of S. Teresa of Jesus
of the Order of our Lady of Carmel
CHAPTER 30 XXX
Chapter 30 Contents
The Foundation Of The Monastery
Of The Most Holy Trinity
In Soria,
In The Year 1581.
The First Mass Said
On the Feast of Our Father, S. Eliseus
1. Don Alonso Velasquez. —
2. The Saint consents to found in Soria. —
3. Story of the foundress of Soria. —
4. Preparations for the journey. —
5. Nicholas of Jesus-Mary. —
6. The journey. —
7. The arrival. —
8. The Saint takes possession. —
9. Infirmity of the bishop. —
10. His meritorious life.—
11. The real founder of Soria. —
12. Pedro de Ribera. —
13. Hardships on the road. —
14. The Saint's hopes of the monastery. —
|
CHAPTER 30
I. H. S.
1. Don Alonso Velasquez.
1.
When I was in Palencia,
on the business
of the foundation now described,
I received a letter
from Dr. Velasquez, [1]
Bishop of Osma;
I had had communications with him
when he was canon and professor
in the cathedral of Toledo,
and
when I was harassed by certain misgivings,
for I knew he was
for I knew he was
a most learned man and
a great servant of God,
and so after many importunities
I persuaded him
to take upon himself
the care of my soul,
and
to hear my confession. [2]
Notwithstanding his many occupations,
yet,
- because I begged him
for the love of God
to do it, and
- because he saw
what straits I was in,
he consented so readily
that I was surprised,
and he confessed and directed me
all the time I remained in Toledo,
which was long enough.
I laid before him
the state of my soul
with exceeding plainness,
as I am in the habit of doing.
The service he rendered me
was so very great
that from that moment
my misgivings began to lessen.
The truth is,
there was another reason,
not to be told here.
Nevertheless, he really did me
a great service,
for he made me feel safe
by means of passages
from the Holy Scripture,
which is a way
that has most effect upon me
when I am certain
that he who speaks
- understands it,
and
- is also of good life:
I was certain of both in his case.
2. The Saint consents to found in Soria.
2.
The letter was written by him in Soria,
where he then was.
He told me
- that a lady,
who was his penitent there,
had spoken to him
about founding a monastery of our nuns,
of which he approved;
- that he had promised her
he would persuade me to go
and make a foundation there ;
- that I must not fail him;
and
- that if I thought it right to do so
I was to let him know,
and
that he would send for me.
I was very glad,
for, setting aside
that it would be a good work
to make a foundation there,
I wished
- to make known to him
certain matters
relating to the state of my soul
and also
- to see him,
because I have a great affection for him,
the fruit of the great service
he has done me.
3. Story of the foundress of Soria.
3.
The lady the foundress was
Dona Beatrix de Veamonte and Navarre
— for she was descended from
the kings of Navarre —
the child of
Don Francis de Veamonte, [3]
of noble and illustrious lineage.
She had been a wife for some years,
had no children,
was exceedingly wealthy,
and for some time past
had resolved to found
a monastery of nuns.
She spoke of it to the Bishop,
and he told her
of the order of our Lady,
the barefooted Carmelites.
She was so pleased
that she made great haste
to carry out her purpose.
She is
very gentle, generous, and mortified;
in a word,
a very great servant of God.
She had in Soria
an excellent house,
well built and
in a very good situation,
and said
that she would give it to us,
with everything else
that might be wanted for the foundation.
She gave it,
together with a sum of money
which, at twenty per mill maravedises,
would bring in five hundred ducats
a year.
The Bishop undertook to give
a very fine church
with a stone roof;
it was the parish church close by,
which would have been useful
with a gallery leading into it.
He might very well give it,
for
- it was poor,
and
- there were many churches in the town,
and
- he could assign the parish
to another church.
He gave me an account of all this
in his letter.
I discussed the whole matter
with the father provincial,
who was then here,
who with all my friends
decided that I was to
write by a special messenger
and
say they might come for me,
for the foundation of Palencia
was now made.
I was very glad of it
for the reason I gave before.
4. Preparations for the journey.
4.
I began to collect the nuns ,
I was to take with me:
they were seven
— the lady would rather have had
more than fewer —
with one lay sister, my companion, [4]
and myself.
A person came for us
at once and in haste ;
and, as I told him
I would bring with me
two barefooted friars,
I took the Father
Fray Nicholas of Jesus Maria, [5]
a man of great perfection and discernment
— a Genoese by birth.
5. Nicholas of Jesus-Mary.
5.
He was more than forty years old,
I believe,
when he received the habit
— at least he is now
upwards of forty,
and it was not long ago —
but he has made such great progress
in a short time
that it is clear our Lord chose him
to help the order,
which he did,
in these days of persecutions,
which were so full of trouble,
because the others
who could have helped us
were, some of them in exile,
others in prison.
He, as he held no office
— for as I have said,
he had not been long
in the order —
was not thought so much of:
that was the work of God,
that he might remain to help me.
He is very prudent,
for when he was staying
in the monastery of the mitigation
in Madrid
he was so reserved,
as if he had other affairs to transact,
that they never discovered
he was engaged in ours,
and so allowed him to remain.
We wrote to each other continually,
for I was then in the monastery
of S. Joseph's in Avila, [6]
and
discussed what was necessary
to be done,
which was a comfort to him.
This shows the difficulties of the order
at that time,
seeing that they made so much of me
according to the saying, [7]
' For want of better.'
During the whole of this time
I had experience
of his perfection and prudence,
and hence
he is one of those in the order
for whom I have a great affection
in our Lord,
and whom I highly esteem.
6. The journey. —
6.
He, then,
with a companion, a lay brother, [8]
went with us.
I had no trouble on the road,
for he
whom the bishop had sent for us
took great care of us, and
helped us to the utmost of his power
to find good lodgings,
for when we entered the diocese of Osma
the people provided us
with good lodgings
on being told that our coming was
the bishop's doing,
so great is their affection for him.
The weather was fine,
and we made short journeys,
so that there was
no fatigue in travelling,
only joy,
for it was to me an exceeding great joy
to listen to what people said
of the holy life of the bishop.
7. The arrival.
7.
We arrived at Burgo (Burgo de Osma) [9]
the day before the octave
of Corpus Christi,
and went to Communion on Thursday,
which was the day of the octave,
the morning after our arrival,
and dined there,
because we could not reach Soria
(before ) next day. [10]
That night we spent in a church,
for there was no other place to lodge in,
which did not displease us.
The next morning we heard mass there,
and reached Soria
about five in the afternoon. [11]
The saintly bishop was at a window
of his house [12]
when we passed, and
thence gave us his blessing;
it was a great comfort to me,
for the blessing of a bishop and a saint
is a great thing.
8. The Saint takes possession.
8.
The lady the foundress was waiting for us
at the door of her own house,
for it was there the monastery
was to be founded :
we did not see
how to make our way in,
because of the great crowd present.
That was nothing new,
for wherever we go,
so fond is the world of novelties,
the crowd is so great
as to be a grave annoyance
were it not that we cover our faces
with our veils;
that enables us to bear it.
The lady had a very large
and very fine room made ready,
wherein mass was to be said
for the present,
because a passage had to be made
in the church
which the bishop was to give us,
and forthwith the next day,
the feast of our father S. Eliseus [ 13]
mass was said.
The lady most abundantly
furnished everything
that we had need of,
and
left us in that room,
wherein we kept ourselves enclosed
until the passage was made,
remaining there till the Transfiguration.
[14]
9. Infirmity of the bishop.
9.
On that day
the first mass was said
with great solemnity,
a large congregation being present
in the church.
A Father of the Society preached, [15]
the Bishop having gone to Burgo,
for he never loses a day or an hour,
but is always at work,
though
he is not strong, and
the sight of one of his eyes is gone.
I had this sorrow there,
for it was a very great grief to me
that his sight,
which was so profitable
in the service of our Lord,
was lost,
God's judgments are His own.
This must have happened
to enable His servant to gain more merit,
and
to try his resignation to His will,
for he did not refrain from labouring
as he did before.
He told me
that he did not grieve over his loss
any more
than if it had happened to another.
He felt sometimes
that he should not think it
a matter of regret
if he lost the sight of the other eye,
for he would then live in a hermitage,
serving God without further obligation.
That was always his vocation
before he was made Bishop,
and he spoke of it to me occasionally,
and had almost made up his mind
to give up everything and go.
I could not bear that,
because I thought that
as a bishop
he would be of great service
in the church of God,
and accordingly wished him
to be what he is,
though on the day
he was offered the bishopric
— he sent word of it to me at once —
I fell into very great distress about it,
seeing him laid under
so heavy a burden,
and I could neither rest nor be at ease.
I went into the choir
and prayed for him to our Lord,
and His Majesty made me calm in a moment, saying to me
that he would serve Him greatly;
and so it seems.
10. His meritorious life.
10.
Notwithstanding
the loss of an eye,
certain other very painful infirmities
and
unceasing work,
he fasts four days in the week,
and
inflicts other penances on himself;
his food is very plain.
When he visits the diocese
he goes on foot;
his servants cannot bear it,
and have complained of it to me.
His servants must be pious persons,
or they may not remain in his house.
He does not trust important affairs
to his vicars-general;
they must pass through his hands,
and indeed I think everything does.
For the first two years
of his episcopate here
he underwent a most unrelenting persecution
from false witnesses,
at which I was amazed,
for in the administration of justice
he is upright and true.
That has now come to an end,
for, though people went
to the court
to complain of him,
and
to every other place
where they thought they could
work evil against him,
they did not prevail,
for the good he was doing
throughout his diocese
became known.
He bore it all so perfectly
that he made them ashamed,
doing good to those
whom he knew to be
doing evil to him.
Though he had much to do
he never failed
to find time for prayer.
11. The real founder of Soria.
11.
It seems to me
that I am carried away
when I praise this holy man
— and I have not said much —
but I have done so
- that people may know
who it was
that really began the foundation
of the Most Holy Trinity
in Soria,
- and for the consolation of those
who have to dwell there.
My labour is not thrown away,
and they who are there now
know it well.
Though he did not endow us
he gave us the church,
and it was he,
as I am saying, [16]
who put it
into the heart of that lady
to make the foundation,
and he was,
as I said before,
a man of great piety, goodness, and penance.
12. Pedro de Ribera.
12.
Then when
the passage leading into the church
was made,
and
everything necessary for our enclosure
arranged,
it became necessary
I should return to the monastery
of S. Joseph in Avila;
and so I went away at once
in the great heat, [17]
the road being very bad
for the carriage.
Ribera,
a minor canon of Palencia,
went with me;
he had been a very great help
in the making of the passage
into the church,
and
in everything,
for the Father Nicholas of Jesus Maria
had gone away as soon
as the deeds relating to the foundation
were drawn out,
being very much wanted elsewhere.
Ribera had business in Soria
when we were going thither,
and went with us.
From that time forth,
God gave him such an earnest desire
to do us good,
that we may therefore
pray to His Majesty for him
among the benefactors of the order.
I would not have anybody else
travel with me and my companion,
for he was enough,
because he is so careful,
and the more quietly we travel
the better am I on the road. [18]
13. Hardships on the road.
13.
I paid now for the ease
with which 1 had travelled
on this road before,
for, though the young man
who went with us
knew the way as far as Segovia,
he did not know the high road,
and so
he led us into places
where we had frequently to dismount,
and
took the carriage over deep precipices
where it almost swung in the air.
If we took persons with us
to show the way,
they
led us
as far as the roads were safe,
and
left us
just before we came to a difficulty,
saying that they had something
to do elsewhere.
Before reaching the inns,
as we had no certain knowledge
of the country,
we had to bear long
the great heat of the sun,
and our carriage was often
in danger of being overturned.
I was sorry for our fellow traveller,
because it was often necessary
to retrace our steps,
though we had been told
that we were on the right road;
but in him
goodness was so deeply rooted
that I do not think
I ever saw him annoyed,
at which I marvelled much,
and
for which I gave thanks to our Lord;
for where goodness has taken root,
the occasions of sin
have little influence.
I give thanks to our Lord
because He was pleased to save us
from the dangers of this road.
14. The Saint's hopes of the monastery.
14.
On the eve of S. Bartholomew
we reached S. Joseph's in Segovia,
where our nuns were in distress
because I was so late in coming [19]
and I was late
because the roads were bad.
There they made much of us,
for God never sends me trouble
but he repays me for it forthwith.
I rested for eight days and longer;
the foundation, however,
was made with so very little trouble
that I think nothing of it,
because it is nothing.
I came away rejoicing,
for the place seemed to me
to be one where,
I trust in the compassion of God,
He will be served by those
who dwell there,
as He is at present.
____________
Foot Notes:
[1]
Don Alonso Velasquez
heard the confession of the Saint
during her stay in Toledo
after the foundation of her monastery
in Seville.
He was born in Tudela de Duero,
and was successively
bishop of Osma and
archbishop of Compostella.
He made on foot the visitation of Osma,
and, worn out by the gout
and other infirmities,
he begged permission
to resign Compostella.
Don Philip II would consent
to the resignation only on condition
of his naming two persons
whom he judged fit
to be made archbishops.
He did so, and
the king chose one of the two,
and proposed him to the Pope.
As Don Alonso was poor,
the king asked him
what pension was to be assigned
from the revenues of the see
for his own use.
He said that for himself, two chaplains,
and two servants
a thousand ducats would suffice.
The king insisted on the assignation
of twelve thousand ducats.
Don Alonso resigned, and
retired to Talavera to die.
The archbishop
out of the twelve thousand ducats
accepted only one-half.
He died in 1587,
and was buried in Tudela de Duero
[ De la Fuente].
_____________
[2]
See Relation, ix. i.
_____________
[3]
He was captain of the emperor's guard,
and his daughter was married
to Don Juan de Vinuessa,
a great man in Soria,
who was at this time dead.
Dona Beatriz had a nephew,
Don Francisco Carlo de Veamonte,
who expected to inherit her possessions,
and
who was very angry with the Saint
because she accepted his aunt's money.
Fifteen years after this
he saw the Saint, then dead,
in a vision,
and changed his life,
retired from the world,
and lived most holily,
professed in the third order
of S. Francis
in Villa de Arebalo
[ Reforma, hk. v. ch. xx. 7].
Dona Beatriz, some years later
helped to found another monastery
in Pamplona.
In that house
she took the habit herself
as Beatriz of Christ,
and died there,
full of years and good deeds,
in 1602
[ Yepes, ii. 33].
__________
[4]
From Salamanca
the Saint sent for
Mary of Christ and
Mary of Jesus;
from Segovia,
Juana Bautista and
Mary of S. Joseph;
from Medina,
Catherine of Christ,
who was to be prioress,
Catherine of the Holy Ghost,
and a lay sister,
Maria Bautista.
Dona Beatriz sent her chaplain;
the Bishop of Osma sent his also,
with a man to provide for them
on the road;
while the bishop of Palencia sent
a minor canon of his church,
afterwards the canon, Pedro de Ribera
[ Reforma, bk. v. ch. XX. 5].
The Saint speaks of him (above) , § 12.
__________________
[5]
Nicholas Doria
was born in Genoa,
18th May 1539,
the son of Domenico and Maria Doria.
He came to Spain and settled in Seville
as banker
and rendered great services to Philip II
whose finances he put on a sound basis.
He was not there long
before he saw
the vanity of human success and
the uncertainty of worldly honours.
He gave up the world
and became a priest.
He had been long ago acquainted
with Fray Mariano,
who, going to Seville in 1573,
brought him into relations
with the Carmelites and S. Teresa herself.
In the end he was won to the new order,
and became a novice 24th March 1577,
and was professed in Seville,
25th March 1578
[ Reforma, bk. iv. ch. xxix 2-6].
He was of great service to the Saint
during the trouble,
and was looked on as the type
of a zealous Carmelite,
more rigid than Fray Jerome
of the Mother of God,
but apparently more trusted
by his brethren.
He was the first vicar-general
of the reform in Spain.
________________
[6]
The Saint went from Toledo to Avila
in July, 1577,
when she placed the monastery
under the jurisdiction of the order
and remained there till 25th June 1579,
returning thither again, 19th November.
Soon after that she began again
to make new foundations.
____________
[7]
A falta de hombres buenos:
this is an allusion to an old proverb,
A falta de buenos mi marido alcalde
— for want of good men
they made my husband a judge
[ De la Fuente].
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Blog Note:
old proverb,
"A falta de buenos mi marido alcalde"
In the absence of good men,
or For want of good men,
let my husband be the Mayor
__________________
[8]
Fray Eliseus of the Mother of God
[ Reforma, bk. v. ch. xx. 5].
______________
[9]
Not Burgos in old Castille,
an episcopal city raised in 1574
to the rank of an archbishopric,
but Burgo de Osma;
Osma being on one side
of the river Duero, and decayed;
Burgo being on the other.
_____________
[10]
This word, though not in the original
is required by the context.
_____________
[11]
Father Francis de Ribera, S.J.
says that he saw the Saint in Soria
on his return from Rome,
as he had done the year before
in Valladolid
when he was setting out on his journey.
He stopped four days in Soria,
but did not know for three days
that the Saint was in the town.
He speaks most pathetically
of the loss he sustained by this,
for it was the last time
he ever saw her in this world
[ Ribera, iii. ii].
________________
[12]
The bishop was then a guest
in the house of Don Juan de Castilla
[ Reforma, bk. v. ch. xx. 3].
________________
[14]
There is a serious chronological difficulty
about the date of this foundation.
Saint Teresa says they arrived
at Burgo de Osma
on Wednesday,
eve of the Octave of Corpus Christi,
that is,
since Corpus Christi in 1581
fell on 25th May,
on Wednesday 31st May.
They spent the Thursday at that place
and continued the journey on Friday,
arriving at Soria towards evening.
' y luego otro dia
que era de nuestro padre San Eliseo
se dijo, '
and on the very next day
which was that of our father S. Eliseus
the first mass was said.'
That would lead us to Saturday
3rd June,
but the feast of S. Eliseus,
ever since it was introduced
into the Carmelite breviary in 1399
was kept on the 14th,
not on the 3rd.
Various attempts have been made
to reconcile these statements.
The Bollandists suggest
that the mass on the 3rd
was a votive mass of S. Eliseus,
and Mr Lewis went so far,
in support of this opinion,
as to alter the text, saying :
' and forthwith the next day
mass was said in honour
of our father S. Eliseus.'
It has further been suggested
that perhaps at that time
the Spanish Carmelites celebrated
S. Eliseus...on the 4th of June,
in proof whereof it is alleged
that Isabel of Jesus,
prioress of Palencia,
is stated
[Fuente, Obras, vi. 83)
to have made her profession
on 4th June, on the feast day
of S. Eliseus of our Order.'
But against this is the circumstance
that S. Teresa does not speak
of the 4th
but of the 3rd of June,
and also
that there is no evidence whatever
of the alleged Spanish custom.
The French Carmelite nuns
are of opinion
that S. Teresa mixes up
two different things,
the first mass on the third and
a solemn mass on the 14 th
on the occasion
of the official inauguration
of the convent after the bell
had been hung
and other formalities fulfilled.
In support of this
they quote the act of Donation,
dated 14th June,
whereby Dona Beatriz de Beaumont
gave to the convent
a rent of five hundred ducats.
This act was signed and sealed
previous to the departure
of Father Nicholaus Doria
as we learn from a letter
dated 13th July 1581.
Although it is impossible
to settle the difficulty satisfactorily,
it appears to the present writer
that the opinion of the French Carmelites
does the smallest violence to the text
and has more in its favour than any other.
______________
[14]
August 6th.
On the feast of the Assumption following,
the Saint gave the habit to two novices
[ Rcforma, bk. v. ch. xx. 5].
______________
[15]
The preacher was Father Francis Carrera
[ Ribera, iii. II].
______________
[16]
See Foundations: Ch. 30: § 2 (above)
______________
[17]
The Saint
left Soria August l6, 1581,
reached Burgo de Osma
on the 18th,
was in Segovia on the 23rd, and
arrived in Avila September 5.
The monastery
which she had founded, and
which she had carefully trained,
was now,
to the great distress of the Saint,
less fervent in spirit,
and therefore in great temporal need.
The nuns had been too much indulged
by an indiscreet confessor
(Father Julian Davila)
who dispensed with the observance
of the rule and constitutions
without difficulty.
The presence of the Saint changed
all that was amiss,
and on the airival of the provincial,
to whom the state of the convent
was made known
— he came to Avila from Salamanca,
where he had been occupied
in founding the college
of the friars —
and with his consent,
and desired by the nuns,
Mary of Christ gladly resigned
her place of prioress
[ Yepes, ii. 34].
The nuns
then elected S. Teresa prioress,
September 10, 1581,
but she withheld her consent
on the ground of her age
and need of rest.
The provincial, Fray Jerome,
bade her kiss the ground,
whereupon the nuns intoned
the Te Deum,
and led her into her seat
in the choir.
The provincial,
to make her burden as light
as he could,
gave her as subprioress
Mary of S. Jerome
[ Reforma bk. v. ch. xxi. 3]
[ Fray Antony, Letter].
The monastery,
which had elected her
' through sheer hunger,'
as she says
(Letter of 8th Nov. 1581),
recovered itself
temporally and spiritually,
but not without much trouble to the Saint,
for the nuns had been
receiving dispensations
without discretion from the confessor,
who was none other
than Julian of Avila,
her great friend,
but who in this instance seems
not to have understood her spirit,
or the ends she had in view
in making this reform.
She complains of him
to the provincial
in a letter written to him
in the following October,
and deplores the sad results
of his negligent direction,
and ends by saying,
' God deliver me from confessors
who have been so for many years'
(Letter of 26th Oct. 1581).
_____________
[18]
Diego de Yepes,
her biographer,
met her in Burgo de Osma
on the 18th.
He was then on his way to Rioja,
his priorate in Zamora ended.
He had heard from his friend the Bishop,
Don Alonso Velasquez,
that the Saint was expected.
She arrived about eight o'clock
in the evening, and
Yepes went to receive her on her alighting
from the carriage.
Yepes spoke to her, and she asked him
who he was.
He answered, ' Fray Diego de Yepes,'
and the Saint made no reply.
Fray Diego was uneasy, thinking that
either the saint had forgotten him
or that his presence was disagreeable to her.
Afterwards speaking to her,
he asked the reason of her silence,
and she replied that it was owing
to one of two things —
one, that she thought he had been
penanced by his superiors,
or that God wished thus to repay her
for the troubles of the foundation
by meeting him there.
Yepes was pleased,
and said that the first was the truth, and
that God did not intend the second.
She then told him how long
his penance would last, and
that he would be ashamed of himself
at the end thereof;
' thereby showing,' says Yepes,
'how well she knew my disinclination
to suffer, seeing that I made so much
of trifles'
[ Yepes, ii. 33]
______________
[19]
The Saint made Catherine of Christ,
whom she sent for from Medina,
prioress,
with Beatriz of Jesus, sub-prioress.
Catherine was born in Madrigal;
her father, of kin to the Saint,
was Christobal de Balmaseda, and
her mother was
Dona Juana Bustamante y San Martin.
She gave herself up
from her earliest years
to penance and good works,
and went to Medina
to become a Carmelite
when the Saint was making
the foundation there.
She was refused at first
because the house was full,
but she persevered,
and the Saint accepted her.
When she was sent to Soria,
Fray Jerome of the Mother of God
remonstrated with the Saint,
and said that Catherine
was not the proper person
to be prioress,
because she could not write
and had had no experience in governing,
whereupon the Saint said
to the provincial,
'Hold your peace, Father:
Catherine of Christ
loves God much,
is a very great saint, and
requires nothing more to govern well.'
|
End of Chapter 30
of the
Book of the Foundations
of S. Teresa of Jesus
of the Order of our Lady of Carmel
|
