceive secular people, so that these now despised the ancient Order which they had formerly loved: if the rule of St. Albert were to be restored, that would be something which everyone would deservedly praise; but what, after all, was the purpose of the novelties added on to the venerable rule? what was meant by the unwonted forms of habit and the feet bared contrary to the old custom of the Institute? that such things displeased the Most Reverend General, who had indeed recently signified to the provincials subject to him that they were to be tolerated no longer: that the very visitor of the Castilian province, although before he had seemed to connive at those contrivers of novelties, was now coming to his senses, nor did he allow the evil to creep further; why then should the Andalusian visitor be permitted to be so unjust as to favour a tumultuary foundation which would bring harm to an ancient convent that had deserved well of the city? that the ungrateful guests must be driven out, who were contriving ruin for those whose food and roof they were using: that every effort must be made to resist, lest Gracián and Mariano, who by I know not what enchantment had made the magistrate and the inquisitors and the archbishop their friends, should get control of affairs.
[585] and receives another convent at Seville, These and other gibes crept about secretly for some time, but gradually more boldly resounded first through the cloisters, soon through the city too. To Mariano it seemed that the Discalced should withdraw for a while into a rented house, until they should obtain a fixed one; not so to Gracián, who said that he feared lest by that premature withdrawal he should seem to distrust his own innocence and good intention. Gracián made this same reason acceptable to Cristóbal de Rojas y Sandoval, archbishop of Seville, who offered part of his palace, while seeking meanwhile on every side an opportunity of procuring a foundation of his own. Had he not preferred peace to his own convenience, there was ready to hand a hermitage which was called Bethlehem, situated in a poplar grove near the convent of the Observant Carmelites; but he preferred to refuse that gift rather than increase discord among the Brethren through proximity. Not long afterwards the archbishop determined to bestow on Gracián another hermitage, adorned with a miraculous image of the Blessed Virgin of Remedies, concerning which he was at that time carrying on a lawsuit with Rodrigo de Castillo, a cleric of Seville. Rejoicing in such a gift, the Discalced Fathers entered into possession of it on the eve of the Epiphany of the year 1574, although the letters of donation had not yet been drawn up: for the prelate thought these should not be signed before the apostolic diplomas had arrived by which he hoped that the whole lawsuit raised against him by Castillo would be settled. Thus for some months the cause hung uncertain; until, Castillo yielding of his own accord, the whole matter was settled by public deeds and the Most Holy Eucharist was carried most solemnly into the hermitage.
[586] the Calced murmuring; The Minim Fathers made some opposition to the new foundation, alleging the contiguity of the gardens, contrary to the privilege which we call "of the canes"; but they easily yielded to the authority of the prelate and to Gracián's great courtesy toward them. Not so the Observant Carmelites. For these sent the bishop of Sodor (of whom I spoke at no. 566) and their subprior Juan Evangelista to tell Gracián that very weighty men of their Order were offended, because one man, without consulting the provincial, against the will of the General, with no proof of his right exhibited, had suddenly inaugurated a convent: he should therefore without delay produce whatever letters he had, so that it might be seen whether they were legitimate and what was to be determined about the controversy raised. Fr. Gracián replied most modestly that there was no reason why his rights should be called into question again, of which the provincial and other masters of the Order had long since taken cognizance, when the restoration of the convent of San Juan del Puerto was being treated: that the letters demanded were not now in his possession, but in that of the archbishop; who, if they would go to him, would satisfy their doubts entirely. This answer closed the mouths of the complainers for the time; but it so little checked the anger stored deep in their minds that they rather resolved to invoke the royal authority against their Discalced Brethren.
[587] but Vargas commends the Discalced to the king. Fr. Vargas, informed of the machinations of the Observant Carmelites, who at that very time had come to Seville to inspect, as provincial, the houses of the Order of Preachers, forewarned the king in a letter written in this manner: Our Most Holy Father, at the urgent request of your Majesty, enjoined me to visit the Carmelite Friars throughout this province of Andalusia. Having discharged this office for four years with all the diligence I could, since it was of very great importance to the service of God and of your Majesty, I came to this opinion: namely, that the one remedy by which this reform can be effected is the Discalced Friars, from among those who live at Pastrana. Accordingly, invited by me, Fr. Mariano, Fr. Jerónimo Gracián and other Fathers came into this town of Seville, who by their life and learning are of much edification to the city, although persecutions from the side of the Calced Fathers are not lacking to them. I thought your Majesty should be advised of this matter, so that, as often as occasion offers, you may favour good men; so that both the holy work begun by them may receive increase, and others may be roused to amendment of life; how greatly they need this I have written more fully to the nuncio of His Holiness. The licentiate Juan de Padilla, the bearer of this letter, will explain the whole matter, to whom your Majesty will give the credence of which you have long known him to be worthy. May the Lord God preserve you with your most serene consort and offspring. In this city of Seville, on the 15th of March 1574, wrote your Majesty's lowliest subject and servant, Fr. Francisco de Vargas, of the Order of Preachers.
§ XXXIII. The Saint founds the ninth monastery of her virgins at Segovia; and dissolves that of Pastrana. She shines with supernatural gifts at Segovia. From there she returns to Ávila.
The licence for founding a monastery at Segovia There now follows, in order of time, the foundation of the convent of nuns at Segovia. I have already mentioned above, says the Saint in chapter XXI of the Foundations, that after I had founded the houses of Salamanca and Alba, and before the nuns at Salamanca had a house of their own, I was ordered by Fr. Pedro Hernández, who at that time was acting as apostolic commissary, to stay three years in the monastery of the Incarnation at Ávila; likewise how the same, seeing the need of the nuns of Salamanca, sent me away to Salamanca, to procure a house of their own for them. While I was there, the Lord told me in prayer to go to Segovia, to found a new monastery there. This seemed to me wholly impossible to be done, because it was wrong for me to depart from there without the order of my superiors, and because the apostolic commissary Pedro Hernández would not then patiently allow other houses to be founded by me. Nor did I think he would refuse it to me without reason, because the term for which I had to live at the Incarnation had not yet expired. While I was turning this over, the Lord again signified to me that I should ask the faculty of Hernández; for it would doubtless be granted by him. I was at that time living at Salamanca, whence, sending a little letter, I wrote this to him in a few words: that since a very ample power had long ago been granted me by our Most Reverend Father General of establishing convents in any place whatever, whenever occasion should be given, and since a convenient opportunity of raising one in the city of Segovia was now offering itself, because the bishop of the place (Diego de Covarrubias) and the commonwealth too were not averse to its being founded, I could not but signify this to him, so as privately to consult the peace of my own conscience; but that I was ready to acquiesce in whatever he should determine, and so I should be secure and quiet.
[589] having been duly obtained, These were the very words of the letter, nothing being added or taken away: I added besides that it seemed to me it would be wonderfully for the service of God. It was easy to see that His Majesty willed it: for he, having read the letter, gave me full power to accomplish the matter. This unexpected assent of his moved me to astonishment, because I had seen him not long before, in a similar case, of a far different mind. Wherefore I at once took care from Salamanca that my friends should rent me a house. For after the foundation of the houses of Toledo and Valladolid I had learned that it was far better to seek a house of one's own only after possession had already been entered upon; and this for many reasons, of which the chief truly was that I had not a farthing for buying houses; but once possession was taken and the seat founded, the Lord would soon provide the necessary money; and besides that then better situated and more convenient houses could be sought at leisure.
[590] and a house having been rented there, There was living then at Segovia a certain respectable woman, surnamed Ana de Jimena, who had formerly been the wife of a man holding an entailed estate. She once went to Ávila to visit me; and she was most devoted to the service and worship of God, and her vocation had always been to profess the religious life. Hence, when this convent was being erected, she together with her daughter, who had always led a pious and holy life, gave their names to it. The trouble and weariness which she had felt both in married and in widowed life the Lord repaid her twofold with the joy which she afterwards experienced in the religious life; and both mother and daughter had always been very recollected and distinguished handmaids of God. She, then, rented a house for us, and furnished it with all necessary things and household equipment, and also provided her own furniture for the sacristy: hence there was no need at all for me to labour here. But, lest any foundation should be accomplished without labour and trouble, to say nothing of my being then harassed by the burning of a most violent fever, and languishing with a rather weak stomach and other ills besides, my soul then laboured under an incredible dryness and thick darkness, very many bodily pains being added besides, whose violence lasted almost three months. Indeed, during the half year that I spent there, I never afterwards enjoyed good health.
[591] The Saint first goes to Alba, The holy Mother took the road with Quiteria, a Calced nun, and two Discalced nuns natives of Segovia, namely Isabel of Jesus, a relative of Ana de Jimena, and María of Jesus, at the beginning of the year 1574; and she came first to Alba: where on the 8th of February, on the testimony of Fr. Antonio of St. Joseph (vol. III, letter 62, note 4), she confirmed a transcribed copy of her books by affixing her name; and she seems to have spent two days on that occasion with the Duchess of Alba, as she herself relates in the Castle of the soul, Mansion VI, chapter IV: Believe, she says, that you are in the apartment of some king or powerful prince
fitted for keeping precious things, where infinite kinds of glass and earthenware vessels and many other treasures of theirs are kept, arranged in such order that on entering almost all things meet the eyes at once. Once, in the mansion of the Duchess of Alba (to whom, while I was on the road, obedience ordered me to turn aside for two days on account of her importunate entreaties), I was led into such a place. On entering it, I was greatly astonished, and began to consider within myself to what purpose and for what this so great abundance of vain things served. But I understood that it could be a signal matter for praising God to behold so great a variety and abundance of things; and now I rejoice and congratulate myself that it serves my purpose in this place. But although I stayed rather long in that place, yet so many things presented themselves there to be looked at that I at once forgot them all, so much so indeed that no greater memory of those things remained with me than if I had never seen them, nor could I say what was their form, but I only remember in general that I once saw them, etc.
[592] and from there We have two letters of the Saint written at Alba on this occasion: one to the bishop of Ávila on various affairs (vol. IV, letter 6), the other by which she informed Ana of the Incarnation, prioress of Salamanca, of her coming, with a little present added to be carried to the convent of the Fathers Preachers, of which she wrote thus not without wit: This trout, which the Duchess sent me today, seemed to me so good that I have destined it for that Father of mine, Bartolomé de Medina. If you receive it about dinner-time, give it at once to Miguel with this letter to carry to the convent of the Fathers Preachers; but if it arrives later, do not delay to send it all the same, so that you may see whether that Father perhaps wishes to write a few lines to me (vol. III, letter 62). That is, Fr. Medina, a famous professor of sacred theology in the university of Salamanca, after he had heard St. Teresa, whom until then he had made little of, making a general confession and at other times speaking to him, had begun to hold her in such esteem that he never pronounced her name without adding a mark of holiness, and once sharply reproved the Ven. Ana of Jesus because she had said by the simple appellation Mother Teresa, and not rather our Mother Foundress: and in turn, on the testimony of the same Ven. Servant of God, the holy Mother loved him very much and greatly desired his company.
[593] [to Medina, to Ávila, and at length to Segovia; where she accomplishes the foundation,] Further, according to the account which Isabel of Jesus made of the journey to Segovia, as Fr. Antonio of St. Joseph reports (vol. III, letter 62, note 3), the holy Foundress, having added Guiomar of Jesus from her convent of Alba to the three former companions, went to Medina del Campo, and from there after some days to Ávila: where, after she had taken Quiteria back to the monastery of the Incarnation and had taken from St. Joseph's Isabel of St. Paul, daughter of her cousin Francisco de Cepeda, she entered Segovia with her and the three other companions just named on the 18th of March 1574. I say 1574, both because the order of St. Teresa's letters suggests it, and on account of other peremptory reasons alleged by the author of the Chronicle (book III, chapter XXVII, no. 4) against Ribera, Yepes and the first editors of Teresa's works at Brussels, Zaragoza and Antwerp, who all write 1573. That is, first, the author of the Chronicle in the year 1641 with his own eyes inspected in the royal library of the Escorial the Saint's very autograph, in which he asserts that 1574 is noted. Secondly, the same year is given by Fr. Ángel Manrique in the often-cited Life of the Ven. Ana of Jesus, by Fr. Miguel Bautista de la Nuza in the Life of Isabel of St. Dominic, and by Diego de Colmenares in the History of the city of Segovia. Thirdly, Ribera himself relates that the nuns from the convent of Pastrana, dissolved after the death of Ruy Gómez (as I shall presently narrate), arrived at the convent of Segovia, already founded, on the Tuesday or Wednesday of Holy Week: now if this had been done in the year 1573, they would have come to Segovia not after the foundation, but on the day before or two days before it; indeed they would have come in the third month before the death of Gómez, which is manifestly false. Add that it is said by Ribera himself (book IV, chapter X) that Teresa lay sick in bed at Segovia in Holy Week. On St. Joseph's day itself, the Saint continues, we brought the Most Holy Sacrament here. For although I had already obtained the bishop's faculty and the magistrates' assent, I nevertheless did not wish to enter the house except secretly about evening on the eve of that day. This faculty had been given me a long time before; but because I was living in the convent of the Incarnation, and now had a superior other than our Father General, I had not been able to accomplish this foundation: besides, from the bishop who then presided over the Church of Segovia, when the city wished it, I had received the licence only by word of mouth, through the agency of an honourable gentleman of Segovia, Andrés de Jimena, who took little trouble to have it in writing; nor did such a thing seem to me very necessary: but I was deceived. For when the bishop's vicar learned that the monastery had already been founded, he came there tormented with fierce anger, forbade Mass to be celebrated any further, and wished to throw into prison the one who had already celebrated it, a certain Discalced Friar, I mean (namely St. John of the Cross), who had come there together with Fr. Julián de Ávila and another servant of God who accompanied me, called Antonio Gaitán.
[594] with the help of Antonio Gaitán and Julián de Ávila, Gaitán was born at Alba of an equestrian family, and some years before the Lord had called him away from the vanities of the world, in which he had formerly been rather immersed. These, moreover, he had already so overthrown and trodden underfoot that he now looked to nothing else than how he might please and serve the Lord the more. I have wished to relate these things of him for this reason, that in the foundations which will follow mention of him will have to be made several times, since he rendered me signal service in them and laboured tirelessly; if I wished to weave here a catalogue and series of his virtues, I could not finish so quickly: but that which was most necessary to us here is that he is so mortified that none of the servants who accompanied us discharged his office in serving and labouring in what was needful as he did. He is wonderfully given to prayer, and the Lord has granted him so many graces that whatever seemed troublesome and laborious to others pleases him, smiles on him and is easy for him. Such is all the labour and trouble which he undertakes in these foundations, so that the Lord seems to have chosen both him and Fr. Julián de Ávila individually for carrying them out; although Julián had given his services from the very beginning of the first monastery. To the piety and sincerity of these companions it seems to be ascribed that God willed everything to turn out well for me. On the road they held conversations on divine things, or instructed those who were in our company or whom they met on the way; so that in all things they served the divine Majesty. Wherefore it is right, dearest ones, that she who reads the history of these foundations should acknowledge and know how much she owes them; so that, since without any advantage of their own they undertook so much labour for this good which you now enjoy, in that you live in these monasteries, you may commend them to God in your prayers, and they may receive at least some benefit from your prayers. Truly, if you knew how many laborious nights and days they had, what discomforts and difficulties they suffered on the road, I believe indeed that you would do it most willingly.
[595] not without obstacles. The vicar, then, before he left our church, stationed a constable at its entrance, for I know not what reason. This, I confess, struck some terror into those present there; but nothing at all disturbed me, whatever might happen after possession had once been taken: if I feared anything, it was before possession was taken. And so I summoned the relatives of a certain nun whom I happened to have brought with me, leading men of that city, to treat with the vicar, and to signify to him that I had received the faculty from the bishop to do this. He was not unaware of this, as he himself said afterwards, but took it ill that we had not informed him of this matter and made him a party to it; which certainly, in my judgement, would have been far worse. At length he consented, giving the power of saying Mass: but he refused the reservation of the Most Holy Sacrament; which we bore patiently.
[596] Then the nuns of Pastrana, As soon as our Teresa had thus removed the chief obstacle, she sent Julián de Ávila and Antonio Gaitán to Pastrana, to bring the nuns from there to Segovia. The cause of this plan, as she herself briefly narrated above (no. 494), was the conduct of the Princess of Éboli, at first inconsiderate, then even unjust. That is, Prince Ruy Gómez, duly prepared for death by Frs. Baltasar of Jesus and Mariano (the latter had not long before been initiated into the Priesthood), had piously fallen asleep in the Lord at Madrid on the 29th of July 1573. His widow, grieving immoderately at this event, rashly seized on the plan of embracing the monastic life in the convent founded by her. Having put on, therefore, the Carmelite habit, which Mariano, not prudent enough, had given her, and having neglected the domestic affairs which she ought to have looked after, she was carried from Madrid to Pastrana with her mother. Fr. Baltasar of Jesus had gone some hours ahead of the noble ladies, and at the second hour of the night came to forewarn the prioress Isabel of St. Dominic of their coming. She, astonished on hearing the news, said: So the Duchess is to be a nun? I consider the house lost. How rightly this was said, the event showed.
[597] by the widow of Ruy Gómez Isabel received Mendoza, arriving with her mother at the eighth hour, honourably: for the habit given by Fr. Mariano she substituted another, neater one: she enrolled two waiting-women of the Princess in the novitiate in the very parlour, at her request or rather at her order; for Isabel was scarcely permitted to consult the prior, because the Princess said that her convent had nothing to do with those Friars. After this, rejecting the meat prepared for herself and her mother in a separate apartment, the woman of light character wished to sit at the common table in the refectory; and there she took not the place prepared for her near the prioress, but one of the lowest, not so much from lowliness of mind as from obstinacy. At length she refused, both to the prioress and to her own mother, to accept a dwelling separate from the cells of the nuns, into which she could admit seculars, while at the same time having a door to the regular cloister, to be entered whenever she pleased. These were the miseries of the first day. On the next day, when the funeral rites of Ruy had been performed, and the bishop of Segovia had come with many grandees to visit the widowed Princess, the gates of the convent, the law of enclosure being violated and the prioress resisting in vain, were thrown open not only to the masters, but also to a great throng of servants: moreover Mendoza began to demand that two
secular maidservants be allowed to live with her.
[598] badly treated, Teresa, informed of these things by Isabel's letters, admonished the turbulent widow in writing with her usual discretion: the prioress and two of the most senior nuns likewise warned her that by Teresa's authority the convent would have to be dissolved, in which the virgins consecrated to God were no longer free to live by their laws. The woman bore the admonitions ill, although they were most gentle: she passed from the convent into a hermitage built in the garden, where she could enjoy the conversation of seculars more freely; and she withdrew from the needy handmaids of God the alms destined for the convent by the will of her late husband. It happened, however, at that time that the Ven. Catalina de Cardona came to Pastrana; who, they relate, said to Mendoza, when she wished to be present in choir at the night Office of the Epiphany: Take care, Princess, lest by this way of acting of yours you provoke God: while I was assisting at the nuns' Matins, Angels mingled with them showed themselves to me, with drawn swords to defend them. On hearing this, the Princess, somewhat afraid, withdrew from her hermitage into a secular house nearby, still retaining the monastic habit, but having broken off all dealings with the nuns: whom nevertheless from that time, especially when not long afterwards she had returned to her former clothes and her palace, she went on troubling so much that St. Teresa, before she left Salamanca, wrote to Fr. Domingo Báñez: Our nuns of Pastrana, although the Princess has gone back to her own house, live like captives; so much so that the prior of Atocha (this was Fr. Fernando del Castillo), when he was there recently, did not dare to visit them. Now too she is at odds with our Friars. It does not seem to me that this servitude should be endured any longer (vol. II, letter 14).
[599] their convent having been dissolved, Relief had to be brought to affairs so greatly afflicted. Wherefore, having consulted Fr. Ángel de Salazar the provincial, and also, from the Dominican family, Frs. Pedro Hernández, Domingo Báñez and Fernando del Castillo, the holy Mother resolved to send someone to Pastrana to beg the Princess humbly not to wish any longer to defraud the convent of necessary sustenance. Fr. Fernando del Castillo, a man of great name and very dear to King Philip II, undertook the thankless mission; but he met with a rebuff and insults. Nor did the provincial Salazar, directed to the same place by the authority of the visitor Hernández, manage the matter more successfully: for the Princess, pretending to be ill, did not even deign to speak to the man. Thus, the ways of settling peace having been tried in vain, judging that the knot must be undone by an effective stroke, the holy Foundress committed to Julián de Ávila and Antonio Gaitán, men most friendly to her, the charge of bringing to Segovia all the nuns that were at Pastrana.
[600] she has brought away to Segovia; Isabel of St. Dominic, being forewarned of what was to happen, and preparing herself and her nuns for departure, as she was exceedingly shrewd, deposited with the magistrate of the town the furniture formerly given to the nuns by Ana de Mendoza, with an accurate inventory; and she had a deed drawn up concerning this surrender by a public notary in the presence of the same magistrate and of Fr. Gabriel of the Assumption, who then governed the Carmelites of Pastrana with vicarial power in place of the absent prior. These things having been done, the remaining little effects of the monastery are loaded on carts; and, while the Princess was gnashing her teeth and now trying to prevent by force the departure which she had before provoked, at midnight Isabel with her virgins leaves Pastrana, with Julián, Antonio and Fr. Gabriel as guides. The journey was made with the greatest decency and religious spirit, or, to say it in a word, in truly Teresian fashion. But while the carts are being taken across a certain river, the travellers fall into present peril of life: but by divine help they are snatched from it, through their own prayers, through those of the sisters at Segovia, and above all through St. Teresa's. For she, taught from heaven of the accident at the very moment it happened, had exhorted the virgins who were with her at Segovia, with an anxious face, to commend to God her nuns of Pastrana who were in danger. At length, when they arrived on the 5th or 6th of April, she received them into her maternal bosom and embrace; and at once honoured Isabel of St. Dominic at Segovia with the office of prioress, which she had discharged so wisely at Pastrana.
[601] and henceforth noble women By that event and others like it the holy Mother found out, says Yepes (book II, chapter XXI), that ladies of high rank are not to be received easily: who, since in their own houses they have been accustomed to give orders to others, accommodate themselves slowly to obedience; and almost always assume certain liberties and privileges harmful to the laws of enclosure and to humility. Hence, when I once wrote to her that she should admit among the Carmelite nuns a certain woman of the first rank in these kingdoms, of mature age, conspicuous for wealth and the number of her dependants (for that lady had treated with me about embracing the Teresian Institute, and had asked me to request the Saint for an interview on her behalf; wherefore, writing with much commendation of her endowments and good disposition and great desires of serving God, I thought I was gaining the greatest favour with the Saint, as one procuring for her so good a nun), she gave me the answer that this mind of mine, and the care with which I applied myself to promoting her Order and helping it with all my might, were the greatest pleasure to her: yet she asked that I should rather oblige her in other things than by offering ladies; who, as they have learned always to do their own will, will bring nothing else than harm to monasteries. Since, however, you will scarcely find a rule, however general, that does not admit an exception, the holy Mother on other occasions, namely when she had thoroughly known the endowments, virtues and above all the humility of such persons, most gladly received them into her Order: for just as those are harmful who do not make such good progress, so those are wont to be of profit to the community and a mirror and example to the rest who, forgetful of their former honours, strive to give themselves up wholly to the service and servitude of Jesus Christ; which experience has shown in many cases.
[602] she admits only with discrimination. As a specimen of the exception indicated by this last phrase of the bishop of Tarazona may serve St. Teresa's affection for Casilda de Padilla, daughter and heiress of the high governor of Castile, who at the beginning of this very year 1574 shut herself up, at twelve years of age, in the monastery of Valladolid, as the Saint narrates at length in chapter XI of the Foundations; then, having overcome very many obstacles with heroic constancy, she pronounced her religious vows there in the year 1577: four years afterwards, however, for I know not what reason, she passed by virtue of an apostolic Indult from the Carmelites to the Franciscan nuns, into the convent of St. Louis at Burgos. The holy Foundress quite often speaks most tenderly of her Casilda in her letters to various persons: Fr. Luis de la Puente also gives a letter written by Fr. Baltasar Álvarez to Casilda on the Kalends of August 1574 (Life of Fr. Baltasar Álvarez, chapter XXXIV, § II). Related to Casilda by some kinship was Beatriz Oñez, or of the Incarnation; who, first of all the Teresian Discalced nuns, departed to heaven from the convent of Valladolid on the 5th day of May 1573, as the author of the Chronicle has it (book III, chapter XIX, no. 9) from a note written beside Beatriz's form of profession, or in 1574, as Fr. Antonio of St. Joseph tries to show from a certain letter of St. Teresa to the prioress of Valladolid, written on the 13th and 14th days of May (vol. III, letter 59). You have the eulogy of Beatriz composed by Teresa's pen in chapter XII of the book of Foundations, as I noted in its place (no. 432).
[603] The holy Mother, to Isabel of the Angels In this very year 1574 Isabel of the Angels died (vol. IV, letter 62); who, having begun the monastic life at Medina del Campo in the year 1569 under happy auspices, as the Saint wrote on the 18th of October 1569 to her uncle Simón Ruiz (vol. IV, letter 53), had afterwards lived almost four years at Salamanca under the direction of the Ven. Ana of Jesus, who was subprioress there. Teresa, setting out from Salamanca for the Segovia foundation, had left Isabel very ill with intense bodily pain and anxious scruples of mind. From then until the month of June the good nun's health had declined day by day for the worse, and the violence of the disease had so changed her face that she could scarcely be recognized by those very persons who had once known her best. The 11th day of June had come, sacred to St. Barnabas, on which day, while the other nuns were going to Mass, Isabel was worse than she had ever been before. But when Mass was finished, behold, the sisters who came running anxiously to the sick woman's bed saw, not without astonishment, her face changed, her eyes sparkling and restored to their former cheerfulness. Blessed be God, the prioress exclaims, since you seem to be better, sister! What is this joy which shines so in you? To whom Isabel said: Because today, O Mother, there will be an end of these miseries, and I shall go to enjoy the goods which I have desired. Then the subprioress said: Who has told you this, that you hold it as so certain? And again the sick woman: Why do you ask, Mother subprioress? She told me this who can know it. When she had said this, the others left her: but Ana of Jesus, remaining alone, inquired further from where she had that foreknowledge of death that was to come on that day.
[604] living at Salamanca, the soul And then she informed me (the words are Ana's own, in Manrique, book II, chapter IX) that at the time of Mass our Mother Teresa of Jesus had stood beside her, blessing her, caressing her and most gently stroking her face; from whose mouth she had heard these words: "My daughter, do not be foolish, nor indulge these fears; but place your confidence in what your Spouse did and suffered for you: for great is the glory which God has prepared for you, and I believe that today you will enjoy it." And she affirmed that it seemed to her that she was already enjoying that glory; and that she experienced within herself an incredible peace, as if she had never had to wage war. In that serenity of mind she remained the whole day, until, leaving two or three of us with her, the rest of us went away to Matins. And when, the chanting having been finished at the eleventh hour, we had begun the discipline in choir (for it was Friday), there arose in all of us, with no one prompting, so vivid a presentiment of Isabel's passing to God that at the first stroke of the scourges we ceased from striking and all at once ran together into the infirmary. There, having placed in the hands of the dying woman a blessed candle with an image of the Crucified, and having invoked the name of Jesus, we began to say the Apostles' Creed; each article of which she pronounced with us: and as soon as we had finished the last, "Life everlasting," she expired and entered that eternal life. And immediately her body began to be suffused with such beauty and splendour that it clearly appeared that something supernatural and heavenly was taking place. Nor did we alone see this, the nuns who were in this convent, but also very many religious of various Orders and secular persons, who were present at the funeral rites of the deceased. For, because on account of our poverty and other inconveniences she had to be buried publicly outside the enclosure, so great a crowd of people flocked together that, to protect the corpse while the Office was being sung, there had to stand beside the bier the Count of
Fuentes and the commander Páez. Thus the often-named Ven. Servant of God.
[605] shows herself present by a miracle: On the same day on which Isabel of the Angels died (namely on the feast of St. Barnabas, as the bishop of Tarazona and the author of the Chronicle rightly have it, not of St. Bartholomew, as Fr. Manrique notes; for the feast of St. Bartholomew in the year 1574 did not fall on a Friday, as did the feast of St. Barnabas, but on a Tuesday), St. Teresa wrote from Segovia to Salamanca about two things which she could not know unless she had really been present there. And at the very hour at which she visited the sick nun, it was noticed at Segovia that she was so rapt out of herself that she seemed like one dead, and when called two or three times heard nothing. When, however, her nuns of Segovia questioned the Saint about the things I have mentioned, she eluded the question with an ambiguous answer; but the following year she openly confessed the whole matter to Ana of Jesus: that the glory had been shown her by God which her Isabel had merited in those five years she had spent in Religion; and that this indeed was as great as many others scarcely attain by living most uprightly for fifty years.
[606] at Segovia she has several revelations The Saint had not this one revelation only at Segovia. The author of the Chronicle relates several others (book III, chapter XXX); of which, however, lest I be too long, I shall choose only one more remarkable than the rest. It concerns Juan Orozco de Covarrubias, a relative of the bishop of Segovia and at that time a canon of the cathedral church. He, namely, passing one morning beside the little church of Teresa's monastery, had been attracted by its cleanliness and religious adornment to offer the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in it. The Sacrifice completed, he called St. Teresa to the parlour; who, as soon as she entered there, said: Know, Sir, that you have been brought here by God, and that you must help me: for although I do not make much of worldly nobility, yet I do not fail to esteem whatever is in keeping with reason. Know that María de Tapia, your maternal aunt, is my kinswoman; but the chief reason is the charity on account of which you ought to help this house. Struck by these words of the Saint, Orozco began to show himself a signal patron of the nuns of Segovia, even deigning for some time to act as chaplain to them. Some time afterwards it happened that Orozco, on account of a certain favour granted him by the king, had his uncle the bishop offended with him: when he anxiously consulted the Saint about this matter, she bade him be of quiet mind; for the bishop's anger would not be long-lasting, and a very great reward would come from God for the good work: which prediction the event fully confirmed. Another time the Saint said to Orozco: I considered this morning, Lord Prior, that almost all my friends are being advanced by God to a bishopric or archbishopric, and that you too will come to that dignity. Nor did that disguised prophecy fail; since after St. Teresa's death Orozco, no longer thinking of any such thing, was invested with the mitre of the Church of Cádiz. These things are established from a certain letter of Orozco himself to the General of the Carmelites, afterwards recognized and approved by lawful witnesses in the juridical informations concerning St. Teresa.
[607] and visions; Finally, there are not to be passed over two remarkable visions which St. Teresa had in this year 1574 in the church of the Fathers Preachers at Segovia, and of which we have as witness Fr. Diego de Yanguas, at that time her confessor. The first of these visions befell her on the 7th day of August, on which day the Carmelites venerate with a solemn Office St. Albert of Sicily, Confessor of their Order. That is, the holy Mother, as she was about to communicate, beheld the Saviour standing at her right hand, St. Albert at her left: but after Communion Jesus, going away, left St. Albert with her, saying: Refresh yourself with him. And then the Saint, among many other things which have not come to our knowledge, spoke with Teresa about the affairs of the Carmelite convents, both of men and of virgins; and persuaded her that for the good success and increase of the new Reform it was expedient that the Discalced should be wholly separated from the Observants, and should have their own superiors, who would watch diligently over the observance of the primitive rule. The other vision fell on the 30th day of September, on which very day the holy Mother set out from Segovia for Ávila. But I shall not narrate this here, since Ribera describes it at the end of chapter VII of his book IV of the Life of Teresa; which description Cuypers, our predecessor, has already used in his preliminary Commentary on the Life of St. Dominic (volume I of August, page 474).
[608] and there at length in a permanent house, It remains that we finish what properly pertains to the Segovia foundation. That is, we have already seen above that the Saint with her daughters lived in a rented house, deprived of the licence to reserve the Most Holy Eucharist. For some months, she says, our affairs were in this state, until we bought another house, and together with it brought great lawsuits upon our heads; and we had already had lawsuits enough with the Franciscan Fathers on account of another house which had been bought earlier in the neighbourhood. That is, to tell the matter in order, Julián de Ávila and Antonio Gaitán had long since cast their eyes on a certain house; but the Saint had judged it so little suited to monastic uses that in a letter written to Gaitán, who had gone away to Salamanca, she testifies that she was altogether glad that its owner had refused to sell it (vol. II, letter 57). After this the holy Mother busied herself about procuring for herself another house, situated in a leading place of the city (Ibid.); but she had to desist from this purpose on account of the opposition of the neighbouring Fathers of the Order of Minors, as we heard her narrating a few lines ago and as she also indicates by this last phrase of a certain letter of hers to Teotonio de Braganza (who was afterwards archbishop of Évora), then staying at Salamanca: Please tell Fr. Rector (Baltasar Álvarez) to see to it that we ask God for his recovery, and that I get on well with Fr. Santander, but not so with the neighbouring religious: for concerning the house bought by us, most suitable indeed for our purpose, but situated somewhat nearer to them, they have gone to law against us; how this matter is to be ended I do not know (vol. 1, letter 2).
[609] an agreement having been made with the canons, Finally Fr. Luis Santander, rector of the college of the Society of Jesus at Segovia, bought for the Saint from a certain Diego de Porras a well-built house, near the one which the nuns were using by right of rent (vol. III, letter 60, vol. IV, letter 3). But, she says at the end of chapter XXI of the Foundations, on account of those latter houses certain religious brethren called of Mercy brought a lawsuit against us, and also the chapter and canons, who had the right of emphyteusis in that house. How difficult it is, O good Jesus, to contend and deal with the various opinions of men! For when I seemed to myself to have the matter settled, then one difficulty after another arose: for it was not enough to grant them all they had demanded, since they immediately brought forward one inconvenience after another. This very thing, said thus, seems indeed to be nothing, but to bear it and undergo it was far too much. A certain relative of the bishop, who was prior and canon in the same Church, did whatever he could for our sake, as did also the licentiate Heredia, a distinguished servant of God. For the canons were pressing the bishop not to allow the convent to be without revenues; and they pressed so strongly that St. Teresa, however constant, almost gave herself up as vanquished, and ordered the prioress of Valladolid to inquire (vol. III, letter 60) whether Fr. Domingo Báñez, by the power which he had received from Fr. Pedro Hernández the visitor, could grant licence for founding a monastery with some revenue: If he can, she says, let him give this licence in writing by the hand of a notary to whom he has proved his rights; and let him send it to me as soon as possible, of his charity, unless he wishes me to be laid low by the canons: for we should have entered that house already, if those wretched three thousand maravedís had not stood in the way.
[610] she settles her nuns. So matters stood in the month of July: nevertheless two months afterwards it was agreed otherwise; and the canons were satisfied by the payment of six hundred gold pieces, collected with labour by the holy Foundress (vol. I, letter 46). The rest you have in this conclusion of the cited chapter XXI of the Foundations: With the canons at length, much money having been paid, the matter was happily settled, but not with those Fathers of Mercy: in order, then, that we might move to that new house, it had to be done as secretly as possible. But when they learned that we had in fact moved into it (for we moved one or two days before the feast of the Archangel Michael), they judged it better and preferable to come to terms with us, having received money. But above all it tormented me in these difficulties that, since only seven or eight days remained to me until the three years of my prefecture of the Incarnation were completed, I had necessarily, on account of the office, to depart from there to Ávila. The Lord, then, disposing and directing, it came about that everything was so settled and established according to my wish that thereafter we had no further lawsuit: whence two or three days later I departed to the convent of the Incarnation. May His name be blessed for ever, for He has never failed to confer such and so great graces on me, and may all His creatures praise and celebrate Him. Amen.
§ XXXIV. The Saint, going out of her priorship in the convent of the Incarnation, is elected prioress by the nuns of St. Joseph's. She undertakes various journeys. She founds the tenth convent of her virgins at Beas.
To St. Teresa, now having completed her priorship at Ávila, The Saint, present at Ávila for the last days, had completed on the 6th of October 1574 her three-year priorship in the monastery of the Incarnation; which she had discharged in absence for the last thirteen months, having been ordered to stay at Salamanca and Segovia, bestowing her care on her subjects through frequent letters. Many of the nuns of the Incarnation greatly desired to confer that office on her again; but the provincial was opposed, and Teresa herself urged that she be permitted to return to her house of St. Joseph. They, grieving at the withdrawal of their excellent Mother, asked of her at least this, that she should name one who should discharge her duties as prioress. She returned, therefore, to St. Joseph's; where without delay, by the votes of her daughters, the government of that house was committed to her. But soon she had to gird herself for a journey to Valladolid, to remove the obstacles which the relatives of Casilda de Padilla (of whom I spoke at no. 602) were putting in the way of her entrance into the Carmelite Order; which labour indeed turned out prosperously according to the wish of the Saint herself and of Casilda. Meanwhile from Valladolid the holy Mother gave a letter to Ana Enríquez of the family of the Marquises of Alcañices, containing singular praise of Frs. Baltasar Álvarez S.J. and Domingo Báñez of the Order of Preachers (vol. I, letter 12).
From the same place she wrote on the 4th day of January to her friend Teotonio de Braganza (vol. IV, letter 4) about various affairs, and by name about four foundations proposed to her at that time: the first at Zamora, in the kingdom of León; the second at Torrijos, in the diocese of Toledo; the third in an uncertain place, offered by a countess whose name is not expressed in the letter; the fourth finally at Madrid. Since none of these but had great enough difficulties attached to it, Teresa shows herself wholly averse to the first three: the fourth, however, which she saw would be most useful to her Reform, she rejects for the time in such a way as yet to show that she will still think of it later; as she actually did, and indeed until her death, as we shall demonstrate in the course of this Commentary.
[612] In the town of Beas there is offered The holy Mother, having set out from Valladolid, reached Medina del Campo before the octave day of the Epiphany; on which day, Yepes too being present, Jerónima de Quiroga, of whom I have already spoken elsewhere (no. 562), exchanged her secular finery for the Carmelite habit there. The Saint's road then lay to Ávila; from where, after a very short stay, passing through Toledo and Malagón, she at length set out for Beas for the sake of beginning a new foundation (vol. IV, letter 4, note 22), which she begins to describe thus in chapter XXII: At the very time when (as I mentioned above) I was ordered to set out from the monastery of the Incarnation for Salamanca, while I was there a certain respectable lady of Beas, by a messenger sent, and also by letters which she had written in the name of the parish priest and others, invited me to come to found a convent in that town, and not to trouble myself at all about buying a house; for she had one already prepared, so that, everything being arranged, only the presence of the nuns who were to inhabit it was required. I inquired, then, of the messenger about the situation, the advantages and the inhabitants of the town: and he recounted to me many good things of it, and not wrongly; for it is a pleasant place, healthy and of a quite temperate climate. But when I saw how great a distance there was between it and Salamanca, it seemed foolish to me to think of that foundation: and above all because the apostolic commissary (who, if he did not oppose new foundations of convents of this kind, at least did not favour them) would have to give his assent to it.
[613] a house prepared for monastic uses Wherefore at first I decided, without advising him, to say that for the present I could by no means admit that foundation. But afterwards it seemed to me (since he was himself then at Salamanca) that I should be doing wrong if I did not take up this matter without consulting and advising him, since I had been enjoined by our Most Rev. Fr. General not to refuse any foundation that should offer itself. He, then, having seen this letter, told me that it seemed to him wrong not to satisfy and comply with the desire of those pious men, by whose piety and kindness he asserted that he was wonderfully refreshed; wherefore I should send a letter to Beas and signify to them that provision would be made for the foundation, once the power of the Ordinary had been received through them. But he added that I should believe without doubt that this very thing would by no means be obtained by them: for since it was a town of the Knights of St. James, he knew from elsewhere that faculties of that kind could not be obtained by others in a similar case even in the space of many years: yet I should not take away all hope from them by my letter. Sometimes I weigh this within myself, and how what the Lord wills to be done (even though we ourselves do not will it) is brought to its outcome and accomplished, so that, even ignorant and unknowing, we are in His hand as instruments; as in this matter the Most Rev. Fr. Pedro Hernández, who was commissary, was an instrument: whence he, when the consent and power of the Knights had been obtained, could by no means refuse it on his part, so that in this way the matter was accomplished. This convent of Beas was founded in honour of St. Joseph on the feast of the Apostle Matthias in the year of the Lord 1575. And these were its beginnings and first steps, to the praise and glory of God. Then the Saint describes at length the wonderful providence of God, which led two sisters, daughters of Sancho Rodríguez de Sandoval, to promote that foundation, and at the same time to put on the habit of nuns in that house. Since these things are rather long and do not concern the Saint directly, I would rather refer the reader to the very book of Teresa's Foundations than digress from my purpose by this long narrative.
[614] Thither, then, the Saint, after a prophecy uttered at Almodóvar, The holy Mother's road on her way to Beas lay through Almodóvar del Campo, in which place not long afterwards a convent of the Discalced Carmelite Fathers was raised. She was lodged there with Marcos García and Isabel López, a most pious married couple, the parents of Bl. Juan Bautista López, or of the Conception, Reformer of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity, enrolled in the calendar of the Blessed by Pius VII, Supreme Pontiff, in the year 1819. See what Antonio López, the Blessed's own brother, affirmed on oath in the juridical informations for his beatification: That St. Teresa had lodged twice in his parents' house; and that one day the children of Marcos García, who were eight in number, all stood together before her. When she had looked at them one by one, having raised the veil from her face, she said to their mother: Lady, among these eight you have one who will attain to great holiness, and will be the helper of many souls, and the author of a notable Reform, as time will show. Then, that she touched the shoulder of the witness Antonio himself with her right hand, and used these words to him: Little saint, consider that you will need much patience, since you will have very great blows to bear in this vale of tears: what do you answer me? When the witness had replied to her: I will have as much patience as I can; Teresa said again: Mark that the blows which are to come are great: what do you answer me? and then she added these words, at first sight not so clear: Time will show that one of the eight children who stand here will be, in the fifth year after his death, such as he was before. And these three predictions were exactly fulfilled: Juan Bautista happily reformed the Order of the Most Holy Trinity (as may be seen in Fr. Helyot, History of the Religious Orders, part II, chapter XLVIII, and more at length in the first part of the Chronicle of the Discalced of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity, by Fr. Florian of St. Joseph, a Bohemian); Antonio, as he himself testified, bore very many hardships in his life; and the body of one of the sisters of both of them was found entirely incorrupt five years after her death. Thus the author of the Chronicle (book III, chapter XXXIII), who also relates the following fact from the sworn testimony of the Ven. Ana of Jesus.
[615] is conveyed by a way shown by St. Joseph. St. Teresa, having set out from Almodóvar del Campo, had to cross the Sierra Morena. In these mountains, through the error of the drivers, the carriage was led away from the right road and stuck in so narrow and rugged a gorge that it could neither go forward nor go back without danger. When the Saint noticed this, she exhorted her companions to pray with her to God and St. Joseph to obtain a happy way out of those straits. Scarcely had the prayers been begun, when behold, a voice, as of some venerable old man, sounded in the ears of all: Stop, stop; for if you go on, you will roll down headlong: and when they asked which way they should go, he pointed out an easy and level road. The drivers, astonished at the miracle, look round in every direction and run about, to render due thanks to their benefactor, if they could find him anywhere; but, seeing no one, they come back: which the Saint had already foretold to the nuns sitting beside her: There is no reason, she said, for us to let them search; for they will not be able to find the man; since it was none other than my Father St. Joseph. Finally, a little before they reached Beas, yet another prodigy happened. That is, since at the place where the river Guadalimar was to be crossed no bridge appeared, and on that account the nuns had to get down from the carriage so as to sit on the backs of the horses to pass through the waters, God spared them this trouble, the whole company being unexpectedly transferred to the opposite bank of the river.
§ XXXV. The foundation of the convent of men at Almodóvar. The first meeting of Fr. Jerónimo Gracián with St. Teresa. The eleventh monastery of virgins, erected at Seville by the Saint.
The convent of men at Almodóvar is founded. On the 7th day of March 1575 there was begun, by licence of the Most Rev. Fr. Rubeo, General of the Carmelite Order, a new convent of the Discalced at Almodóvar del Campo, with the attached burden of teaching grammar to boys; from which burden, however, as not sufficiently in keeping with their vocation, the Fathers freed themselves after some years. More notable, however, than this foundation, which it suffices to have indicated in passing, is what we read was done toward the end of the preceding year 1574, both at Rome and in Spain, as regards the Carmelite Order. That is, the Most Rev. Fr. Giovanni Battista Rubeo on the 13th of August 1574 obtained apostolic letters from Gregory XIII, by which the power over the Order of Carmel granted by St. Pius V to the visitors Hernández and Vargas was revoked. The publication of these letters Rubeo had indeed put off to the general chapter of his Order, to be held at Piacenza in Italy in the following month of May; but he had not so concealed the matter that knowledge of it did not reach Spain long before, to the ears of Niccolò Ormaneto, the apostolic nuncio and patron of the Teresian Reform.
[617] Fr. Gracián, given as companion to the visitor Vargas, He, then, when he noticed that his own rights were in no way restricted by the said apostolic letters, not only restored to Fr. Vargas his office of visitor by a diploma given on the 22nd of September 1574; but also joined to him Fr. Jerónimo Gracián as companion for exercising the same office in solidum, as they say. And in order to drive every scruple about this matter more surely from his conscience, he consulted about the mind of the Supreme Pontiff his intimate secretary, Tolomeo Cardinal of Como: who answered by a letter given at Rome on the 27th of December that it had by no means been the mind of His Holiness to take anything away from the faculty of Ormaneto, which he had as nuncio and legate a latere, as regards the reform of the regular Orders. Spurs to doing what I have said had also been added to the nuncio by Philip the Catholic King and certain excellent counsellors of his: namely Diego de Covarrubias, president of Castile; Cardinal de Quiroga, archbishop of Toledo; Luis Manrique and Gabriel de Zayas, of whom the one was the king's almoner, the other his secretary; and also that excellent man Juan de Padilla, of whom mention has already been made (nos. 563 and 587).
[618] visits St. Teresa at Beas; Matters being thus, at the warning of a friend or relative (as the author of the Chronicle will have it) or by the order of Ormaneto (as Boucher has it), Fr. Jerónimo Gracián withdrew from Seville to Madrid after the Easter feasts; and on the way he turned aside to Beas, for the sake of seeing St. Teresa, who was still waiting in that town for the faculty of the council of the commanders of the equestrian Order of St. James in order to inaugurate the foundation at Caravaca.
I had not yet seen that Father face to face, she says in chapter XXIV of the Foundations, although I had until then desired it exceedingly; but we had several times addressed one another by letter. When, therefore, I learned that he was there, I rejoiced greatly; for I very much wished to see him, because I had heard such excellent and salutary things of him, but I rejoiced more then, when I began to deal with him in person: for he so pleased me that those who had praised him to me did not seem to have sufficiently perceived him yet. And since I was then oppressed by various afflictions and vexations, certainly, as soon as I first saw him, the Lord seemed to represent to me all the good that was to come to us through his efforts; so much so that through all those days I felt such consolation in my soul that I was truly amazed at myself. His commissaryship then extended only over the convents of Andalusia; but while he was at Beas the apostolic nuncio summoned him to himself, and at the same time ordered him to be visitor of the Discalced of the Castilian province. My spirit, moreover, then exulted with such joy that during those days I could not have my fill of giving thanks to the Lord, and wished to do nothing else.
[619] by the closest bond of charity In the same sense, on the feast day of the Ascension of the Lord, which was the 12th of May, she wrote to the prioress of Malagón: O my Mother, how I should have wished that you had been with me these days! Know that they have been, in my judgement at least, the best (I speak without exaggeration) of my life. Fr. Master Gracián stayed here twenty days and more: and however much I have dealt with him, I say for my part that I have not yet perceived the merits of that man entirely. He seems to me most excellent, and so useful to us that we should not even know how to ask God for anyone better than he. Wherefore I would have the Lord prayed to by you and all the others that He may give him to us as our prelate: on whom, since I have nowhere seen so great perfection joined with so great gentleness, I shall be able to shake off the government of these houses. May God lead him with His hand and keep him: for there is nothing among all things that I would not have put after seeing him and frequently speaking with him during these days. He was waiting in this place for Mariano; who we wished would arrive as late as possible. Julián de Ávila and the others are dying for love of him. He preaches in an admirable manner; nor do I doubt that, since you saw him, he has profited very much by the grave labours he has sustained. Moreover, God has so ordered matters that next Monday I shall set out from here, intending, with God's help, to journey to Seville; as I have written more fully to Fr. Diego. For this house belongs to the province of Andalusia: and since Fr. Gracián presides over it, I unexpectedly found myself subject to him, and so he had the right to command me. Add that, when we were already thinking of going to Caravaca, the licence of the commanders was brought, of such a tenor that it was not acceptable to us: wherefore it seemed good that the business of Seville should be completed first (vol. I, letter 49).
[620] is joined with her, We shall presently hear the Saint treating at greater length of the Seville foundation. But first something remains to be said about a certain writing which, folded and closed, with these words written on it: It is a matter of my soul and conscience, which no one is to read, even if I have died, but let it be given to Fr. Master Gracián, Andrés del Mármol, advocate of the royal court of Madrid, or rather Fr. Cristóbal Márquez of the Carmelite Order (see Nicolás Antonio, Bibliotheca Hispana nova, volume I, pages 79 and 247), asserts was found after the Saint's death, in the Life of Fr. Gracián printed at Valladolid in the year 1619 (part I, chapter XVII): of which Life we lack the Spanish copy indeed; but its lack is supplied to some extent both by a Flemish version, which we have in manuscript, and also by the fragments which Fr. Emmanuel of St. Thomas Aquinas transcribed from that Life (vol. III, page 176 and following). Here, then, is the substance of the aforementioned writing composed by St. Teresa: That in the month of April 1575 Fr. Gracián came to Beas; and that the Saint, after she had confessed to him several times, had a vision in which she saw Jesus standing midway between herself and Gracián, and joining the right hands of both, with an added exhortation that they should act harmoniously in all things and that Teresa should hold Gracián as one who stood in the place of God toward her: that by this vision great relief was brought to the Saint, especially since afterwards the Saviour twice more confirmed His words to her: accordingly that she, with great peace of mind, bound herself by vow to obey Gracián in all things which should not be contrary to the will of God and of her superiors: which vow (of which Fr. Márquez also exhibits the entire copy) was afterwards renewed by her on the Monday of Pentecost after hearing Mass at Écija, in the sacristy of a certain hermitage: and that then indeed the Saint had to struggle for some time against a repugnance of mind, not unlike that which she had once felt in passing from her father's house to the monastery (compare no. 79 of this Commentary of ours); but that this was soon followed by great confidence and tranquillity of a free mind. Fr. Márquez also cites (part I, chapter VIII) the following testimony of Fr. Gracián concerning his first meeting with the holy Mother: I first saw St. Teresa in the year 1575; at which time, after she had examined my spirit for a whole month, and I in turn had perceived her manner of acting, being most obedient in all things she promoted at my order the foundations of nuns in Andalusia, whereas before she had had neither the purpose nor the licence of founding monasteries there. Then too a revelation was made to her from heaven concerning me.
[621] and orders her to go to Seville. There now follows the Saint's narrative of her setting out for Seville and her arrival. At this very time, she says, the faculty was sent for founding the new convent at Caravaca, but far different from what was necessary for my purpose and intention; hence a messenger had to be sent anew to the court. It was especially grievous and wearisome to me to wait there so long a time; hence I resolved to return to Castile; for I had already written to the foundresses that it was by no means to be founded unless a certain condition which was lacking to the faculty were granted. Hence it was necessary for a messenger to be sent again to the court. But since Fr. Jerónimo Gracián, to whom that monastery was already subject, since he was commissary of the whole province of Andalusia, was then staying there, nothing could be done or decided without his will: hence I communicated the whole matter to him. It seemed to him, moreover, that if it happened that I once departed and went away from there, the Caravaca foundation would wholly collapse; besides, that it would be not a little to the glory of God if a convent were established at Seville: which seemed to him not likely to be difficult, because certain persons powerful in authority and wealth, even ready to assign a house at once, had asked this very thing of him. Moreover, because the archbishop embraced this Order with singular zeal, he thought he would do something far most pleasing to him in this way. Hence it was decided that I should go to Seville with the prioress and nuns whom I had destined for the Caravaca seat, although in my mind I had always been rather averse, for various reasons, to founding convents in Andalusia. Indeed, if when I was at Beas I had first understood that that town was in Andalusia, I should by no means have gone there: but what deceived me was that, although the town and its territory are not of Andalusian jurisdiction, since that province begins only four or five leagues from there, yet it depends on that province. But when I saw that the superior was of this mind, I at once acquiesced in his judgement and opinion (for the Lord grants me this grace, that I always and in all things consider that superiors command well and rely on reason); although I was already undertaking another foundation, and had the weightiest reasons for not wishing to go to Seville. To this point belong the things which Ribera noted among the signal examples of the holy Mother's obedience in his Life of Teresa, book IV, chapter XI; but the most humble Virgin keeps silent, as diligently as she could, about whatever is to her praise.
[622] The Saint takes the road At once, therefore, she continues, everything necessary for this journey began to be prepared, since the summer heats were coming on, and Fr. Gracián, the apostolic commissary, had already gone away to the nuncio. With my usual companions, Fr. Julián de Ávila, Antonio Gaitán and a certain Discalced brother, and some nuns, I hastened to Seville. We were carried in a carriage entirely covered; for this was our custom of travelling along the roads: and when we had come to an inn, we would occupy some room, convenient or inconvenient, and place a sister at its door, who brought in what we needed; indeed not even those who accompanied us entered there. Using all the haste we could, we arrived at Seville on the Thursday before Trinity Sunday, having felt intense heats and burning on the road. For although we abstained from travelling at midday, I tell you, dearest ones, that, since the sun struck the carriages so intensely and continually with its rays, we seemed to be living in them as in purgatory.
[623] with six nuns. Sometimes the sisters thought of hell, sometimes they resolved both to do and to suffer something out of the love of God, and so they pursued the journey begun with joy and gladness of spirit: for those six who accompanied me were so good and fervent that I think I should have dared to set out with them even to the regions of the Turks, and that they would have had the strength to suffer death for the Lord's name, or (to put it better) would have received it from Him. For these were their desires and constant conversations; moreover they were especially practised in the pursuit of prayer and mortification: for because they were going to be there far from the other convents, I took pains to choose for this seat above the rest those whom I thought would be more suitable to it and would fit it better. And certainly they had to be such, in view of the difficulties and storms which they underwent in this place: some of which, and indeed the greatest, I shall pass over here in silence and omit to relate, because I might perhaps mark out some particular persons.
[624] She suffers gravely from fever, Among their other troubles and vexations, not the least was that on the eve of the feast of Pentecost a most burning fever seized me. I suppose that their cries and prayers to God were the cause that that ill did not increase further: for never in my life has such a fever seized me without its always advancing further and begetting another ill from itself. It was such that, as I was then indeed not in possession of myself, I seemed to suffer from lethargy and frenzy. To relieve the ill they sprinkled me with water. But this was so heated by the sun's burning that I felt very little refreshment from it. I cannot help relating to you here what an inconvenient lodging I found in this need: there was assigned
to us in it a certain small room situated under the roof, having no window at all; if its door was opened, all the heat of the sun at once penetrated into it. You must believe, moreover, that the sun is far more intolerable here than in Castile. And the nuns placed me on such a bed that I should rather have lain on the ground: for its unevenness was such that, swelling up high on one side and sinking deep on the other, it seemed strewn with the sharpest stones.
[625] but for one day only. What a thing is infirmity and illness! For in good health everything is easy to bear. Wherefore I at length thought it better to get up from here and for us to go away from there: for it seemed to me preferable to take the heats of the sun in the open field rather than those which that narrow hovel breathed out. How wretched is the lot of those who are damned in hell! For these will never be able to change their seat and place: for although the change and passage is only from one pain into another, nevertheless this seems to bring some alleviation. And truly it has happened to me that, when I felt an intense and extreme pain in some part of the body, if afterwards another equally intense and grievous one oppressed me in another part, this change seemed to bring me some solace and relief. So it happened to me in this place too. But nothing (as far as I remember) tormented me in seeing myself placed in such a state; but the nuns, my companions, certainly felt much greater grief than I. It pleased the Lord, however, that the very violence and intensity of the illness lasted only for one day.
[626] She crosses the river Guadalquivir not without peril of life. A little before (I know not whether two days), another misfortune befell us, which certainly made us somewhat solicitous and anxious. For when the Guadalquivir had to be crossed by boat, we could not cross with the carriages straight at that place where the rope led: hence it was necessary to slant the pontoon somewhat and turn it aside; in such a way, however, that the rope was always of some use to those slanting it. But when those who held the guide-rope had let it go from their hands, or by I know not what accident it had slipped from them, behold, the pontoon, with no rope holding it, with no oars, began to be carried downstream with our carriage by the force of the waters. I pitied the boatman's plight much more, both because I saw him struggling so desperately, and because we were in most present peril. All at once, in alarm, raised their voices; but we turned to praying to God. A certain nobleman had seen us from afar from his castle, and had sent some of his men to bring help to us in our trouble, at a time when the pontoon had not yet wholly lost the rope, but the Friars who accompanied us still had it in their hands, trying with all their strength to hold it back: but such was the force and rapidity of the waters that, although all struggled together, yet someone or other kept slipping down. The boatman's son himself truly inspired great devotion in me, whom also I can never forget: this boy, who (as it seemed to me at least) was ten or eleven years old, when he saw his father so labouring and anxious, began so to bewail his lot that I, seeing this, praised the Lord. But just as His Majesty sends no misfortune without His mercy always showing itself in it, so it happened in this place too: for the pontoon, turning, and coming to rest on a certain sandbank, because on one side there was little water, others were able to come to the help of those in danger. Besides, we should doubtless have strayed from the road (because it was already night), had not one who had come from the nearest castle brought us back to the highway. I had not thought to treat of these things, which are of little moment, in this place, because I have already mentioned elsewhere very many others concerning the discomforts and mishaps on the road: hence I am sure that by recounting them I bring weariness to the readers, because I have been more diffuse in them than is fair.
[627] At Córdoba, in order to hear Mass, Far more than these former things, what befell us on the last feast of Pentecost vexed and afflicted me. We had used the greatest speed the whole night, so that we might reach Córdoba before daylight and be present at the Sacrifice of the Mass without being seen by any mortal. We were being conducted, therefore, to a church which was situated across the bridge, so that we might lie hidden in it more secretly. We were now preparing to cross the bridge, but in vain: for it was not permitted to be carried across there in carriages without a faculty, and this had to be granted by the governor of the city. But before it was obtained, two hours and more passed, because people had not yet got up; and many flocked from every side to see what sort of people we were: but we cared little for this, because the carriages were so covered that no one could see us. When the licence had been brought, however, the carriages, because they were rather wide, could not pass through the narrow gate of the bridge; hence it was necessary for them to be cut down with a saw and fitted for the passage, in which too a good deal of time passed. When at length we had come to the church, and Fr. Julián de Ávila was about to celebrate Mass, it was full of people, because the place was named from the Holy Spirit; hence a solemn procession was to take place here as usual, and then the preaching of the divine word, which solemnity we did not know of. When I saw these things, I was exceedingly grieved, and, in my judgement, it would truly have been better to go away from there without hearing Mass than to throw ourselves into so dense a multitude of people. But Julián de Ávila was of another opinion, and, because he was a good theologian, we all had to obey and consent to his opinion: for had he not been there, the other companions would perhaps have followed my opinion; in which we should doubtless have erred more gravely, although I do not know whether I myself would have followed my own opinion alone.
[628] she is forced to pass with her companions through a dense crowd of people. We got down near the church: for although no one could see our faces (for we always covered and hid them with long veils), yet it was enough to rouse the novelty and amazement of the onlookers that they saw us veiled, and wrapped in coarse white mantles, such as are customary with us, and shod with sandals; as indeed was the case. This agitation and disturbance certainly took away from me all the previous day's fever; which truly was far too grievous both for me and for all the others. Moreover, as I entered the church a certain upright man, coming to meet me and offering himself as guide of the way, pushed back the pressing crowd. I also asked him to conduct us into a chapel set apart from the noise of the people. He complied, and, shutting it as he withdrew, he led us out from there again when we wished to leave the church. This very man not much later came to Seville, and related to a certain Father of our Order that he believed that, on account of this slight service and pious charity shown to us, a rich inheritance had come to him, when he expected nothing of the kind, God granting it. I tell you truly, dearest ones, although this will perhaps seem nothing to you, it seemed to me so grievous and painful that I scarcely remember having undergone anything more painful; for the people pressed in here with such violence and tumult as if furious bulls had rushed in. Hence nothing could have befallen me more desirable than to leave there as soon as possible, although we had no other convenience in the neighbourhood for spending the day; hence we had to avoid its heat by sheltering under a certain nearby bridge.
[629] At length at Seville, the consent of the archbishop When we had come to Seville, we went into the house which Fr. Mariano (who had already been informed of our coming) had rented for us. For my part, I thought the whole business was already accomplished as I wished: for, as I indicated above, the archbishop was carried away with a wonderful zeal toward the Discalced; indeed he had sometimes addressed me most courteously by letter. Nevertheless I had to undergo great labour and vexation here; because it seemed so good to the Lord. For the archbishop is exceedingly averse to admitting convents of nuns which do not rest on fixed revenues, and not without reason. This, however, hindered, or rather helped, the accomplishing and carrying out of that work: for if he had been aware of this matter before I arrived here, he would certainly by no means have granted the faculty for it. But since Fr. Gracián and Fr. Mariano most certainly thought that they were doing a very pleasing thing to him in having made me come here (and certainly my coming was most pleasing to him), they therefore signified nothing to him about this matter; and, had they signified it, perhaps, hoping that they would do well, they would have committed a very great error in this. For in the foundation of the other monasteries it is my custom before all things to obtain the licence of the Ordinaries of the places, as the Most Holy Synod of Trent also prescribes should be done: but in this one we not only took it as already granted, but also (as I have already said) thought that we were rendering a signal service to the Ordinary in this way; and truly the matter was so, as I also understood afterwards. But the Lord willed that no foundation at all should be accomplished without great labour and trouble on my part, so that I was harassed now in this way, now in another.
[630] not so easily When, therefore, we came to the house which (as has been said) had been rented for us, I at once (as I was accustomed to do) thought of entering into possession of it, so that we might recite the divine Office in it. But Fr. Mariano, who had begun the matter and was there, began to evade, and to bring forward reasons why the matter should be put off, and, so as not to afflict and sadden me, would not say plainly what the case was, dissembling. But since the reasons he brought forward were not sufficient, I at once understood in what the difficulty lay, namely in this, that the archbishop had not given the licence. Hence he began to tell and persuade me to allow the monastery to be established with annual revenues, or something similar, which I do not well remember. At length, however, without any dissembling, he said that the archbishop was not so very inclined toward the foundation of a monastery of nuns, and that from the time he had held the archiepiscopal dignity (and he had held it for very many years, both at Seville and at Córdoba, and is a fervent servant of God) he had granted this power to no one; and especially if the monastery was to be founded without revenues and possessions, he would by no means grant it. Which was the same as saying that it was plainly not to be founded.
[631] having been obtained, It was grievous to me to found with revenue (although I could have done it if I had wished): first, because the matter was being done in the city of Seville; for if I have admitted revenues in some monasteries, it was in small towns, where, unless they were admitted, those monasteries could not have been founded, because there was nothing else from which they could be maintained: then, because after the expenses of the journey only one farthing remained to me
; indeed we had brought nothing with us except the clothes in which we were dressed, and also some tunics and veils, and other things which served us for covering ourselves while we were being carried in the carriage. Hence too, so that our companions might return whence they had set out, it was necessary to seek borrowed money, which a certain friend whom Antonio Gaitán had there gave us: and what was necessary for procuring household furniture Fr. Mariano sought by begging. Besides, we had no house of our own; so that it seemed impossible for a convent to be founded there. Wherefore I think it was not without the most earnest entreaty, and as it were importunity, of the said Father that the archbishop at length permitted us to celebrate Mass on the very feast of the Most Holy Trinity: and that was the first thing. He forbade, however, that the signal for Mass be given with a bell of bronze, or that it be hung from a high place, unless perhaps it was already hung.
[632] she establishes a monastery of her virgins; Our affairs were in that state for fifteen days and more, so that I resolved, had not Fr. Commissary and Fr. Mariano opposed it, to return with my nuns, with very little regret of mind, to Beas, so as to begin with them the Caravaca foundation. I had a much greater pressure day by day (since, however, I have not a happy memory, I do not well remember how long it lasted; but I think it lasted more than a month); because, as the undertaking of the monastery was now becoming known among the public, departure was becoming more and more difficult for us. Fr. Mariano never allowed me to write a letter to the archbishop; but he himself little by little softened him with rather coaxing words, and also with letters sent from Madrid by Fr. Commissary. One thing consoled my conscience and calmed it from scruples, that the first Mass had been celebrated with his good leave; we also always recited the divine Office in choir. He sometimes also had me visited by someone, at the same time announcing that he himself would shortly come out to me; indeed he had sent one of his household priests to offer the first Mass to God here: whence it clearly appeared that all this disturbance of mine tended to nothing else than to make me anxious and solicitous. Although I was not distressed so much on my own account or that of my nuns, as because I knew that Fr. Commissary was anxious. For since he himself had ordered me to go there, he was exceedingly distressed, and, if any impediment had intervened, he would have felt the most vehement affliction. And certainly he had many reasons for fearing this.
[633] and pacifies the Calced Carmelites. About the same time the Calced Carmelites came to me, asking by what authority after all I had founded this monastery; and when I had shown them the letters received long ago from our Most Reverend Father General, they ceased to inquire further. For if they had known how little the archbishop was well disposed toward this convent, these letters would doubtless not have been enough to pacify them. But this was hidden from all; on the contrary, there was no one who was not persuaded that everything was being done with his good leave and assent. At length, God granting it, it came about that he came to visit us; and I set forth to him the pain which he was causing us. In the end he gave me the faculty to carry out whatever I had determined; and indeed thereafter, wherever he could, and whenever occasion offered, he always declared himself benevolent and a patron of our side. What the Saint mentioned toward the end of this narrative concerning the Calced Carmelites has a connection with the hostilities which they began to exercise against the Discalced at this time especially, and of which some things will have to be said by me in the following paragraphs.
§ XXXVI. The decrees of the general chapter of the Carmelite Order, held at Piacenza, against the Discalced. What judgement is to be passed concerning these decrees, and also concerning the manner of acting of the Most Rev. Fr. Rubeo, General of the Carmelites.
The general chapter of the Carmelite Order at Piacenza, I have before my eyes the Brief series of all the general chapters held in the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and of the decrees issued by them from the year 1318 to the year 1762 inclusive, printed at Rome in the year 1765. But under number LVII, where the general chapter of Piacenza of the year 1575 is treated, not even a single little word is to be found about the Discalced: although in that Chapter, as Fr. Mariano Ventimiglia says in his Chronological History of the Latin Priors General of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, very severe decrees indeed were enacted against the new Discalced Carmelites of the Spains, who, contrary to the letters patent and precepts of the Prior General, had built convents outside the bounds of the Castilian province. Decrees, nevertheless, he says, which, although they are declared by some to be too severe and unjust, contain truly nothing else than obedience to the apostolic letters of Gregory XIII which were sent to the capitulars and which are given in the Bullarium Carmelitanum, volume II. Thus he, from the papers (as he himself calls them) of the Order, which I do not believe were ever published.
[635] by virtue of the power given it by apostolic letters Certainly to that general chapter, to be celebrated at Piacenza in the month of May, Gregory XIII gave letters under the Fisherman's ring on the 15th of April 1575; whose beginning was as follows: Since our pastoral intention aspires to the salutary direction of all the religious Orders of the Lord's vineyard, and especially of your Order of the ever most glorious Virgin and Mother of God Mary of Mount Carmel, and since we desire that this same Order of yours, which has until now produced fruitful branches in the Holy Church of God, should continually abide in its ancient piety and learning, with the service of Almighty God and your praise and the edification of Christ's faithful, we have thought fit to send these letters to you, gathered in the Lord; so that, although we do not doubt that you would not have failed in your duty even without our letters, yet out of the abundance of our love we may add the spur of piety to those running of their own accord, and you, roused also by our voice, may run more fervently in the pursuit of Holy Religion, and may merit to arrive at the desired end and likewise the reward of your holy labour: we exhort your devotion with the spurs of fatherly love, and urge it by apostolic authority, and also command you in virtue of holy obedience, that in this celebration of your general chapter, to be held in the city of Piacenza in the province of Lombardy on the next feast of Pentecost, you aim effectively at true regular observance, where it has already been instituted and introduced, and, where it is not, at restoring it in your whole Order, both beyond and on this side of the mountains; so that both the salvation of your souls and the edification of the Christian people may proceed constantly from it to the praise of Almighty God.
[636] over the refractory, Among the other things contained in this letter, the following words are especially worth noting: If any have been elected and taken up contrary to the general statutes and contrary to the obedience of your superiors, or have accepted, erected and inhabited, and now inhabit, convents and places in any place whatever contrary to the will of the same superiors, do not omit to cast them down and remove them from office and administrations: likewise restrain all refractory and scandalous persons, gainsayers, troublers and rebels whatsoever by ecclesiastical censures and penalties and other appropriate remedies of law, appeal set aside; invoking also on these matters, if there be need, the help of the secular arm. There can scarcely be doubt that these words refer to the Discalced Carmelites; who, although lawfully with the leave of the apostolic visitors, yet contrary to the mind of their General (for he had permitted only two convents of men to be founded, as we saw at no. 404), had begun in several places, especially among the Andalusians, to live separately from the Calced.
[637] enacts decrees against the Discalced; Fortified, then, by these Pontifical ordinances, the Fathers assembled at Piacenza hurled two decrees of this tenor against the Discalced, whom by an erroneous judgement they held to be rebels: The Reverend masters provincial, and any other ministers and rectors of provinces or of convents whatsoever, shall equally take care, under penalty of suspension from Divine things, of deprivation of voice and place, and under censures as seem good to them, to cast out and remove those unduly taken up and elected, and not to obey them: and because some disobedient, rebellious and contumacious persons, who are commonly called Discalced, contrary to the letters patent and statutes of the Prior General, have lived and do live outside the province of Castile which they call Old, namely at Granada, Seville and near the town commonly called La Peñuela, and will not humbly, bringing forward fallacies and cavils and evasions, accept the commands and letters of the same Prior General; they shall signify to these same Discalced Carmelites under apostolic penalties and censures (invoking also, if there be need, the help of the secular arm) that within three days they depart from there entirely: and they shall restrain any gainsayers, punish them severely, and intimate to them that they have been cited by us, to appear in person; and, witnesses being present, they shall make it known, unless they come back to their senses from their obstinacy. Likewise they judged also by apostolic authority that the Carmelites of the first rule, who are commonly called Discalced, are to be removed from the convents obtained outside the province of Castile; and also, if they have accepted any in Castile contrary to the letters patent and institutions of the Most Reverend Father General, that they are to be excluded and cast out from them. Likewise that they be visited, and constrained by due institutions according to the earlier rule. But if any of them refuse to obey, we cite them to appear before us within the space of three months from the day on which they have refused to obey. (See the Chronicle, book III, chapter XL.)
[638] for the execution of which Fr. Jerónimo Tostado To this end Rubeo the General delegates Fr. Jerónimo Tostado into Spain with the power of visitor, to urge and promote with every means he could the execution of the decrees just related. Hear what the author of the Chronicle says on this matter: The General, wishing the Discalced to be utterly extinguished throughout Spain, and not noticing that their example was most effective for that reform of the Order which he desired, and that they would be defended by the king, and that the prayers of our Saint strove for the contrary side, and finally that the apostolic Bulls had no other force than what would arise from the delay of the king's letters to the Supreme Pontiff; with this mind, I say, the General chose Fr. Jerónimo Tostado, a Portuguese by birth, a man of lofty talent, cultivated in letters and of fearless mind, born for managing affairs and also for dissembling, to extinguish this prophetic and primitive seed, swiftly budding throughout Spain. He therefore committed it to him to visit, with that full power that was needed; and seeing that force was not expedient, he equips the man with stratagems. That is, he enjoined him to speak with praise to the king of his holy zeal for restoring the Order, and to congratulate himself that some part of so excellent a work had fallen to his lot: that he had the General's commands to distribute the Discalced more distinguished in endowments of mind through the convents of the Calced and to honour them with those offices which require most faithful men, so that by their examples they might spur on the rest and provide for the prosperity, propriety and numbers of the convents: at the same time that he must take care that some of the Calced most fit for the convents of the Discalced
should pass over, where they might learn reform. So indeed his tongue spoke; but in his mind (as is gathered from his writings) lay hidden the ruin of the Discalced family; which, namely, he wished to cut down in such a way that it could neither receive novices nor multiply its houses nor find refuge in its straits. And indeed the good Father himself brought it the greatest straits, as the history will show as it proceeds: in this place, however, it suffices to know what sort of commands he received in that chapter against the new prophetic generation. In order meanwhile that the intention might be better coloured, he was also ordered to spread abroad throughout Spain and to tell the king that the general chapter of Venice in the year 1524 had enacted that each province should have some reformed houses, where life should be ordered, under the common habit of the Order, according to the norm of the primitive rule, and that this very thing and nothing else had been the purpose of the chapter of Piacenza.
[639] by the Most Rev. Fr. Rubeo, General of the Order, Thus the author of the Chronicle, book III, chapter XL, no. 5, and things similar to these in several places, which it is not worth while to indicate. For my part, I do not see how this so severe accusation of Rubeo the General, as if he were contriving the destruction of the Teresian Reform not so much by authority as by evil arts, can be reconciled with the signal reverence which the same author proclaims, book IV, chapter XXXII, no. 3, to be owed by all the Discalced to that most weighty and most deserving man, in these words: Truly Rubeo's zeal and love for the holy Mother, the ample faculties which he granted of increasing the convents of nuns and also of founding the convent of Duruelo, which is the foundation of our Order of the Discalced; all these, I say, demand from us not only perpetual memory of him, but also eternal thanks and religious reverence: so that in our minds we should esteem him as our father, a companion of the Saints, and an advocate with God in our necessities. For although unfavourable reports estranged his mind from us, as winds disturb the sea, throw down towers, cut away rocks and shake mountains, yet his first love for us, which was the beginning of our increase, ought to hold the first place in our esteem. It seems to me that, as aptly as these things are said, so wrongly were those said which I alleged in the preceding number.
[640] is sent into Spain. Nor are of greater, indeed of much less moment the things which Fr. Antonio of St. Joseph throws at his readers concerning the mission of Tostado, in the following declamatory and exaggerated words: There came, he says, from Rome into Spain Tostado, laden with faculties against the Discalced, as Saul from Jerusalem to Damascus against the primitive Christians, though with a different mind and intention; for we always suppose that the greater glory of God was at his heart. Yet he certainly came with papers and commands, "that, if he found any men and women of this way, he might bring them bound"; to be punished, of course, as St. Augustine declares: for in truth that good Tostado acted "as being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of his fathers" (vol. III, letter 9, note 6). These are words and sounds, and nothing besides. For what Tostado did too severely in the year 1577 ought not to be believed to have been decreed already in this year 1575 by Fr. Rubeo and the general chapter. But it happened to Fr. Antonio to confuse times with times, and in one place of his notes to traduce wrongly those very persons whom in another place he praises most lavishly. Thus he treats not only Fr. Jerónimo Tostado, but also Rubeo the General and others of his Calced Fathers.
[641] The Saint, to the General, hostile to her from false reports, Far otherwise acts Ribera, a fair judge of affairs; who accuses neither Rubeo himself nor the whole general chapter with swelling words, but declares in a simple phrase that the Saint was greatly tormented because some, using reports and testimonies as Col. 260C an instrument, had estranged the mind of the Prior General from her (in Spanish: avian algunos hecho que el Padre General estuviese con ella desgustado some had brought it about that the Father General was displeased with her). And in exactly the same sense the holy Mother herself begins chapter XXVIII of the book of the Foundations: The Seville foundation having now been firmly established, founding ceased for four years and more. The cause was that great and grave storms of persecutions suddenly arose against the Discalced friars and nuns: for although very many had risen against us until then, yet none was so grave as this last, inasmuch as it was of such a kind that whatever had been done until then was in the greatest danger of being wholly overturned and collapsing. It was quite evident, then, how troublesome and hateful to the devil this holy beginning which the Lord had begun was, and that he saw it to be His work, since it was making progress and increase. Against the Discalced, and especially their superiors, this grave storm of false testimonies and slanders (because almost all the Fathers of the mitigated rule opposed themselves to them) raged. These, therefore, so impelled our Most Reverend Father General that, although he was a man of most upright life, and had himself given the faculty for all the convents to be founded (except the one at Ávila, which was the first; for it was erected with the assent of the Roman Pontiff), he resisted with every effort that more monasteries of the Discalced should be founded: for toward the monasteries of nuns he always remained well disposed. But because I was helping their affairs as I could, they began to be angry and indignant against me: which was certainly the greatest torment I suffered in these foundations, although there were very many other torments. For the most learned men, to whom I was then confessing, would not allow me to cease promoting and helping a work which I saw with my own eyes tended to the service of God and the increase of our Order: on the other hand, to oppose what I saw my superior wished seemed to me more grievous than death itself; for, besides that I was obliged to love him because he was my superior, I was moreover wonderfully attached to him on other grounds, and truly this was owed to him. But to confess the truth, although I wished most greatly to comply with him and gratify him in this, I could by no means do so, because I had apostolic visitors whom I had to obey.
[642] gives him a letter, by which she Let there come forth in this place, as an excellent commentary on the matters of which we are treating, that most beautiful letter which St. Teresa wrote to the Most Rev. Fr. Rubeo about a month after the general chapter had begun, namely on the 18th of June 1575. Jesus. The grace of the Holy Spirit be always with you. In the week just past I wrote to you at length; and indeed in two copies of the same letter, because I wished it to reach your hands. Yesterday, which was the 17th day of June, two letters of yours were delivered to me, truly most longed-for, one written in the month of October and the other in January. Although these were not written at the times I should have wished, they were certainly a solace to me, especially because I learned that you are enjoying good health; that God may prolong it for you all your daughters in these your houses pray unceasingly. Every day a special prayer is made for you in choir: about which all are very careful; since, as they know that you are most dear to me and recognize no other Father but you, they regard you with great love. Nor indeed is this to be wondered at, since we have no other good on earth: and since all are most content with their lot, they never fail to remember with a grateful heart that they owe their origin to you. I wrote to you about the Beas foundation; likewise that another had been requested by the people of Caravaca, for which a licence had been granted, not without inconveniences (here four lines are missing from the autograph).
[643] and her Discalced friars, and by name I also informed you for what reasons I came to found at Seville. May God grant that I see the affairs of our Discalced friars justly settled and no offence given you by them. I would have you know that I inquired much whether Beas was perhaps a town of Andalusia; for it was by no means my mind to go to that region (compare vol. IV, letter 63). And in truth Beas is not of the land of Andalusia, but of the province of Andalusia. Which for my part I did not know until the monastery had already been founded a month and more: at which time, since I already had nuns there, it did not seem to me that that house should be abandoned; and this partly because I had a mind to come here. But what I chiefly desire is what I have already written to you at other times, namely that you should understand the business of these Fathers of ours; whom, although they defend their own cause, and I know that they are your genuine sons and do not wish to offend you, I cannot however wholly free from blame. They seem now to understand how much better it would have been if they had gone another way, without offending you. We have contended much among ourselves, especially Mariano and I; who indeed is a very vigorous man, while Gracián on the contrary is like an Angel. Had the latter been alone, the matter would have been handled far otherwise: nor did he come here for any other reason than because Fr. Baltasar, at that time prior of Pastrana, had sent for him. This I do not fear to say, that if you knew the man, you would be full of joy at having such a son, as I understand him truly to be: which likewise I might rightly say of Mariano.
[644] Fr. Mariano Mariano is an upright man and given to penance, and known to all for the praise of his talent. Hold it for certain that he was moved by nothing else than zeal for the glory of God and for the prosperity of our Order: although, in my opinion at least, that zeal was immoderate and indiscreet. I do not think the man suffers from ambition, but that the demon, as you say, stirs these things up, and that many things are uttered by Mariano which seem to savour of ambition. Sometimes he has treated me very badly; but because I know his virtue thoroughly, I have borne it patiently. Nor is there any doubt that, if you heard him, he would win your favour for himself. He told me recently that he would not be quiet until he had thrown himself at your feet. For the rest, I have already written to you that I was asked by both that, since they did not dare, I should write a letter to you and excuse their faults before you: wherefore, so as not to be longer by repeating the same things, I shall say only those things which I think I ought to say.
[645] and Fr. Gracián, excuses to him; First, then, I beseech you by the love of our Lord, be persuaded that I would make nothing of the Discalced rather than allow them to touch even your garment. I am wholly of this mind, so that I would regard anyone who gave you any offence whatever as if he had injured the pupil of my eye. They have neither seen this letter nor will see it. I said only to Mariano that I knew, since they are obedient, that you would be merciful; but Gracián
is not here. If I saw them refuse your command, I should wish neither to see nor to hear them any more. But I can never be so much a daughter to you as they show themselves sons. I will say now what I feel: and if I speak foolishly, pardon me. About the excommunication, Gracián the courtier (understand Antonio Gracián, brother of Fr. Gracián) wrote thus to Mariano: that Fr. Ángel the provincial had told Fr. Gracián that he was not permitted to admit him into his house, because he was held by the bond of excommunication; wherefore Gracián went away to his father's house: but that the Nuncio, when he learned of the matter, having summoned Fr. Ángel to him, rebuked him strongly; saying that he could not bear that one should be called excommunicated who had gone there by his order: wherefore those who said such things were to be punished. Hence Gracián was soon received into the monastery, and is now living there and preaching at court.
[646] and the evil arts of certain Calced friars, These things, my Father and Lord, the present time does not bear. For Gracián's brother is secretary to the king and in great favour with him; nor is the king, as I at least have heard, averse to the Reform. Indeed the Calced themselves say that they cannot understand why you treat such upright men so badly: that they for their part would gladly deal with the Contemplatives, whose virtue they see, had you not stood in the way with that excommunication. That is to say, they report one thing to you, and declare another here. They go to the archbishop and profess that they do not dare to inflict penalties, because they will soon go to you. Strange men indeed are they. For my part, my Lord, I see both this and that, and God knows that I speak the truth when I think that the Discalced are and will be more obedient than all the others. You do not see there the things that are done here: but I see them and speak; since I know how holy you are and a lover of truth. Some have come to visit me; and by name the prior (who is a very good man) asked me what letters patent I have for founding monasteries. These I showed him indeed; but when he asked for a copy, I would not give it, lest it should one day come to lawsuits. For he saw that I could found; since by the letters patent which you sent me in the Latin tongue after the arrival of the visitors you grant me licence, as all learned men understand, to raise monasteries in any place whatever. For you except no house or kingdom, nor do you assign any limit; but you use the word "everywhere." Indeed there is added therein such a precept that I should have had to labour even more than I can, old and tired as I am. Although not even the fatigue which I underwent in the monastery of the Incarnation was grievous to me. Daily God bestows greater benefits on me, to whom be glory in all things.
[647] the things done by the visitors About the (Calced) Friars whom the Discalced admitted among their own, I spoke with Mariano. He told me that that Peñuela (concerning whom see no. 566) took the habit of the Discalced by fraud. That is, he came to Pastrana, saying that licence had been given by Vargas, the visitor of Andalusia; and that, this being known, they themselves clothed him in that habit. Now for some days there has been talk of dismissing that Father, and he will certainly be dismissed. The other, however (whom the Saint is pointing to here, I do not know), is no longer with the Discalced. As for the monasteries, these were erected by order of the visitor Vargas, by the apostolic authority he had. For in these lands they consider that the chief reform lies in founding houses of the Discalced: wherefore the Nuncio too, in accordance with his office of reformer, when he committed the office of visitor to Fr. Antonio of Jesus, granted him licence to found monasteries. Which nevertheless he would have done much more rightly if he had first asked you for it. Truly, if Teresa of Jesus had been present here, perhaps that business would have been looked into more attentively. For I was not so forward in daring as to have dealt with founding any house otherwise than with your good leave. In which matter Fr. Pedro Hernández, visitor of Castile, is to be praised, and has deserved so excellently of me, because he always took care not to commit anything against you. But on the contrary the visitor of Andalusia endowed those Fathers with so many licences and faculties and encouraged them to act, that, if you inspected them, you would judge those good men not very much to blame. They profess indeed that they never sought after Fr. Gaspar or his friendship, but on the contrary that they were asked by him with many entreaties; and they say that the same holds of others: and that the house which they had, long ago taken from the Order, has now been restored (see nos. 565 and 584). These and not a few other things they have by which to remove the blame from themselves: hence it seems to me that they did not manage the matter so very maliciously.
[648] and sets before his eyes the holy life of the Discalced. But when I consider within myself the immense labours which they have sustained and the penances to which they give themselves, whence it is clear to me that they are in truth servants of God, I cannot but grieve that they have fallen from your favour. Plainly they spend their life in the pursuit of virtues and divine things; and among those whom they have admitted there are more than twenty who have courses, or are called by I know not what other name (the vernacular phrase has: que tienen cursas o no se como los llaman who have courses, or I don't know what they call them; by which words the Saint seems to designate those who are running through the course of their studies), excelling in most holy conduct and good talent. Here (namely at Seville) and at Granada and at La Peñuela I seem to have heard that there are more than sixty. What can be done about all these, or what men will now judge, among whom there is everywhere a good opinion of the Discalced, I do not understand; unless perhaps we shall all be guilty in this matter. For they are both very much in favour with the king, and in the judgement of this archbishop (of Seville) they alone are genuine and true monks. Do not, therefore, I beg, will that they abandon the Reform at present. That thing, believe me, even if reason stands on your side in every respect, cannot turn out well. For neither do they wish to be withdrawn from your protection, nor will you do a just thing and one pleasing to the Lord if you do it. Commend, please, this business to the divine Majesty; and, like a true Father, forget the past. Remember that you are a servant of the Blessed Virgin, who would surely take it ill that those who spend their sweat on the increase of her Order should be deprived of your help. Our affairs are now in such a place that very much consideration is needed. I am your unworthy daughter and subject, Teresa of Jesus (vol. IV, letter 72).
[649] Rubeo, seriously intent on the reform of his Order You see how excusable Rubeo is; whom certain unfavourable reports, and those indeed not void of all foundation, drove to severity. Let us, however, look into the matter more deeply, both from this letter of St. Teresa and from the narrative I have given so far. Rubeo had, as the Discalced themselves freely confess, a sincere desire of recalling regular observance into his Order; and for accomplishing this very thing in deed he had employed remedies not altogether unsuitable. Thus at the very beginning of his generalate, in the year 1563, having asked a faculty of Pius IV, Supreme Pontiff, he had intended, for the due execution of the duty of his office, to go to the various provinces and monasteries of the Order, and to visit them diligently, and, if anything there was to be reformed and corrected, to reform and correct it (Bullarium Carmelitanum, volume 2, page 124). Thus in the same year he asked of the same Pontiff St. Charles Borromeo as protector for his Order, one who would certainly not be slothful and idle (ibid., page 126). Thus in the year 1571 from St. Pius V, and again in the year 1576 from Gregory XIII, he asked for and obtained the confirmation and enlargement of the power long ago granted by Clement VII to the Generals of the Carmelites for punishing some refractory persons (the words are the Pontiffs') who were straying from the right way and did not come to their senses from evil by admonitions and pious exhortations, but rather, despising them, were becoming more incorrigible day by day (ibid., pages 8, 167 and 188). Thus especially, on the testimony of Fr. Mariano Ventimiglia, in the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal, whither he had come as apostolic visitor in the year 1566, he visited the provinces, convoked chapters, reformed convents, laws and statutes being everywhere enacted and published, in order to recall his subjects to the primeval observance. Finally, there is no one of all the writers who have mentioned him by whom he is not commended most highly for the integrity of his religious life and his most holy conduct, joined moreover with the signal praise of learning. Most of these writers you have enumerated in the Bibliotheca Carmelitana (volume I, page 786) and in the Italian work Le sagre memorie di Ravenna antica, by Girolamo Fabri (page 198).
[650] and from the heart, As regards the Teresian Reform, Rubeo always approved it as far as the convents of virgins were concerned; as far as the convents of men, although (and not undeservedly, as it seems to me) he was more sparing in giving the faculty, yet he had long since permitted two to be founded (see no. 404), and would perhaps have permitted more, if the Discalced had always acted according to St. Teresa's mind, namely after consulting their General. For the rest, Rubeo had no intention of forcing the whole Order to the Teresian Reform, nor would it have been entirely open to him; since the mitigation of the Carmelite laws approved by Eugene IV was legitimate, as it still is, which it is not even permitted to call into doubt. The good General, therefore, wished, by a plan certainly praiseworthy, to reform the Friars subject to him in that manner which the general chapter of Venice, at the exhortation and with the approval of Clement VII, had sanctioned in the year 1524. The same thing, unless I am mistaken, the apostolic visitors Hernández and Vargas ought to have procured. And so thus far, as it seems to me, Rubeo is free of blame.
[651] but by Vargas and the Discalced Now that the visitor Hernández discharged his office with much moderation and without offending the General, the Saint herself testifies: for that he promoted the undertakings of the Castilian Discalced was not displeasing to the General, as he himself had consented to them. But Vargas, although I doubt nothing of either his right or his most pure intention, yet seems to me (by your good leave be it said), both when he called the Discalced into Andalusia and when he promoted their affairs there, sometimes not to have sufficiently consulted the laws of prudence, so as to give no one any offence or occasion of complaint. For what is this, that the Calced were forced to yield the convent of San Juan del Puerto to the Discalced? (no. 565). What again, that Fr. Gabriel de la Peñuela, having left his convent at Granada, assumed by fraud, on St. Teresa's own testimony, the habit of the Discalced? (no. 647). What thirdly, that Prince Ruy Gómez, interposing his authority, under colour of certain temporal affairs to be managed for him, the provincial
of Castile, Fr. Ángel de Salazar, was compelled to allow Fr. Baltasar of Jesus, long since invited into Andalusia by Vargas, to go to Granada, while meanwhile some other Discalced were secretly setting out there? (nos. 565 and 567). What fourthly, that likewise Ambrosio Mariano, on I know not what pretext, keeping silent his principal purpose and the name of the companion whom he wished to take, obtained from the same provincial licence to go away with Fr. Jerónimo Gracián into Andalusia; whence Vargas forbade them to obey when ordered by the provincial to return? (nos. 574 and 583). What fifthly, that Vargas substituted for himself as vicar Jerónimo Gracián, twenty-eight years of age, and only a few months professed in religious vows: wherefore some of the Calced Carmelites thought, on the testimony of Ribera (book 3, chapter IV), that their authority and name were not a little injured, in that they had got as visitor a young man not of their Institute and in a manner a novice in religion; especially since there were not lacking to them, as indeed there were not lacking, other Fathers notable for age and religion and uprightness of life, to whom these duties could have been committed with honour?
[652] thinking to have been injured These and other things, carried to Rome, not without exaggeration (as we may conjecture), by those shifty men whose double character the Saint depicted for us a little before (no. 646), drove Rubeo to ask the Roman Pontiff to will and order the faculties of the Spanish visitors to be annulled (as was said by us at no. 616). The Supreme Pontiff Gregory assented to the request, ill informed by a General ill informed. This will be, if you will, Rubeo's first crime; but there is no fair judge who will not hold with me that it is most worthy of absolution. But perhaps someone will say that Ormaneto restored their jurisdiction to the visitors (no. 617). So indeed: Ormaneto did it; and he did it well, because he had the power of doing it and because he judged before God that this power should be used for the greater good of Religion. But to the General, far distant from Spain, as Ormaneto's reasons were unknown, so the complaints of his Calced friars were loud in his ears: and however great the nuncio's power may have been, it is nevertheless established that Rubeo and the general chapter had in their hands apostolic letters of no ambiguous tenor, by virtue of which it seemed to them not without reason that they could enact rather severe decrees against their Discalced, as clearly appears from reading them.
[653] his dignity Monsieur Boucher, himself also a rather harsh judge of Fr. Rubeo, did not look into all these things attentively enough. I shall cite his words here, mixing in here and there my own observations, to be distinguished by the difference of the printed characters. However much, he says, the historians who have gone before me have tried to excuse Rubeo, I for my part cannot do the same. For they, since most of them were sons of the Order of Carmel, had for certain reasons to restrain their pen when they were speaking of their General; but we are forbidden to keep silent the truth both by the pursuit of historical sincerity and by the desire of laying open the virtue shown by St. Teresa in such arduous circumstances. As if indeed, if Fr. Rubeo were held blameless, anything would be taken away from the exceptional virtue of St. Teresa! Here, Boucher then says, is the whole truth, as it seems to me. Scarcely had he ascended the throne when King Philip II had set his mind on seeing to the restoration of regular observance in the religious Orders of his kingdoms. Wherefore he had obtained from Pius V that Fr. Rubeo should come into Spain. While this General was there, he had permitted, indeed enjoined, St. Teresa to found as many convents of nuns of her Reform as possible: indeed he had also agreed that two convents of men of the same observance should be made. And if afterwards the Discalced exceeded the limits set by Rubeo, they did so by the authority of Frs. Hernández and Vargas; whom the Supreme Pontiff, at the renewed request of the king, on account of the slight fruit of the visitation instituted by Rubeo, had created visitors of the Carmelite Order among the Spaniards. And these indeed, being fortified with apostolic power, were not bound to ask the consent of the General for making new foundations; and so by asking it they would have put their own authority in jeopardy, and given place to difficulties to be raised by Rubeo. Truly the visitors had no need of Rubeo's consent; but nevertheless it was to be wished, as St. Teresa greatly desired, that Vargas had had some regard for Rubeo and had conferred with him in a friendly way about Carmelite affairs. For what M. Boucher adds about difficulties to be raised by Rubeo has scarcely any foundation. Let us go on to render his words into Latin.
[654] and his authority, They could not indeed, he says, fail to permit foundations of this kind, both because this was very properly part of their office, and because the good odour of the Reformed Carmel, spread day by day through Andalusia and Castile, had created in those kingdoms the highest expectation of multiplying the Discalced. Besides, those new houses were not withdrawn from the command of the provincials of the Mitigated Carmel, much less of the General; but Teresa and her sons constantly cultivated confidence and deference toward them. Of St. Teresa this is certain; of her sons, however, the same cannot be said universally. That clandestine journey into Andalusia and other arts of that kind rather argue the contrary: nor do the chief Discalced, Mariano and Gracián, seem to have trusted the General much, who did not even dare to give him a letter.
[655] with good intention, And so, Boucher continues, when the complaints of his friars had been carried to Rome, Rubeo was permitted only to inquire whether the apostolic visitors were binding the Mitigated Carmel by stricter laws than had been provided by the decree of Eugene IV, or were forcing anyone to embrace the primitive rule. And if they exceeded in neither matter (did not Fr. Vargas seem to exceed in some measure?), he ought to have applauded their zeal and the effort spent in spreading the Reform, and to have placed the esteem of his name in obtaining from the Supreme Pontiff, as the Saint advised him (afterwards indeed, but not yet at this time), a special provincial for the Reformed, on this condition, that both Carmels should remain under one General. Resisting this plan, and striving to overthrow the Reform (which, namely, he did not know well), Rubeo drove the Nuncio, who knew well how profitable the Reform was to Religion and to the Order itself, to foster it with all his might and to commend it to the king. Thus far the French biographer of St. Teresa. Whether his opinion of Rubeo or mine is the fairer, let the shrewd reader weigh; and let him see whether I rightly assert with Palafox that both Rubeo and his Calced friars (excepting, however, those harsh accusers of their brethren) and the nuncio and visitors acted with good intention: while, namely, the fear that the Reform might not be from God moved the former to oppose it, the confidence with which they believed it to be the work of God animated the latter to protect it; and so, neither side sinning, both meriting, the Reform itself made progress and was established through the very contradictions (vol. I, letter 3, note 16).
[656] and so, without fault, at least without graver fault, he opposed them. Thus, namely, as Fr. Emmanuel of St. Thomas Aquinas wisely notes (vol. 3, page 173), dissensions arise among the just themselves, without fault on either side; or, if there be fault on the part of certain private persons, God alone, who is the searcher of intentions, can know of them and pass a certain judgement … These ways, namely, God employs for proving His servants, whom He wills to lead through patience and charity to the crown. And in controversies of this kind, he says, he is to me the most holy who suffers most and least judges his rival. On which subject we should also hear the most learned interpreter of the Holy Scriptures, Fr. Cornelius a Lapide; who, expounding these words of the Angel to the Prophet Daniel: But the prince of the kingdom of the Persians withstood me one and twenty days (Dan. X, 13), after he has shown how the Angels, although they love one another with the highest charity and are in the highest concord, yet in certain matters in which God has not yet made His will known can will things contrary to one another, not absolutely indeed and efficaciously, but conditionally: Morally, he adds, if among the Angels, indeed among the princes of the Angels, there are dissensions, what wonder that among holy men there should arise from time to time disagreements either of opinions or of wills, charity being safe on both sides? Thus the dissension that arose between Paul and Barnabas was the cause that the Gospel was preached to more nations (Acts V, 39). Thus St. Paul dissented from St. Peter (Gal. II, 11). Thus St. Cyprian from St. Stephen the Pontiff, St. Chrysostom from St. Epiphanius, St. Jerome from St. Augustine: whom nevertheless one charity joined, knit and bound together with God and with one another. Thus he. And finally, that you may see that by what I have discussed so far nothing is taken from the holiness of our St. Teresa, go to the Report on her virtues made by the auditors of the Sacred Rota; in which, among other things, there is celebrated with special praise the prudence with which she began the work of this new Reform of the Order of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel, having used mature consideration of the present and future things that could happen, foreseeing that there would be very many contradictions and contradictors under the appearance either of piety or of prudence: as indeed she found them, who opposed her strongly, though with good intention.
§ XXXVII. The visitation of the Andalusian province of the Carmelite Order, undertaken by Fr. Gracián at the order of the apostolic nuncio. The decree of the general chapter of Piacenza against St. Teresa: her letter to the Most Rev. Fr. Rubeo.
By the order of the apostolic nuncio Fr. Gracián, Meanwhile, while the general chapter of the Carmelites was being celebrated at Piacenza, Fr. Jerónimo Gracián, long since set over the province of Andalusia by the nuncio Ormaneto, as is clear from St. Teresa's letter written on the 11th of May 1575 to the bishop of Ávila (vol. IV, letter 7), coming to Madrid in the same month of May, set forth to the king and the nuncio, and also to the chief royal ministers, especially the archbishop of Toledo and the president of Castile, in what state the affairs of his order were in Andalusia. After this, a space of almost three months having been taken for deliberating (Fr. Gracián's youth, namely, caused hesitation), at length on the 3rd day of August Ormaneto, with the consent of the royal council, having found Gracián fit for managing affairs by his prudence, gentleness and learning, granted him the supreme power of visiting, reforming and chastising the Andalusian Calced: and set the same over all the Discalced of Castile and Andalusia, virgins as well as men, with the authority of provincial.
[658] of whom the Saint had written with praise to the king, To which matter the letter written by St. Teresa to King Philip on the 19th of July doubtless contributed not a little, in these words: Jesus. The grace of the Holy Spirit be always with your Majesty. As I was commending to the Lord with much solicitude the affairs of this Sacred Order of Blessed Mary the Virgin, and was considering how necessary it is that this work begun by God should not collapse, it occurred to me that there is no more effective remedy for our affairs than that your Majesty should understand well all that pertains to establishing this edifice. It is forty years that I have been in the Order
; and having looked into all things, I clearly recognize that, unless the Discalced are soon to have their own provincial, there will be great harm, nor can they continue thus. And since the power over this matter lies with you, whom I see given to our Order as patron by the Blessed Virgin, I have taken upon myself to ask this of your Majesty as a suppliant, through the love of our Lord and of the glorious Mother of God. Let your Majesty, therefore, order this thing to be done: for the devil leaves no stone unturned to upset it, although nothing evil is to be feared from it, but rather every good is to be hoped. And it will go excellently with us if in these beginnings of our work that office is committed to a Discalced Father whom they call Fr. Jerónimo Gracián, a man long known to me, young indeed, but endowed with such gifts and employed by God in such great works with much fruit that I believe him born for advancing this Order of ours. May our Lord so govern affairs that your Majesty may be willing to grant my petition, which looks to the divine service. And for that favour with which you honoured me, when you gave licence for founding the monastery of Caravaca, I kiss your Majesty's hands many times. For the love of God I beseech you to forgive me my boldness: which I now perceive to have been excessive; although I believe it will not be importunate, since the Lord, whose place you hold, hears the cry of the poor. May God grant your Majesty such quiet, and such a span of life, as I constantly ask of Him for you and as the affairs of the Christian faith require. I was writing on the 19th of July. Your Majesty's unworthy servant and subject, Teresa of Jesus. (Vol. II, letter 1.)
[659] among the Andalusian Calced, Gracián, then, made the beginning of carrying out his new offices with the visitation of the Teresian convents throughout Castile: in which, since he saw that there was not yet one form of living, as we have already read before (no. 582) from St. Teresa's narrative, he drew up constitutions to be observed in one and the same manner by all the Discalced Friars (which may be read in the Chronicle, book 3, chapter XLI). He spent about three months on that visitation, meanwhile informing the Carmelites of Andalusia that he would come there with the office of visitor. Some hope was shown that everything would turn out well, as is gathered from St. Teresa's letter to Gracián written on the 27th of September, at the beginning of which we read the following: Yesterday the Father Provincial of the Observants (Fr. Agustín Suárez) came here with a certain master: just now the Prior also came, and then another master; and the day before Fr. Gaspar Nieto had been here. I found all ready to obey you and to help you in what pertains to removing any sins whatever, provided they are not driven to extremes in other things. I promised them on your behalf that you would proceed gently, and said other things that seemed to me opportune. Their answer about the Nuncio's letters did not displease me. I hope in the Lord that everything will be done excellently. Fr. Elías is very quiet and well-disposed. For my part I believe, provided you begin without noise and gently, that much work will be accomplished, although not in one day. For in truth I judge that there are sensible men here: would that there were such there too! (Vol. III, letter 8).
[660] beginning with those of Seville, who rather unwillingly The affairs in Castile having been completed, in the month of November at length Gracián sets out with Fr. Antonio of Jesus into Andalusia; where he first of all visits the inmates of La Peñuela and presents them with the code of the new constitutions, according to which they should henceforth order their life, until that time too austere, after the manner of the other Discalced. From there he is carried to Seville, a most welcome guest to St. Teresa and her Discalced living there. Soon a consultation is entered upon about the manner of visiting. The holy Mother Teresa advises gentleness, as she had long since done by letter; but Mariano and others declare that severity must be used. Fr. Jerónimo Gracián adopts the latter plan; and appoints the 21st day of November, on which day he would betake himself to the convent of the Mitigated, to promulgate the Nuncio's letters. No sooner said than done. But behold, when Fr. Gracián arrived with Frs. Antonio and Bartolomé of Jesus, and the letters began to be read publicly, so great a commotion arises in the convent and so great an outcry that it was reported to St. Teresa that the monks were standing in arms, the gates had been barred, Gracián had been killed (consult Fr. Emmanuel, vol. III, page 215). On hearing these things she began to tremble so much that she could scarcely recite the divine Office. But the Lord restored peace to her mind, addressing her with these words, which she herself noted in a certain account: O woman of little faith, put away fear; the matter is going excellently. The author of the Chronicle says that the Saint, in memory of this event, ordained that the feast of the Presentation of the Mother of God, which falls on the 21st of November, should be kept with a more solemn rite in her monasteries. There are also those who assert, among whom is Fr. Federico of St. Anthony (book 2, chapter XXVII), that from this arose the custom, formerly observed by the Teresian nuns, of renewing their vows every year on that feast, as the Ven. Ana of St. Bartholomew indicates in Henríquez (book IV, chapter XII) in these words: On the day of the Presentation of our Lady, the vows having been made in chapter in imitation of our Saint, who left us such a usage, etc.: although afterwards those nuns took up the custom of the Friars of their Order, who renew their vows on the feasts of the Epiphany of the Lord and of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
[661] submit to him, To return to Fr. Gracián and the visitation begun by him at Seville, see how the author of the Chronicle further narrates the course of the matter: The bishop of Sodor (of whom at no. 556), not long returned from Rome, intervening in the disturbances, quieted the clamourers, setting before their eyes the harm to each one of them, the state of the matter, the fair counsel of the Nuncio, the justice of the king, the slight fruit of that anger against three men, when so many others had to be satisfied, the displeasure of the Prior General, the mind of the Supreme Pontiff, the anger of the people, who would believe more firmly whatever had been spread about so far, and finally the heavenly vengeance which they would provoke upon themselves, upon the convent, upon the province, upon the whole Order. Mariano, moreover, being soon informed of what was going on, ran to the archbishop and the assistant: and when these came to bring help, and the letters had been read again, only Fr. Juan Evangelista, the subprior, showed himself obedient. From there the news of the affair was carried to Madrid; from which Juan de Padilla, who was present to the Nuncio as a spur, sent out again and again more and more apostolic thunderbolts: until at length the Observants, cast down from the hope they had conceived, obediently admitted the visitation; and, though unwillingly at first, yet little by little gave ready ears to the reform, in which they persevere to this day with much praise.
[662] he institutes visitations. Having partly pacified them, then, the Father Visitor began to provide for the temporal and spiritual affairs of that house. He appointed the subprior vicar for the absent or sick prior. He opportunely committed certain offices to the Discalced. He saw to it that the decrees of the general chapters concerning reform were observed, and added certain new ones to them. He provided for the choir and for prayer. He set a measure to goings-out. He chastised public offences with gentleness, secret ones without disgrace. He ordered the novitiate, taking the care of the novices upon himself. He applied the young men to their studies, in order to turn them away from dissipation. He exhorted the older men to peace and concord. Then, turning his mind to the rest of the province, he sent away Fr. Agustín Suárez, provincial of Andalusia, to the convent of Osuna: at Exacena and at San Juan del Puerto he created new priors, Fr. Juan de Peñalosa and Fr. Juan de las Infantas; others likewise in other convents, wherever there was need of new shepherds. Then he sent our Antonio of Jesus with Fr. Juan de los Ríos to exact in his name the obedience of the whole province. Some, thinking that these things should be resisted, as things which seemed to them to tend to the harm and disgrace of their Order, persuaded Frs. Pedro de Cota, prior of Córdoba, and Luis de Navarrete, prior of Utrera, to go across to Rome, to ask of the Supreme Pontiff the rescinding of all the letters given to the visitor. Thus the author of the Chronicle (book 3, chapter XLIII, nos. 7, 8 and 10).
[663] Meanwhile to the holy Foundress, But before Gracián had begun this visitation (as is clear from vol. IV, letter 64, no. 2), there had been brought from Italy to St. Teresa, still intent on the Seville foundation and about to see shortly to making the Caravaca foundation, a decree by which the course of her foundations was interrupted for four years and more. Let us hear her speaking to her nuns of this decree, in chapter XXVII of the book of Foundations. You will have understood, she says, that these foundations were made not only with the assent of our Most Reverend Father General, but also afterwards at his order and command under precept of obedience. And not only this, but also, as often as some new seat and convent was erected, he wrote to me that he rejoiced exceedingly at this new erection. And truly, the greatest recreation I felt in all my labours was that I saw him rejoice so much at this: for I thought that by giving him this matter for rejoicing I was rendering some service to the Lord, because he was my superior: besides this, I loved him very much. But when I had completed the said foundations, founding ceased for a while, either because the Lord deigned to grant me some rest, or because it displeased the devil that so many seats in which service was rendered to the Lord were being founded here and there. But it was quite evident that it was not owing to the will of our Rev. Father General: for he, when I had asked him by letter not to command me the erection of new convents, had written back that he would by no means comply with me in that matter. For he wished as many to be founded as I had hairs on my head.
[664] the mind of the General Rubeo turned away from her Further, before I returned from Seville, there was enjoined upon me from a certain general chapter (in which it seemed right and fair that it should be approved and praised that some increase had been made to the Order) by its definitors, not only that I should erect no new seats henceforth, but also that out of all those already erected I should choose for myself one in which I should thenceforth live quietly, and not go out from there for any cause whatever. Which is certainly like a prison: for there is no religious whom the provincial cannot send from one place to another (that is, from one monastery to another) for things necessary to the good of the Order. But it was the more grievous to me that our Father General was now rather estranged in mind from me, though quite without cause and undeservedly; but ill-disposed and suspicious men had drawn him over to their side, whom he believed. Which certainly distressed me greatly.
[665] and the calumnies of enemies Besides, two testimonies against me, and that in matters of great moment, were then produced and forged. But that you may see the mercy of the Lord, dearest ones, and that His Majesty does not abandon
one who desires from the heart to serve Him, I tell you that I felt not only no grief from it, but even a very great and accidental joy; so much so that I no longer wonder that King David danced as he went before the ark of the Lord: for at that time I myself would have wished to do nothing else, for the greatness of the joy which I felt within me: for I did not know how to conceal and hide it. What the cause of this may be, I cannot know: for in other graver slanders and contradictions, in which I have at times been involved, I have not until now felt anything similar: and yet one of those calumnies which had been spread about me was grave and infamous enough. For the rest, that prohibition of founding anywhere henceforth (had not that indignation and displeasure of the Most Reverend Father General been added) brought me the greatest quiet, and was matter of tranquillity, and a thing which I myself very often desired, namely to be able to end my life in quiet: although those who procured this very thing by no means looked to or thought of this, but thought that in this way they were giving me such an affliction that none greater could be given; though perhaps they were moved to do this by some other good intention.
[666] bearing it most patiently, Sometimes too those very great slanders and contradictions which I experienced in carrying out those foundations refreshed me, of which some indeed proceeded from good intention, others had their origin from another cause. But certainly I do not remember having felt such joy from any labour and affliction as from this which I related a little before. For I must confess that even one of these three things which then assailed me together and jointly would at another time have been a more than sufficient cause of affliction to me. I believe indeed that my joy arose chiefly from this, that I thought that, while creatures were repaying me so badly, I was yet satisfying the Creator Himself. For I had learned that he who seeks joy and satisfaction from earthly things and the praises of men is greatly mistaken and deceived, to say nothing of the slight fruit that follows from it: for this pleases and delights them today, that tomorrow; and of whom they speak well today, they will afterwards speak ill. But Thou, my Lord and God, who art immutable, be Thou blessed for ever and ever. Whoever serves Thee faithfully to the end will live without end in eternity.
[667] the order is brought that she shut herself up in some convent. As soon as the aforesaid decree had been notified to St. Teresa by Fr. Ángel de Salazar, provincial of Castile, she resolved without hesitation to submit to it: and although she had heard that she was permitted by the Nuncio Ormaneto to go on founding monasteries, yet she wrote to María of St. John the Baptist, prioress of Valladolid, that, unless the Nuncio commanded otherwise, she would henceforth give her efforts to no foundation (vol. IV, letter 64). As regards the freedom of choosing the convent she wished to live in (and she chose that of Toledo the following year), she signified to the same prioress by another letter of the 30th of December that her first mind had been to withdraw to Valladolid, unless she were forced by Gracián's order to remain still at Seville. If it had been permitted, she says, I should already be living with you. For there has been enjoined on me a command of our Most Reverend Father, by which I am ordered to choose some house in which I am to remain permanently, foundations being wholly given up; because they say that by the Council of Trent nuns are forbidden to go out of their enclosures. Namely those adversaries of mine, to whom my coming was grievous, think they are inflicting signal penalties on me; although it is a greater pleasure to me than I should dare to hope. For my part I should wish to go to your convent for certain reasons, which it is not expedient to commit to a letter, besides this one, namely that you are there and that Father of mine (Domingo Báñez); but the Father Visitor, whose command is now greater than that of our Most Reverend, forbade me to set out from here: how this matter will turn out, I do not know. It would truly refresh me very much, if only I might rest from those troublesome tumults of reforms; but it has not so far pleased God. Meanwhile our Father (Gracián) promises me that next spring I shall be permitted to go away (vol. 3, letter 61).
[668] She writes again a letter to Rubeo, Then, having interposed some things about her brother Lorenzo, her brother-in-law Juan de Ovalle and others: As regards the affairs of the monastery of the Incarnation, she says, please write to Isabel of the Cross that I can be of more help to her here than there, and that I am in fact applying myself to it. If only God keeps the Supreme Pontiff, the King, the Nuncio and our Father safe for a year or two, I hope that everything will be provided for in the best way: but if it befalls any of them to die, it will be all over with us, as long as our Most Reverend stands in the same opinion as now; although God will meet our affairs from another quarter. At present I have it in mind to give a letter to our Most Reverend Father and to defer to him even more than before: for this I desire exceedingly and he deserves it. The things which I see him now doing on account of evil accusations vehemently trouble me. What those affairs of the monastery of the Incarnation were can be partly understood from these words of the Saint to Fr. Gracián, written on the 27th of September: Now I seemed to myself to have some charity. For however bitter your absence has been to me, I would yet bear it most willingly for a month more, provided you restore the monastery of the Incarnation. If, however, you leave Fr. John (namely St. John of the Cross) there as vicar, you will have finished the whole matter within the space of eight days. I know that those nuns, in these circumstances, although at first they make much outcry, yet, when they have seen a head, quickly give in. I pity them very much. And the Nuncio, by procuring this matter, would do a work than which nothing would be more excellent (vol. III, letter 8). But the same will be understood more clearly from the letter sent by the holy Mother to the General Rubeo at the beginning of the year 1576; which I shall now render into Latin.
[669] in which she begs of him pardon Jesus. The grace of the Holy Spirit be always with you. Amen. Since I came into this city of Seville, I have written to you three or four times. I have not done so more often, because the Fathers returned from the chapter told me that you would not be at Rome, because you had gone to visit the Mantuans. Thanks be to God that that matter turned out prosperously. In my previous letters I informed you that three monasteries have been founded this year: namely at Beas, at Caravaca and here. You have in them excellent handmaids of God subject to you. And the first two have revenues, but this third has not. Although I do not yet have a house of my own here, I hope nevertheless that with God's help it will come about. For the rest, since I am certain that some of my letters have come into your hands, I omit to recount one by one the things which I mentioned. Likewise I told you how greatly the conversation of these Discalced Fathers (namely Gracián and Mariano) differs from the reports which I have received from there. They are your true sons; and as regards the substance of things, I dare to say that none of those who most profess themselves your sons can snatch this praise from them. But since they used me as mediatrix to recover your favour (for they did not dare to write to you themselves), I begged pardon for them from you as earnestly as I could; which I now do again. For the love of our Lord, give them pardon, grant something to my intercession. For there is no reason why I should wish the truth to be hidden from you: indeed I think I cannot keep silent without offending God and you, a Father most dear to me: indeed even if that silence were not contrary to God, it would yet seem to me treacherous and malicious. When we stand before the Lord, you will see how much you owe to your true daughter Teresa of Jesus. By this hope I am sustained in these matters: for I understand that there will not be lacking those who report the contrary to you: yet I shall do as much as I can so that all may hear me speak thus, and that all who are not of an unfair mind may so understand me as long as I live.
[670] for Gracián I have already written to you before about the province which the Nuncio had committed to Fr. Gracián when he summoned him to himself. Since that time you will have heard that the same Father has been enjoined anew to visit the Discalced friars and nuns and the province of Andalusia. For my part I know most certainly, whatever others may say to the contrary, that Gracián refused this visitation of Andalusia with all the effort he could; and that in this matter, since it would bring nothing else than great troubles, he had his brother, the king's secretary, agreeing with him. But the thing having been done, if those Fathers had believed me, everything would have been transacted without injury to anyone, as befits among brothers. Certainly I did not allow my efforts to be wanting in these matters, both because it was right that I should consult well for Friars who had always deserved excellently of us since we came here, and because, as I wrote to you, I found men here excellent in talent and learning: would that there were such in our Castilian province! It is my wont to make, as we say, a virtue of necessity. Wherefore I should have wished that, when they prepared themselves to resist, they had considered to whose good it would be. On the other hand, however, I do not much wonder that they are wearied of so many visitations and novelties as we have seen during these years on account of our sins: may God grant that it be with some profit to us! For He shakes us strongly. Although today, since the visitor is from our own Order, not so much disgrace seems to follow from it; and for my part I hope, if you bring it about that they understand that Gracián stands well with you, that everything will be done happily. Gracián is writing to you, ardently desiring this favour of which I speak, and desiring nothing else than to please you and to be held your obedient son.
[671] and for Mariano Since these things are so, through the love of our Lord and of His glorious Mother, whom you love so much, and whom Fr. Gracián also loves so much that for her sake he joined this Order, I pray and beseech you to answer him kindly, and, forgetting past faults, to receive him as a son and subject, as he most truly is. It is the same also with that poor little Mariano, except that sometimes he does not understand himself; hence I should not wonder if he had written to you things far other than he has in his will. For he does not know how to declare his mind rightly; but he professes that he never had it in his mind to offend you either in word or in deed. And since the demon tries with all his might to twist things to his own purpose, it must be assigned to his wickedness if anything has been done less rightly by either of those Fathers, though neither intended it.
[672] she prays, But consider, I pray, that it is the part of sons to err, of fathers to forgive and not to regard errors. Again I beseech you by the love of our Lord, see for how many reasons it is fitting that this favour be done me by you. Those reasons perhaps you do not understand there as I do here. And although we poor women are little fit for giving counsels, yet sometimes we hit the nail on the head. It seems to me indeed that no harm can arise, but rather that much good will come of it, if you receive into favour those who, if they were present, would most gladly throw themselves at your feet (for God Himself does not refuse to give pardon), and if in this way it becomes known to all how pleasing it is to you that reform is procured by a son subject to you, whom you therefore forgive not without pleasure. If there were more to whom that office of reforming could be committed, I should think otherwise: but since, as appears, no one is distinguished by the same gifts as that Father (which I certainly know you too would say, if you saw the man), why should you not show that you take delight in such a subject? From which, namely, all may understand that, if this reform proceeds well, it is done by your efforts, your counsels and admonitions. And provided it is known that this matter pleases you, it will all be plain sailing. For my part I wished to write more on this subject. But I beseech our Lord to make you understand what is most fitting; for my words have long since accomplished nothing with you. I am indeed quite secure; for if I go astray in words, yet I do not go astray in will. Fr. Antonio of Jesus is here, nor could he act otherwise; although he too, just like those other Fathers, has begun to defend himself. He is writing a letter to you, perhaps to be more fortunate than mine, so that at length you may think about all these things which I say as is fitting. May the Lord accomplish all things, as He can and sees to be needful.
[673] and that to his order she will willingly, I have now learned of the command by which the general chapter forbade me to go out of my house. Fr. Ángel the provincial had sent it here to Fr. Ulloa with the instruction that he should notify it to me. But he, thinking that this matter would be troublesome to me (for those Fathers procured it for no other reason than to bring me trouble), was keeping the command with himself. For my part, since I had heard of it from elsewhere, a month and a little more ago I saw to it that it should be given to me. And I tell you most certainly, as far as I can understand my own affairs, that this would have been a great joy and pleasure to me if you yourself had sent me that command by letter; whence I should have perceived that this was enjoined on me by you because you had compassion on the great labours which I (equal only to suffering small ones) have sustained in these foundations; and so that the quiet granted me by you was not a penalty but a reward. But indeed, although I see that the command has reached me by a far different way, I rejoice greatly that I am at length permitted to rest at some time.
[674] as soon as she can, submit, she promises; Meanwhile, on account of my great love for you, however much I am refreshed in mind, I could not but take it ill that this matter was so dealt with in my regard, as if I were very disobedient, that Fr. Ángel could, before I knew anything of it, divulge it at court, thinking that I would be most bitterly affected by it. And so the same wrote to me that a remedy could be sought by me in the court of the Supreme Pontiff: as if indeed this matter would not be a great relief to me. For truly, even if this which you command me were most laborious, yet it would not even come into my mind to cease obeying: nor would I ever wish God to give me room to acquiesce in anything whatever contrary to your will. For I can say most truly, with God as witness, that if I ever received any relief in the labours, anxieties, hardships and murmurings sustained by me, I certainly received it from no other source than that I knew I was carrying out your will and pleasing you: which very thing I shall now attain by doing what you command. These things for my part I wished already to put into effect: but since the feast of the Nativity of the Lord was near and the road very long, it seemed otherwise to my directors, who judged, namely, that you would not wish to put my health in danger. Accordingly I still remain at Seville, although I have the purpose of setting out from here as soon as the winter is past: for I do not get on well enough with the Andalusian people. But I pray you earnestly that, to whatever place I may withdraw, you do not omit to write to me. For I fear, since I now have no business (which has truly befallen me most pleasingly), lest forgetfulness of me should henceforth take hold of you: which, however, will not be to be ascribed to my fault, since, even if you omit writing, I certainly shall not cease from sending letters to you for the sake of consoling myself.
[675] she complains of the words and deeds of her adversaries, In these lands no one ever understood or now understands that by the decrees of the Council and the apostolic letters power is taken away from superiors of sending nuns somewhere for the advantage and affairs of the Order, which may occur very many. For my part I do not say this on my own account (since I am useful for nothing; and I would most willingly spend my whole life not only in any convent whatever, where I may enjoy quiet and some leisure, but even, if only I understood that it pleased you, in prison), but so that you may have no scruple about the past. For even though letters patent were at my disposal, yet I never went anywhere to found (and it is clear that I could not go otherwise than for the cause of a foundation) without the written command or permission of a prelate. Thus through Fr. Ángel I was permitted to establish convents at Beas and Caravaca; and I came here by the order of Fr. Gracián, who meanwhile had the same power from the Nuncio as now, although he did not use it. Nevertheless Fr. Ángel charged me with the crime of apostasy and traduced me as excommunicated: may God pardon him. You know and are my witness how much I have always laboured to establish concord between you and him and have striven to please him in all things not contrary to the divine service. And yet not even so have I reconciled his favour to me. Truly he would do much better if he turned his anger on Valdemoro: who, being prior at Ávila, removed the Discalced Fathers (St. John of the Cross and Fr. Germán of St. Matthias) from the convent of the Incarnation, not without great scandal to the people; and has afflicted and disturbed in a pitiable manner the virgins of that convent, who live most holily to the praise of God. And these indeed, as has been written to me, ascribe the fault to themselves in order to remove it from the prior. But I have now heard that the Discalced have returned there and that it has been forbidden by the Nuncio that anyone else of the Carmelite Order should hear their Confessions. I have grieved vehemently at the abandonment of those nuns; who receive nothing from those men but bread, while on the other hand they are so tormented that I cannot but pity them exceedingly.
[676] and professes a mind well inclined toward Rubeo. May God bring a remedy to all these evils, and keep you safe for us for very many years. I heard today that the General of the Dominicans is to come here. Would that God would do me that favour, that it might happen that you came too! But on the other hand that labour of yours would cause me too much anxiety; and therefore this pleasure must be put off by me to that eternity which has no end, where at length you will see what you owe me. May God through His mercy grant that I may merit that happiness. I commend myself very earnestly to those Reverend Fathers of mine, your companions, that they may be mindful of me in their prayers. These your subjects and daughters beseech you to impart your blessing to them: which I too ask of you for myself. Seville, etc. (Vol. I, letter 13).
§ XXXVIII. At Caravaca the twelfth monastery of Teresian virgins is begun, the Saint not being present. She herself at Seville provides a new house for her nuns.
The Caravaca foundation, St. Teresa's letter to the Most Rev. Fr. Rubeo, with which we closed the preceding paragraph, was written, as is clear from its very subject matter, at the beginning of the year 1576; namely after the virgins of the Reformed Carmel had entered into possession of the convent of Caravaca. Caravaca is a town of the ancient kingdom of Murcia, very well known to the Christian world on account of the miraculous Cross, concerning which our Papebroch, illustrating the Life of St. Ferdinand the king, published a special dissertation (volume VII of May, page 392 and following). The foundation made there in her name and by her command while she was absent St. Teresa describes in this manner in chapter XXVII: While I was living at St. Joseph's in Ávila, just about to go away to carry out the Beas foundation, which has already been described above, so much so indeed that only our little bundles had to be made ready, on which the things necessary for the journey were to be loaded, there came to me a messenger sent from Caravaca for this sole cause, with letters of a certain lady surnamed Catalina, in which she informed me that three respectable maidens, after they had heard the sermon of a certain Father of the Society of Jesus, had withdrawn into her house, and had resolved not to go out of it before a monastery was founded in that town. I believe they had so treated and settled this with that lady; for she was the one who helped them most in carrying out this foundation. These were born of the leading nobles of that town. One had as father Rodrigo de Moya, a distinguished servant of God, and a man of the highest prudence. Together among themselves they had as much means as was enough for beginning such a work. They knew moreover what the Lord had done in the foundations of these monasteries; for the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, who were always a help and support to this matter as far as they could, had declared these things to them.
[678] which had been put off for some time, But when I saw the pious desire and fervour of these maidens, and that they were seeking the Order of the Blessed Virgin from so far away, I was moved by a great feeling of piety toward them, and resolved to comply with their good purpose. And having learned that the place was not far distant from Beas, I took more nuns than usual with me there. For, as far as appeared from the letters, I did not doubt that we should easily come to agreement among ourselves. Hence I resolved, once the Beas foundation was established, to betake myself there as soon as possible. But since the Lord had decreed to do otherwise, all my purposes and decisions helped little: for, as has already been said before in the Seville foundation, the very licence of the council of the commanders was not given in good time; and therefore, while it was being obtained, the matter (although I had fully decided to betake myself there) was interrupted. It must be confessed, however, that when I was at Beas inquiring about the situation of that town, and understood that it was rather remote, and that the road for those setting out from here to there was so difficult
that the prelates and superiors who went to visit the nuns would have to undergo great trouble in setting out (which would doubtless displease them), I was not sufficiently inclined in mind to begin this foundation.
[679] at length, Julián de Ávila and Antonio Gaitán Since, however, I had given good hope to those people of Caravaca, I asked Fr. Julián de Ávila and Antonio Gaitán to betake themselves there, to see how matters stood, and, if it so seemed good to them, to dissolve what had been begun. When they had come to Caravaca, they found the matter almost despaired of and laid aside, not indeed on the part of those who were to be nuns, but on the part of Doña Catalina, on whom alone, however, the whole matter depended, and who was keeping them in a certain part of her house, set apart from others, as if they were already living in a religious enclosure. The religious themselves, however, were so constant in their purpose, and especially two (those, I mean, who were in fact to be nuns), that they drew Fr. Julián de Ávila and Antonio Gaitán so far over to their side that, before these withdrew from there, they drew up the deeds and instruments of foundation and, these having been drawn up, returned to me, leaving those maidens fully content and filled with joy: and they themselves had been wonderfully pleased with the goodness both of these and of the soil and the town, so that they could not sufficiently proclaim and praise it; but they also made much of the difficulty of the road.
[680] contributing their efforts, When I saw that the deeds of agreement had been drawn up, but that the faculty of the commanders itself was being put off longer than was fair, I sent the good Antonio Gaitán there again, both because he willingly undertook every difficulty and labour for my sake, and because he and his companion had the matter at heart, so that the foundation might be brought to the desired outcome and completed: wherefore this foundation ought to be ascribed and attributed to these alone: for if they had not betaken themselves there and come to agreement with the founders, I should certainly have taken little trouble about it. I told him, then, to go away there, and to install the turn and the grilles in the house in which possession was to be entered upon and in which the nuns were to stay, until they should find a house of their own and convenient. For this reason he stayed there many days: for he was arranging all these things for some days in the house of Rodrigo de Moya (who, as I have already said, was the father of one of these girls), since he had willingly given us part of his house for this use.
[681] When, however, the faculty had now been sent, and I was now and, the obstacles being removed by the king's intervention, on the point of going away there, I learned that among other things this condition had been added, that the house should be subject to the commanders, and that the nuns should render obedience to them: to which I could by no means consent, because that Order was of the Carmelites and therefore of the Blessed Virgin Mother of God. Hence a new petition was needed: for in this and the Beas foundation it could not be done and settled otherwise. But our king, who at present is Philip II, granted me this favour, that, when I had written to him, he ordered that what I asked should be granted me: so eager, namely, is he to gratify and favour religious, those, I mean, who follow and exactly keep the rule of their profession. For having learned what our manner of life was in these monasteries, and that the primitive rule was kept in them, he has shown himself favourable to us in all things and everywhere. Wherefore I ask you again and again, dearest ones, that prayer may always be made in a particular manner for his Majesty, as it is now made among us.
[682] by the authority of Fr. Gracián While a mission was being sent anew to the court to obtain the faculty, I, at the order of the Father commissary (who was then, as he is now, Fr. Jerónimo Gracián of the Mother of God, as I related before), set out for Seville: whence those poor maidens remained shut in until the first day of the following year: and when they first wrote to me at Ávila, it was the month of February. The faculty, indeed, was not long delayed; but because I was far distant and oppressed by various ills, I could not then help them; although I pitied their lot, because they often wrote to me, and kept setting forth their forlorn state. Hence I thought it wrong to frustrate their wishes and expectation any longer. But because it seemed impossible for me to go away there, both because the place was so remote, and because the foundation in which I was engaged was not yet fully completed, Fr. Jerónimo Gracián, the visitor, therefore determined that at least the nuns who were to lay the beginnings of the foundation should betake themselves there, although I should not be present, from the house of Malagón, in which they had meanwhile remained. I arranged that she should be set over them who I believed would discharge her office best (for she is much better than I): wherefore, having taken with them everything necessary, they set out on the road with two Discalced Fathers of our Order; for Fr. Julián de Ávila and Antonio Gaitán had some days before returned to their own homes: and because the place was very remote and the season quite unseasonable (namely the end of December), I did not wish to summon them.
[683] and by the prescription of the absent Teresa For Ana of St. Albert, going away to Caravaca, destined as prioress of that monastery, St. Teresa wrote the following instruction or memorandum concerning the things to be observed for the foundation: 1. As soon as you arrive there, shut yourself in the house, and do not allow anyone to enter; but let whoever wishes to converse, while the grilles are being put up, do so either in the place where the grilles are to be put or through the turn: and you will see to it that the grilles are soon set in order. 2. It is necessary that, before Mass is celebrated or possession of the house is taken, you have the bell hung, and show to some learned man the deeds drawn up by those ladies, by which a revenue is assigned to the house, and the letters patent by which it may be established that this is done by you by the authority of the Most Rev. Fr. General: by which authority, and also by the power granted you by me, you are to admit the house without any burden or obligation of exaction or of anything else; since it has been so confirmed in writing. This deed having been made, which our vicar Fr. Ambrosio will see whether it is rightly composed, and it having been signed by you and those ladies, the Most Holy Sacrament may be brought in there. 3. It must also be noted that the licence of his royal Majesty is to be appended to the deed: about the bishop's licence I do not think we need treat any further. The bell is to be rung for Mass for entering into possession; nor is the blessing of the church necessary, since it is not our own. 4. Possession having been taken, those maidens may take our habit whenever they please. Teresa of Jesus. This memorandum may be read in Spanish in volume IV of the letters of St. Teresa (fragment LXXXII). There also pertains to the Caravaca foundation the letter which the Saint gave from Seville on the 19th of February 1576 (vol. III, letter 47) to Rodrigo de Moya, already praised by her above (no. 677), in whose house Ana of St. Albert had lived with her companions from the 18th day of December until the Kalends of January, as Ribera testifies (book III, chapter IV).
[684] is completed on the Kalends of January 1576. In a very few words after this the Saint concludes the narrative of this foundation, and glides from it into a most beautiful digression on the religious life and the labours she had endured; which I have thought it wrong to suppress, the more so because it contains some historical matter. Thus, then, she goes on to speak: When the nuns arrived at Caravaca, they were received with great applause of the whole people and the highest joy of those maidens who had been so shut in. The monastery, moreover, was founded and the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar brought in on the first day of the year 1576. On that very same day two of them took the religious habit; but the third, because she was especially melancholic and could scarcely bear enclosure, much less such great austerity of life and penance, wished to return to her father's house with a certain sister of hers.
[685] The Saint exhorts her nuns See, dearest ones, the judgements of God, and how much we are bound to serve Him, we to whom He has granted to persevere until we made our profession, and to remain continually in the house of the Lord as true daughters of the Blessed Virgin. It is certainly wonderful that His Majesty willed to use the will and means of that maiden for the foundation of this monastery, and that at the very time when she was about to obtain the thing she had so greatly desired, strength and courage failed her, and she allowed herself to be overcome by the melancholic humour, to which we not seldom impute every imperfection and the blame of our changeableness. Would that the divine Majesty might give us His grace most abundantly! For through it it will come about that nothing hinders us from always advancing in His service. Moreover, may He protect all of us, as many as we are, lest so good and illustrious a beginning should perish through our sloth and idleness, just as He has deigned to bring it about that it should have its beginning and origin from wretched little women such as we are. Wherefore in His name I ask you, my sisters and daughters, to beg this grace of Him again and again, and let each of those who are to come after be persuaded that in her the primitive and reformed rule of the Order of the Blessed Virgin begins anew and flourishes again; and let her by no means consent to any mitigation being introduced. Consider too that even the least things open the entrance and door to the greatest, and that, without your knowing it, the world will creep in.
[686] that to God, most kind toward them, Remember that what you now enjoy quietly and peacefully was brought to its perfect outcome through poverty and labours; and, if you observe rightly, you will see that the greatest part of these houses has been founded and established not so much by men as by the mighty hand of God: and His Majesty rejoices to advance those works which He Himself does, unless we on our part are a hindrance. For from where do you think a poor woman such as I am would have had the strength and vigour for accomplishing such great works? For I depended on another's hand and power, and had not even a farthing, nor anyone to bring me any help. For that brother of mine who was a help in the Seville foundation, and who had some means and also the courage and good will to help to some extent, was then in the Indies. See, dearest ones, the right hand of the Most High. Was any honour perhaps attributed to me because I was born of noble stock? From whatever side you will look at the matter, you will find that it is His work. Wherefore it is wrong for us to diminish it even in the least, even for the gain of life, honour and our quiet, and that the more because we have all these things here together and at once. For it is life to live in such a way that we by no means fear death or any chances of this life, but show the same serenity and gladness of mind in all things, such as
all of you, as many as you are, now have, and also to enjoy that prosperity and abundance than which none greater can be had, which is not to shrink from poverty, but rather to desire it.
[687] they devote themselves wholly, To what thing shall I liken the interior and at the same time exterior peace which you always have? It is moreover in your hand to live and die with it, as we have seen those die who until now have died in these monasteries. For if you always ask God to prolong and increase this very thing further, and have no confidence in yourselves, He will not deny you His mercy, provided you always place your hope and confidence in Him, and show yourselves generous and courageous; for this is most pleasing to His Majesty. Do not fear that anything will be lacking to you, and never reject those who ask to be admitted into the Order (provided their desires and natural talents please you), if perhaps the necessary means for this are lacking to them, provided their intention is to serve the Lord here with greater perfection; nor even if they lack the goods of fortune, provided they are furnished with the interior goods of the soul: for by another way the Lord will repay you twofold what you shall need on this account.
[688] and to His glory in admitting poor and rich alike I myself have great experience of this matter. For His Majesty knows that, as far as I remember, I never failed to receive any into the Order for lack of this thing. The very many who have been admitted solely out of regard for God Himself and for His cause can testify to it, as you yourselves are not unaware. And certainly I can assert to you in truth that I was not accustomed to feel so much joy in my soul when I admitted some wealthy woman as when I admitted those who are received solely for the love of God: indeed the richer always made me fearful; but the poor ones enlarged my spirit and heart, and their admission filled me with such joy that tears burst forth from me for jubilation of mind. This is most true. If, then, when houses had either to be bought or restored, the Lord helped us so faithfully, why will He not do the same, now that we have where to live and dwell? Believe me, daughters, you would suffer loss through that by which you thought you would make gain. But when one who asks to be admitted has means and goods, and yet no other obligations and debts, if she wishes to leave these goods to others who perhaps will not need them, it would surely be more advisable that she give them to you as alms: for if she does otherwise, I feel it to be a sign of little affection toward you. Always propose to her who asks to be admitted that she dispose of the means she has and do what learned men judge to pertain to the greater glory of God. For it would be an evil if we were to ask means of one who is admitted for any other end and aim than that which I have said. For we gain far more by her doing what she owes to her God (with greater perfection, I say) than by all the means she can bring with her; since we look to nothing else (nor may God permit us to look to anything else) than that service be rendered to His Majesty in all things and through all things.
[689] look solely; And although I myself am unfit and wretched, yet, both for His honour and glory, and also that you may rejoice, reflecting on how these houses of His were founded, I say that I would never have done, nor have done, anything in the business of these foundations, nor in any matter whatever that occurred to me in any way on their occasion (even though I could have founded none at all except by deviating even a little from this intention), which I knew to be even in the least contrary to the will of God or not in every respect in agreement with it, according to what my confessors advised; who, since I have been doing these things, have always been very learned men and excellent servants of God: and, as far as I remember, nothing else ever came into my mind, nor did I have any other intention.
[690] and certain few things about herself Perhaps I am mistaken, and have truly committed many things of which I am ignorant, and my imperfections will be infinite. This the Lord knows, who is the most truthful and most just judge; and therefore I say nothing more of myself than I have been able to know and recognize. I see moreover most evidently that this did not proceed from me, but from the fact that God willed this work to be done. Because, then, it was His work, He was therefore present to me and granted me this grace. For this is why I relate it, dearest ones, that you may know that your obligation toward Him is so much the greater, and may know that the things which have been done until now have been done without injury, harm or prejudice to anyone. Blessed be He who did all these things, and stirred up the charity and good will of the men who were a help to us. May His Majesty deign always to protect us, and at the same time to give us grace, so that after so many favours received we may not show ourselves ungrateful. Amen.
[691] and her labours, both bodily You have now seen, dearest ones, that I have suffered some difficulties and vexations (although I believe those which I have written are the least; for if they were to be told one by one and in detail, the thing would be of infinite labour and weariness), both on the roads and journeys, and in waters, snows, straying from the road, and above all that I was often of such infirm health that sometimes (I know not whether I have not related this already; for it happened on the first day of the journey, when we were going from Malagón to Beas) I was burning with fever, and was oppressed by so many ills at once that, considering the length of the road by which I had to go, and seeing myself in such a state, I remembered our Father Elijah fleeing from Jezebel, and said: "How shall I be able to bear this, Lord? It is for Thee to look to it." And truly His Majesty, seeing me so weak and infirm, suddenly freed me from the fever and from all the ills, which were extreme: whence afterwards I came to the thought of ascribing that healing of mine to the entrance of a certain priest, a distinguished servant of God; and perhaps I was not mistaken in this. But to whatever cause that healing is finally to be ascribed, at least the ill itself, both interior and exterior, left me suddenly and in a moment. My health being restored, then, I bore the bodily labours with an even mind.
[692] and spiritual, she adds. Moreover, in bearing the dispositions of many and various people (which certainly occurred and was necessary in almost every place) I had to undergo not a little labour. Besides, in leaving my daughters and sisters, when I had to set out from one place to another, I assure you that I felt a great enough cross and trouble (because I embrace them with a certain singular love); especially when I thought that I should not see them any more, and beheld their great grief and tears. For although they are far removed from the love of other things, yet the Lord did not wish to take away from them their affection toward me, perhaps so that I might thus have greater matter for suffering, because I love them exceedingly, although I tried as much as I could to hide this love from them, so that they should not recognize it. Hence I sometimes chided and reproved them, although I profited little by this: for the love with which they regard me is great, and, as can be seen from very many things, true and sincere.
[693] The falsity of the crimes imputed to St. Teresa From the Caravaca foundation we are called back to Seville by the calumnies against the holy Foundress and her nuns which began to be spread at the beginning of the year 1576; which Ribera mentions, book III, chapter III, alleging a letter written by the Saint on the 29th of April to the prioress of Valladolid (vol. I, letter 47). In this place let us hear María of St. Joseph, prioress of Seville, narrating something about the same matter in a certain little commentary (whose title is: A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me). At that time, she says, there entered our monastery a certain great beata; who, soon impatient of our life, left the enclosure secretly from us with the help and counsel of certain priests, whom our Saint had permitted to hear her Confessions in order to console her. And so that the poor wretch might excuse her going out, she accused us before the Inquisitors as entangled in the errors of the Illuminati. Among other things she said that our nuns approached the Eucharistic table with uncovered face: namely that there was one veil for all, and this only for the sake of ceremony, with which each covered her head while she received the Body of Christ. Now, until the house was accommodated to our uses, the place where Holy Communion was customarily made by us was situated in a peristyle open to the heat of the sun: wherefore, for the sake of avoiding the light and recollecting the mind, we each sat, as far as could be done, with our face turned toward the wall. Which that calumniatress turned in so bad a sense, adding very many lies and testimonies against our holy Mother, that one of the Inquisitors came to examine the matter. But the falsity of the accusations having been detected, that matter was at once suppressed; although we were strangers and meanwhile the sect of the Illuminati was raging. Soon, however, other troubles followed; which indeed were so great that the Saint, preparing the departure enjoined on her by the General, declared to me that she had never suffered greater since the time of the Ávila foundation. And when I said that Teresa ought not to set out in these circumstances: for an inquiry was just now being instituted concerning our affairs by the Sacred Tribunal; by which, if perhaps it should be ordered that she be taken, and she were no longer to be found at Seville, what then would happen? when, I say, I objected this to her, the Saint said: "You judge rightly, daughter; and it is the will of God that I remain here still." Afterwards too she once said to me: "How much you consoled me, daughter, when you said that I would be taken to the Inquisition!" Thus roughly María of St. Joseph in Fr. Emmanuel of St. Thomas (vol. III, pages 215 and 216).
[694] the Inquisitors of Seville acknowledge. Other things pertaining to the same Yepes relates in this manner (book II, chapter XXVII): When one day Fr. Jerónimo of the Mother of God went to visit the Saint, he saw in the square not a few horses and mules of the Inquisitors and of the ministers of the Holy Tribunal, who had entered the monastery for the sake of examination. Meanwhile there stood in a certain corner a priest (namely that accuser of whom Ribera speaks at the place cited), waiting for the nuns to be led from their house to prison. The holy Mother received Fr. Jerónimo, not a little dismayed and disturbed by that spectacle, with the most joyful mind and countenance, showing hope that some occasion of bearing ignominy would be given her: since hardships and reproaches, as long as she was conscious of no
fault, she held among her greatest and sweetest delights. But seeing the good Father's sorrow and fear, she bade him be of good heart: namely that God, to whom the reputation of His handmaids was a care, would not permit it to be stained or injured; that whatever the adversaries contrived for darkening the truth would all be in vain: for the Lord had long since told her this in prayer. The event confirmed the Saint's words. For the inquisitors of the Faith, having learned what the matter was, first punished the accuser severely: then, so that they might be more certain of the spirit and manner of prayer of the holy Mother, they committed the business to Fr. Rodrigo Álvarez, a priest of the Society of Jesus, most expert in divine things; who, when he had approved the account of her life written for him by the Saint (which is in vol. I, letter 19) and had presented it to the Holy Inquisition, the whole storm was dissipated, not without great praise of Teresa and her nuns. The account which Yepes mentions here Ribera transcribed almost entire, book IV, chapter IV.
[695] The Saint, his sister, The holy Foundress, having gone through labours of every kind which I have mentioned so far, was at length permitted in the springtime, as is clear from a letter written on the 9th of May to Fr. Mariano, then living at Madrid (vol. III, letter 33), to buy a well-ordered house, and on the 3rd of June to lead her nuns there; as she herself narrates in chapter XXV of the book of Foundations in these words: Scarcely would anyone believe that in a city so abundant and having so many wealthy inhabitants as Seville is, there was less occasion and opportunity of founding a monastery than in all the towns in which I had been until then: indeed opportunity for this seemed so lacking here that I sometimes thought within myself that it was not to our advantage to have a convent in this city. I do not know, however, whether this is to be ascribed to the climate: for I have sometimes heard it said that the devils are more powerful here for tempting than elsewhere, God giving them this power: whence too they seem to have attacked me sharply here; for never, as long as I have lived, have I seen myself so faint-hearted and timorous as I found I was there: so that I scarcely knew myself. The confidence which I am accustomed to have in the Lord did not indeed forsake me: but my nature was so different from what I used to have, since I involved myself in dealing with the Seville convent, that I understood well enough that the Lord had partly withdrawn His hand, namely so that He might remain who He is, and I might see that, if I ever had any courage, I did not have it from myself.
[696] anxious about buying a house at Seville, When, therefore, from the time I mentioned, I had remained there almost until the beginning of Lent, there was nevertheless no mention made either of a house to be bought, or of money to be had with which to buy it; indeed not even hope shone of finding someone to stand surety for us, as we had had in other towns. For those who had seriously promised the Father commissary that they would enter the Order, and had therefore most earnestly asked him to bring some nuns here, on seeing the rigour of the rule, and judging themselves unequal to bearing it, were falling away; so that only one, of whom I shall speak afterwards, entered. Now the time was pressing at which I was shortly to be ordered to leave Andalusia, because other weighty affairs were calling me elsewhere. It was truly very troublesome to me to leave the nuns there without a fixed house, although I saw that I could do nothing at all in this matter, because the grace which the Lord grants me in other parts, namely that I have someone to help me in these works, was failing me here.
[697] Lorenzo de Cepeda helps: It pleased God, however, that in those days a certain brother of mine, called Lorenzo de Cepeda, who had lived thirty-four years in the Indies, returned from there: to whom it seemed far more unworthy and grievous than to me that the nuns had no house of their own. He, then, was signally at our service, especially in procuring and acquiring the house in which we now live: although I too was then urging this matter diligently and fervently with the Lord, beseeching Him not to let me go away from here while the nuns did not yet have a house; indeed I enjoined these very nuns to commend the same business to Him in their prayers, and also to Blessed Joseph. Besides, we endeavoured to render the Most Blessed Virgin Mother favourable to us by frequent prayers and supplications. Encouraged, then, by these supports and by confidence, and also because I saw that my brother had our affair at heart, I began to treat about buying certain houses; but when the whole matter was already almost concluded and the purchase almost agreed upon, at once in a moment it would collapse completely.
[698] and, with God's help, for her One day, then, when I was dealing with the Lord about this business in prayer, and asking that, since they were His brides and strove in every way to please Him as much as possible, He would provide them with a house, it was said to me: "I have already heard you: commit the care of the matter to Me." By these words I was raised up and fully gladdened, because I seemed already to have the house in my hands. And truly so it came about. His Majesty prevented us from buying a certain one which was indeed to everyone's taste (because it was situated in an excellent place), but was so ruinous and so badly built that only its bare site would have been bought, and that indeed for not much less than the house that was bought, in which they now live. Already the whole agreement had been made and the price settled between the parties, so that nothing else remained to be done than to draw up the deeds of purchase. I was not so very inclined to this, because this house did not seem at all to agree with those last words which I had heard in prayer: for these (as far as I gathered) denoted and promised that a good house would be given us. Hence the Lord disposed that he who had sold it to us, though to his own signal advantage, should nevertheless of himself put some obstacle in the way, so that the deeds should not be made at the time we had stipulated. And so without any fault of ours we were permitted to renounce the agreement and purchase. Which was certainly no contemptible grace of the Lord: for throughout the whole life of the nuns who were then living there, they would have had to labour at fitting up that house; which would certainly have been very troublesome to them: besides, the necessary money was lacking to them.
[699] provides a suitable house. Much help was contributed to this by a certain distinguished servant of God, who almost from the very beginning when we first arrived here, having learned that we lacked someone to celebrate Mass for us, used to come daily to celebrate it with us, although his dwelling was far distant from ours, and the daytime heat rather violent. His name is García Álvarez, a man of most upright life and held in great esteem by all, on account of the various good works to which he devotes himself wholly: who, had he abounded in fortune, nothing at all would have been lacking to us. He, then, because he knew the house, said that we would be acting foolishly if we paid so much money for it. And he kept throwing this very thing at us daily, warning us in a friendly way to turn our minds entirely from buying it. Therefore my brother and he looked at that house in which we are at present living: which so pleased them (and not undeservedly, since the Lord too willed it) that within two or three days the very deeds were drawn up.
[700] This the nuns at first secretly But no little labour was spent in order that we might move into it: for the one who was living in it was unwilling to go out from there so soon; besides, the Friars Minor (because they lived in the neighbourhood) at once began to press that we should by no means move into it, so much so that, had not the instruments and deeds of purchase been so firmly drawn up, I should have praised God exceedingly if they could have been dissolved and made void: for I saw that we were obliged to pay six thousand gold pieces (for so much the house itself had cost), and yet could not take possession of it. But the prioress was not of that opinion, but praised the Lord because the contract could not be made void: for the divine Majesty gave her more faith and courage in this acquisition of the house than me; and I should believe that she has the same courage in every other matter, because she is much better than I. We remained in these straits more than a month; but at length it seemed good to God that the prioress, I and two other nuns should move into it silently by night, so that the aforesaid Friars should learn nothing of these things before possession had been entered upon. This, however, we did not without fear; for those who went with us said that whatever shadows they saw during the night seemed to them to be friars.
[701] enter upon: As soon as day dawned, the good priest García Álvarez (who had been one of the night companions) celebrated the first Mass in it. And so at length we ceased to fear. But how many fears of this kind, good Jesus, have I undergone in taking possession! Wherefore I very often ponder within myself, if, when I was going away not to do evil but to render service to the Lord, so great a fear seized me, what fear those must have who purpose to do evil, which tends to the injury of God and neighbour. What gain and advantage they can expect from it, or what pleasure they can draw from bringing so heavy a weight upon their own heads, I do not know. My brother happened not to be present there at the time: for he had withdrawn for a while on account of some error in the deeds of agreement committed through excessive haste in the matter; whence too great harm was threatening the monastery: and because he had stood surety in our name, they were therefore seeking him, in order to hand him over to custody, which certainly would have afflicted us exceedingly, because he was a stranger and foreigner; as indeed we grieved that he bore troubles so long, until he had given some pledge to the sellers for their security. From then on, however, the matter began to be carried out better; although for some time lawsuits were not lacking to us, so that the merit might be greater.
[702] then, Fr. Pantoja the Carthusian Meanwhile we were shut up in some lower rooms; and he himself was the whole time present with the labourers and workmen, and meanwhile provided us with food and daily sustenance, as he had also provided for quite a long time before: for since it had not yet become known everywhere to all that there was a monastery here (because we were living in a certain private house), few aids of alms were supplied, unless perhaps from a certain pious old man, the prior of the Carthusians (whose house here was called de las Cuevas), who is a distinguished servant of God, and was born at Ávila of the Pantoja family. He, as soon as we came here, began to be carried away by a certain singular love and zeal for us, so that I hope he will be, as long as he survives, a help and support to us in every way, and always
be our benefactor. And I write this here for this reason, dearest ones, that, when you read these things, you may commend to the divine Majesty (as is also right) him who helped us so signally, as also others, both those still living and those who have departed this life before. To this holy man, then, we owe very much. Almost a whole month, if I remember rightly (for in setting down and counting days exactly I have not so good a memory that I cannot sometimes err: therefore you must always understand more or less, since it matters little), we spent in this state. Meanwhile my brother applied himself so wholly to adapting a church out of certain rooms and to repairing all the parts of the house that no burden fell upon us.
[703] through the care of García Álvarez, the priest, Everything, then, being now set in order and restored, I should indeed have wished the Venerable Sacrament to be brought in here without noise and without any display, because I wish to be troublesome to no one, if only it can be done otherwise or avoided; which opinion I signified to Don García Álvarez, who then communicated it to the prior of the Carthusians. But these took care of our affairs so seriously that they could not have taken care of their own more zealously; hence it pleased them, so that the convent might become better known among the people, that this bringing in should be celebrated with solemn rite and festive pomp. And when they had consulted the archbishop himself on this matter too, he, not unwillingly agreeing with their opinion, determined that the Venerable Body of Christ should be transferred here from a certain parish church with great pomp, the whole clergy and some confraternities assembling, and the public streets adorned.
[704] the Most Holy Eucharist is solemnly brought in there. No sooner said than done: for the good García Álvarez duly adorned and furnished the cloister of our monastery (which then gave passage) and the church, fitted up neat altars here and there too, and introduced other varieties of elegance to arouse devotion. Among the rest he made water pressed from the vessels of oranges flow through pipes in the manner of a perpetual fountain, we neither procuring nor asking it, although, when it had been made, it afterwards aroused remarkable devotion in us. And truly we rejoiced exceedingly when we saw the dedication of our church carried out with such great solemnity, and the public streets adorned, and also so festive a concert of singers and musical instruments; so that that holy Prior of the Carthusians affirmed to me that he had never seen anything of the kind at Seville, and it plainly appeared that it had been the work of God alone. Hence too he himself took part in the procession, although he had taken part in none until then: and the archbishop himself carried the most august Bread of Angels here. Here then you see, dearest ones, the poor Discalced nuns now so honoured by all; while a little before it seemed that even water would be lacking and denied to them, although the river of this city abounded most greatly in water. And scarcely anyone would believe how great a multitude of people flowed together to this solemnity.
[705] God turns away the danger of fire from the house. On this day too a thing happened which seemed prodigious to all before whose eyes it was done. For when very many fireworks had been thrown in applause and everything had resounded again and again with the frequent crash of mortars, and toward evening, the procession being now ended, these same signs of applause were being repeated again, by I know not what accident fire fell into the sulphur powder, although a very little; yet he who had the powder was, not without a miracle, not injured by the flame. Moreover, when the flame had suddenly risen all the way to the top of the cloister, whose ceiling was adorned with thin linen, behold, the stones of the vault indeed took on a foul soot from the smoke itself, yet the outermost very thin linen itself, which in everyone's judgement ought to have caught the flame first, and which was yellowish and scarlet, was seen to be unharmed and not to have changed colour, just as if neither fire nor smoke had breathed upon it. All who saw the thing were astounded. The nuns, however, praised the Lord, because He had provided for their need, since they did not have money with which to procure new linen. I should believe that the devil, angered at the festivity which had taken place, and because he saw a new house of God again, wished in this way to take revenge on us to some extent. But His Majesty prevented him. May He be blessed for ever. Amen.
[706] The Saint, glad at the prosperous outcome of affairs, To these must be appended the beginning of chapter XXVI; the remaining part of which, since it is wholly occupied in narrating the vocation of Beatriz of the Mother of God, the first novice of the Seville convent, I shall omit in accordance with my plan. You can consider with yourselves, dearest ones, says the Saint, what our joy and consolation was on that day. Of myself certainly I can say and I know that mine was the very greatest: especially because I saw that I was leaving the nuns in so good and well-situated a house, and that the monastery was now well enough known in the city, and that there were nuns in the house who could pay the greatest part of the debts and of the money owed which had been contracted on account of buying it; so that even through those who were lacking to complete the number (however little they brought as dowry) the debts could be discharged. Above all and most of all it refreshed me that I had undergone some labours and afflictions. And when I was now about to enjoy some quiet, I had to depart from there. For since this solemnity of the dedication was celebrated on the Sunday next before Pentecost in the year 1576, I departed from there at once on the following Monday: for the heat and burning were becoming more violent daily. If it could have been done, I should not willingly have been on the road on the very feasts of Pentecost; indeed I had a mind to celebrate them at Malagón, as also to stay there some days, and for that reason I had hastened so much. It did not please the Lord, however, that I should hear Mass in that church even on one day.
[707] departs from Seville. My departure diminished the joy and consolation of the nuns not a little, and saddened them greatly, because we had lived together that whole year, and had undergone so many afflictions together (as has been said), the gravest of which, however, I have not described here, so that, as it seems to me, the one Ávila foundation excepted (to which truly none can be compared as regards difficulties and labours), none cost me so much labour as this one, because its afflictions and anxieties were chiefly interior. May the divine Majesty deign to grant that service may always be rendered Him in it. For if this be done, all the harassments which I underwent will seem to me the very least: and certainly I hope that this very thing will come about: since His Majesty has begun to draw certain pious and holy souls to this house: and of those whom I brought with me (who were five in all), how good those were who remained I have already declared in some measure, though very many things could be said of them, and what I have said is the least.
§ XXXIX. The Saint's withdrawal into her monastery of Toledo. The chapter of the Discalced Carmelites at Almodóvar, and certain other affairs of the Teresian Reform.
While St. Teresa had begun to put the last hand to establishing her monastery of Seville, Fr. Jerónimo Gracián, The Calced celebrate a chapter at Moraleja. intending to consult the Nuncio about various affairs of his office, went away to Madrid, leaving as his vicar in Andalusia Fr. Juan Evangelista, formerly subprior, then prior of the Calced Carmelites of Seville (vol. III, letter 33). About the same time Fr. Ángel de Salazar, provincial of Castile, had proclaimed a general chapter to be assembled at Moraleja; to which, besides the Calced enjoying the right of suffrage, three Discalced were also invited: namely Fr. Juan of Jesus, prior of Mancera, Fr. Diego of the Most Holy Trinity, prior of Pastrana, and Fr. Elías of St. Martin, rector of Alcalá. Of these, Frs. Juan and Diego, as soon as they had received the letters of convocation, themselves too went on to Madrid to inquire into the mind of the Nuncio. The Nuncio ordered both to go to the chapter; but forbade them to allow anything in the statutes of the Discalced to be changed or to consent to any decree to be passed against Fr. Gracián. They hastened, therefore, as quickly as possible to Moraleja: but before they arrived there, the chief business of the chapter had already been almost completed. The more notable heads of the laws passed, indicated by Rubeo the General and shortly to be approved by Fr. Tostado (who had landed at Barcelona in the month of March), were these: that the Calced should use dark habits and shorter cloaks; that the same kind of habit should be taken by the Discalced together with shoes; that the latter should henceforth be called Contemplatives, the former Observants; and that both should inhabit the same houses promiscuously, in such a way, however, that the Observants should follow their own rule, and the Contemplatives likewise their own. When those two Discalced heard these things read out to them, they resisted strongly; and especially the prior of Mancera, being of a more fervent temperament, protested that he would consent to none of all these laws except by order of Fr. Gracián, the Nuncio and the king. The minds of the Calced being indeed stirred by this speech, but not changed, Frs. Juan and Diego, after the chapter had been dissolved, returned to the Nuncio, to render him an account of what they had done.
[709] St. Teresa comes to Toledo. Further, the holy Foundress, having set out from Seville on the 4th day of June, accompanied by Fr. Gregorio Nacianceno, Alonso Ruiz, Lorenzo de Cepeda and his daughter Teresa, arrived at Malagón on the 11th of the same month, which was the Monday of Pentecost, as she wrote on the following Friday to María of St. Joseph, prioress of Seville (vol. I, letter 53). For the word Pascua, which the Saint uses in her letter, ought to delay no one; since by that word among the Spaniards, as by the word Pasqua among the Italians, not only the most solemn day of the Lord's Resurrection, but also all the chief feasts throughout the year, especially those of Pentecost and of the Lord's Nativity, are designated: which usage indeed in the middle ages prevailed widely in other regions too, as appears from various documents which may be seen in Du Cange's Glossary and its Supplement. The Saint stayed some days at Malagón to take care of the affairs of her monastery; and from there she wrote about these affairs and about her journey to Fr. Gracián (vol. IV, letter 20), and committed another letter to the prioress of Seville, to be carried on the 18th day of June, to Fr. Gregorio Nacianceno, who was returning to Seville (vol. II, letter 79). Then she herself went to Toledo, which town she had chosen in order to live there henceforth by command of the General (of which there was talk at no. 664); although shortly afterwards, before she made a fixed stay there, she still had to make an excursion to Ávila on account of a command imposed on her by Fr. Gracián, which is read in the Annus Teresianus at the 6th day of May.
[710] She goes to Ávila, and returns to Toledo. From Toledo she sent two letters on the 2nd and 11th days of July to the prioress of Seville: in the former of which she signifies not obscurely how much the severity which Frs. Ambrosio Mariano and Antonio of Jesus had used against the Calced had displeased herself and Fr. Gracián, and adds that it had greatly pleased herself and the Nuncio that Gracián had not
returned to Andalusia (vol. 1, letter 54); but in the other letter, having sent greetings to Frs. Antonio and Ambrosio, whom she at the same time wittily reproaches for not writing to her, she soon adds: The king has ordered our Father (Gracián) to confer about the things that concern our Order with the president of the royal council (Diego de Covarrubias, bishop of Segovia) and with Quiroga (bishop of Cuenca and Inquisitor General). May God grant that our affairs turn out prosperously: which I say because much prayer is needed. Let our sisters also commend to God Fr. General, who broke his leg falling from a mule. For my part, especially since he is advanced in age, I am not a little distressed at his accident (vol. II, letter 80). Not very long after writing this letter, but on an uncertain day, the Saint took up the journey to Ávila enjoined on her by Fr. Gracián; from which she returned to Toledo on the 9th day of August, accompanied by the Ven. Ana of St. Bartholomew; whom on this occasion, namely, having been long since admonished from heaven at Seville, she chose from the company of the nuns of Ávila as the perpetual companion of her labours and journeys, as Fr. Crisóstomo Henríquez of the Cistercian Order narrates in the Life of the same Ana (book II, chapters XIV and XV). There is extant a letter of the holy Mother written during that journey on the 6th day of August to her nuns of Beas; in which she announces that she is lodging with a certain lady named María Fajardo, and that while she was ill there St. Joseph stood by her in visible form, to console her and give her courage to go where holy obedience sent her (vol. 1, letter 50).
[711] To Fr. Gracián Meanwhile it had seemed good to the Discalced Fathers to oppose another chapter of their own side to the chapter recently held against them at Moraleja. To this end Fr. Gracián summoned the chief men of his brethren to Almodóvar del Campo. The Chronicle maintains (book V, chapter L, no. 4) that a beginning was given to this chapter on the 8th of August, and that St. Teresa announced this to the prioress of Seville in a letter given from Malagón the next day. But what Fr. Antonio of St. Joseph notes on this letter (vol. II, letter 81) must be observed: In the original copy, he says, of this letter, which is in the possession of our nuns of Valladolid, the inscription of the year and day is lacking: and although most suppose it was written on the 9th of August, yet it is clear from other letters that in the first transcripts of it August was erroneously written for September. Since this opinion of Fr. Antonio seems to me to agree excellently with the letters of the Saint presently to be cited, I judge with M. Boucher that the aforesaid chapter was begun on the 8th of September; which is also confirmed by other notes of Fr. Antonio (vol. II, letter 59, notes 3 and 4, vol. III, letter 9, notes 5 and 9). That is, he says that, according to the writings of Fr. Gracián and the memorial books of the Calced Carmelites of Madrid, Fr. Tostado came to Madrid on the 5th of August 1576, and there contended for many days with Fr. Gracián about the power which the one had received from the Prior and general chapter of his Order, the other from the apostolic Nuncio; and that then Tostado went away into Portugal on the 29th of August. Now Gracián could not be at Madrid and at the same time preside over the chapter of Almodóvar. Besides, the same commentator on St. Teresa's letters adduces as witness Fr. Alonso of the Mother of God, asserting that the Fathers were convoked for the 8th day of September.
[712] she gives several letters, both before The chapter, then, was preceded by St. Teresa's letter given to Gracián on the 5th of September, containing among other things the following: I fear that the Calced, reporting untrue things about us to the Supreme Pontiff, may obtain against us as many Bulls as they wish. Wherefore I think it altogether necessary that some of our men be at Rome; so that from the conduct of the adversaries it may be made clear by what feeling they are led. As long as we do not take care of this, we shall accomplish nothing: and at the same time our men at Rome could obtain licence for founding some convents. I think it matters much that we be prepared for anything whatever (vol. III, letter 9). The Saint also asks Gracián whether Mariano has come to the chapter. He, however, does not seem to have arrived, since the author of the Chronicle does not number him among the assembled Fathers. The said letter was followed the next day by another to Gracián; from which I draw the following concerning the affairs of the Order: I have already written to you twice that Peralta went away to Portugal on the same day on which you came here. Santelmo informed me today by letter that we have nothing to fear: since Methuselah has it fixed and determined to comply with our wishes for the separation of the eagles; since he sees that it is altogether expedient. I have likewise received letters from Seville about the disturbances held there with Peralta and about the rumour spread through the city that the butterflies are to be brought under his power. Surely what God willed had to be done: may He be blessed for ever. Infante came to me, to ask me for letters to Paul. I answered that he would do nothing for me; and I told him to speak himself with Paul, since he is conscious of no fault. I believe, if he hoped that Peralta would return, he would not so humble himself (vol. III, letter 10). For these things to be understood, it must be noted that St. Teresa in this and many following letters indicates the various persons of whom she treats by pseudonyms. Thus she sometimes designates our Saviour Jesus Christ by the name Joseph; thus King Philip is called by her the Great Angel, the Inquisitors Angels, the Nuncio Methuselah, Gracián Paul or Elisha, Tostado Peralta, the Discalced Carmelite friars Eagles, the Discalced nuns Butterflies (in Spanish mariposas, which word is of feminine gender); the Saint calls herself now Angela, now Laurencia. Finally she gives other names to others according to circumstances: as, for example, the one who is here named Infante is Fr. Juan de las Infantas; and Santelmo is Fr. Olea, of the Society of Jesus, of whom there will be occasion to speak elsewhere.
[713] and after Further, the two letters to Gracián just praised are followed next in order of time by eight written to the prioress of Seville on the 7th, 9th, 20th, 22nd and 26th days of September and also on the 5th, 12th and 31st of October (vol. I, letter 58, vol. II, letters 81 and 82, vol. III, letters 63, 64, 65, 66 and 67); likewise by two to Gracián in the month of September, of which the one, very short, on an uncertain day (vol. IV, letter 21), the other, rather long, on the 20th (vol. III, letter 11). From these I excerpt the following concerning the chapter of the Discalced, already concluded before that day: Those who are returning from the chapter applaud themselves greatly about it; nor can I fail to give thanks to God for the things done there in the best manner. Certainly no slight praise is due to you for them. All proceeds from the hand of God, and perhaps, as you rightly say, not a little has been effected by the prayers poured out to Him. I am vehemently delighted with that truly excellent and most useful decree about urging common observance in our houses. I have stirred up Fr. Roca (Juan of Jesus) to labour diligently in promoting manual exercises, which are of infinite moment among us: and since he told me that there had been no treatment of them in the chapter, I said that I would write to you; but that they are prescribed in the constitutions and rules, for urging the observance of which he himself had been deputed. The same Father told me a thing which I could not believe, namely that certain persons had been expelled from the Order: which, if it could be done, is a great thing. Then he also informed me at length what plan you have adopted for obtaining by all means through our Father General a province of our own. And it would truly be an intolerable war if we did this against the will of the prelate. If money is needed for this matter, God will bestow it: and it can be committed to the companions who are to go to Rome. For my part I beg you by God, see to it that they set out as quickly as possible; and do not hold their journey a small or incidental thing, since it is rather the head of the whole matter. The prior of La Peñuela, since you judge him fit for managing this business, could go with Fr. Mariano. If nothing can be effected with the General, the Supreme Pontiff will have to be approached; although I should prefer the matter to be settled with the General, especially because we now have an excellent opportunity. For my part, when I see in what mind Methuselah (Ormaneto) is toward us, I do not know why we delay; which is plainly nothing other than to have nothing here and to let the best times slip from our hands. Know that a certain cleric, a friend of mine, today, while he was dealing with me about the affairs of his soul, told me that it is most certain to him that Gilbert (Ormaneto too seems to be hinted at by this name) will die very shortly, indeed even within this very year. I have already heard at other times from several people that that man is never mistaken in his predictions. Certainly the thing is possible: and although that prediction is not to be made so much of, yet, because it is not a thing impossible, you will do something worth while if you labour with all the speed you can to settle our affairs, and so treat the things which pertain to the visitation as things not long to last. Fr. Pedro Hernández carried out whatever he had determined about the convent of the Incarnation through Fr. Ángel, himself far removed from Ávila; nor yet even so did he fail in his office of visitor and the matters to be cared for by him. It is always before my eyes how well that provincial (Fr. Agustín Suárez) treated you while you were staying in his convent see no. 584): wherefore I desire that, if it can be done, you cause him no trouble. Some complain that you allow yourself to be governed by Fr. Evangelista (namely the one whom Gracián had set over the Calced of Seville, as I said at no. 708); and so it matters that you take good note that we are not so perfect that we cannot be ill-disposed to some, and on the contrary too well-disposed to others.
[714] the chapter of the Discalced at Almodóvar; Thus the Saint, approving the things done in the chapter, and proposing to Fr. Gracián a rule of action in words at once modest and most apt. But in order to grasp her mind better, it is necessary to relate in a few words the chief things enacted by the Fathers assembled at Almodóvar. Namely, first, at Gracián's exhortation, they elected four definitors, and among these first Fr. Antonio of Jesus, who was also to discharge the office of provincial, should Gracián perhaps be absent or dead. Then they took pains to introduce one and the same manner of observing the constitutions into absolutely all their convents, Fr. Juan of Jesus, prior of Mancera, being appointed to urge this matter. Then there was debate about the end of the Order of Carmel: which Frs. Gracián and Antonio of Jesus especially contended lay equally in two things, namely prayer and the spiritual help of one's neighbours; while on the contrary St. John of the Cross with certain others, although that neighbours should be helped by the Carmelites not
he did not deny, yet thought more should be attributed to prayer than to the sacred ministries. That this contention did not altogether turn out according to the Saint's wish the author of the Chronicle teaches (book III, chapter LI, no. 3); but in another subject which followed he drew the minds of absolutely all to his opinion, namely by persuading them to regulate by fixed laws the sacred chant, on which in some convents too much time was being spent, not without detriment to mental prayer. After this it was decreed that La Peñuela, on account of the unhealthy nature of the place and air, should be exchanged as soon as possible for another dwelling; how this was brought about, namely by the move to Mount Calvary, a league and a half distant from the town of Villanueva, may be read in the Chronicle (book III, from chapter LII to LV). Finally, just as the Calced Carmelites had sent two of their men to Rome, so too Frs. Juan of Jesus, already often named, and Pedro of the Angels, prior of La Peñuela, were chosen by the Discalced for the Roman journey.
[715] and she desires that two of them go to Rome. Nevertheless this journey, which St. Teresa, as the cited letter shows, had greatly at heart, and about which she urged Gracián strongly, was not undertaken at that time; others, namely, advising Gracián otherwise, and alleging various obstacles. You might perhaps rightly say that the delay is to be ascribed to two other decrees of the chapter, by which Fr. Pedro of the Angels was ordered to see to the transfer of the convent of La Peñuela, and Fr. Juan of Jesus to go round all the houses of the Discalced to promote the observance of the constitutions: by which circumstance too I think the Saint was led to propose to Gracián that Mariano should be sent to Rome in place of Fr. Juan. However, see how the Saint speaks again of that journey in a letter given at that time to Juan of Jesus himself: What you write about the Roman journey, I have already pressed for many days. And although letters have never availed much with men led by so many reasons, yet, provided we do what we ought, let things fall out however chance brings them. Nor does that matter depend on Fr. Visitor himself, even if he has resolved to act; since so many draw him into a different opinion that I avail little by writing. It distresses me greatly that I cannot do more. For my part I had thought that Fr. Gracián, from his very journey, would come round to my counsel, as several foretold me: may God one day bring it about. Meanwhile do you, who have more authority for persuading than I, in your charity not cease to urge the man (vol. IV, letter 32).
[716] The Calced cease their tumults in Andalusia After the chapter of Almodóvar Fr. Gracián soon returned from Castile into Andalusia; where all that had been ordered by him had been turned upside down by Fr. Agustín Suárez, provincial of the Calced, for whom we have just heard the Saint interceding (no. 713) and whom we said above had been sent away by Gracián to Osuna (no. 662). He, when he had heard that the Discalced were to be assembled at Almodóvar, had also assembled his Andalusian Calced at the town of Écija; and, having removed the superiors whom Gracián had created, had restored all the convents of his province to their former form, abolished by Gracián: indeed he had also sent Fr. Juan Evangelista, Gracián's vicar in his absence, exiled from the convent of the Calced at Seville, to the Discalced. With these changes, then, the Calced of Seville received the visitor on his arrival tumultuously, boasting that his authority had been annulled by letters of the Roman Curia, sent by Fr. Pedro de Cota (of whom at no. 662). Gracián replied that the letters were surreptitious, and, having implored the help of the archbishop and the assistant, refuted his adversaries so vigorously that they again submitted themselves to his command, however much they had resolved to reject it, not only the lowest monks, but the provincial too with the other superiors: and, no one any longer opening his mouth against him, he set over the convent of Granada Fr. Jerónimo Ferrer, lector of sacred theology.
[717] and in Castile. Of this outcome of the disturbances, favourable enough for that time, Gracián informed Teresa, as is clear from her letter to Fr. Juan of Jesus just cited. The Saint in her turn on the 20th of October announced to the visitor, not without joy, that the Andalusian Calced who were staying in Castile (namely at court, as it seems) had shown themselves compliant. This is clear from a letter sent the following day, the feast of St. Hilarion, to the same Gracián; which begins thus: The grace of the Holy Spirit be with you. Yesterday I was writing to you how quiet and peaceable those Fathers have become, and how much I praised God on that account. I would have you know that the Nuncio's letters had not yet been read to them: hence I was not a little afraid of what would happen; especially when one of them had met me and told me that their minds were vehemently stirred, because it seemed to them that they were not destitute of all colour of right. That is, they say, what I too said to Mariano and I do not know whether I wrote to you, that it is a thing altogether unusual that anyone should command as a prelate without showing by what authority he does it. As for the reasons which you allege in your letter to Fr. Mariano why you did not send the Nuncio's document, surely, if there be any reason for doubting, that doubt would better have been raised beforehand. Would that things may so fall out that you are freed from that burden, and that no others remain to us but the Discalced friars and nuns! (vol. II, letter 19). You see how aptly the Saint admonishes Gracián, how diligently she takes care that nothing be done by her friars which could seem even in the least foreign to brotherly charity and religious candour. Nor am I so doubtful but that it was at Teresa's exhortation that Gracián went to court, intending to resign the power of visitor, if the king and the Nuncio had consented, as we shall see in what follows. Mariano, however, with whom she writes that she had spoken, had arrived at Toledo on the 25th day of September (vol. III, letter 65), and from there had gone away to Madrid; where he seems to have laboured a whole year and more in taking care of the affairs of the Discalced at court (ibid., notes 2 and 3, and vol. II, letter 21, note 3).
[718] The Saint judges that the Discalced Fathers ought not to undertake Let us transcribe the remaining part of the letter too, which is of sufficient moment: Fr. Padilla will tell you on what ground Fr. Ángel (namely Ángel de Salazar, provincial of the Castilian Carmel) contends that foundations are forbidden me by the Council (of Trent) and by an express declaration of our Most Reverend Father. I should very much wish that, if it can be done, you would see that declaration. As for his saying that I am always leading nuns about here and there, I have done this with the leave of my superiors: indeed I have in my possession a leaf by which Fr. Ángel himself permitted me to direct nuns to Beas and Caravaca. Why then did he not regard that declaration at that time, since it had already then been issued? Would that they would let me rest some time! May God grant, my Father, that you too may enjoy the leisure which I wish for! The reason why I send you this letter is that business of Salamanca, about which, as it appears to me, a letter had already been written to you. I informed you recently that it does not suit our Discalced: if it were a question of having a convent there, it would indeed be an excellent thing; but not so where it is a question (nor does anything else seem to be in question) of committing to them the offices of vicars, and that for two months only; especially since the bishop does not ask this of them, nor are they themselves made for those things. I should prefer that the Discalced appear in that city as men of another world, who do not go back and forth to women. We have the bishop standing on our side; without whom perhaps we should have lost the cause. I doubt whether our good Teotonio (namely Braganza, of whom at no. 608) will effect anything; for he is not very strong either in authority or in experience of managing affairs. If I were there, I would bring this matter to the boil, and quite cook it through, I believe: and perhaps so it will turn out, if it seems good to you. All these things I have written to them. The prioress and my other sisters commend themselves to the prayers of you and your Fathers, etc.
[719] the care of women offered to them at Salamanca, The same subject, together with several others, the holy Mother had treated more fully on the same 21st day of October in a longer letter written to Fr. Ambrosio Mariano. The Discalced Carmelites, namely, were being solicited to undertake at Salamanca for some time the spiritual care of poor women returned from vice to a better life, in place of their absent vicar Juan Díaz: and at the same time hope was given that they would obtain a fixed seat in that town. This hope indeed the holy Mother by no means rejects, rather she cherishes it; although she judges, with her perspicacity, that the labour of carrying out the matter should be deferred to better times, as in fact it was deferred to the year 1581: but as regards the other head, the direction of women, I say, she is so far from agreeing to it that she rather denies, with a great weight of reasons, that it can be accepted by her Carmelites.
[720] nor that it is expedient for them to procure a house for themselves at Madrid; But since Mariano also had it in mind to provide a common roof for the Discalced whom he had summoned to Madrid; see what the prudent Virgin advises on that matter: For my part I approved your plan of procuring a house where our Friars could lodge; nor did I think anything stood in the way of licence being granted, although it is not a monastery, for offering the Sacrifice of the Mass in it, just as is customarily granted even for the houses of secular grandees: and so I tried to persuade our Father of this. He, however, judged, and rightly, that this is not expedient now, but rather tends to the utter overthrow of our affairs. Our Father's mind being known, you ought not indeed to have called so many companions to Madrid, nor to have adorned a church, as if leave had already been given: which truly made me laugh. Indeed, unless the Ordinary approved, I would not even buy a house: for I remember that I did this at Seville not with impunity. Finally, as I have already sharply impressed on you before, persuade yourself well that nothing will be effected until you have the faculty from the Nuncio in writing. Further, when Don Jerónimo announced to me that you had asked this thing of the (Calced) Fathers, I was frightened: since I do not trust them as much as you do, at least at this time; and so I do not even speak to Valdemoro. For his friendship is suspect to me, which I think is by no means directed to our advantage, but tends rather to fishing out something from us of which he may inform his friends. I would have you think this too, and not commit our affairs to such patrons, but rather to God, to whom alone they belong, and who will accomplish them in His own time. Desist, then, from that preposterous haste, which alone is enough to throw everything into confusion (vol. I, letter 28).
[721] but rather that a convent should be founded at Malagón. After she had thus repressed Mariano's excessive ardour, she adds other things which occurred to her on the same subject, especially about suitable patrons of the work
and of patrons to be sought. Then, having inserted the things I have just indicated about the foundation to be undertaken at Salamanca, she continues thus: I was waiting until I could go to Madrid to bring that business to the boil: for I am a great negotiator (if you doubt it, let my friend Valdemoro be witness); nor would I truly wish us to throw this matter into confusion by acting inconsiderately. For there is nothing I desire so much as that house at Madrid; but as for the other (namely that of Salamanca), I rejoice that you are not labouring for it at present, until a fuller occasion opens from the proximity of the court: for at present I do not find a way in which that plan could prosper. If, however, one of two evils must be chosen, Malagón pleases me much more, to which our Luisa (de la Cerda) invites you with all her wishes, and will consult well for your advantage in the course of time; besides that that place is surrounded by many large villages, so that food will not be lacking to our friars. And there would be besides a pretext by which your delay would be made acceptable to the people of Salamanca: who, namely, will persuade themselves that their petition is not altogether refused by you, but only postponed, until you have provided yourselves with a convenient dwelling; especially since it is not fitting that religious should change their houses from day to day.
[722] Not to be too long, I pass over the other heads of this letter of Teresa; In her Toledo retreat as I have also done with the letters just cited to Frs. Gracián and Juan of Jesus, being content to have selected from them chiefly the things which show how active our Saint showed herself in her very retreat at Toledo, how diligently and wisely she governed and directed the very men of her Reform. But if I wished to follow out one by one the things which pertain to the care of her virgins, it would be an almost infinite labour; since among the letters which we have written by her at Toledo at this time, scarcely any is to be found which does not refer to this either wholly or in great part: so that what the great Apostle of the gentiles boasted of himself: My daily instance, the solicitude for all the Churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is scandalized, and I burn not? (2 Cor. XI, 28, 29), if only you substitute the word Monasteries for Churches, seems able to be applied not unfittingly to St. Teresa.
[723] in managing affairs, and in writing books That is, as Fr. Crisóstomo Henríquez notes in the Life of the Ven. Ana of St. Bartholomew (book II, chapter XVIII), the holy Mother was overwhelmed with countless affairs; since not only the nuns, but also the men of the Reformed Carmel, although very many among them were conspicuous for prudence, knowledge and virtue, had recourse to her as to their Mother and Foundress. She received very many letters from every side; she dealt with grandees, prelates and the leading men of both clergies, knowing well, namely, that for her Reform, as for a tender and delicate plant, the shade as it were and protection of many was necessary: whose good will therefore she strove with every effort she could to win and preserve for herself. To those so various and necessary labours was added another work undertaken out of obedience to her confessors and charity toward her nuns: namely writings filled with piety and heavenly doctrine, and expressed in that style which the whole Church admires. Hence it seemed a thing like a prodigy that one virgin could suffice for so many affairs of the greatest moment and of manifold subject; and, however strong enough her spirit was for doing even greater things, she was at times pressed by such great difficulties and had so many letters to dispatch here and there that she almost gave way, chiefly on account of continual headaches and other illnesses by which she was tried.
[724] and in writing very many letters, Nor must it be omitted here, which I remember having already noted elsewhere, that by far the most of St. Teresa's letters have perished, as is gathered even from those very ones that survive to us, for example from the letter of the 10th of February 1577 to her brother Lorenzo de Cepeda, which begins with these words: I have recovered from my recent illness: and since afterwards I seemed to suffer from too much bile, whence I feared that next Lent I should have to abstain from fasting, I took a purge. On the same day, however, I was so distracted by so many letters and affairs that by writing until two o'clock after midnight I hurt my head: which I think will be profitable to me; for the doctor has forbidden me to write beyond midnight, or always to do it with my own hand. And in very truth I exceeded the measure in this respect this winter, and am held to no small blame; because, so that the morning might be free for me, I defrauded myself of sleep: to which was added besides that I often wrote after vomiting. For the rest, although on that day of the purge which I mentioned there was grave discomfort, yet from then on I began to be a little better; and I now give much attention to my health, so that you have no reason to be anxious about me. And I have said this for this reason, so that, if you see any letter of mine not written by my hand, or receive any from me shorter than usual, the cause of this may not be hidden from you (vol. I, letter 33). The same is clear from the letters to María of St. Joseph, prioress of Seville, where she quite often speaks in the same way of the mass of her labours and of the immense number of letters received and sent.
[725] she is occupied, sick, but always united to God. What she mentions about her health in the letter alleged to her brother, she unfolds more fully in the following one given to the same on the 28th of February: and she affirms that she was so weakened, especially by the fast which the Carmelite rule prescribes to be observed from the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross until the day of the Lord's Resurrection, that she feared she would be wholly unequal to bearing any labour whatever for the rest of her life, and that she was without all spiritual recollection, because she could not give herself to mental prayer in her usual way. Hence the more wonderful ought to seem the holy Mother's perpetual union with God amid labours and pains, which her inseparable and dearest companion Ana of St. Bartholomew attests in these words: Besides the mutual love that existed between me and her, I took another solace from her companionship; namely that I continually saw Christ the Lord united to her soul, as if she had been in heaven. Which thing filled me with the highest reverence, such as the divine presence demands. These things having been noted in general concerning St. Teresa's stay at Toledo, I shall descend to more particular ones; and first, in the paragraph next following, I shall try to illustrate from her surviving letters, more carefully than has been done until now by the Saint's biographers, the period which lies between September of the year 1576 and the death of the Nuncio Ormaneto.
§ XL. The Saint enlarges her book of the Foundations. She shows her maternal solicitude for her Reform by writing many letters. A new apostolic Nuncio succeeds in the place of the deceased.
The narrative of four recent foundations To begin, then, with the things which occur earlier in order of time, St. Teresa in the last months of the year 1576, by order of Fr. Gracián, enriched the book of the Foundations, previously brought down to the end of chapter XX, with the histories of four foundations: namely those of Segovia, Beas, Seville and Caravaca. Before, however, she set her hand to continuing the book, she wrote the following to Gracián, very worthy of note: While toward this night I was reading in the Sacred History that that Pharaoh with his whole kingdom was struck by Moses with most grievous plagues, and yet that he never laid hands on him, I was altogether amazed, and rejoicing I thought within myself that no one can harm us when we have God as patron. Pleasing to me too was what is narrated of the Red Sea; when I reflected how much less is this which we ask. And while I was delighting in the efforts of that Saint, made at God's command, I was rejoicing meanwhile also that my Elisha (Fr. Gracián) was placed in the same, and I commended him again and again to God. I remembered what graces Joseph (that is, Christ Jesus) had granted me, and how He had said to me: "You shall see still greater things to the honour and glory of God." I was fainting with the desire of facing a thousand dangers for His service. For with these and similar things life is passed. And these trifles which you will see I have committed to paper. As regards describing the Foundations, I shall now begin; since Joseph has told me that this labour will be profitable to many souls. For my part I believe it will be so, if God helps; but even if He had not told me this, yet I had resolved that I must do it, because you commanded me (vol. IV, fragment 17).
[727] her book of the Foundations Again she wrote about the same book to Gracián on the last day of October: The history of the Foundations has been brought almost to the end. I believe it will be a delight to you to see it: for it is a savoury thing. See whether I obey well. Not seldom I think I have this virtue; since, whenever something is commanded me in jest, I should wish to do it in earnest: and I give my efforts to this writing more willingly than to that crowd of letters, by which I am worn out. I do not know, however, how not only time has remained to me for writing what I have written, but not even leisure has been lacking to me for dealing with Joseph (that is, Christ). He, namely, is the one who gives strength for all things (vol. III, letter 12). Finally, that that writing was completed on the 14th of November is clear from the epilogue with which chapter XXVII is closed: I began, then (as I said at the beginning), to describe these Foundations by order of the Rev. Fr. Master Ripalda of the Society of Jesus, who was then acting as rector of the college of Salamanca, and whom I was using as confessor when I was living in the monastery of St. Joseph erected in that city, namely in the year 1573. I had already then committed some to writing; but afterwards, on account of pressing occupations, I left off writing. Hence too I had resolved not to go on further with them, both because I no longer confessed to the said Father (because he had already moved elsewhere), and because whatever I write and have written costs me great labour, although I count all the labour whatever which I have undergone in it as well spent, as also whatever has been enjoined on me until now out of obedience.
[728] by order of Fr. Gracián This indeed I had firmly and plainly resolved within myself; but the apostolic commissary (who is now Fr. Master Fr. Jerónimo Gracián of the Mother of God) commanded me to go on with them and finish them. I, however, set forth to him how little leisure I had for this, and brought forward many other things which then occurred to me (so disobedient am I) for excusing myself from this burden. Above all I alleged the immense fatigue and weariness that would follow for me from it. But he nevertheless enjoined me to proceed little by little, and in whatever way I could, in writing them to the end; as I also did, ready and content that they should erase whatever they knew and understood to be ill said. Indeed perhaps
it may happen that what seems best to me will seem worst to them.
[729] the Saint adds. This work, then, has been finished today, on the very vigil, I say, of St. Eugene, the fourteenth day of November, in the year 1576, in the monastery of St. Joseph at Toledo, in which I now have my dwelling by the order and command of the Rev. Fr. Commissary apostolic Jerónimo Gracián of the Mother of God, whom we now have as superior of the Discalced friars and nuns following the primitive rule, and who has also been appointed visitor of those who follow the mitigated rule throughout Andalusia; to the honour and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, who reigns, and will reign through all ages for ever. Amen. For the rest, out of the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, I ask my sisters and the nuns who are to read these things to commend me to His Majesty, that He may have mercy on me and free me from the pains of purgatory, and, if I deserve to be thrust into it, may not delay to admit me to the enjoyment of Himself. And since, as long as I am to be in life, you will not see this work, at least after my death may the labour and fatigue which I took in writing it bring me some gain, and also that great desire I had in writing, that I might say something which would be a consolation to you, if only you are permitted to read it.
[730] In place of Diego de Yepes To about this time also seems to be referred the letter by which the holy Mother informs Fr. Gracián that Alonso Velázquez, canon of the church of Toledo, had been assigned to her by Jesus Christ as confessor (vol. IV, letter 23). A little before, at the suggestion of Fr. Gaspar de Salazar S.J., she had chosen as judge of her conscience Fr. Diego de Yepes, at that time prior of the Hieronymite convent named from St. Mary de la Sisla, situated outside the walls of the city of Toledo. But he, although he had previously been accustomed to visit Teresa quite often, from the time he had begun to hear her Confessions came much more rarely; not because he did not delight in that holy intercourse with her, since he himself confessed that this was most pleasant to him, but because he was prevented by a certain secret force from going to her, so much so indeed that one day, when he had been summoned by the Saint, he three times set foot out of his convent in vain, as he himself afterwards, when visiting the incorrupt body of St. Teresa at Alba, narrated to Fr. Diego de Yanguas of the Order of Preachers and to María Enríquez, Duchess of Alba. The Saint, then, as Fr. Yanguas on the same occasion narrated in turn to Yepes, went complaining to our Saviour, exclaiming: Why, O good Shepherd, when I am placed in such straits, dost Thou deprive me of Thy minister, who could help me? Why does he whom I have called not come, when Thou canst make him come? To whom the most kind Jesus said: Rather, daughter, I am holding him back, because I will that you use Doctor Velázquez as confessor.
[731] she takes as confessor, at Christ's command, This answer caused the Saint not a little anxiety; especially since she had already begun to open her mind to Yepes, a man who had deserved excellently of her. It happened, however, that a few days later Fr. Gaspar de Salazar came again to Toledo; to whose judgement she resolved to refer this whole matter. The man, thoroughly acquainted with St. Teresa's soul, judged that the matter was being done by divine counsel; and therefore advised the holy Virgin to refer the affairs of her soul henceforth to Velázquez. He, for his part, undertook the charge offered him so willingly that of his own accord he promised the Saint that at least every week, however much he was distracted by affairs, he would come to her as willingly as if it were a question of entering upon the archbishopric of Toledo: which promise he kept most faithfully, not without great comfort and relief to the holy Mother. And these things I have taken partly from the very letter of St. Teresa to Gracián, partly from the testimony given by the Duchess of Alba in the juridical informations for the beatification of our Saint, which Fr. Antonio of St. Joseph alleges from the Annus Teresianus in the notes to the cited letter.
[732] Alonso Velázquez. Velázquez, moreover, of whom there is question here, after he had frequented the Saint and heard her in Confession, conceived such devotion and affection toward her, and thought so highly of her heroic virtues, that some years afterwards, when he had been made bishop of Osma, he summoned her to establish a monastery at Soria, a town of his diocese, and received her on his knees when she came to his house on that occasion. Yepes testifies to this in the testimonies of illustrious men concerning St. Teresa, set at the head of his Life of Teresa in place of a prologue (§ III); and he adds that the Saint blushed at that honour as she had never blushed at any other time in her life. Translated afterwards from the episcopal see of Osma to that of Compostela, Velázquez pressed Philip II to allow him, suffering from grave illnesses, to rest from the pastoral charge; because he said that neither his own nor the king's conscience could by any means be safe as long as he presided over the church of Compostela. When the king, though reluctantly, as Palafox explains more fully (vol. I, letter 8, notes 3 and 4), had at length assented to this request, the prelate spent the rest of his life at leisure for himself alone and for God at Talavera in New Castile. These things having been noted in passing about that excellent man, I take up again the thread of Teresa's history.
[733] Fr. Gracián, concerning guarding against vainglory, Fr. Gracián toward the end of the year 1576 was giving diligent effort to visiting the convents of the Andalusian Carmel, using everywhere, on the testimony of St. Teresa (vol. II, letter 76), great discretion and gentleness; by which manner of acting he gathered such fruits from a most difficult labour that the Saint declared them almost incredible (vol. II, letter 85) and seems to have feared for Gracián the tickling of vainglory. For thus after the octave of All Saints she admonished the man: I was writing to you recently how much the letter sent to you by Fr. Mariano had refreshed me; in which he narrates a story which roused me to praise God very much. I do not know where he gets such pretty jests and so much wit. Blessed be He who gave it: for it is clear that these are the works of God. Wherefore always remain in that opinion, that you consider yourself to be what you are by the grace of God, and trust little in yourself. Which I say for this reason, that that good Mariano seems to me to set forth his affairs with too much confidence and to hold everything easy; so that, having heard him, I feared he was labouring in vain. The great God of Israel commands in the Sacred Scriptures that we attribute the praise to Him. Hence it is altogether necessary that we look to that aim which you indeed rightly have set before you, the honour, I say, and glory of God; and that we beware with all diligence of seeking ourselves in anything. For God Himself, if so it please Him, will take care of this: but ours is the part to keep our littleness before our eyes; whence God's greatness may shine forth more clearly.
[734] she modestly and gently admonishes; But to show that she was not led by arrogance to exhort her superior thus, but rather by the tenderest charity toward him, she at once adds, as if for the sake of correcting herself: But how foolish I am, and how my Father will laugh when he reads these things! Good luck to those butterflies (understand the nuns of Seville), enjoying with such great solace your presence, which I was not permitted to enjoy there without many troubles. I cannot but envy them; although that diligence is the greatest joy to me by which it is open to them, and indeed without anyone's blame, to bring some relief to my Paul (that is, Gracián)… Those sisters affect me with great pleasure when (such is your good will toward me) they inform me so accurately of everything, and add that they do so by your order. For it is a most sumptuous joy to me to see that you are not unmindful of me (vol. II, letter 21).
[735] and, while he is staying at Seville, to him, That is, Gracián had made Seville as it were the centre of his labours throughout Andalusia, where he spent generally all that time which he had free from visitations. Hence his frequent intercourse with the convent of the nuns of Seville, but especially with the prioress of that convent, María of St. Joseph, a maiden of outstanding talent, whom Teresa and Gracián generally employed as the confidante of their secrets and counsels and as intermediary of their epistolary commerce: by which it is easily explained why the holy Mother wrote at that time far more often to her than to the other prioresses. But lest the multitude of letters written to Gracián himself should be a matter of suspicion to the adversaries, see by what device the Saint announces on the 8th of November to the praised prioress that she will make use henceforth: I shall cover my letters to our Father with no wrapper, and shall address them to you, with a double cross added, or rather a triple; for it is better to put three crosses than two or one, since there are very many crosses (that is, hardships) by which you are afflicted there. You will also advise our Father to write no address on his letters themselves; but rather to commit them to you, so that you may put on them the same address as on your own letters. For this avails more for dissembling than what I suggested before (vol. III, letter 68).
[736] but not to other men, she allows food to be given in the nuns' parlour. However much the mutual intimacy between Gracián and the nuns of Seville was a delight to our Saint, yet she could not with an even mind allow even the least lessening of regular observance to arise from it. For this reason, when she knew that Gracián quite often took food and drink with the nuns, she did not indeed oppose his continuing to do so on account of the circumstances of time and affairs; yet more than once she admonished both the prioress and Gracián himself in the gravest words not to allow the same to be extended to other men (vol. I, letter 53; vol. IV, letter 20). Although, she says, at this time everything is holy, I know what will happen if caution is not used even now: and this is the reason why I have pressed this matter so much. The exception which she had then made for Gracián, she not only confirmed again six months later, but also, since she saw that the good Father got on very badly with the Calced, in a manner enlarged it. For at the beginning of December she enjoined the prioress of Seville to ask Gracián earnestly not to use the refectory of the Calced any longer; for from this very grave inconveniences would redound upon the whole Reformed Carmel (vol. III, letter 70): then too she praised the same prioress amply for the care with which she tirelessly served the needs of the most loving Father, and exhorted her to continue, provided it could be done without scandal (vol. II, letter 85). And lest this charity toward Gracián should bring any want upon a rather poor monastery, the holy Foundress with provident mind had seen to it that pecuniary help for that use should be supplied by the nuns of her first and dearest house of St. Joseph at Ávila (vol. II, letters 83 and 85).
[737] The nuns of Beas, Caravaca and Malagón are pressed by want; Meanwhile to the want by which the Teresian nuns at Beas and Caravaca were pressed were added I know not what lawsuits raised against them, which the Saint complains in a letter given to Seville in May 1577 had not yet been ended (vol. II, letter 89). Indeed at Beas the nuns sustained life with such difficulty that Gracián, when he went there at the end of the year 1576, deliberated with the Ven. Ana of Jesus, the prioress, about transferring the house to Granada. But the holy Foundress, consulted on this business, answered in these words: That fear lest we be left destitute of necessary things seems to me a sign of very slight confidence in God; since there is not even the least little creature to be found to which the supreme Majesty does not supply food. Cast your care and all your solicitude, my daughters, upon the most kind Jesus; for I promise you that He will never fail you or forsake you. Besides, since it is a short time since that monastery was founded, it does not seem expedient that it be withdrawn from there so soon. Wait some years. Then, if God has not brought a remedy for your want, it will be a sign that it pleases Him that the change be made. Meanwhile let our superiors now do what seems to them should be done (vol. IV, fragment 71). The maidens of the Malagón convent too suffered various calamities, which the Saint describes in a letter given on the 19th of November 1576 to the prioress of Seville (vol. I, letter 55).
[738] those of Seville also suffer calumnies However, this want of temporal things is to be made very little of, if compared with other evils which the holy maidens of Seville were suffering at the same time, chiefly on account of the calumnies which the Calced Fathers and others attached to their party were spreading everywhere among the public against them and Gracián and the holy Foundress herself. It is certain from our Saint's letters that these tragedies began to be enacted already from the year 1576, and that the Calced at the end of that year adopted the plan of sending Teresa away to foreign parts, of which she herself wrote not without wit on the 26th of November: Those who are seeking an occasion of sending me to the Indies have done me a kindness. May God be merciful to them. For they can do nothing better than heap so many reproaches on me at once, so that, namely, they find credence with no one (vol. II, letter 84). Yet in these matters the author of the Chronicle, and Fr. Federico who followed in his footsteps, seem to me to have observed little the order of time, when they refer to this point the taking away from María of St. Joseph of the government of her monastery by the authority of the provincial of the Calced of Andalusia, and also two letters which the Saint gave on that occasion to Fr. Pantoja the Carthusian and to her nuns of Seville. For my part, from an attentive study of Teresa's history, I am persuaded that these things do not belong to this time of which we are now treating, but to the end of the year 1578 and the beginning of 1579. That is, until this last year that fierce storm did not cease to rage, so much so that rather, if you except a few brief intervals, it grew more and more; until at length it was wholly driven off by the royal commissaries, as we shall say in its place. These disturbances, however, are also connected with the question of the confessors of the nuns, which we shall treat in a special paragraph.
[739] spread by the Calced Fathers. Meanwhile, that you may know what St. Teresa at this time thought of those Calced friars who were contriving destruction for her Reform, remember that Gracián was earnestly asked by her not to take food with them; and besides, go to two letters given at the beginning of November to Mariano, in which she writes among other things the following: You call me Reverend and Lady. God be merciful to you; for truly you and I seem to have returned to the Calced. The friendship of that Reverend man (Valdemoro, whom we already know from the earlier letter to Mariano cited at no. 720) was amusing to me, who recently came to you to ask a favour, and had already met me at Ávila to obtain it. May God grant him better health. Ha! has not one day twelve hours? Perhaps he will have changed already (vol. IV, letter 33). What that favour was the other letter teaches: Today the good Valdemoro visited me, and now, I believe, he speaks the truth about friendship; since it is well with him now. He discoursed to me at length about St. Paul persecuting the Christians, and about the things which the Apostle afterwards did. And if that man of ours does even a tenth part of the things which St. Paul did for God, we shall forgive him whatever he has done wrong against us or shall do hereafter. He said that he had asked you to receive his brother among our friars. Certainly, if we needed preachers as much as he says, he would do us a great favour: but I fear, namely, that our Father (Gracián), who in the time of visitation expels men of other Orders, will not easily admit strangers into his Carmel. I think, therefore, that our Valdemoro will take this one advantage from his friendship, namely that we shall commend him to God. For the rest, you will see there what is expedient (vol. IV, letter 34). What the holy Mother hints here about Gracián Fr. Antonio of St. Joseph explains (note 3 to the cited letter) in these words: Gracián ordered a catalogue to be made of all who had passed from other Orders to ours; and he sent each of them back to his own Mother, because they were greatly retarding the Reform. Their names may be seen in the original acts of the visitations, which are kept in the possession of our Observants of Madrid.
[740] Concerning the mission of her nuns to Paterna Thus as of our own accord we return to Gracián's visitations, from which we had withdrawn for a little while. I neither can nor ought to narrate one by one the things done by Gracián; but they are to be related by me only in so far as they bring something of moment to the illustration of St. Teresa's life. In this respect, then, not the last place is held by the mission of Teresian nuns to Paterna; whose occasion and circumstances Fr. Antonio of St. Joseph narrates in summary thus (vol. II, letter 22, notes 10 and 11): There was at Paterna a convent of Calced Carmelite virgins, against whom some good-for-nothing or other got up a foul and horrible accusation. The Saint, while she was still staying at Seville, pressed Fr. Gracián to investigate the truth, and, the innocence of those nuns having been proved, to see to it that the brazen-faced man who had not hesitated to fasten so great a crime on the daughters of the Most Holy Virgin was signally punished. For this purpose, and at the same time for reforming the convent, Gracián, by his power as visitor, set over it Isabel of St. Francis, a Discalced nun of Seville, to whom he gave as companion Isabel of St. Jerome, and afterwards also Margarita of the Conception, a sister of the white veil. María of St. Joseph, privy to the whole affair, testifies that the setting out for Paterna was made in the month of October 1576, and that the return fell on the feast day of St. Barbara of the following year 1577. Consistent with this testimony is the deposition of Isabel of St. Francis, affirming that she held the priorship at Paterna a year and a month. During that time the innocence of the Calced nuns of Paterna became manifest, and the wicked impostor publicly paid the penalty. And our Discalced nuns, although they suffered not a little there, yet excellently provided for the reputation and religion of their sisters. And these preserve both to this day, having moved into the convent of St. Anne, which is numbered among the most precious ornaments of the wealthy city of Seville, nuns of the most illustrious Order which is called of St. John succeeding to the house at Paterna, whose piety is equal to their nobility. Moreover Gracián, for having laid open their innocence, was accused of many crimes, as he himself left testified in books written with his own hand. Thus the praised Fr. Antonio.
[741] The Saint testifies her joy to the prioress of Seville Further, with how great joy our Saint exulted when she was informed of the expedition of her nuns to Paterna, and what hope she conceived from it of promoting the glory of God and the salvation of souls, many of her letters show. See, for example, how she speaks in the letters to the prioress of Seville: I envied very much, she says, those nuns of ours who set out for Paterna, not so much because they went with our Father, as because they went to suffer: for for this good I forgot the other. May God grant that this thing be the beginning of efforts to be employed by us henceforth in His service! Since they are so few there, they do not seem to me to need much besides food to relieve hunger: for I heard that they have not enough to eat. We pray to God ardently here that He may deign to be present to them. Do not neglect to send these letters to them; and if you receive any from them, please see to it that they are brought to me, so that I may see how they are getting on: finally do not cease to help them with letters, exhortation and counsel. For it is very grievous to them that they are so alone (vol. II, letter 84). I have much solicitude about the monasteries whose care lies on our Father. Now I spend my Discalced nuns in helping him, and would most gladly spend myself (vol. III, letter 70). The work of the Discalced nuns in reforming others will not stop within that one monastery (ibid., letter 69).
[742] and to Fr. Mariano, Likewise in a letter to Mariano given on the 12th of December 1576 (and not 1578, as Lataste will have it in a note to the French version: for, first, in this very letter the Saint asserts that the next day will be Thursday; now the 13th of December cannot be a Thursday unless the dominical letter was G, which held not in the year 1578, but in the year 1576: besides, as we have just seen, the Discalced nuns of Seville had already left Paterna at the end of the year 1577): O my Father, says the Saint joyfully, how my heart overflows with joy whenever anyone of this Order of ours does something for the honour and glory of God or roots out some sins! One thing tortures and troubles me: namely that I see how little it is that I am able to contribute to that end. Why may not I too face dangers and hardships, so as to share the spoils with those who throw themselves bravely into the midst of the battle lines! Sometimes, such is my malice, I delight in the quiet which I am granted to enjoy here: but when news of the things done there reaches me, I am consumed with grief and with emulation of those women of Paterna. Although I rejoice too that God has begun to employ my Discalced nuns in His service; and often, when I see those minds take up things of this kind with such courage, I persuade myself that it cannot be that God imparts such great graces to them except for some signal end. And if they did nothing more, this alone would affect me with gladness, that they have stayed for some time in that monastery, and have prevented at least some offences against God: how much more, then, must I rejoice now, when I hope that it will be in
the Lord that they will one day be of profit to very many souls!
[743] to whom she also discloses her mind about promoting foundations, Leaving Paterna, concerning which some things will still occur later, let us pass by this very letter to other matters. The holy Mother continues it thus: Remember that to the declaration which will be made in favour of our Friars there be also appended the licence of founding monasteries of virgins. I use as confessor here Doctor Velázquez, canon of the church of Toledo, a man, as is commonly known, excellent in learning and piety. He takes it ill that convents of nuns are no longer being founded; and he has exhorted me to implore, through Doña Luisa de la Cerda, the intercession of the royal ambassador who is at Rome, to obtain the faculty of founding from the Prior General, or, failing that, from the Supreme Pontiff: for he affirms that it can be said that our monasteries are the mirrors of Spain; and that he will assert this very thing in writing. I have already informed you before of the foundation which is being offered. Answer me, then, about both matters. From the little letter which you sent me I took great solace: may God repay you the favour. For my part I already held firmly in mind what you say. Why does Fr. Baltasar give me no news? I would have you greet all our brethren in my name.
[744] about avoiding excessive bareness of the feet But what Fr. Juan of Jesus says, that I wish you to go barefoot, is indeed a thing I wonder at; since I always forbade this to Fr. Antonio: and he erred if he stood by my judgement. For, since it was my purpose to attract suitable men to us, I feared lest they should be deterred by too great a harshness of our life; and yet on the other hand that bareness of the feet was necessary, by which you should be distinguished from those other Carmelites. I do not know whether I said that you would be equally exposed to the cold with this sort of footwear as if you went entirely unshod: but this I well remember having said, namely that in my judgement bare feet agree very ill with a good mount; wherefore that the use of mounts should by no means be permitted to our friars, except for the sake of a long journey or of necessity; finally that it seemed absurd to me that some young Discalced friars had been carried here on a mount, where the journey was so short that they could easily have made it on foot. And this very thing I say again, that young men who have no shoes do not sit well on well-saddled mules. For the rest, the things that are fastened on me about immoderate bareness of the feet never even came into my mind. Advise, then, that nothing else be done by anyone than what has been customary until now, and indicate this to our Father.
[745] and about moderating the harshness of food. The other thing is what I have strongly urged, namely that better food be provided for our friars. For the things you told me are before my eyes; and quite often I grieve very much that I have not yet been able to effect anything in this matter. Yesterday, before your letter was brought to me, I had at length come to the hope that after two days an amendment would be made; but when I saw in what way things are managed, I betook myself to God, to ask for solace. For He, as He began all our affairs, so will He also order what has been begun: and I rejoice that I have you agreeing with me. Besides, I asked urgently that our friars be exercised in manual works, at least in making little baskets or similar things, and indeed at the hour of recreation, if no other time is available: for where there is no leisure for literary studies, this is of the greatest moment. I would have you understand, my Father, that I am a friend of great progress in virtues, but not of rigour, as can be seen from our houses of nuns; I do not know whether because I myself am little given to penance. I give very many praises to our Lord because He gives you so much light for such great affairs. But the greatest of all is this, to desire solely the praise and glory of God. For which would that it might befall us to meet a thousand deaths! Amen. Amen. (Vol. II, letter 46). What the Saint treats in this letter to Fr. Mariano recurs in part together with other affairs of the Order in a letter written about the middle of December (vol. II, letter 23) to Fr. Gracián; whom she had also informed and consulted on the 7th of the same month about the foundation offered to her at Aguilar de Campoo by a rich and childless widow, who, at the persuasion of a certain Father of the Society of Jesus, had resolved to spend her fortune on the erection of a convent of Discalced Carmelite nuns (ibid., letter 22). Thus, then, I have indicated in their places, in the best order I could, almost all the letters written by St. Teresa in the year 1576, as far as I know. To complete their entire series, there need only be added three to Gracián (vol. II, letters 20, 22 and 27) and two to the prioress of Seville (vol. III, letters 71 and 72).
[746] The Apology of the Regulars is written Before we leave the year 1576, however, it seems that mention should be made of a certain rather memorable matter; which, although it seems to pertain scarcely at all to St. Teresa, is yet hinted at in some of her letters and can therefore serve to elucidate them. I speak of the letter of Fr. Fernando del Castillo, of the Order of Preachers, which they call the Apology of the Regulars, written to Philip II from the convent of Atocha on the 23rd of October 1576. This, says Fr. Jacques Échard, our Juan López inserted in his General History, Part IV, book 3, chapter 63, page 736; of whose writing this was the occasion. Against the Friars of the Order of Minors of the province of Baetica, perhaps on the pretext of the guilt of one of them, some of their haters had risen up, contrary to the order of law and to regular discipline, even by the authority of the king: but since this manifestly turned to the common ruin of all regulars and to the loss of their reputation, to the detriment of morals and discipline, our Castillo resolved to meet this evil and to intercede with the king for the rights of regular discipline and for the common reputation and name of regulars; which he accomplished by this Letter or Apology and obtained according to his wishes. (Writers of the Order of Preachers, volume II, page 309.) For my part, since that History of the Order of Preachers, written in the Spanish language and comprised in six volumes, of which the first two have Fr. Fernando del Castillo as author, the remaining four Fr. Juan López, does not exist in our library, and since I had sought in vain in other books which hand down either Franciscan or Dominican history a full account of the facts in question, I went to a very elegant codex of the royal Library at Brussels in which the aforementioned letter of Fr. Castillo is contained, marked with the number 3763 and written in a very elegant hand, an error, however, having been committed in the note of the year, where at the end 1580 is written for 1576.
[747] against the Nuncio and Juan de Padilla. Further, to say nothing else than what serves our matter, the complaints carried to the king by this letter (rightly or wrongly) fall chiefly upon the Nuncio Ormaneto and Juan de Padilla, most zealous friends and patrons of St. Teresa. And indeed in the manuscript copy of the letter which I consulted a note is subjoined, in which it is said that there was discussion in the royal council both of shutting Padilla up in prison, and also of sending Ormaneto back from Spain and of refusing henceforth whatever Nuncios the Roman Pontiff might send to that kingdom. To this misfortune of Padilla, then, the Saint alludes when in a letter to Fr. Mariano written on the 3rd of November she says: I am greatly distressed at the evils which our good Father de Padilla suffers. The demon cannot but wage war on such great works: may God give that man courage and strength (vol. IV, letter 34). And in another letter, written a little later, as it seems, she testifies her joy at Padilla's good health (vol. IV, letter 33). I do not know, however, whether to this very misfortune of Padilla or to another refer the things which the Saint wrote in the year 1578 on the 28th of July to Fr. Domingo Báñez: The bad lot of Fr. de Padilla, whom I hold for a servant of God, affects me vehemently. May God deign to lay open the truth; for one whom so many enemies pursue must suffer greatly: which indeed is the common lot of all of us; but to ruin life and honour for so good a Lord is a slight thing (vol. IV, letter 73). And what the alleged note reports, that there was discussion of the dismissal of the Nuncio, seems to be confirmed from the first of three letters which, translated into French from the holy Mother's autographs, the Rev. M. Migne first published (Œuvres très-complètes de Sainte Thérèse, volume II, page 664 and following). For there the Saint, after she has again anxiously asked about Padilla's health (in such words, however, as show that the good man at that time, namely on the 16th of February 1577, had either not yet been imprisoned or had already left prison), then speaks thus of Ormaneto: Know, my Father, that I have thought that we altogether need the good Nuncio, who is certainly a servant of God. His departure, if it takes place, will cause me the greatest trouble. Whatever the case, this cause seems, at least as far as it concerned Ormaneto and the future Nuncios after him, to have been shortly settled with good grace on both sides; as the very course of this Commentary of mine will show. And that Juan de Padilla was absolved of the charge by the tribunal of the Holy Inquisition, Fr. Antonio of St. Joseph asserts in his annotations to the letters alleged above.
[748] The holy Mother sends verses We enter the year 1577; at the beginning of which, namely on the 2nd of January, the Saint sent to her brother Lorenzo these verses:
O hermosura que excedeis
A todas las hermosuras!
Sin herir dolor haceis;
Y sin dolor deshaceis
El amor de las criaturas.
O nudo que asi juntais
Dos cosas tan desiguales!
No se por que os desatais:
Pues atado fuerza dais
A tener por bien los males.
Quien no tiene ser, juntais
Con el ser que no se acaba:
Sin acabar, acabais:
Sin tener que amar, amais:
Engrandeceis nuestra nada.
O beauty that surpassest
All beauties!
Without a wound Thou causest pain;
And without pain Thou takest away
The love of creatures.
O knot that so joinest
Two things so unlike!
I know not why Thou art loosed:
Since, being tied, Thou givest strength
To hold evils as goods.
Him who has no being Thou joinest
With the Being that has no end:
Without perishing, Thou makest to perish:
Having none whom to love, Thou lovest:
Thou magnifiest our nothingness.
[749] with a letter to her brother. The same letter in which these verses are inserted also announces what follows: The Nuncio has enjoined me to send him copies of the diplomas which I used for founding monasteries, together with a catalogue
in which are to be indicated the number and place of each monastery, likewise the number of the nuns and what country and age each has; finally how many of them seem to me fit to hold the priorship… They say that he asks these things because he wishes to make a province of our own for us: but I fear rather that he intends to employ our nuns in reforming other convents; about which there has long since been discussion, and truly not to our good: it is enough that we already allow this to be done for the monasteries of our Order (vol. I, letter 31). She is certainly speaking here of the convent of Paterna; for reforming which Gracián, as we saw above, had brought two nuns from Seville. To help these the Saint advises in a letter given on the 3rd of January to the prioress of Seville (vol. III, letter 73) that one or another sister of the white veil be deputed; complying with which advice Gracián chose Margarita of the Conception as companion to the first two reformers. These three Discalced nuns remained in the monastery of Paterna until the 4th day of December; on which day at length they returned to Seville (vol. III, letter 77).
[750] [She writes about the affairs of her Order to Fr. Gracián, to the prioress of Seville and to Fr. Mariano.] On the third day after the feast of the Epiphany the holy Foundress, writing to Fr. Gracián himself, gives the following advice about reforming monasteries: What you say about the loss of so many souls who have given themselves up to the service of God in Religion, I have long since deplored. The best thing to do is to provide them with good confessors: and unless you apply this remedy, wherever you send our Discalced nuns, I fear you will profit very little. For it will be a great difficulty if, intent on exterior things, they have no one by whom they may be helped in interior things; as I myself experienced, until our Discalced friars began to give their services to the convent of the Incarnation. Now, since you intend nothing else than to bring healing to souls, I would have you procure this, with the added command that in those places where there is a convent of the Friars no one should visit the nuns who could disquiet them (vol. IV, letter 24). Other letters she gave on the 17th of January to her brother and to the prioress of Seville (vol. I, letters 32 and 56); and again to the latter on the 26th of January she wrote among other things: You see how many papers I send to our Father (Gracián)… Here too the command of the General was seen which was intimated to me while I was still at Seville, by which not only I am forbidden to go out, but all the other nuns as well; so that they are not permitted to move into any house, whether for holding the priorship or for any other cause. And so ruin would threaten us if ever his commission were taken from our Father. For even if the Discalced govern us, this will profit us nothing unless our Father, while still commissary, declares that we may go out at times: and his declaration suffices both for me and for the nuns. Since, then, it can happen at any hour that we are caught thus unawares, I beseech you to accomplish this business with all the diligence you can. The one to whom you give the letters to be carried to our Father can wait until the declaration is written, for the writing of which not much time is needed, and bring it to you on his return. But do not send letters otherwise than by the muleteer, and with a good price set for the carriage; and signify to our Father that I have written to you that he should send his answers to you. We have been wonderfully mad until now: that is, the administrator, who is most learned in the law, and Doctor Velázquez, having inspected the General's command, say that we can act, and they are sending a memorandum on this matter. May God do whatever will most conduce to His service. And since they enjoin me to see that the thing is done quickly, I comply with them (vol. III, letter 74). You see the holy Mother's tireless prudence. At the beginning of February, when fear had come upon the Saint on account of Fr. Tostado's journey to the court at Madrid (vol. I, letter 33), it happened conveniently that Fr. Pedro Hernández of the Order of Preachers came to Toledo, formerly visitor of the Castilian Carmel, whom we have often mentioned with praise. And he told me, she says, writing (unless I am mistaken) to Mariano on the 16th of February, that the power of the visitors will prevail, if Tostado cannot exhibit a diploma by which he shows that he has right over them; but if otherwise, we must keep silent and obey, and approach the matter by another way. For the commissaries, by the authority which they have, can neither make a province nor appoint definitors. And so there is need of counsel and of prayer to God, in whose power all things lie: may He deign, as we all ardently ask, to restore you to health more quickly. This notary whom you see has only this one instruction, to report to me what your opinion is on this business and in what health you are (letter 1 among those which the Rev. M. Migne first published). Mariano's answer seems to have relieved Teresa of her fear, as far as can be gathered from another letter to the same written about the same time; in which she also shows joy at the promotion of Gaspar de Quiroga, bishop of Cuenca and president of the Holy Inquisition, to the archiepiscopal see of Toledo; and asserts that she had long before held this promotion as certain. (Vol. IV, letter 35).
[751] [She announces to her brother Lorenzo the judgement of the chief Inquisitor about her books, and other things.] On the 28th day of February the holy Mother gave a long letter to her brother Lorenzo, from which I select the following: I have received good news of my writings. The chief Inquisitor, by an example unheard of until now, read them himself; and he seems to have spoken of them with a show of honour. He himself told Doña Luisa (de la Cerda) that nothing is found in them which could make trouble for the Inquisitors, since they contain nothing evil, but rather much good. Then too, out of the excellent disposition he has toward the Discalced, he asked why I had not yet raised a monastery at Madrid. Know that this is the same man who not long ago was designated archbishop of Toledo. This business of ours is greatly at his heart, as Luisa wrote to me, who is on the friendliest terms with him and seems to have held a conversation with him in I know not what place. She herself will shortly, when she returns here, inform me of the rest. Please communicate these things to the bishop (of Ávila), the subprioress and Isabel of St. Paul, but not to others; and ask them to indicate them to no one, but to commend all things to God. Truly news of this kind is excellent… Fr. Visitor is well. Now, as it is said, Tostado is returning; which return, I believe, will tend to this, that these affairs of ours may at length one day become known to the whole world: for it appears that nothing else is being acted than a comedy. Meanwhile I ardently desire to see our Father relieved of that burden. May God do as He shall see it ought to be done (vol. II, letter 50). In the same letter she informs Lorenzo that the nuns of Seville have been increased in abundance of temporal goods. On which prosperity she also congratulates their prioress herself, in a letter likewise given to her on the 28th of February: May God reward you, she says, for the good news which you write to me: for truly I tell you that it was most pleasant to me, and above the rest what pertains to your house: for it is a great relief to me that you are enjoying some quiet. I had asked this of God with much prayer: wherefore not without great pleasure shall I give you my New Year's gifts. Would that God may deign to hear me praying for you! For now, since you are rich and pre-eminent in office and enjoy prosperous fortune, you greatly need divine help for cultivating humility. And to me indeed it appears certain that all those benefits have been conferred on you by the goodness of God, to whom be eternal praise: which I would have you altogether be persuaded of with me. Then, after a few words interposed, she touches on another matter in these words: It greatly displeases me that our Father is instituting an inquiry in legal form into the gibes uttered against us. For they are mere disturbances, which it is better to laugh at and endure: for my part, as far as I am concerned, I am not a little delighted with them (vol. II, letter 87).
[752] She writes a letter of critique on spiritual matters. There follows in order of time a rather long letter to the same prioress, given on the 2nd of March; in which among other things there is treatment of the explanation of these words of Jesus Christ to Teresa: Seek thyself in Me. The holy Mother narrates that she had proposed these words to her brother Lorenzo, and that the same had also been called into discussion by other pious men; among whom it had then been agreed that each should send his commentary on them to the nuns of St. Joseph at Ávila: but that the prelate of Ávila, Álvaro de Mendoza, had ordered that the Saint herself should act as judge; which indeed she says she did, although for the pain in her head she could scarcely read (vol. I, letter 57). There is extant our Saint's letter of critique on the aforesaid commentaries to the bishop just praised, which the Spaniards commonly call la Carta del vejamen, and which, on account of the native graces with which it is adorned, is deservedly praised by Palafox as an excellent example of holy wit (vol. I, letter 5). Not unlike in cheerfulness and sprinkled with very neat jests is also another letter of the holy Mother to the prioress of Seville, which seems to have been written at about the same time (vol. II, letter 86).
[753] Nicolò Doria becomes a Discalced Carmelite. On the 24th of March there put on the Carmelite habit Nicolás of Jesus Mary, born at Genoa of the most noble family of Doria in the year 1539; he who afterwards, in the year 1588, when the complete separation between the Calced and the Discalced had been made, was proclaimed first Vicar General of the new Order. Having run through the course of studies with praise partly in his native Italy, partly in Spain, and having then been honoured with the priesthood, he had restored the domestic affairs of Cristóbal de Rojas, archbishop of Seville, which were disordered and almost ruined. Meanwhile he had frequently discussed the affairs of his soul with Fr. Ambrosio Mariano; and at times he had also spoken with St. Teresa about his vocation to the religious life, without expressing the name of any Order. From then on the holy Mother, wonderfully delighted with the man's piety and prudence, had striven with earnest prayers to God that he might be enrolled among the Discalced sons of Carmel. How much she rejoiced at his entrance into Religion she testifies in a letter to the prioress of Seville written on the 9th day of April (vol. II, letter 88).
[754] The Teresian Reform About the same time, although she had received not very happy news from particular houses: for at Malagón toward Ana of the Mother of God, whom the Saint had substituted as vicar (vol. II, letter 25, note 4) for Brianda of St. Joseph, summoned to Toledo on account of illness (vol. II, letters 89, 90 and 91, and letter 2 of those which the Rev. M. Migne first published), the nuns were not so well disposed (vol. I, letter 36; vol. II,
letter 63); at Beas and Caravaca the poor maidens were being tormented by judicial troubles (vol. II, letter 89); at Seville the prioress and subprioress were gravely ill (ibid. and letters 90, 91 and 92, likewise vol. IV, letter 68): nevertheless the Saint conceived new hope for the general affairs of her Reform from the fact that Gracián was being summoned to Madrid by the Nuncio Ormaneto (vol. II, letters 89 and 90); whither he did in fact make the journey toward the end of May, after Tostado had already arrived there on the eve of Pentecost, the 25th day of the same month; as Fr. Antonio of St. Joseph says is established from the books of the Calced Carmelites of Madrid. See what the holy Mother wrote on this matter on the 28th of May to the prioress of Seville: The coming of our Father has brought us a good Pentecost; he is setting out for the court, summoned by the Nuncio, enjoying the most perfect health. Know, therefore, that it is altogether necessary that we commend our affairs to God with very much and most careful prayer. Tostado is now staying at court. Four or five days ago he passed through here with such haste that he stayed here only three or four hours, not more. May God, however, do in all these things what will most conduce to His honour and glory: for we desire nothing else (vol. III, letter 75). Meanwhile it is doubtful to me whether on this occasion, or rather some months before, Gracián begged of the king and the nuncio that he be freed from the burden of visiting the Andalusian Carmel; as the author of the Chronicle narrates that he did, with a vain attempt (book 3, chapter LVI, and book IV, chapter XXI).
[755] By the death of the Nuncio Ormaneto But at this very time all St. Teresa's expectation was utterly upset by the death of Ormaneto. That most excellent man, who had deserved excellently of the Catholic Religion, whom St. Charles Borromeo, writing in the year 1566 to Cardinal Alessandrino, declares to be altogether upright in managing affairs, learned, brave, candid, and scarcely ever ceasing in promoting the business entrusted to him, departed from this life, not in the year 1557, as is written by a printer's error in Maffei's Verona illustrata (volume II, page 420); nor in the year 1575, as Biancolini, wishing to correct this error, asserted in the Series of Veronese writers among the Supplements to the Veronese Chronicle of Pier Zagata; nor finally on the 18th of January 1577, as Ughelli has it (Italia Sacra, volume V, column 460, Venetian edition): but, as is clear from the series of the acts and letters of St. Teresa, in the month of June 1577. And so great had been his contempt of earthly wealth and his generous liberality toward the poor that he did not leave even enough money for the burial of his body: wherefore Philip II had a most ample funeral made for him from the royal treasury.
[756] and by the arrival of Filippo Sega, his successor, Before Ormaneto died, Filippo Sega, bishop of Ripatransone, had already been designated his successor by Pope Gregory XIII, as Fr. Filippo Becchetti teaches in his Ecclesiastical History (book XXIV, no. 45). Sega, as the same Becchetti and Strada (On the Belgian war, decade I, book IX) with very many historians relate, had already for some time been apostolic Nuncio in Belgium with Don John of Austria, whom he had accompanied as he entered Brussels in solemn pomp on the Kalends of May 1577, and to whom he had offered on the part of the Supreme Pontiff fifty thousand gold pieces, formerly destined for the British war. From then on, both with Don John and with the delegates of the Belgian States, having exhibited the pontifical letters which he had, he had striven vigorously to promote the cause of the Catholic Religion, with a not very happy outcome, however, on account of the perfidious machinations of many rebels against God and the king. In the month of July, when Don John withdrew from Brabant to Namur, the Nuncio was still staying in Belgium, on the testimony of Strada; but he went away to Spain some time before the 24th of August, as is clear from the letter written on that day by the States of Belgium to King Philip which Pieter Bor exhibits in his History of the Belgian War (book XI); at the beginning of which it is said that the bishop of Ripa had recently brought with him another letter of the same States to the king. He seems, moreover, to have arrived in Spain before the 25th of September; as I think can be gathered from Strada's History compared with the narrative of Gaspar Schetz Corvinus, Lord of Grobbendonk, which Pieter Burmann the second published in Latin in his Analecta Belgica, and of which a double manuscript copy in the French language exists in the Burgundian Library at Brussels, marked with the numbers 15897 and 15898. For from the one Strada records that Don John received from the king letters hastened by the efforts of Filippo Sega, in which the king wished it proclaimed to the delegates of the States that they should lay down their arms, should not admit Orange, should obey the Perpetual Edict: from the other we have Schetz, an eyewitness, who affirms (in Burmann, part 1, page 111) that this letter was given on the 25th of September.
[757] into Spain Before Sega went away from Rome into our Belgium, intending from there (as I was just demonstrating) to set out for Spain, the superiors of the Carmelite Order in Italy had left no stone unturned to draw the new Nuncio to their side and to rouse him against the Discalced, using also for this very purpose the help and authority of Filippo Cardinal Boncompagni, whom Gregory XIII, his uncle, had given to the Carmelites as protector in the year 1573, when St. Charles Borromeo freely and of his own accord resigned, and who besides had Sega bound to him first by the bond of kinship, then also by many benefits. When this man arrived, then, the face of Carmelite affairs among the Spaniards was soon changed, and a huge storm arose against St. Teresa and her offspring: how it began, with what violence it raged, how at length it ceased through the efforts of King Philip, the Saint herself narrates in summary in chapter XXVIII of the book of Foundations in these words: Meanwhile the apostolic Nuncio dies, a holy man and a wonderful patron and cultivator of virtues, who for this reason too esteemed the Discalced. Another is substituted in his place, whom God seemed to have sent for this purpose, to supply us with some matter for suffering. He was related to the Supreme Pontiff by some title of kinship, and was doubtless a servant of God. But as soon as he came here, he began to have the affairs of the Calced Fathers seriously at heart and to promote them zealously; and, according to the things that had been reported to him about us, it seemed to him expedient that these beginnings which had already been made should not go further. Hence too he soon began to carry this very thing into execution with the greatest rigour, condemning, consigning to prison or banishing those whom he thought could resist him in this undertaking.
[758] into grave peril, Above the rest, however, Fr. Antonio of Jesus was harassed, he, I say, who was the foundation of the first monastery of the Discalced, and also Fr. Jerónimo Gracián, whom the recently deceased Nuncio had appointed apostolic visitor of the Calced Fathers. Against him and Fr. Mariano of St. Benedict that new Nuncio rose up most of all. Who and what sort these Fathers are I have already declared before in the preceding foundations. He also took measures against other Fathers of the graver and more celebrated, but not with the rigour he used against the former. To these, then, under the proposed penalty of anathema, he enjoined that no one should say a word any more about any matter. But it was quite evident that all these things were being done under God's direction, and that His Majesty was permitting them for some greater good, and so that the virtue of those good Fathers might become better known in this way (as it also did become known). Wherefore he set over our monasteries, both of virgins and of men, a certain visitor from the Mitigated Order. Who, had he found in them what he was thinking, would have afflicted us far too grievously, although we suffered quite great enough affliction even so, as one who can do it better than I will one day commit to writing. But I touch on these things only in passing and as it were through a lattice, so that the nuns who are to come afterwards may know how much they are obliged always to advance in perfection, since they now find as it were levelled what cost the nuns living today so dear; for some of them at that time suffered quite a lot on account of those unfavourable testimonies and calumnies: whom truly I pitied more than myself; for what I suffered so little afflicted me that I rather took joy and pleasure from it. I was persuaded that this turbulent storm had been gathered for my sake alone, and that, if I were thrown into the stormy sea like Jonah, the whole tempest would subside.
[759] from which afterwards by the help of the king Blessed and praised be God, who takes up the defence of the truth, as He took it up here. For our King Philip, having learned what was going on and having heard what was the manner of life and institute of the Discalced, deigned to take up our defence; so much so that he would not have our cause judged by the Nuncio alone, but of his own accord designated for him four assessors, grave men, and ordered three of these to be religious, so that the justice of our cause might be better inquired into. One of these was Fr. Pedro Hernández, a man excellent in holiness of life, learning and judgement; who had already at another time discharged in the Castilian province the office of apostolic commissary and visitor, of the Calced as well as of the Discalced. He knew the truth of the matter, and what was the manner of life of both these and those; for we desired nothing else than that this should become known.
[760] it happily emerged, As soon, then, as I understood that this man had been named by the king for the examination and hearing of the cause, I held the matter as settled, as indeed it was afterwards, such is the mercy of God, happily settled. May His Majesty grant that it redound to His glory and honour. And although very many grandees and bishops of Spain hastened most eagerly to inform the nuncio of the truth of the whole matter, yet all these things would have profited nothing, had God not used the king as His instrument. Wherefore, dearest ones, since we are most greatly obliged always to commend him to the Lord in our prayers, as also all those who have undertaken to defend the cause of Him and of the Blessed Virgin our Lady. Wherefore I commend this to you again and again. You see clearly, then, dearest ones, how little opportunity was available for founding further. Wherefore we persisted constantly and continually in prayers and frequented penances, so that God might further preserve the houses which had already been founded, if He willed to use them for His honour. Thus the holy Mother there.
[761] is brought. Far be it, however, that Filippo Sega, conspicuous for things done most excellently and most holily for the service of God and the advantage of Holy Church, both in his diocese of Piacenza, to which he was translated from that of Ripa on the 3rd of October 1578, and in Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Germany, France, all which regions he visited at various times as Nuncio or apostolic Legate, and at Rome, where he was appointed by Gregory XIII reformer and visitor of churches and monasteries, and so, on account of his immense merits toward the Christian commonwealth, adorned by Innocent IX with the cardinalitial purple,
renowned and celebrated for the ornaments of piety, continence, indeed also of the endurance of poverty (as is inscribed on his tomb at Piacenza), and of other virtues, far be it, I say, that we should accuse such and so great a man too bitterly for his first severity toward the Discalced Carmelites, not well known to him, which he himself afterwards, the truth having been perceived, turned into the greatest kindness. For the reasons which we brought forward elsewhere in defence of the Most Rev. Fr. Rubeo the General and of the chapter of Piacenza ought surely to tell much more, the circumstances being considered, in favour of the Nuncio, as Fr. Federico of St. Anthony aptly observes (book II, chapter XXX). Thinking, therefore, that further discussion of this matter should be dispensed with, I shall pursue the history of Teresa in the following paragraph.
§ XLI. The Saint gives a letter to the king concerning the calumnies spread against Fr. Gracián, and not long afterwards concerning the cruelty of the Calced Fathers toward St. John of the Cross and his companion and toward the nuns of the convent of the Incarnation at Ávila. She writes the Castle of the soul. She settles amicably a certain controversy with the provincial of the Society of Jesus.
The reputation of Fr. Gracián Fr. Gracián, as soon as he learned of Ormaneto's death, went of his own accord to the chief Inquisitor Quiroga and the president of the royal council Covarrubias, to whose care above all the king had committed Carmelite affairs, intending to lay the laborious office of visitor back in their hands; because he said, St. Teresa also agreeing, that all his authority had fallen with the death of the Nuncio. But it seemed otherwise to King Philip: who, having consulted on that matter doctors of theology and law at Alcalá, Toledo and Madrid, judged that Gracián could still lawfully attend to the office committed to him (vol. III, letter 20); and meanwhile forbade Tostado the visitations which he had intended to make by the power received from Rubeo the General (vol. IV, letter 68). And so Gracián, who had withdrawn for a little while to Pastrana to renew his mind with spiritual exercises, returned again to Seville, to the astonishment of the Calced, who a few days before had spread through that city that he had been deprived of authority and chastised by the king according to his deserts. At the same time, however, Tostado, although somewhat checked by the royal prohibition, was wonderfully tormenting the Discalced Fathers and drawing them apart into various opinions, by sending commands in every direction by which they were forbidden to admit novices, and were ordered to be subject to the Calced in all places in which both had houses.
[763] torn by adversaries The disturbances which arose from this, especially throughout Andalusia, while some of the Discalced thought Tostado should be obeyed, others Gracián, the author of the Chronicle narrates at sufficient length (book IV, chapter XXIV). To these were added grave calumnies against Gracián and the Teresian monasteries, brought forward by the adversaries the more boldly, indeed carried to the king through defamatory libels, because they relied on the lying testimonies of two Discalced friars. The author of the Chronicle asserts that the name of one of these was Miguel de la Columna; but the other's name he keeps silent out of respect, adding that he was one of the leading men of the Reformed Carmel and that afterwards, having become penitent, he prolonged his life quietly and holily at Lisbon until the year 1589. But since he is called Baltasar by St. Teresa in the letters presently to be cited, I have some suspicion that this was Fr. Baltasar of Jesus, who had deserved excellently of the beginnings of the Reform, as we saw before: in which suspicion I am the more confirmed because about the rest of his life, as far as I at least know, both the author of the Chronicle and the other writers of his Order keep a deep silence. The holy Mother could not but be vehemently affected by these calamities. For, as she herself afterwards wrote to Fr. Gracián (vol. I, letter 23), to a certain director of her soul (vol. II, letter 44) and to her patron Teotonio de Braganza (vol. I, letter 3), so great were those accusations against Gracián, and such atrocious libels about him and the Discalced nuns were being offered to the king, that the honour of the Reformed Carmel seemed brought into the utmost peril, and there was no one who did not marvel that men could have come to such a pitch of malice; especially since the angelic life of the nuns and the great integrity of Gracián, to which was added his wonderful patience and cheerfulness in those straits, must have been well known to everyone.
[764] King Philip, to whom by letter Wherefore she, since she had nowhere else to flee for refuge, gave a complaining letter to Philip II in these words: Jesus. The grace of the Holy Spirit be always with your Majesty. Amen. It has become known to me about the memorial presented to your Majesty against Fr. Master Gracián. I for my part am amazed at these arts of the devil and his ministers: who are not content with having inflicted disgrace on this servant of God (for truly he is such, who by his example so draws us all to cultivating the virtues that whatever monasteries he has visited, as the letters constantly written to me testify, he has imbued with a new spirit); but now they are also striving to defile the reputation of these monasteries, where so many virgins serve the Lord so well. And for this most wicked purpose they are using the efforts of two Discalced friars; one of whom, before he joined our Friars, while acting as a servant in these monasteries, showed openly in many things how devoid of judgement he is from time to time. Such a man, then, and others angry against Fr. Gracián, since they were to be chastised by him, the rivals have impelled to subscribe a senseless accusation, by which such monstrous crimes are imputed to the Discalced nuns as would have moved nothing but laughter in me, had I not feared that the devil would twist them to our ruin: so contrary are they to the character of our Institute.
[765] the Saint, complaining, For the love of God I beseech your Majesty not to allow testimonies so infamous to be brought out into the open light before the tribunals: since the nature of men is so constituted that very easily an evil suspicion of someone clings to them, even when the crime has been thoroughly cleared, provided an occasion of suspecting has once been given. Nor can any stain cast on our affairs fail to obstruct the Reform; which indeed, by the goodness of God, are in the best state, as your Majesty, if you deign, can see from the proof which for certain reasons Fr. Gracián has had made for our monasteries by grave and holy men who are accustomed to deal with these nuns. But as regards the authors of these libels, since nothing prevents its being inquired what causes incited them, for the love of God our Lord, whose glory and honour is in question, I beseech your Majesty to extend your care to this too. For if the adversaries see that their accusations are held in any account, they will come to this, that in order to drive the visitation from themselves they will charge the visitor with heresy; and, where there is not much fear of God, proofs of the crime will easily be found.
[766] takes refuge, And for my part the grief with which I grieve at the pitiable plight of that servant of God, whose fairness and perfection of life in all things is well proved, makes me a suppliant to your Majesty, that you either deign to take him under your protection, or remove from his shoulders the burden of visiting, by which he is exposed to these dangers. For he has not degenerated from the virtue of his family, which is wholly in your Majesty's service; but truly he seems to me a man sent by God, and drawn to this Order by the Blessed Mother of God, to whom he shows a remarkable devotion, so that he might be a help to me. For after I had suffered alone for full seventeen years and more, my weak strength had so collapsed that I now seemed to myself unequal to bearing the burden. Let your Majesty, I pray, take in good part a speech prolonged by me too far. For the great love with which I regard your Majesty has made me bold; because I considered within myself that, since the Lord God bears with my inconsiderate complaints, it could not be that you would reject them. May He deign to hear all the prayers which the Discalced friars and nuns pour out, that He may preserve for very many years your Majesty, apart from whom we have no refuge on this earth. I was writing at Ávila on the 13th day of September 1577, your Majesty's unworthy servant and subject, Teresa of Jesus (vol. I, letter 1).
[767] to be wholly restored The end which the Saint had intended by this letter she attained happily shortly afterwards. For, as she herself announced in the month of October to the prioress of Seville, Fr. Miguel and Fr. Baltasar publicly retracted, before notaries and the Most Holy Body of Jesus Christ, the testimony which they had falsely put forth against Gracián: and Miguel swore that nothing of what was contained in that defamatory libel against the innocent had been written by him, but that he had set his name to it compelled by force and threats (vol. III, letter 76). This retraction was made not on the 4th of September, as the Chronicle has it (for why would the Saint still have written to the king about this matter on the 13th of September?), but on the 8th of October, as Fr. Antonio of St. Joseph asserts from the original document (ibid., note 8). Nor indeed was the good Miguel satisfied with having revoked his words in this way; but also, on the 24th of October, on the testimony of the same Fr. Antonio, he directed a letter, witness of his repentance, to Philip II. Baltasar, moreover, about the same time asked Gracián's pardon by a letter, which the author of the Chronicle testifies he had in autograph; in which he confessed that the conduct of the whole Teresian offspring was most holy, and that he had come to the calumny for no other cause than because he had persuaded himself, through a certain false report, that injury was being done him by Fr. Gracián. This retraction of both Discalced friars having been published, an examination was likewise instituted by the royal council concerning the other crimes objected against Gracián from elsewhere; by which at length, the truth appearing clearly, every calumny was dispelled (vol. I, letter 3).
[768] and sees to it that Fr. Tostado is restrained. When all these things had now begun to be dealt with, of the two protectors long since assigned to Gracián by the king, the one, namely Gaspar de Quiroga, the chief Inquisitor, passed from the episcopal see of Cuenca to that of Toledo, to which he had been designated some months before (vol. IV, letter 44); the other, Diego de Covarrubias, prelate of Segovia and president of the kingdom of Castile, departed to the heavenly ones on the 26th day of September. On this occasion, although Quiroga did not cease to apply himself vigorously, as far as he could, to the defence of the Discalced, yet because he alone did not seem sufficient for that labour, the most watchful King Philip committed the care of Carmelite affairs to his whole council; and ordered Tostado to show to the assembled counsellors whatever commands of his prelates he had brought or received, and not to carry them into execution before they had been duly and lawfully examined and approved. He resisted this order with the greatest shrewdness he could; and with much constancy until toward the end of the year carried on a lawsuit on that matter with the licentiate Chumacero, the prosecutor of the causes of the royal council.
[769] at Ávila, her monastery of St. Joseph, Now, to come to other things which are more proper to St. Teresa, the attentive reader will have noticed that her letter to the king, which we saw a little before, was written at Ávila. She had namely betaken herself there in the month
of July, as Fr. Antonio of St. Joseph affirms is clear from a juridical instrument drawn up by her on the 29th day of that month (vol. II, letter 92, note 5). Boucher undoubtedly errs here, in narrating that this removal was enjoined on the Saint by Filippo Sega, Ormaneto's successor; since he was at that time still staying in Belgium, as has been demonstrated above. More credible, therefore, seems to me what Fr. Federico of St. Anthony conjectures (book II, chapter XXX), that the Saint undertook that journey with the leave either of Fr. Gracián or of the provincial of the Calced Carmelites, who could not be unwilling in this, in order to see that her first monastery of St. Joseph at Ávila should be exempted from the jurisdiction of the bishop and subjected to her Order; as she herself narrates at the end of the last chapter of the book of Foundations, in these words: It seems good to me to relate in this place how the nuns of the convent of Ávila (which was founded first of all, and whose foundation has been described elsewhere, but not in this book), who in their first foundation had been subject to the obedience of the Ordinary, have now subjected themselves to the obedience of the Order. At the time when it was founded, the bishop of Ávila was Álvaro de Mendoza, who now presides over the see of Palencia, and as long as he lived at Ávila he wonderfully cherished and protected the nuns. And when obedience was rendered to him, I understood from the Lord that this was indeed expedient at that time. And certainly this sufficiently appeared afterwards; for in all the difficulties which the order has suffered since then, and also in very many other things which have occurred, we have always experienced excellent help and good will in him: hence too he never allowed the house to be visited by another priest; and so nothing else was done in that monastery than what I asked of him.
[770] which until then had been subject to the bishop, In this obedience, moreover, we remained about seventeen years (for I do not remember exactly): nor did I desire that it should be changed. But afterwards, when the bishopric of Palencia was given to the bishop of Ávila, and I was then at Toledo, the Lord told me that it was expedient and fitting that the nuns of St. Joseph should now render obedience to the Order and that I should procure this, and that unless this were done, this monastery would very soon fall away from its vigour and rigour. I, however, because I had understood at another time that it was advisable that it be rendered to the Ordinary of the place, thinking that some contradiction was included in these words, did not know what to do. Wherefore I disclosed the matter to my confessor, who was then he who is now bishop of Osma (Alonso Velázquez, on whom see what I related at no. 732), and is an exceedingly learned man. He said there was no difficulty in it; namely that at that time the former had had to be done, but that now the other was expedient (and that he judged rightly the event has now shown with our eyes in many things), and that he believed it would be far more salutary and more advisable for that monastery to be equal to the other monasteries than to be alone and exempt. Hence he ordered me to go to Ávila and treat of this matter.
[771] the Saint subjects to the jurisdiction of her Order. I found the bishop, moreover, of so different a mind that he seemed by no means likely to incline to it: but when I recounted to him some harms which could befall the nuns if it were done otherwise, and since he regarded them with a singular affection, he began to consider the matter carefully within himself. And, since he is of a good disposition, and the Lord was cooperating on His part, he found other reasons besides (and indeed weightier than I had brought forward): hence he resolved to carry into execution what I asked of him; and although some priests objected that it was by no means expedient, they could obtain nothing with him. For this the votes and consent of the nuns were required; to some of whom it seemed far too difficult and grievous: but since they loved me exceedingly, they therefore acquiesced in the reasons which I set forth to them; especially because they now saw that the bishop to whom the Order owed so much, and toward whom I was singularly attached, had gone elsewhere; and they would not always have me. This reason availed very much with them. And so a business of such moment was at length one day carried into execution and concluded. For all saw in fact in how great a danger of ruin this house would have stood, had this not been so done. Blessed be the Lord for ever, who with such providence and affection procures whatever in any way pertains to the good and salvation of His handmaids. Amen.
[772] Very many, who had elected St. Teresa prioress, While the holy Mother was staying at Ávila with her Discalced nuns for this reason, in the month of October Isabel of the Cross was finishing her three years of priorship in the monastery of the Incarnation. A vote having been held, then, according to the custom and rite of the Order, the greatest and soundest part of the nuns, in whom the memory of our Saint was still in benediction on account of the things done a few years before with the highest praise and spiritual fruit, lawfully elected her as their prioress. And since the other nuns fiercely opposed this election, and so appealed to the provincial, who was then Fr. Juan Gutiérrez de la Magdalena, as superior judge; behold a tragedy truly most pitiable, which the Saint herself at the end of October described thus in a letter to the prioress of Seville: Fifteen days ago, by order of Tostado, the provincial of the Calced came here to hold the election, proposing great censures and the penalty of excommunication for those who should give me their vote. Nevertheless, as if no threats had been held over them, fifty-five nuns elected me. As each cast her vote, the provincial excommunicated and cursed her, and handed over to the flames the papers crushed in his fist and struck. It is now the fifteenth day since, as excommunicated, they are wholly kept from hearing Mass and from entering the choir, even when the divine Office is not being sung there; indeed they are not even allowed to enjoy conversation with their confessors or parents. And what you will wonder at more, on the day after that election had been annulled, the provincial summoned them to repeat the vote. When they had answered him that there was no reason why they should conduct again an election already conducted, he recited again the sentence of anathema; and having called the rest, who were forty-four in number, he appointed another prioress (whose name is Ana de Toledo), and sent the instrument of the proceedings to Tostado, to be confirmed by him.
[773] the nuns of the convent of the Incarnation at Ávila Although she has been confirmed by him as prioress, those former maidens, persisting in their opinion, profess that they will not obey her except as vicar. Learned men affirm that they are by no means excommunicated, but that those Friars are guilty of violating the Council (of Trent), in having appointed a prioress not elected by a plurality of votes. Meanwhile they have had it announced to Tostado that they wish me to preside over them. He said he would not tolerate it; nor would he permit anything else except that I should withdraw into the convent of the Incarnation for the sake of recollecting my mind. What will happen further I do not know. For the rest, to sum up, there is no one whom that affair has not greatly struck and offended: for my part I would most willingly forgive whatever they have sinned against me, if only they had let me enjoy my peace. I by no means desire to live in that Babylon, especially since I have such slender health, which becomes slenderer still when I stay in that house. May God do whatever can most contribute to His service, and deign to free me from them (vol. III, letter 76).
[774] are miserably harassed by the Calced Carmelites; And in a letter to Teotonio de Braganza, given on the 16th of January 1578: Those good nuns of the Incarnation, she says, had elected me prioress in punishment of their sins. The whole city is astonished at the hardships which they have suffered and are suffering and I do not know how long they will yet suffer. Fr. Tostado has used unheard-of rigour against them. For more than fifty days Mass was forbidden them: and now they are still forbidden to see anyone for the sake of conversation. It was commonly said that they were excommunicated; but the theologians of Ávila to a man denied it: since the excommunication fell only on those who should have elected a nun from outside, and I was neither marked as such, nor, since I made my profession in that house and lived many years there, was I held as such by the nuns. That is, if only I had wished, I could have returned there, since I have my dowry there and do not belong to the separate province. Meanwhile the superiors have confirmed in her office the prioress elected by the minority of the nuns. The cause still hangs in the royal council, nor do I know what outcome it will have. To me, however, a disturbance of this kind and the scandal of the city and the disquiet of so many souls has been very bitter: for the excommunicated nuns were more than fifty-four. This one consolation I had, that I had left nothing undone by which to deter them from electing me (vol. I, letter 3).
[775] and two Discalced confessors of theirs, Thus the Saint in the two letters I spoke of: but from other letters it is clear that she earnestly exhorted, both by herself and through others, the maidens most loving of her to hold and revere as true prioress Ana de Toledo, whom they were obeying only as a kind of vicar; which, however, she seems to have obtained from them only after three or four months (vol. III, letter 14). At the same time too, as may be seen especially in the letter sent to Madrid on the 10th of November to Alonso de Aranda, a priest of Ávila (vol. IV, letter 51), she was trying various ways and calling very many intercessors to her aid, to obtain, either from Tostado, or from the provincial, or finally from the apostolic Nuncio, the lifting of the anathema hurled against the nuns of the Incarnation. At length, having heard the opinion of his council, the king himself at the end of the month of November instructed Tostado through the Nuncio Sega to see to it that those nuns were absolved from all censures. Therefore, says the Saint, writing on the 10th of December to the prioress of Seville, Tostado and the others who are his counsellors sent there a certain prior of Toledo (this was Fr. Fernando Maldonado): who absolved them with such troubles that it would be long to recount them one by one, and left them more oppressed and desolate than before; because they wish to have over them not the one whom those men wish, but me. Add that the two Discalced friars, appointed there by the apostolic commissary and the deceased Nuncio, were taken from them and carried off like criminals. Would that they may be freed from the hands of those men as quickly as possible! For I would rather see them in the lands of the Moors. On the very day on which they were taken, they are said to have been twice beaten with rods, and treated as badly as could be. Maldonado, the prior of Toledo, carried John of the Cross off with him to Tostado; while meanwhile Fr. Germán, spitting blood from his mouth, as they say, to the convent of Moraleja
of St. Paul was being dragged by the prior of Ávila (Valdemoro, already known to us from elsewhere); and this prior, when he returned, told the nuns who stood on his side that that traitor had paid signal penalties for his crimes. This event has truly been, and still is, more bitter to those maidens than their other calamities, however great. Of your charity I would have you commend them to God, and also those holy men, for whom tomorrow will be the eighth day of their captivity. The nuns testify that they are truly holy and were never seen to do anything that was not worthy of apostolic men (vol. III, letter 77, to which add 78).
[776] as the Saint writes to the king, This violence was inflicted on the innocent at midnight between the 3rd and 4th of December; and on the following day St. Teresa gave the following letter to the king of Spain: Jesus. The grace of the Holy Spirit be always with your Majesty. Amen. Since I am strongly persuaded that our Lord has destined that in the afflicted affairs of our Order we should find a sure protection in your Majesty, I cannot but inform you of them. Which boldness of mine, I beseech by the love of our Lord, let your Majesty not take ill. I for my part believe it is by no means hidden from your Majesty how those nuns of the Incarnation strove to take me to themselves; because, namely, they thought that something would be brought them by me by which they might be freed from men accustomed to put great obstacles in the way of the quiet and religious manner of life to which they aspire. To remove these obstacles I formerly placed there in a nearby house a Discalced Father, most useful to them by his piety toward God; to whom therefore, on account of the very great gain of souls which he made there together with the companion joined to him, the admiring city attributed the name of saint: and in truth, in my opinion at least, he is a saint and has been his whole life. But when the Calced had removed both companions from there, not without injury and scandal to the city, the Nuncio lately deceased, very many citizens attesting on the one hand the fruitful work of the Discalced, on the other the harms done by the Calced, under penalty of anathema not only commanded that both expelled Fathers be recalled, but also provided that no Calced friar should go to the Incarnation for the sake either of business or of saying Mass or of hearing Confessions, and therefore that the nuns should use only the Discalced and secular clerics. In this way it went well with that house until the death of the Nuncio: who having been taken from among the living, the Calced returned without any proof of their right; and with them disquiet also returned.
[777] with the greatest violence and injury And now a certain Father, sent there to absolve the nuns from anathema, is said to have inflicted on them, contrary to right and law, such troubles that to the penalties to which they had long been subject, and which they still bear, a new heap of sorrows has been added. Among these sorrows the first place is held by the taking away of the Discalced confessors. Whom that harsh man, having broken the locks of their cells by force, violently seized in that part of his monastery in which papers are kept. The whole city is vehemently offended at the boldness of the man; who, since he is not a prelate and has not proved by lawful arguments the power usurped by him (for they are subject to the apostolic commissary), did not hesitate to do such things at Ávila, under the eyes, I might almost say, of your Majesty. And those men indeed had long since desired to lay hands on them: but I not only pity both, but also fear for the life of that most holy Father, almost exhausted by torments.
[778] they are carried off from there like criminals. Wherefore I beseech your Majesty by the love of our Lord to order him to be restored to liberty as quickly as possible, and to forbid those Calced friars to rage with such cruelty against all the poor Discalced. For although these by keeping silent and suffering merit very much, yet scandal is derived from it to the people. Already that same prior who is now here, in the summer season of this year at Toledo, without any cause laid hands on the good old man Fr. Antonio of Jesus, the first of all the Discalced: and everywhere the commands of Tostado are boasted of by the Calced as if they would bring us certain ruin. Praise be to God. Meanwhile, if your Majesty does not bring a remedy to our ills, I do not see how our affairs will at length fall out. For you are our one refuge on earth; whom may the Lord preserve for very many years! I hope indeed that He will do us this favour, especially when He sees Himself so destitute of men zealous to promote His glory. All these handmaids of your Majesty constantly direct their prayers to this end with me. I was writing in the monastery of St. Joseph at Ávila on the 4th day of December 1577, your Majesty's unworthy servant and subject, Teresa of Jesus (vol. IV, letter 1). Yet by this letter the Saint could not bring it about that St. John of the Cross should be freed from his captivity. For nine months, as she herself somewhere testifies (vol. IV, fragment 44), the servant of God was consigned to a most narrow prison, without even once changing his tunic. More gently, it seems, was Fr. Germán of St. Matthias dealt with, although it is not sufficiently clear to me how long he was detained at Moraleja. And how severely the nuns of the Incarnation were still treated in the following month of March is clear from the holy Mother's letters given in that month to Fr. Gracián (vol. III, letter 14) and to Roque de Huerta, warden of the forests (vol. III, letter 50), who with Juan de Padilla was applying himself in the royal council to bring relief at length to those afflicted nuns, whom the Saint compared to Martyrs
[779] [The Most Rev. Fr. Serafino Cavalli, General of the Order of Preachers, gives the holy Mother a token of friendship.] Meanwhile I should believe that it was no slight consolation to the holy Mother that a letter was given on the 5th of December by the Most Rev. Fr. Serafino Cavalli, Master General of the Order of Preachers, who had arrived in Spain that year and was at that time staying at Toledo in the convent of his Order which takes its name from St. Peter Martyr. That is, by this letter she and her nuns of Toledo were made sharers in all the Sacrifices, prayers, preachings, spiritual exercises, vigils, fasts, abstinences, macerations, pilgrimages, studies and other good works and merits of the renowned offspring of St. Dominic scattered throughout the whole world, and were admitted into its friendship and fraternity, and so to all the benefits and suffrages of that Order both in life and in death; there being added besides, by concession of the apostolic See, a plenary indulgence, to be gained once in life and once at the hour of death. Fr. Antonio of St. Joachim wrote in the year 1769 in the Annus Teresianus that the original Latin copy of this letter had been religiously preserved in the monastery of St. Joseph at Toledo; and he exhibits its Spanish version at the 5th day of December.
[780] Fr. Tostado, although restrained by the royal council, On that very day the chief author of the calamities described by me a little before, Fr. Jerónimo Tostado, who, as I said above (no. 768), had long been carrying on a lawsuit with Chumacero about his power, at length lost his cause by decree of the royal council, as the author of the Chronicle asserts from the royal provision, as they call it, preserved in the archives of his Order (book IV, chapter XXVIII). But although it is written in the Chronicle that the lawsuit was decided on the 5th day of November, and the same day is assigned by Fr. Federico of St. Anthony and M. Boucher, doubtless following the Chronicle, yet the very context of the Chronicle seems to argue some slip, whether of the writer or of the printer, by which the month of November was put for December, or the order of events was in some other way, I know not how, inverted. For otherwise how that phrase coheres either with what precedes (in which the author of the Chronicle himself narrated that St. John of the Cross with his companion was carried off from the monastery of the Incarnation on the night between the 3rd and 4th of December) or with itself, I do not see: While Maldonado, the prior of Toledo, was carrying out at Ávila the commands we have mentioned, the vicar general, pursuing his lawsuit with Chumacero, the prosecutor of causes, after many controversies drawn out for almost a whole year, the cause having been seen and reviewed, was at length defeated on the 5th day of November. But this discrepancy of words, such as it is, matters little to our purpose. Tostado, however, when he could no longer do by himself as many things as he had formerly done, seems for some time to have attached himself to the Nuncio Sega, who at that time especially began to torment the Discalced, as instigator and helper; when, namely, as Sega's commissary, as is noted in the Bibliotheca Carmelitana (volume I, column 657), he drew up some decrees for settling, or rather disturbing, the affairs of the Discalced Carmelites.
[781] yet he hinders the Teresian Reform For the rest, not a little light on this matter may be drawn from the letter, partly congratulatory, partly narrative (vol. I, letter 3), which on the 16th of January 1578 St. Teresa gave to Teotonio de Braganza, not long before invested with the mitre of Évora (namely on the third Sunday of October 1577, as our Fr. Antonio Franco teaches in the Synopsis of the Annals of the Society of Jesus in Portugal), and of which I have recently alleged two fragments (nos. 763 and 774). The Nuncio, she says, on arriving favoured Tostado greatly; but forbade Gracián to visit the monasteries. And he, although by no means deprived of the office of apostolic commissary (since the Nuncio had neither made his own power proven, nor had the diplomas been taken from Gracián), yet went at once to Alcalá, and then to Pastrana, where he lay hidden patiently in a certain cave: nor from that time did he use his commission any more; but remained there as one wholly suspended. He desires very greatly to abstain henceforth from visitations: and we too desire the same, on account of the immense evils which redound to us from them, unless God in His goodness procures for us a separate province, without which I do not know where we shall at length come to. Fr. Gracián wrote to me from the road that he had determined in his mind to obey Tostado, if perhaps he should visit; and he advised all of us to do the same. But Tostado neither went there nor came here; because God, I believe, prevented him. Yet it is the common opinion of our Fathers that he is the one who does everything and advises the visitation: by which indeed we are altogether ruined; nor is there plainly any other cause of all the evils which I have set forth to you.
[782] from being spread throughout Spain, I have written to you with an open heart: first indeed so that you may know the whole history of affairs, although you will perhaps be somewhat wearied in reading these things, since I am persuaded of your love for this Order of ours; then also so that you may see how little hope you can have that we should come to Évora (where, namely, the new archbishop desired to raise a convent of Teresian nuns) at this point of time: especially since several other impediments too are added, which I shall now set forth. That is, since I can leave untried no way that has offered itself to prevent this good beginning of our Reform from collapsing (in which matter none of the learned men who
have heard my Confessions disagrees with me), I have those Calced Fathers very hostile to me: who on that account brought it about by their reports to Fr. General that after the general chapter was held a command went out from him by which all the Discalced nuns, and I by name, are forbidden under penalty of excommunication to go out of our houses, and I was enjoined to choose whatever house I wished to live in; and this certainly for no other end than to prevent more foundations of our nuns from being made. It is lamentable that so many maidens who cry out for our monasteries cannot be joined to us on account of their fewness, since it is not permitted to increase their number. And although the deceased Nuncio commanded me not to cease from founding houses on that account, and I have diplomas granted me by the apostolic visitor for that very purpose, yet it is fixed and settled with me not to use the faculty given, unless either our Fr. General or the Supreme Pontiff ordains otherwise. For since I have left off the labour through no fault of mine, it has come about by the kindness of God that, being now wearied, I rest. Although, if I were permitted to deserve well of you, it would not be labour, but rather recreation: for I am held by so great a desire of seeing you that I should think it would go most splendidly with me if I were ordered to go there.
[783] much less into Portugal For my part, besides what I was just saying about the general chapter, I would have you know that the letters patent which I had received from our Fr. General hold good only for the kingdoms of Castile; so that for your Portugal we need a new faculty, which I do not doubt Fr. General would at this time altogether refuse. But it would be obtained with easy business from the Supreme Pontiff, especially if there were shown him the attestation, drawn up through Fr. Gracián's care, concerning the life and conduct of our nuns and the spiritual fruit they produce wherever they live. That attestation, however, I have never read, because I fear lest it make mention of me with too much praise; but grave men affirm that according to that attestation our nuns could be canonized. For my part I should prefer that we should settle this matter, if it must and can be done, with our Fr. General: only, namely, that he should ratify foundations being made in Spain; for, provided a monastery is prepared, we have enough nuns who could be sent there, while I remain at home. But meanwhile, alas! the gain of so many souls is hindered. And if you had any friendship with the protector of our Order, who they say is the son of the Supreme Pontiff's brother, he could dispatch the matter with our Fr. General. And if you procure this, you will certainly render a great service to God, a great favour to our Order.
[784] should be introduced. But another inconvenience also occurs (for I wish nothing to be hidden from you), namely that Tostado has already been admitted as vicar general in the kingdom of Portugal; into whose hands none of us, much less I, would fall with impunity. He will doubtless move every stone there to upset our work; but in Castile, as matters now stand, not so. For after he had discharged his office without exhibiting proof of his power, and especially had raged immoderately in the monastery of the Incarnation, by a new command of the king (for another had already been intimated to him last summer) he was ordered to bring his letters to the supreme council: which letters have not until now been returned to him, nor, I believe, will be returned hereafter. Besides, we have letters of the apostolic visitors, according to which our monasteries can be visited by no one who is not delegated by Fr. General, and he indeed from the number of the Discalced. Since the same does not hold in Portugal, our perfection would soon be done for there. You meanwhile will see whether any remedy can be brought to these inconveniences; and be certain that nuns ready to deserve well of you will not be lacking. Thus the Saint, writing, as I said, to Teotonio de Braganza; at whose exhortation too, in the year 1577, on what day of what month is uncertain, she gave a letter breathing the deepest humility of mind to the Ven. Servant of God Luis of Granada (vol. I, letter 14).
[785] The Saint writes the Castle of the soul. But before we proceed further in narrating the fortunes of the Teresian Reform, we must pause for a little while in recalling certain other matters. And first it remains to be noted here that the Saint, although suffering ill health and afflicted with labours and hardships of every kind, yet for five months of the year 1577 gave her efforts to writing the Castle of the soul, by order of Alonso Velázquez, as Ribera (book IV, chapter III) and Yepes (book III, chapter XVIII) affirm, or of Fr. Jerónimo Gracián, as the author of the Chronicle asserts (book V, chapter XXXVII, no. 7), or perhaps of both, as Boucher conjectures in order to reconcile the said writers (book VII, at the end). The places and times of the beginning and finishing of the writing she herself defines accurately at the head and at the end of her book. That is, in the prologue she has thus: On this present day, the feast of the Most Holy Trinity (that is, the 2nd of July) in the year 1577, in this monastery of St. Joseph of the Carmelite Order at Toledo, where I am at present living, I begin to fulfil what I have been ordered; and in the epilogue: An end was put to the writing of this treatise in the monastery of St. Joseph at Ávila, in the year of salvation 1577, on the eve of the feast of St. Andrew, to the glory of God, who lives and reigns for perpetual eternities. Amen. More will be said of this book in a special paragraph on Teresa's writings.
[786] She breaks her arm, thrown down by the demon. In the same year 1577, on the eve of the Nativity of the Lord, as St. Teresa was going in the evening to Compline, the devil threw her headlong down the stairs and broke her left arm, as Ribera narrates more fully (book IV, chapter IX), with whom as regards the circumstances of the fact Yepes (book III, chapter XII) and the Ven. Ana of St. Bartholomew (her Life, chapter XI) agree; but the Auditors of the Sacred Rota disagree as to a slight circumstance in the report on the virtues of St. Teresa, when, namely, they say that this happened to the Saint as she was coming out of the choir, whereas on the contrary the cited authors in express words report her as standing at the top of the stairs, just about to enter the choir. She herself, moreover, narrated to Fr. Diego de Yanguas of the Order of Preachers that, when she felt her arm thus broken by the wickedness of the demon, she cried out to the Lord: Good God, that one wanted to kill me; and that the Lord answered her: So indeed that one wanted, but I was with you. Then, setting forth the pains which she suffered while her arm was set and dislocated (as Ribera narrates at the place cited): I doubt, my Father, she said, whether there is any human body living today that has suffered so great an ill as this one of mine. These things are established from the testimony of Yanguas, which is alleged from the compulsory Process of Ávila (fol. 20 verso) in the manuscript Summary of the virtues of St. Teresa (fol. 22 verso), formerly used for her beatification and recently transmitted to us from Rome.
[787] [By a letter written to the superior of the province of Castile of the Society of Jesus] Thus far I have discussed the things done in the year 1577. At the beginning of the following year, however, Fr. Gaspar de Salazar, of whom we formerly heard St. Teresa speaking most honourably (no. 303), was meditating a passage from the Society of Jesus to the Discalced Carmelites. On hearing this, and a rumour being spread besides that the Saint was of the same mind as Salazar and that a revelation on this matter was believed to have been made by God to both, Fr. Juan Suárez, superior of the province of Castile of the Society of Jesus, indignant, gave through the rector of Ávila, Fr. Gonzalo de Ávila, a letter to St. Teresa abundantly filled with complaints against her. To which the holy Reformer answered in this manner: Jesus. The grace of the Holy Spirit be always with you. Amen. Fr. Rector gave me your letter, which astonished me not a little; since you write that I have acted so that Fr. Gaspar de Salazar should leave the Society of Jesus and enter the Order of Carmel, because, namely, I said that this was the will of God revealed from heaven. As regards the first, God is witness, and it will appear to be true, that I never wished this, much less dealt about it with Fr. Gaspar. And when I learned of this rumour, even before I had received letters about the matter, I was so disturbed and affected with grief that the illness from which I had long been suffering grew worse from it: and I heard of this matter so few days ago that I have no doubt that you were informed of it long before. As to the revelation which you speak of, since I had neither written anything nor known about this plan of Salazar, much less could I know of a revelation. And even if I had had this which you call a mad revelation (in Spanish: la desvelation que V. P. dice the delirium your Paternity speaks of), I am not indeed of so light a mind as to desire so great a change for such a cause or to persuade that Father to it. For, praise be to God, I have been well taught by very many men what value and weight is to be ascribed to things of this kind: nor would I truly believe that they would have availed much with Fr. Salazar, a most sensible man, if he did not have other arguments in this business.
[788] she denies that to Fr. Gaspar de Salazar, her friend, What you say about an examination to be instituted by the superiors will be excellent if it is done; and so it will be your part to decide this matter: for it is altogether clear, as I think, that he will do nothing against your will or without your being forewarned. The friendship which exists between me and Fr. Salazar, and his services to me, I shall never deny; although I hold it for certain that he helped me not so much out of friendship as out of piety toward our Saviour and His Most Blessed Mother: indeed for two years, as far as I remember, we ceased from giving letters to one another. And from the fact that my acquaintance with him is old, it can be understood that at other times I needed his help much more, namely when this Order of ours counted only two Discalced friars; so that I should rather have thought of procuring this change then than now, when by the goodness of God we have, unless I am mistaken, more than two hundred Discalced friars, among whom there are quite enough fit to help us in our small measure. Nor did I ever believe that the hand of the Lord was more shortened for the Order of His Mother than for the others.
[789] contemplating a passage from the Society of Jesus to the Carmelite Order, You assert also that I wrote letters by which I was preparing witnesses who should say that I was opposing that passage: if this even came into my mind, I would wish that God may not write me in the book of life. Pardon me that I speak so exaggeratedly, as it seems to me: namely, so that you may understand of your
Society what I think; whose affairs I have so truly at heart that I should be ready to shed my life for them, provided the service of God took no harm from it. Great are the secrets of God: and since, God being witness, I have had no other part in this business than what I have said, I therefore do not wish to be a sharer either in the things that are to come. And if blame is cast on me, it will not be the first time that I shall suffer without blame. For the rest, I have learned by experience that, provided God has been satisfied, the other things can easily be settled; nor shall I ever believe that, not even for graver causes, much less for so slight a matter, the Lord will permit His Society ever to become hostile to the Order of His Mother, which He repaired and renewed by the help of the Society itself. But if He should permit it, I fear lest what might perhaps seem gain on the one side would on the other have to be counted among the losses.
[790] that she has been or will be his encourager: We are all clients of that great King. May He deign to make the offspring of both Orders, both that which bears the name of the Son and that which bears the name of the Mother, such that like valiant soldiers we may have nothing else before our eyes than the standard of our King, for complying with His most holy will. If we Carmelites truly do this, it cannot happen that we shall ever be abandoned by those who are distinguished by the name of Jesus; although there are not lacking those who have quite often threatened me with it. May God keep you safe for many years: for I know what your kindness toward us has always been; and I commend you very much, wretched as I am, to our Lord. Render, I pray, the same office of charity to a poor old woman, on whom for six months now a shower of calamities and persecutions has poured down, of which not the least is this business of which I am now dealing with you. For the rest, I pledge you my word that neither by myself nor through others shall I induce Fr. Salazar to desert the Society; just as I deny that I have done so until now. Today is the 10th of February. Your unworthy servant and subject, Teresa of Jesus (vol. I, letter 20).
[791] She gives another letter The provincial, appeased by this letter of the holy Mother, instructed the rector of Ávila to convey to her his excuses for the evil suspicion drawn from false reports, and at the same time to ask her not to be reluctant to read again the provincial's letter received some time before; by which reading, namely, made with a calmer mind than before, she would plainly see that that letter had not been so vehement. He added besides that it would be most pleasing to him and the best thing to do if the Saint would deign to write both to Salazar himself and to the superiors of the Carmelite convents, to deter him from leaving the Society, them from admitting him into the Order of Carmel. The rector did what he had been ordered, and brought back the following answer from St. Teresa: Jesus. The Holy Spirit be with you. Having read Fr. Provincial's letter again and again, I for my part persist in the same opinion: that he thought of me with little fairness, and persuaded himself of things about me which had not even come into my mind. Hence do not wonder that I was rather gravely moved. Yet it matters little: for were I not so imperfect, I ought to have counted it as a favour received from that Father, to whom I profess myself wholly subject, that he deigned to mortify me. And since Fr. Salazar too is subject to him, I think it will be better if he himself, in accordance with his office of prelate, dealt with the accused, than if I, as you ask, gave letters to men not my own, which they could rightly make little of. This is certain, that I know nothing else, and so do not understand that assertion which you say Salazar wrote. For, except that I have not said that a message has come from heaven by which he is forbidden to do what he is meditating, I have left nothing undone by which to lead the man away from his purpose. But indeed, as I remember having told you, there is no need for me to render an account of everything, lest I bring very great harm to a man who must be most dear to me; especially since from his own words reported to me I am altogether persuaded, as I likewise told you recently, that he will not do this thing without Fr. Provincial's knowledge: and if he has neither said nor written this to him, then he will not desert the Society either. But if the Provincial can prevent him from leaving the Society and refuse him licence, I should sin against so grave a man and so excellent a servant of God, if I defamed him in all our monasteries (which however I do not know whether they would deny me credence). For it is a great infamy to wish to do what cannot be done without offence to God.
[792] on the same subject I have written to you most truly; and in my judgement at least I have done all that a generous and Christian woman ought to have done. God knows that I speak the truth. Wherefore, if I did more than I have done, I should be doing injury to nobility and religion. Finally, as I have already told you, when in any matter I have done what I thought should be done, God is accustomed to give me courage to bear with His help whatever evil may redound upon me from it. And in this matter, if anything of the kind should befall, there will be no reason for me to complain that prophecies were lacking, nor to grieve that anything which I ought to have done was omitted by me. That too may happen, namely that you are more to blame, who led me to it, than I should have been if I had not obeyed you. Although, if this business were not done according to your opinion, I am most secure for my part that I should have been held just as guilty as if I had done absolutely nothing; and that my having spoken is cause enough for the prophecies to begin to be fulfilled. But if hardships await me, let them come, for my part. For I have offended the divine Majesty so much that I have deserved even more evils than these can be. Come now, suppose it were so that I had some part in this business; I do not see for my part what crime I have committed against your Society to be punished so severely. For your cause is touched in nothing by so small a matter; since the Society rests on loftier foundations. But may God grant me always to have as foundation never to depart from His will; and may He continually bestow on you light for keeping the same before your eyes. Finally, it would be a great consolation to me if Fr. Provincial came here: since the Lord has willed me to be without the sight of him for far too long now. I am your unworthy servant and daughter, Teresa of Jesus (vol. II, letter 16).
[793] to the rector of the college of the Society of Jesus at Ávila. By these most polished letters, of which the latter seems to be referred to the end of February or the beginning of March, a reconciliation was effected between Teresa and Fr. Juan Suárez, whom the Ven. Luis de la Puente (Life of Fr. Baltasar Álvarez, chapter XXVII) commends much for integrity, piety, prudence and experience in governing souls. Two other letters of the holy Mother directed to Fr. Gracián stand in the volumes printed in the year 1771 and the year 1793 (vol. III, letter 13 and vol. IV, letter 25), in which mention is made of Fr. Gaspar Salazar under the name Carillo: but Fr. Montoya contends (Dissertation II, chapter IV, § I, and chapter VI, § II) that these are to be held as interpolated, just as another letter to the same Fr. Gracián, written on the 22nd day of May (vol. III, letter 28), whose first two numbers the commentator of the Letters refers to the business of Fr. Salazar; although it seems to me not improbable that the Saint is there engaged in a far different subject. But it is better to pass over in silence the sharp controversy raised by Fr. Montoya. Before, however, we take a step to other heads of Teresa's history, we must correct an error into which M. Boucher, treating of the business of Fr. Salazar, incautiously fell. The most deserving writer thought, deceived by the similarity of names, that at that time Fr. Gil González de Ávila presided over the college of the Society of Jesus at Ávila, whose life he describes in summary on this occasion in an added note, citing St. Teresa's letters, the Library of the Writers of the Society of Jesus, the History of the same Society and the book on the illustrious men of the Society, by Fr. Eusebio Nieremberg. But if he had inspected more accurately the sources cited by himself, he could easily have seen that the praised Fr. Gil, elected Assistant for Spain in the year 1573, stayed at Rome for his office as long as Fr. Everard Mercurian held the helm of the Society, namely until the year 1580. The rector of the college of Ávila in the year 1578, however, was the one whom I named above, Fr. Gonzalo de Ávila, who previously, on the testimony of Fr. Luis de la Puente (Life of Fr. Baltasar Álvarez, chapter XXX), had discharged the office of minister in the college of Salamanca: how well he is to be distinguished from Fr. Gil González is most manifestly clear from the History of the Society of Jesus, where at the years 1588 and 1590 the names and offices of both are clearly distinguished from one another. That is, in the year 1588 Fr. Gil governed the Castilian province, Fr. Gonzalo that of Toledo (Part V, book VIII, no. 140); and two years later Fr. Gonzalo was still presiding over the province of Toledo, Fr. Gil meanwhile acting as visitor. St. Teresa employed both as judges of her conscience. For she numbers Fr. Gil González among the men of the Society of Jesus consulted by her about the affairs of her soul in the letter to Fr. Rodrigo Álvarez, already often alleged by me (vol. I, letter 19); and she gave a letter to Fr. Gonzalo de Ávila (ibid., letter 21), from which it clearly appears that he too was her spiritual director and thought so well of her that he even consulted her about the manner of preserving union with God amid the occupations inherent in the office of rector: to which consultation the humble Virgin answered obediently and eloquently, and not without great praise of the man. I conjecture that this letter was written in the year 1578 from this witty phrase: I should wish that you had as much care for my soul as you have for that fountain of yours; which has an evident connection with what the Saint mentions about the same fountain in her letter to Fr. Gracián given on the 22nd of May: I have already written to you, she says, how ardently the Fathers of the Society who live in this town desire the coming of Fr. Mariano, to inspect a certain fountain of theirs… Exhort the man, please, not to omit it nor consign it to oblivion (vol. III, letter 18).
§ XLII. The proceedings of Filippo Sega, apostolic Nuncio, against the Discalced Carmelites. Their second chapter at Almodóvar. The holy Mother's letter of consolation to the nuns of Seville, miserably harassed.
The apostolic Nuncio, long since hostile, At that time, however, all the demons seemed, as she herself says, to
have made war on St. Teresa's Reform, as she herself says, writing to Fr. Ambrosio Mariano in those straits on the 15th of March 1578; nor could relief be expected from anywhere but from God, namely by obeying and suffering (vol. IV, letter 36). Fr. Gracián, if not out of obedience, at least out of reverence toward the new Nuncio, was abstaining from the office enjoined on him by Ormaneto. For, as the Saint afterwards (I do not know whether in the month of August) set forth in a certain memorandum composed for Gracián's defence (vol. III, letter 20), Sega after his arrival in Spain had commanded this Father to bring him the letters and books in which the faculties given him and the proceedings instituted by him were contained. Gracián's mind was to leave all those writings with the Nuncio. But when he was warned by friends that this would displease the king, to whose command he was also subject, he went to inform the archbishop (of Toledo) of the whole matter. He, laughing at the man, said he was more timid than a fly; and advised him to render an account of everything to the king. And when Gracián objected the stumbling-blocks he must fear from the Nuncio on that account, he answered that it was lawful for anyone to go to his superior; and he exhorted him to present himself to the king. Further, the king, having ordered Gracián to return to his monastery, promised that he would take cognizance of the whole business. Certain learned men, and the presentado Romero himself, whom I questioned on this matter, demonstrated by many arguments that, since the Nuncio had not lawfully proved the power exercised by him in that business, Gracián ought not to cease from the office entrusted to him. For the Nuncio had not yet shown the letters given him by the Supreme Pontiff; indeed he does not show them even now, unless perhaps he has done so in these last ten days, although I know most certainly that he was asked in the king's name to show them. Nevertheless for more than nine months Gracián so abstained from his function that not even once did he subscribe his name to any acts whatever, although he knew that the Nuncio had affirmed and sworn that he had never forbidden Gracián to visit the convents. There are very many witnesses of this matter; who also assert that the same Nuncio, when asked by some Carmelite or other to declare Gracián's power void, openly confessed that this was not open to him.
[795] at length, when Fr. Tostado had left Spain, Thus the Saint there about Gracián, to whom during that time, from the month of February to August, she gave, as was her custom, several letters on various affairs (vol. II, letters 24 and 25; vol. III, letters 13–18; vol. IV, letter 24). Mariano, however, in the month of March was staying at Madrid, watching over the affairs of the Order, and intent, with rather slight hope, on procuring a foundation in that city (which we have already touched on at no. 720); and he was abstaining, contrary to the mind of the Nuncio, as it seems, from living together with his Calced Brethren. Wherefore the Saint thought he should be admonished not to oppose the Nuncio's wish in this matter; and at the same time she gave him and his companions the advice to withdraw to their brethren at Pastrana or Alcalá before Passion Sunday, at which time it was fitting to attend more to spiritual than to temporal affairs (vol. IV, letter 36). Antonio of Jesus, an old man of venerable grey hairs, whom Tostado had ordered to be committed to prison the previous summer (vol. IV, letter 1), was suffering from illness at the beginning of this year 1578 (vol. III, letter 13), from which, however, he was relieved in the month of April (ibid., letter 15). St. John of the Cross was still hidden in his dungeon. And so those four men who, according to Teresa, were in a manner sustaining the edifice of the Carmelite Reform on their shoulders, had been made as it were useless; while on the contrary Tostado, these being laid low, was going on more boldly, having indeed suffered a rebuff from the royal council, but then supported by the authority of the Nuncio. Wherefore the holy Foundress seems to have feared for herself and her own from almost no one more than from Tostado; and she felt herself relieved as of a heavy burden when that adversary of the Discalced at length set out at the beginning of the month of May for Portugal, or, as others will have it, for Italy (vol. II, letter 24).
[796] he himself rages of himself against the Discalced Carmelites. But this departure of Tostado profited the Teresian Carmel little or nothing. For Sega himself, thereafter applying himself not idly to its ruin, by letters published on the 22nd day of July (as Fr. Antonio of St. Joseph asserts from the Life of Gracián by Fr. Cristóbal Márquez, vol. III, letter 19, note 3) deposed Gracián from the office of visitor; and commanded the provincials of the Observant Carmel to go round the convents of the Discalced of both sexes, to chastise the guilty, to institute new superiors, not however from the Calced, wherever they judged it needful, and above all to take care that no new foundations be made by the Discalced. When these letters became known, the chief men of the Discalced began to doubt whether or not obedience ought to be rendered to the visitors sent by the Nuncio. The Saint indeed judged, on the opinion of learned men, that the Nuncio's commands had no force, because he had not shown by what power he had issued them: yet at first she did not object to the Discalced showing themselves ready, for the sake of peace, to obey Sega, provided they were not forced to be subject to the Calced. For she said that the Nuncio's command seemed to her entirely tolerable, indeed that this would perhaps be the best way by which at length the desired separation of the Discalced from the Calced would be reached: but she said it was to be feared that Tostado, returning to his undertakings, would seize from this an occasion of utterly overthrowing the Reform (vol. III, letters 19 and 37). In this sense she wrote on the 8th and 9th days of August to her sister Juana de Ahumada and to Fr. Gracián.
[797] His anger, somewhat calmed for a while, About the same days, if we may believe the author of the Chronicle (book IV, chapter XXX), the Nuncio Sega, who until then had thought very ill of Frs. Antonio of Jesus, Gracián and Mariano, and had not hesitated to call St. Teresa a restless woman, a gadabout, unteachable and contumacious, an inventor of evil doctrines under the appearance of piety, guilty of breaking enclosure contrary to the Tridentine decrees and the commands of superiors, and finally a despiser of the apostolic precept (1 Tim. II, 42) by which women are not permitted to teach; he, I say, about that time had been brought from this prejudiced opinion to a kinder view of the Discalced through the efforts of Fr. Juan Roca, or of Jesus, prior of the Discalced at Mancera; who, when he had gone to Madrid to the Nuncio on account of a certain lawsuit he was carrying on with the Calced, and by his order had been detained for some time with the Calced of Madrid as if in prison, having at length obtained an opportunity of speaking, acted as defender of the holy Mother and her offspring so freely and eloquently that the Nuncio, overcome by his speech, promised that he would never subject the Discalced, received into his protection and guardianship, to the command of the Calced.
[798] breaks out again on account of a certain royal edict. But Sega did not long stand by these promises: indeed he rose up against the Teresian Institute more sharply than before, when on the 9th day of August, as the Chronicle reports (book IV, chapter XXVIII), there came forth from the supreme council of the Spains a royal edict, by which it was signified to all magistrates that whatever the Nuncio had determined concerning the religious Orders was void and to be held of no account. A copy of this edict was transmitted to the holy Mother on the 14th of August by her friend Roque de Huerta (vol. III, letter 21). And Mauricio de Pazos, who had succeeded Álvaro de Mendoza in the bishopric of Ávila and Diego de Covarrubias in the presidency of the supreme council, summoned Fr. Gracián to the royal city and ordered him to apply himself again to visiting the convents of his Order. Gracián, says the Saint (vol. III, letter 20), begged him suppliantly not to impose such a burden on him again. He answered that this was the fixed and determined will of God and of the king, which no one was free to resist: he added things about his own presidency, not very pleasant for him to hold, and other things of that kind. To which, when Gracián asked whether he should therefore go to the Nuncio, the president forbade him to go, but told him rather to have recourse to himself, if he needed anything. And so Gracián received very ample letters from the royal council, by whose help he could invoke the aid of the secular arm wherever there should be need. Further, the Saint adds, it was always the opinion that the Nuncio, as far as could be understood from him, had no power over the regular Orders: for since the king took it ill that he had acted so hastily against Gracián without his knowledge (namely nine months before, as we saw at no. 794), he had done nothing thereafter up to the present time. From that manner of acting, however, it is quite clear that some great command of the Supreme Pontiff had been transmitted to him; although he has shown it neither to the royal council nor, as far as is known, to anyone. By this command, which Philip II probably requested by letter or through his ambassador at the Roman court, Gregory XIII is said to have provided that Sega should not meddle in Carmelite affairs. But let the credit of this assertion rest with its authors. Let us go on hearing the Saint.
[799] Fr. Gracián, wavering in mind, Fr. Gracián's mind, she says, was boiling with doubt. For if, neglecting the king's will, he obeyed the Nuncio, we were going to ruin, deprived, namely, of the favour of the king, who has sustained us until now and has interceded for us with the Holy See: especially since moreover it had been found out by us that the Nuncio had procured that we should be visited by that Tostado, who, being Calced and sent by the General with the power of vicar, most certainly had it as his purpose to pull down all our houses; since it had been provided by the general chapter that no more than two or three convents should be left to our friars, and that the number of the Discalced should not be increased henceforth, and finally that there should be no distinction of habit. And Gracián always, indeed most unwillingly, and only to sustain us, took upon himself the burden of visiting the convents: and now it has also fallen hard on him that he has been ordered to exhibit the acts of his visitations; because many things are contained in them which he heard under secrecy: and so he will offend all and defame many, if he shows them to the Nuncio, who has no lawfully proven power by which he could bring a remedy to evils. From these things set forth most truly by me, to which others too could be added, anyone will understand how unjustly Gracián was dealt with in that letter of the Nuncio. He has never done anything here except on the opinion of well-learned men: for although he himself does not lack knowledge, yet he never trusts his own judgement. And as for the Nuncio's refusing to submit his faculties to royal approval, they say this is new and unheard of among the Spaniards; since those who were Nuncios before always did so.
[800] after other ways of placating the Nuncio The Saint, therefore, not doubting at all of the justice of her cause, added spurs to Gracián, still timid, to take up the matter bravely, every scruple being driven away, and at the same time also gently. Your wisdom and prudence, she says, is needed in these circumstances, so that we may seem to fear nothing else than to offend God.
And when you speak to the Nuncio, if indeed he will hear you, excuse yourself to him in these matters, signifying, namely, that you will always be most ready to obey him, but that it escapes no one how sharply Tostado opposes these undertakings of ours, and that inquiry can easily be made into these things; and anything else that occurs to you. Above all, however, by whatever ways you can and on whatever conditions they wish, treat with the Nuncio about obtaining a province for us: for all our salvation and indeed this whole Reform lies in it. Wherefore it also matters very much that you treat of this same matter with the king, with the president, with the archbishop, finally, to say it in summary, with everyone; and that you show that all the scandals and wars, especially in the kingdom of Castile, arise from this one source, namely that we have not so far had a separate province (vol. III, letter 21). Thus the Saint on the 14th of August.
[801] sought in vain, But Gracián did not have easy access to Sega, as is clear from the following letter of Teresa to him, written on the 24th of August (vol. II, letter 26), in which she anxiously inquires whether he has at length at some time met the Nuncio: and in which at the same time, to note this too in passing, she bears witness to her grief at the death of Sebastian, king of the Portuguese, killed twenty days before in battle among the Africans; and she narrates that Rubeo the General had given a letter to Quiteria, a nun of the convent of the Incarnation, which chiefly showed what bad news about the Discalced had been carried to Rome. Further, while during those days, as Fr. Antonio of St. Joseph shows (vol. IV, letter 23, note 10), the Calced Carmelites, especially Frs. Coria and Suárez, both Andalusians, who in the preceding month had come to Sega with many complaints about Gracián, were spending their efforts and money in carrying and sending in every direction to the Discalced the Nuncio's letters of which I have treated above, Gracián, together with Mariano, who had remained diligently at Madrid until then (vol. IV, letter 75), and had lived there with the Calced in order to satisfy Sega (vol. II, letter 47), seems to have gone away to Pastrana: where Fr. Antonio of Jesus was also present at that time.
[802] he at length submits to his command But scarcely had these three heads of the Discalced thus come together in one place, when behold, Suárez and Coria also came to Pastrana with the Nuncio's letters, demanding with imperious words obedience from the Discalced living there. Gracián at once calls into counsel all the gravest Fathers of the convent. But as these went off into different opinions, he shut himself up in a little cell with Benito of the Blessed Virgin, a man holy in everyone's opinion: at whose advice, although the magistrate of the place, surrounded by a throng of citizens, had already run up to drive off force from the Discalced with the royal decree against the Nuncio's letters (of which at no. 798), yet the gentle man, led by reverence for the Supreme Pontiff, whose person Sega bore, and hoping besides that he would easily be excused by the king, ordered all his Discalced to assemble in chapter to make a declaration of their compliance toward the Nuncio. After this he of his own accord gave into the hands of the two Fathers I named a little before whatever letters he had received from Ormaneto and whatever other instruments of his office.
[803] contrary to the will of King Philip. That readiness of mind of Gracián and of the Discalced of Pastrana to obey appeased Sega for a while; but on the contrary it so displeased the king that not a little was taken away on this account from his usual good will toward the Discalced. And when Gracián, accompanied by Antonio and Mariano, was returning to Madrid, for the sake, as I think, of clearing himself before the royal council, the Nuncio, probably fearing lest the king, having heard Gracián and his companions, should rescind whatever had recently been done at Pastrana, ordered them, scarcely having entered the city and suspecting nothing of the kind, to be led away as if captives into the convent of the Calced, being deprived of the opportunity both of celebrating or hearing Mass and also of writing or receiving letters. The author of the Chronicle (book IV, chapter XXVIII), whom I have followed in this narrative, relates besides that Frs. Mariano and Antonio not long afterwards were transferred by the Nuncio's order to other convents, the former namely to that of Atocha of the Fathers Preachers, the latter to that of St. Bernardine of the Fathers of the Order of Discalced Friars Minor, Gracián meanwhile remaining alone with the Calced Carmelites.
[804] The wretched state of her affairs To this period, however, I do not know whether there is to be referred a fragment of a letter written by the holy Mother to Fr. Gracián, which runs thus: May the Holy Spirit be with you and give you courage and strength to sustain this battle. For scarcely anyone at this time is there whom God permits to be assailed with such fury by the devil and the world. Blessed be the name of the Lord, because He has willed that you should merit so many and such great rewards of virtues at once. Certainly, were we not so soft by nature, we should easily grasp with our understanding how great cause we have for rejoicing. It refreshes me that you no longer suspect that you are excommunicated: I for my part never had even the least doubt of this matter (vol. IV, fragment 19). It is to be regretted that the letter from which these words are taken, and which perhaps would have brought us much light, does not survive entire: and still more to be regretted that we are without the letters which the Saint herself mentions as written by her at this calamitous time to the king and the Nuncio (vol. III, letter 7, and vol. IV, letters 26 and 75).
[805] to Fr. Pablo Hernández S.J. Certainly that was a calamitous time for the Teresian Reform. The Discalced had the king little favourable to them, the apostolic Nuncio hostile, the mind of Rubeo the General estranged from them: powerful adversaries were threatening, ready for every occasion of raging; nor was there any help or aid any longer among friends. The convents lay disturbed and scattered by internal discords, while some gave themselves up as vanquished to their enemies, others thought it most glorious to suffer bravely every extremity for their institutes, nor was there anyone present who could recall the minds divided among themselves to one and the same opinion by his authority. See what Teresa herself, lamenting over these things, wrote to Fr. Pablo Hernández S.J. on the 4th of October: Jesus. The grace of the Holy Spirit be with you, my Father. Eight days ago Ana of the Angels, prioress of Toledo, wrote to me that you are staying at Madrid. By this news I received great solace, because you seem to me to have been brought there by God Himself, to bring some relief to my sorrows. For I have suffered so many and such various evils since the month of August of the year just past that it would be a great relief to me if I were permitted to see you in person and pour into your bosom some part of my sorrows (for I could not recount them all). At present, however, we have come to the height of misery, as he who brings this letter to you will inform you, a most faithful man and, out of his love for us, a sharer in our calamities too. The service rendered to God by our Discalced, both men and women, with a perfection of which you could not think without consolation, has been most troublesome to the devil. And among the Discalced friars, who now have nine convents, there are very many men of exceptional endowments of mind; who, since they do not have their own province, suffer such troubles from the Calced that they cannot be described one by one.
[806] the Saint sets forth by letter; All our salvation or ruin, after God, turns on the hands of the Nuncio; who, truly on account of our sins, gives so much credence to the Calced tearing our reputation that I do not see how matters will fall out. As regards myself, I am called a gadabout and restless; and the monasteries which I have founded I am said to have founded without the licence of the Pope or the General: than which crime what could be worse, what more unworthy of a Christian? But those good men, alas! spread among the public many other things too, horrible and intolerable to say, both about me and about Fr. Gracián, who visited them. For my part, believe that these things are said by me truly, I do not hesitate to affirm that Fr. Gracián, for his most honourable conduct and the exceptional purity of his conscience, deserves to be numbered among the greatest servants of God with whom I have dealt: in short, he was, as you can easily know, a pupil of your Society throughout his whole life. The cause why the Nuncio began to think very ill of that Father is to be traced back to Alcalá; and that on account of certain particular matters, in which, if they were rightly known, either slight or no fault at all of Gracián would be detected. The same must be said of me too: unless perhaps I then sinned against the Nuncio, when I obeyed with the greatest good will his commands signified to me, or when I gave him a letter with the greatest humility of mind I could.
[807] and his protection, I believe, however, that all these things fall upon us from above, because, namely, God wills that we suffer. And so there is now no one who cares for the truth and speaks some little good word for me. At which evils, to say what I feel, I for my part am rather glad than disturbed or crushed: but it seems to me that, if it were established that those crimes which those Fathers lay on me are false, perhaps neither would those which are said of Fr. Gracián find credence with the Nuncio; which truly matters very greatly to us. Wherefore I send you a copy of the letters patent which I received from the Most Rev. Fr. General, from which you may see how foreign to the truth is what the Nuncio says, that our houses were founded without licence. But, as I see, the devil bends all his strength to ruin these houses: wherefore it is my wish that certain servants of God should take their protection upon themselves. Alas! my Father, in cloudy weather how few friends one finds!
[808] for the unjust opinion about her Discalced I hear that you are very acceptable to the president and have come to Madrid for his sake. And since I do not doubt that he has received all these things and more besides from the Nuncio about us, it would be worth while if you, who are in a manner an eyewitness, since you have my soul thoroughly known, would snatch the error from the man: in which way I think great service will be rendered to God by you. Show, I pray, how much it matters that these undertakings of ours should make progress; especially since it does not escape you how far declined the state of this Sacred Order was. But they say this is a new Order, novel inventions. Let them read, then, the first rule, which we alone keep without mitigation, but with that rigour with which it was first given by the Supreme Pontiff. Let them only believe their own eyes, so that they may see how we live, and likewise how the Calced: but let them not lend their ears to these, who from I know not where so many things,
which are by no means true, have brought out for our ruin.
[809] to be snatched from the Nuncio, Besides, I pray and beseech you to speak in my name to that Father who is confessor to the Nuncio, and greet him with my words, and inform him of the whole truth; so that, namely, he may lay a scruple on the Nuncio against divulging most evil things to my ruin, no examination having gone before. For however wicked I am, I am not so rash as to have committed the things which are commonly boasted of about me. Of these things you will say what you judge should be said. Finally, if it seems good to you, you could show by what authority I founded my monasteries. Indeed I once received a precept by which I was forbidden to make an end of founding; and when I begged our Most Rev. Fr. General to order me to desist from that labour, he answered me that he wished me to found as many monasteries as I have hairs on my head. Therefore there is no reason why so many handmaids of God should be ill spoken of on account of adverse testimonies. And since I received from your Society my upbringing, as they say, and my existence, it seems fair to me that the truth should be laid open by a man of the Society; so that the Nuncio, a most weighty man, since he has come to reform the Orders in these regions unknown to him, may at length one day know whom he ought to reform and to whom he ought to wish well, and may punish most lying men according to the gravity of their offence. For the rest, as I have already said, you will see what needs to be done.
[810] she earnestly begs for herself. Meanwhile, through the love of God our Lord and of His precious Mother, I pray you not to allow that good will of yours, with which you have always regarded us since you came to know us, to be found wanting in this time of hardship. Our nuns will truly repay you the reward excellently, and you owe this both to my will and to the truth itself, which I would have you defend by those reasons which you shall think most opportune. Please inform me of everything, especially of your health. Mine indeed has been very infirm; and thus God has straitened me in every way: but I should grieve little at my sorrows, if only I did not see those servants of God suffer. May the Lord be with you and keep you. Finally indicate to me whether it is true, what I have heard, that you will not leave that city very soon. Today is the day of St. Francis. Your unworthy servant and genuine daughter, Teresa of Jesus, Carmelite (vol. III, letter 7).
[811] But the Discalced themselves, by electing for themselves a provincial Reduced, then, to these straits, the Discalced Carmelites entered upon a bold plan, at the exhortation especially of Gracián, of electing a provincial of their own. They had come to that thought some months before; but at that time they seem to have yielded to the authority of St. Teresa, who on the opinion of learned men altogether dissuaded this thing. For she had written on the 15th of April to Fr. Gracián that Master Daza and Doctor Rueda had been consulted by her: and that to both such an election seemed unlawful unless the consent of the General or of the Supreme Pontiff were added; nor would anything else be given by it than an occasion for the outcries of the Calced: and therefore it would be much more advisable if, through the intercession of King Philip, leave to erect a new province were asked of the Holy See (vol. I, letter 22) And since this last plan had greatly pleased the Saint, she had omitted no occasion of urging and hastening it, as is clear from very many of her letters. Indeed there stands a memorandum, drawn up by her during these months of which we are treating, on the separation to be made between the two Carmels under the authority and with the good leave of Fr. Rubeo; of which memorandum these were the chief heads: That the monasteries of Virgins should be commended above all to the care of the provincial: and that indeed no one was fitter to discharge that office than Fr. Gracián; but, since he did not please the General, that Antonio of Jesus or St. John of the Cross or someone else, provided he had neither formerly been nor still was Calced, should be set over the new province: further, that the provincial would see to it that the customary contributions were sent each year to the General; which were indeed to be doubled if Gracián became provincial: finally, that the law of enclosure did not seem to be so strictly restricted for the nuns that they could not sometimes go out from their convents to lay the beginnings of new foundations (vol. IV, letter 48).
[812] contrary to the mind of St. Teresa It seems, moreover, to have been agreed between Gracián and Teresa that some of the Discalced should set out for Rome to obtain this most desired solution of the disturbances and discords; and the holy Mother had still written to Gracián in that sense on the 29th day of September, proposing to him two Fathers whom she thought most fit for the Roman journey and for promoting affairs with the Holy See and the General (vol. IV, letter 27). But, as I have just begun to say, those peaceful efforts were at length upset by the tumultuary counsel of many of the Discalced: when, namely, Gracián in despair, some agreeing with him, perhaps without even Teresa being advised, and certainly against her will, resolved to attempt by his own strength what he thought he could no longer obtain by another's help; and to this end he suggested to Fr. Antonio of Jesus, who in the year 1576 had been elected first definitor in the chapter of Almodóvar, that he should proclaim a chapter to be celebrated in the same place on the 9th day of October. And in order to colour the convocation of the chapter with some plausible name, he brought forward the acts of Frs. Pedro Hernández and Francisco Vargas of the Order of Preachers, formerly deputed by St. Pius V (as we saw at no. 496) to visit the Spanish Carmelites; by which acts he contended that it had been permitted and enjoined to the Discalced that, the visitations being completed, they should assemble in chapter to create a provincial for themselves.
[813] and of St. John of the Cross Concerning the weight of this pretext, which Montoya declares to have been altogether none (dissertation II, chapter VI, § III), let others see what ought to be determined. This is certain, that St. John of the Cross, who, having a little before been freed from his Toledo prison by the help of the Mother of God, had come to Almodóvar with the others, most openly contradicted Gracián's opinion with almost the same reasons which St. Teresa had already alleged in the month of April, as I demonstrated above: although Boucher thinks that the conscience of SS. Teresa and John was too delicate in this respect. Whatever the case, the chapter held its course. Fr. Antonio of Jesus was elected provincial: Fr. Pedro of the Angels and Fr. Juan of St. James were destined for the Roman journey; and St. John of the Cross was substituted for the said Fr. Pedro in the government of the convent of Mount Calvary, who was at the same time ordered to visit the nuns of Beas for I know not what reason. These things having been so decreed, Fr. Juan of Jesus came from Madrid to Almodóvar: who at first indeed, when he had made public with many arguments his own mind and that of Fr. Nicolás Doria, similar to the mind of St. John of the Cross, felt that he was singing to the deaf; yet afterwards he brought it about that the chief of the assembled Fathers should go as suppliants to the Nuncio, to render an account of what they had done, and to ask approval. Thus at length the chapter was dissolved, of which fuller things may be read in the Chronicle (book IV, chapter XXXI).
[814] untimely, exasperate the Nuncio's mind still more. About the same time news had been carried into Spain that the Most Rev. Fr. Giovanni Battista Rubeo had departed from the living on the third day before the Nones of September, in the 71st year of his age, the 16th of his generalate. At which news the Saint testifies that she grieved so much that she spent a whole day in weeping: For I could not, she says, writing to Gracián on the 15th of October, remember without grief the things which he had suffered undeservedly on our account; and had we gone to him, everything would have been straightforward: may the Lord pardon that man who prevented me from agreeing with you about the way of placating the General; although you too believed me little in this matter (vol. III, letter 22). I have thought these most significant words of St. Teresa should be cited here, in confirmation of the discussion instituted by me in § XXXVI. For the rest, the letter from which I have drawn them, as it is very plain at the beginning, so toward the end it passes into a most intricate sense, so that Montoya contends (at the place cited) that it was stitched together from various fragments of St. Teresa's letters by a man too zealous for Fr. Gracián's reputation; yet with useless labour, since Gracián himself attributed to himself the greatest part of the things done in the chapter of Almodóvar in a certain panegyrical memorandum on his own actions. It will suffice, therefore, to have added here from the aforesaid letter this one thing: namely that the Saint, Rubeo being now dead, wished that the Discalced destined for Rome should give up their journey for that time; because, namely, she feared lest either in Spain or certainly in Italy they should be seized by the Calced as fugitives and consigned to prison, from which they could be freed with more difficulty than St. John of the Cross had been freed from his: he, namely, about that time had undergone a month's shutting up in a certain cell of the convent of Pastrana. Further, when the Discalced, as had been agreed, came into the presence of the Nuncio, and the name of chapter and the election of a provincial sounded in his ears, there was no longer any measure to his indignation. He at once rescinded whatever had been done at Almodóvar: he ordered Gracián to go away to the convent of the Carmelites of Madrid, Mariano to that of the Dominicans of Atocha, Antonio of Jesus to that of St. Bernardine of the Discalced Franciscans, Teresa to Toledo again as into a new captivity; and, having passed most severe decrees on the 16th day of October, he began seriously and from the heart the entire destruction of the Teresian Reform.
[815] On the first day on which the Saint was informed of these decrees, she so fainted in spirit for the vehemence of her grief that she abstained entirely from taking food. Christ, appearing in visible form, encourages the sorrowing Teresa. When this was noticed, after some part of the night had already passed, the Ven. Ana of St. Bartholomew exhorted the sick woman to go down into the refectory to refresh her strength a little before the signal was given for the night Office. The holy Mother obeyed the words of her dearest daughter; and sitting at table, on the testimony of Ana (her Life, chapter XV), she had Jesus Christ standing by her in visible form, breaking bread with His own hands and putting a little piece of it into the mouth of His beloved bride with these most sweet words: Eat, daughter; for I see well how much you are suffering: be of good courage, because the thing cannot be done otherwise. It is incredible to say how great a confidence the holy Mother conceived from this vision. Wherefore, casting all her care upon the Lord and lifting up her eyes to the heavenly mountains, whence she knew for certain that help would come to her, she both multiplied prayers, fasts and mortifications of the body for herself, and also enjoined her nuns to multiply them. Nor yet did she so employ these spiritual aids as to think the temporal ones were to be neglected: indeed with singular care, not only by herself, but also through the Ven. Ana of Jesus, prioress of Beas (as Fr. Ángel Manrique notes in her Life, book III, chapter XIII), she strove to win the favour and patronage of the grandees for herself and her own, and religious of great
name as intercessors; nor did she omit to write to the king himself in words which, on the testimony of Ribera and Yepes, effected more with him than the intercessions of many powerful persons.
[816] To her nuns of Seville, We must now speak of the vexations which began to be exercised by the Calced Carmelites against the Discalced nuns of Seville toward the end of the year 1578 with greater cruelty than before, as I forewarned at no. 738 of this Commentary. The matter must be traced a little further back from the narrative of the prioress, María of St. Joseph. After the holy Mother had left Seville, a certain unlearned priest almost daily, from morning until evening, under pretext of a general Confession, held conversations in the Sacred Tribunal with two nuns alternately. When the prudent prioress, to whom this was very displeasing, wished after a space of three or four months to dismiss him, he began so to tear the reputation of that excellent maiden before the clergy and people of Seville that at length there was not a single priest who did not distrust her, much less was willing to hear her Confessions. On learning this, St. Teresa, who had long since exhorted her dearest daughter to patience, called to her aid Fr. Pedro Hernández of the Order of Preachers, already often praised by me: who, having weighed the matter with Fr. Nicolás Doria, advised María of St. Joseph not to use that priest any longer for hearing the nuns' Confessions. But the provincial of the Andalusian Carmel, himself also hostile to the prioress, forced that unsound confessor on the nuns again.
[817] grieving that their prioress had been unjustly deprived of office, Then indeed the impudent detractor, using the help of two nuns whom he had deceived, began to accuse before the Holy Inquisition with horrible crimes not only María of St. Joseph and other maidens of the convent of Seville, but also Fr. Gracián and St. Teresa. Hence various examinations were instituted with great noise and tumult, the enormity of the lies growing so much that St. Teresa, on hearing them, said laughing: If they wish to lie, let them indeed lie in such a way that they find credence with no one. And an instrument having at length been drawn up by notaries, in which, to omit things intolerable to chaste ears, the most pure Virgin Teresa was brought in in an unseemly way, the priorship is taken from Mother María of St. Joseph not without great scandal to the city; and in her place another maiden, very young and most hostile to her, is substituted with the title of vicar. Amid these things so great was the terror of the nuns that all had their mantle ready, in case they should perhaps be carried off to the prison of the Holy Inquisition. The prioress herself narrates this in Fr. Emmanuel of St. Thomas Aquinas (vol. III, page 217).
[818] the Saint strives to bring relief, How greatly St. Teresa pitied her beloved daughters is easy to understand. For if she bore a maternal heart toward all her nuns, yet she regarded those of Seville with so singular a love that the others, on her own testimony (vol. III, letter 66), as it were somewhat envied them. And so she was at hand to them with every help she could, chiefly by her own prayers and those of other nuns to God, and, as far as was permitted, also by letters. But since in the course of time all ways of receiving and writing letters had been closed to those pitiable maidens by the greatest force and injury, she had recourse to a man most friendly to her, Fr. Pantoja, prior of the Carthusian convent of Seville, which takes its name from the Caves (commonly de las Cuevas), and commended her monastery to him in a most affectionate letter written on the 31st of January (vol. I, letter 17), adding at the same time a letter of consolation to her faithful nuns, which she wished all might read, or, if this could not be done, at least hear read. I cannot but set before the reader's eyes the greatest part of that letter, in which the Seraphic Mother discloses, with truly astonishing eloquence and richness of thought, the generous sentiments of her soul, her most lavish love toward her daughters and her deep confidence in the right hand of the Almighty.
[819] and by an eloquent letter It is, then, as follows: Jesus. The grace of the Holy Spirit be with you, my sisters and daughters. Know that my love for you has never been so great as it is at this point of time; and that you yourselves have never had so beautiful an occasion of serving the Lord as you now have: since He now imparts to you an immense grace, by which you may experience His cross for a little while with some part of the abandonment which He Himself suffered in by far the greatest degree on the cross. O blessed day on which you came into that place, where such fortunate times awaited you! You have me very envious of you. And in very truth, when I learned of all those changes, which were narrated to me most fully, when I heard that there had been talk of driving you out of the monastery and other news of that kind, so far from grieving, I rather exulted with the greatest gladness in my soul; because you seemed to me, without even crossing the sea, to have attained by the Lord's goodness a mine of eternal treasures: by which I hope in the same Lord that you will be so enriched that something of your wealth will redound to us too who are here. For my part I trust altogether in the mercy of God that we shall be so helped that He will be offended by you in nothing. And as for your being affected with a great feeling of grief at these things, I would not have that trouble you so much: God, namely, will wish you to understand well from it that you attributed too much to yourselves when you were so desirous of suffering.
[820] a magnanimous endurance of ills Come then, come, my daughters. Remember that God will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able, and that He is with you in your tribulation. Since these things are certainly so, there is no reason for you to fear; but you must hope in His mercy, by which at length there will be place for the whole truth, and certain machinations of the demon, hidden until now, for turning everything upside down will be laid open, at which I have grieved much more than at this present calamity. Prayer, my sisters, prayer is needed. Only let humility shine among you, let obedience shine; which virtue indeed you will all so exercise toward the vicar, and above the rest the prioress recently thrust from office, that you do not allow yourselves to be surpassed by others in this respect. O time than which none is fitter for gathering the fruit of those vows by which you desired to serve God! Observe, I pray you, that God frequently wishes to test whether our works correspond to our vows and words. Give worthy help to the sons of the Blessed Virgin, your brothers, I mean, in this great persecution. For if you help one another, the good Jesus will help you; who, although He sleeps on the sea, yet when the tempest grows heavier He restrains the winds by His command. He longs for our prayers; and He loves us so much that He is always intent on every occasion of procuring our advantage. Blessed be His Name for ever. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[821] and confidence in God she commends. In all our houses your sisters commend you to God: wherefore through His kindness I hope that a remedy will shortly be brought to all your hardships. See to it, then, that you are cheerful; and consider how little, when the matter is well weighed, is whatever we suffer for a God so good and who suffered so much for us. For you have not yet come to the point of shedding your blood for His sake. You are living among your sisters, not in Algiers. And if you let your Spouse act, you will shortly see those very men who now make war on us wrapped in the midst of the waves, as happened to King Pharaoh: but we, the people of the Lord, shall be restored to liberty; nor will there be anyone of us whom the fruit of past sorrows will not stir to long for new hardships. I have received your letters: but I am sorry that you threw some writings into the fire; for they could have been of use. As for your having handed over my letters, this indeed, as learned men here judge, was not necessary to do; but it matters little. Would that all the faults had been heaped upon me alone! although I myself grieved truly at the sorrows of those who suffered through no fault of their own. But the bitterest of all to me was that in the acts of the information instituted there by Fr. Provincial some things were written which I know well how false they are, since I was present at the time. For the love of our Lord see well whether any of you said those things out of some fear or confusion. For, provided no sin has been committed against God, all this is nothing; but over lies, and those to the harm of another, I have been worn out with grief: although they found no credence with me; because it is well known to all with what purity and holiness Fr. Gracián deals with us, and how much he has helped us to profit and advance in the service of the Lord. Hence, even if the things were of slight moment, he is held to grave guilt who imputed them to him. Admonish those sisters out of charity; and rest with the Most Holy Trinity, in whose keeping I wish you to be. Amen (vol. I, letter 51). The very few lines which still follow, since they treat only of quite small matters, it would be superfluous to write down here.
[822] García Álvarez, confessor of the monastery of Seville, In place of that young vicar of whom we spoke above there was substituted, I know not when, Isabel of St. Jerome, one of those five who first came with St. Teresa to the Seville foundation. To her and at the same time to María of St. Joseph, when the disturbances had now begun to be calmed, the holy Foundress gave another letter (vol. III, letter 79), at the foot of which there is written as note of the day: Today is the day of the Cross; by which name I think the 3rd of May, sacred to the Finding of the Holy Cross, is designated. This letter is full of admonitions, chiefly about the care to be given to two nuns, Margarita and Beatriz, who had been the firebrands of the internal war and had then begun to come somewhat to their senses; and it is very long, comprised in nine pages in quarto and consisting of 17 numbers in all. But, as Montoya observes (Dissertation III, no. 172), another letter published by Palafox makes that letter suspect, the greater part of which consists of two short fragments of that long letter, with no difference of words (vol. I, letter 58). Moreover the commentator in his annotations traduces García Álvarez, confessor of the nuns of Seville, as if he had been the first author of that atrocious calumny against the Saint and her offspring, afterwards amplified by the machinations of the Calced Carmelites: and he does not in the least doubt that García was that confessor whom María of St. Joseph, keeping his name silent, censures as a calumniator.
[823] was not the author of these calamities; To me, on the contrary, something far different is suggested both by other letters of the holy Mother to that prioress, and especially by this very one of which we are now disputing. For in them there shines wonderfully the Saint's affection of a grateful heart toward García, who had deserved excellently of herself and her nuns at the time of the foundation (see no. 699) and afterwards, and who numbered some kinswomen among the nuns; so that almost always,
when she wrote to the prioress, she bade him be greeted in particular. Besides, she quite often gave him letters with much confidence: she wished the prioress to speak freely with him about her prayer; and she desired to communicate to him the book written by her about her Life (vol. II, letter 88): she testified once and again that she by no means doubted his truthfulness, not even in those matters which concerned his own kinswomen (vol. I, letter 59 and vol. III, letter 66). If she once sent him a certain memorandum of Fr. Gracián concerning confessors (vol. III, letters 69 and 73), she did this for his direction rather than for reproof; although I do not deny that García's opinion was once disapproved by the Saint, by which he seems to have called in other confessors or directors too freely and without discrimination: Wherefore, she says, it has been my purpose to write to him and to ask him that, if he has anything to communicate with others, he omit the masters of the spirit, and choose exceedingly learned men; for these have extricated me from many difficulties (vol. II, letter 84). Indeed, in the month of October of the year 1576, when there was fear that García would cease from hearing the nuns' Confessions, the Saint, taking this ill, asked him by letter or through the prioress not to be reluctant to continue in discharging that office (vol. III, letter 66).
[824] which at length have a happy outcome. Further, this business of the nuns of Seville, carried to the royal council and diligently examined there, Fr. Nicolás Doria rendering especially vigorous and useful service (vol. I, letter 60, and vol. II, letter 28), had exactly the outcome which St. Teresa had foretold in her letter with perfect confidence in God. That is, the innocence of Fr. Gracián and of those chaste handmaids of God having been proved, which Fr. Ángel de Salazar, then set over the Discalced (as we shall presently see) with the power of vicar general, made duly attested by order of the Nuncio in a juridical instrument written on the 28th day of June, her priorship was restored with honour to María of St. Joseph (ibid., letter 61, note 1), although she had had it in mind to refuse it (vol. I, letter 60). She went on holding the same thereafter with the highest praise for about five years; until, namely, in the year 1584, on account of her wonderful prudence, as the author of the Chronicle teaches (book VI, chapter XLI), she was chosen by Fr. Gracián the provincial to see to the foundation of the new monastery of Lisbon and to preside over it. While she was living there, in the year 1590 she stretched out with great constancy of mind a helping hand to the prioress of Madrid, the Ven. Ana of Jesus, who had merited to be called by St. Teresa herself more worthy of the prefecture than herself and to be held in the Order as a second Teresa; and who, as by her fortitude and prudence she had brought it about from within the precincts of her enclosure that in the year 1580 the Holy See granted her petitions for the separation between the two Carmels, though the Mitigated Carmel was unwilling, so again in the year 1590, though the very chapter of the Reformed was unwilling, obtained apostolic letters for restoring the original Teresian government in the Order. María of St. Joseph, moreover, remained in Portugal until the year 1603; and not long afterwards she died in the convent of Cuerva with a great reputation for holiness, as Diego Ortiz de Zúñiga relates in the Annals of Seville (book XV, at the year 1576).
§ XLIII. The face of the affairs of the Teresian Carmel more joyful, the mind of the apostolic Nuncio having changed. A vision of the Saint, and admonitions signified to her from heaven. Her various journeys, and two miracles.
The Count of Tendilla, from the Nuncio whom he had offended, Of that particular calamity of the monastery of Seville we have said enough in the preceding paragraph. As regards the storms raised against St. Teresa's whole Reform, these too were dissipated within the first months of the year 1579 by the wonderful providence of God. Luis Hurtado de Mendoza, Count of Tendilla, when in the month of February or March he had come to the Nuncio Sega as an intercessor for the Discalced Carmelites, and had at first tried in vain to soften him with courteous words, at length boiling over more vehemently with anger, had not only hurled insulting words at the prelate, but had also impelled the royal council to declare all his acts void by a new decree. The Nuncio went to complain to the king of the injury done him. To whom Philip, after he had undertaken to see to it that the Count of Tendilla should wash out with due excuse the fault committed against the minister of the Holy See, said: For my part I know the enmity of the Calced Carmelites against the Discalced; and I hold it suspect, because it is exercised against men devoted to an austere and perfect life. But you, who I hear by no means help the Discalced, favour virtue at last some time. This answer, uttered by the king with great dignity of mouth and countenance, stung Sega not a little, and was the chief spur to him for changing his mind. To this was added that he knew very well that his severity against the Discalced greatly displeased very many bishops and the highest ministers of the kingdom, and that the Supreme Pontiff himself, informed of Carmelite affairs by letters of the archbishop of Toledo and by word of mouth of the royal ambassador at the Roman court, was thinking kindly enough of the Teresian Reform.
[826] obtains pardon for himself and protection for the Discalced Carmelites. King Philip, therefore, to stand by his promise, commanded the president of Castile (he was, as I have already said elsewhere, Mauricio de Pazos, bishop of Ávila) to recall to Madrid, whence he had departed, Luis Hurtado, guilty of having injured the apostolic Nuncio. The Count, about to do as commanded, gave the president a letter announcing his coming, in which he clearly explained the causes of his good will toward the Discalced Carmelites, and showed himself for the rest ready to give the Nuncio just satisfaction. This letter, when by the king's command it had been set before Sega's eyes, disposed his mind, if not yet entirely changed, at least as near as possible to a change. And so to the Count coming a few days later with his excuses he not only showed himself well disposed; but also, having heard the reasons which he modestly and calmly brought forward in defence of his clients the Discalced, testified that it would be most pleasing to him if some grave men, with whom he could duly confer and determine about the affairs of the Carmelites, were assigned to him by the king. How this wish of Sega's was satisfied will shortly be narrated by me. First, however, we must return for a little while to St. Teresa, still unaware of the things transacted between the Nuncio and the Count of Tendilla.
[827] St. Teresa, still unaware of this matter, There is no need for me to describe minutely the hardships by which the chief Fathers of the Discalced, Gracián, Mariano, Antonio of Jesus, etc., were afflicted after that ill-starred chapter of Almodóvar. It suffices to have noted this one thing in general, that almost no help or hope was placed in any of them; and so the whole mass, so to speak, of the Reformed Carmel was sustained on the shoulders of two virgins bearing the spirits of many men, namely St. Teresa and the Ven. Ana of Jesus. About Ana's labours, praised with a signal eulogy by St. Teresa (vol. IV, fragments 73 and 74), Fr. Ángel Manrique may be consulted in her Life (book 3, chapters XIII, XIV and XV). As regards St. Teresa, besides what we have already mentioned above in various places, it is pleasing to hear the eyewitness Yepes: Most patiently, he says, the holy Mother awaited from the hand of the Lord whatever should befall; and although she saw bad successes followed by worse successes, yet, when all affairs seemed now to be held as lost and desperate, she placed the greatest confidence in God with certain hope. It happened at that time, while one day I was visiting the Blessed Mother at Toledo, Fr. Mariano also being present, that both received letters, in which Fr. Jerónimo of the Mother of God announced that it was altogether all over with the success of his affairs. This letter took from Fr. Mariano whatever hope he had left; and truly, one who did not share that firm confidence of Teresa had reason to despair deservedly. For what could four or five Friars do, and those indeed poor, known to few, despised and harassed by more, destitute of all protection and authority? What could the Mother Foundress herself do, now made an exile and torn by curses and reproaches?
[828] concerning the prosperous success of her Reform, Nevertheless, while all of us were dismayed and thrown down from all hope, the soul of Teresa alone rejoiced in serenity and the greatest confidence. As in a horrid tempest, the winds rolling the sea and the sky covered with black darkness, when skill now fails the sailors and their spirits fall; if perhaps it happens that someone, having climbed the mast, sees the harbour from afar, the ship's crowd at once takes heart again with the hope of safety and calm: so the holy mind of Teresa, climbing above all storms and clouds and illumined by heavenly splendours, seemed to see the near harbour, the end, I say, of that dangerous and dreadful storm; and soon she addressed us in these words: "We must suffer hardships; but this Order will not perish." For, as I afterwards learned, when she was considering whether in fact the adversaries wished this new Reform destroyed, our Saviour had answered: "Some indeed would wish so; but that will by no means happen, but far otherwise." For my part, from that time, although I saw that Order in great straits, I never again lost confidence, nor did I ever fear a bad outcome for it, holding for certain, namely, that everything would thenceforth fall out as the Saint had foretold. Thus the bishop of Tarazona (book 2, chapter XXVIII).
[829] which in the utmost peril But that you may see more clearly shining forth that wonderful serenity which the soul of St. Teresa enjoyed amid so many hardships and labours, and may know more explicitly the cause of the assertion by which she foretold most certainly the imminent end of the evils, I shall now bring forward a most beautiful letter written by her to Fr. Juan of Jesus on the feast of the Incarnation of the Lord, or the day of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in these words: Jesus, Mary, Joseph be in the soul of my Father Juan of Jesus. Your letter has been brought to me in this prison, where I abound with joy in all the tribulations which I suffer for my God and my Religion. This one thing I grieve at and take ill, that you labour under too much solicitude for me: which solicitude, I pray, my son, cast away, and exhort the others too to cast it away. For truly, as if I were another Paul (although I am very far from the holiness of Paul), I do not fear to say that prisons, labours, persecutions, torments, ignominy and reproaches have been made gains to me for the sake of my Christ and my Religion. Never have sorrows befallen me more tolerably than at this time. The Lord, namely, is accustomed to be at hand with His help and grace to the afflicted and imprisoned. I give infinite thanks to my God, and certainly it is right that we should all give them, for the benefits which He imparts to me in this prison. What, my son and Father, can be sweeter, what more pleasant, what more delightful than for
our good God? Did not the Saints rest as in their centre and highest joy when they suffered for Christ and their God? This is the secure, this the most certain way to God; since the cross ought to be our joy and gladness. Therefore, my Father, let us seek the cross, let us desire the cross, let us embrace hardships: and if these should ever fail us, it would be all over with the Discalced Order, all over with us.
[830] she seemed then to be involved, You write to me that the Nuncio has not only forbidden that convents of the Discalced be founded henceforth, but has also, at the request of the Father General, decreed that the convents already founded be destroyed; and further, that the same Nuncio is most hostile to me, and that I am called by him a restless and gadabout woman; and finally, that the whole world stands in arms against me and my sons, and that they are hiding in the rough thickets of the mountains and in the most secluded houses, lest they be found and taken by their enemies. Truly, this is what I weep for, what I feel, what wears me down: that on account of a sinner, that is, a wicked nun, my sons suffer so many persecutions and sorrows, forsaken by all, indeed, but not, however, by God, who, I am certain, will never forsake us, nor desert those who love Him so much.
[831] she is made more certain by a heavenly vision. But that you may take greater joy together with your other Brothers, I am going to tell you a thing of great consolation, but on this condition, that the knowledge of it remain between me and you and Father Mariano: for I would not wish it to be known by others. Know then, my Father, that to a certain nun (understand Teresa herself), while she was intent on prayer on the vigil of my Father St. Joseph, there appeared the same Saint and the Blessed Virgin with her Son. And as Mary and Joseph were praying, the Saviour said to her that the infernal powers and many men on earth were indeed exulting, who thought that the ruin of our Order was already at hand; but that before the Nuncio's decree, fatal to us, had gone forth, this Order had been confirmed by God: and He further admonished that they should approach the king, who would be in the place of a father to us in everything. The same things were said by the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph, and many other things also which ought not to be committed to paper; but in particular that I, with God's help, would come out of this prison within twenty days. Wherefore let us all rejoice; for even now this Reform of the Discalced will take growth. Meanwhile remain in the house of María de Mendoza until I let you know; and let Father Mariano carry one of these letters to the king, the other to the duchess of Pastrana: but take care not to leave the house, lest perhaps you be taken: for shortly we shall see ourselves restored to liberty. I am in sound and firm health, praise be to God: but my companion (Ana de San Bartolomé) has a weak stomach. Commend us both to God, and celebrate a Mass of thanksgiving in honour of my Father St. Joseph; but until I let you know, send me no letters. May God make you a holy and perfect Discalced Carmelite. I was writing on Wednesday, the 25th day of March 1579. I have consulted with Father Mariano, that you and Father Jerónimo de la Madre de Dios should deal secretly with the duke del Infantado. Teresa of Jesus (vol. I, letter 27).
[832] The Nuncio commits the Discalced to the governance of Fr. Angel de Salazar; At about the same time at which the Saint wrote this letter, four assessors were joined to the apostolic Nuncio by Philip II, just as he himself had professed that he wished: namely, Luis Manrique, who was the king's chaplain and almoner; Fr. Lorenzo de Villavicencio, a monk of the Order of St. Augustine and royal preacher; Fr. Fernando del Castillo, likewise royal preacher, of the Order of St. Dominic; and of the same Order Fr. Pedro Fernández, provincial of Castile, the same who had formerly visited the Spanish Carmel as apostolic vicar: all men of proven virtue and outstanding learning. Sega, making use of their counsel frankly and sincerely, after a few days, namely on the kalends of April, issued letters by which he subjected the Discalced Carmelites of both sexes, exempted from the jurisdiction of the provincials of the Mitigated, to Fr. Angel de Salazar as prelate and vicar general — himself indeed one of the Mitigated, but well disposed towards the Discalced, whose holiness he had come to know through long experience. Not long afterward he went round as visitor all the Teresian convents situated in the kingdoms of Castile; and he was also going to make visitations in Andalusia, had he not been prevented by ill health and the multitude of his labours. Likewise at the beginning of the month of April he granted St. Teresa leave to return from Toledo to Ávila; and in the month of July he appointed St. John of the Cross to Baeza, to begin a new college of the Reformed Carmel in that town. Finally the good Father bestowed many other benefits on his Discalced Brothers, which it is not my part to describe at length; but whoever wishes may read them in the Chronicle (book IV, chapter XXXVII and following). Further, in the consultations held between the Nuncio and the four men whom I have named, matters advanced gradually further, so that on the 15th day of July the Nuncio himself presented to the king a memorandum subscribed with their names; by which the three following articles were laid down: first, that the Reform of St. Teresa was by all means to be fostered and retained; second, that the Discalced were not to live mixed together with the Calced; third, that the priors of the Discalced ought to be chosen only from among the Discalced themselves: and moreover the king was asked that he would deign to interpose his authority with the Supreme Pontiff for the creation of a new province of the Discalced.
[833] and from among them to Rome, But three or four months before that memorandum was drawn up, when the hope of a new province was already dawning, as is clear from the letters written to Gracián on the 21st day of April (vol. II, letter 28), the Saint turned her cares to this, that a suitable man from the body of the Discalced should be sent to Rome to promote their affairs. In the preceding year, indeed, by decree of the chapter of Almodóvar, Fr. Pedro de los Ángeles had already set out thither with Fr. Juan de Santiago; but no more benefit came to the Reformed Carmel from that than from the untimely election of a provincial and the other counsels of the Fathers gathered at Almodóvar, which were by no means approved (as I have shown above) by Sts. Teresa and John of the Cross: so that you might rightly say that whatever decrees were framed in that chapter all fell to the ground without exception, and contributed more to undermining than to consolidating the affairs of the Discalced Carmelites. For the said Fr. Pedro, as soon as he came to Naples, with the greatest imprudence, without consulting his travelling companion, went straight to the Reverend Fr. Giovanni Battista Caffardo, vicar general of his Order since the death of Rubeo, who happened then to be staying in that city on I know not what business; and without any caution he laid before him whatever he had in his instructions and the whole purpose of his mission, wrongly thinking that this was the shortest way of accomplishing the business, and that if he took it, there would be no further need for him of a laborious recourse to the Cardinals and the Supreme Pontiff. Caffardo received the man most courteously, it is true; but, in order to overthrow at one stroke the plans of the Discalced, by which he saw that his own authority would be diminished, he ordered that all the letters and papers brought from Spain by the two companions be handed over to him.
[834] whither Fr. Pedro de los Ángeles had previously, Thus Fr. Pedro could do nothing further in Italy until new letters were sent to him from his homeland. While he awaited these, he lodged meanwhile with his companion at the house of Íñigo López Hurtado de Mendoza, marquis of Mondéjar, viceroy of Naples, father of Luis Hurtado, count of Tendilla, an outstanding patron of the Teresian Reform. Íñigo, with his son Bernardino, entertained both Discalced friars most sumptuously in his house, assigning a great troop of servants to wait upon them: which indeed was most vexatious to Fr. Juan de Santiago, who was impatient of this delay and devoted from his heart to the monastic life; while on the contrary Fr. Pedro de los Ángeles, captivated by the comforts of a wealthy house, gradually began to fall away from the love of religious austerity, to which up to that time he had applied himself so earnestly that he seemed, on the testimony of the author of the Chronicle, to emulate Sts. Macarius and Hilarion. In this way that great expectation which the Discalced had entertained of this man's mission to Italy vanished entirely.
[835] but with bad success, had been sent, He did indeed go afterwards to Rome, as is established from a certain letter of St. Teresa (vol. I, letter 48); but there too he seems to have lost his oil and his labour. Having returned thence to Spain, exactly as St. John of the Cross had foretold, he joined himself again at Granada to the Calced, from whom he had formerly withdrawn, and sold the cloak which he had worn as a Discalced friar to a certain woman of that city. This very cloak was bought back by the Venerable Ana de Jesús, who had been made prioress of Granada in the year 1582; and she sent someone to warn the man to provide for himself, as he would shortly die. Struck by this warning, he often sought a conversation with Ana. But she, foreknowing and fearing what was to come, never would give him access to meet her. At length the wretched man, having one day seen the nuns' church open, went in and bitterly wept over his desertion of the Teresian Institute, and rose from prayer deprived of both eyes; and a few days later he died in the convent of the Calced at Granada. When the news of his death was brought to Ana de Jesús, she said this to her nuns: Indeed, sisters, because I already knew this, I had never been willing to speak to that Father; but on the contrary I had warned him not to come here: nevertheless it is better to pay the penalty in the present life, and thus to have escaped eternal punishment. These happenings of Fr. Pedro de los Ángeles are related by Fr. Ángel Manrique in the Life of the Venerable Ana (book IV, chapter VIII) and by the author of the Chronicle (book IV, chapter XXXII); by which writers are also unfolded more at length (Chron. book IV, chapter XXXIX and book V, chapter I; Life of the Ven. Ana, book 3, chapter XIII) those things which I shall now indicate in a few words concerning the next journey to Rome.
[836] Frs. Juan de Jesús and Diego de la Santísima Trinidad set out. Since at that time no thought could yet be given to choosing Frs. Gracián, Mariano and Antonio de Jesús for this journey, after them no one seemed more fit to St. Teresa than Fr. Juan de Jesús, or Roca, prior of Mancera, a most religious man and endowed with the gifts of mind required for conducting affairs well. The judgment of the holy Mother in this choice was approved by common vote by all the leading men of the Discalced except one, Fr. Gracián, who in this matter, for I know not what reason, went an indirect way. There was given to Fr. Juan as companion, the one he himself desired, Fr. Diego de la Santísima Trinidad, prior of the convent of Pastrana. The money necessary for the expenses of the journey was contributed partly by rich friends, partly by the convents of nuns: in which respect Luis, count of Tendilla, is to be praised above the rest, who offered four hundred gold pieces together with
letters by which he earnestly commended the travellers to his father, the viceroy of Naples; and the Venerable Ana de Jesús, who supplied as many gold pieces from the dowry of a certain novice for the use of the journey; nor did the nuns of Toledo lack their praise, being themselves also very liberal; and finally Fr. Nicolás Doria, by whom eight thousand reals were deposited at Seville for the same uses. Besides this, several letters of recommendation, to be of use to the travellers both in various places of Italy and above all at Rome, were obtained from the king and from some grandees of the realm through the industry of St. Teresa and the Venerable Ana. Finally, lest the Fathers be recognized by their enemies as Discalced from the evidence of their clothing and names, they assumed secular dress and other names; which some learned men, carefully consulted on that matter, had judged to be lawful in these circumstances. The garments, therefore, the swords and the other accoutrements of secular men were supplied to both by Francisco Bracamonte, a nobleman of Ávila; from whom at the same time they borrowed a pretext for concealing the principal purpose of their journey: namely, Francisco gave them instructions to act in his name at the Roman curia for obtaining a licence to contract marriage with Ana Bracamonte, closely related to him by blood. All things having thus been excellently foreseen and prepared, they set sail from the port of Illici (commonly Alicante) in the month of May 1579. There are extant concerning their departure two letters of the holy Mother given at about this time: namely, one on the 2nd day of May to Roque de Huerta (vol. III, letter 52); the other on an uncertain day, but certainly when the Fathers had already set out, to the prioress and nuns of Valladolid, whom the Saint there urged to contribute some money to be spent for the benefit of the Order (vol. I, letter 48). Of the happy consequences of this journey we shall have to speak elsewhere; where also I shall more easily refute from the very sequence of the facts the chronology admitted by the author of the Chronicle and by others who have followed him (namely, they put off the departure of Frs. Juan and Diego to the year 1580).
[837] The holy Mother makes known to her own four admonitions of God. In this place meanwhile there offer themselves to be recorded the four admonitions given from heaven to the holy Reformer on the 6th day of June 1579, and twice written down by her: namely, once in the additions to her autograph Life, in the last chapter; and again at the end of chapter XXVII of the book of the Foundations. Here are her words: When I was in the monastery of Ávila on the eve of the feast of Pentecost, shut up in the little hermitage of Nazareth, and was turning over in my mind a singular grace which the Lord had shown me on that day some twenty years before, a great impulse and fervour of spirit began to take hold of me, which also suspended my mind. In this great recollection I understood from the Lord what I shall now relate, namely that I should signify in His name to the Discalced Fathers that they should take care to observe four things; and that as long as they observed them, so long would their Order always grow for the better; but if they neglected them, they should know that it would depart and fall back from its foundation. The first was that all the superiors should be in concord and agreement among themselves. The second, that, although they would in fact have many convents, yet in each there should be very few Friars. The third, that they should converse with seculars as rarely as possible, and that only for the good and salvation of their souls. The fourth, that they should teach more by works than by words. This happened in the year one thousand five hundred and seventy-nine. And because this is most certain truth, I therefore sign it here with my name. Teresa of Jesus. These admonitions the Discalced Carmel thereafter received with the reverence that was due, and by solemn decree resolved to insert them into its constitutions; as the author of the Chronicle teaches (book IV, chapter XL), who at the same time shows of how great moment they were, not only for future times, but especially for the time at which they were given. Palafox also illustrated them one by one in a commentary, together with other admonitions given by the holy Mother in her lifetime, which is to be found at the end of the first volume of the Teresian Letters.
[838] Afterward, by Fr. Angel de Salazar The affairs of her Reform now going more prosperously, St. Teresa resumed in her accustomed way the labours of journeys and foundations, from which she had rested for nearly four years. The occasion of the first journey undertaken by her in the year 1579 was this. The nuns of Malagón, weary of the rule of Ana de la Madre de Dios, who had governed them for two years, were demanding back with all their wishes their former prioress Brianda de San José, who had formerly been transferred to Toledo for the sake of her health (as we saw at no. 754). Wherefore Fr. Angel de Salazar, judging with St. Teresa that it was not unfitting that Brianda should return to Malagón, entrusted to the Saint herself the office of prior there, both that the pious Mother might pacify her daughters who were in tumult, and also that she might examine the spirit of the Venerable Servant of God Ana de San Agustín, who, having made her profession there on the 4th day of May 1578, was being harassed in various ways by the evil spirit, as Giuseppe Maria Salvatori, advocate of the Consistorial Court, relates in the Life of the same Ana extracted from the processes duly instituted for her beatification and canonization, published in Italian at Rome in the year 1777 and in French at Lyon in the year 1832 (book 1, chapter V).
[839] ordered to go to Malagón, Concerning that command laid upon her by Fr. Salazar, here is what the Saint wrote on the 10th of June to Fr. Gracián: By the enclosed letters you will learn what is decided about the poor little old woman. So far as one may judge from indications (although it may be mere suspicion), those Brothers of mine are moved not so much by the need of the monastery of Malagón as by the wish to have me far away from them. And this is what was somewhat hard for me for a little while: for as to the rest, namely that I am ordered to go to Malagón, I did not feel even the first movement of the mind against it; although the office of prioress is troublesome to me, both because I am not fit for it, and because I fear lest I fail in something in the service of God. Pray God, I beg, that I may always remain whole in that service: for the rest, however the thing turns out, the more labours, the more gain… I have written to the Father Vicar the reasons for which it seems to me I ought to be freed from that office of prioress; especially because I cannot attend to the common exercises of our Order in the same way as the others; but that the rest would not be troublesome to me; that I would go to the ends of the earth, provided it were out of obedience. For I am so far from shrinking from labours that I believe rather that the greater they are, the more I shall rejoice, because I shall be able to do something pleasing in some small matter to the great God to whom I owe so much, and that most of all when I do this purely for the sake of obedience… That you may be amused a little, I send you these little verses, which those poor nuns of the Incarnation, among whom the face of things is most mournful, have composed for their own recreation. My departure will bring them great grief; but they still hope, nor am I myself without this hope, that the affairs of Malagón will be settled without me (vol. I, letter 25).
[840] first, by the order of the same, to Valladolid To the same effect the Saint wrote a few days later to María de San José Bautista, prioress of Valladolid (vol. IV, letter 65); to whom she at the same time announced that before she proceeded to Malagón she would go from Valladolid to Salamanca: on account, namely, of a new command which Fr. Angel de Salazar had intimated to her on the 18th day of June, the feast of Corpus Christi; as is clear from two letters, of which she wrote one on this same feast to Ana de la Encarnación, prioress of Salamanca (vol. II, letter 78), the other on the Sunday next following to the prioress of Valladolid just named (ibid., letter 77). But the cause of this journey and also the day of her departure she indicated on the 24th day of June to the prioress of Seville in the following words: Tomorrow I shall depart for Valladolid by a decree sent to me by our Father Vicar General, by which I am ordered to set out thither without delay. Then I shall betake myself to Salamanca. At Valladolid indeed my presence is little necessary; but Doña María and the Most Illustrious Bishop have demanded it (namely María de Mendoza, foundress of the house of Valladolid, and her brother Álvaro, bishop of Palencia, previously of Ávila). But our nuns of Salamanca have need of help, because they live in an altogether unhealthy house, and he who sold it stirs up for them every day many lawsuits and almost intolerable vexations. Wherefore pray God that we may be able to buy some convenient house at a moderate price (vol. I, letter 60).
[841] she comes with Ana de San Bartolomé; It is probable that the Saint, having left Ávila on the 25th of June with the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé, spent three or four days at Medina del Campo, as she had intended (vol. II, letter 77). But she arrived at Valladolid on the 3rd day of July, as she herself announced to Fr. Gracián on the fourth day after (vol. III, letter 23); and there she stayed up to the 30th day of the same month. Besides the letter to Gracián just cited, five other letters are extant written by the holy Mother at Valladolid in the month of July: namely, two to the same Gracián on the 18th and 25th of July (vol. IV, letter 74, and vol. III, letter 24), one to the prioress of Seville on the 22nd of July (vol. I, letter 61), one to the archbishop of Évora on the same day (vol. IV, letter 5), and one to Lorenzo de Cepeda, her brother, on the day after the feast of St. Anne (vol. I, letter 34). A few things must be said of each. To begin with those which are addressed to Fr. Gracián, in the first (which was given, as I was just indicating, on the 7th day of July) the holy Mother strives to dissuade him from now thinking of going to Rome himself; and she exhorts him to keep concord with Fr. Nicolás Doria, whom she says is a prudent man and a servant of God, although not possessing the courtesy and affability of speech in which Gracián excelled.
[842] whence she sends letters of admonition to Fr. Gracián, In the second she gently reproves Gracián for a certain fault in these words: I wish to point out to you a certain temptation which I have had and still have about Eliseus (that is, about Gracián himself). It seems to me that he sometimes does not take enough care to tell the whole truth in all things. And though I see that matters of small moment are concerned, yet I should wish that in this respect he were much more exact. For charity's sake I should like you to persuade him of this in my name: for where this carelessness is present, there entire perfection cannot be. See in what sort of things I meddle, as if no other cares lay upon me. Finally, the third letter to Gracián does not indeed contain matters of great moment; nevertheless it is pleasing to note here that some twenty years ago, through the intercession of the Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord Francisco Javier de Cienfuegos y Jovellanos, bishop of Cádiz (now archbishop of Seville and Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, most renowned for the hardships he bore magnanimously for justice' sake; who after the most recent
siege of Seville, when he himself was an exile and without means, by an admirable example of charity towards his flock, willed that his pectoral cross and other ornaments be sold to relieve the want of the needy), it was sent as a gift by the Discalced Carmelite nuns of Seville to the nuns of the same Order at Paris, as is narrated in the French periodical l'Ami de la Religion under the date of the 11th of February 1824.
[843] The letter to María de San José, prioress of Seville, letters of congratulation to the prioress of Seville is in great part congratulatory, on account of the happy ceasing of the disturbances stirred up against her and her nuns (as was shown above). Here is its beginning: Jesus. The grace of the Holy Spirit be with you, my daughter. And with the fullest right indeed I can call you my daughter; because, though I have long loved you very much, now I love you much more, and so admire you that I most ardently desire to see and embrace you. Praise be to God, from whom all good proceeds, that He has delivered you victorious from so entangled a struggle. For my part, I do not ascribe that victory to your virtue, but to the many prayers poured out to God for you throughout these houses. God grant that we may give Him worthy thanks for so signal a benefit conferred upon us. The Father Provincial has sent me the letters of our sisters, and Fr. Nicolás likewise his own; from which I have learned that you have resumed your office: which was the greatest consolation to me, since otherwise peace would not yet have been restored to those souls. Have patience; and since you have shown yourself to the Lord ready to suffer, fulfil with a glad mind the vow made to Him by bearing these labours, which I understand are not slight. For if we chose only those labours which we wish, and dismissed the rest, we should not be imitating our Spouse, whose prayer in the garden amid the bitterest sorrows ended with these words: "Thy will be done." This will we must always carry out, and let God do with us whatever He wills. Besides this the same letter contains various admonitions of the holy Mother, of which the chief was about the choice of confessors to be made.
[844] and on Portuguese affairs to the archbishop of Évora: Next we must speak of the letter given on the 22nd of July to Teotónio de Bragança, archbishop of Évora. To understand which rightly, it must be observed that, King Sebastian having died, and his successor Cardinal Henry being shortly to die, several rivals had arisen for obtaining the kingdom of Portugal; among whom not the lowest place must be given to the princess Catarina, daughter of the infante Duarte and hence granddaughter of King Manuel: and that she was married to João, duke of Bragança, to whom Teotónio was joined by a fairly close kinship, being born of the same father, but not of the same mother, as Teodósio, the parent of the aforesaid João; as may be seen in the great Dictionary of Moréri (under the word Portugal). It is not my part to discourse on the disputes of these competitors and their consequences; but I may not pass over what St. Teresa wrote on that subject in the letters which I have mentioned to the archbishop of Évora: Take care to inform me if there is any news of peace; for the things which I hear told here affect me with great sorrow, because, if for my sins this business should go as far as war, I fear lest an immense evil be brought upon Portugal, and that not without harm to Spain. They say that the duke of Bragança is the instigator of the war: whence, since the matter in some way concerns you, anguish digs into my breast; not to allege the other causes of grief, which are certainly very many. But since your authority ought rightly to have very great weight with the duke, I beseech you by our Lord to take care that an agreement be entered into between him and our king (who, as I am told, devotes all his effort to this, and indeed makes the justice of his cause most fully proved); and set before your eyes the immense harms which, as I have said, will otherwise arise. These things you will consider attentively, as I desire and hope, for the honour of God, without regard to any other considerations. God grant, as we all ask of Him, that you may set your hand to this work. For my part I declare to you that I am consumed with such anxiety that, if God should permit things to come to that pitch of evils, I would choose to die rather than see such a calamity. I pray God that He may preserve you safe for many years with holiness for the benefit of His Church; and may He bestow on you the grace whereby you may fitly settle this business, which is of such moment for His service. There is but one voice of all here, that justice stands on the side of our king, and that nothing has been omitted by him whereby he might make his right most evident. May the Lord give light, whereby the truth may be clearly seen, lest the hazard of war be undergone with the destruction of many men. For what, at this time above all when there are so few true Christians, could happen more sorrowful than mutual slaughter among them?
[845] then, her companion Ana having been unexpectedly healed, to Salamanca; At length on the 27th day of July the Saint informed her brother Lorenzo that Fr. Juan de Jesús had already arrived in Rome; and that she herself would set out from Valladolid on the next Thursday, which was the 30th day of the same month. At Medina, she says, I shall stay three days or at most four; at Alba, which city is two days' journey distant from Medina, eight days or even less: thence I shall make straight for Salamanca. Therefore, unless perhaps she suffered delay somewhere, she must have arrived at Salamanca towards the feast of the Mother of God's assumption into heaven. But before she left Valladolid, she restored to health, by prayers poured out to God, Ana de San Bartolomé, who was to set out with her; as is clear both from Ribera (book IV, chapter XI) and from the compulsorial Process of Ávila in the cause of the beatification and canonization of St. Teresa, where at fol. 162 and following are read the sworn testimonies of Ana herself concerning her life and miracles. Of this Process indeed we have no copy; but what I shall allege from it here and elsewhere is found in the new additional Summary on the virtues of the Venerable Ana just named, printed by the press of the Reverend Apostolic Chamber. Thus, then, it is read there word for word, in Latin words indeed but with Spanish construction: On the 9th article she said that, as the person who accompanied her in her journeys, she the declarant was much afflicted with a pain in the marrow; and while the Mother placed her hand on her face blessing her, the pain ceased. While this witness was also in her company and service in the city of Valladolid, one evening while she was ready to depart towards the city of Salamanca, this witness fell into a great fever with great vomitings, so that she was compelled to lie in bed: which the holy Mother took ill, and this witness, judging that she would not be able to serve her and accompany her on that journey; and while that night the holy Mother was in her cell, she came to visit this witness about midnight, and said to her: "Are you sleeping, daughter?" and the witness herself answered: "I was sleeping, Mother;" and the Mother replied: "Get up, and see how you are;" and she did this, and felt herself well and without fever; and the Mother was gladdened, and said: "Blessed be the Lord our God, whom I besought to grant you health;" and in the morning they set themselves on the road, and afterwards she felt no infirmity (Additional Summary no. 8, § XV).
[846] where Ana, previously ignorant of handling the pen, begins to write. Another miracle also, which happened shortly afterwards at Salamanca, is narrated in the following words from the testimony of the same Venerable Servant of God in the cited Process (ibid. § XVIII): This witness also remembers that, when one day the Mother was in the city of Salamanca, to which she had come from the city of Valladolid on the journey about which she has deposed, and the holy Mother Teresa of Jesus was in great distress, having received very many letters to which she had to answer, she said to this witness: "If you knew how to write, you would surely help me to answer these letters"; and she herself said to her: "Let your Reverence give me material from which I may learn": she handed her a certain letter of a nun of excellent handwriting and told her to learn from it; and this witness replied to her that it seemed better to her that she should learn from her own handwriting and write in imitation of it; and the holy Mother wrote with her own hand two letters, which she handed to her; and in imitation of them this witness that evening wrote a letter missive to the sisters of St. Joseph's at Ávila, and from then on she wrote: and she helped the Mother to answer the letters which the Mother received, without having, as she deposed, had a master, nor having learned to write from any person; and without having ever learned anything such; and without knowing how to read anything except what was printed, and she recognized handwritten letters with difficulty: from which she knew that it was a divine work, that she might help the Mother in those necessities and distresses which she suffered for His love with such great joy and cheerfulness. The same thing was confirmed in the cause of St. Teresa by María de San Jerónimo, prioress of the monastery of St. Joseph at Ávila, and by Teresa de Jesús the younger, daughter of Lorenzo de Cepeda. Afterwards, in the cause of the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé, other witnesses deposed further concerning that fact; among them three of Ana's confessors, the Most Serene Marie de Médicis, queen of France, and María del Espíritu Santo, a nun of Antwerp. See no. 37 of the additional Summary already cited, and also the Responses to the old and new Animadversions of the promoters of the faith in the cause of the Venerable Ana, chapter VIII, § IX. Some lines written by her and engraved on wood you have in the posthumous Glory of St. Teresa, in the chapter on Miracles. But, as is said there, when she wrote them, her hand was weak with hemiplegia.
[847] Thence at length both virgins Further, from Salamanca on the 4th day of October the holy Mother sent letters to Fr. Gracián (vol. II, letter 29), part of which I translated into Latin above (no. 526), where I was treating of the foundation of Salamanca. Other letters written by her there at that time, which indeed (according to the testimony of the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé just adduced) were very many, have perished. She seems to have stayed with her nuns of Salamanca two and a half months, meanwhile labouring diligently to attend to the business pertaining to the purchase of a dwelling; and from among their number she chose Jerónima del Espíritu Santo as prioress of the monastery of Malagón: whence it is clear that Fr. Angel de Salazar at last gave ear to the just reasons for which Teresa, as we saw a little before (no. 839), had begged to be excused from that office of prioress; although he did not retract the other part of his command, by which he had ordered the Saint, for the reasons I indicated above, to visit the convent of Malagón.
[848] by way of Ávila and Toledo And so the Saint, with Jerónima del Espíritu Santo and Ana de San Bartolomé as companions, first returned to Ávila, probably towards the beginning of November. Then, having stayed some while at Ávila, she entered with great courage on the journey to Malagón enjoined on her by Fr. Salazar, although she had been seized by paralysis on the day before her departure. On this journey, having been drenched with rain for three days, she did not reach Toledo before the fifth day, as Fr. Antonio de San José asserts from the testimony of Jerónima del Espíritu Santo (vol. II, letter 30, note 3). From Toledo on the 19th day of November she sent letters to the noble virgin Isabel Osorio, who desired to be enrolled among the Discalced Carmelites after the example of her sister Inés, who was a novice at Toledo; by which letters she persuaded her to put off her entrance for some time, in order, namely, to co-operate in a new foundation at Madrid, which, as there was hope, was shortly to be made (vol. IV, letter 57): but she added that, if that hope of a Madrid foundation should prove vain, a place was ready for Isabel among the nuns of Salamanca; whether, however, this pious virgin ever occupied that place is called into doubt by Fr. Antonio de San José, who professes that he could not find her name in the books of professions either at Salamanca or in other monasteries (ibid. note 8).
[849] they set out for Malagón, Having left Toledo, at length on the 25th day of November, sacred to St. Catherine, Virgin and Martyr, the holy Reformer arrived at Malagón with Jerónima and Ana whom I have mentioned; and thirteen days later, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, she transferred her nuns into a new house prepared not without many labours: as is clear from the letter given on the 21st of December to Fr. Nicolás Doria (vol. IV, letter 18), and is narrated more at length by Fr. Ribera (book II, chapter V). On that very day of the transfer of the convent, the Venerable Ana de San Agustín, whose spirit the Saint, having diligently examined it, had fully approved, saw a beautiful dove flying for some time about her head, as is narrated in the Chronicle (book XVI, chapter XXIV, no. 8). Then the holy Mother not only devoted diligent effort, together with the new prioress, to bringing back into that monastery religious observance, which under the government of Ana de la Madre de Dios had for various reasons wretchedly collapsed — a labour which indeed turned out most happily for her; but besides she was overwhelmed with almost innumerable affairs, relating either to the Carmelite Reform in general, or to particular monasteries, or to the foundations which at that time were offering themselves to be made at Madrid, at Évora, at Arenas and at Villanueva de la Jara.
[850] and they spend nearly three months there. To follow all these one by one would be too long: wherefore I hold it enough to have indicated them here summarily, referring the studious reader for the rest to the letters which the Saint wrote from Malagón from the 3rd of December 1579 up to the 12th of February 1580 (vol. I, letters 52, 62 and 63; vol. II, letters 30, 31, 32, 33 and 95; vol. IV, letters 18, 19, 28, 29 and 58). As regards the foundations which I was just saying were treated of: that of Madrid, which the Saint greatly desired, was put off up to the fourth year after her death; to that of Évora, which the archbishop Teotónio had pressed much during the Saint's lifetime (vol. I, letters 62 and 64), a beginning was given only after a whole century, in the year 1681; that of Arenas, to which Fr. Angel de Salazar and St. Teresa had turned their minds at the beginning of the year 1580, never took place; of that of Villanueva there will be discourse in the following paragraph. Further, the causes for which the Madrid foundation was so put off we shall afterwards adduce from other letters of the Saint. But what stood in the way of a monastery being founded at Arenas I have not been able to discover. Certainly the matter had already been brought to such a point that St. Teresa thought the foundation was to be made there forthwith, and had already designated as its prioress Ana de San Pedro, a distinguished nun of the convent of Ávila, by nation a Fleming, whose name in the world had been Anne Wasteels, and who had formerly been joined in marriage to Matías de Guzmán y Dávila, a nobleman of Ávila, and had borne him two daughters, of whom one married Alfonso Sedeño, the other embraced the Teresian Institute (see vol. II, letter 6, note 3 and following).
§ XLIV. The Saint founds the thirteenth convent of her nuns at Villanueva de la Jara. Thence she betakes herself to Toledo.
Offered four years before, The foundation of Villanueva, of which we must now speak according to the order of events, the holy Mother describes thus in chapter XXVIII of the book of the Foundations: At the beginning of this graver storm (which, because I have touched on it briefly, will seem slight to you, although it was very great and lasted long), when I was already at Toledo, having returned from the foundation of Seville in the year 1576, a certain priest of the town of Villanueva de la Jara brought me letters from the magistracy of that place, in which it asked that I should go there to found a monastery, for the purpose of admitting nine virgins who had already some years before withdrawn together to the hermitage of St. Anne, and were living in a little house which was near it. Further, these lived in such recollection and holiness that they moved the whole multitude of the town to satisfy their pious desires by which they wished to be nuns. The parish priest of that place, surnamed Agustín Ervías, a man as learned as he was pious, had also sent me his letters for this purpose: and his piety was the cause that he promoted this holy work as much as he could. But to me the thing seemed by no means to be admitted, and that for these reasons: first, that they were so many; wherefore it seemed to me that it would be exceedingly difficult for those who were already accustomed to a fixed manner of life to accommodate themselves to our institute: second, that they had almost nothing with which to support themselves, and the town numbered scarcely a thousand citizens; so that hardly any way appeared of living on alms, and, although the commonwealth promised that it would provide for their necessities, the promise seemed by no means likely to be lasting and perpetual: third, that they lacked a house: fourth, that the town was distant from our other monasteries. And although the piety of these virgins was approved by the talk of all, yet, because they had not been seen by me, I could not know whether they showed the talents which we require in these monasteries. Hence I resolved to deny the requests altogether.
[852] but put off Yet, that I might proceed with deliberation, I wished to communicate the matter to my confessor, who was then Doctor Velázquez, canon and professor at Toledo, a man as learned as he was pious, and who is now bishop of Osma: for it is my custom never to do anything from my own judgment, but everything from the counsel of men of this kind. He then, when he saw the letters and understood the matter in order, advised that I should not reject the requests altogether, but give them some hope: for since so many hearts together, God moving them, aimed at one goal, it was an evident sign that God was well pleased in it and wished to direct it to His service. I acquiesced, then, in his counsel, so as neither fully to grant nor to deny what was asked. But meanwhile, while these things were asked the more urgently through letters, and even through the intervention of others who were to transact the business, the matter was drawn out up to the eightieth year of this century, because it always seemed to me ill-advised and incautious to grant it: yet, when I answered, I could never deny the matter outright.
[853] up to this time It came about meanwhile that Fr. Antonio de Jesús was spending his exile in the monastery which takes its name from Our Lady of Succour (del Socorro) and is three leagues distant from Villanueva, and from time to time went out there for the sake of preaching the divine word; nay, the prior of the place himself also, who is so now as well, Fr. Gabriel de la Asunción, a man pre-eminently prudent and signally holy, came quite often to the same town: for both were very intimate with Doctor Ervías. Since then they from time to time met these holy sisters, they began to be so affected towards their virtues that, urged both by the citizens and by the doctor, they took that matter upon themselves and began to commend it to me most insistently by letters. And when I myself was in the convent of Malagón (which place is twenty-six leagues, and even more, distant from Villanueva), the same Prior made a journey to me, to treat of this matter in person, setting forth what could be done and decided in it; he added that Doctor Ervías himself would assign to the monastery, once founded, an annual revenue of three hundred gold pieces, to be drawn from the pension of his benefice, provided that faculty to do this were given him by the Roman curia.
[854] for certain reasons, But this seemed to me very uncertain and not stable enough after the foundation had been made; although otherwise, with the few goods which those virgins had of their own, it would suffice. Wherefore I alleged several reasons, probable in my judgment, by which I might show the Father Prior that this thing was by no means expedient; and I admonished that he and Fr. Antonio de Jesús should examine it seriously, saying repeatedly that I committed it to their consciences: for I thought that the reasons which I brought them were sufficient to overturn it. When, then, he had departed thence, I began to consider with myself how much he himself inclined to it, and that he would induce Fr. Angel de Salazar, whom we now have as prelate, to admit that foundation: whence I hastened to send letters to him, in which I asked that he should not grant the faculty, and set out my reasons to him; but he (as he afterwards wrote back to me) had never been willing to give it except in so far as I should have consented.
[855] the foundation of Villanueva A month and a half (I know not whether even more) had passed, when, as I was thinking the matter now quite dissolved and hindered, there were delivered to me by a courier letters of the town council, by which it signified and at the same time promised that nothing of those things which were in any way necessary would be lacking to those virgins: Doctor Ervías himself also bound himself to what I have already said before: there came besides letters of those two Fathers, who were pressing the business most earnestly. But the greatest cause of my fear was that so many sisters at once were to be admitted into the Order: for I thought it could happen that these would stir up some faction among themselves (as is wont to happen) against those who had already been admitted and were veterans; and then also, that I saw nothing certain and stable to be had for their support: for what was offered us was not of such a kind as could rightly compel me to admit them; so that I saw myself very perplexed and wavering. But afterwards I discovered that this fear had been stirred up in me by the devil's doing: for although enough courage for this was given me by the Lord, so great was then my faintheartedness
and distrust that I seemed to trust God in nothing. But the fervent prayers of those holy souls at length prevailed.
[856] The Saint at God's command So one day, when I was rising from Holy Communion, and was earnestly commending this business to God (as I often did) (for the reason why I always answered them kindly was that I feared lest in some way I might hinder the progress and good of some souls: for I always desire nothing more than to be able to find and devise some way by which the Lord may be praised, and by which there may be more to render Him service), His Majesty sharply rebuked me, asking with what treasures the other houses which had been set up hitherto had been founded, and commanding me to admit this house, inasmuch as it would turn partly to His service, partly to the salvation of souls. Now the words of God are so efficacious that the understanding not only understands them, but is also enlightened by them to grasp the truth, and at the same time the will too is disposed to carry things out in deed. Which also happened to me here: for not only was I glad then to admit this monastery, but I also seemed to myself to have grievously failed and contracted a signal fault, in that I had put off the matter so long and had leaned more than was right upon human reasons, when I had seen that what His Majesty had done hitherto in this holy Order so far transcended all human reason and grasp.
[857] at length admits it. When, then, I had now fully resolved to admit that foundation, it seemed to me necessary above all that I should betake myself there in person with the nuns who were to remain there, and that for very many reasons which then occurred to me, although the very constitution of my body then dissuaded me from this journey, because I had arrived at Malagón very ill, and the illness had not yet left me. But nevertheless, because I judged that it would be for God's interest, I indicated it to my superior (Fr. Angel de Salazar), asking that he himself should prescribe to me what he judged more expedient to be done. He then not only gave power to found the house, but also, with a command added (namely by letters patent granted on the 28th day of January, as is clear from vol. I, letter 63), ordered that I should be present in person at its foundation, and bring with me whatever nuns I wished. This certainly troubled my mind not a little, that they were to live among those who were already dwelling there. So, having communicated the matter with the Lord in prayer, I took two from the house of Toledo, of whom one was to be prioress, and likewise two from that of Malagón, of whom one was to be subprioress. And because this thing had been asked so fervently and frequently of His Majesty in prayer, this choice turned out excellently; which I certainly valued very highly: for in the foundations which are begun with our own nuns alone, there is not so great difficulty, and all things are arranged with easy effort.
[858] On the journey to Villanueva Fr. Antonio de Jesús and the Reverend Fr. Prior Gabriel de la Asunción had come to fetch us. And when the town had supplied us with all things necessary, we departed from Malagón on the Saturday before the Lenten fast, the thirteenth day of February, in the year 1580. Further, I was so well that I seemed never to have been ill, so that I myself was astonished, and weighed how much it matters not to heed one's own weakness and ill health when we see that the increase of divine worship and glory is in question, whatever contradiction and evil-speaking may at last rise up to the contrary: for He can make the strong out of the weak and the healthy out of the sick; and even if He did not do this at all, certainly nothing more profitable can befall our soul than to suffer something. For to what end do we have life and health, except that we may spend it lavishly for the cause of so great a King and Lord, and that, regarding and looking to His honour, we may forget ourselves? If you hold to this way, dearest ones, believe me, nothing will ever turn out ill for you. I must indeed confess that my wickedness and weakness have often been to me an occasion of fear and doubt: yet I do not remember that, from the time the Lord gave me the habit of the Discalced, nay even for some years before (which is His mercy and singular grace), I ever succumbed, overcome by temptations of that kind, so as not to undertake to do what I knew would be most for His service, however arduous and difficult it might be. Yet I see well how slight it was, whatever I furnished on my part; but God desires nothing more than that determined will, so that He Himself may furnish the rest on His part. Be He blessed for ever. Amen.
[859] in the convent of Our Lady of Succour We had to pass by the monastery of the Blessed Virgin of Succour, of which I have already treated above, and which is three leagues removed from Villanueva, and to stay there a little while, until we had informed the townsfolk of our coming: for so it had been agreed; and it was right that I should obey in all things those Fathers with whom we were travelling. Now this monastery is among the recesses of the woods, in a solitude quite conducive to devotion: and when we drew nearer to it, the Friars together with the Prior, advancing in procession, came forth to meet and receive us: and because they were barefoot and clad in their coarse tunics, they brought to all of us a sense of devotion, but to me a certain tenderness of soul, because I beheld in this image the flourishing times of the first Fathers of our Order. They seemed to me to bear the appearance of white and most fragrant flowers; and certainly I believe them to be such in the sight and judgment of God: for, unless I am mistaken, they serve Him very faithfully in this place. Further, they led me in procession into the church, singing "Te Deum laudamus", and that with modest and mortified voices. Its entrance, moreover, is underground, as through a cave, which bore the likeness of that in which our Father Elijah had hidden. I certainly was steeped inwardly in such joy that, to feel something similar, I would gladly have undertaken even a much longer journey: although otherwise I grieved enough that that holy woman Catalina de Cardona, through whose work God founded this monastery, was already dead by then; because, though I desired it exceedingly, I did not deserve to see her.
[860] the Venerable Catalina de Cardona, There follows the life and eulogy of the Venerable Catalina de Cardona; which, although most worthy of being read, I have thought should be passed over, as not pertaining directly enough to the subject of this Commentary of mine. But when it is finished, the Saint continues thus: The devotion which is paid to that monastery on account of Catalina's memory is very singular: whence it seems to be breathed both upon this place and upon all the neighbouring places; especially when one considers the hermitage and the cave in which she lived before she had resolved to establish the monastery. It was told me that it had been so troublesome to her to see so many people flocking to see her that she wished to betake herself to another place, where no one would know anything about her. Hence she called to her the hermit by whom she had been brought to this place, to ask him to take her elsewhere. But he was already dead. But the Lord God, who had decreed that this convent of the Blessed Virgin should be erected in this place, did not permit it, nor gave her any opportunity for it; because (as I have said) I believe He is excellently served there. For all the religious are excellently disposed for this; and it is plainly to be seen in them how much they rejoice to live sequestered from the crowd of men and in solitude, and above all the Prior, whom the Lord called from the midst of delights to take this habit, and excellently compensated him for it, while He turned those into spiritual ones for him. He showed us great charity there: nay, he even gave us from the furnishings of his church what was required to adorn that which we were going away to found. For, since that holy woman was so acceptable to very many men of great name, their church was quite well furnished with sacred ornaments.
[861] who had lived there most holily, But as long as I was there, I felt a wonderful consolation in my soul, though not without great confusion, which still clings to me, because I saw that she who had led so harsh a life in this place had been a woman just as I am, nay had been much more delicate, because she was born of such illustrious blood, and then not so great a sinner as I am (for in this respect no comparison can be made between the two of us), and also that I had received from the Lord in every way much greater graces; among which certainly that is the greatest, that I am not now burning in hell for my grave sins. Only the desire which I had to imitate her (if I could in some way) consoled me. But that is little: for (as I see) all my life has passed for me in desires alone, but I do no works. May the mercy of God, in which I have always had confidence, through His most holy Son Jesus Christ and also the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose habit (such is the Lord's goodness) I wear, be propitious to me.
[862] she beholds her in an intellectual vision. Now one day, when I was rising from Communion in that holy church, a great recollection of soul with suspension took hold of me, so that I was altogether without senses. In it, then, that holy woman gave herself to be seen by me through an intellectual vision, like a glorious body, accompanied by some Angels, and said to me that the labour I had begun should not weary me, but that I should always go forward in these foundations. Whence I understood (although she did not expressly state it) that she was helping me before God. She told me besides something else as well, which is not to be written in this place. By these words, then, I was greatly encouraged and conceived an immense desire of undertaking labours: and I hope in the Lord's goodness that with so good a help as these prayers of hers are, I shall accomplish something. You see, dearest ones, how all her labours have now come to an end, but the glory which she now has has no end. Let us now strive with all our strength, I beseech you by the love of the Lord, to imitate this sister of ours, by mortifying and despising ourselves, as she despised herself; and so we shall complete our journey, since all things pass so swiftly and come so quickly to an end.
[863] when she reached Villanueva, On the first Sunday of Lent, the day before the feast of the Chair of St. Peter, namely on the feast of St. Barbatian, in the year 1580, we came to Villanueva de la Jara. But before she entered the town, the Saint with her companions rested for some space of time in the suburban house of a certain respectable man, named Miguel de Mondéjar; and to his three daughters, who were by no means thinking of embracing the religious life, nay rather shrank from it, she foretold that they would take the Carmelite habit in that convent which was to be founded
there. This they afterwards actually did, taking the names Isabel de Jesús, Francisca de San Elías and Josefa de la Encarnación: of whom Josefa narrated this very prophecy of the holy Foundress under oath in the processes instituted for her canonization, as may be read in the Chronicle (book V, chapter III); where it is further related that on that same day, when there had already been suffering from drought for five months, an abundant and wholesome rain fell, which the good citizens of Villanueva ascribed to the merits of St. Teresa, but Teresa to the piety of the citizens.
[864] with solemn pomp by the citizens On the same day, she herself continues, the most divine Sacrament of the Altar was placed in the church of St. Anne at High Mass. The whole council with some others, and also Doctor Ervías, came forth to meet and receive us. We alighted at the parish church, which was quite distant from the church of St. Anne. And so great was the joy of the whole people that I was filled with great consolation, seeing with what cheerfulness and gladness it received the Order of the Most Sacred Virgin Mother of God. From afar we heard the festive sound of the bells. And when we had entered the church, they began to sing the hymn "Te Deum laudamus", its verses alternating between the musical singers and the organ itself. When this had been sung, the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar was carried on one litter, and on another an image of the Blessed Virgin, with crosses and banners added. The procession went forward with great pomp; in which we, clad in our white mantles and with our faces covered with veils, walked in the middle next to the Most Holy Sacrament, and near us our Discalced Friars, who had flocked here in fair numbers. There were present also Franciscans (for they have a monastery in this town) and also a certain religious of the Order of St. Dominic, who chanced to be staying there: and although he was present alone, yet I rejoiced exceedingly, seeing that habit here. And since the way was rather long, and various altars had been set up along it, there were halts at intervals, and then some eulogy of our Order was recited, which certainly stirred up no small devotion in us, and above all that all were praising and celebrating that great God whom we had present, and that out of regard for Him so great honour was paid to the seven poor little Discalced nuns who were present here. But although I considered this then, I was nevertheless filled inwardly with great confusion, because I thought that I was counted and walking among them, and that all of them (had they treated me according to my deserts) ought to have risen up against me.
[865] led into the monastery prepared for her, Now I have set out so prolix a narration of this honour with which they treated the habit of the Blessed Virgin in order that you may praise the Lord, and ask Him to turn this foundation to His honour and praise. For (to confess what is the fact) I am wont to feel greater joy when some foundation is carried through with much contradiction and labours, and such a one I describe and set before you more willingly. Although it must be confessed that those sisters who were living there had undergone troubles enough for almost six whole years, at least more than five and a half years, namely since they had entered this monastery of St. Anne; to say nothing of their extreme poverty, and also the labour which they underwent in earning their living (for they never brought themselves to beg alms, and that lest the citizens should think they were there in order that the commonwealth should provide them with a living) and the great austerity which they practised, both by fasting frequently and driving away hunger with meagre food, and by sleeping hard and dwelling in very narrow quarters, which in so strict an enclosure as they always kept was exceedingly grievous and painful.
[866] six virgins, But the greatest affliction and sorrow (as they afterwards told me) was brought them by that most intense desire and will with which they longed to see themselves clothed in the religious habit, inasmuch as it afflicted them most grievously both by night and by day, because they thought they would never see that day. Hence all their prayer, for the most part seasoned with tears, tended to nothing else than that God would grant them this grace. And whenever they saw some obstacle thrown in the way and the matter almost refused, they were exceedingly afflicted, and on that account increased their austerity. From what they gathered by the work of their hands and with which they provided their food, they from time to time took away something, defrauding themselves, so as to pay the due fee to the couriers setting out to me, and also (so far as their poverty allowed) to show gratitude to those who could give them some help in this matter. But after I had dealt with them and perceived the holiness of their life, I saw well enough that their prayers and tears had been the cause that our Order admitted them. Hence I considered it a greater treasure that such souls should live in it than if they had ample possessions and revenues: and I hope that the thing will make the greatest progress.
[867] who for the longed-for Carmelite habit When, then, we entered that house, all of them were standing inside at the door, each clad in her own dress. They were dressed, namely, just as when they first entered there: for they never wished to take a particular habit, constantly and continually awaiting this one of ours; although the one they wore was quite decent and modest, so that it appeared they were little anxious about themselves and the care of the body. So poorly and roughly were they dressed, and almost all so wasted, that it was clear enough that they had led a very austere life. They received us with many tears, which expressed the highest joy of an exulting soul; which it was plain enough were not feigned.
[868] to receive The Saint clothed those pious virgins in the monastic habit on the 25th day of February, with many people looking on and Fr. Antonio de Jesús preaching. Further, she says, their singular virtue shines out in the cheerfulness of countenance which they show, and also in the humility and obedience which they render to the prioress and to all who came to this foundation, whom they long to gratify in every way. This one thing they feared, that when we had seen their extreme want and narrow dwelling, we should soon depart thence with the matter undone. None of them had acted as superior among them, but each laboured with great humility as much as she could. Two more advanced in age looked after external and domestic business when it was necessary; but the others spoke, or wished to speak, with no mortal. They never had a key in the door, but only a bolt; nor did any one of them dare to betake herself to the door: but she who was eldest gave and received answers. They took very little sleep, in order to earn their living by labour and lose none of the fixed hours of prayer: for they spent a good deal of time in prayer; and the feast days they dedicated to it entirely.
[869] had long and holily prepared themselves, In the manner of their life and prayer they followed in all things the direction of the books of Fr. Luis de Granada and Fr. Pedro de Alcántara. For the most part they recited the divine Office, although they knew how to read very little (for only one of them reads skilfully), and that from Breviaries which by no means agreed with one another: for some priests had given them certain Breviaries in which the reading was according to the old Roman use (because they themselves no longer used them, as being antiquated); and from others they read as they could. And since they hardly knew how to read, they therefore spent many hours on this recitation. Yet they did not recite the Office in a place from which others outside could have heard them. God, I believe, will have accepted in good part their good intention and the labour they took upon themselves: for it is likely that they recited and pronounced very little well. But after Fr. Antonio de Jesús began to deal with them, he advised them not to recite any other Office than that of the Blessed Virgin. They had their own oven at home, in which they baked bread. And all things were done in order, as if they had had a superior who commanded them each thing.
[870] she admits them among her nuns. Seeing these things, I could not but praise the Lord; and the more I conversed and dealt with them, the more I rejoiced that I had come there. Indeed, for all the many labours I might have had to undergo, I should not wish (as it seems to me) to have neglected to come here to console these souls. And those of my companions who remained there afterwards told me that they had felt some repugnance in the first days, but that, as they got to know them gradually more and more, and perceived their virtue, they had rejoiced exceedingly that it had fallen to them to live among them; whence they were greatly attached to them. Holiness and virtue can surely do much. Certainly my companions were such that, although they had found much difficulty and labour in this living together, yet with the grace and help of God they would have overcome it without difficulty and generously. But whatever sister does not feel this desire in herself, let her not think herself a true Discalced nun; since we ought to desire not so much recreations as to have some matter for suffering, whereby we may imitate our Spouse in some respect. Would that His Majesty may deign to grant us grace for this.
[871] But thence she betakes herself to Toledo This narrative of the foundation of Villanueva the Saint committed to paper shortly afterwards, as is clear from a certain letter of hers given in the month of April or May to the prioress of Seville (vol. II, letter 96). But since, as she had written to the same prioress on the kalends of February (vol. I, letter 63), she could stay at Villanueva by command of Fr. Angel Salazar only up to the feast of St. Joseph, on the day after that feast, paying no heed to the pain of her arm, which had increased two days before through the fall of a wheel (concerning which Ribera, book III, chapter IV), she withdrew thence to Toledo with the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé and Beatriz de Jesús, her kinswoman. At this departure, as the inmates of the new monastery wept, she foretold in God's name that nothing would ever be lacking to them, provided they lived religiously. How wonderfully this promise began to be fulfilled when scarcely a year had elapsed, and was also fulfilled repeatedly in following times, I need not say; since the same subject is unfolded at length in the report of the Auditors of the Rota on the miracles of St. Teresa, which I shall present to be read in its place.
[872] with Ana de San Bartolomé The arrival of the holy Mother at her monastery of Toledo fell on the 26th day of March, that is, the day before Palm Sunday; as is established from the note which Beatriz de Jesús, at Teresa's bidding, added to the letter already cited to the prioress of Seville (vol. II, letter 96), and in which she herself affirms that she was (as I have just said) the companion of the holy Foundress on the journey: which none of the writers of Teresa's life has noticed. For the foremost of these, Ribera, enumerates the nuns led by the Saint to Villanueva thus: from the house of Toledo Ana de la Madre de Dios, who was to be prioress, and from that of Malagón
she chose Elvira de San Ángelo as her subprioress; and to these she joined Ana de San Agustín and Constanza de la Cruz: then Ana de San Bartolomé also was her companion. Yepes names only one, María de los Mártires, whom he says was the first prioress of Villanueva (book II, chapter XXX), and in whose place Ribera had erroneously written Ana de la Madre de Dios. Ribera's error is shared by Fr. Crisóstomo Henríquez, using almost the same words as he (Life of Ana de San Bartolomé, book II, chapter XXII), and by the Venerable Fr. Juan de Jesús María, saying: She brought out from Toledo Ana de la Madre de Dios, to be prioress, afterwards from Malagón Elvira de San Ángelo, also Ana de San Bartolomé, her inseparable companion, etc., and not indicating other companions besides (book III, chapter IX). The author of the Chronicle, whom Fr. Federico de San Antonio follows, asserts that at Malagón, after prayers had been poured out to implore God's light, Ana de San Agustín and Elvira de San Ángelo were chosen, and then at Toledo María de los Mártires with Constanza de la Cruz; and therefore that the Saint made for Villanueva with these four virgins and Ana de San Bartolomé.
[873] and with Beatriz de Jesús. Finally Boucher assigns to the holy Mother six companions on the road indeed, but on a reckoning altogether improbable. For to the four nuns deputed for the foundation of Villanueva he adds a fifth from the monastery of Malagón, whose name he professes to be unknown to him: but of Beatriz de Jesús in this place he did not even think. I judge that this author, generally most diligent, was led into error here by Mother Maupeou; who in her version of the Teresian Letters not only entirely omitted the note of Beatriz de Jesús which I mentioned above, but also badly rendered the words of St. Teresa to the prioress of Seville in this way: J'ai laissé pour prieure la Mère Marie des Martyrs; c'est une excellente fille de ce monastère de Tolède; elle me paraît aussi propre pour ce pays-là, que vous, ma chère Mère, pour l'Andalousie. Je lui ai donné pour sous-prieure la Mère Elvire de Saint-Ange, du couvent de Malagon, et deux autres religieuses de la même maison, toutes trois fort vertueuses et d'un grand exemple. [I have left as prioress Mother María de los Mártires; she is an excellent daughter of this monastery of Toledo; she seems to me as fitted for that country as you, my dear Mother, for Andalusia. I have given her as subprioress Mother Elvira de San Ángelo, of the convent of Malagón, and two other nuns of the same house, all three very virtuous and of great example.] Certainly from those words, deux autres religieuses de la même maison two other nuns of the same house, it is easy to conclude that three nuns from the monastery of Malagón had been destined for beginning the Villanueva foundation; and if you add to these two from the monastery of Toledo, you will make up the number five. But the Spanish words sound far otherwise: Llevé de aqui por priora á una hija de Beatriz de la Fuente: harto buena parece, tan pintada para aquella gente, como V. R. para el Andalucia. Santangel, la de Malagon, es supriora alli en Villanueva; hacelo muy bien, y otras dos con ellas harto buenas. Whose meaning is this: From here (that is, from Toledo) I took as prioress a daughter of Beatriz de la Fuente (María de los Mártires): she seems very good, and born for that people just as you are for Andalusia. Our San Ángelo of Malagón is subprioress at Villanueva; she manages her affairs excellently, and two others with them are very good. No one fails to see how unfaithful the French version is, and how erroneous therefore is the opinion of the writer praised. And so, to close this discussion in a few words, six nuns had accompanied the Saint setting out from Malagón: of whom four remained at Villanueva; the remaining two, Ana de San Bartolomé and Beatriz de Jesús, as I have already shown, went with her to Toledo.
§ XLV. The Saint goes to Ávila, Segovia, Medina del Campo and Valladolid. Apostolic letters for the separation of the Discalced Carmelites from the Calced are brought into Spain.
The Saint writes from Toledo to the wife of the duke of Alba, then a captive. On the fifth day after St. Teresa arrived at Toledo, namely on Thursday of the Lord's Supper, she was seized with so very bitter a paralysis and pain of the heart, to which for a whole month fever and other troubles of impaired health were added, that she believed herself already close to death. Nor yet did she on that account abstain from labouring and writing; but, as is clear from her surviving letters to her brother Lorenzo (vol. III, letter 35, and vol. IV, letter 39), to Fr. Gracián (vol. II, letters 36, 37 and 38), to María de San José, prioress of Seville (vol. II, letter 96), and to María Enríquez, duchess of Alba (vol. I, letter 9), she attended to many affairs with her accustomed diligence, directing her effort chiefly, though with vain endeavour, to obtaining the consent of Gaspar de Quiroga, archbishop of Toledo and from the year 1578 Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, for making a foundation at Madrid. Among the letters, however, which I have just alleged, the most charming is that which she gave on the 8th day of May to the duchess of Alba, partly to console her for the absence of her husband Fernando, partly to commend to her the affairs of the new college of the Society of Jesus at Pamplona in the kingdom of Navarre, begun in the preceding year not without an uproar on the part of some, as Sacchini says (History of the Society of Jesus, part IV, book VII, no. 199). This great solicitude for that endangered college is an indication of Teresa's grateful mind towards the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, by whom she herself had been helped in so many foundations; while the whole letter breathes the mutual affection of friendship and charity between the Saint and the duchess and duke of Alba. Further, Fernando, duke of Alba, was at that time held captive in the castle of Uceda on account of the marriage which his son Fadrique, against the will of the king and queen of Spain, had contracted with his kinswoman María de Toledo, daughter of García, marquis of Villafranca; of which marriage the Saint also speaks in a certain letter to the duchess (vol. III, letter 3). And — what you would hardly expect from a military man — the supreme warrior relieved the tedium of his captivity by reading the Life of St. Teresa written by herself; a copy of which he had with him, written out by the hand of Fr. Bartolomé de Medina of the Order of Preachers (of whom I spoke at no. 592): and he so esteemed the holy Foundress that he did not hesitate to say to Fr. Gracián when he visited him that there was nothing he had more in his wishes than to enjoy the sight of Mother Teresa, even if to see her he had to undertake a journey of very many leagues. The Saint's goodwill towards the duke in turn is manifestly perceived from the friendly complaints which the duchess once made to Fr. Gracián, as though her husband stood in greater favour with the holy Mother than she herself (see vol. II, letter 33, nos. 5 and 6, and note 12 and following).
[875] at Medina del Campo she receives the news But to resume the thread of the history, the Saint, meanwhile, for the sake of her health and her affairs, had to remain at Toledo somewhat longer than she had at first proposed to herself; nor did she set out thence before the beginning of June, on the 7th day of that month, as it seems (vol. II, letter 38), since she already had Fr. Salazar's command by which she was ordered to betake herself to Valladolid. And first from Toledo she arrived at Segovia on the 13th of June (vol. IV, letter 40); where she seems to have stayed not quite a whole month: into which time fell the death of her brother Lorenzo de Cepeda (vol. I, letter 64), of which we have treated more at length elsewhere (nos. 41 and 42). From Segovia she went to Ávila, to provide for Teresa and Francisco, the children of her deceased brother, and to take cognizance of his will; then to Medina del Campo, with Francisco, whom I just named, and Fr. Gracián as companions, as the letters given on the 6th of August to the prioress of Seville show (vol. III, letter 80): in which letters there is contained besides this most delightful news: Five days ago Fr. Jerónimo Gracián, who came here with me and has brought me very useful help in these affairs, received a letter from Rome from Fr. Juan de Jesús; in which he announces that the apostolic letters on our affairs have already been handed to the ambassador of our king, and destined by him for Spain by the same courier who brought the letter of Fr. Juan himself: whence we hold it for certain that they are already in the king's hands. From their summary, which Fr. Juan appended to his letter, it appears that they are very ample. Wherefore it is right that we render praise and thanks to God, who has deigned to favour us with so great a benefit.
[876] two of her Discalced deputies, Namely, to indicate briefly in what way these apostolic letters were obtained: Frs. Juan de Jesús and Diego de la Santísima Trinidad, after, towards the middle of the year 1579, as is manifest from the letter of St. Teresa to her brother Lorenzo which I cited in its place (no. 845) (and therefore not in the year 1580, as the author of the Chronicle contends, whom Fr. Federico de San Antonio, Fr. Manuel de Santo Tomás de Aquino and Fr. Juan de San Luis follow; since they wrongly confuse the time of the letters of recommendation sent by the king to the Supreme Pontiff, to certain Cardinals and to his ambassador Luis de Requesens with the time of the arrival of the two deputed Fathers) — after, I say, the aforesaid two Discalced Fathers had landed in Italy, they needed great caution lest they be recognized as Discalced Carmelites; especially because Fr. Jerónimo Tostado, their bitterest adversary, was then at Rome, and because the general chapter of the Order of Carmel for electing a successor to the deceased Fr. Rubeo was to be celebrated in the same city at the feast of Pentecost of the year 1580. Wherefore, keeping their secular clothes until the acts of the consultations instituted by the Nuncio Sega and the letters of King Philip should arrive at Rome (the sending of which, the king being hindered by Portuguese affairs, was delayed until the year 1580), they began to treat of the business of the separation not yet publicly, but only secretly with certain trustworthy men devoted to their Reform.
[877] some difficulties having been overcome, Thus the matter was drawn out for nearly a year: until at length Gregory XIII, having learned the will of Philip II and perceived from the documents sent to him the usefulness of Teresa's work, committed the examination of the matter to the Cardinals deputed for the apostolic visitation and the consultation of bishops and the reform of regulars. Among these Cardinal Montalto, who afterwards was Pope Sixtus V, pleaded so excellently for the Discalced Carmelites that he inclined the minds of all his colleagues to an opinion agreeable to their petition. But when the Supreme Pontiff had ordered that the cause of the Discalced should also be proposed to the general chapter of the Order, and it had been committed by the unanimous assent of the capitulars to the new General, the Reverend Fr. Giovanni Battista Caffardo, Fr. Caffardo interceded with Cardinal Boncompagni, protector of his Order, not indeed rejecting altogether the requests of his Discalced Brothers, which he saw were supported by the king of Spain, by Cardinal Quiroga, by very many of Spain's
grandees, by the apostolic Nuncio and by the weightiest men of both clergies, but proposing that a certain middle way, in appearance, be entered upon, namely that, the division of the province being omitted, in alternate triennia a Discalced friar, and in the alternate ones a Calced friar, should be elected provincial. This condition pleased the Cardinal protector, nor did Gregory XIII himself oppose it; and Teresa's affairs stood in all the greater danger because the Spanish ambassador had left Rome in those days, and Briceño, who meanwhile was acting in the ambassador's place, did not dare to put his hand to a laborious business. Therefore the two deputies of the Discalced were preparing to sail back to their homeland with the matter undone, had they not, on the advice of Andrea Spinola, a cleric of the pontifical chamber, to whom they had come to say farewell, had recourse to Alessandro Cardinal Sforza, a man of much favour and authority with the Roman Pontiff. He, gladly taking the care of the matter upon himself, turned the mind of Gregory to other counsels.
[878] has obtained apostolic letters for her Reform, Finally, the question having been debated in the senate of the purpled Fathers (which we call the consistory), with Cardinals Maffei and Montalto eloquently defending the cause of the Discalced, apostolic letters came forth on the 22nd day of June under the Fisherman's ring; of which these were the chief heads: that the Friars and nuns observing the primitive rule of the Order of Carmel, and certain institutions besides for the mortification of the flesh and the edification of the people, be wholly and entirely and in perpetuity disjoined, separated and dismembered from the provinces of the Friars and nuns observing the rule mitigated by Eugene IV; that the houses, monasteries and places whatsoever of the Discalced be erected into one province, and ought to be governed by a provincial to be elected from the same Discalced in the chapter of the said province; that this province, however, like the other provinces of the Order, remain under the obedience and superiority of the Prior General; who may visit, reform, correct and punish them only by himself or by a suitable man from the Discalced themselves, and according to their primitive rule and regular institutions, but may not transfer them out of their houses or send them to other provinces; that the provincial of the Discalced have full and free faculty, after he has been elected, to exercise his office without any confirmation (which nevertheless he is bound soon to seek from the Prior General of the whole Order); that the Discalced of both sexes enjoy all and singular the privileges, graces, etc., which the Mitigated enjoy, provided they are not contrary to the decrees of the Council of Trent, the apostolic Constitutions, the primitive rule and their Institute, or these present letters; that none of the Discalced may pass to the Order of the Mitigated Friars or of others, except that of the Carthusians, without the mark of apostasy, without the licence of the apostolic See; finally, that Fr. Angel de Salazar and the Prior General and the provincials and commissaries and other prelates, ministers and officials of the Mitigated be forbidden under pain of excommunication to dare or presume in any way to molest, disturb, harass or disquiet the Discalced concerning the premises; and that if to any of the Mitigated faculty has been granted of visiting, governing or punishing the Discalced, this faculty be quashed, revoked and annulled.
[879] and that these have already been transmitted to the king; These letters Briceño, acting as ambassador at Rome (as I have said), sent to Spain on the 27th of June; and on the 15th of August a copy of them came into the hands of King Philip, who was then at Badajoz preparing to enter Portugal. Now although by those very letters it was enjoined on all patriarchs, archbishops, bishops and other prelates of churches, and whatever persons were constituted in ecclesiastical dignity, and by name on the archbishops of Toledo and Seville, the bishop of Palencia and the auditor general of causes of the court of the apostolic chamber, that they, or two or one of them, by themselves or by another or others, solemnly publishing the said letters and whatever is contained in them, where and when there should be need or as often as they should be required thereupon on the part of the Discalced, and assisting them in the premises with the protection of an effective defence, should cause them by the authority of the Holy See peacefully to enjoy and have the benefit of all and singular the premises; nevertheless, especially because Cristóbal de Rojas, archbishop of Seville, had already died, the king judged that the Supreme Pontiff should be asked to commit the execution of the apostolic Diploma to Fr. Pedro Fernández of the family of St. Dominic, who had the Carmelite affairs excellently understood through long experience. Gregory XIII assented to the petition; but death, already imminent for the man, prevented Fernández from discharging that office. Philip therefore wrote to Rome a third time in the month of October; and at length, the Roman reply having been received on the 20th day of November, that office was committed to another man of the Order of Preachers, Fr. Juan de las Cuevas, prior of Talavera. By him a chapter was appointed to be celebrated at Alcalá on the fourth Sunday of Lent of the following year; in which, the act of separation having been notified according to the form of law, on the 4th day of March Fr. Jerónimo Gracián was proclaimed first provincial of the Discalced Carmelites. Consult the Chronicle (book V, chapters I, II, VIII, IX and X) and the Carmelite Bullarium of Monsignani (vol. II, page 208 and following), or the great Roman Bullarium (vol. II, page 476 and following, Luxembourg edition).
[880] likewise that Fr. Baltasar Álvarez has died. Meanwhile we left our Saint at Medina del Campo; where by a signal miracle, with the mere touch of her hand, she restored in a moment of time to health Ana de la Santísima Trinidad, who was suffering from a grave erysipelas and fever, as may be read in Ribera (book IV, chapter XI) and in the report on the miracles of St. Teresa made by the Auditors of the Sacred Rota. In the same town she was informed that Fr. Baltasar Álvarez S.J. had on the 25th day of July exchanged mortal for immortal life at Belmonte in New Castile, as Fr. Luis de la Puente teaches in the Life of Fr. Baltasar, whose words it is pleasing to set down here: The most holy Mother Teresa of Jesus, he says, received news of Baltasar's death at Medina del Campo, where she was staying: and for more than two hours she could not restrain herself from tears, while others in vain brought her comfort; and when they asked why, though she held mortal things so far from the feeling of her soul, this one thing should befall her so bitterly: "I am in mourning," she said, "because I understand the present and future loss of the Church of God from the departure of so great a servant of His." And upon this, for more than two hours, she was silent, her mind withdrawn from her senses: what took place with her meanwhile she did not say. We know, however, that she often recalled those things which we remember to have been divinely revealed to her in the eleventh chapter, namely concerning the degree of holiness in which Baltasar excelled on earth, and concerning the immense glory to which the same was destined in heaven. And I myself indeed received this from a certain excellent handmaid of Christ, devoted above all to this most holy Virgin and most desirous of our Society, whose virtue and truthfulness are most certainly established for me: that this most renowned and most holy Mother offered herself to be seen by her when she was grieving, many years after she had departed from mortality, and that, for the sake of soothing her distress, among very many other things she spoke these very words, fitting for her consolation: "I too am a daughter of the Society, and had a confessor from it; and now in heaven I acknowledge him and honour him." That this was affirmed by her of Baltasar Álvarez there is no doubting: for although she had used others before, yet he heard her confession longest of all; and he devoted to her his help and labour most diligently, until at last she accomplished those sublime undertakings of hers; and she herself attributed it to her glory that she had him as confessor and instructor. And since she now acknowledges and honours him in heaven, it is an argument that a degree and seat so eminent is obtained by him there, as she herself while living on earth had already seen. Thus far the author praised (chapter LIII, § I).
[881] Thence not to Ávila, as certain writers assert, Now as to what Boucher supposed, that the Saint returned to Ávila about the middle of September, and that there, although she had made some excursion either to Segovia or to Salamanca, she still was on the 10th day of October, then between this day and the 25th of October at length set out for Valladolid; this conjecture, I say, of a most deserving writer by no means commends itself to me. For first, what he says of the return to Ávila has no other foundation, so far as I know, except that the commentator on the Teresian Letters gratuitously asserts that the letter which the Saint gave on the 17th of September to Inés Nieto (vol. III, letter 56) was written at Ávila. The second thing which follows, about the excursions made by the Saint to Segovia and Salamanca, I do not see how it can be proved; but I believe that Mr. Boucher did not rightly understand the phrase by which the aforesaid commentator records that the Saint, after she had left Valladolid in the year 1579 (as I said at no. 845 and following), went to Salamanca, Medina, Segovia and Malagón (vol. III, letter 25, note 1): which she in fact did, though not in that order in which these places are enumerated by the commentator, as is established from what I have related above. Finally, the reason why Mr. Boucher thought the Saint was still at Ávila on the 10th of October is taken from her letter to Sancho Dávila, son of the marquis of Velada, who afterwards presided successively as bishop over the churches of Cartagena, Jaén, Sigüenza and Plasencia. For indeed this letter in Palafox bears the subscription: At Ávila, 10th October 1580 (vol. I, letter 6); but it must be well noted that it was edited by Palafox neither completely nor accurately, as is clear from the other copy which Fr. Antonio de San José placed among the fragments of the Teresian letters (vol. IV, fragment 2), and which I rather think he would have done much better to place among the complete letters. For Fr. Antonio himself affirms that this letter is preserved in autograph among the nuns of his Order at Ocaña, and that it concludes thus: May the Lord give you that holiness which I beg of Him for you. Amen. Today is the 9th day of October. Your unworthy servant and daughter, Teresa of Jesus. I pray you to give greetings in my name to Don Fadrique and to my Lady María (she means the duchess of Alba and her son), to whom I cannot write because of headaches, and to forgive me for the love of God. And the superscription is: Al muy Ilustre Senor Don Sancho de Avila, mi Senor. En Alva: de Avila. To the very Illustrious Lord Don Sancho de Ávila, my Lord. At Alba: from Ávila.
[882] but makes for Valladolid; Whatever Fr. Antonio says for the rest in order to make it in some way probable that two distinct letters are here to be had, I am persuaded that it is one and the same; since in both the same phrases and sentences recur, though not in the same order. This being so, since it was written at Ávila (as the superscription just alleged states), I do not doubt that it is to be referred to the year 1581; in which year the Saint certainly spent the whole month of October at Ávila, as we shall see afterwards. Accordingly, in my opinion at least, the holy Mother, accompanied by Francisco, the son of her deceased brother, betook herself straight from Medina del Campo to Valladolid, both that certain writings (concerning the things left by her brother
goods, as it seems) might be drawn up there (vol. III, letter 80), and especially that she might obey the command of Fr. Angel de Salazar, of which she herself speaks at the beginning of chapter XXIX of the book of the Foundations in these words: When I had now returned from the Villanueva foundation, my superior enjoined on me to go to Valladolid, at the request of the Most Reverend Don Álvaro de Mendoza, bishop of Palencia, who admitted the first monastery of St. Joseph erected at Ávila, and has always favoured it, and indeed in all things which concern this Order never fails to favour it; into whom, when he had left the bishopric of Ávila and passed to that of Palencia, the Lord put the desire to procure that another monastery of this holy Order should be erected there.
[883] where, while from a grave illness When I had come to Valladolid, so violent an illness attacked me that everyone thought I would die of it. And I remained so averse to that purpose, and I seemed to myself so unable to accomplish anything in this business, that, although the prioress of our convent of Valladolid (who would most gladly have seen this foundation) asked it of me importunately and most zealously, I could nevertheless in no way persuade myself of it, nor did I know how I should give it a beginning. For this monastery was to be founded without revenues and in poverty; further, I was told that it could by no means be sustained there, because the town was rather poor. Already almost a year had passed since I had begun to treat of this foundation and at the same time of that of Burgos. At the beginning indeed I did not find so great difficulty in it; but then very many things occurred to me to the contrary, though I had come to Valladolid for no other reason.
[884] she gradually recovers, But I do not know whether the cause of these things was that graver infirmity and weakness which had remained in me from the illness, or rather the devil, who wished to hinder the good which was afterwards done there. Certainly I wonder and pity (of which I also often complain before the Lord) that so much from the body's ill health and diseases should cling to the poor little soul, so that it seems it must itself observe the body's laws: so much, namely, does the body compel it to undergo its necessities and very many other things. Which seems to me one of the greatest miseries and labours of this life, especially when there is not present at the same time a generous and heroic spirit to subdue and overcome it. For that the body should be in ill health and afflicted with the greatest pains and torments (although that is otherwise laborious and grievous) I make very little of, provided the soul is awake and vigorous; for it then praises God, and considers all things to come from His hand: but when on the one side it suffers and on the other does not work, it is something terrible and intolerable; especially if it is such a soul as finds that it has at some time had most intense desires, never of taking interior or exterior recreation, but of spending itself wholly, as great as it is, in the service of its great God. For there is no other remedy here then than patience and to acknowledge one's own misery, and to abandon oneself to the divine will, that He may do and decide concerning one whatever and however He wills.
[885] several letters, then by the hand of the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé So indeed was I then circumstanced, although I was now beginning gradually to recover and to be somewhat better: but so great was my weakness that I had lost even the confidence which God, Best and Greatest, was wont to give me while any of these foundations was to be begun. For all things seemed impossible to me. Hence if I had then come upon someone who had strengthened me by encouraging me, he would surely have helped me very greatly; but of men some made me fear more, others (granted they gave me some hope from time to time) yet could not take away and overcome my faintheartedness. The Saint had already begun to recover from that illness on the 4th day of October; as is clear from the letter which she had written in her name on that day to Fr. Gracián (vol. III, letter 25): whence there arises for me a new argument against the opinion of Mr. Boucher, already refuted by other reasons (no. 881). There is added besides to these reasons that the Saint in the same letter makes mention of María de San José, Fr. Gracián's sister, and that in words which manifestly indicate that both were at that time living under the same roof. Now from many other letters (for example from vol. III, letters 16, 23 and 24, and vol. IV, letter 74) it plainly appears that Gracián's sister lived in the monastery of Valladolid. This letter, however, was written in Teresa's name, as I was just saying, but by another's hand: which holds also of the letters of the 20th of November addressed to Fr. Gracián, and of the 25th of October and 28th of December addressed to the prioress of Seville (vol. III, letters 26 and 81, vol. II, letter 98), the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé, namely, acting as amanuensis.
[886] then by her own she writes letters. But with her own hand the Saint wrote on the 7th of October to the prioress and nuns of St. Joseph's at Ávila (vol. II, letter 74), on the 21st of November to the prioress of Seville (vol. II, letter 97), in the month of December to Lorenzo de Cepeda the younger, who was living in the West Indies (vol. II, letter 55), likewise to María de Jesús, foundress and nun of the convent of Beas (vol. IV, letter 67). The chief subject of most of these letters is the death of Lorenzo de Cepeda and the consequences of that death, of which we have treated, as much as was sufficient, in the third paragraph of this Commentary. According to Louis Lataste, bishop of Bethlehem, who published the Letters of St. Teresa translated into French by Mother Anne de Saint-Joseph (in the world named Maupeou), there ought also to be placed here the little letter in which the Saint thanks Pedro de Castro, canon of Ávila (who afterwards was bishop of Segovia), for the sermon given in the church of her monastery of St. Joseph within the octave of All Saints (vol. II, letter 5); which sermon she herself mentions in the letters given on the 26th of October 1581 to Fr. Gracián (ibid. letter 42). But since the Saint seems to have heard Castro with her own ears, I should rather believe that that sacred oration was delivered by him in the year 1578.
§ XLVI. The Saint sets out for Palencia, where she erects the fourteenth monastery of her Discalced nuns.
By Fr. Jerónimo Ripalda, Let us now betake ourselves to the Palencia foundation; concerning which the holy Mother, writing to María de Jesús at Beas, says: The Mother prioress will have told you that I have been enjoined to betake myself to a certain foundation which for several years I begged to be excused from. But since they have pressed this upon me so perseveringly, with the approval of our prelate I am setting out with much hope of promoting the divine service (vol. IV, letter 67). How she came to this hope out of the long hesitation of which we have heard her speak, let us hear from chapter XXIX of the Foundations. It happened by chance, she says, that a certain priest of the Society of Jesus came to Valladolid, Father and Master Ripalda, whom I had as confessor for quite a long while, a man outstanding in learning as well as in piety towards God. To him I laid open the state of my soul, and said that I wished to take him in the place of God; let him therefore declare to me what seemed good to him. He then began to spur and encourage me much, saying repeatedly that this sluggishness of mine ought to be ascribed to old age. But I saw well enough that he had not judged rightly in this: for at this time I am still older, yet I no longer feel it at all. I do not doubt that he himself knew this well enough; but he will have said this in order to reprove and rebuke me, because he by no means believed that this anguish and weariness came from God.
[888] as already long before by Fr. Baltasar Álvarez, This Palencia foundation was then being treated of together with that of Burgos; and for this one as for that I had absolutely nothing: but this was not the cause of my anxiety, because I am wont to begin foundations even with smaller and slenderer help. Fr. Ripalda, then, declared that I should by no means desist from what I had begun: the same thing also had been said to me a little before at Toledo by Fr. Baltasar Álvarez, provincial of the same Society. Then indeed I was in good health; whence this ought to have been enough for me to fix my resolve: yet, although it was of very great importance to me, I could not decide the matter fully, because either the devil or (as I have said) the infirmity held me in some manner bound. But from then on I was much better. The prioress of Valladolid helped me as much as she could and came to share the burden; for she exceedingly desired the Palencia foundation to be accomplished: but since she saw me so lukewarm, on that account she also acted more timidly. True warmth, then, must come from elsewhere, since neither men nor the servants of God themselves can effect anything: whence it will be seen well enough that often it is not I who do the things I do, since I do nothing at all, but He who is mighty for all things.
[889] and then encouraged by God Himself also, When, then, one day I was rising from Holy Communion, so wavering and doubting and altogether averse to beginning any foundation, I had asked the Lord to give me light to do His will in all things: for my lukewarmness was not of such a kind that this desire ever failed me in the least. The Lord then said to me in the manner of one rebuking: "What do you fear? When have I ever failed you? The same that I have been hitherto, I am now: do not neglect to accomplish these two foundations." O great God, how Your words differ from human words! For I remained so encouraged that not even the whole world contradicting could have called me back from this purpose: wherefore I at once began to treat of the matter, and the Lord to supply me with the means for it. I took, then, two nuns, to buy houses with their dowry; and although I was told by everyone that we could not live on alms at Palencia, it was exactly as if nothing at all were said to me: for, if I admitted stable revenues in the foundation of the monastery, I saw even then that it could by no means be founded at that time; but since God was now commanding it to be founded, I was certain that His Majesty would provide.
[890] St. Teresa sets out for Palencia: About the same time Fr. Jerónimo Gracián, who at the holy Mother's request had betaken himself to Palencia to inspect at close quarters the affairs of the foundation offered, from which he too shrank, returned thence with his mind entirely changed. For a certain nobleman had spontaneously offered a house rented by himself, which the nuns could inhabit until they should obtain their own buildings; and great hope of good success had been inspired in him by the pious Suero de Vega, formerly governor of Syracuse under his father Juan, viceroy of Sicily, and of the college of the Society of Jesus at Syracuse
founder, as may be seen in Fr. Orlandini in the History of the Society (part I, book XIV, no. 41) and in our predecessor Pinius in the preliminary Commentary to the Life of St. Ignatius of Loyola (volume VII of July, page 742). Therefore, says the Saint, although I was not yet fully restored in health, I resolved to set out for Palencia, even though the season was very severe: for I departed from Valladolid on the feast of the Holy Innocents, in the year I have mentioned, because a certain nobleman of that place had ceded to us a house which he himself had rented from the beginning of the following year up to the feast of St. John, since he had betaken himself elsewhere to live. Hence I sent letters to a certain canon of that city (although I did not know him, yet one of his friends had told me that he was a servant of God): at the same time also I was firmly convinced that he would render us signal service; as has been seen in the other foundations completed up to now, that in each of them God sends someone to help us: for His Majesty sees how little I myself am able to accomplish by my own means. I asked him then by letters to have that house vacated for me as secretly as possible (for it was inhabited by another), but not to say for whose use it was being prepared. For although some of the leading men had shown their inclination towards us and the bishop himself also was of his own accord quite well inclined, yet I judged it far better that the matter be concealed and unknown.
[891] where the house prepared by the canon Reinoso, Further, the canon Reinoso (for so was he named to whom I had written) performed everything so exactly that he not only had the house vacated, but also prepared for us beds and many other comforts quite abundantly. And certainly we had need of them; for there was intense cold, and the day before had been quite troublesome to us, and that on account of so thick a fog that we could scarcely see one another: but, to confess the truth, we had little rest until we had prepared a place in which Mass was to be said on the following day, before anyone knew that we were there; for it has been found by experience that it is especially expedient that it be done so in foundations. For if we begin to inquire into the judgments and opinions of men, the devil will at once throw everything into confusion; and although he can win nothing at all, at least he disquiets us. So, then, it was done: for at once on the following morning (when it was hardly dawning) Mass was celebrated there by a certain priest who had accompanied us, surnamed Porras, a signal servant of God, and also by another priest, a patron and friend of the nuns of Valladolid, named Agustín de Vitoria, who had lent me money for furnishing the house, and had entertained us handsomely on the road. We were in all, counting myself, five nuns, and one lay sister (the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé), who has now accompanied me for a long time, a signal servant of God, and so discreet that she can help me more than others who attend the choir. All that night we slept little, although (as has been said) the previous day's journey had been quite difficult and troublesome on account of the continual rain which had fallen. Further, I rejoiced that the monastery was founded on the day on which the divine Office was recited of King David, towards whom I am wonderfully affectioned.
[892] with the bishop's utmost On that very morning, then, I had the matter made known to the Most Illustrious Lord Bishop, who did not yet know that we had arrived at Palencia. Whence as soon as possible, with the great charity which he never failed to show towards us, he came out to us, promising that he would supply all the bread of which we had need, and ordered his steward to provide us with many necessary things. Further, this Order owes him so much that whoever reads these foundations is bound to commend him to the Lord in prayer, living as well as dead; which I ask and beseech out of charity. And so great was the pleasure and joy of the whole people, and that so universal, that I have not seen such elsewhere: for there was no one at all whom this thing displeased. To which it helped much that it was known that the bishop himself so wished: for he is very dear and acceptable to the people and to all his own; nay more, the whole people is of so good and generous a disposition that I do not remember having seen such elsewhere: whence daily more and more I rejoice that I brought that monastery into this town.
[893] and the goodwill of the people of Palencia, With no less praise does the holy Mother speak of the city of Palencia in her letters (vol. II, letters 40, 45, 53 and 99; vol. IV, letter 15). Above the rest, however, on the testimony of Yepes, there shone out the benevolence towards St. Teresa and her offspring of Suero de Vega, who on account of his charity towards the poor was commonly called the father of the poor, and of his wife Elvira Manrique, daughter of the count of Osorno: which the author of the Chronicle affirms, as having himself experienced it, was always continued afterwards, adding also that Juan de Vega, son of the same pious spouses, having some time afterwards entered the Order of Carmel, shone there with virtues of every kind. The same writer relates (what is omitted by St. Teresa, Ribera and Yepes) that the corregidor of Palencia at first was unwilling to approve the new foundation with his assent; but when Fr. Gracián had come to him to repeat the petition in Teresa's name, he answered as if unwillingly: Go, Father, let what you ask of me be done: for Mother Teresa has in her bosom I know not what edict of divine counsel, by which we are compelled to do whatever she wills, even though unwilling.
[894] she at first occupies the rented house by right; But since, the holy Foundress continues, the house in which we were staying was not ours, we therefore at once began to treat of buying another: for although this very one was for sale, yet because it was situated in a very unsuitable place, it displeased us. And we seemed able to deal with this matter boldly and with foundation, through the pecuniary help which I had from the nuns who were to be admitted there; which, although it was slight, was yet quite great in that place: although, if God had not sent us those good friends, all would have availed nothing. For that good canon Reinoso brought in another canon, his friend, surnamed Salinas, a man of great charity and ability: who jointly and with common zeal had this matter at heart no otherwise than if it had been their own, nay rather, as I think, more than their own; and have always so heartily studied the advantages of this convent.
[895] until two houses adjoining the church of Our Lady de la Calle There is in this town a certain little church sacred to the Blessed Virgin, very celebrated for religion and pious worship, built after the fashion of a hermitage, whose name is Our Lady of the Street (de la Calle); which is honoured with wonderful devotion both by the inhabitants of the neighbouring towns and by the citizens of Palencia, so that very many flock to it from every side. It seemed to the bishop and to all the citizens that we would dwell suitably if we dwelt near that church. It had not indeed a house itself, but two adjoining houses, if they were bought, seemed likely to be sufficient, that church being added for our use. The right of conferring it lay with the chapter and with a certain confraternity erected in it: hence a serious effort began to be made to obtain it. The chapter indeed assented at once, but with those confraternity members there were quite great difficulties; yet at length they too gave way, because, as I have said, the inhabitants of that town are much inclined to piety, and more than any I have seen anywhere. But when the owners of those houses saw that we were inclined towards them, they began to value them more than was fair; and not without reason. I, however, wished to inspect them: but they so displeased me that I would not have them, and likewise those who were going there with us.
[896] the adjoining houses, But afterwards it plainly appeared that the devil had contrived much on his part against this here; because it vexed him that we had come there and fixed our seat. And to the two canons who were looking after the whole matter, those houses seemed to be quite far distant from the collegiate church (as indeed they in fact are): yet they are situated in that part of the town which is more populous than the others. At length we resolved, since those houses did not suit us, to seek out another. Wherefore those two canons began to procure and effect this matter with such zeal and diligence that it was no small occasion for me to praise the Lord, so that they omitted absolutely nothing that seemed in any way able to help towards it. Among others there pleased them a certain one which belonged to a man named Tamayo: it had some rooms quite well arranged and furnished, which would not have suited us badly: it was, moreover, near the house of a certain leading man named Suero de Vega, who favours us in whatever way he can, to whom, as also to other men of the same quarter, it would have been very pleasing if we had come to live there. That house indeed was not spacious enough, but together with it another was offered us; yet not even these two together could have given us a convenient dwelling. Since, then, so many things were told me about it, I wished very much that the matter should at last be concluded: but those canons would do nothing before I myself had inspected it.
[897] to which, however, a certain other house I, because it was very grievous to me to go out in public, and because I trusted well enough in their prudence, could not bring myself to betake myself there. But at length, persuaded, I betook myself there, to inspect it, as also those of Our Lady of the Street; although I had no intention of buying these, but that the owner of the former might see that other houses also were available, and that we were not necessarily obliged to buy his house. These, however (as I have said), so displeased me, and also those who went with me, that even now we wonder how they could then have seemed to us so unsuitable. Wherefore we went to inspect the other house, having it fixed in our minds to buy that one and no other. And although we found in it a good many difficulties, which could also be met only with great difficulty, yet we glossed them over. For in order that a church could be built in it (and that a quite unsuitable and ill-shaped one), all the places in it which were convenient for dwelling had to be taken away. It is truly a strange thing to approach the undertaking of something with the mind already made up beforehand: truly, indeed, I am wont to trust myself little; but then I was not the only one carried away by prejudice. Indeed, we went to inspect that house with the definite intention of buying no other than this one, and of paying him the price which the seller had demanded, although it was enormous, and of writing this intention of ours to him, since he was then absent from the city, though not far distant.
[898] for some while That of the things hitherto narrated by the Saint
we may determine the chronology so far as it can be done, we must turn briefly to her letters. On the 4th day of January, writing to Fr. Juan de Jesús, she had it fixed and determined to set the seat of her nuns near the church of Our Lady of the Street; and she had obtained from the canons the faculty of constructing a grille in that church for the use of the monastery (vol. II, letter 45). Then thought began to be given to buying Tamayo's house about the middle of February, as is clear from the letter given on the 17th day of that month to Fr. Gracián (vol. III, letter 27): and the negotiation lasted through the remaining part of February and some days of the next following month; and again the Saint wrote about it to Fr. Gracián on the 27th day of February (vol. II, letter 39), and also on the 4th of March to Ana Enríquez, of the family of the marquises of Alcañices, who had given as a gift to the new Palencia foundation a large and beautiful image, I think of St. Joseph (vol. IV, letter 15). There also survives a little letter of the holy Mother to Jerónimo Reinoso, which seems to have been written on the day after that day on which she had gone to inspect both houses, probably with Reinoso as companion (vol. III, letter 39). Finally, on Good Friday, which was the 24th day of March, she informed Fr. Gracián that she had now come to her senses from her erroneous opinion, and had again turned her mind to the houses adjoining the church of the Blessed Virgin (vol. II, letter 40): the cause of which change she herself will teach in what follows.
[899] had preferred. It may surely seem impertinent to anyone, she says, that I was occupied so long in the purchase of a house: but let him suspend judgment until he sees what end and intention the devil had, namely that we should not buy those houses adjoining the little church of the Blessed Virgin: which, as often as I think over and recall it with myself, I cannot but fear. When, then (as I have already said), all so inclined to that other house that they would buy no other than this, on the following day, while I was present at Mass, I began to turn over in my mind with great perplexity whether it was advisable to neglect to buy those former ones: hence such disquiet took hold of me that it hardly let me be at rest for almost the whole time of the Mass. Meanwhile I approach the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, and lo, at its reception, I heard these words: "This one suits you," the force and energy of which was such that they plainly made me call my mind away from that former house which I had designated in my mind, and incline towards those former buildings.
[900] at God's command, But when it began to seem hard to me suddenly to dissolve and as it were break off a matter brought so far, and which those who were helping us so actively and solicitously so earnestly desired, the Lord answered me: "They do not know with how many offences I am offended in that place: to which the way will be closed by your dwelling there." Then the thought occurred to me whether this might be some illusion: although I was certain of the contrary; for from the movements which it worked in me I perceived plainly enough that this was the spirit of God. And He at once said to me: "It is I." Having heard these words, I remained greatly calmed, and the disturbance which had before taken hold of me vanished entirely. But I did not know how to undo what had already been done, and how to retract whatever I had already so many times spoken unfavourably about those houses among my sisters (exaggerating their inconvenience in so many different and various ways, and saying that for nothing in the world did I wish that we should pass over there, before we had inspected them). Although I was not so much troubled about this, because I already then saw that they would approve whatever I should do in this kind; but I feared lest those who most desired the purchase of the second house should think me fickle, because I changed my opinion so quickly: a thing which I detest as most base and intolerable. But all those thoughts could not move me in the least or prevent me from inclining to those houses of the Blessed Virgin. Nor did I any longer remember that they were not convenient and good. For if the nuns could prevent even one venial sin, all the other inconveniences of the house seemed to me of no moment; and, as it at least appears to me, each of them, had she known what I knew, would without doubt have been of the same intention as I.
[901] and of Reinoso I used, then, this way of dissolving the matter. I was at that time using the canon Reinoso as confessor (he was one of those two who were helping me), although I had not yet communicated to him things of this kind pertaining to the spirit, because no occasion had yet presented itself for which that would be necessary; and since in these foundations I am always wont to do what my confessor advises me to do, so that I may proceed in them with greater security and certainty, I therefore resolved to open it to him under the seal of the strictest silence: although I did not feel myself sufficiently inclined to omit what I had already understood from heaven, without at the same time feeling great repugnance and vexation within myself on that account. Yet had I been ordered to omit it, I should certainly have omitted it: for I had confidence in the Lord, namely that His Majesty (as I have seen more than once on other occasions) would persuade the confessor, although he were of another opinion, to do what He Himself wished to be done.
[902] being consulted on that matter First, then, I told him that the Lord was wont quite often to instruct and teach me in this way, and that hitherto I had seen arguments and indications enough from which I knew that this was His spirit; and at the same time I opened to him what had happened: but I added that I was ready to do whatever seemed to him should be done, though it should be most grievous to me. He, however, because he is prudent, holy and of good counsel in every matter (although young), although he saw that some occasion of criticism would be given to men thereby, yet judged that what I had heard from the Lord was not to be omitted. I said, then, that it would be advisable if we awaited the news meanwhile: which counsel pleased him too. For I trusted in the Lord that He Himself would provide; as indeed happened: for when we had offered the owner of the house as much as he wished and had asked, he again asked three hundred gold pieces beyond what had been agreed by us: which certainly seemed a kind of folly; since he had sold it to us for more than was fair. Hence, then, it was plain to the eye that God had involved Himself in this business. For it was most advantageous to the owner to have sold it thus, and when it had already been agreed, without any foundation or reason he demanded more than we had stipulated. In this way that difficulty, which we had said would mean that we could never get clear of him, was met in part, but not entirely: for it was certain that we would not omit to buy, on account of three hundred gold pieces, a house which seemed very convenient for establishing a monastery.
[903] and of Salinas, likewise a canon I told my confessor, then, to have no regard for my opinion and judgment, if only he himself judged it should be done; but to signify openly to his companion and colleague that I had now come to the opinion that the houses of the Blessed Virgin should be bought in any way whatever, at a dear or a cheap price. He is of a most lively and keen wit, so that, although nothing was said to him of what had happened, yet, seeing this sudden change, I do not doubt that he scented its cause. Whence it came about that he did not further address or press me on this point. But afterwards we all saw plainly how great an error we had committed in buying that other house: for now we cannot sufficiently marvel, seeing by how many degrees these excel it and are better; to say nothing meanwhile (which is certainly the chief thing) that no one fails to see how much the Lord and His most glorious Mother are served in that place, and how many occasions of sinning are cut off in this way: for many night watches were held there, in which (because the place was deserted and like a hermitage) many things could be committed whose removal and prevention the devil took ill; but we rejoiced that we could serve our beloved Lady and Patroness in something. And certainly it had been very ill done that we put it off so long; for we ought not to have looked to anything else.
[904] with the assent It is plainly evident, then, that in many things we had been blinded by the devil: for in these houses there are many conveniences which could hardly be found elsewhere; next, we gave matter for joy in this way to the whole people, who desired this above all: to those also who desired that we should buy the other, it was afterwards very pleasing that we had moved into these. Blessed for ever be He who gave me light in this matter, such as He always gives me whenever I do anything well: for daily more and more I am astonished at the slight ability and skill which I have in all things. Do not, however, think that I say this out of humility, since I perceive this very thing more and more every day: for the divine Majesty seems to will that both I and all others should openly know and see that He alone is the one who performs these works, and that, as once He restored sight to the blind man by means of clay, so He makes a woman as blind as I am such that she is blind no longer. For many things, to confess the truth, there were in this matter which (as I have said) involved great blindness; wherefore, whenever I recall this matter, I should truly wish to praise the Lord anew on account of it: but, as I see, I am not fit even for this; so that I do not know how He bears with me. Blessed be His mercy for ever. Amen.
[905] and help, So those two pious men, clients of the Blessed Virgin, made haste in acquiring those houses; and (as it seems to me) they were bought at quite a cheap price. They certainly had to labour much: for God wills that in each of these foundations those who help us should have some matter for merit; but I contribute nothing at all, as I have already often said elsewhere, and I would wish I could always say it; because truly it is so. For they rendered signal service both in fitting out the house, and also in lending money (for I lacked it), and in standing surety for it. For in other places, before I find a surety (and that for a smaller sum), I have to labour and sweat enough; and not without reason: because, unless the sellers trusted in the Lord, they would not expect even a farthing from me. But His Majesty has hitherto granted me this grace, that whoever have stood surety for me have lost nothing, but have received to the last farthing the sum for which they had pledged themselves; which I count among the greatest graces.
[906] she buys But since those two sureties were by no means sufficient for the sellers of the houses, the bishop's vicar,
named Prudencio (yet I do not know whether I remember rightly; but so I am now told: for because we commonly called him the provisor, I did not know his proper name), to whom we owed much for his charity towards us and still owe, was approached by both of them. And when he chanced to meet them and asked where they were going, they answered him that they were coming to him himself, that he might sign the surety with his own hand. He smiled, and said: "Do you want me, then, to stand surety for so great a sum?" and forthwith, without even getting down from his mule, he signed the pledge. Truly in these embittered times that is to be weighed most of all and valued very highly.
[907] and into a monastery I should wish indeed to praise in more words the charity which flourishes at Palencia as much in general as in particular, and to omit no praise of it: for, to confess the truth, it seemed to breathe of the times of the primitive Church, or at least not to be much in use today and now; for when they saw that we lacked revenues, and that they must moreover feed us, they not only protected us and our affairs, but even judged that a singular grace from God was done them in this. And truly, if the matter be considered as it should be, they spoke the truth: for even if no other good had come from it than that there now exists one more church in the city in which the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar is reserved, that would certainly have to be held a great thing. Be He blessed for ever. Amen. For it is already clear enough that some service has been rendered Him by the establishment of this monastery in this place; for in that same place certain unseemly and not sufficiently decent things used to be committed, which have now been removed. For since very many kept vigils there, and the place was of itself deserted and solitary, not all betook themselves there out of regard for devotion and piety: to which evil remedy is now gradually being applied. The very image of the Most Blessed Virgin also was quite unbecomingly and inconveniently placed: but Álvaro de Mendoza, bishop of the place, had a certain chapel built for it at his own expense; gradually also other things are being arranged for the honour and glory of this glorious Virgin and her Son. Be He praised for ever and ever. Amen.
[908] she converts. When, then, the house had now been fitted out and arranged, the same bishop ordered that the nuns pass to it with solemn pomp; and that was done within the octave of the feast of the Venerable Sacrament. Nay, he himself, for that reason alone, returned from Valladolid to Palencia: the whole chapter also and the religious families and almost all the citizens of the town assembled, with a joyful harmony of voices resounding (there were present also Frs. Nicolás Doria and Juan de Jesús, as is clear from vol. IV, letter 30). And we, from the house in which we were living, clad in our white mantles and with our faces covered by a veil, were led in the manner of suppliants to a certain parish church near the little church of the Blessed Virgin (which is named after St. Lazarus). The aforesaid image also was carried to meet us, and the Venerable Eucharist, taken from this church, was brought into our church with signal order and pomp. A great feeling of piety was then stirred up in all. And there were present several nuns, namely those who had come there to begin at the same time the foundation of Soria; and all carried burning candles in their hands. I believe indeed that the Lord was much praised on that day. May He grant that He be always praised and blessed by all creatures. Amen. Thus far the Saint. The author of the Chronicle adds that in that solemn procession the new prioress, Isabel de Jesús, walked after the remaining nuns between the corregidor of the city and Suero de Vega. Then he narrates in what way, in the tenth year after, on account of the excessive throng of people visiting the church of Our Lady of the Street often up to midnight, the nuns moved into another dwelling (book V, chapter VII).
§ XLVII. The chapter of the Discalced Carmelites at Alcalá. Their separation from the Calced. St. Teresa's joy at this separation.
Fr. Juan de las Cuevas of the Order of Preachers, In the same chapter of her book in which the Palencia foundation is described, the Saint relates in a few words how the separation between the members of the two Carmels, decreed by apostolic letters of the 22nd of June 1580, was duly effected in the year 1581. When I was at Palencia, she says, it pleased the Lord that the separation of the Discalced and Calced Carmelites should be made, and that each should have their own provincial; which we desired most of all for our quiet and tranquillity. Wherefore a most ample apostolic Brief for this was brought to us from Rome, at the request of Philip our Catholic king, and His Majesty (as he had already begun before) helped us excellently in this matter. And so, by order of the Reverend Fr. Juan de las Cuevas of the Order of St. Dominic, who was then acting as prior of Talavera, and whom the Roman Pontiff on our king's recommendation had designated by name, a man outstanding in holiness and prudence such as was necessary for this matter, a chapter was celebrated at Alcalá. And the king furnished all the expenses from his own means, and by his order the whole university assisted our Fathers. Further, the chapter was celebrated in the college of the Discalced which bears the name of St. Cyril, and indeed very peaceably and with great agreement and concord of minds. And there was elected as provincial the Father Master Fr. Jerónimo Gracián de la Madre de Dios.
[910] for the office laid upon him by the king's care, But since those Fathers will narrate in another place the things which were then done, there was no reason why I should write of them. Yet I have touched on them here in a brief word, because, while I was occupied in this foundation, the Lord brought to completion this matter which so greatly makes for the glory and honour of His glorious Mother, who is the lady of our Order and our special patroness and protectress. And I then felt in my soul so great a joy that I cannot have a greater in this life. For more than twenty-five years had already elapsed, during which I had undergone very many troubles, persecutions and afflictions, which it would be long to relate here, and indeed the Lord alone can know them. But what joy I felt in my soul from seeing this matter completed, and how great a desire I had that all mortals should on that account praise the Lord, and that we should commend to His divine Majesty this holy king of ours Philip, by whose work and intention God had brought it to so happy an issue (for the devil had shaken this business with such cunning that, had the king not put his hand to it, it would have collapsed entirely), no one can know and understand, except one who knows the labours endured by us.
[911] he summons the Discalced Carmelites to Alcalá. These things we must unfold somewhat more at length. Fr. Juan de las Cuevas on the kalends of February sent encyclical letters to all the convents of the Discalced Carmelites, by which he summoned all the Priors and the others who had the right of coming there to a chapter to be begun at Alcalá on the 3rd day of March. He commanded besides both that in all the houses of men as well as of virgins assiduous prayers be poured out to obtain from God a happy success for the chapter, and also that from each convent whatever worthy of note concerning the constitutions had come into anyone's mind be sent to Alcalá. Then he himself betook himself to Alcalá, in order to confer with Frs. Gracián, Mariano, Roca and Doria, until the time of celebrating the chapter should arrive, concerning the matters to be treated and decided in it. Meanwhile St. Teresa was by no means idle, as the four surviving letters written in those days to Fr. Gracián abundantly demonstrate, to which the author of the Chronicle affirms that others given to Frs. Mariano, Roca and Doria were added (book V, chapter IX). Yet these nowhere appear in the published volumes of the Teresian Letters; as neither does a quite weighty letter which the Saint herself says she wrote to the Father Commissary and enclosed unsealed in her letter to Gracián (vol. III, letter 28).
[912] the Saint meanwhile, concerning the constitutions, It is pleasing to see what the holy Reformer accomplished by these letters of hers. And first she tried to persuade Fr. Gracián that, if the new province were committed to him to govern, he should take as his companion Fr. Nicolás Doria rather than Fr. Bartolomé de Jesús: for it was of the greatest importance that Frs. Gracián and Doria should act with minds most closely united, especially at the beginning; and Fr. Bartolomé (he was very dear to Gracián, to whom he had been secretary while he was exercising the office of visitor) had already turned upon himself the envious eyes of some: whence it was to be feared that, if he were the provincial's companion, the Reformed Order would suffer some harm (vol. III, letter 27). Then the Saint had both her own and her nuns' observations on the constitutions brought to Alcalá at the opportune time. She judged, however, as regards the rules of the nuns, that it was best for Gracián to confer about them privately with the Father Commissary, consulting only Frs. Nicolás Doria and Juan Roca, or de Jesús, but no others. For our affairs (those of the nuns, namely), she says, ought not to be communicated to the Friars: nor did Fr. Pedro Fernández ever communicate them to them; whatever he put into the Acts, all of it was deliberated between him and me, nor did he do anything without my knowledge. The Saint desired besides that the constitutions be committed to print; so that, namely, prioresses might not in future, as had happened somewhere, change them at their pleasure in transcribing them (vol. III, letter 28).
[913] food, clothing, revenues, sacred chant, the government of nuns, Descending, moreover, to certain particular heads, she suggested some things to be either changed or laid down concerning food, clothing and the revenues of the monasteries, especially to forestall scruples; and she admonished superiors to provide enough food for the religious, and to have cleanliness in beds and at table much at heart. Likewise she treated of the divine Office, in discharging which she did not think there should be departure from the custom used up to then. For the right government of the nuns she judged that care must be taken that confessors should not be perpetual vicars, and that the convents of nuns should not be subject to priors: for by both things the authority of the prioresses would be undermined, and room given to many other inconveniences. She held the same of too great a number of nuns within the cloisters of one house. Then she urged also that most exact rules be drawn up concerning the use of the veil: for example, that the nuns should never converse with confessors or religious of any Order, much less with Discalced Carmelites, otherwise than with face covered; and that the same be laid down for other conversations generally, unless an exception seemed fit to be made on account of very close kinship, the dignity of persons or other grave reasons.
[914] the rules of enclosure Finally, as to the laws of enclosure, she commended to Gracián that he should see whether by apostolic decrees it is lawful for nuns to enter the church or to approach the door of the monastery: which indeed she herself judged was in general to be avoided, except only in new foundations, where necessity might sometimes require it; and hence she praised the prioresses of Toledo and Segovia, who
had had the access from the monastery into the church closed up. While the most obedient daughter of the Church was writing these things, she did not yet well know the decree issued by Gregory XIII on the 30th day of December 1572, by which it is declared that it is lawful for no nuns, even tertiaries, to have a door through which one can enter from the monastery into the outer church of the nuns themselves, to which access is wont to be open to seculars for their Masses and divine Offices; but that it must be altogether blocked up with a wall: and likewise that it is not lawful for nuns, even tertiaries, to go out of the door of the monastery even to close the further door, through which access is wont to be open to seculars coming either to the turn or to the grilles or places destined for conversation, which are commonly called parlours, or to knock at the very door of the enclosure; which places, since they are wont to be open to seculars at least for the aforesaid causes, must be deemed outside the enclosure, even for the time during which they are closed (Roman Bullarium, vol. II, page 396, Luxembourg edition). But afterwards, better instructed, writing in the month of October to the prioress of Seville, she defined the laws of enclosure exactly as they had been prescribed by the Supreme Pontiff (vol. II, letter 100).
[915] and on other matters to be ordered she writes to Fr. Gracián. Let this suffice to have been said of the chief observations of the holy Foundress, in all of which her wisdom shines out in a wonderful manner: whoever wishes to examine them more closely, let him go to the letters themselves (vol. I, letter 26; vol. II, letter 39; vol. III, letters 27 and 28). The observations of the other nuns, the review of which had been entrusted to the Saint, have not come into our hands. Yet from the cited letters it appears that most of them were not approved in every respect by the holy Mother, and therefore needed much emendation, except only those of Isabel de Santo Domingo, prioress of Segovia, which she praised without any exception and sent entire to Fr. Gracián. But what must have befallen the Saint most bitterly, the worst of all were the observations and requests of her first monastery of St. Joseph at Ávila. They are such, she wrote, that, if they were admitted, there would be nothing lacking to their living there after the norm of the monastery of the Incarnation. I am terrified to see what the evil spirit does; and almost the whole fault of this matter lies with the confessor, a good man indeed, but too inclined to grant all the use of meat; which, to obtain it, they inserted as a petition in their memorandum. See what sort of life that is! Indeed I am consumed with grief when I see how far that house has turned aside from the right, and with what difficulty, though filled with excellent nuns, it is to be called back to its former state. Nay more, they have asked of Fr. Provincial Angel that certain of them who are of weak health may keep some food in their cells; and they have asked it in such a way that I do not wonder the good Father granted it to them. And who do you think was the one who asked for a licence of this kind? Thus indeed, little by little and imperceptibly, the whole discipline totters. Wherefore it is necessary that the ordinances by which it will be forbidden, as I have asked, that prelates permit anyone the possession of anything whatever, be drawn up with a certain weight of words, so that no nun, however infirm, can be exempted from them; but let the infirmarian take care to leave with the sick at night whatever is necessary for them: for among us there is wont to be supplied with much and great charity as much as the health of the nuns requires. Thus the Saint.
[916] is duly celebrated at Alcalá, After these and other preparations, as I have said, a beginning was given to the chapter on the 3rd day of March. Fr. Juan de las Cuevas, apostolic commissary, presided: there were present the superiors of all the convents of the Reformed Carmel, each with his companion, and all the others, Discalced Carmelites, who were then living in the college of Alcalá; and as witnesses there sat with the Fathers five men distinguished in dignity: namely Luis Hurtado de Mendoza, whom before I have repeatedly called count of Tendilla, and who had lately, by the death of his father Íñigo, obtained the marquisate of Mondéjar; Enrique de Mendoza, knight of Santiago, brother of Luis Hurtado; Antonio de Torres, abbot of the collegiate church of Alcalá; Fr. Miguel Seco, commander of the Order of Our Lady of Mercy; and Fr. Jerónimo de Almonacid, of the Order of Preachers, a great light of the university of Alcalá. Before all these on that same day the apostolic commissary promulgated the act of separation in lawful form: to which he himself and then the witnesses I have just named subscribed their names. On the following day, Cuevas again presiding, after the Holy Spirit had been invoked by a solemn Sacrifice, only those Fathers assembled to whom the right of electing the provincial belonged. Fr. Ambrosio Mariano was designated secretary; as definitors Frs. Nicolás de Jesús María, or Doria, Antonio de Jesús, St. John of the Cross and Gabriel de la Asunción; and finally as provincial Fr. Jerónimo Gracián.
[917] with sacred and literary pomp added, On the 5th day of March, which was a Sunday, a solemn procession was held to the church of Sts. Justus and Pastor; at which the marquis of Mondéjar, the university, the magistrates and the other leading men of the city were present, and the abbot with the chapter of canons came forth to meet it. There Fr. Gracián preached, and Fr. Antonio de Jesús offered the most holy Sacrifice of the Mass with festal rite. And in the afternoon, after first vespers had been sung in the church of the Carmelite convent of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, whose feast recurred on the following day, Fr. Juan de la Madre de Dios defended theses in sacred theology with great applause before a distinguished circle of learned men. Then on the Monday, at the exhortation of the Father Commissary, it was laid down that for all time one Mass daily, likewise continual prayers and one flagellation of the body each week, should be offered to God for the king of Spain and his family in all the convents of the Discalced Carmelites of both sexes.
[918] the chapter by which are separated From then up to the 13th day of the same month effort was spent on ordering the constitutions, and four days besides were consumed in dispatching other business. At which time also Fr. Juan de las Cuevas, in virtue of his office of commissary, sent two letters to the Reverend Fr. Giovanni Battista Caffardo, General of the Carmelite Order: one by which he informed him of the things done in the chapter; the other by which he asked of him the confirmation of the new provincial. Finally, I cannot pass over in silence in this place that which Fr. Ángel Manrique relates (Life of Ana de Jesús, book III, chapter XV), that at St. Teresa's urgent request Frs. Juan de Jesús and Diego de la Santísima Trinidad were deputed to Beas, to render solemn thanks, in the name of the Discalced gathered at Alcalá, to the Venerable Ana de Jesús, and that within the cloisters of the monastery. For the holy Mother ascribed the excellent success of the Roman journey chiefly to the industry of her Ana; so that she was sometimes heard saying: Ana, Ana, you have the works, I only the name; likewise: They call me indeed the foundress, but the praise for our affairs must be attributed to Ana de Jesús (ibid., chapter XIV).
[919] the Discalced Carmelites of both sexes from the Calced. And let these things, summarily indicated by me, suffice concerning that chapter of separation, which is described more at length in the Chronicle (book V, chapters IX and X): rejoicing at whose outcome the Saint says: Now, however, we are all at peace, Calced as well as Discalced. No one is an obstacle to us in serving our Lord. Wherefore, my brothers and sisters, since He has heard your prayers, strive to serve His Majesty. Let those present, who are eyewitnesses of this matter, see what benefits He has conferred on us, and from what labours and disquiets He has freed us: but those who are to come after (since they will find everything already smoothed and settled) I beseech for the love of the Lord that they suffer nothing which in any way makes for perfection to perish; lest at any time on their account it be said of us what is said of some Orders, namely that only their beginnings are praiseworthy. We are only now beginning: but let them take pains to advance always from good to better. Let them consider that the devil by the smallest and most trifling things makes a hole and opening by which afterwards the greatest things insinuate themselves: and let them never say: "This is nothing, these are extremes." For all things, dearest ones, are something great, if they are an obstacle to proceeding further. For the love of the Lord I ask you, remember how quickly all things pass, and what grace the Lord has done us by calling us to this Order, and how great a punishment awaits him who shall begin to bring in any relaxation. But cast your eyes always on the stock and offspring from which we descend (of those holy Prophets, I say). How many Saints we have in heaven who wore this habit! And with a certain holy presumption let us trust that we shall one day, by God's grace and help, be such as they are now. The struggle will last a short time, dearest ones; but the end is eternal. Let us leave, then, those things which in themselves are nothing; and let us follow those which lead us to that end, that we may love and serve the more Him who is to live for perpetual eternities. Amen. Amen. Thanks be to God. Similarly she discloses her own and her nuns' joy in a letter written to Fr. Gracián on the 23rd and 24th days of March (vol. II, letter 40), which was followed four days later by a letter to Antonio Gaitán, containing nothing which can be of use to us (vol. III, letter 46). Finally, towards the end of May, probably on the 29th day, which was a Monday (vol. IV, letter 30), she set out for Soria to establish a new convent there; a beginning having already been given at Valladolid on the 4th day of May to a new convent of men, as the Chronicle narrates (book V, chapter XIII), and the college of Salamanca being due to be begun on the 1st day of June next following, as the same Chronicle relates (ibid., chapter XVIII). Let us therefore betake ourselves with the Saint to Soria.
§ XLVIII. The Saint gives a beginning at Soria to the fifteenth convent of her virgins; having set out thence to Ávila, she is elected prioress by the nuns of the first convent founded by her.
Alonso Velázquez, bishop of Osma, When I was at Palencia, says the Saint in chapter XXX, completing the foundation I have mentioned, letters of the bishop of Osma were delivered to me. His name was Doctor Velázquez, with whom, when he was canon and professor in the principal church of Toledo, feeling some fears within myself, I procured to communicate concerning the affairs of my soul, because I knew him to be a learned man and a signal servant of God; and so I asked him with importunate prayers to undertake the direction of my soul and to give his labour to me in confession. And he, although he was occupied with various affairs, when I had asked it of him for the love of God, and he had considered my need, did it so willingly that I was astonished: whence during all that time in which I stayed at Toledo (which was certainly quite long) I used him as confessor and conferred with him about the affairs of my soul, and that with all the candour and simplicity I could,
as it is always my custom to do. Further, he helped me so much that as soon as I conferred with him, my fears began to leave me. I had (to confess the truth) another reason besides for dealing with him, which it is not expedient to mention in this place. But in fact he brought me the greatest benefit: for he made me secure by testimonies of Sacred Scripture; which way certainly suits me best, when, namely, I am certain that those who draw them out for me are also learned of themselves and know many things, as I was certain of that man, his good life especially being added.
[921] invites St. Teresa to Soria, Further, he wrote me these letters from Soria, where he was then staying: and in them he wrote that a certain noblewoman, whose Confessions he was hearing there, had spoken with him about founding a certain convent for our nuns, and that this did not seem unfitting to him; and that he had told her he would settle the matter with me without difficulty: wherefore I should betake myself there to begin the foundation, and not, by thinking otherwise, put him to confusion before her: and so, if I judged it convenient and fitting, I should inform him by letter; and that then he would send for me. I indeed rejoiced exceedingly: for (to say nothing of that foundation having seemed to me expedient) I greatly desired to communicate with him some affairs concerning my soul and to see him in person; because, on account of the immense fruit he had brought me, I had conceived a signal love towards him.
[922] a house from Beatriz de Beaumont, Now this foundress was named Beatriz de Beaumont y Navarra (because she derives her lineage from the kings of Navarre), daughter of Don Francisco de Beaumont, most illustrious in lineage and birth. Married for some years, she had conceived no children; otherwise she abounded in fortune and wealth. And for many years already she had resolved with herself to found a certain monastery of nuns. And so she treated of this business with Bishop Velázquez; who made mention to her of this Order of the Discalced nuns of the Blessed Virgin: hearing which, she so inclined to it that she wished this thing to be put into execution through him as quickly as possible. She is a woman exceptionally gentle, sweet in manners, a generous follower of austerity, in short a signal servant of God. She had at Soria a good house, well built and quite conveniently situated. This she promised she would give us, together with all things that were necessary for the foundation of a monastery. She added besides five hundred gold pieces a year, reckoned at the twentieth penny.
[923] promising that the church would be given by himself. And the bishop promised that he would give a church, very good and vaulted in every part, belonging to a certain neighbouring parish, which, with the addition of a certain passage and vestibule, could be quite useful to us. And he could do this without inconvenience, because the church was hardly provided for out of revenues, and there are a good many other sacred buildings in the neighbourhood: hence he annexed the parish itself to another. All these things he himself signified to me in his letters, which I soon communicated to the Father Provincial, who was then at Palencia: to whom, as also to all our friends, it seemed good that I should write back to him by a sure and special courier that they should come to fetch me: for the Palencia foundation was already finished then. And I was affected with the greatest joy on that account, and that for the reason I have mentioned. I began, then, to select and call the nuns whom I was to take with me there, who were seven in all (for that lady wished rather to have more than fewer), and besides these one lay sister and also my companion and I. Further, a certain messenger came, sent from there in the greatest haste, to fetch us, and indeed very opportunely; because I had written that I wished to bring with me two Discalced Fathers.
[924] The Saint, then, with Fr. Nicolás Doria I took with me, then, Fr. Nicolás de Jesús María, a man of great discretion, a native of Genoa. He took the religious habit being more than forty years old, as it seems to me at least: at least he has so many years at present, and it is not long since he took it; but in a very short time he made such progress in virtues that it is clear enough that he was chosen by the Lord to defend the Order in these persecutions and harassments. For he helped it in a wonderful manner at that time: for of the rest who could protect it, some had been driven into exile, others thrown into prison; but him, because he held no office, since he had not been so long in the Order (as has been said), they did not care about so much. And God permitted it for this reason, that such a helper might remain to me. And he is of such discretion that, when he was staying at Madrid in the convent of the Calced, he conducted himself so prudently that these thought he had come there for the sake of transacting other business, and could not understand that he was dealing with our affairs. Hence they did not harass him at all, but let him be at peace. We wrote letters to one another quite often (for I was then myself in the convent of Ávila), and informed each other of what was necessary: for this was a very great consolation to him. Hence it will plainly be evident in how great need our Order then was; since so much account was made of me (for lack, as is said, of good men). All that time I perceived his perfection and discretion: whence he is of the number of those of this Order whom I most love in the Lord and value most. He, then, and his companion, a lay Brother, accompanied us.
[925] and with several other companions The lay Brother, according to the author of the Chronicle (book V, chapter XX), was named Eliseo de la Madre de Dios: the names of the nuns who accompanied the Saint see in Ribera. Her other companions were these: Francisco de Cetina, a priest, sent with a carriage by Beatriz de Beaumont; and also another priest, named Chacón, and a certain attendant, both deputed by the bishop of Osma; finally Pedro de Ribera, prebendary of the church of Palencia, joined to the Saint on her departure by Álvaro de Mendoza, bishop of Palencia. So, she says, I suffered quite little labour and trouble on this road: for he whom the bishop had sent to fetch us treated us quite handsomely and comfortably, and wherever he could, took care to provide good inns for us everywhere. For when we had entered the diocese of Osma, the people, out of their affection for the bishop, when they heard that we were coming there at his invitation, received us excellently. The weather also was quite fine and the day's stages of the roads not so long; hence on this road we felt little labour, but much joy. For hearing how well all everywhere spoke of the holiness of their bishop, I rejoiced greatly within myself. And we came to El Burgo on the Wednesday, the day before the octave of the Venerable Sacrament: and on the Thursday, on which the octave itself was kept, we received Holy Communion there; and we dined there, because we could not reach Soria that evening. We spent the night in a certain church, because no other inn was then available; nor did it go badly with us there. On the following day, having heard the Sacrifice of the Mass there, we came to Soria at about the fifth hour of the evening.
[926] to El Burgo de Osma, to visit the bishop there, From this narrative of St. Teresa it seems to me altogether clear that she arrived with her companions at Soria on the 2nd of June, namely the day after the octave of Corpus Christi. For one must by no means depart from the version of Martínez, who rendered the Spanish words otro dia by the Latin postridie on the following day: as Mr. Boucher departed from it, when he rendered this phrase: Otro dia oimos alii Misa y llegamos á Soria como á las cinco de la tarde, [The next day we heard Mass there and reached Soria at about five in the afternoon,] in French thus: Un autre jour nous entendîmes encore la messe, et nous arrivâmes à Sorie sur les cinq heures du soir; [On another day we heard Mass again, and we arrived at Soria about five in the evening;] though he himself shortly before had said for otro dia "le lendemain" the next day: to say nothing of the word encore again, which he substituted for the Spanish alli (that is, there). But a twofold reason drove the good man to do this violence to Teresa's words. One is a geographical error, by which he took it that under the name of El Burgo is to be understood the city of Burgos, capital of Old Castile, distinguished by an episcopal see from the most ancient times of the Church, and an archiepiscopal one from the year 1574; whereas the Saint is treating of El Burgo of Osma, which in the vulgar idiom of the Spaniards is called el Burgo de Osma, and which much exceeds in size the town of Osma itself, reduced almost to a solitude by the Moors, so that the bishops of Osma were wont very often to stay there, as Baudrand teaches among others in the Geographical Lexicon of Filippo Ferrari, augmented and emended by himself. The other reason for which Mr. Boucher goes astray is a slip of St. Teresa herself, of which I shall now speak.
[927] and thence is conveyed to Soria Namely, as we have just heard her narrating, she entered Soria on the 2nd day of June. But she continues thus: The holy bishop, looking out from a certain window of his house as we passed by there, favoured us with his blessing: by which act he refreshed me not a little; for a blessing proceeding from a prelate and a holy man is to be valued very highly. And that lady, our foundress, was awaiting our arrival at the door of her house, which was the place in which the monastery was to be established. But there hardly appeared any way by which we might enter it: for an immense crowd of people was present. Nor indeed was this new: for wherever we go, there is always so great a multitude present (because the world is greedy and curious of novelties) that, if we did not cover our faces with veils, we should be overspread with the greatest blushes; but when we are covered with veils, it is somehow tolerable. She had prepared a spacious hall, and had well adorned it, in which Mass was to be said: for to the church which the bishop was to give us a certain passage had to be added. Whence also on the following day, on which the feast of our holy Father Eliseus was kept, Mass was celebrated there. All the things of which we had need that woman supplied most abundantly, and she left us that place to inhabit; in which we lived recollected for as long as it took that passage to be prepared, which was not finished before the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord.
[928] where possession of the monastery Thus the Saint, plainly not sufficiently consistent with herself: whence all her biographers, except one, Fr. Federico de San Antonio, have concluded that she arrived at Soria on the 13th day of June; which was the Tuesday of the fourth week after the octave of Pentecost, not the Friday, as the author of the Chronicle asserts (book V, chapter XX, no. 3): for in the year 1581, the dominical letter being A and Easter falling on the 26th day of March, the 11th day of June was the fourth Sunday after Pentecost. But it is most certain that the 14th day of June for many centuries back, both among the Greeks and among the Latins, has been
assigned to the cult of St. Eliseus, as Baronius teaches in his annotations to the Roman Martyrology and our Papebroch shows at length in his Commentary on the holy Prophet (volume II of June, pages 784 and 785): nor is any General of the Order of Carmel known — which perhaps someone might suspect — to have assigned the 3rd day of June for the recitation of the Office of St. Eliseus. In a book inspected by me, says Fr. Federico (book 11, chapter XXXIX, in a note), printed at Venice in the year 1544 with the title of Ordinal, in which all the Offices to be celebrated in our Order and their ceremonies are indicated in minute detail with the greatest accuracy, the 14th day of June is assigned to St. Eliseus with double rite; and the same day is constantly given by all the Calendars and Breviaries cited by Fr. Daniel de la Virgen María in the Speculum Carmelitanum.
[929] she enters on the 3rd of June 1581; Wherefore, says the wise author, it is permissible to assert that our Saint here slipped through some error: nor will she herself oppose this proposition of mine as being too little reverent; since in many places of her books she professes that it may happen that she has erred in indicating years and days. Hence it is clear how ridiculous are some over-bold critics, who, when in the histories of the Saints they stumble upon some doubtful circumstance, cut off with a sharp sickle whatever there is of facts, and deride the historian as a trifler. Is it not true that it cannot be understood how in the year 1581 the 14th day of June could have fallen on the Saturday next after the octave of Corpus Christi? Then let them beware, unless they wish to be numbered among fools, and let them deny, if they can, that in that same year a monastery was erected at Soria by St. Teresa. To this opinion of Fr. Federico I have judged that I must subscribe, and rightly depart from the other biographers of the holy Mother, who did not examine the matter so accurately. For if the Saint erred in one place or the other, I indeed believe with Fr. Federico that it was more likely that her memory slipped in noting the feast of St. Eliseus than in noting the days of the week and the day of the octave of Corpus Christi. And it could also have happened meanwhile that on the 3rd day of June, which is vacant in the Roman and Carmelite Calendars, a votive Mass of St. Eliseus was said.
[930] but on the 6th of August Further, to the narrative of St. Teresa the author of the Chronicle adds certain circumstances drawn from I know not where; which show on the one hand the Saint's most charming courtesy towards benefactors and friends, on the other the great esteem in which she was held among the people of Soria and especially by the bishop of Osma: but these, as being rather minute, I judge can be passed over by me without loss to the history. I go on, therefore, to copy out the Saint's words: On that day, then (namely the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord), the first Sacrifice of the Mass was celebrated in that church of ours (granted by the bishop), with great solemnity and concourse of people: a certain priest of the Society of Jesus preached; because the bishop had gone off to El Burgo (in the month of July to celebrate a Synod, as the Saint writes, vol. III, letter 30): for he lets no day or hour slip by in which he does not labour and work, although he is not in good health and was then deprived of the use of one eye. Certainly it brought me great sorrow that one who spent himself so wholly in the service of our Lord should have lost his sight in these circumstances. These, namely, are the judgments of God; who no doubt did this in order to give His servant greater matter for merit (because he did not on that account labour more sluggishly or less than before) and to see whether his will was conformed to His will. Hence he told me that he was no more afflicted on that account than if that illness had befallen one of his neighbours, and that it would not seem grievous to him if the Lord took away the light of the other eye as well: for then, he said, he would withdraw into some hermitage, to serve God there with less burden and obligation. For this was always his inclination, before he was raised to the episcopate, as he told me from time to time. Nay, he had almost already resolved to abandon all things at once and hide himself within some solitude.
[931] But I could by no means suffer this, because he seemed to me likely to be very useful to the Church of God; granted to her by the pious bishop hence I wished for him that state which he now has: although, on the day on which the episcopal office was conferred on him (for he at once had it signified to me), I felt great disturbance and disquiet within me, because I saw a most heavy burden laid on him; nor could I compose or quiet myself: wherefore I went off into the choir, to commend him to the Lord. There His Majesty at once calmed me, asserting that he would be very useful for His service; which is already clear enough to be so. Although, as I have said, he suffers from his eye and has besides other grave illnesses (to say nothing of his ordinary labours), he fasts four times a week and undergoes other austerities: his food is simple, and he has no delicacies. He visits his diocese on foot; which his servants and companions hardly bear, and they have complained to me about it from time to time. Further, they must be pious and apply themselves to virtues, or leave his household. He hardly endures that business of great moment be transacted by his provisors; nay, I believe he does not commit any to them at all, but wishes to do and execute it himself.
[932] she begins to use the church. In the first two years he was harassed there by such grave persecutions of false accusations that I could not but be astonished; because in administering justice he is wonderfully upright and sincere. But these were now gradually ceasing, and although the accusers betook themselves to the court and to those through whom they hoped they could contrive evil against him and harm him, yet because his virtue and the good which he does throughout the whole diocese have now become known, they can therefore do nothing at all: and he himself bore them all with such tranquillity of soul that he filled his adversaries with confusion, by doing good to those whom he knew to be contriving evil against him. However many affairs he has to attend to, he always manages to steal some time from them in which to apply himself to prayer. I seem to be swallowed up and carried beyond the mark while I relate some good things of that holy man. And certainly I have still said very few things; but in order that it may be known who was the first author of the foundation of the convent of Soria, named after the Most Holy Trinity, and that the nuns who will one day live in it may feel consolation, I have not spent useless labour: and those who are now there know it plainly. And although he himself did not give an annual revenue, yet he gave the church; and it was he who (as has been related) induced that lady to do this work: in short, as I have said, he is a man of excellent piety, virtue and austerity.
[933] This foundation Thus far the Saint on the foundation of Soria: while she was devoting her labour to completing which, she at the same time tried again to obtain from Cardinal Quiroga, archbishop of Toledo, the faculty of founding a convent in the city of Madrid, as is clear from a letter directed to him for this purpose on the 16th day of June (vol. IV, letter 2), likewise from another given on the 30th of June to the licentiate Dionisio Ruiz de la Peña, the Cardinal's confessor (vol. III, letter 42); and for that matter she used the intercession of Alonso Velázquez, bishop of Osma, who was perhaps going to set out for Toledo in the month of September, as she herself wrote to Fr. Gracián on the 14th day of July (vol. III, letter 30). There is treated also in the letters which I have just cited, and also in another given to Dionisio de la Peña on the 8th day of July (vol. II, letter 59), of the noble widow Elena de Quiroga, kinswoman of the archbishop, who already from the year 1567 had desired to be co-opted among the Discalced Carmelites. This woman the Saint judged at that time should not yet be received, partly lest she offend the Cardinal, partly because Elena had several children, whom it was not expedient should be bereft of their mother. Nevertheless before the end of this year Elena was joined to the Teresian family, as I have already noted elsewhere (no. 562) and as the Saint herself indicated to the Cardinal by letter on the 30th of October (vol. III, letter 2). As regards the letter written on the 14th day of July to Fr. Gracián, it is pleasing to note, what the commentator on the letters did not know, that it was still preserved in autograph in the last century in the archives of the college of the Society of Jesus at Alcalá; as I understand from the surviving manuscripts of the most learned Fr. Andrés Burriel, which Mr. Pedro de la Serna y Santander, son of Carlos de la Serna of good memory, formerly librarian of the city of Brussels, has most courteously deigned to communicate to us. I do not know what became, after the overthrow of our Society, of those archives, which contained very many letters of Sts. Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier and of other men illustrious for holiness and learning.
[934] scarcely finished, Further, scarcely a few days had passed since the feast of the Lord's Transfiguration when our Saint had to leave Soria to go and look after her convent of St. Joseph at Ávila. And so on the 16th day of August, with Pedro de Ribera, whom I named above (no. 925), and the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé, she took the road to Ávila, intending at the same time to visit her nuns of Segovia on the way. Before she set out, she handed to the prioress of Soria, Catalina de Cristo, a memorandum written in her own hand concerning the things to be ordered in the new Soria foundation (vol. II, letter 75); from which it becomes evident how much the most exact observance of the rules of monastic enclosure was a care to the holy Mother. For she does not hesitate on that account to descend to every smallest detail; and she wishes that even in the private parlour of Beatriz de Beaumont, the key of which was to be kept by the prioress, a curtain should hang at the grille, which it should not be lawful to draw back except when one had to speak with Beatriz herself or with her kinswoman Leonor de Ayanz, and sometimes, but more rarely, with Elvira de Tapia, recently married to Francisco Carlos de Beaumont, the nearest kinsman of Beatriz. The author of the Chronicle narrates that this man was very hostile to St. Teresa on account of the money spent by Beatriz, whose heir he was, on the new monastery; but that five years afterwards, when he was ill, the Saint appeared to him and said: You doubted much indeed of my holiness; but see how the Gospel says that the tree is known by its fruits, and consider the fruits brought forth by me: and that then indeed there came into Francisco's mind certain predictions formerly made to him by the Saint; and that, changed into an altogether different man, he spent his life most piously at Arévalo, and frequently experienced the help of the holy Foundress; and that all these things were afterwards confirmed by him by sworn testimony in the informations for the Saint's canonization. And Leonor de Ayanz, the marriage which she had contracted with Juan de Beaumont, another kinsman of Beatriz, having been annulled by lawful authority, embraced in this very year 1581 the Teresian Institute under the name of Leonor de la Misericordia. The same was done, after two
years, by Beatriz de Beaumont, who entered the convent of Pamplona, whose foundation she had promoted with her wealth, under the name of Beatriz de Cristo. We have three letters of St. Teresa to Leonor de la Misericordia (vol. 1, letter 44; vol. II, letter 107; vol. IV, letter 70).
[935] by way of El Burgo de Osma We must now hear Yepes, candidly narrating these things about himself: When the Saint was staying at Soria, having completed my priorate of Zamora I was sent by my prelates to Riosa; and passing through Osma I heard from the bishop, who had already returned from Soria and was a very great friend of mine, that the holy Mother was busy with the Soria foundation and would shortly come thence to Osma: from which news I took great joy and pleasure. She arrived on the same day at the eighth hour of the evening: I, going out to meet her at the door, greeted her as she got down from the carriage. When she asked who I was (for as she had her face covered with a veil, and as the day was already drawing to evening, she had not recognized me), after I had answered that I was Fr. Diego de Yepes, she checked her voice: hence I began to fear that perhaps she had forgotten me or that my presence was disagreeable to her. But afterwards, when I was alone with her alone, I asked what was the meaning of the silence with which she had received me as I declared my name, and which had struck me with sorrow and wonder at once. She answered: "I was a little troubled, because two things were before my eyes: either that you had been punished by the superiors of your Order, or that God had willed to give me a reward for the labours endured in that foundation by bringing you here." Refreshed indeed by this goodwill of the Saint towards me, I confessed that what she had said in the first place was true; but that God certainly had not willed the other thing. Then she told me for how long my penance would last; and she reproved me in a veiled manner, foretelling that, when the penance was over, I would be ashamed of myself: for it was clear enough how little prepared for suffering I was, who made so much of such small things. And it turned out exactly as she herself told her companion Ana de San Bartolomé, as though signifying to her the time for which my trouble would last. Thus Yepes (book II, chapter XXXII); who besides narrates in a certain report, cited by Fr. Antonio de San José (vol. III, letter 82, note 7), that on that occasion he twice gave the most sacred Body of Jesus Christ to the holy Mother, and that then above all he experienced those two things which he relates in her Life (book II, chapter XXXVIIII, and book III, chapter XX): namely that her breath was always most sweet, and that whenever she approached the Eucharistic Table her face was wont to change from pale to most beautiful and as it were translucent.
[936] and Segovia, From what has been said so far it may probably be concluded for the chronology that St. Teresa, having left Soria on the 16th day of August, reached either Osma or El Burgo de Osma by the evening of the following day, spent the 18th day of August there, and the next morning, having received the Most Holy Eucharist, set out thence for Segovia, where she arrived on the 23rd. And she herself writes thus of that journey of hers: When we had now at Soria passed over to the other church, and had arranged the things necessary for the enclosure, it was necessary for me to set out for the convent of Ávila: wherefore I departed thence as soon as possible through intense summer heats: moreover, the road which had to be travelled was very unsuitable for carriages. There set out with me a certain prebendary of Palencia, named Ribera; who in fitting out our passage, and also in all other things, rendered me active service and underwent great labour; because Fr. Nicolás de Jesús María, the letters of the foundation having been completed, had gone elsewhere, where his work was most necessary. And thereby God put into him so great a desire of doing good to us that he may be counted among the patrons of our Order, so that we may commend him together with them to His Majesty. I did not wish anyone else to come with me than he and my companion: for he is so provident that he sufficed me; and I find that the less noise there is on the road, the better it is.
[937] whither by a most troublesome journey By the inconveniences which I bore here I paid off well enough the conveniences which I had had in coming: for although the youth who had offered himself as guide of the roads knew the road as far as Segovia, yet he did not know the highway. Hence he often led us into such places that we had to get down, and as it were lift the carriage on our shoulders on account of the huge precipices that confronted us. If we took any guides of the road, they led us no further than as far as they themselves knew it; and if a road even a little more difficult occurred, they at once deserted us, saying repeatedly that they were called home by their business. And before we reached an inn (when that would happen we did not know), we had suffered the violent heat of the sun, nay, had often been in most imminent danger lest the carriage itself, its wheels overturned, should go over. I was anxious and troubled above all on account of him who accompanied us: for although they had already said before that we were going by a good road, yet we had to measure back the road we had measured, and return to where we had come from. But he was so rooted in virtue that I do not remember ever having seen him irritated; which evenness certainly was for me an occasion of admiring him and praising the Lord. For where virtue is solid and rooted, there the occasions of sinning can do hardly anything. And I praised the Lord that He had deigned to lead us out of this difficult road.
[938] she arrived, On the eve, then, of the feast of St. Bartholomew the Apostle we arrived at Segovia at St. Joseph's; where our nuns were in fear and anxiety because we were delaying so long on the road: for since the road was very difficult, we stuck on it quite long. And they received us kindly and most courteously: for the Lord never sends me any labour and pressure without at once repaying it with consolation. I rested here eight days and more. And this foundation was carried through so entirely without any labour that what I have already related is to be counted as nothing; because it is in truth of no moment. I indeed returned thence very content, because the town seemed to me of such a kind that, such is God's mercy, I hope great service will follow to His name from the fact that that convent has been erected there; as already in fact appears clearly enough. Be He blessed and glorified for ever. Amen.
[939] to Ávila, Next the Saint on the 4th day of September arrived at the village of Villacastín, whence she sent letters to the prioress of Seville (vol. III, letter 82), intending to travel on the following day as far as Ávila; where Fr. Nicolás Doria was awaiting her, prepared for the journey to Rome to be undertaken, by the will of King Philip, for confirming the affairs of his Order. By this very sequence of events, without needing to adduce other arguments, the author of the Chronicle is sufficiently refuted, who asserts that the Saint made this journey by way of Palencia, and accordingly wrongly refers to the year 1581 what was to be referred to the year 1582, as will be clear in its place. Nay more, the same writer, whom Fr. Federico follows, put off the arrival of the holy Mother at her monastery of Ávila to the very end of September, on account of a letter which he supposes was sent by the Saint from Valladolid to Soria on the 18th of September 1581. He is speaking, unless I am mistaken, of letter 42 of the first volume, which Fr. Federico alleges to prove the same thing (book 11, chapter XL), and which bears the date of the 15th, not the 18th, of September. But that this was by no means written in the year 1581 is shown even from this, that in it there is treatment of the profession of a certain nun to be put off to another time on account of her excessive youth: yet in the fourth month after the foundation of the monastery there could not yet be any question of profession, since the Council of Trent (session XXV, chapter XV) requires that a whole year of novitiate be completed before profession. Besides, the Saint herself in the letters which she gave on the 9th of September to Jerónimo Reinoso (vol. IV, letter 49) and on the 13th of September to Dionisio de la Peña (vol. II, letter 60) affirms in express words that, returned from Soria, she was already at Ávila.
[940] to bear the office of prioress at St. Joseph's, But when she arrived at Ávila, she found her dearest house of St. Joseph wretchedly afflicted. For not only had the nuns, through their confessor's fault, much relaxed from their former fervour of piety and religious observance, as has already been said elsewhere and now appears again from the holy Mother's letter to Fr. Gracián given on the 26th of October (vol. II, letter 42); but also, as regards temporal things, they were almost without alms and were overwhelmed with debt. For these reasons, under the compulsion of hunger, as the Saint wittily wrote not long afterwards to the prioress of Seville (vol. II, letter 100), they took the resolution of electing Teresa prioress; which, María de Cristo voluntarily resigning the priorate, and the Saint resisting in vain on the pretext of old age and ill health, they easily obtained from the provincial Gracián on the 10th day of September (vol. III, letter 82, note 6), with great benefit to their temporal and at the same time spiritual affairs, as may be read in Ribera (book III, chapter V).
[941] she undertakes. It would be too long to unfold one by one the letters written by St. Teresa at Ávila at this time. Let it be enough, then, to have sampled some of them, as I have already begun to do, and for the rest to have indicated briefly their chronological order, by which anyone who desires to read them may be helped. Which order indeed is this: of the month of October, on the 9th day to Jerónimo Reinoso (vol. IV, letter 49), on the 13th to Dionisio Ruiz de la Peña (vol. II, letter 60); of the month of October, on the 9th or 10th day to Sancho Dávila (vol. I, letter 6, and vol. IV, fragment 2, as I indicated at no. 881), on the 26th to Fr. Gracián (vol. II, letter 42), on the 30th to Cardinal Gaspar de Quiroga (vol. III, letter 2); of the month of November, on the 8th day to María de San José (vol. II, letter 100), on the 13th to Martín de Salinas (vol. II, letter 58), on the 15th to Juan de Ovalle (vol. II, letter 54), on the 19th to Pedro de Castro (vol. IV, letter 8), on an uncertain day to the same (vol. II, letter 6), likewise on an uncertain day to the duchess of Alba (vol. IV, letter 10), on the 28th to María de San José (vol. II, letter 101), on the 29th to Fr. Gracián (vol. III, letter 31); at the beginning of the month of December to the same (vol. III, letter 32), on the 4th again to the same (vol. IV, fragment 9), on the 15th to Lorenzo de Cepeda, son of the deceased Lorenzo (vol. IV, letter 43), on the 29th to
the nuns of Soria (vol. 1, letter 43). To this series perhaps there ought also to be added the letter given on the 22nd day of October to Guiomar Pardo y Tavera (vol. II, letter 69; vol. III, letter 5); but since it does not bear a certain mark of the year, I would not dare to affirm it outright.
§ XLIX. The entry of the Discalced Carmelites into Portugal. The foundation of the sixteenth monastery of Teresian virgins, effected at Granada by the Venerable Ana de Jesús.
To the Venerable Ana de Jesús, Towards the year 1582, which we shall now enter, Fr. Ambrosio Mariano had prepared the way for the Reformed Carmel into Portugal and also into the Portuguese dominions overseas; so that a convent of Discalced Carmelites was begun at Lisbon on the 19th day of February, and five of them began on the 20th day of March to sail to Guinea: but these perished at sea (Chron. book V, chapter XXIV). Meanwhile at least four foundations had been offered to our Saint, namely at the village of Rodrigo, and at Orduña, at Granada and at Burgos: of which she judged that the first two were to be refused, as she wrote on the 13th of July to Jerónimo Reinoso (vol. III, letter 40); but the two latter were begun at the beginning of the year 1582, that of Burgos by St. Teresa herself, that of Granada by the Venerable Ana de Jesús, in Teresa's name and place. Of this one, because it preceded the other in time, I must speak first; in which I shall follow as guide Ana herself, who described this foundation. For St. Teresa, when ordered to write the history of her foundations, had judged that that of Granada was not comprehended in that command, both because it was not yet fully completed, and because it was being made not in her presence (though with her prior counsel and deliberate effort): for which reason also she abstained from relating the foundations of the monasteries of men, except the first two, in which she herself had been a great part. But when the Saint had now departed from the living, Fr. Gracián, wishing to supply that defect of the history, since of the remaining foundations of the virgins this one alone was lacking, commanded Ana de Jesús to compose the history of the house founded by her: which this excellent virgin carried out so well and in a style almost Teresian that her writing is customarily appended to the other foundations in the place of an appendix. Yet I shall not insert it in this Commentary, not so much because it did not flow from Teresa's pen as because Ana was the chief agent at Granada, not Teresa. I shall, however, bring forward the first part of that narrative, in which it is told how the Saint prepared the way for the Granada foundation. And what further must be related by me, namely how Teresa counselled the house already begun, will be supplied to me by the reproving letter which the Saint sent to Ana on the 30th of May 1582, that is, when the fifth month since her arrival in the city of Granada was already passing.
[943] the convent of Granada Your Reverence commands me, says Ana, beginning her narrative and addressing Gracián, to describe the foundation of this house of Granada; but because I am so weak and feeble in head, I have so slight a memory that I do not know whether I shall recall the events well: I shall say, however, what occurs to memory. In the month of October just past of the year 1585 the fourth year was passing since Fr. Diego de la Santísima Trinidad (may he live in peace), when he was acting as vice-provincial in Your Reverence's place, came to visit the convent of Beas; in which I had already been relieved of the office of prioress three or four months before, and was in quite poor health. And when the Father Visitor saw me in this state, he began to deal with us earnestly and zealously that we should make an excursion to Granada to begin a foundation, because many grave and illustrious men and wealthy ladies were asking it of him most urgently, and promising notable alms for it. But there was nothing else (as it seemed to me at least) which impelled him to believe that these would help us in anything, than his good faith and sincerity. Hence I told him that these things were said by them only by way of flattery and boasting; and that therefore of what they promised nothing at all would come; nay, that not even the archbishop of the place (he was Juan Méndez, adorned with the mitre of Granada in the year 1576) would give the faculty for any monastery without revenue to be founded, especially because there were so many nuns there who could hardly sustain themselves on alms, both because Granada was ruined and because there was every year a great scarcity of provisions. He, although he saw that I spoke the truth, yet because he greatly desired that some convent be erected there, began again to be confirmed in the hope that the matter would succeed excellently, saying that the licentiate Laguna, assessor of the audiencia of Granada, had pledged his effort to favour it above all, as also Fr. Salazar, a priest of the Society of Jesus, though secretly, who asserted that they would obtain this faculty from the archbishop with easy effort.
[944] about to found, But I regarded all these things as uncertain, as they in truth were; although, because that Father so inclined to it, I commended the matter to God as affectionately as possible, asking the other nuns also to pray Him that He would deign to give us light, whereby we might discern whether it was expedient that it be done. His Majesty certainly gave us light clear enough that by its help we saw plainly that no advantage or human favour was to be hoped for by us at that time; but that, as the other monasteries hitherto had been founded on confidence in His divine providence alone, so this one too was to be founded: for the Lord would take its singular care upon Himself, and great service would be rendered Him in it. Further, this was signified to me when I was rising from Holy Communion; and already three weeks had elapsed since the Father Visitor had departed hence, procuring in every way that this matter be brought to an issue. I, although it was so doubtful, and so many reasons too dissuaded it, nevertheless at length decided to carry it out, and that at the very moment of time at which I was rising from Communion; and I signified it to Sister Beatriz de San Miguel, who was portress and had approached Communion with me, saying: "Believe most certainly that God wills that this monastery of Granada be founded: wherefore call Father John of the Cross to me, that I may tell him as my confessor what His Majesty has signified to me." When, then, I had opened this to Fr. John of the Cross, who was my confessor, he advised that I should indicate it to the Father Visitor, that he might write as soon as possible to Your Reverence, so that the thing might be done with your good leave and consent. On that same day, then, this was determined: at the same time also whatever was necessary for it was procured, with the great joy indeed of all the Fathers and of the whole convent, when it was known that this foundation was now to be put into execution.
[945] companions are assigned by St. Teresa. We wrote accordingly to Your Reverence and to our holy Mother Teresa of Jesus, asking of her four nuns from Castile, who should begin this foundation, and also that she herself should inaugurate it; because we were certain that it was by all means to be carried through. We arranged, then, that Fr. John of the Cross should go there with a certain other religious, and take with him everything necessary for conducting the nuns. Wherefore he hastened from Beas to Ávila to our holy Mother Teresa of Jesus; and thence they dispatched a messenger to Your Reverence, who was then at Salamanca. And when Your Reverence saw their letters, you at once granted what was asked, yet allowing our holy Mother the free choice of the nuns whom we said were to be sent. And she assigned two from the house of Ávila, namely Mother María de Cristo, who had discharged the office of prioress there for five years, and also Sister Antonia del Espíritu Santo, who had been one of the four first who put on the habit of the Discalced at St. Joseph's at Ávila; and from that of Toledo Sister Beatriz de Jesús, who likewise was one of the veteran nuns and a kinswoman of our holy Mother. But the holy Mother herself could not come here, because she had to set out to begin the foundation of Burgos, which was being undertaken at that very time: and she had long since written to me that she would not set out for the Granada foundation; because she believed that God willed that I should begin it. But it seemed to me altogether impossible to carry out any foundation without her: wherefore it was grievous to me that on the feast of the Conception of the Mother of God the nuns arrived at Beas without her. But I read her letters which they brought me; in which she affirmed that she indeed wished, to please me, that she could make the journey here, but that our great God had commanded her something else; that nevertheless she was certain that at Granada all would be carried through most happily, and that His Majesty would help me in a certain singular manner, which also at once began to be seen with the eye.
[946] The Granada foundation is related summarily. Then Ana goes on to narrate how on the 21st of January 1582 she arrived at Granada in the company of her nuns and of St. John of the Cross and Fr. Pedro de los Ángeles; in what way the nuns were lodged for nearly seven months in the house of Ana de Peñalosa and Luis de Mercado, the archbishop at first being unwilling to admit a new monastery into his city; why of two hundred who sought the habit of the Order only one was received, until, no longer confined in another's dwelling, they occupied a rented house, which they afterwards exchanged for a much better one which they bought from the duke of Sessa with the pecuniary help contributed to the Order by newly professed nuns. And these things, though said in summary, will help towards understanding better what I am shortly going to set out according to the letter (vol. I, letter 65) which the Saint sent on the 30th of May to Ana and her nuns, who were still living in the borrowed house together with seculars.
[947] Letters of reproof from the holy Mother to Ana Of this letter neither Fr. Ángel Manrique in the Life of the Venerable Servant of God, nor the author of the Chronicle, where he narrates the Granada foundation, made any mention. This was likewise omitted in the year 1660 in the Paris edition of the French version of the first volume of the Letters of St. Teresa, made by François Pellicot: the blame for which omission, as the notice prefixed by the printer to the Brussels edition of the same version in the year 1661 and to the Antwerp one in the year 1686 teaches, is to be cast neither on the translator nor on the Paris printer, but on the nuns to whom Pellicot had committed his writings, and who had struck out from them this letter together with certain other passages of the letters, suffering something human: and when this began to become known, the same letter was added at the end, as it were by right of postliminium, to some copies of the aforesaid Paris edition, but very few. But afterwards Mother Maupeou, while by order of her superiors she was devoting her labour to translating the second volume of the Teresian Letters into the French language, also prepared a version of this letter, but in such a way that the names of the Venerable
Ana de Jesús and of the cities of Granada and Beas, which appear in the Spanish text, she studiously omitted, both in the title and in the course of the letter: wherefore the editor of that version wrote these names in the margin. Hence you will easily deduce the reason why among the letters of St. Teresa published in the French language in the year 1748 this celebrated letter was inserted not in the first volume but in the later one: because, namely, since Mother Maupeou had added it to the letters of the later volume, Chappe de Ligny rightly judged it superfluous to count it again among the other letters of the first volume; as he himself warns the reader in his preface. Lately the Reverend Mr. Migne in the new French edition of the Works of St. Teresa assigned it the last place among the letters of the first volume, namely LXV, although he would more rightly have put it, according to chronological order, in place LXI; but that indeed matters little.
[948] are weighed; Now the chief cause of the omissions which I have just reviewed seems to have been the fear that the reputation of the Venerable Ana de Jesús should suffer some harm — she who had deserved excellently of the Reformed Carmel, who had founded several monasteries throughout Spain, France and Belgium, and whose cause of beatification was also introduced before the Sacred Congregation of Rites. For the holy Mother Teresa in the letter of which I speak charged her beloved daughter Ana with certain faults, which the abbé de Montis in the Life of this Venerable Servant of God, printed at Paris in the year 1788, reduces to four heads: 1° that she had taken too many nuns with her, and thereby caused trouble to her host Luis de Mercado; 2° that she had chosen from the monastery of Beas as companions those by whom she knew herself to be most loved; 3° that she had neglected to inform Fr. Gracián and St. Teresa of the things done by her; 4° that, after she had been elected prioress by the nuns, she took it ill that Fr. Gracián gave her not the title of prioress, but only that of president. Although, as it is permissible to conjecture from no light arguments, St. Teresa would not have met her with words so sharp if she had been more accurately informed of her manner of acting and of the affairs of Granada: for the daughter was not so much at fault as the Mother believed.
[949] and Ana in great part In the first place it is true indeed that many nuns went off to Granada at once: for the holy Mother had sent two from the convent of Ávila, one from that of Toledo, and had besides arranged by letter (vol. II, letter 101) that the prioress of Seville should send two; and to these the Venerable Ana had joined three from Beas, so that there were nine nuns in all. But granted that she had not advised either St. Teresa or Fr. Gracián of this number, she had certainly advised (as is read in her narrative) Fr. Diego de la Santísima Trinidad, Gracián's vicar in the provincialate; nay more, she had written to him expressly that ten nuns would be coming: and neither he nor St. John of the Cross seems to have dissented from Ana in this matter. And that for the space of seven months the nuns lived in another's house not without inconvenience to their pious hosts, this Ana could not have foreseen when she was summoned by the vicar, who wrote that a house had been rented by him. If St. Teresa had known well all these circumstances and many others which can be drawn from the said narrative, she would easily, I believe, have excused her Ana. But whether this Servant of God, in choosing companions from the monastery of Beas, followed a too human affection, St. Teresa leaves altogether doubtful; for she reproaches her with this not affirmatively, as Montis seems to have believed, but only conjecturally, adding that she does not know which of the Beas nuns set out for Granada: and let those who press this charge too much see to it that they do not make St. John of the Cross guilty of it too; without consulting whom I shall not easily persuade myself that Ana did anything.
[950] is excused. But at least she ought to have written to St. Teresa and Fr. Gracián. Yes indeed, unless she omitted this writing for a probable reason: for example, because it was not sufficiently clear to her where St. Teresa and Fr. Gracián were staying, since she had gone off at the beginning of the year to the Burgos foundation, while he was making excursions into such various parts to visit convents that the Saint herself repeatedly did not know by what road letters would reach him. And it could also have happened that Ana did in fact write, without Teresa and Gracián receiving her letters. That she at least sent letters to him can be deduced to some extent, in my opinion at least, from the complaints of the Granada nuns against Gracián on account of the title of president given to the prioress elected by them. For unless they had thought that the provincial had already been informed of the election of the prioress, how could they have been so angry with him on that account? Nor yet were they so out of their minds as to think that matters far distant could become known to Gracián otherwise than by letters or messengers. Finally, these very complaints of the nuns, which is the fourth charge brought against the Venerable Ana, may have been excessive, I grant: but yet they were founded in right; and perhaps those good virgins defended their right a little too sharply because they remembered the mournful tragedies formerly enacted concerning a matter of this kind: namely at Ávila in the convent of the Incarnation, where St. Teresa, lawfully elected prioress, had been prohibited from her office by the provincial (see § XLI); likewise at Seville, where the priorate had been taken by force from María de San José at the end of the year 1578 (§ XLII). While I say this, however, I would not wish, especially as regards this fourth head, to free the nuns of Granada from all fault whatever, as Palafox seems to do; but I contend this one thing, that the faults committed by them, and especially by Ana de Jesús, were exceedingly slight. For the rest I altogether agree with Montis when he speaks thus: There is no doubt that Ana de Jesús, in keeping with the religious holiness in which she excelled, made to her dearest Mother a reply full of affections of humility, submission and contrition; which, had it come down to us, would have been of the highest edification to us. Let these things, then, said by me by way of preface concerning the praised letter of St. Teresa, be enough.
[951] This letter is set forth partly in summary, I should truly wish to insert that whole letter here now, which is at once a monument of Teresian eloquence and a specimen of the holy severity with which the most loving Mother knew how to chastise her daughters, when they seemed to her to have turned aside from the rule and spirit of the Carmelite life, and to call them back to the right path of perfection. But for brevity's sake I shall cite only its more notable parts, the rest summarily. Namely, in the exordium the Saint censures the sluggishness of Ana and her nuns in sending letters both to herself and to the provincial; she criticizes obedience violated, as she thought, by Ana in taking away from the convent of Beas more nuns than was right; she laughs at their vain fears of losing the archbishop's patronage and their excessive complaints of want of things, which she keenly refutes by the example of the sisters of Seville, who do not show themselves so given to groaning although they bear the hardest losses like Martyrs. Where, she says, there is good health and food is not lacking, there is surely no reason why you should cry out that you are near to death on account of a somewhat narrow house; and since you have such powerful patrons, I do not know of what you complain: for not everything had to smile upon you. Further, she does not allow that of the nuns who are in excess those of Seville should return to Seville, but she wishes that those of Beas should go back to Beas. And I wish it so much, she says, that, if I did not fear to give you occasion of offending God again by disobedience, I would send you a great precept: for in all affairs of the Discalced nuns I act in the place of our Father Provincial. By this authority, then, I declare and command that, as soon as there is opportunity of setting out, as many nuns as went thence to Granada return to Beas, except Mother Ana de Jesús; and that even if you have already moved to your own house: unless perhaps there be sufficient revenue whereby you can emerge from your present need. For for no reason is it useful that a foundation be begun with so many nuns: nay, many reasons persuade the contrary.
[952] partly in fragments, I indeed (so the Saint goes on) have during these days commended the matter to God our Lord (for I did not wish to answer your letters so quickly), and I judge that this command of mine looks entirely to the glory of God; and all the more, the more bitterly it will befall you. Assuredly every inclination of the mind towards creatures, and thus towards the prioress herself, is altogether foreign to the spirit of my Discalced nuns: and if any suffer from it, they will never make progress in spiritual things. God wills His spouses to be free and bound to Himself alone; nor would I wish that house of yours to imitate that of Beas. Never will there slip from my memory a certain letter which I received from there, when you left your priorate there. Thence, namely, factions arise, thence very many other disturbances, all the graver because we are not wont to notice the beginnings. Wherefore at the present time, I pray you for charity's sake, do not dissent from me: afterwards, if it seems good, when your affairs are in a better position and those nuns have a mind more torn away from creatures, they will be able to return to you. I am altogether ignorant which they are who went off with you; for you have diligently concealed them from both me and the Father Provincial, nor did I think you would take away so many: but I suspect that they were those who are best affectioned towards you. O true spirit of obedience! Is it right to indulge natural love towards anyone because she holds the place of God? By this spirit I pray and adjure you to weigh that souls are being educated by you who are to become spouses of the Crucified; whom therefore you ought so to crucify that they lack their own will and are not attached to things of no account. See, I beg you, that you are laying the beginnings of our Order in a new kingdom (namely that of Granada, not so long ago wrested from the Moors); and so it is needful that you and all the others should bear not the minds of little women, but of strong men.
[953] for example where Ana is said to defend her dignity too sharply, But what does it matter, my Mother, whether the Father Provincial calls you president, or prioress, or Ana de Jesús? It is well understood that, unless you were set over the others, you would not have had to be named more than the others who were prioresses just as you were. You have told that Father so little about your affairs that you ought not to wonder that he does not know whether you have held an election or not. Truly you have filled me with shame when I saw my Discalced nuns go off into such follies, and not only think of them, but even speak of them: in which respect Mother María de Cristo is pre-eminent above the rest. Surely either your grief has driven you to madness, or the devil is casting infernal seeds into this Order of ours. Meanwhile
the aforesaid Mother extols your greatness of soul; as if indeed this could not consist with submission. May God give my Discalced nuns humility, obedience and subjection: for without these virtues all those other exploits are nothing but the beginnings of great imperfections. It has just come into my mind, what you once wrote to me, that one of you, whom you brought from Beas, has kinsfolk at Granada, by whom you have been helped. If this thing is so, I commit it to the conscience of the Mother prioress to keep her at Granada, if it seems good; but not so the others. You will doubtless meet great difficulties at this beginning: beware of fearing them. So great a work cannot be accomplished without them; and an immense reward awaits. God grant that the imperfections I am wont to commit may not merit punishment rather than reward: for this I always fear. I have written to the prioress of Beas to contribute something to the expenses of the journey, since so little convenience is now available. I told her that, if Ávila were so near to Granada, I would most gladly call back my nuns: which also may be done later, in the course of time, with God's help. And so you can promise them that, when the foundation is made and you have received new nuns, those who will no longer be necessary there will be sent back to their former houses. Further, since I have very recently written at length to you, to those Mothers and to Fr. John of the Cross about the things which are being done here, I did not think another letter need now be given by me to all besides this one. Would that they may not take this ill too, as they took it ill that the Father Provincial called you president! But such is the usage: before we had held the election here, on the coming of our Father, we did not call her who presided prioress, but president. For the rest, these things come to the same thing.
[954] likewise where it concerns the discipline of enclosure. As often as I have written, I have forgotten what follows. Namely, it was announced to me that the nuns of Beas, even after the chapter of separation, go out of their cloisters to arrange the church. How this is done I do not understand, since not even the provincial himself is free to permit it: for the Supreme Pontiff by a motu proprio has sanctioned the laws of enclosure with the most severe penalties of anathema; not to speak of our constitution, by which the same are strictly prescribed. At the beginning indeed those laws brought us some trouble; but now much joy. Nor is it lawful for us to go out to close the door by which one goes into the street: and since our sisters of Ávila know this excellently, I wonder that they did not warn the others. Do you for charity's sake take care that these laws be observed: God will send people to arrange your church, and there will be the means whereby all that must be done will be done. But when I reflect how troublesome you are to your hosts, I cannot but be greatly moved. I have already written on other occasions that you should provide yourselves with a house, however bad and unsuitable it may be; where, though inconveniently, you may at least not live so narrowly: and if narrowly too, I prefer that you suffer something rather than that those distinguished benefactors suffer. I am writing now to Doña Ana (de Peñalosa), and I should wish to find fit words whereby to give her worthy thanks for the benefits conferred upon us: but, what is the chief thing, her reward with the Lord will not be lacking to her. At the end the Saint closes her admonitions by ordering that this letter, which was destined for Ana, be read also by the subprioress and her two companions and by St. John of the Cross.
§ L. The Saint, about to found the seventeenth convent of her nuns, betakes herself to Burgos; where she meets with no small obstacles.
The archbishop of Burgos, We pass on to the foundation of Burgos, the last of St. Teresa, narrated at length by her in the last chapter of the book of the Foundations. Hear her, then, speaking, the refutation of certain cavils brought forward on the occasion of this foundation against the Society of Jesus being put off to the place in which there will be discourse of St. Teresa's perpetual love towards the Society of Jesus. Already, she says, six years and more had passed since certain men of the Society of Jesus, exceptionally religious and commendable for age, learning and spirit, told me that it would be of no small moment for the Lord's glory and service if a convent of this holy Order were erected in the city of Burgos. They also brought forward some reasons for this, which impelled me not a little to desire that very thing. But because the Order itself was harassed in various ways and I was distracted by other foundations, I had not had a convenient occasion of carrying this matter through. And so when in the year 1580 I was at Valladolid, the archbishop of Burgos (Cristóbal Vela) chanced to pass that way, then recently elected to this archbishopric (for before he had been bishop of the Canaries) and betaking himself there. Hence I begged Álvaro de Mendoza, bishop of Palencia (who, as I have already said quite often, greatly favours this Order: for he was the first who admitted the convent of St. Joseph at Ávila while he was bishop there; nay, from then on he always conferred great benefits on us in every place, and looked after the affairs of this Order no otherwise than his own, and above all those which I ask him in particular to look after), to request of him for me the faculty of establishing a convent at Burgos. He answered that he would do it most gladly: for because he judges that singular service is rendered to the Lord in these monasteries, therefore it is the greatest pleasure to him whenever one is erected anywhere.
[956] The new archbishop, however, did not wish to enter Valladolid, at the request of the bishop of Palencia, but lodged in the convent of St. Jerome outside the city: in which place the bishop of Palencia visited him most courteously, and dined with him, and gave him a certain girdle, or performed some ceremony or other upon him which had to be done by an episcopal hand (the Saint speaks of the imposition of the sacred Pallium, which the Roman Pontiffs are wont to send to archbishops). He then asked of him the faculty of founding a monastery in the city of Burgos: which he promised he would most gladly bestow, since also when he was in the Canaries he had desired and asked that some convent of this Order be founded there; because it was well established to him how much the Lord was served in them. For he was a native of a city in which one of them had been founded: besides, I was familiarly known to him. Wherefore the bishop bade me be secure, and declared that I should in no way doubt of obtaining the faculty; because it would have been most pleasing to the archbishop. And because it is not required by the Council of Trent that a faculty of this kind be delivered in writing, but it is enough that the Ordinary give his assent in these matters, hence that faculty could be held as given and granted.
[957] to St. Teresa Already above, in the narrative of the Palencia foundation, I have said how great a repugnance to founding I felt within myself at that time, because I had been in very bad health, so that all believed I would die, and not even then was I fully restored in health; although these very things are not wont so to cast me down and make me fainthearted, when I see that what is to be done tends to the honour and worship of God: whence I in no way understand what was the cause of so great faintheartedness and sloth as I then had. If I should say that it arose from the fact that little means were available to me for carrying through that foundation, I had certainly had less in other foundations. Wherefore, when I saw its outcome and what followed from it, I am persuaded that it proceeded from the devil. For I see that it has mostly happened hitherto that, whenever labour has to be undergone by me in some foundation, the Lord, knowing my misery, always gives me courage both by words and by works.
[958] intent on the Soria foundation It has sometimes come into my mind that the Lord, as in certain foundations which were free of difficulty He was wont to signify nothing to me, so in this one, since He knew what we would have to suffer, began from the very beginning to give me courage. Be He praised for all things. Namely, as I have already related in the Palencia foundation, the making of which was being treated of at the same time, He said to me by way of reproof: "What do you fear? When have I ever failed you? The same that I have been hitherto, I am now: do not neglect to accomplish these two foundations." Since it has been narrated there what courage remained in me after those words, it is not necessary for me to relate the same here again. For at once I felt myself freed from all sluggishness: whence it is plainly evident that my ill health and old age were not its cause. Wherefore I began to treat as much of the one as of the other (as has been declared before). But it seemed more expedient that I should first begin that of Palencia, both because that town was near, and because the season was quite wintry, and because the city of Burgos was under a colder climate, but most of all that we might gratify the good bishop of Palencia. Whence also it was completed first, as has already been narrated above. But since, while I was there, the occasion of the Soria foundation unexpectedly presented itself, it seemed to me (because everything here was prepared and completed) that it would be better to set out there first, and only thence at last to betake myself to Burgos.
[959] signifies that it would be pleasing to him Now it seemed to the bishop of Palencia (as indeed I myself was asking him) expedient that I should inform the archbishop of this matter and of all that was being done. Moreover, he himself, while I had set out for Soria, sent a certain canon, named Juan Alonso, to the archbishop for this sole reason. And he wrote to me with much testimony of love that he desired my coming; and after he had dealt with that canon, he answered by letter to the bishop of Palencia, to whose prudence he committed the matter, that whatever he did, he did it because he knew the people of Burgos; for it was necessary that the foundation be made with their consent: and so it was his mind that I should betake myself there, and that we should first transact this matter with the magistracy of the city; but that it, however, if perhaps it refused us the faculty, could not prevent the archbishop himself from granting it afterwards. He added that he had been present at the foundation of our monastery of Ávila, and remembered how great disturbances and contradictions had been stirred up there: and that he wished to forestall these at Burgos; and therefore that it was not expedient that a monastery be erected except either with revenue or with the assent of the city: and that he said this because I was not altogether inclined to admit revenue.
[960] if she herself should erect a convent at Burgos. The bishop of Palencia, then, thought the matter fully settled, and not without reason; since the archbishop had advised that I should come to Burgos. Wherefore, sending a messenger, he signified that we should set out there. But I seemed to myself to perceive some want of heart in the archbishop; and so I wrote back to him that I indeed thanked him for the benefit shown me, but that it seemed to me worse, and likely to bring greater odium on the archbishop,
if we founded the monastery against the city's will, than if we did it without indicating anything to the magistracy. I seem to myself to have even then foreseen how little help was to be hoped for from him, if perhaps some contradiction should present itself to me in procuring the foundation. Nay, I also thought this business would be difficult from the variety of opinions which is wont to occur in matters of this kind. Wherefore I sent a letter to the bishop of Palencia as well, beseeching him that, since little of the summer remained and my infirmities did not allow me to stay in so wintry a region, this foundation might be omitted for that time. My suspicion about the archbishop I did not indeed open to him, both because of his own accord he already took it ill that difficulties were alleged by him after so many tokens of benevolence, and lest I should sow discord between them, since they are friends. I departed, then, from Soria for Ávila, by no means having it in mind meanwhile to go so soon to Burgos; and my arrival at the convent of St. Joseph at Ávila was very necessary for certain reasons.
[961] Catalina de Tolosa, a widow, There was living then at Burgos a certain holy widow, called Catalina de Tolosa, a native of Cantabria; whose virtues, penance, prayer, liberal alms, charity, distinguished intelligence and fortitude of soul, if I wished to proclaim them, I could weave a long series of narrative. She had placed two daughters in the convent of our Order at Valladolid, called after the Conception of the Mother of God (and that, unless I am mistaken, already four years before): afterwards she dedicated two others also to that of Palencia, waiting until it should be established; whom, before I withdrew thence, she brought there. These four have made such good progress (as having been instructed and brought up by such a mother) that they seem to resemble Angels in holiness. She gave them quite ample dowries, and all necessary things most abundantly: for she herself abounds in goods, and whatever she does she does most fully; and she can indeed, since she is rich and wealthy.
[962] When, then, she was at Palencia, so certainly did we through the work of two neighbours hope that the faculty would be given by the archbishop that it seemed in no way to be doubted. And so I asked her to seek out for me a house that could be rented at a price, that we might take possession in it, in which she should also fit a latticed grille and a turn, and put down the price of these to my account: for I did not wish her to spend even the least of her own, but only to lend it to me. Further, she so ardently desired to see this foundation completed that it was very vexatious to her that it was not then accomplished. Whence, when I had set out (as I have said) for Ávila, and was thinking of nothing less than of accomplishing this foundation, she by no means ceased; for since the whole business seemed to her to depend solely on obtaining the faculty of the magistracy, she began to procure it (indicating absolutely nothing to me). For she had two neighbours, women of great authority, and very great handmaids of God, namely a mother and daughter, who desired above all to see this monastery there.
[963] from the council of the city The mother was named María Manrique, who had a son a councillor, surnamed Alonso de Santo Domingo Manrique: and the daughter was called Catalina. Both urgently asked him to propose this matter in the council. He, then, met Catalina de Tolosa, asking on what foundation he could say that we relied: for the faculty would not be given by the council unless we had some support. She promised that she would acquire a house at her own expense (if one were not available to us from elsewhere) and would provide for our living, as she also did; and so she offered to the council a petition signed with her name. Don Alonso proposed and managed the matter so skilfully that he obtained this faculty from all the councillors, and that in writing, which he also gave the archbishop to see. And when she had begun to deal with this business, she signified it to me by letter. I thought she was trifling and laughing at me: for I know with what difficulty monasteries endowed with no revenues are admitted; and since I did not know, nor even think, that she had promised that she would do what she afterwards did, it seemed to me that authority of a far other kind was needed for this.
[964] for the holy Foundress, When, then, within the octave of St. Martin I was commending this business to the Lord in prayer, I began to turn over in my mind what I myself would do if that faculty were now given by the magistracy: for it seemed to me hardly safe and expedient that I should go to Burgos, with a body so worn by illnesses, to which cold is most harmful (and it was then quite severe); for it was rash that I should undertake so long a journey, since I had only very recently returned from another very difficult one (such as I have said I had while returning from Soria). I feared also lest the Father Provincial would not permit it to me. I thought therefore that the prioress of Palencia could not unsuitably be sent there, because, all things having already been arranged and the difficulties overcome, not much business was impending. But while I was turning this over with myself, and was calling my mind away altogether from undertaking the journey, the Lord said to me these words, from which I plainly perceived that the faculty had already then been given: "Do not mind these colds: for I am the true warmth. The devil strives with all his might to upset this foundation: but do you on My part strive against him that it be brought to completion; and do not neglect to betake yourself there in person: for great benefit will come of it."
[965] to whom God meanwhile gives courage, At once, then, I changed my opinion and resolve: for although the body sometimes resists in things that are laborious and difficult, yet it does not take from me the purpose of suffering for that great God: whence I told Him not to mind these feelings of my weakness so as not to command me what seemed good to Him; for, His aid and help succouring me, I would perform the same. Very much snow had then fallen, and the cold was intense; and, what made me most sluggish, I was in weak health: for if I had had good health, all the rest would have seemed nothing to me. Further, ill health exercised me very much in this foundation: but the cold was so slight (as far at least as I myself felt it) that I seem to myself to have felt it just as intense at Toledo. From which it is to be gathered that the Lord in fact fulfilled what He had said to me and kept His word.
[966] she obtains leave for the foundation After a few days the licence of the magistracy was sent to me with letters of Catalina de Tolosa and her friend Catalina Manrique, who urged me to make haste, because they feared lest some impediment should intervene. For the Minim Fathers had at that time come there to erect a convent, and the Calced Carmelites had long been pressing the magistracy that it be permitted them to make a foundation, and not long afterwards the monks of St. Basil arrived. They could certainly be a great impediment to us, and it was a thing worthy of consideration that so many of us at once at the same time came together to raise monasteries there; nor was there lacking occasion to praise God for the eminent charity of this city: for although this town did not enjoy the prosperity it used to, and had fallen much from its former splendour, yet it admitted all of them most gladly. I had always indeed heard the charity of that city proclaimed; but I did not think it was so intense and exceptional. Some favoured and patronized these religious, others others. But the archbishop, perceiving all the inconveniences which could arise, forbade so many monasteries to be founded there, thinking that in this way some injury would be done to the Orders living on alms, because these could hardly sustain themselves. And perhaps they themselves had approached him on that account, or the devil had found out this trick, whereby to hinder that immense good which God is wont to bring to a town into which He leads many monasteries; since He can sustain many just as well as fewer.
[967] to be begun in her house. This, then, was the cause why those holy women wished me to make such haste; and, as indeed my will was, I would gladly have set out on the road at once, had not certain affairs compelled me to remain. For I thought that my obligation to see that so good an occasion should not slip away on my part was much greater than that of those whom I saw applying themselves to this matter so earnestly and actively. But from the words which I had understood from the Lord, I gathered that great contradiction was threatening us: yet I could not understand from whom or whence it would come. For Catalina de Tolosa had already then written to me that the house in which she herself was living was certainly destined to be the one in which possession was to be taken; besides that the magistracy and the archbishop had most openly granted the faculty. Wherefore I could not understand from whom this contradiction would arise, which I did not doubt would be stirred up by the evil spirits, because the words I had heard had come from the Lord.
[968] The Saint with Fr. Gracián Further, the Lord is wont to communicate greater light to superiors: for when I had written to the Father Provincial to let me go there (as I had been ordered from heaven), he readily gave me his assent and granted the faculty to go; but at the same time he asked me whether I had received leave in writing from the archbishop. I answered that it had been written to me from Burgos that the matter had been communicated with him, and that, since the faculty asked of the magistracy had already been given, he had approved it and had not opposed it; and therefore, both from this and from the words which he had spoken in this case, it seemed that we could be certain of that matter. But the Father Provincial wished to set out together with us for this foundation: partly, I believe, because he was then free of hindrances and affairs; for a little before he had preached through Advent: partly because he had to visit the monastery of Soria; for since it had been founded he had not yet seen it, nor indeed did he need to turn far aside from his road: partly, finally, to look after my health on the journeys and roads, because the season was cold and harsh, and I so old and infirm; for they thought my life was still of some account.
[969] and with several other companions Besides Fr. Gracián the Saint's companions were Fr. Pedro de la Purificación, the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé, Tomasina de San Juan Bautista, summoned from the monastery of Alba, and also from the monastery of Ávila a lay sister named María de San Juan Bautista, and the novice Teresa de Jesús, daughter of St. Teresa's recently deceased brother. With these companions the Saint, having set out from Ávila on the 2nd day of January, arrived at Medina del Campo on the 4th; and there she restored to health by voice and touch Alberta de San Juan Bautista, the prioress, who was lying ill with a grave illness and pain in the side, as is related in the Report of the Auditors of the Rota on her miracles. She left Medina on the 9th day of January, as she had written the day before to Dionisio de la Peña (vol. II,
letter 61); where a slight error of Ribera is to be noticed, who asserts that she stayed three days at Medina. At Valladolid, where she next arrived, she spent four days; and thence, going off to Palencia, she took with her two companions: Catalina de la Asunción, daughter of Catalina de Tolosa, and Catalina de Jesús, whom the author of the Chronicle here (book V, chapter XXV, no. 4) erroneously calls Isabel de Jesús, but afterwards corrects himself (chapter XXVI, no. 5); which Boucher did not notice. If to the virgins enumerated so far you add Inés de la Cruz, whom the holy Foundress took to herself at Palencia, the number eight is made up; which number she herself, writing on the 16th day of January from her monastery of Palencia to her benefactress Catalina de Tolosa, expressly designated in these words: Five in number are those who will remain at Burgos, and besides these two companions for me; so that, if you count me, we come eight in all (vol. II, letter 72), and in almost the same words she will soon designate it in her narrative too. Accordingly Ribera must be said to have erred here again, who counted nine virgins, adding over and above the rest, namely, another Catalina de Jesús, a lay sister. It is probable that Fr. Gracián also took to himself at Valladolid a second companion; since Ribera and Yepes expressly affirm that two Discalced friars went with him to the Burgos foundation, and the Saint too presently speaks in the plural number of Gracián's companions. But let the credit of the following fact rest with the author of the Chronicle, concerning which I find nothing in the older biographers of St. Teresa: namely, that a certain citizen of Valladolid offered a house with a revenue of five hundred gold pieces, where girls of tender age might be instructed by the Carmelite nuns; but that the Saint was unwilling to assent to this matter, because she knew that the abbot of Valladolid wished that house to be subjected to the Ordinary of the place.
[970] by a dangerous These things had to be interposed by me by way of supplement. The other circumstances of the journey Ribera will teach you, and partly also Teresa herself, who continues her narrative thus: And certainly it came about by some ordinance of divine Providence that the Father Provincial accompanied me: for the roads were such (being covered with so much water) that it was necessary for him and his companions to explore where the carriages should go, and from time to time to help in drawing the vehicles out of muddy places, especially on the road midway between Palencia and Burgos; so much so that we then exposed ourselves to the greatest danger in setting out on the road at that time. It is true indeed that the Lord had said to me: "You may go: do not fear; for I shall be with you and help you"; but I had not signified this to the Father Provincial at that time: yet it was a very great consolation to me in the greatest dangers and difficulties into which we fell from time to time; especially in the place which is named Los Pontones, not far from Burgos, in which the water had risen so high (and that over quite a large space) that neither the bridges appeared, nor could we discern where we should go, but on this side and that most deep water stood stagnant widely all round. It is great rashness to cross there, and especially in a carriage: for if it happens to lean even a little to one side, it seems about to be swept away by the abyss of the waters; and so one of the carriages of our company was in most imminent danger of sinking. Hence we took a certain guide from the nearest inn, skilled in the fords and places of this tract: for they are certainly very dangerous.
[971] and difficult journey How uncomfortable the inns were cannot be told: for because the roads were obstructed, we could not complete whole days' stages; because our carriages for the most part stuck fast in the mud: whence also it was necessary to unyoke horses and beasts from some, so that others could be drawn out of those muddy precipices. Certainly the Fathers of ours who accompanied us struggled there with great difficulties: for we had young drivers and quite heedless ones. Further, the very presence of the Father Provincial was a very great comfort and relief to us, because he kept watch diligently in every direction; moreover he is of so sweet a disposition that he seems unable to be frightened by any difficulty or moved from his accustomed constancy of mind: whence what was greatest and most difficult he made so easy that it seemed nothing. Although even about Los Pontones he could not but fear: for who would not fear where he sees himself carried into a whirlpool of waters, with no sign of the roads appearing, no boat at hand? Nay, I myself, however much the Lord had bidden me be secure, feared: why not, then, my sisters and companions?
[972] [ill] We were eight in all: two were to return with me; five were to remain at Burgos, namely four choir nuns and one lay sister. I have not yet, I believe, said how the Father Provincial is called. He is Fr. Jerónimo Gracián de la Madre de Dios, of whom I have already made mention on other occasions. I was suffering most grievously in the throat, an ill which seized me on the road as I was making for Valladolid: to this was added a fever, which by no means left me: and I swallowed food with the greatest difficulty and the utmost pain. This was the cause why I did not feel so much the inconveniences that had to be undergone on the road. Further, this ill has lasted up to now, up to the end, I say, of the month of June, and although not so intense (and that by many degrees), it nevertheless brings me quite much pain and torment. Further, all were quite well disposed and in good spirits: for after dangers had been exhausted and overcome it was pleasant to speak of them. It is truly a great thing to suffer out of obedience, especially for those to whom it is so frequent and customary as it is to these nuns of ours.
[973] she is carried to Burgos; After these hardships of the roads, through very many perils of waters which had to be undergone before we came there, we at length arrived at Burgos. But the Father Provincial wished that we should first go to visit the holy image of the Crucified, to commend to it the success of our affairs, and that meanwhile evening might come on, because we had arrived at the city rather early. On Friday, the day after the Conversion of St. Paul, the 26th day of January, we were conveyed into the city. I had resolved to begin the foundation as soon as I had come, and for that reason I had brought with me many letters of canon Salinas (of whom mention was made in the Palencia foundation, and to whom this Burgos one cost no less labour), and also of other grave men powerful in authority, to the kinsfolk and friends whom they had there, that these might show themselves propitious to our business and favour it; as they also did: for at once, on the next day, all came to visit me; and the governors of the city signified to us that they were so far from repenting of their promises that they rather rejoiced exceedingly at my coming: let me therefore see and say in what matter I thought they could render me service.
[974] where she is well received by the magistracy, Further, seeing (for if we had had any fear, it had always been on the part of the magistracy) such great inclination and benevolence of theirs towards us, we considered the matter fully settled. Our intention was, before our arrival had become known (when, namely, because of the very heavy rain no one had yet come to the house of the good Catalina), to inform the archbishop of it, so that the first Mass could soon be said (as I am wont to do in most places); but here that could not be done. That night we rested quite pleasantly and sweetly, because that holy woman entertained us handsomely; although those delights cost me great labour. For a huge and bright fire built to dry us, though in a fireplace, so harmed me that I could not raise my head on the following day: whence it was necessary for me to speak, lying in bed, to those who came to visit me at a window barred with an iron lattice and covered with a veil drawn over it; which certainly was most painful to me, because that was the day on which I necessarily had to attend to dispatching business.
[975] but not so by the archbishop: On the following day, then, very early in the morning, the Father Provincial went to the archbishop, to ask his blessing: for we thought nothing else had to be done by us in this matter. He found him so changed and irritated, because he said that I had come there without faculty, that it seemed that he had never ordered me to come there or that nothing had hitherto been done about this matter. He so addressed the Father Provincial as to show that he was greatly indignant with me: and although at length he conceded that he had ordered that I should come there, yet he said that he had understood it thus, that I should come alone to treat of the matter; but that I brought so many nuns at once befell him most vexatiously. The Father Provincial told him that the matter with the magistracy (as he himself wished it done) had already been settled, and that therefore nothing else remained to be done than that we should begin the foundation; and that the bishop of Palencia (when, namely, I asked him whether he thought it well done if I entered the city without the archbishop's knowledge and without informing him) had approved our manner of acting, because the archbishop said he desired the foundation. But all these things availed little with him. Thus, then, the matter went. Certainly this happened because God wished the monastery to be founded by all means (as he himself also afterwards confessed): for if we had first informed him of our coming, he would have openly declared that we should not come. At length, then, he dismissed the Father Provincial in such a way that he said he would not give the faculty before we had our own house and certain revenues; otherwise we might return with the matter undone; as if indeed the roads were now clear and the weather convenient.
[976] this one, namely, alleging various things. How certain it is, O my God, that to him who renders You some service the reward is very swiftly paid by You in some great labour! And what reward could be held more precious by those who love You from the heart, if it had been given us at the beginning to understand its value! But then we did not wish to have that gain, since our whole business seemed to collapse through it. For the archbishop said that the revenue which we were to have, and the house which we were to buy, ought not to be acquired from the dowries which the nuns entering were to give. And since a remedy did not at that time occur to the mind, it was thought that no remedy would in fact be found by us. But it did not seem so to me: for I was always certain and hoped that all these things would turn out for the better for us, and that they were nothing but the tricks and contrivances of the devil to upset this matter altogether; but that God would at length bring His work happily to an issue. But the Father Provincial, having heard these things, returned thence brisk and glad: for then he was by no means disturbed. For God willed it to be so, lest he should rebuke me because I had not had the faculty given committed to writing (as indeed he had advised should be done)
to be committed to writing.
[977] not even for celebrating One of the friends to whom canon Salinas (as I have said) had given letters of recommendation had come to visit me; and he and his kinsfolk advised that we should ask the archbishop for the faculty that Mass might be celebrated for us in the house in which we were living, so that we should not walk through the streets, which were then very muddy: for it seemed unbecoming and unfitting that we Discalced nuns should go out of doors in this way. This house had a place quite convenient for this, inasmuch as it had served as a church for the Fathers of the Society of Jesus when they first came to Burgos, and that for the space of eight years. And so it seemed to us that it would not be unfitting if we took possession of the place there, until we should have another house. But it could never be obtained from the archbishop that he should allow us to hear Mass there, although two canons most urgently begged that very thing of him (and many others with them, both of the clergy and of the laity, on the testimony of the author of the Chronicle, who designates by name María Manrique, an excellent lady, mother of Fr. Ángel Manrique of the Cistercian Order, biographer of the Venerable Ana de Jesús).
[978] Mass in Catalina's house, He granted nothing else than that, after we should have a stable revenue, we might begin the foundation there, until we had our own house; nay, he wished us to promise him, with sureties given, that we would buy such a one and move out from there. These indeed we found at once: for the kinsfolk and friends of canon Salinas offered themselves for this, and Catalina de Tolosa promised that she would give the revenues, so that thus a beginning might be given to the foundation. Meanwhile, while it was being inquired how or whence the revenue was to be constituted, three weeks and more had passed. We meanwhile did not hear Mass except on feast days only, and then indeed very early in the morning. I, however, was feverish and in quite poor health: but Catalina de Tolosa provided for us so abundantly in all things that I lived most pleasantly; and for a whole month she fed us so copiously and with such cheerfulness of mind in a certain part of her house separated from the rest, as if she were the mother of each one. Here may be compared the letters which St. Teresa sent on the 6th day of February to the prioress of Seville, and whose bearer, Pedro de Tolosa, Catalina's son, she commends to the same prioress with much praise of his mother (vol. II, letter 102).
[979] much less for beginning the foundation there, Meanwhile, she continues, the Father Provincial with his companions was lodging with a certain one of his friends, with whom he had formerly studied in the same college: this was Doctor Manso, canon theologian in the principal church there. But it was grievous and very troublesome to him that he had to stay there so long, and he did not know in what way he could withdraw from us. At last, the sureties having been produced and the revenue constituted, the archbishop ordered the matter to be put into the hands of the provisor, promising that it would be dispatched as soon as possible. The devil certainly seemed to involve himself in this business: for after it had been maturely examined, so that we thought no difficulty now remained, and almost a month had already passed since the archbishop had consented that the matter be carried through in the way described, the provisor sent me a note, in which he wrote that the power of founding would not be given us before we had our own buildings: for the archbishop did not wish us to begin the foundation in the house in which we were living, because it was damp, and the street in which it was situated very noisy and restless. Besides, he raised I know not what scruples and difficulties for us about the certainty of the revenue, and some other things, as if the matter were then beginning for the first time; and that unless we did so, there was no reason for us to press further: finally, that the house must please the archbishop.
[980] he will give power. Great indeed was the distress of mind of the Father Provincial when he saw this, and so of all: for it is certain that much time is needed to buy some site suitable for building a monastery. It was very troublesome to him also to see that we had to go out of doors to hear Mass: for although the church was not so far distant, and we heard it in a certain secret chapel, no one seeing us, yet to him and to us it was by far the most troublesome thing. Hence he, taking it ill, even then (as I believe) decided that we should return with the matter undone whence we had come. But I could by no means agree with him, especially when I recalled to memory what the Lord had said to me before, namely that I should begin the matter on His part. I hoped so certainly that it would be accomplished that I hardly felt any vexation from this shuffling. Only this afflicted me, that I saw the Father Provincial sad, and I grieved above all that he had come with us, since I did not know how much his friends (as I shall afterwards relate) would afterwards help us. When, then, I was placed in this affliction, my companions also being still more afflicted (although I was not touched by their affliction, but only by that of the Father Provincial), the Lord, outside the time of prayer, said these words to me: "Go on with a firm mind, Teresa." Encouraged by this admonition, I now with greater generosity exhort the Father Provincial (and certainly His Majesty no doubt also suggested this to him) to depart thence to his own affairs and leave us at Burgos, because the Lenten days were already at hand, in which he necessarily had to preach elsewhere.
[981] Wherefore into a certain hospital He, then, and certain friends took pains that some rooms should be assigned to us in the hospital named after the Conception, in which also the Venerable Eucharist was reserved and Mass was celebrated daily. This indeed brought him some joy and comfort; but not so to us: for a certain widow, who had rented a very convenient room there (though she was to move there only after six months), not only would not cede or lend it to us, but it was even grievous to her that certain rooms in the garret, near the chinky roof, and from one of which access lay open to her room, had been assigned to us. Hence, since it was not enough for her to lock it from outside and keep the key by her, she even ordered great beam-nails to be driven in from within, and made it unfit for use. Besides, the confraternity members of the place thought that we wished to arrogate and usurp the hospital to ourselves (a suspicion which was certainly exceedingly foreign to us): God, namely, wished to give us matter of greater merit. Hence they order both the Father Provincial and me to promise before a notary that we would at once go out from there whenever they told us. This further seemed to me the most difficult of all: for I feared lest that widow, who was both wealthy and had very many kinsfolk, when it came into her mind, should suddenly order us to depart from there. But the Father Provincial (as being more prudent and circumspect) wished us to do whatever these ordered to be done, so that we might pass there as soon as possible.
[982] the nuns are compelled to move; They gave us no other places than one room with a certain kitchen. But he who had the care of this hospital, Hernando de Matanza, a signal servant of God, assigned us besides two other rooms, in which we might admit outsiders to conversation; in which he did us very great charity, such as he is wont to show towards all, as one who does everything for the cause of the poor. Nay, Francisco de Cuevas also, who is the chief master of the posts here and had the particular care of this hospital, showed himself benevolent to us, and in whatever things he could always showed himself our protector and patron. The Saint made the move into that hospital, as she will presently teach, on the 23rd day of February, after, as is clear from what has been related before, she had spent four weeks with Catalina de Tolosa: whence Fr. Antonio de San José rightly concludes that the letter which she sent from the hospital to Martín Alonso de Salinas (vol. III, letter 41) could not have been written on the kalends of February; and therefore in its Spanish text in place of primero de Febrero the first of February one must read postrero de Febrero the last of February, or, if you prefer, primero de Marzo the first of March. The same thing is confirmed by the letter already cited to the prioress of Seville, from which it is gathered that the Saint on the 6th of February had not yet left the house of her hostess.
[983] where by the pious Catalina's I make mention of the benefactors in these beginnings, she further says, for this reason, that the nuns who now live, and those who will be hereafter, may be mindful of them in their prayers (as is right) and commend them to God: for this is due most of all to founders. And although it was not my intention at the beginning that Catalina de Tolosa should be the foundress of this house, nay I did not even think of it, yet her good life merited it before the Lord, who disposed and ordered the whole matter in such a way that this title cannot rightly be denied her. For, to say nothing of her having bought the house and paid for it from her own means (for had she not done this, no remedy for it was available), it truly cannot be said with how great labour all the archbishop's shufflings and delays cost her. For it was the greatest affliction and cross to her even only to think that this matter would collapse and have no issue; but she never ceased from doing good to us. And although this hospital was quite remote from her house, nevertheless with a certain great benevolence and affection she visited us almost daily, and sent all things of which we had need; although ill-wishers repeatedly carped at and taunted her, so that, had she not the courage and generosity which she has, those cavils would have been enough to call her back from the benevolence she had begun. And I, seeing how much she suffered and also her affliction, was exceedingly afflicted within myself: for although she mostly concealed it from me, yet sometimes she could not dissemble it, and especially when the cavils touched her conscience: for she has an exceptionally good and timorous one, so that, however great an occasion of indignation some gave her, I never heard her speak even a word that would offend God.
[984] they are sustained by the liberality, They said, then, that she was going straight to hell; for how could she do what she was doing when she had children? But whatever she did she did only by the judgment and counsel of learned men: for I (granted that she perhaps had thought otherwise) would for no thing at all of this world have permitted her to do anything which it would have been wrong to do, even if on that account the foundation of a thousand monasteries were omitted, much less of one. But because what was being treated of was done in hidden and secret fashion, I do not therefore wonder if men suspected more things than there really were. But she always answered all with signal circumspection and prudence (in which she is most powerful), and bore all things with equanimity; so that it was clear enough that a certain skill was given her by God for satisfying these and for bearing with those, and at the same time
a manly spirit was supplied her for bearing all things with an even mind. How much more courageous are the servants of God for carrying out illustrious and splendid things than those who are born indeed of illustrious stock but do not serve God! Although Catalina de Tolosa does not lack nobility and distinction of stock either: for she is born of a very honourable family.
[985] until they acquire a house of their own. But to return to the subject I began, the Father Provincial, when he had now brought us into a place in which we could both hear Mass and in some manner keep enclosure, decided to go to Valladolid (in which town he had to preach), though not without anxiety, because he saw nothing in the archbishop from which he could hope that he would grant us the faculty. And although I myself gave him hope, yet he could not bring it into his mind and believe me. And certainly he had great causes and reasons for so thinking, which it is not expedient to relate in this place. And if he had slight hope, his friends certainly had still less, and cast him down still more. When he departed, I felt my anxiety in great part diminished: for (as I have already mentioned above) the greatest pressure I felt was that I saw him afflicted. On leaving, he gave us instructions to procure our own house; which was certainly exceedingly difficult: for up to then none had yet offered itself which we could buy. Our friends were exceedingly solicitous and anxious about us (and especially those two friends of the Father Provincial): at the same time also they decided among themselves not to say a word to the archbishop about our affairs before we had a house. He, however, kept always saying that he desired this foundation with greater zeal than anyone else in the city. I indeed believe it (for he is so pious and good that he would speak nothing but the truth); yet it did not sufficiently appear from his works: for he required of us those things which (in view of our means) seemed altogether impossible. But this was the devil's contrivance and cunning, that this matter should be upset. But how plain to the eye it is, O Lord, that You are mighty! For out of that very thing which he was forging to overturn it, You drew forth a way of carrying it out better and more conveniently. Be You blessed for ever.
§ LI. The obstacles having been removed not so easily, the Saint at length completes her Burgos foundation.
Of the Burgos foundation, whose difficult beginnings we read in the preceding paragraph, At length at Burgos, it remains to be seen how at last the Saint obtained her own house there and won to herself the archbishop's entire favour and benevolence. From the vigil of St. Matthias, she says, on which we entered the hospital (so the old editions and versions, and rightly indeed: but the Spanish edition of the year 1778 has, for vispera de San Matias eve of St. Matthias, vispera de Santa Maria eve of St. Mary, by which name the vigil of the Purification of the Mother of God seems to be understood; but that this does not cohere with the preceding narrative of the holy Mother is clear from what I said at no. 982), up to the vigil of St. Joseph we inspected various houses: but in all that were offered so many inconveniences were noted that it was not advisable to buy any of those offered. Among others they had proposed to me certain buildings of a nobleman, which had been for sale for a long time; and although so many Orders there were seeking a house, yet by God's providence it came about that they smiled on none of these. And now all of them wonder at it not a little; nay, some of them afterwards greatly repented that they had not bought them then. Two had at some time treated with me about them: but so many in turn told me of their inconveniences that I had already put off all affection towards them (as towards a thing by no means expedient for me), and even the memory of them.
[987] with the help of the licentiate Aguiar, When, then, one day I was dealing with the licentiate Aguiar, who was one of our Father's friends, and who was seeking a house for us through the whole city with great solicitude, and he told me that he had seen many indeed, but had found none convenient in the whole city, and so it seemed to me altogether impossible (as indeed I understood from others) to find any then, suddenly there came into my mind those buildings from which I said we had already withdrawn our minds. I thought, then, with myself that they, although they were as inconvenient as people made out, could yet suffice for the present need: for afterwards, if they displeased, they could easily be resold to others. I opened this matter to the licentiate Aguiar, and asked him to deign to inspect them in my name. Their exterior form did not displease him, although he had not inspected them: wherefore, although the weather was very windy and harsh, he wished to inspect them at once. Their tenant, because he by no means desired that they be sold, would give them to no one to inspect: but their situation, and as much as he could gather from outside, pleased him wonderfully: whence we decided to treat of buying them. The nobleman to whom they belonged was not then in the city; but he had given the care of selling them to a certain priest, an exceptionally pious man: and into him the Lord put the will and inclination to sell them to us and to deal with us quite candidly and sincerely. We agreed that I should go to inspect them myself: and they pleased me at once so much that, even if the seller had demanded double the price at which I had heard they were for sale, I would not unwillingly have paid it, and would even then have believed they had been given up to me at a cheap price: for the same price had already been offered to their owner two years before; yet he had not wished to sell them for it.
[988] a house suitable for a monastery On the next day, then, the priest and the licentiate met. The latter, when he had heard what price the priest demanded for them, would have wished that we had offered it at once and come to agreement among ourselves. When I had communicated this matter to certain friends, they said that, if I paid so much, I would pay for them five hundred gold pieces beyond their due worth. When I had signified this to the licentiate, he thought on the contrary that we would be giving even below their due worth, although we gave whatever they asked. I too was of the same opinion: nor would I have deliberated so long on this point, because that deliberation seemed to me to be in vain; but because that price was to be paid out of the common money of the whole Order, I therefore made a scruple of offering whatever they asked. And this meeting and consultation took place on the very vigil of St. Joseph before Mass: wherefore I declared that the parties should meet again after Mass, and that we should then conclude the matter. Now the licentiate is a man of good judgment and shrewd: hence he perceived and foresaw that, if the matter began to be spread among the people, we would either buy them much dearer or not at all. And so he had the priest promise that he would return there after Mass: for in all things he showed himself above all active and diligent.
[989] on the vigil of St. Joseph Meanwhile we commended the business to God in prayer; who then said to me: "What? Do you delay for money?" by which words He signified that that house suited us. The nuns had asked St. Joseph most urgently that they might have a house on his feast: and although they did not think it would be found so soon, yet their wishes were satisfied. For since all repeatedly urged me, and advised that I should at length agree on the price of the purchase, they at length persuaded me that it be agreed. And the licentiate, going out of the door, came upon a notary, who by God's direction and ordering chanced then to be passing that way: entering with him, he told me it was expedient that an end be at length put to this business; and witnesses having been called together, and the door of the hall shut, so that no one should learn of the matter (for this one thing he feared), the contract was entered upon and concluded with all the solemnity and force that was necessary to it, and that on the vigil (as I have said) of the glorious St. Joseph, through the utmost diligence and prudence of this good patron.
[990] the Saint buys, But no one had believed that it would be sold at so cheap a price: hence as soon as the matter became known among the people, many purchasers came from elsewhere, saying repeatedly that the priest who had presided over the sale had in a manner burned the house, and that that contract should be revoked as deceitful and fraudulent; for a manifest error had been committed in it: whence that priest received no small calumnies. But its owners, who were (as I have said) a certain illustrious man and his wife, we informed of this matter as soon as possible: who, having heard that their house had already been converted into a monastery, were filled with such joy that they ordered the agreements and covenants to be ratified and firm; although they could no longer dissolve them. On the day after, then, the deeds of sale were drawn up, and the third part of the price (as the priest had stipulated) was soon paid: for in some articles of the agreement we were by no means dealt with fairly and justly: but we bore that interpretation, dissembling.
[991] God's providence in this matter It may perhaps seem absurd and inept to someone that I dwell so long on the narrative of the purchase of this house; but certainly whoever have considered this matter more deeply have judged that it was not accomplished without a miracle, partly as regards the cheapness of the price at which it was bought, partly because all the religious who had inspected it were so blinded that they neglected to buy it, as by no means suitable for them, as if they had not been at Burgos: whence as many as inspected it wondered how these had been so blinded; and so they reproved them and accused them of inconsiderateness. Nay, two monasteries of nuns also (of which one had very recently been established there, while the other had betaken itself into the city from the countryside, where their convent had been burned down) and also a certain other rich person, who had decided to found a certain monastery and had neglected this house when inspected as unsuitable, after it was bought by us, grieved most of all that it had not been bought by themselves. And this rumour was spread through the city, so that we saw clearly how deservedly the good licentiate Aguiar had procured that the matter be carried through as secretly as possible, and had applied such diligence on his part; so that we can truly say that he alone, after God, gave us the house.
[992] greatly admiring. A good and skilful intelligence surely brings great weight to all things: and because he has one so distinguished and exceptional, and God at the same time gave him so good a will, therefore by his help He accomplished this matter. For a month and more he applied himself actively to helping us, and to designating what had to be restored, and that at quite small expense. And it plainly appeared that the Lord had reserved the foundation of this house to Himself alone; for in it almost all things were found prepared and arranged. To confess the truth, as soon as I saw it and all its fittings (as if it had been constructed for our use), it seemed to me a mere dream that everything had so swiftly
been completed. Hence the Lord, by leading us to so delightful a place, abundantly compensated the adversities and difficulties which we had suffered before. For the garden, the widely open view and its water seem a very paradise of delights. Be He blessed for ever. Amen.
[993] But the archbishop The archbishop at once learned of this matter: whence he rejoiced not a little that we had obtained such convenient buildings; the cause of which he believed was in part his own opposition, and not without reason. I wrote to him that I had been affected with great joy because these had pleased him; also that I would make haste that they be fitted for habitation as soon as possible, so that he might thus give me the faculty. I took pains, then, to move there as soon as possible. For I was told by someone that they wished us to remain in the hospital until I know not what letters had been drawn up. And although their tenant had not yet moved out (for we had to undergo some difficulty also in compelling him to depart from there), yet we betook ourselves into a certain part of them. Further, I understood that the archbishop had been not a little angry on that account. Hence I strove, as far as I could, to placate him: for because he is good, although he grows angry from time to time, he is at once placated. He was indignant also on learning that we had introduced a latticed grille and a turn there, because in this we did not seem to comply with his will. To him I wrote back that these were commonly used in the houses of women devoted to recollection; but that as regards the form of a monastery, we had not yet dared even to set a cross on the house, lest it should seem to be a monastery. And this was true. But however great an affection and benevolence he declared towards us, yet it could not be obtained from him that he should grant us the faculty.
[994] still shuffling He came, however, to inspect the house, which pleased him wonderfully, and he showed us very much benevolence; yet he did not give the power which we wished, although he now gave greater hope of granting it. But since certain letters and instruments were to be drawn up with Catalina de Tolosa, we feared not a little lest he should refuse it. But Doctor Manso (he is that other friend whom I said the Father Provincial had at Burgos) was very intimate with him: hence he sought a convenient opportunity to recall this to his mind and to obtain the faculty; for it was very troublesome to him to see our affairs in this state. For not even in the house which we had bought (although it had a private chapel, in which its owners had heard Mass) would he give power that Mass be celebrated for us: whence on feast days and Sundays we had to go out of doors to hear it in a certain church (and it fell out conveniently that this was quite near); and so from the time when we moved into this house until it was set up in the form of a monastery, almost a month passed. All the learned men said that that cause was sufficient for giving the faculty; and the archbishop himself, who is very learned, also saw the same: so that nothing else seemed to be the cause why it was put off than that the Lord wished us to suffer something. I indeed bore it with fair equanimity; but there was a certain nun who, whenever she saw herself in the streets, trembled with fear and anguish. On that same day, the 18th of March, on which this purchase was made, the holy Mother informed Fr. Ambrosio Mariano of it by letter; and at the same time also, as is clear from the same letter, she wrote to the duchess of Alba, desiring to obtain from the apostolic Nuncio, through the intervention of the duke and duchess, the faculty of hearing Mass in the private chapel, which the archbishop of Burgos was still refusing (vol. IV, letter 37).
[995] and weaving delays Besides, she says, in drawing up the letters and instruments we underwent no little difficulty and labour: for at one time it was enough for him that we should offer sureties, at another he wished the seller to be satisfied with ready money; nay, in many other things too he showed himself importunate and troublesome to us. But in this not so much the archbishop himself as the provisor, who made all this trouble for us, is to be blamed; and if God had not changed him at that time, we could never, I believe, have brought the matter to an issue. Further, how much Catalina de Tolosa had to suffer here cannot be told: but she bore all things so patiently that she ravished me into admiration. And in procuring necessary things for us she never wearied: for all the furniture which we needed in furnishing the house she supplied most gladly, such as beds and very many other things; as one who had a house well enough furnished: nay, nothing of the things of which we had need (even though she did not have it in her house) seemed likely to be lacking to us. Others who have founded our monasteries have indeed given them more means and possessions than she; but there is no one who has undergone more labours for our sake: for she laboured tenfold more than all; nay, had she not had children, she would have given whatever she could have had. And so much did this longer delay consume her, and so ardently did she desire to see the end of the matter, that whatever she did for its sake seemed very little to her.
[996] the bishop of Palencia, asked by the Saint, But I, when I saw this long shuffling, wrote to the bishop of Palencia, asking him to deign to write letters to the archbishop again, as one who was not a little moved against him: for whatever the latter committed against us, he interpreted as done to himself. And what we most wondered at was that the archbishop believed that he did us no wrong in anything. I asked him, then, to admonish the archbishop again by letter that, since a house had now been provided for us, and we were doing whatever he wished, he should at last bring the matter to an issue. The bishop of Palencia, then, sent me open such a letter for him that, had it been delivered to him, we should have exposed our affairs to the greatest danger, nay should have ruined them. Wherefore Doctor Manso, whom I was then using as confessor and adviser, would not have it delivered to him: for although it breathed benevolence and friendship throughout, yet it brought forward here and there meanwhile certain things which, considering the archbishop's nature, were enough to alienate him; as one who already then, on account of some things which he had ordered to be told him, was somewhat estranged from him, although before they had been the greatest friends to each other.
[997] moves him to give consent: And he signified to me that, as through the death of our Saviour those who before were enemies to each other were made friends, so conversely I had made those who before were friends enemies to each other. To which I answered him that from this he could see what I was: although, so far as I can gather, I had laboured and taken care in every way I could that these should not be estranged from each other. Wherefore I again asked the bishop of Palencia with the best reasons I could not to be unwilling to send him other letters, most courteous and full of benevolence, setting before his eyes how much increase would accrue to the divine honour through this matter. He did what I asked of him; which certainly was very much. When he saw that the divine honour was in question, and that by this thing he would gratify me (as one who has always so continually gratified me), he undertook that he would do it; and he wrote back to me that whatever he had hitherto done in favour of the Order had not been so grievous to him as to send these letters to the archbishop. At length, then, they came; and these, with the diligence of Doctor Manso also added, drove the archbishop to grant us the desired faculty, and to have it announced to us through the good Hernando de Matanza (who brought it with the greatest joy of his soul).
[998] this obtained, We can better unravel the sequence of events from the letter by which the holy Mother on Good Friday, which was the 13th of April, thanked the bishop of Palencia for the letters sent to the archbishop of Burgos (vol. II, letter 3). Namely, the archbishop, wonderfully delighted with those letters, had of his own accord, no one asking, begun to put his hand to finishing the business of the foundation as soon as possible; and had already ordered an inquiry to be instituted in the first parish of the city whether the new monastery seemed likely to be prejudicial to anyone: to which, when the answer had been given that that foundation was so far from displeasing anyone that it was rather most desired by all, he had wished, if it could have been done, to bring it to an issue before the most solemn feast of the Lord's Resurrection. But the sacred functions themselves and the mass of labours by which the clergy were occupied in those days were an obstacle to its being done, and still more the purpose which the archbishop had of dedicating the church of the monastery to God with his own hands and offering the first Eucharistic Sacrifice in it. And so the day appointed for it was the Tuesday of Easter, as the Saint at least thought while she was writing her letter: yet her opinion deceived her, either because it had been erroneous from the beginning, or because the archbishop had meanwhile changed his mind. For he neither came to offer the first sacrifice among the nuns, and, on the testimony of Ribera and other writers, he put off granting them the desired faculty until the Wednesday of Easter, which was the 18th day of April.
[999] a beginning is given to the convent But on that day, says the Saint, the nuns were more desolate than they had been hitherto, and the good Catalina de Tolosa so prostrated with grief that no one could console her; so that at the very time at which the Lord wished now to refresh us and fill us with joy, He seems to have wished to afflict us more. Nay, I too (who had always hoped well hitherto) had on the preceding night begun in some way to lose confidence. Be the name of the Lord blessed and supremely exalted for ever. The archbishop gave power to Doctor Manso to celebrate Mass among us on the following day and to place the Most Holy Body of Christ there. He, then, offered the first Host to God, and the Father Prior of the monastery of St. Paul of the Dominican Order (to which Order, as also to the Society of Jesus, I have always owed very much) celebrated the High Mass, and that with great solemnity of musicians and harpers who came of their own accord.
[1000] with the great ... of all friends, All our friends and patrons rejoiced exceedingly, and almost all the citizens congratulated us, as men who had felt the greatest compassion for us, because they saw us so badly treated; and whatever the archbishop committed against us seemed to them so unworthy and grievous that I sometimes felt more what I heard said about him than what I suffered from him. And so great was the joy both of the good Catalina de Tolosa and of all the nuns that it stirred devotion in me, and I said to the Lord: "What, I pray, do these handmaids of Yours look for other than to serve You and to see themselves shut up for Your sake, whence they can never go out?" Hardly would anyone believe, unless one who in fact experiences it, how great
joy is felt in these foundations when we see ourselves so shut in that none of the seculars can come in to us. For however near and dear they are to us, yet they cannot bring us so much comfort and pleasure as we perceive when we see that we are alone and shut in. It seems to be done with us here just as with fish drawn out of the river in a net, altogether unable to live unless they are thrown back into the water. For souls accustomed to live in the flowing waters of their Spouse, when drawn out of them they behold the nets of the things of this world, truly cannot live until they see themselves thrown back again into the same.
[1001] but the greatest joy of the nuns; And this I always see in all these sisters, and I know it by experience, that those nuns who feel a certain desire and itch to go out of doors, to be among seculars and to deal with them quite often, have not yet found that living water of which the Lord spoke with the Samaritan woman, and that the Spouse has hidden His face from them, and indeed deservedly, since it is not pleasing to them either to deal and converse with Him. And I fear that this happens from a twofold cause: namely, either because they did not take this state purely for His sake alone, or because, after they have taken it, they do not recognize how great a grace the Lord has shown them in choosing them for Himself and freeing them from being subject to some man, who often robs them of life (and would that not of soul also). Is this grace, O my Spouse, true Man and God, to be made little of? Let us praise Him, then, dearest ones, because He has done us this; nor let us ever weary of praising so great a King and Lord, who for some slight labours, steeped too in so many delights, and which will come to an end tomorrow, has prepared for us a kingdom which knows no end. Be He blessed for ever. Amen.
[1002] to whom, although they lack a stable revenue, Some days after the foundation had been made, it seemed to the Father Provincial and to me that the annual revenue which Catalina de Tolosa had assigned to this house was liable to certain inconveniences, from which lawsuits might arise for us and trouble be caused to her. We preferred therefore to trust in God rather than to retain an occasion from which trouble could arise for her in anything. Wherefore, both for these and for other reasons, all of us gathered in chapter, with the approval of the Father Provincial, willingly gave up before a public notary that possession which Catalina had given us, and returned to her all its deeds. This was done as secretly as possible, lest the archbishop should learn of it, who would have interpreted it as an injury done to himself; although all of it redounds to this monastery: for when it is known that some monastery has been founded in poverty and without revenue, there is no reason for us to fear; for alms are sent from all sides: but when it is commonly believed to have a stable revenue, there certainly seems to be some danger that things necessary for living may now and then be lacking to it. And so indeed the matter stands now at Burgos: but after Catalina's death it will be otherwise.
[1003] the Saint affirms that nothing of the things necessary For the future need was met through two daughters of the same woman, who in this very year were to make profession in the convent of Palencia: for when these, about to pronounce their vows, had renounced their legitimate portion at Palencia and assigned it to their mother, she ordered them to declare that renunciation void, and to transfer their right to the monastery of Burgos (for which thing the Saint thanked both novices in writing, vol. IV, letter 69). This, as also the dowry which another daughter of the same woman brought, who wished to take the monastic habit in this place, as one to whom her mother left the free disposition of her legitimate portion both paternal and maternal, was equivalent to the revenue which she herself had previously assigned us. There is only this inconvenience, that it is not permitted to enjoy these dowries at present: but I was always persuaded that nothing would ever be lacking to them. For the Lord, who causes alms to be given to other monasteries which have been founded in poverty, will either stir up the hearts of men to do good liberally to this one, or will suggest other means by which the nuns may sustain and nourish themselves.
[1004] will be lacking. But since none hitherto (so far at least as I know) had been founded in this way, I therefore from time to time asked the Lord that, since He had willed this one to be erected, He would also provide the nuns with necessary things and sustenance: whence also I would not have wished to depart hence before I had seen some nun take the habit. And when on one occasion I was thinking about this matter, the Lord said to me: "What do you doubt? Already all things have been accomplished and finished. You may well depart." By which words He signified to me that nothing of the necessaries would be lacking to them: whence I so laid aside all solicitude, and conceived such confidence, as if I were leaving them a very rich revenue. And so I at once began to treat of my departure, because it now seemed to me that I was dragging out delays here in vain, and doing nothing else than refreshing myself and taking pleasure in this house (since it pleased me exceptionally), and that in other places (though with greater labour) I could be more useful. Further, the archbishop and the bishop of Palencia from that time cultivated friendship excellently between themselves. For the archbishop at once began to be affected towards us in a certain singular manner, and conferred the sacred habit of Religion on the daughter of Catalina de Tolosa, and also on another nun who entered this monastery (about the middle of the month of May, as may be seen in the Saint's letter to Pedro Manso, vol. IV, letter 9). And hitherto there have always been some who have treated us kindly, and indeed quite handsomely. Nor do I believe that the Lord will permit His spouses to struggle with want, provided they serve Him as they ought. May His Majesty therefore, for His great mercy and goodness, give them grace for this. Amen. Thus the things which we had to copy out from the book of the Foundations of St. Teresa have at length an end: for the remaining part of the last chapter we have already read elsewhere (nos. 769, 770 and 771).
[1005] This new convent That Burgos foundation having at last been happily completed after long and many difficulties, the holy Mother remained there to the end of July, hoping meanwhile that she would shortly be permitted to raise a convent for her daughters at Madrid, as her letters show, to Pedro de Casa de Monte on the 14th of May (vol. II, letter 64), to Dionisio de la Peña on the 4th of June (vol. II, letter 62), to Leonor de la Misericordia on the 7th of July (vol. II, letter 107). Besides these letters, and others which have been reviewed by me as opportunity offered, she wrote further from Burgos on the 18th of April to Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo, fourth duke of Alba (vol. II, letter 7), in the same month to Fr. Nicolás Doria (ibid. letter 18), on the 20th of May to Jerónimo Reinoso (vol. IV, letter 50), on the 6th and 14th of July to María de San José, prioress of Seville (vol. II, letters 103 and 104); and there is no doubt that she sent far more letters into various parts. For the rest, what she did in that city, or rather what she suffered there, the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé partly narrates in chapter XIII of the Commentary on her life, composed by order of her directors. Of which chapter, since it commends itself wonderfully by the native simplicity in which it is written, I shall here translate the chief part into Latin.
[1006] is afflicted by a flood; If I wished, she says, to relate one by one all the hardships and vexations borne by our holy Mother during all that time in which I was present as her companion on her journeys, I do not know when there would at last be an end of writing for me. For whatever is to be read in her books, even what concerns the Burgos foundation, which she made last of all not without great difficulties, is almost altogether nothing. Nothing also is what she sometimes writes of the great want and poverty with which we were pressed on journeys, the things necessary for living very often failing. I remember once, when the holy Mother was suffering from a grave fainting fit, that I had nothing else at hand to sustain her except a little piece of bread dipped in cold water. For since we were living outside the city near the river, the waters had cut us off from all intercourse with the inhabitants, overflowing namely to such a degree that they not only invaded our house, but the force of each wave also shook its walls, since it was old. And the holy Mother's cell was so wretched that one could have seen the stars through the gaps of the roof, and the walls were cracking. Besides, she suffered very much from the cold to which the sky of that region is subject.
[1007] during which the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé's The waters already held the first storey: in which danger we had the Most Holy Eucharist carried to the topmost part of the house; and there was fear at every moment lest we should be drowned. Thus from the sixth hour of the morning up to midnight we kept on reciting litanies, without rest or food; for the floods had devoured all our things. Meanwhile, since that foundation was very recent, the holy Mother was in great anguish; all the more because the Lord had so left her destitute that she did not know whether it was better to persist there, or rather, as other religious had already done, to flee elsewhere. And our trepidation was so great that we did not even think of our Mother and of bringing her food. Wherefore, when it was now very late, calling me: "See, daughter," she said, "whether a little bread is left; and give me a morsel, I beg: for my strength is failing me."
[1008] towards the holy Mother, then ill, Hearing these words, I seemed to myself to burst with grief. And so we called one of the sturdier novices; who, going into the water up to her girdle, drew out bread from it, with which we refreshed for the moment the holy Mother, destitute of other food. And we should all have perished of hunger, had not certain men of the city (we thought they were Angels of God, nor did we know whence or by what way they had come) swum across to us; who, having broken down the doors, made a way for the waters by which they could flow out. But after they had flowed out, so great a quantity of stones remained in the house that at least eight carts were filled with them. Further, our holy Mother's room was tottering, open, as I was just saying, to the wind and rain and the cold of night: wherefore of the two blankets which I had on my bed, I put one over her as she lay, and hung the other round the bed; yet in such a way that she herself did not notice it: for she would not have let me do so. When she had begun to fall asleep, I rested sitting beside her. And whenever she called me, I pretended to get up from my bed; so that sometimes she said to me: "How are you here so quickly, daughter?"
[1009] love shines out wonderfully. Sometimes too, while she was sleeping, I went to wash her clothes and linen; which indeed was a comfort and pleasure to me, knowing how much cleanness and neatness were a care to my sick one: whence I spent many nights sleepless, but most gladly, for love of her and in her service. Nay, even on the very day on which she was to depart from this life, when her voice had already failed her, I put on her a clean veil and clean edges to her sleeves: delighted with this cleanness and casting her eyes upon me, she smiled sweetly at me, as if in token of a grateful mind. So, namely, always and in all things she showed this zeal for cleanness and neatness as long as she lived. But to return to what I had begun to say, I was at that time as well in body and mind as if I had slept whole nights and had eaten food handsomely. Namely, the Lord so ordered it for the comfort of our holy Mother: who, had she seen that the cares I spent on her were harming me, would have been affected with incredible sorrow thereby. And so the Lord showed this and other graces to me, a wretched sinner, for the sake of His servant and dearest friend Teresa, whom I was not worthy to serve. Thus far the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé, then relating some things worthy of note concerning the things done by St. Teresa through the last months of her life, which I now set about describing in order.
§ LII. The last journeys of St. Teresa, her final illness and most happy passage to heaven.
Having left the city of Burgos, The Saint set out from Burgos with Ana de San Bartolomé and Teresa de Jesús, her brother's daughter, at the end of the month of July; and soon arrived at Palencia, where on the 3rd day of August she had letters written in her name, to which she added some lines in her own hand, to Tomasina de San Juan Bautista, prioress of Burgos (vol. IV, letter 71). From these we learn among other things that Fr. Nicolás Doria, who in the month of May, as the Chronicle relates (book V, chapter XXVII, no. 6), had sailed from Spain to Italy, had managed the matter so well at Genoa with the Reverend Fr. Caffardo, General of the Order of Carmel, that he was created by him procurator of the whole province of the Discalced friars and nuns. Again the Saint sent letters to the prioress of Burgos on the 9th day of August, at the end of which she announces that, by the will of Fr. Gracián, who desired that she should go to Alba and Salamanca, she would probably set out for Alba that year (vol. II, letter 105). And three days before, on the day of the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, she had written to Teresa Laíz, foundress of the convent of Alba, about certain things of that convent which needed to be amended (vol. III, letter 55). Finally, still on the 12th day of August, she wrote a letter at Palencia to her kinsman Sancho Dávila, of whom it was spoken at nos. 28 and 881 (vol. I, letter 7).
[1011] from Palencia, From these letters it is clear that the author of the Chronicle erred when he prolonged St. Teresa's stay at Burgos up to the 1st of September, led into error by I know not what letter to the prioress of Seville (book V, chapter XXVI, no. 5, and chapter XXVIII, no. 1). On what day the holy Mother left Palencia is not established; but that she was already staying at Valladolid on the 26th of August is shown by a letter given on that day to Ana de los Ángeles, prioress of Toledo; to which letter in the printed volumes another is annexed, written at the beginning of September (vol. IV, letter 66). We have two other letters sent from the convent of Valladolid at this time: one on the 27th day of August to the prioress of Burgos (vol. II, letter 106), the other on the 1st of September to Fr. Gracián (vol. II, letter 43); and of this latter one leaf, which the Carmelite nuns of Brussels today piously preserve, it has befallen me not only to inspect with my own eyes, to read and to venerate, but also, at my petition on behalf of the Carmelite nuns, it has been recognized as a true Sacred Relic, and lawful documents of its authenticity have been drawn up. Of this letter, in which the holy Mother censures Gracián for some faults and which I see has not been very accurately edited, I shall say more elsewhere; one thing about it I shall note here: namely, that it treats of the lawsuit which Beatriz de Castilla, mother-in-law of Francisco de Cepeda, son of Lorenzo, intended to bring against the Saint concerning the will of Lorenzo de Cepeda, as I related formerly (no. 43).
[1012] from Valladolid Here the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé must be heard again: At Valladolid, she says in chapter XIV of her Life, a new vexation came upon the holy Mother on account of the will by which her brother had ordered that all his wealth, if perhaps his children died without issue, should pass to our monastery of Ávila. But his friends contended that that will was of no validity, and so they tried to deceive the holy Mother; although she was by no means easy in accepting anything which she did not know for certain to be owed to God. And when she refused to yield to their will and purpose, one of the lawyers went so far in incivility and boldness that, running straight to the convent, he did not hesitate to address her with insulting words: that she was not such as she appeared, and that there were many among seculars who gave more examples of virtues than she. To which she said: "May God repay you for this favour which you do me"; and she answered no more. But the prioress of the convent, overcome by the solicitations of the adversaries, had gone over to their side; nor did she show the Saint, although she was much loved by her, the love and reverence which she ought in these circumstances: and she even declared to us that we should leave her convent. And when we had begun to do so, catching me by the dress near the door: "Go," she said, "and do not come back here any more." These words pierced the holy Mother's soul most bitterly, as being uttered by one of her daughters; from whom, namely, she thought greater reverence was owed her than from seculars, and yet she saw herself put after seculars by her.
[1013] and from Medina del Campo Thence, then, she withdrew to Medina del Campo, by which is the road to Ávila, where she was holding the priorate. On the same evening on which she arrived there, she admonished the prioress about a certain matter not very bad, but yet needing correction. And since the prioress did not take this admonition with an even mind, the holy Mother in turn took it ill that she saw her daughters, by the work of the infernal enemy, fallen away from the obedience which they had formerly been wont to render. Wherefore she shut herself up in one room, the prioress in another. And that change of minds and insolence so afflicted our holy Mother that that evening she ate nothing and remained sleepless the whole night. While I describe these sorrows of St. Teresa from the candid narrative of her companion Ana, I should wish the reader to observe that, lacking the Spanish text, I use its Flemish version printed again at Antwerp in the year 1733; which I give notice of especially for this reason, that in the French version, published at Brussels in the year 1708, whatever concerns the injury done to St. Teresa by the prioresses of Valladolid and Medina is omitted.
[1014] to Alba, seized by her last illness, But at Valladolid, while she was already contemplating departure, on the 15th day of September she wrote letters to be sent to Catalina de Cristo, prioress of Soria; to which afterwards she added a few words at Medina del Campo (vol. I, letter 42). Her intention then was to betake herself as quickly as possible to Ávila, to provide there for the affairs of her monastery in virtue of her office of prioress, and to confer the sacred veil on Teresa, her brother's daughter, whom she had had as companion on the journey. But at Medina del Campo, where she seems to have arrived on the 16th day of September, she met Fr. Antonio de Jesús, who was at that time acting in place of the absent Fr. Gracián: at whose order and under whose conduct she was carried with her companions, not to Ávila, whither she had intended, but to Alba, namely to satisfy the quite strong petition of María Enríquez, duchess of Alba, who was possessed by a great desire to see and speak with her. On the day after we had arrived at Medina, says the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé, we set out thence without food, having the purpose of eating on the way. The holy Mother was already then assailed by that illness by which she was shortly afterwards carried off; and when we had travelled that whole day, I had been able to find no food at all for refreshing her strength. And when towards night we had come to a poor little village, not even there was anything of eatables available to us except some dried figs. When, then, the holy Mother, languishing and burning with fever, had said to me: "Have you anything, daughter? Give me something, I pray; for my strength is failing me," I gave four reals to buy two eggs at however great a price. But seeing that not even with money could anything be bought there, and that the coins were given back to me whole, I could not without tears turn my eyes on the half-dead face of the Saint: nor have I fit words at my command with which to describe the sorrow which I then felt; for my heart seemed to me to burst with sadness and grief.
[1015] the Saint arrived: So I gave myself up to weeping, because I saw myself placed in such want that I had nothing with which I could bring some relief and help to my dearest Mother dying before my eyes. But she, showing an angelic patience in all things: "Restrain your tears, daughter," she said: "for this thing has happened by the Lord's will." Indeed, the more the time approached when she was to depart from this world, the more the Lord tried her in every way: and she suffered all things most holily, as she had always done; but to me (since I did not know how to govern my soul as she did) it befell far more bitterly. Wherefore it was necessary that she herself should console me, and bid me be of a calmer mind; saying that with one fig, which she had eaten, enough had now been given her. On the following day (namely the 20th of September, at the sixth hour of the evening) she reached Alba; but with such tossing and alteration of health that the physicians despaired of her life. Which was most troublesome to me to hear; especially when I thought that we were at Alba, and that I would survive her. For besides that we loved each other, it was the greatest consolation to me to see Christ our Lord present together in her heart; to whom, namely, her soul was as joined as if she had been with Him in heaven: whence she stirred up in me that reverence which men ought to render to the Lord where He is present.
[1016] and there in the arms of Ana de San Bartolomé, Having narrated these things, the Venerable Servant of God relates certain things pertaining to earlier times; which I, since I have formerly noted them in their places, ought not to repeat here, intending likewise to omit, lest I do what has been done, the things which Ribera wrote as copiously as elegantly about the last fifteen days of life and the glorious death of St. Teresa. Ana continues, then, after the brief digression which I have mentioned: At Alba, during the last five
days of the holy Mother I seemed dead rather than living. But two days before she died, when I chanced to be alone with her: "Daughter," she said, "the hour of my departure has now come." By which words my heart was struck as with a knife. And no longer moving a foot from her room, I asked the sisters to bring to me whatever was needed; and that I then handed to her: for she took comfort from my company. Finally, on the day on which she departed from this world, grief had taken away my speech from early morning: wherefore towards evening Fr. Antonio de Jesús, one of the first Discalced, who was present with the dying woman, enjoined on me to withdraw to eat. While I was eating, the holy Mother, restless, kept looking round here and there. When Fr. Antonio asked her whether perhaps she wanted me, she affirmed it by some signs; and so I was called back. When she noticed that I had returned, smiling sweetly and taking hold of me with her hands with much affection of love, she laid her head in my arms: which I so held and embraced until she expired. Meanwhile I seemed to be dying more than she. For she so burned with the charity of her Spouse that she longed above all for that hour in which, the bonds of the body being loosed, she could enjoy Him for ever. At the last the Lord, whose clemency is infinite, seeing my slight endurance in bearing this cross, offered Himself to be seen by me with immense Majesty and a retinue of Saints standing at the foot of the bed, by whom that blessed soul was to be led into heaven. During which vision, which indeed lasted as long as the space in which you could recite the apostolic Creed, that grief of mine was turned into great tranquillity of soul; and asking pardon meanwhile of the Lord, I said: "Even if, Lord, it pleased Your Majesty that I should enjoy the company of Mother Teresa for some while longer, yet now, after I have beheld her glory, I would rather ask You not to leave her on earth even one moment longer." Thus that blessed soul departed, and like a dove flew away to the fruition of her God.
[1017] who sees Christ and the Heavenly Ones standing by, Almost all the same circumstances of the death of St. Teresa which I have hitherto copied out from the Venerable Ana this signal handmaid of God affirmed on oath in the year 1596, as is gathered from the compulsorial process of Ávila (concerning which see what I noted at no. 845). There is added in the remissorial process of Ávila Teresa de Jesús the younger, who likewise was present as an eyewitness at the death of the Saint, her aunt; and she not only confirmed the testimony of the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé, but also added the following: namely, that from the splendour and light with which she saw in spirit the whole cell filled, so great a brightness was reflected on the face of the Venerable Ana that the other nuns, not knowing what was happening, looked at her more attentively than at the holy Mother; which indeed they afterwards related in wonder: but that when the Saint had expired, the vision vanished; and Ana came back to herself giving thanks to God. The other apparitions, signs and portents which either accompanied the death of St. Teresa or followed closely upon it, some of which are also recorded in the Roman Breviary, I refrain from relating here; since all the chief ones are to be read in Ribera and in the Acts of canonization. But what is said in the same Breviary, that the Saint, by an intolerable fire of divine love rather than by the force of illness, while she lay ill at Alba, … gave back her most pure soul to God, it is pleasing to confirm by the testimony of Yepes, a most prudent man.
[1018] her most pure soul The cause and occasion of her death, he says, the physicians referred to the great fatigue and labours of the journey, to which was added a flow of blood coming upon her, from which her strength and life failed. Although it cannot be denied that these circumstances contributed something to breaking the thread of her life, yet the sword which gave her death was an impulse of divine love so powerful and strong that it reached not only to the division of soul and spirit, but also of body and soul. For during all that space of fourteen hours, as we have said, in which she remained absorbed and rapt in ecstasy, she had begun so to burn and blaze with love of the things which she saw, and with the joy of a hope now certainly dawning, that, no longer mistress of herself, like the phoenix she breathed out her soul in that blessed fire in which she had always lived. Which she herself on the day after (nay, on the very night, as is held in the processes of canonization) of her death revealed to Mother Catalina de Jesús, a virgin of great holiness and perfection, who was then governing the convent of Beas founded by her: she, lying ill with a most grave illness, although the nuns had concealed from her the death of the holy Mother, lest they should add sorrow to sorrow, nevertheless knew of that death; and she told Fr. Jerónimo de la Madre de Dios, provincial of the Discalced, that the Saint had appeared to her with great glory, saying that she now enjoyed God, and that by a great impulse of the love of God which she had felt in death her soul had been torn from her body… The same thing the holy Mother signified to a grave prelate of her Order: namely, that those great impulses had been the cause of her death; for so great had been their vehemence that they had altogether overcome the powers of nature.
[1019] not so much by the force of illness Nor indeed is it greatly to be wondered at that an impulse of this kind is so strong as to be able to separate the soul from the body, since the Saint records of herself how once, merely on hearing a little song in which it was sung how bitter it is to live without the vision of God, she was so violently stirred up by a similar impulse that, had not that song, by God's providence, soon ceased, her soul could no longer have been contained in her body. Nay, she had foretold that very thing before, when in her Life, treating of those great movements and desires for God, she speaks thus (chapter XX): "I believe that, if this pain always goes on and increases, as it has done hitherto, the Lord in His goodness will one day bring it about that it comes to an end together with life." And elsewhere, speaking of herself (in the Conceptions of Love, chapter VII): "I know a certain woman," she says, "who, when she was in that kind of prayer and heard a certain sweet song, asserted that, had not that song ceased, it seemed to her that the soul would have gone out of the body: wherefore the divine Majesty brought it about that that song came to an end; for that she, placed in this suspension, could indeed have died, but could not have told the singer to stop." And that this was the true cause of her death appears from the tranquillity which she so enjoyed in dying that those virgins who had very often seen her rapt out of herself in prayer thought nothing else then than that a rapture of this kind had befallen her. But at length her soul was so strongly roused by that immense vehemence and impulse of love that it was drawn away not only from the senses of the body, but from the body itself: and so from the intense ardour with which she rushed into the embraces and union of her heavenly and divine Spouse, a great flow of blood and thence death itself proceeded. This passage of Yepes is commended in the Report of the Auditors of the Rota on the virtues of St. Teresa, where they themselves also relate the revelation in which the Saint disclosed that she had died by that last and greatest impulse of love which she felt when near death rather than by the force of illness. Moreover, besides the Roman Breviary, which I have already alleged, Yepes was further supported by the Vicar of Christ on earth Gregory XV in the Bull of canonization, saying: Nay more, after death she manifested to a certain nun in a vision that she had departed this life not by the force of illness, but from an intolerable fire of divine love. Finally St. Francis de Sales in his Treatise on the love of God has this: The Blessed Virgin Teresa revealed that she died by an impulse of love so violent that, nature being unable to bear that impulse, the soul was snatched away to the object of its love (book VII, chapter II). And St. Alphonsus de Liguori, in his Novena Devotion to St. Teresa (consideration IX), likewise says that she expired in the sweet fire of love and through the violence of love. Finally, to the passages cited by Yepes from St. Teresa I shall add one from her book of the Way of perfection, where she says thus: Love and desire of God can grow so much that the natural subject cannot bear it; and some have died thus (chapter XIX, no. 9).
[1020] which, by the fire of divine love, she sweetly breathes out, Indeed, History records that such a kind of death befell not Teresa alone. Thus, for example, in the Roman Breviary we read the same of St. Gertrude, abbess, under the 15th day of November: Languishing with a most ardent love of God rather than with illness, she departed this life in the year of the Lord 1292. Thus in the fifteenth century a certain anonymous Carthusian (as Arnold Raissius relates from the archives of the convent of the Carthusians of Ghent, in his Auctarium to J. Molanus's Natales Sanctorum Belgii under the 1st day of March, and as Dorlandus had related before him, Chron. Carth. book V, chapter XXVIII, without note of place and time), having returned at a certain time after midday from the refectory, while he was glowing with the ardours of his accustomed contemplation, was seized by so blazing a fire of divine love that the weakness of the little earthen vessel could not bear it; but his soul, thirsting for the living God, flew to heaven, a visible glory accompanying it. Thus in the very Acts of the Saints, on whose continuation we toil, there occurs to me, from the indication of Prospero Lambertini, afterwards Benedict XIV (de Beatif. et Canoniz. book III, chapter XXXVIII, no. 25), under the 12th day of May Blessed Imelda Lambertini; who, being scarcely in her eleventh year of age, having received the sacred Host which had descended from heaven, closing her eyes sweetly, as if giving herself to sleep, gave back her spirit to Christ her Spouse, since, enclosed in a mortal body, she could no longer bear such delights (volume III of May, page 184). It is pleasing to allege here for the same argument Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, who in the panegyric Oration delivered in praise of St. Teresa excellently shows that the Seraphic Virgin, truly a victim of charity, ought long since to have gone away to her Spouse by dying from the force of love, had not God brought it about that she prolonged her life by suffering. For, as she herself wrote in the last chapter of her Life, and so about the twentieth year before her death, she was wont repeatedly to dart forth to God with the whole force of her will these inflamed desires: Lord, either to die or to suffer! Nor do I ask anything else of You for myself. And she adds that hearing the striking of the clock brought her comfort, because, this hour of her life having passed, she thought herself a little nearer to seeing God.
[1021] the day of her death having been foretold three days before; There remains to be unravelled another assertion of the Breviary also, that St. Teresa died on the foretold day of her death. In which matter, lest any confusion arise, I should wish it to be well noted that the foreknowledge of the day is to be altogether distinguished from the foreknowledge of the year. Namely, the holy Mother did not foreknow so long beforehand the day on which she was to die; since twenty days before she had signified to the prioress
of Soria that she wished to stop at Ávila for a short time, and thence to make for Salamanca, showing at the same time much hope that she could go to Madrid also for the sake of founding a convent (vol. I, letter 42), and she had resolved to pass from Salamanca to Alba (vol. II, letter 43), and had already forewarned her nuns of Alba in the month of August that she would perhaps be with them in the winter season (vol. II, letter 105). Surely the Saint would not have written these things if she had already then known that she would die on the day of the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. It seems, then, that one must adhere to Ribera and Yepes, who asserted from common report that the holy Mother was forewarned with certainty of the day of her death three days before, when she spent almost the whole night in prayer, as the same authors and others after them, most accurate, relate.
[1022] But as regards the year, the Saint had foreknown it already a long time before. since already many years before, For in the year 1574, when she was at Medina del Campo (Fr. Federico designates this city, book V, chapter I; and the Saint was in fact there in the year 1574, as we saw at no. 593) and was asked by her kinswoman Inés de Jesús, the prioress, how old she was, she answered in a loud voice that she was fifty-nine years old; and then in a lower voice, as if speaking with herself, she added: How many remain to sixty-eight? These words were heard, being near at hand, by Isabel de Jesús, who was then about to set out with the holy Mother for Segovia; and the same in the year 1592 in the informative process of Salamanca (as two manuscript Summaries teach, one on the whole life of St. Teresa, the other on her gift of prophecy, already cited by me elsewhere) related them faithfully as she had heard them: on which occasion also she disclosed the two facts which follow. Namely, a little more than three years before God called her to Himself (that is, as we saw at no. 845, in the year 1579), St. Teresa, when dealing with a certain physician at Salamanca about her infirmities, while he was giving her certain remedies, said: To what end is such great care spent on one who has to live only three or four years more? Afterwards, when she went out of a certain convent of hers for the last time, she expressly foretold to the nuns that she would not see them any more on earth, and made them an exhortation with great affection of soul. This indeed, if we keep to the words of the Summaries, must be said to have happened at Salamanca also. But Yepes, not speaking of Salamanca, records that that last farewell was said at Segovia: which I indeed judge to be truer; especially because, as we were just seeing, the Saint shortly before her death still had the intention of going to Salamanca. And that an equivocation of names of this kind (by which, however, the substance of the matter is not harmed) could have crept into the processes of canonization is easily shown from the course of the witness's own life.
[1023] as certain testimonies teach, Namely, Isabel de Jimena, to whom, while still a secular, during the time which passed between the foundations of Salamanca and Segovia, the holy Mother wrote letters (vol. I, letter 40), was born at Segovia; but at Salamanca she gave her name to the Teresian Institute and made the solemn vows of profession. Next, in the year 1574, she accompanied the holy Reformer (as we said at no. 591) to her native city of Segovia, to lay the beginnings of the new foundation there with three other nuns. Having returned thence, she was again at Salamanca in the year 1579, as a certain letter of the Saint to the prioress of Salamanca discloses (vol. II, letter 78). But at the end of the year 1580 she went to the foundation of Palencia, to preside over the other nuns in it (as we saw at no. 908). And since the holy Mother set out in the month of June from Toledo to go to Valladolid, to speak with the bishop of Palencia about the said foundation, on which journey (as was demonstrated at no. 875 and following) she had to stay quite long at Segovia, Ávila and Medina del Campo, it is not an improbable conjecture that Isabel de Jesús, destined for the new foundation, was present with the holy Mother at Segovia; either because she had for some time already been staying there again, or because the Saint had summoned her from Salamanca on this occasion or a little before: for either could have happened. Finally, at the time when Fr. Ribera published the life of St. Teresa (and he published it in the year 1590), Isabel, as he himself testifies, book III, chapter I, was acting as prioress at Salamanca; where also in the year 1592 she gave testimony concerning the virtues and miracles of St. Teresa. These things having been explained, who does not see, what I was saying a little before, that in this testimony Salamanca could easily have been said or written in place of Segovia? For the rest, however the matter stands, whether this slight error is in the Summary or my conjecture deceives me, the prediction of St. Teresa is certainly established.
[1024] the year of her death too, Besides, on the testimony of Yepes, the holy Mother had written down by certain notes in the breviary which she used the year of her death, revealed to her by the Lord eight or even more years before; and had made it known to Fr. Ambrosio Mariano. I do not know whether the most deserving writer is speaking of a certain slip found in that breviary, which, Fr. Antonio de San José asserts, came after the Saint's death into the hands of Fr. Gracián, and was easily explained by him, as one privy to the secret; who indeed affirms that this is established from the testimony of María de San José, sister of Fr. Gracián (whom beware of confusing with the other distinguished nun of the same name, of whom we have treated very often, and especially in § XLII), asserting besides, from the notes which he says were transmitted by Fr. Alonso de la Madre de Dios to the author of the Chronicle and preserved in the archives of the Order, that Fr. Ribera and Fr. Luis de León attempted in vain the interpretation of this little slip (vol. IV, letter or writing 76, note 2). It was published in the year 1768 from the original copy, which was then extant at Medina del Campo among the Teresian nuns, by the author of the Annus Teresianus under the 17th day of November. The same was done, but with the words punctuated somewhat differently, and with sentences added on spiritual martyrdom found likewise in that breviary, by Fr. Antonio de San José (place cited). I shall not bring forward the obscure and entangled words of this slip, much less interpret them. I shall not bring them forward, lest, by exhibiting an infirm argument of this kind, I should harm more than help the more solid ones just exhibited. Much less shall I interpret them, since its sense escaped even Ribera and Luis de León themselves. Besides, which not a little weakens its authority, several words are different in the Annus Teresianus and in volume IV of the Letters. There is added that the 17th of November, as the slip has it, is not the octave of St. Martin, but the 18th. And it is enough to have recalled this about that slip.
[1025] nay, she had marked out beforehand the place too. It must be added from Ribera (book IV, chapter III) that the holy Mother foretold the place of her death to Fr. Mariano, to the duchess of Alba and to others. We have on this matter from the remissorial process of Salamanca the testimony of Mariana de la Encarnación, Catalina de San Ángelo, Constanza de los Ángeles and Catalina de San Juan Bautista, nuns of Alba; who had heard Fr. Mariano before the grilles of their lower choir saying these things: Do you think, my Mothers, that Mother Teresa of Jesus will come here? For she herself on a certain occasion told me that it had been revealed to her by God eight years before that she would die in the town of Alba. To these is added Ana de San Esteban, attesting that the same thing had been told her by Fr. Antonio de Jesús. It seems that there ought also to be added Pedro de Tablares, archdeacon of Ávila, of whom the manuscript Summary on the gift of prophecy of St. Teresa records the following: The same heard it said by Master Daza, priest (he was the confessor of Blessed Teresa), that before the holy Mother departed from this life, she told him that she was to die at Ávila, and that there specially: as in the remissorial of Ávila, fol. 101 on the reverse (a tgo). For I have no doubt that here for Ávila one must read Alba: since immediately under these words, as if to confirm them, the testimonies of the nuns of Alba whom I have just named are alleged; and it was easy enough for a scribe, having the process of Ávila before his eyes, to commit a slip of the pen of this kind.
[1026] The wish of Báñez concerning St. Teresa's death. Further, if I had in this place to narrate all the circumstances of the most happy death of St. Teresa, no small space would be needed. But Ribera has discharged that task, and the Acts of canonization also treat the same subject at length. Wherefore, since these can be read below, I refrain from alleging them here. As an epiphoneme to this death of the holy Virgin which I have briefly described, I shall add one thing from Fr. Antonio de San José (vol. IV, letter 8, note 9), namely, that by such an end of hers the wish of Fr. Domingo Báñez was satisfied, who had once said that he desired to know that a Virgin excelling in such holiness had departed life in that state, namely in which such great treasures of virtues and merits would be placed in safety, and that rich soul, like a ship laden with most precious merchandise, would no longer be exposed to the dangers of shipwreck or of pirates.
§ LIII. The bodily appearance of St. Teresa, and her portrait. Her funeral and burial.
The appearance and face of St. Teresa are described by Ribera and Yepes. Ribera (book IV, chapter I) and Yepes (book II, chapter XXXIX, and book III, chapter XXVIII, § I) note what was the form of St. Teresa's body, what the appearance of her face; not to speak of her later biographers, who drew from those two first what they wrote on that matter, with only the words varied. Since Ribera can be read below, I shall relate only what Yepes has, whose neat elegance of style here is not diminished by the Latin version of Nicolás Antonio used by me (Bibliotheca Hispana nova, article St. Teresa of Jesus). She was, says Yepes, of a proper stature of body, and of a beautiful aspect of countenance, which even more advanced age had not much spoiled, as it is wont; with a round face and full of sap, and that suitably distinguished in its places with white and crimson colour, which indeed a certain most charming blush, when she poured out prayers to God, rendered sweeter and more splendid; with black and curly hair, a comely and broad forehead, black eyes too, sparkling with a certain glad gravity under a rather thick brow; a rather short nose, whose more solid tip had somewhat bent down towards the mouth, which mouth indeed was small, and the countenance shaped exactly to rule. And three moles about it had not inelegantly dotted the left side of the face, one at the middle root of the nose, where it joins the cheek, another below the nose itself, where the mouth projects, and the last placed under the mouth itself. Finally, the sight of Teresa is said to have been always so pleasing and agreeable to all that, when at times there shone through, and as it were suffused the very keenness of the eyes and the forehead, foreign
rays of a certain light, she engendered in those who beheld her love and veneration of herself alike.
[1028] It is inquired when her portrait shown here Ribera also records (in the place cited above) a portrait of her when already growing old, painted by order of the provincial Gracián by Fr. Juan de la Miseria, but with a rude brush, if you consider the art. Led by this indication, I inquired of Spanish friends living in the province of Castile whether and where this original painting existed, and besought them that, wherever it might be, they would send me an accurate copy of it. I received the answer that there are several places which claim possession of that painting; but that the appearance and lines of the face hardly differ in those various pictures. Therefore Mr. Robustiano Boada was asked to imitate and reproduce graphically the approved painting which, not so long ago removed from the convent of the Discalced at Ávila, now hangs in the hall of the academy of the same city, and which (as the same Mr. Boada writes), bearing the name of Fr. Juan de la Miseria, is said to be the original. And this is the portrait of St. Teresa which you see engraved on copper at the side here, and which seems by no means to differ from that form in which Ribera and Yepes describe Teresa.
[1029] was painted: Meanwhile, although Yepes says that more advanced age had not much spoiled the holy Mother's beauty, yet it is worth while to observe that Fr. Gracián (as Ribera writes) gave the command to Fr. Juan de la Miseria to paint her when he was already provincial: therefore after the year 1574, when he was first declared provincial by the apostolic visitor (for in the year 1581, in which Fr. Gracián was again promoted to that office by the votes of the assembled Discalced Carmel, Fr. Juan de la Miseria had passed over to the Calced). Yet already in the year 1574 the Saint herself wrote that she had grown so old that those who saw her wondered that she was so changed (vol. III, letter 60, no. 3). Further, in the following years the change of her face must have been still much greater. For, as Fr. Antonio de San José writes: She had been seized with a grave illness, namely that catarrh which at that time (in the year 1580) raged through all those regions. From which, as Fr. Gracián noted, the holy Mother was so changed and weakened that her face betrayed her declining age, which up to then a younger countenance, belying her years, had concealed; although she had been subject to continual illnesses (vol. III, letter 24, note 10). And in truth these were many and grave. To make which clear, there is surely no need to have recourse to I know not what eight-year infirmity which J. B. Campadelli hammered out of his own brain (see no. 101); but, not to speak of those long pains which she suffered in the first years after her entrance into the monastery, she had daily vomiting, the stomach not bearing food; a continual noise sounded in her ears; her arm was twice broken; frequent blood-letting; at first a milder (vol. II, letter 72, no. 1), afterwards a graver attack of paralysis (vol. II, letter 96, no. 1): so that it is no wonder that in her letters she frequently calls herself a little old woman and a little crone (for example vol. I, letter 20, no. 8: pobre vieja, a poor old woman; likewise vol. I, letter 25, no. 3: pobre vejezuela, a poor little old crone), and that in the year 1579 she wrote that she had grown old in an astonishing manner (vol. I, letter 58, no. 3: Se espantaria quan vieja estoy You would be astonished how old I am).
[1030] and the passage of Ayala on the manner of representing her is cited, Fr. Juan Interián de Ayala in his work printed at Madrid in the year 1730 under the title Pictor Christianus eruditus has this about the appearance and face of St. Teresa: That Seraphic Mother, ever the honour of Spain, nay the singular ornament of the whole Church, the holy Teresa of Jesus, whom no praises at all equal, as she is on the lips of all, so her images are seen by the eyes of all, are worn by the hands of all; but rare are those which represent her even moderately: and this is what the writer of her Life complains of, in my judgment by far the weightiest and most learned of all (namely Ribera). For he (book IV, chapter I), after he had expressed her, as far as certainly could be done by speech or writing, in living colours, so to speak, depicting the beauty and proportion of her body and countenance down to the very minutiae, subjoined these words, translated from the Spanish idiom into Latin: "There was painted," he says, "only one image of her while she was living and surviving; and this because her superior or provincial, who at that time was Fr. Jerónimo Gracián, commanded her, namely, to permit and allow herself to be painted: and the image was painted by a certain lay brother of that Order, namely of the Discalced Carmelites, a servant of God, whose name was Fr. Juan de la Miseria. And as regards this, Father Gracián had done excellently: but not so in this, that he did not seek out a more excellent one of the painters of Spain, who would have represented such and so great a woman more happily and more faithfully." She is painted, however, and that frequently, with a face altogether charming and comely; and not undeservedly: for such she was by her own nature, as the praised writer of her Life notes and describes more minutely in the place alleged above. But besides that, when God was gliding into her most pure soul and rapt her into ecstasy, sometimes with such force that it carried even her little body aloft from the earth into the air, just as if it were devoid of earthly mass, of which she herself, taught by her own experience, quite often speaks, then she seemed beyond human measure and manner charming and shining. Wherefore, although she died somewhat elderly (for she lived, or, as she herself better says, was exiled, in the world a full sixty-seven years, and besides six months and days as well), the pious and learned painter will do excellently if he always represents her as charming and comely (book VIII, chapter 2, nos. 6 and 7).
[1031] especially as regards the dove I shall copy out here also the remaining things which the same author adds concerning the divine Spirit which is wont to be painted beside her under the form of a dove, although a dove is not painted on here, since I have followed a painting made while the Saint was still living. But what I am now going to cite from Ayala can be applied to the other painting in which the holy Mother is represented with the insignia of a doctor of theology, and in which she has the dove, emblem of the Holy Spirit, added to her. And so hear the praised writer continuing thus: Finally the Divine Spirit is painted at her ear, or above her head, under the appearance of a white dove. By which it is not given to be understood that we wish to ascribe to her writings, although filled with a certain divine unction and plainly heavenly, the certainty and authority of the divine Scriptures. That is not intended: but neither would she herself, being as she was a zealous follower of modesty and humility, suffer it to be attributed to her, who very often, when she discourses sublimely of divine things, fears that she is putting forth nothing but follies; nay, who decided, without any doubting or hesitation, to give to the fire a most sublime and almost divine writing on the Song of Songs, because a confessor, pious perhaps, but plainly inept and ignorant, had so commanded: which loss indeed men most celebrated for piety and learning bear with grief, as is established from the often-praised writer of her Life, Fr. Francisco de Ribera. But nevertheless, if anyone understands that by a manner of painting of this kind there is denoted a certain lofty dignity or sublimity of her writings, which often raises the mind of the reader on high, and affects and moves it in wonderful ways, and rises almost above human grasp, he will judge as no corrupt or ignorant judge. Otherwise, what is it, I beseech, that, whereas the Apostle Paul forbids a woman to teach in the Church, the Church herself afterwards attributes to Teresa alone (which is read of no other at all) a teaching office and doctrine, and calls it heavenly in these words: "That we may be so nourished by the food of her heavenly doctrine, etc."
[1032] which is wont to be painted beside her. But this manner of painting, namely that the Holy Spirit be depicted above Teresa's head under the appearance of a most pure dove, has besides a foundation not vain but most firm: which, that it may be more fully known, it pleases to set forth in no other words than those of the Seraphic Mother herself; … which words sound thus in Latin: "While I was considering these things with myself, lo, I behold a dove flying above my head, not a little unlike those which we commonly see; for it was not clothed with feathers, but as it were with little scales or shells shining in a greater manner. It was besides larger than ordinary doves; and it seemed to me indeed that I perceived the sound which it made with its wings: and it continued hovering for the space in which the Angelic Salutation could be recited. But already my mind was so absorbed that it could hardly see it any more. And so my spirit was calmed by so good a guest, etc." Thus far the Seraphic Mother: so that it is clear enough from these things with how good a right the Holy Spirit under the appearance of a dove is wont to be and can be painted beside her image (ibid. nos. 8 and 9).
[1033] After this it is not right for me now to dwell on relating and weighing several apparitions of St. Teresa after death, Many visions following the Saint's death having been omitted, which, besides those which are contained below in the Acts of canonization and in Ribera, are narrated here and there. Thus, for example, Fr. Ángel Manrique in the Life of the Venerable Ana de Jesús sets forth at length how the Saint appeared to the same Ana, from Ana's own testimony in the cause of Teresa's beatification; from which let it be enough for me to copy out these beautiful words with which Ana closes her testimony: When the news came that our holy Mother had gone to God, at the same time it came into my mind that it was she who had appeared to me: and when for grief I could not read through that line which bore that news, this thought occurred to me: "As the Church did not perish by the death of St. Peter, so too now our Order will not fall, but rather grow, since the Saint will be able to help us better from heaven; as she now does." Then for a long space of time I remained in recollection of mind; and I was so refreshed and revived that I greatly consoled all my sisters with my words (book IV, chapter IV).
[1034] the manifold … shown is narrated I return now to the historical narrative. On the day after her death, before it grew light, the concert of many bells sounded through all the churches, and with one voice of all the people, nay even of the little children, it was heard that the Saint had departed to the Heavenly Ones. The chapter of canons with the rest of the clergy of Alba and the Fathers of the Order of Friars Minor hastened to the church of the monastery, to celebrate Teresa's funeral with solemn Office. There were present at it some kinsmen of the dukes of Alba, among whom the marquis of Cerralbo, with other nobles: finally a dense multitude of people had filled the whole church; who vied with one another to the sacred
body approached, to kiss her garments and feet most religiously. And this body was most beautiful to see, most soft to touch, fragrant besides with a most sweet odour, as is unfolded more at length by Ribera; in whom also you will be able to read in what place it was first laid, and how Teresa Laíz, foundress of the convent of Alba (concerning whom see § XXIX), with all the nuns helping (as Yepes says, book 2, chapter XXXIX), covered the Saint's coffin with a huge heap of stones, bricks and lime, so that this most precious treasure could less easily be carried away from there. I should wish it noted besides that almost nothing is narrated, either by Ribera or also by me, concerning the funeral of St. Teresa which is not supported by the declarations of several witnesses bound by the religion of an oath, which are extant with us in a manuscript Summary formerly used at Rome for the beatification. From which, besides the things already related, it also becomes known that, the death of St. Teresa having been made public there, there came to Alba from the neighbouring city of Salamanca the bishop of Jaén, the duke of Huéscar, and many other men conspicuous for noble and knightly lineage, and also members of the religious Orders; and that on the very day of the funeral very many garments of the Saint were divided and distributed among various persons, religious as well as secular. In particular María de San Francisco confessed that she had given with her own hands one sandal, a band and half of the veil with a certain small sleeve and many other parts of her garments, and that she was most certainly aware of the publicly known miracles which the Almighty deigned to work through these Relics of the holy Mother; which several other witnesses also confirmed. A little woollen tunic, which the Saint had worn when ill, was obtained, on the testimony of Yepes (book 2, chapter XXXIX), by María de Fonseca, a Franciscan nun, who was present at the funeral solemnities; and she at once sent it to Bernardina de Toledo y Enríquez, sister of the elder duchess of Alba, then oppressed with a most grave illness: who, after she had reverently kissed the garment and put it on, soon dissolving in a violent sweat, recovered her former health.
[1035] honour to her remains. The things which I have hitherto recorded happened in the night and day next following the death of St. Teresa. But thereafter her sacred remains, as long as they remained at Alba, were never not frequented with the veneration of many coming there from every side with great feeling of piety. Among these, as we learn from the Summary already often alleged, is to be counted Alonso Manrique, archbishop of Burgos, who himself testified in the juridical informations that he had gone to Alba for the sake of visiting Teresa's tomb, and had recited prayers before it with that reverence which, according to the mind of the holy Church, is wont to be shown by the faithful to the relics of the Saints. The same was affirmed on oath of himself by Alonso Enríquez de Toledo, bishop of Medina-Sidonia, adding that he had sent to the holy Mother's tomb a silver lamp with as great a quantity of oil as would be needed for a whole year, but that he had already thought of sending another, larger lamp and of assigning oil to it in perpetuity. That they had seen several lamps and votive gifts hung at the same tomb was also duly testified, not only by all the nuns of the convent of Alba, but also by many grave men of both clergies and of the nobility, among whom are especially to be named Antonio Álvarez de Toledo y Beaumont, fifth duke of Alba, and Juan Hurtado de Mendoza, sixth duke del Infantado; and the latter indeed, when he had come to Alba some while after the Saint's death, thought it wrong for himself to go to the palace of the dukes of Alba for friendship's sake, unless he first discharged a fitting duty of religion towards the holy Mother's remains, and that for quite a long space of time. And these were the beginnings of the signal veneration with which men of all ranks honoured that Seraphic Virgin, now received among the Heavenly Ones, and which at last the Holy Catholic Church herself approved by an irrefragable judgment, as we shall relate in the following paragraphs.
§ LIV. On the state of the body of St. Teresa from her death up to the year 1591.
Fr. Gracián exhumes the body of St. Teresa in the year 1583; The ninth month since the death of St. Teresa was running when Fr. Gracián, the provincial, came to Alba and, at the prayers of the nuns, devoted his effort to exhuming her sacred body, as Ribera narrates (book V, chapter 1), with whom the Acts of canonization and Yepes agree (book 2, chapter XL). And the latter records besides that when, after four days' labour spent in digging out the mortar, at length on the 4th day of July 1583 the Saint's coffin appeared rotted, but the body incorrupt, flexible and fragrant, Gracián and all who were present threw themselves on their knees in veneration; and that, while they were wholly taken up in admiring the integrity and fragrance of the body, a third prodigy, not inferior to the others, was not at all noticed by them. Namely, oil was flowing so abundantly from the sacred limbs that the earth and the garments adhering were soaked with it: but they were so blind for joy of soul that they thought this was some moisture of the earth itself. But shortly afterwards they were called back from the erroneous opinion, seeing how the earth, the garments and whatever had adhered to the body distilled from themselves a most sweet oil, and also communicated it to whatever wrappings they were covered with. Which indeed lasted for many years, as the same Yepes testifies in these words: Even today, after almost twenty-four years have elapsed since the holy Mother's funeral, there is seen in the monastery of the Discalced Carmelite nuns of Zaragoza the girdle with which she was buried; from which from that time up to the present day oil is seen welling up drop by drop. This girdle I myself have seen, and very many other men have seen it; and truly God has worked not a few miracles through it.
[1037] and her left hand first to Ávila Gracián, then, having cut off St. Teresa's left hand, enclosed her body, clothed in new garments and wrapped in a linen cloth, in a chest, and buried it in its former place, yet not so deep, all things round about being so arranged that no one would seem to have touched the tomb. For he already then feared lest he should be prevented by the dukes of Alba, if they learned of these wonders, from having the holy Mother's remains transported to Ávila, as he had the intention. But the severed left hand, says Yepes, Gracián took with him to Ávila, and, having put it in a well-closed and locked little chest, handed it to the nuns of Ávila, signifying to them that this was a thing of great moment which belonged to himself; but he took every care that they should not understand what it really was. For his plan was either to leave the holy hand to the nuns of Ávila, that they might keep it in their monastery for the sake of consolation, or to carry it away with him: the former, if the body remained at Alba; the latter, if it were transferred to Ávila, as he himself desired. Wherefore, lest their minds be disquieted, he would not disclose to them the pledge deposited. The nuns received the little chest, and placed it in a corner of the choir. But when one day Mother Ana de San Pedro, at that time prioress (Gracián calls her subprioress in the instrument presently to be cited), but now deceased, entered the choir, she saw this place shining most brightly, and the holy Mother Teresa appearing in visible form; who, pointing to the little chest in which the hand was enclosed, said: "Let account be taken of this little chest, since the hand of my body is in it." Thereafter the prioress wrote quite often to the provincial, asking whether the holy Mother's hand was there; but he used what dissimulation he could, lest the matter become known: and not long after, passing through this convent, he contrived to carry off the hand cunningly, suggesting to the nuns, lest they be too much saddened, that he was taking something else out of the little chest. For all, although they had heard nothing about it, yet held the matter as certain; and all the silk cloths in which the hand was wrapped were drenched with a most fragrant oil.
[1038] and afterwards carries it to Lisbon, Next the provincial carried the sacred hand to Lisbon, and gave it to the Discalced nuns of this city. It has remained there up to the present day, and the Lord has worked very many miracles through it. At the very time when it was brought into that monastery, while the other nuns perceived the odour breathing from it, Inés de la Madre de Dios alone, who through her whole life had perceived no odour, grieving that she could not enjoy the fragrance of these holy Relics in the same way as the rest, and falling on her knees, put the sacred hand to her nostrils, and said with great faith: "Surely I shall not rise from here before I have perceived by smell what my sisters smell, that I may praise the Lord with them." At once she is suffused with a most vivid blush of the face, and began to weep, affirming that a warm vapour was rising through her nostrils, by which her sense of smell seemed to her to be opened. And in truth what she was thinking came to pass; since she not only smelled the holy hand, but also from that time always enjoyed a sense of smell as perfect as the other sisters. Thus the bishop of Tarazona (book 2, chapter XL); to which I shall add the authentic instrument drawn up by Fr. Gracián, which Fr. Melchior de Santa Ana in the Chronicle of the Portuguese province of the Order of Discalced Carmelites translated from Spanish into Portuguese. I should wish it noted beforehand that Fr. Gracián seems to have slipped in memory when he wrote therein that he exhumed the body of St. Teresa in the year 1584, or that the instrument, which we have only in manuscript, has been made faulty; unless you wish that all the principal biographers of the Saint without exception erred, who refer that fact to the year 1583.
[1039] as he himself testifies by an authentic instrument. Here are Gracián's words: Jesus, Mary. I, Fr. Jerónimo Gracián de la Madre de Dios, prior of the monastery of St. Philip and provincial vicar of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel of the Discalced Carmelites of this kingdom of Portugal, by these present letters notify and give testimony of the truth to all who shall see these, that in the year one thousand five hundred and eighty-four (read 1583), when I was provincial in the same Order of Discalced Carmelites, and was visiting the convent of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Discalced nuns of the town of Alba, where the body of the holy Mother Teresa of Jesus was, I was asked and appealed to by the nuns of the same convent to open the tomb of the holy Mother in order to arrange her body well; since they had placed it in a hollow of the wall which is in the lower choir, covered with a great quantity of lime, and they feared lest it be burned by it. Wherefore, having entered the lower choir with my companion Fr. Cristóbal de San Alberto, I uncovered with him the Holy Body, from which arose a fragrance and most sweet odour; and we found it whole and fragrant, with breasts raised and full, no otherwise than as if she were living, and sprinkled with fresh blood, likewise as if she had just expired, although it had already lain buried two years (read about nine months): and though the lime had somewhat blackened the face and hands, which had remained uncovered, otherwise the colour was most beautiful. And then indeed I cut off from the said body the left hand, and carried it away with me
in a paper box; and from it there flowed a kind of oil, with which the papers and cloths in which it was wrapped were soaked. Afterwards I placed it in a little chest, together with the key of the tomb, in which I had left the body better arranged; and I gave the little chest, locked with a key, to the nuns of the convent of Ávila to be kept, with this intention, that these, if the body did not come into their possession, should have the hand, but if the body were brought to Ávila, I myself should return here to take it away. And while the nuns did not know what that little chest contained, it happened that Mother Ana de San Pedro, subprioress of the said monastery, when one night she had entered the choir to commend herself to God, visibly beheld in the choir the same Mother Teresa of Jesus surrounded with much splendour; who, stretching out her hand towards the little chest, said: "What is there lies greatly at my heart: for it is my own hand", and immediately ceased to be seen. Thereafter it also happened several times that the Mother prioress, María de San Jerónimo, holding a cup from which she was to drink, and asking the blessing of the holy Mother as if present, visibly saw a certain hand imparting a blessing to her; and also that some nuns, troubled by temptations or afflicted with pains, approached the said little chest and went back well and at peace. Afterwards, when in the year 1585 (as will be set forth more at length presently) the chapter of our Order was being celebrated in the town of Pastrana, it was decided that the body should be conveyed from Alba to Ávila. I therefore betook myself to Ávila, and asked for the little chest, that I might take away the key enclosed in it; and at the same time I drew out the hand, which I found fragrant and moistening its silk wrappings with oil. Thence I carried it into Portugal, and deposited it in our convent of Discalced Carmelite nuns at Lisbon, which is named after St. Albert: but the little finger, which it lacks, was cut off, to be sent to our Father provincial, Fr. Nicolás de Jesús María. And through this hand the Lord has worked some prodigies in the monastery of St. Albert. In faith whereof I have given these letters, subscribed with my hand and sealed with the seal of our office, in this convent of St. Philip of the Discalced Carmelites of Lisbon, on the 12th day of the month of March of the year 1587. Fr. Jerónimo Gracián de la Madre de Dios, provincial vicar.
[1040] In the year 1585 the sacred body Further, the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé relates (chapter XVI of her Life) that it was the wish of almost the whole Reformed Carmel that the sacred body of Teresa be carried to Ávila: and for this to be done at length, an opportune occasion was offered in the year 1585, when Fr. Nicolás Doria, who in the month of May of that year, before his return from Italy, had been elected provincial by the Discalced assembled at Lisbon, summoned them again for the 17th day of October to celebrate a chapter at Pastrana. In that chapter, after the Discalced had divided their province into four districts or vicariates, of which each was entrusted to the care of one definitor, so that Old Castile fell to Fr. Gregorio Nacianceno, New Castile to Fr. Juan Bautista, Andalusia to St. John of the Cross, Portugal (which still had only one convent of men and one of nuns) to Fr. Gracián, they admitted into their assembly Juan Carrillo, treasurer of the church of Ávila (who afterwards, on the testimony of Yepes, was a canon of Toledo), to whom Álvaro de Mendoza, formerly bishop of Ávila but then of Palencia, had given instructions in writing to ask for the body of the Seraphic Mother for the people of Ávila; and the synopsis of the Life of Teresa printed at Brussels in the year 1610 (concerning which see no. 10) adds that the city of Ávila too had joined its demand to the bishop's petition. Carrillo, then, set out the great love of the bishop of Palencia towards St. Teresa, his signal merits towards the Reformed Carmel, and the ardent zeal with which the people of Ávila demanded the sacred pledge for themselves; and to add greater force to his speech, he brought forward a written agreement formerly entered upon between the bishop and Fr. Gracián, by which the latter had bound himself in the name of his Order to restore the holy Mother's body to the people of Ávila, if she should die outside Ávila, and to lay it on the Gospel side in the principal chapel of the nuns, which the bishop had caused to be built, and where on the Epistle side he had designated the place of his own tomb. These things roughly from Yepes (book II, chapter XL) and the Chronicle (book VII, chapter I).
[1041] is transferred to Ávila: And from another place of the same Chronicle (book V, chapter XXX) it is clear that Fr. Gracián also declared to the assembled Fathers his opinion on transporting to Ávila the body of St. Teresa, which he testified he had found incorrupt: namely, that the wishes of pious benefactors should be indulged; that faith should be kept with the contract; that the rights of the city of Alba yielded to the rights of Ávila, which was the holy Mother's native place and the cradle of the Reformed Carmel; that this was more distinguished by an episcopal see and more populous in inhabitants, and therefore the Saint would be honoured more there; that she herself besides had been on the way to go to Ávila when, having left Burgos, she came to Alba, and so was to be reckoned only a guest at Alba, but an inhabitant of Ávila, where she was acting as prioress; and that if the dukes of Alba took this translation ill, there was hope that they would acquiesce after they had heard so many and so great weighty reasons. The Fathers, then, moved by the argumentation of Gracián and Carrillo, issued the desired decree; and, as is said in the synopsis printed at Brussels in the year 1610, they entrusted to two prelates the care of transferring the body to Ávila, an arm being left in the city of Alba. Ribera states the name of only one of these prelates, namely Fr. Gregorio Nacianceno; but Yepes, the author of the Chronicle, Fr. Federico and others join with him as companion Fr. Gracián: which I wished to note here, since the Acts of canonization assert that this translation was made by the provincial himself; the cause of which error is either that the office of provincial vicar, with which Frs. Gregorio and Gracián were invested, was confused with the office of provincial, or that Fr. Gracián was thought to have governed the whole province of the Discalced at that time too. How that translation was carried through Ribera sets forth clearly enough: but Yepes adds that two priests were deputed by the bishop of Palencia to accompany the sacred burden, namely Juan Carrillo, already before employed in promoting this business, and Julián de Ávila, the holy Mother's confessor and companion in many foundations; moreover the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé (chapter XVI of her Life) testifies that the sacred remains were received at Ávila with such honour and such joy that, for the multitude of wax tapers and lights, the whole convent seemed a most splendid firmament.
[1042] where in the following year a solemn visitation of it is made, On the kalends of January of the year next following a new visitation of the body was instituted, which may be seen explained at length in Ribera and in the Acts of canonization, resting on a multitude of most weighty witnesses. But since there only passing mention is made of the testimony of Yepes, it will be helpful not only to refer the reader to the place of his Life of Teresa (book II, chapter XLI) in which this visitation is described in almost the same words as in Ribera, but also to put into Latin what the same prelate in another place of his work (book IV, chapter II) discloses was then seen by him: When I saw this holy body in the year 1585 (rather on the 1st day of January 1586, as Yepes himself had rightly determined in the other place already cited), it was, as it still is, clothed with its flesh, and that so flexible that, when a finger is applied, it yields and rises again. The colour of the flesh resembles the fruit of the date palm; but in some places it is whiter. The face is the darkest of all; because, since the veil had fallen on it and the bier had been broken, earth and water were poured on it: whence its colour is worse than that of the other parts. Yet that face is whole, so that not even at the tip of the nose, although this was struck, is a trace of corruption to be found. The eyes are dry, their humours namely being consumed; but otherwise whole. Hairs still adhere to the warts of the face. She has her mouth so closed that it cannot be opened; and she keeps all the hairs of her head, not one being lacking. Her breasts are full and white: for, since she had her hands laid upon them, these prevented the lime-water from staining them. The belly is as whole as when she expired. But that part of the body from which the arm was cut off is most juicy and oily, since more oil wells up from it than from elsewhere. The right arm, which adheres to the body, remains whole and sound; the hand very well formed and composed in the manner of one blessing. The feet are handsome and excellently shaped. Finally the whole body, clothed and full with flesh, is so straight that, if anyone puts a finger to the shoulder, it stands on its feet no otherwise than if it were not composed of several members; and the nuns clothe and unclothe it just as if it were alive. But what is above all admirable, whatever part has been cut off from the body keeps the same incorruption, odour and colour as the body itself, and the same oil wells up from it; as may be seen not only in the arm laid up among the nuns of Alba and in the left hand among the nuns of Lisbon, but also in any particle of flesh, however small it may be: which, however much it is carried on the breast amid great heats, is no more corrupted than if it were of steel, nor does it lose any of the endowments which the holy body enjoys. If the reader compares these words of Yepes with the testimonies of physicians and other eyewitnesses which are related very fully in the Acts of canonization, he will find that they agree in all respects. The same I should say of the things which Ribera has, whether when he says that in the year 1586 he saw the holy Mother's remains and even kissed her feet (book V, chapter I), or when he sets out in what state the holy body was found by him when he visited it at leisure on the 25th day of March 1588 (book V, chapter II).
[1043] and near it the bishop of Palencia is buried But as often as Ribera saw that body, it happened at Alba; since this precious pledge was kept at Ávila not even a whole year, but before the end of the month of August of the year 1586 was taken back to Alba: so that the space was very brief in which the bishop of Palencia, formerly of Ávila, obtained the happy lot which he had exceedingly desired, namely that he should have a tomb at Ávila next to the tomb of Teresa; to which end he had arranged that his body be transferred to Ávila from Valladolid, where he departed this life in the year 1586. Antonio Ponz records in his Spanish Journey (vol. XII, letter X) that in the principal chapel of the church of the Discalced Carmelite nuns of Ávila there stands on the Epistle side the sepulchral monument of that illustrious prelate, most loving towards St. Teresa, namely an excellent marble statue of him kneeling, above which this inscription is read: Álvaro de Mendoza, by the grace of God formerly bishop of Ávila, then of Palencia, and count of Pernía, founder of this chapel, and also most well-deserving protector of the same monastery and of the whole Order. He died on the 19th of April 1586. Besides
it can also be noticed here in passing that that solemn examination of the body instituted by Yepes and others not only increased public veneration towards St. Teresa, but was also the occasion of publishing the holy Mother's books, and of founding even in the city of Madrid a double convent of the Order. Namely, Cardinal Quiroga, archbishop of Toledo, who had drawn out such long delays in giving permission to erect a house at Madrid, as soon as he read Yepes's narrative of the visitation of St. Teresa's body presented to Philip II, of his own accord and unasked permitted convents of men and of virgins of the Reformed Carmel to be founded there. And to begin that of the nuns the Venerable Ana de Jesús was called from Granada; who, as soon as she arrived at Madrid, began to collect the writings of St. Teresa, and besought the Cardinal, who held the supreme direction of the Holy Inquisition, that the manuscript of her Life, which since the month of May of the year 1575 had been in the possession of that Holy Tribunal, be granted to her: and her petition was satisfied. See the rest elsewhere, where we treat of the books of St. Teresa.
[1044] But shortly afterwards they recover the pledge taken from them On the 23rd day of August 1586, then, the holy Mother's body was taken back to Alba, because the Supreme Pontiff Sixtus V so ordered; and our distinguished biographer of the Saint, Ribera, was present at this solemnity: and since he follows up laboriously whatever pertains here, there is no reason why I myself should dwell long on this translation; and therefore it will be enough to have related here one circumstance passed over by Ribera, from Yepes (book II, chapter XLI). Namely, although the two Fathers to whom the care of making the translation had been enjoined by Fr. Doria, the provincial, were carrying the treasure committed to them with the utmost caution and as secretly as they could, and so were travelling by night, yet the sacred pledge itself betrayed itself on the road; so that in passing through the place whose vulgar name is la Bóveda, near the town of Peñaranda, by its most sweet fragrance it called the farmers by night out of their barns, and impelled them to follow at a run the bearers of the holy body, to learn the cause of so unusual and prodigious an odour. As surety for this matter Yepes adduces the count of Peñaranda, who gave sworn testimony about it. Fr. Federico further relates that a certain religious of the convent of Mancera, when the holy Mother's body had been brought there by night on the journey, was restored by her intercession from a quartan fever to perfect health (book V, chapter VI). And the things done from that time up to the year 1589 are declared by Ribera: nor is the lawsuit which was raised between Alba and Ávila about keeping the body in perpetuity omitted by the same biographer, although his book was already in the press when on the 10th day of July 1589 that lawsuit was settled by a Brief of Sixtus V.
[1045] the nuns of Alba. The same writer manifestly hints that that sacred body was not held with sufficient reverence in these times, or, if you prefer, that reverence went off into a certain pious covetousness. And indeed to about these times are to be referred the things which one of the continuators of the Chronicle declares (book XXI, chapter XXXII, no. 7). For he, after he has established that Beatriz de Jesús, daughter of St. Teresa's sister (of whom we treated at no. 51), in the year 1584, at the age of 24, took the Carmelite habit at Alba and completed there the customary year of novitiate, records that in these years occasion was quite often offered of uncovering the sacred body, now because the chest had to be changed and the condition of the site improved, now because the body was to be transported to Ávila, or because the devotion of the nuns was so solicitous and restless that they wished every day to change the garments of the corpse, which were soaked with the welling oil; and that then Beatriz, on account of her kinship with St. Teresa, contrived that some relics of that most happy flesh be granted to her: until at length the superiors put an end to this pious butchery. And so great was Beatriz's zeal that, when the prioress with two other nuns was changing the shroud of the corpse by night, and the fragrance of the body had wakened her, she at once came up to beg for herself a new relic. Since, then, the reader knows that the wishes of novices of this kind were satisfied, he will surely not be astonished when he hears below how mutilated the sacred pledge is. But after age and the practice of the religious life had better formed Beatriz and had also made her equal to the office of prioress, she left these precious pieces of the holy body to the monasteries of Ocaña, Toledo and Madrid, in which she exercised the aforesaid office. We are now called elsewhere.
§ LV. Continuation concerning the state of the holy Mother's body from the year 1591 up to her beatification in the year 1614.
[The incorrupt body of St. Teresa is visited in the year 1591 by the bishop of Salamanca,] In the Acts of canonization (in the article on miracles after death) the auditors of the Sacred Rota refer another visitation of the body of St. Teresa (unless rather it is a misprint of the typesetter) to the year 1592. But since this is the same one which will have to be recalled where the first processes for the Saint's beatification drawn up by the bishop of Salamanca are treated, we attach it, on the credit of Yepes and the author of the Chronicle, to the year 1591. Further, this visitation was carried out by the aforesaid bishop of Salamanca with physicians and a public notary and confirmed by authentic testimony, as is gathered from the Acts of canonization. Yet another visitation of the body took place in the year 1594; of which Yepes, the author of the Chronicle, Fr. Federico de San Antonio and the other biographers of the holy Mother made no mention, except Boucher, who recalls it both in the Life of St. Teresa herself and in the annotations to the Life of Blessed Marie de l'Incarnation. Certain things about it occur in the Acts of canonization; but from elsewhere much more ample documents are available to me: namely from the Life of the Venerable Ana de Jesús, written by Fr. Ángel Manrique, and already several times alleged by me before.
[1047] likewise in the year 1594 it is uncovered by the Venerable Ana de Jesús, The author of this distinguished Life, after he has related that the said Venerable Servant of God in the year 1594, with Frs. Juan de Jesús María and Diego de San José as companions, came from Madrid to Ávila, and thence with the same Fathers and the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé set out for Salamanca, then continues his narrative thus: The Venerable Mother had obtained leave to pass through Alba and venerate the holy body of the glorious Virgin St. Teresa, with a command to open the iron chest in which the same body was kept, and to transfer it into another rich one, which the duchess of Alba had had made for her, and which the Father Master Fr. Diego de Yanguas, then the duchess's and formerly the holy Mother's confessor, had adorned with inscriptions and verses. And so almost twelve years after the holy Virgin's death the body was taken out of the bier, and found so whole, so blooming and so flexible that they resolved to stand it on its feet; which was in fact done, not without great consolation both of the nuns of Alba and of the two Fathers and of both the guests. And while Ana de Jesús was inspecting it, she saw one of the shoulders inflamed and as it were filled with living blood about to burst forth. She asked, then, for a little linen cloth, and moistened the whole of it with blood: she asked for another, and the same happened again; and perhaps a third also would have been so soaked, had not the Venerable Mother, fixed in the contemplation of so great a prodigy, laid her head on St. Teresa's very shoulders… But to add weight to my words, I shall bring here the very words of the Venerable Mother to whom it happened, both from her answer to the eighth question on which she was juridically interrogated concerning St. Teresa, and from the letter which she sent to Madrid to her beloved daughter María de la Encarnación (whom beware of confusing with Marie de l'Incarnation, already enrolled among the Blessed).
[1048] who gathers the blood flowing from it Namely, in the juridical declaration the Venerable Ana speaks thus: "A year ago, when I was coming to this house of Salamanca, and was passing through Alba, where the holy Mother's body is, our prelates were keeping it so carefully that for a long time already they had granted no one the faculty of inspecting it: but they permitted me to have the iron chest in which it lay opened. At the very time at which this was being unlocked, there were present with me all the nuns of the convent and the Fathers who had conducted me. We gaze on the body with great reverence, which is very much stirred up by its integrity and odour, and also by the vivid colour and softness of the flesh, which can be handled just as if it were a living body. I began to put my hand to it and to fix my eyes on it carefully, and I noticed about the shoulders a part so coloured that living blood seemed to be present there: and when I had touched it with a linen cloth, this was at once stained with blood. I told this to the Fathers, asking for another linen cloth; which, when applied, likewise drew up blood. And then indeed I leaned upon that part of the body from which the blood was welling, thinking of this great prodigy, etc."
[1049] And in the letter to María de la Encarnación: she collects on two linen cloths. "I was enjoying great joy, my daughter," she says, "while I was gazing at and venerating the body of our holy Mother, which we were holding upright; but when I inspected the shoulders, I noticed that they were greatly inflamed, so that they seemed about to pour out blood: wherefore I asked that they give me a linen cloth at once, which, when I had applied it to the shoulders, I drew back from them bloodied, etc." And to attest what happened to her in that rapture, she continues thus: "What I felt interiorly were words and addresses which the holy Mother made to me, and which were so tender and full of love that I cannot express it. Among other things she said that she gave me her blood in testimony of a grateful mind for the cares spent by me and for the fervent zeal with which I had burned in the conduct of affairs. I can say nothing more, my daughter; but these things suffice for your comfort." When Manrique was writing these things in the year 1631 (book V, chapter VII), María de la Encarnación herself, then living in the monastery of Consuegra, still kept this letter, as the same biographer of the Venerable Ana testifies; who then adduces besides the following words from the aforecited juridical declaration of the Venerable Virgin: While I was occupied with these and other things (so modestly does she speak of her ecstasy), I forgot to ask for the linen cloths which had been used. The religious carried them off with them to Madrid, and showed one of them to Fr. Diego de Yepes, confessor of the king, who asked for them for himself, that he might show them to the king with an account of all that had been done. Hence it came about that a command was given to proceed with the informations for canonization, which had already been begun by apostolic authority five years before. I should wish the reader to compare what has been said with what the auditors of the Sacred Rota relate where they treat of the incorruption of the body of St. Teresa.
[1050] The Saint's tomb is placed higher in the year 1598, Further, although Yepes is a contemporary witness and
a writer of the most upright good faith, yet since the narrative of the author of the Chronicle is much plainer and of no less weight, and agrees in all respects with the assertions of Yepes himself, I prefer to draw from it what was done again about the holy Mother's tomb in the year 1598; and the same will teach us what was also done in the year 1604. These things, then, I put into Latin from the Chronicle (book V, chapter XXXI): In the year 1598 (in the Chronicle the year 1588 is printed, which error Fr. Federico, Mr. Boucher, etc. have already corrected), while Fr. Elías de San Martín was Prepositor General, and Fr. Tomás de Jesús, a distinguished son of the holy Mother, was governing the province of Old Castile, the directors of the Order, judging that the greatness of the holy Virgin's merits and the devotion of the Spaniards towards her demanded that a more external cult than had been customary up to then be shown to the holy body, debated the question of erecting a loftier tomb for her. For which purpose they chose the space of the principal chapel which rises on the Gospel side, twenty-two feet in breadth, but exceeding thirty-two in height, and in which the nuns previously had a double choir, upper and lower; and they arranged that place in this manner. With white stone of excellent grain, imitating alabaster and worked with much industry, they built a structure which you would call the front of a church; on which there rise on either side two columns, not even four feet distant from each other: but the chief columns at the enclosures of the choirs are more than eight feet distant from each other. Above the four columns and Corinthian architraves rises a cornice, which is surmounted by the second member of the structure, ten feet broad, if the columns are counted, and fourteen high, if the measurement is taken up to the summit of the front: and each side is adorned with various ornament. The nuns chose the lower storey for themselves as a choir, ceding the upper to the chest in which the most holy body is kept. They adorned this place with hangings of a most rich silver cloth, which the duchess of Alba Doña Mencía de Mendoza gave. In the middle of this little shrine, which has almost the form of a chapel, is placed the reliquary, covered with a crimson silken and shaggy cloth, and decorated with gilded nails and chasings, the gift of María de Toledo y Enríquez, formerly likewise duchess of Alba. The chest is covered with a canopy of cloth of gold, which, at the command of King Philip II, his daughter Doña Isabel Clara Eugenia, wife of the archduke Albert and countess of Flanders (nay, governor of all the Low Countries), caused to be sent. Thus was fulfilled the revelation which had been made to the Saint in that divine paroxysm which she had before she became a nun, and in which, as we have already said elsewhere, she saw that her body was to be placed under a precious cloth.
[1051] and with Spanish verses, On the inside of the chest are engraved on gilded tablets some little verses, composed by the Father Master Fr. Diego de Yanguas of the Order of Preachers, a most learned man and confessor of the holy Virgin, in these words:
"The Ark of the Lord, wherein was the manna, and the rod which had budded, and the tables of the covenant. Hebr. IX."
"En esta arca de la Ley
Se encierra por cosa rara
Las tablas, maná y la vara,
Con que Christo nuestro Rey
Hace á su Virgen mas clara:
Las tablas de su obediencia,
El maná de su oracion,
La vara de perfeccion,
Con vara de penitencia
Y carne sin corrupcion."
"Her lamp shall not be put out in the night. Prov. XXXI."
"Aqui yace recogida
La muger dichosa y fuerte,
Que en la noche de la muerte
Quedó con mas luz y vida
Y con mas felice suerte.
El alma pura y sincera,
Llena de lumbre de gloria;
Y para eterna memoria,
La carne sana y entera:
Dó está, muerte, tu victoria?"
[1052] of which we here add a Latin version, Which verses sound thus in Latin word for word:
"In this ark of the Law
Are enclosed, as a rare thing,
The tables, the manna and the rod,
By which Christ our King
Makes His Virgin most illustrious:
The tables of her obedience,
The manna of her prayer,
The rod of perfection,
With the rod of penance
And flesh without corruption.
Here lies enclosed
The blessed and strong woman,
Who in the night of death
Was endowed with the greatest light and life
And the happiest lot.
The soul pure and sincere,
Full of the splendour of glory;
And for eternal memory,
The flesh sound and whole:
Where is, O death, thy victory?"
[1053] and it is marked with a Latin and a Spanish inscription: Further, what place was assigned to these poems will become plain from an authentic diploma to be alleged elsewhere. Now I go on with the author of the Chronicle: From the inner part of the convent this chapel was locked, to which access was only by a very small door for attending to its adornment and cleanness. On the side of the church was placed an iron grille, skilfully made and gilded; and in front of the whole structure hung a silver lamp, which by its size and elegance testified to the liberality of Don Antonio, duke of Alba, who had given it as a gift. In the intervals between two columns were carved in the stone two inscriptions, one Latin, the other Spanish, which make known what treasure is kept there and for what causes the whole structure was set up. The Latin, namely, sounds thus: "Having restored the strict rules of the Fathers of Carmel, having erected very many cloisters of men and women, having published many books teaching true virtue, foreknowing the future, renowned for signs, a heavenly star, the Blessed Virgin Teresa flew to the stars on the 4th day before the nones of October CICICXXCII. There remains beneath the marble not ash, but a moist body, incorrupt, by its own most sweet odour a manifestation of glory." Whose interpretation in the vulgar idiom is this: "Restituida a su aspereza la regla de los Padres del Carmelo, fundados muchos conventos de Frayles y Monjas, escritos muchos libros, que enseñan la perfeccion de la virtud, profetizadas cosas futuras, y resplandecido en milagros, como celestial estrella voló á las estrellas la Beata Virgen Teresa á IV del mes de Octubre del año MDLXXXII. Ha quedado en su sepultura, no su ceniza, sino su cuerpo fresco y sin corrupcion, con propio olor suavisimo por señal de su gloria." [The rule of the Fathers of Carmel having been restored to its austerity, many convents of Friars and Nuns founded, many books written which teach the perfection of virtue, future things prophesied, and having shone in miracles, like a heavenly star the Blessed Virgin Teresa flew to the stars on the 4th of the month of October of the year 1582. There has remained in her tomb not her ash, but her body fresh and without corruption, with its own most sweet odour as a sign of her glory.]
[1054] then in the year 1604 it is shut fast with nails and ironwork. About these times it seems that many who desired to inspect so great a prodigy were satisfied several times, until in the year 1603 a check was put upon this improvident curiosity, as the author of the Chronicle already alleged relates; whose style I borrow again the more willingly because he was himself an eyewitness of the matter about to be narrated. In the year 1603, he says, the Reverend Fr. Francisco de la Madre de Dios, third General, having been informed that certain grave and pious men interpreted too broadly the excommunications which Pope Sixtus V had pronounced, by apostolic letters specially given on this matter, so that the holy body might always remain whole, and that the nuns were thus driven by their urgent petitions to grant them pieces of the flesh, gave instructions to Fr. Tomás de Jesús, definitor general and procurator of the holy Mother's canonization, to fasten the chest with nails in such a way that no one could open it except by breaking it. Fr. Tomás, then, came to Salamanca, where I was at that time set over the governance of our college; and after he had procured for himself strong iron hoops and plates and nails, he took me with him to Alba. There, Don Antonio, duke of Alba, and his wife Doña Mencía de Mendoza, and also Don Antonio de Toledo, lord of La Horcajada, their nearest kinsman, having been informed, we entered the convent and proceeded with all the nuns into the choir; and Fr. Tomás opened the chest, which had been taken out of the chapel or niche and placed on a bench. And when, having fallen on our knees, we had drawn off from the sacred body with as much decency and veneration as was fitting the shroud made of the finest cloth, we soon began, not without joy, to smell a heavenly fragrance arising from the flesh and from the shroud soaked with oil. For some while we were occupied in contemplating this prodigy and praising the divine mercies. Then those noblemen asked for some relics of the virginal flesh, which could not be refused. And Fr. Tomás also distributed particles to the nuns, and took for himself no moderate pieces; while I did not dare to arrogate so much to myself, but was content with one segment of flesh which in size almost equalled the palm of the hand. But that Father, more out of his devotion than out of the reverence due to the Saint, tore out a rib, to the grief of all of us. After this the chest was shut with very strong nails, and the record of the whole matter was committed to writing on the faith of all of us who were present, and that instrument was sent to the Father General. This visitation of the holy body, which the author of the Chronicle describes in these words, I do not doubt is the same which the Acts of canonization present as made in the year 1604, and so when twenty-two years had passed since the happy passing of the Servant of God, in the presence of the duke and duchess of Alba and the duke del Infantado and other knights and religious men; and therefore, in order that the narrative of the Chronicle may be reconciled with the Report of the auditors of the Sacred Rota as regards the designation of the years, Mr. Boucher seems to me to judge rightly when he says that the order of the Father General was indeed laid on Fr. Tomás de Jesús in the year 1603, but put into execution by him in the following year.
§ LVI. The beatification promoted and obtained.
The first information is drawn up by the Ordinary of the place, I have followed up in one continuous course whatever concerns the state of the holy Virgin's body up to the time at which she obtained the honours of beatification. Meanwhile the splendid prodigies which God had worked by Teresa's patronage had impelled Fernando de Toledo, son of Fernando, third duke of Alba, prior of the Order of St. John in Castile and León, to destine by his will for promoting her canonization the sum of 14,000 gold pieces and their revenues, as is clear from the sworn testimonies of Antonio Álvarez de Toledo y Beaumont, fifth duke of Alba, and his wife Mencía de Mendoza, who declared this to be notorious and public, and also of two nuns who had seen that will with their own eyes; which four testimonies are adduced from the process of Toledo in our manuscript Summary already often alleged: Luis Ariz professes that he inspected the same will in his work on the Greatness of the city of Ávila (part I, page 50), where, however, he seems to have slipped in memory in designating the number of coins, when he writes 16,000 gold pieces. The whole Teresian religious family also, with the highest wishes and with the patronage of powerful men enlisted, was soliciting the honours of the altar for its Mother, Ana de Jesús saying repeatedly that she desired that the modest contributions which she could make towards it should be multiplied into
ten hundred thousand. Meanwhile the fame of her holiness and miracles grew daily, and at an equal pace the piety and veneration of men towards the holy Mother and her sacred remains: the monasteries also which she had founded spread far and wide the odour of virtue: her writings too bore rich fruits daily. For which reason the bishop of Salamanca betook himself in the year 1591 to Alba, a town of his diocese, and collected testimonies, supported by the authority of most weighty men, of the incorrupt body, the virtues and the miracles of the holy Mother, both at Alba and at Salamanca. And shortly afterwards, namely in the year 1595, at the request of Philip II, the apostolic Nuncio Camillo Caetani ordered an information to be made throughout all Spain, wherever she had either lived or was known; which office indeed he entrusted only to the skill of most weighty men.
[1056] and then by sixteen others, delegated by the Nuncio: He committed this at Madrid to Doctor Mármol Zapata; at Valladolid to Doctor Sobrino, principal professor of theology, canon of the church of Valladolid and consultor of the Holy Office; at Zaragoza to Doctor Gabriel Sora, canon of its church and likewise consultor of the Holy Inquisition; at Ávila to Doctor Pedro Tablares, archdeacon of Ávila; at Toledo to Doctor Armunia, chaplain of the royal chapel; at Palencia to Doctor Castillo, canon of its church; at Salamanca to Master Curiel, professor of the vesper chair; at Seville to Doctor Juan Hurtado, canon of its church; at Valencia to Doctor Alfonso de Ábalos, visitor of the archdiocese; at Segovia to Doctor Luis Cabeza de Villegas, canon of the cathedral; at Medina del Campo to Doctor Bernardo Vélez, canon of its church; at Huete to the licentiate Rodrigo de Castillo y Arcas, vicar of the archpriestship; at Piedrahíta to Pedro Rengifo, archpriest; at Villanueva de la Jara to the licentiate Pedro de Vilches; at Malagón to the licentiate Fernando González, of the Order of St. John; at Cuevas to Doctor Alfonso de Alcocer.
[1057] whose informations are sent to Rome, with the king's favour, These sixteen informations were sent to Rome in the year 1597 to Clement VIII, and Philip II and the empress María, daughter of Charles V, added to them letters in which they earnestly requested Teresa's canonization. Moreover Philip commended that matter to be seriously promoted to the duke of Sessa, his ambassador to the Holy See, sending him the following letter: Doctor Mármol is making for Rome to dispatch certain business of the archbishop of Toledo, and is taking with him the informations made concerning the life of Mother Teresa of Jesus, in which most holy things are found: moreover she is the foundress and reformer of the Order which flourishes with so great perfection. Wherefore I greatly enjoin on you to embrace the cause of her canonization very vigorously, and to promote it with those to whom it pertains, in the best way you can. Whatever you accomplish in this matter will be most pleasing to me; and inform me of the progress which this cause makes. Madrid, 21st March 1597. I the King.
[1058] [and with letters of recommendation from the congregation of the churches added, which here] At the same time by chance the deputies of all the churches of Castile and León had assembled at Madrid, to treat of certain affairs of their dioceses. They too added their common petition to the informations sent, which it is pleasing to transcribe here, because Teresa's praises are proclaimed in it very composedly and eloquently: The Congregation of all the metropolitan and cathedral churches of the kingdoms of Castile and León, convoked and assembled at Madrid with the good pleasure of the apostolic See, wishes everlasting felicity to the Most Holy and Most Blessed Father and our Lord, the Lord Clement the Eighth, Supreme Pontiff. Such is the exceptional religion and supreme piety of Your Beatitude, Most Holy and Most Blessed Father, that you receive and embrace with a grateful mind those things which pertain to the adornment of the Church of God. Now Christ the Lord, from whom all good things are derived, has granted from heaven to His house in these evil times Teresa of Jesus, to adorn its solid and most beautiful holiness with a new splendour. This is the cause that we should write to Your Beatitude as carefully as possible; which we have judged by no means foreign to your sacred will and to our duty. That Teresa it is, Most Blessed Father, who, born of noble family, despising earthly things, led in Spain within our memory a life of a purity wonderful beyond human condition and of heavenly perfection: whose marvellous virtue, perfect in every respect, proved by most certain experiments, He who lit such a torch to illuminate the world willed to be sealed with undoubted miracles. She arrived at so great a summit of divine contemplation that her most pure mind, transcending the clouds, the stars, the very Angels, drew water abundantly from the fountains of the Saviour. How beautiful she returned coming from Lebanon, and what streams of honey and milk flowed from her tongue and instilled virtues into mortals, the books of heavenly doctrine testify; in which, not with allurements of words nor in an elaborate style, but in a grave, pure and proper one, she has left us in writing what she had contemplated. Wonderful are the things which she did and said; as one whom Christ chose to supply brave soldiers and pious troops against the storms of enemies assailing the Church. Who in all discipline and in the unconquered hardiness of warfare equalled those ancient sacred soldiers who subdued the world. For by her example and her faith in divine things she moved many virgins and men eagerly and bravely to seek a most strict and most difficult manner of life for attaining the loftiest summit of perfection: which, Christ helping, who always makes His yoke sweet, they show forth in deeds; and they inhabit many monasteries, which she built with immense labour and incredible patience. And after the Lord called her to the heavenly glory to which she had always aspired, her body, as we have learned, remains incorrupt; and breathes a divine odour above all spices, not like earthly ones, and produces many miracles.
[1059] are presented, by letters. And so it seems that it cannot be called into doubt, Most Holy Father, that Teresa now reigns with Christ and enjoys a blessed and everlasting age in heaven, and that signal benefits are bestowed by God on men through her intercession, so that, mindful and grateful, we should hasten to venerate her. Wherefore her followers desire in the greatest manner to consecrate the Virgin's memory with churches and altars, to invoke her with vows, to celebrate her on feast days — they who ought to remember her who was set over them by God, and, considering the outcome of her conversation, to imitate her faith. Nor are we held by a lesser desire. For we judge, Most Holy Father, that a domestic exemplar will be most profitable for forming our morals and stirring up divine love. We therefore vehemently again and again ask and beseech Your Beatitude to enrol Teresa in the number of the Holy Virgins. And that this may be established in solemn manner, deign to delegate it as soon as possible to most weighty prelates, lest things manifest become obscure through the injury of time. But meanwhile, while these things are being duly carried out, we ask and urge of Your Beatitude with the greatest zeal that you grant the Virgin's followers, for their comfort, to keep the anniversary day on which she passed to heaven. For they are worthy to be adorned by you in all things, since they bring very much help to the Church of God, and, having traversed Spain and Italy, have penetrated not without great glory of the Christian name to the furthest Indians. Thus a great increase will have been added to your supreme beneficence. All which things indeed you yourself will judge much more easily according to your divine authority and prudence, since a just cause ought to prevail with you rather than our favour. But this we are persuaded of, that whatever greatest honours you decree to Teresa, these will be most pleasing to God and will be to the great praise of the Church and of Your Beatitude. Farewell, Most Holy Father. May Christ, who is the crown of all the Saints, preserve you safe for as long as possible, that you may set before us their salutary examples to be imitated. At Madrid, at the monastery of the Most Holy Trinity appointed for our congregation, under the signatures of three of us, on the seventh day before the Ides of May, in the year from the Lord's Nativity 1597. Of Your Holiness the most humble Servants. Doctor Gabriel Suárez de Toledo, archdeacon of Madrid and canon. Don Antonio Pimentel, cantor of Seville. Doctor José Alderete, canon of Córdoba. Juan Alfonso de Córdoba, abbot of Alabanza, secretary (History of the Congregation of St. Elijah, vol. I, book II, chapter XIII).
[1060] Many other petitionary letters further are presented to the Pontiff: While Clement VIII was considerately weighing the informations received and the whole matter as its gravity required, so many prayers from every side of Spain urged that business at the Holy See that the Chronicle (book XIV, chapter I) expressly says that all the churches, princes, kingdoms, bishops, universities and cities of the Spains conspired to obtain the sacred honour for Teresa, Servant of God. I pass over the petitionary letters which the university of Alcalá in the year 1601 and the provincial council of Tarragona and the congregation of the churches of Castile and León in the year 1602 presented to Clement VIII; although, if space permitted, I should greatly desire to copy them out entire here on account of the highest praises of Teresa which they contain. But since they are rather prolix, and can be read in the Chronicle, I shall bring forward only those which the supreme university in the Spains, that of Salamanca, sent, and which I select chiefly for this reason, that together with encomiums of the holy Mother it contains at the same time distinguished encomiums of the renowned Order reformed by her.
[1061] of which are transcribed those Thus these letters sound: Most Blessed Father. Since by divine gift you have been set over the government of the world for the salvation of the Christian commonwealth in these most corrupt morals of our age, and apply yourself day and night with your whole heart to this care and thought, that the flock committed to you by Christ the Lord may return to the way and be brought back to health, we judge that nothing will be more pleasing to Your Beatitude than that many occasions should offer themselves by which the holiness of life of those who, received into the heavenly assembly, enjoy perpetual joy may become known to mortals. For by no precepts or institutions are men more easily and more surely stirred up to rectitude of life than by examples of heroic virtues set forth for imitation. These things being so, this your university of Salamanca has judged that it will be most delightful to Your Holiness if it should record in letters sent to you what it had attained of this kind, and especially what it had learned concerning the most holy woman Teresa of Jesus, who has already filled all Spain and indeed all Europe with the fame of her holiness: concerning whom we shall say not only what we have perceived with our ears, but also what we see daily with our very eyes and almost handle with our hands. For while this most choice woman lived, she showed for many years such signs of most excellent and most illustrious virtues that her singular excellence could be hidden from no one, since it was also confirmed no less by miracles. And after she departed from the living, more and greater things have followed, which are daily increased and heaped up to the glory of Almighty God. Her chaste and inviolate body is seen whole and incorrupt, from whose limbs a certain liquor of most sweet odour still drips today.
[1062] which then the university of Salamanca She instituted an Order of religious men and women, which she so strengthened with most holy laws and institutions that we experience that in it they are trained and formed to all perfection; which in the number of sacred houses, the frequency of religious of both sexes, the zeal and favour of the Christian people,
is inferior to few Orders: so that it seems most like the truth that so great an increase in so short a space of time has proceeded wonderfully from the divine will, human weakness not sufficing for so great a thing. Hence it has come about, Most Blessed Father, that all Spain is most inclined towards this Order, and honours and venerates the most illustrious Teresa with goodwill and the highest piety and observance, and burns with incredible desire that she be enrolled by Your Holiness in the number of the Saints. This your university is of the same mind because it sees that the youth of Spain is much helped to every virtue by the example of these religious men and also women. And it desires that that woman, by whose rare fortitude Spain has attained so many and so great goods, should, made illustrious by Your Holiness, be honoured and celebrated by the whole Christian commonwealth. Which we judge most worthy of your most holy cares, and we hope that we shall easily obtain this from you, such is your kindness. May God, Best and Greatest, will to preserve Your Holiness safe for many years for the highest good of the Catholic Church. Salamanca, on the 4th day before the nones of February of the year 1602. The most humble servants of Your Holiness, who as suppliants kiss your sacred feet. Don Francisco Ávila y Guzmán, rector. Doctor Diego Enríquez. Fr. Agustín Antolínez. Juan Alfonso de Curiel. Baltasar de Céspedes. By order of the university of Salamanca, Bartolomé Sánchez, notary secretary.
[1063] then Blessed Juan de Ribera presented. I cannot but add to these letters others equally distinguished which Blessed Juan de Ribera, patriarch of Antioch and archbishop of Valencia, wrote to the same Pontiff Clement VIII. They are found in the Annus Teresianus under the 22nd day of June. I regret that they are there translated from Latin into Spanish, and therefore have to be put back by me from Spanish into Latin; so that I can render not their words, but only their sense. Thus, then, that competent witness speaks of the virtues of the holy Virgin: Most Holy Father. Although all may cast themselves at your feet and hope to be well received, yet that hope is now redoubled for us, who are about to plead the cause of the Saints before you: for you have supplied frequent and certain arguments by which it is established that there is in Your Holiness a great inclination to favour those who embrace and follow virtue; which the Saints certainly have done. Nor does that mind of yours come only from that vehement love of virtue which you cherish with the increase of the benefit of the whole Church, whose government you happily hold; but that mind of yours proceeds also from this, that you employ the power, authority and keys which you have received from our Lord Jesus Christ as acting in His stead on earth for extolling and more and more amplifying the glory and splendour of the Saints: so that you can and ought with full right to be called a minister of the Saints, by which name also the holy Apostle Paul calls Christ Himself. But let me now explain my aim. Most Blessed Father, the most religious and most pious life which Teresa of Jesus led shines far and wide through all the provinces of the Spains: and I know that this does not escape Your Beatitude, since it has been attested to you on the one hand by certain and clear instruments which several have presented to you, and on the other hand by two books which a pair of men, distinguished equally for wisdom and for piety, have published, and have thus publicly asserted what was already plainly perceived by us before. There is added that all of us who have survived Teresa are ear- and eyewitnesses of the most excellent prudence (to say nothing of her other virtues) in which that most outstanding woman excelled and shone in the government of her nuns. And the Institute of this most sagacious woman, having struck deep roots, perseveres firm and stable even today. For these reasons, then, I, who among the Spanish bishops am senior in age, though inferior in merits, should wish to promote this business according to my small measure, first on account of that old love and affection with which I honoured that handmaid of Christ while she was among the living, and then on account of my great desire by which I am borne to see that torch and light placed on the candlestick by the hands of Your Beatitude, that it may shine more widely and more brightly. For it is certain that that business will redound to the greater praise and glory of almighty God. There is added too that by this new canonization and enrolment in the calendars of the Saints, of one especially of the weaker sex, a spur will be given to many to emulate and follow her in the path of heroic virtues. Nor is there doubt that Teresa, adorned by Your Holiness and honoured with so splendid a distinction and magnificent name, will confidently intercede before God for you, asking and gratefully begging that He grant you a most prolonged life for the common benefit of all: which may God Almighty and Greatest grant to our prayers! Valencia, 20th June 1602. Most Holy Father, I kiss the most holy feet of Your Beatitude, your humble servant, Juan of Antioch and Valencia.
[1064] Therefore the Pontiff orders that they proceed to informations in specie: who, Moved by manifold and just prayers and reasons, and the cause having been examined by the Sacred Congregation of Rites, two years later, that is in the year 1604, the Pontiff wrote back to Spain, and commanded Lorenzo Otaduy, bishop of Ávila, and Luis de Córdoba, bishop of Salamanca, to institute informations in general concerning Teresa's fame of holiness and miracles. These, having diligently carried out the pontifical command, had the informations drawn up carried to Rome as quickly as possible. Further, these processes having been maturely discussed by order of the Pontiff by the Cardinals set over the Sacred Congregation of Rites, towards the beginning of the year 1607, Paul V then occupying the see of Peter, the things contained in the aforesaid informations were unanimously confirmed by them, and judged to be such that one could proceed to further steps. Paul V therefore ordered that an inquiry be made in specie concerning her holiness and miracles, and that office was committed to Cardinal de Rojas, archbishop of Toledo, and to the bishops of Ávila and Salamanca. The processes drawn up by these in Spain were sent to Rome.
[1065] the Order always pressing to obtain the beatification, In the month of May 1608, in the second general chapter celebrated at Rome, Fr. Juan de Jesús María had been elected procurator of the whole Italian congregation. At that time, says Fr. Isidoro de San José (chapter XVII of the Life which he prefixed to the Florentine edition of the year 1771 of the works of Fr. Juan), our whole Reform, with minds and strength united, was urging before God and men a most weighty business, namely that Teresa should be pronounced Blessed by the mouth of the Vicar of Christ. For by the proclamation of the Mother the life of the sons was established, their fervour kindled, so that they might tend more swiftly and lightly to heaven by that way by which they had learned from the apostolic oracle of truth that their Foundress had flown before them to the Spouse. To this matter, then, our procurator applied himself wholly, both from the duty of his office and from his most tender affection towards his sweetest Mother; so that a few months later he had worked out a compendium of her most holy life, which, committed to elegant type, he dedicated and offered in the year 1609 to the Supreme Pontiff Paul V: and by the grace and clarity of its language, the greatness and holiness of its deeds, it deserved to be read through by the Most Holy Father, and he was ravished by the splendour of the virtues of so great a Virgin, Christ urging the heart of His Vicar to decree the supreme honours for His spouse. For he soon ordered the Sacred Congregation of Rites to proceed further, in which on the 24th of the month of October of the same year the Most Eminent Lord Cardinal Pamphili, Vicar of the Most Holy Lord Pope, was deputed for the examination of witnesses to be carried out at Rome concerning the purity and holiness of life and the miracles of St. Teresa; and on the tenth of May 1610, and thereafter up to the end of the month of May, at the instance of our procurator there were produced and examined the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Fr. Diego Álvarez of the Order of Preachers, archbishop of Trani, the Reverend Fr. Bartolomé Pérez of the Society of Jesus, assistant for the Spains, the Reverend Father Dom Pedro de Sayes de Torres, canon regular of the Order of St. Augustine, the Illustrious and Reverend Lord Agostino Gudiello, priest, doctor of sacred theology — these two having been miraculously healed at Rome in a desperate illness at the invocation of St. Teresa — the Reverend Mother Felice della Madre di Dio, prioress of the monastery of St. Joseph in the City, and other nuns, concerning the fragrance of a Relic of St. Teresa perceived there above the order of nature, and the healing of scrofula at its touch in Sister Tecla, niece of Cardinal Baronius. There were heard besides the depositions of three of our Fathers, Fr. Tomás de Jesús, Fr. Domingo de Jesús María, Fr. José de San Gabriel. Certainly the proven credit and due reverence of these witnesses, the gravity and greatness of the things they deposed, not only enriched the process with a heap of merits, but also added spurs to those who were in charge of the cause: since in remuneration for their diligence they could hope for the present help of the most gracious Virgin, which was already growing in the city of Rome.
[1066] [he receives many other petitionary letters; such as, behold, you have from Belgium.] Meanwhile there also did not cease to press as many as were powerful in authority and dignity in Spain, to whom not a few foreigners joined themselves. The Chronicle (book XIV, chapters I and II) presents petitionary letters given to Paul V in the year 1607 by Margaret, queen of the Spains, in the year 1608 by Sigismund, king of Poland, in the year 1610 by Philip III, in the year 1611 by the grandees of the kingdoms of Castile and León, likewise by those of Aragon, and also of Cantabria, as also the letters of the archdukes of Belgium Albert and Isabella. I have just inserted in this § the requests sent from Spain by the king, by the bishops and by the university; I think it will be pleasing to the reader now to come upon the Belgian supplication for St. Teresa. Here is how that noble and pious pair, who were the delight of the Belgians and the source of manifold goods lasting even today, request of the Supreme Prelate this new increase of religion: Most Blessed Father. We are borne with a tender and devout homage of veneration and worship towards Mother Teresa of Jesus, Foundress of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, on account of the singular integrity of her holy life and the certain proofs of her virtues, whence it comes about that throughout all Spain she is most celebrated according to her merits. Wherefore we vehemently desire that she be enrolled as quickly as possible in the number of the Saints. The many and great miracles which God has worked through the merits of Blessed Teresa seem to demand this very thing: and since these are so illustrious and openly testified, we trust that Your Holiness will approve them by your infallible vote and judgment. As these our wishes, in keeping with the affection with which we honour the said Teresa, are ardent, so too is our entreaty vehement that Your Holiness defer her canonization no longer, nor allow that she who triumphs in heaven, inserted among the choirs of the Saints, be defrauded on earth of the cult which is due to her merits. This will redound to the greater glory of God, to the praise of Your Holiness, to the honour of the Catholic Church and to our signal consolation. May God, Best and Greatest, preserve Your Holiness
safe for the good of the Christian world. Given at Brussels on the 3rd of August 1611. Your Holiness's most obedient children. Albert. Isabella.
[1067] The stages of the processes are set out, After so many testimonies had been gathered, and so many clear instruments of the cause sent to Rome, the outstanding holiness of the Servant of God was surely not hidden from the Supreme Prelate of the Church. But, according to the custom of the Roman Curia, he did not see fit to pronounce her blessed until all the customary examinations and discussions had been carried out in order by the Sacred Congregation of Rites and the Rota. And by what stages the matter was carried through Benedict XIV clearly sets forth in his work on Beatification and Canonization (book I, chapter XXV, no. 7 and following), in this manner: In the archive of the convent of St. Anne in the City of the Discalced Carmelite Fathers of the Spanish nation there are extant the complete Acts of the beatification and canonization of St. Teresa, divided into two volumes, of which the first, pertaining to the beatification, was subscribed by Giovanni Paolo Mucanzio, master of sacred ceremonies and secretary of the Congregation of Sacred Rites. In this first volume is contained the commission of Clement VIII, addressed to the Sacred Congregation, that it inquire into the virtues in general; there is the commission of the Supreme Pontiff Paul V, that it inquire in specie; and, the remissorial processes having been completed, there is extant the decree of the Sacred Congregation charging Cardinal Lancellotti to see and examine the processes presented. The postulators of the cause presented informations both of fact and of law together with a very rich Summary of documents to Cardinal Lancellotti, who first reported on the point of the validity of the processes, then on the other point concerning the virtues: and that Summary of documents which had been presented to Cardinal Lancellotti having been transmitted to each Cardinal of the Sacred Congregation, on his report the Sacred Congregation answered that it was established enough, sufficiently and abundantly concerning the virtues, purity, integrity of life and holiness of Teresa, Servant of God: then, Cardinals del Monte and Lancellotti having been delegated to report to the Supreme Pontiff the things that had been done in this cause, when Cardinal Lancellotti afterwards reported that the Supreme Pontiff had answered that he wished all similar causes to be treated and discussed first in the Rota, afterwards to be examined again in the Congregation of Sacred Rites, and that all the remaining things which pertained to the miracles in the cause of Teresa, Servant of God, be examined in the auditorium of the Rota, the Sacred Congregation chose Francesco Sacrati, Giovanni Battista Coccini and Alfonso Manzanedo, auditors of the Rota, that, without examination of the articles already discussed and resolved in the Congregation concerning the validity of the processes and the holiness of life, they should see and diligently examine the processes, and report what they found in them concerning the miracles. The auditors of the Rota obeyed the commands; and the Report on the miracles having been issued, and the same transmitted to Cardinal Lancellotti and the other Cardinals of the Sacred Congregation, the Supreme Pontiff Paul V ordered that they too should give their judgment on the validity of the processes and on the virtues: and a favourable judgment having been given by them on the same subject, and on this, that one could safely proceed to canonization, Cardinal Lancellotti, following the order of the same Report, which (as has been said) had been handed to each Cardinal, set out and clearly narrated the miracles; and thus on his report the Sacred Congregation judged that it was established concerning the virtues and the miracles, and that one could proceed to canonization, and that meanwhile the Office and Mass could be granted for some determined places. Then at last the Pope assented to the requests, and dispatched apostolic letters in the form of a Brief concerning the limited grant of the Office and Mass, in which beatification consists.
[1068] and at the same time the Brief of beatification. Here you have that Brief from the Carmelite Bullarium of Monsignani: Pope Paul V, for the perpetual memory of the matter. Acting on earth, though unworthy, in the place of the King of eternal glory, who crowns His faithful servants with the crown of life, from the duty of the pastoral office enjoined upon us we gladly assent to the wishes of the faithful of Christ, and especially of catholic kings and princes and also of religious persons, which concern particular honour and veneration towards the same servants of Christ, and we follow them up with opportune favours, as we perceive it to be salutarily expedient in the Lord. Truly it has lately been set forth to us in the name of our beloved sons all the religious of the whole Order of the Discalced Carmelite Friars of the Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel that Teresa of Jesus of good memory, Foundress of the said Order of Discalced Carmelite Friars, was illustrated by the Lord with so many and so excellent gifts of virtues and graces and miracles, that on that account a great devotion of the faithful of Christ towards her name and memory flourishes: wherefore not only the whole aforesaid Order, but also our most dear son in Christ Philip, Catholic king of the Spains, and the archbishops, bishops, princes, and also the communities, universities and men of almost all the kingdoms of the Spains, have caused humble supplication to be made to us with repeated prayers, that, until the honour of canonization be had from the apostolic See for the said Teresa, which on account of her excellent merits they hope will one day come to pass by the inspiration of divine grace, the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Office might be performed and recited respectively by all and singular religious persons of both sexes of the said Order concerning the said Teresa as concerning a blessed Virgin, and otherwise as below. Wherefore we, the matter having first been maturely discussed by our Venerable Brothers the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church set over the Sacred Rites, whom we commanded to examine it, by the counsel of the same Cardinals, inclined to supplications of this kind, by apostolic authority, by the tenor of these presents, grant and indulge in perpetuity that henceforth in future every year on the day of the deposition of the said Blessed Teresa, namely the fifth day of the month of October, in all the monasteries and churches of the said Order of Discalced Carmelite Friars, the Office and Mass of the aforesaid Blessed Teresa, as of a Virgin, may and can be recited and celebrated respectively by all the religious of both sexes of the same Order, and also in the town of Alba of the diocese of Salamanca, in the monastery and church in which the body of the said Blessed Teresa is asserted to be kept, by all priests both secular and regular of whatever Order, on the said fifth day of October, the Mass only in honour of the same Blessed Teresa, according to their devotion, according to the rules of the Roman Breviary and Missal. Notwithstanding, etc… Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, under the Fisherman's ring, on the 24th day of April 1614, in the ninth year of our pontificate.
[1069] This decree is received with great jubilation, especially in Spain; Fr. Federico relates (book V, chapter XV) that the marquis of Villena, the Spanish king's ambassador to the Holy See, was so gladdened by this happy success obtained in the time of his embassy that, with the king's assent, he wished the well-known motto of Blessed Teresa to be inscribed on his coat of arms: Misericordias Domini in æternum cantabo The mercies of the Lord I will sing for ever. The inhabitants of the town of Alba, who by happy lot possessed the Blessed one's body, and the city of Salamanca, in whose diocese Alba is situated, gave proofs of their devotion above the rest. On the 7th day of October of that year 1614 the head of the clergy of Alba with his clergy, and the governor of the town with his magistracy, chose Blessed Teresa as protectress, and bound themselves to celebrate her anniversary day as a feast of precept: and they confirmed their vow by an oath taken before Don Luis Fernández de Córdoba, bishop of Salamanca, who had come to Alba to venerate the Blessed one's tomb. And he, having returned to Salamanca, two days later confirmed in the church of the Order, which is sacred to St. Elijah, the election by which that noble city had taken the Blessed Mother as its perpetual patroness. And not only at Alba and Salamanca, but everywhere throughout all Spain, the beatification of Teresa, as the Chronicle says (book XIV, chapter III, no. 6), was received with such applause and jubilation that no festivity was ever celebrated greater. If you consider the profane solemnities, in the principal cities equestrian games with lances or canes were held, bullfights were held (according to the genius of the Iberians, who take delight in these spectacles), and the cities were seen to blaze on festal nights for the abundance of lights and torches. And if you consider the sacred pomps, the churches, universities and religious families heightened the festivity in manifold ways with adornment of altars, music, processions, poems sung in the Blessed one's praise, and panegyric orations delivered. Nay, Madrid, Salamanca, Córdoba, Barcelona and several other cities published in print books in which those festal ceremonies are described; and Fr. José de Santa María, Prepositor General of the Order, dedicated to the Supreme Pontiff Paul V a volume of no small bulk, in which he had collected the solemnities held in many towns, the miracles worked on that occasion by the Blessed one, and select panegyrics delivered at those feasts by renowned orators.
[1070] as also at Brussels, very piously and splendidly. Outside Spain too her beatification was celebrated most festively in very many places. Brussels especially stood out, where on the 5th of October 1614 in the new church of the Carmelites the Illustrious Mathias Hovius, archbishop of Mechelen, first offered sacrifice, the building both of the church and of the monastery being then for the first time completed, whose beginnings must be attributed chiefly to the pious industry of the count of Añover, prefect of the archducal court, who three years before, having provided a sumptuous banquet and having introduced an apposite discourse on the excellence of the Teresian Institute, drew from the guests at one time 22,000 Brabant florins: as is read in the archive of the Discalced Carmelite nuns of Brussels. See also Sanderus's Chorographia Sacra Brabantiæ (vol. II, page 343) and especially the General History of the Discalced Friars of the Congregation of St. Elijah (vol. II, book 3, chapter XXXVI), where it is narrated at length both that the first stone of the building was laid with solemn rite on the 8th of September 1611 by the Most Serene princes of Belgium Albert and Isabella, the Most Eminent Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio leading the pomp of the ceremonies, and that, when the solemnity of the beatification itself was celebrated on the 5th of October 1614, the first Sacrifice was offered by the Illustrious Hovius, and that an equal solemnity was honoured on the same day by the presence of the Most Serene archdukes among the nuns of the Carmel of Brussels, who had rightly secured them for themselves beforehand as founders of their convent, and that these pious princes on the last day of the octave went with their courtiers to the church of the religious, where on that day the Illustrious François Buisseret, bishop of Namur, celebrated the Sacred Liturgy in a vestment perfect in every respect and woven with gold and silver, which the same archdukes had given to the church, and that the most exalted Eleonora of Bourbon (who was the wife of the prince of Condé, and sister of the prince of Orange) bestowed a vestment no less rich, made from a robe worked in Phrygian embroidery, adorned with which she had once carried the king of France Louis XIII to the baptismal waters of sacred regeneration. But today, alas, such was the iniquity of recent times, that renowned convent, a royal work, has been turned into prisons, and crime is where virtue was.
§ LVII. The canonization likewise promoted, and at length obtained.
A step is prepared towards canonization, When the beatification had been granted by the Holy See, the wishes of the faithful were not satisfied, but a greater desire seized them of obtaining the decree of canonization. Nor without cause did they hope they would obtain it. For the informations formerly sent to Rome, by which the Brief of beatification had been obtained, were so favourable that the author of the Chronicle
(book XIV, chapter 1, no. 2) does not hesitate to affirm that the Roman tribunals had not experienced for many centuries informations of that kind fuller or more remarkable. God meanwhile did not cease to declare more and more to mortals the merits and glory of His handmaid before Him by frequent miracles. Among others which happened through her intercession when she had now been enrolled among the Blessed, two dead persons recalled to life are recorded: and together with the miracles the fame of her holiness grew daily even outside Spain. Therefore Paul V, to satisfy so many just reasons and the repeated prayers of many, committed the cause to the Sacred Congregation of Rites. This deputed for the new processes which were to be set on foot the Most Eminent Cardinal de Rojas, archbishop of Toledo, and the bishops of Ávila and Salamanca. The processes drawn up by these, and approved by three auditors of causes of the apostolic palace (Francesco Sacrati, archbishop of Damascus, G. B. Coccini, dean, and Alfonso Manzanedo de Quiñones, who afterwards was patriarch of Jerusalem), the most prudent Paul V wished the Sacred Congregation of Rites itself to examine again. Meanwhile this excellent Pontiff, carried off by death on the 28th of February 1621, was not granted to bring that business to the desired end.
[1072] the Blessed one being taken as protectress in many places, Yet before he ceased to live, he had greatly favoured the extension of Blessed Teresa's cult. In the year 1617 he had granted the Spanish Church the faculty of reciting the Office of the Blessed one; and, encouraged by this grant, so many cities in Spain had chosen her in the following year as protectress and advocate that Gil González Dávila in the first volume of his Teatro Eclesiástico (which volume came out at Salamanca in the year 1618) writes these words: Paul V ordered that (the Office and Mass) of her be recited throughout the kingdoms of Old and New Castile, throughout the kingdom of León, of Portugal, of Galicia and of the Algarve, … and the greater part of the cities of Spain has her as Patroness. Likewise in the kingdom of Mexico all the bishops, the archbishop Juan Pérez de la Serna leading the way, together with the magistracy, proclaimed Blessed Teresa a second patroness of their country after St. Joseph in their cathedral churches and in the cities with such joyful applause that you would have said Teresa was born and died among the Mexicans. Religious also of every Institute took part in the solemnity with such affection that Blessed Teresa seemed to have been Mother and Foundress of each of their families. At the same time the Mitigated Carmel asked the Supreme Pontiff that leave might be given to it too to recite the Office and celebrate Mass in honour of the Blessed one, who, as they told the Pontiff, made her regular profession in their Order, drank in the spirit of devotion, and persevered up to the last breath of life under the obedience of its Prior General. See the Indult granted them on the 12th of September 1623, in Monsignani's Bullarium (vol. II, page 382).
[1073] and Paul V being inclined to it. There had been certain hope that Paul V, had he not been snatched away by death, would have solemnly enrolled Blessed Teresa in the calendars of the Saints. For he had signified his mind concerning her holiness several times not obscurely: for example when, Teresa's sacred foot having been brought to Rome, and the religious asking whether it would please His Holiness that those Relics be carried to his palace, he answered that he would rather go to their monastery to venerate them: whither indeed, on the very feast of Corpus Christi towards evening, he betook himself, attended by eighteen Cardinals and the whole Roman curia; and entering the oratory of the novitiate, and falling on his knees, he took in his hands that incorrupt and sweet-smelling foot, and having kissed it with tender devotion, he said that that flesh breathed holiness, and spoke many things in Teresa's praise. He did the very same thing also when no small Relics of the Blessed Mother destined for him had come from Spain. For when these had been handed to him by the procurator general of the Order, he deposited them in his chapel of St. Mary Major among the Relics of St. Agnes and St. Emerentiana: and since he was accustomed on the 29th of May, the anniversary day of his coronation, to offer some precious treasure to the Mother of God, that year he offered those Relics of Blessed Teresa. Then on the 27th day of June a new omen of the hoped-for canonization was received, when, celebrating the papal chapel there, surrounded by the college of Cardinals, he placed the aforesaid Relics of Blessed Teresa on the very altar at which he was celebrating.
[1074] But only by Gregory XV is the cause completed. But there remained for his successor Gregory XV the glory of inserting her in the calendars of the Saints. Since the emperor Ferdinand II, the kings of Spain, France and Poland, the archdukes of Belgium and the duke of Bavaria, and many other princes and grandees of Spain solicited this with assiduous prayers, the Pontiff commanded the Sacred Congregation of Rites to complete as quickly as possible what his predecessor had enjoined on it. Upon which that sacred tribunal fulfilled the part committed to it so promptly that, the cause having been examined with due rigour, the aforesaid Cardinals of Sacred Rites on the 24th day of January 1622, through Cardinal del Monte as head, reported that the Blessed Mother could deservedly be enrolled in the number of the Saints. Then on the kalends of February the advocate of the consistorial court G. B. Mellini, pleading before His Holiness in public consistory, and demonstrating that Teresa was most worthy to have conferred on her the honours of the greatest heroes of the Church, besought him to console the Christian world with the much-desired solemn decree of canonization. And shortly afterwards, namely on the 23rd day of the same month, in semi-public consistory all the Cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops and prelates declared their votes, and with no one dissenting demanded the canonization of Blessed Teresa. At length Gregory XV, assenting to their pious wishes, for the greater glory of God, for the consolation of the whole Carmel and for the exaltation of the merits of the handmaid of God, with signal solemnity and the highest applause of all defined Teresa to be a Saint and decreed that she be numbered in the catalogue of the Holy Virgins in the year 1622 on the 12th day of March, sacred to St. Gregory, Pontiff; on which day he likewise enrolled among the Saints St. Isidore the Farmer, St. Ignatius, Founder of the Society of Jesus, St. Francis Xavier, his companion, and St. Philip Neri, Founder of the Congregation of the Oratory: by an example of so many Saints canonized together unheard of up to then, and with some vainly resisting, now objecting the novelty of the thing, now that the cause of Blessed Isidore had been completed and prepared earlier, now that the strength of the aged Pontiff was too weak to suffice for this multiplied solemnity. But the Pontiff persisted in his purpose, and on the same day on which he had pronounced the decree of canonization and celebrated the solemnity, he dispatched the Bull of canonization of St. Teresa; while the other four Bulls of the remaining Saints, not yet prepared, were put off to the following year.
[1075] That Baillet spoke lightly and falsely From what I have said so far, let the reader now judge whether rightly or wrongly Baillet, under the 15th of October at the end of the Life of St. Teresa, hints that only a few processes, and those merely for show, preceded her canonization. In these words, translated from the French into the Latin idiom, he betrays his grudges against the Roman Pontiffs: Pope Paul V, after some processes, drawn up for the sake of observing the forms, declared Teresa Blessed, the act of beatification having been completed in the year 1614; and Pope Gregory XV solemnly canonized her in the year 1622. This in the edition of the Lives of the Saints of the year 1739. But in the earlier edition he must have spoken still more freely, since in a letter to the writers of the Mémoires de Trévoux (for the year 1723, page 2199) he is accused of having written that the Pontiffs acted indulgently and laxly towards St. Teresa, in the processes of whose canonization there were defects. More rightly here Villefore in the Saint's Life says thus: The public instruments for the canonization of St. Teresa were drawn up with the utmost accuracy.
[1076] is demonstrated. And since it seems not useless to note some signs of this diligence, I am pleased to sum up in a few words all the processes which Baillet hints were few, and says were made only for show. In the first place it is established from the informations of fact that witnesses were examined in the processes concerning five hundred miracles and more: whence anyone can conjecture how great was the number of witnesses interrogated concerning the miracles. From the index of witnesses who are named in our manuscript Summary, it is clear that certainly more than four hundred witnesses were heard concerning her life, holiness and fame. Besides, very many processes were made: first by the bishop of Salamanca; then by authority of the apostolic Nuncio; afterwards by apostolic authority, in general only, concerning the fame of holiness, the devotion of the people and the miracles, by the bishops of Ávila and Salamanca: these having been discussed at Rome in the Sacred Congregation of Rites, others concerning morals, miracles etc. in specie were ordered to be constructed by the archbishop of Toledo, and, as it were his subdelegates, by the aforementioned bishops or their vicars general; of these the archbishop of Toledo alone, through his delegates, instituted inquiry (to say nothing of villages, whose number escapes me) in twenty-one towns or cities. By the same authority three other compulsorial processes were then made by the same prelates, which it would be long to unfold. Nor is there reason for me to declare again how often all these things were examined and revised by the Sacred Congregation of Rites and by the auditors of the Rota. And these concern only the acts preceding the beatification. I omit to speak of what then preceded the canonization. It suffices to have noted that all the processes concerning virtues and miracles (contrary to what usage now has) were revised and adjudged before the canonization. Therefore it is concluded against Baillet and is clear that the cause of the beatification and canonization of St. Teresa passed through thirty years and more, through the stages of all the tribunals, first in Spain and then at Rome, by a most slow and most prudent examination, and always with an oath preceding.
[1077] A synopsis of the acts, soon to be presented, is proposed, And this will be still more clear from the altogether excellent synopsis of the processes of beatification and canonization which we shall presently bring forward. And not only will it be established thence concerning the most accurate examination that could be instituted in any human tribunal; but at the same time it will be declared in that way to how sublime a degree of holiness that holy Virgin ascended, and how copious were the graces freely given in her. Namely, in the year next before the canonization of the holy Mother, namely 1621, at Barcelona, by the care of Fr. Bernardo de Jesús María, who was prior of the convent of that city, there came out a certain little book under the title: Reports on the life, virtues and miracles of the Blessed Virgin Teresa made to our Most Holy Lord Pope Paul V by the deputed auditors of the Sacred Rota for the solemn canonization. Then after the canonization, in the year 1625, the same little work was reprinted at Paris, with some additions, as also in the year 1628 at Vienna in Austria, the title being changed in this way: Authentic Acts of the canonization of the holy Virgin and Mother Teresa of Jesus, Foundress of the Reform of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel. Its text also, but somewhat curtailed, Fr. Daniel de la Virgen María inserted in his Speculum Carmelitanum (vol. II, page 684 and following). That little work contains 1° two reports, one on the miracles, the other on the virtues; 2° the oration of G. B. Mellini, which I mentioned above; 3° the reply of Giovanni Ciampoli, domestic apostolic secretary, by order of Gregory XV; 4° the votes of several Cardinals and prelates,
who in the semi-public consistory of the 23rd of February 1622 demanded of the Most Holy Lord the canonization of Blessed Teresa; 5° a brief report of the ceremonies which were held at the solemnity of her canonization on the 12th of March 1622; 6° the decree of canonization pronounced by Gregory XV on that day; and 7° the Bull of canonization, which was published on the same day.
[1078] and it is praised: Now the two Reports contained there in the first place are so excellent that the editor of the Acts did not hesitate to prefix these words to his little book: The first of these Reports is exceedingly (that is, very) learned, since it is illustrated by various passages of the Sacred Page (and those duly adduced), is adorned with many decrees of law, and is supported by the sayings of grave authors, not only of jurists and historiographers, but also of the princes of the healing art, namely Hippocrates, Galen, Avicenna, while it treats of illnesses miraculously cured, which otherwise would not have yielded to natural remedies. But the second Report, which comes nearer to theological questions, is so emulous of the style of St. Thomas that, having read it, you would say you had listened to the Angelic Doctor himself. Hence those more experienced in the affairs of the curia and the apostolic attendants say that, with the exception of one Report only, which is that of the Seraphic Bonaventure, no other more excellent has yet been seen than this which treats of our Seraphic Teresa. The same editor also rightly notes that that little compendium, which has been put together from many thousands of leaves of which the processes of canonization consist, is to be greatly valued on account of the gravity of the matter, on account of the authority of the speakers and on account of the dignity of the hearer; since as to the first, he says, the canonization of Saints pertains to matters of faith, which among all grave things is the gravest; and as to the second, it is the speech of the judges of the Roman Rota, gathering true things through the depositions of many witnesses juridically received; and finally as to the third, it is the very supreme head of the Church, who is to give the definition chiefly on this. Nor was there one author of those Reports, but three: namely the archbishop of Damascus Francesco Sacrati, G. B. Coccini and Alfonso Manzanedo de Quiñones; who were auditors of the Sacred Rota, and had had instructions to write these Reports.
[1079] and it is said why the Report on the miracles comes first. It will perhaps seem strange that here, contrary to the customary usage, the Report on the miracles precedes the Report on the virtues. But the reason for the inverted order has already been indicated in part in that place which I cited above (no. 1067) from Benedict XIV: and that reason will become still more clear from the completion of that passage, which I now present, and which sounds thus: These things, continues Benedict, are contained in the first volume of the Acts (the manuscript ones, namely, existing in the convent of St. Anne in the City). But now, passing to the second, which was begun to be composed by the aforesaid Paolo Mucanzio, but was completed and subscribed by Pietro Ciamarico, his successor in the office of secretary, there is contained in it: first, that, the judgment having been given by the auditors of the Rota on the validity of the processes and on the virtues, but the Report having been issued only on the miracles, the Supreme Pontiff ordered that they issue a Report, as indeed it was issued, on the validity of the processes and on the virtues; second, that, with prior counsel of the Sacred Congregation, Pope Paul V assented to the requests for the extension of the Office and Mass to other places not comprehended in the first grant; third, that, new petitions for canonization having supervened, and the supreme Pontificate having passed to Gregory XV through the death of Paul V, and Cardinal Muti having been substituted in place of Cardinal Lancellotti, the ponent of the cause, who had meanwhile died, it was enjoined on the same Cardinal Muti diligently to examine the processes, so that in one congregation the validity of the processes should be treated, in another the holiness of life, and in a third the miracles: as indeed was done, a juridical information being presented to each Cardinal on each of the said subjects which was treated of in the aforesaid congregations; which indeed having been favourably resolved, at length they came to the canonization. Then the most learned Pontiff adds this memorable annotation: And so from what has been said so far (unless we are mistaken) it is gathered to evidence that formerly, in the passage from beatification to canonization, all those things were examined again which had been discussed and approved before beatification; but that this is not in usage today, but in the passage from beatification to canonization only those miracles are examined which have supervened after beatification. But before I present to the reader that printed synopsis of the authentic Acts, it will not be out of place to set first an index of the chief witnesses who were heard in the informations preliminary to the beatification. This index our manuscript Summary on the life and virtues of St. Teresa supplies to me: yet I shall insert into it some other witnesses, who become known to me from another manuscript Summary, used in the Sacred Rota for the canonization of the holy Mother in the year 1615, in which there is treatment especially of her gift of prophecy and grace of discernment of spirits.
[1080] The chief witnesses are alleged from the remissorial processes, at Ávila, Witnesses of Ávila, from the remissorial process:
II. Don Luis Pacheco de Espinosa, nobleman and regidor of the city of Ávila, and lord of the town of San Bartolomé de Corneja, aged 60 and more.
III. Don Diego de Bracamonte y Ávila, canon of the church of Ávila, aged 60.
IV. Don Gil González de Villalba, nobleman and regidor of the city of Ávila, aged 61.
V. Diego de Mejía, inhabitant of the city of Ávila, alcaide of the Alcázar, aged 45.
VI. Doctor Pedro de Tablares, archdeacon of the church of Ávila, aged 60.
VII. The Reverend Fr. Antonio Romero of the Order of St. Benedict, prior of the convent of Our Lady of La Antigua of the city of Ávila, aged 47.
X. Don Gabriel Pacheco, nobleman and regidor of the city of Ávila, aged 32.
XI. Don Captain Francisco de Valderrábano, nobleman of the city of Ávila, aged 67.
XVI. Don Licentiate Juan Fernández Porcel, nobleman of the town of Osuna, chief alcalde of the city of Ávila, aged 50.
XIX. The Reverend Fr. Alonso de Velasco of the Order of St. Bernard, aged 64.
XX. Doña Petronila de Guzmán, noblewoman of Ávila, aged 66.
XXIV. The Reverend Fr. Juan de Herrera of the Society of Jesus, aged 43.
XXVII. Lorenza de Velasco, inhabitant of Ávila, aged 44.
XXXI. Doña Isabel de Vivero of the Order of St. Bernard, aged 45.
XXXIX. Doña Teresa de Flechilla of the Order of St. Bernard, aged 64.
XLI. Doña Francisca Coronel of the Order of St. Clare, aged 45.
XLII. Doña Mencía Roberto, Calced Carmelite, prioress of the convent of the Incarnation, aged 60.
XLIII. Doña María Coronel, Calced Carmelite, aged 50.
XLIV. Doña Antonia de Guzmán, Calced Carmelite, aged 56.
XLVI. Doña Inés Quesada, Calced Carmelite, aged 90.
XLVII. Doña Catalina de Velasco, Calced Carmelite, aged 60.
XLVIII. Doña Ana María de Jesús, Calced Carmelite, aged 72.
XLIX. Mother Isabel de Santo Domingo, Discalced Carmelite, aged 73.
LI. Mother Isabel de San Juan Bautista, Discalced Carmelite, aged 58.
LIV. Mother Ana de los Ángeles, Discalced Carmelite, aged 46.
LV. Mother Petronila de San Juan Bautista, Discalced Carmelite, aged 70.
LX. Mother Teresa de Jesús, Discalced Carmelite, aged 44.
LXV. The Most Reverend Don Lorenzo Otaduy y Avendaño, bishop of Ávila.
[1081] at Salamanca, at Alba, Witnesses of Salamanca and Alba, from the remissorial process of Salamanca:
I. The Reverend Fr. Diego de Guevara of the Order of St. Augustine, visitor of the province of Castile, aged 43, examined at Salamanca.
IV. The Reverend Fr. Agustín Antolínez of the Order of St. Augustine, master in sacred theology of the university of Salamanca, holder of the prime chair, aged 52, examined in the same place.
VI. The Reverend Fr. Dionisio Jubero, Calced Carmelite, master in sacred theology of the university of Salamanca, professor emeritus, provincial of his Order, aged 51, examined in the same place.
XII. Mother Elena del Santísimo Sacramento of the Discalced Order of St. Augustine, subprioress, aged 50, examined in the same place.
XIX. Doctor Alonso de Contreras Ribadeneira, priest of the city of Salamanca, commissary of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, aged 67, examined in the same place.
XXV. Master Baltasar de Céspedes, holder of the prime chair of Latinity and of Greek letters of the university of Salamanca, aged 59, examined in the same place.
XXVIII. The Reverend Fr. Blas Ponce de León of the Order of St. Augustine, master in sacred theology in the university of Salamanca and substitute professor in the prime chair of sacred theology, aged 39, examined in the same place.
XXXV. The Reverend Fr. Gregorio de Lescano of the Order of St. Bernard, abbot of the college of St. Vincent, aged 44, examined in the same place.
XXXVII. The Reverend Fr. Bartolomé Sánchez, Calced Carmelite, master in sacred theology, dean of the university of Salamanca, professor emeritus, provincial of his Order, aged 67, examined in the same place.
XXXVIII. Mother Beatriz del Santísimo Sacramento, Discalced Carmelite, prioress of the convent of Salamanca, aged 42, examined in the same place.
XL. Mother Inés de Jesús, Discalced Carmelite, aged 57, examined at Alba.
XLI. Mother Mariana de la Encarnación, Discalced Carmelite, aged 56, examined in the same place in the year 1592 and again afterwards.
XLII. Mother Isabel de Jesús, Discalced Carmelite, aged more than 40, examined in the same place.
XLIII. Mother Catalina de San Ángelo, Discalced Carmelite, aged 60, examined in the same place.
XLIV. Mother Ana de San Jerónimo, Discalced Carmelite, aged 50, examined in the same place.
XLVII. Mother María de San Francisco, Discalced Carmelite, aged 63, examined in the same place.
XLVIII. Mother Constanza de los Ángeles, Discalced Carmelite, aged 47, examined in the same place.
XLIX. Mother Catalina de San Juan Bautista, Discalced Carmelite, aged more than 60, examined in the same place.
L. Mother Ana de San Esteban, Discalced Carmelite, aged 40, examined in the same place.
LI. Mother Isabel de San José, Discalced Carmelite, aged 50, examined in the same place.
LVII. Don Marcos González, public notary, aged 55, examined in the same place.
LXIV. Don Francisco de Medina Vasco, governor of the town of Alba, aged 70, examined in the same place.
LXXXIV. The Reverend Fr. Simón de Feria of the Order of St. Jerome, aged 70, examined at Salamanca.
XCVII. Doña Isabel Benavides Bazán, inhabitant of Salamanca, aged 33, examined in the same place.
C. Mother Isabel de Jesús, Discalced Carmelite, aged 71, examined in the same place.
CII. Mother Juana de Jesús, Discalced Carmelite, aged 60, examined in the same place.
CVII. Mother Beatriz de la Encarnación, Discalced Carmelite, aged 45, examined in the same place.
CVIII. The Reverend Fr. Pedro de Cornejo, Calced Carmelite, master in sacred theology of the university of Salamanca, and professor of theology, aged 44, examined in the same place.
CXXI. The Reverend Fr. Blas de San Alberto, Discalced Carmelite, aged 58, examined in the same place.
[1082] at Madrid and other Witnesses of Madrid, from the first part of the remissorial process of Toledo:
I. The Reverend Fr. Bartolomé Pérez de Nueros of the Society of Jesus, provincial of the province of Castile, aged 61.
VII. Don Juan de Idiáquez, knight of the habit of Santiago and grand commander of León, of His Majesty's council of state and president of the royal council of the Orders, aged 60.
IX. Don Juan Fernández de Velasco, commander of military affairs (commonly condestable) of the kingdom of Castile, president
of the royal council of Italy, aged 53.
XI. Don Antonio Álvarez de Toledo y Beaumont, duke of Alba and Huéscar, commander of military affairs of the kingdom of Navarre, count of Lerín and marquis of Coria, aged 30.
XII. Doña Mencía de Mendoza, duchess of Alba, aged 30.
XIII. Don Juan Hurtado de Mendoza de Luna y la Vega, duke del Infantado, aged 25 and more.
XIV. Doña Ana de Mendoza de Luna y la Vega, duchess del Infantado, aged 25.
XVI. The Most Reverend Don Pedro Manso, patriarch of the Indies, president of the royal council, aged 47.
XVII. Magdalena de San Jerónimo, lady of the chamber of the Most Serene Infanta, aged 60.
XVIII. The Reverend Fr. Francisco del Barrio, Calced Carmelite, preacher, and master of novices, aged 39.
XXIII. The Reverend Fr. Luis Ruiz Caballero, Calced Carmelite, prior of the convent of Madrid and procurator general at the court of the Spains, confessor of the holy Mother, aged 64.
XXVII. Don Tomás Gracián Dantisco, secretary of languages of His Majesty, aged 50.
XXXVIII. The Reverend Fr. Luis de Valdivia of the Society of Jesus, aged 46.
XL. The Most Reverend Don Alonso Enríquez de Toledo, bishop of Medina-Sidonia, aged 54.
XLIV. Doña María de Corella y Mendoza, countess of La Puebla, aged 48.
XLV. Doña Mencía de la Cerda, marchioness del Valle, aged 25 and more.
XLVI. Don Diego de Castro, cleric in minor orders, native of Monforte de Lemos, aged 26.
XLVIII. Don Francisco Gómez de Sandoval, duke of Lerma, prefect of the royal chamber (commonly sumiller de corps) and master of the horse of His Majesty, aged 58.
Witnesses of Toledo, from the same first part:
IV. Mother Teresa de la Concepción, Discalced Carmelite, aged 61.
XIII. The Reverend Fr. Alonso Peláez, Calced Carmelite, aged 42.
Witnesses of Consuegra, from the same first part:
I. Mother María de San José, Discalced Carmelite, aged 48.
II. Mother María de la Encarnación, Discalced Carmelite, aged 48.
III. Mother Francisca de las Llagas, Discalced Carmelite, aged 48.
Witnesses of Malagón, from the same first part:
II. Mother Isabel de la Ascensión, Discalced Carmelite, subprioress, aged 38.
III. Mother María de las Vírgenes, Discalced Carmelite, aged 60.
Witness of Calahorra and La Calzada, from the second part of the same process:
I. The Most Reverend Don Pedro Manso de Zúñiga, bishop of Calahorra and La Calzada, confessor of the holy Mother, aged 68.
Witness of Zaragoza, from the same second part:
I. Mother Catalina de la Concepción, Discalced Carmelite, aged 80, examined in the year 1595.
Witness of Tarazona, from the same second part:
I. The Most Reverend Don Diego de Yepes, bishop of Tarazona, confessor of the holy Mother, aged 70 and more, examined in the year 1595 and again afterwards.
Witnesses of Segovia, from the same second part:
I. The Most Reverend Don Pedro de Castro, bishop of Segovia, confessor of the holy Mother, aged 60, examined in the year 1596 and again afterwards.
XX. Mother Inés de Jesús, Discalced Carmelite, prioress of the convent of Segovia, aged 50.
[1083] examined in several places; Witnesses of Burgos, from the same second part:
II. The Reverend Fr. Juan de Miranda of the Order of St. Augustine, preacher and lector in theology of the city of Burgos, aged 48.
III. Don Pedro de Heredia, abbot of San Quirce, dignitary of the church of Burgos, aged 63.
VI. Don Andrés de Melgosa, chief standard-bearer of the city of Burgos, aged 58.
VIII. The Reverend Fr. Francisco de Astudillo of the Carthusian Order, prior of the house of Miraflores.
IX. The Reverend Fr. Antonio de Molina of the Carthusian Order, theologian, prior of the said house, aged 52.
XIII. The Reverend Fr. Juan de Medina of the Order of Preachers, prior of the convent of St. Paul at Burgos, apostolic visitor of the province of Quito in the Indies, aged 60.
XVIII. Doctor Juan Oliva, canon of the church of Burgos, priest and physician, aged 60.
XXXVI. The Most Reverend Don Alonso Manrique, archbishop of Burgos.
XXXVII. The Reverend Fr. Melchor Rodríguez of the Order of Our Lady of Mercy, formerly commander and definitor of his Order, aged 52.
Witness of Valera, from the third part of the same process:
IV. Mother Inés de la Cruz, Discalced Carmelite, aged 51.
Witness of Alcalá, from the same third part:
VI. Mother Josefa de la Encarnación, Discalced Carmelite.
Witnesses of Valladolid, from the same third part:
II. Doctor Francisco Méndez de la Puebla, of His Majesty's council, and his auditor in the royal chancery of Valladolid, aged 49.
VII. Mother Francisca de Jesús, Discalced Carmelite, aged 48.
IX. Mother María de San Juan Bautista, Discalced Carmelite, aged 52.
XII. Don Antonio de Quiñones, count of Luna, aged 39.
XVII. Doña María de Toledo, the elder duchess of Alba, aged 54, also examined at Piedrahíta in the year 1595.
XXII. Mother Estefanía de los Apóstoles, Discalced Carmelite, aged 58.
María de San Juan Bautista had already been examined in the year 1595; in which year also there were brought in as witnesses:
I. The Reverend Fr. Ángel de Salazar, Calced Carmelite, confessor of the holy Mother, aged 70.
II. Doctor Diego de Polanco, physician, aged 50.
Witness of Málaga, from the fourth part of the same process:
V. Mother Catalina de Jesús, Discalced Carmelite, aged 64.
Next to her in our manuscript is subjoined the Most Reverend Don Juan de Orozco y Covarrubias de Leiva, bishop of Cádiz, of His Majesty's council, who in a letter written to the General of the Carmelites gave testimony of the spirit of prophecy with which the holy Mother was endowed (as we saw at no. 606).
Witnesses of Granada, from the same fourth part:
III. Doctor Baltasar de Lorenzana, of His Majesty's council, president of the royal chancery of Granada, aged 59.
IV. Don Gaspar de Vallejo, licentiate, of His Majesty's council, auditor in the royal audiencia of Granada, aged 50.
VI. Mother Beatriz de San Miguel, Discalced Carmelite, prioress of the convent of Granada, aged 62.
VII. Mother Ana de la Encarnación, Discalced Carmelite, aged 55.
XXI. Don Bartolomé Manrique del Prado, licentiate, of His Majesty's council and auditor in the royal audiencia of Granada, aged 50.
Witnesses of Medina, from the same fourth part:
VII. Mother Inés de Jesús, Discalced Carmelite, aged 40.
XI. Mother Juana de Jesús, Discalced Carmelite, aged 46.
XVIII. Mother Ana del Santísimo Sacramento, Discalced Carmelite, aged 55.
XXI. Mother María de San Francisco, Discalced Carmelite, aged 64, examined in the year 1595 and again afterwards.
[1084] likewise some witnesses from the compulsorial processes. Witnesses of Piedrahíta and Ávila, from the compulsorial process of Ávila:
I. The Reverend Fr. Diego de Yanguas of the Order of Preachers, confessor of the holy Mother, aged 56, examined at Piedrahíta in the year 1595.
II. Doña María de Toledo, the elder duchess of Alba, aged 40, examined in the same place in the year 1595, and again afterwards at Valladolid, as has been noted above.
V. Mother Ana de San Bartolomé, Discalced Carmelite, companion of the holy Mother, aged 44, examined at Ávila in the year 1596.
VI. Mother Beatriz de Jesús, Discalced Carmelite, aged 49, examined in the same place in the year 1596.
IX. Mother Teresa de Jesús, Discalced Carmelite, examined in the same place in the year 1595, and again afterwards.
X. The Reverend Fr. Julián de Ávila, priest, confessor of the holy Mother, examined in the same place in the year 1596, and again in the year 1604 as fifth witness.
XII. Doña Quiteria Dávila, Calced Carmelite, companion of the holy Mother, aged 56, examined in the same place in the year 1595.
Witnesses of Salamanca and Alba, from the compulsorial process of Salamanca:
I. The Reverend Fr. Domingo Báñez of the Order of Preachers, master in sacred theology and professor emeritus of the prime chair in the university of Salamanca, confessor of the holy Mother, aged 64, examined at Salamanca in the year 1595.
II. The Reverend Fr. Francisco Ribera of the Society of Jesus, aged 56, examined in the same place in the year 1595.
III. The Reverend Fr. Enrique Enríquez of the Society of Jesus, confessor of the holy Mother, aged 55, examined in the same place in the year 1595.
IV. Mother Ana de la Encarnación, Discalced Carmelite, aged 56, examined in the same place.
V. Mother Isabel de Jesús, Discalced Carmelite, aged 48, examined in the same place in the year 1595.
VII. Mother María de los Santos, Discalced Carmelite, aged 41, examined in the same place.
X. Mother Juana de Jesús, Discalced Carmelite, examined in the same place.
XIV. Mother Mariana de Jesús, Discalced Carmelite, aged 22, examined at Alba in the year 1592.
XVIII. Mother Juana del Espíritu Santo, Discalced Carmelite, aged 50, examined in the same place in the year 1592.
XXII. Mother Isabel de la Cruz, Discalced Carmelite, aged 49, examined in the same place in the year 1592.
XXVII. Doña Francisca de Fonseca of the Order of St. Francis, aged 50, examined in the same place in the year 1592.
XXX. Don Antonio de Zamora, priest, chaplain of the monastery of the Discalced Carmelites at Alba, examined in the same place in the year 1592.
Witnesses of Madrid and of Toledo, from the compulsorial process of Toledo:
I. Mother Jerónima del Espíritu Santo, Discalced Carmelite, examined at Madrid in the year 1595.
IV. The Reverend Fr. Fernando de Medina, Calced Carmelite, prior of the convent of Toledo, aged 52, examined in the year 1596.
X. The Reverend Fr. Gil González de Ávila of the Society of Jesus, confessor of the holy Mother, aged 63, examined at Madrid in the year 1595.
XIII. The Reverend Fr. Juan de Aguilar of the Society of Jesus, confessor of the holy Mother, aged 55, examined at Madrid in the year 1595.
Witness of Lisbon, from the same process:
I. Mother María de San José, Discalced Carmelite, aged 47.
Witness of Malagón, from the same process:
VII. Don Gaspar de Villanueva, licentiate, parish priest of the town of Malagón, confessor of the holy Mother, aged 48, examined in the year 1596.
§ LVIII. The first Report of the Auditors of the Rota made to Pope Paul V: on miracles in general: on three miracles in the life of Teresa, Servant of God, and on others at her death.
BY THE AUDITORS OF THE ROTA.
AUTHENTIC ACTS OF THE CANONIZATION OF ST. TERESA.
By very many miracles Most Blessed Father. It is of certain law that for the canonization of Saints it must be established before all things by clear and perspicuous proofs concerning the life, virtues and holiness of the one to be canonized, and concerning the miracles worked by God through his intercession, according to the rite of the Holy Roman Church and the sanctions of the Sacred Canons: as the text proves (and the doctors there) in chapter 1, de Reliquiis et Veneratione Sanctorum; and the commonly approved Gloss, on the word "Sedis Apostolicæ", in chapter 1 of the same title in the Sext; Hostiensis on the said chapter 1, no. 5, verse "Oportet etiam", and there Johannes Andreæ, no. 4; the same Hostiensis in the Summa under the title de Reliquiis et veneratione Sanctorum, no. 3, verse "Item quærendum est de miraculis"; Silvester in the Summa under the word "Canonizatio", no. 1, question 2, verse "Inquiritur etiam"; Bellamera on the chapter "Venerabilis", no. 2, verse "Quarto nota", de testibus; the Archdeacon on the said chapter 1, no. 5, and on the chapter "Nec mirum",
no. 6, 26, question 5; Troilus Malvetius in the treatise de Canonizatione Sanctorum, doubt 3, no. 1 and following, and no. 73, verse "Sed dato"; and Castellus in the same treatise, principal question 4, and question 5, verse "Quinto necessaria esse"; Cassaneus in the Catalogus gloriæ mundi, part 3, consideration 50; Pavinus in the Report on the canonization of Blessed Bonaventure, part 1, articles 8 and 9, and quite often in the canonizations of other Saints. So the auditors of the Rota held, who examined the processes and acts of those and reported to the Most Holy Father.
[1086] St. Teresa But since concerning the life, virtues and outstanding holiness of the Servant of God, the Virgin Mother Teresa of Jesus, and concerning the credit to be given to the processes and acts constructed concerning her, it has already been discussed and resolved affirmatively by the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Cardinals of the Sacred Congregation of Rites (as befitted the excellence of the life of so great and so holy a Virgin), and indeed reported to Your Holiness, and it only remained to come to the miracles and to discuss them and their proofs, and only this was given and committed to us in instructions by Your Holiness, therefore, obeying the same precept, we have treated and discussed this last part, and thus the miracles worked by God Himself through the intercession of this Servant of God and announced to the world, with what diligence we could; and the things which concern the aforesaid miracles, both in general and in particular, both in life and in her most happy passing and after it, at various times and on various occasions, gathered with what brevity we could, we have here appended to be reported to Your Holiness.
[1087] both in life and in death And although there is no doubt that for canonization there is no need to prove miracles done in the life of the one to be canonized, but it suffices that it be established concerning those done after his death (as St. Thomas holds and teaches this opinion, 2. 2, question 178, article 2, in the body of the article, verse "Secundo autem modo", and Pavinus as above, parts 2 and 3, and Cassaneus as above, part 3, consideration 49, at the beginning, and so it was confirmed in the canonization of St. Raymond, part 2, article 7, verse "Non licet", where are adduced the words of the Diploma of Innocent III of happy memory concerning the canonization of St. Homobonus of Cremona confirming this same thing; as the Report in the canonization of St. Hyacinth the Pole embraces the same opinion, page 34, verse "Præmissis addimus", and the following page), nevertheless, since almighty God had chosen this His Servant Teresa of Jesus to found the Reform of the Most Holy Order of the Discalced Friars and nuns of Holy Mary of Mount Carmel, from which so many most abundant fruits were to come to the Catholic Church and to all the faithful throughout the whole world (as evident and notorious experience after the fact has taught that she was to be the Foundress and as it were Patriarch of so great and so perfect and sublime an Order), as He deigned to endow her with so many heroic and excellent virtues and so great a spirit, and to inflame her breast and heart with the most ardent love of God Himself, so too by His mercy He decreed to adorn her even while living and to illustrate her with miracles, and to manifest her holiness to the world. Hence we have thought it fitting to begin with the miracles done in the life of this Servant of God. Yet, that due order may be kept, and that we may begin with universals, and so be able better to come to particulars, before all things it will be worth while to demonstrate that it is sufficiently proved in general that almighty God worked many miracles through the intercession of His Servant Teresa; and afterwards to come to some of them particularly and in specie, and to divide this Report into four chief articles. The first on miracles in general, the second on miracles in life, the third on the death of Teresa, Servant of God, and the miracles at it, the fourth on miracles after death.
[1088] to have shone First article. In this place one might not unfittingly presuppose what a miracle is, and its four requisites, and assign two grades of miracles according to the opinion of the canonists, but three according to the sense of the theologians; and whether their operation ought to be instantaneous, or whether being caused after an interval detracts something from the miracle, and how miracles are proved by indirect proof, since they cannot be proved directly and through true principles and causes. Nevertheless, both consulting brevity, and also because all the aforesaid things are discussed with particular study and at length both in St. Thomas and in Hostiensis, the Archdeacon and the others related above, and have been noted in particular by the auditors of the Rota in various Reports on the canonizations of Saints (as in the Report on St. Francis of Paola made by Giacomo Simonetta, auditor of the same Rota, and in that on St. Raymond, article four, on the nature of miracles and their quality, and in another on St. Frances, part 3, article 1, on miracles in general), hence, these things being omitted on purpose, we say it is sufficiently proved that through the intercession of the Servant of God Teresa of Jesus, both in her life and in death and after death, almighty God worked very many miracles everywhere on earth, and that several and almost all the witnesses, to be referred to below in this Report on the miracles, depose clearly and in express words, and not a few of them affirming also from public voice and fame; to whom are added the writers who up to now have put her life into writing; such as the Most Reverend Lord Diego de Yepes of the Order of St. Jerome, confessor of His Catholic Majesty Philip II, and afterwards bishop of Tarazona, in the book on the Life of this Servant of God, in the prologue of book 4, fols. 2 and 3; Father Doctor Francisco Ribera of the Society of Jesus, who committed to print a book of the same Life, book 5, chapter 8, fol. 333; Father Master Luis de León of the Order of St. Augustine, professor of Sacred Scripture in the university of Salamanca, in a certain dedicatory letter for the beginning of the books written by the Servant of God herself, about the middle; Tommaso Bozio, in the book on the signs of the Church of God, vol. 1, book 12, chapter 23, fol. 569; Father Fr. Juan de Jesús María of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, then procurator general, but now Prepositor General of the Congregation of Italy, in the book which he published on the same life, book 5, chapter 4, on miracles.
[1089] it is most certainly established. Which things are confirmed from various and many letters directed more than once to Your Holiness and to Pope Clement VIII of happy memory, urgently and suppliantly demanding the enrolment of this Servant of God in the number of the Saints: such as are the letters of the Catholic king Philip III and of the queen his wife; likewise also the letters of the archbishop of Tarragona and of the bishops suffragan to him, dispatched in the Council of Tarragona; to which are added the letters of the archbishop of Burgos and the archbishop of Valencia and the archbishop of Mexico, and of the bishops of Ávila, Salamanca, Cuenca, Palencia, Valladolid and Tarazona, besides those of very many other prelates of almost all Spain, which are omitted for brevity; moreover also the letters of the congregation of the metropolitan and cathedral churches of the kingdoms of Castile and León; nay also the letters of the distinguished universities of Salamanca and Alcalá; and also the letters of the kingdom of Castile and of León; and the letters of the kingdom of Aragon; then also the letters of the kingdom of Portugal; likewise also the letters of the lordship of the province of Cantabria; and others of the most excellent duke of Lerma and of other grandees, and also of very many churches, chapters and cities of the very kingdom of the Spains. Almost all of whom testify concerning the miracles worked by Him through the intercession of this Servant of God both in life and in death, and concerning their fame, besides the virtue and holiness of Mother Teresa herself. For as, as long as she lived, she propagated the glory of God with manly daring, with a manly heart, so God Himself, most clement, mercifully deigned that she be honoured and illustrated with miracles in the whole world, praised in the writings and discourses of most weighty men, commended to Your Holiness by the wishes and supplications of princes and kings.
[1090] Among the miracles of the Saint while living stand out: Second article. First miracle in life. It happened that, when in the year 1580 the Servant of God, the Virgin Teresa of Jesus, had betaken herself to the place of Villanueva de la Jara of the diocese of Cuenca, to found there the convent of St. Anne, whose foundation nine devout poor women, living there recollected, were awaiting with the highest desire, and when in the month of February of the said year she had already come to Villanueva, she put the desired end to the said foundation and to them, together with six other professed nuns, selected and brought for this purpose from other monasteries of the same Order; and the same Servant of God there clothed those nine devout women with the habit of the Order and stayed with them for some days. But when the time of her departure arrived, and seeing the nuns of the said monastery afflicted because they were remaining in a poor town and in a monastery altogether undowered and having nothing at all in revenues whence so many nuns and the necessary maids and servants could be fed, she consoled them thus, promising them in the name of our Lord God almighty that, if they lived religiously, nothing would ever be lacking to them. Which promise she ratified again after a year had passed, on the occasion when the aforesaid nuns informed her by letter that the time had come when those nine novices were to make profession; yet they doubted what was to be done, given the extreme poverty of the said monastery. To whom the Servant of God, being at Palencia, attending to the foundation of the convent of that city, wrote back: that profession should be given to the said novices, and that in the name of the Most Holy Trinity, on whose Sunday she was writing that letter, she promised them that nothing of necessaries would be lacking to them, if they led a religious life. This letter having been received and read by the nuns, with the greatest confidence in God, through the intercession of Teresa, Servant of God, their Mother in Christ, they gave profession to the said novices; and they made it eagerly.
[1091] 1° In the monastery of Villanueva The fulfilment of which promise continual experience through the times has taught; since thereafter nothing necessary was ever lacking to the said nuns: nay more, besides their suitable sustenance and support in all necessary things, and the alms which they frequently gave to the poor, they built a sumptuous church, and acquired four hundred ducats in annual revenues. All of which they always attributed to the divine mercy and to the word and promise of this Servant of God and their Mother. Concerning which fulfilment of the said word and promise in general, and as specified above, five witnesses, nuns of the same monastery, depose: namely Elvira de San Ángelo on the forty-sixth, fol. 1257; Constanza de la Cruz on the forty-sixth article, fol. 1284; Lucía de Santa Ana on the eighty-eighth article, fol. 1272; Catalina de San Ángelo
on the eighty-eighth article, fol. 1275; and Ana de San Agustín on the eighty-eighth, of the remissorial of Toledo, affirming that they had seen the aforesaid things happen thus over the space of thirty years, and three of these having been present at the said promise of Mother Teresa.
[1092] in a time of grave scarcity But in particular it is proved that in the first year and at the very threshold of the said foundation, and after the first promise made by the Virgin and Mother Teresa to the said nuns, there occurred in that town of Villanueva a certain notable and extreme dearth, so that neither for prayer nor for price could wheat be found, nor did the nuns have money with which to buy it, nor could the inhabitants of that place in any way help them, as indeed they did not help them, nor did they have other alms for the six months during which this dearth lasted; but at the time of the dearth and scarcity of wheat, namely in February, when it began, they had in a certain bin eight or nine measures of flour (in Spanish fanegas), which by no means sufficed them for a single month, since they needed ten measures every month for feeding thirteen or fourteen nuns and two maids, who served them outside the enclosure, and two Friars, who assisted them almost through the whole time of that dearth. During all which time a fitting, accustomed and suitable portion of bread was distributed every day to the aforesaid nuns and servants, and likewise an alms of bread was dispensed to the poor with a generous hand; for supplying which at least sixty measures of wheat were necessary for the said six months, from what has been explained above.
[1093] a multiplication of flour, Nevertheless almighty God, who across the sea of Galilee satisfied about five thousand men from five barley loaves and two fishes, and from the fragments which remained over twelve baskets were filled (John chapter 6), and again in the wilderness with seven loaves and a few small fishes filled about four thousand men, seven hampers of fragments remaining over (Mark 8), the same merciful God, wonderful in His Saints, did not permit these devout nuns to experience it in so great a dearth, nor in any way to be defrauded of the word given and promised to them in the name of the same Deity by their Mother, the Virgin Teresa of Jesus; and so, in virtue and entire fulfilment of the same word and pledged faith of the Servant of God, He mercifully wrought that those eight or nine measures of flour were so multiplied in the aforesaid bin that from them alone the whole above-mentioned household of this monastery was sufficiently fed, and an alms of bread was generously distributed to the poor frequently coming to the monastery throughout the said six months: so that, when flour was taken out of the said bin, it seemed not to diminish but to be multiplied. Which all the nuns held to be a manifest miracle, and several gave thanks to God for it, and to this very day it is called the bin of the miracle.
[1094] which, by the ... of several nuns, This fact is proved by the above-mentioned five nuns of the same monastery as eyewitnesses; and among them is Ana de San Agustín, who at that time had the care of providing for the monastery, nay, was also its keeper of the keys: who affirms with the others that the monastery had no other alms during the said space of time. And all conclude excellently the above-mentioned fact with the circumstances narrated in it. Nor is anything subtracted from the credit of these witnesses as being nuns of the same Order; nay, they are deemed competent on many grounds, from the general rule that witnesses from a corporation are admitted to give testimony for it when their singular advantage is not concerned. Baldus on the chapter "Insuper", no. 3, and there Felinus, no. 1, verse "Est enim regula", de testibus; the same Baldus on the chapter "Cum nuntius", same title, in the 1st notable, and there Butrio, no. 3, and Conradus, in his praxis, §2, de testibus, rubric "Personas testium aggrediendo", no. 55, delivers it as the common opinion, many being cited. Which rule applies more in religious, both monks and nuns: the Gloss on the Authentic de monachis, at § "Cogitandum", and the Gloss on l. idonei, ff. de testibus; Baldus on the chapter "Tertio loco", no. 4, on the word "Fratres", de probationibus; Decius, consilium 62, at the beginning; Afflictis, decision 400, no. 2, verse "Et ideo monachus"; Francesco Curzio de testibus, conclusion 4 after no. 15; and speaking of nuns, Mandellus delivers it, consilium 50, no. 25.
[1095] truthful There concurs also the very great religion and holiness of life and perfection of these nuns, from which they are presumed much more to have spoken the truth under oath, and so they are more easily admitted to testify for their Order, from what is noted on the said chapter "Insuper", and there Felinus, no. 1; Butrio, notable 1; Decius, no. 20, and the same Decius on the said chapter "Tertio loco", no. 10, where it is the common opinion, as Vivius attests of it, Communes opiniones, conclusion 954, beginning "Testes de collegio", verse "Interpretatur quoque". Further, because, since these nuns depose concerning things done within the cloisters of the monastery, and which cannot be proved by others from outside, their depositions are admitted, according to the text in the chapter "Veniens" (il secondo) de testibus, and there Baldus, no. 9, and the doctors commonly note it, and the text in the chapter "Super prudentia", at "Qui eadem negotia tractaverunt", where the great Gloss on the word "Tractaverunt", 14, question 2; the Abbot on the said chapter "Insuper", no. 2; Decius, nos. 14 and 25; the Gloss on the said chapter "Tertio loco", on the word "Jurati", verse "Et merito"; where also the Abbot, no. 5; and Felinus, no. 3, towards the middle; and Imola before the first number; and Butrio, no. 1; Baldus, no. 7; Bartolus on l. "In tantum", § "Universitati", no. 1, de rerum divisione; Menochius de Arbitrariis, book 2, case 106, no. 1; and so the auditors of the Rota held in the canonization of St. Frances, part 1, article 7, verse "Nec referre".
[1096] and legitimate testimony is proved, Nor can the depositions of the said nuns any more be impugned on the ground that they were examined without the licence of the superior, against the disposition of the text in the chapter "Quamquam", 14, question 2. For the contrary, and that such depositions hold, is affirmed by the Abbot on the chapter "Cum nuntius", no. 4; and there Felinus, no. 3, verse "Si tamen testificarentur", de testibus; the same Abbot, chapter 1, de juramento calumniæ; the Speculator under the title de testibus, §1, nos. 23 and 26. Which the auditors of the Rota followed in the said canonization of St. Frances, said article 7, verse "Sed nec propterea"; where it was considered (as can be considered in our case) to be very likely that the said licence was present, both on account of the number of nuns examined at the instance of the superiors, who are pressing for this canonization, and because it concerns the canonization of the Mother and Foundress of their Order; from which the knowledge and licence of the superiors can sufficiently be inferred. Hence with the Abbot hold Cornaeus, consilium 135, no. 33, book 1; Guido Papa, decision 517; Silvanus, consilium 16, nos. 6 and 7. Aretinus on the said chapter "Cum nuntius", no. 11, holds that the opinion of the Abbot in the aforesaid is commonly followed. Still less does the suspicion of affection towards this cause stand in the way: for that is purged by the oath of the witness: Baldus on the said chapter "Cum nuntius", at the beginning, verse "Sed isti"; Felinus on the said chapter "Insuper", no. 1, verse "Et si dicatur", de probationibus. From which it has seemed to us sufficiently proved, both that it is in itself a very great miracle, worked through the intercession of the Servant of God Teresa of Jesus, and in virtue of the promise made by her to her nuns in the name of our Lord, that nothing would be lacking to them if they lived religiously.
[1097] and which the auditors of the Rota But to what grade and order a miracle of a multiplication of flour of this kind is to be referred, it seemed that (following St. Thomas, part 1, question 92, article 3, in the reply to the first, from whom Báñez there does not dissent, doubt 2, conclusion 4, and with whom Valentia expressly agrees in his Commentaries, vol. 1, disputation 7, question 1, point 2, objection 5), namely that a multiplication of this kind takes place (according to the more probable opinion) through the creation of new matter, which, informed with the form of flour and added to the pre-existing flour, multiplies it, it will be referred to the first grade, to which St. Thomas (who assigns and declares three grades of miracles in the said part 1, question 105, article 8, in the body, verse "Uno modo") refers acts which as to the substance of the fact itself exceed the power of the whole of created nature, such as is in the substance of its fact the act of this multiplied flour, from what has been adduced above. Nor does it stand in the way that according to the opinion of others (which Báñez reports as above) this multiplication of flour is not made by God through the creation of new matter, but through the addition of other matter already created of the same species; so that it is necessary to separate it from another body and to join it to this flour, with the corruption of the other body from which it is withdrawn. To whom let it suffice to answer that the contrary opinion is more probable, on the witness of St. Thomas as above, and of others cited who follow him.
[1098] number among the miracles of the first order, Still less does Bartolus avail, in the tractatus Testimoniorum, on the word "Qualitas", no. 56, where concerning the three grades of miracles he agrees with the theologians, and in the second example, concerning the third grade, he speaks in these words, namely: "When bread is multiplied not by the accustomed process of nature: for man can naturally make bread; but not in that order." Thus far Bartolus. By which example and the reason assigned it is clearly denoted that Bartolus did not touch the above-mentioned distinction of the theologians between the creation and the addition of new matter, nor considered the more probable opinion of St. Thomas, nor noticed that man can (as he himself says) make bread, yet from matter already created and pre-existing, but cannot multiply the selfsame quantity without the addition of new matter already pre-existing; of which addition made by man in our case it is not established, but rather the contrary. Besides which he did not consider that this addition is to be made by God, not by man, that it might be a miracle of the third grade. Hence it must be said, according to St. Thomas, that this multiplication was made by God through the creation of new matter; and thus, from what has been said above, that this work as to the substance of the fact exceeds the powers of the whole of created nature, and so pertains to the first grade, and that on this point deference is to be paid to St. Thomas rather than to Bartolus.
[1099] although according to Benedict XIV it is only of the second order; The observation of Benedict XIV must not be passed over here; who, treating of the miraculous multiplication of things and their conversion into other things (De Beatif. et Canoniz. book IV, part I, chapter XXIII, no. 5), himself also inquired into the opinion of St. Thomas, and demonstrates that it is far other than is represented here by the auditors of the Sacred Rota. Namely, in the place cited by them the holy Doctor weighs the formation of Eve from the rib of Adam; and he lays down that this formation of a greater thing from a lesser was made not by rarefaction (by which the same matter receives greater dimensions), but by addition, and that the same must be said of the loaves multiplied by the Saviour in the desert: but since addition can take place either by the creation of new matter or by the conversion of matter already existing which is added to the matter to be multiplied, he judges that conversion is more probably to be admitted than the creation of new matter; because, as he himself says elsewhere (on 2 Sent. dist. XVIII, question I, article I), the Saints commonly teach that all things were created together, at least in their matter. That this is the genuine doctrine of St. Thomas, adducing also another passage of his theological Summa (part II, question XLIV, article IV, ad 4), Benedict XIV expressly proves, and concludes his argumentation with these words: "It is a wonder … that the auditors of the Rota, who, extolling the greatness of the miracle of multiplication, would lay down nothing as to the mode, each opinion being left in its probability, as may be seen in the Report of the cause of St. Frances of Rome …, and in the Report of the cause of St. Thomas of Villanova …, in the following Reports then adhered to the opinion which in multiplication demands the creation of new matter, as may be seen in the Report of the cause of St. Teresa …, chiefly on the pretext that the opinion of the creation of new matter is the opinion of St. Thomas: whether which holds good, anyone will be able to gather without trouble from what has been set out above." It must be noted besides, what the most learned Pontiff passed over, that this erroneous opinion of the auditors of the Rota and of other theologians had its origin from a corrupt reading of the words of the Angelic Doctor, which crept into the commonly circulated editions of the Summa. For there the words are woven thus: Hence, since rarefaction does not appear in such multiplications, it is necessary to posit an addition of matter, either by creation, which is more probable, or by conversion; but Sylvius says at this place: It must be known that this … is the genuine reading: "It is necessary to posit an addition of matter, either by creation, or (which is more probable) by conversion", as can be understood from what follows, where Blessed Thomas confirms his opinion from St. Augustine, saying that "Christ satisfied five thousand men from five loaves in this manner, in which manner He produces a multitude of crops from a few grains: which (he says) is done by conversion of matter." The same reading is shown by a very ancient manuscript codex of the metropolitan church of Cambrai, and the doctrine of Blessed Thomas himself requires it, etc. Since, then, that whole argumentation by which the auditors of the Rota strive to reduce the related miracle of St. Teresa to miracles of the first grade lacks foundation, the opinion of Benedict XIV is rather to be embraced, who says that a multiplication of this kind is probably to be ascribed to miracles of the second kind (that is, those which exceed the powers of nature not as to that which is done, but as to that in which it is done) (place cited, no. 12).
[1100] 2° The healing by touch of a sick nun, Second miracle in life. Ana de la Trinidad, a nun in the convent of Medina del Campo of the diocese of Valladolid, for many years, and before she entered the monastery, suffered from an infirmity of erysipelas in the face, together with fever, and almost every year an attack of this kind befell her once or twice; and at length on the last occasion it so oppressed her that the fever was very great, and the erysipelas greatest in the nostrils, which were very swollen and thick, so that the physicians, fearing lest a cancer be generated in them, wished to make issues or setons on the said sister. And many and various remedies having been applied, yet availing nothing, the Servant of God Teresa came to that sick woman, and laying her hand on her face, said: "Do not fear, daughter; I hope that God will restore health to you." By which touch and words the infirmity at once ceased, and the patient remained healed of the erysipelas and swelling and fever, and in such a way that she was never again, while she lived, affected by this infirmity, although she afterwards lived for twenty years.
[1101] which four witnesses duly asserted, Which fact four nuns of the same monastery prove: namely the third, fifth and eighth on the eighty-fourth article, and the eleventh on the hundred and fourteenth, in the 4th part of the remissorial of Toledo. All of whom were present at the aforesaid, and the first three witnesses declare that, when Doctor Polanco, physician of the said monastery, had come to visit the said sick Sister Ana, and had found her well, he asked how the matter had gone; and the fact having been narrated to him, he affirmed that it had been a miracle, and could not have happened otherwise. Which seemed to us to be proved and to be a miracle, given the gravity of the infirmity, constant, and of so many years, and its worsening, with grave fever, and considering the very great swelling of the nostrils and the physicians' fear of a cancer being generated there, and that the erysipelas and swelling of the nostrils and the fever ceased together and instantly, only the touch of the Servant of God being applied, and that the said infirmity, previously constant, never troubled her in future. Hence not only did the infirmity and the grave attack then imminent cease; but also its cause, which worked that constancy and annual continuation.
[1102] and which among the miracles of the third order Which circumstance of health recovered in an instant most of all concerns a miracle, according to that of Matthew chapter 8, of the leper cleansed by Christ the Lord, at: "And immediately his leprosy was cleansed"; and Acts of the Apostles chapter 9, at: "And immediately he arose"; and in many other places of the Sacred Page, cited by the Archdeacon on the chapter "Nec mirum", 26, question 5, no. 8, and by Giacomo Castellani de Canonizatione, principal question 6, verse "Quæro an sit necesse", and by Troilus in the same treatise, doubt 3, nos. 24 and 26, and the auditors of the Rota have quite often noted it in various canonizations. We have weighed also the mode of working a miracle of this kind, namely by the contact of the hand of the Servant of God upon the sick woman, after the likeness of very many miracles which our Lord Jesus Christ Himself worked by Himself and by the hands of His Apostles, as is read in Mark fifth, at: "And taking the girl's hand, He said to her: Girl, I say to you, arise: and immediately she arose", and Matthew chapter 8, cited above, of the leper whom Jesus touched, stretching out His hand, and immediately he was healed, and Luke 22: "And when He had touched his ear" (namely of the servant of the chief priest), "He healed him"; and chapter 4: "All who had any sick with various diseases brought them to Him. And He, laying His hands on each, cured them." To the Apostles also, when He sent them to preach, He designated the manner in which they were to cure diseases in sign of the Gospel truth, saying: "They shall lay hands upon the sick, and they shall recover", Mark, the last chapter. And in Acts of the Apostles chapter 5 it is said: "And by the hands of the Apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people"; and chapter 3, where it is said of Blessed Peter: "And taking him by the right hand, he lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made firm." And that this mode of working miracles was communicated to the Humanity of our Most Holy Lord St. Chrysostom teaches in Homily 5 on Mark, and St. Cyril, book 2 on John, chapter 4, where, speaking of the son of the widow of Nain, he says that "Christ touched him, saying: Young man, I say to you, arise", and concludes with these words: "Not, then, by word alone (as we have said) always, but also by touch did He raise the dead; to show that His body too could give life: since by His touch alone corrupted things are restored." And on that of Luke 4: "Laying His hands on each", the same St. Cyril says: "Although, as God, He could have driven out all diseases by a word, yet He touches them, showing that His own flesh is efficacious for furnishing remedies."
[1103] is referred to the more signal; That this gift was communicated to some Saints also St. Gregory teaches in the second book of the Dialogues, chapter 30; and, as St. Thomas teaches, question 3 de malo, article 3, and 2. 2, question 83, article 1, that mode is called the more excellent mode of working miracles, because one concurs in them by power, or as a physical instrument. Since, then, God completed this miracle by the contact of the hand of His Servant, the Virgin Teresa, it is shown that He communicated His power to her; so that she co-operated with Him through a true and real action of contact, as a physical instrument: hence, although this fact, as exceeding the powers of nature as to the mode, is to be referred (as we have judged) to the third grade of those enumerated, according to St. Thomas, said part 1, question 105, article 8, in the body, verse "Tertio modo"; yet, since within that there are various grades, we have thought that this, from what has been said above, merits the more excellent grade of those contained in the third.
[1104] 3° The healing of the prioress of Medina, Third miracle in life. Mother Alberta Bautista, prioress of the same monastery of Medina del Campo, was lying in bed, seized with great pain in one side, and with very great fever, and thus suffering an infirmity of pleurisy, so that at the arrival of the Servant of God Teresa at the said convent she could not rise and go to meet her. And when the Handmaid of God did not see the said prioress with the other nuns, she asked about her, and heard how she was ill, and at once went to see her, and having entered the cell where the prioress was lying, said to her: "Jesus! daughter, and are you ill at my coming? Get up, for you are well, and come down with me to supper." And at the same time, these words being uttered, she touched with her hand the side affected by the pain; and instantly the prioress obeyed Mother Teresa, and rose from the bed well without any pain and fever, as if she had never had such an infirmity, and was present at supper with the said Mother Teresa, and attended to the other ministries of her office. And when on the following day the physician Doctor Polanco had come, and had found her well, and had heard the said manner of her recovered health, he said it was a miracle; as also all the nuns judged it, giving thanks to God.
[1105] effected by touch and voice, Which fact those same four witnesses, nuns, adduced in the preceding miracle confirm, and on the same articles specified there: and we have judged it to be proved, and to be held as a miracle,
considering the gravity of the infirmity of the aforesaid pain with fever, and that, while it continued, the said prioress was instantly freed from the aforesaid pain and fever by the contact of the Servant of God, and, obeying Mother Teresa, rose well, and walked, and was able to attend to the duties incumbent on her office; the same things having been weighed which were noted in the immediately preceding miracle concerning the gravity of the infirmity, and the instantaneous recovery of health, and the mode of the touch of the hand of the Servant of God. This, however, being added, that in this miracle there intervened not only the contact of the hand of the Handmaid of God, but imperative words: "Get up, daughter, for you are well": which she at once obeyed, and rose well and free of fever and pain, and served the Mother and the sisters.
[1106] and likewise belonging to the third order. A mode indeed not a little like the mode in which Christ and the Apostles worked miracles; as is said of Peter's mother-in-law in the Gospel, Luke 4, and in the Acts of the Apostles chapter 9, at: "And Peter said to him: May the Lord Jesus Christ heal you: arise and make your bed. And immediately he arose"; and in Matthew chapter 8, of the leper saying: "Lord, if You will, You can make me clean. To whom Jesus said: I will, be made clean" (imperatively), "and immediately his leprosy was cleansed"; and Luke chapter 8, of the blind man, to whom the Lord said: "Receive your sight; and immediately he saw." John chapter 4 and Luke chapter 7, of the son of the widow of Nain related in the preceding miracle, to whom Christ said (when He touched him): "Young man, I say to you: arise. And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak." And at the raising of Lazarus Christ said: "Lazarus, come forth: and immediately he that had been dead came forth." John 11. From which we have judged that this miracle too merits the more excellent grade among the miracles of the third kind, from what was noted in the immediately preceding miracle.
[1107] The most holy departure of the Seraphic Mother Third article. Being about to treat of the wonders which God our Lord deigned to show at the death of His Servant Teresa and in sign of her holiness, we have thought it worth while to touch on something concerning her death and the manner of her passing from this world to eternal joys; that it may be established that the Handmaid of God persevered to the end, not unmindful of the word of the Lord saying: "He who perseveres to the end shall be saved." It happened, then, that when the Servant of God Teresa had come to Medina, and had prepared to go thence to Ávila (over which monastery she presided), by the command of her superiors, and as a devotee of obedience, although gravely affected by illness and labouring under very adverse health, she arrived at Alba about the end of the month of September of the year 1582. Where, the infirmity now growing worse, on the eve of the feast of St. Francis she asked for the Holy Eucharist, after Confession made to Father Fr. Antonio de Jesús, provincial (or rather acting in place of the absent Fr. Gracián, the provincial) and at that time prelate of the Servant of God herself. And meanwhile, while the most longed-for Viaticum was being brought, she addressed her nuns, commending to them the observance of the rule, of the constitutions of the Order, and the obedience due to superiors, and asking them not to weigh the faults of herself, an unworthy nun, but rather to pardon her. But when she learned that the Eucharist was being carried into the cell, although she lay as if paralysed, she at once raised herself without anyone's help, and received that divine Viaticum with the utmost veneration and reverence, and in its presence, languishing with love, she said: "O Lord, my Spouse! The longed-for time has come at last: it is right that I should see You. It is time, my Lord, that I should depart from this life: be it done, I beg, according to Your good pleasure. The hour has come at last in which I shall be snatched from this exile, and shall enjoy You, whom I have so vehemently and ardently desired." And she always gave thanks to God with particular affection that He had adopted her as a daughter of the Church. Whence, approaching death, she often repeated these words: "I am indeed, Lord, a daughter of the Church." And she frequently had on her lips those verses of the Prophet: "Cast me not away from Your face: and take not Your Holy Spirit from me. A contrite and humbled heart, O God, You will not despise." And at length she asked for the Sacrament of extreme Unction, and received it with the same reverence and responding to the prayers; and while she was being anointed, she gave the same thanks to God that He had admitted her as a daughter of the Church. These things being done, she did not desist from often uttering the aforesaid verses of David.
[1108] departure from this life At length on the following day, namely the fourth of October, at the seventh hour of the morning she lay on her side, in the manner in which the image of St. Mary Magdalene is customarily represented; and holding the image of Christ in her hand and not laying it down until her death, with glowing countenance, praying, with the greatest quiet, and motionless, as if rapt in ecstasy, she remained until the ninth hour of the night, at which she gave back her soul to God, on the same fourth day of October of the same year 1582, in the sixty-eighth year of her age. Concerning which things depose the forty-first and forty-fourth witnesses on 94 in the remissorial process of Salamanca, and the twenty-first on the same article 94 in the fourth part of the remissorial of Toledo, and the forty-third on the 6th interrogatory in the said remissorial process of Salamanca; and the thirteenth, fourteenth, eighteenth, thirtieth, in the remissorial process of Salamanca; and the forty-seventh, forty-eighth, forty-ninth on the 6th article in the remissorial process of Salamanca. And besides the witnesses aforesaid, it is found so written in the above-mentioned writers of the life of this Servant of God: namely in the Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona, book 2, chapters 39 and 40; and in Father Doctor Francisco Ribera of the Society of Jesus, book 3, chapter 16; and in Father Fr. Juan de Jesús María, General of the same Order, book 3, chapter 15 and chapter 16.
[1109] with heavenly signs At this most happy passing heaven and earth exulted and gave various signs of their joy: for some nuns of most approved life and holiness, of the same Order and convent of Alba, on the night on which the Servant of God passed to heaven, and on other nights next preceding her death, saw various heavenly lights above the roof of the church and in the choir and in the cell of the same Handmaid of God, and that heavenly light passing through her window; and a certain religious of the greatest virtue and holiness, and the intimate companion of the Virgin Teresa herself, before the Virgin breathed out her soul, saw Christ the Lord shining with great splendour, and accompanied by many Angels, standing near the bed of His Handmaid. And another nun, not less conspicuous for holiness, at the moment of the death of the Handmaid of God, heard a huge noise of very many, and saw them clad in white garments entering the Virgin's cell and surrounding the bed; and at once she passed to heaven. And all believed that these were those ten thousand Martyrs towards whom the Virgin Teresa bore the greatest devotion, and whose feast she celebrated most religiously, and who had promised her that at the hour of her death they would come and accompany her into the heavenly court. Another nun, at the very moment of death, saw as it were a white dove going forth from the Virgin's mouth. Another beheld a light like crystal near the window of the cell.
[1110] and with prodigies On the same night on which the Virgin Teresa passed to heaven, she appeared glorious to various persons, especially to Mother Catalina de Jesús, foundress and prioress of the convent of the same Order in the town of Beas, in the province of Andalusia, a religious of remarkable holiness, who at once related this to the provincial of that Order, before she had heard anything of her death or illness. The Virgin's face remained most beautiful, white, and with the skin stretched, though old age had already wrinkled it, all the limbs flexible and supple. And a certain wonderful odour, unlike other perfumes, went forth not only from the body, but from the garments and little cloths which the sick woman used, so strong that it was necessary to open the windows of the cell in which the said body lay. Of which, however, it will be treated in particular below. And then a certain religious approached her, suffering greatly from an infirmity of the head and eyes, and placing the Virgin's hands upon her head and eyes, at once recovered. And another religious, who before had lost her sense of smell for four months, hearing from others of the most sweet odour which they perceived the Virgin's body breathing forth, approached her devoutly, and while she kissed her feet, joyfully recovered the sense, and smelled the same odour.
[1111] by no means doubtful Of all which things several nuns of the same Order and convent testify, and those to whom the said visions and apparitions occurred: and among others especially the fortieth witness, and the forty-first, and the forty-third, and the forty-eighth, and the forty-ninth, and the fiftieth, in the remissorial process of Salamanca, on article 95: and the tenth witness at Valladolid; and the twenty-first at Medina; and the twentieth and forty-ninth at Ávila; and the ninety-second, hundred and fourteenth, hundred and twenty-first at Salamanca on the 95th article. Of whom some agree in testimony on the facts concerning which they depose, but some are single; yet it seemed that not on that account was less credit to be given to them: both because there are not lacking grave doctors holding that miracles are proved by single witnesses; as Giacomo Simonetta, auditor of the Rota, in the Report on the canonization of St. Francis of Paola, towards the end, § "Videndum est", and he adorns it with very many authorities, and relates that Francesco de Pavinis held the same in the Reports on Sts. Bonaventure and Leopold of Austria. From which opinion there was not altogether a departure in the Report of the canonization of St. Raymond, article 8, verse "Nos tamen", nor in the Report of the canonization of St. Frances, article 7, eighth miracle, verse "Et quamquam in superioribus": nay, there that miracle was proved by a single witness; and the difficulty was removed in the aforesaid canonizations, and it was resolved that whenever from the nature of the miracle it cannot be proved except by a single witness (as are revelations and apparitions and the like), then it is proved by that single witness, provided the person is otherwise worthy of credit. And this is our case; since each of the aforesaid nuns, who testify concerning the said apparitions and visions, deposes concerning the apparition and vision which occurred to herself, and which of their nature cannot be proved by others.
[1112] is adorned by God; Hence from what has been said above it seems that it must be said that there is sufficient proof of the aforesaid; especially since no suspicion can arise among prudent men concerning the truthfulness of these witnesses, the nuns, as at length from what was adduced above in the first miracle. To which are added the above-mentioned writers in the places just cited, who have left these same things so written. Nevertheless, since we had many other miracles confirmed by several witnesses, we have judged it right to review here the aforesaid, confirmed by single witnesses, as wonderful and worthy of note, and most conducive to the manifestation of the holiness of this Servant of God, and to pass on to other miracles at the same Virgin's
passing and after it worked by almighty God, and proved by the number of several witnesses.
[1113] among which the change of a dry tree into a flowering one The earth too exulted at the death of this Handmaid of God, and for exultation, and in honour of the Virgin and Servant of God, gave a prodigious sign to the world. For it happened that in a certain field facing the cell of the Virgin Teresa, and in which she lay dead on the very night of her death, there was found a certain small and dry tree, which had never given flowers nor leaves nor fruits, surrounded by a heap of stones, lime, earth and bricks from the building which was being carried on in that convent; and very early in the morning it was seen covered, full and laden with white flowers. Which when several nuns had seen, they held it for a miracle, since that tree had never given flowers or fruit either before or afterwards; as the forty-first, forty-third, forty-fifth witnesses attest as eyewitnesses on the 95th article (all nuns of the same convent of Alba), and the forty-second and fiftieth, from hearsay from religious who had been present at the death of the holy Mother, on the 94th article, in the remissorial process of Salamanca.
[1114] deserves to be noted as a miracle of the second grade. Which we have reckoned an evident miracle worked by almighty God in honour of so great a Virgin, the circumstances having been examined, that the tree was dry, and had never before or after yielded flowers or fruit or leaves, and that it happened on the fifth of October, and at a time at which according to the order of nature trees are not wont to be furnished with flowers, because at that time they even lose their leaves, especially in those parts then already very much subject to cold; likewise that the aforesaid tree flowered in an instant. From which we have judged that this miracle is to be referred to the second grade; since this fact exceeds the powers of nature not as to that which is done, namely that a tree be clothed with flowers (which nature also does), but as to that in which it is done, namely in a dry tree, which neither before nor after gave flowers, leaves or fruit, and in the autumnal season: as nature can give life, but not to the dead, and sight, but not to the blind. St. Thomas, said part 1, question 105, article 8, in the body, verse "Secundo aliquid". And it is not new that God has adorned and honoured the tresses of His servants with similar miracles of flowers. For in Spain, in the city of Acci, and on the day of the Martyrdom of St. Torquatus, disciple of St. James the Apostle, an olive tree flowered, as Ado relates in the Martyrology on the 15th day of May. And at Córdoba near the tomb of the Holy Martyrs Acisclus and Victoria, on the fifteenth day before the kalends of December (on which day they suffered Martyrdom), roses divinely sprung up were gathered in commendation of their precious death: Usuard, Ado and bishop Equilinus, in their Martyrologies. Thus Christ the Lord willed to adorn this Virgin as His spouse, as with a crown woven of miraculously born flowers, and deigned to show to men a sign of joy.
§ LIX. Continuation of the first Report: on twelve miracles after the death of St. Teresa.
More notable miracles after the death of the Saint: Fourth article. First miracle after death. Not only immediately after the happy death of the Handmaid of God, the Virgin Teresa, did her body breathe forth a wonderful and strong odour unlike all others (as we have left it said in article 3 on the miracles worked at her death), but the same body, after it had been committed to burial, after several and various courses of time, was always found incorrupt and whole and keeping the same odour, in which its tomb also shared together; and also the same body continually gave forth from itself a certain precious and fragrant liquor. Hence in this body three miracles rather than one are found, of incorruption, of odour and of liquor. And that these may appear more clearly and easily, we have thought it right to proceed by distinction, and first to treat of the incorruption, and for concluding it to begin from the burial given to this body, and from the manner of burying it.
[1116] 1° The incorruption of her body, Concerning which it is established that, after the Servant of God breathed out her soul, her body, clothed in its garments and habit, was committed to burial whole, without any extraction of the inner parts, and without the application of any preservative or perfume, and that thus it was placed in a certain wooden box. But because the foundress of the convent of Alba, in which Mother Teresa had departed from this life, feared lest this inestimable pledge be taken out of its burial and stolen and carried to the convent of Ávila (as the event afterwards taught), she had a very deep grave dug between the two grilles of the choir of the church, into which the above-mentioned box, with the body itself enclosed, was let down, and upon it the nuns threw earth, lime, stones and water in great quantity; and the grave was filled with very strong stones by a certain stonemason, no less than if they had wished to construct a most strong foundation for sustaining a great building. Which fact the following witnesses prove, all as eyewitnesses: Marcos González, notary and inhabitant of Alba, fifty-seventh witness on the 97th article, in the remissorial process of Salamanca, fol. 744 verso; Inés de Jesús, Discalced Carmelite of the convent of Alba, fortieth witness on the sixth, fol. 488, and on the 97th article of the same process, fol. 502; Catalina de San Ángelo, nun of the same convent, forty-third witness on 6, fol. 566, and on 97 of the same process, fol. 570 verso; Ana de San Jerónimo, nun of the same convent, forty-fourth witness on the 97th article of the same process, fol. 588; Constanza de los Ángeles, nun in the same monastery, forty-eighth witness on the sixth article of the same process, fol. 650. To whom are added eight other witnesses, nuns of the same monastery, deposing the very same as eyewitnesses: namely 41, 42, 45, 46, 49, 50, 51, 52, on articles 97, 98, 99 of the same process.
[1117] which in the years 1583, The aforesaid body remained thus enclosed in the said grave for nine continuous months; and because so great an odour came forth from the said tomb, the nuns, with the intervention of the provincial of the same Order, decided to exhume the said body, and to see what so great an odour signified, as was done with no small labour: and the box and garments of the Servant of God were found corrupted; but her body incorrupt, whole, flexible, agile and supple, and supported by the said fragrant liquor and full of a wonderful odour, just as if it had been committed to the earth the day before. And then, clothed in another habit and garments, it was placed in another box and in the same tomb, yet not so deep, the left hand having been cut off by the provincial, to be kept for the monastery of the same Order at Lisbon as a relic of their Mother. Which is proved from the depositions of the thirteen witnesses, nuns of the same convent, cited immediately above, and on the same articles and process noted there.
[1118] 1585, Then, three years having passed since the Servant of God passed to heaven, the provincial of that Order came to the said convent of Alba, and wished to see the body of Mother Teresa, and so had it exhumed in the presence of the prioress and of some nuns (as was done); and at once he intimated to the prioress letters patent of his superiors, by which it was commanded under censures that they should in no way hinder the transportation of this heavenly pledge: and so, the arm of the hand that had been cut off having also been amputated and left in the said convent, the provincial had the body transported to the convent of Ávila (what is said here of the provincial, correct from no. 1041 of this Commentary). And because at that time the community of nuns was in the choir reciting the morning Hours, since all perceived a certain great and sweet odour, from this sign alone they knew that the body of their Mother and Servant of God Teresa was being taken out, and leaving the choir, they went off to the tomb: yet the body was already outside the cloisters; and then in the said second exhumation the same body was found in the same manner whole and incorrupt and supple, and with the same odour and liquor, as it had been found in the first. On which three nuns of the same monastery depose as eyewitnesses: namely the fortieth witness, the forty-third and the forty-seventh on the same articles 6 and 97 of the same remissorial process of Salamanca.
[1119] 1586, The aforesaid body of the Servant of God having been transported to the convent of the city of Ávila, it was shown there in the presence of the bishop of Ávila, and by his order and command, and in the presence of the bishop of Tarazona, then confessor of the Catholic king, and of Pablo Laguna, and of Don Francisco de Contreras, of the council of the same king, and of two physicians and other witnesses and a public notary; and it was recognized by legitimate witnesses, who had known Mother Teresa living, to be her very body; and then it was also found full of flesh, and with the same incorruption and integrity, flexibility, odour and liquor, and with a certain agility and lightness, so that it was in no way of the weight of one infant of two years: nay, the flesh was so supple that, when struck with a finger, it was made hollow, and when the finger was removed, the flesh rose and lifted. Of which depose as eyewitnesses: the first witness, the bishop of Tarazona, in the second part of the remissorial of Toledo, fol. 736; Don Francisco de Contreras, royal councillor, fifty-third witness on the 97th article in the first part of the same process of Toledo, fol. 197; Pablo Laguna, president of the royal council of the Indies, sixteenth witness on the 9th article in the compulsorial process of Toledo, fol. 99 verso; Luis Vázquez, physician of the city of Ávila, eleventh witness in the compulsorial process of Ávila on the 70th article, fol. 221. Who testifies of the aforesaid that the said body had not been opened nor anointed with balsam; because he touched its belly full with its intestines, and with as much flesh in those parts as could exist in life: and he declares concerning the incorruption, odour and liquor; and that it could not be so by natural way, except miraculously; and that for greater confirmation of the aforesaid, at various times and hours, without forewarning the nuns, he entered the monastery to visit the sick, and asked and obtained that the said body be shown to him, and especially when the greatest heat prevailed, and always saw it in the same manner as at the beginning, and it was very light, and he judged it the weight of sanctified flesh. And although another physician had concurred together with him in the presence of the said bishops and others in the viewing of the aforesaid body, yet, because at the time of the examination of the witnesses this physician had died, Luis Vázquez testifies there that the said deceased physician had then declared the same concerning the said incorruption, odour and liquor, and that it could not have come about by natural way,
but miraculous. And concerning the same report, made then by the said deceased physician, the above-mentioned Don Francisco de Contreras also deposes, as above.
[1120] But after, within nine months, by the command of Pope Sixtus V of happy memory, the aforesaid body of this Servant of God had been restored to the convent of Alba, thereafter at various times and seasons the same body was seen, and found with the same incorruption, odour and liquor, and the other qualities related above; and in particular in the year 1592, and thus ten years after her death (or rather in the year 1591, as we said at no. 1046), in the presence of the bishop of Salamanca with physicians and a notary, the body was uncovered in the same convent of Alba, and seen and found incorrupt, with all the aforesaid qualities: as there depose as eyewitnesses Doctor Francisco Ramírez, physician of the said town of Alba, twenty-eighth witness on the 6th article, deposing concerning the aforesaid, and that it seems to him that the said incorruption and preservation of the said whole body for so long a time is a divine and miraculous work; since the inner parts, which are most easily subject to corruption, were never extracted from the said body, as in the compulsorial process of Salamanca, fol. 399. The licentiate Martín Arias, physician of the same town of Alba, twenty-ninth witness on the 6th article, agrees in testimony with the preceding witness, the physician, concerning all things, and that the body retained all its flesh, only the superfluous moisture being consumed. All which things and the said incorruption he holds to be a miracle and a supernatural work, and that it could not have happened naturally, especially in a woman full of flesh, as Mother Teresa was; for women of this kind abound in moisture apt to corruption: in the same compulsorial process of Salamanca, fol. 400 verso. To whom is added the attestation of Juan Casquer, apostolic notary, who was present at the aforesaid, and saw the body of the Servant of God whole and incorrupt with good odour and liquor; as in the same process, fol. 410 verso.
[1121] [1594] Thereafter in the year 1594, and thus twelve years having passed since the death of the Servant of God, in the presence of Brother Juan de Jesús María, definitor of the same Order, and of another Brother, his companion, and of Ana de Jesús, a nun of the said Order, who was travelling to another convent, and in the presence of the nuns of the convent of Alba, the same body was again uncovered, seen and found whole, incorrupt, and with the same odour and liquor; and when the aforesaid Ana de Jesús inspected it attentively, she saw a part of the shoulder affected with such colour that she said living blood appeared to be there, and touched that part with a linen cloth, and it remained stained with blood, as also another which they at once applied to the same part, notwithstanding that the skin of the body was sound and without any mark or wound. Which is proved by the said Ana de Jesús, a nun of the same Order, first witness on the 9th article of the compulsorial process of Salamanca, fol. 433; and by the said Fr. Juan de Jesús María, definitor, fourth witness in the compulsorial process of Toledo, fol. 54 verso; Inés de Jesús, a nun of the same convent, fortieth witness on the 100th article in the same remissorial process of Salamanca, fol. 504 verso; Catalina de San Ángelo, also a nun of the said monastery, forty-third witness on the 100th article in the same process of Salamanca, fol. 572: all the aforesaid witnesses deposing as eyewitnesses. And Fr. Diego de Guevara, of the Order of St. Augustine, first witness on article 100, deposes the same from hearsay from Mother Ana de Jesús, in the same process of Salamanca; as the above-mentioned bishop of Tarazona testifies the same, from hearsay from the said Father Juan de Jesús María, definitor, in the remissorial process of Toledo.
[1122] and 1604, And afterwards in the year 1604, and thus twenty-two years having elapsed since the happy passing of the Servant of God, in the presence of the duke and duchess of Alba and of the duke del Infantado and other knights and religious men, the said body was uncovered and seen by the aforesaid, and found with the same incorruption, odour and liquor. Of which testify the same duke of Alba Don Antonio Álvarez de Toledo, eleventh witness on the 97th article in the remissorial process of Toledo, first part, fol. 100; Doña Mencía de Mendoza, duchess of Alba, twelfth witness on the said article 97 and in the same process, fol. 112; Don Juan Hurtado de Mendoza, duke del Infantado, thirteenth witness on the same 97th article in the same process, fol. 114, who, when on another occasion after twenty years from her death he had seen the aforesaid body of the Virgin Teresa whole and incorrupt, and a great fragrance of odour and liquor flowing from it in abundance, affirms that, if at that time he had not been a Christian, to have seen this alone would have been cause to convert him. To whom is added Alonso Sánchez, public notary of the number of the town of Alba, who was present at the aforesaid with the above-named witnesses, and saw together with them the said body whole without any corruption, and with odour and liquor, of which he made attestation in the compulsorial process of Salamanca, fol. 466 verso.
[1123] and at other times, And finally, besides the aforesaid occasions and times at which the said body was uncovered and recognized, at various times various occasions presented themselves, on which various and many persons of various states with great devotion and admiration likewise saw the aforesaid body whole and incorrupt and with odour and liquor. As were Doctor Cristóbal de Medrano, physician and professor in the university of Salamanca, twenty-third witness, deposing as eyewitness on the said article 97, and that with particular care and diligence he saw and felt the said body whole, soft and supple, having the womb and belly, the breasts and paps of the chest (parts which are most quickly corrupted and consumed in dead bodies) as whole and full as if the Servant of God were alive, which he judged a manifest miracle, as he also held for such the lightness and small weight of the body itself, which he so saw and felt with his hands, as in the remissorial process of Salamanca, fol. 350; Doctor Juan Garaña, physician of the city of Salamanca, eighth witness, fol. 274; Don Rodrigo de Paz, governor of the city of Salamanca, thirty-sixth witness, fol. 424; the licentiate González de Benavente, seventy-fourth witness, fol. 842 verso; Antonio Bravo, priest of Alba, eighty-first witness, fol. 887 verso; Fr. Antonio de Calahorra, of the Order of St. Jerome, eighty-fifth witness, fol. 924; Juan de Almansa, priest of Alba, eighty-sixth witness, fol. 928 verso; Diego González, priest of Alba, ninety-second witness, fol. 966 verso; Don Juan de Solís, priest of Salamanca, doctor of sacred theology, ninety-ninth witness, fol. 1018; Master Fr. Agustín Antolínez, of the Order of St. Augustine, principal professor of theology in the university of Salamanca, fourth witness, fol. 254 verso; Don Juan Brochero de Tejeda, knight of Alcántara, hundred and fourteenth witness, fol. 1183 verso. All the witnesses are eyewitnesses on the said article 97 in the remissorial process of Salamanca. Besides whom there are sixteen other eyewitnesses of the aforesaid incorruption, besides very many others deposing from public and notorious hearsay.
[1124] even in parts separated from the body, To which is added that the aforesaid incorruption, odour and liquor are found not only in the body of the Servant of God, but also in her arm, heart, hand and other fragments of flesh and Relics of the same Virgin separated from the body, which the following witnesses prove: Marcos González, notary of Alba, fifty-seventh witness on the 97th article in the remissorial process of Salamanca, fol. 744 verso; Don Alonso Mejía de Tovar, now bishop of Mondoñedo, twentieth witness on the same article in the first part of the remissorial of Toledo, fol. 132 verso; the bishop of Tarazona, first witness in the second part of the same remissorial process of Toledo, fol. 738 verso; Catalina de San Ángelo, nun of the convent of Alba, forty-third witness, already cited above; María de San Francisco, of the same convent of Alba, forty-seventh witness on the 6th article of the same remissorial process of Salamanca, fol. 622; the licentiate Juan de Medina, fifty-ninth witness on the 99th article, in the same remissorial process of Salamanca, fol. 765 verso; María de la Asunción, of the same convent of Alba, fifty-second witness on the 98th article, fol. 710; María de San José, of the same Order, and formerly prioress of the convent of Lisbon, on 13 in the compulsorial process of Toledo, fol. 171; Pablo González, priest of Alba, eighty-second on the 99th article, in the same remissorial process of Salamanca, fol. 589 verso. To whom are added also forty-five other witnesses deposing as eyewitnesses and from certain knowledge on the 99th article.
[1125] was manifestly detected, Likewise it appears that, when for fifteen years after the death of the Servant of God a certain noble lady at Madrid had a certain fragment of the flesh of the Servant of God, and wished to divide it among her sisters, she asked a certain noble ecclesiastic to cut and divide it; as he did, and at its first cutting a part fell upon white paper, and at the same time a drop of living blood, which came out of the said flesh that had been cut. And whereas before that ecclesiastic doubted whether the said flesh was Mother Teresa's, having seen the event and the outpouring of blood, on bended knees and terrified he venerated that flesh and believed and confessed it to be the flesh of the Servant of God Teresa of Jesus. Which is proved by Doña Isabel Sánchez Cuello, widow of Don Francisco de Herrera, twenty-first witness as eyewitness on the 97th article, part 1 of the remissorial of Toledo, fol. 137, and Doña María Sánchez Cuello, twenty-second witness, also as eyewitness, on the same 97 of the same process, fol. 138.
[1126] and splendid From which we have judged that the incorruption of the body of Teresa, Servant of God, is sufficiently proved and is to be referred to a very great miracle. And we were moved because the human body after death is of its nature subject to putrefaction, which comes from the infirmity of its nature, which can no longer hold the body together in one: St. Thomas in the 3rd part, question 15, article 3, in the body: and so immediately after death it begins to be dissolved and is disposed to putrefaction; because, the natural heat breathing out, an extraneous heat supervenes, which causes putrefaction. The same St. Thomas, said article 3, argument 2, and in the reply to it says that even the body of Christ, as regards the condition of passible nature, was putrefiable; although not as regards the desert of putrefaction, which is sin.
There is another reason for the corruption of the human body, adduced by the same St. Thomas in Opusculum 2, chapter 152, at the beginning, namely, that the human body is composed of contraries: for everything of this kind is naturally corruptible. Then also because corruption and putrefaction come to man, besides the infirmity of his nature (as has been said), also in punishment of the sin of the first parent: for as death was the punishment of that sin, so also is reduction to ashes. For it was said to the first man: "Dust you are, and to dust you shall return": Genesis 3, and St. Thomas cites it in the said article 3, at the beginning. Hence as man cannot escape death, so neither putrefaction nor corruption, unless there be something preventing it, as St. Thomas notes on 3 Sentences, dist. 21, question 1, article 2, ad 4. Which natural corruption and putrefaction, naturally befitting the body of the Virgin Teresa, could more easily be verified in that body, since it was buried whole with the intestines, which are of easy corruption and with the same facility corrupt the other parts, especially in a body of its nature full of flesh, as was the body of the Servant of God, and thus partaking more of moisture more apt to corruption, which the earth, stones and water put upon the buried body assisted. These things being so, this body was naturally putrefiable and destined to be corrupted.
[1127] is pronounced a miracle of the second order Hence, since from the proofs related above it appears that it was found and preserved not putrefied, but rather incorrupt, it must be said that something preventing was present, namely the divine will, which willed that this body, which while living rendered it acceptable service, should remain incorrupt; as St. Thomas, said article 3, in the reply to the second, says that in the body of Christ His divine power was present, which preserved it from putrefaction. Which fact, since it is beyond the powers of all created nature, and exceeding them, must necessarily be attributed to a miracle: St. Thomas 2. 2, question 178, article 1, ad 3, and in the 1st part, question 110, article 4, in the body, and in Opusculum 2, chapter 136; the Gloss on the word "Sedis Apostolicæ", on the said first chapter de Reliquiis et veneratione Sanctorum, and there the doctors; the Archdeacon on the said chapter "Nec mirum", no. 6 and following, 26, question 5, and there Bellamera. Nay, we have also judged that this miracle, as exceeding the powers of the whole of created nature not as to that which is done, but as to that in which it is done (for nature can give preservation and incorruption, but not to a dead man), is to be referred to the second grade: according to St. Thomas, said part 1, question 105, article 8, in the body, verse "Secundo aliquid".
[1128] and to be an indication of holiness; And that such incorruption is a sign of holiness and to be held as a very great miracle appears sufficiently from many examples of the bodies of the Servants of God to whom this grace was imparted. Rodulf, abbot of Saint-Trond, has left in writing that in the year 1122 he was present together with many others when the body of St. Gereon was found whole and incorrupt after 800 years. Alan Cope testifies that in his age the corpse of Cuthbert of Lindisfarne remained in no way mutilated or decayed 800 years after his death. Surius, vol. 5, on the twelfth of September, relates that the body of St. Antoninus, Bishop and Martyr, 200 years after his death appeared to all not only incorrupt but plainly lifelike, and that he who wrote his Life saw it so. The body of St. Hilarion, Abbot (as St. Jerome writes), after almost ten months from his death was found whole and incorrupt, as if he were still living, and fragrant with such odours that it was thought anointed with fragrant ointments. And it is enough that Gregory, priest of Caesarea, has committed to writing that it was common to the Catholic bishops who were present at the Synod of Nicaea that their bodies remained unharmed for many courses of years. A worthy reward indeed of a servant of God, that the body which while living served the immortal and eternal God should, when dead, be preserved for immortality and eternity whole and unharmed.
[1129] 2° The most sweet odour of the body, Second miracle after death. Now the wonderful and most sweet odour accompanying the incorrupt body of the Servant of God, and her arm, hand and heart (although already separated from the body), nay also the other Relics of the same Virgin, seemed to us sufficiently proved from the witnesses related above deposing concerning the incorruption. And (what is of great consideration) that not only did her body and the little cloths which the sick woman used breathe forth an odour of this kind from the moment of her most happy death (so that on the very night on which she passed to heaven, from the excessive fragrance and vehemence of the odour, it was necessary, as was done, to open the window and doors of the Virgin's cell, and thus that odour was spread through the whole convent), but also the tomb in which she was buried, although at great depth, shared in that odour, whose vehemence was so great that it penetrated the said tomb, so deep, and blocked with so much earth, lime, water and so many stones, so that it gave occasion for the first exhumation of the Virgin and Handmaid of God, as we noted above. Which also the nuns of the same convent of Alba who were present at the death of the Servant of God prove as eyewitnesses: and particularly Catalina de San Ángelo, forty-third witness on the 6th article, fol. 567, and on the 95th article, fol. 556 verso, in the remissorial process of Salamanca; María de San Francisco, forty-seventh witness on the said sixth article in the said process of Salamanca, fol. 623; another María de San Francisco, second witness on the ninety-fifth article in the remissorial process of Toledo, 4th part, fol. 1972; Catalina Bautista, forty-ninth witness on the ninety-fifth article in the said process of Salamanca, fol. 627.
[1130] which as a miracle distinct from the incorruption, Which odour, although we consider it in abstraction from the miraculous incorruption of the body, we have judged must also of itself be ascribed to a signal miracle; since naturally from the corpses of the dead, naturally subject to corruption and putrefaction (as we have proved above), we see arise not a fragrance but rather a stench. Hence these sweet odours proceeding from the dead bodies of the Saints have always been referred to miracles; because (as St. Gregory relates in Homily 38) the very fragrance of the body and odour of sweetness shows that the Author of sweetness exists in that body, and these odours are signs of holiness and a signal argument of the infinite Divinity. For spiritual odour emanates from the inner harmony of the parts of the soul and the due connection of the virtues, and greatly commends inner beauty. And, as St. Thomas says, 3rd part, question 83, article 5, ad 2, good odour pertains to representing the effect of grace; because, as Christ was full of good odour (according to that of Genesis 27: "Behold the smell of my son, as the smell of a plentiful field"), it is also derived from Christ to His faithful and friends, according to that to the Corinthians 2: "He has spread the odour of His knowledge through us in every place, for we are the good odour of Christ to God." Hence also Holy Mother Church, as it were exulting for joy at the glory of her children, sings: "Your Saints, O Lord, shall flourish as the lily, and shall be as the odour of balsam before You." Which can also be confirmed by examples of many Saints.
[1131] can be held, and indeed one of the first order; Nicephorus Callistus, book 15, chapter 14, testifies that from the shrine in which the body of St. Euphemia, Martyr and most celebrated Virgin, had been laid up, immense odours breathed forth, which far surpassed the power of nature and of human art. From the corpse of St. Othmar a wonderful and unknown odour suffused those approaching near with a most pleasant sensation, as abbot Walafrid writes. The same happened to the corpse of Albert, bishop of Rouen, of Landoald Maximus of Reggio, of Edward, king of the English, and of very many others, as Surius says, vol. 6. From the body of St. Albert of the Carmelite Order, before it was committed to the earth, a wonderful odour came forth, as is read in the Office of the same Saint, on the 7th day of August. Of which Surius also makes mention, vol. 3, on the same 7th day of August, in the Life of that Saint. Which miracle, so signal and exceeding the powers of the whole of created nature as to the substance of the fact (as appears from what has been said above), we have thought is to be referred to the first grade: according to what is noted by St. Thomas, said part 1, question 105, article 8, in the body, verse "Uno modo."
[1132] 3° The liquor emanating from the body, Third miracle after death. We have believed that the fragrant liquor, emanating like oil from the arm, body and other Relics of the Servant of God, is proved no less by the same witnesses deposing concerning the incorruption. And likewise we have judged that a wonderful liquor of this kind is to be referred to a miracle; since it is evident of itself how much this happens beyond the order of all created nature, how much it exceeds its powers and is foreign to dead bodies, which putrefy and are reduced to ashes: and, the moisture being consumed and the flesh altogether corrupted and reduced to ashes, arid and dry bones remain; from which naturally no humour or liquor can be generated or come forth. Since the entire contrary appears in the body and Relics of this Servant of God, and this liquor is preserved, nay continually emanates, it must necessarily be confessed that it is a supernatural work, and in the substance of the fact exceeds all the powers of created nature, and thus is a miracle of the first order: from St. Thomas as above, said article 8, verse "Uno modo."
[1133] likewise to be counted among the miracles of the first order; Nor is it new that our Lord has quite often worked this miracle in the bodies of His servants: as is read in Marco Antonio Marsilio Colonna, on the Life and deeds of Blessed Matthew, that from the body of this holy Apostle (which is at Salerno) a humour of this kind is wont to emanate. Ambrogio Leone, book 2 de situ Nolæ, has left in writing that the same humour emanates from the body of St. Felix of Nola, and the Most Reverend Cardinal Baronius, in the Martyrology, on the 13th day of April, says that at Novara from the sacred bones of the Holy Martyrs Laurence, priest, and the boys whom he had taken to educate, a healing liquor was wont to emanate; the same Baronius, as above, on the ninth day of May, of St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra, says that from his body, as from a perennial fountain of graces, a wholesome liquor drips, and the emperor Manuel testifies the same, Novel. de Feriis, where he likewise also makes mention of that water which flows down from the body of St. Andrew, which is kept at Amalfi. The same Baronius, in the place cited before, on the 26th day of September, relates that at Chalcedon a healing ointment flowed continually from the Relics of St. Euphemia, Virgin and Martyr. From the corpse of Margaret
of Ravenna (as Girolamo Rossi writes) a certain most sweet sweat flowed. That from the corpse of Glyceria, Martyr, an ointment flowed, which was caught in a basin placed beneath, Nicephorus relates, book 18, chapter 32. Cromer, book 9, oration 1, de ædificatione justorum, writes that from the corpse of Hedwig of Poland, long since dead, a pure and clear liquor like oil flowed forth with a most sweet and wonderful odour. And similarly from the corpse of Salomea, who was the sister of King Bolesław.
[1134] 4° The sudden reforming of a distorted boy, Fourth miracle after death. A boy called Francisco, four years of age, son of a certain poor woman, a neighbour of the convent of the Incarnation of the Calced Carmelite nuns of the city of Ávila, was from birth so contracted, twisted and disabled in body that he seemed born in the likeness of a letter S, so that he could neither stand on his feet nor move himself lying on the ground; although he was affected with no pain from the said contraction of the body. Hence a certain religious of the said convent, Doña Mencía Roberto, moved by piety and charity, asked the boy's mother to carry him every day to her cell to have charity bestowed on him; as the mother did, and at night carried him back to her home: and so the said nun, full of compassion, and thinking that that infirmity of contraction of the body of this boy, since it was from birth, seemed incurable, decided to visit with the said boy for nine days the cell of the Servant of God Teresa, existing in that monastery and held in great veneration; as she did, asking the Virgin Mother Teresa to deign to obtain from our Lord health for that boy. Whence it came about that on the last day of the novena the boy was suddenly healed and remained free of the said contraction, so that he walked on his own feet, proclaiming that Mother Teresa of Jesus had healed him. Which words he pronounced excellently, although he could pronounce no others entire, but stammeringly, and as a tender child. Which event the nuns held for a miracle, and gave thanks to God for it.
[1135] asserted by legitimate testimonies, The above-mentioned fact six witnesses prove, nuns of the same monastery: namely 42, 43, 44, 45, 47 and 48, all on the 114th article, in the remissorial process of Ávila, deposing as eyewitnesses; and among these witnesses is the said Doña Mencía Roberto. To whom, although they were nuns of the same Order, we have judged that entire credit is to be given, from what was adduced in the first miracle of those worked in life: how much more, since in truth they are not Discalced nuns, but, professing the mitigated rule of the Calced nuns in that convent from which the Servant of God Teresa of Jesus went out to found the new Reform; and so we did not doubt that this fact is proved.
[1136] and to be placed in the second grade of miracles; And we have thought without doubt that the aforesaid fact is to be judged a miracle; since there concur in it the circumstances often considered and weighed above in other miracles, nay also in other canonizations: namely the gravity of the infirmity, the prayer preceding and the health recovered in an instant. And we have weighed in this miracle in particular that this boy was born so twisted and contracted, whence he suffered no pain; nor could this imperfection and contraction, thus proceeding from birth, be cured by natural remedies, on the witness of Hippocrates, 3 de articulis, § "Oportet autem et incurabilia cognoscere", no. 68, and of Galen, 3 Prognostic. 26; and thus that its cure altogether exceeds the powers of the whole of created nature, and consequently we have judged it is to be ascribed to the second order of miracles (according to St. Thomas as above, part 1, question 105, article 8, in the body, verse "Secundo aliquid"), not as to that which is done, but as to that in which it is done. Hence, although nature can give uprightness and a fit composition of members to a man, yet not to one twisted and contracted from birth. And that of the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 3, seems quite similar, of the lame man who from his mother's womb was carried and borne daily to the Beautiful gate of the temple, to whom, asking alms, Peter said: "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk." And St. Gregory relates another similar thing of St. Abundius, book 3 of the Dialogues, chapter 25.
[1137] 5° The freeing of a nun from a triple cancer, Fifth miracle after death. Sister Ana de San Miguel, a nun of the same Order in the convent of Malagón, for two years suffered a grave infirmity of three cancers in the breast, of which one was greater than the others, and from them she was tormented with very great pains: nay, they also caused in her neck and arms a certain retraction, so that she could not use her arms nor raise them over her head; and she was hindered, so that she could not attend to the ministry of her office and the service of the monastery. And when she had a very afflicted mind, she sought and found a Relic, namely a little of the flesh of Mother Teresa. And on the same night she made prayer on bended knees to God our Lord, asking the said Servant of God Teresa to intercede for obtaining her health, and not to permit that infirmity to progress further, since on account of its long duration she had become useless, and could not satisfy the ministry for which she had taken the habit, and it was a great expense to the monastery to have a religious with so long and troublesome an infirmity. And she placed the said Relic on her breast, and went to bed and slept (whereas on many other nights she had not been able to sleep for pain), and in the morning rose altogether well, not only of the said cancers, which had vanished from the breast, but also of another disease of the heart, which she had suffered up to that time; nor did she any longer feel the said infirmities. And at once, as soon as she knew herself well and free of the said infirmities, she went cheerfully to the prioress's cell, and narrated to her the aforesaid event, and all held it for a miracle.
[1138] likewise duly proved, The above-mentioned fact is proved by five witnesses, nuns of the same monastery, as eyewitnesses: namely the first witness, Catalina de la Trinidad, prioress of the same convent, on the ninety-seventh article, first part of the remissorial of Toledo, fol. 485; Isabel de la Ascensión, subprioress, second witness on the same, fol. 493; María de las Vírgenes, third witness on the same, fol. 505 verso; the sick woman herself, Sister Ana, tenth witness on the same, fol. 525; Brianda de San José, infirmarian, eleventh witness on the same, fol. 529: all deposing as eyewitnesses, and both the prioress and the third witness depose concerning the virtue and religion of the aforesaid Ana and concerning her truthfulness.
[1139] and equally belonging to the second grade; And we have judged the above-mentioned fact to be proved and to be a miracle, considering the gravity of the infirmity, which of its nature is incurable, on the witness of Hippocrates, 6th book of the Aphorisms, thirty-eighth aphorism, saying: "Those who have hidden (that is, great) cancers it is better not to treat; for if treated they quickly perish." Paul, fourth book, twenty-sixth chapter, says: "This evil, on account of the thickness of the humour, does not heal." Galen, second de Crisibus, twelfth second, prognostic forty-sixth, second ad Glauconem, chapter 10. Avicenna in the third of the fourth, tractate 2, chapter 16. There is added also the preceding prayer and the instantaneous recovery of health. From which we have thought this fact exceeds the powers of the whole of created nature, yet not as to the substance of the fact, but as to the subject in which it happened: for, although nature can restore health to a sick body, yet not to a sick person labouring with an incurable disease; as it can give light, but not to the blind, and give life, but not to the dead. And so we have judged it is to be ascribed to the second grade, with St. Thomas, said first part, question 105, article 8, in the body, verse "Secundo aliquid".
[1140] 6° The restoring of a contracted hand, Sixth miracle after death. When to Ana González, inhabitant of the town of Alba, from a certain infirmity the left hand had remained disabled, on account of the contraction of the sinews and fingers, so that she could not open it, nor any the more use it in any way nor extend the fingers, and she had been so for a year, and medicines having been applied and availing nothing, at the advice of María Rodríguez, her neighbour, she commended herself to the Servant of God Teresa of Jesus, and together with the said María Rodríguez went to the monastery of the Incarnation of the Discalced nuns of the said town of Alba (where the body, and the arm divided from it, of this Handmaid of God is kept), and there they made prayer, and asked a certain priest, chaplain of the same monastery, that he would be willing to bring some Relic of the Servant of God Teresa to the aforesaid sick Ana; as the aforesaid priest did, and with the arm of Mother Teresa touched Ana's contracted hand, who at once opened her hand, and remained free and well of the said infirmity, as she continued with the said health for six years, by which she survived, exercising the said hand and using it well as a sound one. And thanks having been given to God, they returned home cheerful and exulting at the health of the said Ana, restored to her by the mercy of God and the merits and intercession of the Virgin Teresa, by means of the contact of her Relic.
[1141] juridically related by eyewitnesses Of which three witnesses depose, 94, 95 and 119, on the hundred and fourteenth article of the remissorial process of Salamanca. Of whom the first is María Rodríguez herself, a widow forty years of age, who accompanied Ana to the said monastery, and was present at all the above-mentioned. And the second Francisco Vázquez, stepson of the same Ana, twenty-two years of age, who deposes concerning the said infirmity and its lasting through a year, and says that the medicines did not help her, and that he saw Ana herself with María Rodríguez go out of the house with her hand thus contracted, when they had betaken themselves to the said monastery, to hear Mass and commend themselves to Mother Teresa of Jesus, and that afterwards, within two hours, the witness himself saw the same Ana returning from the monastery, with her hand altogether free and sound, so that she opened and closed and moved it, as if she had had no ill, and that thereafter in future she worked well with it. And she and María Rodríguez related to him how by the contact of the arm of the Servant of God she had immediately recovered health, which she always had while she lived. And we have judged that the deposition of this witness agrees in testimony with the preceding: for, although he was not present in the church at the time of the recovery of health and the working of the miracle, it seemed sufficient to us that concerning the infirmity and the time for which it lasted he was co-witness with the first. And while he saw the said Ana with her hand thus contracted going to the monastery with María Rodríguez, for the purpose of hearing Mass and commending herself to the Servant of God Teresa, and afterwards, after a space of two hours, saw Ana returning from the monastery with the same
hand of hers and altogether free of the said infirmity, the said miracle seems sufficiently proved; since in so short a time an infirmity so grave, and which had lasted for a year, could not be cured by natural means.
[1142] and by hearsay, To whom is added a third witness, a neighbour of the same Ana, relating this same fact from hearsay, on the day following that on which it happened, from the same Ana, whom he saw working well with her hands, and before he had seen her oppressed with the said infirmity and unable to work, and he asked her how the matter had gone: who narrated to him the above-mentioned miraculous fact. And all these three witnesses depose that this fact was held and has been held for a miracle worked by almighty God through the merits and intercession of His Servant Teresa of Jesus. And they conclude that concerning the aforesaid there was and is public voice and fame in that town of Alba. That the said proof is helped by this public fame was not doubted.
[1143] and to be called a miracle of the third order; From which we too have judged that this fact is proved and is a miracle, worked by Him through the merits and intercession of the same Servant of God, considering the quality, gravity and long duration of the infirmity, and the preceding prayer (which is regularly accustomed to precede miracles, according to St. Thomas, 2. 2, question 178, article 1, to the first argument), and also the recovery of entire health obtained in an instant by the contact of the arm of this Virgin Mother Teresa of Jesus, as we have fully noted above in other miracles concerning instantaneous health and through contact; and finally that this infirmity did not return to her any more, although she lived afterwards for six years. And we have thought that this is to be referred to the third grade of miracles.
[1144] 7° The rousing of a lethargic and feverish boy, Seventh miracle after death. The boy Don Antonio de Villarroel, five years of age, son of Don Diego de Villarroel, knight of Santiago, and of Doña María Álvarez de Luna his wife, inhabitants of Medina del Campo, fell into a dangerous infirmity called lethargy, with grave fever, which deprived him of his senses; and he could in no way be roused from sleep, however much they bound him with little cords on the arms and legs: still less did he come back to himself, nor did any medicines help him out of many applied over the many days for which the infirmity lasted. Hence he was already abandoned by the physicians and held by others as almost dead and without hope of life; nay, all the signs indicated him as it were dead. And then the said Doña María, his mother and devoted to the Virgin Teresa, sent to the convent of the Discalced Carmelite nuns of the same town, that they should send some Relic of the said Mother Teresa; and they sent a certain white linen cloth having some stains of the oil or liquor which emanates from the body of the Virgin Teresa. And she besought the said Mother Teresa for the health and remedy of her son, with the greatest confidence of obtaining it, and placed the said linen on the sick boy's head; and at once, or within one quarter of an hour, the said boy came back to himself, as cheerful and well as if he had suffered no infirmity, and called his mother and brothers, and there was no need of other medicines or remedies, because the fever also ceased at the same time, and he never fell back again into the said infirmity: and all who saw and knew this judged that it had been a miracle, and the mother held this son as it were raised up by the said Virgin Mother Teresa, whence she called and calls him the son of Mother Teresa; and on the following day Doctor Mercado and Doctor Polanco, the physicians who were treating the said boy, came to him, and hearing the outcome they wondered, and published it as a certain and clear miracle; and they asked leave, saying that they had nothing now to do there.
[1145] [concerning which there is extant the testimony of the mother and of the physician,] This fact is proved by the same Doña María, mother of the said boy, third witness in the 4th part of the remissorial of Toledo, fols. 1762 and 1810, and by Juan Bautista Polo on the aforesaid and on article 110, fol. 1913, deposing as eyewitnesses. To whom are added the twenty-first and third witnesses, nuns of the same Order, deposing on the said article 110 from hearsay, and all from public voice and fame. And three other witnesses, namely the first, second and third, on articles 4 and 5 in the same process declare that the said Doña María Álvarez is of good life and morals and fame and nobility, and such that entire credit can and ought to be given to her depositions in court and outside it; which qualification of the witness by other witnesses so deposing sufficiently assists her statement.
[1146] and which is declared a miracle of the third order; From which it seemed to us that this fact is proved and is to be ascribed to a miracle through the intercession of the Virgin Mother Teresa and the contact of her Relic. For there concur the conjectures considered elsewhere, concerning the gravity and danger of the infirmity of lethargy, and concerning the extremity of life to which it reduced the patient, so that he was held abandoned by the physicians, and by the rest as almost dead, with loss of senses and speech and other deadly signs. Likewise also there preceded the prayer of the boy's mother made to the Virgin Teresa. And finally, the contact of the aforesaid Relic being applied, there followed an instantaneous cure and health, so that the said infirmity never returned to this boy any more. We have judged that this miracle is to be referred to the third kind.
[1147] 8° The healing of a priest, with an abscess Eighth miracle after death. Francisco Pérez, rector of the church of St. Peter of Torre de Lobatón, of the diocese of Valladolid, from a certain infirmity was left with a certain abscess and hardness over the breastbone, and with one arm so contracted and weakened that he could not move it at all for five months nor celebrate Mass. For this reason he had recourse to physicians and a surgeon, who applied to him many and various medicaments, by which he was not at all bettered; nay, he seemed to tend to the worse, and the abscess always showed itself hard and rebellious, nor was it in any way softened. From all which he suffered immense pains, and was confined to lying in bed, without being able to move even there without help. Hence at the advice of a certain religious, a Discalced Carmelite, who told him that he should have great faith towards the Servant of God Teresa of Jesus, and should place, for recovering health, upon the affected parts a certain Relic of the said Virgin Teresa, which he gave him, namely a letter written and subscribed with the hand and name of the same Handmaid of God, which the sick man received with great devotion, and placed on his breast and the said hardness; and within half an hour he fell asleep almost until morning, although on other past nights he had in no way been able to take sleep. And when he awoke from the said sleep, the said hardness, to which the Relic had been applied, did not pain him; but the arm thus contracted, which the Relic did not touch, affected him with pain: and he experienced that in the part affected by pain on which the Relic was placed, the pain ceased, and returned to the part where the Relic was not, and so in turn the pain, according as the Relic was moved, ceased in the part where the Relic was applied. And four or six days after he began to apply the said Relic, the said abscess and hardness showed a sign of pus and matter, which the maturative medicaments previously applied by the physicians and surgeons could not effect. And so the said abscess was opened by the surgeon, with a great outflow of pus.
[1148] and suffering from a contraction of the arm, From which the sick man remained so grateful towards the Virgin Mother Teresa that he decided to go to Alba to visit her body; and leaving the medicaments which were being prepared for him for the cure of the arm, and at a suitable time, he took the road and made for Alba. And as soon as he arrived there, one day in the evening he betook himself to the convent of the nuns (where the said body is kept), and asked and obtained from the Mother Prioress that the arm of the Virgin Teresa be shown him. Which was placed on one altar of the church, and both he and Cristóbal de Torres, priest, who accompanied the said Francisco on this journey, venerated it. And both made prayer before the said arm, and before the tomb of the body of the Servant of God, and thence withdrew to their lodging. And when they were in bed, before day dawned, the said Francisco called the said Cristóbal in a loud voice, saying that he should get up, because he was moving the arm which he had had contracted, in the same manner as the other, sound arm. And Cristóbal answered that it was imagination or he must be dreaming. And when they rose in the morning, Francisco said: "Cristóbal, see that what I was telling you this night is true." And before him he moved, drew and raised the arm previously contracted, as the other. And they went off to the said monastery, and Francisco celebrated Mass there, which he had not been able to celebrate for five months; and the novena being finished, giving thanks to God and to His Servant Teresa, they returned to their home, suffering on the road very great rain and wind, which did no harm to Francisco, although before he was harmed by any air whatever. And never again (although he lived for some years) did he feel any of the said pains; but he died of another and different infirmity, pleurisy.
[1149] which, affirmed by most weighty men, The truth of this fact is proved by six witnesses; of whom one is the same Cristóbal de Torres, priest, parish rector of St. Peter of Torre de Lobatón and commissary of the Holy Inquisition, who was present at all the aforesaid, and deposes as an ocular witness and as eyewitness, and is the eighteenth on article 114 in the 3rd part of the remissorial of Toledo, fol. 1536. Another is Doctor Polo, physician, professor of medicine in the university of Valladolid, fourteenth witness on the same article 114 of the same process, fol. 1517: who treated this sick man, and deposes concerning his infirmities, and how the many remedies applied did not help; and that through letters and the report of the same Francisco he had knowledge of the above-mentioned instantaneous health, restored to him through the intercession of the said Virgin Teresa, as is said in the fact; and that he held and holds it for an evident miracle, and that it was not possible to obtain the said effect by natural means. And a report having been made by the same Doctor Polo, concerning the said infirmities and their state, to Doctor Vega, a famous physician of Valladolid, he too deposed that it had been a notorious miracle, and he is the twenty-fifth witness on article 116 of the same process. With whom concurs Doctor de Santa Cruz, priest, professor in the same university, twenty-fourth witness on the same article 114 of the same
process. To whom are added two other witnesses: Doña Antonia Pérez, nineteenth witness, niece of the same Francisco Pérez, and living in his house, fol. 1540, and Magdalena del Castillo, twentieth witness, also living in the same house, on the same 114th article, fol. 1542, deposing likewise concerning the same infirmities and the many remedies applied and availing nothing, and concerning the aforesaid instantaneous health thus miraculously recovered, and that Francisco went to Alba to visit the body of Mother Teresa, and returned to his home within a few days safe and altogether well, as he continued until death, and narrated to them the aforesaid manner of his recovered health. And almost all the aforesaid depose from public voice and fame.
[1150] is likewise reckoned a miracle of the third order; From which, taken together, we have reckoned that this fact is proved and is to be ascribed to a miracle of the third kind, worked by our Lord through the merits and intercession of His Servant Teresa of Jesus. For it is established concerning the gravity and long duration of the infirmities, and their rebelliousness, and that many remedies were applied by an experienced physician and surgeon, and served for nothing; nay, the ill increased daily. Likewise also it is established concerning the preceding prayer and the touch of the Relic of this Virgin on the breast and the abscess, and how the pain withdrew as the Relic approached; and that it ripened the said abscess, and from it flowed pus in great quantity, which the natural remedies applied could never effect. It is established concerning the sick man's going to visit the body of this Virgin, and concerning the devotion and prayer made to her; and how on the following night he was healed in an instant of the contracted arm, so that at once he moved it and drew it wherever he wished, as if he had never suffered any ill in it: and he so entirely recovered health that afterwards none of the said pains ever returned any more.
[1151] 9° The ceasing of the pains of a nobleman of Ávila, Ninth miracle after death. Don Gabriel Pacheco de Espinosa in the city of Ávila, having a little cloud in his eye, attempted to be cured by a certain surgeon; and while for its cure the master put a needle into the eye and kept it within the eye for half an hour, in the presence of three physicians, who, seeing how much harm the eye was suffering in the said cure, ordered the needle to be drawn out; as was done: and the patient remained affected with great pain in that part. From which not only did the pain of the eye increase, but also from this cause he was seized with most grievous pains from foot to the crown of the head, so that he lost his speech, and it was necessary that the household should hold him, lest he should tear his head with his fists. And in this meantime very many remedies and medicaments were applied to him by the physicians, and nevertheless the pains did not diminish, but rather seemed to increase. Hence Don Gabriel himself, moved by devotion towards the Handmaid of God Teresa, and commending himself to her very devoutly, asked that some Relic of hers be brought to him; which was brought by his father Luis from the monastery of the Discalced nuns. For Sister Teresa, a nun and niece of the Handmaid of God Teresa, gave him part of a tunic, and the father, having returned home with it, gave the aforesaid Relic to his sick son, and Mass having been celebrated by Father Herrera of the Society of Jesus, his confessor, in the private domestic oratory, and the Holy Eucharist having been received (the pains continuing and greatly tormenting the sick man), the same confessor placed the said Relic on the head and eye of the said Don Gabriel; and at once the sick man said the pains had altogether ceased, and in such a way that from that moment he remained free of the said pains and well, and thereafter felt the pains no more.
[1152] attested by himself and his father, his confessor and a physician, This fact is proved by the same Don Gabriel, tenth witness on article 114 in the remissorial process of Ávila, fol. 117, by Luis his father, second witness, fol. 78, by Father Juan de Herrera of the Society of Jesus, twenty-fourth witness on the same article, fol. 188, all as eyewitnesses. To whom is added Juan Bautista de Alcocer, royal physician, fifteenth witness on the same article, agreeing in testimony with the father and son concerning the infirmity and pains, and the remedies applied and availing nothing, and from hearsay from the same sick man concerning the application of the said Relic and the wonderful cure and instantaneous ceasing of the pains. Who as physician and philosopher declares that the said infirmity and pains could not have been cured in so short a space of time; because, since it was an infirmity caused with a flow and concourse of humours, and as it were habitual, it ought naturally to have been cured little by little, and the accidents had to be corrected over a long time: and since the sick man had been suddenly freed from the said pains, he concludes that it is a miraculous case and one exceeding natural causes. And that it was held for such a miracle the other witnesses agree.
[1153] and similarly to be referred to the third kind of miracles; We too without difficulty have judged that the aforesaid event is proved and is to be ascribed to a miracle of the third kind, worked by the merits and intercession of the Servant of God Teresa and the imposition of her aforesaid Relic, considering the gravity of the infirmity and of the pains gravely afflicting the patient for so many days, and the many remedies applied and availing nothing, and the preceding commendation devoutly made by the sick man to the Servant of God, and the application of the Relic to his head, and the instantaneous freeing from the pains that followed, and the health recovered, and that it did not return any more. All which things infer a miracle, from what was adduced at length above concerning other miracles.
[1154] 10° The healing of another nobleman, Tenth miracle after death. Don Juan de Leiva y Hermosilla in the year 1609 began to be vexed with a great disease of the throat, so that he was suffocating: and he was being treated by three physicians; and many remedies were applied to him, of blood-letting, cupping and anointings and other medicaments: yet they availed nothing. Nay, notwithstanding them, he was so pressed by the disease that he could not send food down to the stomach, except something very liquid, and with great difficulty and labour: so that two physicians told the sick man's mother that, if the disease of the throat opened, it would descend to the heart, and the sick man would die. Hence he confessed his sins with speed. And the mother, seeing him so struggling in extremity, and that human remedies were of no avail, sent to the monastery of the Discalced Carmelite nuns of that city of Valladolid (where she had one daughter a religious), asking them to commend her son much to God and to Mother Teresa; because he was placed in great danger. And the nuns offered to do so, and sent the Mother a certain Relic, namely a handkerchief of the Servant of God Teresa, that she might place it on the sick man; as it was placed on his throat, where the force of the disease was, the mother saying to the sick man: "Son, have great faith, and commend yourself much to the holy Mother." The son slept, and at about the second hour after midnight, having awoken, and sitting up in bed, said to his mother: "Now I am well, because the holy Mother Teresa of Jesus appeared to me with another religious, and pressed my throat with her hands, and at once I recovered and was well." The mother, somewhat incredulous, and fearing lest that action of sitting up in bed should be the occasion for more of the disease to descend to the heart, and her son to die, warned him to turn with his mouth downward, to take care since he was breathing out his soul. But he always insisted that he was well, as the truth showed: because from then he entirely recovered health, and ate and drank; nor were medicines any more necessary. And on that day or the following he rose from bed, and was never again affected either by that or by another infirmity. And the physicians, informed of this outcome, wondered to see the said sick man so restored to health.
[1155] known from the declaration of himself and his mother, The above-mentioned fact is proved by the same Don Juan, fifteenth witness on the 114th article in the 3rd part of the remissorial process of Toledo, fol. 1523; and by Doña Isabel de Paredes, mother of the same Don Juan, twenty-third co-witness, fol. 1556, concerning the quality of the infirmity, its gravity and danger, and concerning the various remedies and medicines applied and availing nothing, and concerning the last state of life to which the sick man came, and concerning the commendation made to the aforesaid nuns and to Mother Teresa, and the application of the said Relic to the sick man, and the working of the instantaneous health that followed, and that they held it for an evident miracle, and such was the public voice and fame. To which the same Don Juan adds that, the said Relic having been applied, the Handmaid of God Teresa of Jesus appeared to him in sleep, with another religious prostrate in her sight, as if asking health from her for the said sick man; and that the said Handmaid of God pressed his throat with her hands, and that at once, waking from sleep, he found himself well and safe. To whom are added two other witnesses, the second and seventh, on the third and fourth articles of the same process, deposing concerning the nobility, virtue and truthfulness and other endowments of mind of the said two witnesses, mother and son, and that they deserve that credit be given to their statements.
[1156] likewise of the third kind; From which we too have thought that this fact is proved and was a miracle worked through the merits and intercession of this Virgin and Handmaid of God, and deserves to be ascribed to the third kind of miracles. And we were moved by the gravity of the infirmity and the imminent danger of death to which the sick man came, and that neither the physicians nor the many medicines had helped at all, and that there preceded the commendation made to the Handmaid of God and the application of her Relic on the patient's throat; and there followed his entire freeing from the disease and instantaneous health recovered. And the apparition of the Virgin Teresa made to this sick man in sleep, with the application of the Virgin's hand to the sick man's throat, seemed to press not a little. Concerning which apparition, although the sick man alone deposes, and the mother from hearsay from him, given the quality of this noble knight and one much adorned with virtues, it seemed to us that the said apparition is proved; since it is a case which cannot be proved by another, and of those which are proved by single witnesses, as we have shown above concerning the wonders which occurred at the death of the Handmaid of God.
[1157] 11° Of a gravely ill novice Eleventh miracle after death. A novice of the monastery of the Discalced Carmelite nuns in the town of Medina del Campo, then called Juana del Espíritu Santo, fourteen years of age, fell into a continual fever, which lasted her for a year and a half, to which other infirmities were added, namely an arthritic disease with contraction of the sinews, and a certain sciatica, and a certain impediment
of all the sinews, so that she could neither move in bed nor eat with her own hands, except with the help of other nuns, and with violent affections of the heart and swooning and pains of the head. And very many remedies were administered to her, and she was purged more than forty times, and as many blood-lettings were given by two physicians and one surgeon, who were treating her; and at length they said that the said Juana would not recover health unless she returned to her native air. And when on the day of the Circumcision she asked to be brought to the choir to hear Mass and receive the Holy Eucharist (as she was brought in the arms of the nuns), having received Holy Communion, she could not hear Mass: nay, while it lasted she remained senseless, and the other religious carried her to her cell, not daring to undress her, but so clothed they laid her on a certain small couch. And the physicians coming said that in the aforesaid moving and in carrying her thus to the choir they had placed her in danger of losing her life.
[1158] a sudden cure, And she having often asked for a certain Relic of the Handmaid of God, the Virgin Teresa, while she was in this state the infirmarian brought her a Relic, which she received with the greatest devotion. And it was a certain fragment of a band, made from a certain mantle of the said Mother Teresa, and she placed it on her neck. And she began greatly to tremble within and without, and to be distressed with pains; whence she wished to remove the Relic from herself: yet a certain religious standing there said to her: "Have faith; and be still. For what do you know of the works of God, what limits they have?" Which happened at the third hour after midday. And the sick girl began to be still, and the pains to diminish; so that at the fourth hour next following she had no pain, and seemed to have suffered no ill. And she rose without the help of another; and stood on her feet with the greatest agility. And both she and the nun who was with her, embracing each other, wept for joy, exultation and devotion; so that the other religious feared that something worse had befallen the sick girl, and came at the noise. And the sick girl herself, leaping up, went down by a certain staircase having twenty-four steps, no one helping her, and ran to have the blessing of the Mother Prioress: who, seeing her, terrified asked what that was; and she, weeping, answered: "They are the mercies of God, worked through our holy Mother." And some nuns seeing her were astounded, and believed they were seeing a vision. And all brought her to the choir to give thanks to God. In which act they sang the hymn "Te Deum laudamus". Which being heard by a certain chaplain and confessor of those nuns and other persons, they ran up, believing that the said Juana had died, and that the nuns were performing some Office for her. And having heard of the miraculous event, they were filled with wonder, and wished to see her; as they saw her well and walking quickly.
[1159] by the sworn testimony of herself and of several nuns Of the truth of which fact and miraculous event there depose Juana del Espíritu Santo herself, now a nun at Madrid, of the Order of St. Bernard, and called (as in the world) Doña Juana de Torres, 41 years of age, and twenty-eighth witness in the first part of the remissorial of Toledo, on 116; and with her concur as eyewitnesses the third, fifth, eleventh and twenty-first witnesses, Discalced Carmelite nuns of the monastery of Medina, in the 4th part of the same remissorial of Toledo, examined at Medina del Campo, on article 112: among whom is María de San Francisco, at that time infirmarian, and Juana de Jesús, companion of the said infirmarian. And besides the aforesaid, the sick girl herself testifies that three days before the said event, when she had several times asked for the said Relic, and the infirmarian had altogether forgotten, at the ninth hour of the night the pains most of all vexed her: and being so, and desiring that some infirmarian come to the cell, she saw three religious enter, and took them for infirmarians; and as one dulled by illness, she said nothing else but: "Sisters, turn me, because I feel myself very ill." Of whom two approached her, and did the office of infirmarian, and turned her; and then she saw that they were three. And of them she knew one to be Mother Teresa of Jesus: who, having a cross in her hands, brought it to her face, and said: "Be of good heart, for soon your labours will cease", and at once they vanished. And she perceived a certain fragrance, which the Relics of the aforesaid Mother Teresa are wont to have, and during those three days she was most oppressed by the said disease and pains.
[1160] confirmed, And again on the same night after the recovery of health (being, she does not know whether asleep or awake) she again saw the said Mother Teresa of Jesus in that manner in which she had seen her before, yet alone. And she approached the said Juana, and taking her left arm with her hand, said to her: "I hold you for a daughter, and on all occasions I will help you: strive, and serve God truly." And Juana asked the Servant of God whether she was to make profession in the Order. And the Virgin Mother Teresa answered her: "In this thought the will of God will be fulfilled in all things." And then Juana was roused from sleep, and again began to perceive the same fragrance of the Relics of the aforesaid Mother Teresa of Jesus, and remained confused, and communicated this with the prioress and the subprioress, who was her mistress: who answered her that she could be secure that it had been the mercy and truth of God that the holy Mother had appeared to her, and that she should be silent until the opportune time; as she was silent until the day of this her deposition.
[1161] in which the genuine marks of a miracle are shown to be present; Which miraculous event was judged by us to be proved and to be ascribed to a notable miracle. To which the circumstances can easily lead: namely the gravity and complication of the infirmities, and their long duration, most of all in the tender and weak subject of this girl of fourteen years, and so many medicines and remedies applied without any progress, and the devotion and petition for the Relic of the Servant of God so many times by the sick girl, and the application of the Relic (which denote her devotion, confidence and hope), and finally the instantaneous and sudden recovery of health, without the infirmity returning any more. Nor did it seem to us that anything is detracted from this miracle by the fact that, the Relic having been applied to the patient's neck, the pains increased and caused her the greatest anxiety: as the Archdeacon notes on the said chapter "Nec mirum", no. 9, 26, question 5; whom Giacomo Castellani cites and follows, treatise de Canonizatione, question 6, at the beginning, verse "Quæro an sit contra". And it is evident from Mark 9, at: "And crying out, and greatly tearing him, he went out of him, and he became as dead, so that many said: He is dead"; whatever Troilus may wish, said treatise, doubt 3, no. 54.
[1162] 12° Health suddenly restored to a dying nun, Twelfth miracle after death. Sister Magdalena de la Madre de Dios, a nun of the monastery of St. Joseph at Ávila, of this same Order, although she entered the Order healthy, in the year of her profession began to be vexed with various infirmities, as for two and a half years she was vexed by them; and in particular she began to feel a certain pain in one eye like a branch of carbuncle: on occasion of which they quite often drew blood from her veins. To which was added a certain grave infirmity of the stomach, which in a short time brought forth in the upper part of the stomach a certain hard abscess, larger on one side, and at the same time she was seized with great pain of the brain and heart, joined with many tremblings and outcries, which increased as the abscess grew. And since medicines did not help her, and the physicians feared the death of the sick woman when the abscess should have reached the heart, to which it was coming very near, they decided to make an issue or seton on her. Yet when this was done, the pain of the heart and the other accidents grew much more; so that every swelling which she had was a cause to her of tremblings and outcries, and she remained as if dead. To which were added great swoonings of the soul, nay a very severe falling sickness with grave palpitations of the heart: and the swoonings lasted her for three or four or five hours, and she struck herself, trembling and crying out. Hence they came to administering to her the Holy Viaticum and the Sacrament of Extreme Unction. After the receiving of which an immense frenzy came upon her. And when she was seized by the said excessive pain of the heart, it was necessary that four or more nuns should attend her and hold her, lest she should tear and lacerate herself. And she came to a state in which she could neither eat anything nor drink nor even swallow a drop of water. The physicians at length decided to nourish her with woman's milk. And though it was done, yet it profited nothing. Hence the physicians no longer knew what to do, nor what to expect except death.
[1163] suddenly restored, In which state she herself asked to be carried to a certain hermitage existing in the garden of that convent, which the Virgin Teresa of Jesus had caused to be built, and to have an image of our Lord Jesus Christ at the pillar painted there, and that there should be placed there a certain Relic, namely a certain little linen cloth stained with the blood of the said Virgin; as was done, and the sick woman was carried in the arms of the religious to the said hermitage at the first hour after midday. And when she had come to its door, with eyes fixed on the said Relic, with great faith of recovering health through the merits and intercession of the said Virgin Teresa, she felt great relief and strength, so that she asked the religious who were carrying her to let her go; as they did. And then she without the help of another, with great speed, as if she had had no ill, went to the feet of the said image of Christ. And at the very moment she reached it, she remained well and with entire health; and she assisted on bended knees at the litanies which the other sisters were reciting for her before the said holy image, with the commemoration of Mother Teresa and the thanksgiving which the sisters were making. And then she rose, and at once they offered her food and drink; and she ate and drank, as if she had had no infirmity. And thence at the second hour after midday she attended the choir for Vespers with the other religious, and on the following night Matins; and from then on she followed the choir and the community, and after a few days the whole rigour of the rule and the penance of the Order. And although the aforesaid abscess remained, nevertheless from then on it did not afflict her. And trusting in the same divine mercy, and in the merits and intercession of Mother Teresa, that she was to be healed of this infirmity also, as of the others,
she asked that they apply to her a Relic of Mother Teresa upon her stomach; as it was applied to her by the hands of Sister Inés de Jesús: and at once she began to feel the greatest relief in the abscess, so that she said to the sisters that without doubt the abscess was dissolved; as it was entirely dissolved within a few days, without any remains or sign of the said abscess remaining, as if she had never had it.
[1164] as she herself with others attested, This fact is confirmed from the deposition of the same Sister Magdalena de la Madre de Dios, who is the fifty-third witness, fol. 428; of Inés de Jesús, fifty-second, fol. 425; of Ana de los Ángeles, fifty-fourth, fol. 447; of Petronila Bautista, fifty-fifth, fol. 463 verso; of Teresa de Jesús, sixtieth witness, on the 81st article, fol. 506, all nuns of the same monastery; and of Luis Amador, physician, who was treating this sick woman, on article 114, fol. 137: all in the remissorial process of Ávila. All of whom confirmed the said fact and judged it miraculous; above all the said physician, who affirms that by natural or artificial means or medicines she could not have been so suddenly healed, except miraculously. To whom agree Juan Bautista, knight of the military Order of Santiago, governor of the said city of Ávila, first witness; and Miguel González Vaquero, cleric and chaplain of the same convent, thirteenth witness; and Juan Fernández Porcel, first lieutenant of Ávila, sixteenth witness: all on the said article 114, in the same remissorial process of Ávila, deposing from hearsay and from public voice and fame in that city. As also there deposes from hearsay Francisco de Mena, thirty-sixth witness, priest and chaplain of the same convent, on the same article 114; who adds that on the same day on which the said miraculous fact happened, in the evening, the witness saw the said Sister Magdalena good and well: whence he gathers that health was miraculously restored to her.
[1165] which was a miracle of the third order. From which we too have judged that the aforesaid fact is proved and is a miracle worked by our Lord through the merits and intercession of the Virgin Mother Teresa, and is to be ascribed to the third order. To which the above-mentioned circumstances have led us: namely the gravity, complication and diversity of the infirmities, and so great a length of time, and the extremity of life to which they brought the patient; likewise also the preceding prayer, and the application of the Relic, and the health recovered on the instant. All which things, for concluding a miracle, we have left sufficiently proved in the miracles above to suffice. Nor did it seem that anything is to be subtracted from the said miracle because the cure of the abscess did not take place entirely on the instant: both because in respect of the other most grave infirmities the cure was instantaneous; and in respect of them the miracle is evident. But as to the said abscess, it too seems healed in an instant; since, though it remained, nevertheless it did not afflict the patient. From which it is drawn out that its malignity had ceased; yet though the swelling and hardness lasted for a few days, nothing is diminished of the miracle on that account; as in a wound miraculously cured, although a scar remained for some time: from what is delivered by the Archdeacon, said chapter "Nec mirum", no. 8, 26, question 5; and there Bellamera, no. 7, and on chapter 1 de Reliquiis et veneratione Sanctorum; where also the Collector, no. 7; Giacomo Castellani as above, principal question 6, verse "Quæro an sit necesse" throughout; and it was confirmed in other canonizations of Saints.
[1166] [It is concluded that Teresa can be enrolled among the Blessed, nay even the Saints,] From all which, the validity of the processes and the holiness of life having been presupposed, as already confirmed by the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Cardinals of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, we have judged that it must be concluded that this cause is in such a state that, according to the rite of the Holy Roman Church and the disposition of the Sacred Canons (if it please Your Holiness), one can proceed not only to granting the faculty of reciting the Office and celebrating the solemnities of Masses of this Servant of God Teresa of Jesus, as of a Blessed Virgin, in the whole Order of Discalced Carmelites and in the kingdoms of the Spains, but also to her solemn canonization and enrolment in the number of the Saints, in the accustomed form of the Church.
[1167] both on account of these miracles, After this Report on the miracles of St. Teresa, before the Brief of her beatification was issued, the same auditors of the Sacred Rota briefly disclosed their opinion on the validity of the processes and on the virtues exercised by the Servant of God in heroic degree, in this manner: Most Blessed Father. After by command of Your Holiness and by Your special commission we had discussed the miracles worked by God our Lord through the intercession of that Servant of God Teresa of Jesus, Foundress of the new Reform of the Discalced Carmelites, and had judged that many signal ones, which we found done both in life and at her most happy death and after death, were to be approved as miracles, and had so reported to Your Holiness: since thereafter we had in command from You that we should also examine the processes compiled concerning the life, virtues, holiness and miracles of the same Handmaid of God, in fulfilment of which, assembled once and again at home in the presence of the Most Illustrious Cardinal Lancellotti, earnestly and with what maturity and diligence we could, we examined the said processes, both remissorial and compulsorial, formed in virtue of the preceding opportune letters issued from the Sacred Congregation of Rites, by virtue of a Brief of Your Holiness, before the bishops of Salamanca and Ávila respectively, and before the Most Illustrious Cardinal archbishop of Toledo and various judges delegated by him, and judged them to have been constructed in probative form, with all due observances observed, and the witnesses contained in them to have been legitimately examined, with all the necessary citations, oaths and other things required by law, and among them we found many most weighty men in lineage as well as dignity and evident holiness, whose statements also we weighed.
[1168] From which we have judged that it is clearly established also concerning the virtues and the excellent holiness of this Servant of God. then also on account of her outstanding virtues. So that from the inspection of the aforesaid, joined with the above-mentioned Report on the miracles, we have thought it must without doubt be resolved (as we judged in the same Report) that this cause is in such a state that, according to the rite of the Holy Roman Church and the disposition of the Sacred Canons (if it please Your Holiness), one can proceed not only to granting the faculty of reciting the Office and celebrating the solemnities of Masses of this Servant of God Teresa, as of a Virgin, in the whole aforesaid Order of the Discalced of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and in the kingdoms of the Spains, but also to her solemn canonization, in the accustomed form of the Church. In faith whereof we have subscribed a Report of this kind with our own hands. Rome, 2nd January, in the year of the Lord 1614. F. Sacrati, archbishop. G. B. Coccini. A. Manzanedo.
§ LX. The second Report of the Auditors of the Rota made to Pope Paul V: on the informative, remissorial and compulsorial processes, and on the life of Blessed Teresa and her holiness in general.
After the Report on the miracles, Most Blessed Father. In the Report made by us to Your Holiness concerning the miracles worked by God, Best and Greatest, through the intercession and merits of the Blessed Virgin Teresa of Jesus, nun and Foundress of the new Reform of the Order of the Discalced of the Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel, we resolved, the validity of the processes and the holiness of life of the same Blessed Virgin being presupposed, as already confirmed by the Sacred Congregation of Rites, that the cause was found in that state that, according to the disposition of the Holy Roman Church and of the Sacred Canons (if it please Your Holiness), one could proceed not only to the beatification of this holy Virgin, but also to her solemn canonization and enrolment in the number of the Saints. After that, by command of Your Holiness and together with the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Cardinal Lancellotti, we diligently saw and examined the aforesaid processes, and not only found them juridically constructed and all the witnesses legitimately examined, but also declared that it was excellently established from them concerning the heroic virtues, excellence of faith and holiness of life of the aforesaid Blessed Teresa; and thus we judged that we must persist in the first vote related above.
[1170] Teresa being now enrolled among the Blessed, These things having been done, by order of Your Holiness, all the aforesaid having again been revised and approved in the same Sacred Congregation of Rites by the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Cardinals set over it, and a Report having been made by them to Your Holiness, it pleased Your Holiness by Your letters in the form of a Brief to grant licence and faculty that henceforth in future every year, on the day of the deposition of this Blessed Virgin, in all monasteries and churches of the aforesaid Order of the Discalced, the Office and Mass of the aforesaid Blessed Teresa, as of a Virgin, might be recited and celebrated respectively by all religious of both sexes of the same Order; and also that in the monastery and church of the town of Alba of the diocese of Salamanca (in which the body of this Blessed Virgin is honourably kept and venerated whole and incorrupt) a Mass of the same Blessed one might also be celebrated as above by all priests, secular or regular, as is contained more at length in the above-mentioned letters; whose disposition has obtained its effect as to all things in almost all the kingdoms and provinces in which the Catholic faith flourishes, with the greatest joy and incredible and universal gladness of all the faithful, nay with indescribable demonstrations of the same gladness, namely hymns and canticles, most solemn processions and other signs of gladness, as we shall say below in its place.
[1171] by command of the Supreme Pontiff But since on the part of the Catholic king Philip III and of the whole aforesaid Order of the Discalced of the Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel instance had afterwards been made to Your Holiness for the solemn canonization of this Blessed Virgin Teresa, it pleased the same Your Holiness by Your special commission to commit and command us that in this cause we should proceed to its examination necessary for its integral completion, as is contained more at length in the letters of commission. Although from the above-mentioned it appears that it had already been resolved and confirmed by the same Sacred Congregation of Rites, and that it is established by us, even for the effect of solemn canonization, concerning the juridical construction of the processes and the legitimate examination of the witnesses, and also concerning the excellence of faith and the heroic virtues and holiness of life of this Blessed Virgin Teresa, nay also concerning the many and great miracles worked by God in life and in death and afterwards through her merits and intercession; nevertheless, because concerning the aforesaid a complete Report was made by us, according to the commission of Your Holiness then directed to us, concerning the miracles only, not however concerning the validity and legality of the processes and the holiness of life of this Blessed Virgin, and in similar causes of canonization the Report is wont to be extended to all the aforesaid, therefore to this end, that an integral Report concerning
this cause of canonization might be made, and be joined together with the aforesaid Report on the miracles made by us, we have come to extend it thus: on which occasion we have again examined the aforesaid processes and the examination of witnesses concerning the virtues and holiness of life of Blessed Teresa anew and with what diligence we could, many congregations having been held; and the things which we judged were to be noted from this examination we have thought fit to report to Your Holiness.
[1172] a Report was also drawn up on the virtues, Which Report indeed will consist of two parts. In the first of which the construction of the processes and the examination of witnesses will be treated; and it will contain three articles: for in the first there will be treatment of the first informative processes made respectively by the Most Reverend Nuncio of the Spains and the Bishop of Salamanca, and of the others constructed in the regions concerning the general inquiry by apostolic authority; in the second article the remissorial processes compiled in the regions concerning the special inquiry, also by apostolic authority, will be treated; in the third article finally there will be discourse of the compulsorial processes. And the second part will contain the things concerning the holiness of life of the Blessed Virgin Teresa, and her wonderful virtues, graces and gifts, which, while she lived among men, she merited to obtain from almighty God by His divine mercy… And the miracles, which would finally come as a third part in order to be connected with the foregoing, lest we repeat them again, referring ourselves to what was set forth at length and confirmed in the aforesaid other Report made particularly concerning them to Your Holiness, we confirm that Report as to all its parts.
[1173] First part. First article. After the happy death in the Lord of the Blessed Virgin Teresa on the 4th of October 1582, both from those instituted by the Nuncio and the bishop of Salamanca the fame of her holiness and of the miracles worked by almighty God through her merits and intercession began to resound and be spread abroad from every side so celebrated, both in various parts of the Spains and in very many other regions of the Christian commonwealth, that, the devotion and veneration of her name and Relics growing daily more and more, even among most weighty men, the Most Reverend Prelates, the patriarch Camillo Caetani, Nuncio in the kingdoms of the Spains, by himself and by sixteen other judges constituted in ecclesiastical dignity, delegated by him, and the bishop of Salamanca (in whose diocese, namely in the monastery of Alba, the body of this Blessed Virgin was found and venerated whole and incorrupt) ex officio, and for the perpetual memory of the matter and also the everlasting glory of God and the honour of the Blessed Virgin Teresa, in the first place began to form processes concerning the holiness of the same Virgin and the working of miracles.
[1174] informative processes, These having been transmitted to the curia, at the instance of the Reverend Father General of the aforesaid Order of the Discalced of the Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel, and at the supplication both of the Catholic king Philip II and of Philip III, Catholic king, and of Queen Margaret his wife, and of very many and most weighty prelates, grandees, churches, universities, kingdoms and cities of those parts of the Spains pressing for the canonization of this Blessed Virgin before Pope Clement VIII of happy memory, the same Pontiff, by his Brief in special form, committed this cause to the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Cardinals set over the Sacred Congregation of Rites; as more at length in the Brief itself, in the compulsorial process of Ávila, fol. 226: by virtue of which the same Sacred Congregation by letters commissioned the Most Reverend Bishops of Ávila and Salamanca respectively to form diligently an inquiry in general concerning the above-premised fame of holiness, devotion of the people and miracles; as was done, and the processes transmitted to Rome to the same Sacred Congregation: and these having been maturely discussed by order of Your Holiness, on the 16th day of January 1607, Cardinal Pamphili of good memory reporting, it was unanimously resolved and confirmed by the same Most Illustrious Cardinals of the same Congregation that all things contained in the aforesaid inquiries were such that one could justly and reasonably proceed to further steps in this cause of canonization; as is contained in the Brief of Your Holiness in the aforesaid compulsorial process of Ávila, fols. 4 and 5.
[1175] then from three remissorial ones, In which also it appears that, instances having meanwhile been made previously to Your Holiness by the aforesaid Catholic king Philip III and by all the kingdoms of the Spains, and also on the part of the aforesaid Order of the Discalced, Your Holiness committed and enjoined on the same Sacred Congregation of Rites that it should proceed to further steps in this cause. And in virtue of this Brief the same Sacred Congregation dispatched remissorial letters, together with the roll of articles formally admitted in the curia by the same Sacred Congregation, and the interrogatories given by the fiscal advocate of the faith concerning the special inquiry to be made of the aforesaid. And it directed them to three judges respectively in the regions: namely to the Most Illustrious Cardinal de Rojas, archbishop of Toledo, with faculty of subdelegating to such judges as seemed good to him; and to the Most Reverend Bishops of Ávila and Salamanca, or their vicars general. And by each of the said three judges, in virtue of the aforesaid apostolic letters, remissorial and compulsorial processes were constructed juridically and with due observances observed; as will appear from what follows.
[1176] of which one the archbishop of Toledo Second article. § I. In the first place the aforesaid remissorial letters with the said roll of articles and the interrogatories of the fiscal advocate were presented to the same Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Cardinal de Rojas, archbishop of Toledo, by the legitimate procurator of the Reverend Father Fr. Ildefonso de Jesús María, General of the Order of Discalced Carmelites. Which Lord Cardinal, having accepted the apostolic jurisdiction committed to him, since the witnesses to be examined were living in various places, both within the same diocese of Toledo and outside it, subdelegated as judges for the examination of witnesses various persons constituted in ecclesiastical dignity: namely the Most Reverend Bishop of Chiapa for the town of Madrid and for the whole archdiocese of Toledo. And he deputed as principal notary of this cause Francisco Ortiz de Salcedo, apostolic notary, and as messenger-courier Juan Scarón; from whom he received an oath of faithful discharge. And afterwards, on account of impediments of the same bishop of Chiapa, in his place the same Lord Cardinal subdelegated Doctor Don Juan de Almaraz, archdeacon of Villaviciosa in the church of Oviedo, with faculty of deputing notaries and messengers, etc., and with an express order to remit all the processes constructed by him in any place of the aforesaid diocese of Toledo to the aforesaid Lord Bishop of Chiapa and the said notary Francisco Ortiz de Salcedo, residing at Madrid and deputed in the first place by the same Lord Cardinal.
[1177] through grave men deputed by himself By which two judges, namely the bishop of Chiapa and Doctor Juan de Almaraz, very many witnesses were examined respectively in seven towns: namely Toledo, Madrid, Ocaña, Yepes, Consuegra, Malagón, Daimiel. And the same Most Illustrious Lord Cardinal de Rojas subdelegated the other remaining judges, with the same faculties and order above-mentioned: namely Don Gabriel Suárez de Toledo, archdeacon and canon of the church of Toledo, and Don Álvaro de Quiroga, also canon of the same church, and each of them in solidum, for examining witnesses in the town of Cuerva of the same diocese of Toledo, which aforesaid Don Álvaro de Quiroga made this information; the Most Reverend Father Fr. Pedro de Villanueva, prior of the monastery of St. Jerome, for the town of Talavera of the diocese of Toledo, and for the town of Arenas of the diocese of Ávila; and Don Martín Manso, archdeacon of Bilbao in the church of Calahorra-La Calzada and vicar general of the same diocese, for the city of La Calzada; and for the city of Zaragoza Don Cristóbal Blancas, cantor of the church of Zaragoza; and for the city and bishopric of Tarazona Don Pedro de Gotor, cantor and canon of the church of Tarazona and vicar general of the same bishopric; and for the city of Segovia Don Luis Cabeza de Villegas, canon penitentiary of the cathedral church of the same city; and for the city of Burgos Don García Portocarrero, vicar general of the archdiocese of Burgos; and for the town of Alcalá the Reverend Father Felipe de Tarsis, abbot of the monastery of St. Bernard of the Cistercian Order; and for the city and bishopric of Cuenca Don Fernando de Granada y Venegas, cantor of the church of Cuenca; and for the city of Valladolid Don Francisco Sobrino, canon magistral of the cathedral church of Valladolid; likewise for the city of Málaga Don Diego de Trejo, archdeacon in the church of Málaga; and for the city of Granada Doctor Montoya and Don Pedro de Molina, canons of Granada, and each of them in solidum; and although both together accepted the jurisdiction, and deputed a notary and courier, and received from them the customary oath, nevertheless the said Doctor Pedro de Molina alone carried on the information; but for the town of Medina del Campo Father Baltasar de León, prior of the convent of St. Dominic of the same town.
[1178] to be duly drawn up All of which judges thus subdelegated by the said Most Illustrious Cardinal of Toledo, being requested by the legitimate procurators of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, with the letters of subdelegation, in which the remissorial letters of the Sacred Congregation of Rites were inserted, each of them accepted the jurisdiction, and deputed a notary and messenger, and received from them the customary oath of faithful discharge; designated the place, days and hours for examining witnesses; and the witnesses having been cited to submit themselves to examination, and from each of them an oath to tell the truth having been formally received, proceeded to the examination of the said witnesses, first interrogating each of them according to the tenor of the interrogatories of the fiscal advocate, and these being satisfied, examining them according to the tenor of the articles of the roll: and finally each deposition of the said witnesses was subscribed both by the witness who knew how to write, and by the judge and notary. And all the witnesses in each of the aforesaid cities and towns having been thus examined, their depositions together with the acts, closed and sealed in their own originals, were transmitted to the same bishop of Chiapa and the notary Francisco Ortiz de Salcedo, for the purpose of joining and compiling into one all the aforesaid processes, according to the order prescribed in the letters of subdelegation directed to the aforesaid judges.
[1179] and had seen to its being sent to Rome, Which bishop of Chiapa, all the above-mentioned remissorial processes having been carried to him and to the aforesaid notary Francisco Ortiz de Salcedo, and received by them and joined and continued together with that constructed by the bishop himself in the town of Madrid, and at the instance of the legitimate procurator of the said Order, proceeded before the said notary Francisco Ortiz to the transumpt of the said processes thus coupled into one, and to their hearing and collation, nay also to their closing and remission to the Sacred Congregation of Rites, and to this effect to the nomination of a faithful bearer, the customary oath having been received from him; as the event itself taught that they were faithfully transported. Since indeed the aforesaid process, whose title is: "Remissorials of Toledo", thus closed and sealed, and transmitted to the City, and presented before the Sacred Congregation of Rites, and opened by its order, by a faithful and legitimate
interpreter, namely Giovanni Girolamo Ravasa, appears well and faithfully translated from the Spanish into the Latin tongue. And from this process so interpreted we caused authentic copies to be transcribed, for greater convenience, by the notary of this cause deputed by us, namely Giovanni Battista Martelli, one of the notaries of the Sacred Rota; of which one was handed to each of us, containing four parts or volumes, namely the first, second, third and fourth part of the remissorial process of Toledo. And all the four aforesaid parts are comprised in 1985 leaves. Which things we have judged must be noted beforehand for a clearer understanding of the things which will be found repeated throughout the present Report concerning this process, its parts and leaves.
[1180] but the bishops of Salamanca and Ávila had sent the others, § II. The aforesaid remissorial letters of the Sacred Congregation, directed respectively to the Most Reverend Bishops of Salamanca and Ávila and their vicars, with the clause "and to each", were presented by the legitimate procurators of the said Order of the Discalced to the aforesaid bishops, each residing in his own diocese, together with the roll and the interrogatories of the fiscal advocate: and the jurisdiction having been accepted by them, each deputed a notary and courier, an oath of faithful discharge having been taken, and days and hours were designated for fulfilling the office enjoined on them. And the Most Reverend Bishop of Salamanca, both in the city of Salamanca and in the town of Alba of the same diocese, whither he betook himself in person, put into execution the commission directed to him. But the Bishop of Ávila, being hindered, remitted that commission of his to the vicar general of the same bishopric; who also examined the witnesses. And both bishops in the execution of the said letters observed the same order expressed and observed in the examination of witnesses before the judges subdelegated by the Most Illustrious Cardinal of Toledo, as was said above in the immediately preceding §, and in collating and closing the said processes, and handing them to a faithful bearer, and also in receiving from him an oath to transport them faithfully to the City; as was fulfilled. It is established also concerning the presentation of the aforesaid processes before the Sacred Congregation of Rites, and also concerning their opening and translation by legitimate interpreters from the Spanish into the Latin tongue. And the process inscribed "Remissorial of Salamanca" contains two parts, the first and second; but the remissorial of Ávila is comprised in a single volume. Of which authentic copies also were handed to us, as was said of the remissorial processes of Toledo.
[1181] then finally from three compulsorial ones. Third article. Three other compulsorial processes were also constructed in the regions by apostolic authority. The first at Toledo, by the Most Illustrious Cardinal de Rojas and the judges subdelegated by him; the second at Salamanca, by the Most Reverend Bishop of that diocese; the third at Ávila, by the Most Reverend Prelate of that church and his vicar general: and all seemed to us sufficiently compulsated and juridically constructed. For the aforesaid judges had jurisdiction granted them by letters of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, by virtue of a Brief of Your Holiness, with express faculty granted to the Most Illustrious Cardinal of Toledo of subdelegating whom he pleased for this purpose; as he did. Nay, the letters of commission were directed to the vicar general of Ávila together with the bishop, and to each of them. Hence there can be no doubt of the jurisdiction of the said judges. Who, after they had been requested with the aforesaid letters by the legitimate procurator of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, accepted the jurisdiction; deputed notaries and couriers, and received from them an oath of faithful discharge; designated the place, days and hours for performing the acts and examining the witnesses. The archivists and other private persons, in whose possession the writings to be compulsated were found, having been cited, exhibited the aforesaid writings existing in their possession: and a recognition of them and of the archives having been made by witnesses legitimately examined, the judges decreed that the aforesaid writings be compulsated; and when compulsated, that they be heard, sealed, closed and handed to a faithful messenger with the customary oath, for the purpose of their transmission to the City: as is found to have been fulfilled in effect. And it is established similarly concerning those aforesaid compulsorial processes that the same things were observed in the curia as in the other remissorial processes; as was said above, article 2.
[1182] Teresa, from tender years, to piety Second part. First article. The Blessed Virgin Teresa was born in Spain, in the city of Ávila, in the year of the Lord 1515, on March 28, of noble parents, Alonso de Cepeda and Doña Beatriz de Ahumada, Christian and lawful spouses; and baptized according to the rite of the Holy Roman Church, and piously brought up by her parents: so that from her very childhood it could easily be conjectured what the future holiness of this Blessed Virgin would be. For when she was about in her seventh year, with incredible maturity of mind she began to meditate on and wonder at eternal glory and punishment; so much that she quite often repeated these words: "For ever, for ever, for ever." This sense of God growing strong, she was intent not only on prayer and love of solitude, but (what is altogether rare and wonderful in tender age), when she read the histories of the Martyrs, she so burned with desire of Martyrdom that, by agreement with the boy Rodrigo, her own brother, having gone out of her father's house and from the city, she eagerly began the journey across the bridge nearest the city, intending to make for Africa (compare no. 66 of this Commentary), that she might be slain by the Saracens for Christ. Being at once prevented from pursuing which by a certain uncle of hers who perhaps met them, she returned home most sorrowful. For the rest, being compelled to return, what she could not obtain by the success of Martyrdom she took care to supply by many pious actions and pious tears and alms, which she could bestow in her state and tender age.
[1183] and to prayer And when she completed her twelfth year, being bereft of her mother, she humbly and earnestly besought the Most Blessed Virgin and Mother of the only-begotten Son of God that she would deign to be in the place of a mother to her; which she is believed to have happily obtained. At this very time she began to taste the first-fruits of prayer, of which she was to be a signal mistress. At this very childish age, when she had seen painted in a picture the Samaritan woman thus asking Christ: "Lord, give me this water", she burned with desire of that heavenly water, and often begged it of Christ the Lord, and, as appears from the effects, copiously obtained it. Of all which things, as above, very many witnesses depose: especially the sixth witness, fol. 96; and the eleventh, fol. 120; and the forty-third, fol. 225; and the forty-ninth, fol. 332: all in the remissorial process of Ávila on articles 2 and 3; and the forty-seventh witness in the remissorial of Salamanca, fol. 625.
[1184] devoting herself, From which pious acts and exercises of Blessed Teresa in her childhood it is easily discerned that our Lord Jesus Christ prevented in her very childhood His Handmaid, whom He had decreed to promote to a sublime degree of holiness; so that from the things which she as a tender child meditated and did, the excellence of her future holiness could be presaged. Which is familiar to the divine Wisdom, that those whom it has determined to advance to exceptional holiness it prevents from their earliest age with a particular grace, and shows beforehand their future piety from its very beginning. Which is seen not only in the withdrawal of St. John the Baptist into the desert, of St. Albert into the monastery of Trapani, but in the earliest age of other Saints also. Hence also, that age of Blessed Teresa being considered, there could fitly be said of her what the Church sings of the holy Virgin Agnes: "Her infancy was reckoned in years; but the old age of her mind was immense" (in her Office on the 21st day of January, Nocturn 1, responsory 1).
[1185] and then to God in the religious state, And when, given to these pious exercises, she reached her twentieth year, and could not satisfy the thirst of her spirit in the world, she resolved to undertake the monastic life. And since, on account of the intense love with which her father regarded her, she despaired of being able to obtain leave from him, she decided, even without her father's knowledge, to betake herself in the same city to the monastery of nuns of the Incarnation of the Mitigated Order of the Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel: as she did, and there took the habit of the same Order; and with the greatest praise of observance and piety, after the year was completed, she made solemn profession. And daily exercising herself in all virtues, she made wonderful progress in them. For, harassed by most grave illnesses for some years, she exercised herself laudably in incredible patience. And when among other things she had unconquerably endured for eighteen years a most troublesome aridity of spirit, one day, prostrate before an image of the wounded Christ, she prayed so faithfully that from that time she began to experience in herself a wonderful change and strength; so that afterwards, given to prayer and the loftiest contemplation, illuminated by divine revelations and visions and familiar converse with God, she made most happy progress in virtue. And since she doubted concerning her spirit, of what sort it was, she humbly communicated it with many men most illustrious for piety and learning; to whose most accurate examination, lest she be deceived, she subjected herself: by all of whom the spirit by which she was led was unanimously approved.
[1186] and above all in restoring the original rule of Carmel, When, then, Blessed Teresa had been wonderfully increased in spiritual exercises by divine light and strength, and desired a more austere manner of life, that she might be more acceptable to God, she began to think of the primitive rule of the Carmelites. Which was so acceptable to Christ the Lord that one day after the reception of the Most Holy Eucharist He commanded her to apply herself seriously to the work she had thought of: which she constantly put into execution; and first of all in the same city of Ávila she erected a monastery of Discalced nuns under the title of St. Joseph, notwithstanding a most turbulent commotion stirred up in that city for the same cause (God permitting it for the greater perfection of the work). In which monastery indeed the same Blessed Teresa with some virgins professed the aforesaid primitive rule; and to the rule itself, for its more perfect observance, by apostolic authority, and in virtue of the letters of Pius IV of happy memory given on the seventeenth of July 1562 (read 1565), she added other statutes full of heavenly prudence and piety.
[1187] serving excellently, And there having been stirred up by almighty God in this Blessed Virgin a certain supreme desire for the propagation of this Reform, and she herself asking it of God with the utmost prayers, five years after the erection of the aforesaid first monastery there came to Ávila the Reverend Father Fr. Giovanni Battista Rubeo of Ravenna, General of the Carmelite Order, who granted Blessed Teresa a most ample faculty for erecting new monasteries both of nuns and of Discalced Friars. By virtue of which from then on the Virgin Teresa traversed almost the whole of Spain with manly spirit, and erected and governed seventeen monasteries of nuns: and she left fifteen of Friars founded, and directed them with wonderful prudence. And deservedly both the Friars and the nuns call her the Foundress and spiritual Mother of the whole of this new Reform of the Discalced of the Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel, and venerate her as such.
[1188] she is proved to have attained to the highest holiness: But how great inconveniences she suffered, and how great labours and contradictions she endured on those journeys for founding monasteries, how many wonders, God favouring, she performed, is described at length by most weighty men, who wrote the history of the life of this holy Virgin accurately. All which things, although great and wonderful, especially in a poor Virgin burdened with the greatest illnesses, so that as many monasteries as she founded, so many miracles she seems to have worked, nevertheless greater are the things which stand out in the actions of her most excellent and plainly divine wisdom and heroic virtues and in her divine gifts: which are purposely omitted here, since they are to be treated one by one in the course of this Report.
[1189] Second article. § I. We shall demonstrate that the theme of this second article is proved by six arguments, 1° From the public voice and fame of the people, which we shall only propose, for the sake of avoiding prolixity.
First argument. It is rightly said: "The voice of the people, the voice of God"; which is especially true in the voice of the Christian people venerating the Saints, which, led by no human affection or desire of any temporal good, but by the desire of piety and divine honour alone, perseveringly acclaims holiness. And it is established that Blessed Teresa in the universal Church, from Europe to the East and West Indies, has long since, both in life and after death, been celebrated as a Saint by common and persevering acclamation; as one hundred and seventy witnesses examined on articles 115 and 116 of the roll prove: among whom are most weighty men, namely one patriarch, another an archbishop, five bishops, and others constituted in ecclesiastical dignity.
[1190] which witnesses beyond all exception assert; Of whom the first witness, the Most Reverend Bishop of Segovia, Don Pedro de Castro, confessor of this Virgin, on the same article 116 in the remissorial process of Toledo, fol. 807, says that she was held for a Saint, not in any ordinary way, but in a very sublime and superior degree, not only among grave people but also among the common folk: and she was called by all by this name of Saint. And the Most Reverend Bishop of Ávila, Don Lorenzo de Otaduy, sixty-fifth witness in the remissorial of Ávila, fol. 534, on article 116 says that he holds and regards the said holy Mother as a Saint, with a holiness very exceptional and extraordinary, and as from such a one he has for many years daily asked her intercession with God our Lord. Likewise among the grandees the most excellent duke of Lerma and the most excellent constable of Castile, and the most excellent duke and duchess of Alba, the duke and duchess del Infantado, the counts of Lemos, of Luna, of Salinas, of Peñaranda, and other knights and nobles, and presidents and councillors of the royal council, and very many others: who call her a Saint everywhere on earth in the Christian commonwealth with general veneration and acclamation, and affirm in their depositions that she is so called by all; and that, venerating her flesh, garments, letters written by her and other like things which touched this holy Virgin as Relics of a Saint and keeping them in great esteem, they universally commend themselves to her intercessions with God. From this universal and persevering acclamation of the Christian people, then, it seems it must be believed that this is the voice of God, by which He proves the holiness of Blessed Teresa.
[1191] 2° From the testimonies of St. Peter of Alcántara, The second argument is drawn from so many most weighty men, most illustrious for integrity of life and doctrine, who explored the holiness of Blessed Teresa and her spirit. For it is established that among others there were thirty-eight, by almost all of whom, after Confession made with them, at various places and times, the spirit of Blessed Teresa was judged divine. For since the favours and benefits of God multiplied in her, and the Servant of God the more feared lest she be deceived by the demon, she humbly consulted the aforesaid men, who flourished in Spain for learning and holiness. Among whom, for the sake of brevity, we shall enumerate only some. And first of all the Reverend Father Fr. Pedro de Alcántara of the Order of St. Francis, who flourished in Spain in our age for holiness of life, incredible austerity and sublime prayer, and thus wonderfully promoted the reform of the Friars Minor by his labour and industry. Who so esteemed the Blessed Virgin Teresa that he was wont to say two very wonderful things of her: one, namely, that Teresa's soul was beyond doubt one of those which shone with exceptional holiness in the whole world; the other, more worthy of note, that, except the assertions of the Catholic faith, nothing was more certain to him than that Teresa's spirit was divine. Which wonderful manner of judging was deservedly weighed by the most weighty historians who relate it, namely by the Reverend Father Don Diego de Yepes, bishop of Tarazona, and by the Reverend Father Francisco Ribera of the Society of Jesus, in the books published on the life and virtues of Blessed Teresa.
[1192] of St. Francis Borgia, of the Venerable Juan de Ávila, Likewise Father Francis Borgia, General of the Society of Jesus, and before duke of Gandía, most illustrious in lineage, and so much the more a rare example of contempt of the world, a great master of prayer and contemplation, and conspicuous for holiness of life: who not only approved the spirit of Blessed Teresa without any exception; but so venerated her that he greeted her most devoutly with frequent letters. The Reverend Father Master Juan de Ávila, a truly apostolic man, and in this age celebrated throughout the whole world for holiness of life, discernment of spirits, gravity of doctrine: who in a certain letter full of divine learning approves the spirit of Blessed Teresa; which the aforesaid Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona cites, where he repeatedly uses words of this kind, namely: "I find nothing that is not safe: the words seem to me inspired by God", and others of this kind.
[1193] of Báñez, of Medina, The Father Master Fr. Domingo Báñez of the Order of Preachers, most well known to all for his most weighty writings, lecturer in the principal chair of theology at Salamanca: who esteemed the Blessed Virgin Teresa (whose confessor he had been, and whose spirit he had most accurately explored for about twenty-four years) so highly that, when he preached to the people at her funeral, he said openly among other things that he judged the Blessed Virgin Teresa to be equal in holiness to Blessed Catherine of Siena, but to excel Catherine herself in the divine doctrine of her books; as the twenty-second witness on article 74 in the remissorial of Salamanca, fol. 345, proves, and the aforesaid Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona affirms in his history, §2 of the prologue: than which praise hardly any greater could be uttered by a most weighty man. The Father Master Fr. Bartolomé de Medina of the same Order of Preachers, likewise a most celebrated lecturer in the principal chair of theology of the university of Salamanca and a most learned commentator on St. Thomas: who, having come to know and most diligently explored the spirit of Blessed Teresa, and having examined her writings, and having heard her general Confession, both wondered and became her keenest defender, and was wont to say, convinced by experience, that no other woman at all in the whole world was to be found equal to Teresa in holiness of life; as the thirty-sixth witness on article 17 in the remissorial of Ávila, fol. 226, and the Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona, as above, prove.
[1194] of Ribera and of Yepes; The above-mentioned Father Doctor Francisco Ribera of the Society of Jesus, a most learned man and distinguished among the interpreters of Sacred Scripture in our age: who (as he himself affirms in his deposition), having first made a most diligent examination of the spirit of Blessed Teresa while she lived, and after her most happy death having applied the most accurate diligence, composed and published her life full of heroic virtues; in which he both extols with the highest praises her plainly divine spirit and demonstrates it with most efficacious arguments. Nor is there to be omitted (among other most ample prelates who, having made trial, praised Blessed Teresa exceedingly and approved her spirit) the aforesaid Reverend Father Don Diego de Yepes, bishop of Tarazona, a man illustrious for piety and learning, and as such chosen by Philip II, the Catholic king, as his confessor: who also for many years heard the Confessions of Blessed Teresa; and, her spirit having been explored, both in his deposition made under oath and in the aforesaid book on the life and miracles of Blessed Teresa, he praised and approved her and her divine spirit no less learnedly than piously and faithfully. Since, then, the holiness of Blessed Teresa was explored, greatly praised and approved by the above-mentioned and many other most wise and most weighty men, it seems necessary to affirm that holiness of this kind was true and solid.
[1195] 3° From her Reform itself; The third argument is perceived from this, that divine providence so advanced the Fathers and Masters of the universal Church, that is the Apostles, in exceptional holiness that, according to St. Thomas on the Epistle to the Ephesians, chapter 1, lecture 3, it is rash to equal other Saints to the Apostles; so, proportion being kept, it adorns the Fathers or Founders of monastic Orders with signal holiness of life, which exceeds the perfection of their sons. Which is noted in many examples, for instance Sts. Basil, Benedict, Augustine, Bernard, Dominic, Francis, Albert and other Institutors or Reformers of monastic discipline. For thus must those be perfected who have been chosen to perfect others. Since, then, Blessed Teresa was chosen by God our Lord to reform this Order to a most praiseworthy perfection of life, and to introduce a new Reform of the same Order, called that of the Discalced, in which many of both sexes of approved holiness have shone and shine (as is known to all, and as among very many others the first witness, the bishop of Calahorra, in the remissorial of Toledo, fol. 641, and the thirty-sixth witness, the archbishop of Burgos, fol. 1056, prove), it seems it must be said that it surely pertained to divine providence to distinguish the Virgin Teresa with such excellence of holiness that she could be the worthy Parent and Mistress of perfect sons.
[1196] 4° From the books by her The fourth argument is drawn from four spiritual and plainly divine books, some of which by order of her confessors, some also by particular revelation of Christ, Blessed Teresa left written, which are in our hands. Namely, the first, on the Life of the same Blessed one, directed to her confessor Father Fr. García de Toledo of the Order of St. Dominic; which is nothing else than a certain discourse of her life from her earliest age up to the institution of the first monastery of Ávila, full of the divine affections which she underwent. The second is entitled the Way of perfection; which she wrote at the command of the aforesaid Father Fr. Domingo Báñez, her confessor. The third, commonly entitled the Interior Castle or the Mansions; which by order of Doctor Velázquez, her confessor, afterwards bishop of Osma and finally archbishop of Compostela, she began at Toledo and finished at Ávila. The fourth, on the Foundations of her monasteries; which she composed by order of her confessor Father Jerónimo Ripalda of the Society of Jesus. Having read these through, the most illustrious theologians of all Orders admire the wisdom of Blessed Teresa, and are so astounded at her easy explanation of mystical passions that it seems to them a rare kind of wisdom, that what the Fathers delivered obscurely and scatteredly concerning mystical theology, by
a certain Virgin should have been reduced to method so clearly and neatly; and they deservedly proclaim her as it were a Mistress of spiritual doctrine given to the Church by God, convinced namely by experience of the divine light and pious affections which they draw from her books: as eighty-five witnesses on articles 54 and 56 prove, almost all most weighty and most learned men; who commonly testify that the doctrine of these books is not of man, still less of a woman ignorant of letters, but of God, and, as some add, not acquired, but infused and dictated by the Holy Spirit, and that it has been and is of the greatest utility, and that wonderful effects have followed and daily follow from their reading in the Church of God.
[1197] written with the singular help of God; Among which witnesses, for the sake of brevity, let the three most weighty prelates named above suffice: namely the Most Reverend Bishops of Tarazona, Calahorra and Segovia, deposing on the aforesaid articles. And that Blessed Teresa wrote these books with her own hand, and not by another's industry or by the human study of anyone else, is proved by the forty-ninth witness in the remissorial of Ávila, fol. 354, and the forty-seventh in the second part of the remissorial of Salamanca, fol. 629 verso, and the seventh witness in the 4th part of Toledo, fol. 1689, adding that, when she was writing the book of the Mansions, she saw her face with a certain very clear light, and that splendours like gilded rays came forth from it, for the space of one hour. And the twenty-first witness in the same 4th part says that she wrote with great speed, not stopping at anything; and that on one occasion she saw her writing with a most inflamed and most beautiful face. There are also several other witnesses, some adding that the original writings of these books have been and are in great esteem and veneration in the royal library of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, and that there Philip II, the Catholic king, led by devotion and piety towards this Blessed Virgin, had those books laid up together with certain originals of St. Augustine, and that they are in veneration among the faithful as Relics of Saints. It is established also and is very well known that for the common utility of the faithful they have been translated from the Spanish tongue, in which they were written by Blessed Teresa, into various idioms, namely Latin, Italian, French, German, Flemish and Polish. Since, then, merciful God destined Blessed Teresa for illuminating the Church and increasing it in piety, it seems altogether to be held that God Himself, by His accustomed communication of Himself, first excellently illuminated her and adorned her with signal holiness.
[1198] 5° From miracles; The fifth argument is made up from the many and great miracles worked by God through the intercession of this Blessed Virgin. Some of which we have proposed to Your Holiness, confirmed and approved, in the Report on the miracles. And since miracles are the seals of God, and although God sometimes (using the wicked well works them through sinners, yet they are never worked by God for the confirmation of any sin or error. For the seal of God (who is cleanness and wisdom itself) cannot be imprinted on sin or error. Hence St. Thomas, 2. 2, question 178, article 2, teaches that miracles which are done for the demonstration of the holiness of someone whom God wishes to set before men as an example of virtue cannot be done except by Saints. Since, then, God worked so many and such illustrious miracles, in demonstration or attestation of the holiness of the Blessed Virgin Teresa His handmaid, through her merits and intercession, it seems it must be affirmed without any hesitation that her holiness was sealed and proved by many seals of God.
[1199] 6° From graces freely given. The sixth argument is built up from the many gifts and graces freely given conferred by God on this Blessed Virgin: namely from the gift of prophecy and the grace of discernment of spirits, from divine revelations and visions, and from frequent raptures and other things of this kind, which are proved by very many most learned and most weighty witnesses. Some of whom were confessors of Blessed Teresa, and will be cited below (in their proper places), when these gifts and graces are treated in specie. Which gifts indeed, although taken separately they do not efficaciously prove holiness, yet from the circumstances of the person and the fruits of piety that followed they generate such a persuasion of holiness that no one in his right mind and pious seems able to believe anything else of Blessed Teresa than an excellent degree of holiness.
§ LXI. On the holiness of life of Blessed Teresa in specie. On her theological virtues.
With the holiness required for canonization § II. Holiness can be taken in two ways. First (on the witness of St. Thomas, 2. 2, question 81, article 8), holiness is that by which the mind of man applies itself and its acts to God; nor does it refer to God due service only in things pertaining specially to divine worship, sacrifices and oblations, as religion does, but also the works of the other virtues. Secondly holiness is taken not so strictly for one species only, such as religion is, but for an excellent degree of sanctifying grace, of the virtues and of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. All which things are required for justifying man, and therefore for sanctifying him, according to the Councils and the opinion of the theologians. And it can be perceived from the Council of Trent, session 6, chapter 7; where justification is called the sanctification and renewal of the interior man through the voluntary reception of grace and gifts. Which sanctification and justice is increased when faith, hope and charity and the other virtues are increased. According to what is delivered in the same Council, said session 6, canon XI, where mention is made of grace and charity, the increase of which Holy Church asks when she prays, saying: "Give us, O Lord, an increase of faith, hope and charity." And St. Thomas, 1. 2 and 2. 2, in many places, discourses accurately on grace and the virtues and gifts which are infused into man when he is justified, and, merits succeeding, are increased up to perfect holiness. And although every just man receives from God that whole connection of grace, virtues and gifts, yet not every just man reaches that degree which the Church requires for canonization, but he who by many advances has become excellently just by the exercise of heroic virtues. And so for this effect heroic virtues are required in those to be canonized; as is proved in the Report of the canonization of St. Bonaventure, made by Giovanni Francesco de Pavinis, auditor of the Rota, and it is found among the Opuscula of St. Bonaventure at the beginning.
[1201] Teresa was endowed. These things, then, being presupposed, the virtues of Blessed Teresa so grew that we have judged they attained the said heroic degree, and that they ought deservedly to be reckoned of that kind of virtues which St. Thomas, 1. 2, question 61, article 5, calls the virtues of the purified soul, in these words: "But some are virtues of those already attaining the divine likeness, which are called virtues of the soul already purified: so namely that prudence beholds divine things alone, temperance knows not earthly desires, fortitude is ignorant of passions, justice is associated with the divine mind in a perpetual covenant, namely by imitating it. Which virtues indeed we say are of the Blessed, or of some most perfect persons in this life." Thus St. Thomas. And in the narration of the excellent virtues of Blessed Teresa's life we shall observe the order described at the beginning of this Report. And since we have already treated compendiously in the two preceding articles of the virtues in general, and also of her birth and the indications of future holiness, and of her progress in virtue from her tender age, now there will be discourse of the virtues and gifts of this Blessed one in specie, beginning with the three theological virtues, faith, hope and charity, and first of faith.
[1202] The indications of her heroic faith are Third article. According to St. Paul to the Hebrews chapter 11, "Faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not." It is called evidence (argumentum) because by it the intellect is induced to adhere to some truth, as St. Thomas teaches, 2. 2, question 4, article 1. And hence it is that faith is an intellectual virtue, by which the intellect firmly and without any doubt adheres to those things which have been revealed to us by God, on account of the authority of God alone, to whom we make our intellect captive. And since the intellect of Blessed Teresa adhered so firmly to the things of faith, and on account of the authority of God alone so earnestly made her intellect captive to Him and to the things of faith, as will be clear from what follows, it will necessarily have to be affirmed that she was endowed with excellent faith in heroic degree. Which we are persuaded of.
[1203] a constant affection towards the Church, First, because she was born of parents not only noble (as we have said), but also faithful and old Christians, who also descended from such; which matters very much in order that children may more easily and more firmly put on the same faith. Which Blessed Teresa, while she lived, most firmly held and believed, and persevered in it up to the last breath of life, esteeming the Catholic Faith so highly in her most happy passing that at that moment of death, for joy and interior consolation, she quite often gave thanks to God that He had adopted her as a daughter of His Holy Church, uttering these same words, and others like them of the greatest consolation and confidence, with great edification of those standing by, namely: "I am indeed, my Lord God, a daughter of the Church"; as many witnesses prove from sight and certain knowledge, whom we adduced in the Report on the miracles, article 3, when her most happy death was treated.
[1204] frequent outward confession of faith, Secondly, we are led to the same from the outward confession of faith, very often and earnestly made by Blessed Teresa in the course of her life. Which outward confession is ordained to signify what is conceived in the heart. Hence, on the witness of St. Thomas, 2. 2, question 3, article 1, as the interior conception of those things which are of faith is a proper act of faith, so also is the outward confession. Hence the Apostle, 2 Corinthians 4, says: "Having the same spirit of faith we believe, for which cause we also speak." And if we consider what Blessed Teresa left written very often in her books concerning this confession of faith, we shall have it sufficiently proved. For the aforesaid Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona, confessor of this Blessed Virgin, proves it in the aforesaid history of her life, book 3, chapter 28, and affirms that she had a certain very great certitude concerning the mysteries of our faith; so that nothing, however clear and evident, could equal the certitude which she had concerning the infallible truths of our faith. Which she herself left written in a certain account of her life in these words: "In matters of faith, as it seems to me, I find myself with much greater fortitude. For it seems to me that I alone would oppose myself to all those following Luther, to make them understand the error in which they walk: for I feel very much the perdition of so many souls." And in the exclamation
the fourth she speaks thus with God our Lord: "Will it, my Lord, will it; for, although I am miserable, I firmly believe that You can do whatever You will; and the more wonderful things I hear done by You, and consider that Your omnipotence extends further, the more is faith strengthened in me, and the more firmly do I believe that You will do it. And what is to be wondered at, when the Almighty does it? Well, Lord, it is known to You that amid all my miseries I have never failed in the knowledge of Your omnipotence and mercy. Let this help me, Lord, in which I have not sinned." And in another place she speaks thus: "I hold it for certain that the devil will not deceive (nor will God permit anything such) that soul which trusts in nothing of itself and is strongly fortified in faith, and which knows in itself that for a single point concerning faith it would undergo death a thousand times, and which with that love towards the faith which God infuses into it (which is a certain living and strong faith) always takes care to follow what Holy Mother Church holds and follows." And in chapter 33 of the Account of her life she affirms that she knows of herself that in matters of faith she was ready to give her life a thousand times for any least ceremony of the Church or any authority of Sacred Scripture. Which she also quite often confessed by word apart from writings: as the first witness, her confessor, proves in the compulsorial process of Ávila on 4, fol. 19; and the forty-ninth witness in the remissorial of Ávila, fol. 369; and the second witness in the 1st part of the remissorial of Toledo on article 75, fol. 491.
[1205] an ardent desire of propagating the faith, Thirdly, the same is taken from the immense desire of propagating the faith with which she burned, greatly grieving over the lot of heretics and infidels, who, lacking this divine light, were damned. And since she saw that she, as a woman, could not devote her effort to this zeal and to the exaltation of the faith among the heretics and infidels themselves, she did as much as she could, by founding and erecting so many churches and monasteries of Friars and nuns of this sacred Order (not without divine counsel) with this intention and end, chiefly that in them the primitive rule of the Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel might be observed with perfection, and that by assiduous prayer, fasts and other works of penance contained in the aforesaid rule Christ the Lord might be supremely worshipped by His religious, and so that, given over to the divine service, they might be more acceptable and pleasing to God; whose prayers and works of penance she herself offered, and took care that they be offered in her Order, for the exaltation of the Holy Faith, the conversion of heretics and infidels, and for the preachers and defenders of the same Catholic Faith. And with how great efficacy and tears she desired this, it will be possible to see written in the book left by her entitled "The Way of perfection", chapter 1, and in a certain exclamation she addresses her daughters thus: "I ask of you for the love of God that you beg of Him that He deign to hear us in this. This I too, though miserable, ask of Him, since it concerns His glory and the good of His Church: for thither my desires tend." And a little lower, directing her words to God, she addresses Him thus: "Lord, when we shall have asked of You honours, revenues or riches, or whatever savours of the world, by no means hear us: but when we ask of You the things which concern the honour of Your Son, eternal Father, why should You not hear us, who would give up honour and life a thousand times for You?" And a little lower: "Look, my God, at my desires and tears, with which I beg this of You: and for Your own sake forget my works, and have pity on so many perishing souls, and help Your Church; and do not, Lord, any longer permit harms in Christendom. Illumine now these darknesses." And how much Blessed Teresa accomplished in this zeal for propagating the faith and the salvation of souls (besides the witnesses cited, and especially her confessors, prelates and most weighty men) the historians of the same Blessed one's life have confirmed at length, namely the Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona, in the place cited above, and Father Doctor Francisco Ribera, book 4, chapter 9.
[1206] a wonderful love and knowledge of the mysteries, Fourthly, it appears that Blessed Teresa adhered the more firmly and securely to the mysteries of the faith, the more sublime and obscure they seemed to her. For she said (as she writes in the book of her Life) that the wisdom and power of God are shown the more highly, the higher the mysteries are; and from this consideration she perceived a certain tender affection and devotion stirred up in herself: as there depose concerning the aforesaid the thirty-seventh witness in the remissorial of Salamanca on article 75, fol. 449; and in the 2nd part of the remissorial of Toledo the first witness, the Most Reverend Bishop of Segovia, confessor of Blessed Teresa, fol. 807; and in the first part of the same remissorial of Toledo the twenty-third witness, also a confessor, fol. 141; and in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-seventh witness, fol. 310, and the forty-ninth witness, fol. 369: all on article 75. From which is evident the most firm adhesion of the intellect, or assent, given to the truth of the faith by Blessed Teresa, nay that her will too was vehemently moved by the affection of piety arising therefrom: such as is read of St. Augustine when newly converted and considering the truth of the faith, in the book of the Confessions, chapter 6. And together with this certitude of faith, so great was the knowledge which Blessed Teresa had of the mysteries of the Catholic Faith that (as the Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona notes, as above) like another Moses she beheld the invisible God with a faith so living as if she had seen Him clearly. Hence the same Saint was often wont to say that she did not envy those who in this life saw Christ our Redeemer with bodily eyes: for it seemed to her that with the eyes of faith she beheld Him present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the altar, so that as to this she rejoiced in His bodily presence. From which certitude of faith and evidence of its matters, as if she saw them with bodily eyes, it is gathered that she had the grace freely given which St. Paul (1 Corinthians 12) calls the grace of faith: and from the knowledge of the loftiest mysteries of faith, and of the fittingness which she understood they have among themselves, is discerned the effect of the gift of understanding, which greatly clarifies and perfects faith itself; and the more she partook of this gift, the more did clear knowledge of these truths of faith increase in her.
[1207] immunity from temptations against faith, Fifthly, it makes for the same that Blessed Teresa herself never had a temptation against faith. So the Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona, her confessor, testifies, in the place cited above. But she herself so feared lest she should say or write out of ignorance anything adverse to or little consonant with the Catholic Faith, that she anxiously begged her confessors and examiners of spirit to admonish her if they noticed anything of the kind. Nay, she even at one time thought of offering herself to the office of the Holy Inquisition to be examined, so that nothing not pure might perhaps creep into her doctrine of faith; as the ninth witness in the compulsorial of Ávila on the fourth article, fol. 182, proves, and the aforesaid Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona affirms, in the place cited above.
[1208] excellent charity. Sixthly, as will appear in its place from what is to be said below, Blessed Teresa excelled in excellent charity. But so it is that charity is the form of faith: for by it the act of faith is formed and perfected, according to St. Thomas, 2. 2, question 4, article 3. The act of faith also is ordained to the object of the will, which is the good, as to its end; but this good, which is the end of faith (namely the divine good), is the proper object of charity: and therefore charity is called the form of faith, inasmuch as by charity the act of faith is perfected and formed, as St. Thomas himself notes, as above. From which it is drawn out that Blessed Teresa had a most excellent faith, as also the form of the same virtue, which is charity, with which she was endowed in heroic degree (as will be said below).
[1209] Her hope is shown to have been heroic Fourth article. Hope is a theological virtue, by which man hopes for eternal beatitude from God, as its primary and chief author: St. Thomas, 2. 2, question 17, articles 1, 2 and 4; according to that of the Apostle to the Hebrews 6: "We have a hope entering into the inner parts of the veil", that is: "Making us enter into heavenly beatitude", as the Gloss explains. From which words it is evident that this is proper to hope, that it makes a man trusting in God advance along the way of salvation and with uplifted heart overcome all obstacles. Which is most plainly discerned in the acts of Blessed Teresa, and appears from what follows.
[1210] from the perfect manner of hoping, First, perfect hope is taken from the perfect manner of hoping, which consists in two things: namely that it be in God alone, and from the whole heart. Hence it is said in Proverbs 3: "Have confidence in the Lord with all your heart." And to signify that one must hope in God alone, there is added: "And lean not upon your own prudence." And in Jeremiah chapter 17 it is said: "Cursed be the man that trusts in man." And this perfect manner of hoping St. Thomas explains, 2. 2, question 17, article 4. For that one may be said to hope in God alone, it is necessary that he hope for God alone as end; but love and hope for other created goods only in so far as they are necessary or more conducive to attaining the eternal good. But that Blessed Teresa hoped in God alone, and from her whole heart, and in no way leaning on her own prudence or her own strength, very many witnesses prove, and it is well demonstrated from her own words written in the Account of her life, page 195, when she said these very words: "Let all things fail me, my Lord, but if You do not fail me, I shall by no means fail You. Let all who are distinguished in learning oppose me, let all creatures persecute me, let the demons torment me, provided You, Lord, are with me. For I have it perceived by experience with how much gain You increase those who trust in You alone." And so great was the confidence of this holy Virgin in God alone that she reckoned men and their favours as it were nothing; as she showed in another place of the Account of her life in these words: "Up to now I seemed to myself to have need of others, and I had confidence in the help of the world; but now I clearly understand that it is vain to hope in them: for I have the experience that the only and true remedy is to run to the cross, and to trust in Him who suffered on it, whom I find a true friend." And in the last of her Exclamations, fol. 769, she ended it and the whole book with these words worthy of note: "I would rather live and die in the hope and endeavour of obtaining eternal life than possess all the creatures of the world and all its goods, which at length
will have an end. Do not forsake me, I beg, Lord, because I trust in You, lest my hope be confounded. And provided I be always given up to Your divine service, do, Lord, with Your handmaid according to Your divine good pleasure." And how much Blessed Teresa trusted in God alone with her whole heart the aforesaid Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona, her confessor, relates at length, as above, book 3, chapter 11 and chapter 22 towards the end.
[1211] from her splendid security in hoping, Secondly, an efficacious argument of this most perfect hope in God alone is a great security without any doubt or hesitation, and a certitude excluding all vain fear and superfluous solicitude, according to St. Thomas, 2. 2, question 118, article 4, and according to that of the Apostle, 2 Timothy 1: "I know whom I have believed, and I am certain that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." And from this vain solicitude Christ our Redeemer endeavoured to free His Apostles (Matthew chapter 6), founding in them a most perfect hope, when He said: "Be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat", etc. From which how much Blessed Teresa shone, placing her most perfect hope in God alone, is sufficiently perceived from very many places of the aforesaid Account of her life, and also from the history of the Foundations of her monasteries; where wonderful things most worthy of note concerning this virtue of hope and her very great confidence in God are found scattered: and many witnesses prove it, especially the Christian Father Julián de Ávila, her confessor and companion on her journeys when she betook herself to found monasteries, who as an ocular witness deposes at length and excellently concerning these things, as in the compulsorial of Ávila, fols. 192, 202 and 203; and the forty-ninth in the remissorial of Ávila, fol. 370; and the thirty-seventh in the remissorial of Salamanca, 1st part, fol. 449; and in the compulsorial of Toledo the tenth witness, confessor of Blessed Teresa, fol. 77.
[1212] from her constant recourse to God, Thirdly, an indication of this perfect hope is drawn out if anyone, needing anything, at once flees to him in whom he hopes, and appeals to him: as is well gathered from the said chapter 3 of Proverbs cited above, where, after it is said: "Have confidence in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not upon your own prudence", there is at once subjoined: "In all your ways think on Him, and He will direct your steps." Which is most clearly found in the Blessed Virgin Teresa; who, since she had a most perfect hope in God alone from her whole heart, ran to God alone in all her necessities and labours, and hoped for help in her necessities and dangers from Him alone. Which, besides the proof of many witnesses affirming it, is evidently established from the course of the whole life of Blessed Teresa, and is excellently weighed by her most weighty historians, who relate particular cases in which they say Blessed Teresa had recourse to God alone in greater dangers, especially when the perils of journeys were imminent: as when, going from Ávila to Salamanca, a dark and most obscure night came on at the bank of a river; and the present danger of the road so terrified her companions that, not daring to cross the river, they stood stunned. Then she, strengthened by a most firm hope in God alone, said: "Cross, pray to God." And immediately she herself first attacked the danger; and at once, as it were a certain torch at a little distance, was miraculously seen to go before and light the way, until all crossed safe. This and other most perfect acts of hope and confidence in God are related by the Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona, in the place cited, and Fr. Ribera, book 4, chapter 14; and they are proved as eyewitnesses by the nineteenth witness in the remissorial of Toledo, fol. 129, and the twelfth in the compulsorial of Ávila, fol. 224 verso.
[1213] from the difficulty of the things hoped for, Fourthly, the argument of most perfect hope is taken the more clearly, the more difficult is the thing which is hoped for. Hence Paul (to the Romans 4) proves that the hope of Abraham was excellent, in these words: "Who against hope believed in hope"; and below: "And he was not weak in faith, nor did he consider his own body now dead, whereas he was almost a hundred years old. In the promise also of God he staggered not by distrust; but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, most fully knowing that whatsoever He has promised, He is able also to perform." But so it is that Blessed Teresa proved her most perfect hope in the most difficult things. This appears first in the uplifting of her heart to attempt the reform of this Order. Which was beyond doubt a wonderful and supremely difficult work, especially to be carried out by a woman poor, sick, alone and shut up in a monastery. And the matter was the more difficult the stronger the impediments and contradictions she found standing in the way, above all in the erection of the first monastery at Ávila, and afterwards in almost all the other foundations, destitute of all human help and exposed to many dangers, traversing various provinces. How difficult all these things are, even in a most powerful man and one furnished with strength and favours, who does not know? How much more difficult then in a woman poor, sick and alone, as we have said? Nevertheless never in the midst of so many difficulties and contradictions and dangers did a most firm hope in God alone, and from the whole heart, fail this holy Virgin: no adversity broke her, she feared nothing but fault, and (worthy of the encomium of Abraham) she believed in hope against hope; and fortified by that hope alone, she attempted all the aforesaid, took care to do them, and completed them altogether: as appears concerning all the aforesaid in the book of the Foundations of the aforesaid monasteries, written by the Blessed one herself; and very many witnesses depose from sight and certain knowledge, among whom some are confessors of Blessed Teresa: especially in the compulsorial of Ávila the second witness on 4, fol. 22, and the tenth, fols. 195 and 203; and in the compulsorial of Toledo the fourth witness, fol. 52, and the thirteenth witness, fol. 95; and in the first part of the remissorial of Toledo the second witness, fol. 495, and the third witness, fol. 502, and the twenty-third witness on article 69, fol. 146; and in the compulsorial of Salamanca the first witness on the third, fol. 265; and in the remissorial of Ávila the fourth witness on article 18, fol. 104. And the Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona testifies, in the said book 3, chapter 11, that when Blessed Teresa was at Toledo, where the same Lord Bishop was present, she received letters of the provincial of the Order, in which he reported that the affairs of the Order and the foundations of the monasteries were in the greatest danger, and that all that had been begun would be destroyed, and that the Blessed Virgin herself was held to be a restless and wicked woman. Having read these letters, her mind was in no way disturbed nor her hope diminished; but with unconquered spirit she raised herself higher and was comforted. And having recollected herself for a little in prayer, at once, as if she saw with her eyes the things which afterwards happened, she spoke these words to the aforesaid Lord Bishop and her nuns (who were present): "We shall indeed suffer labours, but our Reform will endure." And so thereafter she persuaded herself that the purpose which she had conceived in her mind would happily succeed, against the onslaught of the whole world. A new thing, certainly a new faith it seems, to which it may well be acclaimed: "O woman, great is your faith!" For the more the hope of the progress of this Reform decreased and diminished in all others (even most learned and most religious men), the greater confidence in God alone did the Blessed Virgin Teresa have, saying that our Lord was ordering all those disturbances to a better end: which the outcome proved; as is established from many places of the Account of her life and of the foundations of the monasteries, and the witnesses just cited prove, and the above-mentioned bishop of Tarazona and Doctor Ribera confirm in their histories.
[1214] from the erection of monasteries without revenues, Fifthly, an argument of the same hope is taken from the erection of these monasteries without annual revenues: as there depose in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-seventh witness, fol. 304, and the forty-ninth, fol. 340, on article 19; and in the compulsorial of Ávila the tenth witness, fol. 202; and in the remissorial of Salamanca the thirty-seventh witness on 61, fol. 443; and in the second part of the remissorial of Toledo the Most Reverend Bishop of Calahorra on 61, fol. 642, and many others. And because there were not lacking those who advised Blessed Teresa to order that these monasteries should have revenues on which to live, on occasion of this she herself in her books said these words: "I find in myself many times a faith in God so great, in believing that God cannot fail His servants, and in not doubting in any way that the words of God will ever at any time fail, that nothing else can in any way be persuaded to me, nor can I fear. And so I feel the greatest vexation when it is advised me that I admit annual revenues in the monasteries; and then I turn myself wholly to God."
[1215] from holy and great works, Sixthly, it is known that someone's hope was excellent from the holy works which he wrought. For it does not seem possible that anyone should do great works without great hope, according to that of 1 Corinthians 9: "He that ploughs should plough in hope, and he that threshes in hope of receiving fruit." And as to this the reason is the same for faith and hope. Hence Paul (to the Hebrews 11) defines faith through hope, as through its effect, saying: "Faith is the substance of things to be hoped for", etc. Hence, since Blessed Teresa wrought so rightly, justly, holily and excellently (as appears from the whole course of her life, and is proved from what has been adduced above and is to be said below), it follows that it must necessarily be said that she had an excellent and most firm hope in God alone, from her whole heart.
[1216] from the desire of dying and enjoying God. Seventhly and lastly, it is argued that Blessed Teresa had this excellent hope, and persevered in it up to the last extremity of life, from her most ardent desire of departing from this life, that she might enjoy the supreme good. This is proved in the first part of the Salamanca process by the thirty-seventh witness, fol. 449; and in the remissorial of Ávila by the forty-second witness, fol. 249, and the forty-seventh, fol. 311, and the forty-ninth, fol. 370: all on article 76; and in the compulsorial of Ávila by the first witness, confessor of Blessed Teresa. Who, and the above-mentioned thirty-seventh and forty-ninth witnesses, affirm that, often raising her eyes to heaven, and likewise her heart, considering the goods which she hoped to enjoy, she was rapt out of herself. Which the Blessed Virgin also confirms in the Account of her life with these words: "The greater service which I offer to God is this, that, although it is so troublesome to me to be separated from Him, yet I would live for His love." And in a certain other account written to her
confessor she says thus: "On some days I remember several times the saying of St. Paul, that I seem to myself neither to live nor to speak nor to have a will of my own; but there resides in me One who governs and strengthens me, and I go about as if out of myself, and so life itself is the greatest pain and vexation to me." And in another place she says: "I am in anguish because I live, and because it seems to me that the desire of not living has no remedy, and the means of seeing God is death itself, which I cannot take from myself. And so it seems to my soul that all enjoy consolations except itself, and that all find a cure for their labours, itself however excepted." And this indeed she set forth most clearly and most sweetly in various conceits in certain verses composed by herself in the Spanish tongue; which the Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona cites word for word, in the said third book, chapter 23: worthy indeed to be written in letters of gold. Whose sense and aim is this, that the holy Virgin Teresa said she had the hope of a life so excellent (namely eternal) that she felt death the more, the more it was delayed, and so desired with the Apostle to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Which she would not so ardently desire, unless she most firmly hoped that she would enjoy her Spouse. Which most perfect hope she showed openly enough when near death, when with wonderful security, before the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, as she was about to receive that divine Viaticum, as if languishing with love she said these words: "O Lord, O my Spouse, the longed-for time has come at last: it is right that I should see You: it is time, my Lord, that I should depart from this life: be it done, I beg, according to Your good pleasure. The hour has come at last in which I shall be snatched from this exile, and shall enjoy You, whom I have so ardently desired." With these and other most sweet words she gave back her soul to God, as we related in the Report on the miracles, article 3, and very many witnesses prove, especially eight nuns, who were present at her most blessed passing.
[1217] She is proved to have loved God heroically Fifth article. On the witness of St. Thomas, 2. 2, question 23, article 3, and St. Augustine, book de moribus Ecclesiæ, chapter 11, charity is the virtue which joins us to God, and which attains God Himself, that it may rest in Him, not that something may come to us from Him. Hence this is the virtue by which we love God, the supreme good, for His goodness, and all other things in Him and for His sake; and so charity holds the primacy among all the virtues, and is as it were the mother of the other virtues: as St. Thomas has it, as above, article 6. From which most excellent virtue two sons are born, namely love of God and of neighbour. Of the first-born of whom we speak in this article. For it is established that it is found in Blessed Teresa in heroic and most eminent degree, as will be clearly evident from what follows.
[1218] from the sum of her virtues, First, a manifest indication of this divine love is taken from the other virtues with which God adorned her, as is established from what has been adduced above and is to be said below: for, as St. Thomas testifies, as above, article 8, charity gives form to the acts of all the other virtues, and so it is their form; since through it the acts of all the other virtues are ordained to the last end, namely the supreme good. And by charity the other virtues are vivified, according to the Apostle to the Colossians chapter 3, saying: "But above all these things have charity, which is the bond of perfection." And 1 to Timothy chapter 1: "Now the end of the commandment is charity." And 1 to the Corinthians 13: "Charity is patient, is kind, believes all things, hopes all things." Hence, since (as we have said) the other virtues shone so eminently in Blessed Teresa, it follows that she was endowed with their form, namely a most ardent charity towards God.
[1219] from the continual intention of her mind upon God, Secondly, this same thing is demonstrated from the mind which Blessed Teresa perseveringly kept intent upon God, so that she hardly ever withdrew from His presence and divine consideration or contemplation, after the manner of ardent lovers, who day and night think faithfully and intensely of the beloved person. As befell Blessed Teresa, with a certain perpetual presence of God always impressed on her mind. And many witnesses prove it: among whom the thirty-seventh witness in the remissorial process of Salamanca, fol. 450, on article 77, saying that the love which Blessed Teresa had was so perfect and immense, so excellent, and in the highest degree, that it was rather the love and charity of the Cherubim than of a woman; and in the remissorial of Toledo the twenty-third witness, confessor of the holy Virgin, on article 74, fol. 145; and in the compulsorial of Ávila the tenth witness, also confessor of the same Blessed Virgin, fol. 211.
[1220] from zeal for the greater glory of God, Thirdly, we have been led to the same by this, that the said Blessed Teresa loved God above all things for His own sake alone, so that she always burned with desire for the glory of the same almighty God, and took care supremely and with supreme labours that it be increased, both in the reform of this Order and its propagation, and in the wonderful doctrine of the books which she left written, and in all her other actions and heroic virtues, in which she always shone forth, for the greater glory of God and the benefit of souls, not seeking the things that were her own, but the things that are Jesus Christ's. Which she herself said in the Account of her life in these words: "It seems to me that my honour consists in our Lord being praised, and I make little of all the rest. For He is aware that I want neither honour nor life nor glory nor any good of body or soul, nor do I desire anything but the glory of almighty God." Which also the affection showed which vehemently tormented her soul from the multitude of heretics, and the ardent desire with which she burned for their conversion, and the continual solicitude with which she always besought God with prayers for the aforesaid, that the glory of God Himself might be more increased; and she often greatly commended this same thing to her nuns, and admonished them that God had gathered them together to this end: as is established from the doctrine of her books in many places.
[1221] from the care and the vow of always doing the most perfect thing, Fourthly, there are added to the aforesaid the efficacious purpose and continual care of herself and of her actions and thoughts, which she had not to offend God, so beloved by her, not only by venial and light fault, but not even by any act of lesser perfection. From which proceeded that rare vow, worthy of note, which she made, namely always to do that which, among the many things which occurred to her, should seem to her more pleasing and acceptable to God: so that by the making of such a vow she willed not only to fulfil what was pleasing to God, which would have been a great sign of that love, according to that of John chapter 14: "If anyone love Me, he will keep My word"; but also, as one who burned amid those flames of love, she willed to carry out both what she should judge more perfect and what more acceptable to God, and to bind herself to it by vow. Which she also faithfully rendered to God, for the exceeding love with which she followed Him for His own sake; as the course of her whole life proves, and in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-ninth witness affirms, fol. 355, and the fifty-first witness, fol. 404, and the fifty-fifth, fol. 454, all on article 58.
[1222] from intense grief at Christ's absence, Fifthly, what shows the most strong force of this divine love in Blessed Teresa is the grievous vexation which, on account of Christ's absence, afflicted her heart as though pierced by an arrow, and from which she seemed to herself to breathe out her soul, so that she uttered cries (signs of love) when she could not bear the pain of absence. So there prove it in the remissorial of Ávila the fifty-first witness, fol. 412, and the fifty-fifth witness, fol. 458, on article 74; and in the remissorial of Toledo the seventh witness on article 72, fol. 1694, and in the compulsorial also of Toledo the first witness on article 5.
[1223] from ecstasies, Sixthly, a sign of this heroic love in Blessed Teresa is taken from this, that she often suffered ecstasy from the impulse of the same divine love, as we shall say more at length below. For now let that suffice which happened to her at Salamanca, when she heard a love-song of Christ, and at Toledo, while she was saying the morning prayers. For in both places she was rapt out of herself by the aforesaid impulse of love. This is proved by the forty-seventh witness on 10 in the second part of the remissorial of Salamanca, fol. 626, and the hundredth witness on the third, fol. 1029, and the hundred and second witness on the same article, fol. 1063; and in the compulsorial of Toledo the first witness on 2, fol. 17.
[1224] Seventhly, the aforesaid are confirmed by the manifold fuel by which Christ stirred up much more the vehemently burning flame in His handmaid. from the astounding operations of God in her soul, As when He sent an Angel of comely countenance, who pierced her bowels with a fiery dart and left them burning with ineffable love: as the forty-ninth witness in the remissorial of Ávila on 13, fol. 373, and the fifty-first witness, fol. 399, and the forty-second witness on 3, fol. 244, prove; and Blessed Teresa herself confirms it in the book of her Life, chapter 29, fol. 230: and as in the same place, fol. 364, she left it written that Christ Himself, stretching out His right hand to her, said: "Behold this nail, which signifies that you will be My spouse from now on. Henceforth you will seek My honour, not only as that of your Creator, King and God, but as My true spouse. Now My honour is yours, and yours is Mine." Which words stirred up an incredible fire of Seraphic divine love in the heart of the Blessed Virgin Teresa. Of whom certainly, adorned and illustrated with these and other divine favours and graces and so many heroic virtues, St. Gregory seems to speak, homily 34 on the Gospels, saying: "There are some who, kindled by the torches of heavenly contemplation, pant in the sole desire of their Maker, desire nothing now in this world, are fed by the love of eternity alone, cast away all earthly things, transcend in mind all temporal things, love and burn, and rest in that very burning of theirs; by loving they burn, by speaking they kindle others also, and those whom they touch by their word they make at once to burn in the love of God. What then should I call these but Seraphim, whose heart, turned into fire, shines and burns? Because they both illumine the eyes of minds to things above, and, by pricking them to compunction, purge them in tears from the rust of vices." Thus St. Gregory.
[1225] from the impulse of love by which she died. Eighthly, what most plainly the love of God
inestimable towards His spouse Teresa argues was the last and greatest impulse of love, which she felt when near death; by which rather than by the force of illness she herself revealed, for the consolation of her nuns, that she had died, to Mother Catalina de Jesús, prioress of the convent of the town of Beas, a woman of remarkable virtue, who narrated this revelation to her Father Provincial and confessor: as three witnesses affirm from hearsay from the aforesaid Father Provincial, namely in the 1st part of the remissorial of Toledo the first witness, fol. 441, and the third witness, fol. 445 verso; and in the 4th part the twenty-first witness, fol. 1931, adding that besides the aforesaid Provincial saying this in the convent of Alba, the nuns of the said convent of Beas also wrote it: and the aforesaid Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona affirms it in his history, book 2, chapter 39, fol. 291; where he delivers some words of Blessed Teresa confirming this same thing.
[1226] [Her heroic charity towards her neighbours is argued from her charity towards God,] Sixth article. The reason for loving our neighbours is God Himself, according to St. Thomas, 2. 2, question 25, article 1. Hence, since we have demonstrated in the preceding article that Blessed Teresa adhered most perfectly to God through charity, it seems that she also had a most perfect charity towards her neighbours. Which will easily be established from what follows. First, because, if we have left proved the most ardent love of the Blessed Virgin Teresa towards God, from it is necessarily inferred the observance of His precepts, according to that of John cited above, chapter 14: "If anyone love Me, he will keep My word." Hence, and since among other precepts that one is most commended by God, that one love his neighbour as himself (Matthew 22), it follows that Blessed Teresa observed this precept to a nicety.
[1227] Secondly, the same is confirmed from her immense desire for the salvation of her neighbours, zeal for the salvation of her neighbours, by which she longed to reconcile them to God and above all to convert heretics to Him; which is the proper mark of charity. For as St. Thomas says, 2. 2, question 25, article 1, we ought to love this in our neighbour, that he be in God. How excellently Blessed Teresa performed this, and what as it were apostolic spirit she showed in procuring the salvation of her neighbours, and that she dedicated her own life to the salvation of souls, is proved by the twenty-third witness, her confessor, in the first part of the remissorial of Toledo, fol. 146, and the third witness, fol. 503; and in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-second witness, fol. 249, and the forty-seventh witness, fol. 311, and the forty-eighth witness, fol. 325, and the forty-ninth witness, fol. 370, all on article 79; and in the compulsorial of Ávila the tenth witness, Father Julián de Ávila, her confessor, fol. 212 and fol. 214 verso.
[1228] the reform of the Carmelite Order, Thirdly, the same is sought from what has been adduced in the preceding articles concerning the reform of this Order and its propagation and the erection of the monasteries, her own and her daughters' labours, penances and continual prayer, with which, inflamed by the most ardent zeal of charity, she always took care of the greater glory of God and the salvation of perishing souls, and above all of heretics: as those cited just above prove, affirming that most abundant fruits in the Church of God have followed and daily follow from this Order thus reformed, both of Nuns and of Friars, by example of life and by doctrine. And it is confirmed by the outcome of very many souls, which the Blessed one herself, while she lived, freed by her prayers and most efficacious persuasions both from eternal damnation and from the pains of purgatory: as in the compulsorial of Ávila there prove it the second witness on 2, fol. 154, saying that he knows that Blessed Teresa, by means of her prayers, words and salutary counsels, turned two noble persons, a man and a woman, persevering for some time in sin with scandal, from that act of sin and scandal; and the tenth witness, her confessor, fol. 214; and in the compulsorial of Toledo the tenth witness, Father Gil González de Ávila of the Society of Jesus, also her confessor, fol. 77, says thus: "And this witness knows her charity in many particular cases, namely in lost religious whom she brought back, and in other souls very far removed and astray." And she herself in the Account of her life, chapter 38, relates many things of this kind, and it is established at length from the aforesaid histories cited above.
[1229] her tears at the death of apostolic men, Fourthly, an argument in confirmation of the aforesaid is sought from the tears and supreme grief with which she was tormented if some outstanding labourer for the salvation of souls had departed from life: because by his death (she said) a helper of neighbours and defender of the Church was lacking. As happened at the death of Pius V of holy memory, and of that apostolic man Father Juan de Ávila: as there prove it in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-ninth witness on 79, fol. 370, and in the 4th part of the remissorial of Toledo the sixth witness, fol. 1681, on the same article 79.
[1230] her custom of consoling the afflicted, Fifthly, the same is drawn out from her custom of consoling the afflicted. As when she was staying at Burgos in a certain hospital, she was wont to visit the sick with the greatest charity and to favour them. Which she quite often was wont to do also on very many other occasions of bodily and spiritual afflictions, both of her nuns and of others: as there prove it in the compulsorial of Ávila the fifth witness on article 9, fol. 166, and in the remissorial of Ávila the sixtieth witness on article 79, fol. 449.
[1231] alms, Sixthly, let there be added to the aforesaid the most willing bestowal of alms. And among many things this is memorable, that when at Toledo she had seen a poor man going about with bare arms, she took off her sleeves and gave them to him, imitating St. Martin, who covered a needy man with part of his own cloak: as there deposes in the compulsorial of Ávila the sixth witness on 4, fol. 170, who was a companion of Blessed Teresa; and in the 1st part of the remissorial of Toledo the twenty-third witness, fol. 146, on 79.
[1232] the daily exercise of charity, Seventhly, this very thing is confirmed (and it is recognized as the more worthy of praise the more persevering it is) by that purpose by which she resolved in her mind to pass no day without some particular act of charity bestowed on her neighbours. Which she observed so faithfully that, if perhaps during the day an occasion of carrying out the aforesaid purpose had not presented itself, at night, when the nuns were going out of the choir or another place, she would carry a lamp before them, lest she should lose that occasion of exercising charity towards her neighbours that day: as there prove it in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-second witness, fol. 249, and the forty-seventh witness, fol. 311, and the forty-eighth witness, fol. 325, all on article 79.
[1233] love of enemies. Eighthly, the very same is sought from her singular love of enemies and persecutors. For there were not lacking (by divine permission) many, and among them most weighty men, by whose persecutions God tried Blessed Teresa and proved her as in a furnace of fire. Whom nevertheless she loved for God's sake in affection, words and works, which pertains to the perfection of charity (as St. Thomas delivers, said question 25, article 8), and she took care to bestow all good works upon them, and did not permit them to be disparaged in her presence; nay rather she excused their defects as much as she could, and commended them to God by her prayers, after the example of the Blessed Protomartyr Stephen, who (as St. Augustine says, sermon 2 on Blessed Stephen) "when he was being stoned, not only did not expect to obtain vengeance on his persecutors, but rather asked pardon for them from God." Blessed Teresa therefore knew (as the Church sings of this Saint) how to entreat our Lord Jesus Christ for her persecutors: as there prove it in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-ninth witness, fol. 364, and the fifty-fourth witness, fol. 440, on article 68; and also in the compulsorial of Ávila the eighth witness on 4, fol. 176, and the ninth witness on 5, fol. 184. Which was so true and known that the Most Reverend Lord Álvaro de Mendoza, bishop of Ávila, was wont to say that, for anyone to be loved by Blessed Teresa, an efficacious means was to do her some injury or harm: as there depose it in the remissorial of Ávila the seventy-first witness, fol. 209, and the fifty-fourth, fol. 440, on article 68; and in the compulsorial of Toledo the first witness on 8, fol. 163.
§ LXII. On her cardinal virtues, and concerning the solemn vows of Religion.
Teresa's outstanding prudence is evident Seventh article. The prudence of which we treat is that true and perfect one which rightly counsels, judges and commands for the good end of the whole of life: as St. Thomas notes, 2. 2, question 47, article 13, in the body, at the verse "Tertia autem", where he says that this alone is simply called prudence, and is found in the just, but not in sinners. And it is its part to find the mean of the moral virtues; and it furnishes light for knowing all the common principles of praiseworthy actions and for judging their circumstances, and helps the other virtues in choosing the things which are suitable to their end and in repudiating the contraries: according to the same St. Thomas, said question 47. Which virtue our Lord Jesus Christ commended to His Disciples as very necessary when He sent them to preach, saying: "Behold I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be therefore prudent as serpents and simple as doves" (Matthew chapter 10). And how much the same our Lord, sending Blessed Teresa as a sheep in the midst of wolves, that is in the midst of many contradictions, difficulties and dangers, to traverse various provinces for erecting monasteries and propagating the Reform of this Order, fortified her with this prudence, will be clear from what follows.
[1235] from the excellence of her other virtues, First, this perfect virtue of prudence is well taken in Blessed Teresa from the other virtues with which she was adorned by almighty God in excellent degree; as is clearly proved from the whole course of her life and from what has been adduced above and is to be said below. For since she attained the necessary means to the acquisition of these virtues through fitting disposition (which properly is prudence, according to St. Thomas, question 47, article 7), it follows necessarily that Blessed Teresa had this divine prudence, since through its means and disposition she acquired the other virtues.
[1236] from the manner in which she began and completed her Reform, Secondly, this is perceived from the prudence with which she began the work of this new Reform of the Order of the Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel, applying mature consideration to present and future things which could happen, foreseeing contradictions and very many contradicters who would arise either under a show of piety or of prudence; as in fact she found those who strongly (though with good intention) opposed her. Nevertheless Blessed Teresa, who had foreseen all the aforesaid from the beginning, undertook that work with such dexterity of prudence that, efficacious means having been found and the greatest difficulties overcome, she obtained the end which she had desired: as there prove it
in the compulsorial of Ávila the tenth witness, confessor, fol. 195; and in the 1st part of Toledo the twenty-third witness, confessor, fol. 144; and in the compulsorial of Salamanca the first witness on the third, fol. 266; and in the remissorial of Ávila the fourth witness, fol. 282, and others. To which effect she so conducted herself with princes and other most weighty men whom she was wont to suffer as adversaries, that at the first conversation held with them she so convinced them that she afterwards had them as most faithful helpers and defenders: as there depose it in the compulsorial of Ávila the fifth witness on 5, fol. 184, and the tenth witness, fol. 213; and in the 3rd part of Toledo the ninth witness on 3, fol. 1419; and in the 4th part the seventh witness, fol. 1697.
[1237] from the constitutions framed by her, Thirdly, the foundation of the supreme prudence of Blessed Teresa is drawn out from the laws or constitutions which she enacted for the regulation and government of this Order, so prudent that from them it can easily be discerned that she was illumined by divine light in framing them. In which among other things this is greatly to be noted (and at which even the wisest men wonder), namely that tempering of sweetness and austerity with which she instituted this Reform: as there depose it in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-ninth witness, fol. 343, and the fifty-first witness, fol. 552; and in the 1st part of Salamanca the forty-first witness, fol. 521, and the forty-second witness, fol. 540, and the forty-third witness, fol. 559, all on article 25; and in the second part the hundred and twenty-first witness, fol. 1230; and in the same remissorial of Ávila the fifty-first witness, fol. 420, and the fifty-fourth witness, fol. 440: all these last on article 70. And the Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona confirms it, book 2, chapter 38, in which he faithfully relates the chief constitutions delivered by the aforesaid Blessed Teresa to her nuns.
[1238] from the putting into effect of her counsels and judgments, Fourthly, this same divine prudence of Blessed Teresa is discerned from this, that (as St. Thomas notes, said question 47, article 8) to command is an act of prudence consisting in the application of things counselled and judged to operation. Which act of commanding Blessed Teresa wonderfully used as to the things which she had counselled in her constitutions and daily pointed out in her admonitions, while she lived and ruled the monasteries of her nuns and directed the convents of the Friars, so that she was very often consulted by prelates as a kind of heavenly oracle: as there prove it in the 1st part of the remissorial of Salamanca the thirty-seventh witness, fol. 448; and in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-ninth witness, fol. 365, and the fifty-first witness, fol. 410, and the fifty-fourth witness, fol. 440, all on article 70; and in the compulsorial of Toledo the first witness on 6, fol. 561.
[1239] from the gift of counsel with which she was endowed. Fifthly, an argument of this wonderful prudence of the Handmaid of God, Blessed Teresa, is taken from the gift of counsel with which she was endowed, which (according to St. Thomas, 2. 2, question 52, article 2) helps and perfects prudence. And in this holy Virgin this gift of counsel is sufficiently perceived from her answers in the most difficult matters and in the plainly divine admonitions given by word and in writing; part of which goes about in print and is held in admiration: as there depose it in the second part of the remissorial of Toledo the first witness, the bishop of Calahorra, her confessor, fol. 644; and in the remissorial of Ávila the fifty-fourth witness, fol. 440; and in the remissorial of Salamanca the thirty-seventh witness, fol. 448, and the hundred and twenty-first witness, fol. 1230, all on article 70; and in the compulsorial of Ávila the fifteenth on 3, fol. 341.
[1240] [Her most perfect justice shines out in her immense charity towards God and neighbour,] Eighth article. Justice, in so far as it is one of the four cardinal virtues, is divided by St. Thomas, 2. 2, question 58, article 5, and question 61, article 1, into legal, distributive and commutative. Legal is that through which the acts of all the virtues are ordained to the common good; distributive directs the distribution of common goods to the parts of the commonwealth; but commutative directs mutual acts between private persons: the same holy Doctor, said question 61, article 1. Which virtue the following prove to be found most perfect in Blessed Teresa. First, this is taught by the ardent and immense love and charity which she had towards God and neighbour, as we have already efficaciously shown above. And since, according to the Apostle (Romans 13), "Love is the fulfilling of the law", it must necessarily be said that Blessed Teresa, who loved much, cultivated legal justice exactly and perfectly.
[1241] in the most chaste fear of God, Secondly, the same is taken from the filial fear with which she always shuddered at the transgression of the law and commandments of God. Which is so true that, although she herself exaggerated her faults in the Account of her life (which argues profound humility), yet it is believed that she never committed a mortal sin, but most faithfully guarded the nuptial garment of grace received in Baptism, as the works which she did from her earliest age, the devotion she had, the fear of God and hatred of sin with which she was always fortified, the divine love with which she burned, virginal chastity, the counsels she gave, the work of this Reform which she completed, the words she always spoke of God, the writings she left, and her other pious and most excellent virtues and actions in the progress of her whole life, sufficiently denote. And there depose it in the first part of the remissorial of Toledo the twenty-third witness, confessor of Blessed Teresa herself, saying that in her whole life there was not seen in her any stain of mortal sin; and in the second part of the remissorial of Toledo the first witness, the bishop of Calahorra and confessor, fol. 642 and fol. 636; and in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-eighth witness, fol. 322, and many others: and the Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona and the Reverend Father Francisco de Ribera deliver it, in the history which they wrote of the life of this Blessed one.
[1242] in the vow of always doing the most perfect thing, Thirdly, the same is confirmed from that rare vow, divinely inspired (as is believed), by which she promised in the hands of her superiors that she would never deliberately commit a venial sin or known imperfection, but in all things would seek what would be more perfect and more glorious to God: as we said above in article 5 on charity towards God, and the same witnesses adduced just above depose. From which it can deservedly be inferred that she who so bound herself was very far from transgression of the law.
[1243] in the most exact observance of the rules of her Order, Fourthly, this very thing is urged from that most exact observance of the rule of her Order, to which she was most devoted in food and clothing and all other things up to death. When she was near to it, the nuns urging that she should admonish them in that hour of something which might remain impressed on their hearts, Blessed Teresa herself answered nothing else nor commended anything more to them than the observance of the rule and the constitutions: as there depose it in the 1st part of the remissorial of Salamanca the forty-first witness, fol. 528, and witness 44, fol. 583, and in the 2nd part the fifty-first witness, fol. 696, all on article 94. Hence, since according to St. Thomas, said question 58, article 6, legal justice is in the prince as it were architectonically, but in subjects as it were administratively, it seems it can deservedly be inferred that this legal justice was in Blessed Teresa as it were architectonically, since living and dying she impelled her subjects by examples and words to the keeping of the laws and constitutions.
[1244] in the distribution of offices among her nuns, The fifth argument of distributive justice, which Blessed Teresa also had, is taken from the offices which she distributed in her Order, over which, every human consideration and respect of persons being disregarded, she always set the nuns whom she judged more apt; nor did she tolerate for even a short time those whom she saw to be useless, lest they should harm the common good: as there depose it in the compulsorial of Toledo the first witness on 7, fol. 162, and in the compulsorial of Salamanca the sixth witness on 4, fol. 294. Which she observed in accepting persons for the Order without respect of flesh or blood, and she showed it openly in the rejection of a certain niece of hers, who had already been clothed with the habit of the Order, whom, since she judged her unfit for the Order, she expelled from it, notwithstanding the earnest prayers of the nuns for her retention, as is read in the aforesaid histories of the life of this Blessed one.
[1245] in executing contracts and paying debts. Sixthly, an argument for commutative justice is taken from all the contracts concluded by Blessed Teresa in the foundations of monasteries, and from the paying of debts, in which she acted most justly, nor gave anyone occasion of complaint, as appears from the Account of her life and from the books of the Foundations of the monasteries. From all which, and from the other virtues in which Blessed Teresa excelled, it can with the best right be inferred that she had justice: not only in so far as it signifies a certain aggregate of all those things which make a man just before God (which is called Christian justice, according to that of St. Paul to the Romans 6: "Being freed from sin, you have become servants of justice"), but also the most perfect virtue of justice, and of the kind of those which St. Thomas, 1. 2, question 61, article 5, said are of the Blessed or of some most perfect persons in this life.
[1246] She showed an unconquered fortitude Ninth article. According to St. Thomas (whom we have followed in this matter of the virtues), 2. 2, question 123, fortitude is the third cardinal virtue, strengthening the mind in grave and greatest dangers, restraining fear, but moderating boldness. According to which moderation of boldness, to attack pertains to fortitude, but to endure, that is to stand immovably in dangers, pertains to the repression of fear, and this is the more principal act of fortitude, according to the same St. Thomas, as above, articles 2, 3 and 6. And that Blessed Teresa was fortified with this wonderful fortitude we are convinced from what follows.
[1247] by persevering in the service of God until death, First, from this, that in the good which she began from her earliest age in the service of God she persevered until death, with immense daily increase, and escaping imminent dangers; as clearly appears from the whole series of her life. Which perseverance or firmness St. Thomas calls fortitude, 2. 2, question 139, article 1, and a gift of the Holy Spirit. And this perseverance can be considered more specially in the work begun by her of entering the Order and making her profession in it, and afterwards in undertaking the Reform of this Order, and bringing it to its end, and in it at length, illustrious in virtues, giving back her spirit to God, and as a strong
athlete fighting for the glory of God and for attaining His kingdom. Which, since (according to St. Matthew chapter 11) it suffers violence, and the violent bear it away, Blessed Teresa by her fortitude and perseverance brought this violence upon the kingdom of heaven, and by the same fortitude violently bore it away.
[1248] by overcoming difficulties of every kind in erecting monasteries, Secondly, the same is drawn out from the erection of the first monastery in the city of Ávila, where dangers, tumults and grave indignations were impending; as in effect they came about. (for the whole city was in commotion), to which she opposed herself as a most firm wall, that she might complete the holy work for the glory of God. As also in the foundations of the remaining monasteries, especially in that of Seville, most grave dangers and difficulties were not lacking, all of which this strong Virgin overcame with manly spirit: as there depose it in the first part of the remissorial of Toledo the first witness, the Most Reverend Bishop of Calahorra, on article 50, fol. 604, and the bishop of Tarazona, fols. 730 and 736, and the bishop of Segovia, on article 65, fol. 806; and in the 1st part of the same remissorial of Toledo the twenty-third witness at Madrid on 66, fol. 144; and in the 1st part of the remissorial of Salamanca the thirty-seventh witness on 65, fol. 445; and in the compulsorial of Ávila the tenth witness, fols. 191 and 194 and 215.
[1249] by fearlessly addressing powerful adversaries, Thirdly, this same is confirmed from a certain strong and intrepid spirit with which she was accustomed to address most weighty men, even those adverse to her holy intent, for conducting the affairs of the Order. As happened at Toledo, where for the same cause she dealt gravely with the governor of the archdiocese, Don Gómez Tello Girón, who, on account of the opposition of some, was making himself difficult in giving leave to found a monastery there; whom, fearing nothing, she rebuked, exposing herself to the temporal danger which could befall her, and following that of Matthew 10: "Fear not them that kill the body": Blessed Teresa addressed him in these words: "It is intolerable that those who live in delights should wish to hinder certain poor little nuns, who aim at nothing else than to serve God with all rigour and enclosure, keeping the evangelical counsels. Consider how much this city might lose if these things were not carried out; finally, that you will render account to God for an impediment of this kind." And she said to him other like words, with such force of spirit namely and efficacy that she at once obtained leave from him; as she herself wrote in the book of the Foundations, and there depose it in the first part of the remissorial of Toledo the ninth witness on article 33, fol. 30, and in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-ninth witness on the same article, fol. 346, and in the second part of the remissorial of Salamanca the forty-seventh on the same article, fol. 623, and in the compulsorial of Ávila the tenth witness, her confessor, fol. 204.
[1250] by vanquishing the evil spirit, Fourthly, the same is confirmed from this, that St. Peter the Apostle in his 1st canonical Epistle, chapter 5, admonishes us, saying: "Be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour: whom resist, strong in faith." And since Blessed Teresa well knew the cunning of this common enemy, she watched and opposed herself to him, and resisted his temptations so strongly in faith that she altogether vanquished him, fighting manfully against him while she lived, clothed in the armour of God, by means of the works of charity, justice and humility and the other virtues, which she wonderfully exercised (as has been said); nay also by means of this Reform and the erection of the monasteries, tending to this end, namely to assail the devil and his works and to carry off daily victories over him, and by leaving in this same exercise the sons and daughters whom she begot in God, who as strong ones might succeed her in a fight of this kind: in which she so frequently overcame the enemy that with wonderful, strong and most pious daring she now even challenged him to combat, as if not fearing him, according to that of James 4: "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you"; as is read in her Life, fol. 196, in these words: "If I am a servant of God, why should not fortitude be present to me for warring against all the infernal powers? I took the cross in my hand, and truly it seemed that God gave me such fortitude that without any fear I did not hesitate to wrestle with the demons. For it seemed to me that with that cross I would easily conquer all the demons, and so I said: Come now, all of you, for since I am a Servant of God, I wish to see what you can do against me. And without doubt it seemed to me that they feared me. And a certain dominion, truly given by the Lord of all things, remained to me against all of them, so that I made no more of them than of flies": and there prove it in the first part of the remissorial of Salamanca the thirty-seventh witness, fol. 445, and in the 2nd part the forty-seventh witness, fol. 631; and in the 4th part of Toledo the sixth witness at Granada, fol. 1679, and the seventh witness, fol. 1693: all on article 65; and in the compulsorial of Salamanca the ninth witness on 5, fol. 185.
[1251] by undergoing dangers strongly. Fifthly, Blessed Teresa showed herself no less strong in bodily dangers however grave, since neither adverse health, which she suffered gravely for many years, nor extreme poverty, nor the female sex, nor the labours of journeys, which it mostly befell her to endure in these foundations, disheartened her; because she feared none of these, and nothing of the aforesaid could hold her back from the work begun. For she strongly underwent all the aforesaid adversities and bodily inconveniences, and overcame all with an even mind: as the above-mentioned witnesses just cited depose, and specially concerning a certain danger, to which in a most difficult crossing of a river, as she was making for Burgos, she first strongly opposed herself; as the aforesaid Most Reverend Bishop of Calahorra affirms, 2nd part of Toledo, fol. 640, and the thirtieth witness in the remissorial of Salamanca, fol. 445 verso. And another similar case happened to her when she was going from Ávila to Salamanca, of which above, article 4. From the aforesaid it is clear how rightly we can answer Solomon that we have rightly found a strong woman, namely Blessed Teresa, whom God fortified with a manly spirit as a leader of men.
[1252] Her singular temperance is proved Tenth article. The virtue of temperance is concerned with moderating delights, and so with concupiscences of sensible goods and the sadnesses proceeding from their absence, according to St. Thomas, 2. 2, question 141, article 3. Yet it consists especially in the moderation of the delights of taste, and so there is annexed to it the virtue of abstinence, of fasting and of sobriety. Of which St. Thomas, 2. 2, questions 146 and 147 and 149. Abstinence, however, differs from temperance, because the latter cuts off the superfluities of food, and lays down concerning it the order of reason to be observed; but abstinence withdraws from suitable food, and the more, the more perfect it will be: and sobriety is concerned with the drinking of wine. So St. Thomas in the places cited above. How much Blessed Teresa cultivated these virtues is established to us, and will easily appear from what is to be said below.
[1253] from the sparingness of her food and her zeal for mortification in taking it, First, from the accustomed temperance or sparingness of food which she used: for she was not wont to add to her bread anything except one egg or a few little fishes, however much she laboured under constant infirmity. So there depose it in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-ninth witness, fol. 360, and in the 1st part of the remissorial of Salamanca the thirty-seventh witness, fol. 434, and in the 2nd part the forty-seventh witness on 4, fol. 610, and others. Secondly, the same is taken from her zeal for and practice of mortification in taking food. For she rejected all things which could please the taste: as when one day she was eating something cooked pleasing to the taste, she took the morsel out of her mouth; and being asked why she did not eat that well-seasoned food, she answered that on account of the delight which she perceived from taking the aforesaid food she had not dared to swallow that morsel: as there depose it in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-ninth witness, fol. 642, and others.
[1254] from the manner in which she came to table and sat at it, Thirdly, this very thing is plainly drawn out from this, that as often as she came to the refreshment of the body, and food was to be taken by her, so often did she seem to herself (as is read of St. Bernard) to undergo a torment. So there depose it in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-ninth witness on article 62, fol. 360, and in the 1st part of the remissorial of Salamanca the thirty-seventh witness, fol. 444, and in the 4th part of the remissorial of Toledo the sixth witness at Granada, fol. 1678, and the seventh witness, both on article 62, fol. 1691. Fourthly, the same is proved from the tears which she was wont to shed while eating, considering herself subject to the necessity of feeding the body, as the witnesses just cited depose. Nay, for greater mortification of taste in taking food she was accustomed to use plates and bowls not only lowly but dirty, contrary to her natural inclination to clean and neat things, as the same witnesses depose. From which it is clear that the thoughts with which Blessed Teresa fed herself while she took food did not allow her to perceive any delight from the food.
[1255] from sobriety and the faithful observance of fasts. Fifthly, as to sobriety, the companion of abstinence, which is salutary to body and soul, according to that of Ecclesiasticus 31: "Sober drinking is health to soul and body." That Blessed Teresa cultivated this virtue is clearly taken from her perpetual avoidance of wine and the use of water alone: as there depose it in the 3rd part of the remissorial of Toledo the eighth witness at Valladolid on 5, fol. 1413, and the Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona, book 3, chapter 6. Sixthly, the aforesaid are confirmed by the faithful observance of fasts, both of the Church and of the primitive rule of her Order. This is proved in the remissorial of Ávila by the forty-ninth witness, fol. 360, and in the 1st part of Toledo by the twenty-third witness at Madrid, fol. 444, all on article 62; and in the 2nd part of Salamanca by the forty-seventh witness on 4, fol. 620, and many others. Which was to be esteemed the more highly because she was ill at the same time, and could justly have eaten even meat according to the rule, which permits it to the sick, and because many fasts of the rule have been added to the ecclesiastical fasts: since from the day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross up to the Sunday of the Resurrection the rule enjoins a fast, and besides all Fridays there are also not a few other fasts imposed by the constitutions. All which Blessed Teresa observed to a nicety, and in all these, as in the other works of mortification, she showed herself to her own a most perfect mistress of perfection.
[1256] Her most absolute obedience is perceived Eleventh article. The virtue of obedience has as its object the tacit or express precept of a superior, and so consists in obeying his precepts, according to St. Thomas, 2. 2, question 104, article 2. And
among the other moral virtues obedience holds the primacy; as the same holy Doctor notes, as above, article 3. For through it one's own will, which is reckoned among the highest human goods, is denied and despised for God's sake; but through the other moral virtues exterior goods and those of the body, which are numbered among the lowest and middle human goods, are despised. Hence St. Gregory, in the last book of the Morals, chapter 10, says "that obedience is the only virtue which implants the other virtues in the mind and guards them when implanted. For it is rightly preferred to victims: because by victims another's flesh, but by obedience one's own will, is slain." And that Blessed Teresa was so adorned with this excellent virtue that she may be called a true devotee of obedience we shall clearly demonstrate by the following arguments.
[1257] from her entire submission of mind towards superiors and confessors, First, we have been led to this opinion by that universal custom by which Blessed Teresa obeyed her superiors and confessors as God Himself, so that she never resisted them or showed herself difficult, nor did anything without their consent; which she observed most faithfully not only in external matters, but also in internal ones pertaining to the direction of the soul: as thirty-eight witnesses prove, and among them ten confessors of Blessed Teresa, especially in the 2nd part of Toledo the first witness, fol. 805, and in the 1st part of the remissorial of Salamanca the thirty-seventh, fol. 441, and in the 2nd part the hundred and twenty-first witness, fol. 1226, and in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-ninth witness, fol. 357: all on article 59; and in the 1st part of the remissorial of Toledo the twenty-third witness on article 58, fol. 142.
[1258] from the promptness of her obedience, Secondly, the same is taken from her promptness in obeying even in the most difficult matters, as when at her confessor's command she burned the book which she had written on the Song of Solomon, full of wonderful doctrine: as there prove it in the first part of the remissorial of Salamanca the thirty-seventh witness on 59, fol. 441, and in the 2nd part the forty-seventh witness on the same, fol. 427, and in the compulsorial of Toledo the first witness, fol. 274. As again she showed herself ready to burn the book of her Life, which she had written by command of most weighty confessors. Which she would certainly have done, had not Father Domingo Báñez, who had commanded it to test her obedience, forbidden it: as the same Father Domingo Báñez proves in the compulsorial of Salamanca, who is the first witness, on 4, fol. 268, and in the first part of the remissorial of Salamanca the thirty-seventh witness, fol. 441, and in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-ninth witness at Lisbon on 10, fol. 165. As also on another occasion, when, while she was staying in her monastery of Medina del Campo, it was commanded her by a certain superior, angry for certain human reasons, that she should at once withdraw from that monastery. Whom Blessed Teresa obeyed not only in withdrawing, but also in withdrawing at once, although she was suffering from paralysis, and the hour of the command was close to night; nevertheless she immediately withdrew from that place. And although, harassed by cold (for it was winter), inconveniences and illnesses, she spent a great part of that night on the road, however much the nuns offered that they would obtain the revocation of the aforesaid command. This is proved in the remissorial of Salamanca by the above-mentioned thirty-seventh witness, and in that of Ávila by the forty-ninth, cited above, and by the fifty-fifth witness, fol. 459, all on article 59.
[1259] from her simplicity and blindness in carrying out commands, Thirdly, it appears evidently concerning the simple and blind obedience of this Blessed Virgin from this, that when Christ began to appear to her, and her confessors, by way of caution, ordered her to scorn Him who appeared with signs of derision (which in Spanish are called higas), she performed it to a nicety; on account of which she was also praised by Christ. This is proved in the remissorial of Ávila by the forty-ninth witness, fol. 336, and the fifty-first witness, fol. 399, all on the twelfth; and in the compulsorial of Toledo by the first witness on the tenth, fol. 165.
[1260] from her wonderful esteem of obedience, Fourthly, this very thing is sought from her wonderful esteem of obedience. For although she had many divine revelations, she carried out nothing revealed unless it had first been approved by her superiors and confessors. Nay, if superiors commanded things contrary to those which she had received by revelation, she obeyed them as promptly as if she had had nothing revealed; for she said that in revelations she could be deceived, but in obedience to be rendered to superiors she could not. Which saying indeed is celebrated as a kind of heavenly oracle, and in practice it happened to her in the town of Beas, where it was enjoined on her by the prelate that she should go to Seville to found a monastery; which she performed, although she had it by revelation that she should rather make for Madrid. Which also happened on other occasions, when she was dealing with the erection of the first monastery. So there depose it in the 2nd part of the remissorial of Toledo the first witness, the bishop of Tarazona, her confessor, fol. 733, and in the 1st part the first witness, fol. 429, and the third witness, fol. 472, and the twenty-third witness at Madrid, confessor of the same Blessed one, on 58, fol. 141; and in the first part of Salamanca the thirty-seventh witness, fol. 441, on article 59; and in the compulsorial of Toledo the tenth witness, also a confessor, fol. 75; and in the compulsorial of Salamanca the fifth witness on 4, fol. 285.
[1261] from her zeal in obeying prioresses appointed by herself. Fifthly, this same is drawn out from a rare example of obedience, which Blessed Teresa so cultivated that, although she was Mother and Foundress, nevertheless in the monasteries where she stayed for a time she obeyed humbly and promptly, as a subject, the prioresses whom she herself had appointed, mindful of Christ, who says in Matthew chapter 20: "I came not to be ministered unto, but to minister"; and as is read in the Epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrews, chapter 5: "Whereas He was the Son of God, He learned obedience by the things which He suffered." So there depose it in the remissorial of Ávila the sixtieth on 59, fol. 490, and in the 1st part of Salamanca the forty-first witness on 4, fol. 517, and in the 3rd part of Toledo the fourth witness, on 5, fol. 1397, and the seventh witness on 5, fol. 149. From which it appears how much Blessed Teresa shone in this virtue of obedience, and how deeply she cultivated the solemn vow of the same virtue inwardly and outwardly by most perfect acts of obedience, and how fit a mistress of obedience she was, who began to do it earlier and more perfectly than to teach it.
[1262] Her most pure chastity is shown Twelfth article. Chastity, as St. Thomas has taught, 2. 2, question 143, article 1, is a subjective part of temperance, that is, a certain species of it: and it is the virtue through which, as the same holy Doctor says, 2. 2, question 151, articles 1 and 2, concupiscence is chastened according to the measure of reason. Which virtue is most pleasing to Christ, who delights in its whiteness, and most of all when the virtue of virginity is added, which in the genus of chastity is called the most excellent virtue, on the witness of St. Thomas, as above, question 152, article 5; which consists in integrity of body and immunity from delights, and more formally in the perpetual purpose of abstaining from such things: according to St. Thomas, said question 152, articles 1 and 3, where he teaches that this purpose is rendered praiseworthy from its end, namely in so far as it is made in order to give oneself to divine things. With which virtues it is established that Blessed Teresa was wonderfully adorned in excellent degree by almighty God, as it is easy to see from what follows.
[1263] by a quasi-natural aversion from impurity, First, from the most firm purpose, which she had from infancy, of perpetually cultivating this virginal chastity, together with a certain hatred impressed on her and as it were implanted by nature against whatever could savour of impurity in words or deeds, as the same Blessed Teresa affirms of herself in many places in the Account of her life; and the Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona, book 3 of his history, chapter 4, excellently confirms it, adducing wonderful things worthy of note in confirmation of this truth, and Father Ribera, book 1, chapter 7.
[1264] by the testimonies of her spiritual directors, Secondly, this very thing is confirmed by the confessors of the same Blessed one: among whom Father Rodrigo Álvarez of the Society of Jesus, a very spiritual and wise man, who heard her general Confession, said one day, holding in his hand the spectacles which he used on account of weakness of sight, that it was as impossible that Blessed Teresa should suffer foul thoughts, on account of a singular privilege of God, as that those very spectacles which he was showing should. Father Master Diego de Yanguas also, one of the graver and most learned men of the Order of St. Dominic, and confessor of this Blessed one, was wont to call her not a virgin in any ordinary way, but a treasure of virginity: as there prove it in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-ninth witness, fol. 358, and in the 1st part of Salamanca the thirty-seventh witness, fol. 442, and in the 1st part of Toledo the twenty-third witness at Madrid, fol. 142, and in the 4th part the seventh witness at Granada, fol. 1690: all on the 6th article. Hence also the same Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona, in the said chapter 4, affirms that he and all who knew and dealt with Blessed Teresa looked upon her not as a person consisting of flesh and blood, but as an Angel living in this world without the infection and stain of the uncleanness of our flesh. And he himself noted and knew by experience in this Saint, during all the time in which he dealt with her, this one thing among others, that, although all the virtues shone in her, yet the virtue of chastity and the purity of her soul was more clearly manifested in her countenance and her bearing, by which she drew to this virtue those who spoke and dealt with her; so that she bore impressed on her face the image of chastity and interior purity.
[1265] immunity from temptations of the flesh, Thirdly, the same is urged from this, that Blessed Teresa never experienced temptations of the flesh and was altogether ignorant of them, by a particular grace and privilege of God: as the same Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona, her confessor, testifies, as above. From which it happened more than once that, when some nuns vexed by the stings of the flesh consulted her to obtain a remedy, she was wont to answer them that they should consult another person; for she could not give counsel in this matter, since she had never, by God's mercy, suffered movements of this kind, and therefore did not know of what sort they were. So there depose it in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-ninth witness, fol. 358, and the fifty-first witness, fol. 405, and the fifty-fifth witness, fol. 455, and in the first part of Salamanca the thirty-seventh witness, fol. 442, and in the 1st part of Toledo the third witness, fol. 498, and in the 2nd part
the first witness, the bishop of Calahorra, also a confessor, fol. 642: all on article 60.
[1266] the wonderful splendour of modesty both in herself and in her nuns, Fourthly, the same is proved from the circumstances of the highest decency, modesty, circumspection and other like things, with which she was adorned both as regards herself and as regards her nuns, so that she seems to have impressed the adornment of chastity on her daughters by word and example; as appears from their morals and wonderful modesty, and also from the constitutions which she delivered to her nuns for the more perfect observance of chastity: as there depose it in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-ninth witness, fol. 358, and the fifty-first witness, fol. 405; and in the 1st part of Salamanca the thirty-seventh witness, fol. 442; and in the first part of Toledo the twenty-third witness on 60, fol. 142, and in the 4th part the seventh witness on the same article, fol. 1690.
[1267] the incorruption, odour and liquor of her body after death. Fifthly, we do not doubt that the same our Lord deigned to confirm the perpetual chastity and virginity of this Blessed Virgin Teresa by the wonderful integrity and incorruption of her body, and the wonderful odour and most sweet liquor, with which it is preserved and venerated even today, as we have shown at length in the Report on the miracles. Which indeed seem certain rewards corresponding to the purity of body of this holy Virgin Teresa.
[1268] The indications of her excellent poverty are Thirteenth article. Sts. Ambrose and Jerome (whom St. Thomas cites and follows, 2. 2, question 19, article 12, in the body) say that poverty of spirit is the casting away of temporal things, which is done in spirit, that is, by one's own will through the instinct of the Holy Spirit. And hence it is that this poverty is a virtue pertaining to temperance: for the renunciation of temporal things is as it were a certain abstinence from those things which can harm the soul. And how much Blessed Teresa abstained from those temporal goods in imitation of Christ, and how excellently she loved and cultivated this virtue of poverty of spirit, the following can easily demonstrate.
[1269] the vows made concerning this virtue, First, this is taken from the solemn vow of poverty, which at the making of her first profession she voluntarily made in the hands of her superior, and from that which afterwards for greater perfection she made under the primitive rule, and from the most strict observance of them, which she always showed by words and works, while she was wont to say that poverty is a certain good containing in itself all the goods of the world, and that she did not hold herself poor except when something necessary was lacking to her: as in the 1st part of the remissorial of Salamanca there depose it the thirty-seventh witness on article 61, fol. 443, and many others.
[1270] the rules written concerning it and put into effect, Secondly, Blessed Teresa confirmed the same by works and doctrine, inasmuch as not only did she supremely commend this poverty of spirit to her nuns in her constitutions, and vehemently exhort them with the greatest zeal to retain the love and observance of it in common and in particular; as there depose it in the 1st part of Toledo the twenty-third witness, fol. 443, and the forty-first witness, fol. 524, and in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-ninth witness, fol. 360, and others: but she taught this same thing in the erection of her monasteries without annual revenues, hope being placed in God alone; as in the 2nd part of the remissorial of Toledo there depose it the first witness, the bishop of Calahorra, on 61, fol. 642, and in that of Salamanca the thirty-seventh witness just cited on the same, and many others, up to thirty-five witnesses.
[1271] the labour of her hands, the meanness of her food and clothing, Thirdly, the same is confirmed from the labour of her hands, by which in imitation of St. Paul she provided necessaries: as there depose it in the 1st part of Toledo the twenty-third witness on 61, fol. 143, and in the 1st part the forty-ninth witness, fol. 670, and in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-ninth witness, fol. 360, and the fifty-first witness, fol. 406. Fourthly, the same is drawn out from the poor food and bed which she used, and from the meanness of her clothes, which she made so much of that, if she saw some nun clothed in meaner garments, she would exchange garments with her: as there depose it in the 1st part of the remissorial of Toledo the twenty-third witness on 61, fol. 143, and in the 1st part of Salamanca the thirty-seventh witness, fol. 443, and the forty-first witness, fol. 524, on the same article 61, and in the remissorial of Ávila the ninety-ninth witness on the same article, fol. 360, and many others.
[1272] her apostolic manner of travelling, Fifthly, this same is perceived from her apostolic manner of travelling, when she was making for the erections of monasteries, often without money; so that necessaries were lacking to her: as there depose it in the first part of Salamanca the thirty-seventh witness, fol. 443, and in the 2nd part the forty-ninth witness on 61, fol. 670, and others. As also happened to her when, in the erection of the monastery at Toledo, she had only one blanket for herself and her companions, and hardly necessary food was supplied; which she suffered with the greatest joy: as there depose it in the 1st part of Toledo the twenty-third witness on 61, fol. 143, and in the 3rd part the ninth witness at Valladolid on 8, fol. 148, saying that on a certain day of the Most Holy Sacrament, food being lacking in the convent, since the nuns had nothing but bread, the consolation of Blessed Teresa was so great that in thanksgiving she led an image of Jesus in procession, singing devout praises to it: as there depose it in the 1st part of Salamanca the forty-first witness on 61, fol. 524, and in the 2nd part the forty-ninth witness, fol. 670, and in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-ninth witness, fol. 360, with others.
[1273] hatred of precious things. Sixthly, the aforesaid are confirmed from the hatred which she had of gold and precious things; as she showed when she had accepted from the duchess of Alba a certain jewel of great price (out of reverence for the duchess), which she would not keep, nay rather at once restored the said jewel to a certain maid of the same duchess: as there depose it in the first part of Toledo the twenty-third witness at Madrid, fol. 143, and the twenty-fifth witness, fol. 270, and in the 3rd part the sixteenth witness at Valladolid, who is the same duchess of Alba: all on 61, fol. 1528; and in the 4th part of Toledo the seventh witness at Granada on the same article, fol. 1691.
§ LXIII. On her other virtues.
Fourteenth article. Religion is numbered among the virtues bordering on justice, which St. Thomas, 2. 2, question 80, Teresa exercised the virtue of religion splendidly calls the potential parts of justice, and it is a certain virtue through which men show due worship and reverence to God: the same holy Doctor, as above, question 81, article 1. It is pre-eminent over the other moral virtues from the nearer approach which it has to God: according to the opinion of the same holy Doctor, said question 81, article 6. And below, article 8, he teaches that, although religion and holiness are essentially the same, yet they differ in reason, because by holiness the mind of man applies itself to God, but by religion it renders Him due service in those things which specially concern His worship. Of which we have judged Blessed Teresa showed herself a most perfect devotee, as is demonstrated from what follows.
[1275] by devotion, First, this is taken from the interior and exterior acts of religion by which this virtue of religion is perfected, as St. Thomas notes, as above, article 7, and more at length in question 82 and following, where among the interior acts of religion he describes devotion and prayer. Of which the first, namely devotion, is a certain act of the will for doing promptly whatever pertains to the service and worship of God, as the same holy Doctor notes in the said question 82, article 1. Which most prompt will for carrying out the things which concern the worship of God Blessed Teresa had; as is efficaciously taught by her promptness and speed in founding monasteries, and her solicitude in preparing those things by which she believed God would be honoured. As in the erection of the monastery of Medina del Campo, where she carried on her own shoulders part of the furniture required for adorning the altar, and finished all the necessary things with almost miraculous brevity, so that the Sacrifice of the altar might be offered to God very early in the morning: as is read in the book of the Foundations, chapter 3, and in the compulsorial of Ávila there deposes it the tenth witness, her confessor and companion in that foundation, fol. 199, and the Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona confirms it, book 2, chapter 16, where he says that this foundation was miraculous, because so Blessed Teresa received it from God.
[1276] by prayer, The second argument of this most perfect religion was prayer, which (according to St. Thomas, as above, question 83) is an act of the virtue of religion, and an interior one, as devotion also is: and since judgment is passed on the excellence of any virtue by its excellent acts, it seems it must be said that Blessed Teresa had this virtue in excellent degree, because she attained its act, namely most sublime prayer, as the universal Church knows from her books, and as we shall say below in its place.
[1277] by the pious recitation of the divine Office, The third argument is had from the exterior acts of this virtue, namely from the discharge of the divine Office, by which praise and worship are rendered to the divine Majesty, in which Blessed Teresa was a most perfect worshipper of God, whether she recited or sang the divine Office apart or in choir; so that out of reverence for the divine Majesty, if even the least error was committed in choir (as is wont to happen), she took most diligent care that it be corrected: as there depose it in the 1st part of the remissorial of Toledo the twenty-third witness, her confessor, fol. 145, and in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-ninth witness, fol. 367, and the fifty-first witness, fol. 411, and the fifty-fourth witness, fol. 441, and the sixtieth witness, fol. 492, all on article 82.
[1278] by the cult of the Saints, Fourthly, the same is confirmed from the honour which she always paid to the Saints and to all those things which by some particular reason (for instance of holiness or consecration) are referred to the veneration of God. For she honoured many Saints with the greatest zeal, and especially the most glorious Virgin Mary and St. Joseph her spouse; so much so that the number of the aforesaid Saints, whom the Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona cites in his history, book 3, chapter 21, could not be set out in a lengthy discourse. She was accustomed also from childhood to adorn images of Christ and the Saints with flowers, and to handle sacred vestments with singular zeal and cleanness for the worship of God and the Saints. Which cleanness and adornment concerning the sacred vestments, the altar and other things pertaining to divine worship she both took care of with the greatest zeal in her own life, and left greatly commended in her Order: as the same witnesses cited just above depose, and besides them in the compulsorial of Ávila the tenth witness, her confessor, fol. 211.
[1279] by affection towards the Most Holy Eucharist, Fifthly, this is wonderfully confirmed from the wonderful affection which Blessed Teresa had for the worship of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, so that she was wont to say that she was stirred up to found monasteries with the greatest labours in order to add to the Church some new church in which the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar might be placed and worshipped. And setting this comfort before herself, she became more courageous for labours: as there depose it in the compulsorial of Ávila the tenth witness, fol. 197, and in the remissorial of Ávila the fifty-first witness, fol. 911, and in the 1st part of Toledo the twenty-third witness, fol. 501, and in the 4th part the seventh witness, fol. 1694, all on article 73; and it is confirmed from what is written at length by the aforesaid bishop of Tarazona, as above, chapters 20 and 21.
[1280] by daily Communion, Sixthly, we have been led to confirm the same by the wonderful increases in the soul of this Blessed Virgin caused by the increase of the worship of Christ, through daily Communion for about twenty-three years, on the counsel of most learned men and with the licence of her confessors: as there depose it in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-second witness, fol. 249, and the forty-sixth witness, fol. 296, and the forty-seventh witness, and the forty-eighth, and the forty-ninth, and the fifty-first: all on article 73. Wonderfully strengthened by this divine food, she made the greatest progress in the worship and faith of Jesus Christ existing in the Sacrament, so that for many years by living faith she approached to receive the Eucharist no otherwise than if she saw Christ Himself with bodily eyes: as there depose it in the 2nd part of Toledo the first witness on 4, fol. 673, and the histories of this Blessed one cited above, and particularly Father Ribera, book 4, chapter 12. And how pleasing this worship of Blessed Teresa was to Christ appears clearly from this, that frequently after Communion she suffered ecstasy with a brightness of countenance. And on account of the interior consolations of God the pains of her body too were relieved. And from the time she began to frequent Communion there ceased in her a certain vomiting, which she had suffered every morning, and which hindered that daily reception of the Eucharist: as there depose it in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-second and forty-eighth witnesses; and in the remissorial of Toledo the twenty-first witness, the bishop of Tarazona, and the twenty-third witness, her confessor; and in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-ninth witness and the sixtieth witness: all on article 73. And when one Palm Sunday, after Communion, before she swallowed the Eucharist, she had been rapt in ecstasy, coming back to herself shortly afterwards, it seemed to her that she had her mouth full of the precious Blood of Christ and her whole body stained with the same Blood; whereupon with intimate sweetness she heard these words from Jesus Christ: "Daughter, I wish My Blood to profit you; and do not fear that My mercy will ever be lacking to you. I shed it with many sorrows, and you (as you see) enjoy it with great pleasure." Which she herself relates in the book of her Life, fol. 359, and there depose it in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-seventh witness, fol. 296, and the forty-eighth witness, fol. 325, on article 73.
[1281] by reverence towards priests. Seventhly and lastly, the aforesaid are confirmed by the honour and reverence with which she venerated priests, as ministers of the Most Holy Sacrament, so that she was accustomed to bend the knee before them: as there depose it in the remissorial of Toledo the twenty-third and sixth and seventh witnesses, and in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-ninth and fifty-first witnesses, all on the said article 73; and the Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona confirms it, as above.
[1282] She cultivated the most profound humility Fifteenth article. Humility is the virtue by which the mind is made firm lest it be inordinately exalted. And it is a certain species of modesty and a part of temperance, according to St. Thomas, 2. 2, question 161, articles 1 and 4. This virtue Christ most commended for the imitation of Himself (Matthew 11), and many degrees of it are laid down in the rule of St. Benedict, as St. Thomas cites, as above, article 6. And how much Blessed Teresa excelled in this virtue, and how she arrived at its most perfect degree, is plainly established from the following arguments.
[1283] by contempt of herself, In the first place this is urged from the knowledge of herself which she attained in so excellent a degree that, although she was adorned with heroic virtues and heavenly gifts, she believed from her heart that she was the greatest sinner in the world; so that she often said that she wished at times to lack all sense, so as not to behold so great evils in herself. And amid so many wonders which made her celebrated, she did not feel the stings of vainglory, and she quite often said that the graces conferred on her by God, such as raptures, visions, revelations, were like torrents passing swiftly, but her sins like mire which she always had before her eyes. Of which many witnesses depose, among whom fourteen of her confessors: but let it suffice to mention in the 2nd part of Toledo the first witness, the bishop of Calahorra, and the bishop of Tarazona, and the bishop of Segovia, all on 63; and in the 1st part the twenty-third witness at Madrid on the same article; and in the remissorial of Ávila the fifty-fourth and fifty-fifth witnesses; and in the compulsorial of Toledo the first witness at Lisbon on 7.
[1284] by the desire of being held cheap by others, Secondly, this same is taken from the desire with which she burned that her faults should become known to others, especially to those by whom she knew herself to be greatly esteemed. In which matter she was restrained by her confessors, to whom she of her own accord gave licence to make known her faults to all, while on the contrary she took care that they should not publish the divine benefits bestowed on her: as many of the witnesses cited above depose, and in the 4th part of Toledo the seventh witness at Granada; and in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-ninth witness: both on article 63.
[1285] by flight from honour, Thirdly, this same is confirmed from her flight from honour. For when the fame of her holiness had begun to spread, she wished to move from the monastery in which she was then living to another, where she would be known by no one. And she asked of her superiors that in the monasteries which she had erected she should not be called Foundress. And though she was such in truth, nevertheless she reckoned herself a subject, always subjecting herself and humbly obeying the prioresses whom she herself had chosen in her monasteries, as we said above, article 11; and on the contrary she had a thirst for insults, and felt pleasure when she was rebuked by her superiors: as the witnesses just cited depose. Fourthly, the same is taught by a certain pious flight from divine benefits, by which, acknowledging her unworthiness, she declined visions and revelations and divine consolations, in imitation of St. Peter saying (Luke 5): "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord": as is evident from her words in the Account of her life, fol. 124: "See, Lord, what You are doing: do not so soon forget my grave sins. And though, as regards pardon, You have so forgotten them, remember them, I pray, that You may set a limit to Your benefits towards me." Thus she.
[1286] by exterior acts of humility Fifthly, this very thing is sought from the exterior acts of humility which she exercised as a mistress of this virtue: as when, having entered the refectory, bowed down, and bearing a pack-saddle placed on her back, she asked pardon of the nuns for her faults; and when, believing herself unworthy of the monastic habit, she obtained from her superior that she be stripped of it for some days, and be clothed again as a novice. While which was being done, from a great feeling of devotion she suffered ecstasy: as there depose it in the 2nd part of Salamanca the eighteenth witness; and in the 1st part of Toledo the second witness; and in the 4th part the sixth witness at Granada, and the twenty-first witness at Medina: all on article 64; and in the compulsorial of Toledo the first witness on the twentieth, and the second witness at Madrid, fol. 40. Who affirm that the aforesaid Blessed Teresa also performed many other exterior acts of humiliation or humility.
[1287] and by undertaking lowly offices. Sixthly, we are led to the same by her exercises of serving others in the kitchen and refectory, and in washing dirty vessels; in which ministries she took intimate delight. To which was added a certain custom of dealing with her subjects as with equals, asking counsel of them about the things to be done, and following it with wonderful lowliness of mind: as there depose it in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-ninth and fifty-first witnesses; and in the 1st part of Toledo the first witness at Consuegra, and the second witness in the town of Malagón: all on article 63; and in the 4th part of Toledo the seventh witness at Granada on 64, and many others.
[1288] She exercised an unconquered patience in illnesses and labours, Sixteenth article. According to St. Augustine, in the book on Patience, chapter 2, whom St. Thomas cites and follows, 2. 2, question 136, article 1, in the body, patience is the virtue by which we bear evils with an even mind, that is, without the disturbance of sadness; as St. Thomas explains in the same place, who below, article 4, affirms that patience is a virtue joined to fortitude. That Blessed Teresa had this virtue most eminently is established and proved, first, from the ardour of suffering which she always showed in those words which she frequently used: "Lord, either to die or to suffer"; as if she would live in vain unless she suffered evils for God: as there depose it in the 1st part of Toledo the twenty-third witness at Madrid, her confessor; and in the 4th part the seventh witness at Granada; and in the first part of Salamanca the thirty-seventh witness: all on article 66, and others. That Christ might satisfy this desire of suffering, He exercised her with most grievous labours. For from the making of her profession in the convent of the Incarnation she was vexed for three years with such a contraction of the sinews that it caused her the sharpest pains. She lay in bed so hindered and disabled that she could not move even one finger of her hand. And during the rest of her life too she was always in ill health. For she often suffered epilepsy, pleurisy, paralysis, tremblings of the body, vomiting every night, fevers very frequently; so that, afflicted for forty years, she passed no day without some vexation of this kind. Burdened with which infirmities, for twenty years she traversed Spain, exposing herself to snows, rains, the extreme heats of the sun, the greatest poverty and innumerable inconveniences, to erect monasteries. All which things she bore with admirable and incredible patience; so that in the most troublesome illnesses and the bitterest pains no other word came forth from her mouth but that of Job 2: "If we have received good things at the hand of God, why should we not receive evil?" as there depose it in the 1st part of Salamanca the thirty-seventh on 67, and the hundred and third witness on 5; and in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-second witness and the forty-sixth and the forty-seventh, all on 4; and the twenty-eighth
witness, and the forty-ninth and sixtieth witnesses, all on 66; and in the 1st part of Toledo the second witness at Toledo on 53; and in the compulsorial of Ávila the tenth witness and the twenty-fifth on the fifth.
[1289] in the assaults of the demons, Secondly, she exercised the same patience in the pains and blows with which the demons tormented her. For often, when some came to their senses from grave sins through the intercession of Blessed Teresa, the demon tortured her furiously. Sometimes he struck her with a wax torch, and sometimes gravely injured her body. At Ávila, as she was going out of the choir (see no. 786 of this Commentary), he cast her headlong from the top of the same staircase, from which her arm was broken, in the cure of which she endured most bitter pains; and nevertheless it remained so weak that thereafter she could never use it. And on one occasion for the space of five hours she was greatly tormented by the demon within and without, so that her spirit now seemed to be failing her. And when among other acts of patience and resignation she said that she would gladly suffer until the end of the world, if it pleased God, the demon appeared to her as a misshapen Ethiopian; upon whom, when Blessed Teresa threw holy water, he at once fled, leaving a great stench: as she herself wrote in the Account of her life, chapter 31, fol. 245, where she relates many other similar cases. All which things Blessed Teresa bore with cheerful spirit and wonderful patience: as there depose it in the 4th part of the remissorial of Toledo the tenth witness at Medina on 66; and in the 3rd part the ninth witness at Valladolid on 4; and in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-ninth witness and the fifty-first and the sixtieth witness, all on 67; and the fifty-fifth witness on 68; and in the compulsorial of Ávila the first witness on 60, and the fifth witness on the fourth, and the ninth witness on the fifth, and others.
[1290] in interior desolation; Thirdly, Blessed Teresa exercised the same wonderful patience in the interior desolation which for twenty years (so God disposing) most bitterly afflicted her. Which is reckoned among the first and most grievous torments; since it is as it were a perpetual martyrdom. Desolations of this kind, nay even graver ones, she endured for a time after she began to experience the kindness of God. For many years also she was of anxious mind, fearing lest she had been deluded by the demon: as there depose it in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-sixth witness on the tenth, and the forty-ninth witness on 69 and on 74; and in the 2nd part of Salamanca the hundredth witness on 4, and the hundred and fourth witness on 5.
[1291] nor was she ever sated with suffering. Fourthly, the aforesaid are confirmed from her immense affection for suffering greater things. For although she had borne so many and so great evils that sometimes, from immense anguish of mind, the frame of her body seemed to be dissolved, yet she was never sated, and she was wont to say that for suffering she needed no other end by which to be moved than patience itself: as in the remissorial of Ávila there depose it the forty-ninth witness on 69; and in the compulsorial of Ávila the first witness, her confessor, on 6; and in the compulsorial of Salamanca the seventh witness on 4.
[1292] She exercised penance excellently Seventeenth article. The virtue of penance (as St. Thomas teaches, 3rd part, question 85, article 2) is that by which a man works for the destruction and detestation of past sin. And this virtue is a species of justice, as the same holy Doctor says, as above, article 3. And a virtue of this kind requires a certain compensation of justice, which is made by means of acts of penance. Of these some are interior, as contrition, or detestation and sorrow for sin: others exterior, such as is the maceration of the flesh and other works which are done for the punishment and satisfaction of sin. Which Blessed Teresa wrought signally, as will easily appear from what follows.
[1293] by interior acts of contrition, First, this is taken from the interior acts of contrition, whose measure is the love of God. Which, as much as it grew in her soul, so much was hatred of sin increased. Which is well demonstrated by the things which she left written in detestation of her light sins in the book of her Life, chapter 7, fol. 47, and chapter 8, fol. 50: and there prove it in the 1st part of the remissorial of Toledo the twenty-third witness at Madrid, confessor, and in the 2nd part the first witness, the bishop of Segovia, confessor, both on the 63rd article; and in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-sixth witness on article 62, and many others.
[1294] by afflictions of the flesh, Secondly, this same is drawn out from exterior acts of penance, namely from most sharp scourges, not only of harder cords, but also of nettles and keys, with which she was accustomed to beat herself to the shedding of blood, repeating it over the previous wounds not yet healed; then from sharp-pointed iron chains, girt with which she went about, and from the briars in which (as is read of St. Benedict) she sometimes rolled herself. By these and similar works of penance she destroyed the health of her body, nor did she ever, when sick, abandon hair shirts and stripes; and sometimes, lying in bed with fever, she would rise for the customary discipline with the other nuns: as there depose it in the first part of the remissorial of Salamanca the thirty-seventh witness on the tenth, and in the 2nd part the forty-seventh witness on the fourth, and the forty-ninth witness; and in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-sixth witness and the forty-ninth on 62; and in the first part of the remissorial of Toledo the twenty-third witness, confessor, and in the 4th part the seventh witness at Granada and the twenty-first at Medina, all on 62; and in the compulsorial of Ávila the sixth witness on 4; and in the compulsorial of Salamanca the fifth witness on the same, and many others.
[1295] by the observance of fasts, and the institution of an austere Reform. Thirdly, the same is sought from her observance of the fasts of the Church and of the regular fasts, which are very many (as we said above, article 10, on temperance), and from abstinence from meat, although on account of continual illnesses she could have eaten meat according to the rule. To which is added the hard little bed strewn with straw, and the woollen undershirt and rough garments which she used; although according to the rule she could have relaxed something of this austerity (on account of illnesses). With which concurs her scant sleep of two or three hours, so that she might give the remaining hours of the night to prayer. Which she observed even while she was travelling. And she would have done greater penances, had she not been forbidden by her confessors. For she said that (when she suffered a vehement impulse of seeing God) she found rest in nothing more than in the maceration of the body, and she took it ill that her confessors restrained her: as there depose it in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-ninth witness; and in the 1st part of Salamanca the thirty-seventh witness on 10; and in the 2nd part the forty-seventh witness on 4; and in the 1st part of Toledo the twenty-third witness; and in the 2nd the first witness, the bishop; and in the 4th part the sixth and seventh witnesses: all on article 62; and the twenty-first witness on the same; and in the compulsorial of Ávila the first witness, confessor, on 5, and the sixth witness on 4, and the tenth witness, confessor, fol. 190. Fourthly, the above-mentioned are confirmed by the Reform of this Order which she instituted, whose austerity, composed of manifold acts of penance, is very well known to the Church, and its rule indicates it, and many witnesses affirm it, whom we have thought it superfluous to cite here, because these things are notorious.
[1296] She gave specimens of wonderful meekness, Eighteenth article. Meekness is the virtue through which we moderate the affection of anger according to right reason, according to St. Thomas, 2. 2, question 157, article 2; where also in the following article he affirms that this virtue is a part annexed to temperance. And this virtue is one of the two which Christ our Redeemer most commended in Matthew 11, saying: "Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart." And as St. Augustine declares, book 1, chapter 2, on the Sermon of the Lord on the mount: "The meek are those who yield to wickednesses and do not resist evil, but overcome evil with good." How Blessed Teresa attained this virtue in sublime degree will clearly appear from what is to be said.
[1297] when she was held to be possessed and a deceiver, First, from that time in which some thought her deluded, a great storm having been stirred up for that reason, when some said that she was possessed by demons and wished to use exorcisms, others believed her a deceitful woman and threatened her with the censure of the Holy Inquisition. At which time she was so forsaken by all that no one would hear her Confessions. In which insults and injuries she always showed a wonderful meekness: as there depose it in the remissorial of Ávila the fifty-first witness on article 68, and in the compulsorial of Ávila the second and third witnesses on 5; and the above-mentioned Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona and Father Doctor Ribera confirm it, in their histories.
[1298] [when on account of the erection of her monastery at Ávila she suffered calumnies,] Secondly, from the business of the erection of the first monastery: on occasion of which (God so permitting for the trial of His handmaid Teresa, proving her at the water of contradiction and persecution, and examining her patience and meekness like gold in the furnace) many things were spread abroad slanderously and ignominiously concerning her in the city of Ávila and in the very monastery in which she was then living; nay, she was even called to judgment before her provincial, where many things were objected against her, and (what is graver) in sermons some preachers inveighed against her so openly that they only did not call Teresa by name. Which was continued in the institution of the aforesaid new Reform: while she was attempting to begin which, grave and indignant witnesses rose up against her, who spread many false charges against her and flung out insulting words; and many and grave insults were written concerning her, which came into the hands even of many most weighty persons. All which she heard and bore most meekly: and amid so many and such sharp incitements to indignation she uttered no word of anger or impatience; there was no place for anger in her soul, but admirable meekness and tranquillity: as there depose it in the compulsorial of Ávila the first witness, confessor, on 5 and 6; and in the remissorial of Ávila the forty-sixth witness and the forty-seventh on article 21, and the thirty-first, and the forty-ninth, and the fifty-fourth, and the fifty-fifth witnesses, all on article 68; and in the 2nd part of the remissorial of Toledo the first witness, the bishop of Tarazona. And it is confirmed from what is written at length by Blessed Teresa herself in the Account of her life, chapter 36.
[1299] Thirdly, from the answer given by this Blessed one to Father Domingo Báñez, more than once named in this Report: when she was compared with the most wicked Magdalena de la Cruz. who when he related to Blessed Teresa
that when in a certain assembly of grave men one of them had heaped up injuries and reproaches against her, and had compared her with a certain deluded Magdalena, then living and known to all Spain, she answered calmly: "Alas, wretched me! They do not know me. For if that Father had known me, he would deservedly have brought greater reproaches and abuse against me": as the same Father Dominic Báñez, first witness in the compulsorial process of Salamanca, deposes on the 5th article.
Moreover, when she was staying at Seville, she and her companions were denounced to the office of the Holy Inquisition, many false things being imputed to them; and many other injuries presented themselves to her. All of which she accepted so gently and meekly that she wrote to a certain nun in these words: "Blessed be God; for in this city they truly know me"; and she added that she would therefore take care that she might not be able to leave that city: as the forty-ninth, fifty-first and sixtieth witnesses depose in the remissorial process of Ávila, all on the 42nd and 68th articles; and in the compulsorial process of Salamanca the second witness, her confessor, on the 50th; and in the compulsorial process of Toledo the first witness at Lisbon on the 8th; and the Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona in his deposition, 2nd part of the remissorial process of Toledo, fol. 461; who also confirms it in the aforesaid history, book 2, chap. 28, fol. 205. Many other things happened in which Blessed Teresa excellently exercised this virtue of meekness, imitating Christ the most meek, "who was dumb as a lamb before his shearer": Isa. 53.
[1300] Her admirable magnanimity shines forth from the heroic degree of her virtues, Article Nineteen. Magnanimity is the virtue which sets the measure of reason with respect to great honours; and it is properly concerned with them, according to St. Thomas, 2-2, q. 129, arts. 2 and 3. And this virtue (as the same holy Doctor teaches in the same place, art. 5) is a part of fortitude, and is joined to it as a secondary virtue to a principal one; and it perfects all the virtues, adding to them the ornament of greatness, while it makes them greater, as the same St. Thomas notes in the place cited above, art. 4, ad 3. With this virtue Almighty God adorned Blessed Teresa in the highest degree, as will appear from what follows. First, from the supreme and truly heroic degree of the virtues growing through magnanimity, which she attained; as can be clearly seen from what was noted above in this Relation concerning the more principal virtues, and as appears from the depositions of the witnesses adduced there and from the histories compiled of her life.
[1301] from the excellence of her works, Secondly, the same is drawn from the greatness of soul with which she performed works plainly great for the glory of God, such as was the institution of this Reform: above all because, though she was a woman, she so conducted herself that she proved a worthy Foundress not only of women but of men, when otherwise so great a thing seemed not even able to be hoped for; above all since she undertook and accomplished this very arduous and difficult work with such security and confidence of outcome: which is a proof of admirable magnanimity. Because according to St. Thomas, the said q. 129, arts. 6 and 7, confidence and security are properties of magnanimity. Let there be added to the foregoing the multitude of great works which she accomplished, namely thirty-two monasteries, which she left founded, seventeen of nuns and fifteen of religious men, as we weighed above in the first article of this second part.
[1302] from the vow of doing the more perfect things, Thirdly, the same is elicited from that admirable vow which she made of always doing, not just any good things, but those which she believed better and more pleasing to God, as we demonstrated above, art. 5, on charity towards God. If therefore (according to St. Thomas, the said q. 129, art. 2, in the body) magnanimity is concerned not with middling things but with great ones, then since Blessed Teresa undertook great things in making the said rare and very great vow, and in all the other great things related above, it must necessarily be said that she gave evident proof of this virtue of magnanimity.
[1303] from her most ardent zeal for loving God and neighbour. Fourthly, this very thing is evidently demonstrated by the most ardent zeal for loving God above all things and her neighbour as herself, with which she took care to fulfil these precepts. For as to the love of God, she loved Him not in any ordinary way, but seraphically, and she not only desired but took pains that all (so far as she could) should be converted to God; as we have said more fully above, in the said articles 5 and 6 on charity towards God and towards neighbour: and she wished for such greatness of this love of God that she used to say she would readily accept that others should surpass her in sublimity of glory, but did not know with what mind she would accept that others should love God more ardently; as is read in book 4 of Father Ribera cited above, chap. 10. And as to the love of neighbour, she had an apostolic spirit and a desire of gaining all for Christ, and beyond the bounds of the female sex she was a rare example in the whole world regarding the conversion of heretics and other infidels, and of sinners among the faithful; as was shown above in the said art. 6: which is not only Christian charity, excellent in its kind, but magnanimity.
[1304] She bore a most grateful mind, Article Twenty. Gratitude (which is also called thankfulness by St. Thomas, 2-2, q. 106) belongs to the parts of justice, and is the virtue by which a benefit received is repaid generously in intention, and in deed according to one's strength. And this virtue has a certain efficacious power for drawing an abundance of new benefits from the fountain of divine goodness; just as, on the contrary, ingratitude dries up the fountain of divine mercy (as St. Bernard says, sermon 51 on the Song of Songs). How greatly Blessed Teresa shone in this virtue towards God and men, what follows demonstrates.
[1305] both towards God, First, the gratitude of Blessed Teresa towards God is gathered from the weight of divine benefits, by which she felt herself pressed and incited to do well, and from her acknowledgement of them and her continual thanksgiving both in words and in deeds. This is well elicited from what she wrote in chap. 15, fol. 110, in the Relation of her life, in these words: "A soul which is grateful by its disposition is more keenly incited to return to God by the memory of a benefit received than by all the torments of hell being set before it"; and it is sufficiently shown by what she performed in the obedience and service of God, and for His praise and greater glory: as the histories of her life relate, and the witnesses examined in this cause confirm, and we have shown above in this Relation, and as will appear more from what is to be said below. All of which can truly be credited to gratitude, as performed by this Blessed Virgin so greatly enlightened by divine benefits: and there is no greater sign of gratitude than to repay with service, not only in words but in works according to one's strength. And this is argued still more clearly from the effect of the benefits received anew and daily with greater increase, the augmentation of which is an effect of gratitude, as we said above.
[1306] to whom she anxiously reckoned that she did not render due thanks, Secondly, the same is drawn from the hatred with which she pursued ingratitude. For since she seemed to herself ungrateful for divine benefits, she did not dare to stand before the divine Majesty, fearing the sting of conscience accusing her of ingratitude. Than which there was no greater torment, as can be judged from these words of hers, written in the aforesaid Relation, chap. 7, fol. 47: "To my mind indeed (she says) it was so much harder to receive benefits rather than punishments, at the time when I had committed faults, that I seemed to myself to be more effectually consumed, shamed and wearied by one single benefit than by many illnesses and other labours." Which she confirms in chap. 39 of her Life, fol. 339; where she confesses that greater fortitude of soul was necessary for her to receive the benefits of God than to bear the greatest labours: which is most worthy of note. For she judged herself ungrateful for such great benefits, since she was tormented by those very benefits, and felt herself greatly burdened by the magnitude of the benefits: as depose in the remissorial process of Ávila the forty-ninth witness; and in the 1st part of the Toledo process the first witness, the Bishop of Tarazona, and the Bishop of Segovia, her confessors: all on the 63rd article.
[1307] and towards benefactors, Thirdly, the same gratitude towards men, even for slight benefits, is discerned from this, that when she was making a journey, being thirsty, she received a vessel of water from a certain man, and so slight a benefit was so impressed upon the soul of Blessed Teresa that she remembered to pray perseveringly for him for several years; indeed, it can scarcely be believed what thanks she gave to the nuns themselves for the familiar services which are commonly rendered to others: as depose in the remissorial process of Ávila the forty-ninth witness on the 63rd; and in the 2nd part of the Toledo process the Bishop of Calahorra on the 63rd; and in the compulsorial process of Toledo the first witness at Lisbon on the 5th. Which seems the more worthy of note, since all the nuns, as daughters to their Mother and Foundress, owed her very much, and nevertheless she, like some stranger who was receiving free alms, showed herself most grateful to them.
[1308] especially spiritual ones, among whom she counted those who offended her. Fourthly, this same thing is confirmed by her gratitude towards those from whom she received spiritual benefits, such as were her confessors; whom she served most faithfully on the occasions that offered: as the fortieth witness deposes in the remissorial process of Ávila on the 63rd. This, however, is not so much to be wondered at as that gratitude demonstrated by the affection which she bore towards those who offended her, as towards the greatest benefactors, bestowing on them all the good offices she could, as we showed above, art. 8, on charity towards neighbours: and as depose in the compulsorial process of Ávila the first witness, her confessor, fol. 19 verso; and in the compulsorial process of Salamanca the first witness, her confessor, fol. 268, and many others. Hence she was accustomed to distinguish the good which came to her when she suffered an injury from the injury itself, so that, unmindful of the injury, she might be mindful of and grateful for the spiritual good received on that occasion. Which is evangelical perfection, according to that teaching of Christ the Lord (Matt. chap. 5): "Love your enemies, and do good to them that hate you. Pray for them that persecute you."
§ LXIV. On the divine gifts in her prayer; on the graces freely given; on the gifts of the Holy Spirit; and on the fame of her sanctity both in life and after death.
That Teresa was distinguished by a sublime gift of prayer, Article Twenty-one. § I. Prayer, according to the common opinion, is the elevation of the mind to God: which coincides with what St. Thomas taught, 2-2, q. 83, art. 17, saying that prayer is the ascent of the intellect to God. And it has various degrees, which Blessed Teresa herself expressed and declared excellently in the book entitled The Interior Castle, or The Spiritual Mansions, of which she taught that seven are to be found, as so many degrees of prayer, and that one passes from one into another, until to the most perfect union
with God, or to the spiritual marriage, the soul arrives, which is the more sublime perfection of this life. For then the whole soul, recollected in God with all its powers and strengths, becomes one spirit with Him, so that it now remembers nothing but God, feels or understands nothing but God, and all its affections, united in the joy of love, rest sweetly in the sole fruition of the Creator, according to St. Bonaventure in his Opuscula, book 2, On the Progress of the Religious Life, chap. 72. This state of prayer, moreover, has in itself various degrees, just as the love of God is also recognized to have. Hence whoever burns towards God with greater love and greater charity will attain a more sublime degree of this divine union, as we do not doubt Blessed Teresa attained. Since from her youth, and from the day on which she entered religion, for fifty years and more continuously, she exercised herself in this sublime pursuit of prayer through all its degrees, until she arrived at the aforesaid sublime and more perfect degree of most perfect union.
[1310] it is demonstrated both from her writings and the testimonies of her confessors, But if we wish to seek it from witnesses worthy of credence, we have the testimony of the Blessed one herself in what she left written in her books concerning her own prayer and divine contemplation. For her most frequent suspension of mind, deepest quiet, closest union, very frequent raptures, wounds of inmost charity, most vehement impulses of love, sweetest colloquies with God, and tenderest caresses, with which her writings are sprinkled, easily demonstrate a sublimity of prayer undoubtedly angelic, and a most accomplished skill infused from heaven for instructing others. We have also witnesses beyond all exception, and very well informed about this matter through various courses of time, namely grave, learned, spiritual and pious men. Several of whom were confessors of the same Blessed one, and among them some most worthy prelates, whom we have named more than once in this Relation, who depose very well and very fully on this article; to whom she always took care to communicate most faithfully, for the greater security and direction of her soul, her prayer, its degrees and effects, the divine graces and favours, and the state to which she had ascended by means of the pursuit of prayer. All of whom, having made trial of the spirit and doctrine of the books of this so great Virgin, affirm, not without reason, that she was given by God Most Good and Most Great to His Church as a mistress, as it were, of spiritual doctrine; as we have already said above, art. 2. But beyond the testimonies of the aforesaid, the following arguments have led us to this very conclusion.
[1311] and from the cause of her prayer First, because, since (as St. Thomas witnesses, the said q. 83, art. 14) the cause of prayer is the desire of charity, from which prayer ought to proceed, and Blessed Teresa so burned with this very great desire, or rather with charity itself (as we showed in art. 5), that she herself used to say wonderfully that it would not be troublesome to her that another should enjoy greater glory, but that she would bear it ill that another should pursue God with greater love: by which words she wonderfully demonstrated the desire of this charity, and indeed the most ardent charity with which she burned towards God. Hence, since she attained this fiery love in a very heroic degree by means of prayer and divine contemplation, it seems it must be said that she also attained a sublime degree of prayer, and thus could say with the Royal Prophet, Ps. 38: "My heart grew hot within me, and in my meditation a fire shall flame out."
[1312] and its effects Secondly, the effects of it clearly demonstrate the degrees of this sublimity to which Blessed Teresa (God granting it) arrived in prayer. For by this means of prayer, which is called the royal road leading to life, Blessed Teresa attained so many and such excellent and heroic virtues, not only most ardent charity (of which above), but also living faith and most firm hope, most lofty obedience, virginal chastity and evangelical poverty, profound humility, incomparable patience and fortitude, as well as divine prudence and other admirable virtues, each of which we have reviewed in its own place. And this grace of attaining virtues so excellent, and in a supremely perfect degree, this Blessed one always and continually begged of God in prayer, as one who knew well that the substance of Christian perfection and of religious life consists in the perfection of charity and of the other virtues; as is clear from the doctrine of the books which she wrote, and as her confessor, the Bishop of Tarazona, confirms in his history.
Thirdly, this same thing is gathered from another wonderful effect that followed in Blessed Teresa through prayer, namely a certain wonderful adherence of the mind to God, and His continual presence; so that it must be said that she gave herself to prayer in every place and at every time: in which her soul was so immersed that her body was in a manner consumed by loving, since, intent upon the divine presence, she could neither be refreshed with food nor take sleep at night-time; as depose in the remissorial process of Ávila the fifty-first witness, fol. 412, and in the compulsorial process the tenth witness, her confessor and inseparable companion, fol. 211.
[1313] is demonstrated. Fourthly, through prayer she attained perseverance and continuance in it, so that for fifty years (as we have said) she did not desist from it; nor were the aridities and desolations of soul, which she suffered for about the first twenty years (God so disposing for her probation), able to remove her from prayer. Which quality of continuance in the exercise of prayer St. Thomas teaches to be required, in the place last cited, adducing St. Augustine, letter 121 to Proba, c. 9, saying: "In faith itself, hope and charity, we always pray with continued desire." Now God had chosen Blessed Teresa as the spiritual Mother and Foundress of the aforesaid new Reform of the Discalced of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel: and since assiduous meditation and prayer in the law of the Lord is the chief end of that Rule (as is clear from it), it was fitting that there should be such a Mother as could instruct so many sons and daughters by her wonderful continued zeal and desire for praying and meditating.
[1314] To this gift are joined raptures, § II. After Almighty God had granted to this Blessed Virgin the gift of prayer and contemplation, another wonderful effect of the same gift followed, namely that (by means of prayer) Blessed Teresa came to certain very great and violent impulses of the love of God, and thus to frequent elevations into ecstasy. For it is established that very often, when placed in prayer, she was rapt out of herself; and that sometimes she was rapt with such vehement elevations of spirit that even her body was lifted on high from the ground: as depose in the remissorial process of Ávila the twentieth witness on the 15th; and in the 2nd part of the Salamanca process the forty-seventh witness on the tenth, and the forty-ninth on the third, and the hundredth and hundred-and-second witnesses on the same; and in the 1st part of Toledo the first witness, her confessor, on the 2nd; and in the 2nd part the first witness on the 74th, and the twentieth witness on the 2nd, and the thirtieth on the 70th; and in the 3rd part the first and second witnesses on the 2nd, and many others. Among whom, specifically concerning the raptures and the elevations of her body from the ground, there depose as eyewitnesses in the remissorial process of Ávila the forty-ninth witness on the 15th; and in the first part of the Toledo process the third; and in the third part the ninth; and in the 4th part the seventh and twenty-first witnesses: all on the same fifteenth article. These things are confirmed from what was written at length by the above-mentioned Bishop of Tarazona, book 1, chap. 15, fol. 51, and Father Ribera, book 1, chap. 15, fol. 105, and also from what the above-mentioned Blessed one wrote in the Relation of her life, chap. 20, where she teaches what ecstasy is and in what it differs from union, and wonderfully explains some of the many spiritual goods that come to the soul from this divine ecstasy. And in the seventh Mansion, chap. 3, fol. 732, where she affirms that, when God had advanced her soul to the uttermost of perfection, the exterior raptures then ceased for her, while the same effects of prayer and of familiar communication with God remained, indeed more excellent ones than when she was undergoing the said raptures.
[1315] divine splendours, § III. This same thing is elicited from another wonderful effect of this prayer, namely that the face of Blessed Teresa, while she was giving herself to prayer, very often shone from her colloquy with God (as is read of Moses): as depose as eyewitnesses in the first part of the Toledo process the third witness on the 10th; and the second, on the 47th, says that on a certain day she saw the aforesaid Blessed one emit a certain splendour from her face like the sun; and in the 2nd part the first witness, and in the 3rd the fourth witness, on the 14th; and in the 4th part of the Salamanca process the eighty-second and ninety-second witnesses; and in the first part of Toledo the twenty-third witness: all these three on art. 37, and they were confessors of this Blessed one, who, ministering to her the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, saw her face shining; and in the 3rd part of Toledo the seventh witness on the 93rd; and in the 4th part the seventh on the 54th, saying that on a certain night she saw that she had a countenance gleaming with clear light, and from it went forth splendours like gilded rays, and this lasted for her for the space of one hour, and that, when the aforesaid splendour ceased, she seemed to be in darkness. There are also other eyewitnesses, affirming that when Blessed Teresa was writing her books her face shone (as we said above, art. 2, on sanctity in general); and in the compulsorial process of Ávila the fifth witness, on the 9th, affirms that she saw the splendour of Blessed Teresa's countenance light up the whole chapter-room while she was giving a spiritual exhortation in it to the nuns.
[1316] visions § IV. This same thing is urged by that wonderful effect by which the presence of God began to be more manifested to Blessed Teresa, namely through divine visions, intellectual and imaginary, as well as revelations of Christ the Lord, and divine locutions, by which the merciful God deigned to disclose heavenly secrets to Blessed Teresa, and to speak to her familiarly with immense love and wonderful sweetness. Of these divine visions and revelations it has seemed good to us to note some here; because to recount all, since they are very many, would be difficult and prolix. And first we shall speak of the divine visions, then of the revelations.
[1317] both intellectual First, when Blessed Teresa was burning with the desire of seeing the beauty of a soul established in grace, it happened that on a certain vigil of the Most Holy Trinity God granted her this, showing her a certain globe, or a certain most beautiful orb of crystal, in the likeness of a castle with seven dwellings: in the seventh of which, namely in the centre, the King of glory was present, with a wonderful splendour illuminating all those dwellings. These were suffused with the greater light the nearer they approached the centre. This light did not
extend beyond the said globe; indeed everything outside it was darkness, vipers and other venomous animals. And when Blessed Teresa was marvelling at the greatness of such beauty, which God communicates to souls established in grace, at once the light vanished, and (the King of glory being in no way absent from this castle) the crystal was overwhelmed with darkness, and remained foul and like a coal, with a certain intolerable stench, and it was shown to her that by those venomous animals, which were outside the globe, the state of a soul existing in sin was signified. This mysterious vision she communicated to one of her confessors, namely the often-named Bishop of Tarazona, and told him of the great spiritual effects arising in her soul from this vision. Among which one was that from it she remained so humbled before God that from that hour she never thought of herself in any good work; because she saw that all beauty came from that splendour, and all virtue from that power, and that all the strengths of soul and body were quickened by that essence existing in its centre, and that from thence every good flowed: and so every good which from that time she did and wrought, she referred to God, as its author and principal mover; as the bishop himself affirms in his deposition, 2nd part of the remissorial process of Toledo, fol. 729. Secondly, for a year and more Blessed Teresa obtained from God the grace of seeing Christ our Redeemer at her right side, accompanying her, speaking to her and teaching her, and affording her consolation in her labours, and recollecting her in the highest prayer, and leaving other wonderful and salutary effects in her soul: as she herself left written at length in the book of her Life, chaps. 28 and 29, and in the sixth Mansion, chap. 8; and as the aforesaid Bishop of Tarazona confirms, book 1, chap. 13, and Fr. Ribera, book 4, chap. 4.
[1318] and imaginary, Thirdly, afterwards our same Lord granted to this Virgin not only to see Him in the intellectual vision mentioned above; but also in a certain other vision, the highest among the imaginary ones, and (as she says) very profitable to her. For in it Christ showed Himself to His spouse little by little. And first He showed her only His divine hands, which fashioned heaven and earth. And when a few days had passed He granted her to see His divine face, on which the Angels desire to look. And at length on the feast of St. Paul, while she was hearing the Sacrifice of the Mass, that whole Most Holy Humanity (as Jesus Christ risen and glorious is customarily depicted) was shown to her. By whose incredible beauty she was so captivated that she merited to hear from Christ the Lord Himself these sweet words: "Daughter, now thou art wholly mine, and I am wholly thine," and others like them, uttered by Him with great token of love. And this grace and this divine favour she had from Almighty God many times in the space of two and a half years; as she herself relates in the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth chapters cited above, and in the above-mentioned sixth Mansion, chap. 8. Fourthly, when Blessed Teresa had now built the first monastery of the new Reform in the city of Ávila, while she was earnestly giving herself to mental prayer, she was crowned by Jesus Christ her Spouse with a most resplendent crown, on account of the various labours suffered in His service and that of His Most Holy Mother, and adorned as a bride, as she herself left written in the book of her Life, chap. 36.
[1319] and those most lofty Fifthly, moreover, our Lord granted another very great and admirable grace to His Handmaid Teresa, namely a certain vision of the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity, in which she rejoiced in as great an illumination and penetration of the truth of this mystery as can be obtained in this mortal life; as she herself wrote in the seventh Mansion, chapter one, and as Father Ribera related in the place cited above, the said chap. four. He affirms that he saw several other wonderful visions of this mystery of the Most Holy and deifying Trinity, conferred by God on Blessed Teresa, and written down by her own hand on certain slips of paper. Sixthly, many times also, and almost always, she saw Christ our Redeemer in the consecrated Host, and very often with very great and wonderful majesty; as she herself wrote in the book of her Life, chap. 38, fol. 322, and in the Way of Perfection, chap. 34, fol. 512. Seventhly, and when on another occasion she had been giving herself to prayer, her spirit was rapt into ecstasy, and she saw again, by a certain sure and clear knowledge, the Most Sacred Humanity of Christ, with exceeding and very great glory. This vision she merited to have not once but many times, and (as she confesses) she obtained from it most abundant spiritual fruits; as in the aforesaid book of her Life, chapter thirty-eight, fol. 321, and as the aforesaid Father Ribera relates, as above.
[1320] and very many, Eighthly, on another day, while she was intent on prayer, there befell her a certain great rapture of spirit, in which she saw herself lifted up and sent into heaven: and there she merited to behold her parents before others. And in a very brief interval of time she saw things so great and wonderful that they could in no way be expressed in words. And this happened to her at other times also. And as often as God communicated this grace to her, so often did He show her anew, with great joy and exultation, greater and more wonderful secrets of that eternal Beatitude. And in particular on one occasion her mind was rapt into heaven, where for the space of one hour, suffused with great solace, she had God standing beside her and showing her wonderful and most lofty mysteries and heavenly secrets, and saying: "See, daughter, of what goods sinners deprive themselves. This thou shalt tell them." As she herself left written more fully in the aforesaid thirty-eighth chapter. Ninthly, this Blessed Virgin merited to have very many other visions of Jesus Christ our Lord and of the Most Holy Trinity, of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the Angels, of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, of St. Joseph and of many other Saints, and Christ the Lord and His Most Holy Mother and other Saints spoke with her many times, as is read in various places in the books written by her; and in particular in the sixth Mansion, chap. 5, she left written that when on a certain day she was desolate before Christ crucified, considering that she had never had anything to offer for Christ, nor anything to leave for His sake, the Crucified Himself, consoling her, said that He gave her all the sorrows and labours which He had suffered, and that she could have them as her own, to offer them to the eternal Father.
[1321] as well as revelations concerning herself § V. Of the divine revelations, which, like the visions, pertain to prophecy, as St. Thomas teaches, we shall say something below in art. 22, when we treat of the gift of prophecy. But now, for the corroboration of the foregoing, we shall briefly go through some out of the many which Blessed Teresa had in prayer. First, when on a certain day Blessed Teresa had been wondering with the greatest anxiety whether she was in the grace of God (because nothing could befall her so grievous as to think whether perhaps she had offended God), she humbly besought God not to permit such a thing. Then the merciful God revealed to her that she was in His divine grace, saying that such love of God as she had, and the benefits and favours with which her soul was enlightened, were not compatible with a soul existing in mortal sin; as she herself affirms in the book of her Life, c. 34. Secondly, the Lord also revealed to her that before she departed from this life she would see the very great progress of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, in these words: "Be of strong heart, since thou seest My help in thee. I have willed that thou obtain this crown: thou shalt see the Order of Blessed Mary make great progress so long as thou livest." "This I received from the Lord about the middle of February in the year 1571," she says in the aforesaid book, fol. 365. Which revelation (as is known) the outcome proved, and the Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona proves it, book 2, fol. 148.
[1322] and her Reform, etc.: Thirdly, on a certain other day it was revealed to her by the Lord that the aforesaid Reform of the Discalced, then afflicted with great persecutions, was not to be dissolved; but rather increased. Which revelation she made known to her confessor in these words: "We shall indeed suffer labours, but the Reform will not go back." And so it came about, as that confessor himself, the Bishop of Tarazona, affirms. Fourthly, again, when Blessed Teresa was busying herself with the foundation of the monastery of Segovia, the Lord, by means of St. Albert, revealed to her the separation of the same Order from the Mitigated Fathers. Which she told to Father Master de Yanguas, her confessor, six years before the separation took place: as the aforesaid Bishop of Tarazona affirms, book 2, chap. 25; and as depose the thirty-sixth witness in the remissorial process of Salamanca, and the forty-ninth witness in the remissorial process of Ávila, fol. 371. Fifthly, our Lord also revealed to the same Blessed one the death of a certain religious of her Order, and that his soul had ascended into heaven by the direct way, without having passed through purgatory. This revelation she had at the same hour at which that religious had died, as she herself wrote in the book of her Life, c. 38; as also the deaths of others and the ascent of their souls into heaven were revealed to her: namely of a certain Master Ibáñez, of the Order of St. Dominic, her confessor, and indeed of another Friar of this same Religious Order, and of a certain religious of the Society of Jesus and of very many others, related by her in chap. 38 of her Life.
[1323] concerning which visions and revelations But that visions and revelations of this kind, and all the others which Blessed Teresa had, as they appear written in her books, were true and proceeded from the Holy Spirit, and had nothing of illusion nor of participation of the evil spirit, we were easily persuaded: first, from the excellent sanctity and heroic virtues of this Blessed Virgin, as is clearly established from all the articles of this second part; likewise from the effects resulting from the same visions and revelations, namely profound humility and increase of divine love and of the remaining virtues, as well as the profit and edification of her neighbours; and then also from the approbation of so many most grave men, conspicuous as much for learning as for prudence, virtue and piety, whom we have named above more than once, especially in art. 2, when we treated of sanctity in general, among whom we find prelates, masters of sacred theology and its public professors, and almost all the confessors of the same Blessed Virgin: to whom the same Blessed one always took care to set forth and make known the favours and graces which God conferred on her in prayer and raptures, so that they might examine all those things and give counsel and judge whether they found anything of illusion to be shunned in the said divine favours. Whom she consulted
with the determination and resolve rather to follow their counsel and to give greater credence to them than to the aforesaid revelations. For she used to say that in obeying her confessors she could not err, as she could in believing revelations and visions. Hence, from the aforesaid so exact examination of the spirit of this Blessed Virgin and of her visions and revelations, and from their approbation by so many distinguished and learned men, it does not seem that there can be doubt that the aforesaid revelations and visions are true and proceed from the good and true spirit, and not from an illusory and false one.
[1324] there can be no doubt; Nor do these revelations and visions seem to be any the less proved because we take the chief attestation of them from the writings of the same Blessed Virgin Teresa, in her aforesaid books, and from ten of her confessors, who depose from hearsay from her: who are the Bishop of Calahorra, Don Pedro Manso, and the Bishop of Tarazona, Don Diego de Yepes, and the Bishop of Ávila, Fr. Don Juan de las Cuevas, and the Bishop of Segovia, Don Pedro de Castro, and Master Fr. Bartolomé de Medina and Master Domingo Báñez and Master Diego de Yanguas of the Order of Preachers, and Father Gil González de Ávila and Fr. Enrique Enríquez and Fr. Jerónimo de Ripalda of the Society of Jesus; besides other distinguished men often named: because, as we have already proved in the Relation of the miracles, art. 3, revelations and visions are proved by a single witness worthy of credence. And since from the nature of the thing other witnesses cannot be had, nor can they be proved by any other than by the very person whom God has deigned to attend with such favours, the subject-matter makes it necessary that one stand by the Blessed persons themselves to whom they happened, and by their confessors who heard it from them: as was declared in express terms in the Relation of St. Frances, part 2, art. 12, on visions and revelations; and what was declared in the Relation of St. Raymond, p. 2, art. 8, at the verse "Nos tamen," contributes very much: and the more so since from the foregoing it is clearly and evidently established concerning the eminent and sublime sanctity, as well as the many and great miracles wrought by God through the merits and intercession of the Blessed Virgin Teresa, which are done, among other ends, so that greater credence may be given to her sayings and writings.
[1325] and these Teresa has in common with many Founders of Orders. And that God should speak so familiarly by way of visions and revelations with His most faithful friends and manifest His secrets to them, is neither new nor unusual. For the divine Majesty, when about to overthrow those cities utterly, speaks to His friend Abraham in these words, Gen. chap. 18: "Can I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?" And in the Prophet Amos, chap. 3, it is read thus: "The Lord God doth not any word, but he revealeth his secret to his servants the Prophets." The Lord also addressed the Apostles (John chap. 15) in these words: "I will not now call you servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth. But I have called you friends, because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you." And we read that almost all the Saints, especially the Founders of Orders, were enlightened by divine visions and revelations; as may be seen in the books of the Histories of Saints Benedict, Bernard, Dominic and Francis, and of others, which are in our hands. In which innumerable visions and revelations and other divine favours, conferred as much on the holy Founders themselves as on some of their disciples, are found written. Without doubt, therefore, God speaks familiarly with His friends, and is wont to favour most those whom He chooses for great works, such as was Blessed Teresa, who it is established was given to the Church by God Most Good and Most Great both as Foundress of a most perfect Religious Order and as Mistress of spiritual doctrine, as we proved above, art. 2, on sanctity in general.
[1326] She was also endowed with the graces freely given: Article Twenty-two. Sanctifying grace is that by which man himself is joined to God: but grace freely given is that by which one man cooperates with another towards salvation, instructing him and leading him back to God. So St. Thomas distinguishes, 1-2, q. 111, art. 1; and of this grace freely given the Apostle says, 1 Cor. 12: "To every one is given the manifestation of the spirit unto profit" (namely of others): "to one indeed by the spirit is given the word of wisdom, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same spirit, to another faith in the same spirit, to another the grace of healing in one spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discerning of spirits, to another diverse kinds of tongues, to another interpretation of speeches." But man cannot work to this effect by moving inwardly (for this belongs to God alone), but only by teaching or persuading outwardly. Hence grace freely given contains under itself the things expressed above by the Apostle, and adduced by St. Thomas in the place cited above, article four, which man needs in order to instruct another in divine things. That Blessed Teresa was wonderfully adorned by God with almost all of these is proved from what follows.
[1327] namely the grace of faith, § I. First, that she had the grace of faith is established from the very great desire with which she burned to win souls for God, to which end grace freely given is directed. This was shown above, in article 6, on charity towards neighbour. And concerning the excellence of her faith it has also been sufficiently demonstrated above with what firmness she had the grace of faith, and how much she cared for the conversion of heretics and infidels, and with what great certainty of faith and evidence of its matters she was endowed.
[1328] the word of wisdom and of knowledge, § II. And that she had the word of wisdom, that is, a sublime knowledge of things divine and human for the instruction of others, is sufficiently taught by the four books which she left written, of which above in article 2, on sanctity in general; which, translated from the Spanish idiom into various languages, are carried about in the hands of all estates acknowledging the Church of God, and whose doctrine, as true and catholic and infused by God, is commonly approved and praised by all: especially by eighty-five witnesses deposing on articles 54 and 56; among whom six are Most Reverend Prelates, distinguished for piety and learning: namely Don Alonso Manrique, Archbishop of Burgos; Don Pedro Manso, Bishop of Calahorra; Don Pedro de Castro, Bishop of Segovia; Don Juan Alfonso de Moscoso, Bishop of Málaga; Don Lorenzo Otaduy, Bishop of Ávila. Seven others are masters and professors of sacred theology in the university of Salamanca: namely Father Master Fr. Domingo Báñez of the Order of Preachers, a most celebrated lecturer in theology; Father Master Agustín Antolínez of the Order of St. Augustine, provincial, and also principal professor of theology; Master Juan Alfonso de Curiel, also principal professor of theology; and Master Fr. Basilio Ponce de León of the Order of St. Augustine, and Master Father Fr. Pedro Cornejo of the Order of the Calced Carmelites, both professors of sacred theology; and Master Fr. Bartolomé Sánchez of the same Order of the Calced Carmelites, professor in proprietate and dean of theology in the said university; and Master Brother Luis Bernardo, General of the Order of St. Bernard, and professor of Sacred Scripture; and Doctor Don Roque de Vergas, archdeacon of Monte León and doctoral canon in the church of Salamanca, and principal professor of Sacred Canons in the same university; and Fr. Francisco Suárez of the Society of Jesus, principal professor of theology in the university of Coimbra. The remaining 64 witnesses are some of them magisterial and lectoral canons, some of them very learned and grave religious of the Orders of St. Dominic, St. Francis, St. Augustine, Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel, St. Benedict, St. Bernard, St. Jerome, the Carthusians, the Society of Jesus, the Most Holy Trinity, and Holy Mary of Mercy. Others are presidents of the councils of the Catholic king and councillors of the same. All of whom not only approve the doctrine of the said books as holy and catholic, and extol it with wonderful encomiums; but (what is more) some of them judge and reckon it divinely infused and taught by God Most Good and Most Great, by means of the prayer and the so familiar converse which Blessed Teresa had with the divine Majesty. And some of the same witnesses infer this from the loftiness of the supernal and divine mysteries of our faith and of the other heavenly secrets which the aforesaid Blessed Teresa wrote with wonderful knowledge and clarity (although she had not applied herself to letters either in the schools or elsewhere, but was rather a woman wholly ignorant of divine letters; and since the whole doctrine is steeped in the fire of charity, by which the hearts of those reading these books are inflamed), and they conclude that great profit and great spiritual fruit has followed in the Church of God from the reading of them; because the souls of the faithful are withdrawn from vices and roused to virtues, and this as if miraculously, on account of the efficacy with which the heart of those reading them, however hard, is softened by compunction and devotion: of which many of the aforesaid witnesses affirm that they have made trial in themselves. Hence several witnesses add that this Blessed Virgin is deservedly painted, by reason of the aforesaid divinely infused knowledge, with a dove above her head, under which form Blessed Teresa herself affirms in the Relation of her life, c. 38, that the Holy Spirit appeared to her on a certain vigil of Pentecost, and that her spirit was rapt into ecstasy with great fruition of glory. Add to this that (as we proved above, art. 2) often, while she was writing these books, she was seen to shine in her countenance, and to write them with the greatest speed, which is a very great sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit dictating to her at the time. From which things, and from the most weighty judgment of so many most grave and most learned men, we have deservedly judged the books themselves worthy of the same judgment.
[1329] the grace of miracles, the gift of prophecy, § III. Of the grace of healings and of the working of miracles, which pertain to miracles, we have already treated at length, and have proved that Blessed Teresa had it, in the Relation of the miracles.
§ IV. Of the gift of prophecy, however, which Almighty God deigned to communicate to her, it is evident both from the divine visions and revelations, of which above in art. 21, which visions and revelations St. Thomas teaches pertain to prophecy, 2-2, q. 171, art. 3, in the body (according to that of Isaiah 6: "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and elevated"); and also from the future contingents which Blessed Teresa foretold, about which prophecy is most properly concerned, according to St. Gregory, homily 1 on Ezekiel, whom the same St. Thomas cites and follows in the place last cited. And although it is established from the same books of Blessed Teresa and the depositions of the witnesses concerning very many cases in which Blessed Teresa foreknew future things by the prophetic spirit and
foretold them, nevertheless, because to recite all would be too long, we shall therefore enumerate only some in proof of this assertion.
[1330] in confirmation of which gift First, Blessed Teresa foreknew the death of that great man (named above) Father Fr. Peter of Alcántara a year before his decease, as she herself expressed in the book of her Life, chap. 27, in these words: "A year before he died, he appeared to me when he was absent, and I knew that he was going to die; of which I warned him, he being some leagues away. And when he breathed forth his soul, he appeared, and told me that he was going up to rest. This I communicated to others; and after eight days came the news of his death, or (to speak better) of the eternal life which he had begun." Secondly, she also foreknew by divine revelation that Doña María de Cepeda, her sister, would die a sudden death: which she disclosed to her confessor, and prepared a journey to the town where her sister was living; and, keeping the revelation silent, she began to admonish her to frequent the Sacrament of Penance and to prepare herself for the uncertain day on which she would be called by God. This she did, living piously; and the event came to pass when, after four years, the said Doña María suddenly died: whose soul Blessed Teresa saw a few days afterwards going out of purgatory, as she herself relates in her aforesaid book, chap. 34. Thirdly, when Doña Catalina de Mendoza, Marchioness of Mondéjar, had written two letters to Blessed Teresa, asking her to beg of God legitimate succession for her, the Blessed Virgin answered her that it was the will of God that she should not have such succession. And although the same marchioness afterwards bore a son, who lived for twenty years, nevertheless the aforesaid prophecy was fulfilled; because he (called the Count of Tendilla) died, and after him the aforesaid marchioness, without children and leaving no succession: as depose the forty-fourth witness, the Countess de la Puebla, in the first part of the remissorial process, from hearsay from the marchioness herself; and the forty-fifth and forty-sixth witnesses from hearsay from the above-mentioned countess, and from public voice and repute.
[1331] certain more notable predictions Fourthly, she also foreknew a certain trouble by which the aforesaid Bishop of Tarazona, her confessor, was on one occasion vexed; and she sent to him her companion, Mother Anne of St. Bartholomew, to tell him in her name how long that trouble would last: as came about, because the aforesaid trouble did not exceed the time designated by Blessed Teresa; as the bishop himself deposes in the second part of the Toledo process. Fifthly, she likewise foretold to a certain noblewoman, Doña María de Guzmán, that after she had been settled in marriage she would become a nun, not however a Discalced Carmelite, but in another Religious Order, and that likewise two sons whom she was to beget from that marriage would become religious. All of which came about thus: for she married, and had two sons, and both she and they, after her husband's death, became religious; as the twelfth witness, the Count of Luna, proves in the 4th part of the Toledo process, from hearsay from Doña María herself. Sixthly, to a certain niece of hers, Doña Beatriz de Ovalle, who went about very finely adorned and was very far in mind from the religious state, she foretold that she would become a Discalced nun, and she used to address these words to her: "Now, Beatriz, run about as you please; for in the end you will be a Discalced nun." Which the outcome proved, as the same Bishop of Tarazona relates in his history, and as the same Beatriz, prioress of the convent of Toledo, confirms in the first part of the remissorial process of Toledo.
[1332] are related as made by her, Seventhly, more than twenty years before Don Sebastian, king of Portugal, crossed into Africa with an army and perished there, Blessed Teresa saw an Angel holding a bloodied sword in his hand over the aforesaid kingdom. This vision indicated that copious blood was to be shed from that kingdom; as in effect came about: as the forty-ninth witness proves in the remissorial process of Ávila, fol. 371, from hearsay from the Blessed one herself, and the Bishop of Tarazona, in the place cited. Eighthly, Blessed Teresa also foretold her own death, and made it known eight years beforehand to Father Brother Mariano, a religious of the same Order: as depose in the remissorial process of Salamanca the fortieth witness, and the forty-first, and the forty-third, and the forty-eighth, and the forty-ninth, and the fiftieth, all on art. 95. And she foreknew the death of many others, and foretold several other things by the prophetic spirit, which are related by the above-mentioned histories and by the Blessed one herself in the aforesaid books, and are omitted here for brevity's sake.
[1333] discernment of spirits, § V. The discernment of spirits, which is also a species of prophecy, is concerned with recognizing the spirit by which someone is moved and distinguishing the Angel of light from that of darkness, since not every spirit is to be believed, according to that of 1 John 4: "Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits if they be of God." And it is also concerned with knowing the hidden things of hearts, according to that of Jeremiah 17: "The heart of man is perverse and unsearchable: who can know it? I am the Lord who search the heart and prove the reins"; and so teaches St. Thomas on the first Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, chap. 12, lect. 2, and 1-2, q. 111, art. 4, in the body near the end. This grace is of the greatest excellence and utility, especially in persons having the care and government of spiritual souls, as Blessed Teresa had: for she ruled and directed in the spiritual way both her own nuns and many other souls; and so this grace was not lacking to her either: rather she obtained it wonderfully from God, so that in discerning the spirit by which anyone was either moved or proceeded in the pursuit of prayer she was a Mistress, and excellent in knowing and penetrating the secrets of hearts; as is clearly shown by the counsels with which she directed her nuns in the spiritual life, affirming to them, as occasion arose, that the spirit by which they were led was holy and true, but warning others of the contrary, discerning true revelations and visions from illusions, disclosing to several (as she saw to be expedient) the secrets and hidden things of their hearts, no less than if she were looking with her own eyes upon their hearts and what was hidden in them: as the same Bishop of Tarazona affirms in his deposition, and left written in the History of the life of this Blessed one, book 3, chap. 28, §3; and the Rev. Fr. Francisco Ribera, in the same History, book 4, chap. 25; and the thirty-seventh witness in the first part of the Salamanca process; and in the remissorial process of Ávila the thirty-first, thirty-ninth and forty-ninth witnesses; and in the first part of the Toledo process the first and third witnesses; and in the 4th part of Toledo the sixth witness and many others: all on artic. 80. And the aforesaid writers relate various cases pertaining to this article, of which (for brevity's sake) we have decided to relate here only three or four, notable ones indeed.
[1334] which likewise is proved by some selected cases, The first befell the same Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona, to whom Blessed Teresa wrote a certain letter, and handed it to the prioress of her convent of Toledo, and enjoined her to read it to the aforesaid bishop after the death of the same Blessed one; as was done. And the same bishop affirms that Blessed Teresa in the same letter had penetrated the interior state of the bishop himself and had openly indicated the need of his soul to be cared for, no otherwise than if she had been within his heart. Secondly, when Fr. Gaspar de Salazar of the Society of Jesus was several leagues distant from the place in which Blessed Teresa was staying, she knew the interior state of that Father; and by a particular ordinance of God she appeared to him, and with real presence entered his room with the doors shut, and gave him certain instructions for salutary effects in his soul: as the third witness proves, Fr. Doctor Enríquez of the same Society and confessor of Blessed Teresa, from hearsay both from her and from the same Father Salazar; and as the same Bishop of Tarazona relates, in the place above. Thirdly, at Valladolid a certain priest celebrated Mass in the presence of Blessed Teresa; whom she called to the grille after the Holy Sacrifice, and said that it was a wicked thing that a priest guilty of mortal sin should dare to celebrate: and he, terrified, acknowledged the truth, and gave thanks to St. Teresa; as the same prelate of Tarazona, confessor of Blessed Teresa, proves in the place cited above. Fourthly, in the convent of the Friars of the same Order in the town of Pastrana, a certain novice Brother was suffering a most grievous temptation, which he dared disclose to no one. And Blessed Teresa, coming there, as soon as she looked at the aforesaid novice, knew what he was suffering within; and having called him aside, and having asked him three times what was the matter with him, and he refusing to make known his temptation, the Blessed one herself clearly showed him that same temptation and affliction by which he was tormented, and taught him such a way by which he might be freed, that from that hour that religious remained unharmed and free from such trouble: as the forty-ninth witness, who was present at the aforesaid, proves in the remissorial process of Ávila, and the sixth witness in the 4th part of Toledo, from hearsay from the same religious; and the above-mentioned writers of the Life of this Blessed one confirm it.
[1335] and lastly the grace of interpretation of speeches: § VI. The grace of the interpretation of speeches, although it seems to pertain to doctors and those skilled in the divine law, nevertheless, because it is freely given, Almighty God (whose hand is not shortened) bestowed it on Blessed Teresa for the teaching and instruction of many; as is established. For though she was a woman who never learned the Latin tongue, she interpreted some passages of Sacred Scripture in a sound, catholic and useful sense; as appears among other places in the book which she produced on the Lord's Prayer, and in that on the Song of Songs: as the Most Reverend Bishop of Tarazona proves, book 3, c. 28, §§2 and 3; in which he shows at length and learnedly how Blessed Teresa was distinguished by God with this and all the other above-mentioned graces freely given: so that of all the graces enumerated by the Apostle (as above) Blessed Teresa herself merited to obtain all from God Most Good and Most Great (excepting only the grace which is called kinds of tongues).
[1336] to which are added the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit, and the beatitudes. Article Twenty-three. According to St. Thomas, 1-2, q. 68, arts. 2 and 3, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are habits by which the soul is perfected for promptly following the instinct and motion of the Holy Spirit. These gifts are seven: namely the gift of Wisdom, of Understanding, of Counsel, of Fortitude, of Knowledge, of Piety and of the Fear of God; by which, as by certain perfections, man is disposed to obey the Holy Spirit promptly. From the virtues above (which we have shown Blessed Teresa to have had) it seems to result that she was adorned with these gifts and most promptly followed the instincts of the Spirit
Holy; and above all because we have shown that she had charity towards God and neighbour in a heroic degree. Whence it follows, with St. Thomas in the place above, article five, that whoever has charity has all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are all connected with one another in charity. And since the same Blessed one produced many excellent acts of the virtues and of the gifts, which are the true fruits of the Holy Spirit, she seems to have excelled greatly in those same fruits. For as the same holy Doctor teaches in the place above, q. 70, art. 1, the fruit of the Holy Spirit is said to be the operation of man, as of a certain divine seed, according to that of 1 John 3: "Whosoever is born of God committeth not sin, for his seed abideth in him." It seems that it must be said that the operations of the virtues of this Blessed Virgin, proceeding as it were from a divine seed, were fruits of the Holy Spirit. And since these operations of the virtues were perfectly excellent in her (from what was adduced above), it follows that they can be called not only fruits of the Holy Spirit, but also beatitudes, according to the same St. Thomas, the said q. 70, art. 2, where he says that all virtuous works in which man delights are called fruits, but not beatitudes unless they are perfect and excellent. Hence from so many and such great perfect and excellent works, with which Blessed Teresa shone, it follows that she had not only the fruits but also the beatitudes, which it is granted to enjoy in this life; which is found as a kind of beginning of eternal beatitude in perfect men, as the same holy Doctor notes, the said question 60, art. 2, in the body.
[1337] The greatest fame of sanctity in life Article Twenty-four. So great and of such a kind was the sanctity of this Blessed Virgin, and so great in her the ardour of love of God and neighbour, and so much did she give herself to the highest prayer and contemplation, so devoted was she to assiduous fasts, hair-shirts and other mortifications of the body, and so solicitous in attaining all the other virtues, that she merited not only to be adorned by God Most Good and Most Great with so many and such great virtues in a perfect and heroic degree, but was also made worthy to be wonderfully honoured and enlightened, even while she lived, with very many graces and favours, visions, locutions and divine revelations and other heavenly gifts; as we have related above in their places. All of which grew so from day to day that, however much the same Blessed Virgin, by her most profound humility, had taken care to hide the opinion of her sanctity from the world, she was by no means able to achieve it: rather the merciful and wise God, who had chosen her to raise up the reform of this Order and for the profit and conversion of so many souls of the faithful, and for whom He had prepared so sublime a seat in heaven, willed that the fame of her sanctity (even while she lived) should be published and so spread through all the Christian people, that while living she was held and reputed by all to be a Saint, and called and named by this same name (Saint), and not in any ordinary way, but with the fame of eminent sanctity, as much among the Catholic kings and the prelates and nobles of those Spanish kingdoms, the royal presidents and councillors, as also universally among all of whatever state and condition: as more than twenty-four witnesses depose, nuns of this Order, who as the more intimate companions of this Blessed Virgin and their Mother fully testify to all these things; and more than a hundred other witnesses prove it conclusively on art. 115, among whom are the most grave men already named above in art. 2, on sanctity in general.
[1338] and after death, Who also, with other witnesses up to the number of 170, on art. 116, testify most fully and conclusively concerning the fame and opinion of the same sanctity, and its increase with perseverance, after the happy passage of this Blessed Virgin Teresa to everlasting glory; and that this fame was and is commonly spread among the same kings and nobles, everywhere, as much in the aforesaid kingdoms and provinces of the Spains as in others, of France, Italy, Flanders and Poland, and among the Indians; and lastly that Blessed Teresa is commonly reputed and honoured as a Saint, with very eminent sanctity, everywhere on earth in the Christian commonwealth, with universal acclamation and veneration and great esteem of her sanctity; by venerating as Relics her garments, letters written by her, little cloths dyed with the oil flowing from her holy body, and other such things, and keeping them in great esteem; and by frequenting her sepulchre (where her body is miraculously preserved and venerated incorrupt, with a wonderful odour and liquor); and by asking her intercession with God in necessities and afflictions with great confidence; by keeping her likeness painted with rays as a Saint with the greatest honour and reverence, and observantly honouring and venerating it; by committing to print commemorations with Antiphons and a proper Prayer to be recited; likewise by leaving noble legacies to be paid out in aid of the canonization; by erecting monasteries in honour of God and of His handmaid Teresa; by committing to print many books on her life, sanctity and miracles, composed by most grave authors; by giving the name of Teresa, out of devotion to her, even among the most remote Indians, to their own children at the font of Baptism; by preaching sermons and orations in her praise on the day of her deposition; and by performing very many other things conducive to the very great opinion and fame of sanctity of this Blessed one: as twenty-two witnesses prove in particular on art. 116. To which is added what we noted above in art. 2, when we treated of the sanctity in general of this Blessed Virgin Teresa.
[1339] and especially after the beatification, This fame and common opinion of sanctity received every kind of increase from the approbation of this Holy See and of Your Beatitude, when you deigned, by your letters in the form of a Brief, to grant the faculty of celebrating and reciting the Office and Mass of this Blessed Virgin Teresa, as of a Virgin, every year, on the day of her deposition, in all the monasteries and churches of this Order of Discalced Carmelites founded by her, and by all its religious of both sexes. By means of which faculty this handmaid of God was numbered among the Blessed, and proposed as such to the Church and the Christian people. For which reason everywhere on earth this sanctity of Blessed Teresa remained so wholly confirmed in the minds of the faithful that this benefit conferred by Your Beatitude was held very welcome and acceptable not only to the Catholic king, but also to the Most Christian king, and to other Christian princes and their kingdoms and provinces, and all, having received it, were affected with the highest and unutterable joy, and showed it by manifest and public signs, not only by flocking together with the religious of the same Order to their monasteries (which in the Congregation of Spain are seventy-six of Friars and fifty of nuns; and in this one of Italy thirty-eight of both sexes) for the celebration of this feast, which was performed most solemnly in each of the said monasteries, but also all, as much of the ecclesiastical as of the secular estate, besides the foregoing, moved and kindled by devotion to this so great Virgin, celebrated this feast-day at their own expense with a certain incredible, very great, universal and common joy, gladness and exultation, praising and magnifying the Lord our God in His Saint Teresa with the sound of the trumpet, with psaltery and harp, with timbrel and choir, with strings and organ, with well-sounding cymbals and with cymbals of jubilation; and every spirit seemed to praise the Lord: so that that universal and pious commotion of the minds of the faithful could almost be judged something miraculous.
[1340] she attained among peoples and princes; And because it would be too prolix to recount specifically the most solemn processions celebrated most ornately and sumptuously, the churches of the religious most munificently and carefully adorned, the various poems in every poetic genre and very many riddles most ingeniously composed, the devices invented with the highest ingenuity and art, and the very great expenses most liberally made in the above-mentioned festivities; these (I say) and all other things we have thought fit to refer to the many books composed and printed concerning festal rejoicings of this kind, which are in our hands. Where several miracles and many marvels, which occurred during those festal rejoicings when the help of this Blessed Virgin was invoked, are related here and there; as well as vows made to God by some cities and peoples to keep the feast-day of Blessed Teresa in perpetuity, choosing her as Patroness and advocate of those peoples with God, especially by the city of Ávila, where she was born, and by the town of Alba, where her holy body rests, and its whole community, and by the city of Salamanca, in whose diocese Alba is situated: as in the same books there may also be seen very many sermons, various and most learned, delivered as much before the Catholic king as before most grave prelates and nobles of those kingdoms by most learned royal preachers and other most erudite men, adorned with Gospel doctrine and that of the holy Fathers, in praise and honour of this Blessed Virgin, whom they deservedly proclaim wonderful and extol with wonderful praises and encomiums.
[1341] and her canonization is requested with the highest prayers. Hence it is no wonder if instance is made before Your Holiness for the canonization of the same Blessed Virgin Teresa, not only by the Catholic king, who has begged this of Your Holiness with repeated prayers, but also by the Imperial Majesty and the Most Christian kings, the king of Poland and the archdukes of Austria, two provincial Councils, namely that of Tarragona and that of Zaragoza; the Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo, the archbishops of Seville, Burgos, Compostela, Valencia, Tarragona, Zaragoza, Lisbon, Granada and Mexico; and almost all the bishops of the Spains, and many chapters of the cathedral churches of Spain, and the ecclesiastical estate of the kingdoms of Castile, assembled in its congregation; and indeed the kingdoms themselves of Castile, León, Portugal, Aragon, Valencia, Catalonia, and the province of Cantabria; likewise also the universities of Salamanca, Valladolid and Alcalá, together with almost all the more distinguished cities of those kingdoms. All of whom, together with the whole aforesaid Religious Order of the Discalced of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel, founded by the Blessed Virgin herself, trusting in the sanctity, merits and intercession of this Blessed Teresa, and bound by devotion to her and by her benefits, with immense desire suppliantly beg of Your Holiness, for the final fulfilment of the consolation and joy of the whole Christian people, and for the greater glory of God, a favourable response, and so the solemn canonization of this Blessed Virgin and her enrolment in the number of the Saints. To which, in the customary form of the Holy Roman Church, and according to its rite and the disposition of the Sacred Canons, the things established above in this Relation and in the other on the miracles standing firm, we have thought it must be judged that one may proceed, if it please Your Holiness, as we were before more than once of the same opinion, as we noted at the beginning of this Relation.
Francis, Archbishop of Damascus. Giovanni Battista Coccini, dean. Alfonso Manzanedo de Quiñones.
[1342] Attestation of J. P. Mucanzio, secretary of the S. R. C. To this Relation, in the printed Acts of the canonization, there is immediately subjoined the following attestation: All these things which are contained in the present volume, faithfully
were here extracted and written out from the very original, which I the undersigned, notary of the Apostolic See and secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, compiled and caused to be rewritten in another similar volume, which I presented to the Most Holy Father in Christ and our Lord, Lord Paul, Pope V: and they agree with the original itself which is with me, and with the other presented to our aforesaid Most Holy Lord. And in faith of the truth I have subscribed here with my own hand, and confirmed it with my accustomed notarial sign, which I use in public documents. At Rome, in the year from the Nativity of the Lord one thousand six hundred and sixteen, on the fifth day of October, and in the twelfth year of the Pontificate of the same Most Holy Father in Christ and our Lord, Lord Paul, Pope V.
In place of ✠ the sign. So it is, and I attest it for the truth, I, Giovanni Paolo Mucanzio, Roman priest, doctor of both laws, master of the Sacred Ceremonies, notary of the Apostolic See, and secretary of the Congregation of Sacred Rites, with my own hand.
§ LXV. The oration of J. B. Millini, advocate of the consistorial court, before Pope Gregory XV, 1 February 1622; and the response of this Supreme Pontiff through his domestic secretary, G. Ciampoli.
FROM THE ACTS OF THE CANONIZATION.
In a public consistory are praised Oration. If the dignity and amplitude of the matter which I am about to treat must be filled out with words and enclosed within the bounds of my oration, I shall have undertaken in vain the province imposed on me, and in vain have strained the powers of mind and body, Most Blessed Father. For such is the renown of the Virgin Teresa, such the excellence of her holiness, that it demands not the eloquence of orators, unequal as that is to the telling of her virtues, but an admiration full of silent reverence. I shall do, therefore, what those are wont to do who paint the sites of lands: I shall take in her whole image as in a small tablet, having said this most truly by way of preface, that as far as a small picture is distant from the magnitude of the globe of the earth, so far are the powers of my talent distant from the virtues of Teresa. Meanwhile, however, while I execute the burden enjoined on me, and in the name of Philip the Fourth, most powerful king of the Spains, ask that this bright light of her age be enrolled by Your Holiness in the number of the Saints, and briefly touch upon her life and miracles, I pray and beseech Your Holiness that you not be reluctant to lend a ready ear to the speaker.
[1344] the life of St. Teresa, Teresa was born in the city of the most illustrious kingdom of Castile which has the name of Ávila, in the fifteenth year above the thousand and five hundredth after the birth of Christ, of noble parents, who, conspicuous no less for religion than for the splendour of their lineage, instructed her from infancy with equal piety. There shone forth in the tender little maiden fervour of prayer, an uprightness riper than her years, a singular love of retirement and contemplation. At seven years of age, assiduously reading through the deeds of the holy Martyrs, and herself inflamed with the desire of Martyrdom, she took her little brother as companion and went out of the city, meaning to seek Africa, so that she might be slain by the Moors for the faith of Christ. But meanwhile, while she was hastening to death, she was being reserved by God for life, to be crowned later indeed, but more abundantly; her uncle meets her as she hurries, draws her back from the journey, and restores her to her lamenting parents: thereafter she never laid aside, as long as she lived, her hindered vow of Martyrdom, but always fulfilled it by fasts, tears and affliction of the flesh. In her twentieth year, so that she might more surely avoid the snares and ambushes of the world, contemplating the monastic life, she betook herself to the convent of the Most Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel, of the Order which they call Mitigated, and there professed the religious institute of life. But she seemed to descend into the arena for a contest: for, because the task of regular observance was but a small thing for the generous Virgin, the combats of illnesses were set up for her; so that she who had once set out to offer her tender little body to the African executioner now held it out, grown up, to be harassed by the continual torments of ill health.
[1345] her illustrious labours The constancy of Teresa was to be examined by yet another means. She applied herself, both to the other exercises of the religious Institute, and above all to prayer; and nevertheless she was troubled by so great an aridity, so to speak, of spirit, that for the whole space of eighteen years she was sprinkled with no dew of heavenly solace. But the Lord, the bestower of sweetness and delight, beheld the persevering and unwearied affection of His Handmaid; and the abundance of supernal consolation, the longer He deferred it, the more abundantly He imparted: for afterwards she excelled in such sublimity of contemplations, and was suffused with such delight of heavenly visions, that she seemed nearer to those most pure spirits than to humankind. Enriched with these and other prerogatives, she undertook, God breathing upon her, to emulate, and soon to restore, the primitive discipline of Carmel. With generous daring she raised up very many convents of women and of men of that Institute (a thing unheard of for ages in a woman): for she erected and governed seventeen monasteries of nuns, and left fifteen of men founded, and directed them with wonderful prudence, and established them all by the example of her sanctity. What discomforts of journeys, what labours, what battles did she not endure in carrying out that work? For the most part destitute of human aid, sick, poor, alone, and relying on God only, she withstood unperturbed the opposing governors of places, nobles and prelates. Sweet indeed were the discomforts, sweet the labours endured unweariedly by Teresa for the name of her most loving Spouse; for she was so eager for suffering that very often she broke out into these words: "Lord, either to suffer or to die!"
[1346] and virtues What shall I say of her singular charity towards God? Which was so eminent that she was the first to make a vow unheard of until that day, that she would always do whatever she understood to be more perfect and more befitting the divine service. O love unheard of! O noble magnanimity of a most generous Virgin, to be proclaimed through all ages! O spouse truly worthy, to whom Christ, holding out a nail as a divine pledge, once said: "Thou, Teresa, henceforth as My true spouse shalt be anxiously solicitous for My honour: now I am wholly thine, thou art wholly Mine." Nor did Christ the Lord show Himself to her once only or twice, but He honoured His spouse with very frequent and most familiar apparitions; so that she who burned with the most ardent love of her Spouse might also be refreshed by His presence as by the watering of most welcome fountains, nay rather that the ardour of love might be more strongly increased in the Virgin, and the abundance of grace more plentifully conferred by the Creator. I pass over the frequent ecstasy of Teresa. She seemed to see a Seraph piercing her heart with a fiery dart of love: indeed she herself revealed after her death that she had departed this life by a divine impulse of love. Why should I pursue her signal love of neighbour? Which is shown excellently by the salvation of souls panted after, by so many convents built with labours, by the prayers poured out for her persecutors, whom she loved so much that it was commonly said that whoever wished to be loved by Teresa should of his own accord do her damage or injury. I say nothing of the greatness of her faith and hope, the excellence of her most chaste virginity, which the most illustrious confessors of this Virgin have testified was never subject to even the least suggestion of the impure enemy, the excellence of her poverty and obedience, the sublimity of her heavenly wisdom, which is excellently taught by the four books written by her, which, translated from the Spanish idiom into various languages, most celebrated in the whole Christian world, are carried about not without great admiration and profit of those who read them. I say nothing of the excellent ornaments of her other virtues: for the day would fail me if I pursued them one by one; it would fail, I say, if I touched on them even summarily. Adorned with so many and such great virtues, having gone through so many labours, Teresa, in the year of human salvation one thousand five hundred and eighty-two, on the fourth day before the Nones of October, having received the Sacraments with incredible affection of heart and lowliness, and having salutarily admonished her pupils, burning with loving vows and colloquies towards God, delivered up her most pure soul to her Spouse the Creator.
[1347] certain miracles are related, with which in life, Now let my oration turn to the miracles, many and great, with which Teresa shone in life, in death and after her decease: and since it would be long to review them one by one, and I am shut in by the narrowness of time, I have thought only a few should be touched on. That one first presents itself which was wrought at Villanueva de la Jara, in the diocese of Cuenca: where, when a huge dearth of provisions was miserably oppressing the people, and in Teresa's monastery there remained scarcely so much flour as could suffice to feed the nuns for a month, it was so increased by her prayers that it was abundantly sufficient for the whole time of the scarcity, that is, six months. A certain nun named Alberta at Medina del Campo was labouring with fever and pleurisy almost to death; Teresa, arriving there, embraced her: "And are you," she said, "lying sick at my coming?" When she had said this, the nun at once rose up healed. Anne of the Trinity, a nun in the same convent, was suffering from erysipelas in the face and a grave fever besides. Teresa came to the sick woman, and touching her face with her hand: "Do not fear, daughter," she said: "I hope that health will be restored to you by God." This done, with no delay intervening, Anne was freed from the erysipelas and the fever.
[1348] in death These things especially accompanied the most happy death of Teresa. On the roof of the convent where she died, and in the very cell of the dying woman, there appeared a multitude of heavenly lights. One of the religious standing around saw Christ the Lord, shining exceedingly and attended by a long rank of Angels, standing by the Virgin's bed. Another beheld a band of persons clothed in white enter the cell and likewise surround the bed. Another saw a dove fly forth from the Virgin's mouth, another a crystalline light passing through the window. At which time also near Teresa's cell a tree, which had previously remained dry for a long time, suddenly put forth flowers. A certain nun, troubled with a long-standing disease of the head and eyes, approaching the sacred body and moving its hands to her own head and eyes, was suddenly made whole. Another, having lost her sense of smell for four months, joyfully recovered it at once after kissing the feet of the deceased, and merited, by imploring the Blessed one, to become a partaker of the heavenly odour. There are added besides the remarkable prerogatives of the dead body. The Virgin's face remained most beautiful, white, and with the skin taut, although old age had already wrinkled it; all the limbs flexible and tractable. A certain wonderful odour, unlike other odours, was most powerfully exhaled not only by the body, but also by the garments and the little cloths which she used in her sickness. The same body, exhumed several times after many courses of years, has always been distinguished by a threefold miracle: for it has always been seen to be incorrupt, and to pour forth the fragrance of a most sweet odour and a heavenly liquor, and is so seen today.
[1349] I proceed to other miracles that followed the death of Teresa: and after death she shone forth; since these are very many, having briefly narrated some, I make an end of speaking. Francis, a boy of four years, son of a woman of Ávila, twisted in his whole body from birth and miserably deformed, after a novena had been made in the cell of this Blessed one, went away perfectly well. Francisco Pérez also, rector of the church of St. Peter of Torre de Lobatón, in the diocese of Valladolid, prevented for the fifth month now from the celebration of the Sacred Mysteries by an abscess at the bone of the breast and by a contraction of the arm, when medicines did not avail, religiously applied to the abscess a letter written by the hand of this illustrious Virgin, and was freed. When, for gratitude's sake, he had gone to Alba and visited her sepulchre, and had applied her arm (which, separated from the body, is preserved there with the highest reverence) to his own arm so contracted, he recovered from that contraction also: whence on the day after that day he celebrated Mass there. Juan de Leyva, who
was perishing, already almost suffocated by a deadly quinsy, having sought out a handkerchief of this Blessed one and bound it round his neck, was seized with sleep, and shortly after, awakened, knew that he had been granted soundness by the merits of Teresa. Anne of St. Michael, a nun, ulcerated for two years with a threefold cancer in the breast, tormented with most cruel pains, contracted in neck and arms, afflicted also in her heart, when a particle of Teresa's flesh was applied and Teresa herself implored, with no delay intervening, was freed from the cancers and the other diseases. Antonio de Villarroel, a boy of five years, seized with a deadly lethargy and burning with a grave fever, when he had been abandoned by the physicians, had a linen cloth applied to his head, sprinkled with certain drops of that liquor which flows from Teresa's body, and came out free from the lethargy and the fever. Ana González, when from an infirmity her left hand was so contracted that she could not even unbend her fingers, went to the monastery in which Teresa's body and the arm divided from it are preserved; and there by the touch of the Virgin's arm she was at once restored to entire health.
[1350] and her canonization is sought. These are the things, Most Blessed Father, which I have thought sufficient for lightly sketching the life and miracles of Teresa. It remains that Your Holiness, for the public joy and example of the Christian commonwealth, enrol this Virgin, conspicuous for such signal sanctity, in the catalogue of the Saints, and propose and decree her to be venerated by the universal Church. This was asked of Clement VIII and Paul V of happy memory, the predecessors of Your Holiness, by Philip III of illustrious memory, and today it is asked of Your Holiness by Philip IV, kings of the Spains truly Catholic; this, most recently, the Imperial Majesty of Ferdinand II; this Louis XIII, Most Christian king of the French; this Sigismund, most powerful king of Poland; this very many princes of the Christian world; this the whole Order of Discalced Carmelites; this all Spain; this all good men beg with all their prayers: and they promise to Your Holiness and to this Holy See such a memory of so great a benefit as no length of time shall ever bury.
[1351] He replies kindly to the petition Response. A spectacle most pleasing to God and admirable to men was afforded by the fortitude of the Spanish Virgin, which in the very apprenticeship of a life ever on campaign surpassed the praises of all commanders. And upon this our Most Holy Lord most gladly turns the eyes of his mind. At the age when most of us fear even the darkness of our mother's bedchamber, a girl of seven years, already gleaming with the splendours of the Saints, tears herself from her parents' embrace, meaning to seek Africa, fertile in monsters, piety leading her and dangers inviting her, where, fierce with the love of martyrdom, she might provoke the savagery of tyrants, crying out while Heaven applauded: "Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or danger, or the sword?" She had indeed set out upon a short-cut road, that she might seize the kingdom of God by violence; but the Father of mercies hedged it in with timely impediments, so that so great a virtue, destined to profit the world, might hasten to the palm of eternity by the longer paths of the divine commandments and counsels. And this she accomplished so abundantly that she did not enclose the works of her piety within the same bounds as her life. The holiness of Teresa lives on still in the religious virgins and men of Carmel, whom she taught by voluntary punishments to storm continually the strength of the body, that is, the arms of the vices: and now as mistress of the wise she aids princes; now, thundering with the voice of divine eloquence and armed with the sword of salvation, she goes forth into the battle-line to triumph over the opinions of the ungodly.
[1352] Gregory XV, through his secretary. In these and other praises, celebrated not only in the present oration but with the applause of the whole Christian commonwealth, in the prayers of princes and peoples, and especially of Philip IV, the Catholic king, who ask for the triumphal ornaments of sanctity for Blessed Teresa, our Most Holy Lord acknowledges the greatness of the divine clemency and the admirable glory of Spain, which venerates the Saints no less religiously than it happily brings them forth. But in so great a deliberation heaven must be besought with fasts, prayers and alms, so that by these well-fixed rungs of the ladder the piety of the Pontiff's mind may ascend to the height of the third heaven, to announce to mortals what it is not lawful for man to speak of his own accord. Therefore His Holiness asks all of you to implore the Father of lights together with him by these offices of piety. He himself, moreover, will take into counsel his Venerable Brethren the Cardinals of the H. R. C., and then the patriarchs, archbishops and bishops, so that in decreeing heavenly honours he may carry out the commands of the Godhead and serve the praises of the Catholic Church. In this sense our Most Holy Lord has ordered me to reply.
§ LXVI. The votes of the Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops, begging Pope Gregory XV for the canonization of Bl. Teresa, in the semi-public consistory of 23 February 1622.
Votes of Cardinals del Monte, Sforza, Vote of Francesco Maria Cardinal del Monte: Teresa, born of honourable parents at Ávila in Spain, having given from her very childhood a signal and admirable specimen of her future sanctity, by seeking martyrdom and procuring it so far as was allowed to that sex and age, afterwards subjected herself to the most sweet yoke of Religion of the Order of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel; where, the divine Spirit inspiring her, she undertook a work not only greater than a woman, but higher than any man: namely that she should not only emulate and perfect the rigour of the Carmelite Institute, but be the author for others that they should do it, very many monasteries, not of women only but also of men, being erected for that purpose at her persuasion, with no human help, but in firm hope in God, on which alone she relied. She was very distinguished in charity and holiness of life, and adorned with heavenly and divine wisdom, to which her books bear witness, and with the spirit of prophecy, enriched with signal miracles, and accustomed to frequent visions of and colloquies with our Lord Jesus Christ and His Saints. These things lead me to judge that this Virgin, shining with so many and such great virtues, and endowed with a generous and manly spirit, should be numbered by Your Holiness among the Holy Virgins.
Of Francesco Cardinal Sforza: Blessed Teresa of Jesus, Most Blessed Father, will most worthily be proposed by Your Holiness, with the fullest authority, among the public examples of holiness.
[1354] Montalto, Bandini, Of Alessandro Cardinal Montalto: Most Blessed Father, such was the excellence of Christian piety of Blessed Teresa, a most chaste Virgin, such the sincerity of her faith and the ardour of her charity, such the fervour of her devotion, such in fine the sanctity of her whole life, that God Most Good has declared by the most open signs that she was most dear to Him, and has wrought illustrious miracles in regard to her: from which we can plainly understand that her most pious soul, received into the heavenly fatherland, enjoys eternal beatitude. On account of the most ample merits of miracles and virtues which have now been related, so far as is permitted me and as human weakness allows in so great a matter, I judge that Blessed Teresa should be enrolled in the catalogue of the Holy Virgins, if Your Holiness, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, shall think it should be so determined; whose judgment, as it is most certain, so I shall reverently follow and embrace.
Of Ottavio Cardinal Bandini: The things which the Church in ancient times admired in women enrolled in the number of the Saints, Most Blessed Father, we behold all of them most evidently in Teresa alone. For that the purity of virginity, the ardour of charity, constancy of faith, contempt of human things and perpetual contemplation of divine things were common to her with very many others, all can confess: since martyrdom, or at least the reward of martyrdom, was not lacking to her either; she who while still a girl had Africa in mind with this intent; who, afflicted with so many and such great diseases and pains, led a life almost equal to the torments of the Martyrs; who lastly, transfixed by a fiery arrow through the ministry of an Angel, flew up most pure to heaven. But that she restored her Order, already fallen and almost extinct, that she showed herself the Mistress as it were of a new Institute of those serving God, that she gave instruction in stricter discipline not only to women but also to men, this must be reckoned proper and peculiar to her; and in a woman so new, that by this one thing she seems far to have surpassed the others, however most holy. And these things are such, Most Blessed Father, that it is not to be doubted that she not only possesses and enjoys heavenly joys, but has been placed in the highest degree with God Most Good and Most Great.
[1355] Peretti, Ginnasi, Madruzzo, Borghese, Of Andrea Cardinal Peretti: If there is anything, Most Blessed Father, which urges that Teresa of Jesus should be numbered among the Saints, the so many families of religious sown abroad by her everywhere on earth demand this above all. Great must be judged the sanctity of that woman of whom both men and women are imitators.
Of Domenico Cardinal Ginnasi: A valiant woman has been found, Most Blessed Father, not far off, but near: even if far off, still earthly from earthly things. She put her fingers to the spindle, lest she should eat her bread idle; she opened her mouth to wisdom; her writings, when reported, judge it; she put out her hand to strong things, to vanquish the strong one on the earth: wherefore she drew to herself and associated Brothers and Sisters under the Religious Order of the Discalced founded by her and confirmed by the fullest authority. This virgin, whom the Lord has chosen for His spouse in heaven, let us by all means declare venerable on earth.
Of Carlo Cardinal Madruzzo: The Blessed Virgin Teresa so flourished in sanctity and the grace of miracles in different parts of the Christian commonwealth that, for the honour of that same Christian commonwealth and the consolation of the faithful, one should proceed to her solemn canonization.
Of Scipione Cardinal Borghese: With Blessed Teresa of Jesus, Most Blessed Father, enriched with the title of sanctity, both a great ornament is added to heaven and a salutary protection is procured for the earth: wherefore I deservedly judge that she should be enrolled in the register of the Saints.
[1356] Barberini, Millini, Of Maffeo Cardinal Barberini: Most Blessed Father, among the virtues of Blessed Teresa the chief place is held by the eminent charity with which she worshipped God and most ardently desired to profit all mortals. This excites singular admiration in the minds of men, and seems to go before, by a long interval, that admiration which proceeds from the so many signal miracles wrought by her: for what is more wonderful than that the Handmaid of the Lord, not yet having put off mortality, should be both held and named spouse by Christ Himself on account of the excess of her love? The proofs having been examined in the auditory of the Sacred Palace and in the Council of Sacred Rites, it has been resolved that the veneration of the Saints is to be shown her; which I judge should be confirmed by the authority of Your Holiness: for it is fitting that the glory of Carmel, blossoming forth, should diffuse the odour of sweetness into all parts of the Christian world.
Of Giovanni Garzia Cardinal Millini: The holiness of the Blessed Virgin Teresa is admired not only by our Europe but also by the most remote nations. The discipline of the Discalced Carmelites, restored to the ancient norm, is the work of Teresa. How excellent is the piety of this Order, which is committed to my protection, how constant the labours undertaken for the salvation of souls, we experience and behold to the great advantage of the Christian commonwealth. Moreover God adorned Teresa with many illustrious prerogatives, both calling her His spouse and honouring her with very frequent apparitions, and He heaped upon her such praises of virtues, and made her illustrious with such signal miracles in life, in death and after her decease, that He seems altogether to have willed to propose her for veneration to the universal Church. Wherefore I judge that she should be enrolled in the number of the Holy Virgins.
[1357] Lante, Leni, Verallo, Of Marcello Cardinal Lante: Most Blessed Father, the divine Virgin Teresa, whom, of the Discalced
Carmelites the Order acknowledges as its Parent and Leader, there is no one who has not judged that she was deservedly adorned lately by Paul V with the private honours of the Blessed, and who does not affirm that they ought at some time to be augmented with public ones. For she whose chastity, wisdom, humility and other pursuits of piety and charity have been abundantly approved by the auditors of the Sacred Palace and by the Fathers chosen for this from this Senate, and who has hitherto shone like a breathing and fiery pillar for a family so closely bound to Christian worship and labouring in the night of this age with such fruit for its neighbours, is worthy, in my opinion, Most Blessed Father, to be placed as soon as possible by the decree of Your Holiness on the lofty watch-tower of the Catholic Church, for its perpetual protection and ornament, etc.
Of Giovanni Battista Cardinal Leni: I judge that the valiant woman Teresa, a woman of most approved virtue, a nursling of the Angels, a Mistress of the evangelical life, most illustrious in the glory of miracles, should deservedly be enrolled by Your Holiness in the number of the Holy Virgins.
Of Fabrizio Cardinal Verallo: In order that men may be fitted into the company of those above, we are wont to seek human testimonies of admirable works and virtues. The Blessed Virgin Teresa may indeed deservedly be placed in the company of the Holy Virgins, since concerning her sanctity and miracles we have not only human testimony but that of Christ Himself, who said to her in manifest light: "I am wholly thine, and thou wholly Mine." Teresa, therefore, possesses the kingdom of heaven, who possesses Christ Himself, the King of heaven, etc.
[1358] Rivarola, Filonardi, Of Domenico Cardinal Rivarola: It has been proved, Most Blessed Father, that Teresa, while dwelling in this prison-house of mortality, was a Virgin in undefiled body, and a Martyr in desire, a Cherub by the gift of heavenly wisdom. For while, called away from the senses, she was rapt to the joys of the supreme dwelling, she enjoyed familiar colloquies with Christ; in which, taught very many secrets, she taught others: for the nurslings of the Order of Carmel rightly glory that they have had her as their mistress. To these merits and virtues of Teresa are added miracles, very great both in number and in excellence, on account of which I judge that by the best right she should be enrolled in the number of the Saints, etc.
Of Filippo Cardinal Filonardi: We are engaged today, Most Blessed Father, in an arduous and difficult business, nay, in the greatest business of all. For although the number of the Saints is immense, so that Bl. John said in the Apocalypse: "I saw a great multitude which no man could number," nevertheless few are those whom God has chosen by His providence to have public honours decreed to them through His Vicar on earth. For it is not enough for this excellence that they be Saints before God, but it must be proved by most certain documents that while they lived they shone before others in the glory of sanctity, and closed their last day in the same sanctity, and lastly that after the death of the flesh their souls arrived at eternal beatitude. Into the number of these few but most happy persons we deservedly and by the best right believe that the Blessed Mother Teresa can be enrolled: for from documents and from several suitable witnesses, whom the light of truth attends, it is lawfully and evidently proved that Almighty God, at her intercession and in consideration of her, while she remained in this life, in death and after death, wrought many great and admirable miracles. Wherefore I am of the opinion that this noble Virgin, so humble and sublime, endowed with divine gifts and virtues, ought to be enrolled by Your Holiness in the number of the Holy Women, counted among them, and duly and rightly canonized, so that an end may be wholly put to this so great business, etc.
[1359] Ubaldini, de Trejo, Of Roberto Cardinal Ubaldini: Let the Blessed Virgin Teresa deservedly be reckoned among the band of valiant and holy women; who, having embraced abundantly every praise of virtue, has left it attested to our age that the finger of the divine power works even in the frail sex, prodigies, I should say, not miracles, which, lawfully proved concerning her deeds, and written down by herself with a plainly heavenly pen, show us that the delights of God are to be with the children of men. Through her that flower of Carmel which seemed to be withering has flowered again; the most beautiful appearance of the field which had perished has returned, and has given everywhere on earth an admirable odour of sweetness. And if the greatness of charity is the measure of sanctity, she must certainly be called most holy: so strong was her love that not the dissolution of her body, not the desire of shedding her blood, but the very force of seething love itself wrought her death. Altogether worthy is the Virgin to go forth in the company of four most valiant men, and to have triumphal honours decreed to her for the vanquished prince of this world, etc.
Of Gabriel Cardinal de Trejo: The Virgin Teresa was as one beautiful among the daughters of Jerusalem, beautiful with the ornaments of the virtues, with zeal for a more austere discipline, with the variety of her miracles: one alone was she perfect, one alone comely, in heavenly delights. How often did she wound the heart of the divine Spouse in the one affection of her will! How often did she lay hold of Him and as it were shut Him up within herself! What place, then, for delay? Why should she not at once be written into the register of the Saints? There can be no alternating inclination of a wavering mind where the perfection of the Virgin, or rather of this Heroine, is found to be so approved. Come then, Holy Father, behold the whole globe of the earth calls for this from thee. And if a vote is required of me, behold, I offer it to thee of my own accord: for the immaculate life of the aforesaid Virgin urges me, and together with my vote demands my heart also for herself, etc.
[1360] Borgia, Bentivoglio, Valier, Of Gaspar Cardinal Borgia: I judge, Most Blessed Father, that the Blessed Virgin Teresa of Jesus, an example of unconquered spirit, a living and breathing torch of divine charity, leader of most holy men, and in fine one who has gone far beyond the summit of womanly virtue, not only can but even ought to be numbered with the Holy Virgins, etc.
Of Guido Cardinal Bentivoglio: In what has been related of the life and miracles of the Blessed Virgin Teresa there shines forth such excellence of all the heroic virtues that it might be doubted in which she most excelled and showed herself most admirable. What she said, what she did, what she wrote, all are as it were heralds of her miracles. This is proclaimed with one voice not only by Spain alone, which bore her, but by the whole Christian world, which has now everywhere claimed her for itself with special worship and veneration. Wherefore I would judge that Your Beatitude will do a thing worthy of your singular piety and wisdom if you will be pleased to enrol so holy a Virgin among the Saints, duly and solemnly, by your authority, as soon as possible, etc.
Of Pietro Cardinal Valier: We have now found the valiant woman, Most Blessed Father, nay rather the most valiant Virgin and at once the spouse and handmaid of Christ, Teresa, who with a manly breast put out her hand to strong things and with the fruit of her hands planted a vineyard which shall not fear the cold of the snow. Her, therefore, already most illustrious in the whole world for sanctity and miracles, her sons on every side have proclaimed most blessed. What more remains now, Most Blessed Father, but that Your Holiness in your prudence decree that, just as this most unconquered handmaid of Christ has already received in the Church triumphant the crown prepared for her by the Lord for eternity, so in this Church militant, to the praise of Almighty God, she be solemnly enrolled this day, according to her merits, in the college of the Holy Virgins?
[1361] von Zollern, Pignatelli, Ludovisi, Of Eitel Friedrich Cardinal von Zollern: The matter, set before the face of all peoples and in the sight of the nations, cries aloud that what we read in the Gospel of St. Luke properly fits the Most Blessed Virgin Teresa: "Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, and the paps that have not given suck." To whom accordingly we can cry out in the words of the Prophet and congratulate her on her beatitude: "Rejoice, thou barren, that bearest not: break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her that hath a husband." So many indeed are the sons and daughters of this Virgin as there are found followers, men and women, of her most holy Institute throughout the Christian world, to the immense glory of the Catholic Church, and as many as these very ones bring forth as children, partly by doctrine, partly by example, until Christ be formed in them. If, then, a crowd of children of the flesh round about the table merits this congratulation of the Psalm: "Behold, thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord," how much more justly may we congratulate Teresa: Behold, thus shall the handmaid be blessed that feareth the Lord! And since, more than this, God has glorified this His servant with as many proofs of beatitude as there are miracles which we hold most fully attested to have been wrought through her, Your Holiness, whose Vicar you are on earth, deservedly imitates His example in glorifying Teresa. Thus it will come about that what we read happened in figure to Mordecai we shall acknowledge truly fulfilled in Teresa: "Worthy of this honour is whomsoever the King of kings shall wish to honour."
Of Stefano Cardinal Pignatelli: Holy Mother Church now deservedly rejoices over a woman such as those ancient Fathers, by the testimony of the Sacred Letters, did not find. For she, having loosed the shoes from her feet and laid aside the wrappings of carnal thoughts, desired to approach Christ the Lord, and has merited the never sufficiently praised counsel of Your Holiness.
Of Ludovico Cardinal Ludovisi: I judge that Blessed Teresa, for whom virginity brought about the nuptials of the almighty Spouse, solitude won the society of the Angels, poverty heaped up the riches of divine grace, and obedience procured the kingdoms of heavenly beatitude, should be duly honoured with temples and altars. For she did not enclose the works of her piety within the narrow spaces of human life; but reigning in heaven she protects the earth, and lives in the religious families which she established as heirs of her sanctity, no less fruitful for the Christian commonwealth than for themselves, etc.
[1362] Sacrati, Gozzadini and Aldobrandini; Of Francesco Cardinal Sacrati: Most Blessed Father, she who, born of Catholic parents, while still seven years old desired and even attempted to become a Martyr of Christ; who in her twentieth year vowed and dedicated her virginity to God; who at a more advanced age instituted or restored a new Religious Order; who left written books of wonderful doctrine; who during the whole time of her life shone with every kind of heroic virtue; at whose prayers and merits God Most Good and Most Great deigned to work many signal miracles; in whose honour, by faculty of this Holy See, divine Offices are recited, Masses are celebrated, altars and chapels are erected; for whose enrolment in the number of the Saints most powerful kings contend, sacred companies of men and women pray, and almost the whole Christian people demands: she seems truly worthy to be enrolled by Your Holiness in the catalogue of the Holy Women, etc.
Of Marco Cardinal Gozzadini: Eminent were the virtues of Blessed Teresa, and the wonders which, while she lived and after her death, God wrought at her intercession. Hence, since this Virgin has merited to receive blessing from the Lord and mercy from God her Saviour, I judge that she should be enrolled in the number of the Holy Virgins who reign with Christ for ever, etc.
Of Ippolito Cardinal Aldobrandini: Blessed Teresa plainly put out her hand to strong things, she who, devoted to works of piety and penance, restored under her leadership the primitive rigour of the Carmelite Institute. Hence, since with the praise of holiness, integrity of morals and many miracles wrought before and after her death she to the whole world
has shone wonderfully, I judge that one may proceed to her solemn canonization, etc.
[1363] of the patriarch of Jerusalem; of the archbishops of Bari, Turin, Of Deifobo Farnese, patriarch of Jerusalem: Christ, showing the nail of His passion, in a certain wonderful manner and by the proclamation of His own voice, declared Teresa of Jesus His true spouse and wholly His own. To whose canonization therefore, since the Most High has given His voice, I too humbly add my voice, etc.
Of Galeazzo Sanvitale, archbishop of Bari: The innocence of life of Blessed Teresa, made illustrious by innumerable miracles, is altogether worthy to be proposed to us by the Church for imitation as a most perfect exemplar of sanctity. And since she can attain this through the solemn rite of canonization, it should certainly not be deferred any longer by Your Beatitude; because it will become known to mortals that even in the very weakness of a woman she was able to put forth such virtue that she could strive upwards even to the summit of those above.
Of Filiberto Milliet, archbishop of Turin: Blessed Teresa, Most Blessed Father, burning with divine love, bearing the cross continually in her heart, desired to live only that she might suffer for Him; and she bound herself by vow, in living, to do nothing other than what she understood to be more perfect and for the greater glory of God. Made at length the spouse of Christ, languishing from her excessive love of Him, she gave her soul to her Beloved. She, illustrious with so many and such great heroic virtues and miracles, seems to me to be numbered by canonical rite among the other Holy Virgins, if it so please Your Holiness.
[1364] of Genoa, of Amalfi, Of Domenico de Marini, archbishop of Genoa: We have all admired Blessed Teresa in our times as a new light fallen from heaven, and daily we behold her pupils not without admiration. Innumerable are the signs and mighty works by which the Lord has deigned to manifest the sanctity of His Handmaid, and almost incredible the things which the Virgin herself endured for the love, honour and glory of her Spouse. Shall I call a woman of this kind holy? Nay rather most holy, and altogether worthy to be associated in the canonization with four holy men. Let the Saint, then, receive the holy prayers which we pour forth for the Most Holy one, and present them to the Holy of Holies, that is, to God Most Good and Most Great.
Of Paolo Emilio Filonardi, archbishop of Amalfi: The Servant of God Teresa, Most Blessed Father, from the beginning of her life wove and fashioned for herself a crown of so excellent a variety of flowers that from Spain, which brought forth the spouse of Christ, into all parts of the Christian commonwealth and into heaven itself there has penetrated a most fragrant odour, most acceptable to God, both of virginity and charity, and of penance and obedience and all the virtues, and has made for her the name of most illustrious sanctity. Hence it is that not only the concourse of many regions and princes, and above all the most unconquered kings of the Spains, but also the convents of the reformed militia founded and increased by the same Teresa, the books which she wrote beyond measure accurately on mystical theology, and the miracles which God performed at her prayer, have vehemently besought the Apostolic See to insert our Blessed one into the sacred choirs of the Virgins, and to enrol her among the Heavenly Ones by the catholic rite of canonization. All of which are so plainly established, from the processes drawn up by ordinary authority, and by the most ample command gone over and reviewed by most wise men, that is, the auditors, and finally approved after the weighing of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, that I am easily led and impelled to consent that Your Holiness can without doubt enrol Blessed Teresa in the register of the Saints, to be venerated by the faithful of Christ.
[1365] of Lanciano, of Conza, of Naxos and of Rhodes; Of Andrea Gervasio, archbishop of Lanciano: Most Blessed Father, innocence of life, familiarity with God, light drawn from heaven, deeds excellently done, miracles wrought in life and after death, all of which Spain has always admired in Blessed Teresa, and Your Holiness, from the relation made to you, has approved by your proclamation, merit that the worship which is due to the Saints be accorded by this Holy See to this Handmaid of God.
Of Fabio Leonessa, archbishop of Conza: Paul, the excellent Doctor, when he exhorts us to the practice of justice, teaches us three things, that we should live piously, justly and soberly. This threefold duty Blessed Teresa always practised: for she was always pious towards God, just towards her neighbour and sober towards herself. Not only, therefore, do I judge that she should be enrolled in the catalogue of the Holy Women, if it please Your Holiness, but with repeated prayers I demand and beseech this of Your Holiness.
Of Sebastiano Querini, archbishop of Naxos: Happy Virgin Teresa, who, that dying she might live, lived as one about to die, that she might put on the garments of the Blessed, of whom Solomon says: "All her friends are clothed with double garments." She sought flax and wool, that is, she joined to herself the ornaments of the contemplative and of the active life; she did not eat her bread idle: for she did and suffered for Christ the Lord such things as have been handed down to everlasting memory for everlasting time. By right, therefore, and deservedly, Most Blessed Father, she is to be enrolled in the number of the Holy Women.
Of Alfonso Gonzaga, archbishop of Rhodes: Most Blessed Father, if Your Holiness numbers among the Heavenly Ones the Virgin Teresa, admirable for the converse of Christ, for miracles, for the prophetic spirit, for the foundation of a most religious Order, for the ornaments of all the virtues, a most vigilant keeper of her lamp, you will open to the Christian people a very great light of patronage, and will fulfil the part of God on the globe of the earth.
[1366] of the bishops of Zante, of Grosseto, Of Raffaele Invitiato, bishop of Zante and Cephalonia: Blessed Teresa, never harmed, nor afflicted, nor lightly touched by earthly thoughts of the mind contrary to faith and purity, was born at Ávila, and Ávila grows by the golden light of her sanctity and the dawn of her nativity; she herself appeared clothed in the rosy colour of the divine light, when at seven years old she had sprinkled the whiteness of her infancy with the blood of a desired martyrdom: she did not obtain what she wished, but she did not lose what she let go, compensating by the long harshness of afflicted flesh for what, being hindered, she could not finish by a brief martyrdom. On this account, enrolled in the Religious Order which has its name from Carmel, she recalled religious discipline in a wonderful way to the ancient splendour of a stricter life. With charity and zeal for the salvation of souls urging her most greatly, she conquered incredible difficulties and overcame straits. For eighteen years, oppressed by the utmost aridity of spirit, she did not wither, nay rather she assented and smiled and desired to wither the more (for fire is purer in what is dry), so that she might draw the purer flames of divine ardour the more she had withered; but she, when the aridity itself also had been burnt up by love, abounding in ineffable delights, enjoyed almost daily colloquy with Christ and rejoiced in His sight, made familiar with the Heavenly Ones: pierced through by a Cherub with a fiery dart, she perhaps did not die by the stroke of the point, but, warmed by the divine fire, she lived again; nevertheless she succumbed to the shaft of a more vehement love. For although she departed this life lying sick in bed, yet she died (as she herself revealed after her death) not by infirmity of body but by the wound of charity. For the white colour of her dry skin, her dead flesh soft and incorrupt, fell not conquered but conqueror: the rosy odour and the dewy liquor flowing from her body are signs of glory attained and the spoils of death overcome. It is just, therefore, Most Blessed Father, that the honours due to the Saints be bestowed on this blessed woman, who by dying most valiantly, keeping the remains of living flesh, the insignia of true sanctity, still flourishing in her extinguished body, flew out of the hands of death and flew into glory.
Of Giulio Sansedoni, bishop of Grosseto: Since, the order of law having been observed, those things are evident, Most Blessed Father, which are required by the canonical constitutions, namely sanctity of life and the divine testimony to it, brought forth by the supernatural showing of signs, I agree that Blessed Teresa, who restored the primitive Institute of Carmelite rigour and departed this life under the urging fire of divine love, should be enrolled in the catalogue of the Heavenly Ones.
[1367] Of Alessandro Caccia, bishop of Pistoia: Most Blessed Father, of Pistoia, Brescia, Rimini, Vercelli, from what has already been related before Your Holiness by the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Fathers of the Congregation of Sacred Rites concerning the virtues of the Blessed Virgin Teresa, her sanctity of life and the excellence of her faith, for the propagation of which she was so thirsty for martyrdom that her illustrious deeds merited by divine favour to be made illustrious by the glory of miracles, I judge that she should without doubt be written into the company of the Holy Virgins, for the honour of the Christian commonwealth and the increase of divine worship, if Your Holiness, with the divine counsel communicated to you, shall so decree.
Of Marino Giorgi, bishop of Brescia: The virginal integrity of Blessed Teresa, Most Blessed Father, her singular innocence, the withdrawal of her mind from the senses of the body in contemplating heavenly mysteries, a certain divine knowledge of things future and hidden, and lastly her contempt of herself, shine forth so that I judge she should by right and deservedly be enrolled in the company of the Holy Virgins.
Of Berlinghiero Gessi, bishop of Rimini, governor of Rome: Most Blessed Father, Blessed Teresa, a Virgin most pure, most adorned with virtues and heavenly gifts, enjoyed long and much the familiarity of Christ and of the Heavenly Ones while she lived in the mortal body; having at length undertaken a manly deed, giving laws to families of religious men, she died most celebrated, with the fame of sanctity and miracles; which after her death grew more widespread and has been approved by most prudent inquisitors. I judge therefore that she should be adorned with those honours, etc.
Of Giacomo Goria, bishop of Vercelli: This barren Virgin has brought forth very many: who shall make her praises heard? The testimonies of her sanctity and miracles have become exceedingly credible, and they show that she has entered with Christ into the marriage feast, etc.
[1368] of Carpentras, of Aire, of Volterra, Of Cosimo Bardi, bishop of Carpentras: Blessed Teresa was so conspicuous for virtues that it seems that now the only thing to be treated is what crown should be decreed to her who has lawfully striven, who, one of the number of the prudent, has stood at the right hand of the Spouse in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety: which crown will be the decree of Your Holiness, if it shall seem expedient to you; so that she who remains with gladness and exultation in the sight of the heavenly King may be honoured on earth with gladness and exultation by the faithful of Christ, etc.
Of Sébastien Bouthillier, bishop of Aire: Most Blessed Father, the more it is established that conjectures about human affairs drawn from the situation of the heavens are vain, and judgment about future things from the inspection of the stars deceitful, the more may we admire the authority of the Church, which, from what it beholds and observes in the life of men, pronounces with certainty concerning those things which, decreed on high for our salvation, ought to be known here. This it now deservedly performs in the case of Blessed Teresa, who, not content to have asserted the integrity of her life in a delicate and tender body by endurance, patience and contempt of perishable things, dared a more divine deed, and one greater than human expectation, of restoring the fallen discipline of the monastic life: whence even the princes of the Church have in a woman a singular example of sanctity to imitate. The Christian world was astonished at the holy daring of the Virgin. But France above all has embraced the piety begun even by a rival nation; and in the lapse of a few years it numbers and venerates in its very bowels more than twenty-four monasteries of this Institute: France, I say, in its candour everywhere mindful to follow virtue from wherever it is shown, and ever zealous to retain and increase the keen purity of Religion. Since, therefore, we acknowledge Blessed Teresa as the author of so great a good, there are most just causes why we should judge that she is to be honoured with divine honours, and should profess it to be the happiness of the age, the salvation of men, the triumph of the Church, that by the Supreme Pontiff the number of the Heavenly Ones interceding for us
be increased today by the unanimous vote and suffrages of the holy Fathers, etc.
Of Luca Alamanni, formerly bishop of Volterra: Of what kind and how great sanctity the Virgin Teresa would be, it was easy to discern when, while still seven years old, she burned with such desire for martyrdom: of what kind of Virgin she was, the so many and most illustrious things she did in her life testify; concerning which it is lawfully established in the acts. Wherefore I judge that this spouse of Christ, illustrious with miracles and adorned by God Most Good and Most Great with very many prerogatives, should be numbered among the Holy Virgins by the authority and decree of Your Holiness, etc.
[1369] of Cavaillon, of Nice, of Brugnato, Of Ottavio Mancini, bishop of Cavaillon: The wise Virgin Teresa, spouse of Christ, shines with signal sanctity; of which a specimen shone forth above all from her infancy: so that the name of her holiness was thereafter spread abroad and celebrated not only in the kingdoms of the Spains but also in remote regions. Moreover, since she likewise shines forth with the glory of miracles, and there exists an immense devotion of the peoples and esteem of the nobles towards her, I think that Your Holiness, who holds the place of God on earth, can enrol her in the number of the Holy Virgins, for the exaltation of His Holy Church, which is adorned with the Saints as with gilded clothing, for the honour of the same Blessed Virgin Teresa and for our salvation; that she may intercede in heaven for us who honour her memory on earth; that the earth itself, made illustrious by the splendour of this new light, may rejoice; that the company of the Angels may be glad; that the increased number of the Virgins may exult; that God may be glorified in His Saints, He who is the crown of the Saints; lastly, that the heretics may rage and pine away; that the Pontifical authority may flourish, and the dignity of Your Holiness may continually grow and be enlarged, etc.
Of Pietro Francesco Maletti, bishop of Nice: Teresa, from her earliest age to the setting of her ebbing life, so carried her lamp, filled with the bright wick of faith and of holy actions and adorned also with the flowers of the virtues, that she never had to groan that it was extinguished either by lack of spiritual nourishment or by the storms of the winds of this world, but she kept it always radiant with divine splendours. On this account, when the Spouse came, she merited for herself entrance to the solemnities of the nuptials, having been betrothed beforehand by many kinds of visions. Wherefore, since she certainly enjoys eternal joys, and now in heaven, as then on earth, entreats the Almighty with prayers for the happy state of the H. R. C., I judge it worthy, praiseworthy and just, by way of a grateful mind, that she be enrolled and dignified by the public decree of Your Holiness among the prudent who see God and the Holy Virgins.
Of Francesco Mottini, bishop of Brugnato: The truth of sanctity and the brilliance of miracles so shine forth, Most Blessed Father, in the Blessed Virgin Teresa, that, just as she stood forth wonderful on earth by manifest merits, so also I feel that her heavenly birthday can be designated by Y. H. by due right.
[1370] of Adria, of Caserta, of Thagaste, Of Ludovisio Saregi, bishop of Adria: From what has been enacted and related, Most Blessed Father, concerning the life, integrity and sanctity of this Blessed Teresa, of whose canonization the question is, it is elicited and proved that this valiant woman with a manly breast not only put off the vices of women, but put on the virtues of valiant men and heroes and exercised them in the whole course of her life. For from her earliest age she vowed a vow of virginity and purity and always kept it. While still a young girl she aspired to and sought martyrdom for the love of Christ. Somewhat older, she entered and professed the religious life, and that a strict one, namely that of the Order of Carmelites, which she also reformed for the better, as much in men as in women. Grown up, she made and fulfilled another new and unusual vow, namely of always undertaking and attaining those things which were more perfect and which tended and conduced to the greater glory of God. For this reason, while still among the living, she merited to be named by Christ the Lord His beloved spouse, most zealous for His honour. Moreover, she performed in the power of God many miracles, and not common ones, in life and after death. In the place and at the hour of her death signs and flashes of light appeared. After her death her body was continually found always incorrupt, as if flourishing, and exhaling a most sweet odour. It must be concluded, therefore, that this prudent virgin, who in her life took oil with her, has now entered into the ethereal bridal-chamber for the royal nuptials with her Spouse, and enjoys eternal beatitude. Hence there is no hesitation that she can be pronounced and proclaimed here on earth by Your Holiness, by your apostolic decree and with solemn rite, as a Holy Virgin to be honoured and invoked by us.
Of Antonio Díaz, bishop of Caserta: We have found a valiant woman in Blessed Teresa; whom, as distinguished for works of penance, as illustrious for miracles, as mistress of a holier life to very many in the whole Christian world, Y. B. will by right add to the number of the Holy Women.
Of Fr. Giovanni Vincenzo Spinola, bishop of Thagaste, sacristan of our Most Holy Lord: The Blessed Virgin Teresa from her earliest age loved Christ her Spouse with so vehement a love that while still seven years old, a rival of the holy Martyrs, together with her boy brother, she hastened into Africa to shed her blood for her Spouse. Hence Christ, that He might bring His spouse more splendidly into His Father's house, many times in her life multiplied provisions for her and her whole household, and coming forth from His bridal-chamber, attended by a great train of Angels, received her as she was dying: all of which, as they surely persuade that she lives and reigns in heaven with her Spouse Himself, so also in my judgment they leave no room for doubting that she should be heaped with due honours on earth, etc.
[1371] of Sant'Agata, of Bagnoregio, of Mariana and of Bisceglie. Of Ettore Diotallevi, bishop of Sant'Agata: Most Holy Father, the Virgin devoted to God, Blessed Teresa, seems to be proclaimed as joined in heaven to the heavenly Spouse, whom, while she was placed on earth, she loved with all devotion, as is witnessed by her desire of martyrdom, her profession of Religion, the course of her innocent life, the generous offspring of Discalced Reformed Carmelites brought forth for God, and the most choice vow of choosing perfection, together with the other things related in the Summary; to which are added also most illustrious miracles in life, at death and after her falling asleep.
Of Carlo Bovio, bishop of Bagnoregio: The Blessed Virgin Teresa at seven years old sought martyrdom: she restored Carmel in the spirit of Elijah: through fiery charity she was at last carried up to heaven. Therefore she should be adorned by Your Holiness with the worship of the Saints. This the Christian world demands; this I too approve.
Of Girolamo del Pozzo, bishop of Mariana: Since the house of God, which is the Roman Church, is filled with the most sweet odour which has been diffused from the virtues, the most chaste morals and the most innocent life of the Blessed Virgin Teresa, and is still being diffused through the whole world, I judge, Most Blessed Father, that she can be co-opted into the number of the Holy Women. That this may be done, I ask and beseech Your Holiness, with the humble lowliness which I owe, in honour of Christ and of His spouse, etc.
Of Antonio Albergati, bishop of Bisceglie: Most Blessed Father, I judge that the Blessed Mother Teresa, distinguished for sanctity of life and heroic virtues and illustrious with the glory of miracles, should be enrolled in the number of the Holy Women. For besides the theological virtues, in which, by continually exercising herself, she wonderfully excelled, I consider, from what has been prudently said before me, the heroic fortitude of the B. Virgin, when scarcely seven years old she attempted to fly to the crown of martyrdom. I admire also her prudence, when as a little maiden she understood above men, and partly reformed, partly built anew, very many monasteries both of men and of virgins; so that we ought to credit to the piety and zeal of B. V. Teresa the so many distinguished men and women who have come forth from the 225 monasteries of her Order, amounting to many hundreds of thousands. Moreover, how much she profited in exercising herself in the pursuit of prayer, and in teaching others, the books published by her show everywhere; so that, since she has done and taught, she must by right and deservedly be called great in the kingdom of heaven. And how pleasing she was to God, both the miracles with which she shone both living and dead, and the most sweet odour breathing from her body, abundantly testify. Wherefore I judge that she should now be honoured on earth by Your Beatitude, whom I believe to have been first crowned by God in heaven.
§ LXVII. A brief Relation of the ceremonies at the solemn canonization of SS. Isidore, Ignatius, Francis Xavier, Teresa of Jesus and Philip Neri.
Gregory XV, about to canonize five Saints, "Let the peoples show forth the wisdom of the Saints, and the Church declare their praise. And their names shall live unto generation and generation." Ecclus. 44. The Catholic Church, taught and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, has with great wisdom ordained that those who in this world have led a pious life, and observed the true Gospel law in the perfect love of God and neighbour, should, as they are written in heaven in the book of life, likewise be marked among us mortals with an illustrious and eternal name; verifying that saying of the Prophet, who says: "The just shall be in everlasting remembrance." And this it does, besides the glory which is rendered to God, so that we most miserable sinners, who are attached to earthly things and their affections, from which we scarcely know how to be separated except by the example of the Saints, observing and considering what they wrought for the love of Christ, may be confounded in our heart, as we do not perform similar works nor follow in their footsteps; since we see that they likewise were no less frail, tempted, and afflicted with no lesser persecutions, nor of another nature than we. For this reason, therefore, among others, our pious Mother the Church proposes to us the footsteps of these five Saints to be followed, declaring and defining them by this celebrated canonization to be exemplars of true sanctity: namely Isidore, Patron of the most noble town of Madrid, who was born about the year 1150, and, having professed agriculture, died in the year 1170 (on the year of the death of St. Isidore, see what Papebroch determines at the 15th day of May, page 514); Ignatius of Loyola, a Spaniard, Founder of the Society of Jesus, who had his birth at Azpeitia in the most noble province of Guipúzcoa in Cantabria, of the diocese of Pamplona, in the year of the Lord 1491, and flew to those above on the last day of the month of July of the year 1556; Francis Xavier, who was born in that part of the kingdom of Navarre which belongs to Spain, in the year 1497, and died afterwards on a deserted island named Sancian; Teresa of Jesus, Foundress of the Discalced Carmelites, who, born in the city of Ávila in the year of the Lord 1515, rendered her soul to God on the 5th day of October 1582; Philip Neri, a Florentine, Founder of the Congregation of the Fathers named of the Oratory of the new church, who had his birth at Florence in the year of the Lord 1515, and died in the year 1595: all of whom are set before the sight of the world as most shining mirrors of sanctity, from which secular and regular priests, laymen and women will be able to take particular imitation. And so, to satisfy the desire of those who could not be present at this solemn festivity, yet greatly wish to have, though not an entire, yet a particular knowledge of its description, I have resolved to put forth this brief and summary Relation, touching, as conveniently as I can, on each of the chief things pertaining to the rites and ceremonies.
[1373] enters the Vatican basilica. The place for celebrating so great a solemnity was afforded by the basilica itself of St. Peter in the Vatican, by far the most celebrated in the whole world. It would be an immense task to review one by one the things which for the apparatus and pomp ingeniously
were devised, so that nothing at all was omitted which seemed to conduce to the beauty and magnificence of so great a festivity. Lest, therefore, we should linger too long in reviewing them minutely, we shall turn our discourse to reviewing specially the ceremonies, which hold the more principal part in this solemn act. In the said canonization, then, on the day prescribed for this purpose, which was the twelfth of March, at the fourteenth hour, when everything was now prepared in the said basilica, and all the lights of the theatre and of the altar had been lit, and there were tapers standing round the Most Sacred Face of Christ and the reliquary of the Holy Lance, and an abundance of innumerable candles lit before the other Relics of the Saints, our Most Holy Lord Gregory XV, Supreme Pontiff, descended from his palace of St. Peter in the Vatican, the Most Illustrious Lord Cardinals preceding, carried on men's shoulders, sitting in solemn pomp in his chair; from which, descending near the altar, he knelt at the foot of the faldstool: where he poured forth his first prayers to God, that He might direct his heart and mind concerning the action which was hoped for, to the glory of God and the honour of the said Blessed ones to be enrolled in the catalogue of the Saints.
[1374] At the urgent petition of the Cardinal procurator This done, as he sat again on his pontifical throne, the Most Illustrious Lord Cardinals came and approached to adore him and to render reverence and obedience to His Holiness: and afterwards, each sitting in his own place, there were presented before the Supreme Pontiff by the master of ceremonies the Most Illustrious Lord Cardinal Ludovisi, nephew of His Beatitude and procurator for the said Blessed ones, and the advocate, the Most Reverend Lord Zambeccari, both deputed for this; who, on the part of the Imperial Majesty and of the Christian kings and princes, put forward the first instance in this manner: "Most Blessed Father, Cardinal Ludovisi here present, in the name of His Imperial Majesty and of the Catholic kings and princes, urgently asks that it be pronounced by Your Holiness that Isidore the Farmer, Ignatius Loyola, Francis Xavier, Teresa of Jesus and Philip Neri are to be enrolled in the catalogue of the Saints of our Lord Jesus Christ, and venerated as Saints by all the faithful of Christ."
[1375] To this first instance his secretary replied in the name of His Beatitude, the domestic secretary of the Supreme Pontiff replying, saying: "Whenever some unusual spectacle of light shines forth from the ethereal region of the universe, the common people suppose that a new star has suddenly sprung up in the sky, trusting the deceitful indication of the eyes and the uncertain testimony of colour. But those skilled in heavenly things apply auxiliary instruments; and, having examined the opinions of others, they themselves measure often and most diligently the paths of the new splendour, fearing nothing so much as that they should rashly insert into the everlasting company of the stars some vanishing mockery of kindling air. A very similar principle may be recognized in the Church of God, which is called the Kingdom of heaven. At times in these darknesses of mortality the piety of some man, raised above the common bounds of human virtue, has shone forth: do we not see how easily peoples imbued with religion raise him to heaven by repute and goodwill, and venerate him as a co-heir of Christ and of the household of God? But those slippery assents are restrained by the apostolic authority, with which lies the supreme judgment of sanctity. For not only does a base vapour of the earth, glittering with another's light or with a perishing fire, imitate the heavenly brightness of the stars, but even the Angels of darkness imitate the Angels of light. Wherefore it has been wisely established that the deeds of a man to be enrolled in the number of the Saints should be explored by most accurate inquiries, sworn witnesses adduced, the opinions of the ecclesiastical princes asked, the miracles themselves examined, which seem to be the tongues of Angels and the testimonies of the Godhead, and lastly that the truth be sought out by fasts and prayers; so that God Himself, who numbers the multitude of the stars and calls them all by their names, may seem to point out to us also the stars which, illuminating the firmament of the Church with the rays of holiness, will shine unto perpetual eternities. That all these things have been done duly and according to the custom of our forefathers, our Most Holy Lord rejoices; so that, men consenting and the Holy Spirit teaching, the virtue of these five Blessed ones is now explored, for whom the names and insignia of Saints are asked at present by the prayers of the emperor, of kings, princes and peoples.
[1376] having woven a brief eulogy of those to be canonized, "For who today would doubt of the merits of Blessed Isidore, whom for nearly five hundred years that Spain which rules in both Worlds has served? A triumphal farmer, most illustrious for the homage of kings and the patronage of provinces; who, while compelled by want he subdued the clods, dug out treasures of divine grace with which he might purchase the principality of heavenly glory. Ignatius Loyola, in whose meditation the eternal fire of divine love blazed up, embracing in his mind all the regions of the earth and all the ages of the centuries into which he might propagate the Christian Empire, instituted a Society which, fortified with the arms of piety and wisdom, should bear the name of Jesus before the nations and continually shatter the impious attempts of the heretics. But now he who would measure the praises of Francis Xavier by the profit of peoples must go beyond the other bounds of the world. For since he illuminated the darkness of the East with the light of the Gospel, it became evident that the Indies owe greater benefits to the charity of Christian priests than to the revolutions of the salutary stars, and that the heaven which shows forth the glory of God is the Catholic Church, whence the sun of justice rises for foreigners dwelling in the shadow of death. Teresa, crowned with the lilies of virginity and crushing in her own body by voluntary punishments the weapons of the desires, always triumphed over the powers of the demons in the Church militant: to whom eternal Wisdom seemed to speak, disclosing the holier secrets of the Godhead; who would have attained the palm of martyrdom, had not the heavenly Spouse, delighted by the perpetual holocaust of her virginal heart, preserved this unbloody victim for restoring the sacred pastures of Carmel to their pristine beauty. Lastly, the triumphs of what warrior are not obscured by the impregnable peace and tranquillity of Philip Neri? His heart, guarded by the protection of the Angels and the watches of God, the eternal enemy of hell scarcely dared to attack with sacrilegious arms, since he despaired that it could be stormed by him, as a tower of heavenly fortitude; lest, namely, in its perpetual victories he should always recognize his own disgraces.
[1377] he proclaims that solemn prayers are to be made. "And all these, who, while dwelling on earth, migrated in mind to the heavenly fatherland, now reigning in heaven testify by daily miracles to their presence and help to the world. Wherefore our Most Holy Lord, about to gratify the prayers of the whole Christian commonwealth, considers that the present day, illustrious with the splendours of Blessed Gregory, has dawned to be celebrated in all the memory of posterity; on which the King of glory wills that these Blessed ones, long since admitted into the fellowship of the heavenly kingdom, be proposed by apostolic authority to the human race, publicly, to be venerated and imitated. But the judgments of God are a great deep, and not even the might of the Cherubim dares to gaze with unaverted eyes on the brightness of the Almighty. Wherefore now above all the Lord who holds the principality of the Saints must be approached with the supplications of Religion; so that, the Most Blessed Virgin and all the Saints supporting with their suffrages, and especially the Blessed Princes of the Apostles favouring, whose bodies we venerate here present in this most august dwelling of orthodox Religion, the light of the Holy Spirit may shine upon the Pontiff's mind, and this business, in which are contained the glory of the human race, the increase of divine worship and the joys of eternity itself, may at length, earth and heaven applauding, be piously and duly completed. In this sense our Most Holy Lord has ordered me to reply."
[1378] A more urgent petition is made, and prayers are poured forth again. These words having been uttered, the Supreme Pontiff descended from his throne and knelt, his head covered with the mitre; and he went to the faldstool, where he prayed for some time: and in the choir the Litanies of the Saints with other prayers were sung. These ended, the Pope returned again to his throne; and now for the second time the same Cardinal and advocate approached to bring the second instance in the same form as the first; to whom the same secretary replied in these words: "To decree to men by apostolic authority the solemn titles and triumphs of sanctity is nothing other at all than to declare them Princes of heaven and Patrons of the earth, and by Pontifical praises to open the secret sanctuary of the Godhead. And this indeed is of such moment that our Most Holy Lord, about soon to complete a work of this kind, judges that the light of the Holy Spirit must be implored again at this moment of time in this senate of the ecclesiastical Hierarchy and in this throng of various nations. In this sense our Most Holy Lord has ordered me to reply." This said, the Pope for the second time descended from his throne, with the mitre placed on his head, and went to the faldstool; where the assisting Cardinal deacon said with a loud voice towards the people: "Orate" (Pray): and the mitre being removed, the Pope knelt with all the Cardinals and others, and they poured forth a silent prayer. Afterwards, the same Cardinal having said "Levate" (Rise), when all were standing, the book having been presented to the Supreme Pontiff by the assisting prelates, he himself intoned with a loud voice the hymn "Veni, Creator Spiritus"; and afterwards all knelt for so long a time as the choir took to finish the first verse. Afterwards, His Beatitude returning to his throne, the rest standing, the said hymn was finished by the choir with excellent music, with the versicle "Emitte Spiritum tuum," etc.: and His Beatitude said the prayer "Deus, qui corda fidelium," etc.; and sat down again.
[1379] At length, at a most urgent petition, the Pontiff assenting, Then now for the third time the same Cardinal and advocate approached, putting forward the third instance and supplicating in the same form as the first and second time; to whom the same secretary replied in the name of His Beatitude in this manner: "Hear, O heavens, the things I speak; let the earth hear the words of my mouth. Since our Most Holy Lord is piously persuaded that it is for the good of the Christian name that heavenly honours be accorded to these five Blessed ones, moved by the divine Power, from this most lofty Chair of Christian Wisdom, which God Himself has established on earth as the oracle of divine truth, he decrees that Isidore the Farmer, Ignatius Loyola, Francis Xavier, Spaniards, and Philip Neri, a Florentine, are to be enrolled in the catalogue of the Holy Confessors, and Teresa of Jesus, a Spaniard, in the number of the Holy Virgins." This done, the same Cardinal Ludovisi and the aforesaid advocate, rendering due and most honourable thanks to the Most Holy Father, at length spoke thus: "Most Blessed Father, the same Cardinal Ludovisi here present, in the name of the Imperial Majesty and of the Catholic kings and princes, accepts the pronouncement made by Your Holiness, and renders immortal thanks to it, and in the same name supplicates that Your Holiness deign to decree apostolic letters concerning this canonization that has been made. All and each of the protonotaries and other notaries here present are also asked to draw up concerning this act of solemn canonization one or several public instrument or instruments, for the perpetual memory of the matter." Then the Most Holy Father, blessing them with his right hand, having made the sign of the cross, replied: "Decernimus" (We decree).
[1380] the Decree of canonization is promulgated, And at once one of the assisting prelates read with a loud voice the sentence of the Most Holy Father and the Decree of canonization: "To the honour of the Holy and Undivided Trinity and the exaltation of the Catholic Faith and the increase of the Christian Religion, by the authority of the same Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own, with the counsel of our Brethren, we decree and define that Isidore the Farmer, of good memory, Patron of Madrid, Ignatius Loyola of the town of Azpeitia, Founder of the Society of Jesus, Francis Xavier of the same Society of Jesus, Teresa of Jesus de Ahumada of Ávila,
Foundress of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, and Philip Neri, a Florentine, Founder of the Congregation of the Oratory, are Saints and are to be enrolled in the catalogue of the Saints; and we do enrol them in such catalogue, establishing that by the universal Church every year, on the day of the death of Isidore, Ignatius, Francis and Philip, their feast and Office be devoutly and solemnly celebrated as for one Confessor not a Pontiff, and that of Teresa as for one Virgin only. Moreover, by the same authority, to all who are truly penitent and have confessed, who every year on the same feast-days shall devoutly visit their sepulchre, we mercifully relax one year and forty days of enjoined penances, and to those who every year visit the sepulchre within the octaves of the said feasts, forty days."
[1381] and it is received with joyful applause. At which instant, the whole people being moved to gladness, the sound of various trumpets was heard, with great applause of jubilation and reverence towards the said Saints, and at once outside the basilica sweet pipes, drums and very many trumpets were played. Then also the guards of the Swiss soldiers sent forth thunders and fire from various engines of war in sign of the canonization of the said five Saints, especially at the castle of Sant'Angelo. The sound of the bells of the whole kindly City was also heard with great eagerness and joy of all. And all this not a little stirred the hearts of all the faithful dwelling in it to praise and bless God in His Saints. At the beginning of this harmony and gladness the Supreme Pontiff intoned "Te Deum laudamus": which having been carried through by the choir to the end with most sweet voices, the Cardinal dean intoned the versicle: "Pray for us, Saints Isidore, Ignatius, Francis, Teresa and Philip"; and the choir answered: "That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ." This said, the Supreme Pontiff said the prayer appropriated to all the said Saints; and, this done, the Cardinal deacon said: "Confiteor Deo," etc., adding in its place: "And to the Blessed Isidore, Ignatius, Francis, Teresa, Philip, and all the Saints," etc.
[1382] During the Holy Sacrifice offerings are brought After this the Supreme Pontiff intoned Terce; and while the choir was carrying it to the end, he vested in the accustomed manner for the solemn celebration of Mass, which was that of the Doctor of the Church St. Gregory, Pope, with a second prayer appropriated to the said five Saints, and he continued the Mass as far as the Offertory. Afterwards, while he was seated, the gifts were received by the Cardinals and those deputed for this purpose; and they offered them to His Beatitude, this ceremony being observed, that the one offering kissed first the gift and in the very act of offering kissed the hand and knees of His Beatitude: and the gifts were numerous, and truly full of mystery and worthy of great consideration. Ten great tapers, finely adorned with the insignia of the Saints, as well as of the Supreme Pontiff and of the Catholic king; so that two were offered for each Saint. Five gilded baskets, in each of which were two white turtle-doves covered with silken nets: one basket for each of the said Saints. Ten great loaves, five silvered and five gilded; so that one silvered and the other gilded were presented for each Saint. Five other silvered baskets, in each of which were brought two white doves, covered with a silken net; so that each basket served for each Saint. Ten wooden vessels full of wine, five gilded and five silvered, like the loaves. Five other baskets adorned with variety of colours and finely worked with gold and silver, full of various birds, covered with silken nets; which, being released by the Pope, flew to the higher and various parts of the church, with great delight of all who were watching.
[1383] by fifteen Cardinals. The Most Illustrious Lord Cardinals who offered the said gifts were those written below: namely, for St. Isidore the Lord Cardinal del Monte offered two tapers, Cardinal Peretti two loaves, Cardinal Madruzzo two vessels of wine; for St. Ignatius the same gifts were offered by Cardinals Millini, Leni, Crescenzi; and for St. Francis Xavier by Cardinals Muti, Savelli, Valier; for St. Teresa by Cardinals von Zollern, Gherardi and Scaglia; and for St. Philip by Cardinals Pignatelli, Sacrati and Gozzadini. The assistants at the ceremony were the Lord Cardinals del Monte, bishop of Porto, Boncompagni and Aldobrandini. The advocates who assisted at the act of canonization and took care of it were, for St. Isidore the advocate Caffarelli, for Saints Ignatius and Francis the Most Reverend Lord Zambeccari, for St. Teresa the advocate Millini, and for St. Philip the advocate Spada. The masters of ceremonies were Lord Paolo and Lord Giovanni Battista Alaleoni, Lord Carlo Antonio Vaccari and Lord Pietro Ciammaricone. This ceremony completed, the Mass was continued according to the accustomed manner: which having been brought to an end, our Most Holy Lord gave the blessing. And the plenary indulgence having been published, he was solemnly carried in his chair to his pontifical palace, all the Most Illustrious Lord Cardinals preceding.
[1384] On the following day a procession is held. On the following day, the 13th of March of the same year 1622, which was Passion Sunday, a solemn procession was made from St. Peter's to the churches (supply: with the four banners) of these five Saints; because on one of them, namely that of the Society of Jesus, were painted two images, of St. Ignatius and of St. Francis Xavier. Of which the first was left and placed in the church of Santa Maria in Vallicella; the second in the church of St. James the Apostle of the Spaniards; the third in the church called del Gesù of the same Society; the fourth in the church called della Scala of the Discalced Carmelites.
[1385] Description of the theatre of the canonization To this Relation of the ceremonies, written by Stefano Salucci, apostolic protonotary, we add by way of appendix certain things concerning the apparatus of the Vatican basilica. Papebroch confesses in the Life of St. Isidore (at the 15th day of May, page 549) that he could not obtain these things. I, however, found them in the Annus Teresianus, written by Fr. Joseph of the Incarnation, who first of all applied himself to compiling, or at least preparing, the Annus Teresianus, and he himself confesses in the prologue that he composed this relation concerning the adornment of that basilica from documents sent from Rome. Then Fr. Anthony of St. Joachim, his successor in completing the work, published it in volume III at the 11th day of March; whence, setting aside the prologue, I render it into Latin in these words: The church of St. Peter in the Vatican, which for its opulent architecture holds the first place among basilicas and is looked up to by the whole world as a miracle of beauty and art, was the place destined for so great a solemnity. In its greater chapel there was erected, by the labour of several months, a platform conspicuous for dignity and majesty; which, fifty palms high, extended a hundred paces in length and sixty in breadth. On the level of this raised structure, a space of fifteen paces all round was occupied by various tiers of steps, surrounded with strong and handsome backs, and so arranged that the view of none of those present was impeded. Access hither was given by several doors and stairs, distributed in such order as to open wide and convenient spaces and passages, by which easy access lay open to the various seats, assigned not only to the various classes of distinguished men, but also destined for certain princely women, who, behind modest lattices, for decency's sake, were eager to be present at the celebration. To the remaining part of the theatre, which was left empty, free entrance lay open by three doors: of which one, towards the East, faced the principal doors of the church, the two others rising at its sides. Although the Corinthian order, from which the form of the theatre was taken, required that the ornament should be carried up into columns, yet, that the view might be free for all, art was called to aid, and place was given only to various pilasters, which supported many kinds of figures and were crowned with apt inscriptions: in which work the brushes of most celebrated painters had poured forth their industry. The spaces left empty by the arrangement were furnished with many candelabra, of which some were carved in the common form, some in the form of Seraphim, with much art; and each supported three torches, scattering light in seemly order. Between them were interposed alternately various statues of exceptional size and distinguished paintings; upon which was placed a most beautiful ornament of white and green colour running round about.
[1386] and of the adornment of the Vatican church. On the front of this beautiful theatre were seen eight magnificent statues, twice greater than the common stature of a man, resting on Corinthian stylobates. They seemed to be wrought in bronze, although they consisted only of dry roots and stucco work, art surpassing the material. Between them were interposed three panels painted with very distinguished artifice, in which the brush had elegantly displayed singular histories. Over this whole sumptuous structure there hung four gilded crowns; of which such was the size that the middle diameter was eighteen palms long. And these, suspended in the air by cords of various colours, sprinkled majesty and dignity over the whole structure; to which also not a few branched candelabra contributed, partly overlaid with silver, partly with gold, and wreathed with so many tapers that they gave out an almost superfluous light: so great, namely, and so singular a splendour surrounded everything, and especially the altar of the Princes of the Apostles, which was the centre of the whole elegant structure (since the Sacrifice of the Mass was to be celebrated there), the rays converging also on the Pontifical throne, which was opposite the illustrious multitude of spectators. Lastly, towards the assembly of those present, the structure was terminated by a barrier, which, while it favoured the ornament of the decoration above, with guards posted according to custom, served to prevent the tumultuous crowd, if it should overstep the bounds set, from disturbing the solemnity of the ceremonies; lest the attention of minds held in suspense, which the circumstances deservedly commanded, should be relaxed. For, besides the stupendous adornment of the theatre (which I have outlined here as briefly as possible), the walls and columns of that most vast nave were clothed with exquisite tapestries, which several Pontiffs had given, and which that church keeps in its most precious treasury: whence that so great ornament, running out far, reached even to the doors and porches of this church most celebrated in the whole world; where glorious images of these five new Saints and the insignia of their families, joined with the insignia of the Vicar of Christ who canonized them, indicated and joyfully proclaimed the theme of so great a solemnity.
§ LXVIII. The Bull of canonization of St. Teresa.
GREGORY, BISHOP,
SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD.
FOR THE PERPETUAL MEMORY OF THE MATTER.
Teresa, raised up by God in these latest times, The almighty Word of God, when He had descended from the bosom of the Father to these lower regions, that He might rescue us from the power of darkness, the time of His dispensation being completed, being about to pass from this world to the Father, in order to propagate through the whole globe of the earth the Church of His elect, which He had purchased with His blood, and to instruct it with the word of life, to confound the wisdom of the wise and destroy every height that exalted itself against God, chose not many noble nor many wise, but the contemptible of the world; who should fulfil their ministry, to which they had been predestined from the days of eternity, not in loftiness of speech nor in the word of human wisdom, but in simplicity and truth. And in the following generations, when according to the preordained times He deigned to visit His people through His faithful servants, He generally took up the little and the humble, through whom for the Catholic Church
He might bestow immense benefits: to whom, according to His word, He might reveal the mysteries of the heavenly kingdom hidden from the wise and prudent, and so illuminate them with the gifts of supernal charisms that they might cherish the Church with the examples of all virtues and good works and glorify it with the glory of signs. And in our days He has wrought a great salvation by the hand of a woman: for He raised up in His Church, as a new Deborah, the Virgin Teresa; who, after she had overcome, by a wonderful victory, her flesh by perpetual virginity, the world by admirable humility, and all the devices of the devil by many and very great virtues, attempting loftier things and surpassing the strength of her sex by greatness of soul, girded her loins with fortitude, and strengthened her arm, and drew up armies of valiant ones, who should contend with spiritual arms for the house of the God of Sabaoth, and for His law and for His commandments: whom the Lord, for carrying out so great a work, abundantly filled with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, and so illuminated with the treasures of His grace that her splendour, like a star in the firmament, shines in the house of God unto perpetual eternities.
[1388] she merits to be venerated as a Saint. We have therefore judged it worthy and fitting that she whom God and His only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ have deigned to manifest to His people in the glory of miracles, as a spouse adorned with a crown and decked with her jewels, we too, in our pastoral solicitude in the universal Church, over which, though our merits in no way support it, we preside, should decree by apostolic authority to be honoured and venerated as a Saint and elect one of God; that all peoples may confess to the Lord in all His wonders, and all flesh may know that His mercies have not failed in our days: who, although, as our sins demand, He visits us with the rod of His indignation, yet does not shut up His mercies in His anger; while in our afflictions He fortifies us with new protections, and multiplies His friends, who may protect and defend His Church by the suffrages of their merits and intercessions. And so that all the faithful of Christ may understand how abundantly God has poured out of His Spirit upon His Handmaid, and that devotion towards her may on that account increase from day to day, we have thought fit to insert in these letters certain of her more signal virtues and some of the great works which the Lord wrought by her hand.
[1389] She generously devoted herself to the divine service. Teresa was born at Ávila in the kingdom of Castile in the year of human salvation one thousand five hundred and fifteen, of parents who were as illustrious in lineage as they were conspicuous for integrity of life; by whom, brought up in the fear of the Lord, she gave in her still most tender age an admirable specimen of future sanctity. For when she was reading through the acts of the holy Martyrs, her heart so grew hot within her with the fire of the Holy Spirit that with her own brother, also a boy, she fled from home, to cross into Africa, where she might pour out her blood and life for the testimony of Jesus Christ. But being called back by meeting her uncle, while she bewailed with continual tears that the best lot had been snatched from her, she compensated for her burning desire of martyrdom by alms and other works. But when she had reached the twentieth year of her age, she espoused herself wholly to Christ, and, entering upon the vocation by which she had been called by Him, betook herself to the nuns of Holy Mary of Mount Carmel of the Mitigated Order, that, planted in the house of the Lord, she might flourish in the courts of the house of our God. Having therefore made her profession in that monastery, when for eighteen years she was troubled with most grievous illnesses and various temptations besides, and was refreshed by no supernal consolations, she bore all things so unconquerably, the Lord helping her, that the trial of her faith, more precious than any gold which is tried by fire, was found unto praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
[1390] She was eminent in faith, hope, And since for raising up the sublime edifice of the Christian virtues the foundation of faith had to be laid, Teresa placed it so stable and unshaken that, according to the word of the Lord, she is to be compared to a wise man who built his house upon a rock. For she believed and venerated the Most Holy Sacraments of the Church and the other dogmas of the Catholic Religion with such firmness that she could not have greater certainty, as she herself often testified, of anything whatever. Illuminated by this lamp of faith, she beheld the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Sacred Eucharist so clearly with the eyes of the mind that she asserted that there was nothing for which she envied the beatitude of those who had seen the Lord with bodily eyes. And she had placed so much living hope in the Lord that she continually bewailed that she was detained so long in the present mortal life, which brought her an impediment to being always with the Lord; and not rarely, while she was pondering in her heart the joys of the heavenly fatherland, she went out of her mind and was rapt in the flesh to the fruition of them.
[1391] charity towards God But among the other virtues of Teresa the love of God shone forth especially; which so blazed up in her heart that her confessors admired and celebrated the charity of Teresa as proper not to a human being but to a Cherub: which also our Lord Jesus Christ wonderfully increased by many visions and revelations. For once, having given her His right hand and shown her a nail, He adopted her as His spouse, and deigned to address her in these words: "Henceforth, as a true spouse, thou shalt be zealous for My honour: now I am wholly thine, and thou wholly Mine." Once also she saw an Angel piercing her heart through with a fiery dart. From which heavenly gifts the flame of divine love so seethed in her heart that, taught by God, she made the most arduous vow of always doing whatever she understood to be more perfect and to pertain to the greater glory of God. Indeed, after her death she showed to a certain nun in a vision that she had departed this life not by the force of disease but from the intolerable fire of divine love.
[1392] and neighbour, But with what perpetual charity she loved her neighbour was manifest by many proofs, but especially from the ardent desire with which she desired the salvation of souls. For she bewailed with perpetual tears the darkness of infidels and heretics, and for their illumination she not only poured forth continual prayers to God, but offered fasts, scourgings and other mortifications of the flesh. The holy Virgin also resolved in her heart to pass no day without an office of charity; in which God also afforded her aid: for, through His bounty, an occasion of exercising charity was never lacking to her. And she wonderfully imitated our Lord Jesus Christ in the love of enemies: for while she suffered immense persecutions and adversities, she nevertheless loved her persecutors and prayed for those who hated her. Nay rather, the losses and offences which she suffered furnished her with food for love and charity; so that grave men used to say that whoever wished to be loved by Teresa must afflict her with loss or injury.
[1393] in the observance of the monastic vows, The vows which she had vowed to God in the profession of Religion she rendered with the greatest care and diligence: for not only did she perform all her exterior acts at the will of her superiors with the greatest humility of spirit, but she also firmly resolved in her heart to subject even all her thoughts to their will; of which thing she also left excellent examples: for at one time, ordered by her confessors, who suspected that she was deluded by the Angel of darkness, she humbly mocked and spurned the Lord Jesus Christ who frequently appeared to her, but not without a great reward for so profound an obedience. Indeed she also cast into the flames, to comply with her confessor, a volume which she had written on the Song of Songs, filled with signal piety. And she used to say that in discerning visions she could be deceived, but in rendering obedience to superiors she could not be misled. She so loved poverty that she not only procured her livelihood by the labour of her hands, but, if she saw any nun clothed in poorer garments, she would at once exchange her own with hers; and if at any time necessaries were lacking to her, she wonderfully rejoiced and exulted and gave thanks to God, as one who had obtained some signal benefit. But among her other virtues, in which, as a spouse adorned by God, she wonderfully excelled, her most perfect chastity shone forth: which she cultivated so eminently that she not only carried through to her death the purpose of preserving virginity conceived from childhood, but preserved, free from every stain, an angelic purity in body and heart.
[1394] and in other virtues, and divine charisms. These so signal virtues she adorned with a wonderful humility of heart: for when her soul was made rich from day to day with divine charisms, she often cried out to the Lord that He would set a limit to His benefits towards her, and not so quickly forget her enormous sins. Insults and mockeries she thirsted for most ardently; and she abhorred not only human honours but even being known by men. The unconquered patience of this holy Virgin is attested by that cry with which she often called out to the Lord: "Lord, either to suffer or to die." Besides all these gifts of divine beneficence, with which the Almighty willed this His beloved to be adorned as with precious jewels, He also abundantly enriched her with other graces and gifts: for He filled her with the spirit of understanding, so that she not only left in the Church of God examples of good works, but also watered it with the showers of heavenly wisdom, having published little books on mystical theology and others also filled with much piety; from which the minds of the faithful gather most abundant fruits, and are most greatly roused to desire of the supernal fatherland.
[1395] She accomplished the illustrious work of the Carmelite Reform. Furnished and illuminated with these heavenly gifts, she undertook a work very great indeed and most difficult for anyone, but exceedingly useful and profitable to the Church of Christ. For she began the Reform of the Carmelite Order; and she accomplished it excellently not only among women but also among men, monasteries of men as well as of women being built, not only throughout all the Spains but also through other parts of the Christian world, without money, without revenues, presuming on the mercy of God alone, and not only destitute of all human help, but generally with the princes and powers of the world opposing and contradicting: which nevertheless, the Lord confirming His work, sent down roots, received increase, and at length bore abundant produce in the house of God.
[1396] By miracles in life, Such great virtues of Teresa God made illustrious, while she was still living among men, by very many miracles; some of which we have thought fit to insert in the present letters. When in the diocese of Cuenca there was a very great scarcity of grain, and in the monastery of Villanueva de la Jara scarcely so much flour was found as would be sufficient for the sustenance of eighteen nuns for an entire month, through the merits and intercession of this holy Virgin Almighty God, who nourishes those who hope in Him, made it so abound that, although for six months loaves were made from it in plenty for the refreshment of the handmaids of God, it was nevertheless never diminished until the new harvest. Anne of the Trinity, a nun of the convent of Medina del Campo, was afflicted with a grave erysipelas in the face and with fever; whom Teresa first soothed, then, lightly touching the injured parts: "Be of good heart, daughter," she said: "God
as I hope, will free you from this disease"; and at once the fever and all the disease departed from her. Alberta, prioress of the same monastery, was labouring with pleurisy and fever, not without danger of life; but the holy Virgin Teresa, having touched the side which was pressed by the disease, pronounced her well and ordered her to rise: she, perfectly healed, at once leapt from the bed, praising God.
[1397] in death When at length the time came at which, for so many labours spent for the divine honour and so many good works performed for the profit of the Church, she was to receive the crown of beauty from the hand of God, lying in grave sickness at Alba, while during the whole time of her infirmity she had held frequent and wholly admirable discourses on divine charity with the sisters, very often giving thanks to God that He had joined her to the Catholic Church, commending as chief goods poverty and due obedience to superiors, having received most humbly and with altogether heavenly charity the Sacred Viaticum of her pilgrimage and the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, holding in her hand an image of Christ crucified, she flew away to the heavenly fatherland. And by many signs God manifested how sublime a degree of glory He had bestowed on Teresa in heaven: for many religious nuns fearing God saw the beauty of her glory. For one beheld above the roof of the church and in the choir and above the chamber of the dying woman a multitude of heavenly lights; another saw Christ the Lord, flashing with great splendour and surrounded by a vast throng of Angels, standing by her bed; another, very many persons clothed in white garments entering her cell and surrounding her couch; one also saw, at the very moment of her passing, a white dove flying from her mouth into heaven; another saw a splendour, like crystal, going out by the window. Indeed, a certain tree, blocked up with lime and a wall and long since dry, which was very near the chamber, suddenly appeared laden with flowers at the very hour of her passing, beyond every reckoning of season and nature.
[1398] and after death The lifeless body appeared most beautiful, and drawn by no wrinkle, and adorned with a wonderful whiteness, and together with the garments and the little linens which she had used in her sickness, breathing, to the admiration of all, a wonderful odour. Many great works also which God wrought through the merits of His Handmaid made her passing into paradise a matter of exultation. For a certain nun, long labouring with an infirmity of the head and eyes, having taken the hand of the dead Virgin and moved it to her head and eyes, at once recovered: another likewise, having kissed her feet, recovered her lost sense of smell, and perceived bodily the odour of the ointments with which her most holy body had been suffused by the Lord. Her body, without any embalming at all, enclosed in a wooden coffin, was buried, the earth having been dug deep for the burial and the trench filled up with huge stones and lime. But from her sepulchre so great and wonderful an odour came forth that it was decreed to exhume the sacred body: and it was found indeed whole and incorrupt and flexible, as if it had been lately entombed, suffused with a fragrant liquor; with which it perpetually exudes even to the present day, God attesting the sanctity of His Handmaid by a continual miracle. Wherefore, clothed in other garments and enclosed in a new chest, since the former had rotted, it was laid in the same place; and when three years had elapsed, when her tomb was opened again so that the sacred pledge might be carried to Ávila, and thereafter frequently inspected by order of the apostolic delegates, it always appeared incorrupt and tractable, suffused with the same odour and liquor.
[1399] she was made illustrious by God. And as time went on, God manifested His glory to men, by frequent benefits bestowed through the intercession of His Handmaid on those who had faithfully commended themselves to her prayers. For a certain boy of four years was so contracted and twisted that he could neither stand on his feet, nor, when he lay, move his body; and that infirmity, since it had been with him from birth and brought no feeling of pain, seemed wholly incurable: and when he had been carried for nine days to the chamber which the holy Virgin had inhabited while living, he felt power coming into him, and suddenly sound and strong and walking on his own feet, while all were astonished, he began to spread it abroad that he had obtained perfect health from Mother Teresa of Jesus. Anne of St. Michael, a nun, was tormented for two years with most cruel pains, three cancers so afflicting her breast that she was not only deprived of sleep, but could neither bend her neck nor raise her arms; and when she had placed a particle of the Relics of St. Teresa upon her breast, and had commended herself with the whole affection of her heart to her patronage, not only did every sore vanish from her body, but in a moment of time she was made free also from another infirmity which she had long had in her heart. Francisco Pérez, rector of a parish church, was so troubled by an abscess which had settled at the bone of his breast that, his arm also being contracted, he was prevented for five months from celebrating the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; and human remedies failing, he took refuge in divine ones, and lifting up his eyes to the mountains of God he obtained health: for applying to his breast a letter written by the hand of the Virgin Teresa, he obtained the healing of that part; and when he had then visited the Virgin's sepulchre, and had applied her arm, which is preserved at Alba, to his own arm, which was still contracted, he experienced the divine power in that also, perfect health being restored to him. Juan de Leyva was so afflicted by a great disease of the throat that every way of breathing was almost shut off: and already near to death he was in his last agony, when he applied with great confidence to the place of the disease a handkerchief which had belonged to St. Teresa; and being taken with sleep, and shortly after awakened, suddenly well, he cried out that he had been cured by the merits of Blessed Teresa.
[1400] Paul V enrolled her among the Blessed; When, therefore, the sanctity of Teresa was now being celebrated throughout all peoples and nations, and her name was in great honour among the faithful of Christ, the Lord working through her intercession so many wonders, which also increased from day to day together with her veneration, processes were drawn up by apostolic authority in many parts of Spain, and transmitted to this Holy See: and at the urgent instance of Philip III of illustrious memory, Catholic king of Spain, the business having been diligently discussed both in the Sacred Congregation of Rites and in the Rota, our predecessor Paul V of happy memory granted that in her honour, as of a Blessed Virgin, the divine Office might be celebrated in the whole Order of the Carmelite Friars.
[1401] and prepared the way for her canonization: And when the same king Philip had again supplicated the aforesaid Paul, likewise our predecessor, for the canonization of the B. Virgin Teresa, the same Paul again committed the business to the Cardinals of the Congregation of Sacred Rites; who decreed that new processes should be drawn up by apostolic authority, and for performing that task deputed by the same authority Bernardo Cardinal de Rojas of good memory, archbishop of Toledo, and the Venerable Brothers the bishops of Ávila and Salamanca: who, when they had diligently discharged the business committed to them, transmitted all the acts to the same Paul V our predecessor. He gave in charge to three auditors of causes of the apostolic palace, Francis, archbishop of Damascus, lieutenant, now Cardinal of the H. R. C., Giovanni Battista Coccini, dean, and Alfonso Manzanedo, that they should examine the said acts with the greatest diligence, and report to him what their opinion was: who, having weighed all things accurately, as the magnitude of the matter required, reported to the same Paul V, our predecessor, that the sanctity of life and the miracles of the Blessed Virgin Teresa were fully justified, and that everything which is required by the sacred canons for her canonization was abundantly established, and that one could proceed further. And so that the business might be transacted with the maturity which befitted so great a matter, the same Paul ordered our beloved sons the Cardinals of the H. R. C. set over the Sacred Rites to inspect the aforesaid processes again as diligently as possible, and to take accurate cognizance of the whole cause.
[1402] which Gregory XV, But when the same Paul had completed the way of his human pilgrimage, and we (by no merits of our own) had been called by the sole condescension of divine grace to the helm of the Church, we judged it to pertain to the increase of the divine honour and the profit of Holy Church that this business should be promoted: we also considered it of very great importance for relieving the calamity of the present times, if the devotion of the faithful of Christ towards the Saints and elect of God, who would intercede for us in such great necessities, were increased. We therefore ordered the aforesaid Cardinals to carry out as soon as possible what had been enjoined on them by our aforesaid predecessor. When they had completed this with the diligence that was fitting, and had all unanimously given their opinion for the canonization of the holy Virgin, our Venerable Brother Francesco Maria, bishop of Porto, Cardinal del Monte, set forth before us in our consistory the summary of the whole process and his own and his colleagues' opinion: having heard which, the remaining Cardinals who were present pronounced by common vote that one should proceed further.
[1403] the consultations having been held beforehand according to custom, Therefore, when in public consistory our beloved son Giovanni Battista Millini, advocate of our consistorial court, had pleaded for her canonization, and in the name of our most dear son in Christ Philip, Catholic king of the Spains, had humbly supplicated that we deign to proceed to it, we replied that we would consult on so great a matter our Venerable Brothers the Cardinals of the H. R. C. and the bishops present in the curia; and meanwhile we vehemently exhorted the Cardinals and bishops present, in the bowels of Christ, that, being instant in prayers, humbling their souls with us before God in fasts and alms, they should beg prayers * of God the Father of lights that He would send forth from on high upon us His light and His truth, which might lead us to know and to perform His will and good pleasure. And so in the semi-public consistory, which was held next, having summoned not only the Cardinals but the patriarchs, archbishops and bishops present in our curia, our notaries and those of the Apostolic See and the auditors of causes of the sacred apostolic palace also being present, when many things had been recalled by us concerning the eminent sanctity of the Handmaid of God and the frequency and celebrity of her miracles and the devotion of the peoples towards her throughout all the Christian nations, the instances having also been set forth which were made before us not only in the name of the greatest kings, but also of our most dear son in Christ Ferdinand, king of the Romans, elected emperor, and of very many other Christian princes, all concordantly, and with one mouth blessing God who honours His friends, judged that Blessed Teresa should be canonized and enrolled among the Holy Virgins: having heard the consent of all of whom, we exulted in the Lord with the inmost affection of our heart, and rejoiced in His salvation, giving thanks to God and to His Son our Lord Jesus Christ, that He had mercifully looked upon His Church and had decreed to make it illustrious with so great a glory. We therefore published the day of the canonization, and admonished the same brothers and sons of ours to persevere in prayers and alms, so that in carrying out so great a work the brightness of the Lord our God might be upon us, who would direct the work of our hands to the accomplishing of His will.
[1404] with solemn rite on the 12th day of March 1622, At length, having performed everything which by the sacred
constitutions and the custom of the Roman Church had to be performed, today in the most holy basilica of the Prince of the Apostles we assembled with our Venerable Brothers the Cardinals of the H. R. C., as well as the patriarchs, archbishops and bishops, the prelates of the Roman curia, our officials and household, the secular and regular clergy and a very great throng of the people: where, the petitions for the Decree of canonization having been repeated in the name of our same most dear son in Christ Philip, Catholic king, by our beloved son Ludovico, Cardinal of the title of Santa Maria in Traspontina, called Ludovisi, our nephew according to the flesh, through Niccolò Zambeccari, advocate of our consistorial court, the sacred prayers and litanies having been sung, and the grace of the Holy Spirit humbly implored, to the honour of the Holy and Undivided Trinity and the exaltation of the Catholic Faith, by the authority of Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, of the Blessed Apostles and our own, with the counsel and unanimous consent of our Venerable Brothers the Cardinals of the H. R. C., the patriarchs, archbishops and bishops present in the Roman curia, we defined that Teresa, Virgin, of Ávila, of good memory, concerning whose sanctity of life, sincerity of faith and excellence of miracles it was and is fully established, is a Saint, and decreed that she is to be enrolled in the catalogue of the Holy Virgins; as by the tenor of these presents we define, decree and enrol her; and we have commanded and do command all the faithful of Christ to honour and venerate her as truly a Saint, establishing that by the universal Church churches and altars may be built and consecrated in her honour, in which Sacrifices may be offered to God, and that every year on the fifth day of October, on which she was translated to heavenly glory, her Office may be celebrated, as of a Holy Virgin, according to the prescription of the Roman Breviary.
[1405] with the customary bestowal of indulgences, And by the same authority, to all the faithful of Christ truly penitent and having confessed, who every year on the same feast-day shall come to visit the sepulchre in which her body rests, we have mercifully relaxed in the Lord, and do relax, one year and one quarantine, and to those who come within the octave of the same feast, forty days, of the penances enjoined on them or in any way due. Lastly, thanks having been rendered to God that He had deigned to illuminate His Church with this signal and new luminary, the solemn prayer of the Holy Virgins having been sung in honour of St. Teresa, we celebrated Mass at the altar of the Prince of the Apostles with a commemoration of the same holy Virgin; and to all the faithful of Christ then present we granted a full indulgence of all their sins.
[1406] to the honour of Almighty God It is fitting, therefore, that for so signal a benefit we all with all humility bless and glorify Him to whom is due all blessing and honour and glory and power for ever and ever, asking of Him with assiduous prayers that, through the intercession of His elect, turning away His face from our sins, He may have mercy on us and look upon us, and show us the light of His mercies, and send His fear upon the nations which have not known Him, that they may know that there is no other God but our God. Furthermore, since it would be difficult for our present letters to be carried to each place where there might be need, we will that to copies of them, even printed, subscribed by the hand of a public notary and fortified with the seal of some person established in ecclesiastical dignity, the same credence be given everywhere as would be given to these presents themselves, if they were exhibited or shown.
[1407] he declares to have been completed by himself. Let it therefore be lawful for no man whatever to infringe this page of our definition, decree, enrolment, mandate, statute, relaxation and will, or with rash daring to go against it. But if anyone shall presume to attempt this, let him know that he will incur the indignation of Almighty God and of His Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul. Given at Rome at St. Peter's, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand six hundred and twenty-two, on the fourth day before the Ides of March, in the second year of our Pontificate.
Annotations* Perhaps "supplices" (suppliant)?
§ LXIX. The visitation of the body of the holy Mother in the year 1616.
BY V. D. M.
In the year 1615 new adornments are added to St. Teresa's bier. In two paragraphs already, namely LIV and LV, there has been discussion of the state of the body of St. Teresa, in which it remained up to the times of the beatification. In the following year, that is 1615, the chapel in which those sacred remains were laid was adorned beforehand; and in another year, or 1616, they were uncovered by the General of the Spanish Congregation himself. As regards the chapel, the author of the Chronicle relates it in the following manner: In the time of the fifth General (this was our Father Fr. Joseph of Jesus Mary), in the year 1615, so that it might be held in greater veneration and better guarded, the sepulchre was arranged differently. The place which had previously been divided into two storeys was then distinguished into three. The lowest was dedicated as a chapel, in which the Sacrifice of the Mass might be offered; for which purpose as much space in height as seemed suitable was taken from the choir, and for the rest, as much as was needed, the ground was hollowed out. The same Superior adorned the walls of this chapel with excellent paintings, in which the deeds of the Saint were represented. The former recess in which the holy body had been placed was fortified with marble slabs, but in such a way that rosaries and medals could be let down into it. Above this chapel a fairly spacious choir of the nuns was made, so that they could perform the divine Office there. Above the choir, which was the upper part and the second member of the structure, the sacred body lay deposited in a new chest, which was held by an urn cut from white stone resembling alabaster and adorned with gilded flowers. On the side of the convent it was so closed that no access lay open; on the front side there stood in the way a gilded grille which had existed already formerly (book V, c. XXXI, n. 7).
[1409] In the year 1616 the body is visited, and a foot is cut off. So much regarding the chapel. Then in the year 1616 the body of the holy Virgin was uncovered. The Father General, namely, in order to do a favour to the Fathers of the Italian Congregation, and to promote the cause of canonization by increasing the cult of the holy Mother at Rome, wished to destine a foot of the holy Mother to the Roman convent of the Carmelites of Santa Maria della Scala, and a piece of flesh to the Supreme Pontiff Paul V. Of the translation itself of these relics it has already been spoken elsewhere (num. 1073): but here only of those things which were then done at Alba. When, therefore, in the year 1615, as the Chronicle has it (book XVI, chap. I), a hand had been set to building the chapel (Fr. Frederick of St. Anthony calls it magnificent, book V, chap. VI), and in the year 1616 an end had been put to this structure (as the same Fr. Frederick testifies, in the place cited), the praised Superior General came to Alba with his secretary. On the 11th day of July of the year 1616 the reliquary was opened in his presence, and on the following day the cutting off of the foot was done; as is gathered from the authentic instrument which Fr. Anthony of St. Joachim published in the Annus Teresianus at the 25th day of May in these very words: I, Fr. Diego of St. Joseph, definitor general of the Order of the B. V. M. of Mount Carmel, and secretary of the same Order, make known and attest before God and His Angels that in the year from the Nativity of the Lord 1616, on the twelfth day of the month of July, in the presence of our Rev. Father General, Fr. Joseph of Jesus Mary, I, receiving a knife from the hand of our said Father General, kneeling, unworthy and trembling to touch this divine treasure, amputated the right foot of the said sacred body; from which indeed it appeared that two toes were missing: the one which is the smallest, and the other which is nearest to the great toe. This holy Relic our said Father General, receiving it reverently and devoutly kissing it on bended knees, kept in a very fine little casket prepared for it, in favour of the most ample and most religious Italian Congregation, so that at a suitable time this precious gift might be more fittingly transferred to Rome. This on the 12th day of July. On the same day, surely, the piece was cut off which was sent to Pope Paul V.
[1410] [And that visitation was the cause of the feast of the translation instituted afterwards.] What was done on the following day it will help to have gathered, again from the authentic instrument drawn up on that occasion. Fr. Frederick of St. Anthony says (book V, chap. VI) that on the same day a very great solemnity was celebrated there, a crowded people flocked together, and a place was given to all the clergy of Alba in the chapel which had been built for honouring the body of the holy Mother. And this is that translation whose memory is kept every year by the Carmelites with a minor double rite on the 13th day of July. As Benedict XIV (On Beatification and Canonization, book IV, part II, chap. VII, num. 3) and Fr. Frederick (in the place cited) attest, Clement XII granted that office on the 13th of September of the year 1732. Apart from the proper Prayer and the Lessons of the second Nocturn, taken from the Acts of the canonization, this Office is the same as that which is recited on the principal feast itself of St. Teresa. And that instrument which I have already mentioned, and which the Annus Teresianus gives at the 1st day of July (vol. VII, page 29 and following), was found in the sacred urn itself when it was uncovered in the year 1750; and it was inserted again into the diploma which was drawn up in the said year 1750 and placed by the holy body. These two instruments, and also a third concerning the state of the body in the year 1760, since they are of the greatest moment, inasmuch as by them it is authentically established in what state these precious remains were found in the years 1616, 1750 and 1760, I have judged, because of the weight of the matter, should be inserted in this our work for a perpetual memorial.
[1411] It is told what was then seen and done Here, then, receive the first of those instruments: In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Most Holy Father Paul V being Roman Pontiff; and in Spain, Philip III, Catholic king, reigning; Don Antonio Álvarez de Toledo being Duke of Alba, commander of the military affairs of the kingdom of Navarre; Don Francisco de Mendoza being bishop of Salamanca; Fr. Joseph of Jesus Mary being fifth Superior of our Religious Order of Discalced Carmelites; Fr. Peter of the Angels provincial; and Mother Catherine of the Holy Angel prioress of this house: in the presence of Don Antonio de Toledo, lord of Horcajada (who, since the duke out of devotion longed to be present, yet could not come to this act, stood by in his place and representing his person), the holy body of our Foundress, the glorious Virgin St. Teresa, was translated to this place; whereas previously it had been buried in the lowest part of the recess of this wall below the grille of the choir, from the day of her glorious passing, which was the 5th day of October, when Pope Gregory XIII of happy memory made the correction of the year, skipping ten days, which year was 1582, Philip II reigning, until, since so great was the fragrance and good odour which came out of the sepulchre, it was exhumed
and found whole, incorrupt and dripping an oil of most sweet odour, and that in such abundance that the soaking of the shrouds and linens in which it was wrapped lasted many years: and all the Relics of her virginal flesh, however small they may be, do the same today; and indeed the same little cloths, wet with oil, communicate this to the paper in which they are wrapped.
[1412] and in what urn the body was enclosed, Now lastly, in honour of the Saint, our Religious Order has made the chapel which is under the choir: it has arranged the sepulchre, as it is seen, for the convenience of the faithful who come to visit the holy body out of their devotion or for a vow; and it has made this stone urn, in which the holy body was to be placed (as has been done), for greater durability and against its further mutilation: since in times past so great a quantity of flesh has been cut from it that innumerable Relics from it have existed and exist. The chief are the arm and the heart, both of which this house keeps set in silver, and the hand which is at Lisbon. These holy Relics have been carried through all the kingdoms and provinces of the Christian world with singular esteem and the extraordinary devotion of men of every kind, on account of the many miracles which God our Lord has wrought through them.
[1413] and before what witnesses. This glorious Virgin was beatified on Saturday, the 24th day of April of the year 1614; as is established from the Brief of beatification. The canonization is hoped for daily, since all the requisite preparation has now been made, and the Rota has been satisfied in all things which must be performed; so that only the Pontiff's "Fiat" is lacking. This last translation was made, our Father General being present, on Wednesday, the 13th day of July of the year 1616, the witnesses being the said lord of Horcajada, Don Antonio de Toledo, and Fr. John of the Holy Angel, companion and secretary of our Father General. And so that there may be a perpetual memorial of this matter, I, Fr. Diego of St. Joseph, definitor general and secretary of the said Order, who was present at the aforesaid act together with the witnesses mentioned, who have set their signatures here, by the particular order and express mandate of our Father General, who has given authenticity to these letters with his signature, have written them with my hand, signed them with my name, and sealed them with the principal and original seal of our Sacred Religious Order. Given at Alba de Tormes, on the day, month and year aforesaid, on which I testify that this translation was made. From this province of our Holy Father Elijah in the kingdoms of Old Castile and Navarre. Fr. Joseph of Jesus Mary, General. Don Antonio de Toledo. Fr. John of the Holy Angel. Fr. Diego of St. Joseph, definitor general and secretary.
[1414] [There does not seem then to have existed a Brief by which the cutting of the flesh was forbidden;] In these times the concourse of peoples to the sepulchre of St. Teresa was now immense. Nor were there lacking leading men, both ecclesiastical and lay, whose devotion sometimes savoured of a certain excessive greed. Already in the times of Yepes it was reckoned by many, and indeed by Fr. Francis of the Mother of God himself, third General Superior of the Discalced, that by letters of Sixtus V given in the form of a Brief it had been prohibited under pain of excommunication that anything should be taken away from the flesh of the holy Mother. But this was certainly not the mind of all. I say nothing of Fr. Gracián cutting off the hand, of Fr. Gregory Nazianzen amputating the arm, of the nun of Alba tearing away the heart for herself, and of others taking lesser relics for themselves before the aforesaid Brief of Sixtus V. But it can be asserted that the pious butchery was set about upon the body of the holy Mother afterwards too. Let what we read above that Fr. Thomas of Jesus carried out be an instance (num. 1054). And so the Brief of Sixtus V was truly empty, if indeed any other was ever given than that by which the dispute between Ávila and Alba about keeping the body was settled. Moreover, I have nowhere happened to find this Brief, neither in the Bullarium of the Carmelite Order, nor in their Annals, nor in the Annus Teresianus, an archive of diplomas of every kind. And indeed I see that some of the Carmelites themselves were not free of the same or a similar doubt. Be that as it may, in the year 1616 all access to the reliquary was rightly blocked, by order of Fr. Joseph of Jesus Mary, fifth General Superior.
[1415] but such a one is duly requested in the year 1688. But not even this seems to have been enough; wherefore, so that at long last the body of the holy Mother might be safe on every side, provision was made by a decree which the Carmelite Fathers sanctioned in their general chapter of Pastrana in the year 1688, and which Fr. Anthony of St. Joachim sets out word for word in his Annus Teresianus at the 20th day of May. This, put forth there in the Spanish idiom, will sound thus in Latin with me: Thursday, the twentieth day of May, when it had been proposed that it was necessary to apply particular care that the holy body, arm and heart of our holy Mother at Alba, and the body of our holy Father (they mean St. John of the Cross) at Segovia, be preserved without any diminution (however small it be), the chapter determined that no one of the Religious Order, of whatever state and condition he be, may concur in or permit that any part of the above-said Relics be taken away without the express mandate of the general chapter; and so that this statute may be the firmer, the chapter supplicated our Father General to take care to obtain as soon as possible from the Roman Pontiff a Brief by which the aforesaid thing should be prohibited, under precept and censure, to all living within or outside our Religious Order. To establish that the request of the Carmelite Fathers was satisfied by the Supreme Pontiff, I have one argument at hand: namely, that from the relation to be cited later of the visitation of the sepulchre made in the year 1750 it becomes known that then no flesh was cut off; since, as is said in the relation, there was in force an excommunication reserved to the Supreme Pontiff, and pronounced against those who should attempt it.
§ LXX. The visitation of the body of the holy Mother in the year 1750.
[The sources from which the integrity of the body, recognized in the year 1750, becomes known.] Before I treat of this visitation, it is expedient to indicate the sources from which I have drawn what I am about to say. Besides the public instrument, which was juridically drawn up at that time for a perpetual memorial of the proceedings, and which recounts at length whatever was done, I have in my hands copies of three letters, written by the nuns of Alba shortly after the visitation of the Relics. The first was written by Sister Clementina of St. Joseph, who at that time, as is established from the appendix of the letters, was a junior professed Carmelite of the convent of Alba, but previously a lady-in-waiting of the queen of the Spains. It is dated the 30th of October 1750, the day after the end of the solemnities, and sent to a certain religious, who, through Sister Joanna Maria, a nun of Segovia and formerly Sister Clementina's companion in the queen's retinue, had requested an explanation of the things done in the convent of Alba and a description of the state of the body. The second letter contains the letter of the prioress of Alba herself, Mother Alfonsa Maria of the Presentation, who had destined it for a certain convent of Carmelite nuns whose name is withheld and to which some brandea were to be sent at the same time. This letter I shall call the second letter. Further, these relations had been communicated to a nun of the company of Ursulines, living in France and skilled in Spanish; who, having turned these narrations into the French idiom, sent them to a convent of Carmelite nuns: whence they became known to many men in France; indeed I find both, a little later, printed in a French booklet named: Neuvaine en l'honneur de la glorieuse mère Sainte Therèse de Jésus, published again and enlarged in the year 1770, and dedicated to Louise Marie, daughter of Louis XV, king of the French, a novice among the Carmelite nuns of Saint-Denis. But doubts were raised in some: wherefore one of the apostolic superiors of the Carmelite nuns of France inquired of the prioress of Alba herself, Alfonsa Maria of the Presentation, what truth lay under certain letters of hers and of Sister Clementina which were being circulated; and he received an answer from the prioress herself on the 1st day of May 1751. And this letter I shall henceforth name the third. What I have just said has been taken partly from the letters themselves, partly from the appendix of these letters; and it has pleased me to note this, so that the authenticity of what is to be said may be established for everyone, to which the complete agreement of those letters with the public instrument praised above bears witness. This instrument, as has already been said, exists in the Spanish idiom in volume VII of the Annus Teresianus (page 25 and following); which volume was printed in the year 1758, namely in the eighth year after it had been drawn up, and therefore at a time when very many of the witnesses who had subscribed it were still living. I shall render it in Latin, and subjoin to it certain annotations, for the most part to be gathered from the letters described above.
[1417] The occasion of the opening of the tomb, In the name of the Lord. Amen. Be it known to all how in the year from the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ 1750, on the 2nd day of October, sacred to the Holy Guardian Angels, our Most Holy Father Benedict XIV being Supreme Pontiff, Don Ferdinand VI and Doña Maria Barbara of Portugal being sovereigns of Spain, the Most Excellent Lady Doña María Teresa Álvarez de Toledo etc. being Duchess of Alba, our Most Reverend Father Fr. Nicholas of Jesus Mary being General Superior of our sacred reformed Order, Fr. John of the Mother of God provincial superior of this province of St. Elijah, and Mother Alfonsa Maria of the Presentation prioress of the convent of the Incarnation of our Discalced nuns in this city of Alba, the occasion and cause being furnished by the resolution by which the said Catholic Majesties determined to come to Alba, to see and venerate the holy body of our Seraphic Mother St. Teresa of Jesus, on her feast-day, the 15th of the aforesaid month, the urn of white stone, which they call of Villamayor, was opened (a great mass composed of stones of the same kind having been removed from above it), in which urn was enclosed the chest containing the said holy body of our mystical Mistress. This whole mass was enclosed in the hollow of the wall of the high altar of the said convent of the Incarnation, between two great grilles, of which one is placed towards the church and the other towards the convent, and it is divided into two parts, of which one is opened with three keys. Of these the most excellent house of Alba kept and keeps one, the General Superior of the Order another, and the Mother Prioress of the said convent the third.
[1418] distinguished witnesses, From the said urn the chest was taken out with the assistance of the Most Excellent Lord Don Fernando de Silva Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Huéscar, first-born son of the said Most Excellent Lady Duchess of Alba, of the said General Superior of the Order, and of the aforesaid Mother Prioress: in the presence of Father Fr. Bartholomew of the Holy Spirit, first definitor general; Fr. Paulinus of St. Joseph, procurator general of the Order at the court of Madrid; Fr. Joseph of Jesus Mary, prior of the convent of our Holy Father John of the Cross of the same city; Fr. John of St. Paul, lay brother, conventual of Madrid; and of the whole community of the said nuns of the aforesaid
convent of the Annunciation; of Don Alfonso de Oviedo, governor of the castle and prefect of the territory of the most excellent dukes; and of four masons, who were summoned and served in the aforesaid work, and are called Roque Sotino, Pedro Rodríguez, José Rodríguez, all inhabitants of the same city of Alba, and Juan Antonio Barros, an inhabitant of San Lorenzo de la Guardia in Galicia; and in the presence of me, the undersigned secretary.
[1419] the exterior state of the sepulchre, The said chest is of wood, a little less than two ells long, a palm and a half high and a little more, and somewhat wider than two quarters. Outside it is covered with crimson silk velvet, set off with gilded ornaments, decorated with four two-headed dragons of gilded bronze, and four plates likewise of gilded bronze and of round shape; of which two are on the lid of the chest: one at the side towards the pillow, on which are engraved and painted the following words: "The Ark of the Lord, in which was the manna and the rod that had blossomed, and the tables of the testimony. Heb. IX," and then these five-line stanzas: "En esta arca de la Ley" In this ark of the Law (and the rest as at num. 1051 of this Commentary) …; the other plate is fixed to the side towards the feet, where likewise are inscribed these words: "Her lamp shall not be put out in the night. Prov. XXXI," and then these five-line stanzas: "Aqui yace recogida" Here lies gathered in (and the rest as at the number cited)… On the front of the chest, where the locks are fitted, there are two other gilded plates of like form, which contain the same texts and the same five-line stanzas, with this difference, that the texts and stanzas which are on the lid at the head are placed on the front of the chest at the feet; and the texts and stanzas which are on the lid at the feet are placed on the front of the chest at the head. The whole is encircled, if you except the covering or lid, by two gilded mouldings of concave form, which are fitted for opening and closing the chest. On the lid there are three bars, likewise gilded and also of concave form, and almost two palms long; and the one which is in the middle ends in a plate which has the form of a shield with an ornament round it, and in its field the capital letter F appears engraved. Each of the four corners is adorned with two gilded bronze fittings; and at the bottom of each corner there is a gilded little ball by way of support. Underneath the chest is made firm with six gilded iron hinges, which at the same time serve as ornament; and over the two which are at the pillow and at the feet there is placed a cross of the same gilded material. It was closed with nine gilded iron hinges and likewise a lock of the same gilded material: and since the key was not found, nor was it known where it was, the lock was removed; and the chest, opened in the presence of all the aforesaid, was found lined inside with a very beautiful crimson silk damask, and as fine as if it had been just cut from a new web: which was likewise noted of the silk velvet with which it was covered on the outside.
[1420] and the condition of the body, to which a diploma was added, are set forth. The holy body was found whole and incorrupt, lacking the right foot, which they venerate at Rome in our convent of Santa Maria della Scala, the left hand, which is at Lisbon, the left arm and the heart, which are venerated separately in two precious reliquaries of the same convent of the Incarnation, a piece of the right upper jaw, which is in our Roman college of San Pancrazio, the left eye, some ribs, some pieces of flesh and bones which have been taken from it and distributed through the Christian world. The rest of the body is preserved with skin, flesh and bones. The head is divided from the trunk, since the greater part of the neck has been taken away; but it is preserved whole with skin and flesh, and indeed in the right eye the sight or pupil and the eyelids are distinguished. What is most wonderful of all, the right arm is as flexible as if it were living. The hand seems to have been torn away piece by piece; and only the middle bone, which is very white and very beautiful, has been left with certain sinews. Likewise in the left foot the toes and nails are seen distinct. The holy body was covered with fine Holland linen, and over that with a fine red silk cloth. At the side of the body in the same chest there was found a square leaden box, two fingers high and wide, and half a palm long, and in it a parchment, on which is found a diploma written in most beautiful letters, by which, through all its proper marks, Fr. Diego of St. Joseph, definitor general and secretary, attested the identity of the body of our holy Mother which lay placed in the same chest, and which is signed by the Rev. Father General Fr. Joseph of Jesus Mary, by Don Antonio de Toledo and by Fr. John of the Holy Angel; and which is of the following tenor: "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Most Holy Father Paul V being Roman Pontiff, etc." (as it was recited above)…
[1421] The body is exhibited for veneration; The present opening of the sepulchre was made one hundred and twenty-eight years and six months after the solemn canonization of our aforesaid holy Mother Teresa, which took place in the year 1622, on the 12th day of March, Gregory XV being Supreme Pontiff, as is established from the Bull which the same Pontiff dispatched at Rome on the said day, month and year, and which begins: "Omnipotens Sermo." All present venerated and honoured the holy body with great piety and jubilation; and having summoned a smith, we ordered him to fit a lock: and the chest having been locked with it, and its key left with the said Most Excellent Duke, we all went out of the treasury, so that no one could approach the said chest; and meanwhile the same smith was ordered to make a key for the above-said gilded lock, and two very strong padlocks, by which the chest was made altogether safe: and the key of the said lock was left with the Most Excellent Lord Duke; and the key of the padlock which is at the pillow with our Rev. Father General; and the key of the padlock which is at the feet with the Mother Prioress. The said chest, thus locked, remained exposed in the same hollow of the wall of the high altar, between the two grilles above-said, on the feast-day of the Saint and through her whole octave. But since the coming of the sovereigns came to nothing, because Our Lady the queen, having already undertaken the journey, fell ill at the Escorial, it was determined that the chest, the said octave being over, should be enclosed again in the said sepulchral urn, the same stones which had been removed being placed above it again, but in such a way that the heavier stone, on which is carved the versicle of Isaiah: "And his sepulchre shall be glorious," should be sawn and divided into three fragments; so that, if another occasion should arise in which it should be necessary to uncover the body of the Saint, this might be done with less difficulty and labour.
[1422] and is again enclosed in the bier, witnesses being present, For which purpose, since it was most fitting, so that the identity of the sacred body of our Seraphic Mistress might be the more confirmed, that all those who had been present at its extraction and uncovering should assist at the enclosing of the body in the said sepulchral urn, and since among all of them of most special dignity and authority was the said Most Excellent Lord Duke of Huéscar, Don Fernando de Silva Álvarez de Toledo, who had then been summoned by our Lord the king to the palace of the Escorial, he, so that his future absence might be supplied, on the 18th day of the said month of October entered the enclosure of the said convent of the Annunciation, with the assistance of our aforesaid Rev. Father General Fr. Nicholas of Jesus Mary, and of me, as well as of Bernardo González de Luis, public scribe of this city of Alba, and of several witnesses whom the Most Excellent Duke had gathered; and in the presence of all, and likewise of the Mother Prioress and her whole community, the chest was opened: and the holy body being uncovered, the Most Excellent Duke declared on oath, his hand placed on the royal Fleece, that this body which was seen there was the same as that which, with the same chest, on the above-said second day of the current month and year, had been taken out of the said urn in his presence; and since he was summoned by our Lord the king and could not assist at the act in which the said chest and body were to be restored to their urn, he gave, as he did in fact give, to Don Antonio de Oviedo, father of Don Alfonso de Oviedo mentioned above, and who was likewise present, power with all amplitude of assisting in his name at the said act in which the chest and the holy body were to be restored to their urn, of signing the diploma which was to be stipulated, and of doing all things which the Most Excellent Duke would do if he were present: wherefore he handed to him in person the key of the said chest, which the Most Excellent Duke himself had; and likewise the said Don Antonio de Oviedo received it in the presence of all the aforesaid, and immediately the said chest was locked with three keys. All these things are established from the instrument drawn up by the said scribe and the witnesses indicated in the same instrument, on the said 18th day of the current month; as is evident from the said instrument, which will be enclosed inside the chest together with this one.
[1423] and it is put back in its former place, This presupposed, when everything was now prepared for the said enclosing of the holy body, there entered, on the 29th day of the above-said month and year, at the second hour of the afternoon, the enclosure of the said convent of the Annunciation, the Most Reverend Fr. Nicholas of Jesus Mary and all the religious and seculars above-said who had been present (as was recorded above) at the extraction and uncovering of the holy body, except the Most Excellent Lord Duke of Huéscar, in whose place and name the above-said Don Antonio de Oviedo entered. They went up together into the upper treasury, where the sepulchral urn is, in the hollow of the wall of the high altar, and the chest was likewise locked with its lock and two padlocks; and it being opened in the presence of all and of the Mother Prioress and the community of the same convent, it was recognized to be the same chest and in it the same body of St. Teresa of Jesus, which on the aforesaid 2nd day of the current month and year had been taken out of the said sepulchral urn: and all affirming that it was the same said chest, with the sole addition of two padlocks (which, made of iron and gilded, had been fitted so that there might be greater security), and that the same body was contained in it, that is, the body of St. Teresa of Jesus, it was, for greater decency (since the shroud of Holland cloth and the finer coloured silk cloth with which it had been covered had been removed, to be distributed as Relics), covered with a triple shroud of Holland linen, and over it was placed another shroud of Holland linen, woven with various figures, and then a covering of cloth with gold
flowers, made and sewn to a finer red silk cloth dotted with gold ornaments.
[1424] well adorned and locked: The head of the Saint remained covered with a wimple made of Holland cloth, and over it two other veils of this kind were added, one with which the Discalced nuns are commonly covered, the other with which they approach Holy Communion, both of finer black silk cloth, interwoven with silver; and under the said head was laid a pillow of Holland cloth inscribed with various figures, and the chest was locked before all with three keys: that which belongs to the padlock fitted towards the head being left with our Rev. Father General; that which pertains to the middle lock being handed to Don Antonio de Oviedo, in place of the Most Excellent Lord Duke; and the third, belonging to the padlock towards the feet, being given to the said Mother Prioress: and moreover seven gilded iron hinges, by which the said chest was to be shut, were fastened with nails; and at once, in the presence of all the aforesaid (except Fr. John of St. Paul, who, since he was sick, could not assist), it was enclosed in the said sepulchral urn, all the stones indicated above being placed upon it.
[1425] all of which several witnesses confirm. And so that a perpetual memorial of all these things may remain for future times, I, Fr. Francis of St. Anthony, secretary of our Rev. Father General Fr. Nicholas of Jesus Mary, who was present at the aforesaid act together with the witnesses mentioned above, who have set their signatures here, by the special order and express mandate which I received from the Most Reverend Father General, who has added authenticity to these letters by his subscription, have written them with my hand, and signed them with my name, and sealed them with the seal of office of our said Rev. Father General, at Alba de Tormes, in this province of our Holy Father Elijah in the kingdom of Old Castile, on the day, month and year aforesaid: on which I give faith and true testimony of all the things expressed in these letters. Fr. Nicholas of Jesus Mary, General Superior. Fr. Bartholomew of the Holy Spirit, first definitor. Fr. Paulinus of St. Joseph, procurator general. Fr. Joseph of Jesus Mary, prior. Don Alfonso de Oviedo, governor of the castle. In place of the Most Excellent Lord Duke, I, Antonio de Oviedo, subscribe. Alfonsa Maria of the Presentation, prioress. Catherine of the Most Holy Trinity, subprioress. Maria Teresa of the Most Holy Sacrament. Teresa of St. Joseph. Josefa Bernarda of the Annunciation. Agnes Francisca of St. Joseph. Manuela of Jesus. Narcisa of the Holy Spirit. Jerónima of St. Anne. Francisca of St. Joachim. Antonia of the Most Holy Trinity. Teresa Joaquina of the Assumption. Rosa of the Mother of God. Antonia of Christ. Maria Clementina of St. Joseph. Anastasia of St. Teresa. Teresa Maria of St. Joseph. Jerónima of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Josefa of St. Teresa. Fr. Francis of St. Anthony, secretary.
[1426] Some other circumstances Since nothing commands belief more than the setting forth of the smallest circumstances, it will not be beside the point to excerpt, as I said beforehand I would do, certain things from the letters praised above. The Duke of Alba, sent by the king, on the day after his arrival, went to the sepulchre with the General of the Order and a definitor and other Discalced Carmelites and grandees of Spain; but, since many obstacles seemed to be present, the opening of the sepulchre was put off to the following day. On which day, when the same duke and the others had come again to the place of burial, the architect who accompanied them pronounced that the wall must be pulled down; and the work was completed within an hour and a half, namely from half past two to four in the afternoon. These things from the first and third letters; of which the former records that six workmen were employed, while nevertheless in the authentic instrument just alleged only four are named: but the opposition between these two documents is removed if four masons and two helpers are said to have worked. Further, the things which were recorded in the aforesaid instrument concerning the state of the body of the holy Mother are likewise celebrated in those three letters. In each there is noted a flexibility of the flesh no less than if the body were living: likewise the most sweet odour is praised, and its other attendant circumstances already often mentioned. The first and third letters proclaim the clearness in the right eye. The first letter relates that the head, separated from the trunk, is clothed with all its flesh, and complains that the fingers of the right hand have been cut off; and notes that the breast is so white and so living, and so wholly firm, that it cannot be looked upon without an immense feeling of devotion. In the same letter the separation of the head is ascribed to the shortness of the coffin; in which the body lay somewhat folded and bent, and the left foot, which adheres to the body, was extended not straight but obliquely into the corner of the chest: nevertheless the cause of this separation alleged in the authentic instrument is more probable, namely that the greater part of the neck had formerly been taken away. So that henceforth the head might not appear separated from the body, the wimple in which it was wrapped, and which Clementina of St. Joseph testifies was prepared by herself, was sewn to the pillow. Nothing, however, was cut from the sacred body on this occasion; since an excommunication had been pronounced against those who should dare it, as the second and third letters affirm. But it is gathered from the three letters that the linens which in the reliquary had been soaked with the most sweet oil flowing from the limbs were torn up, and partly sent to the king, partly given to the Duke of Alba and the others present. Brandea also were applied to the body, and indeed inserted by the nuns into the wound of the breast (through which, namely, the heart had been removed); and they were afterwards scattered through Spain.
[1427] of this visitation are related From the preamble which is at the front of the aforesaid collection of letters, and from the third of these letters, it is gathered that the queen of Spain on the first day of her journey was seized by a tertian fever: wherefore it was determined that the Discalced Carmelites who had long since betaken themselves to Alba should remain there, until, the queen's sickness ceasing, she could complete the journey with the king. And it is likely that this is the cause on account of which almost an entire month passed before the body was laid again in its accustomed place. Meanwhile, as is narrated in the first letter, some, perhaps impatient that the sacred pledge itself was not exposed to the eyes of the people, spread it among the common folk that the body was not kept at Alba, but that pure and simple stones were venerated there, and other things of this sort. These rumours seemed to need to be checked by the testimony of the Duke of Alba: and accordingly the duke, before he left Alba, made in the solemn manner of the knights of the Golden Fleece the oath of which mention is made in the instrument. The first letter further mentions that the duke was summoned by the king to come and declare in person whatever things he had seen done and performed concerning the body of St. Teresa; and that the same, before his departure, gave to the sanctuary of the monastery of Alba a covering and veils interwoven with gold and fringed with broad gold borders, for the adornment of Teresa's tomb. Other precious ornaments of this tomb are likewise described at length there, and the names of the nuns who laboured in making them are also recorded.
§ LXXI. The last examination of the body in the year 1760.
When a new sepulchral urn had been given by the king, When the Duke of Alba had set forth to king Ferdinand VI and his consort in what state the sacred body of St. Teresa was, in what way it was kept, and in what kind of chest it was enclosed, namely a wooden one, the pious sovereigns of Spain determined to grant a worthier reliquary of their own. The making of the whole work was entrusted to the said duke; under whose care a new sepulchre was carved from select stones, a most precious urn was fashioned of pure silver, the high altar was gilded anew, and two other lesser ones were built to be substituted for the former ones. And so that the nuns might henceforth see the sepulchre of their holy Mother not without solace to their hearts, a new choir was built at the lower part of the church: moreover, the pavement of the treasury, and the arch by which the place destined for keeping the sacred body is covered, were adorned with excellent jaspers; and lastly a new splendour was added to the whole church. But while these things were being carried out, Ferdinand VI and his wife died. But when Ferdinand's brother and successor Charles III had come from Naples to Madrid, he approved the whole matter, and appointed that the dedication of the urn be celebrated on the 15th day of October 1760, sacred to St. Teresa. Therefore before that day there went to Alba the bishop of Salamanca with his coadjutor and some clerics of his household, and the General of the Discalced Carmelites with his definitory and other Fathers of his Order, among whom was the author of the Annus Teresianus himself: all of whom, on the evening of the 13th day, having entered the enclosure of the nuns, went to the cell in which St. Teresa had died, and in which her sacred body had been deposited while work was being done on renewing the structure of the sepulchre; and having reverently translated it into the lower treasury, they lawfully recognized it: as will be evident from the authentic instrument, which I shall now render in Latin from the Annus Teresianus, and from which at the same time it will be possible to see what was done on the next following day.
[1429] the sacred body in the year 1760, before many witnesses, In the name of God Almighty. Be it known and manifest to all who shall see these presents that in the year from the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ 1760, on the 13th day of October, our Most Holy Father Clement XIII of happy memory governing the Church, and the Most August Monarch Don Charles III reigning in these kingdoms of Spain, the Illustrious Don José Zorrilla de San Martín being bishop of the city of Salamanca, and his coadjutor the Illustrious Don Fr. Francisco de San Andrés, bishop of Zela, the Most Excellent Lord Don Fernando de Silva Álvarez de Toledo being Duke of Alba, his next successor and first-born Don Francisco de Paula Duke of Huéscar, the Rev. Fr. Paul of the Conception being General Superior of the Sacred Reform of the Discalced Carmelites, the Rev. Fr. Joseph of St. Francis governing the province of the Holy Prophet Elijah in Old Castile, the Rev. Mother Teresa of the Most Holy Sacrament holding the priorate in the convent of Discalced Carmelite nuns of this city of Alba de Tormes, in this said city of Alba, on the said day, month and year, for a most special reason, namely that there had been transported thither a silver urn, richly adorned with reliefs likewise of silver, having two ells of length, a breadth suitable to the sepulchral urn, and almost three quarters of height, lined wholly inside with crimson silk velvet, which monument the most august and Catholic sovereigns Don Ferdinand VI and Doña Maria Barbara of Portugal (may they enjoy holy glory), predecessors of our aforesaid illustrious monarch reigning today, had caused to be made, while they lived, to increase the cult and veneration of the Seraphic Mother St. Teresa of Jesus, so that the wish of placing the glorious body of the said Seraphic holy Mother in it, according to the desire of the said royal donors, might have effect, the said Illustrious Lords and the Rev. Fathers General and Provincial the enclosure
of the said convent entered, attended by the whole holy definitory, which is made up of the Rev. Fathers Fr. Augustine of the Conception, Fr. Francis of the Incarnation, Fr. Joseph of the Incarnation, Fr. John of St. Gregory, Fr. Benedict of St. Bernard and Fr. Emmanuel of St. John the Evangelist, there assisting also the Rev. Fr. Ferdinand of St. Joseph, procurator general at Madrid, and Fr. Anthony of St. Joachim, writer of the Annus Teresianus, and many other Fathers both of this province and of the province of New Castile, and there likewise accompanying them the said Mother prioress, Mothers Josefa Bernarda of the Annunciation, subprioress, Teresa of St. Joseph and Manuela of Jesus, key-keepers of the said convent, and the remaining nuns of whom this convent consists.
[1430] it was recognized and shown to the people, When they had recognized that the urn in which the said holy body was found appeared to be the same as that designated in the instrument, and that the same marks were on it, and that it had been placed in the chapel in which it had been put as a deposit, which chapel is the very place which had been the dwelling of the holy Mother while she lived, the said chest, which served in place of an urn, was carried in pious procession by six religious whom the Rev. Father General deputed for this purpose, amid the lit tapers of all those assisting, to the lower treasury of the said convent: where there appeared before those already named Don Alfonso de Oviedo, procurator of the Most Excellent Lord Duke of Alba, and Don Jacques Marquet, architect of His royal Majesty, to open the said chest, in which was found the body of the Seraphic Mother St. Teresa of Jesus; and all those assisting remaining with lit lights, they proceeded with all piety and affection to the said opening: for making which the said Rev. Father General furnished his key, which answers to the gilded iron padlock which is on the upper part of the said chest; the said Don Alfonso de Oviedo, in the name of the said Most Excellent Lord Duke, produced the key which answers to the iron lock which is in the middle; and the said Mother Prioress the key which answers to the gilded iron padlock existing at the lower part, of the feet. The said sepulchral chest being thus opened, the holy body of the holy Mother Teresa of Jesus was recognized to be in the same manner and state as it was seen to have in the year 1750, as is established in detail from the testimony, and to be in the same position, and with the same veils, shrouds and coverings which are expressed in it: the enumeration of which is omitted here, because there all things are declared one by one. And in this way the said holy body, recognized by all those assisting, was held in the honour, worship and veneration which is fitting; and various relics, rosaries, ribbons and cloths were applied to it by the hands of several religious. These things done, the chest was closed again until today, the fourteenth of this said month and year: on which day, for the solace both of this town and of many of the neighbouring people, it was resolved to place the holy body in the lower choir, whose grilles face the church of the said convent; whither came the persons mentioned, with whom are the keys of the said urn. It was opened, and the body was left exposed to view; and to those who looked from the sacred building through the said grilles the head was visible, but not so the rest of the body, which was covered, as was said before.
[1431] and then with solemn rite In this state it remained for the space of seven hours; and then, when it was about the fourth hour of the afternoon, there being present the witnesses indicated at the beginning of this instrument, as well as the Most Eminent Lord Don Francisco de Solís, archbishop of Seville, Cardinal Priest of the H. R. C., the said holy body of St. Teresa was translated by six nuns whom the Rev. Father General and the Mother Prioress already named had deputed, with the same shrouds and the rest of its arrangement, and placed in the said new silver urn; where it was held in honour and veneration by those assisting: who all, accompanying this urn in pious procession and bearing lit tapers, translated it to the treasury of the said convent, and placed it on the high altar, and set the said silver urn within another excellently carved of the marble which is called of San Pablo, decorated with gilded bronze ornaments, and inserted into a most magnificent arch of the same marble, having on its surface two Angels of the same material. And so that a perpetual memorial of all these things may remain for posterity, I, the licentiate Don Manuel Francisco Gutiérrez, notary and secretary of the curia of the Illustrious Lord Bishop of Salamanca and of his diocese, in which the city of Alba is comprised, who was present at the aforesaid acts, and I, Fr. Francis of the Presentation, secretary general of the said Sacred Order, who was likewise present, together with the witnesses mentioned above, who have set their signatures here, confirm and sign, and corroborate with the respective seals of our secretariats, and subscribe, and give faith and true testimony. Likewise I, Fr. Anthony of the Incarnation, secretary general and apostolic notary, who was likewise present at the things related, equally attest the things which are contained in this act, and that of the four keys pertaining to the said new silver urn, two remained with the Rev. Father General and the Rev. Mother Prioress of this said convent, and the said Don Alfonso de Oviedo received two others, in place of the Most Excellent Lord Duke. I give faith, Fr. Francisco Cardinal de Solís. José, bishop of Salamanca. Fr. Francisco, bishop of Zela. Fr. Paul of the Conception, General. Fr. Augustine of the Conception, first definitor. Fr. Francis of the Incarnation, second definitor. Fr. Joseph of the Incarnation, third definitor. Fr. John of St. Gregory, fourth definitor. Fr. Benedict of St. Bernard, fifth definitor. Fr. Emmanuel of St. John the Evangelist, sixth definitor. Fr. Joseph of St. Francis, provincial. Fr. Ferdinand of St. Joseph, procurator general. Fr. Francis of the Presentation, secretary. Brother Anthony of St. Joachim, writer of his Order. Maria Teresa of the Most Holy Sacrament, prioress. Josefa of the Annunciation, subprioress and key-keeper. Manuela of Jesus, key-keeper. Teresa of St. Joseph, key-keeper. The licentiate Don Manuel Francisco Gutiérrez Varona, secretary. In testimony of the truth, Fr. Anthony of the Incarnation, apostolic notary and secretary general.
[1432] put back in its place; This instrument is found in volume X of the Annus Teresianus (page 315 and following), which volume came out printed at the Madrid presses in the sixth year after this most recent uncovering of the body of St. Teresa. Moreover Fr. Anthony of St. Joachim, author of this most vast work, added to the same instrument an accurate narration of what he himself had seen and done. Of these I have already touched on some at the beginning of this paragraph: now receive the rest. So that the dedication could be celebrated on the 15th day of October, the body had to be placed in the new urn on the 14th. Cardinal de Solís had announced that he would come to Alba that morning; but since he had been waited for in vain, it seemed best to close the old chest again until his arrival. The Cardinal came at last at the third hour of the afternoon, and entered the enclosure with the men who are mentioned in the diploma. The holy body, then, carried from the lower choir to the upper treasury, was clothed in precious nun's garments, and around it was placed a collar almost like that which the knights of the Golden Fleece wear, with as many hearts added as there were Carmelite nuns numbered in the convent of St. Anne at Madrid, who had dedicated these pious gifts to the holy Mother together with a precious palm composed by them. The virginal corpse was placed in the new urn, lying on a mattress made of crimson smooth and light silk cloth, and fringed with gold borders, and on a very beautiful pillow of light purple silk cloth, given by the same Discalced nuns of Madrid, the mark of each one of whom had been worked into it. There was also enclosed in the urn the same diploma which recounted the past visitations of the Relics, with mention added on its back page of the visitation which was then made.
[1433] and the dedication of the urn was celebrated with a festal triduum. The solemnities performed on the following days in honour of St. Teresa the praised Fr. Anthony of St. Joachim recounts thus: When the virginal body of the holy Mother had been placed in the prepared place, as is declared in the diploma, the 15th day of October dawned, the first of the triduum assigned for the dedication. The bishop of Salamanca indeed desired to celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass; but since he was prevented by weakened health, he substituted for himself Don Julián Domínguez, lectoral canon of the holy church of Salamanca, a graduate and professor of that university, to whom Don Juan Manuel Zorrilla de San Martín, canon of the said holy church, and Don Pedro de Rubalcaba, a prebendary of the same, ministered. The panegyric oration was delivered by Don Fr. Francisco de San Andrés, bishop of Zela; who also solemnly offered the Sacrifice on the two following days. On the second day the Rev. Father Master Antonio Gutiérrez of the Calced Order of Holy Mary of Mercy preached, a doctor of theology and professor of arts in the said university; and on the third day Fr. John of St. Joseph, a Discalced Carmelite and prior of the convent of Duruelo, fulfilled this office. The concourse of men was as great as perhaps was ever seen in Old Castile. There were present at the sacred solemnities through the whole triduum the Lord Bishop of Salamanca, our general definitory, the ecclesiastical chapter, the magistrate with the municipal council, and an almost immense multitude of men, among whom very many leading persons, gathered both from the city of Salamanca and from the neighbourhood. The musicians of the cathedral church of Salamanca were likewise present. In a word, nothing was lacking of the things which the whole region could furnish to increase the solemnity of this dedication. But the former urn or chest, which in the year 1588 the Most Excellent Lady Doña María de Toledo y Enríquez, Duchess of Alba, bestowed of her own in honour of the holy Mother, however much it had been despoiled of the sacred Relics, nevertheless remained worthy of singular veneration, since in it the most holy corpse of the Seraphic Mistress had rested one hundred and seventy-two years (This urn could indeed have been given in the year 1588; but we have seen above in its place that the holy body was placed in it only in the year 1594). Which reason, of truly inestimable moment, roused in very many, and especially in several convents of our Order, ardent eagerness to obtain it and to honour it with due worship. But when our General and his definitory had weighed that such a treasure was most worthy of royal attention and that the new tomb had been made at royal expense, the Duke of Alba was supplicated to offer it to the king. The most excellent duke undertook the commission; and the most august king himself with a religious mind gratefully accepted the gift, professing himself a most loving son of this heavenly Lady. And so that it might be established how highly he valued this tomb, he ordered it to be placed in his oratory; where even now, while these things are being written (namely in the year 1766), it is kept with reverence.
[1434] The sepulchre of St. Teresa and the Carmelite church of Alba are shown. Finally, behold, you have here, added at the side, a plate which shows the sepulchre of St. Teresa, as it exists today, which we lately had drawn at Alba. It consists of black marble with gilded ornaments. The Angels are carved of white marble, with distinguished chasing. The grilles are of silver, extending to no small length. Further, Don Antonio Ponz, whom in his Journey through Spain it especially delights to record the painted or sculpted monuments existing in the places which he describes, after he had noted that the town of Alba contains three hundred houses and seven monasteries, namely four of men and three of women, and several parishes, treats only of the church of the Discalced Carmelite nuns. This, as he says, is built according to the rules of architecture; and the altars, both the middle one and the side ones, are elegant enough. Besides other paintings, there are two on either side of the church, painted by Don José Filipart, and sent as a gift by Ferdinand VI, when he had proposed to visit the sepulchre of the Saint with his wife. One of them represents St. Ferdinand, the other St. Francis of Paola. On the Gospel side is shown the place where formerly the remains of the Saint were deposited, which today are in the middle of the high altar. Two reliquaries, of which one contains her right arm, the other her heart, are kept separately. Moreover there are three sepulchral monuments in that church. One of these covers the ashes of the founders of the monastery, Francisco Velázquez and Teresa Laiz, who lie carved on the top of the tomb; as in the second does Simón Galarza, who is read there to have been benefactor and patron of the convent. At the lower end of the church is the third, and it represents in sculpture Don Juan de Ovalle and his wife Juana de Ahumada, St. Teresa's sister, with a little son at their feet. As regards the outer face of the church, which shows the Annunciation below and God the eternal Father above, although it has ornaments enough, it is little exact according to the prescriptions of art. So far the praised author (vol. XII, letter 10).
[1435] The fine solicitude of the Carmelite nuns of Tournai for the body of St. Teresa. It is not beside the point to record here in writing the recent solicitude of the Carmelite nuns of Tournai to rescue the remains of their holy Mother from the danger of injury and destruction. For when it had become widely reported in Belgium that it had been decreed by those who held power in Spain that the monasteries should be suppressed, seized with just anxiety about the future lot both of their sisters and of the body of their holy Mother, while they could not succour the former, they nevertheless strove to put the latter in safety and to obtain it for Belgium for a time, as a sacred deposit, until better times should return. Nor is there indeed reason for us to wonder at that fear in pious persons of losing such pledges in time of war and the overthrow of religious things. For, not to go outside neighbouring places, according to Nicolas de Guise (in the book entitled Mons, Metropolis of Hainaut, chap. XVI), when in the years 880 and 881 the Northmen were invading, the people of Tournai carried the body of St. Eleutherius to Noyon, those of Arras the Relics of St. Vedast to Beauvais, the monks of Elnone the body of St. Amand to Paris, while that of St. Amatus was carried to Soissons, and the sacred pledges of Walaricus and Richarius to the castle of Saint-Omer, the body of St. Remigius to Épernay, and the bodies of SS. Ghislain, Vincent and Landelin to Castrilocus: and lastly, almost in our own age, for a like reason, by the Belgian Carmelite nuns themselves, when in the year 1783 ruin threatened their Order, the bodies of St. Albert and of the Venerable Anne of Jesus and Anne of St. Bartholomew were carried into France. Therefore, the most noble Mr. Olislagers de Meersenhoven interceding, they supplicated the royal minister, Count de Theux, to take care that this matter should be attempted with the Carmelite Order or the Spanish clergy by the best way he could. When Mr. de Theux had done this, on the 26th of March 1840 he was informed that the convent of the Carmelite nuns of Alba was still standing up to that day, and that there was just hope that it would continue also in the future, and that the body of St. Teresa would be safely guarded; since not only the town of Alba and the Order of Carmel, but the whole Spanish nation, as widely as it extends, is most loving of its native Saint Teresa and most tenacious of her sacred remains. Meanwhile, as the letters of reply which came from Spain said, the much-praised solicitude of the nuns of Tournai and the service rendered by the Belgian nobles to their pious zeal moved the Spanish clergy not a little, and the great esteem of the Belgian nation among them was further increased by this endeavour of our countrymen.
§ LXXII. On the preservation, cult and miracles of the heart of St. Teresa, and on the Office of its transverberation.
The wound of the heart Since nothing now seems to remain which should be recorded about the lot and state of the body, I proceed to describe the other Relics of the holy Mother. Let our discourse, then, now be of her heart. Besides what was said in this Commentary (num. 223 and following) from the very testimony of the holy Mother, narrating that she had seen an Angel who pierced her heart with a fiery dart, Fr. Frederick (book 1, chap. XVII) has more concerning that portentous charism and concerning the present state of that sacred pledge, which is kept among the Carmelite nuns of Alba and is exposed every year for public veneration, and is carried around with great piety and pomp, together with the Saint's arm, through the streets of the town, elegantly and sumptuously adorned. The case in which it is enclosed, which I very lately had drawn by Don Robustiano Boada in the monastery of Alba itself and engraved on copper in Belgium, you see inserted here. Fr. Frederick presents several documents which assert and explain the prodigies continuing in the heart of St. Teresa up to his own time. These I too shall relate from him, adding to them only a few other things concerning especially the present condition of these holy Relics. For I prefer to summon Fr. Frederick alone continuously as witness on this matter, inasmuch as he treats this subject rightly, rather than laboriously to stitch together patchworks of various writers. And I do this the more gladly in this way because, relying by this means on the authority of this writer, which deserves regard, I have him as an appropriate surety with me and from him for each of the facts narrated. For if he records stupendous prodigies wrought in these sacred Relics, he fortifies them with the authority of grave witnesses.
[1437] several testify, Here, then, are his words: Fr. Joseph of the Holy Spirit, who in the seventeenth century put to press the Course of mystical theology and who had considerately looked upon the heart of his holy Mother, testifies (vol. IV, disp. XXIV, n. 41) that it was seen to have been struck and pierced through, and that the lips of its fissure appear burnt. "I was astonished when I venerated in that most sacred heart the lips of the wound, up to the present day not only (that is, not merely) open, but also half burnt. Nor are you to understand that that dart only wounded the most sacred heart, but hold firmly that it really pierced it through; for on both parts of it a cleft with half-burnt lips is seen." Somewhat otherwise speaks of that wound José López Ezquerra, a Cantabrian priest, a writer as learned as he was pious. He, in his work Lucerna mystica (tract. V, chap. XXVI, num. 280), speaks thus: Col. 429E "The Seraph pierced Teresa's heart through with repeated strokes of a flaming point; which vision indeed was true and real, as also was the wound, as is seen with the eyes in her heart, honourably laid up at Alba; in which the lips of the wound are seen half burnt by the fiery dart of the Seraph: where not only was the inward wounding of the heart miraculous, the chest being unharmed and whole, but also that, the heart being pierced through with that deep wound, natural life could be preserved."
[1438] and before the rest the process of the year 1726; More famous and authentic proofs of that prodigy were collected at Rome, and published there in the year 1726. Hear on what occasion this was done, from Benedict XIV (On Beatification and Canonization, book IV, part II, chap. VIII, num. 3): Among the other charisms by which God deigned to make manifest the sanctity of St. Teresa, that is most celebrated, that her heart so burned with so great a fire of divine love that she saw an Angel piercing her heart through with a fiery dart; as is read in the Bull of canonization, § VI, and in the proper lessons of the second nocturn which are recited in the Office of the said Saint in the universal Church on the 15th day of October. While I was discharging the office of promoter of the faith, the Discalced Carmelite Fathers of both families, namely of the Spains and of Italy, supplicated the Sacred Congregation for the faculty of reciting every year on the 27th day of August, under the rite of a double of the second class, the Office of the transverberation of the heart of St. Teresa, proper lessons having been presented. I objected, however, while admitting the truth of the charism, that since the petition rested on the actual preservation of the heart in the church of the nuns of the Most Holy Incarnation at Alba, in which a scar was said to appear, it was necessary to show that the heart of St. Teresa, which was exposed for public veneration in the Spains, still retained a scar formed by the thrusting in of the dart; and I adduced many examples of charisms of Saints, which were certainly true, but in whose memory nevertheless no particular Office was recited. But the postulators, having gathered judicial proofs, showed the impression of the wound still existing and visible in the heart, and adduced examples of charisms of other Saints which were honoured with a particular Office in some churches, although mention of them was had in the lessons of the second Nocturn which were recited on the feast-day of the said Saints. And so on the 25th day of May 1726, Supreme Pontiff Benedict XIII approving, the grant of a proper Office of the transverberation of the heart of St. Teresa, with proper lessons, was made to the Order of Discalced Carmelites of both families.
[1439] from which the excerpted testimony of a physician is alleged. To this passage of Benedict XIV Fr. Frederick (in the place cited) adds a certain explanation, drawn from the juridical processes made at that time in Spain. Namely, when, according to the request of the promoter of the faith, the S. Congregation required a demonstration of the actual preservation of Teresa's heart, and of the scar appearing in it, on the 25th of January 1726, as Fr. Frederick says, Francisco Antonio Espinosa, vicar general of Salamanca, visited the sacred heart at Alba in juridical form. After diligent and minute observations which he made there with two physicians, a surgeon, and men who were at that time more advanced in age, there was no one who did not recognize the prodigies of incorruption and of a sensible wound, or who refused to testify to them under the sacrament of an oath. From several I select the testimony of the surgeon Manuel Sánchez. He then affirmed that there is seen in this heart an opening or transverse cleft in the anterior and upper part of the said heart, the width of which fissure is moderate and its surface most shining; and that it is established that the inmost part and cavity of the said heart were penetrated; and that it is evident from the form of this opening that it was made with the greatest artifice and with a most fine instrument, strong and not small, and that only around the same opening some
signs of fire or burning were noticed. Although, therefore, direct and authentic documents do not exist concerning the extraction itself of the heart, which seems to have been done, as it were by theft, by some nuns, yet the narration itself of the holy Mother, the continuous belief of the people, the authority of several writers, and above all the special feast of the transverberation instituted after a juridical inquiry, seem sufficiently to prove that this was real and physical: as I already forewarned before (num. 227).
[1440] it is investigated when the heart was cut out The reader will further wish to know what were the fortunes of that sacred pledge, and what its power, or what miracles were wrought through it or about it. As regards the cutting out of the heart, Mr. Boucher (vol. II, page 459) judges that this is to be referred to the year 1594, in which the bier was uncovered in the presence of the Ven. Anne of Jesus. But he brings forward no other foundation for his opinion than that Don Francisco Ramírez, a physician of Alba, examining the body three years before, namely in the year 1591, before the bishop of Salamanca, said that the inner parts, which are most easily corrupted, had never been extracted from the said body (see the Acts of the canonization, num. 1120 of this Commentary). But Ramírez could rightly affirm that the intestines had remained in the body, even if the heart had been extracted from it. Therefore Mr. Boucher seems to have been deceived by this weak argument: so that either the opinion is to be embraced of Fr. Anthony of St. Joseph, who, keeping silent on what foundation he relies, says that the heart of the holy Mother was cut out in the year 1591, and at the same time that the wound which the Angel had made in it was noticed then when the bishop of Salamanca instituted the first juridical inquiry concerning the state of the body (vol. IV, letter or writing 76, note 4); or the opinion is to be followed of Fr. Philip of the Most Holy Trinity, who in his Mystical Theology (part III, tract. III, art. VIII) affirms that when in the month of November of the year 1585, by decree of the general chapter, the sacred body was to be taken away from Alba, and when the arm was being cut off by Fr. Gregory, to remain at Alba as some little solace to the despoiled nuns for the rest of the body, a certain nun conceived the bold purpose of keeping for herself the heart of her most loving Mother, and that this nun kept that illustrious treasure with her for a long time, until at length, plucked by the bite of conscience, having confessed her pious theft, she restored it to one of her superiors: and Fr. Frederick judges that full credence must be given here to Fr. Philip of the Most Holy Trinity, although this author wrote long after the event. For on the one hand, he says, no account is found in the earlier historians of the way in which the heart was separated from the trunk of the body or kept; and on the other hand nothing in that narration is foreign to likelihood, since the ease which Fr. Gregory had experienced in cutting off the arm could easily have given courage to the nun to attempt the same in cutting out the heart.
[1441] which question, from an old manuscript of our museum, While Fr. Frederick confesses here that every mention of the cutting out of the heart earlier than Fr. Philip escapes him, it has fallen to us by happy chance to inspect a contemporary manuscript, which contains a compendium of the process which the bishop of Salamanca instituted in the year 1591 for preparing the beatification and in which there is discussion of the excised heart. This old instrument of which I speak, lately granted to us from Rome and already cited by me several times under the name of the Summary, is inscribed thus on the outer part of the manuscript: To the Sacred Congregation of Rites. Of the Spains. Of beatification: for the Servant of God Teresa of Jesus, Foundress of the Discalced Carmelites. Of the facts etc. Summary; and it contains, first, those things which were brought forward by the witnesses concerning the heroic virtues and sanctity of life of the Ven. Servant of God Teresa, with the subscription of Alessandro Falciani added, and second, the Summary of the facts itself, with the names, surnames and ages of all the witnesses who are cited in that Summary prefixed. Now in this latter part, at num. 23, these things are read: The 43rd witness (who was Catherine of the Holy Angel, a Discalced Carmelite of Alba, 60 years of age), examined at Alba on the 95th, that spiritual persons said, and it was understood, that the holy Mother died struck by a great impulse of divine love: and it seems to the witness that this is a great sign that it is so, as the article says, seeing that, when after many years they extracted the heart of the holy Mother as a relic, and it exists today in this convent, it was split on one side, as the witness herself saw it, because they placed it in her hands when they extracted it (In the first part of the Salamanca process, fol. 569).
[1442] is much elucidated. Therefore according to this old and certain document one must stand by the narration of Fr. Philip or by that of Fr. Anthony. Nor is there reason why anyone should be deterred from the former's opinion by the words of Catherine of the Holy Angel, who says that the heart was extracted many years after Teresa's death, by which words at first sight a number greater than three years (1582–1585) seems to be indicated. For the Spanish word muchos, which the nun probably used in testifying, does not exclude the interpretation of a space of three years. But if we wish to reconcile this testimony of Catherine with the opinion of Fr. Anthony, it is necessary to say that the cutting out of the heart was done a very short time before the bishop of Salamanca, also in that year 1591, instituted the visitation of the body. From that testimony of Catherine it is evident that several were present at the excision; which is not contrary to the words of Fr. Philip, since the nun, the leader of the deed, could have had several helpers and onlookers. Meanwhile the state of the pierced heart is much confirmed by that testimony, the nun asserting on sworn faith in these words: The heart was split on one side, as the witness herself saw it, because they placed it in her hands when they extracted it. Finally it is established that about the year 1614 the state of that sacred heart was known. For, as can be read in the Acts of the canonization, the auditors of the Sacred Rota in the first Relation, which was made to Paul V on the 2nd of January 1614, speak in this manner: The aforesaid incorruption, odour and liquor are found not only in the body of the Servant of God, but also in her arm, heart, hand and other fragments of flesh, and relics of the same virgin separated from the body.
[1443] [Several times the heart by its heat splits the crystal tube: and other wonders are noted,] The superiors of the Order, then, having obtained the heart of their holy Mother, enclosed it in a case so made of very transparent crystal that it could be properly seen from outside. But when this crystal was found split, a new one was substituted for the broken one, which itself also cracked. When this had happened several times, the plan was approved that the upper part of the case should remain open, by which the heat might escape. As witness of this fact Fr. Frederick cites the General Superior of his Congregation, Fr. Philip of the Most Holy Trinity, who in his Mystical Theology (in the place cited) says that the crystal cracked not once only but more often: whence, necessity compelling, it was needful to leave an opening in the upper part of the receptacle. And in the process of the year 1726 a witness who was cited asserted under oath that on a certain occasion he had seen that breaking of the crystal in which the heart was held, and that he had heard from men beyond all exception that that splitting was effected by the exhalation of the sacred heart. And another testified that those fragments of crystal, either wholly or in part, are kept at Salamanca with José González. These things are likewise confirmed by the letter of the prioress of Alba, Alfonsa Maria of the Presentation, written on the 1st of May 1751, and praised several times by me above (§ LXX). What Fr. Frederick adds about a like efficacy in breaking a tube of a particle of the heart which is kept among the Carmelite nuns of Logroño, I pass over, because, as he himself confesses, the authenticity of these Relics is not established. Nor, however, let anyone conclude from this, both here and elsewhere throughout, that I hold such things as I omit to be false, while I hold them only as not sufficiently proved. Further, in the above-mentioned process of the year 1726 there are contained several testimonies, which Fr. Frederick reports, concerning the exhalation flowing from Teresa's heart.
[1444] for example, that it breathes a good odour, and at times swells, Of another prodigy I shall now say a few things, namely of the good odour which the auditors of the Rota cited above already affirmed in the year 1614 that Teresa's heart breathed forth. Concerning this, Felipe López, in chapter XLIII of the Life of Teresa compiled by him from authentic manuscripts, which Fr. Frederick (Introduction, page XIV) says is to be most highly valued, writes assertively that, although every particle of the flesh of the holy Mother breathes a great fragrance, yet that which is exhaled from the heart is the greatest, and indeed especially on solemn feasts such that it is not known with what it might be compared; indeed that this fragrance of the heart communicates its odour to other odoriferous things which are placed next to it, and takes away from them their natural quality of breathing forth. Several whom Fr. Frederick adduces testify also that its form sometimes increases. Among these Fr. Philip of the Most Holy Trinity (in the Decor Carmeli) says that he learned by sure report that that heart, great in virtue and also ordinarily great in bulk, sometimes grows. And when in the year 1650 the General Superior was reverently holding it in his hands, it suddenly appeared twice as large as usual, and shone with other wonderful sights, such as I shall now relate.
[1445] and that various images are seen in it; Namely, in the more signal Relics of St. Teresa, says Fr. John of St. Louis in his Life of Teresa (book VI, chap. V, in the appendix), various images of Christ, of the B. Virgin or of the Saints are from time to time seen. This is a singular prodigy by which God honours the Relics of St. Teresa, and to which experience daily gives greater credence, since innumerable witnesses of that sight arise (in Spanish: se multiplican a millones los testigos the witnesses multiply by the millions). Among these are bishops, Generals of the Order, and major prelates, entire communities, and men of every grade and order, who confirm that portent as assertively as anything of this kind can be confirmed, and who at the same time testify to the feelings which such a spectacle produces in them, and the immense admiration, when they know that among many looking at the same Relic, some see some images represented to themselves and others others, and indeed so divinely carved that those beholding experience in themselves the same as if he whose figure appears were really present. Let us confirm and establish the matter by examples.
[1446] to which the General and the historiographers of the Order testify, First of all, on the testimony of the same Fr. John of St. Louis, and also of the Annus Teresianus (vol. VII, page 311), where it is said that the signed original of the instrument itself is kept at Madrid in the archive of the Order, Fr. Jerome of the Conception, General Superior, when he had visited and venerated the heart of his holy Mother, holding it in his hands, and when afterwards he had been ordered by his successor to commit to writing the things which he had experienced, having first taken an oath, testified that he and his companion Fr. Gregory had various images of Christ and of the Blessed Virgin
Mary contemplated in it. Likewise Fr. Emmanuel of St. Jerome, historiographer of the Order, writes these things of himself in the Chronicle: When in the year 1705 I was definitor general, and had gone to Alba to venerate the holy Mother, it was granted to me, however unworthy, to see in the heart of St. Teresa a perfect and wholly prominent image of Most Holy Mary, bearing her precious Son on her left arm and a golden sceptre in her right hand. My companion, who was likewise a definitor, saw at the same time in the same heart of the Saint an image of our Father St. Joseph. And these portents are repeated so often that, although it does not cease to be a prodigy, it produces an evidence greater than moral evidence (book XXVI, chap. XXIII, num. 10).
[1447] the author of the Museo Pictórico, and others. Behold again from Fr. John of St. Louis another example, drawn from volume I of the Museo Pictórico (where the painting of Jesus Christ which St. Teresa had placed at Ávila is treated): Don Antonio Palomino, celebrated far and wide for his skill in the liberal arts, relates what happened in his presence to the illustrious painter Don Francisco Rizi, and to his disciple Alfonso de Villaseca, in the city of Ávila. He had taken these two with him to view the treasure of Relics kept there, among which is held a finger of St. Teresa, enclosed in a crystal pyx. When these men were considering it with attentive eye, Don Francisco Rizi said that he saw not a finger but a likeness of St. Teresa with another above her of the B. V. Mary; and his disciple also asserted that he saw this. Those standing around, wondering at the force and sincerity with which they affirmed it, since they were held to be truthful and most worthy to be given full credence, adopted this plan, since each was a painter, that they should stay in places separated from each other, and without any communication represent the portent with the brush. No sooner said than done: and to the great admiration of all who had gathered to learn the outcome, each produced the images described above in plainly the same form. That a like portent is frequently seen even today (that is, about the year 1813), the same Fr. John of St. Louis narrates, in the convent of St. Anne of the Carmelite nuns of Tarazona, which rejoices in precious Relics of their holy Mother: and the same Father adds that, from manifold observation of the various images which are presented to the eyes there, he is persuaded that such sights are represented as are suited to the interior need of the one looking, to his relation with the Saint, or to the profit of that convent.
[1448] And this has happened sometimes even in small particles. Indeed, sometimes even a smaller particle of Teresa's sacred heart was not without this privilege. A proof is that reliquary which, in Fr. Frederick, is read to have been sent in the year 1614 by the General of the Spanish Congregation, Fr. Joseph of the Holy Mother of God, to Angelopolis (commonly Puebla de los Ángeles, in America), and in which most of the Carmelite nuns of the convent of that city testified on the faith of an oath that they had seen pious figures. And such was the number and variety of those apparitions that, as the already cited Fr. Emmanuel writes in the Chronicle of the Order, that Relic was commonly called a certain window of heaven. Some years before Fr. Emmanuel wrote his volume of the Chronicle, the most learned theologians of Salamanca, most approved everywhere on earth, treating of the worship due to the Relics of the Saints (vol. II on the Incarnation, tract. XXI, disp. XXXVIII, doubt I, num. 6), did not fear to write these weighty words, truly worthy for me to cite as a crowning conclusion after so great a cloud of witnesses brought forward: The flesh of our Mother St. Teresa after 105 years preserves a wonderful and sweet incorruption, and her heart is as it were a miraculous mirror of omnipotence, in which mysteriously and plainly above nature apparitions of images occur. I forbear to narrate from Fr. John of St. Louis the conversion of two unbelievers, who returned to the faith and to virtue after, having experienced that prodigy with their own eyes in the convent of St. Anne at Tarazona, they had applied every diligence and caution in searching out the truth. But since Fr. Louis keeps silent the name of these men, whom he says belonged to a distinguished family, and who perhaps were still living in the year 1813, let it suffice to have brought forward these things in summary.
[1449] Credence seems to be given to the prodigies mentioned thus far, The prodigies which I have so far said took place in the heart of the holy Mother I would either have passed over in silence, or, after setting them forth, have pronounced them fictions and mere empty phantasms, had not many and weighty testimonies, such as I have adduced some of, compelled me, by the rules of just criticism, to hold the narrated prodigies and the sights beheld as true, and to propose them as such to the reader; although I do not deny that in things of this kind, the substance of the prodigy generally remaining unharmed, certain false things may now and then creep in upon the truth, the imagination playing tricks. And what some today falsely devise about the heart of Teresa, as I shall presently say, renders me the more cautious and suspicious. But, I confess again, the testimonies of so many upright and learned men, such as are the superiors of the Order, and indeed the General Superior himself, and the most esteemed theologians of Salamanca, by no means permit former facts duly proved to be rejected because of fables spread today: rather, since peoples are so inclined to admit new miracles in Teresa's heart, there seems to be no other cause of that propensity than that it was and is established that true ones were at one time wrought in it. That false rumour which I mentioned about recent portents in the heart of St. Teresa reached me from different places, and became known to me especially from a letter written by the prioress of Alba herself, whose convent rejoices in the possession not only of the body of the holy Mother but also of the heart cut out of it.
[1450] but not to the more recent ones which are reported, of which one is set forth. Through a faithful and most obliging friend, the Rev. Fr. Puyal, S. J., I had asked that the prioress be questioned, first whether such wonderful sights as I have related were once noticed are still today from time to time noticed in the heart, and then whether another portent was true, which had been affirmed to me from Madrid and which I knew was spreading widely in Italy, namely whether certain little plants, like white points of thorns, had since the thirty-sixth year of this century been growing up in the reliquary case from particles fallen from the heart. Here is the answer of the Rev. Mother Prioress received by me, which I copy from her autograph letter, which I have with me, dated the 9th of July 1843 and with the name Ramonda de S. Teresa subscribed. Word for word it runs thus: Parece que se han dedicado a esparcir noticias de la Santa, sin pies ni cabeza. Escriben de las Andalucias, de Murcia, Valladolid, Francia, Italia ecc., paraque los aseguremus de mil bobadas que dicen (en cada parte distintas) se advierten en el santo corazon: unos lo dicen de un modo, y otros de otro; y nada es cierto. [It seems that they have devoted themselves to spreading news of the Saint without head or tail. They write from the Andalusias, from Murcia, Valladolid, France, Italy etc., so that we may assure them of a thousand pieces of nonsense which they say (different in each place) are noticed in the holy heart: some say it one way, and others another; and nothing is certain.] That is, in Latin: There seem to exist men who have devoted themselves to sowing ill-formed rumours about the Saint. It is written to me from Baetica, from Murcia and Valladolid, from France also and Italy, and from other places, that I should give an account of a thousand trifles, proposed in a different way from each place, which are said to be noticed in the holy heart. Some of them speak in this way, others in that; and nothing certain is had. Nor let anyone suspect that these words, Y nada es cierto and nothing is certain, leave any doubt: for the Rev. Fr. Angel Praxedes Hijosa, who was acting as provincial of the Teresian Order in Old Castile when the monasteries were being suppressed, and through whom that letter of the prioress of Alba reached the Rev. Fr. Puyal and then me, writes thus in an accompanying letter: Con ella (carta) creo que se destruye todo cuanto sobre el particular me leyo V. en la de allende: y no podia ser otra cosa. [With it (the letter) I believe that everything is destroyed which Your Reverence read to me on the matter in the one from abroad: and it could not be otherwise.] By the letter of the Mother Prioress enclosed in these letters of mine, whatever is written from there is refuted (namely those things which I had heard, and about which I was questioning the Spaniards): nor could it be otherwise. And certainly so wonderful a portent would not have escaped the Provincial, such as that of thorns growing up in the dry dust of the heart would have been, of which the uncertain or bare rumour alone was exciting no small curiosity of distant Italians and Belgians. And in this way, whatever it may at last have been, I have discharged my part: for I can do nothing whatever further than report what has been reported. Further (as may be noted in passing), let this be a specimen of how great is the difficulty and danger of erring in searching out the truth of distant things, since the investigation of this one matter cost the writing of as many as seven letters.
[1451] [Through likenesses of the heart of St. Teresa several miracles have been wrought,] So many wonderful effects of Teresa's portentous heart induced the citizens of Alba to make images of it from silk and paper. These are for the most part of red colour, and, consecrated by the touch of the holy heart, are called hearts of St. Teresa, and are carried about in great number even outside Spain. Indeed indulgences seem at times to have been annexed to them: for there is before my eyes a paper likeness of this kind of Teresa's heart, beneath which are read printed in Spanish these words: The Most Illustrious Lord Don Juan Sáenz y Buruaga, archbishop of Zaragoza, grants eighty days of indulgences to those who recite once a "Pater Noster" and "Ave Maria" before this image of St. Teresa of Jesus. Often God has deigned to work wonders by the aid of those images. In Honoratus of St. Mary, in the work entitled Animadversions on the Rules of Criticism (vol. 3, book V, diss. VI, art. VII), there is read a miraculous healing of this kind, to which in the year 1699 three physicians testified by the following instrument, which I present here from the Latin translation of Fr. Honoratus printed at Venice in the year 1768.
[1452] one of which is proved. We the undersigned, to the greater glory of God, and being asked concerning the truth, testify that, when we were called by Count Giacomo Aliberti to take counsel concerning the disease of his daughter, a nun in the monastery of the Seven Sorrows, commonly of the Duchess of Latera, who, twenty-seven years of age, had long been labouring with dropsy, called anasarca, we found on Friday, the same sixth day of this month, that besides the swelling of both legs and of the upper parts, she was subject to a breathing so difficult and so very suffocating that we judged the sick woman needed heavenly remedies more than human; for because of the perpetual convulsions of the oesophagus and of the windpipe she could not swallow even one spoonful of broth. Meanwhile, however, while we were deliberating on this matter with slight hope of her life, half an hour before sunset, the nuns, joyful and eager, suddenly announced to us that the sick woman had suddenly recovered through the merits of St. Teresa, a Relic of whom had been applied to her breast. We therefore hastened at once to the sick woman, and found her healed of all disease, so that she could rise from her bed: indeed she also drank part of the broth with her own hands in our presence, and testified that she
had now been restored to health. Which could in no way have been done without remedies, and with no preceding crisis, even the least, except by the power of wonderful heavenly grace: and much more so, since, when at the fifteenth hour of the following day we were coming to visit her, she herself came to meet us at the door of the monastery with a bright face and all the signs of good health, and narrated that the previous night, lying in bed, she had rested eight hours continuously; which for many years before she had in no way been able to do. Wherefore we do not doubt to assert that this healing came about in wonderful ways: yet we submit our judgment to this sacred Tribunal, to which it pertains to confirm miracles. In faith of which, etc. Given on the day before the Ides of February. Giovanni Maria Lancisi, physician. Emmanuel López, etc. I too testify concerning the things which have been said, and that the sick woman was freed from the symptom of convulsion and suffocation, which was troubling the noble parts of life, not by the help of art, which cannot heal in the twinkling of an eye, but by the compassion of divine grace. Egidio Raspini, physician. Thus far from the Italian diploma; in which what is called a sacred Relic is nothing other than one of the described hearts of St. Teresa. This is established from a letter which the Roman definitor general gave to a Discalced Carmelite of Toulouse, who inquired about this matter. For he, warned by the nuns that the sick woman lay in extremity, had sent that silk heart ahead, and had then gone to the sick woman with the foot of St. Teresa, with which he blessed her, although she was already healed. This letter of the definitor too you may read in the praised Fr. Honoratus in the same place. Many similar benefits obtained from God through such hearts of Teresa are presented by Fr. Anthony of St. Joachim in the Annus Teresianus (vol. IV, page 47, and vol. V, page 51).
[1453] The Office and Mass of the transverberation are granted, Therefore, amid such copious and such great prodigies which God was working in Teresa's heart, at the instances of the whole Discalced Carmel, and, as Benedict XIV says in the place cited by me above, after the postulators, having gathered judicial proofs, had shown the impression of the wound still existing and visible in the heart, on the 25th of May 1726, the Most Holy Father Benedict XIII approving, the grant of a proper Office of the transverberation of the heart of St. Teresa, with proper lessons, was made to the Order of Discalced Carmelites of both families. And two years later, namely on the 17th day of March 1728, the same Pontiff granted that in this Office not only the prayer and lessons, but also the rest of the Office and the whole Mass, should be proper. I note that in this Office thus renewed the sixth lesson is closed with these words: And since her heart, incorrupt and adorned with the signs of the transverberation, laid up in the church of the Most Holy Incarnation of the nuns of the Order of Discalced Carmelites at Alba, the faithful of Christ venerate with frequent and pious concourse even to the present day, all these things having been examined, Benedict XIII, Supreme Pontiff, granted that this solemnity, for recalling the memory of a signal prodigy, be celebrated every year in the same Order. And, as Fr. Frederick notes, in honour of this prodigious wound the Office is also recited by the Carmelite Fathers of the Observance; and under the pontificate of Clement XII, by decree of the S. Congregation of Rites, given on the 15th of September in the year 1732, it was extended to the imperial city of Vienna, and then by another decree, issued on the 15th of December 1733, it was granted to all the kingdoms of the Spains.
[1454] and also indulgences: all of which are common to the Calced Carmel. Finally Benedict XIV, by letters whose beginning is Dominici gregis, given on the 8th of August 1744 in the form of a Brief, granted a plenary indulgence, to be gained in perpetuity by all the faithful of Christ who from the first Vespers of the festivity of the transverberation of Teresa's heart until sunset should visit the churches of the Discalced Carmel. This indeed was granted to the Spanish Congregation: but since Clement VIII in the Bull In apostolicae dignitatis culmine, given on the 13th of November 1600, communicated to the Italian Congregation of the Discalced all the privileges, indulgences, etc. in any way granted or to be granted to the Congregation of Spain (see the Bullarium Romanum, vol. III, page 112, Luxembourg edition), it is clear that this indulgence extends also to the Italian Carmel. And I would say the same of the Calced Carmelites, since Clement X, by the Bull Ad uberes bonorum operum fructus, given on the 31st of October 1670, communicated or confirmed to these Friars of B. M. of Carmel the use of all privileges, indulgences, etc. which had been granted or which in future should be granted to the Discalced (see the Bullarium Carmelitanum, vol. II, page 577). Nor is it a wonder that, after so many portents in those sacred Relics of the heart, and so many benefits obtained from God by their pious venerators, most precious and skilfully made reliquaries were several times destined for them. A case of this kind is read in the Annus Teresianus (at the 21st of April) to have been given in the year 1667 by the General Superior of the Order of B. Mary of Mercy, Pedro de Salazar, who was afterwards Cardinal of the H. R. C., and who, with the provincial of the same Order, Antonio Isasi, visiting the Relics of the sacred heart, had beheld with wonder several prodigies which are related in the Annus Teresianus. That case is also mentioned by the Bibliotheca of the Order of Discalced Carmelites (p. 368). Likewise another of this kind is recorded as offered, in the same work of the Annus Teresianus (at the 16th of December, num. 3), from Fr. John of St. Joseph, who in a relation of the wonderful movement of the lamps in the chapel of Alba (of which there is discussion there) has the following: In the year 1671, on the feast-day of our holy Mother Teresa… the Illustrious Lord Don Fr. Alfonso de Balmaseda, bishop of Cosenza in the kingdom of Naples, offered the Sacrifice of the Mass with pontifical rite; for he had come bringing with him a reliquary of gold, diamonds and other gems, which the Most Excellent Lord Giannettino Doria, Duke of Tursi, had ordered to be fashioned for the keeping of the heart of our Mother St. Teresa. I do not doubt that this is the case which is seen engraved on the plate attached to this paragraph.
§ LXXIII. On the left hand and arm of St. Teresa, on the fingers of her right hand, likewise on the right foot, and on her other lesser Relics.
The scattered Relics of St. Teresa are many. Having described the state of the sacred body and heart, I now proceed to the other Relics of the holy Virgin scattered through the world. According to the authentic instrument, at the last opening of the tomb these parts were missing: the right foot, the left hand, likewise the left arm, the heart, a fragment of the jaw, the left eye, some ribs and bones, the greater part of the neck, and many segments of the flesh, which were cut off not few or at least not small, as is evident from the instrument of the earlier visitation made in the year 1616, which testifies that so great a quantity of flesh had been cut from the holy body that innumerable Relics from it exist throughout the Christian world. I have already related above the intemperance of many in cutting up the body to claim for themselves some spoils of those precious remains, the hand of the pious, as Fr. Frederick says, not sparing the sacred flesh which the devouring tooth of most voracious death had spared. You have a specimen of that greed in Fr. Thomas of Jesus, who, when he had been delegated by the Rev. Father General to set a limit to that pious rapacity, the sepulchre having been well closed, could not restrain himself from tearing out a rib and cutting off pieces so immoderate that by their size they equalled or even surpassed the palm of the hand; as Fr. Francis of St. Mary writes, himself a witness present, nay a sharer in the spoils (see above n. 1054). Moreover the heads of the Order, with a shrewder zeal, namely so that the cult of their holy Mother and the cause of canonization might be promoted, were moved several times to mutilate the body, for example when the foot was destined for Rome to the Fathers of the Congregation of St. Elijah, and a large segment of flesh to Pope Paul V (see num. 1073).
[1456] Her left hand was cut off: At num. 1037 and following it was narrated at length by me how the left hand was torn off at the first visitation of the body. There is nothing for me to add here except (as Fr. Frederick notes, book V, chap. VII) that Fr. Gracián, at the request of his brothers and sisters in Portugal, carried it to Lisbon in the year 1585, hoping that he would do a most welcome thing both to the prince Cardinal Albert, archduke of Austria, who had greatly favoured the foundation of the nuns there and had declared himself their protector, and to the Portuguese, who for their piety towards God made very much of the Relics of the friends of God. When I had learned that this hand still exists in that city, at my suppliant prayers the Most Excellent Raffaele Fornari, archbishop of Nicaea, and Nuncio of the Holy See then to the king of the Belgians, now to the king of the French, deigned to take care that that sacred relic be drawn, such as it may be seen here engraved in copper. That reliquary is fashioned of gilded wood in a quadrangular form. Each of its sides is protected by crystal panes, through which the hand, placed in the centre upon a base of gilded metal adorned with precious gems, presents itself to view from four sides. The white spaces which are seen in the second and third phalanges of the fingers are openings through which the bones appear. Likewise four white spaces between the fingers and the palm of the hand show the circles of four rings, of one of which, at the side of the little finger, a view is had from here.
[1457] likewise the left arm: That the left arm, at the time when the body of St. Teresa was to be translated from Alba to Ávila, was cut off and left at Alba as some kind of solace for the nuns, may be seen at num. 1041 and 1118: and in this town it is kept to this day with the body of the Saint, but separately; which I note here because Baillet, at the 15th of October at the end of the Life of St. Teresa, hints that that arm was placed beside the body, when it was brought back to Alba, and in a manner inserted into it: in which Collet too gives some handle for deception in annotation VII to the Life of St. John of the Cross (p. 481, Paris edition 1826). Don Robustiano Boada writes that that arm stands near the case of the heart, to be seen through a window across silver railings; nor did he draw it, however, since it is enclosed in no case, but rests as it were in its natural position on a silver base.
[1458] likewise the fingers of the right hand; which at Seville, Rome, Ávila, I find the several amputated fingers of the right hand to be kept at Brussels, Paris, Rome, Ávila and Seville. This last became known to me from nowhere else than through a letter written from there at the beginning of the year 1840, by which I am informed that with the Carmelite nuns of Seville there remain, together with the finger, the autograph manuscript of the Mansions, and ten letters, and a certain little vessel which the Saint used in her last illness. Rome rejoices in another finger; of which Fr. Frederick (in the place as above) makes mention thus: Don Giulio Rospigliosi, who afterwards became Cardinal and at length Supreme Pontiff under the name of Clement IX, when he was acting as Nuncio in Spain, sent to the princess Anna Colonna Barberini the index finger, namely that illustrious instrument with which she wrote her heavenly writings; and that most pious lady bestowed it upon our recent convent which she had built in the City
under the title of the Queen of Heaven. As regards the finger of Ávila kept in the church of the Discalced, which, lately drawn by Mr. Boada, may be viewed here, the Rev. Fr. Angel Praxedes Hijosa, formerly provincial of the Discalced Carmel in Old Castile, writes thus of it in a letter of the 25th of July 1843, given from the town of Ávila itself to the Rev. Fr. Mariano Puyal, S. J., and sent on to me by that most kind man together with very many other most useful documents: I inspected the finger of the holy Mother with particular attention. Its colour recalls cinnamon, not very yellow (in Spanish: de canela clara of light cinnamon). It is handsome, not at all dark, much less black, not even blackish. It stands enclosed in a crystal tube, which is fixed to a well-chased foot.
[1459] at Paris Lastly, that convent of the Discalced nuns of Paris which was formerly the first erected in France and has the title of the Incarnation still rejoices in the middle finger (not the index, as some say). By what way this house obtained that Relic Mr. Boucher narrates more correctly and more fully than Fr. Frederick, in the Life of St. Teresa (vol. II, page 465, or book IX, note n). Namely, in the year 1625 those nuns who then lived in the suburb commonly called of Saint-Jacques were presented with that finger by Elizabeth, daughter of Henry IV and consort of Philip IV, king of the Spains. The bearer of this religious treasure was Madame de Fargis, who had been ordered to have a reliquary made at Paris, and then to present both, as a gift, to Mother Magdalene of St. Joseph, prioress of that convent (whose virtues Pope Pius VI declared to have been heroic). Attached to this finger were testimonial letters, by which Giulio Sacchetti, Nuncio in Spain, certified that the middle finger of the right hand of St. Teresa had been handed by the queen to Madame de Fargis in his presence. There accompanied it also other letters, by which queen Elizabeth wrote to Magdalene of St. Joseph that she was bestowing that gift on her. Since these things are so, I do not well grasp on what ground Fr. Frederick and several Frenchmen assert that that gift is owed directly to Marie de Médicis, as if her daughter queen Elizabeth had presented it not first to the Carmelite nuns but to her mother Marie. The case or little casket which you see here engraved on copper the Rev. Fr. Arthur Martin, S. J., deigned to draw graphically on the very spot. This little casket contains besides a particle of the flesh of St. Teresa, certain segments of her garment, her autograph name, and a likeness of her originally received from Spain.
[1460] and at Brussels. The fifth is the little finger among the Discalced nuns at Brussels, represented here on a copper plate with its case of most elegant chasing, whose base is of copper and enamel, while the cylindrical tube is of crystal with gold ornament. It has been granted to me several times to look upon this sacred finger, to venerate it and to kiss it with religious affection. I shall briefly state its condition, intending afterwards to say a little more fully how it came into Belgium. Antonius Sanderus writes in his Chorographia sacra Brabantiae (which he published at Brussels in the year 1659 in two volumes in folio) that the finger of St. Teresa is held there with its incorrupt flesh and flowing oil. But what Sanderus affirms here about the oil I consider must be understood of the earlier times in which it had been freshly cut off, because in the documents to be recited by me below, which are prior by about forty years to Sanderus's work, no mention of that prodigy is made; which would surely have been made, if it had lasted to those times. Afterwards the author of the Chronicle who printed volume V at Madrid in the year 1706 (book XIX, chap. XLVI, num. 2) affirms that the Brussels finger continues up to that time whole, incorrupt, bearing a lively and bright appearance, with its white nail adhering to the flesh. Then Mr. de Montis in his Life of the Ven. Anne of Jesus (Paris 1788, book VIII, p. 280) writes that it preserves its natural form, and is covered with a somewhat dark skin, with the nail whole. But today its colour is similar to the colour of the finger of Ávila (see num. 1458); below, however, it is just a little blackish: otherwise it is whole and clothed with its flesh, which seems dried up, and the little nail duly adheres to the flesh.
[1461] This last, brought by Fr. Gracián, Fr. Emmanuel of St. Jerome, author of volume V of the Chronicle, is mistaken when (in the place cited a little before) he affirms that Isabella, daughter of Philip II, while still living in Spain in her youthful age, had already then obtained that finger of St. Teresa; and several others are mistaken who copy it from the Chronicle, for example Fr. Frederick (book V, c. VII). But here are the true fortunes of that Relic, drawn from authentic documents which I have before me, borrowed from the archive of the Carmelite nuns of Brussels. Namely, Fr. Gracián, dying in the Brussels convent of the Mitigated Carmel, had bequeathed to his sister, a Carmelite nun at Seville in Spain, this finger, which formerly, when he was provincial, he had cut off from the body of St. Teresa, and which from then on he had always worn hanging from his neck up to his last day: Andrés del Mármol narrating in the Life of Gracián (chapter XX) that he was once despoiled of his few little things by the barbarians in Africa, and lost this relic too, but recovered it as if by a miracle (see the Annus Teresianus, vol. IX, p. 342). But that sacred personal property of the deceased was claimed for himself both by the superior of the Mitigated Carmel and by the provincial of the Discalced Carmel, each on various grounds.
[1462] it is assigned by Paul V to the princes of Belgium: Meanwhile (which seems to have displeased neither of these) the most serene princes Albert and Isabella, for their piety towards sacred things and their special religious affection towards Bl. Teresa, through Guido Bentivoglio, apostolic Nuncio at their court, obtained from the Holy See on the 20th of October 1614 that that precious Relic should remain in Belgium and be ceded to them. Therefore, a juridical process concerning its authenticity having been made by the Nuncio on the 14th of November of the same year, the pious princes received the sacred finger from his hand on the 21st of February 1615; which in the eighth month after, namely on the 13th of October, they consigned to Anne of Jesus, prioress of the Carmelite nuns of Brussels. Thus you have the aforesaid authentic instruments in summary. One of them, however, which is of greater moment, I shall recite here word for word, namely the Brief of Paul V assigning that Relic to the archdukes: the rest, pertaining to the execution of the pontifical order, I shall give summarily. Here then is the Brief, addressed to the Nuncio Bentivoglio: Pope Paul V. Venerable Brother, greeting and apostolic benediction. Since, as we have learned, the late Jerome Gracián, while he lived a professed member of the Order of Carmelite Friars in the regular house of the said Order in the town of Brussels, of the diocese of Mechelen, has lately died, and before his death ordained that the Relic of one finger of Blessed Teresa, which he had, should be consigned to his sister, professed in the Order of Discalced Carmelite nuns in the monastery of the same Order at Seville, while our beloved sons the Prior and Friars of the said house claim that the aforesaid Relic has been acquired by the same house, and moreover our beloved son the noble man Albert and our beloved daughter in Christ the noble woman Isabella, Infanta of the Spains, archdukes of Austria and princes of Belgium, from the affection of devotion which they bear towards Bl. Teresa and her Order, very greatly desire to have a Relic of this kind with them; we, very greatly commending in the Lord the singular piety of the aforesaid Albert and Isabella, commit and command to your fraternity by these presents that you cause the aforesaid Relic to be handed over and consigned to the said Albert and Isabella by the aforesaid Prior and Friars and others to whom it pertains, or, if perhaps it has been given by the said Prior and Friars to the aforesaid Albert and Isabella, that you decree by apostolic authority that it can lawfully be retained by the same Albert and Isabella. Notwithstanding apostolic constitutions and ordinances, and the statutes and customs of the aforesaid house and Order, even if corroborated by oath, apostolic confirmation or any other firmness, and all other things whatsoever to the contrary. Given at Tusculum under the ring of the Fisherman, on the 20th day of October 1614, in the tenth year of our pontificate. S. Cobelluzzi.
[1463] to whom, a lawful process having first been made, it is consigned; Having received this Brief, the Nuncio himself, at the instance of the most serene archdukes, instituted a canonical inquiry concerning the truth of that sacred Relic, and received testimonies under oath solemnly taken in priestly manner, first from the Rev. Fr. Íñigo de Brizuela of the Order of St. Dominic, of the council of state of the most serene princes and confessor to the archduke, second from the Rev. Fr. Andrés de Soto of the Order of St. Francis, confessor to the most serene archduchess and commissary general of his Order in the Belgian provinces, third from the Rev. Fr. Ferdinand of St. Victor, provincial of the Calced Carmel for Lower Germany and prior of the Brussels convent, fourth from the Rev. Fr. Thomas of Jesus, prior of the convent of the Discalced Carmel at Brussels. This last witness is that excellent man who (as was said at num. 1054) in the year 1603 or 1604 visited the body of St. Teresa and firmly closed her tomb, and who, besides several convents of nuns, erected convents of his Friars at Brussels, Louvain, Cologne, Douai, Lille, Antwerp, Liège, Namur; not to speak of the convent of Zaragoza in Spain and that of Dole in Burgundy, of the mission seminary of St. Joseph at Louvain, of the first hermitages (which the Carmelites call deserts) beyond the Pyrenees in the place commonly called de las Batuecas, and on this side of the Pyrenees in the forest of Marlagne near Namur. Among other things Fr. Thomas of Jesus attested that for nearly thirty years Fr. Gracián had been known to him, that it was clear to him that the finger which he carried with him belonged to the body of St. Teresa, and that by that finger several miracles had been wrought; such as is that which Ribera relates to have happened in the case of Isabel of St. Jerome (book V, chap. III). This juridical examination completed, the Nuncio drew up lawful letters, by which, having set his name and hung his seal in red wax within a pyx, he consigned this sacred Relic to the most serene archdukes.
[1464] but soon it is ceded by them to the convent of the Discalced nuns. Lastly the nuns of Brussels have another authentic instrument, by which the Ven. Anne of Jesus on the 13th of October 1615 declares that her convent was presented with this Relic and its case by the most serene Albert and Isabella, on the condition that that Relic should never be alienated nor any particle plucked from it. When the emperor Joseph II drove the offspring of Carmel, together with very many other religious ascetics, from their refuges, that finger was not alienated but rather placed in greater safety (as may be read in Proyart at the end of the Life of Louise of Bourbon, who was the daughter of Louis XV, and had exchanged the royal court and regal delights for the convent of Saint-Denis and the happy austerities of religious life, having changed also the title of Princess of France for the name of Sister Teresa of
St. Augustine). Namely, the prioress of Brussels entrusted this Relic to the most faithful and most noble man de Villegas d'Estaimbourg, together with a thorn of the crown of Jesus Christ, and with part of the neck and a great bone of the arm of St. Elizabeth of Thuringia (which Sanderus, in the place as above, inaccurately takes for an entire body). Thereafter a certain respectable lady carried the sacred finger safely out of Belgium into France, and deposited it in the abbey of Fontevrault, so that from there it might be transferred to the Carmelite nuns of Saint-Denis, among whom the exiled nuns of Brussels were afterwards to live. In the few days in which the abbess of Fontevrault held this treasure, she showed it, with her whole religious family, as great sacred honours as she could. Tapers burned before it day and night; and, since the feast-day of the Saint then fell in between, it was carried round in procession, and a solemn Mass was sung. And when that pious treasure reached the enclosure of Saint-Denis at the hour destined for recreation, the prioress, with Teresa of St. Augustine and another nun, not without the adornment of their mantles and with lit torches, carried it in amid the sisters crowded together and full of pious joy. This relic was brought back into Belgium in the seventh year after by the nuns of Brussels returning to their homeland.
[1465] The right foot is carried to Rome; Among the things which still remain to be recorded, the right foot stands out, which is venerated at Rome among the Discalced in the monastery of Santa Maria della Scala, and which you have here represented from an old picture. Fr. Frederick (book V, chap. VII) narrates in what way the Roman Fathers obtained this signal Relic; which can be seen still more fully in the Chronicle (vol. IV, book XV, chap. XXXVI, and vol. V, book XIX, chap. XI). It will suffice to have reported the words of the former, speaking thus: The Ven. Fr. Ferdinand of St. Mary, General of the Congregation of St. Elijah, a man most zealous for promoting the canonization of his holy Mother, reflecting in his mind that no small increase would accrue both to her celebrity and to the honour of his Italian Congregation if some signal Relic of hers were venerated in the City, gave letters to the Rev. Father General of the Spanish Congregation, and with submissive prayers and strong arguments begged for the foot of the Saint. The Father General of Spain, who was then Fr. Joseph of Jesus Mary, formerly procurator general at Rome, acknowledged that the petition was just and pious; and with the consent of the general chapter he wrote back to Fr. Ferdinand that he should send into Spain those who should receive the longed-for gift. He therefore directed two of the Friars subject to him into Spain; and so that a grateful mind and filial love towards their common Mother might constantly be evident, he sent a handsome and rich lamp of silver, which should burn always at Alba before the chapel where the body of the Saint rests. Those two commissaries, arriving in Spain, received from the hands of Fr. Joseph the sacred foot, furnished with authentic instruments. How further that Relic was received at Rome has already been said at num. 1073.
[1466] and Paul V gratefully receives another Relic. The Rev. Father General of the Spanish Congregation, having obtained a suitable occasion, sent together with the foot a particle of flesh cut from the body of the holy Mother to Pope Paul V; who signified how welcome that gift was to him by the following letter, which is recited in the Chronicle (book XV, chap. XXXVI, num. 11): Pope Paul V. Beloved son, greeting and apostolic benediction. We have received the Relic of Bl. Teresa which you sent us; which, both for the merit of so illustrious a Handmaid of Christ and for our devotion towards her, was most welcome to us: and we shall keep it with the honour which it deserves. And we praise your piety, who are so zealous for the veneration of your Blessed Parent; which belongs both to your office and to the religion with which the Most High has adorned you. We for our part shall not omit, where there is need, whatever we can do in the Lord for the sake of you and of the Order which you rule. Meanwhile watch, as we trust you do, over the flock entrusted to you, that you may receive a reward from the eternal Shepherd; which may the Lord grant you. Given at Rome at Santa Maria Maggiore, under the ring of the Fisherman, on the 31st day of May 1618, in the fourteenth year of our pontificate. Scipione, Cardinal of Santa Susanna.
[1467] Several crosses of St. Teresa are recorded, Nor did the Italian Fathers themselves, deputed to bring the sacred foot from Alba to Rome, return without gifts; but while one Relic of the holy Mother was given to one, to Fr. Benignus of St. Michael was given that wooden cross which the holy Mother formerly used to provoke and repel the demons and which was entwined in her hands when she was to be buried. It afterwards passed, as Fr. Frederick says, to the convent of Carmelite nuns at Bologna which has its name from St. Gabriel. Besides this cross there is also at Brussels a little wooden cross of St. Teresa, which is covered entirely with copper on one side, and is inscribed thus: Esta cruz llevo nra Sta Madre Teresa de Jesus en vida, y despues de muerte se allo en su cama. [This cross our holy Mother Teresa of Jesus carried in life, and after her death it was found in her bed.] That is: This cross our holy Mother Teresa of Jesus wore while living, and it was found in the bed of the deceased.
[1468] and by name that of Brussels. Anne of St. Bartholomew, who laid out the corpse of the Saint for burial, kept that cross with her for some time, until she bestowed it on Anne of Jesus. The latter, while she lived, wore that pledge, a memorial of her most beloved Mother: and when Anne had departed this life, it was agreed among the nuns of Brussels that whoever among them held the office of prioress should wear this pious badge hanging from her girdle. And that custom endures today. Indeed, as de Montis narrates in the Life of Anne of Jesus (book VIII, page 309, according to the Paris edition of 1788), as soon as in the year 1783 the exiled Carmelite nuns of Brussels had entered the convent of Saint-Denis, their prioress put this cross into the hands of Louise of France, who handed it to Mother Julie, who then held the office of prioress there. And what the praised author narrates is confirmed to me by the Carmelite nuns of this place, in whose bosom, while I was writing this Commentary, one died who had been present there sixty years before. Fitting mention will also be made here of another cross, concerning which the Annus Teresianus (vol. IX, p. 343), from the Life of Juan Palafox (by Rosende, book 2, c. XVIII), has the following, excerpted from Palafox's codicil: To you, Marquis of Aytona, my true friend and lord, so worthy of all reverence on many a ground, I bequeath and give a cross which St. Teresa carried with her, and which I too, it having been handed to me by sure hands, have worn on my breast. Wear it then, you too, on your breast. It is worthy to be annexed to your entailed estate, since it belonged to so great a Saint. Lastly there must also be recorded here the wooden cross which long used to appear jewelled to St. Teresa, and of which we have already treated elsewhere (num. 221).
[1469] A bone of the shoulder at Brussels. Another signal Relic too, an entire bone of the shoulder which has the name of clavicle, is kept today among the Carmelite nuns of Brussels, such as you see here on the neighbouring plate. This Relic was bequeathed to them by the Father vice-provincial, who died in this city in the year 1833, on condition that it should be restored to the Discalced men, if perhaps they should return to Brussels by right of restoration. Here are the authentic testimonial letters concerning it, which exist duly written on parchment with the signature of Thomas of Jesus himself: Jesus, Mary. I, Brother Thomas of Jesus, vicar general of the Discalced Carmelite Friars in Upper and Lower Germany, and prior of the Brussels convent of the same Order, give faith and attest that I left in the aforesaid convent a certain bone which I myself had taken from the body of our Most Blessed Mother Teresa, when I was discharging the office of definitor general in the Congregation of Spain of the same Order, and was shutting up the aforesaid most holy body in a certain chest by mandate of our very Reverend Father General Superior. And thus I have taken care that this bone be enclosed in perpetuity in a silver case among the Relics of the above-said convent. In faith of which we have given these presents, fortified with our own hand and seal, on this first day of April 1617, in our aforesaid convent. Fr. Thomas of Jesus, vicar general.
[1470] And several other Relics in Spain, of which The Relics of the holy Mother which still remain to be recorded I shall now go through in the order of regions. In Spain: at Ávila, in the same church of St. Teresa of the Discalced in which the sacred finger is kept, there is kept also her staff, rosary and sandal. See here the form of the staff which is venerated as a sacred Relic. The sandal is kept between two crystals, adorned with silk flowers. The strap is of gold, and the sole or lower part of the sandal is covered with a silver plate. This shoe is nine inches and three lines long, three inches and nine lines wide. The rosary has beads linked together by a silver wire passed through them. The part which is doubled is of the length of one ell and a quarter; the remaining part extends nine inches to the cross at the end. These things about the rosary, staff and sandal are drawn from the annotations of Mr. Boada added to the plates drawn by him. At Madrid, as is written in a letter sent to me from there on the 24th of March 1840, in the convent of Carmelite nuns which has its title from St. Teresa, a Relic of the flesh of St. Teresa is venerated in a silver and exceptionally well-made case: this sacred flesh has been cut in the form of a heart, and is almost four inches long. At Zaragoza a leather girdle is kept. Isabel of St. Dominic, going in the year 1588 to found a monastery in that city, brought it there. Fr. Frederick relates several portents by which it was distinguished. Among others it is said that several times blood dripped from it: which was an omen of calamitous events. Of that girdle Yepes speaks, book IV, chap. 2, where he notes several miracles wrought by it. In the same city, according to the Chronicle (vol. VI, book XXVI, chap. VII, num. 9), a Relic of the flesh of St. Teresa was wonderfully obtained by Feliciana of St. Joseph, a Carmelite nun; and many prodigies are narrated to have been done by God through that sacred pledge.
[1471] some are enumerated. At Calahorra the Annus Teresianus (vol. IV, page 265) relates that a veil is kept, which is enclosed in a silver case. And there are recited there the testimonial letters of the Rev. Father Provincial John of the Mother of God of the year 1733, by which it is established that it was found in the year 1716 in the sepulchre of Mother Isabel of Jesus, in the tenth year after her death, whole among the rest of the rotted linens. Namely, a nun who had applied that veil to Isabel of Jesus when she was sick, having neglected to remove it, it was put into the sepulchral recess together with the corpse. The same Annus Teresianus relates (vol. VII, p. 311) that a particle of the flesh of the holy Mother is kept among the Carmelite nuns of Malagón, and asserts that several prodigies were seen in connection with it. At Alcalá, in the church of the Discalced Carmelites
college which is called by the name of St. Cyril, Fr. Frederick, in that chapter often cited by me where he treats of the Relics, relates that a rib of the holy Virgin is kept. In the same place, among the Discalced nuns, there exist three bones of St. Teresa within a glass covering, made famous by splendid portents, as the Annus Teresianus has it (vol. I, p. 472 and following). At Granada is kept that shroud in which the corpse of St. Teresa lay wrapped while it remained at Ávila. That cloth had originally come into the hands of the archbishop of Granada, Martín Carrillo de Alderete, who ceded it to the Discalced Fathers of his city.
[1472] Likewise others in Italy. Italy, besides those which I have already reviewed, rejoices in the following Relics of St. Teresa. The Roman monastery of San Pancrazio, which is the seminary of the Carmelite missions, possesses a not small fragment of the right jaw, to which some teeth adhere. The convent of St. Anne at Genoa, by the right of the first-born in Italy, though a posthumous offspring, shows a venerable sign and pledge of the love and solicitude of its holy Mother Teresa. For when she foresaw in spirit that it would shortly come to pass that the first-fruits of the Reform would be brought into Italy, she wished that a monument of her charity and love should not be lacking to the Italian foundations, and to this end with her own hands she worked a certain not inelegant chalice-veil of silk, woven in net-work, and expressly ordered that it should go to help the sacred furniture of the first convent which should be founded in Italy (History of the Congregation of St. Elijah, vol. I, book II, c. XI). Fr. Frederick also mentions this Relic (book V, chap. VII): and he will furnish me with what now follows; although it escapes me what has become of these sacred Italian pledges of St. Teresa since the times of Fr. Frederick. In the Carmelite hermitage of Lombardy, he says, there exists a small rib of the holy Mother; at Venice, in the church of the Discalced, a tooth and a piece of flesh. Likewise: At Piacenza, among our Fathers of the Observance, in an ample and seemly case, there has been kept since the year 1625 a not small linen cloth which is all sprinkled with her blood, and which on her feast-day is publicly exposed for veneration. Several conjecture that the Saint used it after a harsh scourging; to me it seems more likely that it was soaked with her blood after her death. Likewise: At Milan, in our convent, there exists an authentic record from which it is clear that there was sent to it from Madrid in the year 1667 a molar tooth, which the Father General of the Spanish Congregation had formerly pulled out of the Saint's jaw. To the same house there passed a particle of the heart, which, worn on the neck by Baltasar, son of Philip IV, Don Francisco Rojas, his chaplain, had received to himself when he died. Likewise: At Florence, among our Fathers, the crown or rosary has been laid up in a rich and precious reliquary; while on the contrary the crown itself, consisting of very diverse beads, proclaims the holy Mother's love of poverty and her neglect of little ornaments in instruments of piety of this kind. Likewise: At Naples, in our church of the Holy Mother of God, a cape and at the same time a scapular which St. Teresa used at night are preserved. Likewise: Our Discalced nuns of St. Joseph at Naples possess a staff, a particle of flesh and a molar tooth. Likewise: In the celebrated chapel commonly called del Tesoro, a particle of the flesh of St. Teresa is within her silver likeness, which is placed among the likenesses of the tutelary Saints of the city of Naples.
[1473] Likewise others in France. In France: the same Paris convent which rejoices in the finger of the holy Mother rejoices also in her mantle, brought there by the nuns who came from Spain to found that first house in France. Mr. Boucher relates in the Life of Bl. Mary of the Incarnation (book 3, p. 367) that her most violent pains were once relieved when she was covered with this sacred garment. The novices of that convent, when professing their solemn vows, are accustomed to be clothed in this mantle: and Mr. Proyart narrates in the Life of Louise of Bourbon, daughter of Louis XV, that she, when she was about to devote herself solemnly to God in the convent of Saint-Denis, solicited that this grace should be granted to her too; and that her pious wishes were satisfied, and that sacred cloak was entrusted to the apostolic Nuncio in France, who should carry it to Saint-Denis and bring it back to Paris. Then in the other Paris convent, formerly in the street de Grenelle, now de Vaugirard (as I was informed by letters of the 18th of November 1840 sent from that house to the Rev. Mr. Tresvaux, canon of the metropolitan church of Paris, and communicated to me by that most obliging man), there exist today those Relics of Teresa which Fr. Louis of St. Teresa mentions in his Annals of the French Discalced Carmel (book 1, chap. XI), writing thus: We have there a very large reliquary of gilded wood, supported by two Angels, in which we venerate a particle of the flesh of St. Teresa (which the aforesaid recent letter says is consumed), one small bone and a little cloth soaked with the oil which drips from her body. And that annalist adds that the obtaining of those Relics is owed to Beatrice of the Conception, one of the six Spanish Carmelite nuns of whom mention was just made, and that, attestations having been had beforehand, public veneration was permitted to them from the year 1627. But the letters of the year 1840 already cited note that that faculty was given (that is, renewed) by the archbishop Christophe de Beaumont. I do not speak here of the letter of St. Teresa to Fr. Mariano of St. Benedict, which takes up two and a half pages, and is venerated in the same monastery, nor of three other letters which the other Paris house holds. For it would be prolix to make a catalogue of the places which possess this kind of Relics. Some, however, I shall name elsewhere, where there will be discussion of the letters of the Saint. Finally Baillet (num. 16 of his Life of Teresa) says that on the annually recurring feast-day certain Relics of hers used to be exposed in the church of Notre-Dame des Victoires, and likewise in the other which is called Val-de-Grâce. Outside Paris there comes to be celebrated a veil of the Saint, one part of which is kept among the Carmelite nuns of Bordeaux, the other among those of Rouen; as may be read in the Life of Bl. Mary of the Incarnation by Boucher (book III, p. 211), who also writes that that veil was brought from Spain into France in the year 1594 by Mr. de Brétigny.
[1474] Likewise in Poland; besides many others. Nor is distant Poland without a share of the Relics of Teresa. For, as Fr. Frederick relates, in the year 1609 Cracow became possessed of two not small pieces of her flesh, breathing a prodigious odour. Fr. Andrew of Jesus, who was the first of the Polish nation to profess the Reform of the Discalced Carmel, procured these Relics for his homeland. Lastly, besides the more signal Relics of St. Teresa recorded thus far, there exist very many other lesser ones, especially in Spain, about which a faithful friend, when he had named several greater ones, speaks thus: As regards other Relics of a lower order, such as garments, linens, little papers and the like, it would be long to run through all that could be recounted. And these things which I have discussed concerning the Relics of St. Teresa I shall close with the same remark with which Fr. Frederick begins his discussion of the same subject, namely that so great a distribution of her Relics must be referred to the decrees of a special divine providence, by which God surely willed that the remains of His spouse should be honoured most widely with pious homage, and that they should be reckoned as instruments through which He Himself might work prodigies and bestow graces.
§ LXXIV. On the writings of St. Teresa in general; on her books lost or falsely attributed to her, and on the autographs of the Saint.
St. Teresa composed books, how many and which. Being about to treat of the books of the holy Mother, which Ribera touches on in only a few words, I take for myself the words of the Chronicle, which approaches the same subject with the following exordium: Nothing can conduce more to the purpose of knowing St. Teresa than if we understand the excellence of her books. Here the capacity of her mind is disclosed, here her seraphic virtues betray themselves, here we are taught without fiction how much God held her in His grace, … here the whole Teresa is seen in herself (book V, chap. XXXV).
St. Teresa, within a space of about 21 years, besides works lost, composed writings which we have published, eleven. They are these:
Her Life, consisting of 40 chapters.
Additions to the Life, in some pages (to which add three shorter Relations of her life).
The Way of Perfection, in 42 chapters.
The Castle of the soul, or the Seven Mansions.
The Book of the Foundations, in 31 chapters, beyond the Foundation of Granada, which the Ven. Anne of Jesus described.
On the method of visiting convents of nuns of the Order of Discalced Carmelites.
Conceptions of the love of God upon certain words of the Song of Songs, in 7 chapters.
Exclamations or Meditations of the soul to its God.
Counsels of St. Teresa to her nuns, 69.
Other counsels, 19.
Spiritual poems, under the Spanish name of Glosa, Villancicos or Coplas.
Letters, commonly contained in Spanish in four volumes.
As regards the Constitutions composed and written by the Saint for the government of her nuns, it will be told in the paragraphs to follow.
[1476] Some little works of the Saint have perished: for example, a book of fables, Some volumes of the holy Mother of lesser bulk have perished, of which I shall here touch on a few beforehand. First, Fr. John of Jesus Mary testifies (book 1, chap. VI) that she so gave herself, together with her brother Rodrigo, to the most vain reading of books of chivalry that, quickly learning their properties of speech and figures, she worked out a book of that kind; by which so unusual a labour for a girl she set the tongues of many going. Therefore while still a little maiden she composed a fabulous or romantic little work about heroes, although not of the kind of those which are produced today, and which are for the most part the offspring of a delirious imagination, no less harmful than pleasing to unsound and frivolous readers. The virgin, who always detested obscenity, had indeed sprinkled nothing unseemly in that poem: nevertheless, since afterwards she so detested such fables read by her, she doubtless grieved that such had been composed by her; and it may be conjectured that she herself destroyed these little pages of hers.
[1477] a little book on melancholy, certain songs, a prophecy concerning Portugal, Second, in the book of the Foundations (chap. VII, num. 1) the Saint mentions a little book in which she had treated of melancholy. Third, we know of more spiritual poems composed by her than exist, to rouse pious gladness at the great solemnities of the Church. She mentions songs of this kind, vol. I, letter 31, and cites three stanzas. The Chronicle also (book XIII, chap. XX, num. 2) presents the refrain of a certain ode which the Saint had made to celebrate the entrance into Religion of the most noble Helena de Quiroga. Likewise (book VI, chap. X, num. 2) she is said to have composed songs of this kind in her convent of Medina. Fourth, in the Agiologio Lusitano, Jorge Cardoso, at the 15th of January, reports a prophecy written by Teresa concerning the kingdom of Portugal, of which he says the very copy written by her hand is preserved in the desert of the Order at Batuecas. But the continuator of the Chronicle (book XXIV, chap. XIV, num. 1) judges that the authentic one has perished and only a copy is preserved.
Fifth, in her letter to her brother Lorenzo the Saint mentions a little book written by her on the prayer which is usually called of quiet (vol. I, letter 33, num. 4). Sixth, a song on the name of Jesus has also perished (vol. I, letter 30, num. 14).
[1478] counsels to Philip II, Seventh, Fr. Anthony of St. Joseph narrates (vol. III, letter 1, notes 2, 3 and 4) that the Saint, when she was at Madrid in the year 1569, transmitted spiritual counsels to Philip II, according to what the Ven. Isabel of St. Dominic, Teresa's companion on that journey, had heard from her mouth: and among other things he says that our Saint admonished him to take care of his salvation, namely by saying to him fearlessly that he should remember Saul, chosen and anointed and yet going to perdition; so that the king, having pondered the paper, stood for some time with his mind in suspense, and at length said: Why should I not see this woman in person! But Teresa, when she was being summoned, had already left the city. And it may be conjectured with what pious daring the humble virgin went on to address the powerful monarch, from the impetus of zeal with which in chapter XXI of her Life, some years before, praying for kings and princes to have the most lofty gift of prayer, she exclaimed: If they had this, they would be ready to lose even a thousand kingdoms, either to increase and propagate the faith a little, or to give even a little light to heretics… O Lord, if Thou hadst placed me in that state in which it had been given me to speak this out to them with full voice, they would not indeed believe me, but I should satisfy myself… Indeed I seem to myself as one who would hold life cheap, so that I might declare one such truth to them… Granted that I am what I am, so great an impetus burns in me to say these things to those who exercise rule over others that I am wholly consumed. But to Thee, Lord, since I can do no more, I turn, beseeching that Thou Thyself apply the remedy to the evil. For Thou knowest that, provided I be in such a state that I do not offend Thee, I would most gladly be stripped of the graces which Thou hast conferred on me, so that they might be transferred to kings. For I know that then it would be impossible for them to tolerate the things which they now tolerate; and great good would follow from it. O my God! do Thou Thyself instruct them, that they may understand their duty. But I must break off, lest I be carried away by the eloquence of the Saint beyond the bounds prescribed to me.
[1479] Eighth, it is established that time, the devourer of things, or ill-advised piety or other causes have grudged us several letters of the Saint. For not only is no letter written by her before 1560 in our hands, and lastly several letters. The causes of their loss: but also none directed to St. John of the Cross, none to Anne of St. Bartholomew, nor to Anne of Jesus, except one and some fragments. That is missing which she says she sent to the Nuncio Sega (vol. IV, letter 26). Several of those are missing which she wrote to the Rev. Father General Rubeo, as letter 13 of volume I witnesses. Another sent to the canon Moya has vanished, of which there will be fuller discussion later. And several others have perished of which she herself speaks in her present letters. If we seek the causes why those letters perished, we find various ones. Sometimes the Saint ordered that her letters, when received, should at once be destroyed; as she is read to have ordered in volume I, letter 25, num. 3: which letter, however, was by happy chance preserved. So also, shortly before her death, she asked Anne of Jesus to burn all the letters which she had written to her; because, as she said, she had disclosed to her very secret and momentous things which it would be wrong to be divulged after her death. For in the instruments which are still kept in the archive of the Carmelite nuns of Brussels concerning the cause of beatification of the Ven. Anne of Jesus, it is read that a certain nun, named Mary of the Most Holy Trinity, testified that she had heard this from the mouth of Anne herself (in the answer to question 40: Whether Teresa held Anne of Jesus to be a Saint). So lastly, vol. II, letter 39, num. 6, the Saint asks Gracián to excerpt the more notable passages and burn the letters, because in that rough state of affairs no slight damage could have arisen from their being divulged.
[1480] [St. John of the Cross destroyed several, but not out of mortification, as Fr. Anthony of St. Joseph reports.] For a like cause St. John of the Cross, being engaged in almost continual persecutions, seems to have torn up the letters sent to him by the holy Mother. At least Fr. Mark of St. Francis narrates in his Life (chap. XXVI) that he did this towards the end of the year 1577, when he was being seized by order of Tostado, because he was believed to hold the side of St. Teresa as confessor of the monastery of the Incarnation. For when John, having been led to the prior of the monastery of the Mitigated, had to wait in the sacristy until the prior had finished his thanksgiving to God after the celebration of Mass, John, remembering the papers left at home, which, seized in haste, he had not been able to destroy, rushed out of the sacristy and ran home with swift foot; and having taken the key from the lock, shutting himself in the house, he tore up some papers and chewed up others: which done, when the emissaries knocked at the doors, he opened of his own accord, allowing himself to be led away wherever they wished. And I have related these things somewhat more fully for this reason, that it may be evident that Fr. Anthony of St. Joseph (in the prologue to volume III of the Letters, and note 5 to letter 40 of volume II) has strayed from the truth when he says that St. John of the Cross destroyed all the letters of the holy Mother out of heroic mortification. Lastly, another reason why several letters were lost is that they were cut short of their subscription, Teresa's name being cut off, which was inserted into reliquary cases: whence they were easily scattered. For if the letter was written by another's hand (which the sick Teresa was often compelled to borrow), when the name was cut off it lost all its value with the subscription; but if it was written by her hand, the author of the manuscript nevertheless easily became doubtful, since he could now be discerned only from the character of the style and of the letters.
[1481] That many still exist unpublished, as Mr. Boucher would have it, seems false. There are those who affirm that many unpublished letters still lie hidden today. It is clear that no account should be taken here of Fr. Frederick of St. Anthony, who says that some of this kind escape us; since he published the Life of the holy Mother in the year 1752, and thereafter, namely in the year 1771, two further volumes of letters saw the light. But I attend to what is said in the very prologue of the two later volumes, namely that many remain to be discovered, and likewise to what Mr. Boucher has (book IX), where he says it is known to him that among the Carmelite nuns of Burgos several still exist, and that he suspects many lie hidden in monasteries. But this does not seem to rest on truth. Indeed, when I had to set my hand to writing the Life of St. Teresa, led by a desire of knowing the vein and treasure of these letters, I turned at once without delay to Madrid, to that most diligent and most obliging man Fr. Ignacio Lerdo; who on the 24th of March 1840 answered me the following: What Mr. Boucher affirms about the existence of very many unpublished letters in the convent of Burgos and in others both of the same and of another Order seems to be denied. At least the present existence of letters of this kind is unknown even to one of the chief men of that Order, who, although he lately lived for six months in that house of Burgos, being secretary of the Most Reverend Father General, and being a very great lover of all things touching the holy Mother, nevertheless never heard anything of letters of this kind. It is certainly said by common report that many letters of that kind exist, both among some pious families and among nuns and among other religious houses. But for the most part they are only subscriptions; or, if they are letters, one may believe them already published: since after the lengthy researches of the past century certainly few unpublished ones remain. I for my part have found none, although I inquired also of the nuns of Alcalá, who were said to keep very many. And so much for the lost writings of Teresa. Now concerning some falsely ascribed to her.
[1482] [Spurious writings which were attributed to the Saint: a prophecy of the destruction of the Society of Jesus; and the ode No me mueve, etc.,] I pass over the spurious fragment of a letter by which certain Spanish calumniators, who in the past century were plotting the ruin of this Order, falsely asserted that Teresa had foretold the destruction of the Society of Jesus: of which more fully later. Further, certain persons of today, whom a French author has followed in the most recent Life of St. Teresa, have not feared to ascribe to her that famous song whose beginning runs thus:
No me mueve, mi Dios, para quererte El cielo, que me tienes prometido: Ni me mueve el infierno tan temido Para dexar por eso de ofenderte. [I am not moved, my God, to love Thee by the heaven which Thou hast promised me: nor am I moved by hell, so feared, to cease for that reason from offending Thee.]
Or according to the Latin version which Fr. Francisco García made in the year 1676:
O God! I love Thee, Nor do I love Thee that Thou mayest save me, Or because those who do not love Thee Thou punishest with eternal fire.
This ode had been published very often, ascribed now to St. Ignatius, now to St. Francis Xavier: but to which of them by right, can be debated in the Life of St. Francis Xavier at the 3rd of December. But the fiction of those who ascribe it to St. Teresa is so recent and without any foundation, even the least, that the much-praised Order of Carmel itself, when it was compiling in the year 1752 the fullest edition of Teresa's works, either was ignorant of this opinion, which was probably not yet born, or judged that it lacked every appearance of truth; so that it did not think it should be either refuted or even mentioned. It is new indeed, certainly, says (p. 231) the editor of the Letters of St. Ignatius which came out at Bologna in the year 1804, but truly it did not seem a wonder to me; since some have not been ashamed to display Xavier himself graphically painted in the Carmelite habit and insignia, though the very light of noon, the consensus of the Christian world and the most certain testimonies of the same Xavier protested in vain. For we have fallen upon these times in which every most evident truth is despised. But it wearies me to linger longer on a matter so clear. Thus the most learned editor.
[1483] But more worthy of treatment is the question whether the book entitled Seven Meditations on the Lord's Prayer, etc., [and also the 7 meditations on the Lord's Prayer. An error admitted by many about this,] is Teresa's or not. The new Bibliotheca Hispana of Nicolás Antonio, published at Madrid in the year 1788 (article St. Teresa), says that that little work had already come out at Madrid in the year 1615 together with the Conceptions of St. Teresa on the Song of Songs; and the Chronicle (book V, chap. XLII, num. 7) affirms that it had already for some years been widely published by several printers, when Balthasar Moretus in the year 1630, into his Spanish edition of Teresa's works, more beautiful than faithful,
included it, with this little preface going before it:
These Meditations on the Lord's Prayer were found among the fragments of the Conceptions on the Song of Songs of the holy Mother Teresa, which were kept with Doña Isabel de Avellaneda, wife of Don Dionisio de Cárdenas, formerly president of the council of the Orders; of which no mention is made in her Life, because they were held to be among the lost. But this proem did not proceed from Moretus, as the Chronicle wrongly hints, imputing to him the error propagated thence by which the book began to be held as Teresa's: for it is already found in the Latin version of St. Teresa of the year 1626 which Martínez had prepared from the Spanish; indeed it is likely that the same is in the earlier edition of that version of the year 1620, which is not at my hand, but which seems to have been in all respects similar to the second. From this badly stitched-on prologue it came about that those Meditations began here and there to be held as Teresa's. As such Fr. Martial of St. John the Baptist defends them in his Bibliotheca of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, and as such Arnauld d'Andilly and Emery also esteemed them, of whom the former inserted them into his French version, and the latter into his French work, Esprit de S. Therese. Du Serre-Figon also holds them as Teresa's (in the annotations to his Panegyric of St. Teresa), and Fr. John of St. Louis in his Life of Teresa (book VI, chap. VIII). And Fr. Frederick of St. Anthony narrates (book IV, chap. X, in a note) that the author of the prologue of the Piacenza edition of the year 1631 contends with such false arguments that that little work came from Teresa that he not only wrongly calls the style similar to Teresa's, but also wishes to prove from the passages of Holy Scripture heaped up in that book that the holy Mother, like a second St. Bernard, continually either used the words of the Sacred Letters or did not utter a word which did not rest upon them. But who, besides that perspicacious phrase-hunter, could ever notice in the writings of St. Teresa so great a familiarity of hers with Holy Scripture?
[1484] while others hesitated in doubt. The opinion of others seems uncertain, for example that of the Carmelite Fathers who prepared the edition of the works of the holy Mother in the year 1752, republished in the year 1793. For although they incline strongly towards denying that little work to the holy Mother, they nevertheless say that they leave the door open to a more thoroughly explored criticism. The Bibliotheca Carmelitana also hesitates in doubt (article St. Teresa). Butler likewise is doubtful (in the notes to the Life of St. Teresa). Doubtful finally, and dissenting from the Spanish text, nay not sufficiently consistent with himself, is Fr. Gabriel of the Cross, author of the French version of the Chronicle, who in vol. II, page 664, says it is not fully clear to him that the book is by St. Teresa, while at p. 645 he says it does not seem to him to belong to Teresa for reasons which he promises he will bring forward, and which, however, unfaithful to the Spanish text, he conceals through the whole volume translated by him. But, besides Fr. Matthias of St. Arnold, who put the Works of the holy Mother into German, Fr. Frederick of St. Anthony (book IV, chap. X) and the author of the Chronicle (book V, chap. XXXV, num. 8, and chap. XLII, num. 6 and following) deny that book to Teresa; and also Fr. Joseph of St. Teresa, continuator of the Chronicle, in the fourth volume (book XV, c. VII, n. 8), conjectures that those Meditations were written not by the holy Mother but by a certain Carmelite Father. From which it seems that that tradition or persuasion persisted in the Order, since the fourth volume of the Chronicle saw the light in the fortieth year after the first volume.
[1485] [The foundation of that opinion is unsound: nor does the Order of Carmel incline towards it. A negative argument against it.] The chief foundation on which the opinion, fairly widespread today, by which this little book is ascribed to St. Teresa was formerly built up seems to have been the little preface already alleged, made first by I know not whom: whose words, if they are weighed, are understood to say nothing probable. Unsound also is the reason which is put forward, namely that these little pages were stitched together with a certain work of Teresa, and that with the fragments of the Conceptions on the Song of Songs, which book, written by Teresa's hand, we know was wholly committed to the fire by her, so that only a part remains to us, copied out earlier by a certain nun. But if anyone wishes strictly to conclude that it is a twin offspring of the holy Mother because the two little books were bound together, he would say with almost the same right that two men are brothers as soon as they occupy the same lodging. Indeed, even if it had been said and demonstrated that those Meditations had been found written in the Saint's own hand, the matter would by no means have been settled, since it could have been doubted whether the Saint had not copied them from elsewhere. Moreover the universal sense of the Order, as the Chronicle says, does not incline to attributing that work to the holy Mother; because, as is added there, her sons, intent on the assiduous reading of her works, detect in it a diction plainly unusual for the holy Mother both as to substance and as to form. Moreover, if a negative argument has any force, Fr. Anthony of Jesus, St. John of the Cross, Jerome Gracián, Anne of Jesus and Anne of St. Bartholomew, who were all most familiar with the holy Mother and knew her writings thoroughly, as also her biographers Ribera, Yepes and John of Jesus Mary, demonstrate by their silence about this little book that the composition is not Teresa's, since a writing on such a subject could not have escaped so many and such men. Lastly, what would have induced the holy Virgin to treat anew of the Lord's Prayer, which she had treated so happily in the Way of Perfection?
[1486] [Fr. Frederick of St. Anthony demonstrates that book to be spurious from its style, which is not at all Teresa's,] It is pleasing to bring forward here as a crowning conclusion two excellent excerpted passages, one from the Chronicle (book V, chap. XLII, num. 9), the other from Fr. Frederick of St. Anthony (book IV, chap. X): where the latter speaks thus: The writings of St. Teresa have a distinct character. Her writings are written in a most polished and most pure style, yet sprinkled with no affectation, as everyone who is somewhat skilled in the Castilian idiom confesses. The holy Virgin does not abstain from pleasant witticisms, and she continually lowers herself, and proclaims herself a great sinner, an ignorant woman, and useful for nothing. Although God raised her up to fulfil in signal fashion the mastership of the loftiest secrets, she nevertheless dares to call no others than her daughters to share in her instructions, and scarcely endures to mention her sons. Then, carried away by a divine frenzy, she often admits digressions, frequently exclamations and thanks rendered to God; and, what is most singular, whenever humility and charity are involved in her discourse, she cannot but be diffuse. But a like character does not appear in the Meditations on the Lord's Prayer. These are written very methodically; addressed to one man; they seem dictated by a learned scholastic; and without any disturbance the order of the discourse, introduction, matter and conclusion, is kept. Teresa's words savour of a holy neglect of figures and an ingenuous charm, joined with a lovable simplicity; but art and study plainly betray themselves in the author of these Meditations. Let there be read, if you please, the exposition of the Lord's Prayer inserted by the holy Virgin in her book on the Way of Perfection, and let it be compared with the anonymous author's Meditations: from this comparison a wonderful dissimilarity will manifestly shine forth.
[1487] I do not deny that the holy Mother was endowed with the gift of interpreting the Sacred Pages… But her knowledge was confined within the versicles which she read in her Breviary, [and from Holy Scripture often cited there, and from the arguments arranged there in order:] and the holy Gospels, which she turned over not without great movements of soul. But she never brought this gift forth in public. She did not read the Holy Bible from the sources themselves, and at Toledo she refused to admit a novice for this reason alone, that she had understood from her that she had such a book with her. She explained the Sacred Songs of Solomon; but so far as appears from the few remains, method was lacking, and she had undertaken to unfold only some versicles, drawn from the Breviary and from the discourses of preachers. In the Meditations, on the contrary, which constitute a very small treatise, a man versed in the reading of the Sacred Scriptures is observed. There are cited in them deeds and texts from Genesis, Deuteronomy, Ecclesiasticus and the Apocalypse. The sixth chapter of Leviticus is expressly mixed into the prologue; which Teresa would never have done, even if the law there recorded had been known to her, by which it was incumbent on the priest always to feed the fire of the altar with new wood. In the third petition scriptural phrases are employed, and it is said: "And therefore he admonishes Jerusalem, the harlot and adulteress, inviting her to do penance, that she may return to him." Which terms are wholly foreign to the style of the holy Virgin. In the fourth petition, to explain the words "Give us this day our daily bread," and to establish that the Kingdom of God is to be sought in the first place, the same petition is explained in the words of the other Evangelist: "And this he willed to declare through St. Matthew, teaching us to ask for that very bread: Give us this day our supersubstantial bread." What more? In the seventh petition it is asserted that in Holy Scripture there exist some most devout prayers, composed by holy persons moved by the Holy Spirit; such as the publican of the Gospel, Anna the mother of Samuel, Judith, king Manasses, Daniel, Judas Maccabeus: and it is added summarily: "Holy Scripture is full of vocal prayers similar to these." Whether such is the character and diction of Teresa, I leave to others more skilled than I to judge.
[1488] which the Chronicle proves in almost the same way. But the Chronicle speaks thus: If the two explanations are compared with each other with moderate attention, so great a difference is evident that I doubt whether there exist writings more discordant as to arrangement, exposition, manner of concluding and style. And indeed it seems impossible that, since the other books of the holy Mother are so similar to each other, these Meditations should differ so greatly from the rest. The author of this book or treatise uses a very methodical and speculative arrangement, an artificial and cultivated style, an accurate placing of clauses and words, and alleges texts of Holy Scripture that are not common, and elucidates them with explanations savouring of theological form. All of which are distant and foreign from those things which we see in the other books of our glorious Saint: for her style and arrangement suit more a womanly simplicity. Yet in a wholly superior manner, not by human artifice but by divine illumination and wisdom, she transcends the best with an excellence of such supernal fervour that no one can imitate it by human contrivance. And in very truth, however much that author attempted it, he was by no means able; and he fell short by so great an interval that not one person moderately versed in reading the books of the holy Virgin, if he reads these Meditations, would fail at once to understand it clearly; which indeed will be the best proof of our proposition: and
therefore it would be superfluous to dwell longer on a matter so manifest.
[1489] Some errors in Teresa's autographs have been struck out, Having just asserted her own books for Teresa, let us investigate what autograph writings of hers survive. First, however, certain things must be noted beforehand, and some sayings of famous writers refuted. In the first place Yepes affirms that Teresa's hand was so easy and her pen so sure, although she wrote quickly, that no errors struck out were found in her writings. But Fr. Francis of St. Mary, who, being about to write the Chronicle of the Order, had in the year 1634 and again in the year 1641 carefully inspected the four manuscripts which are in the library of the palace of the Escorial, says that for the truth of the matter he must assert that not only were certain words changed in those autographs, but that three or even more lines here and there were corrected by the writer, not indeed to change the meaning, but to amend the manner of expression. In the margin of the paper too, which in Teresa's writings is generally narrow, some things have been added by the same hand, as also some between the lines (book V, chap. XXXV, n. 2 and 3).
[1490] and it is noted that her hand is firm and neat. Then Fr. Frederick (book IV, chap. XIV) denies that St. Teresa's writing is clear; and, after saying that the hand of Anne of St. Bartholomew is very difficult to read, he affirms that Teresa's hand is scarcely better, but that one is similar to the other; and he approves both Caramuel, who in the Life of the Ven. Fr. Dominic of Jesus Mary (num. 1097) asserts that Anne, whose hand he confesses inelegant, wrote no otherwise than Teresa, and Enríquez, who in the Life of the same Anne (book II, chap. XVIII) likewise holds that Anne's writing, very disagreeable to the reader, is of the same form and character as is Teresa's writing. I am compelled to contradict these authors, leaving Anne's manner of writing undecided, as far as concerns Teresa's hand; and I adhere plainly to Fr. Francis of St. Mary, most versed in examining and turning over Teresa's writings, who in the Chronicle (book V, chap. XXXV, num. 3) gives a wholly contrary judgment concerning the character of the writing of his holy Mother, saying that it is clear, distinct, well formed, so that among the manuscripts of anyone whatever it is easy for anybody to distinguish Teresa's: Es su letra conocida entre todas, clara, distinta, bien formada. Her hand is known among all, clear, distinct, well formed. But I cannot agree with Fr. Francis himself in what he adds, that Teresa's writings recall a woman's hand: Su letra … no sale de la esfera de las mugeres. Her hand … does not go outside the sphere of women. For in those manuscripts of Teresa which it was given me to inspect, the letters appear well turned with a firm pen, signs certainly of a manly spirit in a virgin, if it is true that the minds of writers betray themselves in the character of their writing. Let the readers themselves judge whether there is anything womanly in the form of the letters of the plate to be inserted at Ribera, book III, chap. I; which shows her profession, which she pronounced on the 13th of July 1571, when she had been made prioress of the monastery of the Incarnation, and whose autograph is kept at Madrid in the monastery of St. Anne. Nor is it superfluous to note that the character of the letters of Teresa which I have seen is most closely similar to the character of that engraved formula.
[1491] Five autographs, beyond many letters, are noted. Of Teresa's books, besides the letters, some are preserved written by her own hand; the rest have perished, which were the more easily lost because they are among her lesser treatises. The hope of recovering them still shone in the middle of the seventeenth century for the author of the Chronicle (book V, chap. XXXV, num. 11), because a certain one of the Spanish grandees was said to have disclosed to another that certain autographs of St. Teresa were carefully preserved with him, which he had not, however, named. And in fact, a whole century later, the Annus Teresianus (vol. VII, p. 152, Madrid 1758) says that two lesser autographs had lately been found, namely a part of the Exclamations among the Carmelite nuns of Granada, and a manuscript of Songs in the hermitage of the Carmel of Genoa. Four volumes of this kind, namely of the Life, the Way of Perfection, the Foundations and On the Method of visiting monasteries, together with the inkstands which the Saint used, are still today kept in the same state and place as formerly in the royal library of the palace of the Escorial, the single key of the repository remaining with one of the Hieronymite Fathers: as I was informed by letters given from the monastery of the Escorial itself on the 3rd of March 1842. In the time of the French domination under Napoleon, however, these treasures were carried with others to Madrid. They are held in great veneration, and are laid up behind iron railings in a little cabinet skilfully made of precious woods with fine work and closed with its own key (Yepes, book III, chap. XIX, and the Chronicle, book V, chap. XXXV, num. 11): which some (for example Becchetti in the Italian Ecclesiastical History of the last 4 centuries, book XXII, num. 109, and Butler, note d) say Philip II always kept with him. To me, however, it seems more probable that the words of Yepes, un escritorio mui rico, y cerrado continuamente con su llave a very rich cabinet, and continually closed with its key, on which those authors seem to rely, signify only that that little cabinet was closed with a key of its own. However that may be, these manuscripts of the holy Virgin were formerly, according to Yepes, and are also today shown as a sacred treasure. In the same case are kept two very old books, of which one is a copy of the treatise On the Baptism of Infants, which they assert is an autograph of St. Augustine, although the form of the letters betrays it to be anything but African; and the other is a Greek writing, which with no better right they have said was written by the hand of St. John Chrysostom, while others simply hold it to be a book which survives from his library.
[1492] The autographs of the Foundations and of the Method of visiting, Now the Chronicle narrates (book V, chap. XXXV, num. 9 and following) how two of those four manuscripts, namely the Book of the Foundations and On the Method of visiting, came there. When Philip II was seeking from all sides sacred treasures to gather into his newly built palace of the Escorial, he asked the vicar general of the Order for the manuscripts of Teresa, whose fame of sanctity had already spread widely and the force of whose eloquence the king himself had several times experienced. The vicar general therefore wrote to Doctor Sobrino, who in the year 1588 had taken care of the first edition of Teresa's works at Salamanca, after the death of Luis de León, the following letter, of which Fr. Francis of St. Mary says the authentic copy is preserved in the archive of the Order: The peace of Christ, etc. His Majesty our king longs to place in the royal monastery of San Lorenzo the original books of the good Mother Teresa of Jesus; at which our Religious Order has greatly rejoiced. And since you hold two, he has ordered me to invite you by letter to entrust them to the man whom the Rev. Fr. Diego de Yepes, prior of San Lorenzo, shall indicate, so that His royal Majesty's plan may be fulfilled, and the books kept where they will be kept so well and with so much honour of the good Mother. Since you have desired and do desire this, I am persuaded that it will be most welcome to you … Madrid, 3rd of June of the year 1592. Fr. Nicholas of Jesus Mary, vicar general. Therefore on the 18th of August of the same year Doctor Sobrino handed the two aforesaid manuscripts to García de Loaysa, then tutor of the royal prince and afterwards archbishop of Toledo, who himself handed them to Diego Yepes, at that time confessor of Philip II. But how or when the two other autographs, namely of the Life and of the Way of Perfection, were brought into that library escapes me, doubting whether it was by the vicar general or by Anne of Jesus, or rather by the head of the Inquisitors or by anyone else.
[1493] as also that of the Life, The author of the Chronicle describes the form of these manuscripts, which he had inspected in the year 1641, thus: That copy of the Life is written on full folio, with very small margins left, and contains two hundred and three leaves. It has some lines, sometimes two or three together, struck out, and between the lines or sometimes in the margin some words supplied. It begins thus: "Quisiera yo que como me han mandado y dado larga licencia" I would wish that, as they have commanded me and given me ample leave etc.; which now serves as a prologue, although the Saint used by no means this or any other term savouring of study, everywhere displaying simplicity and humility. Whence it follows that the title of the first leaf does not belong to the text, and the printers changed it. What precedes this prologue belongs no more to the text, and indeed is written in a hand different from Teresa's hand; for, as has been said, the Saint's first words run: "Quisiera yo" I would wish. After this entrance or prologue comes the first chapter, which is written in the Saint's hand, as is what follows, namely the whole body of the book and the titles of the chapters. The whole work is closed with these words: "No permita se pierda esta alma que con tantos artificios y maneras y tantas vezes ha sacado su Magestad del infierno, y traido a si. Amen." [May He not permit this soul to be lost, which His Majesty has so many times, with so many devices and ways, drawn out of hell and brought to Himself. Amen.] Then follows a letter written by the hand of the holy Mother herself, by which she sends the book to the man at whose command she had written it…; which exists printed at the end of the Life, and begins: "El Espiritu Santo sea siempre con V. M. Amen." May the Holy Spirit be always with Your Reverence. Amen. And it is closed with these words: "Para siempre jamas le alabemos." For ever and ever let us praise Him. She discloses in this letter how little time she had for writing this book, and that she was not permitted to reread it entire. And, in my judgment, this was the cause why she did not change the year 1562 and the month of June; which, as was noticed, and as Father Master Báñez warned us, is understood of the earlier writing, when no foundation had yet been made, not of the later writing, when she had already founded one monastery. At the end of the whole book there exists the approbation of Father Master Báñez, set down on two and a half leaves, written entirely in his hand on the 7th of July in the year 1575. It must be judged that this is the same as that which he drew up by order of the supreme council of the Inquisition, when that tribunal in the year 1574 (rather 1575), while the holy Mother was staying at Beas, ordered the book to be reviewed. For since Fr. Báñez approved the book in the year 1575, and this approbation was sewn to the book, it is no weak conjecture that the said approbation was given on this occasion. Thus far the Chronicle (book V, chap. XXXVI, num. 9). But concerning what is said here, that the letter is to Fr. García de Toledo, and that Teresa wrote the month and year erroneously, I shall treat in the following §.
[1494] and of the Way of Perfection, Then the manuscript of the Way of Perfection which is found in the royal library is a volume in quarto, and wholly written in Teresa's hand, and has some lines struck out. The Book of the Foundations too, like all the others, is without the inscribed word Prologue, but begins with the words of the proem: Por experiencia he visto By experience I have seen, etc. It consists of 133 pages in folio, scarcely margined; it lacks a title, and was
corrected no otherwise than the two aforesaid books. Likewise the fourth, On the Method of visiting convents of nuns, lacks the title commonly prefixed, and begins with the words: Confiesso (or, as it is now written, confieso) lo primero la imperfeccion que he tenido I confess first the imperfection which I have had, and continues without division into chapters. It has twenty-four pages, nor is any word found emended in the manuscript. At the end there is a certain letter, which is not usually published with the book and in which the Saint addresses the person at whose order she had composed the treatise. It is known, moreover, from certain additions of Fr. Jerome Gracián to the Life of the Saint, that Gracián himself ordered this at the time, as he hints, when he was discharging the office of provincial, and when the year 1581 had already somewhat begun.
[1495] and of the Castle of the soul. Further, as to the fifth autograph writing of Teresa, which contains the Castle of the soul, Fr. Gracián, the possessor of that treasure, when visiting the monastery of Seville, gave it as a gift to Pedro Cerezo Pardo, to whom Ribera too dedicated his Life of Teresa. He had bought a property for the monastery of Carmelite nuns for six hundred gold pieces, had bestowed three hundred for the foundation of another house, had dowered three novices, and had magnificently conferred other goods on the house of Seville. Then his only daughter and heir Catherine brought that writing of the holy Mother into the monastery of Seville, in which she was given the habit of Religion; and afterwards Joanna de Mendoza, Duchess of Béjar, a novice in the same monastery, had it covered with silver boards and emeralds. That this most precious gift is still kept there today I was informed by letters sent from Seville on the 28th of April 1842 by the Rev. Fr. Nicolás Montemayor, S. J., in which he reports that he held it in his hand, read it through several times, and often kissed it.
[1496] Several autographs of the Saint of the Way of Perfection exist. Finally, beyond that of the Escorial, several copies of the Way of Perfection exist, either written by Teresa or corrected by her hand. Fr. Anthony of St. Joseph mentions four of them in his notes to letter 5 of volume IV, which he says are preserved at Toledo, Salamanca, Valladolid and Madrid. As to this last, the Rev. Fr. Puyal, S. J., in letters to me given from Madrid on the 14th of March 1842, deigned to write the following: That quasi-original copy of the Way of Perfection is kept here in the convent of Discalced Carmelite nuns called of St. Teresa, and subject to the government of the Ordinary… And indeed at present, through the kindness of the nuns, I have that copy before my eyes. It is a volume which we call in quarto; it has silver covers, skilfully made, and similar clasps. In their centre the insignia or shield of the Order is chased, and below (namely on each cover) the following inscription is read: "Este libro es del convento real de Santa Teresa de Jesus de Madrid, ano 1755" [This book belongs to the royal convent of St. Teresa of Jesus of Madrid, year 1755] ("This book belongs to the royal convent of St. Teresa of Jesus of Madrid, in the year 1755"). On the back of the book, which is also of silver, the title "Camino de Perfeccion" Way of Perfection is written or chased along its length. In this whole manuscript, which is written in another and unknown hand, nothing singular is noticed: on the last leaf, however, and after the end of the book, the following testimony is noted, written entirely in the hand of St. Teresa, and it runs thus: "Tiene este libro ciento y ochenta y tres ojas; esta aprobado y visto por el Pe. Fray Garcia de Toledo de la Orden de Santo Domingo, y por el Dotor Ortiz vecino de Toledo: es trasladado de uno, que yo escribi en Sn. Josef de Avila, que vieron los que digo, y hartos mas: y por ser verdad le firmo de mi nombre. Teresa de Jesus Carmelita". [This book has one hundred and eighty-three leaves; it is approved and seen by Father Fray García de Toledo of the Order of St. Dominic, and by Doctor Ortiz, a resident of Toledo: it is copied from one which I wrote at St. Joseph's of Ávila, which those I mention saw, and many more besides: and because it is true I sign it with my name. Teresa of Jesus, Carmelite.] ("This book contains one hundred and eighty-three leaves; it was approved and seen by Fr. F. García de Toledo of the Order of St. Dominic, and by Doctor Ortiz, a citizen of Toledo. It is taken from another which I wrote at St. Joseph's of Ávila, which the said men saw, and several others. And since these things are true, I confirm them by setting my name. Teresa of Jesus, Carmelite"). I cannot affirm to you with entire certainty that nothing in the body of the book was corrected by St. Teresa's own hand. There are certainly some emendations made not by her but by the scribe. So he. Of the autograph of Valladolid we shall speak in § LXXVII, where we treat of the edition of this book. Likewise of the autograph of the Constitutions (according to the Annus Teresianus, vol. VII, p. 159) we shall treat where we deal expressly with the Constitutions.
§ LXXV. On the published books of St. Teresa, and on those translated into various languages.
Yepes affirms (book III, chap. XVIII) that, while Teresa was still alive, her book on the Way of Perfection was published by the archbishop of Évora, Teotonio de Braganza: [The book of the Way of Perfection was first published with the Counsels, with the Saint's consent:] and in fact we see from num. 1 of letter 5 of volume IV, sent to Teotonio on the 22nd of June 1579, that the Saint sent him the manuscript to be published; to which she, who so much loved to be unknown and reckoned as nothing, was certainly induced by no other reason than the hope held out to her of great profit. Fr. Anthony of St. Joseph says in his notes to that letter that that book came out at Évora only in the year 1583, although with the approbations of the censors already granted in the year 1580, and permission to publish already given then. To that volume, which is in form, as it is said, in octavo, besides the learned prologue of Teotonio, there were also annexed the Counsels of the Saint, as also a short Life of St. Albert, which Fr. Diego de Yanguas of the Order of Preachers had turned from Latin into Spanish at Teresa's request. That book, such as it was then published, if you take away one chapter, which, for I know not what cause, was entirely omitted by the editor, is altogether conformable to the manuscript which is kept at Toledo, and which was indeed not written by Teresa, but which, from the form of the letters and from comparison with other autographs of the Saint, is established to have been corrected in many places by her hand. And it seems to be that very copy for the correcting of which, before it was sent to Teotonio, Jerónima of the Holy Spirit testified in the informative processes that she was employed by the holy Mother. On these things consult Fr. Anthony of St. Joseph, in the place cited above.
[1498] [and after her death the rest were published, chiefly through the care of the Ven. Anne of Jesus,] As regards the other books of the Saint, as the Chronicle narrates (book V, chap. XXXV, num. 5), the Order, seeing that after the death of the holy Mother they were eagerly copied at home and abroad and disseminated everywhere, feared lest this should become damaging to their integrity and fidelity. Wherefore Fr. Nicholas Doria, who was then discharging the office of provincial, asked a doctor from the Augustinian Order (to remove all suspicion from his own Order), the most celebrated Luis de León, to take upon himself the part of publishing the works of the holy Mother. Nevertheless in publishing Teresa's books more praise seems to be due to Anne of Jesus. For if Father Manrique is to be believed, who in the Life of Anne of Jesus (book IV, chap. XII), from authentic documents and from the informative processes in the cause of beatification of St. Teresa, has several things worthy of note on this matter, Anne, as soon as she had arrived at Madrid to found a convent, inquired about the book of the Life of her holy Mother, which for nearly twelve years had lain deeply hidden with the Sacred Tribunal. Never indeed in all that time had Anne doubted that the work would at some time come out into the light, and that the examination instituted by the Inquisitors would turn to the good success of the book, as Teresa had once disclosed had been revealed to her by God, when, the book of the Life having been delivered to the Inquisition, at Anne's persuasion she had commended the whole matter to God. The Inquisitor general declared to Anne, when she inquired, that the book had not only been approved, but that it was the wish of all the councillors that it should be sent forth into the light, and indeed that they would gladly contribute the expense for it. In this way, by Anne, but certainly through the intervention of Doria, and at Anne's request by the empress Mary herself, daughter of Charles V and widow of Maximilian II, the manuscript was commended to Luis de León, not indeed that he should censor the book, since it had already in the year 1575 been examined by Báñez and Fernando del Castillo, but that he should compare with the autographs the manuscripts to be handed to the press, both of the Life and of the other books of Teresa which could be found. For Doria, thinking that he could not pass over so opportune an occasion, had ordered Anne of Jesus to collect the various scattered writings of Teresa and hand them to Fr. Luis.
[1499] and by the work of Luis de León, He showed himself most ready to undertake the proposed business, provided the mandate of the royal council were added: and when this had at once been obtained, he girded himself so strenuously to the work that, the books which he had received in October 1586 (not 1587, as Mr. Boucher has it) having been transcribed and collated with the autograph, he set his name to them so that they might be published. But, prevented by death, he consigned the manuscripts to Doctor Sobrino; until at length, the work having been dedicated by Nicholas Doria in his own and his Order's name to the empress, the writings were entrusted to Guillermo Foquel, the best printer who then flourished at Salamanca, who made them public in the year 1588. That published volume comprised six works of Teresa, namely three greater ones, to each of which a lesser was annexed, to the book of the Life the Additions, to the Way of Perfection the Counsels, and to the Castle of the soul the Exclamations: of all of which Luis de León attests that he had the autographs in his hands, although those of the three lesser works were afterwards no longer found. He had also inspected and collated the book of the Foundations; but he had not yet thought it should be published, because many of the persons mentioned in it were still living: for which reason that book was not published until the year 1610, when it was printed at the Brussels presses by Rutger Velpius.
[1500] [who prefixes to them a letter to the Ven. Anne of Jesus, to whom the Saint appears in congratulation.] That edition of Foquel was dedicated to the empress Mary under the date of the 14th of April by the provincial Doria, and moreover there was prefixed to it another letter of Luis de León to Anne of Jesus and the other nuns of the convent of Madrid. And because Anne of Jesus had given great effort that Teresa's books should be committed to print, the latter appeared to her, and deigned to gratify Anne with a most welcome colloquy; as in a manuscript informative process (which is kept at Brussels among the Carmelite nuns) Beatrice of the Conception on the 15th of December 1641, having taken an oath, testified that she had heard from the mouth of Anne herself. From that rather lengthy letter of Luis to Anne it is enough to present here certain excerpts, in which he explains how much effort he put into publishing Teresa's books. Here are his words:
[1501] The diligence and sincerity of Luis in preparing the edition. Teresa's writings, since it was enjoined on me by the royal council to review and reread them,
so that they might come forth into the light, I think I can rightly and deservedly dedicate to your holy convent, as I do in fact dedicate them, on account of the great labour which I undertook in reviewing them: for I had to toil not only in selecting and examining them, as the council had commanded me, but also in collating them with their autograph (which was with me many days), and restoring them to their original lustre and purity, as the holy Mother wrote them with her own hand, so that I should change nothing in them, either as to words or as to matter; for the copies which had been made from the autograph were exceedingly interpolated, either by the negligence or the boldness or the ignorance of the copyists. For it was an exceedingly great boldness to change what she wrote in whose breast God dwelt, and whom the divine Majesty Himself (as indeed is likely) moved to write these things; indeed it was a truly intolerable stupidity to wish to correct her words: for if they had been well skilled in the Castilian tongue, they would undoubtedly have seen that St. Teresa is elegance itself in it. For granted that in some places of her writing, before she completes the sentence and period begun, she inserts others, and not rarely breaks off the thread of a narration begun through some matter falling in outside the purpose, yet she inserts this little stitched-on piece so dexterously and skilfully that this very fault even lends a certain charm to the discourse, like a darkish beauty-spot on a face: so that I have brought this back to its original integrity and purity.
[1502] [Those are refuted who say the Saint's books are praised, not read, from the number of editions] I would touch only briefly on the manifold editions of Teresa's works, were there not several among people of today to be refuted here who, with Emery, Boucher, du Serre-Figon etc., not indeed maliciously but inconsiderately, and not without damage to the posthumous glory of the holy Virgin, continually repeat a not sufficiently honourable saying, by which Teresa is compared to Plato, whose writings, they say, are indeed extolled, but not read. How far this is from the truth may be seen from the numerous times in which her works were submitted to the press and are still being submitted. So, then, that it may be established that they are not only praised but read and worn by innumerable persons, take here noted some editions out of many, and those the first that come my way: for I neither wish nor am able to weave a full catalogue of them. For how should it not escape me, writing today, how often Teresa's works have been reprinted in various parts of the world, if Yepes, who was writing in the year 1606, testifies that it had already then been done many times, and the author of the Chronicle (book V, chap. XXXV, num. 7) says that it cannot easily be determined how often they had then come out both within and outside Spain. If then in the middle of the seventeenth century it was right for a learned son of the holy Mother to speak thus, who had discharged illustrious offices in the Order and who, as historiographer, turned over whatever concerned the Order, much less can it be expected of me that I should enter this forest and enumerate accurately the times in which Teresa's works were reproduced through two whole subsequent centuries. Receive, however, a few things in summary, which may suffice to demonstrate the falsity of the saying mentioned above. They came out, then:
[1503] Spanish, In Spanish. At Évora 1583; Salamanca 1588; Naples 1594 (in the prologue of this edition, according to the author of the Annus Teresianus, vol. VII, page 175, Teresa's writings are said already then to have been printed many times in Spanish, Latin, French, Italian and German), likewise Naples 1604; Madrid 1597, 1611, 1615, 1622, 1627, 1635, 1636, 1661, 1670, 1678, 1752, 1778 and 1793; Brussels 1610, 1612, 1674, 1675, 1684 and 1740; Valencia 1613 and 1623; Zaragoza 1623; Barcelona 1724; lastly Antwerp 1630, 1649, 1661; and it was once told me for certain that, when Belgium was joined to the Spanish dominion, Teresa's works were published in Spanish more than three times still, nay perhaps even seven times, by the press of the Antwerp Plantin alone, or of his successor Moretus. Although the most noble Mr. Moretus, heir of a most illustrious name and even today a cultivator of the typographical art, did not dare to affirm this fully to me when I asked, his records failing him, yet it will not seem improbable to one considering on the one hand the fame of Teresa's works, and on the other hand that ample works came out repeatedly from that one press, for example the huge mass of the Annals of Baronius seven times: as is asserted in the Preface to the Apparatus of the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Lucca edition of the year 1738 (page 4).
[1504] Latin, In Latin. If you except the Life of the Saint translated from Italian into Latin by Kerbeke, I have not seen works of Teresa in Latin that are earlier than the version of Matthias Martínez de Vaulcquier, of Middelburg, which Nicolás Antonio in the new Bibliotheca Hispana says, wrongly as I think, came out at Antwerp from the press of Johann Kinckius in the year 1619. For I find them twice published by that same printer at Cologne (see the Prologue of the Life of Bl. Teresa by Ribera, translated by the same Martínez). Nevertheless from the year 1607 Anne of Jesus had taken care that Teresa's books should be translated into the Latin tongue, as Fr. Peter of St. Andrew witnesses (General History of the Congregation of St. Elijah, vol. II, p. 222).
[1505] Netherlandish, In Netherlandish or Flemish. The same Fr. Peter of St. Andrew whom I have cited relates in the same place that the same Anne already in the year 1607 had also procured that the Life and works of Teresa be translated into the vernacular tongue of the Belgians; as Anne herself testifies in a certain letter of hers, written the following year, where she says that those works had already then come out in print in Netherlandish. And in fact such a copy is with me. Not long after, the same Peter continues, the same skilful Virgin industriously provided that the whole life of the holy Mother and the series of her actions and graces should be engraved on copper plates and, printed on paper, published and put on sale: as she herself records in another letter directed to the Spains, saying: As soon as possible I shall send you the Life of the holy Parent expressed in various images together with her revelations and miracles. For we have had a whole book of all these printed. Several copies of this kind, engraved by the most excellent engravers the Galles (in Netherlandish Galle) and their associate Adriaen Collaert, I have before my eyes, and they are still sought by curious cultivators of copper engraving. In the Prologue of the Life of St. Teresa which Fathers John of St. Jerome and John of Jesus Mary made in compendium, and which Fr. Gracián had published at Brussels in the year 1610, he says, addressing the Nuncio Guido Bentivoglio, that the Fathers of the Society of Jesus of the college of Brussels had brought it about by accurate labour that Teresa herself should speak with a Flemish mouth. Foppens too, in his Bibliotheca Belgica, article Roeland Overstraeten, says that he translated the Life of the Saint twice, in the years 1619 and 1632. And in this same year Fr. Elias of St. Teresa likewise published it in Flemish at Antwerp, whom above all the others whom I have seen in various idioms I find for the most part to have treated Teresa more accurately. Lastly Fr. Servatius of St. Peter brought it about that it saw the light again in Netherlandish in the year 1697 and again in the year 1711.
[1506] German In German. In the prologue to the edition of the works of the holy Mother which came out at Naples in Spanish in the year 1594, as I have already said from the Annus Teresianus (n. 1503), they had already then been translated into the German tongue also: although I notice that Fr. Frederick (book IV, chap. X) reports this as asserted in the Naples edition of the year 1604. Be that as it may, Germany certainly saw Teresa's works translated at least into its own idiom at Würzburg in the year 1649, and again 1701; and in the year 1756 Matthäus Rieger, publishing at Augsburg Teresa's works, formerly translated by Fr. Matthias of St. Arnold, affirms that they were now for the fifth time submitted to the native presses. Others escape me, except that the distinguished Gallus Schwab in the year 1831 at Sulzbach sent forth anew into the light the writings of the Saint in six volumes in octavo.
[1507] and French: the first versions in this language In French. Fr. Martial of St. John the Baptist strays from the truth in his Bibliotheca of the Order of Discalced Carmelites when he contends that the first who translated the books of the holy Mother outside Spain into their own idiom were the French, since de Brétigny prepared the first French edition only in the year 1601, while Ribera affirms that already in 1590 it had been reported to him that three principal treatises of Teresa had been turned into the Italian tongue. Nor is the Annus Teresianus sufficiently consistent with itself, when in vol. VII, page 175, following the prologue of the Naples edition of 1594, it narrates that already in this year the writings of St. Teresa had been published several times in Latin, French, Italian and German, and when nevertheless at page 208 it proves that the French ran ahead of the other nations in translating Teresa's books from the fact that in the year 1601 Mr. de Brétigny had already prepared his version. As regards Mr. de Brétigny, he had committed his version to the Rev. Fr. Duchevre, prior of the Charterhouse of Bourgfontaine, to be worked out with greater care. Hence the title reports that it was made by I. D. B. P. and L. P. C. D. B.: of which edition I have a double copy with me together with another copy of the Way of Perfection, reprinted for the fourth time in the year 1623, which bears the same initial letters (of which I conjecture that the last three signify: Chartreux de Bourgfontaine). This version of Brétigny, republished several times, was followed, says Fr. Martial, by another version in two volumes in octavo, having on the front the capital letters I. D. B. P. and I. F. C. D. B.; which I examined, and found to be the original version of Brétigny, but revised by another Carthusian of Bourgfontaine, no otherwise than that of the year 1645, which according to Mr. Boucher in the Life of Bl. Mary of the Incarnation (p. 214) has the letters I. D. B. P. and P. G. D. C. C.
[1508] and the subsequent ones, especially that of Arnauld, Then in the year 1630 Fr. Elisha of St. Bernard translated Teresa in two volumes in quarto: which version Antoine Arnauld himself praises in the book on the Tradition of the Church. Lastly, translated for the third time, in the year 1644, by Fr. Cyprian of the Nativity, the works of the holy Mother were published at Paris in two volumes in quarto, and several times republished thereafter in the years 1650, 1657, 1667. Which version, says the Bibliotheca of the Order of Discalced Carmelites (article Cyprian), although it teems with old and almost unusual words, is nevertheless held in esteem by very many. Before Chanut, who successively translated most of the Saint's books from the year 1681 to 1691, Robert Arnauld d'Andilly, following the Spanish Antwerp edition of the year 1649, first translated four treatises of Teresa in the year 1659, and then, besides the Letters and the Gloss, various works of hers: which came out at Paris in the years 1670, 1671 and 1672, in folio, in quarto and in duodecimo, and again in quarto in the year 1687, and at Antwerp in duodecimo in the year 1688, and, to come to recent time,
at Limoges 1836 in duodecimo, Brussels 1839 in octavo, and Paris 1840 in two volumes in quarto, to which there is still lacking the promised second part of the Letters, which have not hitherto come out in French. Finally Messrs. Grégoire and Collombet, besides the Life of the Saint which they put together in the year 1836, also translated in the same and the following year, faithfully and elegantly (but in a more florid manner than Teresa's unaffected simplicity allows), the Way of Perfection, the Castle of the soul and five lesser little works of the Saint. I would not dare, however, to subscribe in all things to their judgment which they sow abroad both concerning certain authors and concerning the additions which they saw fit to append to Teresa's Works.
[1509] which generally deserves praise, although it is not sincere in one place Since that version of Arnauld was frequently reprinted, it may rightly be concluded that it is by no means bad, although the style in it is said to be cold, and to smack of the age of the translator. Arnauld certainly professes the utmost fidelity in translating, and for the most part keeps it. But there are not lacking places in which love of his sect prevailed over truth and fidelity. Let an example be chap. X, n. 2 of the Foundations, where Teresa says that it was revealed to her by Christ that a certain dead man had been in great danger of losing his salvation, but that God nevertheless had mercy on him on account of the service rendered to the Order of His Mother (Dixome el Señor que habia estado su salvacion en harta aventura, y que habia habido misericordia del, por aquel servicio que habia hecho a su Madre en aquella casa que habia dado para hacer monasterio de su Orden [The Lord told me that his salvation had been in great hazard, and that He had had mercy on him for that service which he had done to His Mother in that house which he had given to make a monastery of her Order]). Which Arnauld truncates in mid-phrase, saying only that God had mercy on him on account of the service rendered, and concealing what is said about the danger to salvation (Notre Seigneur me dit qu'il lui avait fait misericorde, en consideration du service qu'il avait rendu [Our Lord told me that He had shown him mercy, in consideration of the service which he had rendered]). For an inhabitant of Port-Royal, and the brother of Antoine Arnauld, it would of course have been hard to utter this catholic truth, which did not sufficiently square with the Jansenist tenets about predestination: wherefore he dared unfaithfully to cut off those words, not daring to contradict Teresa.
[1510] and in another place. In like manner, to spare the French custom by which monasteries take an indefinite number of nuns, he renders the end of chapter XXXVI of the Life insincerely. Teresa, speaking of her daughters, who must rejoice solely in their Spouse Christ, has there in Spanish: Esto es siempre lo que han de pretender, y solas con el solo, y no ser mas de trece; porque esto tengo por muchos pareceres sabido que conviene, y visto por experiencia, que para llevar el espiritu que se lleva, y vivir de limosna, y sin demanda, no se sufre mas. [This is always what they must aim at, and alone with Him alone, and not to be more than thirteen; for this I know by many opinions to be fitting, and have seen by experience, that to keep the spirit which is kept, and to live on alms, and without begging, more is not tolerable.] Which sounds thus in Latin: They must never fail to seek this, namely that they alone may speak with Him alone, and that they be not more in number than thirteen. For I know by the judgment and opinion of many that this is fitting; and I have also learned by experience that there cannot be more, if the spirit which now flourishes is to persevere, and if one is to live on alms, and those not asked for. But Arnauld translates part of this period thus: … treize qui est le nombre que je sais … être très-propre pour conserver l'esprit de la règle et vivre d'aumones [… thirteen, which is the number that I know … to be very proper for preserving the spirit of the rule and living on alms]; and he cuts off the words: no se sufre mas more is not tolerable .. y sin demanda and without begging. Fr. Matthias of St. Arnold translates it more correctly into German: Dasz ihrer nicht mehr seyn mögen, habe ich ausz vieler personen meynung und urtheil, etc. [That there may not be more of them, I have from the opinion and judgment of many persons, etc.]; as also Woodhead in English: It is requisite, they should be no more. To the fair and fairly favourable judgment, therefore, which the distinguished Emery passed on Arnauld's version, I would not dare to subscribe without some qualification.
[1511] There are added Polish and English editions, In Polish and English. John of St. Jerome, in his Life of Teresa published at Brussels in 1610, testifies that already then the Saint's books had been put into Polish; and they were again in the year 1662 by Fr. Irenaeus of the Assumption. In the Prologue of that Life of 1610, Fr. Jerome Gracián says that certain hidden Catholics at London were then applying themselves to make Teresa open her lips there in English also: whether this was accomplished escapes me. Abraham Woodhead published all the works of the Saint in English, the Letters excepted, in the years 1669, 1671 and 1675, secretly, however, and without the translator's name. Each volume of this version is preceded by an elegant proem, the one in which Teresa's spirit is vindicated, the other in which Stillingfleet is refuted. The Illustrious Challoner made an elegant historical compendium from Teresa's works in the year 1757, following Woodhead's version, which he affirms to be superior in many respects to the French version of Arnauld.
[1512] and Italian: the first versions in this language, In Italian. Already in the year 1590 Ribera records three treatises (book IV, chap. III) translated by the bishop of Novara; and Yepes (book III, chap. XIX) narrates that another edition of them was dedicated to Clement VIII. What the Italians performed thereafter in reprinting Teresa's books, receive from the Italian and accurate Fr. Frederick of St. Anthony, who (book IV, chap. X) speaks thus: The Illustrious Giovanni Francesco Bordini, a Roman, one of the first fervent sons of St. Philip Neri, a pupil of the Congregation of the Oratory, and who was promoted to the mitre of Cavaillon, and then to that of Avignon (adorned with which he died), translated into our Italian idiom the Life written by the holy Mother; and a learned man affirmed to me that it was so published at Rome in the year 1601 in octavo form. So as to put forward nothing which I have not seen with my own eyes, I affirm only that there is with me a reprinted copy, made at Venice in the year 1604 at the press of the Uniti, and two other copies likewise made at Venice, one in the year 1613 at Pietro Bertano's, the other in the year 1618 at Giovanni Alberti's. At the end of this Life there are the Additions, the Counsels and the Exclamations of the soul to God, put into Italian by the knight Fr. Giulio Zanchini da Castiglionchio, hospitaller of Santa Maria Nuova of Florence, in the year 1598, as he himself professes at the end of them. The Way of Perfection and the Castle of the soul were translated by Francesco Soto, priest of the Congregation of the Roman Oratory, founder of the first monastery of our Discalced nuns of St. Joseph in this city; and here too these writings were first committed to print in the year 1603 (and again in the year 1604), and dedicated to the Most Eminent Cardinal Baronius, three of whose kinswomen received the religious habit in the said monastery. The Foundations were first printed at Rome in the year 1622, according to the version of a certain anonymous religious of our Order of the Discalced; and this is perhaps the same as that Discalced friar who translated the Conceptions on the Song and the supposititious Meditations on the Lord's Prayer, reprinted separately at Piacenza in the year 1632, and dedicated by our Fathers of this city to the most serene duchess of that region.
[1513] and the subsequent ones. All these works were afterwards collected and published in one volume in quarto at Venice in the year 1636 at Pietro Maria Bertano's; in which collection I find also the Treatise on visiting monasteries, translated by a certain Discalced friar; of which little book I have no means of setting forth what the first edition is. Likewise through the care of one of our religious company, all the Works of the holy Mother, except the Letters, came out into the light at the Roman presses in the year 1641, the version having been somewhat polished, divided into two volumes in quarto, with some praiseworthy additions, prefaces and indices. And this edition of the Works all the Italian printers have since followed. We owe thanks to the Rev. Don Orazio Quaranta, consultor of the Congregation of the Index, that, scarcely two years having elapsed after the edition of the first part of the Letters made at Zaragoza in Spain in the year 1658, he submitted them, translated into Italian and dedicated to Cardinal Giulio Rospigliosi, afterwards promoted to the Roman pontificate with the name of Clement IX, to the Roman presses in the year 1660; but I do not know whether it will be pleasing to many that, as he himself professes, he used such scrupulous diligence and fidelity in translating that he did not dare to add even a tittle from his own store, even when greater clarity of meaning required it. Indeed to me, reading this version, I seem rather to be using a Spanish book than an Italian one; and in fact sometimes the sentences are so dark that he would be an illustrious interpreter to me who could grasp them. Carlo Sigismondo Capece, a Roman, whose fortune in translating was better, put into Italian the Letters of the second part, and the annotations added to the first and second parts. That charm and sweetness which inhere in the original writing cannot be fully preserved when a version is to be worked out; since between the primitive writing and the translated one there always intervenes a great difference: but nevertheless everyone must confess that a dexterous and pious hand should be set to the Italian version of the Works of St. Teresa, and that it is not impatient of many corrections. It may, however, be judged that the palm can be assigned to a new version, made in these latest times according to the said Spanish edition, which had been printed at Barcelona in the year 1724 in four volumes in quarto, our Fathers contributing their labour.
[1514] Certain annotations upon the Italian versions, To these things I have some, but few, to add. Namely, first: It is not doubtful but certain that Bordini translated Teresa's Life before the year 1604, since Kerbeke, whose book came out in the year 1603, notes that he translated this Life from the Italian of Bordini. Second: As Fr. Martial of St. John the Baptist notes in his Bibliotheca of the Order of Discalced Carmelites (page 320), Fr. Peter of St. Mary also, about the year 1640, translated the works of the holy Mother into the Tuscan tongue at the Roman presses: which version, since it did not please certain persons, was suppressed by the general definitory of the Order. Third: Moreover, according to the same Fr. Martial (page 382), Fr. Mark of St. Joseph had a new Italian version published at Venice in 1689. Finally, fourth: Above twelve editions published in our Italy alone, said Fr. Frederick in the year 1754 (book IV, chap. XII), I could number: such is the eagerness of buyers and the assiduity of readers! And as regards foreign nations, receive as a witness from hearsay one of our own, Fr. Arnold of SS. Peter and Paul (Soliloquies, vol. II, conference X, answer III), who speaks thus: "I knew a very well-known bookseller at Lyon in France, who affirmed to me solemnly, not once only, that from the oft-repeated printing of the Works of St. Teresa alone he had made a profit of more than 40,000 French crowns." Since the times of Fr. Frederick it is likely that they were reprinted many times. At Milan they came out in the year 1840, in 6 volumes in duodecimo.
[1515] and upon other editions here and there, together with a conclusion. Here, therefore, you have nearly eighty times enumerated in which Teresa's works have come to my notice as published, to me who have not searched much, and who therefore have probably passed over not a few, neglecting the compendia which
contain Teresa's spirit or the marrow of her doctrine or history: such as have been published several times by Robyns, by Emery, by Challoner and others. Yet it has fallen to very few authors, especially if you regard their nature and extent, that their writings should have had to be reprinted so often. It is therefore splendidly demonstrated against Mr. Emery (Preface, p. IX) that Teresa's lot is better than Plato's, since her books are sold and read with ever-unsatisfied eagerness in every place throughout Europe, not without her perennial posthumous glory and great profit to the whole Christian commonwealth. One thing now remains to be pointed out: in recording thus far the printed works of Teresa, I have passed over in silence the elegance of the types and the form of the volumes, although I could have praised the handsome Plantinian or Antwerp edition in Spanish, 3 volumes in quarto, in the year 1630, the grand Brussels edition likewise in Spanish, 2 volumes in folio, in the year 1675, as also the Polish in the native idiom in 1662, and the Paris edition in French in like form in 1670; but much the most, if not for the beauty of the types, at least for the diligence applied by order of the Order in revising the books of the holy Mother according to the faith of the autographs, I could have bestowed praise on the Madrid editions of 1752, 1778 and 1793: which, however, I would not wish said for the same reason of the two later volumes of the Letters, which were first published in the year 1771, and then again in the year 1793, so as to be annexed to the reprinted other works of the Saint: for there will be special discussion of them in the following paragraphs, both where we treat of the Letters one by one, and where we treat of St. Teresa's perpetual love towards the Society of Jesus.
§ LXXVI. On the books of St. Teresa one by one, and first on her Life and on the additions to the Life, and also on the three shorter Relations of her life which she wrote.
[The Saint did not write her Life except by command, whether of Ibáñez or of García de Toledo.] Although Christ had urged the holy Virgin to write her Life, as she herself testifies in the prologue; yet, because she trusted more to the guidance of her confessors than to the revelations made to her, and because she preferred to these the virtue and exercise of obedience, she did not undertake that work until it was enjoined on her by Fr. Pedro Ibáñez of the Order of Preachers. Ribera indeed and Yepes hint that it was commanded by Fr. García de Toledo; but Fr. Domingo Báñez, who is a witness beyond all exception, since he was then living at Ávila and was wholly involved in Teresa's affairs, testified in the informative processes that the precept to write the Life first came from Ibáñez. Yet, as before several had agreed with Gaspar Daza to judge the spirit of the holy Virgin, it is probable enough that thus too several of her confessors concurred in commanding this writing of her, the more so because she herself, in the concluding exclamation of her Life, asks the one to whom she destines her book that, if her writing should seem fit to be committed to the fire, he should not commit it until three persons should have read it, who are, she says, and have been my confessors (Son y han sido confessores mios Who are and have been my confessors). Which Arnauld and Chanut do not rightly translate, saying: Who are or were. But whoever was the first author of Teresa's writing her Life, that most prudent man used this pretext, says Fr. Martial in the Bibliotheca of the Order of Discalced Carmelites (page 371), that he might be able, together with the graver Fathers of his Order, to prove her spirit, whether it was of God; but in truth, so that the so many prodigies and wonders and secrets of mystical theology which were admired in Teresa might not be blotted out by any forgetfulness. She obeyed at once; but because the most prudent Virgin knew very well that it is good to hide the Sacraments of the King, she most earnestly enjoined seal and secrecy concerning those things which could commend her, leaving every faculty of making known her sins and defects to all. She began the work at Ávila in the year 1561: which she finished at Toledo in the month of June of the following year, in the palace of Doña Luisa de la Cerda.
[1517] The letter of the Saint is reported, with which she sends her Life She had scarcely finished the book, or at least had not reread the whole, when a messenger sent by her confessor asked for the writing, as she herself notes in the letter sent with the book, which is subjoined to the Escorial copy of her Life, and which is not only usually published with it, but is also still placed, at least in the Spanish editions, in volume I of the Letters, where it occupies the fifteenth place. I too shall present it here for the better understanding of what is to be said: May the Holy Spirit be with Your Reverence always. Amen. It would not be beside the point if I were to magnify in words to Your Reverence the labour which I have undertaken in this task of writing, so as to bind you by this means. And I could certainly do this with good reason, since this living delineation and description of myself and the recalling to memory of so many of my miseries has been very difficult for me and the occasion of many distresses. Although (to confess frankly) it has been far more grievous to me to describe the graces which I have received from the Lord than the offences which I have committed against His Majesty. I have done what Your Reverence enjoined, namely that I have spread myself out in writing on this condition, that you on your part should in turn perform what you promised me: that you should tear up, I say, whatever displeases you. I had not yet reread all that I had written when Your Reverence asked that it be sent to you. Perhaps there will occur here certain things not sufficiently made clear, others also put twice: for the time which I had was so brief and narrow that I could not reread and revise the writings. I ask Your Reverence to emend and correct them, and at the same time to order them to be transcribed, if they are to be sent to the Rev. Father Master Ávila: for someone might recognize my hand and character. I would certainly wish by all means that he should see these things, since it was with this intention that I first began to write them. For it will be a very great consolation to me if he judges that I am walking a good way: since there remains nothing more for me now to do, so far as in me lies, let Your Reverence do in all things as shall seem expedient to you, and know yourself obliged to her who entrusts her soul wholly to you. Yours, moreover, so long as I live, I shall commend to the Lord again and again: wherefore strive to serve His Majesty as soon as possible, so that you may be a help to me. From the things, then, which I relate here, Your Reverence will with easy effort notice how praiseworthily and well one spends one's labour when one offers oneself wholly (as Your Reverence has already begun to do) to Him who gives Himself to us so without measure or limit: may He be blessed for ever. For I hope that we shall (by His mercy) be together, where Your Reverence and I shall see more clearly those great graces which He has done us and shall praise Him unto perpetual eternities. Amen.
[1518] to Ibáñez, not to García. The Order of Carmel, whenever it publishes the Works of the holy Mother, prefers to suppose, with Palafox, that this letter was sent to Ibáñez, rather than, with the Chronicle, to García: and I too am of the same opinion, judging that it was sent to him who had ordered the Life to be written in the first instance, that is, to Ibáñez. But if the reason is asked why this letter was subjoined by Teresa to the manuscript of her Life written the second time and destined for García, it seems to be that this letter could be considered part of the former Life; and perhaps she placed it beside this for the purpose that it might be better established for readers in what mind she had first committed her Life to paper. Further, as soon as it is admitted that this letter was sent to Ibáñez, by this very fact it is admitted also that it accompanied the former Life, and not the later, since in the latter (chapter XXXVIII) there is discussion of Ibáñez's death and of his apparitions after death: on which everyone throughout agrees, although Ibáñez's name is not expressed, for example Fr. Frederick of St. Anthony (book IV, chap. X) and Échard in the Writers of the Order of Preachers. But what seems so to Échard, namely that what the holy Mother has in that chapter of her Life about Ibáñez was inserted by her afterwards, is by no means proved to me. For how or why would she herself have intercalated these some thirty lines into her manuscript when already completed?
[1519] [Chappe de Ligny errs in two ways about this, as do others about the last words of the book of the Life.] In passing I note here that Mr. Chappe de Ligny, in his French version of this letter, errs in two ways, both where he affirms that only in the year 1568 did García order the Saint to write her Life a second time, whereas he ordered it in the year 1562, and where he places the aforesaid letter as sent to Ibáñez in the year 1568, whereas the latter had departed this life a whole three years before. Since, therefore, it seems that it must be admitted that the letter which had been written in the year 1562 was annexed by Teresa by way of appendix to her second Life, it must likewise be granted that she rightly placed at the last words of this letter, and indeed on the same line, these words: This book was finished in June 1562. (Acabose este libro en Junio, ano de 1562 This book was finished in June, year of 1562). I wonder, therefore, that all hitherto, as much within as outside the Order of Carmel, both the Chronicle, and both Carmelite Bibliothecas, and Fr. Frederick of St. Anthony, and Boucher, and all the others without exception, biographers and interpreters of the holy Mother, have held this for an error, or, as it is usually said, for a slip of the pen. Who, moreover, would believe that good Teresa nodded so far that in that place where she was in a manner solemnly closing the long writing of the book, her pen should have strayed so unskilfully?
[1520] How the Saint wrote her Life the second time. Then, a few months after the former Life had been completed, still in the same year 1562, on the 24th of August of which the monastery of St. Joseph at Ávila was founded, as the Saint testifies in the prologue of her Foundations, Fr. García de Toledo commanded her to add to the book of her Life the foundation of that house and many other things (compare what we said at num. 365). And moreover, according to Báñez, the same Father enjoined her to divide the book, which before ran in one thread of discourse, into distinct chapters. The Chronicle says the titles of the chapters were set by Teresa's hand: which, however, it is most clearly evident cannot be understood of the summaries of the chapters, from the praise of Teresa's doctrine which those summaries contain. The manuscript of the former Life has perished, but that of the later exists (as I said in paragraph LXXIV, num. 1491) in the Escorial library. Moreover we see, vol. II, letter 33, n. 6, that through the care of Fr. Bartolomé de Medina, principal professor of theology in the university of Salamanca, another copy of the Life had been made, for the use of the dukes of Alba. Teresa then knew of this one only, although perhaps, without her knowing it, others still existed. But in any case, at least before the book was published in 1588, several copies were made, as Báñez testified in the informative processes, and as Yepes also says (book 3, chap. XVIII).
[1521] [The Saint was solicitous for the book of her Life, whatever the Chronicle may say:] The Chronicle strays somewhat when it affirms (book V, chap. XXXVI, num. 8) that Teresa had no care for her book deposited with the Inquisition, and never asked for it back, and for a whole six years in a manner forgot it, until Cardinal de Quiroga himself mentioned the book in Teresa's presence. For from the letters of the holy Mother published after the Chronicle was composed it is evident that she, though wholly relying on God in this matter too, was not a little solicitous for her book. Thus, in a letter given to her brother Lorenzo on the 18th of January 1577, she says that she had asked the bishop for the book back, because, she says, perhaps the mind will come to me of finishing it, adding the divine benefits conferred on me since it was made, which, if God helps me as I write, will be able to fill a great volume (vol. I, letter 32, num. 12). Thus also in the year, as it seems, 1580, when Fr. Gracián had informed her that another copy of her Life had been written out by order of Fr. Medina, she rejoiced exceedingly, and asked to be further informed on the matter, so that it might be the more certain that this work of hers would not go to perdition. So far was she from obliterating or neglecting the book of her Life that, writing to Doña Luisa de la Cerda, she called it her soul, because of the inmost recesses of her heart unlocked in it and the heavenly favours set forth (vol. II, letter 10, num. 2).
[1522] although she was on the point of burning it, and valued her other books more. Before, indeed, she had of her own accord given Ibáñez leave to commit it to the fire when scarcely read, or not even read: nay, as the Acts of the canonization have it (num. 1258 of this Commentary), she had been on the point, at her confessor's nod, of throwing her book into the flames with her own hands; which she would really have done, had not Báñez, who had ordered it to test her obedience, at once retracted the order. And if afterwards she wished her writing to be preserved, the reason was that all, as many as were versed in spiritual things and had read it, had judged that it would be most greatly profitable for the progress of souls (vol. I, letter 19, num. 10). Yet she always valued more the Way of Perfection, and especially the Castle of the soul, either because things were treated more orderly there, or rather because each of these books had been composed expressly for the instruction of others; whereas on the contrary Teresa, committing her Life to paper, had not even thought of the public or of public utility, but had intended only to open her own conscience to the directors of her soul, so that she herself might be instructed and governed by them, God meanwhile disposing the matter otherwise and willing that from the book of her Life the treasures deposited in that happy soul should be disclosed, and that others should profit from the reading of this book.
[1523] [It is to be regretted that the Saint did not carry the book to the end of her life:] And in fact, as soon as there was seen from that writing not only the subtlety of her natural talent, but also an eminent supernatural knowledge, and the fruit was foreseen which could be gathered from it in the Church of God, little by little the book began to be divulged, and, unknown to the holy Mother, several copies of it were made while it was unpublished (see Yepes, book 3, chap. XVIII). Nor were the copyists delayed by the size of the volume, which is as large again as the size either of the Castle of the soul or of the Way of Perfection: whence Teresa here and there calls the latter her little book, but the Life her great book. Where she gives it the title Work of the mercies of the Lord (for example vol. IV, letter 8, num. 1), it is on account of the dangers of eternal damnation narrated there from which the divine goodness had rescued her. And since I here record God's mercies towards Teresa, I shall fittingly cite the words of Yepes (book 3, chap. XVIII), who speaks thus: This I shall lament as long as I live, that the holy Mother did not write the mercies which she had received from God in the last twenty years of her life, concerning which I know that most lofty things could have been written. For if the divine benefits which she described three years after our Lord had begun to refresh her with His caresses were such, of what kind, pray, would have been thereafter the increases of her virtue, when she was more established from day to day and had grown in the love of her heavenly Spouse? But I think these things could not have been communicated; since in the last years of her life she was so united with God, and so accustomed to spiritual and divine things, that she almost lived here on earth in the body only: for the things which went on in her soul were so sublime that they were not even communicable; and she said that she did not treat of them because time was lacking to her to declare them.
[1524] for it is most excellent Most rightly, indeed, does Yepes say this. Nevertheless Teresa's book, such as we have it on the earlier part of her life, after the Confessions of St. Augustine, as Baillet well says, is the most excellent work which exists in that genre: and, according to Arnauld, in the theme of heavenly and plainly divine love Teresa is so conformable to Augustine that you might rightly say that both were animated by the same spirit. And what that spirit was is known from Teresa herself, who confesses (Life, chap. XIV) that she was often placed by God successively in that state of prayer which she was about to describe. It is therefore clear that God intervened, from this alone, that an unlearned woman unfolded the secrets of the more sublime theology clearly and in an easy style; that she spent only so much time, as she herself affirms at the end of the book, as was necessary for writing; and that she was not permitted, as she says in the letter subjoined to the book, to review at leisure what she had hastily committed to paper. I abstain from weighing the loftiness of the doctrine contained in that book, since the reading of it alone urges this more than what can be said more eloquently. This wonderful manuscript, written by a poor woman, who unwillingly, and moved only by the command of her confessor, again and again exchanged the distaff for the pen, was a delight not only to grave cultivators of theology or to the pious inhabitants of cloisters, but also to innumerable worldly men, and now and then to the hard race of soldiers itself, who not rarely, as soon as they had tasted the book, were carried away by the relish of its simple diction and heavenly doctrine and at the same time amended.
[1525] [and greatly esteemed, for example by the great Duke of Alba, between whom and St. Teresa there was a friendship, as also with the duchess.] Let an example be Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, that great Duke of Alba, who (as we have already said at num. 874), when he was held captive at Uceda, was reading this book, and was thence carried to such esteem of Teresa (as Gracián witnesses, who, to console the duke, had spent several days with him at Uceda) that he professed that nothing more welcome could happen to him than to behold so great a woman in person, being ready even to undergo the troubles of a long journey so that the happiness of dealing with her might befall him. In turn Teresa, when she had heard from Gracián the great praises of the duke, and knew that he gave himself to spiritual things, valued him greatly and testified that she did so. Whence the duchess once complained to Teresa, seeking with a praiseworthy envy no lesser part than her husband in her love. At that time Teresa had several times to write to both, both to console the duke and to settle the pious and human complaints of the duchess. They used (as we said in the same place) the copy of the Life which Fr. Bartolomé de Medina had caused to be made for them from the original which had been deposited with the Inquisitors; and when Teresa had once asked for it for herself, she seems to have obtained it from the duchess only with difficulty, and not without the obligation of restoring it.
[1526] [The humility of the Saint, desiring her sins to be made known, but her graces covered.] As a crowning conclusion and in confirmation of what I have said about the end which the holy Mother had in writing her Life, and about the divine help which she needed to compose such a book, as also about the business with which she was overwhelmed when she wrote it, I shall here subjoin with Yepes certain excerpts from the tenth chapter of her Life, where she speaks thus: I narrate what has been done to me, as has been enjoined on me: in which, if I err, he to whom I send it will tear it up; because he will know better than I how to understand what is evil. Whom I ask, for the love of God, to narrate and divulge to all whatever I have so far recorded of my wicked life and sins: and from this time forth I give him full faculty for this, as also to all my confessors, of whose number is he to whom this writing is sent; and indeed, if they wish and judge it expedient, I ask them to do it from this very moment, while I am still alive, so that I may no longer deceive men who think there is some good in me: and certainly (I say it with truth), as I now feel about myself, this will be a very great consolation to me. But as to the things which I shall record hereafter, I do not give them this faculty; rather I do not wish that, if they show them to anyone, they should say who the man or woman is to whom these things were done, or who wrote them: for on that account I have named neither myself nor anyone else here; but I shall write everything as best I can, so that I may not be recognized by anyone: that this may be so, I suppliantly ask God.
[1527] The impediments which she had in writing. Further, men so learned and grave are sufficient to establish by their authority anything which is good, if indeed the Lord shall have given me grace to say such a thing; for if it is good, it will be His, not mine. For I have neither knowledge nor virtue, nor any learned man or anyone else by whom I may be instructed: for only those who order me to write these things know what I write, and at present they are not here. Moreover I write these things as it were stealing time for it, and with great trouble; since this writing hinders me from spinning, although I live in a poor house: in short I am kept busy with occupations enough. And if the Lord had given me a greater aptitude of talent and memory, I could by their help bring here with some fruit the things which I have hitherto either heard or read; but what I have is exceedingly small and slight: so that, if I bring forward anything good, the Lord wills it to be said by me in order to draw some good from it; but what is bad will be my own, and Your Reverence will delete it. Further, neither for this nor for that is it expedient that my name be betrayed: for it is certain that the good things of anyone are not to be divulged while he is still living; and at death there is no reason why they should be told, unless perhaps that what is good may thus lose its authority and find credence with no one, because
it was said by so vile and wicked a person as I am. And because I think Your Reverence will do this (which I also ask, for the love of God, of all who shall see these things), I write freely from here on: otherwise I would write these things only with great scruple of conscience, except perhaps the very narration of my sins; for as to that I am moved by no scruple at all: but as to the rest, it is enough to make me let myself down and draw in my wings that I am a woman; and how much more that I am a woman and at the same time wicked!
[1528] She submits all to the judgment of her confessor; Wherefore, whatever Your Reverence shall find written here beyond the simple narration of my life, let you take and keep it, since you have so importunately urged me to commit to paper for the sake of posterity something about the graces received from the Lord in prayer, provided only that it agrees in every way with the truth of our Catholic Faith; but if not, let you commit it to the fire at once: for as to this I submit myself entirely. Further, I shall say sincerely whatever there is concerning me, so that, when it has been found conformable to the truth of the Catholic Church, Your Reverence may draw some profit and advantage from it; but if not, may free my soul from all illusion, lest, where I hope to bring back some gain, the devil should carry off the gain from it. For the Lord knows (as I shall show more fully later) with what great care and effort I have always applied myself to this, to find someone who would enlighten and teach me. But, granted that I shall have tried to set forth the things which pertain to prayer with the greatest clearness and perspicuity I can, I know nevertheless that they will be exceedingly obscure to one who has no experience of these things.
[1529] and she says what she treats, and why. On the Additions to the Life. I shall relate, therefore, certain impediments which (as it seems to me at least) hinder a man from making progress in this way, as well as certain other things in which some danger lies; as indeed I have learned by long experience of many years, which I have gathered both from the teaching of the Lord and from frequent conference with most learned men, most versed in spiritual things by reason of long age: who see with their own eyes that in only twenty-seven years, in which I have given myself to prayer, I have received from God as much experience of these things (granted that I have walked this way so imperfectly and with so much pausing for breath and stumbling so often) as others who have walked this way in assiduous mortification and continual pursuit of the virtues have scarcely been able to gather in 37 or 47 years. May He be blessed for all, and may He use my service for that which His Majesty is. For my Lord knows that in all these things I look to nothing else than that He may be even a little praised and magnified, from the fact that (as may be seen) He has willed to set up a garden of such blooming and fragrant little flowers in so fetid and ill-smelling a dunghill. Finally, there are usually added at the end of the book of the Life certain things written by St. Teresa's own hand, which had come into the hands of Luis de León. There are narrated there new and stupendous charisms of graces, in the order in which they were written by the Saint, whether for recalling to memory the benefits, or for setting forth to her confessors the things which are not contained in the Life.
[1530] [The Saint did not finish her Life the second time as quickly as is commonly asserted:] This is now a fitting place to ask when the holy Virgin wrote her Life the second time. It is certain in the first place, from Teresa's own words in the prologue to her Foundations, that that writing was commanded her at the end of the year 1562. It is likewise certain, from the same place, that when the Saint was writing that prologue in the year 1573, García's command had been completely fulfilled. Next it is very probable that the most obedient Virgin did not put off the execution of the command received any more than the business of the recently begun monastery compelled. Moreover it can be noticed that for a whole five years from the founding of her monastery of Ávila the holy Mother had only one monastery to govern, and that she herself confesses that leisure was not then lacking to her, since in chap. 1 of the Foundations she says that those five years seemed to her the least busy of all her whole life. Lastly it must be noted that in those same years she had time enough to be able to fulfil another command given her by Báñez, of writing the fairly lengthy work on the Way of Perfection, which is perhaps ten times larger than the additions of her Life written the second time and the appendix on the convent founded at Ávila. Hence, therefore, it can be determined: first, that she began the second writing of her Life, if not in the year 1562, at least in the year 1563; second, that she so continued it in the year 1564 that she finished chapter XXXVII before the 28th of March 1565, since there she says that she (who had been born on the 28th of March 1515) did not yet have fifty years; third, that the last chapters of the Life were not finished before 1565, if it is true that in c. XXXVIII she records the death of Ibáñez, who died in the year 1565 according to Échard (as we saw at num. 291). I omit that Teresa at the end of chapter XXXVI expresses sufficiently that that writing was not finished as quickly as is usually said, since the Saint there sets forth what she experienced in those years (which words denote more space between the founding of the convent and the writing of the Life than the Chronicle, Fr. Frederick and others here and there assert) in which she had lived in the reformed house of Ávila: En estos años que estamos en esta casa In these years that we have been in this house.
[1531] yet she finished it more quickly than Montoya contends. On the other hand, however, I cannot agree with Father Montoya, who (diss. I, chap. V, num. 61 and following) contends that the holy Mother, very busy, as he says, with the most grave affairs of her Reform, had not yet finished her Life in the year 1573, or at least had not yet then brought the last chapters into that state in which they are in the Escorial library. Besides the lesser arguments devised by him, which seem plausible to him, but by no means to me, and which it would be long to report and longer to refute, Montoya's decisive argument is a passage of Palafox (vol. I, letter 15, note 9), who says that Teresa in the tenth year after the writing of the former Life had not yet fulfilled García's command. But from the reasons brought forward above, either an error in Palafox or a mistake in the printer must evidently be admitted; and I think the latter more probable, since the printer could easily have put the little word diez (ten) for dos (two). And if anyone should still hesitate after these things, I would wish him to read through continuously the last four chapters, and he will be convinced that these flowed from Teresa's pen together with the preceding ones: so closely, for example, do the things which are had in chap. XXXVIII, num. 4, and chap. XXXIX, num. 6, about Luisa de la Cerda cohere with those which were said in chapters XXXIV and XXXV.
[1532] [The book of the Life was examined by several, among others by John of Ávila. His judgment.] Further, this book of Teresa, and, from this book, Teresa's spirit was examined and approved by Ibáñez, García and others. But the most cautious Virgin, not content with the rigid examination of such great men, and still anxious about her state, and not sufficiently persuading herself that the book was free from blemishes, committed it to Don Francisco de Soto y Salazar, who perhaps was then staying at Ávila, and at the same time disclosed to him all the secrets of her conscience. Soto indeed judged nothing reprehensible in her spirit, nor anything in the book worthy of the sponge; he counselled her, however, to submit it further to the judgment of Master John of Ávila, who on account of his piety and learning was held the Apostle of Andalusia and the oracle of the Spains. Although she desired to hasten the execution of this counsel, which was so conformable to her intention, she could not do so until the year 1568, when she entrusted the book on the 21st of May to Doña Luisa de la Cerda, who was going from Toledo into Andalusia, as is established from three letters sent to her on the 21st and 27th of May and the 23rd of June (but not the 23rd of June, as the Chronicle says): and at length on the 11th of September (and not the 10th of Sept., as the Chronicle again has by mistake) she obtained an answer from Master de Ávila, in which he says that after serious examination he approves her manner of praying, the spirit by which she was led, the book of the Life, in which he had found nothing that was not conformable to Holy Scripture and the doctrine of the Church, and lastly the visions, which he judges to have been sent by God: and he urges her to proceed by the way she had begun, yet cautiously, and asking light from the directors of conscience. From that time those two most candid souls had a correspondence by letters, as is established from another letter of the Master of the 12th of April 1569: and when he had departed this life somewhat later, Teresa solemnly honoured his memory, saying with tears to her daughters that this was right, because one of the firmest pillars of the Church had fallen.
[1533] This judgment of the Master was not able to induce Teresa to communicate her Life to others than certain most select men, The book spreads abroad, and is denounced to the Inquisition. chiefly the directors of her soul and a few of her daughters. Yet Anna, princess of Éboli, heard something about this book, and both by prayer and by threats brought it about that the Saint could not justly refuse this service to her, who was the foundress of two monasteries. But as soon as the woman obtained the manuscript, from her innate levity she at once communicated it to others: and no small rumour about that whole matter was spread, on account of the unusual subject of the book. And this was that calamity of which Teresa speaks in her letter to Fr. Rodrigo Álvarez, and which she says was to her a most grievous torment and cross and the cause of many tears (vol. I, letter 19). For as the book was divulged more and more, it could no longer be concealed from the Inquisition, to whose tribunal it was denounced in the spring of the year 1575 (not 1574, as the Chronicle affirms once and again). For when the Saint, about to erect a convent, had arrived at the town of Beas in the month of February, she was then informed that her Life had been sought by that tribunal.
[1534] God consoles the Saint, disturbed thereby, and foretells good fortune. At this news, as the author of the Chronicle narrates (book III, chap. XXXIII, num. 9), she was somewhat disturbed, because she judged that such a course would not have been adopted by this most just tribunal unless sufficient cause were present; and that she had surely erred in some matter, since the cause of adopting such a course was found in the book. She gave the reason for this to Mother Anne of Jesus, saying that she had indeed written the book without any fear, but that now she feared lest she had put forth some follies which the Holy Office might correct; nevertheless that she was by no means anxious
because God was witness of the sincerity with which she had acted. Mother Anne answered: Let Your Reverence pray God to bring you well out of it, and to make it known that you were driven by no malice: for I am sure that God will have mercy on us. She acted on the counsels, and on the following day said: Daughter, give thanks to God, since what you told me yesterday evening has now been fulfilled. Know that the Divine Majesty refreshed me with consolation when I had recourse to Him, and said: "Do not be distressed, since this is My cause." And thus I understood not only that the matter would not turn out ill, but that the examination made would serve to increase the esteem and profit of the book.
[1535] The judgment of the censors is in fact favourable to Teresa Teresa therefore willingly gave her book to Báñez, so that he might hand it to the Inquisitors. The two censors designated by them were Báñez and Fernando del Castillo, both of the Order of Preachers. The censure of the former seems to have been that which was given on the seventh of July 1575, and which fills two and a half pages, sewn together with the Escorial autograph itself. The holy Virgin soon learned that her book had been well received by the censors, and afterwards experienced that the supreme Inquisitor, Cardinal Quiroga, was so benevolently disposed that he desired a monastery of her daughters to be erected at Madrid: as she herself joyfully wrote on the 27th of February 1577 to her brother Lorenzo (vol. II, letter 50). And on the 7th of December of the same year the Saint informed one of her confessors that her manuscript remained with the great Inquisitor, who very greatly praised that writing, and was delighted by continual reading of it, and was not going to send the volume back, he said, until he had had his fill of it.
[1536] and of the great Inquisitor. Indeed in the year 1580, when there was question of erecting a house at Madrid, the Saint merited to hear from the mouth of that prelate the following, which Gracián, being present, testified he had heard with his own ears: I am greatly edified, understanding the very many mercies which God has done you. Render Him many thanks, since every gift comes from His hand. Know that the book which they say was composed by you was offered to the Inquisition. But I have read it all, and most learned men have read and examined it, and they found nothing in it that was worthy of correction. And in this way your book has not only been no harm to you, but on the contrary on account of it I profess myself henceforth your most obliging servant: see now in what matter I can be of use to you and your Order, since I shall do with most ready will whatever shall be necessary. (Chronicle, book V, chap. XXXVI, num. 8). But although the book in that examination had merited nothing but praise, Báñez nevertheless left the copy handed in by him with the Inquisitors; lest, if it were carried about again, new clamours should be raised by the malevolent.
[1537] [Besides the book of the Life the Saint wrote three Relations of her life: concerning which several things here.] Moreover the holy Mother wrote three Relations of her life, which are usually placed among the Letters, the first two in vol. II, letters 11 and 12, the latter in vol. I, letter 19. They are also found in Ribera, the former in book IV, chaps. XIII and XIV, the latter in book IV, chap. IV. I shall note a few things about each. The first Relation was written when she was still in the monastery of the Incarnation, in the year, as it seems, 1560. The first part of the second was composed in the following year; the latter part nine months later still, as is noted after num. 7: so that it was finished about the beginning of 1562. Fr. Anthony of St. Joseph affirms that the original copy of both Relations was not long ago found in the possession of Don José de Tapia Osorio, a burgess of Béjar, and that the manuscript is of twelve pages in octavo, of which the first six and half of the seventh are written in another hand, but the rest in Teresa's hand: which she herself also notes at the end of the second Relation. Both seem written to Fr. Pedro Ibáñez, because the Saint says that her confessor communicated these two to Fr. Mancio: and Yepes in his Prologue narrates that Teresa, by the help of Ibáñez, gave Fr. Mancio an account of her life and prayer. But if the first Relation was originally destined for St. Peter of Alcántara (which is everywhere affirmed, but about which, on account of the closing clause of the latter Relation and on account of the joining of both Relations in the original writing, I strongly doubt), it seems it must be said that that first Relation was afterwards also handed by the Saint to Ibáñez together with the other. The autograph of the third Relation, Fr. Matthias of St. Arnold says (in a note to his German version), exists in the monastery of the Discalced at Viterbo. It seems to have been written in the year 1576, and was destined for Fr. Rodrigo Álvarez, S. J. He had previously ordered Teresa to explain summarily the modes of praying supernaturally (vol. I, letter 18); but a little after he further asked that in this present Relation of hers she should commit to writing what had been the degrees of her prayer, how she had governed herself in them, and who had been the directors of her conscience: so that both these expositions might be presented to the tribunal of the Inquisition. That third Relation is an admirable document of the spiritual life, brief, simple, eloquent, and in a most lucid order on a sublime subject.
§ LXXVII. On the other writings of the Saint, besides her Letters.
The Way of Perfection. The form and end of this book, Second in order of time comes the book of the Way of Perfection, which St. Teresa composed when she was prioress in her enclosure of Ávila. She had therefore already put the last hand to it when in the year 1567 she went from Ávila to Medina to found a house. She undertook that work by order of Báñez, who, judging from Teresa's Life how capable she was of handing on spiritual instructions to others, enjoined her to write a book which might be for the use of her daughters, and when written he examined and approved it. Of this little book of hers, as she calls it, Teresa speaks several times, everywhere preferring it to the book of her Life, although in the latter there is greater force of expression and vehemence of style; but perhaps she prefers it for this reason, that it is suited to more people: for, as she herself notes in chapter XXV, it suits souls which follow the common way of prayer; while those which enjoy the gift of contemplation she says are to be instructed rather by the book of her Life, if, she says, they can obtain it after the death of her who writes. In this book, then, first the obstacles to perfection are removed; then the way to it is laid down: and when this has been made level, a man is led to the highest summit of piety by the pursuit of prayer, as Fr. John of Jesus Mary says, continually joined with the cultivation of the virtues. I have just said that an edition of this book was made while Teresa was still alive; but that which came out in the year 1583 and again 1588, notwithstanding the care of Luis de León, was faulty, indeed truncated by a whole chapter. For which reason Ribera (book II, chap. I) says that he will cite the Saint's manuscript rather than the aforesaid editions. These errors were afterwards corrected.
[1539] and various autographs. The Annus Teresianus (vol. VII, page 181 and following) demonstrates at length that this book, as it exists published, was made according to the autograph which the Carmelite nuns of Valladolid possess, and not according to that which is kept in the Escorial library. The Saint wrote the latter first, the former later, in which several things are more correct, and the chapters better divided. By that observation it is grasped how in the argument which is prefixed to the book it can be said that the Saint here instructs the daughters of the monasteries founded by her, although, when she was first writing this book, she had erected only one convent, that of St. Joseph at Ávila: likewise it is grasped on what ground it can be said by the author of the Chronicle that the protestation which precedes the book is absent in the autograph, namely the Escorial one, while it is said by others to be present in the autograph, namely the Valladolid one, and probably also in both its copies signed by the Saint, who declares them to be genuine; of which one is at Madrid, the other at Salamanca, in both places among the Carmelite nuns. Meanwhile I forbear to review the many separate editions of this book, as I shall also forbear afterwards to review those of each of the others: for days and space would fail me in enumerating them. Meanwhile I regret that for the narrowness of space I cannot bring forward the prologue and closing exclamation of the book, where the aim and manner of the writer are beautifully indicated, the Saint confessing among other things that she would have been unequal, unless God had taught her, to treating things so sublime as, compelled by command, she had dared to speak out for the benefit of her daughters.
[1540] The Castle of the soul. The form and end of this book, and other circumstances. That the Castle of the soul or the Mansions was composed by order of Doctor Velázquez, Ribera, Yepes and the Acts of the canonization say. But the Chronicle has that it was ordered by Gracián, who, as Fr. Frederick of St. Anthony witnesses (book IV, chap. X), himself affirms this, speaking thus: When I was at Toledo, I vehemently urged the holy Mother to write a book which she afterwards made under the name Castle of the soul or Mansions. She opposed to me the reasons which she often adduces in her books, in almost these words: "For what end do they want me to write? Let the learned write, who have studied. I am a dunce, and do not know what I shall say. I shall put one word for another, perhaps with harm. There are already books enough treating of prayer. For the love of God let them allow me to finish my stint at the distaff, and to follow the choir, and to perform the other duties of Religion, like my other sisters. For I am unfit for writing; and I have neither the health nor the head for it." Gracián insisted nevertheless, nay he gave it her as a command. Both, therefore, Gracián and Velázquez, as I conjecture, induced Teresa to compose this book; so that Baillet wrongly denies that a confessor's command intervened here, since two confessors rather than one seem to have ordered it. Moreover Yepes testified in the informative processes that he had been informed by Teresa that God Himself had commanded this writing to her: which she hints in letter 44 of volume II.
[1541] The Saint wrote this unwillingly, but obedient, and helped by God: Teresa therefore, victor over herself, willingly obeyed the commands, as she beautifully confesses at the beginning of that book, speaking thus: Among the things which my superiors have commanded me, there are few which have been so difficult for me to fulfil as it now is to write something about prayer, both because the Lord does not seem to give me spirit or heart for doing this, and because for three months now my head has been so disturbed and weak that I can scarcely write the things which are most necessary to be written. But since I am not ignorant that such is the force of obedience that it is wont to render light and easy and as it were to level even things which seem impossible to do, the will has determined to carry out and undertake this most gladly; although nature and the exterior man seem most averse to this very thing and therefore not a little afflicted. For the Lord has not yet given me so much strength that I can
bear these conflicts with continual ill health and infirmity, as well as occupations of various kinds, without great repugnance and contradiction from it. May He do it who has deigned to do other far more difficult things in order to grant me grace; in whose mercy also I trust. She began, therefore, at Toledo in the year 1577 on the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, which in that year fell on the second day of June (not of July, as Messrs. Boucher, Collombet etc. have it); then she continued at Segovia, and made an end of it at Ávila on the eve of St. Andrew, six months not yet having elapsed since the writing was begun: which space of time must be reckoned very brief for such a work, the more so because a grave persecution was then raging, and she herself was pressed by many straits and infirmities. But an obedient woman has spoken of victories. For God was so present to her that, as Yepes testifies (book III, chap. XVIII), He Himself supplied her with the argument of the book, and suggested the method and the very title of the book. Indeed, as the Acts of the canonization report from a sworn witness (second Relation, art. II, § I, fourth argument), her face, when she was writing, was seen illuminated, splendours going out from it like gilded rays, for the space of one hour. And as she herself confesses, at the time when she was composing this book she was sometimes for ten or twelve days so absorbed in God that she was unable in mind to write, for the spiritual delights with which she was flooded; and she writes that she had attained that state which she describes in the seventh Mansion, namely where the soul, united to God, and greater than mortal things, enjoys stupendous charisms (vol. II, letter 100).
[1542] whence that book is very excellent. When she had finished the book, she handed it to Gracián, asking that, after he had seen it, he should communicate it to Fr. Diego de Yanguas, her confessor of the Order of St. Dominic. Both, therefore, in the presence of the holy Mother, read the volume through at the grilles of the monastery, weighing Teresa's mystical doctrine by the rigour of scholastic form, but also finding, often after long examination, that divine mysteries could not have been expressed more correctly by most versed theologians than a simple and unlearned woman had expressed them. With what joy this was to her, who referred all things to God, she writes to another of her confessors; as can be seen in letter 44 of volume II: where at the same time it may be seen that the Saint greatly preferred these Mansions to her Life; because, she says, that work has been fashioned by a more skilful craftsman and of purer gold, and inlaid with more precious stones: for what she sets forth more splendidly in describing herself in her Life, as Fr. John of Jesus Mary says, she hands on with another purpose in the Mansions, reduced to method and proposed for common use. And she executed this so happily that, whether for the depth of the doctrine, or for the purity of the style, or lastly for the ease of the diction amid the sublime secrets of contemplation, this work seems by right and deservedly to be preferred to all the other compositions of the Saint. The doctrine there is admirable, says Yepes, and the soul, having first gone forth out of itself through the gate of prayer, is raised step by step through many halls, even into the bosom of the Godhead itself, which is the centre of the soul, and where the seventh Mansion is. When Fr. Rodrigo Álvarez, S. J., had seen this last part of the book in the year 1581, he inscribed on the autograph itself a great eulogy of Teresa's doctrine and spirit (see vol. II, letter 100, and the notes to it of Fr. Anthony of St. Joseph). Finally Fr. Andrew of Jesus composed a Spanish explanation of it, and Fr. Balthasar of St. Catherine illustrated this book of the holy Mother in a whole volume in folio, published at Cremona in the year 1671.
[1543] She writes the Foundations by command, and first nine, The Book of the Foundations. This book Teresa, like all her others, wrote by order of her superiors. Already God Himself, when she was at Malagón, on the second day of Lent, had revealed to her that she would do a thing pleasing to Him by drawing up a relation of the foundation of the monasteries erected by her. Then there came the order of her confessor, Fr. Jerónimo Ripalda, S. J., rector of the college of Salamanca; who, having read the relation of the foundation of Ávila, judged that it would be to the service of God if she committed to writing the foundation of the other seven also, and the beginnings of the reformed Carmel of men. Since this seemed impossible to me, says the Saint at the beginning of that book, on account of the very many affairs which keep me occupied, both of writing letters and of other occupations necessarily to be performed, because they concern matters enjoined on me by superiors, I commended the matter to God by prayers: and when I was somewhat afflicted within myself, that I was useful and capable for so few things, and of such slight health besides that even without this I did not seem able to bear any labour, as indeed was my natural weakness, the Lord said to me: "Daughter, obedience gives strength." Therefore, relying on divine help, at Salamanca on the 24th of August (the old editions have the 23rd of August) 1573 she began to describe seven foundations of sisters and two of brothers, namely those of Medina, Malagón, Valladolid, Duruelo, Toledo, the two of Pastrana, Salamanca and Alba: which with that of St. Joseph at Ávila make up the number ten. She had also begun to relate certain particulars about some of the nuns of these houses; but, fearing lest some part should be attributed to herself of the virtues which as Mother she might praise in her daughters, she refrained out of modesty, as also from narrating many other facts, whether those which the Lord had manifestly done through their prayers, or those which no one who had been present at them could deny had happened miraculously. After these things, having confessed that she had perhaps erred slightly in computing the years of the foundations, and having fulfilled Ripalda's precept, she then broke off the work.
[1544] then four others, But in the third year after, by order of Gracián, she added those of Segovia, Beas, Seville and Caravaca, writing in the midst of the blasts of a most savage tempest, which in a letter to Fr. Gracián (vol. IV, fragment 17) she compares to the Egyptian pursuit of Moses and the Israelite people. In this very letter, written in the spring of the year 1576 and indeed on the very day on which she had begun this continuation of the book of the Foundations, she signifies to Gracián that it had been revealed to her by God that this writing would conduce to the profit of many souls; yet she added that even without this signification of God she now stood ready to undertake the matter, because of the command given her. She wrote this second series of Foundations at Toledo, and finished it there on the 14th of November of the same year. And since thereafter a horrible vexation seethed against the Order for a whole four years, and Teresa had lost hope of further foundations, she seemed to herself to close the book with the writing of chapter XXVII. Hence it is that in this third year after she placed in her autograph, as a crowning conclusion, those four momentous counsels which are usually placed again among the additions to her Life, and indeed a third time at the end of the first volume of the Letters, where they lead the column among the other Counsels.
[1545] and lastly the four last, besides that of Granada. Peace having been restored to her in the year 1580, she erected four new convents: at Villanueva, Palencia, Soria and Burgos. Therefore, at the order of the same Gracián, she wove the history of these foundations also, putting an end to the work, not in the year 1580, as both Carmelite Bibliothecas and the new Bibliotheca Hispana erroneously have, but in 1582, shortly after the house at Burgos had been established, and in the fourth month before her death. The foundation of Granada was made at the beginning of the year 1582, indeed through the cares and counsels of the holy Mother, but, since she had not been present, she was unwilling to narrate it. Wherefore it was described, by order of Fr. Gracián, by the Ven. Anne of Jesus, and is usually sewn on to Teresa's book of the Foundations, not so unworthy of that place, whether you regard the matter narrated or the manner of telling. From what has been said, then, it follows that, excepting the foundation of Granada but counting that of Ávila, Teresa reviewed eighteen foundations, two of Friars and sixteen of sisters, comprising, namely, all those monasteries at whose erection she herself had been more immediately present.
[1546] The grave fault of those who truncated the book of the Foundations; I do not know, however, on what foundation Mr. Boucher relies when he says, in the Life of Bl. Mary of the Incarnation (book III, note b), that besides that of Granada another house was erected by Anne of Jesus at Teresa's order; nor can I conjecture of what house he speaks. If, however, I note now and then in sincere writers this and similar little faults, from which I by no means flatter myself that I am free, far be it from me to wish to strike them continually with the censorial rod. But those must be lashed with the scourge of severer rebuke who can rightly be accused of bad faith, deliberately truncating or corrupting the passages of authors. Of this crime he, whoever he was, must be held guilty who was not ashamed to cut off from the book of the Foundations the whole eleventh chapter and half of the tenth and several lines elsewhere, either because the Saint there says she augurs well of a nun who afterwards deserted the Order, or because several things there tend to the praise of the Society of Jesus, against which formerly no less than today certain persons have been so hostile that, where there was no occasion for assailing it with abuse, they would steal away the praise bestowed on it by the Saints. Meanwhile, however, I must confess that I suspect those were not so much at fault who printed the book and so often reprinted it, as those who first transcribed it from the autograph.
[1547] from which, though emended, a chapter and a half is still not rarely missing. When that mutilated book first saw the light at Brussels in the year 1610, says the Bibliotheca of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, it was collated by our Fathers in Spain with the autograph, and they found it to teem with so many blemishes that it was necessary to emend it. They were astonished some years later that it had come out at Zaragoza with the same faults, which remained also in the Antwerp edition of the year 1630. The book, collated with the original with new care, was destined for the use of the historians of the Order. Francisco Sobrino, bishop of Valladolid, a great friend of our Religious Order, also collated the Brussels edition with a most faithful manuscript of the autograph, and gave it as a gift to our nuns of Valladolid; and from there it was laid up in the archives of the Order. In the subsequent editions it was restored to its original purity. So Fr. Martial of St. John the Baptist in the year 1730. But since he himself was writing in France, it would have been desirable that he had denounced to his countrymen that Arnauld's version was and remained, as often as it was reprinted, so often truncated by that chapter and a half. For by that means, still today, in all the French versions which come out, and even in the Paris one of the year 1840, readers would not be deprived of this notable part of the book. I perceive that it is lacking also in the German of the year 1756, while on the contrary the diligent Woodhead is found to have restored these passages already in the year 1675 in the English.
[1548] [The Saint rightly intermixes with the history precepts of prayer and sighs to God.] It may also be reckoned a kind of injury when present-day censors dare to complain that the Saint from time to time interrupts the historical narration of the Foundations, now by teaching prayer, now by sighing to God. But let these Aristarchuses observe, I would wish, that it was enjoined on the Saint by her confessor not only that
she should set forth the facts, but also, as she herself notes at the beginning of the book of the Foundations, that, where there was occasion, she should discourse somewhat about prayer, and about the illusions which could be an impediment to those already enjoying the gift of prayer. Moreover, is the artificial symmetry which they would wish for in Teresa's writings to be preferred to native eloquence, or rather to the divine inspiration by which the holy Mother sometimes freely ranges abroad, now carried away by the heat of love, now inserting as occasion offers admonitions of spiritual discipline and heavenly doctrine? These affected counters of periods and clauses Arnauld excellently refutes in the proem of his version, writing of the book of the Foundations no less sensibly than succinctly: Although these Foundations are a relation of many affairs similar to one another, yet they are mingled with various things set forth with such charm, and the narration is so candid and pure, that few histories exist which delight the mind more sweetly. They are likewise most useful, since the holy Mother omits no occasion of noting every excellent thing concerning the exercises of the virtues, so as in this way to rouse her nuns to progress more from day to day in the divine service.
[1549] The Method of visiting monasteries. The Method of visiting monasteries of nuns. The Rev. Fr. Alfonso of Jesus Mary, when he was elected General Superior, ordered a copy of this book to be transcribed from the Escorial autograph: and having composed, in the manner of a letter, a proem to the nuns of his Order, which is prefixed to many editions, for example Spanish, Latin and German, he made that little work public at Madrid in the year 1613; which has since been customarily annexed to the other works of the Saint. The prudence, judgment, sanctity and other endowments with which this little book is marked make it second to none in its kind. I have already recorded several things about this little work, where I treated of its autograph (§ LXXIV).
[1550] Conceptions of the love of God. They are only a part of a book which perished; Conceptions of the love of God upon certain words of the Song of Songs. These Conceptions seem to have been written in the year 1577 or 1578, because four or five times she refers the reader to her treatises on mystical matters, which can be no others than her Life and the Castle of the soul, which she composed in the year 1577, and of which those Conceptions may be reckoned a continuation. But these are only the beginning of a greater work which the Saint, obeying one confessor, had composed, and, obeying another, had delivered to the flames, the latter judging it a new and dangerous thing for a woman to interpret the Song of Songs: so that what we now have in our hands is only a part of the aforesaid work, which one of the nuns had copied out before it was burned. Ribera may be seen below (book IV, chap. III) saying that it was most certainly ascertained by him that Teresa, although she seems to have stopped at the part which remains to us, carried this little book further; and what Ribera affirms so undoubtingly, all who were nearer to Teresa's age confirm, Yepes, both John of Jesus and John of St. Jerome, the Acts of the canonization, and before the others Gracián in the prologue which he prefixed to that fragment of the Conceptions, first published by him at Brussels in the year 1612.
[1551] whatever the author of the Chronicle may say. Wherefore no account seems to be taken of Fr. Francis of St. Mary, who, writing the Chronicle half a century later, calls it into doubt, relying on one argument which Ribera had expressly rejected, namely that that little book seems to close at the words which now exist. For what bears the appearance of a closing clause is not always the true close of a book; as may be seen in the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans, who seems to close it in chapter XV, yet was to add chapter XVI. And this is not infrequent with Teresa, either because she wrote at intervals, or because she was ordered to continue when she believed she had reached the goal. As to who it was who gave this regrettable order to burn the book, it is affirmed in the compendium of Teresa's Life, published through Gracián's care and much praised by him, that it was Fr. Diego Yanguas, the very one who with Fr. Gracián had brought each word of the Mansions to the balance in Teresa's presence. Fr. Francis of St. Mary thought this must be flatly denied for several plausible reasons which he gathers, for example because Ribera says it is wholly unknown who ordered this, and because it is altogether improbable that so preposterous an order should have come from so circumspect a man. But Fr. Anthony of St. Joachim (in the Annus Teresianus, vol. VII, page 157) settles the dispute, saying that in searching the Madrid archive of the Order he found the matter confirmed by the testimony of three nuns whom he names and who in the juridical informative processes for the canonization affirmed that they had heard it from Yanguas's own mouth; although he had not given an express order here, and only for the trial of her obedience, and he himself greatly grieved over the loss of the manuscript. Likewise the Duchess of Alba, María Enríquez de Toledo, in the informative process made at Valladolid, article 80, said that she had received a copy of that writing from the nuns of Alba when Fr. Yanguas had given the precept to destroy it. It is helpful to remember that Fr. Báñez too tested Teresa's obedience, ordering her to commit the manuscript of the Life to the flames, but at once held her back as she hastened to obey.
[1552] The argument of this book and its editions, Certainly it is a lamentable loss of a not small part, as it seems, of the book, which, as Fr. Frederick duly observes, must be held not a commentary on Holy Scripture, but only an explanation of some passages which she had either heard in a sermon or read in the Breviary. Further Gracián, being about to publish this book, subjoined some notes: and with these, as Nicolás Antonio relates more fully in the new Bibliotheca Hispana, it came out in Spanish at Brussels in the year 1612, at Valencia in the year 1613, at Madrid in the year 1615, and again at Valencia in the year 1623; in which year also it was published at Pavia in Italian, divided by the editor into its chapters, with an argument of the contents prefixed. But those notes were banished from the later editions, through the foresight of the Spanish Inquisitors, lest offence should be given against the rule laid down by them after St. Teresa's writing, by which all were forbidden to comment on the Song of Songs in Spanish.
[1553] and its excellence. Finally, for forming a judgment of that book, hear what Arnauld rightly puts forward about it in the proem of his French version. I confess, he says, that nothing has ever been read by me which seemed to me more beautiful, or which more raised the mind to wonder at the infinite greatness of God and the miracles of His grace. Wherefore this treatise is the more estimable in that more sublime thoughts and more useful instructions concerning the exercise of the virtues are mingled in it: and, far from diminishing the reader's courage by the setting forth of so great a perfection, to which he would not dare to aspire, it rather consoles him, disclosing that it is not necessary to be heaped with such eminent graces in order to be wholly joined with God and in this way perfectly happy; but that it is enough, as I said above, if one subjects his will in every way to the divine will, and shows that subjection by his acts.
[1554] Exclamations of the soul to God, and Counsels 69, and 19 others. Exclamations of the soul to its God: which are better so entitled than, as Arnauld entitles them, Meditations after Holy Communion. They are seventeen in number, and were written on different days after Holy Communion in the year 1579, not 1569, as Emery, Nicolás Antonio and others have it. The language there is lively, clear, efficacious: which, says the Chronicle, innumerable persons have experienced who were converted to God by the reading of that book. The Annus Teresianus (vol. VII, p. 152) says that part of the autograph was lately found among the Carmelite nuns of Granada. Counsels of the holy Mother to her nuns. There are sixty-nine, or, as they are numbered in the last edition of 1793, sixty-eight, because the fortieth and forty-first are joined. Their autograph has perished, or never existed: which seems probable to Fr. Frederick, because, he says, it could have happened that they were dictated by the holy Mother, or that they were first taken down by the nuns by ear from time to time and successively committed to paper. That it existed, however, seems more probable to me, both because, the Saint scarcely dead, they were submitted to the press with the book of the Way of Perfection in the year 1583, and because Luis de León hints that he inspected the autographs of all the works which he published. Fr. Alfonso de Andrade, S. J., published most learned commentaries on them in Spanish at Madrid in the year 1647, which were reprinted at Barcelona in the year 1695. An anonymous Carmelite translated the same into Italian and published them at Venice in the year 1720. Of these Fr. Frederick says: If my words had any weight and any authority, I would vehemently exhort every faithful person to read some of them every day, and in the examination of conscience to see how what was read has been observed. Indeed I do not doubt that, acting thus, experience would teach him that the best instruction and profit is derived from them. Nineteen other Counsels, drawn from Teresa's sayings and writings, Palafox commented on, and published them at the end of the first volume of the Letters. But innumerable Counsels or spiritual advices of this kind could be gathered.
[1555] Poems composed by the Saint, how many and of what kind: Spiritual poems. The holy Mother, on the great solemnities of the year, to refresh the spirits of her daughters, often played cheerfully at little songs. Of such little songs she makes mention in several places of her Letters (for example vol. I, letters 31 and 32). Besides those which are lost or of which only fragments survive, Fr. Frederick says (book IV, chap. X) that only four entire Poems exist today, among which he puts three glosas (that is, as the Spanish word means, odes in which the theme of the poem is sung again after each stanza by an intercalated verse): the fourth poem is a short song on the transfixion of the heart, which I reported at num. 226. Moreover the Annus Teresianus (vol. VII, published at Madrid in the year 1758, page 152) says that an autograph manuscript of the songs of St. Teresa had then recently been found in the hermitage of the Carmel of Genoa. It is hidden from me whether among these is found the glosa which the Chronicle mentions in vol. II (book VI, chap. XIII, num. 3); likewise another in honour of St. Andrew, which the Annus Teresianus gives (vol. XI, page 560). At least Fr. Frederick makes mention of neither. From what vein the holy Virgin poured forth her poems she herself seems to declare in chapter XVI of her Life; where, treating of the third degree of prayer, in which the soul burns for the fruition of God from the affection of divine love, she speaks thus: I know a certain person who, although she was not a poet, yet extempore brought forth certain mournful verses, in which she aptly expressed the pain which she suffered: not that she composed them from her own talent; but, so that she might the more enjoy that glory which tormented her so sweetly, she complained to her God about that pain: and at the same time she desired her whole body and her whole soul to be torn to pieces, so that she might signify to Him her joy mixed with that sorrow. Therefore the poems which she so made are the offspring not of talent but of love.
[1556] among which is held a most celebrated glosa, Among these by far the most celebrated is that glosa which I find already reported in Latin by Martínez in the version which he made of the works of St. Teresa, where he also presents in Spanish four of its stanzas which are now commonly placed among the variant readings; but those thirteen are missing of which the received glosa consists. Fr. José de Castro, S. J., added a paraphrase of this ode, as also of the song on the transfixion of her heart, to his Italian translation of Yepes, which was published in the year 1730, and reprinted in the year 1733. In amplifying the more celebrated glosa Giacomo Martelli had gone before Fr. José in the year 1698, in the third book of the Art of loving God. The attempt to translate this most elegant poem was made among others, in Latin, as I have said, by Martínez, in Netherlandish by Fr. Elias of St. Teresa, in German by Fr. Arnold of St. Matthias, in French by Fr. Cyprian of the Nativity, Mr. de la Monnoye, and lately Mr. Collombet. But, if you except the version of the last, much better than the others, how faded and nerveless is the diction of those men, and how changed from that Spanish! The fiery Teresa grows cold in them, the polished grows shabby. Indeed, says Arnauld in the proem of his version, I have not dared to undertake the explanation of the thoughts which the Holy Spirit had inspired in her, and had taught her to utter in speech so sublime and so efficacious that, if Teresa were not believed when she denies that those verses were brought forth by her own talent, it would be easy to judge from their divine style that they were not composed by her. There is truly heavenly poetry there, and ineffable impulses of love of the soul towards her beloved Spouse. The burning desire of the holy Virgin, longing to be dissolved and to be with Christ, is breathed out with such sweetness that, if those poems on the love of God are excepted which St. Francis of Assisi, St. John of the Cross and certain other Saints poured forth, which can in some measure be compared with Teresa's, I should judge that nothing so sublime, and nothing at the same time so simple and polished, has proceeded from the talent of man. If the breasts of the Saints were full of God, what wonder that no one's lyre was grander than theirs, no one's mouth more divine? And the more so since Teresa was already most eloquent and most gifted from the endowments of nature? Hence most true is the saying of the Mémoires de Trévoux (for the year 1729, page 852), where, speaking of the lyric poetry of St. Francis of Assisi, they say that ordinary poetry, when it dares to imitate such poems of the Saints, is altogether witless and mad. I too was on the point, imitating Arnauld, of not presenting that poem here rendered in Latin: but lest the reader not learned in Spanish should be wholly cheated of understanding it, I have made the attempt to translate it into Latin after a fashion.
1557] Vivo sin vivir en mi; [which is presented here in SpanishY tan alta vida espero, Que muero porque no muero. I live without living in myself; / and so high a life I hope for, / that I die because I do not die.
Aquesta divina union Del amor con que yo vivo, Hace a Dios ser mi cautivo Y libre mi corazon. Mas causa en mi tal pasion Ver a Dios mi prisionero, Que muero porque no muero. [This divine union / of the love with which I live / makes God my captive / and my heart free. / But it causes in me such passion / to see God my prisoner, / that I die because I do not die.]
Ay! Que larga es esta vida! Que duros estos destierros, Esta carcel y estos hierros En que el alma esta metida! Solo esperar la salida Me causa un dolor tan fiero, Que muero porque non muero. [Ah, how long is this life! / How hard these exiles, / this prison and these irons / in which the soul is put! / Only to await the going forth / causes me a pain so fierce / that I die because I do not die.]
Ay! Que vida tan amarga Do no se goza el Señor! Y si es dulce el amor, No lo es la esperanza larga. Quiteme Dios esta carga Mas pesada que de azero: Que muero porque no muero. [Ah, what a bitter life / where the Lord is not enjoyed! / And if love is sweet, / long hoping is not. / May God take from me this burden / heavier than one of steel: / for I die because I do not die.]
Solo con la confianza Vivo de que he de morir, Porque muriendo el vivir Me asegura mi esperanza. Muerte, do el vivir se alcanza, No te tardes, que te espero, Que muero porque no muero. [Only with the confidence / that I must die do I live, / because in dying, living / is assured me by my hope. / Death, where living is attained, / do not delay, for I await you, / for I die because I do not die.]
Mira que el amor es fuerte. Vida, no me seas molesta. Mira que solo te resta, Para ganarte, perderte; Venga ya la dulce muerte, Venga el morir muy ligero: Que muero porque no muero. [See how strong love is. / Life, do not be irksome to me. / See that it only remains for you, / in order to gain yourself, to lose yourself; / let sweet death come now, / let dying come very swiftly: / for I die because I do not die.]
Aquella vida de arriba Es la vida verdadera: Hasta que esta vida muera, No se goza estando viva. Muerte no me seas esquiva: Vivo muriendo primero; Que muero porque no muero. [That life above / is the true life: / until this life dies, / it is not enjoyed while one is alive. / Death, do not shun me: / I live by dying first; / for I die because I do not die.]
Vida, que puedo yo darle A mi Dios, que vive en mi, Sino es perderte a ti, Para mejor a el gozarle? Quiero muriendo alcanzarle, Pues a el solo es el que quiero, Que muero porque no muero. [Life, what can I give / to my God, who lives in me, / unless it is to lose you, / the better to enjoy Him? / I wish by dying to reach Him, / since He alone is the one I love, / for I die because I do not die.]
Estando ausente de ti, Que vida puedo tener? Sino muerte padecer La mayor que nunca vi. Lastima tengo de mi, Por ser mi mal tan entero, Que muero porque no muero. [Being absent from Thee, / what life can I have? / Only to suffer death, / the greatest I ever saw. / I have pity on myself, / because my ill is so complete, / for I die because I do not die.]
El pez que del agua sale, Aun de alivio no carece: A quien la muerte padece, Al fin la muerte le vale. Que muerte habra que se iguale A mi vivir lastimero? Que muero porque no muero. [The fish that comes out of the water / does not lack even relief: / to one who suffers death, / death in the end avails. / What death can there be to equal / my pitiable living? / For I die because I do not die.]
Quando me empiezo a aliviar Viendote en el Sacramento, Me hace mas sentimiento El no poderte gozar. Todo es para mas penar, Por no verte como quiero: Que muero porque non muero. [When I begin to be relieved / seeing Thee in the Sacrament, / it makes me feel more keenly / not being able to enjoy Thee. / All is for suffering more, / for not seeing Thee as I wish: / for I die because I do not die.]
Quando me gozo, Señor, Con esperanza de verte, Viendo que puedo perderte, Se me dobla mi dolor: Viviendo en tanto pavor, Y esperando como espero, Que muero porque no muero. [When I rejoice, Lord, / with hope of seeing Thee, / seeing that I may lose Thee, / my pain is doubled: / living in such great dread, / and hoping as I hope, / for I die because I do not die.]
Sacame de aquesta muerte, Mi Dios, y dame la vida. No me tengas impedida En este lazo tan fuerte. Mira que muero por verte, Y vivir sin ti no puedo; Que muero porque no muero. [Draw me out of this death, / my God, and give me life. / Do not keep me held / in this so strong a snare. / See that I die to see Thee, / and without Thee I cannot live; / for I die because I do not die.]
Llorare mi muerte ya, Y lamentare mi vida, En tanto que detenida Por mis pecados esta. O mi Dios, quando sera Quando yo diga de vero: Que muero porque no muero? [I shall weep for my death now, / and lament my life, / so long as it is detained / by my sins. / O my God, when will it be, / when I may say in truth: / that I die because I do not die?]
1558] I live without living in myself; [and in Latin,And so high a life I await, That I die because I do not die.
This divine joining Of the love with which I live Makes God to be my captive And my heart free. But I am inflamed with such ardour Seeing God my captive, That I die because I do not die.
Alas! how long is this life! How hard these exiles, This prison and these chains By which the soul is held bound! The sole awaiting of my going forth Affects me with so savage a pain, That I die because I do not die.
Alas! how bitter is life Where the mind does not enjoy the Lord! And if love is sweet, Yet long expectation is not sweet. May God take from me this burden Heavier than the weight of iron: For I die because I do not die.
Only the confidence Of future death sustains me, Since my hope assures me Of life as I die. Death, by which life is obtained, Do not delay: for I long for thee, And I die because I do not die.
See how strong love is. O life, be not irksome to me. Lo, this alone remains for thee, That I lose thee in order to gain thee. Let sweet death come now, Let it hasten with swiftest step: For I die because I do not die.
That life above Is the true life; Which, until this life dies, It is not permitted the living to enjoy. O death, do not disdain me: I live by dying first; For I die because I do not die.
Life, what else can I give To my God, who lives in me, Than the loss of thee, That I may the better enjoy Him? I desire to attain Him by dying, Since I desire Him alone, So that I die because I do not die.
Absent from Thee, Lord, What life can I live? Rather I suffer a death The greatest of all I have seen. I pity myself, Because so great is the force of my ill, That I die because I do not die.
The fish that comes up out of the water Does not lack the relief of death: He to whom death must be suffered, Is at last helped by dying. But what death could equal My pitiable life? For I die because I do not die.
When I begin to be relieved Seeing Thee in the Sacrament, My pain increases Because I cannot enjoy Thee. Hence it comes that I suffer more, Because I do not see Thee as I desire: Hence I die because I do not die
When I delight myself, Lord, In the hope of beholding Thee, Seeing that it may come to pass that I lose Thee, My pain is doubled. Living in so great a dread, Though hoping as much as I hope, Lo, I die because I do not die.
Rescue me from this death, My God, and give me life. Do not hold me ensnared In this so strong a noose. Lo, I die with desire of Thee, Nor can I live without Thee; For I die because I do not die.
I shall weep now for my death, And I shall lament my life, So long as it shall be prolonged On account of my sins. O my God, when will it be That I can truly say: Lo, I die because I do not die?
[1559] and the occasion of its composition is brought forward from Yepes. Yepes narrates (book III, chap. XXIII) what occasion the holy Virgin had for making these verses. In her convent of Salamanca, he says, in the first year from its foundation, she was keeping the day of the feast of Easter (15th of April 1571), when a song was sung there which has these little verses: "Let my eyes see Thee, sweet good Jesus! Let them see Thee, and let it be granted forthwith to die!" At these words, which struck her on account of the idea of death, which she so vehemently longed for in order to see God, so great a rapture of mind seized her that, as if dead, she had to be carried
to her couch and placed in bed: and she seemed not yet fully herself on the following day, on which she wrote to one of her confessors what she was then feeling. Yepes then brings forward the Saint's very words to that confessor (which I pass over here, because they are also brought forward by Ribera, book IV, chap. V); and to them he subjoins these: Amid these impulses the Saint composed certain stanzas, born from the ardour of that interior fire, in which she makes manifest the wound inflicted on her and the feelings of her soul.
§ LXXVIII. On the Letters of St. Teresa.
The Letters of St. Teresa, how many. That a small part of the Letters of the holy Mother remains to us, and a much greater part has perished, is evident to one who considers that, if the last fourteen years of her busy life are taken generally, each year furnishes us with only about thirty letters; while nevertheless in her letters which survive we see throughout that she was exceedingly occupied with epistolary correspondence. The letters published hitherto in the Spanish tongue are held to be 342, and fragments of letters 87. They fill four volumes in quarto; of which the first contains 65 letters, the second 108, the third 82, and the fourth 77, besides fragments. Moreover Mr. Migne in the year 1840 put forth in the French idiom three hitherto unpublished, which he added to Teresa's Works republished by him. That they were translated from autographs which are kept in the Paris convent of the Carmelite nuns I know from letters of the prioress of that house to the Rev. Mr. Tresvaux, canon of the cathedral church of Paris, given on the 18th of November 1840, and most kindly communicated to me by him, out of the goodwill with which that most learned man follows our undertakings. Mr. Migne presents one of them, written out in facsimile, also in Spanish, reproducing Teresa's hand in writing. The Letters of the holy Mother, if you take away one which is of the year 1560, were all written in the last twenty years of her life, that is from the beginning of the year 1562 to the 12th of September 1582: indeed, if you take away five or six letters, they were all written in the last fourteen years. The autographs of most of these are still today preserved in Spain, especially at Seville, Valladolid and Madrid; and many of them, approved as authentic Relics, are justly venerated with pious rite.
[1561] Things worthy of note about certain individual letters, within Among other things the Chronicle relates (book XX, chap. XXXIV), and Fr. Anthony in his notes, how letter 15 of volume II was found at Ávila in the year 1614. Namely, the religious had it in mind, before they occupied that place where Teresa was born, to build a dwelling outside the city; and to that end they had bought several houses abandoned by the Moors who had been expelled from Spain four years before. When a certain wattled wall was to be destroyed by those about to build, behold, they had in their hands the aforesaid letter entire, in which not even the glue with which letters are usually closed had been eaten away. For, cherishing the hope of returning shortly, the Moors hid whatever precious things they could not carry away in the inmost parts of their houses or buried them in the ground. And from the care with which they concealed that writing it may be conjectured that even among the Moors themselves the letters of Teresa were highly valued.
[1562] and outside Spain. Even outside Spain some of her letters, but few, are held. Omitting the three at Paris, of which above, among the Carmelite nuns of Brussels there exists the first part of letter 43 of volume II, ending on the verso (as it is usually said) of the middle page at these words of number four: no hallaba; dixo she did not find; she said. If it is permitted to track by conjecture the reason for the loss of the latter part, I would easily believe that it was destroyed by Gracián himself, not ill-solicitous for his posthumous fame; because it contained serious admonitions to him from Teresa when about to die. That remaining autograph leaf of the Saint the Most Excellent Archbishop of Nicaea, Raffaele Fornari, Nuncio at the court of the king of the Belgians, on the 8th of May 1842 deigned to fortify with the strength of his seal, and to decree that the honour of Sacred Relics should be accorded to it. And this was the more welcome to the Carmelite nuns of Brussels in that it was the first act by which he exercised the power with which he had recently been endowed. Finally, in the convent of Bologna there exists another, which is usually placed as the fifty-sixth of volume II. This the nuns of Valladolid offered to Benedict XIV, who in turn sent it as a gift to Bologna, adding a Brief in which he asserts that it was written by Teresa's hand both from the added Valladolid document and from the formation of the letters and strokes, since, he says, the hand of the Saint is sufficiently known in all Spain. And since the Saint had, according to her custom, neglected to add the name of the place from which the letter was sent, the Supreme Pontiff of the Church did not disdain to demonstrate by reasoning that it was sent from Toledo.
[1563] When and how the first volume of the Letters came out; The first volume of the Letters was collected by the Rev. Fr. Diego of the Presentation, General of the Spanish Congregation: and when the Illustrious Palafox had furnished them with notes completed within one month, he dedicated them to Philip IV, and they came out at Zaragoza in the year 1658. It pleased the king that they should be published under his auspices, because his mother had considered that his birth was to be attributed to the prayers of Carmel; as Philip's historiographer relates. And the letters of the holy Virgin were received with such eagerness that within eight years they had to be reprinted four times, and were translated, as the Bibliotheca of the Order of Discalced Carmelites says, into almost all the languages of the Christian world. This first volume of the Letters was translated into French by Mr. Pellicot, doctor of the academy of Salamanca, and almoner to the queen of France. But, as the aforesaid Bibliotheca notes, since the autograph of this version had been deposited in certain unfaithful hands, they had it published at Paris in the year 1660 by Georges Josse, the whole of letter 65, the Counsels of the holy Mother, and many other things here and there being omitted: as François Foppens, printer of Brussels, also pointed out, who published the entire Spanish copy translated into French in the following year, 1661. Another version of this volume was made by Mr. Chappe de Ligny, the letters being arranged in chronological order, and Palafox's notes cut short.
[1564] [likewise when the second; which was translated into French not faithfully enough,] The second volume of the Letters came out in Spanish with notes of Fr. Peter of the Annunciation. Fuller ones were added to them by Fr. Anthony of St. Joseph, the same who made the notes of the third and fourth volumes. Through the work of Fr. Peter of the Mother of God these came out in French at Lille in the year 1698. Another version had been prepared two years before by Mother de Maupeou, prioress of Saint-Denis, who died in the year 1727. This the Illustrious de la Taste, bishop of Bethlehem, had published, with a prologue prefixed by himself. It is wonderful that this translation has been presented with such encomiums both of elegance and of fidelity, and that there has been one concert of all in extolling it. Not to speak of Dom François Lamy of the Order of St. Benedict and Louis Ellies Dupin (of whom mention is made in the prologue of the volume) and the Illustrious de la Taste himself, it is praised by F. X. de Feller in the Historical Dictionary, by the French Biographie universelle, by du Serre-Figon in the notes to his Panegyric of St. Teresa, and by all the others without exception whom I have seen making mention of that version. But, since the side of truth must be defended, I cannot but disturb the chorus of those who praise, and who, while one relies on the authority of another, repeat eulogies they have heard, and have now for almost a whole century been proclaiming the version of Mother de Maupeou. And so that it may be invincibly demonstrated that the sense has often been mutilated, and in matters not always slight wrongly translated, I would wish you to go, among the first that come to hand, to letters 80, 81 and 82 of the Spanish second volume, which in French are placed at places 21, 22 and 26; and you will find there that now three or four lines, now eight or nine, nay in some places twelve and fourteen, have been cut out. And so on.
[1565] as is demonstrated from one place and another. Then as regards errors, so that it may be evident that it is not merely a question of trivial faults, I shall point to the fourth letter (in French the eightieth), in which (num. 5) there is had: No reyna en mi con fuerza asimiento de ninguna criatura, ni de toda la gloria del cielo, sino amar a este Dios. [There reigns not in me with force attachment to any creature, nor to all the glory of heaven, but to love this God.] Which sounds in Latin: No great attachment to any creature reigns in me, nor does a vehement desire even of heavenly glory itself hold me: I am borne to the one love of God. But Mother Maupeou translates it: L'amour des creatures ne regne pas dans mon cœur, et je ne sens d'attachement pour aucune, pas meme pour toute la gloire du ciel: tout mon desir est de voir Dieu. [The love of creatures does not reign in my heart, and I feel attachment for none, not even for all the glory of heaven: all my desire is to see God.] Where not only is amar a este Dios (to love God) wrongly so translated, as if the Saint had only desired to see God; but also, what is worse, she is said to have affirmed that she was held by no affection for the whole of heavenly glory: while she only denies that she is borne towards it by impetuous desire. But it is one thing: no affection; another: vehement attachment. Indeed I would have passed over these things in silence, were there not something worse in letter 11, which in French is the first (num. 29), where it is said: Ni honra, ni vida, ni gloria, ni bien alguno, ni en cuerpo ni alma, hay quien me detenga, ni quiera, ni desee mi provecho, sino su gloria. [Neither honour, nor life, nor glory, nor any good, either in body or soul, is there that holds me, nor do I wish or desire my own profit, but only His glory.] That is: Neither honour, nor life, nor glory, nor any good in soul or body is there to which I cling; nor do I will or desire my own profit, but the glory of God alone. But the translatress, infecting the Saint with a kind of Molinism, says: Sans me soucier ni des biens, ni des honneurs, ni de la vie, ni de la santé, ni de ce qui concerne les avantages du corps ou de l'âme, ni même de la felicité des bienheureux, je borne tous mes désirs à sa seule gloire. [Without caring either for goods, or for honours, or for life, or for health, or for what concerns the advantages of body or of soul, nor even for the happiness of the blessed, I confine all my desires to His glory alone.] And then, after Mother de Maupeou had thus fabricated that Teresa took no account of the happiness of the Blessed, the good editor, fighting vigorously with a shadow, discourses at length in a very prolix note to clear the Saint of the error of Molinos. But let these few things suffice to establish that it is wrongly said by writers otherwise accurate that works translated into another language with so much zeal and so much success are rare. Uncertain indeed and often unjust is human praise, with which the undeserving are sometimes presented, while the deserving are more often cheated of it!
[1566] The third and fourth volume It remains now to treat of the third and fourth volume of the Letters, both of which came into the light in the year 1771 at Madrid, dedicated to king Charles III, with notes of Fr. Anthony of St. Joseph, and were reprinted there in the year 1793. Already in the year 1775 these Letters appeared at Florence, clothed in Italian dress. But I do not know that they have hitherto been translated into another idiom. The expectation of a translation lately promised by various persons, however, holds the French, who to this day are cheated of the hope which Mr. Boucher raised for them (preface to the Life of St. Teresa, page XVI), Messrs. Grégoire and Collombet (dedicatory letter
before the Life of the Saint translated into French, page XIV), and Mr. Migne (in the journal l'Ami de la Religion, vol. CXI, page 192). What I have to observe in these last letters, and in the notes added to them, as far as concerns the Society of Jesus, I shall reserve for those paragraphs where I shall treat specially of St. Teresa's perpetual love towards the Society of Jesus: for I shall have to demonstrate that in that respect the editor took sufficient account neither of charity nor of truth. But I cannot refrain from criticizing some other things besides: from which it will be evident that it is to be regretted that the editor threw some dross into Teresa's purest gold in this casting of the volumes.
[1567] they can be criticized in certain respects: which is proved I pass over that on the front of the book, dedicated to the king in the year 1771, below the image of the holy Mother, there are placed four irregular verses which one is ashamed to report. These are lighter matters. But, what is worse, why did the editor at his own discretion conceal several letters and fragments of letters, which he confesses were at his hand? Not to speak of the letter to Moya, and others pertaining to the Society of Jesus, of which there will be discussion later, I do not know by what right the editor, who affirms that absolutely all the letters of the Saint are very profitable, thought it right to deprive us of those letters of which he himself speaks in vol. III, letter 48, note 13, and letter 52, note 20, and vol. IV, letter 42, note 14, and letter 44, notes 11 and 12, etc. Among these, moreover, at least some are held which contained things most worthy of being related, for example that letter which the editor says treats of the captivity of St. John of the Cross; or if some of them concerned only domestic matters, this was no reason why they should be neglected, on the editor's own testimony, inasmuch as he published several letters of St. Teresa of this kind.
[1568] by various arguments. Moreover some things are wrongly placed, divided, added or removed: which it is not my purpose to report here. Whoever wishes to know these and other blemishes of that otherwise most precious collection one by one, let him consult the second Dissertation of Montoya. He will see various questions discussed there concerning letters 11, 13, 18, 22, 27 and 28 of volume III, and concerning letter 25 of volume IV, as also concerning the notes which Fr. Anthony of St. Joseph added in Spanish and Fr. Valerio in Italian; and he will be grieved that, where so many things shine, he is offended by certain blemishes. The editor would deserve easy pardon if these things could be imputed to a mind not sufficiently attentive. But Montoya demonstrates that certain things were cut out deliberately, either because they contain complaints against the Calced, or because they contain praise of the Society of Jesus: which has place still more in the Italian translation which Fr. Valerio put together at Florence in the year 1775. In this, among other things, to spare the Calced, almost the whole of letter 76 and thirty lines of letter 77 of volume III are omitted, and from volume IV fragments 41, 43, 44 and seven lines from 32. On which occasion Montoya fittingly observes that the annotator wrongly neglected the admonition of his patron, the archbishop of Burgos Rodríguez de Arellano, who in his famous encyclical letters of the year 1769 speaks thus: By what right or by what reason are those fragments suppressed? Each letter of the holy Mother is a precious stone. Nothing at all ought to have been taken from them. And whoever acts otherwise contracts the mark of bad faith: and such an unjust action ought to be committed by no one less than by a religious.
[1569] The excellence of the Letters of St. Teresa: I shall now say some things about the excellence of Teresa's Letters, which St. John of the Cross always carried with him, enclosed in his wallet together with Holy Scripture. Fr. Anthony of St. Joseph well observes (vol. IV, letter 41, note 10) that if the Order of Carmel was reformed, this is owed to the Letters of St. Teresa. Other Founders of Orders went to Italy, stayed at Rome, dealt with Cardinals, informed the Supreme Pontiff, and performed other things diligently and becomingly for their person. But the holy Mother did nothing of this kind, nor could she fittingly do it. How then did she found her Order, and how did a needy Virgin accomplish so portentous a thing? Truly there is cause there for us to be astonished! For Teresa supplied that varied diligence and industry of other Founders by the writing of letters alone. Nor did she treat only of the spiritual life with men of every kind, or of the religious discipline of the Order with her pupils of both sexes, or lastly of domestic matters and civil life with seculars, as often as courtesy or charity required it; but also frequently, and indeed not rarely on grave subjects, with almost all the most select men who at that time excelled in Spain in sanctity, learning, and ecclesiastical or civil dignity. For if you review the list of those with whom the Saint had correspondence by letters, or, reading the letters, note with whom she cultivated friendship, you will find Philip II, the great Duke of Alba Fernando de Toledo, and his wife and son, the Nuncios Ormaneto and Sega, Cardinal Quiroga, St. Peter of Alcántara, St. John of the Cross, St. Francis Borgia, Master John of Ávila, Luis of Granada, Domingo Báñez, and very many others who were more distinguished either by episcopal mitres or by theological chairs or by the fame of sanctity in that age most fertile in great men in Spain.
[1570] the judgment passed on them by the bishop of Guadix, by Montoya, And if you consider the manner in which the Saint treats any matters, all her Letters, says the bishop of Guadix, cited by Fr. Anthony of St. Joseph in the prologue to volume III, breathe grace, and are seasoned with such salt of prudence that they delight with profit even fastidious readers. There can be seen there, says Fr. Montoya (diss. II, chap. VI, n. 1), that generous spirit which in the midst of the gravest infirmities, horrible calumnies and persecutions, and in the midst of labours of every kind, interior and exterior, remained peaceful and tranquil; that burning zeal with which she glowed for propagating the Order of B. Mary of Carmel and promoting regular observance, and which we see everywhere tempered with sweetness, gentleness and discretion; that most profound humility and knowledge of her own nothingness, with which magnanimity and confidence in the omnipotence of God went as companions; that truly maternal breast towards her daughters and sons, and that solicitude with which she provided in every way for the perfection of their souls, without ever, however, forgetting the least things pertaining to temporal affairs necessary for the preservation and increase of the monasteries and for the solace and quiet of their inhabitants: these, I say, and many other singular graces proper to St. Teresa, which provoke admiration in the old Letters of the Saint, are evident in the recent ones too.
[1571] by du Serre-Figon. No less truly than beautifully does Mr. du Serre-Figon say the following (part II of his Panegyric, page 39): Even if we owed Teresa nothing other than the Letters, she would surely have deserved well of the Christian world by such a signal benefit! Letters, I say, as useful as they are charming, which you would praise no less for the feelings of the soul than for the graces of the thoughts; which, although they savour less in the French idiom than in the original writing, yet in French so delight the mind still with their pleasing candour that, after one has read and reread them, they always seem new. What more? They stir and instruct the mind to piety; and among them are some most perfect compositions on spiritual matters, on mental prayer and religious perfection. Their utility is universal, since most wise counsels are given there to men of every kind and on matters of every kind, most apt to necessities and circumstances. Teresa, addressing cenobites in them, shows herself a nun exceedingly skilled in the science of the Saints; addressing seculars, she appears as a woman who well knows their pursuits, affairs, usages, the arts of ambition, yet never forgetful of religious decency and style; she deals with doctors as herself very learned, but without pride and vanity, so that the excellence of her learning does not depress them; she honours grandees and courtiers with the utmost respect, yet avoiding petty flatteries, and writes to them in such a way that she seems to have spent her life amid the urbanities of the court itself; where she deals with relatives, she seasons her admonitions with love, and the affection of a devoted kinswoman, mingled with the zeal of a holy Virgin, pleases. Who, moreover, would not recognize here the civil virtues shining in her? You see here a rival of the Seraphim, lifted up to the throne of the Godhead, descending from the holy mountain, not like Moses, armed with thunders and lightnings and ready to break the tables of the Law, but to teach and to prove that the Gospel Law shrinks from no conditions of men. She lowers her mind to every least duty of civil society: she pours out the feelings of a most candid soul into the breast of a beloved brother and into the bosom of friendship, etc.
[1572] by the Illustrious Palafox and by Mr. Emery. And similar encomiums of these Letters may be read in the letter of Palafox which is usually placed before the first volume. There, among other things, he speaks thus: How great a zeal for souls the holy Mother shows in her Letters! How great prudence and skill in mystical and moral matters and in the art of governing! How great efficacy in persuading! How great clarity of style! How great a grace and hidden force for capturing the minds of those whom she instructs by her writings! And the Illustrious Palafox observes (letter 10, note 3) that Teresa's Letters have a great affinity with those of Isabella the Catholic, than whom scarcely a greater existed among those who held the helm of kingdoms. And Mr. Emery, in the introduction of his work on St. Teresa, says that everyone after reading her Letters will freely confess that this Saint (who was very rigid towards herself, and so given to the contemplation of heavenly things that she seemed almost to have left the earth) was second to none in commending virtue both sweetly and powerfully. And the author relates in the same place that a certain sensible Protestant, having read his book on the Spirit of Teresa, wrote to his friend at Geneva, Mr. Charles Bonnet, that from her writings she seemed to him a Teresa who could have duly governed the reins of a whole kingdom. Nay, Fr. Gilles de la Sante, S. J., in the oration Whether the palm of letters is to be awarded to the French (Paris, 1741, in duodecimo), in which he endeavours to prove that his countrymen can snatch it from all the nations of Europe and claim it for themselves, sets Madame de Sévigné before any foreigners whatever who have been distinguished in the epistolary art, excepting however one, the Spanish Teresa, whom he prefers even to Madame de Sévigné: Not a few are the Letters for which we might envy the Spaniards. Yours, I say, pious Teresa, which, though you wrote them with running pen, I confess to be written more ingeniously, more elegantly and more sweetly than even the best of ours. Nor is it a wonder: these you had received from heaven before you gave them to the earth; these God Himself had breathed upon; to these we yield of our own accord: to yield to God who breathes upon them is glorious for France. Excellent praise of the Letters may also be read in the prologue which the Illustrious de la
Taste annexed to the French version of the second volume.
[1573] But the Letters themselves are their own greatest commendation: which is proved But much more than all these eulogies do the Letters of the holy Mother commend themselves; which I could easily prove, if space permitted me to bring forward various specimens of her epistolary eloquence. Let an example be the letter to the Rev. Fr. Rubeo, whose Latin version I presented at num. 669 and following. I do not know whether human eloquence could devise anything better for the most difficult subject which she treats there. She there joins in a wonderful way profound humility and religious obedience with a lawful defence, not so much of herself as of her own people, who were accused, and of her Reform: and not only does she with the utmost dexterity win for herself and her pupils the goodwill of the Superior, and wash away or extenuate faults; but she also endeavours to transform that hostile man into a defender of the Reform. And at length she repeats what she had said at the beginning: You will see one day at the supreme judgment of God and in eternity what you owe to your Teresa of Jesus. If you wish to see how the holy Mother sometimes put forth strength both of soul and of style, read the last letter of volume I, to Anne of Jesus, where she strongly repairs the damage of injured obedience, and sweetly forestalls new damage, as I showed in § XLIX; or read the twentieth of the same volume, reported by me at num. 787 and following, in which, while she proves her great love towards the Society of Jesus, she nevertheless contends with the utmost energy for the reputation necessary to her, and repels a fault imputed to her by mistake by a friendly provincial with a double oath, in one invoking God as witness of her innocence, in the other wishing, if she is in fault, to be blotted out of the book of life.
[1574] by many examples. Religious respect in a most humble nun, but at the same time a manly freedom in a woman, is seen in her letters to Philip II, by which the poor virgin with her simple eloquence wins over the powerful monarch to herself, and obtains him as patron and pillar of her almost shattered Reform. Do you want brevity? Try whether even one word can be taken from the prudent instruction which I put into Latin at num. 683, on the manner of entering into possession of the monastery of Caravaca; or go to letter 16 of volume I, to Fr. Domingo Báñez, in which she exhausts many and great matters concisely. In several letters she instructs and corrects Gracián wittily and prudently as well as freely, for example in fragment 14 of volume IV. From letter 51 of volume I, whose Latin version see at num. 819 and following, you will learn how she could condole with those who mourn. Those consolatory letters, sent to her afflicted daughters of Seville, are most apt for soothing sorrow and rousing the love of the Cross. Likewise in letter 14 of volume IV, as also in 35 and 39 of volume I, Teresa, most full of faith, presents reasons of solace at the death of those dear to her with masterly art, or rather without art, and the more eloquently the more simply. But above all I would wish praised here (from bringing forward the whole of which I hardly refrain) letter 8 of volume I to the bishop of Osma, Alonso Velázquez. That excellent document proves how great a mistress of the spiritual life the holy Mother was, and at the same time shows how humble she was, how obedient, and yet how lofty and free of mind. For, at the command given her, the daughter there teaches the prelate to pray, the penitent teaches her confessor, and Teresa leads her disciple from the alphabet, so to speak, of prayer, and from the first threshold of the science of the Saints, to the highest contemplation of heavenly things and to intimate union with God. And here let all treatment of the Letters be ended.
§ LXXIX. On St. Teresa's manner of writing.
What remains to be said about Teresa's books. Having reviewed each of Teresa's works one by one, now, to begin with the lighter matters, I shall first weigh the eloquence of the holy Virgin: then I shall consider the depth of her doctrine; and lastly I shall inquire whether she can be asserted to have been helped by God in writing. The opinion which I shall embrace here I shall confirm by the testimonies of famous men, and by the mind of the Church itself, not obscurely signified. Finally I shall investigate whether she is rightly named a Doctor of the Church: which title of Doctor several do not hesitate to give her. All these things having been weighed, I shall put an end to these paragraphs on Teresa's books by investigating what is to be thought of the judgment of several people of today, who, not rarely after an exaggerated praise of Teresa and the conferring of the name of Doctor of the Church, being inconsistent with themselves and, I might almost say, doing injury to the Church, nevertheless dissuade from and almost proscribe the reading of her so much praised works.
[1576] The reason why I treat of the Saint's eloquence: The Saint's eloquence and the eloquence of her style I have just touched on in treating of the Songs and Letters; and I would think that her other writings need be judged only in passing in this respect, did I not know that our age makes very much of that charm in writing and form of expression. For these are so greatly loved today that, provided the ears are soothed by well-flowing periods, or the taste stimulated by the stings of sayings, not a few easily suffer the solidity of argument to be absent, and almost reckon more commendable a man who knows how to write purely or speak handsomely than one who is eminent in sanctity of life and in infused gifts of grace. Therefore, so far as is lawful for a hagiographer, I shall accommodate myself to the bent of many, and shall set forth briefly the eloquence of the holy Mother. If, however, I show that she is rightly called a poetess (by which name it is the custom of the French today to proclaim Teresa), if a prince in the epistolary art, if one who knows how to treat most fittingly, now light and domestic matters in a familiar and natural style, now mystical and theological ones in a more sublime style; I do it with this intention, not to occupy myself with the disciplines of eloquence or the precepts of rhetoricians, but that the gifts of God may become more conspicuous in the holy Virgin, and that those who are led by human considerations of this kind may begin from thence to esteem her heroic virtue and to honour the most holy Reformer of a religious Order.
[1577] concerning which the judgment of Luis de León is presented, Receive, then, first the judgments of various persons on the eloquence of St. Teresa. Afterwards I shall confirm the matter by examples. Let Luis de León lead the column, as fit a judge as any, inasmuch as he contends for the palm among Spanish writers, Nicolás Antonio in the new Bibliotheca Hispana not fearing to apply to him what Lucan has of Cicero: Luis, the greatest author of Spanish eloquence. He, in the dedicatory letter of the Works of St. Teresa, speaks thus: The Holy Spirit Himself undoubtedly willed that the holy Mother in writing her books should be a certain incomparable and most rare example. For in the sublimity of the things which she treats, and in the subtlety and perspicuity with which she declares them, she far surpasses the talents of many. But as to purity of language and ease of style and grace of words, skilful structure and unaffected elegance, which is most pleasing to readers, I think nothing has been written in our vernacular idiom which can be compared with these writings of the holy Mother. Hence, as often as I read them, I cannot but marvel at them exceedingly, as if I were reading them anew; and in very many and diverse parts of them I seem to myself to hear not the spirit of a human being speaking, but I most certainly persuade myself that the Holy Spirit spoke in many places through her and in her, and directed her hand and pen: which is most openly evident both from the light and clarity with which she elucidates the most obscure things, and from the fire which is kindled through her words in the hearts of the readers… It is an intolerable stupidity to wish to correct her words; for those who are well skilled in the Castilian tongue see that St. Teresa is elegance itself. And Fr. Anthony of St. Joseph agrees with Luis de León (vol. III, letter 70, note 11), saying: The Spanish of St. Teresa is such that even where it strays from the laws of grammar and construction, there is the highest artifice and charm in it.
[1578] of Nicolás Antonio, Nicolás Antonio, in the new Bibliotheca Hispana (article Teresa): With a certain singular chastity and perspicuity of language, he says, and unaffected elegance, she sent forth, as if with the starting-gates all thrown open, the secrets of that theology which they call mystical, that is, of true wisdom, unlocked only to the most holy, and disclosed them to all mortals. Things most difficult, and truly surpassing the sense and talent even of men most furnished with letters, the simple and unlettered virgin explains in these books with such clarity and dexterity that it is necessary to confess, what she herself does not deny, that a doctrine divinely infused into her mind flowed down to us through her golden pen as through a channel. Finally we see that among the five most select Spanish writers who flourished from the time when the Castilian idiom was first formed up to the nineteenth century, a place is assigned to St. Teresa by a competent judge of today. For thus, in the proem of the book entitled Tesoro de los prosadores Españoles Treasury of the Spanish prose-writers, published at Paris in the year 1841, says Don Eugenio de Ochoa, who collected those more elegant fragments of the Spanish language: How rich indeed is our beautiful idiom! And at the same time how gentle and how sinewy! What emulation of nature in the inflection of words! What a pleasing union of strength and sweetness in the sound of pronunciation! Let the readers judge of our language after they have read the excerpts which we offer from the works of Guevara, St. Teresa of Jesus, Fr. Luis of Granada, Mariana and Cervantes.
[1579] of Mr. Viardot Nor do only Spaniards or men of the religious Orders number Teresa among the foremost writers of their nation, but also secular men of other nations skilled in Iberian literature think highly of Teresa in that respect. Hear one, Mr. Viardot, who in a book published at Paris in the year 1835 (under the title: Études sur… l'Espagne) passes the following judgment on her: A woman of the Spanish nation composed books. And wonderful! she wrote not trifles, which are almost the only things fitting a womanly pen, but ascetic works. Therefore she went beyond the common order of her nation, because a woman used the pen, and she went beyond the order of other peoples too on account of the nature of the matters treated by her. Then (after he had wrongly affirmed that her books of the Life, the Foundations and the Castle of the soul had been published while she was living) he continues thus: St. Teresa, on account of the affairs she transacted and the books she wrote, can be numbered among the Fathers of the Church. And since in her life she was held as the oracle of her age, and after her death was inserted in the register of the Saints, she has been adorned with a double honour; for both her life has been proposed as an example of sanctity, and her books as a norm of inspired style and of orthodox knowledge. What that author further has, as being very unseemly for a Catholic and badly excused by Mr. Collombet, I do not bring forward, although there too he says that Teresa's talent can in some measure be compared with the talent of SS. Bernard and Jerome. This one thing I note here: if some wrongly dare to despise Teresa because she sets forth and defends the dogmas of the Catholic Church, by innumerable others (as we shall see later) she is praised because
she does it most rightly, and indeed with an eloquence so sweetly persuasive that she altogether abstains from arguments that strike terror.
[1580] and of others: On this occasion receive, even from political and not altogether Catholic newspapers, what the Spaniards even today think of the books of their countrywoman, almost three centuries having elapsed since they were written. All Europe and the whole world, says El Correo (Madrid, 3rd of February 1840), admires Teresa in her books, which, on account of the rare endowments with which they are furnished, are held as a norm and example for the cultivators no less of the Castilian tongue than of the higher philosophy. The holy Virgin, very knowing in the human heart, does not employ severe arguments, which, while they terrify the conscience of the wicked and disturb the understanding, hinder a man from being persuaded: but, discoursing with love, she soothes the heart, and depicts with such sweetness of words and such lively colours the delights which through purity of soul are communicated even to the body, and represents the horror of vice so moderately and with such charity, that the wicked man is crushed, while the just seems to himself translated into the mansions of eternal life. The most pleasing turn of words and sentences, the aptness of her frequent pleasant comparisons, her effort and continual solicitude that she may be grasped even by middling talents, and a certain polished subtlety of womanly style, which is inaccessible to men, all these so occupy the understanding of the reader that he draws from it most abundant fruit.
[1581] Leibniz himself valuing highly the books of St. Teresa. But if some, treating of the famous writers of Spain, conceal Teresa's name, and imitate Sismondi, throughout his books an insulting despiser of the Roman Faith, who in his work on the Literature of Southern Europe does not deign to make mention of the illustrious writer, most dear to Catholics, even by one little word, I would rather attribute this to forgetfulness, lest I should have to impute it to ignorance, or, what would be worse, to contempt of Religion or of books treating of God and divine things. For why should even a Protestant blush to mention and praise Teresa's talent and the books she wrote, when Leibniz himself did not blush to profess before the whole of Europe not only that he had read them, but that he had drawn light from them for laying the foundation of a higher philosophy? For he wrote to Andreas Morell in the year 1696: You rightly esteem Teresa's books. Indeed I once found there this beautiful sentence: That the soul of man ought to conceive things no otherwise than as if there were nothing in the world but itself and God. Which idea it helps not a little to have before one's eyes in philosophy: and I have used it profitably in my Hypotheses.
[1582] What has thus far been established concerning St. Teresa's eloquence by the authority of fit witnesses, let it now be confirmed by reason and examples. The Saint's eloquence is proved from her addresses to God: Whoever, then, is about to pass judgment on the Saint's writings, I would wish him to notice, among their other ornaments, her frequent addresses to God, her most pleasant narrations, and the natural comparisons which abound in the writings of St. Teresa, no otherwise than in those of St. John Chrysostom, and bring to them the highest charm and at the same time clarity. Since those aforesaid endowments of Teresa's books are joined with the most polished idioms of the Castilian tongue and with unaffected simplicity, no one will wonder that our Saint is reckoned by all skilled in Spanish literature among the foremost writers of her nation. As to the Saint's apostrophes to God, as Bossuet well notes, a man is never more eloquent than when he addresses God or treats of divine things. This is evident from the passages of Holy Scripture itself, which there most of all joins simplicity with grandiloquence and force with unction, where man offers to God the sacrifice of jubilation (Ps. 26). The same happens in Teresa, who, from the most intense love with which she burned towards God, often, as if unawares, in the middle of her discourse turns to the beloved Spouse of her soul and pours out the feelings of her heart most copiously. You would say they were flames of love bursting forth from the furnace of the heart. In the one book of her Life I have counted forty-four such addresses to God, mostly rather lengthy. And than these colloquies of the soul with her Spouse nothing more tender, and at times nothing more sublime, nothing fuller of faith, hope and love, can be brought forth from the human heart.
[1583] of which examples are brought forward, If she narrates, for example, in chapter XXXVI of her Life, that she was once forbidden to labour for her rising monastery of Ávila, turning to God: Lord, she says, this house is not mine; it was erected for Thee. Today there is no one who cares for that business. Do Thou, Lord, take care of it. Or does she know that the soul of one of her brothers is in danger? She addresses God, saying: If I, Lord, saw Thy brother in such peril, what would I not do? There seems to me to be no thing so grievous that I would not gladly undergo it in that case for Thy brother (in the Additions to the Life, num. 14). Has she suffered aridity in prayer? I dared today, she says in c. XXXVII of her Life, to complain to the divine Majesty, and to say to Him confidently: What is this, Lord? Is it not more than enough that Thou detainest me in this toilsome and miserable life, and that I endure it for Thy sake and desire to live on earth, though there is nothing in it but manifold impediments to having or enjoying Thee: for it is necessary for me to eat, to sleep, to deal and treat with all; and all these things I bear for Thy sake with a most even mind, although Thou art not ignorant, Lord, that this is to me the greatest and most grievous torment. Yet meanwhile, in that little time which I have for enjoying Thee, dost Thou hide Thy face from me? How is this consistent with Thy immense mercy? How does the love with which Thou followest me bear it? I should think and believe that, if I could hide myself from Thee, as Thou hidest Thy face from me, on account of that love with which Thou art borne towards me, Thou wouldst by no means suffer it: but Thou art with me and always beholdest me; hence there is no reason why I should tolerate this. I beseech Thee, Lord, to consider that a great grievance is in this way inflicted on her who so loves Thee. Is she flooded with heavenly delights? She addresses God thus, that He may set a measure to them (ibid. chap. XVIII): Beware, Lord, what Thou doest! Do not so quickly forget my enormous sins, granted that Thou hast forgotten them in order to forgive me; and so that Thou mayest set some measure to Thy benefits and graces, recall my sins to memory, I pray. Do not, my Creator, pour so precious a liquor into a vessel so pierced and frail, since Thou hast already often seen at other times that I have let it flow out and perish so many times. And so she continues in long and varied discourse; for she is wont to be diffuse there where she speaks either of the love of God or of her own vileness.
[1584] and indeed one most sublime. She does not linger only on such caressing conversations with God; but she sometimes rises to the loftiest praises of the Creator, the like of which can scarcely be found anywhere outside the pages of the Sacred Letters. Thus in chapter XXII of the Way of Perfection, after she had congratulated her daughters on having left the vileness of the world (where most justly she says that it is not so much the man who is weighed as his perishable fortune), and after she had wittily exhorted them in the time of recreation to hoot the deceitful trifles of the world off the stage with laughter, she addresses God in such words (whose sublimity the innate gravity of the Castilian tongue greatly increases): O our Emperor! Supreme power! Supreme goodness! Wisdom itself without beginning and end! Whose perfections have no limits, since they are infinite and incomprehensible! Abyss of wonders! Beauty containing in itself all beauty, and fortitude itself! O God! who could have joined in himself the eloquence and wisdom of all mortals (so far as anything can be known here; which is the same as knowing nothing), so as by that means to be able to announce something of those many things which can be considered in God, by which we might know a very little what this our Lord and our supreme Good is.
[1585] The Saint also narrates things beautifully and describes them graphically, I regret that I cannot insert into this Commentary other addresses of hers to God, for example those which are found in chapters III, XXXIII and XXXIV of the Way of Perfection or in the sixth Mansion of the Castle of the soul, chap. VI, and very many others. But Teresa is eloquent not only when she deals with God, although then she is most so, but also when she deals with men. Read, for example, the first chapters of the book of her Life; where with inimitable candour she describes her youth, as also the struggle which she suffered within when she was about to bid farewell to the world. Amid arguments or comparisons drawn from purgatory, death and hell, she narrates beautifully how, when she went out for the last time from her father's threshold, her limbs seemed to her as it were dislocated for grief, and her soul in that struggle of nature was as it were in agony: and then she records the peace and joys of soul that followed, when she was sweeping the house at that time at which she had been accustomed to pursue the comforts and adornment of the body. But she also depicts the immense sorrow shortly after, desiring to shed bloody tears and that her heart should burst asunder, because her soul had not kept faith better with God, who had espoused her to Himself. And in more cheerful fashion, in chapter X of the Way of Perfection, she does not so much describe as make sport of those who vex their body with indiscreet penances. It is worth laughing at, she says, to see how some go about burdened with the torment which they inflict on themselves. Sometimes indeed an impulse, not to say a madness, seizes them to undergo indiscreet and immoderate austerities, which last only two days (so to speak). Thereupon the devil suggests to them that these have harmed their health and their head, and therefore persuades them to undergo no austerities hereafter, not even those which the Order prescribes, since they have already experienced how greatly they harm. We do not observe even the small rules of the Order (such as silence, from which no harm can come to us); and behold, as soon as we have dreamed that our head aches, we omit going to choir for a long time, though not even this would kill us: on the first day because the head ached; on the second because it ached, and for three other days lest it ache again. And meanwhile we wish to devise new austerities out of our own head, so that at length we can perform neither these nor others: and then the ill itself is exceedingly small; and we persuade ourselves that we are bound to perform no austerity at all, but that we do enough by asking leave to omit them.
[1586] using apt allegories and comparisons, both in greater things, Even the most abstruse matters she explains and adorns by the frequent use of comparisons. Thus concerning the more sublime
prayer, being about to treat of it in chap. XI of her Life, she prefaces with festive humility: I shall have to use some comparison here, although I would rather omit it (being a woman), and simply commit to writing what has been enjoined on me: but this language of the spirit can be declared so hardly and with such difficulty by those who are unlearned (such as I am) that I must seek out some sure way of declaring it; and although perhaps this comparison will very rarely be to the purpose, it will at least be useful for this, that it may recreate Your Reverence when you see my stupidity in it. And then, in an allegory extended from chapter XI to XXIII, she unfolds the four ways by which God, in the manner of a gardener, waters the soul of man as a kind of garden with graces. Elsewhere (Life, chap. XL, num. 7), being about to set forth the omniscience of the Creator, she conceives God as a certain immense and most brilliant diamond, greater than the world and brighter than the sun, which sees in itself, like reflected rays, the minds of men, and each of their thoughts, defects and degrees of virtue.
[1587] and in lighter matters. Or if you wish for lesser things, she wittily compares the wandering mind of man, carried off by various phantasms, now to a butterfly which is borne in uncertain flight, now to a certain madman who continually disturbs the house (chaps. XIII and XVII of the Life); while elsewhere (chap. XXVII) she says that the body of St. Peter of Alcántara, worn away by penances, seemed woven from the roots of trees. There is no leisure to relate here how in Mansion VII (chap. 1) she depicts the sinner most miserably bound and almost killed by hunger; or how (chap. XL, num. 4) she compares the soul of the sinner to a clouded and blackening mirror, which cannot represent or see God, although present, while she compares the soul of the heretic to a split and broken mirror; or how she affirms that God is scarcely wont to reward with spiritual consolations any but those who have first applied strenuous efforts: for when, she says, God sees the soul striving towards Him with all its strength by will and understanding, as by certain wings, He at last catches that little bird and puts it back in the nest, so that it may be refreshed and already now rewarded in this life; which usually happens after a rather prolonged mental prayer. But I must finish, lest I copy out the whole books of the holy Virgin.
[1588] The reason why in the Saint's writings not everything coheres artfully, Nevertheless, since history may not be mere panegyric, it must be confessed that in Teresa's style a certain defect of cohesion can be criticized with some appearance of truth, especially by a reader who is accustomed to measure phrases and the words of phrases exactly by the laws of grammar or rhetoric, and to link each thing together in order and rhythm. For the Saint did not know that human artifice of the grammarians, nor does she know how, or rather she does not deign, to arrange words so studiously, especially when she is carried away by the impulse of love towards God and pours herself out in His praises. A supernatural affection of the heart then often prevailing in her, her understanding is in a manner absorbed, and her memory scarcely recalls the matter which she had begun to treat: whence it happens that the thread of her discourse is sometimes broken, and the reasonings do not follow in order. I confess, therefore, that there are those to whom this holy and artless freedom seems inelegant. But most, with Luis de León (whose words I brought forward at num. 1577), most highly approve that free and inartificial manner of writing.
[1589] and why certain things seem obscure. Then another thing is turned into a fault of St. Teresa. Several, while they confess that in the holy Virgin's writings many things are easy to grasp, complain that not a few are obscure. Although this too is not altogether foreign to the truth, yet this obscurity is much less than many contend, as Mr. Chapelain shows in the French Panegyric of St. Teresa. Further, if the subject is regarded which she treats in the books or parts of books objected to (namely the middle chapters of the Life, the Castle of the soul and certain letters), there is no one who would deny that even there such perspicuity is found that, given the nature of things so abstruse, it could not be greater. For she sets forth there supernatural secrets, of which the theologians themselves scarcely speak otherwise than the blind of colours, inasmuch as they are known to them by hearsay alone. But Teresa, who often enjoyed divine communications, speaks of many things as an eyewitness (see chapters XXVII and XXXIX of her Life, Mansion VII, chap. I, num. 6, and vol. II, letter 13), and these things are unfolded less obscurely by a Virgin divinely enlightened than by theologians instructed only with human wisdom acquired by study; although the Saint herself too, in order to utter those mysteries inaccessible to human comprehension, desires new words, and wishes all her members to be transformed into tongues (Life, chap. XXV, num. 9).
§ LXXX. It is inquired whether the holy Mother was helped from heaven in writing her books. Most weighty testimonies concerning the authority of her books and doctrine.
The Saint herself several times confesses Therefore the holy Virgin spoke lucidly and accurately even of the more sublime mysteries of the Christian Religion. Yet she confesses herself unlearned, as she really was, in chap. X of her Life: I have neither knowledge nor virtue nor any learned man to instruct me: and I write these things as it were stealing time, and with great trouble, because this writing hinders me from spinning, although I am in a poor house and kept busy with many occupations. But at the same time she herself also professes most openly in more than one place that she took the pen in hand not so much of her own accord as at the impulse of the Holy Spirit, nay that whatever she wrote was written by her only at His dictation and instilling. Hear her speaking in chap. XII of her Life, and confessing her natural stupidity in this matter: For many years I read many things, but I understood nothing of what I read; and also for a long enough time, although God gave it to me, I could not utter one word to declare it: which certainly cost me no small labour. But when it pleases His Majesty, He teaches us all things in one moment; which indeed excites great admiration in me. This one thing I can say in truth, that although I dealt with very many spiritual men, who strove to expound and declare to me what the Lord was imparting to me, so that I might then declare it to others, yet so great was my dullness and stupidity that I was helped little by it: because the Lord did not wish (for His Majesty has always been my preceptor and master: may He be blessed for all; for it is matter of great confusion to me that I can say this in truth) that I should attribute or credit this to anyone else; moreover that the Lord disclosed it to me in a moment, neither wishing nor asking (because in this I was not at all curious, and, if I had been, it would have been a virtue and a good; but I was so in pursuing other vanities), with all the clarity possible, and so that I could declare it to others: so that all were astonished, and I more than my confessors, because I was more aware of my stupidity than they. But what the Lord did not teach me, I did not labour to know and understand, except those things which pertain to my conscience.
[1591] that she was helped by God in writing. And in chapter XIV she relates her very many occupations, as well as that particular light which the Lord communicated to her for writing these very things, and that in these words: The little time I have helps me little; whence it is necessary for His Majesty to do it all. For I must follow the common works of the other sisters and attend to other occupations; because I live in a house which has only recently been founded. Hence I cannot spend myself wholly and give myself wholly to what I write, but only at intervals and abruptly. And this is better: for when the Lord suggests the spirit, all things are done both more easily and better; just as when someone has a certain exemplar before his eyes, according to which he composes and directs the work which he is shaping: but if the spirit is lacking, one is no more able to understand this language than if (so to speak) one were hearing Hebrew or some other foreign tongue; although one has given oneself to prayer for many years. Hence it seems to me very helpful that I should be in prayer while I write. For I see plainly that it is not I who say these things: for neither did I arrange them with my understanding, nor do I know afterwards how I wrote them or knew how to write them. And this happens to me quite often. The same she also has and repeats in chap. XVIII in these words: I shall say nothing which I have not experienced by much and varied use. And certainly, when I had begun to speak of this last water, it seemed to me as impossible to write anything about it as to speak Greek: so difficult and arduous a thing it is. Wherefore I broke off the writing, and disposed myself to receive Holy Communion. But blessed be the Lord, who thus helps the ignorant. O virtue of obedience, which canst do all things thus! For God enlightened my understanding, at times indeed by words, at times as it were by presenting and proposing to me in what way I should expound it: because, as was done in the prayer above, His Majesty seems to wish to say what I myself can neither say nor know how to say. And what I say is the very truth: and so whatever is good here is His teaching; but what is bad, it is certain is derived from the sea of evils which I am. And in chapter XXX she speaks in this manner: For then I could not understand myself, as I do understand now, so that I could expound it to others: but afterwards the Lord gave me to be able to understand it, and also to relate the graces which He bestowed on me.
[1592] [This is also affirmed in the Acts and Bull of canonization, likewise in her Office.] But besides this open and repeated confession of the Saint, it is rightly inquired, from the fit authority of others besides, whether she was helped by God in a special manner in writing her books. To establish this, then, and at the same time to commend the Saint's books and doctrine on many grounds, I shall select some most weighty testimonies, but few out of many. For if I wished to gather together, I do not say the words, but only the names of all those who have proclaimed her books, I should need both great labour and a very lengthy space. Let the first place, then, according to its dignity, be held by the sense of Holy Church concerning Teresa's books. In the first place the auditors of the S. Rota in their later Relation, treating of the sanctity of Teresa in general (see above num. 1196 and 1197), prove both the excellence of her writings and the heavenly help which she enjoyed in composing them. In the same Relation too, where there is discussion of
the grace freely given of speech and knowledge (num. 1328), it is affirmed no less expressly. Likewise J. B. Millini, in the oration in which in public consistory he supplicated Pope Gregory XV to enrol the Blessed Virgin in the number of the Saints, proclaims Teresa's heavenly wisdom from her books (num. 1346). And at length Gregory himself in the Bull of canonization extols the Saint with magnificent words on that account (num. 1394), and in like manner the Church in the Office of the Saint's feast, lesson V, names her doctrine heavenly, and in almost the same words as the Supreme Pontiff affirms that St. Teresa wrote many instructions of heavenly wisdom, by which the minds of the faithful are roused to desire of the supernal fatherland.
[1593] [Nor did the first biographers of the Saint think otherwise: for example Yepes, once] After the most weighty pronouncements of the Church I shall now cite some testimonies of individual men, and first indeed of those who wrote the Life of the Saint and therefore must be judged to have looked more deeply into her books and doctrine. Passing over Ribera (since what he thought of the holy Mother's writings may be read below, book IV, chap. III), I begin with Yepes, who in the prologue of his Life of Teresa speaks thus: Not to speak of the natural gifts and endowments (which were indeed very many) with which the Lord heaped her, certainly the divine and supernatural ones were so many and so eminent in her that greater have never appeared in anyone. For besides so great a perfection of virtues and sanctity of life (through which, by works and deeds in the order of perfect and heroic virtue, she reached that point which all the bravest do not attain even in thought and desire), so many and such extraordinary favours of God, likewise so great a familiarity and communication with that supreme Majesty, as if she had been of the number of the Seraphim, most inflamed with His love and most intimate with Him, so great a knowledge too of heavenly things, so great a familiarity and converse with the Heavenly Ones themselves, as if she had been of their company, such sublime conceptions and feelings of divine things, so great a light in declaring hidden secrets and arcane mysteries as scarcely anyone has noted in anyone, so eminent and sublime a doctrine as she transmitted to posterity comprised in her books (in which, from the subtlety of the things which she writes, the great intelligence with which she penetrates them, the singular perspicuity with which she expresses them, the elegance and divine artifice of the style with which she offers what she says, and by which she makes those who read notably perceive the fire of the Holy Spirit which is enclosed in these writings, as well as that manifest light and heat which they breathe forth throughout), demonstrate to the eye that this doctrine was inspired by God, came from heaven and was written not without the special assistance and help of the Holy Spirit.
[1594] and again declaring it, Likewise in book III, chaps. XVIII and XIX, Yepes says: The holy Mother wrote all these books, our Lord revealing them. But mere revelation would not have been enough, since in no matter did she act following this alone as guide, unless the command of her confessors had been added. Of the book of her Life she speaks thus in the prologue: "I make this relation because it is commanded me by my confessors, and for some days I have known that it pleases the Lord; but I have not dared to undertake it." The Lord likewise commanded her to write the book of the Foundations: which she herself relates in the Additions to her Life. She wrote the book of the Mansions, the Lord supplying the matter, the order and the name of the book. And as God gave her the command to write, He seems also to have wished to show that He was the author of these volumes. For the manner in which the holy Mother wrote these things shows that she was only an instrument, and that nothing was lent by her besides the hand and the pen. Often, when she was writing these books, she underwent raptures, and when she came back to herself she found certain things similar to her own letters, not written by her own hand. She was seen holding the pen in her hand, her face suffused with a notable splendour, which seemed to be nothing else than that the light of the soul was transfigured into the body. So greatly was her mind absorbed in God that sometimes her little cell resounded with much tumult without her being disturbed or noticing the noise. When she wrote, she was surrounded with occupations and cares, the government of so many houses lying upon her; and she was present in choir as exactly as the other nuns. She wrote hastily and swiftly: but what wonder? For, to use the words of David, since her pen was moved by that mystical scribe who writes swiftly, there seemed only to be in her mind a certain little model, from which words flowed so composed and apt for the things to be said that among so many pages to be written she never hesitated to weigh what should be written: for the spirit dictated to her with such abundance that, if she had had more hands, she would easily have employed and wearied them without the fountain of things to be said drying up.
[1595] and relying on the testimony of the Saint. She herself supplies a strong testimony for each of these assertions: for she explains at the end of her Life why she did not meditate on what she was to write. These are her words (chap. XL): "I have dared to describe my disordered life, although I have not spent more care and time on this little work than was needed for writing; but I have merely committed to paper what occurred to me, using all the candour and truth that I could." And elsewhere she speaks thus: "But at the beginning of a treatise on this way how many things come to mind even to me, who have walked so ill in this way! Would that many hands were at my disposal, so that while writing one thing I might not forget another!" So notes the holy Mother herself. And likewise she testifies in her Life that she wrote with as much ease as one who has an exemplar before his eyes and imitates it (chap. XIV). "When the Lord gives the spirit, she says, these things are done more easily and more perfectly. It seems the same as if someone had an exemplar at hand and wished to fashion something in its likeness; but if the spirit is lacking, it is no easier to compose this discourse than to speak in Arabic"… For since before the holy Mother was exceedingly rude and ignorant for understanding and explaining spiritual and mystical things, and by no means curious, the divine wisdom which shone forth in her shines the more clearly the more foreign it was to her beginnings. This can be well understood from what she discloses in chapter XII of her Life (see n. 1590)… Wherefore whatever was built upon this dullness of the holy Mother, which she herself confesses, all of it had been given and infused by God; and above all a peculiar assistance was present to her when she wrote her books, as she herself professes in very many places. In chapter XIV of her Life she speaks thus: "It seems very helpful to me that I should be in prayer while I write. For I see plainly that it is not I who say these things: for neither did I arrange them with my understanding, nor do I know afterwards how I wrote them." And in the thirty-ninth chapter she has this: "Many things which I write here were not born of my head; but my heavenly Master told them to me. And because in those things of which I say expressly: This I understood, or: This the Lord said to me, I have a great scruple about adding or removing even one syllable of any kind; hence, when I do not remember all the circumstances exactly in every respect, that must be taken as said by me, or because some things have also been added of my own. But I do not call mine what is good, because I already know that there is nothing good in me except what the Lord has conferred on one so undeserving: but I call that said by me which I did not receive by revelation from the Lord." When she wrote the book of her Life, and came to the degrees of prayer which she explains in it, it was wonderful how our Lord, when in writing she passed from one degree to another, placed her exactly in that mode of prayer; and besides the experience which she enjoyed, He conferred on her ease and convenience of speaking, suggesting to her most apt comparisons to declare it better. Thus far Yepes.
[1596] Fr. John of Jesus Mary agrees in his one Life of Teresa With him the Ven. Fr. John of Jesus Mary plainly agrees, who in his Life of St. Teresa has comprised many praises of her books in a few words, saying: Her language is praised as chaste, not ornate, grave, charming, efficacious. The sublimity of the matters excites admiration, which even many theologians, unless versed in divine affections, cannot attain. The most celebrated doctors of this age are so astonished at her easy and gently flowing explanation of mystical passions that it seems to them a rare kind of wisdom that what the Fathers handed down obscurely and scatteredly about mystical theology has been reduced by one Virgin to method so perspicuously and neatly. And as regards the solidity of her doctrine, she brought forth nothing that is not theological, although it be pressed in scholastic fashion… The Life of the Blessed Virgin Teresa and the Mansions abound in heavenly doctrine acquired by many experiences for discerning interior things… Wonderful indeed are the things which the Blessed Virgin Teresa has set in order with most sweet mastery: which are to be read with a lowly mind, so that they may profit. But how greatly so pious a reading, already translated into various idioms in the whole Christian world, has profited, many proofs in individual cities convince (book IV, c. IV). And at the beginning of the same Life, dividing St. Teresa's eulogies into eleven columns: The seventh column, he says, is armed with books full of heavenly wisdom. For it is evident that the mind which shone before the whole Church with so wonderful a light from heaven was by no means lacking the most pure light of the divine mind. To this is added the admiration of the most excellent theologians who discussed the books of Bl. Teresa, and their proclamations celebrated in words and writings, which cannot be hidden. For, to mention a few out of very many, against the highest theologians Fr. Domingo Báñez, Fr. Bartolomé de Medina, Dominicans, Fr. Luis de León, Augustinian, most diligent examiners and heralds of Teresa's books, neither ignorance nor inconsiderateness nor any political reason can be objected. Not ignorance, because almost all the schools venerate the writings of those three. Not inconsiderateness, because as keen critics they went through the books professedly. Not, finally, a political reason, because they were neither of the same profession, nor did they get for themselves any praise or gain from the approbation of her writings (book 1, chap. 1). Then this illustrious writer sets forth how, when a certain theologian criticized several sayings of the holy Mother, Paul V entrusted to Fr. Diego Álvarez of the Order of Preachers and Fr. Juan de Rada of the Order of Minors the care of examining the things which were objected, and how both of them thoroughly refuted the arguments objected; which can be read at length in the Bibliotheca of the Order of Discalced Carmelites (page 386 and following).
[1597] and in another compendium; But in the other compendium of Teresa's Life,
composed by the same Fr. John of Jesus Mary and Fr. John of St. Jerome (as I said at num. 10), these things are read about the Saint's books (num. 54): While she wrote these books, she was often seen to shine in her face and to show other most clear signs of God's presence: for her spirit, then wholly immersed in God, wrote hastily, without any previous meditation; nor did she once delete or correct what had been written. But, what is greater than all, in writing these books it sometimes happened to her that, rapt into ecstasy, on returning to herself afterwards she found many things written in her characters, but not by her hand… It is manifest, moreover, that the doctrine of these books (and it appears from its own eminence, and such is the opinion commonly and publicly held of them) was not acquired or learned by human industry, but infused by God through the intervention of prayer. For this cause, then, the Virgin was painted, and it is right that she be painted hereafter, with a dove hovering over her head, which she herself saw above her on a certain day of the Holy Spirit. And the doctrine of these books is not only sound and Catholic, but very useful to the Church: for by the reading of these books an immense fruit has been produced in souls, signal conversions and changes of morals have been seen; so that these books are justly accustomed to be read as written by a Saint, and are to be held, and are held, in the greatest value and esteem by most grave and most learned men.
[1598] as also Croiset and Butler, Fr. Jean Croiset, S. J., in the French Lives of the Saints, at the 15th of October, says of St. Teresa: There never existed any woman Saint who was so greatly enlightened in the divine ways, who knew the science of the Saints more perfectly, and was endowed with more lights, greater wisdom and at the same time more profound humility. Likewise Butler: If the doctrine scattered in the writings of St. Teresa is attended to, it appears wholly conformable to the doctrine of the Church, to the spirit of the Saints, and to the instructions of the wisest men who, themselves given to pious contemplation, have written of the things pertaining to it. And indeed in the prayer which the Church uses on her feast-day this doctrine is named heavenly. The loftiest secrets of the sanctuary of divine love are opened in it with such clarity that its equal does not seem to be seen; and whatever is most hidden in most sublime prayer, the things which can be known only by long experience, and which human speech did not seem able to say, all these shine with such light and are declared with such force that no one can fail to recognize the divine operation there, especially if it is noticed that Teresa was an unlettered woman, without studies and help. It is established indeed that she was endowed with very great natural talent, very great judgment and an imaginative power as charming as it was fertile; but even if one were strong with the talent of the whole world, yet only in the Lord's school can one learn to discourse so worthily on such matters. Moreover, how greatly she shrank from describing her life! With what humility she speaks there of the heavenly gifts in which she abounded! How often and how wholly she subjects her sayings to the judgment of her spiritual master and above all of the Church! How candidly she discloses the grief of her soul that she was wasting time and harming the poor house in which she was then living, and which she would much rather have relieved by spinning! Lastly, whatever pertains to her works, her manner of narrating, and, as a certain learned translator of her Life very well notes (Woodhead, in the preface of his translation), her frequent digressions, the pious efforts of the soul, the impulses of love, the colloquies with our Lord, into which she is carried away by her habit of praying, in a word all things (I do not except even the parentheses, so frequent in her narration, nor the excuses which she so candidly offers her confessor for them), all things, I say, tend to win credence for her narration.
[1599] as well as Palafox, Among the biographers I reckon Palafox, who, in a letter to Fr. Diego of the Presentation, General of the Spanish Congregation, which is usually prefixed to the first volume of Teresa's Letters, speaks thus: No one reads the works of St. Teresa without at once seeking God; and no one, moved by the reading of her works, seeks God without remaining devout and inebriated with love towards the Saint: which I do not believe is only a certain peculiar grace of style and of the wonderful power of the spirit secretly strengthening it, but also a certain divine providence. For God so greatly loves her that those whom He perfects by imitation of her virtues and enlightens by the light of her spiritual treatises He deigns to make secure through the weighty power of her intercession. I have not seen a man devout towards St. Teresa who is not spiritual; nor have I seen a spiritual man who reads her works and is not most devout towards this Saint. And her writings communicate not only a rational, interior and supernal love, but also a practical, natural, sensible love, and such that I am persuaded, from my own experience, that there would be no one who loved her who would not go off into the most distant provinces, if the Saint were on earth, to see her, speak with her and deal with her.
[1600] and Baillet himself. Let Adrien Baillet close the column of the biographers, whose testimony is the weightier because he is a most sparing praiser of the Saints, nay often an unjust detractor. He, however, at the 15th of October speaks thus: To the happy necessity by which the Saint was bound to obey her directors is owed the history of her Life, and (what was the consequence of this first labour) the other excellent writings with which she enriched the Church. In these, if you bring into comparison the sublimity, the range and the force of a talent eminent in its thoughts, the very purity of style, the ease of expression, the elegance and the other endowments for which she is to be placed among the best Spanish writers, seem to be of the least account… At present the works of St. Teresa are worn in all hands, and like the sun produce infinite goods in those who enjoy good sight of the eyes; but they dazzle and strike the sick and weaker eyes.
[1601] The doctrine of St. Teresa is usually invoked against the pseudo-mystics; Having now heard the biographers, I do not bring forward most of the eulogies of others which are usually placed before the Works of the Saint, however beautiful and vigorous, either because they are better known, or because they have been inserted elsewhere in this Commentary of mine. Receive now certain other select ones. The stupid followers of Miguel Molinos, says Fr. Frederick (book IV, chap. XI), confessed with their master the eminent esteem with which the Roman Church follows Teresa's doctrine. Wherefore they tried obliquely to entrench their false dogmas with the authority of our Saint. And in this way they increased the honour of the holy Mother somewhat, just as so many heretics did not diminish the weight and value of the great Augustine, but very greatly enlarged them, when they tried to prop up their errors with the authority of the most sublime Doctor. Error, deformed by its nature, blushing at its innate ugly appearance, does not come forth in public unless masked with the venerable majesty of some great Doctor. And now, just as so many heresies were crushed by the same teachings of St. Augustine rightly understood, so the impious instructions of the recent Quietists, convicted of falsehood and perfidy by the same authority of St. Teresa which they were wickedly abusing, lay prostrate; and as often as thereafter they should dare shamelessly to raise their head, so often would the immaculate institutes of our great Mistress affect them with eternal disgrace. Wherefore I must not keep silent the beautiful testimony of a certain writer (Fr. Arnold of SS. Peter and Paul, Soliloquies, vol. II, conference X, answer III): "Hence it comes that today, whenever any difficulty has arisen concerning the dogmas of mystical theology, recourse is at once had to what Teresa wrote and taught on this matter: and just as formerly at Rome in doubtful matters those famous Sibylline books used to be consulted, so likewise in doubts of this kind the Church today is accustomed to consult Teresa's books; and that this was done under Innocent XI in that famous cause of the impious Molinos, all well know who have read the processes made against him: indeed not long ago, under Clement XI of happy memory, immediate predecessor of the present Supreme Pontiff Innocent XIII, in the other most just condemnations of the pseudo-mystics also, recourse was always had to Teresa's doctrine; and therefore all the books which today (and let it be said to the greater glory of God and the truly singular praise of Teresa's doctrine), all, I say, which today come out into the light treating of mystical theology, are at once compared with what this holy Virgin wrote on similar matters, and according to what she taught they are either approved by the examiners or rejected." And we see that this was in fact done both by the Illustrious Bossuet in his excellent work Mystici in tuto, and by Fr. Scaramelli, S. J., in the much-praised book entitled Il Direttorio mistico.
[1602] and it is praised by St. Francis de Sales, St. Francis de Sales, in the preface to the first part of the Treatise on the love of God: The Blessed Mother Teresa of Jesus, he says, wrote so well of the sacred movements of love in all her books which she left us, that everyone is enraptured considering so great eloquence joined with so great humility, and so great strength of spirit with so great simplicity; and her most wise unskilfulness confutes the most unskilful knowledge of many doctors who, after completing a long course of studies, still blush that they do not understand what they themselves nevertheless write well about the exercise of holy love. Thus God raises the throne of His power in the theatre of our weakness, using the weak things of this world to confound the strong. In the second part of his spiritual letters, writing to a certain abbess (letter 47), he adduces his own experience in testimony; and exhorts her to follow the manner of the holy Mother herself when still serving her apprenticeship in prayer, that is, of reading and then meditating: and he urges the same abbess (letter 48) to read the passage from the Way of Perfection where the holy Mother treats of humility. And in the first part of the same letters he thus briefly praises the writings of the holy Virgin (letter 65): You do well in making familiar to yourself the books of the holy Mother Teresa, since her works are truly a treasure of spiritual instructions. And indeed these books were so familiar to him that (as Fr. Honoratus of St. Mary observes in the work soon to be cited) he seems in some way to have followed St. Teresa's order in explaining spiritual things, and to have taken from the works of our great Saint the substance of the doctrine which he explains in books VI and VII of the Treatise on the love of God.
[1603] by F. T. de Choisy, F. T. de Choisy must also be heard, speaking thus in his Ecclesiastical History: I laboured under the almost general prejudice by which I imagined that the writings of St. Teresa were the offspring of a fervid imagination, in which there were many unintelligible things. But I had to read them, since I had to treat of them; and I found in them so much talent, reason, wisdom and humility that I was induced to reread them several times. The prayers, the ecstasies,
the raptures seemed to me wonderful, but not impossible, when, forgetting human weakness, I remembered only the divine power and goodness.
[1604] by Fr. Honoratus of St. Mary, Fr. Honoratus of St. Mary, Discalced Carmelite, in the French work on the Tradition of the Holy Fathers concerning contemplation (vol. I, p. 74): All the more learned, he says, are astonished at the ease with which St. Teresa unfolds the things pertaining to prayer, which are the chief subject of the books which she left us and which are sufficiently known in all regions of the earth. Her style is simple and solid. There are found in her books terms so apt, comparisons so natural, metaphors so happily chosen for unfolding the mysteries and declaring the secrets of mystical theology, that everyone must confess that her works pass beyond the powers of the human understanding. Not without grace and eminent dexterity, amid her loftiest lights, she inserts instructions useful to all. Her teachings are as conformable as possible to the doctrine of St. Thomas; nor does she ever depart from right principles.
[1605] by Emery, Mr. Emery, in the prologue of his French work on the Spirit of St. Teresa (page XIV): She was not only illustrious in virtue, but seems to have been raised up extraordinarily by God to teach men the loftiest perfection of sanctity. Her singular lights, still more than her virtues, won her so glorious a fame in the Church. So splendid were these lights that her most learned spiritual masters in turn submitted to her discipline and guidance; and indeed bishops, pre-eminent in learning and sanctity, heard and followed her counsels with filial docility, so as to lead themselves on the right road. Her works, so greatly sought after, so highly esteemed, and so authentically approved while she lived, will be reckoned perpetually among the richest treasures of the Church. How long a chain of testimonies we should forge, if we were to collect the honourable sayings with which the most celebrated theologians and the least suspect writers have celebrated these books.
[1606] by J. B. du Serre-Figon, As regards the other part of this §, namely the proving of the authority of her books and doctrine, J. B. du Serre-Figon, in the French Panegyric of St. Teresa (part II, page 33), speaks thus: Turn over the writings of the holy Virgin, search this inexhaustible mine of spiritual riches; and you will marvel at the prodigious treasure of sacred knowledge which they contain. In them you will see the way of perfection marked out by a most sure and most skilled guide; in them you will find all the arts by which one rises from common prayer to the most sublime contemplation; there shines forth whatever of the divine inheres in the special graces with which the Lord adorns His friends; there the advantages and duties of the religious life are explained; there it is evident with how great wisdom and art monasteries are to be governed and visited, and how sharp are the goads by which we are roused to cultivate zeal, humility, poverty, obedience and mortification of the senses, and what measure is to be kept in them. How sweet the images of Christ the Lord! How noble the likenesses of the Godhead! What magnificence in the thoughts! What force in describing the divine omnipotence, wisdom, providence, immensity, fatherhood! Here is the strong brush, here the manly style of Chrysostom, Leo, Cyprian. What variety, moreover, in the tones! Now she is sublime, now simple; now she flies on high, now she lowers her wings according to the nature of the matter. How happy in discovering relations, in finding among the various ornaments of this world images and comparisons by which to declare all the most obscure of supernatural cognitions! Her imaginative power, as florid as it is fertile, clothes the most abstruse things with a body and adorns them with colours by which they become clear and sensible.
[1607] by the Illustrious Guillon, and others. The Illustrious Guillon, in the French Select Library of the Holy Fathers (in the Supplement to the writers of the XIV, XV and XVI centuries): She was supremely powerful in the whole art of persuading, most eloquent with mouth and pen. It was said of that illustrious Saint that the Angels, if it were given them to speak Spanish, would speak the language of Teresa. This same saying is brought forward by Fr. Anthony of St. Joseph, who attributes it to the learned Mayans (vol. IV, letter 8, note 6). And the same Fr. Anthony narrates (vol. IV, letter 9, note 15), from the informative processes for the beatification, that Pedro Manso, bishop of Calahorra, used to say that he would rather dispute with any theologians whatever than with Mother Teresa of Jesus alone.
§ LXXXI. St. Teresa cannot be placed among the Doctors of the universal Church. On the utility of reading her Works.
Some call Teresa a Doctor of the Church, To all these encomiums of the holy Virgin brought forward or indicated by me some do not fear to add a still greater encomium, presenting her with the name of Doctor of the Church. I would certainly not blame those praisers, nay I would join myself to them, if they only said with the Illustrious Bossuet (Instruction on the various states of prayer, book IX, n. 3) that the Church almost raises St. Teresa into the class of her Doctors, when she celebrates the sublimity of her heavenly doctrine and names that doctrine the food of souls. But in the prologue of the Works of the holy Mother (Antwerp 1630, Brussels 1740, Madrid 1752 and 1793, and in other editions here and there) the following is found: The eulogies with which many learned and holy persons have celebrated the virtue and spirit of St. Teresa of Jesus our Most Holy Father Urban VIII comprises summarily, approving in two words both the doctrine with which that holy Virgin enlightened the Church, and the piety and wonderful devotion with which her spirit shone. All of which is contained in the Prayer which he composed and ordered to be recited in her proper Office. It runs thus: "Hear us, O God our Saviour: that, as we rejoice in the festivity of Blessed Teresa Thy Virgin, so we may be nourished with the food of her heavenly doctrine, and be taught by the affection of pious devotion." By which Prayer the Supreme Pontiff acknowledges and approves St. Teresa as a Doctor, inasmuch as he wills the Church to ask that we may be instructed by her as such. But that title of Doctor has to this day been granted to no woman Saint or given in the divine Office. And still more explicitly do Emery affirm that St. Teresa is a Doctor of the Church, in the prologue of the French work Esprit de S. Therese (page XV), the author of the article St. Therese in the French Biographie universelle, du Serre-Figon in the Panegyric of the Saint (p. 33), Fr. Anthony of St. Joachim in the title of the Annus Teresianus, Boucher in the prologue of the Life of the holy Mother (p. IX), Fr. Anthony of St. Joseph (vol. II, letter 36, note 4) and several other moderns; who say expressly that Gregory XV and Urban VIII conferred on St. Teresa the title of Doctor, which, as they add, had been conferred on no woman.
[1609] but wrongly, because a decree of the Church is lacking. Nevertheless, for anyone to be held a Doctor of the Church, three things are required: signal sanctity, eminent doctrine and a decree of the Church. That signal sanctity was present in our Saint no one will deny. I suppose also that her eminent doctrine in mystical theology accomplishes what Boniface VIII, in the single chapter Gloriosus, On the Relics and veneration of the Saints, in the Sext, says the doctrine required in a Doctor of the Church ought to accomplish, namely that by it the darkness of errors has been routed, obscure things elucidated, doubtful things declared, the enigmas of the Scriptures unlocked. But there is lacking a decree of the Church, that is, of the Supreme Pontiff or of a universal Council, by which the surname of Doctor has been conferred on St. Teresa. Nor can praise, however great, bestowed by the Supreme Pontiffs on the doctrine of the holy Virgin supply that decree. For if the matter were so, several Saints would have to be numbered among the Doctors of the Church, for example St. Francis de Sales, of whom it is said in Lesson VI of his proper Office: By his writings filled with heavenly doctrine he enlightened the Church, in which he shows the way to Christian perfection safe and level. Therefore a sure and explicit decree of the Church is required, nor is it lawful here to reason from certain probable premises or to proceed by analogy. Nor does it belong to one or another nation or Order, much less to some private men, or even to bishops, to decree to anyone the honours of a Doctor of the universal Church: but the conferring of so great a dignity and at the same time authority necessarily belongs to the Church alone, that is, as I have said, to the Supreme Pontiff or to a general Council. And the Church is not accustomed to announce the distinction of this title, which she dispenses only to the most select men among the Saints themselves, with half-uttered words, but by a solemn decree to the Christian world: as Leo XII and Pius VIII lately did, the former declaring St. Peter Damian, the latter St. Bernard, a Doctor of the Church.
[1610] Indeed it is asked whether that title can belong to a woman. Finally another impediment must be examined to a woman's ever being reckoned among the Doctors of the universal Church, namely whether the public mastership of teaching in the Church, which St. Paul (1 Timothy chap. 2, v. 11) forbids to women, is not connected with the title of Doctor of the universal Church. Benedict XIV brings much light to settling this question, speaking thus: St. Thomas asks, 2-2, question 177, art. 2, whether the grace of the word of wisdom and knowledge pertains also to women; and he answers that it pertains to addressing one person privately or a few familiarly, but not to addressing the whole Church: so that, if women have the grace of wisdom or knowledge, they can administer it according to private teaching, but not according to public. According to the ordinance of God the condition of the female sex is to be subject to man, and that women should keep silence in the churches, as is had in Genesis III and 1 Corinthians XIV. Wherefore in 1 Timothy II, v. 11, it is read: "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection: but I suffer not a woman to teach." From which it is well inferred that the grace of the word of wisdom and knowledge does not belong to women to use it publicly, and to address the whole multitude of the faithful on matters of faith and salvation. The mother of Solomon, as is in Proverbs IV and the last chapter, taught the boy Solomon. Similar things are had of Anna the mother of Samuel, 1 Kings II, of Abigail, 1 Kings XXV, of the woman of Tekoa, 2 Kings XIV. Judith and Esther and certain other women had no common grace of speech. "Give me a well-ordered speech in my mouth in the presence of the lion" is the prayer of Esther, chap. XVI, v. 13. From all of which it is deduced that the grace of the word of wisdom and knowledge pertains to women, so that by addressing one or more familiarly they may instruct them: and so that St. Teresa was enlightened by God with the graces freely given of the word of wisdom and knowledge… the auditors of the Rota demonstrated at length in the Relation of her cause on the virtues, art. XXII, § II (On Beatification and Canonization, book 3, chap. XLIII, num. 7). And so much for the title of Doctor of the universal Church. As regards the aureole of a Doctor, the theologians of Salamanca, among others, judge that, although men regularly obtain it, it is nevertheless not to be denied to women, if the same
are engaged in that office either by word or by writing. Our Matriarch Teresa, they say, has the aureole of a woman Doctor (Cursus theologicus Salmanticensis, tract. IX, disp. III, doubt III, num. 33).
[1611] The title of Doctor of theology, however, can duly be given her: Meanwhile nothing prevents her from being honoured as a doctor of theology in the universities, and from wearing the insignia of a doctor of theology, with which in fact she is represented everywhere throughout Spain, and even in the churches themselves, in almost the manner in which the plate inserted here shows her. Namely, if not in all, at least in the chief universities of that kingdom it was a constant custom, which persists today, that graduate doctors should have a ring on the finger, and on the head a silk tassel of loose threads which, in the manner of curls, encircles the doctoral biretta, and should have besides a shoulder-cape likewise of silk, which is pointed at the back, in the form of a little hood. Each of these two latter insignia (which the Spaniards call la borla y el capirote the tassel and the hood) is of the same form for all faculties, but different in colour. Theology rejoices in the colour white, the Sacred Canons red, Civil Law green, Medicine yellow. Wherefore St. Teresa, who is saluted as a master of theology, in the images met with everywhere throughout Spain wears the white doctoral insignia on her head and shoulders. But, you will ask, whence did these insignia of a doctor fall to her? Was it, as many assert, by decree of the university of Salamanca, which, for the sake of honour, about half a century after her death co-opted our Saint into the company of its doctors? Or was it only by the common esteem of the Spaniards gradually growing strong, who, after hearing so many illustrious encomiums of St. Teresa by Supreme Pontiffs, universities and most famous men, judging her not unworthy of the doctoral laurel, therefore painted her in that dress? Here, however, the rights of the Church do not intervene, nor is there certainly any danger of doing injury to the doctors of the supreme university in Spain, that of Salamanca, so that on the contrary it would have to be turned to their honour if they had obtained such a colleague as St. Teresa is.
[1612] and several assert that the university of Salamanca Behold how Fr. Anthony of St. Joachim in the Annus Teresianus (vol. V, page 204 and following) affirms that St. Teresa obtained the title of doctor of Salamanca by solemn decree. He notes beforehand from a certain book of the general definitory which he had in manuscript with him that on the 17th of May 1701 it was permitted that at Salamanca, on the feast of St. Teresa, twelve religious from the college of the Carmelites (which Don Diego de la Serna, councillor of the kingdom of Castile, had founded) should go to the oratory of the scholars, to perform there on that day the solemn ministry of the altar and the sacred pulpit, the doctors and masters of the university flocking together to hear the panegyric of the Saint. This premised, he confesses that he could not discover the instrument by which the title of doctor was decreed to her: he contends, however, that such a decree was at some time passed, relying on the witnesses whom I am about to cite. Natalis Alexander (in the edition corrected by Domenico Mansi of the year 1778, vol. IX, page 158): The people of Salamanca decreed to crown her (St. Teresa) with their doctoral laurel and in fact crowned her. The book entitled Paradisus Carmelitici decoris (page 424): The academy of Salamanca, most celebrated in the whole world, decreed to crown her with the doctoral laurel and crowned her. In the Brussels edition of Teresa's Works of the year 1674 there is found a certain emblem, with a motto written beside it: For the Doctorate, with this explanation added to it: On account of the excellence of the books published, according to merit, and granted with solemn rite by the kindly academy of Salamanca, Urban VIII assenting. And finally he confirms the sayings of the writers brought forward, in the place still cited, from the Aphorisms of Don Alejo de Boxados, Inquisitor. No otherwise than the author of the Annus Teresianus, Fr. Anthony of St. Joseph (vol. III, letter 81, note 12) asserts that his holy Mother was graduated in the academic body of Salamanca.
[1613] conferred on her the name and insignia of doctor. Fr. Emmanuel of St. Thomas Aquinas also repeats this in the book la Muger grande, at the 17th day of January. And Fr. John of St. Louis goes still further, who in his Life of St. Teresa (book VI, chap. VIII) speaks thus: The university of Salamanca, by a special Bull of Urban VIII, imparted the doctoral degree to St. Teresa with the customary solemnity, and numbered her among the members of its academic body, the insignia befitting her degree being conferred on her, the ring, gown and cap with the laurel… Many other universities also celebrate her feast, and venerate her adorned with the doctoral dress. These hold an assembly on her feast-day, and the honorarium which is usually distributed to those who assist at the acts of the university is also offered to St. Teresa, as to one of their colleagues. These testimonies I have thought I must allege, in order to elucidate the matter as far as I could. Meanwhile I confess that I wonder that the alleged decree of the university and the alleged Bull of Urban VIII are not found in the Carmelite archive nor recorded in the Chronicle of the Order; whereas instruments of this kind must always have seemed to the Order most worthy of cedar. However the matter may be, since everywhere in Spain St. Teresa is met with distinguished by the doctoral dress, and there is nothing in that dress which can offend anyone, I have judged that the singular thing which the matron wears, the cloak of learned men, would please eyes outside Spain little accustomed to seeing such a form. Wherefore you have here the likeness of the Saint engraved clothed in it: in which, if perhaps at first sight the lineaments of the face do not appear altogether the same as in her other likeness, which is the true one, I would wish it noticed that here not the oblique face, as in the other plate, but her full face is represented, and that the whole engraving is shaded otherwise because of the wholly different dress, the forehead especially because of the doctoral cap.
[1614] Some dissuade from the reading of St. Teresa's Works; It now comes to be investigated whether the reading of St. Teresa's Works is useful and to be urged, or rather harmful and to be dissuaded. This question may seem idle, not to say scandalous, to some, after the mind of the Church has been so openly explained and so many encomiums of Teresa's books and doctrine brought forward. Nevertheless the treatment of this question is necessary: for not a few people of today, and indeed some of those very persons who do not fear to bestow on her the name of Doctor of the Church, forbid almost to all the reading of Teresa's Works, so that they seem to judge that more harm than profit can be drawn from it. These harsh censors certainly seem to themselves more perspicacious than so many holy and learned men who have earnestly commended the Works of St. Teresa, and more prudent than the Church herself, since they pretend to detect dangers and damages to souls in a doctrine which seemed heavenly to the Church and which the Supreme Pastors of souls judged to contain a salutary food for the faithful. But if those critics only pointed out that the reading of those books in which the Saint treats of the more sublime gifts of grace (which she does chiefly in the middle chapters of the Life, the Castle of the soul and some letters to her confessors) suits most those who, having gone out of the purgative way, as theologians speak, are engaged in the illuminative or unitive way; if then they warned that these things can be read by no one with the intent of aspiring to such charisms, since they are gifts of God freely given; if lastly they noted that there are sometimes found persons pious indeed and religious, but unfortunate in their heads, to whom such books can be harmful, because, the power of imagining prevailing in them over the light of reason, as soon as they hear that those rare heavenly gifts have been granted to someone, they first desire to taste them themselves, and afterwards sometimes deceive themselves that they have been presented with them; if, I say, they pointed out these things only, they would certainly not exceed the bounds of prudence and truth, and all sensible persons would agree with them. In that way no injury would be done to the holy Mother or to the Church herself, but their praise would stand for Teresa's books; and if any harm threatened certain individuals from reading them, it would be imputed not to the most salutary doctrine which the holy Virgin offers, but to the unsound vessel into which it is poured.
[1615] [which indeed can be dissuaded in certain circumstances, according to the mind of the Saint herself;] And Teresa herself thought no otherwise of her books. She knew by prophetic revelation that great profit would some day be drawn from her books; as Yepes testifies (book III, chap. XIX), saying: I know that the prophecy has been fulfilled which God manifested to the holy Mother, and she to me and other persons, that her books would produce abundant fruits after her death; and as the Saint herself confesses (vol. IV of the Letters, fragment 17) that it was signified to her by the Lord concerning the Foundations written by her. Nevertheless (Counsel IX, num. 5, at the end of vol. I of the Letters), appearing after her death to the Ven. Catherine of Jesus, she ordered her to signify to Gracián that she was grieved that her daughters were reading her books, especially the book of the Life. And the reason why the holy Mother then dissuaded this reading was this: the imprudent Gracián had shown himself exceedingly inclined to foster the desire of revelations; the nuns subject to him therefore eagerly pursued them, and believed that perfection consisted in such things. Therefore in those circumstances the reading of those very books to which the Order afterwards had chiefly to ascribe the immense increases which it took could have created damage and ruin for the monasteries. For, to speak of France alone, as may be read in the Life of Bl. Mary of the Incarnation by Mr. Boucher (book 3, pages 223, 234 and 235), Mr. Marillac, who gave much labour to bringing the Carmelites into his homeland, was roused to it by a chance reading of a book of Teresa's, and likewise roused by it were the first novices who embraced this manner of life under the guidance of Bl. Mary of the Incarnation. Moreover, must not the Carmelite family ascribe chiefly to those very books of its holy Mother, which it turns over by night and by day, its spirit of holy discipline and religious perfection, which remains genuine and vigorous to this day? What, further, shall I say of the innumerable multitude of persons of both sexes who, although not enrolled in Carmel, by the help of Teresa's books attained great sanctity? It is pleasing to name one for all, not long ago, namely in the year 1806, numbered in the calendars of the Blessed, José Oriol, a priest of Barcelona, who followed the Works of St. Teresa together with the little book of the Exercises of St. Ignatius for praying rightly: as may be read in the enlarged Lives of the Saints of Butler, at the 22nd of March.
[1616] [but, if generally, it is contrary to the rules of prudence and to the mind of the Church:] But the aforesaid critics are not confined within the bounds of prudence which Teresa herself had set. For on account of the abuse of a few they almost reduce the praised Works of St. Teresa to the Index of prohibited books. Which rigour smacks of a certain custom which has grown strong today among many, of proscribing generally the best and most useful things out of excessive fear of an accidental evil effect which is either remote and scarcely probable or threatens few. But this exaggeration of dangers and damages in matters of morals and piety is by no means conformable to the rules of prudence and
the sense of the Roman Church, and very greatly harms the good of souls, since in this way many who ought not to be are kept away, now from the reading of most approved books, now from the use of very salutary exercises, and sometimes from approach itself to the Holy Sacraments. Nor do these ill-advised masters of morals, and physicians of souls more cautious than is right, sufficiently notice, while they seem to wish to surpass the Church herself in sagacity, and while they withdraw sound food and spiritual nourishment from the faithful, they do not notice, I say, that they are the cause why souls are almost wasted away with consumption and killed, and that they are not unlike those physicians of bodies who, in order that bad humours may be either drained or prevented, in almost every kind of sickness, by denying food and continually opening a vein, so diminish the strength that at length the patient collapses and dies.
[1617] nay several prelates have granted sacred indulgences to those reading them. Wholly otherwise than these singular masters thought the Cardinals and archbishops and bishops who bestowed indulgences to propagate the reading of Teresa's books. I excerpt the following from the proem of the first volume of the Works of St. Teresa and submit them to the eyes of the readers: To those who read or hear read any chapter or letter from her Works, the Most Eminent Cardinal Don Luis Belluga, bishop of Cartagena, grants 100 days of indulgences in perpetuity (see the decree of the grant in the Annus Teresianus, vol. III, p. 269); the Most Eminent Cardinal Don Carlos de Borja, patriarch of the Indies, likewise 100 days; the Most Excellent Lord Don Diego de Astorga y Céspedes, archbishop of Toledo, 40 days; the Most Excellent Lord Don Juan de Alencastre, Duke of Abrantes, bishop of Cuenca, 40 days; the Illustrious and Reverend Lord Don Juan Camargo, bishop of Pamplona, Inquisitor general, 40 days; the Most Excellent Lord Don Felipe Antonio Gil Taboada, archbishop of Seville, 40 days, provided they pray God for the exaltation of the Holy Catholic Faith, the happy government of the church and archbishopric of Seville, the extirpation of heresies, peace and concord among Christian princes, and victory over the enemies of Holy Religion.
[1618] A wish that St. Teresa's books be reprinted and propagated. Touching now the goal, as regards St. Teresa's doctrine, I make one wish, namely that the Works of the Saint which the Spaniards possess in their own tongue may be offered anew to other nations, so translated and reprinted that the faithful may be more and more allured to read them. Let St. Teresa's genuine writing and sense be rendered with the utmost fidelity: let her natural speech not be branded with curling-irons, which suits nothing less than her simple and virginal manner of speaking: and while the foaming circuit of words and the pomp of a turgid style are avoided, by which many try to cover the poverty of reason and the ravings of a wandering mind, let the perspicuity and ease of diction be retained, which is supreme in Teresa and which Plutarch somewhere says is genuine Atticism. In this way the books of the holy Virgin, which Fernando the great Duke of Alba (see num. 1525), Christina queen of Sweden, prelates of the Church, inhabitants of monasteries and innumerable faithful of every kind indiscriminately have held in delight, will produce in the Church of God a new increase of piety and divine love. For, as the Ambrosian Breviary says in the proper Office of the Saint, they were written not in the persuasive words of human, but of divine wisdom, and with the experience of divine things rather than reading as mistress, and they inflame the minds of men to the pursuit of prayer and the desires of heavenly things; or, as the Roman Breviary says, the many instructions of her heavenly wisdom most greatly rouse the minds of the faithful to desire of the supernal fatherland. Let us now turn our pen to further matters.
§ LXXXII. The books of St. Teresa corrupted in places in what pertains to the Society of Jesus. Certain genuine passages formerly omitted: her writings lately perfidiously interpreted, and certain spurious things foisted upon her.
[The writings of St. Teresa corrupted: and her name used for the destruction of the Society of Jesus;] In these paragraphs which I have completed on St. Teresa's books I have exhausted the matter according to my small measure and as far as the bounds prescribed for me allowed: yet in such a way that I have put off discussing those passages which, treating of the Society of Jesus, have not rarely been passed over, mutilated or badly interpreted in the published Works of the Saint. Some of these, although it was established that they were genuine passages of the holy Mother, were missing for more than a century and a half, as often as her books came out either in Spanish or translated into other languages. Indeed sometimes the perfidy went so far that not some few things, but almost all those very frequent eulogies which St. Teresa wrote of the Society of Jesus were removed. Wherefore at Rome, in the general chapter of the year 1650, the Discalced Carmel professed by solemn decree (which I shall soon cite) that without its knowledge and against its will and to its great grief that injury had been inflicted both on an allied religious Order and on its holy Mother. But the unfaithfulness and the growing hatred against the Society of Jesus did not stop at the truncation of books and the omission of some passages alone. The age of the parents bore a more vicious progeny: and in the past century matters came to such a point that the enemies of that religious family were not ashamed, by falsehood and calumny, to take as their helper St. Teresa, who had hitherto been held its supreme and perpetual devotee, for preparing the deadly destruction which was consummated in Spain in the year 1767, and in the whole world in the year 1773, and to which (who would believe it?) the most innocent name of Teresa, in Spain at least, contributed not a little. For at the time of the lamentable ruin of the Society in Portugal in the year 1757, its adversaries in Spain, since they knew how great was the authority of the Virgin of Ávila among their countrymen, employed, together with other perfidious arts, these also which I shall enumerate.
[1620] which was done chiefly in four ways, which are enumerated, First, they fabricated and disseminated a spurious fragment of a letter, by which lying men pretended that St. Teresa had formerly foreseen the destruction of that Order on account of its monstrous crimes, reaching even to heresy. And joined to that fragment went another which was imposed on St. John of the Cross and which was likewise very injurious to the Society. Second, the archbishop of Burgos, José Rodríguez de Arellano, published lengthy encyclical letters, under the title: The doctrine of the expelled extinguished, in which he said that the Saint at first indeed made familiar use of the Society of Jesus, but afterwards, when she knew the Order thoroughly, turned her back on it (these are the words of the Most Illustrious one); so that, as he himself says in closing his thirty-fifth paragraph, these regulars have the Seraphic Teresa of Jesus not favourable and benevolent towards them, but wholly and plainly opposed to them. Third, within and outside Spain innumerable copies were scattered of a certain letter (the fiftieth of volume IV), which did indeed come from St. Teresa, but which, besides that several words in it were adulterated, was crammed with insulting interpretations, by which the reputation of the Society of Jesus was gravely disfigured. Fourth, in the year 1771 two volumes of Letters which had not yet been submitted to the press, and which the Illustrious prelate of Burgos had foretold in his aforesaid encyclical would shortly be published (not to speak of the many things conducive to the honour of the Society of Jesus which seem to have been deliberately excluded from them), came out with lengthy commentaries, several of which were designed to imbue the minds of readers more and more with those hatreds which were then raging against an Order trampled upon by the malevolent.
[1621] In order, then, to refute in order these insults so wantonly poured out against the Society of Jesus, after I have treated of the mutilations which were long ago committed in the published books of the Saint and of certain annotations to them which are not sufficiently accurate, and the order of refuting them is set out beforehand. I shall note the perfidy of more recent persons, no longer in omitting genuine passages, but, what is worse, in substituting false ones, or in commenting deceitfully on true passages of the Saint to the damage and ruin of the Society. The latter I shall subdivide into four heads. And first indeed I shall crush the alleged prognostications of the holy Mother about the future crimes and unhappy fate of the Society of Jesus, which, nearly two centuries after Teresa's death, some charlatan or other boasted that he had called up from the shades; and to a certain false prophecy, which was foisted on Teresa and disseminated among the common people, I shall oppose one and another most honourable to the Society from chapters XXXVIII and XL of her Life, both of which I shall demonstrate to be genuine and to pertain to this Order. The first of these indeed, up to the year 1752, among so many repeated editions, was in none of them properly inserted into Teresa's text itself: yet it was established that it had been written by Teresa's hand, both from the testimony of Ribera and others and from the solemn confession of the Carmelite Order itself, and from the autograph of the holy Mother, open to everyone, which is kept in the Escorial library. Second, I shall explain the right sense of the fiftieth letter of volume IV, which the revilers so strongly abused to destroy men's esteem of the Society in Spain. Third, I shall refute some passages of volumes III and IV of the Letters in which the Society of Jesus is wrongly attacked by the commentators. When I shall have done this, it will be clearer than the sun that the love of the holy Mother towards the Society of Jesus was at no time ever interrupted. Finally, fourth, I shall confute the notorious pastoral letter of the archbishop of Burgos, drawing the chief arguments from the books of the Saint herself, often in her own words.
[1622] The mutilated passage of chapter XXXVIII of the Life Already in the year 1590 Ribera noted that in the first edition of Teresa's Life a certain passage of chapter XXXVIII had been truncated. Namely, it is found in the Escorial autograph: De los de la Orden deste Padre, que es la Compañia de Jesus, de toda la Orden junta he visto grandes cosas. Vilos en el cielo con vanderas blancas en las manos algunas veces; y, como digo, otras cosas he visto dellos de mucha admiracion, y ansi tengo esta Orden en gran veneracion, porque los he tratado mucho, y veo conforme su vida con lo que el Señor me ha dado dellos a entender. [Of those of the Order of this Father, which is the Society of Jesus, of the whole Order together I have seen great things. I have seen them in heaven with white banners in their hands several times; and, as I say, other things I have seen of them of much wonder, and so I hold this Order in great veneration, because I have dealt with them much, and I see their life conformable to what the Lord has given me to understand of them.] That is: I have seen great things of that Order of which that Father was, namely the Society of Jesus, nay of that whole Order together. For I saw them in heaven, and indeed rather often, bearing white banners in their hands; and I saw other wonderful things, as I say. Wherefore I follow this Order with the highest veneration: for I have frequently dealt and treated with its members; and, as far as I see, they lead a life conformable to the things which the Lord has signified to me about them. But in the printed books, from the year 1588 up to the year 1752, it was set down thus: De los de cierta Orden, de toda la Orden junta, he visto grandes cosas: vilos en el cielo con vanderas blancas algunas veces, y, como digo, otras cosas de admiracion. [Of those of a certain Order, of the whole Order together, I have seen great things: I have seen them in heaven with white banners several times, and, as I say, other things of wonder.] Which sounds thus in Latin: I have seen great things of the religious of a certain Order, and indeed of that whole Order together: for I saw them in heaven, and indeed rather often, bearing white banners in their hands, and other wonderful things, as I say.
[1623] already noted by Ribera; Hear how Ribera (book IV, chap. III) denounces this truncation in open words, which, on account of the importance of the passage, I shall first present literally in Spanish from his original Salamanca edition, and then in Latin from the version of Martínez corrected by me: Otra vez estando en oracion con mucho recogimiento y suavidad y quietud, vio en el cielo muchos de la Compañia de Jesus con unas vanderas blancas en las manos. Y estando ella maravillada y contenta por la mucha devocion que tenia a esta Religion, la dixo nuestro Señor Jesu Christo: "Pues si tu supieses quanto han de ayudar estos a la Yglesia en los tiempos venideros." Esta vision dize ella que vio algunas vezes, y aunque en la Vida que se imprimio, no se declare el nombre de la Religion, esta declarado en el libro mismo que ella escrivio, y en los demas que andan de mano. Las palabras que la dixo nuestro Señor, puso despues mas adelante en el capitulo quarenta, sin el nombre de la Religion: pero es cosa certissima y sabida de su boca todo lo que he dicho. [Another time, being in prayer with much recollection and sweetness and quiet, she saw in heaven many of the Society of Jesus with white banners in their hands. And as she was marvelling and content for the great devotion she had to this Religious Order, our Lord Jesus Christ said to her: "If thou didst but know how much these are to help the Church in the times to come." This vision she says she saw several times, and although in the Life that was printed the name of the Religious Order is not declared, it is declared in the very book which she wrote, and in the others which go about in manuscript. The words which our Lord said to her she put afterwards further on in chapter forty, without the name of the Religious Order: but all that I have said is a most certain thing and known from her mouth.] At another time, when she was in prayer with the greatest recollection of mind, sweetness and quiet, she saw in heaven a multitude of men of the Society of Jesus, bearing white banners in their hands. And when that spectacle carried her into astonishment, and at the same time brought her pleasure, because she was borne towards this Order with a certain peculiar zeal, she at once heard from Jesus the Redeemer: "If indeed thou knewest what help they are to bring to the Church in future times!" She says that this vision was also offered to her more often. And although in that Life of Teresa which goes about printed this family is not indicated individually by its name, yet in the autograph itself, and in all the books written by pen which it has been my lot to see, its name is openly declared. These words of Jesus the Redeemer she repeats again below, in chap. XL, but without the name of the Religious Order itself being declared. And all that I have just said is most certain and received from Teresa's own mouth. That passage of chapter XL runs thus: Estando una vez en oracion con mucho recogimiento, suavidad y quietud, pareciame estar rodeada de Angeles y muy cerca de Dios; comence a suplicar a su Majestad por la Iglesia. Dioseme a entender el gran provecho que habia de hacer una Orden en los tiempos postreros, y con la fortaleza que los della han de sustentar la Fe. [Being once in prayer with much recollection, sweetness and quiet, I seemed to be surrounded by Angels and very near to God; I began to supplicate His Majesty for the Church. It was given me to understand the great profit that an Order was to do in the last times, and with what fortitude those of it are to sustain the Faith.] Which Martínez translates into Latin thus: On a certain day, being in prayer with great attention, sweetness and quiet, I seemed to be surrounded on every side by Angels and to be as near as possible to God. I began, therefore, to supplicate His Majesty for the safety of the Church. And it was told me what fruit a certain religious Order would produce in the latest times, and with what ardour and generosity its followers would defend the Faith.
[1624] concerning which passage the artifices of Arnauld are explained. I note here in passing that that passage of chapter XXXVIII remains faulty even in the most recent French editions. Indeed something worse was committed in Arnauld's most used version than if the words which are usually removed had only been omitted: for the whole passage in him is so twisted that the whole sense is changed. Let us weigh each word of Arnauld, and see the pleasant spectacle of a Jansenist as it were between the hammer and the anvil, pressed on this side by the great praise openly given to the Society by St. Teresa, and on that by his own aversion from a hated Order. So that he may seem to wish to take account of the truth, he does indeed put the name of the Society at the end of the period; but he deceives rather than declares the truth: and Fr. Martial was in fact deceived by his art, who in the Bibliotheca of the Order of Discalced Carmelites (page 373) says that that passage was restored by Arnauld to the faith of the original. But see how it was restored. J'ai vu, so the man's French version runs, des choses admirables des religieux d'un certain Ordre, qui me paraissaient, sans parler du reste du meme Ordre, porter en leurs mains dans le ciel des etendards blancs: et comme j'ai une grande communication avec ceux de cet Ordre, et que je reconnais que leur vie est conforme a ce que notre Seigneur m'a dit d'eux, j'ai une grande veneration pour cette sainte Compagnie. [I have seen admirable things of the religious of a certain Order, who seemed to me, not to speak of the rest of the same Order, to bear white standards in their hands in heaven: and as I have much communication with those of this Order, and recognize that their life is conformable to what our Lord has told me of them, I have a great veneration for this holy Company.] There Arnauld suppresses the words by which it was to be indicated that the Order in question was the Society of Jesus, and which by no means escaped him, as is evident from his closing clause. He keeps silent that the holy Mother had that vision several times: algunas veces several times, in Spanish. He enervates all the force of the vision by saying: as it seemed to me, they bore; where the Saint says: I saw them bearing. He skips some words of Teresa, who says that she saw great things and other admirable things; which is more than a pleonasm. Finally Arnauld does indeed name the religious, but, perfidiously rather than ambiguously, adds that he leaves aside the rest of the Order; where the Saint says, not without force, that she beheld great things both of the religious of the Order and of the whole Order together. Truly there would be reason why Arnauld's book should be thrown out of one's hands, were it not commendable elsewhere for greater fidelity, and for a style, if not cultivated, at least simple and suited to the Lives of the Saints. Wherefore he would be ill employed who, on account of a few unfaithfully translated passages, would condemn entirely Arnauld's version, which is wrongly despised today by some because it is without paint. Lastly I shall finally note that the aforesaid sense of chapter XXXVIII is mutilated, in the way it once was in the Spanish editions, in both French versions, of Fr. Cyprian of the Nativity and of Chanut, and in the English of Abraham Woodhead, but that it is corrected in the German which came out at Augsburg in the year 1756. But the Netherlandish of the year 1697 wrongly follows Arnauld's in that place.
[1625] Kerbeke is accused of a great fraud But Anton Kerbeke, in the Latin version of the Life of St. Teresa, published at Mainz in the year 1603 from the press of Johann Albin, went further, and omitted almost all the passages which were written by St. Teresa in commendation of the Society of Jesus: as Fr. Nicholas Łęczycki notes in the little work On the Glory of St. Ignatius (which was first published at Cracow in the year 1622, then at Vilna in the year 1624, then at Antwerp in the year 1629, without the name of the author up to then; until under Łęczycki's name in the year 1650, together with his other little works, in two volumes in folio, where it is placed in the eighteenth place, it was printed again at Antwerp). In chapter XIX of this little work Łęczycki cites in Latin several passages in honour of the Society of Jesus, taken from the Italian version of Bordoni of the year 1601: from which it is evident that the blame of unfaithfulness is to be cast on Kerbeke alone, who confesses that he translated Teresa into Latin from the Italian version of Bordoni. Among other passages Łęczycki alleges that passage of chapter XXXVIII of which we treated above, repeating what Ribera says about its mutilation. But since the passages concerning the Society which Łęczycki had reported in the three earlier editions of his little work were called into doubt by some as to whether they were authentic, therefore before his fourth Antwerp edition of the year 1650 he applied, to dispel that doubt, the diligence which he narrates at the end of chapter XIX in the following manner.
[1626] by Fr. Nicholas Łęczycki, Although I, the writer of this little work, had read all these things which I have reviewed in this chapter in all the Spanish and Italian editions of the Life of St. Teresa, written by herself and afterwards printed, both at Rome several times and at Naples; not content with this, when I had learned that some religious (whose names I spare) in this kingdom had more than once spread among their seculars who trusted them that these things which I have reviewed were not true, after the happy election of our very Rev. Father, the present General Superior Vincenzo Carafa, I asked the Rev. Fr. Pedro de Mendoza, then also elected by us Assistant of Spain, to commission some Father in Spain to go to the library of the celebrated royal monastery in Spain of San Lorenzo, called the Escorial, in which library the Life of St. Teresa written by her own hand is preserved as a precious treasure. The Rev. Father Assistant committed this business to one of our Fathers; who went to this monastery, and diligently took care that all those things which in this chapter I have reviewed from her Life printed twice at Rome should be faithfully transcribed in Spanish from the original Life of St. Teresa. This having been done and authentically set down in a public instrument before witnesses, the Rev. Father Assistant sent me this authentic instrument subscribed by four sworn apostolic notaries, with the customary clauses and solemnities. This instrument was written by the apostolic notary Héctor de la Bártera y Montenegro, as the one who, before some religious of that monastery as witnesses, copied in that library all these things narrated by me in this chapter from the Life of St. Teresa written by her own hand. And he wrote this instrument authentically in the year 1646, on the tenth day of the month of September, at the instance of the Rev. Fr. Ambrose of St. Mary, before the witnesses José de Peñalver and Domingo González de Argumoza and Alfonso Gómez, religious of the said monastery. Further, the Spanish text transcribed by this notary agrees plainly word for word with my Latin version placed by me in this chapter. Add that the said apostolic notary at the beginning of his instrument expressly makes mention of this nineteenth chapter and of page 174 of the little work On the Glory of St. Ignatius printed at Antwerp in the year 1629; and asserts that the Spanish text of St. Teresa agrees with my Latin narration. No one, therefore, unless malignant and envious, can call into doubt these things written by me.
[1627] [whose sayings the general chapter of the Italian Congregation of the Discalced Carmelites confirms.] Nor did this question when stirred move Fr. Łęczycki alone; but also the general chapter of the Italian Congregation of the Discalced Carmelites, assembled at Rome in the year 1650, issued the following decree, reported by Fr. Jean Pien (vol. VII of July, page 850), who had received it from his brother Ignace Pien from Rome, taken from the archive of our Society, where he says the original is kept with the seal attached and the subscription of Fr. Joachim of Jesus Mary, secretary of the general chapter: We have learned that the published writings of our Holy Mother Teresa have been truncated as to all those things which pertain to the Society of Jesus: so that, since both in most of the manuscripts and in most of the copies published long ago and in the very original text of the Mother all those things which are noted
in the book entitled "The Glory of St. Ignatius" are found written, yet in that edition of which mention has been made all have been erased. This unfaithfulness of the edition, injurious not so much to the Society of Jesus as to the holy Mother, we altogether disapprove, and we testify that it did not proceed from us. Nay rather, if anyone of our Order should be found to have committed such a thing or to have caused it to be done, we decree that he ought not to go unpunished. We also prohibit that truncated edition itself from the use of our religious. We testify that this proposition was proposed to our general chapter and approved by the acclamation of all. On the 16th day of May 1650. Fr. Francis of the Most Holy Sacrament, General Superior. Fr. Frederick gives this decree in Latin in the same words, book IV, chap. X. But the otherwise diligent man seems to have nodded in the commentary which he subjoins to that decree. This commentary, however, I shall bring to the balance, and I shall keep to Fr. Frederick's very words as Montoya presents them from his first edition of the year 1754. Which I had to note beforehand, because in the later edition of the Life of Teresa of the year 1837, if Montoya cites the former correctly, several things in that place were tacitly changed, although not in every respect happily, as we shall see after the former edition has been reviewed here.
[1628] [The first edition of Fr. Frederick does not rightly interpret the decree of this chapter,] Here is the interpretation which Fr. Frederick originally added to that decree. This I shall correct or explain, adding a parenthesis to each of its members. Fr. Bartoli laments (say: rightly complains) that in certain editions of the works of St. Teresa (in one, Bartoli has) some things (all things: Bartoli) have been removed which redound to the great praise of the illustrious Society of Jesus. I do not know what that mutilated and reprehensible edition is (it is a wonder that Frederick, a diligent searcher, who in Yepes, cited so often by him, could not fail to see mention of Kerbeke, did not inspect the latter's version, openly teeming with such thefts. But it is a greater wonder that he could have been ignorant that Kerbeke was loudly accused of unfaithfulness by Fr. Łęczycki in the little work On the Glory of St. Ignatius, which the very decree of the general chapter mentions by name, the decree which he alleges entire), unless perhaps the defect is indicated there which is common to all the editions back to the first of Salamanca of the year 1588 (I omit that this, according to Yepes, book III, chap. X, was made in the year 1587: but the decree of the chapter excludes Fr. Frederick's hypothesis, since it speaks of one edition differing from the rest). In it in fact there is found in chap. XXXVIII an error (the decree notes not one error, but the cutting out of all or almost all the passages where the Society is spoken of) which afterwards crept into all the editions (I pass over that the Madrid edition of the year 1661 and the Brussels one of the year 1740 have this note in the margin: The Saint wrote several copies from which these things were drawn; but in the copy which is kept at the Escorial she declares that she speaks here of the Society of Jesus. The latter part of this note is true, but the former false. For where do those copies exist of which the note speaks? Besides the Escorial one none is known)… The detection of this error must be attributed to the diligence of Fr. Francis of St. Mary (he published the first volume of the Chronicle in the year 1644; but fifty years before Ribera had put together the Life of the Saint, in which he reveals that error: moreover Łęczycki too had indicated it in the years 1622, 1624 and 1629). Whence it is clear that the Discalced, who were plainly aware of that most grateful affection which the holy Mother professed towards the Society of Jesus, far from having removed anything from her eulogies of the Society, showed themselves diligent and solicitous that those things should stand again in the open which the carelessness of the printers or the malevolence of I know not whom had attempted to obscure (The Society must be grateful towards the Order of Carmelites for the generous satisfaction rendered to it in the general chapter of the year 1650, and for the correction, though late, in the Madrid edition of the year 1752). If perhaps there was any edition where any of the encomiums of the Society with which the writings of the holy Mother abound was deleted, let everyone be persuaded that such a deed is reprobated by our Order (Truly anyone will wonder at Fr. Frederick's singular doubt whether a mutilated edition of this kind exists, who reads the decree of the chapter in which the assembled Fathers solemnly testify that they examined such a truncated edition, where all the eulogies of the Society had been erased, compared it with the other published and written books of the Saint, and that they disapprove and prohibit that edition with one vote of all, with one acclamation of all. Moreover it is difficult to grasp how Fr. Frederick could fail to read the very widespread book mentioned in the decree, in which the mutilated passage of chapter XXXVIII is denounced, and where Kerbeke is tacitly charged with having unworthily expunged all the praise which Teresa most frequently bestows on the Society of Jesus).
[1629] nor the later one. I shall now add a few things about the Roman edition of Fr. Frederick of the year 1837. When he who prepared it noticed that the author's reasoning was lame in several places there, he cut off many words from it, but not without a certain anachronism in what he added. If I conjecture rightly, says the emender, that culpable truncation (of which Bartoli treats) would be found in some French edition, and that offence would have been committed by someone refractory to the pontifical Bulls against Jansenius. But if we fish out the truth, going to the sources successively, from Bartoli we learn of the decree of the chapter; in that decree we are referred to Fr. Łęczycki's little work On the Glory of St. Ignatius; and in this little work we read that it was Kerbeke who in the year 1603 violated the Life of St. Teresa: at which time the sect of Cornelius Jansen, contemptuous of pontifical authority, had not yet come forth. And if, moreover, we search the history of Jansen more widely, we find that the young Jansen, who had applied himself to rhetoric at Louvain under the discipline of the Society, wished to give his name to the Ignatian family: so far was he at that time from being hostile to the Society. Go to the Mémoires de Trévoux for the year 1731 (page 1775), where the History of Baianism by Duchesne is treated.
[1630] [Certain blemishes in what pertains to the Society are detected in the edition of the Works of St. Teresa of the year 1752,] Further, to turn over each edition and version of the Works of St. Teresa, in order to investigate whether anything of the praises of the Society has been deleted in them, neither pleases me nor do I have leisure for it. Concerning the one vernacular edition of the year 1752, or of the year 1793, since this is very similar to it, I shall note a few things with respect to the Society; because that edition is now commonly held as the standard. For the Rev. Father General Nicholas of St. Mary, in the dedicatory letter prefixed to it addressed to Ferdinand VI, affirms that the Works of the holy Mother are there put forth restored to their original purity and diligently purged of the errors which negligence or ignorance is wont to bring into monuments which are reprinted several times; to which end, he says, they were revised by a most exact examination and by a firm rule, without any diligence being omitted which might help to place them in the sphere of their original splendour. I confess, however, that some doubt remains to me, especially concerning the book of the Foundations, on account of the following reasoning of Montoya (prologue to diss. I, p. 28): In some passages of that book known to me (which will be indicated when the letter 50 of volume IV is treated), and probably in many others which I have not compared with each other, two illustrious editions, the Brussels one of the year 1684 by François Foppens, and the Madrid one of the year 1752 by José de Orga, are not equal and the same, although each has placed at the end of chapter XXXI this note: "All the contents of this book up to here are written by the own hand of the same Mother Teresa of Jesus in the manuscript which she herself wrote of her Foundations: which manuscript is found with others written by her hand in the library of the Escorial." Each was also dedicated to the king of Spain, the Brussels one to Charles II, and the Madrid one to Ferdinand VI. Whence it ought to be concluded that each agrees with the original. But that one, if not both, does not agree with it is evident from this, that the two differ from each other. For the most part indeed this difference of words does not change the sense; yet in places it corrupts it: and since in each edition it is declared that all the things contained in them were written by the own hand of the holy Mother, any discrepancy or diversity whatever is a wonder, whenever it cannot be admitted to be errors of the printers.
[1631] first the omission of the letter to Moya, Whatever may be of that doubt, I have plainly followed in these commentaries the edition of the year 1793, in which I shall consider only a few things regarding the Society of Jesus, namely that a certain notable letter has been omitted there, and that in some places annotations not sufficiently fair to the Society of Jesus have been placed, which Palafox inserted into the first volume of the Letters, and Fr. Anthony of St. Joseph into the second. As regards the last volumes of these, I shall reserve them, as I have said, for a special paragraph. I say, then, that it is a wonder that the celebrated letter of the holy Mother to Cristóbal Rodríguez de Moya, which formerly, and indeed before the first volume of the Letters was published, had already been published separately several times in print in several works, and which tends to the greatest praise of the Society, was deemed worthy of no place among the published letters, although the last editor affirms that he diligently sought out all that could be found. That letter had already in great part been inserted in the Life of St. Ignatius which Fr. Andrés Lucas published in Latin at Granada in the year 1633 (book V, chap. XXVI). It is likewise found in the Imago primi saeculi Societatis Jesu (page 675), in Łęczycki's work On the Excellence of the Institute of the S. J. (book II, chap. III), in the Elogia S. J. of Gómez (part I, class VII), in the Fasti S. J. by Fr. Johann Drews (at the 27th day of July). It is also presented entire by Nieremberg in volume III on the Illustrious Men of the S. J., in the Life of St. Ignatius (chap. XL), by Fr. Andrés Mendo in the Crisis on the piety of the Society of Jesus, etc. (num. 160), by Montoya (diss. I, chap. II, § II, num. 11), and probably by several others who escape me, and whom I neglect, because, by the rules of criticism, it is not always the number of those repeating the same thing, but sometimes the weight of one witness, if he is beyond all exception, that has the greatest authority. And such a witness must certainly be reckoned here the Ven. Fr. Juan Eusebio Nieremberg, who, writing twelve years after Fr. Andrés Lucas, not only confirms his narration, but also asserts that he saw the autograph of that letter, and has with him a transcript of it, proved by the testimony and faith of a public notary: Que yo he visto de su misma letra, y mostrare autenticado con fee y testimonio de escribano. [Which I have seen in her own hand, and shall show authenticated with the faith and testimony of a notary.] This I shall report, faithfully translated by me into Latin from the Spanish text of Nieremberg, as also Fr. Mendo
presents it and with which the Italian version of Montoya agrees. Fathers Łęczycki, Mendo and others note beforehand that it was written at Ávila on the 28th of July of the year 1568 to Cristóbal Moya, when he greatly desired to erect at Segura de la Sierra an enclosure of Discalced virgins, and to bring his daughters into it, on this condition however, that both his daughters and the other nuns of the convent to be founded by him should be subject to the direction of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus. It is quite probable that this is the same Moya who afterwards founded the monastery of Caravaca (see § XXXVIII of this Commentary, and Montoya, diss. I, chap. VII, § I, num. 20).
[1632] which is reported here. Thus then runs the answer of the holy Mother to that proposal of Moya: Our Lord calls into these houses daughters who are an admiration to me and who greatly confound me; since such must be chosen by us as are given to prayer and suited to our manner of living: otherwise they are not received. God gives them a satisfaction and gladness so continual that it seems a paradise here on earth. So it is: and you will be able to make yourself more certain of this matter through very many persons, especially if any of the Society of Jesus pass that way, who have been here and know me and have seen it; because the Fathers themselves are my fathers and those to whom, after our Lord, my soul owes all that good which it has, if it has any. And one of the things for which I am much drawn to those ladies is that I know that those Fathers were their directors: whence I am ready to oblige you in all things that I can do. For not all spiritual persons please me for our monasteries, unless they are those whose Confessions these Fathers hear; and almost only such are found in our monasteries. Indeed I do not now remember that there is even one of those whom I have received who was not a spiritual daughter of those Fathers; for such suit us: for, since they cultivated my soul, the Lord has granted me the grace that their spirit is implanted in these monasteries; wherefore if you know their rules, you will see that our constitutions are in many things conformable to them. For I obtained a Brief from the Pope by which the faculty of making them is given me, and our Rev. General, passing this way lately, approved those which I made and ordered them to be observed in all the monasteries which I should found. He also left an order that the Fathers of the Society should preach, and that no superior could prevent this, and likewise that, if they wish, they can hear our Confessions. But they themselves have a constitution which forbids them this; nor can we obtain it from them except sometimes. And so they both deal with us, and give counsels very frequently, and confer great goods upon us. The same desire which these ladies cherish I too cherished, namely of subjecting this house to the direction of those Fathers; and I put effort into it. But I know for certain that they will not admit a monastery, even if it were erected by a prince: otherwise they would already have many in this kingdom; and therefore it cannot be done. I praise our Lord that no Order has so ample a faculty of dealing with them as ours; nor will the faculty which we already enjoy ever be taken from us.
[1633] Still certain other things are noted in that edition. Not only the omission of this entire letter, but also certain other things, even in the last edition, can still be noted with respect to the Society. I would not indeed wish, with Fr. Montoya, to say that the name of Fr. Francis Borgia, General of the Society of Jesus, was wrongly omitted in the book of the Way of Perfection (chap. XXXI, num. 5), although Ribera (book I, chap. V) asserts that those words are set down in the writings of the holy Mother. For there is no sure cause of accusation there; since, there being several autograph copies of that book, the Saint could have added that name to one and not added it to another: as the Annus Teresianus (vol. VII, page 200) asserts that those words are in fact absent both from the Valladolid copy and from the Escorial one; which, as regards the latter, since it is the first draft and was written before St. Francis Borgia had been elected General, should have been established beyond controversy for Fr. Montoya. With better right Fr. Montoya notes that the Catalogue of the chief confessors of St. Teresa, which was prefixed in this edition to the second volume of the Letters, is wonderfully truncated. For, to pass over from the Society of Jesus Fathers Juan Padranos, Francis Borgia, Martín Gutiérrez, Rodrigo Álvarez, Francisco Ribera, Jerónimo Ripalda, who could have been reckoned in, it is at least a wonder that Fr. Baltasar Álvarez is not numbered in that list, whom the Saint so highly praises, and whom she affirms she used as instructor of her conscience for a whole six years in the first times of her amended life (vol. I, letter 19, num. 6), and whom moreover it can be conjectured from several passages of the Letters that she still often employed afterwards. Nor is it accurate what is said in vol. I, letter 15, notes 3 and 4, that Fr. Baltasar prevented the Saint from devoting herself to the reform of her Order. I pass over that Teresa at that time did not even think of that reform, since it is established from Yepes (book II, c. XIV) and from the book of the Foundations (chap. I, num. 3, and chap. II, num. 3) that she turned her mind to it only in the fifth or sixth year from the erection of the convent of Ávila, after she had long intended only the erection of one little monastery in which the primitive institute might be kept among a few. But, as regards my purpose, the Saint herself in chapter XXXII of her Life, num. 6, treating of that Father, speaks otherwise. He, she says, did not dare to tell me plainly and promptly to desist from this purpose: yet he saw openly that the thing, naturally speaking, was altogether impossible… But he said that I should treat with my superior about this matter, and that whatever he advised to be done I should endeavour to carry out. And, as is clear from the rest of that chapter, when the provincial approved Teresa's undertakings, Fr. Baltasar approved too; but when he disapproved, the latter too disapproved: so that, if the matter is considered clothed in its circumstances, no sensible person would judge that that Father, acting thus, departed even in the least from the norm of prudence. And if anyone wishes fuller vindications of Fr. Baltasar, let him go to Montoya (diss. I, chap. V, num. 1 and following, and chap. VI, § II).
§ LXXXIII. The prophecy of the destruction of the Society of Jesus, fastened upon St. Teresa, is demonstrated to be false. Three other genuine ones seem applicable to the Order of St. Dominic.
The fiction of that prophecy is written out. We have seen the praise with which St. Teresa had adorned the Society of Jesus fraudulently withdrawn. After the truth was hidden, behold facts deformed; after thefts, behold calumnies. For in the past century the Saint was repeatedly said to have been hostile to that Order in the last times of her life, and it was affirmed that this was established from her writings. Among other arguments a certain pseudo-prophecy was brought forward, foisted upon the holy Mother, which I already mentioned at the beginning of the preceding paragraph, and which, especially in Italy, by means of gazettes or journals, was spread round about some years before the Order was abrogated by Clement XIV. Nevertheless I should have no copy of it at hand, had not Montoya (diss. I, chap. VII, § III, num. 29) committed it to paper. For such is the lot of disparaging little pages of this kind, that time blots them out, while nevertheless they are the seeds of immense evils which endure. Nor will it be useless to set that monster down in writing again here, for the demonstration and perpetual memory of the perversity in which those were strong who contrived the ruin of the Society of Jesus. It runs thus: Fragment of a letter written by St. Teresa on the 20th of February 1579 to Fr. Jerome Gracián, Discalced Carmelite. When one day I was in prayer, and was praying God that He would preserve and increase our Order, the Lord said to me: "Thou shalt see in thy days the Order of the Blessed Virgin greatly increased." This I heard from the Lord, and with mind deeply recollected I meditated on the restoration of the Order; and turning my mind to other Orders and their beginnings, I was weighing the Order of Ignatius and its daily and stupendous increases. I fell then into a great rapture of mind, in which the Lord said to me: "Thou art much deceived, O My daughter, about the progress of those religious. Their beginning is good; and they will render great services to the Church: but their cupidity and the dominions which they will acquire will so inflate their vanity that, straying more and more, they will degenerate even to heresy itself, so that it will be necessary to destroy them. All these things will come to pass before three hundred years have elapsed."
[1635] The Society having been vindicated, Before I dispel these false vaticinations about the destruction of the Society, let me be permitted briefly to vindicate the Society from the horrible crimes which are imputed there, of ambition, cupidity and heresy itself. As in the first times of St. Ignatius, so also in the following times of St. Teresa, and even in the times of Clement XIV himself, the professed of the Society of Jesus bound themselves by oath, no otherwise than they bind themselves today, never at any time, never in any way, to hunt after dignity or prelacy, or even to admit it outside the Society, unless driven to it by him who can command under pain of sin. In like manner, as at the beginning of the Order, so also at every following time, by virtue of the solemn vows made, each renders himself incapable, under the guilt of sacrilege, for his whole life, of having as his own even one obol, there being added also a particular vow of not changing the constitutions concerning poverty, except when for a just cause of circumstances requiring it they should seem fit to be restricted further. Circumscribed, therefore, by these bounds, the Society of Jesus could never, whatever its adversaries may rattle, be proved to have exceeded its bounds, or broken the faith solemnly given to God: unless perhaps one should refer to violated vows and to ambition and cupidity the adornment of churches increased by the men of the Society for the worship of God, the amplitude of schools for the throng of pupils, libraries furnished with the store of the sciences sought out from all sides for the defence of the true Religion, of good morals and of the liberal arts and disciplines, and lastly the desire and effort of acquiring learning to pour into learned and unlearned through the whole globe of the earth, as widely as it extends, the knowledge and love of God. And if these things are reckoned ambition and cupidity, it will freely be confessed that these pursuits, by the institute of the Father, flourish in the sons, not however with the aim that the Order may vainly grow famous, but that the glory of God and the salvation of the neighbour may be promoted in every way, both by the force of eloquence of the heralds of the Gospel in the pulpit, and by the depth of learning in the chairs of the academies, and by a practised pen in writing books, and by every kind of art and industry for alluring children to the catechism, youths to the literary schools, all the faithful to frequenting the churches, to pouring forth prayers to God and to receiving the Most Holy Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist
Sacraments. Nor is there need for me to speak of the outrage of heresy imposed by calumny upon the Society. The whole world knows that this Order has hitherto been accused of injuring the Catholic Faith by no others than by the followers of errors, who themselves have been declared heretics by the Roman Church, the supreme judge of controversies, or, to speak with Tertullian, slayers of the truth; while on the contrary the Society of Jesus, on account of the Faith defended and the services rendered to the Church, has merited praise from twenty and more Pontiffs of the supreme Roman See. And for this very cause it incurred the hatred of the rebellious enemies of the Church, who in the Society, as in devoted sons and champions of the Catholic Religion, attack their mother the Church and Jesus Christ their father, who is over all things, God blessed for ever (Rom. IX, 5). Nor indeed, to speak with St. Augustine (against Petilian, chap. VI), is it a small and inglorious consolation for each of us, if we are accused by the enemies of the Church together with the Church herself.
[1636] and a passage of St. Augustine having been applied to this Order, As regards the prophecy, just as it was thrown into the midst gratuitously, so in like manner it could be denied gratuitously and without argument, until it should be fortified with its proofs, and its autograph brought forward, or at least a copy proved by the faith of fit witnesses. Of my own accord, however, I shall examine the matter succinctly. The one thing which could be alleged to establish that it was a prophecy is the destruction of the Order, which took place about three years after that fragment of a letter was published. But, not to speak of the vaguely prefixed space of three hundred years and of the Society already revived, which again stands on its own feet, the Order was abrogated not on account of those enormous crimes, reaching even to heresy, which the author of the fragment invented; but it was assailed out of hatred against the Church, in whose camp it fought. Further, at that time not that pseudo-prophet alone, but also a great crowd of conspirators for the ruin of the Society foretold death to the Order: yet all these ought no more to be held prophets than a robber who, with dagger already drawn, foretells death to the man whose heart he is about to pierce. Let it be granted to me here, who am compelled to turn away the enormous calumnies fastened upon the excellent Mother, the Society of Jesus, to report, as depicted by St. Augustine, at once its dire lot, sacrificed to the fury of the impious in lamentable times, and the manner of acting which the abrogated Society held; who speaks thus aptly to our matter: Often also divine Providence permits even good men to be expelled from the Christian congregation through certain exceedingly turbulent seditions of carnal men. And when they have borne this contumely or injury of theirs most patiently for the peace of the Church, and have attempted no novelties either of schism or of heresy, they will teach men with what true affection and with how great sincerity God is to be served. The purpose, therefore, of such men is either to return when the whirlwinds have been calmed, or, if they are not permitted this, whether because the same tempest persists, or lest by their return a like or fiercer one should arise, they hold the will of providing even for those very persons to whose motions and disturbances they have yielded, without any separation of conventicles, defending until death and helping by their testimony that faith which they know is preached in the Catholic Church. These the Father, seeing in secret, crowns in secret. This kind seems rare; but yet examples are not lacking: nay, there are more than can be believed. So divine Providence uses all kinds of men and examples for the healing of souls and for the instruction of a spiritual people. (On the True Religion, chap. VI, num. 11).
[1637] [it is demonstrated to be a mere fable, especially from an opposite true prophecy.] The argument having been refuted which could plausibly be alleged from the abrogation of the Order, I shall note a few things in that fragment which plainly demonstrate that it was a mere fable. In the first place the inept fabricator of the prophecy, who must have been blinder than a mole, affirms that St. Teresa saw the daily and stupendous progress of the Society of Jesus, and that God revealed to her not only that the beginnings of that Order were good, but also that it would render great services to the Church; and nevertheless he at once adds that God said she was much deceived about the progress of that Order, which progress nevertheless both Teresa had seen with her own eyes, and God Himself, so to speak, had affirmed, by praising the great services which that Order was to confer on the Church. Then, as will be proved later, the holy Mother made very much of the Society of Jesus to the end of her life, therefore for more than three whole years after the prophecy which is objected was had: whence it is concluded that she was by no means untaught from heaven her esteem of that religious family. Finally the Saint herself foretold how strenuously that Order would fight the battles of the Lord in future times (as Ribera has it) and in the last times (as St. Teresa herself has it): which certainly cannot consist with the heresy and apostasy with which the prophesying author of the fragment wished it to be contaminated. Read the passages which I cited at the beginning of the preceding paragraph from St. Teresa and from Ribera; and you will have to conclude, if those passages are true, as they undoubtedly are, that both the fragment of the letter is spurious, and the prophecy contained in it false. For it is clearly evident, first, that the Order of which the Saint speaks in chapter XL, although she does not express the name of the Order, is yet the very one of which she speaks in chapter XXXVIII, where she expresses the name of the Society of Jesus. It is evident, second, that on both those occasions God made known to St. Teresa that the men of the Society would very greatly profit the Church, since Ribera, treating of the revelation of chap. XXXVIII, says that God said to the holy Mother: O if thou knewest what great help those religious are to bring to the Church in future times! Third, it can also be concluded from this that in both those places the sons of Ignatius were seen by the Saint bearing white banners in heaven; for she herself affirms that she beheld them so several times, and from all the circumstances it is easy to judge that the revelation of chapter XL is to be referred to those times when she beheld this, and when at the same time she saw great and very wonderful things concerning the Society. It is seen, therefore, that what we have said thus far (namely that that revelation, num. 8 of chapter XL, pertains to the Society) rests on the words of Teresa and on the authority of Ribera, which is supreme in matters of this kind and especially in this one, since he closes this relation of his by saying: It is a most certain thing, and all that I record here has been drawn from Teresa's own mouth. Here in passing I note with Montoya (diss. 1, chap. VII, §1, num. 21 and 22) the error of two authors concerning this passage. Namely Fr. Francisco Javier Fluviá, in the Life of St. Ignatius published at Barcelona in the year 1753 (vol. I, book V, chap. XI), confusing number 10 of chapter XXXVIII with number 8 of chapter XL, was deceived, and wrongly affirmed that the name of the Society of Jesus is expressed in this latter place: how false this is is clear not only from Teresa's text, even the most emended, but also from Ribera, who (book IV, chap. III) explicitly says that the name of the Society is not uttered there, and also from St. Teresa, who subjoins at number 10 to her vaticinations there about religious Orders: If it shall please the Lord that those Orders be known, He will declare them: I do not express them, lest the others take it ill. A similar error is found in the book of the academician Calliado: La verita difesa col disvelarsi, published at Florence in the year 1759. What has been said, then, abundantly proves on the one hand the falsity of the prophecy foretelling that the Society of Jesus would go to ruin even to the uttermost crimes, and on the other the sincerity and authenticity of the other vaticination of Teresa which is of the greatest honour and consolation to the Society, by which namely God signified to St. Teresa, and indeed with emphasis, that that religious Order would fight bravely for the Catholic Church in the last times of the world.
[1638] Three genuine ones of the holy Virgin are reported here in Spanish and Latin: The writers of St. Teresa's history, where they treat of her prophecies concerning the Society, treat at the same time of those which she had concerning another Order. I shall imitate them, so as to complete those kindred subjects, and so that what has been done need not afterwards be done again in part. These latter prophecies are three, and are handed down by the holy Mother at nums. 9 and 10 of chapter XL of her Life. Here are the words in which she utters them: Estando una vez rezando cerca del Santisimo Sacramento, aparecióme un Santo, cuya Orden ha estado algo caída: tenia en las manos un libro grande, abrióle, y dixome que leyese unas letras, que eran grandes y muy legibles, y decian ansi: "En los tiempos advenideros florecerá esta Orden, habrá muchos Martyres." Otra vez estando en Maytines en el coro, se me representaron y pusieron delante seis ó siete, me parece serian desta mesma Orden, con espadas en las manos. Pienso que se dá en esto á entender, han de defender la Fé; porque otra vez estando en oracion, se arrebató mi espiritu, parecióme estar en un gran campo, á donde se combatian muchos, y estos desta Orden peleaban con gran fervor. Tenian los rostros hermosos y muy encendidos, y echaban muchos en el suelo vencidos, otros mataban: pareciame esta batalla contra los hereges. A este glorioso Santo he visto algunas veces, y me ha dicho algunas cosas, y agradecidome la oracion que hago por su Orden, y prometido de encomendarme al Señor. No señalo las Ordenes, si el Señor es servido se sepa, las declarará, porque no se agravien otras. [Being once praying near the Most Holy Sacrament, there appeared to me a Saint whose Order has been somewhat fallen: he had in his hands a great book, opened it, and told me to read some letters, which were large and very legible, and said thus: "In the times to come this Order will flourish; it will have many Martyrs." Another time, being at Matins in the choir, there were represented and set before me six or seven, I think they must have been of this same Order, with swords in their hands. I think it is given to be understood by this that they are to defend the Faith; because another time, being in prayer, my spirit was rapt, and I seemed to be in a great field, where many were fighting, and these of this Order fought with great fervour. They had beautiful and very glowing faces, and threw many to the ground vanquished, others they killed: this seemed to me a battle against the heretics. This glorious Saint I have seen several times, and he has told me some things, and thanked me for the prayer I make for his Order, and promised to commend me to the Lord. I do not indicate the Orders; if the Lord is pleased that it be known, He will declare them, so that others may not be aggrieved.] Or in Latin: When I was pouring forth my prayers before the Ven. Sacrament of the Altar, a certain Saint, whose Order had somewhat declined, appeared to me, holding in his hands a great book; which he, opening it, ordered me to read some words written in it in large and very legible letters: and they were these: "In future times this Order will flourish, and will have many Martyrs." On another day, while I was in choir at the time of Matins, there appeared to me, standing before me, six or seven (for so many they seemed to me to be) men of the same Order, carrying swords before them in their hands; by which sign I think it is designated that they will defend the Faith: for when at another time I was intent on prayer, rapt in spirit I thought myself placed in a certain vast field, in which I saw many contending and fighting with one another; and those who were of this Order of which I speak fought with great effort and fervour: their faces shone wonderfully and as it were burned with flames; some they threw to the ground, others they slew: and this conflict seemed to me to be waged against the heretics. This glorious Saint I have beheld several times further; who declared certain hidden things to me, and thanks for that which for
his Order I pour forth in prayer he rendered, at the same time promising that he would commend me to the Lord. Further, I do not name this Order (if the Lord wills it to become known, He Himself will indicate it), lest I offend the other Orders.
[1639] which Yepes applies to the Reformed Carmel, Ribera to the Order of Preachers. These prophecies are applied in different ways. Yepes (book III, chap. XVII) claims them for the Reformed Carmel, in the following words: The Lord showed Teresa not only what that plant would become in the time of her life, but also the increase which it would take after her death, and the great fruit which it would produce in the Church in future times (and this was what the holy Mother so greatly desired, and was her chief end and aim in the erection of monasteries), as she herself relates in her Life, chap. XL (here you have nums. 9 and 10, as above). The holy Mother kept silent the name of her Order for certain just reasons: I indeed know that she speaks here of the new Reform founded by her; and some companions of the holy Mother who are still alive know this too. Further, according to the pace at which that Order advances, great fruit and profit in the Church can certainly be hoped for. Eleven years afterwards the holy Mother died, and beheld the Religious Order which she had founded heaped up in both sexes in perfection and in number. But Ribera (book IV, chap. III) claims those prophecies for the Order of St. Dominic, in this way: She foresaw also many things, and those signal, that were to befall the families of religious. For while she was persisting in prayer not far from the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, there appeared to her a certain one of the Saints of the Dominican family, carrying in his hand a huge book; which he, opening it, urged her to read certain large and easily legible letters written in it. And the writing was of this kind: "In future times this Order will flourish, and will have many Martyrs." She also saw six or seven monks of the same Institute brandishing swords in their hands: by which sign she learned that they would defend the Faith. When again she was engaged in prayer, her mind rapt into ecstasy, she beheld a vast field, and in it very many contending, and men of the same Order rushing upon the enemy with a certain singular ardour of mind. The faces of each of these were comely and inflamed: and strenuous with the hand they struck very many of the enemy to the ground; others too they cut down. And she understood that this conflict was being waged against the heretics. From this passage of Ribera it is deduced that those prophecies pertain to the Order of Preachers; for it is established from Teresa's words that in those revelations there is question of the Order to which the Saint who had appeared belonged.
[1640] In the collision, then, of two writers, each of whom was not only contemporary, It is examined which of the two prevails here: but also familiar with the Saint, nay her confessor, and whose sincerity cannot be called into doubt, there is one way of tracking down the truth, namely by considering which of the two could more easily have been carried away by prejudice: whether Yepes, to stand for the Carmelites; or Ribera, for the Dominicans. For since they contradict each other, one of the two must err, the other speak the truth: for no one hitherto has suspected that both erred. Before all things, therefore, it must be diligently inquired whose authority prevails here; and since the hinge of the whole argument depends much on their testimony, I shall leave for a little while in the middle the subsidiary arguments for this or that opinion. It will be evident, moreover, from what is to be said, that Yepes could easily have been imbued with an erroneous opinion in favour of Carmel, but on the contrary that Ribera could with difficulty have invented that the Dominican Order is in question in those prophecies. In the first place it is certain that the Saint did not wish to divulge this secret in the book of her Life, lest other Orders, as she says, should be offended. Yet it is also certain that she revealed this to someone (unless each biographer rashly dared to divine the matter which he affirms), either to one or to several of the directors of her soul, to whom she disclosed everything, whether to Báñez or to anyone else: which manner of acting is plainly conformable to the known confidence of the holy Mother towards her confessors, as it is also conformable to her prudence that she did not wish to commit to paper a matter of such moment, which she could foresee would fly through the hands of many readers.
[1641] and the handle for error which Yepes had having been pointed out, Then it is very likely, since the Saint had finished the book of her Life, in which those prophecies are contained, about the year 1564, that many, and before others her daughters, out of the familiarity with which they dealt with their excellent Mother, and out of the faith which they gave to her vaticinations, asked her several times during the space of eighteen years by which she survived, what that happy Order was which was to perform such illustrious deeds for the Church of Christ. Indeed it is not at all foreign to the truth that they pressed her in inquiring with a curiosity womanly indeed, but just in this case, proposing now one Order, now another, in order to fish out the truth, and that Teresa, who was resolved not to disclose her secret indiscriminately, answered their questions vaguely, so as neither affirming anything nor denying anything. For she was not of so dull a nose as not to notice that her secret would slip from her if she answered those who inquired wrongly that they had not touched the point with a needle, but kept silent when they conjectured rightly. Nor could she depart from this law of prudence whenever she was asked whether it was her own Order that was in question in those prophecies. What if perhaps, out of her zeal and caressing affability, to encourage her offspring, she added (as she could add without falsehood or mental restriction) that that Order would fight in the last times in the spirit or under the banner of Elijah, who was reputed the Founder and Patriarch of Carmel? Therefore, given the love of self and of one's own things innate in man, and his proneness to believe whatever smiles on or favours him, Teresa, exhorting her own to the zeal of Elijah and to perseverance in good, or even keeping silent at a question put to her, could have seemed to affirm that Carmel was in question there: which rumour could have grown strong especially after her death, when everyone could interpret her sayings at will, nor was she herself present to temper that false interpretation. Who then would deny that in this or a similar way such a prejudice could have arisen with no trouble and without any falsehood, and could little by little have so spread and taken root that in the twenty-fourth year after Teresa's death, in which Yepes was writing, it flourished fully in the Order of Carmel, and was propagated not only by mouth but also by pen and brush? So that this could have been the cause for Yepes why he expressly attributed those three prophecies to Carmel. But no occasion of erring of this kind is discovered to have existed for Ribera. Indeed it is not easily grasped how without probable cause he could have devised the Dominican Order, to present it without right with so great a vaticination. I pass over his simple manner of speaking, by which he indicates that he is narrating a certain thing and one which seemed beyond all controversy. Moreover Ribera uses almost the same words as Teresa, except that he says nothing of the decline of the Order of which Teresa speaks, and that Ribera says that that Saint was of the Dominican Order. But it is not difficult to conjecture why Ribera does not mention the decline of the Order: for, out of the moderation which he had, since by saying that the one who had appeared was a Dominican he had already indicated which Order was in question, he therefore kept silent that it had declined. For, as I have just noted, it is established from St. Teresa's sayings that those vaticinations pertain to the Order to which the Saint who had appeared belonged: so that, according to Ribera, those prophecies pertain to the Dominican family, which the Saint says had somewhat declined.
[1642] it is shown that Ribera had no such handle. Credence will hardly be denied to Ribera, if it is considered that he is such and so great a writer as we depicted him at the beginning of this Commentary, and if it is attended to that he establishes this in a work at the beginning of which he professes that he will be most truthful and most diligent, even in the least things, and which he affirmed under the sacrament of an oath contains nothing but what is most true. Moreover who would easily believe that this man, in a matter truly very momentous, where, if he deceives, he despoils Carmel of the glory resulting from the great vaticinations of St. Teresa, and presents an undeserving Order, the Dominican; who would believe, I say, that Ribera asserted this lightly, without having first spent diligent labour in investigating the truth, or that he had any doubt when he simply affirmed that the one who had appeared to St. Teresa was a Dominican? Or what could have moved him to that injustice? Was it the love with which he followed St. Teresa and her Reformed Order? Was it the benefits which he acknowledged he had received from heaven through her, and which had induced him, in the midst of serious occupations and in old age, to celebrate the virtues and glory of his illustrious benefactress? So great, therefore, seems the authority of that writer here that no one can oppose him, when he asserts the matter resolutely and on oath, unless he brings reasons to oppose that are beyond all exception. Yet Fr. Frederick, who holds the opinion of Yepes, so little attempts to refute Ribera that he does not even make mention of his words.
[1643] Arguments for Carmel are presented; It will be to the point here to cite the passage of Fr. Frederick where the arguments massed together against Ribera's opinion are presented. That prophetic vision, he says (book IV, chap. V), if attention is paid to the words: "The Order which was somewhat declined," and to the constant tradition which has remained among our people, regards the Carmelite family; and that unnamed Saint who appeared many times to our holy Mother was the celebrated Wonder-worker of Sicily, St. Albert, to whom she was most devoted. This is proved from old paintings, in which the Saint is represented with the emblems of Carmel and with a book in which he points out to Teresa these words: "In future times this Religious Order will flourish, and there will be many Martyrs from it," or others no less clear. The testimony of a writer contemporary with the holy Mother, such as Yepes was, cannot but be of great weight. He then, after he has alleged in chapter XVII of book III the said words of the Saint (namely those three revelations), adds: "The Mother keeps silent for certain just reasons the name of her Religious Order; but I know that she speaks there of the reformed Order which she had founded: which some of her companions still surviving today know thoroughly to be true." In the archive of our province of Vienna there is kept a testimony which the most upright man Fr. John Louis of the Assumption left on the faith of an oath: in it he asserts that he heard from the mouth of the virgin and servant of God Anne of St. Bartholomew, whose confessor he was at Antwerp, that the holy Mother, whose faithful companion she was, had disclosed to her in confidence that the vision related in chapter XL of her Life must be understood of the Religious Order of Carmel. Moreover the thanksgiving which the Saint made to Teresa for the prayers poured out by her for his Order confirms this very thing; for it cannot be denied that surely no Order was so commended to God by Teresa as her own
Order, because it was consonant with reason that she should love that one above all others for whose restoration to its original splendour of religious perfection she had laboured so greatly.
[1644] and they are answered. Let us weigh these reasons of Fr. Frederick one by one in order, omitting the fourth, drawn from the testimony of Yepes, which I have just examined. The first is certainly very weak, since it does not militate for the Order of Carmel alone, but for every other which about the middle of the sixteenth century was or had been somewhat declined: algo caida somewhat fallen, as the Saint says. And it is very well known that there were then several such: nor will the Dominican Fathers take it ill that this slight mark be branded on their predecessors, so that they may be able to claim for their successors the vaticinations of St. Teresa, as illustrious as any could be. As regards the second, third and fifth reason, far be it from me to call into doubt what Yepes and others affirm, namely that in their time that tradition already existed. But it has been shown what its beginning and foundation seem to have been. And if painters are said to have assented to such a tradition, they add slight weight to it; since they, no otherwise than poets, claim for themselves the power of daring anything, and therefore not rarely give occasion for a false tradition to arise. Further, as regards the testimony of Fr. John Louis, supported by the testimony of the Ven. Anne of St. Bartholomew, this objection has already been satisfied, so far, namely, as can be done for the degree of probability; for even the offspring of St. Teresa could have not been free from prejudice in the way which I have described. Finally, as to Fr. Frederick's sixth reason, I note that there is no strength in that argument: for the Saint does not say that those revelations pertain to the Religious Order for which she prayed more, but for which she prayed. And there is no doubt that St. Teresa, so mindful of benefits, prayed for the Dominican Religious Order, which had been of so great help to her both for the cultivation of her soul and for promoting the Reform. Therefore, all these things considered, Ribera, who says (in the preface) that he composed her Life in the fifth year after Teresa's death, must here be preferred to Yepes, who wrote in the year 1606, or the nineteenth after Ribera's writing.
[1645] New arguments for the Dominicans: This dispute, then, as regards the testimony of Ribera and Yepes, having been discussed, I have something else to add to confirm the opinion which I have embraced, an argument not slight, as it seems to me. Namely, the Saint, if her own Order had been in question, would have had greater reason for bringing forth its name than if another's had been treated: for those prophecies would have been a great solace to her offspring and a strong incentive in the service of God and to running the way of perfection. Moreover, if the Saint had disclosed to Anne of St. Bartholomew or to another of her nuns that those prophecies regarded her reformed Order, it seems scarcely possible, since so many gave testimony in the cause of canonization, that no mention of this interpretation, under the heading of prophecy, should exist in the Acts. Finally from those very Acts it is known that the Saint foreknew that the two orders of SS. Dominic and Ignatius, bound by the greatest bond of charity in the last times of the Church, would fight against Antichrist. Why then would the Order of Carmel not have been joined here with these two, if it had been known that the prophecies written by Teresa in chapter XL regarded it?
[1646] [to which is added a decisive argument from the manuscript Acts of the canonization;] This prophecy of the battle against Antichrist, from the sworn testimony of Fr. Bartolomé Sánchez, thirty-seventh witness in the remissorial process of Salamanca, is inserted in the manuscript Summary transmitted to us from Rome and formerly used in the process of canonization of St. Teresa: which Summary, already alleged by me several times here and there, comprises fifty pages in folio, and has these words written on its cover: To the Rev. Father Lord Dean. Of Spain, or of the Order of the Discalced of B. Mary of Mount Carmel. Of the canonization of Bl. Teresa. Of Fact and of Law. — In the Rota … 15th of June 1615. That it is established that Bl. Teresa had the gift of prophecy and the grace of discernment of spirits. But while I attentively inspect this authentic document, I notice that the following things which are found there concerning the Illustrious Diego Yepes, as a witness, are especially to be noted: After he had given his deposition, he now said anew that likewise the said Lord Bishop had caused to be brought into the light a book on the life, virtues and miracles of the said Venerable Virgin Teresa of Jesus, which he caused to be printed in the city of Zaragoza at the press of Angelo Tabano, and dedicated it to our Most Holy Lord Pope Paul V in the year 1606; which he also showed us: and, as is established from the said book, he said and declared in it very fully and at length all that the said Lord Bishop knows and understood and came to his knowledge concerning the life, virtues and miracles of the said Virgin Teresa of Jesus, and that all the things which are contained in his said book are true, and he knows them and affirms them as such, and affirms anew under the said oath. After which (as I also noted at num. 502) there is transcribed chapter XVII of book III of the Life of St. Teresa: On the most sublime gift of prophecy with which the holy Mother was enlightened, entire and at length, as it exists in the printed work of Yepes; except that in the middle of the chapter (after the narration of the revelation which the Saint had had in the year 1571, about her seeing the progress of her Order) these phrases are joined in one connection and tenor: So that Teresa might receive fuller consolation, the Lord showed her not only the success of the Religious Order, which she should behold while living, but the increase which would come after her death. Eleven years having passed, the holy Mother died, and beheld the Religious Order which she had founded heaped up in both sexes in perfection and in number. From which it is evident that almost half a page is not found in the manuscript Summary which is found in the printed book of Yepes, namely whatever is had in the printed work about the prophecies related by the Saint at nums. 9 and 10 of chapter XL of her Life: and so in fact Yepes's phrases cohere better, since he says that the Saint died in the eleventh year after the revelation narrated by him; which is to be referred to the revelation of the year 1571, not to that of chapter XL of the Life, which the Saint had described long before the year 1571. And it is openly said in the manuscript that Yepes testified these things after his book was printed in the year 1606; and Nicolás Antonio affirms in the new Bibliotheca Hispana that he died in the year 1613, at the age of 83. Which I note here for this reason, lest anyone should believe that Yepes himself inserted that addition about the prophecies into the other edition of his book, which was made at Lisbon in the year 1616. I regret that neither of these editions of Yepes is at my hand, especially the first. For I greatly desire to know whether in this edition there are lacking, no otherwise than in the alleged Summary, those some twenty lines, or all those words which adjudge this prophecy of St. Teresa of which we are treating to the Carmelite Order and take it from the Dominican. For if these words were not found in the first edition of Yepes, as I suspect on account of the manuscript, which lacks them (while professing myself by no means certain), no slight strength would accrue to my opinion, and indeed, in my judgment, so much that an opinion which before was very likely would by the accession of this new argument become most certain. For who could explain how those words grew into the later editions of Yepes?
[1647] so that the objection from the sermon of Yepes can be neglected. Nor do I think it worth while to point out the many things which could be censured at the end of Yepes's sermon at the end of book III; where these things are found, at least according to the editions which are with me: The holy Mother saw, as she herself narrates (chap. XL of her Life), an excellent vision in which many religious presented themselves to her eyes, clothed in white garments, holding swords in their hands, in the manner of soldiers; and it was signified to her that that religious Order would defend the Catholic Faith against its enemies. Although she did not declare what that Religious Order was, I know that it was her own. I would say that white garments are put here for white banners, and chapter XL for chapter XXXVIII, were it not established that the autograph writings of the Saint attribute that vision to the Society of Jesus. But it wearies me to discuss these brans longer. With a more willing mind, in some confirmation of what has been said, I record the decrees of the Sacred Congregation of Rites issued on the 19th of June 1840 and the 9th of July 1843, from which it is established that our Most Holy Lord Gregory XVI signed with his own hand a double commission on the introduction of the cause of beatification and canonization of seventy Venerable Servants of God, who in our times in the empire of China and the kingdoms of Tonkin and Cochinchina shed their blood for the Catholic Faith; among whom are numbered from the Order of Preachers two bishops and several priests. Meanwhile, being about to put an end to this disputation, which I could not well avoid in accordance with my duty, I declare that in a doubtful matter I have preferred that opinion which, the plausible arguments on both sides having been weighed, seems to me the more plausible; without, however, wishing or daring either to take away all probability from the contrary opinion or to forbid others the liberty of thinking otherwise. For I am not led by partisan zeal; but I intend nothing else than that the truth should have its place. For the rest, in many places of this Commentary I have abundantly made clear with how great and how sincere esteem I am borne towards the Carmelite, no less than towards the Dominican, Order; both of which have deserved most well of the Church of God and do so today, and, even setting aside all prophecy, give sure hope that they will not fail in the age to come.
§ LXXXIV. In the fiftieth letter of the fourth volume the Saint does not inveigh against the Society of Jesus.
This letter, badly interpreted, is spread on every side: I have already enumerated summarily before the perfidious arts by which the writings and name of St. Teresa were used to overthrow, first in Spain and then through the whole world, the Religious Order of the Society of Jesus; and I have demonstrated in detail that the prophecy about the destruction of that Order which was attributed to the holy Mother is spurious. Now I hasten to crush the remaining falsehoods, being about to use chiefly the dissertations of Montoya, yet with a selection of the arguments, and contracting their prolixity, lest I be longer than the plan of our work permits. Nevertheless I shall spend a serious and not so brief inquiry on investigating the genuine sense of the fiftieth letter of the fourth volume: for on the one hand it is established that it was written by St. Teresa, inasmuch as its autograph copy is kept in the cathedral church of Palencia and honoured with the cult due to sacred Relics; and on the other hand it cannot be denied that at first sight the Saint seems there to put forth bitter complaints, if not of the whole Society of Jesus, as many would have it, at least of some of its men, as Fr. Frederick formerly judged in interpreting that letter, who, deceived by the corrupt Italian
translation, did not attain to the understanding of that letter. Moreover, those who after the publication of Fr. Frederick's book were meditating and contriving the ruin of the Ignatian family published this letter separately in the year 1759, and indeed with several words in it changed to excite hatred against the Society: and so they scattered innumerable copies of it, corrupted, even outside Spain. They intended, namely, to persuade the people that St. Teresa had at one time execrated the Jesuits, and that these were therefore worthy to be execrated by all Catholics, following the judgment of the most honoured and most perspicacious St. Teresa.
[1649] it was inserted also into the Burgos encyclicals and into the cause of Palafox: Then the archbishop of Burgos, in the year 1769, in public encyclical letters to his diocesans, made strong use of the argument of this letter to impose the same thing on the people, namely that St. Teresa at the end of her life turned away from the Jesuits: which Fr. Anthony of St. Joseph also tried to assert, sprinkling his annotations to that letter with certain sharp gibes, though moderate in appearance, against the men of the Society, as appears from the index of the fourth volume, where, at the word Jesuits, he presents the summary of his annotations thus: They wage true enmity against the holy Mother. They stir up many false testimonies against her. The Saint says without circumlocution that they lie. They try to prevent benefactors from meeting Teresa, lest she should win their hearts to herself by her own and her daughters' prayer. The Saint desires that the disagreements be amicably settled and that those Fathers have regard for truth and equity. The Saint grieves that grave men of that kind cling to trifles. Moreover, in the cause of beatification of Juan Palafox this letter also was brought forward together with the prophecy refuted by me in the preceding paragraph, and with other letters falsely ascribed to St. Charles Borromeo and St. John of the Cross, or at least badly understood (on which see Montoya, Appendix to diss. 1). Signor Camillo Blasi, a Roman advocate, in the book entitled: In the Sacred Congregation of Rites before our Most Holy Lord Pope Clement XIV. Of Osma. Of the Beatification and Canonization of the Ven. Servant of God Juan de Palafox y Mendoza… Restrictus of the Response to the Animadversions of the Rev. Father Lord Promoter of the Holy Faith, together with an additional Summary on the doubt: Whether it is established concerning the virtues, etc. 1771, inserted all the aforesaid letters, prefixing this title to number 15 of the Summary: St. Charles Borromeo, St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross in their letters exaggerate the abuses of the Jesuits. The reason for inserting such letters into this Summary seems to have been to prove that what Palafox had at one time written against the Society ought not to be an impediment to his beatification; since similar things written against the Society had not impeded the canonization of those three Saints.
[1650] which it is therefore necessary to weigh. From these things, then, it is evident that this short letter, but one which the enemies of the Society vehemently abused, is most worthy to have its sense accurately investigated, and what the true sense is splendidly demonstrated. Nor yet shall I waste time in refuting a certain forger who, publishing this letter in the year 1759, did not fear to change its words and adulterate its sense (although in the heading of the little page he boasted that he had faithfully transcribed it), and to make more conspicuous in italic type, as it is called, those passages which he foresaw could most harm the Society of Jesus, so afflicted and ruined at that time. These things, I repeat, I shall not touch, because vile leaves of this kind the wind carries off and time blots out. But I shall seriously discuss the interpretation of Fr. Frederick, and still much more that of Fr. Anthony, who published the later volumes of the Letters and enriched them with notes, and of Fr. Valerio of St. Lawrence, who translated the same letter into Italian. So that the reader may the better discern whether the reasoning which I shall use is just, I set beneath his eyes the letter which I am about to discuss, in Latin and in Spanish together. I have taken it from the fourth volume of the Letters, where it is said to be conformable to the Palencia autograph: and in fact I find that it agrees with its Italian translation which is in Montoya (diss. 1, chap. 1, §1), and which he himself had made from a copy which he had procured from Palencia under the faith of a public notary; excepting, however, the word dice for dicen.
[1651] Its text is presented in Spanish Jesus. La gracia del Espiritu Santo sea con Vmd. Siempre que veo carta suya, me consuela, y da pena no poder descansar muchas veces con hacer esto. Ya se que Vmd. lo tiene entendido, y con todo me pesa de no poder mas. Por esa carta que ahi va, que amosara (read mostrara) a Vm. la Madre Priora, que escribo al Padre Retor Juan del Aguila, vera Vm. algo de lo que passa de la Compañia, que verdaderamente parece comienzan enemistad formada; y fundala el demonio con echarme culpas por lo que me habian de agradecer, con testimonios bien grandes, que de ellos mesmos podrian dar testigos en algunos (todo va a parar en estos negros intereses) que dice (or dicen) que quise y que procure; y harto es no decir que pense: y como yo creo que ellos diran mentira, veo claro que el demonio debe andar en este enriedo (i.e. enredo). Ahora dixeron a Cathalina de Tolosa, que porque no se les pegasse nuestra oracion, no querian tratassen con las Descalzas. Mucho le debe ir a el demonio en desavenirnos, pues tanta priessa se da. Tambien la dixeron que venia aca su General, que era desembarcado. Heme acordado que es amigo del señor Don Francisco: si por aqui se pudiese deshacer esta trama, y poner silencio con enterarse en la verdad, seria gran servicio de Dios; porque para gente tan grave tratar de niñerias de tal suerte, es lastima. Vmd. lo vera, y conforme a lo que le pareciere, porna remedio. Ya ternan a Vmd. bien cansado essos papeles: suplico a Vm. me los embie, en hallando cosa muy segura en todo caso, y me encomiende a nuestro Señor. Su Magestad guarde a Vmd. como yo le suplico, amen. Son hoy XX de Mayo. Al señor Don Francisco y a essas señoras tias de Vm. beso las manos de sus mrds: Indigna sierva de Vmd. Teresa de Jesus. [Jesus. The grace of the Holy Spirit be with Your Honour. Whenever I see a letter of yours it consoles me, and it grieves me not to be able to take my ease often by doing this. I know that Your Honour understands it, and nevertheless I am sorry not to be able to do more. By that letter which goes there, which the Mother Prioress will show Your Honour, which I write to Father Rector Juan del Águila, Your Honour will see something of what is happening from the Society, for truly it seems they are beginning a formed enmity; and the devil founds it by casting blame on me for what they ought to have thanked me for, with very great testimonies, so that of some of them they themselves could give witness (it all comes down to these black interests), saying that I wished and that I procured; and it is much that they do not say that I thought: and as I believe that they will be saying what is untrue, I see clearly that the devil must be going about in this tangle. Now they told Catalina de Tolosa that, so that our prayer should not cling to them, they did not want them to deal with the Discalced nuns. It must matter much to the devil to set us at variance, since he makes such haste. They also told her that their General was coming here, that he had disembarked. I have remembered that he is a friend of Señor Don Francisco: if by this means this plot could be undone, and silence imposed by his learning the truth, it would be a great service of God; for it is a pity for such grave people to deal in childishness of such a sort. Your Honour will see to it, and according to what seems best to you, will put a remedy. Those papers will by now have Your Honour well tired: I beg Your Honour to send them to me, on finding a very safe means in any case, and to commend me to our Lord. May His Majesty keep Your Honour as I beg Him, amen. Today is the 20th of May. To Señor Don Francisco and to those ladies, your aunts, I kiss their hands: Unworthy servant of Your Honour, Teresa of Jesus.]
[1652] and in Latin: Jesus. The grace of the Holy Spirit be with you. As often as I receive your letters I feel solace, and it is grievous to me that I cannot often relieve myself with them. I know already that you understand this, and yet it grieves me that it happens so rarely. From this letter of mine which the Mother Prioress will show you, and which is destined for Father Rector Juan del Águila, you will understand something of what is being done about the Society: for in truth it appears that they are beginning a serious enmity; and the devil founds it by casting blame on me for things for which they ought to gratify me highly and openly, inasmuch as there are among them some of which they themselves could be witnesses (everything comes back to that black love of private advantage); for they say what I intended, what I procured, and it is much that it is not said what I thought: and since I believe that they will be lying, I see plainly that the devil must be mixing himself into those intrigues. They have just said to Catalina de Tolosa that, lest they be well disposed on account of our manner of praying, they do not wish them to deal with the Discalced nuns. It must matter much to the devil to separate us, since he urges it so greatly. They also told her that their General was coming here and had already disembarked from the ship. I remember that he is a friend of Lord Francisco: if by that means that trick could be dissolved, and silence imposed by instructing him in the truth, it would be greatly to the divine service. For it is to be regretted that such grave men are occupied with trifles of this kind. You will look into it, and will bring what remedy shall seem good. These little papers certainly have you tired already. I ask you to dispatch them by a sure way, and to commend me to God. God keep you: which I pray of Him. Amen. It is the 20th day of May. I greet Lord Francisco and the Ladies your aunts. Your unworthy handmaid, Teresa of Jesus.
[1653] and the little word is indicated which the enemies of the Society abuse; The chief hinge of the matter for the right understanding of this letter turns on interpreting well the ambiguous word de, which is found in this phrase: Vera Vm. algo de lo que passa de la Compañia Your Honour will see something of what is happening "de" the Society; and this little word was the seed of so many disputes and the occasion of the greatest injuries against the Society of Jesus. For the detractors of this religious Order will have it that those words denote the Society as acting, not as suffering; as stirring up troubles for another, not as bearing those stirred up for it by another: and so they translate those words: You will understand something of what is being done by the Society; so that all the complaints which Teresa gathers in the course of the letter fall upon the Society. And upon these words thus translated and understood they build many and great calumnies against the Society, of avarice, duplicity, extortion, etc.: and what is worse, they put these accusations in the mouth of St. Teresa, as may be seen in the encyclicals of the archbishop of Burgos, in the Spanish notes of Fr. Anthony of St. Joseph, and especially in the Italian notes of Fr. Valerio of St. Lawrence. For all these on this occasion spread the sails of their discourse, and inveigh against the family of St. Ignatius. Among other things they accuse it of the following outrage. The Jesuits, say these interpreters of the letters, were vexing Catalina de Tolosa, because she was about to give to the house of the Carmelite nuns of Burgos part of her fortune, which she had previously applied by testament to their college; and her confessors, who were from this college, were tormenting the conscience of the pious woman, saying that that later donation made to Carmel was invalid, while Teresa, who was stronger in theology than they, was refuting in Catalina's mind the fiction of the opinion with which the Jesuits, moved by unseemly cupidity, were trying to imbue her in the tribunal of the Sacrament of Penance. Catalina wished, says the archbishop of Burgos (number 522 of his encyclical letters), to bestow her goods on the poor house of the Carmelite nuns of Burgos. But the Jesuits, thinking that, because Catalina was their penitent, her goods also ought to be theirs, stained St. Teresa with so many calumnies before that matron, both concerning her doctrine and concerning her manner of praying and concerning her manner of living, that nothing worse could be uttered of a deluded and most infamous woman. Were the Society not to be cleared, one would be ashamed to set down sarcasms of this kind with which they gratuitously attacked a religious Order, relying wrongly on one clause of a letter of Teresa, which they interpreted perversely, as will become plain when I shall have demonstrated that St. Teresa, especially at the time when she wrote this letter, of the Society of Jesus neither
complained nor had any reason for complaining, but on the contrary, according to her excellent disposition, showed herself most grateful to the Society of Jesus for the services rendered her in the foundation of Burgos.
[1654] and its sense is shown from an example. But before I demonstrate that the Saint was then, as always, on good terms with the Society, and that therefore her complaints there are not concerned with the Society, but that by that letter the holy Mother signifies that the Society of Jesus, which so greatly favoured the Reform, was being attacked at Burgos together with her and on her account by the adversaries of the Reformed Carmel (for what is more usual than that the adversaries of someone should vomit forth their anger on his supporters too?), before, I say, I demonstrate this, I shall prove, from one example of like construction, the first that comes to hand, in which the particle de must be taken in the same sense, leaving many other similar examples aside, that the interpretation which I defend is genuine and does not depart from Teresa's usual manner and way of speaking. Here is the example. Ángel de Salazar, a Calced Carmelite, but vicar of the Discalced of both sexes, had in the year 1579 commanded Teresa to go from Ávila to Malagón, to take up the government of the Discalced virgins there, not so much because the need of the monastery required it as for the sake of sending Teresa farther away from himself: Teresa, already failing with old age, begged off that charge by letters written to the vicar; and she sent his mandate enclosed in a letter which she wrote to Jerome Gracián. This is letter 25 of volume I, where she speaks of her being sent off to Malagón in these words: Por essa carta vera V.P. lo que se ordena de la pobre vejezuela [By that letter Your Paternity will see what is ordered "de" the poor little old woman]: By the enclosed letter you will learn what is determined about the poor little old woman. Who would be so unskilled as to translate those words thus: What is determined by the poor little old woman? Then I would wish anyone to be asked whether Teresa would not have said just as much if, omitting the word ordena, she had used this phrase: Por essa carta vera V. P. lo que se passa de la probre vejezuela [By that letter Your Paternity will see what is happening "de" the poor little old woman]. Now these words must without doubt be translated thus: By the enclosed letter you will learn what is being done about the poor little old woman. Why then not these also: Vera Vm. algo de lo que passa de la Compañia, in this manner: You will understand something of what is being done about the Society?
[1655] [It is proved that Teresa does not complain of the Society, from the circumstances of place and time,] I shall now prove that those complaints by no means regard or could regard the Society of Jesus: first, from the circumstances of time and place in which that letter was written, second, from several of its clauses, third, from the disposition of the man to whom it was destined. As to the first, Montoya solidly demonstrates (diss. 1, chap. 1, § III) that that letter was written in the year 1582 from the city of Burgos. But I have no need to unfold his reasoning here, since Fr. Anthony of St. Joseph and the others admit both these things, namely the time and the place. Now it is established that the Saint did not then complain of the men of the Society: for shortly before, that is six weeks before that letter was written, on the 9th of April, the foundation of Burgos had been completed, for both preparing and completing which the Society had so strongly helped St. Teresa. Not only does Yepes affirm this (book II, chap. XXXIII), saying that the men of the Society had for a whole six years urged Teresa to found a house at Burgos, and Fr. Frederick, who (book II, chap. XLII) confesses that the Fathers of the Society, who had always deserved well of St. Teresa, together with the pious matron Catalina de Tolosa, did not cease to urge on her the negotiation of the Burgos foundation; but the holy Mother herself, in chap. XXIX of her Foundations, where she treats of that of Palencia, testifies in express words that she was induced by Fr. Ripalda of the Society of Jesus (whose counsel she says she held as divine) and by Fr. Baltasar Álvarez of the same Society to promote both foundations, both that of Palencia and that of Burgos; although (which deserves to be noted) Gracián disapproved of both. And still more expressly she declares her agreement at that time with the Society of Jesus in chap. XXXI, where she speaks thus of the Burgos foundation: Six years and more had already passed since certain men of the Society of Jesus, especially religious, commendable for age, learning and spirit, told me that it would be no small thing for the glory and service of the Lord if a convent of this Sacred Order were erected in the city of Burgos. They brought forward also some reasons for this, which impelled me not a little to desire this very thing. But because both the Order itself was variously harassed and I was distracted by other foundations, I had not had a convenient occasion for accomplishing this matter. It must be observed, moreover, that this relation of the Burgos foundation was written after the 9th of April 1582, since it was completed only on this day, and therefore that it was written at almost the time when the letter to Reinoso was sent. Who, then, would believe that so sharp an invective was made by the Saint against the Society at almost the very time when she was speaking of it with praise? Nor does any reason occur for suspecting that the Saint's mind was so suddenly changed.
[1656] the authority of the Chronicle being invoked, Hear finally Fr. Francis of St. Mary, who in the Chronicle (book V, chap. XXV, nums. 1 and 2) has this: A certain Father of the Society of Jesus at Burgos prepared the way for that foundation. He knew a certain chief and very wealthy matron, Catalina de Tolosa, who was a widow with five daughters and two sons, thinking of the religious life; and he persuaded her to apply five thousand gold pieces of her own to providing a convent for Carmel, where God might be served in spirit and truth. The proposal pleased her, and Catalina asked that the Father should write to St. Teresa: which he did in the year 1577. And when the Saint did not answer quickly enough, the same Fr. Ripalda again, using the pen of Mother Mary Baptist, prioress of Valladolid, pressed the Saint, who answered that the matter should be put off till spring, which she hoped would succeed well if delays were drawn out in this disturbed state of affairs… But when God had given both peace to the Order and full liberty of founding to the holy Mother, she was detained at Valladolid by infirm health and other impediments. Meanwhile, however, she was being asked again and again by Don Álvaro de Mendoza for the Palencia foundation, and by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus for that of Burgos. Both of which the holy Mother at length actually accepted, at the order of God who appeared to her. It is therefore a singular and not slight endeavour of the rivals of the Society, who wish to persuade the world that St. Teresa attacks the Society with those bitter complaints with which the letter to Reinoso teems, while the Saint herself, her illustrious biographers and the most esteemed historiographer of the Order with unanimous consent heap praises on the Society as strenuous promoters of the foundation to be made at Burgos.
[1657] and from the quality of the man to whom she was writing, Nor do the circumstances of time and place alone prevent the Saint from complaining of the Society in that letter, but also those of the man to whom she was writing. For Reinoso was most loving of the Society, as Fr. Luis de la Puente testifies in the Life of Fr. Baltasar Álvarez (chap. XXXVII); and he is said to have long and often succoured the college of the S. J. at Palencia by his liberality and munificence. Teresa, so celebrated for the praise of prudence, would therefore have been grossly imprudent if she had given to Reinoso, a most obliging and most beneficent friend of the Society, so sharp a letter against that Order; and she would have been the more grossly imprudent in that Teresa herself was bound to Reinoso for many services rendered her by him in the Palencia foundation, as she testifies in vol. II, letter 45, num. 6, and Foundations chap. XXIX, nums. 4 and 5, where she calls him a servant of God and a holy man. Certainly it did not escape the shrewd and cautious Teresa that Reinoso would easily have vindicated his beloved Jesuits from her accusations, by withdrawing his favour from her and her Institute. Therefore from this too it is concluded that the Saint is there inveighing against others than the Society.
[1658] and from several clauses of the letter. But this will be established still more certainly for one who weighs several clauses of that letter, of which it will suffice to have touched a few. I shall pass over the injurious interpretation of the said letter, by which many traduce the men of the Society with harsh and insulting words as having hunted after Catalina's fat inheritance, while the Institute of St. Ignatius severely forbids its sons not only to admit fiduciary legacies or to take upon themselves the execution of a testament (Constitutions of the S. J., part VI, chap. III, § VII, and Congregation XII, decree XXXVIII), but even to persuade any outsider to give alms to the Society rather than to other poor (Congregation II, decree LVI); these things, I say, I shall pass over, although certainly a crime which the holy Father Ignatius had so severely forbidden ought not, by the laws of charity and justice, to be asserted as committed by his sons, so long as a kind interpretation can excuse them. But, I ask, on what ground would Teresa have said that those very Jesuits were moved by the accursed hunger for gold who had persuaded Catalina to take care, by contributing five thousand gold pieces, that a Carmelite house should be erected at Burgos? Which the Chronicle, in the place cited, affirms thus: Un Padre de la Compania, morador de Burgos, le persuadio que segregando de su hacienda cinco mil ducados, hiciesse un convento de la nueva Reforma. [A Father of the Society, dwelling at Burgos, persuaded her that, setting aside five thousand ducats from her estate, she should make a convent of the new Reform.] Besides this, the Saint had experienced the Society thus obliging to her more than once. The Saint makes mention of a fact of this kind in vol. II, letter 22, num. 5. Then it is no more likely that the Virgin, mindful of a benefit, hurled against the Society these words: I believe that they will be telling a lie (Yo creo que ellos diran mentira I believe that they will be saying what is untrue), and the other harsh words which that letter contains. For in the book of the Foundations, chap. XXXI, num. 25 (which chapter, as I have said, was written at almost the same time as the letter to Reinoso), the Saint speaks of the Society altogether otherwise, saying that her Order had always been greatly bound to the Order of St. Ignatius. And the sincerity of the holy Mother, were it not known from elsewhere, would sufficiently show itself in the same chapter of the Foundations: for of the archbishop of Burgos, who kept saying that he greatly desired a foundation of Carmel in his city, although he set continual obstacles before it, the Saint speaks thus: This indeed I believe; for he was so good a Christian that he would have uttered nothing but the truth. Finally, what likelihood is there that the Fathers of the Society did not wish Catalina to deal with the Carmelite nuns whom this matron had summoned at their persuasion? And this would be the more wonderful in that no cause is brought forward why those very persons who had for so long moved every stone that a house might be erected at Burgos, and who had induced Catalina to supply the sum required for the foundation, why, I say, they should have been so suddenly alienated in mind from everything which concerned Teresa and Teresa's family. Thinking the matter sufficiently placed in the open by this one argumentation, I omit other arguments, however probable, which
could easily be drawn from other circumstances.
[1659] [That the Saint is complaining there of the Calced is proved from the circumstances of Teresa's history;] But, someone will perhaps say, from what has been said it must indeed be confessed that the circumstances of the matter and several phrases of the said letter do not fit the Society of Jesus aptly; nevertheless the Society is not placed fully outside the case unless it is demonstrated against what Order that invective of Teresa can more fall. To this, though unwilling, and very desirous of sparing any religious Order whatever, and before the others the Carmelite, which with so much honour and fruit has filled Europe and other parts of the world with its virtues and apostolic labours, to this, I say, so that truth may have its place, I am compelled to answer that that invective of St. Teresa falls upon the Calced Carmel. And everyone will easily be persuaded of this with me who considers that the Saint often in her writings, especially in her letters, complains of the Fathers of the old Carmel, and especially of the superiors of the Order in Spain, and indeed several times in the same manner and in almost the same words which she uses in her letter to Reinoso. As regards the superiors who lived in Italy, these, badly informed of the state of affairs, could easily be deceived by those beginnings that had an appearance of right; and that their error was excusable is evident from this alone, that the illustrious virtue both of the General Superior Rubeo and of many other superiors of the Calced has been celebrated with great encomiums by the holy Mother herself: who themselves at first favoured the Reform, until certain incautious sayings or deeds of Fathers Mariano and Gracián and of the apostolic visitor Vargas gave a handle to the jealousy of some for carping at the Reform; not to speak of the involuntary error of the holy Mother herself, who had erected a convent in the town of Beas, which she did not know was situated in Andalusia, where leave to found houses had not been given her by the General. In this way from a few slight sparks a great conflagration burst forth, and by an unhappy concurrence of affairs more vehement motions of minds were roused. Therefore, while I revere the Order of the old Carmel and readily excuse the manner of acting of the General Superior, I shall accuse rather the particular deeds of others; for whose authors there can scarcely, or not even scarcely, be any place for excuse. And so that I may be briefer and dwell less on a matter little pleasing, I shall only indicate some few passages out of many, where the reader will find such deeds recounted, if perhaps it should please him to go to them: for example Foundations chap. XXVII, nums. 10 and 11; vol. I, letters 13, 17 and 51; vol. III, letter 84: where, among many other things, mention is made, according to the very words of the Saint herself, both of the war stirred up by the devil against the Discalced, and of the attempt of the adversaries who wished to banish Teresa to the Indies, and of so great an onslaught of the malevolent against the Reformed Carmel that many legions of demons seemed to wish to assail it at once. Nor are those things foreign to this argument which we have reported, both from Teresa's own narration and from other documents, concerning the apostolic Nuncio Sega; into whose ear, before he had left Rome, certain persons had whispered many accusations against the Discalced, as if these were disturbing the peace of their Order and were rebels against the Order itself under the pretext of reforming it: whence there followed under this Nuncio a most savage vexation against the Saint and her Discalced, some of the Calced plotting against the Teresian Reform with the utmost violence and injury (see § XL and following).
[1660] so that she does not there attack another religious Order. I forbear to bring forward many other arguments, such as this, that at that time, under the generalate of Everard Mercurian, General Superior of the Society of Jesus, it was never mooted that he should leave Rome and go into Spain; while on the contrary that rumour could have been spread with some appearance of truth about the General of the Carmelites, both on account of the journey towards Genoa undertaken by him at that time, and on account of the plausible reason of settling the dissensions of Carmel in Spain, and on account of a similar journey into Spain undertaken some years before by the General Rubeo. These, I say, being left aside, the arguments which I have gathered above certainly demonstrate splendidly how violent was that persecution against the Discalced, which raged not only within the enclosures of the monasteries, but which was also divulged, and in a manner brought into the contentious forum, now before the tribunal of the Nuncio in Spain, now before the Congregation of Regulars at Rome, now before the great council of Castile, before Philip II, before the Supreme Pontiffs Pius V and Gregory XIII, etc. Whence it follows that, as often as sharp complaints are found in Teresa's letters against religious who are not named, so often it can be judged that the Calced are in question. For the slight and few reasons for complaint which the Saint suffered from other Orders in a manner vanish before those graver ones, and do not deserve the name of dissension. For these rare disagreements came from private religious, and were about particular matters and known to few, and were soon settled amicably: as was done two or three times with men of the Society of Jesus, namely with the provincial Fr. Juan Suárez about the passing of Fr. Gaspar de Salazar from the Society to the Reformed Carmel, with Fr. Olea about admitting a novice, and with a certain third person about a similar business.
[1661] [Wherefore the notes of Gracián objected are to be valued at nothing, and every other explanation can be dispensed with.] Finally, what Fr. Anthony of St. Joseph asserts (vol. IV, letter 52, note 6), namely that Fr. Gracián wrote in the margin of a copy of Ribera's work certain additions in which he too notes that bad manner of acting of the Jesuits with respect to Teresa in the Burgos foundation, is by no means able to overthrow the solid arguments which I have massed together. For in the first place the authenticity of those additions is not established, and although it is said that they are kept with great care in the archive of the general definitory of the Discalced Carmelites at Madrid, this ought to move us little; because the very same was said of the prophecy ascribed to St. Teresa, which I refuted in § LXXXIII, and which was affirmed to be found in a letter destined for Gracián. These additions, then, no otherwise than that letter, can be a work fabricated by another hand. But let us suppose that they were really written by Fr. Gracián: has the authority of Gracián such force that it crushes the invincible arguments which I have gathered? Not to speak of the later defects of Gracián with which history reproaches him, already before the Burgos foundation the perspicacious Teresa had noted in him that fault for which alone full assent ought not to be given to his relation: I speak of the defect of not telling the truth in all things, concerning which the holy Mother admonishes him so sweetly and expressly in letter 74 of volume IV (see num. 842). Thinking, therefore, that my theme has been sufficiently demonstrated, I set aside another way of interpreting this letter, namely that by which those Spanish words, de la Compania, are asserted to be understandable of the family of the Calced, as if the Saint had said: You will understand something of what is being done by the Calced Carmel. Although that interpretation does not displease Fr. Montoya, I think that by it the cause would be weakened rather than confirmed, which I trust I have already fully elucidated by the former reasoning.
§ LXXXV. Several things are censured in the editions hitherto made of the third and fourth volumes of the Letters, specially as regards the Society of Jesus and as regards Fr. Jerome Gracián.
In those volumes, as regards the Letters, some things have been wrongly added, I shall indicate selectively certain blemishes which are found in both Madrid editions of these Letters, of the year 1771 and 1793, and especially in the Italian version made at Florence in the year 1775 by Fr. Valerio of St. Lawrence, both because the copies of these editions, carried about in great number (for no others exist), injure in some places the truth and even the honour of St. Teresa herself, and so that, if ever these letters are submitted to the press again, either in the vernacular or translated into another idiom, those blemishes may be wiped away: which can be done with slight effort and easy labour. First, then, I shall gather various examples by which it may be established that some things in the letters themselves are wrongly arranged and omitted and truncated, nay perhaps that some are not authentic. Then I shall refute several things in the annotations added to those letters by Fathers Anthony and Valerio. As regards the letters, I observe the following. In the first place, while some things, as I shall soon say, are missing, others there are superfluous. The title, for example, prefixed to the Spanish edition is this: Letters of St. Teresa of Jesus… with annotations, etc.; therefore nothing besides these, namely letters and annotations, ought to have been inserted: yet letter 81 of volume III has annexed number 9, printed in the same type as the letters, although it is not by Teresa, but by Fr. Doria.
[1663] others omitted, But many things are omitted, and especially such as contain the praise of the Society of Jesus. Let an example be the letter to Moya, of which I treated laboriously before, both on account of the importance of its subject and on account of the probable, or rather certain, arguments for its authenticity. This, presented by the Ven. Nieremberg with most credible attestations, the editors of the new letters did not admit, although they admitted many others whose autographs do not exist, but which they report from approved writers. Moreover the archbishop of Burgos (num. 517 of his encyclicals), when he had said that the Jesuits Poza, Baeza, Pineda and Salazar had complained that in the earlier volumes many encomiums of the Society had been suppressed, himself confesses that they were in fact suppressed, although he adds mockingly that this was done without malice and without great damage to the Jesuits. And since few eulogies of the Society are to be found among the 87 fragments of the fourth volume, it follows that many still remain suppressed. Then, as Fr. Anthony himself confesses, a letter to a certain knight of Salamanca has been removed (note 13 to letter 48 vol. letter 52 vol. III); likewise two to Juan Ovalle, in one of which the imprisonment of St. John of the Cross and his companion is treated (notes 11 and 12 to letter 44, vol. IV); likewise two others to Juana de Ahumada (notes 14 and 16 to letter 42, vol. IV). And yet Fr. Anthony proclaims (note 8 to letter 41, vol. IV) that the letters of the holy Mother are a gain to all, a loss to none, and the archbishop of Burgos (num. 537 of his encyclical letter) that every letter of St. Teresa is a precious stone, and that not even one iota ought to be taken from her writings; that otherwise good faith fails, and one falls into bad: which ill becomes all, but much the most religious! Here now are other blemishes of the Spanish edition.
[1664] and others badly arranged: To letter 28 of volume III are annexed nine fragments, from number 8 to 17, because, says Fr. Anthony, they were written to the same Fr. Gracián and at the same time. By this reasoning very many of the 87 fragments of the fourth volume ought to have been joined to other letters.
Moreover letter 56 of volume IV comprises three letters which cohere with each other in no respect, whether you consider the time at which they were written, or the subject which they treat, or those to whom they are destined. Finally, among the fragments reviewed in the fourth volume several are entire letters, for example 1, 2, 3, 52, 60, 62, 69 and others, to which nothing is lacking but the closing formula: The grace of the Holy Spirit be with you always, or another like it, which certainly it would have been permissible to add, since several words are added to fragments 33, 34, 65 and 66. On the contrary, among the letters is placed the eleventh of volume III, which is only part of a letter, and that reduced to three fragments by the voracity of time. Lastly Montoya doubts whether certain things which Fr. Anthony inserted into these new letters are the genuine offspring of St. Teresa, either because the manner of speaking is not sufficiently worthy of her, or because they seem to disagree with her other writings. Let the reader consult, if he wishes, the second dissertation of Montoya (chap. VI), and let him himself weigh the reasons which that author opposes, partly doubtingly, partly assertively, against the authenticity of letters 11, 13, 18, 22, 27 and 28 of the third volume, and 25 of the fourth. For I should be endless, and should depart more than is right from the part of a commentator on the Life of Teresa, if I were to set forth these and other things of the kind one by one.
[1665] to which new defects in the Italian version are added. To these I add a few things which concern the Florence edition of the year 1775, in whose proem Fr. Valerio boasts once and again of his fidelity in translating: whether he has kept his promises you have from these few remarks of mine. Namely, volume III in Italian has 81 letters, while in Spanish it has 82; because Fr. Valerio cut off almost the whole of letter 76, keeping only its fifth number, which he fixed to another letter at page 193, saying that it was a fragment written at the same time as that letter, and therefore duly appended to it. From the following letter too, that is from 77 of volume III, he cut off almost entire both numbers 3 and 4, and withdrew the whole of fragment 44, for this reason namely, that in these places the savagery of the Calced against St. John of the Cross and other reformed religious is described. He removes besides fragments 33, 41, 43, 44, 87 and seven lines from 32.
[1666] But as regards the annotations, certain persons are wrongly excused there, Thus far of the omissions, truncations and order badly observed in arranging the letters. I shall now uncover other blemishes which infect the annotations added to those letters, but few, and summarily. First, then, both Fr. Anthony and Fr. Valerio here and there show themselves more severe than is fair, nay in more than one place sharp-tongued and malevolent against the Society of Jesus, as we saw in the last paragraph, where the fiftieth letter of volume IV was interpreted. And this is the more invidious in that many things which in others who were not of the Society of Jesus ought to have been censured, for historical faith and so that each might be given his own in matters known from elsewhere, they either suppress in silence, or wrongly excuse, nay sometimes turn to praise, although there exist words of Teresa herself which condemn beforehand their ill-employed charity.
[1667] especially the Calced In this manner Fr. Anthony of St. Joseph, commenting on letter 14 of volume III, excuses the Calced prelates who in the year 1578 in the monastery of the Incarnation, after the election of St. Teresa as prioress, were turning everything upside down. Those Fathers surely had just reasons for acting thus, he says in note 3, which we, so far removed from them, cannot now comprehend; while on the contrary the Saint, who was present and a great part of the case, in nums. 1 and 2 of that letter of hers bitterly grieves over and disapproves their acts, beginning her letter to Gracián thus: Jesus be with you, O my Father, and free you from that people (the Calced)! For astonishment holds me seeing how they have treated those wretched nuns. And a little after, lamenting the like lot of St. John of the Cross, against whom, she says, no crime is brought forward, pressed with grief she exclaims: Truly God tries His friends in a terrible way, but yet without injury, since He treated His Son likewise! If anyone wishes to excuse the Calced who acted thus as regards the cause and the end intended, it is yet not right to excuse them as regards the manner employed. A like judgment is passed concerning notes 13 and 18 to the first letter of volume IV, where the Saint begs the king for patronage for her Reform, which was so savagely attacked by the Calced that, with public scandal and not without danger of life, St. John of the Cross at Ávila and Fr. Anthony of Jesus at Toledo were pressed in prison, suffering dire things without any fault of their own. These things, however, whatever the holy Mother says to the contrary, the commentator not only excuses, but even praises the good zeal and holy intention (I use Fr. Anthony's words) of those who were so miserably tormenting innocent and most excellent religious.
[1668] Finally the annotators, where Fr. Jerome Gracián is spoken of, and Fr. Gracián: several times expressly approve and praise what the holy Mother no less expressly disapproves and condemns. Let an example be number 3 of letter 25 of volume IV. The Saint there warns Gracián not to run about Andalusia preaching in those circumstances, adding that what seems great zeal is sometimes mere temptation. But Fr. Anthony, note 6 to that letter, praises that running about of Gracián, and holds it for an imitation of Christ, going through Judaea preaching, and in note 2 to letter 13 of volume III calls it by the name of apostolic zeal. Finally Fr. Anthony's reasoning limps in notes 2 and 25 to letter 20 of volume III. The Saint presents some arguments by which she proves that Fr. Gracián conducted himself prudently in the use of the faculties granted him by the Nuncio Ormaneto. But Fr. Anthony, passing against the rules of logic from the particular to the universal, finds there a most complete apology for Gracián's life and actions, where she herself undertakes his defence only in a cause regarding the use of jurisdiction.
[1669] against whom While I report these things, and show that Fr. Anthony sometimes does not rightly interpret the words of St. Teresa, let not the reader judge that I am attacking Gracián, although the things which I note here seem to be adverse to him. For it is not in my mind to pronounce sentence on this man, knowing that authors are opposed to authors in the judgment which they pass on him, nay that sometimes the same author is not consistent with himself in praising or reprehending Gracián. But if that most entangled cause of Gracián were to be pleaded before the tribunal of judges, namely of a man most acceptable to St. Teresa, but also several times admonished and reproved by her, afterwards expelled from the Order, held in chains in Africa, enrolled in the Mitigated Carmel, and finally, after he had strenuously defended Religion and piety by mouth and pen, departing this life most piously; if, I say, this controversy were to be argued, the accuser would bring forward among other things the following against the defendant: The holy Mother, by word of mouth and by letters in the last four years of her life, and indeed even after her death by admonitions to be given him through an apparition, seriously and often reproved him for defects certainly not slight, which, as the event showed, were pernicious both to himself and to the whole Order over which he presided… Several times the holy Mother warned him not to put his most grave office of provincial after the holding of sermons from town to town: which counsel of the holy Mother he sometimes received badly, answering her stubbornly that she should not judge her prelate, affirming even with an oath interposed that he was moved by the sole zeal of God and souls; so that the holy Mother had to recall to his memory that he had formerly given her leave to judge his actions, and she added that he ought not to act the swearer like a carter (vol. III, letter 16, num. 1).. The holy Virgin complained that he concealed from her some things which she ought to have known (vol. IV, letter 74, num. 4).. She blames him for having neglected to inform Fr. Anthony of Jesus about the jurisdiction taken from Gracián himself by the Nuncio (vol. IV, letter 27)… She goads his slowness (vol. IV, letter 26)… She warns him to act more cautiously with the nuns, and not to disclose his secrets to anyone he meets (vol. IV, fragment 14).
[1670] arguments opposed to him are brought forward; Fr. Anthony falsely affirms (note 2 to that fragment) that Gracián amended himself by that reproof. For on the first of September 1582, that is on the thirty-fourth day before her death, the holy Virgin still reproves him for wrongly removing from himself Fr. Doria, given him by the chapter as companion, and for lingering longer than he ought in Andalusia, holding sermons here and there; Teresa adding these serious words: This does not delight me at all; for the devil does not sleep. So long as you stay there, I shall be very anxious. Nor do I know for what end you stay at Seville. Beware lest you turn out an Andalusian: it is not your condition to live there (vol. IV, letter 43, num. 5). From which later admonitions it is evident that Gracián, as Fr. Anthony would have it, had not been amended by the earlier admonitions. And this is established much more still from the admonitions which the Saint after her death took care should be given him through Catherine of Jesus, to whom she had appeared. Namely in Counsel IX he is censured by her for making much of whatever things are asserted to be revealed, and for ordering things of this kind to be committed to paper: For, says Teresa, if there are many true revelations, there are also many false, nor is it easy to distinguish one true among a hundred false. Then in Counsel XII the Saint blames him because, as evil report had already spread, he neglects mortification, and because he permits himself many things against the rule with great loss to his subjects; and she admonishes him to value highly and praise penance, and to repress any excess, especially in food; finally to employ rigour, where sweetness does not suffice, to keep away whatever relaxes the rule or constitution; since such things are small indeed at the beginning, but very great in the effects that follow. Finally, the complainant would add, Gracián came to this point, that he had to be stripped of the sacred habit of Carmel and expelled from the Order: concerning which ejection the moderate Fr. Frederick (book 2, chap. XXV) does not fear to write this: Whoever says that Gracián was unjustly sent away from the Order must necessarily say that the prelates of the Order were likewise unjust, nay also those two judges of his cause, one a former general of the Order of St. Jerome, the other a former Dominican provincial, deputed by Philip II, and indeed the Roman Pontiff Clement VIII himself, who ratified that penalty. I omit the crimes which would finally be brought forward by the accuser from those which the chapter reproached Gracián with. For, besides
that they are more than I could narrate or even enumerate here, and that they can be read in the Chronicle, they are not so connected with the acts of St. Teresa, whose life I am discussing, and not Gracián's.
[1671] but also arguments favourable to him are brought forward: On the contrary his defender would allege those excellent encomiums with which St. Teresa in many places of her writings celebrated his virtue, piety, learning, zeal and dexterity in action. He would cite chap. XXIII of the Foundations, where scarcely anything can be added to the signal praise which she gives Gracián. He would allege number 6 of letter 3 of vol. I, num. 2 of letter 4 of vol. I, num. 2 of letter 7 of vol. III; where that very Teresa who had dealt familiarly with St. Peter of Alcántara, with St. Louis Bertrand, with St. Francis Borgia and other men of illustrious sanctity, does not fear to affirm that Gracián is one of the most candid souls and greatest servants of God with whom she had ever dealt, and that she is astonished at his perfection, and that a great treasure of God is enclosed in that soul. Gracián's advocate would say that St. Teresa, in a letter written on the 6th of January 1581, confesses that she does not wonder that he produces great fruits by his sermons, since he was endowed with so great sanctity (vol. II, letter 99, num. 1). He would say that the Saint on the 17th of February 1581 (vol. III, letter 27, num. 6) desired that he should be elected provincial, which in fact was done by the greater number of votes. And finally he would add, as Fr. Anthony writes (note 4 to letter 7 of vol. IV), that St. Teresa continued, as long as she lived, her eulogies of Gracián. And as regards the admonitions which the holy Mother took care should be given him after her death, he would not indeed dare (as the Illustrious Lataste dares in his dissertation on Gracián appended to letter 108 translated into French) to speak of them with contempt and hold them spurious, but he would say that it is at least by no means established that grave sin was contracted by Gracián in all those dissensions and accusations objected, as is confessed by the author of the Chronicle himself (book V, chap. XI, num. 2); and he would allege all those arguments which the Illustrious Lataste (in the place cited above) develops at length, and which at least greatly extenuate the faults thrown upon Gracián: and he would add the things which, having bravely confessed the faith, he suffered at Tunis; and as a crowning conclusion he would record the remaining years of his life, holily spent in defending Religion and propagating piety and in bringing into Belgium and establishing there that very Order of the Discalced from which he had been driven, enjoying the patronage of the archdukes Albert and Isabella, to whom he was confessor, until at length he closed his last day in the fame of sanctity, all the men illustrious in dignity who were at Brussels honouring his funeral, and great hope having been raised and left behind him, as Fr. Anthony says (note 12 to letter 19 of vol. III, and notes 2 and 25 to letter 20 of vol. III), that he would some day be inserted in the register of the Saints: which however Montoya by no means admits, not thinking that that man will be proposed as an example of truly penitent and sincerely contrite persons; because, as that harsh censor says in this place, he did not expiate the enormous scandals once given by him by a humble, public and thousand-times-repeated confession.
[1672] and however the judgment may go. These things about Gracián it was necessary to record, because they also concern St. Teresa, who used him chiefly as helper in planting her reformed Order, who also took care that several admonitions should be communicated to him after her death, and who a little before her departure from this life is said to have foretold that he would one day be cut off from his sacred family (Chronicle, book VIII, chap. LV, num. 8). But these few things, though presented concisely by me, must suffice, lest I stray otherwise from the subject proposed to me in this Commentary, which regards St. Teresa alone. Meanwhile I leave the judgment to the reader himself in a very perplexed cause. I would not indeed wish to exaggerate Gracián's faults as much as Montoya does (diss. II, chap. 2, § III), nor would I dare, as he dares, to call into doubt the authenticity of several letters containing his praise (diss. II, chap. VI, § IV): but neither would I wish with the Illustrious Lataste (in the dissertation already mentioned) harshly to pluck at almost all the chief Fathers of the Discalced Carmel of that age, nor to hold in contempt and declare fictitious those Counsels which have hitherto been esteemed by all to have come from St. Teresa. This, however, I would not hesitate to affirm, as flowing spontaneously from the letters of the holy Mother herself, that Gracián was at times driven by a zeal for souls greater than his office permitted, and sometimes laboured with a mildness greater than was fitting for a prelate; which was turned into exasperation when, having finished his office of provincial, he was reproved without indulgence by those who knew how to spare neither the Ven. Anne of Jesus nor even St. John of the Cross himself: so that, if in Gracián there was a softening love, there was in his adversaries an exasperating rigour, both meanwhile contending for the good of the Order, though in a plainly different way. And so it came about that it seems that both sides proceeded further than was fair. Nor let anyone wonder at this even in most holy men: for, as Mr. Boucher rightly observes (book V, note h), even in the best society or religious family which has its own government, when a dissension arises, it often most vehemently shakes the body and works great havoc; and in that commotion sometimes a most richly laden merchant-ship, from a slight crack at first, comes into danger of being swallowed by the whirlpools. Add that to each of the warring sides the war can sometimes seem to be and be just, as we read happened to St. Casimir, prince of Poland, and Matthias, king of the Hungarians, when the former invaded the latter's kingdom. And this likewise not rarely happens in the dissensions of private persons.
[1673] But so as not to linger longer in shaking out these annotations of Teresa's letters, Criticism in another respect passed over. I let go some other things which could be censured in them: for example when it is affirmed that every Christian has a grave obligation of choosing a confessor who is learned and erudite above the others (note 7 to letter 24 of vol. IV); or when the victory of Bethulia is ascribed to the prayers of Judith and her companions, of which companions Holy Scripture makes no mention (note 8 to letter 1 of vol. III). Nor shall I bring a suit against Fr. Anthony about his inflated style, prolix with wandering erudition. For I know this manner of writing, which was formerly usual among almost all nations, and remained and flourished among some for a longer, among others for a shorter time, of so loosening the reins for the writer that, like a butterfly, he can be borne right and left, up and down at will, and settle on whatever little flowers he meets, and seek everything but the goal. Which licence of wandering the censors of the Annus Teresianus not long ago (namely in the thirty-third year of the past century) allowed so widely that, although that work consists of twelve volumes in quarto, they did not hesitate to affirm in their censure prefixed to the first volume that its author wrote so concisely that a single little sentence of his could from time to time still be stretched into a whole dissertation of just length. But (although this too was formerly an almost common custom) what I would more reprove in Fr. Anthony is that he continually calls the servants and friends of the true God by the names of false gods. Certainly the ears of the Fathers of the first centuries would have shuddered to hear these things, and much more would their pen have shrunk from writing such things. And so neither is it fitting today for the holy Spouse of Jesus Christ, Teresa, to be called by a Christian and religious man now Ceres (note 3 to letter 15 of vol. IV), now Juno (note 14 to letter 5 of vol. IV), now the venerated Pallas and the adored Minerva (note 15 to letter 48 of vol. III, and note 9 to letter 15 of vol. IV), now lastly a Siren (note 14 to letter 8 of vol. IV) and Amphion (note 22 to letter 59 of vol. III); and above all for Jesus Christ, who is over all things God blessed (Rom. IX, 5), to be given the name of supreme Jove (note 7 to letter 37 of vol. IV). For the greatest reverence is always owed to God Most Good and Most Great, and, as Salvian says (book 1 On Providence), care must be taken lest that very thing which is said for the honour of God should seem to be an injury to God. And it is an injury, nay, if we think rightly, it exceeds everything lawful, to give the true God the name of a false god, that is, of a most foul demon, since both Jupiter and Juno and Minerva and all the gods of the gentiles are devils (Ps. VC, v. 5).
§ LXXXVI. The grave calumnies against the Society of Jesus contained in the very widely published pastoral Instruction of the archbishop of Burgos of the year 1769 are refuted, chiefly from the testimonies of St. Teresa herself.
Compelled to weigh that Instruction As that of the Society, so here again the honour of St. Teresa must be vindicated, whose name, no less than that of the Society, takes grave damage from that Instruction. For if, as the prelate asserts, Teresa accused the Society of Jesus of avarice, duplicity, ambition and other vices certainly not slight, Teresa herself is inescapably convicted of insincerity, deceit and falsehood. For we have documents, her letters, I say, and other genuine writings, in which often and continually and up to the last times of her life she proclaims loudly and splendidly in the Society of Jesus virtues wholly contrary to those vices which, if the archbishop is to be believed, the holy Virgin imputes to the same Society in other letters of hers: so that it is altogether necessary that either St. Teresa is a liar or the archbishop a liar. Therefore, since, as St. Augustine says (against Cresconius, book 1, chap. VII), I think our ministry is by no means justly reprehended if against any adversaries whatever of the truth we contend for the truth with fervent spirit, I shall call the aforesaid Instruction into serious examination, in proportion namely to the dignity of the accuser, to the gravity of the deeds imputed, to the solemn publicity given to the calumny. Yet the case will be prepared and the suit settled with easy labour; since, the accuser's words having been cited, I shall cite St. Teresa herself, and shall in a manner bring her in speaking, so that the Saint herself may refute that manifold charge which the archbishop casts in the teeth of the Society in Teresa's name. It is indeed an unwelcome necessity to uncover the calumnies of a reviler shining with sublime dignity in the Church; but even than such a man truth is more important, St. Teresa more important, a religious family more important. It is no small, says St. Augustine (against Petilian, chap. VI), and inglorious consolation for each of us, if we are accused by the enemies of the Church together with the Church herself. But on the other hand it is hard
and not tolerable to be pressed by a prelate of the Church with the guilt of many crimes, and to be attacked with such injury that it is even asserted that the most perspicacious St. Teresa at the end of her life hated the Society of Jesus on account of crimes discovered in it. Meanwhile I greatly regret that there can no longer come to my hands in sufficient time the unpublished work of Fr. José de Isla, S. J., which, since this refutation of mine, such as it is, was composed, I hear lies hidden at Madrid in the cabinets of an excellent man, who I know would of his own accord lend me those pages, if the distances of places or rather the circumstances of the times allowed. In that work, which is entitled: Anatomia de la Pastoral del Ill. Arzobispo de Burgos Anatomy of the Pastoral of the Illustrious Archbishop of Burgos, Fr. de Isla refutes strongly and at length all the arguments against the Society which are contained in those encyclical letters.
[1675] [on account of the atrocious calumnies which it contains against the Society of Jesus,] And since that part of the encyclicals where Teresa's aversion from the Society is treated is lengthy, I shall excerpt only a few things from it, but such as will suffice to declare with how great an onslaught the prelate there assails the Society. Here is how in the said encyclicals the government, institute, doctrine, religion and faith of the Society are violated. Having proposed this dilemma: Either Teresa or the Society must be condemned, the Most Illustrious one (num. 517) says that he will give a thousand thanks to God if he can be convicted of inconsequence in the argumentation which he will frame, and if the Jesuits, while he is convicted of error, can go away victors from that struggle. Then (num. 518) he says that there is no reason why the Jesuits should boast that they had St. Teresa as their disciple in the spiritual life, since God was her chief master, and indeed immediate. He grants, however (num. 519), that there were some honest men in the Society; which is no wonder, he says, since at the time when according to Holy Scripture all flesh had corrupted its way, in the family of Noah there were found those who were to be excepted from that universal proposition, so that at the beginnings of the Jesuit Order also there could have been room for exception. But soon, he adds (num. 521), the Jesuits afflicted Teresa with much grief, striking her inmost heart, accusing her of having enticed Jesuits to the Order of Carmel, and selling for dreams the fictitious revelations which they attributed to the holy Mother. Then (after he has spoken very odiously at num. 522 about the Burgos accusation from letter 50 of vol. IV) he exclaims (nums. 523 and 524): How great, then, must have been the persecution of the Jesuits against Teresa! And with what great vileness they answered her, if this woman so holy, so grateful, and who of no religious family ever showed even the least ill-feeling either in writing or in word, was compelled to break out into these bitter complaints about the Society! The Saint indeed, he says (nums. 527, 528 and 529), dealt for a long time with the Jesuits; but, because she could not avoid it, she yielded to necessity, and for the same cause approved that such gratitude should also be feigned by one of her daughters. These and many other things the prelate heaps up. But it is irksome and shameful to copy out insults of this kind, dishonouring even to St. Teresa herself. Let it suffice to present this concluding exclamation of the prelate: Therefore these regulars have the Seraphic Doctor Teresa of Jesus wholly against them; which you might rightly call in some measure the juice of the whole pastoral Instruction.
[1676] I prove that these are without foundation, Let us investigate the premises from which the prelate deduces this conclusion of his: and if it is found that they fail, his conclusion will be vain; and the argumentator who stood threateningly in mail will lie disarmed. In the first place, then (to num. 518), I plainly grant that God is the fountain of all graces; for who, except by the greatest blasphemy, would deny it? I grant likewise, nor has any Jesuit hitherto called it into doubt, that St. Teresa was taught many things by God Himself. Yet Palafox rightly (note 17 to letter 19 of vol. I, where the Saint enumerates as many as ten Fathers of the Society of Jesus who were a help to her at the beginning of her extraordinary graces: see that passage, cited below, in Ribera, book IV, chap. IV), rightly, I say, Palafox observes that it is no small honour to the Society of Jesus that this Order had as its disciple St. Teresa, who herself was an illustrious mistress of the spiritual life. I know indeed, he says, that she was taught immediately by God: yet the examination of her spirit, the instruction given her, and the assurance by which it was declared that she was moved by God, belonged to those who directed her spirit. And therefore the Saint many times confesses how much she owed to the Society of Jesus, and not without reason; since nowhere is a greater debt contracted than in spiritual commerce, in protection procured for the soul and in the way of vocation made level. Moreover there can be seen from this how great was the number and how lofty the spirit of the first workers of that Sacred Order; since the Saint in this place alone numbers ten Fathers to whom she opened her soul very fruitfully, and it is evident moreover, from what the Saint hints there, that she dealt with others besides, according to the opportunity of the places in which she lived. So Palafox.
[1677] and specially those which regard the affair of Fr. Gaspar de Salazar, As regards number 521, where the business of Fr. Gaspar de Salazar is treated, and the only complaint of any importance, and that only in appearance, which the Saint uttered about the Society of Jesus, or rather about one man of the Society, to have set forth that business of Fr. Salazar is to have refuted what the prelate on this occasion casts in the teeth of the Society. Namely, Fr. Gaspar de Salazar was about to depart from the Society to the Reform of Carmel: this news reached the ears of Fr. Juan Suárez, provincial of the Society of Jesus, and reached them much changed for the worse; since it had been told him that St. Teresa was negotiating such a departure, and that the Lord had revealed to her that Salazar should depart. The provincial was greatly astonished both at the thing itself and at the way in which it was being directed, and sent letters to the holy Mother through the rector of the college of Ávila complaining about the matter. The holy Mother answered that she had not negotiated such a departure, nor did she know anything of such a revelation, and the rest which is contained in letter 20 of vol. I. Entirely satisfied with this answer of Teresa as regards the things which concerned the Saint herself, the provincial ordered the rector also to placate the Saint as regards what he had written, and moreover to tell her that it seemed to him his letters could be understood in a different way from that in which the holy Mother had understood them. The rector of Ávila carried out what had been ordered him, and at the same time asked St. Teresa to write to the convents of her Reform not to receive Fr. Salazar. The rector indicated besides that he feared lest that departure of Fr. Salazar should be the cause of grave dissensions between the Reform and the Society, the Society being about to deal with Salazar as with an apostate, if he departed without having obtained due leave at Rome. To the rector's letter St. Teresa answered in letter 16 of vol. II, where she grieves that she is dealt with not very ingenuously in the provincial's letter, and that in it is supposed as certain what had not even come into her mind. Moreover the Saint for grave reasons refused to write to her convents, showing herself ready for all the troubles which God should deign to send her. And here the matter rested, nor did Fr. de Salazar carry out his purpose. What then is there here worthy of being cried out against the whole Order with so wide a gape? Truly much more rightly does Palafox deduce the contrary consequence from that letter (note 26 to letter 20 of vol. I). For since the Saint had said there that she was so affected towards the Society that she would pour out her life for it, and that she did not judge that the Order of the Society of Jesus would ever be opposed to the Order of the Mother of Jesus, since the former served so greatly in reforming the latter, the commentator adds: An illustrious testimony indeed of Teresa about the protection which she received from the Society in reforming Carmel, and which she alleges as an argument for perpetuating that constant love by which both Orders were then joined.
[1678] and all the others: As for nums. 522, 523 and 524, there is no reason why I should go over again what I have said about letter 50 of vol. IV, from the bad interpretation of which are drawn those gibes of St. Teresa's fictitious complaints about the Society which I have already washed away in § LXXXIV, showing that the Mitigated Carmel is in question there, not the Society of Jesus. Finally, if at num. 528 the archbishop says that St. Teresa served the time and in appearance displayed towards the Society an esteem and love of which her heart was empty, or, to use the fitting word, that the just, brave and holy Virgin lied, the calumny against the Saint herself is too atrocious for me to be able to refute it becomingly. Further, what I have discussed thus far will be most fully confirmed from what, under the guidance especially of Fr. Montoya, I am now about to demonstrate, namely that the holy Mother, far from having at any time ever turned away from the Order of the Society of Jesus, on the contrary was always of the most favourable will towards it.
[1679] [and I prove that the Saint was not of a mind estranged from the Society from the year 1557 to 1567,] I come now to the conclusion of the encyclicals of the Most Illustrious one, who speaks thus: Therefore these regulars have the Seraphic Doctor Teresa of Jesus wholly against them. For greater clarity I shall divide the time in which the Saint dealt with the men of the Society into four parts; and in all and each of these we shall find splendid proofs of that eminent esteem which the holy Mother had of those men. The first part comprises those ten years which elapsed from when the Saint in the year 1557 gave herself into the hands of Juan Padranos, S. J., up to the year 1567, in which she went out from Ávila to begin other foundations. As regards this first part it suffices to inspect the Saint's Life written by her own hand; since in it, besides the magnificent praises with which she celebrates those particular Fathers of the Society who had the grace of directing her, namely Juan Padranos, St. Francis Borgia, Baltasar Álvarez and Gaspar de Salazar, very many other passages occur where the holy Mother speaks with praise not only of this or that particular Jesuit, but of all together, or of the Society of Jesus itself. Here are some passages from the autograph Life of the Saint. Chap. V: For seventeen years and more, as I think, I remained in that blindness; until a certain man very learned of the Order of St. Dominic opened my eyes in some matters, and the Fathers of the Society of Jesus struck great fear into me altogether (namely lest she should make little of certain sins, which certain rude confessors said were not sins) by aggravating my so evil beginnings, as I shall say afterwards… Chap. XXIII: I had understood that the Fathers of the Society of Jesus had very lately come here:
towards whom, although I knew none of them in particular, I was wonderfully well disposed, solely because I had understood their manner both of living and of praying; but I reckoned myself unworthy to speak to them, and not strong enough to obey them… Now I see that it was all done and directed for the greater good of my soul, so that thus I might come to the knowledge of men so holy as are the religious of the Society of Jesus… Blessed be the Lord, who gave me the grace of obeying my confessors, though imperfectly enough. And these were almost always from among those blessed Fathers of the Society of Jesus… Chap. XXIV: It was very pleasing to me to live not far from their college, so that there might be greater occasion of dealing with them again and again: for great advantage came to my soul even from the bare report and mention of the sanctity which they displayed in all their conversation… Chap. XXXIV: It consoled me wonderfully that in the city to which I was betaking myself there was a college of the Society of Jesus.
[1680] nor from 1567 to 1576, The second part includes another nine or ten years, in which the Saint made many foundations, until, that of Seville having been brought to an end, the Calced Fathers compelled her to withdraw into a certain convent and not erect other monasteries. Now in the foundations of those nine or ten years how much help the Fathers of the Society gave St. Teresa! How much in that of Medina, where, for obtaining the necessary faculties, they asserted on oath that the foundation, although destitute of revenues, would be useful, so that leave to erect it might be obtained! How much in that of Toledo, which is owed to the great affection of Fr. Pablo Hernández, S. J., towards the Saint and her Reform; to which Father, as also to the rector of the college of the S. J. of that city, the holy Mother sent honourable powers of attorney! How much in that of Salamanca, which is owed to the piety and ardent zeal of Fr. Martín Gutiérrez, rector of the college of Salamanca of the Society of Jesus; as Fr. Frederick of St. Anthony says, who likewise weighs the services rendered by the rector and his subjects to the Saint and her daughters! How much in that of Segovia, where, according to the same historian, the holy Mother, seeing herself placed in danger lest the vicar general should ruin the foundation and consign St. John of the Cross to prison, at once took refuge with the Society of Jesus, where ears always inclined to her were offered! How much in that of Beas, whose foundress was induced to make it by the counsels of Fathers Eraso and Bustamante, S. J., and by the supremely honourable testimonies given concerning St. Teresa and her daughters! How much at the time when the holy Mother was engaged in the foundation of Seville! For when a strong tempest had arisen against that recent monastery, and the holy Mother and her daughters were accused before the tribunal of the Inquisition with the utmost calumny of those things which the Saint relates in letter 47 of vol. I, the Tribunal committed the examination of that cause to Fr. Rodrigo Álvarez; who by many fasts, fervent prayers and other efforts received from heaven singular lights and knowledge of the sublime spirit of St. Teresa, and undertook the patronage of the truth so strenuously that that great tumult at once ceased, and that by the work of that Father and the work of Fr. Diego de Acosta, provincial, and Fr. Enrique Enríquez, the sanctity of Mother Teresa and the upright life of her daughters became better known and more highly valued. How much help, finally, the Jesuits contributed to the foundation of Caravaca! In the relation of which the holy Mother, speaking of the foundresses, says: They knew what the Lord had done in the foundations of these monasteries; for the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, who have always been of help and support to this matter as far as they could, had declared these things to them. Most certainly, therefore, in those nine or ten years St. Teresa by no means looked on the Society with grim eyes, since this Order brought her such great help at that time. Moreover what the holy Mother saw and experienced in the city of Ávila, as long as she inhabited it, was wonderfully apt to win for the pious and zealous woman a love of the Society. See what she informs her brother Lorenzo (vol. I, letter 30, num. 7): It escaped me before to tell you how easily boys can be properly educated at Ávila. The Fathers of the Society of Jesus have a college in which they teach them grammar, and hear their Confessions every week, and make them so good that truly there is reason to give thanks to God. Philosophy and theology are also taught according to St. Thomas; so that neither letters nor piety need be sought elsewhere: and in the whole town Christian discipline so flourishes that it is an edification to strangers. The practice of praying is frequent, frequent that of confessing sins: and among the seculars themselves are found those who lead an exceedingly perfect life.
[1681] nor from 1576 to 1579, The third part of the time in which St. Teresa dealt with the Jesuits can be reduced to that space in which the Saint had to forbear from new foundations. The foundation of Seville having been already established, says the holy Mother (Foundations, chap. XXVIII), there was a cessation from founding for four years and more. The cause was that great and grievous storms of persecutions suddenly arose against the Discalced friars and nuns… Against the Discalced, and especially their superiors, this grievous storm of false testimonies and slanders raged (because almost all the Fathers of the mitigated rule opposed themselves to them). She alludes doubtless chiefly to that infamous suit of Seville, containing atrocious calumnies (the words are those of Fr. Frederick of St. Anthony, book 2, chap. XXIX) against Fr. Gracián, against the nuns of Seville, and lastly against our great Saint. That suit was the more iniquitous in that in it those angelic persons were accused in a most delicate matter, and one, in view of their virginal purity, so scrupulously guarded. Meanwhile, while the Calced Fathers so persecuted St. Teresa and her Reform, how close a communion then existed between the holy Mother and the Society! To declare it thoroughly very many passages would have to be copied from the letters which the Saint wrote at that time. I shall choose a few which suffice to disclose it. In the year 1578 the Saint wrote letter 3 of vol. I to Teotonio de Braganza, and in it she declares the great esteem which she cherished for the Jesuits, saying: It greatly refreshes me that Your Lordship loves and holds the Society so much as your own, because it is of the greatest utility for everything. Letters also which plainly show what Teresa's mind was towards the Jesuits at the time of which we are speaking here are those in which she treats of disagreements with the Fathers of the S. J., especially of the disagreement about Fr. Salazar, which occurred at the same time. Finally in her Castle of the soul, which she wrote in the middle of the year 1577, she gives a most illustrious encomium of St. Ignatius of Loyola himself, whose name she joins with the names of St. Dominic and St. Francis, saying that he, no otherwise than they, plucks innumerable souls from the devil. Truly, she says, there is cause for us to praise God very greatly, when we consider that sometimes by one soul thousands of others are saved, as was done through the Martyrs, and is at times done through a tender virgin, for instance through St. Ursula. It is manifest to everyone, and books testify to it, that God gratified St. Dominic and St. Francis and other founders of Orders, nay in our very days Father Ignatius, founder of the Society of Jesus, with such a privilege of snatching very many souls from the devil (Mansion V, chap. IV, n. 4). This praise of Ignatius was removed in the editions before the year 1752.
[1682] nor finally in the remaining years of her life, Let us pass now to the last part of St. Teresa's years, which comprises the years 1580, 1581 and 1582, when the holy Mother, having come out of her prison at Toledo, made her last foundations. On the 8th of May 1580 the Saint sent letter 9 of vol. I to the Duchess of Alba; and of this letter Palafox speaks thus: The Saint writes to this great matron, asking her for letters of recommendation for the Fathers of the Society concerning the foundation of Pamplona… And the Saint urges it ardently, because she ardently loved that fervent Order, wishing thus to repay in their foundations the help which its sons had given in founding the Carmelite houses. And she beseeches her with most powerful reasons, so that that intercession may not be made merely for form's sake, since her love and desire were not merely an empty form. In the same year, on the 25th day of July, Fr. Baltasar Álvarez died: and the Ven. Luis de la Puente relates to us the weeping of St. Teresa prolonged beyond an hour, and the words uttered by her on this occasion: I weep, said the Saint, because I know well the great loss which the Church of God suffers by his death and will also suffer hereafter. In the same year, when the holy Mother was staying at Valladolid, whither she had come on account of the Palencia foundation, she felt herself so forsaken that she said: So great was my weakness that I had lost even the confidence which God Most Good and Most Great was wont to give me when any of these foundations was to be begun. For everything seemed impossible to me. Hence if I had then come upon anyone who would have strengthened me by encouraging me, he would surely have profited me as much as possible… It happened by chance that a certain priest of the Society of Jesus came to Valladolid, Father and Master Ripalda, … a man eminent as much for learning as for piety towards God. To him I opened the state of my soul, and told him that I wished to take him in God's place; he should therefore declare to me what seemed good to him. He then began to goad and encourage me much, … and ordered that I should by no means desist from what had been begun: the same also Fr. Baltasar Álvarez, provincial of the same Society, had said to me a little before at Toledo (Foundations, chap. XXIX). So that the foundation of Palencia (the same holds of that of Burgos) is owed in great part to the Jesuits. Wherefore Fr. Frederick of St. Anthony also says: Two great men of the Society of Jesus, Baltasar Álvarez and Jerónimo Ripalda, the one at Toledo, the other at Valladolid, had added goads to Teresa to undertake the work; but since Fr. Gracián thought otherwise, the Saint could not fully acquiesce in the counsel of both of them (book 2, chap. XXXVII). The Palencia foundation having been completed at the end of the year 1580, St. Teresa stayed there the first five months of the year 1581; and on the 4th of March, writing to Doña Ana Enríquez, she speaks thus: In the affairs of the soul I find solitude, because there is no one here of those whom I have known of the Society. This indeed I find everywhere; because, although our Saint (Fr. Baltasar Álvarez) is absent, the Society nevertheless seems to be present to me, since at least it is permitted to communicate some things by letters (vol. IV, letter 15, num. 3).
[1683] which is established especially from the foundation of Burgos. From Palencia St. Teresa passed to the foundation of Soria, of which (Foundations, chap. XXX) she herself says that the first Mass was celebrated with great solemnity, and that a certain Father of the Society preached. Finally in the year 1582, the last of her mortal life, the Saint made the foundation of Burgos, to which
Fathers Álvarez and Ripalda so greatly roused her that the holy Mother began its relation with those memorable words: Six years and more had already passed since certain men of the Society of Jesus, especially religious, commendable for age, learning and spirit, told me that it would be no small thing for the glory and service of the Lord if a convent of this Sacred Order were erected in the city of Burgos (Foundations, chap. XXXI, num. 1). And when she treats of that day on which, great difficulties having at length been overcome, the foundation was completed, she speaks thus: The archbishop gave Doctor Manso power… to celebrate Mass among us and to place the Most Holy Body of Christ there. He, then, offered the first Host to God, and the Father Prior of the monastery of St. Paul of the Order of Dominicans (to which Order, as also to the Society of Jesus, I have always owed very much) celebrated the High Mass (ibid. num. 25). These words alone utterly overthrow and destroy all the arguments of the Illustrious Archbishop. For since St. Teresa at number 25 was not treating of the Jesuits, nor had made mention of them for twenty and more numbers, those words, as also to the Society of Jesus, did not seem necessary, nay not even opportune. But the Saint even out of season asserts that she always owed much to the Society of Jesus.
[1684] Conclusion of the proofs: Since, therefore, St. Teresa had frequently testified in many writings and in many ways to the eminent love with which she was borne towards the Society, and to the diligent help which the men of the Society had so often given her (saying that these were her Fathers to whom after God she owed all the good that she had; that God had chosen the Society as the instrument by which the Carmelite Order should be repaired and renewed; that the Fathers of the Society had always promoted and helped her foundations; that her Reform had always owed much to the Society; that she followed it with great veneration, because she had dealt much with the Jesuits, and had seen that their life corresponded to the things which the Lord had disclosed to her about them; that she had the affairs of the Society at heart, and was ready to give her life for them), after all these things, I say, St. Teresa, in the last chapter of her Foundations, in the book which she composed last, and indeed in the last year of her life, relating her last foundation, as if ratifying all that she had previously written about the Society, and as if leaving an anticipated answer to those who should at some time call into doubt either the merit of the Society towards the Saint and her Reform or the Saint's perpetual benevolence and gratitude towards the Society, says clearly that she had always owed much to the Society of Jesus. What slanderer, then, would accuse St. Teresa of falsehood? Further, from the words of the holy Mother it is inferred, against the archbishop of Burgos, that the Saint loved not only some Jesuits, but the Society of Jesus, and loved it much, and loved it always. For since the Saint was exceedingly grateful, she certainly could not but love much that Order to which she owed much: and by using the word owe she acknowledges herself a great debtor towards the Society of Jesus, and confesses that she holds this gratitude of hers as an act of justice. Since these things are so, and the Saint expressly affirmed them shortly before her death, what will the Illustrious prelate of Burgos now mutter, who did not hesitate fearlessly to affirm against Teresa that she, who at the first beginnings had indeed esteemed and loved some men of the Society, afterwards was better taught and sang a palinode? Truly, if the Most Illustrious one were still among men, there would be reason why he should fall on his face, and strike the ground with his forehead, and, according to his vow, if he were refuted, give a thousand thanks to God.
[1685] [to which are added, out of abundance, the visions which the Saint had concerning the Society of Jesus.] The theme of this paragraph now seems sufficiently proved from the arguments brought forward. Yet add to these that the things which had been revealed from heaven to St. Teresa about the Society of Jesus would scarcely permit her to turn away from that Order. I pass over that Teresa saw a dead Brother of the S. J. borne up into heaven with great glory (Life, chap. XXXVIII, num. 21), and that twice in a church of the same Society she saw the Brothers, as they approached the Holy Table, covered with a most rich mantle (ibid. chap. XXXIX, num. 18). But other things more general and regarding the whole Order can be seen unfolded more fully in § LXXXIII; where it has been demonstrated that the Saint treats of the Society when she narrates that she beheld religious who bore white banners in heaven (chap. XXXVIII, num. 10); likewise when she says it was revealed to her how strenuously towards the end of the world a certain religious band would contend for the Church of God (chap. XL, num. 8). And these from the Saint's written testimony. Moreover there are also other visions had by her concerning the Society of Jesus which witnesses of approved faith affirmed they had received from her mouth. Thus she knew that Fr. Martín Gutiérrez had been presented with the laurel of martyrdom (as I related at nums. 557 and 558). Thus she saw in spirit the death inflicted in the year 1570 by heretics on Fr. Ignacio de Azevedo and his companions (as I unfolded more fully in § XXVII). Thus lastly, as the Ven. Luis de la Puente narrates in the Life of Baltasar Álvarez (chap. VI), St. Teresa, hearing his Mass on a certain day, saw him during the whole time that the Mass lasted having on his head a certain diadem of great splendour. She knew also that he would be saved, and would occupy a most lofty seat in heaven (ibid. chap. XI). And when she learned that he had been snatched from the world, she lamented a whole hour, because, as she confessed when asked, the Faith and the Catholic Church suffered a great loss by his death. Finally, appearing to a certain sorrowful handmaid of God, whom she wished to console in her great affliction, she signified to her among many other things that she too honoured and venerated in heaven her former confessor Fr. Baltasar Álvarez (ibid. chap. LIII). I let go another vision concerning St. Ignatius, of which, as Montoya (diss. I, chap. VII, § I, num. 19) affirms, Fr. Luigi Carnioli speaks in chapter XXI of his Life of Ignatius, and in which St. Teresa is asserted to have seen the holy Patriarch Ignatius holding the first place in the procession of the Most Holy Sacrament, because he had propagated in the Catholic world a more frequent use of these divine banquets.
[1686] A vision concerning the souls of those dying in the Society is recorded: Finally an occasion presents itself to me here of making mention of a certain vision, which is related in the Imago primi saeculi Societatis Jesu (pages 648 and 649) and was copied thence by Fr. Łęczycki in the little work On the Excellence of the Institute of the S. J. (book 2, chap. 1) and by Cardinal Cienfuegos in the Life of St. Francis Borgia (book V, chap. X, § V). In that vision it is asserted that it was divinely revealed to St. Teresa while she was at Córdoba that the religious of the Society of Jesus enjoy the privilege that to each of them, as soon as he has breathed out his soul, Christ comes to meet him, to receive his soul. So the writers cited. But if anyone asks me what is to be thought of the truth of so great and so desirable a prerogative, he will carry off from me that answer which the prudent Fr. Jean Pien (vol. VII of July, page 852) once gave after narrating not dissimilar visions about the blessed departure of all dying in the Society of Jesus, speaking thus: To the truth of that prerogative you will attribute as much as you shall judge should be granted to the reasons brought forward for it. And indeed there will without doubt be those who for so paradoxical a thing, I might say almost incredible, will require greater motives of credibility. Which, since they are not at hand for me, it remains for me to keep myself within the bounds of a simple narration alone, leaving to everyone the fullest liberty of thinking either way. This meanwhile is by far most certain, that each one of the Society must diligently strive to walk worthily of the vocation in which he is called, and take pains by good works to make his calling and election sure.
[1687] and a reason for doubting about that vision is suggested. Further, there is still another reason for calling into doubt that alleged vision of St. Teresa about the souls of all those who die in the Society of Jesus being received by Christ Himself. For in the Chronicle (book XVI, chaps. XXXII and XXXIV) it is narrated at length that in the year 1594 an opinion spread in the Discalced Carmel concerning a prerogative granted by God to St. Teresa, by which no one clothed in the sacred habit of her Order would be damned. But the Saint, appearing to Anne of St. Augustine, commanded her to deny it flatly, saying that hell was destined for whoever did not fulfil his duties, but heaven or purgatory was destined according to each one's merit. And when Anne shrank from making public that she had been deemed worthy of the apparition of her holy Mother, the Saint enjoined the same on her a second and a third time, and set before her eyes the three places of which one awaits each person, namely heaven, hell and purgatory, signifying with a threatening countenance that she would be cast into the pool unless she complied and untaught her people that harmful confidence. And when at length Anne had fully disclosed the vision and the command received from the holy Mother to her confessor, he informed the prelates of the whole matter: and the prelates published through the whole Congregation the admonition given from heaven, by which the harm might be met, and, as the Chronicle says, all might remember that they are saved not by the habit, but by the good works which are performed in the religious habit. But if some vaticination concerning the salvation of religious were restricted by a narrower limit, and one more conformable to the Gospel itself, or by some condition, I would acquiesce in it, provided it had been asserted by upright and contemporary witnesses; just as Stilting, at the 28th day of August, in the Life of St. Augustine (n. 821), did not think it to be doubted concerning the prophecy which this Saint made to St. Norbert, speaking thus: If under the rule written by me thy Brothers, my sons, shall have fought well, they shall stand secure before Christ in the final terror of the judgment.
[1688] [A closing exclamation from Fr. Łęczycki, opposed to the closing exclamation of the Illustrious prelate of Burgos.] If, then, reason has any force, if authority has any, while the Most Illustrious prelate of Burgos, relying on empty paralogisms, pronounces that St. Teresa was adverse to the Society, the readers, as I hope, will add their vote to Fr. Łęczycki, who closes chapter XIX of his little work On the Glory of St. Ignatius with these words: If a wise son is the glory of his father, as Scripture witnesses, a cause of great glory to St. Ignatius was the Most Holy Virgin Teresa, most illustrious Foundress of the Discalced Carmelite Fathers, splendid with most excellent and plainly heroic virtues, who experienced intimate familiarity with Christ through the degrees of most exalted contemplation, wonderful in her writing of mystical theology, most renowned for the patience of the greatest labours, praised in the whole world for the reform of Carmel, received by Christ as His spouse, often undergoing ecstasy from the impulse of divine love, admirable for the fiery dart of the Cherub piercing her heart, kindled with an insatiable thirst for the salvation of souls, white with the flower of unblemished virginity, most celebrated in the whole world for divine visions, the prophetic spirit and the manifold grace of healings in life and after death: this holy Virgin, I say, was a cause of great glory to St. Ignatius, because of the Society of Jesus
instituted by St. Ignatius she acknowledged herself a daughter, and used its help both in Sacred Confessions and in the mastership of spiritual things; and she learned many things, God revealing them, in commendation of the Society of Jesus, and left them attested by word and writing.
§ LXXXVII. St. Teresa composed the Constitutions of her nuns.
The first cause of a great dispute about this matter, I now begin to treat the most grave question concerning the Constitutions of the Discalced Carmel, which are the root of that most beautiful tree planted by Teresa, whose fruits nourish the Church of God. But the question is at the same time most intricate, since there has been so much dispute about these Constitutions, and especially about one or another of them, that the Order itself was at one time vehemently shaken by it: as can be read in the Chronicle (book VIII, chap. XXXV) and in the Life of St. John of the Cross by Fr. Mark of St. Francis (chap. XLVII). Namely, the faculty of consulting spiritual men, which the holy Mother had wished to be granted to her daughters by the prioresses, and which the first general chapter of the year 1581 had confirmed, some nuns, while Teresa was still living and much more after her death, under the milder government of Gracián, had abused, not without grave detriment to regular discipline. Therefore, since the growing evil had to be met, Gracián's successor, Fr. Nicholas Doria, more zealous than prudent, strove to change almost the whole face of the government of the Reformed Carmel, and not only to temper the excessive licence of choosing confessors at will fostered in the nuns by Gracián, but also to take from them that liberty which St. Teresa had not hesitated to call holy. Therefore, amid many griefs and complaints, the authority of the holy Mother was invoked by her daughters, and the laws of the Order which had come out while she herself was alive were alleged: and, so that these might be more generally known, the nuns in the year 1588 at Madrid had those very Constitutions republished word for word which, Teresa counselling, had been published at Salamanca shortly after the first general chapter in the year 1581. Under the leadership chiefly of the Ven. Anne of Jesus, at that time prioress of the convent of Madrid, who, a heroine distinguished no less for prudence than for fortitude, had merited to be called by St. Teresa a more capable and worthier foundress and ruler of the Order than herself, and was held by all as heir in full of Teresa's virtues, through her action, I say, recourse was had to Rome, and it was obtained from Sixtus V that the Brief which he had issued on the 10th of July 1587 according to the mind of Fr. Nicholas Doria he should revoke, now according to the mind of Anne of Jesus, and by a new Brief given on the 5th of June 1590 should restore almost the former form of governing the Order and ratify the primitive Constitutions which had been framed in the month of March of the year 1581 in the first general chapter, Teresa dictating, or at least inspiring, them. This greatly displeased many of the Fathers of Carmel, so that shortly after, by decree of the general chapter, they bade farewell to the nuns, all care of spiritual government of them being thenceforth refused. But when Philip II, at the request of Anne of Jesus, who had been struck and terrified by this cruel decree of the Order, had interceded with Gregory XIV for the nuns, on the 25th of April 1591 the provident Pontiff commanded that the Order should again bestow care on the nuns, and that the provincials should govern and visit the nuns and their monasteries throughout their district, some things in the Sixtine Brief being changed. Peace, therefore, was arranged after a fashion, and in the following year 1592 the Fathers reprinted word for word at Madrid, at the press of Pedro Gómez de Aragón, the edition of the Constitutions of 1581, inserting into them what Gregory XIV had added or changed, marked with an asterisk (see Fr. Louis of St. Teresa in the French Synopsis of the erection of the Carmelite nuns in France, chap. XLVIII).
[1690] which, since it may not be passed over in silence In this way the vicar general residing in Spain, made General Superior in the year 1593, governed the monasteries there, increasing daily, and at the same time also the two founded at Genoa in the year 1590, until these two, with a third erected at Rome, were separated on the 20th of March 1597 from the Spanish Congregation, and subjected first, when on the 13th of November of the year 1600 they became a distinct Congregation, to a commissary general, and then, in the year 1605, to another General Superior created for them, together with the other houses founded and to be founded outside Spain, under the name of the Congregation of St. Elijah, while the Spanish Congregation remained distinguished by the title of St. Joseph. The houses of Discalced nuns of each of these Congregations, each under its own head, used almost the same Gregorian Constitutions. And if perhaps certain particulars grew upon them in course of time, it is not my purpose to search these out, much less (far be it!) to censure them. Nevertheless these and other things I can by no means pass over in silence at a time when Teresa is summoned to court; since I have undertaken to treat thoroughly all things which pertain to the holy Foundress. I must therefore inquire whether she herself made the Constitutions of the Reformed Carmel or not; and, if she made them, whether immediately by herself, or mediately through the chapter; then whether she willed that leave be given to her nuns to choose for themselves confessors and directors of the soul; and whether until her death she willed that liberty, which she herself had introduced and which the general chapter of the year 1581 had confirmed, to be kept intact, or whether in the lapse of time, especially when the abuse arose under Gracián, she desired it to be more restricted; and finally whether she preferred that the Carmel of the female sex should be subject to the General and provincial of the same Order, or whether it was all the same to her whether her daughters were subject immediately to the Order or immediately to the Ordinary of the place or to others delegated by apostolic authority. For hearing all these things, however discordant, indiscriminately affirmed and denied according to each one's pleasure, I cannot but discuss them, since they are truly a great part of Teresa's life, and most certainly deserve to be placed among the chief deeds of the Saint, inasmuch as they regard not so much the discipline as the foundation of the Order reformed by her. Indeed I should offer to the learned world a work too truncated if, in a manner unusual for my predecessors, I neglected and passed over mute these contrary assertions of most grave men concerning the Saint whose Life I am writing, while on all sides confused voices din around me, and it is asserted with equal assurance that Teresa wrote Constitutions and did not write them; that she changed her mind about the leave given her daughters regarding confessors and did not change it; that the Constitutions which are observed in one kingdom are the primitive ones and the genuine offspring of the holy Foundress, while of the contrary ones which flourish elsewhere the same is affirmed no less stubbornly; where yet of the opposed ones at least one or the other must be spurious.
[1691] on account of the conflict of opinions, And lest you suspect that anything is rashly asserted by me, so that you may see the utmost disagreement among authors about these things, compare, I would wish, the following authors, whom I regret that I cannot bring forward here in excerpts on account of prolixity: Fr. Ambrose of the Holy Angel in the proemial letter of the Ceremonial of the nuns, in Fr. Frederick of St. Anthony (book IV, chap. X, num. 11); Fr. Ferdinand of St. Mary, General Superior of the Congregation of St. Elijah, in his encyclicals of the year 1630; the Rev. Fr. Honoratus of St. Teresa, likewise General Superior of the same Congregation, in his letters of the 13th of March 1835 to the nuns of the Belgian Carmel, annexed to the new edition of the Constitutions; Fr. Joseph of Jesus Mary, General Superior of the Congregation of St. Joseph, in the prologue of the Constitutions of the year 1616; Fr. Francis of St. Mary in the Chronicle (book I, chap. L, nums. 5 and 6), and very many others from both Congregations, of St. Joseph and of St. Elijah; and from the French, Boucher, in the Life of Bl. Mary of the Incarnation (book III, note b), who says frankly that the Constitutions have been preserved entire in France, but changed in other regions; and above all Tabaraud, in the Life of Cardinal de Bérulle (vol. I, book II, chap. V, n. 7), speaking thus: Bérulle rightly feared lest there should happen in France what had been done in Spain, where the Carmelite Fathers had driven out the Teresian Constitutions so as to substitute spurious ones: so that nuns of the Reform of St. Teresa no longer exist in Spain, and the convents of Flanders, Italy and Germany which desire to possess the Rule of the holy Reformer are compelled to have recourse to the great convent of Paris. Which you will find drawn from Tabaraud and alleged in the French journal entitled: L'Ami de la Religion (vol. LXXXI, page 406). In a similar way Marillac speaks in the book on the Erection and institution of the nuns of St. Teresa in France, published at Paris in the year 1622: where (page 74) he too affirms that the Constitutions which were made while St. Teresa was alive are both better observed and more highly esteemed in France than anywhere on earth, and that the cloistered virgins of the holy Mother are trained there faithfully according to their norm, nay more faithfully than elsewhere. And if anyone is eager to know how much and in what matters the Constitutions of the Reformed Carmel differ among themselves, he must compare their various editions, Spanish, Italian, Netherlandish, French, etc.: several of which it has been permitted me to inspect, for example the Madrid one of the year 1592 and the Brussels one of the year 1607; not to speak of the authenticated manuscript of the Brief of Sixtus V given on the 5th of June 1590, which is found in the Royal Library of Manuscripts at Brussels, under num. 7398.
[1692] I shall endeavour to treat it circumspectly and solidly. All these things, then, which certainly touch Teresa most nearly, must be discussed by me in such a way that I investigate what the holy Mother willed, did, wrote and sanctioned. Every other disquisition meanwhile, which belongs not to the biographer of the holy Foundress but to the historiographer of the Order, I plainly avoid. And moreover, as I approach to treat these things according to my duty, I profess that I am far from wishing in these matters to condemn or censure any custom which anywhere, according to the variety of times or places, has flourished or flourishes in the much-praised Order. Truly it would be rashness of judgment in me, nay it would be impious, to disapprove even in the least of anything which by apostolic power (which is far greater than the founders of Orders and all religious Orders) has perhaps been changed somewhere in this or that constitution or mode of government, although the mode of government deserves to be called the principal Constitution among all the other Constitutions. Therefore, inclining to the partisanship of no side, I simply relate the deeds of St. Teresa, and what I say I endeavour to fortify with probable historical arguments, relying chiefly on the testimonies of writers who were contemporary or nearly contemporary with the Saint, and most of all, wherever I can, on the authority of Teresa herself. Further, since in proving a fact a witness cited avails more than reasoning, so that the value of what I bring forward may be established the more clearly, I shall for the most part allege the very words of the authors whom I invoke as witnesses, so that my readers, as judges sitting with me on the tribunal, may become masters of pronouncing judgment from the documents brought forward and the testimonies gathered, according to the truth elicited and perceived by them, or, where this has remained doubtful because of the uncertain instruments of the suit, that they may suspend judgment with me, imitating the Areopagus, which in a case where
the right was inextricable, ordered the litigants to return after a hundred years.
[1693] The holy Virgin, although she did not intend to erect a new Order, It is fitting to note beforehand (from the Chronicle, book III, chapter XXXIX, number 2) that it never even entered the mind of the most modest Virgin to found a new Religious Order (contrary to what Emery hints at page XL), but that she wished only to restore her own. For, as Gregory XIII testifies in the Brief of the 5th of June 1580, the holy Reformer strove to compose her Institute according to the primitive rule; and, as Father Juan de Jesús María says, she embraced the rule of Albert, moderately tempered by Innocent and, under that very tempering, held for the primitive one, so eagerly that she surpassed that primeval observance which preceded the mitigation of Innocent (book I, chapter II). But if anyone wishes to know the successive stages of the Order, he will be able to read in the Chronicle (book I, chapter XLVIII) how Blessed Albert, made patriarch of Jerusalem by Innocent III from being bishop of Vercelli, about the year 1209 (see the Acta SS., tome I of September, page 576) put together the first rule of Carmel; then how in the year 1248 Innocent IV, at the instance of the general chapter celebrated in England under Blessed Simon Stock, confirmed the earlier rule, softening it and reducing it to a better form; and finally how far Eugene IV in the year 1432 mitigated this Religious Order, at whose breast our Saint was nursed and brought up in the following century in the monastery of the Incarnation. The particular articles, however, of the Institute reformed by Teresa are neatly set forth by Ribera (book II, chapter I).
[1694] she nevertheless composed Constitutions: These things being premised, it occurs to me that the first thing to be inquired into is whether Teresa made the Constitutions of the Order reformed by her. As regards the nuns, indeed, this ought to be beyond controversy, since, as we shall shortly see, manifold and most certain testimonies, with an almost unanimous consent, establish that the Saint made them; yet the reason for raising this question, which is by no means idle in so great a matter, both for the Order and for the glory of the holy Mother herself, is that some weighty writers of the Carmelite Order are not sufficiently consistent with themselves when they speak of the primeval Constitutions of their reformed Institute. To a man, indeed, all of them, especially when they extol the excellence and holiness of their laws (which are plainly exceptional), or when they urge their execution, say that these originally proceeded immediately from the holy Mother, and that those very ones were sanctioned by apostolic authority in the year 1581 by the general chapter according to her mind and counsel: but when it is a question of the liberty granted to the nuns in this chapter of consulting spiritual men and of summoning confessors, they deny that the Constitutions of the year 1581 are properly to be ascribed to St. Teresa, and moreover they affirm that she, taught better things by experience, repented of the liberty she had once granted in respect of confessors. Intending to deal afterwards with this latter article concerning the choice of confessors, I shall now refute those who deny the Constitutions to the holy Mother. In order to accomplish this, I shall first cite some of those, men certainly not of the lowest bench, who have said that the ancient Constitutions of the nuns of their Order are not properly Teresian, reporting their very words.
[1695] which certain persons wrongly take away from the Saint on the pretext Let there come forward first, then, as asserter of this opinion, Father Nicolás Doria, who, in the Memorial which he put together in the year 1590, when he was commissary general of the whole Order, wrote thus: When the nuns (who, with the Venerable Ana de Jesús, were resisting him as he undertook and changed many things) alleged, to strengthen their opinion, that the Constitutions had been made by the holy Mother, it was, if not malice, at least the most manifest ignorance. For although it is established that the greater part of the matter of the Constitutions was drawn from her notes, books and counsels, yet the force of law and the power of obliging, which may be called the soul of the Constitutions, was derived not from the Saint but from the Order, as from the head. So he, who ought to have been well acquainted with matters pertaining to the Constitutions of his Order; since he was one who had treated with the holy Foundress concerning the more inward government of the Order, who had been present at the chapter of Alcalá where the Constitutions had been sanctioned, and who, as commissary general, discharged the chief office of his Order. In almost similar words speaks the most weighty writer of the Chronicle (book VIII, chapter XXXVII), saying thus: The first idea conceived of framing the Constitutions was in great part from Teresa (but, as he says more correctly in book II, chapter L, number 3, restricting nothing: the things dictated in the Constitutions, the spirit and the words, were Teresa's), but the force of law was from the Order, because she herself could not give this to the law: in such a way that the Constitutions are, in different ways, both from the Saint and from the Order, which also could, and from time to time had to, change them, as in fact, the circumstances of things requiring it, it did change them. Wherefore the nuns who ascribed them to Teresa alone deluded themselves with a womanish error, and did injury to the Religious Order. Finally Father Antonio de San José (tome II, letter 39, note 15) and the author of the Chronicle (book V, chapter XII, number 11) report that the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé, in a certain letter written in the year 1621 (of whose authenticity, on account of the bitterness of its style, there is more than doubt), said among other things: Those who, to defend the free choice of confessors, wish to rely on the Constitutions of the chapter of Alcalá, contend that they were made by Teresa; but it is not so.
[1696] that the Order confirmed them. But it is plain that much more false is the very reasoning of the aforesaid, by which they deny that the Constitutions can be attributed to Teresa for no other reason than that the Order confirmed them. For is this any reason why they should have ceased to be Teresian in the proper sense of the words, that the chapter ratified them and added a new legal force to them? Certainly, in an altogether similar case and by equal reasoning, the ten parts of the Constitutions composed by St. Ignatius for his Society remained Ignatian and are proclaimed as such by all, although only after the death of the holy Father did the general congregation decree that they were to be held ratified and firm, and so endowed them with the legal force which they previously lacked (see the Institute of the S. J., Congregation I, decree XV after the election, and Orlandini, History of the S. J., book X, numbers 51 and 52): and this is all the more true because, if the Constitutions of religious Orders were to be held as belonging to him who confers legal force on them, they would have to be attributed not so much to the general chapters as to the Supreme Pontiffs, who by apostolic authority permit them to be framed, or, once framed, to be fortified, whether with or without the intervention of the chapter of the Order. Wherefore it is truly astonishing that Father Nicolás Doria, Father Francisco de Santa María, and (at least as they report) the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé, that threefold most distinguished offspring of the holy Mother, should wish to take from her head that illustrious garland of the Constitutions made by her, and to deny a constant and patent fact by so feeble a reasoning, as though she had not composed them because the Order confirmed them, and as though all who said that the Constitutions were framed by the holy Mother had had in mind to assert anything other than that she devised and wrote out the Constitutions, or supplied their matter and essential form; although they would admit that the general chapter, by putting the words in order, or by polishing the sense suggested by Teresa, perhaps added an accidental form, and by sanctioning them clothed them with new force.
[1697] [That the Saint made the Constitutions which were in use before the year 1581 is proved] Therefore, notwithstanding this ratification of the Constitutions by the chapter, provided I shall have demonstrated that Teresa at one time composed Constitutions of her Order for the weaker sex, not only those which were in force in her first convent of Ávila and in the other monasteries founded afterwards by her before the year 1581, but that she also ordained those which were confirmed in the general chapter, if not as to the words, at least as to the substance, the matter will be settled, and they can be ascribed in the obvious sense of the words to no one other than the holy Mother, and will have to be called Teresian with the utmost propriety of words. That Teresa in fact made the Constitutions of her nuns, first for her convent of Ávila and then for the remaining convents erected by her before the general chapter of the year 1581, I can relate neither more clearly nor more fittingly than in the very words of the Chronicle. Afterwards I shall ask whether those Constitutions also which came forth from the general chapter of the year 1581 can or should be attributed to the holy Mother. Hear now, then, the Chronicle: The spirit which God communicated to our glorious Reformer was so greatly enlightened for teaching, increased with such strength for working, that, since the rigour of the primitive rule seemed slight to her, she added on top of it bareness of feet, cheapness of food and clothing, hardness of bed, harshness of disciplines, mental prayer prolonged to two hours, and spiritual reading preceding it, the examination of conscience, and other observances; which, added to the Rule (of St. Albert), constitute a manner of living much more rigid, arduous and most perfect: and these observances, which our Discalced Order calls fundamental (for they sustain the weight of all the rest, giving vigour to the soul), are to be ascribed to the Saint to such a degree that the religious and her first coadjutors in reforming the Order received them from her, and they still continue to be kept entirely intact, just as the holy Mother planted them in her convent of Ávila. And since it was fitting that there should be uniformity, which would join minds in the bond of peace, no less in the manner of observing the rule and these weighty instructions than in the government of the convent, she added other admonitions, conspicuous for prudence and sagacity. Moreover it is a precept of prudence and experience, as Cassiodorus notes, that great and weighty matters are not to be entrusted to memory alone, which, if it preserves the deeds, changes the words and little by little obscures both; and that therefore they are rightly committed to writing, so that they may be understood more surely always in one way. Considering which things, the holy Mother resolved to write whatever seemed to her to conduce to this uniformity. Divine Providence intended in this matter (for it was done by the counsel of God) that the image of this holy soul, transferred into a book and thence into her daughters, should order them to her rule and norm, rendering them pure, spiritual and holy. She communicated her writings on the Constitutions to Father Master Fray Domingo Báñez, her confessor at the time, and at his bidding offered them to the Most Illustrious Don Álvaro de Mendoza, bishop of Ávila and prelate of this convent, so that through his approbation they might obtain due authority. This, namely, is the universal and uniform tradition of the nuns and Friars, all the veterans testifying that the Constitutions were framed by our holy Mother, to be first of use to the convent of St. Joseph. Which is also established from the Brief of Pius IV, dispatched at Rome on the 17th of July 1565 (at which time she had the one convent of Ávila), by which the Pontiff, at the holy Mother's petition, confirms the Constitutions made by her. Both her most weighty biographers, who knew her and dealt with her,
and received her Confessions, Father Doctor Francisco de Ribera S. J. and the Right Reverend Lord Bishop of Tarazona, Fray Diego de Yepes, affirm in particular chapters that the Constitutions were made by the Saint; and the latter pursues this at length. And in support of his testimony the auditors of the Rota assert the same in the Relations drawn up by them for the canonization of our Saint.
[1698] from the Chronicle; to which is subjoined the testimony of Ribera. In the year 1566 there came into Spain the Most Reverend Father Giovanni Battista Rubeo of Ravenna … He gave the Saint licence to found several monasteries of nuns, with the condition added that they should be subject to the Order, and afterwards gave a new mandate to frame new Constitutions, common to several convents, and to add to the Constitutions written for the monastery of Ávila whatever should seem to her necessary to this end. Our Reformer, speaking of the many good services by which Father Gracián had benefited the Discalced Carmel, says: "He made Constitutions for the Friars; for we nuns had already received Constitutions from the Most Reverend Father General." Since these words might give occasion to think that the Constitutions were not framed by our Saint, but received from elsewhere, one must not only take note of her great humility, by which she desired that not herself but the prelate should be acknowledged as their author, but another, more legitimate consideration must also be made. In laws, namely, the invention, the words, the disposition and the order observed among them must be properly distinguished from the authority and force of obliging. The former can be the work of a subject; the latter is the work of the prelate alone. Thus we see that pragmatic sanctions and royal laws are commonly the work of councillors, but the force and authority arise from the approbation and subscription of the king. To this without doubt the holy Mother attended when, not only humble but also wise, she said that the Constitutions of the nuns had been made by the Most Reverend Father General; since he made them who added authority to them. Wherefore I do not deny that the invention, the words, the order, and whatever else could be done by an inferior, are Teresian. Moreover, as Father Gracián says in the prologue of the Constitutions printed at Madrid in the year 1588, the holy Mother drew certain things, not contrary to her Reformation, from the ancient general Constitutions which the Most Reverend Father General had made for reforming his subjects. Thus far the Chronicle (book 1, chapter L). And Ribera (book II, chapter 1), after he has enumerated the more notable rules of the Reformed Carmel, says the same in the following words: All these Constitutions Teresa drew up and decreed, having received power for this by a diploma of Pius IV granted on the 16th day before the Kalends of August in the year 1565: which Supreme Pontiff, since by it he had granted that she should conceive Constitutions, approved the same without any delay after they had been drawn up.
[1699] [In this an error is noted, as also in Helyot, but most of all in the French Encyclopedia.] Here, however, Ribera, together with Father Montoya (dissertation III, number 62) and many others who copied Ribera, is to be corrected: for even in the original edition of the year 1590 it is erroneously said that Pius IV on the 17th of July 1565 permitted that Constitutions should be made. For Pius at this designated time approved those just made; but the faculty of making them had already been given on the 7th of February 1562. By a similar, but contrary, error Father Helyot in his History of the Religious Orders says that the Teresian Constitutions were already approved by Pius IV on the 11th of July 1562. And this is found not only in the various editions of that work, but also in the Italian version. The same error also occurs in that heaped-up farrago of impieties and lies which is entitled in French Encyclopédie méthodique. But there is no leisure to refute the absurdities which are found there, as is its custom, both where it treats of Jurisprudence (article Carmelite) and where it treats of History (article Thérèse). In the former, for example, it is said that Teresa had already begun the reformation of the Order in the year 1536, while in the latter many things are put forward about our Saint which are either false, or, where they are certain, in a sceptical manner.
[1700] It is worth while here to repeat in a few words the excerpts from each pontifical Diploma, This is also proved from the pontifical Diplomas, and from elsewhere: namely of the former, by which the faculty of framing statutes is given, and of the latter, by which those framed are approved. Pius IV, namely, says in the year 1562: We impart licence and free faculty to frame, concerning those things which shall concern the happy rule and government of the same monastery, whatsoever statutes and ordinances, lawful and honest and not contrary to canon law, and after they shall have been framed and ordained, to change them in whole or in part for the better according to the character of the times, to reform, to alter, and even to take them away altogether and abrogate them, and similarly to frame others. And we decree that the statutes and ordinances of this kind, both those framed and those to be changed, reformed, altered and framed anew, have been and are confirmed by apostolic authority from now as from then and conversely, and must be inviolably observed … But in the year 1565, when it had been requested that all things which had been done up to then should be confirmed, the Pontiff replies: We therefore, concurring with grateful assent in your just petitions, holding as ratified and acceptable the erection of the monastery, the indult, the will, the statutes, the due obedience to be given to the same Ordinary by virtue of the aforesaid indult over the said monastery and over the beloved daughters in Christ, Teresa de Jesús, now the present Abbess, or perhaps called Mother, María Isabel and Ana de los Ángeles, formerly in the monastery of the nuns of the Incarnation outside the walls of Ávila, but now dwelling in the said monastery of St. Joseph, and over the other nuns of the said monastery existing for the time being, and the decrees and all and singular other things contained in the same letters and whatsoever followed therefrom, provided they be lawful and honest, as they have been duly and providently done, confirm them by apostolic authority and fortify them with the patronage of the present writing. And the Roman Breviary hints at the same, saying: The severer rule of the ancient Carmelites, by the inspiration of God and with the approval of Pius IV, she set forth to be observed first by women, then by men. Besides this, in the Life of the Venerable Baltasar Álvarez, who died in the year 1580, the Venerable Luis de la Puente says (chapter XI, § II) that he gave help to Teresa in making the Constitutions. As regards the more recent writers, however, one may stand for all, Father Federico de San Antonio (book IV, chapter X), whose words we defer to be cited in the number that will shortly follow, where at one stroke they will serve to cut off a twofold question.
[1701] and the things which in appearance are contrary are explained. From all these things it follows that it is manifest that the holy Mother wrote Constitutions at least for her first convent of Ávila and for the subsequent convents erected by her: so that it is to be wondered at that Marillac and Boucher, in the books already cited, affirm that the houses which follow the Reformation of St. Teresa had not yet had Constitutions in the year 1580, but that the Saint had up to then been the living rule of the houses of her Reformation. But Boucher in the Life of St. Teresa (tome I, page 393) speaks more correctly, and acknowledges that the Constitutions had been made earlier. Nor let anyone say that those first Constitutions of Ávila had for their author the Prior General of the Order, and not Teresa. He does indeed say, in his diploma sent to Teresa on the 16th of May 1567, that those Constitutions are his; and the Saint herself says (Foundations, chapter XXIII, number 8) that the nuns, before Gracián put together the first Constitutions for the Friars, already held their own, received from the Most Reverend Father General. But here, as the author of the Chronicle observes in the things which have been alleged from him above, the humble Teresa attributes the honour of the Constitutions made to the Most Reverend Father General who had approved them, whereas there the same Prior in a public diploma, as befitted his dignity, calls his own the laws which he had sanctioned, although they had been composed by Teresa by the power given to her by the apostolic See. And this the Saint distinctly affirms in her letter to Moya (which see at number 1632), saying: By a papal Brief I obtained the faculty of framing Constitutions; and when the Most Reverend Father Prior General came here, he approved them: and they are now observed in all the convents which I have founded.
[1702] [Finally the matter is settled from the surviving autograph of those Constitutions.] The things said thus far I had collected laboriously and studiously from the many Carmelite books which I turned over, and I had handed these manuscripts of mine to the printer to be struck off forthwith, when a passage which had escaped me up to this point came to my notice in the Año Teresiano (tome VII, page 159), by which every doubt on this matter is settled. Namely, Father Antonio de San Joaquín, the author of that tome (which was approved by the definitory of the Order assembled at Madrid on the 14th of February 1757, and published in the following year from a Madrid press), affirms that St. Teresa's autograph codex of those original laws is extant at Madrid, in the following words: The laws which she framed for the use of her first convent of St. Joseph of Ávila, original as they were written out by the hand of St. Teresa, exist to this day in the Madrid archive of our Order. The codex is in the form, as it is called, of a quarto, and numbers twenty-four pages. On the two pages before the text written by the Saint there are two lines formed by another hand, displaying these words: "Constitutions of our Holy Order of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns." And then by a third hand it is written beneath: "They were in the convent of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns of Medina del Campo." There follows next the writing of the holy Foundress, in this manner: "J. M. Constitutions for the use of the sisters of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel of the primitive Rule, without relaxation, given by the Reverend General of the said Order, in the year 1568." … The last words of those Constitutions are these: "Let no one arrogate to herself ampler licence, nor perform any penance without permission. Thanks be to God." The volume of the codex is bound and covered with smooth African leather, not without gold ornament. The corners are covered with silver, and it is closed with clasps wrought of the same metal. On each flat side of the codex there is a shield, of which the one bears this inscription: "Original Constitutions of Our Holy Mother Teresa of Jesus"; but the other: "From the piety of the Reverend Fathers General Procurators of the Indies." Astonishing, truly, is so deep a silence of almost two centuries concerning that weighty autograph. Astonishing that those Constitutions are absent even from the latest editions of the Teresian Works.
[1703] The Saint is to be said to have made also those of the year 1581, The former part of my position having been proved, then, namely that at least the Constitutions of the nuns for the convents founded before the chapter of the year 1581 were made by Teresa, the latter remains to be proved, by showing what she herself contributed in framing those which the chapter of the year 1581 ratified. Already above, speaking of these, I cited the words of the author of the Chronicle, expressly saying that in the Constitutions confirmed by the chapter the things dictated, the spirit and the words were from Teresa: El dictamen, espiritu y palabras fue de la Santa The dictation, spirit and words were the Saint's. But, as I have already observed, if in them the things dictated, the spirit and the words proceeded from the holy Mother, who would deny to her, and to her alone, with the fullest right, if you hold to the proper sense of words,
that they can and must be ascribed? Nor does it stand in the way (as that author subjoins) that the authority and force of obliging, and the ordering of the words, were from the chapter; since this does not diminish the truth of the assertion that Teresa supplied the matter and the essential form of the Constitutions: which abundantly suffices for her to be held the genuine parent of the Constitutions. Wherefore the author of the Chronicle is to be judged to have said altogether wrongly elsewhere that the nuns who had alleged that the Constitutions were made by Teresa alone had been deceived in womanish fashion and had done injury to the Religious Order itself. And both of these are all the further from the truth, both because what the nuns asserted ought to have been well known to the whole Carmelite family, and because on the side of their cause stood most learned and most upright men, such as were the archbishop of Évora, Luis de León, Domingo Báñez, and St. John of the Cross himself, who, as is said in the Chronicle (book VIII, chapter XLV, number 6), was always the father and patron of the nuns, on account of their innocence and truthfulness, known to him; nay, who was thought to have been among the counsellors of the Venerable Ana de Jesús, the standard-bearer of her sisters, who desired to keep whole and intact that liberty of summoning confessors which the holy Mother had granted, and which the general chapter of the year 1581 had held firm.
[1704] which is proved from Ribera, Yepes and the Acts of canonization, But, not to repeat what has been said, since I have already argued above concerning the aforesaid passage of the Chronicle, let us now review others who also assert these later Constitutions to be Teresa's. Let the other champion of the opinion which I defend, and witness of the fact which I report, then, be Ribera, who immediately after the passage which I brought forward from him at number 1698 continues thus: The Constitutions conceived and drawn up by Teresa and approved by Pius IV were, while she herself was still alive, confirmed by the same apostolic authority at Alcalá in a certain chapter of the Discalced Fathers in the time of Lent of the year 1581, through Father Juan de las Cuevas of the Order of Preachers, chosen by the Supreme Pontiff specially for this business, and Father Jerónimo Gracián de la Madre de Dios, provincial of the same Discalced, and through the definitors themselves. These same sanctions, seven years later, the Most Reverend Cesare Speciano, bishop of Novara, Nuncio in Spain of Sixtus V, Supreme Pontiff, approved one by one by his authority, mention being made of the several titles which had been prefixed to their chapters, and gave them perpetual firmness on the 10th of October 1588 (not 1584, as is found in Ribera by a misprint, nor 1585, as in Father Juan de Jesús María and in many places here and there). Nor less openly than Ribera does Yepes declare it, inscribing in the second book the title of chapter XXXVII thus: Where are set down the principal Constitutions which Teresa made for the government of the monasteries of her daughters. And before he relates her statutes word for word, he puts first the following words: The Constitutions which I shall give here, I shall set forth in the same words in which she herself wrote them, not, however, in the same order, because I wish to adduce only the principal ones. And I have extracted them from the ancient Constitutions which were printed and observed while Teresa was still living. Therefore, on the witness of Yepes, those Constitutions which he himself exhibits in that chapter, and which he rightly calls the principal ones, were written out by the holy Mother in the very same words in which, in the year 1581, a few months after the general chapter, at the instance of Teresa and by the care of Gracián, they were published at Salamanca. All of which things are to be carefully noted; for in the weighty disquisition which is to follow concerning liberty in the choice of confessors, the argument drawn from these words will have to be seriously treated. Further, the Acts of canonization agree with the statements of Ribera and Yepes. For in the second Relation the auditors of the Rota have thus: The foundation of the supreme prudence of Blessed Teresa is drawn from the laws and Constitutions which she gave for the rule and government of this Religious Order, so prudent that from them it can easily be discerned that she was enlightened by divine light in framing them. In which, among other things, this is greatly to be noted (and at which even the wisest men wonder), namely that tempering of sweetness and austerity with which she instituted this Reformation (number 1237 of this Commentary).
[1705] Nay, those very Discalced Fathers who think that the holy Mother changed her mind concerning the opportunity of employing confessors, and from the Discalced Fathers, affirm in innumerable places that she made the Constitutions. Besides the Chronicle already cited, hear one or two of many, first Father Federico, who (book IV, chapter X, number 11) speaks thus: The Constitutions for the nuns were composed by the holy Mother at Ávila, examined by Father Domingo Báñez her confessor, approved by the Right Reverend Don Álvaro de Mendoza, bishop of this city, and confirmed in a general formula by Pope Pius IV, by a Brief given on the 17th of July 1565. Then the Most Reverend Father General Giovanni Battista Rubeo, having given the holy Reformer ample licence to erect new monasteries of nuns, commanded her to ordain Constitutions which should be suitable for all convents, and approved them. Then they were revised in the first provincial chapter of the Reformed, gathered at Alcalá in the year 1581, approved and made firm by the subscription of the provincial and of the definitors, one of whom was St. John of the Cross. And he adds a few lines after: According to Father Ambrosio de San Ángel, in the prefatory letter to the Ordinary or Ceremonial of our nuns, the Constitutions of the nuns of our Congregation are supposed to have been published according to the original writing of the holy Mother. Likewise hear Father Fernando de Santa María, Prior General of the Congregation of St. Elias, in his encyclical letters given to the nuns in the year 1630, which are prefixed to the Constitutions published in French with the licence of the Prior General Honoré de Sainte-Marie in the year 1835 in Belgium (but with the press unnamed), where among other things he says the following, which I am compelled to turn from the French into Latin, since the original text is lacking to me: You will know, therefore, most beloved Mothers, that these very Constitutions, which have been in use in this Congregation from the 12th of December 1590, and which four nuns carried with them from Spain to Genoa, where they founded the first convent, you will know, I say, that they are those very Constitutions which our holy Mother composed, taught and observed from the time when the primeval observance was introduced. These Constitutions accordingly were not proposed to the chapter of the Order and given to the nuns in the name of the holy Mother or as composed by her, but were published in the name of the chapter itself, on account of the great humility of the Saint, then still living, and also because it seemed to her that, if they proceeded from the chapter, more authority and esteem would accrue to them, and they would be better observed. And for that reason the chapter approved these Constitutions by apostolic authority. Then he proves from the passage of Ribera cited above that those very Constitutions were both made and observed by the holy Mother: and he notes that the apostolic Nuncio Speciano, in approving them one by one, said: These are the Constitutions made by Holy Mother Teresa, and that Sixtus V, in a Brief given on the 5th of July 1590, likewise said that they were composed by the holy Mother, and that he confirmed them as such. What words, however, Gregory XIV used, I do not know; for it has not fallen to my lot, however much I have searched, to become acquainted with that Brief. And I wonder all the more that it is absent both from the Chronicle (apart from certain excerpts) and from the Bullarium of the Order, since it is held and alleged as the foundation of the discipline introduced concerning confessors. Father Louis de Sainte-Thérèse might also very opportunely be cited, from the Appendix to the Annals of the French Discalced Carmel, where he treats of the nuns (chapters XLVII and XLVIII); but, lest I be too long, I refrain from bringing forward these and others, all the more because their words are for the most part only repeated from the Chronicle: so like are they to one another.
[1706] After such testimonies, then, of so many and such great men, openly saying that the Constitutions came forth from Teresa, no room is any longer left for doubting about ascribing them to the holy Mother alone. [and from the Saint's own letters: so that this matter ought to be beyond controversy.] This, however, is further confirmed from several of her letters. Namely, as is said in letter 27 of tome III (number 7, and note 21) and letter 28 of the same tome (numbers 1 and 8, and notes 1, 3 and 12), notes concerning the changes to be made in the Constitutions had been collected by Gracián through Teresa from all the convents, which notes came to Teresa to be reviewed: she then saw and reviewed them, and emended them, and made them her own; so that whatever was brought to the chapter were the requests of the Saint herself: and so carefully did the holy Mother suggest to the Fathers of the chapter the small as well as the great things to be put in the Constitutions, that nothing must be said to have escaped her penetrating judgment, and that her memorials, as Father Antonio de San José says (tome III, letter 28, note 3), embraced all things which were made new in the Constitutions. Accordingly those Constitutions are Teresian which were drawn up in the chapter of Alcalá, and published by the press of Salamanca in the same year 1581, and republished by the press of Madrid through the help of the Venerable Ana de Jesús in the year 1588, and a third time by that of Brussels in the year 1607; and there the mind of the holy Mother, such as she had it towards the end of her life concerning the various affairs of her Order, can be discerned. Far be it from me, however, to conclude from this that the holy Mother, if she had been among the living in the time of Sixtus V and Gregory XIV, would have had even the least natural aversion of mind or judgment (I do not speak of her obedience in carrying out, since that was perfect) from the changes which those Pontiffs made in the Teresian Constitutions. For she knew how to accommodate herself to the time, tenacious indeed of her purpose, but wisely, so that she herself changed some things in those which she had first laid down: for example concerning the revenue of the convents, towards which all were inclined; concerning the number of the nuns, which in the end she did not indeed wish to be great, yet she allowed it to be greater than thirteen persons in each convent, as she had fixed before; concerning the sisters of the white veil, or lay or converse sisters, such as she had not wished to have before the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé, who was the first admitted as such, etc.
§ LXXXVIII. What the holy Mother thought concerning the choice and the opportunity of confessors for her nuns, and whether she at any time changed her opinion on this matter.
[That the holy Mother at the beginning wished her nuns to have that opportunity of confessors,] The difficulty concerning the primary source from which the Constitutions emanated having now been resolved, and these having been asserted to be Teresa's, there comes to be unravelled the second question, concerning the opportunity granted by the holy Mother to her daughters of summoning confessors and spiritual masters even from outside the Order of Carmel. This question is connected with the preceding, since it concerns one of the primeval Constitutions, and indeed that one which was the chief cause why there was dispute about the genuine author of the Constitutions, and why certain persons denied to the holy Mother the proper parentage of the Carmelite laws. Accordingly this controversy is to be handled by me all the more attentively because it once afforded occasion
for many contests in the Order, in which the authority of the holy Mother was loudly invoked. Her mind on this article, therefore, I shall skilfully investigate as my office requires, both from the testimonies chiefly of Ribera and Yepes, and from the writings of the Saint herself. First, however, as I did at the beginning of the preceding paragraph, I think it right to declare here again that I wish to dwell on the scrutiny of the mere historical fact and on composing the Teresian history alone, but that I do not wish to wander out into a field not my own, nor to run out into the subsequent history of the Order, and still much less to disapprove the discipline in force today. All, whatever opinion they embrace for the times that followed, are compelled to confess that the holy Mother, at the beginning of the Carmel reformed by her, not only granted great liberty in this matter to her daughters, but that it was also her will that this should be granted in perpetuity. Too openly for it to be called into doubt did she manifest this mind of hers in the book written about the year 1565 for the use of her house of Ávila.
[1708] is proved from a decisive passage of her book, Namely in chapters IV and V of the Way of Perfection, giving counsel to those of her daughters who should feel that their confessor was harmful to them, she declares that the opportunity of several confessors has been given them, without its extending, however, to taking a great many of them. It would then be most advisable, she says, to indicate to the prioress that it is not going well with her soul with this confessor, and to choose another confessor. This, moreover, is most secure and safest, provided it can be done without any detriment to his honour. But in this case, and in others similar to it, in which the devil could weave snares of great troubles and evils for a person, and in which what needs to be done is not sufficiently clear, it will be far best to take pains to confer with some learned man (for to this end, whenever there is need, faculty and liberty is given among us to anyone), and also to confess to him, and to do whatever he shall prescribe in this kind. For unless some remedy were given and granted, the door would be thrown open to the gravest errors. For how many errors are committed in the world because in doing things one proceeds without counsel, especially when the matter is of inflicting harm on someone! By no means, then, ought we to omit to suggest some counsel and remedy in this matter: for when the devil begins to attack us by this way, great evils will without doubt follow from it, unless this thread is cut off as speedily as possible. Wherefore what I have said about choosing another confessor seems far best, provided there be any convenience for doing it, which with the grace of God I hope will by no means be lacking… But if the confessor be given to vanity, this is surely enough to disturb all the nuns, since their consciences dictate to them that they should act otherwise than the confessor indicates to them: and if they are compelled to have one and only one confessor, they do not know where to turn, or how, their troubles driven away, they are to arrive at quiet; because he inflicts harm on them whose part it was to remove and prevent it. Many difficulties and troubles of this kind, I believe, occur in some places; for which I am sorry: wherefore do not wonder if I take such pains to warn you of this danger.
[1709] where she sets forth that harms will otherwise arise, May God not permit, I beseech, by His mercy, that any nun of this house fall into that trouble which I have mentioned, so that she find herself distressed both as to the soul and as to the body; which will happen if the prioress and the confessor agree so well between themselves that the nuns dare indicate nothing either to the latter about her or to the former about him: whence it may happen that they are tempted to keep silent in confession even about the gravest sins, because they fear to bring on themselves some disquiet. How much harm, good God, the enemy can inflict here, and how dear this evil restriction and honour costs them! They think that they greatly promote the Religious Order and the honour of their monastery by having only one confessor: meanwhile, however, the devil busies himself by this way to bait and capture souls, since he cannot do it by another. For if the afflicted sisters ask for another confessor, forthwith all the observance and discipline of the Religious Order seems to them to go utterly to ruin; or if he be of another Order, even though a man of singular holiness, they believe that they bring great infamy and disgrace on the whole Order if even only from time to time one confers with him. Give singular thanks to God, daughters, and praise Him for the liberty which you now enjoy; which, though it does not extend to taking a great many confessors, yet it is granted you to deal and confer with some, besides the ordinary confessors, so that they may enlighten and instruct you in all things. And I beg, for the love of God, whoever shall be superior, that she always procure this very holy liberty and earnestly ask it of the bishop or provincial: namely, that besides the ordinary confessors it be permitted from time to time both to herself and to all the others to confer and deal with other learned men and to open to them the inmost recess of their soul; especially if the confessors are not learned, however good and holy.
[1710] above all if the confessor is not learned, May God not permit that they suffer themselves to be directed in all things by someone who is not learned, whatever spirit he may seem to have or may even in fact have. Learning and erudition are of very great moment for giving light in every matter; and there will perhaps be some in whom it is possible to find both these endowments: and the greater the grace the Lord shall bestow on you in prayer, the more firmly must your works and prayer have a foundation, and the more solid must they be. This at least you know, that the first stone of this building must be a good conscience, and that you must strive with all your strength to have a pure conscience, even from venial sins, and always to follow what is most perfect. People will commonly think that all confessors know this; but they gravely err. For it happened that I was dealing with someone who had completed the whole course of theology about matters pertaining to conscience; who by the things he told me, as being of very little moment, did me no small harm: but I know that he did not wish to deceive me on purpose; and no reason moved him to deceive me. But what? He knew no better. The same then happened to me also with two or three others. But in this all our good is placed, that we have true light for observing the law of God most perfectly. On its basis prayer is best built; and without this strong and solid foundation every superstructure will collapse: so that it is necessary for you to deal with men endowed both with the spirit of God and with learning. If it cannot be that the confessor has both these endowments, see to it that at least from time to time during the year it be permitted to confess to another; and if perhaps you are forbidden to confess to others than the ordinary one, see to it that, even outside confession, you open the state of your soul to such men as I have said and deal with them about the things pertaining to it. I dare say still more, namely, that even if the confessor had absolutely all the endowments, nevertheless what I say ought from time to time to be practised and to have place. For it could be that he errs; whence it is advisable to take precautions lest through him alone all be drawn into error: yet let regard always be had to obedience, lest anything be sinned against it. For there is no evil without some remedy against it: and even one soul is worthy that its good and safety be provided for in every way; how much more the souls of many?
[1711] and promises great goods if this choice is granted, Whatever I have said here pertains to the prioress: whence I beg her again and again, since in this house nothing else is sought but the consolation of the soul, to procure the consolation of each in this regard: for the Lord has various ways by which He leads souls, and one confessor does not know them all. This, moreover, I promise you, that spiritual men will never be lacking who will gladly be willing to deal with you and console your souls, provided you are such as you ought to be, even though you are poor. For He who sustains your bodies will also stir up some in whom He will inspire the desire to instil some light into your souls most willingly and to avert this evil (which I most fear). And if perchance it should happen that the devil tried to deceive the confessor through some false doctrines, yet when he sees that other confessors also are available to you, he will be on his guard, and in all that he is to do he will be far more circumspect. This door, then, being closed to the devil, I trust in the Lord that he will have no other in this house by which to enter. Wherefore I beg, for the love of God, the bishop or whatever superior there shall be, to grant this liberty to the nuns, that, when there are men who shall be endowed with learning and virtue (for in so small a town as this one is, this is easily understood), he not hinder or forbid them from confessing to these from time to time, even though they have other ordinary confessors. For I know that this is expedient for many things, and that the harm which can flow from it is of no moment at all, and can by no means be compared with that supreme and hidden evil, far surpassing almost all remedies, which lies in that other course. For this is proper to monasteries, that their good, unless it be fostered and nourished with the greatest care and solicitude, very quickly perishes; evil, on the contrary, once it has taken hold, is removed only with the greatest difficulty, and the custom once introduced in vicious things and imperfections forthwith passes, as it were, into a natural manner and habit of acting.
[1712] forbidding that the confessor act as superior of the monastery. Whatever I have said here I have in fact seen and understood, and have conferred about with learned and holy men; who have sufficiently perceived what would be most suitable for this house, so that its perfection might be promoted and increased. But among all the dangers (for in things, as long as we live here, these occur) we have found that to be least, namely that no vicar should ever be appointed who has free faculty of going out, going in and commanding whatever he likes, nor yet a confessor who has this liberty, but that these should only have at heart and in their care the enclosure and the decency of the house and its progress both inward and outward, so that, if at any time there shall be some defect in this matter, they may advise the prelate of it. But they themselves ought not to be superiors and to preside. And this is what is already observed in this house; and this not by my judgment and decision alone: for the bishop whom we now have, and to whom we are subject (for for many reasons we did not wish to subject ourselves to the obedience of the Order),
who is a most ardent lover of all religion and holiness, and a distinguished servant of God, Álvaro de Mendoza by name, sprung from an illustrious family, and most zealous to promote this house in every way, summoned an assembly of men endowed with much learning, spirit and experience for the treatment of this matter alone. And this at length, after many prayers, both of very many others and my own, although unworthy, was so laid down and decreed. It will therefore be most just that the prelates who shall follow afterwards embrace this decree and opinion, since it was both laid down by such good men and asked of the Lord with very many prayers, that He might deign to give light for discerning what is best; and, so far indeed as it has been possible to understand up to now, this is certainly best. May the Lord grant that it be always further promoted and grow, as it shall be more to His glory. Amen.
[1713] There are those who contend that the holy Mother's mind on this was changed. From this long and clear fragment, then, it is established that it was at one time the decisive will of the holy Mother that her daughters should enjoy ample faculty of summoning directors of their soul, with the consent, however, of the prioress. It must now be seen whether she persisted in this opinion, or whether she changed it, either in the years before the chapter of Alcalá, or after it, in the last months of her life. Meanwhile no person of sense, unless the gravest arguments are brought, will be able to persuade himself that the holy Mother abrogated that liberty which she had sanctioned after many prayers poured out to God, that He would not let her fall into error in a matter of such weight, and after many counsels sought from learned and holy men; and which she had declared in such weighty words that it did not seem to her sufficiently provided for by a Constitution framed on that matter, unless she had earnestly commended its execution, depicting in true colours the excellent effects from its fulfilment and the worst from its neglect: no one, I say, will believe that the holy Mother revoked the liberty which she had decreed so clearly, so solidly, so energetically, so earnestly, with arguments drawn both from reason and from authority, unless the most powerful and authentic proofs of that revocation be exhibited. Father Antonio de San José does indeed say, with many others (tome III, letter 73, note 17), that there can be no more doubt about Teresa's changed mind concerning the choice of confessors than about the whiteness of snow, and (ibidem, letter 79, note 18) that this is evident from many passages of her letters no less clearly than the light itself. But, since it is not permitted to swear by the words of authors, especially of the more recent ones, calling the matter into examination let us question the ancients, so that, after we have received the testimonies of the earlier writers, we may bring a well-founded judgment on the assertions of the later ones. For these, however many of them agree in saying that Teresa adopted another mind, unless they prove it either from the writings of the holy Mother or from ancient and exact historians, lose their case, and do not deserve credence.
[1714] [But against this is the decree of the chapter of 1581, which was conceived from her mind,] By way of prelude we invoke the authority of the chapter of Alcalá. For if, as we reasoned in the preceding paragraph, the Constitutions which that chapter confirmed were properly Teresian, it follows that that Constitution also, no otherwise than the rest, was conceived from her mind which was issued there concerning the liberty of confessors in the following words: Let the prioress, with the provincial or visitor, seek a cleric about whose age, life and morals there is suitable satisfaction. He, then, who shall have these qualities may be the confessor of the nuns with the consent of the provincial. Notwithstanding that ordinary confessor, however, the prioress may, not only on those three occasions which the Council of Trent permits, but also on others, admit some Discalced Carmelites and other religious of whatever Order to hear the Confessions of the nuns, provided that the prioress herself is satisfied of their uprightness and learning. She may do the same as regards preachers. And the provincial who now is and who shall be for the time being may not take away this liberty from them. I know indeed that Father Antonio de San José (tome II, letter 39, note 15) and some others declare that at least this decree was made not by the holy Mother but by the chapter alone. But he affirms this gratuitously, since of the two reasons which he brings, the one, namely that many unpleasant affairs and many troubles in the Order arose from that Constitution, is of no value at all, while the other, namely that the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé said (as Henríquez declares in her Life) that this decree did not come from Teresa, seems not at all admissible, as we shall say in the following paragraph. Much more rightly, then, does the same author elsewhere, speaking of the composition of the same Constitutions, affirm the contrary, saying that it must be altogether believed that nothing was done by Gracián or by the chapter except what was best and what was in conformity with the opinion of the holy Mother. Further, is it likely that the assembled Fathers, who, out of their reverence and regard for the holy Reformer, had sent all the memorials of the prioresses to her, and had received her judgment on them, is it likely, I say, that they, without the knowledge of the holy Mother or even against her will, issued such a Constitution of the highest moment as Teresa at that time, as the adversaries contend, disapproved and repudiated? But if any should say that at that time indeed the Saint thought the same as the chapter about the matter of confessors, but only after that chapter, in the last months of her life, changed her mind, namely when she saw the abuse of that liberty spreading under Gracián, we rightly require that arguments be brought of her changed mind, and that there not merely be cited to us certain complaints of the holy Mother against Gracián, who, spread out on external things, slackened the reins for himself and others more than was fair, and, as regards confessors, overstepped the limits of that cautious liberty which Ribera calls precious and Yepes holy, and with which, being preserved, as Teresa says, religious perfection also was to be preserved.
[1715] [and which, once it was made, it was not even lawful for the Saint afterwards to oppose.] The matter could be settled by a single argument of Montoya (dissertation III, number 154), by which he demonstrates that the holy Mother could not even have changed that Constitution, with the following reasoning: Theologians and canonists ask (Sánchez, book VII on Matrimony, disputation, number 30; Barbosa on the Power of the Bishop, part II, allegation IV, number 7) whether a synodal statute, passed by a bishop in his synod and confirmed by the Supreme Pontiff, can be abrogated by the same bishop, and whether a statute passed in some province by a viceroy and confirmed by the king can be abrogated by the viceroy: and they deny it, relying on the chapter "Si apostolicae", de Praebendis, in the Sext, in which the Pontiff says: "We make those things ours to which we impart authority", and on law 1, § "Sed neque" (Code, de veteri jure enucleando), in which place it is said: "Where the prince confirms, it is the same as if he passed the sentence." And since it is the opinion of all that the statutes of a superior cannot be abrogated by an inferior, it is plain that in the said cases the statutes confirmed by the Pontiff and the king cannot be abrogated by the bishop and the viceroy. But St. Teresa, as she herself has declared to us, framed the Constitutions, and among these the Constitution in question: and these Constitutions were from the beginning approved by the Supreme Pontiff in a general clause and confirmed by the Most Reverend Father General of the Carmelites, and then on various occasions by the vicars of the Most Reverend Father General, and finally by the apostolic commissary and by the apostolic Nuncio in specific form in the year 1581. Whence it follows that St. Teresa could not have abrogated the said Constitutions. She could indeed in certain cases declare that such or such a Constitution, for example that on confessors, did not oblige, or that in these or those circumstances its use was not expedient: but this declaration does not mean the same as the annihilation or revocation or abrogation of the Constitution; and at the most it would be the same as what authors, following Aristotle, call correcting the law by epikeia.
[1716] And other arguments are brought, Let the adversaries, then, seriously consider whether they are not doing injury to a most obedient Mother, who always studiously conformed her will and judgment to the will and judgment of her superiors. Besides this, after the consultations of the monasteries on the Constitutions had been collected, after the counsels communicated by the holy Mother to the chapter (in which not one iota or one tittle appears about altering or changing the Constitution concerning confessors), after a diligent examination of all these things had been instituted by the chapter of Alcalá, the Constitution on confessors was published with the greatest applause and by apostolic authority together with all the rest, so that there might be one and the same manner of governing in all the monasteries. Moreover, such was the regard of the new provincial Gracián at that time towards the holy Mother that Father Federico (book II, chapter XXXVIII) praised him in the following words: He shared his pastoral care with three others whom he made vice-provincials, and conducted himself laudably towards the holy Mother, deferring to her supreme authority over all the monasteries of nuns, and indeed greater than that which the vice-provincials enjoyed. Since these things were so, who would believe that the holy Mother departed in governing from the norm of the decreed Constitutions, or accommodated herself to them only under constraint and in appearance; while yet it is known that she, both living and dying, always exhorted all to the regular observance of the Constitutions?
[1717] especially from Ribera and from Yepes: These things having been premised, because they are connected with the preceding paragraph, let us now hear Ribera, who in that passage which I have already indicated, and which I would wish to be read entire below in the Life of the Saint (book II, chapter I), among the Constitutions which he says were made by the Saint, and approved by the Pontiff, and confirmed by the chapter, and again approved one by one by the apostolic Nuncio, numbers the following, which he declares in these words: She did not wish the nuns to be subject to the Friars of their Institute alone, nor that these alone should have the right either of feeding them with the divine word or of hearing them in Confession; nay, she granted them to speak to and give ear to all those whom they knew to be more apt for the rule and direction of their souls, and to confer freely with these very persons about their inward affairs, no one being present or aware. And he then praises the same thus: The more she called her nuns away from all human consolation and conversation, the greater liberty she granted them for acquiring familiarity with God. For besides that exceptional and highly to be prized liberty which we said a little while ago the Blessed Mother gave her nuns of hearing sermons and of disclosing their faults and of communicating with all spiritual men, from which great good to souls, and a safeguard of consolation, and the greatest abundance of the nourishment of the divine words are derived, … of mortification … and she introduced the frequent use of the Most Holy Sacraments. So Ribera. But no less distinctly speaks Yepes, who exhibits the very words of the Constitution, such as were cited above by me, and then adds: She greatly desired that her nuns should enjoy liberty concerning Confessions; and as long as she lived, she procured,
enjoined, and again and again begged the prelates who were at that time, that they grant them that holy liberty, and that they seek for them learned men and sincere servants of God, who could raise her daughters to greater perfection. For the holy Mother felt that, as long as this was kept, perfection too would be preserved (book II, chapter XXXVII, § V).
[1718] a plausible objection from Yepes Teresa's mind concerning confessors cannot be stated more clearly than is done both in that Constitution and in the words which Yepes adds. But that same Yepes immediately subjoins several things which are objected by the adversaries weightily and not without an appearance of truth, but which nevertheless can be dissolved by explaining them, while on the contrary the arguments and testimonies already brought for our opinion leave the adversaries no escape at all or plausible reply. The words of Yepes that are objected are the following: But since there exists nothing, however good, which is not liable to generate many evils, as time went on the holy Mother discovered that what she had ordained as medicine for her nuns could be turned into poison. For since spirit, no otherwise than other things, diminished with the flowing years, she began to fear lest under the colour of spiritual communications she should leave a door open to chats and conversations. She called other reasons also into consideration; all of which together created in her a fear lest this Constitution should be the occasion of a certain relaxation in her monasteries: which she also disclosed to a certain prioress still living, who may be numbered among the holiest nuns of her Order. For the Saint said these words to her: "This point, which I inserted in the Constitutions, greatly confounds me: for although spirit and sincerity flourished when this Constitution was made, yet I fear lest hereafter our nuns not profit from it; since they are much frequented, and treat of their sad affairs, which rather no one ought to learn of unless he be of our Order." Wherefore the Prelates of that Order restricted this Constitution according to the intention of the holy Mother, taking away this licence from the prioresses, and enjoining on the provincials that they provide for the convents of nuns according to the decree of the Council of Trent. Wherefore, as was in use while the holy Mother was living and still is, the prelate, having first consulted the prioress, names, besides the ordinary confessors, in places where there is a monastery of the Order, three or four most weighty, learned and spiritual men from those places, who may hear them in the Sacred Tribunal, and who, if any nun should find herself in some necessity, may be a help to her.
[1719] resolved by Montoya. A plausible objection, I confess: but it is not badly resolved by Montoya (dissertation III, number 218) in the following manner: The circumstances in which Yepes was writing were such that he could not put forth his own opinion on that matter nor state the opinion of the holy Mother without adding something which should sound like a revocation of this liberty. He was writing twenty years after the Saint's funeral: he saw the Constitution of which we are treating revoked by the Carmelite superiors: he saw the nuns now subject to the will of the superiors: he saw these ready in mind to defend the revocation of that Constitution which they had proclaimed, and to assert that the holy Mother had willed it: he knew the uproars and disturbances which had already arisen from it… On the one hand he feared lest he himself should add torches to discord, if he were to list this Constitution of the holy Mother among the other principal ones and append no sign of a change of counsel on her part, which the Carmelite Fathers had persuaded many nuns of. On the other hand he could not be driven to omit this Constitution, since he knew well that the will of St. Teresa had always been that this law should be exactly kept, and he himself judged that it was of the greatest importance that it should remain in use. In these circumstances he adopted the counsel of stating the Constitution and openly declaring the opinion of the holy Reformer and his own; which, however, he tempered, by adding what the Carmelite Fathers said about the opinion of the holy Mother, which he adorned with the decree of the Council and with reasons agreeable to the mind of the same Fathers. Montoya then goes on, after his custom, to explain copiously the reasons brought by him; which, as being rather long, I shall subjoin here contracted for the sake of brevity. Yepes, he says, could not have affirmed more expressly that the holy Mother persisted in the will that the Constitution framed on confessors should be observed than he does in those words which he adds to that Constitution cited by him. For which reason, when he afterwards writes that it was restricted by the prelates of the Order according to the mind of the holy Mother, it must altogether be said that he speaks of the mind of the Saint according to the interpretation of her sons, but by no means according to Yepes's own understanding. Otherwise he would most openly contradict himself; since he had written a little before that the holy Mother, as long as she lived, wished that a generous supply of confessors should be granted. Further, I confess that it was also written by Yepes that the Saint feared lest such a remedy should be turned into poison. But it is also established that it was said by the same Yepes that the Saint, notwithstanding this fear, by no means changed her mind: for, as she herself says, this liberty was expedient for many reasons, and the harm which could arise from granting it was of no weight compared with the great, hidden and almost irremediable detriment which could have been incurred from denying it. Thus Montoya explains with long reasoning this passage of Yepes and the apparent contradiction. Which can be read at length in him.
[1720] And finally the last argument is brought from the Chronicle. The last argument, finally, for the opinion of the holy Mother is her apparition made to Ana de San Agustín, when Father Alfonso de Jesús in the year 1622 had diminished the number of confessors in the convents of the religious. See how that apparition is related in the Chronicle: Holy Mother Teresa did not lay aside her solicitude on this occasion; but considering from heaven the grief that had arisen in her family, she appeared to her beloved daughter and most acceptable spouse of Christ, Ana de San Agustín, who, dwelling at Villanueva de la Jara, was illuminating the whole Order with the rays of her holiness: and she said to her these words, which the same Venerable Virgin deposed on oath in the last Relation which she left us concerning her life: "Warn the prelates to take care that they do not so greatly restrict the rules as regards Confessions; since on this occasion, no otherwise among the religious men than among the nuns, very many errors are made"… And the same Venerable Mother narrates the following in her sworn Relation: "When Father Ángel de Jesús María, prior of this province, died, on the same day he appeared to me as I was praying, and said that he was dead and was detained in purgatory, and asked that I help him with my prayers and not omit to give the prelates that warning concerning confessors which our holy Mother had commanded me; since it was very expedient: and so he vanished"… Thus far the Venerable Virgin; who, although she resolved to obey and to warn his successor, when nevertheless he came to Villanueva, found him so cold that she preferred to keep silent rather than incur the risk of saying things which she presumed would not be well received by the provincial and to which due credence would not be given. Wherefore the Lord permitted that she be tormented by demons, as we shall say in her singular and miraculous Life. And then she told this to her confessors, and these to their prelates. So the Chronicle (book XVI, chapter IV, numbers 5 and 6).
§ LXXXIX. Continuation of the same matter: where the objections brought for the contrary opinion are resolved.
Several passages from the Saint's letters are objected: There are objected first of all certain passages of the Letters of the holy Mother, from which Father Federico de San Antonio (book III, chapter XII) is so far persuaded that she thought otherwise in the last years of her life concerning the choice of confessors, that no other proof seems to him to remain to be desired. I should be long if I were to examine the several annotations appended to the Letters through four tomes, where the same is maintained by Father Antonio de San José and by Father Pedro de la Anunciación. It will be enough for me to weigh only those passages with which Father Federico de San Antonio props up his opinion, speaking thus: Let me have the proofs taken from the Letters of the holy Mother, since in these she has declared her will to us most manifestly. In the monastery of Malagón various complaints had arisen among the nuns against the nun who was filling the place of the absent prioress. Confessions were heard by a priest, a good servant of God; but since he did not have, joined to his virtues, experience of the things which usually happen in religious communities, he did not know how to lull these womanish complaints. The holy Mother, writing to Father Gracián (tome II, letter 25, number 2), undertook the defence of the impugned superior, and said to him: "My Father, even if St. Clare were acting the part of superior there, I believe defects would be found in her as long as that priest is confessor there." She disclosed her mind still more against the parish priest of Malagón in a letter written in the year 1579 (tome II, letter 30, number 2): "Do not permit (the Spanish text has I do not permit), she says, this man to speak with any of them or to receive anyone's Confession. For the rest, I show him much favour; for that is fitting." In letter 63 of the first tome she proposed a ready remedy for procuring the quiet of a nun of Seville, saying: "Let her not be permitted to confess to others than the Friars of our Order, and all will be set in order." And so much so that, to provide for the common quiet of all the nuns of Seville, in letter 61, likewise of the first tome, she imposes on the Mother prioress such a precept: "I only beg you to see to it that there be as little dealing as possible with those who are not Discalced: which I say so that neither these nuns nor you treat with them of the state of your souls. It is not to be made much of if at times Discalced Friars are lacking to them and spiritual communications are more sparing; since it is much more expedient that we do not fall again into disturbances such as there were before."
[1722] first of all the passage from letter 25 of tome II, which is resolved here: There is objected first, then, letter 25 of tome II. See in Spanish the passage in question: A mi mi parece, mi Padre, que aunque vaya alli Santa Clara (estando el que esta, y la tema que ellas tienen), hallaran hartas faltas. [To me it seems, my Father, that even if St. Clare were to go there (he who is there being there, and with the obstinacy they have), they would find plenty of faults.] The circumstances, however, were these: the nuns of Malagón, their beloved prioress having been removed on account of illness, were less fond of the vicaress, upright indeed, but not so dexterous at winning minds to herself; and Father Antonio de Jesús, who by order of Gracián was then visiting that convent, had increased the evil by listening to and favouring those who complained. In that turmoil the confessor, whether his authority had been worn down, or some fault of his had intervened (he is nevertheless called by Father Antonio de San José himself a suitable man, learned and upright), could not calm those badly agitated heads and compose the stirred-up waves. These things being premised, let us now come to the inquiry. The Spanish words: Estando el que esta (which literally signify: he who is present remaining; and which
Father Federico renders by: As long as the confessor whom they now have remains there) can equally be referred either to the confessor or to Father Antonio de Jesús, who, then acting as visitor in that convent, by no means favoured the vicaress; for which reason also Teresa here defends her before Gracián. Suppose, however, that the confessor is certainly designated; and further imagine him really inexperienced, as Father Federico calls him, in the things which usually befall nuns; nay, granted that this inexperience of his was in part the cause why the nuns did not agree well with their superior: yet what logical force could squeeze out of this particular fact that the holy Mother, by consequence, wished that Carmelites alone should be confessors to her daughters, and that they alone should direct them? If such reasoning stood, it would be concluded that the Discalced themselves were unfit for this, even from this very letter of the holy Mother, where she herself says that Father Antonio de Jesús had not received from God the talent of directing nuns (Father Antonio de San José, in his note 15, does indeed twist this phrase to the confessor of Malagón, but he himself seems to correct this error of his in the Index, under the word Antonio de Jesús). But would it be right to extend this defect of the one Discalced Father Antonio to the whole Order, and to conclude thence that the nuns could not be subject to the rule and spiritual direction of the Carmelite Fathers? This first argument of Father Federico, then, must be reckoned weak. And scarcely more solid is the annotation of Father Pedro de la Anunciación, who attaches to this passage of the letter the following words: These things can be considered, so that the evil may be seen which the direction of a confessor who is not of the Order begets for nuns. I have noticed, however, that in the last Spanish edition of the Letters, of the year 1793, and the second-last, of the year 1778, which I have in hand, this note of Father Pedro de la Anunciación is omitted among the notes of Father Antonio de San José.
[1723] [as also the passages objected from letter 30 of tome II, from letter 63 of tome I] There is objected next by Father Federico letter 30 of tome II. I judge that I can here dispense with the lengthy disputation which I should have to institute if I wished to set forth the whole matter here in question together with the circumstances of things and persons. For, for anyone to form a judgment on that matter, the simple reading of that letter, or even of the passage alone objected by Father Federico, seems to me to suffice. For concerning a particular nun, strayed from the good path, the holy Mother has these words there: I do not allow her to speak with anyone (from outside) or to confess her sins to him. For the rest, I show myself very kind to her: for it is fitting. To which passage may be joined a twofold annotation on that letter, the one of Father Pedro de la Anunciación, saying: Let those hear this who say that nuns ought to have many (put, for St. Teresa's mind: several) confessors, and ought not to be content with the Carmelite Fathers alone; and the other of Father Antonio de San José, gathering from that and a similar passage this conclusion: Only he, then, who doubts of the whiteness of snow, may doubt also of Teresa's mind. For although it is true that she for some time allowed her daughters confessors other than those of her Order, yet sad experience taught her that the contrary was expedient. For my part, although I do not doubt of the whiteness of snow, I confess that, unless I am blind in the eyes like a mole, I do not see there Teresa's mind about confessors changed, though Father Federico tells me in vain that it is openly declared there, and the annotators assert it still more strongly to no purpose. There is objected thirdly letter 63 of tome I, where the holy Mother says to the prioress of Seville: If you bring it about that Isabel de San Jerónimo confess her faults to the Friars of our Order alone, the matter will be finished. But tell me, I pray, what has this passage of the letter, where one nun is in question, to do with proving a general thesis? Or was Isabel de San Jerónimo the whole body of nuns? Moreover the annotator writes here in the margin: The holy Mother, for the peace of her daughters, forbids them to confess to others than her Discalced. But here he deviates still more from the truth, since the holy Mother does not forbid even Isabel de San Jerónimo, much less several or all, to unburden her conscience to others than the Discalced; since immediately after she subjoins: If she should deal at times with Father Rodrigo Álvarez (of the Society of Jesus), tell that Father what I think of this penitent. Whence it follows that both the affirmation of the annotator and the argumentation of Father Federico limp. And here Teresa is seen to do what she greatly wished the prioresses to do, namely that a director of the soul unsuitable for her, whom a nun had asked for, should be denied her by the prioress.
[1724] and from letter 61 of tome I. There is objected fourthly letter 61 of tome I. Note here first that a twofold most vehement persecution raged against the nuns at Seville. The first was when one among them, incited by a most ignorant confessor, wished to denounce Teresa with her daughters to the tribunal of the Holy Inquisition; the second, when the Calced Carmelites deposed the prioress, and substituted another, and attempted to proceed juridically against Gracián, against the holy Mother and against some of her daughters: so that this convent found itself in extraordinary circumstances. Besides, perhaps learned and pious priests, such as the Teresian Constitutions require, were not then at hand, so that for those circumstances Carmelites alone had to be employed; while meanwhile it is established that the Saint never commanded this generally, but on the contrary that other confessors who were not Discalced were employed several times in her convents, even in her later life. But, what destroys the force of this objected passage, it is not properly a question there of confessors, but of familiarity with those not Discalced. Moreover Teresa does not there forbid all dealing with outsiders, but only wishes that it be as rare as possible. Again, therefore, it follows that this too is not a solid argument for Father Federico to prove a general thesis, as though Teresa had wished for Carmelite confessors only. And it also follows that still less accurate is the heading which the annotator puts in the margin, saying: The Saint attributes the persecution which her daughters suffered at Seville to the Confessions which they had begun to make to others outside her Order, and asks them not to do so any more.
[1725] Then a passage is objected from the Life of the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé, Another objection is then taken from Henríquez in the Life of the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé (book IV, chapter XIX), which passage you can also read in the Chronicle (book V, chapter XII). That author says, namely: The holy Mother in her writings greatly recommended that superiors grant the nuns greater liberty in confessing than that which is in use in other Orders: and in her Constitutions she left them the faculty of calling in various learned and spiritual men with whom they could communicate the affairs of their conscience, judging that the perfection which she desired to establish in her Order would be preserved as long as this holy liberty was preserved. But afterwards several reasons met her which created in her the fear lest this Constitution should be a cause of relaxation in her monasteries. And so, the Saint in all things accommodating herself to the mind of the superiors of the Order, as these too accommodated themselves to the intention of the holy Mother, that Constitution was derogated from while she herself was still among the living; as the bishop of Tarazona asserts, book II, chapter XXXVIII (or XXXVII, by a misprint), in these words: "The prelates restricted that Constitution according to the mind of the holy Mother, taking away that faculty from the prioresses", etc. And a little lower: "This, therefore, was the usage in the time of the holy Mother, and it flourished afterwards in the Order, that the prelate (the prioress having first been heard) in places where there is no convent, besides the ordinary confessors, should designate three or four of the weightier, more learned and holier priests of that place, who should hear them in the Holy Tribunal, and who should come to them whenever some nun should need help", etc. Nevertheless, from the time that St. Teresa exchanged mortal life for eternal, some nuns became restless; and, although spiritual and led by a good intention, they strove to prop up their opinion concerning the pretended liberty by saying that it was according to the spirit of the holy Mother, and that what was opposed to it was a mere fiction introduced by the Carmelite Fathers, who wished the nuns to be subject to themselves beyond measure. The contrary was established; and to placate them, not once but more often, the Carmelites asked the Venerable Ana to declare what the mind of the holy Mother had been; since it could be better known to no one than to her. The Venerable Virgin assented to their requests, saying that the opinion had been changed by the holy Mother, because she judged the latter to be safer than the former. In this way quiet was obtained for some time; but again and again new difficulties arose, which I think were fostered by some outsiders, and which were especially increased when the Venerable Ana was living at Paris. The superiors were somewhat disturbed, and seeing that they had no oracle from whom they could expect an answer more surely than from Mother Ana de San Bartolomé, they gave letters to her, commanding that she again declare in writing what the Holy Foundress thought concerning the liberty of Confessions. To these questions Ana replied by a letter (of which I have the copy) in the following words:
[1726] whose letter "As regards confessors, I have already told certain of our Fathers what I saw, and related that I had several times heard St. Teresa say: namely, that in the beginning, when she did not have a provincial of the Discalced, and needed friends for carrying out her affairs, she could not prevent them from having dealings with her and with her nuns, when it pleased them, and that she showed herself very affable to those friends; but that afterwards, when she saw her province founded, she little by little changed her opinion, and in certain circumstances things were not done so gently: since her fortitude was great, and she feared no one. And if she saw the least defect, even if they were her best friends, she would abandon them", etc. And some lines lower: "One day," she says, "I found her very sad, and as I was speaking with her she said these words to me: Ana, I see us going to ruin when we open the door to many confessors: for although I was of another opinion, I now praise the Franciscans, who go more safely, since, if there is anything good or bad in their Order, it is hidden from seculars; this greatly benefits the honour of religious Orders. This she said; and I believe that, if she were alive, things very different from those which she wrote would be written by her. I do not desire that souls be distressed, but I firmly hold that our reformed nuns ought to be content with fulfilling our duties; and that by those who
govern us great heed must be paid to this, that our vocation is not that we should enjoy liberty, but that we should live in this world as though we were dead."
[1727] and an apparition is alleged. Then Henríquez narrates that the holy Mother appeared to the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé in France, as she had appeared to her before in Spain, and, when she desired to be freed from this earthly exile and to follow the Mother, said to her that she must still remain, because there was something to be done one day by Ana which Teresa, if she were alive, would have done. These things, however, which were to be done by Ana, Henríquez confidently judges to have been her effective co-operation in restricting the liberty of confessors among the nuns. And finally he continues thus: When the choice of confessors was being restricted by the decrees of the chapter, certain other convents of nuns did not, like Ana, submit themselves to them, but rather struggled against them, with great tumult in the Order. But then the Venerable Mother carried out with the zeal of Elias that which Holy Mother Teresa had told her in France. She took it to heart, namely, to defend her part, asserting that the mind of the holy Mother had not been that so great liberty should be left to the nuns, and adding that, if they wished to be daughters of so great a Mother, they should rather think fit to obey her than to resist the will of the superiors. This she declared by word and in writing. And to fulfil the better the commands which St. Teresa had given her, when she gave her her own office and made her her vicaress, she wrote a memorial in which she proves with very firm reasons how safe the government of the Discalced Carmelite Fathers is, how conformable to the spirit and mind of the holy Mother, urging that they obey them in all things and through all things, embrace the decrees of the chapter, and not govern themselves by the counsels of others. Nevertheless some refused to obey, and were cut off from the Order. It is greatly to be lamented that these so undeservedly despise what the holy Mother procured with so much labour and, after she had procured it, valued so highly.
[1728] But that passage is weakened, because it contains false things: A weighty objection, truly. But let us weigh one by one the still stronger reasons which destroy its force. Let us note beforehand, however, that those arguments stand unshaken and not to be refuted which I have already brought from the Constitution made in the chapter of the year 1581 and from the testimonies of Ribera and Yepes. If these are unconquerable and cannot be reconciled with the assertions of Henríquez, it must necessarily be said either that Henríquez is false, or that his narration is spurious, or at least that it has been tampered with by another hand. In the first place it is said by Henríquez: Teresa accommodating herself in all things to the mind of the superiors of her Order, as these too accommodated themselves to the intention of the holy Mother, that Constitution was derogated from while she herself was still among the living; as the bishop of Tarazona asserts. But tell me, where or when, while St. Teresa was alive, was the Constitution on the liberty of confessors changed? And was it changed by the Saint herself? Or by the superiors of the Order? Yet both are wrongly hinted at by those words: Teresa accommodating herself in all things to the mind of the superiors of her Order, as these too accommodated themselves to the intention of their holy Mother. Far indeed was it from happening under the government of Gracián, who was elected provincial in that very chapter in which the Constitution on the liberty of confessors was framed, and who remained provincial long after Teresa's death. For on what ground would he have taken away this Constitution on account of the too ample opportunity given there, he who, beyond the moderate liberty which was granted by that Constitution, gave the nuns, on the witness of the Chronicle (book V, chapter XII, number 2), such licence that each could communicate her spirit with whom she wished, whether he were a Carmelite or were not: in such a way that there were then counted more confessors than penitents. Tell me, then, the names of those superiors of the Order to whom Teresa accommodated herself and who accommodated themselves to the intention of their holy Mother, so that that Constitution was at that time derogated from. Therefore Yepes is far from saying what Henríquez contends that he says. On the contrary, that biographer of the holy Mother had affirmed before that she, as long as she lived, procured, recommended, and again and again begged the prelates of her time not to deny her daughters that holy liberty. And if he adds to these anything apparently contrary, he must be judged, as we noted above, to speak according to the mind not of himself but of the Carmelites. From which it follows that the words with which Henríquez affirms that the holy Mother accommodated herself to her superiors, and in turn the superiors to their holy Mother, for restricting together the Constitution on the liberty of confessors, are incoherent and contrary to historical truth.
[1729] moreover a bad interpretation of Yepes is made in it, Besides, in that very passage where Yepes seems to concede something to the mind of the Carmelites, the manner of choosing confessors which he says already flourished under St. Teresa is generous enough, and, if it is well attended to, the liberty of the nuns concerning the opportunity of confessors asserted there by Yepes is scarcely narrower than that which we have seen inculcated by St. Teresa in chapters IV and V of the Way of Perfection. For, what must be duly noted, and what Montoya himself does not sufficiently explain, Yepes there speaks of the monasteries of nuns which have at hand in the same place a monastery of Fathers of the same Order, from which we said above that the Saint always desired the ordinary confessors to be taken. But besides these confessors of her Order, Yepes says that three or four others were usually named, who, the words personas… en aquel lugar persons… in that place sufficiently indicate, were not Carmelites. Therefore the nuns in those places had confessors in sufficient number, with whom, with the consent of the prioress, they could deal. And as regards other places about which Yepes says nothing, and in which the house of the nuns existed alone without a house of the Fathers existing in the same village or city, it is plainly probable that, if not a greater, at least not a smaller number of priests was granted them. Therefore in both kinds of places, if you suppose that there were two and perhaps three ordinary confessors, with the three or four extraordinary ones of whom Yepes speaks, you arrive at the number of about six priests, which certainly suffices to give each nun that opportunity and to offer that choice which the Saint wishes to be offered at the beginning of chapter V of the Way of Perfection; where indeed she says that that liberty ought not to extend to taking many confessors.
[1730] [whose words, both there and in the Chronicle, seem to have been most gravely changed.] It is altogether necessary to note here that, in the passage of Yepes cited above, where he relates the manner of naming confessors, there has been added in the Chronicle (as also in its French version, and in the text of Henríquez) a particle, as it is called, negative, which alters the whole sense not a little. Namely, Yepes (at least in the Spanish edition of the year 1776, which I use) says: In places where there is a convent (en los pueblos donde hay convento) there are usually named, besides the ordinary confessors, three or four notable men, etc. And the English version of Woodhead has the same (part II, page 58). But the Chronicle puts: En los pueblos donde no hay convento; which signifies: In places where there is no convent, namely of the Discalced. Which sense the French translation of the Chronicle expresses, saying: Dans les lieux où il n'y a point de couvents des Pères In places where there are no convents of the Fathers. Does not that added little word, however, introduce a most grave alteration of Yepes's statement, since by it readers are given to understand that it is said by Yepes that in those places where there is a convent of the Discalced the opportunity of summoning other confessors was not granted in those first times? From the French translation of Yepes of the year 1643 also it is concluded that the genuine text has: donde hay convento; although it is ineptly rendered in French: dans les lieux où elles ont un couvent: where the nuns have a convent. For that pleonasm is improbable by which in French this is referred to the monastery of the nuns: for when Carmelite nuns are said to exist in some place, it is insipidly added that they have a monastery there, since they are not accustomed to wander about.
[1731] And several other things in the objected letter of Ana are suspect, It might also be asked in passing how it came about that the superiors of the Order several times, and indeed when twenty years and more had already elapsed from the death of the holy Mother, still judged that recourse must be had to Ana de San Bartolomé, if the holy Mother herself had so openly, as they declare, declared in various letters of hers that that Constitution on confessors was to be changed. For I attribute no weight to the statements of Father Louis de Sainte-Thérèse, who in the Synopsis on the Erection of Carmel in France (chapter XLVIII) says that the aforesaid letter of Ana was written before the fourth general chapter of the year 1594. For he is contradicted by Henríquez (on whom alone he relies), who affirms that Ana, when she was consulted, was already living at Paris, and accordingly did not reply before the year 1604, in which she came to Paris: not to say anything of the lack of reverence due to the apostolic decree, if it were true, as Father Louis says, that the chapter wished to consult Ana before inserting this into the body of the Constitutions of the nuns. But, this being passed over, let us now examine that aforesaid letter of Ana (see number 1726): for it contains astonishing things. Who, namely, would believe that Ana spoke as it is in the letter? Is not that speech of hers a disgrace both to the holy Mother and to her daughters and to those illustrious men who lent helping hands to the Saint in the reformation of the Order? Truly, these words alone, well weighed, abundantly suffice for no one to believe that such an answer was given by Ana. Then, what is hinted at in the cited words is altogether out of tune with history, namely that Gracián gave Teresa courage, and helped her manfully, fear laid aside, to break off all inordinate and dangerous familiarity. How little likely this is is clear from all the things which are related about that rather mild provincial, not sufficiently solicitous about discipline. Moreover, what does this matter to the proof of Teresa's changed mind concerning the liberty of confessors?
[1732] for example the irreverent style towards St. Teresa, and other things. Nor does the other passage of that vaunted letter strike me less, where Ana de San Bartolomé says: I believe that the holy Mother, if she were alive, would write things far other than those which she wrote. For who will persuade himself that this renowned daughter of the holy Mother spoke so impudently and made so little of her writings? All the more because here it is a question of the Constitutions, of which the Acts of canonization say: The foundation of her supreme prudence is drawn from the laws or Constitutions which she gave for the rule and government of this Religious Order, so prudent that from them it can easily be discerned that she was enlightened by divine light in framing them; and of which Yepes (book 2, chapter XXXVII) does not fear to speak in the following manner: Those Constitutions are more than human, and are fit instruments for polishing such gems of holiness: and the counsels
which open a way towards heaven so divine, so secure, so plain, are certainly not from a man or a woman, nor from any creature, human or angelic. And Father Fernando de Santa María, Prior General of the Congregation of St. Elias, alleging these words in his encyclicals given to the nuns in the year 1630, admonishes that those primeval Constitutions be put in the place of divine decrees and commandments, given by God through Teresa, no otherwise than the old Law given to the people of Israel through Moses; nay, he says that they are to be held as a truly sacred thing and as the text of the Gospel, according to which judgment will one day be passed upon them by God: while meanwhile by the same Father Fernando, immediately after such great encomiums of the Constitutions, it is said that the holy Mother found by experience that one of the principal of them was not good, and therefore to be disapproved, and that another usage was to be introduced which should not be contrary to the custom of the Roman Church and to the judgment of almost all the bishops, who considered that by the practice of a Constitution of this kind laxity was introduced, and both nuns and monasteries were subverted. I pass over what in the pretended letter of Ana is vaunted as said by the holy Mother: Ana, I see us going to ruin by unlocking the door to so many confessors. For this, if the letter had really been written by Ana, would have to be referred to the excessive opportunity under Gracián, not to that choice of confessors which the holy Mother wished granted to her daughters. And rightly indeed would the Saint then have complained thus, since she saw more confessors than penitents, and it was here and there counted a glory that one nun had several confessors (Chronicle, book V, chapter XII). Wherefore it would not be astonishing that the custom in use among the Franciscans should have seemed to the Saint preferable to so great an abuse; without, however, her ever judging, on the witness of Ribera (book 2, chapter 1), that she should borrow the usage of the Order of St. Francis, that the nuns should be subject to the Friars of their own Institute alone. But most certainly, to revoke a Constitution of so great moment as was that on confessors, and to manifest her mind in a matter which lay not a little at the heart of her daughters, more explicit and distinct words were needed, and a certain praise of the custom of the Franciscans sufficed for this no more than complaints about Gracián or certain other general sayings of the holy Mother.
[1733] Nay, whether that letter is authentic is rightly doubted. Meanwhile it will not be beside the point to note that Henríquez confesses that he has only a copied exemplar, not an authentic one, of that letter of Ana de San Bartolomé; so that we do not know who copied it, through whose hands it passed, and how it came to Henríquez. Nor does it stand in the way of this annotation of mine (as though this whole narration of Henríquez had to be a crop of disputation) that in the French translation of it by Gaultier it is said that Henríquez had this letter authentic, written by the hand of Ana herself: for the Spanish text of Henríquez himself, such as it is found in the passage of the Chronicle already cited and is repeated in the French version of the Chronicle and in Montoya's Italian citation, says the contrary, namely that the exemplar had been made only by another hand. Besides this it can be observed that the things which Henríquez says, from the aforesaid letter of Ana, were uttered by the holy Mother when she was complaining of the relaxation which Gracián's excessive indulgence in granting confessors had begotten, differ much from those which Yepes has on the same matter. As regards the dissertation, however, which Henríquez says was composed by Ana de San Bartolomé, it must be judged not to have contained any effective argument by which it could have been proved that the liberty of summoning confessors had been retracted by the holy Mother. Otherwise this would undoubtedly have been inserted into the Life of Ana de San Bartolomé by Henríquez, into the Chronicle by Father Francisco de Santa María, into the prolix annotations of various persons to the Teresian Letters, and into other books of the Discalced here and there. And this and the other reasons which I have already brought were surely the cause why Gaultier seems to have been of a mind to omit this whole chapter in his French version of the Life of Ana de San Bartolomé, since he did not put it in its place, but relegated it to the end of the book. These things having been weighed, then, let the fair reader judge whether that argument drawn from Henríquez is such as to be able to overturn the arguments proposed above. As I have already said, replying to the first objection: If the three arguments from the Constitution, from Ribera and from Yepes hold good, it is necessary either that Henríquez was false, or that his narration is spurious, or at least much tampered with by another hand. But I add now: If there are so many incoherent and improbable things in that chapter, and especially in the pretended letter of Ana de San Bartolomé, there is present a second peremptory reason for not admitting that whole chapter. And let these things be said concerning this whole question about confessors from Henríquez.
[1734] Lastly another letter of Ana is objected: The last objection, finally, which is likewise found in the Chronicle (book V, chapter XII), is another letter of the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé to her cousin Manzano, written at Antwerp in the year 1621; of which take here the fragment which bears on the matter: I have written letters to the prioress of our convent at Paris, in which I persuade her to tell the nuns who are seeking liberty for themselves that, if they remain with their clerics, such a purpose is not to be permitted in a reformed Order such as ours is, and that I shall be the first who will make war on them. Are the times suitable for fostering nuns of this stamp? By no means indeed, by no means is it expedient for us. I have already striven somewhat to compose these matters, and I have written whatever was done in our Order from the beginning, namely from the time when our holy Mother first founded a monastery, up to the time when she had religious men, recounting the persecutions which she sustained, and her great efforts to obtain religious men. I say sincerely what I saw, so that it may now be known and so that after my death the intention of our Saint may be known, which is very foreign to the liberty which the nuns now want for themselves; and this I heard from her mouth, and she disclosed the same after her death. I have in my possession some of those Constitutions in which that liberty was granted, and in which it is said that they were made by our Fathers in the first chapter in which Father Gracián was elected provincial, and it is declared that, thus composed by their hand, they were sent by them to our Saint. And those who now wish to rely on them say that they were made by her; but it is not so. But God is good, and the prelates whom God has given us are good, and will promote perfection. I pray God to guard them, and to increase His grace in their spirit more and more from day to day. In body I am well, and I have courage enough to resist all France in these matters; since I think that I render God an acceptable service by pointing out the truth to them, which is wholly in the things that I have written. God has taken from among the living Mother Ana de Jesús, who disagreed with me in these things, and I have told whomever I could (among others our Fathers and the nuns) that heaven was given her by God not because she had been contrary to the prelates, but because she had suffered her purgatory on earth.
[1735] which is refuted in a few words. I could skip that letter here, since the discourse seems to be not so much about confessors as about the exemption of the nuns from the government of the Order (which question was being vehemently agitated at that time in France, and which, if you look at the epoch, pertains not to the Life of the Saint but to the history of the Order). But, since this letter too is invoked as an argument for the changed mind of the holy Mother concerning the liberty of confessors, I must deal with it here at least in a few words. And I think I can offer no briefer and at the same time fuller refutation of it than by inviting the reader to an attentive reading of it, so that he himself, having read and weighed it, may judge whether such an imperious diction and bitterness of style fits the piety, humility and charity of a most holy woman, and, among other things, whether it is even in the least likely that the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé wrote such things about her Venerable companion Ana de Jesús, whose not only virtues but also miracles, worked by her help, were being celebrated through all Belgium, she having died scarcely a month before the letter is said to have been written. Certainly, if, as the adage has it, a man is such as the man's style is, you would say this letter was written rather by an implacable and threatening woman than by a most gentle nun, who, the process of beatification having been carried on already in the 17th and 18th centuries, will one day, as is hoped, take her step to the honours of the altar. For these reasons, then, whether, after the arguments established for the contrary opinion, you inquire into the truth of the things asserted in that letter, or whether you regard its whole form and tenor, this letter does not seem able not to be held false, either entirely or in great part.
[1736] The epiphonema of both these paragraphs. I trust, then, that it has now been sufficiently proved by me that the holy Mother always wished such a liberty of confessors as is recorded in her book of the Way of Perfection, as by the assembled Fathers in the Constitution of the year 1581, and as finally by Ribera and Yepes in the Life of the Saint. But Teresa also set just limits to that liberty. Namely, that which would conduce to perfection she commended in writing, taught by example and established by usage; but that which would lead away from perfection and was apt to generate profane affections she did not wish and abhorred. As I have said, the prudent Teresa stood midway between the immoderate opportunity of summoning anyone whatever, made by Gracián, and the excessive rigour of Doria, who, while with his six consultors he handled the affairs of the nuns in a laborious and unwonted manner, flatly denied them the choice of confessors customary according to the mind and usage of the holy Mother. That is, as often happens, intending to cure contraries by contraries, he went too far, and applied to the spreading evil a remedy stronger than was fair, like those who, when they wish to correct a tree leaning to one side, bend it too much to the other; and, in place of the love of Gracián, who softened discipline, this man, otherwise most excellent, applied a rigour which exasperated several of the leading nuns, most tenacious of the Teresian Constitutions. But what bounds the most prudent Reformer fixed to liberty, and what her mind concerning confessors was, will become still more clearly evident from the following paragraph.
§ XC. Whether and how far the holy Mother desired the convents of her daughters to be governed by the reformed Friars of Carmel, and them to be directed by these in spiritual matters.
[The Saint desired her daughters to be subject to the Order, and to be directed by the Friars:] A most bitter dispute about both these heads went on for almost forty whole years from the death of Teresa, first in
Spain, between many nuns and the Carmelite Fathers, and then in France, on the one side chiefly among the natives who stood on the side of those who, before the Carmelite Fathers had been admitted into that kingdom, had presided over the nuns, and on the other side among the sisters who had come from Spain into France to found the Order, and whom the Carmelite Fathers supported and not a few of the French nuns followed. Although it is surely not my business in the Life of Teresa to treat the history that followed, much less to reprove anyone, yet from time to time, however unwillingly, I am compelled, in elucidating the deeds and ordinances of the holy Mother, to touch on some of those who came after, and, between two contenders who defend opposite positions, indirectly to censure one or the other, even if it be an Order or a nation: which I must do especially in matters of great moment, when Teresa's authority is invoked by one or by both parties. But that this was done in Carmel concerning the government of the Order and concerning the choice of confessors, both Spain and Italy, and France and Belgium, are a rich witness: so that this arduous and sticky treatment can by no means be avoided by me. Accordingly I shall set forth here the views of the holy Mother on both these heads, so far as I have been able to attain them from an attentive reading of her Works: which, once they have been set forth and proved, it will be easy for anyone to examine the opinions of many who not rarely think contrary things on both these so disputed questions, of subjecting the nuns to the Order and of taking their confessors from the Carmelite Fathers alone. It cannot be called into doubt that the holy Mother, in reforming the men, set before herself this aim, that all the convents of her daughters should be subject to the superiors of the Order and that her daughters should receive regular and ordinary instruction and direction from the Discalced Friars; so that in that way her monasteries might be governed with greater uniformity, and her daughters might be better instructed in the discipline proper to them, namely by men formed in the same Institute and imbued with the same spirit. Thus in chapter II of the Foundations (number 5) she says that she perceived that it was necessary, if monasteries of sisters were to be erected, that there should be Friars too of the same Institute: Considerando yo quan necesario era, si se hacia monasterio de monjas, que hubiese Frayles de la misma regla [Considering how necessary it was, if a monastery of nuns was made, that there should be Friars of the same rule]. Thus in letter 28 of tome III she says that it seems to her of no slight moment that the Friars of the Reformed Carmel should receive the Confessions of her nuns: Con serlo tanto el confesarse con los Frayles, como V. P. dice, y lo veo [Though it is so very much so, confessing to the Friars, as Your Paternity says, and I see it]. And the holy Mother manifested this mind of hers also in several particular cases, as may be seen in various passages of the Letters, some of which I brought forward in the preceding paragraph, saying that they are not valid indeed for proving generally that the holy Mother wished no other spiritual masters to be given her daughters than the Discalced; but these nevertheless demonstrate that she considered that men of her Institute in certain circumstances could bring a remedy better than others either to the distressed affairs of some monastery or to the disturbed mind of some particular nun: as the matter stood at Seville (see tome I, letter 61, number 7, and letter 63, number 7, and tome III, letter 79, number 9).
[1738] [yet with some moderation as regards this latter point, as is proved from St. John of the Cross,] Nevertheless, whatever many may say, it seems altogether certain that the holy Mother did not extend the Reformation to the religious men with this intention, that these alone should instruct her daughters in any particular cases whatever, since nothing is found in St. Teresa, nothing in Ribera, nothing in Yepes, nothing finally in the pontifical Constitutions, which establishes it, or which even in the least hints that the holy Reformer wished Carmelites alone, others excluded, as spiritual masters of her daughters; just as, on the contrary, whatever some, especially Frenchmen, once said, nothing anywhere in the Saint's writings indicates, not even indirectly, that she thought it more advisable that her daughters should abstain from Carmelites as confessors, or that they should be exempted from the government of the Order. But what the principal end of the holy Mother was in reforming the Carmel of men, St. John of the Cross openly signified in the speech which he gave in the general chapter of the year 1591, and which is recorded in the Chronicle (book VIII, chapter XLV, number 6). In that speech, namely, the Saint disapproved of the Order having withdrawn its hand from the government and direction of the nuns, and in weighty words, as Father Marco de San Antonio says in his Life (chapter XLVII, number 4), discoursing then, showed how little conformable to charity it was to punish all for the excess of a few, if they had transgressed; and how foreign to equity to pass over in a matter so weighty the principal end for which St. Teresa had introduced the Reformation among the religious men, which was namely that the nuns should enjoy directors imbued with the same spirit; and finally how evident the danger was lest, lacking the influence of the Order, the nuns should fall away altogether from observance.
[1739] and from letter 28 of tome III, The letters of St. Teresa explain this still better. In letter 28 of tome III, in which the holy Mother instructs Father Gracián with her counsels so that in the chapter of Alcalá the affairs of the Reformation pertaining to the nuns might be firmly established, she speaks thus: In my opinion it is to be made the greatest matter that the confessors of the nuns should not be perpetually vicars; which so greatly concerns these houses that, although it matters as much that our Discalced should be confessors to them as Your Paternity says and I see, I would rather admit that things remain in the present state and that the nuns cannot use our confessors, than that any confessor whatever should be vicar. From that not a few inconveniences arise, as I shall declare to Your Reverence when I see you face to face. Trust me, I pray: for when the monastery of St. Joseph was founded, this was very much weighed, and this was one of the reasons for which it was judged by me and by some others that this house was well subject to the Ordinary, namely so that it might not come to these vicariates. Where that happens, I know that great inconveniences exist there; and one, which I have well seen, suffices for me: namely, when some nun satisfies that vicar, the prioress cannot prevent him from speaking with her, since he is superior; and from that a thousand inconveniences gush forth. For that reason, and for many others, it is also necessary that they should not be subject to the priors. For if it happens that one of them is of little skill, he will give orders which disturb all; because not all act like my Father Gracián (note that the Saint congratulated him on these things before the chapter of the year 1581): and provision must be made for future times, since we are already taught by such experiences; and occasions must be cut off, since the greatest good that the priors can create for the nuns is that there should exist between them and the confessors no other dealing than that these should hear their confessions.
[1740] which is explained. From this letter it is established that the plan of St. Teresa as regards the nuns to be subjected to the Order was of this kind, that they should be immediately subject to the provincials, but by no means to the priors, even if a convent of religious men existed in the place where the monastery of the nuns was. And for the benefit of the provincials she wrote the wonderful treatise on the Manner of Visiting the Monasteries of Nuns; which if it is well kept, the influence of the Order on the nuns will without doubt be very great, and observance will always flourish among them. It is likewise established from that letter that the plan of the holy Mother as regards confessors was that the Discalced Carmelites should be the ordinary confessors of her nuns, but on this condition, that these should have no other dealing with their confessors than what is necessary to the office of confessor; so that the direction, instruction and mastership which the holy Reformer desired to be offered to the nuns through the Carmelites should be restricted to the function of the usual and ordinary confessor. And it is surely evident that a confessor professing the same rule and well taught in the Constitutions which the holy Mother prescribed to the nuns can most rightly discharge his office; but the Saint did not wish these confessors to enjoy in these monasteries the authority with which in others the vicars are powerful. And in this matter the pious Virgin found such great inconveniences that she preferred that the Carmelites should not be confessors rather than both confessors and vicars at once, and that she thought it better that it be established in the chapter that her daughters, in such a state of affairs, should not confess to the Discalced, but (as had been in use up to this time) should employ as ordinary confessors either secular priests or religious other than those of the Reformed Carmel. And, as Father Antonio de San José says (tome III, letter 28, note 17), both as regards the immediate subjection of the monasteries to the provincials and as regards the confessors not being made vicars, the Order satisfies the mind of the holy Mother, these two things, which the holy Mother so ardently longed for, being most firmly kept as inviolable Constitutions. Further, concerning assigning Discalced Carmelites as ordinary confessors of the nuns, nothing was commanded in the said chapter of Alcalá; since the Constitution made there on that matter consists only of these words: Let the prioress, with the provincial or visitor, seek a priest who satisfies suitably by his age, life and morals; and, if he be a suitable man, with the assent of Father Provincial, he may be confessor of the nuns. In which way it is neither commanded nor forbidden that he be a Calced or Discalced regular; the matter is left to time, to ripen; the wish of the holy Mother is approved; and it remains with the prudence of the provincials and prioresses to judge whether Discalced are to be designated as ordinary confessors or not.
[1741] This moderation is also proved from Ribera and Yepes. Next, to declare whether the aim of the holy Mother, in extending her Reformation to the religious men, was to procure that her nuns should receive instruction in particular cases from them alone, it is enough to call to mind these few things which Ribera and Yepes drew from the writings of the holy Mother. The Saint, says Yepes (book II, chapter XXXVII), laid down in her Constitution that, besides the ordinary confessor, some religious, from the same Discalced or from other Orders, of whose learning and virtue she is sufficiently satisfied, may be admitted by the prioress to hear the Confessions of the nuns, not only three times in the year, as the Council of Trent permits, but even more often; and that the same power rests with the prioress concerning sacred sermons. And Ribera: The holy Mother, he says, did not wish her daughters to be subject to the Friars in such a way that it should belong to these alone to preach to them and to hear their sins in Confession; but in such a way that they might be permitted to hear and consult any persons whatever who could be more profitable to their salvation, and that it should be lawful to treat of the affairs of their soul with them. There, however, Ribera by no means speaks only of Teresa's first opinion, which the adversaries say was afterwards changed; since in two passages, of which the one (on the converse sisters) immediately precedes, and the other (on the number of those to be admitted) immediately follows,
that author explicitly says what change Teresa admitted in each of those Constitutions: which Ribera would surely not have neglected to note in the middle one (on confessors), if the holy Mother had not left that statute intact. Then the words of Yepes, speaking of the aforesaid Constitution, are the following: The holy Mother, he says, greatly desired that her nuns should have liberty in confessing, and as long as she lived she procured it, enjoined it, and with much ardour begged the prelates who then presided to grant them this holy liberty: so that the holy liberty which St. Teresa left to her daughters as regards taking extraordinary confessors from her Order or from outside her Order fits very well with the end which the holy Mother had in extending the Reformation to the religious men.
[1742] Nor does this involve any contradiction. But someone might ask how it is consistent that the prioresses should be subject to the provincials, and yet that these could, without their previous leave, admit as confessors and preachers of the nuns men of whose learning and virtue they are sufficiently satisfied. I reply, first, that this reasoning conflicts with the very statutes of the holy Mother; for from these alone which we have just said her will on both points is evidently established. Whoever, then, esteems and venerates her holy and weighty ordinances must take care to reconcile them with one another. I reply, secondly, that it is surely certain that the holy Mother did not wish the prioresses to fight it out with the provincials over jurisdiction: so that, whenever these advised them, for example at the time of visitation, that it did not please them that such a one should be confessor or preacher of the nuns, the prioress ought not to admit him, or ought prudently to remove him. But it was also the part of the provincial to leave the prioress liberty to admit those against whose learning and virtue nothing was known to her. If therefore a nun should manifest to the prioress her wish to treat of the affairs of her soul, for example, with a Dominican Father who was held in the city as a spiritual and learned man, St. Teresa did not wish the prioress to be bound, before assenting to her subject, to ask licence from the provincial, who might perhaps be fifty leagues away. If there came into the city, for example, a Franciscan missionary famous for holiness and learning, and the nuns desired to hear him in a sermon or to confess to him, the Saint did not wish the prioress to be held to have recourse to the provincial in order that this solace should be imparted to her nuns. Similarly several other practical cases can be imagined: and in all these, and much more in truly urgent circumstances, the Saint judged it very expedient that the prioress should not for the present be subject to the disposition of the provincial, where it was a question of admitting a preacher or an extraordinary confessor adorned with letters and virtue; without, however, this faculty taking away due submission. In a word, this subjection and this liberty agree very well, provided the Teresian spirit reigns. And these things chiefly from Montoya (dissertation III, page 62).
[1743] Since the occasion here is opportune, I cannot pass over without remark what Father Antonio de San José narrates from a certain pretended letter of Ana de San Bartolomé (tome III, [A certain cause alleged for St. Teresa's aversion to employing vicars in her monasteries does not please.] letter 28, note 16), namely that the holy Mother was so averse to vicars, and at the beginning granted greater liberty concerning confessors, for no other reason than that, living in her youth with the Augustinian nuns, she had seen them oppressed by one vicar who most strictly removed any other confessor. But it is altogether far from the truth that the Venerable Ana de San Bartolomé wrote a letter of this kind, such as is reported, injurious to the Augustinian nuns, and dared to say in a crude and unpolished style that the holy Mother laboured under girlish prejudices in a most grave matter; while Ana herself had so many times received from the mouth of her holy Mother, had read in her books, and had seen introduced by her into usage that praised liberty concerning confessors which I related above from chapter V of the Way of Perfection. For Teresa does not show herself driven by prejudices, she who in letter 28 of tome III cited above puts forth most solid reasons why she does not wish that confessors be vicars (that is, why she does not wish them to exercise any command, which she wishes to belong to the prioresses alone under the General and the provincial), and who in chapters IV and V of the Way of Perfection delivers her doctrine on the choice of spiritual fathers with great force of arguments and no less clarity of style.
[1744] The Saint's mind was certain that her daughters should be subject to the Order: The mind of the holy Mother concerning confessors and the government of the nuns having just been set forth, it can fittingly be asked here how deeply this mind of hers clung to her, or what exceptional cases she either really admitted or seemed ready to admit in these statutes or purposes of hers, so far, namely, as that can be drawn or conjectured from her writings and her manner of acting. I dispense with the question of endowing confessors with the office of vicar, since she plainly says that she prefers that the Carmelites abstain from exercising any office among the nuns rather than that confessors be their vicars. The Order humoured the holy Mother in this, and not even in France did the confessors ever administer the convents of the nuns. Her will also seems to have been altogether fixed that these convents should stand under the Order: for she refused several foundations offered to her, because the condition had been added that they should not depend on the Order. Nor is this astonishing: for as she had been commanded earlier by God that the monastery of Ávila, up to then subject to the bishop, should be brought under the jurisdiction of the Order, so also God, appearing to her, as the Saint herself narrates, had enjoined her that the houses which she should found thereafter should be submitted to the Order. There is no reason, however, why she would probably not have relinquished this purpose of hers, I do not say if the will of God or of the Church had required it, but if weightier reasons supervening had persuaded that the convents of nuns should be erected separately from the Order, and the known will of God had not stood in the way.
[1745] [yet in such a way that she would have yielded, above all at the nod of the Supreme Pontiffs,] For she who had subjected her first house of Ávila to the Ordinary for just causes would surely not have refused, for other grave causes, to subject the newly erected houses either to the Ordinaries of the places or to apostolic commissaries, nor would Teresa at all have held as spurious those convents of her daughters which the Supreme Pontiffs, according to the circumstances of time and things, had judged it better should be subject to rectors taken from outside the Order of Carmel. For, since she always obeyed her superiors blindly, in this also, at the nod of the supreme Governor of the Church, she would have abandoned her own view and forthwith thought otherwise. For Teresa, a daughter of obedience, knew that the Church, most zealous for procuring peace for the religious Orders, sometimes prudently serves the time, and takes away from or adds to an Order a constitution, lest the whole Order or a notable part of it suffer some grave detriment.
[1746] who, after her death, tried various things. For which reason, when in Spain the Reformed Religious Order of Carmel of the weaker sex was agitated by intestine dissensions on account of the government and the varying discipline of the Order concerning confessors, within about ten years they endeavoured to pacify it by four apostolic Constitutions, of which some derogated from others, trying different remedies: Gregory XIII in the year 1581, Sixtus V in the years 1588 and 1590, and finally Gregory XIV in the year 1591. Nay, what is aptly to the point here, since it pertains also to the very government of the Discalced nuns, the Church tolerated and approved, or rather sanctioned, that in the very city of Rome one monastery of Teresian nuns should be subject to the Order (that called of St. Giles, which in the printed table of the Order is said to have been erected on the 29th of July 1610), but the other should be exempted from the Order (that of St. Joseph, founded according to the aforesaid table on the 14th of April 1598). By like reasoning it tolerated and approved that formerly in France most of the monasteries of nuns should be subject to three men delegated by the apostolic See, while it similarly approved (what had been most pleasing to Teresa) that houses established commonly elsewhere outside France should be subject to the Order, for example in Spain, Italy, Belgium, Poland, in the county of Avignon also and in Lorraine, etc. But the most humble and most obedient Virgin would have been very far from not admitting with entire readiness of mind these different ordinances concerning her Order, if they had been passed while she was alive. For, however strong in acting, she was so little tenacious of her own judgment that not rarely she yielded to the opinion of her equals and at times even of her inferiors, as in tome III, letter 28, number 9, we see her yield in a matter which, as she was a most ardent lover of poverty, had always been supremely at her heart, namely by allowing to be cut out of the Constitutions whatever forbade her monasteries to be endowed with revenues.
[1747] In the matter of confessors the Saint's authority is invoked for contrary sides. It can be asked, lastly, how unshaken the purpose stood with the holy Mother that the Carmelite Fathers should be the confessors of her sisters. In this, as in several other matters, Teresa's sense is usually twisted to opposite sides on either hand. I say nothing of the mutilations of the Works of the holy Mother unworthy of an honest, much less a religious, man, for example in the first French version of her Letters, which came out at Paris in the year 1660, where several things were cut out which displeased the French editor. I say nothing also of certain gibes of various persons, where the reverence due to the holy Mother was not sufficiently spared (for example note 27 on letter 89 of tome III of the Spanish edition). But it will suffice, as a specimen of the discrepant opinions on this, to cite the twofold differing opinion on this matter of writers otherwise sincere; of which the one wished the Carmelite Fathers alone to be employed as confessors of the nuns, but the other preferred these excluded from that ministry, while each boasted that his opinion rested on the authority of Teresa. Namely, Father Federico de San Antonio (book III, chapter XII) has the following words: The last sense of the holy Mother was that in the secret tribunal of Confession her daughters should open their conscience to none other than the Carmelite Friars. And thus the Carmelite writers speak commonly. But Marillac (page 56 of his work on the Erection and Institution of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns in France) has thus: From the fact that it is expressly said in the Constitutions framed while Teresa was alive that the ease of communication between religious men and nuns is of the greatest offence to the world, and that religious men are forbidden to approach the monasteries of women, it is not badly concluded that these prohibiting decrees cannot be better kept, nor can anything be done more conformable to the spirit of the holy Mother, than if every sacred ministry towards the sisters is forbidden to the religious men. And most French authors incline to this opinion, which they also reduced to practice.
[1748] The Saint, on account of her aim, which was the greatest perfection, In such a diversity of opinions, then, before I put forward my own mind, in order that the sense and manner of acting of the holy Mother may be the more fully investigated and vindicated, it is plainly necessary to consider the circumstances of times and things. As I have already said, it is certain that she preferred that confessors of her own Order be given to her daughters generally; but it is also certain that she never
forbade universally that others who were not Carmelites should be employed as confessors. But in order that the reason for this liberty left in choosing confessors may be grasped, one must consider the end which Teresa set before herself in the reformation of the nuns, and must also consider the circumstances of things and times in which she acted and wrote. That end was that her virgins should be brought up to the highest summit of perfection: and in fact so great a mistress of virtue raised her disciples to so sublime a holiness that not a few of them were gifted by God with visions, raptures and other graces freely given; as she herself wrote in the year 1573, in chapter IV of her Foundations, number 7, saying thus: The Lord bestows so many and such singular graces in these houses that He raises all of them to meditation; some, moreover, attain to perfect contemplation; and others are raised so far that they undergo both raptures and ecstasies; on others also the Lord bestows graces in another way, and also revelations and visions, which it is most manifest proceed from God. For there is today no monastery in which two or three are not found to whom graces of this kind are done.
[1749] such as her daughters had in fact attained, Nay, on account of the very great favour granted from heaven to Teresa's most fervent companions, it was necessary to ordain that they should make their vows no longer publicly at the grille, but within the inner recesses of the choir, lest, namely, as had happened in the year 1571 to Ana de Jesús, they should be prevented by ecstasy from completing the pronouncing of the vows, which according to the custom of Carmel is to be repeated three times. See Father Ángel Manrique in the Life of Ana de Jesús (book 2, chapter IV, numbers 6 and 7), de Montis in the French Life of the same (book 2, page 40), Emery in the abridged Life of St. Teresa (page XLVII), the French Letters of St. Teresa translated by Mother Maupeou (tome II, note on letter 101). And again the Saint, in chapter XX of her Life, number 15, records the wonders which God works in those who have already struggled up to the fourth (that is, to the most sublime) degree of prayer and contemplation; and afterwards, concerning her house of Ávila, which had then been erected only a short time before, she adds: But the reason why I explain and declare myself thus in this regard is this, that I know that there are some surviving today, even in this monastery, on whom the Lord confers graces of this kind: whence, if those who direct and rule them are by no means versed in these things, they will think perhaps that in rapture they ought to seem as if dead, especially if they are not learned. And certainly it is a thing to be lamented that a person must suffer so many things from confessors inexperienced in these matters, as I shall say afterwards.
[1750] she greatly desired for them the wisest confessors from every quarter, But this very danger from inexperienced confessors was surely the chief cause why St. Teresa judged that the best, that is the most learned and the wisest, ought to be granted to her daughters as spiritual guide, whether he were a Carmelite or were not, and why, always solicitous to procure help and solace for her family, in chapters IV and V of the Way of Perfection she so expressly wished that any priests versed in the discernment of spirits might be summoned at the judgment of the prioress. For on the arduous way of perfection, and amid such rare gifts of God, she herself had experienced that there was no such abundance of suitable counsellors that the more apt spiritual father who might be found could be neglected, from whatever Order or Clergy he presented himself. According to this principle of the holy Mother, then, by which they strove to procure better spiritual direction for her nuns, at the beginning of the Reformation indeed more frequently, but afterwards more rarely, yet always on some occasions, it could be useful for those virgins to receive counsels from others also than Carmelites.
[1751] such as her Order little by little supplied in greater numbers. When her Reformation was first springing up, Teresa was not so much induced as compelled to show herself altogether easy in admitting confessors taken from outside her Order of Carmel. I do not speak here of the six years in which the four first monasteries of nuns were erected and in which no reformed house of men existed, but of the rest of the time up to her death. For if you look at these beginnings, the Reformed Carmel of men was indeed adorned with religious of the first rank and of exceptional holiness and learning; yet in the fourteen years during which the Reformation existed from its rise up to Teresa's death, it certainly did not have that number of formed men which it had afterwards, when it had put down deeper roots and extended its branches round about, and when in a more numerous and more mature Order there were found more men furnished with those endowments which the holy Mother greatly desired in the spiritual director of her daughters. Meanwhile it will not be beside the point to view at one glance the progress of the Reformation under Teresa, and to consider how many convents of each sex were founded in the time of the holy Mother, where and when; and it will be evident that there were more of women than of men, and that these two, of each sex, were not everywhere in the same city.
[1752] Conclusion of what has been said. And these are the things which, to me who have meditated on the acts and writings of the holy Mother, seem more probable in that most intricate matter. Wherefore the extreme pronouncements of certain persons opposed to one another must be tempered on both sides, out of love no less of truth than of peace: and it must be confessed, as I have said, that the holy Mother generally preferred Carmelite confessors in such a way that she nevertheless never excluded others, even ordinary ones. Moreover it must altogether be judged that she, who was endowed with the greatest temperance of mind no less than prudence, would here too, where it would have been right, have served the time, and would have yielded for fair reasons, in the matter of confessors, her opinion and her desire, and indeed, as it seems, much more easily than in withdrawing in every way the monasteries of her daughters from the Order. Thinking, therefore, that I have done enough by showing the principles of government and spiritual direction which the holy Mother had as the foundation of the Carmel reformed by her, I leave it to others to judge whether these have always been well interpreted both by Teresa's posterity and by those who have treated Carmelite affairs. For to inquire into this, as I observed before, pertains more to the history of the Order than to the Life of the Saint. Meanwhile, however, wherever Teresa is spoken of by certain persons, and her authority is invoked in the matter now discussed by those who not rarely think contrary things, I would rightly wish the reader to be asked that, unless he shall have detected the reasoning which I have set out to be false, he compare those various pronouncements of various persons with the Teresian views which I have endeavoured above to unravel; and, those various sayings having been examined against the known and proved views of the holy Mother as against a Lydian touchstone, let the reader himself pronounce which of such divergent opinions are true or false. For my part, in a most bitter dispute and a conflict of many, content to have informed the case, I prefer for the rest to leave judgment and sentence to be pronounced by others rather than to pronounce it myself.
§ XCI. The ecstasies, raptures, visions and revelations in St. Teresa proceeded from the spirit of God.
About to begin this treatment, I adopt the words of the author These charisms of the holy Mother, of which several have treated, of the Chronicle, who speaks thus: The doctrine of St. Teresa and of St. John of the Cross on visions and revelations renders me timid and so little daring that I should keep silent about them, were I not certain of the authenticity of the things to be narrated. But since they are authentic, I would not dare to conceal them, because it concerns the glory of God that His gifts be known (book VIII, chapter VII, number 10). The holy Virgin herself, in the book of her Life, in the Additions to her Life and in her letters to Rodrigo Álvarez (tome I, letters 18 and 19), narrates these heavenly gifts which she had so many times experienced, and at the same time explains what they mean. Likewise Ribera, after he has declared at the beginning of book IV of his Teresian Life the sublime kind of her prayer, describes those gifts, as effects of prayer, at length, learnedly and accurately in the following chapters. The Acts of canonization do the same clearly and briefly (Relation II, article XXI). Moreover this subject is treated by Yepes, Juan de Jesús María, the author of the Chronicle, and very many other writers, even more recent ones. Meanwhile, so that a just idea may be had of the ecstasies, revelations and other things of which there is question here, I refer the reader before others to Benedict XIV (On Beatification and Canonization, book 3, chapter XLIX and following), both because, as our predecessors have several times confessed, no writer is to be found more certain or more safely to be trusted, and because the things which he treats he often refers to St. Teresa and not rarely invokes her authority to establish the principles laid down by him. Further, Ribera, at the beginning of the Teresian Life, disputes excellently with much accumulated erudition to vindicate the revelations of the Saints from the assault of unbelievers. It has seemed good to me, however, to add here to what Ribera has said certain things suited to the condition of our age, so that the audacity may be the better beaten down of those of whom St. Jude seems to speak in verse 10, saying thus: But these blaspheme whatever things they know not: and what things soever they naturally know, like dumb beasts, in these they are corrupted.
[1754] are to be judged to have been bestowed on her by God, Things of this kind proceed from a spirit either divine or diabolical or human. Therefore I must investigate which, as regards our Saint, is the cause of those wonderful effects. In the first times indeed in which she walked by this extraordinary way, it was doubted by some whether she was driven by the spirit of God or of the devil; but shortly, those who were less versed in discerning spirits and supposed that she was driven by the evil spirit having abandoned their opinion, all embraced the opinion of St. Peter of Alcántara, St. Francis Borgia, Master Juan de Ávila, Father Pedro Ibáñez, Father Baltasar Álvarez, Father Domingo Báñez, Father Rodrigo Álvarez and many other most pious men and excellent theologians, who, having directed the conscience of the holy Virgin, assertively declared that it was the spirit of God which favoured and adorned her soul with these rare gifts: and this was believed the more firmly from day to day, the more the holiness of the humble Virgin shone forth by the constant exercise of solid virtues, and all the signs seemed to concur in her from which it could safely be judged that those gifts were divine. But this was most of all manifest from the effects, according to the rule given by Christ the Saviour, by which He wished the spirit of the Prophets to be discerned: By their fruits you shall know them (Matthew VII, 16). With which rule agree the beautiful words which St. Catherine of Siena relates were spoken to her by God: Know for certain, He says, since I am the truth, that from My apparition there always exists in the soul a greater notion of truth; and from the knowledge of truth this is afforded to the soul, that it knows both Me and itself more rightly: whence further it follows that it despises itself from the heart, and honours and venerates Me. Thus it comes about that from My visions the soul understands itself and its vileness more deeply, and in understanding it despises itself
the more, and is made more humble. The contrary of which happens from the visions of Satan (in Eusebius Amort, treatise on Revelations etc., part I, chapter XX, number 3).
[1755] according to the rules which Cardinal Bona Certainly no more evident, no safer indication can be assigned for the discernment of spirits than this rule laid down by St. Catherine, or rather by God, with wonderful brevity and coherence. Nor do those manifold indications of good revelations aim at anything else which Cardinal Bona beautifully unfolds in chapter XX of the book on the Discernment of Spirits, where you would say that the words of St. Catherine were explained by the most Eminent writer and applied to the revelations of St. Teresa. After he has warned, namely, those who have undertaken the governing of souls not easily to believe the revelations of women, excepting those which they have proved by long experience and diligent examination to be from God, he speaks thus: The visions and revelations of St. Teresa were approved by men endowed with human and divine wisdom by various judgments and arguments; which it is worth while to report here in summary, so that whoever apply themselves to this care may be able to examine revelations offered to them against these as against a Lydian stone, and to discern the good spirit from the evil. That the spirit of Teresa, then, was good and her revelations true, these signs demonstrated. She always feared diabolical illusions, and therefore never asked for or desired visions: nay rather she besought God to lead her by the accustomed way, wishing only this, that the divine will should be done in her. Whereas the demon is wont to command that the things he reveals be told to no one, she always heard from the spirit appearing to her that she should communicate with learned men, lest perchance by keeping silent she should be deceived: therefore she submitted herself to the examination of illustrious men who then flourished in Spain with the praise of learning and holiness, such as were Peter of Alcántara, Francis Borgia, Juan of Ávila, Baltasar Álvarez, Domingo Báñez and others. She obeyed her directors most exactly, and after visions she made greater progress in charity and humility. She dealt more willingly with those who were less credulous and more fearful; and she loved those more from whom she suffered persecutions.
[1756] unfolds. In her mind there was the greatest tranquillity and delight, surpassing all the consolations of the world: in her was a most ardent zeal for the salvation of souls, most pure thoughts, great candour, a fervent desire for perfection. If there was any imperfection in her, if any defect, she was always wont to be reproved for it by Him who spoke to her within. It was said to her that, if she asked just things of God, she would obtain them without doubt: and she asked many things, and always obtained them. Whoever dealt with her, unless a depraved disposition stood in the way, were stirred by her company to modesty, to piety, to the love of God. Visions for the most part befell her after long and fervent prayer or after Communion; and they kindled in her a most ardent desire of suffering for God. She chastised her flesh with fasts, scourges and hair-shirts; and she rejoiced in tribulations, murmurings and infirmities. She loved solitude, shrinking from the conversation of men, and altogether torn away from all affection for earthly things. Both in prosperity and in adversity she always kept the same tenor, the same tranquillity of mind. Learned men never observed anything in her revelations and their circumstances which was foreign to the rules of the Faith and to Christian perfection: nor was there anything in them that could be reproved. If these signs are detected in anyone, it is by no means to be doubted that his revelations are from God. Even the most God-fearing are indeed at times deluded by the demon, just as on the contrary God sometimes confers on the most wicked the graces which are called freely given (in which way Balaam and Caiaphas prophesied); but, as St. Thomas says, the true are distinguished from the false by the end which the revelations ultimately cause (on 2 Corinthians chapter XI, lecture III, at those words: For Satan himself transformeth himself into an Angel of light).
[1757] chiefly on account of the praise bestowed on them by the Church, But that most welcome opinion of the visions and other divine gifts of St. Teresa not so much grew strong as was very greatly spread abroad, when after her happy death wonders both very great and very many were worked at her invocation, and when innumerable witnesses had seen and handled her incorrupt, supple and fragrant body. And indeed this matter was held to be beyond controversy when, Teresa having been inserted in the calendars of the Saints, the Church, making mention in honourable words, both in the Bull of canonization and in the Lessons of the Breviary, of her ecstasies, visions and revelations, was seen to add her vote to them; although she did not issue a decisive sentence, since she is not accustomed to define things of this kind. Wherefore, lest in the things which I am about to assert concerning the gifts of St. Teresa I should seem to exceed the bounds which the Church sets herself, and also lest anyone should fashion for himself a not sufficiently fair judgment about the place or rank in which the Church holds ecstasies, raptures, visions, apparitions and other things of this kind in canonizing Saints, but so that one may adhere to the mind with which the Roman See examines such things and to the sense in which it praises or even approves such things, I think it useful to premise certain things, so that by no one at least who is a Catholic I may be held either excessive in defending the Teresian visions or unjust in refuting their detractors.
[1758] namely in the sense in which, according to Benedict XIV, As regards the estimation with which the Church weighs raptures, apparitions, revelations and the rest of that kind, it must first of all be observed with Benedict XIV (On Beatification and Canonization, book 3, chapter XLII, number 5 and following) that all these, no otherwise than graces freely given, with which they must be judged to be in some way connected, are common to sinners and to the just; since of themselves they depend on God, and not on man or on the rectitude of the human will. Nay, St. Teresa says that God sometimes wills to confer on men who are in a bad state so great a favour that they ascend to the prayer of contemplation, namely for this end, that in that way they may be snatched from the hands of the demon (Way of Perfection, chapter XLVI, number 4). Benedict observes that in canonizing Saints no account is taken of these wonderful things if heroic virtues are not present or if a good death is not established; but that, if both of these are established, account is taken of them, because these things can dispositively make a man pleasing to God. Nor yet, he says, are they necessary for canonization, since for this only two substantial requisites are demanded, namely virtues and miracles. Further, he notes that these gifts are not conferred on all the just, because for the common utility of the Church it is not necessary that all the just should minister to others or be helped by these graces for working the salvation of others: which is confirmed from the fact that Bulls of canonizations are found where there is no mention of such things; whence it is argued that those Saints lacked them. Finally the most praiseworthy author subjoins, as regards visions and apparitions, that these cannot indeed be proved except by the word or writing of him to whom the vision or apparition or locution of God was made; but since in every cause of canonization which abounds in visions and the other things of the kind it is altogether required that the testimonies of spiritual masters be added concerning the quality of the visions and apparitions, and that at the same time the uprightness, prudence and experience of these masters be established (as Benedict says was in fact done in the cause of St. Teresa, whose spirit most learned and most upright men approved), in this way what was at first indeed a single testimony, namely of him who enjoyed those visions, is fortified as much as possible by the testimonies of those who directed the conscience of the Servant of God, man or woman: not to say anything of other witnesses who depose testimony on the heroic degree of the virtues.
[1759] the Church is accustomed to praise such facts. Then, as regards the examination of visions and as regards the value of the approbation bestowed on them by the Church, it must be known, says the same Pontiff, that this approbation is nothing other than a permission that they be published for the instruction and benefit of the faithful after mature examination: since to these revelations so approved, although the assent of Catholic Faith is not due and cannot be given, yet the assent of human faith is due according to the rules of prudence, according to which, namely, such revelations are probable and piously credible. Benedict then explains how a threefold examination of visions, revelations and apparitions is instituted by the Congregation of Rites: the first, to see whether there is anything in them which deserves to be reprobated, for example something against the Faith or good morals, or some new and strange doctrine foreign to the common sense of the Church; the second, to judge whether he to whom those things happened was enlightened by God with graces freely given; the third, to know whether those visions, revelations and prophecies are to be approved, generally, that is: for scarcely ever is this or that vision, revelation or apparition approved singly. Wherefore Cardinal Bona says well (in the passage cited above, number 1) that the revelations written by holy men and women which are circulated are not to be judged to have been approved in such a way that we should assent to them with the certainty of faith, but so that we may receive them as probable. From what has been said, then, conclude, since the visions, apparitions and prophecies of St. Teresa have been examined by the Congregation of Rites (not to say anything of the authority of many writers and witnesses), and approved in the manner that has been said, conclude, I say, that according to the rules of prudence the assent of human faith is due to them; so that he who denies them this assent incurs the mark, not of injury to the Catholic Faith, but of a bad or insincere critic, and that indeed so much the worse, the more and more probable the arguments with which the Teresian visions are fortified.
[1760] The excellence of her books also contributed to thinking well of those gifts. Besides the arguments just brought, yet another reason contributed not a little to making general and certain the persuasion of Catholics that it was not a human, much less a diabolical, but a divine spirit that worked in her soul the ecstasies and other wonders with which her life teems. Namely, the excellence of her writings and the great esteem which her books have obtained everywhere on earth have grown to such a point that the rules which she herself laid down for discerning true from false revelations are held most certain and most safe, and that you would scarcely find anyone among those who after the times of St. Teresa have treated these matters in writing who does not invoke her authority before all others, both because she clearly disentangles these abstruse things, and because she herself was enriched, as the sixth Lesson of the Roman Breviary speaks, with divine charisms. Further, one may see with how great esteem, and I might almost say with how great veneration, the authority of her words is invoked by J. B. Scaramelli on almost every page of his Mystical Directory, by Bossuet in the book Mystici in tuto, by Cardinal Bona in the book on the Discernment of Spirits, and even by himself, not to
mention many others, Benedict XIV, who frequently makes mention in honourable words of the works and judgments of St. Teresa.
§ XCII. Various arguments of the adversaries are refuted.
Some are more or less averse to all those graces, Having set forth, then, the opinion which the Church has not obscurely manifested concerning the visions and revelations divinely sent to St. Teresa, and which Catholics generally follow, let us now review and refute those who think otherwise. Since my discourse here, as I trust, is with those who, among the other dogmas of our holy Faith, believe Jesus Christ to be God from God, and consubstantial with the Father, and born of the Virgin Mary, to have suffered and been crucified, it is right for me to observe beforehand that even Christian men sometimes do not take sufficient account in judging of the divine goodness and power. For, as the author of the Carmelite Chronicle rightly notes, where he endeavours to vindicate from the assault of the severer critics the wonderful benefits conferred from heaven on St. Teresa, such charisms bestowed on holy souls ought not to be difficult to believe for him who believes that Jesus Christ, out of His love for man, became incarnate, was born, suffered and was sated with reproaches. Moreover, some seem to be little consistent with themselves who show themselves easy in admitting the action of evil spirits upon the soul of man, but difficult in admitting the operation of God and of the good Angels upon it. Some seem, says St. Teresa in chapter VIII of the Foundations, to be dismayed at the mere name of visions or revelations. Yet what is the cause I do not know, or why they think it so dangerous for a soul to be led by God by this way, or whence this dismay of theirs takes its origin… And not a few confessors are not so struck and dismayed when they hear from penitents that the devil represents to them many kinds of blasphemy, and also suggests other foul and shameful things, as they are struck and dismayed when these say that they have either seen or spoken with some Angel, or even that our Lord Jesus Christ, placed on the Cross, has appeared to them. Wherefore I would not dare to agree with a certain religious man who, in a work lately published in French, judges that those familiar communications of God with man are today so rare that he would wish, by an almost general rule, to repel any persons whatever who disclose in the sacred Tribunal of Penance such graces received by them from God. Great caution and prudence must certainly be employed; yet the bounty of the divine goodness must not at any time be circumscribed to that extent: as you will see at length below in Ribera (book 1, chapter 1), and as Théophile Raynaud skilfully explains in his treatise on Stigmatism, sacred and profane, divine, human, demoniacal (section 1, chapter XIV).
[1762] not following the most just admonitions of Théophile Raynaud: That learned man, namely, after he had recalled the warning of the Apostle about Satan often transfiguring himself into an Angel of light, and after he had shown by many examples, drawn from faithful and approved writers, now of human, now of diabolical fraud, how necessary it is that that warning be kept before the eyes whenever persons are met with who walk by unwonted ways, subjoins the following golden words: Those who hear of these heavenly favours conferred on others… ought not to be so credulous as to receive forthwith with a thirsty ear everything that is vaunted in this kind, especially about silly little women, who, from poverty of heart, lie more easily open to imposture. And indeed this caution is also most necessary for that same softer sex: for, on account of weakness of judgment and lightness of heart, they suffer from facility of believing, and are also more easily deceived. The Holy Spirit Himself indeed ascribes hasty credulity to lightness of heart, Ecclesiasticus XIX. The breast is not, indeed, to be so hardened that it wishes to admit absolutely nothing narrated in this kind, even what is said to have happened in our age. For God even now is present to His Church, and has in her, under a bushel in various places, most shining persons, with whom He can not unworthily communicate pledges of His benevolence and proofs of holiness, these heavenly favours, if His good pleasure so bears it. And so it is not to be thought that our heaven is everywhere of bronze, and that heavenly gifts cannot rain down upon some persons of this age, such as flowed down upon earlier Saints.
[1763] The oak and triple bronze, therefore, which has settled in the breasts of some for rejecting all charisms of this kind as foreign to these ends of the ages, must be removed. Still more strongly are to be repelled those strong wits by whom it is accounted strength to deny that any earlier Saints (not even St. Francis excepted) were marked with the sacred stigmata… All these extremes are to be studiously avoided. Yet the other extreme also, of excessive facility in believing, must be guarded against in this business, and indeed more anxiously, since from this extreme a great danger altogether threatens. For those who are quickly brought to believe all things that seem pious and from God, and do not try the spirits, whether they be from God, with deliberateness and attentively and cautiously, according to the Apostle's warning, very easily stumble, become partakers of others' hallucinations, drinking of the cup of error, which is the cup of devils, and are improvidently intoxicated with the falsehood pledged to another by Satan. The middle way, therefore, is the safest to walk: if, namely, credence is neither quickly given to all things rashly scattered among the common people in this kind, nor do we harden ourselves against believing all things which have happened in our age too in this matter commonly, but faith is given to such narrations tardily and slowly; yet they are admitted when, by the rules of prudence, they shall seem not to be spurned. (See these things excellently proved with new arguments by an anonymous writer in the following §. For which reason I do not treat them more at length here.)
[1764] others, while they show themselves more credulous as to many things, But those unbelieving men are to be marked with a black stone, and not rarely are guilty of contradiction, who are wont to receive with guffaws the visions which are read to have been made divinely to St. Teresa and other pious persons, while yet they spare their own followers who narrate wonderful monsters of visions, for example Luther, who not only in many passages of his books rattles and belches out demons, but also confesses that he was often troubled by a spectre appearing to him. I pass over many other heterodox and unbelievers, both ancient and recent, who seriously narrate either that the souls of the dead became visible to them or that they and theirs were deemed worthy of an apparition of spirits, although it was not always certain to them whether these were good or bad, black or white. Wherefore true is the saying of a certain sensible man, who affirmed that the more duly proved facts anyone denies, and above all the more truths revealed by God, the more prone he is also to admit nursery tales and fables: so that, having rejected sincere and duly proved facts, they seem to take up a sort of creed of believing many trifles contrary not only to the Christian Faith but to reason and the sound judgment of man.
[1765] boast of being unbelievers as regards the gifts conferred by God on the Saints: Men of this kind do not so much impugn as stubbornly deny or even hold up to mockery the visions, apparitions and revelations of the Saints generally, all of them, and those of St. Teresa by name, for no other reason than that they are visions or revelations, and it is decreed by them to acknowledge nothing whatever of the kind that has happened in the Church of God. Nevertheless, as Pierre Bayle himself duly proves in his Historical and Critical Dictionary (article Spinoza, notes q, r and t), no one, not a Spinozist, not a Pantheist, not a Pyrrhonist, is able from reason to deny the existence or apparitions of spirits, any more than the existence of demons, or hell, or miracles; all of which a fortiori the Deists cannot deny. For as the writer of the book on the Miracles attributed to Pythagoras etc. himself confesses, than whom no one is more unfair and intemperate towards Catholics: We think so splendidly, so magnificently of God, that we firmly believe that nothing of those things which fall under the human mind and which are called possible surpasses His strength and power (chapter II, page 7). For it would be absurd to think that man is more powerful by his fancy than God by His omnipotence, or that we can conceive things which God could not bring about. But there is no leisure to pursue the matter with more ample reasoning: for I am not composing a theological or polemical treatise. But let the deniers of apparitions settle the matter with Bayle, a man not unacceptable to the adversaries, since he is the patriarch of the unbelievers and the advocate of the sceptics; and let them try, if they are able, to overthrow his reasonings and to demonstrate the impossibility of apparitions. Wherefore I let pass detractors of this kind, unarmed when it is a question of proving their own thesis, and at the same time unfit to deny logically and solidly what we both establish by reasoning can happen and confirm by authority and certain testimonies to have really happened. Moreover we should be performing a useless and in some way incongruous labour if we wished to persuade of the truth of revelations made to private persons those who repudiate the revelations contained in the Sacred Books; for the former, as being asserted only by human testimony, demand only the assent of human faith, whereas the latter, asserted by God Himself, demand the assent of divine faith.
[1766] others seem to ascribe them to human effort; On the opposite side, some are to be found, and indeed sometimes among the very defenders and admirers of the holy Virgin, who speak with little exactness and in too human a manner of her divine contemplations and ecstasies. Thus, while a recent French biographer of the Saint, more poetically than theologically (which is very greatly to be lamented as not infrequently done today in sacred matters), says that she was gifted from heaven with so much light that no mystery any longer existed for her, other writers seem to ascribe the supernatural gifts of the holy Virgin to her human effort alone, as though by the sole striving of her will and the natural apprehensive power of her intellect she had meditated on God so intensely and contemplated Him so deeply that all present things had escaped her mind, placed outside itself. There can indeed arise from the consideration of supernatural things a merely natural ecstasy, as Leibniz too holds with the theologians in his Theodicy (number 255), and Zacchia in his Medico-legal Questions (book IV, title I, question VI); but a natural ecstasy, which has a natural cause, must be accurately distinguished from a supernatural ecstasy, which is sent by God, and which must be numbered among the graces freely given, in which God is the first and principal author and mover. Thus St. Teresa (chapter V of the Foundations) explicitly ascribes not to human strength but to the divine goodness and power those contemplations, ecstasies, visions and revelations with which many of her daughters were gifted by God: So great are the graces which God confers on these monasteries that they arouse astonishment: for He leads all by the way of meditation; and there are some who arrive at perfect contemplation. Others are raised so high that they attain even to ecstasies and raptures: and others God favours with locutions, visions and revelations; which evidently have God for their author.
And today there is no monastery which does not number either one or two or three such nuns.
[1767] which error is the root of pseudo-mysticism, Because proud men, trusting too much in themselves, have not sufficiently distinguished human strivings from the supernatural operations of the Holy Spirit, there has arisen again and again in the Church of God a pseudo-mysticism, such as is rampant today too in several regions of Europe. For these sectaries, relying on the strength of human nature, raise themselves up to heavenly things and to a fantastic union with God, and arrogate to themselves the heavenly pledges of the divine kindness which God, according to His good pleasure, wills to confer freely only on certain humble friends of His. Therefore, in punishment of their proud attempts and of the impudent impiety which lurks under both the mask and the name of piety, these searchers of the divine Majesty and usurpers of heavenly gifts, God permitting, for the most part fall either into grave errors of faith or into foul vices of morals, and sometimes into horrible crimes which even human law punishes with prison or capital penalty. They try indeed to deceive by a feigned sense of piety, both in their manner of living and in the books they have written: but if you consider their life, their conventicles and their vague doctrine, you will find nothing there but dangers to the Christian Faith and damage to chaste morals, and you will conclude that in such a mysticism and adulterated piety there is nothing above, but everything below, the dignity of human nature.
[1768] with which several wrongly confuse the gifts conferred by God on the Saints, I do not think it worth while to pursue these mystics, or to unfold their various systems, or rather dreams and ravings. For although they seem to wish to imitate the Saints whom God enriched with heavenly gifts and who are venerated in the Catholic Church, and although they from time to time allege the authority of St. Teresa and cite her writings, it appears clearer than the sun that men of this kind have nothing in common with St. Teresa and the other Saints. Meanwhile it is plainly to be lamented that several writers today, chiefly among the Protestants, while they justly carp at the fictions and nursery tales of the deviant mystics, at the same time involve in their censure the life and writings of the upright mystics. Not to say anything of the splendid colourings of words and the inflated style, which is most unbecoming to such a subject and does not so much clarify the matter as obscure it, one may see almost every one of those rash critics bending the supernatural operations of the Holy Spirit to a different system fashioned by himself, and examining the action of God by analytical reasoning and dissecting it as by anatomy, not rarely mixing many errors into his treatment of things unknown to him.
[1769] which did not prevent St. Teresa and many other Saints One of these errors I shall note here as a specimen, but a customary one, and common to not a few who have recently treated of this subject. They contend, namely, that the mystical life (by which name they comprehend the practice of the contemplative life and prayer) can scarcely, or not even scarcely, be lived without crime, because, as they imagine, a man is rendered unfit by such a life for performing the services due to human society. For which reason they assail and affect with no slight disgrace very many servants of God who, intent on heavenly things, have merited the prerogative of supernal communications. But it is evident to everyone that no prudent director of conscience, and much less the holy Church of God, will or can wish to have approved anyone's manner of living by which he is called away from performing the duties owed to human society, to his family, or to any man. But, this argument dismissed, in order that St. Teresa may be vindicated, together with the contemplative life, from the injuries inflicted, it is enough to have noted that frequent ecstasies and the mystical life did not prevent this holy Virgin from most completely fulfilling the duties to be rendered by her to any men whatever, and moreover from reforming the Carmelite Order of both sexes, from composing admirable books, reprinted even a hundred times in almost all the languages of Europe, and from obtaining the first place among the most eloquent Spanish writers, not only for the explained mysteries of mystical theology and for her excellent moral precepts, but also for her Atticism in the vernacular tongue and the incomparable charm of her style, nay, even for the most lofty philosophy with which, to the wonder of Leibniz himself, she discoursed of the soul and the human heart.
[1770] from rendering the services due to men, This one example of the ecstatic Teresa having been brought, there is no need, for refuting the aforesaid disgrace thrust upon the contemplation of heavenly things and upon divine gifts, to name Moses, leader of the people of Israel and a lawgiver more excellent than all the Lycurguses of all times, who, coming out from the converse of the Lord's speech (Exod. XXXIV, 29), gave diligent attention to public affairs; or to cite Paul, who, rapt to the third heaven and accustomed to pray without ceasing, nevertheless toiled at converting the world; or to recall Benedict, Francis, Dominic, Norbert, Ignatius and the other holy Founders of religious families, whose heart, amid manifold affairs undertaken for the honour of God and the good of souls, burned with the fire of divine love, and whose mind was fixed on the meditation of supernal things. Further, if anyone wishes to be untaught, by almost infinite examples, the lies of those pseudo-critics who hold as guilty of neglected duties those pious men whom, intent on the consideration of divine things, God has gifted with unwonted graces, let him open the volumes of our work, and he will have met with everywhere not only ascetics and coenobites, but also emperors, kings, generals, pontiffs, priests, fathers and mothers of families, and men of every order and state, to whom those charisms received from heaven and the zeal spent on the consideration of eternal things were not a hindrance but a help to carrying out in every respect their duties, of whatever kind, towards their neighbour.
[1771] although many of them have lain hidden. But if many have not mingled themselves in human affairs, it ought to be kept before the mind that not all are obliged to live an active life, and that it can even be more conducive to the commonwealth itself that a contemplative life be led by some in place of an active one. Surely the public quiet and prosperity would have suffered no detriment whatever if those monsters who in many regions from the middle of the century have filled their fatherland with slaughter and terror had lived a coenobitic life under a Franciscan or Carmelite cowl amid ecstasies and raptures of the mind. Whence it is evident that those witty writers inveigh most ineptly against the life of many Servants of God and against the mystical gifts of graces with which the Saints were honoured by God. They are unjust Aristarchuses, who measure others, better than themselves, by their own foot, and who speak of divine things which are not familiar to them. Let them know, then, by the admonition of St. Jerome, that it belongs to smiths to handle smiths' work and to physicians to promise what belongs to physicians, and above all let them apply to themselves the saying of St. Paul, pronouncing that the sensual man perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of God. For it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand, because it is spiritually examined (1 Cor. II, 14).
[1772] That the Protestants wrongly deny these gifts But let us dispute in a few words with those Protestants who, defending and revering the Holy Bible, do not turn these things into a fable, as is done today by many who, at their pleasure and according to their bent, by sacrilegious wickedness twist the obvious and genuine sense of the Scriptures whenever there is talk of miracles or revelations. I address, then, those sincere adversaries who admit that most extended series of visions, revelations and apparitions which are related in the Holy Scriptures from the first chapters of Genesis right up to the end of the Apocalypse, or who at least admit those which are found in the protocanonical Books, and are read to have happened to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Hagar, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the Prophets, Peter, Paul, Ananias, Cornelius and others almost innumerable: and I ask of those Protestants by what light enlightened, or moved by what reason, they reject and hold up to mockery the visions of the Saints, and by name of St. Teresa, provided these rest, as in fact they do rest, on just and solid proofs. We have seen Bayle establishing that not even a sceptic or a materialist can demonstrate the impossibility of apparitions. And so nothing remains for the antagonist, whatever he may finally be, if he wishes not only to accuse us but to convict and condemn us of error, but to overthrow the arguments of the testimonies by which apparitions and visions are fortified, and by which, if they are just, the assent of human faith is due. Nor is it found said in words written in the codex of the Bible that such supernatural commerce of God with men would be broken off and severed after the times of the Apostles; nor would any of the opponents surely dare to declare that it had been revealed to him by a peculiar revelation that no revelation has been made to any mortal after the Apostles or will be made hereafter, or be able to affirm that he knows by any other reason that this fountain of the divine kindness has been dried up.
[1773] is demonstrated, Yet no one, so far as I know, among those who reject the revelations of St. Teresa, employs this single method which it is right to employ, or no one by such a just argumentation attempts to overthrow those proofs of the Teresian visions made up of suitable testimonies, such as are found here both in the alleged Acts of canonization, and in Ribera's Life of Teresa, and finally in several passages here and there of this Commentary; but by a mere arbitrary oracle, as it were from the tripod, they declare that things of this kind are nothing other than a farrago of empty deceptions: in which way they do not fear to charge some Catholics with shameful frauds, others with stupid credulity. It is indeed admitted by us that the testimonies of men, as St. Thomas says, do not have infallible certainty, but probable: yet fair reason does not so much persuade as command that we yield to such probable certainty, and forbids us to repudiate testimonies only because the subject asserted does not please. Yet thus against all equity are wont to sin those who, on account of preconceived judgments, reject wholesale the testimonies given in the processes of canonizations concerning miracles, revelations and other things of this kind. Whom Gravina in his Catholic Prescriptions (tome IV, page 333) rightly censures with this severe but just saying: Whoever rejects grave witnesses, many, strictly examined, in the Acts of canonization, and strives to weaken their testimony, fights even with nature itself, overturns all tribunals, ruins the hierarchical order, and takes away human intercourse.
[1774] their principal objection having been refuted, In place of all reasoning the adversaries are wont to allege, in order to deny the true ones, that among the revelations and visions which are vended here and there many are false: and thence they ineptly conclude that all are to be rejected. But because you show me false money, is it therefore demonstrated that none is sound and genuine? Are all false because many are false? Or are none certain because not all are equally proved? Let such things be admitted, for all I care, most sparingly and most cautiously, and only after the testimonies have been examined and weighed: nay, I advise everyone to act so; for a shrewd method of judging and believing forbids us to lend easy ears to all things of this kind which are circulated. And the Blessed Virgin Mary herself, when she was being greeted by the Angel, did not immediately give assent, but thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be (Luke 1). And the heathen Cicero himself said most rightly: While in all things rashness in assenting and error is shameful, so most of all in that place in which one must judge how much to auspices
and divine things and religion is to be attributed. For there is danger lest either, if these are neglected, we be bound by impious fraud, or, if they are taken up, by old-womanish superstition (On Divination, book 1, chapter IV). But the same sagacity likewise forbids that all things generally be rejected from the mere itch of denying, even though perspicacious and sincere writers judge them true on account of the plausible arguments with which they are surrounded. For truly, without injury to the rules of sound criticism, those facts cannot all be held wholesale for old wives' tales and the dreams of madmen to which Origen, Tertullian, St. Augustine, and so many other holy Fathers and Doctors, Pontiffs and Councils, and innumerable writers at once most weighty and most learned have given their assent.
[1775] and the inept principle on which they rely having been overthrown. If, then, the desire should seize any of the adversaries of the Teresian visions not only of stubbornly denying the facts, but of attacking these facts with reasonings, or if he should no longer deny the possibility of apparitions (which anyone will undertake in vain at once to deny and to demonstrate, by the judgment of Bayle himself), but should dare to deny the facts themselves, the events themselves, or the very apparitions which are established to have happened; let him remember that one must not discourse speculatively and theoretically on the nature of apparitions, but that the facts themselves, or the proofs of the facts, must be attacked. And I would wish this opponent to meditate seriously on these brief words, which I render into Latin from the Mémoires de Trévoux (for the year 1724, page 889): Enormously deviant from right reason are the unbelievers who wish to judge of the truths of Religion by that method which suits only merely speculative sciences, not observing that in Religion it is a question of facts, of examining the proofs of facts, and of recognizing the evidence and infallibility of those facts. For any other method whatever does not suit the nature of those things to be examined: and any philosopher who wished to employ another will act no less ineptly than one who wished to judge of colours by hearing or of sounds by sight. Yet, the aforesaid Mémoires continue, so have the Protestants acted, who tore themselves away from the Catholic Church: nay, they would still adhere to the true Church, had they not wished to know the truths of Religion by philosophical methods, when they ought to have stood by the evidence which certain testimonies produce, to which, if we act according to reason, we must always have recourse when the question is of facts; just as, on the contrary, abstract reasonings alone must be used whenever speculative things are to be investigated.
[1776] An end is put to the paragraph with its summary repeated. Let this, then, be the end of this paragraph. For on the one hand it has been abundantly demonstrated by certain arguments that Teresa, beloved of God, was divinely gifted with all those abundances of ecstasies, visions and revelations which she herself records in her writings, and which witnesses of the greatest integrity and eyewitnesses in great number asserted in the process of canonization to have shone forth in her; and on the other hand those who think the contrary have been reproved and confuted, whether they were critics who show themselves more difficult than is fair in giving credence to such facts, or unbelievers who indiscriminately and stubbornly deny all things which they have foolishly decreed beforehand to deny, or unsound ones, such as are many scribblers today who do not know how to discern the mystical gifts of God from the sacrilegious absurdities of depraved mysticism and pietism, or finally heterodox persons who would have that fountain of the divine kindness to have dried up after the primeval times of the Church, setting for God a chronological limit, so to speak, by which they themselves circumscribe at their pleasure and will His omnipotence and infinite goodness, spurning with the greatest rashness and against all the rules of criticism the most certain testimonies of the holy Fathers and of the most approved writers of every age. The matter with these, then, having been finished, I hasten to refute those who have recourse to the powers of the imagination to make the divine charisms of St. Teresa human. Their standard-bearer, moreover, may be reckoned Lodovico Antonio Muratori. Wherefore I shall engage chiefly with him, but having borrowed another's pen, which I found at hand.
§ XCIII. Lodovico Antonio Muratori is chastised, who in his Italian work on the Powers of the Human Imagination, chapter IX, ineptly attributes the visions of St. Teresa to the imagination.
This opinion of Muratori was formerly already well refuted. I was about to deal with this singular opinion of Muratori when I came upon a dissertation of an anonymous writer in which that opinion is excellently refuted. That little dissertation is found, in the place and under the name of an appendix, at the end of the Scholastic-Polemical-Historical-Critical Controversies, by Liberius a Jesu, Discalced Carmelite (Milan, 1755, tome VII, page 725). The author of that excellent little treatise I seem to myself not so much to conjecture as to recognize from the following words of Father Federico: A writer of our age, not undistinguished in erudition and of praised morals, but, in my judgment, at times inconsiderate in bringing out his opinions, cast into me a just doubt whether he thought rightly, and not perversely, of the revelations of my holy Mother, holding them, at least in part, for the offspring of a deluding imagination. This was the occasion for me to compose a Latin dissertation, in which I intended to demonstrate that the one cause of all the prodigious effects which we wonder at in our Saint is the supernal omnipotence of God, and that they can by no means be ascribed to deception, imagination, human artifice or any other natural cause (Proem to the Life of St. Teresa, page XXXII).
[1778] Visions are indeed to be admitted only cautiously; Thus, then, says the anonymous writer: Since, as I am about to vindicate the Seraphic Mother Teresa, a discourse must be instituted on the illustrious visions and revelations with which she was most abundantly enriched, I wish at the outset to forewarn the candid reader not to reprehend me unjustly and place me among excessively easy and credulous men. I am not one who readily gives credence to all the narrations which are commonly vended, especially those of women, who, as they are weak in body, so likewise are they in mind. It is surely one thing to assert as genuine and to champion as sprung from the Divine Spirit the revelations of St. Teresa, and another to embrace and venerate the several revelations of men without making any selection. I know (Ecclus. XIX, 4) that he that is hasty to give credit is light of heart. Nor does the warning of the Apostle escape me (1 Jo. IV): "Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits if they be of God." But moreover it does not escape me that there is in the Church of God the gift of the discernment of spirits, which certainly must necessarily presuppose not only false and empty but also sometimes true and supernatural revelations. St. Paul moreover admonishes (1 ad Thessal. V, verse 19 and following): "Extinguish not the spirit. Despise not prophecies. But prove all things: hold fast that which is good. From all appearance of evil refrain yourselves." It is also helpful to remember that long before it was prophesied by Joel (chapter 2, verse 28) of the Gospel times, and confirmed by the Prince of the Apostles (Acts II, verse 17): "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith the Lord, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams." By no means, therefore, can it be denied by a Catholic man that one must indeed walk cautiously where anyone narrates divine colloquies or sets forth revelations; but neither is it permitted to adhere to a damnable Pyrrhonism, so that each and every one is banished to childish nursery tales and old wives' fables. The precious must be separated from the vile, the true must be sifted from the false.
[1779] yet some are true, above all in holy souls. Further, where shall we chiefly find the true ones, if not among those happy souls which have flourished with singular holiness, which have burned with a sincere and most ardent love towards God? Nor is there reason for you to reply that the graces which theologians call freely given have more than once been granted by God even to sinners themselves. I do not deny that this has happened and can happen; but everyone must at the same time confess that commonly God reveals His secrets only to His friends. Hence St. Thomas (3rd part, question XXXVI, article III) does not disapprove of what he had objected to himself in the second argument, saying: "The manifestation of divine truth ought chiefly to be made to friends, according to that of Job XXXVI: He sheweth to His friend concerning it." And long before (2. 2, question CLXXII, article IV), inquiring whether goodness of morals is required for prophecy, after he has laid down in the body of the article that prophecy can be without charity, can be without sanctifying grace, and consequently without goodness of morals, he skilfully observes: "But if we consider goodness of morals according to the passions of the soul and external actions, according to this one is hindered from prophecy by wickedness of morals. For for prophecy there is required the greatest elevation of mind to the contemplation of spiritual things, which indeed is hindered by the vehemence of the passions and by inordinate occupation with external things; whence it is read of the sons of the prophets, 4 Kings IV, that they dwelt together with Eliseus, leading as it were a solitary life, lest they be hindered by worldly occupations from the gift of prophecy." And in the reply to the 1st he observed no less skilfully that "the gift of prophecy is sometimes given to a man both for the utility of others and for the enlightenment of his own mind" (which is more frequent, and was pre-eminently fulfilled in St. Teresa); "and these are they into whose souls the Divine Wisdom, transferring itself through sanctifying grace, makes them friends of God and prophets." Experience itself plainly teaches us that for the most part only holy men, and those more distinguished and eminent in piety, are enlightened with divine gifts of this kind (then the author confirms this with the words of the auditors of the Sacred Rota, recited at number 1325).
[1780] Muratori holds the Teresian visions for phantasms, These things being premised, let us attack Muratori, who in the treatise published in Italian on the Powers of the Human Imagination, chapter IX, strives craftily (as it seems to me at least) to eliminate all supernatural power from the ecstasies and revelations of St. Teresa, and relegates them to natural effects of the contemplating intellect. Whether rightly or undeservedly, the prudent reader will judge from the things which I shall subjoin a little more at length. It is better to hear what he himself lays down in place of a principle: "Whenever any pious virgins are found, or anyone else thinking very rightly of God, who with all their might bend their mind in continual meditation either on Christ the Saviour or on other truths of our Faith, we must suppose their mind already so pregnant with sacred doctrines and pious ideas, which they have drawn from the assiduous reading or hearing of ascetical things, that very easily from preconceived sacred phantasms they are able to elaborate inwardly certain studious colloquies, and these varied and more suited to the affection or contemplation of each one, fashioning certain divine works, either of Angels or of any of the Blessed; all of which, who does not see, can surely happen both within the powers of nature and without any peculiar influence of the Divine Godhead? The soul itself, filled with so many ideas, suffices to itself; it suffices to procure such things for itself. Do not, to confirm the matter with a signal example, do not the profane lovers of creatures themselves, turning over so many and such great things in their mind with themselves, for the most part think that they are idling in mutual conversations, though absent, and fashion various most delightful turns of fortune, as if they were in fact speaking to one another? But since women, especially young girls, are seized by very excited fancies, necessarily vehement
feelings of the mind towards God and His Saints are present in virgins or women singularly devoted to piety; whence it comes about that little by little the power of meditating is so intensified in them that, the customary use of the senses being dismissed, the soul alone at length ranges abroad in so delightful and sacred a field of contemplation, which they prefer to call ecstasy. Finally, when the use of the senses has been restored, if perchance the things meditated are entrusted to writing, as many syllables as the discourse consists of are forthwith received as so many oracles of the Heavenly Ones, or of the Mother of God, or of the Angels." This principle of Muratori is plainly ingenious, and if he had applied it only to those who have never undergone divine things and have never experienced supernal revelations, I would not dare to oppose it: but it rightly displeases that on page 120 he has adapted it to the visions of the Seraphic Mother Teresa. After he had laid down that holy virgins are not to be reprehended who reckon the excesses of a more vivid fancy as supernatural works and divine utterances, inasmuch as, although their narrations are nothing other than the play of a fervent imagination, yet they contain pious conceptions and are able to conduce to forming the morals of Christians, he finally hatched his eggs, adding: "On account of which praise the writings of the admirable handmaid of God, St. Teresa of Jesus, are to be valued very highly beyond others, as being brought forth by a perspicacious genius, and filled with a singular unction of the Holy Spirit." See the whole texture of Muratori, to cast a false colour on the revelations of St. Teresa.
[1781] contrary to what all the most learned and holiest men think. If it is so, how many poor wretches could I address, men distinguished in dignity, erudition and virtue, who, admiring the volumes of Teresa, valued them so highly not only for the reason that they were brought forth by a perspicacious genius and filled with a singular unction of the Holy Spirit, but also because they found them most apt for explaining the secrets of mystical theology! Will you, most eminent man, Giovanni Cardinal Bona, and you, most exalted and most sovereign man, Benedict XIV, who now happily sit at the helm of the Church, who, treating of revelations (the first indeed in the treatise on the Discernment of Spirits, the other in book III on the Canonization of the Saints), proposed those which Teresa underwent, so that the others might be approved or reprobated as against a Lydian stone, have need of Muratori as teacher? What shall I say of you, most holy man Peter of Alcántara, who were wont to say that, excepting the assertions of the Catholic Faith, nothing was more certain to you than that Teresa's spirit was divine? What shall I put forward about you, O most accurate and wise auditors of the Roman Rota, who more than once broke out in these words: that St. Teresa was given by God to the Church as a Mistress of heavenly doctrine? O why could you not hear Muratori, a man of recondite doctrine, so subtle a philosopher, who could have handed down the sincere origin, and that sought from natural reason, of so many revelations of the holy Virgin, which you adjudge to a singular dispensation of the divine goodness!
[1782] That Teresa herself pre-eminently distinguished true visions from false But come, let us lay aside quarrels, and call upon Teresa herself, excellently defending herself. Muratori's system certainly did not escape her; she brought it into the open, and disapproved it whenever it is applied to those who have at some time experienced true revelations. Let him hear what she taught on this matter clearly enough in chapter VIII of the Foundations (Italian edition, chapter XIII): "It is to be observed that the habit of nature is rather weak, especially in women, which is clearly recognized on this road of prayer. Wherefore there is need that we walk cautiously, and do not so easily judge that everything which appears to us or is presented to the mind is a vision." There is Muratori's system. But receive the disapproval: "Whenever a vision is true, believe me, it knows very well how to manifest itself." And the excellent Mistress continues: "Where you shall come upon someone labouring a little with the melancholic infirmity, greater attention is needed; since some have come to me to narrate illusions of fancy of this kind, so that I wondered not slightly how it could be that certain persons so seriously think they see what they do not see." It is evident from these things that the most holy Mother was not ignorant that someone can in many ways be seized by the heat of imagination and at the same time be deceived: it is evident moreover that true visions sufficiently betray themselves. Is it credible, these things notwithstanding, that the most humble Virgin wished to narrate her visions to us as born with God for their author, when they were nothing but the products of an excessively fervent fancy? She bids us be cautious, lest we think we see something which we do not actually see; and will she nevertheless delude us, certainly affirming that she has seen what in fact she has not seen? She who, by her own witness (as is evident to one reading her works), more than once drew others away from error, can we say that she was so miserably deceived that she could not recognize herself?
[1783] is proved from several passages of her books. Let us weigh another testimony, from the Sixth Mansion, chapter IX, of the Interior Castle: "It happens that some (and I know this to be most true; for I have learned it, not from three or four witnesses only, but from many who have treated with me on this matter) are endowed with so weak an imagination, or so very powerful an understanding, or some other force I know not what, and so effervesce in imagining, that everything they think, they assert that they see clearly, as they themselves think." What is clearer and more apposite to Muratori's thesis? I put forward the text in Teresa's native Spanish idiom, lest I seem to put forward falsehoods: "Acaece a algunas personas (y se que es verdad, que lo han tratado conmigo, y no tres o quatro, sino muchas) ser de tan flaca imaginacion, o el entendimiento tan eficaz, o no se que es, que se embeben de manera en la imaginacion, que todo lo que piensan, dicen claramente que lo ven, segun les parece." [It happens to some persons (and I know that it is true, for they have treated of it with me, and not three or four, but many) to be of so weak an imagination, or the understanding so effective, or I know not what it is, that they become so absorbed in the imagination that everything they think, they say clearly that they see it, as it seems to them.] What did the Seraphic Virgin subjoin here? That visions, then, are always to be refuted, always to be doubted? Far from it. "But," she says, "if they had at some time been gifted with a true vision, they would recognize the error quite manifestly without any doubt at all (sin quedarles duda) without doubt remaining to them: for indeed in plays of this kind they themselves compose what they flatter themselves they perceive by their imagination; afterwards they perceive no salutary effect, and they would have felt themselves glow more with divine love if they had looked at a pious image. It is quite apparent that these things are to be counted as nothing, and are such that they slip from the memory more easily than dreams themselves. Where a true vision happens, we surely experience different things. When the soul is very far from this thought or hope of enjoying a vision, suddenly it has the whole object of the vision all together before the eyes of the mind with great disturbance of the powers and senses and enormous fear, after which there forthwith follows great quiet and happy tranquillity."
[1784] Nor has Muratori spoken here logically and fittingly, Thus far St. Teresa, vigorously enough, in her own defence. These things being laid down, I proceed to argue thus: By Muratori himself St. Teresa was at some time gifted with true visions (for since he himself laid down as one unshaken sign the knowledge of contingent things, either future or far remote, and St. Teresa was distinguished not slightly with knowledge of this kind, as she herself confessed in chapter XXXIV of her Life and elsewhere, it necessarily follows that she was enlightened with visions with God for their author); but Teresa herself firmly asserts that those who enjoy true visions quite manifestly recognize the errors of fancy without any doubt at all, and she knew how to assign the quite broad difference which lies between natural and supernatural visions: therefore it is altogether beyond doubt that she was never so deceived by the allurements and fictions of fancy as to reckon them colloquies and supernal benefits of the Divine Godhead. Why does Muratori thrust upon me the amatory examples of profane men, who think that they are holding most delightful conversations, while yet no one is present? Is it permitted to think so lowly of supernal gifts? Shall we rightly compare the happiness and delight of divine charisms with earthly pleasures? Shall we judge holy men, who have tasted heavenly goods, have been inebriated with the peace of God which surpasseth all understanding, have enjoyed the company of the Blessed Citizens, have contemplated, though in passing, the joys of paradise, so dull and rude that they think a fair likeness is to be found taken from worldly lovers? St. Teresa surely testified of herself that all things became vile to her, that she judged all things that are in the world, though they are made so much of by men, as dung, as darkness, as empty, once it was permitted her to behold the beauty of the heavenly Spouse: it could not happen, therefore, that she should vend the delusions of a seething brain as divine oracles and supernal spectacles. Let the wholesome admonition of Thomas à Kempis be heard (book 3 of the Imitation of Christ, chapter LVIII): "Let carnal and sensual men be silent from discoursing of the state of the Saints, who know not how to love anything but private joys. They take away and add according to their own inclination, not as it pleases the eternal truth. In many there is ignorance, especially of those who, being little enlightened, rarely know how to love anyone with a perfect spiritual love. They are still much drawn to these or those by natural affection and human friendship: and as they are in inferior things, so they imagine also of heavenly things. But there is an incomparable distance between the things which the imperfect think and the things which enlightened men contemplate through supernal revelation."
[1785] and wrongly denies that visions can be distinguished from phantasms. But indeed, says Muratori: "Until the mystics fully prove that these visions are altogether free from the influence of fancy and from images stirred up by the soul, who that is prudent will not doubt that they will always be of suspect credit? Nor does it move me more if you say that these visions are altogether from the intellect, all aid of corporeal images being excluded; since it is nothing new that there are holy Virgins who, having acquired with a more sublime genius great knowledge of theological things, can in this elevation of mind fashion most subtle thoughts, especially if they have made some little progress in that sublime study of mystical theology." I reply that the mystics prove excellently that visions exist altogether free from the influence of fancy. Let the last words of St. Teresa, from chapter IX of the Sixth Mansion of the Interior Castle, brought forward above, be weighed, and it will be evident that their reasons are not empty. But it is helpful to confirm it again with another, and that most valid, testimony of the same St. Teresa, drawn from chapter XXVIII of her Life: "That this vision is a play of fancy is more impossible among impossibilities, and has no probability. For the mere beauty and whiteness of one of His hands" (namely of the Humanity of Christ, which she narrates was shown to her) "far surpasses all the force of the imaginative power. Without any use of memory, without any study or thought, so many and such great things are met with at one stroke, which we could not compose by imagination even through a long interval of time. Therefore it is impossible that this could be produced by the imagination. But granted even that we could add something to this vision by fancy, from another reason which I shall subjoin it is manifestly proved that no work of fancy can intervene here. For if this vision had been fashioned by the intellect, besides the fact that it would produce none of those great effects which are nevertheless felt in this vision, moreover, he who
underwent it would be like one who, seized by the need of taking sleep on account of an infirmity of the head, though he could in no way sleep, yet waking pretended to himself that he was sleeping. This man surely, since he does not truly sleep, is so far from bringing any relief or benefit from that pretended slumber that rather he would at times labour with a head far emptier and weaker. So it would in part happen in our case; since no virtue would then come to the soul, no strength, but rather infirmity and bitterness: whereas, on the contrary, it is enriched with so many riches, which words are not sufficient to set forth adequately, and even the body itself acquires health and vigour thence." Thus far the Seraphic Mistress of heavenly doctrine. Partisanship being laid aside, let the force of her reasons be weighed, and I am easily led to hope that even the more acute philologists will concede to me that what she consigned to writing was excellently championed by her.
[1786] He gives two signs of a true vision, but not accurately; But Muratori will not yet confess himself beaten. "Two signs only" (he says) "seem to me certain by which ecstasies of this kind may be proved to have been with God for their author. The first indeed, if he who undergoes these divine things feels himself carried and raised on high at the same time, not only in mind but likewise in body: for this kind of power, which altogether passes beyond the powers of nature, will have to be referred proximately to God Himself; since otherwise the excellent manner of life of the person himself who undergoes these divine things altogether removes all suspicion of diabolical influence. The other, however, if thence there be drawn knowledge of contingent future things or of things far remote, which only that supreme principle has attained to which all the intervals of places and times lie open. These two indications therefore being taken away, of which some still with difficulty admit the first, by any other visions or revelations whatever that are bandied about, in which past things are touched upon or the mysteries of Religion are explained, these must be of altogether doubtful credit; since prudent judgment has no means by which to decide with evident certainty that they were stirred up by heavenly inspiration rather than by a natural cause." In the first place Muratori is to be reprehended because he did not disapprove of those who unskilfully doubted whether a body cannot by natural force be raised into the air without any support and remain there long. These Zacchia deservedly ridicules in the Medico-legal Questions (book IV, title I on miracles, question VI, number 10) with this unshaken reason: "There are ecstatics who are raised from the earth in ecstasy, so that they remain as it were poised in the air. But this, whatever some have tried to affirm in natural ecstasy, is foreign to all truth: for it is altogether against the propensity of nature for a heavy body to be lifted up from the centre by its own power and sustained in the air."
[1787] and he omits the chief sign, namely that from the effects, Then, which is the main point, he is to be called to judgment because he passed over the other, and that the principal, indication of a genuine supernatural vision. St. Teresa deduces the characters of a sincere vision from the effects, and more than once instituted a discourse on them, which Muratori has not even slightly touched. Further, what these effects are, which the holy Virgin calls great, may be learned from the Venerable Father Juan de Jesús María, who in the treatise on the Discernment of Spirits (number 13) drew them from Teresa herself and recited them in these words: "The first is the power and command of God speaking to the soul; because He speaks and works at once. Whence, for example, by one word (say: Fear not) He sometimes quiets a great disturbance, and the soul on hearing this experiences the greatest tranquillity. This sign seemed to our holy Mother more secure than the others. The second is peace, quiet and interior recollection, devotion and great readiness in the divine praises. The third, if the soul, when it has heard the Lord speaking, carries His words engraved on the memory for a long time, and some of them even as long as it lives. The fourth is a great security impressed concerning a future event, even though difficulties be thrown in its way from without. Besides these signs our holy Mother noted some others, which consist in a certain manner of God's speaking to the soul, namely that He speak to it through some intellectual vision in the inmost recesses of the soul itself so secretly that not even the devil himself understands these things. The first of these signs is the very clarity of the words and locutions of God, which is wonderful above all clarity; and also the tenacity of memory with which the soul grasps and retains those words, so that it notes even their style and their little words and syllables. The second is if often no thought about those matters precedes, and the divine words, formed on the instant, answer some thought then passing through the mind with great speed, or some thought held before that time. The third, that the soul perceives these words with inmost ears, as distinct from those which it imagines to itself; since imagination is properly a certain composition. The fourth, if at even one of these words a great light arises in the soul, which happens otherwise when either it itself works or the devil. The fifth, if together with those words certain things more sublime are revealed to the soul than the words themselves signify."
[1788] which is weighed in our Saint, The day would fail me, and I should weary the learned reader more than is fair, if I wished to review all the testimonies of St. Teresa by which, with the valid weight of reasons, she laid down in place of a firm principle that the true method of discerning visions is to be sought chiefly from the effects, namely from the singular love towards God which flows thence, from the generous restraint of the passions, from the wonderful quiet of the contemplating soul and its security about the divine power working in it, etc. Read Ambrogio Ansano Tantucci of the Order of Preachers in the Critico-dogmatic Dissertation against the censure which the abbé Fleury shamelessly put forth concerning the revelations of St. Catherine of Siena; and you will clearly find that the doctrine of the Angelic Teacher agrees wonderfully with the pronouncements of St. Teresa. From the effects which they found to be surely admirable in Teresa, St. Peter of Alcántara, St. Francis Borgia and other most illustrious men deduced the reason by which they defended Teresa's revelations; nor must it be kept silent that the same reason was employed by the auditors of the Roman Rota. It will not be beside the point to bring into the open the authority of Pierre Nicole, who in the book which he entitled in French "Essais de morale", which we might call Moral Essays, after he had held discourse in treatise IV on the ends of man, chapter X, about a certain vision of St. Teresa, pronounced these things: "This I dare to say, that if anyone is not vehemently terrified at this narration, but rather refers it to the play of the imagination alone, he would deservedly be numbered among the more stupid. For in order that that narration could rightly be despised, it would be necessary that we be certain of its vanity and deceitfulness. Further, we are very far here from having this certainty with regard to the visions which she relates: nay, on the contrary, it must be freely confessed that, since two things can be called into doubt in visions, the first whether the person who narrates them is faithful and sincere, the other whether they are produced by the play of fancy, those who with fair judgment have brought the writings of this most holy woman to the balance cannot but forthwith persuade themselves of the supreme faith and sincerity of the writer; and much less will they judge that so great a force can be attributed to the images which come to the fancy that through them souls are advanced to the most elevated degrees of holiness, in which God established Teresa through the same visions which she relates. Nay, it seems altogether absurd that God Himself should have joined so many prodigious effects to fictitious illusions." Thus Nicole; which things, had Muratori weighed them more attentively, he would perhaps have put forth his opinion more cautiously on the trackless mysteries of mystical theology. But to confine the certainty of visions to two signs only, or, to speak better, to a single one, is a dangerous thing, strays from the truth, and is in some manner a less fair restriction of the divine beneficence.
[1789] and which was of the greatest weight for approving her visions. Thus far we have heard Teresa herself excellently championing herself by her writings and doctrines: but what if she herself had concluded nothing? What if she had handed down nothing to posterity? Would it be permitted to despise her revelations because not all of them enjoy the characters proclaimed by Muratori? Would not the vote suffice of so many illustrious prelates, so many most renowned doctors, so many most holy men, who after the most accurate examination found in her nothing that was not genuine, nothing that was not divine? "It is established that among others there were thirty-eight, by almost all of whom, after Confession had been made with them, in different places and times, the spirit of Blessed Teresa was judged divine": these are the words of the Roman Rota, in the article on holiness in general. In several places the holy Mother herself testifies that she left no stone unturned so that her manner of life and the heavenly gifts in which she abounded might be tested among the wiser men of all Spain whether they were from God: and none of them, after the most accurate censorial rod had been applied, dared to reprobate Teresa's gifts, or to call them into doubt, or to attribute them to any other than God as author. Let the reader consult the letter which Teresa gave to Father Rodrigo Álvarez of the Society of Jesus, which begins, her own name being suppressed: "This nun took the habit forty years ago", and whose autograph, written with her own hand, is preserved at Viterbo among the Discalced Carmelites. There the holy Mother unfolds a long list of theologians most celebrated for learning and piety, who already then had approved her ecstasies and visions. Among them are recorded two who have been enrolled among the Saints by decree of the Roman Church, namely Peter of Alcántara and Francis Borgia: others who published certain excellent volumes, namely Domingo Báñez and Bartolomé de Medina, both of the renowned Family of Preachers, and public professors of sacred theology in the university of Salamanca: others finally were of those who took upon themselves the burden of illustrating or vindicating even in writing the spirit of Teresa and the divine power working in her, namely Father Master Pedro Ibáñez and the apostolic man Juan de Ávila. How, then, will the doubts of Muratori be able to stand among so many sublime and judicious men? And will his authority prevail over the opinions and definitions of such great men? Is it to be believed that those characters were not known to them which genuine revelations must display?
[1790] The objection about the credulity of our forebears is answered, They were surely ignorant of them, Muratori here replies; since (as he thinks) in olden times men were more prone to believe than is fair: they venerated with a blind impulse as divine what had a solely human cause; and the theologians were devoted to the Peripatetic school, which with him is the same as to have been unlearned and liable to very many prejudices. Very pretty indeed: as if the very ancient definition of man, "a rational animal", had been fulfilled only in this century; and God had deferred the gift of the discernment of spirits up to these times, lest the Holy Spirit should have been compelled to play the Peripatetic in past centuries. I, to
state openly what I think, consider that men very difficult to bring to belief have existed in all centuries; and on the other hand that men too prone to belief will also never be lacking. To one reading the history of the life of St. Teresa it will be manifestly evident how much men harassed her at the beginning, as being, more than was fair, unable to give her credence. Were the heats of fancy, its delusions, and, so to speak, its marvels, hidden from the ancients and banished from the knowledge of the Peripatetic school? Were St. Bonaventure, Cardinal Torquemada, Gerson, St. John of the Cross, Francisco de Sosa, Girolamo Piatti, Juan de Jesús María, Tomás de Jesús, Antonio del Espíritu Santo, and six hundred others who have held discourse on revelations, ignorant of the powers of fancy? Let their works be read through, and the truth will be sufficiently in the open. In the twelfth century also the revelations of St. Hildegard were being banished to empty phantasms and womanish spectres: yet St. Bernard judged otherwise. See what Johannes Trithemius wrote on this matter in tome I of the Annals of Hirsau at the year 1147 (page 415 in my copy): "The holy handmaid of Christ was known to St. Bernard both by her writings and, by the report of many, approved in the Lord: when he had come to her, after the customary prayers and the courtesies of greeting, he ordered the volumes to be shown him which she had written under divine inspiration; and having in part diligently reviewed these, wondering beyond what can be said, he is said to have spoken to his companions: These writings are not humanly invented, nor can mortal man grasp them unless he has been inwardly and in his soul reformed through love to the likeness of God. To these words the provost of the virgins, a devout and holy monk, Heribert by name, answered the man of the Lord: Reverend Father, what you have said is indeed true; but many men, learned and unlearned, religious and worldly, torment the soul of the handmaid of Christ with daily revilings, prattling that she, an unlearned woman, utters phantasms of the brain or things deceitfully sent in by demons. To whom the man of God said: We do not wonder, dearest brother, if those sleeping in sins think divine revelations dreams, since we know that the holy Apostle spoke the truth: The sensual man perceiveth not the things that are of the Spirit of God." Far be it from me to wish to fasten this censure of the mellifluous Doctor more fully upon Muratori, and to offer the envious a handle for tearing his illustrious fame to pieces: I testify that it is solely my intention to show that the men of old were not so rude as he, not modestly enough, judged. I shall come nearer, and bring into the open a man very abundantly fed on Peripatetic subtleties. He is Juan Caramuel: shall I call him a man of very easy credulity and ignorant of the weakness of fancy? By no means. Hear what he testifies of himself in the prologue to the Life of the Venerable Servant of God Domingo de Jesús María (Vienna edition, 1655): "At the time when I governed Bohemia in the name of the Most Eminent Prince Cardinal von Harrach, my most clement Lord, I took cognizance by virtue of my office of very many ecstasies and very many revelations of God, of the Mother of God, of Angels, of Saints, and more frequently of apparitions of souls detained in the fires of purgatory; I rejected them all, admitting not even one as true, or even probable." You see here plainly a disposition not overly credulous. Yet, these things notwithstanding, he undertook the task of writing the acts of the Venerable Domingo, not at all frightened by so many visions with which his Life is filled: and he found such distinguished and wonderful characters in the revelations of the servant of God that he did not hesitate to break out in these words: "If the critic goes on disbelieving, and will not acquiesce in the testimonies of illustrious men, I shall dispatch myself in a few words. I shall say thus: I write not a line for heretics, nothing for men prevented by the prejudice of hatred or envy … And what is it to me if one or another impious and unlearned man rejects what an exceptional multitude of the most pious and most learned men approves?"
[1791] and an example is cited of the severe criticism applied to Teresa. But what need is there to beg for examples? We have among the men approving the spirit of St. Teresa in the 16th century one who certainly, even from those times, was no less scrupulous than Muratori in giving credence to revelations. I mean Bartolomé de Medina, who in his commentaries on the 3rd part of the Theological Summa of the Angelic Doctor (question XXV, article III), contrary to his custom, sharpened his pen at some length against those who here and there vend themselves as having visions. He laid down, then, in the first conclusion (page 324 and following of the Venice edition of 1602): "Sometimes these operations are true; for Christ appeared to Paul at Jerusalem; but he forthwith adds: Nevertheless true apparitions of this kind are most rare, and therefore they are very suspect, and are rather to be thought delusive appearances of the demon, who often transfigures himself into an Angel of light." He did not hesitate to repeat the same in assertion V, in these words: "Regularly and commonly these apparitions and visions are not true." Which, after he has proved it with manifold reasoning, he adds: "The same is proved from the horrible slaughter which the demon has made among persons of both sexes who gave credence to these visions, which cannot be related without tears." But because he was compelled to admit some as true, he proceeds very cautiously to list above twenty rules for distinguishing true revelations from false, besides those which he recites from the Treatise on the Spiritual Life of St. Vincent Ferrer. Equally wisely he observes that visions can sometimes be stirred up by the bodily habit of the contemplating person, saying: "The genius and judgment of the man is to be most diligently considered … The temperament of the body is also to be estimated, the health, the judgment … In sleep there is chiefly danger lest we be deceived by these visions … It is to be diligently looked into whether he who undergoes visions is affected by the black humour, that is, melancholic, or too much worn with leanness." From these things anyone can easily understand that Medina was not a man either too headlong in believing or inclined to receive all revelations rashly, but rather a most rigid censor of spirits. Further, what opinion he himself put forth on the revelations of St. Teresa let us hear from the illustrious prelate of Tarasona (say Tarazona), Diego de Yepes, in the prologue to the Life of St. Teresa, § II: Father Master Fray Bartolomé de Medina, already holder of the chair of Prime in the university of Salamanca, when he had heard so many and such wonderful things told of Blessed Mother Teresa, made nothing of her, and gave no credence to the things which were proclaimed of her. It happened, however, that the holy Virgin came to Salamanca to found a new monastery. She diligently took care to meet him: for she loved above others to address those, and to communicate her affairs to them, whom she understood to be more opposed to herself and to her manner of prayer, from the hope with which she went about that they would examine her more and more, and would test whether she was walking with God. She entered, then, into conversation with Medina, and, having made with him a general Confession of her sins, gave a sincere account of her prayer and of all the gifts received in it: moreover she showed him what she had written of herself. All these things having been duly weighed, Medina changed his mind; and having become most closely united to Teresa herself, he made her certain that all the things she underwent were to be attributed to a divine gift; professing thereafter that there existed in the whole world no equal to Teresa in holiness. This frank confession of Medina is related even by Teresa herself in the letter to Father Rodrigo Álvarez praised above, which I omit to copy out, to consult brevity: and it is enough for me to have concluded that the men of old were not incautious and more unlearned or less acute; but perhaps more modest and less followers of jackdaws.
[1792] Wrongly too Muratori generally disapproves of revelations being written down: Another thing in Muratori follows to be chastised. On page 125 he proceeds to carp at those holy virgins as bold who have committed visions and revelations to written records: "Since" (he says) "to the most holy Apostle of the Gentiles himself, Paul, very many mysteries were unlocked by a heavenly gift, which nevertheless, as he himself testifies, it is not lawful for a man to utter, it pleases me to ask what right there is with those who apply themselves to mystical matters, to bring into the open here and there equally impenetrable secrets revealed to them, where Paul himself denied that this was in any way lawful for him?" So the reformer of Christian piety. O plainly festive scruple of a delicate philosopher! Is it so, good Muratori, that all revelations made to holy men had the same object, attained the same excellence and sublimity as the things which were manifested to the Apostle Paul when raised up to the third heaven? If we wish to follow the laws of logic, a general consequence deduced from a singular proposition is altogether vain. "I saw secret words," says Paul, "which it is not lawful for a man to utter": therefore (O charming inference!) all hidden things manifested to the other Saints it is not lawful to set forth… St. Teresa herself, abundantly taught by experience, discourses thus in chapter IV of Mansion VI: "When the soul is found in this suspension, it pleases God to show it certain heavenly secrets and imaginary visions, which it afterwards relates, since they have remained deeply fixed in its memory. But when it enjoys intellectual visions, it is by no means able to relate them, on account of the sublimity of the mysteries known, which it is not expedient should be touched, when related, by men still mortal… Jacob indeed saw a ladder; but besides it I think he saw other more secret things which he was not able to relate. For from the mere vision of the ladder, by which he saw Angels ascending and descending, he could by no means have understood so many and such great mysteries unless he had been gifted with a more illustrious light… Nor did Moses himself consign to writing all the things which he had seen in the bush, but only those which God willed to be written. But if God had not shown him far more secret mysteries, and those most certain, besides the things set forth, so that he could easily perceive that it was God who had spoken to him, he would surely by no means have cast himself into so many dangers and straits." What will Muratori say to these things? He does not wish (the authority of St. Paul having arisen) that secrets understood in a vision can be entrusted to writing: he has Teresa, who establishes that this can sometimes be done, and sometimes confesses that it cannot be done, nor is it expedient; is she to be reprehended? If she wrote them out, it is rather to be concluded: Therefore the things which she wrote out both could be, and it was expedient that they should be, written out. Are not some revelations accommodated to human capacity, most apt for shaking the hearts of sinners, sufficiently effective for instilling the knowledge of one's own infirmity and the love of virtue? What absurdity, then, can there be if they are made manifest? For in very truth, where will you find that the Teacher of the Gentiles himself covered all his revelations with deep silence? In the very chapter of the 2nd Epistle to the Corinthians in which, holding discourse on his rapture, he asserted: "It is not lawful for a man to utter," he immediately subjoined the narration of one revelation. "Thrice," he says, "I besought the Lord that it might depart from me (the sting of my flesh), and He said to me: My grace is sufficient for thee." According to Muratori the Apostle in this chapter openly reprehends and prohibits that anyone should describe revelations: but he himself without delay subjoins a revelation. Paul himself, therefore, is first of all to be carped at, as though he himself first and forthwith violated the law passed by himself: or rather, the genuine interpretation being applied, let him cease to harass the other holy and pious men who manifest what has been revealed to them; unless he wishes to accuse also the beloved Disciple of Christ himself, John the Evangelist, as a violator of the apostolic
law, he who wrote the volume of the Apocalypse, filled with so many visions, about the ninety-seventh year of restored salvation, after the death of Paul.
[1793] which Teresa did when compelled by command, and that a command prudently given. But, even granting gratuitously that it is incongruous that narrations of revelations be made, although they are not of those which can be compared with the most sublime rapture of St. Paul, I do not see by what right we can be angry with those who, having experienced them, have left them in writing; since rather those superiors and rulers of souls alone would have to be reproved, in order to satisfy whose commands they were compelled to write down the revelations. Surely of St. Teresa it is of undoubted credit that she could be driven only by the most grave commands of her superiors to entrust supernatural gifts to writing, when on the contrary she most humbly asked of them that free faculty be granted her, like another Augustine, to weave a most ample history of her faults. Truly, if there were any place for rebuke, would it have to be poured back upon her who, though her most profound modesty of mind counselled otherwise, showed the most perfect obedience towards her prelates? Far from it; but rather the whole licence of accusation will have to be thrown back upon the neck of those who commanded. Although neither upon the directors of conscience themselves is any mark, even the least, of imprudence or levity to be branded, if they are brought only after weighing all circumstances, and the case having been seriously and cautiously examined, or by a peculiar inspiration of the Divine Spirit, to impose precepts of this kind; as Copezius judges of St. Teresa's directors. He, after he had by effective speech persuaded all directors of consciences not to permit on any pretended occasion that the supernatural gifts received from God be committed to writing by those whom they direct, yet, having weighed the arguments which presented themselves concerning our Seraphic Mother, especially her exceptional lowliness of mind, which shines forth most of all on the very threshold of the narration of her Life, added in the Mystical Lamp (treatise V, chapter XXXI, number 355): "These are the true fruits of the spirit, from which directors will be able to discern not only the utility which God wished to procure from the Life and writings of this wonderful heroine and mystical teacher, but also the great reason by which her prelates and directors were led, who imposed so and such a most strict command of writing: and although (as it will be wicked to doubt) they were led by divine inspiration, nevertheless they proceeded with great weighing and delay before they imposed this precept on Teresa." And when the anonymous writer had proved that it is not to be feared that this is foreign to the will of God, by the example of Raphael, saying that it is good to reveal and confess the works of God honourably, he concludes thus: Why will it be wicked to permit directors of consciences and historians that certain splendid gifts of the divine beneficence, poured out upon His more faithful ones, should at some time come forth into the light, since from the knowledge of them obtained above all the more tepid and the weaker (whatever be the case with certain unsound persons who savour too much of earthly things) can be stirred up to seek more ardently the fountain of all goods, and the hearts of transgressors be called back to better fruit?
[1794] The animadversion of Jean Havelange on Muratori. Thus far the learned author of the anonymous Dissertation, who as a genuine son of Teresa excellently vindicates the honour of his holy Mother and her heavenly gifts against faithless interpretation. To this solid refutation of Muratori I shall add a brief animadversion on the same most celebrated writer by the most learned Jean-Joseph Havelange, formerly professor in the royal Seminary of Luxembourg, who in his excellent work on the infallibility of the Church in doctrinal facts demonstrated and vindicated from the attacks of the Jansenists, published at Maastricht in the year 1788 (page 194 and following), shows the damages arising from oblique reproaches of this kind put forward against the Church by him and by some other incautious Catholics. Namely, after he had said that he does not wish to inquire with what mind or with what zeal, Jansenist or Christian, these weapons are forged by these dissertators and supplied to the enemies of the Church, he adds these weighty words against Muratori: He pledges the poison of error to his readers the more dangerously the more accurately he smears it with the false colour of truth. He is wont also forthwith to draw back with the left hand what the right hand has given, or to call into doubt the things that are certain (page 204). If to anyone perchance this censure should seem rather severe, yet it is certain that by such ill-omened disputations in the first part of the eighteenth century a prelude was made by improvident writers to the unbelief of the pseudo-philosophers which was to follow in the other part of the same century. Consult the excellent François-Xavier de Feller reasoning thus in his French Journal (Journal historique et littéraire, 15 March 1790, page 531), where he records the opinion of some, who judge that these stains smelling of Jansenism were thrown upon Muratori's books by forgers.
§ XCIV. Wrongly do some ascribe the ecstasies of St. Teresa to animal magnetism. Concerning the existence and nature of this magnetism there is controversy among writers.
To those writers Besides those whom we have so far endeavoured to refute, and who either altogether deny the divine operations in holy souls or wrongly ascribe them to the efforts of human genius or to fancy, not so long ago another kind of men came forth, who assign to the same a new cause, unheard of in past centuries, namely the magnetism which they call animal: under which name some of them comprehend not only all unwonted operations of nature and of the soul, but also all the operations of God and of the devil in men; and so by the protection of this word they explain, or rather deny, both the sleights which are worked by the evil demon, and prophecies, revelations, apparitions, visions, miracles and the other works of the divine wisdom, goodness and omnipotence. For this is the custom of most unbelievers today, that the wonders worked by Jesus Christ and the Saints, which were formerly denied by the haters of truth, they now no longer deny to have happened, but assert that they happened in such a way that they had no other cause than a natural one. Specimens of which thing occur here and there among most of those who profess the new exegesis, as they call it, of the Sacred Letters; when, namely, they do not hesitate to interpret the most holy actions of Christ the Saviour in such a way that that admirable institution of the Christian Religion seems no longer the work of the right hand of the Most High, but fraud and guile. But let it be enough to have touched on these things in passing by way of example, lest by wandering more widely I exceed the limits set for me, since it is necessary for me to say certain things here about animal magnetism alone.
[1796] who by animal magnetism Since, however, the history of animal magnetism, which some prefer to call organic or vital, and which from the name of its author Anton Mesmer is sometimes also called Mesmerism, is commonly well enough known, I can rightly abstain from narrating it here, intending to relate only some historical facts where the disputation itself shall require it. And while I take up this question to be treated by me, I declare that I am not one who wishes or is able to pursue whatever pertains to it in such a way as to institute an entire and complete dissertation on animal magnetism and to weigh one by one the heads proposed concerning it; since that pertains rather to those who, long and much versed in the study of natural things and above all physiological ones, not omitting indeed psychological ones, must be held legitimate judges of matters of this kind. Nor have I to dispute with all the champions of animal magnetism, among whom I willingly declare there are not a few both learned and upright, who religiously separate divine charisms from magnetic phenomena; but only with those who, as I hinted above, have inflicted on St. Teresa that surely not slight injury of asserting that she was not moved by a supernatural and divine motion, but seized by a magnetic and therefore altogether natural power and by a certain impulse which they declare arises from the composition of the organs and is elicited by art.
[1797] that St. Teresa was seized I should be too long and should weary the reader with frequent repetition of the same things if I were to bring forward one by one what the champions of this assertion devise about St. Teresa in their lucubrations. Wherefore, by way of a specimen, out of several who establish the same I shall allege only one, who seems to have published not his own doctrine only on this matter but at the same time that of his masters, when lately at Paris, in order to obtain the insignia of a doctor, he published a diatribe or thesis on medicine to be solemnly defended by him; where in chapter IV, which is entitled On the effects of magnetism, after he has described somnambulism, insensibility, the communication of the magnetized person with the magnetizer alone, the sending of the ideas and thoughts of one into the other, the transposition of the senses and other things of that kind, he finally treats of ecstasy, of which he speaks thus: Imagine the greatest insensibility you can of the organs, the senses and motion, joined with the greatest power of feeling and thinking, and all life contracted towards the brain, and the soul in some manner stripped of the material organs; thus you will have conceived the form of ecstasy. This state, although extraordinary in the highest degree, is not, however, called into doubt, like the other phenomena of magnetism, because the same state from time to time still shows itself naturally elsewhere… And I have known several men throughout Europe who for many years now have enjoyed that habit undisturbedly. In that state St. Teresa passed part of her life; and when she was raised to the highest summit of magnetism, she saw God or Jesus Christ or Angels who addressed her in prolonged familiar conversation with her, of which she herself alleges several specimens. Half an hour or a whole hour having elapsed, she would emerge from that rapture, poured out in tears, and as it were complaining, because, she said, the good which she was enjoying had slipped away from her.
[1798] slanderously claim, I am ashamed to relate the proofs which the same writer adds to the opinion put forward by him, and the base sayings by which he contends that the holy Virgin pursued with love not that infinite and invisible God, but a corporeal one, or one clothed in human form, such as this man would have it that St. Teresa imagined to herself. But to him who impudently dares to affirm that this holy Virgin, in the book of her Life which she wrote, several times reproaches herself with the too earthly and not sufficiently pure movements of soul with which she was borne towards God, I reply assertively that it is most fully established both from the book of her Life and from all her other writings that nothing that was not most pure and most chaste affected her spirit. This she herself, speaking of herself, openly confesses: Jamas con cosa de su espiritu tuvo cosa que no fuese toda limpia Never in anything of her spirit did she have a thing that was not wholly clean (tome I, letter 19); that is, as Arnauld d'Andilly has it, to whose version the author of the thesis refers his readers: Il n'est jamais entré dans son esprit une chose qui ne fût toute nette et toute chaste [There never entered her mind a thing which was not wholly clean and wholly chaste]; or, as Chappe de Ligny renders it still more expressly: Jamais son esprit ne lui a rien représenté qui ne fût pur et chaste Never has her mind represented anything to her that was not pure and chaste… Nor is the same writer more fortunate when he puts the chief cause of affections of this kind, such as he declares are noted in St. Teresa, in the exuberant vigour of her age and in a youthful, luxuriant and uncontrolled fancy: for it escaped him that St. Teresa, who was more than forty years old when she began to be led by God by that way, from day
to day made more and more progress in it, until she departed life in old age and almost seventy years old.
[1799] is opposed For my part, if the matter so required, I could bring into the open several assertions of this kind and without difficulty discuss them from the certain monuments of the Teresian history; but, leaving the rest of the heap of errors, let it be enough for me to have proved that St. Teresa in her ecstasies, raptures, visions, revelations and prophecies was by no means driven by animal magnetism: which will also be able, by equal reasoning, to serve for defending very many other Saints of both sexes against similar reproaches heaped upon them. There is, however, a twofold method of instituting this proof. For either, as not a few think, animal magnetism and all its phenomena, the whole of them, are nothing else than an empty fiction, a mere fable, a play of fancy and a bewitching of the senses; and certainly in the opinion of these, as the existence of animal magnetism is denied, so every magnetic operation in St. Teresa must be denied. Or there is admitted, which is the opinion of others, the truth of either all or at least some magnetic phenomena; which being admitted, it is easily shown that there is no parity between the Teresian and the magnetic ecstasies, whether you regard the cause of each, or the nature, or the effect. Whence it follows that, whichever hypothesis you approve (for it is not my part to settle the dispute agitated over a matter still so intricate), the Seraphic Virgin has nothing in common with magnetism.
[1800] this magnetism, Before I proceed further, I would wish it noted that animal magnetism is taken by many in a certain stricter sense, so that there is admitted a certain natural communication, or attraction and repulsion, between some animated bodies, no otherwise than between some inanimate ones, and by whose help some singular phenomena can indeed be produced, but not greater than man and nature. In this way the existence of artificial somnambulism is not denied, and many do not so much wonder that delicate girls, deeply fixed in sense, mind, confidence and affection upon one person sitting opposite, gesticulating, touching, and, if it is permissible so to speak, stealing their soul by voice, nod and command, do not wonder, I say, that such persons, as it were absorbed in the one magnetizer, while all other things are silent with respect to them and in some manner absent, are immersed in slumber even to somnambulism, and that they at that time, as L. Rostan says in the article on Animal Magnetism which was inserted in the Medical Dictionary published at Paris in the year 1825 (tome XIII, pages 421–469), feel and think the same as their magnetizer, and in that way become almost one individual with him, since he was the only one whom, when they fell asleep, they saw, heard, felt and thought of. Whence both artificial somnambulism, and the abolition, while it lasts, of the external senses, and the forgetting of the things which happened in the time of somnambulism, and the faculties of the soul, especially of fancy and memory, at times more excited in that state, and several other things of that kind seem to be possible to nature, and that indeed the more because the state of magnetic somnambulists almost reproduces the state of natural somnambulists. On which let the Treatise on Somnambulism be seen, by A. Bertrand, published at Paris in the year 1823: where among other things it is set forth (page 242) how in the time of sleep, and so also in the time of somnambulism, the thought with which we fell asleep often lasts on vividly. And above all let the distinguished E. Tandel be consulted, professor of the university of Liège, discoursing learnedly on that subject in his New Examination of the psychological phenomenon of somnambulism; which is found inserted in tome XV of the Memoirs crowned by the Royal Academy of Brussels, and of which the distinguished P. Kersten presents an analysis in tome X of the Historical and Literary Journal which is published at Liège (page 90 and following), he who long ago had treated of the same matter in another tome (tome V, pages 497 and 556). And concerning this magnetism or somnambulism it is not my purpose to institute a disputation.
[1801] such as they themselves understand it, But other is the animal magnetism such as it is wont to be taken in a much wider signification by the followers of Mesmer, and by whose help it is contended that prodigies of the most extraordinary kind are worked; of which, as a certain Lexicon very widely spread today in Germany says, so great is the marvellousness that whatever of light has hitherto been acquired about the nature of the world and of man seems to need to be stifled and extinguished before the intellect may dare to turn its keenness to penetrating the mystery of animal magnetism. See certain phenomena enumerated by Rostan in the cited Dictionary, which, though surely prodigious, are yet of the number of those to which the other magnetizers give their assent, even those who must be said to restrain themselves from boasting more than the rest. Namely, he affirms that things are discerned by ecstatic somnambulists through opaque bodies (page 435); that in them the sense of sight is transferred to the epigastrium (page 431); that by the mere internal will of the magnetizer, without any external action or any external sign, the limbs of the magnetized person are constricted with paralysis (page 436); that if any among the spectators are of a mind malevolent or incredulous towards magnetism, their presence harms the efficacy of magnetism, which indeed he confesses to be altogether inexplicable, but which he also asserts all magnetizers have experienced (page 443); that somnambulists predict future things in a manner plainly stupendous and incredible: which he says he has frequently observed; although he adds that he does not dare to give credence to the things which he saw with his eyes and heard with his ears, but for no other reason than that this phenomenon exceeds all wisdom and all human understanding (page 439).
[1802] is denied by many Further, that this animal magnetism really exists is denied by not a few men, and those not of the lowest bench, who attribute all these prodigies either to the arts of mountebanks or to the secret collusion of several conspiring to defraud. How great, moreover, the number of these adversaries of magnetism is can be concluded even from the very words with which the magnetists openly declare how little the art to which they devote themselves is esteemed. Thus L. Rostan, whom some judge more learned than all the other champions of that art, confesses these things at the beginning of the ample and memorable article which we have already cited: We undertake a difficult task indeed. Between the defenders of magnetism and its opponents a violent dispute has arisen. Among the former few are numbered who have scrutinized nature, men, and the sciences which we call exact. It has been almost tacitly agreed that a cultivator of the sciences or of the medical art who gives credence to magnetism is to be visited with indelible ridicule. On the contrary, among the latter I find none but men of the greatest merit, whose approbation is the highest reward, and whose white stone in the sciences is held for law, but whose black for irrevocable condemnation. In like manner the sincere encomiast of animal magnetism, J. B. L., priest, in the work which he published at Paris in the year 1844 in the French language under this title: Magnetism and somnambulism before the academies, the Roman curia and the theologians, declares that great courage is needed for a follower of magnetism to dare to expose himself to the darts of so many who contradict. Although, he says, he relies both on the experiments made by himself and on the weighty testimonies of others, it cannot be denied that he will champion human magnetism and artificial somnambulism only under compulsion. For as soon as these phenomena had appeared anew, as usually happens whenever a newly detected truth turns out damaging to many, not a few of those who hold the helm of the sciences, since they were not able to overthrow the foundation of magnetism, turned it into ridicule and held it for the sport of mountebanks, and kept saying that all its defenders without distinction were either fooled and deceived, or foolers and deceivers. Whence the mind must think itself certainly conscious of the truth, in order to be willing of its own accord to expose itself to taunts and sarcasms of that kind (page 43). And the same is the lament of almost all the rest.
[1803] both by members of the academies First of all, as regards the academies and medical faculties, it is common knowledge through all Europe what they thought on this matter, both elsewhere and especially in France, whenever appeal was made to their judgment. Mesmer departed from Austria in the year 1777 for no other reason than that the academicians of Vienna not only did not approve his inventions but even hissed them off; while those of London and Berlin, whom he had appealed to by letter, did not even deem him worthy of an answer. Nor did it go better for him at Paris with the royal academy of sciences; which in the year 1784, an examination having been instituted through selected men, declared that the magnetic fluid does not exist, that animal magnetism is an empty name, and that the attempts which were employed to excite it are dangerous: from which judgment another does not differ, passed about the same time by physicians deputed by Louis XVI. Thereafter for forty years no further question was raised about this subject in the societies of learned men, until in the year 1825 it was proposed to the medical academy of Paris that it should proceed to a new investigation of animal magnetism, which was asserted to have already undergone some modifications. A report having therefore been made in the same year by the physician Husson, nine academicians came together to give their attention to exploring magnetic experiments; and their conclusion, pronounced by the mouth of the same Husson in the year 1831, was that inquiries into animal magnetism were to be fostered by the academy, as likely to bring some increase to the knowledge of psychological and physical things. But at length in the year 1837, the report of nine other physicians having been heard, which Doctor Dubois of Amiens had written, the same academy passed a supreme sentence by which Mesmerism was utterly transfixed by it. There is no leisure to report those censorial decrees here; nor is there much need to do so, since they are extant here and there in all the ordinary treatises on magnetism: although its followers protest against those decrees, contending that one proceeded against a new and unexplored science not by judgment but by prejudice, and not hesitating to affirm that the academies were not led by the zeal of investigating the truth, but rather wished, from zeal of cupidity, to contain the medical art within common and customary limits. See J. B. L., already alleged above, reasoning thus in his prologue (pages 27, 28 and 29); and also J. P. F. Deleuze, who in the Defence of magnetism, published at Paris in the year 1819 (part I, chapter 3, page 48), laments that the Parisian academy of sciences and the royal society of physicians in the year 1784 attributed the facts admitted by them to fancy, touch or imitation; likewise J. J. A. Ricard, who in the prologue of the Theoretical and Practical Treatise on animal magnetism (page VII and following) most bitterly assails the Parisian academicians on account of the sentences passed in the years 1784 and 1837.
[1804] and by other learned men, But if, outside the academies, we question specifically those men who have devoted their effort to scrutinizing the secrets of animal magnetism, very many are met with who incline to the same opinion. Among these the Reverend Vincenzo Tizzani, in the dissertation which he read on the 21st of July 1842 before a most distinguished gathering in the Roman Catholic Academy on animal magnetism, vigorously attacked it. He discussed, says the Roman Journal (6th of September 1842), and by a learned analysis explained piece by piece its various phenomena. By the help of the light which he borrowed from the disciplines of the medical art,
and putting forth the force of the most just reasoning, and the manifold testimonies also of the most celebrated Academies in France having been brought forward, which several times investigated this question with the greatest diligence they could, he came at length to the evident conclusion that animal magnetism, both in those things which are called magnetic crises and in somnambulism, is a mere chimera, a splendid lie and a fraud no less hostile to human society than pernicious to chastity of morals. Not otherwise P. J. C. Debreyne, doctor of medicine and Cistercian monk of the Congregation of La Trappe, both in the writings entitled by him Thoughts of a Catholic man (in French: Pensées d'un croyant catholique, page 259 and following of the Brussels edition of 1840), and in the Essay on moral theology (in French: Essai sur la théologie morale, part IV, chapter 1), judges that the portents of animal magnetism are a vain delusion: and, having recalled the incredible mobility of the nervous system and the stupendous power of the human fancy, he ascribes those portents to crafty arts and to a fascination which he contends is employed, while vigorous and strong men, by gesticulations, touch, command and affections elicited in manifold ways, act vehemently upon and seize the imagination of girls who are for the most part sickly or weak and preoccupied with prejudices about the secret art. G. G. Lafont-Gouzi, professor of the medical school of Toulouse, led by the same opinion, published at Toulouse in the year 1839 a commentary on this subject, in which he strives to demonstrate that animal magnetism is nothing other than a simulacrum of the old magic, a play of fancy and of natural sympathies and of human weakness, contrary to reason and to natural science, harmful to health as much as to the morals and rights of men. Likewise the distinguished Kersten inserted in tome V of the Journal cited above four articles or paragraphs (pages 402–409, 445–452, 497–505 and 554–565), in which he discourses on this matter, and at the same time calls into doubt the truth of all those wonderful phenomena which seem to exceed the bounds of human power.
[1805] on account of its perpetual darkness, There are many reasons which estrange the men hitherto cited, and very many others, among whom excellent physicians are numbered, from giving credence to animal magnetism. Of these some regard the supreme obscurity of the whole magnetic business and the manifold uncertainty and instability in its use; while others pertain to its vaunted phenomena, which are so prodigious that no sound explanation or interpretation of them has hitherto been able to be devised, although that problem has now been agitated for seventy years in all the academies of Europe, while meanwhile other inventions of the sciences and arts, which come forth from day to day, are attested by certain experiments and are shortly placed beyond controversy. And, to weigh first indeed the thick darkness by which magnetism is pressed, let this discourse not be mine, but that of the patron of the magnetic art, J. B. L., who composed that apology for it of which we made mention above, and with whom almost all the other writers agree in acknowledging this murk. He candidly affirms, then, that the study of ten years must be spent on that one subject in order that a full treatise on magnetism may be completed; nay, he reckons among the chief obstacles to examining it the great number of books treating of that subject, estimating that writings of that kind have come forth in France to the number of even seven hundred, and as many in Germany, besides others in other regions, without, however, any complete and perfect work on magnetism having seen the light to this day (pages 25 and 31). Nor is this astonishing if (as the same author writes that he thinks) in order that this question be taken up to be treated seriously and suitably, nothing less is required than that beforehand physics be compared with physiology, magnetic physiology with psychology, and finally physiology, psychology and theology, so that from all these sciences fused and united another science, apparently new, may be created, namely a theological physiology and psychology, which he marks with the name of theanthropology. But by what a long space of years, he says, by what arduous labour, with what great courage there would be need, for the magnetic discipline to be promoted and perfected in that way! I do not know, for my part, what mortal such a task awaits, for which he would be rewarded neither with human applause nor with human pay. A beautiful labour indeed, but so thankless that there is no one for whom we would wish it, thinking that we must until then abide in a sterile wish (page 435).
[1806] on account of the enormous power Nor is it a lesser reason with many for denying magnetism, the stupendous efficacy which is attributed to the human will, both in the magnetizer for exciting the fluid in his brain and ejaculating it thence, and in the magnetized person and even in the bystanders themselves for repelling the force of the fluid emitted by the magnetizer, or, if magnetism does not consist in a fluid, by another unascertained means, yet no less effective. Georget himself confesses that men's minds are averse to believing this power of the human will. Meanwhile, however, while there is great dissension among the followers of animal magnetism in many things, there is one opinion of all, whether they admit the fluid or deny it, by which they would have all the phenomena of magnetism arise from the efficiency of their will. Magnetism, says Rostan, is produced by the force of the will: wherefore, in order that the effect be procreated, there must be in the magnetizer a firm will, an intense desire and a certain persuasion (Medical Dictionary, tome XIII, page 441). When I wish to heal a sick person, says Deleuze, by the force of my will I direct towards him the effluvium which I elicit from myself and by which he is penetrated (Defence of magnetism, page 172). Somnambulists, begins Rostan again, obey the magnetizer in an inert manner… They seem to be an instrument to him… They are driven by him alone… They are in every way subject to his will… Nay, he takes away from the magnetized person the faculty of acting and of speaking… Nor is there any phenomenon which is more easily obtained (in the cited tome, here and there). Georget also says: Without the magnetizer the somnambulist cannot come out of the magnetic state. I once left him immersed in it for seven days (Physiology of the nervous system, Paris 1821, tome I, pages 293 and 294). And again Dupotet in the Magnetic Lectures (commonly Cours de magnétisme, section 2, page 97): The effects of magnetism never cease except by the will of the magnetizer. And this is the mind and manner of speaking of all magnetizers.
[1807] which the magnetists attribute to the human will, Therefore it is the will of the magnetizer that begets in the magnetized person stretching and yawning, sleep, somnambulism, ecstasy; that brings rigidity upon the limbs; that commands at its pleasure the varied posture of his body, his rest, his gait; that elicits from such a somnambulist speech and answers to questions proposed to him about hidden, remote and future things; that brings it about that the somnambulist perceives or does not perceive the things which are uttered in his presence by the magnetizer or others; that institutes a magnetic relation between the somnambulist and a third person by contact of the body, if she is present, or, if absent, by a lock of her hair or a small piece of her garment, or any other object handled by her, offered to the somnambulist. It is the will of the magnetizer, finally, that interrupts the magnetic effluvium and dispels it, so that the magnetized person may be restored to himself. Nay, even the will of the bystanders, if it is opposed to magnetism and resists, brings an impediment: wherefore Georget (in the cited book, tome I, page 270), following the opinion of Rostan, advises that the greatest care be taken that men ill-disposed towards magnetism do not stand around; since he says that he has often experienced that this was to the harm of himself and his somnambulists, who on account of the inconvenient presence of such spectators were in torments and often suffered the gravest evils. It seems worth while to adduce on this matter the words of the distinguished Kersten, which ought at least to strike those who find a certain parity between electric force and the force of animal magnetism, and admit a certain particular fluid which they call the magnetic agent. Generally, he says, magnetism has no power over the incredulous and the unwilling; and it not only does not plunge these into sleep, but even their mere presence is an impediment to magnetizers inducing sleep in others too. This indeed is admitted by all the adherents of the magnetic doctrine; and Rostan says: "It has been rightly asserted that the presence of men who are of a mind ill-disposed towards magnetism and averse to giving it credence puts obstacles in the way of the effects to be produced. I do not know by what means this happens: yet the thing has been observed by all magnetizers. For my part, I shall make no attempt at elucidating that matter." Deservedly does this writer guard himself from passing judgment on a fact so singular. For if a magnetic fluid is acknowledged, it is necessarily in some manner acknowledged that this phenomenon cannot be explained. Come now, let us treat the matter by reasoning. Your body teems with magnetic fluid: within you is the faculty and the will of pouring it out around you: there is present one physically and morally apt to receive it: he stands opposite you, and you touch him. Tell me, I pray, how that agent of yours, if there is any in you, is restrained by the incredulous mind of some spectator. Is the electric or galvanic force, is the action of the lodestone or of the luminous fluid, read to have been at any time restrained by incredulity or by any other affection of the mind? Is he safe from the thunderbolt who laughs at the thunderbolt? Therefore, until the heavenly fires rebound from our roofs on account of the incredulous mind of the inhabitant, we shall flatly deny that there are bodies whose action is impeded by the mere hidden will of some man (tome V, pages 499 and 500).
[1808] on account of the various opinions about the nature of magnetism Besides this, although among the heralds of magnetism there is the greatest agreement about its efficient cause, which they declare to be no other than the will of man, on the other hand there is the greatest disagreement among them about the material cause of magnetism. For some think that it consists in a fluid, others in an attractive force innate in animated beings, of the same kind as the magnetic force of some inanimate beings, of which we spoke at the beginning of this paragraph; others think that no material cause of the magnetic phenomena exists, but that the nature of magnetism consists in the action of some spirit or other which operates without matter and instrument, or, to use the word customary with the magnetizers, without an agent; although, as Deleuze candidly confesses, none of these opinions has hitherto been able to be demonstrated (Introduction to the instruction on magnetism). Finally others, if not better, certainly more prudently, say simply that magnetism is a being of unknown nature, which you can neither conjecture nor attain by the understanding, much less explain. I should be almost infinite if I wished to set forth one by one not so much the opinions as the dissensions of so many who contradict themselves. To have brought forward a few will be enough. The often-cited J. B. L. exhibits a long series of physicians and magnetizers who stand for the fluid, and adds that he could indicate several thousands who think so (page 70); and he himself judges that that fluid is so thin and subtle that he dares to call it a material spirit (page 662). But if anyone desires to know the manner in which the magnetizer is imagined to excite his brain to blow up the fluid, and the manner in which he ejaculates it into bodies suitable on account of the affinity of their nature to receive it, likewise in what way, saturated
with the fluid, bodies produce all those phenomena which are here and there vaunted as produced, how finally, through the relation contracted between the magnetizer and the magnetized, these two, though separated by an interval of many leagues, are declared to communicate with each other mutually and to be affected by the same feelings, these things, I say, if anyone desires to know, let him go to the patrons of the magnetic fluid themselves. I pass over also the opinion of others, who would have a certain magnetic fluid dispersed through the whole of nature, which they say Johannes Baptista van Helmont already in the seventeenth century marked with the name of magnale magnum, and recently Mesmer with the name of the universal fluid. In the opinion of these the magnetizer procreates nothing by the force of his will, but only imparts motion to that magnetic fluid towards this or that body which is capable of it beyond the rest, and which, when it has become saturated and full of that fluid, is able to produce magnetic phenomena (see the Report of Dr. Husson before the Parisian medical Academy). Meanwhile, while on the one side it is affirmed that the fluid is commonly held to, on the other side on the contrary it is affirmed that the magnetic fluid is today held for a chimera.
[1809] their various and abnormal opinions, Those who reject the fluid go off into various opinions, and there are almost as many views of theirs as there are heads counted. G. P. Billot, in his Researches on magnetic phenomena written in French, attributes these things to the ministry of the Angels. Carl Joseph Windischmann, in the Attempt to join the medical art with Christian philosophy, which he published at Leipzig in the year 1824 in a second printing under the title Ueber Etwas das der Heilkunst Noth thut On Something that the Healing Art Needs (pages 203, 305, and elsewhere here and there), places the efficient cause of magnetism in a will of man so intense and powerful that he, by the force of a faculty innate and connatural to him, is able to command nature, judging, namely, that God is always at hand to give efficacy to such a will. Another system of magnetism is founded by J. von Görres, in tome III (pages 301–335) of his ample work on Christian Mysticism; but owing to the space contracted for me I may not give even the first lines of that complicated hypothesis: let it suffice to have noted that he comes to this conclusion, that in ecstatic somnambulists there is born a central intuition and vision which knows, anywhere in places and in the very bowels of things, though remote, whatever is of a nature akin to itself (page 334). Besides these systems of the writers mentioned, there are not lacking those who devise the nature of magnetism from the tenets of the pantheists, who hold the whole universe for the mass of the divinity and its several parts for a fragment of the divinity, and who deny the true God and imagine some universal magnetic spirit or other by which all things are confused and mixed and in some manner animated.
[1810] on account of the often discovered fraud of somnambulists, Another reason, finally, which induces many to deny all credence to magnetism is the often discovered fraud of somnambulists, which even the more ardent encomiasts of the magnetic art are compelled to confess, among whom must certainly be numbered J. J. Ricard, from whose mouth this truth slipped out. Namely, in the Theoretical and Practical Treatise on animal magnetism, which he published at Paris in the year 1841, after he had asserted that he had affected with somnambulism, by the mere act of his will, men distant from him by a space of several leagues, and had made them come to him (page 328); and that, whenever he had tried, he had exercised a certain dominion over the atmosphere, gathering clouds, eliciting or preventing rain, and had produced phenomena hitherto heard of or ascertained by no one (page 335); that, for the rest, the opportune time had not yet come for the secrets which magnetism had taught him to be divulged (page 313); finally, that in France at least a fourth part of the sick can be thrown into somnambulism, and that among twenty-five somnambulists there are counted about twenty-two who produce extraordinary phenomena, and ten who acquire a most lucid sight (page 234); he at length speaks out thus: Among the somnambulists to whom people flock for the sake of consulting, if one sleeps, as many as fifty are awake who feign sleep (page 535). If the matter is so, the deniers of magnetism conclude, why should not that one also easily lie? And at the same time they deduce thence that those great encomiums of magnetism are most uncertain.
[1811] on account of the frequent lying in the writings of many Nor does it win credence for magnetism that many patrons of the magnetic art, while they extol magnetism with praises, do not fear to injure the certain truth now of history, now of the Christian Religion. Among these are to be numbered first of all those many who twist the histories of all times by a deceitful interpretation in order to elicit and hammer out magnetism from them, and to ennoble with an assumed antiquity an art which our age has brought forth. With a specious argument, namely, these contend that, since animal magnetism, as they declare, is from nature, it has existed at every time and in every place: whence it comes about that they keep boasting that they have detected its traces in innumerable places, and that they neither read in books nor see in painted or sculptured monuments anyone who has stretched out his hands without forthwith wishing that he acted as a magnetizer. Which happened to Deleuze himself interpreting the signs of the zodiac found at Tentyra (today Denderah), where, according to him, Isis magnetizes her son Horus, whom she holds sitting on her knees. On the contrary, the adversaries, who judge this exposition trifling, since not only no certain but not even probable traces of magnetism appear in all the centuries gone by, conclude that it is not from nature, and would have it that all those old prodigies which are today decorated by some with the splendid name of magnetism were either merely natural facts, or the deceits of mountebanks, or the works and tricks of the devil.
[1812] and impiety, All appearance of truth, moreover, is taken from magnetism by those abnormal and impious praisers of it who write that the miracles, prophecies and whatever prodigious things are recorded in sacred no less than in profane history were done through somnambulists put to sleep by magnetism. In the opinion of many praisers of that kind, there are to be called magnetizers, together with Apollo, Jupiter, Minerva, Serapis and the rest of the herd of prophesying gods and goddesses, also the Druids, and the Sibyls, and the Marcionites, and the Montanists, and demoniacs, and magicians, and sorcerers, and the trembling Camisards of the Cévennes, and the Jansenist convulsionaries: with whom these writers do not fear to associate Moses, Samuel, the Prophets, the Apostles, all the holy men and holy women who have been illustrious for miracles or supernatural gifts, among whom not the lowest place is assigned to St. Teresa. The pen shudders to narrate the most foul blasphemies which many of them, by an interpretation no less absurd than impious, utter against Jesus Christ, true God and man. If the adorable Saviour of men healed the sick by the imposition of hands, if, divine power going out from Him, a woman by touching the hem of His garment was healed on the spot, if He worked innumerable other miracles of whatever kind; they say with unspeakable sacrilege that He worked all those things by magnetic art. Besides this, as one may read in the History of somnambulism by Aubin Gauthier (tome I, page 97), traces of the ancient magnetism are asserted to be found to this day in the imposition of hands of the father of a family upon his children, of the priest upon the faithful, of the bishop upon those to be confirmed, and also in the exorcisms of Baptism and in the ashes sprinkled on the head of Christians at the beginning of Lent; in which ceremonies, as is said there, nothing is lacking for magnetism, except perhaps only the intention of the one operating: so that, if he who imposes hands had a robust will, magnetic slumber would invade those to be blessed, baptized, confirmed and ashed, and the temples of the Christians would be transformed into Delphic temples and the caves of Pythonesses.
[1813] There is added that before the medical faculties and the academies of the sciences, as is admitted by the patrons of magnetism themselves, [on account of the inability to produce the chief magnetic portents before the academies,] those specimens of magnetic prodigies cannot be produced which are vaunted as produced daily before private persons. As soon as, says Virey, a somnambulist shall have read through the epigastrium in an open book before the academy of sciences, it will be right to give credence to these prodigies (Dictionary of the medical sciences, tome XXIX, Paris, 1818, article Magnétisme animal). To which Deleuze replies in his Defence of magnetism (part 1, chapter VII, page 140): A somnambulist will never perform this before a circle of men who have come together to observe her: for her lucidity in such an assembly would be impeded by more than one affection of the mind; and the mind of the magnetizer himself also would be neither sufficiently tranquil nor sufficiently collected within itself. And in fact, when in the year 1838 Burdin the younger, doctor of medicine of Paris, had openly and solemnly promised that he would present a prize of three thousand francs to a somnambulist who should give such a proof of her lucidity, the prize was left lying in the middle. Whence it came about that the deniers of magnetism were not a little confirmed in their opinion.
[1814] and chiefly on account of the incredible phenomena which are vaunted; But the decisive argument by which many are induced to deny all credence to animal magnetism is the incredible phenomena which are declared to be worked by its help, and some of which we have already seen enumerated above by Rostan. Namely, the aforesaid adversaries of magnetism judge that several of these phenomena are plainly impossible to nature and to man; and so they deny both the vaunted effects of magnetism and magnetism itself, which is not proved, nor can be proved, otherwise than from the effects. There is no leisure to report the long reasonings by which they attack the several phenomena. See, however, one or two which they themselves flatly deny, while magnetizers, even the more moderate ones, assert them. Such first of all is the presage by which certain ecstatic somnambulists are said to foretell, sometimes several weeks or months beforehand, the day, the hour and the very moment of time at which either a disease will come on or health will be recovered. To omit almost innumerable others, this is asserted by Husson in the Report made in the year 1831 before the medical academy of Paris (number 25), by Georget in the Physiology of the nervous system (tome 1, page 287), by J. B. L. in the work often alleged (pages 289 and 374, where he cites with complacent goodwill the words of Husson and Georget), by C. A. F. Kluge in the Essay on animal magnetism written in German (§138, page 195 of the Dutch version printed at Amsterdam in the year 1812), by Joseph Ennemoser in the History of animal magnetism (part I, introduction, page 13, Leipzig edition 1844): finally A. M. J. Chastenet de Puységur, in his Researches on man as somnambulist, which he published at Paris in the year 1811, affirms that for thirty years he observed lucid somnambulists in this respect and was not even once deceived by the prognostics of paroxysms put forth by them (pages 53 and 55); and he adds a clause in which he says that it seems to him wrong for the human intellect to investigate by what means these so wonderful presages come about.
[1815] such as are the distinct presages about health, But the adversaries object: It has surely not been given to human science that pathological facts should be pronounced so accurately; nor is the edge of the most sagacious and most perspicacious genius able to presage so clearly long beforehand the time at which a paroxysm will come on, nor the degree of intensity of the disease, nor the space for which it will last and the moment at which it will cease. For things of that kind, if they arise naturally, depend on very many causes which succeed one another, on the forces of things which have not yet been able to be perceived, on fortuitous events, on the influence
of things still everywhere hidden. For the variability of the air, the cold or warm temperature of the sky, the affections of the mind that spring up, an emotion of the intellect that supervenes, quiet or disquiet of mind, joy or grief, the motion or posture of the body, the quantity and quality of food, various unforeseen affairs, all these things, I say, which come in great part by chance, cannot but affect the economy of the body: so that the beginning and the end of a pathological paroxysm, and likewise its manner and intensity, depend on the multitude of those uncertain causes; which is plainly well known to physicians. Ineptly, therefore, do certain magnetizers interpret this phenomenon so that an ecstatic somnambulist can so precisely conjecture from a germ lying hidden in the body good or bad health for future times, since this can be retarded or accelerated by many fortuitous things.
[1816] and the knowledge of thoughts and affections, and other things of that kind, Another prodigy vaunted by all magnetizers everywhere is that by which the adversaries are induced to withhold credence from magnetism itself. Namely, it is agreed among its heralds concerning the faculty which magnetic ecstatics enjoy of detecting the altogether hidden mind and of searching the will and all the affections of the soul both of their magnetizer and of those with whom they have entered into relation, as they say, by contact of the body, if these are present; but if absent, by their hair or garments handled. But, not to speak of the general persuasion of the human race, nay of the necessary law of nature, the Sacred Letters and all their interpreters, together with the holy Fathers and the theologians of all centuries, pronounce that the inmost heart of man lies open to God alone, and so is hidden from any mortal man whatever. For what man knoweth the things of a man, but the spirit of a man that is in him? (1 Cor. II, 11). The thoughts and spiritual affections of the human mind, manifested by no external sign, God alone knows, as is said in 2 Paralipomenon VI: "Thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men" (Suárez, On Religion, tome 1, treatise III, book 11, chapter VII, number 9). To these is added that most champions of the magnetic art today hold for certain and teach that even an unknowing person, for example one asleep, can be affected by magnetism, nay, even an unwilling and resisting one, provided the agent enjoys a stronger magnetic force than the patient. From which, as the adversaries note, there would flow that absurd consequence, that a man perhaps unknown, when you least think of it, would enter by his magnetic force the recesses of your heart, and that your inmost desires and all the affections of your soul would be unexpectedly revealed, and that the most profound secrets of your will would be ransacked by another.
[1817] which for various reasons I wished to record these two phenomena before the rest, because all the patrons of the magnetic art everywhere are wont to establish them, while the deniers of magnetism plainly judge them superior to man and nature. But besides these, many others also are vaunted which these think are scarcely more possible; and so they attack the assertors of those prodigies now with reasonings, now with jests. In this way, when it is proclaimed that the magnetized can, without the help of the eyes, discern objects and read writings through the tips of the fingers or through the epigastrium, detect secrets, presage future events with lucid intuition, have remote spaces of places as present, search the recesses of hearts, and work other prodigies and portents of this kind, they ask why, when lots are cast, the better and prize-winning numbers in the urn are not selected by their help; or why they do not assist money-changers and bankers with their presaging counsel; why finally, if they are so powerful in such industry and enjoy the prerogative of perceiving abstruse, remote and future things, the masters of the magnetic art do not become richer than Croesus: besides, if, as is contended, the magnetized are able to look into their own and others' inward parts, if they can discern the seats and causes of diseases, if they can designate remedies suitable for recovering health, the antagonists observe that it is plainly astonishing, since man is most desirous of health and life, that so few have recourse to that praised panacea.
[1818] are refuted; Certainly, say the same adversaries, if from a lock of hair handled, or a small piece of a garment or a written paper, an ecstatic somnambulist is able to reveal to his magnetizer what is the state of the limbs and viscera of him to whom these things belong, what his actions are in the recesses of his house, what the dispositions of his mind, what his counsels and feelings, what finally the other secrets of his treasures and letters and commerce; there is no one who does not see how great could be the use of such notions to be obtained through magnetism. Those between whom, for example, there is or is to be a partnership of trade, of marriage or of other things, between whom a contest, lawsuit or war is either imminent or already being waged, all these, by the help of a somnambulist, could easily explore and detect a great many secrets the knowledge of which could be of the greatest use to them. Whence, if the matter were so, it ought to follow that the magnetizer with his somnambulist would have the first part almost everywhere on account of the great services to be rendered, not only in the daily commerce of men and in the retinue of a physician, but also in undertaking all the gravest affairs, and even in the more sacred council of kings itself. But since in so great an eagerness and necessity of men for knowing these things by no means happen, the adversaries of magnetism conclude that all those magnetic prodigies are either feigned or at least of slight moment. And they are not a little confirmed in their opinion because in that way almost all order in the human race would be overturned. For imagine on the one hand that this discipline were at some time propagated among men and employed here and there both by the upright and by the wicked, and on the other hand that the portents which are said to be effected by it were really worked; it must plainly be acknowledged that not only the habit of private men and the state of families, but also common commerce, nay the face of the whole of human society, would be changed not moderately, and indeed for the worse.
[1819] other still more incredible things being dismissed, Besides this, the adversaries reject very many other singular phenomena with which the books even of the most renowned heralds of magnetism teem: although of these some reject more, others fewer; nor are all averse to admitting the several ones for the same reason, but according as they appear to each one remote from likelihood and destitute of certain and repeated experiments. Of the number of those phenomena, to not a few seems to be the transposition of the organ of sight to various parts of the body; nor would they be much more easily persuaded that a man can see objects without the accustomed help of the eyes, and discern them through the epigastrium or through the occiput, than that he can digest food without a stomach or have the sense of smell in his feet: their mind also shrinks from believing that bodies which are opaque to one awake become transparent to a magnetic somnambulist. To that kind of phenomena must also be referred that great insensibility of certain somnambulists, so that a cancer which was eating away a woman's belly could once be cut out during the magnetic rapture, without the sick woman giving a sign or feeling pain; which Husson related before the Parisian academy on the 21st of June 1831, he having been designated to set forth, in the name of the delegated colleagues with him, the account and state of the magnetic business. Such likewise is the extinction of hearing and at the same time of touch, which is declared at times to be so great that not only can the flesh of the somnambulist be pricked, cut and burned, but also a gun be discharged at his ears and his cheeks be lacerated by the shot of the discharged gun, without his feeling even in the least. Likewise such is that intimate conjunction of the magnetized with the magnetizer that the former is said to be able to speak a language unknown to himself but known to his magnetic partner; which may be read in J. B. L. (in the place above, page 95). Such, finally, are many things still more portentous and more incredible, which it is customary for the more audacious encomiasts of magnetism to celebrate, but which are of a nature to create nausea in the reader. If anyone perchance should wish to know these things, they are on sale everywhere, and by name in Jos. Ennemoser, who does not fear to affirm that the more select somnambulists, by their lucid sight, reach through the dense globe of the earth right to the antipodes themselves, and perceive what happens beyond the immense spaces of heaven in the moon and in the most remote planets, etc., etc. (History of animal magnetism, in the place cited). Nay, the limit of magnetic prodigies does not yet stand here. For J. J. Ricard says in his Treatise on magnetism that he has beheld phenomena hitherto unknown to all men, and he prophesies that the day will come when magnetism will turn upside down the principles and systems in force today (pages 313 and 335).
[1820] which are vended not without the greatest madness at times But, what surpasses the rest, not so rare proselytes of the magnetic science hold, from the tenets of the pantheists, that what they call their agent is the universal mover of nature and as it were the soul of all things, and they are not far from expressly calling it the author. For, says Dr. Frère, nothing is sacred to these men: they confound God with the demon, and the demon with their magnetic agent or with the blind force of nature; so that in their judgment there is no spirit, neither created nor uncreated, neither good nor evil, but whatever appears, whether intellectual or moral, whether ordinary or miraculous, whether true or false, they contend is effected by their magnetic agent (Examination of magnetism, Paris 1837, page 168). And these assertions of impious men, although certainly they are not those of all magnetizers, yet since they are those of many, by no means carry a recommendation for magnetism, nor do they dispose minds to give it credence. Meanwhile the adversaries, when they come upon those heralds of magnetism who attribute to their magnetic agent not only the oracles of paganism and the magic and sorceries of the middle age, but also the miracles of Holy Scripture and of ecclesiastical History and the divine Prophecies, address them and again and again ask that they too produce some specimens of miracles, and that, for example, they recall even one dead man to life, or, if to seize the soul that has gone out of the body and bring it back to its seat be reckoned too arduous, that by their magnetic industry they at least bring it about that the blind see, the lame walk, and the tongue of the dumb is opened. For, as Father Perrone observes, if the patrons of magnetism (those, namely, who ascribe miracles to magnetism) could satisfy a multitude of five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes, as Christ performed (Matthew XIV, 17, and John VI, 6), or turn water into wine, as was done at the marriage of Cana (John II, 8), the power of their imagination would be much to be commended, and they would be gladly received by all. Hitherto, however, they have not performed these things (Theological Lectures, tome 1, part 1, number 189).
[1821] and with horrible blasphemies. And so further, by those who dare to write that the Patriarchs, for no other reason than that they are read to have imposed hands, exercised the magnetic art, and who unravel the miracle of Moses, praying with arms outstretched on the mountain and scattering the Amalecites, in such a way that they would have it that a magnetic agent was emitted by that strong man, whom they call most full of faith, against the opposing wedges of the enemy, and who assert that our most kind Redeemer Jesus Christ
made His Apostles wonder-workers, the magnetic fluid having been injected into them by the imposition of hands, the adversaries ask that they work at least some prodigy of this kind by which they may win credence for their assertions. These, then, are the chief reasons for which very many men of approved authority refuse to admit animal magnetism as true, in the sense in which it is usually understood by many of its heralds. If their opinion is to be admitted, it is plainly evident, as I said at the beginning, that the charisms of St. Teresa cannot be attributed to a cause which does not exist in the nature of things. It remains for us to inquire whether those charisms can in any way be ascribed to magnetism, if it really exists.
§ XCV. Even if the phenomena of animal magnetism, even the wonderful ones, are admitted, it is demonstrated that there is no analogy between the Teresian and the magnetic ecstasies.
The existence of animal magnetism being supposed, Father Perrone in his Theological Lectures (tome 1, part 1, number 193) adds an annotation in which he speaks thus: It is further to be observed here that some Catholic writers, not only in France but especially in Germany, do not hold animal magnetism as a mere invention of conjurers, but acknowledge and admit a true and real implanted power of producing certain effects whose cause among the forces of nature is hidden from us in its whole extent. But besides the fact that these writers at the same time confess that magnetism is liable to the arts of the demon, they absolutely deny that the supernatural effects which we see and admire in miracles or in the mystical life of the Saints have anything in common with magnetic effects, nay, they confess that these differ from those by the whole heaven and cannot in any way be explained by the help of magnetism. The Illustrious Bouvier, bishop of Le Mans, likewise says in his Moral Theology that authors not to be despised admit several magnetic facts as true. And in fact, chiefly among the Germans, there are upright and illustrious men who defend the truth of at least some of those wonderful phenomena and themselves employ magnetism in healing bodies. Nor surely without just causes has it been provided by law in most kingdoms of northern Europe that the magnetic art be exercised only under fixed conditions. But if further it were permitted to invoke the authority of the followers of magnetism, I would cite certain of the more select who, with a great appearance of sincerity, assert that those wonderful phenomena are established for them by manifold and long experience, and I would name Messrs. Windischmann, Georget, Rostan, J. B. L., and besides others Deleuze, who in his Defence of magnetism testifies that he has observed those signs a thousand times and more within the space of thirty-two years, and has specially noticed that somnambulists are obedient to the mental commands of their magnetizer, asserting moreover that he knows, in the city of Paris alone, as many as a thousand men who have been persuaded of this by experiments made. I say nothing of very many antagonists of magnetism who themselves would not dare to deny certain of those phenomena, thinking that they have been repeated so many times, asserted by so many witnesses, surrounded by such circumstances, that they judge all play of mountebanks, all collusion with suborned partners in fraud, all contrivance prepared by physical and chemical art, to be most certainly excluded.
[1823] to whose use the Church has hitherto But not even in this hypothesis, in which the magnetic phenomena are held to be true, can an account of the supernatural gifts of St. Teresa be given in any way through magnetism. Before we undertake to demonstrate this by arguments drawn from the very bowels of the matter, it is helpful to recall to the memory of Catholic readers, who in matters of faith and morals hold the holy Roman Church as guide and mistress, that the Teresian ecstasies, visions, revelations, etc., have long since been most approved by the Church; as is evidently plain from the Acts of canonization and especially from the Bull of canonization itself, and also from the sixth Lesson of her Office in the Roman Breviary. As regards magnetic ecstasies, however, the answers of the Sacred Congregation of the Inquisition to the questions proposed about animal magnetism, which were published not so long ago, are not without moment: although it must be confessed that they are only hypothetical, and adapted to petitions which supposed magnetic exercises harmful or dangerous to faith and morals, and that accordingly those answers have nothing absolute or decisive. Since, however, many followers and heralds of the magnetic art acknowledge, nay extol, those qualities, those circumstances and those effects which the aforesaid petitions suppose to be in magnetism, it will be worth while to exhibit those Roman answers here together with the petitions. It is attested that three have hitherto come forth, which I subjoin here to the eyes of the readers; whom, however, I would wish forewarned that the petition of the second answer had to be translated by me into Latin from the French. The first answer emanated from the Sacred Congregation of the universal Inquisition on the 23rd of June 1840; the second was pronounced on the 21st of April 1841; the third finally on the 1st of July of the same year.
First petition.
MOST HOLY FATHER,
[1824] by no means been favourable, N. N. humbly begs Your Holiness that, for the instruction and tranquillity of his conscience and also for the direction of souls, you deign to signify to him whether it is lawful that penitents can be participants in the operations of magnetism.
Answer.
On Tuesday, in the 4th place, the 23rd of June 1840, in the general congregation of the Holy Roman universal Inquisition held in the convent of St. Mary above Minerva before the Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lords Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church etc., the above-said instance having been proposed, the same Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lords said: "Let him consult approved authors, with this observation, that, all error, sorcery, explicit or implicit invocation of the demon being removed, the mere act of employing physical means otherwise lawful is not morally forbidden, provided it does not tend to an unlawful or in any way depraved end. But the application of purely physical principles and means to things or effects truly supernatural, in order that they may be explained physically, is nothing but an altogether unlawful and heretical deception."
Second petition.
Since in magnetic operations a proximate occasion of unbelief and of bad morals is observed, in order that the tranquillity of consciences may be provided for, it is desired to know what is the opinion of the Holy See concerning that matter.
Answer.
The use of magnetism, as it is set forth, is not lawful.
Third petition.
Most Eminent Lord,
Since the answers hitherto concerning animal magnetism seem by no means to suffice, and it is greatly to be desired that the cases not rarely occurring may be resolved more safely and more uniformly, the undersigned humbly sets forth the following to Your Eminence.
The magnetized person, who is for the most part of the female sex, enters into that state of slumber (called magnetic somnambulism) so deeply that neither the greatest crash at her ears nor any violence of iron or fire is able to rouse her. By the magnetizer alone, to whom she has given her consent (for consent is necessary), she is brought into that kind of ecstasy, either by various strokings or gesticulations, when he is present, or by a simple command, and that an internal one, even when he is distant by several leagues. Then, questioned aloud or mentally about her own disease or that of absent persons wholly unknown to her, this person, evidently unlearned, forthwith far surpasses physicians in knowledge; she sets forth anatomical matters most accurately; she points out the cause, seat and nature of internal diseases in the human body which are most difficult for experts to know and define; she unfolds their progress, variations and complications, and that in the proper terms; often also she exactly foretells the duration of the said diseases, and prescribes the simplest and most effective remedies. If the person about whom the magnetized woman is consulted is present, the magnetizer establishes a relation between the two by contact. But when she is absent, a curl from her hair supplies her place and suffices. For this curl having merely been brought to the palm of the magnetized woman, she forthwith declares what it is (without looking with her eyes), whose hair it is, where the person to whom it belongs is now, what she is doing; and concerning her disease she supplies all the above-said information, no otherwise than if she herself, after the manner of physicians, were looking into the body. Lastly, the magnetized woman does not see with her eyes. With them veiled, whatever it shall be, she will read it though ignorant of reading, whether a book or a manuscript, either open or closed, placed on her head or her belly. Even from this region her words seem to come forth. But when brought out of this state, either at the command, even internal, of the magnetizer, or as if of her own accord at the very moment of time foretold by herself, she seems to be conscious of nothing at all concerning the things done in the paroxysm, however long it may have lasted: what was asked of her, what she answered, what she endured; all these things have left no idea in her intellect nor the least trace in her memory. Therefore the undersigned petitioner, seeing such strong reasons for doubting whether such effects are simply natural, whose occasional cause is shown to be so little proportioned to them, earnestly and most vehemently begs Your Eminence that you, according to your wisdom, for the greater glory of the Almighty, and also for the greater good of souls, which, redeemed by the Lord, cost so much, will decide whether, the truth of the aforesaid being supposed, a confessor or parish priest can safely permit his penitents or parishioners: 1° to exercise animal magnetism, endowed with those characters and others similar, as an art auxiliary and supplementary to medicine; 2° to consent to being let down into that state of magnetic somnambulism; 3° to consult persons magnetized in that manner either about themselves or about others; 4° to undertake one of the three aforesaid, the precaution having first been taken of formally renouncing from the heart any diabolical pact, explicit or implicit, and also all satanic intervention, since, notwithstanding this precaution, either the same or some effects have already been obtained from magnetism by some.
Most Eminent Lord, Your Eminence's, by mandate of the most reverend bishop of Lausanne and Geneva, most humble and most obedient servant
Jacques-Xavier Fontana, canon, chancellor of the Bishop.
Fribourg in Switzerland, from the episcopal residence, the 19th day of May 1841.
Reply.
The Sacred Penitentiary, having maturely weighed the things set forth, judges that answer must be made, as it does answer: The use of magnetism, as it is set forth in the case, is not lawful. Given at Rome in the Sacred Penitentiary, on the 1st day of July 1841.
C. Card. Castracane, Major Penitentiary.
P. H. Pomella, Secretary of the Sacred Penitentiary.
Agrees with the original. — Fribourg, the 26th of July 1841.
By mandate. J. Perroulaz, Episcopal Secretary.
[1825] although it has not absolutely settled the question, To these three answers I shall append a fourth, which, together with the warning prefixed to it, I shall translate into Latin from the Moral Theology of the Illustrious Gousset, archbishop of Reims (tome I, in the appendix §2, page 472 of the Brussels edition of 1844). Since that answer (namely the third), says the Illustrious author, was not absolute, in the year 1842 it seemed good to us to consult the Holy See on the same question, and to ask whether, "the abuses of the thing being set aside and every pact with the demon being rejected", it was lawful to exercise the magnetic art, or to employ it as a remedy which is judged to conduce to health. Nothing was answered to that petition of ours but what the following letter contains, which His Eminence Cardinal de Castracane, Major Penitentiary, deigned to send us in the French idiom on the 2nd of September 1842: "Most Illustrious Lord, I have heard from M. Brimont that a letter is expected from me by which you may be informed whether the Holy Inquisition has settled the controversy about magnetism. I ask you, Most Illustrious Lord, to weigh
that that question is not of such a nature that a quick judgment should be passed on it (if indeed it ever be passed); since there is no danger in drawing out delay, whereas, on the contrary, a premature answer could be injurious to the honour of the Holy See. The Church, as her published answers testify, has never hesitated in answering whenever it was a question of magnetism in a particular case. But now it is not inquired whether in a single case its use is lawful; but it is asked generally whether its use can stand with faith and morals. How great is the moment of a question so posed cannot escape your sagacity and your great erudition, etc. Cardinal Castracane."
[1826] it is easily shown These things having been brought forward beforehand, let us now oppose the cause, nature and effects of the ecstasies and other Teresian charisms to the cause, nature and effects of the magnetic phenomena. For a fuller understanding of the matter, besides the things which were already brought forward a while ago in §§ XCI, XCII and XCIII to demonstrate that the ecstasies, etc. of St. Teresa proceeded from God, the proof having been drawn chiefly from the increase of the virtues which was observed in her after receiving these charisms, it will be worth while in this place to exhibit from her writings, chiefly from the book of her Life, a compendious account of the divine gifts which she herself professes to have experienced. On which occasion it can be noted here that the description of ecstasies which this unlearned woman committed to paper swiftly and from mere obedience is esteemed by the learned to be more excellent than all other descriptions of ecstasies, and even than those which illustrious medical writers and philosophers have composed: which you will find observed in the Dictionary of the medical sciences (tome XV, published at Paris in the year 1815, article Extase). Thus, then, she herself, from her experience, in chapter XVIII of her Life, sets forth what is wont to precede, accompany and follow supernatural ecstasies, using an allegory in which she imagines the man to be a gardener, his soul the garden, and the gratuitous gifts of God the showers by which the garden is watered: This heavenly water, she says, at times falls down when the gardener least expects it. At the beginning indeed it is established that this almost always is wont to happen only after long and frequent mental prayer. For the Lord lifts up this little bird from one degree to another, and so places it in the nest that it may at length find rest: for after He has seen that it has fluttered about for a long time now, and again and again has tried, both with intellect and will and with all its strength, to seek the Lord and to please Him, He wishes to give it its reward for the labour undertaken even in this life. And what reward? That, namely, even a single moment in which it is had is enough to compensate most abundantly for all the labour which can be in this life. The soul, then, being occupied in this seeking of God, feels with a supreme and a certain sweet delight that it is going out almost wholly from itself in a manner of swooning; for little by little both breath and at the same time all bodily strength fail it, so that it cannot even move its hands without great pain; besides this its eyes close of their own accord: and if it holds them open, it sees almost nothing; and if it reads in a book, it cannot even make out one letter, nay, scarcely recognize it: it sees indeed that it is a letter, but, because the intellect does not help it, even though it wished, it cannot read. Moreover it hears indeed, but what it hears it does not understand. So that the senses help it in nothing, unless perhaps to disturb its quiet; whence they hinder it more than they help. If it wishes to speak, it strives at it in vain, because it cannot form even one word; and if it even could, the strength is lacking to it to utter it: for all exterior strength is lost. But the interior strength of the soul is increased, so that it can better enjoy its glory. The exterior delight which is felt is also both great and quite perceptible. Further, that prayer, however long a time it lasts, does no harm to health: to me at least it never did harm; nor do I remember, although at times I was still in bad health, when the Lord gave me this grace, that I then felt any pain; nay rather my ailment and infirmity were much diminished thereby. And what evil could be born of so exceptional a good?
[1827] that the ecstasies of St. Teresa But what delights the soul feels in this most inward conjunction of all its powers with God, Teresa says cannot be understood, much less told. The soul then, she says, does not live in itself, but the Lord lives in it. The will loves; but how it loves it does not understand: the intellect, if it understands anything, does not understand how it understands; at least it can comprehend nothing of the things which it understands. The memory, which otherwise like a butterfly easily wanders about, cannot move itself, since its wings have been burned at the fire of divine love (chapter XVIII). From this prayer a man feels himself bedewed and moistened with sweet tears. Nor yet does he know when or how he shed them. Moreover, she says, the soul conceives great strength and generosity thence, so that, if at this very moment of time it were cut into small pieces for God's sake, this would be to it a very great consolation. Here also it promises certain great things, conceives heroic purposes, forms ardent desires: hence it begins to abhor and hate the world and to perceive its vanity more clearly; to this end it has been rendered here far stronger and more vigorous than in the preceding degrees of prayer, and more grounded in humility and abasement of itself: for it perceives clearly that its own diligence contributed nothing at all to receiving that excessive and sublime grace, nor was it powerful to attract or even to preserve it: at the same time also it sees with its eye that it is plainly unworthy of it, because it perceives its own misery inwardly (for in a place which much sun illuminates, no spider's web can be hidden), and it is so far removed from all vainglory that it thinks it can by no means be tempted by it. For now it sees with its eye and almost touches with its hand how little or nothing it can do of itself (chapter XIX). The Saint, afterwards explaining a still more sublime degree of ecstasy, speaks in these words, which I report in compendium: If we show ourselves grateful to God for the enormous benefit of prayer of this kind, giving no sluggish effort to good works, He gathers our soul to Himself, lifting it up outside itself and snatching it away with Himself and beginning to show it the joys of the heavenly kingdom. The soul then is as it were without a body, and feels its natural heat fail, although meanwhile it experiences great delight. As if by an eagle, under whose wings it lies hidden, the soul is carried on high, struggling in vain. For my part, with every effort applied, I very often tried to resist the rapture, especially when that impulse seized me in the presence of others; but I was as it were wrestling with a strong and robust giant… Some times, yet rarely, my whole body was raised up from the earth. Which happened to me once in choir when I was with the other nuns and already bending my knees to receive the Holy Eucharist… In that state the soul, hanging between heaven and earth, is as it were crucified to the world through the most vehement desire of possessing more fully God, whom it has begun to know. And the delay of this possession begets in it so great a pain that a man is scarcely equal to bearing it. For my part, I sometimes think, if this pain should last and increase, that the Lord, such is His goodness, will one day bring it about that this pain receives its end together with life; for it is, as it seems to me at least, more than enough for this: but this I do not deserve. Desiring nothing so much as to meet death, I do not then remember purgatory nor the grave sins which I have committed, on account of which I have deserved hell. I forget all things, namely, through the vehemence of the desire of seeing God (chapter XX).
[1828] are from God; What spiritual fruit, moreover, these divine charisms beget in the soul I have already indicated from St. Teresa in the preceding number: and she herself repeats it in many places, openly declaring that unless virtues grow in such a soul, and by name humility and denial of self, ecstasies and raptures must be reckoned not a gift of God but rather a sort of madness (chapter XX). For that reason she says of herself: As soon as God bestowed that great grace upon me, amid impediments and occasions of sinning my mind adhered to God, and all things carried me to know and love Him (chapter XXI). Aptly, therefore, this kind of gifts is usually designated by the name of prayer, since in prayer the intellect, will and memory are occupied with God: and since, as she herself says, true conjunction then takes place when two things coalesce into one and become one, the highest degree of raptures is a certain transformation of the soul into God. And these are the contracted words of Teresa by which she describes her ecstasies and from which it is seen that God is He who was their efficient cause and who worked them in her soul, and that the fruit perceived thence by her was a higher knowledge of God and a more ardent love of Him.
[1829] while the magnetic ones are due either to natural causes, Now if those most sweet operations in the soul of the chaste spouse of Christ are compared with the magnetic ecstasies, of which we have already brought the testimonies of several persons, everyone sees that the character of these is far different. First of all, the efficient cause of these, as was said at numbers 1806 and 1807, the heralds of magnetism declare to be no other than the will of man, which by an intense power implanted in itself either begets or elicits magnetism; while animal magnetism itself is asserted to consist either in a fluid or in some other unknown material, or even non-material, thing, as we set forth more at length at numbers 1808 and 1809: whereas on the contrary St. Teresa, without the operation of any man, and for the most part while she was dealing alone with God alone, rapt outside herself, rightly affirms that the ecstasies which she had are from God, saying thus: It is the Lord who then works in the man. And the reason why He works is that He wills to: and the manner in which He works is that which pleases Him (chapter XXI). Wherefore it can deservedly be said that the nature of the magnetic ecstasies is as far distant from the nature of the Teresian as divine and supernatural things are distant from earthly and natural things.
[1830] or, as some But there is also another opinion among the adversaries of magnetism, by which a still much greater interval is established between the two kinds of ecstasies. For some judge that God sometimes here slackens the reins to the devil, and permits that those who have wished to be seduced should be seduced by a certain new kind of oracles, namely in this age of ours, in which many, having cast away faith in the Saviour Jesus Christ and trampled upon the Blood of the New Testament, have apostatized from the Christian Religion. Whence they contend that certain things which in magnetism
are noted as portents are to be attributed to the demon; as can be seen in Father Perrone in his Theological Lectures (in the place cited above at number 1822), in the Most Illustrious Gousset in his Moral Theology (Treatise on the Decalogue, chapter IV, article 2), in the celebrated promoter of magnetism Deleuze in the Defence of magnetism (part II, chapter IV, page 227), and in many others. The reasons, however, on which the assertors of that opinion rely are chiefly the following.
[1831] for various reasons First of all, they say, the very boasting of many heralds of magnetism offers a handle for thinking so of the magnetic art; for very many of them openly declare that they are the successors of the ancient seers of paganism and of the magicians of the middle age, whom they imagine to have been formerly the trustees of the secret magnetic art, which they used either in giving forth oracles or in working signs and portents. Whence those adversaries deduce that, if the magnetizers are the grandsons of such grandfathers, they are of the race of those with whom the demon is sometimes present as accomplice. And they are confirmed in this opinion of theirs because, just as it is proper to the demon to wish to cover himself, so it is customary with many magnetizers, according to his mind, to pronounce now that there is no commerce between the demon and man, and that no magic has ever existed, and that the demon cannot act on human bodies, now that there are no demons at all; not to say anything of others who, now in covered and now in open words, teach that not only are there no demons, but that there exists no other God than a pantheistic or a certain vague deity. Besides this, according to the aforesaid adversaries of magnetism, God justly permits that the demon intervene in certain magnetic phenomena, both for the punishment of those who, entangling themselves in vain observances, wish to have effects and to draw notions from causes which are unequal to begetting those effects and procuring those notions (on which see St. Thomas, 2. 2, question XCVI, article III, reply to 2), and for the punishment of those artificial somnambulists who, led by no other cause than curiosity of experiencing wonders in themselves or the desire of making gain or of foolish glory, abdicate the inalienable right over themselves, stripping themselves of the use of the senses, of the will, of the intellect and of the memory, and handing over and committing all these things and their whole selves to the power of another man, who is often of the other sex, and unknown, and not rarely of uncertain or bad repute. For, as Rostan says, the magnetized live in their magnetizer. Their will is so subjected to his will that they seem to be a mere instrument. They act only by the help of the magnetizer; and he is able to move their very desires and thoughts, and to restrain their limbs and every movement with paralysis: so that their whole soul and whole body are as it were chained. And, to use the comparison which the same writer uses, the magnetizer is so much master of the mind and senses of his somnambulist that the latter follows him like a dog. Desires, will and thought are confused: the two are one, they feel and think together, but in such a way that the one is wholly subject to the other (Medical Dictionary, tome XIII, pages 439 and 450). Besides this, the somnambulist lasts, or is compelled to last, in that state as long as it pleases the magnetizer, M. Georget confessing that he once left a somnambulist in such a state for seven days, as we saw above, at number 1806.
[1832] contend, But the chief reason by which the aforesaid adversaries of the magnetic art are induced to embrace that opinion is those stupendous prodigies which are declared to be worked by the help of magnetism, and several of which I enumerated at number 1814 and following. For they judge that the truth of at least some of those wonderful prodigies is so established that they would not dare to deny them credence in any way; since, they say, it is not a question here of some passing play of a conjurer deceiving the common rabble at the crossroads or in theatres, but of facts which for seventy years now have spread through all Europe and which many physicians and philosophers and learned members of academies assert that they have beheld, examined, performed. Nor are they detained by that fruitless success by which, as was said at number 1813, the magnetizers lose their case whenever they wish to produce experiments before select witnesses and judges designated by the academies. Namely, they judge that it is foreign to the goodness and wisdom of God that He should permit such portents to be produced publicly and in some manner authentically, which yet God can justly permit to be produced before private persons; because here only those are deceived who expose themselves to deception, while there a handle for error would be offered even to sensible men who deserve nothing of the kind, the power having been taken from them of prudently opposing facts attested in a gathering of learned men. For the just providence and goodness of God, says Fr. Xav. de Feller, do not permit that the demon should assume such an appearance of truth and produce such specious works that even Christians who are upright and right of heart and lovers of truth should be seduced; because God does not suffer His own to be tempted above that which they are able (Philosophical Catechism, at number 322). And the same author observes that God willed that a natural cause, whenever it is in the same circumstances, should always act in the same manner, and that its effect should not depend on the varying intention of men. Which God so ordained, he says, lest a lie should be able to obtain the same firmness as the truth, God saying in Isaiah XLIV, 25: "I am the Lord … that make void the tokens of diviners, and make the soothsayers mad" (Biographical Dictionary, article Aymar Jacques). Whence they deduce that it is consonant with the divine economy that the portents of the magnetizers should be frustrated of all success at the very time when, by the solemnity of the experiments to be produced and by the presence and authority of select witnesses and judges, they would have attained the full degree of certainty.
[1833] to the devil The truth of some extraordinary phenomena having been admitted, then, by these adversaries, they proceed thus: Since the human sciences stand astonished at these wonderful prodigies, and, all the means of explaining them having been tried and exhausted in vain, the solution of this problem is despaired of, so that physicists, physicians and the magnetizers themselves today confess that those stupendous phenomena not only have remained hitherto unexplained, but are also inexplicable, it must necessarily be concluded that recourse must be had to supernatural powers; but certainly not to divine ones: therefore to diabolical ones. Nor do they think it right, in order that these most wonderful phenomena may be ascribed to nature, to have recourse to its unknown powers. For, they say, although not all the powers of nature are known, yet some of their limits and bounds are certain and well understood, which not only every age and continual experience and the common sense of men has held fixed and holds today, but which it must be said that nature, left to itself, can in no way pass, unless every notion of things be overturned, and the human race, beaten by such doctrines and no longer having anything certain, rush into pyrrhonism and extreme madness. Finally, those who defend the intervention of demons in certain portents of magnetism think that no slight strength accrues to their opinion from the effects of magnetism, often harmful under manifold respects, of which there will shortly be talk, and which for that reason they judge can most rightly be ascribed to a being which is hostile to man.
[1834] are to be ascribed. For these causes, then, they contend that those extraordinary phenomena are to be attributed to the demon, and so that present-day magnetism is nothing but the continued magic of the middle age and of ancient centuries. It cannot indeed be denied that the demon has often used the magic art for the ruin of man, as was said at number 92, and as can be seen demonstrated in authors, for example in St. Thomas (2. 2, questions XCV and XCVI), Francisco Suárez (tome 1, treatise III, book 2 on Superstition, chapter XI), the Illustrious Bossuet (Sermon on the 1st Sunday of Lent), Friedrich Hossmann (Diatribe on the power of the devil over bodies) and innumerable others, who invincibly demonstrate that by the unanimous consent of all centuries, all peoples and all religions the existence of demons and their action (so far as God permits) upon human affairs has been believed: so that the French Encyclopedia itself has confessed this most certain truth, which it states with fitting force of words thus: He must surely be mad who dares to deny that demons have with men that society which we call magic (article Sorciers). But let this be enough about these things. For from the things which I have so far discoursed concerning the cause and nature of the Teresian and the magnetic ecstasies, even though these latter should really happen such as they are vaunted to happen, it is plainly evident that there is no analogy between the two, and that they can in no way be compared with one another without absurdity or even impiety; since the magnetic ones are declared to be elicited by nature, by art or by the demon, while the Teresian ones have been demonstrated to have come from God by the reasons heaped up above in §§ XCI, XCII and XCIII, and in this very §, number 1826 and following. But this will shine forth still more when we shall have said a few things about the effect of each.
[1835] Moreover the circumstances in Teresa were altogether different The reader would surely not bear that I should seriously demonstrate that far from the holy nun Teresa, while she was being gifted with those sublime charisms, were all those circumstances by which artificial ecstasies are effected and surrounded. There was no magnetizer present with her, who by the striving and exertion of his will, without which, however, the magnetists agree that magnetic phenomena cannot be produced, would ejaculate fluid into her or would stir up that unknown force in which, as we set forth more at length at numbers 1808 and 1809, it is contended, with a great variety of opinions, that animal magnetism consists. Without the operation or help of any man, ecstasy invaded Teresa not little by little and as it were with a certain slumber, but suddenly, and for the most part in the exercise of prayer and after a long time spent in meditation on heavenly things and in contemplation of the divine perfections; and this very often in solitude, with God alone as the witness of her actions and thoughts, towards whom, as to the supreme truth and the supreme good, her intellect and will were rapt: nor did her mind and affection wander elsewhere during the whole time of the ecstasy; but all the powers of her soul were absorbed in the deep consideration and ardent love of God. Further, she is not read to have been questioned or addressed in her ecstasies in order that she might give answers: nay rather she herself confesses that she not only did not understand the things she heard, but could not even utter one word, even if she strove to speak; because all exterior strength altogether failed through the interior joy and strength of the mind. And when she emerged from that state, she retained, otherwise than is for the most part asserted to take place in magnetic ecstatics, clearly and vividly engraved on her memory whatever had happened to her in the rapture of the mind; as is evident from many passages of her books and letters, in which she narrates her visions distinctly, no otherwise than Ezekiel and other holy Prophets of God when they describe their visions. Therefore, to put it in a few words, there were not to be seen spectacles of yawning, stretching, slumber, somnambulism; no automatic gait at another's nod; no commanded motion
of the limbs; no transposition of the organs of the senses; no frivolous description of things far remote, no evocation in jest of past things, no uncertain conjecture of future things, no obliteration of the things that had happened during the ecstasy.
[1836] than in magnetic ecstatics. Nevertheless, almost all to a man who have celebrated the praises of animal magnetism affirm that those circumstances are wont to accompany it; as, others being omitted, may be seen from many passages of authors alleged in this dissertation of mine: for example at number 1806, where you have Messrs. Rostan, Deleuze, Georget and Dupotet establishing that the will of the magnetizer is effective in begetting singular effects; at number 1801, where, from Rostan, there is treatment of the transposition of the senses and of the presaging of things foreseen by somnambulists; at number 1814, where Messrs. Husson, Georget, J. B. L., Kluge, Ennemoser and de Puységur affirm that the times of good or bad health are accurately foretold by magnetic ecstatics; finally from number 1841, shortly to follow, in which Alphonse Teste affirms the entire dependence of the body and mind of the magnetized on the will of the magnetizers: although, as regards this, it is known that, especially among the more recent patrons of the magnetic art, there are some who contend that the magnetized are in possession of their moral liberty, and that they wake up if anything evil is attempted; but let others judge whether this assertion of theirs prevails over the authority of the rest.
[1837] Finally the effects in Teresa were most excellent; If further we weigh the most diverse fruit of the two kinds of ecstasies, their immense difference will become still more evident. When in the three preceding §§ it was demonstrated from Benedict XIV, Cardinal Bona and others that Teresa's ecstasies were divinely sent to her, the chief argument was drawn from the increase of virtues which she gained thence, and especially of humility, by which, though heaped with heavenly gifts, she loved to be unknown and to be reckoned as nothing, putting herself after all and putting herself before none, and obeying her directors like an infant. Which will plainly be established for one reading, among Teresa's other writings, that most beautiful account of her whole conscience and earlier life which she renders to the director of her soul, Father Rodrigo Álvarez S. J. (tome I, letters 18 and 19), and which I would wish to be read through by the reader, nay, I would insert it in this very place, were it not rather long and were it not found in great part in Ribera below (book IV, chapter IV). Let also the whole of Ribera's book IV be consulted, where her manners of prayer and the virtues of St. Teresa are treated most amply, and especially the last chapter of that book, and also the testimonies of learned and holy men about the holy Virgin collected by Yepes, which we shall subjoin to Ribera's lucubration. Besides this it was noted above that these charisms profited not Teresa alone, but that she also through them excellently promoted the good of souls and the glory of God, both by the reformed Carmelite Order and by the most excellent books she wrote, and in many other ways. Wherefore, Teresa's charisms having already been judged above from their effects, as a good tree from good fruits, let us now compare with them the effects of magnetism. It is established, namely, from the judgment of many medical academies and very many sagacious men, that such fruits are wont to be begotten from magnetism that, if they are duly estimated, they have little recommendation, but much danger and loss. And although at first sight its phenomena at times display some appearance of utility, yet in the end they often bring forth for man not true advantage but rather detriment. For now chastity of morals is defiled by them, now the secrets of families are revealed, now health is ruined, now finally the Christian faith is shaken in the minds of men. For, to speak of this last evil only, the spectators of the magnetic prodigies, after the example of the greater part of the magnetists, easily put these vain and trifling portents on a level with the holy and divine miracles and prophecies by which the truth of the Christian Religion is wont to be demonstrated. And to dare this not only the unlearned common people are induced with the greatest facility, but also lettered men, who are today not rarely as rude in the sacred sciences as they are skilled in the profane, and who for the most part are ignorant of and neglect necessary and eternal things, because they have learned and cultivate only superfluous and fleeting ones; while nevertheless, as soon as they have arrogated to themselves the name of naturalists or philosophers, they think it right for themselves to reject with contempt the most certain dogmas and miracles of the Catholic Religion.
[1838] but the effects of magnetism are often most harmful, But if anyone wishes to know the censorial judgments of certain persons against magnetism, he will have them met with everywhere in many treatises on that subject. Take here one or two of them, to serve as a specimen of the rest. First of all the Illustrious Bishop of Moulins, in the pastoral letter on the Jubilee given to his diocesans in the year 1836, speaks thus: We shall rise up against those dark inventions and secrets of the pseudo-sages of today, who favour materialism and overturn morals… We shall especially rout that baleful science of animal magnetism, whose very name betrays the wicked morals of the followers of that science, which is of a nature to disturb the bodies and minds of men. Likewise Father Debreyne, in his other work, of which at number 1804: Here, he says, are infamous rocks on which purity of morals can strike in a horrible manner. I would wish to be silent, and not to recall so great a disgrace and ignominy; but conscience altogether forbids silence. If the ruin of morals which was lately related to me is true (and, alas! it is by no means right for me to doubt of it), it is most evidently clear to me that animal magnetism offers so foul an occasion for ruining morals that a fouler one never came forth from hell (part IV, chapter I). And in like manner speak others in great number, for example the medical academy of Paris in the Report which, after instituting its examination of magnetism, besides the one to be published, it composed as another (which is called secret), not to be published on account of the obscenity of the subject, but which was nevertheless published not many years after.
[1839] as is established not only from the judgment of its adversaries, Further, not only do the adversaries of the magnetic art inveigh against its harmful effects, but its most ardent heralds themselves also. Among these the skilful and sincere treater of magnetism Rostan speaks in the following manner (several words being cut out, however, which, though bearing on the matter and of no slight moment, would not sufficiently befit the chaste character of a hagiographical work) about the consequences of magnetism: From it I have sometimes seen the body struck with the most acute pains, obstinate headaches begotten, violent heartburns also, passing indeed, but not without great inconvenience and pain; I have seen the whole system of the nerves shaken, with the danger of any evil whatever arising from it, likewise excessive lassitude, great debility, extreme leanness, suffocation and asphyxia; nor do I doubt that death would follow if the magnetizer were to send paralysis into the organs of respiration: finally alienation of mind and melancholy have often been born from it. And these lamentable damages which frequently arise from magnetism affect only the health of the body. But there are other evils more to be dreaded. Whoever, whether man or woman, has been magnetized lies wholly subject to the will of the magnetizer, and has in general no other will than his: nay, even if he wished to resist the magnetizer, the latter is able at his pleasure, as often as he wishes, to take away from the magnetized even the faculty of acting and of speaking; and there is no phenomenon which is produced with easier effort. What could not follow from that omnipotence? What woman…? From magnetism, I say openly, enormous damages threaten the honour of families. Wherefore the Commonwealth ought to know that it must be on its guard against it. Suppose lust is restrained: … how many other dangers remain! The magnetizer is able to elicit grave secrets and to abuse them. But it is known that the good of households not rarely depends on certain secrets which must be suppressed, for example concerning origin, fortune, infirmity of the limbs, some intended purpose, etc.; which, if they are revealed, can bring ruin to a whole family. Besides this, the disparity of sex… Therefore magnetism can be damaging to health; it is also damaging to public and chaste morals: and for these causes those who govern the Commonwealth ought severely to prohibit its use, or permit it only to those who can be judged most remote from all abuse of it.
[1840] but also from that of its patrons Almost not otherwise speaks Carl Joseph Windischmann, formerly professor of philosophy and medicine in the university of Bonn. Namely, in his Attempt to join the medical art with Christian philosophy (page 215), after he had vehemently exaggerated the power of magnetism (especially pages 196 and 199), he closes its ample praises with this epilogue: A great number of lamentable men, magnetism having been employed, have either been badly cured or cast into the lowest perdition, ruined in various ways, and that indeed the more, the more the enchanter (the magnetizer) himself was shaken and carried away by various untamed passions of the mind. Known to us from those times in which political commotions were rampant are horrifying examples of men who suffered extreme ruin, and that on account of the often most detestable ends which the magnetizer intended, for example, to elicit from lucid somnambulists the knowledge of things naturally hidden, or of grave facts happening secretly, and that indeed by name under the political respect. Many have been slaughtered in a horrible manner in that way as victims; and today the enemy of men keeps practising his pernicious arts in dark recesses.
[1841] it is established. In like manner also Alphonse Teste, an ardent propagator of magnetism, in his Handbook on the use of magnetism, published at Paris in the year 1840, begins thus: To the reproach of the human race I shall not delay to promulgate facts of which it is impossible for me to doubt . . . With grief I prophesy that by magnetism several families are to be made desolate and disgraced. I confess that between the magnetized woman and the magnetizer there exists an intimate bond, and the most complete command of the latter over the former. She is compelled to accommodate all her physical movements to his will. In turn the magnetizer does not know whether the magnetized woman searches all the recesses of his heart, and whether she mingles her feelings, her affections and her whole will with the feelings, thoughts, affections and will of her magnetizer. She in her sleep sees, hears, acts through her magnetizer; and there is nothing remaining in the body or soul of the magnetized woman which is not subject to the command of the magnetizer… It is clearly established, then, what a foul pestilence a lustful operator can draw thence whenever he wishes. And so very many others.
[1842] [From what has been said it is concluded that St. Teresa had nothing in common with magnetism.] About to impose an end at last on this dissertation, I think it right to declare again that I leave the problem of magnetism, which has occupied the learned and the unlearned for so long, in the middle, so far as I am concerned. Let others judge, then, whether the disputed magnetic portents, which are asserted by many, ought to be attributed to the sleights and guile of mountebanks, or whether to nature or to the demon. Until light arises from the darkness, or the holy Roman Church passes an absolute sentence on account of the damages to faith or morals which are or can be in magnetic exercises, the field remains open for discussion. But, to fulfil my part as hagiographer, I could not but vindicate from calumnies and from mockery the Saint whose life I have commented on.
For when I saw Teresa accused by several persons today of employing the magnetic artifice, so that the charisms which God conferred on her should be held a play of nature or art, and so that in that way the mind of the Church and of the faithful, which reckons the praised ecstasies of the Saints not natural or artificial but supernatural and divine, should come into contempt and reproach; to confute these detractors of St. Teresa and of the Church at the same time it was altogether necessary for me to write out this dissertation, by which I might show to the eye that the Teresian ecstasies not only have nothing in common with magnetic ecstasies, but that the one kind is as far as possible removed from the other.
§ XCVI. Finally, neither can the ecstasies of St. Teresa be ascribed to hysteria or catalepsy.
Several who impute St. Teresa's visions to hysteria or catalepsy It remains that, after refuting the absurd opinion by which some heralds of magnetism, with an unsound and sometimes even perverse mind, enrol the ecstatic St. Teresa as their disciple, we should attack another interpretation of the ecstasies of St. Teresa, namely of those who imagine that she was not gifted with a divine charism, but seized by a hysterical or cataleptic disease. Thus, to say nothing of others, the author of the Nosographie philosophique (in the first edition of his book, as it is cited in the Encyclographie médicale, reprinted at Brussels in 1837, article Extase, tome XIII, page 12) says that St. Teresa laboured under a mystical, as he calls it, catalepsy, which he asserts that he exhibits graphically described in the very words of the Saint, while yet the words of hers which he cites are so badly stitched together and so adulterated that they present an altogether unfaithful picture of the Teresian ecstasies and one plainly unlike that genuine picture of them which stands above here at number 1826 and following. Likewise the writer of the article Hystérie in the Dictionary of the medical sciences (Paris, 1818, printed by C. L. F. Panckoucke), after he had numbered among the chief causes of hysteria the corrupted fancy and memory of younger virgins and women, by the help of which their intellect feeds on obscene forms seen by them before and on shameful conversations heard, did not fear to confirm his statements by the example of St. Teresa, who he writes was afflicted with melancholic hysteria (telle était Ste Thérèse, qui nous représente un exemple d'hystérie mélancolique such was St. Teresa, who represents to us an example of melancholic hysteria). Likewise another author in the same Dictionary (tome XXIX, page 539, article Magnétisme animal) wrote out these words no less assertively: St. Teresa was again and again invaded by a hysterical catalepsy, which lasted even a whole four days. In her mystical ecstasies, which followed upon fasting and contemplative prayer, she believed that she was in rapture of mind, and wondered at the great things which she then saw. All then, who at any other time judged her ignorant and dull, were astonished that she was so suddenly enlightened. The less she felt that sickness of the body, the higher her mind raised itself. And though otherwise unlearned in the Latin language, she was then able to explain Latin prayers. And she perceived interior voices which addressed her in her soul.
[1844] are refuted chiefly by their own words, If these writers admitted miracles worked divinely, and believed that supernatural gifts are at times communicated by God to His friends according to His good pleasure, I would refer them to the Acts of the Teresian canonization, exhibited in this Commentary, where it may be seen from very many and most weighty testimonies that she was enriched from heaven with such privileges. But since they seem to deny all credence to supernatural gifts, and the author of the latter cited article dares to pronounce that it belongs only to madmen to believe miracles, therefore I must engage them with other weapons. These, however, I shall bring out chiefly from the same armoury, from the Dictionary, I say, of the medical sciences, and indeed in great part from the very articles of the same writers in which they treat of hysteria and of catalepsy; so that they may be less able to refuse their own authority. When, then, I shall have demonstrated in this way that the things which they fasten upon St. Teresa rest on no foundation, whether you regard the cause of each of the aforesaid diseases or each disease itself, the matter will be settled for me, and there will be nothing further for the adversaries to oppose to me.
[1845] first of all as regards hysteria, The author of the former article does not blush to devise that St. Teresa grew hot with the most shameful affections, from which the hysterical evil was begotten. Since a calumny similar to this has already been torn up at number 128, where the vindication of the most chaste Virgin can be read, there is no reason for me to repeat it here. But neither did the disease itself exist in her any more than the cause of the lying evil, whether it be called hysteria or catalepsy. For first of all hysteria, which is known to be a uterine strangulation with such dire pains that both the nerves are contracted in a horrible manner and the mind not rarely loses control of itself, hysteria, I say (as those testify who have written of the medical disciplines, nay that very author of the article in which this injury is inflicted on St. Teresa, pages 233, 245 and 257), vexes the youthful age. But St. Teresa first began in the fortieth year of her age, as was proved in this Commentary at number 119, to enjoy those frequent ecstasies, which lasted up to her death, so that on the very day of her death she enjoyed a rapture of mind, and may be said to have died in it. Therefore he who dares to affirm that a woman not only of adult or already declining age, but an old woman, elderly and almost seventy, was liable to a hysterical affection or uterine strangulation, must be said to spurn either the most certain documents of her life or the tenets of physicians and in some manner the very laws of nature. But if, when she was younger, she suffered a sickness in which she is declared to have had a certain vision, there is no one who would suspect hysteria in such a disease as is described in chapter V of her Life (as also in § VI of this Commentary, and by Ribera in book I, chapter IV in our edition, otherwise VII), and in her little body, exhausted at that time by dire and long pains. Whoever has turned over the writings of St. Teresa and read her Life will wonder, moreover, that she is said by the author of the aforesaid article to have been afflicted with melancholy, which was the cause of the hysteria: for on the contrary it is established that she was of a joyful and festive disposition and so hated melancholy that she could not bear even its name, and earnestly desired that that evil should be far banished from her monasteries; which she declares beautifully with her native eloquence in chapter VII of her Foundations.
[1846] and then as regards catalepsy; and not only by secondary Next, St. Teresa can no more be said to have laboured under catalepsy or hysterical catalepsy, which the author of the latter article will have it, than under hysteria; nay, even less. I say nothing of this new explanation of the Teresian ecstasies being found rather late, namely in the third century from her death, against all the documents of her history and life. Moreover, a just prejudice could perhaps be conceived against that interpretation from the fact that, on the witness of the medical Dictionary itself (article Catalepsie, page 280), that sickness is most infrequent. Nay, if credence is to be given to Daniel Stenertius, called the Hippocrates of his century, catalepsy is so rare an affection that they believe that among a hundred, nay six hundred, physicians scarcely one is found who has seen any cataleptic (tome III, book 1, part II, chapter XXX, Lyon edition 1676).
[1847] but also by decisive arguments, and those several. But against the catalepsy thrust upon St. Teresa (which the author seems to wish to have been surely not moderate, since he asserts that it lasted four days) the conclusive and decisive argument is that the chief symptoms and signs which that very medical Dictionary (article Catalepsie) requires for that disease are absent from our Saint's ecstasies, as is evident from the passage of the Dictionary itself cited above. And first indeed the Dictionary (article Catalepsie) affirms that, when the sick person is pressed by that evil, the faculties of the soul are suspended, or rather nil (les facultés intellectuelles sont nulles the intellectual faculties are nil); but on the contrary (article Magnétisme), as is evident from the passage excerpted by me, it not only denies that her faculties of soul were interrupted, but even asserts that she was, beyond her custom, much keener and more enlightened in intellect, and that the edge of her mind was then so excited that she, who was otherwise unlearned in Latin, was able at that time to explain Latin prayers (Subitement éclairée, elle frappait d'étonnement les autres personnes, qui la trouvaient comme stupide et ignorante en tout autre temps… Elle parvenait alors à expliquer le latin des prières, sans avoir appris à le traduire [Suddenly enlightened, she struck with astonishment the other persons, who found her as it were stupid and ignorant at any other time… She then succeeded in explaining the Latin of the prayers, without having learned to translate it]). Next, on the witness again of the Dictionary itself, one liable to catalepsy does not preserve the memory of the things that happened to him in the time of the paroxysm (le malade ne conserve pas le souvenir de ce qui lui est arrivé the sick person does not preserve the memory of what happened to him): but on the contrary St. Teresa described in detail many of the things which, when she was carried away in ecstasy, she felt, saw, heard; and she wrote it out so lucidly, so exactly, and with such great eloquence that that very same Dictionary (article Extase) confesses that ecstasy has perhaps been described more eloquently by no one than by St. Teresa, and that it pleased the author of that article to allege two passages from the autograph Life of the Saint, these words being premised: Nulle part l'extase n'est peut-être mieux décrite que dans la vie de Ste Thérèse par elle-même. En voici les principaux traits, etc. [Nowhere perhaps is ecstasy better described than in the life of St. Teresa by herself. Here are its principal features, etc.] Finally, thirdly, as the Dictionary has it, as long as the sick person is pressed by catalepsy, his nerves are contracted (les muscles sont dans une contraction permanente the muscles are in a permanent contraction), no otherwise than in hysteria, of which Georget says (article Hystérie, in another Dictionary of medicine, published at Paris in the year 1824): The sign by which hysteria is distinguished from other diseases is convulsion; which, unless it be present, it is not held to be hysteria. But those very fragments excerpted from St. Teresa which the Dictionary (article Extase) offers show that she enjoyed the greatest quiet in the time of her ecstasies: A person then rejoices, she says in chapter XVI of her Life, in a certain kind of sleep of all the powers of the soul, intellect, memory and will.
[1848] One of those who holds St. Teresa for dull is exploded, Further, as regards the affirmation which the author of the article adds to his other fictions, namely that St. Teresa was esteemed outside the time of her ecstasies (or, as he understands it, of the hysterical catalepsy) stupid and dull, there is no reason why I should waste time refuting an open falsity. Certainly Spain will wonder, the Christian and literary world will wonder, that any such thing is pronounced today of this Saint, whose books for three centuries now have seemed to contain for theologians a most precious treatise of sacred doctrine, for the cultivators of eloquence a most perfect model of style, and for Leibniz himself the best kernel of a philosophical system (as is amply demonstrated where the Teresian books are discussed). Meanwhile there is no reason for us to wonder that the writer of that article treats so the supernatural charisms that pertain to St. Teresa: for nonetheless he impudently spurns any miracles whatever most expressly proved in the Sacred Books and ineptly twists them to a foreign sense. Thus on page 511 he fables that Ananias and Sapphira were killed by the enchantments of St. Peter; thus on page 540 he ascribes to exaltation of mind, to concentration and cerebral tension and to somnambulism
the gift of tongues in the Apostles; thus finally, to keep silent about his many gibes concerning miracles, prophecies, the Relics of the Saints, demons, etc., on page 543, with an insipid and at the same time horrible blasphemy, he does not fear to put the promises which the adorable Redeemer of men uttered concerning the efficacy of faith on a level with the jocular nursery tales of witches.
[1849] and blasphemes all holy things. Most ineptly indeed does the writer with whom we are dealing devise catalepsy, cerebral tension and somnambulism in Teresa; while for three centuries now the religious Order of men and women most wisely reformed by her has flourished, and while her most esteemed writings have been put to the press a hundred times and more. But much more still is he to be carped at because he devises such diseases of madness in the Apostles also; while the world, converted to the most pure, most holy and most lofty Christian Religion, demonstrates that the edifice of the Christian Religion is divine, whose foundation was the Apostles and Prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief corner-stone (Ephesians II, 19): so that it can plainly not be understood that there are in the number of mortals those who would dare stubbornly to assert that those lofty and most divine works were worked by cataleptics, by somnambulists, by men affected with cerebral tension. It has pleased me, however, to pursue a little more at length the grave calumny inflicted on the holy Virgin Teresa, so that from this one lamentable example of a learned man, pledging to his readers profane science indeed, but also faithlessly subverting historical truth and the Christian Religion and piety, it may be evident with what effrontery all things that are sacred are assailed by the haters of truth.
VITA MATRIS TERESIÆ: THE LIFE OF MOTHER TERESA, BY FATHER FRANCISCO DE RIBERA S. J.
From the first Salamanca edition of the year 1590, according to the Cologne version of Matthias Martinez of the year 1620.
Teresa, virgin, mother of the Carmelites of the stricter observance, at Ávila in Spain. (S.)
BY RIBERA.
DivisionSummary of the five books.
I. The beginnings of Teresa up to the foundation at Ávila.
II. The following foundations up to that of Alba.
III. The remaining foundations. Her death.
IV. Her natural and supernatural gifts.
V. Of Teresa's body. Miracles worked through her.
This division of the books in Ribera has been kept, but a new one has been made of the chapters. The old one was in this manner:
Book I. Prologue. Of the fruit from the Lives of the Saints.
Chapter I. Of revelations.
II. By name of those contained in this book.
III. The Saint's country, parents, birth.
IV. Infancy and upbringing.
V. Dangers to which she exposes herself.
VI. Entry into Religion. Profession.
VII. Illnesses. Prayer neglected and resumed.
VIII. Whether her sins were grave.
IX. Her life amended, the Fathers of the S. J. being employed.
X. She deals with Father Francis Borgia.
XI. She resists the heavenly gifts; which grow.
XII. She treats with Father Peter of Alcántara.
XIII. The first thought of erecting a convent at Ávila.
XIV. Several dissuade her from it.
XV. But yet it is erected, God so willing.
XVI. Teresa goes to Toledo, and returns to Ávila.
XVII. The building is completed. The first nuns.
Book II. Prologue. Of preserving the spirit in monasteries.
Chapter I. Teresa's aim in the erection of convents.
II. Of the primitive Rule of Carmel.
III. She does not wish her convent to be established on revenue.
IV. A storm stirred up against Teresa.
V. Quiet returns.
VI. Leave is granted her to found other houses.
VII. Of the houses of men. She thinks of Medina.
VIII. Where she founds a second house.
IX. What happened there.
X. The foundation of Alcalá.
XI. Likewise of Malagón.
XII. Likewise of Valladolid.
XIII. Likewise of Toledo.
XIV. What happened there.
XV. The foundation of Pastrana.
XVI. Likewise of Salamanca.
XVII. Likewise of Alba.
XVIII. Teresa's manner of travelling.
Book III. Prologue. Of the Constitutions of the Order.
Chapter I. Teresa goes to the house of the Incarnation.
II. The foundation of Segovia.
III. Likewise of Beas.
IV. The foundation of men at Mancera and Pastrana.
V. Likewise of nuns at Seville.
VI. What happened there.
VII. The foundation of Caravaca.
VIII. What happened in the following four years.
IX. The foundation of Villanueva.
X. Likewise of Palencia.
XI. Likewise of Soria.
XII. Likewise of Granada.
XIII. Likewise of Burgos.
XIV. What was done there.
XV. Teresa's death.
XVI. The circumstances of her death, and her burial.
Book IV. Prologue. Selection is needed in admitting novices.
Chapter I. Teresa's natural gifts.
II. She is raised by God by degrees in prayer.
III. Her manner of prayer is declared.
IV. Thence she obtained knowledge of heavenly things.
V. She obtained the spirit of prophecy.
VI. She composed spiritual books.
VII. Her spirit examined.
VIII. What manner of prayer she prescribed.
IX. Her exceptional faith.
X. Likewise her love towards God.
XI. Likewise towards her neighbour.
XII. Her piety towards the Holy Eucharist.
XIII. Her devotion towards the Saints.
XIV. Her confidence in God.
XV. Her interior humility.
XVI. Likewise exterior; and mortification.
XVII. Patience in labours.
XVIII. Maceration of the body.
XIX. Love of poverty, joined with liberality.
XX. Her singular obedience.
XXI. Her power in words.
XXII. The grace of healings in which she was powerful.
XXIII. Her supreme gratitude towards benefactors.
XXIV. Her very great prudence.
XXV. Likewise discernment of spirits.
XXVI. Certain Relations made to her confessor.
Book V. Prologue. Why the virtues are treated more at length here.
Chapter I. Teresa's body is translated to Ávila.
II. It is carried back to Alba.
III. The state of the arm and of the body is described.
IV. Teresa often appeared after death.
V. Miracles through the Relics of her body.
VI. Likewise through the touch of her garments.
VII. Likewise through her image.
VIII. Likewise at her invocation.
And this is the old division of the Life published by Ribera; but ours stands thus.
LIBER PRIMUS: FIRST BOOK.
PROLOGUE.
What fruit the Lives of the Saints bring, and what is the subject of this book.
The Fathers of the Church The labour of consigning to writing the lives of the Saints of God who enjoy the vision in heaven has always seemed so delightful and sweet to the Saints still living in this world that they have undergone it most willingly, not only those who had greater leisure, but also others, for whom, on account of their continual occupations and burdens, both in the government of the churches committed to them and in communicating to mortals, through commentaries written on Sacred Scripture, the light received from Jesus Christ, the Father of lights, scarcely any time seemed able to remain for doing anything else. St. Clement, Pontiff and Martyr, a embraced in writing the whole journey and pilgrimage of Peter, prince of the Apostles, whom he had as teacher and instructor: St. Athanasius b wrote the deeds of Anthony the Great: St. Dorotheus, Martyr, prelate of the Tyrians, c wove a certain brief compendium of the life and death of the ancient Prophets and of the Apostles.
[2] and other men conspicuous for holiness, Epiphanius, bishop of Constantia in Cyprus, d also composed the eulogies of the Prophets, though succinctly: St. Jerome left to posterity in writing the lives of Paul the first anchorite, of Hilarion and of the monk Malchus: Gregory of Nyssa published the life of the other Gregory, surnamed Thaumaturgus, that is, the worker of wonders: St. Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus, e published the Religious History, by which he keeps for us still living the pious memory, rescued from destruction, of some holy monks in the eastern region, whose admirable lives and renowned deeds he committed to letters: the great Pontiff Gregory in the Dialogues did not think it enough to write the life of St. Benedict, unless he also recounted here and there the illustrious deeds of very many Fathers throughout Italy: St. Isidore f, finally, reduced into a brief writing the life and death of the Saints who pleased God by holiness of life in both Testaments. But why do I linger longer in proving a matter so clear and manifest? Did not Saints John Damascene, Bede, Bernard, Bonaventure, Antoninus and other holy men do the same, both those who formerly were illustrious in the Church of God and those who have lived in our age, whose names it would not be laborious to bring forth here?
[3] moved by divine love, To this writing, however, two causes chiefly impelled all these, both flowing from one and the same source, from the most ardent love, I say, with which they were borne towards our Redeemer Jesus Christ and with which they continually busied themselves to promote His love and glory. For first they saw how greatly mortals were stirred by reading them, and how powerfully they were inflamed by the examples of the Saints to lead their life holily and piously, especially of those who lived in the same age with themselves; and that these were moved more effectively by them than by treatises breathing either exceptional doctrine or salutary counsels, or exhorting to an upright life. Next, as they held it undoubted, the glory and greatness of this great Lord, whom they loved from their inmost hearts and whom they so ardently desired to be acknowledged and worshipped everywhere by all, could be manifested to men by nothing more plainly than if the most upright lives of the Saints and their illustrious victories were recalled to their mind and eyes. They were certain moreover that, with Christ as leader and under His auspices, these had worked these great things, and in His strength had leapt so far beyond the limit of human strength by overcoming.
[4] wrote them for the glory of God. Hence, what no one would deny, they also laid down for themselves that to commemorate the renowned deeds from the lives of the Saints is nothing other than to show men in very deed how great is the greatness of the grace which is wont to be conferred by the Redeemer Jesus Christ, how great its power, and how admirable the force and efficacy of His most precious Blood; because these shine forth in the Saints in a certain wonderful manner, and far more than in other men: just as the very greatness and wisdom of Almighty God is also more and more clearly evident in the heavens and in their splendour and beauty and the ordered harmony of their motion than on the earth and in the other lower things. Hence for the most part in the Sacred Letters they are called by the name of the heavens, as sinners are called by the name of the earth, as St. Augustine well notes (book II on the Sermon of the Lord on the mount, chapter IX). And in the same place he expounds in this manner, as does St. Ambrose also (book V on the Sacraments, chapter IV), those words of the Lord's Prayer: "Our Father, who art in heaven;" and not otherwise also does St. Augustine understand those which almost follow: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven:" and before him St. Cyprian also so expounds and declares this Prayer (on the Lord's Prayer, about the middle). These likewise the Royal Prophet designates by the heavens when he says: "The heavens shew forth the glory of God;" because in them it is evident to the eye how great is the power of the grace of our Saviour, how great its efficacy: although very many Christians on the contrary (such is our sloth and cowardice of mind) in some measure dishonour the most holy Sacraments of the Church, and the grace and passion of the same Redeemer, as though these were of slight strength in them.
[5] Imitating whom, Ribera I seem indeed deservedly to have to fear somewhat here lest those who read this life of the holy Mother Teresa of Jesus, which I have undertaken to weave, should perhaps accuse me of some rashness, and should carp at me chiefly on this account, that by the writing of this I bring some detriment in part to my other lucubrations, which I shall therefore be compelled to interrupt, and to other works which I have in hand, which might seem to someone greater and worthier. But so many
and such great Saints and Doctors, relying on whose example, whom I would most wish to imitate in their zeal for recounting the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ and celebrating the wonders which He deigns to work in His Saints, there is nothing that I should fear; nay rather, my principal study, although it is the same as was theirs, namely to interpret the Sacred Letters, since through me it bears far less fruit than through them and is far inferior to their study, surely supplies me with a greater occasion for undertaking that other labour which I have indicated. But to speak according to the common sense of men, just as in this respect Mother Teresa may in some manner be called unfortunate, because she has obtained so inept, puerile and infantile a herald, having deserved a far worthier one, so I in turn have proved most fortunate, since it has fallen to my lot to write the life and deeds of a most holy and most generous heroine, which is surely a most open and broad field in which an outstanding, distinguished writer, powerful in genius, might exercise himself.
[6] the illustrious deeds of St. Teresa, I shall not indeed here institute any comparison of her holiness with that of others (for this judgment belongs to the secrets of God alone; and how great this was in her can also be known to some extent from the things which I shall pursue in this whole work); but I have either read of or known no one who for very many years past has surpassed her in generosity and greatness of soul: so that, just as Alexander of Macedon forbade by edict that anyone except Apelles should paint him, or anyone except Lysippus, each pre-eminent in his art, should fashion his statue (Valerius Maximus, book VIII, chapter II; and Cicero, book V to his Friends, chapter XII); so this history which I undertake to write would seem to need to be struck from my hands and consigned only to a historiographer of the greatest name, who might match the singular greatness of the virtues of this holy Virgin with equal sublimity of words and style. On the other hand, however, I am consoled by the counsel and judgment of very many who, as is indeed just and consonant with reason, value her holiness greatly and are singularly attached to her, and who demand this of me as their right; especially as this thought is added, that a sincere and pure intention and good will are far more acceptable to God and the Saints than sublime geniuses and oratorical faculties of words. But, to say what the matter is, nothing has animated this desire of mine to write more than an exceptional and solid confidence in God, the Best and Greatest: for I hope from Him who opens the mouths of the dumb and makes the tongues of infants eloquent that my mouth too will be opened, and that my pen will be directed by the suffrages of His holy handmaid, so that I may be able to attain to committing to writing that which she, by the support of His grace, fulfilled so perfectly in working. From what has been said thus far anyone can perceive by what reasons I have been impelled to weave this life, since there were not lacking in her families men excellent both in authority and in learning for fulfilling this part of writing far more worthily than I, who am a member of the Society of Jesus, which this kind of writing would accordingly seem to touch less.
[7] for several reasons But since someone perhaps will ask of me some singular reason for this matter, I answer him in a few words that the Society of Jesus was founded from the very beginning for the glory of God and the salvation of souls; hence it is by no means unbecoming for its companions and members to commit to letters things which look and tend to this. Let the second reason be that no small part of the praises of Mother Teresa of Jesus seems to be transferable to this very Society, inasmuch as she profited not moderately by its help, when she first laid the foundations of the spiritual edifice, and always thereafter. Thirdly, because whatever pertains to the Saints, of whatever family they may finally be reckoned, that I count as proper and my own, since we are all brothers to one another and all serve the same Lord, whom also we hope all together to enjoy in heaven, and whom it is likewise fitting to extol and glorify on earth as much as possible. Hence also most of those who have consigned the lives of the Saints to writing have not always looked to whether they were their own, moved both by the reasons which I brought forward before, as most efficacious, and following their own affection and the divine instinct by which they felt themselves impelled to do this. Hence the holy prelate Antoninus, while he was weaving the eulogies of the Saints of his Order, did not think it shameful for himself to celebrate the praises of St. Francis and his companions. Nor did Athanasius wait for the companions and disciples of the anchorite Anthony the Great to write his life; but he himself consigned it to monuments. Nor did Gregory write of Benedict alone, his superior, but also of very many others excelling in holiness: whom also the Venerable Bede, who was of the same Order, afterwards imitated. But, to keep silent about those ancients, I myself know today two men g conspicuous both in authority and erudition, who, since they are notable and singular, are before the eyes of all, and both have professed another institute of life; the first of whom, as has been told me at least, is now preparing this very history of the life of Mother Teresa, while the other told me not long ago that he had applied his mind to the same kind of writing, as soon as weightier affairs should permit.
[8] and from a grateful mind towards the Saint, Fourthly, because, although men of the same Religious Order and also of another could write the same, it seems to tend more to the glory of God that it be committed to letters by men of another institute, so that the greater authority may accrue to the writings, the less the matter seems to concern the writer. Fifthly h, because the Lord seems to have inspired this pious intention in me, since I myself greatly look up to the distinguished virtues and holiness of this holy Mother, and have obtained singular graces from the munificent right hand of His Majesty through her patronage. Nor is there anything that smacks of arrogance in proclaiming that this intention was given me from heaven, since I am compelled by very many and most manifest arguments to believe this. So that, since by this writing of mine I close the door neither to the companions of her Order nor to those of others for composing the same history, even more worthily, I by no means see why it should seem new or unwonted to anyone that in a matter so salutary I should satisfy my pious desire, as no one has imputed it as a fault to others that they satisfied theirs in publishing a similar or dissimilar matter. And even if the reasons which have been stated had no place, yet it would seem to me a sufficient cause for writing this history that so ample and illustrious a matter for writing has fallen in my times, and then that I myself conversed familiarly with her, often mingled conversation with her, and was privy to very many of her affairs, into which, to satisfy a singular desire of my own, I diligently inquired long before I had admitted into my mind any thought of the work which I am now undertaking.
[9] with entire good faith Since, then, to return to the discourse begun, he who desires to glorify God by the commemoration of those memorable things which He has deigned to produce through the works of His Saints can by no means do this by lying or feigning, and further since I myself by nature detest everything that I know to be fictitious, and judge it most foreign to and most unworthy of a wise man to thrust doubtful things upon people as true and undoubted; whatever shall not be most certain I shall omit; and the things which I am about to say will everywhere stand together with the truth itself: and for this reason I write down the names of persons one by one and often descend to minutiae, so that it may be clearly established with what diligence I have inquired into the truth and certainty of the matter, even in those things which otherwise seemed of slight weight. Hence I shall always have my eyes fixed on the truth of the narration, which even by heathen writers themselves was always judged the first and chief part of history (Cicero, book II on the Orator). The things which she herself put forth in writing about herself I shall touch upon in passing, because I prefer that they be read through in her book rather than in mine: so that, just as he who is about to read this volume of mine ought by no means on that account to neglect her writing, because, besides the historical narration itself, it embraces a certain sublime and divine doctrine, so also he who shall come upon that, if he wishes to know the life and institute of this holy Mother, must also turn over this book, as one which contributes wonderfully to the light and unravelling of very many things put forth in her commentary, and which supplies the things which she kept silent about or omitted.
[10] and not rarely from the books written by herself, Which can be done in this history better than in any other: for, since up to this day on which I write only five years have flowed by since the departure of the holy Mother, and very many still survive who knew her long ago and dealt and spoke familiarly with her, there will not be lacking both those who may abundantly instruct me about the things of which I am in doubt, and those who, if it should happen that I deviate anywhere from historical truth, may make it manifest and reprove me. Not a little help in this matter also was brought me by those private writings, which I diligently turned over, and the little commentaries which she herself wrote by order of her superiors, in which she embraced very many things one by one about her own affairs: from these I shall borrow in their place the things which I shall judge will be necessary for this history. Among other things there is extant a certain writing i in which they would have the life of the writer to be contained, which I myself shall employ quite often, although the holy Mother did not describe her life in it, but only the things which she was ordered by the command of her superiors to commit to writing, namely the very road by which the Most High led her in spiritual things, and also the very many gifts which she obtained from Him, up to the erection of the monastery of Ávila, which is named from St. Joseph and was the first of all. But she herself here by no means relates her virtues, nor the enormous services which she rendered to God, but only the gifts which she received from the liberal hand of the supreme Giver up to the sixty-second year of the current century: for so far only does the historical narration of that little book extend; but she herself survived afterwards more than twenty years.
[11] he resolved to commit to letters. In this volume, further, we shall embrace all things and the foundations of all her monasteries, so that the history may be full and perfect in all its parts; and we shall bring into the light and into public what she herself always laboured so zealously to suppress. We shall here fashion her living image, so far as we can, painting it with the true and illustrious colours of the virtues with which she shone: which we shall then also polish, adding the beauty and highlights of all the illustrious and precious prodigies which she worked both living and after death and still very often works, with which the supreme artist willed to perfect His work and by which this image is to be both more perfect and far more notable. And this to the glory of our Redeemer Jesus Christ, who deigned to adorn His handmaid with so many heroic virtues and, in a womanly breast, manly and masculine courage
to instil; and also to the honour of Mary, the most glorious Mother of God, whom Teresa never failed to venerate as her mother, being devoted in a wonderful manner to her cult, and whose Order and family she herself restored; then to the exaltation of the glorious Joseph, whom she revered as a father, and by whose help and intercession she obtained so many and such great gifts from the Lord; then indeed to the praise of this holy Mother, namely so that her name may become known and be celebrated in all places, and that time, the devourer of all things, may not destroy the memory of her illustrious works; nay, also to the consolation of her spiritual sons and daughters, so that both they and their posterity may have a perfect example and image of all religion and holiness to imitate; finally to the common benefit of the whole Christian Church, for which these so illustrious examples of all the virtues will shine forth for imitation and will give great courage. Beseeching, then, the divine Spirit that He deign to breathe upon us the propitious favour of His help and support, we shall now loose from port and with great confidence spread our sails to the winds, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the same Holy Spirit. Amen.
ANNOTATA.
Chapter I.
Of the visions and revelations which happened to many Saints and other servants of God.
Chap. I.
Before I undertake the course of the narration, it seems to me not foreign to the matter, That visions and revelations nay, very necessary, to premise in this place something which will both bring wonderful light to the things which are to be said afterwards, and will relieve me of great labour afterwards in their places a. I have to narrate here and there various visions and revelations made to Mother Teresa, not indeed all which she either had or I myself know of, but only those which shall seem to fit better the matter which I am pursuing; for besides the fact that they coincide excellently with it, they contain salutary and very useful doctrine and will especially edify the reader. And just as the revelations of Saints Bridget, Gertrude, Catherine of Siena, Angela of Foligno and innumerable others both bless their readers with very great fruit and help them by example, so those which happened to Mother Teresa, and which by no means differ from the apparitions and visions of the aforementioned holy women (for all came from one and the same spirit), will without doubt beget the same effects. But since I think there will by no means be lacking those who will refuse credence to the things to be narrated, either because they are almost rude in these matters and have never even by hearsay or by reading heard the things which are met with everywhere in all the lives of the Saints, or because they have never experienced how familiarly that sweet Spouse of souls holds His beloved, since, as Gregory the Great rightly warns, "all carnal men, because they are not able to know those invisible things by experience, doubt whether that exists which they do not see with bodily eyes" (Dialogues, book IV, chapter I); it will be advisable to lead them out from the very beginning from that error in which they are engaged, and to smooth the road for them to the things which are to be said afterwards, so that, without any fear at all that the narration be taken in a worse sense by anyone, I may both begin and continue my history, and they themselves may run through it to the very end without any delay or scruple at all.
[2] have happened to many servants of God, There will be others who will believe that it belongs to the more learned, those imbued with letters and pursuing spiritual things, to be unwilling to give any credence at all to any revelation whatever, but to hiss off all of them, however many there are, and to deny authority to the book in which they are narrated. "Perhaps worldly wise men" (says Gerson, on the Distinction of true visions, Sign V, about the middle) "will not believe that such an illumination takes place; since it was most truly pronounced to God through the Prophets: Thou enlightenest wonderfully from the everlasting hills: all the foolish of heart were troubled: those, namely, who do not savour the things which are of the heart and the spirit, who do not dwell with themselves in their heart, but outside in the streets of vanities." The abbot Louis de Blois, a most learned and at the same time a most versed master of the spirit, published a treatise, to which he gave the name of the Spiritual Necklace, adorned with divine revelations as with certain illustrious gems, at the beginning of which he says by way of preface: "The reader is to be forewarned not to follow the perverse judgment of certain men, who, by despising divine revelations and visions as most vain dreams, show themselves to be little spiritual and humble: for revelations divinely shown, by which the Church of God is wonderfully enlightened, are not to be made little of… The Lord always could and always will be able to work what He wills in the pure souls of His elect." Whoever wishes to have more on this matter, let him consult the apologetic letter of Johannes Lanspergius the Carthusian, which he prefixed to the Revelations of St. Gertrude. But I would wish both kinds to be asked to read the things which I am about to write here with every sinister affection put off, and not to pass judgment and sentence on them before they have read everything through to the very end, and to let themselves be led by the truth not unwillingly and without struggling against reason, and to favour it by adhering to it inseparably.
[3] not only in the Old Testament For first, if they will maturely weigh the matter, they will find themselves refuted and convicted by Scriptures both divine and human. Further, of the writers of the Sacred Letters there is now no need to speak: for, taught by faith as mistress, we know that these are words divinely inspired in them, and that, God inspiring, they learned whatever they wrote. God very often addressed Moses; nay, He revealed to him more things than he committed to writing, since he left testimony concerning himself: "The Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man is wont to speak to his friend" (Exodus XXXIII, 11). Whence also Mary his sister and Aaron his brother enviously boast about him: "Hath the Lord spoken by Moses only? Hath He not also spoken to us in like manner?" (Numbers XII, 2). Besides this, if God says that "His delights are to be with the children of men", how does He not speak to those with whom it is so pleasing to Him to converse? The same Solomon himself, by whose mouth He spoke the above words, writes in a certain other place: "His communication is with the simple" (Proverbs III, 32), that is, with the sincere, deceiving no one, inflicting evil on no one. And this further He declared from the very beginning of the world, speaking many times with Adam, Eve and those ancient Fathers, and above all with His most familiar ones, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joshua, the parents of Samson, Samuel, Job and his friends, David, Solomon, and finally with all the Prophets. And so great was the multitude of the Prophets in the time of the Old Testament that even a huge crowd of them went out to meet Saul, to receive him with applause; with whom he began to pour forth divine oracles, and gave occasion to that common adage: "Is Saul also among the Prophets?" (1 Kings X, 11). Many things on this matter may be read in the books of Kings and Paralipomenon. In the very time of Moses, too, God said openly: "If there be among you a Prophet of the Lord, I will appear to him in a vision, or I will speak to him in a dream" (Numbers XII, 6).
[4] and in the apostolic age, What then shall I say of the time of the Gospel Law, of which Joel long ago foretold: "And it shall come to pass after this, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy: your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions" (Joel II, 28)? In it indeed Joseph, the spouse of the Mother of God, received revelations from God
and admonitions; and also Ananias, by whom the very Teacher of the Gentiles was washed in the sacred Font; then too, as also afterwards, that same Teacher had so many and such sublime revelations that an Angel of Satan had to be given him, by whom he should be buffeted, lest perchance he should be exalted by their greatness, as he himself left in writing about himself; the Apostle Peter also, and the other Apostles with him, Cornelius the Centurion, even before he had given his name to Christ through the saving laver, Stephen likewise the Protomartyr, Agabus the Prophet, and also the daughters of Philip the deacon, and very many others at that time, as will not obscurely be evident to one reading the first Epistle to the Corinthians. Finally, the familiar communication and converse of God with His friends has always been so well known among men that even Homer himself almost always invents for excellent men and heroes some God who stands by them and speaks with them: hence he assigns Minerva as protectress and guardian to Ulysses and Telemachus, and also to Tydeus and his son Diomede; which very thing Virgil, the Homer of the Latins, also imitates in his Aeneid. If perhaps they will say that formerly indeed visions and familiarities of God of this kind were frequent, but that today the matter stands far otherwise, I for my part will ask whether they judge that what we have already brought forward from the Proverbs of Solomon, namely that it is God's delight to deal familiarly with mortals and that He converses with the simple, was said to the men of that age alone, or whether it also fits the mortals of our century? But since the right hand of God is by no means shortened, but stands equally wide open in this as in former centuries for procuring for Himself distinguished friends and saints, why shall we judge His mercy and charity towards them so restricted and confined that He neither speaks with them, in treating more familiarly, as with His ancient friends, nor embraces them with His accustomed benevolence? Further, what greater and weightier reason for objecting this have the men of our century than those would have had who had objected the same three hundred or four hundred, nay only a hundred, years ago? And with how great shame, if any had then kept saying this, would they be suffused today, seeing that in that middle interval of time so many Saints have existed here and there in the whole Christian world, to whom we read that such illustrious and such various things were meanwhile revealed by the Lord?
[5] but also in later times, And surely in this very century in which we live, how many holy men of both sexes is it established have lived, to whom God communicated Himself in a certain wonderful manner? Surely Master and Don Juan de Ávila, that exceptional servant of God, speaking of secrets of that kind, which he knew from very many with whom he dealt, used to say that God in this very time does certain things with His creatures so wonderful that, if they were divulged in public, they would scarcely find credence. And it is established that God dwells most amicably with His friends, and, although He appears very much hidden to those to whom He is not seen, yet He shows Himself clearly to be beheld by those who sincerely offer their heart to Him, and is wont to communicate great secrets to them. Wherefore, let him to whom such a prerogative is denied not ascribe this to God, nor be persuaded that it can be granted to no one because perhaps it is not given to him; since it has been given at every time, and is still daily granted to very many: but rather let him impute it to himself, if he does not dispose himself so that God may speak with him. Let him hear, then, the warning of Richard of St. Victor, a writer both weighty and ancient: "As long," he says, "as we by no means feel the excess of this grace in ourselves, what else ought we to think of ourselves but that we love too little? For if, whoever you are, you loved fully and perfectly, perhaps the excess of your love and the anxiety of your burning desire would snatch you away into an excess of this kind. Likewise, if you had proved fully worthy of the divine love, if you had shown yourself fit for so great a condescension, perhaps He would flood the eyes of your understanding with such clarity of His light, would inebriate the desire of your heart with such sweetness of His delight, that He would rapt you above yourself and through excess of mind raise you to the things above" (on the Mystical Ark, book V, chapter V). And to this also in the same book a little after (ibidem, chapter VIII) he refers what is recorded in Genesis of Abraham, hastening to meet the three Angels appearing to him: which, since Scripture testifies that it happened in the very heat of the day (Genesis XVIII, 1), he would have the ardour of divine love represented by this heat, and that this exceptional vision befell this holy Patriarch chiefly when his heart was burning vehemently within with the love and desire of the true and supreme good; of which perhaps he would not have been rendered worthy, if he had remained in his tent distracted by occupation with earthly things.
[6] cannot be denied. But who does not see what difference there is between those devoted to prayer and the contemplation of divine things and those estranged from it? How many truths God reveals in prayer, how much light He instils in meditating, how much caution He supplies for stumbling nowhere! But those who do not give themselves to the pursuit of praying and supplicating scarcely experience any of these things. Then, the same difference which is between these, nay a greater, is to be found between those who, besides being zealous for prayer, lead an upright and honest life, but only according to the common custom of men, and those who with great strength of soul tame the rebellious passions of the affections, have no commerce with created things, are bound and united in heart to God alone, and both desire and love before all Him alone who, the more these estrange themselves from created things, the more amicably communicates Himself to them, the more plainly opens Himself; nay, it can happen that these serve God so faithfully that He in turn shows Himself so familiar to them that not rarely He mingles with them sweet conversations after the manner of friends addressing one another, as it is established that He did with Moses: so that, if we consider how great God's familiarity with these is, that which He sometimes has (as I have said) with those leading the common life would seem to be absolutely nothing and of scarcely any merit or account. Wherefore, according to St. Bonaventure, "no one has this vision unless he be a man of desires; nor can he have it except through great desire. Whence the Prophet says: O taste and see that the Lord is sweet (Psalm XXXIII, 9). First he says: "Taste"; for taste is not sweet unless there precede an appetite of the tasting faculty for receiving the tasteable" (Illuminations of the Church, Sermon XX). And God has various manners of speaking, according as He sees disposed the several persons with whom He wishes to deal. Of which matter Didymus treats at length (book II on the Holy Spirit) and St. Augustine (book XVI of the City of God, chapter VI), but more at length and most elegantly St. Gregory (book XXVIII of the Morals, about the beginning). Although I am not ignorant that God does not lead all His friends by this way, yet He has led many by it in every age and leads them today. Which whoever wishes to see more fully and openly, let him consult the treatise which St. Bonaventure wrote on the seven Degrees of Contemplation, and the Mystical Ark of Richard of St. Victor, and very many other books of that kind composed by masters of spiritual things; which books would have been published in vain if there had not existed in those times very many whom God had blessed with similar prerogatives. Wherefore to believe that formerly indeed God was accustomed to speak to His friends, but today is silent, and that in ancient times and in the age of our forebears very many revelations were made by Him to very many, but that they have now altogether ceased, I think could befall not indeed men endowed with judgment and wisdom, but those altogether ignorant and almost without experience of things either read or seen.
[7] For this reason I think it will be by no means dissonant from reason Some examples are brought to remove this error entirely from all, both those in whom it has already settled and those whom it could take hold of hereafter, by showing as briefly as I can that not only in the age of the Apostles, but also afterwards up to our own times, these revelations have been wont to take place in the Church, and how great authority and credence the doctors and Saints who flourished in it have attached to them. Dionysius the Areopagite b, disciple of the Apostle Paul, very well known among the ancients no less for holiness of life than for knowledge, narrates to Demophilus (letter VIII) that, when he had crossed over to Crete, he was received in the house of Carpus, a most holy man; who, he says, was so familiar to the divine Majesty that he would not approach the celebration of the Sacred Mysteries before some propitious vision had befallen him from God. Dionysius then relates one of these visions, received at that time from the mouth of Carpus himself, a long and admirable one indeed, yet similar in all respects to those which we ourselves shall recount in what follows. For he saw heaven open and in it the Redeemer Jesus Christ surrounded by many thousands of Angels: below, hell lying open, and two men almost falling headlong into it, whose legs huge snakes were coiling around, so that, unable to stand, they were rushing into the wide-open abyss; thereupon the Redeemer Christ descending with the Angels to them, and taking hold of their hands, striving to lead them out of the danger; and then, turned to Carpus, who was indignant against those very men, He said: "Rage against Me, if it seems good, Carpus; for I am ready to undergo death again for the sake of redeeming the human race." If we were to relate this very thing of anyone living at this time, by how many, though excellent in learning and the knowledge of spiritual things, would it be turned into a laughing-stock and a fable? Yet since the matter happened in the time of St. Dionysius, a man more illustrious in the knowledge both of letters and of spiritual science, he did not reject it as unheard of nor hiss it off as trifling, but rather concludes the narration with this epiphonema: "These things I myself heard, and I am persuaded that they are true." Tertullian, an ancient author, inasmuch as he followed next after the age of the Apostles, wrote in these words: "For because we acknowledge spiritual charisms, after John also we have merited to obtain prophecy. There is today a sister among us who has been allotted charisms of revelations, which she undergoes in the church amid the Sunday solemnities through ecstasy in the spirit: she converses with Angels, sometimes even with the Lord. And she both sees and hears mysteries, and discerns the hearts of certain persons, and supplies remedies to those who desire them. And now, according as the Scriptures are read, or the Psalms are sung, or addresses are delivered, or petitions are sent up, so thence matter is supplied for the visions. Perhaps we had been discoursing something or other about the soul, when that sister was in the spirit. After the solemnities were over, the people dismissed, according to the usage by which she is wont to report to us what she has seen," etc. (book on the Soul, chapter IX).
[8] to this point, What the Greeks call ecstasy, we Latins call rapture: and he to whom such things happen we say is rapt, or rapt outside the spirit. It pleases me, however, rather to use proper terms and manners of speaking than foreign ones, lest perchance they seem new or strange to anyone. Paul, the first inhabitant of the desert, after he had had many and those admirable revelations from heaven,
which it is undoubted were made to him through so many years in which he lay hidden unknown in the cave, at length learned by God's revelation that St. Anthony was leading a solitary life in the same desert as himself, and that he was to be refreshed by the sight of him before he departed from life. Whence Anthony also in another place heard God in turn admonishing him to go to Paul. When, therefore, the one had come into the sight of the other, they addressed each other by their own names, though they had not known them before. Paul informed him of his death, and asked him for the cloak received formerly from St. Athanasius for wrapping his little body: returning to whom, Anthony beheld his soul carried up to heaven surrounded by many hosts of Angels, Patriarchs and Apostles. Nor indeed did these alone, but many other excellent revelations also befall St. Anthony, as we learn from St. Athanasius, Palladius and others who have written of him. But even if none of these had been put forth by anyone, what Abbot Isaac relates in these words in Cassian's Conferences would stand in place of sufficient testimony: "And that you may perceive the effect of true prayer, I shall put forward to you not my opinion, but that of Blessed Anthony: whom we have known sometimes to have persisted in prayer in such a way that, when he was frequently praying in an excess of mind, and the rising of the sun had begun to pour in, we heard him crying out in the fervour of the spirit: Why do you hinder me, O sun, who rise for this purpose now, to draw me away from the clarity of this true light? Whose also is this heavenly and more than human sentence on the end of prayer: That prayer, he says, is not perfect in which the monk understands himself, or even this very thing that he is praying, etc." (Conference IX, chapter XXXI). How far outside the power of the senses was he who prayed after this manner? Who, then, could relate the ecstasies of those monks living in the solitudes of Egypt, Palestine and others, who namely dealt familiarly with Angels and saw things hidden from secular men, while yet (although Cassian relates many, Conference XIX, chapter IV) those are the smallest part which have come to the knowledge of men? Let this suffice us, that, on his testimony, they took with them in a basket seven pairs of biscuits, according to the number of the seven days of the week, so that by this indication, if perchance they had forgotten themselves, they might be reminded when the course of the week had now been completed, so that they might come together to the Sacred solemnities wont to be celebrated on the Lord's days: for otherwise, through those frequent excesses, raptures and alienations of mind, it came about that they did not know whether they had tasted bread or not, nor how many days they had spent in prayer. In the same place Abbot John testifies of himself: "By the pious gift of our Lord I remember that I frequently went out into a rapture of this kind, so that I forgot that I was clothed with the burden of bodily frailty, and that my mind suddenly so rejected all the exterior senses, and was so altogether banished from all material things, that neither my eyes nor my ears performed their proper office; and my soul was so filled with divine meditations and spiritual contemplations that often I did not know at evening that I had taken food, and on the following day I altogether doubted about yesterday's breaking of the fast, etc."
[9] both from the more ancient Both those whom we have recorded and many others whom we shall bring forward in their place were men; lest anyone should think that this gift was given by the thrice Greatest God to women alone. How often what we are treating of was granted to St. Martin of Tours no one could explain worthily and sufficiently, since he himself concealed such graces with singular care and studiously suppressed them. Yet from the things which Sulpicius Severus noted of him some of these can be drawn out. He relates in his Life, chapter II, that while still a catechumen and not yet incorporated in the Church, Christ the Saviour appeared to him by night, covered with that half of the cloak which Martin had bestowed the day before on a needy man for His sake, and that Christ said to the Angels standing by: "Martin has covered Me with this garment." Another vision made to him he publishes in the same book, chapter VIII. And in chapter XXIV he says it is undoubted that many Angels very often appeared to Martin and spoke with him. Not rarely also he saw the evil demon, and that in various shapes (Letter to Bassula). When the emperor Valentinian was keeping Martin from the palace, an Angel appeared to the pious man and foretold what was to happen. In another place also (Dialogue II) he declares that Angels very many times came down to the same prelate: that at other times also Saints Agnes, Thecla and the Mother of God were in fact heard speaking with him: that Martin himself was wont to relate that this was frequent with him, and that the glorious Princes of the Apostles, Peter and Paul, were often visibly present to him. In the third Dialogue he makes mention of another Angel speaking with clear voice with the most holy man, and of another who had glided down from heaven to console him. Sulpicius himself, who wrote these things, narrates that two visions befell him: in the first, that Martin after death appeared to him, conspicuous and venerable in appearance, carrying in his hand the book in which Sulpicius had embraced his life, and signing him with the sacred blessing; in another he beheld Clarus, a disciple of the same Martin, carried up to heaven by Angels (Letter to Aurelius). For it is nothing new or unwonted that their revelations should be either narrated or written by the Saints themselves, God so disposing for the glory of His name: for if they themselves kept silent about them, what means would there be of knowing them?
[10] of many Saints Things akin to these, yet great and illustrious, Simeon Metaphrastes records in the life of St. Nicholas c. St. Methodius, Martyr and prelate of Patara, not only received very many revelations, but also himself transmitted them in writing to posterity, and they are still in our hands. When St. Ambrose d was scattering the seed of the divine word, someone beheld an Angel standing by him, putting into his ears what he should pour out to the people. The Martyrs Gervasius and Protasius were also seen by him, and revealed to him in what place their ashes were hidden: and afterwards also Saints Vitalis and Agricola, and finally Nazarius and Celsus, likewise Martyrs. The day on which he himself was to depart from life was also made known to him divinely, and who was to be given as his successor in the government of the Church: and he himself announced both to his own. In his last illness the Sacred Mysteries were given him by that priest whom the divine goodness had roused by a vision to perform this pious office. We piously believe that many things were dictated to St. John Chrysostom e by the Apostle Paul in revelation, which he should either put into writing or put forth to the people in preaching. He himself, as Nicephorus relates (Ecclesiastical History, book V, chapter II), when he was to be promoted to sacred Orders, was seen with a white dove flying to him and settling on the head of the one to be initiated. A few days before he departed life, when he was spending a sleepless night in praying, he saw standing by him the Apostles Peter and John, who, mingling conversation familiarly with him, foretold both that he was shortly to be released from the prison-house of the body and to what glory he was to be raised among the heavenly ones: and this said, they held out to him a certain heavenly kind of food. And on the night before the day on which he went out of this life, St. Basiliscus, Martyr, appearing to him, foretold that he would depart on the following day and be buried in the church over which he had presided. St. Jerome f, while still a youth, saw himself rapt in spirit before Christ the judge and the Angels, and sharply beaten by them because he applied himself more than was fair to reading the profane writings of the gentiles. But what visions must it be believed befell him when already growing grey and dwelling by the crib of Bethlehem, since as a young man, living in the desert solitude, he very often believed himself to be among the choirs of Angels? The same (as indeed he is cited by several g, or, as seems to me rather, Sophronius, the colleague of the same Jerome) in the sermon on the Assumption recounts a distinguished and wonderful vision offered to St. Paula; nor would it be either the first or the last, had not Jerome wrapped them all in silence.
[11] histories, At the same time lived that holy anchorite John, very well known both for the divine revelations with which he was enlightened and for the spirit of prophecy with which he was gifted: whom, as St. Augustine testifies (book on the care for the dead, chapter XVII), the emperor Theodosius the Great consulted as a suppliant about the future outcome of the civil war. Of him Nicephorus also makes mention in his Ecclesiastical History (book XI, chapter XXXIV), and also of other monks throughout the East, such as Benus, Theonas, Eulogius, Mark (chapter XXXV), who received the Holy Eucharist only from the hands of Angels, Silvanus (chapter XXXIX), whom Angels served after the manner of servants, Vitus (chapter XL), who, before he beheld the emperor Constantine with bodily eyes, had often seen him in vision with the lights of the spirit. Whoever wishes to know more, let him go to the histories, the Lausiac of Palladius and the Religious of Theodoret. Let us come to St. Benedict, of whom there is no need to say anything, since Gregory in the whole second book of the Dialogues relates so many and such illustrious visions of his, and in the other books of the same Dialogues others of other men and women flourishing in holiness at that time in Italy, all of which he himself both believes and confirms and approves. And those of St. Gregory and of other monks of the same, John the Deacon embraced in the four books on his Life. I should never make an end if I wished to search out and, having searched, to recount all the apparitions in spirit, otherwise unknown, which very many monks and nuns of that most holy family divinely had. I shall bring forward some, however, and especially those made to men whose eulogies were written by the Venerable Bede (in the Lives of the Saints, here and there), both because he himself knew some of them familiarly and often spoke with them, and because he attaches so much credence to them and his authority is of the greatest weight, and for this reason finally, because the deeds and lives of those saints have not become so commonly known to all.
[12] and from the Lives St. Cuthbert, bishop, obtained health by the help of an Angel, and often experienced the service and help of others in various contests. One night also he saw the soul of St. Ardan, bishop, carried to heavenly rest by innumerable crowds of Angels flashing with immense light; as also afterwards the soul of the shepherd Hadwald. Many things concerning very great matters which were to happen afterwards, which Bede embraces in many chapters, were disclosed to him from heaven by a certain wonderful kind of revelation. At almost the same time Boisil learned many things divinely through vision. Felix, priest of Nola (whose life first Paulinus, bishop of the same city, embraced in verse, afterwards Bede in prose), went out in spirit from the prison in which he was held, and went to Maximus his bishop, to whom his coming also had been declared by God, and through the whole half-year in which he lay hidden he was often visited both by Angels and by the Lord of the Angels. The mother of St. Columbanus, abbot, when she was carrying him in her womb, seemed to herself to see a splendid sun from her womb
going forth, which designated Columbanus himself; to whom, while he was living in the desert, a certain abbot, admonished from heaven, sent food, as also afterwards two bishops and a certain pious matron, likewise divinely admonished. Columbanus himself also, God making it known to him, learned that food was to be sent to him by that man, although he was at a considerable distance. In this way also he himself, while absent, knew thoroughly the illnesses of his brethren, and many other things which he foretold long before they were to happen. He was forewarned in sleep by an Angel not to go into Slavonia, whither he was hastening: in sleep likewise he was informed, God revealing it, of the war stirred up between the kings Theodoric and Theodebert, and of its outcome. To Columbanus, a disciple of the above Columbanus, when near death, the Redeemer Jesus Himself was seen, from whose narration he learned by what prayers his master had striven with Him in heaven that his life should be prolonged. To Attala, abbot of the monastery in which Bede professed the monastic life, the day of his death was foretold; and he himself, before he gave up his soul, for the space of many hours beheld the heavens open.
[13] distinguished for holiness St. Patrick, both Apostle and first bishop of the Irish, while yet a youth and bound in fetters, roused a second time by the voice of God, was ordered to betake himself to his native soil. Thereafter He most lovingly signified to him how great services he was to render for the divine name, and what adversities he was to suffer. Many things were revealed to him in spirit in his native land by the Father of lights: whence he betook himself to no places except at the persuasion and counsel of an Angel descending to him from heaven, and that almost always. He saw in an excess of mind that he was called, while absent, into Ireland by children enclosed in their mother's womb, and was asked to hasten, so that by his work they might be rendered partakers of salvation. And when he was unwilling to enter on this journey even at the persuasion of an Angel, the Saviour Jesus Himself, appearing, commanded him to set out on the way, and of His own accord promised him wonderful things. He often foretold to his people by prophesying many and those weighty things: he perceived the hidden thoughts of the king of the Irish and of others. Every week an Angel addressed him; and so frequent were these revelations to him that the narration almost surpasses belief. He saw among other things the heavens open, and the Son of God Himself sitting in great majesty and surrounded by many thousands of Angels. For forty days he stayed on the summit of a certain mountain, continually intent on prayer; during which time he had several and stupendous revelations. Angelic and other visions, further, were very frequent with him; which, because they are very many in number, I shall here pass over in silence: this one thing I shall say, that there appeared to him, no otherwise than formerly to Moses the leader of the Hebrews, an Angel in a burning bush, which yet the flame did not burn; and also that on the night next after the day of his death Angels performed the funeral rites of his obsequies for him with a most sweet harmony of voices, and that an Angel spoke with a clear voice to all who had flocked together from all sides to his obsequies.
[14] [men] Eustasius, abbot, disciple of St. Columbanus, learned by heaven's admonition that his adversary would be taken from this life when a year had rolled round; again, before he departed from this world, another revelation was made to him. Bertulf, abbot, lying sick, beheld the Apostle Peter approaching him, and suddenly obtained health. Agibodus, a monk, disciple of St. Attala, learned in rapture that his death was imminent, and with what glory he was to be gifted among the heavenly ones. To a certain Stephen God foreshowed the birth and the future holiness of life of St. Arnulf, bishop: to the same Arnulf also the things which were to happen afterwards were disclosed from heaven; so too a miracle done by this holy man became known to a certain monk. Further, in the Life of the abbess Burgundofara he relates plainly heavenly visions, which some of the virgins of that monastery saw. One of these learned in spirit that the abbot St. Eustasius would shortly come to her, and that by his help and prayers the use of her eyes, which she had long lacked, was to be restored to her. Another, Sisintrudis by name, foreknew that she would die after the fortieth day: and behold, on the thirty-seventh day after, two of the heavenly spirits glided down to her and carried her soul up to the joys above; but she, having returned again to the body, narrated in order to her companions the things seen, and that after three days she would depart from life. Then indeed the same Angels came again to her, to carry her soul to heavenly things. And all who were present at her obsequies heard the choirs of Angels singing, by whom, as they modulated a sweet song, she was borne within the eternal tabernacles.
[15] and women Gibitrudis, when she was supplicating God for the health of her superior Burgundofara, learned from Him that both she herself and the other nuns would depart hence before her: hence her soul, led out of the body by the ministry of Angels, returned again into it, and designated the certain day of her decease. To Erkentrudis an Angel, appearing by night, gave warning that she should receive the Sacred Mysteries of the Eucharist. She, when near death, learned by divine revelation the secret of another nun, which she was keeping pressed in her heart, and heard Angels singing very frequently before her. The same melody of angelic harmony he testifies was sent down by God to a certain other virgin also, whose symphony also fell upon the ears of others standing by. Another saw herself called by God, the heavens lying open, and when she had foretold the penance which her mother would afterwards do for her faults, she then saw the Saviour coming to her, when she was just about to consign her soul into His hands. To Domna, when she had approached the most holy table of the Eucharist, a certain fiery globe was seen in her mouth by two girls only, who did not divulge that miracle of the thing seen except in the hour of their death; at whose coming these, singing most sweetly and delightfully for a whole day, and filling the place in which they lay with fragrance of odour, rendered their innocent little souls to their Creator. Quilisinda, having been informed of her departure from life and of other things that were to come afterwards, in the hour of death recited exactly the Pentateuch of Moses, the sacred text of the Gospels and also some of the Epistles of St. Paul and the other Apostles, though she held none of these in memory while she lived: at the same time also she beheld descending to her the souls, already received into heaven, of all the nuns who had lived in that monastery, in whose company she was to seek the heavens. Then was heard a harmony of Angels, not only in that place, but also in remote places. God warned Leudeberta in revelation to acquiesce in the sacred counsels of her superior, because she was shortly to be released from the bonds of the body: and when the time of her passing was now at hand, she was refreshed by the vision and address of Peter, the Prince of the Apostles. Over the little bed of Landeberta, when she was just about to go out of life, a certain splendid little cloud was seen to lie, and Angels were heard singing. These things Bede relates of the virgins of that convent alone, of whose credibility there is by no means to be any doubt.
[16] written by the Venerable Bede. The same Bede also, in the Life of Justin, boy and Martyr, which he described in verse, says that he was gifted with the prophetic spirit and by God's revelation knew in what prison his brother was shut up, and that he forthwith recognized him, before unknown to him by face, and that he foreknew many other things that were to happen in his time by the inspiration of the Spirit of God. To St. Malachy, bishop (whose Life St. Bernard, as his very dear friend, wove), it was revealed in what place were the affairs in the other world of his sister lately dead. He took Edan from the number of his disciples as bishop, because he had seen him in a vision wearing a ring on his finger: wherefore he himself consecrated him to this dignity. Sicarus, a priest, who had himself also received the gift of prophecy, when by chance he was passing through the place in which Malachy was living, pointing him out to all with his finger, though not seen before, said: "Behold that holy prelate, whom I foretold to you would come into Ireland, and who knows the thoughts of men." Further, he disclosed by revealing them many secrets both of Malachy himself and of the companions with whom he had come: he foretold also that few of those who were present would return with him whence they had come; nor did the prediction lack fulfilment. This holy bishop, undertaking a certain church whose building seemed plainly unable to be done by the workmen as he had conceived it, himself saw in spirit its idea, both distinguished and capacious, and altogether of that form in which he desired it to be built: wherefore he orders hands to be put to the work, and according to the notions impressed in rapture and the model shown him from heaven the structure rose. At another time something similar happened to him, in which not a church only but also a whole monastery was shown to him through a vision; according to whose form he ordered them to be built. While he was passing through a certain thronged multitude of men, he saw among others a youth who was striving desperately to see him: then it was indicated from heaven to the holy man what this youth wanted and what was to become of him. Many other things of this kind befell him, and exceptional things were shown him through vision and revealed concerning future events: deservedly, then, does St. Bernard, from whom we have borrowed these things, testify that neither the gift of prophecy and miracles nor heavenly revelations were lacking to St. Malachy.
ANNOTATA.
Chapter II.
Continuation of the same matter: what is to be thought of the visions of St. Teresa.
It is likewise established that St. Bernard, No lesser things, further, in this regard occur to be said of St. Bernard himself, if we consult the Life of him which the abbots William and Bernard a wrote. For his mother, while she was carrying him in her womb,
saw in sleep what son she was to bring forth, as a certain pious man, to whom this had been divinely shown, had indicated to her before (book I, chapter I). To him himself also, when a young man, it was revealed that his brother Gerard would be struck by a lance, and then, converted to better things, would profess the monastic life with him. The same Gerard indeed was admonished by a certain divine voice to go out from the place where he was held bound and to depart with his brother (chapter III). He also saw standing by him at night a boy conspicuous with wonderful brightness, and commanding him with great authority to say without any fear at all and full of confidence the things that should occur to him to be said (chapter VI). Another night he saw an immense multitude of Angels, who, distinguished into their choirs, were singing most sweetly in that place where afterwards the church of the monastery was built (chapter VII). Many souls of the dead also appeared to him, and taught him about their state and salvation (chapter X). When he lay sick of a grave illness, rapt in spirit to the throne of God he escaped and mocked the calumnies of the devil accusing him. Thereupon another vision was sent him, by which he learned that he would not die then, when he was thinking he would: and another again not so long after, in which, the Mother of God, accompanied by the Martyr Laurence and the holy Father Benedict, touching with her hand his head and the part of his body that was badly affected, he was restored to his former health (chapter XII). There were revealed to him again and again the temptations, falls, illnesses and finally the deaths of brethren even far removed. There was a time when he seemed to himself to see two who, struggling with impending death, earnestly asked for a fatherly blessing from him (chapter XIII). Many other things of that kind became known to him through vision during prayer. To omit other things, he saw all the books of Sacred Scripture spread out beneath him and explained (book III, chapter III). And as he was celebrating the expiatory Sacrifice for the soul of St. Malachy, it was indicated to him that it was enjoying heavenly joys, and, the Collect for the faithful departed which he was about to read being omitted, he began to read that which is wont to be read of holy Bishops (book IV, chapter IV). What raptures and excesses of mind he suffered besides these is made manifest from this, that he was often outside the power of the senses and not master of himself. Let one example suffice to attest this matter: for when for a whole day he had made his journey on the shore of the lake of Lausanne and Geneva, he had not turned his eyes to it, though it is long and broad, until at length, his companions talking among themselves about it, he asks them where they were (book III, chapter I). Whoever wishes to know more, as regards the revelations both of St. Bernard and of other holy men of that time, let him go to the fourth and at the same time the fifth books on his life.
[18] St. Dominic, At the same time flourished St. Elisabeth, superior of the convent of Schönau b, very well known for holiness and divine illuminations: for both the Redeemer Jesus Himself and the Queen of heaven and earth, and also the holy author of the Order, Benedict, and above all her guardian Angel frequently visited her. It was customary for her on Sundays and feast days to be rapt outside herself and to expound most clearly the most obscure senses of Holy Scripture. Concerning St. Elisabeth of Spalbeek the abbot Blosius put forth these things in writing: "This most pure virgin was rapt seven times daily into God in such a way that no sense, no movement, no breath appeared in her: for her whole little body became altogether rigid, nor could any part of that same sacred body then be moved without its being moved as a whole body" (Spiritual Necklace, chapter II). Then shone forth those splendid luminaries of the world, Dominic and Francis, in whom also the divine hand worked wonderful things; which, because they are known to most, it will be enough to touch on a few briefly. When his mother was bringing forth Dominic, she was taught from heaven who he was one day to be: for while still pregnant she seemed to herself in a divine sleep to carry a whelp bearing a burning torch in its mouth, with which he seemed to set the whole world on fire: and the matron who received him from the sacred font saw on the forehead of the one already washed a star shining, by which the whole world, as far as it extends, was illuminated. When he was at the Roman curia, intending to ask from Innocent, the third of that name, the confirmation of the Order instituted by him, the Pontiff saw in sleep Dominic putting his shoulders under the Basilica of St. John Lateran, which was already collapsing. When the same Patriarch was devoting himself to prayer in the Vatican Basilica of St. Peter at Rome, he beheld coming to him the glorious Princes of the Apostles, Peter and Paul, from the former of whom he received a staff, from the latter a book, and he was sent to spread the Gospel through the world, they saying that he had been set apart by God for this very purpose in a certain singular manner. In the same place also he saw in spirit his Brethren running two by two through the world to preach the Gospel to the nations. And as he was enlightened by God with a certain revelation as regards the confirmation of this sacred Institute (which has hitherto always conducted the business of the Church so zealously and faithfully), so, while he was deliberating with himself about the kind of garment to be adopted, Mary herself, the Mother of God, gave herself to be beheld by Reginald, a religious man, both restoring to him his lost health and bringing the habit which the whole Order still uses today. Besides this he foreknew and foretold many future things prophetically. On a certain journey also he had an Angel as companion. When he spent his nights sleepless in praying, he often suffered the hostile evil demon: then also many things were revealed to him. Whenever the saving Host was elevated in the Sacrifice of the Mass, he was quite often carried away outside the power of the senses. Finally, as he was dying, Christ Himself and His most clement Mother stood by him: then also there was manifested to two Brethren the glory which this their divine Father was enjoying in heaven (St. Antoninus in the 3rd part of the Chronicle, title XXIII).
[19] St. Francis of Assisi, It was given to St. Francis, at the beginnings of his spiritual life, to see a certain ample and beautiful palace, most full of military arms signed with the cross; and when he asked whose they all were to be, Christ answered: "Thine and thy fellow-soldiers'." Not long after, a new revelation having been offered him, that former vision was declared to him, and he was called back from the journey which he had set out on, by a certain distinguished promise made to him by the Lord (St. Bonaventure in his Life, chapter I). In another rapture he beheld the Redeemer fastened to the cross, whose bitter remembrance of the passion thereafter remained in some manner engraved on his soul. The Redeemer, appearing to him also from the cross, commanded him to repair His house, which was falling into decay (chapter II). In his church, which he called St. Mary of the Angels, from its very beginning, he was most frequently addressed by them (chapter III). I had begun to run through St. Bonaventure, intending to draw from thence the revelations made to Francis, written by the same; but I find them so frequent and eminent, and offered not to him only but also to his companions, that in matters everywhere known to each one I would not dare to be so prolix. Those two celebrated ones will stand for all: the first, in which a Seraph appearing to him impressed on his body the marks of the Lord's Stigmata c; the other, in which the Saviour, appearing to him, granted a plenary Indulgence of sins to all who should visit the church of the Portiuncula d: to pass over very many others which could be brought forward in this place. But what need is there to bring them forward, since his colleagues often saw him in ecstasies raised on high even in body into the air? With these words, further, of St. Bonaventure I shall impose an end on this treatment of St. Francis: "He was suspended many times in so great an excess of contemplation that, rapt above himself and feeling something beyond human sense, he did not know what was being done around him outwardly. For once, passing through Borgo San Sepolcro, a populous town indeed, carried on a little ass on account of the weakness of his body, he met crowds rushing upon him out of devotion. But being pulled and held back by them, pressed also and handled in many ways, he seemed insensible to all things; and like a lifeless body he noticed nothing at all of the things which were being done around him. Whence, when he had long since passed the town and left the crowds behind, he had come to a certain dwelling of lepers, as if returning from elsewhere, the contemplator of heavenly things anxiously asked when they would be approaching the Borgo. His mind, indeed, fixed on heavenly splendours, had not felt the varieties of places, nor of times, nor of the persons met. That this happened to him rather frequently the manifold experience of his companions proved." Thus far indeed Bonaventure in chapter X; and in the next chapter he recounts in order the very many revelations made to him concerning future events.
[20] and several from the Order of Preachers But if we wished to weave a discourse about the sons of each of these Fathers, when at length would the narration have an end? Of St. Peter Martyr, I say, into whose cell holy virgins frequently glided down from heaven, with whom Christ spoke from the wood, and to whom God, the arbiter of things, foreshowed what was to be done. Of the most illustrious and most holy Doctor Thomas Aquinas also, whose soul St. Antoninus (in the 3rd part of the Chronicle, title XXIII, chapter VII) writes was wont to be so absorbed into God, as though he lacked a carnal body which might throw a hindrance in the way of rapture: that he was often wont also to be rapt into ecstasy during the celebration of the tremendous Mysteries; besides, that Saints Peter and Paul declared to him the sense of some very obscure passage in Scripture; nay, that he was manifestly addressed from the cross by the Lord Jesus and confirmed that he had written well of the most august Sacrament of His most holy Body and Blood; that very many blessed spirits also appeared to him: to whom, namely, to sum up everything, it was so easy and usual to be carried outside himself in prayer and to be called away from sense that, as often as he either wished or it seemed good, he underwent this excess of mind. The future holiness of Vincent Ferrer was declared by God to his parents even before he was brought into the light. He himself saw the Virgin Mother of God, who disclosed to him certain tricks of the evil demon. The Redeemer Jesus, girded with many Angels and surrounded by the holy Fathers Dominic and Francis, visited him when sick, and charged him to run through the world preaching the Gospel, and, besides restoring his health, heaped him with many graces. There was a time when St. Dominic also appeared to him, shining with wonderful brightness, and taught him about many things of great moment. While absent he learned both the death of his mother and her glory after death, as also afterwards that of his deceased sister. Moreover many of the things which were to happen afterwards were revealed to him, and those indeed momentous (Pietro Ranzano in his Life). Of the revelations of St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin, it would be far better to keep altogether silent than to say a few things; nay, not even a few are to be brought forward, since the books of her Dialogues, in which the revelations made to her by God are contained, are in the hands of almost all, and in the history of her life so many and such wonderful things are written, both of her familiarity with the Lord Jesus and of the graces and prerogatives which she received from Him, that among those having the worldly spirit
they would scarcely find credence. But whoever wishes to know more about the visions and illuminations of the Saints of that glorious and holy family, let him not be reluctant to consult the Eulogies which Leandro e composed concerning the illustrious men and women of this Order, and those which Jean Gerson put forth in writing, and above all its general History, which Fray Fernando del Castillo f, great in piety and learning, published, no less religious than eloquent, true and complete in every respect.
[21] and from the Order of Minors, But if I search through the family of the glorious Father Francis g, rich indeed in the poverty and humility of Christ, but the nurse of so many men illustrious in holiness and knowledge, there will occur forthwith and before all Blessed Anthony of Padua (Chronicle of the Order of Minors, book v), in whom the spirit of prophecy shone forth so manifestly that he foretold many future things and laid open the inmost secrets of many, which could become known to him only by divine revelation. The Redeemer Jesus, in the form of a shining little boy, did not hesitate to sit upon his book, nor disdained the embrace of his arms; nay, Anthony afterwards learned by revelation that all these things had lain open to his host. To him also an Angel brought a certain letter, and carried back the answer to it: and when dead he gave himself to be seen by the abbot of Vercelli. St. Bernard, the first disciple of St. Francis, was very often carried alone through the trackless places of the mountains, led by the Holy Spirit and rapt into God; and both when journeying and when at home he underwent illustrious excesses of mind. Hence Francis very gladly dealt with him about pious things and things pertaining to God: whence also it came about that both were often found in the recesses of the woods, drawn away from the body by the sweetness of holy conversations. Once, when he was present at the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, he was so rapt outside himself right up to the ninth hour that no sense and movement appeared in him (ibidem, book VI, chapter IV). To Fray Leo, the companion of the same Patriarch, the latter's holiness was indicated by many visions; hence he also beheld him glorious after death: and, to pass over others in silence, there was shown to him in spirit the last and general judgment, over which the Redeemer Jesus presided as judge, innumerable myriads of Angels standing by and the most glorious Father Francis being present (ibidem, book VI, chapter XVI). What shall I say of Brothers Juniper, Christopher, Giles? Since the brevity of this time does not suffice for narrating their visions and apparitions one by one, of the last of these it will be enough to say that a certain illustrious vision of God befell him, which impressed admirable effects on his soul. For thence it came about that, if anyone made mention to him of divine love or of heavenly glory, he was forthwith rapt outside himself, and remaining without any sense was held as if dead. When this had already got out among the common people, whenever he went out in public, shepherds and boys, to make trial of it, would cry out to him: "Heaven, Brother Giles, heaven"; at which words he, as if thunderstruck and stupefied, stuck quiet in his place and not master of himself: so that, whenever the talk had fallen on pious things, the Brethren took careful precaution that no mention of heavenly glory should be made by anyone in his presence, lest they be deprived of his friendly conversation and presence by his being rapt to the things above by that talk (ibidem, book VII, chapter XI).
[22] Saints Clare and Colette, When the city in which St. Clare was dwelling with her nuns was besieged by an enemy, she learned by heaven's revelation that no evil would be inflicted by the enemy on her or the nuns, none on the city (ibidem, book VIII, chapter XIII). On the night of the Lord's Nativity the little Jesus was seen by her in an excess of mind, lying in a poor manger (chapter XVI). And when she was conversing with St. Francis, the one was carried away into God by the conversation of the other through abundance of consolation. It would be wrong here to pass over in silence (although I follow brevity) Blessed Colette, Reformer of the Order formerly instituted by St. Clare. When she was engaged in prayer, she was often seen raised in the air and exhaling a fiery vapour from her mouth, so that her whole room seemed to glow and sparkle. Vincent Ferrer saw her supplicating God most fervently for men, and Him answering her requests familiarly: and in order to see and address her face to face he did not hesitate to cross from Aragon into France. To her also St. Anne appeared with her children and grandchildren. He also saw her at other times praying for him and offering her prayers to God in a golden vessel. Whenever she received the Sacred Mystery of the Eucharist, she underwent a swoon of mind and senses: this very thing also was frequent with her when some pious talk about God had fallen in her presence. When a priest, unwilling to take a host to be consecrated for her Communion, refused it to her, Christ, descending from heaven, held out to her His Body to be received. She suffered horrible and frequent attacks of malignant spirits in visible form. Gifted with the prophetic spirit, she taught many what it concerned them to know, many also future things. The state of all the monasteries over which she presided, and the hidden assaults of the demon on her nuns, were known to her by the working of the same spirit: finally the day of her death was foreshown to her before it came (in her Life). But just as more could have been said of the Saints of both these Religious Orders, if only the brevity of time permitted it and I judged it necessary, so similar things would occur to be said of the illustrious men of other Orders, if we were to unroll their annals and ancient monuments; but the reason which I have stated prevents this from being done.
[23] and also Saints Gertrude, Mechtild, Angela, Let us, then, draw back our foot somewhat, and slip back again to the times of Saints Dominic and Francis, from which we had turned aside a little in order to bring forward something about their sons. Not many years after their age flourished St. Gertrude, abbess, of the renowned family of St. Benedict, and St. Mechtild, who lived at one and the same time and place: on whom many and singular revelations befell, and to whom consolation was often communicated by Christ the Redeemer, appearing familiarly, out of His bodily presence, as one may observe from the books published on that matter, which are still extant today and bring great fruit to those who read them attentively and maturely. And the illustrious abbot Blosius values their revelations so highly that from them, as from gold and precious gems, he wove no small part of the book which he named the Spiritual Necklace. The revelations of St. Gertrude especially are so frequent and so sublime and familiar that Blosius himself does not fear to say in the same book that, unless men knew that the power and goodness of God are infinite, it would seem scarcely possible that the Saviour Jesus conversed more familiarly and more amicably on earth with His Mother. In the convent of this Gertrude also very many virgins were renowned, distinguished for holiness, to whom one may gather that not a few revelations were made from the first book of the Insinuations, chapters III, IV and others, from the following book, chapters V and XIII, and from book V in very many chapters from the very beginning. But there is no reason why some curious investigator of times and things should wonder that I make these holy Virgins contemporary with Dominic and Francis. For let him know that this Gertrude h is not the same as the one whose memory Bede consigns in the Martyrology at the 16th day of April, nor as the one whose feast Surius and the Roman and Usuardine Martyrology would have fall on the 17th day of March. For she whom Surius and Usuard designate was superior in the convent of Nivelles (that is a town of Brabant); but this one whom I note here presided as abbess in the convent of Helfta at Eisleben (it is a city of the county of Mansfeld), and was renowned in the times of the emperor Rudolf: for she herself foreshowed the day and hour on which he was elected to the empire, although she was at a considerable distance, as may be read in the third chapter of the first book of her life. And Rudolf began to reign in the year of the Redeemer 1273, as indeed Matteo Palmieri the Florentine reckons in his Chronology: while Francis departed from this life in the 26th year of the same century, and St. Dominic three years before him. Finally, that she lived after the times of Dominic and Francis is clearly gathered from chapter LII i of the fourth book of her Revelations. In the same times also was renowned St. Angela of Foligno, of the third Order of Blessed Francis, very well known for the gifts of God, as is evident from her Life which Fray Arnaldo of the Order of Minors wrote and which is extant also in the Castilian language, and which no one would read without enormous admiration k.
[24] Lutgard, Bridget, Fray Jordan, a man celebrated for holiness, succeeded St. Dominic in the universal government of the Order, and contemporary with him was St. Lutgard l of the Order of St. Benedict, to whom, while yet a little girl, the Lord appeared and showed the wound of His sacred side as if dripping with blood: then St. Catherine, Virgin and Martyr, was seen by her, who consoled her in a greater measure. Very often the Redeemer gave Himself to be beheld by her, and conversed with her, and manifested the things which she was to do. She was also often refreshed by the pious sight of the Mother of God and of other holy women. Not rarely also there appeared to her souls adjudged to the fire of purgatory, or coming out of it at her own intercession, others likewise received into heaven: many things also concerning future events were manifested to her from heaven. Lying sick of the illness of which she also died, on the Thursday before the feast of the most august Trinity, she beheld the convent itself filled with Angels and with many souls of the saints and of the nuns who had formerly lived in it, now enjoying the glory of heaven: whence it came about that on the following day she underwent the whole day a wonderful alienation of mind, and on the next Saturday was released from this bodily prison (Thomas of Cantimpré in her Life). These were succeeded by St. Bridget, widow m, whose revelations are very many in number, and whose familiarity with the divine Majesty was very great. Let that huge volume be witness in which she records in order all her revelations and raptures. Not long after her followed her daughter Catherine, who also was adorned with wonderful visions and the gift of prophecy. Further, of the revelations of these four holy women whom I have already mentioned before, Gertrude, Mechtild, Catherine of Siena and Bridget, Blosius at the end of the Spiritual Necklace gives this testimony: "The revelations made to the aforesaid women have become known to the whole world, and were long ago approved by pious and learned men: for the holy Fathers also cite them here and there in their writings and books."
[25] Lidwina, etc., St. Lidwina, virgin n, very often addressed her guardian Angel and others of the heavenly spirits, and knew them one by one by name, and to whom the guardianship of each had been entrusted. The Saviour Christ Himself also appeared to her in different shapes: besides, it was revealed to her that very many souls had been carried from purgatory into supernal glory at her intercession, and her father too by the same
already to be enjoying it. The secrets of hearts became known to her in very many persons: often also she was rapt into an excess of the spirit, and then had so lost all sense that once, in a rapture of this kind, she burned her flesh and part of a rib and did not feel the burn. She underwent other excesses of mind also, during which she was carried in spirit to Rome, Jerusalem and other places illustrious for holiness; then, having returned to herself, she related one by one and accurately to those standing by the wonders which she had seen in them. Before she departed from the toilsome station of life, the Redeemer Jesus, together with His dearest Mother and the Apostles, visited her: finally, when she was dead, her glory and salvation were disclosed by God both to her confessor and to some others (Jan Brugman in her Life). At the same time there flourished in the desert of Egypt a pious anchorite, Gerard o by name, to whom also wonderful things were revealed from heaven: likewise in Italy St. Lorenzo Giustiniani [p], Patriarch of the Venetians, to whom while yet a boy the divine Wisdom gave herself to be beheld through vision, in the form of a most beautiful virgin, inviting him to choose her as his bride. He obtained moreover the spirit of prophecy, and foretold many things long before they happened. On the very night of the Lord's Nativity, beholding the little Jesus in the manger, he underwent a long-lasting excess, as also almost always whenever, in celebrating the divine Office of the Mass, he had already performed the most holy work of the Consecration. Once, doing the divine service in the cathedral church, estranged from the spirit, he carried the venerable Body of Christ the Lord to a certain nun (Bernardo Giustiniani in his Life). Blessed Francis of Paola also, author of the Minims, was gifted with prophetic revelations (Leo X in the Bull of canonization).
[26] finally St. Ignatius of Loyola, But, to omit others not so celebrated and known, and to come down nearer to our own times, our holy Father Ignatius of Loyola [q], author and parent of the Society of Jesus, while still leading a secular life, lying sick in bed, beheld in a vision Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and thereafter began little by little to be changed into another man (Ribadeneira in his Life, book 1, chapter 1). Not long after, the Mother of God appeared to the same, carrying her little Jesus in her arms, shining with wonderful splendour: which vision indeed was somewhat long-lasting, and in it he obtained from the Queen of the chaste the grace of chastity (chapter 11). At Manresa a wonderful light concerning the most august mystery of the Most Holy Trinity shone upon his mind, and also a great sense of piety and of divine things was implanted, which was perpetual with him through the whole of his life thereafter. At another time, while he was listening to the Sacred Mysteries of the Mass, it was clearly represented to his mind in what manner the true Body of our Redeemer Jesus Christ was contained under the species of bread. In the same manner also he quite often beheld before him the sacred Humanity of Jesus Christ, and sometimes His glorious death. In another ecstasy God inspired in him a great knowledge of things pertaining both to our faith and to the human sciences. And these things indeed at the beginnings of his conversion, and then also he remained called away from the senses for eight whole days continuously, the divine presence meanwhile accommodating itself to him, and that with many looking on (for he lay lifeless in a public church), so powerless of himself, indeed, that, had not one of the bystanders, exploring the pulse of the veins and perceiving a slight palpitation in the heart, asserted that the man was alive, they would have committed him to the earth as dead (chapter VII). While he was making for Rome with some of his companions and pouring out prayers in a chapel near the city, the eternal Father, appearing to him, most diligently commended him and his companions to His Son carrying the cross on His shoulders, from whom, as holding the commendation ratified, he forthwith heard: "At Rome I will be propitious to you"; whence also he afterwards imposed on the family instituted by him the name of the Society of Jesus (chapter XI). When he was at Monte Cassino, with his mind estranged from the senses he saw the soul of one of his companions surrounded with most clear light, and that it, carried among the hands of Angels, flew to the joys of paradise. And when some time after he betook himself to the Sacrifice of the Mass, and in pronouncing the form of the general Confession duly invoked all the Heavenly Ones, saying "and all the Saints", a most splendid host of the Blessed suddenly offered itself to his sight, his companion (Hozes was his name) so flashing that he was distinguished from the rest by the surpassing brightness and light (chapter XII). Very many things that were to happen in after times lay open to him by divine providence, as also secrets so hidden that by no natural means could they be perceived by anyone. Besides those revelations which I have mentioned, many things were revealed to him when he was writing the Constitutions and the formula of living of the Society.
[27] St. Francis Xavier and other more recent men To Francis Xavier, one of the first companions of Ignatius, Blessed Jerome gave himself to be seen, who both consoled the man and declared what was to happen to him. In praying also such an abundance of consolations was at times poured upon him from heaven that, since the narrowness of the human heart could not contain it, absorbed in joy and with inebriated mind he cried out: "Either break the thread of life, Lord, or check the abundance of consolations: for I cannot bear these and not behold Thee face to face." The prophetic spirit was given him most amply, if to anyone ever: he foretold many wonderful things: at times also he perceived the secrets of thoughts. While celebrating, God declaring it, he learned that a certain man separated by a great interval of places was in his agony: wherefore, turning to the people standing by, he commended the dying man to the prayers of all. While speaking to the people of Malacca, though absent, he saw the victory of the Christians over the Saracens in a naval battle. Not a few other things of that kind also are circulated about him. But if I had it as my purpose to relate here the visions offered to men of our Society, some of whom I myself also knew familiarly, it would be necessary to weave a new history; because they are very many and have happened in various parts of the world. Whoever desires to know the revelations made to the Blessed Fathers Fray Luis Bertrán [r] and Fray Pedro Nicolás Factor [s] and their predictions, let him go to the history of their lives woven a few years ago: of the former indeed chapter XV, of the latter from chapter XXXII up to XLIII. And let no one bring his mind to believe that these have ceased and stopped here; since today many things of that kind are quite frequent. Nay, I myself know that things no less worthy of commemoration befall some than those which I have set forth one by one above about others. In recounting these, further, I have been more prolix than I expected; although I have brought forward all too few, if we consider the things that could be said. For there is almost no published history of the life of any Saint in which something similar does not occur; so that the things which have been said so far seem nothing, although I could have extended them further: for I have endeavoured with zeal and on purpose to comprehend many things succinctly. But that I have expatiated more than is fair through various examples, consider it done from zeal for proving what I had proposed at the beginning, namely that these gifts of God never failed or ceased in the Catholic Church from the very times of the Apostles, and afterwards right up to the present day. And although very many have no need of so many and such various arguments and examples for believing this, yet the obstinacy of some in not believing will be such that it seems likely to me that even they will not lay aside their error after so many and such open testimonies.
[28] Further, from the things which we have so far brought forward, two things may be drawn out: with heavenly revelations the first will be that no one has ever published in writing the life of any Saint who did not commit to letters the revelations offered to them from heaven and the private graces received from God which he knew of. Hence, if in writing the Life of the Blessed Mother Teresa of Jesus I were to omit this, I should deviate from the common and solemn custom of all the holy Fathers, and of all whoever have practised this kind of writing, and then something would have been lacking to the credibility and integrity of the history, and much more should I have proved injurious to God Himself, by passing over those wonderful graces which it pleased Him to communicate to this holy Mother, and by defrauding Him of that glory and praise which all who had had any knowledge of them would not unjustly have poured out upon Him on this account. For so the Redeemer Jesus Himself revealed it to His handmaid Gertrude. For when He gave her a command to publish in writing the graces which He had communicated to her, but she herself judged that it was enough to have narrated them by word of mouth for the benefit of her neighbour, even though she did not commit them to writing: "The Lord," she says, "objected that word which I had heard read that very night at Matins: If the Lord had spoken His doctrine only to those present, they would only have been said, not written; but now they have also been written for the salvation of very many." And the Lord added: "I wish to have a certain testimony of My divine goodness in your writings in these last times, in which I dispose to do good to many." And when at another time the same Gertrude was turning over in her mind what fruit these writings of hers could bring to men, she heard the Lord answering her thoughts: "And what profit seems to you to come from the things which are read of My Saints, unless that the devotion of those who read and hear be increased, and My goodness towards the human race be revealed?" And subjoining: "In like manner," He says, "the devotion of some can be kindled to the desire of the same things which they read of you as having received from Me, considering the grace and liberality of My goodness, who will thereupon strive to change their life for the better." At another time, when she wondered not a little within herself why God so greatly wished these things to be committed to letters, since there would not be lacking very many who not only would take no edification thence, but would even despise and calumniate them, the Most High answered her: "I have placed My grace in you in such a manner that I require great fruit from it. Wherefore I would wish that those who, having similar gifts, make little of them through negligence, when they hear these things of you, may be admonished, so that they too may acknowledge the gifts conferred upon them, and grow in gratitude (whence My grace in them is increased). Further, if any with a malignant heart should prefer to calumniate them, let their sin be upon them, while you remain free of it, etc."
[29] were enlightened by God. The second thing which is gathered from what has been said is that the things handed down here concerning revelations, visions, raptures, ecstasies or prophecies ought to seem either new or strange to no one; since in the time of the Apostles these very things were so frequent, nor from that day up to the present have they ever failed in those who displayed either greater fervour in the divine service or more eminent holiness of life. Nor ought anyone to wonder that the same things were frequent in our times and are still, since there is now the same liberality and goodness in God that there always was, and He can grant the same favours today no less than formerly, and will grant them to those who by His grace dispose themselves for receiving them. Hence also the dread curses of anathema the sacred Tridentine
Synod imprecates upon him who asserts that he will most certainly and without any doubt have the gift of perseverance, unless he has learned this by a special revelation from God (Session VI, canon XVI). The most holy Father Pope Sixtus V also condemns and rejects those who shall attempt in any way whatever to predict future things depending on our free will, unless God has first disclosed these things to them (in the Motu proprio against the astrologers). Wherefore, unless in this time revelations both could be and really were, it would in my judgment be superfluous and absurd to add as it were a restrictive and exceptive clause: "Unless God had revealed it to him" or: "Unless it had been declared to him by a special revelation of God."
Chap. II.
[30] Although these things are so, let no one on that account persuade himself Further, by the rules handed down by mystical doctors, that credence is to be rashly attached to all the revelations that are spread abroad; since very many can be, and in fact also are, false and lying. For it would be no lesser, nay a more intolerable, error to believe all indiscriminately than none at all. They must first be examined, so that it may be established of what spirit they are: for John says: "Dearly beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits if they be of God" (1 John IV, 1). Wherefore we are not dealing with whether all revelations in general are to be believed, but whether those which befell the Blessed Mother Teresa, contained in this book, merit credence. Let us, then, now examine them and test them on the whetstone: for if this coin is not sound or genuine, nor its gold refined or purged, it will forthwith be evident when we have brought it back to the Lydian stone. Some notes and signs are handed down in the books of the Saints from which this can be evidently known; which can be sought chiefly from St. Bonaventure (in the Progress of the Religious, progress 7, chapters XVIII, XIX, XX). No one, however, has written of them more accurately than Jean Gerson, chancellor of Paris, a man of great learning, prudence and authority, who published two treatises on that matter: the first on the testing of spirits; the other on the difference between true and false visions. The most learned cardinal Torquemada in the apologetic book for the revelations of St. Bridget also pursued this matter well and learnedly. These two, at exactly the same time, handling this question with singular zeal in the Council of Basel (because in it there was disputation about approving the revelations of that holy widow), treated it thoroughly. These, and Gerson above all, have been followed, not deviating from them even a nail's breadth, by those who afterwards treated the same matter, such as Master Ávila in the book which is commonly called Audi, filia, and also the Reverend Father Fray Master Bartolomé de Medina, who is very well known by the name of his doctrine, delivered both when read in the chair and in published books (on the 3rd part, question 25, article III, book 1, chapter XV and following up to XXIV), nay also the most learned licentiate Juan de Orozco, archdeacon of Cuéllar, in the most choice and most elegant treatise which he elaborated on true and false prophecy: the marrow of all of whom we can reduce to five heads.
[31] the revelations of St. Teresa, The first regards the revelations themselves, namely whether they are true, whether they are consonant with Sacred Scripture and the doctrine of the Roman Church, whether there is anything in them dissonant from the same, whether they contain anything false in themselves, even though the rest coincide with the truth. The second refers to the very matters of the revelations; whether they turn on things which bring no fruit for salvation, but on curious or vain things, which it is of no concern to know, or which can be perceived from elsewhere without revelation. The third, what effects they beget in those to whom they happen: for from these chiefly it appears whether they are derived from God or rather from the evil demon. The fourth pertains to him to whom something is revealed; for before all things it must be considered what his constitution of soul and body is: whether, namely, he is strong in judgment and knows how to use discretion; whether reason in him is disturbed by illnesses or some weakness by which its free use is impeded (such as without doubt is a certain vehement melancholy and other similar diseases); whether he is easily borne with a rash impulse to loving or pursuing with hatred anything; whether he is excessive in imagining; whether he is a recent or new recruit in the service of God, and has slight knowledge or practice of divine and spiritual things. Then, as regards his morals: whether he is arrogant, whether he seeks glory or fame from the narration of his affairs, desires others to speak of them; whether he relates his revelations to many; whether he is borne willingly and unasked to recounting them; whether he wishes them to be concealed and suppressed; whether he prefers to follow his own judgment and opinion rather than that of those to whom he communicates them; whether he gives credence to the things which are said to him in these revelations, and carries them out, even though learned and spiritual men counsel and assert the contrary to him; whether he is unwilling to consult anyone about the things which he believes revealed to him; whether from a certain curiosity he goes to prayer desiring that revelations be shown to him; whether he curiously asks of the Lord the things which concern himself or others, asking Him to deign to reveal what he ought to answer others; whether in his manner of life, external conversation and dress he differs from other men of his condition and state. The fifth, whether revelations of this kind have been examined and approved by men experienced in them and well skilled in judging. On each of these very many things occurred to me to be said, as one about to prove that all those signs and notes are present in the revelations made to the Blessed Mother Teresa of Jesus which are required for any revelation to be admitted as true and to be judged made by God. But, since almost all the things which it would have been necessary to bring forward in declaring this matter are found scattered in various places of this history, I shall touch on them briefly, referring the reader to those places in which each of these is treated one by one and with care.
[32] whose truth, The first sign is whether they are true. Further, of these revelations of the Blessed Mother Teresa some concern future things, others contain either some instruction handed down to her or some command of a thing which she is ordered to do. If they turn on future things, the Lord Himself proposes to us a most clear sign by which we may manifestly know whether they have come from Him or not, saying: "And if in silent thought thou answer: How shall I know the word that the Lord hath not spoken? Thou shalt have this sign: Whatsoever that same Prophet foretelleth in the name of the Lord, and it cometh not to pass, that thing the Lord hath not spoken, but the Prophet hath forged it by the pride of his mind, and therefore thou shalt not fear him" (Deuteronomy XVIII, 21, 22). But whatever she foretold would come has already been fulfilled in fact (one excepted, whose time has not yet come): of which kind is that which she foretold, that the Order of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel would make great increases in her days; that God would also help her; that she would see wonderful works which God would bring forth on its account, and that the adversaries would never succeed in overturning them with all their effort and striving; and very many other things which will be set out at length in chapter V of book IV (here chapter III). But the things which regard doctrine and instructions are all conformable to the sacred volumes and to the doctrine of the Catholic Church and of the Saints, as the things which will be read in the whole book will abundantly prove. And whatever she was ordered to do in them was both salutary and useful: say, to found monasteries, and for that cause, or for another pertaining to the service and worship of God, to undertake various journeys; and no revelation made to her will be given which is not of this kind. What I have said, however, is to be understood either of all these revelations or of some part of them. It must be admonished, however (as Gerson well and rightly advises, Treatise on the distinction of true visions from false, note 5), that, if similar persons should have a revelation false either wholly or in part, this indeed is to be held as not proceeding from God, yet no damage ought to accrue from it to the other revelations made to the same person, as though, because this one alone did not descend from God, so the others had nothing in common with God. Let it stand in place of proof that the Prophets did not perpetually have the spirit of prophecy, as Pope Gregory evidently shows and teaches (Dialogues, book II, chapter XXI), and, because they had become accustomed to hearing the word of God, it could happen at times that they ascribed to God what was human and had descended from themselves: as the same Gregory as above testifies happened to the Prophet Nathan (Homily I on Ezekiel), when he enjoined David to build a temple to God, which yet God had not enjoined him (2 Kings VII). I do not say this because anything similar is found in this book; but because, if perchance any such thing should occur, it ought not to be a sufficient cause why credence should on that account be refused to the other revelations.
[33] their utility and solid fruits are clearly evident, The second is whether these revelations turn on vain or curious things. In many places of the first three books, and especially book IV, chapters IV and V (here chapters II and III), it will be clearly evident how all are useful and how they smack of no curiosity or vanity at all. The third will be to weigh what effects they produce in souls. This alone, even if other things were lacking, should suffice to persuade everyone that these revelations proceeded from a good spirit, that at their departure she always felt a new advantage of spirit, a more fervent love of God, a greater detestation of crimes, a greater neglect of herself, a more intense desire of serving God: as could be gathered from her daily fruit, since indeed she made progress from day to day in the exercise of the virtues. This will be evident in this book from chapter VIII (here chapter V) onwards, and from the things which her confessor left written of her, as is given in book IV, chapter VIII (here chapter IV), and from the things which she transmitted, handed down to her confessor, in the same place and in the last chapter. And St. Gregory made so much of this sign that of a certain monk, Peter by name, whom he writes, while still living in the world, was so raised in soul that he beheld before him the punishments of the damned, he testifies thus: "He thereafter so afflicted his body with continual fasts and vigils that, even if his tongue had kept silent, the institution of his life would easily cry out that the infernal torments had been seen by him and that he had conceived a salutary fear thence" (Dialogues, book IV, chapter XXXVI). The Redeemer also says: "By their fruits you shall know them: do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit: and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit" (Matth.
VII, 16, 17). Further, this sign is most evident, and, if it is maturely examined, will never, so far as I for my part am persuaded, deceive us.
[34] and which are commended both by the endowments of the Saint herself The fourth note, which is taken from the nature, morals and qualities of him to whom the revelations are shown, so serves and favours the cause of the Blessed Mother Teresa that not even a greater patronage could be wished for: for all the conditions and necessary parts which those who write more minutely and in more detail on this matter require in order that someone's revelations be held as true and genuine had place in Teresa all together and at once. In the first place a sound, subtle, mature judgment, distinguished discretion and singular prudence, a cheerful, sweet and winning manner in conversation, a good constitution of body and one as far as possible removed from melancholy, as we shall then say more abundantly when there shall be place for speaking of her natural endowments, in the first chapter of the fourth book, and as all know who dealt with her and conversed familiarly with her. Then, whom will not her excellent holiness, maturity, gravity of morals, and also the exceptional truthfulness which she most of all regarded in all things, even the least, and the very great experience and practice of all spiritual things and of the frauds which the evil demon is wont to weave, as a not obscure conjecture is drawn from the treatises which she composed, confirm in a pious opinion and free from all depraved suspicion? But what shall I say of that humility which shone forth in her so manifestly that it could be beheld even from afar and at a distance, and which in this respect ought to remove all fear and anxiety from prudent men endowed with judgment? "If this one sign of humility," says Gerson, "were well examined and made plain, it would not be necessary to inquire into other notes: for from humility and pride in matters of the spirit one may most easily say which are true and which smell of falsity" (book on the distinction of true visions from false, note 4).
[35] and by her profound lowliness of soul, Teresa never asked or wished for any revelation from the Lord, not even any consolation in her prayer, except once: and then too, having asked for it, she forthwith reproved herself, and behold, after the reproof, consolation was sent down from heaven, though she was by no means seeking it. She herself again and again supplicated the Lord, and at her request others also, that He would lead her by another road, nay, she laboured with great effort in this regard; but the more she busied herself to remove such graces of God from herself, the more abundantly and frequently they flowed in: as will become manifest to one reading book I, chapters IX and X (here chapter V). And Gerson in the two commentaries indicated above lays this down as an undoubted sign from which judgment may be passed on the sincerity of revelations as proceeding from God. Besides this, she narrated her revelations to no one, except either to ask counsel and direction, or so that, if perchance some fraud of the devil lay hidden in them, she might be freed from it by more prudent men: and to whomever she communicated them, she enjoined the strictest silence, that he should not afterwards disclose them to anyone; and if anything was divulged by him, it afflicted her as much as possible. Finally, to prove this let it suffice that in the first chapters of the writing in which she embraced her life by command of her confessor she does not dissemblingly put forth whatever evil she had found that she had ever committed, and, when the narration of the revelations and graces received from God, the Best and Greatest, was now to be begun, namely in the tenth chapter, she asks her confessor with great lowliness of soul that he make no one privy to the things which were to be written in what followed: for this cause she studiously suppresses both her own name and that of the monastery in which she was then living and of those with whom she conversed, lest perchance she should be recognized by anyone through the things which he should see written out in that book. But of her faults, both those which she entrusted to writing and those which she committed through the whole time of her life afterwards, she freely gave her confessors full power, from that very hour and moment, of divulging them, and of making her name manifest. Whoever desires to know more of this, let him unroll chapters XV and XVI of book IV (here chapter VIII). Further, she herself made nothing of revelations, and said everywhere that they were neither to be wished for nor desired; but she preferred that people should apply themselves with all zeal and effort to the exercises of true and solid virtues: as the twentieth chapter of the same book will declare. She diligently rendered an account of all her revelations to her confessor, and never brought anything of the things heard in them to deed and effect except with the counsel of him whom she had received in the place of God on earth being added; and if he opposed it, even if other revelations on the same matter were redoubled, she made little of them, as will be read in the same chapter in which mention is made of her obedience. And although so many and such great things were revealed to her by the Lord, yet she never privately asked anything of Him either for herself or for others. Her dress and her manner of common life were wholly holy, and quite consonant with the institute and religion of her life.
[36] and by the approval of weighty men, The fifth sign, namely the confirmation and approval of those who have some authority in this matter, is not rarely wont to suffice. And Teresa's prayer, spirit and revelations were approved with distinguished testimony by most weighty and most learned men, most skilled in spiritual things, in Castile and the other places which she frequented, as we shall see in chapter VII of book IV. From these things, then, it will be most clearly evident that these revelations of Mother Teresa were approved and praised with brilliant commendation by St. Bonaventure, Cardinal Torquemada, Jean Gerson, Master Juan de Ávila, Bartolomé de Medina, and by Juan de Horozco, archdeacon of Cuéllar, to pass over others, whose series I shall weave in the chapter indicated above. Nay, Horozco (book on true and false prophecy, chapter VIII) approved them not only in general but also one by one, and that in very honourable words. Nor less did the Reverend Father Master Fray Luis de León of the Order of St. Augustine, professor of sacred letters at Salamanca, approve and praise them; of whose exceptional erudition and keenness of genius there is no need to say anything here, since his writings speak it most openly. He, appointed by the royal council to examine the little works and writings of the Blessed Mother Teresa which were to be put to the press, not only judged them by his censure and judgment worthy of the press, but also prefixed to them a very elegant letter, in which he gave them such a testimony as was to be expected from a man great both in the knowledge of letters and in maturity of judgment, although he himself had neither seen nor met Teresa before, but had perceived her from her writings alone as from a mirror. To all of which I myself finally add this, that I have diligently and studiously read many things concerning the holy women whom we have lately mentioned and who wrote of revelations, and that those very revelations were examined and approved by most learned and most weighty men, and that they and the revelations of the Blessed Mother Teresa are so like one another as though they had all been written by one and the same hand; nay, that in very many of them greater scruples will without doubt occur to readers than in these of Teresa.
[37] are not to be valued less Someone perhaps will say that she was only a woman, and that accordingly revelations made to a woman are not to be valued so highly. To him I myself shall answer that in the preceding chapter I brought forward more examples of men than of women: but if the women to whom these things happen are of a more blameless life and more acceptable to God than the men who object these things, why do they wonder that things are granted to women which they see denied to themselves, because they have not joined themselves so intimately to God; especially since with God there is no distinction of sex, no difference of men or women, and all are His creatures, and He in turn pours Himself out liberally towards him who communicates himself to Him more liberally? I shall also little regard their objecting these things, if only they pay attention to what they say: because women who violently and generously repress the unbridled movements of the passions, and subject them to God and render them obedient, are worthy of the renowned name of men; but men who are conquered and ruled by the same are mere women. Nor indeed does this lie in the diversity of body or sex, but in the strength of the soul. Let them see further whether this is the sense of the Christian Church, when she honours the memory of generous and brave Virgins, such as Agnes, Agatha and others, with the solemn Office of Martyrs, so that in this way she may teach us that they are to be held by us as generous and unconquered men. This indeed is so evidently plain that there is no need to linger longer in establishing it, since even the writings of the Heathen are full of it, and the ancient Poet of the Romans, Ennius, sings of a certain virgin:
"For you, young men, bear womanish souls;
That heroine, a man's."
[38] nor less worthy of credence; Wherefore let that stand fixed, that the revelations of women, that is, of the unwarlike and of those obedient to the passions, are to be made little of, but that the things revealed to a woman who displayed a far more manly soul than many illustrious men, and to a woman so generous and strenuous, and to others like her, are to be held in great account. If it is exceedingly pleasing to God, the Best and Greatest, to converse with men, and if it is also most certain that the soothsayers of King Nebuchadnezzar judged wrongly in denying all converse from heaven with men; with whom, then, will He deal and speak familiarly, if not with him who for His name renounces all things, and dedicates and sacrifices his soul wholly to Him, and delights and feeds on Him alone? But I fear lest some stupid person, ignorant of things, coming forth into the open, should calumniously object to me that these things indeed would find credence if someone else narrated them, but that, because Teresa relates them of herself, they are to be judged suspect of fraud and guile. It would be enough, in my judgment, to answer these men no otherwise than by passing over the calumnies objected with a deaf ear. I say, however, that sensible and prudent men are invited to believe and assent to these things chiefly on this account, that she records them of herself. Surely, if these things would find credence when someone else narrated them, how much more when there is added the testimony of a witness of such credit and authority, greater than every exception, so remote from hunting her own glory, and who always fled all vanity with such striving and zeal? Let us turn over what St. Jerome, St. Augustine and others, and above all St. Gregory in his Dialogue, put forth in various places concerning the deeds of the Saints; and it will be evident to the eye how full a credence they gave in matters of this kind to witnesses of much less authority, both because these were notable for holiness, and indeed because they knew what God is wont to do with His Saints, and moreover because it was of very great importance to attach credence to them.
[39] especially since she wrote them only when commanded. But they do not observe that these things are certain interior things, known only to those to whom they are revealed; who, if they kept silent about them, they would never become known to anyone. For whatever of things revealed has either come to the knowledge of men or been committed to writing, that has come about because they themselves, for the glory of the divine name and the benefit of their neighbours, either wrote these things of theirs with their own hand or disclosed them to others who wrote: so that, if for this cause authority is denied to these revelations, by equal reasoning it would seem that it must be denied to almost all others which were written by the Saints themselves. For whence did all the revelations which are extant of Saints Birgitta, Catherine of Siena, Gertrude, Mechtild, Angela of Foligno and other holy men and women come to us, if not by this one way? But if we believe others recounting the same, even if they have received them only by hearing and are ear-witnesses, how much more and rather are they to be believed by us when he who received them from God, and is not an ear-witness but an eye-witness, narrates them? And then most of all and chiefly because whatever Mother Teresa wrote in this regard she undertook not by her own instinct and choice, but by that of God, who wished it done by her, and at the command of her confessors, whom she held as vicars of God.
[40] Deservedly, therefore, Ribera intends to treat of them, Hence it came about that she wrapped in silence many more things which she could otherwise have said, as she herself testifies, thinking it enough to hand down in writing the things which would to some extent suffice for obeying the commands of her superiors. At one time the Lord said to her (as she noted it with her own hand): "Do not neglect to write down the admonitions which I give you, lest perchance forgetfulness of them take hold of you. Since you wish to have the consultations and admonitions of men in writing, why do you think time badly spent in writing down the things which I Myself propose to you? A day will come sometime when you will need them all." On another slip she wrote out these words: "The Lord at one time gave me light on a certain matter which I greatly desired to understand; but immediately, not long after, I wholly forgot it, so that it never afterwards came into my mind; and when I was striving to refresh my memory of it, I forthwith heard a voice: Since you now know that I speak to you at times, do not neglect to commit these things to writing: because, although no benefit accrues to you thence, some may accrue thence to others." Let it be said, then, once here, and not repeated afterwards in the rest of what I shall say, that I, when I resolved to write the life and deeds of this Saint, neither could nor ought to keep silent about the graces and charisms divinely communicated to her; because I here regard the glory of God alone: to which it contributes wonderfully that He shows Himself so amicably and familiarly to His creatures who serve Him sincerely and from the heart. This was done formerly by Saints Athanasius, Jerome, Gregory, and all the writers of the Lives of the Saints both ancient and recent. Nor indeed is it hidden from me that the inmost substance of holiness is by no means placed in these things: whence neither do I commit them to letters on that account, although they declare it in some manner and give it to be beheld to some extent, especially since they leave in souls those effects and movements of piety which we indicated above; nor does anything appear from elsewhere which is opposed to them by contradicting them, or diminishes their authority.
[41] but more briefly than of her virtues. Wherefore I narrate revelations only in passing and incidentally, as they occur in the thread of her Life: but of the true and genuine virtues, in which all holiness consists, I shall speak one by one and of set purpose in book IV, which will therefore also equal the other two in size. Which I judge to be still more necessary and opportune in these times, so that, while we look more closely at the signs and notes of true revelations and at that humility and divine love which they beget in souls, the false ones, those sent in by the father of lies and fraud, may be more evidently plain, and no credence or authority may be added to them, and no one may be led into fraud through them: since we see those to whom these are presented openly swelling with arrogance and private self-love, and wholly bent on procuring honour alone, name, esteem and authority among men. And as white compared with and opposed to black shines the more and in some manner appears whiter, and black too more dusky and darker, so, if false revelations are compared with true and proposed to be beheld together, both the falsity of the former will be more evidently plain, and the brightness and splendour of the latter will shine forth more. Were there not, in the very time in which true Prophets existed, false prophets also, and together with the Apostles of Jesus Christ did there not rise up apostles of Satan? Yet the authority of the true Prophets was not on that account diminished or broken: nay rather they became the more illustrious by it and were held in greater account. Finally, since it seemed good to God to adorn His handmaid with these prerogatives, why should I fear to divulge them, since the Archangel Raphael teaches each of us: "It is good to hide the secret of a King, but honourable to reveal and confess the works of God" (Tobias XII). But because infamy is in some manner inflicted on virtue through others who have tried to impose on mortals by a feigned appearance of it, it has seemed to me that it would therefore be an enormous wrong not to undertake the patronage and protection of true virtue [t].
ANNOTATA.
p. The Life of his holy uncle which Bernardo Giustiniani described you have published by Bolland at the 8th day of January (page 551).
q. The Life of St. Ignatius composed by Ribadeneira has been inserted in our work at the 31st day of July (page 655).
r. Ribera indicates here the Life of St. Luis Bertrán published in Spanish at Valencia in the year 1582 and again in the year 1583 by Vicente Justiniano Antist; which our Predecessors published, rendered into Latin, at the 10th day of October (page 305).
s. Concerning Nicolás Factor, whom Pope Pius VI enrolled among the Blessed in the year 1786, there will have to be discussion at the 23rd day of December. Cristóbal Moreno published his Life at Alcalá in the year 1588.
t. I cannot here not rout the exaggerated eulogies of Edgar Quinet on our Saint, with which he intermingles the divine vision in a singular manner. He put them forth in the so-called College of France at Paris in the month of May 1845, when I had already submitted to the press my paragraphs on the Teresian ecstasies and visions. Surely, if the man's writings are weighed by their moment, everyone will readily confess with me that they are not worthy of the sponge in the Acta Sanctorum. But since they are of the kind of those which are widely spread on purpose by the enemies of Religion and are loudly proclaimed by a feigned and lying fame, in order that they may avail with incautious readers not only (which is customary with Quinet) to stir up hatred against the Society of Jesus, but also to shake the authority of the Roman Pontiff and the bishops, nay to overthrow the whole Christian Religion; I think it not beside the point to reprehend in a few words the man who dared to utter the following words: Teresa was the true adversary of the Reformation. She erected an Order which should fight with prayer, pain, tears and love. She herself availed more against the Reformation than Philip II, than the Inquisition and than the Jesuits. Such a groan had not been heard since the times of the descent from Golgotha. Nor could the Reformation conquer her, because her heart clung to the vision of divine love. Teresa raised up the Church, but it was soon to fall anew. So the new encomiast of Teresa, amid the atrocious calumnies against the Catholic Church and splendid lies against the truth of history which precede and follow this passage. He holds, then, that Teresa remained unconquered by the enemies of the Church because her heart clung to the vision of divine love; so that, if I follow the words of the grandiloquent doctor, he confesses that the great soul and endowments of Teresa must be ascribed to those divine charisms of which there has been talk here. Yet, however it be both with that unheard-of Teresian groan, and with the descent from Golgotha, and with the more powerful resistance of Teresa against Protestantism compared with the resistance of Philip II, the Inquisition and the Society of Jesus (all of which, for the doctor who uttered them, either to be unravelled by a new interpretation or
to be proved by just arguments, I leave), the Church did not lie prostrate before Teresa's times in the manner that Quinet would have it, nor was she raised up by Teresa, nor did she collapse after Teresa. But this threefold assertion contains a threefold most grave offence both against history and against Catholic dogma. Nor does it please me to pass over in silence without correction such great injuries against the Church and against Teresa at once, because it is the custom among many today, in order to render the Catholic Church despicable, to traduce her as falling and transient, nay assertively to announce her funeral or even to celebrate it at present; but I think it worth while to chastise in a few words these buriers of the living and immortal Church, and briefly to unteach the error which they teach loquaciously from the pulpit and in books. Let Quinet, then, and that whole chorus of pseudo-masters know that the Catholic Church is an eternal edifice and a miracle of the immutability of the counsels of God. As the centuries roll she sees both heresies that are to die spring up and the ravings of human reason gone astray blotted out. Six hundred sects together with eighteen centuries have vanished before her: and the thrones of the emperors and kings conspired for her ruin having collapsed, the Church stands safe in the Roman Pontiffs, as in the dynasty of Christ, and will stand forever. Scarcely born, she contended in a long fight of three centuries against the lords of the world, and several millions of her champions were slain: but, growing under the edge of the swords, the Spouse of Christ came out victorious from so great a struggle. Besides this, another war also not rarely arose in the Church, namely domestic discord with heretics, who, as Tertullian says, are the slayers of truth, and a kind of enemies so much the more atrocious because they tear the very bowels of Religion, and destroy the soul while leaving bodies untouched. But the Church of the living God, whenever she was assailed, covered her dogmas unharmed against the darts of the heretics with the unconquered shield of Apostolic tradition; and, impatient of error, because she is true, she condemned them for deserting Religion, and ordered the members cut off from the great body to go off into putrefaction. Thus the bark of Peter, when it was tossed by storms, was always raised the higher, the more vehemently the waves tried to overturn it: since our Religion is strengthened no less by the pliant depravity of heresies than by the knowledge of doctors, shines no less by the assault of enemies than by the confession of Martyrs, the zeal of preachers and the accession of nations. For indeed, while the day blots out the fictions of opinions, while the sons of heretics recook the long-condemned fables of their fathers, the Catholic Church, attacked by infidels, impugned by heretics, to be conquered by none, has held and holds the stable principate of truth. She teaches what she received from the Apostles, the Apostles from Christ, Christ from God. The faith of Gregory XVI is the faith of Peter; the faith of today is the faith of all centuries up to the consummation of the world. As many wicked doctors, then, as have furiously rushed and today rush upon the pillar and ground of truth, upon the Church, I say, of God, have fallen and today fall slain, with brows shamefully crushed. But let these things suffice about that eulogy of Quinet, which the bad praiser seems to have fastened upon St. Teresa for no other reason than to assail the Church. And here is closed the long treatment of visions and ecstasies, by which Ribera in these two chapters confuted adversaries according to the condition of his age, and by which I (§§ XCI–XCVI) have endeavoured according to the condition of this age to confute others who do not fear to ascribe the charisms of the Saints to fancy, animal magnetism, hysteria or the cataleptic disease.
Chapter III.
St. Teresa's nativity, childhood, adolescence and entry into the Carmelite Order.
Chap. III.
Mother Teresa of Jesus was earlier called by the name of Teresa de Ahumada; St. Teresa, but she assumed this surname of Jesus at that time at which the first of her monasteries, named from St. Joseph, was founded at Ávila. For thereafter she began to be called Teresa of Jesus, indicating by the very name outwardly what she held shut in her inmost heart: namely, that she was no longer of the world, nor of her own people, nor finally of herself, but wholly of Jesus alone, to whom she had now wholly consecrated herself with her whole soul and heart. Which salutary example of their pious mother her daughters emulating, on the day on which they assume the sacred habit of Religion, put on a new surname, either of Jesus or of some one of those who have served our Lord Jesus Christ more faithfully and fervently, each according to her own affection and pious feeling, putting off the very name of family and lineage, even though most illustrious, and the title of honour and dignity which they had held in the world. And although some years intervened before she was called by this surname of Jesus, yet we shall gift her with this name from the very beginning, since this was far more pleasing and dear to her than her paternal and family name. The name Teresa is neither Greek nor Latin, as indeed is the opinion of some, but proper to the Spaniards, and indeed ancient, like Elvira, Sancha, Urraca and other similar names of women. Thus also there have remained in Spain Sancho, Gutierre, García, Mendo, Alfonso, Fernando and other surnames of men, some of which may be seen in the Canon of the Mozarabic Mass, which was formerly in use in the Spains, mingled with the names of the other Saints. Whence also it becomes likely to me that Teresa was the name of some Spanish holy woman, and perhaps of the daughter of that king Bermudo whom Archbishop Rodrigo mentions in the IV book of the affairs of Spain, chapter XVII a, in which place he relates that Alfonso, king of León, son of Bermudo, had a sister by the name of Teresa (but those who wrote these histories in Latin call her Tarasia). Her father gave her against her will in marriage to Abdallah, king of Toledo, because he hoped that this man, on account of the affinity, would bring him help against the petty king of Córdoba. When she had refused to suffer the embraces and touches of the Moor, and threatened him with the vengeance of the Lord whom she served unless he desisted from his impure attempts, the barbarian, making nothing of the threats, violently impaired her chastity; but forthwith he felt the avenging hand of a heavenly Angel. Whence, when he saw death therefore impending for himself, he sent her back to León with a distinguished retinue and endowed with many gifts. She then, shutting herself within the enclosure of a monastery, led her life in distinguished holiness: at length, when she had come to the convent named from St. Peter, she both closed her day and found burial in it b.
[43] at Ávila on the 28th day of March 1515 Ávila, a city of Old Castile both noble and ancient, saw the first cradle of the new-born Teresa: which city, although it is reckoned and celebrated not among the last of that kingdom, will yet hereafter be far more known, because this blessed and beautiful little tree both arose and was brought up there: which, although at its beginnings it seemed slender, has now little by little extended its branches through the whole kingdom of Spain, as far as it reaches; and now also it has begun to extend the same into other provinces across the sea (let Genoa be an example), nay even to the Indies, and, so far as I hope, God granting, it will shortly send out its shoots to more remote places too. Her birth took place in the house of her parents, situated opposite the Dominican church and adjoining the church of St. Scholastica: which the nobleman Diego de Bracamonte, having now purchased them with his money, added to his paternal and unredeemable possessions. These houses I myself, together with the place in which she was born, and the room not far from there in which she slept for the space of fifteen years and more, entered and contemplated. But if he who is now master of these houses were to make as much of them as they really ought to be made, he would build an oratory out of those two rooms, to preserve the memory of so solemn a thing; and I would dare to promise that nothing would be taken from or diminished in his affairs by these works of piety, but that it would perhaps be the cause why all the household, both those who inhabit this house today and those who shall inhabit it in future times, would be filled with the divine blessing c. Her birthday fell on a Wednesday, the 5th day before the Kalends of April and the eve of St. Berthold, Confessor, who was of the same Order, in the year after the Virgin's childbearing 1515, Juana, mother of the emperor Charles V, reigning in Castile, and her father Ferdinand the Catholic King guiding the helm of the kingdom in place of his absent daughter, Leo X, Supreme Pontiff, presiding over the universal Church, Maximilian I, grandfather of the emperor Charles, holding the reins of the Roman empire, two years before that baleful pest of the Church, Martin Luther, declared impious war on the Roman Church with his nefarious dogmas. In which one may wonder at the divine providence, that, when this sacrilegious man was about to lead spouses consecrated to God out of the enclosures of monasteries and join them in impious marriages, then a little before this holy heroine was brought forth into the light, at whose admonition and with whom carrying the torch before them many here and there confined themselves within the same cloisters of convents and consecrated their chastity to God by vow.
[44] born of parents illustrious both by birth She was born of a noble and especially illustrious family. She had for father Alfonso Sánchez de Cepeda, son of Juan Sánchez de Toledo and Inés de Cepeda, and grandson of Alfonso Sánchez de Toledo and Teresa Sánchez. For mother Beatriz de Ahumada, daughter of Mateo de Ahumada, of the family of the Ahumadas, which is numbered among the families of Ávila both for nobility and for antiquity, as is also the family of the Tapias, from which the mother of this Beatriz, Juana de Tapia, was sprung. And the things which we have brought here concerning the grandparents and great-grandparents of our Teresa have been drawn from ancient calendars and tables concerning their nobility; which indeed was so evident and manifest that, although Alfonso Sánchez de Toledo was not of Ávila but a newcomer, yet he placed his offspring in marriage with the most noble and leading persons of that city. The Cepedas draw their origin from Tordesillas, whose distinction and splendour are well known. Further, Alfonso Sánchez entered into two marriages: the first with Catalina del Peso, who bore him a daughter, María de Cepeda; then the second with Beatriz de Ahumada. And both marriages were happy and blessed: for as they were both illustrious by birth of lineage, so also by virtues: witness the children whom they begot, eight or nine; among whom our Teresa was born in the third place, when her mother had not yet completed her twenty-first year. Of these some are still surviving today.
Chap. IV.
[45] So that nothing at all should be lacking to Blessed Teresa to prevent her attaining to that holiness born of parents illustrious also for piety, to which she afterwards came, God provided her with parents so pious and provident that, both by the good example which flowed from them and by the solicitude which they had for her assisting, she began while still a little girl to tread the path of holiness. For her mother was a most upright matron, who, although she excelled her equals in beauty in some degree, yet to no one
gave any suspicion either of being held by a zeal for cultivating her beauty or of growing insolent on account of it. For although she had not yet passed her thirty-third year when she departed from life, yet her morals and manner of life smacked of a more advanced age. Nor did a lesser uprightness of morals and holiness shine forth in her father, whom no one ever heard either swearing rashly or detracting from others. He was wonderfully taken with the reading of the books of the Saints, of which he had a great quantity at home, so that what to read should by no means be lacking to his children. He took care that these should devote themselves to daily prayer at fixed hours; but above all he laboured that all should be borne with a singular zeal and affection towards the Mother of God and the other Heavenly Ones. And by the reading of these books, and by the piety which the pious parent instilled into her tender age, it came about that the Lord began even then to touch Teresa's soul from heaven and to entice it to Himself, when she had scarcely reached the seventh year of her age. In the pursuit of piety she had as companion, of her brothers, Rodrigo de Cepeda, who afterwards in the New World perished drowned in the river which has its surname from Silver d, having been appointed leader of a company sent thither. Hence Teresa held him as a martyr e, because he had fallen in defending the Christian faith. She was borne by a peculiar love towards him above her other brothers, because they were both almost of the same age, and each was brought into the light in the same month and on the same day (although he four years before Teresa, as that book proves in which the father of the children was wont to write down the day of their nativity): whence both with great relish and affection turned over the histories and deeds of the Saints.
[46] And the punishments and tortures of some Martyrs which she read cast no moderate ardour into her tender breast. Wherefore, enlightened by heavenly light, the little girl reckoned with herself even in childhood she desires martyrdom, that the possession of eternal rest and of the divine sight was purchased by these Saints at a very cheap and small price, even though they had endured most bitter tortures; wherefore, intending to receive the same reward and prize of labours, she desired most of all to fall by the same kind of death. And since even then she was of an enormous and lofty soul and displayed a distinguished generosity towards the divine service, it was not enough for her to have conceived an ardour for a death of this kind, but she began also to treat carefully with her brother Rodrigo what means might be supplied for carrying out that desire in deed and for meeting so glorious a death forthwith. The girl so stirred him with sharp words that, taking a slender provision for the journey with them, both went out from their father's house, intending to make for the nearest kingdoms of the Moors, by whom their tender necks might be cut off for the glory of the divine name. They had already gone out of the gate called from the Adaja (that is a river flowing through Ávila), and had crossed the bridge, when, as they were going further, an uncle, meeting them, forthwith led both back home, to the great joy of their mother, who, worn out with grief and fearing lest perchance they had fallen into a certain domestic well and perished, had ordered them to be sought through the whole city. Here Rodrigo excused himself, and heaped all the blame on his little sister, by whom he had been incited to undertake this journey. And it struck both not moderately that they read here and there in books that both the glory in heaven and the torments among those below would be eternal: about which matter also both talked together again and again, and, carefully weighing the word Eternal, repeated it quite often with great feeling of soul: Eternal, Eternal, Eternal! By this assiduous meditation on eternity it came about that the Lord cast into her soul a great desire of following that road which would lead its follower to a glory that would last perpetually and eternally.
[47] and she gives many other Seeing further that the way was blocked for her to obtaining the crown of martyrdom, for undergoing which she felt in herself so vehement an ardour and courage, at her persuasion both resolved to follow the eremitical and solitary kind of life. In the domestic garden, therefore, they build for themselves, with what art they could, little huts and cells, not after the manner of other children for some pleasure by way of play, but in order that they might recollect their soul in them in solitude. But in vain: for this improvised work was not long-lasting, so that they could by no means satisfy their desire and pious wishes. For that time had not yet come in which she would build more solid and more capacious little huts, and in which she would bring into the world that holiness and manner of life which the ancient hermits and Fathers entered upon in the solitude of Mount Carmel. She pursued solitude, then, so far as was permitted her, in order that she might give herself in it to the exercises of her piety, which were very many, and especially to reading there her rosary of the Mother of God. For her mother, devoted to the Virgin's Rosary, had made its use familiar to her children. And she was wonderfully affected towards that history from the Gospel in which the Redeemer is brought in speaking with the Samaritan woman at the well (John IV): wherefore she always had a picture of this thing painted in her room, so that it might be perpetually before her eyes, with this inscription added: "Lord, give me water" (chapter XXX of her Life). But not knowing how enormous a good she was asking for herself, she again and again supplicated God that He would impart to her that living water, the Lord in turn inspiring great relish in her in this petition, as One who was afterwards to inebriate her so copiously with this heavenly water. Hence also she continually had it in mind, and in the things which she wrote she drew not a little from it in order to declare the great things of prayer.
[48] specimens of future holiness. She succoured the needy, so far as she could, with alms given. If ever she played with her equals, she delighted wonderfully in building little monasteries, so that even then the Lord by this indication foreshowed, to those who could have understood it, the things which Teresa was afterwards to found with such great glory of the divine name and of His most holy Mother. So also in all things she conducted herself as though she had already in fact professed the monastic life, and she desired also to profess it, although not with that fervour and zeal with which she had elsewhere aspired to martyrdom and the solitary life. Such then indeed was Teresa when Beatriz her mother was taken from this life, the girl being then in about her twelfth year. When she bore the death of such a mother most bitterly, as she ought, prostrated with grief she threw herself down before a certain image of the Mother of God, and with many tears supplicated her that, since she was now living bereft of her mother, she herself would thereafter take care of her as a mother, and would not reluctantly admit her as a daughter. This prayer was poured forth at so opportune a time and from so sincere and ardent a breast that she felt its effect in very deed, having been received as a daughter by that most clement Mother from that time, as afterwards both she herself in all necessities, and the whole world also in the wonderful things which God deigned to work by her labour through the intervention of His most holy Mother, most clearly perceived.
Chap. V.
[49] Satan, the enemy of human salvation, did not bear these holy beginnings of the pious virgin: Then she grows lukewarm in virtue for it did not escape him how much her nature inclined of its own accord towards virtue. He noted besides in her a perspicacious and acute genius, a mature and settled prudence, a soul generous for undertaking arduous and lofty things, and also a singular industry for carrying out these very things, perseverance also and a constancy unbroken against every languor that could creep in, finally so great an efficacy and power of speaking that, if he allowed the roots of the virtues to strike deeper in her, he feared that many souls would be claimed for God by her labour. When he saw these things, I say, he thought he must strive with all his power to undermine the goods which those singular endowments were even then promising. Wherefore he endeavoured in every way he could to corrupt those exceptional gifts of nature received from God the Creator by inducing a depraved use of them. Suitable for doing this very thing seemed her recent bereavement, destitute in so weak an age of maternal vigilance and care. He employed a twofold engine to this end.
[50] through the reading of futile books The first was the reading, which he persuaded her to, of the wars and arms of the ancient heroes throughout Spain, written in verse. This without doubt is one of his inventions, by which he has drawn many souls loving solitude and uprightness to ruin: because very often into families from which otherwise unchaste women, assailants of chastity, are kept away, there is introduced the reading of those books which some men abounding in leisure and vanity composed with great elegance indeed and charm, yet with a sinister will, so that our enemy might draw thence, as from a quiver, darts ready for assailing us; and these are wont, secretly and hiddenly, to bring that damage to souls which perhaps those handmaids and procuresses of the devil would by no means bring. These panegyrics, then, not of heroes but of vanities, she turned over most zealously and assiduously, and spent many good hours in reading them; and as she excelled in genius, so she sank this phrasing and elegance so deeply into her mind that a few months after she and her brother Rodrigo de Cepeda did not hesitate themselves to compose similar odes, carrying through the deeds of heroes by poetic fiction, so far surpassing indeed the capacity of that age that they found praise even among many. From these studies she bore no other fruit, surely, than what is always wont to be carried away thence, although she did not come out so depraved as the other readers of these trifles; because the Lord, by whom she was being reserved for such great and lofty things, permitted her to stray only a little from His hand. She began accordingly to study the adornment of the body, to carry about foreign perfumes, to arrange her hair, to care for her hands and to wish to go out in public well dressed; although every sinister intention was absent, and she wished to give no one any occasion of offending God. But although she applied herself as much as possible to pursuing these and similar vanities, yet she then indeed admitted nothing which she thought included any harm.
[51] and through harmful company; The other stratagem which the envious adversary brought out against this handmaid of God was that very one by which he has not rarely conquered many greater both in age and in zeal for the virtues, namely the company of the depraved. For when certain cousins frequently came to her house, of equal age with her, already then most addicted to worldly vanities, and often wove conversation with her about these same things, she listened to them not unwillingly, and in turn brought forward of her own into the midst the things which she knew would be pleasing to them, not without their pleasure. But there was one of her kinswomen who proved far more harmful to her. She had access to her house to the great grief of her father: for because she was of not sufficiently grave morals, he would indeed have wished to exclude her from the house; yet he could not deny her access, because a close kinship of blood existed between her and him. She and another companion of the same morals, to whom she was known, dealing familiarly with Teresa when she was completing, or somewhat exceeding, her fourteenth year, little by little
made her like themselves, so that all fear of God gradually vanished from her soul and in its place worldly frivolities and earthly affections and harmful familiarities crept into her mind; although, as she testified of herself in writing, she was not borne towards evil with an affection so very prone. But the Lord Himself, to whom she was singularly a care, cast upon her as it were two bridles, lest she should slip on this slippery ground and suffer the loss of her soul here. The first was a certain natural aversion from all unchastity and carnal filth, which she never put off; the other, so great a fear of losing her honour that it was a violent restraint for her indeed, yet a salutary one. And although she (as one who was powerful in all things with a wonderful dexterity of genius) devised six hundred arts so that the things she did should be done without her father's knowledge and her honour should suffer no detriment, yet she could not prevent some rather bad suspicion of her from settling in the minds of some and some reproach from being rubbed upon her name. These happy beginnings smiled upon the evil demon, and he was already promising himself a greater victory over her: but that lofty and powerful Lord, not forgetting Teresa, and intending one day to work great wonders through her for the more ample praise of His name, then, when he thought of nothing less, struck this prey from the hands of Satan.
[52] but by good upbringing in a monastery When, then, she had followed these vanities for only three months, she was placed by her father in the monastery of virgins of the Order of St. Augustine, which has its name from Blessed Mary of Grace, in which girls of that kind were brought up, although she had not laid aside the secular dress. The Lord Himself also, since He was already solicitous for her before, had brought it about that these vain things now brought her nausea, and that, if she was conscious of any fault, an unwonted fear of God suddenly rose in her mind, and she busied herself to cast it as soon as possible into the bosom of a confessor, in order to compose her soul. In this place, then, the Lord led her back to Himself: and as almost all the evil which had taken hold of this soul, up to then most pure, had flowed from the depraved company of bad persons, so He willed that all good in turn should be derived into her from the holy companionship of a certain holy virgin living in this convent. For from her familiarity and conversation she was so changed that she gradually put off the depraved morals which she had imbibed, and returned by right of postliminy to the good ones which she had put off before, and that she gradually laid aside the hatred which she had conceived towards the religious Institute, and began assiduously to meditate on eternal goods and to aspire to them with her whole striving of soul; that she both poured out many prayers to God herself and asked that they be poured out for her by all the virgins; that finally she changed her life daily for the better, although she had not yet plainly resolved in mind to profess the monastic life. Nor indeed, because he saw Teresa shut within the enclosure of this monastery, did the malignant spirit desist from harassing her after his custom: nay, here too he declared grave war on her, both internal by depraved suggestions, and external by sending messages of others to her. But since all his effort was empty, forthwith everything went off into the winds, and the hope which he had conceived of baiting her then wholly vanished and fell. Having stayed in this monastery a year and a half, she was then at length compelled to return to her father's house, when a grave infirmity afflicted her.
Chap. VI.
[53] Her strength having now been somewhat confirmed after the above illness, and by reading pious books she returns to good fruit: Teresa is sent by her family to her sister María de Cepeda, who was living in a village, so that she might lodge with her for some days to relax her mind. But while she had to pass through another village, Hortigosa by name, distant four miles from Ávila, in which her uncle Pedro Sánchez de Cepeda, already bereft of his wife, was living at that time, she stayed with him lodging for a few days: whose upright and holy conversation of life cast wonderful ardours into Teresa. For at his exhortation she began to give herself to the reading of spiritual books; towards which, although she herself was little affected, yet, to humour her uncle, she frequently turned them over. Whence it came about that not so long after she began to know thoroughly that truth which God had once engraved on her tender heart, namely that all these mortal things are truly nothing, and in the twinkling of an eye are suddenly reduced to nothing and vanish: hence she inclined more in mind towards the religious state, which nevertheless she had hitherto not been able to obtain from herself to resolve firmly. Here for three months she hung doubtful and wavering, assiduously fighting with herself; at length, reasoning thus with herself, she proved victor over herself: that the bitternesses and burdens of the religious life could not be greater than those which are borne by souls in purgatory; wherefore, since by sinning she had deserved the torments of hell, it would seem little if she spent the rest of her life in the pains, as it were, of purgatory. Teresa was then reading the Letters of St. Jerome, the reading of which so stirred her that she resolved with herself to vow herself to Religion: and when she had indicated this decree of her mind to her father, she could by no means obtain from him leave to carry it out; because he loved her wonderfully above his other children. Further, since the handmaid of God had now experienced in very deed how little a person ought to trust himself, and since she had also learned to some extent how great is the vanity of the world, as in all things which she undertook she always displayed an enormous and lofty soul, she resolved with herself to put herself in safety and to accomplish what she had proposed.
[54] Wherefore one day, very early in the morning, on the day after the Kalends of November, on which the anniversary memory of the faithful souls is celebrated in the Church, in the year after the birth of Christ 1535 f, and at last the monastic life when, after her twentieth year of age had been completed, seven months had already flowed by, no one being privy to her purpose except her brother Antonio de Ahumada, who accompanied her, she slipped secretly away from her father's house, and hastens straight to the principal monastery of Ávila, named from the Incarnation, of the Order of Blessed Mary of Carmel. She had persuaded this Antonio, in those very days in which not long before she was meditating flight from the world, to say farewell to the world and enter the religious life. It was fitting, namely, that she by whom so many souls were afterwards to be called back to the heavenly road should even then give a certain specimen of the most ardent zeal towards her neighbours. Both therefore withdraw themselves from their father's house, in order to betake themselves into the harbour of Religion; although with unequal outcome. For Teresa having already been received within the convent of the Incarnation, Antonio went thence straight to St. Thomas's of the Order of St. Dominic, to ask for admission. The superiors of that house were then unwilling to admit him unless first informed of the will and mind of his father, whom they knew familiarly: wherefore he was afterwards co-opted into the family of St. Jerome; but, since he fell into illness before he had completed his novitiate, he by no means held to the course of life begun. Let us return to our neophyte, to whom the Redeemer imparted new and greater graces from heaven day by day, and already then declared openly enough with how great love and zeal He embraced her. From the beginning this monastery had pleased her above the others, because Juana Suárez lived in it, to whom Teresa was very closely joined in soul, and whose friendship and companionship afterwards brought her not a little benefit, as I shall relate in its place: but when the religious life was now in very deed to be assumed, she held herself so indifferently, inclining equally towards every one, that she would not unwillingly have passed to another family if she had judged that this would be more for the divine service: for she was more solicitous for the safety and quiet of her soul than for the consolation and recreation of the body.
[55] embraces with a generous soul Further, she passed from the house of her earthly parent into the dwelling of the heavenly Father with such contradiction of her struggling soul, and experienced so vehement a feeling of grief in that separation, that almost each of her bones seemed to her to be moved from its place, and her very soul to be violently torn from the body. But, divine grace helping, and the greatness and generosity of soul in which she excelled prevailing, the tender maiden came away victorious from this hard contest, and hastened to the convent with a certain lofty constancy and strength of mind, and as a suppliant asked for the habit of Religion, covering the great struggle she felt with such dissimulation, and so feigning serenity and quiet of mind, that all thought that she asked for what she asked with the greatest desire and ardour. Forthwith, therefore, the Lord (who desires nothing more than that we should generously break through the difficulties that occur in His service, so that He may disclose His mercy in us) soothed and flooded her mind with such delight on account of the choice of this state that this never afterwards failed her. As soon as possible, then, the dryness of her soul was changed into a feeling of most tender love; and the relish of secular things began to lose its savour in comparison with the feeling of religious delights. Seeing herself, therefore, now altogether freed from these so grievous vanities, she could scarcely contain the interior joy of her soul. Yet through the whole year of the novitiate itself the Lord did not cease to exercise His handmaid with various things, which, though they were not troublesome in themselves, yet afflicted and vexed her not moderately. But daily more and more the Lord showed from heaven that this Religious life had not been undertaken by her rashly or by chance, but by a certain wonderful nod and direction of His providence, namely in order that what had been foretold many years before would come to be might now in very deed be fulfilled. There was then a report that very many years before a certain digger g had come there for the sake of seeking treasures (this monastery is in the country not far from the walls of the city), and that, as he wandered here and there through the house digging to track down gold, he had with the presaging eyes of a prophet discovered another treasure and pledge far more precious than that which he was seeking with his digger's eyes, and had foretold by prophesying that in future times there would be in this monastery a certain nun illustrious for holiness, by name Teresa.
[56] the monastic life. There are those who would have this prediction fulfilled in a certain nun renowned for piety, who flourished there at the first beginnings of the foundation. But it can be that both these and he have spoken the truth, so that, namely, in the mouth of two witnesses this so true word might stand. Further, it is most certain that this prophecy was pronounced; for our Teresa, as being affable and jocose, was wont to ask laughingly of a certain nun who was then there of the same name as herself whether either of them would be that Teresa whom the oracle designated. In this manner, then, she spent the time of her novitiate, much vexed indeed with illnesses as to the body, but heaped with incredible cheerfulness and joy of soul: and this having at length run its course, she forthwith pronounced the vows of profession. And although in those very days the infernal enemy harassed her vehemently, and in conceiving the vows she felt so great a repugnance of spirit that afterwards, to exaggerate a certain thing which she had experienced in some matter
of difficulty, she denied that she had ever felt the like, not even then when she made her monastic vows, unless perhaps then when she was leaving her father's house about to enter the monastery for the first time, as we shall afterwards narrate in its place; yet, all the contradiction of the flesh striving in vain, the power of divine grace so prevailed in her that she conceived her vows with a cheerful and generous mind, giving herself with her whole heart as spouse to that Lord who with so powerful a hand had led her out of the vanities, frauds and dangers in which she had been engaged for some time.
ANNOTATA.
Chapter IV.
The beginnings of St. Teresa's monastic life: faults committed by her; which are shown not to have been grave.
Chap. VII.
The infirmities of the body in Teresa daily, and continual swoonings, Teresa, being sick, is taken to the country, the greatest languor of the heart being added, and other illnesses grew strong, from which it came about that she often seemed without any sense and movement: and since the industry and science of the physicians of Ávila profited not a whit in curing her, her father, to whom she was most dear, compelled her to go out of the monastery, accompanied by that nun whom she had as her closest friend, in order that she might be handed over, for the sake of curing her health, to a certain woman who was said to heal various ailments, in the place whose name is Becedas. Further, she was then absent from the monastery for almost a whole year. She went out at about the beginning of winter: but since she was to be handed over to the woman healer only at the start of summer, she stayed for a while, in the place which is named by the Castilians de la Cañada and is situated on the very road, with her sister María de Cepeda, whom Catalina del Peso, his first wife, bore to her father, married to Martín de Guzmán y Barrientos. To this couple, and especially to her sister María, she was most dear. While she was staying in that place, the Lord began to form His handmaid to the pursuit of prayer, showing her the way to it by a certain pious book which she had received from her uncle, namely the third Abecedario of Osuna. God immediately gave her that kind of prayer which contemplative writers name from quiet; nay, also at times the unitive manner of praying was communicated to her, though she understood neither the one nor the other. But since, as I warned before, it is not my intention to linger longer on the things which Teresa wrote of herself in the book of her Life, but to touch on them briefly, only with this intention, that I may carry on the thread of the history and that the rest may be read more plainly in its place, I shall say this only, that in these beginnings of her prayer the Lord most evidently showed how many and how great gifts He was afterwards to communicate to her; nay, in such grave and long-lasting illnesses and their medication He conferred on her the greatest and most perfect patience.
[58] and thence into her father's house; where she suffers a paroxysm, She stayed three months together with her sister at Becedas, the woman whom I mentioned treating her health. But since the remedies which were applied were more vehement than the weak constitution of her body could bear, her infirmity on returning thence was greater than on coming: wherefore she was sent back to Ávila to her father's house, to be examined by the physicians, who, casting away all hope of curing her, said that she would be consumed by phthisis. Further, on the very night of the Virgin's Assumption she suffered so great and so long-lasting a paroxysm that for four whole days she seemed to have lost all sense and to be as if lifeless; whence she was also anointed with the Holy Oil as being engaged in the last struggle, and the Apostles' Creed was quite often read before her, because she seemed to be expiring at every moment. Teresa perceived none of these things at all, so that she did not even feel the melted wax falling upon her flesh: for afterwards, having returned to herself, she found that it had fallen into her eyes. They had already prepared a tomb for her in her convent, and her corpse was expected hourly to be committed to the earth. Nuns sent there from the Incarnation stood around her as she lay, in order to accompany the funeral procession. And surely they would have carried her to the sepulchre, had not her father again and again prevented it, though all thought otherwise, because he had great skill in exploring the pulse of the veins, and could not persuade himself that she had expired. Wherefore to those who said that he should allow her to be buried he answered: "By no means; for my daughter is not yet brought to the point that she should be buried."
[59] during which she foreknows future things. Then indeed she underwent another danger also, not inferior to this. Her brother Lorenzo de Cepeda, when he was keeping watch by the sick woman on one of those four nights, weighed down with sleep, fell asleep: and behold, the candle which had been placed above Teresa's bed, having burned down to the end, forthwith set fire to the pillow, the coverlet and the linen: and had not the smoke, rising up, roused him from sleep, the sick woman would either have perished in the fire, or certainly, as indeed she had already begun to, would have expired. After four days had elapsed she returned to herself; and, as I have heard from men notable for authority and religion (whom I believe very much, because they are very well known to me, and I know how great lovers of truth they are, and who received it from Teresa's own mouth), she began to ask those standing by why they had called her back; for she had been then in heaven, and also had been carried in spirit to the infernal abyss; nay, that her father and Juana Suárez, her familiar friend, a nun at the Incarnation, would be partakers of eternal salvation through her intercession; that she had then also seen the monasteries which were to be founded by her, and what she would do for the benefit of the Order, how many souls would obtain salvation by her labour, and that she would depart from this life having first acquired the reputation of holiness; finally, that her body, before it was committed to the earth, would be covered with a cloth of gold. Nevertheless we must confess that, whenever the Mother was questioned on this matter, she was wont to say that these were mere ravings and the dreams of the delirious, and that, having afterwards learned that her father had been present when she related these things then and had heard them from her mouth, she was suffused with no moderate shame on his account, because he was a grave man. But those men whom I indicated above understood well enough that this was said by her only for the sake of dissembling the matter: for whatever she then foretold was afterwards fulfilled in very deed, as the reader will be able to see. And surely I myself in the year 1587 heard the Reverend Father Fray Master Domingo Báñez, principal professor of sacred Theology at Salamanca, saying in a sermon on a certain feast of the Discalced Fathers that he had been Teresa's confessor for many years, and testifying that in those four days in which, called away from the senses, she was held as dead, the pains of hell were shown her by Christ, and that he had received this from her mouth.
[60] [She is carried back to her convent, and there recovers by the help of St. Joseph.] Then indeed she disclosed to her sister Juana de Ahumada that she had wished to remain in that place where she then was, because she was then on a good road. To me at least it becomes likely that the foundations of the monasteries were then indeed revealed to her, as the reader will be able to gather from the things which I shall narrate in chapter III of the following book. And surely the other things which were then seen by her do not seem to me of so much moment; and perhaps there was some representation in the imagination to which the Mother herself attributed little credence, and therefore was wont to call them ravings. Thereafter, as she was able, she celebrated the Mysteries of Confession and holy Communion with many tears. She suffered most grievous pains, which seemed intolerable; but she bore them with a certain lofty soul and a singular example of patience. At the Easter festival, because she urged it most of all, she was carried half-dead and as if dead to her convent. For eight whole months she lay destitute of all use of her limbs; and for a whole three years this grave and long-lasting illness wore her out. Yet she softened the gravity and trouble of the illness by pious conversations about God and divine things; by which she was more taken than by any talk on any other matter. Often also she made use of the Sacraments of Confession and the Eucharist; she delighted wonderfully in the reading of spiritual books; if she contracted any fault, she expiated it forthwith both by the sorrow conceived and by the tears of penance. And indeed so grievous was that sorrow (although it ought rather to be turned to her blame) that she did not dare to return again to prayer, because she shuddered at the most grievous sorrow which she would feel in it from having offended the Godhead
as its punishment. Nor indeed was this pain born in her from any fear, but because she recalled what graces the munificent Lord communicated to her in praying, and saw with how slight a gratitude she responded to His enormous benefits: which she could not bear with equanimity; so much so that she was afterwards not a little saddened even on account of the tears with which she washed away her faults, when she saw with her eyes how small an amendment of life followed thence. But by the intercession of the glorious Confessor Joseph, of whom she was a most zealous client, and whose feast she celebrated every year with what solemnity she could, she began at length to rise from her little bed and to set her foot in walking.
[61] From excessive familiarity with seculars But although the enemy of the human race saw these indications of a new person, he had not yet cast away all hope of recovering her, but, as he could, he laid snares and ambushes for her. Many seculars at that time frequented that convent: and since Teresa was very courteous, and sweet and winning in conversation, and thought it would be shameful for her, being well born, if she did not in turn cherish with reciprocal love and goodwill those by whom she herself was held in goodwill, Satan began to impel her to pursuing familiarities of that kind; nor with vain effort: for she gave herself to them so much that she gradually interrupted the very exercises of prayer, both because by her own fault she was deprived of the accustomed delights in praying, and because she blushed to converse familiarly and after the manner of friends with God in prayer, since she was so vainly pursuing the companionships of men: and this very interruption of prayer seemed to her a proof of greater humility. And she was enticed to frequenting those conversations all the more because she saw them practised here and there by others whom she looked up to as religious beyond the rest. Not a little did this also contribute, that she had then obtained such confessors as, ignorant of the matter, freely asserted that what was venial was contracted lawfully; and persuaded her that what was mortal was only venial. Whence it came about that she remained in her vanity and ignorance, exposing her salvation to those occasions which, although she herself feared none, involved the greatest danger; whence also she often came away thence with her soul wounded and hurt. Yet the most clement Lord did not on that account desert her: for when at a certain time she was beginning a familiar conversation (which conversation disquieted her most of all), she beheld with the interior eyes of her soul our Redeemer Jesus in the appearance of one severely rebuking and indignant; whence she understood openly how greatly this conversation displeased Him. This vision was far clearer and more evident than if she had received it with the eyes of the body; and its image and appearance remained so fixed in her soul that even many years after she seemed always to have it as present before her.
[62] she suffers some spiritual damage. Yet she did not on that account forsake the accustomed familiarities to which she was wholly attached. Meanwhile, when a year had now elapsed since she had omitted the exercise of prayer, at the exhortation of Vicente Barón, reader of Sacred Theology, of the Order of St. Dominic, to whom she had already begun to commit the secrets of her conscience, she returned again to the practice of prayer, though these conversations were not broken off. Further, it distressed her not a little that in praying she did indeed recognize her errors, and felt an ardent desire of forsaking them, and yet, from her former habit, did not break off the accustomed company. Then, when she was dealing in the vestibule of the convent called of the Incarnation with one of those whom we have indicated, the Lord showed her His arm, wounded and covered with wounds, from which no small part of the flesh seemed torn away, namely at that time at which He had been bound to the pillar, and He in some manner lamented that He had been brought to this state on her account, and that she nevertheless, by acting thus, showed herself so ungrateful. But I would wish readers to be warned here that I do not know, nor have I been able conveniently to distinguish or learn, whether this vision was the same as that earlier one or different. This helped not a little towards lessening those conversations, although she did not yet altogether bid them farewell. So much so that almost twenty years flowed by for her while, alternately and as if in mockery, now she falls headlong, now after the fall raises herself to her feet; so that she neither fully enjoyed the divine consolations, because she did not dispose herself in the fitting manner for receiving them, nor did worldly ones plainly savour of or please her. For when she applied herself to these, the remembrance of the services which she owed to God and of the grave faults which she was contracting against Him was an impediment to her being absorbed in them, by which, as if cold water had been poured over them, they grew lukewarm. Meanwhile, however, while thus wavering she inclines now this way now that, for some months at times and even a solid year she gave the most diligent effort not to offend God, and applied herself assiduously to prayer: so that in that whole time very few days passed on which she did not speak with God through prayer for a long space of time. Wherefore, that God at length plainly freed His handmaid from worldly vanities and empty solicitudes and wholly set her apart for Himself, I judge must be ascribed to her assiduity in prayer alone.
Chap. VIII.
[63] Before I institute discourse on the supreme conversion of the Blessed Mother Teresa of Jesus, Meanwhile, however, no sins by which at length, at some time, she began more sincerely and more from the heart to give her hands to that powerful Lord, by whom she was being invited in so many and such diverse ways, as He called, it has seemed good to premise some things about the gravity a of her faults, of which we have hitherto recorded many things and which she herself mentions so many times with such feeling of sorrow and exaggeration. For my part I cannot approve of those who, in publishing the Lives of the Saints, study in every way to keep silent about and conceal their sins and defects, into which, as being men, they sometimes stumbled: because in this way they seem in some manner to cover and obscure the immense greatness of the goodness, mercy and wisdom of God, who kindly tolerated them rolling so long in the same, but at length led them out thence by most powerful, most effective and truly admirable means, and from such as they were before made them such as they afterwards appeared. Hence, if I myself knew the sins of our Teresa one by one, I for my part would not hesitate to make them public, because she herself also by no means suppressed them, but desired them to be made public, so that in this way the divine goodness and clemency might become more known and its glory shine forth more through them. But because it would be wrong and unjust to fasten upon her those sins which she did not really commit, and because those who read this Life of hers would easily persuade themselves that she must have offended notably against chastity of body and virginal modesty, to such a degree indeed does she herself exaggerate this in words; therefore I shall endeavour in this present chapter to snatch this error from them. Often I have both thought with myself and consulted others to whom this could be known, what sins those could have been at the recollection of which she continually broke out into tears and laments: and had she not openly testified in chapter XXXII of her Life that a seat prepared for her had been shown her among those below, I could not have brought my mind to think that any of her sins should be referred to the degree of mortal ones. Nay, not even this assertion of hers removes all doubt from me. For this seat in Gehenna could have been shown her not because she had then really deserved it, but because she could afterwards easily have deserved it by pursuing the road she had begun, had not the Lord called her back thence.
[64] against chastity, The reasons, then, which have impelled me to this opinion are these. The first, that she was more than exceedingly foreign to the faults and blemishes to which other women are liable, contentions, I mean, quarrels, disputes, rivalries, detraction and the like. Of which matter she spoke thus in the chapter of her Life indicated above: "Sometimes I weigh with myself that in me, although I was most miserable and most wicked, there always existed some care and desire of serving God, and of continually abstaining from some faults which I see drunk down and swallowed by worldly people everywhere as though they were nothing at all; finally, that I was harassed with most grievous illnesses, and bore them with a singular patience which the Lord bestowed on me, that I was also not prone to detracting from my neighbour or calumniating or speaking ill of him. Besides, I seemed to wish evil to no one at all; I was by no means infected with the filth of avarice, nor do I remember that I ever so envied anyone his lot as to offend God gravely in this way; finally I was not addicted to other vices either: for although I was so miserable, as I really was, yet the divine fear for the most part was before my eyes," etc. All her fault lay in this, that she conversed too familiarly and amicably with men. Further, it is ascertained and undoubted that in all this conversation no mortal crime was committed by her by which the uprightness and purity of the body was in the least stained, nay that she did not even give consent to similar defilements of the flesh; and not only after she had made the profession of the monastic life, as being now more collected and more modest with herself and more intent on guarding herself, but also then when her age was weaker and more prone to falling, and the liberty of sinning greater, and her judgment and prudence for her own defence less. Wherefore of this very age she writes thus in chapter II of her Life: "I never inclined gravely towards evil, because I naturally abhorred whatever smacked of dishonour, only seeking excessive upright conversations with some to beguile the time." And before she had premised: "I do not seem to myself likely to have abandoned God for any mortal fault, nor to have banished His fear from my soul, although I was held by a greater fear of losing my honour. This fear was the cause that I did not lose it altogether. Nor surely does anything in the world seem likely to have called me back from this resolve, nor was I to be drawn to it by the love of anyone at all. Would that I had had strength equal for preserving the honour of God whole and inviolate in all things, such as nature suggesting it supplied to me, so that I should do or suffer nothing by which my honour among men should be diminished in the least!"
[65] nay not any But hear still more. I know that, when one of her daughters had brought up conversation with her, when she was already older, about carnal temptations, the Blessed Mother forthwith answered: "I understand nothing of these things, daughter; for that kind God gave me this grace, that in the whole time of my life I do not remember that I committed anything in this kind which had to be set forth to a confessor." This was narrated to me several times by the prioress of one of the principal monasteries of this Order, a woman both truthful and especially religious, to whom, namely, Teresa then gave this answer. If we join to these things what she left written in the fifth chapter of the same book, namely that even then when she was pursuing worldly vanities she never omitted any fault, even venial and light, which she did not disclose to the priest, it will be clear to the eye with how singular
a grace God had anticipated this soul, which He had reserved for things so arduous and lofty, while by a certain unheard-of compassion He preserved for her purity of body and at the same time of soul entire and undiminished, so that after this life, namely the immortal one, she might obtain the crown of virginity. For my part, so far as I can attain by conjecture, I judge that her crimes were no other than that she exposed herself to the present danger of sinning and stumbling gravely into other things, which conversation, colloquies, dealings and familiarity of this kind, especially with men of that sort, created: for they were either young in age or destitute of virtues, and accordingly prone to falling; while she was by nature winning to love and charming, and born to wish well from the heart to those with whom she had contracted friendship. This can be gathered from her own words: for in the place in which she testifies that she never inclined much towards evil, because by nature she abhorred all uncleanness and carnal disgrace, but was given only to upright recreations and relaxations, she immediately adds these words: "But since I did not avoid the occasions, the danger of falling was present, to which I was exposing both my father and my brothers; but the Lord delivered and protected me from this. Whence it becomes manifest that God, even against my will, provided that I should not wholly perish," etc.
[66] mortal sin, And although the dangers can be so great and so present that they include deadly sin, yet in her, who walked so circumspectly and providently in this kind, and whose will was so remote and foreign from all contagion of the flesh, I would scarcely believe that they could have been mortal, especially since she had never resolved to commit any such thing, and the confessors whom she had then obtained denied that her faults were mortal. Which also she freely confesses of herself in the same chapter II: "Taught by him who presided over the accounts of my conscience, and by others also, who assured me in the Lord that in many things which I held as crimes I did not offend God." And in chapter V she speaks thus of the damage which came to her from unskilled confessors: "No one learned and conspicuous in knowledge ever deceived me, as neither did those others wish to circumvent me; but they were ignorant of better things, although I held them as knowing and skilled, nor did I think myself bound to more than believing them: as was a certain indulgence of relaxation, because they counselled me so, and which promised me greater liberty: for if they had tightened the reins of liberty for me, such was my wickedness that I should have sought other confessors for myself. What was committed venially they suggested was so far from being a sin that they even said it was lawful; but what was mortal and graver was numbered by them among the venial. So much did this harm me in spirit that it is little for me to relate it in this place for the benefit of many," etc. And in chapter VIII she speaks thus of herself: "I would wish indeed to express and portray the captivity in which my soul was then engaged: for I easily understood that it was held as if captive, but in what that servitude and captivity consisted I could not understand: for I was not able wholly to perceive how that which the confessors did not so greatly exaggerate nor reprove was as evil as I felt it in my soul. Another, whom, harassed by scruples, I approached for the sake of asking counsel, said that it was salutary and useful for me to be harassed with straits of that kind, even though I was rapt into sublime contemplations. This indeed was towards the end, when, the grace of God helping, I was already beginning to decline the greater dangers of sinning, though I did not yet altogether avoid the occasions." And a little lower: "I pity myself now, while I recall how much I suffered, and how little help shone upon me from elsewhere except from God alone, and how great a liberty they gave me in seeking recreations and relaxations, asserting that they were lawful for me."
[67] but, however much she exaggerates her faults, From the things which have been said thus far it can be perceived that the greatest of her sins was that she rashly exposed herself to the dangers of sinning which those visits and addresses of seculars, in which she was held, could bring. And she afterwards exaggerated them so much, and said that she had deserved a thousand hells, for this reason, that she then looked upon them with other eyes than when she formerly committed them. For because she was borne with vehement love towards God, no offence seemed slight to her, but whatever deed at last she had been conscious of appeared most grievous to her; and those the most grievous and foulest of all which she had perpetrated by throwing herself into dangers of this kind; and then indeed because, while the Lord was enticing her to Himself by mercy and friendly prerogatives, she had been unwilling to flee occasions of that kind, by which she was both distracted and hindered from responding to the Lord with fitting gratitude and thanksgiving. This seems to be able to be gathered from her words; for in chapter III she writes thus of herself: "I began then to understand the truth of the thing which I had in part known even in childish age, namely that all things which are contained in the world are mere nothing, and also its vanity and frivolities, and that shortly all its glory would fall back into nothing; at the same time also to fear lest, if I had died, I should be thrust down to hell." If she had really held these sins as mortal, she would doubtless not have said that she feared lest she should be adjudged to the infernal punishments. But she spoke thus because in this respect she was not so certain with herself, but still wavered in doubt. Then in chapter VII, when she was saying why she did not forsake the conversation and friendship which she had contracted with a certain person, although she seemed to be enticed and admonished to this by the Lord through one or another vision, she adds these words: "I have said these things so that my wickedness may become manifest and the exceptional and immense goodness of God, and how worthy I am of the torments of hell on account of this ingratitude."
[68] only venial, Further, this ingratitude does not seem to include a deadly crime: but she who loved God so ardently judges herself worthy, on account of this very thing, of being adjudged to hell. In this sense also are to be taken the things which she professes about her other sins. Conversations also and visits, both those of others which she received and those by which she approached others, she was then indeed so far from believing to involve mortal harm, that she even confirmed in their opinion the nuns who frequented similar ones, practising them in her words as an upright thing. Wherefore she forthwith attaches: "Then also, so that, if, God so disposing, some religious woman should perhaps at some time read these things, she may imitate my example. For my part I beseech them by the love of our Lord Jesus Christ to avoid similar recreations. And would that it might please the divine Majesty that of those whom I drew into fraud, denying that it was an evil and bidding them be of secure mind in so great a danger, because a dark blindness then held my mind (for I did not wish to involve them in error on purpose), even one may be led back into the right way by my calling her back!" etc. And, if not even these things suffice, she signifies it much more clearly still in chapter VII in these words: "I was sent to cure him of his illness; but my soul was held by a greater illness, as being blinded by vanities, than his body; not, however, so that (so far as I could then attain by conjecture) I was in mortal fault through that whole most ulcerated time of which I speak: for if I had thought that I was in any way conscious of it, I would forthwith have torn myself away thence."
[69] God protecting her in dangers, And if in other places at times it seems that it can be clearly gathered from the words of the Blessed Mother that she committed some mortal sins, I for my part believe that this comes about because these things sometimes seemed such to her at the time when she wrote these things. Yet it is not established on that account that they were such when they were committed, all the circumstances which I have proposed being regarded, namely, which it is always necessary, if the judgment is to be right and clarified, to look round at and attend to, whenever it must be judged about any matter whether it is a sin or not. For the rest, I leave this to be decided by God, to whom the truth of this matter is most thoroughly known, because no reason is available to me why I should incline wholly to this side rather than to that. Further, in this place only it has seemed good to bring forward (a convenient occasion of saying it offering itself) what often came to my mind as I thought on this matter, lest I should be altogether silent about this doubt, about which both I myself was in doubt and all who are to read this Life of hers might perhaps doubt. In which I have also regarded the glory of God, who rejects the things which are extolled beyond measure, when namely we say more of Him than really underlies or than we feel in our mind. And in my opinion indeed this is already evident enough from the things which have been brought here. For it is established that it befits His mercy and greatness no less to snatch someone, with purity of body and soul safe and virginity so intact, from so many and such dangerous occasions of sinning and not to let him rush headlong, than after a ruin to lead him out of those very sins.
[70] Besides this also, after I had already committed these things to writing, she commits. in order that I might be made more certain and might put forth truer things, I thought that a most weighty man, whom Teresa both loved very much and to whom she committed her secrets, should be consulted by letter on this matter; from whom I at length received this answer: "Her sins, so far indeed as I myself have heard and hold as almost undoubted, were few, and scarcely any grave. For great was the purity of her soul and body: for she felt in herself neither carnal motions nor unchaste thoughts, such as naturally are wont to occur to others; nay, she did not even know what impure motions were. But that she extolled her faults so greatly, I believe she did for this reason, that, when at the Incarnation she was dealing familiarly with some grave men, who at that time were called devout and loved her, and reciprocal visits and conversations were frequently instituted on both sides, she too began to pursue them, although she always had the fear of God before her eyes, and proceeded with a right intention. On their part perhaps the intention was not sincere, of which thing since Teresa was the cause and occasion, hence she extols her faults so." This same thing another grave man also wrote to me, who moreover added: "In all things and actions she was exact, in dress neat and elegant: she narrated to me herself that, when, having spent a whole evening speaking with outsiders at the grille of the cloister, she had returned thence to her oratory, she was wholly dissolved in tears, because she had brought back from conversation of that kind nothing but a notable loss of all that time." These things indeed I wished to relate in this place, so that the truth might be better laid open.
ANNOTATUM.
Chapter V.
The Saint's conversion to better things, and great progress on the spiritual road.
Chap. IX.
Departing now from sins, let us return to the thread of the history and to the last, or rather almost the last, conversion of Teresa. The Saint, more and more intent on prayer This is to be ascribed to holy images, by the sight of which the Redeemer has provoked many souls to a holier way and amendment of life, and which accordingly the holy Church not without reason both preserves and venerates. Teresa, then, one day having entered her oratory (for everywhere she chose such a room for herself, so that in its recesses and solitude she might collect her mind and apply herself to prayer), by chance cast her eyes on an image of the Saviour Jesus Christ wounded and pierced: on seeing which she suddenly began to be disturbed inwardly in her soul with an unwonted motion, seeing Him filled with so many wounds and bruises. Thence she began to think with herself in her mind how ungrateful she had hitherto been to this Lord after so many wounds, and to be pricked with so vehement a sorrow of heart that it seemed to be cut through the middle and torn apart. With this feeling of pious sorrow she prostrated herself as a suppliant before the image, both pouring out a great force of tears and beseeching the Lord with the greatest lowliness of soul she could that He would give her so great fortitude that she should never thereafter offend against Him by sinning. So sincere and fervent was the supplication of the prostrate woman that, a singular confidence in God being added, whose clemency and indulgence she had hitherto experienced in various cases, and full of the desire by which she now longed to be wholly His, she boldly said that she would not rise thence before she had been made possessed of her wishes. Nor indeed did her pious and humble supplication lack its fruit: for thereafter she made greater increases of spirit daily, and joined herself to Him with a love increasing and more intense from day to day than she had done hitherto.
[72] and anxious about the graces received in it, Not a little advantage was then brought her by the book of St. Augustine's Confessions, in which she thought she contemplated herself and her life as in a transparent mirror. When she had come to the very conversion of Augustine and to that voice which he heard in the garden towards the end of the eighth book, she believed that it had been made in some manner to her, and loosed the reins of her tears. Thereafter she began to apply herself more frequently to prayer, but to give herself more rarely to those things which hindered her in praying: for she had not yet wholly put them off. God in turn, who wished her too to furnish something of her own, opened His hand, and bestowed greater graces on her than He was wont in the time of prayer, as we shall show in its time, when there shall be place for speaking of her prayer. All these graces, and others of that kind which will be narrated afterwards, she obtained chiefly through the intercession and supplication of the Mother of God and her spouse Joseph. For so the Lord signified this to her in a certain vision, which she wrote out with her own hands on a separate slip. For she says: "I understood that I ought to be borne with a singular affection and devotion towards the Mother of God and her spouse Joseph: for when I was quite often rushing into extreme destruction, it came about through their patronage that the most clement God restored to me the salvation from which I had almost fallen." Among the other graces which she then obtained from Him from heaven was this, that He permitted a new fear to arise in her soul, lest the great sweetness which she experienced in prayer, and this suspension of the soul in it, were an illusion and imposture of the devil, who wished in this way to divert her from mental prayer and the meditation of the Lord's passion, and to prevent her from drawing thence the fruit she was wont to. Nor indeed did she doubt about this while she was already intent on prayer; but when a foreign thought distracted her mind, then this fear crept in. The cause for fearing was increased by the fact that in those days, as it happened, wonderful things were spread by sure report about the sleights of the devil, deluding women especially, and above all about Magdalena de la Cruz a, who struck all Spain both with the fame of a holier life and with the name of a detected imposture. This salutary fear tormented her vehemently and indeed for rather long, but brought her a notable return, and was the occasion of turning herself wholly away from the world. Further, it seemed to her that she could be freed from these straits and anxieties in no other way than by communicating the matter more nearly with spiritual men, skilled and experienced in these things, who would sincerely set forth what they thought.
[73] she consults Francisco de Salcedo In those days, as it happened, the Society of Jesus had fixed its seat and domicile at Ávila, towards which she, although she knew none of its members individually, was wonderfully affected, because she heard illustrious things of its functions and institutions. But although she hoped that she would find with it what she desired, yet she could never bring her mind to betake herself to the college. For on the one hand she believed herself unworthy to speak face to face with those whom she so greatly looked up to, on the other hand also she did not experience in herself that constancy and strength for following their admonitions. For she foresaw that those things would be taken from her by them towards which she was still carried with no moderate affection and zeal; which it seemed to her she could by no means lay down. The divine charisms and gifts grew day by day, and this salutary fear grew too. But when she saw that she alone could effect nothing in this matter, she called to her a certain noble man, of the leading citizens of the city of Ávila, Francisco de Salcedo (whom she herself was wont again and again to call the holy knight). Salcedo, although joined in matrimony, had already for many years given himself very earnestly to prayer, and was very well known to all the best people by the exercise of the virtues and the example of a holier life; and in what way he could, he provided for the salvation of souls. He, his wife having died, took sacred Orders, and, closing a holy life with a holy end, was buried at Ávila in the chapel which he had ordered to be built for himself beside the church of the monastery named from St. Joseph.
[74] and Gaspar Daza; By the help of this man, then, Teresa began to deal quite often with a certain master of Theology, a man illustrious for the virtues and holiness which he afterwards cultivated for many years, and most devoted to the divine service, and a most ardent zealot for souls. When she had disclosed to him both her manner of praying and all the secrets of her soul, and he saw with his eyes what graces she received from God in prayer, and to how great a gratitude she was thence obliged, he forthwith endeavoured to induce her to cast away something of her little things and trifles; but she had not yet obtained that strength of mind to put them off promptly. For she did not bear that so great an account should then be taken of her, because she was still unwarlike and weak; which afterwards turned (as she testifies of herself) to the greater good of her soul, namely that in this way she came to the knowledge of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, and conferred with them about her affairs. Meanwhile Salcedo visited her quite often, both giving her courage and bringing what help he could. But because on the one hand he saw her spirit in praying, and on the other the imperfections which she had not yet wholly cast away from herself, he could plainly not persuade himself that those gifts proceeded from a good and holy spirit. He added, however, that he was not plainly passing to that opinion until she should instruct him more minutely about her prayer, when she had weighed well and maturely in thought all the things which were to be said of it. On hearing these things Teresa was not moderately afflicted in soul, and was wholly worn out with tears, fluctuating in uncertainty and doubt, since on the one hand she could by no means persuade herself that such things, and those which brought her so great benefit, proceeded from the demon, the author of sin, but on the other hand she feared lest God, on account of her faults, should allow her to slip into so great a darkness and blindness of the intellect. To this exterior affliction of mind was added another not inferior, namely that she could not express in words what was going on in spirit within her. And in order to free herself from both straits, she had recourse to the spiritual books which she had been accustomed to read, to consult whether anything written in them would occur which might contribute to setting forth clearly the feelings of her soul.
[75] and at their persuasion, What she sought she found in the book whose name is the Ascent of Mount Sion, by a certain author of the Franciscan Order. She marked the place with a sign, and showed it to Francisco de Salcedo, so that he might communicate it with his master of the spirit, and afterwards bring back his answers to her. She added that, if an imposture of the demon lay under these things, and if they so judged, she would altogether desist from prayer, so as not knowingly to expose herself to these dangers, although otherwise she would have broken off its exercise only unwillingly. For she had already learned by experience and practice how badly it had gone with her while she had interrupted prayer, and how much, conversely, she had profited in spirit since she had applied herself to it again. Meanwhile, while she was awaiting the answer, she was in the greatest fear: and when she had it, the anguish and perplexities of spirit began to grow strong and increase. For they asserted to her that, so far indeed as they could attain by conjecture, the source and cause of all these things was the evil demon: accordingly that it seemed advisable to them that she should confer on this matter with someone of the Society of Jesus, should make before him a confession of all the things committed from that time at which she had first begun to use reason, should commit herself wholly to him, setting forth both the good and the evil which she remembered having done, and finally should not be reluctant to carry out what he should persuade her to do.
[76] she chooses a confessor from the Society of Jesus, Nor indeed did those servants of God pass this judgment and censure on her rashly: for they saw that what happened to her in praying was wont to be communicated only to the most perfect; but that she was very far from perfection, because very many imperfections betrayed themselves in her: and they judged that such sublime gifts of God and so common a life could not well stand together, and accordingly that these did not seem to them to come from God. To this also contributed not a little the fact that, since twenty years had now elapsed since she had given herself to prayer, if these gifts proceeded from God, she ought long since to have changed her life wholly for the better. But, God granting it, it came about that what she sought she found as soon as possible in the Society: for she first began to deal with one of ours, a man both eminently religious and prudent, although not of so very advanced an age. He, so far indeed as I have received by hearing, exercised her through the usual precepts of praying which are prescribed in the Exercises of Blessed Ignatius, although not in all things: and when she in turn had wholly opened her life to him through Confession, he encouraged her, and confirmed that it was truly the spirit of God; but that there was need for her to apply herself to prayer anew. For she had not laid good and solid foundations; nor had she hitherto tamed the unbridled motions of the senses or affections. Before all things he gave her in command never to fail, wearied, from the pursuit of prayer, but to do a certain violence to herself,
since the Most High was anticipating her with such singular graces. And since the Lord was speaking through his mouth, he added: "What do you know whether God perhaps wishes to provide for the salvation of many through you?" and other things not unlike these, which afterwards rightly seemed to have come to pass.
[77] by whom she is much helped. He counselled besides that she should daily search out some member of the Lord's passion by praying and meditating, so that by the consideration of it she might set herself to study mortification, and so little by little strive towards perfection; that she should have the humanity of our Saviour alone perpetually before her eyes, and, so far as she could, resist the accustomed recollections and sweetnesses of spirit, until he should counsel her otherwise. By these counsels Teresa profited not moderately; because the prudent Father understood her mind well, and perceived her nature and condition, and by what road she was to be led. He also secretly instilled in her some things which afterwards always remained engraved on her soul. This disclosure of her former life having been made, she felt a greater tranquillity and quiet in her soul than she had expected, and in many things began to put on other ways, renouncing them with such generosity of mind that it seemed to those not only of the household but also outside like a prodigy and an extreme, so wholly to forsake and so contemptuously to regard the things which a little before she had so greatly looked up to. This priest of the Society employed great prudence and discretion in directing and governing her, nor did he urge her violently, but rather seemed to make little of everything, waiting until the divine Majesty should work in that soul according to His good pleasure, and change it. Teresa indeed carried out all his commands most exactly, but was compelled to transgress the limits which he had prefixed to her prayer: for the more she struggled against the divine consolations, the more abundantly they were sent from heaven. Whence in those two months (for only so much space intervened) God anticipated her with far more visitations than He was wont. This pious Father moreover cast into her an affection for taking voluntary punishments of the body, to which she had hitherto not been accustomed on account of her frequent infirmities, nay had neglected them: for he asserted that, if she could not take the extreme asperities upon her body, yet she could take those from which health would suffer no loss; and that perhaps she was afflicted by God with these illnesses for this reason, that she did not afflict herself with voluntary torments, as if He were supplying with His hand what she neglected. He was accordingly her adviser that she should exercise herself with many mortifications undertaken of her own accord. Whence it came about that her prayer now rested on two solid bases, penance, I mean, and mortification: for it must have these if it wishes to be such as it ought. And the fruit which resulted thence was more than manifest: for she began openly to recognize whatever sins she had committed against God, though most light, and to perceive their malice, and, if she was carrying anything superfluous, not to be able to compose or collect her mind before she had cast that very thing far from her.
Chap. X.
[78] Not long after there came to Ávila the Reverend Father Francis Borgia, St. Francis Borgia approves the spirit of Teresa who, having renounced the duchy of Gandía, had some years before betaken himself into the Society of Jesus. His arrival having been learned, her confessor and at the same time Francisco de Salcedo induced her not to be reluctant to meet him, and to render him an account of her prayers as exactly as she could. No sooner said than done. As soon, then, as Borgia heard her, he answered forthwith that the spirit of God dwelt here; wherefore it seemed advisable that she should struggle against it no longer: whatever had happened to her hitherto had been sincere and true; but that thereafter she should always begin her prayer from some point of the Saviour's passion, then, if it should happen that she were raised up in spirit by God, she should by no means resist, but freely let herself be rapt. Further, the conversation with Borgia greatly refreshed her; for when she asked him about many things, he most abundantly satisfied her questions, because he was very strong in practice and experience of these things. In a certain treatise written with the pen, which she entitled the Way of Perfection, chapter XXXI, I have found these words written in Teresa's hand, by which she without doubt denotes herself: "I know a certain woman whom God very often raised up thither; but she herself understood nothing at all: wherefore she consulted a man wonderfully given to contemplation, Father Francis b, of the Society of Jesus, formerly duke of Gandía: from whom she learned that this could happen without difficulty, nay that it had sometimes happened to him," etc. Meanwhile it happened that the spiritual Father to whom she had entrusted herself was sent elsewhere: whence she was not moderately saddened in soul; for she believed that she would nowhere find one like him: but in this very college of the Society of Jesus another of plainly the same spirit was not lacking. And since it was free for the nuns of that place to go out as often as it pleased them, she lodged for many days with a widowed matron, of no small name and very familiar with her, dwelling not far from the college of the Society. Hence it came about that a handle was quite often given her for speaking and dealing with the Fathers of the S. J.; whom she embraced singularly and from whose company she came away only more learned and better.
[79] God commands her to renounce human friendships, But although the Father busied himself thus to advance her very gently and mildly to greater perfection, asserting that nothing should be omitted by her by which she might wholly satisfy God, but that anything at all should even be done; yet here she felt no moderate difficulty, persuaded, namely, by him that the familiarities and friendships of certain persons were altogether to be cast away by her, not so much because she offended God by them, as because she was excessively attached to them. But since she was of a generous disposition, and no fault lay under the fostering of those friendships, she thought that she could not escape the notable mark of ingratitude if she dissolved them, contracted long before; and this she declared to her confessor. He answered that she should commend the matter to God for some time in prayer, and should continually beg, by reciting the hymn "Veni Creator Spiritus", for the light of the Holy Spirit, enlightened by which she might inwardly recognize which would be more advisable. She did as she was ordered: and when one day she had persisted rather long in prayer, beseeching God to send her light, enlightened by which she might be able to satisfy Him in all things, behold, as she was beginning the accustomed hymn, so vehement a rapture suddenly settled on her that she seemed almost not master of herself. Hitherto she had not yet experienced anything similar. Meanwhile she heard this voice in the inmost recesses of her soul: "I do not wish that you converse hereafter with men, but with Angels." It could evidently be gathered that this grace had been done by God; and then it was clearly evident that what she had for many years never been able to obtain from herself with the greatest diligence, though she strove with the utmost effort and harmed her health not a little, could be done in a single moment by the Lord of hearts. Thereafter, then, she was so changed that thereafter she could be familiar with no one or admit the consolation of anyone except of him whom she knew to be familiar with God; nay, it was grievous and bitter to her to deal with anyone who did not practise prayer familiarly.
[80] and her sad soul This indeed was the beginning of God's conversations with her c: which thereafter were very customary and frequent with her. But what their manner is, and by what sign it is discerned whether they proceed from God or from the father of lies, she herself pursued clearly in chapter XXV of her Life. Not on that account, however, did the evil demon cease to fill her with vain fear, since no access to her lay open from elsewhere. Five or six servants of God, all of very great authority with Teresa, had come together into one place to treat of this matter: all of whom, as her confessor affirmed to her, came alike to this opinion, that they asserted that what she felt in prayer proceeded from the demon: wherefore it seemed advisable to forbid her so frequent a Communion of the life-giving Body of the Lord, and to have her pour herself out into external functions, for the sake of avoiding solitude. Her confessor, however, in order to explore her constancy, seemed to incline to the same opinion as those six censors. Teresa, then, at that time dismayed by vain dread, and harassed also by a certain languor of heart which fostered it, so that often she did not dare to trust herself safely even alone in her room, returned from St. Giles (that, namely, is the name of the college of the Society at Ávila), oppressed with great grief, to her convent. She, then, in obedience to those who advised her well, had now for many days abstained from Holy Communion, and had declined solitude, which yet was her only solace, nor had she any with whom to deal about her affairs (for all seemed to be against her); yet this was not yet the end of harassing her. For there were those who counselled her confessor to beware of her. Others added that it was clearer than the midday sun that this was a diabolical fiction. Only her confessor gave her courage, saying that, even if it were a fraud and imposture of the devil, no harm could come to her from it, provided she did not offend God by sinning. Amid these straits and afflictions of soul the pious handmaid of God, groaning, besought Him as earnestly as possible to lead her by another way; which very thing she asked to be done by others also.
[81] He fills with consolation and lifts up. Nor indeed was she meanwhile flooded with any heavenly consolation, but with the greatest bitterness of heart, while she reflected with herself that it was altogether possible that the devil was speaking with her. For two whole years she endured in those straits. When, then, oppressed with the most vehement anguish, she was in a certain oratory, no consolation having been received either from heaven or from men, behold, after four hours of labour, the Lord, who had never forgotten her, addressed her inwardly in the recesses of her heart, saying: "Do not fear, daughter, do not be afraid; because I will never desert you: for it is I." At these words, further, in a moment, all the clouds of grief and disturbance which were darkening her soul vanishing, a certain heavenly light and confidence seemed to arise in her, and so great a security that she seemed to herself able to prove by reasons against all the doctors and learned men there were in the world that He who was speaking to her was God. After this her heart was altogether calmed; and streams of the sweetest tears burst continually from her eyes as from fountains; she wondered at herself thereafter, because so great a change of the right hand of the Most High appeared in her. And, made more courageous, she so roused herself against the evil demons that, all vain dread being laid aside, the generous heroine, seizing a cross, challenged them to combat, saying: "Come out now into the battle line, as many of you as there are; for I wish to see, since I am a faithful handmaid and client of God, what you can do." And afterwards she enjoyed such quiet of mind that, even if she sometimes saw them present with her eyes, she by no means shuddered and made nothing of them. And with the gratitude which she had towards God her benefactor, she made so much of this gift of fortitude that she said she reckoned it among the chief graces received from God. Thereafter, since by the protection of divine graces of this kind she was released and free from all earthly things, and of the divine
providence and direction she committed herself wholly, she began to be borne along the road of the spiritual life with no less prosperous a course, nor less swiftly, than a ship propelled through the ocean both by favourable winds and by the ebbing tide, so that all things seemed to accelerate her course. For daily the Redeemer poured new graces into her, daily He redoubled His favours, partly by addressing her in various ways and opening the most profound truths, partly by showing her great and sublime visions.
[82] Meanwhile good men Further, these stirred admirable motions and exceptional effects, by which she daily changed the manner of her life for the better. Here would be the place for telling those conversations and visions, were it not that Teresa herself relates them from chapter XXV, in which place all can read them. I shall relate, however, those which are singular and which contribute not a little to connecting the thread of the history which I am writing. There were not lacking those who continued to create fear in her and said that all things which happened to her divinely were to be ascribed to the demon, by whom she was being shamefully deluded. They were moved to this opinion chiefly because they saw that María Díaz, whose holiness was both very well known and approved by all, and who lived in the same place, was led by the Lord by a more common road, and that visions and colloquies of that kind did not happen to her: as though there were only one road for God by which to lead souls, and as though the same by which He was directing Teresa of Jesus had not hitherto led very many holy men and women. But she, who was most secure, as having received as it were earnest-money from that supreme guest who visited her familiarly, especially since the opinion also of those Fathers whom I mentioned above confirmed her, was no longer, as indeed she had been wont, disturbed by these revilings of those who thought ill; but she asserted that that great Lord was putting into her hands as a sign of love precious necklaces which she had not had before, and that she now seemed to herself rich and adorned, whereas before she had been most poor: that she saw also, and that it was most manifest to her confessors, how much her soul had been changed and turned for the better; that she could not therefore believe, even if she wished, nor persuade herself, that he who labours with all effort to drag souls down to hell was now employing for carrying out this very thing means so contrary, say the detestation of sins, the exercise of the virtues, and constancy, by continually implanting them in her soul. That same priest of the Society of Jesus whom she had set over her soul was wont again and again to answer this very thing to others who contradicted; for he alone had undertaken her patronage and part. And surely this priest had need of this very virtue and fortitude for breaking the force of such great injuries and calumnies of the adversaries, which were reported to him daily. For his friends counselled him to beware of her, to see that the demon did not impose on him by his giving credence to her in anything which she said: to which end they brought forward to him both old and new examples of those who had at length been enticed into fraud through similar impostures and illusions of the demon.
[83] are not a little opposed to the holy Virgin. And those who were Teresa's familiars, and wished the good of her soul, often consulted her about many things; whom she satisfied most simply, not sufficiently heeding what she said: hence they kept tossing it about that she wished arrogantly to assume the office of teaching the more learned and to hunt the name of learning, and that this very thing seemed to them a not so good sign. If they noted in her any error even the least, they extolled it so beyond measure that whatever at last they saw in her they either interpreted in a sinister sense, or forthwith reported to her confessor. But he consoled and confirmed her, he calmed her disturbed soul, at the same time also commanding that she should hide nothing from him thereafter. But indeed his excessive humility was afterwards a seed-bed of great labours to this anxious handmaid of God: for although he had always been of the opinion that all these things descended from God, yet, because he saw that men conspicuous both for learning and for the spirit of God thought far otherwise about this whole matter, he too began to doubt and waver, fearing lest perchance he should offend by relying on his own sole judgment rather than on the opinion of so many others gifted with greater judgment. Therefore both he and Teresa for three years and more were not a little harassed by the malevolent on account of these and similar things, which were almost daily; to say nothing of the harassments, persecutions and other things which rose up against her suddenly and without any cause at all: for as soon as possible all those things were reported to her confessor. Further, nothing tormented the Blessed Mother more than when she saw that those who had the service of God most at heart were opposed to her along with others. And surely she bore so much in this kind that she afterwards confessed that, although she had undergone most bitter labours through the whole time of her life, yet none had been greater than this. The matter went so far at last that more than one resolved to drive Satan out of her duly by the sacred exorcisms of the Church, as from one possessed: which infamy and disgrace, however, she little regarded. But most of all, as I have already said, it vexed her that she saw men so good and upright so vehemently and so long opposed to her, and that even her confessors themselves sometimes came only doubtful and suspicious to receive her sins; finally, that she feared lest the matter should at length come to this, that no one would be found who would be willing to give ears to her confessing. Nevertheless, with all these sinister opinions about Teresa, it could not come about that she conceived any sadness of soul on account of these frequent visions sent to her from heaven. For these so refreshed and delighted her mind that she would not have wished to exchange even one of those visions for all the goods and pleasures which men can enjoy in the world.
ANNOTATA.
Chapter VI.
Teresa's illustrious obedience in a difficult matter; distinguished visions offered to her; colloquies with St. Peter of Alcántara; various temptations.
Chap. XI.
The Lord did not permit His handmaid to be so distressed and afflicted that He forgot either to console her, The Saint is advanced in virtue by Father Baltasar Álvarez. or to confirm her with the words by which He wonderfully addressed her inwardly in her soul, or finally to increase His love in her more and more daily. And she, who saw herself heaped with such exceptional gifts by God, poured out her complaints about all these things to her most loving Lord, with whom it was a solace to have recounted all things with great signification of love and with a certain more tender soul. She never rose from prayer except having received a new consolation from heaven and having gathered new strength for suffering. She dared to tell nothing at all of these things to others, because those who heard would willingly ascribe it to her arrogance in gladly recounting her own affairs; but to her confessor alone, whom she had then chosen for herself from the same Society of Jesus, she revealed any secrets whatever, who in turn continually gave her courage, consoling her in her grief. He was Baltasar Álvarez a, a man endowed with distinguished uprightness, of singular prudence and a most experienced master of spiritual things; who was then acting as minister in the college of St. Giles at Ávila. He, some years after, indefatigable in the service of God, because he was wonderfully given to prayer and the mortification of the passions and had proved most useful both to his own and to outsiders, because he was powerful in words by which he stirred the hearts of men and excelled with wonderful dexterity in leading souls to God,
closed his day with a holy end, he who had instituted a holy life, in the college of Belmonte, when he was ruling the whole province of Toledo as provincial. This Baltasar brought her more help towards perfection than the others, because he wore her down with continual mortifications, so that not rarely she resolved to choose another. But whenever she resolved this with herself, she always seemed to hear inwardly in her soul someone as it were dissuading her from doing it, and at the same time convicting her of great levity: wherefore she too began thereafter to be affected with wonderful love towards him. Whence also she afterwards said to me with a smile: "This confessor of mine, although rather austere and harsh, I love and embrace." Rather austere, I say, and severe, because he kept her within the limits of discipline by mortifying her, as he also kept María Díaz, an illustrious example of holiness, and a clear mirror of the wonderful graces which God works in the souls of those who sincerely love Him and cleave to Him.
[85] She obeys a certain confessor commanding her to repel the visions with contempt. But although Álvarez was wonderfully knowing and skilled in things pertaining to the discipline of the spirit, yet Teresa flew up so sublimely that he had to strive with great speed in order to be able to follow her. I remember, when I was with him at Salamanca and the talk had fallen on various spiritual writings and on the fruit and utility of each of them, that Baltasar said to me: "I have turned over all these books myself, in order to understand the spirit of Teresa of Jesus." But when visions were now happening to her more frequently, another Father of the same college, who had directed her before, and now also sometimes, Father Baltasar being hindered elsewhere, received the sins of her as she confessed, did not fear to say that a fraud of the demon lay under this; and that, since she could no longer resist it, she should at least fortify herself with the saving sign of the cross if she saw anything further, and should receive the one appearing with mockery, showing him the thumb b, because they were the mockeries of the demon, saying that in this way it would come about that he would not return any more. This seemed to her grievous and abominable; as one who had now plainly and undoubtedly persuaded herself that God, and no other, was appearing to her. But such was the obedience of the handmaid of God that whatever the director of her soul commanded, she carried out most promptly. Meanwhile she besought the Lord with many tears not to allow her to be deceived in any way, and commended herself from the heart to the glorious Princes of the Apostles, Peter and Paul; towards whom she was carried with a certain peculiar affection and zeal, because, when the Redeemer first gave Himself visible to her, it had happened on their feast day: nay, the Lord also gave her His word that these very ones would diligently keep watch that no fraud of deception should ever creep upon her.
[86] She sees gems in her cross; Not rarely also she saw them most clearly standing at her side, and that in a certain manner of vision more sublime than the ordinary. If at any time also these visions occurred to her, she could not doubt that God was really giving Himself to be beheld by her: yet, in order to acquiesce in the counsels of her confessor, she scoffed at the one appearing, mocking; not always, however: for that was most bitter to her. She signed herself, however, with the sign of the cross; and if at any time her hand grew weary with signing, she took a cross into her hands, in order to fulfil in this way the commands of her confessor. But she could not but ask pardon for the deed from Him to whom she was offering this injury, asserting that this was done by her for no other reason than to humour His servants, who were supplying His place. To whom the Lord, appearing afterwards, affirmed that she did very well to obey them; but that He would bring it about that the truth would at length be laid open: as afterwards these very men understood, and laid aside the error which they had imbibed. Hence one day, when, the Lord appearing to her, she took in her hand the cross which hung from her rosary of prayer, the Lord took the cross, which He by no means feared, and having taken it soon gave it back, but far other than He had received it. For it seemed to be made up of four larger gems, far more glowing than diamond, in one of which the five sacred Stigmata of the Lord were seen engraved elegantly and skilfully with art. And the Lord confirmed that this cross would always thereafter appear such to her. Nor was that promise vain; for she no longer beheld the wood of which it was made, but gems. But it appeared jewelled to her alone; to others it seemed no other than such as it had been before. Almost the same thing happened to St. Catherine of Siena, as Fray Raymond and St. Antoninus relate (3rd part of the Chronicle, title XXIII, chapter XIX, § VI): for Christ, the pious Spouse of Virgins, put on the fingers of this Virgin a golden ring, conspicuous with gems, which thereafter she never took off, and she alone saw it, but none of the others. To St. Cecilia also, as Simeon Metaphrastes put forth in writing in her Life c, an Angel brought from heaven two little crowns woven of the choicest flowers, which also she alone, with her spouse Valerian, beheld.
[87] which cross afterwards became illustrious by a miracle. As St. Gertrude d relates of herself (book II, chapter XXI), when she asked a pledge and surety of a certain distinguished promise made to her by the Lord, He gave her His Heart to be beheld, and she put her hand into it: which having been drawn out thence, she beheld seven golden circlets on her fingers, like rings, one indeed on each finger, but three on the middle one. So also Clement, Pope and Martyr, is said to have seen a lamb which with raised foot pointed out a spring to him, which yet none of so many thousands of Christians standing by could see, as Metaphrastes e left written in his Life. So that it is by no means new that God grants singular prerogatives and graces to His servants which they alone, and no others, enjoy and possess. Martin, prelate of Tours, as Sulpicius Severus relates in his Life (book II), when he was celebrating the offices of the Mass in his basilica, and a great crowd of men was present at them, a fiery globe was seen to hang over his head, which a certain virgin and one priest and three monks only beheld. Further, Juana de Ahumada, her sister, who today lives at Alba, extorted this cross from Teresa herself with many prayers, dissemblingly, as though she knew nothing at all of the things which were said of her: this is today in Juana's possession f, and she herself has several times shown it to me, and, as is indeed fitting, values it greatly as a precious pledge. It consists of four not very small beads of ebony, such as are commonly wont to be hung on the larger rosaries in use. A certain nun of the monastery of Alba, Magdalena de Toledo by name, maternal aunt of the illustrious man Francisco de Fonseca, lord of Coca and Alaejos, when, after the use of her eyes had been lost through a suffusion of humours, recovered again by the industry of physicians, and suddenly lost again three times afterwards, Teresa being now dead, she had gone to Juana de Ahumada, already seeing again; she put this cross, shown her by Juana, to her eyes, and behold, never thereafter was any darkness again spread over her eyes. Which miracle she herself everywhere narrates with sure faith to all who inquire of her about it; nay, she handed a testimony of this matter, signed with her name, to Nicolás de San Cirilo, then prior of the Discalced of Mancera.
[88] [She often enjoys the apparition of Jesus and Mary, and has the image of each painted.] Nor indeed on that account was there an end of visions and other graces of God, but rather a greater accession and increase of them daily: and when she busied herself to turn her mind elsewhere, she never ceased from prayer. And quite often she beheld the Lord Jesus Christ face to face, and Him for the most part endowed with the resurrection and glory. I myself have seen two little images which she continually kept by her; in one of which Christ the Redeemer rising from the dead, and in the other His Blessed Mother, were to be seen. These Juan de la Peña, then a prebendary of Salamanca, and afterwards of our Society, in which he also closed his last day, had drawn according to the notion given by Teresa of the figures which she held impressed on her memory: for she had both been present with the painter and had suggested how they were to be expressed. Such indeed is the art and elegance that shines forth in these images that, although the industry of all painters is far too inferior to rival with the brush in any degree the beauty which shines forth in similar visions, yet I would not believe that anything was ever painted by him which could be compared with these. Especially the image of the Mother of God is most charming. I have seen many pictures which that painter drew; yet so great, in my judgment, is the difference and distinction of these two from all his other works that, had not one who knew the matter asserted it to me more certainly than certain, I would scarcely have believed that they were finished by his hand. One of them, in which the Redeemer is expressed, María de Toledo, widow of Fadrique de Toledo, duke of Alba, keeps today: but the countess of Alba de Aliste had another made for herself in imitation of it. The other, however, is kept by a certain one of the Discalced Fathers, a man of distinguished virtue.
[89] Not even these things were enough for the Lord; but in order that it might shine forth more evidently that whatever was beheld in His handmaid proceeded not from the evil demon She sees an Angel transpiercing her heart. but from Him, He forthwith, as He had promised, stirred up in her soul so ardent and vehement a fire of divine love that she seemed to be consumed and almost to die with the desire of seeing God, and could not remain in herself. And in fact so great was the motion that she thought her soul was being violently torn from her: for indeed it was wounded and as if dying, and that with a death far sweeter and more desirable than all life here. Nor yet could she wish this wound to be taken from her, so that she judged that all the pleasures and delights of the world were to be placed after this torment and wound. Whence she again and again repeated that song of the loving Psalmist: "As the hart panteth after the fountains of waters, so my soul panteth after Thee, O God"; because she saw that this truly had place in her. In those very days a certain admirable and divine vision was offered her several times. For she saw standing at her left side a very small Angel clothed in bodily form; whom, on account of his ardour, Teresa believed to have been of the number of the Seraphim, glowing with love. He was brandishing in his hand a long golden dart, armed in place of a point with a little flame; and when he drew it out after fixing it in her heart, she believed that at the same time her inward parts were being torn out and her heart was wholly flaming with an enormous heat of divine love. And such was the vehemence of the pain that she breathed out in broken and interrupted groans; for the pain prevented her from groaning more intensely. And at the same time this pain breathed such sweetness into her soul that she could neither desire an end or interruption, nor could anything besides God bring her satiety. On the days on which this happened to her she was as if not master of herself; she would also have wished then to see or address no one, but continually to feel that savoury pain, which to her
was a harvest of greater glory than that which could flow from all creatures together. Several times afterwards she was rapt into excesses of mind, and indeed so frequently and vehemently that they happened even when she was dealing with others, and that she could not resist them as they thrust themselves upon her of their own accord. But from the time she became accustomed to having them, this so vehement pain little by little began to vanish.
[90] Ribera confirms the truth of this vision As regards this apparition of the Seraph or Angel it will be necessary to observe some things, both because this seems to contain something peculiar beyond the other visions, and indeed because there are not lacking those who can scarcely obtain from themselves to believe anything in these affairs of the spirit which they have not experienced or seen in themselves, and because it often also happens that they receive with laughter and mockery things by which they ought rather to be stirred to admiring the goodness of God and proclaiming His praises, because He deigns to impart Himself so amicably to His creatures. But since in the second chapter of this book I have spoken generally of Teresa's revelations and of the credence which is to be attached to them, at present I shall pursue only those things which pertain to this vision. It would be wrong and absurd, then, to say that this was a mere chimera of vain imagination and a womanish fiction, since we have established before what credence is to be had in a virgin so holy and truthful. For she, who already had so much practice and experience both of things of this kind and also of those which proceeded from the malignant spirit, and who three and four times, when he undertook to address her transformed into an Angel of light, recognized him without difficulty on the spot, could not so easily be enticed into fraud.
[91] by some reasons brought forward Further, if this vision of the Seraph had been offered her only once, there would be here a greater occasion of somewhat doubting for those who call everything into doubt; but since that Angelic sight was presented to the handmaid of God quite often and not in passing, who will believe that she was imposed upon here by the evil demon? And that all the more because she was fearful, nay did not even trust herself, and because she often hung in doubt in the clearest matters. There is added that she recorded this vision exactly in the same manner as we, without any hesitation or doubt. Nor did she commit it to writing on the day on which it happened, but some years after, when she had considered it accurately, and knew most certainly that she was by no means deceived. Is it not possible (to keep silent about other arguments) to gather from the very effects which this vision always stirred in her that she was by no means deceived? For it kindled the love of God in her more vehemently, and at the same time stirred in her soul an enormous bitterness of pain and no less sweetness and a desire of seeing God, so that nothing which was less or lower than God could satisfy her panting breast. For my part I would wish to ask these new academics whether they believe nothing but what they either touch with their hand or see with their eye, and, while in all the gifts which God confers on souls they always find something to doubt about, which of His attributes, since God here is the sole agent and effects all things, they wish to confine within fixed limits, His power, or His goodness? If they cannot define His power within fixed bounds (for He is omnipotent), why His goodness, since it is by no means inferior to His power? Why will they not believe that the divine goodness will work more and greater things in souls which dispose themselves for this much better than they themselves do, than in themselves? If they do not know what this is, let them do what those souls did, and labour for God's sake, as those laboured who know it, and then it will come about that they too will not be ignorant of it.
[92] and by the examples of St. Catherine of Siena Is God perhaps going to be so sparing in pouring out graces into the souls of the Saints as these smatterers are restrictive in believing them? This at least I would say to them (which also Teresa herself was very often wont to say), that he who will deny that the Lord works these and other charisms of that kind, or even greater ones than these, in souls wholly devoted to His service, will never perceive the same in himself. But he who has found any of these things by experience, and has truly begun to taste that the Lord is exceedingly sweet, will not with difficulty attach credence to all these things. Hence also all the things which Teresa herself narrated of herself easily found credence with Francis Borgia, with whom she first communicated her charisms; as also with Peter of Alcántara, and also with Master Juan de Ávila, to whom Teresa sent whatever she had entrusted to writing concerning her life: who also, as we shall say in its place, approved everything in order with wonderful assent. And so, since those men are altogether without experience of these things, why do they busy themselves to handle things of which they are truly ignorant? Whom I shall call, as is commonly said, blind men judging of colours. Is this something new and hitherto unheard of or unseen? How many visions not unlike these have been written of other Saints, which yet the most prudent men, and those to whom the infinite goodness of God is in some way perceived and known, have both gratefully believed and admitted as true? What, I beseech, will they say when they read that into St. Catherine of Siena, as her spiritual Father Fray Raymond, and after him also St. Antoninus, published (part 3 of the Chronicle, title XXIII, chapter XIX, § X), so enormous an abundance and force of divine love was once poured that for four hours her soul, exiled from the body, enjoyed wonderful visions? The same woman, as the same writers testify in the place above, when she had asked the Lord from the inmost recesses of her heart to take away from her her heart and will, and in their place to render her a heart and will conformed to Himself, seemed to herself to see the Lord descending to her, and, her left side having been unlocked, taking her heart from thence and keeping it for Himself, so that for a while she was heartless; until at length the Lord, returning, again opened her side, and put into her body, in place of the other, a most elegant heart which He was carrying in His hand. And Catherine had not yet been enrolled in the catalogue of the Saints when St. Antoninus read, believed and wrote these things.
[93] and of other Saints. Nor had Abbot Serenus been enrolled among the Saints: yet Cassian writes (Conference VII, chapter II) that, when he had obtained from God entire chastity of soul, he at the same time asked most earnestly for that of the body also; and that then the following vision was offered him by night. There came to him, namely, an Angel, who, his belly having been opened, took out a certain burning part of flesh and threw it outside; and, restoring the gaping belly to its former form, promised that he would shine thereafter with perpetual purity. Not unlike is what St. Gregory relates of Abbot Equitius, writing that an Angel appeared to him, who, by castrating him, took away from his body, as long as he lived, every motion towards illicit and carnal desires (book 1 of the Dialogues, chapter IV). St. John the Baptist also was seen to have done the same in the soul and body of a certain holy priest, when he signed his belly with the sign of the cross repeated three times, as Sophronius, patriarch of Jerusalem, hands down in his Spiritual Meadow (which is both an old and an approved book), chapter III. St. Gertrude twice (book II, chapters IV and XXIII) records that Christ engraved His five wounds on her heart g. Nay, in two other places also of the same book (chapters V and XXIII) she put forth that she was wounded in the heart by the Lord. St. Angela of Foligno h says that Christ appeared to her and ordered her to apply her mouth to the wound of His side; and that she seemed to herself to drink, by sucking it out, that precious liquor of Blood which flowed from the open side of the Lord. The same Gertrude also saw herself pierced through by Christ with a golden arrow which He held in His hand, and so wounded by that wound that she never thereafter returned to her former health; which is almost the same as what we are pursuing here about Teresa. It is written in another place (book III, chapter LXVII) that she was asked by the Lord for her heart, and that she most willingly handed it over; and that Christ then, having received it, applied it to His own. Other things akin to these are reported of other Saints. For the power and goodness of God, and the delights which He brings to His servants, are surely far greater than that human geniuses, all too weak and infirm, should aspire to them. Wherefore let these things be said also of the other things of this kind to be narrated afterwards: but let us continue the history which we have begun.
Chap. XII.
[94] St. Peter of Alcántara bids Teresa be secure. Those visions, then, rendered her doubtful; and since she altogether did not understand how it could be that so great a pain of spirit could coexist with so great a sweetness, and at the same time experienced in very deed that she could by no means resist the gifts of God, and saw no one who understood these things (for which cause she was not a little afflicted), it pleased the Lord to disperse the cloud of pains at the coming of Peter of Alcántara, then commissary of the Discalced Franciscans. Accordingly Guiomar de Ulloa, privy above all to Teresa's affairs and most dear to her, having asked leave of the provincial of the Carmelites, brought Teresa out to her house. At times, then, partly here, partly in various sacred places, Teresa met this holy man, and rendered him an account of herself. And although in these so spiritual matters she could not then conveniently explain her mind, yet he, as he was conspicuous for austerity of life and the gift of prayer, grasped her mind as soon as possible, and, bringing her much light, rendered her secure and more certain that this was the spirit of God and that His finger was working here; and that indeed so truly that, faith alone excepted, he would hold nothing either truer or more undoubted. And when he had evidently perceived what benefits God had conferred on that soul, and how great a disposition there was in her for receiving greater ones day by day, he began to be wonderfully affected towards her, and from that time to deal with her quite often both by letters and in familiar conversation, and at the same time earnestly to ask her to plead his cause with God.
[95] Yet she is not yet free of inward straits He added that she had already then indeed come out superior over the greatest of all the labours and anxieties that can be imagined, the contradiction, I mean, of good men, but that not a few others remained to be undergone by her. Besides this he met Father Baltasar Álvarez, so that he might confirm by his own new opinion and testimony the opinion which that man had conceived about the spirit of God working here; and at the same time Francisco de Salcedo, who loved her indeed most of all beyond the others, yet troubled her most grievously, since he was always of the opinion that she was bewitched by diabolical sleights. And this opinion had so deeply settled in him that, even though the most holy man Peter's brilliant
testimony on that matter he heard, he could never obtain from himself to put off wholly the mind which he had conceived; although otherwise he conducted himself a little more mildly in harassing her. Although these things brought most abundant consolation to Teresa's grieving soul, yet she was not plainly immune from the temptation of the demon: for he troubled her from time to time, and dread returned: whence also her intellect was darkened, and she wavered doubtful in soul. It occurred to her again and again either that she perhaps did not explain her mind rightly to Peter, or that she had not been able to understand the sense of his answer; and accordingly that it sufficed that she alone was deceived, so that it was not necessary to draw the servants of God themselves into fraud. The Lord wished, namely, that His handmaid, in order that He might render her purer and more sublime, should very often be tried by the hard fire of tribulation, and of such a tribulation indeed than which none can inflict a greater pain upon a person. Nor indeed was that temptation brief; nay, it persevered vehemently for two or three weeks at times, so that she seemed to herself to be suffocated.
[96] and from outward troubles. At other times she turned her eyes back to her former life, and seemed to herself to be deceiving everyone: and she went so far as to approach her confessors and forewarn them to see that they did not let themselves be imposed upon by her. Further, the Lord willed her to be tried and explored by these fears, afflictions and other temptations of every kind, because she was afterwards to be the mother of so many daughters and the helper of so many souls. Nay, it pleased Him to exercise her not moderately through the confessors themselves also: for when she was frequently oppressed with the greatest labours and troubles both of body and of soul, and went to them for the sake of receiving solace, they rebuked her with sharp words, and so far from dismissing her refreshed from them, they even reproved her more harshly and severely: so that they themselves too not rarely wondered afterwards. They wished indeed to console and soothe her with words, because they saw that she needed consolation as much as possible (whence also they often feared lest, by thus sending her away desolate from them and chiding her, they should contract some fault thereby); but they said that it had not been in their hand. By these things her holiness began to be wonderfully celebrated and published among the common people; and, although she stood in the way of it, nay abhorred it most of all, there was no one who did not conceive a distinguished esteem of her. For since she set forth clearly to her confessors all the graces which she received from God, and did this at times to other spiritual men also and men conspicuous for erudition in letters (for most vehement was the temptation by which she feared lest that should descend from the devil, the architect of fraud and lies, which she most manifestly saw to come from God, as long as she was free from that temptation, and much more still when she abounded in those heavenly delights), these afterwards communicated the same with others; whence it came about that the fame of her name grew more and more frequent daily in the mouths of men. This also was the cause why she was at times invited with the utmost entreaties by leading matrons to their houses, to stay with them for some time: in which they invoked the authority of the Reverend Father Provincial: whence, since this could not be denied them on account of the splendour of their name, it came about that Teresa was often compelled to go out of her monastery.
ANNOTATA.
CHAPTER VII.
The purpose of founding at Ávila a monastery in honour of St. Joseph, begun to be brought into effect not without hindrances.
Chap. XIII.
[Teresa, while she serves God more fervently day by day in the convent of the Incarnation,] What Teresa's manner of life then was can be established to some extent from a certain letter sent by her to a nun of another Order. It runs thus, then: "Before these convents began to be founded, I lived for twenty-five years in a certain one in which a hundred and eighty consecrated virgins dwelt with me. But since leisure for narrating more does not avail me, this one thing I shall say, that all these things will be to one who loves God in place of a certain cross, and will turn to no slender advantage of the soul, but that no loss of salvation will come to her thence, provided you seriously think with yourself that God and you alone are in that house. Meanwhile, while you are free from every office, and the care of nothing has been entrusted to you by the superiors, neglect to care for the rest; but apply yourself solely to acquiring the virtue which you shall perceive in each one, so that on account of this you may love each one, and may turn that virtue to your own use: but if you shall note any defects in them, remove yourself very far from them. This consideration bore me so much fruit that, although the number of the nuns was that which I said, it hindered me no more than if there had been none at all: nay rather I drew no moderate gain thence. For in every place, dearest, we can love this great God. Blessed be He, because no one at all can separate us from His charity."
[98] of a new monastery under stricter discipline But although she profited her companions at home by the example of virtue, and stirred distinguished motions in their souls by the uprightness of her life and the light which flashed forth from her works, the more the more she strove to suppress it, yet these things were small if compared with those which the great Lord had decreed should afterwards profit by her works: hence He began little by little to stir and call her to greater things. But in order that it may be evident to the eye how wonderful God is in His works, and how from slender beginnings He at times sets great things in motion, it has seemed good to trace here somewhat more deeply the beginnings of the monasteries afterwards erected by Mother Teresa of Jesus. She had a kinswoman, whom she always pursued with singular love, María de Ocampo a, who afterwards, having also embraced the Institute of the Discalced, assumed the surname of St. John the Baptist, and afterwards presided for many years over the monastery of Valladolid, giving to all an example of the religious life. She at that time indeed was pursuing elegance of dress, which she also fostered with arts sought out and devised by her genius and industry to the point of astonishment. When, then, she was living in the convent of the Incarnation in secular guise, and one night she was in the room of her aunt with her sister and other cousins and kinswomen of Teresa, partly still following the world, partly having professed Religion, and at the same time Juana Suárez, that great friend of the Blessed Mother, of whom we have already touched on some things above, they all began, in the guise of those playing and jesting, to say among themselves that that kind of life which they lived in this monastery seemed especially very troublesome, on account of the very great number of the inhabitants. To which María de Ocampo forthwith answering, says: "Why then do not all of us who have come together here present enter upon another institute of life, which, after the manner of the ancient anchorites, may breathe greater solitude?" But since this word proceeded from God, although she then did not know it, He by no means suffered it to fall to the ground, but to glide into the minds and wills of all. And when it had pleased all, and they drew out the night in mutual conversations on this matter, discussion began as to what plan could be entered upon for some smaller monastery, into which fewer companions should be admitted, and what expenses would be required for building it.
[99] begins to think of building. Then María de Ocampo promised that she would contribute to this work a thousand gold pieces to be deducted from her inheritance; which she seemed both to have at heart and seriously to urge. The mind of the offerer pleased the pious Mother, while she heard her, even then wholly absorbed in the vanities of the world, discoursing with so great ardour about beginning this new kind of life. Teresa herself then was burning in a greater measure with new desires of entering upon a more austere life and of pursuing solitude and of dedicating herself anew to God, and assiduously reflected with herself what worthy service she could render to the Lord, who was putting these ardent little torches under her soul. These motions in her had been stirred by that horrible and admirable vision in which, the Lord showing it, she beheld both the place and the torments among those below prepared for her, if she had continued to keep on the road which she had formerly begun. And although this vision is worthy both to be narrated and to be known, I nevertheless wrap it in silence, because the Blessed Mother pursues it at length in chapter XXXII of her Life b. She had already resolved with herself that nothing ought to be more important to her than to respond to her vocation and to observe with the greatest integrity she could the prescriptions of the Institute undertaken: and although many faithful handmaids of God were living in her convent, yet for what she had in mind she judged far narrower enclosure and greater solitude necessary. When, then, the Lord had already begun to dispose her in the manner which we have said, and she herself had been present and heard that recent conversation of those virgins, she felt an incredible delight in her soul and kept all things in her heart. Not so long after, a certain matron c of her very closest familiars came to her, to whom, as if in the guise of one laughing, she began to say: "Very recently those virgins were treating in many conversations of a new convent to be instituted by us in imitation of the Discalced Franciscan nuns, and were conceiving various proposals on this matter." Which Guiomar did not think said as if in jest; but she took the matter seriously to heart, adding that it was to be carried into execution, and that she would labour so that the necessary supports of life should not be lacking.
[100] God confirms this purpose of hers, But although Teresa desired this very thing not moderately, yet she was rather averse to it, because in the house in which she was living she enjoyed a most desired and most joyful quiet of mind, and it was most suited to her exercises and pursuits of piety; for which reason she did not so much incline to this change. Both at length resolved to commend the business to God with assiduous prayers. And on the following day, after Teresa had already approached the life-giving banquet of the Eucharist, the Lord gave her in command that she should apply herself with what effort she could to the raising of this monastery: and when He had promised that it would be happily brought to its end and that the thing would be most pleasing to Him and would contribute not a little to the glory of His name, He willed it to be dedicated to St. Joseph; whom He affirmed would keep watch at one of the gates, and His most holy Mother at the other, and that He Himself would be their most diligent guardian and would never desert them, and finally that this monastery, after the manner of a star, would dart forth distinguished rays in every direction. For this cause the Blessed Mother afterwards also had images placed at its entrance both of the Mother of God and of her most beloved spouse Joseph. The Lord added besides: "Nor is there reason for you to persuade yourself that little worship and service is rendered to Me in convents, even though degenerating from their primeval fervour. For what would become of the world if religious did not bring it helping hands? I would wish you to tell these things to your confessor, whom I do not wish to oppose you or be an impediment to you in this business." Such was the force of these words, and such wonderful motions did they produce in her soul, that she was plainly persuaded that they came from the supreme Lord. But indeed this thing tore her soul most of all, as one who already then set before herself those innumerable labours and difficulties which she afterwards experienced in its execution. Then indeed it seemed grievous to her above all to leave a dwelling so suitable for her pursuits and exercises of soul. To this was added that the matter no longer depended, as indeed before, on her own nod and choice, but she was being impelled by the Most High; finally that she foresaw that she would be the cause of great disturbances and revilings among the people: so that she altogether did not know where to turn.
[101] which is also approved by the provincial Salazar and by St. Peter of Alcántara. Further, the Lord, who did not wish the things begun to be interrupted and wholly neglected, again, and afterwards even more frequently, addressed her on this business, many reasons also being brought forward to persuade her of it, to which she had nothing to object. Wherefore, perceiving manifestly that God had so resolved, she by no means dared to oppose, but entrusted to writing whatever had passed, and handed it to Baltasar Álvarez, to whom she was then giving her soul to be ruled. And because he excelled in prudence and exceptional reverence for God, he plainly did not wish to call her back from this work, although no means of bringing it to its end and completing it appeared (for the money situation was very straitened): but he was her adviser that she should consult on this matter Ángel de Salazar, her provincial, and should follow his opinion. Then that matron whom we indicated above met the provincial, indicating that she was ready to build and endow this monastery. He approved her pious plan, and, pledging her what help was fitting in it, promised that he would hold this monastery ratified. But before even these things were being done, they had written in order to Peter of Alcántara whatever they were treating of. He answered that they should by no means fail in the thing conceived, and counselled them in what manner they should conduct themselves in it; and he also reported the whole matter to the bishop of Ávila, as we shall afterwards record d. The beginnings of the business seemed joyful, when the adversary of human salvation, presaging already then the loss which threatened him thence (although I would not believe that he imagined to himself so great a damage as he has long since felt and will afterwards also feel), began to stir up a turbulent tempest through the whole town.
[102] Hence revilings arise against the Saint: For as soon as this matter began to be made public, it gave material for talk of various kinds in all circles, and also a handle to the malevolent for cavilling and scoffing. For all everywhere accused Teresa of folly; they kept saying that she was well off in her convent; finally they spread among the common people many things of that kind both about her and about her companion: so that on this account they were not moderately flogged by the tongues of the malignant rabble. But in this tempest the Lord encouraged His handmaid, asserting that hence she would not obscurely perceive how great adversities and contradictions those had suffered who had laid the first foundations of holy Religious Orders; but that she should know that a persecution far more vehement than she believed was hanging over her neck. Already the city was full of that rumour, and there was almost no one in it, either citizen or religious, whom they did not experience as opposed to the work. The matter at length went so far that, when Guiomar on the very day of the Lord's Nativity in the morning had gone to her confessor (whom I myself knew) to declare her faults, he refused to give her absolution unless she departed from this very opinion and purpose, because he said it seemed that the occasion of giving scandal to her neighbour everywhere must be cut off. They themselves would have desired for their part to employ the help of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus in this matter; but it seemed otherwise to Guiomar, on account of the singular love with which she was borne towards them. For since they had come to Ávila not so long before, and, because their means at home were rather straitened, had need of the help and support of all, she judged that, if ours had mixed themselves in this business, they would easily incur the hatred and indignation of all: wherefore it seemed far better (as I afterwards received from her own mouth) to implore the industry of some other great man.
[103] Both therefore betake themselves to the distinguished convent of St. Thomas of the Order of the renowned Father St. Dominic, and inform Pedro Ibáñez, presentado e, [which, although Father Pedro Ibáñez of the Order of Preachers judges them nothing to be regarded,] a man both illustrious in the sciences and notable for religious virtues, of the progress of the whole matter, and sound out his opinion. Further, it did not seem good to Teresa to disclose here the revelations which she had had in the direction of this business; because she did not wish either this business or the others afterwards to be accomplished to be judged by revelations. Hence she proposed only the reasons by which she was moved to do this, and the goods which could flow thence; then she inquired the judgment of others on this, just as if it rested on human wisdom and counsel alone, without God having intervened. Thus indeed she conducted herself in this business. And Ibáñez, as he was strong in prudence, and as the very weight of the matter also required (although to him, no less than to others, that undertaking seemed foolish, and he had resolved with himself to overturn the matter entirely, as he afterwards frankly confessed), put off his answer for the present, and asked that eight days be given him, in which to commend the matter to God and to weigh more maturely the moments of the reasons on either side. Not so long after, a messenger was sent to him from a princely man, signifying that he should see what he was doing, and should deny these silly women all help and support; and other things not unlike these. But Ibáñez, as he set about examining the matter thoroughly, forthwith passed over to the other side entirely, and judged that it would be not a little for the divine service, and accordingly that it seemed wrong to desist from what had been begun. Wherefore he persuaded them to hasten, and at the same time prescribed the manner of duly accomplishing the matter: besides, that, although an abundance of money was not now available, they should trust in the Lord; and, if they knew anyone who wished to disturb the business, they should send him to him: that he would abundantly satisfy him with reasons. These words gave them courage, and indeed also because they saw these servants of God, whom they had before experienced as adversaries, now so far desisting from attacking them as even to assist them with help and counsel.
[104] Teresa nevertheless, the provincial revoking his approval Wherefore before all things they bought a house, a small one indeed (in which place the monastery is even today), which yet then indeed satisfied Teresa, although unequal to the things she was turning over in her mind. For the Lord had commanded her to begin the matter in whatever way she could: for she would thereupon see what He Himself would do. The parties had already agreed about the purchase, and on the following day the deeds of the matter were to be drawn up, when so great a contention of opponents arose through the city, and in the Incarnation itself so varied a rumour and reviling, that the provincial, thinking that he must serve the time, judged it a hard thing to wish to oppose the opinions of so many conspiring to one aim. Wherefore he said to Guiomar that he could not hold this foundation ratified, both because the revenues for living were slender, and those little stable, and indeed because it was liable to the detractions of many. But Teresa, who had undergone most grievous labours and afflictions before she had brought the matter to the place in which it now was, in these hindrances also plainly laid it down, with no less promptness indeed and quiet of her soul than if she had not moved one foot on its account; because she wished to carry out or establish nothing at all against the will of the provincial and with her confessor Baltasar Álvarez thinking otherwise: for he, having learned that the provincial was resisting and would not approve the matter, forbade her to press on further with this care.
[105] and the nuns of the Incarnation murmuring against her, There had been much material for talk before; but now much greater still, because the things which had been said before about the light purpose of women devising this from their own brain seemed to be confirmed by this. In the Incarnation also she was cut up by the tongues of the malevolent, who kept saying that no moderate injury was inflicted on them by her: that she could serve God accurately here no less than elsewhere, since others too better than herself were living there. When these and other things of that kind were spread by the revilers, there were not lacking also those who counselled that she be shut up in custody. But the pious handmaid of God bore all with a distinguished sign of patience, bringing into the midst her reasons by which she was incited to do this; although she by no means touched the principal one, namely that this matter had been enjoined on her from heaven. And since on her part she seemed to have brought whatever help she could at last for accomplishing the business entrusted to her by the Lord, she laid this care wholly aside with a secure and quiet mind: yet she hoped that the matter would be carried into execution in its time; although its beginnings appeared so slender, and the overturning on the other side so great, that she by no means perceived by what way at last it would come about.
Chap. XIV.
[106] But nothing cast Teresa down more than that she saw herself afflicted by him from whom she expected consolation. by command of Álvarez her confessor, from the work begun, For Baltasar Álvarez signified to her by letter that it could now be seen not obscurely from the things which had been done that what she had conceived were mere dreams: accordingly that thereafter she should be wiser, and should neither undertake these empty undertakings any further nor deal with anyone about them; especially since she saw the great offence of the people, of which she herself had been the cause.
This letter saddened the pious virgin; because she feared lest she herself had perhaps been the cause of the divine Godhead being offended by others, and she judged with herself that, if the visions which had befallen her from heaven with regard to this matter were false, all the prayer also which she was practising must lie open to impostures. On which occasion the devil vehemently troubled her with his accustomed temptation of fear. But after these foul clouds of affliction an immense serenity soon arose in her mind at the voice of the consoling Lord. For the Lord said to her that there was no reason for her to be distressed; for an immense service had been rendered Him by her, nor had He been offended by her: she should further follow the admonitions of her confessor, until the time for undertaking the matter again should come. By these words the Blessed Mother remained so refreshed that whatever adversity she had suffered she counted as nothing: and not then only, but afterwards also quite often He consoled her with the sweetest words, so that it seemed grievous and very bitter to Him, out of the tenderness of His love towards her, to let His handmaid remain longer anxious and desolate. Further, this followed from this bitterness of afflictions, that the love of God and other charisms of the mind made wonderful progress in her, and she was overwhelmed by these torrents of love far more vehemently than before, and experienced more sublime raptures.
[107] desists, the work being meanwhile promoted by Ibáñez. Meanwhile Ibáñez, in whom it had always settled as most certain that this matter was to be brought to the desired end, was handling it with wonderful assiduity with that pious widow, since Teresa had now desisted from caring for it, so as not to oppose the commands of her confessor: and they even wrote to Rome about the same. And Teresa gave Ibáñez an account of her prayer and revelations and of all the things which were communicated to her by the Lord, again and again asking him to examine them, and to indicate freely to her whether they contained anything repugnant to the Sacred Letters: and he, since all these things seemed to him excellent, bade her be quiet. Thus five or six months slipped by without Teresa hearing or speaking anything of the business of the monastery begun, and without the Lord disclosing to her anything pertaining to this matter. In those days, as it happened, Father Gaspar de Salazar f, who today is in the province of Baetica, was placed over the college of the S. J. at Ávila; whose coming, as indeed was afterwards found, seemed necessary in order that the matter indicated should be resumed anew. For this opinion of mine I lay down this reason. Father Baltasar then presided over the college only with the secondary power of minister; and, since in our Society the custom flourishes that an account be rendered to superiors of the affairs which are conducted by inferiors, and that it be permitted to no one to undertake anything without their being consulted or aware, Baltasar, following this custom, had himself reported to his rector concerning that matter: who, because he too by no means approved of it, had called Álvarez back from it, and had wholly forbidden him the care of it. Hence, although he greatly desired the matter to be accomplished, he did not dare to betray himself or to decide anything about it. And a few days before Father Salazar came to Ávila, Teresa, when, very sorrowful and dejected because she perceived that her confessor by no means trusted her, she was pouring herself out wholly before God in prayer, heard from Him: "Do not fear or be disturbed, daughter: shortly you will be freed from this bitterness of soul." She was persuaded that this would come about through death, and thought most joyfully that she would shortly be led out of this toilsome prison. But God was looking at far other and higher things, who was reserving His handmaid for other works looking to the greater glory of His name; and then, when she thought the matter altogether laid down and finished, He commanded her to begin it anew.
[108] At length again, at the exhortation of Father Gaspar de Salazar But the outcome of the matter which followed sufficiently disclosed in what manner this prediction was to be understood: for from it she learned that her affliction would have its end at the coming of this rector to Ávila. When he, then, had arrived, Father Baltasar Álvarez counselled Teresa that she should confer with him most clearly and most freely about all her affairs. She did this most willingly, and took great consolation and advantage of soul thence. Having been informed of all these things, the rector did not wish to divert Baltasar from this business: nay rather he was his persuader and adviser that he should console the sorrowful Teresa: that there was nothing which she ought to fear; nor should he thereafter direct her through so narrow and strait a road, but should let her pious wishes of mind range abroad; finally, he should not impede the spirit of God working in her. Soon the Lord began again, through vision, to urge upon His handmaid the raising of this monastery, and to command that she should bring some reasons before her confessor and rector, persuaded by which they should by no means impede the matter. The rector examined her diligently and accurately, and weighed the moments of her reasons; whence he did not doubt that the spirit of God was impelling her to this: wherefore neither he nor Álvarez dared to oppose her in any way.
[109] and with Álvarez himself, whose mind God had changed, Further, Álvarez learned the will of God in this way. The Lord one day said to His handmaid: "Admonish your confessor that tomorrow morning he ruminate in meditating on this verse of the Prophet: How great are thy works, O Lord! Thy thoughts are exceeding deep." These words are taken from the ninety-first Psalm. When, then, Teresa had as soon as possible transmitted the will of the Lord to him in writing, he did not hesitate to humour her. And as by the appearance of a star God taught the three Magi, most skilled in the courses of the stars, disposing and ordering all things sweetly, so by the help of prayer He is wont to pour much light into those who frequent and exercise it. Let this Father Baltasar be an example, to whom, as he meditated on this little verse, it was so manifestly disclosed that this was the will of God, and that He would accomplish His wonders by the help of a woman, that, rising from meditation, he said that there was now no longer to be any doubt about this business, but began seriously and diligently to treat of the erection of the new monastery. This I received from the mouth of a Father most worthy of credence, to whom that very evening Álvarez showed the slip transmitted by Teresa. This answer having been received, Teresa, who had already cast away from her mind every thought of the erection, but was intent only on the cultivation and good of her soul, enriching it daily with true riches and adorning it with the precious necklaces of the virtues, applied herself wholly again to that care, although she saw that she was summoning a great mass of burdens upon her head, both because the undertaking of this matter was arduous, and because she alone, destitute of all help, was most unprepared in the things necessary for setting a monastery in motion. Wherefore before all things she procured for herself with great labour what silver she could, for buying that house which has now been turned into a monastery: and since the matter was to be carried through secretly (for if the provincial had understood anything, every effort would soon have fallen back into nothing), she devised, with the prudence that was hers, a most convenient and excellent method for this; which also she judged must be used.
[110] she applies herself to the building of her monastery. Teresa had a sister, Juana de Ahumada, married to Juan de Ovalle and then living at Alba. She bids Ovalle, then, having been summoned to Ávila, to buy that house as if for his own uses: and his wife followed him not many days after. That day fell on the 4th day before the Ides of August of the year 1561. Then at length hands began to be put to the work. There was already then some progress in it: and since her sister was now living at Ávila, the Blessed Mother at times asked leave to go out under the pretext of visiting her, but in reality to inspect in person what was required for setting the building in motion, how it was rising, and also hastening its completion. Further, from the very beginning of this foundation to the end, by her distinguished prudence, holiness, and especially by the co-operation of God, the Best and Greatest, who never deserted her, she always so directed all things that for the sake of the structure she did not deviate even a nail's breadth from the prescription of the obedience which, according to the laws of her Institute, she owed most exactly to her superiors; although otherwise she was held by a great desire of completing it, and God, the supreme arbiter of things, had already so many times commanded it of her: which certainly is not without admiration. A certain matron, a friend of the Blessed Mother, contributed some help indeed, but very little; so that the whole mass of the matter fell back upon her shoulders alone: which surely, for a nun so recollected in God, and who was obliged either to do that work secretly or to omit it altogether, was in some manner an intolerable labour. But meanwhile, while the mass was rising, some things worthy of memory happened, which I shall recount afterwards. Of their number is that which I now bring forward. When Teresa desired a greater supply of workmen and craftsmen for hastening this building, and could not hire them on account of the slenderness of her money, the glorious spouse of the Mother of God, Joseph, towards whom she was borne with peculiar zeal, appearing to her through vision, bade her stipulate with the craftsmen about their wages: for what she should pay in wages would by no means be lacking to her. She had no need of another instigator then, the great faith on which she relied being added; wherefore she hired all to a man: meanwhile the Lord provided for paying them their price, moving to supply the necessary expenses liberally the mind of one from whom she would least have expected it: which thing cast not a little astonishment into all to whose knowledge it afterwards came: but to her, on account of the eminent confidence which she had conceived in God, it seemed that it could easily be done.
ANNOTATA.
Chapter VIII.
The foundation of the first monastery of Discalced Carmelite virgins.
Chap. XV.
Little by little the mass was rising; but this house appeared too slender to Teresa: for such was its narrowness that she perceived in it no places suitable for the necessities of sleeping and eating, nay it seemed to have altogether no appearance of a monastery. Besides this, for fitting out a church a small adjoining house seemed necessary; but money was lacking for buying it, and no means presented itself whence it could be procured. While, then, the pious virgin was tossing amid these straits and perplexities, the Lord addressed her as she returned from Holy Communion in these words: "I have already admonished you before to move into this house in whatever way you can. Oh, the covetousness of the human race, that you should think that even earth will be lacking to you! How often have I taken sleep under the open sky, not having where to lay My head!" When these words had wonderfully struck her, she went to that house; and when she had explored it more curiously, it seemed that it could conveniently be reduced to the form of a monastery, although a very narrow and small one: wherefore she by no means laboured about a more ample space, regarding this one thing, that this very one, though rude and unpolished, should be completed in whatever way and in so far as it would suffice for habitation. This mind was given her chiefly by a new vision offered to her as she approached the Eucharistic Table on the feast day of St. Clare, Virgin. Namely, this glorious Virgin gave herself to be beheld by her in most beautiful appearance, exhorting her to take courage and to promote what she had begun, and promising that she would be a help to her. Nor surely did she fail her word: for the nuns who in the convent called of St. Mary of Jesus professed the Institute of St. Clare supplied for some time the necessary supports of life to the new Discalced nuns.
[112] and by visions. Then another vision also was shown her, by which she was still more confirmed in her purpose. She was then turning over in her mind to whom it would be expedient, after the erection of the monastery, to render obedience; and indeed she herself inclined towards the provincial of her Order: but the Redeemer turned her from this counsel, affirming that it was fitting that the monastery should be subjected to no other than the bishop, and enjoining that Teresa should send to Rome by a certain way which He Himself designated: that He would further take care that apostolic letters should be brought thence. And when about the same time, on the day of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Teresa was in the church of the convent of St. Thomas of the Fathers Preachers, and was turning over in her mind the sins which she had formerly confessed in the same church, so great a rapture took hold of her that she was almost called away from the senses: in which rapture she saw herself clothed round with a most white and most splendid garment. At the beginning she did not see by whom she was being clothed; but then she beheld the Mother of God standing by her at her right, St. Joseph at her left, and herself being clothed by these. She understood thence that she was now cleansed of her sins: and she saw her hands taken by the Most Holy Virgin. And then indeed she said to Teresa that it was very pleasing to her that she served St. Joseph, her spouse, with a peculiar affection. She promised moreover that this monastery would be completed, and that great honour and service would redound thence to her Son and to herself and her spouse: nor should she doubt about this matter; for most certainly it would so come to pass, even though the obedience to be rendered to the bishop did not so very much smile upon her: besides, that the nuns would be preserved by her and by Joseph her spouse, and that her Son also would be and walk with them, as He too, appearing before, had undertaken that He would do; in pledge of which things she was handing her this necklace: for she saw through vision a golden necklace, the like of which no earth produced, and a most precious cross hanging from it, then put upon her neck by the Mother of God: and these two she afterwards beheld in spirit carried together into heaven, accompanied by an innumerable multitude of Angels. This vision heaped her with an unwonted feeling of pious consolation and with interior joy; so that, without any movement and unable to loose her tongue into words, she seemed for some hours as if estranged from the senses, and experienced incredible ardours and motions to spend herself wholly for the glory of God.
[13] To one little son of her sister While the building was being gradually prepared and Teresa was staying with her sister Juana, some things happened, which she herself indeed passes over in silence; which it has seemed good to pursue in this place. Both had gone to the church of St. Thomas, when the preacher who was then addressing the people began to inveigh so bitterly against Teresa, yet with her name kept silent, as if she had contracted some public disgrace, and to be borne against her with such insulting and virulent words that her sister, being present, was suffused with blushes. Whom he was aiming at was so clear that only pointing with the finger seemed to be lacking. Teresa was so little moved by these reproaches and injuries that, with the desire of suffering for Christ which was hers, she congratulated herself in her soul as if on an illustrious victory won, and for joy laughed no otherwise than at other things which she heard proclaimed and extolled of herself to her face. But her sister, on hearing these things, conceived such indignation in her soul that she did not rest before she had led the Blessed Mother back to her monastery: and she forthwith followed her as she went before, not in the least vexed. But since it was necessary for her to be present at the building which was rising, she asked leave of the provincial through her sister to be allowed to be absent from the house; which having been done, she returned whence she had come. While she was staying here, God deigned to work an illustrious miracle through the merits of His handmaid. Juan de Ovalle had a little son named Gonzalo a, whom I knew very well, and who a few months ago, in youthful age, had so holy and pious an end of life that it easily appeared that he had a holy aunt in heaven. His father, returning home one day, found him lying on the threshold without sense and with his little body rigid. Immediately, then, having applied him to his breast, he called to him, but in vain: for no indication of life appeared in the boy. Whence this had happened or what it was, no one has hitherto known, nay, not even whether he was truly dead: this is established, that he lay in the manner which I have said. Without delay the father carries little Gonzalo to Teresa.
[114] she restores life; Meanwhile Juana, the mother, was in another room. She had indeed heard some noise, roused by which she had begun to be disturbed; but a certain matron, who had come then to greet her, prudently dissembling the fact (for Juana was carrying in her womb and was very near childbirth; whence perhaps another misfortune also would have followed), had calmed her mind with words. But when the household came in, the matter could not be so hidden but that, having learned what had been done, the mother forthwith burst out wailing, crying out for and seeking her son, and flying swiftly to her sister Teresa. She had the boy resting on her knees, enjoining silence on her lamenting sister, as also on the rest; and all were awaiting the outcome of the matter with astonishment. Immediately, then, her veil being let down together with her head towards the boy, without uttering a word, she cried from the inmost recesses of her heart to the Lord, in imitation of Moses, that He would not sadden those whom He Himself had chosen as co-operators in the work designated by Him. In this posture she remained, until the boy, restored to life, began to move his hands about his aunt's face, in the guise of one playing and fondly caressing, so readily as if nothing unwonted had happened to him, but he had awakened from a placid slumber. Restoring him to the afflicted mother, Teresa said: "Good God! How much you were distressed on account of your little son! Here he is, take him with you." The boy could not yet indeed stand firm on his feet for lack of strength; but this being gradually restored to him, and running about the room, by returning again and again to his aunt he clasped her most fondly. Eye-witnesses of this thing, and worthy of credence, still survive today, from whose mouth I received the whole matter. The same Gonzalo narrated to me that he was wont to say to his aunt Teresa that she was bound to bring it about that he should be made possessed of heavenly glory, since it had been due to her that he had not been admitted to it long ago. Nay, also several times I have heard from a certain matron, a friend of the Blessed Mother, that she sometimes asked her: "How could this happen, dearest? Had this boy already expired?" And that she was wont, smiling placidly, to answer nothing: whereas, if at any time similar things were asked of her elsewhere which she could truly deny, she was wont forthwith, gently chastising her curiosity, to ask why she brought these things forward so beside the point and purpose. But to this question she was wont to answer nothing at all.
[115] she sees another carried into heaven by Angels. Not many days after, Juana bore a son, on whom she imposed the name of Joseph, because Teresa was carried towards St. Joseph with a great feeling of devotion. To this boy, when she sometimes clasped him in her arms, the Blessed Mother was wont to say: "Would that, little one, if you are not to order your life according to virtue, God would snatch you away from here first by a premature death in this angelic state before you offend Him!" Scarcely three weeks had flowed by when life failed him; and Teresa, taking him into her hands when already near death, looked upon him with fixed eyes. And while she was fixing her gaze upon him, her sister Juana contemplated her attentively: then suddenly her face changed, glowed, and put on such great beauty that she seemed like an Angel. When the boy had now expired, and Teresa was hurrying out of the room so as not to sadden her sister, she forthwith heard from her: "Do not take yourself away from here, sister; for I see that the little boy has now died." Then Teresa, with a gentle face and like one astonished, said: "We must praise God, seeing how many thousands of Angels descend to receive the souls of such little angels, whenever they depart from life." Whence it becomes manifest that they were beheld by Teresa then when the soul of this little boy departed from his little body.
Chap. XVI.
[116] The solid wall of the new monastery Let us return to the discourse begun and somewhat interrupted about the construction of the house. Teresa had already doubted before to whom chiefly she should render obedience, and it seemed hard to her, as we have shown above, to be subject to anyone else than the superiors of her Institute. Yet the Redeemer by His precept snatched her from this doubt, admonishing her to subject herself to the bishop of Ávila. He was at that time Álvaro de Mendoza, who afterwards died prelate of Palencia: yet at Ávila, because he was most zealous for the Blessed Mother, he resolved to build at his own expense the principal chapel b of this new monastery, in which his bones should afterwards be laid when he was dead (because he had thought that Teresa too was to be laid in that place). But in order that the business might be accomplished with the firmness that was fitting, Teresa took care that an apostolic diploma should be obtained from the Supreme Pontiff. And the more the work of the convent begun grew day by day, the more hateful the evil demon held this new foundation, which, namely, he feared would be so damaging to him, and the more
he opposed it with what zeal and effort he could. A solid and huge wall had already been raised, whose foundation consisted of rock, the remaining part built in cement-work with very firm stones and bricks; and it had cost no moderate price of money collected with great labours.
[117] is thrown down by demons. This, then, great as it was, is thrown down to the earth by night, although it had been built by skilled craftsmen. When Juan de Ovalle rose up against these, as being little skilled in their art, and wished them to restore the wall at their own expense, because they had undertaken that work on their good faith, Teresa calls her sister Juana to her, saying: "I would wish you to tell your husband not to pursue or rebuke these workmen so: for this ruin is not to be ascribed to their fault, but to the envy of the evil demons, who dashed the wall to the ground with great force. Let him be silent, then, and pay them just as much as before." Afterwards she says again to the same sister: How Satan opposes this work! With what striving he exerts himself! But it will be in vain." This ruin also cast down Guiomar's spirit not a little; who, going to Teresa rather sad, said that it did not seem to be the will of God that this work should be undertaken, since so solid and firm a wall had so suddenly fallen to the ground. To whom Teresa, with serene mind and face, said: "If it has collapsed, it must be raised up." And in order that some help of money might be collected, Guiomar, at Teresa's bidding, asked through a certain man thirty gold pieces from her mother c, who was living at Toro; although she feared lest this should be done with vain effort. Not more than two days had passed when Teresa bids Guiomar be of good courage: for those thirty gold pieces were already in the hands of the man sent, and indeed counted out in the lower court of the quadrangle. Nor were they vain words: for when the messenger returned to Ávila, it was found that they had been handed to him at Toro at that very hour at which Teresa had foretold it at Ávila; so that none of these things could either cast down or sadden the generous soul of the Blessed Mother. Yet it distressed her not moderately that, although the matter was carried through as secretly as it could be, someone began to suspect what was the case: hence she feared lest, if these things came to the ears of the provincial, he should forbid her to go on with what she had begun; whom she was most ready to obey in all things. But this fear was met in this way.
[118] By order of her provincial At that time there departed from this life at Toledo Arias Pardo, a man noble by birth, lord of Malagón and other places: whose wife Luisa de la Cerda d, sister of the duke of Medinaceli e, bore the event so very bitterly that fears began to be had for her health. She had long since received by no doubtful report the things which were spread everywhere about Teresa's virtues, and at the same time that she was living in such a convent as it was permitted to go out of when permission had been given. She resolved, therefore, to summon her to herself, so that by the conversation of some days she might soften the sadness which she had lately conceived from the death of her husband. As soon as possible, then, by whatever means she could, she reported the matter by letters sent to Ángel de Salazar, the provincial, though he was far absent from there. The provincial could not deny her this, because she was a most distinguished woman and of great authority. Therefore on the eve of the Nativity festival in the same year 1561 he commanded Teresa by letters, in virtue of obedience, that, having taken a companion with her, she should betake herself quickly to the widow. Having read these through, she went to Matins, and commended herself most earnestly to God; because she would have preferred to stay at Ávila. During Matins, or at least a great part of them, she was rapt into a new ecstasy, in which she heard the Lord speaking to her thus: "Do not neglect to go there, daughter, and despise the talk of others about this matter: for few will counsel you this without rashness. Although labours will by no means be lacking to you, yet they will turn to the glory of My name; and it will be for the good of the monastery begun that you be absent for a time, until the apostolic diploma is transmitted: for the demon has begun an enormous web, which he is putting off until the coming of the provincial. Do not fear: I will indeed be with you in that place."
[119] The Saint sets out for Toledo; By these words she resumed courage and laid aside her grief; and, although not a few dissuaded her from this journey, affirming that it was a fiction of the demon, and on the contrary counselled her to report to the provincial on that matter, she was not moved at all nor changed her mind; but, having communicated the matter with the rector of the college of the Society of Jesus, she learned from him that this journey was by no means to be interrupted. She girded herself, then, for it, accompanied by Juan de Ovalle, her sister's husband; who, Teresa having been left at Toledo, returned to Ávila, whence he had gone. From this journey Teresa suffered no loss: for Luisa, at the coming of such a guest, began both to lay aside her mourning and to enter on another manner of life and to be wonderfully affected towards Teresa; whence it came about that she afterwards founded a monastery for the Discalced nuns at Malagón, as will be narrated in its place. On Teresa herself also, while she was lodging in that place, singular charisms were conferred from heaven: the household itself also put on a far different face, other ways. For all who were numbered in it began to entrust the secrets of their soul to the Fathers of the Society of Jesus through confession, to receive the Sacraments more frequently and to bestow frequent help on the poor. All the household held Teresa in their eyes, and looked up to her excellent holiness day by day, very desirous to see a specimen of the things which they had heard God was wont to work in her. Hence, if at any time they knew that she was in her room, they furtively beheld her through the chinks of the door, at times rapt on high, and wondered that she came out thence so dissembling the matter as if nothing had happened to her divinely. There lived then in the same house María de Salazar, a most upright virgin. She made the greatest gain from the company and sight of the new guest: for, wonderfully moved by that living example which was before her eyes, she set herself to seek solitude and to give herself more frequently to prayer, and opened the faults of her whole life to a priest, for the sake of beginning a better life. Finally, from the things which she had just seen in Teresa, and which she saw again afterwards, when Teresa passed through Toledo to the foundation of Malagón, it was brought about that María took up the Institute of the Discalced Carmelite nuns; in which she still lives under the name of María de San José f, formerly for several years prioress of the monastery of Seville, but today of that of Lisbon: of whose praises I could say many things, were it not my purpose to relate only very few things about the living.
[120] whence About that time a certain pious virgin, of the same Order as Mother Teresa, of excellent holiness and of singular austerity towards her body, inspired from heaven to raise a similar monastery, and that indeed in the same year and month in which the Blessed Mother put on this thought, then first began to know our Teresa. That virgin had for this cause sold whatever she possessed, and had gone off with bare feet to Rome to obtain the authority of the apostolic See; since before the most holy Mother of Christ, appearing to her through vision, had impelled her to raise that monastery. She was indeed distant from Toledo by a great interval; but, having been established on her journey, she turned aside by many windings of the roads in order to meet Teresa, who was living at Toledo. In those fifteen days in which they enjoyed the sight of each other, they conferred together at length about the manner of raising their monasteries, the one refreshed by the conversation of the other, and they acknowledged the divine graces and the wonderful agreement of their mutual wills. The name of this handmaid of God was María de Jesús, who afterwards erected a new convent for Discalced virgins at Alcalá; in which, when she had lived for some years with distinguished uprightness and the approval of all, she expired with a wonderful reputation of holiness. This one monastery she founded, which I myself visited in the eighty-fifth year of this century, and I inquired of the prioress many things both about María de Jesús and about matters pertaining to the monastery itself. She narrated to me many things of the holiness of this María, which I wish I had remembered, so that I might insert them here: nor did that prioress either seem to me to breathe a common holiness of life. These virgins kept all the statutes of the Blessed Mother Teresa of Jesus, and wished to follow them most exactly, although they were not subject to the Carmelite Fathers, but to the prelate of Toledo alone.
[121] after about six months For about six months Teresa stayed at Toledo with Luisa de la Cerda; at almost which time Juana de Ahumada returned to Alba at the beginning of June in the year 1562. Juan de Ovalle also, weary of Teresa's rather long stay at Toledo, ran over to Toledo to say farewell to her; returning thence, he went back to Ávila, intending, as he had settled with Teresa, to depart thence on the following day, thinking that his presence would no longer be needed in the house to be erected. But since it was very necessary for it, and God desired this work now completed, it seemed far otherwise to the supreme arbiter of things than he had resolved with himself. For as soon as he entered the city, and went into the house where now the monastery of St. Joseph is, an unexpected cold forthwith came upon his limbs, which a sharp fever soon followed; so that he was compelled, contrary to expectation, to stay at Ávila. When fifteen days had already rolled by, Teresa returned from Toledo, no thought of return having been taken up before. The causes of her sudden departure from Toledo were letters sent to her by the provincial, by which he both exempted her from the obedience enjoined of remaining there, and gave her free choice either of returning to her own or of staying longer there, as should seem good. But because some days after there was to be an election in her monastery of the Incarnation for the cause of choosing a new prioress, and she had understood that there was already deliberation at Ávila about taking her, she wished not to move from Toledo before she had heard that an end had already been put to the election, so that she should not be elected to this office.
[122] she returns to Ávila. While she was turning these things over in her mind, the Lord addressed her thus: "Do not by any means neglect to return to Ávila, dearest; for, since you follow the cross, a not slight one is surely being prepared for you: do not shake this from your shoulders; for I will be a help to you: go on undaunted, and indeed quickly." Having learned these things, she went rather sadly to a certain director of her soul from the Society of Jesus, thinking that the dignity of prioress was designated by this cross. He counselled departure indeed, but not so hasty; that she should still stay at Toledo for some days, until the more intense heats of summer should cool down: thinking it enough if she arrived at the time of the election. She had resolved to obey his advice; but the Lord granted her no quiet: for so great a disquiet harassed her soul within that it disturbed her prayer; and she judged that she was opposing the open will of God, and that, because she was living at Toledo in delights after a fashion, she was therefore evading the inconveniences and hardships which awaited her at Ávila: and other things similar to these were before her mind. God also then so moved her confessor that he gave her leave to depart from Toledo. Therefore, when she had related many causes of her departure to Luisa, who was unwilling to let her go, joyful at last
she went away thence, persuaded that this would be for the greater service of God: the rest seemed to be altogether nothing. Further, so much did her swift departure thence matter to the foundation of her monastery that, if she had been absent longer, the work itself would perhaps have been hindered, or the things begun would by no means have been brought to their end, as we shall show in the following chapter.
Chap. XVII.
[123] St. Peter of Alcántara Since Peter of Alcántara now manifestly perceived what endowments and graces Christ had communicated to Teresa, and also the lofty greatness of her soul and her ardent desire of attaining to perfection, and how suitable the work which was in hand would be for promoting the service and glory of God, he continually helped, with what help and zeal he could, both the foundress and the foundation, according to his strength. Whence also, Teresa being absent, he endeavoured by a letter sent to Álvaro de Mendoza, prelate of Ávila, to induce him to admit the obedience of the new monastery. This letter I had in my possession for very many days, scarcely filling half a leaf of paper, but only just so much as would suffice for the writing which it contains, so that it fills it entirely. Its superscription is this: "To the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Bishop of Ávila, whom may the Lord sanctify." Since it was written by a man so holy and of such great authority, it has seemed good to attach it in this place. At the beginning it shows no by-works or captations of goodwill; but, only two fingers' space being left empty at the top, it begins in these words:
[124] by letters written to the bishop of Ávila "May the Spirit of Christ fill the mind of Your Lordship, whose holy blessing I ask. A recent ill health has so prostrated me that I have by no means been able to treat of a certain business pertaining especially to the service of our Lord. Since it is of this kind, and so that it may by no means be overturned through our negligence, it has seemed good to advise Your Lordship of it in a few words. Some days ago a certain ardent cultivator of piety, inflamed with true zeal for souls, is setting in motion in this very town a certain monastery, in which both the highest religion and entire perfection are to flourish, and some virgins professing the first Rule and the Order of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel are to be admitted. For the sake of this matter, then, for better obtaining the end and remedy of the observance of the aforesaid first Rule, it seemed good to render obedience to the Ordinary of this city. Relying, therefore, on the holiness and exceptional goodness of Your Lordship, since God has given you to them as prelate, they have brought this business so far that they have spent four hundred gold pieces and more on the expense of the matter, and have also obtained a diploma of the Roman See for the same matter. The thing itself is such that it greatly pleases me: for which reason, by the bowels of the mercy of our Lord, I again and again beg Your Lordship to embrace it and take it into your protection, because I understand that it will turn to the increase of divine worship and to the advantage of this city.
[125] by letters "If Your Lordship approves of it, since I cannot go to ask your holy blessing in person, nor deal with you about this matter, I shall think myself abundantly satisfied if Your Lordship sends to me Master Daza, with whom I may speak in person about the same matter, or anyone else whom it shall seem good to send to me. But, so far as I can gather by conjecture, this matter can safely be committed and entrusted to Master Daza: and if this is done, it will be to me no moderate consolation and charity. Your Lordship will therefore be able to deal about it and communicate with Master Daza, Gonzalo de Aranda and Francisco de Salcedo, all of whom Your Lordship knows well, and who know more about this matter than I myself: although the leading virgins who wish to give their names to this new Reformation abundantly satisfy and greatly please me, the virtue of all of whom is well known to me, and in whose chief and leader I trust that the spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ dwells; which spirit may His divine Majesty bestow upon and preserve for Your Lordship, for His greater glory and the universal good of His Church. Amen. Amen. Your Lordship's most unworthy servant and chaplain, Fray Peter of Alcántara." These things hung together one with another, separated by no interval from the rest, as I too have exhibited them here. The apostolic diploma which he mentions is that very one which had been transmitted to Guiomar de Ulloa with regard to the foundation of the monastery: which, because it was rather restricted and did not contain full and absolute faculty, and also involved some difficulty, it seemed good to ask for another more open one. I have also seen the letter which the same Peter sent to Mother Teresa of Jesus in the following month of September: the paper is only four fingers wide, namely so much space as was necessary for the things which he was writing. Its inscription is this: "To the most Magnificent and most religious Lady, Lady Teresa de Ahumada, at Ávila, whom may the Lord sanctify." In this he asks her with great affection to make him certain of her health, and to signify in what place the affairs of her monastery are, and to commend him to God in prayer, as being harassed with continual illnesses: finally he familiarly renders her an account of some of his affairs.
[126] and helps Teresa with what other help he can: The cause, then, why the Lord commanded Teresa to withdraw so swiftly from Toledo was that the apostolic letters had already arrived at Ávila, by which faculty was given of building the monastery and of rendering obedience to the bishop; so that on the same night on which Teresa reached Ávila the diploma also came, and that indeed by the way which the Lord had already signified to her before. There were also then present at Ávila the bishop himself, Peter of Alcántara and Francisco de Salcedo, in whose house Fray Peter was lodging: both of whom so transacted the matter with the prelate that he not unwillingly admitted the monastery. Which surely was of no small moment, because the revenues of the monastery were very slender: although the bishop was never lacking, as far as he could, to pious works and men. Further, that pious old man Fray Peter rendered the chief help in this matter, both by approving and praising it in words, in accordance with the authority in which he was strong among the citizens, and because he availed very much with the prelate of the city and others who brought help to this; and if he had not been at Ávila in those days, perhaps nothing would have been done. He stayed there only for eight days, and that indeed in weak health. And not so long after, the Lord led him out of this toilsome life, so as to pay him in heaven the reward for such holy labours and long-lasting austerity of life and mortifications of the senses; so that the Lord seems to have permitted him to live so long only for accomplishing this holy work, and, this having at last been finished, to have wished to call him to Himself.
[127] which at length, For this cause, then, it was necessary that Teresa should be present at Ávila at that moment of time, and that Juan de Ovalle should fall ill beforehand, so that he should not go off to Alba as he had resolved: for since he lay sick at Ávila, and alone indeed, his wife Juana having returned to Alba some days before, leave was given Teresa to go to care for him, and at the same time to promote the building of the foundation begun. For had this not been so, she would not have had sufficient cause for leaving Toledo; especially as Guiomar de Ulloa was absent, who had also gone off to Toro, because this seemed necessary so that the matter might be better hidden by dissimulation. Further, Juan de Ovalle lay sick through that whole time in which it was necessary for the Blessed Mother to be outside the Incarnation, to complete what she had begun. He then easily perceived for what cause the Lord had sent the fever upon him; wherefore, the things which seemed necessary having already been accomplished by Teresa, he said to her: "It is no longer necessary for me to be detained here by illness." Wherefore, God granting it, he forthwith recovered his former health, to the great astonishment both of himself and of others. Meanwhile Teresa urged on the work of the building, and laboured that it should be adapted to the form of a convent: for she saw that delays longer than fair could hinder it not moderately. Wherefore she took care that her sister and her husband should leave there, and she turned some small part of the house into an oratory; and she separated the place in which the nuns should behold the Sacred Mysteries of the Mass by certain small grilles woven of double and thick wood, a narrow entrance also being added, through which access lay open both into the church and into the house: all of which, both by narrowness and by slenderness, represented the stable of Bethlehem.
[128] all things having been duly prepared, But although these things had been carried so far, and she now greatly desired to see the work completed, yet she did not move a foot, much less begin anything greater, unless she had first taken the most choice theologians into counsel, with whom she communicated the whole matter; so that, as she strove above all, she might so direct her actions as not to deviate even a nail's breadth from the obedience which she owed to her superiors. These with unanimous consent asserted that no crime at all lay under this, so much so that they affirmed that it would turn to the greatest service of God and the honour of her Order. For if even the least suspicion of fault had appeared in this matter, she would have broken it off wholly with that same tranquillity and peace of soul with which she had already laid it aside before, when it was first being begun. And although the Blessed Mother then laboured most of all about the earthly building and the material house, yet she employed much greater industry in choosing and searching out the living stones which should be fitted into the firm and immovable foundation of the spiritual house which she was setting in motion. Seeking, then, from every side, she cast her eyes on four poor little virgins, bereaved of parents, yet wonderfully devoted to the service of God (as Peter of Alcántara calls them in the letter which I brought forward above), and wished them, without any dowry, to be the first bases of this house.
[129] four poor virgins Whose names are these. The first, Antonia de Henao, who was afterwards called Antonia del Espíritu Santo, and found a place here by the counsel and guidance of Peter of Alcántara. He had instructed her, and had often dealt familiarly with her (for she was a woman distinguished in spirit); and when she had resolved to go off to some remote places for the sake of entering Religion, he himself dissuaded her from this setting out, namely in order that she might give her name to this recent monastery: whence also he commended her to the Blessed Mother. The second was called María de Paz; whom Teresa had known from the time when she was still in Guiomar's household, and in whose virtues she had always delighted: she took the surname de la Cruz. The third, Úrsula de los Santos, who was called by this name also before she had given her name to Religion, nor was she surnamed otherwise in it afterwards: lately she had been elegant and studious of adornment; but afterwards she put on such modesty that she was very greatly esteemed by all for the name of holiness: but chiefly celebrated were her simplicity, candour, humility, and wonderful patience in bearing illnesses without any solace at all and without complaint. She had come forth from the discipline of Master Daza, who pointed her out to Teresa.
The fourth, finally, María de Ávila, who was afterwards called de San José. Of these four, Úrsula de los Santos alone died in this monastery, in the seventy-fourth year of the current century, Teresa being at Alba; whom also she beheld, though absent, going off to heaven clothed round with glory, as she herself afterwards narrated to her nuns when she had returned to Ávila: wherefore, the day and hour at which she had expired having been diligently compared with that at which Teresa (as we have already said) contemplated her gifted with glory, it was found that she had been purified in the fire of purgatory for only four hours. But the others are still surviving at this very time at which we publish these things, very well known for holiness and good example: Antonia del Espíritu Santo at Málaga, María de la Cruz at Valladolid, María de San José at Ávila.
[130] she brings into the convent of St. Joseph. There was now at hand the day sacred to the Apostle Bartholomew, which Teresa had laid down beforehand would be auspicious for beginning her monastery: wherefore she set herself to urge on the work as much as she could, so that all things should be prepared by that day. Which mind of hers Christ the Redeemer also held ratified. Whence on this very day sacred to the glorious Apostle, which fell on the 9th day before the Kalends of September, in the year of salvation brought forth 1562, Master Daza, who always had this work at heart, carried the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar into the chapel; and in this way at length an end was put to the monastery dedicated under the title of St. Joseph, as Christ had commanded. On which day also the same servant of God Daza conferred the sacred habit of Religion on those first four virgins whom I have mentioned, Mother Teresa looking on together with two others of the nuns of the Incarnation, who had then by chance gone out, one of whom was Inés de Tapia, of whom we shall narrate in the following book. Teresa lived with these novices, meanwhile awaiting the opportunity of returning to her monastery and of not going out before leave should be given her for this by the provincial.
ANNOTATA.
LIBER SECUNDUS: SECOND BOOK.
PROLOGUE.
Of the selection to be exercised in admitting women among the Discalced Carmelites.
Ribera extols Admirable indeed and lofty are the works of that great Lord and our God, as One who in a single moment disposes, effects and accomplishes what to men, however wise and skilled otherwise, seems altogether unable to be done, and no one is able either to oppose His power or in any way to overturn the things which He powerfully works: which we shall give to be seen in this second book by several examples. For His counsels are as sublime as can be, the undertakings full of His most profound wisdom, by which He strikes even the wisest masters and dazzles their keenness, and attains to the most lofty ends which He has set before Him, the works of whomsoever at last it has seemed good to Him having been employed; finally He draws out from those things which in the eyes of men seemed to be nothing effects which strike all mortals with incredible astonishment and admiration. But I begin to wonder too early: far greater and more things remain for us to see. For in all the things which we have recorded up to now, the divine wisdom has only opened certain trenches, as it were, for laying foundations, although deep in humility and broad in charity, and such that from them it can already easily be gathered how great a substructure is to be built upon them.
[2] the excellence of the Teresian Institute; And as those ancient Hebrews who had seen the first temple of Solomon in their youthful age burst into tears on seeing the foundations of the second, which was being built after the return from the Babylonian captivity, because from the beginnings laid down they conjectured without difficulty, as Esdras relates (1 Esdras III, 12), that what was now to be built would be far inferior to the first in greatness and splendour, nay not even to be compared; so on the contrary he who has obtained some knowledge of the beginnings of the Order of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel, and of its primeval holiness and austerity, when he has perceived these joyful beginnings, could deservedly rejoice within himself, and burst out into the praises of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom all our good descends, because these from their very first beginning suggest the hope that that original piety and the highest severity of life will at length one day be restored by right of postliminy. But just as, although the foundations are most solid and excellent and the building most lofty and most sublime, if the stones which are brought in afterwards do not fit the first, and both are not rightly and symmetrically connected with one another (when, namely, in place of lime rightly soldering and binding each, mud or clay unfit for cement is employed), the very thing is wont at length to fall to the earth; so this house which the Lord has built will little by little decay and collapse, if the most diligent selection of those to be admitted is not exercised: not that I would wish that all who apply their mind to this should already be perfect, but that they should be of good disposition and pliable; so that into whatever form you wish them to be bent and fitted, they undergo it not unwillingly, and to whatever place at last you shall judge best for them and most suitable for the building, they let themselves be transferred and set there.
[3] and in it only compliant If they are young and tender, like soft and sandy stones, whenever you apply the hammer of pounding, they will be destroyed and lost; but if more advanced, they will not bear the razor and the chisel. Yet these are not so unfit and useless for receiving form: but only some, who to those without experience of spiritual things seem indeed to display a great aptitude both in body and in soul, but are so obstinate of mind, so stubborn of heart, that they blunt the edge of many razors and planes; so that, when you have judged them already fit for the work and prepared to receive the necessary form, they spring apart into pieces and are in vain. These, namely, are they who do not know how to obey, but, most full of their own judgment, because they believe themselves either prudent or illustrious by birth, or because the Religious Order has been increased by many possessions through them, think that they ought to preside and that others ought to pass over to their opinion and that they ought to be courted by superiors and satisfied in all things. But that is a good and apt stone which admits form and does not struggle against the one forming it, and into whatever place the spiritual craftsmen wish to insert it, it forthwith easily persuades itself to be fitted into it, because it passes without any trouble at all into whatever form and figure you wish. When the stones are good, they are easily combined with the rest; which then at length happens, when they render themselves conformable to others and accommodate themselves to their ways and customs.
[4] And as stones already set and fitted into the building no longer experience any adze or hammer, and women zealous for true perfection, so that those which newly come may be adapted to those already placed, but these must be hewn and fitted so as to equal and fit the former; in exactly the same way, those who first enter the monastery must not entice to their ways and form of life those who have already lived longer in it: but they must admit a new form and so let themselves be put in order, so as to suit the seniors and veterans, continually casting their eyes upon the beauties of the virtues shining forth in them, and imitating them according to their strength. Hence on the veterans, if only they will rightly understand it, there lies not more of honour or authority, but of burden and obligation: for since they have been constituted the example, norm and prototype of others, it is necessary that they should have a more diligent account of themselves, and, so far indeed as it is right, cut off any superfluities whatever of imperfections, lest these flow down to the younger, and render themselves as like as possible to the most perfect exemplar which God has put before their eyes, the holy Mother Teresa of Jesus, I mean. Further, for so lofty a work and for such good stones, let them not strive to seek mud or clay through which they may be connected and cohere with one another, by admitting, I mean, those who either bring in greater wealth or have obtained nobler, wealthier or more powerful parents, or have gained other worldly endowments of that kind. For these are only miry earth, and unfit for buildings that are to last an age.
[5] all worldly regard being laid aside, But choice lime must be sought, which may glue and bind closely joined, that is, true mortification of the interior and exterior senses, which is very necessary for both: for this cause those are rather to be searched out who are best disposed for obeying and taming the senses, nay even, if it be necessary, the same, although poor and ignoble, are to be begged, rather than others enrolled who lack the higher charisms of the spirit, even though very many of them
plead their cause earnestly before the superiors and promise splendid revenues. For the silver will be spent and diminished, but the unfit and stubborn nun will remain in her place; and even one of these suffices to harass and weary the rest. Lime, as long as it is quick, is unfit for building; but when it has been slaked and killed by pouring in water, it is most fit and very necessary. So those in whom untamed passions still live are most harmful to the community and the common weal, and it can by no means come about that they agree rightly either with others or with themselves: but if they generously blunt the impulses of the passions, a certain excellent union, charity and concord will blossom in the house, which is above all necessary for the good, confirmation and increase of the religious Institute.
[6] demonstrates are to be co-opted. I had indeed resolved to say none of the things which have been said so far: but, because I desire singularly that this work of God should grow and be increased daily, I have been incited to premise these things; and, if this is by no means necessary at present on account of the wonderful zeal for perfection which flourishes in these monasteries, it could perhaps come about that with the lapse of time it will be necessary. And if it shall seem good to God to give an age to this book, it will be a pleasure to me that, even when I am dead, I can work by these writings of mine some effect which, while I live, I now produce by my voice and will also produce afterwards. And in this way I shall to some extent satisfy the holy Mother Teresa of Jesus for all the titles by which I am bound to her: because whoever shall read her constitutions and writings will easily perceive how greatly she herself desired this and also counselled the doing of whatever I have here pursued in writing. I would wish this labour of mine also to be useful to those who show no propensity of nature or generosity of soul for the things which have been said; namely, so that they may not presume to enter these monasteries: for it will not go well for them here; but let them search out others more suited to their bent, and in which they may do better.
Chapter I.
St. Teresa's aim in founding monasteries; a summary of the Constitutions framed by her.
Chap. I.
It seems to me that it would be beyond what is fitting to be carried further in the thread of this history The Saint extended her Reformation unless I first satisfy the desire of those who long to know what end Teresa of Jesus set before herself in the foundation of this monastery, what laws, what kind of dress, what form of life finally she introduced into it: which, when we have said it of this one, we wish to be understood as said of all the other convents of which we shall treat in their place. First indeed she looked to nothing else than to found some monastery in which both she herself and the rest of her followers, in a stricter solitude and enclosure, might keep more exactly the promise made to God, according to the prescription of their Institute and Order: for she did not even think of instituting a new Religious Order, striving only to recall her old Order of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel to the perfection of its primeval institution. But then, perceiving the very great necessities of the Church, and eager to bring help, as far as she could, to its defenders, out of the singular charity with which she burned, she raised also more sublime thoughts of her mind, and added to penance and poverty these very things which she had devised before, and directed the whole matter by another plan.
[2] to several monasteries, But because I prefer all these things to be described in her words rather than in mine, which she pursued on this very occasion in the book which she calls the Way of Perfection, I shall not unwillingly bring them forward; not indeed as the copies hitherto printed at Évora and Salamanca present them, but as they are contained in the autograph of the Blessed Mother herself, whence I myself drew them: and let this be said of all the things which I shall bring forward from this book in their places. She says, then: "At the beginning indeed, when this monastery of St. Joseph was being raised at Ávila, … it was not my purpose to introduce so great austerity and rigour as regards the exterior manner of life, or to exclude from it altogether all annual incomes and revenues; but I wished it to be endowed with possessions, so that nothing of necessary conveniences and supports should be lacking to it: in short, although miserable and powerless, since I had some good desires and purposes, these very things were carried further than I could carry out in fact. But at the same time, while I was receiving by hearing the evils which the Lutherans were perpetrating in France, the damages which they were inflicting on the Church, and how this virulent offshoot was spreading itself more and more daily, I began to be afflicted in soul, and, just as if I could bring some help myself or were of some account, lamenting before the Lord, I suppliantly besought Him to put helping hands under so great an extermination: and I seemed to myself willing to spend a thousand lives in order that I might succour even one soul of so many thousands perishing there.
[3] so that for procuring the salvation of souls "But having found that I was a woman, and that a very weak one, and that I was worth no help that I desired to bring in promoting the service of the Lord, both because the enemies were very many and the friends very few, I applied myself chiefly to this, and still labour to apply myself, that those who were called friends should be sincere and perfect. I resolved, therefore, to do that very little which I could, namely to follow the evangelical counsels with all the perfection I can, and to strive that those few women who are here with me should emulate it by following that very thing: relying, namely, on the supreme goodness of God, who never neglects to bring help to him who does not think it grievous to cast away all earthly things for His love; hoping at the same time, since these are such as I imagined them in my mind and desired them to be, that the darkness of my vices would be hidden by the brightness of their virtues, and that in this way I should to some extent satisfy the Lord God: so that, when all of us, as many as we are, shall have prayed diligently and urgently for those who have undertaken to defend zealously the part of the Church and for the preachers and other learned men protecting her with all their might, we may to some extent, according to our strength, help this Lord of mine, whom those on whom He has conferred benefits treat so unworthily that these traitors seem to wish truly to crucify Him anew, and He can scarcely have where to lay His head." Then she subjoins: "Be a help to me, my sisters in Christ, that I may beseech this of the Lord: for for this cause His divine Majesty has made us very like one another; and this is your vocation, these are the affairs which you ought to handle, these are the desires with which you must be filled, here let your tears be, here let the end of your petitions be" (Way of Perfection, chapter I).
[4] according to the condition of her sex From these words of the Blessed Mother anyone may evidently perceive what her aim was in this renewal and new erection of monasteries, what the vocation of the religious women living in them. And although the first monastery was illustrious with the praise of great perfection, yet she advanced it by so many degrees and raised it by this new intention and the end which she looked to to so great a value that scarcely in any convent of women can greater perfection and a more sublime vocation be had. For, as St. Thomas (2. 2, question 188, articles 1 and 6) inculcates according to truth, one Religious Order cannot be called more perfect or more sublime than another because its members and cultivators live more austerely than those of the other, but because the former, beyond the latter, has a higher aim proposed, and at the same time contains more suitable means of attaining this aim. Whence he concludes that those Religious Orders are both worthier and more excellent than all others which have been instituted for teaching and announcing the divine word to men; but that those occupy the next place to them which are wholly devoted to contemplation, and perpetually cultivate their own soul with the exercises of praying and meditating. For, as it is a thing worthier and more excellent to kindle than merely to shine, so it is greater to pour out publicly upon others the things which you have gathered in private contemplation than to be intent on the contemplation of divine things alone. Since, then, the Religious Orders of women have by no means been instituted for teaching and preaching, that one will surely be more sublime than the rest which has been raised up for succouring the champions of the Church by the helps of prayer and a severer life: since that is far more perfect than the rest which comes nearer to what is most perfect. And no family of nuns can have a more sublime end than if, for the sake of the preservation and protection of the Catholic Church and also of procuring the salvation of souls, it devotes itself continually to prayer, fasting and other austerities of the body: in the practice of which exercises they look to this one thing, that both the faithful of Christ may order their life according to the prescription of the Christian name and of their vocation, and the infidels may attain to the knowledge of their creator; since that saying of St. Gregory (Homily XII on Ezekiel) is in the opinion of all most true, that there is no holocaust more acceptable to God than zeal for souls.
[5] she might labour as much as possible. Whence this also necessarily follows, which must always be engraved on the followers of this Institute, that, even though they practise the gravest rigours of austerities, devote themselves very long to prayer, attend diligently to the chanting of the Psalms, finally carry out as perfectly as possible the things which it is fitting for the most religious and best nuns to do, yet they have never fulfilled all the parts of their vocation and the things which God, the Best and Greatest, requires of them, unless with a certain singular zeal and purpose they direct the prayers, fasts and rigours which we have mentioned to this aim, that they may turn to the profit and help of those who sweat zealously in the arena of the Church, and generously contend for the glory of Almighty God and the safety, salvation and increase of His whole flock, finally of those who have devoted themselves wholly and earnestly to the salvation and care of souls. Hence what would perhaps suffice for other nuns to do is by no means enough for these, and with what others perhaps will judge suffices for attaining perfection they themselves can by no means be content, if only they wish to attain to the highest summit of perfection; for otherwise they would decline from the end of their vocation and Religion. I rejoice also not moderately that these things have been written by me in this place; for whenever this shall be read by anyone, after death I shall in some manner cry it out, as I now cry it out while living. And let the followers of this family, while they read these things, persuade themselves that the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, who is the mother of these monasteries, and also Blessed Joseph, who is their father, and St. Teresa of Jesus, their foundress, desire that this doctrine be preached among them. Surely, if they diligently unroll her writings, they will without doubt find that whatever has been said by me so far concerning these religious women, and will be said afterwards in its place, is nothing else than what the Blessed Mother herself most of all gave them in command. So much so that these very things of which we are now treating, after very many salutary things on this matter in the third chapter of the book of the Way
of Perfection she had brought forward, she concludes at length in these words: "Let it be fixed and settled for you that, if your prayers, desires, chastisements of the body and finally your fasts are not referred to that end which I have said, you are not doing or fulfilling the things for which the Lord has gathered you together in this place; and I beseech the Lord Himself never to let these things slip from your memory."
Chap. II.
[6] Therefore, in order that she might attain that sublime end which she was looking to, The primitive Rule of the Order of Carmel and that her daughters might so conduct themselves in the way of the Lord that their prayers should be very efficacious in the divine sight, she laid down that that original Rule which the ancient Fathers observed who first began to live in the manner of religious on Mount Carmel should be kept to the nail in this monastery of hers. And since its austerity had been reduced to a milder form by the indults of the Pontiffs, and had therefore degenerated very much from its primeval rigour, it seemed to her that she would do a thing worth while if she recalled that former severity to use again, and that she would deserve very well of the Blessed Virgin Mary if she brought back that Religious Order which is devoted to her cult to the first vigour of the Institute, and brought into it again by right of postliminy such hardness and holiness of life as those ancient and holy Hermits cultivated. This first Rule Albert, patriarch of Jerusalem, set in order; which then Innocent IV, in the fifth year of his pontificate, confirmed, corrected and reduced to a better form in the year 1248, on the Kalends of September.
[7] restoring, This, besides those things which are common to the Congregations of religious (say, to appoint someone from their number whom all should obey, to vow themselves to God by the three vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, to keep silence at the fixed time), is peculiarly distinguished from other Institutes in the things which follow. Let the Brethren meditate day and night in the law of the Lord in their cells or not far from them; and let them watch assiduously in prayer, unless they are kept away by upright and due exercises. From the day sacred to the Exaltation of the Cross, which falls on the 14th day of September, right up to the Easter festival, let them fast, unless they are prevented either by illness or by some lawful reason. Let them never taste flesh, unless the violence of illnesses requires it. Let them continually exercise some manual work, to which they may diligently apply themselves. Further, Teresa wished the fast laid down and the abstinence from flesh to be kept most exactly to the letter: as also silence in the strictest rigour, from the Office of Compline performed on the day before until Prime is recited on the day after. She wished it also to be accurately kept in the other hours through the day, although not so strictly as at the designated hours; except perhaps after dinner and supper, at which time the prioress may relax it, namely so that for an hour the nuns may uprightly recreate one another.
[8] the order of day and night The precept, however, of meditation day and night in the law of the Lord and of the exercise of the hands she laid down to be kept in her Congregations after this manner: namely that after the ninth hour of the evening the Office of Matins be discharged; which task having been run through, each, for a quarter of an hour, should search out the hiding-places of her soul by examining the actions of the day, and read through the matter of the mystery to be meditated on the following day, in such a way, however, that all these things extend up to the eleventh hour or thereabouts: then, the signal having been given, each should go to bed. At the beginning of spring let them rise from sleep at the fifth hour, then apply themselves to meditation up to the sixth: but on winter days let them leave their bed at the sixth, remain in prayer up to the seventh. Which having been completed, let them immediately discharge the task of the sacred Hours before they are present at the Sacred Mystery of the Mass. By the name of manual work, however, she wished nothing laborious or industrious to be understood, but simple and quiet work, say spinning and similar exercises of women, by which the mind of the worker is not so distracted that it cannot meanwhile freely ruminate on something pious. Besides, she did not wish any task to be set for the nuns, lest, while they are too much intent on the work and anxious about running through the task, the mind should wander in prayer, distracted elsewhere. Nor did she wish them to work in a common workroom, after the manner of other nuns, but each in her own cell, lest in this way occasion should be given to anyone of violating silence, or the opportunity of freely raising the mind to God be snatched away. A little before dinner she ordered a signal to be given for examining before God the hours of the day spent so far. At the second hour after midday the Office of Vespers is to be run through; which having been discharged, something is to be read from some spiritual book before all up to the third hour: this time likewise, if it so seems good to anyone, may be spent in prayer. Then let each betake herself to her cell, until the signal for Compline is given: after Compline let a whole hour be applied to prayer. Even in the very time of recreation she wished her nuns to be intent on manual work. Further, she commanded poverty to be cultivated so exactly that she allowed no one, as obtains among some other nuns, any annual income, but commanded all things to be common, and to each what she should need to be supplied, equally clothing and the other things which are required for necessary use; so that they may not be solicitous or labour anxiously about anything of this kind, or demand any of these things from their parents and acquaintances: for thus grave inconveniences are guarded against and an enormous door is blocked against satanic temptations.
[9] and the norm of food and clothing She permitted nothing special or private to anyone either in food or in clothing, not a chest, not even a little writing-box. Nay rather, if the superiors noted that any little thing was held with too much love by anyone, whether a book or a cell or anything else, she ordered it to be taken from her by them. She prescribed for her nuns a habit most consonant with poverty, which she herself loved above all, and that of rough and harsh cloth and of the native colour of wool, imbued with no dye, whose sleeves she wished to be narrow and of the same breadth both below and above; it not to be full of folds, not round, not longer in front than behind, but let down to the ankles. She orders the scapular to consist of the same cloth, four fingers shorter than the inner garment. The white mantle, clothed in which they shall go to choir, is to be likewise of similar cloth, and of the same length as the scapular, which they are to fasten above with a wooden clasp. In all these garments she wished as little material as possible to be employed, so that they might be narrower. She wished the inner tunics to be of light wool, the headbands of hemp or of secondary and thicker linen, without any fold, which a black and cheap veil should cover; which the professed religious alone should wear, but not the lay sisters or the novices. She wishes the shoes to be of esparto or woven of cords. Let the bed be stuffed not with wool, not with feathers, but with straw; the under-coverings, however, as also the pillow, of wool, but the upper ones and the blankets of rough and sailors' cloth. Let nothing coloured appear on the garment or the furniture of the bed, not even the least little band. Let no one have a garment lined with furs; but if anyone should need a lined one on account of necessity, she permitted it to be lined with a rougher material. Finally, with distinguished prudence, she carefully looked into what had been laudably instituted in other families of women, and from them derived what seemed suitable for hers, the common things being omitted. Having entered at Valladolid the convent of the Discalced nuns named from the Blessed Virgin of Piety (it is of the Order of St. Francis, illustrious for distinguished observance of the rules and for religion), she noted the slenderness of the tables, the singular frugality of food and the poverty and other singular things, and afterwards transferred them into her own family.
[10] and other things useful for spiritual progress At the beginning indeed it seemed advisable to admit no servants for the domestic works, but that the sisters themselves should undertake in their turns the kitchen and the other domestic offices; but afterwards it seemed good to change this, because she said that the spirit was suffocated by so great a labour of the body. She did not even think fit to imitate what she had seen in other nuns, that they should be subject to the Friars of their Institute alone a, that these alone should have the right either of feeding them with the divine word or of hearing them in Confession; nay, she granted them to speak to and give ear to all those whom they knew to be more apt for the rule of their souls, and to confer freely with these about their interior affairs, no one being present or aware b. For she judged that to those to whom no consolation came from elsewhere, and who walked by the road of prayer and mortification exposed to so many stumbling-blocks and temptations, it ought to be granted as much as possible that they should communicate with those men by whom, by opening themselves wholly, they might be helped in spirit, lest perchance they should be deceived in anything. Whence also she very often counselled them always to consult learned men and men versed in spiritual things. For she knew by her own experience how much good came thence to souls, and, if it were done otherwise, how much loss. She laid down also that the number of the nuns should be small, so that they might be joined among themselves by greater union and charity, and might lie open to less confusion: she did not wish it to be extended beyond thirteen or fourteen, three lay sisters also being comprehended under the same. But after it had been ordained that her houses should be endowed with an annual revenue, not even then did she wish twenty to be exceeded, again including those three helpers in the same.
[11] for her nuns Further, she forbade nuns of other families to be received, not even of the Mitigated Carmelites. And because this matters very greatly, and I myself would wish it to be kept as exactly as possible, on account of the many reasons which experience has taught, I shall bring forward in this place what Teresa wrote to a nun of a certain other Institute who asked to be admitted among the Discalced. This letter c I have seen written wholly in her hand in these words: "As regards the principal head of your letter I can by no means humour you; because at my request a statute has been introduced into our family that no nun from another Order may transfer herself to these houses: for so great was and is the multitude of those wishing to pass over here that, although we would rejoice not moderately to admit someone of these, yet the very many inconveniences which would follow hence prevent me from opening a door to this matter. Wherefore I would wish you to hold it in a few words that this can by no means be done; and this desire of mine of gratifying you in this begets only trouble and pain for me." But this before all she wished provided, that all who were co-opted into the Order should be held above all by zeal for prayer, should aspire to the highest perfection and contempt of the world, should be of good health, strong in intelligence, and should have reached the seventeenth year of age. But if any one were adorned with the aforesaid endowments of soul (whom also she wishes to be diligently explored by an examination made beforehand, and accurately inquired whether she has those endowments which she requires), even though she brought nothing temporal, she does not wish her on that account to be excluded from the Order (which she herself also always observed); and in admitting she commands that no regard be had to gain and wealth, but only to uprightness and the quality of the person: so that it may become manifest everywhere that they are held by the love of the poverty to which they have bound themselves by vow, and have cast their hope on the Lord, and always have before their eyes that not by earthly wealth, but by confidence and perfection
and in God alone they ought to be sustained by hope. She wished her nuns' enclosure to be most strict, and the greatest that can be had: so that she permits the grilles in the parlour to be opened and the nuns to speak without a veil only very rarely, and not otherwise than where fathers, brothers or others of good example and spiritual persons have come to speak; and in this uncovering she wishes regard to be had rather to edification and spiritual fruit than to recreation. She wished her nuns to deal with their kindred as rarely as possible, and no others to be admitted for visiting than such as we have described: but to others, and those who come only for the sake of chatting and dealing about vain things, she forbids all access.
[12] she most wisely prescribed To the novices she gives free opportunity of speaking, so that they may freely declare whether the Religious life pleases them; and if it displeases them, she grants leave to go out as soon as possible. And the more she called her nuns away from all human consolation and conversation, the greater liberty she granted them for acquiring familiarity with God. For besides that exceptional and highly to be prized liberty which we said a little while ago Teresa gave her nuns of hearing sermons and of disclosing their faults and of communicating with spiritual men, from which great good to souls, and consolation, and the greatest abundance of the nourishment of the divine words are derived; to keep silent also about the free use of mortification both public and private, which is not slight, beyond the singular austerities, both those which are prescribed for each by the laws of the Institute and those which are frequently undertaken by each at her pleasure, yet with the permission of the superior and the confessor, and that admirable exercise of humility, when every week they openly declare their errors in chapter, in which the one helps the other with a distinguished proof of charity, telling even those things which they themselves have not committed (by all of which the vigour of the spirit is wonderfully strengthened and filled with interior joy); she not only gave her nuns licence and power, but also ordered by precept, to approach the most holy banquet of the Eucharist on all Sundays and feasts of Jesus Christ and of the Mother of God, likewise on the day of Saints Joseph and Albert, likewise on Thursday at the Lord's Supper, and also on all days on which the judgment of a prudent confessor shall have judged it expedient, the leave of the superior, however, being added.
[13] with the approval of the apostolic See. All these laws she drew up and decreed, having received power for this by a diploma of Pius IV, given on the 17th of July 1565: which Supreme Pontiff, since by it he had granted that she should make Constitutions, approved them without any delay after they had been drawn up d. These also afterwards, while the Blessed Mother was still alive, were confirmed by the same apostolic authority at Alcalá in the chapter of the Discalced Fathers in the Lenten fast of the year 1581 e, through Juan de las Cuevas of the Order of St. Dominic, chosen by the Supreme Pontiff specially for this business, and through Father Jerónimo Gracián de la Madre de Dios, provincial of the same Discalced, and through the definitors of the Order. These same sanctions, seven years later, the Most Reverend Lord Cesare Speciano, bishop of Novara, Nuncio in Spain of Sixtus V, Supreme Pontiff, approved by his authority one by one, mention being made of the titles prefixed to their several chapters, at Madrid on the 10th of October 1588 f, and confirmed them in perpetuity; nay, he also forbade by edict that either the General of the same Order or his consultors should dare to change, revoke or derogate anything in them, and decreed that this very revocation and derogation would be void. For which cause he ordered the archbishops of Toledo and Seville and also the bishop of Ávila to be perpetual conservators of these sanctions. From what has been said so far it may evidently be gathered: first, how sublime and perfect this Institute is, because St. Thomas asserts that the prerogative and perfection of any Religious Order (as I remember having said already before) is placed in this, first that it has prefixed to itself an aim more sublime than others, then that constitutions and means more suitable for attaining this end have been established in it. Of the sublimity of the end we have treated in the preceding chapter; but the admirable excellence and congruence of the means tending to it can be drawn out from the things which we have pursued in the present chapter. And it is drawn out secondly from these Constitutions, even if nothing else had either been said so far or were to be said hereafter of Teresa's holiness, that both her prudence and her admirable wisdom and the sublimity of her genius and the greatness of her perfection are most manifestly evident: for, as St. Gregory asserts of St. Benedict (book II of the Dialogues, chapter XL), whoever wishes to know more exactly his life and the rules of his life, let him consider his Constitutions. For so holy a woman could not teach otherwise than she had lived.
Chap. III.
[14] But this is not yet the end of the perfection which the handmaid of God Teresa wished to shine forth in her monasteries; To found her monasteries without revenue since the principal part for its completion, poverty, I mean, seems to be lacking: which she wished to be kept so exactly by her nuns that she commanded that no annual revenues should ever be introduced into it, no rents assigned, but that her nuns should live on the help of the pious alone. At the beginning indeed this was not the mind of the Blessed Mother, as is clearly evident from her words brought forward by me in the first chapter of this book; nay rather she judged that the same should be endowed with fixed incomes, lest any care of temporal things should lie upon her nuns: until, when she was at Toledo, she learned from the conversation and meeting with that blessed woman, of the same Order as herself, who founded the convent of the Discalced at Alcalá, that, if the primeval rule and institution of the Carmelites was to be kept, annual revenues must be wholly done without. Although this was wonderfully approved by the Blessed Mother, and, if account had had to be taken of herself alone, she would without doubt even then have so resolved, yet she feared lest either more skilled persons should counsel her otherwise, or, if the Lord should perhaps not inspire in other nuns the same desires of poverty which He had given her, they, by no means satisfying themselves in this state, should look to far other things, and the very penury of necessary things should become an occasion of great distraction (as was to be seen in some convents). Wherefore, lest she should err gravely in a business of such weight, she sought the opinion of more learned men and of her confessors. All indeed with unanimous consent endeavoured by very many reasons to persuade her that what she was looking to was by no means expedient and seemed by no means fitting: yet, since she saw that poverty was to be observed by the prescription of the rule and that this involved a far greater perfection, she could not easily obtain from herself to accede to their opinion.
[15] God so willing, And although at times it seemed that she ought to yield to their reasons, yet since on the other side she saw the Redeemer Jesus poor and naked on His cross, she could not easily bring her mind to admitting stable possessions. Hence she said to them that she would not admit any tenets and views of theology for not following her vocation and not embracing the counsels of Jesus Christ our Lord with the highest perfection. Finally, before she went away from Toledo, it happened that Luisa de la Cerda was visited by Peter of Alcántara of pious memory. When Teresa, then, had met him through this occasion, and had consulted him about the matter which she was turning over, his counsel being added, she firmly resolved to exclude all rents, and thereafter to sound no one's opinion regarding this controversy. When afterwards on one occasion she was commending it earnestly to God in prayer, she underwent a notable rapture, and in it heard from Him: "Endow your monastery, dearest, with no rents: for that is both My Father's will and Mine: I Myself will be at hand for you." At other times He proclaimed poverty to her in wonderful ways, and said that great confusion consisted in fixed incomes; nay, He promised that none of the conveniences necessary for life would be lacking to those who served Him sincerely and from the heart. This answer pleased her and so satisfied her that, since it was now wholly settled in her mind to live on alms collected and contributed, she seemed to herself to possess all the faculties and treasures of the world. But although she had now wholly passed into this opinion, yet afterwards she seemed to waver somewhat towards another, though she did not yet altogether incline to it. For because she feared not moderately lest, the people of Ávila striving with the utmost force that the undertakings of the monastery begun should vanish, the whole mass of domestic affairs should come crashing upon her head if her nuns had to live on alms, it seemed good to her then indeed to admit a stable revenue, which afterwards, matters being settled and calmed, she might cast away without difficult business. But on the night of the day on which such an agreement was to be entered into by her, when she was already applying herself to prayer, the Lord appeared to her, saying: "Do not enter upon that kind of agreement, daughter: for if you once begin to possess annual revenues, you will not afterwards so easily be able to repudiate them."
[16] she first decreed; And in order that she might be more secure and more certain of this will of God, on that very same night Peter of Alcántara of blessed memory, who had departed from the living not so long before, showed himself to her: who also, when already near death, having learned what disturbances, what commotion there were in the whole city on this account, had written to her and had given her in command one by one that she should not admit any rents in any way; for in this way it would come about that, all things having been accomplished according to her mind and as she desired, she would at length come out superior. Further, she then saw the holy man surrounded with immense glory, though with a face somewhat composed to severity and rigour (which, however, at other times, when he had already appeared to her several times, he had not shown), and heard him counselling her again that she should in no way consent to introducing revenues, and asking how it was that she hesitated to believe him who counselled and advised her well? These things having been said, he suddenly vanished from her eyes. On the following day, therefore, Teresa went to Francisco de Salcedo, so that whatever was being treated about establishing a fixed possession might, by her dissuading it, wholly fall to the ground: who also humoured the pious Mother. Nor indeed did she rest before she had obtained an apostolic diploma by which this poor life, destitute of revenues, was confirmed; by which at length an end was put to this controversy. And not one only, but two letters she obtained on the same matter; which I myself have seen. The first the Most Illustrious Ranuccio, Cardinal of the title of St. Angelo, had dispatched in the year 1562, which was the third year of the pontificate of Pius IV: by which, having received power from the mouth of the Pontiff, he imparts to the nuns of St. Joseph at Ávila the faculty of living without revenues, but on contributed alms. The other the same Pope granted three years later, on the 17th of July, by which he both confirmed the diploma given before concerning the building of the monastery, and, the opportunity having been given of living on alms offered and of submitting themselves to the bishop of Ávila, he ordered them to enjoy all the same favours and privileges which the other families of the same Order enjoy.
[17] but afterwards, not without the nod of God, But some years after Teresa changed her mind, not indeed inclining to it by her own judgment, but by that of most learned men and of men in the things of the spirit
most versed, who admonished her again and again, and especially Domingo Báñez, she was brought to this change by their counsel and most efficacious words. For since the holy Synod of Trent had judged it fitting that monasteries be established with annual rents, and this was to be understood especially of the congregations of nuns, it seemed wrong that she should wish to be wiser than the Council, which had been enlightened by the Holy Spirit. It is also right to believe (although the truth of the matter is not so very certain to me) that Christ the Redeemer Himself gave her in command to acquiesce in the counsels of His servants, and that she most willingly embraced this, as one who obeyed God and His ministers most diligently, and always held her own opinion after theirs. Yet not on that account is less credence to be given to her revelations, as though they were less constant and less consistent with one another: nay rather a distinguished providence of God appears here, counselling first thus, then otherwise. For if Teresa had not founded her monastery before a certain rent had been assigned to her in perpetuity, there would never have existed any hope of completing it, because not even the least means of having it shone forth; and this matter would have had to be divulged beforehand: and once it was known, both the provincial in particular and the whole city together would have opposed her with all their strength. But had this one not been founded, there would have been no hope at all for anyone of founding the rest, which were afterwards founded with easy business, without waiting for a rent to be assigned: for if it had been waited for, none would ever have been founded; for there was no one who would assign an annual tax of revenues.
[18] she resolved that revenues could be admitted. Besides this, since so many convents were afterwards to be built, because God had reserved these very ones for the salvation of so many souls living in them in great perfection and religion, they would not easily have stood, since they were unwarlike women and shut in so strict an enclosure, without any annual rent being had; or if perchance they had stood, they would have degenerated not moderately from that great perfection and integrity in which they now flourish: so that the former was very necessary at the beginning, while the latter, in the course of time, seemed no less expedient. I add that from use itself also it is now manifestly enough evident that, although annual possessions have been assigned to them, yet the perfection which you would look for in them has remained entire and inviolate, and at the same time a certain distinguished poverty shines forth in each; since there is no nun at all to be found to whom anything has to be paid yearly, as is wont to be done in some convents, or to whom it is granted to possess privately anything of money or clothing, nay not even seasonings or sweetmeats: but the necessary things are abundantly supplied to all from what there shall be at home, according as the superior shall judge expedient for each. Whence it comes about that they neither depend on parents or kindred, nor is it necessary for them to enter into friendships with outsiders or to contract foreign familiarities in order to provide for themselves the necessary things. This experience, then, which I have mentioned, impelled the Blessed Mother not a little to do this. Francisco de Salcedo, therefore, having learned that it was permitted to the monastery to possess annual incomes, of his own accord offered it, from his death by the deeds of his testament, a hundred and thirty sextarii of wheat, and also thirty gold pieces to be drawn yearly from a certain meadow, as also certain wooded parts of a mountain. These rents the Lord Himself afterwards increased, moving the hearts of the pious, and added a wonderful increase afterwards to this work so much His own.
ANNOTATA.
Chapter II.
Disturbances arisen on account of the monastery founded by Teresa at Ávila, but happily calmed at last.
Chap. IV
Let us now return to the foundation of the new monastery begun. Teresa, then, exulted with joy, Upon Teresa's joy at the foundation of the monastery seeing that her wishes and (what she counted far more) the promises of our Saviour had been carried into execution, and that a new church had been added to the town, into which the Venerable Sacrament of the Altar had been carried, and that this church had been dedicated to her protector Joseph, from whom alone it should draw its name at Ávila; finally because she saw that those four orphan girls, who had cast themselves so seriously, trusting, into the arms of our Saviour, had now been abundantly provided for. But the greatest joy she felt in her soul was in considering the divine mercy towards her, that He had deigned to use her labour for beginning so arduous a business. Hence she was as if not master of herself, rejoicing in deep prayer. But meanwhile, while she exults for gladness, that veteran enemy of the human race, swelling with envy and grief, was exploring an occasion, so that, power having been given him by God, he might take what vengeance he could on her by whom he saw so great an injury inflicted on him. For my part I would judge that he (if indeed that power was given him by God) went back and forth quite often to the divine tribunal (as it is established that he did when he harassed holy Job), so that opportunity might be given him of raging against Teresa. Therefore that cross which the Lord had foretold awaited her was little by little drawing near: for all the things which we have just recorded having been completed as desired, after three or four hours God gave Satan full faculty of harassing her with his arts as far as he could.
[20] follows an enormous darkness of mind; He, then, occupies her mind with so great a whirlwind of onrushing thoughts and empty terrors, and breathes into her so great a sadness, that she who before had been so cheerful now seemed altogether another, and was not able to defend herself against the onset of the assailant. She began, therefore, to fear lest perchance by this erection of a monastery she had sinned against the obedience due to her prelate, lest the recent nuns should not bear so great an austerity, finally lest the supports of food should fail. Then she set herself to think in her mind who had driven her to undertake this work, since she had so holy a monastery in which she was living; whether her strength would suffice for living in so enclosed and restricted a place, afflicted as she was with such grave illnesses, by which she was oppressed daily; by what means she could undergo so great an austerity of life. It recurred to her again and again that she had left a good house, in which she had both a cell and companions made to her mind; and that those whom she would have in this new one would perhaps not be so to her liking; besides, that perhaps this was a diabolical fiction for disturbing the peace and quiet of soul which she was enjoying, without which she could thereafter perform no prayer conveniently: and if she suffered the loss of these two things, it could come about that she would perhaps suffer that of salvation. When, then, the enemy had poured thick darkness over her soul in a single moment, she was filled with so great a murkiness of spirit that not even the least chink seemed to lie open for admitting a little light. For she had then so given over to oblivion all things, both those which had been said to her by the Lord regarding the construction of the monastery, those likewise promised by Him, and the counsels which she had received from various servants of God in confirmation of these, and the wonders which God had hitherto shown her, finally the peace of mind, the tranquillity and joy which she had felt a little before, and whatever at last could help her here, as though she had neither heard nor perceived any of all these things.
[21] In this moment of time she suffered in the whole time of her life scarcely anything either sadder or more bitter, which she dispels by praying: because in this desolation her soul seemed to conjecture how great a tempest of hardships still awaited her. But through this dense and outspread murk the Father of lights caused a little light and a very thin little ray to rise for her. As this shone upon her, she forthwith saw who was the cause of such great darkness in her soul, who by those lying terrors intended this one thing, to lead the dismayed soul away from the undertakings begun. In this light she turned back her eyes to the things which she had been accustomed to think before, and to the desires which she had hitherto felt in herself of serving God most perfectly and of suffering for the glory of His name. By these and other thoughts of that kind it came about that she resolved to break through generously whatever inconveniences occurred to her mind, in order that she might become nearer to God. And when she then felt a great contradiction in herself, she overcame it with great strength of mind, and, prostrate as a suppliant before the most august Sacrament of the Eucharist, she promised that she would strive in every way that leave should be given her to pass to her new monastery, and indeed as quickly as possible, as soon as occasion should offer itself to accomplish it with a safe conscience; at the same time also she promised God that she would keep that restriction and enclosure which is now duly observed. This promise having been made from the heart, an enormous light and serenity rose upon her mind, the crafty prince of darkness forthwith withdrew, and so great a joy sprang up in Teresa from the things which she had done and vowed that she experienced it through the whole time of her life.
[22] then, called back to the convent of the Incarnation, As soon, then, as it got out among the common people that this monastery had been completed, all the citizens alike burst out into the praises of God; but that joy was brief: for not long after the evil demon overturned the whole matter, and persuaded the leading citizens that, unless they threw an obstacle in the way of the affairs of the monastery begun, extreme ruin would come thence to the whole city. Hence the people everywhere were indignant and angry, and, driven by sinister rumours, raised tumults in every direction. But when Teresa was living secure, as one wholly unaware of the commotion stirred up through the town, and had resolved to take a little rest after dinner, because she had dragged out the previous night sleepless and for many days and nights before had allowed herself no rest from labours, she was by no means permitted to take sleep peacefully. For as soon as what had been done in the morning time became known in the convent of the Incarnation and in the rest of the city, no slight tumult began to arise in both places: hence the prioress forthwith summoned her to herself. When Teresa saw the commands of her superior, forthwith forsaking everything, having said farewell to her four novices, who were prostrated with the greatest grief, she returned to her former convent. Beseeching, then, as a suppliant the help of the Redeemer Jesus and of His glorious foster-father Joseph, that they would be with her and bring her back safe in a short time to her beloved flock, she set Úrsula de los Santos meanwhile over the rest. She already believed that she would be shut up in prison and harassed in wonderful ways: hence she went away with a great desire of suffering adversities for God, and at the same time rejoicing that, for bearing sad things, so convenient
an occasion had now offered itself. When she came into the sight of the prioress, she rendered her an account of her deed, and calmed her somewhat with placid words. And both came to this opinion, that they alike judged that Ángel de Salazar, prior of the province, should be summoned, and the whole matter referred to his decision.
[23] she placates her superiors and companions. When the provincial was present, he ordered Teresa to stand before him to render an account of her deed. She was not rarely wont to relate afterwards that, when she had to go before this tribunal, she was anointed with so great a feeling of gladness, because she saw that something adverse was to be borne for Christ's sake, that she could scarcely refrain from laughter, and she altogether did not know by what means to dissemble this joy and laughter before the provincial. The nuns indeed brought forth many and grave misdeeds against her before the provincial; on account of which he censured her rather bitterly: they put torches under him as he chided, instigating and aggravating the fault: she on the contrary, as a suppliant asking pardon, suggested that they should punish her with worthy penalties, and brought forward nothing in her own defence; because she had firmly resolved with herself not to defend herself by clearing herself in any way. Seeing which, the provincial ordered her to defend her cause before all the nuns. This she did with great tranquillity and peace of soul (for hitherto she had not been disturbed in the least), so that nothing occurred either to the provincial or to the nuns to object thereafter. Then she opened the whole matter to him more clearly, and, reasons having been brought forward, so satisfied him that he promised that, when the city was pacified, he would soon give her full leave to return to the monastery begun. The nuns of the Incarnation and the Carmelite Order were now indeed quiet; but the whole multitude was no less stirred up than if an enormous calamity had suddenly befallen it, which must forthwith be met with all effort.
[24] Father Domingo Báñez defends Teresa before the magistracy. And besides the fact that various things were spread here and there, and each freely spoke everywhere about this business, behold, three days after, the governor of the city and the councillors and some of the chapter, and on the following day the principal heads of the religious Orders, the magistrates, the learned and the rest of the multitude of the people, came together into one place to deliberate on the sum of the matter, as though extreme ruin were just about to threaten the town. In which assembly there was disputation with great contention and ardour on this business, and also with the greatest exaggeration of the evils which seemed likely to redound upon the city from this monastery. All at length went alike into this opinion, that great damage would come to the city from the foundation of this dwelling, that it should be prevented, and, the Sacrament of the Eucharist having been taken away thence, that it seemed it should be overturned. There was no one who did not have this matter at heart, and so seriously was it pressed that, had not Domingo Báñez of the Order of St. Dominic, master of Sacred Theology and now principal professor of the same in the academy of Salamanca, manfully struggled against all, the things which had been decreed in the council would forthwith have been carried out in deed. He, although he had been the author and persuader that this monastery should not be founded without an annual rent of possessions, did not now fear to say openly to the leading men of the commonwealth that in a business of so great moment so headlong a counsel ought not to be used, but that it seemed it should be weighed more maturely: that occasion of time for carrying this out would never be lacking: besides, that it was the bishop's part to dispute about the same; and he brought into the midst very many other things on this matter with such a sign of prudence that he alone by his authority prevented the citizens from carrying out in deed what had been decreed so headlong in the assemblies a.
[25] God consoles and encourages her. Meanwhile an enormous storm of commotion arises everywhere through the whole town, and in every place talk is mingled on this matter according to each one's varying judgment, by which the names of Teresa and of all who co-operated in this were alike paraded at the crossroads. Various persons went back and forth to the Incarnation and to the provincial, reporting the rumours spread among the people and whatever they heard. Satan also was by no means lacking to his part here, but mixed sharp torches on every side, so that the matter might in no way be composed, but rather the storm which he had already stirred up among the people might rush on more strongly. Meanwhile the Mother herself was by no means sleeping sluggishly, like Jonah in the hold of the ship, but cried to the Lord from the inmost recesses of her heart, and enjoyed also so great a tranquillity of soul, though she knew thoroughly whatever was said, just as if nothing at all were said. Let it be an indication that on the day after those gatherings of the citizens had been proclaimed she wrote out the whole matter which was being agitated through the city to Guiomar de Ulloa, then living at Toro, and then, when the agreeing talk of all the people of Ávila was about demolishing the work, she gave her in command to send her a book destined for saying Mass, and a little bell, of which she had need above all. Nevertheless the tempter returned again and again, and tortured her in wonderful ways, and at the same time thrust upon her occasion of fearing lest the work begun should at length be overturned. Once, then, when she was saddened on this account, the Redeemer Jesus, who was always very near to console her, appearing, said: "Do you not know that I am almighty? What then do you fear? Hold it as most certain that this monastery will never be dissolved: the things which I have promised you I will make good in deed." Meanwhile the citizens and magistrates, to whom this matter was so much at heart, were borne towards it with all contention. The governor of the place also, seeing that no one at all opposed himself, and thinking that the matter was now finished, goes off to the monastery of St. Joseph, and declares to those four religious that they must forthwith come out of doors; if not, that he would violently break down the doors. They answer with distinguished constancy of mind that they do not doubt that He who had placed them in this place would also, when it should be necessary, declare that they should go out: that they had no business with him, nor did they pertain to his court, since they had their own prelate.
[26] A judicial Having heard these things, the governor conducted himself more moderately, and none of his followers dared to undertake anything more intemperately: but all went away with the matter unfinished. It seemed to them, therefore, that it would be far better to abstain from violence and to prosecute the matter by law. Hence forthwith various interrogations and answers were brought out on either side. But because the governor and the magistracy were moving the action, hence no one at all was found in the city, either of the advocates or of the notaries, who would plead for the monastery. Wherefore Father Julián de Ávila, brother of María de San José b, was compelled to offer a suppliant petition to the governor and to transact the other things proper to judicial proceedings. For because he was a cleric and zealous for the honour of God and feared no one, he went back and forth to the Incarnation with letters and answers; and by his labour and industry Teresa defended her cause. Hence it was necessary for him to sustain at times the person of an advocate, at times that of a notary. And in the name of the monastery appeal was made to the royal council; from which, in favour of the nuns, a commissary was sent to Ávila, to inquire into the business diligently and accurately. Neither party was lacking to its duty here; for many things were written and examined on both sides, both for the monastery and also against it. Now a full and formed lawsuit had been begun: now the commonwealth had appointed agents in its name to the court; and such the monastery too must send in its own, unless it wished to lose its case. But no one was willing to set out in its name, and silver was lacking to pay the agents: wherefore Teresa did not know where to turn. To this was added that, the provincial being absent, the prioress had enjoined silence on her regarding this business. Pressed by straits, then, on every side (because she did not wish to resist the precept of her superior), she fled to her accustomed refuge in afflicted circumstances, namely God, and said: "Lord, this house is not mine, but founded for Your sake alone: wherefore, since no one undertakes its protection, it is Yours to act as its defender." Which having been said, so great a gladness filled her mind, so great a consolation, as though all mortals had stood on her side, she being plainly secure of the outcome of the matter.
Chap. V.
[27] Scarcely some days had passed when it was evident to the eye of how great weight are a stable confidence and hope in God: for about six months for immediately some pious men began to have the matter at heart and to promote it; among whom were Master Daza, Francisco de Salcedo, Gonzalo de Aranda, a priest of great name for his virtue among the people of Ávila and others. These applied themselves to this matter with no less contention than if they had been pleading their own, nay greater, because it was the cause of God. Aranda set out to Madrid to the court in Teresa's name. Now again a very crowded assembly was being held at Ávila, at which Daza also was present, delegated by the bishop. When all judged that the monastery should be overturned, Daza alone fearlessly opposed himself, and by his distinguished prudence then prevented it from being done: but soon again all bent themselves with what effort they could to its demolition. This tempest lasted about six months; during which the Blessed Mother without doubt carried that cross which the Lord had foretold was impending over her. Nor were the servants of God who offered themselves as her defenders immune from it. Wherefore the Blessed Mother could deservedly say (which, smiling, she afterwards said to me about this matter with much charm) that she had wished this monastery to be founded on the day sacred to the Apostle Bartholomew, so that he might protect her and defend her from the malignant spirit: for all the evil demons, hell having been loosed, seemed to have been sent out to harass her.
[28] concerning the monastery of St. Joseph But what manner of life those four little novices entered upon meanwhile was this: Teresa had commended this monastery to the prelate of Ávila, as also to those pious men who were conducting its business. These were by no means lacking to their part, while they provided for the handmaids of Christ concerning one to sacrifice and to minister the Sacraments, and not rarely they themselves visited them, and gave them courage with most ardent words to continue in the manner of life begun. Daza especially, to whom the bishop had delegated his own functions in this specially, and had enjoined him to take diligent care of this matter, was assiduous and zealous in giving spiritual exhortations to them and in requiring from each an account of her prayer and of her whole life. They openly declared their errors to one another, in which also the one helped the other with a great sign of love. To him also, imposing penances and mortifications of the body, all most exactly complied. In choir they ran through the Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary only, because they did not have anyone from whom to learn the manner of reciting the major Hours of the Breviary according to the prescription of the Order; nor did they begin to practise them before Teresa afterwards betook herself to them.
[29] controversy: which having been settled, Meanwhile that horrible tempest, dispelled by the assiduous prayers and pious exercises of Blessed Teresa and her daughters, began indeed little by little to cease raging: but behold, from elsewhere a certain unexpected whirlwind rose up, which seemed to promise some calm, but the waves which had not yet wholly subsided began, as it blew, to be raised again contrary to expectation. For a certain pious man, impelled by good zeal, counselled that the whole matter be committed to the arbitration of learned men, so that
the parties should stand by whatever decision they should have decided. This indeed seemed the best means of composing the dissension, and was approved even by some of Teresa's defenders; but she herself wholly disapproved of it, because she was not ignorant that almost the whole city was opposed to her: wherefore she had to strive with the greatest strength that this arbitration should be rescinded. At the same time, further, God directing it, Pedro Ibáñez came to Ávila, whom divine providence seemed to have brought there then chiefly for the present necessity only: for no affairs had called him to Ávila. He stayed there as long as seemed needful for composing the minds of many; and, because he was strong in authority with most of the citizens both on account of his erudition in letters and on account of the holiness of his life, he drew many over to his opinion. And when he had withdrawn from Ávila, he dealt with the provincial of the Carmelites, by what means he could (and especially by the help of Bishop Mendoza, whom those four little novices were inciting with all their strength to the promotion of this cause), that he should give Teresa of Jesus the opportunity of passing to the new monastery of St. Joseph and of instructing and ruling her daughters begotten in Christ. Such indeed was then the state of affairs that this faculty seemed altogether unable to be obtained so quickly: yet at length she was made possessed of her wishes.
[30] The Saint, with the leave of the provincial, returns thither. Therefore in the year 1563, about mid-Lent c, exulting with gladness and having received leave and blessing from her superiors, she passed over to her new daughters, who had continually begged her coming of God; by whom she was received with as great a sign of a rejoicing soul as with how great tears and sighs she had been longed for. Power having moreover been given her of taking with her some nuns from the convent of the Incarnation, there followed their leader Ana de San Juan, Ana de los Ángeles, María Isabel, and Isabel de San Pablo, Teresa's cousin, who indeed, having stayed some years at the Incarnation, had already taken the sacred habit there, but had put off pronouncing her solemn vows, in order that she might conceive them at St. Joseph's, having followed Teresa. Of these she chose one as prioress over the rest, Ana de San Juan (so that she might shake that burden off herself); and she appointed Ana de los Ángeles her vicaress. But the prelate, thinking it just that she should preside over the others who was in very deed the mother and mistress of all, entrusted that office to Teresa, although it would have been far more acceptable to her to be subject than to preside. Wherefore, lest she should seem to oppose the commands of her superiors, she had to accept the part of ruling. Teresa was indeed received most lovingly by her nuns, yet still much more amicably did the heavenly Spouse treat her, by whom, when she was rapt outside the senses, she saw herself received on that very day with distinguished congratulation and crowned with a most precious diadem; who also seemed to give her immense thanks because she had gratified His Mother in this work through such great labours. On another day also, when, the Office of Compline having been discharged, all the handmaids of God were applying themselves to prayer in choir, she saw the Mother of God shining with wonderful splendour and clothed in a white mantle, with which she seemed to embrace and protect all the nuns in order. At the same time also, God revealing it, she learned to how lofty a degree of glory the nuns of that monastery were to be raised.
[31] The citizens of Ávila favour the new house; Further, the whole city soon began to be wonderfully affected towards the monastery itself, and its followers to be increased in number little by little: for, God touching their hearts, the will of all was so suddenly changed that those whom they had before experienced as most bitter adversaries they now experienced as most benevolent favourers and most munificent helpers, and these now praised and proclaimed what they had before carped at. Little by little also there was a ceasing from litigating and disputing, since there was now no one who did not say that it was evident that this work proceeded from God, as one which, the adversaries gnashing their teeth and struggling in vain, had grown always with daily increases through the midst of the storms of adversities. Nor indeed did this ardent affection grow cold afterwards, since all the best people perceived that the matter stood far otherwise than they had persuaded themselves at the beginning: especially when they saw what and how great goods have flowed from this monastery, and how much it has promoted the glory and honour of the divine name. And surely such have been its increases hitherto that within about six years past some nine thousand gold pieces have been spent on the building of the choir, the side chapels and the house, yet without any debt being contracted thence by the household. Whence it is manifestly evident that this is the work of divine hands, and that God is now showing in very deed what He had said very obscurely to Teresa before: "Enter as you can: for you will see what I Myself will do."
[32] and into it two kinswomen of the holy Mother During all that time in which the Blessed Mother stayed at St. Joseph's, namely for five years (as I shall indicate below in its place), she dealt very frequently with Domingo Báñez, master of Sacred Theology; since she saw that there had been communicated to him from heaven not only erudition and learning (for which he has hitherto been illustrious in name on account of the most learned books brought into the light, and will hereafter be illustrious), but also distinguished discretion and prudence and an exceptional spirit of piety and religion. She depended wholly on his direction, and communicated wholly with him both the exterior affairs of the house and the interior affairs of the mind; whence she took no common fruit both for herself and for her nuns. The disturbances having been composed, then, the Redeemer forthwith set about gathering various virgins to this convent, who brought helping hands to the Lord's work: among whom easily the first was María de Ocampo, Teresa's kinswoman, who by her entrance here (it fell on the day on which St. John before the Latin Gate, cast into oil, is venerated, about a year and a half after the monastery was founded) moved both piety and astonishment in all who knew her. By the dowry which she brought here both a certain annual debt which the monastery had already contracted was paid off, and Teresa ordered certain solitary little cells to be built, in which the nuns, with mind collected within themselves, might give themselves to prayer more quietly. On these she ordered images to be painted which might stir pious movements of soul in those looking at them; nor did she ask any silver of her father except for this use. In the September next following another kinswoman of Teresa gave her name to this place, María de Ávila, daughter of Alfonso Álvarez de Ávila (who, because he ennobled the distinction of his lineage more by the ornaments of the virtues, obtained the surname of the Saint).
[33] and other distinguished virgins are admitted. She came as if leading a triumph over the world trodden underfoot, excellently adorned, covered with fine linen and gold and decorated with all elegances, a whole crowd of nobles thronging round her; because she was connected by kinship of blood with the leading men of the city. She filled all these with astonishment, because she was the only heir of her father's wealth, and not so long before had presumed such lofty things of herself that she rejected whatever marriages were offered her as unworthy of herself. The Lord had touched her not long before with a powerful hand: hence, when she had hung anxious for many days in affliction of mind and tears, struggling with God calling her, and He on the one side calling her apart to the quiet of Religion, and she on the other resisting Him drawing her, at length she gave up her conquered hands and resolved to profess the monastic life. And then indeed she experienced such quiet and tranquillity in her soul as though she had had this wish and desire her whole life. At the beginning she suffered indeed the most grievous detractions of various persons; but the virgin displayed such generosity of mind that even the calumnies of her opponents gave her pleasure. Not long after her admission she was led out publicly into the church, all garments smelling of the world having been laid aside, and clothed in cheap and thick cloth, she who before was wont to shine with fine linen and radiant gold, and gifted with the surname of St. Jerome in place of her paternal and family name. By which guise she stirred some to piety, others to compassion for her, seeing her now poor and humble whom a little before they had seen dressed and adorned. As she devoted herself to God from the heart, so also whatever she possessed she most willingly made over to Him: by whose money an annual revenue was assigned to a certain chapel and the bounds of the church were widened. She afterwards presided over this monastery for many years and still presides. About the same time also there was numbered with the same convent Mother Isabel de Santo Domingo, of whom there will afterwards be place for speaking, as one who afterwards profited wonderfully to the increase of the Order; and also very many others, by whose accession this house little by little began to be filled.
ANNOTATA.
Chapter III.
The coming of the General of the Carmelites into Spain; the faculty of founding more monasteries granted by him to Teresa. The Saint's journey to Medina del Campo.
Chap. VI.
What has been written by me so far you might call in some manner a commentary on the book in which Teresa embraced her life in part; The fervour of the holy Mother's first daughters, to which indeed I have added very many things, suppressed by her there on purpose and of set intent. This very thing I shall do henceforward in the book in which she comprehended the foundations of her houses. Now Teresa in her slender, if by the reckonings of the world
you weigh the matter, and very poor monastery, but one great before God and rich in heavenly gifts, enjoying an incredible peace and tranquillity of mind. For the storms had been calmed, and the merciful God had granted her leave to rest a little while; indeed the beloved of her soul had adjured the very daughters of Jerusalem not to stir her up nor make her awake until she herself pleased. Already she seemed to herself to be living in a paradise of the greatest delight, and she looked up to those holy souls among whom she dwelt as to so many Angels. Nor was it any wonder that she felt so, since the Lord himself, while she was engaged in prayer, did not hesitate to tell her that this house was to him a kind of paradise of delight. There were by now thirteen in all (the number she herself wished), and all of them choir nuns who sang in the choir; for at that time the custom of admitting lay sisters had not yet become common. And although they were pressed by want, they did not beg alms; but the Lord of his own accord provided all necessities to those who did not ask. And if at times it happened that these were lacking, then above all they thought themselves most blessed and most kindly dealt with. For all of them took so little trouble over temporal things that not even the Mother herself, though she was the superior and the care of these things fell to her by her office, was ever anxious about them. Rather, all were possessed by the pursuit of prayer, and that they might give themselves to it the more quietly, they sought solitude. Visits, even when made by kinsfolk and intimate friends, were burdensome and irksome to them.
[35] wonderful simplicity, There flourished in each of them a wonderful obedience and contempt of the world, and at the same time a zeal for and love of holy poverty. Their whole thought was borne toward this: to find what way of pleasing God was the better and more perfect. Teresa's soul, too, received new gifts of grace from the Bridegroom every day and advanced to better things; whence it came about that her companions also, animated by her examples and discourses, which were ready to hand and frequent, burned more vehemently with divine love and desired to undertake lofty works for God, because she herself, as their leader and mistress, always went before them in all things, like the eagle (as Scripture says, Deut. XXXII, 11) that provokes her young to fly and flutters over them, so that they may follow their mother in flight. She exercised and tested them unceasingly in the practice of true and solid virtues; and how great a fruit accrued to their souls from these, there was no one who did not see. I shall here produce some specimens of them. It happened that at table a very small cucumber, rotten through on the inside, was set before the Mother. She called to her, out of all of them, the one who seemed to excel the rest in dexterity of wit and was endowed with greater gifts, Mother Mary of St. John the Baptist, whose obedience she wished to put to the test, and ordered her to plant it in the ground in the tiny garden they had at the house. Mary, without any delay, and not examining the order further, asked whether she should commit the cucumber to the earth upright, or lying on its side. When Teresa bade her sow it lying down, she went off at once to the garden to carry out the command, not at all debating with herself whether its seed ought first to be dried or not, but rushing upon the command with blind obedience. And she says that she was then so far removed from that doubt that even to this day she is of the same simplicity of mind, and is persuaded that so it ought to be done.
[36] singular obedience To another she would give six or seven things to be done at one and the same time, and such commands indeed that the carrying out of one hindered that of another; yet the nun accepted them gladly, without so much as a word to the contrary, thinking that, since these things were enjoined by her superior, she could without difficulty satisfy them all at once. But if I wished to recount one by one in speaking the virtues of all those first nuns, and indeed even of those who live there today, it would be necessary to put together a new volume about them alone. Yet it would be a wrong to pass over in silence one thing wholly admirable that befell Teresa at that time, in which the faith of one of her daughters must also have its share of the praise. The nuns had not long before bought a certain plot adjoining their house. This had a very deep well, but its water was so insipid and stinking that it did not suffice even for watering animals. The Mother wished to draw it off by underground channels of pipes into a certain little court of the monastery, thinking that if it were made to flow it could be rendered drinkable; but since the depth of the well was very great, it seemed impossible that it could be led off into the court. She therefore called in men skilled in water-works; to them she seemed to be mad and to wish to pour out money on fruitless labour, money which she then had in very small supply. Next she took her own nuns into counsel; and one of them, namely that Mary of St. John the Baptist, advised that the digging should be attempted. She confirmed this counsel with the following reason, which a lively and effectual trust in God suggested: "The Lord," she said, "will give us a man to procure us water by bringing it from elsewhere, and at the same time the food with which to feed him: so he would provide it for us at our house at a cheaper price; whence I am persuaded that the Lord himself will not deny us this."
[37] and lively faith, which by prodigies This reasoning, which would perhaps move the wise and prudent of this world to laughter, so satisfied the Mother, as one full of trust and weighing all things by higher reasons than the world is wont to do, that she at once both approved it and ordered it to be put into execution, although a most skilled water-engineer who happened to be present then resisted and asserted that the thing was undertaken in vain: both because the water was utterly tasteless, and because after all the expense and sweat it seemed that only the thinnest little stream would flow into the monastery through those pipes. Teresa therefore ordered the aqueduct to be dug; nor did the outcome disappoint her: for through this channel there ran down water so sweet that those who tasted it declared it yielded nothing to spring water, and having tasted it they used it for drinking. The prelate Mendoza himself, too, who had seen the well before, marvelling exceedingly that an aqueduct could have been made here, brought many with him to taste the same water. Thenceforth this water began to be called the fountain of Mary of St. John the Baptist, and for eight years and more it gave drink to the nuns, that is, for as long as it seemed necessary: and afterwards it ceased to flow, also not without a prodigy. For when they had obtained from the city a very clear well for watering the garden (because the earlier channel broke out only in the court at the back of the house), the prodigy of that fountain ceased. For although it has never wholly failed up to now, yet from that time it has flowed only in the very slenderest little stream; which had earlier been the judgement of the experts, who denied that more could be drawn through the vein.
[38] God seems to confirm. In those same days another thing happened which also seemed to most people like a prodigy. The straits of the house were very great, and no means of enlarging it was at hand, except perhaps by buying the neighbouring houses: but their owner said that while he lived they could not be redeemed at any price, and that he would not move out of them except dead. So dear, namely, did he hold his house, because a pleasant garden refreshed it, which a certain hidden aqueduct watered, drawn off by him from the very bridge of the city moats, with absolutely no one aware of it for so many years. But after negotiations began to be made with him about selling the house, the thing at length came to light. Wherefore, the vein of water having been cut off by the commonwealth, all his zeal and love for the garden grew cold: for he could not keep it watered otherwise than by this water-channel. Thereupon a loathing for the house too began to take hold of him, so that he no longer thought it a hardship to sell it to the monastery. By its addition the bounds of the monastery were enlarged and extended.
[39] To the zeal of St. Teresa Teresa never experienced any time more quiet, nor any days more tranquil: as one who now learned in very fact and by experience how empty and lying were the fears breathed into her by the devil and set before her mind, by which it seemed that in that very narrow house she could not enjoy the quiet she desired, being already deprived of the companions to whom she had been accustomed in the other monastery. And at last she saw clearly what a loss of her quiet she would have suffered had she lent her ears to the envious tempter, and to what present danger those expose themselves who, dismayed by such fears, lose heart. But the greatness of her soul, and the fire of divine love that seethed in her heart, granted her, quiet though she was, no quiet. For an immense desire of helping souls in whatever way continually spurred her pious mind on to one thing after another. She had not, indeed, any further things she could do in this cause; yet she did not for that reason cease always to turn over greater things in her mind. For when she perceived such outstanding virtues and no common generosity in her daughters, she could not but be persuaded that they were endowed from heaven with such great gifts of grace for some greater good. She also used to say that she was very like a man possessing an immense treasure and wishing to distribute it among all, but whose hands are tightly bound so that he may not share it with anyone. Wherefore, since she could do nothing else, her pious desires carried her off at least to this: to pour out continual prayers for the increase of the Church, and to spur on her followers to this very thing, and to busy herself with stirring up in them, by whatever means she could, zeal for souls.
[40] Fr. Alphonsus Maldonado, of the Order of Minors, adds new spurs Meanwhile four years had passed, as I have already indicated; when, in the course of the fifth year, Alphonsus Maldonado, a Discalced friar of the Order of Minors, who a few days before had returned from the Indies to Spain, visited Teresa, and with a sad narrative recalled how many souls in those remote regions were rushing to everlasting ruin for want of men to minister saving doctrine to them. The ardent flame for helping the souls of their neighbours in this most religious man refreshed the pious Mother, since she burned with the same: whence she began to emulate Alphonsus with a certain holy envy, because it was permitted to him to put forth the ardours of his soul by urging his neighbour on to better things and helping him in whatever way, while for her this was not possible. Having heard, therefore, that infinite souls were going to perdition for want of doctrine, she conceived such grief in her mind that she could hardly contain herself for the ardour of her spirit. Wherefore she at once hid herself in a certain solitary retreat (such as she had built in the house garden), that she might there recollect her mind in greater quiet. Here, drawing tears from her eyes and groans from the depth of her heart, she cried unceasingly to the supreme Creator of souls that he would suggest to her some means by which she might co-operate in the salvation of even one soul, since the evil demon was claiming myriads of them for himself; and, since it was not permitted her to help them by any other way, that at least her tears might bring them some aid. This ardour was the continual matter of her prayer, until one night, as she was watching in prayer, the Redeemer showed himself to her to be seen, in the form in which he was wont, with great signs of love, and, in the manner of one consoling her, spoke to her these words: "Wait a little while, dearest, and you shall see wonders." These words remained engraved in her inmost marrow, so that she could not blot them out of her memory.
[41] For again and again it recurred to her mind what
these wonders could at length be, and in what way they would come about. The Rev. Fr. Rubeo, General of the Carmelites, But as yet she could discover nothing by thinking: this one thing only was certain, that what the Lord had foretold to her would come to pass some day, although she did not at all understand in what manner it would be. A few days afterwards she at length began to know it: namely, when the fitting time had now come in which that most brilliant lamp, which the Lord had kept as it were shut up and confined within the narrow straits of the enclosure of that monastery, should be put forth more, and, spreading on every side the glowing rays of its splendour, should illuminate all who dwelt in the house of God, that is, the Church. For this cause, by God's ordaining and directing, it came about that the Rev. Fr. Giovanni Battista Rubeo, of Ravenna, Prior General of the Order of Carmelites, was brought not only into Spain but to Ávila as well. This had never been seen before, nor has it been seen since: for the Generals of this Order are always accustomed to reside in Italy, and chiefly at Rome. To Teresa, from whom it was then still hidden what the divine Wisdom was contriving, it would have been far more welcome had he not come to Ávila. For she feared that, because she had pledged obedience not to the superiors of the Order but to the bishop of the city, he might interpret this amiss and, in his displeasure, compel her to return once more to the Incarnation. This new removal would have affected her not a little, and for no other reason truly than that she foresaw that in the former place the rigour of the primitive rule, and the practice of austerity, poverty and enclosure which she had begun, and which she now saw observed here with such exultant feeling of soul, would be forbidden her.
[42] He grants the Saint leave When Rubeo had arrived at Ávila, Teresa, relying on the sincerity of her conscience, since she had neither failed in the honour due to superiors nor looked to anything in this work beyond the glory of the Lord and of his Most Holy Mother, by no means withdrew herself, nor sought a hiding-place after the example of Adam in his sin (Gen. III, 8), since she had in no way offended; but she herself invited him in most courteous words not to think it a burden to come to St. Joseph's. When he had come there, she gave him an exact account not only of this foundation but of almost her whole life, with such candour of a sincere mind and genuine truth as if this account were to be rendered to God, whose place he held. On the one side she rested on the equity and justice of her cause; on the other side the judge too was most equitable and most zealous for the promotion of religion and piety: and God dwelt in the heart and on the tongue of her who pleaded. For she defended her part with such grace, eloquence and weight of reasons so efficacious, that the General, consoling her greatly, gave her courage for greater things, pledging his word besides that she should by no means be compelled to leave that place by his command. And when he saw in this monastery a living pattern of his Order at its birth, and the primitive rule observed here without any mitigation (which he knew to be done in no other convent), and herself on fire with an immense desire of winning souls for Christ, he was wonderfully refreshed by this new spectacle, and at the same time wished from his heart that this undertaking should both be perfected and be carried further day by day. Wherefore, giving her letters to this effect, he granted her the fullest power of founding more monasteries wherever she could: indeed he even enjoined her under a precept of obedience to erect as many as she could; and he willed that provincials, if any should chance to put a hindrance in the way of her pious undertakings, should be liable to the gravest penalties.
[43] more of nuns, Already, therefore, Teresa began to see those wonders of which the Lord had made mention in the recent vision. For until then she had looked to this one thing only, that she might be permitted to live quietly in her own monastery; and it had not even come into her mind to ask from her superiors leave to erect other dwellings. And although she was not unaware how very opportune money and the goodwill of the great were for the building of monasteries (both of which she lacked), yet since she possessed a generous constancy of mind for accomplishing hard and lofty things, and burned with a most ardent zeal for promoting the divine glory and procuring the salvation of souls, and rested upon the greatest trust in God, and at the same time had perceived how inclined the will and nod of the General were that she should undertake more convents of that kind, she seemed to herself already to see them built and made ready, and she divined that these would be those wonders which the Lord had promised her elsewhere through the vision. The General himself, too, defended her in every matter against detraction, and gratified her as far as he could in various cases, and as often as the respite from business allowed, he visited her familiarly, conferring with her in friendly fashion on matters of the spirit and on things that concerned the government of the whole Order: hence he began to be borne toward her with so great a love that whenever occasion was given of speaking about her, he did not hesitate to call her his daughter; until at length he returned to Rome.
Chap. VII.
[44] The great things she was to see did not indicate only the propagation and increase of the Discalced nuns, but of men too but the Most High was contriving through her the foundation and beginnings of the Discalced Carmelite friars as well: a thing so new and unusual in a woman that from the first beginnings of the Church scarcely ever has it chanced that the like was seen. The affair, then, was carried through in this way. The prelate of Ávila, Álvaro de Mendoza, out of his singular zeal toward all who strive to follow God in the highest perfection, had asked the Prior General of the Carmelites, before he set about departing thence, to give leave for building in his diocese certain convents for men desiring to keep the primitive rigour of the rule. Perhaps this first came into his own mind, or (as I indeed judge, and with me several nuns of the highest authority who were living in that monastery at that time) he proposed it only after the blessed Mother had first suggested it. And when others too pressed him most earnestly for it, the Father General wished indeed to comply with their pious request; but finding some opposition in his Order, he judged that it was by no means to be granted at that time: for the Lord had reserved this work not to the bishop, but to his handmaid. Not long afterwards, then, she herself began to turn over in her mind that it seemed altogether necessary, since there were congregations of nuns, that certain houses of men too, who should profess the same institute and manner of life, should be raised up, so that in this way the nuns also might remain in their vigour. When she had carefully commended this business to God in prayer, she made it known by letter to the Prior General, who was now departing for Rome, writing out for him at length the advantages that would follow from this erection of monasteries of Discalced Carmelite friars; and that it seemed a wrong that so fitting a purpose for promoting the divine glory should be broken off on account of the inconveniences which showed themselves at first sight in this work.
[45] of erecting two convents. This letter was delivered to the General at Valencia: and such was its force, because the Lord had imparted to her grace and force of speech, that without difficulty she obtained what she was urgently requesting, and gained from him in writing leave for raising up two monasteries. Yet he committed the whole business to the judgement and authority of the provincial, both of the one who was then discharging that office and of the one who had lately ended it. This indeed seemed hard and difficult; but when Teresa saw that what was reckoned the weightiest of all had already been accomplished according to her wish, she immediately hoped that the rest too would be accomplished with equal ease. Nor did the outcome disappoint her. For the bishop, setting about advancing the matter by his authority, obtained the assent and approval of both provincials. This increased the pious Mother's joy, but it increased her anxiety too: since, out of all the Friars of her Institute whom she knew, she found none who was willing to set his mind on passing from the milder rule to this new rigour, much less anyone from among men of the world who, by giving a beginning to this holy and unheard-of work as the first, would pave the way for others to it. A house too was lacking, and no means of having one was at hand: she had for this purpose only the letters of leave and a vehement desire for the thing, as well as a certain unbroken generosity of mind and a constant trust in God, relying on which she hoped that the Lord, who had given one thing, would also not unwillingly grant the other. Wherefore with the greatest feeling of fervour she besought him that, if it seemed good, he would raise up by his own choice at least one man somewhere to lay the foundation and beginning of the work.
[46] to Medina del Campo, While she was continually turning these things over in her mind, the Lord put it into her mind to build new convents for nuns. It seemed advisable to her, therefore, to take the beginning of the work at Medina del Campo (this was a neighbouring and wealthy town). What perhaps moved her not a little to this was that Balthasar Álvarez, a priest of our Society, under whose direction she had once advanced so far in the training-ground of the spirit, at that time presided with authority over the college of Medina. And since she was very intimate with and devoted to the Fathers of the Society, she wrote to Álvarez of the faculty she had received from her General, at the same time beseeching him to ask from the abbot of Medina leave to found a monastery there. For, furnished with letters fortified with the General's seal, she needed nothing else except the consent of the Ordinary of the place. With these letters she dispatched to Medina Julian of Ávila, who was charged with saying Mass in her monastery, of whom we have already spoken before and shall speak hereafter too (because he was the companion and helper of the blessed Mother when she went off to found a number of houses). The leave did not seem easy to obtain, because this monastery was to be founded without fixed revenues; nevertheless Julian strove with the abbot with all the effort he could, Álvarez helping, so that some hope of obtaining permission now shone forth. But first, by the authority of the council, inquiry was made, and it was ordered to be committed to writing, what advantages would come to the town from that monastery. Julian performed this creditably and sufficiently, producing the testimonies of various trustworthy persons. Among the ecclesiastical witnesses the Fathers of our college were reckoned the chief: for since they both knew and loved Teresa, and knew how much it would contribute to promoting the glory of God if a convent of that kind were built in that town, they bore their testimony without reluctance. Among laymen he had brought in as witnesses the principal men of the magistracy, and also some of the leading citizens.
[47] about to found a monastery there, Fifteen days had been spent on these things when, leave having been granted by the abbot as she had wished, he hired, on Teresa's advice, a house among the principal ones of the town, not far from the convent of St. Augustine, at fifty-one thousand maravedís a year, so that the beginnings of the monastery might be laid there. Meanwhile Teresa had also entered on another way of accomplishing the matter. At that time Antonio de Heredia was prior of the Carmelites of Medina, whom I knew formerly both at Salamanca in his studies and afterwards as prior of the Carmelites at Ávila. Teresa advised him by letter to buy her a house at Medina. He therefore approached on this matter a matron whom he knew, and, when they had agreed between themselves on the price, he bought the house from her without any surety being required. It was in a fairly convenient part of the town, in the street they call St. James's, and it is the very one in which they now dwell: but the chief
part of it was already falling into ruin, so that it could not be conveniently lived in. It was therefore necessary for Julian meanwhile to hire another house while that one was being restored. Both the hiring of the one and the purchase of the other pleased the blessed Mother, although she had not an obol with which to satisfy either the lessor or the seller: for she was of exceptional greatness of soul and of wonderful trust in God. This trust had been increased not a little by the fatherly protection of God, which she had now so often perceived in each of the difficulties into which she had fallen while the first monastery was being erected. Hence she was not troubled a whit about money, nor did she fear that anything of what she had conceived would have to be broken off for lack of it. Wherefore it was necessary that he who had cared for the rest until then should now also supply pecuniary help; since Mother Teresa lacked even the necessaries for the journey, and the credit to receive anything on loan. But, since it was by no means fitting that a heavenly benefactor should be wanting to this work, as he had not been wanting until then, behold, while Teresa was deliberating with herself on ways of procuring money, a certain most virtuous maiden, who, because the number of thirteen nuns was already complete, had not been able to be received at St. Joseph's according to her wish, learning that the building of another convent was in hand, asked to be admitted into that very one, and offered for its erection some money which she had.
[48] with six nuns Teresa therefore granted her her wish, namely the first of all who entered upon this kind of life at Medina. Her name is Isabel of Jesus. But her means were so slender that the house which had been bought could not be paid for with them, being sufficient only for paying the price of the hire. Furnished with this little sum, Teresa set out on the journey with no less readiness, though she drew along with her many companions whom she had to feed, than if she had carried immense treasures with her. She took with her two companions chosen from St. Joseph's and four from the Incarnation: for she had leave to transfer into her own family those who wished to leave that house. From St. Joseph's went forth Mary of St. John the Baptist, Teresa's kinswoman, whom I have already mentioned above, and Anne of the Angels, vicaress of the prioress; and from the Incarnation, Agnes de Tapia, who afterwards took the surname of Jesus and is today prioress at Palencia; then Anne de Tapia, her sister, who was afterwards called of the Incarnation, and for many years was superior of the nuns of Salamanca and afterwards of those of Medina: both were Teresa's kinswomen. Besides these, Isabel Arias, who, when the house of Valladolid was erected, was set over it by Teresa, and is now called Isabel of the Cross: and lastly, fourth, Teresa Quesada. The last two of these were still wearing the former habit which they had taken at the Incarnation: the first two had already put it off, because a few days before they had gone over with Mother Teresa to St. Joseph's a. The nuns who remained at Ávila grieved at her departure, because they were carried away by a singular feeling of love toward her, and there was none who did not wish to accompany the Mother as she went.
[49] and other companions But before she set out on the road, she wished, as befitted a most loving mother, to console them in part, providing them with a house and garden, which they especially needed: for which purpose, since she was suffering from a want of money, she contracted a debt of nine thousand reals, trusting that the Lord would provide money with which it might be discharged. Nor did this hope deceive the blessed Mother: for not long afterwards, the Lord doubtless moving their hearts, some chosen maidens, very well furnished with money and also on fire with zeal to serve God, pressed with the most earnest entreaties to be enrolled in the Order. This must surely be reckoned of very great account, especially at that time; since, namely, with Teresa now absent, both her rivals believed and the pious feared that her monastery would utterly perish. A little before she began the journey, in a certain solitary little cell of that house, in which the Redeemer is seen painted bound to the pillar, she besought him with a great feeling of piety to restore the monastery to her safe and sound, in the same state in which she was leaving it on her departure. And Christ heard her as she prayed and assented to her pious wishes. Then, bidding farewell to each of her nuns with great signs of grief, she easily covered this with her accustomed greatness of soul, lest she give them any occasion of sadness. Her companions too all displayed a notable constancy of mind and a keen eagerness to suffer adversity, hoping that under her leadership they could break through and overcome anything. In three or four carts were carried both the nuns themselves and the scanty furniture, which the poor house from which they were departing could without difficulty spare, and which they might perhaps need at Medina: many others accompanied them on foot, and above all Julian of Ávila.
[50] Teresa sets out. In the fifth year after the building of the monastery of St. Joseph, two days before the feast-day of the Virgin assumed into heaven, in the year 1568, this colony was led out to Medina. For it was among Teresa's wishes that the new convent should begin to be inhabited on the very day of the Assumption of the Mother of God, to whom both the monastery she was contriving and the maidens who were to found it looked. This departure could not be made secretly from the citizens, nor did those departing strive to conceal their going; because they believed they were going to a thing already accomplished. As soon, then, as it became known among the common people, a great uproar began everywhere throughout the whole town. There were those who laughed at Teresa as a fool; others silently waited to see what end so rash an undertaking would have; but those who were devoted to her affairs strove with many words, setting before her great difficulties, to turn her from this plan. But these things so little cast down Teresa's generous soul that she did not even judge them worthy of the name of difficulties. For what others regarded as dangerous and doubtful, the generous maiden considered so easy that she held it altogether persuaded that what she was beginning would be brought to a prosperous end. The prelate Mendoza himself also judged that this could not possibly be done; yet he would not indicate it to Teresa nor deter her from her purpose, lest he bring any sorrow upon her, whom he held most dear.
[51] On the journey, difficulties On the first day they reached Arévalo; and when, the sun already setting, they were a quarter of a league from it, Alfonso Esteban, a most religious priest and renowned for offices of exceptional charity, who had prepared lodging for them at their coming with some pious women, came forward to meet them, and handed to Julian of Ávila a letter sent by Alfonso Álvarez, who had let the house at Medina. In it he had signified that they should not depart from Ávila until the business had been settled with the Augustinian Fathers, who lived in that neighbourhood. For these would not suffer another convent to be erected so near their own. And since he was their friend and intimate, he thought it a wrong to offend them: accordingly he said he was unwilling to hand over the house into the nuns' hands before these good Fathers had given their assent. Esteban privately made the same known to Teresa as well. This unexpected news struck the pious Mother not a little, who had set out on this road with so large a retinue, and desired with her highest wishes that the beginnings of the new foundation should be celebrated on the very feast of the Assumption of the Mother of God, which was due in two days. Nevertheless the generous heroine did not on that account shrink in spirit; but, so far as lay in her, she conceived a greater trust, and firmly persuaded herself, since the infernal adversary was struggling against it so early, that great glory would one day redound to God from it.
[52] which are reported as likely to arise, She therefore bade Esteban be silent on this matter, lest this unexpected news sadden the companions she was leading; and she wished it kept secret in particular from those two who had just recently come out of the Incarnation, Isabel Arias and Teresa Quesada: for she knew that the rest would most willingly undergo any kind of hardships and labours for her sake. Isabel Arias had been subprioress when she left the Incarnation, and had broken through the grave hindrances of many who tried to delay this departure; and both were connected by ties of blood with all the principal persons in the city and were of illustrious family, and had followed Teresa against the opposition of their kinsfolk: wherefore she was distressed chiefly on their account. When they came to the lodging that had been prepared, she heard that Father Master Domingo Báñez had arrived there. This news raised her up no less than the former had cast her down: for she did not in the least doubt that by his counsel the matter would succeed according to her wish. She at once called him, and privately disclosed to him what was afoot. He gave her hope that the business with the Augustinian Fathers would be settled shortly and easily. But Báñez's opinion did not at all satisfy Teresa, who was drawing along with her so great a number of companions and saw how much every delay was harming her, since she had certainly learned by experience, instructed by the difficulties of the former foundation, how great the storms that would be stirred up thereby, unless possession were taken before the people knew of it.
[53] She forestalls them by wise counsel. When she had spent a great part of the night turning over and examining what she had resolved, behold, the next morning Antonio de Heredia, superior of the Carmelites, arrived, saying that the house which he himself had bought seemed in some fashion convenient, and had a porch very well suited for exposing the Most Holy Sacrament, with hangings added to adorn it. This counsel pleased the Mother, because less time was required for it. It seemed good therefore that Agnes of Jesus and Anne of the Incarnation, her own sister, and also Isabel Arias and Teresa Quesada, should stay in the nearest town, which is named Villanueva del Aceral, and where Vincent de Ahumada, brother of Agnes of Jesus and Anne of the Incarnation, was acting as parish priest. Thither Alfonso Esteban, of whom we have spoken, conducted them. But they had not yet stayed there fifteen days when Teresa summoned them to Medina. With her there remained only Mary of St. John the Baptist and Anne of the Angels: with them she resolved to go to Olmedo also, where the prelate of Ávila was then staying; because on this road there lived the matron who had sold the house to which they were hastening. When Teresa had met her, she obtained from her a letter by which the steward and purveyor who was living in the house was ordered to withdraw immediately and yield it to the nuns. She further gave him instructions that, if he saw there would be need, he should hand over to Teresa the tapestries that were in the house and the coverlets of blue damask cloth. That this counsel was truly inspired in her by God, what follows will show.
ANNOTATION.
and not otherwise (see the Preliminary Commentary, no. 398). These things I have noted here lest it should perhaps seem to anyone that St. Teresa, by taking away several of the nuns of the Incarnation, overstepped the precepts of her superior.
Chapter IV.
The foundation of the convent of virgins at Medina.
Chap. VIII.
When they had arrived at Olmedo that same evening, they were received most lovingly by the bishop of Ávila; Brought to Medina, but the blessed Mother would not stay here longer, lest the opportunity which she thought she already had in her hands should slip away. The prelate ordered a carriage to be got ready for her, in which she might travel more conveniently and more becomingly with her nuns, and added a priest of his household to accompany them. Whence on that same day, namely the vigil of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, they were brought to Medina del Campo at the dead of night. Julian of Ávila had already gone ahead a little before, and had informed the Carmelites of St. Anne of Teresa's approaching arrival, and of what she had resolved to carry out that very night. These therefore prepared the sacred furnishing for celebrating the Mysteries and all the equipment of the altar. Not long after the Mother followed with her nuns, and, that the matter might be carried through with less noise, they alighted before the door of that same monastery. Without delay Heredia himself and two other religious, and also those two priests and the nuns, took upon their shoulders the things that were necessary for the purposes we have mentioned. The blessed Mother urged them on, going before the rest with great spirit and constancy, imitating a gallant commander proceeding with a chosen band of soldiers on an expedition of great moment, which, if it is to succeed happily, must be put into execution before those who are about to undertake it are discovered by the enemy.
[55] on the very night of her arrival They were now hastening outside the walls of the town, and indeed at that time of night when the bulls were being shut in, whose shows were to be exhibited on the day after the Assumption. Accordingly they frequently met one person after another: which also distressed them not a little as they went through the darkness of the night. But that distress would have been far greater had they fallen in with the public constables: for such was the appearance of people going by night with bundles, as if they had robbed some church. The remarks of those who met them on this matter were (as happens) various, when they saw religious, priests and women hurrying along late at night with their goods packed together: each spoke freely according to what he thought, there being added especially that licence which the dark night is wont to give to such freedom of words. But since they were not of the public officers, they in no way hindered them on their way. They redoubled their steps in wonderful silence and hastened straight to the appointed place. When they had arrived there, they woke its keeper, who was sleeping and expecting nothing less. When he was slow in getting up, they pressed him with redoubled shouting, eager to get in, since they did not wish to be seen by anyone by night, and feared lest some harm befall them from longer delay. So the keeper leapt from his bed, opened the doors; and, having read his mistress's letter, carried out in order everything commanded. All therefore were joyfully admitted into the court, and Teresa, looking round it, saw the walls fallen down here and there; although, when it was now growing light, their ruin appeared far greater than could have been seen through the darkness.
[56] the house prepared for her The place into which the Venerable Sacrament of the Altar was to be brought was filled with earth, which had first to be carried out: then it lay so open here to the injuries of the sky, the roof gaping and full of cracks, that Teresa judged it altogether unfit for setting up an altar and for placing the Eucharist becomingly. The walls were not plastered, and there was absolutely nothing at hand to cover them; for they had only three tapestries with them, which by no means sufficed to hang a fairly large place. They did not know what to do, because all necessaries were lacking. However, the keeper of the house offered Teresa his mistress's hangings, as well as the coverlets of blue damask for the bed, just as she herself had prescribed in her letter: this offer filled her and the other companions with no small joy. Now nails were lacking for fastening the hangings, and money for buying them, and the hour too was unseasonable for buying; which tormented them even more. For since Teresa had arrived at the convent of the Carmelites about the hour of the night's deepest silence, and had then spent the rest of the time on the way, and had done the other things we have recounted, and the nights in the days of August are in any case short, anyone may easily gather that not much time could have remained to them before dawn. Nails were diligently searched for over all the walls of the house; the priests and religious hastened to clothe the shapeless entrance with tapestries, the nuns vied in carrying out the earth, each one for herself. Meanwhile the Mother did not rest, but appeared among the first in these things, both applying herself energetically to this work and lighting the way for the others by her diligence and keen zeal. But before it grew light, it seemed needful first of all to give notice to the purveyor a, that with his good leave some notary should draw up documents that would attest that this monastery was being erected with the leave and authority of the abbot, so that no one should afterwards have any ground for contradicting and hindering it. They therefore at once went to a notary, and, at the purveyor's bidding, ordered him to get up and go along with them. These things having been accomplished according to their wish, as soon as day dawned, a signal was given with the little bell which they had brought with them, and they called the people together to hear the first Mass in this place.
[57] with wonderful speed The thing filled all the neighbours with astonishment, and also all to whose ears it came, because they saw that in the interval between evening and dawn the city had been enlarged by a monastery. They had nothing to say to these things; struck only with amazement, they gazed fixedly at one another. At once so great a multitude of people flowed together here that the makeshift chapel could not hold them all, and it was necessary for the nuns to withdraw from it while the sacred Mysteries were being celebrated and the most holy vessel of the Eucharist was being set forth. But they did not know where to turn; because both the rest of the house, badly built, lay almost demolished and dashed to the ground, and the very receptacle of the most august Body of the Lord stood almost in the open air on the street. But the necessity was provided for in this way. Opposite the altar there were steps of a stair, by which one went up to a certain porch, which alone in the house remained over from the ruin. When the nuns had gone up these, they closed its door, and through a little chink in it they watched the sacred Mysteries. These steps served in place of choir, and parlour, and confessional. Furthermore, the Most Holy Body of Christ having been brought here, and the solemnities of the Mass completed, possession of the place had now in fact been taken; and so the monastery of Medina, likewise named after St. Joseph (for Teresa wished it to be named after the same patron as that of Ávila), was founded on the very anniversary day of Blessed Mary taken up into heaven, the 15th of August, 1567.
[58] and prudence Truly, if, as it is now my purpose to write out this history, I wished in pursuing it to dwell on so lofty a deed in order to celebrate it with praises, and could do so according to the dignity of the matter, a splendid occasion would here offer itself for displaying eloquence, and a most open field would be laid open in which I might range freely. For now I could extol her exceptional prudence, by whose aid she accomplished in the space of even a single day what others, even the most practised, would not have accomplished in many; now the generous constancy of her faith, which so many obstacles could not overthrow; now also the loftiness of her soul, with which she undertook so manly a work and brought it happily to its end sooner than anyone else would have turned over in his mind whether it could even be done. I pass over the labour of the journey, which she did not hesitate to undertake without allowing her body the least rest: I pass over that she began the journey without having taken any food until late at night, and fasting, and that on foot and in haste, free of all weariness, and indeed a woman laden with little bundles the whole way, being now in the fifty-third year of her age; and finally with a body in ill health and of little strength: and that she was here unmindful of all food and sleep, on fire with the sole zeal of seeking the glory of God, and desiring above all to complete the work which he himself had begun through her: moreover that, although she was distracted by various affairs, she was never so overwhelmed by their multitude that, as though submerged in them, she could not attend to each as was fitting: and that she never showed any fear; finally, that out of a private and half-ruined house, in the space of only three hours, in so great and so populous a city, she built a monastery, the very citizens not being aware of the thing before they saw it accomplished with their own eyes.
[59] she converts into a monastery. It is related that Julius Caesar, when on the fifth day after he had arrived in Pontus he had subdued Pharnaces, its king, in a single battle, inscribed on his standards this testimony of a war most swiftly finished: "I came, I saw, I conquered" (Suetonius, in his Life, chapters XXXV and XXXVII). How much more might Mother Teresa of Jesus claim it, who not on the fifth but on the second day after she had left Ávila, even before she saw Medina with her eyes (for the night was in the way), with those slender little forces which she was leading, in the space not of four but of three hours, accomplished so illustrious and heroic a deed, and carried off so renowned a victory! With what kindly eyes we may rightly believe she was regarded from heaven by Christ the Lord, and how deservedly he could have pronounced concerning his Teresa: "I have found a woman after my own heart, who shall do all my wills"! Hence, when I next call to mind that question of the doubting Solomon: "Who shall find a valiant woman?" (Prov., last chapter), I think I can fittingly and aptly reply to him that in this holy Mother the Lord sought and found for himself a woman of that kind; and that therefore it may deservedly be said of her: "Her price is from afar and from the uttermost coasts."
Chap. IX.
[60] The very same thing now befell Teresa in the erection of the monastery of Medina as had befallen her formerly in that of Ávila. Then with anxiety of mind For while she was feeling an incredible joy in her soul, both because she now perceived that a new church had been added to the city, in which the precious pledge of the Venerable Eucharist would be kept, and because she saw that everything had already been accomplished according to her wish, with absolutely no one opposing, the Most High gave the evil demon power over Teresa, so that this holy soul might be exercised in every way and tested in every furnace of adversity: he himself, then, withdrew for a little while, to watch the contest from above, of which these were the preludes. The Masses being now finished, Teresa looked down through a window into the court of the house below, in some places of which she saw the walls fallen right down to the ground, and so laid flat indeed that it seemed they could be raised only by the work of many days. Then, perceiving that the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar was exposed almost in the open air, she began to be distressed in mind and to be saddened within herself in an unwonted way. For since, on account of the wicked licence of the heretics, the iniquity of the times was such, the pious Mother began to fear lest perhaps some hidden ones among the foreigners
might be lurking heretics, who would impiously steal the pyx and treat the Sacred Bread of Angels in unworthy ways. By this door the spirit of hell crept in upon Teresa, and at the same time he set before her mind all the difficulties which those who had raged most madly in rising up against her coming to Medina could have put in her way; and these too, as he is wont and knows how, he magnified beyond measure, making an elephant out of a fly: then he poured a foul darkness over her understanding, and also a forgetfulness of all the graces she had received from the Lord, and set before the eyes of her mind only her own vileness and weakness; indeed he even tried to persuade her to believe that she was far less than that: in short he so troubled her mind that she utterly despaired of being able to go further.
[61] and for some time she is tormented with grief; Now she turned her eyes to her companions, whom she had drawn out of the convent of the Incarnation, reckoning with herself with what great opposition from all their fellow nuns and kinsfolk they had come out of it, and especially two of them; and how shameful it would be to send them back. Moreover, that, having committed a grave error at this very beginning, there would be no way left her of going further in other foundations. From which it would follow that whatever she had until now believed she had heard by the Lord's revelation must seem to be held as deception and diabolical illusion: and from this it would further follow that she had until now been living in foul error as to the manner of her life. This thought produced incredible grief in her soul, and at the same time fear: namely, she feared lest the devil had deluded her not only perhaps on this occasion, but that she had also been imposed upon by that same old trickster through all the rest of the course of her life until now. And truly I cannot (and with me all, as many as read these things) but wonder greatly that a soul so dear to God, and one which by so many and such evident testimonies could long since have been secure so as not to fear even in the least, should be struck with such great dread. How new and unwonted, moreover, to see such thick darkness there now where so great a light had always shone before, and that she who a little before was so intrepid and resolute should now be cast down so far and broken in spirit! But whoever has known the increases and decreases of graces which are sometimes wont to occur in the souls of the Saints, and has noted the remarkable providence of God, who wishes to play alternately in them with this vicissitude, partly that they may see more clearly what strength they possess when God is present and helping, and how weak and languid they are when left to themselves, and partly that hence they may better recognize the greatness and power of him from whom they receive strength, and thence their own vileness, and, this knowledge lighting the way, may be disposed to receive other greater gifts and favours with which he has resolved to heap them, will cease to wonder at this variety and vicissitude. Who would believe it was the same Paul who said: "I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor Angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. VIII, 38, 39), and who writes of himself in another place: "We would not have you ignorant, brethren, of our tribulation, which came to us in Asia: for we were pressed out of measure above our strength, so that we were weary even of life. But we had in ourselves the answer of death, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead" (2 Cor. 1, 8, 9)? One and the same Paul writes both: but he writes the former having God present, and the latter as if left to himself.
[62] and she fears lest the Most Holy Eucharist be stolen. These things, then, Teresa was turning over in her mind at that time; although meanwhile she concealed everything from her nuns and pressed down the grief in her heart, lest she overwhelm them with this new desolation. This anguish lasted until the afternoon, when a certain Father sent by Balthasar Álvarez visited her, who raised up her prostrate mind with his words and consoled her grieving soul. She asked him to look out for more spacious lodgings for her, in which they might dwell more conveniently, because in those they now inhabited they were lodging, as it were, in public; he need not as yet be anxious about their price. Such a house was sought throughout the whole city with great care and zeal; but in vain: for since Medina was then crowded with inhabitants and abounded in wealthy merchants, none could be had even at the highest price. While this was going on, Teresa was dying by day of immense cares and anxious solicitude, and by night of even greater: for every night guards had to be employed to watch over the pyx, as is customarily done in the Church on Friday of Holy Week. Yet not even then could she prevail upon herself not to keep watch: for, fearing lest, the sentinels perhaps dozing, this precious pledge should be taken from her, she would get up again and again in the night to look through the window to see whether they were awake, in which the moon, shining brightly in those days, served her as a handmaid.
[63] But at length the affairs of the monastery, Eight days had now gone by when Blas de Medina, an upright and honourable merchant, who had a fairly large house not far from the principal church, divided it into two parts convenient for habitation; into one of which he himself moved with his whole household, while the upper part of it, together with an adjoining hall, gilded and fairly large, which might serve meanwhile in place of a church until the house they had bought should be put in order, he yielded to the nuns. Then at length her former serenity of mind was restored to Teresa; because in this house to which they had moved they lived in greater solitude and enclosure, and could now begin to sing the sacred Hours quietly. In the same street of St. James, in which the house that was being restored stood, there lived a certain honourable and wealthy widow, most devoted to the service of God, and conspicuous for offices of exceptional charity toward the needy: her name was Elena de Quiroga b; who, hearing how much Teresa was striving to promote the divine glory, went to her and promised that she would bring pecuniary help so that some chapel might be raised as soon as possible for keeping the Venerable Eucharist becomingly, and also for the fortifying and building of a house in which the nuns might attend more quietly to their offices. This help having been procured, Teresa set about putting her hand to the work; which Antonio de Heredia, prior of the Carmelites, advanced wonderfully with careful diligence and exceptional charity, namely by unceasingly urging on the workmen and exhorting them to make haste. From which it came about that within two months everything was so restored that the nuns could return to the same place.
[64] with God's help, Nor were others wanting who, with notable piety, supplied the necessary conveniences of life; but Elena more frequently and more abundantly than the rest. Nothing, moreover, was lost to her by this liberality toward the handmaids of God, but God repaid it to her with far more abundant interest: for first he took one of her daughters, Jerónima of the Incarnation, into that same family, in which he both heaped her with many graces formerly and does so now with no fewer. And afterwards he transferred Elena herself, now wholly freed from all care of children and household, into the same house into which he had formerly transferred her daughter; in which she has truly gathered for herself no common harvest of good things, and gives to all of us who have known her and dealt with her examples of exceptional religion: she, at the very time when we are writing these things, is set over the house of Toledo, to which she has been assigned together with her daughter. She, having now taken the sacred habit, is called Elena of Jesus. When they returned to this house, it had been so restored that they lived in it quite conveniently for some years. And God not only advanced these beginnings by his will, but afterwards also sent the money with which the seller might at length be satisfied. Whence it came about that afterwards it passed into a far better and more convenient form, and cost her an outlay of several thousand gold pieces. Moreover Teresa, although no money was at hand, did not on that account desist from procuring what was necessary: for as soon as something had been completed, God at once raised up certain persons who would supply the expense; so that it might evidently become clear that this work proceeded from the divine right hand, and how great ought to be the trust of those who have devoted themselves wholly and seriously to the worship of God and of his Most Holy Mother and to the increase of their glory.
[65] are prosperously settled. Wherefore the blessed Mother, mistrusting nothing, kept grafting new shoots into this garden of the Lord, not unwillingly enrolling all those who seemed suited to these beginnings and whom the Lord had called hither: upon whom he himself from heaven sometimes poured out such singular gifts of graces that, seeing them, the handmaid of God was struck with no small amazement. Moreover, the examples of those first maidens especially invited them hither: whence it came about that these no less than those conformed themselves to the institute and rule of the nuns of Ávila, and all were held in very great esteem by the citizens generally c. Nor indeed was this the end of the blessed Mother's hardships and labours: for both she herself and the companions whom she had brought from Ávila lay prostrate for some days with ill health. And since I am now engaged in narrating the history of this foundation, there comes into my mind here a thing which I remember reading elsewhere, written by the hand of the blessed Mother herself, so that from what has been said up to now the fair reader may see how greatly she was blessed by the Lord. At one time, when in the monastery of Malagón she had approached the sacred table of Communion, she saw Jesus the Redeemer present, who then among other things commanded her to commit the foundations of her convents to writing. Here, as she was turning over in her mind why God had disclosed absolutely nothing to her in the erection of the house of Medina (which he was wont to do in the others), she at once heard from him: "What more do you wish to have declared to you, since that foundation of Medina was accomplished not without a prodigy?"
ANNOTATIONS.
Chapter V.
The foundations of Malagón and Valladolid.
Chap. X.
While God was advancing Teresa's affairs, she in her turn did not cease to labour diligently in pressing forward the affairs of God: To begin a convent of men although she did not hold even those first things as her own, nor would she have spent on them the labour she was spending, had she not found that they were referred to the glory of God. Therefore, when she had now overcome all the inconveniences that had come up in raising the house of Medina, and no more remained to be undergone, nor any arduous
work offered itself on which she might spend herself wholly for the divine glory, her generous soul could not rest, and she longed for some notable work to be given her on which she might strain every nerve. It seemed to her that it would turn not a little to the glory of God if Discalced monks too should arise, who would enter upon the same manner of life as the nuns; and since (as we have shown) she had no one whom she might lead to this primitive Institute, she resolved to disclose the thoughts of her mind secretly to Antonio de Heredia, to find out what he would counsel her here. When Heredia perceived Teresa's mind, he began to be flooded with joy; and, God inspiring him, he replied that this pleased him greatly, and that he would be the first to inaugurate this Institute.
[67] Fr. Antonio de Heredia offers himself to St. Teresa These words the blessed Mother made light of: for although she was not unaware that until then he had been both a good man and singular in religion, study, and monastic solitude, yet he seemed to her to be of a more delicate nature, and not made for austerities, and unequal to bearing continually the rigour and severity of life which had to be undergone and which she especially desired to be kept. And as she felt this in her mind, so she by no means hesitated to disclose it to him face to face. He replied that for a long time already, at God's suggestion, he had aspired to a harsher life, and for that reason had had it in mind to embrace the Institute of the Carthusians. The reasons he brought forward pleased Teresa; yet she did not wholly incline to them, and wished him not yet to inaugurate anything publicly unless he had first made trial of himself in private. For she saw that it was of very great importance that a solid and stable foundation of this spiritual building should be laid. She advised him, therefore, to suspend his purpose in this matter for a while, until he should accustom himself within private walls to do the things which afterwards, bound by vow, he would have to keep continually. This was for this servant of God as it were a novitiate; and its probation was both legitimate and complete, because it lasted a year. But meanwhile, while he was testing himself at home, God also wished to make a more exact trial of him, as one who was to be the beginning and foundation of so great a work. For he permitted him to be lashed by many calumnies and harried by frequent labours and persecutions: from all of which he emerged so manfully, and was enriched thereby with so great a harvest in his soul, that a better novitiate for his future profession could not be wished; which befell the blessed Mother as by far the most welcome thing.
[68] and St. John of the Cross. About the same time God brought to the same point another religious of the same Institute, John of the Cross, a young man then applying himself to letters at Salamanca. Of his integrity his companion gave a splendid testimony before the blessed Mother. She herself met him, to find out whether he seemed suited to this Institute. He so pleased the blessed Mother that even then she wished him grafted into that monastery which she was contriving. And since this seemed good to God as well, a convenient occasion offered itself for accomplishing the matter. For as they were mingling various discourses together, and John said that he had now resolved to take up the Carthusian Institute, Teresa at once, declaring what she was turning over in her mind, asked him not to set his mind on embracing that new Institute until she had established some monastery; and that this very thing would be far more profitable to him: for if he aspired to greater perfection, it would be to the greater glory of God and much more certain if he perfected himself in the first Religion, to which he had been called by God, than in any other. The young man gave his word, provided the erection of that monastery were not put off longer than was fair. These glad beginnings refreshed the pious Mother, because she had now found two living stones to be laid in the foundation of the house which she had resolved to build for her most beloved Bridegroom; although Antonio did not altogether satisfy her in every respect: wherefore she was not wholly displeased that the matter should be drawn out and deferred; especially since a place suitable for the foundation was lacking.
[69] The holy Foundress At the same time also, namely four or five months before she went off to found the monastery of Malagón (of which we shall speak next), a young man of noble birth came to her under God's guidance, although he himself was then unaware of what good would follow for him from it. He offered the blessed Mother, if only she would erect a monastery at Valladolid, the house which he had there, together with a fairly large and convenient garden, which took in a widely extended vineyard. Nor was this offer feigned or empty, although the house was of immense value. He wished, moreover, that possession of it should be taken as soon as possible: for it was of very great importance to him that the matter should be pressed, although at that time he himself did not know it. The name of this young man was Bernardino de Mendoza, son of the count of Ribadavia, and brother of Álvaro de Mendoza, bishop of Ávila, and of María de Mendoza a. When he was staying at Ávila with his brother the prelate, he had often dealt with the Discalced nuns, and had profited very much from the counsels he had received from them. He was of a peculiar affection toward Teresa and her nuns, and bestowed on their sacristy a priestly vestment of velvet silk, as well as a cope and an altar frontal. From this love was born in him the desire of giving them this house. It was called the house of the River of Elms, and in it formerly the grand commander Cobos was wont to relax his mind from weightier cares. Negotiations about these matters had begun at Ávila even before the house at Medina was raised: hence both Bernardino himself and the count of Ribadavia were pressing the blessed Mother, when she was setting out by way of Olmedo to found that house, to set her mind on founding the one at Valladolid first.
[70] She betakes herself to Alcalá. The affairs of Medina having been settled, María de Mendoza, being about to go to Úbeda with her brother Bernardino, asked Teresa again and again not to think it a burden to come with her as far as Alcalá; whither the Mother herself had in any case intended to hasten, for the sake of accomplishing a matter which we shall narrate afterwards. On this journey Bernardino ordered this donation of his to be ratified, documents being sealed on the matter. Teresa, when they had gone their way, stopped at Alcalá. And although she saw that the place was hardly suitable for building a convent, because it was about a quarter of a league distant from the city, yet, perceiving the piety of the donor and the sincerity of his will, and then because she foresaw that, once possession of that suburban place had been taken, she would easily move from there into the city, she accepted the offer, with the intention of betaking herself there and of founding a monastery in a city so populous, and one that would gain no small advantage thereby: although, as we shall see a little later, this could not be accomplished with the speed that was hoped. The reason for the journey to Alcalá for the blessed Mother was this. Leonor Mascareñas, a woman most noble and likewise most religious, had besought her with the most earnest entreaties to teach the Discalced nuns of Alcalá the proper form of their Order, and to remove by her own judgement and decision whatever she judged needed correcting: the same thing too had been asked most ardently by Mother María of Jesus, whom, as we said in the first book, the Mother of God had long since admonished through a vision to build this monastery b. She remained at Alcalá two months and more; whence, her business accomplished and certain things instituted which seemed necessary for its direction, she went to Toledo and thence to Malagón.
Chap. XI.
[71] Whoever wishes to have a happy and favourable outcome of his affairs, Then at Malagón let him entrust them to the Most High, and let him in his turn advance the affairs of the Most High as diligently as he can: for his divine Majesty will put forth his almighty hand, and will perform far more than anyone would perhaps dare to hope. We shall now see that this happened so with Teresa: for since she applied herself with all zeal to seeking the greater glory of God, God in a manner thrust foundations of monasteries upon her of his own accord. A few months had now passed since the offer of the house at Valladolid, when she was asked to go to Malagón to raise a new monastery, all things necessary for this foundation being offered. This message was sent her by Luisa de la Cerda, sister of the duke of Medinaceli, in whose house at Toledo we have already recounted above, in the fifteenth chapter of the preceding book, that the blessed Mother stayed many days. For she, out of her singular piety, when she heard that the opportunity of founding other monasteries had been granted to Teresa, and since she already knew her through familiar intercourse and was wonderfully attached to her, set about urging her with the most earnest entreaties to come out to her at Malagón to build a convent. But although Teresa greatly desired to satisfy the pious wishes of this matron, she nevertheless put it off and declined to accept the foundation. For she foresaw that, since it was a very small town, the house would necessarily have to be established on annual revenues, by which the necessary supports of life might be procured; and from these she nevertheless shrank exceedingly.
[72] at the expense of Luisa de la Cerda She communicated on this matter with learned men, as she was wont whenever any difficulty presented itself, and in particular with Domingo Báñez, who was then the blessed Mother's confessor. It seemed to them that this foundation could not be given up without sin: and, since by the authority of the Sacred Council of Trent fixed incomes are granted to monasteries, it seemed a wrong to omit for this reason the erection of a convent in which there was question of advancing God's honour so notably. Teresa therefore, who always depended on the counsel of learned men and never followed her own, accepted it, although most unwillingly, because Luisa demanded it so passionately. To it Luisa assigned what was necessary for life most abundantly every year. For the blessed Mother always inclined to this opinion, that she judged her monasteries should either be endowed with no revenues at all, or, if these perhaps had to be admitted, that they should be sufficient, so that the nuns might not be forced to beg the necessaries of life from anyone. The documents of foundation having been drawn up, she summoned some nuns from Ávila to lay the beginnings of the convent of Malagón; and, the government of the house of Medina having been committed to Agnes of Jesus, and Anne of the Incarnation appointed her vicaress (whom we said had come out of the convent of the Incarnation and been brought with the blessed Mother to Medina to establish the beginnings of the house), she took with her to Malagón Anne of the Angels, María of the Blessed Sacrament (who afterwards, burdened with sickness and old age, having given proofs of notable patience and religion, died at Alba), and also Mary Magdalene, Isabel of Jesus and Isabel of St. Joseph: the last four of whom had at one time lived in the monastery of the Incarnation.
[73] a monastery of virgins About the middle of the spring fast, in the year 1568, she passed through Toledo, where Luisa was waiting for her, making for Malagón. While she was staying in her household, out of her lowliness of mind she strove to suppress, as far as could be done, the graces received from God; but God willed to bring them to light, because they tended to his glory. For twice, with others standing by and looking on, she suffered an ecstasy of mind, which she could not even conceal. When it was a convenient time to leave Toledo, Luisa set out for Malagón together with them. When they had arrived there, the nuns lived with her for eight days and more in a secluded part of her castle, because the house designated for them was not yet prepared for the uses of religious habitation as was necessary. On the next Palm Sunday they first entered their house. When the whole town, poured out in the guise of suppliants, had hastened to Luisa's castle,
the nuns, with this procession going before, clothed in their white mantles and with their faces covered with veils, made for the church: whence, having heard the sacred solemnities of the Mass and the preaching of the divine word, they were conducted to their convent, the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar going before, together with the procession which a little before had led them to the church; and the sacred pledge of the Eucharist was brought hither with notable pomp and the devotion of the whole people. This feeling of piety in the people had been aroused by the devout bearing of the religious taking possession of their house with this rite. In this way, then, the third monastery was established, likewise dedicated to St. Joseph (because Teresa was borne toward this Saint with a peculiar affection). But because this house was not far from the market-place, it seemed good afterwards, when its inconveniences became more apparent, to exchange it: for the noise of the populace and other difficulties disturbed the nuns' quiet. Wherefore it was resolved to treat with Luisa about raising another house not far from the castle. And since she was not averse to this plan, she did not hesitate, with an example of notable munificence, to raise another at the place the blessed Mother had designated: in which the church and convent that were built suit the uses of the nuns excellently; and this is the very one which they inhabit even now.
[74] she establishes; But it would be a wrong to pass over here in silence what happened in the building of this second house, when its roof had nearly been put on. Namely, when Teresa had arrived toward evening, on the point of moving here with the nuns, the workmen denied that the work would be finished and fit for habitation before six months. These things were said by them on the vigil of St. Catherine, Virgin and Martyr. Moreover, while Teresa was travelling to Malagón, she had experienced sad and very bitter nights and a hard journey: whence she had arrived here with her body so afflicted and exhausted that she judged there was no member of hers that did not cause her grievous pain, so that she could hardly rise from her bed for weakness of strength. Nevertheless, as soon as it dawned, she snatched herself up from her couch, and, visiting the house, found that the workmen had told her the truth: yet she declared to them that she had resolved to move here on the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God, which fell on the thirteenth day following. Hearing this, the workmen were astonished not a little, and judged that the thing could not possibly be done: nor indeed did the companion whom she had brought marvel less at her diligence and assiduity in pressing on the work, since she had seen her the night before so sick and worn out. At length, the thing having been finished as she had resolved, on the feast-day of the Blessed Virgin which she had designated, the nuns, with a solemn concourse of the whole town and of the neighbouring villages, and with a procession going before in which the nuns surrounded the Most Holy Body of the Lord, moved into their new house. And every day, as long as the building lasted, she went to the workmen very early in the morning, and again and again exhorted them to press on with it, at the same time prescribing what was to be done: she herself too was first before others in sweeping out the dirt and rubble, and all day long diligently carried them out in a basket, so that every day she would pay the sacred task of the Office at the eleventh hour of the night. Moreover, when everything had now been completed, on the night preceding the Conception of the Mother of God, the same infirmity which had held her when she first arrived here seized her limbs again, so that, deprived of the use of almost all of them, she suffered most grievous pains, nor was there any member in her whole body free from pain; whence she saw that she had been released from the sickness, by the Lord's mercy, for no other end than that she might watch over this work as its promoter: and once it had at length been brought to completion, the sickness returned as by right of postliminy, and kept her fixed in bed for some days.
[75] where she takes care that poverty be duly kept As soon as the house began to be occupied, the blessed Mother took pains that poverty, which she loved so much, should not be infringed even in the least, although an annual revenue had been assigned to that convent, since she had by no means been able to avoid that inconvenience. Wherefore, so far as lay in her, she took care that none of the nuns should privately possess anything of her own, but that the Constitutions she had decreed should be kept entire, as was wont to be done in the other houses that practised poverty. But since it did not altogether please her that exact poverty after the example of the others was not practised in this house (although she set her own opinion in this matter below the judgement of the more learned), the Lord deigned to console his handmaid before she left there, and also to make plain how praiseworthy and profitable it is for us to prefer another's judgement to our own, especially when we yield to the opinion of those whose words we rightly ought to believe. One day, when she had risen from the Eucharistic table and was applying herself fervently to prayer, the Lord disclosed to her that notable glory would come to him from this house. This could be seen in very fact not many years later, as her testimony, written on paper in her own hand, will attest.
[76] and she is refreshed by a heavenly vision. She says then: "On the day after Ash Wednesday, when I had received the life-giving Bread of the Eucharist at St. Joseph's in Malagón, the Lord showed himself to me to be seen in an imaginary vision, as he has been wont: and as I gazed on him, I saw shining on his head, in place of the crown of thorns, another crown of wonderful splendour, by which he was even wholly surrounded, and that, as it appeared to me at least, at the very place of the wounds which the thorns had inflicted. And, as I have always been wonderfully moved toward this mystery, I drew very great delight from it, and began to ponder within myself how much torment this crown had brought him, since it had inflicted wounds of that kind on him; and as this afflicted me greatly, then the Lord said: It is not that you should be touched with compassion for me on account of these wounds, but on account of those innumerable ones which are inflicted on me this very day. I asked therefore in what way I could remedy this thing, and declared that I was for that reason most ready to undergo all things. He said that it was not yet the time for resting, but exhorted me to go on with founding houses, promising that he would have peace and quiet with the souls of those living in them. He advised me besides to admit all those who should offer themselves to me: for very many souls, because they have nowhere to betake themselves, on that account dedicate themselves less to the divine service. He added that those houses which I should erect in very small towns should be erected after the example of this one, declaring that the nuns could make progress no less in these than in the others, provided they did not refuse to keep the same things that are observed in the others. At the same time also he warned me to strive with all my strength that all should be governed by the authority of one superior, and further to take pains lest, through too great care for the necessities of the body, the interior peace of the soul should be disturbed and endangered. Finally, he promised that he would see to it that we should never lack anything." The blessed Mother stayed about two months in the convent of Malagón; and, having set Anne of the Angels over it, she at length left there, because her mind allowed her no quiet, for the reason we shall narrate next.
Chap. XII.
[77] Almost two months had now flowed by since Bernardino de Mendoza offered his house to the blessed Mother and confirmed the donation in writing, the soul of Bernardino de Mendoza so that she might build a monastery at Valladolid, when suddenly he was overwhelmed by a sharp seizure, and indeed so sudden a one that, deprived of all use of his tongue, he could not even expiate the stains of his life by Confession, although he gave very many signs of interior grief for having offended the Deity. Thus he was snatched from life very swiftly, Teresa being far away from there: for death overtook him at Úbeda while she was staying at Alcalá; at which place she at length received the sad news of his passing. Being distressed not a little by this, fearing lest perhaps this soul was being tormented by the torments of hell, and therefore commending it to God with all her strength, the Lord indicated to her through a vision that Bernardino's salvation had indeed been in the utmost peril c, but that he had had mercy on him, because he had rendered a most welcome service to his most clement Mother by offering her this house, from which a monastery might be prepared for the members of the Order dedicated to her; and that he would not be freed from the fire of purgatory until the first Host should be offered to God at the altar in that same house. Having heard this, Teresa, burning as she did with incredible charity, could by no means rest; because she had continually present to her the grievous torments by which that soul was tortured.
[78] from the pains of purgatory All the time, therefore, seemed to her all too long during which she was prevented by pressing affairs from flying as quickly as possible to Valladolid and founding her monastery in whatever way she could. And this was the reason why she did not stay longer at Malagón, nor hasten to Toledo, as she indeed wished. Yet she could not betake herself to Valladolid as quickly as she wished, because it was necessary for her to visit the house of Ávila committed to her care. She stopped, therefore, for some days at Ávila, as also at Medina, whither she then went. And that it may be made plain how great a compassion takes hold of the Lord for the souls detained in purgatory, and how acceptable to him is every service spent on their release, he himself at one time, when the blessed Mother was weaving delays here and there in disposing of the difficulties that pressed upon her, admonished her during prayer to hasten her departure, because this soul was being tortured with the sharpest torments. Before that time the Mother had sent Julian of Ávila to Valladolid to obtain the abbot's leave for founding this convent. On this journey Julian made for Olmedo, to meet on this matter Álvaro de Mendoza, bishop of Ávila, who was then staying there, and to obtain it more quickly by his authority. The prelate, in this business as in the others which came up for the blessed Mother, contributed as much zeal and effort as he could, and sent along with Julian Juan Carrillo, who was then his secretary, and is now treasurer of the church of Ávila d. And although the leave could only be obtained with the greatest difficulty, because that monastery was to lack an annual income, and the house from which it was then to be established was far distant from the city, yet Teresa, both roused by the Lord Jesus and spurred on not a little of her own accord, set out on the journey not long afterwards, as best she could, although poorly equipped for it, and on the 4th day before the Ides of August, in the year 1568, the day sacred to the blessed Martyr Lawrence, she entered Valladolid.
[79] for founding a monastery at Valladolid To establish the beginnings of the convent there were chosen by the blessed Mother Isabel Arias, whom she then set over the others, and Antonia of the Holy Spirit, whom she had brought out with her from Malagón, and María of the Cross, who had been of the number of the first four. And from the Incarnation there followed Juliana of St. Magdalen and María of the Visitation; to whom in the fifth month afterwards was added Mary of St. John the Baptist, whom María de Mendoza had particularly asked for. As soon as Teresa inspected the house, she began to grieve greatly: for although it was pleasant and suited to refreshing the mind, because it had a most excellent garden attached, yet she easily perceived that her nuns could not live there without immense expense, and, because, situated beside the river,
it would without doubt be unhealthy. But Teresa said not a word about this to her nuns, lest perhaps she sadden them; and, relying on God, she hoped that he, since he had called her there, would also provide a place where they might live conveniently. Meanwhile she secretly called in workmen and ordered the walls to be repaired, so that, the house being made ready for solitude, the access and gaze of outsiders might be kept off. Nor meanwhile did the industry of Julian of Ávila cease in obtaining the leave; and before it was granted, Sunday was already at hand.
[80] she frees. But when the purveyor had now granted leave to offer Mass in the place which they had prepared for it, Julian, thinking there should be no delay, offered there to God the first-fruits of the sacred rites. And as he approached to make Teresa a partaker of the Most Holy Sacrament, he saw her rapt into a wonderful ecstasy of mind, as was customary with her before or after receiving the Lord's Body. The cause of this was that before the divine Communion there appeared Bernardino de Mendoza, formerly owner of the house and garden which they were inhabiting, with a comely countenance and a joyful and shining face; who with folded hands gave her immense thanks for the benefit he had received through her efforts of deliverance from the torments of purgatory: and this done, he flew joyfully into the tabernacles of those above. This vision refreshed Teresa wonderfully; and all the more because she had believed that what the Lord had told her was to be fulfilled only when the convent was entirely finished, and that only then, after the first solemnities of Mass had been celebrated, would Bernardino be released from the purging pains. The feast-day of the Virgin taken up into heaven was now at hand when, the diploma of leave having been obtained, possession of the house was taken with the same rite as lately at Medina, and it seemed good to give it the name of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel. The nuns lodged in it for some days: and although they left it not long afterwards, to move to another, yet Teresa ordered latticed grilles and a turn to be prepared there, so that the place might present the perfect form of enclosure, just as if the stay there were to be a longer one.
[81] About the same time sickness, from the unhealthiness of the place, laid low all the companions. She acquires another house there. Seeing this, María de Mendoza, a woman conspicuous no less for birth and wealth than for outstanding piety and liberality toward the needy, wife of the grand commander Cobos and mother of the marquis of Camarasa, because she had long known the blessed Mother through familiar intercourse (for she was the sister of the bishop of Ávila) and was well disposed toward her, not seldom bestowing alms, ordered the necessary services of medical care to be provided for each of them. And because this house seemed hardly suited to the uses of religious life, both because it was rather remote from the city, so that for that reason the necessary supports for sustaining life did not seem so easy to procure, and because that place was unhealthy and liable to sickness, she persuaded Teresa without difficulty to yield it to her, promising to buy another in its place. As she said, so she did. Nor indeed did she think it enough to have assigned them a house and at the same time a church suited to the requirements of the Institute; but she did not think it a burden thereafter also to bestow on them continually, with notable liberality, everything necessary. The removal into this new house was made on the 3rd day before the Nones of February of the year 1569, the feast of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr, with a solemn rite of the people in procession and the wonderful congratulation of all. It afterwards received the greater increase because into this house were taken nuns who were renowned for wonderful holiness, and of whom much would have to be written, were this the place for it. These things having been done, not long afterwards a letter was brought to Teresa from Toledo, asking her to go there too to erect a convent (which indeed she herself had long greatly desired). Since therefore she was by no means permitted to stay here longer, setting Isabel Arias, who afterwards borrowed the name of the Cross, over the monastery, and appointing Mary of St. John the Baptist as vicaress in its government, she hastened with the greatest speed to Ávila, intending to go on from there to Toledo.
ANNOTATIONS.
Chapter VI.
The foundation at Toledo.
Chap. XIII.
In those few days during which Teresa stayed at Ávila, as also in those during which she travelled thence to Toledo, Of founding, therefore, a convent of virgins she was by no means idle; but strove with all the zeal she could that some monastery might be raised for the Discalced Friars. But since it is my intention to treat of those foundations in a continuous series, and to render whatever concerns Teresa in a body and in order, I do not wish to break the thread of the narrative already begun about the monasteries of virgins until there is a place and time for narrating the convents of the Discalced friars. The occasion and beginning of founding the monastery of Toledo was this. There lived at Toledo an honourable man who revered the divine Majesty, Martín Ramírez, a merchant; who, because he was without children (for he had entered into no marriage), resolved to raise out of his wealth some illustrious monument for pious uses, and above all (to which he had always inclined) to establish in a certain parish church of Toledo some benefices endowed with his revenues. When he was now near death, Pablo Hernández, a priest of the Society of Jesus, a man especially learned and pious, visited him (he had known Teresa, and had served her in the Confession of her faults when she was hastening from Toledo to Malagón to raise a monastery; and from that single meeting he conceived so great an opinion of her exceptional holiness and prudence that he did not hesitate to give this testimony of her: "Mother Teresa of Jesus is a certain great woman, from the roof down to the bottom and from the roof again up to the top, nay, even greater"); and, because he especially desired that a convent should be founded at Toledo for the Discalced virgins, he advised that, if he wished to render some service to God out of his money and to leave behind a monument worthy of his name, he should, a convenient occasion being now offered, order a house and church to be built for the Discalced nuns: a work, namely, which he declared would turn to the greatest glory of God, and in which the benefices he had in mind could be founded.
[83] Teresa comes to Toledo; Moreover, such was Ramírez's weakness, and so near to death did he think himself, that, believing his strength and time would by no means suffice for establishing these things, he committed the whole matter to his brother Alfonso Álvarez Ramírez, a man prudent, religious, sincere, and lavish toward the needy, that he might carry out in this business according to his own prudence what he should judge most fitting for the service of God, Best and Greatest. And it happened that Martín departed this life at the time when Teresa was staying at Valladolid: where letters from Pablo Hernández and also from Alfonso Álvarez were delivered to her, in which they signified their mind to her and invited her, if she were willing to accept this foundation, to betake herself to Toledo immediately. For this reason, departing in haste from Valladolid, as has been said, she arrived at Toledo on the 9th day before the Kalends of April of the year 1569, the day before the feast of the Incarnation. She lodged with Luisa de la Cerda, foundress of the house of Malagón, by whom she was lovingly received, because she held her as the apple of her eye. She brought with her two companions, called out of the convent of Ávila, Isabel of St. Dominic and Isabel of St. Paul: to whom a secluded room was at once assigned, according to custom, in which they might devote themselves to religious exercises without disturbance, as they were wont in the monastery. Teresa, thinking there should be no delay, began at once to treat of her affairs with Alfonso Álvarez; and she drew him over immediately to her side, he following not unwillingly. But the Lord, wishing to temper these favourable and prosperous beginnings with sadder events, raised some difficulty in the matter begun through Alfonso's son-in-law, whose counsel he valued very highly in this affair.
[84] where she meets with many obstacles. At his son-in-law's persuasion Alfonso proposed many conditions hardly fair to the blessed Mother. Meanwhile, however, another house to be let for rent was diligently sought throughout the whole city, so that at least some beginnings of taking possession might be made and the Discalced nuns might plant their foot in Toledo; but with fruitless effort. Meanwhile Teresa earnestly asked that leave to found a house should be granted her by the governor of the city. For at that time the city had no archbishop, and the licentiate Gómez Tello Girón was governing the archdiocese with vicarial power. All the blessed Mother's effort was in vain: for that leave could not be obtained from the governor by any entreaties, although it was most zealously demanded on the one side by Luisa de la Cerda, and on the other by Pedro Manrique, son of the chief governor of Castile and a canon of Toledo; who not long afterwards, having dedicated himself to the Society of Jesus, closed his religious life in it with a very holy death. And although the governor now seemed in some measure softened, yet the assessors of the archiepiscopal council opposed with the greatest vehemence. And now the matter to be settled with Alfonso Álvarez had no happier outcome: for whatever had been achieved until then collapsed utterly at the same time. Since, therefore, the labours of the journey and no common expenses, likewise all the sweat and striving and a long delay of time (for two months had been spent in managing this business) were in vain, Teresa saw that she lacked money, and a house, and the leave of the superiors for beginning the foundation.
[85] The governor of the city Where then to turn she did not know; yet she was loath to go back with the matter unaccomplished. Everything, therefore, was new matter of suffering for her. But nothing afflicted her more than the leave of the superiors being refused: for if she had this, relying on God, she hoped the rest would fall out according to her wish. She resolved, therefore, no longer to employ the efforts of others in obtaining it (for she found that there were not wanting those who were secretly deterring the governor from this matter), but to carry through the whole thing herself. Wherefore, going into a church near the governor's house, she sent a messenger and invited him to speak with her. When he had come to the appointed place, Teresa, although calm and very kindly in her speech,
and he on the other hand a leading man and conspicuous for so great a dignity, nevertheless addressed him with holy freedom in these words: "It is now two months and more, my lord, since I came into this city, not for the sake of seeing it or of refreshing my mind, but solely for the sake of seeking the glory of God and procuring the salvation of souls, and in order to render in this illustrious city too, as far as I can, the service which I have rendered to his divine Majesty in some other cities of Spain, namely by raising a monastery for Discalced nuns observing the primitive rule of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel. For this purpose I have also brought some companions with me.
[86] with holy freedom of speech It would have been worthy of your singular learning, virtue and dignity to bring some help to these poor women in so holy a purpose, and to exhort them to go forward eagerly in it, since God has given you this place of dignity. Yet up to now I have seen no proof of any of these things. For in so long a time neither the authority of those asking leave of you nor the most evident equity of our cause has been able to obtain it from you in any way. It is surely very hard that no one is found in the whole city to take up the patronage of religious women destitute of all help, and following, for the sake of God alone, such severity of life, perfection, solitude and so sincere a withdrawal from intercourse with worldly things; nay rather, that those who have no care for anything, but on the contrary live at their ease and pursue the delights of life, try with all the zeal and striving of their minds to overturn a work instituted for so greatly promoting the glory of God. We do not lack houses in which to dwell, and if we return to them we shall surely not have lost much, since of what we might lose in this world scarcely anything is left to us: but I would have you consider how much loss would rather come upon this city from it, and how little it would be to its advantage. And if through your doing this undertaking should perish and not be brought to the outcome we were hoping for, I would have you consider with yourself what you will bring forward in your defence before the supreme judge of mortals, Christ, for whose sake alone and under whose leading we have come hither: for I do not see what weighty reason you could then produce, if you hinder this thing, most acceptable to God, by whom you have been chosen to this dignity for this very purpose, that you should strive with all zeal to advance whatever tends to his service."
[87] she brings him to a fairer mind toward her. With these and other reasons of that kind, which the blessed Mother brought forward with a certain wonderful freedom and generosity of words, which God then indeed put into her, she so moved the governor that, before she left the church, she obtained the leave, although not the one she wished: for he interposed this condition, that he would have no annual revenue nor any patron and founder assigned to the new monastery. Yet this so satisfied Teresa that she judged she had already attained the sum of her wishes. The money she possessed for the foundation of the monastery amounted to three or at most four gold pieces: yet she, not waiting until others should be contributed, nor wishing even to keep these, bought two pictures painted on canvas to be placed on the altar, which were to be the adornment of the church, and likewise two straw mattresses and a blanket, which were to be the furniture of the future convent. Of finding a house there was no hope whatever; and the agreement which was to be entered into with Alfonso Álvarez had already utterly collapsed.
[88] Through the efforts of a pious young man There lived at Toledo a religious merchant, Alfonso de Ávila by surname, most devoted to offices of charity. He was known to Teresa, and had promised to procure her a house: but, because in those very days he lay sick in bed, he could not help her as he wished. But the Lord, who never failed her, provided her with a house in another way, such as would not even come into anyone's mind. About that time there came to Toledo Martín de la Cruz, of the company of the Franciscans, a man renowned for religion and very desirous of helping Teresa. Before he set out on his road, he sent to her a young man, Andrada by surname, not indeed a wealthy one, whose confessions de la Cruz himself was wont to hear: he charged him to carry out diligently whatever the blessed Mother should enjoin on him. When he had come to Teresa, then, and had given proof of his ready will, but, so far as could be gathered from his own words, had declared that he could be of use to her in nothing else than his own person, she (such was her gratitude) gave him immense thanks for this pious desire. But when he had gone, she herself and her companions began to smile among themselves at so useless a helper having been sent them by de la Cruz; since on account of his outward dress he did not seem fit to be admitted to converse with Discalced nuns, nay, was furnished with absolutely no endowment by which he could seem likely to be of use: so that Isabel of St. Dominic even began to fear lest someone should think something amiss, seeing this young layman conversing with Teresa. To whom the Mother said wittily: "Be silent, I beg you, for the present: for what evil would anyone think of us, who look not unlike poor little wandering women?" Then, since she saw she had no one who might seek out a house for her secretly, as was necessary, it pleased her to commit this business to Andrada. When she had disclosed this plan to her companions, they began to laugh not a little, and said that it did not seem advisable, because they thought that in this way their purpose would leak out among the common people and the works they were contriving would utterly collapse.
[89] some house Teresa, little delayed by this, made no account of their counsels, as one who was led by higher reasons. For she believed that, since Andrada had been appointed for her by that holy man, he could not but be of some use, nor did it seem that he had been sent by him in vain. Calling him, therefore, and bidding him keep the matter as secret as he possibly could, she enjoined on him the business of seeking out a house, giving him one who would stand surety for the rent: for which purpose she even then had Alfonso de Ávila in mind. Andrada took the matter to heart, and the next morning, as Teresa was hearing Mass in the church of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, he told her that he had found a house in the neighbourhood (for it was not far from St. Benedict's), and that he was bringing her its keys, so that she might inspect it when she pleased. Once inspected, it pleased the blessed Mother; so that they afterwards lived in it a whole year. Moreover, she was not a little astonished at this then: indeed afterwards, whenever she recalled this foundation, it was always a new occasion of astonishment to her, as she considered what means God used; since what wealthier men, searching everywhere through the whole city for almost three months, could not find, this young man found in half a day: and since the monastery could have been founded without any trouble at all (as indeed it could, had there been agreement with Alfonso Álvarez), that attempt seemed to have fallen through for this reason, that the work of the proposed foundation might be accomplished only with poverty and difficulty, and so that the providence of God might shine out more clearly. Teresa, as she never shuffled nor let even a moment slip in which she did not advance what was necessary, desired as much as possible to remove into this house, and to inaugurate possession of her monastery before anything in it was fitted up, lest some hindrance should arise from elsewhere.
[90] she hires; Although at this very time a great many men conspicuous both for authority and for piety, by whom she was visited again and again, said that it was rash to wish to found a convent without greater certainty, and that this was just like placing a dwelling in the air, nay further judged it unbecoming to expose the Sacred Sacrament of the Altar in a hired house, and brought forward very many other things of that kind which, if the matter were to be measured by human prudence, seemed advisedly to be regarded, yet these things neither moved Teresa, who relied on divine prudence, nor deterred her from pressing her purpose. Rather, with great diligence she was furnishing the house for her uses with those hundred silver pieces which she had borrowed from the wife of Luisa de la Cerda's steward, because whatever money she had brought to Toledo had already been used up. Nor indeed did Andrada's industry rest here, because he desired with all his striving to render some service acceptable to God, and to bring her in this business whatever help he could. He therefore brought it about that those who were living in the same house withdrew from it shortly. When they were moving out, he signified to the blessed Mother that she should carry her furniture there. Teresa, beaming at him and with a winning face, said: "We shall have done that quickly, Andrada: for when we have brought in two mattresses and one blanket, we shall have brought in our whole equipment." This reply of the Mother did not please her companions, who wondered why she had thus revealed herself and her affairs to him. For they feared lest, having perceived their poverty, he should become less inclined to render them service thereafter. But the blessed Mother was far removed from these fears, and Andrada himself was by no means deterred on this account from rendering what service he could; nay, he showed himself so active and diligent, bringing workmen and putting the house in order, that in his desire to see it now finished he seemed to yield nothing even to the nuns themselves.
Chap. XIV.
[91] These things having been settled according to her wish, Teresa now sought out the furnishing that seemed necessary for celebrating the Sacrifice of the Mass, in which the beginnings of the monastery So after sunset, with a certain workman, a small bell sounding before them, of the kind used at the elevation of the saving Host in the Mass (because they had no other), they went to the house to take possession of it. They spent the whole night fitting it up. But a place to be prepared for a sanctuary was lacking, unless perhaps a certain large hall, to which there was access only through a small neighbouring house, which also had been hired by them for a price. Some poor women were living in it, to whom they had not dared to say anything up to then, lest they should divulge the thing before it had been accomplished according to their wish. Everything therefore being now prepared, as soon as day began to dawn, they began to demolish a certain intervening wall, so that access to the intended church might lie open. The women, who were still asleep and had thought of nothing of this kind, as soon as the noise of the wedges was heard, snatched themselves up from their beds dismayed and indignant, so that they could scarcely be softened and calmed by any words. But although at first they seemed rather hostile, yet afterwards, seeing what the matter was, and especially when a small sum of money was offered them by the blessed Mother, who promised at the same time that she would seek out another house for them, they showed themselves more moderate and gave no trouble thereafter. As soon as the storm of those poor women had subsided, Juan of St. Mary Magdalen, prior of the Carmelites, not unseasonably offered himself to celebrate the first Mass; for which the nuns gave the signal with their little bell, and ordered documents to be drawn up in testimony of the matter. In this way, then, on the feast of St. Boniface, Martyr, the day before the Ides of May, in the year we have mentioned, the beginnings of this house were made: which the blessed Mother judged should be named with the same name of St. Joseph as the others up to then.
[92] not without new obstacles On this very day, however, a great many had feared that the city would utterly perish; for a certain half-learned charlatan had persuaded the citizens of this a few days before by an empty prophecy. Whence it came about that many disclosed their offences in Confession and partook of the sacred banquet of the Eucharist, awaiting the coming event. I shall scarcely attain in speech to what was the amazement and wonder of all at Toledo that morning, when this new monastery was seen, what talk there was about it throughout the whole city, and how the dread of very many passed into devotion, as they saw that the city had so far from perishing that it had even been increased by a new monastery. But above all the owner of the house herself, the wife of a man who enjoyed an entail, as soon as she learned that her house had suddenly, without her knowledge, become a monastery, began to wonder not a little and to be angry: but when hope was given her that, if it proved suited to religious uses, it would be bought at whatever price she wished, she ceased to be troubled. No less indignant were the assessors of the archiepiscopal council themselves, seeing that the monastery for whose founding they had refused permission had already in fact taken shape. Whence, because the governor was absent from the city (for, the opportunity of founding a convent having now been granted to Teresa, he had had to go outside the city), they magnified the matter to him beyond measure, and said they marvelled at the great audacity of this little woman, in that she had brought a new monastery into the city against their will: wherefore they hurled great threats against her. But a certain one of the number of the canons, having taken up her patronage, recalled that she had done this very thing in other places too; and that it did not seem credible that she had begun this work without the letters necessary for it. They demanded therefore that these be shown to them; and after a short interval of time, under anathema of excommunication, they forbade the sacred Offices to be performed in it unless she produced the letters of the power granted.
[93] and with the utmost poverty These threats did not frighten the blessed Mother at all; but, addressing them with the same freedom with which she had addressed the governor before, she promised that she would obey their orders, although otherwise she was by no means bound to comply with them in this matter. She besought Pedro Manrique, therefore, to go to the assessors and show them the letters which she had formerly received from her superiors for this purpose. Nevertheless it distressed her not a little that the governor, from whom she had obtained the leave not in writing but only by word of mouth, was absent in those very days. But Vicente Varón, of the brethren of St. Dominic, to whom Teresa was very well known, and who had treated several times with the governor about the foundation of this convent and was not altogether ignorant of the matter, met some of the canons; and through his efforts and the intercession of other patrons too, and also because the business had already been accomplished, it came about that the assessors acted more mildly. The nuns' stay in the narrow house was therefore peaceful, although destitute of necessary things: for two straw mattresses and one blanket made up the whole furniture of the house. There was greater matter for suffering by night than by day: for since a harsh cold was biting, and there was no wood to drive it off, they lay on the mattresses and covered themselves, as best they could, with the coverlet and with their thicker mantles. Indeed, on the very day on which the house was first entered, no other dishes were prepared for the festive meal than some sardines, and the cook had nothing to do with them: for there was no utensil in the house, and not even a little scrap of wood with which these might be roasted; until in a corner of the sanctuary there appeared a bundle of wood, which it is no idle conjecture was sent by the Lord: for whence and by whom it had been brought in did not appear. Thereafter, not long after, since a pan was lacking for cooking an egg, they had to borrow one; and they crushed salt, wrapped in paper, with a stone. Let the same judgement be made of the rest of their things.
[94] they are placed. One night too, when Teresa, stiff with cold, had asked her daughters to cover her, they, laughing gently among themselves, said that she should not require more coverlets to keep off the cold, since whatever was in the house was spread over her, namely their everyday mantles: which afterwards moved the Mother too to laughter. No one who reads of this poverty of Teresa will be able, in my judgement, not to wonder how she could have been in want of anything at Toledo, when that wealthy matron to whom she was most dear was living in that city; and not without reason. It came about, namely, since God wished his handmaids to learn by experience what riches poverty undertaken in his name enfolds, that they might be a lesson to men ignorant of these riches, that Teresa asked Luisa for nothing (for she was most averse to asking) and it did not even come into Luisa's mind in what penury the handmaids of God were labouring. For had she been aware of it, she would most liberally have brought some help; as indeed she did bring it whenever she learned that they needed anything. The Lord indeed saw these things from heaven, but he seemed to pass them by, that by this want he might make them rich: whence they were flooded with an incredible feeling of joy both inwardly and outwardly, so that they could scarcely contain themselves. And in those days an unwonted abundance of joys flooded Teresa's soul, and a wonderful ardour of devotion, which the daily poverty aroused, so seized her that she seemed to be continually engaged in sweet contemplation. But this want of things, not to say this rich abundance, was not of long duration.
[95] At length the nuns For Alfonso Álvarez and others known for their liberality bestowed on them far more than they indeed wished: for as earthly things flowed in, the delights of the spirit which want had produced failed; so that Teresa read this failure of joys even in their faces, and, asking them the cause of their unwonted sadness, heard all saying with a common voice: "What shall we do, Mother, now that we have ceased to be poor?" Moreover, since Alfonso Álvarez received daily through both eyes and ears news of such great want of the Lord's handmaids, his affection toward them began, by God's inspiration, to be stirred up anew, so that he said he wished to treat again with the blessed Mother of the business long since broken off. But it seemed good to Teresa to yield to him only the principal chapel for the burial of himself and his family, but to exclude him from the rest of the glory of the foundation, inasmuch as it had already been somehow accomplished without his help. But in this matter she had not a few opponents, who said it was a wrong to assign this chapel particularly to him and his posterity: for although they were sprung from an honourable family, yet not from a knightly and illustrious one; there would surely not be lacking in so populous and wealthy a city some distinguished man to whom the principal chapel might be assigned with honour. And the same opinion which they now held about the chapel they had held before about the beginnings of the foundation, namely that she should not admit Álvarez as founder for the reason we have already brought forward. But although Teresa paid little heed to this objection, as one who had always held nobility of birth to be inferior to virtues, yet very many had already before reported on this matter to the governor of the city, and had so far prevailed with him that, when he granted the blessed Mother leave to found the house, he interposed this condition among others, that she should found this one in no other way than the others elsewhere. When therefore she was deliberating with herself on this matter, and to whom the principal chapel should be assigned, behold, a certain man conspicuous by birth asked that it be assigned to him in preference to others: whence her friends pressed the blessed Mother far more sharply than before to decide at once what she thought should be done. But she herself hung doubtful about what she ought to do.
[96] obtain a stable seat, But this fluctuation of her wavering mind the Lord, appearing to her, easily dispelled, while he made plain to her how small account the splendour of birth is with God, and rebuked her rather sharply because she had listened too readily to those who spoke for nobility. She committed the course of this revelation to paper, which I have had in my hands several times, and of which this was the inscription on the outside: "These are the things which were then revealed to me, when they were trying to persuade me not to grant the right of burial in the chapel at Toledo to anyone who was not of the class of knights." And on the inside it bore these words: "You are bringing an immense burden on yourself, daughter, and will be overwhelmed with very many labours, if you wish to regard the laws of the world. Look rather on me, poor and needy and despised by it. Do you perhaps think that the great ones of this world will be great before me, or that you are to be esteemed for the distinction of your birth rather than for the beauty of virtues?" To Álvarez alone, then, she at length assigned the chapel. How advisedly this was done could be perceived not obscurely afterwards, since it was chiefly by his help and support that that immense house was bought into which they moved at the turning of the first year; to which Toledo has few equals, as one that cost twelve thousand gold pieces. He also founded a great many Masses to be celebrated every year and other offices of piety to be performed here, which turn to great consolation both for the people and for the nuns themselves. God therefore willed that this monastery should be provided for in a certain singular way, both by taking care that it should lack nothing in temporal supports, and by gathering here such companions as he would enrich with his spiritual riches.
[97] and are increased in number. Teresa therefore, as soon as she had established her possession, summoned other companions from elsewhere. From the Incarnation these four came to her: Catalina Yera and Juana Yera, who is now surnamed of the Holy Spirit, full sisters and born of illustrious families of Ávila; and also Antonia del Águila and Isabel Suárez. Out of their number Mother Juana of the Holy Spirit alone remained in this new family: of the rest, as also of some others who had succeeded from the Incarnation, some on account of ill health, others because they lacked the strength needed to bear so great a severity of the new life they had taken up, returned to the same place. Wherefore Teresa afterwards provided in her Constitutions that no one should thereafter be enrolled in her family from other convents, not even from those which keep the milder rule in the same Order. Whence it came about that, when companions of her own Institute were at hand, she ceased to transfer others from the Incarnation. She likewise summoned from Malagón Anne of Jesus and Isabel of St. Joseph; so that, counting two novices, they were seven in all at Toledo when Teresa had to leave there. Scarcely a year had flowed by since the foundation was begun when Anne of the Mother of God, forty years old, joined herself to the new Institute. She, brought up in the greatest abundance of things, had fervently given herself over to the service of God, although she had until then enjoyed hardly favourable health: but as soon as she began to do without these things and to wear down her body with monastic austerity and rigour, the health she longed for returned. So great was the force of her piety that, having renounced all her possessions even before she made her vows to God, she transferred their ownership wholly to the monastery. Nor indeed did this renunciation of wealth please the blessed Mother; nay rather she forbade her to make it, declaring, for the sake of testing her, that she would deliberate whether as one suited to the Order
she should be received; and only then, if after trial had been made she were judged useful, should she make this renunciation. To which Anne replied with singular greatness of soul that, if indeed she were afterwards excluded from the Order, she would beg from door to door, for the love of God, the alms needed to sustain life; but that, wherever the matter should finally fall out, she held as ratified the donation of her fortune (which was certainly by no means common) already made by her to the monastery: whence she could not be brought by any means or persuasion afterwards to revoke it.
[98] Jesus promises the holy Mother Moreover, so ready and cheerful an obedience shone forth in this house (and the same is to be judged of the others too) that, if the prioress bade anything be done even in jest, it was carried out by her subjects as quickly as possible, without waiting for any more express word of command. Hence, when a certain nun, standing not far from a pool, had heard her superior's command to throw herself into it, she immediately leapt into it. Here too there befell Teresa a thing most worthy to be handed down to the memory of posterity. A certain nun on the very point of departing this life was flooded with incredible joy on account of the approaching end of her life. When Teresa, returning from prayer poured out in the choir before the most august Sacrament of the Altar, in which she had asked of God a happy end for her, visited her, she saw Jesus the Redeemer at the middle of the head of the little bed, in the guise of one leaning over her from above and protecting her with his arms somewhat opened, as he was once seen to have stood by St. Gertrude (book V, chapter II) at one time when she was brought to her last extremity. Then the Lord, turning to Teresa, bade her hold it as most certain that he would protect in this manner all the nuns, as many as should die in her convents, so that they would fear no temptations at the point of death. This promise must be understood only of those who shall live according to the prescriptions and laws of the Institute a. Likewise he promises that they will be immune from the last temptations in no other sense than that in the final agony he will free them from those assaults which overwhelm the mind or bring about a death disturbed by great disquiet.
[99] that he will protect her daughters when dying. From that time Teresa observed carefully that both this one of whom we are now treating and the others at whose deaths she was present were wont to show a certain remarkable tranquillity of mind in the last hour of life, just as if they were applying themselves to prayer in the most peaceful quiet and with recollected mind. The same thing too could be seen not obscurely a few days ago, and indeed while I am writing this, in that celebrated handmaid of God María of the Cross, a true and genuine daughter of Mother Teresa of Jesus, whom I recorded at the end of the first book as having been one of the first four followers of the blessed Mother. She died at Valladolid of pleurisy on the 7th day before the Kalends of March, in this very year 1588, having shone before all for the space of twenty-five years in monastic life with a notable example of all the virtues, and especially of charity, obedience, lowliness of mind and patience: for all those who lived with her for the greatest part of that time will testify that they do not remember that she ever gave anyone any occasion of offence or of estrangement. Moreover, she burned with so great a desire of dying that she could scarcely believe death was at hand for her, and said that she would die of the mere languor caused by death's delay and of weariness of a longer life. A wonderful tranquillity of mind shone forth in the sick woman to the very last; so that, without any sign of approaching death showing in her face, not even a yawn, so far at least as could be observed, she most peacefully gave back her soul to her Creator. And although while she lived she was somewhat plain, yet after death she put on such beauty and fairness of countenance that she seemed altogether another, God displaying in her body most manifest signs and marks of the excellent beauty with which her soul had been endowed in heaven.
ANNOTATION.
Chapter VII.
The foundations of Pastrana and Salamanca.
Chap. XV.
It was now the vigil of Pentecost, and the fifteenth day since the founding of the monastery of Toledo. At Pastrana, by the liberality of the prince of Éboli, In this interval of time Teresa had spent much labour in furnishing the church and fitting the iron grilles and completing other works of that kind, when, as she was sitting at table in the refectory, so great a consolation suddenly arose in her, because she saw everything now completed and that, freed from cares, she might devote herself wholly to our Lord Jesus Christ on these holidays of Pentecost, that all appetite for eating almost vanished for the greatness of the joy that possessed her soul. Meanwhile it was announced that a boy was present, sent by Ana de Mendoza, princess of Éboli, wife of Ruy Gómez de Silva. From him Teresa learned that she was invited by the princess to erect, as had been agreed between them, a convent of her Order at Pastrana, in her township; although the blessed Mother had not thought this was to be accomplished so quickly. Moreover, she judged it would be hardly advisable to withdraw from there so soon, the affairs of the monastery of Toledo being not yet sufficiently established, especially since the adversary had opposed it until then with such great efforts; although the servant pressed her most earnestly for it, affirming that his mistress had already arrived there, and indeed for no other reason. Teresa therefore, seeing that the requests of Ruy Gómez and his wife must be satisfied, because she judged that this would contribute not a little to the increase of the divine glory (for since the Order here especially needed royal favour, supported by which it might refute the calumnies of the adversaries by whom it was already then being shaken, the goodwill of these princes seemed on that account to be sought), cast herself down in supplication before the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, and asked that those things might be inspired in her which, when written to the princess, would by no means offend her.
[101] a convent of her virgins And at once a voice glided down to her: "Do not neglect to betake yourself thither, daughter; for far other affairs call you thither than the foundation of a convent alone. Take the Rule and Constitutions with you." Confirmed by the Lord with these words, the anxious Mother fled to her accustomed refuge in a like business, to her spiritual Father, I mean; and, having brought forward her reasons on either side, she asked what he would judge more expedient for promoting the glory of God, although she indicated to him nothing of what the Lord had told her: for so she thought she would be better satisfied. At the same time also she asked that light be given her continually by the Lord, illumined by which she might discern what was right. And so, on her confessor's advice, she departed from Toledo on the second day of Pentecost, the 3rd day before the Kalends of June in the year 1569, taking with her as companions Isabel of St. Paul and Antonia del Águila; having appointed Isabel of St. Dominic prioress of the house of Toledo. When she had arrived at Pastrana, she was kindly received by Prince Ruy and his wife, and lodged with them with her companions in a chamber secluded from the rest of the household. But she stayed here longer than she had expected: for the house which the princess had assigned her was very cramped, and she had ordered many parts of it to be demolished, so that it might take on the form of a monastery as was needful. She stayed at Pastrana three months and more; and although it seemed that the house would be established with no labour or very little, such as she had experienced in raising others (because the whole matter seemed already accomplished), yet she had to undergo no common labour here, the princess proposing to her certain conditions from which, as being at variance with her Institute, she utterly shrank, so that she had already resolved to return to Toledo with the matter unaccomplished. But since the princess, out of her zeal for the divine service, desired that convent exceedingly, and her husband not unwillingly assented to her wishes, the matter was at length settled according to her wish, and the monastery, named of the Virginal Conception, began to be founded on the 7th day before the Ides of July, the eighth day after the Visitation of the Mother of God, in the same year, as I said, 1569 a.
[102] Teresa erects. Teresa had taken with her only those two nuns whom I named above: whence it seemed good to call away from Medina, where they had taken the sacred habit, Isabel of St. Jerome and Anne of Jesus; and she enrolled another from the Incarnation. These things being thus settled, she returned to Toledo, because her house there especially needed the support of her presence, since it had been raised only very recently. Hence she stayed there some months, until the house we have mentioned was bought: in which she duly settled everything according to the laws of the Institute. She arrived at Toledo, then, on the day before the feast of St. Magdalen, and by the same carriage in which she had come she sent Isabel of St. Dominic back to Pastrana, to preside over the house established there: and she willed that Anne of the Angels, superior of the nuns of Malagón, should thereafter govern those of Toledo; which office she exercised here for very many years, and now discharges it with praise at Cuenca. In her place at Malagón she substituted Mother María of the Blessed Sacrament, and at Pastrana she created Isabel of St. Paul subprioress.
Chap. XVI.
[103] About the same time Martín Gutiérrez, rector of the college of the Society of Jesus at Salamanca, Then, a man of notable holiness and judgement, and also conspicuous for outstanding learning and renowned for preaching to the people (through whose efforts God invited a great many souls to his service, and whom it pleased him to use as his minister, so that at length I myself, by the inspiration of the Deity, after much wavering, firmly resolved with myself to join this Society b), signified to Teresa by letter that it seemed it would be worth her while to establish a monastery of her virgins at Salamanca; to which he exhorted her with many effectual reasons. Teresa had thought about the same matter within herself some months before; but the poverty of the city had deterred her, which she believed would be unequal to supporting a new convent of Mendicants. Meanwhile, however, she began to reflect that Ávila was not richer than Salamanca, and yet nothing had been lacking to her nuns at Ávila up to now. She resolved, therefore, to betake herself to Ávila, in order to pass thence to Salamanca. Moreover, she went off to Salamanca together with only one companion, María of the Blessed Sacrament, whom I have already mentioned elsewhere. For since she had observed that, once she had set out for the colony of Medina with several nuns, the matter had not been free of difficulty, she resolved with herself from then on (which she also seems afterwards to have kept in the other foundations) to take with her at the beginning only very few, say one or two, until the first beginnings of the foundation should be propped up, and, these at length established and possession made secure, to summon others.
[104] with the help of Martín Gutiérrez, S.J., and others, While she was still staying at Ávila, therefore, she wrote to Martín Gutiérrez to obtain for her from the bishop of Salamanca (this was Pedro González de Mendoza c) leave for this matter: and when he had informed the bishop in person of the institute customarily observed in such monasteries, he obtained without difficulty the power of accomplishing the matter. Already Teresa seemed to herself to see the matter settled, already the monastery founded, this leave of the prelate having been obtained. She therefore had friends hire the house of a nobleman, Gonzalo Yáñez de Ovalle, in the stream named after St. Francis, situated not far from the monastery of St. Elizabeth. This at that time some university men
were living in; but they were ordered to move out as soon as those who had newly hired it should arrive. For Teresa always had the purpose of taking care that nothing of the matter should leak out among the common people before she had entered into possession: for she had found by experience how hateful her monasteries were to Satan, and with what forces he strove to hinder their erection. She departed from Ávila, therefore, with a few small coins, but full of trust in the divine mercy: for she foresaw that she would need very many things for fitting up the house, and that she would find no one at Salamanca to bring her help in this. On the day before the Kalends of November, then, about the time of the midday meal, they were brought into Salamanca, having suffered for the greater part of the previous night extreme cold on the road and many inconveniences besides; yet not for that reason, nor even if graver troubles had had to be undergone, was the fervent handmaid of God deterred from carrying out the work which she foresaw would contribute not a little to the glory of God.
[105] likewise to the monastery of Salamanca She had scarcely entered the inn when she called Nicolás Gutiérrez, a merchant whom she knew (for two of his daughters were professed in the monastic life at the Incarnation) and whom she had heard to be a pious man; whose services too she employed in many things in this foundation. She charged him, then, to bid the university men move out of the hired house that very same day. When he had energetically carried this out, the matter was accomplished the same day before evening: whence it came about that as darkness first came on Teresa betook herself there with her companion. Then each of them with pious assiduity did her best that the next day the house might appear fit for performing the sacred rite. For this use Father Martín Gutiérrez lent them the sacred equipment, painted pictures, altar ornaments and other things serving this purpose, and at the same time sent two Brothers there to help the nuns in adorning the house and chapel. Whence it came about that very early in the morning, everything being now prepared, Mass was celebrated, and possession of this house, also called of St. Joseph, was confirmed on the feast-day of All Saints of the year 1569 d. This done, she at once arranged for some nuns to be summoned from Medina, by whose arrival the house immediately began to grow together into the form of a monastery. Moreover these are their names: Anne of the Incarnation, whom she set over the house with authority, María of Christ, who was appointed her vicaress, and Jerónima of Jesus, today prioress of Beas. From Ávila moreover she called two novices whom she had enrolled there, Anne of Jesus, today prioress of Madrid, and Juana of Jesus; and also María of St. Francis, whom she had enrolled in her company at Toledo, and who at present is set over the nuns of Alba.
[106] she gives a beginning; The next night Teresa and her companion María of the Blessed Sacrament, who was older than the Mother, staying alone in that vast and poorly furnished house, hid themselves in a certain room, strewn with straw that had been brought in. For this was the first furniture that Teresa brought into her monasteries before everything else: for she judged that, the straw being brought in, she had now been amply provided with a bed. At that time indeed, apart from this straw and two blankets which the college of the Society of Jesus had sent, there was no furniture in the house. But the next day the nuns of St. Elizabeth supplied, with great signs of kindness, what was necessary for the companions who were to come from elsewhere, and even food, and their notable munificence toward them shone forth during the whole time they lived in the neighbourhood: for both at that time, and always before too, this monastery had companions excellent in holiness and outstanding in offices of charity toward their neighbour and in religion. On this very night, then, of which I have spoken, a great fear seized María of the Blessed Sacrament lest someone might perhaps be hiding in the house. As soon as the doors of the room were shut, she ceased indeed to be somewhat afraid; yet she began to look round fearfully this way and that, so that she did not think herself safe even in that place. It is clear that this was a device of the devil, by which he was striving to disturb not so much María as the blessed Mother. For although she feared nothing, yet, because she was of a weak heart, little was enough to bring her great harm. To this was added that, since the next day the commemoration of the faithful departed was being kept, in all the churches throughout the whole city a great and mournful sound of bronze bells was raised by night, which increased the weakness of her heart not a little.
[107] which after three years, Teresa therefore asked her what she was looking round for. To which María said: "I was turning over in my mind, Mother, what you would do here alone, if it should befall me to die in this place and at this time?" This reply made Teresa somewhat thoughtful, and even cast into her some fear of the thing spoken of: for although the bodies of the dead caused her no fear, yet they brought her some faintness of heart. But because she was witty and excelled in strength of mind, making no account of these empty bugbears, she set about suppressing María's fear with this reply: "When that happens, dearest, then at last I shall deliberate what I need to do; but for the present, I beg you, let me sleep in quiet." Living in this abode for nearly three years, they suffered no small inconveniences: for it was, being vast and badly built, exposed to the winter cold, and on account of the stream which has its name from St. Francis and glides past its doors, damp and unwholesome for those dwelling in it. Whence it came about that they bore the gravest hardships during all that time, although they never put off peace of mind and were flooded with no common consolation. But when Teresa had departed from there (which happened not long after), a far heavier storm of tribulation lay upon them, for the reason which we shall tell afterwards. On her departure she set Anne of the Incarnation over the newly begun house; which office she discharged with praise for many years. That grievous loneliness too afflicted them not a little, that they did not have the Eucharistic Bread with them: for for the whole three years they had to go without so sweet a guest, because a place was lacking where the pyx might be honourably and becomingly placed.
[108] The Saint coming again to Salamanca But that I may embrace in one bundle whatever Teresa did in that house, as I have done in the others, I shall say that, those three years which I set down before having now run out, she transferred her daughters, this former house being abandoned, into another far more convenient and suitable, although not without great trouble. For since they were in the greatest need of a more convenient house, and one was being sought throughout the whole city, at length they stipulated with a noble knight, Pedro de la Banda, that he should sell them a certain house which he possessed. When this had been conveyed by letter to Teresa at Ávila, who was then governing the monastery of the Incarnation, as we shall relate in its place, she at once related the matter to a certain man of the Society of Jesus, a grave and upright man whom she esteemed very highly, and at the same time asked him whether he would counsel her to hasten to Salamanca, to buy this house and furnish it with everything necessary for the use of the nuns. He then (as he afterwards himself told me) said that it did not seem fitting to him: for if she were of the male sex, she could bring some fruit to her neighbours by preaching, going out and visiting; but from a woman, whom the monastic enclosure became, what advantage could be hoped? But Teresa, with the great faith she had in God, and burning with ardent charity toward her nuns, having weighed the matter more maturely within herself, resolved in her mind to betake herself there, taking as companion of the journey Quiteria de Ávila, a nun of the same convent of the Incarnation, who was also afterwards set over it with authority.
[109] coming, Moreover, she was harassed by many inconveniences on this journey, because it had to be undertaken in the month of August. For since the heat of the sun by day was harmful to her, she had to travel the rough road through the thick darkness of the night. Nor indeed was this the end of her troubles: for when she had put on a beast of burden the little coins which she had been able to scrape together on loan for furnishing the house, it, deceived by the darkness of night, turned aside from the road and, though diligently sought, did not appear at all. Late, therefore, and at the dead of night they arrived at the inn, but without the beast and the money. When day dawned, a boy sent out to search for the beast at length found it lying not far from the king's highway, with its little packs intact, so that not even an obol was missing. The following night, it was not the coins now but Teresa their leader who disappeared, having wandered off the road by a blind error: which afflicted her companions far more grievously. For since they lost sight of one another through the darkness, it happened that they were all drawn apart from one another. Whence the Father who was hastening to the same place bade the blessed Mother and Quiteria stop for a while in the street of a certain village through which they were passing, until he himself should seek out the other companions along the road: and when, having found them, he wished to lead them to the appointed place in which he had left Teresa before, he could not return to the place from which he had gone away. Wherefore he began to go further on with the companions he had brought, thinking that the same plan had occurred to Teresa: for everyone supposed that Teresa was following with the rest of the company, in exactly the way in which it happened that Jesus at twelve years old was lost at Jerusalem. But when, after a long wait, they saw that the blessed Mother was not coming up, greatly grieving they began to separate from one another again: some to retrace the road and come upon her; others to call out for her with raised voices in every direction. Behold, at length, after an anxious wait of some hours, Teresa was seen to be at hand with her companion and a farmer, whom, hired for four silver pieces to show the road to those wandering in the darkness, they had taken from his cottage there. Among the other companions of this journey were Fr. Antonio of Jesus and Julian of Ávila, whose service proved very useful to the blessed Mother in founding almost all the houses.
[110] into another house When she had arrived at Salamanca, she went straightway to the house that was for sale, to inspect it in person. It was indeed situated in an excellent place, in the middle between the houses of the counts of Fuentes and of Monterrey: but it had two inconveniences. First, that it was feudal and could not be sold by its possessor except after obtaining royal letters. Second, that it appeared so shaken and ruined that it would cost an outlay of a thousand gold pieces and more for it to be in some measure fitted up in the form of a monastery. To this was added also that difficulty that, since it is customary at Salamanca for houses to be let about the feast-day of St. Michael, and the Mother had arrived here in mid-August, it was necessary in that intervening time either to complete the whole building, so that they might move here on the appointed day of the Archangel (and that time was very short for the repairs, since many things presented themselves to be restored), or to hire another house for the rest of the year. But Teresa, to whom God had given an unbroken strength for overcoming all difficulties, bargaining with the knight, acquired the house from him on this condition, that he himself should obtain from the king the power of selling it. Ordering hands to be put to the work at once, therefore, she assigned the hall to the chapel and marked out the other places necessary for the future monastery; and she also bought part of the neighbouring house, so that the sanctuary might be more spacious. Julian
of Ávila presided over the work, and as its appointed overseer urged the workmen to make haste, a great sum of money being spent on it. When the appointed day came, the work was not yet fully finished, but many things here and there still remained to be repaired, although many workmen had sweated over it until then and were still sweating: yet it was necessary for them to move here, because they had not hired the house in which they were staying for the following year, and its owner was pressing them to move out as soon as possible. On the day before the dedication of the Archangel Michael, therefore, they moved here very early in the morning; and for the following day the bringing of the Venerable Eucharist into this place had been appointed, with a sacred sermon to the people and solemn ceremony.
[111] was transferred, But indeed, before this solemnity, the Redeemer wished to test Teresa's constancy somewhat. For on the day on which they came together in the morning to this house (this was done in the year 1573), after the midday meal so much rain fell from the sky that the greatest difficulty had to be undergone in carrying the necessary equipment from one house into the other, and the cracked roof of the chapel of the newly erected church let the water through. Whence it came about that it seemed the ceremony that had been appointed could not be celebrated with the rite that had been arranged, nor yet conveniently deferred to another day, because it had already been published everywhere that it was to be celebrated on that day. This afflicted Teresa not a little; and she at once turned to him who was wont to rescue her from all adversities, and, expostulating with him as a friend, she kept saying to the Lord with notable fervour that either he should not employ her as his minister in works of this kind, or he himself should provide for this untimely necessity. As soon as the festal day dawned, unexpectedly the sun began to shine with brightness over the whole sky; whence there was a very great concourse of all ranks, and, solemn chant and the preaching of the divine word having gone before, the Sacrament of the Venerable Eucharist was at length brought here with unwonted pomp, to the great joy of the blessed Mother and of the nuns (who, lacking it up to then, had lived as it were in a sad solitude) e. And because this house was situated in an excellent place, it began to be visited more often by the multitude, and the people began to be more attached to it than usual: and above all María Pimentel, countess of Monterrey, began to be borne toward it with wonderful zeal and to be liberally at hand with what help she could. This matron was most religious and very well known for bestowing copious alms on the needy and on the servants of God. Nor did God fail to send his aids from heaven, at once inspiring some maidens with the mind to follow this Institute.
[112] and to which several girls, notable for birth Whence, while Teresa was still staying at Salamanca, two sisters illustrious by birth (although neither knew of the other's pious purpose) asked to be received into this family. The name of one was Francisca de Luna, of the other Leonor de Ledesma, daughters of a noble citizen Martín Dávila Maldonado, whose inheritance finally passed to his son Juan de Solís Dávila. Teresa began to be attached to both with a singular love, because she had learned much from the talk of others about their integrity, piety, modesty and judgement far beyond their age (for they were very young girls). Both of these indeed she had enrolled in her Order; but, learning that Francisca (who had first asked to be given entrance) lacked the bodily strength necessary for bearing the burden, she admitted only her sister Leonor, who took the surname of Jesus, and, having spent two years in that house, departed this life, leaving great longing for herself among her sisters: for she was dear to all for her notable sweetness of manners, humility and courtesy; and in that very short time she so hastened in the way of the Lord that the Wise Man's eulogy rightly fits her: "Being made perfect in a short space, she fulfilled a long time." I have related these things because this blessed spouse of Jesus Christ brought with her for the use of the convent the whole inheritance she had received from her parents; the fruit of which has been very useful to it up to now and remains so still.
[113] and in holiness, were enrolled. Before these, and not so long after, other noble maidens were received into the same family, and among the rest Ana de Solís, daughter of Suero Alfonso de Solís, who in tender age gladly consecrated the rest of the course of her life to God with generous constancy of mind and delight. The name given her in religious life was of the Holy Trinity. And I mention her here particularly the more willingly because her vocation was wonderful and singular. For since from the seventh year of her age right up to the sixteenth she had endured incredible pains in her body, while the physicians laboured to remove an ulcerous abscess from her arm, which she had contracted from a certain fall, and the matter had now come to this, all art and industry failing, that in the year of her age I have mentioned the surgeons affirmed plainly that she would die unless the arm were cut off from her body, and she herself had now resolved to undergo this torture in her zeal to recover her health, through the opposition of her maternal aunt Catalina de Añaya, who was living as a nun in St. Elizabeth's and was most devoted to the divine service, the matter was deferred: for she, with notable greatness of soul, denying that this amputation ought to be done, said rather that all hope was to be cast upon God, by whom her health would without doubt be restored to the maiden. And not long afterwards she said that this had been manifested to her from heaven by the Lord. Then too so ardent a desire of serving God was cast into the languishing maiden, and she conceived so firm a purpose of pursuing perfection in the company of the Discalced nuns, that she seemed almost to die for desire: although the weakness of her body seemed to stand in the way of this wish, as one who on account of weakness of strength did not abstain from eating meat even on Friday. Everyone, learning of this, took from her the hope of her wishes, and among the rest I myself despaired of it; because, if the matter were to be measured by natural reasons, no hope of admission into this family seemed to shine forth. But one day God, who alone wished and was able to accomplish this thing, breathed such strength into her mind from heaven that she at once made a vow both to God and to his Sacred Mother to embrace this Institute, if only he would restore her lost health. And with the same fervour of spirit she added that, as a sign of this, she would from then on set aside all hope in the help of physicians, so that her restored health might be ascribed to the patronage of the Mother of God alone.
[114] were enrolled. As she promised, so she bade farewell to the physicians; and although it seemed that the arm would rot away with wasting and corruption, yet she would not employ their services thereafter. Nor truly was it in vain: for she at length obtained health, although a double scar remained on the arm. Wherefore she insisted more vehemently with her kinsfolk that she might be permitted by them to give herself to this discipline to which she aspired so greatly; for the health of her arm had been restored to her according to the trust she had conceived in the Mother of God. But the pious maiden found no belief among her family; nay, not even her paternal uncle Pedro de Solís would meet the prioress of the convent on this matter before he had seen the arm with his own eyes: and when she, animated with notable faith, had without reluctance shown it to her uncle, he found it sound and disfigured by no abscesses; which soundness of the flesh indeed stood so as if no ulcer had ever existed in it before. Then at length her admission began to be treated of; and she was enrolled in that family, in which she lives even now with great consolation to herself. That my discourse may return to the narrative begun: when, Teresa having now been taken from among the living, the nuns could by no means agree with that nobleman, they yielded this house to him and bought another for themselves, in which there was at that time a hospital (it had its name from the Rosary); and this is the very one in which they now dwell: in which they experience daily the singular help of God, while he abundantly provides the greater conveniences of a house for his handmaids who serve him with all the striving of their souls. On this matter I could relate more at present (inasmuch as they are known to me), but it is always my purpose to treat as little as possible of those still living; and further because I have by no means resolved to write about the other nuns (for a separate history, and a very lengthy one, would have to be woven about them), but about their parent and leader Teresa alone, whose Life I have determined to compose.
ANNOTATIONS.
Chapter VIII.
The foundation of Alba. St. Teresa's manner of travelling.
Chap. XVII.
To return, then, to the narrative begun about the foundations of convents, At Alba de Tormes behold, even before the house at Salamanca had been established, Francisco Velázquez, treasurer of the duke of Alba, and Teresa Laiz, his wife, through the intercession of Juan de Ovalle and his wife Juana de Ahumada (she was Teresa's sister, as we have said), pressed the blessed Mother with all their striving not to think it a burden to establish a seat of her nuns at Alba too. For this reason Teresa set out from Medina with some companions: but since she could not come to terms according to her wish with those by whom she had been called, because they interposed conditions unfair and by no means in keeping with the Institute, and the matter was therefore drawn out at length, she returned to Medina, other affairs demanding it; and thence she went to Valladolid, afterwards to Toledo, and at length to Salamanca, as we have already indicated before. Scarcely two months had flowed by since the foundation at Salamanca when those same persons pressed her with importunate letters to hasten to Alba again. However, she was not so very much inclined toward this seat, because, since Alba is only a small town, it seemed that the convent would have to be established on fixed revenues. But Domingo Báñez, who was then at Salamanca and was Teresa's confessor, tried with all the zeal he could, as at other times, to turn her from this opinion, repeatedly saying that it was a wrong to give up the foundation of a monastery for this reason: for neither, though it were endowed with fixed revenues,
could the nuns who live in it be any less able to practise poverty and to aspire to perfection. Complying with this opinion, Teresa resolved with herself to go out to Alba for the sake of erecting a convent.
[116] Teresa Laiz, Nor indeed must it be passed over here in silence what moved the founders to request this monastery from the blessed Mother; for from it it can be perceived not obscurely that this foundation was not begun without a miracle. Teresa Laiz, having been born of illustrious parents, was throughout the whole time of her life of the greatest religion toward God and of morals most worthy of a Christian; of which God seems to have wished to give some prognostic long before. For when on the third day from her birth (because her birth had not been so welcome to her parents, as people who did not lack other daughters) they had with remarkable neglect left her alone crying in her cradle from dawn to evening, the woman to whom she had been entrusted, having found out how little care was taken of the child, rushed into the room with some others accompanying her, to see in person whether she had not yet breathed her last. Taking the little one into her arms, then, she began to ask her in a tearful voice: "What? Are you not a Christian, daughter?" complaining in a manner of the cruelty of the parents toward her. The infant at once raised her head and began to speak, saying in the hearing of all: "I am a Christian": for on the day on which she was brought into the light she had been dipped in the saving font. But thereafter she uttered no further word until she had reached the age fixed for speaking in children. By this prodigy it came about that her mother began to be more vehemently attached to her and ordered that diligent care be taken of her, and said that she asked this one thing of God, that he would extend her life so far that she might see what would become of this girl.
[117] of St. Andrew the Apostle When her parents wished to settle her, now marriageable, in matrimony, Teresa at first resisted and was unwilling to take up this state; until, learning that Francisco Velázquez was seeking her in marriage, she did not refuse to contract with him as soon as possible, although she had never seen his face before, though perhaps she did not know why she preferred him to the other suitors, God inwardly impelling her to this marriage, who had resolved to raise the monastery of Alba by this way. After not so very many years they transferred their residence to Salamanca; in which city Velázquez held a rich and honourable office. For he was treasurer of the University and manager of all its revenues; whence too he paid the professors their stipends every year: and I myself knew him discharging that office there. The lot of this marriage was wealthy and happy, but an heir to its fortunes was lacking: which childlessness they bore bitterly. Teresa therefore strove to obtain offspring from God by the most earnest prayers and various offices of piety. But she had no other reason for desiring offspring than that an heir might survive her when dead, who in her name and place might continually praise God: nor did she ever look to anything else in this desire for an heir. And learning that the Apostle Andrew by his patronage makes barren wombs fruitful, she began to be carried away with wonderful zeal toward him and to commend her childlessness to him. God heard her calling, St. Andrew interceding, being about to bestow on her as she asked, not indeed the offspring she was asking for, but another which would do far better and for longer what she desired to be done, namely that there should exist someone who in her place would celebrate God. For she founded, as we shall see presently, this convent for nuns, in which from the beginning fervent handmaids of God have dwelt, and today too very many dwell: of whose holiness I could give splendid testimony (because I have known very many of them very intimately), were I not prevented by those two reasons which I produced in the preceding chapter. Indeed God also granted that this very thing should be done in perpetuity by someone of her kindred. For she willed that by perpetual right there should be a fixed place in this house for one girl of her own stock and also for one of her husband's family, so that, if that mind should be inspired from heaven in anyone, she should be admitted here continually without any dowry at all.
[118] by the apparition One night, then, as she lay in bed, she received a voice in her ears: "Do not be anxious about offspring; for through it it would come about that you would incur peril to your salvation." This voice indeed struck the matron wonderfully, but she did not on that account desist from her accustomed petition, since she persuaded herself that with the intention which she had in this wish it could not happen that she should incur damnation: hence she redoubled her prayers as usual, and fervently besought God for offspring, the blessed Apostle Andrew being her patron. While she was continuing to ask this unceasingly, then, whether awake or asleep is uncertain, a vision was offered her; but that one indeed proceeded from God, as the outcome that followed declared. She seemed to herself to be in a certain house, under the porch of whose court she thought she saw a well. Not far from there she beheld a most springlike meadow overspread with white little flowers, so elegant indeed that she did not remember having seen the like, and she did not know in what way she might express their elegance. She saw the Apostle Andrew standing by the well, of venerable and comely form, and so striking indeed that she clearly perceived he was an Apostle. The sight of him flooded her as she looked with great delight; and from him she presently heard: "These are children far different from those you yourself ask for," pointing out (as at least seems likely to me) those most choice flowers. Thereafter all desire of having offspring left her, nor did she any longer ask children of God; but she began to treat with her husband, since the arbiter of things had denied them offspring, that they would do a work worthy of God if they built out of their means a monastery in which pious nuns might continually serve God.
[119] and by other signs of the divine will The husband assented to his wife's pious zeal; but the place in which she had it in mind to erect it displeased him: this was not far from Alba, Tordillos by name, the woman's native soil. About the same time María Enríquez, duchess of Alba, called Velázquez to her, intending to make him treasurer of Fernando de Toledo, the duke, and at the same time her own. When he had entered upon this office and had acquired a house at Alba, he invited his wife there by letter. She came indeed, though most unwillingly, because the city of Alba displeased her, and much more the house which her husband had bought. For it was hardly convenient and divided into few rooms, although situated in an excellent place and rather spacious. When, then, the next day she went down into the court, and saw both the porch and the well beneath it, it at once recurred to her mind that this was surely the very place which she had seen before in the vision, when the Apostle Andrew appeared to her. Hence she wondered within herself how her husband, ignorant of all these things, had fallen by chance upon this house which had been shown her so long before. And inquiring no further, she at length resolved to build the monastery in this place. And thenceforth the stay at Alba ceased to be wearisome to her: and she resolved never to leave there. Whence too they acquired the adjoining houses, to extend the bounds of the convent they were contriving. And she continually considered within herself to the nuns of which Institute in particular she should assign the place: for she wished them to be both fewer in number and most zealous followers of solitude.
[120] moved, She communicated on this very matter, deliberating, with members of various Institutes, that she might learn from them what would be most agreeable to the things of God: nor was Velázquez's diligence less in this matter. But those whom they consulted declared it would be better to spend their means on other works of charity; and they tried with many words to draw them away from the zeal of founding a convent, bringing forward reasons of little weight to this end. Since these, then, dissuaded the thing, she too changed her mind: for Satan, foreseeing even then what loss threatened him thence, interposed himself with what power he could. Wherefore, since the religious themselves had dissuaded her from founding the monastery, she came to this decision with her husband, that, the greatest part of their fortune being handed over as dowry to her sister's son, who was to marry a kinswoman of Velázquez, they would dedicate the rest to pious works for the mutual help of their souls after this life. This decision, although it had long been settled in the mind of each, was nevertheless in vain; since God had determined what would contribute more to promoting the glory of his name and to increasing their own advantages. Scarcely fifteen days had flowed by from this resolution when the young man I have spoken of suddenly fell into so grave an illness that not long after death overtook him. This, when it had filled her with no small amazement and fear, she at the same time reflected in her mind that, as the Prophet Jonas felt the avenging hand of God because he had struggled against his commands, not otherwise had this most dear kinsman been taken from her by death, God punishing her, because she had neglected to carry out the divine admonitions.
[121] the monastery Hence she recalled her mind once more to the thought she had begun of founding a monastery, although she was quite ignorant in what way she might accomplish it in deed; both because she found nowhere such nuns as she herself wished and as she had persuaded herself from the vision that God wished, and because there was no one to give her any hope of having such: yet there were not wanting those who mocked her as she anxiously sought what she could not find. A certain Father of the family of St. Francis, a man outstanding in learning and in offices of charity, to whom she was accustomed to disclose her faults in Confession, especially dissuaded her from this work. She was wonderfully distressed by this dissuasion; but God willed this desolation of hers to be very short. For when this priest had gone abroad, and had heard much about the convents established by Teresa of Jesus, and had carefully inquired in person into the institute of life kept in them, returning to Alba he signified to Teresa Laiz that he had found the nuns whom she was seeking so anxiously and such as she imagined to herself, relating to her all he had learned about the blessed Mother and her companions. He advised, accordingly, that the spouses should confer with her on this matter by letter. When therefore, without delay, they had written to her on the occasion which I indicated at the beginning, what I have already recounted came about. Teresa therefore went out to Alba again; but the matter was drawn out longer than was fair, and various inconveniences were proposed on both sides, nor did it seem that the future founders could be brought to assign revenues with the liberality that was needful. For Teresa was always of this opinion, that she said, for those monasteries which did not live on the alms of the pious, either all things necessary for the protection of life ought to be supplied, so that they should not be forced to ask anything from outsiders for their uses, or their foundation should be given up altogether.
[122] assigns to St. Teresa. At length, the matter having been settled, they assigned her fixed revenues somehow sufficient. And so, with absolutely no one opposing, this house, named of the Annunciation of the Mother of God a (for the founders desired this name to be given it), was founded on the 8th day before the Kalends of February, in the year 1571, the day sacred to the Conversion of the Apostle Paul, in that house in which they had been living, and from which they themselves moved to another. In this way, then, was fulfilled Teresa's
vision granted to Laiz, and at the same time the prediction of St. Andrew the Apostle: and she at length perceived that this was the flower-garden in which those choice and fragrant flowers were to grow, such as by God's gift have already grown, breathing forth a most sweet fragrance; nay, as the first ones die off, new ones will grow up in times to come. In this very place the founders afterwards built a notable house and a church not to be despised, which is also seen today b; in whose principal chapel their bodies have been honourably buried, and benefices were instituted there by them: whence that church has been abundantly provided with Masses; and furthermore diligent watch is kept that the priests themselves may excel the rest in uprightness. To establish the beginnings of this house the blessed Mother brought Agnes of Jesus, already governing the house of Palencia, and also Juana of the Holy Spirit, whom she had left at Toledo; with whom came Guiomar of Jesus and María of the Blessed Sacrament: and from Medina she called Tomasina Bautista, today superior of the convent of Burgos, and from Salamanca María of St. Francis, who at present rules this convent of Alba. Moreover Juana of the Holy Spirit was the first to govern this convent by the blessed Mother's prescription, María of the Blessed Sacrament rendering her service as vicaress.
Chap. XVIII.
[123] The house of Alba having been established, about two years went by in which no new monastery was founded elsewhere by Teresa; On her journeys the causes of which I shall bring forth at the beginning of the following book. Wherefore it has seemed to me not at all out of place if I put an end to this book by setting out the manner of her travelling as she hastened to new foundations. Whenever she had to go out of any convent, she took with her no other companions (unless perhaps some singular necessity counselled calling some particular one) than those whom she knew would come with her not unwillingly; whom she then thanked with friendly words breathing goodwill for offering themselves gladly for this journey. On the day on which they were to depart, she took care that they should receive the sacred viaticum of the Eucharist. And that those setting out might have greater quiet and interior recollection, she always wished them to be carried in carriages or litters, if these could conveniently be had, lest on the way or in the inns the nuns should lie open to the contempt of the malicious, and in this way licence might be shut off from obscene talk, with which other women generally, especially those who are poor and of no standing, are wont to be met by the impure on a journey: and for this reason she wished them in outward bearing to be like respectable matrons. If the convenience of a carriage was not available, she had them carried in carts, but closed on every side: whence in them they were kept from the gaze of others no less than if they were confined by the enclosures of their convents.
[124] of modesty, recollection She likewise rebuked sharply any whom she saw not covering her mouth and face sufficiently with her veil, whenever she could be seen by outsiders. She herself, even if she were speaking to a woman, always let down her veil, unless perhaps when she was holding conversation with a person of the kind with whom some just reason counselled that it should not be so. A little bell was always taken, by which the signal for praying and for keeping silence was given at its proper time, as was wont to be done at home; and also an hour-glass to mark off the spaces of the hours. During that whole time, moreover, all the companions of the journey, both religious and priests and laymen, masters as well as servants, had to keep silence; nor did this pious custom offend anyone. But when the signal was given for talking with one another, it was pleasant to see with what joy the servants exulted, as if now loosed from chains. To these too, because they had kept silence carefully, the pious Mother ordered something more to be given in food. In the carriage or cart in which she herself was not riding, she designated another whom she wished the companions to obey no otherwise than herself. By doing this she not only made trial of the obedience of the others; but also of the talent for ruling others which she whom she had made overseer displayed. As soon as they had arrived at an inn, they took some secluded room, in which they shut themselves up alone, the other companions being excluded: she appointed a portress of it, who would bring in the food and other necessaries. If they had arrived at a poor inn or a little house which had no secluded chamber, she separated the beds of her nuns by some coarse cloth set between, so that they might not be gazed at too curiously by anyone else; and necessaries were brought in from there. She herself in the morning was the first to wake her companions from sleep, and the last to go to bed.
[125] and of piety She never failed to have a priest in her company, who would both attend to those confessing and perform the sacred rite. This was for her every day the beginning of her works; and during the Sacrifice she partook of the sacred banquet of the Eucharist: and this, although she was in the greatest haste, she never suffered to be omitted, provided the necessary equipment was at hand. She continually had holy water with her on the way, and not seldom too she carried in her arms an image of the child Jesus. Whence it came about that a journey brought her no distraction of mind, nor did setting out disturb her more than staying, the handling of business more than quiet, labours more than tranquillity: nay rather, the spiritual feelings and gifts of grace with which the heavenly Father filled her soul flowed in so abundantly that, to bear them, it was necessary that her mind should in some measure be distracted by labours and business by day and by night. Nor indeed was she cheated of recollection of spirit or of the presence of God by reason of a journey: him, namely, she had always so present to her that she scarcely ever lost him from the eyes of her soul; yet not in the manner of other contemplatives, but in a certain other far more sublime way. For there, in the inmost recesses of the soul, she enjoyed the presence of the three divine Persons, and perceived them in herself in a certain wonderful manner, so that she was persuaded that they were present to her everywhere and bore her company. Hence she felt no loneliness; nay, she would never have wished to speak to anyone, but to enjoy continually this delightful company of God.
[126] the Saint has the greatest care. If, however, the occasion ever offered itself of speaking with others, she did it with wonderful cheerfulness, as if this conversation brought her pleasure, namely that in this way she might console the companions of her journey: whose willingness and alacrity in setting out was such that they were deterred by no troubles of the roads, and no satiety ever took them of hearing her, who in conversation was above all courteous and delightful. Whenever occasion was given on the way, she brought in talk of God and divine things, with which she held her companions in friendly fashion. And those who were wont either to curse or to jest on the way drew greater pleasure from her words than from all the recreations with which they might then have relaxed their minds; as they themselves sometimes declared. And although the manner of her journeys was so peaceful and quiet, yet she would have preferred, had it been in any way possible, to lie hidden within the retreats of her monastery, so as to dedicate herself wholly there to prayer. But on the one side the command of the Prior General, on the other that of Christ himself, urged her not to delay in building as many convents as she could. We have already seen above, in the erection of the house of Malagón, that at one time, when she had returned from receiving the sacred heavenly Sacrament, the Saviour appearing to her said among other things that it was not yet the time for resting, but exhorted her to make haste in the erection of monasteries, because he sought rest in the souls of those dwelling in them, and so animated her not a little to this work.
[127] God often exhorts her In the year 1571 too, about the middle of February, the Redeemer addressed her thus: "Strive and labour, since you see with your eyes how great a help I am to you: I willed that you should acquire this crown: in these days you will see the Order of Virgins wonderfully propagated." The following words I found written by her hand on a certain slip: "As I was thinking one day in what great purity those live who, far from business, enjoy quiet, and how many faults I must therefore commit and into what various errors I must stumble because I was immersing myself in business, a voice glided down from heaven: It cannot be otherwise, daughter; labour only to have a right intention, and to strip yourself wholly of all things: and look on me, so that whatever you do may be conformed to those things which I myself did." Those who were not aware of these things, nor knew Teresa, nor had sufficiently perceived the charity with which her heart burned to seek the glory of God and of the Most Holy Virgin Mary and to promote the salvation of souls, very often tore her with unjust calumnies, and, interpreting these journeys of hers otherwise than they should, spoke of them more freely than was right; since they did not observe nor understand what they were saying, or rather what the demon, without their knowing it, bade be uttered and spread abroad by their mouths, labouring with all his striving that these convents should not be erected, from which he had found that so great a loss came upon him daily.
[128] that she may found more monasteries. But the blessed Mother cared little for these reproaches: for, as she herself once told me at Salamanca, she held Jesus Christ as her king, whom she believed she ought to serve; and since she had perceived that these things were done by the will of God, she said that absolutely no obstacle could be put in her way by anyone to prevent her carrying it out. At one time, such was her humility and prudence, she began to turn this matter over in her mind and to weigh it maturely in thought; whence she also wrote these words on a slip: "One day, when I was reckoning with myself whether those to whom it seemed a wrong that I should go out of my house to found monasteries relied on some just reason, and whether it would be better for me to apply myself continually to prayer, this voice came to my ears: While one is living, the good does not lie in this, that one enjoys me more sweetly and more frequently, but in doing my will." Whence she also adds: "And since it seemed to me, because the Apostle Paul speaks of the seclusion of women, as I had not long ago understood from someone and had also heard before, that this perhaps would be the will of God, I at once heard: Tell them that they must not rely on one testimony only of the sacred writings, but consult others besides: and at the same time ask whether perhaps it is in their power to bind my hands fast."
ANNOTATIONS.
BOOK THREE.
PROLOGUE.
Of the excellence of the Teresian Constitutions and of their preservation.
The holy Mother's rules are most excellent; When I consider the perfection of the primitive rule which Mother Teresa of Jesus introduced, and at the same time of the constitutions and decrees which she herself composed of her own with great prudence and the spirit of God so that the primitive rule might be observed more exactly, and at the same time the frequency of her journeys, the labours, inconveniences and troubles which she suffered in erecting her houses, I cannot but wish exceedingly that these primitive statutes and the added constitutions should always be observed as exactly as possible, and that the daughters who live in those houses should have full knowledge of the very great
benefit by which they have been called by God, dry-shod and without labour, to an Order renewed and founded with such great sweat. For this is nothing else than to come to a table furnished with the choicest spiritual dishes. And truly, the less the furnishing of this banquet has cost those who are called to it, the greater the thanks they are bound on their part to render to the Lord and to this person who prepared this great supper and invited very many to it.
[2] which it is wrong to change: And these thanks must be rendered not by words alone, but also by works, as being those in which their action shines forth more and more vividly. By the name of works I mean always to preserve these constitutions in their vigour, and to honour them as something sacred and worthy of the highest veneration, and not to wish to tread or follow any other road than that which they point out. For it is a most certain road and will lead most directly to heaven. And they are preserved in vigour and receive veneration when they are kept so inviolate that nothing in them is allowed to be changed by anyone; since she who composed them, aided by great light from heaven, applied such mature consideration and experience and so many prayers in framing them. Moreover, who is so blind as not to see with his eyes that, since it pleased God to choose the blessed Mother Teresa of Jesus as foundress of these houses rather than any other woman, he also granted her a greater knowledge of the things necessary for ruling and preserving them than to any others whatsoever? For the works of God are always perfect. And since by the protection of these constitutions the convents have flourished up to now and have continually received greater increases, it may be gathered from this that they are suited to the Order: if it should happen that they were changed, we do not know what would come of it. Nay rather, if some change were made in them, something of the authority and reverence due to them would be lost; and neither would what had been changed be kept, as being already taken away, nor what was newly established, because it would be foreseen that it would shortly likewise be removed without any difficulty. This inconvenience truly ought to be seriously weighed and considered.
[3] wherefore let the prioresses take care And it is going on their own road not to borrow anything for practice, whether from spiritual books which they happen to read, or from sermons which are heard, or from the counsels of confessors, which in any way opposes this rule and constitutions, even though it may otherwise seem most wholesome: for although it may perhaps profit others, yet not the nuns of this family, if it is not conformed to its spirit and manner of proceeding. And since Teresa decreed, and inculcated in her books, that the followers of her Institute should communicate about the things that concern the direction of their spirit with men outstanding in learning and in experience of spiritual things, and since not without reason she was moved many times to urge and admonish this strongly (because, unless it were done, immense and manifest inconveniences would follow), the superiors must use all the diligence they can that these men who are consulted be not only learned and most experienced masters of spiritual disciplines, but also that they know what is the aim of this Institute and what are the most fitting means of attaining it, and that they be well disposed toward the discipline of the Order. I do not wish these things to be said of those whom it happens they meet only once or twice for the sake of asking counsel, but of those whom they will have to consult either rather often or continually.
[4] lest of ignorant men But in those with whom frequent conversation takes place, this disposition can easily be noted: nay, it would not be unfitting sometimes to engage them deliberately in conversation about these things in the guise of one doubting, so that they may freely set forth what they think; and if the disposition and esteem I have mentioned do not shine forth at all, they are at once to be removed from their place, of whatever state or Institute they may be. But it must be noted that this endowment and zeal which I indicate does not lie in this or that kind of sacred habit, but in their having given attention to this matter of which I speak, and that it matters little whether they are followers of this Institute or that, provided they are strong in age, experience of things and knowledge; although I shall not say these things as wishing to prevent them from conferring about their affairs with approved men, religious as well as secular: for so, under the appearance of wishing the constitutions to be kept exactly by them, I should tacitly and covertly oppose the constitutions themselves, by taking from the nuns that liberty and protection which the statutes promise them (as is seen from the sixth chapter of the statutes). If even one of the three aforesaid endowments is lacking in the counsellors, much harm can befall those who consult them. For if they are ignorant, they will find sin where there will be none, and on the contrary, where it lies beneath, they will declare none lies beneath, and what is an illusion of the mind they will approve as a thing ascertained, while what is safe they will hold for mere deceptions.
[5] by harmful counsels But if they have had little experience of these things, they will neither be able to free souls from the snares of doubts and perplexities nor bring consolation to the grieving; in short, what is temptation they will vaunt as the spirit of God: whence they will be able neither to bring a remedy suited to driving out the disease, nor to prescribe to the convalescent wholesome warnings either for recovering strength or for preserving health. These two things indeed everyone has perceived; but the third someone perhaps thinks not to matter so much, nay perhaps takes no account of it, although it is in the highest degree necessary. For if someone who is ignorant of the customs wont to be observed in the Order, or who does not value them highly, directs souls, it may come about that in a short time some alien and foreign spirit will take possession of that Religion, so that many constitutions will either not be kept at all or the nuns will be persuaded that something else is more fitting for them.
[6] the nuns should depart from these rules. In this way it will come about that she who has lived praiseworthily up to now will afterwards be no more a follower of this Order than of any other, the habit alone excepted, which however does not make a nun. When the devil has brought the matter so far, he will reckon he has done no small thing; and not undeservedly: for after a nun has begun to neglect the things of her Religion, she will cease to be a religious, although she both wears the habit and professes the Order, that is, she will have only outwardly the figure of a religious, and not even that perfectly: moreover she will violate her constitutions, and will be the cause of others violating them after her example, and will disturb the domestic quiet. Would that these things, as they are very necessary, might be so implanted in the hearts of those who are to be superiors governing the convents; for if they fail in their part, they will at length learn in very fact the loss that will follow from it. And from the things which we have said partly in the second book, partly which we shall set out in this third one, it will be possible to understand what is the end of this Religion, what its means and what its manner of proceeding; and this can be drawn out still better from the fourth, in which all these things will be seen carried out to the line in the most perfect exemplar we shall set forth.
Chapter I.
The priorate of the convent of the Incarnation of Ávila committed to the Saint. The foundation at Segovia.
Chap. I.
About the same time of which we were just speaking, namely the year 1571, the house of Alba having already been founded, The Saint, ill treated by the Calced Carmelites, Teresa returned to Salamanca together with Agnes of Jesus, to console and raise up in person for the space of some days her nuns there, who were destitute of the convenience of a suitable roof and labouring under a want of necessary things and not yet known to the public. When they had stayed in this place, both betook themselves to Medina, so that Teresa might settle the disturbances which had arisen there between a novice and her parents. The novice, poor herself, wished to transfer part of her fortune to the monastery, but her parents were opposing it, declaring that this gift was rather owed to them. In this place it seemed good to God to reward in some way the labours undertaken by Teresa for the divine honour, by adding gain to her soul. In order, then, to understand this matter thoroughly, we must say that the convent of Ávila alone obeyed the Ordinary of the place, while the rest, erected afterwards, were subject to the authority of the Calced Carmelite Fathers; to which Teresa also had inclined when she first founded the convent at Ávila. And since in this controversy Teresa and Agnes took the part of the novice, as was right, while the Carmelites favoured the parents, the latter persuaded themselves that this would be a convenient occasion for the thing they were contriving, namely for removing them from the city. Moreover, Teresa had offended them not a little because she had taken Agnes of Jesus, when she was acting as prioress at Medina, called away from there without their order, to Alba to establish the first beginnings of the new convent. In this whole matter Teresa was free of blame, as one who had proceeded in it inadvertently: for since she had obtained from her superiors the faculty of founding monasteries, and it would have been by no means becoming for her to set out alone, she took as her companions those who seemed to her more suitable for the matter she was undertaking and had in hand.
[2] the apostolic visitor So, when both were expecting nothing less, the provincial sent them a letter, with grave penalties set out and threats of anathema, that both should leave Medina at once and indeed that same day, and that Teresa de Quesada should take up the government of that monastery. This did not last long; for since she enjoyed hardly good health, she returned not long afterwards to the Incarnation: whence it came about that the house of Medina had no prioress for about six months. To this letter both, raising no objection, gladly submitted with the greatest lowliness of mind, and without any delay, packing only those things which were necessary for them for the journey and for provisions, they left the city that same evening, to go to Alba. About that time, since Pope Pius V of holy memory had appointed certain visitors of the religious Orders, the office of inspector of the family of the Carmelites, both Calced and Discalced, fell to Pedro Hernández, a Presentado of the Dominican brethren, a man of notable authority, prudence and holiness. To him our Teresa had long been well known; for since at first he did not think piously enough of her, inasmuch as he judged that her holiness by no means corresponded to the fame about her which had already settled in the minds of all (although men of the greatest authority thought far otherwise and valued her spirit highly, especially Domingo Báñez, lector in Sacred Theology, to whom this matter was very well known), he resolved to confer with her and to learn in person the things that were being spread about her. Moreover the blessed Mother's account so satisfied him that he himself afterwards often related many things about her virtues and became her excellent herald; although otherwise he was not wont to extol anything too much nor to mention what was not the fact. Whence also he did not hesitate afterwards to say to Báñez in familiar conversation: "I had been told she was a woman: but she is not a woman, but a bearded man." And Teresa stood in such esteem with him that, when in his presence some grave men were carping at her name,
and attacking her with calumnies, he did not fear to say to them, rebuking them with notable freedom: "I shall by no means suffer so holy a virgin to be disparaged in words; and I shall at once withdraw from here if you go any further in these discourses."
[3] orders her to preside over the convent of the Incarnation at Ávila. When Teresa, therefore, was afterwards staying at Ávila, Pedro Hernández, the apostolic visitor, happened to be brought there: who then said to her that she seemed by no means necessary to this house, but that it would be far better if she went elsewhere, where her services would be more necessary. He ordered her, therefore, to go off to Medina, because, when the Calced Carmelites had visited that house, they had removed the prioress whom Teresa had appointed there and substituted another Teresa, surnamed de Quesada, as I remember I have already said. From this some disquiet befell the nuns. Hernández, to meet these inconveniences, set the blessed Mother over the house of Medina, with the votes of its nuns, and removed her from the house of St. Joseph at Ávila, over which she was then also presiding. She acted in that office only two or three months. For when this same Hernández had likewise visited the convent of the Incarnation at Ávila, it seemed to him most advisable and of no small advantage to the monastic state to set Teresa over it, so that by the examples of her virtues that house might put on another form. This command was grievous to the handmaid of God, because she preferred to live in her own convents, in which she thought she enjoyed greater tranquillity and had greater opportunity of serving the Lord. And she was all the more averse to this order because she saw that she was most necessary to her monasteries for inspecting and directing them in person, and she was persuaded that, living there, she could not provide for them so conveniently.
[4] Which command, at a divine admonition, For in the same way as a provincial governs the houses entrusted to him, so Teresa governed hers, and the affairs of each were referred to her alone by letter, and she in turn wrote back in reply what seemed to be done; and she herself enrolled religious, both those given to the spirit and those destined for domestic works, and distributed them through her houses, and was at hand to them in everything: so that it truly seems like a prodigy that a woman so weak, tormented by so many illnesses, alone sufficed for the handling of so many affairs, and led her nuns to that degree of perfection and holiness, and was able to provide for the temporal and the spiritual advantages of so many houses alike, so caring for the former that she yet did not neglect the latter, and that in stormy times when she was harried by the malevolent. The love with which she was borne toward her nuns also increased this difficulty in obeying this command, since they seemed likely to live in great loneliness and as it were orphanhood, their mother being absent. Wherefore she delayed, nor did she press the matter with the speed that was needful: whence she did not go there before that happened which she herself committed to writing with her own hand in these words a: "When, after the octave of the feast of the Visitation of the Mother of God b, I was staying in a certain retreat of the Carmel, I was commending to God one of my brothers, who was in a place in which his salvation was in danger, and I said to him (I do not know whether only in my mind): If I, Lord, saw your brother in such peril, what would I not do? There seems to me to be nothing so grievous that I would not gladly undergo it in that case for your brother. To which the Lord replied to me: O daughter, daughter! The nuns of the Incarnation are my sisters; and you hang back. Courage, then, and consider that I will it, and that it is not so arduous as you imagine to yourself; and whence you think your houses will suffer harm, thence they will receive advantage together with that of the Incarnation. Do not, then, struggle against it; for great is my power."
[5] having first made a vow to keep the primitive rule, She was so moved by these reasons that without any delay she obeyed the visitor's orders as soon as possible. Four days afterwards, in the convent of St. Joseph at Ávila, renouncing with solemn rite the rule of the mitigated Order, she bound herself by vow to the observance of the primitive one. Here we must advise the reader that Teresa, so that her stay at St. Joseph's might lie open to no calumnies of the malevolent, obtained from the legate of the apostolic See, Alessandro Cardinal Crivelli, letters given at Madrid on the 21st day of August of the year 1564, which I too have seen: by which she is granted leave, with the consent of her provincial, to go out of the convent of the Incarnation, in which she had long since made her vows, and to pass to her house of St. Joseph; by which also he wholly exempted her from every right which the nuns of the Incarnation could exercise over her. But although she had obtained these letters from the legate and had duly renounced the mitigated rule from the very beginning, as may be gathered from the very words of the formula of renunciation which I shall presently bring forward, yet, because Hernández had issued a decree that whoever wished to pass from the Calced to the primitive rigour of the Discalced nuns should profess before the people by a solemn formula that she bade farewell to the mitigated rule, Teresa, the leader of the rest, wished to be the first to pronounce it. The words of the renunciation, inscribed on a slip and confirmed by her signature, and which she herself read out publicly in the presence of many most grave men, are these c: "I, Teresa of Jesus, professed of the Carmelite Order of Blessed Mary in the monastery of the Incarnation at Ávila, and who am now in the convent of St. Joseph at Ávila, in which the primitive rule is kept (which I have followed here up to now with the leave of our Most Reverend Father Fr. Giovanni Battista Rubeo, who also gave me leave to follow it in the Incarnation too, should my superiors order me to return there), testify before all that I wish to keep it for the whole time of my life, and at the same time I bind myself to this by vow, and I renounce all the diplomas which the Pontiffs have granted for the mitigation of the aforesaid primitive rule. And by the favour of the divine clemency I intend and promise to keep it inviolate until death. And because this is the truth, I have confirmed it with my own name. On the thirteenth day of July, in the year 1571. Teresa of Jesus."
[6] she obediently carries out. This renunciation of hers was accepted by the Father Visitor on the 9th of October of the same year, and by the power he had received from the apostolic See he exempted her from the jurisdiction of the Incarnation and brought her under the jurisdiction of the convents of the primitive rule, and assigned her to the convent of Salamanca, although she was then presiding over the nuns of the Incarnation. Moreover Hernández, in appointing her prioress in the convent of the Incarnation, used the greatest prudence, as also in the other things he did. For at that time there were great straits in this house's household affairs, since no one supplied the nuns with provisions, nor had they at home the means to sustain themselves; so that they said they must ask leave to go to the houses of their families, from whom they might receive the necessary sustenance of life. And since there was so great a number of nuns there and so great a penury at home, a great occasion was offered for diminishing recollection and monastic discipline. He was persuaded that no one could better remedy these inconveniences than Mother Teresa of Jesus. So by the power which he had as apostolic visitor he accomplished the matter, although he had first deliberated about it with the Friars of the mitigated Carmelites called together into one place; and, the consent of all of them and also of the definitors being given, it seemed expedient and just that it be done: so that Teresa was taken up to that office not by the election of the nuns of the Incarnation, but rather against the will of many of them. Wherefore, when Teresa first passed there to exercise her office, she was received hardly in a friendly way, although she had been conducted there by the provincial and his companions.
[7] She wins over the minds of her subjects, At her arrival great disturbances began to be raised in the convent, and the nuns opposed Teresa one by one, and poured out freely the insults that anger suggested. Moreover, some nobles and inhabitants of the city took their side. When the provincial, having called them together into the lower choir, read out the letters attesting his authority, at once some sisters who were of a stricter life and more religious than the rest seized the cross to receive Teresa, and the Friars brought her in resolutely. Then those who were striving against it raised their voices and filled everything with lamentations and tears. The former, with great jubilation of mind, sang the hymn "Te Deum" in thanksgiving, the latter poured out insulting abuse against her. But the blessed Mother, with notable forbearance and prudence of mind, excusing their action as far as she could, gradually soothed them and drew them over to her side, so that at length they by no means hesitated to accept her as prioress. And those who, more obstinate than the rest, had before striven with greater vehemence and effort to shut her out of the house, and had shown themselves more difficult in accepting her, began afterwards to be pacified little by little and to act more gently, so that there was none in the house who was not borne toward her with filial love and did not wish to have her with them longer than was permitted. Then Teresa called from Valladolid Isabel Arias, whom she had already before made prioress in that place, because this seemed necessary for her and therefore expedient: having called her to Ávila, then, covertly and as if for some other business, she ordered her to be her companion in the office of governing at the Incarnation; and in her place at Valladolid she substituted Mary of St. John the Baptist, who presided over that same place with praise for many years. At once, moreover, it could be perceived without difficulty, both in the monastery and in the nuns, how holy and approved was the prioress by whom they were governed.
[8] and to their spiritual progress For a notable order began to appear in the things pertaining to the exercise of the spirit, and these very things began to be ordered and directed sweetly and gently, so that a new correction and amendment of manners shone forth daily in each one: soothed by which, God, the governor and bestower of temporal things too, so abundantly provided his handmaids with the necessary conveniences and advantages of life that thereafter none of them laboured under any strait; but, the household having been praiseworthily settled in a fixed order, it has been found that nothing has ever been lacking to them up to now. And as at Jacob's coming the Most High filled the household of Laban with his blessing, and heaped Potiphar with good things of every kind because he had Joseph as his servant, and increased the substance of both beyond measure, so he bestowed his blessing on this house of women from the time his handmaid Teresa took up its government and direction, and by the wonderful virtue of his power changed it into a far other form and appearance, which it retains even today. You might say this was done not without a prodigy: for during the first Lenten fast which Teresa kept here, mortifications were undertaken in the refectory so frequently, and other pious exercises which the holy Mother devised for fostering devotion were so frequent, that those practised in the houses of the Discalced nuns seemed, I will not say to equal these, but to have to yield to them. To increase this devotion and fervour, she also prudently arranged, with the good leave of the visitor, to assign them two of the Discalced Fathers, who would attend to them in confession and have the care of their souls, by whose efforts and
industry it was a very great help toward the reform of the monastery. These things being known throughout the city, it came about that very many began to preach God and to extol his name with wonderful praises. Meanwhile Teresa did not fail her own houses, and provided for their needs with all the help she could, and, imitating the Apostle Paul, who from the prisons in which he was held bound consoled and governed by written Epistles the churches scattered through the world, she wrote from this monastery, in which by her superiors' order she was then held as it were shut up, to her own monasteries, and consoled her daughters dispersed in every direction and animated them to perseverance. Before all else she arranged that a certain image of the Mother of God should be placed in the prior's stall set in the choir, to whom she then entrusted the house and its keys: thenceforth saying among her nuns that she herself was of no account, she proclaimed that the Most Holy Virgin, under whose protection this family lived, was its true prioress, who would govern them.
[9] she provides excellently. How acceptable this service was to the Mother of God, she herself manifested to Teresa not many days afterwards, who also committed to writing this apparition made to her by her in these words d: "On the vigil of Sebastian the Martyr, in the first year of my priorate in the convent of the Incarnation, when the evening Lauds to the Most Holy Mother of God were already beginning to be sung, I saw the blessed Mother of God, surrounded by an innumerable multitude of Angels, descend into the prioress's seat, in which the image of the Mother of God had been placed, and, as it seemed to me, sit down in that same seat. The image which I had set there then seemed to be absent from it, but in its place the Blessed Virgin Mary alone appeared: who in face seemed somewhat like that image which I had received from the countess; although the vision was sudden and abrupt, whence I could not mark that difference very certainly, because it held me in a great suspension in a moment. Likewise I seemed to see very many Angels sitting on the topmost cornices of the stalls and on the desks, although not in bodily form; for this vision was intellectual. During all the time that Lauds were being sung the most blessed Virgin occupied this place, and said to me at length: You did very well to place me in this place. I indeed will be present at the praises that will be sung here to my Son, and will offer them to him." Then she writes of herself in these words: "On the Sunday next after Pentecost I received a certain grace from the Lord, and by his gift I conceived the hope that this house, its souls, I mean, would be amended for the better." Moreover, that image which she writes that she received from the countess is that very one which is now seen at Ávila in the monastery of St. Joseph, than which I do not remember ever to have seen one either more beautiful or of greater dignity. María de Velasco y Aragón, countess of Osorno, gave it to her. From these and other things to be narrated afterwards in their place we may evidently perceive that, as the blessed Mother's government and daily vigilance proved fruitful and salutary to the nuns of the Incarnation, so this stay was by no means unprofitable for herself either: for she gathered here a great harvest of merits for herself, and was endowed by the divine right hand with exceptional benefits and graces. By the same means she likewise perceived not obscurely what are the advantages of obedience, what great gains remain for those who sincerely obey, and that whence one persuades oneself that loss will come, thence one gathers richer returns for the soul.
Chap. II.
[10] Teresa had now discharged the office of prioress in the house of the Incarnation for two years, At Segovia when the Discalced nuns of Salamanca began to plead with the most earnest entreaties with Fr. Pedro Hernández, who was then staying there, that he would by his authority order Teresa to go out to Salamanca for the purpose of acquiring another house, which they might fit for their uses. Hernández, therefore, seeing in what straits for a roof they were labouring, judged that Teresa should be called there by letter. Moreover, the whole matter was carried through in the manner we narrated in chapter XVI (here VII) of the preceding book. About the same time, too, while praying, she received a command from heaven to go to Segovia to found a new monastery there. This seemed to her altogether impossible, both because it was wrong for her to depart from Ávila without Hernández's order, and because he would not then indeed suffer with patience other houses to be founded by her, but preferred that she should preside over the administration of this great community: nor indeed did she think it would be refused her by him without reason, because the agreed three years had not yet expired. As she was turning these things over, the Lord again signified to her that she should ask leave of Hernández; for it would without doubt be granted by him. Wherefore, sending a short letter, she wrote to him briefly thus: that since the fullest power had long ago been given her by the Prior General of establishing convents in any place whatever, whenever occasion should be given, and a convenient opportunity of raising one in the city of Segovia was now offering itself, because the bishop of the place and the commonwealth were so far from shrinking from that plan that they even inclined toward it with most ready minds, she could not but signify this to him, so as indeed to provide for the peace of her own conscience; yet that she would pass not unwillingly into all that he himself should determine.
[11] with the leave of the bishop and the magistrates Having read this letter, he gave full power to accomplish the matter. This unexpected assent of his moved the blessed Mother to amazement, because she had perceived him not long before to be of a far different mind. Moreover, the assent of the commonwealth and of the bishop Diego de Covarrubias, who was afterwards made president of the royal council, had been procured by a certain honourable knight of Segovia, Andrés Jiménez, brother of Isabel of Jesus, who now presides over the Discalced nuns of Salamanca. And since he saw that the city and also the bishop were so readily inclined to this matter and granted leave so quickly, Andrés thought it enough that it be granted by the bishop by word of mouth: whence he applied himself to nothing further. The blessed Mother, having allowed some days to pass after receiving this power, put off going to Segovia, since she had by no means been able up to then to leave Ávila conveniently. But as soon as the visitor's letter was given, she at once signified by a messenger to a certain widow whom she knew, Ana Jiménez, that she should hire some house for the use of her nuns. For she had already learned by experience that for laying the beginnings of a foundation it is far better to hire a house than to buy one, even though money were otherwise available: both because the matter is thus accomplished with less noise and far more easily, and because afterwards a convenient place and house, to be acquired for a price, can be chosen at leisure.
[12] she founds a monastery of her Discalced nuns These things accomplished, Teresa took to the road, although harassed by a most vehement fever and languishing with a weaker stomach and other ills, by which she had already been oppressed for three months, and from which she was not free even at Segovia six months later. To these ills of body were added also those of mind, once she had begun to set out on the road, by which she was even far more grievously harried: namely, dryness and darkness of spirit. But since no adversities cast her down, nor could anything deter the generous heroine from leaving off what she knew to make for the glory of God, she left Salamanca at the beginning of spring, taking with her Isabel of Jesus, of whom I spoke a little before, because she was a native of Segovia, and also María of Jesus, destined for the care of domestic affairs, who had set out from there together with Isabel. When on the journey she passed through Alba, the duchess María Enríquez led her into a certain chamber most richly filled with the choicest things, which she herself afterwards turned to another use far worthier and better, as Teresa herself records in the book whose name is the Castle of the Soul (Mansion VI, chapter IV). From the monastery of Alba she chose Guiomar of Jesus to take with her to Segovia. And passing through Ávila she took her kinswoman Isabel of St. Paul. She indeed brought her no little help in laying the beginnings of this foundation: but she did not remain at Segovia; for the blessed Mother, returning from there, chose her again as the companion of her journey. And although (as I have already indicated before) she had obtained the bishop's leave and the city's assent, yet she resolved not to enter the town before the vigil of the day on which possession of the place was to be taken, the eve of St. Joseph. Ana Jiménez meanwhile had hired a house and furnished it with necessary things, and had also procured her own furniture for the sanctuary. Whence on the very next day possession of it could be taken: whose beginnings were made in the morning of the day sacred to the foster-father of Christ himself, to Teresa's very great delight, because they had fallen on this day, in the year 1573, Julian of Ávila offering here to God the first-fruits of the sacred rites and placing the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar in that same place. To this convent too was given the name of St. Joseph.
[13] not without some difficulties; But since the bishop, with whose good leave the foundations of the convent had been laid, happened not to be at Segovia at that time, the vicar, who had as yet understood nothing of these things, having learned of the matter before the midday meal on the same day, flew to the convent roused with sharp anger. There happened to be sacrificing in it at that time a certain one of the canons e, who, as he was passing this way on his way to his church, and saw everything properly and becomingly arranged in the sanctuary, was moved to say Mass in this place. Against him too the vicar inveighed sharply, saying it would have been better at once if he had not sacrificed in this place. Then by whatever ways he could he searched out who had been the author of these things and had placed the sacred pledge of the Eucharist in this place. But there was no one present to answer his question: for the nuns were hiding within the enclosure, and Julian had hidden himself under the stairs. For had he fallen into his hands, he would without doubt have been led off into custody. There happened to be present John of the Cross, who had accompanied Teresa here with the others, whom he would have ordered to be taken off to prison, had it not been for the habit of the Religion which he wore. Then, turning to demolishing the altar and stripping all the adornment of the church, he set a constable at the doors to keep from the place the multitude wishing to enter to hear Mass, and also appointed a priest of his own to consume the Bread of Angels that had been set forth. Teresa, bearing these adversities with a cheerful face, counted them among glad things, because possession had now nearly been taken: for she was wont not to be troubled in the least about things which might perhaps happen afterwards, but sometimes to fear before it was taken.
[14] and thither, their convent having been dissolved, her nuns of Pastrana At once, therefore, sending a messenger to the college of the Society of Jesus (which she had always felt to be favourable to her), she earnestly besought García de Zamora, the rector, to go to the vicar in her name. Although he had not unwillingly accepted this burden and was at hand to the blessed Mother, if he could in any way, in this as in other matters too, yet he could achieve nothing with this man, who was all too greatly roused. Their efforts also were contributed here
by some of the leading men, kinsmen of Isabel of Jesus: whose redoubled entreaties, all of them together, at length drove the vicar to allow inquiry to be made whether the bishop had truly given leave. This inquiry made, he began to be appeased and gave permission for saying Mass, but refused the reservation of the Most Holy Sacrament. This storm having been calmed, Teresa at once dispatched to Pastrana Julian of Ávila and Antonio Gaytán, a native of Alba, a man outstanding both for birth and for piety toward God, who had also accompanied Teresa on this foundation, to conduct to Segovia all the companions who were living there. Now the reason for dissolving the house at Pastrana was this. Teresa saw that there were daily occasions of disquiet for some of the nuns f, which she feared might increase from day to day: for she judged peace of soul to come before all the goods of the world. Wherefore it seemed advisable to her to transfer her nuns from there to another place, where they might live more quietly. She conferred beforehand about this removal with prelates and other learned and spiritual men. Hence, the house at Segovia having been established, with the same peace of mind and liberality with which she had formerly accepted it, she dissolved the convent of Pastrana, leaving there all the things that had been bestowed by men's liberality. So far indeed did she carry nothing away that she even brought to Segovia some nuns who had been enrolled in the family without any dowry.
[15] she has brought. So great an equanimity of mind indeed did Teresa experience in this matter that she not seldom said afterwards that she had not perceived in her soul even the first motion of grief on account of the dissolution of this house. Of which she gave this reason, that she feared, namely, that where certain human considerations are regarded, it can scarcely be that there is not sometimes a descent to things by which the integrity of Religion is gradually overthrown. For this cause, then, those two whom we mentioned, sent to Pastrana, communicated about this matter as secretly as could be with Isabel of St. Dominic, who was set over the house. This being settled, they procured five carts for carrying away the nuns and the scanty furniture which they had brought there with them (for of the things given, as has just been declared, they took away absolutely nothing). Everything therefore having been prepared for departure, the Most Holy Bread of the Eucharist having been consumed by the priest, they left Pastrana at the dead of night. That town is situated in a certain sloping valley: whence those departing had to climb the slope of a mountain, at whose summit the vehicles stationed there awaited them as they came out; so that up to that point they had to go on foot. They arrived at Segovia on the third or fourth day of Holy Week; and the Mother received them kindly and lovingly and with notable congratulation of soul, because she now saw her dearest sisters dwelling with her. She stayed here for the space of six months: for she was not wont to leave a house she was contriving before she left her nuns in their own house and they had been abundantly provided with necessary things.
[16] These things accomplished, This was very easy for her at Segovia. For Ana Jiménez provided with notable liberality whatever was necessary for the church and the household. And God repaid her this excellently not long afterwards. For when the house had been established, she herself, together with her daughter María Bracamonte, passed into this family. The daughter was very like her mother in the ornaments of virtues and in zeal for recollection; and the peace and joy which both had not been able to find in the world up to then, they found within the very narrow and poor enclosure of walls. The mother was given the surname of Jesus and the daughter that of the Incarnation; and even today both live in this convent with praise. With the dowries of these two, and of some others who were admitted from time to time, a more convenient house was afterwards acquired, although its purchase brought very many lawsuits upon the handmaids of God. For on the one side the canons, who had the right of emphyteusis over this house, opposed with keen zeal; and on the other the neighbouring Fathers of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy, because they feared that their advantages would be impaired by the nearness of this house. The canons indeed were satisfied by money being given; but silence was imposed on those good Fathers by the secret entrance of the nuns: for when they learned that they had already moved here, they began to act more mildly. Then at length, two or three days before the feast of the Archangel Michael, the Most Holy Bread of Angels was first brought here.
[17] she departs from the priorate of the Incarnation. While these things were being done, many things were said and reported this way and that, and in them the pious Mother continually suffered various hardships of troubles; but these were softened by the consolations which God from time to time sent: who promised besides that this house would be of the greatest service to him and that his worship would be wonderfully increased from it. Above all it tormented her that, since only seven or eight days were wanting to her to complete the three years of her priorate of the Incarnation, she had to depart from there to Ávila on account of her office. Everything, therefore, having been settled, as I recorded a little before, and having appointed Isabel of St. Dominic, who had previously governed the house of Pastrana and also administered this one for a long time, prioress for the convent of Segovia, and Isabel of Jesus her vicaress, she departed thence and arrived at Ávila at the due time. Here she took pains that Isabel of the Cross should be elected in her place to the priorate of the Incarnation; which election satisfied her wonderfully. Meanwhile the Discalced nuns of Ávila, who especially wished to have their Mother with them, pressed with the greatest effort that she should turn aside to them. For this reason they elected her prioress at the very time when she was ending her priorate of the Incarnation. At that time they were governed by María of St. Jerome, Teresa's kinswoman, as she also governed them for many years afterwards and governs them even now. She, at the time we have mentioned, went to Álvaro de Mendoza, prelate of Ávila, her superior, and prevailed so far with him that, she herself being absolved from the office of governing, the nuns held another election; by which they called Teresa back to themselves.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
The foundation at Beas. The beginnings of the men of the Teresian Carmel.
Chap. III.
While Teresa was staying at Salamanca, acting as prioress of the convent of the Incarnation, offers a house at Beas to St. Teresa as we have already said, before she laid the foundations of the house of Segovia, a certain honourable maiden of Beas (that town is on the borders of Baetica), Catalina Godínez, sending her a messenger, and also a letter which she sent in the name of the parish priest and others, invited her to found a convent in her town; for she had already taken care to procure one, and only the presence of nuns to inhabit it was required. This seemed to Teresa altogether impossible: for although that region seemed convenient and not to be despised, yet it was distant by a great interval of space. To this was added that Pedro Hernández, created commissary and visitor by the apostolic See, shrank from founding convents of this kind. Wherefore Teresa thought of sending back the messenger with the matter unaccomplished: yet, lest she should resist the command of the Prior General, she sent the letter received from Beas to Hernández. He replied that he was greatly refreshed by the piety and kindness of those people; and that it seemed wrong not to comply with their pious will: wherefore she should signify by letter that she would come to Beas as soon as possible, on receiving power from the Ordinary of the place; but she should believe undoubtedly that this would by no means be obtained by those pious men: for, since it was a town of the knights of St. James, it seemed that the leave would have to be granted by the whole chapter of that equestrian Order; and on the other hand it was well known to him that leaves of that kind had not been able to be obtained by others even in the space of many years. It is likely that, if Hernández had known that the permission was in some way obtainable or had already in fact been obtained, he would perhaps have refused it. But since the heavenly Father willed the thing to be accomplished, he suffered him to be deceived here, so that, the knights' licence having now been obtained, no room for refusing was left him afterwards.
[19] a pious maiden, So prodigious indeed and wonderful were the beginnings of this house that, although the narrative will be longer than is fair, I cannot omit it, touching at least on its principal heads. There lived at Beas a certain illustrious knight, by name Sancho Rodríguez de Sandoval, who by his wife Catalina Godínez became the father of very many sons and of two daughters, of whom he gave the elder the surname Catalina Godínez, and the younger that of María de Sandoval. These are the foundresses of this monastery. Catalina, now fourteen years old, when she was so far from renouncing the world that she rejected whatever marriages her father suggested to her as unworthy of her and beneath her, received by the power of the divine right hand from the reading of the title of the Lord's Cross so great a light in her soul that in one moment she put on an altogether different mind. For a splendid light arose in her mind, and an intimate knowledge of her own vileness and misery, and also an immense desire of suffering for God, nay, and a certain profound humility of soul and the greatest detestation of herself, and finally a burning desire to begin a more austere life. In that very moment she conceived vows of chastity and poverty; and so greatly did there enter her mind
a desire of subjecting herself to another's will that for this cause alone she would not unwillingly have let herself be carried off into captivity among the Moors, to obey another's command. While she was turning these things over in her mind, an immense noise began to be heard from the innermost recesses of the chamber in which she was, so that everything seemed to her to be collapsing, and also a certain terrifying howling; which, because it lasted for some space of time, filled her father, who was in the next room, with terror.
[20] who for the monastic life All these things were done at the devil's instigation, indignant, namely, that this maiden had put on another and better mind and seemed likely to be an illustrious example to very many of her equals in trampling on the delights of the world. There was born in Catalina the intention of professing the monastic life; yet her parents, although wearied by her entreaties, would not satisfy her desire for three years. From this time she began to spend some hours every day in the pursuit of prayer, and to curb as best she could the unbridled motions of the body. Not seldom, going out into the courtyard of the house, she would expose her face, drenched with cold water, to be dried by the sun's rays, so that, her beauty being spoiled, she might deter all from marrying her. However, when she saw that her father could not be brought round by any reasons, those three years having passed, she put on a simple garment on the feast of St. Joseph and went to church in it, so that her parent might not afterwards take it from her: and for the space of four years she wore down her flesh with unwonted austerities, because she practised them secretly from all, and there was no one by whom she was bidden to keep measure. For forty continuous days of fasting she girded on her bare little body her father's coat of mail woven of iron hooks: moreover she devoted almost entire nights to prayer, because by day she was kept occupied by her parents with the handling of other things. It was not seldom that she persevered in beseeching the Deity from the tenth hour of the evening right up to dawn. The evil demon harried her again and again with vain illusions. God himself too, this time having passed, allowed her to be afflicted with grievous diseases, namely continual fever, dropsy, pains of the heart and also gangrene, which was removed by incision. For seventeen whole years this ill health so detained the pious maiden that she enjoyed health for only a few days.
[21] having for many years When the fifth year of her illnesses was running, it befell that her father died. And her sister María, since, one year after Catalina laid aside the adornment of her clothing, she too had put off the spoils of the world (although before she had pursued adornment and splendour recklessly), began thereafter, after her sister's example, to apply herself to pious exercises of the mind. Their mother spurred them on to this not a little, and was at hand with what help she could: by whom also leave was given to both, trampling on worldly pride and the insignia of nobility, to teach the tender hands of girls women's work free of charge, so that meanwhile they might train their minds to piety and honesty of manners. At length, their mother too having been taken from this world, Catalina began to treat with her family about taking up the monastic life in another place. But her kinsfolk (although they themselves did not then know what they were saying), since the sisters abounded in fortune, declared that it would turn to the greater service of God to found a new convent in this very place, in which both might serve God. This counsel pleased Catalina; whence she at once set about treating of obtaining leave for this matter from the council of the knights; but with fruitless effort: for in four years absolutely nothing was achieved. Seeing this, her kinsfolk began to advise her to put this matter out of her mind, as one for whose attainment no hope was shining forth. They added besides that, since she was so worn in health, no place would be given her in any monastery. If the matter were to be weighed by the moments of human reasons, they did not think so without reason: for at that time, laid low in health, she had lain fixed in bed for six months and more, and for eight years she had lived deprived of all use of her limbs. During all that time she had been tossed by continual fevers; consumption and hectic wasting had eaten into her inward parts; dropsy had been added, and so vehement an inflammation of the liver that it breathed its heat upon the bystanders even through the coverlets: finally she had suffered from a disease of the joints in her hands and feet.
[22] most religiously prepared herself, But although she was continually tormented by these diseases, she nevertheless declared confidently to her family that if within the space of one month her health should be restored to her by the Lord, it would be a most certain proof of the divine will, by which he willed this convent to be founded; and that then, her strength confirmed, she would go to the court for that purpose. This, if we regard nature, seemed altogether impossible; but she had received a certain heavenly pledge for pronouncing it. For since these things were going on on the 4th day before the Kalends of January, in the month of August just past, while she was applying herself to prayer, having besought God either to take from her this immense desire of entering religious life and founding a convent, or to suggest to her some means of accomplishing it, there came to her the inner voice of God, saying that she should conceive a sure hope that, her body being strengthened, she would go to the court during the days of the Lenten fast to obtain the leave. While that month which she had prescribed to her family was running, behold, on the vigil of the glorious Martyr Sebastian she began to be seized inwardly by so great a trembling that her sister believed she was in the last agony of life. But in a moment she felt that perfect health had been restored to her and the strength of her whole body given back, and she experienced a notable inclination in her soul toward better things. She desired indeed to keep silent about this grace of God, but both her confessor and her physician forbade it to be done; and in truth the thing could by no means be concealed. When, therefore, the Lenten holidays came, she went to the court, to find out whether the faculty of erecting a convent would be granted her. She stayed there three months, obtaining nothing; until she herself with her own hands offered a petition to the king: who, learning that leave was being asked for erecting a house for Discalced Carmelites, at once granted it. And the fact that she wished above all to build a convent for the Discalced nuns, and not for nuns of another Institute, is to be ascribed to a certain prodigious vision which befell Catalina one night, twenty years before she had it in mind to found this house.
[23] and by a heavenly vision had known beforehand For when (as she herself afterwards related), settling herself for her night's rest, she was anxiously turning over in her mind which of all the religious Institutes in the world followed the greatest perfection of life, so that she might devote herself to it, and the Almighty in turn wished to disclose to her the company that would suit her best and for which he had reserved her until then, he showed her this vision as she dreamed. She thought she was walking along a very narrow path, exposed on every side to precipices and horrible chasms. Meanwhile she beheld a religious of the company of the Discalced friars, and heard him saying to her: "Come here, sister, and come with me"; at which word she was led by him into a certain house in which she beheld a great number of nuns. Moreover, no light illuminated this house except what shone forth from the burning candles which they carried in their hands. She at once asked them what Institute they professed. None answered a word; until, all raising the veil from their heads and smiling with winning and beaming faces, the superior of the rest, taking her by the hand, said: "I wish to receive you into this company, daughter," at the same time showing her the laws and constitutions of the life they professed. Meanwhile she, steeped in so great joy of soul, awoke from sleep that she believed she had been among the choirs of the Heavenly Ones. Moreover, much time flowed by before she disclosed any of these things to any mortal. And truly she knew no one from whom she might learn anything about this Institute. However, whatever had remained engraved in her memory from the laws shown her in the vision, she recalled to mind and committed to writing.
[24] that she would be a Discalced nun of Teresa. When, therefore, a certain priest of our Society, who was well aware of all her desires, arrived at this town, she showed him whatever she had set down in writing, and signified that she would be most blessed if it should befall her to find this Religion: for she would dedicate herself to it as soon as possible. To whom the priest said: "The monasteries which Teresa of Jesus is now raising everywhere in Castile follow that institute of life." Having learned these things, then, she sent a messenger, as I indicated above, to signify to the blessed Mother that she should come out to her town to establish a new house. But at the time when she received Teresa's reply, she was labouring a second time under so grave an illness that her spiritual Father urged her to put this care aside and to cease from then on to speak of embracing that Institute: for, even if she had already been received into this company, if she were not in better health, it seemed she would have to be dismissed from it. Since this dissuasion afflicted her not a little, pouring herself out in fervent prayers, she besought the supreme physician in the same manner as before either to remove this desire from her or to show her the way of fulfilling it. As she was praying more intensely, this voice came inwardly into her soul: "Believe and wait: for I am he who can do all things. You will recover your health: for he who was able to bring it about that so many and so great sicknesses, which are of themselves mortal, should bring no harm to your life, will be able with much less trouble to take them from you." By these words she was refreshed and raised up to hope, and, full of trust, she sent another letter to Teresa, in which she indicated that leave had been granted her by the congregation of the knights. Whence it afterwards came about that neither could the visitor Hernández revoke the power already given before, nor could Teresa resist the piety of so great a maiden. This then was the reason why, having returned from the erection of the house of Segovia, she stayed at Ávila only a very few days. For she had returned to Ávila at the beginning of October in the year 1573, and in the month of March of the following year she was brought to Beas, taking with her from the house of Toledo, in passing, María of St. Joseph, who at present presides over the house of Lisbon, and Isabel of St. Francis, who governs the convent of Seville, and also Anne of Jesus, María of the Visitation, Leonor of St. Gabriel and Beatriz of St. Michael.
[25] The Saint, of that house the possession On the first day on which she had set out from Malagón to go off to Beas, when, tossed by the heats of a most burning fever and afflicted with other sicknesses, she was reckoning with herself how long a road still remained for her to travel and how weak was her health, recalling to mind the Prophet Elias fleeing from the face of Jezabel, she kept saying complainingly to the Lord: "How I am to bear these things, Lord, look to it yourself." And behold, suddenly all the heat of the fevers and all the sicknesses by which she was harried vanished. As she entered Beas very many came out to meet her, and among others not a few knights; who, performing certain equestrian games before the carts in which the nuns were being carried, accompanied them right up to the nearest church, in which very many were waiting for them. When they came out from there, the clergy in surplices received them, the cross going before, and conducted them with the rite of a procession to the house of those two sisters by whom they had been sought with so many prayers, in which the beginnings of the new convent were to be laid. What was the joy both of those coming and of those receiving them can be imagined in the mind rather than expressed in words. As soon as Catalina beheld the nuns, she found that these were the very ones whose faces she had marked in the vision; for so she herself afterwards recorded. Meanwhile, while Teresa here
was staying, there came to visit her a certain lay Brother of the number of the Discalced friars, of whom there will be a place below to narrate, Juan de la Miseria: and when Catalina saw him, she said that he was the very same one who had appeared to her at that time also in her dream.
[26] duly takes. In this way, then, to the immense delight of all, on the very birthday of the glorious Apostle Matthias, in the year 1574, the beginnings of this convent were laid, and the name of St. Joseph of the Saviour was given it. To it those two sisters assigned their fortunes so entirely, and with no condition interposed, that, if they were not afterwards received into it, they would have no right of reclaiming them. On that same day both took the sacred habit of Religion, the elder being called Catalina of Jesus, the younger María of Jesus. Catalina in those very days had been strengthened in health, as Jesus the Redeemer had promised her, which also increased, as her virtues received their increase day by day, and above all a wonderful lowliness of soul and a most ready will to obey. She pleaded with Teresa with the most earnest entreaties that she would enrol her in the number of the serving sisters, and not in that of those who frequent the choir; until the Mother wrote back her decision to her and enjoined her under a precept of obedience to accept it: nay, in the same letter she rebuked her sharply because she had not obeyed her in this matter with the readiness that was needful. At length, not so long a time ago, while she herself was governing this house, she died illustrious for her virtues: and her sister María survives, and today acts as prioress of the house of Córdoba, which was established not so long ago. And she willed Anne of Jesus, who now presides over the house of Madrid, to preside over the house of Beas: and gave her María of the Visitation as vicaress.
Chap. IV.
[27] The Discalced Carmelites I had considered with myself whether I could follow out in a continuous series the convents of the nuns and their institutions before coming to the foundations of those raised for the Discalced Friars; but these are so connected with those that what I am going to narrate next cannot be conveniently understood unless I first set down some things about the convents of men. But I shall do it as briefly as possible, recounting only those things which will seem to concern the thread of my history, those things, I mean, which Teresa carried out on their occasion, from which it will be most evidently clear that she was truly the foundress of the Discalced friars as well as of the Discalced nuns. Already above, in chapter X of the second book, we touched something on this matter, when we were speaking of those two Carmelite Friars whom Teresa found at Medina for establishing the beginnings of this so salutary and holy work, Antonio de Heredia, who afterwards borrowed the name of Jesus, and John of the Cross. But since no opportunity was at hand of having a house in which these two Fathers might lay the foundations of the matter, she commended the success of this thing to the Lord in prayer with the greatest striving of soul. In the year 1568, before she went off to erect the house at Valladolid, when she was staying at Ávila, there came to her Rafael de Ávila Mejía, an illustrious knight, a native of Ávila. For, having heard that there was talk of establishing a house for Discalced Friars too who would keep the primitive rigour of the rule, he offered her for this use a country house which he had at Duruelo, a very small village of the diocese of Ávila: a steward lived in it, who collected for his master's use the grain which was paid every year to Rafael by the farmers round about. From this use of the house Teresa easily gathered what sort of place it would be: yet, rejoicing above all at this offer, she gave immense thanks to God for this benefit. And because this village lay on the road which led to Medina and Valladolid, when she was proceeding thither to erect a house, she went on the occasion to inspect it.
[28] They first live at Duruelo: When she had arrived at it late at night and had looked it over on every side, she found it indeed such that she by no means dared to trust herself to it that night. For it had nothing entire except a spacious entrance-hall, a double room and a fairly narrow kitchen. When Teresa inspected its layout, she at once designed her monastery out of it, destining the entrance-hall for the church, the front part of the room for the choir, the room for cells, and finally the little kitchen for the refectory. Having come then to Medina, she at once urged Antonio de Heredia not to think it a burden to inaugurate the matter in that poor little house: for besides that nothing better was available at present, this seemed especially opportune for obtaining leave more easily from the superiors; for the rest, he should trust God that help would immediately be at hand for him, and that the divine kindness would never fail him: only a beginning was needed. While she said these things she showed such trust, as if she already then saw fulfilled all the things which we see today and shall see hereafter too. Antonio, therefore, excellently animated for this, resolved to inaugurate the matter; to whom meanwhile the Mother gave instructions to seek out diligently whatever would be necessary for the house: and having taken John of the Cross away with her to the house of Valladolid, in those few days she stayed there she taught him at length what manner of life was kept in her convents, what austerities were in use, what method was entered upon for subduing body and mind; in short, whatever things were to be kept by them according to the prescription of the Order, both that he himself might have them thoroughly understood and that he might afterwards introduce their practice into his congregations. One thing alone was lacking for inaugurating the matter, the leave of the superiors: for in the letters which she had received from the Prior General it was provided that she should not presume to erect any convent for the use of the Friars except with the consent of the provincial. This was then Alfonso González, who had succeeded Ángel de Salazar in that office. Teresa therefore spoke to him with such strength of soul that he at once granted her leave for the matter; and from Father Ángel she obtained the same through the efforts and intercession of María de Mendoza, whose protection, God so disposing, Ángel then needed.
[29] thence they transfer themselves to Mancera; And so, thinking there should be no delay, and cutting off all delay, lest some obstacle should slip in, she sent John of the Cross ahead to Duruelo to furnish and adorn the house: and when it was at length furnished, Heredia, resigning his priorate, bound himself by vow to the primitive rule; then he went to Duruelo. On the first or second Sunday of Advent a, in the year 1568, sacrifice was first offered to God at the altar there. In this place, then, these two Fathers, according to the prescription of the formula they had received from Teresa, led their life in quiet with the greatest delight of mind: they were assiduous in prayer, they wore down their flesh with unwonted austerities, and by their teaching and the example of their holier life they proved especially salutary to the neighbouring places round about. Thence, after not so long an interval, they went to Mancera: for Luis de Toledo, commander of Alhanje and lord of five towns b, having perceived their holiness, assigned them in this place an oratory, in which a certain illustrious image of the Mother of God, brought from Belgium, of great veneration and beauty, was to be seen c; and he also built them a small convent. But no small was the reward with which God, Best and Greatest, repaid him this benefit: for, to pass over other signs of the divine goodwill toward him, he drew into this very family his daughter Isabel de Toledo, who, trampling on worldly pride and holding the delights of her father's house inferior to the poverty of Christ, embraced the Institute of the Discalced nuns at Salamanca, where she still lives d. Moreover, water was lacking in that new convent; and the Friars did not know whence to bring it. While Antonio of Jesus, who was prior, was speaking with them about this matter in the monastery, and striking the ground with the staff he held in his hand, ordering them to dig in this place, behold, a most copious and at the same time most sweet spring flowed forth thence.
[30] and not long after In the following year, which was 1569, when Teresa was going off to Pastrana to establish the house, she passed through Madrid, and with all the companions she was leading she lodged in a certain monastery of nuns following the Franciscan Institute, with Leonor Mascareñas, who had founded it and lived in it. Leonor had been the nurse of Philip II, king of the Spains, a woman both most religious and a great lover of all good things: hence it came about that she always received the blessed Mother as her guest whenever she passed this way. Leonor then kept saying that she had come very opportunely: for there was at present at Madrid a certain anchorite who was possessed by a wonderful desire of seeing her, whose manner of life and that of his companions seemed to agree excellently with the tenor of that which she herself held according to the prescription of the rule.
[31] at Pastrana too The name of this anchorite is Mariano of St. Benedict: he was an Italian by birth, conspicuous in jurisprudence, a man of great name, a great lover of labour and a most keen pursuer of austerities. He had as companion a young man who was commonly called Juan de la Miseria, especially ignorant of earthly things, but especially skilled in heavenly ones. Both had until then lived not far from Seville, in the solitude they call El Tardón: but since every kind of anchorites which did not have the form of a religious family was abolished by the authority of the Most Holy Synod of Trent, Mariano had resolved to go to Rome, to ask from the supreme See leave to continue the life he had led until then. When Teresa had met him and had read over to him her formula of life, she so moved him at the first conversation that the man resolved to follow it, not without great amazement on his own part (as he was afterwards wont to relate) that a woman had drawn him over to her side so quickly. He then told the blessed Mother that a place especially suitable had been given him at Pastrana by Ruy Gómez, named after St. Peter, so that he might lead the anchoritic life there with his companions; but that he, taking the habit of the Discalced friars, wished to establish a monastery there. As soon as possible, therefore, Teresa wrote of the matter to Alfonso González, provincial of the Carmelites, and also to Ángel de Salazar (for without their consent it was wrong for a convent to be raised), and managed it so energetically that by the efforts and intercession of Bishop Álvaro de Mendoza she obtained it from them without difficulty.
[32] they acquire a convent, These things having been accomplished according to her mind, while Teresa was applying herself meanwhile to erecting the nuns' house, Mariano and his colleague came to Pastrana (as they had agreed with Teresa): and presently she herself called Antonio of Jesus from Mancera to lay the beginnings of the new convent at Pastrana; and ordered the habit to be prepared for those two, lest any delay should intervene. She had also then called other nuns from Medina, to inhabit the convent that was being made ready for them at Pastrana; for she had only two companions of the journey with her. There was present then too another of the family of Carmel, known for preaching to the people and venerable in age, Baltasar of Jesus: who, learning that this house was being newly founded at Pastrana, had come here together with the nuns, so that, changing his habit, he might pass to the new company of the Discalced; as indeed he did pass not so very long afterwards. He clothed Mariano and his companion with the sacred habit, but that which the lay Friars use:
for Mariano out of humility could not be brought to take the priestly one, until at length the command of the Prior General came, ordering him to be received among the ministers of the altar. And this was the reason why, when Teresa was declining to go to Pastrana, as I remember having already said above while relating the beginnings of the monastery raised there, the Lord enjoined this journey on her, as one who would hasten thither for greater things than raising a house for nuns, and bade her take the rule and constitutions with her; which she afterwards read over to Mariano.
[33] into which several outstanding men are received. Into this convent there were afterwards received very many great men illustrious for holiness; and among the rest Masters Juan of Jesus and Jerónimo Gracián of the Mother of God. Him indeed God, Best and Greatest, had reserved for those rude first beginnings of that holy renewal of the primitive rule of the Carmelites, so that he might establish it, increase it, arrange it in fitting order and perfect it: which he excellently performed by the holiness of life, prudence and learning in which he was strong and which he had received from heaven. He was then applying himself to sacred studies at Alcalá, outshining all his equals in uprightness of life; and not only then as a young man, but already from boyhood. When he made his way to Pastrana, to commend to Isabel of St. Dominic, who was then acting as prioress there, a certain maiden that she might be received into the family of the Discalced nuns, he so pleased both her and the other companions by this meeting that they pressed with fasts, chastisements of the body and fervent prayers that God would assign this man to their Order. Nor was the entreaty in vain: for from that time he dedicated himself to this company. Thereafter, when the blessed Mother was passing through Malagón on her way to Beas, to erect a house there, a certain priest of Malagón, wonderfully given to silence and exceedingly zealous for prayer and bodily maceration, when he saw her and learned what she was contriving, began to be attached incredibly to her Institute; and going off with her to Beas, he was given the monastic habit by Jerónimo Gracián with solemn ceremony publicly in the church, and at the same time the name of Gregory Nazianzen. He was not so long ago vicar of the province of Castile, with the wonderful approval of all ranks; and now he exercises that office in Portugal. These two convents were as it were the fountains and seed-beds of the rest: for in a very short time very many colonies were sent out from here, with the knowledge of the blessed Mother, so that before she departed this life she herself saw ten and more houses of the Discalced friars founded. Nor indeed are they comprehended within the limits of Spain alone, since at Genoa too, through the efforts of Nicolás of Jesus Mary, a Genoese, a convent was raised not so long ago, and this family has also extended itself to the regions of the West and has penetrated into the province of Mexico.
ANNOTATIONS.
Chapter III.
The foundation at Seville.
Chap. V.
Since the Discalced Fathers, as well as the nuns, were not governed by a provincial of their own, At the command of Fr. Gracián, apostolic visitor, but all alike obeyed the Mitigated Carmelites, Jerónimo Gracián was appointed their commissary and apostolic visitor in Baetica a. For although he had embraced this Institute only a few years before, yet such religion, prudence and adornments of other virtues and such activity of mind shone forth in him that he was judged worthy of this province and of other honours even more ample. When he was visiting the house of Beas, in which Teresa was then staying, she could not but approve in the highest degree his endowments and manner of acting, and give continual thanks to God for this excellent man given to her nuns. While he was staying there, the apostolic Nuncio called him to himself, and willed at the same time that he should be visitor of the province of Castile as he was of Baetica. But before these things happened, when Teresa had resolved to return to Castile, Gracián had suggested to her that it would be for the divine honour if she established a house at Seville; both because some persons, who were ready to assign a house as soon as possible, had earnestly asked it of him, and also because no one doubted that it would be most welcome to the archbishop, who embraced this company with singular zeal. Teresa was indeed rather averse in mind to establishing houses in Baetica, nay she even had strong reasons for declining to go to Seville; yet she acquiesced in Gracián's opinion.
[35] The Saint hastens to Seville. But since the summer heats were coming on, haste was needed. Gracián therefore went off to the Nuncio, who was staying at Madrid; and Teresa, having remained three months at Beas, taking with her six most choice companions, most zealous for prayer and for the mortification of the senses, such as the Lord doubtless saw were required, namely equal to the storms of adversities that were afterwards to be undergone there, and that they might be as mothers of the others throughout that same province, was brought to Seville. These are their names: María of St. Joseph, Isabel of St. Francis, María of the Holy Spirit, Isabel of St. Jerome, Leonor of St. Gabriel, Ana of St. Albert. The companions of the journey besides were Fr. Gregory Nazianzen, who had not so long before been joined to the Order at Beas, and also Fr. Julian of Ávila and Antonio Gaytán. They bore great inconveniences on this journey, both on account of the intense heats of those days, and on account of unsuitable inns, and finally because these were not seldom occupied by wicked men. To all these was added that by far the gravest thing, that on the day before Pentecost a certain drowsy and burning fever seized Teresa, so that she seemed almost out of her senses. For the relief of the malady no other help was available than sprinkling with cold water; but she was so burning with the heat of the sun that she felt no refreshment from it. In the inn at which they arrived a certain very small room was assigned them, exposed to the heats of the sun because of the thin roof, and furnished with no window to drive them off; if its door was opened, so great a heat penetrated into it that it seemed intolerable. Such was the unevenness of the bed that, as it swelled up high on one side, it sank deeper on the other, and seemed strewn with the sharpest stones. Since the blessed Mother could not take rest here, they departed from there at once: for she preferred to suffer the heats of the sun in the open field rather than in that narrow place.
[36] On the river Baetis she is exposed to danger. These things were for Teresa matter for meditating with what vehemence the damned suffer the fires in hell, being forced to remain fixed in one place and forbidden to change their position. This untimeliness of the malady in the Mother so struck the minds of all the nuns that each for herself diligently commended her to God in prayers: and such was the force of prayer that the malady lasted only a day, whereas at other times it ended only in the space of many days. When they had gone further, the Guadalquivir had to be crossed by boat: but since they could not cross straight over with the carts where the rope led, they had to turn aside somewhat. When the ferrymen, by what chance is uncertain, had let the guiding rope slip from their hands, behold, the pontoon began to be carried down the river with the current, no rope holding it, with no oars, sweeping along with it the one cart it contained. All at once raised their voices in alarm; and the nuns cried to God in their hearts. A nobleman saw these things from afar from his castle, and sent some of his men to bring help to those in difficulty. And by God's gift it came about that, the pontoon coming to a halt in a shallow, others were able to be of help to those in peril. Moreover, he who had come from the nearest castle led them back into the king's highway, from which they would doubtless have strayed by night. But nothing afflicted the blessed Mother more grievously than what happened on the first festival day of Pentecost. They had travelled the whole night with the greatest speed so that, arriving at Córdoba before dawn, they might be present at the Sacrifice of the Mass in such a way as to be seen by no mortal. For it tormented her exceedingly to appear and be seen before others. Hence, whenever she found oratories outside cities, she withdrew to them to be present at the sacred rite. She had resolved to do the same at Córdoba, and to go to a certain little church situated outside the walls of the city beyond a certain bridge.
[37] At Córdoba into great But she could not reach it without the greatest difficulty. For without the leave of the governor of Córdoba it was forbidden to cross the bridge in a cart, and it was said that it would be very difficult to obtain this from him. Antonio Gaytán, however, being sent, obtained it with easy effort. But this was not yet the end of their troubles; rather a new labour arose. For since the carts were rather wide and the gate of the bridge very narrow, no way of getting them across appeared unless their frames were taken apart. But at length the vehicles were so arranged that they were brought across the bridge. However, both here and in the former trouble a space of more than three hours flowed by for them. Meanwhile the carts were so covered over on every side that, although very many flocked up to look more curiously at what kind of people were being carried, yet the nuns came under no one's eyes. But after they had arrived at the oratory, an even greater trouble arose: for since the place had its name from the Holy Spirit, very many had flowed together here: for according to custom there was to be a solemn procession, then the preaching of the divine word and dances. And unless they heard Mass in this place, they would have had to return to the city and seek out another church where they might hear it. This vexed the blessed Mother so grievously that, if it had been permitted without sin to omit hearing Mass that day, she would have omitted it, rather than give herself with her nuns into so thronged a multitude of men. But since it could not be done otherwise, she wished them to go to the church in the manner of a procession, clad in white mantles and with veils lowered, not without the great wonder of all, as people to whom nothing of this kind had been seen until then
Then at length the heats of the previous day's fever left Teresa, who was somewhat disturbed by so great a force of mortals in such tumult, among whom she saw herself.
[38] she runs into difficulties. Yet the obliging charity of a certain honourable man was in some way of benefit against this evil, who came forward to meet Teresa in the very porch of the church, and, making himself guide of the way, kept back the pressing crowd: who also, when asked by the blessed Mother to conduct her into a chapel set apart from the noise of the people, complied with her pious request, nor did he leave them before he had led them out of the church. Not long afterwards a rich inheritance fell to this man, who was expecting nothing less, which he was fully persuaded had been sent to him from heaven on account of this service shown to the handmaids of God. In this chapel Julian of Ávila performed the divine rite, and made all the nuns partakers of the Eucharist. They, departing thence as quickly as possible, avoided the heat of the day by sheltering under a certain rather inconvenient bridge. These and other inconveniences of the same kind on the way the nuns then underwent with the greatest equanimity of mind. For Teresa's conversation was so winning and courteous that she softened with her talk every trouble of the journey, if there was any, sometimes speaking of matters of the greatest weight, at other times animating her nuns to the endurance of hard things, and finally mingling most delightful conversations about things that came up and met them along the way. At length, therefore, on the Thursday before the Sunday of the Most Holy Trinity, they arrived at Seville; where Mariano of St. Benedict had already hired a house for them. On entering it, the blessed Mother hoped she could at once take possession of it, as she was wont to do in other towns, and that the whole matter had already been accomplished according to her wish; because the archbishop of that city, Cristóbal de Rojas, was carried away by a wonderful zeal toward the Discalced, and had from time to time written about this matter to the blessed Mother, notably well disposed toward her. Gracián and Mariano themselves also supposed that they had done him a great pleasure in that Teresa had come here. But the matter fell out far otherwise than she had thought: for the Lord willed that this house, like the others up to now, should be prepared with difficulty and cost Teresa labour.
[39] the archbishop of Seville For the archbishop was exceedingly averse to convents of nuns which did not rest on fixed revenues: and the singular providence of God shone forth in this, that the prelate had as yet learned from no one any of the things which Teresa was going to contrive at Seville. For had he been aware of them before she arrived there, he would by no means have granted leave for this thing, and the foundation of the monastery would wholly have failed. He desired indeed that she should come and bring nuns with her, yet not that he should establish a house for them to live on the kindness of the faithful. For he had resolved to distribute them through the monasteries entrusted to his care, so that these might be formed to more religious manners by daily intercourse with them. Mariano therefore told Teresa that power for building a poor convent would not be granted by the archbishop, and that he had not granted it to anyone up to then either at Seville or at Córdoba (over which city he had formerly presided as bishop); wherefore it would not be out of place for this convent to be established on annual revenues. She was altogether averse to this counsel: for she was not wont to found endowed monasteries except in smaller towns, in which she kept saying that they should either not be established at all or be endowed with revenues so that nothing necessary should be lacking. And besides, she was so poorly furnished with money for assigning fixed revenues to the house of Seville that she had only a farthing with her.
[40] she finds more difficult than was fair. At length, however, the prelate, yielding to Mariano's importunate requests, granted leave for performing the divine rite; which was first done on the Sunday of the Most Holy Trinity next following, falling on the 4th day before the Kalends of June, in the year 1575. Yet he forbade the signal for Mass to be given with a bell, or for one to be hung from a high place; but it had already been hung before. He sent besides one of the priests of his household to offer to God here the first-fruits of the sacred rites. And in this way possession of this place was entered upon, and the divine Offices were recited there. The convent was given the name of St. Joseph of Mount Carmel. Moreover, Mariano sought throughout the whole city the necessary conveniences for furnishing the house in some fashion: for the nuns had brought no furniture with them, beyond the coverings with which they had covered the carts. Moreover, the prelate had by no means given full power to lay the foundation, but only to perform the Sacrifice. However, this imperfect power and other reasons so little satisfied Teresa that, had she not feared to bring some trouble on the visitor Jerónimo Gracián and Fr. Mariano, she would hastily have withdrawn from there with her companions. But Mariano, gradually softening the archbishop with more winning words, kept saying that he would shortly see here what was to be done in the blessed Mother's business.
[41] She appeases the Calced Carmelites. About the same time the Calced Carmelites came to Teresa, inquiring by what authority, pray, she was founding this monastery: and when she had shown them the letters she had formerly received from the Prior General, they ceased to inquire further. And by God's disposing it came about that it was altogether hidden from them how little the archbishop was well disposed toward this convent: for had they found out this hostile mind, they could doubtless have overthrown it, if only they had wished. After no long interval of time the prelate himself came to Teresa: and she spoke to him with such vehemence of soul that, since he who spoke in her was God, he was not able to resist; moreover he added that everything should be carried through in the way she herself wished. Hence thereafter, whenever occasion offered, he declared himself benevolent and a favourer of her side.
Chap. VI.
[42] Although Seville is so wealthy a city and succours the needy with such splendid kindness, She suffers very many inconveniences, and it seemed that there would not be lacking there someone who would at once bring help to the Discalced nuns in procuring a house and send them the necessary supports, yet it pleased the Lord so to exercise the blessed Mother and her companions in this city that in no town until then had they laboured under greater want of things. For not only did they lack a suitable roof for some months, but even the necessities for sustaining life were available only with the greatest difficulty. Besides, the house was not furnished, and was destitute of furniture: mattresses were lacking on which to lay their wearied limbs, and also food to drive away hunger; nay, when a few eggs had to be cooked, they had to search through the house for old scraps of worn-out ropes with which to feed the fire. Yet they suffered these hardships with a glad mind. They were not yet known to anyone; no one came to them b. Moreover, a grave infirmity laid low the Mother herself, and the unhealthiness of the new climate laid low all the others too; both because they had arrived here in the summer heats, and because they were pressed by the inconveniences I have mentioned. Likewise no maidens offered themselves to be received into the family; and those who before Teresa's arrival had had it in mind to join her, deterred by this rigour of life, did not dare to come forward. But a little later, when some were admitted into this company by God's inspiration, the domestic penury was relieved in some measure, and above all by the liberality of a certain honourable widow; who, when she had set her mind on embracing this Institute and was treating with the blessed Mother about this matter a second time, without anyone asking, brought the sum of two thousand seven hundred gold pieces, which was made up of gold plates and silver coins. But while she was putting off her entrance for a while until she should have settled her household affairs, it befell her to depart from this life; but by the deeds of her testament she willed this house to be the heir of her goods in their entirety.
[43] and is torn by calumnies; But a certain other maiden, received into this family at the very beginnings, contributed more than the rest to proving the patience and virtues of the others. For she brought them so many troubles, and reduced both the blessed Mother and her companions to such straits of harassment, that the blessed Mother afterwards rightly said that those who went to Seville with her had had to be carefully chosen, namely that they might be equal to bearing the adversities which they had to undergo. And those who had treated with the blessed Mother about admitting her into the company of the Discalced nuns proclaimed such exceptional things about her that Teresa said that, if this nun did not work prodigies, they would suffer a great loss of their honour. She lived indeed some months in Religion, but, because she had been accustomed to another kind of life differing from this, she deserted it and returned to her former rule. She was known to the people of Seville, and had gathered among all a reputation for holiness: whose departure accordingly gave occasion for various talk among the people. For there was no one who did not traduce Teresa and her companions with abuse, no one who did not calumniate them and rub on her the stain of grave infamy. But truth emerged at length victorious, as one over which lies could by no means prevail, although they harried and tormented it sharply. For those who were truly followers of the virtues were in fact recognized as such; and their religion and virtue both appeared purer and became better known among the people: and grave men who had rashly believed the calumnies laid aside their unfavourable opinion.
[44] but, these being reported to the Sacred Inquisition, About the same time Teresa wrote about this very matter far more plainly than I touch on it myself, to a certain prioress of her nuns, in these words: "Send this letter to the prioress of Medina, who will be distressed not a little on account of certain things I lately wrote to her, although I had expressed in words as little as I could the troubles by which we are harried. Know then that, from the erection of the house of Ávila onward, all the adversities I have borne are of no account if I compare them with those which I have had to bear here: those who know them will find that I do not write these things without cause." Then she adds: "At length it will be clear that all the things that have been spread abroad are fabricated: moreover it was commonly said of us here that we punish nuns, bound hand and foot, with sharp scourges; and would that other things had not been spread among the common people, and that all had been of that kind! For besides this so grave thing there were six hundred others of the same kind, so that it already then appeared manifestly that God willed to punish us with the hard scourges of adversities for this reason, that all things might at length be concluded with the desired end. And so I am in truth persuaded. It is yours, accordingly, not to be cast down in mind on that account; nay rather I hope in the Lord that we shall shortly depart from here safe and sound c." Not without reason could the blessed Mother write these things: for the calumny went so far that she was reported together with her companions to the sacred Inquisitors, and inquiry was diligently made into their life, and witnesses heard. But whence their rivals hoped that disgrace would follow, thence the innocence and holiness of the handmaids of God became clear, and by what unjust means they were being oppressed; and so at length an end was put to this business.
[45] she is declared innocent. Besides this, they had a priest who attended to them when they confessed their faults, so anxious and unskilled that he would not even allow them to sign the cross on themselves with Latin words, to which nevertheless everyone everywhere was accustomed.
And he so doggedly approved the manner of acting of a certain other nun, who had dedicated herself to this monastery before, that he kept saying that all the others, not imitating her, were in error, that she alone was wise, and that the others ought to imitate her example. For some space of that time and of those troubles, not only did men torment Teresa, but God himself too, for the testing of his handmaid and to give her matter for endurance, seemed to withdraw himself: whence she affirmed that never had there crept upon her a sluggishness or languor of spirit equal to that which she then experienced; so that she scarcely recognized herself. For although she always showed a notable trust in God, yet she was so unlike that which she had felt herself to be since she first began to set her mind on establishing convents, that she easily felt in herself that God had now somewhat withdrawn his hand; that she might see, namely, that the greatness of soul which she had displayed up to then flowed not from herself but from that same Lord.
[46] At length, with the help of her brother Lorenzo de Cepeda She had now been staying at Seville from the end of May almost up to the solemn fast of the following year, and there was as yet no mention by anyone of acquiring a house, no money was available for acquiring one, and finally no one to lend it, such as had by no means been wanting to her in other towns. But when she saw that, on the occasion of other pressing affairs, she would shortly have to return to Castile, she was distressed in mind not a little; for she had resolved not to go away from there before a house had been provided for her companions. In those very days there was brought to Seville, returning from the New World, Lorenzo de Cepeda, the blessed Mother's brother, who was at hand to his sister in a certain incredible way, and brought the most diligent effort he could that a permanent house might be bought. Meanwhile she fled to God, her accustomed refuge in her necessities, and also to St. Joseph: the nuns too cried to the Lord with continual prayers that he would provide his handmaids with a house. One day, then, as Teresa was treating with the Lord about this business while praying, she heard from him: "I have already heard you: commit the care of this matter to me." Raised up by these words, she already seemed to herself to have the house in her hands. The purchase of one had already nearly been agreed between the parties, which seemed indeed to suit the taste of all, because it was situated in an excellent place; although it seemed by no means to their advantage, because it was ruinous from age and had to be raised as it were anew from the foundations: for which building a great sum of money was required. The Lord therefore, who saw that this house did not suit the nuns (for it could be put in order only in the space of many years, and money for the necessary expenses was lacking), in accordance with the care he had taken upon himself of providing them with a house, brought it about that the seller himself, when the deeds of the agreement were already to be written, proposed certain unfitting conditions and did not take it ill that the contract of sale should be rescinded.
[47] and of some pious friends, And so, with God's help, another house was acquired for six thousand gold pieces, although not without opposition: for the monks living in the neighbourhood, interposing public authority, pressed that they should not move there. But Teresa, little delayed by this, took pains that both she herself and María of St. Joseph, whom she had appointed prioress of Seville, and two other nuns with her, should move there one night in the greatest silence; and once this had been done, there was no one who opposed thereafter. Moreover Lorenzo de Cepeda, who had energetically applied himself to this business up to then, supplied them with their daily food: for this house was not held as a monastery, nor was it sustained by the accustomed aids of the pious, except that of one prior of the Carthusians, whose house here was called de las Cuevas; who truly was affected with a wonderful zeal both toward God and toward these his handmaids. They spent almost a whole month in this state. Meanwhile Lorenzo de Cepeda spent a great quantity of money on fitting up the church and repairing the other parts of the house: and had he not arrived at Seville in those days, the nuns by themselves could have accomplished absolutely none of these things.
[48] an especially good house, Everything having now been put in order, Teresa would indeed have wished the Venerable Sacrament to be brought here without any ceremony; but it pleased the Carthusian prior and García Álvarez, a priest of Seville, a man of the greatest integrity (who cared for this matter no otherwise than as their own), that, so that the convent might become better known among the people, the day of dedication should be celebrated with festive pomp: and when they had consulted the archbishop on this matter, he not unwillingly acceded to their opinion. He therefore ordained that, the whole clergy and some confraternities assembling and the public streets being adorned, the Body of Christ should be transferred here from a certain parish church. As it was said, so it was done: for García Álvarez duly furnished both the church and the cloister of the new monastery, fitted up handsome altars here and there, and finally introduced many varieties of elegance arranged for delight; and among the rest he made water pressed from the pitchers of oranges flow in the manner of a fountain: although the blessed Mother would have wished this fountain to be omitted. The streets, as had been ordained, were cleaned and adorned, and with great solemnity, with a festive concert of singers and musical instruments, the most august Bread of Angels was brought here by the archbishop on the Sunday before Pentecost, which fell on the 3rd day before the Nones of June, in the year 1576. On that day too something prodigious happened, which moved amazement in all before whose eyes it was done.
[49] which however afterwards a better Very many fireworks had been thrown, and everything had re-echoed with the frequent crash of bombards, when, the procession now finished, toward evening, while the festive fires and roarings of the guns were being repeated again, by I know not what chance fire fell into some sulphurous powder, though a small quantity: yet he who had the powder was, not without a miracle, unharmed by the flame; and when the flame suddenly rose to the top of the convent, whose ceiling had been adorned with yellowish and scarlet fine linen, the stones of the vault indeed put on a foul blackness from the soot of the smoke, yet the outermost, very thin linen itself, which in the judgement of all ought to have been the first to catch the flame, appeared as entire and unharmed as when it was first hung on the ceiling. Whatever had been done brought the blessed Mother wonderful delight and consolation, and all the more because she was leaving her nuns in a house of their own, and indeed so good a one, in which they afterwards lived for almost ten whole years. Afterwards Isabel of St. Francis, when she was acting as prioress there, in the year 1586 bought another for twelve thousand seven hundred gold pieces, which is the very one they now inhabit, namely with the pious support of some upright men, and above all of Pedro Cerezo Pardo, a man very well known both for birth and for the splendour of his virtues, and above all for charity, the chief of all, at whose spur he does not hesitate continually to spend his means on pious works d.
[50] was substituted through the liberality of Pedro Cerezo, He is so far from ever growing weary in the exercise of these works that whatever he acquires by continual labour he spends on the same with great alacrity of soul. He spent six thousand gold pieces on the purchase of this house of the nuns; and bestowed on the church manifold furnishing and silver vessels, and among other things a lamp of two hundred gold pieces and a silver cross adorned with Relics of the Saints, which cost three hundred gold coins: and when this house was first entered, he contributed to it an honorarium of four hundred. And to say nothing of other religious houses on which he proved very lavish (for it is known to me that he gave to one among others, although not all at one time, three thousand gold pieces with notable kindness), toward this family of Discalced nuns and friars he has truly always shown himself most munificent; and so eminently indeed that I could not embrace this kindness in few words. For, omitting the things he has liberally poured out upon the houses of Madrid, Granada, Beas, Burgos, Salamanca, Alba and other houses of this Institute, the house of Lisbon itself truly had its origin chiefly by his support: for he contributed three thousand gold pieces to its erection, and even now sends it new aids daily. The convent of the Discalced friars of Seville too received from him two thousand gold pieces at one time, not to mention the things supplied by him for daily uses. And although he bestows so much on pious works, yet he shows a will and mind to give more: for he carries these things out so promptly and gladly as if he were bestowing a small and daily alms. I believe indeed that he will take it ill that these things are committed to writing by me; but I have consigned them to letters solely out of zeal for promoting the glory of God, and that I may bring profit to the reader by the good example which flows from works of this kind to one's neighbour.
[51] she procures for her nuns. Moreover, God excellently repaid Lorenzo de Cepeda the help he brought here; for among other things he adopted for himself a certain little one of his daughters, Teresa by name. The blessed Mother was carried away with a wonderful affection toward her, because she saw her endowed with a most sweet disposition and other gifts for serving God. She lives today in the convent of Ávila, and is named Teresa of Jesus. When on the Sunday, all the solemnity having been completed, all troubles and labours too had come to an end, and the blessed Mother ought now to have allowed herself some rest, on the day after she departed from there without delay, both because the other houses throughout Castile needed her presence and the heats of the season were growing stronger, and because a longer delay might have brought some danger. The glad joy of the festival which the nuns had felt was therefore diluted, as if water had been poured over it, by the unexpected departure of their dearest Mother, whose presence refreshed them all exceedingly. But both for the reasons we have already mentioned it was not right for her to stay longer at Seville, and also because she had resolved to celebrate at Malagón the holidays dedicated to the Holy Spirit, which were kept the following week. She gave the house of Seville, therefore, as prioress María of St. Joseph, who governed it until she was called to establish the house of Lisbon: and she appointed María of the Holy Spirit as her vicaress.
ANNOTATIONS.
to be passed on; but she, thinking the nuns did not need that help, had distributed the coins entrusted to her to others: which became known to Leonor only after several days. So the Chronicle (book 3, chapter XXXVII, no. 5). Some months having passed thereafter, Fr. Gonzalo Pantoja, prior of the Carthusians, began to be a help to the nuns, as we shall presently hear Ribera narrating (no. 47) and as we have already learned from the Saint herself in the Preliminary Commentary (no. 702).
Chapter IV.
The foundation at Caravaca. The dissensions between the Calced and Discalced Carmelites, and their outcome. The foundation at Villanueva.
Chap. VII.
While Teresa was staying at Ávila, on the very point of going to Beas, The monastery of Caravaca there came to her a messenger sent from Caravaca with a letter from Catalina de Otálora, one of the leading matrons of that place (she was the wife of the licentiate Muñoz, formerly of the Council of the Indies, and afterwards assessor of the royal council), in which she asked the blessed Mother to erect a house of her nuns in that city. The occasion of this matter was this. A certain one of our Society had preached there with such vehemence of words that three maidens of the first nobility, joined to one another by blood, moved by them, resolved to renounce worldly things and to dedicate themselves to God in a religious Institute; whose names are these: Francisca de Saojosa, Francisca de Moya and Francisca Tauste. The first of these was a kinswoman of Catalina de Otálora and lived in her household, to which the other two also afterwards moved: and if they wished to establish a convent of themselves in this town, Catalina promised two thousand gold coins for its foundation, and also all the help she could be of in order that leave for the matter might be obtained from the council of the Orders of knighthood. For because that town was under the jurisdiction of the knights of St. James, it was forbidden for a new monastery to be erected in it without their order. Moreover in this house they lived in no less solitude than if they had been confined in the enclosure of a monastery: for in one part of the house, which that pious widow had assigned them, they had a private chapel and also a confessional and a turn in the manner of convents. But they were in doubt which Institute, in fine, they should introduce into this convent; nor had they up to then inclined wholly to any side: until there arrived there a certain one of the Society of Jesus, Leyva by surname, from whom they heard that in the kingdom of Toledo a certain woman illustrious for holiness, surnamed Teresa of Jesus, was erecting new convents of Carmelite nuns, in which both the integrity of Religion flourished and the strictest enclosure was kept.
[53] In the name of the absent Saint Having learned these things, they likewise inclined their mind hither, and prevailed with Catalina to write to Teresa in the name of all, and to offer the inheritance of the three of them for establishing the beginnings of the house. Wonderfully refreshed by this request of hers, the blessed Mother departed from Ávila, and resolved, the house of Beas having been established, to go to Caravaca also: and for this reason she took with her more companions than the beginnings of the house of Beas required. She promised the same thing to Catalina de Otálora by letter, bidding her meanwhile to obtain the royal power for beginning the matter. Nor indeed was it difficult to obtain it: for when Teresa herself had written to King Philip about this matter, he granted it as soon as possible. But because the king had ordered that this house should be subject to the Ordinary of the place, it was necessary to refer the matter to the royal court again; because Teresa preferred this house to be subject to the Order after the example of the others. Meanwhile, while these things were being done, it pleased Jerónimo Gracián, the apostolic visitor, that she should set out from Beas, where she was then staying, to establish the house of Seville. Hence this matter was put off longer, to the very great grief of those maidens; who had already procured with the greatest diligence the things pertaining to adorning the church and held the matter as already accomplished. Ana of St. Albert, whom the blessed Mother had brought with her to set her over the house of Caravaca, she meanwhile left at Seville; the rest whom she had brought to lay the beginnings of that same monastery she sent back to Malagón. When the letter of the desired royal permission arrived, those handmaids of God urged Teresa continually to come out to Caravaca to complete the business of the monastery begun. And since their request seemed very pious and fair, and the affairs of Seville were being drawn out longer than was fair, it pleased the blessed Mother and also the Father visitor to send some nuns to Caravaca, to lay the foundations of the new house in her place.
[54] Ana of St. Albert establishes. For this reason Ana of St. Albert, whom Teresa had made prioress, was sent from Seville: she, returning straight to Malagón, chose four others from there, Bárbara of the Holy Spirit, who should hold the first place after the superior, Ana of the Incarnation, Juana of St. Jerome and Catalina of the Assumption; who all together arrived at Caravaca on the day sacred to the Expectation of the Delivery of the Mother of God, and were most lovingly received by those three handmaids of God, not indeed in the house of Catalina de Otálora, but in the house of Rodrigo de Moya, father of Francisca de Moya. For he had lent them part of his house, in which they afterwards fitted up a very elegant little chapel with a choir, adding latticed grilles and a turn. While the necessaries were being procured, and the deeds of foundation drawn up, and the household furniture brought in, the month of December flowed by: and on the first day of the year 1576 the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar was brought here and possession of the place entered upon, and the name of St. Joseph given it. On the same day two of the foundresses took the religious habit; for the third had to stay some days with her sister. Teresa says in her Foundations that she was then outside: and in truth she was, when she was writing about this very foundation; but not long after, at an interval of two or three months, Jerónimo Gracián gave her the habit, when as visitor he was inspecting this house. These each in her own time duly made their vows to God, and were called Francisca of the Mother of God, Francisca of the Cross, Francisca of St. Joseph. Moreover, I recount each of them here in the same order in which I produced them at the beginning of the chapter; and they still live at Caravaca, giving all examples of great uprightness and religion.
Chap. VIII.
[55] From Seville Teresa went to Malagón, thence to Toledo, The Calced Carmelites where she stayed for the space of some months. But since those who out of zeal for the divine service gain very many souls for God are especially hateful to the adversary of our salvation, and he harries them in whatever way he can, it was not enough for him to have shown himself Teresa's adversary at Seville, but he also devised many other ways of preventing any convents from being founded anew, because they were very troublesome to him. Nay, he had already moved every stone, had not God withstood him, that those which had already been built for the use of nuns and friars should be utterly dissolved. As Teresa, then, went forward in founding these, she kept the Prior General informed of this matter; from whom in turn she received letters in which he testified that this progress was by far most acceptable to him. By this applause of his Teresa softened not a little the incredible hardships which she experienced in almost each of the foundations. For since she held him in the place of God, she thought she was bringing to God the joy she was bringing to him. Hence, when she had asked him by letter to order by his authority that no new convents should thenceforth be raised by her, he replied that he would by no means do this: for he desired that as many should be erected as he had hairs on his head. This indeed he said then; but a few years after, the Carmelites, gathered in a general congregation, admonished Teresa by letter, before she departed from Seville, not only that she should thereafter erect no houses, but also that out of all those already erected she should choose for herself the one she wished, in which she should thereafter live in quiet and no longer go out from it. This command came to the blessed Mother as she wished: for she greatly desired to spend in monastic quiet what remained to her of life; at the same time too she was most averse to so much running about: although those from whom this command emanated looked to something far different. At that time too witnesses most alien from the truth were produced against her.
[56] against St. Teresa, Meanwhile, however, Teresa was flooded with wonderful joy, because she had God as an irrefragable witness of her innocence. But it tormented her exceedingly that some, using these accusations and testimonies as an instrument, had rendered the mind of the Prior General somewhat estranged from her. But that the reason for the ending of the foundations may be understood more thoroughly, the matter must be fetched from a more distant beginning. When Teresa had come from Toledo to Ávila, the three years of the priorate of her who had succeeded Teresa in that office in the convent of the Incarnation having now run out, the nuns of that house, who at the beginning had been rather hostile to her and had striven in every way to exclude her, were now carried toward her with such inclined minds that both they and all the rest elected her as their governess once more, with so great a consent of the voters indeed that, although their number was immense, three and more out of four parts of the votes were cast for her. About the same time, too, the office of the visitor Pedro Hernández was expiring: and so, in order that weight might be added to this new election, it had to be ratified by the provincial of the Calced Carmelites. But they would not confirm it, for some reasons by which they were led to this. However, those nuns were so desirous of it that they resolved to dispute the matter at law, and, interposing the authority of the apostolic Nuncio and of the royal council, they spent a great sum of money, and also went to their provincial, to hand him the letters they had received from the royal council on this matter; but he would not lend his ear to their requests.
[57] Fr. Gracián At that very time, passing through Ávila, I visited the blessed Mother at St. Joseph's; from whom I learned what was going on: she feared, namely, lest the nuns should obtain from their superiors what they were ardently demanding by insisting, and above all wished that she might be permitted to live quietly in her own house. The Lord granted her her wishes; since the nuns of the Incarnation were never able to obtain from the provincial the confirmation of the one they had elected. But before these things happened, Jerónimo Gracián, acting as prior of Pastrana, out of his zeal for always increasing the divine glory and promoting his Institute further, had asked the Nuncio of the apostolic See that leave be given him to raise a house for the Discalced Friars at Seville. Having found both the Nuncio himself and Cristóbal de Rojas, archbishop of Seville, benevolent in this matter, he made his way to Seville to found it. While he was staying there, it was enjoined on the Nuncio by the Roman Pontiff to appoint visitors of the Calced Carmelites of both sexes. On this
matter, when he had referred it to the king, it was most welcome to his Catholic Majesty, and Jerónimo Gracián was declared visitor of all Baetica. When, then, he had begun to exercise his office with singular integrity and also charity and prudence, and was providing for all the things which he knew needed correction, he called Isabel of St. Francis, of Villacastín, whom I have mentioned elsewhere, out of the house of the Discalced nuns of Seville, and ordered her to go to the town of Paterna, so that by her example she might bring back to a better form the convent of nuns of the Mitigated Order which was in it. In which office she rendered singular service to God and brought incredible fruit to the nuns.
[58] and the other Discalced Gracián was exercising this office when Teresa had gone off to Beas and Seville, as I indicated above, to establish a house. Meanwhile some of the Calced Carmelites judged that their authority and name were injured not a little, in that they had got as visitor a young man not of their Institute and in a manner a novice in religion; especially since they did not lack, as in truth they did not lack, other Fathers conspicuous for age and religion and uprightness of life, to whom these duties could have been committed with honour. Gracián indeed would not unwillingly have cast this burden from himself, and would very gladly have freed them, so far as lay in him, from this trouble (which was afterwards the origin of others too); but the Nuncio was so far from wishing to absolve him from this office that, even when he was dealing with Teresa at Beas (as we indicated in its place), he called him to himself and appointed him apostolic visitor of the Discalced friars and nuns throughout the province of Castile. And while he was discharging this office, he was an example by his uprightness of life and singular learning to all the places to which he went; whence it came about that some cities asked that houses of the Discalced of both sexes be founded among them. Moreover, when he had come to Valladolid to erect a convent for the Friars of his discipline, for the cause we have mentioned the Mitigated obtained from another Nuncio, the successor of the former, Philip, bishop of Piacenza, a diploma by which the Discalced were ordered to obey them: they kept saying, namely, that obedience was owed to them, as being the older, and further that the Discalced had incurred the penalties of excommunication and, refractory, would not listen to the Prior General.
[59] rage against. On learning this, Gracián fled to the Nuncio for help; and when he was rebuked by him, he listened to him reproving him while lying prostrate on the ground, bringing forward nothing in defence of his cause, with notable humility of soul. Meanwhile the Nuncio ordered him to remain in a certain monastery until what was to be determined in his business should be decided more maturely. And so, while the discipline of the Discalced friars was being diligently inquired into, the examination came to the ears of the king and of the Prior General. And the latter judged of this matter from it in such a way that he thought it would make for the glory of God and for the tranquillity of his Order if these recent monasteries of the Discalced were annulled and the matter brought back to the state in which it was before there was talk of founding them: nay, he even began to be incensed against Teresa herself, because she brought no help hither; although before he had cherished her so kindly and had granted her the power of founding as many convents as she could. For this cause the leading men of the Discalced were harried in various ways, namely Gracián, Antonio of Jesus, Mariano of St. Benedict and others; and so all everywhere seemed to rise up against them and all their houses seemed about to be utterly overthrown. For the apostolic Nuncio was of the opinion that it was above all expedient that more convents of that kind should not be raised; and he promoted this business with all zeal. Hence he drove some of these Fathers into exile, led others into custody and afflicted them with various penalties; nay, he even ordained, under the penalty of anathema set forth, that no one should say a word more about that matter; finally he made a man of the Mitigated Order, Ángel de Salazar, visitor of these friars and of the Discalced nuns.
[60] Meanwhile the Saint's patience shines forth. The matter had now been reduced almost to the extremity, and the Institute of the Discalced seemed to threaten ruin. What was Teresa doing then? What was she thinking? She was persuaded, namely, that this turbulent storm had arisen on her account alone, and that, if she alone were cast into the sea after the example of Jonas, the whole tempest would shortly subside. She indeed suffered in all things, in all things she felt the cross; besides she was attacked with various calumnies: which, making no account of them, she pitied the lot of those good Fathers, whom she knew to be free of all fault. Meanwhile she ordained continual and fervent prayers in her houses, fasts, chastisements of the body, and also turned her eyes to heaven, whence she was certain help would come. One day, then, while in prayer she was turning over in her mind whether those whom we named before truly wished this new Reform of the Discalced to be destroyed, she at once heard the Lord answering her: "Some indeed would wish it so; but it will by no means happen, but far otherwise." But although she employed these divine safeguards, she thought the human ones were by no means to be neglected by her. She therefore sought the goodwill of the great, employed religious of greater authority as intercessors, and finally wrote to the king in words so effectual that his Majesty was moved by them, to show himself propitious to the cause, more than by all the patronages of others. Meanwhile she judged that it would proceed from the hand of God, awaiting with singular patience whatever should at length be decided in this business. Hence, although she saw the matter sometimes not have the success she wished, and sometimes even a far worse one, she did not on that account fall away from it in the least. Often, when the matter seemed already about to be concluded with the desired outcome, the event suddenly changed, it was in the worst state; but she, relying on her accustomed patience and lively faith in God, always expected a happy success.
[61] By the help of the King and of the Supreme Pontiff At length, therefore, God moved that Catholic king to bring help to his servants, who were harried by adversities, since he not only willed the apostolic Nuncio to be judge of this cause, but of his own accord designated for him four assessors, grave men; and he ordered three of these to be religious, and among them Pedro Hernández, who had formerly been visitor of Carmel and had the whole matter well understood. When Teresa heard this, she held the business as accomplished. And it was truly ended with a favourable and happy success. For when the General had sent a visitor from Rome, who, having ascertained the truth of the accusations, should punish the Discalced by his authority, nay should even utterly overthrow their undertakings, King Philip forbade him to use his power. The king's kindness went even further: for both in his own name and in that of the Discalced he urgently asked Pope Gregory XIII of happy memory, setting forth many reasons to this end, that he would free the Discalced friars and nuns from the obedience of the Mitigated, so that they might establish separate provinces for themselves, acknowledging only the General Prior of the whole Order as superior.
[62] those Carmelite dissensions The truth of the matter having been diligently examined, the Pontiff, pitying the hardships which these servants of God had undergone, bestowed this power on them with notable liberality, praising their Institute and manner of life in the most ample words, and saying repeatedly that it was fair that each family should have its own superior. He gave leave besides for raising new houses everywhere in any places whatever, both for the Friars and for the nuns. This letter was sent by the supreme Prelate on the 10th day before the Kalends of July 1580: but, because no one had been given the power of executing it, it was necessary to write again to Rome on the same matter. At length the Pontiff named Pedro Hernández executor of the matter. At once, therefore, the king sent the apostolic letters to Hernández at Salamanca: but, because he was then lying ill of a disease unto death, he sent them back to the king still unsealed. Wherefore, when King Philip had at length written a third time to the City on this matter, and had designated two, so that, if anything should meanwhile happen to one of them in the course of nature, at least the other might carry out the matter, the execution was at last entrusted to Fr. Juan de las Cuevas of the Order of St. Dominic, then prior of the convent of Talavera dedicated to St. Genesius, and afterwards governor of the province of Castile, a notable man, great in religion and authority. This diploma was sent on the 12th day before the Kalends of December of the same year: by virtue of which the Discalced, with Fr. Juan de las Cuevas presiding, appointed their first congregation at Alcalá for the fourth Sunday of Lent of the following year; in which, a division of the province having been made, Jerónimo Gracián was appointed its first provincial.
[63] are at length happily composed. Thenceforth all things were in peace, and all the convents of the Discalced remained subject to their own provincial. That of Ávila indeed was subject to the bishop for the space of about seventeen years; but, these having run out, when Álvaro de Mendoza had moved from here to the bishopric of Palencia, the Lord signified to Teresa, who was then staying at Toledo, that she should take pains that the nuns living in St. Joseph's at Ávila should also render obedience to the superiors of the Order: for unless this were done, the religion of that house would shortly perish. When she communicated about this business with Doctor Velázquez, who at that time was her confessor and was a canon at Toledo, and afterwards was raised to the bishopric of Osma and finally to the archbishopric of Compostela, she had him as her adviser in it. At Ávila too she conferred about the same matter with the bishop, and likewise with her companions. At length the matter was accomplished as she had resolved, and thenceforth this house began to be reckoned in the number of the others. Seven years afterwards the same Fathers obtained from our Most Holy Lord Pope Sixtus V another diploma, given on the 6th day before the Ides of July 1587, by which he gave power that the province, which had now grown into very many houses, should be divided into several, and a provincial of its own assigned to each, and all these should afterwards be subject to a Vicar General to be elected. When this letter was put into execution on the 8th day before the Ides of May 1588, five provinces were established: Castile, double, divided into Old and New, Granada, Catalonia and Portugal; and to each a provincial prior was given: and Nicolás of Jesus Mary, who was then acting as provincial, was elected Vicar General.
Chap. IX.
[64] From the things we have recounted above it is evident enough what was the reason why during that whole four years no convent of the Discalced nuns was raised; That with most ardent wishes since those already erected before were themselves in the utmost peril of being utterly overthrown, and even to survive was a great deal. The first convent after these storms, then, was raised at Villanueva de la Jara, which had been asked for already from the year 1576, when Teresa was staying at Toledo after her return from Seville. At that time, namely, a priest came to her from that town, who announced that for some years now in a hermitage named after St. Anne a, near which there was a little house, nine maidens had come together there, living in such holiness and solitude that they had moved the whole multitude of the town to satisfy their pious desires. To Teresa the thing did not seem worth while, on account of some reasons by which she was led to this view; of which the chief was
that she believed maidens already accustomed to a fixed manner of life would by no means accommodate their manners to a religious Institute; then that their little house was small and there was scarcely any furniture; and finally that, although the commonwealth promised to provide for their necessities, this promise seemed by no means likely to be stable for perpetuity. To this was added that, although the uprightness of these maidens was extolled in everyone's talk, since they had not been seen by her, she did not know whether they showed the talents which she required in her companions. She therefore communicated the matter to Doctor Velázquez, who, we have lately said, attended to her at Toledo in confession. He replied that she should give them some hope by letter; for since so many hearts at once were aiming, God moving them, at one goal, it was an evident sign that these things were done by the will of God. Meanwhile the townspeople kept pressing continually. While these things were going on, and patrons were being employed to accomplish the business with the blessed Mother, and she at length gave her assent, the affair of the Order she had begun was being harried by various storms: wherefore the matter was drawn out right up to the year 1580; although throughout that whole space of time Teresa always judged it hardly fitting to accept the foundation of this monastery. Yet whenever she replied to the requests of the townspeople, she could never take from them all hope of the matter.
[65] of some pious maidens There was at the third milestone from Villanueva a certain convent of Discalced Friars, which had its name from Blessed Mary of Succour, whose prior Gabriel of the Assumption, with Fr. Antonio of Jesus, who stayed for some time in the same convent, sometimes went out to Villanueva for the sake of preaching the divine word. When these spoke with those handmaids of God from time to time, they were so moved by their holiness that they tried with the most earnest entreaties to induce Teresa to come here to erect a house; and above all Fr. Gabriel, who went off from there to Malagón, a journey of twenty-six leagues, to persuade the blessed Mother of this matter in person. Not undeservedly did their virtue please those Fathers: for during the whole five years and more that they lived in that hermitage they shone before their neighbours with a notable example of holiness. Although they were pressed by the greatest want of things, yet they would not beg alms, but lived by the work of their own hands: and from their daily earnings they subtracted from the sustenance of the body, so that means might be available for sending messengers to the blessed Mother. They macerated their limbs with many rigours and frequent fasts. Night and day they cried to the Lord to direct the blessed Mother to them, from whom they might learn the formula of a religious Institute. Each was still clothed in the garment she had brought here at the beginning; nor had they resolved to change it before they were received as nuns. Their very countenance answered equally to their penance: none among them presided over the others, but they were joined to one another by sisterly charity. The house was not closed with a key, but only with a bolt; and this the one alone who preceded the others in age drew to. Two older in age than the others looked after the household and provided necessaries: the rest spoke to no outsider. All had little sleep, long prayer; and they spent feast-days wholly in prayers.
[66] satisfies, To Gabriel as he recounted these things Teresa brought forward her reasons against the admission of those maidens: but she yielded at length to his importunate entreaties, saying repeatedly that she committed it to his conscience and to that of Fr. Antonio, and would do what seemed most fitting to them, the matter having been more maturely examined. And seeing that he was strongly inclined toward the erection of this house, and that he would report about it to the prelate whom they had then got, by the designation of the apostolic Nuncio, Ángel de Salazar of the Mitigated Order, she forestalled him, and warned Fr. Ángel in advance not to grant him leave for this matter. But although Teresa struggled against it so much, yet it came about that the matter was accomplished by the continual prayers of those handmaids of God. She herself too commended it from time to time to the Lord in prayer, that he would permit to be done what should turn to his greater glory. And one day, rising from the sacred banquet of the Eucharist, while she was treating with the Most High about the same business, she was sharply rebuked by him, as he asked with what treasures the other houses had been founded up to then, and commanded her to accept the house: for it would turn to his service and to the salvation of very many souls. Conquered at last by this voice, she gave in: at the same time too she believed she had contracted a grave fault, because she had relied more than was fair on human reasons, whereas whatever the Lord had done through her up to then so far transcended all reason. It seemed to her necessary that she should betake herself there, although her health dissuaded this journey, because she had arrived at Malagón very ill and the illness was growing worse daily. But because she foresaw that it would be for the good of the things of God, she indicated it to her superior, asking him to prescribe what he judged more expedient to be done. He therefore not only gave her power to go there, but also gave a command, and left to her the choice of the nuns to be taken.
[67] the holy Foundress, The matter having then been communicated to the Lord in prayer, so that she might choose nuns most suited to instructing those handmaids of God, she chose from the house of Toledo Ana of the Mother of God as future prioress b, and from that of Malagón Elvira of St. Angelus as her vicaress, and added to these Ana of St. Augustine and Constanza of the Cross. Then too Anne of St. Bartholomew was her companion, who afterwards never left her side until her death, and took diligent care of her, and succoured her with what aids of charity she could, as one who desired above all to please the Lord by ministering to her, and knew what welcome service she rendered him by this attendance. Fathers Antonio of Jesus and Gabriel of the Assumption went to fetch them, taking with them all the gifts with which the commonwealth had furnished them. And so they departed from Malagón on the Saturday before the Lenten fast, on the Ides of February. On this journey Teresa experienced her health strengthened, just as if she had felt no sickness until then. Wondering at this change, she at the same time considered how much it matters to pay little heed to the slender strength of the body when an occasion of increasing the divine worship offers itself. On this journey, because the Fathers were very well known in that region, called La Mancha, as soon as it was noised abroad that the blessed Mother was present, in all the places to which they came so great a multitude of people flowed together out of eagerness to see her that they could not restrain it. When in a certain village, whose name is Robledo, she was lodging with an upright matron, so great a force of mortals immediately flowed together here that it was necessary to place two constables before the door, to keep back the pressing multitude while she was dining with her nuns: but not even they could restrain the ardour of those flowing in, since they climbed over the outer walls of the house.
[68] having visited on the way Whence, so that the people might be restrained and the nuns might conveniently withdraw from there, it was necessary to lead some off into custody: for all were possessed by an incredible desire at least of seeing her, since no opportunity of speaking to her was given. As soon as she was brought into another village not far from there, so great a crowd of people came out to meet her to see her that the next day, in order to escape it, she set out on the road three hours before dawn. When she was departing from there so early, the carriage in which she was riding broke; but because day had not yet dawned, no one noticed its breaking before they had gone on three miles and arrived at another place: then at length, the damage to the carriage being seen, all wondered how they could have covered Col. 633C so much of the road; the litter-driver himself also declared that this was not free of miracle. Moreover, all in these villages were possessed by an incredible affection toward her: hence in one of them a certain especially wealthy farmer, learning that she would pass this way, prepared her a sumptuous banquet at his house, and ordered his sons and sons-in-law from other villages to be present, so that Teresa in person might bless them; and he also gathered all his herds into one place, so that she might call down the heavenly blessing on them too. Yet when she had been brought to this village, she would not stop, nor even get down from the carriage, although she was most urgently asked. Hence the pious farmer ordered his family to come to the cart, so that each might speak to her here and receive her blessing. Thence they arrived at Blessed Virgin Mary of Succour, by which name the house of the Discalced friars is named. But before she entered here, all those Friars came out to meet her in the guise of a procession. This office pleased the blessed Mother wonderfully and moved her with a singular feeling of devotion, because she said that by it the image of the first hermits of her Order was represented. All, prostrate on their knees, humbly asked to be blessed by her hands: and then, rising, they conducted her in procession to the church; and, having entered it, they sang together in congratulation the hymn "Te Deum laudamus."
[69] the Friars of the convent of Blessed Virgin Mary of Succour, Moreover this convent, hidden within the woods, was founded by Catalina de Cardona, a woman very well known for notable piety and for an unwonted and incredible austerity of life: whence it came about that in many parts of La Mancha the Discalced Fathers are commonly called the Friars of the Good Woman. The entrance to the church is underground; it was that very cave in which that holy woman lived for many years in a wonderful austerity of life. When the desire of founding a monastery had come upon her, and she was wavering doubtfully as to of which Institute in particular she should raise it, a white mantle was shown her by the Lord, and also a voice gliding down admonished her that it was to be prepared for the Discalced Carmelites, although she was unaware that such existed in the nature of things. Learning afterwards that such were living at Pastrana, she betook herself there to gather some help for the convent she had it in mind to build; and there she took the habit of Blessed Mary, although not with the intention of professing the monastic life: and in the year 1577 she departed this life. Moreover, while Teresa was staying here, very many flowed together from the neighbouring places out of eagerness to see her. And when one day, after receiving the Bread of Angels in this church, she suffered an alienation of the senses, she beheld Catalina herself in a glorious body, accompanied by some Angels, and heard her saying: "Do not grow weary in these foundations of convents, dearest; but always go further forward: I indeed shall be at hand for you with the Lord."
[70] she arrives at Villanueva de la Jara, Thence, not long afterwards, on the first Sunday of Lent, the 9th day before the Kalends of March of the year 1580, she arrived at Villanueva de la Jara before High Mass. Long before she approached the town, the bells ringing, an immense troop of boys came out to meet her with wonderful devotion: who, when they came up to the cart in which she was riding, venerated her on bended knee, and walking with heads bare they went before her until they led her to the church. Likewise the whole council and the parish priest of the place and many other respectable men came out to receive her; nor did they alight before they had arrived at the church of St. Anne, which was further distant from the former. There was festive congratulation of the whole people; and when all had entered the church, the whole clergy, with
the organs playing in between, began to sing "Te Deum laudamus." This done, taking the Venerable Sacrament of the Altar, for which they had fitted up an honourable car, and the image of the Mother of God, which was carried on another bier, as well as crosses with banners, they all went forward together with the rite of a procession to the hermitage of St. Anne, the place where the monastery was to be. In the middle of the column, not far from the most holy vessel of the Eucharist, Teresa walked with her companions, clad in white mantles and with veils lowered over their faces c, and not far from there the Discalced Friars, most of whom had come out here because they lived in the neighbourhood. Altars had been erected along the way, at which, the column resting for a little, the singers chanted some pious song in praise of the Carmelite Institute. At length with solemn rite the Most Holy Body of Christ was brought in there, and possession of the place taken d, the name of St. Anne, by which it was called before, being left to it.
[71] and there gives a beginning to a monastery. Moreover, those nine handmaids of God were hiding within, the door shut, and received the Mother as she came, whom they were awaiting most ardently, with a wonderful feeling of exulting soul and with tears: on whom then the habit of the Discalced nuns was conferred. When Teresa and her companions saw them and spoke with them, they noted in them such holiness of life and readiness to obey that they drew wonderful delight from it and got on well with them; and the better they came to know them by daily intercourse, the more they congratulated themselves on their coming to Villanueva: and Teresa said that, however great the labours she should have had to endure, she would not have wished to abstain from bringing consolation to these pious souls, and that this house seemed to her enriched with a greater treasure because such souls inhabited it than if it had been endowed with the most ample revenues. At once, therefore, the house having been furnished, she brought them into the form of a convent. But one day, when she was staying near a workman who was fitting a turning wheel to a certain vast well, this wheel, slipping from his hand, fell with such force upon Teresa that it dashed her to the ground. The workman, disturbed, not daring to lift her from the ground, Teresa got up with such spirit as if nothing had happened to her. Yet so immense was the force of the falling wheel that all ascribed her being alive to a prodigy. These things happened on the vigil of St. Joseph: whence the opinion settled in all that she had escaped safe by the intercession of this Saint.
ANNOTATIONS.
Chapter V.
The foundations of Palencia, Soria and Granada.
Chap. X.
From Villanueva Teresa went to Toledo, and thence, at her superior's advice, The monastery of Palencia to Valladolid. For Álvaro de Mendoza, who had exchanged the bishopric of Ávila for that of Palencia, greatly desiring that a monastery be erected in his cathedral city, had asked that Teresa be sent there. But at Valladolid so vehement an illness oppressed her that everyone generally despaired of her life: but when she began to be a little better, María of St. John the Baptist, who was acting as prioress there, tried with all the striving she could to drive her to establish a house at Palencia. But Teresa could by no means yield to her requests, because, since this house was to be founded without annual revenues, that town seemed to her too poor and unequal to feeding the poor. In those same days there was also question of founding a house at Burgos; but Teresa was averse in mind both to this one and to that, nor did she feel the trust which she had shown in the others up to then: for the devil was striving, so far as could be done, to hinder these foundations. Of those she consulted, some gave her courage, others filled her with dread by setting before her difficulties.
[73] by the holy Foundress At that time Jerónimo Ripalda of the Society of Jesus, whom she had had as confessor at Salamanca, arrived at Valladolid. Opening to him the state of her soul, she signified that she wished to receive him in the place of God: accordingly he should frankly bring forth what he judged expedient. Ripalda therefore became her adviser to go off to Palencia (for she had consulted him chiefly about this journey); at the same time too he gave courage to her as she hung back. The same thing had been advised her at Toledo by Baltasar Álvarez, whom she had formerly used as confessor and master, and who at that time governed the province of Toledo. These things indeed inclined her doubting mind somewhat; but neither Ripalda's counsel nor the urgent entreaties of Mother María of St. John the Baptist could drive Teresa wholly to it. But the Redeemer wished to show her more clearly that he was the one who directed the whole matter: wherefore, when one day, after Holy Communion, she was asking that light to carry out the divine will might be poured into her from heaven, he addressed her thus, as though rebuking her: "What do you fear? When have I ever failed you? The same that I have been up to now, I am now. Do not leave off these foundations." This reproof so spurred her on that nothing could have turned her from that purpose. Hence, although those who dissuaded her objected the poverty of the town, and that her nuns would not be able to live there on alms contributed, she was not in the least delayed by these things, because she relied on the power of him from whom she had received the command to found.
[74] is begun in a hired house, But although she did not yet enjoy entirely confirmed health, she departed from Valladolid on the very day of the Holy Innocents in the year 1580. And since a certain knight, having set out elsewhere, had granted the nuns the use of a house hired by him up to the feast of St. John the Baptist, Teresa advised by letter that that house should be emptied of its inhabitants. This business was carried through secretly by the canon of Palencia, Reinoso, to whom, although unknown to him by face, Teresa had written about this matter, having only heard that he was possessed by zeal for promoting the divine service. Nor did he show himself active only in providing the empty house, but also in procuring little beds and some things serving to restore strength (which were truly very necessary, because her health had been somewhat worn by the rough journey), as well as those things which seemed necessary for the use of the sanctuary for performing the divine rite the next day. And so on the day after the feast of the Holy Innocents Mass was offered and possession of the place entered upon, and the Office of St. David the King was sung a, to Teresa's great joy, because she was affected toward this Saint with wonderful zeal. This convent had the name of St. Joseph. The next morning she informed Bishop Álvaro de Mendoza of her arrival: who at once betook himself there, and with notable liberality promised that he would supply them with the necessary food; at the same time too he provided the house with many things. Moreover this new house was a great pleasure to the whole town: and in turn the character of the townspeople and the practice of their daily life so satisfied Teresa that she rejoiced more and more every day that she had brought the Institute of the Discalced nuns here.
[75] and thence into a house As soon as possession had been taken, Teresa applied herself to this, that she might procure a house of their own for her nuns. Hence, with the canons Reinoso and Salinas, whom she had as a friend, labouring with her, she began to search for one through the whole town; and they helped her with exceptional charity and with all the zeal they could. There is in that town a little church whose name is Blessed Virgin Mary of the Street, renowned for religion and pious worship, which is frequented both by the citizens and by the inhabitants of the neighbouring places. This seemed to the bishop to suit the nuns; for, although it had no adjoining house, two were situated in the neighbourhood, which, if joined, could be suitable. Since the right of granting the little church lay with the chapter of the cathedral church and a certain confraternity, both the canons and those members of the confraternity gave it not unwillingly: however, since the owners of the houses wished to sell them at an enormous price, and they displeased Teresa and the canons, it was resolved to turn their minds from purchasing them. Hence negotiations began for acquiring another, which seemed more convenient; and they resolved to write to its owner, who was not far away from there, and to pay him whatever price he asked for it. But the next day, as Teresa was present at Mass, she began to turn over in her mind whether those former houses
she was right to give up buying: which thought so tormented her that she could scarcely be present in mind at the sacred rite. And when she approached the Most Holy Table of the Eucharist, she heard this voice: "This suits you"; which was to be understood of the little church of Blessed Mary and the houses adjoining it.
[76] beside the church of Blessed Virgin Mary of the Street And when it seemed hard to her to undo what the canons, to whom she owed so much, had conceived, the Lord said to her: "They do not know by how many offences I am offended in that place: to which the way will be shut by your dwelling there." Namely, very many coming together there during night vigils sometimes sinned grievously against God. Teresa began to reckon with herself whether that voice had truly proceeded from God, although from the effects she had experienced in herself she had perceived clearly enough that it had flowed down from the Father of lights: wherefore, that she might be free of all doubt, the same Lord at once said: "It is I." Hearing this, her mind was indeed calmed, but not a little troubled on the other side, because she did not know how she might rescind the matter begun with the good peace of the canons; especially since she herself had before criticized those houses very much. At length she resolved to disclose the cause of her change of mind in Confession to the canon Reinoso, whom she used as confessor: who at once came round to Teresa's opinion. God also supplied another most opportune way of dissolving what had been begun. For the man whom they had sent to the owner of the latter house, to complete the purchase by paying the price he had asked, reported back that the house would not be for sale unless they added three hundred gold pieces beyond what had been agreed; although both he in demanding the price and the nuns in offering it had already gone beyond what was fair: and so the agreement came to nothing.
[77] bought by her As soon as possible, therefore, the houses situated beside the little church of the Blessed Virgin of the Street were bought at a fairly cheap price: for whose restoration those two canons supplied money; in whom individually, as in absolutely all the people of Palencia, the blessed Mother found such charity that she was amazed, and at all times extolled it as a thing not of this time but of the infant Church. Since the image of the Most Holy Virgin was situated in an inconvenient place, the bishop ordered a chapel to be built for placing it b. Little by little all the other things too were being arranged in fitting order. As soon as the house had been adorned, the prelate, who for that reason returned from Valladolid to Palencia, ordered the nuns to move there with solemn pomp. Within the octave of Corpus Christi, therefore, the cathedral chapter, the religious families and the citizens having been gathered into one column, Teresa with her companions, clad in white mantles and with faces covered by veils, in the manner of a procession, joyful harmony resounding, were led to the parish church near the little church of Blessed Mary the Virgin. Here that image of the Mother of God of which I have spoken was carried to meet them, and thence the Venerable Eucharist was brought into the little Marian church, with the great congratulation, joy and pious applause of all. And because the house had before got the name of St. Joseph, and the church which they fitted for themselves was commonly named Blessed Virgin Mary of the Street, the monastery was called by both names together.
[78] is transferred. To establish the beginnings of this house Teresa took with her c Agnes of Jesus, Catalina of the Holy Spirit, María of St. Bernard and Juana of St. Francis: and from Salamanca she called Isabel of Jesus, whom she designated prioress and who today presides over the convent of Salamanca, and also Beatriz of Jesus, to whom she entrusted the office of subprioress and who now governs the house of Soria. While these things were being done at Palencia, the separation of the Discalced from the Calced Carmelites was likewise made; and Fr. Jerónimo Gracián was elected first provincial of the Discalced, as I have already indicated above. This was one of the things which could most refresh the blessed Mother in this life, and which she longed more ardently to see than anything, because she understood that it contributed very greatly to the divine service and to the good and tranquillity of her Order. And when one night in this convent Teresa was occupied in writing, she seemed so absorbed in mind that she did not at all perceive a nun entering her room and sitting beside her: who then, looking at her more curiously, saw her laying the pen down from her hand at intervals, drawing sighs from the bottom of her breast, and shining forth from her face certain rays as of the sun and so brilliant a splendour that, struck with a certain reverence, she did not dare to look at her further.
Chap. XI.
[79] Before Teresa departed from Palencia, she received a letter from Doctor Velázquez d, Shortly after at Soria then bishop of Osma, and afterwards archbishop of Compostela, whom she had formerly known familiarly as canon of Toledo and had often employed as confessor (as has already been recorded above) and to whom she had given an exact account of her affairs not without notable profit; in which he asked her to come to Soria for the sake of establishing a house. He was then staying in that town, which is part of that diocese. The cause of writing was the pious desire of an honourable matron, who greatly desired to establish a house for the Discalced nuns. He had promised her that he would so settle the matter with Teresa that she would not think it a burden to come there: and for this reason he sent her this letter. She who desired to found the house was a widow, by name Beatriz de Beaumont e: who, because she abounded in fortune and had no offspring, had resolved to build out of it a convent of nuns. When she asked her prelate's opinion on this business, and he had made mention to her of the convents being erected everywhere by Teresa of Jesus, at her request the prelate wrote to Teresa. For this foundation she contributed an immense house, well built and situated in an excellent place, with all things necessary for furnishing it added, and five hundred gold pieces of annual revenue from the royal treasury, to be reckoned at the twentieth penny: and the bishop added to them a church situated nearby, founded on solid construction.
[80] at the invitation of the bishop of Osma This pleased the blessed Mother and also the provincial, who happened then to have come to Palencia. To her moreover it was the more acceptable because in this way she could gratify the good prelate, and the occasion would be given of seeing him in person and communicating with him about the matters of her soul. Whence the bishop called them to him as soon as possible, and Teresa brought with her seven nuns, the pious foundress so requesting: Catalina of Christ, who afterwards presided over the house as prioress, Beatriz of Jesus her vicaress, María of Christ, Ana of St. John the Baptist, María of Jesus, María of St. Joseph, Catalina of the Holy Spirit, and one lay sister, by name María of St. John the Baptist, a fervent handmaid of God, who died not so long ago at Pamplona. This nun I knew familiarly, because she was a native of the town of Villacastín f; and I dealt with her frequently from her first conversion: she was always excellent in religion and humility and monastic silence, and both before and after entering upon religious life she shone before her equals with good example. There set out likewise with Teresa her faithful companion Anne of St. Bartholomew, whom I have already mentioned above: of whom I should have more things to record too, were it not my purpose to speak only very briefly of those still living. Thither too she was accompanied by Nicolás of Jesus Mary, who at this very time when these things are being written by me is Vicar General of the whole Order, a man of exceptional spirit and prudence, and especially useful to his family, not only since this office was entrusted to him, but also before. He by his prudence was a great help to the blessed Mother in her labours; hence too he was most dear to her and was held in very great esteem by her.
[81] the Saint erects a monastery: Moreover, on this journey they had to undergo few inconveniences; because a public officer had been sent by the bishop, who supplied the expenses of the journey and provided those travelling with convenient lodging along the way. And Teresa took the greatest delight in hearing the things that were said everywhere about the bishop's holiness in all the towns to which she came. At length they arrived at Soria at the fifth hour after midday, and as they were carried past the episcopal house the prelate, who was waiting for them at the window, deigned to give them his blessing from afar: which brought Teresa the greatest consolation, because this blessing came down from a prelate and a most holy man g. Beatriz de Beaumont was waiting with ardent desire before the doors of the house in which the convent was to be erected for them as they came. But how they were to enter the house scarcely appeared; because an immense force of people, eager to see them, had flowed together here from every side. She herself had furnished the house with all necessary equipment, and had excellently adorned a certain hall, which was to serve in place of a sanctuary until the passage through which they were to pass to that church with which the bishop had presented them should be finished. On the following day, then, sacred to the Prophet Eliseus, the day after the Ides of June h of the year 1581, the divine rite began to be performed there for the first time, and possession was taken i: moreover the name of the Most Holy Trinity was given to the place. And on the day on which the Lord's Transfiguration on the mountain is kept, in the same year, the most sacred vessel of the Altar was brought with notable pomp into the church presented by the prelate: which solemnity, because the prelate had already withdrawn from there, Fr. Francisco de la Carrera of the Society of Jesus honoured by preaching a sermon to the people.
[82] this accomplished, she proceeds to Ávila; Possession having now been taken, but before the Eucharist was brought into the oratory contributed by the bishop, I myself, passing through Soria on my return from Rome, visited Teresa to my very great consolation; as in the preceding year, going off to Rome k, I met her at Valladolid, whither she had come on her way to Palencia. But I remember this Soria visit better, both because it was the last (for thereafter it did not befall me to see her), and also because even now I grieve that, having stayed there four days, I learned only on the last of them that Teresa was there; had I learned it at the beginning of my arrival, I could have gathered manifold fruit and consolation from her holy conversation all that time. These things having been settled at Soria, since she had to return to Ávila, she set out, accompanied by Anne of St. Bartholomew. On this journey both suffered great difficulties, because the roads were inconvenient, and especially for carts; and he who had offered himself as their guide did not know the king's highway, being acquainted only with the paths. Hence it was necessary for them sometimes to get down, and to lift up the vehicle as it were on their shoulders, on account of the precipices of the roads that pressed upon them. There were times when they were in present danger lest the cart, its wheels overturned, should fall headlong; not to mention also the vehement heats by which they were scorched. On the day before the birthday of St. Bartholomew the Apostle she arrived at Segovia, where she was received most kindly by her daughters, who feared, because evening was already coming on, that she had met with some danger on the way: and having stayed with them eight days and more, she made her way to Ávila.
Chap. XII.
[83] At Ávila at the beginning of September of the same year
1581 she arrived: whence, to inaugurate the foundation of Granada and since her daughters living in the house of St. Joseph were possessed by a great desire of keeping her with them, they began to treat among themselves of taking her as prioress; and so María of Christ, who was then governing the house, obtained from the provincial that, she being removed from this office, Teresa of Jesus should be elected in her place. At that time this house was labouring under great penury; but so provident a governess was set over it that from the first moment of the election up to the present nothing of temporal supports has been lacking; nay rather the matter has been brought so far that, although the house was burdened with immense debt, not only were those debts thenceforth discharged, but it has also been furnished with sufficient resources, so that it may not hereafter be reduced to similar want. And if a notable increase was made to the house through her as to temporal things, a far greater increase indeed came to each of the nuns in the things pertaining to the beauty of the soul, as they had daily before their eyes the perfect image of all the virtues which they had received from God. Teresa had not yet stayed two months at Ávila, when John of the Cross, one of the first Discalced Fathers, was brought there, hiring horses and whatever seemed to serve for undertaking the journey, so that she might travel to Granada to establish a house. For he judged that, because this was the first house of this Institute to be raised in that kingdom, Teresa must necessarily be present at the beginnings of this foundation.
[84] she sends out nuns. But she saw that she could not go there, because she was already destined for the foundation of Burgos, of which we shall treat in the following chapter; for that reason she chose two of her nuns who would be suitable for inaugurating this matter at Granada: the first María of Christ, who had lately ended her priorate so that it might be entrusted to Teresa, and who now governs the house of Malagón; and the other Antonia of the Holy Spirit. These, setting out on the vigil of St. Andrew, lodged at Granada in the house of Ana de Peñalosa, at whose request this house was being erected, and who energetically contributed her help to it; and from her kindness they received food during all the time it was necessary. But shortly the nuns enrolled in this company brought, besides exceptional endowments of soul, such goods of fortune also as would suffice for necessary uses. There was at Granada a certain man of great name l, a keen adversary of the Discalced nuns, upon whose house lightning fell at a wintry and unwonted season: which so struck him that not only did he thereafter lay aside the rancour of his mind, but he also liberally contributed alms of his own. The blessed Mother does not mention this monastery in her book of Foundations, because, when she departed this life, it had not yet been completed nor did it possess a house of its own. Anne of Jesus, who now exercises the office of prioress at Madrid, was appointed its first prioress, and María of Christ her vicaress.
ANNOTATIONS.
Chapter VI.
The foundation at Burgos.
Chap. XIII.
Although the time was now pressing on in which Teresa was to pass to a more blessed and better life, in which she would enjoy everlasting quiet, At the exhortations of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, yet the Lord granted her no relaxation in this life; that she might merit in this world the crown of that eminent glory which was destined for her in the other. Hence he willed her to go off to lay the foundations of the house of Burgos, so that in it, namely, that most pure gold of her charity might be rendered purer by bearing adversities with a patient and glad mind, and that this holy soul might go on disposing itself thoroughly for the glory that awaited her. So the Lord reproved her when she was growing slack at Valladolid in pressing on with foundations, and by admonishing her spurred her to begin those of Palencia and Burgos (which we pursued three chapters back). Teresa had already observed by experience that, whenever she had to bear singular adversities in founding houses, she was always wont to be forewarned by the Lord, who animated her by words and deeds, which he was not accustomed to do in the others. Six years and more had now rolled by since some grave Fathers of our Society had written to the blessed Mother that it would be for the good of the things of God if she founded a house of her nuns at Burgos. She indeed was borne in mind toward this, but she had not yet fully decided it within herself; until at length, the Lord exhorting her, as we have already said, she resolved to carry out this purpose. Meanwhile, however, she judged that the matter should be deferred a little, while she completed the foundations of Palencia and Soria, namely up to the time to which we have now come.
[86] by the promises of the archbishop of Burgos Moreover, while she was staying at Valladolid, before she made for Palencia, she asked Cristóbal Vela, formerly prelate of the Canaries and then archbishop of Burgos, who had come near Valladolid but had not entered the town, through the prelate of Palencia, to give her leave to bring the Institute of the Discalced nuns into his city. The archbishop, as he was most reverent toward the divine Majesty and most zealous for increasing his worship, promised that he would most willingly bestow it. He then admonished the prelate of Palencia by letter, and ordered it to be signified to Teresa that she should obtain that power for herself from the governors of the city: for that monastery had either to be secured with annual revenues or the faculty of introducing it had to be granted by the council. She therefore set out for the city of Burgos. Moreover, Vela had written these things at the time when Teresa had gone off to the foundation of Soria; whence she gathered that there would be greater difficulty than expected in obtaining the commonwealth's leave. But before she made for Soria, relying on the hope the archbishop gave, she thought she already had the matter in her hands; and at Palencia she gave Catalina de Tolosa the charge of hiring for her at Burgos a house in which possession could be taken, and of fitting in it latticed grilles and a turn in her name.
[87] and animated by divine admonitions, Catalina was conspicuous for noble birth, piety toward God, liberality toward the poor and great wealth, and was so affected toward the Order of the Discalced nuns that she had already dedicated two daughters to the convent of Valladolid, and two others to the newly founded one of Palencia, before Teresa departed from there. Moreover, she had the foundation of Burgos so much at heart that she took it ill that it was not made at once. When Teresa was then staying at Ávila and delaying to go to Burgos, Catalina, without the blessed Mother's knowledge, asked the faculty from the magistrates, promising that she would procure a house for the nuns, if it were not available from elsewhere, and would provide for their sustenance. The faculty having been obtained in this way, she reported about it to the bishop. While these things were being done at Burgos, and while Teresa on the octave day of St. Martin was reckoning in her mind what she would do if that faculty were given by the magistrates (for she had understood from Catalina's letters that she was applying herself to this business), and it seemed to her hardly safe in the winter season, with a body so worn, which the cold weather harmed exceedingly, to betake herself to so harsh a soil, and at the same time she was resolving to send the prioress of Palencia in her name, she heard the Lord saying to her: "Do not shudder at the cold: for I am the true warmth. The devil is striving with all his power to disturb this foundation:
you too, in my name, strive that it be brought to its end. Do not neglect to betake yourself thither in person: for great advantage will come of it."
[88] in winter time, From these words she easily understood that the opportunity for the matter had already been granted, and made up her mind to set out thither: and this was the reason why she could not begin the house of Granada herself. It was clearly evident afterwards that these were God's words: for had she not gone to Burgos herself, there would have been no hope of accomplishing the matter, as may be perceived in what follows. And although the weather of that sky is very cold, yet she felt it so little that she afterwards kept saying that it had not been more bitter to her than the cold she had already borne before at Toledo. Not many days having intervened, she learned from letters received from Catalina de Tolosa and another woman, her neighbour, that the desired faculty for erecting a house had been given by the magistrates; that haste was needed, and that great danger lay in delay: for the Minim Fathers had recently arrived at Burgos, to bring their family there, and the Calced Carmelites too were pressing ardently that entrance into that city be given them: and not long after the Basilian monks betook themselves to Burgos. For this reason Teresa, girding herself more quickly for the journey, departed from Ávila on the day after the Kalends of January of the year 1582. She was accompanied, as usual, by Anne of St. Bartholomew, and two other companions whom she had called from Alba. Afterwards the number of companions was increased, so that when they set out from Palencia they were nine in all, if you count the blessed Mother a: of these, four, with one lay sister added, were to remain at Burgos; two others were to return with the Mother and her companion. These are their names: Tomasina of St. John the Baptist, Catalina of Jesus, Agnes of the Cross, who at present presides over the house of Huete, Catalina of the Assumption, María of St. John the Baptist, and another Catalina of Jesus, a lay sister. Fr. Jerónimo Gracián, the provincial, was also hastening to the same place, and two others of the number of the Discalced friars.
[89] by a difficult On the very first day on which they set off for this foundation, its hardships too began. For during the greater part of the day they were soaked by continuous rains mixed with snow; whence a paralysis seized Teresa, by which she was sometimes wont to be troubled: at length, however, with great labour they arrived at Medina. Having stayed here three days b, she went to Valladolid; where the vehemence of the disease so laid her low that the physicians said that unless she withdrew from there as quickly as possible, the illness would advance so far that she would have to remain here longer than expected. Departing thence, therefore, she was brought to Palencia. Her arrival here roused such concourses from every side to see and hear her and receive her blessing that they blocked every place for the nuns to get down from the carriages. As soon as she entered the convent, she was received by the nuns with the hymn "Te Deum laudamus"; with which she was wont to be received by her nuns whenever she entered any of her monasteries. The festive decoration of the house betrayed the joy of the nuns, altars having been erected in the court and other things fitted to arouse devotion. During all the time Teresa stayed here she enjoyed the worst health; which the harsh season of the year and the sky foul with rains increased. Everyone dissuaded her from the journey, especially at this season of the year: for it was to be feared that they would perish on the way. But nothing could be brought forward that would deter her generous soul from her purpose. It seemed good, therefore, to send a man ahead to explore the state of the roads. When he had reported everything unfavourable, the pious Mother was distressed in mind; but a divine voice dispelled the distress, saying: "You can go; do not fear: for I will be at hand for you."
[90] and dangerous journey, Animated by these words, she set out on the road again, although it seemed rash to commit herself to a journey with health so prostrate. Moreover, the Lord, the governor of things, stood by his promises: for although they had to undergo the gravest inconveniences and dangers, yet divine providence brought them through to safety. Since the carts had to go along the river, the roads were so obstructed with mud that all the women riding had to get down and go forward on foot, because the vehicles, stuck fast in the mire, could not go on. Then, as they were climbing a certain slope, Teresa saw the carriage in which her companions were riding lean so far over on its side that they seemed on the very point of falling into the water; and that slope indeed was so steep that not even the hands of many could either have rescued them from danger or have checked the impetus of the cart as it rushed down. When a certain young man of the drivers noticed this, grasping one of the wheels he stopped the cart's fall: although he alone did not seem able to hold it back as it slid down; except that God wished to keep his handmaids safe. Teresa, anxious at this danger, because she believed her nuns were on the point of being swallowed up by the whirlpools of the waters, wished her own cart to go before the rest, so that, if any danger had to be met, she herself might be the first to be involved in it. Having got through this labour, in the evening they entered an inn to rest; where no bed could be found for Mother Teresa. Nevertheless it seemed it would be expedient to stay there some days, because it was reported that the further roads would be far more obstructed still.
[91] and gravely afflicted in health, Pontoons had to be crossed not far from the city of Burgos, over which the water had risen to the height of a cubit c; and to the right and left of these too everything far and wide was flooded with very deep waters. That the vehicles might cross these safely, they had hired a man to ford the pontoons: but their narrowness was such that, if the cart swerved even in the least, it would go headlong into the river. The nuns, fearing the danger, made their sacred Confession, and, earnestly asking the blessed Mother's blessing, ran through the Apostles' Creed. To whom the Mother, with an intrepid and open countenance, said: "Come now, my daughters, what greater good do you wish for than, if it were necessary, to meet martyrdom here for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ? Let me be; for I wish to cross first myself: and if it befalls me to be drowned, I beg you most earnestly not to go further yourselves; but return to the inn." Teresa therefore, making herself the leader, made the way safe for the rest. However, she was in the worst health, and paralysis had settled on her tongue: yet when she was present at the divine rite in a certain oratory to which they had gone, and received the sacred Mysteries of the Altar, the bonds of her tongue were loosened and she began to be somewhat better; although the fever did not leave her.
[92] The Saint hastens to Burgos. On this day at length, which fell on the 7th day before the Kalends of February, they were brought to Burgos. But before all else the provincial ordered them to greet the holy Crucifix d, both that they might commend the whole business to him, and that, night coming on, they might be brought into the city with less noise: and when they had been brought in, Catalina de Tolosa, by whom they were being ardently awaited, received them in friendly and kindly fashion. Teresa was then suffering from a quinsy, which so constricted her throat that she could swallow food only with the greatest pain: which malady tormented her right up to the Kalends of August, although not with the vehemence it had at the beginning. And because she had entered the city wet from the rains, that night she sat by the fire longer than usual; but so great an evil followed from it that that very night an immense pain of the head seized her, which was also followed by such frequent vomitings that, her throat being injured, she spat blood. The following day she could not rise to perform the things that needed to be done; hence, the little bed to which she lay fixed being placed at a window looking down into a certain porch, having grilles and covered with a curtain drawn across, she gave answers to those who wished to meet her, standing outside. Very many addressed her here, and above all those sent in the name of the commonwealth to announce that the citizens were so far from repenting of the faculty granted that they even exulted wonderfully at her arrival, asking her besides to see in what matter the commonwealth could gratify her. This speech was a pleasure to Teresa, as one who feared nothing else than that some obstacle should be made for her by the commonwealth. Wherefore, free of this fear, she held the matter as entirely accomplished.
Chap. XIV.
[93] But before she contrived anything, the provincial, going to the archbishop, There, on account of the delays asked him to grant her the faculty of establishing possession, which all thought would be granted without any difficulty. The archbishop, after many questions and answers, came at length to this decision, that he refused to give the power before they should have a house of their own and should be provided to some extent with a fixed income. For so it seemed expedient to him, both because that city was then poor, and because it abounded in convents. And although he did not deny that he had called Teresa, yet he said that he had wished nothing else than that she alone should come to Burgos to treat of the business, and not bring so many nuns with her, as if the matter were already accomplished. And truly both things were done not without the singular nod of God, so that in this way, namely, the affairs of the monastery might succeed better: for had she not arrived with that company, there is no doubt that, the archbishop refusing the faculty, Teresa would have returned with the matter unaccomplished; and further, if she had obtained it as soon as she wished, they would perhaps have lacked both the house and the opportunities which they afterwards got. Hence the bishop of Palencia afterwards wrote to her that God seemed to have conspired in a manner with him that the monastery should be founded as it ought. About the same time a continual fever was burning Teresa, and the quinsy was torturing her throat, so that she could pass nothing solid into her stomach, but only liquids. For this reason, and because it was very troublesome both to herself and to her companions to go out of doors, she asked the archbishop through another that, with his good leave, Mass might be celebrated for them in a certain part of the house in which they were living; because it was very suitable for this, and the Fathers of the Society of Jesus had used it as a church for the space of some years when they first came to Burgos.
[94] the obstacles put by the archbishop in the way of the foundation Not even this would the prelate grant, fearing, as at least I am persuaded, lest possession should be entered upon there and the monastery established without its having either a house of its own or revenues equal to the necessary sustenance. And this he did for the sake of observing the decrees of the Most Holy Council of Trent: for he wished indeed to comply with Teresa, and embraced her with a certain singular love, and had formerly been very intimate with her at Ávila. Meanwhile, while various things were being done back and forth, an interval of three weeks flowed by; meanwhile the nuns did not go to the sacred Mysteries of the Mass except on Sundays and feast-days, and then indeed they went to church very early in the morning through muddy and miry streets. For the rest they were abundantly provided for: for Catalina de Tolosa kept them quite copiously and kindly; as Doctor Manso e, canon magistral of that church, kept the provincial; to which dignity he was elected when he was acting as collegian in the archiepiscopal college at Salamanca, as he had before acted at Alcalá in the college of theologians at the very time when Jerónimo Gracián was also acting as collegian there. When Teresa began to be better,
she resolved to go to the prelate herself, and meanwhile at home her companions in unbroken succession raged against their bodies with scourges, so that, as long as the Mother was pressing the affairs of the monastery outside, some nun at home might propitiate the divine Majesty by chastisement of the body.
[95] in a certain hospital But she employed her efforts with him no more profitably than others had up to then, although, if anyone had looked at her face as she returned, composed as it was to cheerfulness, he would have judged the matter stood otherwise. The provincial, taking it ill that nothing had been accomplished in this business up to then, had already resolved to return with his nuns with the matter unaccomplished. This seemed very bitter to Teresa, because the Lord had exhorted her to inaugurate the matter in his name: hence she was persuaded that this business would be accomplished with heavenly help; and nothing afflicted her more than to see Gracián sorrowful. To her, then, prostrate on account of this anxiety of mind, the Lord said: "Now take courage, Teresa." Animated by this admonition, she exhorted the provincial with greater generosity than before to hasten his own departure, but to leave her with her nuns at Burgos: for the Lenten holidays were at hand, during which he had to preach to the people at Valladolid (as indeed he did). He and Doctor Manso therefore took pains that some rooms in the hospital named of the Conception, in which the Eucharist was reserved and the divine rite performed daily, should be turned over for their use. But the matter was put off longer and lay open to the detractions of opponents. For a certain widow, having hired the most convenient of those rooms (although she was not to move there until after six months), not only refused to yield it, although it was next to the cells assigned to the nuns, whose roof was full of cracks; but also, as if it were not enough to close it from outside, she ordered beam-nails to be driven in on the inside, so that it might be unfit for use.
[96] the nuns stay for some time; Besides this, the members of the confraternity to whose care that hospital had been entrusted feared lest the nuns should little by little fix a permanent seat here: wherefore they would not admit them until, before a public notary, both the provincial and Teresa herself, deeds having been drawn up, promised that they would go out from there whenever it should seem good to the heads of the confraternity. The topmost part of the hospital was assigned them, whence through a grilled window there lay open a view for hearing Mass. This was empty of inhabitants, because no one wished to live in it, as it was half-ruined: and since it was under a thin roof and in a lofty place, it was exposed to the winter colds; which was certainly especially harmful to the blessed Mother's health. Moreover, the place was said to be infested by nocturnal spectres: some frightening things that presented themselves to the nuns there gave credence to it. However, there were not wanting at Burgos those who, excellently disposed toward them, liberally supplied necessaries, and among these Catalina de Tolosa shone forth, by whom they were visited daily, although her house was some way off, and from whom they received all necessaries, her kindness never failing. On the day before the birthday of St. Matthias they entered this hospital. Meanwhile houses for sale were being sought throughout the whole city; so that, these being at length acquired, the archbishop might not show himself so difficult in granting the faculty: but right up to the vigil of St. Joseph no convenient house offered itself; because in those offered up to then very many things were always found wanting.
[97] until at length, Meanwhile the blessed Mother was vehemently distressed, because the members of the confraternity had said that they granted the use of that hospital only up to the Easter holidays, which were at hand. Whence it was necessary that, if no house offered itself meanwhile, they should depart from Burgos with the matter unaccomplished. At length the house of a certain patrician had been put up for some days; and although very many religious companies were at that time seeking a house (as we have already said before), yet by God's providence it came about that it pleased none of them: at which they afterwards wondered not a little; nay, some of them greatly repented that they had not bought it. It had already been reported to the Mother; but she had heard of so many inconveniences of it that she had long since put off all inclination toward it, nay even the memory of it. But because none other was found in the city, nor did any hope of having another shine forth, setting her mind on it again, she ordered it to be bought in this state: for if it afterwards displeased, it could easily be resold to another. When, then, she had gone to look at it, she found it so pleasing to her that, if the seller had demanded double the price at which she had heard it would be for sale, she would not unwillingly have paid it, and would even then have believed it had been yielded to her at a cheap price; for the same price had already been offered to its owner two years before, and he had not been willing to sell at it. Nevertheless it seemed to some dearer than was fair: hence, although to Teresa it seemed below a fitting price, yet she held it a matter of conscience to offer whatever should be demanded; because it was to be paid not from her own money but from the common money of the whole Order: wherefore she declared that she would come back to the bargaining after Mass. Commending the matter meanwhile to the Lord in prayers, she heard these words from heaven: "What? Are you delaying on account of money?"
[98] bought Then at length, the agreement having been entered into, it was settled on the same vigil of St. Joseph: for all had prayed this Saint that they might have a house on his feast-day. And as it was conceived, so it was done; although for many days before absolutely none had come up, nay even on the morning of that day there had been no hope or sign of finding one. As soon as this became known among the people, very many buyers came: for no one had persuaded himself that it would have been for sale at so low a price; and they said that the seller had wished in a manner to give the house away for nothing, and, since the mistake was so manifest, that the contract ought to be rescinded. But the owner of the house and his wife, learning of what had been transacted in the city (for they were then away), and hearing that their house had been turned into a monastery, were flooded with great joy and willed the agreements made to be ratified. The deeds of sale having therefore been drawn up, Catalina de Tolosa at once paid a third part of the price with notable munificence; and the rest of the sum she afterwards contributed with no less liberality. It seemed to all very like a prodigy that so splendid a house should be acquired at so cheap a price, and that the religious of other Institutes, by whom this house too had been inspected, had been so blind as to neglect it as by no means expedient for themselves: which imprudence everyone turned to their reproach. And besides those religious whom we said were seeking a house at Burgos, namely the Minims, the Calced Carmelites and the monks of St. Basil, suitable houses were also being sought for two other convents of nuns and for a certain other monastery to be founded.
[99] and the house, furnished All of them had inspected this one, all likewise neglected it, being in darkness in their own affairs; although afterwards one and the same repentance seized each of them. The licentiate Aguiar contributed notable effort here, spending himself on this business with a certain great charity, and urging Teresa to enter upon possession of this house immediately: had he not insisted, nothing would yet have been accomplished. He applied himself diligently to it for a month and more, helping and designing how it should be fitted up; in which neither much time nor much money was needed. As soon as Teresa saw it so restored that it seemed to have been built for her uses from the beginning, and indeed in so short an interval of time, she was heaped with incredible joy, nay it seemed to her as it were a dream to see everything accomplished so quickly. Wonderful consolation followed for the nuns too: for besides that the house was convenient, it was furnished moreover with a garden and water and pleasant views.
[100] for monastic uses, Nor was the archbishop's joy less when he learned that a house had been provided for them. Hence he went twice to congratulate Teresa, and inspected the house: yet he refused the faculty of establishing the house, nay even of celebrating Mass (which the nuns earnestly pressed upon him, that they might not have to go out of doors). Hence, after they had moved into this house (which was done two or three days after the purchase), for a whole month they had to go to the nearest church to hear Mass. Weary of these evasions, Teresa wrote to Mendoza, prelate of Palencia, that he might obtain this power from the archbishop by his authority: and when they were expecting it at Easter, for the first three days of Easter they were disappointed in their hope; so that it was necessary for them, not without great trouble, to go out of doors to be present at Mass. But on the fourth day Fernando de Matanza, who failed them in no place, brought the desired faculty, which the archbishop had granted at the intercession of the bishop of Palencia and Doctor Manso. But Teresa herself, to whom trust had never been lacking in any matter, had the night before begun in some measure to mistrust; and so all, but above all Catalina de Tolosa, had cast away hope and courage. Moreover Fernando de Matanza, bringing the letter of faculty, without uttering a word, set about ringing the bell; which ringing was for them the signal of glad news. Hence on the following day, which was the 13th day before the Kalends of May of the year 1582, the most august Body of Christ was duly placed here, possession of the place entered upon, and the name of St. Joseph and St. Anne given to the monastery.
[101] the foundation is completed. Doctor Manso offered the first Host to God here: and the High Mass was celebrated by the prior of the convent of St. Paul of the Order of Preachers, with great ceremony, with the festive concert of singers and harpers coming of their own accord, with the great accord of all ranks. Moreover, Catalina de Tolosa did not think it enough to pay the price of the house to the seller and to supply the necessary supports, unless she also contributed the household equipment, little beds and other conveniences. She had promised besides an annual income, the deeds of which promise had already been drawn up; but on account of the inconveniences and lawsuits and disturbances that might perhaps arise from it against Catalina de Tolosa, the provincial and Teresa judged that they should abstain from receiving it: wherefore a few days afterwards, renouncing it very secretly before a public notary, they returned her deeds to Catalina f. Nevertheless, when it befell two of her daughters, whom Teresa had received into the family at Palencia, to make their monastic vows, although they had before assigned their lawful portion to their mother, she willed that they should transfer this portion to the rights of the monastery of Burgos. And God, Best and Greatest, repaid her this liberality excellently. For Teresa, while still staying at Burgos, gave the sacred habit to one of her daughters: which solemnity the archbishop too honoured by preaching a sermon to the people, in which, testifying both his goodwill toward this Order and his joy at its introduction here, he said he grieved that its foundation had been put off so long. Nay further, by the inspiration of the same God, she herself afterwards entered this Order at Palencia, called Catalina of the Holy Spirit; and at this very time when I am writing these things I should believe she has made her vows to God. Afterwards too two of her sons passed into the company of the Discalced Friars; and so there was fulfilled in her what the royal Prophet sang: "The generation of the righteous shall be blessed" (Ps. CXI, 2).
[102] The new convent is afflicted by a flood of waters. When Teresa was now living joyfully with her nuns in their own house and in monastic enclosure, on the very day of the Ascension
of the Lord the river of Burgos swelled so with onrushing waters that, flooding far and wide through all parts of the city, it wrought great havoc, and compelled the religious themselves, forced to leave their houses, to move elsewhere, lest by staying longer in them they should be overwhelmed by the sudden force of the waters. For such was the onrush of the waves that the foundations of houses were undermined and buried corpses floated up out of the earth. This new house was in especially great peril, both because it was on level ground and because it was situated not far from the river. Teresa's friends urged her, after the example of other religious, to provide for herself by flight: but since she could not be brought by any reasons to do this, she ordered the Most Holy Body of Christ to be carried to the topmost part of the house, and wished her nuns to go up to the same place and there to implore help by reciting the Litanies of the Saints, until the water should subside. And the archbishop and very many citizens said that God had turned away the danger of the flood from the city for this reason, that Teresa was then staying in it. She willed that Tomasina of St. John the Baptist, who had before been prioress of the house of Alba, should preside over her nuns there; and she joined to her as vicaress Catalina of Jesus, whom she had summoned from Valladolid.
ANNOTATIONS.
Chapter VII.
The last illness, death and burial of St. Teresa.
Chap. XV.
These things having been settled, Teresa strove with continual supplication of the Lord Teresa at Alba, whither out of obedience that, since by his direction the beginnings of this monastery had been happy, he would also bring it about that it should lack nothing not only for sustenance, but not even for the other conveniences of life; hence this was the sum of her wishes, that before she left there she might see some maidens give their names to this house, by whose dowries the affairs of the monastery might be made firm. As she was turning these things over, the Lord said to her: "Why do you doubt? For the matter has already been settled, so that you may depart in safety." Hence Teresa divined that, the Lord taking upon himself the care of that house, the necessary supports of food would never at any time be lacking to it: and so this promise made her secure, just as if an ample annual revenue had been left to it. Wherefore, not many days having intervened, she began to treat of her return. For it seemed to her that her services at Burgos would by no means be necessary thereafter. Everything therefore having been prepared for the return, she made her way from Burgos to Palencia, and thence to Medina, having it in mind to go thence straight to Ávila, where she was acting as prioress, and to confer the sacred veil on Teresa of Jesus in that same place. But the Most High had determined the matter otherwise. For at Medina she found Fr. Antonio of Jesus, then placed over the province with vicarial power. He was awaiting the blessed Mother's return, to conduct her to Alba at the urgent request of the duchess María Enríquez. As soon as she learned this from Antonio, she experienced a great repugnance in herself; because she believed her presence at Ávila to be very necessary, and took it ill that her journey should be hindered on the duchess's account. It cannot be believed, then, how great a difficulty she suffered here in her mind. But, because she had always obeyed most promptly the commands of her superiors, she did not think it a burden here too, so near to death, to comply with the greatest perfection she could; imitating him, namely, who became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Philipp. II, 8).
[104] betook herself, She was carried to Alba, therefore, in a litter, not without immense labour and in the worst health. Whence, when she had arrived at the nearest village, Peñaranda, she suffered such immense pains and so great a languor of strength, her body being exhausted, that she fell into a swoon; by which sad spectacle she moved every one of those standing by to pity. Nothing that might be given the languishing woman to restore her strength was at hand except figs, and not even a single egg could be found in the whole village. Anne of St. Bartholomew above all grieved that she could bring no relief to the pious Mother placed in such great necessities. But she consoled her: "Do not be distressed, dearest," she said; "for these figs are very good: many poor people do not have even such as these." On the following day, as they came to another village, they could make up the straits of the previous day's meal only with boiled greens mixed with onion: yet with these she satisfied her hungry stomach as best she could, although this food was adverse to her health. That same night she was brought to Alba, on the vigil of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist. When she had arrived here with her body exhausted and afflicted, Juana of the Holy Spirit, the prioress, and her companions asked her with the most earnest entreaties to settle herself to rest for a little; and she obeyed their counsels and entreaties, saying: "Good God, how wearied I feel! I do not remember having gone to bed so early as today these twenty years."
[105] she is seized with her last illness. Yet in the morning, snatching herself up from her couch, she carefully went round the whole house and went to the church to be present at the divine rite; where also with notable fervour of soul and feeling of devotion she partook of the sacred banquet of the Eucharist: and so, now falling into sickness, now rising from her little bed, she drew out some days; until on the day of St. Michael the Archangel, when, having heard Mass and received the Sacrament of the Eucharist (which she frequented daily with her accustomed devotion), she had gone to bed a, she did not rise from it any more: for she began to suffer from a flux of blood, of which she is believed to have died. Three days before she gave up her spirit, she spent almost a whole night in prayer: and when it dawned, she called to her Antonio of Jesus, to attend to her as she confessed her faults. The report is that the day of her death was then revealed to her by the Lord. For certain nuns heard Fr. Antonio, after he had received her confession, saying to her that she should pray the Lord not to lead her out of this life so early, nor that she herself should desert her nuns so soon: to whom the Mother then replied that she no longer seemed necessary in this world. At the same time she began to bring forth very many salutary admonitions to her daughters; and although she had never left them off up to then, yet now, as being nearest the end, she brought them forth with greater ardour and a more evident sign of love b.
[106] with the Sacred Viaticum of the Body of Christ On the day before that on which the birthday of St. Francis is celebrated, at the fifth hour of the evening, she asked for the most august Viaticum of the Lord's Body: for she was by now so weak in body that she could not move on her couch, nor turn on to the other side except by the hands of others. Meanwhile, while the sacred pledge of the dying was being brought, she began to address her nuns thus with joined hands: "I beseech you in the Lord, my daughters and ladies, to observe the primitive laws and constitutions of the Institute as entirely as possible: do not, I pray, regard the bad example which this little diligent religious has given you; but whatever I have failed in this very respect, I would wish pardon of it to be given me by you." As soon as she saw the Lord whom she so ardently loved enter the door of her room, although before she had been so prostrate in health and so beset by the straits of the disease that she could not move from her place, she raised herself spiritedly in the bed, no one helping her, just as if she wished to leap out of it; so that it was necessary to hold her back: and her face began to put on an unwonted beauty and glow and to appear far other than before, at the same time too to show a certain awe-inspiring majesty, and an age not that of life which she was, but far younger.
[107] refreshed with immense fervour of soul Then she, like some most white swan, with joined hands, with the greatest spirit, and filled with interior joy, the end of life being at hand, began to sing with a greater sweetness of voice than ever before; and, conversing with her supreme Good, whom she had before her eyes, she poured out from the abundance of her mind certain sublime, sweet and loving words. And these among others: "There has now come, my Lord and Spouse, that longed-for hour which I have so often desired. It is now time that we should see one another. It is now time to go, Lord; may it be happy and auspicious: thy will be done. The hour has come at last in which I shall go out of this exile and my soul shall enjoy together with thee that which it has so greatly desired." Then she gave him immense thanks because he had begotten her in the Church and granted her to die in it, and she repeated this again and again: "At last, Lord, I am a daughter of the Church." At the same time too with a great feeling of devotion she asked pardon of the Lord for her offences, and said that she hoped through the merits of Jesus Christ that she would be granted eternal salvation: she besought her daughters too to ask this for her from the Lord; and humbly asked their pardon. When they in turn begged the Mother to address them for the last time, she would say nothing else than that they should keep the statutes of the rules and constitutions to the nail, and always render sincere obedience to their superiors; which admonition she repeated several times. Meanwhile she very often redoubled those little verses: "A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit: a contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Cast me not away from thy face, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Create a clean heart in me, O God." And above all that middle verse, "A contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise," recurred again and again to her lips, until speech failed her.
[108] and fortified with Extreme Unction, When she had asked for the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, she received it with great reverence at the ninth hour of the night, on the same vigil of St. Francis, helping the nuns with her voice as they recited the Psalms and responding to the several prayers. The Sacrament having been received, she again gave thanks from her heart to the supreme Majesty because he had made her a daughter of the Church. Then Antonio asked her
of Jesus whether she wished her body to be transferred to Ávila or to remain at Alba. So far as could be gathered from her face, this question displeased her; and she said: "Is it fitting that I should have anything of my own? Will a little bit of earth be denied my body here?" That whole night she suffered most intense pains, among which she did not cease to repeat very often those verses of the Psalm above. The next day, at the seventh hour of the morning, she lay down on her side, in exactly the posture in which St. Mary Magdalen is commonly represented by painters, clasping tightly in her hand an image of Christ crucified, which she did not let go until the nuns took it from her hands when she was about to be carried to the tomb. Meanwhile she showed a glowing face, as one who, in great quiet and composure of body, thenceforth not moving at all, was continually engaged in interior contemplation.
[109] she dies most peacefully. And after she had now come to the end of life, a certain one of the nuns, gazing at her more attentively, seemed to herself to note in her sure signs of Christ speaking to her and showing her wonderful great things: for Teresa displayed the evident gestures of someone marvelling at the things she was seeing. In this way she remained until the ninth hour of the evening, and on that very Thursday, sacred to St. Francis, the 4th day before the Nones of October, in the year 1582 (this was the year in which the correction of the Calendar was made c, ten days that had accumulated being taken out of it; and for that reason the first day after her death was the fifteenth of the same month), she gave back her soul to her Creator, Pope Gregory XIII of glorious memory occupying the Chair of Peter, and the Catholic King Philip, second of that name, reigning in the Spains. Her birthday, as I remember having said at the beginning, fell on the 5th day before the Kalends of April of the year 1515: whence we make out that she lived sixty-seven years, six months and seven days. She lived forty-seven years in religious life; of which she spent the first twenty-seven in the convent of the Incarnation, and the last twenty under the primitive rule of the Carmelites. So tranquil was her death that those who had often seen her praying believed that now too she was engaged in more attentive prayer.
Chap. XVI.
[110] When this holy soul departed from the body, her face appeared most beautiful and contracted into no wrinkles, A most sweet fragrance although, while she lived, very many furrowed her aged face: her whole body too displayed a wonderful whiteness, and no wrinkle, so that you would have called it the smoothest alabaster. The flesh was no less soft and pliant than the flesh of a child of two or three years is wont to be. In her, then, one could see what St. Bonaventure relates of St. Francis (in the Life, chapter XV), namely that his flesh appeared white as snow, foreshadowing even then on earth the glory with which it is afterwards to be endowed in heaven. Likewise her limbs yielded so soft and flexible to those who touched them that they seemed to show a childlike tenderness; nay, they displayed I know not what beauty, which would be a proof of innocence and holiness. Her whole body also exhaled a most sweet fragrance; which no one could say what scent of spices it resembled: whose sweetness also afterwards increased at intervals, and at length became of such vehemence that, because it struck the heads of those present, it had to be tempered by letting in air from outside, a window being opened. This was done in a certain lower room of the monastery (in which the nuns are now wont to meet every week for holding chapter): yet much fragrance also flowed down even to the upper room; nay indeed it was spread through the whole house that night and the following day, and also to the blessed Mother's clothes and coverlets and all the things that had served her in her sickness, and so fragrantly indeed that even many days afterwards a certain sister, smelling this fragrance in the kitchen and inquiring rather curiously whence it flowed, at length found under a chest a certain small salt-cellar containing salt in which there remained traces of the blessed Mother's fingers, from when it was brought to her in her sickness, and it was found that the fragrance came from it.
[111] flows from her body; This fragrance clung also to the dishes she had used and to the water with which her body was washed after death: and if in any corner or among the clothes taken off there lay hidden anything that had touched her, it gave forth the same fragrance, and from it those smelling it could conjecture that something lay hidden here that had once served her use. The nun who committed her sacred body to the earth, when, shortly after that pious office had been performed, she had washed her hands thinking of nothing less, there began to break forth from them so great a sweet scent that it seemed nothing but heavenly, because she had never perceived the like on earth until then. Nor indeed do I wonder so much that she then began to breathe the sweetest odours, when God now wished to give the most open proofs of her holiness, as when I begin to consider that such an odour was perceived at intervals even while she lay sick in bed. For it is established that a wonderful fragrance often flowed from her, sometimes indeed while she was suffering rapture, sometimes too when nothing of the kind underlay it, and that both to outsiders and to those of the house. A certain matron of Palencia, with whom Teresa once lodged, testifies to this: for she perceived an odour of that kind whenever she approached her. Likewise her little son, having come nearer to her for the sake of receiving her blessing, when he had perceived this fragrance, afterwards gave this testimony of her: "How fragrant, mother, are the hands of that holy woman!" Anne of St. Bartholomew herself too, whenever in her last illness she either moved her from her place or dressed her, perceived this same fragrance.
[112] by whose touch three nuns are healed, That whole night and right up to the tenth hour before midday of the following day the nuns remained beside this holy body, which for so many years had been the temple of the divine Spirit and the companion of that holy soul, again and again imprinting pious kisses on her feet and hands. There was then living in that convent a nun who, because she had lost all sense of smell, was consumed with grief because she could not perceive that fragrance which the other companions said they perceived. Hence, when she had piously kissed her feet, at once recovering this sense, she smelled what the others did: and this odour too clung to her nostrils for an interval of many days, and also to her hands so persistently that, even though washed very often, they did not cease to be fragrant. Another sister, who was struggling with an intolerable pain of the head and of one eye, recovered her health as soon as she kissed the blessed Mother's feet. Another was suffering from a grave pain of the eyes; hence, when she walked, she held her hand to them: for such was the vehemence of the malady that, unless she pressed them with her hand, she could not go forward. A continual headache too had been tormenting her for four years now. But when she had applied the fingers of the dead Teresa, taken in her hand, to her eyes and moved her hands to her head, no other remedy being employed, she felt relief from both maladies.
[113] and that she is honourably buried. On the following day the body, placed on a bier which was covered with cloth of gold (as she herself had foreseen many years before would come to be, when for some days she lay without motion), was buried with the greatest ceremony that could be had in that township and with most honourable pomp in the hollow of a certain arch in the wall, which in the lower choir is covered with iron grilles and is also seen in the church, so that both those who live outside and those who live within may enjoy the sight of it. The body, covered in its habit, was put into a coffin, which was overwhelmed with so many stones, lime and bricks thrown upon it that no small amount of earth penetrated into it, broken open. This was done by the counsel and will of Teresa Laiz, foundress of this house; since she believed that in this way she rendered the possession of this sacred pledge more secure to this place, so that she would not change this opinion at anyone's persuasion.
[114] The Saint's death is preceded Let us now let our Teresa rest in her sepulchre, until we bring her forth from there (which we shall do at the beginning of the fifth book, namely when there will be a place for narrating the prodigies which happened after her death); and let us relate the wonders which preceded and accompanied her death d. For sometimes the Lord, when one of his foremost servants departs from this life, is wont to send ahead certain signs from which both his holiness and his imminent glory may be known. Some nuns, before this blessed handmaid of God died, several times beheld an immense and glowing star hanging over the sanctuary. Another, between the eighth and the ninth hour of the morning, not far from the window of the place in which the blessed Mother afterwards died, beheld a certain most beautiful ray of crystalline colour. There was one too who beheld two other gleams at the same window of the cell at the same time. In the same year too, sometimes, when they were either singing Matins or engaged in prayer, certain unwonted splendours were seen by the nuns in the choir. However, these spectacles were so frequent to all that they said some singular increase or decrease would come to the Order. In this same summer also, before Teresa came to Alba, when the nuns were engaged in prayer, each of them heard not far from herself a certain gentle and friendly sigh; and on the day on which the blessed Mother departed from this world, the same moan was also heard, and then there came into the mind of each the moan which they had once perceived when engaged in prayer.
[115] and accompanied Omitting very many things of the same kind, I shall add other more illustrious ones. A certain nun of known holiness, who now lives with God in glory, and who was then in charge of the infirmary, when she was sitting at a certain lower window of the same room in which Teresa lay, which looks out into the monastery, heard a certain confused noise as of a multitude exulting and applauding. Then presently there appeared to her very many passing through the convent, flashing with wonderful brightness and clad in white robes: who, entering that same room with applause, so filled it with their multitude that, although all the nuns were present in it, they did not appear. When these then approached the little bed on which Teresa lay, she immediately gave back her soul to her Creator: whence it is clear not obscurely that these had entered at that last moment to bear company to the departing soul. And at the time when she expired, one of the sisters standing by saw a little white dove fly out from the mouth of the one lying there: whence it becomes likely that the Bridegroom then stood by her and said: "Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come" (Cant. II, 10). At the same moment of death too another sister beheld a certain immense crystalline light not far from the window of her room. In the same way, moreover, we read that Jesus Christ the Redeemer stood by St. Gertrude as she was dying, attended on the right by his most beloved Mother Mary and on the left by John the Apostle and Evangelist, and that innumerable other Saints of both sexes joined these, and in particular an immense army of virgins, who during that whole day appeared among the nuns in the monastery clad in white
(Insinuationes, book V, chapter II). Whence I should easily persuade myself that that white-clad multitude was a certain copious troop of virgins, who had come down to lead this so pure virgin and the parent of so many virgins to heavenly glory; were not something else far more certainly established for me.
[116] heavenly signs and visions; The matter stands thus. When in a certain year Teresa was celebrating with great devotion the birthday of the Ten Thousand Martyrs e, in accordance with the affection with which she was animated toward them, that immense multitude of the athletes of Christ showed itself to her to be seen as a sign of thanks, and promised that in the hour of death she would be escorted by them to the heavenly joys and raised to the same degree of glory as themselves; as it was also revealed to St. Gertrude (in the place cited) that there was prepared for her in heaven the glory which those enjoy there who have been placed by the Church of God in the catalogue of the Holy Virgins and have shed their blood for Christ Jesus the Bridegroom. And truly the aforesaid Martyrs seem to have been present to Teresa: for it is most certain that this vision befell her, as I shall declare in the following book. And what I have recounted in this chapter about the wonderful fragrance of her body and other prodigies is an undoubted matter; and I commit it to writing as such, because it could be both perceived with the eyes and touched with the hands. But the prodigies which I have narrated as having happened before her death I have received from those to whom they were presented in vision, whose authority and religion are great, and who would testify nothing but the truth. And since certain revelations are true, surely, if belief is to be given to any, to which could it better be given than to those which happen at such a time when a man illustrious for holiness is about to depart from this life; since they are directed to declaring his holiness, and the demon is not wont to favour the servants of God, nor to approve their holiness by any sign while they are passing, or when they have passed, from this world?
[117] such as are told here and there in the histories of other Saints too All the histories of the Saints are full of visions of this kind. For St. Gregory relates that beside the body of our Martyr Hermenegild most sweet choirs of Angels were heard by night, and further that some testified that they had seen certain lighted torches there (book III of the Dialogues, chapter XXXI): likewise that someone of those standing by saw a dove flying from the mouth of the abbot Spes as he was dying, which, having sought an exit for itself through the roof, made its way in a straight flight to the heavens (book IV, chapter X). And in what follows he writes that the Princes of the Apostles, Peter and Paul, came to the priest Ursinus to lead his soul to the heavenly dwelling; and that to Bishop Probus there came down for the same reason two clad in white and shining like the sun, namely the Holy Martyrs Eleutherius and Juvenal. When Servulus was going out of this mortal prison, he relates that a most sweet harmony was heard by him in heaven, and that while he was listening to it he gave back his soul to his Creator, and that presently a most fragrant odour was perceived by all in that same place. When Romula was expiring, he says that a certain wonderful light was seen in her room, and also that an immense noise was heard as of crowds pressing in: that thereupon a certain most pleasing sweet scent breathed out from the place, which for three days blew upon the nostrils of all; and at length on the fourth night Angels were heard singing not far from there, who were celebrating the funeral rites of the departing Romula, and only then did that holy soul fly away. And he reported that Christ the Lord stood by his aunt Tarsilla as she was departing, and that the whole place was filled with a most delightful odour; and that the Mother of God was present to the girl Musa with a chosen band of other Virgins.
[118] are told here and there. The same Pontiff records other things akin to these; to all of which he himself, although supreme in judgement and likewise in learning, gives credence: for since he equally excelled in holiness, it did not seem new to him that God should work these wonders in his servants. Moreover, whoever turns these things over more attentively in Gregory will find that he had not more witnesses for believing them, nor more certain ones, nor even more worthy of belief, than we ourselves at present have for believing the things I write here. And what we say of Gregory alone may be said of other Saints too, who wrote similar histories of illustrious men. When Bathilda, a nun of the Institute of St. Benedict, was departing, all the nuns beheld St. Genesius the bishop and other Saints coming down to her; in whose company that holy soul was carried up to heaven borne on the wings of singing Angels. While St. Elizabeth was closing the day of her life, birds never before seen by anyone were seen on the roof of the Church, which sang most sweetly. But since my discourse would find no end if I brought each thing in here, I shall add this one thing, that I think, for those whose judgement is purified and who know that maxim of Aristotle to be true, that it belongs to few who know to require the same certainty in every matter (book II of the Metaphysics, chapter III), the things said by me are more than sufficient; but for those who lack this, nothing at all will be sufficient. And that we may know that in these times of ours, when pious men are dying, things similar to those which we hear or read were done in antiquity can happen and in fact do happen, let us run through the histories in which are contained the lives of the holy Friars Pedro Nicolás and Luis Bertrán, and of others who departed not so long before them; and then at length we shall cease to wonder at the things we have said here: since, namely, so great was the holiness of Teresa of Jesus, and so energetically did she apply herself to always promoting the divine glory and procuring the salvation of souls.
ANNOTATIONS.
BOOK FOUR.
PROLOGUE.
With what selection and how great caution there is need in admitting novices.
That the illustrious Institute of St. Teresa From the things that have been said in the two preceding books, anyone may gather in part how deservedly it was said by me in the preface of the second that the things we were then wondering at were small, if they were compared with those which should present themselves to be narrated afterwards, and how truly the Psalmist said: "God is wonderful in his saints, the God of Israel himself will give power and strength to his people, blessed be God" (Ps. LXVII, 36). Hence we can say not without reason to that new and most generous Judith, who inflicted so great a loss on the army of the Assyrians, that is, of the demons: "Blessed art thou by thy God in every tabernacle of Jacob: for in every nation which shall hear thy name, the God of Israel shall be magnified upon thee" (Judith XIII, 31). Here, namely, I see with my eyes what has very often moved even me to amazement, how great an advantage comes to the world from a truly pious person, and how such a one never enters alone, but always carries off innumerable others to follow him; and that Solomon could rightly say: "The multitude of the wise is the health of the whole world" (Wisd. VI, 26): since it is most evidently clear how many souls one wise woman has thoroughly healed by her words and example, and also how many wise women and men she has left after her, to spread and enlarge this health in every direction. This ought surely to suffice us to go forward eagerly in the path of perfection, so that, namely, the Lord's salvation may be communicated through us to many souls and the innumerable sick whom we see everywhere in every place may be restored to health by our efforts, namely to the honour and glory of this mighty Lord, who procured salvation for us only at the loss of his life.
[2] and all the other religious Orders From this thought there was at once born in me another: how great a loss, namely, if Teresa had formerly suffered a refusal when seeking the religious habit and another had been received in her place, both this new family of hers and the whole Church would then have suffered thereby, and how much it matters to enrol this woman or that in the sacred families, and finally how great judgement there is need of in their admission. Moreover all religious Institutes are holy, and all their laws and statutes rest only on the discipline of evangelical perfection, nor does the dissolution and laxer discipline of monasteries ever arise from the constitutions themselves, but from the fact that those who live in them do not keep them as they ought. And the primary cause why they are not observed, and the beginning of all laxer discipline, is both that those are received into religious families who are not called to them by the Lord, and that those who have been admitted are not expelled in good time, if they cannot keep this kind of life and do not allow others to keep it as they ought. For this reason I have very often come to this opinion (and the thing is most true), that I thought the whole good of religious Institutes lay in this, that no others be received into them than those whom it is certainly established are called by God to this kind of life; and then, after they have been enrolled, that diligent attention be paid during the time of probation whether they have been deceived in admitting them; and, if they find they were deceived, that they expel them, no otherwise than a healthy stomach casts out, though not without discomfort, too much food which it has admitted and which would bring harm to the body.
[3] may persist in their vigour, I cannot but say something on this matter in this place, both because I wish these monasteries well, and because I know that nothing more salutary could be said to them by anyone, nor anything that ought more to be said. Further, if, as I remember having said before, this book should last, it will be the greatest pleasure to me always to cry out what I learn, God teaching, is expedient to cry out at every time. Nor do I doubt that it will be most welcome to that divine Majesty, that not only the monasteries to which these things are said may draw profit from them, but other houses too, both of men and of virgins. And for this reason
I ask of the kindly reader leave to spread myself further on this matter, although it may seem to do little for the history which I am constructing. And it will be enough for me if the things which follow next in this preface are read only by those who have already dedicated themselves to Religion or desire to dedicate themselves. Others meanwhile, omitting these, may pass on to the first chapter of the book.
[4] care must be taken lest anyone not called by God In the first place, then, I should greatly wish to remove from the hearts of these nuns a certain harmful kind of piety or natural compassion, which they cover with the honourable veil of charity, and by which it comes about that they make it a matter of conscience either to exclude any woman who wishes to pass into their company, or that one of those whom it is by no means expedient to keep among them should be expelled from the house; because they wrongly persuade themselves that they will be the cause of this soul's lacking so exceptional a good, and that they are therefore not satisfying their duty. This at first sight seems to be zeal for souls and for the divine honour; yet it is nothing but mere temptation. For if these women display the endowments and qualities necessary for Religion, I myself too advise that they be received; but these are not in question. But if they lack them, let this very thing be a proof that they are not called by God. For if he wished them to be members of this Religion, he would also without dispute have given them the things that are necessary for it. For if someone has not displayed the things required for preaching, hearing Confessions or teaching, who would persuade himself that this man has been called by God to these very duties? To admit, then, those whom the Almighty has not called hither, what, I ask, is it but to wish to destroy Religion? For those whom God has not called to this discipline, he will perhaps call to another, or to another kind of life; and in this they will be able to work out their salvation. For God's ways are various and manifold, and he cares more for souls of this kind than the nuns need to. Let them therefore weigh maturely how grave a crime they commit by enrolling them, and they will see with their eyes how truly I have judged that it is mere temptation, and indeed all the more harmful the greater the appearance of charity it bears.
[5] be grafted in among them. For, first, they place that soul in a state far different from that for which God had reserved her, nor will it be well with her there; and so she will bring back no advantage from it (as indeed was hoped), but will rather thus suffer a great loss. Secondly, they in truth lay on her a greater burden than she can bear, so that she, failing under the burden, will fall short in strength and be a bad example both to outsiders and to those of the house. Thirdly, this harmful compassion will be the cause of the superiors' conniving at many of her sins, and so little by little the vigour of Religion will die away. Fourthly, they will give occasion for her suffering the loss of her salvation in this place, whereas, had she been away from it, she would perhaps have placed her soul in safety. Fifthly, the care of another's soul has not been entrusted to them, nor has God laid these duties on them, but only that they should take account of their own and consult the good of their Religion: to harm one's own house and monastery in order to provide for this or that poor woman is so far from being charity that it is even opposed to true charity; for charity looks to the greater good, and for its sake neglects the lesser: for, as Aristotle teaches (book 1 of the Ethics, chapter 11), the more widely a good is diffused, the greater and more divine it is. Sixthly, if what they look to were good and salutary, they ought to admit into their family the most dissolute women they can have; because the salvation of these is in greater peril. This, moreover, is what must be looked to, and what God also wills, that only those be received whom he himself truly calls hither, those, I mean, who have the conditions necessary for this Institute.
[6] Wherefore by diligent examination And to know these, they must first be examined, and indeed with great diligence, such as is required in a business of so great moment. For although those who ask to be received press for their admission and wish it to be as speedy as possible, it is the part of the prioress and of three or four of the seniors to look into them carefully and to engage in conversation with them from time to time on various matters; that they may understand their vocation more thoroughly, exploring, namely, what chiefly impels them to embrace this Institute: at the same time too, searching with their prudent judgement, they should find out what natural endowments they have received from God, note at the same time their face and the constitution of their body, their health and strength; finally they should decide nothing quickly here, lest they afterwards repent of this sudden counsel. It is consonant with reason that, since it belongs to all to give their votes, all should also have the candidate well known to them, at least those who excel the others in age and authority, through whom the rest may then come to knowledge of the matter, and give credence to them. For there are very many who, though they appear excellent and most prudent, yet lack the natural constitution; on the other hand others will have natural strength, but will lack prudence. Nor should they heed and listen to the exaggerations which those by whom they are recommended bring forward, unless perhaps the recommender is such a one whose sincerity is established, and who seeks the good of the house and of the whole Order no less than the nuns themselves; but such will be very few. And this is the more to be feared when those who praise are easily satisfied or extol the matter beyond desert, and especially when it is in the interest of the recommenders that those recommended be received into Religion; which is commonly wont to happen.
[7] the endowments of body and mind, And the greater the difficulty there can be in not admitting them to the making of vows and afterwards dismissing them, the more carefully must the examination be conducted, so that such may be chosen as it will not afterwards be necessary to dismiss. Of those advanced in age, sickly, or of such weak health that they would not be equal to bearing the burdens of the Institute, there is no need to speak; because they, although otherwise good, are to be wholly excluded from the houses: for from the very beginning dispensation must be made for them; whence a handle is given to the older ones for demanding the same dispensation in similar or lesser necessities: and many relaxations break all the force of statutes and laws, and at the same time draw relaxation along with them. But it must be seen, and cautiously indeed, whether she who asks to be received is proud or arrogant, and more tenacious of her own judgement than is fair: for those who are such do not weaken Religion, but destroy it utterly, and set it on fire and lay it waste with dissensions and the partisanship that can follow from them.
[8] condition of life In admitting widows also who have presided over a house and family (although in general not all are to be excluded, provided the requisites are not lacking) the same readiness is not to be used; nay rather their vocation is to be examined more diligently than that of others, because by long practice they have become accustomed to command, to comply with their own will and to arrange their life as seemed good to them; and then because they are bent only with great difficulty, obey very hardly, and most unwillingly subject their judgement to another's, and also because it is grievous to them to leave the road on which they were walking, and to begin the new one which they are taught. And the matter must be weighed still more carefully when they have children, and much more when these have not yet entered upon a fixed state of life: for they will never forget that they are mothers, and so they are perpetually in fear and anguish about the lot of their children. Further, if it is a daughter, even though the mother has her with her before her eyes in the same convent, yet this companionship is harmful both to the one and to the other: for when either is oppressed by sickness or temptation, the other too is oppressed. If too it happens that either is corrected or reproved by the prioress, it cannot but be that the other thinks she too is being chastised and reproved. If ever some matter is to be decided by a majority of votes, both will at once incline to one side; and in monasteries in which there are so few nuns, if even one vote more is added, they can obtain very many things. Further, if it should befall them to be tempted, they would always have at hand one by whom they would be defended, and so they would overturn the state of the convent. That this by no means happens in these monasteries I hold as ascertained: yet it is advisable to warn beforehand, that it may not happen hereafter, nor any occasion of this thing ever be given. Nor again do I say this in order that no widows may be received into this family; but that a diligent examination of them may go first, and that place may be given them only with the greatest difficulty.
[9] and above all the intention These things, moreover, easily manifest themselves from the beginning; but there is another thing about which the holy Mother Teresa warns with notable prudence, and which often escapes even the most clear-sighted examiners, which yet it is of the greatest importance should be examined well and indeed with the greatest caution and drawn out by frequent questions. Many, namely, set their mind on the monastic life for no other reason than to find in it a remedy for some affliction by which they are pressed: and such it is by no means fitting to receive into these convents, which profess so great a rigour and severity of life, and in which there is need of great piety and a notable desire of serving God and suffering for him. The reason of this matter is clearer than the midday sun: for truly they come hither driven not so much by the love of God or by zeal for the cenobitic life as for the sake of finding a temporal remedy. I wish to say it more plainly: namely because they do not find a bridegroom to marry, or because they cannot enjoy in the world the authority or comfort they would wish; so that they are drawn hither rather by a certain vain honour or by fear of disgrace or of labours than by the love of God. If the matter stands so, it is certain that they are not called by God. In what way then are those to be received who are not brought hither by God? Or how can they bear this kind of life, and persevere to the end without any sadness and disquiet of mind, or without showing it to their companions by some sign?
[10] of those who ask to be admitted, He who applies his mind to the priesthood in order that the means of living may be more conveniently available is unworthy to be raised to this sacred dignity: so she who dedicates herself to Religion from some worldly regard, and not for God's sake, does not deserve to be enrolled in it. These perhaps will be able to remain in other monasteries, in which there is a greater provision of these things; but in these, even those who enter sincerely and with a true vocation will often do well if they can resist temptations and persevere in the path of perfection: how much more those who come hither impelled not by the love of God but only by worldly motives? I know it happens that God afterwards sometimes
changes hearts and makes novices of that kind better: but it is the part of sensible nuns not to commit their affairs to chance; but, when they have seen that the aim of such women is not to serve God sincerely and purely, to shut the door to them and deny them entrance. An error at the beginning is immense and especially harmful; and the further it proceeds, the greater the errors it begets and the graver the evils it brings.
[11] are to be thoroughly explored. The sum of all that has been said up to now, then, is this, that the vocation of each one ought to be diligently examined; and if it is certainly found not to come from God, let her find no entrance (for it cannot be but that such a one will bring great disquiet and disturbance to the house in which she dwells), even though she be noble of stock and of outstanding talent and bring such wealth as could abundantly enrich all the monasteries of the province. But if she is truly called by God (which will not be unless she has the endowments we have mentioned above), if she has any goods of fortune, let her bring them with her: for to what work could she better and rather dedicate them? But if she has obtained no dowry, the entrance into Religion is not on that account to be shut to her: for on account of her alone the Lord will bring others who will bring revenues suitable for the sustenance both of themselves and of others.
[12] But since at the very entrance there can be room for deception, But those admitted to the novitiate, because the recommenders urge too importunately and extol with excessive praises those to be admitted, and also because they ask that they be adopted without delay, therefore by ecclesiastical law a whole year is prescribed, in which the vocation, disposition and manners of those admitted may be explored, and whether she truly suits the Order or not. For then trial must be made of all these things: for which reason too this year is wont to be called the year of probation. Wherefore it is the part of the prioresses and of the mistresses of novices and of others to test them in every respect: for unless the former then explore them carefully, the latter will afterwards in turn diligently test the former. For it often happens that an arrogant, ill-mannered or disobedient disposition, hostile to mortification, hides itself during the very year of the novitiate, nay even for some time after, under the cover of submission and new devotion; but when it has got its liberty and has been numbered among the veterans or distinguished with some office, or that devotion has cooled, it breaks out, and only then shows itself when, after the making of vows, there will be no room for a remedy.
[13] if during the year of probation they have not given satisfaction, Wherefore, the shorter the term appointed for recognizing and removing this evil, the greater the account that must be taken in that very year of the novitiate and the more diligently must one look into it. For this reason Teresa would have wished this year to be extended further, and many years to flow by before they made their solemn vows to God (as she knew was done in the Society of Jesus), so that those who were to be admitted to the making of vows might be better known and tested. Moreover, it need not be repeated here again that if any is found who has neither health nor a disposition suited to this Religion, who does not apply herself to prayer or is not made for it, who does not follow humility and clings in mind to earthly things, she is to be dismissed at once; it need not, I say, be repeated any more, since it has already been said before. Besides, the laws grant this very year of probation both that Religion itself may cast out from itself the less fit, and that novices may go out of it who judge that it will by no means suit them. Nevertheless this must be inculcated rather often: for the devil, in order to disturb the peace and quiet of Religious Orders, sets before the eyes of superiors certain human regards, coloured with the appearance of piety, mercy and divine service, which often draw even the most prudent into error. For what greater fraud can be given or thought of than that, in order to show themselves pious toward some private person, they should be cruel to the whole house and Religion? But greater account must be taken of the public good; and whoever truly has the fear of God must needs show a greater fear here too.
[14] all worldly regard being laid aside, Moreover, to fear lest some trouble should arise for the parents of those who are dismissed, or anxiously to heed the criticism of some people here, and on that account to keep such a one in the house, is shameful and base for those to whom God grants a lively desire not only of suffering labours for him, but also of persevering to the end of life in the most grievous torments that the most monstrous tyrants could devise. For in what way would those who daily offer themselves in prayer to undergo such hard things dare to present themselves before him, if they fail in bearing these little ones? In what way will they dare to beseech him to procure increases for their Order, if they themselves overturn it in this way? She who does this can neither nor ought she to call herself a true daughter of Mother Teresa of Jesus, because by human fears she demolishes what that blessed Mother established by divine prayers and supplications. Further, if it should happen that this is done out of greed for money, namely lest a loss be suffered of the fortune which this maiden will bring into the monastery, it would surely be shameful that she who has made a vow of poverty should strive so passionately to shake it off from herself, and that she who dwells in a Religion which trust itself has made firm, and in monasteries which were founded with such great faith and have been preserved and propagated up to now by the same faith, should show so little faith. I indeed should answer them what the Lord said to the blessed Mother when she hesitated: "With what treasures have all the monasteries been founded up to now?"
[15] be dismissed from Religion. Teresa entered Seville having only one obol for founding a monastery; yet before she departed from there she spent six thousand gold pieces on the purchase of a house: nay further, a year or two had not flowed by since then when another house was acquired there, which cost nearly thirteen thousand gold pieces; and shall her daughters think it a hardship to live in poverty, while they fear to shut some moneyed woman out of the house? If they observed this, they would doubtless arrive at poverty by this way, if only they had God favourable: but if they do not admit those unfit for the Institute and reject their means, they will lay on the Lord a greater care for supplying all the necessary supports of sustenance and for enriching their souls. What we have set out in this preface I could confirm by many reasons, testimonies and examples: but since my discourse is to those who know the matter and will without difficulty comply with reason and truth, I think what has been said suffices.
[16] These admonitions I wish only to recall to their minds some things committed to writing on this point by Mother Teresa of Jesus; so that they may see, namely, how conformable the lessons I have set forth are to those which the Lord taught his daughters through the holy Mother. For as he made her foundress of convents, so he also made her mistress of the virtues which it is fitting should be in her nuns, and the true and sure guide of the road which they ought to tread. Teresa therefore writes in chapter XIII of the Way of Perfection in these words: "Ah, how immense a charity and how exceptional a service to God that nun would render who, seeing that she cannot bear the manners which flourish in this house, and truly experiencing this in herself, should depart from here before she was admitted to the making of vows (as I have said elsewhere too), and should let the others enjoy their peace! Nay, not even in all the other monasteries (if only they trust me) will they keep her, nor admit her at all to solemn profession before they have tested her for very many years, to see, namely, whether amendment of manners follows.
[17] Ribera confirms However, I do not here call errors those which are committed in performing penance and fasts, because, although they are errors, yet they are not such as bring so much harm; but I mean certain bad habits, such as are, namely: to wish to be made much of and praised, to look carefully into the errors and imperfections of others, but never to consider one's own, and other things like these, which truly arise from a want of humility. Unless God by his grace assists such, communicating to them an abundant spirit, until amendment appears even over an interval of many years, God grant that no such woman remain in your company. Moreover, be sure that she will both lack peace herself and be a burden to others too. Whence I pity those monasteries which often, lest they be forced to return the money which such a one brought with her as dowry, or in order to consult the honour of her friends, keep within the house a thief who plunders their treasure. You have cast away worldly honour in this house (for poor little women are of no account): let not, then, another's honour cost you so much or be such a care to you. Our honour, dearest ones, ought to be to serve God. And if anyone should wish to hinder you in this, let her keep her honour to herself, and remain outside.
[18] by certain chosen passages For this reason our Fathers instituted a whole year of probation; and I would wish the custom to be introduced that no one be admitted to profession before ten years: for she who is truly to be a humble nun will care little whether she is professed or not; for she will hold it undoubted that, if only she is good, she will not be driven out of the house: but if she behaves otherwise, why should she wish to harm this college of Christ? And I call not good, not her who displays some vanity (for this, by the grace of God, I think will be very far from this house), but I say she is not good who is not well mortified and still clings to worldly things or to herself in the things I have mentioned above. Let her, therefore, who does not see this much in herself, give credence to me, and not thrust herself upon profession, unless she wishes to have hell here. Would that God may avert that she should afterwards experience another as well; because there are many causes in her for which it would seem she must be thrust down thither."
[19] from chapter XIII And below she has these things: "Again I repeat, if she is attached to worldly things, and experiences no progress in herself, she seems unfit for this monastery, and may freely pass to any other, if only she wishes to live a religious life: but if not, she will see how things will turn out for her. Let her who begins thus not complain of me that I did not warn her beforehand." And afterwards she subjoins these things: "She will work out her salvation better in another place, and it may come about that she will gradually arrive at perfection; which here exceeds her strength, because perfection is aimed at more keenly at once: for, although much time must be spent in stripping and mortifying oneself entirely, yet on exterior things only a short time can be spent, on account of the harms that would otherwise arise. But if a novice who sees her companions acting energetically and who always lives in such good company, in one or even
half a year does not make progress, I fear she will not make progress in many either. I do not say that the novice will be as strong in perfection as the professed are: but it can be understood whether she is growing strong; which is easily noticed in a mortal disease."
[20] and chapter XIV I have already said before a that what I bring forward from the Way of Perfection is drawn from Teresa's very autograph. She herself, then, wrote these words in chapter XIV: "I should indeed believe that the Lord by no means fails, but is much present to her who has seriously resolved on something with herself. Whence it must be diligently inquired what is the intention of her who is dedicating herself to a monastery, and whether she intends only to find a remedy for herself there, as frequently happens today; although God can bring even this intention to perfection." And after she had set down how much it matters to admit maidens of good judgement, she subjoins these things: "This error does not manifest itself in a very little space of time: for there are very many who speak well, and are not strong in judgement; others on the contrary speak little, yet not too little, and are strong in notable judgement for very many things. I grant indeed that there are certain holy simplicities which are little versed in the things and affairs of the world, but excellently versed in dealing with God. For this reason careful inquiry must be made before they are admitted, and once admitted they must be tested for a longer time before they are allowed to pass to the making of vows. Let the world understand, moreover, that you are free to expel them: since in monasteries in which severity of life flourishes, many occasions of this thing occur; and once it is known that this is your custom, it will be reckoned as an injury to no one.
[21] of the Way of Perfection I say this because these times are so unfortunate and our weakness so great that it is not enough to have the statutes of our forebears which forbid this; but we let praiseworthy customs perish, because we fear some slight offence or saying of someone which ought to be reckoned as nothing. God grant that those who admit such into the Order may not pay the penalties in the other life! For those whom we admit there is never lacking some honourable colour by which they persuade us that it is lawful; but in a business of so great weight no pretext is good. For I do not believe that the Lord, if the superior intends without any affection the sole good of the house, will suffer her to slip and be deceived; on the contrary I should believe that those who give heed in this way to a frivolous consideration of such piety cannot but err. And truly the matter is of such a kind that it is worthy to be well weighed by each and commended to God, and ought also to animate each prioress to carry it out; since a matter of so great moment so concerns each one. Wherefore I too beseech God from my heart that he may deign to send you light in this."
[22] and also from chapter XXVII And in chapter XXVI b of her Foundations she writes these things: "If you have trust in God and are of generous mind (for generosity is most pleasing to his Majesty), do not fear that anything will be lacking to you. Nor ever reject those who ask to be admitted into the Order (provided their desires and natural talents please you), even if perhaps the means necessary for this are lacking to them, provided their intention is to serve the Lord here with greater perfection; nor even if they lack the goods of fortune, provided they are furnished with the interior goods of the soul: for by another way the Lord will repay you double what you will need on this account. I have great experience of this matter. For his Majesty knows that, so far as I remember, I have never omitted to receive anyone into the Order for want of this thing. Very many of those who have been admitted solely with regard to God himself and for his sake can testify to this, as you yourselves are not unaware.
[23] of the book of Foundations And certainly I can assure you in truth that I was not wont to feel so much joy in my soul when I admit some wealthy woman as when I admit those who are received solely for the love of God: nay rather the richer ones always made me fear; but the poor little ones enlarged my spirit and soul, and their admission filled me with such joy that tears broke from me for jubilation of mind. This is most true. If, then, when houses were either to be bought or restored, the Lord helped us so faithfully, why will he not do the same for us who now have where to live and dwell? Believe me, daughters, you will suffer loss by that by which you would think you were making gain. But when she who asks to be admitted has means and goods, yet no other obligations and debts, if she wishes to leave these goods to others who perhaps will not need them, it would surely be more advisable that she give them to you as alms: for if she does otherwise, I feel that it is a sign of little affection toward you. But always propose to her who asks to be admitted that she should dispose of the means she will have and do that which learned men shall judge to look to the greater glory of God. For it would be an evil if we asked means from anyone who is admitted for any other end and aim than that which I have mentioned. For we gain far more by her doing what she owes to her God (with greater perfection, I mean) than by all the means she can bring with her; since we look to nothing else (and may God not permit us to look to anything else) than that service be rendered to his Majesty in all things and through all things."
[24] and from the Constitutions I could have omitted what she sets out in the second chapter of the Constitutions, because they are commonly in everyone's hands: but, because it is very useful for those desiring to enter this Order to know them, it has seemed not out of place to bring them in here for their sake. These things then Teresa prescribes: "Let diligent effort be made that those who are to be received be most zealous for prayer, aspire to every kind of perfection, and have put off worldly affections: for unless they are wholly stripped, they will not be able to bear the laws of this Religion. And truly it is far better to inquire into this beforehand than afterwards to send out those admitted. Let the age of those to be admitted be not less than seventeen years; moreover let them be sound in body and sound in mind and fit for reciting the divine Office and frequenting the choir. And let none be permitted to make profession unless during the year of the novitiate they are first known to have the conditions which are necessary for the discipline that is kept here. And when their quality has pleased, even though they lack money to bring, they are not on that account to be excluded; as we have been accustomed to do up to now. Let the superiors see, accordingly, that they admit no novice from some private regard; for little by little greed for wealth could thrust itself in, and so gradually greater account be taken of the alms than of the goodness and condition of the person. Let this never be done in any way; for it would be an immense evil. Let them always have before their eyes the poverty to which they have bound themselves to God by vow, that they may breathe forth a good odour from themselves in everything, and let them note that it is not riches by which they are sustained, but faith, perfection and trust in God alone. Let this Constitution be diligently observed and put into execution, as is fitting, and let it be read out to the nuns c."
[25] of St. Teresa; All these words the Holy Spirit spoke through this chosen vessel; which she herself also fulfilled in deed no otherwise than she wrote them with her pen. For she diligently examined the qualities of those who were striving to be enrolled in the Order; as it was very often given to me to see. Nay further, if, the very year of the novitiate having been completed, she did not see that they had put off their affection for the things of the world or that this kind of life pleased them, she could be brought by no reasons to admit them to the making of vows; but, bidding them keep their goods, she sent them back into the world, saying that they were not called to this institute of life, nay even declaring that they would meet with the most certain loss of salvation if they remained in this family, and would work out their salvation better in another state or Order. For this reason she sent back to her father's house a certain one of her cousins, deprived of the sacred habit which she had already worn for a year, although her relatives pressed her with the most earnest entreaties to keep her with her, saying that it could come about that, as her age grew, her manners would be fitted to this kind of life, although otherwise she was endowed with many and exceptional gifts of nature. O woman more than woman, valiant and manly woman, made after the heart of God, restorer of the ancient Religion, perfect exemplar of holiness, true trampler on the world and on all things that are looked upon in it, true worshipper of the divine Majesty, who while she lived spread so great a light, and who even after death (or rather living a better life, such as her illustrious and heroic deeds have merited) spreads glowing rays in every direction!
[26] and with them the Rules of St. Basil, Moreover, all these lessons which Teresa of Jesus handed on to her daughters agree wonderfully with the teaching of all the Saints, as one who had been taught by the same master from whom they too had drawn theirs. That this may be plain to the eye, it has seemed good to bring forth briefly some things from them. For St. Basil the Great teaches first of all (Longer Rules, question X) that not all who ask for the religious habit are to be presented with it indiscriminately and promiscuously, but that their manners are first to be considered, namely whether they are inconstant and light or not; and if they show inconstancy, he advises that they be exercised and their constancy be tested for some time by the superiors, by prescribing troublesome, grievous and hard things to them: and if the superiors see their strength and perseverance failing, they should be dismissed, lest they be harmful to the rest. He adds besides that it ought to be discerned whether they bring a great shame for their sins and a ready desire of withdrawing from those who were the occasion of their sinning.
[27] of St. Pachomius St. Pachomius in that Rule of monastic constitutions which he received from an Angel d has these things: "If anyone shall come to the door of the monastery wishing to renounce the world and be joined to the number of the Brothers, he shall not have the liberty of entering, but it shall first be announced to the Father of the monastery, and he shall remain a few days outside before the door, … and shall diligently give proof of himself … whether he can renounce his parents and despise his own property. For if they see him fit, … let him be joined to the Brothers. Then they shall strip him of his secular garments, and clothe him with the habit of monks." Cassian declares these things more fully, writing thus: "One seeking to be received within the discipline of the cenobium is by no means admitted before, lying at the doors for ten days or more, he has shown a sign of his perseverance and desire, and likewise of his humility and patience. And when, prostrate at the knees of all the Brothers passing by, and deliberately rebuffed and despised by all, as one who wishes to enter the monastery under the pretext not of Religion but of necessity, affected also with insults and many reproaches, he has given proof
of his constancy, and has shown by his endurance of reproaches what he will be like in temptations, and so, the ardour of his mind having been explored, he has been received," etc. (Institutes, book IV, chapter III). "When, therefore, someone has been received … and, having laid aside his own garments, has been girded with the monastic habit, he is not at once permitted to mingle with the community of the Brothers, but is assigned to an elder, who, dwelling apart not far from the entrance of the monastery, has the care of strangers and new arrivals assigned to him, and bestows on them all diligence of reception and kindness. And when, serving there for a whole year without any complaint, he has shown his service toward the strangers, imbued by this with the first instruction in humility and patience, and known beforehand in that long exercise, he is thereafter to be mingled with the community of the Brothers," etc. (chapter VII).
[28] and of St. Benedict St. Benedict too advised in his Rule that the same be done, adding also some signs from which the constancy and good vocation of a novice may be discerned. He speaks, then, in these words: "When anyone newly comes to conversion, let not an easy entrance be granted him. But, as the Apostle says, try the spirits, whether they be of God (1 John IV, 1). If therefore the comer perseveres in knocking, and after four or five days is seen to bear patiently the insults offered him and the difficulty of entrance and to persist in his petition, let entrance be granted him, and let him be in the guest-house for a few days. And afterwards let him be in the novices' cell, where he is to meditate and eat and sleep. And let an elder be assigned to him such as is fit for winning souls: who is to watch over him altogether carefully, and to be solicitous whether he truly seeks God, whether he is solicitous for the work of God, for obedience, for reproaches. Let the hard and rough things be foretold him through which one goes to God. If he promises perseverance in his stability, after the course of two months let this Rule be read to him, and let it be said to him: Behold the law under which you wish to serve: if you can observe it, enter; but if you cannot, depart free. If he still stands, then let him be led into the aforesaid novices' cell, and be tested again in all patience. And after the course of six months let the Rule be read to him again; that he may know to what he is entering. And if he still stands, after four months let the same Rule be read to him again. And if, having deliberated with himself, he promises to keep all things and to observe everything commanded him, then let him be received into the Community, knowing that it is established by the law of the Rule that from that day it is not lawful for him to go out of the monastery, nor to shake his neck free from under the yoke of the Rule, which after so prolonged a deliberation he was free either to decline or to accept" (chapter LVIII).
[29] he shows to agree. Moreover, Cardinal de Torquemada (on the Rule of St. Benedict, treatise XII), having commented at length on this chapter of the Benedictine Rule and confirming the same by very many authorities of the Saints and by reasons, says that there is need of notable discretion in admitting monks: just as he who wishes to have a noble wine seeks out with great discretion the vines from which to gather it, so too must he do who adopts new shoots into Religion. Nay, he judges that grave sins are sometimes committed in this respect through the greed of those who receive. For as sailors sometimes throw the sick into the sea before they are fully dead, in order to seize their possessions; so some throw as it were into Religion those who are still living in the world, in hope of the goods that will come to them from them. And how averse the ancients were from receiving into their monasteries, or admitting to the making of vows, out of desire for wealth and inheritance, may easily be gathered from this, that, as Cassian relates (book IV, chapter IV), the monks of Egypt allowed novices to bring nothing with them into the monastery, nor would they admit even the smallest thing. St. Benedict (chapter LVIII) wills this to be distributed to the poor when the novices are about to pronounce their profession; although he also grants that, if it has been divinely inspired in them, they may transfer their means to the monastery by a solemn donation made in accordance with their pious affection toward it. From these and similar things which are read in the Saints, and which the abbot Smaragdus conveniently brings forward in commenting on the same Rule (chapter LVIII), it is understood without difficulty how great a choice must be made of those who ask to be admitted into Religion, and that, after they have been received, trial must be made of them, so that it may be gathered from this whether they are suited to this Institute; how estranged from worldly things, how dead to the world they ought to be, in order to pass thence to the making of vows; how great also the freedom and fortitude with which profession must be denied to those who are not such; and finally how small an account must be taken of wealth. These things, briefly, are what Teresa prescribed at greater length in her Constitutions.
ANNOTATIONS.
Chapter I.
The natural endowments of St. Teresa, and her sublime prayer.
Chap. I.
Whoever has gone through the things said by me up to now will think that he has already observed in them the living image of Mother Teresa of Jesus which I had promised to exhibit at the beginning of this history; Teresa was by nature remarkable nevertheless in the things I have recounted so far I have described her only in outline. Hence I shall now try to add living colours to it and to apply the most elegant beauties of feature I can: although I shall never, whatever I may finally say, attain to that beauty which she truly contained in herself; so that there will be no less a difference here than between a painted thing and a living one, nay even a greater, because so unskilled a hand as mine will paint her. But before I come to what she was in herself, to her virtues, I mean, and supernatural gifts, it has seemed good to set down first some things about the natural ones with which the Almighty had adorned her in a certain singular way.
[2] in bodily form, As among the Angels the one who is more excellent in nature also excels his equals in grace, so too we often see it happen among men that those whom God has chosen for higher grace and more eminent supernatural gifts he also endows with a more excellent nature: as will be plain in the nature which Teresa of Jesus received. For she was of comely stature and in youth of handsome form, signs of which appeared even in her decrepit age; her body was plump and white; her face round and full, and of due size: its colour was white fittingly mingled with ruddy, which, whenever she was engaged in prayer, was kindled into flame and put on a wonderful splendour. Her whole face shone and displayed sweetness. She had black and curly hair; a broad forehead, even and beautiful; eyebrows of a light tawny colour tending somewhat to black, and these rather large and thick, yet not much arched, but in a manner straight. She had black and round eyes, moderately prominent, yet not huge, but excellently set, lively and winning; which, when she laughed, all beamed too and breathed a courteous sweetness, yet a wonderful gravity, whenever she wished to compose her face to it. Her nose was somewhat small and not very prominent in the middle; but its tip was rather round and somewhat projecting below: the nostrils rather narrow and curved. Her mouth you would have called neither large nor small: the upper lip delicate and straight, the lower somewhat thicker and turning outward above, in which there sat both a wonderful charm and a comely colour. She had very good teeth; a chin such as one would wish for; ears exceeding neither in smallness nor in size what was fitting; a throat broad and fairly short, and itself turning moderately outward; and finally small and beautiful hands. On the left side of her face she had three small moles, which wonderfully enhanced the natural beauty of her face: one a little below the middle of the nose, another between the nose and the mouth, the third below the mouth. These particular marks of her body I received from those who looked on her longer than I. Her whole person, such as it was, displayed a notable appearance: such as her very gait also betrayed. And she had such grace that all who beheld her were wonderfully attached to her. Her image was painted while she was alive, at the order of the provincial Gracián, by Fr. Juan de la Miseria, a Discalced lay brother, a religious man. By this counsel Gracián indeed provided excellently for posterity, although he erred in this, that he did not see to it that the image of so holy a virgin should be expressed more to the life by the choicest painter in all Spain, for the consolation of many. After the pattern of this prototype the other images which represent her well or fairly well were formed. It is to be noted, moreover, that in some of these, while the painters were trying to imitate certain fringed little scraps on the sleeves of the habit which she was wearing when she was painted, pointed sleeves have been falsely attributed to her, such as neither she herself wore nor the Discalced nuns wear: in the veil too, in order to express the turning back of the threads, some folds elegantly made seem to have been added to her; whereas she used no artifice in these things.
[3] by excellence of talent, Let us now pass from the body to the soul b. Teresa had received a good talent from God. This shines forth even in the many pieces of handiwork which she made with her hand c, and in which she represents many stories so ingeniously and so piously that they engender devotion and admiration in those who look at them. She had also received an outstanding intellect, sharp and embracing many things at once; a calm judgement, displaying no levity, but full of maturity and prudence.
The things that were incumbent upon her to do she weighed with mature examination, and she looked into what lay hidden within, in the marrow of the matter she was weighing in thought; and when she had decided something about it, she strove to carry it out with great constancy. She used a singular prudence, whether in directing the things she was undertaking and leading souls to God, or in governing her monasteries; as may be seen both in the houses which she herself founded and in the nuns who live in them, whom she trained to such humility, victory over the passions and spirit of prayer. She was strong in great dexterity in accomplishing affairs, and arranged everything duly; for which she always found the strength of body in herself. She also wrote letters to the great and to others to whom it was necessary, and by her letters she often brought great matters to a happy end. With easy effort too she comprehended the character, talent and conditions of those with whom she dealt: whence it came about that she perceived by what way each was to be led.
[4] by generosity, She taught everyone with great clarity and love, and esteemed outstanding theologians so highly that she undertook no business of great moment without consulting them. She had a soul more than womanly, and that generous and manly; whence it came about that she carried out whatever she wished, and, God helping, restrained all the motions of nature. This could easily be perceived when she was compelled to depart from her monasteries: for although she was torn away only with the greatest difficulty from her daughters whom she left on going away, especially when she foresaw that she would never see them again thereafter, yet, lest she afflict them, she suppressed her grief, just as if she had felt nothing in herself. When her father had fallen into the illness of which he died, although Teresa was then in very poor health, she nevertheless tried to remain with him and to console him with words as best she could, making no account of the labour she was undergoing here: and although his death befell her so grievously that, as she herself afterwards did not hesitate to relate, when he departed from this life she believed her very entrails were being torn out, nevertheless she showed such courage that she gave him no sign of grief, and stayed with him until he expired, no more betraying outwardly the grief she felt than if it had been nothing to her; although she knew that, her father being taken from among the living, all the joy and consolation she could have in this world would at the same time be taken away from her.
[5] by fortitude, liberality, This may be seen also in the patience and fortitude which she showed in her great and daily illnesses; and also in the notable equanimity with which she suffered adversities, persecutions and untoward events. Moreover, she was of such magnanimity that she did not hesitate to undertake great and extraordinary things, and also brought them to an end d, and that with a certain very great delight: but things that were easy and daily by no means produced this joy in her, nor was she drawn to them equally. She cultivated each one and treated him with due reverence: yet whenever she had to deal with the great, she moved and conversed among them with a certain native majesty, just as if she had been one of their number; and she said to them whatever had to be said, and reproved their errors. If anyone's friendship among them seemed to need dissolving, she did it with great generosity of mind and with easy effort; as could sometimes be seen. And although she was possessed by a wonderful zeal for poverty, yet she was especially liberal, and generous in undergoing necessary expenses, though no money was at hand. In short, she was perfect in every respect.
[6] by winning conversation, She was winning in speech, and in conversation sweet, grave, cheerful, open, prudent; whence, of whatever matter she had to speak, she spoke well of it, and pleased all her hearers wonderfully. And this was the reason why, to whomever she betook herself, she was received and at the same time esteemed with equal affection by all. Her parents loved her more than the rest of their offspring, and each of her brothers loved his sister Teresa above the others: her nuns were borne toward her more than toward a mother: in short, she was dear to her confessors and to all who spoke with her; for she had obtained a wonderful power of binding men's minds to herself. If she knew of any men of great name who were opposed to her or by whom she was being attacked with malevolent accusations, she went to them herself and communicated some of her affairs to them, as she found more expedient; nay, she held nothing more important than to bind them by pious service: whence it came about that they conceived a better opinion of her, and thereafter were borne toward her with greater love and goodwill.
[7] affable and modest, She addressed all with equal affability and kindness, and also with wonderful cheerfulness of countenance, showing no austerity in speech, but a holy and sweet freedom; so that all who saw her and knew her affairs well were amazed that she to whom so sublime a kind of prayer was familiar and who dealt with God most closely dealt with men no otherwise than as if she had had none of these gifts. And with the same love with which others were borne toward her, she too was moved toward those by whom she was loved, and toward all whom she knew to be upright, sincere, honest, and in particular those whom she saw possessed by a peculiar zeal for promoting the divine worship and procuring the salvation of their neighbours. Moreover, this love of hers had its origin in a wonderful gratitude of soul: whence she preserved the memory of benefits, even the smallest, conferred both on herself and on her daughters; and never ceased to extol and acknowledge them in words and to give the greatest thanks to her benefactors both in words and in deed itself, in whatever way she could. There was in her too this kind of nobility of soul (which was by far the most welcome to all), that, even at the greatest cost to herself, she made it her custom to help everyone, to do them kindnesses, and, so far as could be done, to refresh them. Hence she applied herself very earnestly to works of mercy and charity, an adversary of dissimulation and of detractions, even the smallest: hence she recalled no one's fault but her own: hence she praised everyone as she could: hence she published and extolled in words the virtues of others, but concealed and diminished her own with notable industry.
[8] by modesty, sobriety, She cultivated a singular modesty, and by nature was averse from all uncleanness both in words and in deeds; she was a friend of solitude and inclined to all goodness. She esteemed honour very highly before God had wholly dedicated her to himself: whence by this esteem of honour she was held back as by a kind of bridle from doing anything from which it might suffer harm. And as she cultivated cleanliness of soul and body e, so too the neatness of her clothes was dear to her; whence she was wont to have them trim and well arranged: and all disorder, both interior and exterior, displeased her. In food she kept the greatest sobriety, she knew nothing of the use of wine, she practised a wonderful poverty in dress, though a neat one. She was very sparing of her own comfort, although on account of her daily and continual illnesses she very greatly needed it; but in the recreations of her nuns she was generous enough, and then she as it were loosened the bowels of compassion. Hence, when an inconvenient inn had fallen to them on the way, she was most anxious about her companions, and laboured that they might be duly provided for; but she herself was content with even the least.
[9] by truthfulness. She was so zealous for truth that she held all fraud in hatred. For this reason, when at the time in which, having left off the pursuit of prayer, she was distracted toward other things, she was visited from time to time by her father, she could not bear that he should be in error, believing that his daughter was giving herself to prayer and recollection; wherefore she did not rest until she had freed him from this error. Further, nothing tormented her more than the continually recurring thought whether she was deceiving her confessors, although she knew herself to be most averse in mind from deceiving them. It was not necessary to treat her in a severe manner: but if she was directed in a gentle way, she showed herself pliant. And for that reason, when she had not yet dedicated herself wholly to God, she regarded the favours she received from him as the gravest chastisements of her faults and negligences; because, since she then felt herself anticipated with graces by God when she had merited reproof, seeing, namely, how greatly she was offending him by showing herself no more grateful to him by whom she was so kindly treated, she was suffused with shame and tortured herself, and was more tormented than by all the illnesses, pains and labours by which she was afflicted. For by these she seemed to herself to satisfy in some measure her debt to God; but the reception of graces, since she merited them the less, seemed to her a certain terrible torment. By these things I have said, and by very many others which could be said by those who can better know the character of each one, if they have at some time dealt with him familiarly, I have wished to express that excellent nature which God had communicated to her, and at the same time to describe the vessel which he had destined for receiving the most lofty gifts which he was afterwards to put into it. But, because grace perfects nature, this will be able to be perceived far more fully in the following chapters, in which we shall set out both the lights of graces and the admirable virtues which the Almighty communicated to her.
Chap. II.
[10] Let us come now to the supernatural part, in which the greatness of God manifested itself so much, Her prayer, and let us express the exemplar of a most perfect nun; so that not only her daughters, both those who are and those who shall be hereafter, but also all nuns and all souls who desire to attain the summit of perfection may have before their eyes one to look upon and imitate, holding this as ascertained, that the more they conform themselves to her, the more perfect and religious they will be. Very many men of outstanding talent have striven with the greatest effort to conceive in their minds the most perfect idea and likeness of the thing which they were striving to express; whence too they found words equal to expressing their conceptions: yet they expressed, not what they had at some time seen or known, but what they could attain by sharpness of talent and eloquence of words. In his books on the Republic Plato, and in the Politics Aristotle, depicted a certain most perfect city and commonwealth; but of such a kind that no land has seen its like. The Stoics put forth much about the wise man; but such as they wish him to be, neither did they see him in their own times nor do we see him in ours. Who in this mortal life ever saw that felicity or happiness which Aristotle depicts in the first and last book of the Ethics? Likewise that orator whom Tully delineates in the three books On the Orator, and the courtier whom Count Baldassare Castiglione describes with such eloquence f, can indeed be understood and wished for, but can neither be seen nor had. I indeed, being about to express what is the most perfect image of a Discalced nun or of any other nun whatever, shall not follow imaginations of my own alone nor torture my wit, nor bring forward exaggerations of things I have never seen, nor yet those things which spiritual men treating of this matter have wished to see; but only those things which that great Lord
gave to be seen in this holy virgin and which we ourselves, who dealt with her familiarly, both saw and came to know in her, and finally those things which are set forth in her books, now published. God himself has freed us from a great part of the labour in this kind, and has deigned to work more in her with his mighty hand than anyone could extol with a rich and eloquent tongue: so that, when I shall have told in simple words the pure truth of what she really was, I shall fulfil my promises, and shall satisfy the wishes of those who wish to see in work and in deed made perfect the things that are commonly read written in books about the sublimity of religious perfection. Being about to speak, then, of those virtues which shone forth more in that blessed soul, I shall seem to act not unfittingly if I take my beginning from prayer; which was in a manner the brush with which the Almighty brought this most beautiful picture of his to perfection, and to which alone is to be ascribed the communication of those admirable goods and graces which she had from heaven. Whence I think it will be pleasant and useful to all to describe here those steps by which he advanced her to the most lofty kind of prayer to which she attained. These I shall draw out from various places of her writings, producing here in a heap the things which she produced scattered. And I shall describe the matter here in the same words in which she herself expressed it: for in this way it will be better explained and will find greater authority with all, as being more certain and more secure; and especially from the things which she embraced in the book of her Life I shall borrow the chief part of what is to be said.
[11] with which at first she helped herself The first thing which showed her the way to prayer was the Third Spiritual Alphabet of Osuna; which book she resolved to follow completely: for until then she had not known what method she ought to enter upon in this. Already then the Lord had communicated to her the gift of tears, and that in place of the dryness with which she was wont to be cold. A few months after she began to seek solitude and to cultivate prayer, he gave her the prayer of quiet, and sometimes also of union; although she herself did not know what either was: a grace which he is not wont to give even after an interval of many years, and then only to very few. Moreover, that kind of prayer produced such exceptional effects in her that, when she was not yet twenty years of age g, she already seemed to herself to be pressing the whole world under her feet. And her method of praying consisted chiefly in this, that she strove to have Jesus Christ present to herself in her soul as often as she could, and, if she was turning over some mystery in meditation, to picture it inwardly to herself as present; although at that time she took more delight in the reading of spiritual books, because she did not yet have the practice of penetrating into the mysteries with the understanding and of representing Christ to herself interiorly. Hence she could not pray without a book, except perhaps when she rose from the sacred table of Communion. This kind of prayer she used for eighteen years, and often indeed with the greatest labour, with wonderful dryness of spirit h and an incredible conflict of thoughts i: for since she did not reason with the understanding, nor could think of anything unless at the same time the will gave itself to loving, she could not persevere long in prayer: for this reason, namely, she would read something.
[12] by the reading of spiritual books Wherefore she would compose herself to pray without a book no otherwise than if she had had to fight with many without a shield: for in the book itself she as it were received the blows of the various thoughts by which she was assailed. Yet she did not always experience dryness, but only when she did not have a book at hand. For when she began to read something, she gathered together her thoughts, and led back her wandering soul as it were by coaxing; whence often only the opening of the book was needed. Sometimes she read a little, sometimes much, according to the measure of the grace communicated to her by the Lord. At this time she left off the exercise of prayer for a year and more, and that under the appearance of a certain feigned humility with which the devil imposed upon her; for it seemed to her a wrong, since she was living so, to deal so familiarly with the Lord: by which false persuasion she harmed herself very much. Illumined by new light from heaven, she returned to her former manner of praying, labouring to picture the Saviour present to herself interiorly: and the more solitary and the more deserted she saw him, the greater the gain that came thence to her soul; since she believed, namely, that she would be better admitted by him when he was so alone and afflicted. Whence it came about that she experienced wonderful consolation from the image she represented of him praying in the garden, and there she joined herself to him alone as companion: wherefore, while she turned over in her mind this sweat and affliction of his, she aroused in her mind what motions she could. She would have wished to wipe away this sweat with her own hand; but when the memory of her misdeeds came upon her, she by no means dared to do it: and here she remained, as far as the multitude of thoughts pressing upon her allowed. Nay, for many years before this she was wont to settle herself to sleep every night turning these things over in her mind: whence too she made very great progress in the spirit; for from this, although she herself did not know it, she gradually acquired the exercise of prayer. The sight of fields, of water or of flowers brought her immense fruit: for by it she was roused, returned within herself and found there the memory of the Creator; in short it was to her in place of a book. But she could not turn over in her mind heavenly and other very sublime things, but only those which fell under sight.
[13] and by pious images, Jesus the Redeemer, however much she read of his beauty, however many images she saw in which he was expressed, she could never picture to herself as present except as a blind person speaking with someone else, whom he knows indeed to be present, but by no means sees, and does not know what he is like: and for that reason, that she might form some image of him in herself, she was most fond of images. Thence, as she withdrew herself more from the occasions of distracting her mind, and applied herself more ardently to prayer, God gave her as she prayed greater delights and more frequent savoury tastes of the mind. But she never asked for these, nor for tenderness of heart; nor did she dare to ask for it of set purpose. This one thing she continually begged of the Lord, that he would grant her full pardon of her faults, and stretch out a helping hand lest she should thereafter run into offending him any more; inasmuch as she knew that it was to be ascribed to his very great mercy that he allowed her to be before his eyes and to be present to him, though every other favour were denied her. Once only, when her mind was torpid with a certain incredible dryness of spirit, she asked for these delights of soul: yet when she noticed what she was doing, she was so ashamed of herself that by this sole consideration of her little humility she won for herself the sweetness which she had dared to ask of God. At this very time, and sometimes even before, she felt some beginnings of the thing which I shall now tell; although only very briefly: but thereafter she experienced it much more perfectly, as God little by little raised her to that summit to which the holiest souls attain. Namely, in that representation by which she pictured herself as being with Christ, nay even sometimes as she was reading something from a book, there came upon her, when she was thinking of nothing less, a certain effectual sense of the presence of God, so that she could in no way doubt that he was present within her and that she was absorbed within him.
[14] then also by chastisement of the body, There was indeed no vision here; yet the soul was suspended and seemed to be wholly outside itself: the will loved; the memory was almost lost; the understanding was as it were struck with wonder at the many things it heard, because, namely, God manifested to it that it understood none of the things which his divine Majesty was representing to her. And the more she disposed herself meanwhile, the more gifts of grace God communicated to her; so that he seemed to wish nothing else than that she should wish to receive him. Hence he began to give her for the most part the prayer of quiet, and not seldom also of union; which indeed lasted a very long time with great delight and sweetness, and also with an incredible security that this grace came down from God: moreover she always went away from it much better and endowed with greater strength of mind. At length, by the counsel of her confessor, she began to add penance and mortification to her prayer, and also to unfold every day some mystery of the Lord's Passion, and, as far as she could, to resist the divine savours and delights. She observed this for about two months; and meanwhile, the more she struggled against the sweetnesses of the spirit, the more frequently they were given, so that every day she advanced more and more in the spiritual course. This time having passed, Francis Borgia of blessed memory advised her not to resist God any longer, but to begin her prayer from some point of the Lord's Passion, and, if the Lord raised up her mind in it, to let herself be carried away by him. Whence not long afterwards she began to suffer raptures and ecstasies of mind; in very many of which God spoke with her. And this conversation produced immense effects and notable fruit in her soul.
[15] through various degrees Thereafter a kind of vision befell her in which she felt Christ to be present to her, to speak with her (although she saw him with neither the eyes of the body nor those of the soul), and finally to walk with her, the witness of all her actions: whom also, when she recollected herself a little or did not pour herself out much on exterior things, she manifestly felt beside her; and in this way it came about that she perceived in herself much loftier effects than she had experienced up to then. Even one of these graces (she says of herself) is able so to change the soul that it loves nothing but him whom it sees; who, even though the soul applies no diligence on its part, renders it capable of such immense goods, communicates to it secrets so intimate, and shows himself so familiar to it, that it cannot be written. This vision clung to her continuously for some days, and profited her so much that meanwhile she did not leave off prayer, and took pains not to offend in any matter him whom she perceived so manifestly to be present as witness of her works. Not long afterwards she began to have imaginary visions, in which Jesus often gave himself to be seen by her; although at the beginning he did not manifest himself wholly, but little by little in parts, until at length he appeared to her whole in such beauty that it could not be expressed in any words.
[16] she at length attained This kind of vision was frequent with her for two and a half years; but thereafter for some space of time she lacked it, so that meanwhile God might grant her far loftier things, namely such immense impulses of divine love that she was dying with desire and could not contain herself, and also other very sublime visions, which she herself described in the last chapters of her Life. Moreover, this continual presence of Jesus Christ was changed into the presence of the three divine Persons, as she herself left written on a certain slip in these words: "That presence of the three Persons which I mentioned at the beginning up to this
day sacred to the Commemoration of St. Paul the Apostle has for the most part been present to me in my soul. And since up to then I had always been accustomed to have only Jesus Christ present, it seemed to me that to perceive three Persons was in a manner a hindrance, although I understand that there is only one God. And as I was thinking about this matter with myself, I heard the Lord saying that I erred in imagining the things of the soul by the same representation as bodily things; that I should know accordingly that they differ greatly from one another, and that the soul is capable of comprehending many things."
[17] to the greatest sublimity. And the method of praying which she used about the last years of her life is the very one which she indicates at the end of the Mansions and calls by the name of Spiritual Marriage. Moreover, she enjoyed the Lord so closely that she said that grievous pain of the head which she suffered was given her by God for this reason, lest she should abound with too much joy in this life. This prayer never failed her, but was now with greater, now with lesser light. Meanwhile, while she enjoyed it, she had nothing to tell her confessors, except in some particular matters and affairs that came up. But whoever wishes to see in some measure the sublimity of prayer to which she attained, let him consult the book which I praised a little before, whose name is the Interior Castle or the Mansions; in whose sixth and seventh Mansion he will see her treating of nothing else than what bears on this, and declaring in general the things that were communicated to her by the Lord, in a manner imitating St. Paul, who says: "For I dare not speak of any of those things which Christ worketh not by me" (Rom. XV, 18). It is to be noted, moreover, that those raptures, which were very frequent at the beginning, afterwards, the further she advanced, were not wont to befall her so often, especially in public. The cause of this matter she committed to writing thus on a certain paper: "As I was thinking what the cause might be why now it almost never befalls me to be rapt out of myself in public, this voice came: That is not fitting at present; for you have already acquired enough authority for the things I look to: we are consulting the weakness of wicked men." For from the time when the visions of the Most Holy Trinity, of which there will be a place to speak in chapter IV, began to be shown her, she began to be without raptures, yet not altogether, until she undertook the priorate of the convent of the Incarnation: for thereafter she was rapt out of herself only very rarely, at least in the presence of others.
ANNOTATIONS.
Chapter II.
Various modes of supernatural prayer, and the knowledge of heavenly things given to Teresa.
Chap. III.
Although I may be rather long, yet it is my intention to elucidate more clearly what has been said, In supernatural prayer there are noted in order by inserting here a little commentary a written by her hand on the modes of prayer communicated to her by God; and that both because here she has embraced in one bundle the things which she had written scattered here and there in her books, and lest those words, so worthy to be read and understood, should perish or should be neglected and not brought to light. Truly the things which I have followed out in the preceding chapter and shall follow out in the present one too have been for me a great occasion of praising the Most High, because he communicated such exceptional gifts to this his handmaid, and because I see expressed here those degrees by which he raised her so high. And whoever is going to read these things ought to read them for that reason; but not so as to believe that he ought to wish to understand these same things fully and to tread the same road and to have equal revelations and raptures: for that would be foolish and empty, as will be given to see in chapter VIII, in which we follow out the precepts of praying which Teresa used to hand on. For this cannot be acquired by human powers; but must needs be granted by God, in whatever way and when it pleases him: and he who hopes he can obtain it by another way surely turns far aside from what he hopes for. Wherefore let no one borrow thence an occasion of pride and error, whence he ought to take an occasion of humbling himself and praising God.
[19] an intimate sense of the divine presence, This commentary she writes to a certain one of her confessors; before beginning which she prefaces it with these words: "In all the things I am going to say next, I would have you understand that it is not my purpose to think that the thing I hand on is certain; for it may be that I do not even understand it: but this one thing I can affirm, that I shall bring forward nothing here which I have not at some time, or even quite often, experienced. Whether it be right or otherwise, Your Reverence will discern, and will inform me." Then she comes down to the matter in this way: "I think I shall do you a pleasing thing if I begin from the beginning to treat of supernatural things: for here, God granting, we can acquire for ourselves devotion, tender tears and meditations. The first supernatural prayer which, so far as it seems to me, I felt (for so I call that which cannot be acquired by our industry and diligence, whatever may finally be applied; although one can dispose oneself for it, with the help of the grace of God, which is above all necessary for it) is a certain presence of God, which indeed can by no means be called a vision; yet whenever one desires to commend oneself to his divine Majesty (provided there is no dryness of mind), even if it be done only with the lips, one seems to find it." All prayer indeed which is meritorious is a supernatural work; because it is undertaken by supernatural help: yet Teresa here calls supernatural par excellence that which, with whatever effort we strive, we cannot attain; because it comes down wholly from God alone, and, as St. Dionysius left in writing, in it man suffers divine things rather than works them. In the same way St. Angela of Foligno declares this prayer in chapter XXVI of her book.
[20] interior recollection, "Another mode of supernatural prayer is interior recollection, which is felt in the soul, so that it seems to have its senses there no less than it has the exterior ones in the body. For it seems to wish to turn itself away within itself from the exterior tumult (hence too it sometimes thrusts this behind it) and to close its eyes; nor is it pleasing to it to hear or see or understand anything else than that with which the soul is then occupied, namely to be able to speak with God alone. Here no
deprivation of the senses or faculties takes place: for all remain entire; but they are only recollected, so that they may be occupied in God. He to whom something similar has been granted by the Lord will easily understand this; but not he to whom it is denied, unless many words and comparisons are employed." This mode of praying Teresa had put in the second place; but since at its end she says she had forgotten a certain other which she had practised before it, it has seemed good to put that in the first place. And she continues: "From this recollection there is born in the soul sometimes a quietness and an interior peace very sweet; so that it thinks nothing is lacking to it, nay it thinks even speaking a burden, and would wish only to love. And this lasts for some time, nay sometimes quite a long time.
[21] the sleep of the faculties and union, From this mode of praying there is wont to follow a slumber which they call the sleep of the faculties, so that these are neither wholly absorbed nor so suspended that you could call it a rapture, although it is not altogether union either. Sometimes, nay even rather often, the soul understands that the will alone is united; for it is easily perceived (as at least it seems) that it is wholly occupied in God, and that the soul itself sees whence it comes that it cannot then be or work in anything else: but the other two faculties are free, so that they can attend to other things and works pertaining to the service of God; in short, Martha and Mary are joined together. I asked Fr. Francis Borgia, General of the Society of Jesus, whether it was illusion: for this caused me scruple. To my question he answered that this could very often happen. But when there is union of all the faculties of the soul, it is far otherwise; for then the soul can perform no exterior work: for the understanding is in a manner dismayed; the will loves more than it understands anything; it does not even understand whether it loves, nor what it is doing, so that it cannot say what it is. Nor again, so far as it seems to me, does the soul then have any memory or thought: nay, not even the senses of the body are then awake and watchful; for then its state is as if it had lost them all, so that the soul may be more free for the things it then enjoys: these, as I at least feel, are wholly lost in that brief interval of time. It is not very long-lasting: yet from the treasures of humility and other virtues and desires with which the soul is then enriched, there appears the immense good that has come to it through this grace; but what it is cannot be expressed in words. For although it is given to the soul possessing it to understand it, yet it does not know how it understands it, nor, in my judgement at least, can it set it forth in words. If this grace is true, God can surely confer none greater in this spiritual way, or at least it is of the number of the greatest, if you except rapture and suspension.
[22] suspension, These things, so far as I understand, are all the same; yet I am wont to call it suspension, lest I should say rapture, which word is wont to move amazement in the hearer. And truly this union of which I have spoken can also be called by the name of suspension. But there is this difference between it and rapture, that rapture is longer-lasting and is felt more in these exterior things; because the faculty of breathing too gradually fails, so that neither can the tongue be loosed nor the eyes opened. And although this happens in union too, yet in rapture it happens more vehemently; because the natural heat withdraws I know not where: nay, when the rapture is great (for in all these modes of prayer there is room for more and less), the hands grow stiff with cold and sometimes are stretched out like stakes; and the body, if the rapture falls upon one standing or kneeling, remains in the same position: and the soul is so immersed in the fruition of the things represented to it by the Lord that it seems to forget to animate its body and to desert it; and if the rapture is long-lasting, the feeling extends to the nerves. I indeed should judge that the Lord wills that in rapture the soul should understand rather than in union the things it enjoys. Hence too not seldom in rapture some divine secrets are revealed to it; and the effects which it then experiences in itself are very great, as also forgetfulness of itself, because it wishes that mighty Lord and God to be known and praised by all. It cannot, as I at least feel, if it comes down from God, fail to perceive that it could do absolutely nothing here, and also to understand its own misery and ingratitude, in not having served as it ought that Lord who of his sole goodness conferred on it so singular a grace: for here the feeling and sweetness far exceed all that could be compared with them here; for unless the memory of these things gradually faded, the recreations of this world would always seem nauseous to it. And hence it makes no account of whatever is earthly.
[23] rapture, Moreover, there is this difference between what I have called suspension and rapture. In suspension the soul little by little dies to these exterior things, and loses the sense of them and begins to live to God. But rapture comes with a single knowledge which the divine Majesty pours into the inmost recesses of the soul, with such speed that the soul seems to itself to be lifted up by him into its higher part: for, as it seems to it, it thinks it is going out of the body. Wherefore at the beginning it needs generosity to consign itself into the hands of God, that he may lead it wherever he will. For until the divine Majesty settles it in peace whither he wills to draw it (to draw it, I mean, thither that it may understand sublime things), it is certain that at the beginning a ready will to meet death for him is required: for the poor little soul (namely at the beginning) does not know what that is at last going to be. And in this way, in my opinion, the virtues are more strengthened; because the soul is more stripped, and the power of that great God is more manifested, that he may be feared and loved: since we can do nothing else when God, who is its Lord, ravishes the soul. Thereupon it grieves exceedingly that it has offended him, and is amazed that it dared so against so great a Majesty, and is pressed by a vehement desire that no one should rise up against it, but that all should praise it. I indeed should believe that those most ardent desires by which the salvation of souls is sought, and at the same time a singular will to co-operate toward this in any way whatever, and that that great Deity may be worshipped as he deserves, proceed from this fountain.
[24] the flight of the spirit, The flight of the spirit is something (by what name to call it I do not know) ascending from the inmost recess of the soul. I remember only this comparison, which I put in that place where you know these and other methods of prayer were set out at length by me: for my memory is so weak that forgetfulness of things at once takes hold of me. The soul and the spirit seem to me to be one thing; or rather the soul, from the disposition it has toward God, is like a fire, if it is great and already disposed to burn. For as fire, when it is already burning, shoots out a flame which raises itself on high, and yet that fire does not differ from that which remains below, nor, although this flame is borne upward, does the fire on that account cease to be below; so too the matter stands in the soul: for it seems to produce from itself something so sudden and delicate that it flies to the higher part and hastens whither it pleases the Lord; which cannot be declared more plainly, so that it seems to be a flight: for I do not know to what other thing to compare it. Yet I know that it is understood evidently enough, and can by no means be hindered. That little bird, namely, seems to fly out of the misery of this flesh and the prison of this body, and so to fill itself more with the things communicated to it by the Lord. So subtle indeed and so precious is it, as the soul embraces it, that there seems to be no illusion there, when it takes place. But thence arose fear, because she to whom these things befell was so wretched that she seemed rightly able to fear all things; although in the interior soul there lay hidden a certain great certainty and security, with which indeed she could live, yet not so great that on that account all diligence was not to be used by her lest she be in some way deceived.
[25] the impulses of the soul I call an impulse a vehement desire which sometimes seizes the soul, although no prayer has preceded (nay, it is wont to happen so for the most part), but only a sudden remembrance by which it laments that it is absent from God, or only a little word heard which can be referred to it. So powerful indeed and sometimes of such efficacy is this remembrance that in one moment it seems to rapt the soul out of itself. And just as, when a sad misfortune hitherto unknown is suddenly announced, or when a sudden consternation falls upon one, which seems to take from the understanding the reasoning by which it might console itself, the soul stands struck, so too it happens here, except that the pain arises from such a cause that there remains in the soul the knowledge that death, if it were to be met in this name, is welcome and desirable. In short it is such a thing that whatever the soul then understands is the cause of greater pain to it, and even God seems not to will that its being should profit it, nor does it remember that it lives by his will alone, but believes it is living in such loneliness and dereliction that it cannot be set forth in words: for the whole world and worldly things torment it; and in short nothing of created things refreshes it, nor does it desire anything besides the Creator alone: whom yet it sees it is impossible to have, unless it departs from this life. And since it cannot kill itself, it is dying of desire, so that it is truly in danger of dying, and sees itself as it were suspended between heaven and earth, so that it does not know what it is to do with itself.
[26] ardently desiring God, Little by little too God communicates to it knowledge of himself, that it may see how much it is losing, and that in a way so wonderful that it cannot be told: for there is no way in the world, at least of those which I have experienced, which equals this. This one thing suffices, that even in the half hour that it lasts it so weakens the body and so unnerves the bones that not even the hands can form characters with the pen, and they feel the most grievous pains. Of these things the soul feels nothing until this impulse has passed; for it is wholly occupied in feeling the interior things: nay, in my opinion it would not even feel the most dreadful torments then, although it exercises the function of all the senses, nay can even speak and fix its gaze, yet not walk; for the immense stroke of love casts it to the ground. And although it is dying with desire of having this thing, it is in vain unless God gives it. This impulse leaves very great effects and gains in the soul. Doctor
defines this impulse in this way, another in another; no one condemns it. Nay, Master Ávila admonished me by letter that it is a good thing; and so all think. The soul too understands that it is a notable gift of God. If it were more frequent, life would be shorter. The impulse for the most part has this as its custom, that this ardour of serving God comes on with great tenderness of soul and also an abundance of tears and most vehement desires of departing from this place of exile: yet when the soul has had the freedom of considering that it is God's will that it should remain in this life, it consoles itself with this thought; it also offers him its living, beseeching him that its life may look to no other aim than the greater glory of his name: and so this thing passes.
[27] finally an interior wound of the soul Finally another method of prayer, truly quite frequent, is a kind of wound by which the soul believes that its heart, nay itself, is struck by a dart, so that this wound brings it immense pain, at which it breaks out into querulous lamentations: yet the pain is so savoury that it would never wish to be without it. Moreover, this pain is not in the sense, nor is the wound so material; but it is situated in the inmost recesses of the soul, so that no bodily pain appears. But since this can be understood only by comparisons, these coarser ones are employed: for such they are, if they are compared with this thing; but I cannot set it forth otherwise. These things, accordingly, are such as ought not to be expressed in words nor in writing; because no one can understand them except one who has experienced the same in himself, so far, I mean, as this pain extends. For the pains of the spirit differ very much from bodily ones. And hence I draw out how souls in hell and purgatory suffer more than can be comprehended here by men from these bodily torments. At other times this wound of love seems to proceed from the inmost of the soul. Moreover, its effects are vehement: yet if God does not deign to grant it, there is no means of obtaining it, whatever effort be applied; nor of turning it away, if God deigns to bestow it. These are as it were divine desires, so lively and subtle that they cannot be explained in words. And because the soul sees itself bound so as not to enjoy God as it would wish, hence it comes about that it abhors the body and judges it to be as a thick wall which hinders the soul from perfectly possessing God, whom it then understands (as it seems to it) that it possesses within itself without the hindrance of the body. Then too it perceives that immense evil which came upon us by the transgression of Adam, by which, namely, we lost this freedom. This kind of prayer is wont to be had before raptures and before those great impulses I have mentioned. I had omitted to say that these sublime impulses are not wont to end otherwise than in a rapture or some notable gift of the Lord, by which he consoles the soul and rouses it to live for him. Whatever I have followed out up to now cannot be an empty fiction, for some reasons which it would be long to enumerate. But whether I have spoken rightly or not, the Lord knows. The effects, and the fruit which redounds from them to the soul, cannot, so far as it plainly seems to me, fail to be perceived." These words which I have brought forward are Mother Teresa's; and I rejoice that I have brought them forward, because they seem to me the best declaration of those degrees through which God led her to so sublime a prayer. And this is the chief reason why I have copied them out, not in order to teach what method of praying is to be kept: for this is not the place or time for that matter. Yet those words of hers are as it were a brief compendium of the things which all the most learned have put forth in writing about these sublime modes of prayer: wherefore those to whom any of these things has been communicated by God will be able to take fruit for themselves from them.
Chap. IV.
[28] Since I have begun to speak of her kind of prayer, The Saint frequently enjoys I shall bring forth whatever pertains to it before I go on; although I desire to come to her other virtues, because very many things will have to be said for the glory of him who granted them to her so perfectly and for the profit of souls eager for perfection: but the fitting order of the things to be said seems by its own right to demand of me this which I have proposed. And I would wish that those who are going to read these things should read over again the things which I followed out in the first two chapters of the first book, and also the beginning of the third chapter of this book: for in the things I am now going to bring forward I look to nothing else than that we may wonder at them and on that account celebrate the divine name, but not that we may attain them by emulating them; since that cannot be done and it would be foolish to attempt it. When two are joined to one another by close intimacy, they open their secrets to each other; for, according to the old adage, the things of friends are all common. Hence, when the Almighty was about to overthrow those abominable cities, he says: "Can I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?" (Gen. XVIII, 17); and in the Prophet Amos he speaks in this manner: "The Lord God doth no thing, without revealing his secret to his servants the Prophets" (Amos III, 7). The Redeemer too addresses his Apostles in this way: "I will not now call you servants: for the servant knoweth not what his lord doth. But I have called you friends: because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you" (John XV, 15).
[29] the vision and converse So Christ gave himself to be seen by Teresa in various kinds of visions, and often conversed with her familiarly and most amicably, and revealed notable secrets to her. It has already been narrated before that hell was shown her by him, and at the same time the place prepared for her, had she gone on persisting in the road she had begun, and had she not, like a new Abraham, been freed from the fire of the Chaldeans by his most mighty right hand. There was a time when he manifested to her the heavenly glory, and she saw there, before other souls, both her parents; and in a very short space of time she beheld the loftiest things and also understood the most profound secrets, which cannot be set forth in any words: from which sight she was flooded with so rich a delight that it cannot be comprehended in speech. At another time the Lord remained with her for more than the space of an hour, manifesting great wonders to her.
[30] of Jesus Christ. When once the Lord had brought back to her memory the course of her life, she was so rapt in mind that she seemed to herself to be outside the body or at least did not know whether she was truly in the body, as St. Paul writes happened to him (2 Cor. XII, 2, 3); and she beheld the Humanity of Jesus Christ shining with greater glory than up to then. She seemed then to see him, by a wonderful knowledge, sitting in the bosom of the Father; yet she did not know how this was done, but only knew that she was present at so sublime a mystery. She was so carried away then that only after many days did she return to herself, and she seemed always to behold the majesty of the Son of God present to her: from which sight the greatest consolation and fruit flowed into her soul. The same vision was offered her several times; and she said it was the most excellent of all those communicated to her by the Lord.
[31] She has knowledge of the Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. At one time, when an ardent desire of receiving the Most Holy Bread of the Eucharist had been inspired in her, entering the sacred church, in a rapture, the heavens being opened, she saw one sitting on a throne; and by a sublime knowledge which was meanwhile communicated to her she knew that the Divinity was present there (although she did not see it), surrounded by an innumerable multitude of Angels, and with greater majesty than she had seen up to then. She felt in herself so exceptional a glory that it could neither be expressed in words nor comprehended in thought. She saw nothing indeed; but she understood that whatever could be wished for was present there gathered together. It was said to her that she could do nothing else here than understand that she could understand nothing here, and weigh how all things were nothing if compared with this. She remained in this rapture for about two hours. When at another time she was reciting the Creed of St. Athanasius, the Lord gave her a sublime knowledge of the Most Holy Trinity, namely how there was only one God in the Trinity of Persons, and that with the greatest clarity that can be had in this place of exile. Thereafter a great light and a singular consolation always remained with her as to this mystery.
[32] She sees how God is with the just soul, On a certain paper I read this vision written by her hand: "On the day after the feast of St. Matthew, when I was as I had been wont to be from the time when the vision of the Holy Trinity was offered me, it was manifestly revealed to me in what way it exists in the soul which is in the state of grace, so that I saw it by certain figures and likenesses through an imaginary vision. Although at other times the Holy Trinity appeared to me by an intellectual vision, its truth did not remain present to me for some days, as now, namely so that I could think of it and console myself thence. Now I see that I indeed heard it so formerly from the learned, yet did not understand it as I now understand it, although I always believed it without doubt." And on another paper this was written: "On the Tuesday after the Lord's Ascension, when I had been in prayer for some time after Holy Communion, although not without pain, because I was so distracted that I could not bind my thought to one thing, I began to complain to the Lord of our wretched nature. Then my soul began to be inflamed, when I seemed to know openly that I had the whole Most Holy Trinity present in an intellectual vision: in which my soul, by a certain mode of representation which was as it were a figure of the truth, by which, namely, the slowness of my wit might grasp it, understood that God is three and one. Here the three Persons seemed to me to speak with me at once and to represent themselves in my soul, saying that from this day I should perceive in myself amendment in three things, each of which each of those Persons would confer on me. One of them was charity and equanimity in enduring. Feeling this charity being inflamed in me, I understood the words in which the Lord says that the Persons of the Holy Trinity will make their abode with the soul which is in grace (John XIV, 23); for I perceived them within me in the manner described." On another slip, speaking of the same matter, she writes in these words: "He seemed to me to show himself in such a way as when water penetrates and pervades a sponge: for so my soul seemed to me to have drunk in this Divinity, and in a manner to have embraced the three divine Persons in itself, and to have them in itself. At the same time too I understood these things: Do not strive to
hold me enclosed in you, but contain yourself within me. And so I thought those three persons were hidden within my soul, and I saw that they so communicated themselves to all created things that yet they never withdrew from me."
[33] in what way the three divine Persons are one, When she went off to Salamanca to establish a house of her nuns there, she conferred in person about these matters with Fr. Martín Gutiérrez, rector of the college of the Society of Jesus in that same city; who, besides being exceptional in learning and judgement, had acquired great experience of spiritual things. From him, therefore, she heard that these things which we have recounted about the Holy Trinity are so sublime that no one can ascend higher in this life. She likewise wrote these things of herself when she was founding the convent of Seville: "One day when I was applying myself to prayer, I felt my soul to be so within God that no world any longer seemed to remain for me, but I seemed to myself to be absorbed into God. Then he so explained to me the little verse from the canticle of the Mother of God, My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour, that even now I cannot forget it." It was written moreover: "On the feast of St. Augustine, when I had risen from the sacred table, it was manifested to me in a certain sublime way (yet I do not know how, since the thing was represented to the understanding and suddenly passed) that the three Persons of the Most Sacred Trinity, whom I bore engraved in my soul, are of entirely the same essence in themselves. This was declared to me by a certain wonderful conjunction, and by a light so clear that it worked in me a far other operation than if I had believed by faith alone. Hence it has come about that thereafter I can never again think of any Person of the Most Holy Trinity singly without at once understanding that the three are present together: and so, when today I was turning over in my mind how, since those three Persons are only one, the Son alone had taken human flesh, the Lord declared to me how, although they are one, the Persons are nevertheless three, distinct from one another. These great things, namely, are such that they cast into the soul new desires of departing from this life, because this earthly body hinders it from enjoying them fully. And although our infirmity seems able to comprehend none of these things, yet, although they pass in a moment, a far greater profit comes to the soul from them than it could acquire for itself even by the meditation of many years; although it can in no way understand how these things are done."
[34] what it is to love God In the same place she had written these things: "When at one time I had this presence of the three Persons which I bear fixed in my soul, so great a light arose in my mind that I believed without doubt that the living and true God was present there. Moreover such things were manifested to me that I could not relate them afterwards, and among the rest how the Son of God alone had taken human flesh, and not the other two Persons. Yet I could relate none of these things, as I have said: for some of them penetrated so deeply into my soul that the understanding seemed to understand them no otherwise than one sleeping or half asleep thinks he understands the things said by another." In the last chapter of her Life she says: "There befell me such a rapture of mind that I cannot explain it: I seemed to myself filled and overwhelmed with that brightness which I had felt at other times. In this grace there was declared to me a certain truth which is the fulfilment of all truths: in what way this happened I cannot say; because I saw nothing. It was said to me, although I did not see by whom (though I easily understood that these words were uttered by Truth itself): What I am doing for you is surely no small thing, nay it is of the number of those things for which you owe me much: for all the harm that befalls the world has its origin in this, that the truths of Sacred Scripture are not known with clear truth; whereas not even a tittle of it will be in vain. I indeed always seemed to myself to have believed them, and persuaded myself that all the faithful believed so. Then he said: Ah, how few, my daughter, truly love me! If they loved me sincerely, I would not hide my secrets from them. Do you know what it is to love me in truth? It is to know that whatever is not pleasing to me is a lie. You will see clearly that which you do not now comprehend, in the profit which your soul will draw from this. And so I found it in very fact: for, praise be to God, whatever I see not tending to the divine service seems to me to be such vanity and lie that I cannot set it forth as I understand it, nor yet the compassion with which I pity those whom I see ignorant of this truth."
[35] and how all created things are in God. Presently she recounts what profits came to her soul from it. And a little below she subjoins these things: "At one time, as I was praying, suddenly, without my perceiving anything formed, it was presented to me in spirit how all created things are seen in God, and how God comprehends all things in himself. How to describe it I do not know; but it remained intimately engraved on my soul: and this is of the number of the greatest favours which the Lord has bestowed on me, and at the same time of those which struck me with the greatest confusion, namely when I recall to memory the misdeeds I have committed." Then she declares what she saw, as best she can, using this comparison: "Let us say that the Divinity is as a diamond greater than the whole world, and in which whatever we do is perceived b, so that it embraces all things in itself: for there is nothing that is outside it. It was truly wonderful to see in this shining diamond so many things together in so short a space; nay, it is even painful to remember, whenever I remember that things so foul, such namely as my sins are, were represented in that pure brightness. And truly, whenever I recall it, I do not know how I bear it, and thereafter I remained so full of shame that I seemed to myself not to know where to hide myself," etc.
[36] Many other things are manifested to her from heaven. She also saw very many things pertaining to the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, as I shall tell in its place. Truly, if I undertook to tell here all the great things communicated to her by the Lord, the narrative would never find an end. We hold it as certain that she deliberately suppressed great things and was unwilling to commit very many of them to writing; as she herself manifestly testifies in chapter XXVII of the same book, where she writes these things: "Moreover, he deals with it with such familiarity and friendship that no one could attain it in speech: for sometimes he confers on it graces so excellent that they seem to include some matter for doubting, both because they are so admirable, and because they were conferred on one who had so little merited them; so that, unless there be a very lively faith, they cannot be believed: for which reason I have decided to relate very few of those which the Lord has bestowed on me, unless something else should be enjoined on me by my superiors." And in chapter XXXII, having recounted that vision of hell, she writes in these words: "After I had seen these and other great secrets which the Lord deigned of his mercy to show me, the glory, I mean, which awaits the blessed, and the punishments which await the damned and the wicked," etc. And in chapter XXXVIII: "I will not say more of these things, because, as I have said, it is not necessary; although the Lord has deigned with singular favour to show me very many."
ANNOTATIONS.
Chapter III.
The prophetic spirit of St. Teresa, and the books composed by her.
Chap. V.
The things that pertain to the prophetic spirit are so connected with the visions and the revelations of great secrets which we touched on in the preceding chapter that they cannot be separated. Other visions and revelations, Wherefore I have resolved with myself to commend here some of her prophecies, so that it may be plain to the eye how the prediction of Joel was fulfilled in her: "I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy" (Joel II, 28). In the Old Testament there were some celebrated Prophetesses, such as Mary the sister of Moses, and Debbora, and the wife of Isaias, whom he himself in chapter VIII calls a Prophetess, and Holda in the time of King Josias, and Anna the daughter of Phanuel. Among the Gentiles the Sibyls flourished, whose oracles about the mysteries of the life and death of Jesus Christ and about the last judgement are extant no less manifest than are those of the Holy Prophets among the Hebrews. But in the New Testament the number of seers of both sexes was far greater, because in it that oracle which we have already drawn from Joel was to be fulfilled. Philip, one of the number of the seven deacons chosen by the Apostles, had four virgin daughters who prophesied (Acts XXI, 9). And this gift was so common among Christians in those times that the Corinthians had to be admonished by St. Paul how women ought to behave when they prophesied in the Church, and how men (1 Cor. XI, 4, 5). Nay, from chapter XIV of the first Epistle to the Corinthians it is gathered clearly enough how common this grace of prophecy was in their Church; which also had place in other Churches. St. Justin Martyr in the Dialogue with Trypho testifies that the grace of prophecy flourished in the Church right up to his own times. St. Thomas too teaches (2, 2, q. CLXXIV, last article) that from the times of the Apostles there have always been up to now those who had the spirit of prophecy, and produces as witness to this St. Augustine, who writes (City of God, book V, chapter XXVI) that the emperor Theodosius, reduced to straits by the enemy, sent to John, a monk of Egypt endowed with the prophetic spirit, to ask about the outcome of the war, and learned from him that he would carry off a notable victory; which also so happened. This gift and grace of God to our
age has been perpetual in a continuous series in Saints of both sexes, as we declared at length in the first chapter of the first book.
[38] which to the prophetic spirit At Villacastín (it is a town of Old Castile quite well known, and my native soil) not so very many years ago, namely in the time of King Henry the Infirm, a certain man truly endowed with the prophetic spirit foretold some calamities impending over Castile, which also came to pass a. He also rebuked the king himself so intrepidly with a certain holy and prophetic freedom that the king ordered his tongue to be cut out at Segovia: and when it had been cut out, he spoke no less than while he had it, and, turning to his tongue, which had been fastened with nails publicly in the market-place, he said: "There you will stay fixed, because you speak the truth." I myself, when a mere boy, heard in that town a certain honourable old woman, who, so far as I remember, related that she had known him. There were also other citizens there, devoted to antiquities and worthy of belief, who related the same thing.
[39] can be referred, Returning, then, to the discourse I have undertaken, I first presuppose, by reason of the things to be said, this teaching of St. Gregory, received and approved by all, who speaks in this way: "The times of prophecy are three, namely past, present and future" (Homily I on Ezekiel). Proving this very thing by testimonies of the sacred writings, he says: "Prophecy is of the future: Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son (Is. VII, 14). Prophecy of the past: In the beginning God created heaven and earth (Gen. I, 1). For a man spoke of that time when man was not. Prophecy is of the present when Paul the Apostle says: But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not or an unlearned person, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: the secrets of his heart are made manifest, and so falling down on his face he will adore God, affirming that God is among you indeed (1 Cor. XIV, 24, 25). When therefore it is said: The secrets of his heart are made manifest, it is surely shown that in this manner the spirit of prophecy does not foretell what is to be, but shows what is." Whence St. Gregory concludes that if past and present things are of such a kind that they cannot be known naturally, to know and manifest them is a certain spirit of prophecy: for to know or to disclose the things that are to come is to prophesy, because they cannot be known by a natural way. According to this teaching of Gregory it appears that almost all the things said in the preceding chapter, nay rather all without exception, can be referred to the spirit of prophecy.
[40] many and notable Of this kind likewise was that vision in which, on the solemnity of the Assumption of the Mother of God, she beheld the manner in which she was taken up into heavenly glory, the applause and festive congratulation with which she was admitted there by the Heavenly Ones, and also the place of glory which she holds (Life, chapter XXXVIII). She likewise beheld to what degree of glory some blessed souls had been raised, and what was the difference of each in glory. She saw many souls, having come out of purgatory, ascend into heaven, of which vision she wrote in chapter XXXVIII of her Life: among the rest the soul of a certain one of the Brothers of our Society, which, when she was present at the Sacrifice of the Mass in our college of Ávila and was beseeching the Lord for his salvation, as one who had expired the previous night, she beheld going off into the heavens surrounded by great glory, Christ accompanying him. And in chapters XXXI and XXXIV she makes mention of other sights of that kind. She saw besides how the corpse of a certain rich man was dragged by an innumerable force of evil demons and treated in unworthy ways, and how with iron hooks each of them strove with great effort to claim him for himself. Already above, when we were relating the beginnings of the convent of Valladolid, we said that the soul of Bernardino de Mendoza was seen by her flying away to those above, and what had been beheld by her before concerning him.
[41] were made to St. Teresa. At the time when she was acting as prioress at the Incarnation, it happened that Leonor de Cepeda, sister of Mary of St. John the Baptist and kinswoman of the blessed Mother, whom she had had with her from tender years, and whom she embraced with wonderful love on account of the exceptional adornments of her virtues (for she had seriously renounced worldly things, and applied herself diligently to prayer and divine things), departed from this life. On the day before she died, the blessed Mother saw that her end would be most happy and that she would be free from purgatory. Hence, when her companions were carrying the maiden's body to the lower choir, to be buried in the earth, she saw Angels lending helping hands to the nuns in carrying it, nay carrying it with their own hands: which vision she afterwards recounting added: "that it may appear, namely, how greatly God honours those bodies which were the instruments of holy souls." And so she had it committed to the earth at the time of High Mass, which was being sung of the Most Holy Eucharist (because the day of burial fell within the octave sacred to the Body of Christ), and that with the festive singing of the organs and the glad songs of Alleluia of many and the green of branches; so that the sacred procession with the Body of Christ went round the corpse. She also saw ascending into heaven Doctor Honcala b, canon of Ávila, a man of notable holiness and outstanding in theological science, as is manifest to anyone who reads the writings which he handed down to posterity; and she heard that he had been free from the purging fire for this reason, that he had kept his virginity unsullied.
[42] She foreknew many things about particular persons, Juana Brochero, wife of Pedro Álvarez Cimbrón, had given Teresa, when she was staying at Ávila, a certain notable image of Christ fixed to the cross; and a few days after her death Teresa saw her coming out of purgatory carrying this cross in her hands, at the same time thanking her because she had been an intercessor for her deliverance with God, and also declaring that this image of the Crucified had been of very great profit to her cause with God. That Teresa foreknew many future things could already be seen above from the many revelations offered her at the foundation of her first convent and also from certain others. To some religious too she foretold what was to happen, and especially to that priest of the Society of Jesus with whom she communicated very much about her secrets, when he was acting as governor of the college of Ávila: which he afterwards found had happened just as Teresa had foretold. When the husband of her sister María de Cepeda had been carried off by so sudden a death that there was not even time for disclosing his offences, Teresa learned by God's revelation that her sister, the dead man's wife, would also die by a sudden kind of death; and this was revealed to her not once but quite often. Hence, going to her, she commended to her frequent use of Confession and the Eucharist and diligent care of her soul, keeping silent about the revelation offered her. She afterwards, four or five years having passed, departed this life without confession of sins having gone before, and with no one present: and behold, eight days afterwards, when Teresa had risen from the Eucharistic banquet, the Lord gave her to be seen by her as she was being led into heaven.
[43] of the Order of Preachers, of the Society of Jesus, Likewise, by the Lord's revelation, she foreknew very many dangers both of her own and of others three or four years before they happened; and she found these fulfilled one by one. She also warned absent persons by letter about similar things, so that they might provide for themselves and avert the harms impending over them. She also foresaw many things that were to happen to the families of religious, and those notable ones c. For as she was applying herself to prayers not far from the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, there appeared to her a certain one of the Saints of the Dominican family, carrying in his hand an immense book; which he, opening it, urged her to read certain large and easily legible letters written in it. And the writing was of this kind: "In future times this Order will flourish, and will have many Martyrs." She saw too six or seven monks of the same Institute brandishing swords in their hands: by which sign she learned that they would defend the Faith. When again she was engaged in prayer, her mind rapt into ecstasy, she beheld a vast field, and in it very many fighting, and men of the same Order rushing upon the enemy with a certain singular ardour of mind. The faces of each of them were comely and inflamed: and, vigorous of hand, they laid very many of the enemy on the ground; others too they cut down. And she understood that this conflict was being waged against the heretics. At another time, when she was in prayer with the greatest recollection, sweetness and quiet of mind, she saw a multitude of men of the Society of Jesus in heaven, carrying white banners in their hands. When this spectacle carried her away into amazement, and at the same time brought her delight, because she was borne toward this Order with a peculiar zeal, she at once heard from Jesus the Redeemer: "If you only knew what help these will bring to the Church in future times!" She says this vision was offered her quite often. Although in the Life of Teresa which goes about printed this family is not indicated singly by its name, yet in the autograph itself, and in all the handwritten books which it has befallen me to see, its name is openly given.
[44] of the defeat of the Portuguese in Africa, These words of Jesus the Redeemer she repeats again below in chapter XL, yet without declaring the name of the Religion itself. And all that I have just said is most certain and received from Teresa's own lips. However, as I began to treat of these prophetic visions, it came into my mind long ago that there would perhaps be someone so ignorant as not to hold these things worthy of the name of prophecies, because they were declared by the Lord only through a vision. But whoever persuaded himself of this would surely be inept: for the predictions of all the Prophets consisted in this, that God showed them some vision, and disclosed what was signified by it, and revealed either by his own mouth or through an Angel something about future things or things so secret that they could not be known by natural knowledge; as all the oracles of the Sacred Seers in the Holy Books attest: which, because it is clearer than the midday sun, I do not linger longer in establishing. Twenty years and more before that fatal defeat of Portugal took place, in which King Sebastian, routed with the flower of the Portuguese nobility on the African expedition, fell, Teresa beheld an Angel brandishing a bare sword dripping with blood against that same kingdom of Portugal d; and also another who with a similar blade held out dire threats against France (although not inflamed with the indignation with which the former was), and who at the same time indicated to her how much the Majesty of God was roused against this kingdom, and showed her the copious blood which was afterwards shed there. When at length the time had come, and she herself was afflicted not a little before the Lord on account of the slaughter of King Sebastian and his men, she received the answer: "If I found them disposed so that I might lead them to me, why are you afflicted?"
[45] of the progress of her Reform. When Doctor Velázquez, canon of Toledo, had been elected bishop of Osma, and Teresa had gone into the choir to commend him to God, she heard that this election would be above all for the good of the things of God. She likewise learned from heaven that the family of the Discalced friars,
which was then in the utmost straits, would be so far from being dissolved that it would spread more and more every day. At another time, when she was exceedingly anxious about the affair of her afflicted and endangered company, it was said to her by the Lord: "Be quiet, woman of little faith; for the matter is going very well"; and it could be seen not long after that the Lord had spoken truly. Another vision too was granted her (as is drawn out from her writings), four years before it happened, about a certain storm of persecutions that was to arise: in which she learned, heaven declaring it, that, as the Egyptians perished drowned in the sea when they were pursuing the Israelites to destroy them, while the people of God crossed the sea dry-shod, so the Order instituted by her would both be freed from the fury of its harassers, and those who persecuted it by vexing it would be overcome and drowned. At another time, when she was very anxious because she had for a long time learned nothing about the health of Fr. Gracián, who was ill, a certain light glided down inwardly into her soul, in which she saw him coming along the road with a cheerful face and strengthened health; and also a voice came to her then: "Tell him to begin the matter at once: for the victory will be his." From Ávila too (as I remember having said in the first book), when she had sent a boy to the town of Toro to ask a few small coins from a certain matron, the Lord said to her in a clear voice: "The money is already safe and with the boy: it was counted out to him in the lower court."
[46] She saw the secrets of hearts. When she was staying at Toledo in the house of Luisa de la Cerda, a desire of embracing the same Institute had come upon María of St. Joseph, who now administers the priorate of the house of Lisbon, and who then lived in that house, as she observed Teresa and her companions rather curiously: yet she had disclosed it neither to Teresa nor to any mortal. And when Teresa admonished Luisa's other waiting-women that each should serve our Lord according to her own measure, and, if they were bidden by their parents to wear fine clothes, that they should do it out of obedience, María of St. Joseph alone, whenever she saw her, she criticized for too great a fondness for more elegant adornment, and said that her practices by no means savoured of a nun. As soon as she saw anyone, she at once perceived what kind of prayer he followed; from the faces of others too she learned the secrets of the heart and also the hidden defects of their souls and other things which could not be known by natural reason. Likewise to Beatriz de Ovalle, daughter of her sister Juana, whom she wished to be joined to the company of the Discalced nuns, even when she herself was most averse from that thought, she said: "Follow now whatever road you will, Beatriz: in the end you will take up the institutes of the Discalced nuns." And in fact she today lives under the name of Beatriz of Jesus in the monastery of Alba: of whose entrance into Religion I shall speak afterwards. When a certain matron had embraced the Institute of the Discalced nuns, Teresa foretold that she would not persevere in it: and not long after she withdrew from it.
[47] Of the place and time of her death, To the duchess of Alba, María Enríquez, she foretold that she would die at Alba: which same thing she also related to others elsewhere; and in particular to Fr. Mariano of St. Benedict, eight years before she departed this life, she plainly affirmed that it had been revealed to her by the Lord that she would lay down her life at Alba e. Of the church of St. Joseph at Ávila I have read these things written by her own hand: "I understood once: The time will come some day when, on account of the very many miracles that are to be wrought in this church, it will be called a holy church. At St. Joseph's, Ávila, in the year 1571." At Ávila she foretold to Fr. Peter of Alcántara the day on which he was to depart this life. While she was staying at Seville the Lord declared to her that she would one day be a partaker of eternal salvation. She also foreknew her own death a long time before she departed this life, as also the year which was to be the last of her life. For when at Medina the prioress Agnes of Jesus asked her: "Is Your Reverence now fifty-nine years of age?" Teresa answered: "Yes," and then, as if muttering between her teeth: "From fifty-nine to sixty-eight," and no more. These words Isabel of Jesus, who was then in her novitiate, noted silently. Then some years afterwards, when at Salamanca, as she was in ill health as usual, the physician Tiedra, most skilled in his art, prescribed certain necessary remedies to be applied, she answered him that she would observe none of these; and when he asked the cause: "For those four years," she said, "which remain to me of life, I do not need so laborious a caution." Isabel of Jesus, hearing this, who had also heard the former words, joined both together, and, counting the years which had flowed by from the first words up to that time, found that only these four years were lacking to the sixty-eighth year. And in very truth it befell her to die when she had completed sixty-seven and a half years of life and a little more.
[48] and of many other things At Salamanca, while she was paying the task of Matins with Quiteria de Ávila, a nun of the convent of the Incarnation of Ávila, she remained for some interval of time with her mind alienated: when then her mind had returned to itself, Quiteria urgently besought the Mother not to think it a burden to tell her what she had meanwhile undergone. Then Teresa said: "Francisco de Guzmán has died." He was distinguished in the priesthood and born of an illustrious family, but more illustrious for humility of life and divine service. And indeed it was afterwards found that he had departed this life at that moment of time. Then, consoling his sister Francisca de Bracamonte at Ávila, she addressed her in these words: "Do not be distressed at your brother's passing: for he is in an excellent place; for I saw a certain body endowed with glory and very beautiful: and although he was not such, yet I recognized that it was he." In the first book we spoke of the death of Úrsula of the Saints, who was of the number of the first four Discalced nuns, and that she was seen by Teresa at Alba surrounded by glory four hours after she had departed this life at Ávila. Being at Segovia, one evening, turning to her nuns, she said: "Isabel of the Angels has died, and her soul was for a little while in purgatory"; and behold, two days afterwards, a letter announcing her death was brought to Segovia from Salamanca, where she had died. In the same city, when she was anxiously beseeching God for the health of a nobleman who lay gravely ill, a divine voice glided down to her, two days before he gave up his spirit, saying: "He will die indeed, but he will live eternally." Nor did the event deceive; for he departed this life. And it was quite often given her from heaven to know the death of her daughters before it was announced by letter. When Agnes of Jesus, who is now prioress of the Discalced nuns of Palencia, her health being utterly despaired of, was already held as if dead, Teresa said to those standing by: "This sickness will not be mortal for her: for God has reserved her for greater things." Juan de Ovalle too, her sister's husband, whom all undoubtedly believed would die of his illness, she affirmed would be restored to health; and as it was foretold, so it was done.
[49] which could not be known naturally, When the lower choir of the church of Alba was being built, and friends were advising that the grilles looking into the church should be made square, after the custom of other convents, Teresa said: "Nothing else is to be made but an arch: for in that place a deposit will one day have to be placed." The grilles being arranged in this way, then, the nuns believed that it had been said by Teresa as though she wished the chest of the deposit which the founders had left there to be spent on certain pious works to be brought here: yet that deposit was by no means brought into that vault, but another far more precious, the pledge, I mean, of her sacred body, which remained entrusted to that place as a deposit for some space of time, as I shall declare at more length in the following book. Hence the opinion is, although not so very undoubted, that Teresa was then looking to the deposit of her body. In a certain narrative which her confessor (whom I judge to have been someone of the Society of Jesus) composed about her and her spirit, I found these words: "She related to me many things which it is most certain God alone can know: for they were things which were to happen afterwards and pertained to the interior soul and its progress, and seemed altogether impossible to know: and I found that all of them coincided excellently with the truth."
[50] she was divinely warned. And as God formerly revealed to the Prophets what he wished to be signified to others for the salvation of their souls, so too it is established that he disclosed very many things to this his handmaid; although the announcing of them was by no means pleasing to her and she strove to put it from herself. Hence at one time she said to the Lord: "Why do you burden me with this message, Lord? Can you not indicate these things to them yourself? Why, I pray, do you wish me to be occupied with declaring these messages?" To whom the Lord answering said: "I use your services here for this reason, that, since you cannot be of use in greater things, you may in some measure help others to serve me, and because that man is less disposed for me to speak to him myself, and finally because, if I wished to do it myself, he would by no means give me credence, because he is not so devoted to prayer." There was a time too when she said to him freely: "Are others lacking, my Lord, especially learned men, who, if you enjoined it on them, would carry out your commands far better than I, who am so worthless?" Then the Lord said: "Because learned men are unwilling to dispose themselves to speak familiarly with me, hence, as one in need and having suffered a repulse from them, I turn to women to seek consolation and to treat of my affairs." The same confessor also relates that, when he had admonished a certain man thereafter to dedicate himself from the heart to the service of God, and, thinking he had listened to him as he admonished him, was unwilling to return to him, Teresa told him that she had been enjoined by her master (for so she was wont to call Jesus Christ) to announce to him in his name that he should address this man again and signify to him ardently what she was then bringing forth to him: and that he, without any delay, laid open the commands of God to him so seriously that he on whose account these things were signified (since he was a grave man, of great judgement and renowned in the administration of the commonwealth) was touched to the very depths of his heart, and, breaking into tears, did not fear to disclose to the one admonishing him that he had not yet begun to do what he had undertaken he would do.
Chap. VI.
[51] The book of her Life Now the necessary order of things seems to demand that I should recount some things about the books which Teresa composed f, and about the precepts which she gave for praying; because all these seem in some measure to pertain to the knowledge of spiritual things which we have said fell to her lot, and to the things which we began to say in the first chapter about her modes of prayer. Moreover, besides certain scattered slips surviving here and there, in which many exceptional lessons are handed on, she herself wrote five treatises, not of her own accord, but at the command of her confessors (to whom she rendered no less obedience than to Christ Jesus himself, as both from what has been said
up to now and many things to be said afterwards will attest). The first is a certain treatise on her life, which extends up to the foundation of the first convent at Ávila. This she wrote at the command of García de Toledo, of the Dominican brethren, then her confessor, in the year 1562, in which the beginnings of the house of Ávila were laid; and she finished it in the month of July of that same year, not divided into any chapters: but afterwards, having arranged it into chapters, she added to it the erection of the house of Ávila. And it is to be wondered at that Teresa, while she was writing this book, was wont to be placed by the Lord in the state of prayer about which she was writing, in the same way in which she had had this state at the beginning; and so she was further established in order in all the modes of praying which she enumerates there, up to that in which she was at that time.
[52] and four other The second book was that whose name is the Way of Perfection: which she wrote when she held the priorate of the monastery of Ávila, and that at the command of Fr. Domingo Báñez, whom she then used as confessor; and she began it in the year in which she finished the former. The third embraces the foundations of the other houses from that of Medina up to that of Burgos, which was the last. This writing she began at Salamanca in the year 1573, on the advice of Fr. Jerónimo Ripalda of the Society of Jesus, who was her confessor at Salamanca, houses having already been established in seven different places; to which she afterwards attached in a continuous series those which were founded thereafter. The name of the fourth is the Interior Castle or the Mansions. The author of her writing this was Doctor Velázquez, her confessor, who, as I remember having said before too, was raised on account of his illustrious merits to the see of Osma, then to that of Compostela. In those days indeed she suffered so sublime an ecstasy of prayer, and was raised so far into the contemplation of the Most High, that for twelve days afterwards she was not equal even to writing letters, on account of the absorption of her mind. And thereafter an intolerable pain of the head vexed her, as she herself affirmed of herself in this book. This treatise she began at Toledo in the year 1577, on the feast of the Most August Trinity, and finished at Ávila in the same year on the day before the feast of St. Andrew, almost five years before she died.
[53] treatises Finally the fifth was a commentary on the Canticles of Solomon, which she undertook to write at the command of those whom (as she herself confesses) she was bound to obey. Of this writing only a few leaves remain: for as she began it only out of obedience, so she cast it into the flames at the order of a certain unskilled confessor, who did not fear to condemn a writing not yet even seen; although it would have been far better had she not obeyed this man before she had consulted others more skilled on that matter. But she complied at once, and with the greatest care suppressed the name of him who dared so rashly and imprudently to command what he did not understand; so much so that she would not indicate his name even to Fr. Gracián, to whom nevertheless she related the deed. And although to one reading the end of what survives Teresa seems truly to have made an end of writing here, yet it is most certainly established for us that she went further afterwards in writing.
[54] most eloquent Moreover, these books she wrote overwhelmed by the frequency of the greatest affairs, labouring too under straits of time, often also with her body in ill health, so that it seemed such things could by no means be written by such a person: yet it seemed easy to her for this reason, that, when she applied herself to writing, so great an abundance of things to be written flowed to her that she by no means had to premeditate what to write, but rather needed the greatest speed in writing; as she herself manifestly declares in very many places of her books, and especially toward the end of the book whose name is the Way of Perfection she has this: "For me, however, I have been abundantly satisfied for whatever small trouble I have taken in writing: for I had no need at all to turn over beforehand in thought what I should write." And in the manuscript autograph of this book at the end of chapter XX these things are read: "But alas! how many things occur to one beginning to treat of this way, nay even to one who entered upon this way so badly, such as I am! Would that I could use more hands in writing, lest one thing should bring on forgetfulness of another!" etc. Hence the style of her writings is neither laboured nor elaborate, but such as she used in common conversation; yet open, pure, grave, genuine, pleasing to the reader, and suited to the things she treated.
[55] and most useful Writing of prayer, contemplation, and the familiar intercourse of God with souls and of souls with God, she brings forth lofty, subtle and sublime things, and in such a way indeed that even the most learned, unless they are at the same time most skilled in spiritual things, will rather wonder at them than understand them: not that they are not opened up sufficiently by her (for she is above all skilled in setting forth such things, and proposes them in various ways, and indeed with apt comparisons employed for this), but because they are so sublime and spiritual that they allow themselves to be easily understood only by those who have acquired some experience of them. And therefore (except the Way of Perfection, which book, two or three chapters excepted, can be of use to all) there is no reason why the subtle arguments which occur in the greater part of her books should be read by all, but only by those for whose sake they were written, such, namely, as the Lord shall deign to lead by this way, or at least those who will make some progress in the path of perfection by reading them, namely by celebrating that Lord who shows himself so munificent toward those who dedicate themselves from the heart to his service, and by loving him the more earnestly on this account.
[56] lessons For the rest let it be enough to unfold the historical or didactic parts which are easy to understand. And those who wish to draw some fruit from these writings must read them with a pious mind and one purged of perverse affections, interpreting in a sound sense some words which are not uttered with the rigour with which theologians employ them in the schools, and which have not everywhere been brought back to that balance which some practised theologian would use in writing, weighing his sayings more accurately, lest anything lie open to the calumnies of sharp-eyed Aristarchuses. Nor indeed is this difficult; both because it is plain to the eye with how sound an intention they were written, and also because from what is said it is easy to gather rightly what sense they have. For those who do not read books in this way will find very few authors, even among the gravest and most learned, in whom they will not find things that can be twisted into a worse sense.
[57] full of The book of her Life, besides the history, which brings the reader delight, contains very many spiritual things, all of which indeed are of the things which happened to Teresa herself: besides it suggests salutary lessons for discerning the inspirations of the good and the evil spirit, and admonitions by which those which come down from the good are fostered and the frauds of the evil spirit avoided. The book of the Mansions embraces the same teaching, but more orderly and more accommodated to experience, because it saw the light, having been written fifteen years after the former. But the most sublime of all are the things contained in the last three Mansions, namely those which she saw and experienced in herself; except that in the history of her life she speaks openly of herself, but here with her name kept silent. The Way of Perfection makes more for the common use of everyone: for it treats of prayer, leading it from its beginnings, speaking first of the virtues proper to Religion which are most required for praying; at the same time too it proposes excellent lessons for undertaking prayer both vocal and mental; likewise what is the method of contemplating, what the prayer of quiet: finally it expounds the Lord's Prayer with certain meditations proposed. Those three treatises just praised I hear have already been turned into the Italian tongue by the bishop of Novara.
[58] she wrote. The book of Foundations is for the most part history; yet here and there Teresa has inserted from time to time excellent admonitions and teaching very salutary and suited to those very nuns for whose sake she composed it. But it is to be lamented that that commentary on the Canticles is imperfect: for if it were a complete work, it would, as I indeed believe, hold a torch before the reader for understanding wholly the sense of that most obscure writing. For since the Canticles set forth those graces by which God caresses the holy soul which dedicates itself wholly to him, and the divine loves with which it is borne toward him, and only very few have experienced any of these things, there is surely no doubt that she, who had long been accustomed to them, and had the greatest experience of them, if anyone ever had, and who had already very often tasted how sweet the Lord is, would understand much better what the bridegroom and the bride felt and spoke together.
ANNOTATIONS.
Chapter IV.
Examinations instituted concerning the spirit of St. Teresa, and her admonitions concerning prayer.
Chap. VII.
After treating of Teresa's books I wished to touch briefly on the admonitions which she prescribes for undertaking prayer: They examined the Saint's spirit but before I propose her lessons, it seemed better to set down first how she was examined by the most learned men of all Spain and those most experienced in spiritual things, and approved as a mistress; so that in this way her admonitions and precepts might receive the authority and weight they deserve. For no doctor of Sacred Theology at Salamanca, Alcalá or Paris was ever examined more rigidly or more often. Already in the first book we brought forward some who sifted, approved and praised her spirit, such as Fr. Francis Borgia, then Fr. Peter of Alcántara and others: I also produced a letter of the same Peter to the prelate of Ávila, in which he brings forth in some manner his judgement about her. In some manner, I say; for at the same time he said to another man of great authority that he numbered Teresa's soul among the choicest souls which God then had on earth, and that although he himself had dealt with various souls of that kind, yet none of them all seemed to him to have satisfied him more than this one: that God had reserved her for works tending to his great worship; and that not this convent of Ávila alone which she wished to erect would be founded by her.
[60] and approved it He added that, except Sacred Scripture and the other things which the Catholic Church prescribes to be believed, he held nothing more certain than that Teresa's spirit was from God: on which matter other most grave and learned men also affirmed many excellent things. But, since I have found a relation written by her hand, which she gave at Seville in the year 1575 to Rodrigo Álvarez, S.J., to whom she was then opening the secrets of her soul (because he was an exceptional worshipper of God and excellently versed in the discernment of spirits), in which very many things of that kind are related, I shall select from it those things which will seem to bear on what we are treating a. In it, speaking of herself as of a certain third person, she says that forty years had passed since she had professed the monastic life, and that for the first twenty-two she had always experienced great dryness of mind; that thereafter she began to be addressed and visited by the Lord, and began to fear lest these things were done at the devil's instigation.
[61] St. Francis Borgia and others of the Society of Jesus, These things premised, the following are subjoined: "She began to deal with spiritual men of the Society of Jesus; among whom were Fr. Araoz, who was commissary of the Society, who happened to come there, and Fr. Francis, who was formerly duke of Gandía, with whom she communicated twice: then with the provincial, who is now at Rome and is of the number of the four Assistants, whose name is Gil González; and also with him who today governs the province of Castile, although she did not deal with him so frequently; and with Fr. Balthasar Álvarez, who today is rector of the college of Salamanca, and for six years had charge of her Confessions; likewise with him who is now rector of the college of Cuenca, by name Salazar; with the rector of Segovia too, Santander; with the rector of Burgos, Ripalda (who also did not think rightly of her, deceived by the talk that had been spread about her, until at length he began to deal with her in person); besides with Doctor Pablo Hernández at Toledo, who was a consultor of the sacred tribunal of the Inquisition; with Fr. Gutiérrez, who, when he spoke with her, presided over the college of Salamanca; and finally with other Fathers of the Society of Jesus whom she knew to be skilled in spiritual things, with whom, in those towns to which she went off to establish her houses, she busied herself to speak about her affairs.
[62] St. Peter of Alcántara, She likewise conferred quite often with Fr. Peter of Alcántara, a man of the highest holiness, of the number of the Discalced Franciscans; who strove with the greatest zeal to persuade all that her spirit was right. For six years and more various trials were made of her: which was for her a harvest of afflictions and continual tears. But the more inquiry was made into her, the more frequent the suspensions and raptures she suffered, although she meanwhile remained in possession of her senses. Her friends pressed God with many prayers and Sacrifices to lead her by another road. Meanwhile she feared not a little when she was not giving herself to prayer; although otherwise in all the things in which any progress of the soul consisted she experienced a notable change in herself, and was lifted up by no vainglory, nay did not feel even the least titillation of it or of pride, so that on the contrary she was suffused with great blushing that her affairs should be published abroad, although she never conferred about them except with her confessors or others from whom she hoped for the help of direction: nay, to disclose them to these was more grievous to her than if she had declared enormous crimes. For she believed that she and her affairs were becoming known to others everywhere, and that these things were nothing but the trifles of silly women, which it had always been bitter for her to hear."
[63] the Ven. John of Ávila, A little below she speaks of Francisco Salazar, who was afterwards elected prelate of Salamanca, in these words: "He, seeing her so saddened and anxious, advised her to write out exactly all her affairs and also the course of her life, omitting not even the least thing, to Master Ávila, a man most practised in the things that pertain to prayer, and to acquiesce in his reply concerning them. She obeyed his advice, and wrote out to him the whole account of her life and also all her sins. And Ávila, replying to this letter, bade her be secure and consoled her much. This relation of her life was such that all the learned men who looked into it, her confessors, I mean, kept saying that it was of very great profit, as one which could serve in many spiritual things in place of a certain lesson, nay even ordered it to be transcribed by her, and wished her to write another little book for the sake of the nuns over whom she presided, in which she might propose some admonitions to them. Yet she did not on that account cease to fear, since she thought that those men too, although most skilled in spiritual things, could be deceived no less than herself. Wherefore she gave her confessor power, if he judged it expedient, to confer freely about the same things with some men outstanding in knowledge, even though not very devoted to prayer. For she sought to know nothing else than whether all her secrets agreed with the sacred volumes. Sometimes she consoled herself in this way, that, although for her private faults she deserved to be deceived, God would never, it seemed, permit that so many men illustrious for holiness, who were striving to bring her some light, should be drawn into error on her account alone.
[64] and many of the Order of Preachers On this occasion she began to communicate with the Dominican brethren, whom she had also employed as confessors before. And those of this family whom she consulted thereafter are these: Fr. Vicente Varón, who was director of her confessions at Toledo for a year and a half, being meanwhile a consultor of the Holy Inquisition: him too she had consulted before for very many years; for he was conspicuous for learning. He bade her be wholly secure, as did the Fathers of the Society of Jesus; who likewise declared with one voice that, if she did not offend God by sinning, and acknowledged her own vileness, there was in short no reason why she should fear. She then conferred with Fr. Pedro Ibáñez b, who was lector at Ávila. Then she employed as confessor for six years Fr. Domingo Báñez, who now governs the college of St. Gregory at Valladolid, and consulted him by letter whenever occasion offered. She communicated besides with Master Chaves, and with Fr. Bartolomé de Medina, lector of the principal chair at Salamanca, whom she knew to think very ill of her on account of rumours he had heard, and whom she therefore judged would say more rightly whether there was some deceit underlying here, since he himself made so little of her affairs. So two years ago and a little more she strove by what means she could that he should lend his ears to her as she confessed, and during the whole time she stayed there she gave him an exact account of her affairs: to him too she gave of her own accord to read whatever she had written about herself, so that he might attain a greater knowledge of her affairs. Whence it came about that he more than all the others confirmed her in her purpose and showed himself a singular favourer of her affairs.
[65] exceptional men. For some time too she used as confessor Fr. Felipe de Meneses, when she had gone out to Valladolid to establish a house. He at that time presided there over the said college of St. Gregory, and before, having heard the report of these things, he had not thought it a burden to make his way to Ávila, to speak with her with great charity, and, if he should perhaps see that she was deceived by the demon, to give light to her in her error; but if not, to take up her patronage against detractions: and he indeed, having learned the matter, was wonderfully refreshed. Very familiarly too she treated of her affairs with the provincial of the Dominican family, Salinas by name, a man most versed in spiritual things; and also with another Presentado of the same company, Lunar by name, who was governor of the convent of Ávila: and at Segovia she consulted Fr. Diego de Yanguas. Among these Dominican Fathers there were not lacking those who were most practised in the pursuit of prayer; nay perhaps all were such: as also some others, such as were by no means lacking for this purpose, especially over the space of so many years, chiefly since she betook herself to so many different cities to found monasteries. Many trials were made of her; for there was no one who did not long to get an occasion of giving her light: whence it came about that they not only confirmed her, but were also confirmed in their own opinion of her. Whatever has been written and said up to now she gave to be read to Fr. Domingo Báñez, who is he who is now at Valladolid and with whom she has spoken most frequently about her affairs. However, she was most averse from subjecting herself easily to one who judged that everything came down entirely from God: for at once she feared lest the evil demon should deceive them both. Hence she more willingly conferred her affairs with one whom she saw to be timorous. Wherever there was any danger of erring, she could not prevail upon herself to be wholly secure in it. But she took care as diligently as she could not to offend the Majesty of Almighty God in anything; nay rather she diligently strove to obey her superiors in everything. By which two things, divine grace helping, she believed she would be safe and secure, even if otherwise the demon should impose upon her."
[66] From the good effects And of the effects which flowed thence into her soul she speaks in this manner: "From the time she began to suffer supernatural things, her mind was always borne toward pursuing what was most perfect; and for the most part she burned with a certain incredible desire of suffering: nay, even in the greatest multitude of tribulations by which she was harried, she always felt a singular consolation, and was borne with a certain peculiar love toward him by whom she was harried. She was a very great lover of poverty and solitude, and continually wished to depart from this valley of tears, so as to enjoy the sight of her God. In all the things of her spirit she never had anything that was not most pure and most chaste: nay, she does not even think (if only the spirit is good, and has something supernatural) that any such thing could underlie it, because she has no care for her body nor remembers it, since she is wholly given to God. She has also always feared greatly to offend God our Lord, and studies to carry out his will in all things. This she always asks of him; and, as at least it seems to her, she so firmly adheres to it that the confessors by whom she is governed would tell her nothing which she thinks would turn to the greater glory of God that she would not, God's grace helping, diligently carry out, relying on the hope and trust that his divine Majesty is at hand to those who purpose generously to undertake the things that shall seem to make for his service and glory. Hence she takes no more account of herself or of her conveniences, if only they are compared with this, than if they were nothing at all. As far as she can understand of herself and as her confessors too understand, whatever this paper contains is consonant with the truth; which can also be established and confirmed by all of them
by the testimony of those who have dealt with her familiarly for twenty years now. For her spirit for the most part impels her to the divine praises, and she would wish all mortals without exception to apply themselves to celebrating them, even at the greatest cost to herself. Hence is born the desire of the salvation of souls; and, since she sees how great is the vanity of all earthly things, and how beyond dispute all interior things are precious, she has little by little learned to trample on the former as rubbish." But before these she had set down these words: "She always submitted with an even mind to the things that were enjoined, so much so that she was saddened not a little whenever she could not obey in those supernatural things. Hence the prayer both of herself and of the nuns whom she has trained looks chiefly to this, that it be referred to the increase of the Catholic Faith (for which cause too she began to found her first convent) and also to the private good of her Order."
[67] and by other marks These are the words of Teresa of Jesus, although I have omitted some things which I shall bring forth in another more opportune place. Moreover, of that letter which Teresa writes was sent to her by Master Ávila, a man as learned as he was religious, who always produced so much fruit by his tongue and will produce it by his writings, I have seen the chief part; which, copied out, Fr. Gracián sent to me from Lisbon. In it he approves Teresa's kind of praying, and bids her be secure about it, and declares that even from the raptures which she relates in this treatise on her life he gathers the sign by which true raptures are distinguished from false. The same is his judgement about visions and colloquies with God, reproving the excessive obstinacy of those who are unwilling to give credence to things of that kind because they themselves lack them or because they do not see that he to whom they befall has attained to so great perfection. The same is confirmed by his testimony by the Venerable Fr. Luis of Granada toward the end of the first part of the Life of Master Ávila: where, having related what Teresa had written to him, as has been said, he adds these things: "He, when he had been made fully certain of the matter, wrote back to her that she should be at rest and believe most firmly that there was no deceit in her affairs, because everything proceeded from God. I have seen this letter of his, but I do not insert it here, because it would be too long to treat of things so spiritual and sublime, which do not suit the palate of all." Thus far Luis of Granada, treating of the discernment of spirits, the gift of which God had granted to Master Ávila.
[68] it was clearly shown I have also come upon a writing composed by one of Teresa's confessors, although I have not yet been able to find out for certain by what author it was put together c. But, since it seems to have come from a prudent and learned man, who looked into the matter longer and more deeply after mature discussion beforehand and weighed all its circumstances, and also because it holds a torch before the things we are writing here (because it embraces as in one bundle all the signs which contribute to knowing her spirit), I shall produce it in this place entire as I found it, changing nothing, adding nothing, nay not taking away even a tittle; although these things happened before she left the convent of the Incarnation and founded new houses: for afterwards she soared much more sublimely.
[69] that it was God, It begins, then, in these words: "I. First reason. God's end is that the soul should come to him; but the demon's is to draw it away from God. Never does God cast such fears into anyone that he should withdraw from him; nor does the demon cast such fears that one should come to God. All the visions, etc., also make her nearer to God, and also humbler, more obedient, etc. II. It is the teaching of St. Thomas and the other Saints that the Angel of light is easily known from the peace and quiet which he leaves in the soul. These things never befall her without her feeling in herself great peace and consolation, so much so that all worldly pleasures joined together seem unable to be compared with even the least spiritual one. III. She has no error or imperfection which he who speaks to her interiorly does not reprove. IV. She has never asked for or desired anything of this kind, but only to fulfil the will of God in all things. V. Whatever she says is conformable to the divine writings, agreeable to the teaching of the Church, and most true in all scholastic rigour. VI. She has an immense purity and cleanness of soul, and also most fervent desires of pleasing God, and for that reason of trampling underfoot whatever is earthly. VII. It was said to her that whatever she should ask of God, provided it be fair, would be granted her by him. She has accordingly asked very many things, and such indeed as cannot be included in brief letters on account of their length; and the Lord has deigned to bestow all these on her.
[70] and by no means the devil, VIII. When these things come from God, they are always directed to private good, public good or the good of someone else. Of her private progress she has experience, as also of the progress of very many others. IX. No one deals with her (unless perhaps he is ill disposed) without being roused to piety by her affairs, although she herself says not a word about them. X. Every day she becomes more perfect in the exercise of the virtues, and is always taught the things which tend to greater perfection. Hence during all that time in which she had these visions she received a greater increase every day, in exactly the manner in which St. Thomas sets it out. XI. Novelties or impertinent things are never signified to her, but only those things that look to edification. It was said to her that some were full of demons, but only for this reason, that she might understand in what state is the soul which has sinned against God by some mortal crime. XII. It is the demon's custom, whenever he longs to circumvent a soul, to persuade it to make known to no one whatever he thrusts upon it: but this one was told to confer about these same things with skilled men and worshippers of God, and that there could be room for diabolical fraud if she concealed them. XIII. From these things she gathers so exceptional a fruit for her soul and shines with so good an example that forty and more nuns of her house are treating of following a stricter solitude. XIV. These things are wont to befall her after she has remained a long time in prayer, has been more deeply absorbed in God, or has burned more with his love, or finally when she approaches Holy Communion. XV. These things cast into her a vehement desire to act well and not to be deceived by the frauds of the devil.
[71] who in Teresa's soul XVI. They produce in her a most profound humility, so that she acknowledges that whatever she receives she receives from the divine hand and has very little of herself. XVII. When she is without them, whatever offers itself to her from elsewhere is wont to bring her trouble and pain: but when they come upon her, then she loses all memory of other things, nay rather there succeeds in their place an immense desire of suffering, from which she draws such delight that she cannot contain herself for amazement. XVIII. Hence it comes about that she rejoices and feels delight in labours, detractions, persecutions, illnesses; and although she is harried by various illnesses, such as pains of the heart, a nauseous stomach and very many other sicknesses, when these visions come they depart at once. XIX. Meanwhile, however, she notably macerates her flesh, fasts often, wears down her flesh with scourges and other kinds of mortifications. XX. Whatever in this world can bring her any pleasure, and the very many labours she has borne, she suffers with an even mind, suffering no loss of interior peace and tranquillity. XXI. She has conceived so firm a purpose of not offending God that she has bound herself by vow that she will omit nothing which she herself understands, or anyone else who knows it indicates, to tend to greater perfection, but will carry it out with all her strength. And although she holds the Fathers of the Society of Jesus as saints, and God seems to have conferred so many graces on her through their efforts, she affirmed to me that, if she knew it to be of greater perfection not to deal with them, she would neither speak to them nor see them, although by their help she has obtained tranquillity of soul and been directed in these things. XXII. It is certain that the tastes and feelings of God which she continually receives, and the melting of her soul from divine love, are astounding. Hence she seems to spend the whole day as it were in rapture. XXIII. Whenever she hears someone speaking of God with a feeling of devotion and fervour, she is often rapt into ecstasy of mind; which, although she tries to struggle against it, she by no means can: and then indeed she remains in such a posture that she engenders a great feeling of devotion in all who see her.
[72] XXIV. She takes it very ill that her errors are not declared to her and that she is not reproved by those with whom she deals. worked wonders. She accepts their correction with great humility. XXV. She cannot bear that those who are in the state of perfection should not apply themselves diligently to procuring it according to their Institute. XXVI. She has wholly put off affection for her kinsfolk: she is likewise most averse to seeking the conversation of men, but a friend of solitude; she is possessed by a wonderful affection toward the Saints; she diligently keeps their festivals and the mysteries which are represented by the Church; finally she is borne toward Jesus the Redeemer with exceptional feelings. XXVII. If any Fathers of the Society and all the servants of God anywhere in the world say or should say to her that these are diabolical deceptions, she dreads and trembles before those visions; but when she is already in prayer and recollection of mind, even if she were to be cut into a thousand pieces, she could not wholly persuade herself that he who speaks to her or appears to her is not God. XXVIII. God has bestowed on her so strong and generous a soul that it is to be wondered at. Formerly she was wont to be timorous; but now she presses all the evil demons under her feet. She is far removed from womanish follies and from scruples; and she is most sincere. XXIX. God has given her besides the gift of most sweet tears, great compassion toward her neighbours, and knowledge of her own faults, esteem of the good and contempt of herself. I say assuredly that she has profited many, and me above all. XXX. She continually remembers God, and feels him present to her. XXXI. Nothing has ever been said to her in rapture which has not truly been so and been fulfilled; and this is the greatest proof. XXXII. These things bring a notable clarity to her understanding and an admirable light in divine things. XXXIII. It has been said to her that, if Sacred Scripture be looked into, it will be found that never has a soul which strives to serve God been imposed upon by the evil demon for so long a time." These are the things which are contained in this slip, in the manner in which I have brought them forward here: moreover that all these things are most true is clear both from what has been said up to now and also from what we shall recount hereafter.
Chap. VIII.
[73] Of the force and fruits of her prayer I shall speak below. Now I shall propose with what brevity I can the admonitions which she herself prescribed for praying: The Saint teaches for I would wish this book to profit those who are going to read it.
For it cannot be that the precepts and lessons of a most wise and most practised mistress, and above all one so taught and chosen by God to teach so many chosen souls, should not bring singular profit. The same thing I shall do also in her other virtues, where I observe it will be useful and something occurs that ought to be said. I. She used to say that prayer is the royal road to heaven, and that those who walk by it acquire a great treasure for themselves; and accordingly that we should not think it either great or much at whatever cost it comes to us: for a time will come when it will be plain to the eye that whatever we have finally spent on acquiring so precious a thing is nothing (Way of Perfection, chapter XXI). She added besides that a soul without prayer is as a certain body numbed with paralysis and languor of the limbs: for as this has no use of hands and feet, although it has the same members, so too certain souls are so sick and ill-disposed that they cannot enter into themselves, although they are rich in their nature and can converse with God; nor is any means available of calling them back to this. In short, these souls, if they will not watch diligently and heal their disease, are as it were changed into statues of salt, because they do not turn their head back to themselves (Mansions I, chapter I).
[74] which in prayer, both vocal II. It matters greatly (nay, everything depends on it) to resolve firmly and generously with oneself not to rest until that water of life which the Lord gives is given one to drink (for by this name she commonly calls supernatural prayer, which we cannot acquire for ourselves by our own industry and diligence d; although otherwise she was not unaware that every kind of prayer which is meritorious is a supernatural work, as we have already said in chapter III); let happen whatever will, let succeed whatever is to succeed, let it cost what labour it can, let him murmur who will murmur, let one reach that whither one is seeking or die on the very road, and let the soul, failing under the burden of the labours occurring on the road, give out, and finally let the world be troubled and roar, casting up storms. This she often inculcates, and indeed sharply and vehemently (Way of Perfection, chapter XXI). III. Although one prayer is vocal, which is done with the mouth, and another mental, which is performed with the understanding and the will without the voice, yet if vocal prayer is such as it ought to be, mental prayer is included in it: for he who speaks with God ought to look to whom he is speaking and who he himself is that speaks, so that he may know, namely, in what manner he ought to behave before so mighty a Lord and to deal with him. In these two points very much is placed. It is likewise to be looked to who Christ is, who his Father is, what is the country to which he will raise us up, what goods too he has promised us, of what condition he is, in what way chiefly we may be able to please him, and finally in what way we shall bring it about that our condition may be conformed to his. In this way, namely, mental prayer is joined to vocal: for it belongs to mental prayer to weigh these things (chapter XXII). And thence it comes about that those who undertake vocal prayer in this manner are very often raised by God to contemplation, though feeling nothing (chapter XXV).
[75] and mental IV. It is fitting that all should pursue mental prayer, even if they possess no virtues: for it is itself the beginning of procuring all virtues; and the life of all of us is at stake unless we begin to cultivate it: but unless one applies oneself to acquiring virtues, one will not be able to pursue it without the greatest labour (chapter XVI). V. In prayer solitude is better, which it is established our Redeemer pursued, so as to go before us by his example. For it is not fitting to converse with God and with the world at the same time: as those do who, while they pray, attend to the conversations of others or think of things that present themselves, doing no violence to themselves (chapter XXIV). This done, before all the conscience is to be examined, the little prayer Confiteor is to be said first, and the sign of the cross is to be made. When, then, one sees oneself alone, let him seek a companion for himself; and no better company can be had than that of Jesus Christ: let us therefore imagine him standing by us. If we accustom ourselves to have him present to us, and he sees that we do it out of love and wish sincerely to please him, we shall always have him with us: and truly it matters very much always to have such a friend at our side (chapter XXVI). But much more still she advised that we should seek and consider God in the recesses of our soul: for this is of greater profit. Whence she used to say that it is not necessary to be borne into heaven by consideration or to go far out of ourselves, since this wearies the spirit and distracts the soul, and that with little fruit (Life, chapter XL).
[76] the method to be kept; VI. And those who in praying run on in thought, recalling the passion and life of Jesus Christ, or meditating on death or the last judgement and other things of this kind, the Lord will without doubt lead to the haven of light by so easy a road as this is: for nothing but a good end can follow such glad beginnings. And all those who can walk by this road will experience wonderful rest and security. This consideration of the Lord's passion she said was the mode of praying with which all ought to begin, continue and end, and that this road is very safe and illustrious; until the Lord leads them to other supernatural things. She added too that one need not always reason with the understanding, but that we ought also to imagine ourselves present to Christ and to speak and take delight with him without any weariness of the understanding, not tormenting ourselves in forming prayers, but only representing to him our necessities and the causes for which he suffers us; and indeed this at one time, that at another, lest it be burdensome to the soul always to taste one and the same food (Way of Perfection, chapter XIX).
[77] how those who cannot restrain the understanding VII. Those who cannot pray in this way, because they cannot bind their thought to one thing, but it is borne hither and thither like an unbridled horse that cannot be held back by bits, let them set our Lord beside them, and with humility beg him not to desert them, but to cleave to them as companion. If they cannot obtain this in the space of a year, let them spend a longer delay; nor let them grieve that they have spent so much time on a thing on which it is so well spent. Let them labour, then, to accustom themselves to this mode, and let them do their utmost to have the Lord present to them and to contemplate him. For if we can turn the eyes of the soul to looking at all the foulest things, why should we not turn them to beholding a thing than which nothing more beautiful can be imagined? Let us look at him sometimes risen from death, at other times fixed to the cross, sometimes too bound to the pillar, etc., or according as shall be more necessary. For this reason it will profit not a little to have by one some pious image of the Redeemer and to look at it often and speak with it. By this way she said that one is wont to come more quickly to contemplation, provided one perseveres in what one has begun; but she added that the way is laborious and troublesome: for if there is lacking that in which the will may exercise itself, and love has no present object toward which to be borne in loving, the soul remains in a manner without support and exercise, and loneliness and dryness become burdensome to it, and the variety of thoughts rends it. Wherefore she said that from this mode of praying the soul draws either great profit or great loss; and that all who should tread this road needed greater purity (chapter XXVI).
[78] ought to conduct themselves in praying; VIII. And as she was unwilling violently to compel those who could not hold themselves in prayer by way of discourse to follow this method of praying, so neither did she wish them to give themselves to prayer and remain in it, unless they had first attentively weighed on what matter it was to be undertaken. For this reason every night, the Office of Matins having been read through, she ordered something to be read in the choir of the matters on which the meditation was to be undertaken the next morning. She herself, when she began to give herself to prayer, in those first years so far from running on in mind that she would read something in some little book which treated of the Lord's passion and other things of that kind; by the reading of which both the soul began to be recollected and little by little the will to be moved and roused with affections. And she advises reading of a book to such persons for this reason, that they may gradually collect their thought and little by little, by coaxings and devices, accustom the soul to contain itself, without frightening it; and that they may persuade themselves that, since the soul has withdrawn for many years from its Bridegroom, it is necessary, before he will return into its house, to deal with him and obtain from him that he may present himself there again: unless this is done, and indeed step by step, nothing will succeed; but if they diligently accustom themselves to this thing, they will receive such fruit from it that, if one wished to express in words how great it is, one could by no means do so (chapter XXVI). She adds besides that she was wont to be moved and to recollect her mind better by the words of the Gospel, which Jesus Christ uttered with his own mouth, than by excellently composed books (chapter XXI).
[79] how useful is the consideration of self and of God IX. She did not wish the soul, even the most perfect and one that has obtained the most sublime mode of prayer, to leave off the consideration of itself and to forget its own nothingness; nay rather she advised that it should exercise itself in the knowledge of itself. She said that this knowledge of oneself and of the sins committed by oneself is as the bread which on this road of prayer ought to be added to all foods, even the most delicate, and that no one can be sustained without the support of this bread. Yet she did not wish the soul always to walk by this one way and for that reason to leave off the consideration of God: nay rather she said that a man will arrive better at knowledge of himself by the consideration of God. For when we have considered the divine perfections, we shall perceive our sins and imperfections better; just as white placed beside black appears far whiter. To this is added that our understanding and will are ennobled and rendered readier for every good by dealing now with God, now with oneself. Further, if we never emerge from the filth of our miseries, the river will always be muddy with the mire of vain fears, pusillanimity and sloth, and great harm will come to the soul (Mansion I, chapter II, and Life, chapter XIII).
[80] and also of the Humanity of Christ; X. She desired besides that all should meditate on the Humanity of Jesus Christ, and that the consideration of it should never be left off, even when the most sublime mode of praying had been acquired. Whence she repented not a little that for some small space of time she had neglected the consideration of it, intending to meditate on loftier things. For she said that life is long and various labours have to be undergone in it, and that for that reason we must again and again look to Christ Jesus as our exemplar, that we may bear them perfectly. And so
she had fixed this firmly in herself and inculcated it on others with such force that she said all, even those most versed in spiritual things, were unequal to persuading her otherwise (Mansion VI, chapter VII). XI. She urged much, and with great force indeed, that no one should abandon the exercise of prayer, whether on account of a false appearance of humility or on account of sins committed or for any other cause whatever: and she said that in that way the soul would bring upon itself the extreme of ruin; but on the contrary, if it applied itself to prayer, this would be its salvation: as she had experienced in herself, both when she left off prayer and when she resumed it. Whence she says that of all the temptations she ever had, that was the gravest, that she left off prayer (Life, chapters VII and VIII).
[81] that prayer is not to be omitted on account of drynesses, XII. She strove also with the greatest effort to persuade those who apply themselves to prayer not to grow weary in its exercise, nor to grow torpid in it on account of dryness of mind, nor to despair of being able at some time to reach the summit of prayer. For she said that the Lord sometimes comes very late, and then compensates the longer delay no less well with a heaped-up reward than if he had given something continually for many years: for she herself for fourteen years and more had been able to meditate in no other way than by first reading something from a book (Way of Perfection, chapter XVII). She said she pitied those who did not show this perseverance in praying. These indeed she said were like those who, tormented by vehement thirst, behold water from afar, but, when they go to drink from it, fall in with enemies who forbid them to advance both at the beginning of the road and in the middle and near the end: it often happens that, when by labouring they have overcome the first enemies, they let themselves be overcome by the second, and prefer to die of thirst rather than drink of the water which must cost so dear; it happens too that, the second having been routed, they then let themselves be overcome by the third, because their strength fails them, when perhaps they are scarcely two steps from the fountain of that living water, of which, as the Redeemer says to the Samaritan woman, he who should drink would thirst no more (John IV, 13); it may finally happen that, when they have come so far that it seems they need only bend the body to drink from the fountain, thinking that their strength is failing and that they are unfit for this thing, they in a moment give up together all that they had well begun. She said that all are called and invited by the Lord to drink, and that he promises he will give water to all, and that she believed without doubt that this living water would by no means be lacking to those who did not stick fast, failing on the road. Besides, that those who wish to follow him are given that water to drink by the Lord in different ways, lest anyone should go away from him unrefreshed or die of thirst. Namely, from this capacious fountain various streams flow, some great, some small, and sometimes only certain little channels drawn off for the use of little ones, since that little water is enough for them; who, if they saw much water before them, would be too much dismayed by it. Since on this road the water of consolation is never lacking, Teresa desires that she be believed as one who counsels well, and that no one fail in prayer, but that they fight like generous champions, so as even to lay down their life in the very seeking (chapter XIX).
[82] nor are tastes to be sought in it, XIII. She reckoned it a bad beginning for further progress, and a thing very harmful to progress in prayer, if anyone should take it up on account of the sweetness and consolation which he thought he would receive from it. Nay rather she said she knew by experience that the soul which enters upon this way of mental prayer with a good purpose, and can prevail upon itself to make little of it and to have neither consolation nor desolation, whether sweetness and tenderness are present to it or absent, has already accomplished a great part of its journey, and need not fear that it will go back, although it sometimes stumbles; because the solid foundation of this building has been laid. It was bitter to her if she heard some learned men of good talent complaining that devotion was denied them by God; and this she said was a notable imperfection and little freedom of mind: whose chief cause she believed to be this, that they had not begun the road of prayer with the purpose that has been mentioned (Life, chapter XI). XIV. She used to say that he who begins to give himself to prayer ought to think that he is beginning a garden in a certain barren soil bringing forth only tares: wherefore he, having pulled these out and planted good herbs in their place, ought like a diligent gardener to take pains that those new little plants may grow, and to water them, that they may not dry up, but put forth fragrant flowers, from which the Lord who planted them may draw delight and often come into this garden to take his pleasure. Wherefore she willed that there should be no other end of prayer than the greater glory, service and pleasure of God (Ibid.).
[83] but spiritual progress XV. She taught besides that he who experiences dryness of mind in prayer is very like one who, about to draw water from a well to water this garden, finds the well has dried up. Yet he ought not on that account to languish, but, imitating the active gardener, do whatever he can with all his sinews. If he does so, the Lord will without doubt cherish these little plants and flowers without water, that is, he will make the shoots of the virtues grow up without tears, without tenderness and without feeling of devotion. And when he sees that he very often casts the bucket into the well in vain, nay that he cannot even lift his arms to cast it in, that is, that he can have not even one good thought, let him rejoice and be glad, holding it in place of a singular grace that he can work in the garden of so great an Emperor; and let him persevere in waiting, as one who has well perceived that by this very thing he brings him the greatest delight. Nor ought he so much to look to producing pleasure for himself as for God: nay rather let him break out generously into his praises, because he has conceived such trust in him; since he sees him caring so solicitously, even without any reward, for the things which he himself has enjoined on him, and being a help to him in carrying the cross, since, namely, he sees that his whole life was spent in it: nor let him wish to have his kingdom in this world; nay let him resolve with himself that, although he should experience this dryness of mind his whole life long, he will not let Christ fall with his cross: for a time will come when the Almighty will pay him all the reward at once; let him not fear accordingly, as though all his labour would be in vain, since he serves a good Lord, by whom he is continually watched. Whence too he must pay little heed to alien and wicked thoughts, since the evil demon thrust the same upon St. Jerome too in the desert. And she declared that this labour would be compensated by God with splendid reward at some time even in this life, and that she believed that by the taste of even one little hour communicated by the Lord all the straits she had suffered during the long space of time in which she kept herself to the exercise of prayer had been abundantly paid to her: nay rather that great diligence was needed here for pulling up the roots even of the smallest evil little herbs which had remained in the soul; and that it would be especially useful to acknowledge our nothingness, and how little we can of ourselves both in this matter and in all the rest, and to humble ourselves before the mighty God (Ibid.).
[84] is to be drawn even from the drynesses themselves; XVI. She said likewise that these drynesses and tempests are often sent at the beginning of the time when the soul first applies itself to the exercise of prayer, but at other times toward the end, with many temptations, because by them God wishes to test those who love him, and to know whether they can drink his chalice and be a help to him in carrying the cross, before he pours out greater treasures upon them; at the same time too that they may acknowledge how little they are of themselves: for the gifts which he afterwards bestows are of such great dignity that, before he pours them out upon them, he wishes them to know their own misery by experience. She added that it matters very much that no one should afflict himself on account of drynesses and distractions of thought, if only he wishes to obtain freedom of spirit and not to be in perpetual tribulation; at the same time too that he should begin not to fear the cross: for then he will see how Christ will be a help to him in carrying it, what joy he himself will enjoy, and finally what profit he will receive from all (Ibid.). XVII. She said she knew by experience that these drynesses and distractions often have their origin in indisposition of the body and change of seasons and the onset of humours: and when they arise from things of this kind, she said it was much worse to wish to keep the soul in prayer by violence; for this is nothing else than to wish to force it thither whither it cannot attain, and to stifle it: but that then it is advisable to put off prayer to another time, and to apply oneself to reading or to exterior works of charity; and where not even this can be done, the body is to be served for the glory of God, so that it may afterwards serve the soul, and the holy recreation of holy conversation or of some other similar thing is to be taken (Ibid.).
[85] toward attaining supernatural prayer XVIII. The difference of this mental prayer from supernatural prayer, that is, from that to which we cannot attain by our industry, and from contemplation, she declared by this likeness. Prayer which is made by the discourse of the understanding, with however great zeal it be made, draws water creeping along the ground, and does not drink it from its fountain; nor are muddy things ever lacking on this road by which it may be held back and so become not so pure: for in thinking we fall upon worldly things, toward which we are affected; which, although we wish to flee them, yet bring us at least some hindrance, while we think how it was done, how it will be, what we have done, what we shall do: often too there is danger lest we cling to them with affection. But in supernatural prayer God at once sets the soul beside himself, and in a single moment reveals to it more truths and pours into it a clearer knowledge of that which is the whole than it could have here even in many years; and here it drinks living water at its fountain (Way of Perfection, chapter XIX). And in another place she writes thus: "His greatness speaks to it, suspending the understanding, holding the thought as with a chain, and (as is commonly said) taking the words out of its mouth: for although it wishes to speak, it by no means can except with the greatest difficulty. And it understands that without the noise of words this divine Master is speaking to it; and while he suspends the faculties, they enjoy without knowing how they enjoy: the soul burns with love, and does not know how; it loves, and does not know how it enjoys him: although it understands well that the enjoyment is not such as it could attain with ardent desires
the understanding. Finally the will embraces him, yet without understanding how: and when it can comprehend any of these things, it sees that this good is not such as can be acquired by any labours, even if all the labours that are found on earth were joined together for gaining it. It is, namely, the gift of God, the Lord of heaven and earth, who grants it inasmuch as he is Lord. This, my daughters, is perfect contemplation. Now you will understand, I think, what is the difference between this and mental prayer; which, as we have said, is to think and understand what we are saying and with whom we are speaking, and also what we ourselves are, who have such boldness as to converse with so mighty a Lord. To think these and other things of that kind, about the little service we have rendered him and the very great obligation we have to serve him, can be called mental prayer. Do not think it is as it were some foreign tongue, nor let the very name dismay you: in this indeed we can do something of ourselves, the grace of God helping; but in that contemplation of which I have spoken, absolutely nothing. For his Majesty performs all; since it is his work alone, and wholly supernatural" (chapter XXV).
[86] humility XIX. To this supernatural prayer she invites everyone, and gives courage to all to apply themselves with notable generosity to acquiring it, even if it befall them to die in acquiring it, and promises that, provided they do not grow weary or slack, it will without doubt, as we have already seen before, be obtained by them. But that one may obtain it, she wishes him first seriously to apply himself to acquiring notable virtues and above all humility, and also to exercise himself in laborious works of the divine service and to offer himself to him with great ardour: and he who does not do this will remain all his life only in mental prayer. Yet she says it sometimes happens that the Lord raises to contemplation even those who are imperfect in virtues, nay even those who are in a bad state, in order to allure them to himself in this way; but that this is done only very rarely, and is not lasting either, unless, turning this grace of God to their profit, they come out of this state and devote themselves wholly to God, as we have already shown before (chapter XVI).
[87] and self-denial XX. She gave also two other lessons, and these most certain and especially useful, to those who desire supernatural prayer. The first is, that we should not strive to ascend to this kind of prayer of our own accord; for whoever did this would sweat in vain and would lose himself: for it belongs to God alone to raise us up to it (Life, chapter XII). Rather, following the Redeemer's counsel, let us seek the lowest place, judging ourselves unworthy even of what we have, and not asking that he raise us higher; but rather let us consign ourselves wholly into his hands: for he knows what suits us. But let us strive to give ourselves more earnestly to mortification and humility and true renunciation of all things: for if we enter by this road, he himself will raise us up to this prayer. Let us rather always be content with what it has seemed good to God to decide concerning us; and this is of humility (Way of Perfection, chapter XVII). Accordingly she advised that we should trust in the goodness of God, who never fails his friends, and, with closed eyes, should not consider why he grants devotion to this person in so short a time, but denies it to us for so many years: for all things happen for our good. And since we are no longer our own, but wholly his, let us follow not unwillingly wherever he shall at length wish to lead us (Life, chapter XI).
[88] is above all needed; XXI. And the second is, that those who have not yet come to this prayer or cannot attain it should not take it ill nor lose heart. For God does not lead all by the same road; and perhaps he who has believed himself the lowest of all will occupy the highest place before the eyes of God: nay further, this supernatural kind of praying is by no means necessary to salvation, nor does God require it of us; nor will these be less perfect on that account, provided they apply themselves diligently to the virtues. Nay, it may come about that they will merit greater things, because they undergo greater trouble, and God leads them as strong ones, and reserves all together for the future life those things which they do not enjoy here. Let them consider besides that true humility lies in being content with what it has seemed good to God to dispose concerning them: for that humility is not good if we ourselves make the choice; but all things are to be committed to God, who knows in what place he will set each one. And what more evident proof of God's love toward them do they wish to have than that he makes them sharers in his cross; since it is a singular gain to be unwilling to gain by our own choice for fear of loss? For God will never let one who is well mortified incur loss, except that greater profit may follow from it (Ibid.).
[89] and finally all prayer XXII. She said finally that prayer, even the most sublime, ought always to be referred to the practice of works, by which we may testify the love with which we are borne toward God: not thinking it enough that we apply ourselves to prayer and have frequent consolations and notable gifts of God; but we must do those things by which we render him excellent service and exercise the difficult works of the virtues: and that this in fine is the true mark by which you may gather that prayer is good and that the graces which are communicated come down from God. She said besides that he who did not apply himself to mortification, humility and the other virtues, even though he apply himself to prayer for the longest time, would always remain small, and would be so far from growing to a greater height that even what he had would have to be diminished; and that the progress of the soul consists not so much in often thinking of God as in loving him ardently: and moreover that this love is acquired by a firm purpose of working and suffering for God (Mansions VII, chapter IV).
[90] must be referred to practical love of God. On this matter she writes thus in a certain letter to Fr. Gracián: "As to those interior things of the spirit, that is surely more certain and more acceptable which leaves better affections in us. I do not understand here certain desires which are born in us at once: for although they are good, yet sometimes they are not such as self-love paints them to us. I mean affections confirmed by works, and that the desires which we feel of promoting the honour and divine glory may appear manifestly in this, that we take serious account of this glory, and wholly occupy our memory and understanding in pleasing him. For this is true prayer, not some blandishments which smile upon the palate of the mind. I indeed should desire no other prayer than that which makes me advance in virtues." Moreover, the narrative would find no end if I wished to bring here all the admonitions she prescribed for those about to pray. Yet it was a matter of conscience for me to pass over these, because they are very useful to those who are either already possessed by the zeal for praying or at least desire to be. But very many other things which concern particular modes of praying, and accordingly belong only to very few, I have omitted of set purpose, so that those to whom they are necessary may read them in the book of her Life or of the Mansions, lest I be more prolix here than is fair.
ANNOTATIONS.
Chapter V.
The faith, hope and charity toward God of St. Teresa.
Chap. IX.
It is now time to touch on her virtues, after we have already treated at length of prayer, Teresa's faith which is the parent of the virtues. And since faith is the foundation of them all, let us take our beginning from it: although it is not necessary to dwell on it at length; since she who had put off all affection for the things of the world and laboured so actively for the divine service and the salvation of souls could not have done this otherwise than through a very great faith, most confirmed in supernatural truths and goods. And even if we did not have this evident reason, it would suffice us to have said two things. First, that this virtue was given her by God so singularly that she never felt any temptation against it in her soul, as a testimony written by her hand on a slip will attest. Second, that she founded her monasteries, both the first and all the rest, for the increase of faith, and so that prayers, fasts and afflictions of the body might be made continually in them for those fighting the heretics and defending the Catholic Faith. So immense indeed was her faith that she believed she could persuade all heretics that they were straying from the true faith. Hence she was wont to say that the less she understood the mysteries of the faith, the more she believed them and the greater devotion they engendered in her; nay, that she was filled with joy because she did not comprehend them with her understanding, and was the more roused to devotion.
[92] firm, Although she always dealt with men outstanding in learning, yet she was never by any of them
asked how God had done this or that, or how it could be; nay, she did not even desire to know such things. She needed nothing else than to think: "God has made all things." Hence too she said that she had no reason to be amazed, but reason to praise God. She said besides that, if any of the things which she saw or perceived in the time of prayer had driven her toward anything contrary to faith or repugnant to the divine law, she would by no means have needed to consult doctors or apply examinations; because she would at once have gathered that it had been suggested by the evil demon. In chapter XXXIII of her Life she writes these things: "They came to me with great trembling, saying both that the times in which we were living were dangerous, and that it could happen that someone would report and accuse me before the Inquisitors. This seemed to me altogether foolish and laughable: for I never feared anything in this matter; for I knew that, in things pertaining to the faith, I would rather have undergone death a thousand times even for the least ceremony of Holy Church or any truth of Holy Scripture than that anyone should have seen me sinning or offending against it: whence I said there was no reason why they should fear for me as regards this part. For truly it would have been wretched for my soul, if there had been anything in it on account of which I ought to have feared falling into the hands of the Inquisitors: for if I had detected anything such in myself, I would have gone to them of my own accord." etc.
[93] simple, And as she wrote this of herself, so too she performed it of her own accord, for no other reason than that, if she should swerve from the right, she wished to be called back into the way; as she herself wrote at Seville in the commentary on her affairs. Namely, Francisco de Soto y Salazar, one of the sacred Inquisitors (who afterwards died bishop of Salamanca), when he had come to Ávila, she consulted him about all the affairs of her spirit, and that with the intention we have mentioned: but he, denying that this pertained to his tribunal (since whatever she saw and understood, by this very fact she was the more confirmed in the Catholic Faith), advised her to confer about her affairs with Master Ávila, and to acquiesce in what he should judge. Whatever too she had entrusted to writing about the manner of her life and her mode of praying she handed to Domingo Báñez, that he might offer it to the council of the sacred Inquisition: which writing, after it had remained for a long time with Gaspar de Quiroga, Cardinal of Toledo, president of that same tribunal, at length, approved by the vote of all who looked into it, saw the light in this very year 1588 a.
[94] lively, Her soul was flooded with great consolation whenever she considered that she was a daughter of the Church; as was clearly evident when she had come to the last end of her life: for then she repeated it quite often, as I said in the last chapter of the third book. Thence arose that singular reverence with which she was borne not only toward the Sacraments, but also toward sacred images and the ecclesiastical Office, which she discharged with an intimate feeling of devotion, nay toward all the ceremonies of the Church, even the least; nay even toward blessed beads and rosaries, such as she always had with her and wished to be carried by her nuns, and that they might gain the Indulgences both proper to the Order and others. It cannot be expressed what wonderful effects she experienced from holy water on account of the singular faith with which she was borne toward it: of which she spoke thus in chapter XXXI of her Life: "I have often proved and seen that there is nothing which puts devils to flight more, so as not to return again, than holy water: from the cross indeed they flee, but return as soon as possible. Whence I conclude that the virtue of holy water is doubtless great." Yet by these words she does not wish to conclude or establish that there is less efficacy in the cross than in blessed water for putting devils to flight, since in others, namely, it may happen otherwise; but she only records what sometimes happened to her.
[95] spirited, Then she writes thus: "It is for me a singular and most manifest consolation of soul to take it: this is certain, that I commonly and for the most part feel from taking it a refreshment which I could not set forth in words, and also a certain interior delight, which quickens and refreshes my whole soul. This is not a dream or a thing that happened to me only once, but one that happens frequently, and to which I have seriously turned my attention: I say it is just as if someone, very hot and thirsty, drank a draught of cold water, whereby the whole man seems to be cooled. I ponder within myself from time to time how highly all the things instituted and ordained by the Church are to be esteemed; and I rejoice exceedingly when I see that these words have such force that they put it even into water, so that there is so great a difference between what is blessed and what is not blessed." Whenever she heard people saying that they wished they had lived at the time when Christ dwelt in the world, she said within herself, since they had him present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, why should they seek another presence. Hence for the space of very many years, whenever she partook of the august Mysteries of the Eucharist, she received them with no less feeling of reverence than if she had beheld the same Lord entering her cell in bodily form.
[96] humble. As regards the things of faith she prescribed this lesson at the beginning of her commentary on the Canticles, in which place, of a certain sentence of that book which she did not understand (and not understanding it brought her great consolation too), she writes in these words: "Because, my daughters, it is not necessary for the soul to see so many things: for the things which we are able to comprehend in this world with the short measure of our wit do not make it see so much nor revere God so much as those things which can in no way be understood. Wherefore I seriously commend to you that, when you read some book, or hear some sermon, or ponder in thought some mystery of our faith which you cannot easily perceive, you should not torment yourselves nor wish to penetrate by intense thought into its inmost sense. For there are many things which cannot be understood by women, nay not even by men. Whenever it shall seem good to the Lord that they be understood, his Majesty makes them understood, although men contribute no labour to it. These things I wish said both of women and of men who are not obliged to defend the truth by their learning: for it is plain that those whom the Lord has called to this, to declare them to us, ought to study them; which also turns to their merit. But it is fitting that we women should simply accept what the Lord shall have deigned to confer on us; and as for what he has denied, not torture the mind about them, but rejoice, when we call to mind that we have so mighty a God and Lord that even a single one of his words comprehends six hundred mysteries in itself, while we do not perceive even the beginning of it."
Chap. X.
[97] What hope she had and how solidly and firmly it was rooted, Her hope solid. there is no need to show at length: for since the foundation of hope, as the Apostle testifies (Hebr. XI), is faith, it may already be seen how solidly it rested, built upon so good a foundation. Further, from that great joy which she felt in the greatest labours, as I shall say afterwards, and also from the immense and arduous works which she undertook, I think everyone sees how lively a hope flourished in her heart. Wherefore it will be better to speak of her charity toward God: although (if it is true what St. Gregory teaches and all confess, namely that works are the token of love) she who performed so much, who laboured so far, who underwent so many things for the glory of God, especially amid so many obstacles and persecutions, in so great a penury of things and with the inconveniences of so many illnesses, and those very grave and almost daily, how kindled must her love have been! The books which she wrote (for out of the abundance she had in her heart she could not but speak) teem with the ardent desires with which she wished the divine glory to be promoted. Hence she rejoiced exceedingly in the goods of God, and whenever she heard in the Creed that of the kingdom of Christ there would be no end, she was flooded within herself with the greatest joy.
[98] Her most ardent love toward God, Her books are filled with other desires too, above all of dying, so that she might be admitted to the sight of her most beloved: whence she was dying daily in this world, seeing that she must live, and that it could not come about that she should enjoy the sight of God before death led her out of this prison, and that it was not permitted her to procure this for herself, but that it must be waited for until the Almighty should deign to send it. Whence she was dying because she did not yet die, and to live could not be pleasant to her, nay was grievous to her; and she said she bore life no otherwise than because God bore it. Wherefore whenever the signal of the hour was given, she rejoiced within herself because she believed she was rendered by so much nearer to seeing God. Nay indeed she could not but ardently ask death of the Most High: hence in chapter XLII of the Way of Perfection, in the handwritten copy, she has these things (which are lacking in some printed editions): "But you, daughters, ask as it shall seem good to you; I indeed find no remedy in living: hence I ardently beg of the Lord that he deliver me from all evil for ever. What good, I ask, sisters, do we find in this life, when we lack so great a good and are absent from him? Deliver me, Lord, from this shadow of death," etc. And she subjoins: "Deliver me now, my God, from all evil, and deign to lead me to those places which overflow with goods of every kind. What, I pray, do those still wait for here to whom thou hast already in part manifested what the world is, and who have a lively faith in the things that have been reserved for them by thy eternal Father?"
[99] by which she was often so carried away To these I shall add, as excellently to the point, a writing which she sent by her own hand to her confessor: "All yesterday I was in the greatest loneliness of soul: for, except at the time of Holy Communion, I scarcely felt in myself that it had been the feast of the Resurrection of Christ. In the evening, when I was among the nuns and had heard a song being sung in which it was said that it is hard to live without God, in me, who was already pressed with anguish, that song had such an effect that my hands grew stiff, nor could I prevent it. Nay, just as through excess of joy I am rapt out of myself, in the same way the soul is so suspended by the greatest pain that it remains alienated; and this I had not understood until now. For some days now I seemed not to experience those impulses as great as I was wont, and now it seems to me the cause of this matter is what I have said: I do not know
indeed whether it can be. For before, the pain did not yet reach so far as to compel me to go out of myself; and since it was so intolerable and I had the use of my senses, it forced me to utter such cries that I could not restrain them. But now, since the matter has come to the limit of such a death, I understand better what I had not understood before, what the Mother of God suffered through the piercing of her heart. And the body remained so broken from it that even today I write these things only with the greatest torment: for the joints of my hands are in a manner dislocated and in pain."
[100] so that she could not bear its impetus These things happened at Salamanca in the first year after the convent was established there; which I received from her b who was both present and saw and herself sang the song, whose beginning was this: "Veante mis ojos, dulce Jesus bueno" (that is, "Let my eyes see thee, most sweet and most good Jesus"), with the following stanzas. Since the inmost desire of her soul was struck by this song, she remained so bereft of sense that she had to be carried as if lifeless to her room and laid on her little bed; and this ecstasy of mind was so prolonged that even on the following day she remained in a manner not mistress of herself. Thereupon she sent these words in writing to her confessor: "These vehement desires of dying have now left me, and especially since the feast of St. Magdalen, on which I firmly made up my mind gladly to survive in this life, so as to render greater service to God; except that still sometimes, although I strive against it with all my strength, the desire of seeing him recurs." So absorbed was she in God that, when a certain one of her confessors, a man conspicuous for learning, with whom she conferred about her affairs and from whom she concealed nothing, asked her how she divided her time (for he believed that she dedicated some hours of the day to prayer and then spent herself on the handling of other things), she answered that she could not imagine a man so captivated by love of another, and who could not withdraw even for one moment from the side of the beloved, as she was a lover of Christ the Lord, consoling herself with him and always speaking with him and of him. One of the causes for which she was borne with the greatest zeal toward images c was this, that she was carried away by a great desire for God and the Saints. Hence, when she took into her hands some image of the Redeemer or of his Most Holy Mother, it was delightful to hear with what words she addressed it, breathing so much love and tenderness of heart that her soul seemed to melt.
[101] and life seemed to fail her, Often such vehement impulses of divine love seized her that she fainted in spirit and could not sustain herself, nor contain herself, but life seemed to fail her. Nay, it is held as certain that she would sometimes have expired by reason of the great force of that love, which her nature was not equal to bearing, had not the Lord tempered this force by the ecstatic raptures which he then communicated to her: for through these it came about that her soul rejoiced in quiet, and was delighted sometimes by seeing a sample of the thing for which it panted or by hearing other things. And then indeed she sought the most hidden place of the whole house. There was a time when, going out from the Office of Matins, she secretly went into some retreat, in which she was found without light, with her body cold and as if dead; and she said it was not in her power to prevent it. Of this matter and of the admirable and many times repeated vision of the Seraph piercing and kindling her heart with an arrow we have already spoken in the first book. And so immense was this love that, although she believed herself imperfect in other things, she yet always felt herself borne toward God with ardent love; and this increased daily.
[102] and from which were born She said besides that she would indeed exult if she saw others in heaven endowed with greater glory than herself; but that she did not know whether she would rejoice if another loved God more than she. All kinds of labours undertaken for God seemed small to her. Penances, even the gravest, she held of no account. Nay, she would not unwillingly have undergone many deaths so that even one soul alone might serve God. And although she desired all men to serve God as much as possible, yet if she saw any endowed by God with singular talents, whom she judged would be fit for his service, she desired most ardently that they should be called by God to it and taken as his own. Sometimes that desire was so anxious that she could not restrain herself. Wherefore she applied all the diligence she could to this, and redoubled her prayers with the greatest fervour, beseeching the Lord thus: "See, Lord, this one is fit to be taken as your friend."
[103] an immense zeal for procuring the divine glory The ruin of good men, the spread of heresies and the necessities of the Church tormented her soul wonderfully, and drew continual tears from her eyes, and animated her to practise great afflictions of the body. And so (as we said in the second book) this was the cause why she willed so great a rigour of life to be observed in her convents. No death could befall her more grievous than when she thought whether perhaps she had offended God: which thought so afflicted her that once, all wet with tears, she earnestly besought her beloved never to permit anything of the kind. From him she heard that there was no reason why she should torment herself anxiously; nay rather that she should be certainly persuaded that she was in his grace: for such love toward God as that with which she burned, and those feelings of devotion which he conferred on her soul, could not consist with a mortal crime. If she did anything which was grievous to the senses and greatly repugnant to her desire, when she recalled to mind that it was referred to the greater service of God, she felt such joy in herself because she pleased him in this way, that she made nothing of all the pain she was suffering. And the more she saw herself deprived of her consolation for God's sake, the more welcome it was to her to lack it: so that, although she would have wished to grieve for the loss of consolation, she by no means could. Whatever hindrances occurred outwardly, even food, drink, sleep and any intervening business, by which she was hindered from being with the Lord and enjoying his sweet conversation, was very bitter to her. Yet the same love of God, which was the cause of this grief, burned her so vehemently that she spent herself on all affairs with such glad outward cheerfulness as if they had been most welcome to her.
[104] and zeal for winning souls for God, She always longed to accomplish great works in the service of God; to be kept from carrying them out and not to be able to bring what she judged was required for them (such as health of body, strength, talent and freedom for winning souls for God) tormented her soul. Whenever, prostrate in health, she saw she could not carry out greater things, it was a consolation to her to do something even very small, such as clothing images with little branches and flowers, sweeping or adorning the oratory, and other things of the same kind. She desired most ardently that God should be worshipped and praised by all and the bounds of his Church extended further: nay, almost all her prayer was referred to this, and she very rarely prayed God for herself; as one who cared little about being tormented by the fire of purgatory, if even a little increase were made to the Church. That she might have a greater space of time available for dealing with God, she avoided as much as she could intercourse with outsiders, even kinsfolk; and it was pleasant to her to confer only with those who gave themselves to prayer and whom the love of God, as it had herself, had wounded: for their conversation was a consolation to her.
[105] the greatest purity of conscience, When she was founding the house at Seville, her brother Lorenzo de Cepeda arrived there, returning from the Indies, who rendered notable service both to his sister and to all the nuns in the foundation of the monastery. She began, therefore, to be agitated by scruples (although all their talk was only about things concerning the safety of her soul and the direction of her affairs) whether she had violated the decree of the Constitutions, which command that the nuns sequester themselves from all affection of kinsfolk. As she was thinking, then, whether it would be better to break off this communication with her brother and turn away, the Lord answered: "By no means, my daughter: for you are bound by your Constitutions only in so far as they are conformable to my law." This love was the cause why she always had a most pure soul; of which the confessor whom I mentioned in chapter V of this book d spoke thus in his relation: "This religious has so pure a conscience that all of us who receive her faults in Confession and communicate with her, as also her companions, are amazed at her: for it may be said that whatever she turns over in her mind, whatever she does, is God, and is referred to the divine honour and the spiritual profit of souls; so much so that she would not contract even the least venial sin, for whatever cause, if she knew it to be such: so that all her zeal is referred to this, that she may know how she can become better every day and attain to perfection." Another of her confessors (whom I am persuaded was Fr. Pedro Ibáñez) says that her manner of living seems rather that of an Angel than of a human creature.
[106] a continual zeal for the highest perfection I should be more prolix than is fair if I wished to bring here whatever could be said in this kind. But since the perfection of the Christian life consists chiefly in charity, I shall bring forth here two or three things from which it may in some measure be clear to what a sublime summit of perfection Teresa attained. First, when, going off to the foundation of Seville, she was spending the second day of Easter in a certain oratory not far from Écija, she began to recall in her mind what grace the Almighty had communicated to her at another time on this feast: whence there was suddenly born in her the desire of rendering him some notable service. And as she turned over in thought various services of that kind, none occurred which had not been done by her at another time. At length, some new one occurring, although it was most difficult, she performed it there in deed; which I shall record when I speak of her obedience. Second, in all the monasteries which she established, from the first to the last, she never omitted anything, whether by deed or by word, even the least, which she knew would make for the divine service, whether in establishing the foundation, or in providing for necessities, or in procuring the favour of patrons. Third, finally, from the establishment of the house of Ávila, nay even some years before, until she at length departed this life, no temptation was ever able to hinder her from doing what she either knew herself or heard from others would make for the greater glory of God. Nor indeed was this done by her in some common way; since she had even bound herself by vow to do in all things not only
what pleased God, but also those things which she should understand to be more pleasing to him and tending to his greater glory and of greater perfection for herself.
[107] confirmed by a singular vow, Moreover, she understood this vow to refer not to things of no moment but to things of some moment (so as to meet scruples). Such a vow I myself have never read or heard that any Saint made: and whoever makes it plainly, if only he knows what he is doing, surely gives, I judge, a most manifest sign of the loftiest and most singular perfection; all the more since she who made it had so timorous a conscience. For it could not be done without the greatest renunciation of all created things, a most thirsting zeal to please the Creator, and a singular mastery over the soul and its affections. Nor indeed did she make it lightly and rashly, but very advisedly, and with the assent of her General and of the apostolic commissary. And of what worth was it to have fulfilled this vow so entirely and for so many years! What riches she acquired for herself thereby! What a heap of merits she accumulated! What lofty glory she acquired for herself! And since God is most faithful and loves those who love him in return, and it is only with the greatest difficulty that great love can be concealed, hence in turn he refreshed her very much and very often addressed her with most friendly words, by which he testified his love toward her. In the book of her Life, repeating certain words said to her by the Lord, she relates among others these: "But that I should not persuade myself that he had laid aside the memory of me; because he never forgot me: but that it was necessary for me to do what was in me. Nor were these things said to me by the Lord without a certain tenderness and consolation, other words too being added, by which he conferred on me so notable a grace that I cannot say them. Quite often it was said to me by his divine Majesty in testimony of great love: Now you are mine, and I am yours. And the things which I am wont to repeat again and again, and which in my judgement at least I say most truly, are these: About what ought I to be anxious, except about thee, Lord?"
[108] and also wonderful with God, Once, when the Lord had reproved her because she did not wholly lay aside the doubt in which she was involved, namely whether the things she was suffering were done at the devil's instigation or not, she was exceedingly saddened; and behold, at once with great sweetness and tenderness the Lord told her not to afflict herself: that he knew it did not rest with her that she did not gladly expose herself to the things that pertained to his service; and that whatever she wished at that time he would bring to its end (and so it truly came about): and that she should look at the love which was increasing more and more every day in her heart toward God; and that this would be a proof to her that these things were by no means done at the demon's instigation. She adds besides: "Once he advised me, consoling me with great love, not to be saddened; for in this life it cannot be that we always live in the same state: that sometimes I would be glowing with fervour of mind, sometimes altogether without any, sometimes troubled by distractions, at other times in quiet, sometimes too harried by temptations; but that I should cast my hope on him, and fear nothing." One day, when she was afflicted because she saw that she must yield to bodily necessities, the Lord, appearing to her and soothing her with consolation, advised her that whatever she spent on bodily necessity she should do for his sake and bear this trouble with equanimity, because her life was necessary to others.
[109] who in turn testified his love toward her Moreover, these words written by her on paper are extant: "Up to this morning I was in this affliction; and when I was engaged in prayer, in a certain great rapture I thought my spirit was carried by the Lord into the sight of the eternal Father, and I heard him saying to him: This one whom thou gavest me, Father, I give back to thee. And then I seemed to be brought nearer to him. Moreover, this is not something imaginary, but a most certain thing, and it includes caresses so spiritual that they cannot be set forth in words. Then he said words to me which I do not remember; some of which looked to this, that he promised he would communicate grace to me. And in this way he kept me with him for some space of time." On other slips she left written these five things which follow. The first indeed, which happened in the first year in which she presided over the monastery of the Incarnation: "After this," she says, "I persevered in that mode of praying which I now keep, in which, namely, the soul is with the Most Holy Trinity: and I seemed to see the eternal Father approach me and address me most amicably, and say these things to me among others, disclosing his love toward me: I have given you my Son and the Holy Spirit and this Virgin; what can you give me?"
[110] by exceptional gifts of grace The second is this: "At another time the Lord uttered these words to me: Do not fear, daughter; since there is no one who can separate you from me. And then indeed by an imaginary vision he gave himself to be seen by me very intimately, as he had been wont to do at other times too, and holding out his right hand to me he said: Behold this nail, in sign that from this day you will be my bride: until now you had not merited this; but henceforth you will have care of my honour, not only as of your Creator, King and God, but as my true and genuine bride: my honour is now yours and yours mine. This grace produced such effects in me that I could scarcely contain them and remained as if out of my mind, and I said to the Lord that either he should publish my vileness or not grant me such a grace: for I thought my nature unequal to bearing it. Whence the whole day I remained as it were steeped in it and much absorbed. Great fruit I felt from it afterwards, and greater confusion of myself and grief of soul, from seeing that I did nothing worthy of such great graces and gifts." This happened in the second year of her priorate in the convent of the Incarnation, on the octave of St. Martin. The third is: "After I had returned from Holy Communion, the Redeemer Jesus seemed to me very plainly to sit beside me and to console me with most sweet words, with these among the rest: Behold me, my daughter: for it is I; show me your hands. And taking them he seemed to put them into his side, saying: Look at my wounds; you are not without me: pass through the shortness of this life." The fourth took place when she had gone off to the foundation of Seville: "The Lord said to me: You know now what marriage there is between you and me; and accordingly what I have is yours: whence I yield to you all the pains and labours that I suffered, and therefore you can demand these from my Father as something of your own. And although I had long known that we are sharers in these, yet now I was made a sharer in so different a way that I seemed to myself to have obtained a certain great principality: for with what familiarity he granted me this grace cannot be set forth here. The Father seemed to ratify this donation. From that time I attended in a far different manner to the things which the Lord suffered, as to my own peculiar property; and this thought floods me with wonderful delight."
[111] and by consolations both spiritual The fifth, finally, is that, when one night she was rendering thanks to the Lord for a benefit received from him, she heard from him: "What do you ask of me, my daughter, that I do not grant you?" On the occasion of which words she writes thus in the history of her life: "When with importunate prayers I was asking the Lord that he would restore the use of his eyes to a certain one who had deserved well of me, which he had almost wholly lost, and with compassion for whom I was touched, and I feared lest on account of my sins I should not be heard, the Lord gave himself to be seen by me, as frequently at other times, and began to show the wound of his left hand and with his right to draw out the immense nail fixed in the left. Moreover, he seemed to pull out the flesh together with the nail; which seemed to be done with most grievous pain, which roused me to compassion for him. Then he told me not to doubt that he who had suffered these things for my sake would much rather grant the things I was asking of him. Nay, he undertook that whatever I should ever beg of him, he would grant me; because he knew that I would ask nothing that was not conformable to his glory: that he would accordingly now comply with my requests. He admonished me besides to consider that, even when I was not yet serving him, he had never denied me absolutely anything of the things I had asked of him, nay had granted them far better than I could ask; how much more now, when he knows that he is loved by me: and accordingly that I should be certain on this matter," etc.
[112] and bodily ones, In bodily things too the Lord sometimes refreshed her. One day, lying ill at Ávila with worn health and a languishing stomach, she said to the infirmarian that on account of the very great dryness of her mouth she was possessed by a desire of tasting a melon; but if there was none in the house, she forbade it to be sought from elsewhere. And since the nuns had no melon in the house, nor dared to seek it outside, Teresa forbidding it, they brought her other foods. When these were already being taken away, because the sick woman could not eat them, a signal was given at the turn; and the portress, running there, found in it half a melon, which who had brought could neither be seen then nor found out afterwards. Very many things of this kind happened, but Teresa suppressed most of them in silence. From these favours of the Lord and from the kindled love of a genuine daughter which she felt in herself, there was born in her a friendly freedom with God, although full of reverence, and also a certain candour with which she addressed him familiarly, and no less confidently than a daughter is wont to address a father by whom she knows herself to be most tenderly loved. Hence she consoled herself with him, expostulated with him and took delight; as may quite often be read in her Life.
[113] familiarity. Let what she writes in chapter thirty-seven of the same serve for an example: "What is this, Lord? Is it not more than enough that thou keepest me in this toilsome and wretched life, and that I bear it for thee and desire to live on earth, although there is nothing in it but manifold hindrances to having or enjoying thee: for it is necessary for me to eat, to sleep, to deal and treat with everyone; and all these things I bear with the most even mind for thy sake, although thou art not unaware, Lord, that this is the greatest and most grievous torment to me. And yet wilt thou meanwhile, in that little time I have available for enjoying thee, hide thy face from me? How does this agree with thy immense
mercy? How does the love with which thou followest me bear it? I should think indeed and believe that, if I could hide myself from thee, as thou hidest thy face from me, thou wouldst by no means suffer it, on account of the love with which thou art borne toward me: but thou art with me and always lookest on me; whence there is no reason why I should bear this. I beseech thee, Lord, to consider that in this way a great grievance is inflicted on her who so loves thee," and other things akin to these. She said besides that the love of God brings all goods with it, and that in order to obtain it we must renounce all things, nay even deny ourselves; but because we follow so unwillingly and are so slow in dedicating ourselves wholly to God, his Majesty too shows himself difficult in communicating favours: and that this love does not consist in tears, tastes and tender affection, but in rendering him worship with justice, fortitude and humility; and finally that it is acquired in no other way than by resolving firmly with oneself both to work and to suffer for God, and, when occasion offers, by carrying out this purpose in deed.
ANNOTATIONS.
Chapter VI.
Charity toward one's neighbour.
Chap. XI.
Since the love with which she embraced her neighbours was only for the sake of God, By zeal for procuring the salvation of others whom she considered and loved in them, it was fitted to the measure of her love toward God. This indeed compelled her to undergo so many labours and to undertake so many journeys, although with worn health, through colds, rains, snows and intense heats, so that religious houses might be raised for the salvation and perfection of more souls. Hence with holy emulation she emulated preachers and all who were intent on winning souls for God; as one who desired also to carry out this work in person, and wished it granted her to cry aloud with her voice to kings and lords and all men without exception that, leaving error, they should enter the true path of salvation and acknowledge their Creator, even though she should have to undergo a thousand deaths on that account.
[115] Teresa apostolic men She esteemed all the Saints very highly, and it was a pleasure to her above all to turn over their deeds: and if she read of any of them that they had won souls for God, she was affected with a more intense devotion and tenderness of soul and envied them this more than all the torments they had suffered. Wherefore she cried to God that, since the evil demon was claiming so many souls for himself, she might be permitted to bring some help by her prayers (since she could do nothing else) and to draw even one soul to his service. She esteemed highly and loved all who applied themselves to these pursuits and whom she saw studying the profit of others, whether by giving lectures or by preaching or in any other way whatever. She had very great compassion for their labours and wished in every way that their comforts should be provided for, and whenever an occasion offered itself of refreshing them, she displayed a wonderful liberality: for whatever she spent on them she was persuaded was excellently placed.
[116] helped with what services she could; Knowing that three or four Fathers of the Dominican Order, distinguished for learning, were to come to a certain place in which she was staying, where, on account of the poverty of the place, they could not be received conveniently as befitted men of so great authority and so useful to the Church, she had a splendid supper and also beds prepared at a friend's house as kindly and as conveniently as could be done. Similar services she rendered to others too. And if such men were ill, she prayed and wished prayer to be made by all the nuns among whom she was living, that those sick men might shortly recover their former health, lest the advantage which flowed from them to their neighbours should be diminished. And if it befell any of them to die, she bewailed his passing with most tender tears; and she who had so torn away all affection from creatures, on such an occasion, because he cleaved so closely to his Creator, testified the greatest sorrow, and indeed for a long time after their death. Fr. Martín Gutiérrez, S.J., a man of great name and tireless in procuring the salvation of souls, had now been dead for some years, when she, being with me at Salamanca and recalling the memory of that man, began to be seized with the greatest grief on account of the departure of a man so strenuously applying himself to the advantages of his neighbours, and said to me with most tender affection: "Good God! I am borne with too much love toward the servants of God, since I bear their absence so grievously."
[117] and grieved when they died. The things said up to now may be sufficiently proved by the affliction which she felt at the death of Master John of Ávila, the renowned servant of God and most excellent preacher. As soon as she learned of it at Toledo in the house of Luisa de la Cerda, when she had gone there on account of a foundation, she broke into tears with the greatest anguish of soul. Her companions wondered at this mourning, since she was not wont to show any sign of a grieving soul at anyone's death; nay, when the death of her brother, whom she embraced above all, was announced to her at Segovia, they did not see even one little tear spring from her eyes, but with outspread hands she was blessing the Lord. Hence, when they saw her consumed by so unwonted a mourning, they asked why, since Master Ávila had been so holy and had already gone away to enjoy God, she was afflicting herself so much. To whom she said: "Of this matter indeed I am most certain, but the cause of my grief is that in this man the Church of God loses a great pillar and very many souls a great support; and among the rest mine, although I was far away from him, was bound to him on many accounts." This can easily be believed of her, who was borne with so great affection toward souls that she declared herself ready to die a thousand times for the good of even one. Nor indeed were desires enough for her, since she also poured out most ardent prayers for them, macerated her body with afflictions, and spent whatever she could for their safety. She also took counsel for very many souls in person: about which it was written by a certain confessor of hers: "If I wish to say something of the exceptional spiritual fruit which all who converse with this servant of God take from meeting her, the narrative will never find an end. For the things that happen in this respect are astounding and a notable miracle of God. I do not wish to say anything here of myself, who on account of my demerits make no progress; although I have evidently experienced in myself, from the time I began to deal with her, that the help of God was so singularly present to me in many things that I saw clearly it came from heaven. Wherefore in myself I can no more not hold her as a saint than I can say inwardly that I do not know her." Thus far that confessor's words; and the same was testified in writing of himself by another confessor, whose words I brought forth at length in chapter V of this book.
[118] To sinners No one ever dealt with her rather often without drawing from it some gain for his soul. I shall bring forward some specimens of this matter, and first indeed those of which, in the book of her Life,
she speaks, in such a way however that I shall touch only on the principal circumstances of the matters; because the rest can be read in that book itself, whose chapters I shall therefore note here. She profited her father and the nuns of the Incarnation wonderfully both by her words and by the example of her life. She persuaded very many others to follow the exercise of prayer, in which she also directed them and supplied them with little books for this purpose. When, at the beginning of her conversion, she had gone to Becedas for the sake of treating her health, there was a priest there who for seven whole years had kept up a wicked intercourse with a woman, to the great scandal of all the inhabitants, and yet did not cease performing the divine rite assiduously, and lent his ears to no one who admonished him; because he was held by the spell of a certain little bronze image, which at that woman's persuasion he wore at his neck. But Teresa's persuasion prevailed so far with him that he cast this image from him: thereupon he began to detest that woman and wholly deserted her; and, converted to God, having undertaken a serious correction of life, he died within a year (chapter V).
[119] converting to God Another priest came to her, who, entangled for two and a half years in a most foul crime, said Mass daily, and did not dare for shame to disclose it to his confessor, although he greatly desired to cast that yoke from himself: but strength of soul was lacking. Teresa undertook to commend him to God in prayers and to send him letters. As soon as the priest received her first letter, he vomited out his crime in Confession; and wrote back to the Mother that for not so few days now he had not fallen into that crime, but that, because he was most grievously incited to it by the evil demon, he seemed in a manner to be bearing the torments of hell: that he asked her accordingly to beg God's help for him again. Teresa therefore besought God that the storm of temptations might depart from that man and the rage of the demons fall upon herself, yet so that she should not offend her God. At once, therefore, the priest ceased to be tormented and began to enjoy every kind of quiet, while meanwhile for a whole month Teresa was harried by most grievous torments. The same man, whenever afterwards a graver storm of temptations blew upon him, read Teresa's letters, and at once all the force vanished (chapter XXXI).
[120] and very many souls She also exhorted two men of the Dominican brethren of outstanding learning, Pedro Ibáñez and Vicente Varón, to pursue the zeal for praying; and above all Varón, to whom she also related some admonitions received from God to be disclosed to him, and for whom she most urgently besought the Lord. Moreover both made such progress in the exercise of prayer and came to such a degree of perfection that they moved even Teresa to amazement, and she could scarcely have believed it had she not seen it with her eyes (chapters XXXIII and XXXIV). Her sister María de Cepeda (as I have already said above, when we were treating of the prophetic spirit), since she knew she would die a sudden death, she forestalled by admonishing her for four years or more, and in this way it came about that the salvation of her soul was made safe (chapter XXXIV). Juana Suárez, a nun of the Incarnation, her intimate friend, having already died, gave herself to be seen by Teresa, and said: "Through you I have been made a partaker of eternal salvation." The Lord revealed to her besides that by her intercession her father would be given everlasting salvation. When she had related other things of that kind in chapter XXXIX, she concludes in these words: "The favours which the Lord has conferred on me, in rescuing souls through my intercession from the servitude of the gravest crimes, in leading others to greater perfection, in bringing others finally out of purgatory, and in other helps of that kind, are so immense indeed that, if I wished to recount them, I should weary both myself and the reader. And this kind of graces has turned more to the salvation of souls than of bodies; and I could bring forward very many witnesses of this matter, since indeed it has been very well known."
[121] in advancing in the way of virtue A certain man of the foremost of this kingdom was subject to a grave sin; whose occasion indeed he desired to cast off, but out of weakness of soul could not, because it was before his eyes every day. But so powerful was the blessed Mother's entreaty with God that he shortly shook off that shameful yoke entirely, and obtained his freedom, Teresa praying, admonishing and writing; and the occasion and scandal being removed, thereafter making wonderful progress in the divine service, he always showed himself grateful toward God and his handmaid Teresa. As to souls snatched from purgatory by her prayers, she herself recounts some examples in chapters XXXI, XXXIV and XXXVIII of the same book. If anyone pressed by some spiritual necessity and affliction came to her, she was not so held by the occupation of any business that she would not set it aside as soon as possible for a while, until she had given her neighbour spiritual help; so much so that she seemed even to forget her own necessities. One day, when at Salamanca she was taking recreation with her nuns after midday, she was called by a certain poor woman. It was grievous to the nuns to be cheated of her conversation then, since they enjoyed her talk only very rarely on account of her frequent occupations: wherefore they pressed her not to desert her nuns so. To whom she said that the consolation of souls of this kind was her recreation: which said, she at once went cheerfully to her by whom she was called.
[122] and in perfecting Through her efforts too God led very many from the vanity of the world to Religion and to the greatest perfection. Here a certain woman known to me shall lead the troop; whose name, because she is still living, I shall, though unwillingly, wrap in silence. Her Teresa embraced with singular love and allowed to stay with her for some time: but since she had her brain filled with worldly vanities and the empty smokes of the age, and this displeased Teresa exceedingly, she commended her to God from her heart; although she indicated nothing of these things to her. The Lord touched her heart, but she returned to her former follies; until at length one day, preparing herself together with the holy Mother for Holy Communion, and reading a chapter pointed out by her from the little book On Contempt of the World, she was powerfully struck by the Lord, whom Teresa meanwhile was praying on her behalf, and illumined with great light for recognizing the offences of her past life: and when she had declared these to the holy Mother's confessor himself, her soul thenceforth, filled with consolation, renewed and made wholly other, began little by little to be so changed that great desires were born in her of perfection and of entering the religious life (from which she had always been rather averse); and, hating all the pride of the world in which she had been immersed, and giving herself to prayer and the reading of spiritual books, at length, to the very great consolation of the blessed Mother and to the amazement of all the citizens, she betook herself to the first monastery consecrated to St. Joseph at Ávila. So glad were her beginnings that in chapter XXXIX of her Life Teresa, treating of some of her nuns, young indeed in age but aged in perfection, writes in these words: "How gladly I yield them the palm, and how I ought to blush before God! For what his divine Majesty could not fulfil in me in all the years that have flowed by since I gave myself to prayer and he began to communicate graces to me, he has accomplished in them in three months, and in one of them even in three days." And she who was advanced to this degree in three days is the very one of whom we are now treating. Equal too were the advances which followed thereafter; which I could unfold, had I undertaken to speak of the living. And she confesses that whatever befell her in this kind seems to be ascribed to Teresa's prayers alone; and not undeservedly: for Teresa herself too once hinted by letter that she owed her salvation to her alone.
[123] she energetically spent herself. And this is the first way in which she showed her fervent charity toward her neighbour, namely while she showed herself beneficent toward the souls both of those living in this world and of those detained in the purging fire. Nor did this charity cost her little. For when she found that some soul was sticking fast in sin, she presently applied herself more ardently to prayer. Besides this, the devil afflicted her in the most grievous ways he could. Sometimes she was afflicted by him outwardly so that she moved the nuns to compassion for her; nor was she less tormented inwardly whenever she had snatched some soul from the demon. Very often too she was sharply beaten by him in her body, he threatening even graver things and boasting that he would avenge himself on her. Whence, whenever Teresa saw any of those souls return to better fruit, she presently experienced, and said, that this would cost her dear.
[124] To the sick The other kind of charity concerns the goods bestowed on the bodies of one's neighbours, and of this I have already said some things in the history of her life. To a certain man who had lost almost all the use of his eyes the Lord restored it at her prayers. A certain one of her kinsmen was suffering so from difficulty of urine that for two whole months he underwent most grievous pains, and so intense indeed that his whole body was racked. When the blessed Mother, at her confessor's bidding, had visited him, and, pitying the man, had asked health for him from the Lord with ardent supplication, the sick man was immediately wholly freed from pain (chapter XXXIX). She had singular regard for sick nuns and showed them the greatest affection; whom also, so far as the poverty of the household allowed, she refreshed in every way: and if nothing was available at home for reviving them, she did not take it ill that it should be sought outside, lest anything necessary be lacking to the sick. Whence too the Lord himself not seldom wonderfully provided for necessities of this kind.
[125] and to the poor As far as could be done, she withdrew herself from the handling of others' affairs, so as to be present with the sick and refresh them with her talk. She ordered a woollen mattress to be spread for them, or even several, if necessary; and the best and cleanest blanket of all those in the house to be given. She ordered them also to be visited and refreshed by the other sisters. On a certain separate slip she wrote that once at Malagón she received a command from the Lord appearing to her to provide for the sick in a peculiar way: for a superior who had no care of those laid low by sickness and did not console them was very like the friends of Job; because, while he himself scourges them for the good of their souls, she calls the patience of the sick into danger. It happened too sometimes in the beginnings of the house of Ávila that, when for the sustenance of the whole convent there was available only one or two eggs or something similar, she ordered it to be given to her who most needed it. At this word the nuns, thinking that she herself was designated, because she was oppressed by various illnesses, longed to give it to her; but she would not admit this, denying that it was necessary for her, and preferred that her companions should take it: and to relieve them of labours, she herself undertook all the labour she could. When, having set out for the foundation of Burgos, she was staying some days in the hospital, she began to be attacked by sickness and to suffer a nauseous stomach; wherefore she asked the sisters to seek out sweet oranges for her. On the same day a certain pious matron sent some oranges of this kind, and especially savoury ones.
When Teresa saw them, hiding them in her sleeve, she said she wished to go down to console a poor man who was bewailing his lot rather loudly. When she had gone down, then, she distributed all the oranges among the needy. And when the nuns asked why she had given to others these things given to her, she answered with a certain great cheerfulness, which could easily be read in her face: "I would rather yield them to others than to myself: I come back from there very glad, since I have sent them away refreshed."
[126] she longed to bring help. At another time, when she saw citrons brought to her, she said: "Blessed be God, who has given me something to distribute again among my poor little ones." There was a time when, in the same hospital, a sick man whose abscess was being cut raised his voice so that he was troublesome to the other sick: Teresa, roused by his shouting, went down; at the sight of whom the sick man fell silent, and she then questioned him thus: "Why do you raise your voice so, son? Why do you not bear the pain with an even mind in God's name?" Then he said it seemed to him his soul was being torn out. But when the blessed Mother had stood by for a little while, all the pain suddenly vanished; nor afterwards, when the ulcer was being cut, were querulous cries heard from him. Moreover, so welcome was she to the poor in that hospital that they asked the matron of the house to bring this holy woman in to them often, whose very sight brought them consolation. And when Teresa moved away from there, the warden of the hospice saw them break into tears. From her very beginnings, while she was still living in the convent of the Incarnation, she resolved in her mind to let no day slip by in which she did not perform some particular work of charity. Whence, when, hindered during the day, she had by no means been able to accomplish any such thing, if perhaps at night she heard some nun going up the stairs without a light, she would go out of her room to give the other a light, lest that day should flow away for her without any work of charity shown to her neighbours.
[127] Enemies with singular Thirdly and finally her illustrious charity shone forth in this, and perhaps much more clearly than in the other two ways recounted before, that she embraced all her persecutors and adversaries with singular love. For so immense was her charity that, when anyone had been injurious toward her, she was for that reason borne toward him with a more peculiar love than toward others, and commended him to God in prayers with greater affection. When she had heard that some had laid grave calumnies against her before men of great name, she repaid no other retaliation for this injury than to love them more ardently and commend them more frequently to God. She suffered no one's honour to be injured in words, not even in jest, and much less that of those from whom she had suffered injury: for she always wished all to speak and think well of them and to excuse their action. All who opposed her foundations or harried her either by deeds or by words she praised and excused in whatever way she could: nay, she held nothing more important than to take all things in a good sense; which she also wished to be observed by all her nuns. This kind of charity was noted in her quite often by those who accompanied her and dealt with her: for many occasions of showing it offered themselves to her every day. Nor was it contained in words; since she not unwillingly rendered them whatever kind of friendship and goodwill she could, until at length she conquered them with good works, following that counsel of the Apostle: "Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good" (Rom. XII, 21).
[128] and adversaries When she was going off from Ávila to Medina and Valladolid, her superiors added to her as companion of the journey a Friar than whom she had none more hostile, and who accompanied her for no other purpose than to watch her every work with sharp eyes and catch something in them to censure and disparage. This companion, as sent by divine providence, because her superiors had assigned him to her, she admitted most willingly, and on the journey spoke to him so amicably and gladly that the other companions were not a little amazed; at the same time she refreshed him in whatever ways she could, giving him the little pictures which she had in her Breviary, and pledging her services to him in the most ample words. He also received from her a certain image of the Holy Spirit, which, since she held it most dear, she had refused to others up to then: and she signified that she had given it to him on account of the singular affection with which she embraced him. Not far from the road by which they were travelling there was a convent of the same Institute, whose inhabitants were very much opposed to Teresa's affairs, because at that time (as we said above) there was great dissension in the Order on account of things not well understood, though all (as is likely) were looking to the common good of their Institute and the increase of the divine glory. Since Teresa had perceived this, she ordered herself to be brought there, although she would have to turn somewhat aside from the road.
[129] she followed with love. When, therefore, it was noised abroad among the Friars that she had arrived and was present, none of them appeared to receive her. When, then, she had called them to her one by one, she addressed each so amicably that she seemed to wish to hide them within her own bowels, and she remained with them with the same courtesy of countenance from the morning Mass until evening (when she was to complete the rest of the journey). Conquered by which, the Friars accompanied her out of the place as she departed, saying repeatedly that her quick departure was grievous to them: so great a holiness carried them away into amazement and confounded them. So too she bound to herself by her services the Father who was accompanying her, that he grieved not a little that the course of the day's journey had been measured out so quickly, and added that it would be most pleasant to him to accompany her further, if she wished to use his services. If any grave men were ill-affected toward her or thought wrongly of her and her affairs, she at once went to them herself, provided they could be approached, and conferred with them about those things to which they were most opposed; and, satisfying them abundantly, she left them propitious and benevolent toward her. But other things that bear on this will be better understood when there will be place to speak of her patience and cheerfulness in labours and persecutions.
Chapter VII.
Devotion toward the Most Holy Eucharist and toward the Saints.
Chap. XII.
Her devotion toward the Most Holy Mystery of the Altar was singular: Teresa's affection toward the Most Holy Eucharist was supreme: which may be gathered from four things. The first is that, whenever she was contriving a new convent, nothing refreshed her more in its erection, nothing spurred her more to bearing the labours of the journey and others, than that there would be one more church in which the Body of the Lord would be reserved. Whence too she most greatly deplored the blindness of the heretics of this age, because they were demolishing churches and sacred buildings in which it was adored and received; and whatever irreverences were committed against it among the faithful and the unfaithful wounded her with a certain more tender grief. At the foundation of the house of Medina she could not take her sleep quietly at night, but snatched herself from her couch at intervals to look whether the Venerable Sacrament of the Altar was in its place, fearing, namely, lest perhaps some heretic secretly among the strangers might treat it in unworthy ways. Hence her heart was so long fearful for the ark of God, as is written of the priest Heli (1 Kings IV, 13), until it was kept in the due enclosure.
[131] whence daily, The second is that very many visions were offered her when she was either disposing herself for receiving the Holy Eucharist or rising from it. The third, that she very often saw openly in the saving Host the Lord himself, who truly lies hidden there under the veil of the species. The fourth, that already before she went out of the convent of the Incarnation to found her houses, she for the most part partook of the sacred banquet daily, and that by the counsel and authority of very many men outstanding in learning with whom she had conferred about this matter. Namely, the nuns of that house were not accustomed to so frequent Communion when Teresa began it, but received the Holy Eucharist only sometimes; but by her example they began to partake of the Sacred Mysteries more frequently than usual. And it pleased the Lord at that time to show by some signs that this daily reception of his Body was most welcome to him. For when, among her other sicknesses, the Mother vomited twice a day every day, morning and evening, she was then at once freed from the morning vomiting, although the evening one clung to her until death. And she partook of the divine Mystery with such purity of soul that, even before she turned wholly to God, she never approached it without previous Confession if she had found even one venial fault lying hidden in her soul. Moreover, it produced immense effects in her. She often saw the Lord visible with such majesty in the Holy Eucharist that she could not doubt that it was truly he; and she then felt such a feeling of devotion in her soul that she melted with love and joy.
[132] unless obedience or illness prevented, Whenever she was harried by temptations and afflictions of mind, for the most part when she had received the sacred banquet, sometimes too when she was only approaching to receive it, all cloud was at once dispelled from her soul, and she was here given her peace, and her body remained free from pains. And it was very frequent that her body was freed from every kind of sickness when she approached the Eucharistic table. Often too there was born in her soul so intense a desire of receiving the Lord's Body that she could not restrain herself; so much so indeed that no thing in the world, no danger, no labour could have prevented her from receiving it: but if she was called back from Communion either by the command of her superiors or by the nod of the Lord himself, she abstained from it not unwillingly and without affliction. Hence, when at Ávila a certain nun asked her whether she was possessed by a great hunger for the life-giving Bread, because for a month's space she had gone without it on account of the gravity of her illness, she denied that she was possessed by any: for since she considered that these things were done by the nod of God, her soul was no less satisfied by it than if she had tasted of this heavenly dish every day.
[133] to the Holy Table Above all on Palm Sunday she longed to partake of this most holy banquet, rousing her hunger by this consideration, that on that day the inhumanity of the Jews toward Jesus had been intolerable, when they let him go away without a meal to Bethany, so great a distance from Jerusalem, especially since they had received him before with so much applause. Whence with a certain pious feeling she herself invited the Lord to a meal, and pressed him to lodge with her: hence she prepared her soul beforehand as diligently as she could for receiving him. And truly on this day, after the thirtieth year of practising this invitation, it befell that her mind was raised by so unwonted a suspension at the time of Communion that she could not swallow the Sacred Host: and when, having come to herself a little, she still held it in her mouth, she seemed truly to have her mouth filled with blood, and also her face and whole body sprinkled with the same, warm and as if freshly shed. And the sweetness which she experienced in herself on that day was so exceptional that then to herself
she also heard the Lord saying: "I will, daughter, that my blood may profit you; nor is there any reason why you should fear that my mercy will ever fail you. I indeed shed it with great pain, you enjoy it most sweetly; and, as you see, I abundantly repay you the banquet which you were preparing for me today."
[134] to the great good of her soul When one day at Seville she was rising from the sacred banquet, she thought she truly saw her soul made one thing with the Body of the Lord: whom too she then beheld manifestly present. And from this vision she perceived admirable effects in her soul, which contributed wonderfully to making progress in the virtues. She said sometimes that, when she considered so great a Majesty lying hidden under the covering of so small a thing as the host is, she could not but greatly wonder at so great a wisdom, and did not know how the Lord gave her courage and fortitude to approach him; and that, had not he who conferred such great graces on her also given her the strength to contain and restrain herself, it would have been impossible for her to conceal it or not to extol such wonders with raised voice (Life, chapter XXVIII). Besides this she said that the soul, in whatever ways it wished to eat, would find savour and consolation in this divine Sacrament; and that no want, labour, persecution would not seem easy to us, once we had begun to taste the delights of this Sacrament. At one time, receiving the Sacred Host, she saw manifestly that at its entrance all the clouds of afflictions were dispelled from her soul, and a very great brightness arose in it. In the years in which she lived at Ávila, before she went off to the beginnings of the house of Medina, whenever she received that life-giving Bread she was for the most part rapt out of herself, often indeed so that she could not be torn away from the little window through which Holy Communion was administered to her unless she was carried away from there by others. At Toledo too it happened that the sacristan, not knowing what was happening to her, wished with all effort to place her, who was standing on her feet but clinging to the wall in rapture, on some chair, and, having grasped her right hand, saw that she had stiffened no otherwise than if she had been a stone; until at length she was restored to her senses a.
[135] she approached most piously. At Ávila, when on the feast-day of St. Joseph she was in the choir after Holy Communion, she appeared raised two or three palms from the ground. From the very time of her conversion, whenever she became a partaker of the Holy Mysteries, she believed by faith that the Lord was as present to her as if she had seen him with bodily eyes enter her house: hence, so far as could be done, withdrawing herself from all handling of external things, she dealt lovingly with the beloved interiorly, and, gathering all her senses, longed to remain alone with him alone. She pictured herself standing at his feet, and wept with the sinner Magdalen no otherwise than if she had seen him with bodily eyes reclining in the Pharisee's dining-room. And in this place she persevered in speaking with the Lord, although she perceived no feeling of devotion. She advised that, since we know for certain that he is then lodging within us, until the accidents of the bread have been consumed by the natural heat, we should not let slip so good an occasion of dealing with the Lord; but rather that we should then approach him, and treat with the heavenly guest, all care of other things being set aside for quite a long time: and this admonition she inculcated most urgently. For if, she said, when he lived in this mortal life, the sick obtained health by the mere touch of his garment, it seemed there was no doubt at all that, provided we have a lively faith, when he lies hidden within our breast he will work certain wonderful works, and will gladly grant us what we ask, having now become our guest. Nor was his Majesty wont to repay meanly this dwelling with us, provided he be received amicably; nor yet to come to us so secretly that he does not in some way disclose himself to him who knows how he is to be received: for he has many ways of disclosing himself to the soul. She added that this is an especially fitting time for dealing with the Lord and receiving admonitions from him; since it is his greatest delight if we remain with him and do not in any way drive him away from us: but if, when we return from the sacred table, deserting him, we involve ourselves in the occupations of other things, there is no reason why we should querulously complain of little progress in the soul (Way of Perfection, chapter XXXIV).
[136] She greatly venerated priests. She also took diligent care that whatever pertained to the worship of the Most Holy Sacrament should be duly prepared, neat and clean; such as the church, the altar, the frontals, the sacred apparatus of vestments, the chalices and corporals: as may be seen in all her houses, even the poorest. And whenever illustrious matrons offered her various gifts, nothing was more welcome to her than aromatic pastilles and other perfumes which she might burn before the Most Holy Eucharist: and she sought out the choicest that could be had. From this veneration toward the Sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist was born that singular and intimate reverence toward priests, because with their mouth they consecrate this saving Host. Wherefore, often throwing herself on her knees before them, she asked to kiss their hands and for their blessing. When one day she had come to Malagón, as soon as she got down in the middle of the square in which the monastery was, she met its chaplain; and, although he was not conspicuous for age and very many outsiders were present, falling at his knees she asked to be blessed by him.
[137] She prescribed frequent Communion to her nuns. From this notable devotion, and because she knew what effects this divine Sacrament works in those souls which receive it well disposed, it came about that she wished her followers to receive it as often as we declared in the second book she wished. She commanded besides that, beyond those fixed days of Communion, each should approach the sacred table every year on the day on which she had taken the sacred habit, and also on that on which she had bound herself to God by vows. And although this was not set down among the other laws, yet she willed it to be of the same efficacy as if it had been set down in the series of the rest. And that it may be clear that this was her mind, one day, being asked whether she truly thought so, she asked for ink and paper, put it in writing and sealed it with her name. And this is most certain, and many already know it; but lest those who are to be received into this company in future times should be unaware of it, it has seemed good to signify it in this place.
Chap. XIII.
[138] The Saints To be exceptionally affected toward the Saints is without dispute a notable gift of God and a certain singular grace conferred on him to whom he grants this affection, and also one of the most certain pledges of salvation which men can have on earth. For the Saints show themselves very friendly to their friends; and God shows himself much more friendly to his: for these do not neglect to beseech God in heaven for the salvation of those who ask their patronage, nor does God neglect to hear his so intimate and faithful friends. Moreover, this gift of God was by no means lacking to this blessed soul, on whom he had conferred other far greater ones; nay, it shone forth in her from the very beginning in a certain singular way. For she turned over their Lives most willingly, by the reading of which she consoled and spurred on her soul; nay, she even carried in her Breviary a list of those toward whom she was borne with a peculiar feeling: which I shall copy out here in exactly the order in which she herself had inscribed them on the paper; because I know there will not be lacking those to whom it will be most welcome to know this particular series. "St. Albert, our Father. St. Cyril. All the Saints of our Order. All the Angels. My Guardian Angel. The Patriarchs. St. Joseph. St. Mary Magdalen. The Ten Thousand Martyrs. St. John the Baptist. St. John the Evangelist. Sts. Peter and Paul. St. Augustine. St. Dominic. St. Jerome. St. David the King. St. Francis. St. Andrew. St. Bartholomew. St. Job. St. Gregory. St. Clare. St. Mary of Egypt. St. Catherine of Siena. St. Catherine, Martyr. St. Stephen. St. Hilarion. St. Sebastian. St. Ursula. St. Anne. St. Elizabeth of Hungary. The Saint given by lot b. St. Angelus."
[139] she cultivated with wonderful zeal, The Mother of God, as also our Lord Jesus Christ, is not numbered among these Saints, because there was by no means need to indicate this, as being most clear. For she was carried away toward the Mother of God with a peculiar and most ardent zeal; and that from tender age. For, as was narrated at the beginning of the first book, when her mother died, she herself, still very little, prostrate before an image of the most Blessed Mother, asked her to be in her mother's place thenceforth. And this affection toward her grew together with her age, because she always experienced her maternal kindness. She was of a more tender affection toward St. Joseph, and from her books it appears everywhere with what relish, with what gratitude she speaks of him, and how diligently she strives to persuade all to the worship of this Saint c. On the feast-days of those Saints she showed a particular devotion, and celebrated them with the greatest gladness; and sometimes she was wont to compose some song in their praise which the nuns might sing: and it was pleasing to her if any of them composed a similar ode; although she herself did not labour much over rhythmic harmonies nor wished her nuns to labour, lest this care should stifle the pious affection of the spirit. From the beginning, when she was living in the house of the Incarnation, she kept the feast of St. Joseph every year with notable and solemn ceremony. Moreover, of what mind she was toward the Blessed Virgin Mary and her spouse may easily be seen from the monasteries she founded: for all profess the Order of Blessed Mary and were instituted in her honour; and most are named after St. Joseph. Nevertheless she was also borne with intimate zeal toward those former Heavenly Ones whom we have produced: and this is clear from the exceptional graces which she received through them.
[140] and exceptional graces Of the visions in which the Mother of God and St. Joseph appeared to her, and what thanks the Virgin gave her for the notable affection she had toward him, we have already spoken in several places in the first book. Sts. Peter and Paul gave her their word that they would watch over her lest she be deluded by the evil demon; and they appeared to her quite often. St. Clare, appearing to her, exhorted her to press energetically the foundation of the monastery, and promised her her help. She often beheld St. Albert the Carmelite in vision. The Ten Thousand Martyrs, to whom she was especially devoted, appearing to her, promised that they would be present at the hour of death and would accompany her soul, so that she might enjoy the same glory with them, as we indicated at the end of book III; and this was received from Teresa's own mouth. The holy man Fr. Peter of Alcántara too often appeared to her after his death, and admonished her of certain things to be done.
[141] she obtained through them. When she was about to go off from Segovia to Ávila, first
she wished to visit the convent of the Friars Preachers named of the Holy Cross; because there is the place in which the glorious parent of the Order, Dominic, practised severity of life and drew much blood from his body. Having entered the chapel, the prior of the convent and Fr. Diego de Yanguas, whom she then used as confessor, accompanying her, she knelt prostrate at the altar and remained a long time in prayer; and then indeed St. Dominic appeared to her at her left side. Having seen this, Fr. Diego addressed her: and she rose from prayer, bathed in a shower of tears; although, as far as she could, she concealed the matter, as she was wont to do in similar things. Then Diego heard her Confession, said Mass and gave her Holy Communion. And when afterwards she persisted in prayer, in the same way as before, she beheld St. Dominic standing by her at the same side. And when she asked why he placed himself on this side: "The other side," he said, "I have reserved for my Lord." And at once she saw Christ standing at her right; who, after he had remained with her for a little while, departed, saying: "Take your delight with my friend." Teresa remained here almost two hours, and meanwhile St. Dominic was present with her, declaring that he rejoiced that she had come to this place, and at the same time disclosing at length what labours he had formerly undergone here and what graces he had received there from the Lord. Then, taking her right hand, he promised her the greatest help in advancing the affairs of her Order, adding besides other things which brought her consolation and joy. Teresa said from time to time that, since she had received so great a grace from God in this chapel and had been steeped in so great a consolation, it would have been most welcome to her to remain in it perpetually. These words too I have read in a certain letter of hers: "Today the solemnity of St. Martin is kept, to whom I am singularly devoted, since in this octave I have several times received much grace from the Lord, without knowing the reason."
ANNOTATIONS.
his honour, with the greatest fruit to pious families and to individual persons. Nor has our Belgium yielded to any region in this from the time when, as our predecessors relate (vol. III of March, page 9), the princess Isabella Clara Eugenia of most praiseworthy memory, bringing with her into Belgium from Spain, where through the followers of St. Teresa it was great among all, an excellent affection for promoting the devotion of the faithful toward this Saint, achieved so much by her example that in the whole city of Brussels, the workshops being closed, the 19th day of March was held among the festal days long before the most recent precept was pronounced by Urban VIII.
Chapter VIII.
Trust in God, generosity of soul, humility and mortification.
Chap. XIV.
It has seemed to me not out of place if I embrace in this one chapter together trust in God and generosity, Trusting wholly in God, because they are associated with one another and one helps the other and from both wonderful effects are born. These illustrious virtues shone forth in Teresa in a singular way, and they appear easily from those arduous works which she undertook and which seemed impossible to accomplish, and from the loftiness of soul with which she pursued them and brought them to their end. Who would ever have thought that a woman shut within the enclosure of a monastery, bound by so many ties of religious Institute and obedience, without the support of human help and of money, attacked moreover by so many detractions, would become the Mother of so many good daughters, the foundress of so many monasteries, and finally the renewer of that Order which had persisted for so long a time in the state in which she then found it? What man would have shown such courage, such strength of mind, as to have dared even to promise himself such things? Who would have undertaken them? Who would not have lost heart, seeing, after the work was begun, so many and such grave difficulties, hindrances, obstacles and delays of persecutions a?
[143] fearing nothing but sin, First, when she was contriving the house at Ávila, there did not deter her from what she had begun the opposition of the whole monastery in which she lived and of the Order, nor the chastisements which could await her on that account, nor the storm stirred up through the whole town, both clergy and magistrates conspiring against her. She feared nothing but offence to God. When certain most grave men asked something of her, and threatened that, unless she complied with them, they would deny their help to her affairs, she answered in this manner: "To impel me to assent to their requests, they will never achieve anything unless they move my conscience against persisting in refusing; for since no suspicion of sin underlies this, I fear nothing." Nor is it to be wondered at that the power of men was not formidable to her, since she did not fear even a little the power of the demons. She said that, if she served the Lord to whom both the devils and all other created things are subject, why should she fear any of these, and why should she not have the courage to challenge the whole of hell. Whence she provoked all the demons to combat, that they might see whether they could harm her.
[144] looking to nothing but the divine glory, By no labour or difficulty was she deterred from daring to undertake or accomplish anything which she knew looked to the greater glory of God: and if it happened that, when she had already sweated over it for a long time, she afterwards knew that it would be for the greater service of God if it were broken off, she left it off no more difficultly than if she had begun nothing for its sake. By whatever labours and persecutions she was harried, she never broke into tears (although that is customary with women), nay nor into words which betrayed affliction or grief. In the erection of the first monastery, as we saw in its place, out of her trust in God she undertook expenses which could by no means be met without a great force of money; although she had not an obol, nor did any hope shine forth whence she might obtain it. She had a single coin of eight asses when she was beginning the building of the first church (which they used before the present one was prepared), for which nevertheless a great force of money was necessary. The same thing happened with the house bought at Medina, and also in the other monasteries which she founded.
[145] with almost no human help Brought to Seville to contrive the beginnings of a house, she had only one farthing, nor did she know even a friend who would bring her help. Yet she did not on that account lose heart or desist from what she had begun; and before she departed from there, she left to her nuns a house acquired for six thousand gold pieces. Departing from Ávila for the foundation of the second convent, so that her daughters there might be provided with the convenience of a garden and a roof, she by no means hesitated to receive nine thousand gold pieces on loan. So firm was her confidence in God, by which she knew that he does not fail those who serve him from the heart and that his words never deceive, that she could fear no poverty. Hence, when she was advised about procuring a fixed revenue for the monasteries, she was grieved in mind. Worldly supports she made no account of, nor did she place any hope in them: for she said these were like the twigs of dry rosemary, which, burdened with any weight, are at once broken; but that the true friend in whom one should hope is Christ. Wherefore she showed such confidence that she believed she could resist the whole world opposing her, provided she had God favouring her. When the affairs of her Order were in extreme peril, and news was received that they were going to ruin, as in fact appeared, she remained so undaunted and confident in soul that not only did she not need a consoler, but she also raised up others prostrate with sorrow, saying repeatedly that there was no reason to grieve, but that all would have a happy end: so much so that, when no hope shone forth, then she herself showed a new confidence, and said that all these things would bring forth nothing but a greater good.
[146] magnanimous Teresa Whenever she was on a journey under a rainy and snowy sky and with great troubles and inconveniences, she gave new courage to her companions, and exhorted them, suggesting that they should show constancy; for journeys of this kind are very well suited for gaining heaven. And if a more difficult place occurred on the road, she strove to break through it first herself, as I have already said before in the foundation of Burgos. When she was making for Medina from Ávila, there was a time when the darkness of night overwhelmed her near a river so thickly that her companions did not dare to cross. To whom, as they hesitated, she said: "It would not be advisable to remain under the open sky: prepare yourselves to ford it and commend yourselves to God." As she entered the water, then, a certain light began to shine before them like that of a torch somewhat distant, until all, having crossed the river, had escaped the danger.
[147] accomplished great and arduous things. On account of this generous faith in God it came about that whatever she wished succeeded, and she accomplished things truly to be wondered at. Hence, although she suffered very powerful adversaries and the things to be done were hedged about with the greatest dangers, nevertheless she animated herself and others, denying that there was in the whole world together so great a power as to overthrow what God was contriving or desired to be done. She said that knowledge of the immense graces received from God had helped her much in conceiving trust: for had she not had this, she would not have had courage for those great works which she undertook. She said accordingly that it did not seem good humility to be unwilling to acknowledge graces received from heaven. At one time, when, having entered a village, an arduous doubt had arisen, for resolving which great learning and talent were needed, and since she was in a place in which she could be helped by neither endowment, not knowing what to do, placing her trust in God, she resolved to consult the parish priest of the place and to carry out what he should advise; most certainly confident that, although he did not excel in learning, God would inspire him with what he wished to be done by her, since she had no other at hand to consult. And as she hoped, so it happened; for the counsel which the parish priest gave, outstanding theologians too afterwards gave.
Chap. XV.
[148] From the sublimity to which we have said Teresa was raised by God, Thinking most lowly of herself, it can easily be perceived how profound her humility was, both interior and exterior: for only the profoundly humble are raised to so great a height. This virtue was so great in her and always shone forth so manifestly that whoever wished to follow out whatever might be said of her would find no end. I shall accordingly divide the very many things I know about it into two parts. First I shall speak of interior and then of exterior humility. I call interior the humble opinion she had of herself, as clearly appears from her words: and exterior, that which shone forth in her other works. An evident proof of interior humility is that she so frequently makes mention of her sins b, and indeed with great weight of exaggeration, although they were small and various reasons for excusing them were at hand to her. Nor is it enough for her to bewail and magnify them, unless also, when she wished to begin the narrative of the graces received from the Lord, she spoke in this manner (Life, chapter X): "Whom I ask for the love of God to relate and publish to all whatever I have recounted up to now of my wicked life and sins: and from this very time I give him full faculty for this, as also to all my confessors, of whose number is he to whom this writing is sent; and indeed, if they wish and judge it expedient, I ask them to do it from this very moment, while I am still in life, so that I may no longer deceive men who think there is some good in me: and certainly (I say it with truth), as at least I now feel about myself, it will be a very great consolation to me. But as to the things I shall recount hereafter, I do not give them this faculty; nay, I do not wish that, if they show them to anyone, they should say who he or she is to whom they were done, or who wrote them: for that reason I have named neither myself nor anyone else here; but I shall write everything as well as I can, so that I may not be known by anyone: that this may be so, I humbly ask God."
[149] she loved to be unknown, And she says she was ready to commit her sins to writing, and she would doubtless have done it too; but the directors of her soul forbade it to be done, as she discloses at the beginning of the book of her Life. The same faculty too she always granted to her confessors and superiors, both within and outside the court of conscience: and she said she did this so that they might know what she really was, and no deceit might be practised in her affairs, nor might they believe her more than was fair. At the end of the same book she writes that she dares to assert that it had been more grievous to her to commit to writing the favours received from God than her sins. Out of humility too (although it was not right; yet it proceeded from a humble heart thinking humbly of itself) she left off the pursuit of prayer for the space of a year,
thinking herself unworthy to frequent it and to receive graces from God, whom she served so badly. At the beginning too, seeing that she understood whatever spiritual books write about the mode of even the loftiest prayer, she did not read them: for she thought it was not consistent with humility to believe that she had attained the degrees of prayer which are declared in them. Hence she gave herself more willingly to the reading of the Lives of the Saints, because by their examples she roused blushes in herself (Life, chapter XXX). It was grievous to her when she saw herself esteemed by others, and especially by men of great name; and when she knew that her heavenly favours were to be divulged to others, she was tormented in the highest degree. For this reason she once wished to move away from Ávila and shut herself up in another convent of the same Institute far from there, in which she might lie hidden unknown to all. But her confessors forbade it, because God had reserved her for greater things. Nor did her humility stop here; but she also asked to be joined to the lay sisters, so that in this state she might be occupied in the lowest and hardest services of the house. And truly she would have reduced herself to this rank, had only her superiors given their assent.
[150] to be reckoned as nothing At one time she continually directed her prayer to this, that God would deign in turn to manifest her sins to those who thought well of her, whence it might be clear how without any merit of hers she had been heaped with such great favours by God. Finally, covertly or in whatever way she could, she disclosed her sins to anyone whom she knew to think well of her; nor did she rest until she had done it: and in this she persisted until her confessors made it a matter of conscience for her (chapter XXXI). A letter sent to one of her confessors she concludes with this exclamation: "I would have you know that I have in this place a notable convenience which I have long pursued: for although the outward man is alone, not having one who was wont to bring him consolation, yet the soul enjoys quiet. The convenience is this, that Teresa of Jesus is no more known in this place than if she were not in the world; and this is the reason why I shall not go away from here, unless the directors order it. For it has sometimes been a desolation to me to hear so many follies: for she whom they call a Saint there must be a Saint without feet or head. They laugh because I advise them to make another Saint for themselves, since it costs them no more than a word."
[151] and to be subject to others When she was ordered to go to Toledo to console Luisa de la Cerda, she kept saying that she was going there with great confusion, seeing with what title her superiors were sending her and how grievously they were deceived; and this was the reason why she pressed the Lord with importunate prayers not to let her go to Toledo (Life, chapter XXXIV). Whenever she was dealing with men renowned for holiness, she blushed to appear before them. Honourable offices in Religion she abhorred and avoided as much as she could. She said likewise that she could not desire a longer life, since she did not live for God as she ought, and because she had served the Lord so sluggishly and saw herself stained with the blemishes of so many imperfections that she often wished to lack all sense, lest she should understand so much evil about herself; and she complained sometimes that the Lord had not been able to effect in her in the space of so many years what he had accomplished in some in three years, in another even in three days: hence she gladly yielded the better parts to others, saying repeatedly that she had not known what obedience was until she had been taught it by her nuns. She said too that she wondered at those who gave credence to the works that were performed by her; and she judged that those acted foolishly who believed her endowed with some judgement for thinking rightly in any matter. Hence too she did not think it a burden to ask counsel of the lowest nun. Moreover, whatever she did she began only at the nod of her confessors.
[152] She magnified her imperfections. She noted so many imperfections in herself and magnified them so much, although they seemed and were very small, that whoever heard this understood not obscurely that these were discerned not only out of notable humility and love of God, but also by some illustrious heavenly light. She related that she had never heard any evil told of herself without clearly seeing that those who had told it had diminished it in their words. Of the foundations of monasteries, in which she did and bore so much, she always writes with such humility that at the beginning of the book in which she embraced them she speaks in this manner: "Let whoever reads these things beware of transferring any praise from them to me; since he would stray all too far from the truth: rather let him ask God that he may deign to forgive me that from all the graces received from him I have gathered so little fruit. There is far greater reason, my daughters, for complaining of me than for thanking me for the things that have been done. However, for the love of God I beseech the reader to recite even one Angelic Salutation for me, so that in this way I may be able to come out of purgatory and be admitted to the sight of our Lord Jesus Christ," etc. And she wished above all that the Lord would deign to manifest to all that what she had done was scarcely anything. She said that she had indeed received great graces of every kind from God, but that the greatest of all seemed to be that he had not yet thrust her down into hell, as the gravity of her sins deserved: besides, that she did not know the cause why she was looked up to by all as good; and that she was deceiving the world: for if men knew her through and through, all would point at her with the finger in contempt and spit in her face.
[153] She esteemed herself unworthy of heavenly gifts, She humbly asked her daughters to propitiate God with prayers for her when she was dead: for she said she feared lest, as mortals foolishly held her as a saint, so they would omit to pray for her when dead and let her be expiated by long punishments in purgatory. For the first twenty-two years she suffered great drynesses of mind; and yet it never came into her mind to ask anything more of God: because she believed herself unworthy to be granted even any thought of God; but that it seemed a notable grace of his Majesty that he allowed her to be before his eyes. She never asked of God any vision or revelation, nor special light, except what was necessary for serving him and not lying open to the wiles of the devil. And although she was very familiar with God, yet she never asked him anything out of curiosity, although she was quite often asked by others to do so. Her confessors sometimes, for the sake of making trial, kept her from Holy Communion; and although she bore this abstinence very hard, yet, more solicitous for God's honour than for her own, she continually praised him because he had inspired her confessor to have regard for the divine honour and to take care that the divine Majesty should not enter so vile a lodging. Moved by these thoughts, she acquiesced in their order with great quiet of soul, though not without a certain tender and loving pain; nay, although all mortals had advised otherwise, she would not have swerved even a nail's breadth from their command. Often she bore the reproofs of her superiors with great lowliness of soul, and cast herself humbly at their feet until they ordered her to rise; nor did she bring forward a word in her own defence before she was ordered to give an account of her deed: which she brought forth in words so few and so truthful, plain and clear that she not only satisfied her superiors, but sometimes even put them to shame.
[154] and she studiously concealed them from others. A certain prelate, intending, as it seems, to explore her patience, inveighing against her in a sharp speech, asked why she allowed herself to be called even in letters the foundress of the Discalced nuns. She asked him to forbid her to be called by this name thereafter, adding that it pleased her no more than if she were called Teresa of Jesus. So solicitously did she strive to suppress the favours received from heaven and whatever could rouse any opinion of her that she did not suffer it to be manifested even to her daughters. Having set out from Beas for the foundation of Seville, she went at Écija into a hermitage to avoid the midday heat: in which place, as also at Seville, although she was heaped with excellent graces by the Lord, and her companions were in the same place and always with her, and those most choice ones (as she herself indeed calls them, and such as were in truth required for the labours to be undergone), yet they noticed nothing of those gifts, until long afterwards they found these things written in her slips. Yet the Lord did not always permit such exceptional treasures to lie hidden: for, forgetful of herself, she often disclosed something from which the hearers could draw a greater knowledge of her virtues to the praise of God and to their own profit. For it was evident that it could not be, unless she used excessive care, that so great a fire as she cherished in her heart should not sometimes betray itself by some ray through a chink that offered. Yet whenever she had unexpectedly disclosed something similar about herself, at once turning back to herself, she strove to recall it, so far as could be done without lying, or to twist it otherwise. Hence one day a pious man, noting this very thing, said: "It has already been said, Mother: do not seek byways; for the more you seek, the more manifestly you betray yourself."
[155] She rejoiced at the calumnies thrust upon her. Once, as she was about to approach the table of Communion, she felt herself so lifted up in spirit that even her body was raised from the ground: perceiving this, she grasped the grille with both hands to hold herself back. For she grieved that these things should happen before others; and she asked the Lord that, if he wished to communicate any favours to her, it should not be done publicly: and to obtain this, many prayers were needed. It was grievous to her too to suffer raptures with her daughters looking on; nevertheless, since she experienced them so frequently, it could not be that they did not perceive them. Hence it was not so bitter to her as when she suffered divine things before others: which then she concealed as much as she could; and to cover them, she said she had a weak heart, and sometimes asked for food to be brought her, so as to conceal in this way what she had suffered. While at Seville she was being attacked by the very many detractions of false witnesses, she was wont to say: "Praise be to God, that in this place I am known as such as I really am: for elsewhere all have been led into error, and hold me such as they imagine me; but here as I deserve." Alfonso de Quiñones, an illustrious and pious knight, being once admitted to converse with Teresa without having told her his name, and eager to know what she would answer, admonished her to remember Magdalena de la Cruz c, whom the common people had looked up to as most holy, although she was the handmaid and client of the devil. Teresa was in no way moved by this comparison; but rather answered with great humility: "The memory of her never comes to me without my trembling."
[156] She had God as her master of humility, Finally this virtue and contempt of oneself
was perpetual in her up to death: in which, namely, she asked pardon of the sisters for her errors, and exhorted them to the observance of the constitutions and laws, at the same time beseeching them not to look upon this bad religious (for by this name she designated herself) as an example. If I wished to follow out here whatever might be said of her lowliness of mind, I should make no end of speaking. Let it suffice to have brought forward two things only. First, that Teresa was taught this virtue by the Lord in a certain singular way: so that it is by no means wonderful that she made such progress in it; since the Lord himself manifested to her her vileness and also her errors, and that indeed in such a way that, whenever he wished to impart some singular favour to her, he first sharply reproved her errors, both those she then had and those to which she had formerly been subject. And then, when he poured out heavenly gifts upon her, he at the same time communicated to her a fuller knowledge of God and a greater contempt of herself. Hence, when one day she was thinking within herself that she now had in her heart a presence of Jesus Christ not so intimate as she had formerly had, she heard within herself: "I am present here: but I wish you to see how little you can effect without me"; and the Lord suggested to her many other things of that kind. Since, then, the master was such and the disciple so docile, is it any wonder that she fulfilled the precepts of the one teaching so perfectly?
[157] nor did she ever suffer from any vainglory. The second is that throughout the whole time of her life, in whatever way she saw herself honoured, whether by words or by deeds, whether present or absent, she admitted no vainglory or dissimulation into her mind d; and that she never had anything about these matters to disclose to her confessor. She said accordingly that, although she had committed very many sins, she had never felt anything of vainglory in herself; and that she saw manifestly that the things that were in her came only from God and so were his gifts. And even if she had wished to pursue this vanity of set purpose, she could not have done it; because she knew perfectly in what state she had seen herself before: nay rather that the Lord, when he conferred these exceptional graces on her, at the same time poured in a greater light for recognizing her faults; and that she always received graces from him without serving him.
Chap. XVI.
[158] The narrative would be no less diffuse here if I were to set out to the end, according to its dignity, whatever she did humbly. In performing This at least can easily be understood: that so profound and true a humility could by no means be had without at the same time appearing outwardly; and in turn it could not be that admirable works and examples should not come forth from it. Already from the time when the Lord began to open her eyes, she began to give proofs of this virtue. Whenever, while she was in the choir, any doubt, even the smallest, occurred to her about the divine Office or the chant, although she was not altogether ignorant of the matter, she at once consulted the novices, even the most recent, for the sake of humbling herself. And since she believed that all the others were making great progress in the way of the spirit, but she herself none, she by no means hesitated to fold the mantles of all of them when they had gone out of the choir.
[159] domestic services, When the house of Ávila had been established, it seemed good to her at first to admit no lay sisters, but that the nuns themselves should perform the offices of Martha by weeks; but afterwards, saying that the spirit was stifled by that excessive labour, she changed her mind. Yet as long as this was in force, she performed her turns of service with notable joy of soul, and in the evening she considered with herself how she might season eggs, fish or a little broth with a flavour which differed from the daily one, and might delight the handmaids of God with this variety of seasonings: whence in that week the house was well provided for. While she was discharging this office, she said that the Lord favoured her desire: for since she greatly desired to prepare a savoury meal for the nuns, he liberally sent whence it could be prepared; so that it was profitable that she should preside over the kitchen even as regards the conveniences of the body. Yet she was not so immersed in these services that she forgot her God; and in turn the Almighty consoled her as she served with wonderful sweetness of mind and presented her with many graces. She was observed by others entering the kitchen, while she was putting a frying-pan to the fire, rapt into ecstasy of mind and with her senses alienated, her face shining, clasping the frying-pan so tightly that it could not be wrenched from her by force.
[160] even the vilest, In lowly services she was always first: hence, while the others were cleaning the other places of the house, she took the yard for herself to sweep. In which service a certain wonderful sweet scent, which the others did not perceive, breathed upon her nostrils. In all the houses to which she went it was her custom to perform offices of that kind, namely washing dishes, sweeping out dirt, and other things of this kind. At Malagón, although afflicted in health, she was nevertheless of such generosity of mind that, rising from her bed before the others, she swept up all the dirt of the house. When there the building of that house in which the nuns now live was being constructed, she was present in person with the workmen from dawn till night, was the first to take the basket and brooms in her hands, and then, when the prioress and the other nuns had come, rolling at their feet she asked pardon for the errors committed that day in such service, just as if she had been the least of all. Nor indeed did she thus subject herself to prioresses alone; but also, if she had rebuked some nun and saw that she took it ill and was of an exasperated mind for some days, falling at her feet she asked to be forgiven, saying repeatedly that she had not sufficiently noticed what she had blurted out.
[161] in asking pardon for errors Whenever she stumbled even in the least in reciting the Lessons of the sacred Office, she at once prostrated herself in the middle of the choir, confessing her error; by which example of submission the tears of the nuns standing by were very often so drawn forth that they could scarcely continue the chant. She always chose a seat for herself among the most recent nuns; and if any Lesson had to be pronounced by her, it was her custom to yield it after the prioress and her vicaress. The house of Villanueva de la Jara having been established, she gave herself to performing domestic offices like the others; and although she had the use of only one arm (the other being ill-affected), she swept out the dirt as best she could and diligently gave her service to the refectory or kitchen. When she had come to any monastery, she let the prioresses discharge their office just as if she herself had not been present, and always yielded them the more worthy place. Whenever she was called to the parlour, she went reverently to ask leave of the prioress to go out. And if Teresa, sitting at table, saw her entering the refectory, she rose until she had taken her place. When at Alba she was speaking with a certain guardian, and saw the prioress entering to meet him, she at once rose and wished her to sit, and stood on her feet for a little while; until at length, seeing that she took this ill, she sat down again to comply with her. The name of this prioress was Juana of the Holy Spirit.
[162] and other acts of humility and mortification If any nun, from infirmity of nature, had anything that would cause disgust in the one seeing it, Teresa, approaching her in order to exercise at once mortification and humility, refreshed her, kissed her hands or tasted of the food prepared for her, and did other things of that kind. There was a time when in the refectory she declared her faults and ate on the ground from dirty little dishes and plates, although by nature she was very fond of cleanliness. At another time she entered the refectory creeping on hands and feet in the manner of a four-footed beast, weighed down with many stones and having a halter put round her neck, which a certain sister following behind held in her hand, and she, as I believe, was professing her faults. At another time she entered it laden with straw, likewise declaring her faults with great humility, just as if she had been a novice who had asked leave of the prioress to practise this humiliation for the victory over herself: for it is lawful for no nun to undergo mortifications of that kind unless she has asked the governess's leave with lowliness and fervour of soul. Moreover, I say little here of mortifications, since from this specimen it is easy to make a conjecture about the rest, and to one who knows what mortification is it is not necessary to say anything about it: since in all the virtues we are treating it easily appears how great a conqueror of herself she was, how absolute a mistress of herself, and with what fortitude she overcame whatever could be a hindrance to her exercising those heroic acts of the virtues. For he truly studies mortification who conquers nature, struggles against temptations, and subjects all things to God, and does not on that account omit any of the things which the service and love of God require to be done.
[163] she was diligent in exercising. It happened too that, when she was about to approach the sacred banquet, a prelate, in order to mortify her, ordered her with a severe speech to go away from there; at whose word she at once obeyed with great serenity and humility, although she was always possessed by the greatest hunger for this sacred dish. When in the last years of her life she was so exhausted in strength that she could not conveniently follow the common laws, the prioress of the house in which she was then staying asked her whether she would come to the refectory that day. This question so little disturbed her that on all the days she stayed there she frequented the refectory. When a certain prioress called her, who was in another nun's cell, with some freedom thus: "Good Jesus! Shall we at last be able to speak with you, Mother, who stay there so long?" she at once opened the door with a cheerful and calm face, uttering not a word. Whenever she left any convent, she was wont to ask pardon of the nuns for the bad example she had given; which she did also when she was departing this life, as we have said above. And this she did with such humility and tenderness of soul that she drew tears from the eyes of all. Moreover she was a very great lover of this virtue, and declared that the Lord himself too was possessed by love of it: and if they wished to know the reason of this assertion, she said it was this, that he himself loves truth, and humility is nothing else than truth, namely when we acknowledge how little we really are, and that we have nothing good of ourselves.
[164] Humility to her nuns However, she earnestly commended this virtue to her companions, and admonished them not to disclose to outsiders the things they did at home, nor to seek the name of holiness among worldly people, nor to study to please men, even though this were done for no other end than that they might be induced to benefit the house; for if they trod this road, they would die of hunger: let them rather try to keep the things to which they had bound themselves by vow; for although they were unknown to the world, God would publish in the streets the name of those lying hidden within the recesses of the enclosure, and would take care that men should provide for their necessities. This too she enjoined on her nuns (Way of Perfection, chapter XV), that, when they were reproved or accused, they should bring forward nothing in their own defence nor excuse themselves, unless charity or some other just cause counselled it: for God would take up their part. And if she saw any following this admonition, she was carried away with singular joy and esteemed them the more. She advised that they should accustom themselves to exercise themselves in lesser things, so that little by little they might come to greater:
and that they might abstain from bringing forward excuses, she said it contributed very much if they considered how much one gains thereby in every respect and how little one loses in this way. For if we consider the matter well, we shall find that we are not chastised undeservedly; since we are full of fault: and if perhaps these faults which they lay against us are not in us, we are surely guilty of many others; nay rather they do us the highest honour, since they pass over in silence those which we have. Moreover, the truly humble person ought to wish truly to be made little of, to be harried by persecutions and condemned, even though he has committed no faults: for if he wishes to imitate the Lord, in what matter could he imitate him rather than in this?
[165] she earnestly commended. Wherefore she said that all their zeal ought to be occupied in this virtue: for there was no fear here that it would bring any harm to soul or body; nay rather so great a profit would follow from it that not even false visions or revelations would bring any harm to one who is truly humble. Besides, that there is nothing which so quickly conquers God as humility; for at its invitation he descended into the womb of the Blessed Virgin, and through it he is to be drawn by us into our souls with the greatest ease: then too that he who has more of humility will have more also of God; and he who has less of it will have less also of him; for she could not understand how love could be had without humility or humility without love: finally, that those two virtues cannot exist without a notable renunciation of all created things. However, she disapproved of that humility which takes from us the knowledge of the gifts received from God. For it is salutary to have known them, at the same time acknowledging that we have by no means merited them: for if these gifts are not acknowledged, the soul will always be sluggish for undertaking anything heroic. Nor did she praise that humility which would call us away from the pursuit of prayer, by whose feigned appearance we say that we are unworthy to be in the presence of God; nor yet that which makes the soul languish or troubles it in the exercise of good works. Whence she, as one who had a wonderful experience of all these things, made out that there are also certain false humilities, which could easily deceive a person; and she never ceased to exhort her nuns to beware of them.
ANNOTATIONS.
Chapter IX.
Endurance and love of suffering.
Chap. XVII.
Now I ought to speak of obedience, the true and legitimate daughter of humility, Most patiently she bore in the body but unless I first set down how much she suffered for God, I shall not seem to have exhausted this matter of humility. For in this there are many things from which it may become manifest how rooted this virtue was in her soul. Many words would be needed to recount those many things which she suffered: yet these can be told much more easily than the notable patience and alacrity with which she endured them. And she suffered in all the ways in which one seems able to suffer, in body, soul and honour. In body, from childhood she bore the gravest illnesses, so much so that she seemed likely to be useful for nothing during her whole lifetime, as we recounted in the first book; also two vomitings daily, of which, although the morning one left her, yet the evening one was perpetual with her; and other most bitter diseases, and very many of them: of which not a few clung to her right up to death, such as pain of the heart, colic pain, and a certain unwonted one, which for the most part seized the head and arm, sometimes even all the limbs, trembling, and that evening nausea of which we have just treated; so much so indeed that in the fifth year before her death she wrote in her Mansions that for forty years now she had been free from pain on no day (Mansions VI, chapter 1).
[167] diseases, In all these, even when she was laying the beginnings of the spiritual life, she showed a notable endurance; and with a strong soul she restrained herself from betraying by any outward sign the pain with which she was struggling inwardly, and from saddening the nuns who visited her in her sickness. In this matter the example of St. Job, whose history she had read, profited her very much; and she said with him: "If we have received good things at the hand of God, why should we not receive evil?" (Job II, 10.) Nevertheless in that place which we have adduced from the Mansions she testifies that to her, considering the punishments she had merited, these seemed of no weight. And when the pains seemed intolerable, she was accustomed to elicit certain acts of patience, and to conform her will with God's will as far as she could, beseeching the Lord that, if it so seemed good, he would bestow on her a patient soul and allow her to live in this state until the end of the world.
[168] the labours of journeys On her journeys too she bore unheard-of labours, undertaking journeys through colds, which were especially harmful to her health, through rains, snows and intolerable heats: to which were added daily illnesses, intense pains, poverty, and various inconveniences to be undergone in inns, provisions, bed and other things which so weak a body needed; and there were added too rough roads exposed to dangers. Not seldom too it happened that for several days continuous rain or snow fell from the sky, and for many miles there occurred no place nor any roof by which she might escape the injuries of the sky, and at length, after the troubles of the journey, a poor inn had to be entered, where she found neither fire nor material for feeding a fire nor food, and the roof of the room was so cracked that, the air coming in underneath, the rain penetrated so frequently that sometimes her clothes were drenched with water. In these things she showed such generosity and constancy of mind that it easily appeared how gladly she lived in hardships. In this manner one night she entered an inn so afflicted that she could scarcely drag her limbs; for, the rain dripping from her clothes, a colic pain and a weakness of the limbs had seized her, and a very great trembling of the joints. When Anne of St. Bartholomew, her companion, saw her thus afflicted, she sought a fire with which to warm some cloth for her. A notable man who was in the same inn, seeing this, broke out against her into words so insulting that no one would easily believe they could be uttered by a man of that kind; unless the devil moved his tongue, to see whether he could reduce her to impatience. These things she bore with a cheerful mind, believing that nothing else could deservedly be said of her than what was worst. But the delight which she drew from these and other insults of that kind seemed to bring her health.
[169] and inconveniences, When she was very ill at Burgos, a room was given her in the public hospital open to the injuries of the sky and cold. When her daughters pitied her for it, she said this place was all too convenient for her; for so much was not owed her, and she was distressed not on her own account but on theirs; for she had more than she deserved. And when they were preparing a poor little bed for her, she exclaimed: "How delicate a couch is this, my Lord, when you yourself lay on the hard cross!" At that very time, whenever she took food, blood broke out from a certain wound which she had in her throat; and to the nuns pitying this pain of hers she said: "I beg you, let no pity for me touch you: for my Lord bore more for me, when he was given gall and vinegar to drink." She had earnestly striven with the Lord that pains should never be lacking to her: whence they were never lacking to her. Those who lived continually with her can testify to this; who saw her on no day enjoying entire health, except that,
whenever a new foundation was to be begun or something was to be accomplished for the greatest praise of God, her infirmities diminished a little, and she did herself such violence that she seemed to be oppressed by no ailment at all: and indeed she herself said so, and the nuns used to wish that a similar occasion would be offered, so that they might see their Mother in somewhat better health.
[170] the vexations of the demon, And since whatever she suffered was a small thing, if we consider the crown which God had prepared for her, the Lord gave the devil power to harass her at times, just as we read that he received leave from heaven to vex holy Job (Job II, 6). For this reason, as was mentioned above, whenever by Teresa's help some soul withdrew itself from the yoke of the devil or entered upon a better manner of life, the evil demon at once vomited forth all his rage upon her. On one occasion, for the space of five hours, he tormented her in such dreadful ways and oppressed her with such affliction, both interior and exterior (for she was flung about with her whole body, her arms and her head, without being able to restrain herself), that she believed she was now succumbing beneath the heavy burden. Meanwhile she begged of the Lord the grace to suffer, and at the same time declared herself ready, if it so seemed good to him, to bear this affliction even to the day of the Last Judgment. When that space of five hours had passed, she at last understood by whom she had been tortured in so wretched a manner: for she saw standing beside her a certain hideous Ethiopian, snarling because whence he had hoped for gain, thence he had suffered loss; and she drove him from her with holy water.
[171] among which is particularly noted She endured many other things of this kind; but I shall mention only one, which was more remarked than the rest. After the house at Seville had been established, she returned from Toledo to Ávila, and remained there for two full years. Meanwhile the whole body of the Discalced was marvellously harassed, as was said above; but she, by letters sent from the house at Ávila, consoled the inmates of her convents. This vexed the evil demon, who attempted to disturb this help in the following way. Teresa, betaking herself to the Office of Compline and carrying a lamp in her hand, had already climbed the stairs to the topmost step, when, just as she was about to enter the choir, she suddenly, as though deprived of her senses, fell backward and broke her left arm. She suffered great pain indeed in this fracture, but far greater afterwards, while it was being treated: for much time passed before anyone came who could set the broken bones; because the woman who was known for setting broken bones, not far from Medina, lay sick in those days. Since she could not come at that time, she ordered certain poultices to be applied meanwhile, until she herself should come.
[172] the breaking of her arm; The arm had already knit and was without strength when at length the bone-setter arrived. Nevertheless, in keeping with her desire of suffering, Teresa entrusted herself wholly to her judgement, that she might do to her whatever seemed good. So, after ordering all the nuns to go to the church, she asked to be commended to the Lord in their prayers. Meanwhile, when she had remained alone with the surgeon and another countrywoman whom the latter had brought with her, those two, who were sturdy and strong, began to stretch the arm, which had already knit, with such force that, as the joint of the shoulder gave a crack, she suffered intolerable pain. This, however, she soothed by meditating on the torment which the Lord Jesus endured when his arms were stretched out on the cross. When the nuns returned, they saw their Mother with a placid countenance, just as if she had endured nothing at all; indeed rather so smiling that she said she would not wish to redeem this pain even with all the treasures of the world. For a long time she could scarcely move her arm, and in the end she so lost the use of it that, as long as she lived, she could neither put on nor take off her habit, nor even place her veil upon her head. The fall, moreover, was such, so unexpected, with no preceding occasion at all, and so great, that all who were in the house judged that she had fallen at the devil's impulse. And this is gathered more plainly from the fact that, when a certain nun said to her that it seemed to have been done by the work of the demon, the Mother herself replied: "He would like to inflict even more and greater evils, if God permitted it."
[173] in the soul, long-lasting aridities and desolations; In her soul, however, for the space of twenty-two years she suffered the greatest aridities and desolations. For some other years she was oppressed by grave fears lest she was being deluded by the demon, and also by the continual and sharp harassment of those who asserted that she was deceived. It tormented her not a little that the authors of this vexation and torment were good men and solicitous for her good. She also suffered from the demon horrible interior temptations and afflictions, and often indeed so severe that, as far as appeared, she felt no favour of God whatever in herself, no love towards him; nay, she remembered no more of the benefits she had received from him than if she had never received anything of the kind from heaven; moreover, she could neither see any mortal nor find recreation with anyone; reading and prayer also brought her nausea; in short, everything and all who spoke to her brought her the greatest grief. But what shall I say of the things that happened at the erection of the first and of almost all the other convents? What of the persecutions by which she was harassed while her Order was in the greatest peril? For although I have mentioned these in the third book, yet if I were to say whatever I have to say concerning them, doubtless more things would be available to be related in this place. What do we believe she suffered on account of that burning desire with which she longed to be with her Spouse and to possess him, and this deferred for so many years; while meanwhile she was compelled to eat, to sleep, to deal with men and to write letters, she whose only pleasure was to converse in solitude with her Spouse, whom she loved so greatly, and to spend her whole self in knowing and loving him! She was tormented not a little, too, whenever she was compelled to be torn away from her daughters, who embraced her so lovingly, and to leave them; however much violence she did herself to dissemble this grief, especially when she knew that they would no longer be seen by her.
[174] insults to her honour, In her honour, too, she endured much, although she sought no other honour than that of God and that which was necessary for the glory of his holy Name and for the divine service. We have already seen how many rejected her ways of prayer and her revelations, and how they wished to conjure her with exorcisms as one driven by an evil spirit; which was the cause of no small grief to her. One day, when she had arrived at a village of the province of La Mancha which is called La Puebla, she got down not far from the church to hear Mass and to receive Holy Communion. All who had assembled in this church said openly that this woman did not seem to be proceeding rightly; and that it would therefore be advisable to arrest her. But when they saw her approach the heavenly banquet, they went up to her in offence, asking with what audacity she thrust herself to the sacred table of the Eucharist: she was therefore not to withdraw from the place; for before she departed thence, they wished to inquire who she was. The Mother, rejoicing in this insult, answered not even a word to her questioners. And such a commotion arose in the church for this reason, and there was such tumult on the part of the whole crowd, that, although the titular feast of the church (it was dedicated to the Incarnation) was being kept that day and there was a great solemnity, yet everything seemed thrown into confusion. And indeed, had not Fr. Anthony of Jesus, who was very well known in that region, arrived there, the commotion would have gone further; and although he tried to calm the assembled people with words, they nevertheless sent someone to follow the women behind and see whither they went. To all of which Teresa offered not a word in her own defence.
[175] reproaches, Grave reproaches were scattered against her, and disparagements by slanderers concerning almost everything: but she, paying no heed to them, was no more moved by them than if they had been scattered about some other woman; and she therefore said that she had nothing in them that she could offer to God as meritorious. Nay, when Isabel of Jesus (who knew that all these things were contrary to the truth) said that she could by no means bear such things to be bandied about concerning her, she answered with a placid countenance: "No music, dearest, can fall more pleasantly upon my ears: for since they speak the truth, they rightly bandy those things about; but since they do not receive me with cudgels, is it much for them to say such trifles about me?" Thus, namely, she always answered, accusing herself, but defending and excusing her slanderers. When she was leaving Pastrana for Toledo, the Princess of Éboli had granted her a litter in which to be carried: a priest out of his mind, seeing her brought into Toledo in this way, went off to the monastery, and when she had been called to the door, said: "Are you that Saint who mocks the world and rides in a carriage?" and he blurted out whatever else came into his mouth. Teresa, not knowing that he was out of his mind, listened humbly, and offering nothing in her own excuse, said to a certain upright man: "There is no one besides this man who points out my faults to me." And although they said that he was of impaired brain, yet from that time she began so to shrink from litters that thereafter she would not use them, even when offered by illustrious ladies, but ordered her nuns to be carried in common carts.
[176] injuries, When she was brought back to the convent of the Incarnation to preside over it, there was a violent tumult there (as was said in its place), because the greater part of the nuns opposed her: many reproaches were heaped upon her, nor were exceedingly injurious words spared, and the indignation went so far at last that one of the number of those who favoured Teresa always kept close to her as a companion, fearing lest injuries of the hand should follow upon injuries of words. In this storm, moreover, she always displayed a remarkable peace of mind and with serene countenance interpreted everything, as far as she could, in the better part, saying that this should not seem surprising, since it is difficult to compel another's will, and other things of this kind. For the rest, she was meanwhile in such quiet of conscience that in the morning, without previous Confession, she did not hesitate to partake of the divine Mysteries of the Eucharist; which greatly edified the nuns.
[177] calumnies, As she was going off to the establishment of the house at Seville, two pious men told her on the way that she would be harassed at Seville by many adversities. And indeed she was harassed in that city in such dreadful ways that she said that, in comparison with those trials, she had never suffered anything since the foundation of the first convent that could be compared with them. For here false testimonies concerning the gravest matters were produced against her, and the devil had such power that she was even accused before the Inquisitors of the Holy Faith, and by their order proceedings were begun against her and some of her companions. And since he who had stirred up this storm was a man of great authority and stood high in favour with everyone, those women, although they knew themselves to be free of all fault, daily awaited the officer by whom they would be led away to the sacred tribunal. But although the matter was of such moment and such infamy,
and although so great a loss could thence accrue to the monasteries to be founded, and in short so great a harm could follow to the service of God and to the whole Order so very recently born, Teresa, displaying a manly constancy, rejoiced that, having committed no crime, she could suffer adversities for the glory of God; as may be drawn from the words which I shall bring forward here, taken from her letter to María of St. John the Baptist: "Blessed be the Lord, who will draw good out of all things: for my part I am already filled with the greatest joy, seeing so many things heaped up at once. I would have you know that the Lord has done me a singular favour here, since I seemed to myself to be, as it were, in the midst of delights: so much so that, although I had before my eyes the enormous harm that could arise from this to these houses, yet I was not moved by it at all; because the pleasure that sprang from it was far greater. Security of conscience and freedom from fault is truly a great consolation. I am well, although until now I have had rather poor health. Those scruples sustain my life. Oh! what a year I have suffered here!"
[178] evil suspicions, Thence, when she had returned to Castile, others assailed her with other accusations; but she cared so little for them, and spoke of them with such pleasure and quiet, that she moved those who heard her to amazement. Nor indeed did the injury lie in calumnies alone, but it sometimes came even to blows. When she was at Toledo for the sake of erecting a house, before provision had been made for her nuns of a convenient roof of their own, she used to betake herself with her companions to the convent of St. Clement to hear the Holy Mass: but that they might be recognized by no one, they disguised their dress, and went there in the company of pious and respectable ladies. Here they would sit not far from the grille of the nuns, because that place was more secluded. Meanwhile Teresa, with one of the women of her company, went for the sake of Communion to another place, where Mass was to be celebrated. But from there such a multitude of people streamed into the church that she could by no means return to her companions, and, crushed by the pressing crowds, she was forced to remain in the middle of the church. But when the crowd dispersed, a certain woman nearby, looking for a slipper she had lost, began to cry out that it had been stolen from her by the blessed Mother, and on the spot grew so heated, because she did not rise quickly enough from her place so that she might look for her lost shoe, that she loaded her with blows of her fists with great force, in order by this means to compel her to get up: for because she was covered all over with a rather mean mantle, she believed her to be a poor little woman of the crowd. When these things were at last over, Teresa returned to her daughters, holding her head in her hands and saying to them laughingly: "May God forgive her; for I was in bad enough shape already." And after returning home she recalled this amusing incident not without laughter.
[179] the reprimands of superiors. At the foundation at Burgos something similar happened to her: for when she was in a certain church on the Thursday of Holy Week, and certain persons wishing to pass to the place where the blessed Mother was saw that she did not rise at once as they wished, they did not hesitate to assail her with kicks, in order by this means to compel her to move to another spot, and they pushed her to the ground. Ana of St. Bartholomew, her companion, going to lift her up, found her laughing and bearing the injury done to her with a cheerful and calm mind. In the same way, too, she bore whatever injuries were inflicted on her, whether by word or by deed, so that no one ever saw her on that account either sadder or more disturbed, but receiving almost everything with cheerful laughter. And she displayed such strength of mind in all these things that, when at a certain time she was struggling with the greatest labours, she said jokingly to her daughters that she seemed to have a hard board before her breast by which the blows were so deflected that they could not penetrate to her heart. When her superiors forbade her to go out any more for beginning foundations, they reported to her the various verbal insults with which they had loaded her before the Father General: on hearing which, so unusual a joy seized her that she could not contain it in her mind; and remembering how David had danced before the ark of the Lord, she would have wished to do the same herself before the Most Holy Eucharist.
[180] She desired either to suffer or to die; But whatever she actually bore was truly nothing compared with what she desired to bear. Hence, although nature struggled against it, her mind was always undaunted in exposing itself to any labours whatever; and so she not infrequently addressed the Lord, asking that he would not regard the feelings of her weakness, nor on that account cease to command his handmaid whatever seemed good to him: for she, with the help of his grace, would carry out what was commanded. She said that she ought not to live otherwise than to suffer for the name of God, and that she asked this of the Lord with her whole soul. Hence she sometimes cried out to the Lord: "Lord, either to suffer or to die: I ask nothing else of thee." The Saints, too, who had borne greater labours for the name of God, she emulated with a certain holy envy. Hence it came about that, when at Toledo she had recited Matins of SS. Peter and Paul, a great impulse of soul came upon her, accompanied by so unusual a groaning that she seemed to be in the last agony of life and her soul about to depart from her body. And while the fervour lasted, she began to extol with most ardent words the very great happiness of those holy Apostles, in that it had befallen them to die for the Lord. In prayer she could not ask or desire any consolations of spirit from the Lord; nay, she said that she could not even do so, though she strove to, but only hardships, because she saw that the Lord had always lived in them. For many years, too, she asked of God that, as long as she lived, all her life might abound in labours and persecutions: and she said that, since she could produce no fruit in others, she wished at least to be able to suffer something, and that she was ready to endure all the labours that can be imagined in the world, in order to fulfil the will of God even a little more perfectly. Those foundations of houses which had been erected without any opposition and labour pleased her less; but those which had cost her very much sweat and difficulty refreshed her more, and she judged that they would be more lasting.
[181] and she inculcated the same on her pupils. She exhorted her nuns very much to the pursuit of all the virtues, but especially to constant endurance for God's sake. She said that they ought to blush if they followed another road than that by which their Spouse had gone before them; and that she who did not experience desires of this kind in herself was not to be held a true Discalced nun: for she ought to desire not rest but suffering, that she might in some measure imitate Jesus. But whoever considers that she was taught this virtue in particular by the Lord, no differently from humility, as we have already recorded, will not be so greatly astonished. For on one occasion the Lord addressed her in these words: "Do you think, daughter, that merit consists in enjoying? It does not lie in this, but in working, suffering and loving. Have you not heard that the Apostle Paul enjoyed the heavenly joys only once, but was often in labours? You see, moreover, that my whole life was full of sorrow, and that only once did I experience a spark of glory, on Mount Tabor. Do not think, when you see me cherished in my Mother's arms, that she enjoyed this gladness without the greatest sorrow. For from the time when Simeon forewarned her, my Father poured into her a clear light to perceive the things which I was afterwards to suffer in the course of my life. The illustrious Saints who lived in the deserts, as they were led by God, so they undertook great penances; and although they fought unceasingly with the devil and with themselves, yet for a long time they lacked all spiritual consolation. Believe me, daughter, whom my Father pursues with greater love, him he is wont to harass also with greater labours; and to these love corresponds. In what way can I better show you this than by desiring for you what I chose for myself? Look at these wounds; for your sorrows have never reached so far: this is the way of truth a." Hence, if at times her nature grew sluggish in suffering, the Lord, like a good master, rebuked her; as it is certain he did in the month of February of the year 1571, when he said: "You always, on the one hand, long for labours, and on the other you strive to shake them off from you. For my part, I dispose things according to your will, which I know, not according to your sensuality and weakness. Fight, then, generously: for you see my help shining upon you."
ANNOTATION.
Chapter X.
Austerity of life, poverty and liberality.
Chap. XVIII.
To complete the matter I undertook concerning the greatness of her patience and humility, To the maceration of the body, it seemed necessary to me to add some things about penance, poverty and obedience. She was always a lover of penance and was borne towards it with great desires, as is made manifest from her constitutions and the very great austerity which she wished to be observed in her households. This she kept inviolate herself, as long as her superiors did not forbid it on account of ill health, and often even practised it more intensely than the strength of her body permitted; since she took the greatest delight in it. For that reason she often grieved over her illnesses, complaining that they were a hindrance to her, so that she could not follow rigour of life as she desired. At the time when she was living in the convent of the Incarnation, being to some degree free of her usual illnesses, she dealt so harshly with her body that it was necessary for her confessors to put a curb upon her. Before she undertook the erection of her houses, while living for almost three whole years in the household of a certain lady who was her friend, she was often seen by this lady to rage against her body with the most dreadful scourges, to press a rough hair shirt to her flesh, to devote herself wholly to purity of soul, and to apply herself so to prayer that the lady did not enjoy her conversation during the whole day except for a very little time after dinner and supper. When she was living in the house of St. Joseph at Ávila, she often scourged herself, and not rarely even to the shedding of blood. But these pains seemed small to her: for often such vehement desires of raging more harshly against her body seized her that, if it had pleased God, she would have wished to tear her body to pieces. For this reason she used to strike her back with nettles; so that often, the skin being torn, sores festered, which were then broken open afresh by repeated chastisements of this kind. And she did not interrupt this rigour against her body even when she lay vexed with pains. Hence, when at Segovia in Holy Week she was lying sick of fevers, she sent all the nuns away from her into the church, keeping none at all with her; and when all had gone, rising from her bed, she thoroughly bloodied her back with scourges. This custom of scourging, moreover, she kept until the maiming of her arm was a hindrance: for from that time it was necessary for her to give more compliance to her bodily necessities.
[183] to frugality of diet Her bed was a sack stuffed with straw, not wool. She was always of little food: she always abstained from wine. From the time of the first house established, when on account of her health
it was permitted, her almost daily food was porridge of meal and one egg, with a little vegetable added, or peas or some other similar kind of pulse: meanwhile she fasted for the most part. There was a time when she ate only nuts, raisins and an egg or a morsel of fish. And although the physicians prescribed the use of meat for her, she always abstained from it, unless the greatest necessity compelled her. At Salamanca, when she had taken a pill to purge her stomach and a boiled chicken had been brought to her, the nuns, although they pressed her with the utmost insistence and said that it would be a greater edification to them, could by no means obtain from her that she should taste anything of it; but she ate a little boiled mutton.
[184] and to roughness of clothing For the most part she wore a woollen tunic: for a long enough time both her undergarment and the coverlets of her bed and her pillow were of that coarse cloth such as is commonly spread on horses; and at that time a thing truly worth recording happened to her. Namely, when the first monastery was flourishing with the greatest fervour, María of St. John the Baptist, having heard that the Supreme Pontiff Pius V of blessed memory wore very thick undergarments, thought that it would be a small thing, nay even in a sense a luxury, if she herself wore similar ones. Wherefore, having drawn another nun over to her side, both approached the Mother asking that permission be given them to wear undergarments of coarser cloth. To them Teresa said that she wished first to try it on herself, to see whether that material would be in conformity with the rule; and as she said, so too she did. And so when cloth of that kind had been brought, all of them, to their very great consolation, made from it shifts for themselves and all the other garments which hitherto had commonly been made of light woollen material. This was in use for some space of time, but afterwards it so injured the health of all that they were compelled, by the advice both of the physicians and of the confessors, afterwards to banish it from among them. On the very first day on which they had put on these undergarments, they all began to be troubled by a certain fear lest in this thicker cloth they should not be clean, and lest they should be unable to protect themselves from the vermin that commonly breed in clothes: hence in the evening, having arranged a supplication with an image of the crucified Lord carried before them, they began to proceed in procession from the choir to Teresa's cell, praying the Lord to shake this fear from them.
[185] (which God kept free from vermin) When this had been done and each had returned to her cell, Teresa, who had doubtless asked this very thing of the Lord in a few words, went to them one by one to console them, giving them hope that what they had asked would be granted from heaven. And indeed it came about that, both in shifts of that kind and in others of finer material, as also in their other garments, from that day until now no filth has bred, but rather there is in them, in this respect, a cleanliness which no one has ever seen or heard of: which gift befalls not only the veterans but also the novices within a very short time, unless perhaps they cherish in their mind some thought of returning to the world. Nay, in the house at Ávila it has been observed, far more wonderfully, that the novices in whose garments filth is engendered in the end fall away from the Order. And this cleanliness of the inner garments of which I speak obtains in all the convents of the nuns: for I myself have diligently inquired about it concerning several, such as those of Ávila, Salamanca, Alba, Valladolid, Seville, Lisbon; as also from several veterans, who all confess with one mouth, and are plainly persuaded, that this is the case in all the other houses. Nay more, I have learned by hearsay that when some poor nuns of another Institute had lodged for some days at one of these monasteries I have just named, on those very days this cleanliness began to fail in the beds, but when they had departed thence, on the same day the former cleanliness returned, and the filth that had then been seen never thereafter appeared again a.
[186] she was most devoted, Her zeal, moreover, with which she was borne towards austerities, was immense: for since she burned with divine love and longed to do and suffer much for God, it was a remarkable relief of these burning desires to be able to deal rigorously with her body. Hence the austerities she practised consoled her very greatly, and eased her labours not a little; and if she had been left to her own judgement in this matter, she would have raged against her flesh in horrible and extraordinary ways. But since on the one side she was borne with so inflamed an ardour towards austerities and rigours, and on the other side her superiors and confessors kept her from them, both on account of the constant infirmities with which she struggled and because it was of very great importance that she should live, and she remonstrated not a little in this matter, her Master (for so she calls Christ) wished to disclose to her his will on this point too; as may be gathered from papers written in her own hand. In one of these the following is contained: "At a certain time, as I was thinking how hard it was for me to eat meat and not to be severe towards my body, it was signified to me that this sometimes proceeds rather from self-love than from a desire of afflicting it." In another these words are read: "One day, turning over in my mind what an austere life Catalina de Cardona b led, and that I too could lead a more austere one, in accordance with the desire which the Lord sometimes gives me, were it not that I abstained from a severer kind of life by order of my confessors, I began to think whether it would not be better not to obey them in this; but as I was in doubt, answer was made me from heaven: By no means, daughter: you are holding to a good and safe road. Do you see all the austerity which she pursues? For my part I value your obedience more."
[187] yet keeping the law of obedience. I also know for certain that Teresa once wrote a letter to Fr. Martín Gutiérrez, rector of the college of the Society of Jesus at Salamanca, in which she said that there had appeared at that time a most holy woman, very well known for the severity of her life, namely Catalina de Cardona, of whom we have just made mention. When she had woven a catalogue of her virtues, she said that she envied her each one of them, yet excepted one, namely that she would remit nothing of the austerity she had begun, although her confessors warned her that it was excessive and immoderate. Since these words breathed such wisdom and had been written by a most holy woman of the greatest authority, he himself read them aloud to all the members of the house at recreation. Although Teresa was a most zealous follower of austerity of life, and inculcated it on her daughters in every place, yet she sharply reproved them if they exceeded the measure, nor did she permit it to be practised by them otherwise than with the assent of their confessors and superiors.
Chap. XIX.
[188] I could neither express in words nor comprehend in mind how much she was always a friend of holy poverty, From her zeal for poverty and how great a pleasure it brought her. For want delighted her no less than abundance delights others: hence the greater the poverty of things the house laboured under, the greater was her joy; but when many things were available, the sickness of her mind was greater than when she was pressed by penury. We have already seen with what effort she laboured that in the first house founded by her they should live on the alms of the faithful alone, so that she did not hesitate to send for letters from Rome on this matter. And if the thing had depended on her own judgement, neither that house nor the others which she afterwards erected would have been endowed with fixed revenue; but she subjected her will and judgement, both in this and in all other things, to her superiors. Hence she struggled not a little against those foundations of houses which were to possess annual revenues, while on the contrary she spiritedly devoted her efforts to those which were to be without revenues.
[189] she preferred to found convents without revenue, When she was about to begin the house at Toledo, twelve thousand gold pieces had been pledged; but, deterred by this promise, she cooled somewhat in her undertaking and began to have doubts: but when this stipulation had been rescinded and the governor of the city granted permission to found on the condition that the convent should possess no fixed rents, she was filled with no less joy than anyone else would have been on finding a rich treasure. Hence, exulting, she thus addressed her companions: "How secure now, dearest ones, is our pilgrimage, since the Almighty has now removed this idol from us!" In the domestic oratories she set up no other crosses than ones of reed and of wood neither hewn nor worked. She never demanded anything of anyone, nor permitted her nuns to demand anything, except those things which they could with the greatest difficulty do without for establishing a house. Hence her domestic and sacred furniture was scanty until outsiders of their own accord offered it from devotion; but, such was her zeal for neatness in all things, she so furnished the church with the little stuff she had that it seemed handsome. For in everything that pertained to divine worship she was especially careful and industrious. When she lacked a house of her own, she was so far from being distressed in mind that she said she rather rejoiced greatly that they were living in such houses from which they could be driven out whenever the landlord pleased: for she remembered that the Saviour of the world never possessed on earth a dwelling that was his own.
[190] she gladly used worn-out clothing, But since, while we were following the foundations of the houses, it was told with what penury of things she struggled in each and with how great joy she bore it, I shall mention it in a few words in this chapter. She rejoiced especially to wear old, mean and torn clothing; yet she always took care that it should be very clean: for she was most zealous for all neatness, both of body and of soul, and also of clothing, and she was indignant if she saw any of her nuns somewhat dirty in her dress; so that the interior cleanliness of her soul reached even to her body and garments: for the bands or shifts she took off breathed no ill odour of sweat or of anything else, as the cast-off garments of others commonly do, but rather a sweet fragrance. Often, too, she took garments which others had already laid aside as worn out by use; in which she seemed in some measure to exceed what her natural cleanliness prescribed: nay more, when she was permitted to wear a worn-out garment, you would have seen her exulting and as it were applauding herself on her riches.
[191] she diligently gave herself to manual work, Although she struggled with constant infirmities, she was nevertheless an unwearied lover of labour; and as often as her necessary occupations allowed, she applied herself to work: hence she either spun thread, or sorted the tasks of the others, or sewed, or employed herself in some other exercise of that kind; so that she was not idle even for a moment. When she went to the grille to converse with grave men and nobles, she always brought some piece of manual work: which, when some had noticed it, was no small edification to them. For this reason she said that it was very useful to speak with outsiders with the grille closed, because, while conversation is being held with them, either a band can be put together or some manual work conveniently done. And since she observed this so diligently, there was no nun who did not imitate it and who dared to be idle even in the least. Hence a certain nun, when she had already finished her task, wound the thread of a full spindle on to another ball, in order to be occupied in this way and to avoid the disgrace she would have incurred if she had appeared idle in the sight of her Mother:
and since this diligence had wonderfully pleased her, she commended this nun with praise. All these works, moreover, she carried out with great care and perfection: and on seeing that some small gain had been realized from the labours both of herself and of the other nuns, she was filled with singular pleasure. When she was ordered to compose some book, she said that it was burdensome to her, because she was held back from other occupations and called away from spinning by writing.
[192] she rejected magnificence of buildings. She wished poverty to shine forth in everything. She took pains, indeed, that her monasteries should be provided with a garden, for the sake of health, and also that some little oratories should be built in them, into which the nuns might at times withdraw for recollecting the mind; yet she wished these to be small, and everything to breathe simplicity and no elegance at all. In Chapter XIII of her Foundations she speaks thus: "How little, O good God, do these buildings and delights and exterior recreations conduce to interior peace! Wherefore I beseech you by his love, my dearest ones, and you Fathers, that in great and costly houses you always use all the moderation you can. Let our true founders be before our eyes, who are those holy Fathers from whom we descend, whom we know to have come to the fruition of God by this way of poverty and humility. And indeed, to confess the fact, I have always seen more spirit and also interior joy flourish when their bodies seem to lack conveniences and recreations than afterwards, when they already have a spacious house and their conveniences. However large it may be, what good or fruit follows to us from it, since we continually have the use of only a single cell? If that be very roomy and well built, what does it matter to us, since we ought by no means to be looking at and considering the walls? If we likewise consider that it is not a house that must last us for ever, but only for so short a time as our life lasts (however long that may be), everything will seem most sweet to us, knowing that the fewer things we shall have here on earth, the more we shall possess in that eternity, in which dwellings and mansions are given us according to the smallness or greatness of the love with which we shall have imitated the life of our good Jesus."
[193] The love of poverty commended to her from heaven The same thing she also inculcates at greater length in Chapter II of the Way of Perfection, and begs it of her daughters by the love of the Redeemer and his precious blood; and she adds that she wishes, if only it can be said without sin, that on the day on which they shall have built magnificent houses, those houses may suddenly fall down and involve them all in the ruin: nay more, provided it could be done with a safe conscience, she would ask this of the Lord. These and very many other things of the kind she used to say; because she knew that such was the will of God. In this view she was confirmed above all by Peter of Alcántara, known for his sanctity: who, while he was alive, very much urged poverty upon her; and also, when he had already departed this life, appearing to her in a glorious body, he reminded her of a certain small matter, which, however, because it pertained to this virtue, he himself did not consider small. Namely, while a wall was being built around the convent at Ávila, he appeared to the Mother and advised her not to plaster it with lime, at the same time instilling in her the love of poverty. And when she answered that without lime it would fall down, he added: "If it falls, there will not be lacking those who will repair the fall."
[194] she instilled it into her daughters. She said that the goods which lie in poverty had been declared to her by God for the sake of her daughters, and she said that these things were to be perceived by those who had experienced it: "For poverty," she says, "is a good which embraces in itself all the goods of the whole world; it is a great lordship, and he who has it possesses all its goods in full dominion. True poverty, which is borne for God alone, brings great honour with it: the poor man needs no one except God; and at once, since he needs no one's help, many friends are at his disposal." She said likewise that this is a wall which excellently guards Religion; and she continually exhorted her nuns not to study to please worldly people, in order that by this means these might contribute the necessary support to the house the more liberally (for thus it would come about that they would die of hunger), but to strive above all to satisfy God, to keep the prescriptions of the Institute to the letter and to answer to their vocation: for God would be at hand to them very soon; nay, even those who cared little for their affairs would, though unwilling, be of help in supplying necessary things. And this she never ceased to inculcate on her nuns, nor was she ever sated with recounting the praises of that virtue.
[195] She was most liberal towards the needy and those in want of help. But although she was borne with so great an affection towards poverty, towards the poor, as far as she could, she was not only merciful but even lavish and munificent, as the loftiness of her soul demanded. And on those who carried on pious undertakings for helping souls she would most gladly have spent whatever money was necessary, and indeed, as was related before, she actually did spend it. When she had met on the road Fr. Diego de Yepes of the Hieronymite Order, whom she embraced with particular affection, she said it seemed to her that little money remained to him for provisions, but that very much of the journey still remained: she therefore bestowed on him five silver pieces from her own modest travelling money, but only as a loan, until she should have obtained from her superior the faculty of giving. These coins indeed Diego accepted, because they came from a friendly hand; but then, having given thanks, he returned them to the giver, because he himself had no need of them. When she had received from the Duchess of Alba, María Enríquez, who visited her in friendship, a thousand silver pieces in aid of temporal needs, she consigned them to the convent of the Incarnation, which she was governing at that time; although the houses of the Discalced nuns were then pressed by a great enough penury of things. If she knew that any sick nuns, and even healthy ones, truly had need of something, she provided it for them at once, nor did she complain of any expense, although she was not very well furnished with money.
ANNOTATIONS.
Chapter XI.
Obedience, power in words, and the grace of healings.
Chap. XX.
The counsels of her confessors In the virtue of obedience Teresa shone in a singular manner, which, as St. Gregory the Pope says, is the only virtue that implants the other virtues in the mind and guards them when implanted (book XXXV of the Morals, chapter X). For the declaration of this it will be enough to have brought forward summarily only two things, which indeed are sufficiently manifest from what we recorded in the first and second books and are beyond doubt admirable. The first is that she obeyed her confessors most exactly, although she had no other reason to obey them than that they gave their services in hearing her confessions. For not only did she do nothing without their counsel, but also, if her confessor forbade those things to be done which were enjoined on her by the Lord (although she did not in the least doubt that they came from the Lord), she carried out what had been enjoined; nay, if her confessor commanded the contrary, she obeyed him without any hesitation, asking the Lord to forgive her for neglecting his commands in order to carry out the orders of those whom she regarded as his vicars. And indeed the matter went so far that she even did herself violence to resist the supernatural graces she received from God in prayer, and with the sign of the cross and by showing the thumb she rejected him who appeared to her, going against her own will and inclination. And the Lord praised such obedience of hers, urging her to carry out whatever her confessors prescribed to be done, and promising that he would declare the truth to them: and as he promised, so too he performed.
[197] and the commands of her superiors The other is that during the whole time in which the founding of the house at Ávila was being treated, although she very much desired to erect it (because this had been commanded her by God), and although the matter was protracted rather long and various events intervened, yet meanwhile she did not depart even a nail's breadth from the prescription of obedience; but she always consulted learned theologians, and whatever they advised could be done without sin, that she carried out most exactly: hence, when ordered to desist from the work begun, she broke off the work without any vexation; although what had been brought so far had cost her the greatest labour. Nay, when the house had already been erected, as soon as the prioress of the Incarnation called her back, she did not hesitate to leave her monastery and her novices, and to betake herself thither, to obey her command in all things. Nor did she depart thence before she had obtained the peace and blessing of the Father Provincial to return to the new little house. Whenever I weigh these things in my mind, I cannot but wonder, inasmuch as they are of the highest perfection; and who may attain them by imitation, I truly do not know. For my part I think the third thing more wonderful than all, which I have followed up in this book, that at a single word of an unskilful confessor she committed to the flames what she had written in commentary on the Song of Songs a. Nor indeed do I think there is need here to establish at greater length her reverence towards her superiors, since Baltasar Álvarez S.J. spoke to a certain lady in this manner: "Do you see what Teresa of Jesus has received from God and what she is? And yet she carries out like a little girl whatever I command her."
[198] to divine revelations When Fr. Jerónimo Gracián was acting as provincial, the blessed Mother told him that, in order to accomplish a certain business of the greatest moment, she must stay for some time longer in the house in which she then was. He at once replied to the contrary, whether to mortify her or because it really seemed better to him so, that he thought otherwise, and that she should therefore soon
depart. Teresa, although she had understood from the Lord that the matter was to be accomplished, and it seemed that it would be dissolved by her departure (as anyone endowed with a judgement not so compliant would have supposed in those circumstances), nevertheless, without bringing forward even a word or an argument to the contrary, assented to Gracián and at once set out on the road with him. When they had travelled a day or two, Gracián asked her: "Did you not tell us before, Mother, that it had been revealed to you from heaven that this business would be duly brought to completion?" To whom she said: "It was indeed revealed: but I could be mistaken in a revelation; whereas while I am obeying you, who are my superior, I know for certain that I cannot be deceived." "Now then," said Gracián, "consider it and commend the matter to the Lord in prayer."
[199] she was accustomed to prefer. On the following day, therefore, he asked whether she had understood anything from the Lord concerning this. To whom the Mother said: "The Lord has signified to me that the matter will indeed be accomplished, as he had disclosed before; but that it will be accomplished far better by the way which obedience teaches me than by that which I wished to take." This is truly no less admirable than those things of which we have already treated before, that, although she had so many revelations, and the Lord often declared to her even certain small details about things to be done, yet she did not follow her own counsels nor cling even to the plainest revelations, nor did she say: "A greater light is communicated to me by God, and I have greater reason to believe what is signified by the Father of lights than what a mortal man counsels me"; but she said that she valued one word of her superior or confessor more than a thousand revelations, and that she must be directed by the counsel of those whom she regarded as the vicars of God. And although she declared this most plainly in words, she fulfilled it much more perfectly. Hence she also said at times that whatever her confessor enjoined on her, or whatever she understood him to wish, she would omit none of these things on any consideration; nay, if she neglected to carry out any command of his, she would believe that she had been gravely deceived.
[200] She bound herself by a singular vow When she was going to the foundation at Seville, and was staying in the oratory at Écija during the holy days of Pentecost, a burning desire suddenly came upon her to honour the Paraclete Spirit with some remarkable service, and this in thanksgiving for a certain special favour once received from him on this feast. As she was searching within herself for something of that kind, it came into her mind that it would be advisable to bind herself by a singular vow to obey in all things Fr. Gracián, who was then provincial of the Discalced in Andalusia. She felt great difficulty in this matter, as may be gathered from what she wrote on a certain paper: "On the one hand, indeed, I seemed to myself to be doing nothing special by doing this; but on the other, it appeared to me especially hard, both because the inmost recesses of souls are not laid open to superiors, and because, if a superior does not administer things well, another is substituted for him; and I should obtain nothing else from it than to be deprived of liberty, both interior and exterior, for the whole of my life. And this inclined me somewhat, nay even sufficiently, not to make a vow of this kind. This difficulty so oppressed me that in the whole of my life I do not seem to have done anything in which I felt a greater struggle of mind, not even when I bound myself to the Most High by religious vows, except perhaps when I went out from my father's house to the convent. And the cause of this was none other than that I did not then call to mind that friendship with which I was drawn towards him, but imagined him to myself as a stranger; nay, his gifts of mind did not occur to my mind either, but I only considered whether it would be salutary to undertake something of this kind in honour of the Holy Spirit. I should believe, moreover, that all the things which put a check upon me were nothing but certain doubts which occurred to me concerning this, whether it would redound to the divine service or the contrary."
[201] to obey Fr. Gracián. This reluctance and wavering, moreover, made her blush, when she saw that there was something in the world which she hesitated to undertake for God's sake. But at length, casting all her trust upon him for whose sake she was doing it, she at once fell on her knees and made a vow before God that all the days of her life she would do whatever Gracián enjoined, provided it was not opposed either to the commands of God or of the superiors under whose authority she was held. And in order to render to God some acceptable service, she renounced all the liberty she had hitherto had, and at the same time promised that she would not deliberately conceal from him any fault or sin. And on the paper on which she wrote the above, she immediately adds: "I do not know, however, whether any merit has accrued to me from this; yet I seemed to myself to have done something excellent in honour of the divine Spirit, at least as far as I could understand. And so it came about that I was filled from it with great joy and pleasure, which has also been perpetual since then. And whereas I feared that I should remain in anguish, I obtained greater liberty, and also confidence that on account of this small service which I have rendered he will be heaped by the Lord with new graces, so that I may in some measure be a partaker of them, and that he may enlighten me more in all things."
[202] That obedience is the hinge of religious life This virtue too in particular she was taught by the Lord Jesus Christ; who often counselled her to communicate with her confessor concerning all the affairs of her soul, to disclose sincerely to him all the favours she received from himself, and to obey him in all things. He declared to her, moreover, that she must on no account turn aside from the path of obedience, even if the gravest inconveniences presented themselves, saying to her namely: "You do not truly obey if you have not resolved to suffer adversities: look at the things which I myself suffered in life, and by this consideration all things will seem most easy to you." She herself set very great store by this virtue and wished it to be familiar to her daughters: its dignity and necessity she declared in this brief maxim: "Whoever does not have obedience is not truly a nun." And she wished it accordingly to be held not only in the will, by which they would desire outwardly to carry out the things enjoined, but also in the judgement, by persuading themselves that these things had been rightly commanded them by their superiors. For this reason, as was related in the second book, she exercised the nuns above all in the mortification of judgement and will; as when she enjoined on a certain nun to plant in the ground a cucumber that had been brought for supper, and when she commanded another so many works at once that it seemed impossible to carry them out, and other things similar to these.
[203] and in fulfilling the divine will through it She said that prayer and the other exercises of a nun (provided they are not obligatory) should be gladly omitted in order to obey the command of superiors. And if it should happen that any nun was saddened because not so much time was granted her for performing prayer as she would wish, because the prioress wished her to attend meanwhile to other works, she said that no other cause of this sadness appeared than self-love, mixed with this desire of praying secretly and subtly, so that it is scarcely perceived; by which, namely, we wish to satisfy ourselves rather than God: wherefore it seemed wrong for nuns to be cast down by any grief for this reason; for if they were drawn away by obedience to external works, even to the kitchen and the scouring of pots, they would find God in them, who will be at hand to his handmaids in interior and exterior things alike.
[204] that true perfection consists Moreover, she said that the soul attains to the summit of perfection by nothing more quickly than by obedience; and that this is the reason why, under the appearance of right, the devil throws so many aversions and difficulties in its way. For true perfection does not lie in visions, revelations and divine favours, but in embracing with the whole will and gladly whatever God wills, whether it be bitter or savoury. And since the devil and sensuality resist us with great contention for this reason, she said that, just as in a perplexed lawsuit men are wont to choose arbiters in whose judgement the parties, wearied by litigating, may acquiesce, so by our soul, in order to remove from itself the suit which the devil and sensuality bring against it, the superior or confessor is to be held as judge, and it must be firmly resolved to do nothing else than what he has ordered, and to believe the Lord when he says: "He who hears you hears me" (Luke X, 16), and thus to attain both to freeing itself from the suit and to forgetting its own will. "This," she says, "is true union, to unite my will with the divine. This I seek, this I would wish to be in all things; and not I know not what inebriations of some great consolation, which are distinguished with the specious name of union: and indeed such will afterwards be the case, if that of which I speak here has gone before. But if after this suspension little of obedience and much of self-will remains, it will seem to me rather united with self-love than with the divine will" (Foundations, chapter V).
[205] she taught her nuns, She said that religious are the bond-slaves of God, as those who for his love and of their own accord have sold themselves to obedience: they ought therefore to leave the very fruition of God himself, prayer and solitude, in order to devote themselves to the works of obedience; and, although in these there is greater occasion of erring, nay even of stumbling, yet they are wont to bring far greater profit to their souls than solitary recollection of mind: for in the carrying out of these works we come to know what we are and how far our virtue extends; whereas he who lies hidden in obscurity in solitude and retirement does not know, nay cannot even know, whether he is truly endowed with humility and patience: just as he who has never been in battle must necessarily be ignorant of what muscles he possesses. Accordingly she said it was best to exercise oneself in the works of obedience, so that one may arrive at the knowledge of oneself; and that one day of humble self-knowledge is a greater grace of God than very many spent in prayer: and this the more because the true lover loves through all things and in all things and perpetually remembers the beloved, and can pray even in the very works he performs and raise his mind to God (Ibid.).
[206] as she herself had learned it from the Lord. And that Teresa says true union lies in this, that our will be conformed to the divine in all things, she learned from the Lord himself teaching her. For, as she relates of herself, he signified to her one day as follows: "Do not think, daughter, that union is to be very closely joined to me (since even those who offend me by sinning are joined to me), nor the favours and sweetnesses that are commonly perceived in prayer, even if it be in some sublime degree: which, although they are something less, yet are often means for gaining souls, even if they are not in the state of grace. Then I understood that union is a spirit pure and raised above all earthly things, so that nothing of them remains on account of which it would wish to leave the will of God; but
which is thus one spirit and one will in harmony with his will, and a renunciation so wholly occupied with God that no memory of love of self or of any created thing flourishes there." And as for his saying that even those who offend against his divine Majesty are joined to him, this ought to be understood in the sense that he is in all things; and in this general way he is also in those who transgress against him.
Chap. XXI.
[207] St. Gregory the Pontiff, expounding these words of Mark the Evangelist: She was strong with remarkable power "But they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs that followed" (Mark XVI, 20), says: "What is to be considered in these things, what committed to memory, except that obedience followed the precept, and signs followed obedience?" (Homily XXIX on the Gospels). And indeed it often happens that those who are most exact observers of obedience experience others also as compliant to them, and that God wills not only that creatures should obey their command, but he himself also rejoices to fulfil their will. The royal Prophet testifies to this: "He will do the will of them that fear him, and he will hear their prayer" (Ps. CXLIV, 19). For this reason, since we have just spoken of Teresa's obedience, it will not seem inopportune to treat of her power in words with God and men. We have seen this to some extent when we declared the efficacy of her prayer, and how much it availed with God, and how many diseases both of bodies and of souls she drove away by her prayers.
[208] for consoling the sorrowful, A lady at Burgos had for some years now desired offspring in vain: but by the intercession of Teresa, to whose prayers she had commended herself, she shortly obtained her wishes; which benefit she always recalled with a most grateful mind. Hence it came about that her words had a wonderful energy and power over everyone. Persons harassed by temptations, perplexities and scruples often consulted her: and she, although they could by no means explain their trouble, set them free from the bonds of their doubts and sent them away from her at peace. Many, too, even from remote places, came to her to communicate about spiritual matters; others to find solace with her in their afflictions: and not only unlearned people, but also men distinguished for erudition. Nor was there anyone who did not depart from her happier and more tranquil: for she had obtained from God an exceptional faculty for consoling the sorrowful.
[209] for admonishing even the great, Nobles and ladies she addressed with a certain glad and candid simplicity; and since she had so familiar a conversation with the King of heaven, she was by no means afraid to deal with the great ones of the earth. These she admonished freely concerning things pertaining to the salvation of the soul, and sometimes with the same candour humbly reproved them. But her simple and humble words had such force with them that not only were they not indignant, but they even gave thanks and thereafter followed their admonisher with great love, and changed their life for the better. With everyone she successfully transacted whatever was to be done; as I showed already before when I was narrating the foundations: for her manner of acting was so gentle, and the words of the speaker partly so submissive, partly so strong and prudent, that she drew the minds of her hearers whithersoever she wished. Hence, when she wrote to the king b concerning the affairs of her Order, her letters had greater weight with him than the commendation in person of all who were pressing this matter.
[210] for driving temptations from souls It has already been declared above how powerful her letters were for removing temptations. Let a nun serve as an example, who was oppressed by such anguish that, although she was hindered by no infirmity, she was unable for a long time to recite the divine Office; because, whenever she began it, she was seized with a sharp malady, by which she was forced to break off the recitation and leave the choir. But Teresa, when she had come to the convent in which this nun lived, and had learned of the matter, advised her to recite her Hours privately two or three times at intervals: and when this had succeeded happily, she at once ordered her to go to choir with the others; and behold, the temptation immediately vanishing, that nun was able to run through the task of the Hours with the rest in the same way as before. Two workmen who were busy working in the house in which she then was, quarrelling with each other in such sharp contention that there was danger of a graver evil, she so composed with gentle words that, laying aside their fury, they were tamed like lambs.
[211] and for recalling the wicked to virtue. When she had set out to establish the house at Seville, in an open field, not far from the inn of Albino, she and her nuns came upon some insolent soldiers and some others clashing with one another, first with words, then with blades. The nuns, terrified by this deadly spectacle, fled to their Mother's bosom no differently from chicks under the wings of a hen. Teresa said to them: "Consider, I beseech you, brothers, that God is here, who will judge you." At this word, they at once sheathed their swords and went off I know not where, nor were they afterwards seen by the nuns. Sometimes some people came to her for the sake of testing her (for they did not believe what fame spread abroad about her), with the deliberate purpose of entangling her in her words, if they could in anything. But she addressed these smatterers in her own common manner of speaking, namely by conversing about matters pertaining to the salvation of the soul. When two young men had come to her with this intention, God so struck their minds by Teresa's discourse, before they withdrew from the place, that they did not hesitate of their own accord to disclose to her their own fault and the perverse mind with which they had come there, and departed thence changed for the better.
Chap. XXII.
[212] This power, moreover, consisted not in words alone, The grace of healings but her hands too were full of virtue; and by their help God worked many miracles, restoring health to the sick: for he willed that not only creatures endowed with reason should obey her, but also harmful and vicious humours. Let us take our beginning from that illustrious and evident prodigy by which, having taken into her arms her sister's little son Gonzalo de Ovalle, either already truly dead or in such a state that in everyone's judgement he was held lifeless, kneeling, and breathing gently upon him, she restored him alive and well to his parents. While she was staying in the house of Luisa de la Cerda at Toledo, one of the household had for a long time been so afflicted with an intolerable pain of the teeth and of one of the ears that no art of physicians could drive it away. This woman, having heard much about Teresa's sanctity, earnestly begged her to fortify the affected part with the sign of the cross. Teresa, gently pushing her away from her with her hand, said: "Why do you not go away from here? Sign yourself: for the cross does not receive its power from my hand, but has it of itself." But while pushing her away she touched that part of the jaw which the suffering woman had asked to be touched. Whether this was done on purpose or by chance is uncertain; this is certain, that at this sudden touch she was freed altogether from all pain. Nor was that deliverance merely brief, but perpetual: for all who knew her testify that thereafter she was never again tormented by that pain.
[213] whether by touch or by voice The superior of the convent at Medina happened to be suffering from a burning fever and pleurisy, so that slight hope of life appeared in her. Teresa therefore, having learned in how great danger she was, when she had come to Medina, at once visited the sick woman: and while she was embracing her, the prioress felt herself released from all disease, and, wholly restored to herself, rose from her bed the next day c. Another, who was suffering gravely in the chest and had been coughing badly for more than three years, Teresa bade be of good heart, promising that she would commend her health to God: and no sooner said than done, she recovered complete health. When she had resolved to set out from Valladolid for Salamanca, her companion Ana of St. Bartholomew suddenly fell ill on the evening before; and when she had gone to her after Matins, she said to her: "Do not be troubled, daughter; for I have already chosen myself another companion for the journey, and have given orders to the prioress that, as soon as you have been restored to health, she should send you to wherever she learns that I am." With these words she strove to soothe her, because she was borne towards her with exceptional love. But although she consoled her, yet it was grievous to her to undertake the journey without her. So, having withdrawn for a little while, she commended her health to the Lord. Then entering the cell again, she asked how her health stood. Ana, sitting up on her bed, testified that all fever had been driven from her, and that, if the Mother wished, she would come to her to give proof of her health. With Teresa assenting, she at once rose sound from her bed; and the next morning, springing from her bed with full strength, she set out on the road with her.
[214] of working The same Ana, when she was suffering from her teeth, and indeed so vehemently that she could not bear it, asked Teresa to sign her jaw with the figure of the cross: touched with compassion for her, the Mother made the cross, and suddenly all the pain vanished. The same thing happened three or four times at Ávila a little before she departed for the foundation at Burgos. Then at Burgos, when the same pain had attacked her, the nuns, pitying her lot, earnestly begged Teresa to sign the afflicted part with the cross. To whom she said, with that pleasantry which she was wont to use in all things: "Go on, go on, do not think that I sign everything everywhere with the cross"; and she did not make the cross then: but at length, induced by the request of all, she imparted her blessing to her. When this was done, she was restored to health; nor, as long as Teresa lived, did this pain ever afterwards torment Ana: and at last, after her death, as is to be declared in the following book, she was entirely freed from it.
[215] she was endowed. A certain nun at Medina was suffering from erysipelas, and especially in the nose, which she always had so swollen and inflamed that the physicians at length believed it would be eaten away by gangrene. One day, when fever had been added to the malady, she rose from her bed in order to enjoy the conversation of Teresa, who was then in that house. The Mother, pitying her lot, passed her hand over her face, saying: "Be at peace, daughter: I trust in the Lord that you will shortly be healed." And behold, the nun at once began to be better; and before she departed thence, all the pain had so entirely gone that it did not afterwards return. Teresa enjoined nothing more on her than that she should give many thanks to the Lord, because he had deigned to restore her to health d. As she was departing from Palencia, a certain pious priest suffering from his teeth asked her to impart her blessing to him; and suddenly all their pain ceased. I wish to add here also another example of restored health, though not bodily. When she was leaving the convent at Salamanca for the last time, with all the nuns accompanying her as far as the door, as she looked back she saw Isabel of St. Jerome, who was somewhat farther off than the others, and calling her to her said: "Come here, daughter; why are you sticking there?" And while she embraced her in bidding farewell,
and touched Isabel's face with her face, on the instant the sharp temptation by which she was then harassed left her, nor did it ever assail her afterwards.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER XII.
Gratitude, prudence, and the discernment of spirits.
Chap. XXIII.
Of benefits from God The virtues which I have so far recorded Teresa possessed in the highest degree and the greatest perfection, as all who dealt with her rather frequently know and testify: although, because these were not noted by them as exactly as they should have been, nor did they remember so perfectly even those they had observed, not a few things which could have brought fruit have been lost. Further, how grateful she was is so manifest that no one, if he will pay even a little attention, does not at once recognize it: for throughout her life she recalled with a grateful mind the benefits received from anyone whatever; and indeed at the last moment of her life she thanked the nuns for all the services they rendered her no less earnestly than if she had been some outside woman towards whom they were under no obligations on any account. If I were to bring out here whatever can be said of this virtue, I should have to go over her whole life and the benefits, both small and great, conferred on her by others: but I shall comprise only a very few things in very few words. Towards God, even before she began to serve him entirely, she was so grateful that, when she saw that she was not borne towards him with as much love as she ought, the favours which she received from him distressed her to such a degree that, to overcome that distress, she had the greatest need of that generosity of soul with which she had been endowed from heaven; and not even so could she calm her mind. Her confessors, again, she always loved in a wonderful manner; and as a proof of her grateful mind she never deserted any of them, unless either they were sent elsewhere by their superiors or she herself departed to establish a new house.
[217] and of those received from men Very often, with a remarkable sense of gratitude, she recounted to her nuns all the benefits that had been conferred on her by others, and always recalled them in memory. A certain man from whom she had once received a draught of cold water on the road she earnestly commended to God in prayer for some years. When she was living in the convent of the Incarnation, while she was staying in the house of Guiomar de Ulloa, it happened that the priest to whom they both confessed their faults fell into a grave and long illness: and when they had both brought him to a place not far from Ledesma for the recovery of his health, Teresa served him here with no less solicitude and charity than she would have shown to her father according to the flesh. For she cooked his food for him, spent very many nights watching beside him, and ministered to him in all things so dutifully that you would have called her some woman of the common crowd; nor did any weariness ever seize her in this ministry: whence it is the opinion of very many that the constant illnesses by which she was afflicted afterwards had their origin chiefly in these labours and vigils. At Seville, when she had received an altar frontal on which the sacrifice of Abraham was embroidered with the needle in a somewhat crude manner, it seemed good to use it, because the house and the church were not well furnished with necessary things. When the sacristan was fitting it to the altar, she said jokingly that the Angel standing by seemed to her to show the gestures of someone scourging himself with rods. So indeed it really appeared, and all the nuns said that this likeness had been aptly thought up; but Teresa, turning upon her with a severer countenance, rebuked her for laughing, asking whether this was the thanksgiving for an alms received from one's neighbour, and bringing out very many other things to this purpose with such weight of words and so seriously that all were amazed and resolved thereafter to abstain from a similar joke.
[218] she showed herself remarkably mindful. Many other things could be said here, if the memory of them had been preserved: for because she was very humble, she recalled even the least benefit with no less grateful a mind than the greatest, and this in every way she could, especially in that in which she was most powerful, namely prayer. Hence it came about that all who helped her with counsel or with means were favoured with singular benefits from God. By way of example I shall bring forward one in place of all, from which a judgement may be formed of the rest. In a certain monastery the sisters had in their Confessions a priest so ill-disposed that he harmed the house in whatever ways he could and opposed it in everything. When the prioress informed the blessed Mother of this, thinking that another should be chosen by her as spiritual Father in his place, Teresa received her in this manner: "By the love of our Lord I beseech you, daughter, to bear with him and to be silent: and let no one in the house hold any talk about driving out that Father, in whatever ways he may harass you, provided the injury does not reach to the offence of God. For I will not suffer us to be ungrateful towards him from whom we have received so much good. For I remember that, when in the buying of the house they wished to circumvent us buyers, he detected the fraud: wherefore I cannot put out of my memory the benefit he conferred on us in this way, nor the trouble from which we were delivered through him. Besides, he has always seemed to me devoted to the service of God and well disposed towards us. I see indeed that it is not to be held as some kind of perfection in me that I am so mindful of benefits: it seems to me inborn; for with one little sardine anyone could draw me over to his side."
Chap. XXIV.
[219] It seemed by no means necessary to say anything here about Teresa's prudence, since, both from what we have said so far and from what everyone sees practised in her convents, Her prudence in undertaking the Reform of her Order, it is clearer than the noonday sun that this virtue in her was greater than human. For how could so many houses have been founded in such penury of things, and with so many storms of detractors rising up, unless their foundress had been endowed with a certain extraordinary and almost divine prudence, and this the more because she was a woman, a poor little woman, enclosed within the precincts of a convent and dependent on the will of another? Who could have broken through so many difficulties, borne so many and so various temperaments of men, overcome so many wills, endured so many inconveniences, and in short devised so many means necessary for such lofty ends? All these things, great as they are, yet seem small to me when I consider that a woman so sickly and so very much hindered by the handling of other affairs, and also so poor, was able to preserve and direct the monasteries once established. To most of those who weighed the erection of these monasteries in the balance of human judgement it seemed foolish to establish several of that kind; and indeed they thought that even those already erected would not long after vanish into thin air. Hence Juana Suárez, that intimate friend of hers in the convent of the Incarnation, used to say in the manner of one reproving: "You have now built dovecotes enough: stop at last some time, and do not undertake any more." Nevertheless, with such poverty and austerity flourishing in them, and with so many persecutions assailing, not only did those which she had already erected remain and still remain intact, but she also established others anew.
[220] in regular discipline But what most carries me away in admiration is the discipline which she prescribed in all her houses, how well she formed her nuns to the pursuit of prayer, what a short way she showed them to it, how she trained them to true obedience, mortification, humility, silence and recollection of mind, and indeed the remaining virtues. Whoever is ignorant of this, let him see what rule of life flourishes today in these houses; and from this he will gather without difficulty what kind of mistress she was, since she left behind her disciples so well instructed. Whence it may be manifestly gathered with what exceptional talent she was endowed, how mature a judgement she had obtained, how deep a prudence she had received from nature, and how supernaturally she had been taught by God: for I do not see how human prudence could be equal to these things; and therefore I have not undeservedly judged that the prudence with which she was endowed was more than human. She was borne towards her daughters with great love a; which she declared to them in every fitting way: hence it came about that she was also loved by them with a reciprocal love, and whithersoever she wished to lead them, they followed not unwillingly. Whatever things they had need of, she took pains to procure for them, so that, as far as she could, nothing should be lacking to anyone, and especially to the sick.
[221] gently and at the same time It was a pleasure to her to see them with the same cheerfulness which she herself displayed in all things. But she laughed at those who, when they have perceived some taste of interior devotion, at once avoid human intercourse, and, as she used to say, creep about with a wrinkled brow, nay, do not even dare to speak to others, fearing lest in this way that pious relish should be entirely lost. Hence she wished her nuns to have a fixed time daily for relaxing the mind, and on the principal feasts of the Saints she permitted them to delight their minds with pious singing and to compose verses in their praise and to recreate themselves in the manner which the statutes prescribe: yet without transgressing the bounds of religion, or departing even a nail's breadth from regular observance. And the nuns' love towards her was accompanied by great reverence and singular veneration, which that exceptional sanctity, prudence and wisdom which they noted in her engendered in them. Hence, although they loved her so tenderly, and she herself was also cheerful by nature, it came about that those who were in her presence did not dare even to raise their eyes to look at her, and those who were called by her approached her in a manner trembling. Moreover, she at times so composed her gaze that she seemed to look into the secrets of their thoughts. In reproving she used a singular gravity, and also brought forward reasons by which she who had offended was confounded and promised better things; but she showed no indignation or estranged mind, but rather kindness and love b.
[222] and strongly She only very rarely winked at faults: and of those who offended she treated some gently, others harshly, proving them by some severer mortification, according as she observed each to have need. But one among the others she for the most part treated with a severer and more austere medicine; and when another nun asked why she ruled this nun, so upright and so well disposed towards her, with so rough a bit, she answered that she did indeed believe her to be so, but that necessarily
she had need of this scourge, lest she should depart from the manner of acting of the others. At times, with a great show of love, she disclosed to each one individually her imperfection: and she was gentle and kind towards the humble and compliant; but austere towards one whom she saw carried away by too much liberty. If she had chastised anyone with words, she at once returned to her with a certain placid and glad countenance, when she perceived in the offender some signs of humility and acknowledgement of her error. She did not wish those on whom it did not fall by office to apply themselves to the management of domestic affairs; but rather she wished each to note the virtues of another, so that in this way love towards her might grow and they might gather some profit for themselves from them; but to observe the faults of none of their other companions: and she said that she herself had made no small progress in spirit from this.
[223] in all things She was not pleased with those who so applauded themselves on their own perfection that whatever they observed in their companions they believed to be a fault; and she said that those were the most imperfect of all who noted no faults in themselves but very many in others: and when such nuns reported the misdeeds of others, she did not wish credence to be given them by the superiors before they had examined the matter more maturely. Nevertheless she said it was very necessary that the defects even of the prioresses themselves should be made known to the prelates with charity and prudence. And she thought those foolishly simple who judged this to be wrong and to savour of imperfection. Those whom she noted to be so absorbed in prayer that it harmed the health of their bodies she ordered to be distracted by others in the time of recreation, and also to have offices or similar things enjoined on them. The sick she encouraged with discourse suited to consolation; and if she saw any of them saddened because, while their companions were occupied on their account, they themselves lay idle in bed, gently rebuking them she said that on the contrary they ought to rejoice that they gave their fellows the occasion of meriting and of exercising works of mercy within private walls, since it would be wrong for these to be exercised by them in public hospitals. She seriously enjoined that the form of the habit and of the bands should be kept by her nuns the same as she had prescribed in the constitutions. And if it should ever happen (which God forbid) that any nun affected some elegance in this matter or pursued something less becoming, she ordered this to be given to the flames, with all looking on, so that the others, warned by this example, might take heed for themselves, and the memory of the deed might pass to posterity. In speech she wished her nuns to be simple and to breathe religious candour, and their speech to savour more of the phrasing of hermits and recollected persons than of the formulas of courtiers; and that in this kind they should prefer to seem somewhat dull rather than more curious than was right.
[224] according to the most equitable rule She wished nothing to be added by the prioresses to the fixed task of prayers and the established austerities, unless perhaps some necessity urged that something else be done, and that only for the day: for unless this moderation were used here, the nuns would dissemble, thinking that they would incur the mark of being lukewarm if they complained of this matter; and, if this burden grew heavier and heavier daily, they would suffer loss of health and would not be equal to bearing the rigours to which they had bound themselves by vow. She wished the divine Office to be recited slowly and in a lowered voice. For from a strained voice, she said, a twofold inconvenience follows: first, that the higher chant falls unpleasantly on the ears, since it does not fall into measure; and second, that the modesty and spirit of the life they have entered upon is lost in this way. In the admission of religious she wished the endowments of the soul to be regarded more than a dowry in money; and for no reason did she permit those to be enrolled in the monasteries who lacked the things which the Constitutions require, especially if they had some defect of nature and body, and much less that they be admitted to the profession of vows. She said that as much harm followed from admitting more than the constitutions prescribed as if the convents themselves were destroyed: nay, she would have preferred that number never to be filled, so that, if anyone very suitable asked to be chosen into the community, there might be room for admitting her into the family. She wished the lay sisters too to be as few as possible, and only those whom the house could ill do without; and she said that in this matter prioresses should be checked who are always eager to have very many lay sisters, with whom they burden their houses, and often indeed such as from whom they can have little help.
[225] urged, Those who were melancholic by nature she wished to have entry to her houses shut off as tightly as possible; because those of this kind are a hindrance to others and not rarely also a harm to the house. But if any such had already been admitted into Religion, she wished special regard to be had for them by the prioresses, their convenience to be looked to, necessary things to be provided, and some relaxation of mind to be afforded them. Yet she did not wish them to yield to their disordered imaginings, nor to grant them excessive conversations or immoderate liberty, nor to bear disobedience, but to restrain them with severity and rigour. For she always wished the rule and the constitutions to be observed entire, and in this matter she winked at no one whatever, on any consideration, whether in good or in bad health, even if they had lived longer in the religious community or had been powerful in authority in the world; but she defended the rights of the statutes with great constancy and rigour.
[226] in prioresses She was intent on this, that prioresses should be elected who excelled the others in prudence and uprightness of life: although not even this was enough for her, but she also especially instructed the subjects that, if they noted any imperfections in their superiors, they should disclose them to them with humility and fitting veneration. And if the prioresses took this reproof ill and on that account became more estranged in mind towards them, she admonished them to bear this for the Lord's sake: for they would receive a reward from him on this account. She wished the prioresses to know that the chief reason for their being appointed was that they should keep earnest watch over the observance of the constitutions and laws, not that they should take away or add anything to them at their own pleasure; and that if they did otherwise, the superior should be informed. She said she believed that a president could not discharge her office well who did anything in the house that she wished to be hidden from the provincial; nay rather, it ought to be pleasing to her that he should be aware of her affairs: for in this way the burden of the office imposed is made lighter. She wished the prioresses to deal in the house chiefly with those nuns who had both greater experience of affairs than others and more mature prudence: yet they should beware of showing themselves borne towards anyone with some particular affection, by doing more for her sake than for another's; for in this way the others are disturbed.
[227] in instructing them for the duty of their office, She said she learned more and more by daily experience that the whole quiet of these houses consists in the prioresses; for where these have bound to themselves the minds of their subjects, the latter of their own accord carry out whatever they are ordered: but that superiors must be remarkable conquerors of themselves in order to break down the imperfections and temptations of their subjects. Nothing, moreover, did she demand more insistently in prioresses, nothing did she say was more necessary for them, than the talent of governing, and she wished greater account to be taken of this than of sanctity; for very many would be outstanding in sanctity who would nevertheless be unfit for governing. And it is the part of the prelate, if he sees that an unfit nun has been elected through the excessive zeal and perverse affection of some, to annul this election, and to assign to that convent another superior summoned from another house. But if any prioress should lack the gift of governing others, even if she were most religious and most illustrious in virtues, let her be reduced to the ranks as soon as possible, and not be permitted to preside even for one year. For in one year, she said, she would do much harm to the house and to her subjects; and, if she were allowed to preside for three years, it might perhaps happen that, small customs creeping in, the house would rush to ruin. In this she wished the prelates to give no place to compassion; for where there is so much mortification and so many exercises of humility, it will not seem grievous to anyone to be deposed from office: "But if," she says, "it should happen that the deposed one is indignant on this account, it plainly appears from this that she is unfit for this office; for one who is so imperfect as to covet the office of prioress does not seem fit to be set over those souls who pant after perfection with such effort." Which reason is truly worthy of so great a mind, worthy to be engraved on the memory of all religious.
[228] in the administration of temporal affairs, She wished great account to be taken of the administration of temporal affairs: for this is especially necessary to the direction of the affairs of the spirit. Hence in the houses which were endowed with annual rents she forbade greater expenses to be made than the income would bear, even if otherwise they laboured under a want of necessary conveniences; and excessive expenses and ornaments she cut off altogether: for if the prioresses spent much on useless things, it could follow that nothing would be available to the nuns for dinner. And in the houses lacking fixed rent she permitted no debt to be contracted: for if both these and those began to contract debts, little by little both would be reduced to nothing. For at once it would seem inhuman to the superiors not to grant them the gain which they had procured with their own hands, and to refuse that each should seek help from her relatives. Hence she said she would far rather see that monastery dissolved than reduced to this state. Meanwhile, however, she wished necessary things to be furnished sufficiently to each: and she said that these would never be lacking to them, provided the prioress relied with keen confidence on God and used what diligence she could. She wished the visitors to inspect what work was done in each house, and to reckon up the gain of each nun, so that thanks might be given to those who had gained much, and they might be encouraged to go on, and their name might be proclaimed in other convents in which the workers were not so diligent.
[229] in choosing companions for new foundations, To her foundations she took with her the most select nuns: if she saw them committing any fault, she sharply rebuked them, and admonished them to consider to how great perfection they were bound; since they would have to render account before God not only of their own misdeeds, but also of those into which others, who would succeed them later, should stumble through their bad example. But once things had been established, she remitted much of that rigour of which we have spoken, as may be gathered from her words written to María of St. John the Baptist: "I would have you know that I am not now in governing the woman I used to be once: now everything is done out of love; I do not know whether the cause of it is that no occasion of exercising rigour is given me now, or that I have understood that in this way things are done more tranquilly." With all her strength she strove that her daughters should put off all affection towards their relatives and the remaining creatures; and she said that her love towards some beloved nun grew lukewarm if she saw her attached in mind to some worldly thing. She denied that novices should be ruled rigidly, but said they needed only such a guide as would gently entice them to the observance of the constitutions.
[230] in admitting novices suited to the Order, She loved especially those endowed with good intelligence; and apart from the vocation of God, she looked for nothing more in choosing nuns, even lay sisters, than that they should be strong in intelligence c. Those who had perceived her sanctity
and how great a friend of prayer she was, used to commend above all the devotion and the zeal for prayer of those women whom they wished her to receive into her family; for they believed that in this way she would comply with their wish by admitting them: but she set so little store by these endowments that her whole care was occupied in examining their judgement. I myself was also of this number; and when in surprise I asked her the reason for this, I immediately heard: "In this place, Father, the Lord will bestow devotion on her; here too she will be taught prayer: but those who have practised some devotional exercises in the world sometimes even need first to be untaught, so that they may forget here what they learned there. But if they do not excel in intelligence, that cannot be given them here. Moreover, if some nun is pious and a handmaid of God but has no intelligence, she is good only for herself; if she has obtained it happily from nature, she is fit for governing others and for all the ministries that have to be performed in the house." Nay, she gave another reason for this too: that one endowed with slender intelligence does not consider the imperfections to which she is liable, nor indeed can she recognize them even if she is admonished; nay rather, it always seems to her that she is acting well, and she cannot be moved from that opinion by anyone's persuasion, or be induced to submit her judgement. And by this excellent principle, those monasteries especially in which very few nuns live have been able until now to preserve and protect themselves, both in what pertains to the body and in what pertains to the spirit.
[231] in providing for the quiet of the monasteries She was especially zealous that the nuns should enjoy perpetual peace and tranquillity of mind; and for this reason, and also that they might not be an offence to anyone, she advised that all lawsuits should be avoided as far as possible, and should be brought only when extreme measures had already been tried: for what they neglected to pursue at law would be restored to them by God in another way. She did not wish, moreover, any suit to be brought against anyone, or one begun to be pressed, before the superior had been informed of the matter and had specifically granted permission for this. For the sake of procuring the same quiet she did not wish any nun to ask for herself the opportunity of moving from one house to another, nor even to know that this could ever be granted; because she said that no one could understand, except one who had actually experienced it, how many inconveniences lie hidden in this matter, and how wide a door is opened to the evil demon in this way for casting in temptations. Hence she wished that, if any of them was to be destined to another house, this should be done under the appearance of another cause, and the one moving should not know that it was done because she herself had asked for it. And she said that such a one would find in no place the peace she sought, but would rather cause harm to others; and that she who asks for this move wishes to be of no esteem at all among the others. And if perhaps it was necessary for some reason to call her away from there, she nevertheless forbade it to be done on account of her own request; and she wished this to be exactly observed. She said, moreover, that this desire of changing house arises in none but those who are gloomy or have a disposition by no means fit for things of any special usefulness.
[232] and in furnishing the nuns with an abundance of good confessors For peace and serenity of spirit, and for the continuance and increase of the work which the Lord had begun through her in the Carmelite Religion, she suggested another very salutary means, when she commends to her nuns, and also earnestly inculcates in her books, that, just as she herself was possessed by the love of learning, so they should always communicate concerning the affairs of the soul with the most versed masters of Theology, by whose counsel they should be ruled; for in this way it would come about that they would always proceed safely: and if they found such as were at the same time devoted to the pursuits of piety, so much the better would the direction be; but if those could not be had to whom both endowments had fallen at once, then those should be chosen who excelled in learning: for she said that she had never been imposed upon by any learned man; and that this help seemed necessary to all indeed, but especially to the prioresses. She wished her nuns to beware of those who knew little: for she knew by experience what harm had befallen her from certain half-learned men who, though ignorant of the matters, gave out their answers no less confidently than if they had thoroughly understood the matter. And in order that a business of so great moment, and so necessary for those devoted to prayer and interior things, might flourish perpetually, she gave permission to communicate on matters of this kind with any religious and priests whatever, and wished the prioresses always to show themselves accommodating in this matter. For she said that all the good of the soul consists in this, that it should at times confer about its affairs with the servants of God (Life, chapter XXIII); and the more of these gifts it received from God, the more diligently it ought to communicate about them with those by whom, when there was need, it could be directed, governed, and freed from the customary impostures of the devil.
[233] shone forth wonderfully. And as she counselled others, so too she performed it in deed, as will become manifest a little later towards the end of this book. Moreover, she wished her nuns so to believe their confessor, provided he was a learned man, that she wrote in the book of the Foundations in these words: "On this matter it is necessary that she consult a learned and prudent confessor, and carry out in deed nothing else than what he has advised. She can refer this to the prioress, that she may assign her a confessor who is furnished with these endowments. Let this, moreover, be fixed, that she who has not listened to what the confessor advised, nor allowed herself to be directed by him, is deluded by an evil spirit, or oppressed by grave melancholy. For even if the confessor is deceived, yet she herself will by no means be deceived, if she does not transgress his prescriptions; even though an Angel of God had spoken with her. For the Lord will communicate light to him, or will show the way by which the matter is to be brought to its end. And no loss will follow from this; but to do otherwise may be exposed to many dangers and bring not a few harms" (chapter VIII). She advised, moreover, in the most effective words that the thoughts of their mind should be disclosed most openly to them. Of which matter she speaks thus: "But it is above all necessary, my dearest ones, that you proceed sincerely and candidly with your confessors, not only in disclosing your faults (for this is most clear), but also in declaring your manner of prayer. For unless you do this, I would not dare affirm that you are walking rightly or are taught by God: for he loves that the inmost things of the soul be laid open to him who takes his place on earth with the same clearness and truth with which they would be opened to himself, if he were living among mortals; and at the same time he wishes you to manifest to him even your least thoughts, not to speak of your works" (Mansions VI, chapter IX).
[234] Some cases are brought forward Some things she carried out with a prudence more divine than human, so that one who saw her actions could find no reason for approving them; but afterwards it appeared from their outcome how fittingly they had been done. To a certain novice, already admitted by the votes of the other nuns to the profession of vows, she said: "This morning you will make your profession." The nun said to her: "I will defer it to another time, if it seems good to Your Reverence." On hearing this, the Mother replied: "I tell you that you will never pronounce your vows in the Order." What she then said in words, she afterwards showed also in deed; since she could not be induced by any prayers of the others to allow her to make her vows. Hence she had to return to her father's house; in which a hectic consumption soon seized her, from which she died a short time after. Likewise the time for another novice to profess was near: yet she, though the nuns insisted earnestly, and no defect had been noted in her, forbade her to be admitted. She would give no other reason for this than (as I myself heard from her) some bodily defect; which nevertheless was so nothing that it seemed to none of the household that she should be kept from the profession of vows on account of it. But all thought that it had been divinely manifested to her that neither of those two had been chosen by God for this Institute. Concerning the latter this indeed afterwards appeared evidently from what happened; nor were there lacking those to whom God deigned to reveal that whatever had been done by his handmaid in this matter had been done excellently. The same kind of severity she exercised towards her own kinswoman; since neither flesh, nor blood, nor the prayers of the nuns, who promised illustrious things of this novice (for she was in truth furnished with excellent endowments), could prevent her from sending her back to her father's house stripped of the sacred habit when the year had passed.
[235] from which it was evident A novice of another Institute who had been commended to her, aspiring to a more perfect life, she was unwilling to admit; because, as we have already said, she was averse to receiving among her own the nuns of other Orders. But when for this and other reasons she had already dismissed her brother, who was a priest of our Society, and had betaken herself to her cell to write, she presently returned to the turn to see whether that Father had gone. When she found that he had departed, she ordered him to be called back on the instant; and when he had returned, she declared that he should bring his sister that very hour: for she wished to number her among her own. So when she had been brought, she admitted her; and she still lives happily today in the house at Salamanca, and with an example to her companions.
[236] that it was often inspired in her I could say many other things of this kind, from which it becomes manifest that she was accustomed to be led not by human reasons but by others far more sublime and certain. Only one shall I relate here, which will be most effective for what I intend to prove. In a certain convent there lived a choir nun and a lay sister, both most devoted to prayer, which they supported both by mortification and by humility, both also adorned with singular favours from God. To them there came at times vehement desires of God, which they could not repress, but which seemed to be blunted and diminished by the reception of the Lord's Body. Hence each had obtained from her confessor that she might often frequent the divine Mysteries. Thereafter the impulse so increased that, unless daily Communion were permitted them, they seemed about to die of languor. It therefore seemed to the confessors, although each of them had great experience of the things of the spirit, that it would be wrong to deny daily participation of the Sacraments to those labouring under so great a necessity. But the matter went so far at last, and the anguish so grew, that it was necessary for them to approach the Holy Table very early in the morning in order to be able to live. The prioress informed Teresa of everything by letter; but she answered nothing to the letter until she should see everything in person (although she already understood then what lay hidden) and set forth to the confessor her reasons why she did not acquiesce in his opinion in this matter.
[237] from heaven So when she arrived at this place, she showed both nuns by many reasons that it was nothing but mere imagination that they, unless daily the divine
banquet, would die: these reasons, however, by no means satisfied them, nor one of the two confessors, namely the one who had less learning and less experience of spiritual things; for the other at once submitted himself to the truth. Then Teresa perceived that these sick women were to be cured by another kind of medicine, and said to them with great firmness that she had similar desires and yet abstained from the Holy Table: "Believe me," she said, "you shall not communicate more often than the others, and so we three shall die together: for my part I should believe it far more expedient than to introduce this new custom into these houses, in which there are not lacking others who love God no less than you and who will desire to practise the same kind of devotion." On that day, by abstaining from the Holy Table, they suffered enormous pain, so that they truly seemed about to die. Teresa, who had also abstained from receiving the Sacrament that day, showed great severity; because, the less they submitted themselves to obedience (while they persuaded themselves that they could not), the more clearly she understood that it was a mere temptation. But on the next day, and again on the third, they experienced less trouble, until at length the anguish itself was so diminished that, although they now saw Teresa, at the order of her superiors, approach Holy Communion, they took it in good part, and both these and the others understood that it had been a temptation of the malign spirit d. This happened in a convent not far from Salamanca; and although I know who those nuns were, it did not at all please me to disclose their names here. One of them now enjoys the vision of God; the other still survives.
Chap. XXV.
[238] and with a singular gift What I shall now say about the discernment of spirits, which God deigned to communicate to this handmaid of his, by which namely she discerned in those whom she saw whether the spirit they had was good or bad, in accordance with the truth or not, belongs in some way to that prudence which I have already declared, which was guided by a certain heavenly light and supernatural knowledge rather than by human reasons; although it seems at times to approach very closely to the gift of prophecy as well. She excelled in this gift, and perceived accurately what spirit those who dealt with her had, and how far they had reached; and so it came about that she freed from error of mind those who thought they had already made very great progress on the way of perfection. To a certain nun she disclosed that she was pursuing an excellent way of perfection, but that very much of the journey still remained for her before she should reach the end. When another nun was dealing with Teresa about some matter and displayed in words and countenance a humility which she did not have in her mind, Teresa at once recognized it, and said to her with a gentle mouth: "This you do not feel within." She recognized also the interior temptation of another; whom she bade by letter be secure, because she was walking by the right road.
[239] of the discernment of spirits A certain countryman whom everyone looked up to as a holy man, not only the common people but also the learned, having opened his spirit to her, saying that he was addressed by God, and having discoursed with her at length about other spiritual things, she at once recognized that he was not led by a good spirit, and disclosed this to her confessor. She would not, however, declare this openly, lest he should suffer loss of reputation; but keeping the matter in silence, she strove to lead him out of error, by sending him to holy men who would exercise him in laborious works and obedience. But when he failed in these, it easily appeared not long after that they were mere vanities and folly. From her own community, too (as we observed above), she banished certain women whom you would have said lacked any outward defect; because she saw that they were little suited to her Institute: others, on the contrary, she encouraged with words to give their names to it, and took from them all the fear by which they were deterred from this purpose.
[240] by God A nun of a certain other Order, a fervent handmaid of God, through rather frequent scourgings and fasts fell into the greatest languor: and whenever she approached the divine Mysteries or an occasion of new devotion presented itself, she at once fell to the ground; and since she remained in this state for eight hours and more, it seemed both to herself and to the other nuns that she was suffering an ecstasy of mind. The fame of these raptures, because they were frequent, had already pervaded the city. Teresa recognized what lay hidden under these things, and grieved that such things were spread abroad: for she saw what all these things would come to. When, moreover, the confessor of this religious had come to Teresa, she denied that this was the manner of a rapture, and said that it seemed nothing but a waste of time and came from bodily weakness: wherefore it would be advisable to forbid her scourgings and fasts for a time. When she abstained from these, she recovered the strength of her body and no trace of raptures remained in her (Foundations, chapter VI).
[241] was adorned. Another priest came to her full of wonder, saying that he was hearing the Confession of a person whom Mary the Mother of God visited from time to time, and who, as she sat on her bed for more than the space of an hour, held most sweet conversations with her and disclosed future events and many other things; and since some of these actually happened, it came about that whatever she said was held as true. Teresa at once recognized the deceit, which however for certain reasons she would not disclose to him at that time; only advising him to wait a little, to see whether those prophecies truly came to pass, and at the same time to ask of her certain other effects, and also to inquire into the manner of life she led. At length it appeared that all were mere trifles (Ibid., chapter VIII). Many other things of the same kind happened to her; nay more, by her prudence she brought a remedy to very many who were liable to illusion.
ANNOTATIONS.
Chapter XIII.
Accounts by St. Teresa of the things of her soul, written to certain of her confessors.
Chap. XXVII.
It seems to me that it will not be amiss to append at the end of this book a writing which Teresa sent to one of her confessors; The Saint relates that in prayer she since in it she speaks openly and simply, as to one whom she held as the vicar of God, and in it she plainly declares what she thought of herself: hence it may be especially useful for confirming and further declaring the things that have been said in this book. And even if no other usefulness followed from it than that in this way the words of this saint should be transmitted to the memory of posterity, it would be to the purpose to bring them forward in this place; by which I think I shall gratify my readers not a little. She begins, then, in these words: "I. The manner of prayer I now keep is this. When I apply myself to prayer I can rarely discourse with the understanding, because the soul at once begins to recollect itself and to enjoy quiet or rapture, and in such a way that I can by no means use my senses in anything; so that I now seem to have them in vain, except perhaps for hearing, and then indeed not for perceiving anything. II. It often happens to me, without my wishing it, to think of divine things, nay even while I am speaking of other things: and when it seems to me that, however much I strive to give myself to prayer, I cannot apply myself to it on account of the great aridity I feel (to which the pains of the body also contribute not a little), that recollection and lifting up of the mind come upon me so suddenly that I cannot hinder them; and that these too leave me in a moment, leaving in me those effects and fruits which they are wont to bring with them, and that without any previous vision or anything understood, and so that I do not even know where I am, except that, while the soul seems to be perishing, I see it on the contrary gather so great a fruit that I seem unable to gather it in a whole year, even if I wished: so great, namely, is the gain that accrues to me from it."
[243] great impulses of divine love, "At other times impulses come to me so immense, together with a denial of all things for God's sake, that I cannot drive them away, and my life seems about to end at any moment, so that I am then compelled to cry out and call upon God, and a strong agitation of mind seizes me. Sometimes I cannot even remain seated in my place: so greatly, namely, do anguish and impulses seize me. This pain comes upon me without my procuring it; and it is so sweet that the soul would not even wish to be freed from it, as long as it lives. But the anguish I then feel is such that it could be enough to inflict death, and I seem to live in such a way that I cannot resist it; since the only means and remedy of seeing God is death, and I cannot hasten this for myself. Hence the soul thinks that all men are flooded with the greatest consolation, but that it alone is prostrated with grief; and also that all find a remedy in their ills, except itself alone. This, moreover, so torments it that, unless the Lord came to its aid with some rapture by which everything is calmed and the soul is flooded with great quiet and delight, sometimes by seeing something of the things it desires, sometimes by understanding certain other things,
unless, I say, something of this kind intervened, the soul could not free itself from this pain.
[244] burning desires of God "III. Sometimes fervent desires of serving God come upon me, and that on the one hand with so vehement an impulse that I cannot set them forth in words, and on the other with no less grief, because I see myself to be of so little use. Then indeed it seems to me that no labour nor anything can be thrown in my way, not death, not martyrdom, which I would not easily endure. And this too comes upon me without any previous consideration, nay in a moment, whereby I am wholly changed; so that I do not know whence so much strength comes to me. Then I seem to wish to cry aloud, and to declare to all how much it matters not to place pleasure in frivolous things, and how immense a good God will grant us, if we have disposed ourselves for it. So vehement, I say, are these desires that I annihilate myself within myself, and seem to wish for what I cannot do. The body and this state, moreover, seem to hold me bound, so that I am useful for nothing at all in the service of God: for if such hindrances did not hold me back, I would perform very excellent things so far as my strength allows. Hence, when I see myself hindered from being able to be useful to God in anything, I feel this pain so much that I cannot express it. This, however, ends in sweetness, recollection and divine consolation.
[245] and to experience affection for poverty and solitude; "IV. Sometimes, when those desires of serving God come upon me, I wish to exercise severity on my body, but I cannot. This would be a solace to me: and whenever I practise it, it refreshes and relieves me; although what I do is almost nothing on account of the weakness of my body: but if it failed me, when these desires come, I believe I should exceed the measure. V. Sometimes it is grievous to me to deal with men, and this so tears at me that it draws a flood of tears from my eyes; because to be in solitude is my greatest pleasure. And although sometimes I neither read nor pray, yet solitude itself is a solace to me: but conversation with men, especially with relatives, seems grievous to me, so that I then believe myself to be as it were a slave; unless perhaps I talk with those whose discourse is of prayer and things pertaining to the soul: for such conversation consoles and refreshes me; although even these are at times wearisome to me, and I should wish not to see them, but to betake myself to those places in which I could be alone. This happens very rarely, however, and those especially console me with whom I communicate about the affairs of my soul. It is often bitter to me that it is necessary for me to take food and to go to sleep; but since I see that I can do without these necessities less than anyone else, I comply with them for the honour of God and offer them to him.
[246] and thence to increase in herself "VI. All time seems short to me, and I never think that enough of it is available to me for reading and praying; because solitude would never be wearisome to me. I always desire that longer time be given me to spend on reading; for I have always been wonderfully attached to it. I read very little; for when I have looked into a book, I at once recollect my mind from delight, and so reading passes into prayer; but this happens very rarely, because I am overwhelmed with manifold business, which, although it is good, does not delight me as that would: and so it comes about that I am always possessed by a longing for time; and this is the cause why nothing (as I at least believe) refreshes me, because I see that the things I wish and desire by no means come about. VII. All those desires, and especially of the virtues, the Lord gave me from the time when he communicated to me the prayer of quiet with those raptures: and I find that I have advanced so much for the better that before I seemed to be mere perdition.
[247] purity of conscience, "VIII. After raptures and visions there came to me the benefits which I shall subjoin here; so that I confess that, if I have anything good, it has flowed into me from this source. IX. From it came to me a most firm resolve not to offend God, not even venially; for I would rather meet a thousand deaths than deliberately commit a venial fault. X. Next, the resolve to omit nothing which I knew to pertain to greater perfection and the greater service of God, in the judgement of him who has the care and direction of my soul, whatever in the end it might be: and this I would not leave off for any treasure in the world. And if I did otherwise, I would not dare, as it seems to me at least, to ask anything of God our Lord or to engage in prayer; although in all these things I commit many faults. XI. There came also obedience towards my confessor, though imperfect: yet when I know that he wishes something or he commands me, as I at least persuade myself, I would by no means neglect to fulfil it; for if I omitted it, I should believe myself most gravely deceived. XII. Also a burning desire of poverty, although this too is imperfect. But I do think that, although I possessed the most ample treasures, I would procure no private income for myself and would turn no money to my own use: nor do I trouble myself much about it, but would only wish that I be provided with necessities. Nevertheless I feel that very much is lacking to me as regards this virtue: for, although I do not want money for myself, I should yet like to have it to impart to others; though I desire for myself neither income nor possession.
[248] contempt of earthly things, "XIII. From almost all the visions I have had some fruit has accrued to my soul; unless perhaps the devil has deceived me: but this I leave to my confessors to determine. XIV. When I perceive something beautiful or splendid, for instance water, fields, flowers, scents, music and other things of this kind, I seem to myself not to wish to see or hear them: so great, namely, is the difference between these and the things which I am wont to see; wherefore I am without all affection for those things. Hence too it has come about that I esteem them so little that, unless perhaps there be some first movement, nothing of the kind has remained in me; and this seems to me mere vanity. XV. If I speak or deal with secular men, since it cannot be otherwise, even about things pertaining to the manner of prayer, if the conversations are long, even by way of recreation, unless it is necessary, I must do myself some violence: for it is grievous to me. XVI. Whatever is delightful, towards which kind of thing I used to be attached, and also all worldly things, are heartache to me and fall grievously on my eyes. XVII. Those desires which I said I have of loving God, of serving him and of seeing him, are not seconded by any consideration, as happened before, when I seemed to myself very devout, and when likewise I constantly shed tears; but by an inflammation and fervour so intense that (I repeat again), unless God succoured me with some rapture (in which, namely, the soul seems to be content and at rest), I should seem about to depart from this life forthwith.
[249] fervour of spirit, "XVIII. Those whom I see to have made greater progress in the way of perfection and to have conceived similar resolves, and who have put off all affection for earthly things and are generous, I love very greatly; since I should wish to deal constantly with men of that kind, and I seem to myself to profit from the company of such. XIX. But those whom I see so timorous that they seem to grope about in things which according to the prescription of reason can be done here, seem to afflict me, and compel me to cry out to God and to the Saints, who did not hesitate to carry out the things which now deter us: not that I myself am useful for anything, but because I judge that those are helped by God who undertake great and arduous things for his sake, and because I believe that he is never lacking to one who casts all his trust upon him. And I should wish that someone be given me to help me in believing this, and so that I may not trouble myself at all about food and clothing, but may commit all care of this matter to God." (To these were appended the following words written in Teresa's own hand: "What I say about leaving to God the care of necessary things, I do not understand in such a way that I should not procure them for myself, but in such a way that I should not labour anxiously and be solicitous about them.) And after he himself gave me this liberty, it has gone well with me; and I try to forget myself as far as I can. It seems scarcely a year has passed since I first received this from the Lord.
[250] lowliness of mind, "XX. Praise be to God, there is nothing, as far as I myself know, in which vainglory exalts me; for I see plainly that I contribute nothing on my part to the things which God grants me; nay rather, God lays open to me my miseries: so much so that with all that I could think, I could not recognize as many truths as I know in a single moment. XXI. For some days now, when I speak of these things, I seem to be narrating them about some third person; nay, sometimes before I was ashamed that such things should be known about me: but now I seem to myself to be none the better on that account, nay rather worse, since I profit so little from these singular favours. And I am plainly persuaded that there can be no one in the world worse than I in all respects, and that the virtues of others are of much greater merit, and that I am merely heaped with favours; but that to others God will give all together in one heap what he deigns to grant me here on earth: and venerating him I pray that he may pay me no reward in this life; whence I believe that God has willed to lead me by this road, as one wretched and weak.
[251] the desire of suffering "XXII. When I am at prayer, and indeed almost always, provided I can put forward even some consideration, I cannot seek my own consolations, nay cannot even desire them from the Lord, although I should wish to; since I see that he lived only in labours: nay rather I beseech him to send these upon me, provided he first grants the grace of bearing them. XXIII. All things of this kind, and those which are of the greatest perfection, seem to be engraved on my mind when I apply myself to prayer; so much so that I cannot but wonder, when I see so many and such manifest truths, that all worldly things seem folly to me. Hence I must attend carefully to the manner in which I used formerly to behave in worldly things: for it seems mere folly to be anxiously troubled about the death of some persons and about the labours of the world, or at least to conceive lasting grief on that account, or to love parents and relatives, etc., inordinately. I say, then, that I am distressed when I call to mind what I was and what I used to feel.
[252] and charity towards her neighbours: "XXIV. If I note anything in some persons which seems plainly evil, I cannot persuade myself that they have sinned against God: and if I dwell somewhat on this matter in consideration, which is little or nothing, I never formed a determined judgement, even if I saw it plainly; nay rather, I thought that the same desire of serving God was in all which is in me. And in this he has done me a singular favour, that I never dwell firmly on any matter when it later recurs to my mind; and if it nevertheless presents itself to my mind, I always note some other virtue in such a person: so that these things never torment me, except those which are public, and also heresies, which often afflict me, and almost always, whenever I think of them, it seems to me that no evil can be given for which it is more fitting to grieve. It also afflicts me if I see any who are given to the pursuit of prayer fall away from it. This indeed torments me, yet not so very grievously; since I take care not to dwell on a thought of this kind. XXV. I see also that I have advanced for the better as regards the curiosities which I used to pursue; although I have not yet entirely put them off: for I do not always see myself mortified in these things; although I do sometimes. XXVI. These things that I have said are those which for the most part happen in my soul (as far as I at least understand), as also a constant thought of God. And, although I am doing other things, without my wishing it, as I say, I feel myself awakened within by I know not whom: this, however, is not perpetual, but when I have to deal with some affairs of great moment. And on this matter, praise be to God, I think again and again; but I am not always occupied in this thought.
[253] but these and other fruits of her prayer "XXVII. Sometimes it happens, though not so frequently (and it is wont to last three, four or five days), that all good things, fervours and visions seem to be wholly taken from me, nay even the very memory of them seems to be entirely removed: so that, although I wish to remember them, I do not know whether anything good ever existed in me, and everything seems to me dreams, or at least none of them occurs to my memory. Then too bodily ills oppress me, and the understanding is troubled, so that I can think nothing at all about God, nor know under what law I live. If I read anything, I do not understand it, and I seem full of defects and to have no courage for good, and the strength of mind which I am always wont to display seems reduced to such a point that I seem unable to resist even the least temptation and the adversity of detractors. Then too I seem to be useful for nothing at all: so much so that, if anyone exempts me from the common number of men, I grieve and seem to draw into deception all those with whom I am in some esteem, and I should wish to hide myself in that place where no one might see me; nor then do I seek solitude for the sake of virtue, but from pusillanimity; and in short I then seem to wish to quarrel with all who oppose me. Such indeed is my struggle then; in which, however, God grants me this grace, that I do not offend him more than usual then, nor do I ask him to take this bitterness from me, but, if only it please him, that it be perpetual for me, and that he hold me in his hand, lest I offend him by sinning, and that I may conform myself to him with my whole heart. And I believe it is a remarkable benefit of his towards me that he does not allow me to be perpetually in this anxiety.
[254] were not to be ascribed to herself, "XXVIII. But this one thing I wonder at, that when I am in a state of this kind, by a single one of the words I am wont to hear, by a single vision, or by some small recollection of mind, even for the space in which the Angelic Salutation might be recited, or when I dispose myself for the holy table of the Eucharist, the soul and the body become so quiet and strong, and the understanding so clear, with its customary use of the faculties and affections. And indeed I have learned this by long experience: for very often, especially when I approach the divine Mysteries, for half a year now and more, I feel health come to my body. Even through the raptures, which sometimes last for the space of three hours, sometimes a whole day, I experience a great improvement of health. And, as far as I judge, this is not something imaginary; for I have diligently attended to it and experienced it: so much so that, when I have this recollection of mind, I fear no disease. But when I pray as I used to before, I do not perceive this improvement of health. XXIX. The things I have so far said compel me to believe that all those things proceed from God. For since I know what I was, one who was pursuing the road of perdition, and what I became shortly afterwards through these things, it is certain that my soul was astounded, since it did not perceive whence these virtues came to me. Truly I did not know myself, and I saw that it was something given, not acquired by labour. I understand most truly and most manifestly (and I know that I am by no means deceived) that this was not only a certain way by which God led me to his service, but also by which he drew me back from hell: which is by no means hidden from my confessors to whom I made a general Confession.
[255] but that they proceed from God "XXX. When, too, I see anyone who knows something of my affairs, I should like to set forth my life to him: for I consider it honourable to me that God the Best and Greatest be praised; all other things I count as nothing. As he himself well knows and I am inwardly conscious, there is neither honour nor life nor glory nor any good of body or soul that holds me back; nor do I aspire to or seek my own advantage, but his glory b. I for my part should not believe that the devil would have conferred so many good things on my soul to his own gain, in order afterwards to drag it to destruction: for I should not think him so mad. Nor should I believe that God himself, even if for my sins I had deserved to be deceived, would have rejected the prayers of so many holy men, which have been poured out to him in my name for two years now. For I never cease asking them all to entreat his Majesty for me, that the Lord may deign to disclose to me whether this tends to his glory, or that he may lead me by another road. For I do not believe that his divine Majesty would have permitted these things to proceed thus far unless they came from him. These reasons and the authority of so many holy men encourage me, when fear comes upon me whether these things are granted to me, who am so miserable, by God. But when I am in prayer and on those days on which I am quiet and my thought is fixed on God, even if all the theologians and holy men of the whole world harassed me in all the ways that could be thought up by anyone, and I myself wished to believe it, they would never persuade me that these things are done by the devil's agency. Hence, when they wished to induce me to think this, I was indeed afraid, seeing, namely, what sort of men they were who said this to me, and I believed both that they were telling me the truth, and that I, being such as I was, must be deceived and deluded: yet whatever they had said to me vanished at once at the first word or recollection or vision; and I could not do otherwise, and believed that these things were from God alone. XXXI. I can indeed think that the devil sometimes mixes himself with these things, and so indeed the matter stands, as I have said and seen; but he produces different effects here. And one who has experience of these things cannot, in my judgement at least, be deceived.
[256] she humbly professes. "XXXII. Nevertheless I say that, although I am firmly persuaded that it is God, yet I would carry out nothing at all unless he who has the care of me judged that this tended to the greater service of God: nay, I have always understood in these things that I should obey and conceal nothing from him, and that this befits me. Often my defects are reproved in these things, and indeed so sharply that the chastisement penetrates to my inmost marrow; and also the warning, when in the things I do there is or can be danger: which has hitherto profited me very much, since my past sins are then often recalled to my memory, on account of which an immense grief arises in my soul. XXXIII. I have been longer than was right in recounting these things: but it is nevertheless also certain that the good things with which I abound, when I come out of prayer, are so great that I seem to have been far too brief in recounting them; although otherwise I find myself surrounded by very many imperfections, devoid of all fruit and very miserable. Perhaps it may be that I do not understand the good things, but rather am deceived: yet the change itself in my life is wholly evident, and makes me feel thus. And in all that I have said, I say what I seem truly to have felt. These are the perfections which I think the Lord has worked in me, so miserable and imperfect. All of which I submit to be judged by your judgement, since you know all the secrets of my soul."
[257] The more ample the charisms she afterwards received, XXXIV. This account was written in another's hand: yet Teresa, as may be seen afterwards, affirms by her own testimony that it is in conformity with what was in her autograph. But what is subjoined was written in her own hand, in these words c: "XXXV. A year and more seems to have passed since I wrote these things. During all that time God has held me with his hand, so that I did not fall into worse; but rather I find that I have advanced much as regards the things I shall mention. Blessed be he for all things. XXXVI. Visions and revelations have not ceased, but rather have become much more sublime. The Lord has taught me a manner of praying, since my use of which a greater gain has come to me, and I experience in my soul a greater renunciation of earthly things and a greater generosity and liberty of mind. The raptures too have increased; for sometimes they come upon me with an impulse, and indeed openly, so that I cannot restrain myself and they are noticed by others; nay, this happens to me while I am with others: nor can I dissemble them, unless perhaps by saying that I am wont to suffer fainting fits, and that something similar then happens to me. And although at the beginning I struggle against it with the greatest effort, yet sometimes I cannot resist.
[258] the more so in the love of poverty, "XXXVII. In the things that pertain to poverty the Lord seems to have done me a singular favour; since I wish to have even those things which human use cannot do without only from alms: so much so that I desire very greatly to live in that place where one lives only by begging. But when I am living in a house of this kind in which I am certain that nothing will be lacking to me as regards food and clothing,
I do not seem to myself to fulfil the vow and counsel of Jesus Christ with such perfection as in that house in which one lives with no revenues and often labours under a lack of necessary things. The goods which are acquired through true poverty seem to me very great, and I should not wish to suffer the loss of them. Often I find myself heaped with such faith that I consider that God cannot fail those who serve him, and I am certain that there is not and will not be a time when his words are not to be fulfilled: so that I cannot persuade myself otherwise, nor fear anything. Wherefore it is the greatest pain to me when my friends advise me to bring fixed revenues into my convents; and then I turn to God. XXXVIII. I feel myself moved to greater commiseration towards the needy than I used to be before; namely to greater compassion and a more ardent desire of succouring them: and indeed, if I could do my own will, I would bestow on them these very garments which I have on. I conceive no nausea, even if I deal familiarly with them or touch their hands: which I now see to be a gift of God. For although before I used to give them alms for love of him, yet I did not have a natural compassion for them. In this indeed I find that I have advanced remarkably.
[259] in the bearing of injuries, "XXXIX. As regards bearing the disparagements of others concerning me, which are many enough and wound my honour not a little, I experience no small improvement in myself; so much so that they hardly affect me more than they would affect some dullard: nay, my adversaries sometimes, and indeed for the most part, seem to me to be moved by some reason. And I am so little moved by these things that I have nothing in this regard to offer to God, inasmuch as I know by experience that very much gain accrues to my soul from it; nay rather, I consider that a benefit is conferred on me in this way. Hence no enmity against them clings to my mind as soon as I begin to give myself to prayer. When I first hear disparagements of this kind, I feel a certain small contradiction in my mind, yet without any disquiet or disturbance of mind. Nay rather, when I see some at times touched with commiseration for me, I laugh to myself: for all the adversities of this life seem so few to me that there seems no reason for feeling them; for I imagine myself to be living as it were in a kind of dream, and I see that when this has passed, all things will be nothing at all.
[260] in the renunciation "XL. God imparts to me more ardent desires, a greater affection for solitude, and also a greater renunciation of earthly things, as I said before, and this with the help of visions, through which I understand what all earthly things are. Even if I leave all my friends, men and women, and relatives, I reckon it as very little. Nay, parents and kinsfolk weary me very much whenever they hinder me even in the least in the service of God. I leave them with all liberty and joy; and so I find peace in all things. XLI. Some things that were counselled me while I was in prayer have been found to be most true. Accordingly, as regards the favours I receive from God, I find I have advanced more; but as regards the service I owe him on my part, that I have fallen off more for the worse, because I have been given greater consolation than I deserved: although my slight fervour and the exceptional honour which others pay me often torment me greatly."
[261] of love of self and of the world, Here a line had been drawn, such as this is: But presently she continues: "XLII. Almost nine months or thereabouts have now passed since I wrote what is written here in my hand. Since that time, as I was not ungrateful for these favours received from God, I seem to have received from him anew (as I at least understand) a far greater liberty. Until now I seemed to need the help of another, and to rely more on the support of worldly men. But now I see clearly that these are nothing but certain twigs of dry rosemary, and that it is not safe to lean on them: for as soon as some weight of contradictions and murmurings has pressed upon them, they are at once broken. Wherefore, taught by experience, I consider that there is no stronger prop against falling than to cling to the cross and to trust in him who was fastened to it. For I find that he is the true friend, and in him I feel myself so powerful that I seem able to resist the whole world, if it opposed me, provided God does not forsake me. XLIII. Formerly I used to rejoice whenever I found men friendly; but now, having understood this clear truth, I care little for it: nay rather this goodwill afflicts me in a measure, except that of those with whom I confer about the things of the soul, or of those whom I think I can profit: for by the former I should very much like to be loved, that they may bear with me; and by the latter, that they may believe me with greater affection when I say that all created things are mere vanity.
[262] in evenness of mind "XLIV. In the very great labours, persecutions and contradictions by which I have been harassed in these months, God has given me the greatest constancy; and that the greater, the sharper the vexations were, so that I was in no way wearied in suffering. And I was so far from wishing ill to those who opposed me that I even seemed to be borne towards them with a new love; how this came about, however, I do not know: it proceeded, namely, from the divine right hand. XLV. If I desire anything, by my nature I am wont to desire it with the greatest impulse: but now my desires are so quiet that, when I see them fulfilled, I scarcely understand whether I rejoice. For the affection of sadness and gladness, except in prayer, is so tempered in me that I seem unaware, and so I pass some days. XLVI. Very great, however, are the impulses of embracing austerity which I sometimes experience and have experienced: and if I practise any, it seems to me so slight compared with that great desire that at times, and almost always, it seems to me a special recreation; although that which I practise is slight on account of the weakness of my body.
[263] and generosity, "XLVII. It is often a very grievous pain to me, and now the very greatest, that I must take food: and it must be greatest when I am in prayer; because it draws a flood of tears from me and compels me to complain, without my perceiving it, which yet I do not remember having done even when I had to undergo the gravest labours in this life: for in things of this kind I do not have a woman's spirit, but a certain manly constancy. I feel in myself also more intensely than usual the desire that God may have fervent servants, who may serve him with the greatest renunciation of all things and cling to nothing earthly, since I see that all things are vanities; and especially learned men, because I see that the needs of the Church are great (for these so afflict me that I think it foolish to be cast down with grief over any other matter): therefore I commend them to God with constant prayers; because I know that one person placed in the highest degree of perfection with the true fervour of divine love can profit the Church more than very many with their lukewarmness.
[264] in faith, hope "XLVIII. In matters of faith (as it appears to me at least) I see that I display greater fortitude; for I would set myself alone against all the Lutherans, to lay open their errors to them: and indeed I can only behold with grief and pity the loss of so many souls. I see that many souls have advanced in the way of the Lord through my work; which I clearly see that God has willed. I perceive too that my soul advances daily more and more in his love through his kindness. It seems to me that, even if I wished, I could not be puffed up with vainglory; nor do I see how I could persuade myself that any of these virtues is mine: because not much time has passed since I saw that I had no virtue for very many years; and even now on my part I do nothing else than receive graces, and render no service, no differently from the thing which is most barren in the whole world. And indeed I sometimes weigh with myself how, while all are advancing for the better, I myself am useful for nothing at all. And this is assuredly not humility, but truth; and because I see myself so useless, I sometimes fear lest I be deluded by the demon. And so I see clearly that these gains have accrued to me through those revelations and raptures: for on my part I am nothing, nor do I contribute anything else to this than a useless log. But this bids me conceive confidence and be more secure; and accordingly I cast myself into the divine arms and trust my desires: for I know for certain that they are such that I am ready to meet death for him and to cast away all rest, at whatever cost to myself.
[265] and charity "XLIX. Sometimes, rather often in the day, there comes to my memory that saying of St. Paul (although I am certain that it is not so done in me), so that I now seem not to live myself, nor to speak, nor to have any will, but think that there is someone in me by whom I am ruled and comforted, and that I am in some way rapt outside myself, and in short living itself seems to me a most bitter cross. But the greatest good that I render for such service is that, although it is so bitter to me to be separated from him, yet for his love I wish to live. And I desire that this life be overwhelmed with the greatest labours and persecutions: for since I am useful for nothing, I should wish to be useful at least for this, to suffer for him. And indeed I would gladly undergo all the labours that are in the world, to procure for myself even a little greater merit, that is, to carry out his will the more. I have understood nothing so far while in prayer, although many years have passed since then, that I have not seen actually fulfilled. But the things I see and understand of the great works of God, and of the way in which he himself has directed them, are so great that I scarcely ever begin to think of them without my understanding failing me, since I see things that transcend the grasp of the mind; and thereupon I recollect my soul. Moreover, God guards me so diligently lest I offend him anywhere that I am sometimes astounded, seeing with what care he labours over me, so that on my part I contribute scarcely anything to it, inasmuch as I was a sea of iniquities and malices before these things befell me, so that I did not seem able even to restrain myself from sinning. And the reason why I wish these things to be known by all is this, that in this way the great power of God may be acknowledged. Blessed be he for ever. Amen."
[266] she advanced: When these things were finished, then, with the name of Jesus prefixed, as she was accustomed to do at the head of all her writings
d, she speaks thus:
I H̄ S.
"This account which is placed above, not written in my hand, is the one which I wrote out for my confessor, and which he himself copied in his own hand, taking away or adding nothing. He was versed in spiritual things as few are, and great in the theological sciences; with him I conferred about all the affairs of my soul, and he himself dealt about them with other learned men, among whom was Father Mancio. Nothing has been noted by them in these things which is not in the highest degree in agreement with the Sacred Scriptures. This judgement of theirs, moreover, brings great security to my soul, although I recognize that, as long as the Lord leads me by this road, I ought not in any way to trust myself: and so I have always done, although it is very grievous to me. Let Your Reverence see that all these things remain closed under the seal of Confession, as I have already asked of you before."
[267] and so making greater progress daily Thus far are the words of Mother Teresa of Jesus, in copying which, although I have wearied myself somewhat, yet it has brought me the greatest pleasure to have inserted them here; because I believe more is contained in them than I have said so far in the whole book: so much so that, even if the book contained nothing else besides these, it would deserve to be tolerated and read for these alone. One thing, moreover, comes to be noted here, namely that all the things contained in them certainly happened to her when she was still living in the convent of the Incarnation, before she went off to the foundations of the monasteries; nay more, that that first Account, which is copied in another's hand, was made at the beginning of her conversion, when she began seriously and from the heart to give herself to God and to be prevented by him with supernatural graces, two years, I say, after it (as may evidently be gathered from numbers VII, XXX, XXXII, XXXVII and XLVIII, lest I be compelled to repeat the same things here at greater length). A year and more meanwhile passed when she wrote the second Account; and the last nine months after, as may be gathered from its beginning.
[268] she arrived From all these things together, moreover, it may be gathered to how great perfection she arrived in so short a time; which is truly astounding. She, then, who from her very beginning arrived at so sublime a summit of perfection, to what summit does it become likely that she arrived after so many years, since she was daily heaped with so many graces, soothed God with so many austerities and labours, founded so many monasteries, claimed so many souls for God, practised such constant exercises of prayer and mortification, and in short afterwards collected so incomparable a treasure of good works? If, then, her beginnings were so exceptional that they reach even to the completion of the most perfect, so that that common proverb which was in use when Quintilian was a boy seems to have place here, that even the sources of great rivers are navigable (Quintilian, book VIII, chapter III), with how great glory is it likely that she is now endowed in heaven; since to merit it after all these things there was need of so much greater perfection, which she procured for herself with such zeal and labour over so many years?
[269] to the highest perfection of life. Hence, if anyone has seen in her daughters some exceptional virtues and supernatural things, let him know that they nevertheless cannot and ought not on that account to be compared with their Mother, because they are far from that goal of perfection to which she attained; and let him know that she precedes them all together by so much greater an interval as a most wise and prudent mother surpasses her younger little daughters in wisdom, understanding and size of body. Which I think all will confess not unwillingly and from the heart, because I look up to them as humble: but if any one should deny it, she would have to confess it before the others, and less account would have to be taken of her than of the others; and she too would stray very far from this mark, since she would be so destitute either of intelligence or of humility. It is to be noted here, moreover, how singularly the blessed Mother herself wished to take care that these Accounts should be kept in silence, and how on the contrary the Lord took pains to bring them to light, and permitted that they should at length come into my hands after an interval of so many years; when even the very characters, inasmuch as they had been written long ago, almost escaped the eyes of the readers. May his greatness be sung for ever, who so honours those who for his sake trample all honour underfoot.
ANNOTATIONS.
BOOK FIVE.
PROLOGUE.
Why the author has treated more at length of the Saint's virtues.
Ribera has discoursed at length So many and such exceptional things presented themselves to be related concerning the admirable virtues of Mother Teresa that the fourth book had to be very long; and it was truly necessary that that image which I proposed here to express in its own colours should be polished and perfected, so that it might appear natural and living, or rather might in some measure represent nature: for although I strove to do this more studiously than in the other books and was therefore more prolix, yet I did not dwell on it more than was right. Not on that account, however, would I dare to say that she has been delineated by me as was indeed fitting; both because I could by no means have attained to that, and because this humble virgin kept her secret to herself, and always endeavoured, as far as was lawful for her, to keep in silence the favours received from God and the labours which with the help of his grace she endured. And of those things which she could by no means conceal, no small part has perished, buried in oblivion; but those that remained I have collected with the greatest care, lest they be entirely lost through the injury of time.
[2] of the heroic virtues of St. Teresa, I therefore beseech my readers not to form a conjecture about Mother Teresa's virtues from these few things which I have been able to bring forward here: let them rather know that many more existed, and that other things, which are perhaps far more sublime and deserve greater admiration, still remain to be told. It remains, therefore, that I add round about this image its ornament, the miracles, I mean, and great works with which God deigned to adorn and illustrate her, especially for the sake of those who can scarcely persuade themselves that anyone has been conspicuous for sanctity of life unless it is disclosed and confirmed by miracles. Add to this that miracles profit everyone: for, as St. Gregory asserts, just as the life of the soul enclosed in the body is known by the motion of the body, so the power of the same soul when it has gone out of the body is shown by the virtue of miracles. Which very thing I shall begin to declare as soon as possible: for since this last book is to be short, it is not fitting either that the preface be too drawn out.
[3] in order to encourage her readers to the imitation of them. For the rest, those who are going to read this history, which (setting aside the errors which have come in on my part) deserves to be read by all and to be highly esteemed, because the wonders of God shine forth in this work, I should wish above all to be asked not to be content with admiring such exceptional and diverse virtues, but also to labour to imitate them with the help of divine grace. For this reason I have brought them out here, and have brought forward the admonitions and counsels Teresa gave concerning them. And although these things have been said to all, because many things in them are to be imitated
by all, of whatever order and state they may be, yet these things are especially suited to those who have professed Religion, and above all to those received into this same Order of the Discalced; since God has deigned to set before their eyes so perfect an example of religious life, and to teach them how they can cheerfully arrive at perfection and become possessed of it with little labour, and in short what consolation and what admirable fruits they taste when they have attained it. For this reason I have deliberately departed from the common style of those who write the Lives of the Saints, since most of them spend the chief part of their history in the narration of miracles: but I, although I have much to say in this part too, have rather studied to recount her virtues; because one cannot easily imitate the former, but can imitate the virtues. And indeed, if we have been imitators of the virtues of the Saints, we shall also be able with easy effort to imitate them in the working of wonders; and even if these should be lacking to us, yet that glory which they enjoy in heaven will by no means be lacking to us, if we are true and perfect emulators of them.
Chapter I.
The translations of St. Teresa's body.
Chap. I.
At the end of the third book it was related how the holy body of Teresa (by which as by an instrument the Holy Spirit had worked so many prodigies in her life) was laid up in the convent of the Discalced nuns at Alba, The body of St. Teresa in exactly that place in which she herself had foretold that it would be deposited and preserved; so that the event declared that she had understood this of her own body. Now let us return to it; for if, while she lived, God deigned to perform illustrious works through his handmaid, as we have already narrated, we shall find that he did no less while she was dead a. In that first year, then, the nuns used to go to visit their Mother's body out of devotion; and if any of them fell asleep beside it, she was at times awakened by some noise so that she might apply herself to prayer. Not rarely a sweet fragrance emanated from it, although there was a dense mass of stones and lime thrown over it. This sweetness of scent, moreover, was perceived especially on those days on which the festal memory of the Saints whom Teresa had honoured with special devotion was being kept: and at length it became almost ordinary at the tomb. This odour was most sweet, and not always the same: sometimes it recalled the fragrance of lilies, sometimes of jasmine and violets; at other times you would not have known what to call it like.
[2] Hence a burning desire of inspecting this body came upon the religious: incorrupt and fragrant for since it gave out so sweet a scent that the odour was perceived even by outsiders, it seemed impossible that it should be dissolving into putrefaction. So when Jerónimo Gracián the provincial had come to Alba, the nuns reported to him what was going on, asking him to permit the body to be inspected. Since this proposal did not in the least displease the Father, they began to remove the stones; but so great was their quantity that not even in four days did he with a companion suffice to carry them away. And since some of these stones had fallen onto straw, and a nun many days later stuffed with this the bed of a certain novice admitted into the Order, she perceived that the very straw also was fragrant: and searching for the cause of this and marvelling, she at length found that the fragrance had clung to the straw from the stones that had happened to be thrown onto it. So on the fourth day before the Nones of July in the year 1583 the coffin was opened, in the ninth month after the burial: and it was, on account of excessive damp, decayed in the upper part and half-rotten and mossy, yet giving out a most sweet scent. For while the stones were being laid on, lime had first been thrown in, whose moisture had penetrated even to the body. All the garments had dissolved in rottenness and smelt of damp. The holy body, however, was filled with earth which had penetrated through the rotten coffin, and also full of mould; but otherwise as sound and entire as if it had been recently laid in the earth. For just as the Lord, while she lived, kept it untouched by any carnal foulness in the most perfect virginity, so also when dead he preserved it from all corruption; and he would not have worms rage against that over which unchaste fires had exercised no right. Almost all her garments were then taken from her (for she had been committed to the earth clothed in all of them), and the body was washed and cleansed of earth: and thence a great and admirable fragrance was diffused through the whole house, and was perceived there for some days. I myself received a little of this earth: which breathed so new a sweetness that no one knew how to designate an odour like it, except that one of our Fathers said that it was the same which a certain large bone of St. Lawrence the Martyr, preserved in the college at Ávila, exhaled. But the fragrance which the body breathes forth is great and strong, and so new that no one has ever perceived its like.
[3] in the year 1585 The body, moreover, clothed in new garments and wrapped in a linen cloth, was replaced in the same place as before, enclosed in a chest, which is open to the view of all who enter the church, because the place is open and exposed. But before it was replaced, the provincial took away her left hand; which afterwards he himself carried to Lisbon, to be preserved in the convent of the Discalced nuns, which had been founded not long before. In this place, then, the holy body remained, to the very great solace of the nuns, and was diligently preserved by them and visited with a great sense of devotion. After this the Discalced Fathers, on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of November 1585, began a provincial chapter at Pastrana, in which it was decreed that the holy body should be secretly translated from Alba to the monastery of St. Joseph at Ávila, in which Teresa had begun her Reform and over which at the time of her death she presided with the office of prioress. They were moved to this chiefly by the zeal of Álvaro de Mendoza, prelate of Palencia, who had promised that he would build the principal chapel of that monastery and in the best place in it would set up a tomb for Teresa and afterwards another for himself; since, in keeping with his pious affection for her, he did not wish to be separated from her even by death. It pleased the Fathers, therefore, to comply with his pious wish. The matter was entrusted to Fr. Gregory Nazianzen, provincial vicar of Castile; and orders were also given him to leave one arm, cut off, at Alba for the solace of the nuns. Letters too were added, by which power was given him to carry away the body, signed on the same day, at about half past seven in the evening: at which hour also a thing happened at Alba that was astonishing, yet true; whoever wishes to know it in detail, let him consult the nuns of Alba.
[4] from the monastery of Alba, These, namely, when at this hour they were in the place of recreation, talking among themselves of the matters which they thought were to be discussed in the chapter, heard not far from them three rather loud knocks one after another, and these also repeated afterwards; by which they believed a signal was being given at the turn of the sacristy by someone who perhaps had been shut in unawares. Then not long after, the portress, inquiring as diligently as she could whether anyone had stayed behind in the church, having heard three similar knocks, reported it to the sisters. Then the prioress said: "Let us not trouble about these things, dearest ones; for perhaps the devil is eager to disturb our quiet." But then another nun asserted that this noise seemed undoubtedly to have been made in the coffin in which the sacred pledge was laid up; for the tomb was not far from the turn I have mentioned. Nor was she mistaken. But what it was they did not then know; until at length, declaring the matter to Fr. Gregory Nazianzen, they learned from him that at that very hour the letters which he had brought had been sealed. Hence the opinion settled in all that Teresa had wished by this sign to bid farewell to her nuns. And so it came about: for in the following month of November Gregory came to Alba, and on the vigil of St. Catherine, that is, the seventh day before the Kalends of December, having ordered the nuns to go to the upper choir to recite the Office of Matins, he himself, remaining in the lower one with the prioress and two or three of the senior nuns, when he had read his letters to them and disclosed the power received from the chapter, they took out the sacred pledge very secretly and hastily; which was then no less entire than before and exhaling the same fragrance that we have mentioned, although now a little drier and more bloodless: but the garments had almost entirely rotted.
[5] only the left arm being left there, Then too, in my judgement, two manifest miracles appeared in that place, besides that principal one by which that virginal and most pure body was immune from all corruption. The first is that, since blood had flowed from Teresa as she was dying, and a small woollen mantle, white and new, in which she was clothed, had been filled with it, after three years and two months had now elapsed the blood breathed a pleasant fragrance; and when a small piece of linen was put into this mantle, it gradually became red, imbued with blood. I myself have seen a part of this cloth, as also many others which were dyed by it, without their being moistened and without anything else being done to them than that they were applied to this cloth for one day. And it is truly like a prodigy that so excellent a fragrance should be noted in this blood. The other was that, after that sacred pledge had been taken out of the coffin, when Fr. Gregory Nazianzen, very unwillingly indeed (for, as he himself told me, he believed that in no case had he ever offered God more perfectly the sacrifice of his will), in order to obey the command of his superiors, had drawn the knife which he had hanging from his girdle to cut off the arm which he was to leave at Alba, and had already put it to the left arm (whose hand had been taken away, and which had been dislocated when the demon threw her down from the stairs), with easy effort, no force being used, just as if he had cut a melon or fresh cheese (as he himself asserted), it fell off at the joints of the shoulder, no less readily than if he had explored them by probing for a long time. Thus, then, the arm was separated from the body.
[6] it is carried to Ávila; So he took the body, wrapped in a linen cloth, and at once carried it himself to the door. But while meanwhile a most sweet fragrance was flowing from it, the nuns who were in the choir began to suspect that the sacred pledge was being carried off from them; wherefore, following the trail of the scent, they flew to the door. But since Gregory had already gone out and the door of the house had been closed, they returned sadly to their places, having only their Mother's arm and a part of the cloth soaked with blood. Gregory, then, thinking there must be no delay, departed that very night for Ávila, lest the townspeople of Alba should raise a tumult when the matter was discovered. At Ávila, moreover, the pledge was received with rejoicing and honourably placed in that spot where all the nuns might view it and delight in it. It was placed first in the chapter room, with curtains hung on either side of the bier. Afterwards a longer coffin was prepared for it in the form of a tomb, which they lined inside with fine violet linen, with cords made of mixed silk and silver drawn round about: but outside it was covered with black velvet, which lines interwoven with gold and silk adorned. Further, the nails, locks, keys and hinges of the coffin shone with gold; and there hung from it two shields, of gold and of silver, in which
in one the insignia of the Order, in the other the Most Holy Name of Jesus was inscribed: and on this tomb, on a cover of cloth of gold, this inscription was embroidered with the needle: Mother Teresa of Jesus. This cenotaph I myself saw afterwards; and although it did not enclose the body, yet the fragrance clung to it.
Chap. II.
[7] and there by the bishop and physicians At that time care was diligently taken that no talk should spread among the people about the integrity of the body or about its removal to Ávila; because meanwhile it seemed fitting so. But afterwards it seemed better to some who were aware of the matter that physicians and some theologians should be called in, who, having inspected it more carefully, might determine whether it could happen by natural power, or whether that integrity was to be ascribed to a prodigy, so that what they had judged might then be entered in records. For this reason they asked María of St. Jerome, the prioress of this house, to set down in writing the whole course of the matter; but she resolved to publish nothing before she had obtained permission from the provincial. He, however, was so far from disapproving this diligence that he at once sent letters signifying permission, which arrived in the evening of the day before the Kalends of January. And since the Lord wished these things to be done quickly and his great works to become known, at the same hour there arrived at Ávila Fr. Diego de Yepes, then superior of the Hieronymites of Madrid, the licentiate Laguna, auditor of the royal council, and also Francisco Contreras, today auditor of Granada; who did not hesitate to hasten from Madrid to Ávila, not without labour and in cold weather, merely for the sake of seeing this prodigious thing b. They alighted at the house of the prelate, Pedro Fernández de Temiño, and declared to him what a pledge he had lying hidden in his city. He, therefore, having learned the whole matter from his treasurer Juan Carrillo, who was privy to the secret, informed the prioress by a messenger that the next day at the ninth hour he would be present with the aforesaid men. So when the next day dawned, which was the first day of the year 1586, at the appointed hour the bishop came to the convent with his counsellors and two physicians and others, so that they made up the number of twenty. Fr. Diego de Yepes, Julián de Ávila, priest, and the two physicians, having entered the cloister, brought out the holy body from there c, and having laid it on a carpet in the vestibule, the outer door having been carefully shut and most of them carrying lighted torches in their hands, they uncovered it; and the bishop and all his companions, with bared heads and on their knees, looked upon it with veneration, not without the greatest admiration and tears.
[8] its incorruption is declared to be miraculous. The physicians, inspecting everything more carefully, confirmed that nothing natural lay beneath this, but that the thing was truly miraculous; as also, when they had returned to the bishop's house in the evening, they deposed, bringing forward some reasons in confirmation of the matter. But the matter was so evidently plain that there was no need of many. For who would deny that a body never opened nor embalmed, to which no preservative and no liquid of spices had been added, remaining after three years and three months so incorrupt that no part of its integrity was lacking, and exhaling so admirable a fragrance, is a work of the right hand of the Almighty and transcending all natural power? Nor did they marvel less when they saw the linen cloth soaked with blood so fresh and fragrant. Then the prelate, turning to the nuns, affirmed that the treasure they were guarding was truly precious, and that nothing more in the world seemed therefore to be desired by them. At the same time he also enjoined that they should keep it becomingly and should no longer use for other purposes the carpet on which the sacred pledge had been laid. Then, interposing the penalty of anathema, he forbade anyone to divulge what had been seen; but they could not keep silent, saying again and again: "Oh! What admirable and astonishing things we have seen!" and they burned with such ardour to make the matter known that, the bishop being compelled to rescind the threatened curses, the thing became known throughout the whole town.
[9] But by order of the Supreme Pontiff In this state were things at Ávila, but at Alba far otherwise. For while the sacred relics were being taken from there, Antonio de Toledo, the duke d, had not yet returned from Navarre, and Fernando de Toledo, prior of St. John e, his uncle, was also absent from the town at that time. The latter, when he learned of the matter, began to be indignant, both because he was most devoted to the blessed Mother, and because he saw what a precious thing his town had lost: for he considered that the injury had been done not so much to the duke as to himself, to whom the absent duke had entrusted all care of his affairs. Then, coming to the monastery with a public notary, he declared to the prioress and the nuns, under a heavy penalty, that they should on no account hand over to anyone the arm of Teresa which remained to them. Then, solicitous about the body itself too, he sent letters to Rome and effected so much with the Supreme Pontiff that he commanded the Discalced Fathers to bring back the sacred remains to Alba as soon as possible and restore them to the prioress and the house of Alba, and, if they had any objection to make, to bring it forward before him either in person or by a procurator sent.
[10] in the year 1586 As soon as Fr. Nicolás of Jesus and Mary, who was then administering the province, understood the mandate of the Supreme Pontiff, he betook himself without delay to Ávila, and from there had the body secretly carried to Alba by Fr. Juan Bautista, prior of Pastrana. He and Fr. Nicolás of St. Cyril, then superior of the house of Mancera, arrived at Alba with the sacred relics on the day before the feast of St. Bartholomew in the same year 1586. Yet they were carried so secretly that no one could know what was being carried; and they then restored them to the monastery at about eight in the morning. They had not long entered the house at Alba when I arrived at the same place, intending to go to Ávila to see the holy body, because I was possessed by a great desire of beholding it; so that, if I had arrived a little sooner, I should have found it before the door and satisfied my wish. As soon as the matter was made public in the town, the townspeople and clergy were preparing to testify their rejoicing with a solemn procession and harmonious music: but the provincial, because he was depositing the holy body there not as to remain perpetually but as it were on loan, intending only to obey the command of the Supreme Pontiff, forbade any pomp to be used; and wished it only to be handed over to the nuns in such a way that testimony of the handing over should be produced. Juan Bautista, therefore, diligently carrying out the orders received from his superior, did not depart even a nail's breadth from what was prescribed.
[11] it is brought back to Alba; Thereupon the venerable pledge was placed in the lower choir, and, with the duke at the grille together with his mother the Countess of Lerín, it was shown to the dense multitude filling the church, with many candles lighted. And when the prior of Pastrana asked the nuns whether they truly recognized it as the body of Mother Teresa of Jesus and knew for certain that this had been really handed over to them, all answered that it was she, and the whole multitude of people standing by asserted that they recognized the same body: and the testimony of all of them was written down by the public notary. And indeed it was necessary to set the body behind the grille: for so great a multitude flocked together, so great was the ardour of all to see, so great the rush of those streaming in, that, if the sacred pledge had been exposed in the front part of the church, the people, having cut off pieces of the garments, would not have spared even the body itself. And through the whole afternoon so dense a crowd flocked together to see this miracle that they could neither shut it out, nor could we ourselves who were in the inner part go out, except late at night; because no satiety of seeing took hold of the people.
[12] where Ribera himself sees it. The townspeople, however, not believing that the Fathers would leave these sacred relics at Alba, set public guards, lest they be carried away thence by anyone: nay more, they asked the nuns by public authority not to allow them to be carried away by anyone, rejoicing greatly that the sacred pledge had been brought back to them. Of all these things I myself am an eyewitness, who contemplated it at leisure within the grille, and then kissed her feet, though very hurriedly: for although evening was already coming on and the doors of the church were being shut, yet outsiders were blocking our access. I shall record here another thing no less wonderful, of which I am a competent witness; for it happened in my own case. On the same evening the Discalced Fathers who had brought Teresa's body to Alba, when they had turned in to sup at the same inn at which I had arrived with a companion, behold, the habit in which the body had been clothed was brought to them, that they might take it back to Ávila; because the nuns of Alba had given her another habit: and it was brought folded and so wrapped in a coverlet that the stuffing showed outside. Going nearer to it, I perceived a most sweet fragrance coming forth from it: and it remained in this place for nearly three quarters of an hour. When the Fathers had gone, I at once hurried to that room in which they had lodged; to which, from that very little space of time in which the folded habit had stayed in it, so great a fragrance clung that I at once perceived and evidently recognized it. Not long after, when my companion had come to the same place, being asked by me whether he perceived anything, he answered that he did and that the fragrance was very well perceived. Nay, that very night, as I lay in this room, whenever I woke from sleep I perceived the same fragrance and recognized it well.
[13] By apostolic letters it is decreed From that time up to the present the holy body has remained at Alba, together with the arm; but only very rarely is opportunity given of seeing it. Namely, when the Discalced nuns of Ávila, with the whole city, were striving that the sacred remains should be brought back to Ávila, Antonio de Toledo, Duke of Alba and commander of the military affairs of the kingdom of Navarre, and at the same time Fernando de Toledo, prior of St. John, since they wished it to remain at Alba partly for their own sake, partly for the sake of the convent and town of Alba, referred the case to the Most Holy Father Sixtus V, the Roman Pontiff: by whose authority Cesare Speciano, bishop of Novara, Apostolic Nuncio, being appointed judge of the matter, pronounced in the month of December of the year 1588 that Alba should be the perpetual resting place of Teresa's body. And when an appeal had then been made from this sentence to the Pontiff, he himself confirmed it on the sixth day before the Ides of July 1589, with all the authority and gravity of words that was necessary, and with all the firmness that could be desired. And so it will be laid up there in a magnificent tomb, which the prior of St. John (who was the chief author of keeping the body at Alba) has promised that he will provide.
[14] that the body should remain at Alba perpetually. Nor shall I omit here how, before the body was brought back to Alba, the Lord himself showed it beforehand from heaven. For one month before it returned, in that very place in which it was afterwards laid and rests today, a certain nun, while she was in prayer in the upper choir, saw a most brilliant star; whose brightness was such that the other stars compared with it seemed to lack light. Then the same nun saw in the lower choir a most refulgent light, which displayed an incomparable and admirable beauty. Whence she understood that a singular good fortune was impending over the house; and after the body had come back home, then at length she perceived that this had been foreshown to her by prodigies.
ANNOTATIONS.
Chapter II.
The state of the arm and of the body of St. Teresa. Several apparitions of her after death.
Chap. III.
Ribera describes Whoever reads these things will, I think, wish to know more particularly in what state that body is: which I shall not unwillingly describe for them here, since I inspected it rather carefully and attentively, so that I might be able to give out the description which I am now about to give. I shall begin it from the arm a, which I have handled rather often; then I shall describe the body itself. The arm is plainly entire from the joint of the shoulder, except that it is cut off at the hand, which I have already said before was carried to Lisbon. It is, however, both because it is the one which was once dislocated and broken in the fall from the stairs, and because it is maimed of its hand, whence some vigour has gradually vanished from it, less fleshy than that which still adheres to the body; yet it has enough flesh, although before it had more, because it is now somewhat dried out: its colour is plainly the same as that of dates; its flesh like dried flesh; the skin is wrinkled lengthwise, as it is wont to be in persons formerly stout and afterwards leaner. Nevertheless it is entire and clothed with its down; and I have very often seen and touched it. It is kept by the nuns always wrapped in a clean cloth; which cloth gradually becomes moist with a certain unguent, as it were oil flowing from it, and is as greasy as if it had been dipped in oil or some similar liquid: which liquid indeed breathes the same fragrance as the arm and the body.
[16] what he observed, both in the left arm Very many cloths have been soaked with it, and given hitherto to various persons as certain sacred relics: nay, even now they are given and soaked; although now this liquid flows in somewhat smaller quantity, because the flesh is losing its vigour. This flesh, moreover, no corruption can waste, just as if it were of bronze: nay, even the smallest morsel of flesh, even half a fingernail thick, will not lose its fragrance, provided it is well wrapped, even through the most intense heats of summer, even if it is carried from the neck or on the breast or in another extremely warm place. This is most certain, inasmuch as it has now been learned by long use and daily sight: so much so that both he who has much of the flesh of Mother Teresa of Jesus and he who has little, as regards duration and incorruption, is just as if he had a bone of another Saint. The first time I received that arm into my hands, it was before noon; and the fragrance which the flesh exhales clung to them: by which I was so refreshed that, even when about to take dinner, I would not wash them, lest I lose this fragrance. But in vain, namely, did I fear this: for when I afterwards washed them, the same remained constant; nay even after I had gone to bed, I smelled the same on my hands. Besides this, so unusual a feeling of devotion came to me at that time that I both perceived it clearly and it remained in my mind continuously for fifteen days. The body, moreover, I contemplated at leisure on the eighth day before the Kalends of April, on the very day of the Incarnation of Christ the Lord, in the year 1588: and since I inspected it rather attentively, as one who had resolved to give testimony of that matter, which I give here, I shall therefore be able to describe it fittingly.
[17] and in the body of St. Teresa The body, then, is upright, although bending forward a little, as the gait of old people is wont to be; yet from it it can easily be conjectured that she was rather tall. Moreover, it is so solid that, if you support the armpits with your hand, it can stand on its feet and be clothed and unclothed, no differently than if she were alive. It is of the colour of dates, of which I have already said the arm also is, although in some parts tending more to whiteness. The darker part of the body is the face; for because the veil fell on it and clung to it with much dust, it was treated worse than the other parts of the body: but otherwise its integrity stands, so that not even the tip of the nose is diminished. The hair is the same as when it was first committed to the earth. The eyes are dry, since their moisture has gradually dried up; but otherwise entire. Those warts which she had on her face remain, with their hairs. She has her mouth so closed that it can in no way be opened. The shoulders are fleshier than the other parts of the body.
[18] he himself observed; That part from which the arm was cut off is juicy; and the juice clings to the hand of one handling it and breathes the same fragrance as the body. She has a well-formed hand, set in the manner of one blessing, although the fingers are not entire. Those who cut them off I do not praise: for the hand which performed such wonderful works, and which God willed to survive entire, should have been left entire. The feet are very pretty and enjoy a just measure. The whole body is very full of flesh. And the fragrance which it exhales does not differ from that which comes forth from the arm; although it is stronger. For my part I drew such consolation from the deeper uncovering of this hidden treasure that I believe no happier day has dawned for me in my whole life, and my eye could by no means be satiated with looking at it. But I cannot but grieve while I fear lest one day, either at the demand of great persons or at the urgent prayers of monasteries, it may have to be divided into pieces. Nor in my judgement is it to be divided, but to be left in exactly that state in which God has deigned to leave it; since it is a sign of the divine greatness and also of the most entire virginity of Mother Teresa and of her admirable sanctity. Those who either ask for this or grant it will truly not, in my opinion, be her genuine sons.
Chap. IV.
[19] After we have now treated of that exceptional miracle of the incorrupt body (which, and how the Saint appeared as we have already seen, involves other miracles in itself), I think it fitting to add a few things about very many other prodigies which the Most High has deigned to work both through it and through other things which touched it. For in this way he declares to men how much he himself esteems his faithful handmaid and wishes her to be esteemed by all, and that those who shall beg her salutary intercession will be heaped by him with singular graces. For this reason I shall begin with the visions, and shall tell in what manner after her death she appeared to various persons: and she gave herself to be seen so often that, if all her apparitions were to be narrated, many chapters would have to be composed of them, and perhaps an entire book. For just as the Lord showed St. Gertrude after her death to her nuns, visible in brilliant glory, and that rather often, to console them as they mourned for the death of their most sweet Mother (Insinuationes, book V, chapter 3), so too he deigned to console these his handmaids, prostrated by the departure of their Mother, whom they embraced so intimately. Nay, not through Gertrude alone, but also through some of her daughters already dead the Lord worked similar things (as is clear from some following chapters of the same book).
[20] to Teresa Laiz Sometimes an unusual splendour appeared at Teresa's tomb, and especially when it happened that some nun was departing from this life. And if any nuns talked among themselves in time of silence, three knocks were sometimes heard at the door of their cell, by which a sign was given as it were that the Mother was present there and was admonishing her daughters about silence. She was seen rather often, shining and glorious, in various forms, by very many of the Discalced of both sexes, whose prudence and piety are so great that there is no doubting these apparitions at all. Nevertheless, because they are so frequent, and one who does not know those to whom these visions happened will not give them the credence which they really deserve, I shall record here only some of the more useful and better known ones. Not long after the death of the blessed Mother, Teresa Laiz, the foundress of the convent at Alba, when she had fallen ill, being now a little better in the judgement of the physicians, saw her standing by her, clad and veiled in a white mantle: who with a smiling countenance gave her a sign with her hand to come to her. Laiz said to her: "Am I to die, Mother? Has the hour now come?" At this question the blessed Mother vanished from her eyes. Thereafter, as her health declined for the worse, she foretold that she would die shortly, as one called by the Mother. Wherefore, having set the affairs of her soul in safety, not long after she departed this life.
[21] to a certain Discalced Father, A certain excellent man of the family of the Discalced (whose name I spare here, because he is still alive) signified to another by letter that he no longer dared to be distressed at the death of Teresa of Jesus, because she sharply rebuked those who were saddened at her death and who complained about the labours to be undergone: since she received in heaven no more splendid reward for anything than for the labours which she suffered in the world; and, if she wished to return to earth for any cause, she would do so for no other than to suffer more. And presently he subjoins: "To a certain person b who not long ago saw her in the greatest glory and surrounded by a most brilliant light shining forth from I know not where (for he did not see that), she said: The heavenly ones and mortals together ought to be one in love and purity: the former beholding the divine Essence, the latter adoring the Most Holy Sacrament; towards which you ought to behave as we towards the Essence: we by enjoying, you by suffering; in this
for we differ: but the more you shall have borne, the more you shall possess. Tell this to my daughters." There remained engraved on the memory of him to whom this vision befell: "The Sacrament and labours." When Teresa departed from life, the opinion was settled in some that the labours and the speed of the journey by which she returned from Burgos to Alba had brought her death. But after her death, showing herself in glory to a certain Discalced religious, she said: "Let no one think that there was any other occasion of my death than an impulse of divine love, which came upon me so powerfully that mortal nature could not bear it c."
[22] to Catalina of Jesus, In the third book, when we were treating of the foundation of the house at Beas, we said much about those two sisters, its foundresses, who afterwards both devoted themselves to it: of whom the elder by birth, Catalina of Jesus, a nun of illustrious sanctity, died most holily while she was superior of that house. When she was lying sick in bed, on the day after the Mother had passed from life, two or three of the nuns standing by withdrew from there to talk secretly among themselves. She said to them that there was no reason for them to go aside: for if their secret communication was about Mother Teresa, she already knew it. On hearing this, they came up asking what the matter was. Then she answered that the Mother had died the day before and had appeared to her. She appeared to the same woman at other times too afterwards; and when she was afraid and did not dare to come nearer to the Mother, fearing that perhaps the apparition was not genuine, Teresa, reassuring her, said: "I praise you indeed for not being easy in believing; for I prefer that in these monasteries the pursuit of solid virtues be valued more than visions and revelations: but nevertheless, that you may see that this vision is not false, come near." When she had said this, she touched with her hand a certain hidden ulcer or wound under one breast, which no art of the surgeons had been able to cure, and also one of her hands, on which she had a certain ugly mark, round and black, which could be removed by no industry. So when the Mother vanished, Catalina saw both the abscess and the disfigurement of her hand removed: which cure caused great admiration in all who had seen her sick before and afterwards found her sound.
[23] to Catalina of the Conception, A year had now passed since Teresa's death, when a certain nun of Alba, named Catalina of the Conception, remarkable for offices of charity and pursuits of devotion, lay near death. So while the others were at the prayers of Matins, to one of them in recollection of mind the holy Mother appeared to come out of her tomb, carrying in one hand a remarkable turned cross, and with the other leading a nun whom she did not know: and the faces of both shone. Then, the Mother having entered the cell in which the sick woman lay and imparted her blessing, she gave up her soul not long after. Teresa had especially wished that Beatriz de Ovalle, the daughter of her sister Juana de Ahumada d, should give herself to the community of the Discalced nuns; but she had so far been unable to bring her mind to this: until in a dream she thought she saw her deceased aunt in the coffin in which she was buried, raised up to the middle of her body and inviting her in a friendly way, and, when she was now near, speaking to her kindly, as she had been accustomed to while living. Among other things, moreover, she seemed to hear these words from her: "How long, then, will you shrink from professing the monastic life?" Then Beatriz answered that she was already turning this over and would shortly be a nun. And truly she had already treated of this matter; yet she had not resolved to carry it out so quickly, nor before God should have inspired that desire in her and given her assurance that it would go well with her in Religion: whence she also said to Teresa that she was much distressed by this thought and feared lest perhaps the matter should turn out badly for her. The Mother answered that this was not to be feared; for most certainly it would go well with her: wherefore she should at last firmly resolve to carry out her purpose. She forbade her, moreover, to communicate about this matter with anyone except a certain pious man whom she herself was wont to consult. And so the dream ended; although this was not the only means used with Beatriz.
[24] to Beatriz de Ovalle For my part I should not make much of this nor have recorded it here, had not the great effects which followed compelled me to believe that it was something greater than a dream; as they compelled others also, to whom it was clear how averse in mind Beatriz was to the religious life. She was changed, therefore, and, wholly inclining to that which she had before shrunk from, she panted with all her zeal for the very place she had so feared; in which he whom she was permitted to consult was of the greatest help to her: and so within a few days she bound herself to the monastery; in which she has always lived in quiet, grieving only at this, that she had not dedicated herself to it sooner. One of the nuns, very eager to see this fulfilled, when she had heard in conversation certain things on account of which it seemed less likely to be brought to completion, betook herself to the tomb of the blessed Mother and urgently commended this business to her. And when she had composed herself for her night's rest, she saw the Mother in the habit which she used to wear while living, and with a smiling face, and asked her: "Will she, Mother, for whom I have entreated you, give her name to our Order?" When she had nodded assent with her head, she at once disappeared. And it settled firmly in this nun that the matter would be accomplished according to her wish; and indeed a few days after Beatriz joined the Institute.
[25] and to a nun of her Order What I now subjoin is more recent and most certain, although I deliberately conceal the name. A certain Discalced nun, grieving because she believed that she did not serve the Lord as entirely as she ought, one day, when she was most afflicted, fell into a great recollection of mind with a perfect knowledge of herself and a certain fear full of peace and love; and although she tried to struggle against it (because she was in a place in which she could be noticed by others), she was rapt into ecstasy of mind, filled with so immense a sweetness that it seemed none equal to it could be given her in the world. She saw herself surrounded by a splendid light, and in the midst of it Mother Teresa conspicuous as it were in a flowery circle; who held in her hands an open book reclining in her lap, whose characters were more beautiful than gold, saying: "Read, daughter." But she, suffused with shame, did not dare to raise her eyes to read. Then Teresa, as if smiling, moved her outstretched hand to her eyes. By this touch she was so refreshed inwardly that, whereas she seemed to herself to be half blind, she thought the darkness was removed from them. At once therefore raising her head, she was able to read the writing.
[26] being in affliction: And it was written in these words: "My Spouse has your will, that he may use it according to his will, always going against you." The nun said to her: "How, Mother, am I to think that I shall have strength to accomplish so immense a thing, when I see myself so weak even in the least things?" Then Teresa said: "When you least think it, he himself will give them to you, and by bearing small things strength is gradually gathered for overcoming greater ones." Then the nun asked again: "In what way shall I please my Lord, Mother? Is the road I follow right?" Teresa answered: "Not by the road which you yourself desire: flee singularity, and allow yourself to be governed by him who is the director of your soul; and you will do well." The same nun at another time saw her clothed in the greatest light, in a most august form: when also with a certain great power and authority she put to flight the infernal enemy, who was striving to harm this religious, denying that he had any part in her; and inviting her to herself, she gave her courage, promising that this was happening to her for the greater good of her soul, and prescribing to her what was to be done that peace and conformity of minds might increase in the monastery. At the same time she disclosed an event which was to happen in that house, and which afterwards actually happened. To another nun she appeared in a glorious form, girded with a girdle gleaming with many carbuncles. That religious, marvelling at this appearance and asking what that jewelled girdle signified, heard that it had been given her on account of that ardent zeal with which she had always been zealous for souls.
[27] and to these apparitions There will not be lacking, I believe, those who will ask of me why credence should be given to the things I have set forth in this chapter; since these things can be known only from private persons, to whom perhaps, on account of their special affection for the Mother, these things may have seemed so merely in imagination. To answer them, I advise them not to believe more of these things than they wish, since I neither wish nor am able to compel them further. Nevertheless, if, putting off all perverse affection, they are willing to weigh the reasons which urge belief in these things, perhaps they will come to their senses and think otherwise. For this reason I ask them to read what has been written on this subject at the end of the third book. And again I would have them weigh this reason, which is of very great weight with me: since it is undoubted that true visions have been granted to some particular persons, which are to be held as such rather than those which tend to win authority for some excellent servant of God who has departed this life; since the evil demon is not wont to procure this, but on the contrary would diminish all their authority, if it could be done, and obscure their name, in order in this way to hinder both the increase of the divine glory and the profit of souls. But if that reason which they bring forward for not believing them (namely, that credence is not to be given to private witnesses, who could have been deceived by some affection) is of any weight, I shall say for my part that credence would seem to have to be denied to infinite other things of this kind, of which all the histories of the Saints, both new and old, are full.
[28] credence is not to be denied Gregory the Great relates that the soul of his sister Scholastica was seen by St. Benedict flying to heaven in the form of a dove (book II of the Dialogues, chapter XXXIV); and that the soul of Germanus, bishop of Capua, was seen by him going to the same place (Ibid., chapter XXXV). Benedict, though illustrious for sanctity of life, could doubtless have been deceived in some vision; but it would be wrong to affirm that he was deceived in those things which tended to procure name and authority for those holy souls. The same we shall say also of others inferior to him in sanctity. The same holy Doctor writes that to two monks there appeared a certain shining road, stretching from the cell of St. Benedict all the way to heaven, and that it was said to them that by this road the soul of that blessed Patriarch had entered the dwellings of heaven (Ibid., chapter XXXVII). But from whom could this be known except from these very religious, who were borne towards their Father with a certain intimate devotion? Or who would say that they were led to believe this by private affection and imagination? St. Bonaventure in the Life of St. Francis (chapter XIV) has recorded that his soul, recently departed, was seen by one of his companions going to heaven in the form of a star shining through a white cloud
He records also that Francis was seen by another, a sick monk, hastening to the heavenly ones; who, while he was begging him to wait for him, departed this life and flew away to the same place together with him. He adds that the same night he appeared to the bishop of Assisi, and signified that he was now going to heaven to be endowed with glory.
[29] shows. St. Antoninus has recorded things no less about St. Dominic; and that several Friars of the Order of Preachers individually saw the soul of this glorious man, having gone out of the body, rapt to the joys of paradise. The same author relates similar things of the soul of St. Thomas Aquinas: who he testifies was seen by very many, and especially by a certain Albert, to whom he appeared together with St. Augustine; and that it was likewise revealed to him that both were endowed with equal glory in heaven. The same author states that Francis gave himself to be seen by his disciple Rufinus when he was on the point of departing from life: Bonaventure also asserts that he appeared rather often after death to various persons, both men and women. Cyril of Jerusalem, in that Life of St. Jerome which he wrote to St. Augustine, writes that he showed himself several times to various persons after his death in glory. Sulpicius Severus has recorded that St. Martin was seen, illustrious with glory, borne into heaven, and that Angels were heard singing at his funeral. St. Paulinus, bishop of Nola, in the Life of St. Ambrose, which he sent to St. Augustine, says that his soul was seen by very many children recently dipped in the sacred font, by some sitting in his chair, by others ascending to heaven. Then he relates how the same prelate rather often appeared to certain private persons, from whom he himself received it. In a matter so manifest I do not wish to extend myself further: this one thing I shall add, that nothing can be given that is manifest to one who obstinately makes up his mind to believe nothing at all. These and very many other things similar to them, which occur in the authentic histories of the Saints, were seen only by certain private persons, from whom they were afterwards known by others: yet no wise man will say that these things seemed so to them merely on account of their private affection. This too we see happen in our own age: as may be read in the deeds of the holy Brother Luis Bertrán, which Vicente Justiniano of the Order of Preachers put forth in writing; and also in the Life of the holy Brother Pedro Nicolás, which Cristóbal Moreno, superior of the Franciscans in the province of Valencia, committed to writing: in which there occurs mention of similar visions, which were offered to individual persons; in the Life of Luis Bertrán, chapters XX and XXI, and in the Life of Pedro Nicolás, chapters L, LI and LII e.
ANNOTATIONS.
Chapter III.
Miracles through the Relics of St. Teresa's body and through cloths dyed with her blood.
Chap. V.
The Most High has hitherto worked and daily works very many miracles of every kind, Not a few healings because he wishes to honour his handmaid, who so greatly honoured him and always served him so faithfully. Passing over the lesser ones, I shall bring out only the more brilliant and those which seem more able to be called miracles: in recording which, that I may proceed in a fixed order, it has seemed good to reduce them to four heads. In the first I shall put those which have been done through the things pertaining to her body (such as are the body itself, the hand, the blood); in the second I shall comprise those which happened by the touch of her garments; in the third I shall include those which were effected by her image; in the fourth, lastly, will be contained those which were performed at her invocation, with no other thing added: although the Most High has deigned to perform very many, or almost all, of the others also at her invocation, yet here I understand only those which came about through the help of prayer alone. It is not necessary to repeat here anew those things which were done through the help of her body not yet committed to the earth; since mention has been made of them in the last chapter of book III, in which I have followed at greater length both her death and her burial: wherefore I shall bring forward here only those prodigies which God has deigned to perform through her when already buried.
[31] at Alba through the Saint's arm, Fr. Baeza, a Minorite of Alba, had an ear from which so viscous a humour flowed that it impaired his sense of hearing. When he had gone after Vespers to the house of the Discalced nuns and had applied Teresa's holy arm to his ear with great confidence, on that very same day he perceived that he was freed from both ills. And when not long after he related this to others, he insisted that it be entered in signed and attested records as a most manifest prodigy. Francisco Gómez, a carpenter of Alba, had for a month and a half and more suffered so from his eyes that he could do nothing at all; and the physicians had so far from removing the malady with their poultices that they had even increased it. The torment of one eye especially was so vehement that it seemed no longer pain but fury (as he himself said). Meanwhile he hastened to the Discalced nuns, and at the door begged as a suppliant that they would commend him to God in prayer and bestow on him something of the relics of Mother Teresa. The portress advised him to go at once to the church, where the arm of the blessed Mother was then being shown, and to ask that it be applied to his head and eyes. While this was being done, at the same instant, as he himself now confesses, the pain began to diminish, and thereafter to decrease more and more daily; so that five days after he went off to work free of all pain, no other remedy having been applied. And he who before feared that he would entirely lose his eyesight says that through Teresa's merits he has now obtained most clear-sighted and sharpest eyes.
[32] and at Lisbon A Discalced novice at Lisbon had lacked all sense of smell altogether for her whole life, and did not know what sweet scent and foul scent were. One day María of St. Joseph, the prioress, brought out in the presence of all the nuns the hand of Teresa, which we have recorded is at Lisbon. So sweet a fragrance burst forth from it that the hearts of all were more tenderly affected and every one perceived in her mind a certain singular newness of sweetness and began to praise God. The novice, grieving that she was cheated of the benefit which the other companions enjoyed, put that holy hand to her nostrils, saying: "I will not take your hand away from here, Mother, before I smell what the others do, that I may proclaim God together with them." Then she began to say to those standing by that a warm smoke was rising through her nostrils, by which they were being opened; and she perceived the fragrance of the hand and recovered her sense of smell. To make trial of this, various kinds of perfumes were brought to her; each of which she could distinguish, and call this one good, that one fetid: nor was she ever afterwards deprived of this sense. To the same woman, when already professed, one night, when all the nuns were sleeping, so unusual a symptom befell that she tore herself to pieces; so much so that four nuns could not hold her back with all their effort. She said, moreover, that her bones seemed to be crushed and her heart torn out. It was the opinion of all that these things were done at the instigation of the devil, because she had never suffered anything similar. So, all the nuns being struck with fear and grieving, the hand of the blessed Mother was brought and applied to her: and as soon as it touched her, she was at once so freed as if she had never suffered any ill.
[33] through her hand By order of the Prince Cardinal a some religious women of the Low Countries, who had been harassed in various ways among the heretics, lodged with the Discalced nuns at Lisbon until more convenient shelter should be provided for them. Among these was one, Castilian by nation, named Catalina of the Holy Spirit, daughter of Luis Carrillo, and on her mother's side a kinswoman of Cardinal Granvelle b. She had been tortured for twenty years and more by a perpetual pain of the stomach, so that she could scarcely eat anything and her stomach would bear no food; to which both the other nuns and the daily infirmity of her body bore witness. So the hand of Mother Teresa was brought and applied to her breast, she meanwhile suffering so intense a pain that she was scarcely equal to bearing it: but this soon vanished altogether, and never returned. And that all might recognize the divine benefit, with the others looking on, she ate those foods which they knew her stomach had before by no means been wont to bear, which now did her no harm.
[34] fragrant This hand, moreover, breathes a most sweet fragrance, but not always equally intense, now less, now greater, according to the difference of the feasts: of which the members of the house can be witnesses. Nay indeed, when it is about to perform some prodigy, the fragrance is wont to be far stronger and sweeter. In which this too has been observed as prodigious, that when anything odoriferous is applied to it, it is at once deprived of all its own fragrance. A trial of this was made in the presence of Alfonso Coloma, Inquisitor of Lisbon c, and other nobles of the household of the Cardinal Prince. For musk taken on the point of a knife, although of a most vehement fragrance and such as at once affects everything it touches, when applied to the holy hand, at once lost its fragrance. The prioress, as one strong in sharpness of mind, wishing to know whether through some hidden cause musk applied to dead things was deprived of its fragrance, consulted the physician of His Highness. He denied that this could happen naturally; but said on the contrary that things which smell sweet are wont to be put into the most foul-smelling tombs of the dead in order that the fragrance may be preserved. The physician himself, wishing also to make trial of this, produced gloves imbued with fragrant amber and put the holy hand into them; and behold, all their fragrance perished in a moment. Nay, the next day, when he had visited a certain sick woman, he showed the same gloves stripped of all their scent. This trial, however, cannot now be made, because the hand has been encased in silver and shows through only by certain little lattices; through which, however, a certain exceptional fragrance is exhaled.
[35] are performed. The people of Lisbon are borne towards it with wonderful devotion; and many distinguished men demand it in their necessities. When it was brought to two ladies in labour, both were delivered with easy effort; and one indeed, as she afterwards gratefully recalled, without any pain at all. A knight of Lisbon, suffering from jealousy, at the devil's instigation, had destined his wife to death in the night; but going during the day to the house of the Discalced nuns, he disclosed to the prioress the anguish of his mind and the crime conceived in his mind. She asked the man not to go home that night, but in the Discalced Fathers'
convent to spend the night, and to acquiesce in their counsel in all things. But when she saw that he would not acquiesce in her good advice and lay aside the rancour of his mind and the crime he had determined on, she brought out Teresa's hand; and while he applied it to his breast, the most wicked will suddenly vanished, and his mind remained calmed and serene.
[36] By her fingers too Isabel of St. Jerome, a Discalced nun of Seville, who afterwards acted as vicaress at Lisbon, was frequently seized by such an illness that one side of her body seemed to languish with a foul paralysis and she could be turned onto the other side only by another's hand. On the feast of St. Michael her arm was so badly affected that she complained night and day that she could not move it, and for almost three whole days she could not turn herself in bed onto the other side. In those days there happened to be at Seville Jerónimo Gracián, in whose possession was one of Teresa's fingers d. He ordered this to be applied to her secretly, so that both the sick woman and the other members of the household should not know that it was their Mother's finger. As soon, then, as the sick woman's hand felt the finger, she moved it with easy effort, astounded at the speed with which the virtue of this holy member stole hiddenly through her arm. Wherefore, when she had passed it over the whole badly affected side, she was cured of all ill and is still sound today, nor has this symptom afterwards seized her, although five years and more have now passed since her health was restored. Fr. Juan de las Cuevas, presentatus, of whom we have also treated before e, when he was passing through Medina, went to the prioress of the Discalced nuns and showed her a particle of a finger of the blessed Mother, which he carried about as a sacred pledge. She asked that she be given the opportunity of showing it to her nuns: among whom Juana of the Holy Spirit, in whom another prodigy had once been performed (as I shall tell in the following chapter), since the remnants of her former illness were troubling her anew, applied the finger to herself with great confidence and was restored to her health.
[37] and by particles of her flesh When one of the Discalced Carmelites had come to Alba and was kissing the arm of the blessed Mother which he had received, he bit off with his tooth a certain little dry skin raised in a swelling: and while he was keeping it laid in paper, behold, inspecting it eight days later, he found the paper, though folded threefold, thoroughly moistened by a drop of fresh blood that had fallen from it. Astounded by this prodigy, removing this paper, he put another round it; which another drop of blood also soaked. Of this matter several nuns are witnesses, and the paper is preserved as a perpetual monument of the miracle. Inés of St. Albert, a Discalced nun at Caravaca, had lain confined to bed for two years, so that she was carried by the help of another's hand into the church to hear Mass and to approach the most holy banquet, when a burning desire came upon her of having something of the flesh of the blessed Mother; by whose help, having conceived a lively confidence, she hoped to be restored to health. When this, asked for from the monastery at Alba, had not yet arrived, one of the Discalced Fathers happened to pass through Caravaca who had one of the Mother's fingers. When this was applied, she felt incredible torments for seven days, which on the first day were followed by sweat and the greatest shaking of her limbs. After a week, when both the finger and the morsel of flesh sent from Alba had been taken away, she rose sound from her bed; and she now walks without any hindrance, and goes up and down the stairs like the others. Through cloths soaked with Teresa's blood too God has deigned to work prodigies. Two years ago a certain lady of Alba, sprung from an illustrious stock (whom Teresa when living had always honoured with great love, and who in turn attributed very much to her affairs with great faith), had entirely lost the use of one ear, which a continual ringing also filled with noise: to this was added a violent headache. But when she had fortified the ear with a little linen cloth dyed with the blessed Mother's blood, she both began to hear and obtained health; and she never ceases from proclaiming the divine benefit conferred through his handmaid Teresa.
[38] and by cloths A nun of Alba was seized with the greatest melancholy and bitterness of heart, which clung to her for some days: and although it sometimes intermitted, yet it continually recurred. The physicians had already applied their hands, but in vain; until at length, when one of these cloths was applied, she entirely recovered. The licentiate Juan de Medina, a citizen of Alba, was so tortured by colic pain that the physicians despaired of his life. So a similar little linen cloth was applied to him: then the pain began to be driven out, and at length entirely vanished; of which matter, as of most of the others, there are very many witnesses. The licentiate Vallejo, counsellor of the Duke of Alba, had a son two years old so weak in body that no hope of life remained. The sorrowful father, therefore, because he had no other children, called Antonio de Zamora, priest and chaplain of the convent of Alba, that he might commend him to God by reciting the sacred words of the Gospel. Meanwhile he himself and the mother went to the church to hear the solemn rites of Mass, so that they should not be compelled to see their little son dying. So when Antonio was present, he laid the little linen cloth imbued with that blood upon the boy's head; who at once seemed to revive, put his hand to the cloth rejoicing and insisted on being lifted from the bed: the nurse, taking him smiling into her arms, carried him back to his father. But before the father had reached the church he heard a certain cry of his son; but thinking it was the voice of another child, he refused to turn back and look, lest, on finding it to be the voice of another wailing child, his grief should increase. So the nurse came in and restored him to his father sound and well. And the boy held the cloth so tightly in his hand that, if anyone tried to take it away, he resisted with wailing. Of this matter very many at Alba are witnesses; for not much time has passed, and the thing was done before the eyes of all f.
[39] dyed with her blood Isabel Hernández of Alba was suffering most sharply in the side; and when the physicians despaired of improvement, she at once asked that something of the relics of Teresa of Jesus be brought to her. When a cloth soaked with blood had been brought and applied to her head, she began to be a little better; and the fever at once ceased, in the presence of the priest who had applied the linen to her. As soon, then, as she rose from her bed, she went to the church of the Discalced nuns and went away having reverently saluted the arm of the blessed Mother. This happened on the feast of the Epiphany of the year 1588, with many looking on. The three-year-old daughter of Álvaro Bracamonte of Alba was tormented by a dreadful fever and continual vomiting of blood. When one night she had been brought almost to the last extremity, Antonio de Zamora, priest, ordered the bloodstained linen which he had to be brought, and laid it on her head, with the parents and very many others present. At once she opened her eyes, spoke to those standing by, ceased to complain of her pain, and thereafter, to the admiration of all, was perfectly well. This happened on the eighth day before the Ides of March 1587.
[40] many miracles are done. Magdalena de Toledo, a nun in the convent of Alba g, was suffering for two days and more from a very sharp fever; but when one such linen cloth had been wrapped round her neck, the fever left her immediately. What I am now about to narrate is much more recent: for up to this day on which I write these things, scarcely a month has elapsed since it. Ana of the Holy Trinity, a Discalced nun of Salamanca, was suffering from an incredible pain of the heart, such as she had never had hitherto (because she was in the best of bodily health): and this ill tormented her so vehemently that she almost suffered a swooning of the mind, which a growing fever also increased. Many medicines were applied in vain; until at length a cloth dyed with Teresa's blood was applied to her heart: at the same time she asked the handmaid of God to beg health for her from the Lord and to fill her heart with him. A little after the cloth began to be applied, the greatest anguish of heart came upon her, and a dense sweat broke out in the same place; and behold, scarcely half an hour had elapsed when all the pain of her body left her, nor did it ever return afterwards. At the same time she also felt inwardly the divine mercy, through the entreaty of his handmaid. This I myself can testify, as one well aware of it: for I was the one who advised that this sacred poultice be applied to her.
[41] Ribera relates what happened to himself. What follows happened to me myself. When for more than a month a most sharp pain in my feet tormented me, so that I could walk only a little and with the greatest torment, and the remedies which I was wont to apply to the malady were now of no avail, on the eve of the feast of the Holy Apostles Simon and Jude, towards evening, I resolved to take refuge in the sacred relics of Mother Teresa, leaving off the help of bodily physicians; although, as far as I could conjecture from the preceding time, I feared that by omitting those remedies I should expose myself to having to bear the greatest torments that night. From the time, then, when I resolved this, up to this day, namely the day before the Ides of May of the year 1589, on which I commit these same things to writing, the violent pain in my feet has not seized me: for whenever it grew severe again, I went to the little box in which a little of the flesh of the blessed Mother was enclosed; and then it at once vanished. Afterwards, indeed, I was so sound in my feet that I was altogether free from all pain, and betook myself without sluggishness wherever it was necessary. When too for two days I was suffering from my leg and was applying all sorts of remedies to relieve the malady, because it was gravely troubling me, at length, going to my little box, I remained free of all torment. These things were done at the end of April in this same year. And when fifteen days later my leg troubled me anew, having recourse to the same refuge, I came out entirely sound; nor have I afterwards experienced the same pain, namely up to the Kalends of July of the same year, on which these things are being printed. The head of Francisco Cárdenas, a citizen of Alba, had for two years been so gaping that the skull was rotting inwardly, and he now appeared nearer to dead than living. So intense were his pains that day and night he complained querulously. But when a little cloth dyed with the oil which flows from the holy arm had been applied to the rotting skull, and a certain bone the size of a palm had fallen out of the skull, all the pain at once vanished nor did it afterwards torment the man, and the wound began to get better. And when that harmful humour, flowing down from the head into the arms, brought Francisco new pain, when these were touched with the same linen, he felt no torment thereafter either in the head or in the arms.
ANNOTATIONS.
Chapter IV.
Miracles through the garments of St. Teresa.
Chap. VI.
The miracles performed through little pieces of the garments of this holy Mother are not fewer in number nor inferior in weight; Various pains and diseases because these have been communicated both to more persons and through more places. A nun of Alba had an inflamed liver, so that she cast up phlegm with putrefaction; her mouth too was kindled with such heat that day and night she soothed the burning of the heat with cold water continually taken into her mouth; and she thought that not only her mouth but also her throat and entrails were being burned. She had already tried the physicians in vain, and the malady was of long standing. But when she had applied a little of the sleeve of the blessed Mother to her throat, the burning began little by little to diminish, and afterwards was even entirely extinguished, and did not return. The same nun, afterwards suffering so gravely in her head that, scarcely able to hold up her body, she seemed about to fall to the ground, and sometimes even lost the use of her senses from the fury of the pain, applied another cloth, and all the pain vanished from her altogether. Another nun, when she had struck her mouth with a blow, whereupon both it and her jaws at once swelled and a most sharp pain tormented her teeth, remained free of pain when a little piece of the blessed Mother's mantle was applied.
[43] are driven out through Teresa's garments There was one who suffered so stubbornly from her stomach and other infirmities that she voided all the food she took for some days, and often for three days tasted nothing at all. It added to the gravity of the malady that this ill attacked her chiefly on feast days, so that she was compelled on that account to abstain from the reception of Holy Communion: nay indeed, the last two times it was so violent that, believing it was all over with her life, she wished to dispose herself by Confession for the moment of eternity. But when she girded herself with a certain band which Teresa had worn, the sickness at once began to diminish. When I first learned of this, three years had already passed since she had felt any sickness in her stomach; although she had by no means guarded herself against harmful things, but rather had provoked the disease by using noxious ones. In another, a breast so afflicted her for a whole week that she feared it was being eaten away by a cancer; for it had already hardened and was sending rays as far as the arms. But after she applied a piece of Teresa's mantle, both the hardness and the pain went away, nor did they return afterwards. Ophthalmia was tearing at a certain other nun, and so sharply that one of her eyes at times seemed to be taken out of her head. When something of the blessed Mother's little things was applied to her, the malady began at once to be driven away. And this indeed was frequent: hence several times she would not of her own accord apply it to her eye, so that in this way by suffering something she might increase the harvest of her merits: for she now knew by experience that when she applied any of Teresa's things, the malady would be removed.
[44] at Alba and around Alba A sharp headache afflicted another so that she could read nothing pious in a book (for it was the hour appointed for spiritual reading). So when, wearied, she leaned her head on the chest in which Teresa's garments were kept, the pain left her at once. And such a fragrance came forth from the chest that she easily understood that she had been freed from her pain by its contact. A priest of Alba named Oviedo was so infested with pustules that he was deprived of his senses. But when the linen in which Teresa's holy body had been wrapped had been laid upon him, he was at once restored to himself, just as if he had emerged from a deep sleep; and thereafter he experienced no languor. Juana Pacheco de Mendoza, daughter of the Count of La Puebla de Montalbán and wife of Alfonso Bracamonte, lord of Peñaranda, had suffered gravely in her throat for more than a year; and at intervals the pain increased. Medical relief had been applied in vain, frequent letting of blood, and lastly various unguents. But having learned that a certain shift of Mother Teresa was preserved among the Discalced Fathers of Mancera, she ordered it to be brought to her; when it had been brought she applied it to her throat, and did not take it away until fifteen days had passed. And from the first moment in which it was applied the torment began to be mitigated, and of the pains to which she was liable she afterwards felt none. Records of this matter were drawn up in the town of Peñaranda itself by Miguel Pérez, public notary, on the day before the Ides of March in the year 1587; and then Juana asserted on oath this miracle of which I have spoken.
[45] are driven away. Bernardina de Toledo, a nun in the monastery of Alba, burning with a fiery fever, when she had put on a white woollen undergarment which the blessed Mother had worn while living, at once began to sweat; and immediately the fever ceased, and, to the wonder of the physicians and all the nuns, who expected nothing less, she obtained health. Mayor Mexía, a nun of the same convent, was helpless from gout and sciatica and was gravely tormented. The physicians applied a saffron poultice; but when after half an hour the pain grew worse from it, they tried to remove it, but could not. So she was clothed with the scapular of the blessed Mother: and behold, on the instant the pains were diminished, and so dense a sweat began to flow from her body that the linens had to be changed; and at length the plaster could be removed with ease. The same Bernardina de Toledo of whom above, when she lay in the illness from which she died, was oppressed by so heavy a stupor that she could not be roused from it except by applying goads and inflicting pains: and when she woke, she was without the use of all her senses. It distressed the nuns that at this moment on which eternity depended she had been reduced to such helplessness and was thus expiring. Then Mayor Mexía, a religious of the same place, coming up and applying to the sick woman a certain band of Teresa's, she was awakened and restored to her senses; of which also she remained in possession up to her death. All of which things all the sisters of that place testify even today. Juan de Ovalle, living at Alba, was one day tormented by a disease of the joints: hence he ordered his wife Juana de Ahumada to bring something of Teresa's relics. But while he was putting out his foot, that the relics might be applied to him at the place which troubled him most, he began to tremble in his whole body, and that with a new trembling, not such as men are commonly wont to be shaken with. So when he considered more closely and judged that it would hardly be becoming to apply that venerable pledge to his feet, and at length put it to his head, all the trembling began first to diminish, and then entirely to vanish, as did also the pains of the gout; and when they were quieted, he himself also grew quiet and fell asleep in a peaceful slumber. Since this was done on the Ides of January of the year 1587, in the month of June of the following year I received from his mouth that he had no longer suffered from gout thereafter.
[46] at Medina del Campo In the year 1586, on the Kalends of January, the Most High willed to work an illustrious and remarkable prodigy at the intercession of his handmaid a. Among the Discalced nuns of Medina there was a novice, Juana of the Holy Spirit by surname, whom a continual fever had harassed for nearly a year and a half. To this there had been added in the last half-year other graver illnesses: namely a paralysis, which sciatic arthritis had produced, and also a languor of all the limbs, so that she could neither carry a dish in her hand nor move from her place unless supported by two nuns. A fainting of the heart, too, was almost daily with her. And when she was oppressed more violently by the heat of her pains, she often asked that something of the blessed Mother's things be given her; but the infirmarian neglected to bring it. At length, on the day of the Circumcision, at the third hour after noon, when a portion of Teresa's band had been applied to her, the pains so increased that she believed she was about to breathe out her soul at any moment. So when shortly afterwards she had ordered it to be taken away, because she was unequal to bearing the pain, another nun exhorted her: "Come, sister," she said, "conceive faith and strive to rise." For she was dressed; because on that day she had been brought to the sacred table of Communion. Scarcely had she finished the words when, holding out her hand to the sick woman, she tried to raise her up. So, holding herself on the ground, and feeling the strength of walking restored to her, she went down alone by rather awkward stairs, calling the prioress and with tender tears of devotion inviting all her companions to render thanks to God the Best and Greatest and to his handmaid Teresa, because she was now free of all infirmity. All marvelled at the prodigy they saw, thinking they were hearing the tale of a dream. But she was thereafter tried by no fever, by no fainting of the heart; and, leaning on no one's support, she betook herself wherever she pleased. Eight months later, passing through Medina myself, in order to be made more certain of this matter, I met Juana: from whom in person I received what has been narrated above about her restored health; and I found her in good health.
[47] and at Palencia In the same house a semi-tertian fever was wasting María of the Conception, a novice, so stubborn indeed that the physician, having tried in vain all the aids of his art, denied that any hope of life remained unless she obtained health from heaven. When, however, at his advice she had purged her bowels, she fell into a worse state and began to burn with a continual fever; so much so that one burning paroxysm of the tertian followed another in continuous succession with the greatest anguish. When María saw herself in this state, she asked that something of the blessed Mother's things be brought to her. So a little piece of the sleeve she had been wearing when she gave up her soul was brought. At the very hour at which it was applied (namely when the sharpness of the chill was about to come on), all the fever so left her as if she had not been feverish before; so that the physician who in the morning had left her in the last peril of life, seeing her sound in the afternoon, clearly recognized a miracle, and broke out into the praises of him who had worked it through the patronage of his handmaid. At Palencia, when a band of the blessed Mother had been applied to a certain man sick of a fever, he at once began to be better. The same band restored to health another also who was gravely ill. In the house of the Discalced nuns at Palencia the relics of the blessed Mother freed two from toothache and another from earache. Another
nun of the same Institute suffered so violently from her eyes that she could not take rest. When a fringe from the sacred garments was applied, the pain ceased, nor did it afterwards return.
[48] similar prodigies happen; There was one whose shoulder and arm had for nearly ten years so afflicted her that she could not raise them for any use. When her companions were fitting a habit once worn by the blessed Mother, she applied its sleeve the following night to the badly affected side; and the next day, restored to herself, and about to make trial whether she could use her arm, she found herself strong with the same strength as before; nor did any similar ill follow afterwards. A Discalced nun of Alba had run her foot on to a nail; and as it swelled from the wound, a surgeon was called and applied medicines to stop the malady, lest it creep upward. But she, having removed them in the absence of the infirmarian, with remarkable confidence, but not without labour (because she was tortured with very great pain), went down on her knees on the bed, and said thus to herself: "If I have faith, what other medicines do I need besides this one?" At once therefore she applied some cloth of Teresa's to her foot: then the swelling vanished, and the use of the foot returned. This is the very one who, being deprived of the sense of smell, received it when Teresa was dying, as I narrated in its place. In the same monastery a certain nun had been suffering for three or four days in her shoulder and had used the medicines of human help in vain; but after she had put on Teresa's habit, she ceased to be tormented. In the same place another, one year before the Mother departed this life, felt herself burning in her entrails with so fiery a flame that she believed her loins were encircled by a certain iron belt, burning and broad. The aids of human art had already failed; nay, even after Teresa had departed to the heavenly ones, this burning scorched her more grievously: but when she had laid over herself the mantle of the same deceased woman, she recovered health.
[49] as also in Cantabria In the month of June of the year 1588, when one of our companions of Salamanca, Martín Gastiatigui, a Cantabrian, about to go off to his native land, had asked me for some relics of Mother Teresa, he received a little of her mantle and tunic, and also of the linen cloth in which the arm had been wrapped. When he had arrived among his own people, in the village of Mañaria, half a league from the town of Durango, he was asked whether he had any relics with him. For in that place Juan de Goytia had been suffering for three years, half consumptive, from a quartan fever, and had then been reduced to such a point that the physicians had cast away hope of his life. He said he had none besides those which he had received as a gift, and indeed that they were Teresa's, and he advised them to implore her help. When these had been hung from the neck of the languishing Juan, as the onset of the fever was impending, thereafter he was no longer seized by fever, and our Brother, departing thence, left him sound, and excellently disposed towards the blessed Mother. As soon as this report had been spread among the people, many came to him begging with many tears and a singular feeling of devotion that something of these relics be given them; and those especially who were instigated by the evil demon to lay wicked hands upon themselves or were infested by ghosts. When he had assented to their requests, five or six came to him giving immense thanks for the benefit bestowed; and some gratefully professed that by their help they had been freed from temptations of that kind, others from infesting spirits. These spirits, moreover, used to suck the blood of wailing infants, and to infest them in various ways; and not these only, but they also harassed older persons in whatever way they could.
[50] and in some María de Galarraga too, wife of a senator of Durango, earnestly begged of the same Martín something of the remains of this saint, because her husband, already abandoned by the physicians, was despairing of life. She said she firmly hoped that, since these had been salutary to others, they would also help her husband. When Martín said that nothing remained to him except a small piece of the habit, which he had resolved to keep for himself, she begged it of him with many tears: moved by which he at length imparted to the lady whatever he had. And thirty days later, when that Brother had returned to Durango, she, meeting him in the middle of the square, with many looking on, cried out in a loud voice that by the help of these relics her husband had been restored to health, and that on the day after she had received them he had begun to take food, and to speak, and to be better, to the amazement of the physicians, and on the fifth day after he had at length entirely recovered: and Martín also saw him sound. All who had handled those relics professed that they breathed a sweet fragrance; whence they are ardently sought after by everyone in that region. The same Martín, moreover, moved by the urgent prayers of his countrymen, gave me a linen cloth, so that, when Teresa's arm had been wrapped in it for some days, I might send it to him in Cantabria. And he procures these things with the greater zeal because he has also experienced in himself how powerful these relics are. For when one of his jaws had swollen up as far as the eye, remembering that he had a particle of Teresa's tunic which he had received at Burgos, he applied it to himself; and at once the cheek went down. On his return he himself narrated to me in person whatever has been committed to writing here by me. A senator of Palencia was attacked by colic pain: when the physician strove to drive it away with fruitless and vain effort, and he had applied to his body a little of Teresa's clothing which he had received from the Discalced nuns, he was on the instant made well. A nun of Alba, suffering from her teeth, applied one of the blessed Mother's cloths; but when even so she felt no relief, and could not rest for the vehemence of the pain, she said: "Perhaps our Mother wishes me to suffer something": having said this, she took away the cloth, and at once the tooth burst with a crack and the pain was driven out. The wife of Pedro Rodríguez de San Jorge, in the same town, being in labour for three days, had been unable to bring forth the child, although every means had been tried and various relics of Saints hung from her neck. Her husband therefore hastened to ask the Discalced nuns for a cloth of the blessed Mother; and after it had touched the body of the woman in labour, she at once brought forth the child, herself safe and the child safe.
[51] other places A dreadful cancer had for a long time eaten the breast of María López, wife of Alfonso López, in the town of Piedrahita: the malady, now creeping as far as the shoulder, had produced so foul an abscess that it was no idle conjecture that this too would be seized by the cancer. All the medicines applied were useless; until a part of Teresa's band, which she had received at Alba, applied to the affected member, drove away all the languor. In the same town difficulty in childbirth had brought another almost to the last extremity, because, when one child had been born, another still lay hidden in the womb, which, all means having been tried in vain, she could by no means bring forth into the light. But when they had applied to her the same little band by which, as we said, the other woman, who was her kinswoman, had been happily delivered, she brought forth the child without any trouble, and was well. In the village of Las Navas in the territory of Peñaranda, a numbness of the hands had held the wife of Francisco Blázquez for almost a whole year and a half, so that she could put food into her mouth only by the service of another. But when she had gone nine times at intervals to Teresa's tomb, she returned sound to her family; and, having obtained the use of her hands, she never ceases proclaiming that prodigy. In the year 1587 so dreadful a pain of the shin had seized Ana de Matanza at Salamanca, a lady noble in the pursuit of devotion and of great authority, that she could not walk, and she feared that she could no longer go to church for the Sacraments unless carried by porters. But when she had wrapped round her shin one of Teresa's cloths received from the nuns, the languor was at once driven away, nor did it afterwards recur: nay rather, although heavy with age, she is now strong both in her feet and in her whole body. When she herself afterwards gave these relics to María de Salaya, who was suffering for some days from pleurisy, she too found health by their help. And when she had also lent the same to the licentiate Guillén, a pupil of the college there named after St. Emilian, who, rising from a grave illness, had contracted various languors in his whole body, and especially in his head, arms and shins, he, by carrying them, obtained health at once. For this reason, in token of a grateful mind, he went to Alba and came to salute Teresa's arm with great devotion.
[52] of Spain. In the municipality of Cayo, not far from Compostela, in the year 1588, when Beatriz Bermúdez de Castro (in whose jurisdiction she lived) had sent a little of the relics of the blessed Mother to a woman who for some days had been holding a lifeless child in her womb, when these had been laid on her womb, scarcely half an hour had passed when by an easy delivery, not without a prodigy (for it was dead), she brought forth the child. One of the waiting-women of Luisa de la Cerda, vexed with toothache, asked her mistress for a band of the blessed Mother. But at its application the pain increased so much that she took the band away. But when some days later the same pain returned, and she applied the band to herself with greater faith, it ceased in a moment, nor did it ever return. In Juan de Tapia, chief bailiff of Alba, a long-lasting catarrh had so blocked the sense of smell that for two continuous years he perceived nothing smelling either good or bad. But when there was wrapped round his head a little linen cloth which had touched Teresa's arm, after four days had passed during which he wore it, he smelled perfectly well some thyme and pennyroyal that had been brought, to the wonder of all the household; and from that time he could distinguish all scents. Isabel, daughter of Bartolomé Martínez, in the village which in the native tongue is called Naharros del Castillo, a league from Peñaranda, was burning with a violent fever; but a woman living in the same place, who had a similar linen cloth, sent to her by a daughter who was a follower of the same Institute, washed it in water: and when she had given this to the feverish girl to drink, she, the fever suddenly vanishing, went off the next day to work in the field.
[53] While Ribera is closing this chapter, I could relate here other lesser things too, as also some which happened to me; but it has seemed good to omit them deliberately, lest I seem to wish to hold anything whatever as prodigious. I shall therefore put an end to this chapter by recording a matter which I received from the very man to whom it happened, and which very many others heard from him, because he narrated it not unwillingly. A certain prior of the Discalced Carmelites added some relics of Teresa to the other relics which he carried round his neck. At a certain time, as he was putting on the sacred vestments of the Altar, a scruple stole upon him, because he had mixed with the relics of others, Saints whom the Church has lawfully commanded to be invoked, those of another not yet enrolled among the Saints. But when his mind inclined somewhat to removing them from there, being suddenly distracted by a message brought from elsewhere, he no longer remembered the matter. Thereafter, while he was at the altar, anxiety of mind began to press him so much that he wished to remove them from there as soon as possible. While he was turning this over in his mind, he felt within himself a great reproof, on the one hand gentle, on the other harsh. For he seemed to hear the voice of one upbraiding him, accusing him of an ungrateful mind and calling him unworthy to guard such precious remains.
Thereupon he broke out into such tender tears, and so excellent an affection towards these relics and towards the saint herself arose in his mind, that he would without reluctance have opened his heart to enclose them in it. Whence he acquired such a love towards Teresa that he never ceased to hold talk about her sanctity and diligently inquired into her miracles: and when he had collected not a few of them, he afterwards presented them to me with remarkable affection and feeling of devotion.
[54] a nun of Salamanca is healed through the Saint's undergarment. I had already put an end to this chapter when, on the fourth day before the Nones of May of the year 1590, in which these things were being put to press, there happened what I am now about to record; which I felt it a matter of conscience to omit, both because the thing is worthy of record, and because its truth is established for me in every respect, and finally because it is the most recent of all those handed down in this volume. Ana of the Most Holy Trinity, of whom I remember having spoken elsewhere, a Discalced nun of Salamanca, was suffering from pleurisy; which, when the pain had abated somewhat, on the fifth day after recurred so violently that the physician ordered a vein to be opened for her again, in order that treatment might be applied anew. Meanwhile, while the lancet was being looked for, but not found, she herself placed on her head the undergarment which Teresa had been wearing when the Sacrament of Extreme Unction was administered to her. Presently sweat began to flow from her whole body; and the denser it burst out, the more the fever and pleurisy decreased: at length, when the sweat, which lasted nearly an hour and a half, ceased, the pain also ceased. The physician, coming in upon these things, found her free of all fever, and from that day it did not recur, to the great amazement both of the physician and of all present.
ANNOTATION.
Chapter V.
Miracles through the images and a letter of St. Teresa, likewise at her invocation.
Chap. VII.
By Teresa's images the terrors of demons Fernando de Trejo of Seville, an untiring worshipper of God and of the virtues, was for this very reason so stubbornly assailed by malign spirits that they even showed themselves visibly. One day, when the infestation increased, because for many days now they had been continuously causing him trouble and granting him no rest, he was about to hold up against them a certain carved image of the glorious Mother of God Mary, which he had, hoping that at the sight of it they would be put to flight; but as luck would have it, he unawares held up against the malign spirits, by whose clamours he was being deafened, a certain likeness of Teresa of Jesus. At the first sight of it they were driven away from there, shrieking, as suddenly as if someone had violently driven them out with cudgels. And in this way he was freed both from their exterior molestations and from interior harassments; which grace he records everywhere to everyone with remarkable gratitude and devotion. Thereupon he became so strenuous a client of Teresa's that he never lays her image aside from his neck. If his wife or children are vexed by any ill, he lays it upon them with great faith, hoping that by her help they will be granted health.
[56] and griefs of mind and scruples are put to flight. A certain Discalced nun was vexed by a terrible affliction, which had held her for many days now; and when she was applying all remedies in vain, and did not know what to do, one night, oppressed with most grievous sorrow, having placed before her for her solace a certain likeness of Teresa, gazing at it with fixed eyes, she began to delight herself no otherwise than if Teresa had stood there present. While this was going on, in the inmost part of her soul she seemed to see Teresa's eyes full of God; and to hear her persuading her with words breathing charity to dispose herself to bear this tribulation for God's sake: for the reward that awaited her was so immense that it could not be comprehended by the thought of any man. And this mute exhortation was so efficacious that all the darkness she experienced in her mind was dispelled, and it filled her with such quiet and joy that it appeared by no obscure signs that some supernatural grace had flowed into her soul through Teresa's intercession. A priest of Palencia, reverent towards the divine Majesty, who had honoured Teresa while living, was for some days vexed by such anguish of mind and scruple that for three days he abstained on that account from celebrating Mass. For this reason he commended himself to Teresa; who appeared to him as he was reciting the sacred Hours, saying: "You are following the right road, my son; go on, then, and advance in it." Then he, throwing himself at her feet, asked to be blessed by her. Teresa replied: "May God bless you"; and having given him a certain carved image of herself, at once vanished from his eyes. And such quiet was put into the priest that he was able to offer sacrifice: and keeping the icon given him with great faith and veneration, he still has it even today and narrates to everyone the things we have related.
[57] One of her letters A religious (as I have several times received from his own mouth), when he was to preach to the people the next day, and no thought occurred to his mind that pleased him, was walking up and down on the night before in front of an image of the blessed Mother: and as he drew nearer to it, suddenly a good and useful conception of the Gospel of the day occurred to him, on the occasion of which he also heard many things from others, and which supplied matter abundantly for the exhortation he was preparing, and brought singular fruit to his hearers. And these things were of such a kind that he had never read or heard or turned over in thought anything similar. Moreover, they were put into him so suddenly that he easily gathered that this had been given, not acquired by premeditation or formed by the understanding: and whenever he thought about this matter even afterwards, he set very great store by this inspiration and understood, not obscurely, that it had come to him from the blessed Mother alone. To these we can add something similar, which happened by the help not of an image but of a letter sent by the blessed Mother. And since she to whom this grace was given fears God and is most worthy of credence, and I, while I write these things, keep the letter which she sent to the prioress of the Discalced nuns of Palencia as witness of this matter, I shall be able to record the matter here in full; and it is indeed most certain. Genoveva de Toledo, a Poor Clare of Palencia, was suffering from her stomach; to whom it seemed that it would be salutary to place in her bosom a certain letter once received from Teresa of Jesus. So she brought it out, smelling most sweetly (at which fragrance she wondered not a little, because in the place where it had been put away there was nothing odoriferous), and carried it in her bosom. After three days, when she rose from her bed, she reread it quietly, so that, having read it, she might put it away in a little bag together with other Relics, never to lay it aside from her as long as she lived.
[58] breathes a sweet fragrance. But in rereading it she noted certain things of which she wished no one to be aware after her death: hence she began to scrape out the beginning of the line on which these things were written. But while she was scraping, she began to be distressed within herself and to think whether this was being done rightly by her; but relying on the right intention with which she was doing it, and thinking there was no reason why she should omit it, she went on with the obliterating, and deleted another part of the line. Then the distress began to increase anew, and another prodigy followed. For the fragrance which she had hitherto perceived in the letter vanished altogether. When afterwards a Father of the Order of Minors had visited her, and talk had arisen between them about the blessed Mother's affairs, he said: "You cannot deny, dearest, that you have some relic of Mother Teresa of Jesus: for its fragrance flows even to me; and it is the same fragrance with which all her things are imbued." Then the religious, saying that she had a letter, took it out of the little bag, folded as it was; but when she put it to her nostrils, she perceived no fragrance at all. She understood, therefore, that on account of her audacity in scraping out those few words of the letter she was being deprived by God of the benefit of this fragrance which others perceived. And this became more manifest when not long after the same friar said that a certain wonderful fragrance proceeded from the same letter; which, although others perceived it, she herself by no means smelled.
Chap. VIII.
[59] The miracles which happened at the invocation of the holy Mother Ana of St. Bartholomew, I should believe to be very many in number, if only I knew them; some of them, however, I shall record in this place. Ana of St. Bartholomew (whom I have already narrated above was freed by Teresa, while she was still living, from toothache and other ills), when, the holy body resting at Ávila, she was one day so badly affected and exhausted in body that she could scarcely drag herself along and could carry out none of the things to be done, although she was overwhelmed with their mass, took refuge at the holy body of the Mother, and, having knelt down before it for a little while, diligently commended herself to her prayers, beseeching her to help her and to be with her; because she could do nothing at all through ill health. At once she rose from there well, and attended to the very many affairs she had to do with wonderful readiness: and whatever places she betook herself to, she had the fragrance which was exhaled from Teresa's body present to her nostrils no otherwise than if she had had her before her eyes. She noted in herself, moreover, such strength, such facility of action, that she judged she could accomplish more than four men: nay, if she undertook anything, she seemed to find it already completed as she wished, or just as if someone else were doing it in her place.
[60] Fr. Antonio of St. Mary When the holy body was being brought back from Ávila to Alba, it lodged for one night in the house of the Discalced Fathers at Mancera. At that time there lay in bed there with a semi-tertian fever Fr. Antonio of St. Mary: whom the prior, Nicolás of St. Cyril, to console him, ordered to rise from his bed, so that he might escort the holy body with the others. He did what was commanded rejoicing; and accompanying the sacred relics, and giving thanks to the supreme Majesty for the great works shown in his handmaid Teresa, he felt a certain singular sweetness of fragrance, by which he was spurred on, as by a goad, to proclaim the divine goodness the more. On the evening of the same day was the fixed time for the milder fever to come on; but, although he remained awake until late at night, it did not come on. Thereupon the prior ordered Antonio to withdraw to his cell, lest this excessive watching should harm his health in any way; and while he was in it for some space of time, he perceived the same fragrance, and then again a long time after. And it was altogether the same fragrance which he had perceived at Alba not far from her tomb. In the morning, while the body was being brought out to be carried away, he bade it farewell with many tears, and commended himself from his heart to her intercession, and supplicated her to pray God that he would not lead him out of the illnesses with which he was struggling, but that he might gratefully accept them and that she might be a help to him in bearing them; and behold, on the same day the more violent fever did not come on either, nor ever afterwards.
[61] and others experience the efficacy of Teresa's intercession. The must of a senator of Palencia was fermenting so violently that it seemed it could be checked by no human art. Seeing the matter, he commended the wine to Teresa's prayers, promising that he would send some gift to the Discalced nuns. Suddenly, behold, the turbulent must subsided, no industry being applied, so that he was able to sell it: and afterwards, discharging his promise, he sent an alms to the convent and narrated the prodigious occurrence. I could relate here many things about myself, besides those I narrated above, because God has conferred many benefits on me through the intercession of this holy virgin; but I suppress them: for although they seem prodigious to me, perhaps they will not seem such to others, who will say that I wish deliberately and without cause to increase the number of miracles. A fish bone had stuck in the throat of a religious of Alba. When all human industry, sweating to remove it, was in vain (because, namely, it did not appear, nay it was said to be sunk deeper) and she saw clearly in how present a danger she was, betaking herself to that place where the holy body had formerly been deposited (for it was then resting at Ávila), when on bended knees she had commended herself to her blessed Mother, putting her hand into her mouth, she drew out the bone, which indeed she had often tried before, but had never succeeded.
[62] An end to his work Ending, then, with this, I shall put an end to this history; although I am not unaware that more miracles can in their time be added to it after it has been published, both because I could not know whatever has happened (although I have laboured as accurately as I could in seeking them out), and because I see that God the Best and Greatest has determined to honour this holy virgin and to celebrate her name from the time when she first departed this life. Hence he performs through her frequent and new miracles daily, because perhaps he wishes her shortly to be enrolled in the catalogue of the Saints, so that in this way she may become more known and celebrated, and more souls may be helped through her: although, as it seems to me, the Most High himself, until the universal Church shall decree that she is to be honoured, seems in a certain way to hold her as canonized by that manifest miracle which shines forth in her body, even though other proofs were lacking. Wherefore I think no one will be so ignorant as to impute it to me as a fault that in this work I have rather often used "holy mother, saint, holy body" and other such forms of speech here and there in speaking of Teresa and her affairs; since in this the holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church have gone before me, having spoken in this way even of persons still living, and also Paul himself and the other Apostles.
[63] Ribera puts But if perhaps that or something similar troubles anyone (although in this I may be said to have been brief rather than prolix), I shall bring forward here some words drawn from the Histories of St. Antoninus, archbishop of Florence: "But as far as it is permitted to us (who are wrapped in darkness) to judge of the Saints, by conjectures and presumptions from their deeds, I think no one doubts that very many Blessed of both sexes not canonized by the Church, nay not even named, have not been of less merit and inferior glory than many enrolled in the catalogue of the Saints. For canonization does not add to the merit or essential reward of the Blessed, nor does it decree the degree of sanctity, but temporal veneration and glory, so that after it the Office can be solemnly celebrated and a feast kept, which otherwise is not said to be done." Thus far the words of St. Antoninus: with which also, O Lord God, who both makest and crownest the Saints, I end the History which I undertook to write of thy faithful handmaid, that the world may know how great treasures thou hast placed in her, and that all may extol thy Name for ever. And since thou, O Saviour and Lord of the world, art both the beginning and the end of all sanctity, and since these excellent and fragrant flowers which once sprang up and today spring up in the holy garden of thy Church would always have been not roses but thorns and briars, had they not been watered by thy precious Blood, mayest thou be praised and blessed for ever in thy Saints, in thy Saints, I say, who are the most perfect works of thy fingers.
[64] with an invocation to God May thy infinite goodness deign to grant that this small little gift which I offer thee may ascend before thy sight in an odour of sweetness; and that my having dared, miserable and vile sinner as I am, to speak of so exceptional a sanctity may not tend to this, that the memory of my iniquities may again come before thee (because my works are immeasurably distant from those which I have recorded in this volume), but rather that through her intercession they may be forgiven me, and that a new heart and a new spirit may be created in my bowels, that I may be found most like to her whom thou lovest and I also love. And if it savour not of temerity, I will speak to my Lord, though I be dust and ashes, and venerating him I will pray that all who out of pious devotion towards thy handmaid shall have come to read this faithful and true History, though badly written, may by the granting of thy kindness draw from it new and living desires of praising thee for ever on account of the greatness of thy works, and of imitating these illustrious virtues, and of serving thee with their whole heart. The wonderful works which are related here, Lord, are thy gifts; and from whatever place thou willest the truth to come forth, it proceeds from thee. Those works certainly are powerful to move men, and indeed thou art wont to give them much efficacy. Free me, Lord, from that fear by which alone I can be affected, namely lest those works be frustrated of their efficacy because I have been the instrument of this writing.
[65] and to St. Teresa. And thou, O holy Mother, for whose honour and for the handing down of whose memory to posterity I have undertaken this labour, although I by no means deserved to relate thy praises, thou knowest how much from the heart I have done it and what help thou hast conferred on me that I might accomplish it. But indeed I do not say rightly that I have spent labour: for I felt none at all; but rather it was a solace and a pleasure to me to have undertaken this task of writing, although at a time most encumbered. This one thing, namely, I had in view, that the memory of thy illustrious works should not perish: and therefore I have striven with all the zeal I could that thou mightest always be known, praised, and have imitators of thy virtues, and that that powerful Lord, by whose gift thou didst become so wonderful, might be praised in thee and through thee. Pardon, I beseech thee, the slenderness of my wit and my meagre eloquence, since thou knowest that my zeal to gratify thee has been neither slender nor poor. And since the divine goodness has granted me to know thee familiarly in this world, and thou didst love me and didst undertake to commend me to his divine Majesty; obtain for me from him, I beseech thee, what I have asked of him, and never forget thy miserable son, who embraces thee with such zeal and affection, until by thy merits I come at length to the blessed sight of our Creator and Lord, that there with thee and with all the Saints I may enjoy him and praise his holy name for ever and ever. Amen.
GLORY BE TO THE MOST HOLY TRINITY.
TestimoniesTeresa, virgin, mother of the Carmelites of the stricter observance, at Ávila in Spain. (S.)
COLLECTED FROM YEPES.
PrefaceBy way of an Appendix to the Life of St. Teresa written by Ribera, we shall attach the Prologue which Yepes prefixed to his own like work on the holy Mother. That Prologue is a kind of historical collection composed of excellent authentic documents or testimonies, by which many of the things which either Ribera narrates or which we have commented upon in the Saint's Life are at once established and elucidated. Add to this that in this way, namely by inserting in our work those prolegomena of Yepes, which contain in a certain manner the sum and marrow of his whole book, we do justice to that other excellent biographer of St. Teresa, and are exempted from the blame of injurious forgetfulness which might perhaps be cast upon us if Yepes were entirely banished from our work.
TESTIMONIES
concerning St. Teresa, brought forward by men illustrious for learning and sanctity, collected by Diego de Yepes in the Prologue to the Life of Teresa, and translated into Latin by Matías Martínez.
By singular Of the infinite love with which he pursues man God nowhere gave greater signs and proofs than when hanging on the cross: for on it he laid open his bowels full of love, whose greatness no tongue can express, no words sufficiently magnify. But of the tender and delightful love, which is the affection and tenderness of the bowels, nay, also of the affable and sweet conversation and familiarity with which he communicates himself to his friends, only those souls can be witnesses who feel it by experience itself; those, I say, who by purity of life, sublimity of contemplation and subtlety of love have now arrived at the point that they call themselves his most beloved spouses and truly are such. For no mother's solicitude is so great, no spouse's allurement so great, nor is anyone's mind likewise so conquered and carried away by love, that it can be compared or equalled with the sweetness of the divine conversation and familiarity and the tenderness of that most sweet divine love. But who, except one who actually experiences and feels them, could express in words the delightful signs of love and the sweetnesses which God shows towards souls of this kind? This is certain, that no one has ever been able or known how to express in words how that is; although it is permitted us to draw out something in some way from the things which they themselves testify about it and which Sacred Scripture teaches. For Christ is towards these his most beloved spouses like a living fountain which is never exhausted, and from which light, sweetness and delights continually flow; and whatever in the end flows and descends from him are rivers of love and of fire. Of these delights and tenderness of love very many and very clear testimonies are to be seen in the sacred writings, in which a kind of image of this delightful love is set before us. For at one time the Holy Spirit calls it the wine cellar, at another wine itself, at another a liquor far sweeter and better than wine; at another, finally, he designates it by the name of breasts: for neither are a mother's breasts so sweet and savoury to an infant, nor does a mother in turn take such delight with her little one, as the loves and delights of God are savoury and delightful to those who deal and converse with him. At other times too he signifies it by the name of drunkenness, of languor, of swooning, of the peace which surpasses all understanding, and of the whistling of a gentle breeze; and although six hundred other names were given it, yet they would never suffice to declare or express that sweet love with which God caresses his friends. For since God is infinite love and a good transcending all other goods, hence the soul which truly possesses him will doubtless possess a certain collection of the goods and delights which are born from this infinite love.
[2] and intimate But although it is certain that all the just
who are and live in the grace and friendship of God also rejoice in his familiarity and gentle and sweet conversation and are joined to their God by very many other titles of sincere friendship, yet this tender love, with which he affects and floods the souls which he loves most sweetly and holds as his spouses, transcends and surpasses that former love by a long interval in closeness of love and conversation. For those first have as it were by faith what these feel by experience: whence there is as great a difference between them as between one who actually perceives the sweetness of honey and one who knows it to be sweet because he has heard so from others. The first at most smell some part of this sweetness (for since God is so near to the soul, hence the fragrance of his odours is felt and perceived as it were through six hundred little chinks): but these taste the sweetness of the embraces of their heavenly Spouse; and by its help God communicates to them his blood made milk, that is, in a certain sweet and savoury manner. And just as in the courts of kings there are some who have the door open for dealing and speaking with the king, but others who penetrate further within, to whom he reveals his secrets and who are always with him and are his intimates and familiars, with whom accordingly he deals and speaks in friendship, so it is with souls dealing with God: of whom those which are united and joined to him by a close bond of love enjoy his most sweet conversation and are partakers of his most hidden secrets.
[3] to the friends of God, These likewise are they who actually feel and experience this sweet love of God; concerning which nothing could be said more aptly or fittingly than what St. John says of it, when he called it the hidden manna (Apoc. II, 17): manna indeed, because it is a delight sweet and pleasant beyond measure, and savoury not with one kind of savour only, but conforming itself to the taste, relish, desire and condition of the one who eats it; and hidden, because no one understands how it tastes except one who actually eats and tastes it: for experience itself renders the tongue mute, and the greatness which is wrought in the soul renders it in a manner unfit to express the least part of what it has tasted. And this is the reason why these graces and delights which God bestows on souls are so immense that men do not believe them, and many do not even understand them: for, as St. Bernard well says (Sermon LXXIX on the Song of Songs), this language of love is barbarous to one who does not love, and more difficult to understand than the Greek tongue to one who has not learned it. Of which matter St. Augustine gives this reason: "In the carnal man the whole rule of understanding is the habit of seeing: what they are wont to see, they believe; what they are not wont to see, they do not believe." (Sermon CXLVII de Tempore). And this is what the Apostle said: "The sensual man perceiveth not the things that are of the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. II, 14). Therefore also St. Dionysius the Areopagite, treating with one of his disciples of this mystical language with which God speaks to souls, advises him not to communicate this hidden wisdom to the wise of this world, who have no experience and knowledge of divine and heavenly things (On Mystical Theology, chapter 1). And St. Augustine, speaking of the subtlety of this love and these delights, says thus: "Give me one who loves, and he feels what I say: give me one who is fervent, give me one who thirsts and sighs for the fountain of the eternal fatherland, give me such a one, and he knows what I say; but if I speak to one who is cold, he knows not what I say." (Tractate XXVI on John). In order, then, that the secret and hidden language of love may be understood, Augustine requires loving ears; and he rejects as unfit and incapable of understanding anything him who through his coldness and lukewarmness has not deserved to taste its sweetness and delight.
[4] who have obtained the greatest favours from him, But although to very many, on account of the stupor and dullness of their sense, this loving conversation of God with souls seems incredible, yet those who have the light and truth of faith cannot but confess and believe those exceptional favours and delights with which Sacred Scripture records that God spoke to his friends and treated them. For of Moses it says that he was wont to speak with God face to face, as a friend is wont to with a friend; and it is certain that this grace was granted by God to other Prophets too. Nay, God himself in the Old Testament manifestly professed that his delights were to converse with the children of men: and in the New Testament, in which God has more fully disclosed his love towards men, there were greater outpourings of his love and benevolence towards them; as, if we will run through the histories of the Saints from the times of the Apostles down to our own, it will be easy to see. And to pass over now the many holy men to whom the Lord himself appeared and showed other singular favours, it is certain that in former ages he also granted the same grace to many holy women; of whom, if we wished to weave a catalogue and series here, time would fail us before matter. For the histories of the Saints are full of these examples, and indeed there is scarcely one in which one may not read certain singular and exceptional favours of God towards his friends.
[5] St. Teresa of Jesus When, therefore, the Lord wished to show that his immense liberality and outpouring, with which he communicates himself so lavishly and without measure to those who love him, is the same now as it was in former ages, and that grace for doing good and the natural propensity to evil are the same (for we have the same God now, and he has the same goodness as before, and pours the same influences into his Church, and in short is ready to grant her the same favours and graces), hence in this last age he willed to give us so exceptional a saint, a saint, I say, Mother Teresa of Jesus; to whom he gave jointly and collectively very many of the graces which he is wont to give separately to great Saints. For the favours and delights with which the Lord heaped her, and also the affability and tenderness of love with which he dealt with her, are so immense and singular that I have scarcely ever read or heard of their equal; not to speak of gifts so admirable and virtues so perfect and placed in the highest degree, and also other exceptional prerogatives of sanctity with which he endowed her, by which he willed her to stand out among many holy women, and (to say it without injury to anyone) to be the rarest and most perfect among all the rest. For although we read that many holy women were outstanding in the greatest and most exceptional virtues, that others received admirable visions from heaven and certain particular favours from God, that others too performed certain unwonted miracles, and that others finally had all these together, yet I for my part have found no Saint (although I have examined the matter accurately and diligently) on whom God the Best and Greatest has in my judgement conferred more extraordinary and more particular prerogatives than on this holy Mother Teresa of Jesus. For to say nothing of the natural gifts and endowments (which were truly very many) with which the Lord heaped her, the divine and supernatural ones were certainly so many and so exceptional in her that greater have never appeared in anyone.
[6] is most deservedly For, besides so great a perfection of virtues and holiness of life (through which in works and deeds in the order of perfect and heroic virtue she arrived where the strongest do not reach even in thought and desire), so many and such extraordinary favours of God, so great a familiarity and communication likewise with that supreme Majesty, as if she had been of the number of the Seraphim, most inflamed with his love and most intimate with him, so great a knowledge too of heavenly things, so great a familiarity and conversation with the Heavenly ones themselves, as if she had been of their company, such sublime conceptions and sentiments of divine things, so great a light in declaring hidden secrets and hidden mysteries as scarcely anyone has noted in anyone, so eminent and sublime a doctrine as she transmitted to posterity contained in her books (in which, from the subtlety of the things she writes, the great intelligence with which she penetrates them, the singular clarity with which she expresses them, the elegance and divine artistry of the style with which she pours out what she says, and with which she causes those who read to perceive notably the fire of the Holy Spirit which is enclosed in these writings, and also that manifest light and heat which they breathe throughout), demonstrate to the eye that this doctrine was inspired by God, came from heaven, and was not written without the special assistance and help of the Holy Spirit. Besides, that she was the Mother and Foundress of a religious Order, that a woman, one and alone, brought back an entire Order both of women and of men to such perfection and strictness of life and to such sanctity that it seems to be a kind of image and exemplar of that primeval sanctity and innocence which flourished in the times of the primitive Church among those holy anchorites of Egypt and Palestine; and that she accomplished all these things, with the divine assistance and help, with her own hands and arms and at the cost of her own sweat; moreover, the miraculous incorruption and integrity of her body, and also the very many prodigies and wonders which God performed through her both in life and after death, and still performs daily: all these things, I say, so extraordinary, new, great, singular, and so far removed from all that happens according to the ordinary order and course of things, joined together at once, are a certain heaping up of miracles, prerogatives and singular graces, with which God has honoured this saint, which all so joined together I have never read to have befallen any saint.
[7] to be numbered among them. I do not, however, wish to institute here any comparison between the degrees and qualities of the sanctity and perfection of each one; but I ascribe the judgement of this matter to God alone, who measures the spirit of each and knows his dignity: I speak here only of those things which we can know outwardly of the Saints in this life. For although in very many of these sanctity itself does not substantially and formally consist, yet for the most part the Lord has been wont to confer greater graces on the greatest Saints, to impart greater light, and to use them as an instrument for effecting greater works of his service and glory; as it is certain that he did in the blessed Mother Teresa of Jesus: as, God willing, I shall set forth more at large in the commentary on her life, which I am undertaking to write, setting before my labour no other goal than that God may be more glorified in his Saints, and that the minds of mortals, by considering how sweetly and how easily
God communicates himself to those who seek him from the heart, may be the more stirred up to serve him. In all the things I am to narrate, moreover, I shall studiously have regard to historical truth and sincerity: for by a lie neither can God be glorified nor the Saints honoured. Of very many of the things which I shall write about the holy Mother I am an eyewitness, inasmuch as I dealt with her for many years, heard her Confessions and communicated with her. The rest will be taken either from the informations for her canonization or from accounts most worthy of credence. I shall begin with the course of her life, which is truly wonderful, up to the time when she began the Reform of her Order. In the second place we shall relate the beginnings of this Reform, the foundations of the monasteries, the immense labours she sustained, her glorious departure from this life and the memorable things that happened in it. Her virtues we shall describe in the third book; in the fourth, finally, her miracles. But before I begin this History, it has seemed good to set forth the approval and exceptional esteem, always widespread throughout all Spain, of the admirable and singular sanctity of the blessed Mother Teresa of Jesus, both in her life and after her death.
§ I.
The judgement of all always favourable to the sanctity and perfection of life of the Holy Mother Teresa of Jesus.
Her life and spirit Those who have purposed to describe the Lives of those Saints, men and women, on whom the Lord has conferred particular and extraordinary graces, are wont, in order to begin their history duly and to win for it the credence and authority which things so sublime and divine require, to forewarn the reader, proving before all else that the visions, revelations and other graces of that kind which those Saints received from heaven were certain, true and undoubted: I might indeed dispense with this labour; since the general and common approval which exists in the whole Church of the sanctity and doctrine of the blessed Mother Teresa of Jesus, confirmed by so many testimonies, is so evident that no one is to be found (unless perhaps there be someone who denies that the sun shines) who ought not to confess the same. Nevertheless, both to provide for my own consolation and devotion towards this holy virgin, and also for the solace of those who have the same devotion, and so that the reader may enter upon the reading of the history of her life with due opinion and esteem, it has seemed good to me to set forth briefly first some testimonies by which her life, books, sanctity and spirit have been approved. In which I shall both satisfy learned men and render credible to the ignorant and unlearned the favours and graces which the Lord confers on his own: for these, like brute and earthly animals, judge nothing else than what they see with their eyes and what does not exceed the credit of the eyes, appealing in everything to the judgement and tribunal of their senses. And for this reason it will not be necessary for me with new labour here to hand down and heap up rules for discerning spirits, or to set forth first a treatise on visions, revelations or raptures (as others have done). For in this matter, either in setting down those rules or in applying them to particular cases, I might err gravely: which certainly is in no way to be presumed or supposed of so many and such illustrious doctors whom I shall produce here, and who undertook to examine her spirit. For, as we shall see presently, all the most grave men, most illustrious both in learning and in holiness of life, who flourished in the same age as this holy virgin, did not hesitate to take up this labour; and holding forth in one hand the Lydian stone, the rules, I mean, of Sacred Scripture, and in the other the doctrine of the Saints, they examined and weighed her life, revelations and spirit: and in all things they saw her wonderfully conformed to these rules and to this doctrine, as will presently be seen from their testimonies and sayings. And the things I shall produce here are drawn not from certain uncertain and doubtful accounts, but from the authentic and approved informations which are being made for the holy Mother's canonization; and almost all whom I bring forward here confirm their testimony by oath.
§ II.
Testimonies of grave and learned men who approved the spirit of Teresa of Jesus.
approved In order, then, to say something about the veneration and esteem, and at the same time about the great devotion which various persons had towards this saint both living and dead, I shall begin with those who conversed with her in life, knew her and examined her spirit, approved it and judged it to have been such as all confess and acknowledge it to have been now that she is dead a. But since the holy Mother on the one hand was so humble that she reckoned herself unworthy that the Lord should remember her in any way, and on the other hand received so many and such singular graces and favours from God, as all know and as is related at length in the history of her life, yet fearing lest perhaps on account of her sins (which she, as one truly humble, continually bewailed as though they had been the gravest crimes) the demon might delude her, she was not at peace, nor, although the Lord conferred so many graces on her, secure. Hence she conferred with her confessors on this matter: whence also she took pains always to have very learned and very grave ones; nay, by their order and prescription she also communicated with other men of that stamp who were most celebrated in Spain at that time for authority and learning. The holy Mother, moreover, had a remarkable occasion and opportunity for doing this, because she travelled through almost the whole of Spain, as she went off to found new monasteries of nuns and for the direction and government of those already founded. In which indeed one may admire the divine providence: namely, that, since her spirit and sanctity while she lived had been approved by so many, she should, when dead, be venerated and looked up to by all; and that these things, which, because they are so admirable and rare, might perhaps give someone pause, being now proved and established by the testimony of so many and such great men, should draw after them the common opinion of all. Let us take our beginning from learned men: for these are they who examine the rules of Sacred Scripture and the doctrine of the Holy Fathers with greater rigour and more exactly, and who, not without prudence, are wont for the most part to be slower in believing and approving these things than those who consider them with the eye of piety alone. The learned men, then, whom the holy Mother consulted while she lived, and with whom she dealt, are the following.
[10] Frs. Báñez, The first is Fr. Br. Master Domingo Báñez, principal professor of the faculty of theology in the university of Salamanca, emeritus: which is truly enough to testify and gather his great learning; not to speak of his very great experience of things pertaining to the spirit, which he had collected for himself over so many years b. He was for many years confessor to the holy Mother, and from almost the beginning of her conversion to the end of her life, namely for the space of about twenty-four years, he dealt and communicated with her; nay, even when absent she depended in all her difficulties on his direction and nod. He too in turn esteemed the holy Mother so highly, and conceived so high an opinion of her sanctity, that when he preached at her obsequies in the convent of the Discalced nuns at Salamanca he did not hesitate to confess openly that she was equal to St. Catherine of Siena in holiness, but superior to her in writings and doctrine. And in order that the opinion and judgement of so grave and learned a man may be better understood, it has seemed good to transcribe here word for word his own testimony, which he himself gave concerning her when her enrolment among the Saints was being treated: "No one," he says, "can know better than I the particular favours and graces which the Lord conferred on Mother Teresa of Jesus; for I heard her Confession for many years, and examined her rather often both in Confession and outside it, and tested her in various ways, always showing myself very harsh and rigid towards her: but the more I humbled and despised her, the more she was encouraged to embrace my counsel, thinking that thus she was walking more securely and safely." And further on, speaking of the particular favours and graces which the Lord conferred on her: "In this part," he says, "so many things worth noting occur that, unless a new book is written about them, they cannot be told by way of ordinary testimony. And perhaps I, if it shall be necessary, shall compose some treatise from which it may be understood and established how secure and safe a road Mother Teresa of Jesus walked, far otherwise than those juggling spirits which have been detected in these times of ours." And after many other things he adds: "During all that time in which I dealt with her (and I dealt with her for many years) I never saw anything in her that was contrary to virtue; but I observed greater candour and humility than in any other person. And in every exercise of virtue, natural as well as supernatural, she was a most singular exemplar to all who dealt with her. Her prayer and mortification, moreover, were something rare, as all who dealt with her more particularly will be able to testify and report of her." And what he asserts about her candour and humility, he bears almost the same testimony about all her other virtues. Besides these he brings forward many other eulogies of this saint and her books, which he himself examined and approved by order of the holy Inquisition before they were published. In those few words he says more of her than anyone might think; when he says that there would be need of a book in which the particular favours and graces which the Lord imparted to this holy virgin should be written down: which work of writing he himself would most gladly have undertaken, if his occupations, which were not ordinary, had given him opportunity for it c.
[11] de Medina, But before I leave the Order of the glorious Father St. Dominic, I shall bring forward here other men of the same, whose testimony is most worthy of authority and credence and above all exception. And first Fr. Br. Master Bartolomé de Medina, principal professor of the academy of Salamanca d: who, when he had heard from the talk of others so many and such extraordinary things about the holy Mother, made little of them and could not give credence to them; nay, he thought rather ill of her on account of what he had heard about these things. So when Teresa had come to Salamanca to found her monastery, she took pains in every way to confer with this great man: for she always sought men to whom her spirit was not so very pleasing and who could raise greater difficulties for her, believing that it would be better sifted and examined by these than by those who were easily induced to believe her. She went to him, therefore, and after she had made a general Confession to him, she gave him an account of her prayer and of the road she was following, and at the same time
handed over to him to be read and examined whatever she had written about her life. Whereupon he was no less confounded than now certain and secure that it was the spirit of God which lived in that holy soul and visited her with such unwonted and extraordinary favours; and indeed he was of the number of those who most bade the blessed Mother be secure, and from that time he became her remarkable friend, and was not afraid to say that there was no one on earth holier than Teresa.
[12] de las Cuevas, Fr. Br. Master Juan de las Cuevas, who acted as provincial in the illustrious Order of the Dominicans and was afterwards raised to the bishopric of Ávila e, knew the holy Mother most familiarly and in a certain particular way; she too in turn, with the same tenor, sincerity and candour as she was wont, dealt with him about her spirit and manner of praying, and at the same time gave him an account of her whole life. He soon easily perceived what remarkable treasures God the Best and Greatest had laid up in that soul: wherefore he honoured her wonderfully, and kept up friendship with her. And in the information which was made concerning her enrolment among the Saints, he says that he holds her as remarkably holy and a practiser of the highest virtues. The same is also testified and pronounced of her by Fr. Br. Master Diego de Chaves, confessor of Philip II, king of the Spains f, who, when he was acting as prior in the monastery of St. Thomas at Ávila, dealt and communicated with her. Fr. Br. Juan Gutiérrez, preacher to the same king, and Br. Fernando del Castillo, the History of whose Order composed by him sufficiently shows his erudition, learning and spirit g, also examined her and approved her spirit. But more particularly Fr. Br. Master García de Toledo, commissary general of the Indies h: for he dealt with her with great particularity and conferred with her for a rather long time; he too ordered her to commit her Life to writing, and he was the one to whom that letter which is read at the end of it was written i.
[13] Hernández, Fr. Br. Master Pedro Hernández (whom King Philip willed to be visitor and protector of the new Reform of the Discalced, to defend and champion it in its beginnings), a man of the highest learning, of great spirit and austerity, knew the holy Mother for some years and dealt with her: for he discharged the office of her prelate and confessor. And although at the beginning he began to deal with her with great fear and caution, afterwards, however, like all the others, he yielded and gave way; and thereafter he was a great help to her in her foundations: nay, he was not afraid to say that Teresa of Jesus and her nuns had actually declared to the world that it is possible for women too to follow evangelical perfection; as if he were saying that she by her great spirit and talent had made easy and customary what seemed to men arduous and difficult. No less did another provincial of the same Order, called Br. Juan Salinas, doubt of the holy Mother's sanctity and spirit; who also warned Fr. Master Domingo Báñez (as the latter affirms in his testimony) not to trust or believe in the virtue of women more than was right: nay, it vexed him that Báñez thought so exceptionally and highly of the affairs of Mother Teresa of Jesus. To whom Domingo answered that he should speak with her and deal with her before he passed any judgement on her. It happened, moreover, that he was sent to Toledo, where the holy Mother then was, for the sake of preaching; where he examined her through the whole time of Lent and made various trials of her: and her sanctity and virtue soon so carried him away and affected him that, although on account of many affairs he had very little time, yet he went to her daily to hear her Confession. When Master Báñez afterwards asked him what he thought of Teresa of Jesus, he answered: "You deceived me in saying she was a woman: in truth she is not a woman, but a man, and indeed one of the most bearded k." By which manner of speaking he declared her heroic and great virtue, sanctity and worth. Fr. Br. Master Diego de Yanguas, a man of the same Order especially grave and learned, heard the Confessions of the holy Mother Teresa for eight years. He confessed that she was a woman of great spirit and endowed with the greatest virtues; nay, he relates some particular revelations which the holy Mother received from the Lord, and in his testimony heaps up many other praises and excellences worthy of the holy Mother's sanctity [l].
[14] Ibáñez The same as these Fathers so grave and learned thought of her was thought by very many other masters, presentati, regents and lectors of the same Order. Above the others Fr. Br. Pedro Ibáñez, who was afterwards rector of the college of St. Gregory at Valladolid, was her confessor in her beginnings for six years m; and he composed a particular treatise divided into eleven chapters, in which he collects and sets forth very many rules and lessons from Sacred Scripture and the Holy Fathers for discerning spirits: and since he sees that all of these have place in the holy Mother's spirit, he says that he cannot doubt that it is from God. For my part I should like to report here everything that learned Father wrote; but in keeping with the brevity of this commentary of mine I shall take only some things from that treatise. "All her words," he says, "her letters and all her affairs I saw full of humility, by which she very much desired that her faults and past miseries should be open to the eyes of all and published in their talk, taking it most ill to be looked up to as good. When the divine graces in her were increasing, she was consumed with care lest anyone should hear anything about her or conceive from it a good opinion of her." And having narrated certain particular things, he says: "In short her humility is an incredible thing, as all who deal with her more than the others testify." And further below he adds: "I say it is plain to the eye that God favours this woman and that whatever we can say to establish her holiness is true. She erected the house of St. Joseph by an express revelation of God; of which even the great sanctity which flourishes there is an evident proof. This religious has so pure a conscience that all of us who receive her faults in Confession and communicate with her, as also her companions, are astounded at her: for it can be said that whatever she turns over in her mind, whatever she does, is God, and is referred to the divine honour and the spiritual profit of souls. And so she founded that little house of St. Joseph furnished with as great perfection as can be in women living on earth, nay and in men. And if I should wish to say something of the exceptional spiritual fruit which all who converse with this servant of God take from meeting her, the narration would never find an end. For the things which happen in this respect are astonishing and a remarkable miracle of God. I do not wish to say anything here of myself, who on account of my demerits do not profit; although I have evidently experienced in myself, since I began to deal with her, that in many things so singular a help of God has been present to me that I clearly saw it come from heaven. Wherefore within myself I can no more not hold her as holy than I can say inwardly that I do not know myself n. She disclosed to me many things which God alone could know, because they were future things and things which pertained to the interior and to the progress of the spirit, and which seemed to me impossible: which, however, I found to have been most true." And a little further below he goes on: "Whatever has been revealed to this saint tends only to great and illustrious spiritual effects, to the highest consolation of the afflicted, and to singular progress in divine love. It would be more than too long to wish to narrate whatever has been revealed to her. She consulted all the learned men who could be had at Ávila or were passing through, and conferred with them about her affairs; and among others a certain holy man of the Order of St. Francis, whom I myself knew, called Br. Peter of Alcántara, a man of singular prayer and penance and of zeal in his profession. This saint, although he was not pressed by affairs so great as would compel him to hasten to Ávila, was nevertheless impelled by the divine Majesty to go there, to console this handmaid of his, since she had very many adversaries in these matters: and he made her certain and bade her believe that these things were from God and that no illusion lay beneath them; and as regards the manner in which she saw God, and the revelations and divine locutions which she had, he plainly enlightened her and made her secure. And because this holy man attributed and deferred so much to her, and showed her particular affection and signs of friendship, it came about that all ceased to contradict her; and thereafter she was very much at peace: so much so that all who had opposed her before (and they were very many), and all who were consulted on this matter, testify most openly that this spirit without doubt proceeds from God, so that no illusion lay beneath this. And although at the beginning very many contradicted her as much as possible and intimidated her, yet now all hold her as a remarkable handmaid of God and venerate her with what honour they can."
[15] and other learned men of the Order of Preachers; These and many other things that man writes in this treatise; and he openly testifies that, if he wished to say all that he has to say about her, it would be necessary for him to write a huge volume. This account was made by him six years after the holy Mother began to give herself more intimately to God; and even to the present day it is preserved, written in the very hand of the Father, in the monastery of the Discalced nuns of St. Joseph at Ávila. Moreover, the holy Mother profited that man wonderfully: for although he was a remarkable servant of God before, yet after he dealt with her, he entered upon another manner of life and turned out a holy man. Through the agency of this Father the holy Mother communicated about the manner of her prayer and life with Fr. Br. Master Mancio, principal professor at Salamanca: and his judgement of her was the same as that of all the others who knew her and dealt with her. Her Confession was also heard and her spirit proved by Fr. Br. Vicente Barrón, consultor of the Office of the Holy Inquisition and an exceptionally learned man, who, when she was living at Toledo, gave his services to her for a year and a half in Confession and the direction of her life o: which service rendered her she repaid him excellently; for by her prayers it came about that he arrived at great perfection of life. Fr. Br. Presentatus Felipe de Meneses, lector of Theology in the college of St. Gregory at Valladolid, when he had heard so many things said about the holy Mother, came from Valladolid to Ávila to see
whether the evil demon was deluding her, so that he might either free her from illusion and teach her better things, or, if she was walking by the right road, defend her whenever he heard others speaking of her. So when he had heard her, he could not but speak of her honourably. She also confessed and conferred with another presentatus, named Lunar, who was acting as prior in the monastery of St. Thomas at Ávila. All these explored, approved and extolled with praises her spirit and virtues: for so great a splendour and flame shone forth from it that, although she had things so singular and extraordinary that they struck fear into everyone, yet no one who spoke with her and conversed with her could doubt of her very great sanctity, or that all those favours and exceptional graces came from God.
[16] likewise Frs. Ribera, The holy Mother conferred no less with the Fathers of the Society of Jesus than with the Dominicans. For since she saw that in those two Religious Orders there flourished so great learning and also so great practice of prayer and virtues, it seemed to her that she could in no way err or be deluded if she relied on the learning, counsels and admonitions of those men. And first, the sanctity of Mother Teresa of Jesus is published and celebrated by the most learned Father and Doctor Francisco Ribera, who with the great applause of all published a Commentary on the twelve Minor Prophets, the Epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrews and the Apocalypse of St. John; and although he was occupied with other affairs of great moment, yet he was moved by so great an affection of devotion and esteem towards the admirable sanctity and virtues of Mother Teresa of Jesus that, setting before himself certainly no other goal than the glory of God alone, and that her so great sanctity might become known in the Church, and that on account of certain particular graces which he himself had received from the Lord through her intercession he might show himself grateful to her (as he himself confesses), he wrote, when already elderly and heavy with years, an entire book on her life and miracles: in which, although he relates such lofty and heroic things of this holy virgin, yet he always thinks that he speaks of fewer things than the dignity of the matter demands, and below her dignity. And in order that greater authority may accrue to his writing, although the very authority of the writer would suffice of itself, because he is a man of great religion and of very many virtues, he himself, in the testimony which he gives in the information which was made concerning her canonization, confirms under the sacrament of an oath that whatever he described in that book is most true. Nay rather, whatever he wrote he inquired into seriously and accurately, and committed everything to writing as faithfully as he could; so that this single testimony of his suffices for giving credence to so singular and admirable a virtue.
[17] Henríquez, The holy Mother was also known and dealt with for a long time by an illustrious Doctor of the same Society, Fr. Enrique Henríquez, outstanding in erudition and learning, who composed certain excellent books on moral Theology, filled with manifold knowledge. There settled in him a great desire of examining the life and revelations of this saint; as he himself candidly confesses in the testimony he gave in the information instituted at Salamanca concerning her canonization. For when at Seville, when the holy Mother had gone there for the sake of making a foundation and stayed there a whole year and was harassed by the great afflictions of many, he heard her Confessions during that whole time, he examined her at leisure (as he himself relates), in the presence of Rodrigo Álvarez, a priest of the same Society, a man of sixty and of great spirit and experience of affairs, who also could not then persuade himself that the Lord had conferred such great virtues and graces on the holy Mother. What moved Rodrigo to doubt was partly the very greatness and singularity of the graces, partly the great experience he had of the many deceptions and diabolical illusions which he had found in many persons, and those notable ones and held to be very spiritual: whence also he had written a certain treatise, into which he had put many particular cases and various rules teaching the discernment of spirits, and in which his principal intention was to show that for the most part great frauds and illusions of the devil lie beneath in this matter, and especially in women. Wherefore those two Fathers together induced the holy Mother (because her superior had then so commanded) to commit to writing whatever had happened to her in this matter and to give an account of herself, examining and questioning her and as it were commenting, and scrutinizing most accurately all her books, words and writings. And after they had examined her so many times and so studiously and in detail, she pleased them wonderfully and in all things, and they saw with their own eyes her singular humility, charity and admirable manner of praying, and her great discretion and experience of spiritual things. And so at length they entirely laid aside that needless fear which they had had hitherto. All these are the express words of Fr. Henríquez, who continues his discourse begun in answer to the questions thus: "The Mother had an admirable gift in all the degrees of prayer which the Saints hand down. Whence also the Fathers Francis Borgia, General of the Society of Jesus, and Antonio Araoz, commissary of the same Order, after they had dealt with her and examined her spirit, approved it with a singular and admirable eulogy, saying that, although they had seen by experience many illusions of the evil demon in many other persons, yet as regards the affairs of Mother Teresa of Jesus they were plainly certain and secure, and embraced them as given in no other way than by the liberal hand of the Lord." And this, he says, is what he himself knew, and also many other things pertaining to her perfection, holy life and eminent kind of prayer. "Which things," he says, "I have understood and have very often heard related by Fr. Gaspar de Salazar and Fr. Baltasar Álvarez, priests of the Society of Jesus, who communicated with her for many years. And, if there were need, I could relate many revelations, and those approved ones, which the holy Mother Teresa of Jesus had with remarkable profit both to herself and to very many others, which have not been related in the book which Father and Doctor Francisco Ribera wrote most accurately and most faithfully about her life."
[18] González, And pursuing this matter, a little further on he adds these things: "I found in her great and admirable prudence and at the same time Christian simplicity, a generous mind girt with excellent humility, and moreover simple obedience towards her superiors in the most difficult things. In acts of charity and of the other virtues she shone wonderfully, and inflamed and moved those with whom she dealt to similar acts of the virtues. Besides, she pursued mortification and austerity of life especially: moreover, it was very pleasing to her that her superiors and confessors should enjoin on her things grave, laborious and displeasing to sensuality. Nay, in the many persecutions which she suffered (as she suffered at Seville) she displayed an invincible and constant mind, and also great and admirable patience and confidence in God. She kept her conscience most pure from every vice and imperfection, joined with great peace and quiet of mind, which the Lord granted her. Nay, I learned both from herself and from Fr. Martín Gutiérrez, rector of the Society of Jesus at Salamanca, that she was endowed by God with the gift of prophecy." Fr. Gil González [p], superior of the province of Castile and visitor of the Society of Jesus, of great name in it and conspicuous for many ornaments of virtues, heard the Confession of Mother Teresa of Jesus for twelve years and more, and dealt with her familiarly; and she communicated to him the things of her spirit, the revelations and visions which she described in her book. He, bearing testimony to her sanctity, speaks thus: "Mother Teresa of Jesus was a woman of great spirit, and conversed very familiarly with the Lord Jesus Christ; in whom I noticed most sublime and lofty prayer, continual presence with the Lord, and at the same time a certain great propensity towards the things of humility: and so the visions and revelations which she received from the Lord were very many." And a little after: "I perceived that she was endowed with the greatest virtues, and especially with a singular hope: for I never saw her anxious or doubtful about any matter which she undertook and wished to put into execution. For she always trusted in God, and that through means by which it was never thought they could be brought to completion; and by breaking through the greatest difficulties, whatever she had determined to accomplish attained its outcome."
[19] Pérez, I shall add to these other testimonies of the kind. One is that of a certain other provincial of the same Order, no less prudent and learned than that superior was, of Father, I say, Bartolomé Pérez, who communicated with the holy Mother for more than ten years, and thus testifies of her: "Mother Teresa of Jesus was a woman of great spirit and prayer: for whenever I dealt with her, I always heard her speaking of spiritual things with great spirit and zeal for Religion and for the good of souls; from which it may be gathered that she had the Lord most present in her memory. And of him she spoke with such fervour and feeling that she showed she was truly burning with the highest love of God and neighbour; so that, whenever I dealt with her and heard her speaking, I was so edified and encouraged to serve God that not without reason it both seemed to me then and seems to me now that she is to be held and looked up to as a saint. And I hear that the same was the judgement of all those who dealt with her: for she breathed upon everyone a wonderful odour of sanctity. Many men conspicuous for learning, spirit and holiness of life approved her spirit. And whatever affairs I saw the holy Mother handling, I noted that they were handled by her with such light and knowledge that I judged that great knowledge and facility of affairs to be a certain effect of the continual communication and prayer which she had with the Lord. Which I observed to be noted also by others who explored her." And below: "From the conversation and communication which I had with the holy Mother, I knew, in the way in which it can be known, that she was endowed in a heroic degree with faith, hope and charity, and in particular with an immense love of God and of his glory and of the salvation of souls, and also with manly constancy and generosity in pursuing the undertakings which pertained to the service of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that she cared for no persecutions or detractions of men. And in particular I heard certain of her conversations with religious who had come to her for the sake of a visit, about her immense zeal for the faith, with regard chiefly to which she began to found her monasteries. Finally I perceived that the said Mother was endowed with virtues of every kind, and indeed in the highest degree of perfection." Thus far his words.
[20] Ripalda Fr. Master Jerónimo de Ripalda of the Society of Jesus, when he was acting as rector of the college of Salamanca, and earlier when he was staying at Ávila, dealt with the blessed Mother Teresa of Jesus for the space of four years and heard her Confessions. When asked about her sanctity, he answered thus: "Mother Teresa of Jesus
was a woman of great spirit and had a sublime kind of prayer; by the help of which the Lord communicated to her many things pertaining to his service, which she afterwards conferred about with me at various times: and from this I conceived a great opinion of her lofty prayer and of the light which God communicated to her. She dealt with the most learned and gravest men of our Society whom this province had at that time, such as were Doctor Araoz, commissary of Father General, Fr. Licentiate Martín Gutiérrez, rector of the college of Salamanca, Fr. Baltasar Álvarez, who died while administering this province of Toledo, and than whom, in the judgement of all the religious of the said Society, there was no one more versed and skilled in handling and understanding the things of the spirit, and who therefore almost always acted as prefect of spiritual matters. He was confessor to the aforesaid Mother Teresa of Jesus for six whole years, and conferred about her spirit and affairs with Fr. Francis Borgia. All those Fathers whom I have mentioned approved and commended the spirit of Mother Teresa of Jesus." And further on: "Mother Teresa of Jesus was endowed with remarkable faith, hope and charity: and in particular I observed in her an exact and extraordinary obedience towards her confessors in all things which they commanded her, and also a singular confidence in the Lord against difficulties of every kind that occurred, and a remarkable fear of God with continual caution about herself in her affairs, an excellent humility too, by which she conferred about her affairs and her spirit with especially learned and spiritual men, and finally an exemplary patience, by which she bore with a most even mind all the injuries that were inflicted on her."
[21] and others of the Society of Jesus; Another Father of the same Society, named Juan de Águila, who was the holy Mother's confessor and dealt with her, says almost the same; and he adds that, besides having noted in the holy Mother the three theological virtues in the highest degree and with the greatest increase, he observed in her, from that light which the Lord communicated to her in prayer, a great knowledge of the mysteries of our Faith and an understanding of Sacred Scripture: for although she was an unlearned woman, yet she understood many places of it in a catholic and certain sense according to the spirit and mind of the holy Doctors; and she thought of God so sublimely and loftily that it was plain to the eye how familiar he was to her: and from this, in my judgement, came that great circumspection and prudence in conducting affairs and in all her operations. I should find no end, if I wished to review all the Fathers of the Society of Jesus who knew her and heard her Confessions and with great prudence and caution approved her spirit. Among whom was Fr. Martín Gutiérrez, rector of the college of Salamanca, a learned man and an excellent preacher, and of great spirit and prayer. Then Fr. Salazar, rector of the college of Cuenca, who, as Fr. Henríquez has recorded in his eulogy, related many and splendid things about Teresa's sanctity, and when he was acting as rector at Ávila, helped her wonderfully and showed her favour [q]. Then Fr. Santander, rector of the college of Segovia; and also Doctor Pablo Hernández, consultor of the Inquisition of Toledo, who used to say of her: "Mother Teresa of Jesus is great as regards natural endowments, but greater as regards supernatural ones [r]." With all these Fathers, learned as well as grave, the holy Mother communicated on the occasion of her foundations; and they all passed exactly the same judgement on her sanctity, virtue and spirit. Nay, the holy Mother also confessed to not a few others; the testimonies of some of whom, as to what they thought of her perfection and sanctity, I shall bring forward here.
[22] and also Gaspar de Villanueva The licentiate Gaspar de Villanueva, a man of much erudition and vicar of the town of Malagón, was confessor to the holy Mother for some months while she was living there, and gives this testimony of her: "Mother Teresa of Jesus was a woman of the greatest spirit, and also of excellent conversation with God, and who, forgetful of herself and her own advantage, sought the honour and glory of God in all things; moreover, she was endowed with faith, hope and charity in a heroic and sublime degree. She was most humble and especially obedient, and of the highest chastity, and wonderfully advanced in the other virtues: for in all the time in which I dealt with her and was her confessor, she displayed such purity of life that I do not remember ever having seen anything in her, either in deed or in word, that deserved reproof, but everything of the greatest edification and example; so much so that she seems to me to have been one of those prodigies which God shows on earth in order to be glorified by men."
[23] and Cristóbal Colón. Master Cristóbal Colón, visitor general of the archdiocese of Valencia, often heard the Confessions of the holy Mother Teresa of Jesus, communicated with her and dealt with her familiarly; and in the information which was made at Valencia, he says these words: "I consider that Mother Teresa of Jesus was one of the women of the most singular spirit whom I have ever seen on earth; although I have dealt with very many others in various regions and provinces. For by the help of prayer she obtained the most splendid things from the Lord: and she had especially a lively knowledge and discernment of spirits, whereby it came about that, although she dealt with men of various states and conditions, she yet most plainly detected and reached what suited the spirit of each one and what was afterwards to happen to him in the order of his state." And below: "She had excellent faith, hope and charity, so much so indeed that she feared nothing nor shrank in mind, however much all human help was lacking to her; whence also she used to say: Let us be faithful to him who cannot break his given faith. If anyone had merely looked at her, she seemed to answer inwardly to the things which his mind desired to know; so that, if anyone had any doubt, it was not necessary to question her in order to resolve it." And he adds afterwards: "Her humility was sincere and candid; the like of which I have perceived in no mere creature, however many I have dealt with in the whole course of my life. Whence also she fled all favour and human praise and whatever seemed to tend thereto. Her chaste circumspection and modesty were so great that it seemed a gift obtained from the Lord that she imparted I know not what modesty to all who looked at her; so much so that it seemed impossible for anyone to be borne towards her with inordinate love." All whom I have so far reported were confessors of the holy Mother.
§ III.
Testimony of holy men who approved by their judgement the life and books of the Holy Mother.
With whom agree St. Luis Bertrán, Although all whom we have so far mentioned are men of many virtues and exceptional sanctity, yet I now wish to report and bring forward those who flourished with admirable and well-known sanctity, and to touch briefly on what their judgement of the holy Mother was: for those who have truly tasted and experienced the things that are God's judge with great certainty, by the gift of wisdom, of the sentiments and effects born of the divine spirit. Just as one who has a good taste and a palate already accustomed to the most delicate wine, if anyone offers him vinegar or other raw or adulterated wine, at once perceives by the experience of taste the difference of the wine much more clearly than one who would wish to discern it by sight alone or by smell, or having a depraved taste. Many spiritual men, therefore, who had doubtless received from the Lord very many things similar to those which he was also working in the holy Mother, approved her spirit. Among these was first of all the holy Fr. Br. Luis Bertrán, whose sanctity is very well known both within and outside Spain; as is clear (not to speak of his very many miracles) from the fact that the cause of his canonization has already been very far advanced. This holy man, not without divine revelation, set very great store by the life and admirable virtues of this holy virgin and by the purpose of reforming her Order conceived by her; and indeed by letters written in the name of God he encouraged her to begin this work so well suited to promoting the divine glory [s].
[25] Ven. Juan de Ávila, Fr. Master Juan de Ávila, held in our times to be a truly evangelical man, and than whom the Church of God has not had a more faithful and zealous minister for many centuries past, and whose virtues and life were so singular that Fr. Luis de Granada described them in a special book. So in order that this holy man might be able to examine the spirit and revelations of the holy Mother, she by the order of her confessors wrote her Life [t]. He weighed it accurately; and he wrote a letter in which by some reasons he approved the revelations and spirit of the holy Mother. Nay indeed, the most religious Fr. Br. Luis de Granada, when he writes the Life of that holy man, among other evident proofs by which he proves that he had the gift of discerning spirits, brings forward this as singular, namely that in examining and approving the spirit of Mother Teresa he hit the mark excellently. These are his words: "It happened too that a certain remarkable religious, named Teresa of Jesus, very well known in this our age (although at the beginning she suffered persecution from many who did not know her spirit), when she saw herself pressed and harassed by some, had recourse, by the advice of one of the officials of the Holy Inquisition, to Father Ávila, on account of his great skill and experience in spiritual things, and gave him an account of her whole life: and he, when he had sufficiently understood what the matter was and had thoroughly learned her spirit, answered her in a certain letter that there was no reason for her to disquiet herself any further, but she should be certain and secure that no illusion lay beneath her affairs, because all came from God." By which testimony Luis de Granada himself also confirms the sanctity of the holy Mother Teresa of Jesus and approves her spirit [v].
[26] St. Peter of Alcántara, Fr. Br. Peter of Alcántara, a man of great spirit and much prayer, who by his industry and labour reformed the Order of the Discalced Franciscan Fathers and brought it to great perfection, was among the chief of those who dealt with the holy Mother in a certain singular manner; and she in turn perceived in him a remarkable spirit and holiness of life. He too was the one who above the others made the holy Mother secure (as she herself wrote in her Life), brought her to the notice of Álvaro de Mendoza, bishop of Ávila, and by his authority and the good name he had with him prevailed so much with the bishop that he moved him to grant permission for founding the first monastery. And what is greater, so great was the authority of Fr. Br. Peter of Alcántara with all the people of Ávila, and so well did everyone think of him, that, when at the beginning, when the Lord was first beginning to confer such great graces on the holy Mother,
many of her confessors, otherwise learned and grave men, denied that it was the spirit of God, the authority of this Father alone sufficed for them afterwards to believe the contrary of her, and he compelled them to change their former mind and opinion. Nay indeed, this holy man used to say that among those souls which at that time flourished in the world with greater sanctity, the holy Mother Teresa of Jesus seemed to be reckoned and to stand almost first; and indeed that, Faith alone excepted, nothing was more certain and manifest to him than that her spirit was from God. Whence also he was a remarkable help to her in her labours, difficulties and foundations. These two men whom I have mentioned are of so sublime a spirit and of so admirable sanctity, and had such virtues and were so conspicuous in life, that they are worthy to be enrolled in the number of the Saints. The Life of the first was written by Fr. Br. Luis de Granada; while of the other, of Peter, I mean, of Alcántara, the holy Mother herself touches briefly in a few words on the heroic virtues [w].
[27] St. Francis Borgia, Fr. Baltasar Álvarez, In this number of spiritual men and remarkable servants of God we can include Fr. Francis Borgia, General of the Society of Jesus, especially conspicuous for holiness of life, and also Fr. Baltasar Álvarez, of whom we have already made mention above. These both saw and testified more than enough what pledges of sanctity the Lord had placed in the blessed Mother Teresa of Jesus. And first Fr. Francis Borgia remained so affected towards her, and her spirit so satisfied and pleased him, that he never spoke of her except most honourably and with great praise, and, after he had once dealt with her, he always thereafter sent her letters, lest he should lose the communication of so holy a woman. Further, Fr. Baltasar Álvarez, a man endowed with singular spirit and much prayer and who presided over the province of Toledo, for many years lent his ears to her confessing, and exercised her with many mortifications, and sent ahead other trials for testing her spirit; from which he perceived the purity and sincerity of her spirit more and more daily, and that with remarkable profit and admiration to himself, recognizing singular gifts in her.
[28] Fr. Rodrigo Álvarez, Among men of this kind I shall number also Fr. Rodrigo Álvarez, a man of heroic and illustrious virtues, who (as Fr. Enrique Henríquez has already testified above) both examined and approved the spirit of the holy Mother. Of which matter a particular testimony is given by the licentiate Fernando de Mata, a preacher of Seville and a man especially spiritual; who in his eulogy, after he had testified the same as others about her spirit, added: "I heard Fr. Rodrigo Álvarez of the Society of Jesus, who acted as confessor of Mother Teresa of Jesus while she was living at Seville, praising and approving her spirit as quite certain: which judgement that Father passed on her after he had accurately explored her and asked the Lord in prayer to give him light and knowledge for understanding the truth of the matter. Further, Fr. Rodrigo Álvarez was held to be a man to whom the Lord had given the gift of discerning spirits; whence also the assessors of the Holy Inquisition sometimes consulted him in matters of this kind: and both those of the house and outsiders always looked up to him as an exemplar of virtue and religion and a man of great spirit. I sometimes heard him saying that the Lord had communicated to the holy Mother through prayer many things pertaining to his service, which I have read in the books that have been written about her life and also in other manuscript papers. Nay, I heard from the same Fr. Rodrigo, who had heard her general Confession, that she had a particular gift of chastity and was as entire in virginity and untouched in body as St. Catherine of Siena; and, producing a certain spectacle case, he said: Just as it is impossible for this case to have thoughts or feelings of the flesh, so too it was impossible for Teresa on account of the particular gift of chastity and purity which she had received from God." This approval of her was passed by that Father, so skilled in the things of the spirit and so zealous a servant of God, after he had first made many fasts, prayers and very many other examinations for this purpose. And when one day he was in prayer in the choir of his college, the Lord declared to him from various places of Sacred Scripture that the spirit of the blessed Mother was good and had proceeded from his hand: whence from that time he himself began to publish everywhere to everyone that that spirit had come from heaven; nay, he also informed his provincial, who was then Fr. Diego de Acosta and who also had doubts on this matter, of the revelation made to him in prayer. And the provincial, moved by the testimony and information of this holy Father, so skilled in spiritual things and so spiritual, at once laid aside his doubt, and thought so rightly of the holy Mother, bore the same testimony of her, and was just as secure about her spirit as all the others whom we have mentioned so far.
[29] Julián de Ávila, Into this number I shall also put here Fr. Julián de Ávila, senior chaplain of the Discalced nuns of Ávila, a man of exemplary life and very many virtues, whom also all the citizens of Ávila held as such: which was sufficiently evident at his death, when they honoured and venerated his body and remains, now that he was dead, as those of some Saint (as indeed he truly was). This holy man was the perpetual companion of the holy Mother, and dealt with her for the space of twenty years, and accompanied her in her foundations; and since he had perceived her admirable virtues by constant association and familiarity, he wrote a certain book about the things which he saw and actually experienced concerning her sanctity [x]. From the testimony, moreover, which he gave for the holy Mother's canonization (it is truly ample and great) I have drawn these brief sentences which follow: "I," he says, "frequented the holy Mother for about twenty years, conversed with her, lent my ears to her confessing and gave her Holy Communion: nay, in all the foundations which came her way, until the Lord took her from this life, I accompanied her and served her. She had a very lively faith, a hope as clear and rare as other Saints are known to have had, and a charity so fervent that neither labours nor contradictions nor detractions nor the slight affection of men towards her nor any other things, which it would be far too long to relate, made her grow cold in charity and love towards God, which she showed in all things; so that not without reason she could say that word of the Apostle: Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ? I as an eyewitness say that nothing either adverse or prosperous, nothing pertaining to means, honour or life, nor in short anything else was enough to make her desist from completing the foundations she had begun; inasmuch as she was secure that God would by no means fail her." And a little further below: "In the supernatural things which God did in her, and in the help which he gave her in the foundations, she surpassed those graces which God gave to many ancient Saints; since God did such wonderful and astonishing works through her." And in another place: "No one will be able to deny or dare to say that the Lord did not show himself as eminent in the affairs of Mother Teresa of Jesus as in the most remarkable and excellent Saints whom the Church of God has. I as an eyewitness dare to say that she had things as supernatural as the Saints most loved by God have had. Almost every day I gave her Holy Communion, and for the most part she remained in ecstasy. At that time the Lord heaped her with so many and such exceptional favours that whatever she confessed is little compared with the things concerning supernatural matters which the Lord gave her to understand. Among these so sublime things which God made her feel, he gave also certain others which could be told and disclosed; and these are the things which she herself so truly committed to writing. For my part, in that space of twenty years during which I dealt with her, I never noticed or understood that she had knowingly and willingly committed any venial sin; and it is certain to me that she would never have committed any, even if she could have gained whatever is in the world by it. I know besides that her prayer and presence of God were so great and so continual that, in order that she might be able to bear it, it was necessary for her to be diverted and occupied by some external affairs which pertained to the government and increase of her monasteries; and that it was ordinary for her to communicate and converse with God about her affairs, and for God in turn to speak to her and to disclose to her many things which pertained to the foundations of the monasteries with greater familiarity than we read of many Saints. And this happened for the most part after she had received Holy Communion."
[30] several bishops I wish also to record here the bishops and other prelates of Spain, grave as well as learned, who, after they had dealt with Mother Teresa of Jesus, gave the same judgement of her while living which the universal Church gives of her now that she is dead. Let the first be Teotónio de Bragança, archbishop of Évora, who had great familiarity and acquaintance with the holy Mother, and repeatedly reckoned himself most happy for having known her in this life, and who, before Teresa's death, without her ordering it, had the book of the Way of Perfection, which the holy Mother had written for the use of her nuns, printed in Portugal [y]. Let the second be Doctor Velázquez, from canon of Toledo bishop of Osma, and afterwards archbishop of Compostela. When he was acting as canon, the holy Mother, by the express command of the Lord, chose him for her confessor; and after he had frequented her and heard her Confessions, he conceived such devotion and affection towards her, and thought so highly of her heroic virtues, that, when he was bishop of Osma, he called her to establish a monastery at Soria, a town of his diocese, and when she first entered his house he received her on bended knee: so great, namely, was the veneration with which he was borne towards the saint. At which honour she blushed as she had ever blushed at any other time in her life [z]. Álvaro de Mendoza, bishop of Palencia, looked up to the blessed Mother as a saint, and reckoned all the things that pertained to her as such; and, although at the beginning he wished to put some hindrance in the way of her foundations, yet afterwards he was so secure and confirmed as to the spirit of God which dwelt in the holy Mother that he said that thereafter he never doubted of anything, however impossible it seemed, provided Teresa affirmed it. And when at the beginning all cried out and said it was folly for a woman, so arduous a thing as
the new reform of the Order was, to wish to begin and undertake it, and he himself saw with his own eyes from the outcome of the matter how ill they had thought, he used to say: "Truly we are fools; but she is both wise and holy." Whence also he became the greatest friend of the blessed Mother, and helped and protected her, as also her Religious Order, excellently in whatever ways he could, both at the beginning and during all the time he lived. The archbishop of Seville, Cristóbal de Rojas, was her intimate and most familiar friend, and indeed an untiring patron and protector of her Religious Order. And the archbishop of Burgos, Cristóbal Vela, who had before opposed with all his strength the foundation of the convent of Discalced nuns to be erected at Burgos, which the holy Mother founded there, afterwards conceived so excellent an opinion of her that in a certain sermon which he afterwards gave in this very convent, with great tenderness of mind and almost with tears, he heaped her with many praises, accusing himself for having shown himself so difficult and slow in giving her permission for this.
[31] and very many other men Diego de Covarrubias, bishop of Segovia and president of Castile, who is to be named among the most learned men of that kingdom, treated the holy Mother with the greatest honour and thought most highly and excellently of her sanctity: which opinion also settled in his kinsman Juan Orozco de Covarrubias, bishop of Cádiz; as may be seen from the book which he wrote on true and false prophecy. Nay, even today there are living four bishops who were confessors of the holy Mother Teresa: Doctor Manso, bishop of Calahorra, Doctor Sierra of Palencia [aa] and Doctor Castro of Segovia; who all, as is fitting, wonderfully proclaim the excellence and sanctity of the virtues which they learned by experience in the holy Mother and almost touched with their hands: the fourth am I, who shall not be able to set forth what I think of her in a manner befitting the dignity of the matter, neither in this book nor in many others; yet for my solace and to pay my debts to this saint I trace these outlines, and what my intractable pen cannot reach, I supply with my tongue: for many years now (as the gravest men throughout Spain well know, with whom I have had to deal in my office of confessor of King Philip II) my most pleasant conversation has been to act as herald of this saint's virtues, to venerate her sanctity and to help her sons and daughters; to which nothing else moves me than the glory of God and zeal for souls, and also those titles by which I am bound to Teresa, as also my spiritual profit. Among ecclesiastics and religious we can also include Fernando de Toledo, son of the Duke of Alba, grand prior of the Order of St. John; who, because he saw the holy Mother while she was living and was in her company, at once perceived her profound humility, admirable sanctity and virtues. Even from the time when he began to frequent her, he began to look up to her as a saint living in heaven and worthy to be honoured as such on earth too, by the public approval of the Roman See. Whence, in order to render some remarkable service to God and to show with what affection he was borne towards the holy Mother, when he departed from this life (namely three or four years after the holy Mother's death), he bequeathed by will fourteen thousand gold pieces, to be assigned to annual revenues and spent on the expenses of the canonization: nay, he also dedicated another part of his means to founding a convent for Discalced nuns in the town of Consuegra; and all these things he performed for the honour of God and the veneration of Teresa.
[32] distinguished by ecclesiastical But although they did not know her in life, yet many grave men in Spain judged her when dead to be a saint and worthy of canonization, and that by public acts and testimonies. Among others the patriarch and archbishop of Valencia, Juan de Ribera, when in the foundation of a certain college which he instituted he had bequeathed notable double portions and collations, to be received on certain feasts of the year and days on which the memory of some Saints is kept, includes among these Saints also Mother Teresa of Jesus, so that after her canonization a celebration should be instituted for her just as for the others: since even then he held her canonization, about which no one doubted, as certain [bb]. Lorenzo de Otaduy, bishop of Ávila, a most learned and exceptionally pious man, gave ten thousand gold pieces from which a monastery should be built at Ávila for the Discalced Friars; and in the agreements which he made with the Order he says among other things that this foundation is made both for the honour and glory of God the Best and Greatest and of the blessed Mother Teresa of Jesus. Nor is it any wonder that she is called blessed by him, since he often repeats and inculcates that the holy Mother Teresa of Jesus is no less canonized in his eyes than St. Catherine of Siena. For because he was bishop of the place in which the holy Mother was born and brought up, he had her excellent virtues and sanctity thoroughly well known. All the men, therefore, whom we have so far recorded, and also many others whom we deliberately omit, so grave, so holy and learned, and of such great dignity and authority, having known the holy Mother Teresa of Jesus and frequented her, approved her sanctity to a man. And I do not know what greater or ampler testimony can be devised (in this part, at least) concerning any Saint, or what more exact examination the Church can institute, excepting that approval which proceeds either from a General Council or from the Apostolic See, that is so sufficient and efficacious as this which has been made concerning the holy Mother; since so many archbishops, bishops, provincials, superiors of Religious Orders, masters and doctors of Sacred Theology, men spiritual as well as holy, examined the spirit of this holy woman by all ways and means for a long time [cc]. The number, qualities, eulogies and dignities of these men are more than sufficient, not for worthily constituting one alone, but many provincial Councils; so that neither head nor members nor learning nor virtue nor number nor the other parts necessary for it would be lacking to them.
[33] and secular dignities. Of the secular persons who knew the holy Mother and esteemed her highly [dd] I do not wish to make mention here; because I should make this prologue longer and more prolix than is right. I shall report here only one, who may stand for all whom I could bring forward, Philip II, king of the Spains; to whom the holy Mother wrote letters while she lived, and whom she informed about some matters, and from whom she also asked certain other things in favour of her Order, which he granted her with great liberality. And indeed, moved by her letters and the opinion he had conceived of her, he was a particular father and protector of her Religious Order [ee]. The same was done by the empress María, and also by the princess Juana; at whose request and instance the holy Mother, passing through Madrid, lodged with the Discalced nuns of St. Clare. No less was the devotion towards her of the Most Christian King of France, who, at the request and prayers of his kinswoman the Duchess of Longueville, and especially on account of his affection for the holy Mother, asked the Supreme Pontiff Clement VIII for some nuns of the Order founded by her; to whom, by order of His Holiness, the Father General sent nuns, and within the space of a year, under the protection and guardianship of the Most Christian King, four principal monasteries were founded in France, and new ones are daily requested by other cities [ff].
§ IV.
Testimonies which were given concerning the holy Mother after her death.
After Teresa's death When the holy Mother had died, all the grave as well as learned men who flourished in Spain at that time, moved by a certain holy and pious zeal, took pen in hand to write her life. The first who undertook this labour was Father Francisco Ribera of the Society of Jesus (as we have already indicated above), who a few years after her death gathered into one volume many things which both he himself and others knew about the holy Mother. And at that very time Fr. Br. Master Domingo Báñez of the Order of Preachers, principal professor of the faculty of theology at Salamanca, of whom we have already made mention above, resolved to do the same, as an eyewitness and for so many years the confessor of the holy Mother; but the grave and very many occupations he had were a hindrance to his carrying out these pious desires. And since men's opinion and esteem of Teresa's sanctity grew daily, at the same time their devotion towards her also grew. But the most affected towards her was the empress herself, sister of Philip II, king of the Spains: and she desired as much as possible that Fr. Master Br. Luis de León of the Order of St. Augustine and professor of Sacred Letters in the university of Salamanca, a man very well known throughout Europe both for the excellence of his mind and for his singular learning, should commit her life and miracles to writing; because she thought (and not undeservedly) that no one in Spain at that time would accomplish this better than he in a manner befitting the dignity of the subject and satisfy her desire in this: whence she enjoined this task and labour upon him; which was truly most pleasant to him. He girded himself, then, for the work, and gathered into one many things which (after Fr. Francisco Ribera had written her deeds) time and diligent inquiry had uncovered; to whom I communicated many things which I relate in this book. But it seemed good to God to call him from this life at the beginning of the labour, when he had scarcely written five or six pages; and so all were frustrated of their hope. Nevertheless, although he could not bring forth into the light this offspring so much desired, he published a certain prologue (which is usually published together with the book which the holy Mother herself wrote about her Life), in which, though as briefly as possible, yet learnedly and truly, in a sublime style, he reviews and hands down certain very great wonders which God the Best and Greatest worked in this Saint and through her [gg]. But I, fearing lest either time or forgetfulness should bury entirely, or at least alter, the wonderful works of God, did not hesitate to take up this labour again, putting together into one body all that had hitherto been published about her life and sanctity.
[35] the whole world It is to be noted here in passing (as very many have noted) that it was a certain singular grace and privilege of God which he conferred on this spouse of his, that, although she was a religious of a particular Order, she was yet so universally loved and honoured by all religious as if she had professed the Religion of each. And what is more to be wondered at, since exceptionally learned men and the greatest theologians are for the most part little attached to those (especially if they are women) who follow the extraordinary ways of visions, revelations and raptures, yet in the holy
Mother this rule has no place: nay indeed, one may see by experience that the more learned men are and of greater erudition, the more they value her works and are attached to them; because by the light of Sacred Scripture they penetrate the subtlety and keenness of her spirit. And truly it comes about not without a certain singular providence of God that, since the holy Mother herself so loved learning and was so great a cultivator and frequenter of great doctors, so that she used to say that she had never been badly counselled by a well-learned man, so they in turn honour, cultivate and in every way venerate her now that she is dead, striving to celebrate and extol her sanctity and perfection of life not only in words but also in books. But the most general of all the testimonies to the sanctity of this blessed Mother is the common acclamation of all Spain and of the other kingdoms, especially Italy, France, Germany and the East and West Indies. For the kings of Spain, Philip II and Philip III, wrote various letters to the Supreme Pontiff in which they asked that she be enrolled in the catalogue of the Saints, as did also Queen Margaret, recently deceased, wife of Philip III, who was wonderfully attached to her. The same was also asked of him by the nobles of the kingdom of Castile in the Cortes convoked in the year 1596, and also by those of Aragon: moreover, by all the Churches of Spain in the assembly which they convoked in the year 1595, likewise in another which was assembled not long after that former one; all of which most earnestly supplicated the Supreme Pontiff to inscribe Teresa in the calendars of the Saints. The same was also asked by the provincial council celebrated at Tarragona. Nay indeed, there was scarcely any archbishop, bishop or celebrated university in Spain, such as are those of Salamanca and Alcalá, which did not send letters to the Apostolic See for obtaining this [hh]. For all to a man called this blessed Mother not only holy but most holy, most perfect, and most consummate in all sanctity and virtue. In short, she is commonly honoured by all and called by the name of Saint.
[36] the fame of her sanctity Whence also all the gravest persons in Spain either have something of her relics or procure to have it; very many too have felt their virtue and power, as may be seen from the history of her life. Her body too, as that of a holy woman, is visited and venerated by many grave and learned men, and at her invocation very many miracles most worthy of writing have happened; and not only in Spain, but also outside it [ii]: for devotion towards her has spread so far that Fr. Br. Diego de Soria, bishop of the Philippine islands, in the farthest bounds of the Indies, in a letter which he wrote to Pope Clement VIII, writes that the Indians are so greatly attached to the holy Mother that when their little daughters are washed with the sacred waters of Baptism, they wish them to be distinguished with the name of Teresa in her honour. Among those testimonies, moreover, which have been given outside Spain to the sanctity of Teresa of Jesus, not the last place is claimed by that of the most learned as well as most grave man Tommaso Bozio, who in his book on the Signs of the Church speaks thus of her: "Teresa, a Spanish virgin of admirable sanctity, flourished with incredible patience, humility and prudence. In prayer she was often rapt beyond all her senses, and lifted with her whole body into the high air. She published books full of heavenly doctrine, by which we may be taught the ways of leading a Christian and divine life. She founded sixty and more monasteries both of men and of women by the authority and credit of the heavenly things which she experienced. Her corpse has remained incorrupt, and has produced innumerable miracles. The manner of life which she prescribed to her monasteries is above the human condition, of great perfection and purity, which her followers have shown forth in deeds" (volume I, book XII, chapter XIII, sign LVII). With the same veneration and regard Fr. Antonio Possevino of the Society of Jesus, a man most celebrated in this age for his learning, speaks of the affairs of our saint; who prefixed to the Latin version of the book which the holy Mother herself wrote about her Life a letter in her honour and praise [kk].
[37] has pervaded. And truly it would be far too long if I were to report all the men, grave as well as learned and celebrated, who have written both in Latin and in Spanish, who call her a saint and extol her sanctity and sublimity of life with six hundred encomiums. To these grave testimonies which we have brought forward we could add that the holy Mother was the reformer of a Religious Order both of men and of women, which among all those leading a most austere life which the Church has today is easily the chief, when she brought it back, already fallen away, to its primeval spirit and fervour; and also the admirable doctrine of her books and the singular fruit which spiritual persons in the Church have received from them; the admirable incorruption of her body, and, what is more, the holy oil which flows from it; the innumerable miracles which have been worked at her intercession, both in life and after death; the labours and persecutions which she suffered with a more than womanly mind; the heroic virtues which she had; and finally the particular favours and graces which the Lord bestowed on her. From all which things is composed so great and admirable a saint as Mother Teresa of Jesus was. Whence it comes about that God himself seems already beforehand to canonize her and declare her a Saint from heaven.
Annotationsl. Of the work
it seems worth while to transcribe here some things from the testimony of Yanguas, which are to be found at fol. 20 of the manuscript Summary of which we spoke at numbers 786 and 1441 of the Preliminary Commentary: He held the said Mother so endowed with faith that by the grace of God she never (as she said) had a first movement against the faith; and that she delighted the more to believe that which she did not see, it was enough that God and his Church said it: as to hope, it appears clearly from the progress of her life, and he heard from her that for many years she had desired to die from the desire of seeing God, and sometimes, raising her eyes to heaven, she remained lifeless and without sense: as to charity, he always held her to be greatly endowed with the love of God, and heard from her that for the love of God she undertook the burden of the foundations and bore all the labours in them, and further that for many years she had a great thirst to suffer martyrdom for the faith of Christ, and that not only for the faith of Christ, but that for a single ceremony of the Church she would gladly be deprived of life.
p. At number 793 of the Preliminary Commentary it is shown that this man of the Society of Jesus, whose praises Jouvancy briefly sets forth (History of the Society of Jesus, part V, book XXIV, § XXII), is to be altogether distinguished from another confessor of St. Teresa named Gonzalo de Ávila.
q. Of Fr. Gaspar de Salazar, who is mentioned several times in the Preliminary Commentary (especially numbers 301, 309, 787 and following), the Saint relates that she had a vision, in these words: Of the rector of the Society of Jesus, whom I have mentioned several times, I saw some things pertaining to the great graces which the Lord imparted to him, but which, not to be longer, I omit here. One day, when a great trial had befallen him, in which he was suffering many persecutions and afflictions, as I was hearing Mass, at the elevation of the saving Host Christ fastened to the cross gave himself to be seen by me, and suggested to me some words of consolation and other things which I was to point out to that Father, forewarning him of the things which were to come and setting before his eyes what the Saviour had suffered for him, and exhorting him to prepare himself to suffer. He took singular solace and courage from these things; and everything happened as the Lord had foretold to me (Life, chapter XXXVIII, number 9). Besides, Fr. Enrique Henríquez testified thus in the compulsory process of Salamanca: That he knew from Fr. Gaspar de Salazar S.J., who knows many things about the aforesaid Teresa of Jesus, that when he was many leagues distant from the place in which she was, the said Teresa of Jesus appeared to him in his closed room, before she died, and gave him certain instructions and admonitions; and that this witness afterwards questioned the said Mother Teresa about this, who with humble modesty showed that this had so come about on the part of God the Lord and for certain salutary effects. These things are read in the manuscript Summary on the gift of prophecy and the grace of the discernment of spirits, of which we spoke at number 1079 of the Preliminary Commentary.
r. We have preferred in this place to render into Latin the sense rather than the very words of the allegorical Spanish phrase: Grande es la Madre Teresa de Jesus de las tejas abajo, pero mucho mayor es de la tejas arriba [Great is Mother Teresa of Jesus from the roof-tiles down, but much greater is she from the roof-tiles up]; which Ribera reports in almost the same words, book 2, n. 82, where we have given Martínez's literal version.
s. Yepes reports this prophetic letter, book II, chapter 1, and we have reported it in the Preliminary Commentary, number 283.
t. Read the Saint's letter to Ibáñez, brought forward at number 1517 of the Preliminary Commentary, in which she says that she altogether desires that Juan de Ávila should see the book of her Life; for with this intention she had begun to write it. Moreover, at number 426 of the same Commentary we have shown how anxious the Saint was that her book should be carried to Master Ávila.
v. As we said at number 784 of the Preliminary Commentary, the Saint in the year 1577, at the urging of Teotónio de Bragança, wrote a letter to Luis de Granada (volume I, letter 14); in which she testifies that it had been very much in her wishes, if only her state and sex had allowed it, to go to him to communicate the affairs of her soul to him, and she commends herself earnestly and most humbly to his prayers. But Teresa was never afterwards able to see Fr. Luis in person; since from about the year 1555 until his death, which occurred in the year 1588, he lived in Portugal: nor indeed is there any other reason available, besides the letter just praised, for which Boucher should number him among the spiritual directors of the holy Mother (book IX, note e).
w. The eulogy of St. Peter of Alcántara composed by St. Teresa we passed over in the Preliminary Commentary; because there will be a more apt place for bringing it forward in our work at the 19th day of October, where we shall have to treat professedly of this holy man. As regards the approval of Teresa's spirit made by him, see note a to the last chapter of Ribera's book IV and the other places which we indicated in the same note, and also his letter alleged by Ribera, book I, numbers 123, 124 and 125.
x. See note g to the prologue of Ribera's book I, likewise note b to chapter II of book II.
y. Of this Évora edition (which Ribera also mentions, book II, chapter I, number 2) Yepes speaks again, book III, chapter XVIII; and we have said more about it from Fr. Antonio de Jesús, who dissents from Yepes as to the year of printing, at number 1497 of the Preliminary Commentary. Here is what the Saint writes about this book of hers in a letter dated the 22nd of July 1579 to the prelate of Évora: Last week … I sent you my little book… I forgot to ask you to have the Life of our holy Father Albert, written in the same codex, printed together with that little book: for this will be a great solace to us all; and hitherto it is not had in any other language than Latin, from which a certain Father of the Order of St. Dominic (namely Diego de Yanguas), a most learned man and an excellent servant of God, has rendered it into the vernacular for my sake (volume IV, letter 5). Teresa seems to have yielded to the advice of Teotónio, which was for her as a command, that her book should be published to the public.
z. To Alonso Velázquez was sent that most excellent and truly admirable letter of which we made mention at number 1574 of the Preliminary Commentary and which occupies the eighth place in the first volume of the Letters.
aa. Martín de Aspi Sierra, a Cantabrian by nation, was professor in the academy of Salamanca, canon of Burgos and finally bishop of Palencia, in which dignity he died in the year 1607; as Gil González Dávila reports in the Ecclesiastical Theatre of Spain (volume II, page 185). Of the other bishops praised here by Yepes enough has been said either by Ribera or in the Preliminary Commentary.
bb. Read at number 1063 of the Preliminary Commentary the letter by which Juan de Ribera, himself afterwards beatified, begged of Pope Clement VIII the beatification of St. Teresa.
cc. To the ecclesiastical men so far alleged by Yepes may be added Bishop Sancho Dávila (see numbers 28 and 29 of the Preliminary Commentary), who, as Palafox testifies (volume I, letter 6, note 1), delivered a panegyric at the celebration of St. Teresa's canonization, and, when he had scarcely been initiated into the priesthood, was employed by her as confessor; Gaspar Daza, whom the Saint consulted at the beginnings of her supernatural prayer (Preliminary Commentary, number 143 and following), and who, although he then refused to hear her Confessions, yet afterwards seems to have been her confessor (Ibid., number 1025); Francisco de Salcedo, a constant supporter of the holy Virgin, who, as Fr. Antonio de San José asserts from ancient documents (volume IV, letter 43, note 13), having become a priest after the death of his wife about the year 1570, many times acted as chaplain and confessor to Teresa's nuns at Ávila, and died in the year 1580; Fr. Antonio de Segura, a Discalced Franciscan, an exceptional companion of St. Peter of Alcántara, to whom the Saint, as we said at n. 34 of the Preliminary Commentary, wrote a letter, and who Fr. Antonio de San José thinks sometimes heard her Confessions (volume II, letter 15, note 4); Bartolomé de Aguilar of the Order of Preachers, to whom the Saint professes she owed very much at Seville in the rescinding of the purchase of a house (compare Preliminary Commentary, number 698), commending him besides very highly for his exceptional experience of the things pertaining to religious life (volume II, letter 86); Fr. Gonzalo Pantoja, a Carthusian, and García Álvarez, a secular priest, of whom in the foundation at Seville (Preliminary Commentary, § XXXVIII); Jerónimo Reinoso and Salinas, canons, mentioned in the foundation at Palencia (Ibid., § XLVI); Fr. Francisco Suárez, the renowned theologian of the Society of Jesus, who, as Nieremberg testifies (Life of St. Ignatius, chapter XL), said that St. Teresa had communicated to him the affairs of her soul, and that he had revered them as works of the Holy Spirit; Frs. Salcedo and Pedro Manrique of the Society of Jesus (on the latter see Preliminary Commentary, number 459, and Ribera's book II, number 84), and also Jerónimo Manrique, bishop of Salamanca, and Fr. Luis de Santa María, a learned and holy man of the Hieronymite Order, all of whom Yepes brings forward as praisers of St. Teresa in his sworn testimony which is found in our manuscript Summary of the Saint's life and virtues (fol. 43): not to speak of St. John of the Cross, of Frs. Gracián, Mariano, Doria, Heredia, Roca and the other leading men of the Discalced, nor of very many
other outstanding men whose names are reviewed in the Preliminary Commentary, number 1080 and following.
dd. Many examples of the singular veneration with which very many seculars distinguished for nobility of birth honoured St. Teresa may be seen in the Preliminary Commentary and in Ribera; where among others the following are named: Luisa de la Cerda, daughter of the second Duke of Medinaceli; María de Mendoza, Countess of Ribadavia; Juana de Toledo, Marchioness of Villena; Leonor de Mascareñas; María Pimentel, Countess of Monterrey, with her son Jerónimo de Acevedo and her daughter-in-law Inés de Velasco y Tovar; Luis Hurtado de Mendoza, Count of Tendilla and Marquis of Mondéjar; Suero de Vega with his wife Elvira Manrique, daughter of the Count of Osorno; Beatriz de Beaumont y Navarra, of the royal stock of Navarre; Fernando de Toledo, the great Duke of Alba, and his wife María Enríquez, who stand out in a singular manner among the admirers and friends of St. Teresa, as we noted at numbers 874 and 1525 of the Preliminary Commentary. To these must be added the supreme statesman and at the same time warrior and writer Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, employed by the emperor Charles V and King Philip II in the highest affairs and numbered by Nicolás Antonio in the Bibliotheca Hispana Nova among the princes of Spanish literature; who not only cultivated the friendship of St. Teresa, but also wrote letters to her and received replies from her, in which this magnanimous virgin, in most courteous words and most suited to persuasion, urges that great man to pursue piety and indeed sanctity (volume 1, letter 11). Moreover, in the juridical information Julián de Ávila, companion of the holy Mother's journeys, testified that so great was the fame of Teresa while still living that wherever she came, all men of all ranks, highest and lowest, ran together to see her and know her, and the principal ladies vied that she should enter their houses, because it was a great solace to them to receive so holy a virgin with hospitality. The same was declared by Juan Fernández de Velasco, Duke of Frías and commander of the military affairs of the kingdom of Castile, citing by name his mother Ana de Guzmán y Aragón and his former wife María Girón, both most eager to frequent Teresa, and saying in general that he had manifestly found the greatest reverence of almost all men towards Teresa in several provinces of Spain, and that finally Teresa seemed to himself a holy woman, perfect and especially chosen by God to help souls. The Duke and Duchess of the Infantado and others of the nobles questioned in the cause of Teresa's beatification plainly agreed with the Duke of Frías. And Pedro de Castro, bishop of Segovia, affirmed that it is a very notorious thing, the holiness of life and the miracles of the holy Mother even while living: she was and is had and held for a saint, not in any manner whatever, but in a sublime and surpassing degree, not only by the principal people but by the common people, who all held her for a saint, and by that name of saint she was called, named and known; concerning which there is public voice and fame, etc. These things we have collected from the often-mentioned Summary (fols. 42 and 43).
ee. Besides the admonitions sent by Teresa in the year 1569 to Philip II (which I mentioned in the Preliminary Commentary, number 1478), and besides the letter of which the Saint herself makes mention in the book of the Foundations (chapter XXVII, number 4, and in our Preliminary Commentary, number 681) and which she also implies in another letter of hers to the king (volume II, letter 1, number 3), besides both these writings of the Saint, I say, four letters sent by Teresa to Philip II survive today, each of which leads the line of the others in each of the four volumes. The first in order of time (volume III, and in the Preliminary Commentary, number 563), which was written on the 11th of June 1573, our holy Virgin asks a favour of the monarch, to be presented by his faithful courier Juan de Padilla; and at its end she wishes long years to Philip, whom she calls a strenuous defender and helper of the Church, since the Christian world has such need of him. The second (volume II, and in the Preliminary Commentary, number 658), dated the 19th of July 1575, commends to the king the Reform of Carmel, whose fate she declares to be in his hand; and supplicates him to see that the Reformed be withdrawn from the Mitigated and made subject to Fr. Jerónimo Gracián. The third (volume I, and in the Preliminary Commentary, number 764 and following), sent on the 13th of September 1577, commends to Philip the same Fr. Gracián, at that time cruelly vexed by the Mitigated, and she closes it by saying confidently to the king that the Reform has no other support on earth besides himself. And finally the fourth (volume IV, cited in the Preliminary Commentary, number 776 and following), which has the date of the 4th of December 1577 written on it, for a like cause, namely since the nuns of the Incarnation and their confessor St. John of the Cross were being very badly treated by the Mitigated, cries out for the king's patronage, again declaring to him that the Reform is destitute of all other help on earth. Moreover, the Saint, when on the 25th of March 1579, though using the third person, she had written (volume 1, letter 27, number 4; as may be seen in the Preliminary Commentary, number 831) that God had told her that the Reformed should take refuge with King Philip, and had signified that he would be a father to them, herself narrates in the book of the Foundations (chapter XXVII, number 15) that, under the king's patronage, the separation of the Reformed was made as desired in the chapter of Alcalá: and she says she rejoiced so much at this happy outcome of affairs that she would have wished the whole world with her to have praised God for so great a benefit and to have poured out prayers for King Philip, through whose work God had brought her undertaking to so prosperous an end, against which, she says, the demon had used such great artifices that, had not the king come to the rescue, everything would have been ruined. And in truth, as the Chronicle testifies (volume I, book V, chapter X, numbers 10, 11 and 12), Philip had spared no labour that the Reform might stand on its own feet, and to that end had sent letters to the Apostolic Nuncio and to the president of the royal council of Castile, and had moreover borne all the expenses which had to be spent for assembling the chapter of Alcalá of the year 1581. Therefore on the 6th of March 1581 a decree was made there with unanimous applause, by which it is established, first, that, as that day recurred each year, in all the convents throughout Spain the Sacrifice of the Mass should be celebrated for the king and his family; second, that thereafter in all the houses in turn successively Mass should be offered perpetually every day for the king; third, that at fixed hours assigned through the houses in the Order, by day and by night, there should be someone who should pour out prayers for the king before the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist; and fourth, that weekly, of the three scourgings with which they are wont to afflict the body, all should offer one to God, that he might be propitious to the king. What the kings of Spain contributed besides, whether for obtaining Teresa's canonization, or for venerating her sacred remains, or for adopting her as patroness of the Spains, may be read in the Preliminary Commentary, numbers 1055, 1057, 1069, 1074 and in many other places both of it and of the Posthumous Glory.
ff. Of the spread of Teresa's Reform we shall speak professedly in the Posthumous Glory of our Saint.
gg. What Luis de León contributed to the edition of Teresa's Works we have set out in the Preliminary Commentary, number 1498 and following. The Life of St. Teresa begun by him was spoken of in note g to the prologue of Ribera's book I.
hh. What is indicated here briefly by Yepes you have explained more at large in the Preliminary Commentary, §§ LVI and LVII.
ii. It is pleasing to adduce again some things concerning these too from the sworn testimonies of grave men. Pedro Manso de Zúñiga, bishop of Calahorra and La Calzada, affirms that he knows that after the death of Mother Teresa of Jesus devotion to her increased, not only in Spain but outside; because she was held not only for a saint, but for one of singular and surpassing sanctity, and so they commonly call her and name her the holy Mother with great veneration as a saint in all places where there is knowledge of her: and such esteem and opinion he knows that the Lord King Philip II had of the said holy Mother, as the King our Lord and the Queen and many Princes and Cardinals and Bishops and other learned and grave persons have it, both ecclesiastical and secular, men and women; and it is public and notorious that many of her relics have been distributed in Spain among such persons as he has related, and that they hold her in veneration and commend themselves to the said saint: and that the witness himself has a little bone of her holy body and letters missive in her hand, which he keeps as relics; all of which the judge and notary saw, as they bear witness: and the notary bears witness that he saw the said relics in the possession of the said Lord Bishop, and the little bone was in a pectoral cross, which His Lordship wore on his breast with great veneration and esteem, as of a great saint, and as such all those present venerated that relic. Alfonso Manrique, archbishop of Burgos, said that he had seen that the opinion of sanctity grew in the minds of all in different parts; and that when treating of her with various persons, he heard her always called with great veneration the holy Mother, as by Clement VIII on the occasion when His Most Illustrious Lordship treated with him concerning the canonization; and he remembers having heard the same from the Most Illustrious Lord Cardinal de' Medici, afterwards Pope Leo XI, prefect of the Congregation of Rites at that time, who affirmed that the Most Illustrious Lord Cardinals of the Congregation venerated her, as he himself did, with the veneration and opinion of a saint: and he knows that those prelates and grave persons likewise did so, and that the relics are esteemed as those of a great saint; and that His Lordship … carries with him a letter written in the hand of the said Mother among other
relics of Christ and of his Saints. Lorenzo Otaduy y Avendaño, bishop of Ávila, likewise professes that he keeps a letter of St. Teresa as a relic and venerates a certain image of her. The Duke of Lerma testifies that Teresa's Relics and images are very highly esteemed, even by the king and queen of Spain themselves. Several other witnesses speak of images in which Teresa is represented with rays and with a dove, of verses, antiphons and prayers commonly recited daily by many in her honour, of sermons delivered over the space of several years at Salamanca for publicly preaching her praises, of the name of Teresa given to girls both in Spain and in the West Indies; and the Marquis of Caracena, viceroy of the kingdom of Valencia, is cited by name, who out of devotion to the holy Mother wished one of his daughters to be called by that name (Manuscript Summary, fol. 44 and following).
kk. Here is the approval of Teresa's Works written by Possevino, and prefixed by Martínez to the Latin version of them: At the instance of the Reverend Father Master of the Sacred Palace, Bartolomé Miranda, I have read and examined the Works of the Holy Mother Teresa of Jesus; concerning which I judge thus: first, that I give singular thanks to the divine Majesty, because at long last he has given me the long-desired opportunity of inspecting and reading them; for I cannot but perceive exceptional fruits from reading them, if I bring open ears and an open mind to the precepts they hand down: next, that it will turn out to the great increase of the divine glory if they are translated from Spanish into any language whatever and put to press; because the Holy Spirit seems here so to direct the mind and pen of this most holy virgin that after the reading nothing but the greatest usefulness will flow to all, especially to religious men and women and indeed to all who are devoted to spiritual things. For God the Best and Greatest seems, not without a certain singular gift, to have willed in these last and latest times of ours to send down to the world so divine a teacher and director in spiritual things, who should expound as lucidly as possible whatever in any way pertains to the various manners of praying, to the discernment of spirits and to the understanding of interior locutions, and should untie with the greatest clarity all the knots of doubts which could occur in this matter; inasmuch as she was both most devoted to prayer and contemplation and taught and instructed immediately by the Holy Spirit, so that she seems not undeservedly able to be reckoned among the God-taught. Rome, the 20th of January in the year 1592. So I testify. Antonio Possevino S.J.
MaximsTeresa, virgin, mother of the Carmelites of the stricter observance, at Ávila in Spain. (S.)
COLLECTED FROM THE SAINT HERSELF.
PrefaceFinally, after Ribera and Yepes, as a crowning conclusion we shall set down here the most beautiful Apophthegms or maxims or admonitions of St. Teresa (in Spanish Avisos, of which we spoke briefly in the Preliminary Commentary, number 1554), following the example of Fr. Pien, our predecessor, who at the 31st day of July, § LXXXIV and § LXXXV, did the same in the Life of St. Ignatius. For such admonitions as are handed down by the Saints ought to be considered rules which they themselves followed: for it cannot be doubted that those humble men began to do what they taught others. Nor is this only a pious conjecture; but in fact, both from the testimonies of their biographers and from the Acts of their canonization, they are found to have conducted their life according to those rules. Wherefore it may rightly be asserted that in that compendious writing of St. Teresa her practical life is delineated no less well than in the prolix work of each of Ribera and Yepes, nay more vividly, if not more accurately: for in those rules of hers for performing all actions perfectly her mind seems so to breathe that, if anyone imagines to himself a woman composing herself according to this rule, he will in fact have Teresa represented before him, praying, conversing, walking, eating, and esteeming and doing all things according to the norm of evangelical perfection handed down in these Maxims. Fr. Alonso de Andrade S.J., who put together two rather thick volumes in quarto on these Maxims, thinks that the Saint committed them to paper successively and in parts, because she often breaks the thread in them, because she treats some things again in different places, and because she subjoins graver things to lighter ones: for which reason he himself reduced them to a new order, according to which, beginning from the lower and proceeding to the higher, he commented on each of them. This series of Andrade, because it is better and little known, we too present here. If anyone prefers the old one, he will easily find it at hand in the published Works of the Saint, where those Maxims are found either after the Way of Perfection or at the end of those Works among her minor writings. We indicate that old Order by numbers placed within parentheses after each Maxim.
MAXIMS
handed down by the Holy Mother Teresa of Jesus to her nuns.
Earth, though fertile, if it is not cultivated, brings forth thistles and thorns: so too the spirit of man (1).
II.
Never make an end of humbling yourself and mortifying yourself in all things even unto death (51).
III.
Keep your past life before your eyes, so as to deplore it; and think of your lukewarmness, and how much you lack in order to tend hence to heaven, so that you may thus live in fear: and this is the root of many good things (48).
IV.
Exercise yourself very much in the fear of the Lord: for this arouses compunction and humility in the soul (61).
Remember that you have only one soul, and are to die only once, that you have only one life and that a short one, that one judgement awaits you, and that there is only one glory and that eternal. By this reasoning you will bid farewell to many things (68). Here I have followed the text of Andrade, which reads thus: Acuerdate que no tienes … mas que una vida breve, y una cuenta particular; whereas in the published books of the Saint, in place of the word cuenta, the little words que es are put; which savours of an empty pleonasm.
VI.
Treat the affairs of your soul with your confessor, who should be spiritual and learned; to whom you will open them and whose opinion you will follow in all things (63).
VII.
To your superior and confessor you will disclose your temptations, imperfections and whatever difficulty occurs to you, so that he may suggest counsel and remedy for overcoming them (18).
VIII.
Take care to examine your conscience duly every evening (57).
IX.
In every work and every hour examine your conscience; and having seen your imperfections, take care to amend them with the grace of God: and by this way you will arrive at perfection (27).
Neither speak nor inquire curiously about the things which do not concern you (47).
XI.
Consider attentively how easily men change and how little they are to be trusted: wherefore unite yourself most closely to God, who is unchangeable (62).
XII.
Of all spiritual things, e.g. of Religious, Priests and Hermits, speak only well (2).
XIII.
Neither listen to nor speak evil of another, except of yourself: and when you rejoice in this, you are making good progress (22).
XIV.
Never deride anything (7).
XV.
Never dispute much with words, especially about things which are of small moment (5).
XVI.
Never exaggerate things, but put forward your opinion with moderation (13).
XVII.
Never affirm anything which you do not know well (15).
XVIII.
Do not rashly give out your opinion on any matter; but do this only if you are asked or charity requires it (16).
XIX.
Withdraw your heart from all things, and seek God, and you will find him (36).
XX.
Where many are gathered together, there always speak only a little (3).
XXI.
Never say anything which you have not first carefully weighed within yourself and studiously commended to the Lord; so that you may say nothing that displeases him (10).
XXII.
In all conversations and talk always intermingle some spiritual things; and so you will prevent idle words and detraction (14).
XXIII.
Listen to another speaking of spiritual things with humility and like a disciple: what good he has said, you will think said to you (17).
XXIV.
Never make a comparison between this person and that; for that is odious (44). In the more recent editions of Teresa's Works this Maxim is joined with the one which is the thirtieth with us. Whence it comes about that only sixty-eight Maxims are numbered there.
XXV.
At table speak to no one, nor raise your eyes for the sake of looking at anyone (40).
XXVI.
Do not complain about the food, whether it is well or badly seasoned; but think again of the gall and vinegar of Jesus Christ (39).
XXVII.
In food and clothing ask nothing singular for yourself, unless great necessity requires it (50).
XXVIII.
Avoid singularity as much as possible; for it harms the community very much (33).
XXIX.
Eat and drink only at the fixed hours; and then give many thanks to the Lord (20).
XXX.
But consider the heavenly table and its food, which is God himself, and the guests, who are the Angels. Raise your eyes to that table with the desire of sitting at it (41).
XXXI.
When you are glad, do not pour yourself out in immoderate laughter; but display a gladness that is humble, modest, affable and that edifies others (24).
XXXII.
In all that you do and handle, be modest (4).
XXXIII.
Speak to each one with a certain moderate cheerfulness (6).
XXXIV.
Adapt yourself to the disposition, temper and constitution of the one with whom you deal: rejoice with the joyful, be sad with the sad: in short so accommodate yourself to each that you may win each (9).
XXXV.
Be gentle towards all, hard on yourself (55).
XXXVI.
What those of the house tell you, always strive to do, provided it is not opposed to obedience; and answer them with humility and sweetness of words (49).
XXXVII.
You will always think that you are the handmaid of all, and in all you will behold Christ the Lord; and so it will come about that you will pay both veneration and honour to all (25).
XXXVIII.
You will never turn over in your mind the defects of others, but their virtues and your own defects (28).
XXXIX.
Never say anything of yourself that tends to praise, as of your knowledge, virtues and kindred, unless you hope that some good will follow from it; and even then let it be done only with humility and considering that those gifts come from the hand of God (12).
XL.
Do not show interior devotion, unless it is very necessary: "My secret to myself," said SS. Francis and Bernard (38).
XLI.
Never display outwardly a devotion which you do not have inwardly. You may, however, well conceal a defect of it from which you are suffering (37).
XLII.
Never excuse yourself, unless there is a very just cause (11).
XLIII.
If you are reproved by anyone, accept the reproof with interior and exterior humility, and pray for him who reproves you (45).
XLIV.
You will never reprove anyone indiscreetly, but with humility and shame for yourself (8).
XLV.
If you are set over others, reprove no one in anger, but only after it has passed; and then your reproof will profit (59).
XLVI.
Always be ready to obey, just as if Jesus Christ were enjoining it on you through the Superior or Prelate (26).
XLVII.
In the presence of your Superior (in whom you ought to behold Jesus Christ) say nothing but what is necessary, and that with great veneration (42).
XLVIII.
If at any time one Superior commands something, do not say that the contrary is commanded by another; but think that both have a holy end, and in what he orders you, obey him (46).
XLIX.
Read often the statutes and rule of your Religious Order, and take pains to observe them (34).
You will not be absent from or go out of your cell without cause; and when going out you will ask grace of the Lord not to offend him (19).
LI.
Apply yourself studiously to perfection and devotion; and do all that you do with that zeal (60).
LII.
Make it a practice to raise your heart often to the Lord by acts of love; because these acts kindle the soul and arouse tenderness (52).
LIII.
Daily offer yourself to God fifty times a day; and that with great fervour and with a burning desire of possessing him (30).
LIV.
What you have meditated in the morning, you will turn over in thought the whole day; and in this matter you will be very diligent: for great good follows from it (31).
LV.
The pious affections which the Lord sends into you, you will diligently keep; and the desires which he gives you in prayer, strive to carry out in deed (32).
LVI.
So too draw forth the acts of all the remaining virtues (53).
LVII.
Do all your things as if you beheld the Majesty of God before you; and by this means the soul gains very much (21).
LVIII.
Never do anything secretly which you could not do in the presence of all (43).
LIX.
In all created things consider the providence and wisdom of God, and praise God in all (35).
LX.
Always have an intense desire, in every matter and occasion, of always suffering something for the name of Christ (29).
LXI.
Offer all things to the eternal Father, joined with the merits of his Son Jesus Christ (54).
LXII.
Direct each of your actions to God, offering them to him and asking him that they may turn to his honour and glory (23).
LXIII.
In time of sadness and disturbance do not omit the customary good works of prayer and penance: for the demon strives to disquiet you for this very reason, that you may omit them. On the contrary, do more than you were wont; and you will see how quickly the Lord will be at hand to you (66).
LXIV.
Do not disclose your temptations and imperfections to those in the house who are less advanced in virtue; for that would harm both you and others: but speak of them only with the more perfect (67).
LXV.
On the day on which you are to approach Holy Communion, in your morning prayer you will reflect that you, miserable as you are, are to receive your God; and in the evening, that you have received him (58).
LXVI.
Whenever you approach Holy Communion, ask some gift of the Lord; and that through that supreme mercy with which he has deigned to come to your poor soul (64).
LXVII.
On the feasts of the Saints recall their virtues, and ask God to grant you the same (56).
LXVIII.
Although you may have many Saints as patrons, yet choose St. Joseph especially, because he obtains many things from God (65).
LXIX.
Let your desire be to see God, your fear to be able to lose him, your sorrow that you do not enjoy him, your joy that you may some day enjoy him; and so you will live in great peace (69).
Chronological summary of the events of Teresa's life.
Teresa, virgin, mother of the Carmelites of the stricter observance, at Ávila in Spain. (S.)
What Stilting did for the convenience of the reader in the Life of St. John Chrysostom (at the 14th day of September, § XCI), and other predecessors of ours in certain other longer Lives, we too do here, subjoining a brief chronology of the Life of St. Teresa.
Year 1515. 28th of March, Teresa is born (Preliminary Commentary, numbers 53 and 54).
About the year 1522. She prepares to go to the lands of the Moors (n. 58).
About the year 1529. She grows languid in goodness (n. 81).
1531. Among the Augustinian nuns she comes to her senses (ibid.).
1532. Falling ill, she returns to her father's house (ibid.).
1533. 2nd of November, she becomes a Carmelite (n. 82 and 83).
1534. 3rd of November, she makes her profession (n. 100).
1535. Sick, she goes to the country and gives herself to mental prayer (ibid.).
1536. She is brought back to her father's house (ibid.).
1537. She is carried back to her convent (ibid.).
1539. She is healed by the help of St. Joseph (n. 101).
1541. She interrupts mental prayer (n. 109 and 117).
1542. She resumes it (n. 114).
1555. She begins a holier life (n. 119).
1556. She is heaped with supernatural gifts (ibid.).
1557. She deals with St. Francis Borgia (n. 163).
1558. She often hears divine locutions (n. 170 and following).
1559. She has more frequent visions (n. 203), and conceives the idea of founding a monastery (n. 119 and 280): about that time she is visited by St. Peter of Alcántara (n. 234).
1560. She makes a vow of doing whatever she knows to be most perfect (n. 231).
1561. She applies herself to the foundation of the monastery of St. Joseph (n. 309).
1562. In the month of June, she completes at Toledo the first writing of her Life (n. 115 and 1516); on the 24th of August she founds the monastery of St. Joseph at Ávila (n. 343).
1563–1566. Living at St. Joseph's, she writes her Life again (n. 115, 1520, 1530) and composes the Way of Perfection (n. 382 and 1538).
1567. Permission given to Teresa by the General of the Carmelite Order to erect more convents (n. 395 and following): foundation at Medina (n. 403): journey of the Saint to Alcalá (n. 456).
1568. Foundations at Malagón (n. 422), Valladolid (n. 431) and Duruelo (n. 441).
1569. Foundations at Toledo (n. 464 and 478) and Pastrana (n. 491 and 492): stay of the Saint at Toledo for almost a whole year, interrupted by some journeys (n. 472).
1570. Foundation at Mancera (n. 449): departure of the Saint from Toledo (n. 551): foundation of the convent of virgins at Salamanca (n. 511) and of the college at Alcalá (n. 499).
1571. Foundation at Alba (n. 537): the Saint is set over the convent of the Incarnation at Ávila for three years in the month of October (n. 541): erection of the convent of men at Altomira (n. 564).
1572. The convent of men of Blessed Virgin Mary of Succour is founded (of which n. 859).
1573. Foundations of men at Granada and La Peñuela (n. 569): Teresa sent to Salamanca (n. 571), where she begins the book of the Foundations on the 24th of August (n. 572 and 1543).
1574. Foundations at Seville, of men (n. 585), and at Segovia, of virgins (n. 593).
1575. Foundations at Beas, of virgins (n. 613), Almodóvar, of men (n. 616), and Seville, of virgins (n. 631): decrees of the Carmelite chapter of Piacenza against the Discalced (n. 634 and 635).
1576. Foundation at Caravaca (n. 684): retirement of the Saint to her monastery at Toledo (n. 710), where she works at enlarging the book of the Foundations until the 14th of November (n. 729): chapter of the Discalced (n. 711): foundation of Mount Calvary (n. 714).
1577. On the 2nd of June, the Saint begins at Toledo the book of the Interior Castle (n. 785 and 1541): she is sent to Ávila in the month of July, where she submits her monastery of St. Joseph to the jurisdiction of the Order (n. 769) and puts an end to the writing of the Interior Castle on the 29th of November (n. 785 and 1541).
1578. Teresa's Reform is in the greatest peril (n. 794 and following).
1579. On the Kalends of April, the Discalced are exempted from the jurisdiction of the Mitigated provincials (number 832): in the month of June the Saint is sent from Toledo to several convents (n. 838 and following): foundation at Baeza (n. 832).
1580. Foundation at Villanueva (n. 863); various journeys of Teresa (n. 871 and following): apostolic letters on the separation of the Discalced from the Calced, dated the 22nd of June (n. 878): foundation at Palencia (n. 891).
1581. The chapter of separation at Alcalá begun on the 3rd of March (n. 916): foundations of men at Valladolid and Salamanca (n. 919) and of virgins at Soria (n. 927): election of the Saint as prioress of the monastery of St. Joseph at Ávila (n. 940).
1582. Foundations of virgins at Granada (n. 946), of men at Lisbon (n. 942) and of virgins at Burgos (n. 999): Teresa, ill, is brought to Alba on the 20th of September (n. 1015), and dies there on the 4th of October (n. 1108), and on the next day, which by the correction of the Calendar was the 15th of October, is honourably buried (n. 1034).
1583. 4th of July, her body is uncovered (n. 1037).
1585. 24th of November, it is translated to Ávila (number 1041).
1586. Kalends of January, it is visited by the bishop of Ávila (n. 1042); on the 23rd of August it is brought back to Alba (n. 1044).
1589. 10th of July, Sixtus V decrees that Teresa's body shall remain at Alba (n. 1044).
1591. The bishop of Salamanca visits it (n. 1046).
1595. Informations are instituted concerning Teresa's virtues and miracles (n. 1055).
1598. Her tomb is placed higher (number 1050).
1604. The tomb is opened, and then more firmly closed (n. 1054): apostolic processes concerning Teresa's life and miracles are ordered to be drawn up (n. 1064).
1614. 24th of April, Teresa is enrolled among the Blessed (n. 1068).
1616. Teresa's coffin, enclosed in a stone tomb, is placed in a new chapel (n. 1409).
1622. 12th of March, Teresa is enrolled in the Roll of the Saints (n. 1373).
1629. A church is built on the place of her birth (n. 55).
1750. Her tomb is opened (n. 1417).
1760. Her body is enclosed in a silver urn by royal donation (n. 1432).
POSTHUMOUS GLORY, FROM MANY DOCUMENTS, PARTLY MANUSCRIPT, PARTLY PRINTED.
Teresa, virgin, mother of the Carmelites of the stricter observance, at Ávila in Spain. (S.)
FROM VARIOUS SOURCES.
CHAPTER I.
Posthumous glory from miracles.
§ I. The miracles of St. Teresa many and great: of which first those which Yepes relates, but which Ribera does not have, are set out succinctly.
God has worked many miracles through Teresa when dead: In the first chapter we shall set out that posthumous glory of St. Teresa which God himself conferred on her, by working miracles through her patronage; in the second chapter that which the Church procured for our Saint, by granting in her honour an Office and Feasts and Indulgences; and in the same chapter we shall pursue that glory which various kinds of men, from the Supreme Pontiffs down to the promiscuous common people, both prelates and kings and men distinguished for piety and learning, procured for her by their affection and confidence towards St. Teresa; in the third chapter, finally, we shall show the glory which Teresa herself brought forth for herself by reforming the Carmelite Order, in which her spirit continually remains, and in which she herself lives and breathes today. As to the first, then,
of the miracles which God worked through Teresa while she was living, some we have already set out in the Preliminary Commentary, others are contained in the Acts of canonization cited by us. Wherefore we should be doing what has been done, if, for example, we were to repeat here the little son of her sister Juana recalled to life by the Saint, of which at numbers 49 and 310, and in Ribera, book 1, chapter VIII; if, that Ana of St. Bartholomew was instantly taught to write, of which at number 846; if, that the flour was multiplied at Villanueva de la Jara, or that Ana of the Most Holy Trinity was restored to health from a grave erysipelas in an instant by the mere touch of Teresa's hand, or Alberta Bautista in the same manner from pleurisy and a grave fever; which three miracles are reviewed above in the Acts of canonization, art. II. I should say the same of the miracles which happened at the Saint's passing or shortly after; concerning which in the same place, art. III. The reasoning is likewise the same concerning the apparitions, visions and many other displays of the divine goodness and power in Teresa, with which her life teems, and which we have mentioned here and there in our Commentary. Of these, then, there; but of others by which God made Teresa illustrious after her death I shall now speak, though only of very few. Nor shall I number among the miracles those innumerable spiritual benefits which the holy Mother very frequently obtained from God by pouring forth prayer, and which were so many and so great that while she was still living she was called all-powerful. For God had promised her that he would grant whatever she should ask: as she herself testifies at the beginning of chapter XXXIX of her Life, where she alleges several examples of benefits obtained by her in this way, adding these wonderful words to her narration: It has happened many times that at my petition the Lord has freed some souls entangled in grave sins, raised others to great perfection, delivered others from purgatory, and granted many other singular benefits, and that more in restoring health to souls than to bodies: so that, if I wished to report them, I should weary both myself in writing and the reader in reading. These very things Teresa asserts, and indeed she speaks thus almost eighteen years before her death. Nor again shall I review among the miracles the reform of an Order accomplished by a woman even among men, and so many monasteries founded amid continual contradictions by an unwarlike virgin, poor and almost always sick: for which reason Cardinal Bentivoglio did not hesitate to add these words to his vote for her canonization: What she said, what she did, what she wrote, all are as it were heralds of her miracles.
[2] but only a few are reviewed here; Further, neither have I a mind to search through the forest of prodigies performed by St. Teresa which many writers worthy of credence have consigned to writing; for they are too many for me to insert them here. Already in the eighth year after Teresa's death, when her fame had not yet flown through the Christian world, Ribera was enumerating seventy miracles; and Yepes, sixteen years later than Ribera, adds to Ribera's almost as many others, and besides notes in the prologue of his fourth book, in which he treats of the miracles, that he records only the more notable, and that it is impossible to recount them all, and he adds in the last chapter of that book that there would be no end of speaking if he wished to commit to paper even all the healings alone obtained by her patronage: for in the fourth chapter of that book he affirms that he could allege as many as two hundred certain miracles performed by the little cloths alone dyed with the blood or oil flowing from her body. Similarly, in the year after Yepes, namely 1608, Fr. Juan de Jesús María in his Life of the holy Mother (book I, chapter I) says: If Teresa's frequent miracles were to be reviewed one by one, they would both require a fair-sized volume and perhaps weary the reader. Nor otherwise did the auditors of the Sacred Rota, before the beatification of the Servant of God, affirm to Paul V (as may be read above in the Acts, art. I, on miracles in general) that through her intercession Almighty God had worked very many miracles everywhere on earth. Finally the writer of the Chronicle (book V, chapter XXIX, numbers 1 and 2) says that the great number of the holy Mother's miracles is demonstrated both by the assertions of her biographers, and by the informations instituted before the canonization, and by the Reports made by the Sacred Rota, and by the Bulls published by the Supreme Pontiffs: wherefore he says he judges it superfluous to digress into narrating so many prodigies and unfolding so many revelations and apparitions by which the Saint has manifested to her clients the glory which she enjoys in heaven. Wherefore the chronicler refers his reader to the particular histories which treat of them.
[3] [without, however, the rest being called into doubt on that account through hypercriticism,] If, thinking him to be imitated, I pass over in silence very many of those miracles of our Saint, celebrated by writers of all nations, far be it that anyone should imagine on that account that I deny them credence or wish it denied by others. For I clearly profess that I do not wish to be counted among those hypercritics who, following in the footsteps of Jean de Launoy, Jean Le Clerc and Adrien Baillet, wish to cure ancient credulity by their own excessive incredulity. Namely, you would in a manner say that those authors, and others whom the present age has borne still more worthless, and who exert themselves to eliminate miracles from every side by fair means and foul, you would, I say, in a manner say that they believe that God performs miracles laboriously, and that they wish to spare the labour of him on whom they seem to take pity, whether creating the world or governing the Church and men, so that, as many miracles as they can being removed, and creatures being left to their ordinary course, everything may flow more lightly for the Almighty. Bah! insane little men, who measure God by their own foot and confine his immense power within the narrowness of their own little brain, with the utmost imprudence do not notice that they are paving the way to the impudent impiety of those who deny all intercourse between the Creator and creatures, and who say that the Maker is careless of his work, and imprison God in his heaven, and devise a mute Deity which, as if seized with lethargy or paralysis, snores, deeply forgetful of the human race. Thither, I say, these bad critics take their step, who, when they have obtained from testimonies suited to establishing the truth and having certainty a sufficient knowledge of the extraordinary operations of God in his Saints, impudently deny it, and with gross and wanton error divine that the Supreme Deity must act even towards his friends always with the order of things unchanged and almost according to the laws of human polity: and unless he does so, these proud men do not deign to give God their credence.
[4] which leads to impiety. And in this way they take miracles out of the Lives of the Saints, their insane wisdom continually shrinking from believing visions, apparitions, prophecies and other prodigies, however duly proved; and so by their harmful example they teach their readers to call into doubt portents no less wonderful and great which the sacred pages of both Testaments contain, and induce others, whenever facts revealed by God do not square with their preconceived ideas, to have recourse to allegories, to myths and to the other dreams of pseudo-exegesis. Hence therefore it comes about that from excessive criticism in history at the start the authority of the upright authors of ecclesiastical history, and of the Sacred Scriptures themselves, is gradually esteemed less, and that step by step, if not the incautious hagiographers themselves, at least their credulous readers arrive at the point that, despising authority in all things everywhere, and following their own reason alone as guide, they at length plunge into the abyss of incredulity. But the faithful Christian and prudent weigher of things knows in an altogether different way that God plays in the world, that God is wonderful in his Saints, that his converse with pure souls is exceedingly astonishing, and that God, as St. John Chrysostom says somewhere, leads his friends by his hand through heaps of miracles and in the power of prodigies. Nor yet on that account does the prudent Catholic at once admit all miracles narrated; but he weighs the arguments by which they are supported, and requires witnesses or writers of the greater credibility the more prodigious and the more difficult to believe the miracles proposed are. These things being premised, lest anyone suspect that all the miracles ascribed to St. Teresa are despised and denied by me, while I omit them for no other reason than that a book of ample bulk would scarcely suffice for reviewing them, I shall bring forward some only, but few, out of very many certain and proven miracles, which may serve as a specimen of the others which I pass over.
[5] The miracles which concern the Saint's remains are great and certain Celebrated first of all, and of that kind of miracles which are called permanent, are those miracles which from the time when the Saint departed this life have been seen in her body and in the parts cut from her body. Of these there has already been talk several times in our Preliminary Commentary, especially § LIV and following, where the state of St. Teresa's sacred remains was treated; likewise in the Acts of her canonization, art. IV, §§ I, II and III, where among the twelve miracles which are reported there, the first three concern the incorruption of the body and the fragrance and the liquid flowing from it. But to what was said there some things are still to be added on account of the great celebrity and importance of the prodigy: for these divine displays in the Saint's remains seemed so wonderful to the auditors of the Sacred Rota that, although they had in great number the miracles performed through the holy Virgin presented and proved to them, they nevertheless confessed that the incorruption of the body of the Servant of God Teresa was to be reckoned a very great miracle (Report on the miracles, art. IV). Moreover, the more these facts are elucidated, the more will their certainty appear, which is so great that whoever does not wish to be and be held a sceptic is compelled to admit them. Namely, these things were already so established in the time of Yepes that this author, writing in the twenty-fourth year after the holy Virgin's death, in book IV, chapter II, of his Life of Teresa, assertively declared before all Spain the manifold prodigy in her body (of incorruption, and of the fragrance, oil and blood flowing from it) in this manner:
[6] it is proved from Yepes and from elsewhere: These miracles, he says, have happened in our times, and not on one day or another; but twenty-three years have elapsed since her body was exhumed, and during that whole space of years all the grave men in Spain, whether bishops, or great lords, or other men placed in dignity, have been able to contemplate that prodigy. For since the university of Salamanca is only four leagues distant from Alba, there was no master, and no distinguished doctor, who, aroused by the celebrity of that portent, did not seek to contemplate with his own eyes what he had perceived by report. Several distinguished physicians too, both at Alba and at Ávila, examined the Saint's body, and all to a man confess that there is a miracle there by which God honours his Servant, not allowing to be gnawed by worms the body which the fires of concupiscence could not violate. Wherefore, when the Duke of the Infantado, Juan Hurtado de Mendoza, in the twentieth year after her death, the Saint's body
had looked upon, and had seen that it was not only without corruption, but also exhaled a good fragrance and gave out a copious liquid or oil, he was so persuaded of the truth of the miracle that he broke out into these words: Were I not a Christian already, for this prodigy alone I would embrace the Christian Religion. Nay, the renowned theologian of the family of St. Dominic, Fr. Gonet (in his Clypeus Theologiae, volume VI, tract X, disputation 1, in a digression, Cologne edition, 1672), was not afraid to place these divine displays in the body of St. Teresa among the motives for adhering to the Catholic Church. All Spain, he says, wonders not only at the integrity and incorruption of the body of the Seraphic Virgin Teresa, but also at the heavenly liquid, purer and sweeter than any balsam, flowing from the same most sacred body. It is no wonder, then, that that threefold prodigy in the body of St. Teresa (of incorruption, fragrance and oil) was admitted by the Church as three distinct miracles for the beatification of the Servant of God, after a most rigorous juridical examination, as is the custom, and after many informations had been instituted: and the prudent and certain judgement of so great a Tribunal was confirmed in subsequent times as often as the examination of those sacred Relics was repeated.
[7] [which is confirmed from the length of time for which the integrity of the holy body has lasted,] And so to those miracles there accrues not so much new certainty as new evidence from the length of time for which they have lasted. For first, as regards the wonderful incorruption of the corpse, it remained through that whole space of years which lies between the Saint's passing and the last uncovering of the body, made in the year 1760; nay, it is very likely that that integrity persists even today. In the authentic instrument of the year 1750 (nay, and of the year 1760, since in this latter it is affirmed that the state of the corpse was the same as it had been in the year 1750), as may be read in § LXX, it is said that the body was found entire and incorrupt; and, after the members which were taken from it and scattered through the world have been enumerated, these words are subjoined: The rest of the body is preserved with skin, flesh and bones. The head is divided from the trunk, since the greater part of the neck has been taken away; but otherwise it is preserved entire with skin and flesh, and indeed in the right eye the iris or pupil and the eyelids are distinguished. What is most wonderful of all, the right arm is as flexible as if it were alive. The hand seems to have been torn off piece by piece; and only the middle bone, which is very white and very beautiful, has been left with certain sinews. Similarly in the left foot the toes and nails are seen distinct. Moreover, in the letters cited in the same §, in which the nuns of Alba report what they had seen with their own eyes in the recently visited body of their holy Mother, they testify to its great flexibility, its most sweet fragrance, the clearness of the right eye, the head clothed with all its flesh, and the whiteness and beauty of the breast.
[8] It is narrated how living blood several times flowed from the corpse: Not as distinct from the incorruption, but as a sign and confirmation of it, the miracle of that living blood which several times gushed forth from the corpse when cut, injured or even merely pressed has been admitted by the Church. It is pleasing to hear Yepes speaking of this, book IV, chapter II: Not only is the body free of all corruption, but also (what is more wonderful) blood has often been seen to flow from it, and that after so many years since her death. I shall relate here some cases, all of which happened to persons most worthy of credence who I know would not violate the truth for anything in the world. Mother Ana of Jesus, having completed her priorship at Madrid, betaking herself to her monastery at Salamanca, accompanied by Fr. Juan de Jesús María, definitor general of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, and visiting the sacred body at Alba, through which she was passing, while she was attentively inspecting it, saw a part around the shoulders so red that living blood seemed to be there. When she had pressed it a little with a linen cloth applied to it, at once the linen was dyed with flowing blood. Ana gave this linen to the Father Definitor, and asked for another; and when she had likewise applied it to the holy body, it was moistened just like the first, the skin meanwhile remaining unharmed and free of scar and wound. That Mother was so carried away into admiration by this thing and moved by so great a feeling of devotion that for no small space of time she remained with her mind suspended, together with all the others who were present. I asked that one of those linens be given me with an account of all that had been done; of which I informed King Philip II. And this was the first occasion on which the king ordered the Apostolic Nuncio, Camillo Caetani, to have juridical informations instituted. This miracle in the holy Mother's blood was seen in the twelfth year after her death: which truly was time sufficient for the blood to be corrupted and to putrefy; since it suffices for corrupting iron. And the same had happened when the holy Mother was first exhumed: for when the upper skin of the breast was torn while she was being clothed, the blood appeared as living as if the Saint herself had been alive. In the arm too and the other Relics of her flesh the same prodigy was noticed. A certain Discalced Carmelite, examining the holy Mother's arm, tried to tear a little morsel from it with his teeth; and when he had drawn off scarcely anything but a dry little skin projecting a little from the flesh, he joyfully wrapped it in paper: but inspecting it eight days later, he found a drop of most lively blood passed through three folds of the paper; and when in amazement he substituted another paper for this one, in this too a drop of blood came forth: which thing indeed, seen by several men of the same Order, was a great and manifest miracle. No less astonishing is that which happened to Mother Jerónima of the Holy Spirit, prioress of the Discalced Carmelite nuns of Madrid; who, in the presence of the subprioress of her monastery, unfolding a paper which contained a certain particle of the holy Mother's flesh, found the little linen in which it was wrapped thoroughly moistened with four drops of blood, and, having called her nuns together, showed it to be seen, not without admiration. And I, the day after this thing had happened, inspected the same little linen, to which another little drop had then been added; and I took it away to show the physicians: but they knew how to assign no natural cause to these effects, which are born of supernatural and divine causes.
[9] and the good fragrance of her Relics, Having now set forth at length the miracle of the incorrupt corpse, it remains that I discuss some things concerning two other miracles, namely the fragrance of her Relics and the liquid or oil which formerly flowed from it, which are neither found in Ribera nor could fittingly be inserted in our Preliminary Commentary. As to the first, it is to be noted that incorruption and fragrance, according to the practice of the Apostolic See and of the Sacred Congregation, are two distinct miracles: and Benedict XIV treats this subject aptly for our matter (On Beatification and Canonization, book IV, part 1, chapter XXXI, number 28) in these words: In the Report of the cause of St. Teresa, in the second miracle after death, it reads thus: "Which fragrance, although we consider it in abstraction from the miraculous incorruption of the body, we have judged ought also by itself to be ascribed to a remarkable miracle." With this agree the Acts of the same cause collected by Giovanni Paolo Mucanzio, secretary of the Congregation of Sacred Rites, which are in the convent of St. Anne of the Spanish Discalced Carmelite Fathers living in the City, in volume I of which Acts, page 276, the Congregations held on the examination of the Rota's Report are narrated: "The Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Cardinal Lancellotti began to examine the fourth article of the same Report, on the miracles after death, and in the first place examined the miracle of the incorruption of the body; which the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lords judged to be a miracle by itself and to be numbered among the other miracles. He proposed and examined the second miracle, of the wonderful fragrance which emanated from the body of the Servant of God herself; which was concluded to be a miracle by the aforesaid Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Cardinals." With this agrees the Report made in secret Consistory concerning the same cause of St. Teresa by Francesco Maria Cardinal del Monte: "In the same body three miracles are counted, of incorruption, of fragrance and of liquid perpetually exuding."
[10] such as was already noted in her while she was still living, That Teresa while still living gave forth a sweet fragrance from her body Yepes narrates, book II, chapter XXXVIII, in the following words: While the Saint was living, I experienced no slight fragrance and scent coming forth from her mouth: whence I began to hesitate somewhat and to think not so well of the matter, as being little in keeping with mortification; since the suspicion arose in me whether perhaps she ate sweet lozenges seasoned with perfumes. But when I inquired, her companion Ana of St. Bartholomew told me that those good perfumes were so contrary to the constitution and ill health of the holy Mother that, when on the previous night she had offered her a little cake, because she had been unable to sup on account of her infirmities, she abstained from eating it for no other reason than that it was somewhat seasoned with scent: and the same Ana added that she too, when she lent the holy Mother helping hands to put on her clothes, from the time her arm had been dislocated, had been wont to experience the same sweetness of fragrance and scent, which she also kept after her death. It is truly a great miracle that from a dead body (which of itself is nothing other than a dunghill and the most nauseous of all the things of this life, inasmuch as it everywhere exhales an intolerable stench, by which the air is so infected that plagues and other contagious pestilences are wont to be generated from it) there should come forth this far most sweet fragrance, which, as we shall say further on, persists to this day in her body and her other Relics: of which matter there are very many witnesses, since the twenty-fourth year from her death is now passing.
[11] is narrated. And in book IV, chapter 2, he explains this fragrance of the dead woman more at large, saying thus: That fragrance which was perceived when her corpse was first exhumed, and by which a certain nun obtained the sense of smell which she had lacked from birth, has been recorded above. Moreover, all her Relics, all her garments, papers, and the very books written in her hand keep the same fragrance. For, just as flesh corrupted and defiled by sin cannot but give forth of itself a foul odour, so God wills that holy and pure flesh should smell well on earth; to show that the limpidity of her flesh pleased his eyes, and at the same time to bear witness that the holy perfumes of her prayers have ascended before the sight of his Divinity, and to signify the flowery garlands of her virtues, which smelled most sweetly before God like a full field clothed with flowers. This fragrance, moreover, is most sweet and most fragrant, and so strong that it is established by experience that any other odoriferous things whatever, when they are placed beside any Relics of the Saint, lose their own natural fragrance and take on the fragrance of those Relics. Which to me
happened to me myself, when I had put a little of that earth of which I have spoken (namely earth taken from St. Teresa's tomb) and some little linens into a box of very fragrant and precious lozenges: namely, the fragrance of the Relics took away their fragrance from the lozenges, without any being transferred in turn from these into the Relics, any more than if these had been immersed in water… To prove this very thing at Lisbon, while the Saint's hand was kept in the house of Albert, Cardinal and Archduke of Austria, who then governed the kingdom of Portugal (and who was afterwards prince of the Belgians), Don Alfonso Coloma, today bishop of Cartagena, and other noblemen, chamberlains of the prince, desiring to see this miracle with their own eyes, took on the point of a knife a little of the juice of the civet cat: which, although it is very strong-smelling and as viscous as possible, yet, as soon as it was rubbed on the holy hand, at once lost its fragrance. That miraculous fragrance is also established in the Acts of canonization (art. IV, §2); in the Bull of canonization (num. 1398); in the Chronicle (book V, chapter XXX); in the work of Fr. Gonet (in the place cited above); in the Decor Carmeli religiosi, published by Fr. Philippe de la Très-Sainte-Trinité at Lyon in France in the year 1665 (in the place presently to be cited); and in very many other books, published in various places and times, and finally in the letters written by the nuns of Alba in the year 1750 (on which see § LXX). And if the instrument which was enclosed in the tomb in the year 1750 is silent about that fragrance, it is to be noted that the chief purpose of this document was that it should be handed down to posterity in what place and condition the urn and the Relics enclosed in it were. It will presently be seen how Fr. Frederick, who was writing in the middle of the eighteenth century, asserts that he perceived that fragrance in an earthen image of the Saint which had been made of soil near her tomb and probably once moistened with that oily liquid which flowed down from the body.
[12] Likewise it is explained what miraculous liquid flowed from her Relics: Another miracle distinct from the incorruption is this oily liquid, which flowed long and copiously from the body of the holy Virgin. Hear again Yepes writing on this matter, book IV, chapter 2: This miracle has been permanent from the time of the exhumation of the corpse up to the present day. Before it was exhumed (as has already been narrated in its place), that heavenly liquid gushed from it most abundantly; inasmuch as it moistened the earth joined to it in the coffin. Of this earth I received as little as a hazelnut; and, although it seems dry earth like sand, yet the little linens and papers in which it is wrapped are just as moistened and anointed as if they had been immersed in oil: and this has now for some years been established for me by continual experience, as also for others who have obtained a part of the earth which clung to the holy body in the tomb. But after it was taken out from there, it seems to be a certain spring of oil: for during so many years it has often been necessary to wrap it in clean sheets and linens, both for collecting this sacred oil, and so that it should not flow out into the holy Mother's sepulchral chest and tomb. Whence it has come about that very many cloths imbued with this oil have been distributed into all Spain and are everywhere held as great and exceptional Relics. And the Lord works very many miracles through them. Moreover, that this oil gushes from the holy body is as commonly known and manifest as the very incorruption of the body. For since some small pieces of flesh have been given to some grave and pious persons (although it has been forbidden by the Supreme Pontiff and by the superiors of the Order, under the proposed penalty of anathema, that anyone should now touch the holy body), all have noticed six hundred times and seen with their own eyes oil flowing from this sacred flesh, which was corrupted neither in life nor in death, by which is signified the great charity with which the Saint, while she lived, loved men. And to me indeed in the third or fourth year after her death there fell a joint of a finger of the left hand, which I have ever since always worn on my breast. At first I wrapped it in a little linen of Holland cloth; which on the next day I found imbued with a most fragrant oil: the same happened with another little linen which I substituted for the former; and so on, when for more than fifty days I had put on a new linen daily, each linen was moistened with the same liquid. Nor has this ceased to happen to the present day; Col. 748F so that that joint seems to be like a certain gushing spring: for if it had consisted entirely of oil, it would naturally have been consumed long ago in view of its smallness.
[13] although this miracle at length ceased. Moreover, in the Acts of canonization you have this miracle of the flowing oil proved (Report on the miracles, art. IV, §3). The Bull of canonization also mentions it, which Gregory XV published in the fortieth year after the Saint's death, saying thus: The sacred body.. was found surrounded with a fragrant liquid, with which it perpetually exudes up to the present day, God attesting the sanctity of his Handmaid by a continual miracle. Likewise the sixth Lesson of the Roman Breviary at the 15th of October makes mention of that miracle, and says that her body, incorrupt, surrounded with a fragrant liquid, is honoured with pious veneration. Fr. Francisco de Santa María in the Chronicle (book V, chapter XXX, number 3) confesses, however, that at the time when he was writing, that is, towards the middle of the seventeenth century, that prodigy was becoming rarer, and that the quantity of liquid which Teresa's sacred remains distilled was less in his time than formerly. Yet in the year 1665 Fr. Philippe de la Très-Sainte-Trinité, in part II of his Decor Carmeli religiosi (as Fr. Frederick says, book V, chapter VIII), affirms that it had not yet entirely ceased. Just as the body, he says, was found incorrupt, fragrant with a most sweet odour and suffused with a fragrant liquid, so up to now her aforesaid Relics (namely the hand at Lisbon and the foot at Rome) and other lesser ones scattered everywhere persevere with these privileges, as daily experience establishes. Although that wonderful distillation, after it had lasted sixty or even eighty years, has ceased today, that space of time abundantly sufficed both for exciting just admiration and, on account of the innumerable spectators who saw and testified to it, for demonstrating the certainty of a supernatural fact.
[14] [From Yepes are enumerated the miracles which, first, at the Saint's body or parts of the body,] The other miracles of St. Teresa Yepes, on account of their multitude, divides in this way. After he has set out those which she performed while living, and others which happened at her death or which concern the incorruption of her body (of which we have treated so far), in the first class next (book IV, chapter III) he comprises those which it pleased God to work at the Relics of her body; in the second (chapter IV) those at cloths dyed with her blood or with the oil flowing from her body; in the third (chapter V) those at the contact of her garments; in the fourth (chapter VI) those at the Saint's letters or writings; in the fifth class, finally (chapter VII), those at her invocation. The first series, then, is this. The Count of Lemos, Gaspar Cortés, who was the son of the Marquis del Valle, and the Count of Salinas, when a morsel of the holy Mother's flesh was applied to them, were all three restored to health. Luisa de Alagón had vowed that she would become a Discalced nun; she fell into an illness, from which, when the holy Mother's Relics had been placed on her head and mouth, she recovered, and afterwards fulfilled her vow in the convent of the Discalced nuns of Madrid. At Villanueva de la Jara the mouth of Eulalia, daughter of Francisca López, was so closed that it could not be opened by any force: when she had been brought to the last extremity, a little of the sacred flesh was applied; she opened her mouth, ate, recovered. In like manner María of St. Jerome, prioress of Malagón, and another nun, the latter from a tertian fever, the former from a long-lasting flow of blood from the nostrils, and likewise the vicaress of the Discalced Franciscan nuns of Madrid from a headache, came out free. The Countess of Triburcia, sailing with her husband from Spain to the Low Countries, saw the storm of the sea calmed after she had thrown into it a little of the holy Mother's flesh. At Valladolid the same Relics shook off a consumptive fever from Antonio de Tamayo; at Cardeñosa (in the diocese of Ávila) they expelled a demon from a woman: which was also done at Mancera. A vehement fever had attacked the daughter of Bárbara de Tapia, a kinswoman of the holy Mother: when the Saint's Relics were applied to her, the fever was driven away, the physicians recognizing a miracle. In the year 1603 Isabel de Monroy, professed nun of St. Mary of the Ladies at Salamanca, blind in both eyes, recovered her sight, and a nun of Segovia, called of the Conception, desirous of perceiving the fragrance which the holy Mother's flesh breathed, recovered her sense of smell: the same nun at another time applied the same Relics to her breast, and was at once freed from a long-lasting anxiety of mind and remained so thereafter. At Ciudad Real in New Castile a pain in the flank suddenly prostrated Jerónima de Poblete on the ground, as if dead: Fr. Juan of the Incarnation gave her husband a morsel of the flesh so often mentioned, which within a very short time wiped away all the pain entirely. At Toro (in Spanish Toro) on the river Duero in Tarraconensian Spain the holy Mother's Relics took away toothache from Juan Atalaya, a painter. A pain of the sides was likewise taken away in the same place from the son, about five years old, of the nobleman Francisco Deza, Fr. Francisco of the Most Holy Trinity applying a morsel of St. Teresa's flesh to the sick boy. At Valladolid Doña Luisa de Porras had suffered for nine years from a carcinoma; likewise for five years she had carried an arm badly affected by a fistula: she applied the holy Mother's hand to herself, and recovered from both ills. At Lisbon the licentiate Tomás de Baeza Polanco, brought to the last extremity and unable to confess his sins, when his confessor placed the Saint's hand on his head, returned to serenity of mind, and having confessed all his sins, obtained health both of soul and of body. María of St. Jerome, prioress of the Discalced nuns of Malagón, when the holy Mother's finger was laid upon an eye long inflamed, made it perpetually sound.
[15] second, those which by applying cloths dyed with her blood etc., After this Yepes, being about to relate the miracles which were done by applying cloths of St. Teresa dyed either with blood or with the oil which flowed from her body, having said beforehand that he has easily two hundred of this kind at hand, relates individually only these, of which Ribera makes no mention: but only one which happened, by applying a cloth dyed with her blood, to Francisco Morales, living not far from Madrid, from whom a cloth of this kind took away a most grievous quartan fever; but he enumerates more who, by applying the cloths I have just mentioned, experienced how much Teresa's intercession could do with God: the son of the licentiate Vallejo, counsellor to the Duke of Alba, freed from fevers; Juana of Jesus, a Discalced nun in the monastery of St. Joseph at Salamanca, from a most dangerous abscess of the throat or neck; Fr. Baltasar Ponce, provincial of the Mitigated Carmelites, in the year 1588 on the 6th of September from a tertian fever; Dom Pedro, prior of the convent of Miraflores and visitor of the Carthusians, from an enormous pain of the ears; María Evangelista,
a religious, from affected eyes; Leonor of the Mother of God, a Discalced nun, from fevers; Inés of Jesus, a Discalced nun of Segovia, from a hardening of the breast; María of the Cross, of the same convent, from gout; Ana of St. Joseph from paralysis; Francisca of the Incarnation from erysipelas; the subprioress of the convent of the Discalced nuns of Toledo, Águeda of St. Joseph, from a tertian fever; a woman at Pastrana from a long-lasting failure of the sense of smell; two possessed persons at Girona likewise freed from the vexation of the demon. He mentions also some other miracles of that kind; but by which Relics of the Saint, he does not relate equally explicitly.
[16] third, those at the contact of her garments, After St. Teresa departed from the living, her garments, whether entire or cut into parts, were sent in every direction, and at their contact very many miracles happened through her intercession and merits, which, at least in part, collected by Ribera with equal diligence and fidelity, may be seen above, book V, the whole of chapter IV. To these Yepes adds the following. Don Juan de Guzmán, Marquis of Ardales, had left no hope of prolonging life; when he had been given up by the physicians, the Duchess of Sessa commended him to the prayers of Ana of Jesus, superior of the Discalced nuns in the convent at Granada: Ana sent a tiny piece of the holy Mother's habit enclosed in a letter, which, applied to the sick man, at once brought health. When the plague was raging in the city of Granada, Ana of Jesus herself, Doña Catalina de Ronquillo and others already infected with that pestilence, using the same counsel, came out unharmed. To Fernando de Toledo, prior of St. John, suffering from gout, the Discalced nuns of Alba sent a piece of St. Teresa's veil; and when he had piously applied it to himself, he at once recovered, and left by will fourteen thousand gold pieces to be converted into annual revenues from which the expenses of the holy Mother's canonization might be met. At Medina del Campo Luisa de Ordás, a girl of sixteen years, shaken by frequent tremors of the limbs and faintings of the mind, was likewise suffering from enormous difficulty of breathing from a violent compression of the nostrils: the physicians, not discovering the cause of the malady, advised that she be fortified with the last aids of the dying. When she had been taken to the convent of the Discalced nuns, the holy Mother's scapular was laid on her, and after three hours she returned home unharmed. The same happened to her when she relapsed five years later. At Seville Antonio de la Cueva was suffering from his stomach so much that for forty-four days now nothing could be retained by it: a piece of the holy Mother's shift was laid on him, and thereafter he felt nothing of that malady. At Villanueva de la Jara Doña Juana de Ervías had come into danger of life through a difficult childbirth: she laid the holy Mother's sleeve on herself, and, to the amazement of all, at once brought forth her child. Like help thereafter was experienced in the same town by Doña Esperanza, wife of Juan Zapata. The holy Mother's scapular was kept in the convent of the Discalced nuns of Segovia, and by its use several of the nuns returned to health from various illnesses: among these was Beatriz of the Most Holy Sacrament, who, harassed by a dreadful frenzy, recovered soundness of mind and body. At Madrid likewise in the convent of the Discalced nuns a piece of the holy Mother's shift was kept, which brought health to many, whether nuns of that convent or outsiders; as was experienced by the niece of the sister of the licentiate Barrio, and by Estefanía, wife of Valderrábano, secretary to the prior Fernando de Toledo, the holy Mother's veil being applied, when both had already been given up by the physicians. Luisa of St. Dominic, a nun of the convent of St. Anne at Madrid, had never taken a pill without vomiting it up: the taking of a draught, as the physicians judged, was very necessary; but its rejection no less dangerous: as she was taking the draught, the holy Mother's shift was applied: her stomach retained what she had taken, which had never happened before. Isabel of St. Dominic, prioress of the Discalced nuns of Segovia, was almost consumed by phthisis: there was sent to her from Ávila in the year 1585 a little of the earth which had clung to St. Teresa's fingers: on the sixth day after she received it she entirely recovered.
[17] fourth, those at her writings, To the miracles which he placed in the third place, and which were done through the image and a letter of the holy Mother, Yepes adds the following. Fr. Lobo, apostolic preacher, pressed at Rome by many anxieties of mind, on receiving a letter of the holy Mother, felt himself freed from them. A certain Carthusian prior, a very upright man, fell into a most grievous temptation, to which he came near to succumbing; but as soon as he had kissed with a devout mind a letter written by the holy Mother's hand and implored her help, it ceased entirely. The licentiate Pedro Fernández Barragán, curate of the church of St. Mary of the Rosary of Valverde in the archdiocese of Seville, having heard much of St. Teresa's prodigies and sanctity, had grown accustomed to commend himself to her and daily to turn over something of her deeds: especially pleasing to him were these words of Teresa amid the calumnies of her detractors, in Ribera (book IV, chapter VIII): Praise be to God, that in this place (Seville) I am known to be such as I really am: for elsewhere all have been led into error; and admiring so great a lowliness of mind in her, he copied those words and carried them in his bosom, which were one day to be a protection to him: for when he was at Seville on the terrace of the archbishop's palace together with Bernardino Rodríguez, provisor of the archdiocese, and the latter had again and again tried in vain to fire a small gun, while he was handing the gun to Pedro, it went off, and the little balls or leaden shot, driven into Pedro's breast, not only did not hurt him, but were driven back a space of ten or twelve feet: and he said that he owed his safety to Teresa's words, which, as we have said, he carried copied in his bosom. A lawful inquiry into the prodigy was presently instituted. Águeda of St. Joseph, subprioress at Toledo, harassed by a fever for nine months, after she had carried on her breast for one night a piece of the holy Mother's habit and a paper, was found unharmed the next day by the physician, nor did she relapse into the fever, which Yepes narrates, book IV, chapter IV.
[18] fifth, finally, through her invocation No fewer miracles were performed at the invocation of St. Teresa: to those which Ribera brings forward, book V, last chapter, Yepes adds these at the end of book IV. Fr. Juan de Montalvo of the Order of St. Dominic, preacher in the convent of St. Thomas at Ávila, travelling to Valladolid in the year 1595, having advanced to a certain place (called Boecillo) three leagues distant from there, led the beast on which he was riding to a watering trough; and it rushed there with such impetus that the Father was in danger of dashing his head against the stone front of the trough: he therefore at once invoked St. Teresa's help; and, to the amazement of all, the beast stood still until a servant took Fr. Juan, hanging from the stirrup, out of danger unharmed. The Marquis of Almazán, a very pious man, had applied himself to prayer for two hours with great aridity and vexation of mind, in order to conceive a pious motion of the soul or sorrow for his sins; but in vain. So, seized with weariness, he made an end of praying; but while he was rising, he cast his eyes on an icon of Teresa, and in a certain loud voice he asked her to be propitious to him in his grief: at once he was so steeped in interior consolation that a great flood of tears burst forth from his eyes, and he acknowledged himself unequal to rendering thanks to God and St. Teresa, both then and thereafter. At Valladolid a Cistercian nun, very infirm and with a contracted arm, having heard of the holy Mother's miracles, began to be affected with great devotion towards her; and when in choir she had earnestly commended herself to her patronage, she obtained complete soundness in a moment, and, showing the miracle which had befallen her, she incited her companions to a like devotion towards Teresa. At Villarejo a certain man of the Society of Jesus suffering from an abscess was healed, not without a prodigy, as the inmates of that house afterwards testified.
[19] very frequently A certain Discalced nun of the convent at Ávila, so contracted in her limbs that she could neither walk nor dress herself nor take food by herself, in the year 1606 on the 24th of June was so restored to health by the holy Mother's intercession that she took food by herself, went to the refectory and walked round the house just as before. A certain novice, Elena of the Cross, had had no rest, no tranquillity of mind: as the year of her novitiate went on, she resolved to leave Teresa's camp: on the appointed day she summoned a kinswoman, and having entered the garden went into a little hermitage: there she began to strip off her religious garments, yet anxiously imploring the favour of the Virgin Mother of God and of St. Teresa; and to the latter she said: Do you now wish, Mother, to drive me from your house? Scarcely had she uttered these words when she hastily resumed the garments she had taken off, and together with the garments she put on a cheerfulness of mind, which, having pronounced her vows without delay, she had perpetually thereafter. To Inés of Jesus, sacristan of the Discalced nuns of Segovia, a new chalice was brought; which, on the first day on which it was used, she placed rather incautiously on a table: when she saw it fallen onto the stone-paved floor and quite distorted, she betook herself sorrowfully first to the prioress, then to the choir, and casting her eyes on an icon of the holy Mother, asked of her solace for her sorrow. Returning to the sacristy she found the chalice so restored to its former shape that it kept no sign of damage.
[20] have happened. A certain religious person of much authority related to Ana of the Most Holy Trinity in the convent of the Discalced nuns at Salamanca that, when she had been oppressed for many days by a grave pain of the breast and shoulders, as the malady raged more violently, she implored the holy Mother's help; and that she appeared to her after the Holy Communion, pressed her breast with one hand and her shoulders with the other, firmly and at the same time gently and without pain, and blessed her: from which time she remained immune from a malady of this kind, and also became more courageous in the divine service. At Alba in the convent of the Discalced nuns, Sister Catalina of St. John the Baptist, by order of the prioress, committed to the fire the rotten boards of the coffin in which the Saint's body had lain; presently the fire seized the chimney: but as soon as the holy Mother was invoked by her, the blaze was extinguished, nothing being burned. At another time the same sister had driven her foot on to a nail: through neglect of the wound the foot swelled so that she could not stand: the surgeon applied a medicine to both ills and wrapped it in cloths; scarcely had he gone away, when she said: What need have I of this medicine, provided there is enough confidence in the holy Mother? At the same moment she throws it away, and commends herself to her. On the following day, both ills being driven out, she walked as if she had suffered nothing. Teresa of the Conception, in the convent of the Discalced nuns at Toledo, had now been struggling with a quartan fever for ten years; at length a fever attacked her, from whose violence she seemed to herself about to die. She asked the Lord for health through the intercession of the holy Mother, that she might be able to discharge her office: she seemed to herself to behold with the eyes of the mind the holy Mother signing the sick members of her body with the sign of the cross and to hear her saying that she was to be healed in this sign; which was also done. Twice likewise at other times, when given up by the physicians, the same nun experienced the present patronage of the holy Mother. Fernando de Mata, preacher of the church of Seville, had a sister, named Francisca, whom, suffering from lethargy and a wasting fever, to the holy Mother, whom
he had more than once found propitious to himself, he earnestly commended. The physicians affirmed that she would die and not escape from these ills: her brother, on the contrary, hoped well of the sick woman; nor was his hope in vain: she recovered at once. And these things are abridged from Yepes.
§ II. Antwerp is miraculously delivered by the patronage of St. Teresa, and at the same time by the prayers of Ana of St. Bartholomew.
Several proofs of this double miracle That Antwerp was snatched from the greatest peril by the help of the prayers poured out to God by the Venerable Ana of St. Bartholomew is most fully established from the proofs presently to be adduced: but it is at the same time established that it was St. Teresa who by a heavenly warning stirred Ana up to pray; so that this prodigy can and ought to be attributed to the intervention of St. Teresa no less than to that of the Venerable Ana. Of it, therefore, we must treat here: nor shall we do it in passing; but in proportion to the gravity of the matter we shall inquire into the miraculous fact and establish it by the sanction of the gravest arguments. These matters could not in any case be treated in the cause of St. Teresa's canonization, since that had been completed when they happened; but they were treated at large in the Antwerp cause of the Venerable Ana, as is evident from the Response of Filippo de' Sebastiani to the Animadversions of the promoter of the faith (numbers 62-78, page 169 and following); with which Response the sworn depositions themselves of the nuns then living in the Carmel of Antwerp, partly autograph, partly authenticated (which I have in my possession, received from Antwerp), entirely agree. From these I shall abridge summarily the chief arguments, producing certain belief, among which I shall insert here and there certain additional annotations which further confirm those arguments. Where I report the very words of the Acts, I shall use roman type, but italics where only their abridged sense; and I shall enclose in brackets what I have inserted. Here, then, is how the aforesaid Acts speak.
[22] [are drawn from the Acts in the cause of the beatification of Ana of St. Bartholomew:] Two miracles cannot be passed over which we reckon fully proved, namely the deliverance or preservation of the city of Antwerp, which followed in the year 1622, and the deliverance or preservation of the citadel of the same city in the year 1624. Both of these, nay a threefold preservation, she herself narrated, by command of Fr. Juan of the Mother of God, confessor of the same Venerable Servant of God, in an account made in the Spanish tongue. Then are brought forward the words by which this confessor of Ana testified that the account which he was presenting to the commissaries had been written by Ana at the instance of the deponent. [I have before my eyes that Spanish autograph account of Ana, belonging to the Carmelite nuns of Antwerp, who allowed me to inspect it as I was treating of these things. From that important instrument, whose written characters, however pale, evidently reproduce the hand of Ana (of which I have many autographs in my possession, received on loan from the archive of the Carmel both of Brussels and of Antwerp), I have had the lines placed at the foot of the page engraved. And the words which you see written are these: Yo las dije: Vistanse, y vamonos al Santisimo Sacramento, que debe de haber alguna traicion, que parece ser nuestra Santa la que nos despierta. Y fuemos. Yo dije al Señor: Aqui os traigo vuestras siervas, que os piden lo que deseo (see at the foot of the page). Which in Latin sounds: Let us betake ourselves before the Most Holy Sacrament, since there must be some treachery: for it appears to be our holy Mother who is waking us. We went, and I said to the Lord: I bring hither thy handmaids, that they may ask that which I desire. And from the analogy of the Spanish with the Latin tongue it is easily discerned to which Latin words above these Spanish ones correspond. And if anyone wonders that this writing of Ana's is scarcely intelligible, I would have him note that, besides the fact that her hand was never neat, that account was written by a woman worn out with old age and who had already been seized by apoplexy. For it is established that Ana suffered from this two years before her death, which occurred on the 7th of June 1626: and since in her account she makes mention of the death of Maurice of Nassau, who departed this life on the 23rd of April 1625, it follows that she wrote these things in the last fourteen months of her life, and therefore that she had already been touched by paralysis.] Thus, then, that account sounds when turned into Latin, which is also found in the Acts of the Venerable Ana.
[23] [and the autograph of the Venerable Ana concerning the revelation of the year 1622 is cited] In these warlike affairs some notable things happened to me. On the very day on which Maurice, with great forces and great resolution, was approaching to surprise the city of Antwerp, on a certain night he ordered the greater part of his soldiery to embark on ships. The night itself was serene and calm. And he said to his men: "Let us go eagerly; God alone or the devil will hinder me from the surprise", assuring them that they would take Antwerp, and would return from there very rich. But as they approached nearer to Antwerp, at once there arose a storm and a great cold wind, by which the water was frozen; whereupon in a moment ships and many soldiers were sunk. Maurice alone escaped free, creeping through the water, with the greatest difficulty: so that his body was ruptured, and thereafter he did not recover his health, and at length died from it. On this night, although I was unaware of this treachery with which he was coming, from the very hour of twelve I was struck with an enormous fear, and with great impetus, with my hands raised to heaven, I had recourse to prayer. And when I let my wearied arms down, it seemed to me that they were raised again by someone, and I know not who said to me: "It is not yet the hour; keep them raised." And so I persevered almost until dawn. Then I understood that my petition had been heard. This is the pure truth.
[24] likewise the account of the other, of the year 1624; Another time, when I was lying asleep, I woke at some cries which were being uttered from the dormitory, which I also heard when awake; I called, and two religious came, to whom I said: "Go through the cells and see which one is ill; for I hear cries." They answered: "All are asleep, none is sick." I said to them: "Put on your clothes, and let us betake ourselves before the Most Holy Sacrament; since there must be some treachery. For it seems that it is our holy Mother who is waking us." We went, and I said to the Lord God: "I bring hither your handmaids, that they may ask that which I desire: for I can do nothing." And so I assented to this truth, finding myself confounded before the Lord. And when we had remained there for a little while, at once, without my seeing or hearing anything, I understood that we could depart. It had slipped from my memory that together with the cries which I heard, I heard likewise a call to arms being sounded in the citadel. I looked out through the windows which we have towards that side, to see if perhaps I could see any light; but I saw nothing, everything was dark: nevertheless I understood that something evil lay beneath. A few days ago I woke at the second hour after midnight with an impulse or interior instinct that it was necessary to pray. But since I was overcome with sleep, I went back to bed; but I felt such disquiet that I could not rest: from which I understood that the Lord wished me to pray. So I went to prayer with my hands raised, with an impulse, but with an instinct of asking for mercy. Thus from the second hour until the fourth, that is for two hours, abstracted from my senses, and without its being in my power to desist, I remained thus with my hands raised to heaven; and all that day I remained as if dead, with my body as broken as if I had been beaten with sticks. I did not know what it was; but afterwards it was told me that the heretics had a certain treachery in hand, which they could not bring to effect, etc. [That there were in truth three times, as often as Ana records here, plots and a treacherous assault prepared against Antwerp, several writers report: e.g. the anonymous author of the book entitled: Civilium apud Belgas bellorum initia, progressus, finis optatus The beginnings, progress and desired end of the civil wars among the Belgians; who (pp. 245 and 276), treating of the third expedition against Antwerp, says that the Dutch, when they had strayed from the road on a heath for almost a whole night, and when, drenched and soaked, they had at length scarcely come under the citadel, terrified and dismayed by a certain heavenly light, did not dare to attack it. And since this expedition was attempted without loss of men and ships, it could easily have been concealed or not seemed worthy to historiographers to be handed down to posterity.]
[25] and a synopsis of the testimonies from § X Then the Acts assert that all this which the Venerable Servant of God wrote by command of her confessor is confirmed, as regards the first and third case in her Account, by eyewitnesses; and they report the words uttered by those sworn witnesses, the sum of which I present here to my readers. § X. Ninth miracle. Preservation of the city of Antwerp (in the year 1622) from the incursion of the heretics. The tenth witness, who had been confessor of the Venerable Ana, narrates the whole matter, as it is above in her account, and says that he understood it from the mouth of the Venerable Ana. The sixteenth witness, a nun of that convent, says that she entered the cell of the Venerable Mother at the fifth hour of the morning, and was told by the Venerable Mother: "Daughter, this night a great danger impends. I have fought this night as if against a hostile army. Shortly we shall understand something." And the deponent saw that the said Mother was very much weakened and entirely in a sweat, by reason of which sweat her tunic and other garments were changed. And at the end she adds that shortly afterwards it was heard that Count Maurice of Nassau had been on the sea with an army to surprise the city of Antwerp unexpectedly, and that she believes that God the Lord hindered the said surprise on account of the intercession of the Venerable Ana. The nineteenth witness, likewise a nun of the same convent, equally testifies that she heard the same at the fifth hour from the mouth of the Venerable Ana, and that she believes this to be a miracle and to exceed the powers of nature, and that that deliverance is to be attributed to the help of the Venerable Mother's prayers. Another witness, at that time prior of the convent of the Discalced Carmelites at Antwerp and confessor of Ana, says that on the morning after that event it was declared to him by Ana that she had spent the night in prayer, and had been in great agony, and had asked the Lord God for the averting of the impending danger from the city of Antwerp. And the deponent says that this revelation was miraculous, and that the said deliverance of the city of Antwerp was obtained from God by the prayers of the Venerable Ana. Finally the Most Serene Queen of France also added her testimony concerning the public fame of the miracle, which is reported in the Acts for the canonization of the Venerable Ana (page 173) in the following words: She says that the opinion is public, and is held as undoubted at Antwerp and elsewhere, nay even among persons of the first quality, that the city of Antwerp was delivered from the incursion of the enemy by the intercession of the Venerable Ana of St. Bartholomew; and for that reason Her Majesty had the aforesaid story engraved on a silver casket.
[26] and from § XI of the aforesaid Acts is furnished. § XI. Tenth miracle. Deliverance or preservation of the citadel of Antwerp (in the year 1624) from the incursion of the heretics. The first witness (who had been confessor of the Venerable Ana) says: that in the year 1624, when Breda was being besieged by the Marquis Spinola in the name of the king of Spain, the said Count Maurice, Prince of Orange, commander of the army of the Dutch, destined some thousands of soldiers to surprise the citadel of Antwerp by stratagem: and when, on a very dark and stormy night, they had approached the citadel with boats near the gate which they call the sally gate, and had brought wonderful instruments with them, and were trying to apply them to the bridges and to undermining other works, in order to prepare themselves an entrance into the citadel, the said Venerable Mother Ana was awakened about midnight; and when she had heard a certain groaning with a definite knocking on the wall, she called to her the Mother subprioress, and ordered her to open the cells of the religious, and see whether any was ill and was groaning on that account: and when she had done this and had found them all sleeping well, and had reported this to the said Venerable Mother Ana, she said to the same Mother subprioress that she had perceived that the city of Antwerp was in great danger, and that she should therefore wake all the religious, and order them to assemble in the choir to pray God for this necessity: and when this had been done, shortly afterwards the engines of war were heard, and it was understood that the enemy had done around that citadel the things which are said above, and, leaving their instruments behind, had gone away with nothing accomplished. And the said Reverend Father Deponent says that at that time he was living at Brussels as prior of the convent of Brussels, and that the said Venerable Mother Ana then wrote to the Reverend Father Deponent himself the things which are related above concerning her, and that he then showed her letter to the Most Serene Infanta Isabella, who also kept it, and, as he believes, sent it into Spain to the Catholic king; and the Most Serene Infanta ordered that the said Reverend Father Deponent should set out for Antwerp, to understand all the particulars and report to Her Highness. And the said Reverend Father Deponent says further that the said Venerable Mother Ana told him that the aforesaid groaning was that of the Holy Mother Teresa, who aroused her to pray: and the Reverend Father Deponent evidently believes the said revelation to be miraculous, and the deliverance of the said citadel to have been through the intercession and prayers narrated above; and the Reverend Father Deponent said that both these deliverances of the city of Antwerp are public and notorious everywhere throughout Belgium and other provinces. The tenth witness, who was Ana's actual confessor, says that on the next morning, when scarcely anyone in the city had knowledge of the deed, he went to the Venerable Ana, and the whole matter was narrated to him by her; and further he reports the things which I have already brought forward above from the declaration of the first witness. The eleventh witness, a nun of that convent, deposes the same; and says that she with the other sisters was present at the prayer in the choir at midnight, and heard the words which the Venerable Mother then uttered, namely about the danger in which Antwerp was. The sixteenth witness, likewise a nun there, declares that she perceived the same things, not indeed by sight, but only by the report of the Venerable Ana (for she had not gone to the choir with the others on account of illness), and that she heard from the mouth of Ana herself that it was St. Teresa who had impelled her to pray. And the Deponent says that she inquired of some soldiers of the citadel about the time at which the plot had been detected, and understood from them that this was done at the very time at which the Venerable Mother had said that the danger had ceased. Finally, not to linger longer in citing these Acts, I shall make an end here by alleging the words of a nun of the convent of Antwerp (in which at that time daughters of the foremost families of Belgium had dedicated themselves to God); who added these things to her testimony already brought forward above: That she understood from the mouth of Íñigo de Borja, governor of the citadel itself, that, when he had signified both plots to the Most Serene Infanta Isabella, (and had said) that the castle was not well enough provided, and so could easily be endangered, the Most Serene Infanta, I say, answered him: "I fear nothing for the castle and the city of Antwerp as long as I have there Mother Ana of St. Bartholomew, whose defence I value more than a copious army", etc.
[27] The approval of the bishop of Antwerp concerning both miracles, of 1622 I shall now add certain arguments which I have drawn from elsewhere than from those Acts, and first indeed the authentic approvals of that twofold miraculous deliverance, of the city in the year 1622 and of the citadel in the year 1624, which the Most Illustrious Bishop of Antwerp gave after a juridical examination of the fact. Those two authentic documents, written on parchment and fortified with the bishop's seal, which, impressed in red wax, hangs from the parchment in a box, I have in my possession, received from Antwerp, and I insert them here word for word. The former of them reads thus: John, by the grace of God and of the apostolic See bishop of Antwerp. To all who shall see these presents, greeting in the Lord. We make known and attest that, having seen the depositions made respectively before our commissaries the Reverend Lords Godfried Diepenbeke, archpriest, Zeger van Hontsum, penitentiary, David van Heemissen and Gaspar Estrix, parish priest, licentiates of Sacred Theology and canons of our cathedral church of Antwerp, by the Mother Prioress and other nuns of the convent of the Discalced nuns of this city of Antwerp in the street called den Rogier, the Reverend Father Provincial of the same Order, Jan Greyns, sailor, and Adriaan Beerendoncq, notary, and having examined them seriously and maturely, having also taken the counsel of theologians and other pious men, we have declared, as we declare by these presents, that it is sufficiently established for us by the said depositions that in December of the year 1622, when Maurice, Prince of Orange, intended to take Antwerp partly by force, partly by treachery, and by God's will his fleet was scattered near Willemstad, so that, wind and frost pressing, he himself scarcely escaped, the Venerable Ana of St. Bartholomew was divinely aroused at midnight to pray; in which a certain miraculous revelation is to be noted, and that for a long time, even beyond her strength, God urging her, she persevered in prayer, and by her merits and perseverance in prayer seemed to obtain that aforesaid miraculous overthrow of the hostile fleet, which was manifest to the whole world: which may truly be held as a sign of the merit of her sanctity. In faith of which we have subscribed these presents with our hand and have ordered our seal to be affixed. Given at Antwerp on the fourth day of the month of October in the year 1629. John, bishop of Antwerp.
[28] and of 1624, the juridical approval of the miracle. The latter is written in these words: John, by the grace of God and of the apostolic See bishop of Antwerp. To all who shall see these presents, greeting in the Lord. We make known that, having seen the depositions made before our commissaries the Reverend Lords Gaspar Estrix, parish priest, and David van Heemissen, licentiates of Sacred Theology and canons of our cathedral church of Antwerp, by the Mother Prioress and other nuns of the convent of the Discalced nuns of this city of Antwerp in the street called den Rogier, the Reverend Father Provincial of the same Order, Andrés de Sea and Alfonso Martínez, soldiers, Don Jerónimo de Guerra, captain and lieutenant in the new citadel of this city, and Adriaan Beerendoncq, notary, and having examined them seriously and maturely, having also taken the counsel of theologians and other God-fearing men, we have declared, as we declare by these presents, that it is sufficiently established for us by the said depositions that on that night which was immediately after the twelfth of the month of October in the year 1624 the aforesaid citadel of Antwerp was in great danger, and that that danger, at the same time at which it occurred, was in general divinely revealed to the Venerable Mother Ana of St. Bartholomew of pious memory, at that time prioress of the said convent of Discalced nuns, and that she by a divine impulse called her nuns together to prayer at midnight, and not without the divine Majesty perceived when that danger ceased, and that therefore in that deed the particular sanctity and humility of the said Venerable Mother shone forth. In faith of which we have subscribed these presents with our hand and have ordered our seal to be affixed. Given at Antwerp on the third day of the month of October in the year 1629. John, bishop of Antwerp.
[29] This judgement of the bishop is confirmed in the manner This juridical and solemn information, made by the prelate of Antwerp under the faith of an oath received from so many and such witnesses, is confirmed in a wonderful manner by the spontaneous testimony of almost all the authors who, composing the history of Belgium or Holland of those times, have expressly remarked that God evidently intervened, who rendered those repeated undertakings of Maurice vain and frustrated his most elaborate plans; although there is no doubt that most of them were entirely ignorant of what had happened to the Carmelite Ana of St. Bartholomew in the convent of Antwerp, or of what had been done and investigated by the bishop of Antwerp. I shall indicate some such judgements of writers, passing over very many other authors, whom, whoever wishes to consult them, he will find speaking in almost the same manner and no less expressly than these whom I bring forward. Here then are some who were citizens or inhabitants of Antwerp; to whom I shall then add certain others who were foreigners, especially Dutch, who, suspecting nothing of the kind, have added no slight subsidiary strength to the direct proofs of the miracle.
[30] in which historians, Our predecessors, who lived at Antwerp, and who were therefore well aware of the things which, as was their custom, they had solicitously investigated and would not lightly assert, at the 7th day of June, treating of the Passed-over (page 3), have thus: The Venerable Mother Ana of St. Bartholomew, foundress of the Teresian nuns at Antwerp, which city she rescued by her prayers once and again from impending enemies. And they say almost the same in volume II of March, page 393. Likewise Jan Diercxsens in his work: Antverpia Christo nascens et crescens Antwerp being born and growing for Christ, second edition, Antwerp 1773 (volume VII, page 148, at the year 1622), says that there were circulated images of the Venerable Ana, dedicated to the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia (therefore made before the year 1633, in which the archduchess died), under which this legend is read: She was illustrious for miracles before and after her death: among other things in the year 1622 she delivered the city of Antwerp, as in the year 1624 its citadel, from the enemy by her intercession. So too Aubert Le Mire in his Belgian Chronicle (at the year 1624) relates among the prodigious protections of the divine Majesty that Antwerp once, and again, and a third time escaped unharmed from artfully prepared plots, saying in this manner: Further, during the siege of Breda, when Maurice, Prince of Orange, had learned for certain from scouts that few soldiers had been left as a garrison in the citadel of Antwerp, he ordered it to be attempted secretly by night in the month of October. The enemy, covered by the darkness of an obscure night, had let down boats into the moat of the citadel; had moved ladders up to the walls; had got ready hammers, crowbars and the other instruments for breaking the bars and gates: when behold, a light sent from on high revealed the Dutch, and a violent whirlwind brought it about that they could neither make fast their boats nor fix their ladders to the walls. Prodigies and protections of this kind
divine we ourselves experienced at Antwerp both in the year 1607 and likewise in the year 1622. Certainly in the year 1622, on the day after the Kalends of December… Maurice of Nassau, making for Antwerp with a numerous and strong fleet, when an enormous storm suddenly arose, all but perished near Bergen op Zoom. Valckenisse also mentions each of those miraculous deliverances in several places of his memorials which are preserved in manuscript in the Royal Library of Brussels under the numbers 5938, 5963, 6195 and 17243. In like manner Adriaan van Meerbeeck, in his Flemish work entitled Mercurius Belgicus (Brussels, 1625, part 1, page 109 and following), unfolds at length both the armament of the fleet prepared with long labour and immense expense, and the certain confidence of Maurice in a happy outcome, and the soldiers and sailors wretchedly struggling with the storms and the winter, and the undertakings of men overthrown by God. And with these attestations of the writers of Antwerp (I forbear to bring forward the opinions of other Belgians) foreign writers also agree, e.g. English, French, etc. Read the Universal History translated from English into French (Paris, 1788, volume CI, pages 47 and 69); likewise Gabriel Chappuys in his general History of the Belgian war (Paris, 1633, book XVIII, page 504, and book XIX, page 590); likewise Joseph de la Pise in the historical Table of the princes of Orange and of the principality of Orange (The Hague, 1638, page 789 at the year 1622, and page 799 at the year 1624); likewise Jean Le Clerc in the History of the United Provinces of the Netherlands (translated from French into Dutch under the title: Geschiedenissen der vereenigde Nederlanden, Amsterdam 1730, volume II, page 235).
[31] even the Dutch report each of these events, Finally, what is worthy of note, the Dutch writers themselves speak of these matters in such a way that, without noticing it, they plainly confirm the juridical process of the prelate of Antwerp. For not only do they lament that unexpected disaster repeated time and again, and the sad effect of a cause unknown to them; but they expressly affirm that so great a warlike force had been gathered, and so great prudence and such great arts employed, that the bad outcome of those repeated attempts of Maurice to gain possession of Antwerp is to be ascribed to God alone, attempts which, in view of the human prudence exhausted in preparing them, seemed unable not to have a prosperous success. Nay, what is still more singular and wonderful, several of them, after they have reported the words uttered by Maurice, in which he himself had assertively declared that success could be hindered by God alone, expressly and spontaneously confess that it was the divine Majesty which overthrew his plans. It is pleasing to set before the eyes of my readers the very words of some Dutch writers, who in any case defend Maurice's side.
[32] e.g. van Aitzema, van den Sande, van der Capellen, Lieuwe van Aitzema, in his very ample work on Political and Military Affairs (Saken van staet en oorlogh, in the year 1669, volume I, page 132), after narrating that in the year 1622 the ships were seized by a sudden most bitter frost and, tossed by suddenly arising horrible storms, were dashed together, adds by way of epiphonema that Almighty God had shown well enough that he would not favour that plan and undertaking of Maurice (of invading Antwerp) (Dat God Almachtig wel toonde desen aenslach niet te willen seghenen). In like manner Johannes van den Sande, in his Synopsis of the histories of his fatherland written in Dutch (Amsterdam, 1650, book VII, at the year 1622), has this: The Prince was meditating an incursion upon the castle of Antwerp, and was so confident of a prosperous outcome that, embarking on a ship at Dordrecht, he said to some: "The venture I am undertaking will turn out prosperously so certainly that God alone could prevent it." Which also came to pass ("Desen aenslag gaet so vast, dat niemandt deselve verhinderen kan als God alleen." 'T welck oock gebeurde). In a similar manner Alexander van der Capellen (in his Commentaries, published at Utrecht in the year 1777, volume I, pages 126 and 316), first recording the ill-starred expedition of the year 1622 and the frustrated confidence of Maurice, says that he hopes that God, who alone prevented the success of that undertaking, will some day favour better a similar attempt to be repeated: hoopende dat Godt de Heere, die nu alleene dit werck belet heeft (gelyck de Prints, van Dordrecht gaende, geseit heeft, dat geen menschen ter werelt syn dessein konden breken of beletten, maer Godt de Heere alleene), op een ander tyt beter segen geven sal. Likewise, treating of the other expedition, of the year 1624, after he had said that two hours had already been happily spent in secretly throwing bridges and bringing up instruments, he closes his narration thus: The musketeers and sailors, ready for scaling the castle, were pressing on, when the sentry caught them with his eyes before his ears, the stars suddenly shining out most brightly at the first hour after midnight. Had this not happened, the assailants would not have been detected and would have taken the citadel: for the citadel had not more than a hundred garrison soldiers to handle arms; nor could reinforcements have been brought easily and surely from the city. It appears that up to now it has not pleased God that this matter should turn out well. I conjecture that something of the kind will be contrived again by Maurice against places in Flanders.
[33] and the renowned van der Kemp, whether they describe the expedition of 1622 Finally, to cite only one more in place of all the others, the renowned C. M. van der Kemp, who very recently published an ample Life of Maurice in the Dutch language at Rotterdam in the year 1843, describes each of those military events faithfully and sensibly (volume IV, page 153 at the year 1622, and page 162 at the year 1624, with annotations on pages 372 and 392). In the former place, at the year 1622, he speaks thus: Maurice, seizing the opportunity when the enemy's army was far off and dispersed, on the 30th of November assembled cavalry from several places on what are called the heaths of Antwerp: and at the same time he summoned to Willemstad 88 companies of infantry with cannon and the rest of the apparatus of war and a fleet of as many as four hundred ships of different sizes; and he himself left The Hague on that day, and reached there on the second day after, attended by Prince Henry, Count Ernst Casimir and almost all the commanders of the war. But on the very day on which they had arrived and the two following days a most bitter cold at once set in, so that the cavalry could not advance, and were compelled to go back. But scarcely had the cavalry returned when it thawed. But when they wished to take the road again, so stormy a tempest began to rage that there was scarcely room of retreat for Maurice and his fleet and that they were in the greatest danger of life: for the sailors, from the rigour of the winter and the violence of the whirlwinds, were no longer able to steer their ships, which were dashed together and some of which were driven onto the bank. Meanwhile these delays had caused the plan to become widely known: wherefore, having sent the soldiery back to winter quarters, Maurice abandoned his purpose, and by the ninth day of December had already returned to The Hague… Yet he had cherished so certain a hope of a good outcome that, embarking on a ship at Dordrecht, he is said to have spoken these words to some nobles: "Pray God that he may favour the undertaking well: for God alone can prevent a happy success. Otherwise, unless he himself hinders it, I have a prosperous success no less in my power than this right hand of mine which I hold out to you." Therefore (concludes the renowned van der Kemp) it is evident that by the will of God this undertaking turned out ill. "Mijne Heeren, bidt God voor onze onderneming: want God alleen kan mij dezelve doen mislukken: anders heb ik den aanslag zoo zeker in mijne macht, als de hand die ik u toereik." Het was dan ook duidelijk Gods werk hetwelk dien aanslag deed mislukken. Further, Mr. van der Kemp presents Maurice's own report of his doings sent on the 3rd of December to the so-called States General; which, since it is too long to be reproduced here, I refer the reader thither: where among many other things he will read that the forces were called together to Dordrecht on the 30th of November; that the fleet set sail for the open sea on the 1st of December after noon, so that the landing might be made on the next day; that scarcely had they entered the sea when, in the evening and the whole following night, they were harassed by a most foul storm and by so great a cold that, water having been thrown onto the ships by the force of the gales, which soon froze, the sailors could not use the tackle of ropes; that on the next day the streams were filled and driven with frozen waters; therefore that each ship made for whatever place it could; that of them some were brought back to Willemstad; that 50 or 60 betook themselves to safety elsewhere; that the greater part of the craft lay somewhere near the bank held fast by the ice; that 10 or 12 were driven onto rocks and shattered.
[34] As regards the other expedition, namely that of the year 1624, or describe the expedition of the year 1624. the same author Mr. van der Kemp mentions it in this manner: In the greatest silence Maurice had prepared about a thousand infantry and two hundred cavalry. So skilfully had everything been arranged that, no differently than in the year 1622, he declared that there was no one, besides God, who could prevent a happy success. Nevertheless God prevented it (Evenwel God verhinderde dien). They had already arrived at the moat of the citadel, and the soldiers were on the point of scaling the walls, when the night, until then black, at once became so clear that the sentry perceived the movement and raised an alarm. So they departed with the business undone, yet without the loss of a single soldier. Here the author inserts (note 457) certain passages excerpted from the Registers of the States General at the 19th day of October 1624, in which they order that the ambassador of the king of France to the Dutch republic be informed of the unhappy outcome of that expedition in these words: The sentry who was keeping watch in the citadel noticed the matter, not by the noise of horses or any other sound, but by the sky unexpectedly growing light and the brightness of the stars arising; whereby it came about that the sentry saw the assailants and let off his musket; so that they had to retreat. Finally the renowned van der Kemp closes this narration of his with these grave words which he drew from the renowned Bosscha: It is truly a thing worthy of record that the hero by whose counsel and fortitude many arduous, nay, military exploits which were deemed impossible were accomplished with Mars favourable, should from his first essays in arms have prepared so many undertakings against Antwerp, and yet that none of them should have had a prosperous outcome. You would say that it had stood by an unchangeable decree of divine Providence that this city should never accede to the republic of our united provinces. Therefore, as follows from this long argumentation, if the sworn deposition of many very grave witnesses availed with the prelate of Antwerp so far that he passed that judicial sentence which I have shown at numbers 27 and 28, it must be confessed that that judicial sentence of the prelate of Antwerp is not a little attested and confirmed by the words I have added of the historians, and indeed especially of the Dutch and non-Catholic ones. Whence there seems to be able to be applied to the Venerable Ana of St. Bartholomew that which is pronounced in the book of Judith (chapter IV, verse 13) of Moses overcoming the nation of the Amalekites: Him who trusted in his own strength and in
his own power … he overthrew, not by fighting with iron, but by praying with holy prayers. And while I close these things, I would have the reader remember again that it was demonstrated above that, if Ana prayed, it was St. Teresa who by a heavenly warning stirred Ana up to pray: so that the praise of the danger removed from Antwerp is to be attributed to both, to Ana and to Teresa, nay in the first place to Teresa.
§ III. Some special selected miracles.
From the many miracles of the Saint The editor of the compendium of the Acts of St. Teresa's canonization forewarns in his preface that only those miracles are mentioned there which were individually presented for the canonization by the procurator of the Order and approved by the Rota: besides which, he says, there are also very many other evident ones, fully proved by the depositions of witnesses in the processes drawn up concerning them: and most recently, after the grace of the beatification of the Virgin herself, it is sufficiently established that God has performed others through her, especially those two more excellent ones, discussed and approved by the Ordinaries in contradictory judgement, namely the raisings of two dead persons. I shall bring forward, then, each of these raisings, using the words of Fr. Frederick (book V, chapter X), who follows the narration of the Chronicle (book V, chapter XXXII). In the year of the Lord 1614, in which our Saint was inserted in the calendars of the Blessed, Agustín José de Alva, the little son of two citizens of Burgos, having received baptism on the 8th day of September, twelve or fourteen days after his birth, fell ill and died. The nurse who was suckling him, so as not to bring sadness upon the mother, concealed the boy's illness: but the mother, impelled by maternal affection, when between the seventh and eighth hour of the night she wished to visit her little son, found him changed in colour, his eyes deeply sunken, his mouth disordered, without motion, pulse, sense, in short without life. Seeing him thus unexpectedly, the mother in grief undid his swaddling bands, to look round more closely whether any sign of life appeared in him: but she brought back nothing else from her diligent search than that she was made more certain that her poor little son had altogether died. Then the many benefits which she had already received from our Seraphic Mother came back to her mind; and she knew how to use the pious remembrance rightly. She cried aloud, and invoked her help with great confidence and devotion, saying: "Holy Mother, intercede with the Most Holy Virgin and our Lord Jesus Christ that I may obtain my son and recover him alive, if it so be expedient."
[36] the raising of one dead person She persevered for the space of almost an hour and a half, repeating the same words; and in proportion to the increase of the prayer her desires, devotion and hope grew. Meanwhile not a few, running up at her wailings, tried to open the little boy's mouth, the nurse to pour milk into him, to try whether he would taste it: but to what purpose in one dead? Thereupon the mother clung with more ardent confidence to Teresa as intercessor, and not without a motion from above said: "Let all of you look at him well, and make yourselves certain whether he has died, so that we may thereby the more confess some prodigy of the Lord." With new investigations and care applied, all looked again; and all again, with no one dissenting, testified that he was dead. Then the woman, filled with hope, placed upon the head of her dead little son a sacred icon showing Teresa; and behold, at once, in one moment of time, he was raised and sucked milk from the nurse and showed himself sound, as far as his most tender age could fittingly indicate. On the next day the piety of some who were aware of the very admirable prodigy exhorted the boy's parents that, for the greater stirring of devotion in the minds of the faithful towards Blessed Teresa, they should have him carried round in the procession which was to be held in the following October on her feast. The parents resisted persuasion of this kind; yet the Saint quickly brought them to assent. For scarcely had they resolved by no means to permit their little son to be carried in the procession when he left off taking milk, and, whatever attempt was made, would suck no one's breasts: on seeing this, they promised that they would carry him round not only in the procession of that year, but also in the others thereafter to be celebrated in Teresa's honour; and the little boy, at the same moment of their promise, again gave manifest signs of health, and took milk. Concerning this fact lawful instruments were drawn up by the archiepiscopal court of Burgos, and the customary objections were made by the fiscal; and when the truth of the fact was laid open, Don Fernando de Acevedo, the archbishop, pronounced the definitive sentence of the miracle: which was published with great solemnity, and the citizens of Burgos were encouraged to honour the Saint particularly.
[37] Two years had not yet rolled round since that raising, and the raising of another is narrated: when another occurred in the town of Guineja in the diocese of Cádiz. Isabel de Belver, a girl of four years, was at length brought to death by a long-lasting malignant fever, extreme weakness and want of food, which she was unable to take, and died on the 8th of August 1616. Since no breath remained, and she had cold and stretched-out limbs, grew pale with the colour of death, had her eyes wiped out, and was so horrible to look at that her mother herself feared to approach her whom before she had embraced so tenderly, there was no doubt that the girl had departed this life. On hearing the womanish cries, as is the custom, of the afflicted mother, which resounded very far off, the neighbours at once came, troubled and trembling. The father, when he had shown his paternal grief from the heart for the loss of his daughter, moved by the greatest confidence, by such confidence, I say, that greater, as he himself testified in the processes, he had never experienced in himself, unmindful of any other Saint whatever, showed himself wholly a suppliant to Blessed Mother Teresa of Jesus, that she would restore life to the dead girl; and he prayed with such fervour of soul that it seemed by no means in his power to do otherwise. And as his hope increased the more, he placed a paper image of our Saint on the dead girl's heart, and applied himself further to his fervent prayers. Not long after, as he and the mother withdrew from the corpse, they both heard a noise made from the sacred image, which struck their ears twice distinctly, just as is wont to happen when paper is struck sharply. Marvelling, they ran to look at their daughter, and found a beating in her heart, and her limbs, all of which had before grown stiff, warm and flexible: and so the girl was undoubtedly recalled to a new mortal life, so that, exceedingly cheerful and in the best of health, and with her face suffused with a peculiar beauty which they had never noticed in her before, she asked for something to eat, went out of the house, and proceeded into the street with those of her age to play. Concerning these things a juridical process was held, with the formulas applied as is customary which are required in facts of this kind. Don Nicolás Valdés de Carriazo y Otálora, bishop of Cádiz, defined this to be an evident miracle, performed by Blessed Mother Teresa; and the image which was the instrument of this prodigy Father Prior Alfonso of St. Joseph, appointed by the Order procurator of this definition, carried to his convent of Vélez-Málaga.
[38] likewise the healing of a sick man in the city of Mexico in the year 1615, From the great number of miracles which God has deigned to work through our Saint, I shall select still a few to record. And indeed I shall bring them out from distant and various times, so that it may be evident that the Saint's patronage has been powerful in every age, and that it has not perished or been weakened by the lapse of time. Here, then, is one which, like many others, is most fully established by a legal inquiry made by theologians and physicians, by order of the Ordinaries and with an oath interposed. Fr. José de Santa Teresa relates it in the Flores del Carmelo (number 75); whence Fr. Frederick took it (book V, chapter X), whose words I here turn into Latin: Fr. Miguel de la Valle of the Order of Preachers at Mexico in the year 1615, namely in that year in which the feast of the beatification of the Seraphic Mother was celebrated in the Indies, fell into an illness; and it was so malignant and stubborn that after four months' treatment in the house of one of his paternal uncles, since the physicians despaired of healing him, they abandoned him as dead. The Friars of his Order, seeing him without speech, without senses, with darkened eyes and without any sign of life, returned to the convent, to offer Mass in suffrage for his soul, and to advise Father Prior to order whatever was needed for the burial. Present when they announced this was Fr. Juan de Olazábal, lector of theology in that convent; and moved by the affection and devotion which he professed towards St. Teresa, of whose Relics he kept a particle with him, he handed it over into the hands of another Friar, that he might carry it to the sick man, whether he were still alive or had already died, hoping for his health from Teresa's powerful intercession. The Friar betook himself there; and when he had found the sick man as he had left him before, without any sign of life, he dipped the Relic in a vessel of water, and, having first invoked our Saint, and having forcibly opened the Friar's mouth, which was held tightly shut, he put it to his lips: scarcely had he poured some drops into him when he who was not breathing at all nor giving any sign of life, just as if he were shaking himself out of a deep sleep, returned to life with new strength, and at once recovered his senses, freed from the fever, and retaining no other sign of his past illness than lassitude, which however was driven off within very few days. The matter was transacted so much in the sight of all and had so many witnesses that Fr. Luis Bagliexo, qualificator of the Holy Inquisition, presented a pious petition to the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Archbishop Don Juan de la Serna that a juridical information be made to verify the miracle. Fourteen witnesses, all beyond all exception, deposed the fact in the processes: the promoter fiscal by no means omitted his objections: but when these had been entirely refuted, the archbishop, after he had taken into counsel men of remarkable repute of both clergies and some doctors of the medical faculty, on the fifth day of March of the year 1616 pronounced sentence for the truth of the miracle, and ordered it to be published throughout the city; and thence devotion towards the holy Foundress took no small increase.
[39] and of another Fr. Frederick (book V, chapter XIII) presents another miracle, which happened at Bologna in the year 1751, at the time when he himself was preparing his Italian Life of St. Teresa. In the convent, he says, of SS. Joseph and Teresa there was a Carmelite tertiary, named Teresa Maria of the Heart of Jesus, whose wonderful healing was published in print in that city in the following year, the customary juridical informations having first been held before a public notary on the 9th day of October of the year 1752, with the approval of Father Don Aurelio Castagna, clerk regular of St. Paul, penitentiary of the metropolitan church, the consent of Don Francesco Cotogni, vicar general, and the judgement of two most skilled physicians, who gave out their opinion in this manner: "The aforesaid healing reported in the accurate history, the circumstances of the disease being considered, and the vain use of all remedies, and also the sudden and unexpected
arrival of the same, we assert to be altogether wonderful and foreign to the customary order of nature. Domenico Maria Gusmano Galeazzi, doctor of Philosophy and Medicine and physician of the aforesaid convent." Now let us come to the narration of the aforesaid History, as it is read on the printed page. That aforesaid tertiary sister, although she was of a flourishing and youthful age, had for a long time been weighed down in a certain unusual manner by the bitterness of various ills. For from the year 1744 until 1749 she suffered at times very cruel and frequent headaches, at times stubborn sharp coughs excited by tubercles or small abscesses of the lung, with bloody spittle likewise, sometimes purulent, and not rarely with very acute fevers. At length on the 23rd day of January of the year 1749, when the aforementioned ills were pressing more violently, she was seized along the spine of the back and in the parts of the sacrolumbar and semispinal muscles with very great spastic pains; which, eluding the force of the effective and suitable remedies which both the most excellent Signor Giovanni Battista Cingari, an excellent as well as untiring attending physician, and Doctor Gusmano Galeazzi, a most celebrated man and extraordinary physician of the monastery, applied, without on that account abating, rendered the muscles paralytic, so constricting the lower limbs altogether that she was compelled always to pass her days in bitterness, now fixed to her bed with the greatest difficulty of breathing, and unable to turn from one side to the other, now immobile in a chair, now, though on few occasions, out of hard necessity painfully dragging her legs after her, leaning on a stick and supported by the hands of her religious sisters, who grieved greatly.
[40] at Bologna in the year 1751, To free her from such fierce and stubborn ills, the aforesaid physicians left nothing untried; nay, it was also decided to seek the opinion of other doctors; and since for this reason Signor Cingari had written a faithful account of the whole course of the disease, and had sent it to Signor Angelo Ceccarini, a physician of great name at Livorno, in the patient's native place, who also transmitted a copy of it to Naples to another celebrated doctor, Signor Giuseppe del Vecchio, it was defined by both, together with the aforesaid attending physicians, that the healing of the wretched suffering sister, long attempted in vain by the said means repeatedly, was to be despaired of, nay that she would be entirely lame and useless for doing anything whatever. Wherefore the sick sister, most afflicted as she was, setting aside every remedy of art, from the heart and with burning hope, relying first on obedience, strove to seek from the Most High, who is the source of every surer remedy, a more effective and opportune help, employing the patronage of her Seraphic Mother St. Teresa. Hence before her feast of the recently past year 1751 she made a most devout novena, during which she tried a thousand times to fix even one step, and in one moment of time to lay aside her stick and supports; but in vain: for she was tormented more bitterly by her ills. So when the novena which she had undertaken had been completed with the greatest perseverance, resignation and fervour of spirit, and when the fifteenth day of October dawned, solemn on account of the festal memory of the most beneficent Saint, she felt herself impelled, as she herself asserted several times, or rather effectively strengthened by an interior motion of the Holy Spirit, to beg the desired health of the Saint, trusting safely and earnestly that she would obtain it. Having received, then, the Body of Christ, and having obtained leave from Mother prioress, she laid down her stick upon the altar of the choir, and, now using no prop, in the presence of the sisters assembled there for the examination of conscience, which they are wont to make before dinner, at once, crooked as she was and destitute of strength, she raised herself fully upright unharmed, strong with such abundance of strength as if she had never suffered even anything slight; so much so that after half an hour she wished to serve and wait upon the sisters at table, who, seized with admiration and flooded with joy, wept, and extolled the mercies of the Lord and the strong and most beneficent power of their holy Mother. Thereafter she always flourished in the best of health, than which, beyond all comparison, she had never had better; so that up to the present day she has been able to exercise any most laborious office of the monastery and to keep the prescriptions of her Rule, austere though it is. This is the narration, worthy of credence and confirmed by oath, of the wonderful event, which has been deliberately deferred by the physicians up to the present day, so that, the sister's very full health persevering constantly, the most splendid benefit might be the more and more established, and all might most justly celebrate together Almighty God, who has deigned to glorify St. Teresa with such a prodigy. Further, in the very chapter in which Fr. Frederick describes this miracle, he shows that St. Teresa has been supremely beneficent towards the Italians, in this manner: The whole of Italy is a rich witness to the many graces which this Saint procures for us. Recourse is frequently had with confidence to her altars, and votive offerings and ornaments are hung on their domes. Several cities have chosen her as patroness; which was done especially at Naples for the whole kingdom of Naples in the year 1628 with the most solemn pomp. In many places her feast is of precept, some cities or villages ascribing to her help deliverance from plague, others from flood, others from other calamities. Nay, very many are borne towards this Saint with such confidence that to invoke her help seems to them the same as obtaining the thing asked. And the neighbourhood of our Lombard desert, as was asserted to me when I visited that place in the year 1751, is wont to say: "From that Saint we obtain whatever we wish."
[41] and also the wonderful healing of a girl of Alcalá in this century. I shall now bring forward a wonderful healing which occurred more recently than the miracles recorded so far. I shall, however, abstain from giving this fact the name of miracle, although it is fortified with certain testimony, because an ecclesiastical process concerning it, such as the Synod of Trent requires, has not been instituted. It was written out to me from Madrid by the Reverend Father Lerdo, now Assistant of the Society of Jesus at Rome, from an autograph letter of the Reverend Mother Ángela Josefa, prioress of the convent of Discalced Carmelite nuns at Alcalá named after Corpus Christi, in a letter dated the 24th of March 1840: from which you have here transcribed the very words of Ángela Josefa. On the 30th of December 1807 there was born in this city Gregoria Álvarez de la Campa, daughter of Manuel Álvarez de la Campa and María Saldaña. This little girl, without her parents' knowledge, had fallen from the arms of a servant: whence, when she had now grown, it was found that she could not walk; and shortly the parents noticed that her hips projected, while her knees were turned backward. So they called in physicians: but whatever remedies these applied were so far from removing the malady that it was rather increased. A surgeon of Estremera came to treat her; but he spent his labour in vain. Finally the girl, who could move herself a little only by creeping in the manner of four-footed creatures, in about the fifth year of her age came to the point that she could no longer even creep. On the eve of the feast of our holy Mother Teresa the most sorrowful parents resolved to have the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered to God in the Saint's honour. So the father, having gone out of the house for a walk and led by a certain interior instinct to the convent of St. Didacus of the Franciscan Fathers of this city, having told the matter, commended to Fr. Monedero that he should say Mass in honour of St. Teresa. Returning thence home, he said to his wife: "I have now taken care that a Mass be celebrated according to our vow"; and while both spouses were talking together in the room, the little daughter, suddenly raising herself from the corner where she had been placed, began to run and said to her father: "Father, father, see how I run through the whole room!" The parents, scarcely masters of themselves for amazement, went to give thanks to the Saint, and thereafter, as long as they could, every year they made a votive novena in the holy Mother's honour and attended the sermons which the foremost doctors and professors of this city have been accustomed to deliver out of their great devotion towards the Saint. That girl is still living; and I asked her whether she had any written testimony of the miracle. This, indeed, she said she did not have: but that one of her neighbours, who is still living today, could give testimony of the miracle; and that she herself, if it were necessary, would assert it on oath as it has been related by me. Her parents, who had clothed the little one in the habit of the Teresian nuns, neglected a lawful proof of the miracle; and they have now departed this life. Gregoria herself, moreover, entered into matrimony two months ago. I was writing at Alcalá on the 21st day of February 1840. Ángela Josefa of St. Teresa.
[42] As by the dust of the tomb of several Saints formerly, Putting an end to the narration of these few prodigies individually, I shall now note in general those benefits which many grave authors attest are done through the dust collected at the Saint's tomb. I shall follow again Fr. Frederick, who speaks thus of these things (book V, chapter XIV): Those who join sincere faith with Christian humility know and confess that any instrument in the hand of Almighty God is fit for working prodigies with it: nor does their faith waver when they read of miracles performed by Moses with a rod, by Samson with the jawbone of an ass, by Christ with spittle, by Peter with his shadow. They will therefore, as I trust, abstain from cavils and guffaws when they hear that there flourishes today that piety with which the ancient Christians formerly honoured the tombs of the Saints, as St. Gregory of Nyssa testifies, who in his Oration on St. Theodore the Martyr says: "And if one is allowed even to carry away with him the dust with which the place of the tomb is covered, it is received as a gift, and that earth is laid up and kept as a thing of great price." The same may be seen in St. Gregory of Tours in the Life of St. Martin, book II, chapter 1, and book III, chapter XI and following. In the place where the Saint's body was first buried at Alba, the earth all around was found moistened with an oily liquid. From this earth, then, with which the dust of the tomb has been mixed, little statues are moulded representing the likeness of St. Teresa, and are distributed to her pious devotees. And I would dare to affirm without doubt that I have experienced a most sweet fragrance in one of this kind: namely, I judge that it had been moistened with that liquid which had penetrated the earth of the tomb and the very stones lying around. But that fragrance is ordinarily no longer noticed today in those statues which are brought from Spain into Italy. The faithful use them with great fruit. Namely, they scrape off from them a tiny bit of dust, which they swallow wrapped in a little paper, to their great advantage by the help of the Saint whom they invoke in their necessities.
[43] so today by the dust of St. Teresa's tomb When I had inquired of the Father Procurator General of our Congregation of Spain, that he might explain to me distinctly certain graces which the faithful receive from that pious custom, he wrote back to me on the 22nd of December of the year 1750 as follows: "The little images of our holy Mother Teresa brought from Spain are moulded partly from the dust of her tomb; that is, from some glutinous earth first thrown into the tomb and kept there for some time, with which dust taken out of the tomb is mixed. And innumerable are the graces or miraculous cures
which the divine power works everywhere and continually in Spain, especially in the kingdom of Galicia, as in the provinces of Italy and in others of almost the whole Christian world, nay even among the infidels, by the application or taking of this sacred dust. New wonders continually succeed the old, which, as though growing cheap from their constancy, are no longer written down nor often observed with due admiration. Whence, although I have heard or seen some, yet I am not able at present to transmit authentic proof of any." And I would dare to affirm that this still happens here too. And so many are the benefits which are obtained in this way that, on account of their number, no juridical information is made concerning them: and the report of many of them, and daily ones, continually spreads, just as is read in a certain old little book which came out at Milan in an uncertain year from the press of Francesco Vigone, and contains instructions for piously keeping ten Wednesdays in the Saint's honour: "Innumerable are the graces and helps which God confers on the faithful through the patronage of the Seraphic St. Teresa, and that especially on those who in their infirmities devoutly take the dust of her tomb, which is commonly called the dust of St. Teresa."
[44] many miracles are done; one such at Genoa in 1702 is cited: Among the many miracles performed by this dust which Fr. Frederick (loc. cit.) narrates, I shall select one which happened at Genoa and whose account was published in print there and also at Milan. It was a healing which was juridically declared miraculous after a very serious information by Giovanni Battista Spinola, archbishop of Genoa, in these words: We pronounce and declare that the miraculous cure which followed in the person of the said Reverend Sister Maria Vittoria Centurione, nun in the monastery of St. Teresa of the Discalced nuns, is established; and consequently we permit it to be published for the greater glory of God. Given at Genoa from the archiepiscopal palace on the 4th day of May 1702. And this printed account reads thus: In the year of our salvation 1701, on the 23rd of January, a Sunday, the Reverend Sister Maria Vittoria of St. Teresa Centurione, aged 26 or 27 years, was oppressed by a certain vertigo, called by the physicians tenebrous and essential, joined with paralysis, which, having begun from the little finger of the right hand, had thence reached likewise the whole right arm and side. Moreover, the onsets of these vertigos were so frequent and violent that, besides bringing on her a great darkness of the eyes and a complete extinction of sight, they reduced her besides to an inability to turn herself even for the least space of time or to move her head even a little, the sick woman testifying that she felt a very heavy weight upon her skull and excessive heat in her head. This disease had begun seven years before from small and brief vertigos, which, when she rose from bed, hindered her vision for about half an hour, and which, as far as could be conjectured, she had suffered because for several nights she had taken in the air while sleeping with the windows open, and by day had received much of the reflection of the sun. In the course of time the aforesaid vertigos obtained such force that they impelled the pious solicitude of those sisters to press for various consultations of physicians both at Genoa and elsewhere, that they might take care to apply some relief to the wretched patient; but always in vain: for although she received some benefit from small and frequent emissions of blood from the jugular veins, of about three or four ounces at a time, yet in a very short time she suffered again as before; the more so because so great an effusion of blood, reckoned from the end of October of the year 1700 to the 23rd of January of the year 1701, amounted to 10 to 12 pounds: and the frequent vertigos, which in the same month of January especially succeeded one another, suggested to the physicians this opinion, that she might at length be seized by an apoplectic stroke, which would certainly lead her to death. So far at length had the health of the Reverend Sister Maria Vittoria turned for the worse that the experts judged the way to restoring it to be closed, because she had struggled so long against the promptest and most effective remedies; when, having turned with great confidence to her holy Mother Teresa, she earnestly asked of the sisters attending her a little of that earth or dust from a certain small statue of the Saint, which the aforesaid Sisters testify they had heard had been made of the earth of her tomb. When the dust had been brought, she took it most devoutly, and at once recovered her sight, moved her head, which she no longer complained was in the least oppressed by the aforesaid heat, and felt herself unharmed and free from every kind of ill which had long vexed her. Nay, that the miracle might appear more evidently, the divine goodness not only released her from the stubborn disease, but besides rendered her fleshier and ruddier than she had been before the disease, as the illustrious physicians confess to a man.
[45] and today this pious and effective use of the dust continues. I rejoice that what I have so far said from Fr. Frederick about the spiritual efficacy of that dust I can corroborate also for the present time by the testimony of a most grave man, the Reverend Father Lerdo. For in the letter of the 24th of March 1840, already several times cited, he writes thus: The small earthen images, which they call Teresinas, and which the nuns make both at Alba and at Ávila from the dust and earth adjacent to Teresa's tomb, are distributed, and they are used most usefully throughout all Spain, especially throughout Castile, for eliminating tertian fevers above all, when reduced to dust they are drunk. Nor is dissimilar another benefit which the same man asserts in the same letter in these words: It is an ancient confidence, and always constant through new experiments, by which the faithful peoples, both at Pastrana and in the neighbouring towns, vie with each other in seeking to obtain particles of wood from a white mulberry tree, planted by St. Teresa herself in that garden, which they feel to be of admirable efficacy in curing their languors and diseases. Here also may be referred what I have set forth about the pious as well as profitable use of images, whether of silk or of paper, of Teresa's heart in § LXXII of the Preliminary Commentary, to which I refer the reader.
[46] [The confidence of a prioress of Alcalá in St. Teresa is singularly rewarded in the year 1808.] It was in my mind, finally, to record not so much particular facts as certain other kinds of prodigies which I find in some authors, and which, if they were attended by fitting proofs, would obtain an apt place here. But since they are not fortified with these, and since on the contrary I notice that the authors who report them are readier to describe at length certain wonderful sights and to bring forth an abundance of miracles than to furnish authentic documents and just reasons for admitting them, I am therefore compelled to leave them aside. Lastly, however, after the miracles brought forward from Ribera and Yepes and after presenting those which the Sacred Rota approved in the process of canonization, and some others which bishops, having called in the help of theologians and other learned men according to the decrees of the Synod of Trent, and having also received the oaths of witnesses as is customary, examined and approved, it is pleasing to set forth, if not as a miracle, at least as a certain singular event, the following fact, which I trust will be both pleasant to any reader and profitable to the spiritual offspring of St. Teresa, on account of the example of obedience which the holy Mother appears recently to have given. This fact the Reverend Mother Ángela Josefa of St. Teresa, prioress at Alcalá, whose other narration I have already alleged above (number 41), wrote out to the Reverend Father Lerdo in the year 1840 thus: On the 2nd of December 1808, when the French were invading the city of Alcalá, the communities of nuns left it, in order to withdraw themselves from whatever tumult might occur. Last of all, this community of Discalced Carmelite nuns of St. Mary, called of Corpus Christi, left the city; because they did not know of the impending danger, and, although our religious had warned them, they did not believe it. For the agitation, haste and grief with which they were affected, they could not put in safety the precious Relics which were kept in the cell of our holy Mother Teresa, whose carved likeness stands there, sitting at a table furnished with paper and inkstand and holding a pen in her hand as if composed for writing. This likeness is exceptional and most beautiful; and all who see it assert that it could be more beautiful only in heaven. The prioress, who was Mother Isidora of the Most Holy Trinity, remarkable for great union of soul with God, having entered the cell of our holy Mother and kindled with holy zeal, said with great ardour of mind: "My Mother, you were most loving of obedience while you lived, and you earnestly commended this virtue to us your daughters. See, we are departing; but you remain. By my office of prioress I enjoin on you that you by no means show yourself to the French to be seen, nor allow them to enter your cell. Now I shall see whether you will do as you are bidden: take care that you are obedient to me." Then eight hundred French entered the convent: who (as the servant related to us, who was the gardener of the monastery and had been left there to guard it, and who is still living) hastened as quickly as possible to the Saint's cell, to open its door with an axe; but, however much they laboured at it, they were not able to knock out the lock. Seeing therefore that their efforts were vain, they passed through the courtyard, which we are accustomed to call the Saint's courtyard, to break through the window of her cell, into which some of them fired musket balls; and they wearied themselves, yet without making any progress. Then, having entered the cell of the prioress, which is next to the cell of the holy Mother, they began to bore through the middle wall with augers; and indeed they carried this labour so far that only so little space almost remained to be pierced as, if one may so speak, the thickness of an eggshell has: and yet they did not bring the work begun to completion. But what is most prodigious, the prioress, when she had locked the holy Mother's cell, in the agitation of her mind left the key on the floor at the foot of the window of her own cell; and yet no one of the French seized it, though lying thus in the open: so that the nuns, returning after they had been absent from their house until the 15th day of January, found the key still remaining in the same place, and saw with enormous joy that the holy Mother's cell was locked, while they noticed the wall broken. Several of those nuns are still living.
CHAPTER II.
Posthumous glory from cult.
§ I. Of the Indulgences, Offices and Mass granted in honour of St. Teresa.
Several indulgences granted. Of each feast, of the translation and of the transverberation, and of the cult which St. Teresa obtained from her beatification, first among the Carmelites and then throughout Spain, we have already set forth in their places. The Collect, Secret and Postcommunion too, which the Supreme Pontiff inserted in the Mass on the day of canonization, may be read at the 31st of July, § CV of the Preliminary Commentary on the Life of St. Ignatius. There is therefore no reason to repeat them here. Wherefore I begin with the Indulgences. A plenary one was bestowed by Gregory XV when he enrolled the holy Mother with four of her fellows in the order of the Saints; and the same
day, promulgating the Bull of canonization, he remitted to all the faithful of Christ, truly penitent and confessed, who every year on the feast day of St. Teresa should come to visit the tomb in which her body rests, one year and one quarantine; and to those who did so within the octave of the same feast, he remitted 40 days of enjoined or in any way due penances. Then by a Brief dated the 19th of September 1622 he granted a plenary Indulgence, under the customary conditions, to all visiting a church of the Discalced Carmel on the 15th day of October. This Brief is extant in the Annus Teresianus (volume IX, page 314) and in the Carmelite Bullarium (volume II, page 396). This Indulgence was extended to the Calced Carmelites, no differently than the other privileges of the Discalced, by apostolic letters of Clement X dated the 31st day of October of the year 1670, which begin: Ad uberes. You will find these in the same Bullarium (volume II, page 577).
[48] Her feast at first on the 5th of October, not the 4th of October, Several changes occurred in the Feast, Office and Mass of St. Teresa. First, then, of the Feast. It is established that from the first beginnings the memory of the holy Mother was attached to the 5th day of October, and this day was kept in the apostolic letters of Beatification in these words: That henceforth in future every year on the day of the deposition of the said Blessed Teresa, namely on the fifth day of the month of October,… the Office and Mass … may respectively be recited and celebrated … we grant. To which ordinance the Bull of canonization brought no change. But the question arises why the holy Mother's feast was assigned to the 5th day, when yet she breathed her last between the 9th and 10th hour of the evening on the 4th day of October. Different answers are given by different persons. Fr. Pietro Tommaso Saraceni of Bologna, in the Menologium of the Carmelites, printed at Bologna in the year 1628, at the end of the Life of the holy Mother (page 376), says that St. Teresa did indeed depart from the living into heaven on the 4th day of October; but, he says, by the grant of the Supreme Pontiff, she is honoured publicly and in the Order among the Discalced Fathers on the 5th day of October, so that the solemnities of St. Francis may not be hindered. Fr. Montoya gives another reason, asserting that the holy Mother died on the 5th day of October according to the reckoning of the Italians, who take the beginning of the day from the preceding evening. Fr. Frederick (book V, chapter II) takes a third view, writing that the holy Mother expired on the 4th day of October between the 9th and 10th hour, when the 5th day was arising, and that according to the ecclesiastical reckoning too it had already begun from the first Vespers; wherefore, since the 4th day was sacred to St. Francis, the holy Mother's festivity was celebrated on the 5th day until the year 1629. Guyet in his Heortologia (book 2, chapter 2, page 128), at the question: On what day the Natal day of each Saint is to be set down in the calendars, discusses the present doubt at length, asserting that the Natal day is recommended to be reckoned from evening to evening by reason of the Offices; yet by common usage, which several examples prove, for instance of St. Francis of Paola, St. Ludger, St. Cunibert of Cologne, the same is reckoned from midnight to midnight: although he himself did not disapprove the contrary usage, if the Saints died after the hour of Compline, both because the Office ought not to precede but to follow or at least accompany the triumph of the Saints, and because their passing should be celebrated especially on that day on which it was first made known; and he says that with these agrees the festivity of St. Martin, who died at midnight, of St. Teresa, who departed in the evening, and likewise of many others, whom he does not name.
[49] but afterwards celebrated on the 15th. Further, on the 5th day of October, as we have understood from Fr. Saraceni, the Teresian Feast was still kept in the year 1628; but in the following year there occurred that change which is set forth thus in a letter of Fr. Fernando of St. Mary, Prepositus General of the Italian Congregation of the Discalced, dated the 16th of June 1629, but printed with the proper Offices of the Order in the following year: Our Most Holy Lord Pope Urban VIII orders the Office of our holy Mother Teresa, approved by the same Sacred Congregation of Rites, to be celebrated on the 15th day of October, on which the deposition of the same Saint occurred in that year according to the reduction of ten days made by Gregory XIII in the year 1582 on that same 15th day. See also Fr. Frederick, book V, chapter 2. How far this suppression of days pertains to the holy Mother's festivity is declared by Fr. Guyet (book V, chapter II, question XIV) in this manner: In the year 1582 the correction of the calendar was made by Gregory XIII, Supreme Pontiff, whose first head was that ten days should be omitted in that year. And the place of such omission was appointed in the month of October, between the 4th day of October and the 5th, so that, the festivity of St. Francis having been celebrated as usual on the fourth day before the Nones, on the next day there was numbered not the third day before the Nones, or the 5th day of the month, but the Ides themselves, or the 15th day. And on that very same 4th day of October towards evening there occurred the happy passing to God of the holy Virgin Teresa, whose Natal day therefore, according to what has been said by us, … was to be set down in the calendars on the next day. And indeed it was set down originally on the very 5th day of October. But since that very day was the first of those to be omitted, and so at Rome, and elsewhere where the Pontiff's decree was then observed, not the 5th of October but the 15th was numbered, the Natal day of that holy Virgin was afterwards more rightly inscribed on the very Ides, or the 15th of the same month. It is known to the learned that the Gregorian correction was made two months later in France, in such a way that the omission of ten days, from the 10th day of December to the 19th inclusive, was introduced into the calendar; nevertheless all the new calendars of the dioceses of France show the holy Mother's festivity, unless the day is impeded, at the 15th of October.
[50] Her Office has varied. Now we shall speak of the Office itself. By the Brief of beatification in the year 1614 the Office and Mass of Blessed Teresa as of one Virgin was granted to the Discalced Carmelites of both sexes and to the clergy of Alba; and this grant was not long after extended to all Spain and to the whole of Carmel, as is evident from other Briefs. Nor was anything added to this grant by the canonization. But when in the year 1629 Urban VIII transferred the holy Mother's feast day, it is clear from the aforecited letter of the Prepositus General that a proper Office was at the same time granted. Which Office, as it was printed in the following year, I have before my eyes. It is, for the Carmelites, of double rite and from the Common of Virgins; but it has its own Hymns of Vespers and Matins, and its own Prayer, and those Lessons of the second Nocturn which are still found in the Roman Breviary. During the attached octave, however, Lessons taken from the writings of the Holy Fathers were recited in the second Nocturn. There is therefore nothing for me to describe here. Yet, as regards the Hymns, besides those which Grancolas notes (Historical Commentary on the Roman Breviary, book I, chapter XXVIII) were in his time wont to be ascribed to Urban VIII himself, Supreme Pontiff, highly praised for his poetic works, the Chronicle (book XXIII, chapter XLIII, number 4) records that the Hymns of St. Mary Magdalen de' Pazzi and of St. Teresa were also composed by him. Embracing the same opinion, Fr. Frederick published them under the name of Urban VIII with a twofold paraphrase or metrical version in Italian at the end of the fifth book. Nay, that the Lessons and the other parts of the Office are also to be attributed to Urban VIII is evident both from Fr. Alonso de Andrade (Prologue to the Spiritual Maxims of St. Teresa, page 13) and from Fr. Pedro de San Andrés, dedicating his General History of the Italian Congregation of the Discalced to Cardinal Barberini, where he addresses him thus: That special devotion of your uncle (Urban VIII) towards our Seraphic Parent Teresa … drove him … amid so many most grave cares of the pontificate to gather her deeds into elegant Hymns, a Prayer and Lessons, drawn from his consecrated breast, and to add them to the Breviary. Faustino Arévalo too discourses at length on these Hymns in the Hymnodia Hispanica (page 201), and notes that, since these Hymns were also recited on the feast of the Transverberation of the heart, and in the second these words: Hæc est dies qua candidæ instar columbæ Cœlitum ad sacra templa spiritus se transtulit Teresiæ [This is the day on which the spirit of Teresa, like a white dove, passed to the sacred temples of the Heavenly ones] by no means accorded with the festivity, the Sacred Congregation of Rites in the year 1738 ordered that on the feast of the Transverberation there should be said: Felix dies qua candidæ, etc. Happy the day on which the white, etc. Whence nothing now remains gaping.
[51] When and by whom the name of St. Teresa was inserted in the Roman Martyrology. To about the year 1629 is to be referred the first inscription of the holy Mother's name in the Roman Martyrology. For from the Thesaurus Sacrorum Rituum of Bartolomeo Gavanti (section V, chapter XXI, number 7) and from Benedict XIV (On Beatification and Canonization, book IV, part II, chapter XVII, number 7) it is known that in the revision of Baronius's edition by order of Urban VIII the feasts of the Saints who had been more recently canonized were announced, those Saints being placed first to whom an Office of precept had been given. Among these the holy Mother was not yet, and therefore was to obtain a lower place. This edition was used by Baudouin Willot in his French version of the Martyrology, to which he prefixed the decree of the Sacred Congregation by which it was established on the 23rd of April 1630 that this Martyrology should be printed with the Roman types of Andrea Brogiotti. In the following year the same Martyrology was printed at Mainz, and from it Tamayo de Salazar produces the memory of the holy Mother in these words, which agree with Willot's version: At Alba, of St. Teresa, Virgin, Mother and Mistress of the Brothers and Sisters of the Carmelite Order of the stricter observance. Actually I do not understand why this announcement should ever have seemed to need changing: nevertheless in the edition of the Roman Martyrology prepared in the year 1748 by Benedict XIV himself, instead of At Alba you have At Ávila in Spain, although the holy Mother died at Alba, and therefore her heavenly birthday seems to be bound to this place. Beware of ascribing this to the typesetter, since on page 373, in the attached Carmelite Martyrology, the same things occur repeated. In the year 1709 the former commemoration still obtained, as is clear from Chastelain's French version. In the Martyrology of Paris, likewise in those of Évreux and Auxerre, the holy Mother's birthday is fixed at Alba. The more ample praises of Teresa existing there I think I need not review, nor those which both Ferrari inserted in the year 1625 into his general Catalogue of the Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology, and Du Saussay into the Appendix of the Gallican Martyrology.
[52] The grant of reciting her Office gradually more ample. The Chronicle (book XXIII, chapter XLIII, number 4) traces the occasion of the granting of the proper Office to this, that already in the year 1629 there was a question of inserting the holy Mother's Office into the Roman Breviary itself and prescribing it for the whole Church. But this was not done so speedily. For
in the year 1634 Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares, sent letters to Rome, as the same Chronicle testifies (book XX, chapter XXXV, number 6), by which the petition made on this matter should be pressed. Wherefore Cardinal Albornoz, ambassador of the king of Spain, devoted his cares to this business (ibid., number 12). And after many difficulties had been overcome (as this Cardinal, sending to Spain the decree so greatly desired, wrote back to Gaspar de Guzmán on the 15th day of September 1636), he at length obtained that the proper Office of the holy Mother, already recited in the Spains, should be granted throughout the whole Church to anyone bound to the recitation of the canonical Hours, to be celebrated at will under the semidouble rite. And the decree itself may be read in the Chronicle (ibid., number 13). I do not know whether the holy Mother's Feast then first began to be kept in Poland. Josse Geldolph van Ryckel, abbot of St. Gertrude at Louvain (On the Patriarchs of the Religious Families, page 669, from book 3, chapter 2, On Purgatory, of Fr. Elias), says that Władysław, king of Poland (he obtained the kingdom in the year 1632), when newly crowned, asked of the Apostolic See and obtained two things: Of which the first was that it should order the feast of St. Teresa to be celebrated throughout the whole kingdom of Poland with double rite; the other that it should be lawful for every priest in the same kingdom of Poland on the day of All Souls to celebrate three Masses, as is customary on the Nativity of the Lord. But the pious desire of the Teresians did not stop here; but by new supplications they obtained from Innocent X on the 29th of October 1645 that throughout the universal Church the holy Mother's festivity should be recited of precept under the semidouble rite (see Benedict XIV, On Beatification and Canonization, book IV, part II, chapter XVI, number 8, and Fr. Frederick, book V, chapter XVI). And twenty years after, namely on the 19th day of September 1665, it was granted at the prayers of Fr. Juan of the Conception, procurator general of the Spanish Congregation, that on the first unimpeded day of each month the holy Mother's Office could be recited under the semidouble rite in this Congregation; which in the following year, on the 18th of September, was declared to be extended to the whole Order and to the Calced themselves on account of the communication of privileges. The decrees are extant in the Carmelite Bullarium (volume 2, pages 542 and 544). What was done next may be understood from the following decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites: The Office of St. Teresa, Virgin of the Carmelite Order, recently placed in the Roman Breviary to be recited of precept under the semidouble rite on the Ides of October, Our Most Holy Lord, assenting to the pious wishes of almost all the Catholic princes, by the opinion of the Congregation of Sacred Rites, has ordered henceforth to be printed under the double rite in the same Breviary, and to be recited in the whole Church by all the faithful of Christ, both secular and regular of both sexes, who are bound to the canonical Hours. This day the 21st of July 1668. M., Bishop of Porto, Cardinal Ginetti. — Bernardino Casali, Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Rites. Which decree Clement IX confirmed by letters in the form of a Brief on the 11th of September 1668 (see the Carmelite Bullarium, volume II, pages 552 and 553). That St. Teresa is the first Virgin not a Martyr to whom a double Office has been given in the Roman Breviary is noted by Fr. Frederick of St. Anthony (book V, chapter XVI).
[53] The Office of St. Teresa as it is in the Carmelite Order; Further, on the 9th of June 1696 the Sacred Congregation of Rites approved proper Lessons which should be recited by the Carmelites on the holy Mother's festivity and through the following octave. Among them the three old Lessons of the second Nocturn were kept. Four years after, proper Antiphons, Responsories and Versicles were obtained, in which at the Magnificat in the second Vespers a eulogy of the holy Mother's doctrine is to be seen. And the Office as the Order recites it today, after it had been revised and corrected by Cardinal Colloredo, was granted on the 19th of June 1700: which is extant noted at the head of the printed Office itself. From a letter of Fr. José of the Most Holy Sacrament, procurator general at Rome, to Fr. José of the Incarnation, written eight days after this innovation (but perhaps before its promulgation), and published by Fr. Antonio de San Joaquín in the Annus Teresianus (volume VI, page 359), part of the proceedings may be drawn out. I turn his words from the Spanish idiom into Latin: The grant of the proper Office in praise of the holy Mother was obtained on the 19th day of June (of the year 1700) without the Gospel of a Doctor; which was not asked, because even those Cardinals who are most devoted to St. Teresa had given me that counsel, saying that the merits of a Doctor were indeed in the Saint, but that it was not the custom in the Church to assign this Gospel to women, however holy and mystical doctors they might be, such as St. Teresa was; and that therefore a similar petition would be vain, and would without doubt be rejected. The Hymn at Lauds, composed by the Cardinal, Cardinal Colloredo changed, writing Virgines; and he also would not have struck out the original Antiphon which stands in the first place at Lauds: This is the wise Virgin and one of the number of the prudent, yet making the four remaining ones proper: and besides he made proper two Antiphons, one for the first, the other for the second Vespers; which threefold diversity of Antiphons the Church uses only on the Nativity of the Lord. All these are most beautiful and full of majesty, and as fitting as possible to the style of the universal Church. Rome, the 27th of June 1700. So much for the Roman Office.
[54] then as it is in the Ambrosian rite. But two years before any special Office of the holy Mother was granted to the Carmelite Order, the monasteries of Discalced Carmelite nuns which were in the diocese of Paris were already using a proper one. For in the year 1627 there was printed at Paris by François Hors, by grant of the archbishop given on the 8th of January of that year, a proper Office to be recited both on the feast day and through the following octave. Although I have it at hand, I forbear to copy it and other similar ones here, so as not to be too prolix, and the more so because they are much inferior to the Roman Office. But I consider worthy to be reported here that particular Office which His Eminence Cardinal Cesare Monti, archbishop of Milan, inserted in the Ambrosian Breviary in the year 1647. It reads thus:
First Prayer. Father of supernal light, who hast deigned to inflame with the ardour of charity and illumine with the light of wisdom the mind of the Blessed Virgin Teresa for ever emulating the better gifts, we beseech thee that, by her intercession, what she taught by word and deed we may both grasp with a simple mind and fulfil with the whole ardour of our heart. Through our Lord etc.
Second Prayer. By the merits of thy Blessed Virgin Teresa, O Lord, propitiously kindle us in thy love, that, as she pleased thee both by the flower of virginity and by the ardour of charity, so we, by her intercession, may be able to abound in good works. Through our Lord etc.
Antiphon (at the Canticles Magnificat and Benedictus). Thou hast heard, O daughter, and inclined thine ear, and therefore the King hath desired thy beauty, and hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
Psallenda. As the morning star in the midst of a cloud, as the moon at the full in her days, and as the sun shines at noon, so does Blessed Teresa shine in the Temple of God.
Lesson. Teresa, a Spanish Virgin, born at Ávila of pious and noble parents, kindled while still of most tender age by the fire of the Holy Spirit, laid the foundations of her exceptional sanctity on the summit of Christian perfection. For, piously fleeing from home, she attempted to cross into Africa, to engrave on the stony hearts of the Barbarians with her blood an eternal testimony of Jesus Christ, which by reason of her age she could not yet express with her tongue. But, brought back home by a special counsel of God, having professed the Institute of the nuns of the Most Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel, she burned with such ardour of perfection that, with the world and hell opposing on every side, she restored the severer Rule of living of the Carmelites, with the approval of Pius IV, to its original observance, and herself propagated it, by the help of God alone, in thirty-two monasteries both of men and of women. She wrote books inflaming the minds of men to the pursuit of prayer and the desires of heavenly things, not in the persuasive words of human, but of divine wisdom, with the experience of divine things rather than reading as her teacher. Christ took her to himself as spouse by a new rite of espousals, namely with a nail of his passion in place of a ring; and thereafter she burned with so great a desire of suffering that she exclaimed again and again: Lord, either to suffer or to die. The Spouse did not fail her in her burning, but through an Angel pierced her heart with a fiery dart; and she responded to the Spouse with such charity that she most constantly made the unwonted and very difficult vow of always doing whatever she understood to be more perfect and to pertain to the greater glory of God. Wonderfully illumined by splendid visions and revelations, she gave back her soul to God by the force of love towards her heavenly Spouse rather than of disease, at Alba in the year of salvation 1582, on the Ides of October according to the Gregorian emendation of the calendar, in the 67th (say 68th) year of her age. Christ was present to the dying Virgin amid the ranks of the Angels: her soul was seen flying to heaven in the form of a dove; and a tree next to her cell, long since dry, beyond all reason of time and nature, as witness of so great a Virgin happily entering the nuptials of the heavenly Lamb, suddenly blossomed; and many other admirable things made her death illustrious. Finally, her body, surrounded with a fragrant liquid and still incorrupt, is honoured with pious veneration, and Gregory XV enrolled her, illustrious with many miracles in life and after death, in the number of the Saints. There is no reason for anyone to wonder that I, completing these things about the Office of Teresa, have not mentioned certain prayers which, as they say, fell from heaven in the year 1622 inscribed on paper, which Fr. Frederick mentions (book V, chapter XVI). For besides the fact that so singular a portent rests on weak testimony, it is established from the process of Granada preceding the beatification that those prayers had already then been composed, at least in part. Wherefore, other arguments being dismissed, let these be held for trifles.
[55] The Mass celebrated in honour of the Saint, of what kind. Now of the holy Mother's Mass, setting aside those things which pertain to the rite, as being sufficiently known from what has been said about the Breviary. In the first times the Mass of the Common of Virgins was recited; whose Collect, however, Paul V by an oracle of living voice permitted to be ended with these words: So may we be instructed with the affection of pious devotion and heavenly doctrine. Gregory XV, annulling all oracles of living voice, had removed this also; but on the 1st day of January 1624 he approved the formula: And may we be instructed with the affection of heavenly doctrine. The present norm is owed to Urban VIII, prescribing in the year 1628 these words: May we be nourished with the food of her heavenly doctrine, and instructed with the affection of pious devotion. Until the year 1665, when all kinds of privileges were now common between the Calced and Discalced Carmelites, the Mass of the Common with one proper Collect was said among the Calced, which survives today in the Roman Missal. And in the supplement of Masses printed in the year 1699 the same Mass still recurs; but yet it has inserted a Secret and Postcommunion, such as there are for the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola in the Roman Missal.
Into this Mass there was afterwards inserted the Gospel of the feast of St. Francis of Assisi; which was kept when all the rest except the Collect was changed on the 27th of July 1720. As far as was permitted, it was sought in this Mass that the holy Mother's doctrine should be extolled, and that several of her deeds or sayings should be hinted at. It will be enough to have noted the Epistle: I wished, and understanding was given me, from chapter VIII of the book of Wisdom. These things are proper to the Calced and the Discalced. The latter, moreover, in the Confiteor, both at Mass and in the divine Office, although otherwise they have used the Roman rite almost from their beginnings, after the names of SS. Peter and Paul subjoin the names of Blessed Elias and Blessed Teresa, without adding the titles of our Father or our Mother. Moreover, Pius VI on the Kalends of February 1794 approved a proper Preface, to be said by the Discalced on the festivities of St. Teresa and through the octave of her feast, and in all her votive Masses through the year. It reads thus: It is truly meet and just, right and salutary, that we should always and everywhere give thanks to thee: O holy Lord, almighty Father, eternal God: through Christ our Lord. Who deigned to endow Blessed Teresa with the knowledge of the Saints and the ardour of divine charity: and by the vision of an Angel piercing her heart with a fiery dart to inflame her more vehemently: and, giving her his right hand, to signify that she was joined to himself in spiritual marriage. While the life of Blessed Teresa is consumed by this fire of charity; her spirit, seen to go forth in the form of a dove, ascends to the sublime degree of heavenly glory. And therefore with the Angels, etc.
§ II. Of the remaining cult of the holy Mother, and especially of her tutelary patronage of the kingdom of Spain.
The piety of kings, namely of the Spanish, towards St. Teresa; I omit, so as not to be too prolix, speaking of the Supreme Pontiffs, whose great piety towards St. Teresa has been sufficiently established from what has already been brought forward about the Relics, the canonization and the ecclesiastical cult. First, then, of kings, and indeed of the kings of Spain alone. Philip II, to whom the Reformed Carmel ought to acknowledge itself indebted for very many benefits, kept, nay increased, towards the holy Mother after her death the veneration, zeal and love which he had often shown her while living; so that he laid up her books among his most precious treasures, and that, having heard Yepes publishing in a sermon before him the integrity of Teresa's body, he honoured the holy Mother's remains and reverently received the little cloths which in the year 1594 had become bloodstained from touching the shoulder, etc.: which piety indeed is established still more clearly from the letters, orders and cares of every kind spent on the business of the canonization. By similar proofs, above all by procuring and celebrating the beatification and canonization, and by entrusting the patronage of the Spains to the holy Mother and vindicating it from the contradictions of adversaries, the sincere love and devotion of Philip III and Philip IV towards the holy Mother became famous. Nay, Philip IV and his consort bound themselves by a vow to confer the name of Teresa on the first daughter that should be born to them (see Fr. Frederick, book V, chapter XVI). Likewise Charles II cultivated great piety towards St. Teresa, of which he himself is witness, writing in a codicil of his testament that he had shown himself her devoted client. A proof of this is the foundation made by him and his consort by which two lamps should burn perpetually day and night before the holy Mother's tomb; and this is still more evident from the letter which he sent to the patriarch of the Indies, and which I present here turned into Latin: On account of the particular devotion which I cherish in my mind towards St. Teresa, I have resolved that in the (royal) chapel on the 15th day of October the festivity shall be celebrated with a sermon and solemn Mass, as is customary on the feast of St. Ferdinand and others. And I command you to take care that these things be carried out according to this my statute. Madrid, on the 5th day of July 1681. But when afterwards he noticed that he would rather often be absent from Madrid at that time, the celebration was deferred to the day which immediately follows the festivity of the patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Chronicle, book XVIII, chapter V, number 3). Charles professes in the codicil mentioned above that it had been in his wishes all his life to entrust the patronage of his kingdom to the holy Mother, and that he had earnestly commended that business, as a matter of moment, to his successor. What, further, Ferdinand VI and his wife and Charles III performed has already been narrated there where we spoke of the body of St. Teresa examined in the years 1750 and 1760 and placed in a new chest given by those very sovereigns. And so much for the Spanish kings. The splendid proofs of veneration and cult towards St. Teresa which other kings, princes and nobles frequently gave, it would be long to recount. Nay, if I were to depict merely the continual piety of the Dukes of Alba alone towards her, I should need immeasurably much space. Let it suffice to make mention of one or another of the honourable documents of this kind towards our Saint. The king of Portugal in the year 1665 published a decree that every year on the 15th of October the tribunals should be on vacation and that the whole university of Coimbra, the rector leading the way, should go to the solemn divine Offices to be celebrated in the church of the Carmelites (see the Annus Teresianus, volume VI, page 223).
[57] likewise of others, nobles too and Saints; Cardinal Pedro de Salazar, who, as we have already said, had the holy Mother's heart enclosed in a rich case, established certain revenues from which the expenses necessary for celebrating every year most piously the holy Mother's festivity in the convent of the Discalced Carmelite nuns of Córdoba should be paid (see the Annus Teresianus, volume I, page 356). Luis Manuel Portocarrero, archbishop of Toledo and Cardinal, dedicated on the 15th of October in the cathedral church a splendid silver statue which represented the sacred likeness of Teresa (ibid., volume X, page 306). The following concerning St. Joseph Calasanz, father of the Clerks Regular of the Pious Schools, I turn into Latin from Fr. Frederick: He had a most familiar friendship with the Discalced Carmelite Fathers, especially with the Venerable Fathers Juan de Jesús and Domingo de Jesús, who were his consultors and spiritual masters, and defenders and promoters of his pious Institute. He venerated the Holy Mother Teresa as his remarkable patroness. Her Works and the Moral books of St. Gregory, which had also greatly helped the holy Mother, were Calasanz's delight, and he spent very much time in reading them. Those Saints appeared to him rather often; and he was heard several times conversing with them amid sweet showers of tears. Celebrated was the apparition with which St. Teresa deigned to favour him in the year 1627, forewarning him of a cruel impending storm; which, when it had almost submerged the whole Order founded by him, gave Joseph occasion to show wonderful constancy and heroic patience even to death. Oppressed with labours, he had fallen into a grave illness, a malignant erysipelas seizing the leg which had been injured by a fall; and death was already impending over him, fortified with the reception of the Sacraments. When he had wished to be alone and remained fixed in deep contemplation, the holy Mother appeared to him, and made him secure of life and of the restoration of his health, signifying that God wished service to be rendered to him by him through the propagation of that Institute, and that for that reason immense labours and most bitter persecutions would not be lacking to him: and she gave him much courage to bear all these things generously (book V, chapter XVI). From this time, says Fr. Talenti (in the Chronological-Historical Compendium of the Life of St. Joseph, page 109), he began to be better; and not long after he was freed from the pain, although the leg remained liable to frequent inflammation and pains. In grateful memory towards the Saint he wished that the first church to be built in his Order should borrow its title from St. Teresa; and in fact he gave orders that her name should be given it, when on the following 7th day of September the schools with a novitiate were being opened at Naples outside the Porta Reale. When the Carmelite Fathers opposed this, because they feared lest the concourse of the people to their church should cease, Joseph, most loving of peace, ordered that the title of his church should be changed, and that it should be called of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, thinking that his compliance towards her sons would be pleasing to the holy Mother Teresa. St. Alphonsus de Liguori, as Mr. Jeancard says in his Life of him written in French, honoured St. Joseph and St. Teresa very much with pious services and great confidence: in the honour of both he wrote a novena Devotion, and declared them Patrons of his Institute; and he diligently took care that their feasts should be celebrated every year in each house. He himself invoked them very often, and he never began a writing, a letter, or even a little note, without having marked at the head, with the initial letters of the names of Jesus and Mary, also the letters of Joseph and Teresa. The origin of the patronage by which St. Alphonsus wished his Congregation to be protected by Blessed Teresa I find in Tannoia, the other biographer of the Saint (translated into French at Paris in the year 1842, volume I, page 383): namely, on her feast day in 1750 a conspiracy was detected which five members of his Congregation had entered into; and St. Alphonsus ascribed this detection to the protection of St. Teresa, and on that account grew the more ardent in honouring her. The novena devotion which he had instituted he himself sometimes performed with the people; as is clear from these words of Tannoia (volume III, page 278): In the month of October 1784, on the last day of the novena devotion towards St. Teresa, which he had piously performed with the people (of Nocera), he was rapt into a long ecstasy, continually repeating: "Eternal Love, I love thee."
[58] nay, of almost all religious Orders. And this veneration towards St. Teresa which I notice in the recent Founder of a religious family Yepes noted two centuries ago in almost all religious Orders. It has been noticed, he says, by a good many that this grace and privilege was divinely granted to this spouse of Christ, that, she who is of one religious family has been singularly loved and held in reverence by all; no differently than if she had belonged to each (Prologue, § IV). Fr. Frederick finely confirms this, writing thus: The first who wrote her deeds were a Jesuit and a Hieronymite monk. Luis de León, an Augustinian, wove a long encomium of her, and composed an excellent apology for her Works. Those who first translated her books from Spanish into other languages likewise belong to religious families: a Carthusian monk put them into French; a Jesuit into German or Flemish; an Augustinian, prior of the convent of Mainz, into Latin; two of the Congregation of the Oratory into Italian. Fr. Diego Álvarez of the Order of Dominicans and Fr. Juan de Rada of the family of St. Francis, in two strong and learned treatises, defended the books of the same holy Mother against the censures which a certain anonymous person had inflicted on them and offered to the Supreme Pontiff in the year 1605, whose too licentious mouth they stopped, etc. (book V, chapter XVI). Without trouble this rather brief catalogue could be increased here by hundreds of other names. For I have before my eyes volume V of the Annus Teresianus, where (pages 207–283)
an index is given of the most honourable titles and surnames which were given to the holy Mother by innumerable writers, very many of whom were enrolled in various religious families. I could indeed add to these accumulated surnames of St. Teresa very many others with which many others have honoured her since the time when the author of the Annus Teresianus wrote: but in place of a long list of authors and titles it will suffice to have named one, distinguished for piety, learning and the most grave office which he fills, His Eminence Cardinal Lambruschini, vicar of the Most Holy Lord Gregory XVI, who has recently published Meditations written by himself on the virtues of St. Teresa, most useful for stirring up and fostering piety.
[59] A recent proof of it given by the Society of Jesus. By way of a crowning conclusion I shall subjoin to these a proof of the honour and cult with which the family of our Society of Jesus has recently honoured St. Teresa. Namely, at The Hague the Fathers of the Society of Jesus have erected from the foundations a church not unworthy of that princely place, the first stone having been laid in the year 1838 and the topmost placed three years after, under the title and patronage of St. Teresa; of which it is certainly lawful to say without envy that, whether you regard its size or its elegance, it could dispute the palm among all the other sacred buildings erected on Dutch soil for three centuries. As regards, moreover, our Bollandian Society, not only have we, according to our measure and duty, set forth St. Teresa's deeds, name and cult, and, whenever there was need, vindicated them; but we have also set our sails under her pious auspices and those of St. Joseph, adopting that powerful pair of Saints as patrons of our revived Society and celebrating the feast of each every year in a special manner.
[60] Not only have particular places or colleges adopted her as patroness, That Teresa, when she had been enrolled only among the Blessed and not yet among the Saints, was already adopted as patroness by the people of Mexico, I have mentioned at num. 1072. Wherefore I shall not repeat what can be read there. Nor is there reason for me to mention I know not what Teresian patronage both among the Knights of Malta and in the kingdom of France, which a certain singular writer seems to have fabricated for the Saint rather than asserted (see the Chronicle, volume IV, book XVIII, chapter VI, number 9). At least no mention of either of these facts, which would certainly be worth recording, has occurred to me elsewhere. Nor again shall I review individually all the cities, universities, chapters of churches and families of nobles which have solemnly professed themselves clients of the holy Mother: for there would scarcely be an end of speaking. For the author of the Annus Teresianus (volume II, page 149) enumerates even more than forty noble cities of Spain and cathedral churches which have publicly devoted themselves to her patronage; and he confesses that he omits several others besides. If anyone would like to know these things, let him go to that work, and he will find there and also in other authors here and there the very decrees of several of those elections, e.g. the decree of Lugo, in the España Sagrada (volume XLI, page 195); that of Cremona, in Fr. Frederick (book V, chapter XI); that of Gubbio, in the Annus Teresianus (volume X, page 307), and others elsewhere. I shall therefore discourse only of the Saint's patronage over the whole Spanish kingdom, and only, in proportion to this work, in summary. For who, for example, would rightly demand of me that, while I present the Saint's posthumous glory, I should bring forward the dissensions which badly divided the partisans of St. Teresa's patronage from those of St. James, and which at times were sharper than befits both such a subject and pious and sincere clients of the Saints? Whoever wishes more ample information on this matter, let him consult the Chronicle (volume IV, book XVIII, chapter VI); the Annus Teresianus (volume II, pages 147–248); the Memorial on the patronage of St. James against the patronage of St. Teresa, by Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas; the Acts of the general Cortes assembled at Cádiz in the year 1812, published there by the royal press under the title: Diario de las discusiones y actas de las Cortes Journal of the Debates and Acts of the Cortes (volume XIV, page 55).
[61] [but also the Cortes of the kingdom, and indeed several times: first in the year 1617,] The public Cortes of the kingdom together with the king once and again, in the years 1617 and 1626, chose St. Teresa as patroness of the fatherland; and this was confirmed by those deputies of the provinces who, assuming the name of general and extraordinary Cortes, met at Cádiz in the year 1812, namely in that most disturbed state of the fatherland and of the Church in which Ferdinand VII, king of Spain, and the Supreme Pontiff Pius, likewise VII, were held in close custody in France by Napoleon. Although the decrees of that repeated election did not stand, yet it is lawful for me to unfold them briefly. The first question, then, of committing the patronage of the Spanish kingdom to St. Teresa was raised on the 24th day of October 1617 in the Cortes of Castile and León, held before Philip III in the royal palace of Madrid; and on the 16th of November a decree was passed by which she was named patroness and advocate of those kingdoms, added to the original patron of the Spains, the Apostle St. James. Part of that decree, very full of encomiums of the new patroness, is presented by the Chronicle (in the place cited above, number 4). Thereafter the king himself, together with the president of Castile and other leading men of the kingdom, solicitously promoted the Saint's patronage; which is evident from two letters which were presented in the Cortes of the year 1812, of which the aforesaid president had sent the one to the people of Cádiz on the 18th of August 1618, and Philip III the other. But the archbishop of Seville, Don Pedro Vaca de Castro, and others of the clergy vehemently resisted, not indeed from a mind averse to Blessed Teresa, but being more zealous for the patronage of St. James alone, which they feared would be diminished by the honour being divided between two. These hurled many arguments against this new cult offered to the Blessed Virgin, although of slight weight, nay, for the time when these things were being done, of none; since the decree of Urban VIII had not yet come out, by which it is provided that no others than those enrolled in the calendars of the Saints be adopted as patrons, that the election be not made without the bishop and the clergy, that the Congregation of Rites should know beforehand of the election to be made and approve it when made, etc. Yet the king, for love of peace, resolved to delay until the canonization of the Blessed should have been obtained. And this again is evident from a letter given in the king's name to the people of Cádiz on the 24th of September 1618, in which he orders that the execution of the decree be suspended, until he himself should signify otherwise (see the aforesaid Journal of the year 1812, page 55). But meanwhile Philip III died, namely in the eleventh month before Teresa was inserted in the roll of the Saints.
[62] and again in the year 1626, The chief barrier which had been objected against Teresa's patronage being removed by her canonization, Philip IV, as heir of his father's kingdom so also of his father's piety towards Teresa, resumed the matter of his own motion, and that, as it seems, with a mind the more inclined because he had experienced the Saint's help both in Belgium (see chapter 1, §2, where Antwerp is treated) and in America, the recovery of the town of San Salvador having been attributed to the patronage of St. Teresa, whose likeness the king had wished to be painted on the soldiers' banners. How this warlike exploit was performed, and how the supreme commander of this expedition, Fadrique de Toledo Osorio, Marquis of Villanueva de Valdueza, as soon as on his return to Spain he had landed from his ship at Málaga, publicly testified in the church of the Carmelites of that city his grateful mind towards his helper Teresa, may be read in the Annus Teresianus (volume V, pages 7, 8 and 9) and in the Chronicle (volume IV, book XVIII, chapter V, numbers 8 and 9). Philip, therefore, moved solely by his own affection and veneration towards Teresa, as the Chronicle says, wrote in the year 1626 from Saragossa to Madrid to Francisco de Contreras, his president in Castile, that the question of St. Teresa's patronage should be proposed anew to the Cortes then assembled there. When the president had done so, almost all who were present in the Cortes (as the Annus Teresianus testifies, volume II, page 149) named her patroness of the kingdoms of the crown of Castile. Philip informed Urban VIII of this vote. And he, in order to add greater strength to the decree, on the 21st of July 1627 (not 1628, as the Annus Teresianus has it, in the place cited above) confirmed it by letters given in the form of a Brief (not a Bull, as is said at the end of the Acts of canonization published in the year 1628 and by others here and there), which I submit here to the eyes of my readers.
[63] Urban VIII issuing a confirmatory Brief; Pope Urban VIII. For the perpetual memory of the matter, etc. Bearing on earth, though unworthy, the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, who rewards his servants and handmaids with the prize of eternal glory in heaven, we are bound by the duty of the pastoral office enjoined upon us to procure that the due honour and veneration of the same servants and handmaids of Christ be promoted more and more daily on earth, and that the Lord be praised in his Saints. Wherefore we willingly admit to the grace of a hearing the wishes of the faithful of Christ who take refuge in the patronage of the same Saints, that they may obtain the desired effect, and thereupon devote the parts of the same office with ready zeal, as we see to be salutarily expedient in the Lord. Indeed, our beloved syndics or procurators of the kingdoms of the crown of Castile have recently caused it to be set forth to us that they, attentively considering how many and how great benefits the all-powerful God has conferred and daily confers on them through the merits and intercession of St. Teresa of Jesus, and how the aforesaid kingdoms are made illustrious by the holiness of her life and the miracles which the Lord has deigned to work through her, and also by the foundation, instituted through her, of so many monasteries both of men and of women of the Order of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel called Discalced, in which the observance of the primitive Rule of the said Order especially flourishes, for this reason, and for others, on account of the singular affection of devotion which they bear towards the same St. Teresa, in the Cortes or parliament of the said kingdoms last held, chose the same St. Teresa as chief Patroness and Advocate of the kingdoms of the crown of this kind, as is said to be more fully contained in the decree issued thereupon. And since, as the same exposition added, the aforesaid syndics or procurators greatly desire that an election of this kind, so that it may stand firm for ever, be fortified with our patronage and that of this Holy Apostolic See, we, greatly commending in the Lord the piety and counsel of this kind of the same syndics or procurators, and wishing to pursue them with special favours and graces, and absolving by the tenor of these presents, and judging to be absolved, their individual persons from any sentences of excommunication, suspension and interdict and other ecclesiastical sentences, censures and penalties imposed by law or by man on any occasion or for any cause, if they are in any way bound by them, solely for the effect of obtaining these presents, inclined by the supplications humbly presented to us in this matter both by our most dear son in Christ Philip, Catholic king of the Spains, and in the name of the same syndics or procurators, by the counsel of our Venerable Brethren the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church set over the Sacred Rites, by apostolic authority the aforesaid election and the decree issued thereupon of this kind
by the tenor of these presents we perpetually approve and confirm, and add to them the strength of inviolable apostolic firmness, and supply all and every defect both of law and of fact, if any have in any way intervened in the matter; and that henceforth the same St. Teresa be held and reckoned by all and each of the persons of the same kingdoms, both secular and ecclesiastical as well as regular, as such Patroness, with all and each of the privileges, graces and Indulgences belonging to similar Patrons or otherwise wont to be granted (yet without prejudice to, and innovation or any diminution of, the patronage of St. James the Apostle over all the kingdoms of the Spains); and that it ought so to be observed by all whom it concerns, we also perpetually establish, enjoin and command: decreeing nevertheless null and void whatever may happen to be attempted otherwise in these matters by anyone by whatever authority, knowingly or ignorantly; notwithstanding apostolic Constitutions and ordinances and anything else to the contrary whatever. And we will that to transcripts of these presents, even printed, subscribed by the hand of some public notary and fortified with the seal of some person constituted in ecclesiastical dignity, exactly the same credence be given as would be given to these presents, if they were exhibited or shown. Given at Rome at St. Mary Major under the Fisherman's ring, on the 21st day of July 1627, in the fourth year of our Pontificate.
[64] without, however, that repeated election having stood. This dignity conferred on the holy Virgin by the Pope, the king and the Cortes was received with willing minds, not only by the Discalced Carmel, but also by very many cities, nay almost everywhere throughout Spain; which is proved by the written testimony of Juan Ortiz de Zárate, cited word for word in the Annus Teresianus (volume II, page 149). This author, namely, who was secretary to Philip IV, affirms that there were preserved in the royal archive as many as fifty letters in reply from the principal cities of Spain, which he enumerates, or from the chapters of cathedral or collegiate churches, in which they testify to the king that they have both accepted and put into execution that decree communicated by him. Meanwhile, however, the church of Compostela and some others desperately opposed the Teresian patronage. Seeing this adverse effort, the Carmel had recourse to the king, and at the same time, partly in writing, partly by word of mouth, strenuously defended the honour which others of their own accord and without consulting the Carmel had conferred on Teresa. The opponents, having experienced this and despairing, as the Chronicle says, of the success of their efforts in Spain, turned to Rome. The Roman Carmel was cited there and questioned: when it answered that it was not a matter of a cause brought by itself, the Spanish ambassador of the king in the City was questioned, and he too answered that no instructions on this matter had come to him from Spain. The author of the Chronicle (volume IV, book XVIII, chapter VI, number 7) is not afraid to assert that the king's letters had been intercepted on the way and held back, which he affirms are still extant in his time. Whatever may be the truth of this grave accusation, the adversaries obtained from Urban VIII the revocation of the Brief; who nevertheless allowed that the opportunity should remain to the several cities and churches, under certain conditions, of adopting Teresa as patroness. And this, says the Chronicle, was the end of that dispute. For Philip IV, who found that even grave men were opposed to the holy Mother's patronage, in his prudence judged that the matter should not be pressed, but rather that better times should be awaited in which that business could be accomplished without commotion of minds: and the Acts of the Cortes of the year 1812 (volume XIV, page 56) add that the king was induced not to press it also by political reasons, which, as is said there, anyone easily understands who knows the Spanish history of those times.
[65] Finally, in the year 1812 the restoration of that patronage is treated; And these matters remained suspended in that state until the year 1812, in which the aforementioned Cortes of Cádiz made the attempt of renewing the Teresian patronage. And in what manner this was attempted I shall briefly set forth according to the very Acts of the Cortes. Already on the 3rd of September 1811 the deputy of Guatemala, Don Antonio Larrazábal, had raised this question, alleging the wish of Charles II, who when about to die had written in his codicil that he had held that purpose at heart all his life, and that he wished to have this matter commended to his successor and to the Cortes of the kingdoms, as being of the greatest moment on account of the great benefits to be hoped for from such a patronage. Then on the 21st of April 1812 the Carmelites of Cádiz (in whose church the Cortes had rendered solemn thanksgivings to God for the new constitution of the kingdom laid down by them on the Island commonly called de León) presented a similar petition, fortified with many documents. And on the 23rd of June the five deputies of the Cortes who had undertaken to examine it, having discussed the matter at length, judged that the wish of the Carmelites should be entirely assented to. Here is a brief analysis of their ample reasoning: In the years 1617 and 1626, according to the ecclesiastical law on patronage then in force, Teresa was duly elected patroness… This is abundantly evident from the Brief which Urban VIII gave, not to bestow essential force on the election made by his decree, but only that accidental strength might accrue to it by this confirmation, and that the piety of the king and his subjects might be satisfied… Nevertheless, before two years had elapsed, that patronage lapsed, letters having been sent to the cities and municipalities by the canons of Compostela in which it was affirmed that Urban VIII had revoked his Brief by another decree… Whatever may be the truth of this revocation, since the election was once duly made by the Cortes and also approved by the apostolic See and at one time obtained execution, there is no need of a new decree, nor of recourse to Rome; but one may stand by the two earlier decrees of the years 1617 and 1626, which were valid and have never been abrogated by the king or the Cortes, and so accede to the wishes of the Carmelites.
[66] whose decree is set out. Therefore, according to the mind of those delegates of the Cortes (Alfonso Rivera, Francisco Sonra, Vicente Pasqual, Pedro Gordillo, Joaquín Villanueva), the decree was passed, and that without controversy and by unanimous vote, and was handed to the administrators of the kingdom that they might see to its execution. Here are the words in which it was promulgated (which I take from volume II, page 215, of the History and Life of St. Teresa by Fr. Juan de San Luis, published at Valencia in the year 1813, turning them from Spanish into Latin): Don Ferdinand VII, by the grace of God and the Spanish constitution king of the Spains, and in his absence and captivity the administrators of the kingdom whom the general and extraordinary Cortes have named, make known to all who shall see or hear these presents that the following has been decreed by the Cortes. The general and extraordinary Cortes, considering that in the years 1617 and 1626 St. Teresa of Jesus was elected by the Cortes, next after the Apostle St. James (despues del Apostol Santiago), patroness and advocate of these kingdoms, that she might be invoked in all the necessities of the fatherland, and desiring to give a new testimony both of the constant devotion of our peoples towards this renowned Spanish woman and of their confidence in her patronage, decree that the patronage of St. Teresa of Jesus, adopted for the Spains in the Cortes of the years 1617 and 1626, shall henceforth come into effect, and that it be enjoined on the Most Reverend archbishops, the Most Reverend bishops and the prelates of exempt bodies and territories that they dispose concerning the solemnity of the rite of St. Teresa that which befits her as patroness. Let this be understood by the administrators of the kingdom so that it may be put into execution, and let them see that it be printed, published and circulated. — Juan Polo y Catalina, president. — José de Torres y Machi, deputy secretary. — Manuel de Llano, deputy secretary. — Given at Cádiz on the 28th of June 1812. — In the council of the administrators of the kingdom. = We therefore command all tribunals, municipalities, prefects, governors and others having civil, military or ecclesiastical authority, of whatever order or dignity they be, that they observe and see to it that the present decree and all its parts be observed, fulfilled and executed. Let this be known to you that it may be done, and see that it be printed, published and circulated. — The Duke of the Infantado. — Joaquín de Mosquera y Figueroa. — Juan de Villavicencio. — Ignacio Rodríguez de Rivas. — The Count of La Bisbal. — Given at Cádiz on the 30th of June 1812. — Don Antonio Cano Manuel.
[67] The outcome of St. Teresa's Spanish patronage. This decree of Cádiz about the ecclesiastical patronage of St. Teresa, such as it came out of the workshop of those Cortes, I have reported without commentary; although several things are found in it which do not square sufficiently with the obedience and reverence due to ecclesiastical authority, but which it is not mine to discuss. It is at least a historical document, from which, as well as from the acts of the Cortes of 1617 and 1626, it is attested how acceptable St. Teresa was and still remains today to her countrymen, since such different kinds of men and at times so far apart wished the guardianship of the fatherland to be entrusted to her. Certainly no genuine Spaniard lacked love, confidence and the highest veneration towards her, so as to prevent all from wishing these honours to be conferred on her: but the decrees passed did not stand for this reason, that, two principal patrons being adopted, not a few feared lest the ancient patronage of St. James should in some way be ousted by the more recent Teresa; not to speak of the iniquity of the times and the manner in which it was recently attempted. And these were the only causes for which no traces of the Teresian patronage seem to survive today. Further, besides the Spanish kingdom, the kingdom of Naples too wished to have our Saint as patroness, but secondary: and Fr. José de Santa Teresa narrates that the Parliament, with Don Antonio Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba, the viceroy, as author and promoter, proclaimed her with applause and unanimous votes; and he adds that under Antonio's successors, namely under the Counts of Castrillo and Peñaranda, her cult remained continual and vigorous up to his own time. And these things are stated by the aforesaid writer of volume IV of the Chronicle, published at Madrid in the year 1684 (book XVIII, chapter VI, number 9).
CHAPTER III.
The posthumous glory of St. Teresa from the Order which she reformed.
§ I. The sacred family of Teresa swiftly and widely propagated.
While the Saint was living, the propagation of the Reform was very swift, In this third chapter we shall now show her glory from the numerous, renowned, learned and holy offspring which this fruitful parent spiritually begot. For the glory of a parent is a glorious progeny; and that tree is held good which brings forth good fruit, and the craftsman is praised from his work, because the cause is duly known and esteemed from its effect. What the superiors of the Order, at the wish of the Roman Pontiffs and under the auspices even of powerful princes, had several times attempted in vain, the Carmelite family of men too was not only recalled by the holy Virgin to strictness of discipline, but this Reform was also built upon so solid a foundation, and fenced with so shrewd a protection of the best rules, that this fertile vine within a short time sent forth its shoots through almost the whole world, and has produced the most copious fruits in the Church of God for now almost three centuries. Let us therefore consider in a brief survey the increases of the Order from its very cradle. Namely, there were founded, while the Saint herself was living,
the Reformer, thirty-two convents, which the following table shows, in which I shall prefix the letter F to the convents of women, and the letter V to the convents of men:
[69] about which several err: I would have the reader warned here that in arranging this list, as I did before in the Preliminary Commentary, I follow chiefly the Chronicle of the Order, endeavouring to the best of my strength to avoid the errors, not a few, which I have found in various catalogues of others, of which there will be talk later. Besides, I would have the reader remember that the convent of the religious men of Duruelo was transferred to Mancera on the 11th of June 1570, and the convent of La Peñuela at the beginning of December 1576 to Mount Calvary near Beas, and that the nuns of Pastrana at the beginning of April 1574 passed over to Segovia. Whence it comes about that sometimes thirty monasteries are numbered as founded under Teresa, but more commonly thirty-two, the Roman Breviary saying: The almighty blessing of the merciful Lord flourished in that design (of reforming Carmel). For a poor virgin was able to build thirty-two monasteries, destitute of all human aid, nay with the princes of the world for the most part opposing. Or, as the consistorial advocate of the Court says before the Supreme Pontiff and the Cardinals: She raised with generous daring very many convents of her Institute, of women and of men (a thing unheard of for ages in a woman): for she erected and governed seventeen monasteries of nuns, and left fifteen of men founded, and directed them with wonderful prudence, and established them all by the example of her sanctity. Not rightly, therefore, does Helyot in his History of the religious Orders (volume I, chapter XLVIII) say that more than thirty-two monasteries were erected while Teresa was living.
[70] and after the Saint's death the Order is extended much more still Already on the 22nd of June 1580 Gregory XIII by his letters in the form of a Brief had erected a province of Discalced Friars, because, he says, successively, with the Lord's blessing, the number of religious professing and observing this primitive rule has at this time so increased that at present twenty-two houses of such Friars and nuns, in which there are almost three hundred Friars and two hundred nuns, showing devoted service to the Most High, are found in the aforesaid kingdoms of the Spains. The Saint had not yet departed from the living when her sons were called on the 20th of March 1582 from Lisbon to Africa for the missions of Guinea, and in the following year to those of the Congo and of Cape Verde. Friars were received at Genoa in the year 1584, whom Sisters followed in the year 1590. In the year 1585 the first foundations of the Mexican province were laid in America. In the year 1586 a procurator of the Order began to live at Rome: and in the year 1587 by pontifical letters Sixtus V gave leave to elect a vicar general for its Reform, who was elected in the following year in the first general chapter, where also the Reformed family was divided into six provinces, because, as the Pontiff says in the aforesaid letters, the number of such Friars and Discalced nuns has increased not moderately, and is daily receiving greater increases, with the Lord's blessing, with the augmentation of divine worship, the odour of good fame and the spiritual fruit and consolation of souls, both of the religious themselves and also of other faithful of Christ, who are directed into the way of salvation by their pious examples, and now not only throughout almost all Spain, but also in the Indies, very many monasteries and houses and other regular places of the Discalced have been instituted and erected, all of which cannot so conveniently be ruled and governed by one prior provincial.
[71] extended, Nor were the subsequent increases of the Reform less rapid; so much so that when St. John of the Cross, who had been its first professed, departed this life on the 14th of December 1591, the Order already possessed seventy-eight houses, partly of Friars, partly of Sisters. Then in the year 1593, the family of the Reformed having been entirely separated from that of the Calced, its own Prepositus General was obtained for the Reform. It was standing, then, on its own feet, when in the year 1597 it seemed good to the Supreme Pontiff to separate from the Spanish Congregation the three houses which existed in Italy, namely that of the Friars at Genoa, which had been erected in the year 1584, and that of the Sisters there, which in the year 1590, and that of the Friars at Rome, which was being erected on the very day of that separation. These three houses so constituted were distinguished in the year 1600 with the title of Congregation, and ruled by an apostolic commissary; until, a fourth convent having been founded at Naples in the year 1602, and a fifth not far from the city of Frascati in the year 1605, they obtained their own Prepositus General. Further, that the Reformed Order of St. Teresa successively entered Persia, Poland and France in the year 1604, Belgium in the year 1607, Cologne in the year 1612, etc., will be evident from the table presently to be shown, in which it will be seen at what time each house of both Congregations was erected.
[72] a house being established, e.g., in France Special mention, however, is deserved by one or two celebrated offshoots of the Order, glorious on many accounts, namely its introduction into France, and the taking possession of Mount Carmel. As regards the house established in France, the author of the work entitled: Essai historique sur l'influence de la Religion en France pendant le dix-septième siècle [Historical Essay on the Influence of Religion in France during the Seventeenth Century], reprinted in a second edition at Louvain in the year 1824, describes its narration duly, though in few words. That writer speaks thus (book 1, § VII): St. Francis de Sales, when he was staying at Paris (in the year 1602), had smoothed the way for carrying out an undertaking which many worthy persons were planning. The virtues, namely, of St. Teresa had shone greatly throughout the whole Church, and the fervour of her first companions had increased the celebrity of the Order reformed by her. Certain zealous persons had therefore resolved to introduce into France also this Institute, which was born to promote piety greatly. Turning this matter over in their minds especially were two princesses of Longueville, Madame Acarie (afterwards a lay sister under the name of Mary of the Incarnation, and inserted in the calendars of the Blessed in the year 1791), Monsieur de Bérulle, Monsieur de Marillac, two other men of the magistracy, Sublet and Gauthier, Doctor Duval, Gallemant, Monsieur de Brétigny, etc. These conferred among themselves on this matter, St. Francis de Sales being present. Letters patent were obtained from Henry IV for that erection, the obstacles which were from time to time put in the way having been removed. The greatest difficulty lay in obtaining Spanish sisters from Carmel. Messieurs de Bérulle, de Brétigny, Gauthier and a certain pious woman surnamed Jourdain undertook the journey to Spain for this; and the king gave letters for the same end both to his ambassador at Madrid and to the king of Spain, Philip III. Only after many entreaties and attempts were six Spanish Carmelite nuns obtained, to come to inhabit the new convent erected at Paris, and to form according to the mind of their Rule several who desired to be enrolled there among them. Madame Acarie had already gathered not a few girls; and preparing them for the same manner of life, she herself directed them in the path of perfection, which she had so spiritedly entered upon: this community was called the Congregation of St. Genevieve, and all who composed it followed each of the things in use among the Carmelite nuns. A house was at the same time being prepared in the suburb of St. Jacques to receive the Spanish colony. The Duchess of Nemours laid the first stone of the cloister on behalf of Queen Marie de Médicis, who was then at Fontainebleau: the Duchess of Longueville and the Princess d'Estouteville, her kinswoman, laid the second stone: and a few days after Messieurs de Bérulle and de Marillac likewise began the choir of the church. At length the Spanish sisters, most ardently longed for, arrived at Paris; and first indeed they visited the church of the abbey of Saint-Denis and that of Montmartre; and they paid the homage of their veneration to the holy Apostles of France, especially honoured there. Thence they solemnly entered their convent, with a great concourse of the city, and with men of note present, especially those who had laboured most zealously in preparing this dwelling for them. After three days Marie de Médicis with the princesses and a retinue of courtiers came to the convent. Seven pious companions, of the number of those whom Madame Acarie had gathered and prepared, took the habit of the Order; among whom was seen the Marchioness de Bréauté, a widow in the flower of her age, daughter of Nicolas de Harlay de Sancy; Mesdames Jourdain and du Coudray, the Demoiselles d'Hannivel and de Fontaines-Marans. In those first times other women too, illustrious for dignity of birth and wealth, were eager to be numbered among the daughters of St. Teresa: you might indeed record here Louise Sequier, widow of a president and mother of Monsieur de Bérulle; the noble girl de Brissac, daughter of Charles de Cossé, Duke of Brissac and marshal of the camps; three daughters of Madame Acarie; Marie Sylvie de la Rochefoucauld, sister of the Cardinal of that name, and the Countess de Rochechouart de Chandenier; Marie Phélypeaux d'Herbault, widow of Henri de Neuville de Villeroy; the noble girls de Marillac, de Raconis, etc. From the year 1605 a new monastery was to be built at Pontoise, a third at Dijon: others shortly followed at Amiens, Tours, Rouen, etc. In the year 1616 the Duchess of Longueville established a second convent of the same Order at Paris: a third was afterwards founded. The houses in France were thus increased very rapidly, so that as the century went on it held sixty-two.
[73] and on Mount Carmel, The other memorable offshoot of the Reformed Carmel is Mount Carmel, on which was the happy cradle of the ancient Order. It is written in the Chronicle (book XIX, chapter LXVIII) that this place passed to the Teresian Congregation in Italy in the following manner. About the year 1620 there was frequent travel through Palestine of missionaries of the Discalced Carmel making for Persia and other Asiatic kingdoms. Those pious travellers visited, among other monuments of the Holy Land, Mount Carmel, which had given origin and name to the sacred family in which they were enrolled. Among them Fr. Prosper of the Holy Spirit, a Cantabrian, a strenuous and devout man, went to Persia by that way; and when he had for some time governed a house of his Order in its capital Isfahan, he was called to Rome in the year 1627, and thence sent into Syria to found the Mission of Aleppo. This business too having been successfully completed, by the will of his superiors he went to Mount Carmel, ready to try everything to set his foot there and to prepare a dwelling for his Order (see the Annals of the French Discalced Carmel, by Fr. Louis de Sainte-Thérèse, book II, chapter CXIII and following). The Chronicle presents a description of that Mount of Elias, which Fr. Prosper sent in the year 1631 to his superiors from that lodging, to induce them to allow him new companions from Europe. While this was being done, and the superiors were referring the business to Urban VIII, Fr. Prosper obtained from the lord of the place, whose name in Arabic was Mir Tarabei, or Prince of Carmel, permission to build a convent, on condition that he should pay an annual tribute of two hundred reals, or about 50 francs. Urban at length, assenting to the wishes of the Prepositus General and the Friars of the Congregation of St. Elias, on the 3rd of December 1633 so assigns to the Discalced Carmelites the habitation and possession of the sacred Mount Carmel that no religious of another Order may live there or have a place
there. Thenceforth the Prepositus General of the Italian Congregation reserves to himself the title of prelacy of that convent, although the house is governed by a prior elected in chapter. Meanwhile those pious cenobites win for themselves, or rather for God and the Catholic Religion, great love and esteem by the works of piety and humanity which they exercise towards the Christians who are subject to the servitude of the Turks in those and the neighbouring places, and towards the pilgrims who put in at those places: which many travellers have recorded in their accounts, and still proclaim today with their praises.
[74] where a recently built church now stands, To the perennial glory of the Catholic name too, and at the same time to no small commendation of the Discalced family, next to the recently built monastery on Mount Carmel there now stands, almost finished, a splendid church, which was begun in the year 1828, enjoying in those barbarous lands of the Turks the singular privilege of having and ringing a bell. A splendid little work entitled: Notice of the church and hospice of Mount Carmel, by M. Artaud de Montor (Paris, 1843), explains many things carefully about this monument at once of the Catholic Religion and of Teresian zeal and holy industry, which arose by the unwearied labour of some Carmelite Friars, who collected alms from every side to that end and directed the building. I wonder, however, that in that little work there is not alleged the pontifical letter dated the 26th day of November 1839, by which Our Most Holy Lord Gregory XVI adorned the aforesaid church with the prerogatives of a minor Basilica, and declared it a filial of the Lateran chapter, as is noted by the Reverend Father Gregory of St. Joseph, subprior of the monastery of Bruges, who also furnished me with the pontifical letter itself.
[75] distinguished with the name of Basilica. Pope Gregory XVI. For the perpetual memory of the matter. Placed on the summit of the apostolic See, we gladly indeed provide for the honour and splendour especially of illustrious churches. Since, therefore, in that place of Mount Carmel where, at the evangelical preaching of the Apostles, very many men clinging to the footsteps of the Holy Prophets Elias and Eliseus, and prepared for the coming of Christ by the heralding of the Baptist, having perceived the truth of things and received the Catholic Faith, first of all built a chapel sacred to the Virgin Mother of God, there is at present found erected a new church committed to the care of the Order of Discalced Carmelites of the Congregation of Italy, and the present procurator general of that Congregation has begged of us that we would adorn the same church with the title and rights of a Basilica, we, by the counsel of our Venerable Brethren the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church set over the Sacred Rites, have judged that the desires of the same procurator and Congregation should be most willingly assented to. Wherefore, wishing to pursue with special beneficence all and each whom this letter favours, and absolving, and judging to be absolved, for this matter only, from any sentences of excommunication and interdict and other ecclesiastical censures, sentences and penalties imposed in any way and for any cause, if perchance they have incurred any, by this letter by our apostolic authority we erect the aforementioned church into a minor Basilica with all and each of the privileges, graces, pre-eminences, exemptions and indults which other such minor Basilica churches in any way use, enjoy and possess, and can and shall be able to use, enjoy and possess, and we establish that it is and shall be such at this and in future times, and we have willed that the same church be called and held a Basilica. Decreeing that this present letter is and shall be firm, valid and effective, and shall most fully avail the said church, and shall be inviolably observed by all whom it concerns and shall concern in any way in future; and that thus in the premises it must be judged and defined by any judges ordinary and delegate, even auditors of causes of the apostolic Palace, Nuncios of the apostolic See, and Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, even Legates a latere, every faculty and authority of judging and interpreting otherwise being taken away from them and each of them, and that whatever may happen to be attempted otherwise in these matters by anyone by whatever authority, knowingly or ignorantly, is null and void. Notwithstanding, as often as there shall be need, the constitution of Benedict XIV of happy memory, our predecessor, super Div. Mat., and other apostolic, and general or special Constitutions and ordinances published in universal, provincial and synodal Councils: from all and each of which, holding their tenors as fully and sufficiently expressed in these presents and inserted word for word, they otherwise to remain in their force, for the effect of the premises for this time only we specially and expressly derogate, and from all other things to the contrary whatever. Given at Rome at St. Mary Major under the Fisherman's ring, on the 26th day of November 1839, in the ninth year of our Pontificate. A. Cardinal Lambruschini.
§ II. Many members distinguished by birth, learning and virtue received into the Order.
Many women of illustrious family enrolled in the Order; The praise of an Order from the number of its members would be of little or rather of no account, unless the body were praiseworthy on other accounts and unless its members shone with endowments befitting their state. To begin with the gentler sex and at the same time with a lower degree of merit, no small glory was added to Teresa's Institute by the nobility of birth neglected by many girls and the amplitude and softness of a fortunate father's house despised, so that, clad in the rough wool of the stricter Carmel and confined by strict enclosure and sustained by poor fare, they might serve God under the discipline of St. Teresa, and be joined to God, as far as is given to man, both in the intellect by pious thoughts and in the heart by pious affections. It would be long to weave a catalogue of those who according to the precepts of the Gospel have thus been most wisely foolish. Into the cloisters of Teresa while she was still living, who had gathered a very few poor orphans into her first little monastery of St. Joseph at Ávila, there flowed a few years after girls and matrons sprung from powerful and illustrious families. Among these were, to pass over several others, Ana of the Incarnation, daughter of the viceroy of Navarre, brought up at the court of Philip II (volume IV, letter 68, note 13); a near kinswoman of the Count of Tendilla (volume I, letter 28, number 18); Elena de Quiroga, daughter of the brother of Cardinal de Quiroga and widow of Don Diego Villarroel (Chronicle, book X, chapter VI), etc.
[77] of whom, from Palafox, some in Spain Of those, moreover, who afterwards gave themselves over to the Order, Palafox enumerates some in his annotations on letter 24 of volume I (which he composed in the year 1656), writing in this manner: In the convent of Lisbon there lives today Mother Michaela of St. Anne, daughter of the most august emperor Matthias; who, with remarkable contempt of worldly things, exchanged earthly hopes for heavenly ones, and the palace of her uncle the archduke Albert for the strict enclosure of the Discalced Carmelite nuns. At Alba I knew at one and the same time two sisters, the one of the most excellent Duke Antonio, called Beatriz of the Most Holy Sacrament, the other of the most excellent Duke Fernando, today living, who was Mother Ana of the Cross, Marchioness of Villanueva del Río; who shone among the Teresian Discalced nuns with a plainly wonderful example and spirit, now as prelates, now as subjects. Mother Juana of the Most Holy Trinity, formerly Duchess of Béjar, sprung from the illustrious stock of the Infantado, passed from her palace to the monastery at Seville, leaving her noble offspring, to join herself to the offspring of St. Teresa, giving to God her soul and at the same time to men an excellent example. Mother Luisa of St. Magdalen, Countess of Paredes, governess and lady of the bedchamber of the most serene Infanta, deserted the royal court to hide herself in the convent of Malagón, over which she presides today; and so she who once made illustrious with her virtues and governed with her talent the palace of our most august queen now serves God in a more royal and sublimer palace. Into the monastery of Talavera entered Mother Luisa of the Cross, called in the world Luisa de Padilla, daughter of Antonio de Padilla, Adelantado Mayor of Castile, mother of the Duke of Uceda and foundress of the convent of Lerma, in which she died in the year 1614 holding the office of prioress, an exemplar of subjects as well as of prelates. In the same place lived Mother Beatriz of St. Joseph, called in the world Beatriz de Ribera, a near kinswoman of the Count of Molina and chief foundress of the convent of Lerma, over which she presided thirteen years, having died in the year 1633. In this convent of Lerma Mother María of the Cross, whose secular name was María de Velasco, daughter and heiress of the Count of Morón, put on the Carmelite habit. There died in the same place in the year 1625, leaving a great longing for her on account of her singular prudence and other virtues, the novice Catalina of the Incarnation, daughter of the most excellent Dukes of Lemos, aged sixteen years.
[78] entered Carmel, At Valladolid shone Mother Mencía of the Mother of God, of the great house of Benavente, and in the convent of Corpus Christi at Alcalá Mother María of the Most Holy Sacrament, sister of the same Mencía and formerly Marchioness of Las Navas: both of these were aunts of the Count of Benavente now living. Likewise at Valladolid Mother Mariana of the Most Holy Sacrament, of the house of Montealegre; and also that holy soul, the most excellent Doña Brianda de Acuña, called in Religion Teresa of Jesus, aunt of the Counts of Castrillo, a remarkable exemplar of the Discalced virgins, who, as the Chronicles report, lived for four continuous years on bread and water alone and would have gone on living thus, had not her superiors forbidden it. At Palencia the most excellent Luisa de Moncada y Aragón, sister of the Duke of Montalto, Countess of Santa Gadea and formerly wife of Eugenio de Padilla, Adelantado Mayor of Castile, who took the name of Luisa of the Most Holy Sacrament. At Logroño Mother Vicenta of the Most Holy Sacrament, daughter of the Counts of La Corzana, who today presides over the convent of Palencia. At Burgos two daughters of the most excellent Counts of Aguilar, Marquises of La Hinojosa, who in the time of St. Teresa passed from the royal convent of Las Huelgas to the Discalced Carmelite nuns, and were called among them Catalina of the Assumption and Isabel of the Most Holy Sacrament. At Guadalajara Sister Leonor of Jesus Mary, daughter of the most excellent Dukes of Pastrana. In the convent of St. Joseph at Saragossa and in that of Huesca two daughters of the Marquises of Torres. Likewise at Saragossa in St. Joseph's died the Venerable Mother Catalina of the Conception, niece of the admiral of the kingdom of Portugal, who had lived at Madrid among the ladies of honour with the princess of Portugal. In the convent of Barcelona Mother Estefanía of the Conception, its foundress, called in the world Estefanía de Rocabertí, daughter of the Counts of Peralada in the principality of Catalonia. At Huesca a kinswoman of the same Estefanía, Mother Catalina of the Conception, called in the world Catalina Boxadós y Rocabertí, daughter of the Counts of Savallà, who today is prioress of the convent of Huesca. In the convent of Corvera Mother Alfonsa of the Mother of God, in the world Alfonsa Niño de Guevara, mother of Don Rodrigo Lasso Niño de Guevara, Count of Añover, very well known in Spain at the court of King Philip II and in Belgium at the court of the archduke Albert, whose minister and chief counsellor he was. In the same place Mother Leonor María of the Most Holy Sacrament, kinswoman of Mother Brianda and daughter of the Counts of Arcos. At Córdoba Mother Brianda of the Incarnation,
in the world Brianda de Córdoba, of the stock of Guadalcázar; likewise Doña Catalina de Córdoba, daughter of the most excellent Marquises of Priego, lords of the house of Aguilar, Alfonso de Córdoba y Aguilar and Catalina Fernández de Córdoba, called in Religion Catalina of Jesus: whose excellent virtues, of these two, the Chronicles of that Sacred Reform teach, volume II, book VIII, chapters XXIV and XXV.
[79] others elsewhere, At Rome two daughters of the commander of military affairs Colonna, near kinswomen of the admiral of the kingdom of Castile; whose names in the world were Maria and Vittoria Colonna. At Naples the mother of the most excellent Don Luis Moncada y Aragón, Duke of Montalto and viceroy of Valencia, sister of the most excellent Duke of Medinaceli. Finally, the annotations would turn into commentaries, if there were to be enumerated the illustrious women who took the Teresian habit with very many other daughters of men distinguished by titles and lordships: which, since they are so great in number, cannot be reported in a brief writing, and are therefore omitted here. The same I would have said of very many noble men and of great authority in the world, who, leaving the vanity of the world, put on the poor wool of St. Teresa and went discalced, that they might bid farewell to worldly honours and riches and might pursue and merit perpetual memory and eternal glory. Let one be seen in place of all, the most serene empress Eleonora, the second consort of Ferdinand II, the emperor most illustrious for sanctity and victories, who, when the Emperor died, to take solace for that immense loss, betook herself under the mantle of St. Teresa into the royal monastery of Discalced Carmelite nuns at Vienna.
[80] are enumerated: In recounting in the preceding § the beginnings of Carmel in France, I made mention of several matrons and girls distinguished by birth who gave their names to it. To them may be added, in the Paris convent in the street called de la Grenelle, Thaïs of Mercy, daughter of the Duke de Gramont and widow of the Count of Rupelmonde, and in the other Paris convent, called of Notre-Dame des Champs, Louise of Mercy, in the world Louise de la Baume, Madame de la Vallière and Duchess of Vaujours. But above the others is to be recorded, in the convent of Saint-Denis, Teresa of St. Augustine, daughter of Louis XV, king of France, who, born on the 15th of July 1737, put on the habit of Religion on the 10th of September 1770, Marie Antoinette, wife of the future king Louis XVI, presenting to her that very mantle which the holy Reformer had once worn, and which we have said is preserved at Paris among the Sacred Relics (num. 1473). This solemn ceremony was presided over by the Nuncio, specially delegated for this by the Roman Pontiff, who would most earnestly have desired to preside over this solemnity himself, had not the distance of places prevented it (see Proyart in the Life of that renowned nun, book II, and the French little work of M. Artaud de Montor: Notice of the church and hospice of Mount Carmel, Paris, 1843). In Italy, in the convent of Fano, Teresa of Jesus, in the world the Countess Giovanna Ghini, widow of Scipione Chiaramonti of Cesena, and mother of Pius VII, having become a daughter of Carmel, died aged sixty in the year 1773 in the odour of sanctity. In Belgium, in the convent of Ghent, several from the foremost families of the country on one day exchanged the court for the cloister of Carmel, on the 2nd of February 1623, the most serene princess Isabella Clara Eugenia with her court retinue leading them through the streets of the city into the convent, with great display and the splendid and pious applause of the people and senate of Ghent, as Antonius Sanderus narrates in his Flandria Illustrata (book III, chapter XXII of the Affairs of Ghent), where four of them are cited by name thus: Madame Madeleine de Conflans, sister of the Marquis de Saint-Remy, now Sister Madeleine of St. Elizabeth; Mademoiselle Marie de Noyelles, heiress and firstborn of the Count de Noyelles, now Sister Marie of St. John; Mademoiselle Marie de Hallewyn, of a noble family of Flanders, now Sister Marie of St. Joseph; Mademoiselle Catherine de Barca, daughter of Antoine de Barca, who presided over the port of Ghent, now Sister Catherine of Christ. And if I wished to enumerate all the Belgian girls who have trodden or still tread underfoot their armorial shields and treasures, in order to cling to Jesus Christ, the Spouse they have preferred, in rigid Carmel, one paragraph would not suffice me. But let the few things I have said serve as a specimen.
[81] as also several most illustrious men. Among the men too who embraced the Reformed Order, the number of those sprung from the noblest stock was not small. Already among the first followers of Teresa's Institute was reckoned Fr. Jerónimo Gracián, who entered the Order with a brother and three sisters, whom the Library of the Discalced Carmelite Order (p. 190) says was born at the court of the Catholic king, at Valladolid, his father being Diego Gracián de Alderete, secretary to Charles V and Philip II, and his mother Juana de Antisio, daughter of a noble Pole and ambassador of the king of Poland to Charles V. There was reckoned also Fr. Ambrosio Mariano, of a renowned house in the kingdom of Naples, once a companion of Ugo Boncompagni, afterwards Pontiff under the name of Gregory XIII, and a deputy to the Council of Trent (see the Preliminary Commentary, number 482). Add to these Fr. Nicolás of Jesus Mary, a Genoese, of the illustrious stock of Doria. And these three were among the first followers of the holy Mother. I pass over innumerable others who afterwards bade farewell to the tokens of nobility in order, treading in the footsteps of St. Teresa, to pursue the reproach of the Cross.
[82] [But still greater glory came to the Order from the cultivation of the sciences, and from the Missions,] On another account excellent praise accrued to Teresa's Institute, and therefore to Teresa herself as well, namely from the learning with which her sons illustrated the sciences, especially the sacred ones. Fr. Martial of St. John the Baptist in the Library of his Order, published at Bordeaux in the year 1730, had already then, as the index of the book shows, collected the following number of writers: authors who treated Sacred Scripture, 56; who polemical theology, 27; who scholastic, 40; who moral, 40; who mystical, 43; who the Sacred Canons, 27; who ecclesiastical or civil history, 64; who Lives of the Saints, 96; who sacred orations, 102; who ascetical works for religious, 61; who composed other spiritual books, 139; besides several others who treated of mathematics, astronomy, literature, the oriental languages, especially Persian, cultivated and illustrated by the Carmelite missionaries. For Carmel promoted the Catholic Faith and piety not by the pen alone, but by zeal exercised in many ways. For these men, coming forth from converse with the Lord, since they themselves were burning, were most apt to kindle others by every sacred ministry. No small honour, too, accrued to the Teresian Carmel from the fact that Fr. Pedro of the Mother of God and Fr. Domingo of Jesus Mary were successively appointed by Clement VIII and Paul V to have charge of the business of the Missions at Rome. Not to speak of the Missions which that Order had flourishing, and in part has, in Persia, Syria, Arabia Felix and the Indies, men having been formed for that office in a twofold seminary of the Missions, at Rome under the title of St. Pancras, and at Malta under the title of St. Teresa.
[83] but by far the most from holiness of life. Finally, a glory far surpassing all other titles has arisen for the Reformed Carmel from the observance of discipline, the love of its Institute and the holiness of life by which that Order has always shown itself commendable, and shows itself so today. Elsewhere I have already made mention of the lofty summit of perfection to which, as is evident from St. Teresa's own books, very many of her daughters had ascended in their convents. And that the Teresian progeny, sprung from such a stock, was not degenerate could be demonstrated even from the encomiums alone which have very frequently been uttered about that religious family by the Roman Pontiffs, by bishops, by universities and by pious and learned men. But, these being omitted for the sake of brevity, I shall touch briefly on one or two arguments which are greater than any praise of words. Of this kind is that this Reformed Order has had in its bosom no small number of persons who shone with so eminent a sanctity that the cause of their canonization has been introduced or not a little advanced. Besides St. John of the Cross, who in the year 1727 was received among the Saints, and Blessed Mary of the Incarnation, who in the year 1791 was received among the Blessed, here, from those first coming my way, are some such Venerable Servants and Handmaids of God. I find, namely (in the Life of the Venerable Ana of St. Augustine, reprinted in French at Paris in the year 1832, page 2), that it was declared by the Holy See that the following practised the virtues in a heroic degree: by decree of the year 1735, Ana of St. Bartholomew; by decree of the year 1762, Clara María of the Passion; by decree of the year 1769, Francisco of the Child Jesus; (in the same place, page 377) by decree of the year 1776, Ana of St. Augustine; (in the French Life of Blessed Mary of the Incarnation, published at Paris by the renowned Boucher in the year 1800, page 314) by decree of the year 1789, Magdalena of St. Joseph; (in the aforesaid Life of the Venerable Ana of St. Augustine, page 2) that the cause, already introduced, is on its way to being able to reach further stages, of María of the Angels and of Domingo of Jesus Mary, as also (in Benedict XIV's work On Beatification and Canonization, book 2, chapter LI, number 11, and in many other places) of Ana of Jesus, and (in the Most Recent Position on the virtues, Rome 1838) of Teresa Margherita Redi of the Heart of Jesus: besides other men and women who escape me, not investigating these things accurately. There will be brought forward, says Théophile Raynaud (in the Scapulare Marianum, part I, chapter IV, § IV), speaking of St. Teresa, Virgins after her, Virgins plainly wise, who, having taken their lamps, took oil with them, to whom that little eulogy of Cyprian applies: "This is the flower of the Church's offspring, the glory and ornament of spiritual grace, a joyous nature, a work of praise and honour entire and incorrupt, the image of God answering to the holiness of the Lord, the more illustrious portion of the flock of Christ. For where regular observance may flourish more exquisitely, where there may be a more solicitous zeal for poverty, where obedience may blossom more joyfully, where silence, by which the multiplicity of sins is impeded, where recollection of soul and familiar intercourse with God may be found more lasting, purer, sweeter, than among these sacred virgins, I could not easily say." And therefore it is no wonder if the sanctification of the Lord flourishes upon them. Witnesses of a rare example in so many Teresian convents everywhere are pious virgins of illustrious name for sanctity, both those already borne to heaven and those still surviving.
§ III. Renowned examples of virtue given in recent times by the female sex of Carmel in Belgium, France and Spain.
The recent virtue of Carmel, especially of the nuns, is attested, Then by another argument, no less splendid and more universal, the daughters of St. Teresa (I speak here only of the virgins, because historical documents about the lot of the men are not available to me) for half a century and more to the world
Christian bore witness that the primitive spirit of their Reformed Order had not grown lukewarm, and amid the gravest hardships everywhere displayed a love and esteem of their vocation not to be torn from their heart by any threats, and gave examples of virtues of every kind and especially of manly fortitude in adversity. For for sixty years now, up to this very day, in almost all parts of the whole of Europe successively, that gentler sex of Carmel has suffered the plundering of its houses or even long exiles and hard prisons and at times a cruel death: which not a few in France met bravely, when towards the end of the last century all the wisdom of the rulers of that people seemed to have struck upon the rocks, human reason running mad being worshipped in place of God (which I myself who write these things saw incensed in a painted image, such namely as was used in the small towns, while in the cities a most abandoned woman was placed on the altar of the principal church, where that monster usurped divine honours). I do not think I depart from my purpose if I consign to writing here some few things which Carmel endured in those mournful times; since they not only contain great commendation of the Order and display heroic fortitude in the offspring, but at the same time also confer great glory on the Mother who by her institution formed such an offspring and imbued it with her spirit.
[85] the sources from which the arguments are drawn being first indicated, The things which I shall bring forward I have drawn partly from a manuscript journal by a Carmelite nun of Courtrai and from several published books, partly I heard from the mouth of a Carmelite nun joined to me by near kinship, who, expelled in the first instance from the house of her Order at Ypres in the year 1783 under Joseph II, went to Châtillon in France, that she might end her days among her sisters in a monastery. But when she was torn from this house too by the whirlwind of the French revolution, while several of her companions were punished with death, happily snatched from death, but not from danger, she long wandered through the regions of France and the Jura mountains, amid a thousand deaths, and for six whole months living on begged bread and using unwashed clothes, until at last she reached Solothurn in Switzerland. Again from here, in the tenth month after, when the army of the French invaded those tracts, a fugitive, she was compelled to hasten to Alessandria in Piedmont. But from the monastery which she had entered she was expelled a third time too. Thereafter, having stayed almost fifteen years more in that city, at length, when Napoleon fell, in the thirty-third year of her exile she returned to Belgium, where six years ago she died most piously in the Lord, aged eighty-four years. Therefore the things which she herself, as an eyewitness, often narrated to me, I shall insert here and there in what is to be said, and I shall confirm them by other documents which I have at hand, and which I shall cite in their place.
[86] First in the Austrian dominions In the latter part of the eighteenth century the dogmas and institutions of the Catholic Religion began to be violently attacked, and the goods of the Catholic Church to be more violently coveted, and in particular whoever was occupied in a cloister with singing the continual praises of God, and strove by pouring out prayers to avert heavenly vengeance from the people, was then everywhere decried as a useless burden of the earth and almost as a crime and wickedness. First in the Austrian dominions the houses of the so-called contemplative Orders were suppressed without delay by Joseph II, as soon as he had succeeded his mother in the year 1780. With what firm mind, however, the daughters of St. Teresa, driven from their sacred dwellings, persevered in their vocation is made known from a letter which the Most Reverend Prepositus General of the Italian Congregation, Fr. Hilarion of All Saints, wrote to Louise of France, daughter, as I said above, of Louis XV, and aunt of Louis XVI, a nun in the convent of Saint-Denis. For this excellent virgin, when she had heard that persecution was coming upon her sisters in those remote regions, led by a feeling of solicitous piety, had asked the Father General that he would deign to inform her of their state. To her letter, then, the Most Reverend Father answered the following: In Germany, the Carmelite nuns at Vienna, Graz, Prague, Wiener Neustadt, in Sankt Pölten, Linz and Lemberg have already been ejected from their houses.. Of these, the nuns of the last city, one excepted, have migrated to the neighbouring monasteries of the Order in Poland; those of Graz and Prague, to whom no house of their Institute lay open in the neighbouring region, live together under one roof; but the sisters of the remaining houses have been admitted into monasteries of other Orders… In Italy only three houses have been subjected to the fatal decree, namely those of Milan, Cremona and Mantua; and the inmates of the latter, namely of Mantua, have all to a woman gone to another dwelling of Carmel, and have been divided among those of Parma, Reggio, Piacenza and Bologna… But that the lot of the numerous daughters in Belgium would be the most wretched of all, who were also shortly to be driven from their cloisters; and that their furniture had already been inventoried by the officials of the treasury… Meanwhile that it was the greatest solace to him that the nuns of Brussels (which he had learned from the provincial) were to be received into the monasteries of France, the king having been moved, namely, by the suppliant prayers with which Louise de Bourbon, to whom he was writing, had pleaded with him… Lastly, that he earnestly commended the others to her powerful patronage, so that he might know that those inmates of the Belgian Carmel, whom he had hitherto ruled as daughters, were at least henceforth safe as sisters under another rule (the reader knows that the Discalced nuns in France were not subject to the Carmelite men, but to other superiors or apostolic commissaries).
[87] [the convents of Carmel were exterminated with the greatest injustice and imprudence,] While this letter of the Prepositus General adds a new spur to the piety of the diligent princess towards the wretched sisters, and she herself arranges everything by the royal liberality of Louis XVI for receiving the exiles, a deadly edict for suppressing the contemplative Orders is promulgated in Belgium. The inmates of the convents, therefore, are there despoiled of their goods and driven out of their dwellings, although they possessed these by the sworn laws of the country by no less equitable and full a right and by no less legal a title than every master his own house, as Mr. de Gerlache affirms in his History of the Kingdom of Belgium (Brussels, in the year 1839, volume I, page 121, or in the year 1842, volume I, page 155) that the demagogue Mirabeau himself confessed. Let others who inscribe the fate of peoples in their annals record how experience here added a new reckoning to the oracle of Sacred Scripture, pronouncing that justice exalts nations, but sin makes peoples miserable (Proverbs XIV, 34); and let them explain how the public treasuries, into which so much of other men's gold had been heaped, had shortly to be supplied by borrowed money; and let them unfold in what way the mercenary soldiers in the war which Joseph II undertook against the Turks shortly swallowed up all the treasures gathered from the sold goods of the two thousand extinguished monasteries (as many as Feller numbers in his Journal at the year 1788, volume III, page 535), while in these, according to the reckoning of Mr. de Gerlache (in the place just cited), three hundred and thirty-three thousand harmless inmates had until then lived on their own store, and had sustained the neighbouring poor with large alms.
[88] Marsham, though a non-Catholic, once finely pleaded for the monasteries. Meanwhile, since I am speaking of monasteries cut down in many regions of Europe, I may rightly repeat what John Marsham, though a member of the Anglican church, wrote two centuries ago, treating of his own country, in this manner: Our monasteries long since met their fatal day; nor do there remain to us any signs of ancestral piety besides half-ruined walls and lamentable rubble. Religion less costly is today at heart, and the old saying obtains: "One should be devout, to be religious is wrong" (Aulus Gellius, book IV, chapter IX). We see, alas we see, the most august churches and the stupendous monuments dedicated to the eternal God, than which nothing today is more despoiled, under the specious pretext of rooting out superstition, defiled with the most sordid abuse, and the utmost destruction awaiting them! "Horses stabled at the altars of Christ, the Relics of the Martyrs dug up" (Jerome, letter III, page 32, A., to Heliodorus). There are certain zealots so religiously delirious that they say the religious Orders of old were born ἐκ τοῦ φρέατος τῆς ἀβύσσου (Apocalypse IX, 3). So licentiously does προσπάθεια indulge itself. Moreover, it will surely happen to me too, having commented on the Life of the Foundress of a religious family, and having therefore discoursed much about monasteries, what the same Marsham subjoins concerning the Monasticon Anglicanum: Nor will there be lacking in this age in which we live little men smelling with an elephantine trunk, who will condemn these things which are now coming forth as futile, useless and little suited to the present condition of things, and will judge them not only to be eliminated from libraries, but also to be given to the flames (in the Propylaeum to the Monasticon Anglicanum).
[89] Many Carmelite nuns then went from Belgium to France, The consecrated virgins, then, as I have said, of the Discalced Carmel in Belgium, guilty of no crime, thrown out of their dwellings by those who hated Religion and were greedy for ecclesiastical spoils, by sacrilegious wickedness and open injustice, sought a place where they might set their foot. By the powerful patronage of Louise de Bourbon the houses of the Carmelite nuns in France lay open to them as they went into exile. And thither half and more of the Belgian nuns betook themselves. Namely, as I find noted in the Manuscript of the archive of Courtrai, among those who first, that is in the year 1783, left their country, there were lodged:
13 of Brussels (that is, the whole family): in the convent of Saint-Denis.
2 of Aalst: in the same place.
5 of Antwerp: 2 at Reims, 2 at Huy, 1 at Liège.
3 of Vilvoorde: 2 at Paris, in the street commonly called Chapon, 1 at Amiens.
7 of Roermond: 3 at Amiens, 2 at Verdun, 2 at Metz.
6 of Ghent: 4 at Gisors, 1 at Troyes, 1 in the convent of the English nuns at Ghent (for this house, as also those of Lier and Hoogstraten, which had been founded by their countrywomen, were not subject to the decree of suppression).
12 of Dendermonde (that is, the whole family): in the two convents of Paris, of the street St. Jacques and of de Grenelle.
7 of Ypres: 3 at Rouen, 3 at Châtillon, 1 at Lille.
8 of Bruges: 5 at Paris, 3 at Pontoise.
12 of Mons (that is, the whole family): at Douai.
12 of Tournai: 7 at Lille, 1 at Troyes, 1 at Châtillon, 1 at Paris, 2 at Valenciennes.
5 of Courtrai: at Pontoise.
[90] not all, however, and indeed for just reasons, Then, in course of time, the number of exiles grew still more, so that in the year 1787 there were a hundred and twenty-four: of whom a hundred and two lived in the interior of France, while the other twenty-two remained in the French and Liège tracts neighbouring Belgium. And that number is the more to be wondered at because for ten years and more the Belgian monasteries were almost dying out on account of many vexations, and therefore the number of nuns was incomplete in almost all the houses. For two most celebrated physicians, van Swieten and de Haen, men Catholic in appearance, and sent as such by the celebrated Boerhaave, whom the empress Maria Theresa had asked for two men most skilled in his art, but Catholics, had long since infected the court of Vienna with the Jansenist poison (see Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire ecclésiastique Memoirs serving for Ecclesiastical History, Paris 1815, in the Catalogue of Writers, at the 22nd of December 1772). In that way, then, it came about that, among other hindrances brought upon Religion, barriers were also thrown in the way of those about to enter a monastery, from age, from
dowry, from the consent of parents, and the access to religious families became difficult, and therefore rare. Besides, the nuns migrating from Belgium into France were almost about to fall from Charybdis into Scylla: for foul impiety so raged and grew daily in that kingdom that the superior of the Carmelite nuns in France, M. Rigaud, asserted in the year 1780 that among a hundred inhabitants of Paris there were not twelve who fulfilled the most grave precept of Easter Communion (see Histoire des religieuses Carmélites de Compiègne conduites à l'échafaud History of the Carmelite nuns of Compiègne led to the scaffold, Sens 1836, p. 176), and that at about that time sensible men were already foreseeing and assertively predicting that a decade would not pass before the sacred ministers of Religion would have to be proscribed, and the divine Mysteries performed in crypts and hiding places. See the Journal historique of M. de Feller, at the year 1786 (volume I, pages 230 and 318). There, says that perspicacious champion of the Catholic Religion, worthy of immortal praise, using the words of Isaiah XIII, 21 and 22, ostriches shall dwell there, and the hairy ones shall dance there. And owls shall answer one another there in its houses, and sirens in the temples of pleasure. Nay, what is more wonderful, and what many everywhere praise as having been foretold by the celebrated preacher Beauregard before the royal court at Paris in the year 1789, the same Feller had most plainly predicted a full three years before Beauregard, that those times were at hand in which shameless actresses of the theatre would be worshipped as God by apostate Catholics within the walls of profaned sanctuaries, harlots and idols at once! (See the place of Feller cited above; see also page 420, where that author discourses so eloquently on the wretched state of those times that I do not know whether anything worthier of a Catholic breast can be brought forth.)
[91] not, however, from a lack of virtue, For these and other reasons, which I pass over in silence, the bishops of Belgium themselves did not indeed dissuade the nuns of the extinguished houses from emigrating into France, but neither did they persuade them. Therefore, if many did not betake themselves there, and did not comply with Louise of France who invited them, and with the Most Reverend Father General himself who desired it but did not order it, this is not to be imputed to a mind wavering in its vocation or to the affection of flesh and blood, but to just causes and reasons, as is probable, among which this was common to many, that by the law of charity they had to serve the decrepit or infirm sisters for whom the journey of exile was impossible. Nay, as far as I have been able to understand from documents and testimonies, there was not even one nun of the Belgian Carmel who did not persevere holily in her state, as far as circumstances permitted.
[92] how great it was in them is proved by the example of the Carmel of Brussels. And if anyone wishes to know from examples how great a virtue flourished in the Belgian Carmel and how truly Teresian those virgins were, let him read in the appendix to the work of the renowned Proyart: Vie de Madame Louise de France, religieuse Carmélite, fille de Louis XV Life of Madame Louise of France, Carmelite nun, daughter of Louis XV, the account of the emigration of the Carmelite family of Brussels. Their furniture was so scanty that for its cheapness it was held by the officials of the treasury almost unworthy of inventory; scarcely any little things were packed up by those going into exile, and scarcely anything was carried away in their carriages except the three sacred bodies of Blessed Albert and of the Venerable Ana of Jesus and Ana of St. Bartholomew; the voice of Cardinal de Franckenberg, about to bid them farewell after he had distributed to them the Holy Communion for the last time, was broken with grief and his speech interrupted; there was a processional descent at the very moment of departure to the niches in which lay enclosed the bodies and ashes of their deceased sisters, to bid them a last farewell and to pray for their eternal rest in heaven; kisses were fixed on the ground in those dearest places in which they would have preferred to die together and be buried together; there were the tears and sobs of the neighbours flowing around, though it was very early in the morning, at the carriages which were to carry away those voluntary exiles, most dear to their country and to Religion; there was the escort of devoted friends of Carmel, and of the most esteemed men M. de Villegas d'Estaimbourg and the Baron de Peuthy; and finally the last halt of those departing in the church of Halle at the most celebrated statue of the Blessed Virgin, that they might commend for the last time their own lot and that of their country to the Mother of God and to the tutelary Angel of Belgium: all these things at that supreme moment demonstrate both the heroic virtue in those Teresian virgins and the great veneration of men towards the Order of Carmel. And that veneration was able to show itself more freely and better when, political affairs having changed, returning home from France on the 25th of June of the year 1790, with splendid and joyful pomp, and each nun having at her side some principal matron of the nobility of Brussels, they were conducted first into the basilica of St. Gudula, the clergy going before, and thence, after the hymn Te Deum had been most solemnly sung, were at length led back again to their most longed-for cloister (see p. XVIII of the Life of Fr. Cornelius Smet, prefixed to that excellent man's work entitled: Het Leven van onzen Heer Jesus Christus The Life of our Lord Jesus Christ, Brussels, 1841). But alas! new hardships again awaited them, which they bore equally bravely, when by the decree of the French, who had invaded Belgium, the monasteries were suppressed anew in the year 1796.
[93] In France too the Carmelite nuns persevered in their vocation: I pass over the like examples of the other Belgian convents; for all can be learned from that of Brussels, which all the rest closely resembled: and I hasten now to declare briefly the posthumous glory of St. Teresa from the constancy with which in France too the nuns of the Discalced Carmel, towards the end of the last century, preferred to suffer all the hardest things rather than to fall away from their holy vocation and bring a stain upon their glory. It can be demonstrated by one argument, which is furnished by the renowned d'Hesmivy d'Auribeau, archdeacon and vicar general of Digne, who by order of Pius VI published at Rome in the year 1794 many documents collected under the title: Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de la persécution française Memoirs serving for the history of the French persecution. Namely he (volume I, part II, page 537, article Paris), treating of the heroic fortitude which the devoted spouses of God displayed in the heat of the French persecution, testifies the following: The Carmelite virgins above the others gave courage to Catholics by their invincible constancy. That austere Order, which had very recently counted Louise de Bourbon among its members, was especially numerous. Yet among nineteen hundred and more nuns scarcely five or six fell away.
[94] as is clear from their petition; These, by a common petition, as soon as the rumour had spread of the destruction impending over their houses, had recourse to those leading citizens assembled who had arrogated to themselves the governing of the destinies of the kingdom of France: and in it these women addressed them with that freedom which befits the innocent. By what right, they said, should you proscribe and uproot an Institute which has always earned for itself the protection of the rulers in France, the esteem of the people, the gratitude of the multitude? Would you suffer a house to be destroyed in which the aunt of a most august monarch recently spent the better years of her life? The fortune of the Carmelite nuns was never such as to entice greed; nor was their need ever a burden to benefactors. But ours is that evangelical poverty by which we suffice for ourselves, bring help to the wretched, do not fail our country, and enjoy great happiness, though abstaining from very many things. We profess our vows freely. Our monasteries hold us all as equals; there no one is rich, no one noble: the subjection of all to the rules and the law is equal… Here, as lying report spreads, victims who have lost their liberty are not consumed by a slow wasting. On the contrary (we call God to witness!), if there is any happiness in the world, we enjoy it under this shade of the sanctuary. And if we had to choose anew between the world and the grilles of the monastery, there would be none of us who would not ratify the choice once made, and that with still greater gladness than before… Do not therefore drive us from those refuges in which we rejoice in the source of all consolations. Rather open them anew both to piety which has its vocation to this kind of life well proved, and to misfortune to which these holy retreats offer a modest asylum. Remember those venerable exiles (they mean the Belgian nuns, whom Louis XVI had granted citizenship at their first entry into France) who confidently sought the rights of guests here… and who implore you that they may be allowed to end their days here in peace. This petition, illustrious men, we humbly present to you in the name of the sisters, all of them who exist in the monasteries of the kingdom. All, having affixed their signature to this letter, which they were most ready to write even in their own blood, have testified that they prefer to suffer a thousand deaths rather than to suffer the loss of their state: which would be for them a martyrdom. The instruments which bear witness that they wish to persevere in their kind of life are in the hand of one of your assembly (the Most Illustrious Bishop of Clermont), who will present them as soon as you require it. With all of them, we confess it with a unanimous voice, we should hold it a most cruel and unjust oppression if our asylums were disturbed, which we have always considered safe and inviolable. With the highest veneration, etc. It was signed: The Superioress and the Carmelite religious (see d'Hesmivy d'Auribeau, part II, page 655).
[95] and this is confirmed by the example of the Carmel of Verdun and of Lyon, If it pleased me to investigate and unfold in particular the examples of lofty virtues which the individual convents of nuns and the individual nuns of each convent gave in the upheaval of French affairs, I should have to compose not one volume, but several. Let whoever wishes to have specimens of this kind go to the aforesaid work of the renowned d'Hesmivy d'Auribeau. There may be seen (page 535) that the nuns of the Carmel of Verdun, and likewise (page 1043) those of the Carmel of Lyon, spoke such things to their fierce and treacherous judges that the heavenly Father seemed to have given them a mouth which all their adversaries could not resist. At the answers of the former, Aubry himself, the bishop intruded into the episcopal see of Verdun, blushed; and, conquered by poor little women, retreated disgracefully from the field. In the same way the fierce and riotous judges of the tribunal of Lyon, after they had tried everything for four whole days to break the spirit of those virgins, sent them away free, neither broken by the terror of punishment nor deceived by tricks, the very wolves being in a manner astonished that the lambs were let go from their jaws, and one of those judges spontaneously confessing that he now admitted miracles; since he experienced a miracle in himself by so great a conversion of his own mind.
[96] but above all from the nuns of Compiègne put to death, But nowhere did the fortitude sent from heaven and the holy and at the same time modest boldness of those virgins answering their judges shine forth more than in the agony which thirteen Carmelite nuns of Compiègne sustained against judges, or rather against monsters who had put off every feeling of justice and humanity. There is extant on this matter an excellent account which a certain surviving sister of the same convent, snatched from death by chance, composed, and which was published at Sens in the year 1838 under this title: Histoire des religieuses Carmélites de Compiègne conduites à l'échafaud le 17 juillet 1794 [History of the Carmelite nuns of Compiègne led to the scaffold on the 17th of July 1794]. That religious family, in which there lived a great-great-granddaughter of the most celebrated royal minister
Colbert (see that Account, page 13), and in which the princesses of the royal house of Louis XVI, Aloysia, Victoire, Sophie and Louise, whenever the court was at Compiègne, often performed at table the parts either of readers or of servers (ibid., page 2), that fervent house, I say, observed religious discipline so holily that M. Rigaud, one of the three visitors of the Carmelite nuns in France, when he had inspected the house in discharge of his office, had nothing to recommend to them for correction (ibid., page 182). One may read there (ibid., page 50 and following) what crimes were charged against those candid souls, what were the interrogations of the judges, what the answers of the sisters, what condemnation was pronounced by the unjust president, and finally how joyfully the sentence of death was received: all of which are closed in that Account by the following description of their death: Those faithful spouses of Christ had prepared themselves for death in the morning, and were occupied in singing the praises of God. And when they had mounted the carts, to be carried to the place of execution, they sang the Psalm "Miserere", the Antiphon "Salve Regina", and the "Te Deum." Then, when they had come to the end and had to descend from the vehicle, an octogenarian nun, all of whose limbs were contracted with arthritis, could not move herself, nor could she be helped by her sisters, whose hands were bound with chains. Seeing this, the executioner rushed upon her, and threw her from the cart like a mass of lead; and the old woman, still living, but all bloody and horrible to see with her bruised forehead, the executioner's monstrous attendants thrust onto the deadly scaffold, and put her neck under the blade.
[97] whose death is described here. When they had reached the place of execution, all began to sing the hymn "Veni Creator", and to renew the promises of Baptism and the formula of the vows of Religion. And it was noticed, not without great wonder, that the executioner and his attendants and the whole crowd standing round, without giving any sign of anger or impatience, allowed them to perform and complete these exercises of Catholic piety. The common people too, who blocked the streets through which they were carried, and who were wont to shout shamefully against those whom they called aristocrats, did not even mutter, or, if any voice was heard, it was of one lamenting and admiring the lot of the innocent suffering such a punishment. "O candid souls," they said, "what a heavenly countenance they have! Surely, if paradise does not lie open to these, there will be paradise for none." The Reverend Mother Prioress, like another mother of the Maccabees, asked, and obtained from the executioner, that she might die last of all. And this, says the account, if you look at the accusers and judges, was the atrocious outcome of that cause; but if at the heroic constancy in the victims, it was a most glorious end. The bodies were then buried in the suburb of St. Antoine, in that cemetery near which the religious family of the Sacred Hearts, called of Picpus, now lives, and in which, according to the Account (page 33), there had been heaped up 1298 bodies which the scythe of the French revolution had cut down within six weeks, from the 14th of June to the 27th of July. The names of these slain were published in print in the year 1814, and in that list the names of the thirteen nuns are joined to the names of a hundred and twenty-four others put to death on the same day.
[98] [That fortitude of the nuns was an honour to the Catholic Religion and to monastic life.] I omit more examples of Christian fortitude of this kind, which when you have read them, you would think you had read the Acts of the ancient Martyrs, who, standing unmoved and with serene countenance before the attendants of Decius, Diocletian or Shapur, suffered as if in other people's bodies, and laughed in death. Meanwhile such strength of mind and such constancy of the virgins consecrated to God in the state chosen by them procured great glory for the Catholic Church and for monastic life itself. For, as the often-praised d'Hesmivy asserts (part II, page 537), among nearly forty-two thousand virgins, as many heads as were then counted in the monasteries of France, there were not two hundred out of all the religious families together who were faithless either to God or to the royal power, namely by taking the wicked oaths which were then extorted. And in this way, as was duly observed by the renowned Barruel in his History of the French Clergy (Antwerp 1794, part 1, page 19), those numerous virgins, since they preferred their beloved grilles to the liberty offered, nay thrust upon them, convicted of lying and calumny the insincere detractors of monastic life, who in the last century had tried to persuade all Europe that the monasteries contained nothing but pitiable imprisoned girls, who were the victims of another's will, and to whom it would be most welcome if, their chains and grilles broken, they were set at liberty. At the same time also those nuns by such an excellent manner of acting clearly demonstrated how great is the difference between the chaste virgins who devote themselves to Jesus Christ in the Catholic Religion and the ancient Vestals boasted of by the present-day deserters of the ancestral Religion, who, although they were only seven, not infrequently, because they were guilty of violated chastity, were buried in the ground by the penalty decreed for them: as may be read in Eusebius, St. Ambrose, Prudentius, etc. (see the Mémoires de Trévoux, at the year 1720, page 848).
[99] What has been said is confirmed by the like constancy of virgins in Spain today. Nor was it only in Belgium and France that the ruins of an Order shattered and fallen in, so to speak, struck virgins who remained fearless and constant, but recently in Spain also. For there too persecution has raged against the Catholic Religion and its sacred institutions; and on the 11th of March of the year 1836 the following decrees came out against the nuns and their houses (which may be read here and there in the journals of that time, e.g. the renowned Kersten: Journal historique et littéraire, Liège, volume II, page 654): The houses of nuns shall be restricted to that number which is necessary for those who refuse to go out to be conveniently accommodated. The religious whose houses shall be suppressed shall be distributed into the houses to be kept. But no house shall remain unless it contains twenty professed nuns. Two houses of the same Order shall not be able to be contained in the same city… To religious previously reduced to the secular state and whose houses have already been extinguished or shall hereafter be extinguished, a pension shall be made of five reals (or about one franc and a quarter); but if they prefer to live in another religious house, the pension shall be made of only four reals (or about one franc). Meanwhile, in those vexations and straits, in which not only are the religious families forbidden to enrol novices and to profess vows, but also those families are stripped of all their goods, and the number of houses, many nuns being crowded into fewer houses, is diminished as much as possible, in such a state of things, I say, the virgins consecrated to God persevere in the state chosen by them, and in all Spain scarcely any nuns are to be found who wish to use the liberty thrust upon them, although in very many places they are pressed by very hard want on account of the stipend badly paid by the government. And especially, as regards the Discalced family of St. Teresa, several who are well acquainted with Spanish affairs assert that it is unheard of by them that even one Teresian virgin has freely gone out of her convent, though thrown open, much less that any has apostatized from the religious state: whence it comes about that the very journals which are opposed to the Catholic side are astonished at, and almost praise, that holy persistence of the virgins in the cloistered life. Finally, as soon as, after those cruel times which I have mentioned, some liberty of restoring monasteries shone forth in Belgium and France, the Teresian family shortly flourished again, so that in each of those kingdoms there exists today no small number of houses, which you would say had been in a manner reborn from their ashes.
§ IV. Survey of the provinces and houses of each Congregation of the Order of Discalced Carmelites which were erected from the time of St. Teresa up to the recent subversions of affairs.
THE SPANISH CONGREGATION, OR OF ST. JOSEPH.
Before the Carmel reformed by St. Teresa went off into two Congregations, there had been constituted in the year 1588 six provinces: of which the first, under the title of St. Elias, comprised Old Castile with the kingdom of Navarre; the second, under the title of the Holy Spirit, New Castile and the kingdom of Murcia; the third, called of the Holy Angel, Upper Andalusia; the fourth, dedicated to St. Philip, Lower Andalusia with Portugal; the fifth, under the patronage of St. Joseph, Catalonia, Aragon and Italy; the sixth finally, borrowing its name from St. Albert, New Spain in the lands overseas. This distribution of the provinces stood (the Italian monasteries having meanwhile, namely in the year 1600, been torn away) until the year 1610; in which year it seemed good to the Fathers assembled in the tenth general chapter to make one province out of both Andalusias, a provincial vicar being set over the Portuguese. Controversies arising from this and being carried to Rome in the following year, the Reverend Father Alfonso of Jesus Mary, fourth General of the Discalced Carmelites in Spain, with the approval of Antonio Caetani, archbishop of Capua and Apostolic Nuncio, to whom Pope Paul V had committed the management of this matter, on the 13th day of April 1612, with the highest applause of all his subjects, erected the vicariate of Portugal, although it did not yet have a sufficient number of convents for constituting a province, into a province under the title of St. Philip; by which means, the Andalusias being now combined into one province of the Holy Angel, the provinces returned to the number of six.
And when in the year 1640 first the Catalans and soon the Portuguese too began to reject the rule of Philip IV, king of the Spains, and so from the beginning of the year 1641 John, Duke of Bragança, enjoyed royal power over Portugal, while the people of Barcelona with a great part of Catalonia had gone over to Louis XIII, king of France, the Discalced Carmelites assembled at Pastrana in the year 1643 so divided their province of St. Joseph that the part of Catalonia which the French then occupied should remain with the provincial, and a vicar should administer the rest of the province; likewise they granted to the provincial chapters and definitories to be celebrated in Portugal and Catalonia in time of war a power more ample than usual, namely as much as the circumstances of affairs seemed to require: finally, besides the common laws, they designated someone from the province of Old Castile to take the place of the definitor of the province of Portugal. Three years after, in the twenty-second general chapter, no definitor was elected from the province of Portugal, but in his place (as had long obtained with regard to the Mexican province) another was elected from the whole Order, as it is called; and he, by a decree of the Sacred Congregation set over the affairs of Bishops and Regulars, issued on the 27th of April 1646 and afterwards confirmed by two apostolic letters of Innocent X, was called not definitor of the province of St. Philip, but sixth definitor. According to the same norm, on account of the absence of the Portuguese, the general definitory was constituted in the three following general chapters, in the years 1649, 1652 and 1655. But since the Chronicle of the Discalced Carmelite Order ends in the year 1657 and the other documents on this matter are lacking to me, I do not know for certain whether any from the province of Portugal came to the general chapters of their Order before the peace concluded between the Spaniards and the Portuguese in the year 1668. But when the war broke out again in the year 1704, the same difficulties returning as in the year 1646, again a sixth definitor, as the last continuator of the Chronicle testifies,
(book XXIII, chapter 1, number 11, and book XXIV, chapter XVIII, number 7), was taken from the whole Order; and that this obtains even today the list of names presently to be cited teaches. Finally, from letters recently sent to us from Spain we have learned that that Portuguese province has long existed separate and independent of any others, so that it neither belongs to the Spanish Congregation nor is aggregated to the Italian.
Further, since as the seventeenth century went on the number of convents in the kingdom of Aragon had greatly increased, a new province of Aragon was created in the year 1685 under the title of St. Teresa. The same was obtained for Lower Andalusia in the year 1688, for Navarre in the year 1704, and finally for Murcia in the year 1713. And these things indeed I have thought should be noted beforehand about the Spanish Congregation in general; which in the year 1832 still numbered in Spain eight provinces, and in them a hundred and thirteen houses of men, as may be recognized from the list of names of all the Superiors drawn up and printed in that year. And of convents of nuns subject to the jurisdiction of the Order, says he who sent the aforesaid list of names to us in the year 1840, about sixty remain: and not a few monasteries of others subject to the Ordinaries; but the numbers are unknown to me. There was besides, the same man adds, another province, called of St. Albert, in the regions of New Spain, now the Mexican republic; whose houses of men could easily be numbered at sixteen, and of nuns at six or eight. I shall now enumerate in order the houses of the several provinces, adding the names of the Patrons and the years of foundation: using the Chronicle of the Order, the list of names mentioned a little before, the topographical and at the same time chronological tables of the provinces of this Congregation printed in the year 1739, the list which is read at the 15th day of October in Tamayo's Spanish Martyrology; but especially the list which Fr. Dositheus of St. Alexis inserted in the latter volume of the Life of St. John of the Cross, and to which, in the copy I use, a more recent hand has added some convents founded up to the year 1746, and also the catalogue which towards the end of the year 1844 the Reverend Father Manuel of the Rosary deigned to write out for us from the notes which the Discalced Carmelite nuns of Huesca keep in their convent. I shall insert certain annotations where the matter requires. But there is to be set first, outside the order of the provinces, the Roman hospice of SS. Anne and Joachim, erected in the year 1610 with the leave of Paul V, Supreme Pontiff; in which the procurators general, who were wont to be deputed to the Roman Curia for the affairs of the Congregation, should reside with their companions. Of the origin and increases of this hospice the continuator of the Chronicle treats (book XIII, chapter XI).
I. PROVINCE OF OLD CASTILE, OR OF ST. ELIAS. (Erected in the year 1581.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
These fourteen monasteries still existed in the year 1832. That of Ávila since the year 1636 occupies the ground upon which the natal house of St. Teresa had been built; that of Fontiveros likewise was substituted for the natal house of St. John of the Cross. Fr. Manuel of the Rosary assigns to that of La Bañeza the year of foundation 1590, and to that of Padrón the year 1700. To the aforesaid monasteries are to be added three hospices: namely those of Peñaranda, Ponferrada and Alberca; to the last of which these words are added in the topographical table: for the Friars of the desert.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
Outside the jurisdiction of the Order:
In the topographical table of this province and in Fr. Dositheus's list the monastery of Salamanca is said to have been founded in the year 1569 and that of Segovia in the year 1573; but wrongly. See the Preliminary Commentary, §§ XXVII and XXXIII.
II. PROVINCE OF NEW CASTILE, OR OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. (Erected in the year 1588.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
These monasteries, which (since the topographical table of this province is lacking to me) I have enumerated according to the list of Fr. Dositheus and the catalogue of Fr. Manuel, are reviewed in the same number in the list of names drawn up in the year 1832: but in this, I know not for what reason, that of Talavera occupies the ninth place; which everyone sees has been done contrary to the chronological order, which is otherwise kept throughout there. And as for the year 1589 being assigned in Fr. Dositheus's list to the monastery of Pastrana, that is an error of the typesetter, not of the author. This province had four hospices: those of Consuegra, Malagón, Ispino and Corvera.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
Outside the jurisdiction of the Order:
The abolition of the monastery of virgins at Pastrana, made by St. Teresa herself, is narrated in the Preliminary Commentary (number 596 and following). The rest, except that of Almodóvar (on which see the Chronicle, book X, chapter XXII), I have copied from Frs. Dositheus and Manuel.
III. PROVINCE OF UPPER ANDALUSIA, OR OF THE HOLY ANGEL. (Erected in the year 1588.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
If from the fifteen monasteries enumerated here you take away the second and the third, you have the state of this province as it was in the year 1832. That of Mount Calvary, as is noted in the topographical table, was abandoned not so long after the death of St. Teresa. That of La Peñuela, which in the year 1576 had been exchanged for that of Mount Calvary, but in the following year had begun to be inhabited again, still existed about the middle of the century last past. That of Cazorla, however, which is reviewed in the most recent list of names, is inscribed neither in the list of Fr. Dositheus nor in the catalogue of Fr. Manuel nor in the topographical table. Besides, Fr. Dositheus omitted the convent of Antequera, and erroneously assigns to the foundation of the convent of Mancha Real the year 1589. That of Gaucín is shown in the topographical table as founded in the year 1702. Fr. Dositheus puts three hospices of this province: those of Beas, Ronda and Mijas; in the topographical table a fourth, that of Gracelema, is added.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
Fr. Dositheus passed over the seventh of these monasteries.
IV. PROVINCE OF CATALONIA, OR OF ST. JOSEPH. (Erected in the year 1588.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
The monastery of Tàrrega, occupied first by the Franciscans (see Wadding at the year 1318, volume VI, page 324), then by the Dominicans, the Discalced Carmelites entered on the 25th day of September 1588: but since these left it not so long after, the Augustinians succeeded in their place; as Narcís Feliu de la Penya i Farell narrates in his Annals of Catalonia (book XIX, chapter XI). And this is the reason why that monastery is not reviewed in the tables and catalogues which I have before my eyes. That the foundation of Silva was made not in the year 1627, as was written in the topographical table of this province and already before in the tables published in the year 1699, but in the year 1636, as Tamayo and Fr. Dositheus have it, is demonstrated by one of the continuators of the Chronicle (book XXI, chapter IV), and confirmed by the author of the Annals of Catalonia cited a little before (book XX, chapter II). From the same author (book XXI, chapter VI) it is evident that Fr. Dositheus rightly ascribed to the foundation of Balaguer the year 1678, while on the contrary the year 1668 is erroneously noted in the topographical table. To the foundation of Vilanova this table assigns the year 1735, but the manuscript addition to the list of Fr. Dositheus the year 1737. For the rest, all the convents enumerated above, except that of Tàrrega, still survived in the year 1832.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
Outside the jurisdiction of the Order:
That the convent of nuns of Barcelona was founded under the title of the Blessed Virgin Mary conceived without stain is narrated by the author of the Chronicle (book VIII, chapter VII, number 5), with whom Tamayo and Fr. Dositheus agree: wherefore I think the name of St. Joseph has crept by error into the topographical table. In this table and in the catalogue of Fr. Manuel there are asserted for the monastery of Tarragona the patrons SS. Joseph and Anne and the year of foundation 1712; in the list of Fr. Dositheus the patroness St. Teresa and the year 1708: I am in doubt on which side the truth stands. As to the year of foundation of the monastery of Lleida, the aforesaid documents agree among themselves; but they disagree with the Annals of Catalonia of Narcís Feliu, who refers this foundation, made from the testament of Josep Pastor, canon of Lleida, to the year 1640 (book XX, chapter V). Perhaps the said convent was subject to the Ordinary of the place from the year 1640 to the year 1686.
V. PROVINCE OF PORTUGAL, OR OF ST. PHILIP. (Erected in the year 1588.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
In Portugal:
In the kingdom of the Congo:
In Brazil:
On this province see what I have said in the annotations on the Spanish Congregation in general. The years in which the first twelve convents just enumerated were founded I have taken from the Chronicle; which I think is more to be trusted than the other documents, which differ somewhat among themselves and from the Chronicle. To the last four convents I have assigned two titles, on the one hand from the topographical table and the catalogue of Fr. Manuel, on the other from Fr. Dositheus: which are to be preferred, I confess I do not know. Fr. Dositheus did not ascribe years to the three overseas monasteries; Fr. Manuel assigns to those of Angola and Bahia the year 1600. The hospices of this province were that of Tavira in Portugal and that of Recife in Brazil.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
The former title of the monastery of Porto appears in Fr. Dositheus, the other in the topographical table: the same is to be said of the years 1699 and 1706. But no monasteries subject to the Ordinaries of the places occur to me within the limits of this province.
VI. MEXICAN PROVINCE, OR OF ST. ALBERT. (Erected in the year 1588.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
Of these seventeen monasteries thirteen are noted in the topographical table; and rightly: for four of them had for a long time no longer been inhabited. That of Guadalajara existed first from the year 1593 to 1610, and again from the year 1649 to 1653; in which year at last, as also the other founded at Aguascalientes, it was abandoned on account of various obstacles thrown in the way, as is narrated in the Chronicle (book XXV, chapter II). Those of Popayán and Latacunga, again, their inmates abandoned on account of the want of fitting sustenance, as Antonio de Ulloa testifies in his Itinerary of South America (part 1, book VI, chapter III). Fr. Dositheus attributes twelve convents of men to the Mexican province; but to these a more recent hand has added that of Orizaba. What I have noted about the college of Coyoacán and the convent of Querétaro is taken from the Chronicle (book XI, chapter XXI, and book XXIII, chapter VIII); since the list of Fr. Dositheus and the topographical table do not speak accurately enough of these. Concerning the titles of the monasteries of Toluca and Antequera I can determine nothing certain. Three hospices, those of Guadalajara, Tehuacán and San Luis Potosí, are noted in the topographical table; but none in Fr. Dositheus. That about the year 1827 sixteen convents of Carmelites were numbered in the Mexican republic is taught by Hoffmann, Pahl and Pfaff in their Geography published at Stuttgart in the year 1837 in the German language (volume III, page 321); but whether of the Discalced they do not indicate: they say, however, that several of the 150 convents of that region were abolished in the following years. For the rest, the present state of the Mexican province of the Discalced Carmelite Order is entirely unknown to me.
Further, as regards the gentler sex, in the American regions formerly belonging to the Spanish dominion there existed, and in part (e.g. at Guatemala, Havana and at Santiago among the Chileans, as I have received from men worthy of credence) still exist, the following
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
Outside the jurisdiction of the Order:
The first nineteen of these monasteries are reviewed in the topographical table of the Mexican province: the rest
five I have found in Ulloa's Itinerary, in which mention is also made of the monastery of nuns at Latacunga, which was destroyed by an earthquake in the year 1698; whence the nuns betook themselves to Quito, to erect a new convent there (part 1, book V, chapter IV, and book VI, chapter I). And Ulloa, speaking in general of all the monasteries of Discalced Carmelite nuns situated in South America, says: It is worthy of note that the monasteries of the Teresian virgins stand on a most firm footing; nor is any known among them in which fewer nuns are found than are required to complete the number fixed by the rules (ibid., book VI, chapter III).
VII. PROVINCE OF ARAGON, OR OF ST. TERESA. (Erected in the year 1685.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
All the monasteries of men of this province still survived in the year 1832. I do not know whether the same can be said of the hospices of Ibdes, Calatayud and Molina.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
Outside the jurisdiction of the Order:
The monastery of virgins at Palma in Majorca is said by Fr. Manuel to have been erected in the year 1600.
VIII. PROVINCE OF LOWER ANDALUSIA, OR OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST. (Erected in the year 1688.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
These twenty monasteries are enumerated in the list of names published in the year 1832. The author of the topographical table enumerates only nineteen; he seems to have confused the convent of Vallestre, which Fr. Dositheus calls the desert of Vallestre, with the desert of Corvera. Fr. Dositheus, who published his list in the year 1727, could know only seventeen convents of men of this province: yet, as is clear from that list, there already then existed hospices of the Discalced Carmelites at Espejo, at Cádiz and in the place named from the Raven; and to these Fr. Dositheus adds four other hospices, which do not appear in the topographical table: namely those of St. John the Baptist, of Arcos, of Pedroso and of Puente Genil.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
Outside the jurisdiction of the Order:
The monastery of Puente Genil is noted by Fr. Dositheus, but is omitted in the topographical table and by Fr. Manuel: that of Cabra is absent from both, although its foundation is narrated in the Chronicle (book XI, chapter XXXVII). Fr. Manuel assigns to that of Bujalance the year 1700, and to the two following the year 1600.
IX. PROVINCE OF NAVARRE, OR OF ST. JOACHIM. (Erected in the year 1706.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
The order and number of these convents are the same in the topographical table and in the most recent list of names of the Spanish Congregation. The twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth a more recent pen added to the list of Fr. Dositheus, the fifteenth being omitted, which Fr. Manuel likewise omitted. To that of Lerma Fr. Dositheus assigns St. Joseph as patron, to that of Logroño St. Teresa: which indeed I think has been done by an erroneous transposition of the names; for it is clear from the Chronicle that the convent of Lerma was founded under the patronage of St. Teresa (book XV, chapter V). Fr. Manuel ascribes the year 1597 to that of Corella, and the year 1700 to the desert of Las Islas and the monastery of Reus. Add two hospices: those of Bilbao and Soria.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
Outside the jurisdiction of the Order:
To that of Calahorra the year 1589 is ascribed in Fr. Manuel.
X. PROVINCE OF MURCIA, OR OF ST. ANNE. (Erected in the year 1713.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
The convents of Altomira and La Roda were abandoned after the death of St. Teresa (that of La Roda indeed in the year 1603, as is said in the Chronicle, book IV, chapter XX, number 8): all the others enumerated here still stood in the year 1832. That of Lorca, which enjoys only the name of hospice in the topographical table, and the desert of Cambrón are not found in Fr. Dositheus's list, since it was made before their foundation. The convent of Caravaca, of which the Teresian Carmelites took possession on the 18th day of December 1586, but into which the Most Holy Eucharist was not brought before the following year, belonged originally to the province of Andalusia; but in the year 1610, as the author of the Chronicle testifies (book VII, chapter XLIX, number 4), it passed to the province of New Castile: whence in the year 1713 to that of Murcia. Fr. Manuel ascribes to the college of Murcia the year 1680.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
Outside the jurisdiction of the Order:
THE ITALIAN CONGREGATION, OR OF ST. ELIAS.
In the year 1617, in its fifth general chapter, the Italian Congregation was distributed into six provinces: of which the first, under the patronage of St. Anne, comprised the dominion of Genoa with Tuscany; the second, distinguished with the Most Holy name of Mary, the dominion of the Holy Roman Church with the kingdom of Naples and Sicily; the third, sacred to the Holy Spirit, Poland and Lithuania; the fourth, called from the Holy Angel, Lombardy; the fifth, under the title of St. Teresa, France; the sixth, which has its name from St. Joseph, Belgium, Burgundy and Germany. From these the other provinces afterwards came forth. From the Genoese was born in the year 1695 the province of Tuscany, or of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. From the Roman, in the year 1626, the Neapolitan province of the Mother of God had its origin, and six years after the Sicilian of St. Albert. In the year 1734 the Lithuanians obtained a province separated from the Poles, called of St. Casimir. The Piedmontese province of St. Maurice was constituted in the year 1653; the Venetian of St. John of the Cross in the year 1677. In France, about the end of the century last past, five provinces were numbered: that of Avignon, to which remained the title of St. Teresa given in the year 1617; that of Paris, erected in the year 1635 under the title of All Saints; the Norman province of the Most Holy Trinity, born from that of Paris in the year 1686; the Lorraine province of St. Nicholas, sprung likewise from that of Paris in the year 1740; and the Aquitanian of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, begun in the year 1641. Finally the sixth province, originally constituted under the patronage of St. Joseph, in the course of time went off into eight provinces in all: namely in the year 1626 was erected the province of Germany, or of the Most Holy Sacrament, from which proceeded in the year 1701 the Austrian of St. Leopold and in the year 1740 the Bavarian of the Holy Cross: from the Burgundian convents in the year 1653 the province of St. Claude was formed: Belgium in the year 1665 began to have two provinces of Discalced Carmelites, the Flemish-Belgian, which kept the name of St. Joseph, and the Gallo-Belgian, whose patrons are SS. Mary and Joseph: from the latter there was separated in the year 1681 the Walloon-Belgian or of Liège, surnamed from St. Charles; and the Flemish-Belgian in the year 1761 went off into two; of which one was called of Brabant, or of St. Joseph, the other of the Flanders, or of St. Joseph and of the Queen of Peace. Mention must besides be made of the Irish province, which was erected in the year 1638 under the title of St. Patrick, but not long after destroyed by the abominable Cromwell; under whose tyranny the Discalced Carmelites of both sexes, no differently than the religious of other Orders, were vexed in a horrible manner by the heretics and in part slaughtered out of hatred of the Catholic Faith. Finally, to the provinces enumerated so far are to be joined the missions instituted in various parts of the world, but especially in Asia, for the propagation of the true Religion among infidels and its preservation among Catholics.
I have before my eyes the tables of the Italian Congregation too, engraved in copper; but inferior to the Spanish tables chiefly in this, that the latter are at the same time topographical and chronological, the former topographical only. I shall use besides the list which Fr. Louis de Sainte-Thérèse added to the second book of the Annals of the Discalced Carmelites of France, published in the year 1665; likewise the list, which I also used for describing the Spanish Congregation, made by Fr. Dositheus of St. Alexis; also the little book printed at Louvain in the year 1725 under this title: Chronology of all the provinces and convents both of religious men and of nuns of each Congregation, Spanish and Italian, of the Order of Discalced Carmelites: in which little book, however, you will seek in vain the chronology of the Spanish Congregation, however much this too is promised. But the greatest light above the other documents will be brought me by the Universal Catalogue of the provinces, monasteries, convents, residences, hospices and missions of the Italian Congregation, as they were from the beginning up to the year 1780, made with great care and neatly written out by the Reverend Father Gregory Mary of St. Joseph, subprior of Bruges; who did not hesitate to undertake this arduous labour, with the full goodwill of his superiors, for our sake and to the honour of the holy Mother Teresa: so that the survey of the Congregation of St. Elias, which I now undertake to describe, is to be attributed to his industry rather than to mine. And the first place indeed, outside the series of the provinces, is claimed by the houses subject immediately to the Prepositus and the general definitory alone, and so
INCORPORATED IN NO PROVINCE.
I. PROVINCE OF GENOA, OR OF ST. ANNE. (Erected in the year 1617.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
To the fifth and sixth of these monasteries the year 1628 is read ascribed in the list of Fr. Dositheus, I do not know whether by a typographical error.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
Fr. Dositheus places the Genoese monastery of St. Teresa in the second place, adding the year 1619; and I judge that this was indeed rightly done by him: for in the General History of the Discalced Carmelites of the Congregation of St. Elias, printed at Rome in the year 1668, it is affirmed that that of Genoa was founded before that of St. Teresa at Savona (volume I, book I, chapter XXXIV). I have thought, therefore, that I should depart from the author of the Catalogue printed at Louvain and from Fr. Gregory, who placed the Genoese convent of St. Teresa in the third place, as though founded in the year 1629.
II. ROMAN PROVINCE, OR OF ST. MARY. (Erected in the year 1617.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
The Louvain Catalogue assigns to the convent of Perugia the title of Jesus and Mary. Fr. Louis adds to that of Terni, which it is established from the General History of the Congregation of St. Elias (volume II, book III, chapter XXV) was founded in the year 1609, the year 1613; but on the contrary to the following Roman one the year 1609. To the same Roman one Fr. Dositheus ascribes the year 1613, to that of Perugia 1623, to that of Viterbo 1629 and to that of Sassoferrato 1644.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
Outside the jurisdiction of the Order:
This last Roman monastery was founded under the title of Corpus Christi by Cardinal Domenico Ginnasi, as is clear from the General History of the Congregation of St. Elias (volume I, book I, chapter XLII) and from the brief biography of this Cardinal which is found in the Lives of the Roman Pontiffs of Ciacconius and Oldoini (volume IV, column 346, Roman edition, 1677): yet Fr. Gregory makes SS. Peter and Marcellinus the patrons of this monastery, having doubtless obtained more recent documents. The same, otherwise than the older writers did, places the Roman monastery of St. Teresa outside the jurisdiction of the Order.
III. PROVINCE OF POLAND, OR OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. (Erected in the year 1617.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
Fr. Louis and the author of the Louvain Catalogue say that the monastery of Warsaw was founded in the year 1622 under the patronage of St. Joseph: the latter also dissents from the others as regards the convent of Kamieniec, which he asserts is sacred to St. Michael. Fr. Dositheus assigns the year 1613 to that of Lwów, 1617 to the second of Cracow, 1632 to that of Wiśnicz and 1642 to that of Berdyczów, to which he attributes as patrons St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
The Louvain Catalogue assigns to that of Lwów the title of the Holy Spirit, and to that of Warsaw that of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and omits the latter of Cracow.
IV. PROVINCE OF LOMBARDY, OR OF THE HOLY ANGEL. (Erected in the year 1617.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
Fr. Louis ascribes to the monastery of Cremona the year 1607, to that of Milan 1612, to that of Faenza 1615, to that of Parma 1624, to that of Piacenza 1626, to that of Concesio 1643, to that of Mantua 1644; Fr. Dositheus to that of Bologna 1612, to that of Faenza 1616. But the beginnings of that of Cremona to the year
1606 are referred in the General History of the Congregation of St. Elias (volume II, book 1, chapter XLVI): that of Milan did not begin to be built before the year 1614, as appears from the letters given on that matter by Cardinal Federico Borromeo, which Giuseppe Antonio Sassi recites in his History of the archbishops of Milan from a manuscript codex of the same monastery (volume III, page 1091): on the foundation of Concesio, effected in the year 1647 by Cardinal Cesare Monti, likewise prelate of Milan, see the same Sassi (ibid., page 1137). To the nineteen monasteries just enumerated there is added in Fr. Gregory's Catalogue and in the topographical table the hospice of Rezzano.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
Outside the jurisdiction of the Order:
V. PROVINCE OF AVIGNON, OR OF ST. TERESA. (Erected in the year 1617.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
About these twelve convents, to which is to be added the hospice of Cavaillon, the documents which I have at hand agree among themselves well enough. In the Louvain Catalogue, which Fr. Gregory followed, the convent of Lyon is said to have been founded in the year 1618: which indeed is proved not to be foreign to the truth from the Annals of the Discalced Carmelites of France written by Fr. Louis de Sainte-Thérèse (book 1, chapter XLIV); although Fr. Louis himself in his list ascribes the year 1619 to the same convent.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
Outside the jurisdiction of the Order:
Even today there exists at Chambéry in Savoy a convent of Teresian nuns; and in France virgins of the same Institute likewise live at Carpentras, Chalon, Lyon, Beaune, Marseille, Aix, Arles: nay, they also have in the same regions more recent monasteries at Montpellier, Nîmes, Aubagne, Fréjus, Autun and La Tronche near Grenoble; as we have learned from the most recent list sent to us.
VI. PROVINCE OF BRABANT, OR OF ST. JOSEPH. (Erected in the year 1617.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
To these monasteries add two hospices: namely those of Vilvoorde and Roermond. Fr. Dositheus had ascribed to the desert of Nethen the year 1699; but a more recent pen changed this into 1689. About the other convents there is no disagreement among the various writers whom I use. Today no convent of men of this province exists any longer.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
Outside the jurisdiction of the Order:
Of these eight monasteries only the first two and the sixth persist today. The nuns of 's-Hertogenbosch, fugitives when the city was taken by the Dutch in the year 1629, partly betook themselves to Aalst, where they founded a monastery in the year 1632, as Cornelius van Gestel testifies in the History of the Archbishops of Mechelen (volume I, p. 138) and J. F. Foppens in the History of the Bishops of 's-Hertogenbosch (page 315); partly went off in the year 1636 to Cologne, as Aegidius Gelenius relates (On the Greatness of Cologne, book III, syntagma LXXVII), to give a beginning to a new monastery there; partly finally fixed their seat at Oirschot in the year 1644, as van Gestel, just cited, narrates. There also existed formerly within the bounds of the Brabant province three
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS OF THE ENGLISH NATION.
Of these the first two continue today in England itself, the third in France. Namely, from that of Antwerp derives its origin that of Lanherne near the town of St. Columb in Cornwall (commonly Llanherne near St. Columb's, Cornwall); from that of Lier the one which was formerly at Cocken Hall, but is now in the place which they call the House of Carmel, near Darlington in the county of Durham (commonly Carmel House, near Darlington, Durham): that of Hoogstraten too was for some time continued in England, namely at Canford in Dorset (commonly Canford, Dorsetshire); but thence it was removed to Beaulieu at Valognes, a town of Normandy in France (commonly Beaulieu, Valogne, Basse Normandie or Département de la Manche). See the lists of churches, colleges, convents etc. usually subjoined every year to the Directory or Order of the divine Office in England.
VII. PROVINCE OF NAPLES, OR OF THE MOTHER OF GOD. (Erected in the year 1626.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
In weaving the order and chronology of these monasteries Fr. Gregory was my guide; from whom, however, I departed in designating the title of the monastery of Cosenza, which he asserts was placed under the patronage of St. Teresa. Fr. Louis attributes to the convent of Altilia, Fr. Dositheus to that of Trani, SS. Joseph and Teresa as patrons. Fr. Louis ascribes the year 1657 to the convent of Cosenza; Fr. Dositheus 1630 to that of Bari and 1646 to that of Monopoli; the author of the Louvain Catalogue 1648 to that of Cosenza and 1678 to that of Salerno and the desert of Massa.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
Outside the jurisdiction of the Order:
The monastery of Trejano only Fr. Gregory indicates to me. The latter of Naples I do not find elsewhere than in the manuscript addition to Fr. Dositheus's list. Those of Nardò and Anacapri occur only in the topographical table and in Fr. Gregory's catalogue. To that of Gallipoli the Louvain Catalogue asserts SS. Joseph and Teresa as guardians.
VIII. PROVINCE OF COLOGNE, OR OF THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT. (Erected in the year 1626).
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
The Discalced Carmelites began to inhabit Cologne not in the year 1612, as Fr. Louis writes, nor in the year 1614, as is asserted in other lists, but in the year 1613, as Gelenius testifies (On the Greatness of Cologne, book III, syntagma L). To the convent of Koblenz Fr. Louis alone assigns the year of foundation 1659. To the four convents indicated here is to be joined the hospice of Neuburg.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
Outside the jurisdiction of the Order:
A part of the nuns exiled from 's-Hertogenbosch gave a beginning in the year 1636 not to the monastery of Aachen, as van Gestel (cited by me above, where I treated of the province of Brabant) seems to have believed, but to the monastery of Cologne subject to the jurisdiction of the Ordinary; but in the year 1662 some of them went to Aachen, to begin a new convent there too, of which Chr. Quix treats in volume II of the Subsidia of the History of Aachen (page 32). The beginnings of the other monastery of Cologne, founded in the year 1637 by nuns summoned from Brussels, Aegidius Gelenius relates in his work On the Greatness of Cologne (book III, syntagma LXXVIII).
IX. PROVINCE OF SICILY, OR OF ST. ALBERT. (Erected in the year 1632.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
To the former convent of Messina Fr. Gregory alone, perhaps by a slip of the pen, ascribed the year 1617; to the other of Messina Fr. Louis alone the year 1637: with the latter indeed, although the other documents read otherwise, I agree as to the year of foundation of the former convent of Palermo, from the General History of the Congregation of St. Elias (volume II, book 3, chapter XXXIX). The title of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the New Light originally given to the convent of Catania, of which the various catalogues I use say nothing, is recorded by Don Vito M. Amico e Statella, Cassinese Benedictine prior, in his Catana illustrata (book IX, chapter V, number 4).
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
Outside the jurisdiction of the Order:
These last eleven became known to me through Fr. Gregory alone. I think, however, that this most deserving man inadvertently inverted the titles of the two monasteries of Palermo: wherefore I have arranged them in their order from the Louvain Catalogue and Fr. Dositheus's list. According to this list of Fr. Dositheus the foundation of the former monastery of Palermo would have to be referred to the year 1629.
X. PROVINCE OF PARIS, OR OF ALL SAINTS. (Erected in the year 1635.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Outside the jurisdiction of the Order:
Some of these convents, the fury of the French rebellion having been calmed, have begun to flourish again. At Paris the Teresian nuns recently had three houses, and now still have two: at Orléans too, Nevers, Chartres, Troyes, Blois, Sens and Reims they have obtained seats anew: from Compiègne, whither they had likewise returned, they departed not long ago. Besides these they have two more recent monasteries, namely that of Le Mans and that of Brienne (commonly Brienne-le-Château), situated within the bounds of this ancient province of Paris of which we are treating.
XI. PROVINCE OF AQUITAINE, OR OF JESUS, MARY AND JOSEPH. (Erected in the year 1641.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
The convent of Perpignan, whose foundation is narrated in the Spanish Chronicle (book VIII, chapter XIX), passed from the Spanish Congregation, to which it originally belonged, to the Italian and was inserted in the province of Aquitaine in the year 1662; namely after the county of Roussillon, whose capital is Perpignan, had come, first by force of arms, then by the treaty of peace concluded in the year 1659, into the dominion of Louis XIV, king of France. See the Annals of the Discalced Carmelites of France, already cited several times by me (book 2, chapter CXLVIII). Fr. Louis, the writer of these Annals, attributes to the former convent of Bordeaux the title of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Salvation; and the author of the Louvain Catalogue does the same: on the contrary Frs. Dositheus and Gregory assert St. Louis as patron of the same convent, and the Blessed Virgin Mary of the other. For my part I do not doubt that in this matter the authority of Fr. Louis is to be preferred; inasmuch as he published his Annals in the year 1665, that is, ten years or at least five years before the other convent of Bordeaux was founded. I have said: or at least five years; for the Louvain Catalogue refers the beginnings of this latter convent to the year 1671.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Outside the jurisdiction of the Order:
At Tours, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Bourges, Riom, Limoges, Lectoure, Agen, Auch, Poitiers, Montauban and Pamiers Teresian nuns live again at this time. There are besides to be noted here the more recent monasteries of Albi, Bagnères-de-Bigorre (Bagneres), Bayonne, Cahors, Carcassonne, Figeac, Fleurance, Libourne, Moissac, Oloron, Rodez and Tulle.
XII. PROVINCE OF PIEDMONT, OR OF ST. MAURICE. (Erected in the year 1653.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
Concerning these monasteries, to which is to be added the hospice of Moncalieri, begun in the year 1704, Fr. Dositheus dissents greatly from the other authors I use: namely he ascribes to that of Mondovì the year 1621, to that of Turin 1622, to that of Cavallermaggiore 1636, to that of Asti 1646, to that of Ivrea or, as he himself calls it, of Albania, 1685. The monastery of Alessandria, which the older writers place in the province of Lombardy, is attributed by Fr. Gregory to that of Piedmont; to which, I believe, it was transferred after the emperor Leopold, by the pact concluded on the 8th day of November 1703 against the king of France, had made over the dominion of Alessandria to Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy. Finally I would have it noted that the convent which I have called of Nice is situated not within the city of Nice, but in its territory. Henri de Provana, raised from the Discalced Carmelite Order to the mitre of Nice in the year 1672, brought his Friars there and presented them with the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Laghetto; as may be seen in the Gallia Christiana (volume III, column 1294).
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
Fr. Dositheus asserts that the first of these monasteries was erected in the year 1635.
XIII. PROVINCE OF BURGUNDY, OR OF ST. CLAUDE. (Erected in the year 1653.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
Fr. Dositheus again follows another chronology, ascribing the year 1626 to the convent of Salins, 1646 to that of Besançon, 1654 to that of Saint-Claude, 1667 to that of Bletterans.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Outside the jurisdiction of the Order:
Recently the Discalced Carmelite virgins have begun to live again at Besançon.
XIV. GALLO-BELGIAN PROVINCE, OR OF SS. MARY AND JOSEPH. (Erected in the year 1665.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
To the monastery of Douai Frs. Louis and Dositheus assign St. Joseph as patron, the author of the Louvain Catalogue SS. Mary and Joseph. He says that the desert of Marlagne near Namur began to be inhabited in the year 1620; in which matter he dissents not only from Frs. Louis, Dositheus and Gregory, but also from the Spanish Chronicle of his Order (book XVII, chapter XLII, number 5). On the faith of the same Chronicle (ibid., number 6) I have assigned the year 1622 to the foundation of Namur, which others to the year immediately following
refer. To that of Valenciennes the year 1680 is attached in the Louvain Catalogue and in Fr. Dositheus's list.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
Today at Douai in the archdiocese of Cambrai, under the jurisdiction of the Ordinary, there exists a Teresian monastery. Before the year 1834 Carmelite virgins also lived at Lille and at Roubaix; but in that year, after various disputes with the bishop of Cambrai, they went away into Belgium. In the Belgian part of that province there exist today monasteries of Teresian virgins at Mons, Tournai and Namur.
XV. PROVINCE OF VENICE, OR OF ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS. (Erected in the year 1677.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
In the year 1633, which year the Louvain Catalogue assigns to the monastery of Venice, the Discalced Carmelites began to use a hospice at Venice, but a monastery properly so called not before the year 1647; as Flaminio Corner sets forth in the ancient monuments of the Church of Venice (volume VI, page 410 and following). From the same work of Corner it is evident that the monastery of St. George in Alga became Carmelite not in the year 1660, as Fr. Gregory wrote with the author of the Louvain Catalogue, but in the year 1699, as Fr. Dositheus noted. On the titles of the monasteries of Treviso and Crema, which Fr. Gregory puts in inverted order, the Louvain Catalogue and Fr. Dositheus's list agree among themselves; wherefore I thought I should adhere to these. Fr. Dositheus ascribed to the former of Venice the year 1650; to that of Brescia, of which he makes SS. Peter and Teresa patrons, the year 1663. The author of the Louvain Catalogue attributes to the latter of Venice the title of St. Teresa, to that of Nauplia the title of St. Mark; and the years 1665 to that of Verona, 1694 to that of Crema, 1696 to that of Patras. Concerning the convents of Nauplia and Patras it is pleasing to report in this place Fr. Gregory's annotation: The convent erected, he says, at Napoli di Romania had an ancient church founded by the Greeks and sacred to St. Nicholas of the Port. It was the seat of missionaries, who went out thence through the whole region, announcing the word of God to the Catholics of the Greek rite and administering the Sacraments. When the city was taken by the Turks in the year 1715, this flourishing mission was destroyed as much by the cruelty of the Mohammedans as by the hatred of the schismatic Greeks. At Patras in Achaea, which is a city illustrious for the Martyrdom of St. Andrew the Apostle, the second convent of the mission was founded; whose church, formerly an imperial mosque devoted to Mohammedan abominations, was dedicated to St. Andrew the Apostle. This seat of the mission too brought the greatest usefulness to Catholics. But in the year 1716, the city being taken and Achaea subjected by the Turks, everything was destroyed, some religious being slaughtered, and the rest thrown into cruel slavery. Thus Fr. Gregory; who also adds to his catalogue the hospice of Conegliano.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
XVI. WALLOON-BELGIAN PROVINCE, OR OF ST. CHARLES. (Erected in the year 1681.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
Although in the Chronicle (book XVII, chapter XLII, number 4) the foundation of Liège is said to have been made in the year 1618, I thought I should not depart from the other documents available to me, in which it is referred to the year 1617. To that of Huy Fr. Louis alone ascribes the year 1641.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
Outside the jurisdiction of the Order:
The monastery of Teresian virgins at Liège has flourished again.
XVII. PROVINCE OF NORMANDY, OR OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. (Erected in the year 1686.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
Since Fr. Louis in his Annals (book 2, chapter LI) narrates at the year 1644 the foundation of Saint-Sauveur near Carentan, without anywhere mentioning that of Rennes, while Fr. Dositheus, himself a Frenchman too, refers the beginnings of the convent of Rennes to this same year, which, however, are referred by the author of the Louvain Catalogue and by Fr. Gregory to the year 1687, nay by Expilly in the Geographical Dictionary of France (article Rennes) to the year 1690, and since the convent of Saint-Sauveur is absent from the topographical table of this province, and that of Rennes on the contrary is inscribed in it, I think therefore that I have used a not improbable conjecture when I said that one of these convents perhaps succeeded the other. That of Carentan, however, Fr. Dositheus believed to have arisen in the year 1686, the author of the Louvain Catalogue in the year 1687.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
Outside the jurisdiction of the Order:
From Belgium three Carmelite nuns came to Morlaix in the year 1619, to found a convent under the jurisdiction of the Order in that part of the city which belonged to the diocese of Tréguier. But when they had asked in vain for the consent of Guy Champion, bishop of Tréguier, they betook themselves thence to the other part of the city, subject to René de Rieux, bishop of Léon; and there they began a monastery. After this, being compelled to flee from there, they stayed for some time first in the episcopal palace itself of Saint-Pol-de-Léon, then in the castle of Brest; until at length in the year 1625, with other nuns whom they had associated with themselves, they betook themselves to Lille in Flanders. Whoever wishes to see these things narrated more at large, let him go to Michel de Marillac's commentary on the Erection and Institution of the Order of Teresian nuns in France, published at Paris in the year 1622 (chapter VIII, and document B and following in the appendix), likewise Fr. Louis's Annals already often alleged (book 1, chapters LII and LIII) and the History of Pierre Cardinal de Bérulle, by Tabaraud (book 2, chapter VI). At present the Discalced Carmelite virgins have convents at Pontoise, Amiens, Rouen, Nantes, Morlaix, Abbeville and Pont-Audemer; to which are to be joined those of Lisieux and Valognes recently founded.
XVIII. PROVINCE OF TUSCANY, OR OF THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. (Erected in the year 1695.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
This last monastery the author of the Louvain Catalogue thought was erected in the year 1718 under the invocation of SS. Joseph and Teresa.
MONASTERY OF VIRGINS.
XIX. AUSTRIAN PROVINCE, OR OF ST. LEOPOLD. (Erected in the year 1701.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
The year of foundation of that of Vienna is 1623 in Fr. Louis, 1629 in the Louvain Catalogue; that of Prague 1624 and that of Wiener Neustadt 1665 in the same Catalogue and in Fr. Dositheus; finally in the latter that of Gorizia 1648. In the city of Sankt Pölten the Discalced Carmelites began a hospice in the year 1707, and in the year 1773 it passed into a monastery; as Albert von Maderna relates in the History of the Canonry of Sankt Pölten (part II, pages 427 and 428). Further, according to the list published on the 14th day of May 1842 in the Roman journal whose vernacular name is Diario di Roma, there are numbered today in the Austrian empire five convents of the Discalced Carmelite Order.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
To that of Wiener Neustadt the Louvain Catalogue ascribes the year 1665; to that of Sankt Pölten the same Catalogue 1701, Fr. Gregory 1705, Fr. Dositheus 1706, Albert von Maderna (loc. cit.) 1707; and him indeed I have thought I should follow above all. The list alleged a little above numbers at this time in the Austrian empire three monasteries of Carmelite virgins, without indicating whether they are Calced or Discalced.
XX. LITHUANIAN PROVINCE, OR OF ST. CASIMIR. (Erected in the year 1734.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
To the fourth of these monasteries Fr. Dositheus ascribed the year 1646, to the fifth 1668. The seventh and eighth are noted in the topographical table and at the same time in Fr. Gregory's catalogue; the ninth in this catalogue alone; the tenth in the table alone.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
The year of the foundation of Poznań for Fr. Dositheus is 1665.
XXI. PROVINCE OF BAVARIA, OR OF THE HOLY CROSS. (Erected in the year 1740.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
The beginnings of the convent of Augsburg Fr. Louis refers to the year 1631, Johann Leonhard Mayr in the Moderna Ecclesia Augustensis published in the year 1762 (part IV, section 3, § III, number 1) to the year 1628, the others to 1632. To that of Regensburg Fr. Louis ascribes the year 1639; to that of Schongau the Louvain Catalogue alone the year 1719, the others more rightly 1720: namely in the year 1719 indeed Alexander Sigismund, bishop of Augsburg, gave his consent to the foundation; but only in the following year, as the same Mayr testifies (ibid., number 2), was the erection of the convent made.
MONASTERY OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
XXII. PROVINCE OF LORRAINE, OR OF ST. NICHOLAS. (Erected in the year 1740.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
To the convent of Saint-Mihiel Fr. Louis attributes St. Teresa as patroness, the Louvain Catalogue the Mother of God presented in the temple and St. Teresa. On the convent of Nancy the History of the city of Nancy, by J. J. Lionnois, priest (volume II, page 380 and following), deserves to be consulted. To the six monasteries of this province is to be annexed the hospice of Neufchâteau.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
Of all these monasteries Fr. Louis treats in his Annals: but of both of those of Nancy more particular things may be seen in Lionnois (volume II, page 273 and following, and volume III, page 74 and following). Today no convent of Teresian nuns exists any longer within the bounds of this province of Lorraine.
XXIII. PROVINCE OF FLANDERS, OR OF ST. JOSEPH AND THE QUEEN OF PEACE. (Erected in the year 1761.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
To these convents add the hospice of Courtrai and six cells of the desert of Nethen in Brabant, which after the year 1761, in which this province was erected, were reserved to the Flemish Fathers. Today the Discalced Carmelites again live at Bruges, Ghent, Ypres and Courtrai.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
Under the jurisdiction of the Order:
Outside the jurisdiction of the Order:
Of the origin of this last monastery, which may be said to have succeeded in the place of that of 's-Hertogenbosch, I have made mention in the annotations on the province of Brabant. Even today the Teresian nuns have convents at Ghent, Ypres, Bruges, Courtrai, Dendermonde and Aalst.
IRISH PROVINCE, OR OF ST. PATRICK. (Erected in the year 1638, but shortly after destroyed.)
MONASTERIES OF MEN.
1 Dublin, erected in the year 1625. — 2 Kilkenny. — 3 Limerick. — 4 Kinsale. — 5 Loughrea. — 6 Galway. — 7 Athboy. — 8 Ardagh. — 9 Drogheda.
MONASTERIES OF VIRGINS.
1 Cork. — 2 Limerick.
At the present time there exist two monasteries of men, at Dublin and at Loughrea; of nuns nine, of which three are under the jurisdiction of the Order, six under that of the Ordinaries.
EUROPEAN MISSIONS.
IN HOLLAND.
RESIDENCES.
IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND.
At London a residence, from which missionaries were sent to their stations in various places. This mission, which was under the special protection of the ambassador of the king of Spain, was begun in the year 1641.
ASIATIC MISSIONS.
VICARIATE OF THE PERSIAN MISSIONS.
RESIDENCES AND HOSPICES.
In the kingdom of Persia:
In the Turkish empire:
VICARIATE OF THE SYRIAN MISSIONS.
MONASTERIES AND RESIDENCES.
VICARIATE OF THE MALABAR MISSIONS.
MONASTERIES AND RESIDENCES.
At Mahé. — At Setalli. — At Mettangeri. — At Cochin.
On the apostolic vicariate of the land of the Malabars, which Pope Alexander VII in the year 1659 committed to the Reverend Father Joseph of St. Mary, a Discalced Carmelite, raised to the episcopal dignity, and which thereafter from the year 1700 up to the present time, by decree of Pope Innocent XII, has customarily been entrusted to bishops taken from the Discalced Carmelite Order, consult the Lyons Annals of the Propagation of the Faith for the month of November of the year 1839, where there is to be found an important Commentary on the Malabar missions, written at the beginning of the same year by the present vicar apostolic, the Illustrious Lord Fr. Francis Xavier of St. Anne, then bishop of Amata, but now archbishop of Sardis. See also other letters of the same prelate in the aforesaid Annals for the month of September of the year 1840. The principal seat of this vicariate is Verapoly.
VICARIATE OF THE MOGUL MISSIONS.
MONASTERIES AND RESIDENCES.
For these missions too there was erected in the year 1669
by Pope Clement IX an apostolic vicariate, to which a bishop from the Discalced Carmelite Order is customarily deputed, who generally resides at Bombay. On the present state of this vicariate see the places of the Annals of the Propagation of the Faith already cited.
IN THE CHINESE EMPIRE.
AFRICAN MISSION.
AMERICAN MISSION.
But today in the archdiocese of Baltimore there exists a monastery of Teresian virgins subject to the jurisdiction of the Ordinary.
Such, then, not so long ago, was the numerous religious offspring of the fruitful parent Teresa, which, alas, the dreadful storms raised by impious men have in great part scattered. Yet if the branches have been torn off, the trunk stands and the root flourishes, from which we see new shoots happily growing up every year, which the superiors of the Order cultivate, solicitous to keep discipline in good repair, and tenacious of the Teresian spirit. God grant that, to the honour of God and of the Church and to the good of souls, the holy Family may prosper, and that in it the posthumous glory of the holy Mother may increase day by day!
EpilogueWe have at length reached the goal of the Life of Teresa. If it seems too long to anyone, I would have him consider its various parts, which by the law and example of my Predecessors could by no means be passed over by me; and he will find that so abundant a matter comes together in composing and commenting on the Life of this Saint as, if its parts are taken together, the Life of scarcely any Saint, or not even scarcely, supplies. For Ribera's biography of Teresa, as it is the most excellent so also the longest, had to be chosen and presented, by the judgement also of my Predecessor Bue (see numbers 2–7). In like manner the Acts of the Canonization of St. Teresa stand out both in amplitude and in excellence among the other Acts of the Saints (see numbers 1077 and 1078). Then the Saint herself, in her own style, furnishes many documents of her earlier years in the book of her Life, many of her later years in the book of the Foundations; both of which it was right for me to present, following the example of our Elders in the Life of St. Augustine, etc. (see number 13). Moreover, she was the Reformer of a religious Family of both sexes, most deserving of the Church of God and most numerous, and besides she herself was so powerful with the pen that scarcely the works of any writer of any age have been so often reprinted and translated into almost all the languages of Europe and read with so great fruit for souls. From which it becomes evident how great a forest of matters to be treated the Life which I am finishing has furnished me.