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

>arguments. Notwithstanding their high authority the Bollandists

are in this respect perfectly wrong, the arguments are entirely

in St. Teresa’s own hand and are exclusively her own work.

The Book of Foundations and the Way of Perfection contain similar

arguments in the Saint’s handwriting. Nor need any surprise be

felt at the alleged praise of her doctrine for by saying: this

chapter is most noteworthy (Chap. XIV.), or: this is good

doctrine (Chap. XXI.), etc., she takes no credit for herself

because she never grows tired of repeating that she only delivers

the message she has received from our Lord. [2] The Bollandists,

not having seen the original, may be excused, but P. Bouix (whom

Mr. Lewis follows in this matter) had no right to suppress these

arguments. It is to be hoped that future editions of the works

of S. Teresa will not again deprive the reader of this remarkable

feature of her writings. What she herself thought of her books

is best told by Yepes in a letter to Father Luis de Leon, the

first editor of her works: “She was pleased when her writings

were being praised and her Order and the convents were held in

esteem. Speaking one day of the Way of Perfection, she rejoiced

to hear it praised, and said to me with great content: Some grave

men tell me that it is like Holy Scripture. For being revealed

doctrine it seemed to her that praising her book was like

praising God.” [3]

A notable feature in Mr. Lewis’s translation is his division of

the chapters into short paragraphs. But it appears that he

rearranged the division during the process of printing, with the

result that a large number of references were wrong. No labour

has been spared in the correction of these, and I trust that the

present edition will be the more useful for it. In quoting the

Way of Perfection and the Interior Castle (which he calls Inner

Fortress!) Mr. Lewis refers to similar paragraphs which, however,

are to be found in no English edition. A new translation of

these two works is greatly needed, and, in the case of the Way of

Perfection, the manuscript of the Escurial should be consulted as

well as that of Valladolid. Where the writings of S. John of the

Cross are quoted by volume and page, the edition referred to is

the one of 1864, another of Mr. Lewis’s masterpieces.

The chapters in Ribera’s Life of St. Teresa refer to the edition

in the Acts of the Saint by the Bollandists. These and all other

quotations have been carefully verified, with the exception of

those taken from the works on Mystical theology by Antonius a

Spiritu Sancto and Franciscus a S. Thoma, which I was unable to

consult. I should have wished to replace the quotations from

antiquated editions of the Letters of our Saint by references to

the new French edition by P. Grégoire de S. Joseph (Paris,

Poussielgue, 1900), which may be considered as the

standard edition.

In note 2 to Chap. XI. Mr. Lewis draws attention to a passage in

a sermon by S. Bernard containing an allusion to different ways

of watering a garden similar to St. Teresa’s well-known

comparison. Mr. Lewis’s quotation is incorrect, and I am not

certain what sermon he may have had in view. Something to the

point may be found in sermon 22 on the Canticle (Migne,

P. L. Vol. CLXXXIII, p. 879), and in the first sermon on the

Nativity of our Lord (ibid., p. 115), and also in a sermon on the

Canticle by one of St. Bernard’s disciples (Vol. CLXXXIV.,

195). I am indebted to the Very Rev. Prior Vincent McNabb,

O.P., for the verification of a quotation from St. Vincent Ferrer

(Chap. XX. § 31).

Since the publication of Mr. Lewis’s translation the uncertainty

about the date of St. Teresa’s profession has been cleared up.

Yepes, the Bollandists, P. Bouix, Don Vicente de la Fuente,

Mr. Lewis, and numerous other writers assume that she entered the

convent of the Incarnation [4] on November 2nd, 1533, and made

her profession on November 3rd, 1534. The remaining dates of

events previous to her conversion are based upon this, as will he

seen from the chronology printed by Mr. Lewis at the end of his

Preface and frequently referred to in the footnotes. It rests,

however, on inadequate evidence, namely on a single passage in

the Life [5] where the Saint says that she was not yet twenty

years old when she made her first supernatural experience in

prayer. She was twenty in March, 1535, and as this event took

place after her profession, the latter was supposed by Yepes and

his followers to have taken place in the previous November.

Even if we had no further evidence, the fact that St. Teresa is

not always reliable in her calculation should have warned us not

to rely too much upon a somewhat casual statement. In the first

chapter, § 7, she positively asserts that she was rather less

than twelve years old at the death of her mother, whereas we know

that she was at least thirteen years and eight months old. As to

the profession we have overwhelming evidence that it took place

on the 3rd of November, 1536, and her entrance in the convent a

year and a day earlier. To begin with, we have the positive

statement of her most intimate friends, Julian d’Avila, Father

Ribera, S.J., and Father Jerome Gratian. Likewise doña Maria

Pinel, nun of the Incarnation, says in her deposition: “She

(Teresa of Jesus) took the habit on 2 November, 1535.” [6]

This is corroborated by various passages in the Saint’s writings.

Thus, in Relation VII., written in 1575, she says, speaking of

herself: “This nun took the habit forty years ago.” Again in a

passage of the Life written about the end of 1564 or the

beginning of the following year, [7] she mentions that she has

been a nun for over twenty-eight years, which points to her

profession in 1536. But there are two documents which place the

date of profession beyond dispute, namely the act of renunciation

of her right to the paternal inheritance and the deed of dowry

drawn up before a public notary. Both bear the date 31 October,

1536. The authors of the Reforma de los Descalços thought that

they must have been drawn up before St. Teresa took the habit,

and therefore placed this event in 1536 and the profession in

1537, but neither of these documents is necessarily connected

with the clothing, yet both must have been completed before

profession. The Constitutions of Blessed John Soreth, drawn up

in 1462, which were observed at the convent of the Incarnation,

contain the following rule with regard to the reception and

training of novices: [8] Consulimus quod recipiendus ante

susceptionem habitus expediat se de omnibus quae habet in saeculo

nisi ex causa rationabili per priorem generalem vel provincialem

fuerit aliter ordinatum. There was, indeed, good reason in the

case of St. Teresa to postpone these legal matters. Her father

was much opposed to her becoming a nun, but considering his piety

it might have been expected that before the end of the year of

probation he would grant his consent (which in the event he did

the very day she took the habit), and make arrangements for the

dowry. One little detail concerning her haste in entering the

convent has been preserved by the Reforma and the

Bollandists, [9] though neither seem to have understood its

meaning. On leaving the convent of the Incarnation for

St. Joseph’s in 1563, St. Teresa handed the prioress of the

former convent a receipt for her bedding, habit and discipline.

This almost ludicrous scrupulosity was in conformity with a

decision of the general chapter of 1342 which said: Ingrediens

ordinem ad sui ipsius instantiam habeat lectisternia pro se ipso,

sin autem recipiens solvat lectum illum. As St. Teresa entered

the convent without the knowledge of her father she did not bring

this insignificant trousseau with her; accordingly the prioress

became responsible for it and obtained a receipt when St. Teresa

went to the new convent. The dowry granted by Alphonso Sanchez

de Cepeda to his daughter consisted of twenty-five measures,

partly wheat, partly barley, or, in lieu thereof, two hundred

ducats per annum. Few among the numerous nuns of the Incarnation

could have brought a better or even an equal dowry.

The date of St. Teresa’s profession being thus fixed on the 3rd

of November, 1536, some other dates of the chronology must be

revised. Her visit to Castellanos de la Canada must have taken

place in the early part of 1537. But already before this time

the Saint had an experience which should have proved a warning to

her, and the neglect of which she never ceased to deplore, namely

the vision of our Lord; [10] her own words are that this event

took place “at the very beginning of her acquaintance with the

person” who exercised so dangerous an influence upon her.

Mr. Lewis assigns to it the date 1542, which is impossible seeing

that instead of twenty-six it was only twenty-two years before

she wrote that passage of her life. Moreover, it would have

fallen into the midst of her lukewarmness (according to

Mr. Lewis’s chronology) instead of the very beginning. P. Bouix

rightly assigns it to the year 1537, but as he is two years in

advance of our chronology it does not agree with the surrounding

circumstances as described by him. Bearing in mind the hint

St. Teresa gives [11] as to her disposition immediately after her

profession, we need not be surprised if the first roots of her

lukewarmness show themselves so soon.

From Castellanos she proceeded to Hortigosa on a visit to her

uncle. While there she became acquainted with the book called

Tercer Abecedario. Don Vicente remarks that the earliest edition

known to him was printed in 1537, which tells strongly against

the chronology of the Bollandists, P. Bouix, and others.

Again, speaking of her cure at Bezadas she gives a valuable hint

by saying that she remained blind to certain dangers for more

than seventeen years until the Jesuit fathers finally undeceived

her. As these came to Avila in 1555 the seventeen years lead us

back to 1538, which precisely coincides with her sojourn at

Bezadas. She remained there until Pascua florida of the

following year. P. Bouix and others understand by this term Palm

Sunday, but Don Vicente shows good reason that Easter Sunday is

meant, which in 1539 was April the 6th. She then returned to

Avila, more dead than alive, and remained seriously ill for

nearly three years, until she was cured through the miraculous

intervention of St. Joseph about the beginning of 1542.

Now began the period of lukewarmness which was temporally

interrupted by the illness and death of her father, in 1544 or

1545, and came to an end about 1555. Don Vicente, followed by

Mr. Lewis, draws attention to what he believes to be a “proof of

great laxity of the convent,” that St. Teresa should have been

urged by one of her confessors to communicate as often as once a

fortnight. It should be understood that frequent communion such

as we now see it practised was wholly unknown in her time.

The Constitutions of the Order specified twelve days on which all

those that were not priests should communicate, adding:

Verumtamen fratres professi prout Deus eis devotionem contulerit

diebus dominicis et festis duplicibus (i.e., on feasts of our

Lady, the Apostles, etc.), communicare poterunt si qui velint.

Thus, communicating about once a