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“ Saint Theresa a real character? I always associated her with Saint Margaret and the Dragon,” remarked an intelligent friend of the writer soon after this little book was begun. To the student of Christian history or of Spanish literature, Saint Theresa has an honored place; but to the general reader she is no more real than the enchanted princess of the fairy-tale, or the Lorelei of the Rhine. To make her a living, breathing human being, with feelings and foibles like our own, has been the most delicate part of the writer’s task.

For more than three hundred years well-meaning biographers have endeavored to laud the memory of Theresa; but their efforts have resulted in relegating her to the realm of romance, and substituting for the crown of laurels she so richly deserves that which less becomes her,—the spectral halo of the saint. To