of S. Teresa of Jesus
of the Order of our Lady of Carmel
CHAPTER 14
Chapter 14 Contents
- Continuation Of The Foundation
Of The First House
Of DisCalced Carmelite Friars.
- Some Account
Of Their Life
And
Of The Improvement
Of Those Hamlets
To The Honour And Glory Of God
1. S. John of the Cross goes to Duruclo. —
2. Fray Antonio resigns
the office of prior.—
3. Poverty. —
4. The houses of Carmel to be poor. —
5. The new Carmelite house of friars. —
6. Its poverty. —
7. The fathers go about preaching. —
8. A better house is offered
to the friars. —
9. The miraculous well in Mancera. —
10. State of the house in Duruelo. —
11. The Saint thought the friars
too severe with themselves.
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CHAPTER 14
1. S. John of the Cross goes to Duruclo.
1.
When I had obtained the consent
of the two provincials
I thought I wanted nothing more.
We arranged that the Father,
Fray John of the Cross [1]
should go to the house and furnish it,
so that somehow or other
it might be gone into,
I made all the haste I could
to begin,
because I was very much afraid
that some hindrance might arise.
And so it was done.
2. Fray Antonio resigns the office of prior.
2.
The Father, Fray Antonio
had already provided
some necessary things,
we helping him as much as we could,
but it was not much.
He came here to Valladolid
to speak to me in great joy,
and
told me what he had got together.
It was little enough:
he had provided
only hour-glasses,
of which he had five,
and that amused me much.
He said he was not going
without provision for keeping regular hours.
I believe he had
not even wherewithal to sleep on.
There was a little delay
in getting the house into order,
because there was no money,
though they had wished to do much.
When all was done,
the father Fray Antonio
- gladly resigned the priorate, [2]
and
- promised to observe the primitive rule,
for, though they asked him to try it first,
he would not.
He went to the little house
with the greatest joy in the world.
Fray John being there already.
3. Poverty.
3.
The Father, Fray Antonio has told me
- that when he came in sight
of the little hamlet
he felt an exceedingly great inward joy;
- that he thought he had now done
forever with the world,
abandoning all things, and
throwing himself into that desert.
Neither of them thought
the house in any way bad:
so far from it,
they looked on themselves as settled
in great comfort.
O my God,
how little these buildings
and outward satisfactions
furnish for the inner man !
I beg of you,
for the love of Him,
my sisters and fathers,
never to be otherwise
than most moderate
in the matter of large
and sumptuous buildings:
let us remember our true founders,
those holy fathers
from whom we are sprung,
for we know it was
by the way of poverty and humility
that they attained to the vision of God.
4. The houses of Carmel to be poor.
4.
Truly I have seen
greater spirituality
and also
greater inward joy
where bodily conveniences seemed
to be wanting
than I have seen later on
where
the house was large
and
the comforts many.
If the house be large,
what good does that bring to us ? [3]
We are to live
only in one cell,
and if that be
very spacious and well made,
what is it to us ?
Nothing,
for it is not our business
to be looking at the walls.
If we consider
this is not the house
which is to last for ever,
but only for so short a time
as life is,
however long that may be,
everything will be sweet to us
when we see
that the less we possess on earth
the more we shall have in eternity,
where the dwellings answer to that love
wherewith we have imitated the life
of our good Jesus.
If we say, as we do,
that these are the beginnings
of a restoration of the rule
of the Virgin Mother,
our Lady and Protectress,
let us not do so much wrong
to her,
or
to our holy fathers
who have gone before us,
as to fail to make our lives
consistent with them;
and if, by reason of our weakness,
we cannot do so in all things,
we should be very cautious
about those things
which neither injure nor sustain life;
for, after all,
it is only a little pleasant labour,
as those two fathers found it,
and if we make up our minds
to bear it
all the difficulty is past,
for the whole pain is
but a little in the beginning.
5. The new Carmelite house of friars.
5.
On the first or second Sunday
in Advent of the year 1568
— I do not remember
which of the two Sundays it was. [4]
the first mass was said
in that little porch of Bethlehem;
I do not think it was any better.
In the following Lent
I passed by on my way to Toledo
for the foundation there.
I arrived one morning;
Fray Antonio of Jesus was sweeping
the door of the Church
with a joyful countenance,
which he ever preserves.
I said to him,
'What is this, father ?
What has become of your dignity ?'
He replied in these words,
showing the great joy he was in:
'I execrate the time
wherein I had any,'
As I went into the church
I was amazed to see the spirit
which our Lord had inspired there;
and I was not the only one,
for two merchants, friends of mine,
who had come with me from Medina,
did nothing but cry,
there were so many crosses,
so many skulls !
6. Its poverty. —
6.
I can never forget
one little cross of wood
by the holy water,
to which a picture of Christ on paper
was fastened;
it seemed to cause more devotion
than if it had been made
of some material
most admirably fashioned.
The choir was the garret,
which was lofty in the centre,
so that they could say the office in it,
but they had to stoop very low
to enter it and hear mass.
In the two corners of it
next the church
they had two little hermitages
filled with hay,
for the place was very cold,
in which they must
either lie down
or sit;
the roof almost touched their heads.
There were two little openings
into the church,
and two stones for pillows;
there were also crosses and skulls
I understood that when matins were
over
they did not go back to their cells
till Prime,
but remained here in prayer,
in which they were so absorbed
that they went and said Prime
when the time came,
having their habits covered with snow,
but they did not know it.
They said the office
with another Father [5]
of the mitigated rule,
who came to stay with them,
though he did not change his habit,
because he was very infirm,
and
with another young friar, [6]
not in orders,
who also was staying with them.
7. The fathers go about preaching.
7.
They used to go out to preach
in many places around
where the people needed instruction,
and that also made me glad
that the house was established there,
for I was told
that there was
no monastery near,
nor the means of supporting one,
which was a great pity.
They obtained
so good a name
in so short a time
as to give me the very greatest pleasure
when I heard of it.
They went,
as I am saying,
a league and a half and two leagues
bare-footed to preach
— for at that time they wore no sandals,
which they were afterwards
ordered to wear — [7]
and that in the cold,
when the snow was deep,
and when they had preached
and heard confessions,
came horne very late to their meal
in the monastery:
all this was as nothing
because of their joy.
Of food they had enough,
for the people of the neighbourhood around
furnished them with more
than they had need of,
and some noblemen
who lived near
came to confession, and
offered them better houses and sites.
One of these was Don Luis,
lord of the Five Towns.
8. A better house is offered to the friars.
8.
This nobleman had built a church
wherein to put a picture of our Lady,
which was certainly
most worthy of veneration.
His father had sent it
by a merchant from Flanders
to his grandmother or mother,
I forget which.
He was so fond of it
that he
- kept it by him
for many years,
and afterwards,
when he was dying,
- sent for it.
It is a large picture,
and in all my life
I have never seen a finer one;
others also have said as much.
The Father, Fray Antonio of Jesus,
having gone to that place
at the request of the nobleman
and
seen the picture, was so struck by it,
and justly so,
that he consented
to remove the monastery thither.
The name of the place was Mancera.
Though there was no well there,
nor any means apparently of having one,
the nobleman
- built them a small monastery [8]
in keeping with their profession,
and
- gave them the sacred vestments.
He was most generous to them. [9]
9. The miraculous well in Mancera.
9.
I do not like to leave unsaid
how our Lord supplied them with water;
It was considered miraculous.
One day after supper
Fray Antonio, the prior,
was in the cloisters
with the friars
speaking of the distress they were in
for water;
the prior rose up and took his stick,
which he used to carry in his hands,
and in one part of it
made the sign of the cross,
as I think,
but I do not distinctly remember
if he made a cross;
be that as it may,
he pointed out with his stick
and said,
'Now dig here.'
They had dug but very little
when the water rushed
in such abundance
that it is difficult to drain it off
even when the well has to be cleared,
and it is very good for drinking;
they have used it for every purpose
of the house,
and, as I said, it never fails. [10]
Afterwards they enclosed a garden,
and tried to find water in it,
and, having made a machine [11]
for drawing it,
and that at great cost,
even to this day
they have not been able to find any,
however scantily . [12]
10. State of the house in Duruelo.
l0.
Then, when I saw the little house, [13]
which just before
it was not possible to stay in,
filled with such a spirit
that, look where I would,
I found matter of edification,
and when I heard
of their way of life,
of their mortification and prayer, and
of the good example they were giving
(for I was visited there
by a nobleman and his wife
whom I knew,
who lived in the neighbourhood,
and
who could not speak enough
of their holiness, and
of the good they were doing
in the villages),
I could not give thanks enough
to our Lord
in my excessive joy,
for I thought I saw a work begun for
the great increase of the order and
the service of our Lord.
May it please His Majesty
to carry it on
as it is going on now,
and
then what I thought will become really true !
The merchants
who had come with me
said that they would not have missed
coming for the whole world.
What a thing goodness is !
These men were more pleased
with the poverty they saw
than with all the wealth they possessed,
and their souls were satisfied and consoled.
11. The Saint thought the friars
too severe with themselves.
11.
When the fathers and myself
had discussed certain matters in particular
I asked them earnestly,
as I am weak and wicked,
not to be so severe with themselves
in certain penances
which they carried very far.
As it had cost me
many sighs and prayers
to obtain from our Lord
those who would make a beginning,
and as I saw how good the beginning was,
I feared lest Satan might be seeking
how to kill them
before my expectations could be realised.
As I am imperfect and of little faith,
I did not consider
- that this was a work of God,
and
- that His Majesty would have
to carry it on.
They, however,
having gifts I had not,
made light of my advice
to give up their practices;
and so I came away
in the greatest consolation,
though I did not praise God worthily
for so great a grace.
May it please His Majesty
of His goodness
that I may become worthy
to render Him some service
for the great debt I owe Him !
Amen.
For I saw clearly
For I saw clearly
that this was a
much greater grace
much greater grace
on His part
than was that which He gave me
in founding the houses of nuns.
________________
Foot Notes:
[1]
S. John of the Cross
left Valladolid 30th September,
having received
the new habit of the Reform
from S. Teresa herself,
in all probability at Medina del Campo
in July or August.
(See a learned article on this question
by Fr. Gerardo de S. Juan de la Cruz
in El Monte Carmelo, Burgos, 1909,
858 sqq.)
His superiors gave him leave
to renounce the mitigated,
and
to practise the severities
of the primitive rule.
He arrived at Duruelo
at the end of September, 1568,
and, having spent the night in prayer,
placed the habit on the altar and
blessed it,
and
when he had said mass put it on,
the first friar of the Reform
of S. Teresa.
[ Life of S. John of the Cross,
by Jerome of S. Joseph. ]
_______________________
[2]
Fray Antonio was prior of S. Anne,
in Medina del Campo,
a house of the mitigated observance.
He arrived at Duruelo
on 27th November,
being then fifty-eight years old.
________________________
[3]
See Way of Perfection, ch. ii: # 7
and the Visitation of the Nunneries #13.
________________________
[4]
It was Sunday, 28th November 1568,
and therefore the first Sunday in Advent.
S. John of the Cross
had been saying mass
for two months there,
but as he was alone
it could not be said of the house
that it was a monastery.
Fray Antonio brought with him
a laybrother,
so that there were now three religious
- tres faciunt collegium —
and the monastery could be formed.
After the mass, in conformity
with the custom of S. Teresa,
the friars changed their names:
Fray Antonio de Heredia
became Fray Antonio of Jesus;
and
Fray John of S. Mathias
(became) Fray John of the Cross;
and
Fray Joseph, the laybrother,
became Fray Joseph of Christ.
Soon after the provincial arrived
and made
Fray Antonio, prior,
Fray John of the Cross sub-prior,
and
Fray Joseph, porter and sacristan
[ Reforma, bk. ii. ch. xx. 2]
_________________________
[5]
The name
of the 'father of the mitigated rule'
is not known.
________________________
[6]
the brother was Fray Joseph of Christ,
already mentioned.
He, however, lost courage
and returned to the old observance.
_________________________
[7]
The Constitutions
of the Discalced friars,
written by Rubeo [see Appendix]
say: 'let them go barefooted,
except in cold places where
they may wear sandals or sabots.'
Father Gratian, in 1575,
gave a similar order,
either to be altogether barefooted
or to wear alpargatas
which protect only the sole of the foot.
But some friars
through an excess of austerity
wished to make it obligatory
for all to dispense with alpargatas
and
quoted S. Teresa as their authority,
who thereupon, in a letter
to Father Mariano,
dated 12th December 1576,
loudly protested against the imputation,
saying she preferred
that men of talent and learning
should enter the Order,
than that the friars
by their exaggerations
should frighten away those
who wished to join them.
The chapter of 1581
laid down the rule
that the friars should wear alpargatas
(made of the fibre of a kind of cactus),
and this custom was kept up
among the Spanish Carmelites
until their union
with the Italian Congregation (1875).
The latter had from the first
adopted the use of sandals
made of leather.
See also Oevres, iii. 191, n. I.
________________________
[8]
Don Luis of Toledo
was a near relative
of the dukes of Alva,
and
the picture is spoken of
by Fray Francis de Santa Maria
as being one he had never seen surpassed
in Italy or Spain.
It represented our Lady
with our Lord, an Infant, in her arms,
attended by two angels
[Reforma, bk. II. ch xxxix. 3]
______________________
[9]
The translation was made
with great solemnity
on the feast of S. Barnabas,
11th June 1570.-
Fray Antonio,
who had been preaching
at Mancera in Lent,
had also worked as a labourer
in the building of the monastery,
and when it was finished
begged the provincial
to honour the translation with his presence.
Fray Alonso Gonzalez
not only came himself,
but took others with him,
and brought the barefooted friars
in procession
from Duruelo to Mancera,
and then sang the first mass
in the new monastery.
Don Luis, the benefactor,
had his reward,
for his daughter,
Dona Isabel de Leyva,
became a nun, and
was professed in the Carmelite house
in Salamanca in 1588;
and his eldest son,
Don Enrique de Toledo
also received the habit of Carmel
in Salamanca,
as Fray Luis of Jesus,
and died holily in Segovia in 1598
[ Reforma Bk. 11. ch. xxxix. 4,5].
_____________________________
[10]
So abundant was the stream of water
that it overflowed the cloisters,
and it was feared
it might injure the foundations,
which were not strong.
Fray Antonio thereupon cried out.
'We ask for water, Lord,
but not for a flood.'
The water ceased to flow
and remained in the well,
but always within reach
[ Reforma, bk. ii, ch. xli. i).
_______________________
[11]
As to the 'machine '
see Life, xi. 1 1.
______________________
[12]
The health of the fathers
failed them in Mancera,
and the bishop of Avila,
Don Lorenzo de Otayud,
who had a great veneration
for the order,
begged them to remove to Avila.
He supplied all that was necessary,
as the founder of the new convent
which, after several sites had been tried,
was finally established
on the grounds occupied
by the paternal house of S. Teresa.
A chapel has been built
where she is supposed to have been born,
though there are different opinions
as to the exact spot.
______________________
[13]
The 'little house ' in ,
though thus abandoned,
was never forgotten in the order,
and friars went from Mancera
from time to time
on a pilgrimage to the place,
which they regarded
as the cradle of the Reform.
On 28th November 1585,
the anniversary of the foundation,
the monastery of Mancera
went in procession thither,
wearing no sandals, with bare feet.
The prior of Mancera,
Fray Nicolas of S. Cyril,
sang the mass,
which was the aurora mass
of the Nativity,
and Fray Vicente de Cristo preached
a sermon on Genesis xl. 13:
restituet te in gradum pristinum
[ Blog note: Douay- Rheims Bible
"will remember your service, and
will restore you to your former place"
[ genesis 40:13] ]
The friars were intent
only on celebrating
the restoration of the order,
but the words were prophetic
in another sense,
for there grew up a great desire
to establish a community in Duruelo,
and at last the order purchased
the place from the heir
of the original donor,
to whom it seems to have reverted
on Its abandonment by the friars.
The purchase was completed
4th September 1612,
but it was not till February, 1640,
that the chapter of the order
admitted the restored foundation
among the houses of Carmel
[ Reforma, bk. 11. chs. xl. and xli.]
At present nothing is left of the chapel,
but the conventual buildings
are used for farming.
|
End of Chapter 14
of the
Book of the Foundations
of S. Teresa of Jesus
of the Order of our Lady of Carmel
|
