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 TERESA

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TERESA

Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation at Avila, which then counted 140 nuns. The wrench from her family caused her a pain which she ever afterwards compared to that of death. However, her father at once yielded and Teresa took the habit.

After her profession in the following year she be- came very seriously Ul, and underwent a prolonged cure and such unskilful medical treatment that she was reduced to a most pitiful state, and even after par- tial recovery through the intercession of St. Joseph, her health remained permanently impaired. During these years of suffering she began the practice of men- tal prayer, but fearing that her conversations with some worldly-minded relatives, frequent visitors at the convent, rendered her unworthy of the graces God bestowed on her in prayer, discontinued it, until she came under the influence, first of the Dominicans, and afterwards of the Jesuits. Meanwhile God had be- gun to visit her with "intellectual visions and locu- tions", that is manifestations in which the exterior senses were in no way affected, the things seen and the words heard being directly impressed upon her mind, and giving her wonderful strength in trials, reprimand- ing lier for unfaithfulness, and consoling her in trouble. Unable to reconcile such graces with her shortcomings, which her delicate conscience repre- sented as grievous faults, she had recourse not only to the most spiritual confessors she could find, but also to some saintly laymen, .who, never suspecting that the account she gave them of her sins was greatly ex- aggerated, believed these manifestations to be the work of the evil spirit. The more slie endeavoured to resist them the more powerfully did God work in her soul. The whole city of Avila was troubled by the re- ports of the visions of this nun. It was reser^'ed to St. Francis Borgia and St. Peter of Alcantdra, and after- wards to a number of Dominicans (jiarticularly Pedro Ibanez and Domingo Banez), Jesuits, and other re- ligious and secular priests, to discern the work of God and to guide her on a safe road.

The account of her spiritual life contained in the "Life written by herself" (completed in 1565, an earlier version being lost), in the "Relations", and in the "Interior Castle", forms one of the most remark- able spiritual biographies with which only the "Con- fessions of St. Augustine" can bear comparison. To this period belong also such extraordinary manifesta- tions as the piercing or transverberation of her heart, the spiritual espousals, and the mystical marriage. A vision of the place destined for her in hell in case she should have been unfaithful to grace, determined her to seek a more perfect life. After many troubles and much opposition St. Teresa founded the convent of Discalced Carmelite Nuns of the Primitive Rule of St. Joseph at Avila (24 Aug., 1562), and after six months obtained permission to take up her residence there. Four years later she received the visit of the General of the Carmelites, John-Baptist Rubeo (Rossi), who not only approved of what she had done but granted leave for the foundation of other convents of friars as well as nuns. In rapid succession she established her nuns at Medina del Campo (1567), Malagon and Val- ladolid (1.">»K), Toledo and Pastrana (1.569), Sala- manca (1570), Alba de Tormes (1571), Segovia (1574), Veas and Seville (1575), and Caravaca (1576). In the "Book of Foundations" she telU the story of these convents, nearly all of which were established in spite of violent opposition but with manifest assist- ance from above. Kvcrvwhere she found souls gen- erous enough to embrace the ;nist erit ies of t he primit i ve ruleof Carmel. Having made the acquaintance of .An- tonio de Heredia, prior of Medina, and St. John of the Cro.ss (q. v.), she established her reform among the friars (28 Nov., 1568), the first convents being those of Duruelo (1.568), Pastrana (1569), Mancera, and Alcalil de Ilenares (1570).

A new epoch began with the entrane<' into religion

of Jerome Gratian. inasmuch as this remarkable man was almost ininiiiliiii. ly intrusted by the nuncio with the authorit\- .if \i--iii.i Apostolic "of the Carmelite friars and nuns of the old observance in Andalusia, and as such considered himself entitled to overrule the various restrictions insisted upon by the general and the general chapter. On the death of the nuncio and the arrival of his successor a fearful storm burst o\er St. Teresa and her work, lasting four years and threatening to annihilate the nascent reform. The incidents of this persecution nii 1h>! described in her letters. The storm at len^;ili ]l:l^-.ll, and the prov- ince of Discalced Carmelitts, with the support of Philip II, was approved and canonically established on 22 June, 1580. St. Teresa, old and broken in health, made further foundations at Villanueva de la Jara and Palencia (1580), .Soria (1581), Granada (through her assistant the Venerable Anne of Jesus), and at Burgos (1582). She left this latter place at the end of July, and, stopping at Palencia, Valladolid, and Medina del Campo, reached Alba de Tormes in September, suf- fering intensely. Soon she took to her bed and passed away on 4 Oct., 1582, the following day, owing to the reform of the calendar, being reckoned as 15 Oct. After some years her body was transferred to Avila, but later on reconveyed to .\lba, where it is still pre- served incorrupt. Her heart, too, showing the marks of the Transverberation, is ex-posed there to the ven- eration of the faithful. She was beatified in 1614, and canonized in 1622 by Gregory XV, the feast being fixed on 15 October.

St. Teresa's position among writers on mj'stical theology is unique. In all her writings on this sub- ject she deals with her personal experiences, which a deep insight and analytical gifts enabled her to ex- plain clearly. The Thomistic suljstratum may be traced to the influence of her confessors and directors, many of whom belonged to the Dominican Order. She herself had no pretension to found a school in the ac- cepted sense of the term, and there is no vestige in her writings of any influence of the Areopagitic, the Pa- tristic, or the Scholastic Mystical schools, as repre- sented, among others, by the German Dominican Mys- tics. She is intensely personal, her s}-stem going ex- actly as far as her ex-periences, but not a step further.

.4 word must be added on the orthography of her name. It has of late become the fashion to write her name Teresa or Teresia, without "h", not only in Spanish and Italian, where the "h" could have no place, but also in French, German, and Latin, which ought to preseri-e the etymological spelling. As it is derived from a Greek name, Tharasia, the saintly wife of St. Paulinus of Nola, it should be written Theresia in German and Latin, and Th6rese in French.

Ttie bibliography of St. Teresa is exceediDgly lengthy. Unfor- tunately, even de Curzon's Bibliographic Th^rhienne (Paris, 1902) is far too incomplete and inaccurate to be of much use. Here we can only deal with her own writings. The autographs of the life written by herself, and of the Booh of Foundations have been published in photo-lithography by Don Vicente de la FlTENTE (Madrid, 1S73 and 18S0 respectively): the Interior Castle, under the directinn nf Cardinal Lluch (Seville, 1882) : the Way of Perf>:-l„.„ i MS ,,t the Escorial) and the Visitation of Nu7ineries by 1 '- I i ^ : .. Herhero' Bayona (Valladolid, 1883). with & I : M-S. of the Way of Perfection pre-

served at Vailail Miaining works, the Relations, the

Exclaniolions, tt: ' - -, - , the Maxims, the Constitutions, and the poems (about thinj-six of these being considered genu- ine), no autographs, or only small fragments, are known to exist. The Seven Meditations on the Lord's Prayer are not authentic. The most recent English translations are by Lewis: Life and Re- lations, ed. Zimmerman (4th cd.. London, 1911): Fotwdations, with the Visitation and Constitutions (I.ondon, 1871. a new edi- tion being now in the press). The Interior Castle, Exclamations, and the Way of Perfection, translated by the Benedictines of Stanbrook, cd. Zimmerman: the two former, London, 190fi (a second edition being now in the press): the third, London, 1911. The Conceptions of Dirine Love, the Maxims and the poems, by the same translators and editor, are also in the press. Pending the publication of a complete English edition of the Letters we rritiii'it do better tlian refer the reader to the Lettres de Sninte Tl..resf, liar h K. P. Greooirr de St. Joseph (3 vols., 2nd ed.. 1906). ^Icntiun must be made of the new French translation of the works of the saint (with numerous documents and piices justifica-