Life of St Teresa of Jesus, Teresa of Avila [top ten books to read TXT] 📗

>Italian. Ch. xxxii. is broken off at the end of § 10; and

ch. xxxiii., therefore, is ch. xxxvii. That which is there

omitted has been thrown into the Book of the Foundations, which,

in the translation of Mr. Woodhead, begins with § 11 of

ch. xxxii. of the Life, as it also does in the Italian

translation. It is due, however, to Mr. Woodhead to say that he

has printed five of the Relations separately, not as letters, but

as what they really are, and with that designation.

The last translation is that of the Very Reverend John Dalton,

Canon of Northampton, which is now, though twice published,

almost as scarce as its predecessors. The title is:

“The Life of St. Teresa, written by herself, and translated

from the Spanish by the Rev. John Dalton. London, MDCCCLI.”

Septuagesima, 1870.

1. Fr. Anton. a St. Joseph, in his note on letter 16, but letter

41, vol. iv. ed. Doblado.

2. Reforma de los Descalços. lib. i. ch. vii. § 3.

3. Ch. iii. § 2.

4. Ch. iii. § 9.

5. Ch. i. § 3.

6. Ch. xxiii. § 2.

7. Ch. xxiii. § 8.

8. Id. § 12.

9. Ch. xxiv. § 1.

10. Id. § 4.

11. Ch. xxix. § 4.

12. Ch. xxxiii. § 6.

13. The Saint held him in great reverence, and in one of her

letters—lett. 355, but lett. 100, vol. ii. ed. Doblado—calls

him a founder of her Order, because of the great services he had

rendered her, and told her nuns of Seville that they need not be

veiled in his presence, though they must be so in the presence of

everybody else, and even the friars of the Reform.

14. See Life, ch. xxix. § 6.

15. Rel. vii. § 9.

16. Reforma de los Descalços, lib. ii. c. xxviii. § 6.

17. Introduccion al libro de la Vida, vol. i. p. 3.

18. Jerome Gratian, Lucidario, c. iv.

19. Life, ch. xxxvi. § 15.

20. The Saint says of herself, Rel. vii. § 18, that “she took the

greatest pains not to submit the state of her soul to any one who

she thought would believe that these things came from God, for

she was instantly afraid that the devil would deceive them both.”

21. Rel. vii. § 16.

22. “Como hombre criado toda mi vida en leer y disputar” (De la

Fuente, ii. p. 376).

23. 2 Cor. xi. 14: “Ipse enim Satanas transfigurat se in

angelum lucis.”

24. The other theologian appointed by the Inquisition, with Fra

Bañes, to examine the “Life.”

25. This took place in the year 1580, according to the Chronicler

of the Order (Reforma de los Descalços, lib. v. c. xxxv. § 4);

and the Bollandists (n. 1536) accept his statement. Fra Jerome

says he was Provincial of his Order at the time; and as he was

elected only on the 4th of March, 1581, according to the

Chronicler and the Bollandists, it is more likely that the

audience granted to them by the Cardinal took place in 1581.

26. Reforma de los Descalços, lib. v. c. xxxiv. § 4: “Relaciones

de su espiritu.”

27. Rel. ii. § 18.

Annals of the Saint’s Life.

By Don Vicente de la Fuente.

These are substantially the same with those drawn up by the

Bollandists, but they are fuller and more minute, and furnish a

more detailed history of the Saint.

1515. St. Teresa is born in Avila, March 28th. [1]

1522. She desires martyrdom, and leaves her father’s house with

one of her brothers.

1527. [2] Death of her mother.

1529. Writes romances of chivalry, and is misled by a

thoughtless cousin.

1531. Her sister Maria’s marriage, and her removal from home to

the Augustinian monastery, where she remains till the autumn of

next year.

1533. [3] Nov. 2, enters the monastery of the Incarnation.

1534. Nov. 3, makes her profession.

1535. Goes to Castellanos de la Cañada, to her sister’s house,

where she remains till the spring of 1536, when she goes

to Bezadas.

1537. Returns to Avila on Palm Sunday. In July seriously ill,

and in a trance for four days, when in her father’s house.

Paralysed for more than two years.

1539. Is cured of her paralysis by St. Joseph.

1541. Begins to grow lukewarm, and gives up mental prayer.

1542. Our Lord appears to her in the parlour of the monastery,

“stern and grave ” [ch. vii. § 11, see note there].

1555. Ceases to converse with secular people, moved thereto by

the sight of a picture of our Lord on the cross [ch. ix. § 1].

The Jesuits come to Avila and the Saint confesses to F. Juan

de Padranos.

1556. Beginning of the supernatural visitations.

1557. St. Francis de Borja comes to Avila, and approves of the

spirit of the Saint.

1558. First rapture of the Saint [ch. xxiv. § 7]. The vision of

Hell [ch. xxxii. § 1]. Father Alvarez ordained priest.

1559. She takes F. Alvarez for her confessor. The transpiercing

of her heart [ch. xxix. § 17]. Vision of our Lord risen from the

dead [ch. xxvii. § 3, ch. xxviii. § 2].

1560. The vow of greater perfection. St. Peter of Alcantara

approves of her spirit, and St. Luis Beltran encourages her to

proceed with her plan of founding a new monastery.

1561. F. Gaspar de Salazar, S.J., comes to Avila; her sister

Doña Juana comes to Avila from Alba de Tormes to help the Saint

in the new foundation [ch. xxxiii. § 13]. Restores her nephew to

Life [ch. xxxv. § 14, note]. Fra Ibañez bids her write her Life.

Receives a sum of money from her brother in Peru, which enables

her to go on with the building of the new house.

1562. Goes to Toledo, to the house of Doña Luisa de la Cerda,

and finishes the account of her Life. Makes the acquaintance of

Fra Bañes, afterwards her principal director, and Fra Garcia of

Toledo, both Dominicans. Receives a visit from Maria of Jesus.

Has a revelation that her sister, Doña Maria, will die suddenly

[ch. xxxiv. § 24]. Returns to Avila and takes possession of the

new monastery, August 24. Troubles in Avila. The Saint ordered

back to the monastery of the Incarnation. Is commanded by Fra

Garcia of Toledo to write the history of the foundation of

St. Joseph.

1. In the same year St. Philip was born in Florence. St. Teresa

died in 1582, and St. Philip in 1595; but they were canonised on

the same day, with St. Isidore, St. Ignatius, and St. Francis

Xavier. The three latter were joined together in the three final

consistories held before the solemn proclamation of their

sanctity, and St. Teresa and St. Philip were joined together in

the same way in the final consistories held specially, as usual,

for them.

2. This must be an error. See ch. i. § 7, note 7.

3. There is a difficulty about this. The Bollandists maintain

that she went to the monastery of the Incarnation in the year

1533. On the other hand Ribera, her most accurate

biographer—with whom Fra Jerome agrees,—says that she left her

father’s house in 1535, when she was more than twenty years of

age; Yepes, that she was not yet twenty; and the Second Relation

of the Rota, that she was in her twentieth year. The Bull of

Canonisation and the Office in the Breviary also say that she was

in her twentieth year, that is, A.D. 1534. The Chronicler of the

Order differs from all and assigns the year 1536 as the year in

which she entered the monastery.

The Life

of the

Holy Mother Teresa of Jesus.

Written by Herself.

Prologue.

As I have been commanded and left at liberty to describe at

length my way of prayer, and the workings of the grace of our

Lord within me, I could wish that I had been allowed at the same

time to speak distinctly and in detail of my grievous sins and

wicked life. But it has not been so willed; on the contrary, I

am laid herein under great restraint; and therefore, for the love

of our Lord, I beg of every one who shall read this story of my

life [1] to keep in mind how wicked it has been; and how, among

the Saints who were converted to God, I have never found one in

whom I can have any comfort. For I see that they, after our Lord

had called them, never fell into sin again; I not only became

worse, but, as it seems to me, deliberately withstood the graces

of His Majesty, because I saw that I was thereby bound to serve

Him more earnestly, knowing, at the same time, that of myself I

could not pay the least portion of my debt.

May He be blessed for ever Who waited for me so long! I implore

Him with my whole heart to send me His grace, so that in all

clearness and truth I may give this account of myself which my

confessors command me to give; and even our Lord Himself, I know

it, has also willed it should be given for some time past, but I

had not the courage to attempt it. And I pray it may be to His

praise and glory, and a help to my confessors; who, knowing me

better, may succour my weakness, so that I may render to our Lord

some portion of the service I owe Him. May all creatures praise

Him for ever! Amen.

1. The Saint, in a letter written November 19, 1581, to Don Pedro

de Castro, then canon of Avila, speaking of this book, calls it

the book “Of the compassions of God”—Y ansi intitule ese libro

De las Misericordias de Dios. That letter is the 358th in the

edition of Don Vicente de la Fuente, and the 8th of the fourth

volume of the Doblado edition of Madrid. “Vitam igitur suam

internam et supernaturalem magis pandit quam narrat actiones

suas mere humanas” (Bollandists, n. 2).

Chapter I.

Childhood and Early Impressions. The Blessing of Pious Parents.

Desire of Martyrdom. Death of the Saint’s Mother.

1. I had a father and mother, who were devout and feared God.

Our Lord also helped me with His grace. All this would have been

enough to make me good, if I had not been so wicked. My father

was very much given to the reading of good books; and so he had

them in Spanish, that his children might read them. These books,

with my mother’s carefulness to make us say our prayers, and to

bring us up devout to our Lady and to certain Saints, began to

make me think seriously when I was, I believe, six or seven years

old. It helped me, too, that I never saw my father and mother

respect anything but goodness. They were very good themselves.

My father was a man of great charity towards the poor, and

compassion for the sick, and also for servants; so much so, that

he never could be persuaded to keep slaves, for he pitied them so

much: and a slave belonging to one of his brothers being once in

his house, was treated by him with as much tenderness as his own

children. He used to say that he could not endure the pain of

seeing that she was not free. He was a man of great

truthfulness; nobody ever heard him swear or speak ill of any

one; his