The Book of the Foundations
of S. Teresa of Jesus
of the Order of our Lady of Carmel
CHAPTER 9
Chapter 9 Contents
She Leaves Medina Del Campo
For The Foundation
Of S. Joseph Of Malagon
1. Religious observance of Medina —
2. Dona Luisa de la Cerda. —
3. The Saint accepts the house
offered by Dona Luisa. —
4. Observance of poverty. —
5. Foundation, April 11, 1568.
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Monastery of Malagon
1. Religious observance of Medina
1. How I have wandered from my purpose !
and yet some of the advice
I have given
may be more to the purpose
than the account of the foundations.
During my stay in the house
of S. Joseph in Medina del Campo, [1]
it was a great joy to me
to see
- how the sisters were walking [2]
in the way of those
of S. Joseph's of Avila,
in all religious observances,
sisterly love, and spirituality;
and
- how our Lord was providing in the house
what was necessary
for the church
as well as for the sisters.
Nuns came in whom our Lord seems
to have chosen Himself,
such as became the foundation
of such a building:
I think that all the good that is to come
lies in these beginnings,
for those who come in afterwards
walk in the way
which they find prepared for them.
2. Dona Luisa de la Cerda. —
2. There lived in Toledo a lady,
sister of the duke of Medina Celi,
and in whose house I had been staying
by the commandment of my superiors,
as I have largely set forth
in the account
of the foundation of S. Joseph's. [3]
She conceived a special affection for me,
and that must have been in some way
a means to move her to do
what she did,
for His Majesty very often
makes use of means
which to us
who know not what is coming
seem to be of little worth.
When this lady heard
that I had authority to found monasteries,
she began to press me very much
to found one in the town of Malagon,
which belonged to her.
I would not hear of it at all,
because it was so small a place,
and
because I should be forced to accept
an endowment for our maintenance,
and I had a very great dislike to do that.
3. The Saint accepts the house
offered by Dona Luisa. —
3. I laid the matter
before learned men and my confessor; [4]
they told me
- I was in the wrong,
for the holy council authorised [5]
the possession of revenues;
- that I ought not,
because of any opinion
I held on the subject,
to give up the foundation of a house
wherein our Lord might be so well served.
Added to this
were the urgent requests of that lady,
and I could therefore
do no less than accept the foundation.
She gave us a sufficient endowment,
for I always wished the monasteries
to be
either altogether poor
or to possess enough so
that the nuns should never be forced
to beg of anybody
for that which might be necessary
for them.
4. Observance of poverty. —
4. I insisted with all my might that
- no nun should possess
anything of her own, and
- on the perfect observance
of the constitutions
as in other houses founded in poverty.
When all the deeds were drawn up, I
- sent for certain sisters [6]
for the foundation, and
- went with the lady to Malagon,
but the house was not yet prepared
for us, and
so we were lodged for more than a week
in one of the rooms of the castle.
5. Foundation, April 11, 1568.
5. On Palm Sunday, [11th April] 1568, [7]
the parishioners came in procession
to receive us,
and we, in our white mantles,
with our veils over our faces,
went with them to the church,
where a sermon was preached,
and from which the Most Holy Sacrament
was carried into our monastery.
It was a cause of much devotion in all,
I remained there some days.
One day in prayer, after Communion,
I heard our Lord say
that He would be greatly honoured
in that house.
I think I was there not quite two months,
for I was pressed in spirit
to found the house in Valladolid;
and the reason was
what I am going now to tell.
Foot Notes:
[1]
From the Assumption to the end of October
1567.
__________________________
[2]
See Foundationa: Ch. III #17
__________________________
[3]
Dona Luisa de la Cerda,
sister of Don Juan de la Cerda,
duke of Medina Celi
and widow since 18 January 1561,
of Don Arias Pardo de Saavedra,
Lord of Malagon.
She lost six of her seven children
in their infancy.
See Life, ch. xxxiv. i
and passim. (frequently in her writings)
__________________________
[4]
[ Fray Dominic Banez ]
__________________________
[5]
Concedit sancta synodus omnibus
monasterlis et domibus, tam
virorum quam mulierum et mendicantium
exceptis domibus fratrum
Sancti Francisci Cappucinorum et coram
qui Minorum de observantia
vocantur — etiam quibus aut
ex constitutionibus suis erat prohibitum,
aut ex privilegio Apostolico non erat concessum,
ut deinceps bona
immobilia eis possidere liceat
[ Concil. Trident., session. 25,
de Regular, chap. 3)
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Blog Note:
CHAPTER III.
....
The holy Synod permits that
henceforth real property may be
possessed by all monasteries and houses,
both of men and women, and
of mendicants, even by those
who were forbidden by their constitutions
to possess it, or who had not received permission
to that effect by apostolic privilege,-
with the exception, however,
of the houses of the brethren of St. Francis
(called) Capuchins, and those
called Minor Observants:
and if any of the aforesaid places,
to which it has been granted
by apostolic authority to possess such property,
have been stripped thereof,
It ordains that the same shall be
wholly restored unto them.
But, in the aforesaid monasteries
amid houses, as well of men as of women,
whether they possess, or do not possess,
real property, such a number of inmates
only shall be fixed upon and be
for the future retained,
as can be conveniently supported,
either out of the proper revenues
of those monasteries, or
out of the customary alms;
nor shall any such places
be henceforth erected,
without the permission of the bishop,
in whose diocese they are to be erected,
being first obtained.
_______________
The saint obtained permission
for this foundation
from the provincial, Fray Alonso Gonzalez,
dated Moraleja, 24th March 1568.
The contract with Dona Luisa de la Cerda,
bearing date 30th March 1568,
is preserved in the archives of the convent.
The foundation took place
in a large house adjoining the plaza mayor,
but its situation was not conducive to recollection.
Consequently another site was chosen,
towards the south of the town,
but at some distance from the more
frequented thoroughfares.
The foundress left S. Teresa a free hand
to choose as much ground
as she thought necessary,
and to trace the lines
on which the building was to be carried out.
For this reason Malagon must be considered
the model of what,
in the ideas of S. Teresa,
a Carmelite convent should be,
for at no other foundation did she enjoy
a similar opportunity.
She settled the number of olive trees and
the size of the cornfields required
for the maintenance of the nuns.
The foundress agreed to build the chapel
and convent for the sum of 8,500 ducats.
The builder, Nicolas de Vergara,
undertook to make the foundation walls
four feet thick, those of the convent three,
the ground floor thirteen feet high,
the upper storey ten,
with walls of proportionate thickness;
the belfry to carry two bells.
In the cloister there were to be
ten columns of granite of the Ionic order.
S. Teresa arrived at Malagon
on 25th November 1579
only to find the building very backward.
She spent her days sitting on a stone
facing the future convent
watching and animating the workmen.
(the spot is now marked by a small chapel
where a lamp is kept burning
before the image of the Saint, and
mass is said here from time to time),
Consequently the convent was completed
in time for the inauguration to take place
on the feast of the Immaculate Conception,
8th December 1579.
S. Teresa remained there till the middle
of February 1580.
This was her eighth and last visit to Malagon.
No other convent has remained
so entirely unaltered since her time.
___________________________
[6]
The Saint left Alcala for Toledo
before Lent, 1568, with the two nuns,
Anne of the Angels and
Antonia of the Holy Ghost,
and sent to Avila
for Mary of the Blessed Sacrament,
Mary Magdalen,
Isabel of Jesus and Isabel of S. Joseph.
She left Toledo in Lent, and reached
Malagon before Passion Sunday
with her nuns,
and Dona Luisa came with them
[ Ribera, bk. li. ch. xi].
While looking for a site for her
monastery with the parish priest
and the mayor,
she said when they came to a convenient spot,
"This must be left for the barefooted friars
of S. Francis."
Some years afterwards those friars came
to Malagon, and built their monastery there
[Reforma de los Descalcos, bk. ii. ch. xi. 3).
_____________________________
[7]
The Saint came to Malagon
in the very beginning of April, and,
according to her letter
to Dona Luisa de la Cerda
went away on 19th May
(Letter of 18th May 1568).
The first prioress of Malagon
was Mother Anne of the Angels,
whom the Saint had taken years before
from the monastery of the Incarnation, Avila
(Reforma de los Descalcos, bk. ii. ch xi. 8).
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End of Chapter 9
of the
Book of the Foundations
of S. Teresa of Jesus
of the Order of our Lady of Carmel
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