The Life of Saint Teresa

Front matter

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Preface

The most complete and full information concerning St. Teresa is to be found in the volume of the Bollandist series which contains her 1 Acta,' and the greater part of the materials for the following Life have been gathered from its pages. Amongst other books which have been consulted are Helyot's ' Histoire des Ordres Monastiques ; ' the ' Compendiufn Vitae B. V. Teresiae a Jesu/ written, in 1608, by Johannes a Jesu Maria, a Carmelite ; and thirteen * Orationes in Natali S.Teresiae/ by the same author, delivered by him before the Cardinals at S. Maria della Scala, between 1602 and 16 14, the year of her beatification by Paul V. They are interesting as showing the estimation in which she was held by one who must have been her contemporary, and in the years immediately after her death.

Two later notices of St. Teresa which have been used must be mentioned : ' Les Mystiques Espagnols/ 1 by Paul Rousselot ; and ' Ein Beitrag zur 1 Paris, 1867.

vi Preface.

Geschichte der monchischen Contrareformation in Spanien im i6 ten Jahrhundert/ 1 by Professor Zockler : the latter is of course written from a Lutheran point of view, but is the more interesting on that account, since it is full of sympathy and admiration for St. Teresa and her school.

Probably no saint has ever left so full a record of both inner and outward life as St. Teresa has given us in her Autobiography and ' Book of Foundations.' Almost the whole of them are contained in the ' Acta Sanctorum/ translated into Latin, and also the whole of her 'Life/ by Francisco Ribera,S. J., her friend and confessor. F. Vandermoere, her Bollandist biographer, says he has carefully compared the latter (a translation made in 1620) with the first edition of the original, published at Salamanca in 1 590, ' La Vida de la Madre Teresa de Jesus/ and that it had been not without cause preferred by his predecessor Bueo (the fruit of whose labours in collecting materials he had reaped) to the Lives of the saint by Yepez, Johannes a Jesu Maria, and others, ' He wrote before the rest, and was a man of excellent abilities, acute judgment, and tenacious memory/ 2 He has left Commentaries on St. John's Gospel, the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Apocalypse, and the Minor Prophets, and was a * not

1 In Zeitschrift fiir Lutherische Theologie, 9 Acta Sanct De S. Teresia Virgine^ § i. 4.

Preface. vii

less diligent than pious and learned writer, eminent for sanctity, assisting and consecrating study by prayer, and in any special difficulty seeking light from God with fasting and self-denial. , He was, besides, remarkable for accuracy and truthful candour in all that he wrote ; and on account of these qualities, as well as his intimacy with St. Teresa, F. Vandermoere gives him the first place amongst authorities concerning her. The second he gives to Diego Yepez, Bishop of Tarrazona, in Aragon, who in the dedication to Paul V., prefixed to his Life of the saint, says that he wrote of such things as he had seen and known himself. 1 ' For more than fourteen years/ he adds, ' I was her confessor ; and she entrusted to me the direction of her soul, both within and without the sacred tribunal. The spiritual treasures which God had bestowed on her soul she disclosed to me, hoping that I also might profit by them.' He pronounced a panegyric on St. Teresa in 1585, three years after her death, in the convent of Discalced Carmelites at Madrid, newly erected by Philip II., to whom he was confessor, and wrote a long letter concerning her to Luis de Leon, who had undertaken to be her biographer. Yepez died in 161 3, and was buried, as he had wished,

1 The edition quoted in the Acta Sanctorum is Vida, Vtrtudes, y MUagros de la B. Virgen Teresa de Jesus. Madrid 1776, 2 vols, in 4to.

viii Preface.

in the convent of Discalced nuns which he had founded in his own episcopal city.

The third great authority mentioned by Vandermoere is the Venerable F. Joannes a Jesu Maria, General of the Discalced Carmelites, who wrote ' an excellent Compendium of the Life of St. Teresa, and presented it to Paul V. in 1609, with the object of promoting her beatification.' The Pope read the whole of it. The author is said by Vandermoere to have been well acquainted with all of which he wrote, and so learned that Cardinal Bellarmine took much pleasure in his works ; Bossuet also calls him 'a great theologian and great mystic ; ' and St. Francis de Sales speaks of him with praise in the preface to his treatise of the ' Love of God.' Jerome Gratian, the closest friend of Teresa's later years, in a letter to Cardinal Bentivoglio, says that he has read almost the whole of the Compendium, and testifies to its 'most pure truth and fidelity.'

Other authorities mentioned by Vandermoere, besides the saint's own works (including her letters 1 ), are the Acts of her canonization ; the ' Reforma de los Descalzos de Nuestra Seftora del Carmen/ written by Fr. Francisco de S. Maria, a kinsman of Teresa ; and a few other lesser notices, chiefly by Discalced Carmelites. He also notices Padre Federigo di S. An-

1 Published in four 4to vols., with notes by Bishop Palafox.

Preface.

ix tonio's ' Life of St. Teresa/ 1 in Italian, compiled from the narratives of Ribera and Yepez ; and two French Lives of the saint by Villefore 2 and by Boucher; 3 besides Emery's « L'Esprit de S te The>ese.' 4

Her Life is by far the longest in the sixty Bollandist volumes published from 1643 to 1 867,* occupy-

1 Four vols, in 8vo. Rome, 1837.

* Two vols, in i2mo. Paris, 1756.

* Two vols, in i2mo. Paris, 1810 and 1828. 4 London, 1799. In 8vo.

* ' The most remarkable book which has ever been produced, whether it be regarded as to its subject-matter, the period of time which has been required for its production, or the indefatigable industry, great learning, and untiring research of the authors. In giving the acts and achievements of saints, it unfolds the history of Europe, during the middle ages, on a more extensive and minuter scale than is done in any other production, including at the same time much of Eastern history, and containing innumerable important documents and interesting historical dissertations. ... Its production has already occupied above 200 years, and it is still going on to its completion. Two interruptions have occurred during that period : first, when the Jesuits were suppressed in 1773, after which the work was resumed in 1779 > the second, when the French troops entered Belgium, in 1794. It was again resumed in 1837, and a volume published in 1845. As one of the great efforts of the Jesuits, that body has always been able to furnish the men most qualified to continue the gigantic work as one after another has deceased. The honour of commencing the undertaking is due to F. Heribert Rossweide, of Utrecht, born 1569. He made great collections towards it, but died in 1629, before any part was published. He was succeeded in his labours by John Bollandus (born 1596, died 1665), from whose name the authors who have been engaged in the work are now called Bollandists. Having found his labours accumulate, he associated others with him, one of whom, Daniel Papebroch, continued his labours for fifty years, and brought into contribution an ample private fortune.' — Cyclopedia Bibliographica, by James Darling, A.-H. P- 13.

x Preface.

ing, as it does, the whole of the seventh October volume, a folio of 790 pages, with the exception of the first 108 pages ; while all the preceding saints for the year, up to October 15, her feast-day, are contained in fifty-three volumes ; the number of saints, and therefore of separate biographies for each day, being sometimes very large. 1 While St. Teresa's 'Acta ' occupy 682 pages in this great work, only 258 are given to St. Augustine, although the nine first books of his ' Confessions ' are appended to his Life ; 290 to St. Jerome, and 267 to St. Bernard. This may partly be accounted for by the fact that the folio containing her life was the first published (in 1845), after the fifty-one years' interruption caused by the French Revolution ; so that her biographers possessed all the assistance which they might derive from modern research : still this cannot be the chief cause of the immense proportion of room given to her in the series, since the six other folios, published from 1845 to 1867, ending with October 29, contain the lives of four hundred and seventy-five saints.

' One thing I regret/ F. Vandermoere writes, ' that in this work it is not permitted to me to quote Teresa in the original language in which she wrote ; for, in-

1 For January I, there are forty-three lives of saints, besides an article on the Circumcision ; and yet all the saints for the first fifteen days of January are contained in a volume of 1, 122 pages, the index of names alone occupying sixteen folio pages.

Preface. xi

deed, our saint wrote with so much elegance, that she has attained to the true perfection of her language/ A similar regret must be felt by all unacquainted with Spanish, ' the stateliest of the daughters of the Latin/ 1 and who can, therefore, only know her works through the veil of English, although the admirable translations made lately by Mr. David Lewis of her ' Vida* and ' Fondaciones ,a seem to have done all that it is possible to accomplish for English readers. Only one other translation of her ' Life ' into English has been made (by Canon Dalton) since that by Abraham Woodhead, which appeared in 1671 ; and although the former was published so lately as 185 1, it is said by Mr. Lewis to be almost as scarce as its predecessors. 3 A copy which the writer was kindly allowed to use has been examined, but there could be no doubt of the great superiority of Mr. Lewis' work, to which are given all the references for quotations from the ' Life ' and 4 Foundations ' in the following pages. Other references have been given, with some care : if any words, once heard, and like music taking possession of the mind, and becoming its own, have unconsciously or almost involuntarily been used, this must be forgiven.

The Frontispiece (engraved by Mr. Jeens) is from

1 See ' Essay on Calderan,' by Archbishop of Dublin, p. 52.

* Bums, Oates & Co., 1870 and 1871.

• Two translations had been published at Antwerp, in 161 1 and 1642, both by English Jesuits, but copies of either are very scarce.

xii Preface.

an engraving in the 'Acta Sanctorum/ of Boada's copy, made for that work, of the original portrait of St. Teresa, painted, at Gratian's desire, by Fra Juan de la Miseria, and now preserved at Avila : her signature is from the fac-simile of the document mentioned at p. 247, which faces p. 617 in the folio. Fra Juan was but a poor artist ; Boada's copy is probably a far better drawing than the original. Teresa is said to have exclaimed, on seeing the latter, ' So after all, father, you have made me blear-eyed and ugly.' She lived too late to be glorified by art : there was no one to create such a portrait of her as Raphael has left to us of Pope Julius II., and Bernini's statue is but an example of the extreme injustice which has been done to her by all who have attempted to represent her. ' Qu'on ne la de'core pas du bonnet de docteur, com me en certains de ses portraits/ M. Rousselot " writes, ' je ne demande pas mieux, mais qu'on lui fasse plus d'honneur que ne lui en a fait le Bernin, qu'on ne la rapetisse pas k des proportions inintelligentes. La Sainte Th^rese de l'histoire, celle que ses contemporains ont vue k l'ceuvre, celle qui ressort de ses propres Merits, cette haute intelligence, ce grand coeur, cette femme heVoYque supportant le froid, la pauvrete, la fatigue, la maladie, travaillant de ses mains, je ne la reconnais pas dans le marbre plus profane que chrdtien de l'^glise della Vittoria. Cette

Preface. xiii

So many descriptions, however, of her personal appearance exist, written by contemporaries, that we can form a nearer notion of her as she really was than we can of many saints who have been idealised by art. * She was of middle stature, elegant and of fair proportions, plump and perfectly well-formed, possessing a kind of beauty which advancing age did not, as it is wont, impair ; her complexion was bright, the white and red distinct and clear; her hair was black and curly, the forehead broad and smooth ; the nose small, the mouth slightly open, with white and even teeth, short upper lip, the under lip rather full. Her eyes, <v beautiful with gazing upon God," were very dark and bright, sparkling and shining when she spoke or smiled. Her hands were small, the fingers slight and tapering ; her whole appearance forming a striking combination of dignity and beauty/ 1

Yepez speaks also of 'a certain loveliest glow which, when she was pouring out prayers to God,

1 The above description is taken from those given by Yepez and Johannes a Jesu Maria. Acta Sanct. § liii. 1027. Orat in NaU S. Teresus, v. p. 499.

xiv Preface.

rendered her countenance sweeter and more splendid/ and of the light which, in discourse with others, seemed at times to shine over her face, causing her whole aspect to be so grateful and pleasant to others as to beget love alike and reverence in those who beheld her. She seems to have possessed in a very remarkable degree ' that nameless grace which hangs about some, and opens their way before them as by a royal letter ; ' also her humility and gracious deference to others must have greatly added to the influence she quickly gained over the hearts of men. ' I will put this as the finishing stroke of prudence,' Johannes writes . . . 1 namely, that Teresa, however much knowledge she might have, never relied much on herself, but with incredible anxiety sought out men most celebrated both for learning and for sanctity, by whom a trial might be made concerning her divine affections ; of whom I would promptly recount a most choice array, were not my discourse hastening to an end. ... In which matter certainly this is quite wonderful, that she softened most easily the minds of most eminent men when opposed to her, and persuaded them, as it were with the touch of a magnet, to change their opinion and disposition/ 1

She lived at a time of bitterest national antipathy, both political and religious, between England and

1 Orat. in Nat. S. TeresuB, vii p. 512.

Preface. xv

Spain : this may partly account for the fact that she is less generally known and cared for amongst us than many others far less eminent in genius as well as sanctity. Perhaps also some of the virtues which shone brightest in her are not those for which we have been as a nation distinguished. Laborare est orare is a favourite saying with Englishmen ; perhaps we forget that the reverse is also true, and that especial regard is due to those who, knit together with us in one communion and fellowship have set a shining example of graces in which we may be deficient.

Nor should her influence, directly and indirectly, on two of our great poets be forgotten in England, or the debt which at least in part we owe to her for the lovely poem of 1 Christabel.' 'Crashaw seems in his poems/ S. T. Coleridge writes, ' to have given the first ebullience of his imagination, unshapen into form, or much of, what we now term, sweetness. In the poem " Hope," by way of question and answer, his superiority to Cowley is self-evident ; in that " On the Name of Jesus " especially so : but his lines on St Teresa are the finest. Where he does combine richness of thought and diction nothing can excel, as in the lines you so much admire : —

' " Since 'tis not to be had at home, She'l travail to a martyrdom.

No home for hers confesses she, But where she may a martyr be.

xvi Preface.

She'l to the Moores ; and trade with them

For this unvalued diadem :

She'l offer them her dearest breath,

With Christ's name in't, in change for death :

She'l bargain with them ; and will give

Them God ; teach them how to live

In Him : or, if they this deny,

For Him she'l teach them how to dy :

So shall she leave amongst them sown

Her Lord's blood ; or at least her own.

Farewell, then, all the World ! adieu !

Teresa is no more for you.

Farewell, all pleasures, sports, and joys

(Never till now esteemed toyes) :

Farewell, whatever dear may be,

Mother's arms, or father's knee :

Farewell, house, and farewell, home —

She's for the Moores, and martyrdom." 1

* These verses were ever present to my mind whilst writing the second part of " Christabel if indeed, by some subtle process of mind, they did'not suggest the first thought of the whole poem.' 2

1 From A Hymn to the Name and Honor of the Admirable Sainte Teresa, 1646, by Richard Crashawe.

2 Letters, Conversation, and Recollections of S. T. Coleridge, vol. i. pp. 194-196. Brought up in Puritanism, Crashawe's natural tastes and his studies at Cambridge alike led him in another direction. He was Fellow at Peterhouse when the * Ejection ' of 1644 came ; he 'found no resting-place in England,' seeing her Church, as he thought, finally shattered, and so passed over to the Roman Communion, one chief influence being his study of St. Teresa's writings. He went to Italy, became secretary to Cardinal Palotta, but got into trouble by his 4 plain speech ' concerning immorality among priests at Rome, and retired to Loretto, where his fnend the Cardinal procured him a shelter, and where he died in 1654. See Grosart's Complete Works of Richard Crashawe.

Preface. xvii

Crashawe, on reading St. Teresa's works, composed and took for his motto —

' Live, Jesus, live, and let it be My life to die for love of Thee.'

He wrote afterwards ' An Apologie for the foregoing Hymn, as having been writt when the Author was yet among the Protestants/ in which he mentions the reading of her books as having inspired it : —

* Oh pardon, if I dare to say Thine own dear books are guilty.'

His ' Apologie ' ends with these noble lines : —

* O thou undaunted daughter of desires ! By all thy dower of lights and fires ; By all the eagle in thee, all the dove ; By all thy lives and deaths of love ; By thy large draughts of intellectual day, And by thy thirsts of love more large than they ; By all thy brimfill'd bowls of fierce desire ; By thy last morning's draught of liquid fire ; By the full kingdom of that final kiss, That seiz'd thy parting soul, and sealed thee His ; By all the HeaVn thou hast in Him (Fair sister of the Seraphim !) ; By all of Him we have in thee — Leave nothing of myself in me.

Let me so read thy life, that I Unto all life of mine may die. 1

December 31, 1874.

a

Chapter I. Pacb

Autobiography of St. Teresa — Her Birth and Lineage— Her Childhood — Books of Chivalry — Childish Faults — Education in the Augustinian Convent

Chapter II

Disinclination of Teresa to become a Nun — Her Illness — She visits her Uncle — Mental Conflict — Determines to take the Veil — Is received at the Convent of the Incarnation — Makes her Profession — Severe Illness — Is taken to Bezedas — Begins to use Mental Prayer— Conversion of a Priest — Teresa's increased Sufferings— Returns to the Convent — Her Patience and Charity — Restoration to Health 1 6

Chapter III

Unprofitable Conversations — Teresa gives up Mental Prayer- Perils of a Monastic Life — Her Father's Illness and Death — She resumes Mental Prayer — Hindrances and Struggles — Spiritual Suffering— Entire Conversion . . . . . 35 xx Contents. \

Chapter IV. Pacb

St. Teresa's Inner Life — Beginning of Mental Prayer — She attempts to describe it — Comparison of the Garden — Four Ways of Watering it — Four Degrees of Prayer — Description of the

First Deoree of Mental Praver— Advice and ^WTarnincrs concern-

Chapter V

The 'Praver of Ouiet ' The ' Praver of Union ' Foutth Decree

Chapter VI

Characteristics of St. Teresa's Spiritual Relations — Her Humility

93 |

CHAPTER VII. The Jesuits — Teresa consults Francisco de Salcedo and Gaspar

T)aza Her Perolexitv at their Advice— She ha* Recourse to a Jesuit — He encourages her to persevere — She consults St

Francis Borgia — Dona Guiomar de Ulloa — Balthasar Alvarez becomes Teresa's Confessor— Her first Trance — Divine * Locu-

CHAPTER VIII. Outward Trials from Friends— Vision of the Seraph— Teresa's

Vow — Peter of Alcantara — His Friendship for Teresa — Restlessness and Desire for Work — Vision of Hell ....

Contents.

xxi

Chapter IX. Page

Maria de Ocampo— Project to found a Reformed Convent — Teresa is encouraged by St. Peter of Alcantara and St. Luis Bertrand — Opposition raised in the City and in the Convent — Gaspar de Salazar comes to Avila, and assists her — Teresa is sent to Toledo — Meets Maria de Jesus — Returns to Avila — Foundation of St. Joseph's — Anger of her Superiors, and Disturbance in the City — Brief from Rome — Teresa retires to St. Joseph's 142

Spain in the Sixteenth Century — Her Political and Literary Eminence—Religious Character of Spaniards— Their Chivalry — The Inquisition — Mysticism in Spain — MaJon de Chaide — St. Teresa's Influence on Mystical Theology — Her Position among the Mystics— Juan D'Avilla — Luis de Granada — Luis de Leon — His Imprisonment by the Inquisition — John of the Cross 166

The Convent of St. Joseph — Teresa finishes her 'Life' — Her other Writings — The ' Interior Castle ' — Increasing Peace and interior Joy — Longings to benefit others — Visit and Sermon of

The Carmelite Order — Introduction into Europe — Attempts at Reform previous to St Teresa — Controversy between the Carmelites and Bollandists — Rule of St. Teresa — Influence of her

xxii Contents.

PACK

Reform on the Spanish Church — The General gives her Leave to found two Convents of Friars — Foundation of Medina del Campo — Antonio de Heredia and John of the Cross . . 204

Chapter XIII

Journey to Alcala — Foundations at Malagon and at Valladolid — Story of Casilda de Padilla — Beatrix Onez — Early History of John of the Cross — First Convent of Reformed Friars founded at Durvelo— Removed to Mancera 220

Chapter XIV

Foundation at Toledo—Letters of St. Teresa — She goes to Toledo — Princess of Eboli sends for her to Pastrana — Fra Mariano — Two Convents of Men and Women founded at Pastrana — Troubles caused by the Princess — Visitation of the Carmelite Order by Hernandez — Foundation of Reformed Friars at Alcala — Teresa goes to Salamanca — Founds a Convent of Nuns — Teresa Layz — Foundation at Alva — St. Teresa returns to Avila — Hernandez visits her, and makes her Prioress of the Incarnation — Opposition of the Nuns — Her Government of the Convent — Letter to Maria de Mendoza — She is sent to Salamanca 234

Chapter XV

Foundation at Segovia — Teresa returns to Avila — Goes to Veas to found a Convent — Fra Jerome Gratian — Reformed Friars in Andalusia — Difficulties with the Mitigated Friars — Reform encouraged by the Nuncio Ormaneto — Gratian's Influence upon it- He is made Visitor of the Carmelites — Desires Teresa to found a Convent at Seville — Her Difficulties — Foundation at Caravaca — Exhortations to her Sisters — Her Niece Teresita . . . 257

Contents. xxiii

Chapter XVI. Pagb

General Chapter of the Carmelite Order at Piacenza — Decrees against the Reform, and against Teresa — Her Letters to the General, and to the King — Disturbances at Seville— Teresa's Writings examined by the Inquisition — Chapter at Moraleja — Chapter of Discalced Friars at Almodovar — Teresa's Letter to Gratian — Her Cares and Difficulties— Death of the Nuncio . 273

Chapter XVII

Enmity of the new Nuncio, Sega, to Teresa's Reform— She is elected Prioress of the Incarnation at Avila — Scene at the Election — Imprisonment and Sufferings of Jolm of the Cross — Philip II. favours the Reform — Submission of Gratian to the Nuncio — Continued Troubles — Letters of St. Teresa — Second Chapter of Discalced at Almodovar — Anger of the Nuncio — Teresa's Confidence and Courage— Letter to Fra Juan — Nicholas Doria — Death of Rossi— Troubles at the Convent of Seville — Letter to the Nuns — The King interferes— Sega withdraws his Opposition to Teresa — Severance of the Reform from the Mitigated Order — Chapter at Alcala — Teresa's Letters to Gratian 287

Chapter XVIII

Story of Catalina de Cardona — Foundation of Friars at La Roda ; and of Nuns, by St. Teresa — She founds a Convent at Palencia, and at Soria — Velasquez, Bishop of Osma — Teresa returns to St. Joseph's — Foundation at Granada — Letter to Anna de Jesus— Teresa leaves Avila for the last Time — Founds a Convent at Burgos . . . . . . . 307 xxiv

Contents.