CHAPTER XLII

Treats of the final words of the Pater Noster : “ But deliver us
from evil. Amen.” .......

PAGE

278

286

INTRODUCTION.

The convent of St. Joseph at Avila having been
inaugurated on August 24, 1562, and the storms
occasioned by its foundation having somewhat
subsided, St. Teresa received permission from the
Provincial, Fray Angel de Salazar, to leave the
monastery of the Incarnation and join her new
community ; she crossed the threshold of that
“ Paradise,'' as our Lord had vouchsafed to call
it, about Mid-Lent 1563, never to leave the
enclosure again — as she fervently hoped. She
did not know then that God had destined her to
more arduous work which would compel her to
sally forth and establish convent after convent
in distant parts of Spain. Her sojourn at St.
Joseph's only lasted four and a half years, but,
as she says, it was the happiest time of her life.
The convent was small and poor, the observance
as strict as human nature, strengthened by grace,
can bear, but she enjoyed to the full the peace
which, after the many struggles graphically
described in the Life^ had at length been granted
her.

The visitor who has the privilege of penetrating

XXIV

INTRODUCTION.

into the hallowed enclosure will have to recon-
struct in his mind the convent as it was in St.
Teresa's time. The handsome church was not
yet begun, and what is now called the primitive
chapel was in reality built at a later period,
though undoubtedly on the original lines. For
even now it is only about twelve paces long and
eight paces wide, and the sanctuary, the sacristy,
and the nuns’ choir are of diminutive proportions.
The main building of the convent, in the shape
of a quadrangle, is likewise a later addition : in
the Saint’s time a few old and small houses served
for a convent, and the kitchen, the refectory, and
other dependencies being on a lower level than
the surrounding land, were both dark and damp.
There were then no lay sisters to do the house-
work. The few choir nuns took it in turns to see
to the washing, the scrubbing, the service in
kitchen and scullery, and Teresa, who had been
nominated Prioress by the Bishop, and retained
that office until her death (employing a Vicaress
during her prolonged absences), took her share,
and more than her share, in the common work.
Never was the convent so scrupulously clean as
when it was her turn to do the scrubbing. Never
was the food so tasty as when she did the kitchen,
though she might have been seen in an ecstasy,
saucepan in hand. The Divine Office was per-
formed with a devotion and a refinement which
were at once a source of edification for the faithful

INTRODUCTION.

XXV

and a revelation to the clerics who came to assist
at it.

The convent was unendowed, and voluntary
alms were anything but abundant ; so the nuns
spent long hours in spinning in order to earn their
livelihood, and we know that Teresa herself was
busy with the distaff, not only when alone in her
cell but also when in the parlour with visitors.
How, after all that, there remained any time for
anything else is a wonder ; but the fact is that
during these four and a half years she did find
the time to write two works which have brought
light and peace into the hearts of thousands.
She had been advised by Don Francisco Soto y
Salazar, the Grand Inquisitor, to write a full
history of her life, and to send it to Blessed
Juan d’ Avila, the man who, since the death of St.
Peter of Alcantara, was better able than anybody
in Spain to judge about spiritual experiences.
She began it probably soon after having taken up
her residence at St. Joseph’s, and completed it in
May or June, or, at the latest, in the course of the
summer of 1565. The place where she wrote this
marvellous work is still shown to the visitor. The
cell inhabited by her has been left exactly as she
left it herself when last she bade farewell to the
convent. With the exception of a bed it con-
tains no furniture : no table to put her books on,
no chair to sit on. When writing she knelt or
sat on the floor, the paper lying on a small

XXVI

INTRODUCTION.

projection of the wall in the window recess. Glass
windows would have been too great a luxury for
St. Joseph’s convent ; instead of these the nuns
used canvas fixed in a frame and fastened in the
open window. Had it not been for the fire
burning within her, her fingers must have been
numbed during the long evenings in cold Avila
when she was writing, at a prodigious speed, at a
window practically open.

The sisters, though perhaps free from inquisi-
tiveness, could not have helped noticing how much
their saintly Prioress was writing, and no doubt
were told she was composing a work on prayer.
Prayer being the very object for which they had
joined her, and, at the same time, a subject on
which careful and detailed instruction is required,
no less than on the most recondite science, they
were naturally anxious to read that work. There
is so much in it that concerns any one desirous of
doing more than merely repeat a set form of
prayers. They lived a life of prayer, and they
required a guiding hand. However, besides the
incomparable treatise on the various phases of the
contemplative life, it contains much that is in-
tensely personal, and if Teresa was always anxious
to lay bare her innermost soul before those who
held the place of God in her respect, she was by
no means willing to make known to the world, at
least during her life-time, the wonderful graces
showered on her. As to her failings and short-

INTRODUCTION.

XXVll

comings, she was more than ready to proclaim
them, even in exaggerated terms ; but Divine
favours — no ! least of all to those over whom she
exercised superiority : before these she only de-
lighted in humbling herself.

However, the nuns would not be put off ; they
appealed to the confessor, Fray Domingo Bahez,
who commanded the Prioress to write one more
book, embodying the homely instructions she was
wont to give her daughters. An order coming
from God’s representative always found ready com-
pliance on her part. Thus, no sooner was the Life
completed than she took up her pen once more.

Not much reflection was required about tfle title
of the new work. “ The Way of Perfection ”
was a favourite expression of the Saint’s. She
found it in the Imitation of Christ ^ “ Hence

it comes to pass that I recognise the way of
perfection ” ; and also in one of the Meditations
of St. Peter of Alcantara ^ But the servant
of God that expecteth merit and comfort in the
way of perfection,” while she herself had re-
peatedly used it in the Life : “ Some of them

began to walk in the way of perfection ^ it
requires greater courage in one not yet perfect to
walk in the way of perfection ” ; '‘I cannot

understand what it is that makes men afraid of

1 Imitation, bk. iii. ch. Iv. 3.

2 Meditations of St. Peter of Alcantara, translated by Giles
Willoughby, p. 199 (Liverpool, 1843).

® Life, ch. xxi. 9 ; xxxi. 19 ; xxxv. 14.

xxviii INTRODUCTION.

the way of perfection.” It is not the way of
the perfect ” of which the Imitation speaks in
another place/ but the road that leads to perfec-
tion. Although she never grew tired of praising
the perfection of the few nuns gathered around
her/ she could not but foresee that others, less ad-
vanced, might come in the future, and she desired
to address herself to these no less than to the
former. This was all the more necessary as there
appears to have been a slight misunderstanding
about the title of the newly established Reform.
St. Teresa called herself and her nuns “ Dis-
calced,” following in this the example of some
other Orders- which had been lately reformed and
had made barefootedness the distinctive sign of
the reform, so much so that '' barefooted ” and
'' Reformed ” came to be synonymous terms.
But in Rome the new Reform of the Carmelite
Order received a different title. The General,
John Baptist Rubeo, called the Reformed members
of his Order Contemplatives. Thus, in a patent
of 1567 he speaks of houses and monasteries of
contemplative Carmelites,” ^ and again in 1570
he addresses “ the contemplative Carmelites of
the province of Castile.” ^ Both these documents
as well as some others, are of a later date than

^ Imitation, bk. iii. ch. xxxii. 3.

2 Fotmdations, ch. i. iv. sqq.

^ Patent of August i6, 1567 : “ casas y monasterios de Car-

melitas contemplativos."

* Patent of August 8, 1570: '‘ad Carmelitas contemplativos
pvovincicB Castellw”

INTRODUCTION.

XXXI

only refer to France. On the other hand, it must
be taken for certain that the book was finished
before the visit of the General, in April 1567,
which led to the foundation of the convent at
Medina del Campo and others, and was a land-
mark in her life ; she would certainly have
mentioned it, had she then been engaged on the
Way of Perfection. She says more than once
that her confessor, Dominic Bahez, was to examine
the book before it could be placed into the hands
of the nuns. In fact, both he and Fray Garcia of
Toledo read and approved it, though neither
has left a written approbation, but there is reason
to believe that some passages were deleted by
Bahez. The original manuscript appears to have
remained in the convent of St. Joseph at Avila
until, in 1586, four years after the death of St.
Teresa, it was lent to Fray Luis de Leon, who had
been entrusted with the editing of her works ;
when he had done with it, it was presented to
Philip 11. for the royal monastery of the Escorial,
where it has remained ever since, and where the
present writer was privileged to see it. It is not
in the library, but in a small room where some
other precious manuscripts, as well as certain
relics of saints, are preserved.

But it was not the intention of St. Teresa that
this book should be the exclusive property of
the nuns of St. Joseph's. From August 1567,
when she established the convent at Medina

c

XXXll

INTRODUCTION.

del Campo, until a few months before her death
she was engaged on the foundation of numerous
convents after the pattern of the first ; over a
hundred pious women took the habit of Our Lady
of Mount Carmel and dedicated themselves to a
life of intercession and vicarious suffering. These,
too, stood in need of the instructions contained
in the Way of Perfection not less than of the
regulations laid down in the Rule and Constitutions.
Accordingly, St. Teresa undertook to write the
whole book over again, paying special attention
to the corrections made by the reviser. In addi-
tion to these she introduced many changes, aiming
at greater precision, rearranging whole chapters
and developing some of her thoughts. Neither
the date nor the place where this second edition
was composed can now be ascertained. The
manuscript, with the exception of a few leaves
which have been lost or purloined, is preserved
at the convent of Valladolid ; it is bound in
solid silver, and forms one of the chief treasures
of that convent. This manuscript was repeatedly
copied during the life-time of the Saint. One
copy is at Toledo, another at the convent of El
Pardo, at Madrid, and a third one at Salamanca :
all containing variants in the handwriting of the
Saint, but only the second and third bearing the
signature of St. Teresa, who testifies to their being
faithful copies. One more copy is to be found
in the library of the Escorial, agreeing literally

INTRODUCTION.

XXXlll

with the original of Valladolid. But this prob-
ably was not known to the Saint, and may have
been made after her death. Other convents
may also have procured copies of the book ; but,
if so, these must have been lost.

In a letter to her brother, Don Lorenzo de
Cepeda, dated January 2, 1577, St. Teresa
says : '' The book which treats of the matter of
which I have told you is the one where I explained
the Pater Noster. There you will find considera-
tions on the degree of prayer which you have
reached, although the subject is not so fully
developed as in the other book (the Life). I
think it is in the explanation of these words ;
Adveniat regnum tuum. Read it again, at
least the section on the Pater Noster ; perhaps
you will find something to satisfy you.’’ Thus,
Don Lorenzo must have had access to the work.

But copying a book with the pen was a long
process, and there was always a danger of omis-
sions and changes, which could only be obviated
by having the whole work printed. To this end,
she sent a copy, the one now at Toledo, to Don
Teutonio de Braganza, Archbishop of Evora,
requesting him to make the necessary arrange-
ments. The letter is unfortunately not pre-
served, but in one of July 22, 1579, she says :

Last week I wrote a long letter to your Lordship
sending you my little book ; I will therefore only
write a few words to-day, as I forgot to ask your

XXXIV

INTRODUCTION.

Lordship whether the Life of our Holy Father
Saint Albert (which you will find in the same
volume as my book)^ might be printed together
with the latter. It would be a great consolation
for all of us, for that Life is only to be found in
Latin. ^ It has been translated by a Father of the
Order of St. Dominic, one of the most learned men
we have in our country, and a great servant of
God. He has done it for love of me, not knowing,
however, that it was to be published. He has not
received permission from his Provincial, neither
did he ask for it, but this does not matter much,
provided your Lordship is satisfied with the book
and undertakes its publication.”

Don Teutonio was not quite satisfied with the
manuscript of the Way of Perfection submitted
to him. He returned it to the Saint, who in the
meantime had gone from Valladolid to Salamanca,
where she revised it once more with the assistance
of Sister Hieronyma of the Holy Ghost ; many
passages were recast, and a whole chapter was
omitted.^ Don Teutonio granted the permission

1 St. Albert, Carmelite, born at Trapani, in Sicily, about the
middle of the thirteenth Century, died at Messina, August 7,
1306. His life, written by an anonymous author towards the
end of the fourteenth Century (cf. Analecta Bollandiana, 1898,
vol. xvii. p. 317) was published at Venice in 1499 by Johannes
Maria Polutianus de Novarola. The Spanish translation was
made by Fray Diego de Yangiias.

2 See the new French edition, due to the indefatigable labours
of the Carmelite nuns of Paris, now at Brussels ; CEuvres com-
pletes de Sainte Terese, vol. v. Introduction (Paris, 1910),

INTRODUCTION.

XXXV

for printing the volume on October 7, 1580, but
unforeseen circumstances must have caused a long
delay, for his prefatory letter was only written
in 1582, the book appearing the following year,
after the death of St. Teresa. This first edition
has become exceedingly rare, only three copies
being known to exist. But it was so much appre-
ciated that reprints appeared at Salamanca in
1585 and at Valencia in 1587.^

Meanwhile Fray Luis de Leon had been en-
trusted with the task of editing the complete works
of the Saint. All the manuscripts then available
were placed in his hand, among them the two
autographs and the three copies containing cor-
rections in the Saint’s own handwriting. Taking
the text of Valladolid for his basis, he incorporated
with it many of the variants to be found in the
other sources, so that his edition, which appeared
in 1588, so far from being a reproduction of any
one of the authentic texts, was rather a combina-
tion of all of them. It has been reproduced,
times without number, until recent years ; the
two English translations, by Abraham Woodhead
and his companion, in 1675, and by Canon
Dalton in 1852, have followed it, though the
latter allowed himself to be influenced by the
French translation of Robert Arnauld d’Andilly,
one (though, perhaps, the least dangerous) of the
Jansenist leaders.

^ Ibid. p. 16.

XXXVl

INTRODUCTION.

The merit of having returned to one of the
originals, the manuscript of Valladolid, belongs
to P. Marcel, Bouix, whose French translation
appeared in 1836. In 1883, on the occasion of the
third centenary of the death of the Saint, Don
Francisco Herrera Bayona, treasurer of the Metro-
politan church of Valladolid, undertook the pub-
lication of a photographic reproduction of St.
Teresa’s autograph, as Don Vicente de la Fuente
had already done for the Life and the Book of the
Foundations. He was only allowed to photo-
graph the manuscript of the Escorial, but every
facility was accorded him to prepare a literal
transcript of the one at Valladolid, which he
printed in parallel columns with the transcript
of the former version. Moreover, he confronted
with these texts the three early copies of Toledo,
Madrid, and Salamanca, as well as Don Teutonio’s
edition, adding to the volume a complete apparatus
of variants. This edition has been utilised for
the present translation, which was ready for the
press four years ago, but the publication of which
has been delayed owing to a prolonged absence of
the present writer.

The question which text to follow in this transla-
tion has been carefully discussed by those who
were able to form an opinion. The first idea was
to choose one of the two original versions, and to
supplement it by the variants which would have
been added as foot-notes^ or at least printed in

iNtRObUCTlON. XXXvii

a different style ; but, after various essays, it was
found that such an arrangement would prove
bewildering for the generality of readers, while
the student, who alone can be interested in the
gradual evolution of the text, finds the whole
material in Don Francisco’s edition. It was
therefore decided, though not without reluctance,
to follow the precedent (but not the text) of Luis
de Leon, and to combine once more the various
versions, so that this edition should contain every-
thing written by St. Teresa. There are some
chapters where the divergence between the ver-
sions of the Escorial and of Valladolid are so great
that the translation resembles a mosaic composed
of a large number of small bits, skilfully com-
bined. But the work has been done most con-
scientiously, and while nothing has been added
to the text of the Saint, nothing has been omitted,
except, of course, what would have been mere
repetition. No doubt the plan adopted in this
translation will not meet with the approval of
scholars, but as the translator desired to benefit
the souls of the faithful rather than the intellect
of the student, no other course could have been
chosen. The present writer has repeatedly com-
pared every word with the originals and can vouch
for the accuracy of the translation.

A word must be added about another writing
frequently attributed to St. Teresa, namely, the
Seven Meditations on the Pater Noster, for the

xxxviii

INTRODUCTION.

Days of the Week. This short work appeared
for the first time at Antwerp in 1630 and has been
frequently reprinted and translated into many
languages, including English. But the book is
not by St. Teresa. Not one of her biographers
knew anything about it ; it is never alluded
to either in her correspondence or in the very
numerous and minute depositions made by all
sorts and conditions of persons during the process
of .canonisation, while the Chronicler of the Order
distinctly denies its authenticity, giving good
reasons for his judgment. It is probably the
work of some friar or nun, and deserves respect
owing to the pious sentiments it contains. But
no one acquainted with the style of St. Teresa
could admit its authenticity.

Benedict Zimmerman,

Prior, O.C.D.

St. Luke’s Priory,

WiNCANTON.

October 15, 1910.

THE WAY OF PERFECTION.

I H S.

INTRODUCTION.

Which contains the reasons for writing this book.

The sisters of this convent of St. Joseph, having learnt
that my confessor, Father Master Dominic Banes, of
the glorious Order of St. Dominic, had given me leave
to write about prayer,^ of which I appeared capable,
because of having spoken with so many spiritual and
devout persons, have so importuned me that I have
decided on complying with their wishes. Faulty and
imperfect as my style may be, I know that the sisters’
great love for me will give my words more influence with
them than that of books far better written by those who
have taught me all I know. Therefore I have determined
to yield to the nuns’ wishes and persuasions. I rely upon
their prayers and on humility ; perhaps by these means
God may give me grace to say something useful con-
cerning the life that ought to be led in this house, and

1 Rel. vii. 9. Way of Perf. ch. xlii.

I

2

INTRODUCTION.

helpful to my sisters, and He may teach me, so that
I may teach them.

If I fail. Father Master, who is to read these writings
first, will either correct them or throw them into the fire :
thus I shall have lost nothing by obe5dng the wishes of
these servants of God, and they will discover what I
really am, when His Majesty does not assist me,

1 intend suggesting remedies for certain minor temp-
tations of the devil which, because they are slight, are
often disregarded ; also to explain my object in founding
this house, namely, to restore the perfect observance of
our Rule that had been mitigated elsewhere.* I will
also speak of other matters as our Lord may direct me,
and as they occur to my mind. Not knowing of what
things I shall treat, I cannot arrange them in proper order.
I think, after all, that this is best, as it is quite incongruous
for such a person as myself to speak about such subjects.
May our Lord guide me in all I do, that it may be pleasing
to His holy will, for this has always been my aim, faulty
as my deeds may be !

Certainly, on my part, there is no lack of love for my
sisters, nor of a desire to do all I can to help their souls
to make great progress in God’s service. This affection,
my age, and my personal experience in various convents,
may assist me to write of such lesser matters better
than do learned men, whose more important business and

2 Life, ch. xxxii. 13, 14 ; ch. xxxv. 13, 14 ; ch. xxxvi. 27, 28.

INTRODUCTION.

3

powerful minds make them overlook things, insignificant
in themselves, yet which may do great harm to such
weak creatures as we women are. The devil employs
his miost subtle wiles against strictly cloistered nuns, for
he sees that he requires some new sort of weapon to
injure them. Wicked as I am, I have been able to
defend myself but ill against him, and I wish my sisters
to take warning by me. I shall only speak of what I
have learnt by my own experience, have witnessed in
others, or that God has shown to me during prayer.

A short time ago, I was told to write a history of my
life, in which I have also treated of prayer : as perhaps
my confessor may not permit you to read it, I shall
repeat some of it here, besides adding other things which
I believe are requisite. May God direct my work, as I
have begged of Him, and may He order it all for His
greater glory ! Amen.