The Book Of the Foundations
[ This is an excerpt from the Introduction
which describes the different versions
of the Book of the Foundation
and the other writings
that were often included with this book:
The foundation of the convent of Granada
by Ven. Anne of Jesus,
The Visitation of the Nunneries
The Constitution
The Carmelite Rule
The Maxims of St. Teresa ]
"The Book of the Foundations
was written at different times.
It was begun in Salamanca, 24th Aug. 1573,
by the order of father Ripalda, S.J.,
her confessor at the time.
She seems to have written twenty chapters
without much interruption.
Then, when she was, as it were,
imprisoned in Toledo
by order of the general,
after the foundation of Seville was made,
she was commanded by
Fray Jerome of the Mother of God
to continue her writing.
She obeyed,
beginning with ch. xxi., and
brought her work
down to the end of ch. xxvii.,
which she finished on the vigil
of S. Eugenius, 14th Nov. 1576.
The rest of the book was probably written
as each foundation was made.
_________
Fray Luis de Leon
at the request of Ven. Anne of Jesus
and the Superiors of the Discalced Carmelites
published the writings of the Saint
in the year 1588, in Salamanca,
but without the Book of the Foundations.
The Saint had been dead only six years,
and
it is probable enough
that some hesitation might be felt
about printing a book
in which people then living
were spoken of;
_________
but in 1610
the former, then Prioress at Brussels,
undertook, with the assistance
of Father Jerome Gratian,
then also in Flanders,
the publication of this important work,
which appeared in that year
at Roger Velpius,
and Hubert Antoine's at Brussels.
In addition to the text of the Saint
- with which, however Father Gratian
had taken undue liberties -
it contains
"The Relation of the Foundation
of the Convent of Granada"
by Ven. Anne of Jesus,
and some other documents.
But there was also a notable omission.
Dona Casilda de Padilla
whose history Saint Teresa had told
so strikingly in Chapters X and XI
was then still living,
though no longer
among the Teresian nuns;
she had joined the Poor Clares
and was abbess at Burgos;
her sister, too,
Dona Luisa de Padilla,
having obtained a dispensation
enabling her
- to recover her property, and
- to contract marriage,
was still alive.
Under these circumstances
it was thought wise
to omit all reference to them
with the result that this
as well as other Spanish editions
and many translations
(for instance,
the English by Canon Dalton)
appeared in a mutilated form.
______
Other editions followed at Saragossa in 1623,
by the Calced Carmelites,
at Antwerp in 1630, etc.
_________
Mr Lewis followed that
of Vicente de la Fuente (i860).
But all doubts as to the correct text
have been finally set at rest
by the publication, in 1880,
of the photo-lithographic edition
of the original manuscript
which is preserved at the Escorial
together with those of
the Life,
the first version of the Way of Perfection
and
the Visitation of 'Nunneries.
In the present edition the text
published by Mr Lewis in 1871
has been confronted with the original,
and, where necessary, amended.
____________
In England the Book of Foundations
was not known till 1669.
At that time there existed already
two translations of the Life
and a third one was in preparation.
____________
The translators,
Abraham Woodhead
and his anonymous collaborator
together with
Father Bede of S. Simon Stock
(Walter Joseph Travers)
decided to begin their edition
with the Book of Foundations
which appeared under the title,
'The second Part of the Life
of the Holy Mother
St Teresa of Jesus;
or, the History of her Foundations.
Written by Her Self.
Whereunto are annexed
Her Death; Burial; and
the Miraculous Incorruption,
and Fragrancy
of Her Body.
Together with Her Treatise
Of the Manner of Visiting the
Monasteries of Discalced Nuns.
Printed in the Year MDCLXIX.
Although translated from the Spanish
it follows the Italian editions
in that it begins
by the chapters of the Life
relating to the foundation
of the convent of S. Joseph of Avila,
in which are incorporated the Rule
and Constitutions of the nuns,
and an account of the Deserts
or Hermitages of the friars
taken from Don Diego de Yepes,
Bishop of Tarassona.
The numbering of the chapters
does not agree
with the original
or
with the present edition,
five chapters being taken over
from the Life
while
two chapters bear the same number.
But otherwise the edition is complete,
including the story of Dona Casilda,
and the foundation of Granada.
_____________________
In 1853, another translation was published
by the Very Reverend John Dalton,
Canon of Northampton,
the title of which is as follows :
'Book of the Foundations.
Written by S. Teresa.
Translated from the Spanish
by Rev. John Dalton.
Embellished with a portrait of the Saint'
London, 1853.
Reprinted in 1893.
______________
The latest translation is due
to the Rev. Mother
Superior of the Community
of the Holy Family,
and is dedicated to Bishop Gore :
'Saint Teresa.
The History ot her Foundations.
Translated from the Spanish
by Sister Agnes Mason, C.H.F.
with a Preface
by the Rt. Hon. Sir E. M. Satow,
G.C.M.G.
Cambridge, at the University Press,1909.
This elegant and faithful translation
is adorned with an excellent map
and beautiful illustrations
which, however,
are not always to the point.
It does not contain the Foundation
of Granada.
_______________
A most interesting and valuable work
appeared at Ghent in 1894,
under the title
L'Espagne Theresienne ou pekrinage
aun Flam and a toiites les fondatlons
de Sainte Therhe
(also in Spanish, 1898).
The author, Mr Hye Hoys, a painter,
while travelling in Spain in 1866,
visited all the foundations
made by S. Teresa,
collecting sketches
- not only of the convents themselves
- but also of many objects used by her
and religiously preserved as relics.
The work contains thirty engraved plates
with explanatory notes.
The present writer who has had the privilege
of seeing most of these convents
and visiting the scenes of S, Teresa's labours
can bear testimony to the accuracy
of the designs.
_____________
The latest edition of the Works of S. Teresa
in French entitled
Oeuvres completes
de Sainte Terese de Jesus
by the Carmelite nuns
of the Premier Monastere de Paris
(now at Anderlecht near Brussels),
6 vols., Paris, 1907-1910,
of which vols. 3 and 4
are devoted to
the Book of Foundations
is particularly valuable on account
of the abundance of critical
and biographical notes,
and a rich collection of documents,
many of which were not previously known.
While freely and gratefully utilising these
we have felt it
difficult to resist the temptation of
incorporating in this volume
- collateral accounts of the labours
of the Saint,
and
- documents illustrative
of her trials and troubles.
_____________
On the other hand we have drawn
on a collection of documents
not hitherto published,
made by ourself
during a prolonged journey
through Italy and Spain.
It will, therefore, be noticed
that this second edition
of Mr Lewis' splendid translation
is more accurate and more complete
than the first which appeared in 1871.
~~~~~~~~~~~
The Carmelite Rule
The Carmelite Rule is translated
and placed in this volume
as it is in the edition of Don Vicente,
for the purpose of throwing light
on the Constitutions of the Saint.
The rule was drawn up in the beginning
for friars,
not for nuns,
and therefore the rule printed
in this volume,
as it was taken from the book
which Don Vicente had
from the monastery
of the venerable Maria of Jesus
in Alcala de Henares,
is an adaptation of the rule
of the friars
to the condition of nuns.
The compiler of it
changed the word ' triars ' into ' nuns,'
and, making the necessary changes
in the text fashioned the rule
to the use of the Carmelite nuns.
The preface, however, has not been changed,
and the rule is addressed still
to Brocardo and the friars,
while the first paragraph speaks of nuns.
It is probably an oversight
- that Brocardo is mentioned again in 15,
and
- that the paragraph remains unchanged,
- the words 'office of prior '
not being altered into 'office of prioress.'
The Constitutions are frequently referred to
by the Saint
in the Book of the Foundations and
in her letters;
and
even on her deathbed
she begs her children
to observe them carefully.
They must have been written
soon after she began to live
in her new house in Avila,
for the nuns in Avila were governed by them,
as we learn from her in her account
of the foundation of her second monastery,
which was Medina del Campo.
She was directed by our Lord on one occasion
to take the rule and constitutions with her,
and
had before that urged them
as a difficulty not to be overcome,
when her triend Doha Luisa de la Cerda
seems to have proposed something to her
which she would not sanction nor allow.
~~~~~~~~~~~
The Constitutions
The Constitutions
printed in this volume,
were obtained
by Don Vicente de la Fuente
from the monastery of the Picture
in Alcala de Henares,
and are said to have been given
by the General of the order in 1568;
but that is clearly not true in the letter.
In the first place
the Saint in 1567 speaks ot the constitutions
as being then in force in Avila,
and
in the second place
the general of Carmel had no jurisdiction
over the monastery of the venerable
Maria of Jesus in Alcala de Henares.
S. Teresa went in November 1567
to that monastery,
and gave it her own constitutions,
which, no doubt, she had shown
to the general when he visited her in Avila
in April of that year.
The general, also, approved of them,
and ordered them to be toUowed
in subsequent foundations
for he had no jurisdiction then
over that of S. Joseph's at Avila
which was subject
to the Bishop of the diocese,
Don Alvaro de Mendoza.
Perhaps the Venerable Maria of Jesus
adopted the constitutions in 1567,
when the Saint was there.
The constitutions of that monastery
were approved of by the Archduke Albert,
Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo,
and
ordered by him to be observed
under the penalties imposed by them,
being, as he says,
' the very constitutions
which the Mother Teresa of Jesus,
founder of the said order
of barefooted Carmelites,
made in her lifetime
for the government of the same.'
Don Vicente
- has not been able to find
the original MS.
of the Saint's Constitutions,
and
- has therefore printed those
of the Monastery of Alcala,
about the genuineness of which
there can be no reasonable doubt.
~~~~~~~~~~~
'The Visitation of the Nunneries' ,
'The Visitation of the Nunneries' ,
the manuscript of which
is at the Escorial
has been reproduced in photo-lithography
by Don Francisco Herrero-Bayona,
Valladolid, 1883.
It appears to have been written
in August or September 1576
at the request of Father Jerome Gratian,
then Provincial of the Discalced Carmelites
by the authority of the Nuncio.
The Relation of the Foundation
of the convent of Granada
by Ven. Anne of Jesus
is printed in
Obras de Santa Teresa de Jesus
edited by Don Vicente de la Fuente,
1881, t. vi, 113, sqq.
In translating it,
we had the assistance
of the Benedictine nuns of Stanbrook,
~~~~~~~~~~~
The Maxims of S. Teresa
The Maxims of S. Teresa,
which will be found
in the first edition of Mr Lewis' translation
of the Book of Foundations, p. 347,
have been transferred
to another volume of her works
as they belong to her devotional
rather than to her historical writings."
. End of an excerpt from the Introduction to the Book of the Foundations (regarding information of the various versions of this book and the other writings that are often included with "The Foundations" ) . |
