of S. Teresa of Jesus
of the Order of our Lady of Carmel
CHAPTER 24 XXIV
Chapter 24 Contents
The Foundation
Of S. Joseph Of Carmel
In The City Of Seville
1. The Saint's joy
in Fray Jerome's visit. —
2. He is made visitor of the Order. —
3. The Saint leaves Veas for Seville. —
4. Ill on the road. —
5. Suffering from fever. —
6. Risk in crossing a river. —
7. Difficulty of entering Cordova. —
8. Church full of people. —
9. Difficulties in Seville. —
10. More difficulties. —
11. Destitute condition of the nuns. —
12. The Saint nearly leaves Seville. —
13. But waits. —
14. The archbishop relents.
|
1. The Saint's joy in Fray Jerome's visit.
1.
When the Father-Master
Fray Jerome Gratian
came to see me in Veas [1]
as I have just said [2]
we had never met before,
though I had wished it much;
letters, however, had occasionally
passed between us.
I rejoiced extremely
when I heard he was in town,
for I was longing to see him
because of the good accounts
I had had of him;
but I rejoiced still more
when I had begun to converse with him,
for he pleased me so much
that I did not think
that they who had spoken
so highly of him
really knew him at all.
I was in great trouble at the time,
but when I saw him
our Lord seemed to show me
all the good he was to do for us,
and therefore during those days
I felt such exceeding
comfort and happiness
that I was in truth astonished at myself.
At that time, however,
his authority did not reach
beyond Andalucia; [3]
but when he was in Veas,
the nuncio sent for him, [4]
and then gave him jurisdiction
over the barefooted friars and nuns
of the province of Castille [5]
My spirit so exulted in this
that during those days
I could not thank our Lord enough,
and I had no wish to do anything else.
2. He is made visitor of the Order.
2.
At this time
they obtained the licence
for making a foundation in Caravaca, [6]
but it was not such
as I required for my purpose;
and it became, therefore,
necessary for them
to send again to the court,
for I wrote to the foundress
that the foundation would be made
only on certain conditions,
not therein expressed;
and thus it became necessary
to apply to the court again.
It was very inconvenient for me
to remain there so long,
and I wished to return to Castille;
but, as the Father Fray Jerome,
to whom the monastery was now subject
— for he was commissary over
the whole province of Castille — [7]
was there at the time,
and as I could do nothing
without his consent,
I communicated on the subject with him.
He thought
- that if I were once gone
there would be an end
of the foundation of Caravaca,
and also
- that it would be greatly
for the service of God
to found a house in Seville [8]
which to him seemed very easy,
because persons in authority there,
and willing to give him a house at once,
had asked it of him.''
_______________
[ Blogger's note
"porque se lo habían pedido algunas
personas que podían y tenían muy bien
para dar luego casa"
because other persons asked him
who had very much
and (could) were able
to give them a house at that time.
__________________
The Archbishop of Seville, too, [9]
was so well disposed
towards the order
that he believed
he would be greatly pleased,
and accordingly it was agreed
that the prioress and the nuns
whom I was to take to Caravaca
should go to Seville.
I had always resolutely refrained,
for certain reasons,
from making any foundations in Andalucia,
and if I had known
when I went thither
that Veas was in the province of Andalucia
that Veas was in the province of Andalucia
I should not have gone at all.
Though the place is not in Andalucia,
I think it is four or five leagues distant
from the boundaries of that country:
it is, however, in the province,
and that is the source of the mistake.
But when I saw
that it was the will of my superior
I yielded at once,
for our Lord has given me the grace
to think that my superiors
are always in the right.
Yet I had made up my mind
to found a house elsewhere,
and had some very grave reasons
for not going to Seville.
3. The Saint leaves Veas for Seville.
3.
Preparations for the journey
were made at once,
for the heat was beginning.
The commissary, Father Gratian,
went to the nuncio,
who had sent for him, and
we to Seville [10]
with my good companions
Father Julian of Avila,
Antonio Gaytan,
and
a barefooted friar. [11]
We travelled in carriages well covered,
for that is ever our way of travelling,
and when we came to an inn
we took a room, good or bad
as it might be,
at the door of which a sister received
what we had need of,
and even those who travelled with us
never entered it.
We made all haste we could,
yet we reached Seville
ony on the Thursday [12]
before the feast of the Most Holy Trinity,
having suffered on the road
from the heat,
which was very great;
for, though we did not travel
on the holy days,
I must tell you, my sisters,
that, as the sun in its strength
struck the carriages,
to go into them
was like going into Purgatory.
Sometimes by thinking
of hell,
at other times
that we were doing and suffering
something for God,
the sisters travelled
in great cheerfulness and joy,
for the six sisters
who were with me
had such courage
that I think I could have ventured
to go with them
into ...dangerous lands
and that they would have been so brave
as to do so;
or, to speak more correctly,
that our Lord would have made them
brave enough to suffer for Him,
for that was
their desire
and
their conversation,
being exceedingly given to prayer
and mortification,
for, as they were to live so far away,
I took care they should be such
as were fitted for the work;
and all my care was necessary,
so great were the troubles that arose,
some of which,
and they were the heaviest,
I will not speak of,
because it might touch certain persons.
4. Ill on the road.
4.
One day before Pentecost
God sent them a very heavy cross,
which was my falling
into a very violent fever.
They called upon God,
and that, I believe, was the cause
of its going no further,
for I never had before in my whole life
a fever of that kind
that did not become much worse.
It was so violent
that I seem to have fallen into a lethargy,
so unconscious was I.
They threw water over my face,
but it was so warm,
because of the heat,
that it gave me hardly any refreshment at all.
I cannot help telling you
of the poor lodging
we had in this our need;
they gave us a small room
like a shed,
which had no window,
into which the sun poured
whenever the door was opened.
You must remember
that the heat there
is not like that of Castille,
being much more oppressive.
5. Suffering from fever.
5.
They laid me on a bed,
but as it was so uneven
being high on one side
and low on the other
I would have preferred
being laid on the floor.
I could not lie on it,
for it seemed as if made of sharp stones.
What illness is !
In health
everything is easy to bear.
At last I thought it best
to rise and go on,
for it seemed to me
easier to bear the heat of the sun
in the open country
than in that little room.
Oh, those poor souls in hell !
for them there is no change;
for that seems a relief,
even if it be
from one suffering to another.
It has happened to me
to have a very violent pain in one side,
and to find an apparent relief
in changing my place,
though I had another pain as violent
in the other:
it was so now.
I was not at all distressed,
so far as I remember, at my illness;
the sisters felt it much more
than I did.
It was the good pleasure of our Lord
that its extreme violence
did not last more than one day.
6. Risk in crossing a river.
6.
A little before,
I do not know if it was two days,
something else befel us
that placed us in no slight danger
when crossing the Guadalquivir in a boat.
[13]
When they had to ferry
the carriages across
they could not keep close to the rope,
and they had therefore
to make a tack in the river,
although in tacking also the rope
was of some help to them;
however, it happened
that those who held the rope
either let it go
or lost it,
I do not know which,
and the boat went off
with the carriages
away from the rope
away from the rope
and without oars,
I was more concerned
for the distress of the ferryman
for the distress of the ferryman
than about the danger;
we began to pray,
and
the boatmen to shout.
A nobleman in a neighbouring castle was
looking on, and
pitying our condition,
sent people to our succour,
for at that moment
we had not yet lost the rope,
and our brethren with all their might
were holding on to it;
the force of the current, however,
was too much for them,
and some of them were even thrown down.
A little boy of the ferryman,
whom I shall never forget,
stirred up my devotion exceedingly,
he must have been, I think,
about ten or eleven years old ;
his distress at the sight
of his father in trouble
was such as to make me give praise
to our Lord.
But, as His Majesty
ever tempers our trials
with His compassion,
so it was at this time,
for the boat struck on a sandbank,
on one side of which
the water was shallow,
whereby they could come to our relief.
We should have found it
very hard to recover our road,
because it was now night,
if one who had come from the castle
had not become our guide.
I did not intend
to speak of these things,
which are of little importance,
for I have said enough of the difficulties
we met in our journeys
— I have been pressed much
to speak more at length.
7. Difficulty of entering Cordova.
7.
A trouble far greater
than those I have mentioned
befell us on the last day of Whitsuntide. [14]
We hurried on
so as to reach Cordova
early in the morning,
that we might hear mass
unseen by anybody.
We were directed to go
for greater retirement
to a church
on the other side of the bridge.
When we were ready to cross
we were without the permission
necessary for carriages
which only the governor could give,
and as people were not yet up
two hours passed away
before it was obtained,
and a great crowd came about us
to find out who were the travellers.
We did not care much about this,
for as we were perfectly concealed
they could not see us.
When permission to cross was given
the carriages could not pass
through the gate of the bridge;
it was found necessary
to use the saw,
or something of that kind,
I know not what,
and that occasioned the waste
of more time.
8. Church full of people.
8.
At last when we reached the church
in which father Julian of Avila
was to say mass
we found it full of people,
for it was dedicated to the Holy Ghos;
it was a great solemnity,
and a sermon was preached;
of this we knew nothing.
When I saw it all
I was greatly distressed,
and thought it would have been better
for us to have gone on
without hearing mass
than be in the midst of so much confusion.
Father Julian of Avila
did not think so,
and as he was a theologian
we had, all of us, to yield to his opinion;
all the others
who were with me
would perhaps have followed mine,
and it would have been very wrong.
I do not know, however,
that I should have trusted
to my own opinion alone.
We alighted close to the church;
though nobody could see our faces,
for we always wore our large veils,
it was enough to disturb everybody
to see us
in them,
and
in our white mantles of coarse cloth
which we wear,
and
in our sandals of hemp:
so it happened.
The surprise, indeed,
was great for me and for everybody:
as for myself,
it must have taken away my fever altogether.
As we were entering the church,
a good man came up to me,
and made a passage for us
through the crowd.
I begged him to take us
to one of the chapels; [15]
he did so, and closed it upon us,
nor did he leave us
before he had led us out of the church again.
A few days later he came to Seville,
and said to a father of our order
that he thought
that because of the service
he had rendered us
God had been very good to him,
for a large estate,
of which he had no expectation,
had come into his possession.
I tell you, my daughters,
that these were some
of the worst moments
I ever passed,
though you may perhaps think nothing of it,
for the people were in confusion
as if bulls had broken in among them.
I, therefore, did not wait
for the usual hour for quitting that place,
though there was no place near
where we could take our rest at noon:
we found it under a bridge. [16]
9. Difficulties in Seville.
9.
On reaching the house in Seville, [17]
which the father Fray Mariano
had hired for us
— he had had directions to do so —
I thought everything was done;
for, as I said before, [18]
the archbishop was very favourable
to the barefooted Carmelites,
and had occasionally written to myself
showing me great affection,
it was not enough however
to spare me much suffering,
for so God did will it.
The archbishop is a great enemy
of all monasteries of nuns
founded in poverty,
and he has his reasons.
The mischief, or, to speak more correctly,
the good,
so far as this foundation is concerned,
lay in silence on this point;
for if they had told him all
before I had set out on my journey
I am certain he never
would have given his consent.
But the Father Commissary
and Father Mariano,
most fully persuaded
- that he would give it,
- that my coming would be
a very great pleasure to him,
and
- that they were doing him
a very great service in bringing me,
said nothing to him beforehand,
and as I was saying,
they might have committed
a great mistake
if they had told him,
thinking they were doing right;
for in founding the other monasteries
the first thing I sought
was the sanction of the ordinary,
according to the decree of the council. [19]
Here we not only took it for granted
but looked on the monastery
as a great service done to the archbishop,
as indeed it was,
and as he acknowledged afterwards;
only it was our Lord's good pleasure
that no foundation should be made
without great suffering for me,
some in one way,
some in another.
10. More difficulties.
10.
Having reached the house hired for us,
as I said before,
I meant to take possession at once,
as I was in the habit of doing,
that we might say the divine office,
but Father Mariano
— it was he who was there —
began to suggest delay,
for he, to avoid giving me pain,
would not tell me everything.
But, as his reasons were insufficient,
I saw where the difficulty lay
— no permission had been given;
and so he asked me
to allow the monastery to be endowed,
or something of that kind;
but I do not remember what it was.
At last he told me
- that the arch-bishop was not disposed
to sanction a monastery of nuns —
- that he had never sanctioned one
since he became archbishop,
nor even during the many years
he had been here and in Cordova,
great servant of God as he is;
still less would he sanction a monastery
founded in poverty,
11. Destitute condition of the nuns.
11.
This was nothing else but saying
that the monastery was not
to be founded at all.
In the first place,
it would have been very sad for me
to do this in the city of Seville;
I might, however, have done it in those parts
of the country
where I had founded monasteries endowed;
it was in small villages
where they must have been so founded,
or not at all,
because there were no other means
of sustaining them.
In the next place,
we had but one coin remaining
after paying the expenses of the journey,
and we had brought nothing with us
except that which we had on,
a tunic or two and a coif,
and what served as a covering for us
in the carriages;
and then to send back
those who had come with us
we should have had to borrow money,
Antonio Gaytan had a friend there,
and he lent us some,
and Father Mariano begged some
for furnishing the house;
we had no house of our own, and
thus the foundation seemed impossible.
12. The Saint nearly leaves Seville.
12.
The archbishop allowed us,
but it must have been after urgent pressing
on the part of Mariano,
to have Mass said
on the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, [20]
and that was the first.
He sent a message to the effect
that no bell was to be rung or even set up,
but that was done already.
We continued thus for a fortnight,
and I know I had made up my mind,
but for the father-commissary
and father Mariano,
to go back with my nuns,
with very little regret, to Veas,
to make the foundation in Caravaca.
I had much more to bear with
during those days
— how long it was I know not,
for I do not remember —
I think it was more than a month —
for our immediate departure
would have been less intolerable,
seeing that the existence of the monastery
had been made known already.
Father Mariano would never let me write
to the archbishop,
but he won him over
by degrees himself,
and
by the help of letters
of the Father-Commissary from Madrid.
13. But waits.
13.
One thing set me at case from much scruple;
this was that
Mass had been said
with the archbishop's leave,
and
we always said our office in choir.
He sent some people to visit me,
and to tell me
that he would come soon himself.
It was one of his chaplains
whom he had sent to say the first mass.
I saw clearly by this
that all that happened seemed
to have no other end
but to keep me in pain.
The sources of that pain,
however, were
not in anything I or my nuns
had to suffer,
but in the distress of the Father-Commissary,
who was much afflicted
because he had ordered me to go thither;
and his distress would have been very great
if any mishap had occurred,
and there were many things
to bring that about.
14. The archbishop relents.
14.
At this time, too,
the fathers of the mitigation came to know
why the foundation had been made. [21]
I showed them my letters
from the most reverend our father- general.
They were satisfied with them,
but if they had known
what the archbishop was doing
I do not think they would have been so;
but of that they knew nothing,
for everybody believed
that the foundation gave him
very great joy and pleasure.
It pleased God at last
that he came to see us,
when I spoke to him of the harm
he was doing us.
In the end he told me to do
what I liked,
and
as I liked,
and from that time forth
was gracious and kind to us
on every occasion that offered. [22]
Foot Notes:
[1]
Fray Jerome made his profession
28th March 1573,
and on the 4th of August following
was created visitor of Andalucia
by Fray Baltasar of Jesus,
Prior of Pastrana,
acting under the authority
of Fray Francis de Vargas,
Dominican and apostolic visitor
of the Carmelites in Andalucia.
Notwithstanding his office,
he would not leave his monastery
of Pastrana
without the permission of his superiors,
and the visitor apostolic
Fray Pedro Fernandez
would not grant it.
Fray Mariano (see ch. xvii. 5)
therefore applied to
Fray Angel de Salazar, the provincial,
for leave to go to Seville on business
which he had not settled
when he took the habit.
He applied also for leave
to be accompanied by any father
he might name.
Nothing was said of the real reason,
and Fray Jerome's name was not uttered.
The provincial gave the leave required.
Fray Mariano chose Fray Jerome
to be his companion, and
the two friars left Castille for Andalucia.
In Toledo, whither they went to see
Fray Antonio of Jesus,
they were overtaken by a mandate
of the general of the order,
commanding Fray Mariano
to become a priest;
and he, against his will,
was then made sub-deacon
on Ember Saturday, in September.
They found Fray Francis de Vargas
in his monastery of Granada,
being then provincial of his order,
who received them with great joy, and
gave all his powers to Fray Jerome.
The Carmelite provincial, having heard
of the ordination of Fray Mariano,
and having some suspicion
that the journey was not meant
only for his private affairs,
recalled the two friars to Pastrana.
They replied
that they were ready to obey,
but were unable,
because under the obedience
of Fray Francis de Vargas,
the apostolic visitor.
They then hastened to Seville,
where Fray Jerome remained
(not now subject to the provincial)
till he was sent for to Madrid,
because of the storm
that began to threaten the reform.
He preached in Seville
during Lent, 1575,
and then, leaving the city,
arrived in Veas in April,
while the Saint was still there
[Reforma, bk. iii. ch. xxi, xxii.;
and ch. xxxvi. 3).
______________________
[2]
[ Foundation: Ch. xxiii. I. ]
______________________
[3]
The Carmelite friars,
unwilling to be reformed,
obtained from Gregory XIII,
on the 3rd day of August 1574,
the recall of the powers
given to the two Dominican visitors
by S. Pius V,
so far as it enabled them
to visit monasteries
which the general or his vicars might visit.
But as the papal brief did not touch
the powers of the nuncio,
who was himself commissioned
to reform the order, the nuncio,
to save the reform from the ruin
that threatened it,
made Fray Francis de Vargas
and Fray Jerome of the Mother of God
visitors of Andalucia,
September 22nd of the same year.
To make this act safe,
the nuncio sent to Rome for advice,
and the secretary of His Holiness
told him that his powers
had been left intact
[ Reforma, bk. iii. ch. xxxix. 4 ].
___________________
[4]
Monsignore Nicholas Ormaneto,
one of the most zealous prelates
of the sixteenth century.
He had been in England with Cardinal Pole,
and was afterwards present
at the council of Trent.
He was vicar-general of S. Charles
in Milan,
and afterwards Bishop of Padua.
He came to Spain in 1572,
and in June 1577 died
in such extreme poverty,
the fruits of continual almsgiving,
that he had to be buried at the expense
of the king, Philip II,
who had the greatest respect for him, and
who ordered his burial to be celebrated
with the magnificence due to a prelate
of such great worth
[ Reforma, bk. iv. ch. xxiii. i).
____________________
[5]
Fray Jerome was in Seville
when the nuncio made him
visitor of Andalucia,
in September 1574.
That first commission was not acted
on by Fray Jerome,
except in the commandment
he gave S. Teresa
to found a house in Seville.
The second commission,
by which he was made visitor of Castille
also, was signed August 3, 1575,
after he had seen S. Teresa in Veas
The nuncio gave him powers to reform
the order both in Andalucia and Castille,
and thus armed he began
to make his visitation,
which in Castille lasted three months.
At this time he gave certain constitutions
founded on the primitive rule,
and on the practices
of Fray Antonio of Jesus
and S. John of the Cross,
who had been in the order longer
than he had been
[ Reforma, bk. in. ch. xxxix. 3
ch. xli. 4 ; ch. xlii. I.
See above, ch. xxiii. 12 ].
_____________________
[6]
See Foundation: ch. xxvii. (ch. 27 )
__________________
[7]
The Carmelite fathers
who observed the mitigated rule,
when they saw
that Fray Jerome of the Mother of God
had obtained from Fray Francis de Vargas
powers to protect those
who kept the primitive rule,
suspected that he had also, as was the fact,
received powers to reform them.
They immediately begged the general
in Rome to obtain from Gregory XIII
the revocation of the powers entrusted
to the two Dominican visitors,
and thereby those granted by one of them
to Fray Jerome.
That was done,
but the general waited for the
publication of the brief till 2nd May 1575,
when the general chapter of the order
was to meet at Piacenza.
This was known in Spain,
but, as the powers of the nuncio
were not touched by the briefs,
Ormaneto made Fray Jerome
visitor of Andalucia and Castille
[ Reforma bk. in. ch. xxxvi. I. 2. ]
Most of the previous editions,
and nearly all the translations,
including that of Fr. Bouix have
'province of Andalucia'
instead of 'province of Castille' ;
the French Carmelite nuns are of opinion
that this latter is due to a slip of the pen
of S. Teresa,
________________________
[8] See Ch. xxiv. III.
Fray Jerome stayed about three weeks
in Veas
(letter of 12th May 1575),
and commanded the Saint
to ask our Lord
whether the foundation in Madrid
or that in Seville should be the next.
The Saint obeyed,
and the answer was Madrid.
Thereupon Fray Jerome bade her prepare
for that of Seville,
and the Saint began at once
to make her arrangements.
Two or three days afterwards
Fray Jerome asked her
why she obeyed him,
who was guided in the matter simply
by reasons of his own,
rather than our Lord,
who had revealed to her
that He wished her to go to Madrid.
She replied
- that she could not be so sure
of any revelation
as she was of his order,
and
- that it was her duty to obey him
as her immediate superior.
He ordered her to pray once more,
and then our Lord bade her
go to Seville
[ Tepes, ii. 28 ].
______________________
[9]
Don Christobal de Rojas y Sandoval,
son of the Marquess de Denia,
born 26th July 1502,
was first bishop of Oviedo
in which quality he assisted
at the council of Trent.
Subsequently he was promoted
to the archbishopric of Cordova
and finally to that of Seville (1571).
From the beginning of his administration
of the latter see
he experienced difficulties
with the Calced Carmelites
and therefore solicited through the king
the appointment by the Pope
of visitors apostolic.
On the establishment of Discalced friars
at Seville he lavished on them
tokens of favour.
He died in 1580 in the reputation
of a strict disciplinarian
and a warm friend of the poor.
[ Oeuvres, iv. 36, note. ]
________________________
[10]
The Saint, according to her letter
(see note #9) above)
intended to leave Veas 16th May 1575,
but did so only on the 18th,
Wednesday before Pentecost,
taking with her
Mary of S. Joseph,
Isabel of S. Francis,
Mary of the Holy Ghost,
Isabel of S. Jerome,
Leonor of S. Gabriel, and
Anne of S. Albert.
The last was not to remain in Seville,
for the Saint intended her to be
the prioress of Caravaca
[ Reforma, bk. in. ch. xxxvii. 3].
_____________________________
[11]
He was an ecclesiastic,
native of Villarubia,
who had followed the Saint
from Malagon
with his two sisters,
who were to become Carmelites.
He himself had received the habit
in Veas from Fray Jerome
and taken the name of
Gregory Nazianzen.
Soon after he was made master of novices
in Seville,
where he was professed
27th March 1576.
One of the novices under him
was the famous
Father Nicholas a Jesu Maria (Doria).
At the same time in Veas,
Julian of Avila received
the Carmelite scapular
from Fray Jerome.
There Catherine of Jesus
— Catalina de Sandoval —
saw Fray Juan de la Miseria
on his way to Seville,
and recognised (him as ) the friar
she had seen in a vision
twenty years before
[ Reforma, bk. iii. ch. xxxvi. 6].
See Foundations: ch. xxii. 21.
_____________________
[12]
26th May 1575.
_____________________
[13]
Near the village of Espeluy,
where the Guadalquivir river
joins the Herrumblar.
___________________
[14]
According to the
Libro de las Recreaciones
of Mary of S. Joseph (Salazar)
this incident happened on Whitmonday,
and this date appears more correct
than Tuesday
as S. Teresa says,
or Sunday
according to Julian d'Avila.
______________________
[15]
No chapel now except baptistry.
There is now an altar in this church
dedicated to S. Teresa
with a painting representing the incident,
but the chapel mentioned by the Saint
must have been pulled down.
______________________
[16]
It was on this journey, at Ecija
that the Saint made the vow of obedience
to Fray Jerome of the Mother of God,
of which she speaks in Relation, vi. 3.
(Relations: Ch. 6: Paragraph #3 )
_____________
[17]
On Thursday, 26th May 1575,
within the octave of Pentecost.
See above, Paragraph § 3.
______________
[18]
See Paragraph § 2 above.
__________________
[19]
Nee de cetero similia loca
erigantur
sine episcopi,
in cujus dioecesi erigenda sunt,
licentia prius obtenta
(Conc. Trident. Sess. xxv. c. iii).
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Blog Added:
"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."
Counci of Trent: Session 25
On Regulars And Nuns
Seventh Decree
Chapter 3
All Monasteries save those herein excepted,
shall be able to possess real property:
the number of persons therein
to be determined by the amount
of Income, or of Alms.
No Monasteries, to be erected
without the Bishop's leave.
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.
________________
[20]
29th May 1575.
________________
[21]
The Saint speaks of this visit
in a letter to the general,
written from Seville, 18th June 1575.
The prior of the Carmelites
of the Observance,
Fray Miguel de Ulloa,
was one of the visitors.
They asked by what authority
the monastery had been erected,
and on being shown the letter
of the general asked for a copy of it.
The Saint knew
that the copy might be made use of
against her, and refused to grant it.
(Note of Fray Antonio of S. Joseph.)
_______________________
[22]
The archbishop wished the nuns
to come to Seville from the first,
but he did not wish them
to have a separate monastery
of their own order.
His purpose was to distribute them
among the several monasteries
within his jurisdiction,
in order that by their fervour
and good example
those monasteries might be reformed
and made better.
[ Yepes, ii. ch. 28 ]
|
End of Chapter 24
of the
Book of the Foundations
of S. Teresa of Jesus
of the Order of our Lady of Carmel
|
