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

have been led by

God to this degree of contemplation (and I say that some have

been led so far), should procure the book because it is important

for you, after I am dead.” [31] At the end she writes: “Since

the Lord has taught you the way and has inspired me as to what I

should put in the book which I say has been written, how they

should behave who have arrived at this fountain of living water

and what the soul feels there, and how God satiates her and makes

her lose the thirst for things of this world and causes her to

grow in things pertaining to the service of God; that book,

therefore, will be of great help for those who have arrived at

this state, and will give them much light. Procure it.

For Father Domingo Bañez, presentado of the Order of St. Dominic

who, as I say, is my confessor, and to whom I shall give this,

has it: if he judges that you should see this, and gives it to

you, he will also give you the other.” [32] While the first and

second of these quotations may be found, somewhat weakened, in

the final version of the “Way of Perfection,” the last one is

entirely omitted. Nor need this surprise us, for Father Bañez

had his own ideas about the advisability of the publication of

the “Life.” In his deposition, already referred to, he says: “It

was not convenient that this book should become public during her

lifetime, but rather that it should be kept at the Holy Office

(the Inquisition) until we knew the end of this person; it was

therefore quite against my will that some copies were taken while

it was in the hands of the bishop Don Alvaro Mendoza, who, being

a powerful prelate and having received it from the said Teresa of

Jesus, allowed it to be copied and showed it to his sister, doña

Maria de Mendoza; thus certain persons taking an interest in

spiritual matters and knowing already some portions of this

treatise (evidently the contents of the divulged Relations) made

further copies, one of which became the property of the Duchess

of Alba, doña Maria Enriquez, and is now, I think, in the hands

of her daughter-in-law, doña Maria de Toledo. All this was

against my wish, and I was much annoyed with the said Teresa of

Jesus, though I knew well it was not her fault but the fault of

those to whom she had confided the book, and I told her she ought

to burn the original because it would never do that the writings

of women should become public property; to which she answered she

was quite aware of it and would certainly burn it if I told her

to do so; but knowing her great humility and obedience I did not

dare to have it destroyed but handed it to the Holy Office for

safe-keeping, whence it has been withdrawn since her death and

published in print.” [33] From this it will he seen that Bañez,

who had given a most favourable opinion when the “Life” was

denounced to the Inquisition (1574), resulting in the approbation

by Cardinal de Quiroga to the great joy of St. Teresa, [34]

returned it to the Holy Office for safety’s sake. It was

withdrawn by the Ven. Mother Anne of Jesus when the Order had

decided upon the publication of the works of the Saint, but too

late to be utilised then. Father Luis de Leon, the editor, had

to content himself with the copy already alluded to.

St. Teresa wrote her “Life” slowly. It was begun in spring,

1563, [35] and completed in May or June, 1565. She complains

that she can only work at it by stealth on account of her duties

at the distaff; [36] but the book is written with so much order

and method, the manuscript is so free from mistakes, corrections

and erasures, that we may conclude that while spinning she worked

it out in her mind, so that the apparent delay proved most

advantageous. In this respect the “Life” is superior to the

first version of the “Way of Perfection.” This latter work was

printed during her lifetime, though it appeared only after her

death. In 1586 the Definitory of the province of Discalced

Carmelites decided upon the publication of the complete works of

the Saint, but for obvious reasons deemed not only the members of

her own Order but also Dominicans and Jesuits ineligible for the

post of editor. Such of the manuscripts as could be found were

therefore confided to the Augustinian Father, Luis de Leon,

professor at Salamanca, who prepared the edition but did not live

to carry it through the press. The fact that he did not know the

autograph of the “Life” accounts for the numerous inaccuracies to

be found in nearly all editions, but the publication of the

original should ensure a great improvement for the future.

St. Teresa’s canonisation took place before the stringent laws of

Urban VIII. came into force. Consequently, the writings of the

Saint were not then enquired into, the Holy See contenting itself

with the approbations granted by the Spanish Inquisition, and by

the congregation of the Rota in Rome. A certain number of

passages selected from various works having been denounced by

some Roman theologians as being contrary to the teaching of

St. Thomas Aquinas and other authorities, Diego Alvarez, a

Dominican, and John Rada, a Franciscan, were commissioned to

examine the matter and report on it. The twelve censures with

the answers of the two theologians and the final judgment of the

Rota seem to have remained unknown to the Bollandists. [37]

The “heavenly doctrine” of St. Teresa is alluded to not only in

the Bull of canonisation but even in the Collect of the Mass of

the Saint.

Concerning the English translations of the “Life” noticed by

Mr. Lewis it should be mentioned that the one ascribed to Abraham

Woodhead is only partly his work. Father Bede of St. Simon Stock

(Walter Joseph Travers), a Discalced Carmelite, labouring on the

English Mission from 1660 till 1692, was anxious to complete the

translation of St. Teresa’s works into English. He had not

proceeded very far when he learnt that “others were engaged in

the same task. On enquiry he found that a new translation was

contemplated by two graduates of the University of Cambridge,

converts to the Faith, most learned and pious men, who were

leading a solitary life, spending their time and talents in the

composition of controversial and devotional works for the good of

their neighbour and the glory of God.” One of these two men was

Woodhead, who, however, was an Oxford man, but the name of the

other, who must have been a Cambridge man, is not known.

They undertook the translation while Father Bede provided the

funds and bore the risks of what was then a dangerous work.

As there existed already two English translations of the “Life,”

the first volume to appear (1669) contained the Book of

Foundations, to which was prefixed the history of the foundation

of St. Joseph’s from the “Life.” When, therefore, the new

translation of the latter appeared, in 1671, this portion of the

book was omitted. [38] The translation was made direct from the

Spanish but “uniformly with the Italian edition.”

Mr. Lewis, whose translation is the fifth, was born on the 12th

of November, 1814, and died on January the 23rd, 1895. The first

edition was printed in 1870, the second in 1888. It is

regrettable that the latter edition, of which the present is a

reprint, omitted the marginal notes which would have been so

helpful to the reader.

St. Teresa’s life and character having always been a favourite

study of men and women of various schools of thought, it may be

useful to notice here a few recent English and foreign works on

the subject:—

The Life of Saint Teresa, by the author of “Devotions before and

after Holy Communion” (i.e., Miss Maria Trench), London, 1875.

The Life of Saint Teresa of the Order of Our Lady of Mount

Carmel. Edited with a preface by the Archbishop of Westminster

(Cardinal Manning), London, 1865. (By Miss Elizabeth Lockhart,

afterwards first abbess of the Franciscan convent, Notting Hill.)

Frequently reprinted.

The Life and Letters of St. Teresa, by Henry James Coleridge,

S.J. Quarterly Series. 3 vols (1881, 1887, 1888).

And, from another point of view:

The Life of St. Teresa, by Gabriela Cunninghame-Graham, 2 vols,

London, 1894.

Histoire de Sainte Thérèse d’après les Bollandistes. 2 vols,

Nantes, 1882. Frequently reprinted. The author is

Mlle. Adelaide Lecornu (born 5 July, 1852, died at the Carmelite

convent at Caen, 14 December, 1901. Her name in religion was

Adelaide-Jéronyme-Zoe-Marie du Sacré-Coeur).

An excellent character sketch of the Saint has appeared in the

“Les Saints” series (Paris, Lecoffre, 1901):

Sainte Thérèse, par Henri Joly.

Although the attempt at explaining the extraordinary phenomena in

the life of St. Teresa by animal Magnetism and similar obscure

theories had already been exploded by the Bollandists, it has

lately been revived by Professor Don Arturo Perales Gutierrez of

Granada, and Professor Don Fernando Segundo Brieva Salvatierra of

Madrid, who considered her a subject of hysterical derangements.

The discussion carried on for some time, not only in Spain but

also in France, Germany, and other countries, has been ably

summed up and disposed of by P. Grégoire de S. Joseph: La

prétendue Hystérie de Sainte Thérèse. Lyons.

The Bibliographie Thérèsienne, by Henry de Curzon (Paris, 1902)

is, unfortunately, too incomplete, not to say slovenly, to be of

much use.

Finally, it is necessary to say a word about the spelling of the

name Teresa. In Spanish and Italian it should be written without

an h as these languages do not admit the use of Th; in English,

likewise, where this combination of letters represents a special

sound, the name should be spelt with T only. But the present

fashion of thus writing it in Latin, German, French, and other

languages, which generally maintain the etymological spelling, is

intolerable: The name is Greek, and was placed on the calendar in

honour of a noble Spanish lady, St. Therasia, who became the wife

of a Saint, Paulinus of Nola, and a Saint herself. See Sainte

Thérèse, Lettres au R. P. Bouix, by the Abbé Postel, Paris, 1864.

The derivation of the name from the Hebrew Thersa can no longer

be defended (Father Jerome-Gratian, in Fuente, Obras, Vol. VI.,

369 sqq.).

Benedict Zimmerman,

Prior O.C.D.

St. Luke’s Priory,

Wincanton, Somerset.

16th July, 1904.

1. Chap. xxxiv., note 5.

2. Chap. xviii. § 11.

3. Fuente, Obras (1881), vol. vi. p. 133.

4. See the licence granted by Leo X. to the prioress and convent

of the Incarnation to build another house for the use of the said

convent, and to migrate thither (Vatican Archives, Dataria, Leo

X., anno i., vol. viii., fol. 82). Also a licence to sell or

exchange certain property belonging to it (ibid., anno iv.,

vol. vii., f. 274; and a charge to the Bishop of Avila concerning

a recourse of the said convent (ibid., anno vii., vol. iv.,

f. 24).

5. Chap. iv § 9.

6. Lettres de Ste. Thérèse, edit. P. Grégoire de S. Joseph,

vol. iii, p. 419, note 2.

7. Chap. xxxvi. § 10. The date of this part of the Life can be

easily ascertained from the two following chapters. In xxxvii. §

18, St. Teresa says that she is not yet fifty years old,

consequently the chapter must have been written before the end of

March, 1565; and in the next chapter, xxxviii.