Life of St Teresa of Jesus - Teresa of Avila (classic books for 11 year olds TXT) 📗
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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
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