of S. Teresa of Jesus
of the Order of our Lady of Carmel
CHAPTER 18 XVIII
Chapter 18 Contents
- Of The Foundation Of The Monastery
Of S. Joseph At Salamanca,
In The Year 1570.
- Treats Of Some Important Counsels
For Prioresses
1. The Saint is invited to Salamanca.—
2. Hires a house. —
3. Leaves Avila for Salamanca. —
4. Laboriousncss of the Saint. —
5. Increased joy of the nuns. —
6. Strictness of the Carmelite rule. —
7. Indiscreet zeal of prioresses. —
8. Discretion necessary. —
9. Spiritual and intellectual gifts. —
10. Nuns not to be driven
towards perfection. —
11. Imperfections to be borne with. —
12. The prioresses to be cautious
in tasking the obedience of the nuns. —
13. Simple obedience of a nun. —
14. Another instance. —
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CHAPTER 18
1. The Saint is invited to Salamanca
1.
When these two foundations [1]
had been made,
I returned to the city of Toledo [2]
where I rested for some months
till the purchase of the house
spoken of before was made, [3]
and everything had been settled.
While I was thus occupied,
a rector of the Society of Jesus [4]
in Salamanca
wrote to me to say
that a monastery of our order
would be most useful there,
at the same time giving me reasons
for thinking so.
I had been hitherto kept back
from founding a house in poverty there,
because the place was very poor. [5]
But, considering
that Avila is quite as poor,
and
that God never abandons,
nor ever will, I believe,
abandon any one who serves Him,
I determined to make the foundation,
making such reasonable arrangements
as I could,
having but a few nuns,
and they helping themselves
by the labour of their hands.
Going, then,
from Toledo to Avila,
I applied from that place
for the permission of the bishop, [6]
and
obtained it;
the bishop was very gracious,
for, as the father rector showed him
- what the order is,
and
- that the monastery would be
for the service of God,
he gave his permission at once.
2. Hires a house.
2.
I thought myself,
when I had the permission
of the ordinary,
that the monastery was already founded,
so easy was everything to do.
And so I contrived at once
to hire a house, [7]
which a lady I knew
told me of.
It was a difficult matter,
because it was not a season
for letting houses,
and
because it was then
in the possession of certain students,
who were persuaded to give it up
whenever the persons came
who were to live in it.
They knew nothing of the purpose
for which it had been hired,
for I took the very greatest care of that;
nothing was to be known
till after taking possession,
because I have some experience now
of what the devil does
to embarrass one of these monasteries.
Though God did not suffer him
to molest this at the first,
because He would have it founded,
yet afterwards the trouble and
the opposition we met with
were so great
that everything is not,
even now while I am writing,
quite got over,
notwithstanding that it has been founded
for some years;
and so I believe
that God is greatly pleased with it,
seeing that Satan cannot endure it.
3. Leaves Avila for Salamanca.
3.
Then, with the license of the bishop
and the house secured,
relying on the mercy of God
— for there was nobody there
who could give me any help at all
in supplying the many things
that were necessary
for the furnishing of that house —
I set out for the place,
taking with me only one nun, [8]
for greater secrecy.
I found it better to do so
than to take the nuns
till I had taken possession,
for I had received a lesson
by what took place in Medina del Campo,
when I tound myself there in great straits.
Now, if any difficulties arose,
I should bear them by myself,
with only one nun,
whom I could not travel without.
We arrived on the eve of All Saints,
having travelled a great part of the night
before in the excessive cold,
and slept in one place,
being myself, very unwell.
4. Laboriousness of the Saint.
4.
In giving an account
of these foundations
I do not speak of the great hardships
of travelling in eold, heat, and snow.
Once it snowed
the whole day long,
at other times we missed our road,
and again I had sicknesses and fever;
for, glory be to God,
my health is generally weak,
but I saw clearly
that our Lord was giving me strength.
It has happened to me
from time to time,
while occupied in these foundations,
to find myself
amidst such pains and sufferings
as distressed me much,
for it seemed to me
if I were then even in my cell,
I could have done nothing
but
lie down on my bed,
lie down on my bed,
turn to our Lord,
complaining to His Majesty,
and
asking Him
how it was
that He would have me
do what was beyond my power.
His Majesty would then
give me strength,
not without suffering however,
and in the fervour and earnestness
with which He filled me,
I seemed to have forgotten myself.
So far as I remember at present
I never refrained
from making a foundation
through fear of trouble,
though I felt a great dislike to journeys,
especially long ones ;
especially long ones ;
but when I had once started,
I thought nothing of them,
- looking to Him
in whose service they were undertaken,
and
- calling to mind
that our Lord would be praised,
and
and
that the Most Holy Sacrament
would dwell, in the house
I was going to found.
It is a special joy to me
to see one church more,
when I consider
how many (churches)
(those who left or are against the church)
are destroying.
(those who left or are against the church)
are destroying.
I know of no trouble,
however great it may be,
that should be dreaded
when it is the condition of obtaining;
so great a good for Christendom;
and it should be
a great consolation to us
— though many among us
do not think ot it —
that Jesus Christ,
true God and true man,
dwells, as He does,
in so many places
in the Most Holy Sacrament.
5. Increased joy of the nuns.
5.
Certainly, as for myself,
I have a great consolation
frequently in choir
when I behold these souls,
so pure,
intent on the praises of God,
nor does it fail me
on many other occasions,
for it is joy to me
to see
- their obedience and happiness,
which
which
so strict an enclosure
and
solitude
supply them, and
- their cheertulness
when they have any opportunity
of mortifying themselves.
Whenever the prioress is enabled
by a greater grace from our Lord
to try them herein,
there I see the greater happiness;
and the prioress then
is more wearied of trying them
than they (the nuns) are of obeying,
for their desires are never satisfied herein.
6. Strictness of the Carmelite rule.
6.
Though I may be wandering
from the story of the foundation
which I had begun to describe,
certain considerations
now suggest themselves to me
on the subject of mortification,
and perhaps, my children,
they will be of service to the prioress;
so, lest I should forget,
I will now tell them.
As the prioresses have
different gifts and virtues,
so they wish
to direct their nuns accordingly.
She
who is most mortified
will look upon
everything she may order
for the purpose
of subduing the will
as easy to do:
it may be so for her,
and yet perhaps
it may be very hard to obey.
This is what
we have seriously to consider:
we are not to command others to do
what seems very hard to ourselves.
Discretion is a great thing
in government,
and exceedingly necessary
in these houses
— I am going to say
much more necessary
than in others —
because the prioresses here
have to watch more carefully over
the interior state and
the outward demeanour
of their subjects.
Other prioresses of much spirituality
would be glad
if all were given to prayer.
In a word,
our Lord leads souls onwards
by different roads;
the prioresses, however, must consider
that they have not been appointed
to guide souls by the road
which they like themselves,
but rather to direct their subjects
according to the rule and constitutions,
even it they have to do violence
to themselves herein,
and prefer another way.
7. Indiscreet zeal of prioresses.
7.
I was once in a monastery of ours
with a prioress
for whom penance
had a great attraction. [9]
She directed all the sisters
by that way.
At one time the whole community
took the discipline,
reciting the seven penitential psalms
with the prayers,
and had other observances
of the same kind.
The same thing happens
if the prioress be given to prayer:
she occupies the community therein,
though it be not
the time for prayer,
even after matins,
when it would be much better
if all the nuns went to sleep.
If, again,
she is given to mortification,
there is to be no rest anywhere,
and those poor flocks of the Virgin
are silent like lambs.
All this, certainly, is to me
- a source of shame and devotion, and
at times
- a strong temptation,
for the sisters,
all absorbed in God,
do not perceive it,
but I
- fear for their health,
and
- would rather they kept the rule,
for
- that gives them enough to do,
and
- whatever is beside that
should be done with gentleness.
This matter of mortification
especially is of great importance,
and I would have the prioresses,
for the love of our Lord,
look into it;
for in these houses
it is a very important thing
to have discretion and
to understand dispositions,
and if herein they are not very observant
they will do
great harm
instead of good,
and make the sisters uneasy.
8. Discretion necessary.
8.
They must consider
that mortification of this kind
is not of obligation:
that is the first thing
they have to look to.
Though it is most necessary
to enable souls to attain
to liberty and high perfection,
that is not gained in a moment,
and they must therefore
help every one onwards
according to
the intellectual and spiritual gifts
which God has given them.
You may think
that understanding
is not necessary for this:
that is a mistake,
for there are some
who must labour much
before they can arrive
at the knowledge
of perfection
and
of the spirit of our rule,
and afterwards, perhaps,
these very persons
will be the most saintly;
they may
not know when it is safe
to excuse themselves,
nor when it is not,
and they may be ignorant
of other minute observances
- which,
when they shall have understood them,
they will keep perhaps with ease,
and
- which they never thoroughly understand,
nor — which is worse —
look upon as matters
appertaining unto perfection.
9. Spiritual and intellectual gifts.
9.
In one of our monasteries
is a sister
who,
so far as I can see,
is one of the greatest servants of God there
— great
in spirituality,
in the graces
His Majesty bestows upon her,
and
in penance and humility —
but she does not understand
certain things in the constitutions;
the mentioning of the faults
of others in chapter
she
considers to be a want of charity,
and
says that when she has to tell
anything of the sisters,
or
anything of that kind,
she may be speaking against a sister
who may be a great servant of God;
and yet in other ways
I see that she far surpasses those
who understand the constitutions well.
The prioress must not think
that she sees into souls at once:
let her leave this with God,
who alone can see into them;
but let her labour to guide each soul
by the way His Majesty is guiding it,
always supposing
that there is no failure of obedience,
or in the more essential points
of the rule and constitutions.
She
who,
among the eleven thousand virgins,
went and hid herself,
was not the less a saint and martyr:
on the contrary, perhaps
she suffered more than the others
in coming afterwards
alone to offer herself for martyrdom. [10]
10. Nuns not to be driven
towards perfection.
10.
I return now
to the subject of mortification.
A prioress,
to mortify a sister,
bids her do something
which, though in itselt a trifle,
is yet a burden to the nun.
When it is done
the sister is
so disturbed and tempted
that it would have been better
if such a command
had not been given her.
The moment this becomes evident
the prioress should consider
that she cannot make her perfect
by a strong arm,
but should rather dissemble,
and proceed by degrees
till our Lord shall have done
this work in her,
lest what is done for the purpose
of bringing her on
— for without this particular form
of perfection
she might be a very good nun —
should be
an occasion of disquiet to her, and
an affliction of spirit,
which is a most dreadful thing.
If that nun sees the others
doing these things
she, too, by degrees
will do them;
we have found it so;
and if she should not
she may be saved without this virtue.
11. Imperfections to be borne with.
11.
I know one of this kind,
whose whole life
has been most virtuously spent,
who for many years and in many ways
has served our Lord,
but who has
some imperfections
and certain feelings at times
over which she has no control;
she is aware of it,
and comes to me in her distress.
God, I think,
lets her fall into these imperfections
without sin on her part
— there is no sin in them —
that she
- may humble herself,
and
- see thereby that she is
not altogether perfect.
Some, then, there are
who will undergo great mortifications
— and
the greater
the mortifications enjoined
the greater
will be their pleasure therein —
because our Lord
has endowed their souls with strength
to give up their own will;
others will not be able
to endure even slight ones,
and they are as a child
loaded with two bushels {fanegas}
of corn,
who not only cannot carry them,
but breaks down under the burden
and tails to the ground.
Forgive me, then, my daughters
— I am speaking to the prioresses —
for that which I have observed in some
has made me dwell so long upon this.
12. The prioresses to be cautious
in tasking the obedience of the nuns.
[11]
12.
I have another caution to give,
and it is very important:
never command anything,
even for the trial of a sister's obedience,
which may be to her,
if she does it,
even a venial sin.
I have known some things enjoined
which would have been mortal
if they had been done:
the sisters, however,
might perhaps have been safe
in their innocence
— not so the prioress
who never commands anything
that is not instantly done.
As they hear and read
what the saints of the desert did,
they look upon every thing
enjoined them as good
— at least the doing of it.
And the subjects also must consider
that they are not to do that,
even when enjoined them,
which would be mortal sin
when not enjoined,
except absence from mass,
or the non-observance
of a fast of the church,
or actions of that kind,
for in these matters
the prioress may have her reasons;
but to throw oneself into a well
and acts of that nature
are mistakes,
because no one ought to suppose
that God will work a miracle,
as He did for the saints.
There are ways enough
to practise perfect obedience, and
every way that is free from these dangers
I commend.
13. Simple obedience of a nun.
13.
Once a sister in Malagon begged leave
to take the discipline,
and the prioress
— others must have made
the same request —
replied,
' Leave me alone.'
But, as she was importunate,
the prioress said,
'Go along; leave me alone.'
Thereupon the nun,
with great simplicity,
walked about for some hours,
till one of the sisters asked her
why she was walking so much,
or said something to that effect.
She replied
that she had been ordered
to do so.
Meanwhile the bell rung for matins,
and when the prioress asked
why that nun had not come
the other told her
what was going on.
It is necessary,
as I said before,
that the prioresses should
- be very cautious
- be very cautious
in dealing with souls
whom they already know
to be obedient,
and
- consider what they are doing.
- consider what they are doing.
14. Another instance.
14.
To another prioress came a nun,
and showed her a very large worm, saying,
' Look how beautiful it is ! '
The prioress in jest replied,
'Then go and eat it.'
She went and fried it.
The cook asked her
why she fried a worm,
and she answered,
' To eat it,'
and would have done so.
Thus through the great carelessness
of the prioress
that nun might have done herself
much harm,
I am the more delighted with obedience
when carried to an extreme,
for I have a particular devotion
to this virtue.
I have therefore done all I could,
that all the sisters might have it;
nevertheless all my efforts
would have been little worth
if our Lord had not,
in the excesses of His compassion,
given them the grace,
all of them,
to feel a special attraction for it.
May it please His Majesty
to increase it more and more!
Amen."
_________________
Foot Notes:
[1]
Those of the nuns and of the friars
[ Reforma, bk. ii. ch. xliv. 4 ].
____________________
[2]
The Saint returned to Toledo 21st July,
and remained there,
with slight interruptions, more than a year.
____________________
[3]
See note to ch. xv. 17.
____________________
[4]
Martin Gutierrez
was the confessor
of the Saint's biographer,
Francis Ribera,
while the latter still lived as a secular,
and
was the means of winning him
for the society.
The provincial congregation
of Burgos in 1573,
when the news arrived in Spain
of the death of the general,
S. Francis Borja,
sent Gutierrez and Juan Suarez
to Rome with the provincial,
Gil Gonzalez.
They were
taken prisoners in France
by the Hugenots, and
most cruelly treated.
Gutierrez was wounded
and died of the wound:
the others were released
after paying money
for their lives
[ Life of F. Baltasar Alvarez ].
He was born in Almodovar 1524,
and entered the society in 1550.
______________________
[5]
The inhabitants of Salamanca
supported themselves chiefly
by providing board and lodging
for the students
— some say over ten thousand —
who were often in arrears
with their payments.
_____________________
[6]
The bishop of Salamanca at this time was
Don Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza,
son of the duke of Infantado,
consecrated in 1560;
he was bishop fourteen years,
and was one of the prelates who had been
in the Council of Trent.
S. Teresa, at the moment of writing,
did not remember his name,
but left a blank which she never filled up.
__________________________
[7]
The house belonged to
Gonzalo Yanez de Ovalle
[ Yepes, ii. 23 ].
_____________________
[8]
In the latter end of October.
Her companion was
Mary of the Blessed Sacrament,
(Mary Suarez),
born at Segovia,
and professed
at the convent of the Incarnation at Avila.
She had accompanied S. Teresa
to Malagon in 1568
where she was for a time prioress.
She remained at Salamanca
a few months,
the holy foundress taking her
in January 1571
to Alba de Tormes
where she became sub-prioress.
There she renounced
the mitigated rule,
21st December 1572,
and was afterwards elected prioress.
So mortified was she
that she only allowed herself
one hour's sleep each night.
Towards the end of her life
she suffered severely
from an ulcer in her leg
which necessitated amputation.
She died at an advanced age in 1589;
at the moment of her death
one of the nuns saw her soul
carried to heaven by angels,
Ouvres, 111. 306.
_________________
[9]
This was probably
Mother Jane of the Holy Ghost
(Dona Juana Guiera),
nun of the Incarnation at Avila,
and afterwards (1571)
prioress of Alba de Tormes.
S. Teresa speaks severely
of her indiscreet mortifications
in a letter dated
27th September 1572.
_____________________
[10 ]
Quaedam autem virgo,
nomine Cordula,
timore perterrita,
in navi nocte illa se abscondit,
sed in crastinum sponte morti se offerens,
martyrii coronam suscepit.
Sed cum eius festum non fieret,
eo quod cum aliis passa non esset,
ipsa post longum tempus
cuidam reclusae apparuit,
precipiens ut sequenti die a festo virginum
eius quotannis solemnitas recoleretur
[ Jacobi a Voragine,
in fest undecim mille Virginum ]
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Bloggers' rough translation and Note:
A certain virgin,
Cordula, by name,
terrified in fear,
hid herself in the ship that night
but on the morrow, according to the will of God,
presented/offered herself to death,
she received / took up the martyr's crown.
But with her feast not established (and)
not observed along with that of the others,
she, after a long time, appeared to certain hermit;
She instructed
that on the day following the feast of the virgins
every year, (her) solemnity
should be honored / commemorated.
[ Jacobus de Voragine
On the feast of the eleven thousand virgins]
From:
"The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints"
(Legenda Aurea - The Golden Legend)
by Jacobus de Voragine
1229 -1298
Blessed Jacobus was a Dominican Father
and Archbishop of Genoa.
He excelled as a teacher, administator, peacemaker,
and helper of the poor
He was beatified by Pope Pius VII in 1816.
The above passage refers to St. Ursula,
the virgins and other companions
who were martyred.
It is also likely referring to the former feast days:
October 21 - the feastday
of St. Ursula and her Virgins and Companions
October 22 - the feastday
of St. Cordula, Virgin and Martyr
The traditional (Tridentine) calendar still includes
the feast day of St Ursula on October 21.
__________________
[11 ]
Although it is not certain
which convent and
which prioress
the Saint had in view
there is reason to think
she alluded to Toledo or Malagon
where indiscreet mortifications
were being freely practised;
she herself tells (ch. xvi. 3)
how she had to watch over
what the prioress of Toledo
said to the nuns
for they took chance remarks
as if they were commands.
At a somewhat later period
S. Teresa wrote
to Mary of S. Joseph,
prioress of Seville:
"Lest I forget it I must tell you
that I have heard
what kind of mortifications
are being practised at Malagon.
The Mother prioress orders one of the nuns
to go when least expected
to give a blow to some sister;
this invention comes from Toledo.
Evidently the devil,
under pretext of perfection,
teaches to lead souls
to commit an offence against God.
You must
never command any such thing,
nor allow the sisters to pinch each other;
as they do at Malagon
from what I hear.
In one word
do not guide your daughters
with such rigour
as you have seen in this convent (Toledo),
for
they are not slaves,
and
the only purpose of mortification is
to procure the advancement of the soul.
I assure you, my child,
it is necessary to keep a vigilant eye
on these childish prioresses
who follow every whim of their fancy,
for things have come to my knowledge
which cause me great pain".
( 11th Nov. 1576).
|
End of Chapter 18
of the
Book of the Foundations
of S. Teresa of Jesus
of the Order of our Lady of Carmel
|
