ANNALS OF THE SAINT'S LIFE (excerpts)
"For the earlier part, see
'The Life of Teresa of Jesus
of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel'
Introduction p. xxxvii.
of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel'
Introduction p. xxxvii.
1565
Fray Garcia of Toledo directs her to ask leave of
the provincial for the commutation of her vow.
The Provincial, Fray Angel de Salazar,
empowers Fray Garcia to do
what was necessary.
The Saint is greatly distressed by scruples
about her spiritual state.
She applies to the inquisitor Soto
[ See Relation vii. 8],
who recommends her to send an account
of her life to Juan of Avila.
She completes her "Life" in May or June,
and
begins the Way of Perfection.
1566
The Father-General of the Order of Carmel,
Fray Juan Bautista Rubeo,
arrives in Spain 13th May,
and holds a chapter at Seville.
1567
The General visits the Saint in her monastery,
and receives her back into the order
as his subject.
He authorises her to make other foundations
of nuns, and two of friars,
27th April, 16th May and 16th August.
On the feast of the Assumption,
the Saint founds a monastery
in Medina del Campo
where she remains to the end of October.
That done, she goes to Madrid,
and is lodged in the house
of Dona Leonor de Mascarehas [ch. iii].
She left Madrid, 25th November,
and went to Alcala de Henares
for the purpose of visiting and settling
the monastery of the venerable Maria of Jesus.
She remains two months in Alcala.
She meditates the foundation of houses
of friars of her reform.
Fray Antonio de Hereciia
and S. John of the Cross
having offered themselves as a beginning.
She had received the offer of a house
near Valladolid from Don Bernardino de Mendoza
for a monastery there,
but could not accept it at once,
because she had promised
to make a foundation in Malagon.
1568
The General approves the Constitutions
of the nuns.
In February she goes to Toledo to her friend
Dona Luisa de la Cerda,
the foundress of the house in Malagon,
and in Lent leaves Toledo for Malagon,
where she makes the foundation
on Palm Sunday, 11th April [ch. ix. 5].
She remains two months in Malagon,
and on 19th May departs for Toledo,
which she reaches bowed down with sickness.
28th May,
she sets out for Escalona to see the
Marchioness of Villena,
at the request of Fray Garcia of Toledo.
She writes to Dona Luisa de la Cerda
to ask her to send
the MS. of her Life to Juan of Avila
in all haste,
which she had left with her for that purpose.
Fr. Banes had written to her for it,
and asked her to send it to him
as soon as she returned to Avila —
Letter of 27th May;
returns to Avila, 2nd June.
A house in Duruelo is offered her
by Don Rafael Mejia Velasquez
for a monastery of friars which she visits in July.
10th August,
she arrives in Valladolid to make the foundation for which
Don Benardino de Mendoza
had given her a house [ch. x. 3],
and the monastery is founded on the feast
of the Assumption.
Juan of Avila approves of her book,
and writes to her a letter, dated 12th September,
from Montilla.
The first monastery ot friars founded in Duruelo,
and the first mass said there conventually
on Advent Sunday, 28th November
[ch. xiv. 5].
In December
she prepares for the foundation in Toledo.
1569
She leaves Valladolid, and visits Duruelo,
the second time on her way to Avila.
In March
she sets out for Toledo, attended by the priest,
Gonzalo de Aranda and the two nuns
Isabel of S. Dominic and Isabel of S. Paul,
ch. xv. 3.
She arrives in Madrid;
the king sent for her,
but she had then left for Toledo,
where she arrives 24th March,
Meanwhile the nuns in Valladolid
leave their monastery because of its unhealthiness,
and take a house within the city,
Juan of Avila dies, 12th April, from whom she
receives a consoling letter shortly before that day.
28th May.
She receives a message from the prince
and princess of Eboli concerning the foundation
to be made in Pastrana.
She leaves Toledo on Monday in Whitsun week,
30th May, and in Madrid is lodged in the
monastery of the Franciscan nuns.
Makes the acquaintance there
of Mariano of S. Benedict, the hermit,
who enters the order of Carmel with his companion,
Juan de la Miseria.
9th July,
she takes possession, after much discussion
with the princess of Eboli, of the monastery in Pastrana.
13th July,
is founded the second monastery of the friars
in the same place by permission of the General.
The princess of Eboli, after much importunity,
obtains possession of the Saint's Life.
She ridicules the book,
and allows her servants to see it
though she had promised to keep it secret.
21 St July.
The Saint returns to Toledo, where she remains
for a year, but visits at times the monasteries of
Medina del Campo, Valladolid, and Pastrana.
1570
Father Martin Gutierrez, rector of the house of
the Society in Salamanca,
writes to her 17th January,
asking her to found a monastery there
[ch. xviii. ii.
The nuns in Toledo remove to a better house in
the ward of S. Nicholas [ch. xv. 17].
In July
she sees in a vision the martyrdom of
Father Ignatius de Azevedo and others, forty Jesuits;
they were murdered by Soria, protestant and pirate,
and friend of Coligni.
Among the martyrs was a kinsman of the Saint.
10th July.
She is in Pastrana,
present at the profession of Ambrosio Mariano
and Juan de la Miseria.
The following day the friars of Duruelo
remove to Mancera.
She returns to Toledo, and to Avila in August.
The bishop of Salamanca grants permission
for the foundation of her monastery.
The Saint arrives in Salamanca
on the eve of All Saints,
The third monastery of friars
[Duruelo merged in Mancera]
is founded on the feast of All Saints
in Alcala de Henares
by permission of the General
and the seventh of nuns on the same day
in Salarrianca [ch. xix. 2].
At the end ot the year
the Saint is asked to make a foundation
in Alba de Tormes.
1571
The foundation made in Alba de Tormes,
25th Jan. [ch. XX. 12].
The Saint returns to Salamanca,
and is there at the end of March.
She now spent some time in the house
of the Count of Monterey.
She goes to Avila from Salamanca,
and is ordered by her superiors
to accept the priorate of the Incarnation
[ch. xix. 6].
She renounces the mitigated Rule.
Father Fernandez makes supplementary
Constitutions for the nuns.
21st Nov.
Foundation of the convent of Altoinira
by leave of the General.
She enters on her office in October,
and remains prioress for three years.
1572 19th Jan.
The Saint sees our Lady in the stall of the prioress
[ Relation iii. 16].
The nuns of the Incarnation amend their ways,
and the Saint rebukes the insolence of those
who paid visits to the religious.
25th March.
Fray Jerome Gratian of the Mother of God
takes the habit in Pastrana.
April,
foundation of La Roda by permission of the General;
Some convents in Andalucia accept
the reform of S. Teresa.
In May,
S. John of the Cross was made Confessor
to the nuns of the Incarnation.
Great graces bestowed on the Saint while in the
monastery of the Incarnation:
the mystical betrothal;
and the ecstasy in the parlour while speaking to
S. John of the Cross.
The spiritual challenge from the friars of Pastrana.
1573 In February
she goes to Alba.
The Saint 11th June writes to King Philip II
on the affairs of the order.
In May and June
foundations of Granada and Penuela of the friars
without the General's permission.
Writes to Father Ordonez, S.J., on the subject
of a school for young girls
in Medina del Campo, 27th July.
She sets out for Salamanca,
with the provincial's leave,
to arrange the transfer of her community there
to a new house.
At the end of the month the princess of Eboli
goes to Pastrana,
and establishes herself as a nun
in the Carmelite monastery there
[ch. xvii. 14, note. ]
In Salamanca her confessor,
Father Jerome Ripalda,
bids her write the history of her foundations.
She begins to write 24th August.
While in Salamanca she is asked to make a
foundation in Veas.
Our Lord bids her make a foundation in Segovia
[ ch. xxi. i].
1574. 5th January
Foundation of the convent of Seville of friars
without leave from the general.
The Saint goes to Alba de Tormes from Salamanca.
She is in the former place 8th Feb.
and stays two days in the house of the Duchess of Alba.
Notwithstanding her bodily illness and spiritual
distress she proceeds to Segovia
through Medina del Campo and Avila,
and arrives there 18th March.
The next day, on the feast of S. Joseph,
the foundation is made.
She dissolves the monastery of Pastrana
and receives the nuns in Segovia
[ch. xvii. 15, note].
She writes the Conceptions on the Love of God.
The book of her Life is delated to the inquisitors
the first time
[ch. xvW. 12, note].
Dona Casilda de Padilla
enters the monastery of Valladolid.
Death of Isabel of the Angels.
She purchases the house
of Diego Porraz in Segovia,
which results in lawsuits with the chapter
and the monasteries there.
Towards the end of September
she removes her nuns to the new house,
and on the ist of October goes back to Avila.
6th Oct.
She resigns the place of prioresss in the
Monastery of the Incarnation,
and returns to her own House of S. Joseph
where she is elected prioress.
She goes again to Valladolid
to make certain arrangements about the reception
of Dona Casilda de Padilla.
1575
In the beginning of the year
she returns to Avila, and, having rested awhile,
goes through Toledo, Malagon, and Almodovar to Veas.
In Almodovar she foretold the virtues
of the blessed John Baptist of the Conception,
the reformer of the Trinitarians.
She makes her tenth foundation of nuns in Veas
on the feast of S. Mathias, 24th Feb.
Sees there for the first time
Fray Jerome of the Mother of God,
who was on his way to Madrid.
7th March.
The house of the friars founded in
Almodovar del Campo with leave of the general.
The Saint sets out for Seville,
being at the time unwell;
with many difficulties on the road,
and much opposition in Seville.
The foundation there is made
on the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, 29th May.
21st May.
The general chapter of the order is
held in Piacenza, where it was resolved to deal
sharply with the friars of S. Teresa's reform.
23rd May.
She makes a vow of obedience to Father Jerome
(Relation vi.)
The Saint writes a long letter to the General.
About the middle of August
her brother Lorenzo arrives at Seville
from South America.
21st Nov.
Fray Jerome of the Mother of God,
by delegation of the nuncio, visits the friars in Seville
of the old observance, who resist his authority.
Fray Angel de Salazar, provincial of Castille,
bids the Saint make no more foundations, and
orders her further to withdraw into any one
of her monasteries, and there to remain.
She proposes to withdraw to Valladolid at once,
leaving the foundation of Seville in its troubles,
but Fray Jerome bids her stay for the present
where she is,
1576
The foundation of Caravaca made 1st Jan.
while the Saint was in Seville, searching for a house,
and waiting for the licence of the archbishop.
She writes to the Father-General explaining her acts,
and those of Fray Jerome of the Mother of God
and Fray Mariano.
She tells him also how they and herself were
about to be harassed, and
that false accusations were brought against them.
She is delated to the inquisition at this time
by a weak sister who left her monastery.
She buys a house at last, helped by her brother
Don Lorenzo.
In the beginning of May
the new house is occupied by her
and her sisters.
Fray Juan de la Miseria paints the portrait of
the Saint.
4th June.
She sets out for Toledo,
where she was to stay according to the order
of the general.
She is in Malagon with her brother on the 11th,
and in the beginning of July reaches Toledo.
Before she is settled there, she goes to her monastery
in Avila, by order of Fray Jerome,
and hastens back to Toledo
with the Venerable Anne of S. Bartholoinew,
who is to be her companion and secretary.
9th August,
she is settled in Toledo.
She is now asked to make a foundation
in Villanueva de la Jara.
In Toledo the Saint continues
the Book of the Foundations
as far as ch. xxvii,
adding to it the account of the foundations
of Segovia, Veas, Seville, and Caravaca,
and writes the Visitation of the Nunneries.
She ceases to write about the middle of November.
The foundations are interrupted,
none being made for more than four years,
owing to the troubles arising out of the quarrel
between the friars of the old observance
and those of the Saint's reform
[ch. xxviii. i].
She confesses in Toledo to Dr Velasquez,
afterwards Bishop of Osma.
The nuns of Malagon are in trouble,
and it is discussed whether it would not be better
to remove the nuns of Veas to Granada.
Grievous charges are falsely brought
against the Saint
About the end of October some of the Saint's nuns
in Seville are sent to reform the nuns
of the old observance in Paterna,
where they remain until the feast of S. Barbara, 1577.
1st Dec.
the convent of Penuela is transferred
to El Cahario.
A foundation in Aguilar de Campos is offered to
the Saint 7th December.
During the year the Saint wrote many important letters.
1577. 24th March.
The celebrated Fray Nicholas of Jesus Maria (Doria)
enters the order of Carmel.
The nuns of Veas and Caravaca involved in
lawsuits.
2nd June.
She begins to write the Interior Castle.
18th June, the nuncio, Monsignore Ormaneto, dies,
to the great grief of the Saint,
for he had always defended her reform.
In July
she goes to Avila, and places her monastery
there under the jurisdiction of the order:
it had been hitherto under the bishop.
In August
the new nuncio, Monsignore Philip Sega,
arrives at Madrid.
Gross falsehoods put forth against the friars
and nuns of the reform.
Monsignor Sega deals severely with the friars of
the reform,
and the Saint begs the king to help her.
8th October.
Fray Miguel repents, and recants all he had said.
The nuns ot the Incarnation,
notwithstanding the threats of their superiors,
elect as their prioress S. Teresa,
About the end of November
the book of the Interior Castle is finished.
In the night of 3rd December,
S. John of the Cross and his fellow confessor
and chaplain of the Incarnation
are taken to prison by the friars
of the old observance.
The former is cruelly treated by his brethren in Toledo.
On Christmas Eve the Saint is thrown down and
breaks her arm.
1587
F, Salazar, S.J., wishes to become a Carmelite friar,
and S. Teresa writes to father Suarez,
Provincial of the society.
The Nuncio becomes more severe with the friars.
In the beginning ot May,
Fray Jerome Tostado returns to Portugal,
and the saint is more at ease.
The father-general of the order,
Fray Juan Bautista Rubeo, dies 4th September,
The nuncio bids S. Teresa to remain in Toledo,
and speaks harshly of her and her work.
Towards the end ot the year the monastery of
Seville is disturbed by the indiscretion
of the confessor,
and on the prioress attempting to check him
he carries accusations against her and the Saint
before the tribunal of the inquisition.
The inquisitors examine, and find the accused innocent.
During this year the Saint is in Avila.
The book of her Life is again delated
to the inquisitors.
1579
6th June.
The Saint writes the four instructions
which God gave her for the preservation
and growth of the order. (Relation x.)
14th June.
Foundation of the convent ot friars at Baeza.
23rd June.
She sets out from Avila to visit her monasteries,
remains a few days in Malagon, and
arrives on the 3rd of July in Valladolid,
where she stays till the 30th.
22nd July.
She writes to Don Teutonio de Braganza,
Archbishop of Evora,
to whom she had sent a copy
of her Way of Perfection the week before,
that he might get it printed.
30th July.
The Saint goes from Valladolid to Medina,
where she remains three or four days;
then to Alba de Tormes,
where she stays a week.
She then goes to Salamanca,
where she remains some two months and a half.
Fray Angel de Salazar relieves her of the burden
ot the priorate of Malagon,
but insists on her visiting the monastery.
In the beginning of November
she returns to Avila, and goes thence,
notwithstanding her illness
and the severity of the weather,
to Malagon.
She was five days in reaching Toledo.
25th Nov.
She reaches Malagon,
and on the feast of the Immaculate Conception
the nuns remove to their new house.
She consents to make the foundation
in Villanueva de la Jara.
1580
Fra Angel de Salazar, 28th Jan.
gives the Saint authority to make the foundation
in Villanueva,
13th Feb.
She departs from Malagon, and arrives
in Villanueva on the first Sunday in Lent,
The devout ladies there waiting for her receive the habit,
25th February,
She leaves Villanueva, and arrives in Toledo
25th March,
and is struck by paralysis.
She recovers by degrees, and
visits the cardinal archbishop,
who tells her that her book is in the holy office,
but that no fault can be found with it.
22nd May.
Fra Giovanni Battista Cafardo,
who had governed the order
since the death of father Rubeo as vicar
by the order of the Pope, is elected Father-General.
The Saint remains in Toledo till 7th June, then,
by order ot Fray Angel de Salazar,
goes to Valladolid.
She is in Segovia 13th June,
22nd June.
His Holiness Gregory XIII issues the bulls
for the formation of a distinct province of
the friars of the reform.
28th June.
Death of the Saint's brother Don Lorenzo.
The Saint is obliged to go to Avila
to arrange the affairs of her brother.
In the beginning of August
she sets out from Avila to Medina del Campo
with her nephew and
Fray Jerome of the Mother of God;
then to Valladolid,
where she is very ill, and believed to be dying
[ch. xxix. i].
She is asked when somewhat better
to make a foundation in Palencia,
and by direction of her confessor,
F. Ripalda, S.J.,
notwithstanding her broken health,
consents.
The archbishop of Burgos gives leave
to found a house in his cathedral city
[ch. xxxi. i].
She leaves Valladolid for Palencia
on the feast of the Holy Innocents,
and the foundation is made on the feast
of David the King
[28th Dec. ; ch. xxix. 9]
in a hired house.
1581. 1st Feb.
The apostolic commissary,
Fray Juan de las Cuevas,
of the Order of S. Dominic,
summons the friars of the reform
to Alcala de Henares, and
by authority of His Holiness constitutes them
a province apart trom the friars of the mitigation,
3rd March.
Fray Jerome of the Mother of God is in the chapter
elected the first provincial of the reform of S. Teresa,
4th May.
The house of the friars of the reform
founded in Valladolid,
and another, ist June, in Salamanca.
The nuns of Palencia remove from the hired house
to that bought by the Saint
near the hermitage of our Lady of the Street
[ch. xxix. 22].
Towards the end of May the Saint goes from
Palencia to Soria,
where she arrives 2nd June, and
on the following day founds the fifteenth monastery
of her reform.
She makes an effort to found a house in Madrid,
as she had been doing for some time.
She makes Catherine of Christ prioress of Soria,
and on the 16th of August
sets out tor Avila.
In Burgo de Osma she meets
Don Diego de Yepes,
and receives communion trom his hands.
23rd August.
She is in Segovia, in Villacastin 4th September,
and the next day in Avi1a.
The monastery of S. Joseph had fallen away,
and was spiritually and temporally
a source of distress to the Saint.
On her arrival the prioress resigns, and
the community elect S. Teresa to fill her place,
but she refuses till Fray Jerome of the Mother of God
commands her to accept the burden.
1582 2nd Jan.
The Saint leaves Avila on her way to Burgos.
She is in Medina del Campo on the 4th.
On the 9th
she sets out for Valladolid,
where she remains four days.
She then goes to Palencia, and
from Palencia to Burgos, where she arrives,
after a toilsome and dangerous journey,
26th Jan. [ch. xxxi. 18].
21st Jan.
The Venerable Anne of Jesus arrived
in Granada with S. John of the Cross
to make the foundation there.
19th February,
Foundation of the convent of friars at Lisbon.
The archbishop of Burgos makes it difficult
for the Saint to found a house.
She and her nuns are lodged for a time
in the hospital of the Conception.
The archbishop, after many shiftings,
yields at last
and the monastery is founded 22nd April.
24th May.
The monastery in Burgos is flooded,
and the nuns are in great danger.
She leaves Burgos about the end of July for
Palencia and Valladolid.
The prioress at Valladolid quarrels with her,
and orders her to leave the monastery.
16th Sep.
The Saint reaches Medina del Campo,
where also the prioress turns against her.
She goes away without food,
and is extremely ill through weariness, and hunger.
She and her companion,
the Venerable Anne of S. Bartholomew,
reach Penaranda,
where they can get nothing to eat,
and the Saint is at the point of death.
She is not able to return to Avila,
for the vicar of the province orders her to go
at once to Alba de Tormes, the duchess of Alba
being desirous of her presence.
She reaches Alba de Tormes, nearly dead,
about six o'clock on the evening ot 20th Sept.
The next morning she goes down
to the church for communion,
and then returns to her bed,
never to leave it alive.
She makes her confession
to Fray Antonio of Jesus, and receives
the viaticum and the last anointing,
and on the feast of S. Francis, 4th October,
dies in the arms of her companion,
the Venerable Anne of S, Bartholomew,
in the 68th year of her age.
On the next day, which, on account ot the reform
of the Calendar, was the 15th,
she is buried under the choir orratins;
1585
The Saint's body is removed from Alba to Avila.
1586. 23rd August.
By order of the Pope it is brought back to Alba.
1587. 10th July.
The Discalced Carmelites form a
Congregation under a Vicar-General.
1591
The process of Beatification begun.
14th December,
death of S. John of the Cross.
1593
Separation ot the Orders
of Calced and Discalced Carmelites.
1595
Compulsorial process of Beatification.
1604
Remissorial process, informations in genere.
1607
Informations in specie.
1614. 24th April.
Beatification.
21st September.
Death of Father Jerome Gratian.
1622. 12th March.
Canonisation of S. Teresa.
