Saint Teresa of Avila

However, her father, who was a man of good sense, noticing the danger she was in by remaining at home any longer, resolved to deprive himself of her company, notwithstanding the affection he had for her, and to place her as a boarder in a convent. He took the marriage of her older sister as a pretext; he said that it was by no means appropriate for her at her age to remain alone without a mother or sister in his house. The convent where he placed her was that of the Augustinian ladies of Avila, called Our Lady of Grace, where many other young women of quality were being raised. Teresa entered by pure obedience and without any inclination to be a nun, nor to lead a more retired life; but, the grace of Jesus Christ joining with the good examples and wise admonitions of the nuns of this monastery, who were very virtuous and prudent, she gradually regained the spirit of devotion and fervor she had had in her childhood. She began again to recite several vocal prayers, and to feel a holy envy for those who were drawn to mental prayer and who had the gift of tears. There also came to her a desire to be a nun, not in this monastery, which she believed too austere for her, but in another where she had a friend with whom she would have been delighted to live; in which she confesses that she followed the inclination of her heart rather than the good of her soul. But, after eighteen months, a serious illness that befell her compelled her father to withdraw her from this boarding school and have her return home to be better treated. He then sent her to the countryside, to her older sister, who loved her tenderly and who would have wished to have her with her always, because in truth she had so much condescension and affability that she made herself loved by everyone. On this journey, she visited one of her uncles, her father's brother, named Pedro Sanchez de Cepeda, who had retired after the death of his wife to one of his estates, located in the small town of Hortigosa, four leagues from Avila, to spend the rest of his days in the exercises of the solitary life. She had some holy conversations with him and was so touched that she resolved from then on to begin a more spiritual life. What also profited her greatly was that this man of God, who took extreme pleasure in reading, had her read books of devotion in the vernacular, among others the Epistles of Saint Jerome, which gave her a great distaste for the things of the earth and awakened in her all the desires she had once had for the goods of eternity.

She then received the great gift of religious vocation, and, so as not to leave this talent useless, she made so many requests to her father that he finally permitted her to enter the Monastery of the Incarnation in Avila, of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, to take the habit. She confessed herself that, when she left her house to go there, sh Ordre de Notre-Dame du Mont-Carmel Religious order to which the cited blesseds belong. e felt so much repugnance and contradiction in her nature that it seemed to her that all her bones were being dislocated and that her heart was being torn from her entrails; but she generously overcame this difficulty, and she finally had the happiness of being covered with the holy habit of Our Lady, on November 2, 1533, at the age of eighteen. Her soul was at the same time clothed with such abundant grace that all her past dryness was changed into rains of sweetness and consolation. From then on, God gifted her with that admirable gift of tears, which lasted her whole life, and she used it very appropriately during the course of her novitiate to weep bitterly for the sins she had committed in the world and to obtain pardon for them from the infinite goodness of her Spouse. She also accompanied them with several austerities and mortifications beyond those prescribed by the Rule. We do not wish to stop here to report in detail the heroic acts of humility, patience, submission of spirit, obedience, and other virtues that she displayed in this first state of fervor; we will only say that all the nuns were so edified by her conduct that, notwithstanding her infirmities, which were great, and the weakness of her constitution, they judged her very worthy to make her profession. Thus, she pronounced her vows one year after her clothing, with unspeakable joy and satisfaction to see herself forever the spouse of Jesus Christ and the humble servant of his most holy Mother.

As soon as she had made her profession, she was afflicted with severe heart ailments, constant vomiting, and several other illnesses that often deprived her of all sense. Her father, who loved her no less in the religious life than when she was with him, obtained permission from her superiors to have her transported to a place called Becedas. As it was the beginning of winter, she had to stay with her sister, who greatly desired to have her, while waiting for spring. Her uncle, whom we have already mentioned, did not fail to visit her there and to converse with her, as before, about the things of God. He also placed in her hands an excellent book, entitled: *The Third Spiritual Alphabet*, by Father Francisco de Osuna, of the Order of Friars Minor, which taught how to practice mental prayer. Teresa read it with avidity, finding it in conformity with her inclination and encountering there what she had been seeking for a long time, and which none of her directors had been able to explain to her. As at the same time she felt herself interiorly drawn to the life of the spirit, she began to love solitude more, to go to confession more often, and to work more carefully at the mortification of the senses and the purity of the heart. She also strove never to lose sight of Our Lord, and to fill herself with the consideration of his mysteries: which caused Him to lead her little by little, first into the prayer which we call *quiet*, which is a sweet rest in God present, and then into the prayer of union, which is a simple, tranquil, and loving enjoyment of this infinite principle of all goods.

Spring having come, she was taken to the place chosen for her cure; but, far from finding healing there, she became even more ill; she did not, however, fail to spiritually heal an adulterous, sacrilegious, and scandalous priest there, to whom she confessed, and who was obliged to admit his disorder to her; she assisted him so powerfully by her holy advice and by the tears she shed for him at the foot of the Savior's cross, that she procured for him the spirit of compunction and penance, and a very Christian death. Her father, seeing that her health was not improving at all, had her brought to his home to have her seen by doctors; they all judged that she was consumptive and that she could not recover from this malady. Indeed, her stomach was no longer functioning, her body was dry and emaciated, and her limbs stiffened so strongly from the contraction of the nerves that she was sometimes completely contorted. One day of the Assumption, she fell into such a strange syncope that she was thought to be dead for four days; so much so that her grave was prepared in her monastery, and the nuns, her sisters, who did not observe the enclosure, came to pray to God around her body. They wanted to have her carried away, but her father, who still felt a little pulse in her, prevented it, asserting that she was not dead. At the end of four days, she awoke as if from a deep sleep, and, complaining that she had been disturbed, she said that, in this ecstasy, she had seen heaven and hell, the graces she would receive from the liberal hand of God, and some signal favors that He would confer upon others in consideration of her. She then wished to return to her convent, where, through the merits of Saint Joseph, whose feast she celebrated every year with much f saint Joseph Special patron of the Congregation. ervor, she began to rise and walk.

The monastery where Saint Teresa lived had no enclosure: the nuns often received visits there, forming bonds with people from the outside who came to converse with them for long hours: a source of such great perils, says Saint Teresa, that the religious men or women who find themselves in this situation would be better off for the salvation of their souls in their paternal home or established in the world. Our young Saint, who was so amiable and very much inclined herself toward honest friendships, also made the acquaintance of a person who came to see her often. She did not fall into disorder; she did not even think of it, and did not suspect the danger; she remained obedient, free from hypocrisy, from slander, loving God. But she abandoned mental prayer for more than a year (from twenty-six to twenty-seven years of age); she resumed it following the advice of Father Vincent Baron, who also had her receive communion every fortnight. Our Lord had himself given her two warnings: he appeared to her one day in the parlor with a severe and indignant face; another day, she and the person with whom she was talking saw, very close by, a horrible and mysterious monster that frightened them. Furthermore, an old nun, her relative, often warned her of the danger she was running. She remained nevertheless from the age of about twenty until that of forty, loving God, but without her heart being entirely closed to the world. But one day when she saw the image of Jesus covered in wounds, she was so touched that she felt her heart as if breaking.

Saint Mary Magdalene, whom she invoked, also assisted her in a sensible manner, as did Saint Augustine, whose Confessions she read with the greatest fruit; she drew inspiration, for her small faults, from the sentiments of repentance that Saint Augustine showed for his disorders. From that time on, her soul never ceased to remain holily united to God, who granted her extraordinary favors in her mental prayer. Not believing herself worthy of them, she at first took for illusions this suspension of the senses, this interior calm, this intellectual vision of the highest mysteries of our faith, these sudden feelings of the presence of God that occupied her whole soul, these outbursts of love and this rest in the Divinity that she felt quite often. Saint Francis Borgia, who was of the Society of Jesus, relieved her of this doubt, and made her understand that, walking in humility and always beginning her mental prayer with some point of the Savior's passion, she had no reason to fear illusion in these graces that were given to her without her having sought them. She also had very wise confessors in the same Society, who supported her wonderfully well in this extraordinary conduct, and who obliged her to join the exercise of mortification and penance to these such sublime degrees of mental prayer. She at first had much difficulty in ridding herself of some particular friendships, which, although they seemed innocent to her, because being of an extremely generous nature, she believed she should love in a singular way the persons who showed her affection, nevertheless placed a great impediment to her perfection. She said for this, by the order of her confessor, for some time, the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus; and one day when she was saying it, she entered into a sudden rapture, and she heard in the depths of her heart these words of her Spouse: "I no longer want, my daughter, for you to have any friendship with men, but that all your conversation be with the angels"; and at that very instant, this passion of particular friendship, which she had not been able to overcome by a thousand efforts, was so extinguished in her that it was no longer possible for her to love anyone except in God and for God.

From that day on, Our Lord often favored her with his secret and intimate communications, instructing her himself in what she had to do for his service, and revealing to her in what manner she should behave to be more pleasing to him. As there was nothing she feared more than being deceived by the demon, a fear came to her again that these words were not spoken by her divine Master, but by some evil spirit that had undertaken to seduce her. Her confessor consulted five or six masters, who were all of the opinion with him that what was happening to her in mental prayer was not from God, but from the demon; that thus, it was necessary to withdraw her from this exercise, forbid her solitude, and cut off her communions. This decree was for her a subject of great pain, all the more so because those who were informed of it took her for a visionary, and some even spoke of having her exorcised, as if she had been possessed and obsessed by the demon. Moreover, they curiously observed all her actions, and if some imperfection escaped her, they made a great mystery of it, and inferred that all the graces she believed she was receiving from heaven were only pure illusions.

During this trial, which lasted two or three years, she never lost patience, but always remained in perfect submission to the will of God. Besides, Our Lord did not cease to visit her and instruct her in various ways. He said to her one day: "Fear nothing, my daughter, it is I who speak, and I will never abandon you." This word was so penetrating and so effective that it dissipated all her doubts and convinced her clearly and assuredly that it was he. Moreover, this same word so removed her apprehension of the demon and all his artifices that, far from fearing him, she sometimes defied him, saying to him: "Come now with all your diabolical escort; for, being a servant of Jesus Christ, I want to know what is your strength and what you can do against me." At other times, her amiable Spouse appeared to her, sometimes under sensible forms, sometimes under purely intellectual representations, and operated at the same time in her soul wonderful effects of detachment and sanctification. She was commanded to make the sign of the cross, to turn her back, to leave her oratory, and to change place when she had these visions; she did it out of obedience, although she knew assuredly that it was her Beloved who was visiting her; but, far from driving him away by this apparent incivility, she charmed him even more and obliged him to return more frequently. "You do well, my daughter," he said to her once, "to obey your directors, and you must act in this way; but I will finally make them know that it is I myself who honor you with my presence."

One day, Teresa presented a cross to him, as one would do to the demon to drive him away. He took it between his hands (for he was not frightened by the cross) and returned it to her. But this ebony cross then appeared to our Saint composed of four precious stones of inestimable beauty and value; and since then, it always appeared to her in that way, although in fact it had not changed its nature and it appeared to others only as ebony. It is this cross that restored sight to Magdalene of Toledo, and which later performed several other miracles. Finally, Our Lord, to manifest more the truth of these visions, ignited in an instant in the heart of his beloved such a great fire of the love of God and such an ardent desire to see him, that the present life was for her only a long martyrdom. She was wounded by a divine wound, which, while making her languish and die, caused her an ineffable pleasure, to which all the pleasures of the world cannot be compared. It was at this time that she saw several times at her side a seraph of wonderful beauty, who, having a dart in his hand, pierced her heart with it. This dart was of fine gold and quite long, and there was at the end a point of iron that was on fire. When he carried it into her heart, it produced there a flame of love so excessive that she could almost not support its vehemence; and when he withdrew it, it seemed that he was tearing out her entrails: he left her so inflamed that she was as if beside herself. The pain of her sacred wounds made her let out groans; but their sweetness, which was no less, intoxicated her so much that she no longer wanted to see or speak, but only to enjoy the sweetness of her pain and the delights of her love. So many wonderful effects finally convinced the servants of God whom she consulted about her conduct that these operations came from heaven, and that there was no longer any deception to be feared. Four great lights of the Church, who were then enlightening Spain by their holiness and their doctrine, confirmed her in this sentiment; namely: Saint Louis Bertrand, Saint Peter of Alcantara, Father John of Avila, and the Reverend Father Louis of Granada; but these extraordinary ways always served as an occasion for her directors to rebuke her, to mistreat her in words, and to be extremely harsh to her; which Our Lord J saint Pierre d'Alcantara Spanish saint who supported Teresa in her visions and her reform. esus Christ permitted for her great perfection.

The zeal for the glory of her Spouse could never be satiated. She endeavored to restore the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, of which she was a nun, to its first vigor, through the entire and perfect observance of the Rule it received from the hands of Saint Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem. She knew the disorders that the Lutherans and Calvinists were causing in Germany and France, ruining churches, profaning altars, scattering the relics of the Saints, and committing all the sacrileges that the rage of the demon can inspire in furious and desperate heretics: "It is very reasonable," she said, "that, while the enemies of Jesus Christ ruin the sacred temples that our fathers dedicated to Him, we should build new ones to repair His honor, and that we should show no less ardor in His service than these instruments of hell show fury and rage against Him."

At first, she conferred about this design with some virtuous daughters of her monastery of the Incarnation; they entered so deeply into her sentiments that one of them, who was her niece and still a boarder, offered a thousand ducats to buy a house for this purpose. Madame Marie Guyaumar, her intimate friend and one of the most considerable in the city of Avila, also relished this enterprise and promised to provide for the subsisten ce of the nun ville d'Avila Birthplace of the saint and site of her first reformed foundation. s who would begin it. The matter was recommended to Our Lord through many prayers and tears, so that He might give it His blessing and open the means to execute it. The following day, Teresa, making her thanksgiving after communion, this divine Lover appeared to her, and after showing that He approved of her design, which was for His greater glory, He gave her assurance that this convent of strict observance would be established, and that His divine Majesty would be served there in great fervor. Then He commanded her to call it Saint-Joseph, and told her that this glorious patriarch would be at one of the doors to guard it, that Mary, His most holy Mother, would guard it at the other door, and that He Himself would stand in the middle, in order to support it against all the powers of the world and of hell. One cannot believe the obstacles that the demon had placed on all sides to this new foundation: some mocked it as an impossible enterprise; others warned the superiors to prevent them from giving their consent; others finally decried the holy mother as a restless girl, ambitious and full of foolish and ridiculous imaginations. However, with the permission of the bishop and the provincial of the Carmelites, and the approval of several holy personages of various Orders, a house was secretly bought, work was done to arrange it in the form of a monastery, and they wrote diligently to Rome, in order to obtain from the Pope the necessary powers for this establishment.

The matter dragged on extremely, because Teresa had little money to continue the building; moreover, the brief was a long time in being dispatched in the forms it had to be, to prevent all kinds of disputes and lawsuits. During this interval, the provincial of the Carmelites, who had been much cooled on this matter and who had even retracted his permission, sent a command to Teresa to transport herself, as soon as possible, to Toledo to console Marie de la Cerda, who had just lost her husband. She obeyed his order immediately, without the necessity of her presence for the perfection of her building, nor the advice of several people who were of the opinion that she should excuse herself by letter from this obedience, making her waver for a single moment. God did His work in her absence. She stayed six months at this lady's house; and, the very night she returned to Avila, the brief from the Pope that she was waiting for arrived; and the bishop, to whom it was addressed and who was to be the superior of this new monastery, happened to be in the city to make the establishment. It was to be feared that he would refuse to consent to it, because the holy Mother wanted it to be without any income and founded only on poverty. But Saint Peter of Alcantara, who was also at the same time in Avila, and to whom his incomparable virtues and his great miracles ga ve extraordinary credit, saint Pierre d'Alcantara Spanish saint who supported Teresa in her visions and her reform. wrote to him in terms so strong and so touching (a violent illness prevented him from going to find him himself), that he gave his consent to everything they wanted. Thus, in the year 1562, on the day of Saint Bartholomew, the Blessed Sacrament was placed, by his authority, in the house that had been prepared, and to which the name of Saint-Joseph was given; and the holy Mother, who had left her convent of the Incarnation for an illness of her brother-in-law, gave the habit of the Discalced Carmelite of the strict Observance to four novices, who, truly, brought no dowry, but were very virtuous girls full of strength and generosity to bear all the austerity of the Rule.

The year of this beginning of the reform of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is very considerable, since it is the same one in which the Calvinists, having made themselves masters, by the force of arms, of several large cities of France, committed there the most execrable sacrileges that have ever been committed by heretics. For without speaking of the priests and religious whom they massacred with unheard-of cruelties, of the bodies of the Saints that they pulled from their shrines or their tombs to burn them and throw the ashes to the wind, of the churches they tore down, of the altars they profaned and the sacred images they tore to pieces, they trampled underfoot in an infinity of places the body and precious blood of Jesus Christ; then, having looted the chalices, the corporals and the other furnishings dedicated to the holy ministry, they converted them to profane uses. By an admirable effect of Providence, at the same time that these impious people were striving to abolish in France all the marks of the true religion, a simple girl, destitute of all human help, was beginning in Spain a holy Congregation, which was to build no fewer churches and erect no fewer altars, throughout the extent of the Christian world, than the fury of these monsters had torn down, and which was to compensate for their abominable actions by the faithful and constant practice of the holiest exercises of the Christian and religious life.

If the demon had unleashed himself against the first projects of the monastery of Saint-Joseph, he made no fewer efforts to ruin it after its establishment. At first, he excited in the heart of the holy Mother a scruple of not having kept the Rules of obedience exactly enough in the conduct of her enterprise, and an extreme repugnance to leave her convent of the Incarnation, where she had always been very well, to come and lodge in such a poor house. But this temptation soon dissipated: for it pleased the goodness of God to enlighten our Saint with a celestial light; and she took at the feet of the Blessed Sacrament the resolution to pursue incessantly the permission to remain in this new monastery. The enemy had recourse to other weapons: he put into the head of the governor, the aldermen and the principal bourgeois of Avila, that the convent of Saint-Joseph would be too much of a burden to the city, and that, the number of poor houses there being already quite large, it would not be prudent to allow the establishment of this one. Thus, Teresa had orders to return, without any delay, to her house of profession, and never to meddle with that of Saint-Joseph; then it was deliberated to tear down the buildings, to send the novices back to their parents, and to ruin entirely these beginnings of reform. Teresa obeyed without contradiction, abandoning her work to the wise Providence of God who was its author; but, for the rest, it did not come to execution; for the Reverend Father Dominique Bannez, that learned and pious doctor of the Order of Saint Dominic, and the Reverend Father Pierre Yvagnez, of the same Order, a man very well versed in spiritual things, nego tiated this matter so adroitly Révérend Père Dominique Bannez Dominican theologian who supported the foundation of Saint-Joseph. that the whole storm dissipated. They even allowed, finally, the holy Mother to leave her convent of the Incarnation forever, and to come to that of Saint-Joseph, with as many nuns from the first as she would find disposed to embrace her reform. Only four accompanied her; and with this small troop, she entered joyful and triumphant into her dear Bethlehem, where she was received with incredible joy by the four novices she had left there all alone. Our Lord filled the joy of this solemnity with extraordinary graces with which He had the goodness to favor her: for, having appeared to her, not only did He thank her for what she had done and endured for the re-establishment of the Order of His blessed Mother; but He also placed a golden crown on her head, a mark of the victory she had won over all the powers of hell; and, moreover, the holy Virgin showed herself to her with a great mantle, with which she covered her with all her daughters who had aligned themselves, and who were to align themselves in the future under her guidance.

The design of our admirable Reformer, in this new establishment, was not to command there, but to observe exactly all the points of the Rule of her Order in the state of submission and obedience. Thus, as soon as she had founded her monastery, she named one of the eight nuns prioress, another sub-prioress, and reserved for herself only the happiness of obeying them. But the superiors ordered otherwise; for, knowing how necessary it was that she who had produced this happy plant should also have the care of cultivating it, they commanded her to govern the house of Saint-Joseph in the capacity of first prioress. She refused as much as she could to accept this charge, which had always seemed very heavy to her; but it was not possible for her to exempt herself: she began by a divine inspiration to prescribe to her daughters the way of life they were to observe, in accordance with the first spirit of their Rule.

Here is the order of exercises that was followed at Saint-Joseph of Avila, and which, except for slight differences, is still observed in our days in the monasteries of the daughters of Saint Teresa. At nine o'clock in the evening the nuns gathered in the choir to sing Matins and Lauds. The office finished, they made the examination of conscience. They then read the points of the meditation for the next day. These exercises lasted until about eleven o'clock. The signal for rest was then given. They rose at five o'clock from Easter day until September 14, and at six at other times. After rising, they spent a whole hour in mental prayer. The prayer finished, they said the little hours, and heard holy mass. Each then retired to her cell, or to the place of her office, to occupy herself with work. The Saint wanted them to work separately and not in a common room, so that they could more easily maintain themselves in the presence of Our Lord and continue to converse with Him. Some time before the meal, the signal was given to make the examination of conscience. On the fast days of the Order, dinner was at eleven o'clock; on the fast days of the Church, at eleven-thirty; at other times, at ten o'clock. The fast began on September 14, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and lasted until Easter. After the meal, which was always accompanied by a pious reading, the nuns gathered to take their recreation together; but during this time they had to occupy themselves with some work. At two o'clock, they went to the choir to sing Vespers. Each nun then retired to her cell to do spiritual reading. After this reading, they occupied themselves with their work or their offices until Compline. Compline being recited, the nuns devoted again, like in the morning, a whole hour to prayer. Then came the meal which was followed by recreation. At the end of the recreation, the signal for the great silence was given, which was to be observed until the next day after the recitation of Prime.

Saint Teresa was the living Rule of her entire community, through her exactitude in the psalmody, mental prayer, assistance to the sick in the infirmary, and even the most menial offices of the house. She remained for five years in this convent of Saint Joseph with great consolation and rest. All the nuns were moved by themselves to what was most perfect, and those of the city who had been most opposed to its foundation were the first to bless God for having sustained it against their vain enterprises. But this was not the end of the services that Our Lord expected from his dear Spouse: one day, as she prayed to him with tears in her eyes and with great insistence to reveal to her the means to win him new souls who would be entirely inflamed with his love, he appeared to her and said: "Wait, my daughter, and you will see great things." Indeed, shortly after, the Most Reverend Father General of the Carmelites came to make his visitation in Spain, and, having spoken with Saint Teresa and her entire community, he was so edified to see the first fervor of his Order reflourish among them that he permitted the Saint to found as many houses as she could find the opportunity for, not only for women, but also for men. This was undoubtedly a great field for Teresa where she could exercise her zeal and show the ardor she had for the glory of her divine Lover. She made the second foundation for nuns at Medina del Campo; the third at Malaga; the fourth at Valladolid; the fifth at Toledo; the sixth at Pastrana; the seventh at Salamanca; the eighth at Alba; the ninth at Segovia; the tenth at Veas. She also made others in Seville, Caravaca, Villanueva de la Jara, Palencia, Numancia, Granada, and Burgos. And for the religious men, she had the consolation of seeing fifteen convents established during her life, and even one in Genoa, and another in Mexico, where the strict Observance was kept with holy fervor.

We do not undertake to describe here the hardships she had to endure, the persecutions she overcame, nor the heroic acts of prudence, strength, and trust in God that she displayed in all these foundations. Never was a work more opposed, and never was a work conducted with more wisdom, moderation, and firmness than this one. She herself composed the history of it at great length, in a book entitled *The Book of Foundations*, to which readers may have recourse. In her travels, she was as recollected and united to God, and she kept her Rule as exactly, as in the solitude of her monasteries. Her heavenly Spouse visited her in the countryside as in the secret of her oratory, and he showed her inestimable tenderness everywhere. He revealed great secrets to her, disclosed things to come, and prescribed what she had to do; and, one day, he said to her with testimonies of a most extraordinary friendship: *Deinceps, ut vera Sponsa, meum zelabis honorem. Jam ipse sum totus tuus et tu tota mea*; "henceforth, as a true Spouse, you will be filled with zeal for my glory. I am now all yours, and you, by a blessed return, are also all mine." However, whatever command she received in her revelations, she never departed from the obedience of her superiors; because, she said, I can be mistaken in taking a false revelation for a true one, but I cannot be mistaken in obeying those whom God has given me to guide me.

During the interval of these foundations, the holy Mother was twice elected prioress of the monastery of the Incarnation of Avila, where she had made her profession; once by the Reverend Father Peter Fernandez, of the Order of Saint Dominic, whom His Holiness had named apostolic visitor of the Carmelites of Spain, and another time by the votes of all the nuns. The first time, she went there and worked wonders, both for the spiritual and temporal state of the house, which were equally in disorder. The second time, Our Lord did not permit her to be confirmed, so that she could apply herself, with more rest, to the government of her new monasteries. But, finally, in the year 1580, Pope Gregory XIII entirely separated the reform of the Discalced Carmelites that she had made from the Mitigated Carmelites, without the provincials of the latter being able to take any authority thereafter over the convents of the Discalced. This separation was like the seal of her institute. She survived it by two years. A pape Grégoire XIII Pope who confirmed the Congregation of the Oratory in 1575. s her convent of Saint Joseph was subject to the bishop, while all the others she had established since were under the dependence of the superiors of the Order, she ensured that the first followed the form of the others: so that she left them all under the guidance and government of the Fathers she herself had established. Thus, God granted her two years of calm before her passing; but, before coming to that blessed hour which unites her to Jesus Christ, her dear spouse, for all eternity, it is necessary that we make some reflections on the virtues of which she gave such rare examples throughout her life.

Her faith was so great that it seemed she saw what she believed. She left it in writing that she never had a temptation against this virtue. The less she understood a mystery, the more affection and devotion she had for believing it. She wanted her daughters to be simple and not at all curious, especially regarding points of the doctrine of the faith. Her insights were always so pure and her doctrine so holy that she never had cause to fear the examination of the inquisitors; thus, her writings emerged from their hands without them having changed a letter. What gave her the most joy was that she had the happiness of being a daughter of the Church. There were no practices or ceremonies of this same Church that she did not esteem highly and for which she did not have a profound respect. She honored images and made great account of indulgences, holy water, blessed bread, Agnus Dei, and other similar things, which are instruments that God uses for our protection and for our sanctification. She said that she would willingly give her life to defend their holiness. The evils that heretics were causing on all sides in Christendom caused her inexplicable pain. She wept for them continually at the feet of her Spouse and performed an infinity of penances to stop their course, and one of her greatest regrets was that her sex prevented her from going throughout the world to fight heresy publicly.

The foundations of her convents are so many proofs of her unshakable trust in God's help. When all things failed her, when her affairs seemed most desperate, when she had no money left, when she had only a little bread and a little water for herself and her daughters, with straw to sleep on, and when all the ecclesiastical and secular powers had united together to thwart and ruin the good works that the Holy Spirit had inspired in her, it was then that she was most tranquil and firm in her expectation of divine protection. Never did any persecution trouble her or make her abandon what Our Lord asked of her, what she had undertaken with the counsel of her directors and the permission of her superiors. Thus, she experienced an infinity of times how liberal and magnificent God is toward those who hope in Him. In a moment, those who were most animated against her changed their feelings and became her protectors; what seemed destined to ruin her designs served, on the contrary, to make them succeed better: furniture, food, and money were brought to her from various places, from which she could least expect them. Those who had slandered her and wanted to pass her off as a hypocrite were forced to acknowledge her holiness, without her having opened her mouth or written anything in her defense. Finally, God watched over and worked for her, because she sought only His glory and rested entirely upon Him.

All her words and actions came from the great furnace of divine love with which her heart was inflamed. Through this love, she rejoiced infinitely that God is what He is, and possesses the inestimable treasures of glory and happiness enclosed in His essence. Through this love, she took part in all the honor He receives in heaven through the adorations of the Angels and Saints, and on earth through the acts of religion of all His faithful servants. Through this love, she conceived an inexplicable joy when it was sung, at the symbol of the Mass, that His kingdom will have no end: Cujus regni non erit finis. Through this love, she would have given a thousand lives to banish sin from the world and to win all hearts to His service. Through this love, she wept inconsolably for the crimes and abominations with which she knew the earth was filled, and she performed strange austerities to make satisfaction for them. Through this love, she withdrew from company and conversation with creatures, as much as it was possible for her, in order to be alone with her Beloved. Through this love, she desired with a holy impatience to be delivered from the prison of her body, in order to go and enjoy as soon as possible the lovely embraces of the Divinity. Through this love, she was insatiable for crosses and often repeated these beautiful words: Aut pati aut mori: "I cannot live without suffering: I must suffer or I must die." Through this love, all her pains, however great they were, seemed small to her, and there was no work she did not undertake with joy for the advancement of His glory. Through this love, she lived only for Him, spoke only of Him, could taste only Him, and all the pleasures of the world, outside of Him, seemed unbearable to her. Through this love, she made this vow, so eminent and so difficult to fulfill, and of which before her there was no example in the Acts of the Saints, to always do what she believed to be the most perfect and the most pleasing in the eyes of His divine Majesty. Finally, this love was so much the master of all her faculties that she obeyed it in everything and did nothing but by its movement. Our Lord responded to this love with graces and tendernesses that were almost incredible. We have already noted that He often honored her with His presence, that He often conversed with her, and that He revealed to her great secrets that no man could know. One day the eternal Father made Himself felt to her and said to her: "My daughter, I have given you my Son, the Holy Spirit, and this Virgin," and He showed her Our Lady; "what can you give me in exchange?" Another time, Jesus Christ placed Himself before her, and, presenting His right hand, pierced with a nail, He said to her: "Look well at this nail, it is the sign of the sacred marriage that I contract with you; from now on you will be my spouse, and no one will be able to separate you from my love." Then there occurred in her soul an operation of grace so high and so perfect that she could not bear its extent, and she was obliged to tell her spouse either to increase her capacity or to set more limits to His graces. At another time, when she was making her thanksgiving after communion, He placed Himself sensibly beside her, and, taking her hands, He placed them on His side, telling her that He always had her in His heart and that He would never forget her. When she founded the monastery of Seville, He paid her a most singular visit and said to her: "You know well, my daughter, the marriage that is between you and me; thus you are all mine and what I have is yours. My labors and my sorrows belong to you and you can ask for their fruit from my Father as from a thing that is your own." She already knew well that all the pains of the Son of God are ours; but she assures that there was then made to her such a special appropriation of them that it seemed to her that she had been made mistress of a great lordship. On other occasions her Spouse assured her that He would grant her everything she asked of Him, and that He had so much love and benevolence for her that He could refuse her nothing. Hence it comes that she sometimes spoke to Him with a marvelous familiarity, as a beloved daughter would speak to her father and a spouse to her husband.

There would be admirable things to say about her devotion toward the holy Sacrament of the altar, a consequence of the love of Jesus Christ. One of the reasons that led her most powerfully to found monasteries was that there might be new churches where Masses were said and where the holy Sacrament was adored. She communicated as often as it was possible for her, and she finally obtained to communicate every day: which she did for twenty-three years, and from then on, the vomiting that seized her every morning ceased and she had only that of the evening. One cannot express the purity of heart and the fervor with which she approached this great Mystery. She never did so without confessing, if she felt guilty of the slightest venial sin; the flames of her love then increased with such excess that she was like a burning furnace and a great brazier capable of consuming everything. Her reverence in communicating was no less than if she had seen, with the eyes of the body, Our Lord in all the splendor of His majesty. As she recommended extremely to all her daughters to make good use of the time that He was in their stomach, that is to say as long as the sacramental species remained there without being consumed by natural heat, she took care not to lose such dear and precious time. Sometimes she remained there at the feet of her good Master like a Magdalene listening to His divine lessons; sometimes she pressed Him to her heart and embraced Him as her all, her unique and her beloved. Most often, she was so absorbed and so out of herself that she had no use of her senses. She has been seen coming out of communion all radiant and all covered in light. She has been seen during her thanksgiving raised from the ground and suspended in the air. Sometimes the holy Eucharist healed her of her ailments and took away all kinds of pains, which she herself assures happened to her every day for three months. She usually felt such a great hunger for it that she would have done and suffered all things to possess it; and, nevertheless, when her confessor forbade her to communicate or when her illnesses made it impossible for her to do so, she was not troubled by it; but she abandoned herself for that entirely to the will of God. Our Lord often made Himself seen sensibly to her in this august Sacrament, sometimes as a child of incomparable beauty, sometimes in the state of His sufferings, sometimes in the glory of His Resurrection. One Palm Sunday, as she was striving to treat her dear Spouse well, as a reward for the fact that the Jews had let Him leave Jerusalem and return to Bethany without offering Him dinner, having received the holy host, she was for some time unable to swallow it, and, during this time, it seemed to her that she had her mouth full of blood and that her face and her body were also all covered with it; she felt this blood as if it were still all warm and newly shed from the veins. Her pains were then inexplicable; her divine Lover spoke to her and told her not to have any fear; that His mercy would never fail her and that He wanted His blood to be for her a source of graces; that He had shed it with much pain, but that she would enjoy it with sovereign delights. From this devotion toward the holy Eucharist came the great, the profound, and the intimate reverence that she bore to the priests by whom this mystery is operated. She humbly kissed their hand, prostrated herself on the ground, in the middle of the road, to receive their blessing, and could not suffer that one spoke ill of them and that one failed in the respect that is due to them. She saw one day one of them, carrying the holy host, whom two demons were holding by the throat to strangle him. She knew that he was in mortal sin, and she prayed for him with so many tears and sighs that she obtained for him the contrition of his sins and an effective will to amend himself. Finally, this same devotion meant that she had an extraordinary care for everything that serves for the celebration of the Mass: such as chalices, corporals, altar cloths, and priestly vestments, and that she wanted them to be very clean and that they be handled with reverence.

One must join to these sentiments of piety the veneration that she had for the holy Virgin, for Saint Joseph, and for a quantity of other Saints. She had chosen from her childhood the Mother of God for her own mother, and she had all her life for her the tenderness of a grateful daughter and full of a most cordial affection. She performed many devotions in her honor; she wanted there to be in all her convents several chapels and several oratories of her name; she recommended to her nuns to look upon her as their singular protectress; she had recourse to her in all her needs; finally, she spared nothing to show her how much esteem and love she had for her. Thus she often enjoyed the happiness of her apparitions, and God granted her great graces through her intercession.

One of the glories of the providential mission of Saint Teresa in these last centuries has been to propagate the cult of Saint Joseph throughout the Catholic Church. "Saint Teresa," says the famous Patrignani, "was one of the most resplendent stars, one of the most beautiful diamonds in the crown of Saint Joseph. She was chosen by God to extend his cult in the whole world, and to put in some way the finishing touch to this great work." It is she who had the first Christian temple built in his honor, that of Saint-Joseph of Avila, cradle of the reform of Carmel. Out of seventeen monasteries that she founded after that of Avila, the re are only saint Joseph Special patron of the Congregation. five that are not dedicated to Saint Joseph; but she implanted his cult in all of them, placed them all under his care, and always had the statue of this glorious protector placed above one of the doors. Moreover, as one reads in the legal information for her canonization, she placed with her own hands, at the entrance door of all her monasteries, the image of the holy Virgin and of Saint Joseph fleeing into Egypt, with this inscription: Pauperem vitam gerimus, sed multa bona habebimus, si timuerimus Deum: "We lead a poor life, but we shall possess great goods if we fear God."

In all her writings appears this tender and filial devotion that she had for Saint Joseph, and by the ravishing naivety of her inflamed words, she communicates it to the soul of the reader. In her admirable Avis she says: "Although you honor several Saints as your protectors, have however a most particular devotion toward Saint Joseph, whose credit is so great with God." Saint Teresa bequeathed to her entire Order the holy ardors of her zeal for the glory of Saint Joseph. Following her example, Carmel has not ceased to work to extend his cult, and one can say that it has vied in zeal with the ancient Carmel, to which Benedict XIV renders this testimony: "It is it," says this great Pope, "which, according to the common sentiment of the learned, has caused to pass from the East to the West the laudable custom of honoring Saint Joseph with the most solemn cult." At the end of the 18th century, one already counted, in the Order of Carmel alone, more than one hundred and fifty churches under the invocation of Saint Joseph. As soon as Saint Teresa had begun, all the religious Orders worked in emulation to propagate this cult. Soon, from all points of the Catholic world, one invoked the glorious Saint Joseph, and one pressed around his altars. It is therefore to Saint Teresa that belongs the glory of having brought a cult so dear to Catholic piety to this degree of splendor and universality where we see it today.

We have in Ribera a list of the Saints that our blessed foundress revered more particularly; one of the principal ones was Saint Dominic, whose children had helped her so much for the establishment of her reform. One day he appeared to her in her room at the monastery of Sainte-Croix, and he was two hours with her during which he revealed to her great mysteries and inflamed her with new flames of divine love.

It would be entering into a bottomless abyss to want to speak of her prayer. Not only was she raised to the degrees of this conversation with God, but one can say that the Holy Spirit gave her to the Church to discover all its paths, its secrets, and generally all its conduct. The history that she composed of her life is only a description of the ways by which God led her little by little to intimate union with Him; she takes the occasion there to mark the pitfalls that one can encounter on this path, and which she avoided by a great care to consult learned men, an indispensable precaution in supernatural conduct, and by a special grace with which she was always anticipated. Her other books are also on the same subject; she does not speak there so much by speculation as by a long experience of the various mansions through which the soul must pass to arrive at the peaceful and constant enjoyment of what it loves.

Her charity toward her neighbor corresponded to the love she had for God. She would have given a thousand lives, she would have endured a thousand deaths, she would have suffered the most horrible tortures to save a soul. She loved singularly the directors and preachers employed in the ministry of their salvation. She received them with joy, treated them and had them treated as well as it was possible for her, and prayed to God for them with a particular fervor. She wept bitterly for the death of Father John of Avila, because of the great goods that souls received from it. She herself withdrew by her prayers, by her letters, and by her speeches full of strength and unction, several persons from the disorders in which they were plunged, and she led many of them to mortification, to prayer, and to practices of devotion. There are even very famous doctors who are indebted to her for having applied themselves to meditation and to the exercises of the interior life, and she sustained for this horrible persecutions on the part of the demon, to the point of being threatened, beaten, outraged, and covered with wounds. If she did so much by herself for the salvation and sanctification of souls, what did she not do for this subject by her children and by the holy Order that she established? Is it not to her zeal and to her charity that one must attribute the infinite number of conversions that they have made, not only in Europe, but also beyond the seas and among the most barbaric nations? The charity of our Saint also extended to the souls in purgatory, and she delivered several of them by her tears and by her penances. Finally, she still had care for the relief of bodies, and she procured it sometimes by alms, for which she denied herself the bread from her mouth and deprived herself of the most necessary things, sometimes by services that she rendered to the sick, sometimes by miracles that she performed in favor of the afflicted and of those whom she saw overwhelmed with pain. Let us add, as proof of the excellence of her charity, that she forgave with all her heart all those who did her harm, that she loved them tenderly, that she excused their outbursts, that she prayed for them with fervor, and that she procured for them all the good that it was possible for her: which often won her the hearts most embittered and most poisoned against her.

She possessed humility and patience in a very eminent degree. Her nothingness was so perfectly known to her, and she penetrated so deeply into the original corruption of her nature, that she had only sentiments of contempt for herself; she could not suffer that one esteemed her; and she ruined in the minds of others, as much as she could, the good opinion that one had of her virtue. She would have liked that one published her faults, and she herself published them and put them before the eyes of those who gave her praise. One sees in the history that she composed of her life the care that she takes to diminish the price of her actions, to exaggerate her slightest sins, and to pass herself off as a criminal. She wanted to make her general confession there, but she could not obtain the permission. Never was she more content than when one said insults to her or when one slandered her and accused her of some crime. She then replied that one was beginning to know her, that one was treating her only according to her merits. She persuaded herself that all her sisters were making great progress in virtue, and that she alone remained behind: "Everyone advances toward perfection," she says in one place in her life, "there is only me who does not advance at all. I am good for nothing, and this is not an humility in me, but a pure truth." Someone said to her one day, while considering the graces with which heaven favored her: "My mother, beware of vainglory." — "Vainglory," she replied, "I do not know what I would have it for; I will do much, seeing what I am, not to despair." One of her greatest pains was when the favors that she received from her Spouse appeared on the outside through ecstasies and ravishments. She hid them with more care than the proud hide their defects, and when they had been discovered, she did not want one to esteem her more for them. She lowered herself to the most vile offices and to the most disgusting employments of her convents; and, superior and foundress that she was, she acknowledged her faults before the community and performed public penances for them. Her life was only a continuous series of very violent illnesses, of contradictions, and of persecutions; but the more her pains were acute and the persecutions atrocious, the more one saw her cheerful, content, and satisfied. She laughed in the midst of reproaches, insults, and false testimonies, without being in any way altered, and she even confessed that there was no music that was more agreeable to her than that. When she was charged with blows, when she was forbidden to continue her foundations, when she was threatened with being taken to the inquisition, when the demon made her break her left arm by a fall, her spirit remained in the same calm as in the sweetest enjoyment of celestial consolations. In a word, Teresa desired glory only for God alone; and for herself, she sought only contempt and sufferings.

On this great foundation of humility, she raised in her heart all the virtues that are the soul and the spirit of the religious life. The consideration of Jesus Christ being born and dying in extreme poverty made her love tenderly the state of evangelical poverty. Her first design was that her convents should be without income and should live only on alms; but this disposition having been changed by the regulation of the superiors, she wanted, nevertheless, that her buildings should be small, simple, and coarse, to the point of asking God, as much as conscience could permit, that, if ever her daughters made superb and sumptuous edifices, they should fall upon them and crush them all: these are her own terms reported by Ribera. She recommended to them extremely to be poor in their furniture and in their clothes, to have nothing particular, to ask for nothing for themselves from their parents, to rejoice when necessary things were lacking to them, and to work themselves to provide for their needs. None was poorer than she, and, although she was very clean and did not like uncleanliness, she took pleasure, nevertheless, in having the room, the clothes, and the furniture that were the most vile in the house. The bull of her canonization expressly states that she kept her virginity until death. One of her confessors, out of respect for her angelic purity, called her a virginal treasure. Another said that he did not look upon her as a creature composed of flesh and blood, but as an angel exempt from the disorders of concupiscence. She confessed one day that she understood nothing of things about which one consulted her touching impurity, and that in all her life she had had nothing to confess on this matter.

We have reported several heroic acts of her obedience; but one of very great perfection must not be omitted: an ignorant confessor having commanded her to burn a rich commentary that she had made on the Canticle of Canticles, where she explained the sacred commerce of the Spouse with the Bride, she burned it immediately, preferring in that obedience to all the lights that she had received from heaven. She said that, when one would come to command her a thing, if her superiors forbade it to her, she would rather do their will than what would have been ordered to her by this celestial spirit: and, in fact, she lived in such a perfect dependence on her superiors that she obeyed the inspirations and revelations of Jesus Christ Himself only insofar as they were conformable to their orders.

She possessed eminently the four cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. Her gratitude toward God and toward her benefactors was marvelous. Her austerity could be moderated only by the prohibitions that her directors made to her. Finally, it was a precious vase where the Holy Spirit had taken pleasure in pouring all the fullness of His graces. If she possessed those that we call gratifying, she also had most of those that are called gratuitous. Her spirit was so enlightened by the gift of prophecy that Dom Alvarez de Mendoza, Bishop of Avila, usually said: "If the mother assures it, even if the thing were impossible, it will be done."

Several miracles are reported that she performed before her death. She restored life to one of her nephews, aged five, by pressing him dead to her bosom. She healed two nuns by her touch: one, sick with a high fever and erysipelas on her face; the other, tormented by pleurisy. She multiplied so much at her convent of Villeneuve a heap of flour that could only last a month, that it was sufficient to feed her whole community for six months, and that it was found still all intact after this time. God also gave her a high wisdom and a perfect discernment of spirits for the conduct of her religious men and women. She read into their interior, penetrated their inclinations, knew their weakness, and knew the most proper means to engage them in the study of perfection.

Teresa, after having lived in such great holiness, finally arrived at such an excess of pure love that she could no longer live without enjoying the happy embraces of her beloved. He assured her that, if He had not created heaven, He would create it for her alone, and that He wished to place her in the enjoyment of the good she desired with such ardor. She had finished her last foundation at Burgos, and she wished to return to her convent in Avila, of which she was prioress; but when she was at Medina del Campo, the B. P. Anthony of Jesus, vicar provincial of her reform, obliged her to go to Alba. On Albe Place of the saint's death and the preservation of her body. the way, she fell into such great weakness that she fainted. Having arrived at Alba on the eve of Saint Matthew, she was obliged to go to bed because she could no longer support herself; but, from the next day and the following days, she rose, went to Mass, received communion, and performed the functions of her visitation. On the day of Saint Michael, she performed her devotions again; but then she was put to bed and it was no longer possible for her to rise; however, she remained all night and the following day in a very eminent prayer. It was then that she learned from heaven the day of her death; eight years earlier, she had learned the year, which she had had marked in figures in her breviary. She then said admirable things to her daughters to confirm them in the love of their state and in the affection for the strict observance they had embraced, and to raise them to God through a perfect detachment from all the things of this world. The P. Vicar provincial begging her to ask Our Lord for the prolongation of her life, she replied that it was not necessary on earth.

On October 3, the eve of her death, around five o'clock in the evening, she asked to receive the holy viaticum. She could barely move; and, when she was obliged to do so, it was only with the help of two nuns. As they were preparing to bring her the Blessed Sacrament, she said to those who were around her bed: "My daughters, I ask you, for the love of God, to faithfully keep the rules and constitutions of our Order"; then she added, speaking of herself: "Forget the bad examples that this unfaithful nun has given you, and forgive them for me." They answered her only with sobs and tears. When she saw the Blessed Sacrament enter her cell, she gathered the little strength that remained to her, rose with vivacity to a sitting position, and would even have gotten out of her bed to receive it if she had not been prevented. Her face appeared inflamed and of an admirable beauty. She said many things of devotion to the God of goodness who was coming to give Himself to her; one noted among others these: "O my Lord and my Spouse, the moment for which I sighed with such ardor has finally arrived; it is just that I enjoy your presence; it is time, O my God, that I depart from this life; may your good pleasure, I pray, be accomplished." She also thanked God for having made her born Catholic. "Finally, Lord," she repeated often, "I am a daughter of the Church." She then asked God to forgive her sins, and she urged her companions to ask the same for her, adding that "she hoped to be saved by the merits of Jesus Christ."

After the ceremony was finished, the nuns asked her to say a few words of edification; but she refused; from time to time only she recommended that they observe their rule and constitutions well, and obey their superiors faithfully. Often one heard her repeating these verses of Psalm 51: "The sacrifice that God desires is a soul penetrated with sorrow; you will not reject, O my God, a contrite and humbled heart. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your spirit from me. Create in me a clean heart, O my God!" and particularly this verse: "You will not reject, O my God, a contrite and humbled heart." She had it almost always on her lips, until the moment she lost her speech. At nine o'clock in the evening, she desired to receive the sacrament of Extreme Unction, and she received it with much piety, helping herself to recite the psalms, and responding to the litanies and prayers. When the ceremony was finished, she thanked God again for having made her a child of the Church. P. Anthony then asked her if she wished for her body to be carried to Avila. This question seemed to displease her: "Must I have a will of my own?" she replied with humility; "and will they not give me a corner of earth here?"

She spent the night in great pain and in heroic acts of patience. The next morning she lay on her side with a crucifix in her arms, in the same posture that one is accustomed to represent Saint Magdalene; she remained in this state until nine o'clock in the evening, without moving her feet or hands. During this time, which was fourteen hours, she became so inflamed with the sacred fire of divine love, through the consideration of what she hoped for, that, being no longer able to resist it, she ended her life in the midst of these chaste flames, in which she had always lived. And even from the day after her passing, she revealed to a nun of her Order of eminent holiness that she had not died *vi morbi*, by the violence of her illness, but by an ardor and an impetuosity of love whose vehemence she had not been able to bear: *intolerabili divini amoris incendio*, as it is reported in the bull of her canonization. Our Lord honored her, at this last hour, with his dear visit, accompanied by an infinity of angels and glorious souls, and especially the ten thousand martyrs, who had previously promised her to be present there, just as she had declared to the Countess of Ossone, her intimate friend.

She died on the evening of October 4, the year of grace 1582. But as in this year the Roman calendar was reformed by the removal of ten days, so that October 5 became the 15th, one counts as if she had died on the evening of the 14th or the 15th. There were at that very hour striking testimonies of her happiness. A nun saw her soul leave her mouth in the form of a dove of admirable whiteness. Another saw it in the form of a luminous crystal that rose toward heaven. A tree near her cell, which had been dry for a long time and which one had even almost entirely covered with lime and rubble, turned green again and began to bear flowers, although the season opposed it. Her face appeared extremely beautiful and without any wrinkles, although it had had them before. There came from her body a very sweet odor that perfumed the whole room and which was communicated generally to everything that had touched her, even to the hands of those who washed her; which caused them to preserve all her clothes preciously: they were distributed to her monasteries, where they have since been the instrument of several miracles. She herself appeared after her death to several people to make them know the eminent degree of glory to which she had been raised: as to Mother Catherine of Jesus, whom she healed of an abscess in her side, and to one of her religious, a great servant of God, to whom she said: "We who are in heaven, and you who are on earth, must be united by the same spirit of love and purity: we, by seeing the divine essence; you, by adoring the Blessed Sacrament and by rendering to it the same duties that we render to the Divinity: we, by enjoying; you, by suffering. And know, and tell my daughters, that the more you suffer, the more you will enjoy." She had also appeared before her death to one of her nuns in Salamanca to tell her that on the same day she would enter into beatitude.

Her body was buried in the choir of her monastery in Alba, deep in the ground and covered with a large quantity of stones and lime, so that no one would be tempted to have it removed. But, as it continued to emit a very sweet odor, it was exhumed nine months later and found to be entirely intact, even flexible and supple as it had been after her death. Her left hand was cut off and taken to the Discalced Carmelites of Lisbon, where it has performed several miracles and where it is still preserved today. The left arm was left in Alba, and the rest of the body was taken to the monastery of Saint Joseph in Avila on November 24, 1535. But, shortly after, by the command of Sixtus V, it was returned to the convent of Alba de Tormes. This c onvent still p Albe de Tormes Place of the saint's death and the preservation of her body. ossesses the body of Saint Teresa, her heart, and her left arm. The last translation of it took place on October 15, 1760.

This holy body, which remained flexible, exhales a delicious perfume; adorned with rich garments, placed in a silver reliquary, itself enclosed in a jasper tomb built into the very wall of the high altar, thirty feet above the level of the nave, this holy body is visible from all points of the church and seems to be adoring the Blessed Sacrament. Behind the great wall of the high altar are two oratories, one above the other: the upper one is for the Saint's tomb; it is there that the Carmelites kneel before her holy body; the interior contains the heart and the left arm of Saint Teresa. The heart is in a transparent crystal globe supported by a magnificent reliquary. One can notice the wound made by the angel. Father Bouix, who had the good fortune in 1849 to hold this sacred heart in his hands and to venerate it, also attests that a heavenly odor exhales from it.

A letter that the Secretary to the Bishop of Avila did us the honor of writing to us in 1859 confirms the preceding details and adds: "For my part, and as attested by records kept in the archives of this bishopric, I can affirm to you that in the past an oily liquid, undoubtedly endowed with marvelous virtues, oozed or flowed from the body of Saint Teresa."

The Saint's arm is enclosed in a thick but transparent crystal tube, curved slightly at the elbow. From the shoulder to the elbow, the flesh was removed and distributed as relics in various parts of the world. The forearm is intact; it is large and beautiful; the flesh appears vivid and flexible; and, although the crystal has no opening, this holy relic, like that of the heart, exhales a completely heavenly odor.

In 1615, one of her feet was transferred to Rome and placed in the convent of Santa Maria della Scala, where Popes Paul V and Gregory XV paid it great honors. Subsequently, Elisabeth of France, wife of Philip IV, King of Spain, obtained a finger from the hand; and, having had it encased in a gold reliquary, she presented it to her mother, Queen Marie de' Medici, who gave it to the monastery of the Incarnation of the Carmelites of Paris.

The Carmelites of Paris still have, besides the middle finger of the right hand of their holy mother, quite notable relics of her flesh; finally, they possess her mantle, brought in 1404 by the six Spanish Carmelites who came to found the first monastery of Discalced Carmelites in France.

The Carmel of Brussels is in possession of the fifth finger. The Carmelites of Brussels also possess another beautiful relic of Saint Teresa: a collarbone.

The index finger of this same hand is found at the convent of Regina Coeli in Rome. One of her fingers is venerated in the Carmelite monastery of Seville. The left hand is at the Carmel of Lisbon.

God wished to glorify the birthplace of Saint Teresa; it is today one of the most beautiful sanctuaries of Carmel. A church and a monastery of Discalced Carmelites stand where the ancient dwelling of the Cepedas once was. In the plan of the church, the apartment where the Saint was born, and the one she inhabited for nearly fifteen years, have been respected. They form a small sanctuary enclosed within the large one, and which is located next to the chapel of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. It is in this asylum, sanctified by her birth and her stay, that the Carmelites preserve the relics they possess of their glorious foundress. These relics are: 1st, a finger of the right hand; 2nd, her rosary; 3rd, an alpargate or sandal; 4th, the staff she used on her travels. One also sees, next to the door, a cross of four to five feet, made with the wood of the apartment where the Saint was born. Day and night, lamps burn in this sanctuary; every morning, the adorable sacrifice is offered there, and prayer rises incessantly toward heaven.

The birthplace of Saint Teresa escaped destruction during the revolutionary turmoil; but today there are only three secularized Carmelites who watch over its guard. They were left the church, a few cells, and the cloister; the rest of the monastery was taken from them.

At the beginning of the 18th century, the Reformed Carmelites of Spain and Italy having asked the Holy See for the institution of a special feast to honor the wound made by the angel in the heart of their holy foundress, Pope Benedict XIII acceded to their request, and granted, on May 25, 1726, to the religious men and women of the Reformed Carmel an office proper for the feast of the Transverberation of the heart of Saint Teresa. This office initially contained only the prayer and the lessons; but later the same Sovereign Pontiff permitted a full Mass and office for this feast.

This office is recited even by the Carmelites of the Common Observance, and all of Spain has adopted it.

Benedict XIV, in his brief *Dominici gregis*, of August 8, 1744, granted in perpetuity a plenary indulgence to all the faithful who would visit the churches of Carmel from the first Vespers of the Transverberation until sunset on the day of the feast, which is celebrated on the 27th of August. It is true that this brief speaks only of the Spanish congregation of Carmelites; but Clement VIII, in his bull *In apostolicae dignitatis culmine*, of November 13, 1600, having granted the Italian congregation participation in all privileges, indulgences, etc., granted or to be granted to the Spanish congregation, it is clear that the entire Carmel enjoys this favor of Benedict XIV.

Pope Paul V beatified her in 1614, and Pope Gregory XV canonized her in 1622. The Church celebrates her office as a double by the command of Pope Clement IX. Spain adopted her as its patroness and protectress, after the apostle Saint James the Greater; and France, which had made her shed so many tears in order to maintain the Catholic faith there when it was exposed to the fury of the Calvinists, showed itself perfectly grateful for this grace by receiving her religious in Paris in 1604 and her religious men in the year 1610 by the recommendation of Pope Paul V. Her Order has since extended extremely throughout this country, where, among the great fruits it produces, it maintains and increases devotion toward the Blessed Sacrament, the Blessed Virgin, and the glorious patriarch Saint Joseph.

The works of Saint Teresa are: 1st, her Life, written by herself; 2nd, her Letters, numbering more than two hundred; 3rd, the Manner of visiting monasteries; 4th, the History of her foundations; 5th, Advices to her Nuns; 6th, the Way of Perfection; 7th, the Interior Castle; 8th, her Thoughts on the Love of God; 9th, her Meditations on the Pater; 10th, a Canticle or ode after communion; 11th, Meditations after communion.

Her letters offer all genres of epistolary style le Château de l'âme Major work by Teresa on the interior life. embellished by the charms of cheerfulness. It is everywhere a beauty of heart, a tender, generous, and strong soul that knows neither ingratitude nor the perfidy of men. The Book of her foundations reveals a mind consummate in the art of governing. Her Way of Perfection and her Interior Castle bring to light all that one can imagine of elevation of thought, grandeur of sentiment, warmth of style, and high and divine contemplation.

The best translation of the works of Saint Teresa is that of Fr. Bouix, of the Society of Jesus. 6 vol. in-8°.

The life and eulogy of Saint Teresa were written by the Bishop of Terracina; by Francisco de Ribera; by Fr. John of Jesus-Mary and by Fr. Hilarion de Coute. We have completed Fr. Giry with the Life of Saint Teresa, translated by Fr. Bouix, of the Society of Jesus.

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SAINT CANNAT,

BISHOP OF MARSEILLE AND CONFESSOR (c. 487).

Saint Cannat was the son of a prince of Provence. The grace of God inspired in him early on a distaste for the things of this world. That is why, abandoning the society of men, he retired into solitude, to occupy himself only with God. But it was in vain that he hid himself; his virtue was too brilliant not to attract the gaze of all the inhabitants of Provence, and in particular those of the city of Marseille. At the same time, this city lost its first pastor. To obtain another, it addressed supplications to God, who inspired it with the thought of electing Cannat, and of sending to his solitude to pray him to accept the election made by the people. The humble monk, who fled even the presence of men, refused to ascend to such a high dignity. As the envoys insisted that he accept, he happened to reply that there was no more appearance of him ever yielding to their instances than there was of a withered reed ever turning green again. These words were barely pronounced when the reed that the solitary held in his hand became covered with greenery. At the sight of such a clear and admirable manifestation of the divine will, Cannat changed his resolution and obeyed the order from above. He governed his Church with all the solicitude and success that had been hoped for. He repaired, says the author of his life poetically, the walls of the tower of David; defended his people against the poison and intrigues of heresy; fortified souls, and restored the ruins of the sanctuary. When he had most holily ruled the church of Marseille for a small number of years, he flew into the bosom of God, all shining with the brilliance of miracles, around the year 487.

His body was buried in his desert of Sauzet, which from then on took the name of Saint-Cannat: but soon it was returned to his Church and deposited under the high altar of the cathedral of Saint Mary.

When the days of the Terror came, there were fervent Christians in Marseille who took care of the relics of Saint Cannat. In 1804, after verification of their authenticity, they were entrusted to M. Nicolas, first pastor of the parish of Saint-Vincent de Paul in Marseille. — In 1858, Bishop de Mazenod, wishing to revive the ancient solemnity of the translation of the relics of Saint Cannat, fixed the anniversary of this translation to the second Sunday after Easter, so that it would be celebrated each year with an octave.

The precious remains of Saint Cannat were placed in a Gothic reliquary of great beauty, more than two meters high, a gift of the generous piety of the faithful of the parish of Saint-Vincent de Paul.

Proper of Marseille and Local Notes.