Carmelite Book Studies ~ The Book of the Foundations ~ St. Teresa of Avila ~ Teresa of Jesus: The Book of the Foundations - Chapter 2 - St. Teresa of Avila

Friday, June 17, 2011

The Book of the Foundations - Chapter 2 - St. Teresa of Avila - Teresa of Jesus

CHAPTER 11

HOW OUR FATHER GENERAL

CAME TO AVILA

AND

WHAT HAPPENED IN CONSEQUENCE

OF HIS VISIT

1. The General of the Carmelites

arrives in Spain. —

2. Is friendly to the Saint. —

3. Authorises her

to found more monasteries. —

4. The bishop of Avila. —

5. Authority for the foundation

of two monasteries for men. —

6. Difficulty of finding friars

to begin the Reform. —

7. Generosity of God.

_____________________________

1. The General of the Carmelites

arrives in Spain.

1. Our generals always reside in Rome,

none of whom have been

at any time in Spain,' and [1]

it seemed impossible they should come then;

but, as there is nothing impossible

if our Lord wills it,

His Majesty ordained that

what had never been done before

should be done now.

When I heard of it

I think I was troubled

because, as it is said

in the history of the foundation

of S. Joseph's,

this house,

for the reason there given,

is not under the jurisdiction of the friars.''

I was afraid of two things :

one was that the general

might be angry with me, [2]

and he had reason to be so,

not knowing

how matters had come to pass

the other,

that he might send me

back to the monastery of the Incarnation

where the mitigated rule is observed :

that would have been

a sore discomfort to me,

for many reasons which I need not relate.

One is enough:

it would not have been possible for me

to keep the primitive rule

in its rigour there,

for the nuns were more than

a hundred and fifty in number,

and there is more quiet and concord always

where the nuns are few.

Our Lord disposed it all

far better than I thought,

for the General is

so great a servant of God,

so prudent and learned,

that he regarded it as a good work,

and never showed me

the least displeasure.

He is Fray John Baptist Rubeo

(Rossi) of Ravenna, [3]

2. The General of the Carmelites

Is friendly to the Saint.

2. When he arrived in Avila

I contrived he should come to S. Joseph's,

and the bishop was pleased [4]

that all reverence should be shown him

as to himself in person.

I told him everything

in all simplicity and truth,

for my inclination is

to be simple and truthful

with my superiors,

come what may,

for they stand in the place of God.

I am so with my confessors,

and if I were not

I should not think my soul was safe.

And so I gave him

an account of my soul,

and almost of my whole life,

though it is very sad:

he consoled me greatly,

and assured me

that he would not order me away.

It cheered him

to see our way of life,

a picture, however imperfect,

of the commencement of our order,

of the observance in all rigour

of the primitive rule,

for in no other monastery [5]

throughout the whole order

is it kept,

but only the mitigated rule.

He, being well pleased

that a work thus begun

should be carried on,

gave me the fullest authority

in writing

to found more monasteries, and

denounced penalties

against the provincial

who should stay my hand.

I did not ask for this,

only he understood

by my manner of prayer

that I had great longings

to help any soul whatever

to draw nearer unto God.

3. The General of the Carmelites
Authorises her to found
more monasteries.

3. But the means

for satisfying these longings

I did not seek myselt;

on the contrary,

I thought it foolish to do so;

for a poor woman,

so helpless as I am,

saw clearly she could do nothing

but when these longings

take possession of the soul

it is not possible to drive them away.

The Love of God and Faith

make that possible

which is not possible

according to natural reason,

and so

I, knowing how much

our most reverend general desired

the founding of more monasteries,

thought I saw them already built,

Remembering the words

our Lord had spoken to me.

From: The Book of the Foundations:

Chapter 1: Paragraph #6, 7

"During this great distress...

I was one night in prayer,…

[ Chapter 1: #7 ]

....beseeching Him to show me,

when the devil was carrying

so many away,

- how I might do something

to gain a soul for His service,

and

- how I might do something by prayer …

[ Chapter 1: #6 ]

when our Lord

- appeared to me

in His wonted manner,

and

- shewed me great love,

as if he wished to comfort;

He then said to me,

'Wait a little, my child,

and thou shalt see great things.'

[ Chapter 1: #7 ]

I described always

some beginnings of those things

which I could not understand hitherto.

When I saw our Father General

returning to Rome

I was much distressed;

I had conceived a great affection for him,

and looked on myself

as greatly forsaken.

He had showed me

very great affection, himself,

and

much kindness;

and whenever he was disengaged

he used to come here

to discourse of spiritual things,

for he was a person

to whom our Lord

must have given great graces,

and it was a comfort to us

to listen to him.

4. The Bishop of Avila.

4. Yet before he went away

the Bishop, Don Alvaro de Mendoza,

who is extremely fond

of helping those

whom he sees striving to serve God

in greater perfection,

obtained his consent (the father general's)
for the foundation

in his diocese
of monasteries of barefooted friars

of the primitive rule.

Others also asked the same of him;

he wished it could be done,

but he met with opposition

in the order,

and therefore, not to disturb the province,

he refrained for the time.

5. Authority for the foundation
of two monasteries for men.

5. When some days had passed by

I considered,

if there were to be monasteries for nuns,

how necessary it would be

to have friars under the same rule;

and seeing how very few there were

in the province,

for they seemed to me to be dying out,

- put the matter earnestly

before our Lord,

and

- wrote to our Father General, [6]

-- begging him

as well as I could

to grant this, and

-- giving as a reason

that it would be greatly

for the service of God,

-- showing also that the inconveniences

which might arise

would not be a sufficient excuse

for leaving undone

so good a work,

and

-- reminding him

what a service he would thereby

render to our Lady,

to whom he was very devout.

She ( Our Lady) it was,

who did the work;

for this letter was delivered to him

while he was in Valencia,'

and he sent me thence

his licence to found two monasteries.

— for he desired to see

the strictest observance

of the rule practised in the order —

That no difficulties might be raised,

he referred the matter

to the provincial and his predecessor ;

their consent was not easily to be had.

But when I saw the chief part

of the work done

I had hopes
that our Lord would do the rest;

and so it came to pass,

for with the help of the lord bishop,

who considered the work

as specially his own,

the provincial and his predecessor

gave their consent.

6. Difficulty of finding friars
to begin the Reform.

6. Yet, while I was comforted

by having obtained the licence,

my anxiety grew the more,

because there was

- not a single friar in the province

that I knew of

who would undertake the task,

- nor any secular person

to make such a beginning.

I did nothing but implore our Lord

to raise up one at least for our work.

Neither had I a house to offer

— not even the means to have one.

There was I,

a poor barefooted nun,

without any help whatever

except in our Lord,

having nothing but

- the licence of the general and

- my good desires, and

- with no means whatever

of carrying them into effect.

Neither courage nor hope failed me,

for as our Lord had given one thing

He would also send the other.

Everything seemed to me possible now,

and so I began the work.

7. Generosity of God.

7. Oh, the greatness of God !

How Thou dost manifest Thy power

in giving courage to an ant !

Now, O my Lord,

the fault

- is not Thine

that those who love Thee

do not do great things,

- but in our cowardice

and littleness of mind !

How we never make good resolutions

without being filled with a thousand tears
and considerations of human prudence !

so, then, that is the reason,

O my God,

why Thou dost not show

Thy greatness and Thy wonders.

Is there any one more willing

- to give to any one

that will receive,

- to accept services

tendered at his own cost,

than Thou art ?

May it please Thy Majesty

- that I may have rendered Thee

some service,

and

- that I may not have a heavier debt

still to pay for the many things

I have received !

Amen.

__________

Foot Notes:

[1]

Two generals had before this

- entered Spain and

- held chapters of the order:

Fray Juan Alerio

in Barcelona

in the year 1324, and

Fray Raimundo de Grassa

in Perpinan

twenty years after, in 1354;

but these chapters were held

only for the kingdom of Aragon,

where the order was widely spread.

This was the first time

the general entered Castille,

which is no doubt what the Saint means

when she says that none of the generals

ever came to Spain.

(Rejorma, bk. II. ch. ii. 3.)

See Life, ch. xxxvi. i.

___________________

[2]

He was very angry certainly;

not, however, with the Saint,

but with the provincial,

who had refused

to accept the monastery.

(Reforma, bk. 11. ch. ii. 4.)

___________________

[3]

The General asked for the brief

by which

- the removal of the Saint

and two of her companions

from the monastery of the Incarnation

to the new foundation was authorised,

and

- offered the Saint,

when he saw the flaws in the process,

to receive her back

under the obedience of the order;

she knowing nothing of the irregularities

that had been committed,

willingly accepted the offer at once,

and the general received her,

but allowed her to remain in S. Joseph's;

he would not send her back

to her old home in the Incarnation,

nor would he ever allow anybody

to do so

( Reforma, bk. ii. ch. ii. 5 ).

( See Life, ch. xxxii. 12. )

" Nicholaus Audet,

elected General in 1524,

died 6th December 1562,

according to a note

in the acts of the general chapters.

The two religious who had the best chance

of succeeding him

being then at the Council of Trent,

Pope Pius IV by Brief

of 16th December 1562,

nominated John Baptist Rossi

(Rubeo, de Rubeis), of Ravenna

Vicar-General

until the general chapter

convened for May, 1564

should elect a General.

Rossi or Rubeo,

who was descended

from the counts of San Segundo,

was born at Ravenna, 4th October 1507,

his father's name being Dominic.

At the age of seventeen

he joined the Carmelite Order, and,

after preliminary studies,

was sent to the universities of

Siena (1534) and Padua

where he took the degree of Bachelor,

17th October 1536.

Having spent ten years

in reading and teaching divinity

he obtained the doctor's cap in 1547,

and was entrusted by Paul III

with a chair at the Roman university

called Sapienza.

It appears that for a short time

his teaching was somewhat suspected,

which seems astonishing

as he was orthodox almost to a fault.

He remained in Rome fifteen years

in the company of the general Audet,

a man most distinguished in the order,

and justly so.

and thus acquired an intimate knowledge

of the affairs of the order.

On Pentecost 1564

he was unanimously elected General.

While as yet only Vicar-general

he had received orders from the Pope

to visit and reform

every province and monastery

(21st January 1563),

which faculties were confirmed

and extended after his election

(8th May 1565)

and again by S. Pius V

(24th February 1566).

Accordingly he set out on a long journey

through Spain, France and Italy,

which lasted from April 1566

till 31st May 1568.

He took ship at Genoa, and

arrived at Salou, near Reus,

13 th May;

thence he proceeded

to Saragossa and Madrid (l0th June)

where he was received by Philip II;

on the 16th he was at Toledo,

and shortly after that date

he went into Andalucia,

holding a provincial chapter

at Seville on 20th September

in presence of more

than two hundred religious.

He remained there

until the end of October;

in November he was at Gibraleon and

towards the end of the year, at Lisbon.

In February 1567

he entered the province of Castille,

beginning his visitation at Salamanca;

here he nominated three religious

to visit in his name those convents

which he could not personally examine.

On 23rd March

he was again at Madrid,

but this time his audience with the king

was far less cordial

than the first had been

owing to the complaints

which had reached Philip

from Andalucia of his severity.

Shortly afterwards

we find him at Moralete,

then at Valladolid (5th April),

on the 10th at Fontiveros

(the birth-place of S. John of the Cross),

and the next day

he arrived at Avila

where, on the 12th,

he held the provincial chapter.

He remained there

nearly four weeks.

On 9th May

we find him for the third time

at Madrid,

where he remained a fortnight,

at the end of which

he proceeded to Requena.

Here we lose sight of him

until the beginning of July

when he appears at Valencia.

At the end of the month

he went to Barcelona

where he remained six weeks.

About the middle of September

he was at Avignon,

but being unable to hold

a visitation of the French provinces

owing to the ravages

caused by the civil wars

he returned to Genoa

where he arrived 6th October.

The continuation of his journey

through Upper Italy

does not concern us here.

For full particulars

see a series of articles

by the present writer

on Jean-Baptiste Rubeo de Ravenne

in Chroniques du Carmel, Chevremont

(Belgium) 1908, p. 110 sqq.

As already stated

he arrived at Avila 11th April,

and remained about four weeks.

At the provincial chapter

Fray Alonso Gonzalez

was elected provincial, and

Fray Angel de Salazar, prior of Avila.

___________________

[4]

Don Alvaro de Mendoza,

Bishop of Avila;

He will be mentioned again

in the history of the Foundations.

— See also the Life, ch. xxxiii. 19.

See Life, ch. xxiii. 19.

___________________

[5]

'In saying

that the Primitive rule was observed

in no other monastery of the order ,

Rubeo must have thought

of convents of nuns,

for it was kept at least

in two convents of friars,

namely

- that of Monte Oliveto near Genoa,

which he himself visited twice,

just before and after

his journey to Spain,

and

- that of Our Lady of Hope at Onda

in the kingdom of Valencia,

referred to in a patent by himself

of 13th November, 1565.

The two first patents

granted by him to S. Teresa

bear the dates

Avila, 27th April 1567,

and

Madrid 10th (or 16th) May.

The former empowers S. Teresa

to found convents of nuns

anywhere throughout

the kingdom of Castille,

the consent of the diocesan anthority

having previously been obtained.

These convents were to be

under the immediate jurisdiction

of the General and commissioners

specially delegated by him,

the power of the Provincial, vicar or priors

being set aside.

They were to conform themselves

to that of S. Joseph at Avila

with regard to

- the observance of the primitive rule,

- the customs, and

- the habit worn by the nuns.

The number of the latter

may not exceed twenty-five

in any convent.

S. Teresa is empowered to take

for each foundation

two nuns from the convent

of the Incarnation at Avila

provid2ed any are willing to join her,

and no provincial, prioress

or other superior

may forbid it.

All this is granted on condition

that the new convents are to be

under the jurisdiction of the General

(and not of the bishop),

else the patent is void.

The second faculty explains

that the term ' kingdom of Castille '

refers both to Old and New Castille,

while Andalucia is explicitly excluded.

This same patent mentions the

'Primitive rule and our Constitutions,'

as the rule of life of the new convents.

It may be asked

what Rubeo understood

by 'our Constitutions' ?

During his sojourn in Spain

he made certain regulations

which he refers to

in the Constitutions published in 1568

where he says

'quod etiam observent

omnes sanctimoniales nostri ordinis,

ut clare liquet ex statutis nostris

de earum reformatione

in regnis Hispaniarum peractis.'

These, however, bound

all convents of nuns,

not only those of the Teresian reform,

whereas the words used

in the patent appear to allude

to special constitutions,

in accordance with the Primitive rule.

It therefore seems more probable

( at least to the present writer,

for others are of a different opinion )

that he had in view

the special constitutions drawn up

by S. Teresa with the authority of Pius IV,

and approved by Rubeo,

so that he was well entitled

to call them ' our Constitutions.'