Mothers and Daughters: Sisters in God
The next two foundations had the distinguishing characteristic of mothers and daughters providing for them, unwittingly in the case of Alba, while in the case of the foundation in Segovia a mother and her daughter both entered the monastery and later served there as prioresses.
Flowers and a Vision of St. Andrew: Alba de Tormes
“These are children other than those you desire.”Teresa de Layz was the fifth daughter of noble parents. After having her baptized, her parents left her in a room alone all day to die, because they had wanted a boy. A woman who was caring for the baby came at night, took the child into her arms and asked, “How is it, my daughter, are you not a Christian?” The baby “lifted her head and answered, Yes, I am (Foundations 20:4).” After hearing of this event, which some other women had witnessed, her mother began to feel great love and tenderness for Teresa, and cared for her as she did for the others, raising her with high moral standards and virtue and often asking herself, what will God do with this child?
When the time came to marry, a husband named Francisco Velasquez was chosen for Teresa. Although she did not want to marry, and had never even seen him, she agreed to the marriage upon hearing his name alone. He was a virtuous man of great discretion and wealth who served for many years as the administrator of the University of Salamanca. He loved his wife and the two were united in their desire to serve the Lord and to have children, but that blessing was not granted to them.
After many years of prayer for the intercession of St. Andrew, Teresa had a dream where she saw a certain house in a field with many beautiful white flowers. A distinguished and handsome man stood near the well and spoke to her: “These are children other than those you desire (Foundations 20:7).” Believing that the dream was prophetic, and the man in the dream was St. Andrew, Teresa convinced her husband that, since they could not have children, they should found a monastery. He agreed.
They bought a house in Alba, but Teresa at first was not satisfied with the house because it did not have enough rooms; however, the next morning when she walked out onto the patio she saw the well and the place just as they had appeared in the dream. They bought more houses nearby, so as to increase the land, and began making plans for a monastery.
Teresa “wanted the nuns to be few and strictly enclosed (Foundations 20:11)” but was uncertain as to which Order. She and her husband consulted with two religious men in the area, who both advised them to give up the idea because “nuns were usually unhappy (Foundations 20:11).” Considering the counsel of these men to be worthy, the couple decided to give the estate to a nephew and niece who would marry.
Within a few days after making this decision, the nephew, though still young, became ill and died. Teresa grew more and more convinced that God wanted a monastery there. Once again, it was a Franciscan friar who directed her to St. Teresa, and eventually Teresa and her husband moved into a different house and gave theirs to the Carmelite nuns, who named the monastery for Our Lady of the Annunciation. The foundation was made on the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul in 1571 with an income provided by Teresa and her husband Francisco Velasquez.
Lawsuits with Mercedarians and Angry Vicars: SegoviaIt was our Lord Himself Who asked Teresa to make a foundation in Segovia. She wrote to the apostolic commissary, Pedro Fernandez, who had ordered her to stop making foundations. Saint Teresa was surprised at how quickly he granted the permission. Working from Salamanca, where she was still residing, she rented a house. She had learned from experience that it was better to rent a house first and then after the foundation was made to look for a house to buy, especially since she had no money and depended much on contributions that came in after the foundations were made.
A widow named Doña Ana de Jimena had wanted to be a nun before she married. She purchased a house for the Sisters and provided all that was needed and afterward both she and a daughter entered there, taking the names Ana of Jesus and Maria of the Incarnation. Both served as prioress at different times.
On the feast of St. Joseph, they reserved the Blessed Sacrament, taking possession of the house in this way. They had the permission of the bishop, but not in writing, thinking it was not necessary. Much time had passed because, as St. Teresa said, she did not have the Father General of the Order (Fr. Juan-Baptist Rossi) as a superior at that time, but the apostolic commissary. When the vicar general heard the foundation had been made he was very angry. He forbade the Mass and wanted to imprison Fr. John of the Cross, who was there. He even placed a guard at the door of the church, but St. Teresa assure us that she was not frightened.
St. Teresa sent some people to speak with the vicar general and to tell him that they had the bishop’s permission, although not in writing. He told them afterward that he had known this, but he had wanted them to inform him first before coming. Interestingly, St. Teresa writes, “I believe that had we done so, things would have been much worse (Foundations 22:8).” He agreed to let them stay, but removed the Blessed Sacrament. After several months, the Sisters bought a different house, but here, also, they had a lawsuits with the Mercedarians (a religious community) and with the cathedral chapel, and even with some Franciscan friars, because they thought the house was too close to their own. St. Teresa wrote, “When the litigation seemed to be over, it would begin anew because it wasn’t enough to give them what they asked for; there was at once some other difficulty (Foundations 22:9).” After giving large sums of money, providentially all of the lawsuits ended just before her return to the Incarnation Monastery in Avila for an election after her three-year term as prioress.
St. Teresa mentions a man named Antonio Gaytan from Alba, a layman who helped the nuns and who came with her to Segovia. Also, the nephew of the bishop, and the licentiate, a man named Herrera, did what they could during this difficult foundation.
Three Franciscas, Conflicts of Obedience and Melancholy: The Foundation in Caravaca
The foundations at Beas and Seville followed the foundation in Segovia. Another foundation, at Caravaca in far southeastern Spain, was in the works while St. Teresa was still in Beas. Three young ladies who had heard a sermon by a Father Leiva, one of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) and had heard through him of the new Carmelites of the primitive Rule, began living an enclosed life in the house of a lady in Caravaca. They wrote to St. Teresa, begging her to establish a foundation there. She was not enthused about the project because of the great distance and bad roads required to get to that town and also because the young women were already enclosed although they were not yet nuns. However, in obedience to Fr. Gracián, who was her superior at that time, she sent her reliable friends Fr. Julian of Avila and Antonio Gaytán to Caravaca to inspect the situation. They were so impressed by the devotion of these three, all with the name Francisca, that they agreed to the license and wanted to begin the foundation immediately.
However there was, as usual, a snag. The license had been obtained under the jurisdiction of the Knights of Santiago (St. James), who had ecclesiastical authority in that area. St. Teresa could not accept this since, as she wrote, they belonged to the Carmelites of the Blessed Virgin of the Primitive Rule. She wrote to the king himself, Philip II, to obtain a license, which was granted, and several nuns were brought from Malagon to Seville for the foundation in Caravaca.
It is worth quoting here St. Teresa’s own words in praise of King Philip II: “The king is so fond of favoring religious who he knows are faithful to their profession that once he had learned of the manner of life in these monasteries and that we follow the primitive rule, he favored us in everything. And thus, daughters, I beg you that special prayer be always offered for his majesty, as is done by us now (Foundations 27:6).”
St. Teresa was ordered by Fr. Gracián to go to Seville. The foundation in Seville, with its many trials, took all her attention for the next several months, despite the many letters sent to her by the distressed women in Caravaca. She did, however, send Antonio Gaytán to “put up the turn and the grille in the house where the nuns were to live until finding another suitable one. This was the house of Rodrigo de Moya who … was the father of one of these ladies, and very willingly allowed them to use a part of his house (Foundations 27:5).”
Finally, almost a year later, Fr. Gracián ordered the nuns still waiting in Seville to go to Caravaca. They were received with great joy by the town and especially by the enclosed women. They reserved the Blessed Sacrament and established the foundation on January 1st of 1576, the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. Two of the three enclosed women took the habit immediately, but Francisca de Saojosa, who was suffering from melancholy, did not join them until over two years later.
The problem of melancholy, or depression, in the enclosed life is a subject on which St. Teresa offers much advice. Possibly due to the nature of the discipline, the extreme enclosure with its emphasis on the “death” of all natural joys, separation from the activity of family and friends, intensive self-introspection, repentance and penance, the women who are called to this life are particularly subject to the darkness of spiritual aridity and long periods of trial, and may be victims of melancholia. It could also be caused by an unresolved psychological conflict. A true calling is characterized by inner joy and fortitude, both fruits of the Holy Spirit, and a closeness to Jesus that permeates their days and nights with prayer and transformation through suffering. It is a Cross-centered spirituality.
However, at the same time, melancholia is a natural disorder that can attack even the strongest soul during times of intensive trial, even if she is not naturally disposed to sadness. In both The Way of Perfection and Interior Castle, St. Teresa counsels the prioresses to deal firmly with melancholics who are disruptive to the community, whereas others who are gentle and harmless souls she says should be treated with patience and kindness.
In May and June of 1575, a general chapter of the Order, led by Father General Rubeo, was held in Italy. St. Teresa was ordered to retire to a monastery in Castile and to cease her work of foundations. Exactly who commanded this is unclear, but the Saint herself writes that these were both joyful and very painful circumstances for her because, as she writes, “And what was worse and made me sad was that our Father General was displeased with me, without any reason at all, because of information given by biased persons (Foundations 27:20).” She writes that two other “serious calumnies” were raised against her. Although the displeasure of her superior Father Rubeo caused her much anguish, because she loved him very much as a daughter and servant who had carried out his command to make as many foundations as possible, and had always rejoiced in his letters of approval, nevertheless she writes that “these calumnies not only failed to make me sad but gave me so great an accidental joy that I could not restrain myself. … I don’t know the reason, for this has never happened to me in all the great criticism and opposition I have received. Moreover, one of the two calumnies spoken against me was most serious. But the command not to make foundations – aside from the displeasure of our Most Reverend Father General – brought me great tranquility and was what I was often desiring: to end my days in quiet. But this was not what those who had devised this were intending. They wanted to inflict on me the greatest sorrow in the world, and perhaps they may have had other good intentions (Foundations 27:20).”
Because of the command to stop making foundations, St. Teresa thought that the foundation at Caravaca would be the last. It also marks the beginning of a great persecution on the part of the calced Fathers in their attempt to stop the reform. She finished what she thought was her last writing on the foundations in November of 1576 while residing in the monastery of Toledo. In her final paragraphs, she expounds on the need to be faithful to the good beginnings of the Order, asking for God’s blessing: “May He protect and favor us so that this excellent beginning, which He was pleased to initiate in women as miserable as we, may not be lost through our weakness. In His name I beg you, my daughters and Sisters, that you always ask for this and that each one who enters in the future bear in mind that with her the observance of the primitive rule of the Order of the Virgin, our Lady, begins again and that she must in no way consent to any mitigation. Consider that through very little things the door is opened to very big things, and that without your realizing it the world will start entering your lives. Remember the poverty and hardship that was undergone in obtaining what you now quietly enjoy. If you note carefully you will see that in part these houses, most of them, have not been founded by men but by the powerful hand of God and that His Majesty is very fond of advancing the work He accomplishes provided we cooperate. From where do you think a useless woman like me, subject to obedience, without even a penny, with no-one to help me in any way, could get the power for such great works (Foundations 27:11)?”
Flowers and a Vision of St. Andrew: Alba de Tormes
“These are children other than those you desire.”Teresa de Layz was the fifth daughter of noble parents. After having her baptized, her parents left her in a room alone all day to die, because they had wanted a boy. A woman who was caring for the baby came at night, took the child into her arms and asked, “How is it, my daughter, are you not a Christian?” The baby “lifted her head and answered, Yes, I am (Foundations 20:4).” After hearing of this event, which some other women had witnessed, her mother began to feel great love and tenderness for Teresa, and cared for her as she did for the others, raising her with high moral standards and virtue and often asking herself, what will God do with this child?
When the time came to marry, a husband named Francisco Velasquez was chosen for Teresa. Although she did not want to marry, and had never even seen him, she agreed to the marriage upon hearing his name alone. He was a virtuous man of great discretion and wealth who served for many years as the administrator of the University of Salamanca. He loved his wife and the two were united in their desire to serve the Lord and to have children, but that blessing was not granted to them.
After many years of prayer for the intercession of St. Andrew, Teresa had a dream where she saw a certain house in a field with many beautiful white flowers. A distinguished and handsome man stood near the well and spoke to her: “These are children other than those you desire (Foundations 20:7).” Believing that the dream was prophetic, and the man in the dream was St. Andrew, Teresa convinced her husband that, since they could not have children, they should found a monastery. He agreed.
They bought a house in Alba, but Teresa at first was not satisfied with the house because it did not have enough rooms; however, the next morning when she walked out onto the patio she saw the well and the place just as they had appeared in the dream. They bought more houses nearby, so as to increase the land, and began making plans for a monastery.
Teresa “wanted the nuns to be few and strictly enclosed (Foundations 20:11)” but was uncertain as to which Order. She and her husband consulted with two religious men in the area, who both advised them to give up the idea because “nuns were usually unhappy (Foundations 20:11).” Considering the counsel of these men to be worthy, the couple decided to give the estate to a nephew and niece who would marry.
Within a few days after making this decision, the nephew, though still young, became ill and died. Teresa grew more and more convinced that God wanted a monastery there. Once again, it was a Franciscan friar who directed her to St. Teresa, and eventually Teresa and her husband moved into a different house and gave theirs to the Carmelite nuns, who named the monastery for Our Lady of the Annunciation. The foundation was made on the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul in 1571 with an income provided by Teresa and her husband Francisco Velasquez.
Lawsuits with Mercedarians and Angry Vicars: SegoviaIt was our Lord Himself Who asked Teresa to make a foundation in Segovia. She wrote to the apostolic commissary, Pedro Fernandez, who had ordered her to stop making foundations. Saint Teresa was surprised at how quickly he granted the permission. Working from Salamanca, where she was still residing, she rented a house. She had learned from experience that it was better to rent a house first and then after the foundation was made to look for a house to buy, especially since she had no money and depended much on contributions that came in after the foundations were made.
A widow named Doña Ana de Jimena had wanted to be a nun before she married. She purchased a house for the Sisters and provided all that was needed and afterward both she and a daughter entered there, taking the names Ana of Jesus and Maria of the Incarnation. Both served as prioress at different times.
On the feast of St. Joseph, they reserved the Blessed Sacrament, taking possession of the house in this way. They had the permission of the bishop, but not in writing, thinking it was not necessary. Much time had passed because, as St. Teresa said, she did not have the Father General of the Order (Fr. Juan-Baptist Rossi) as a superior at that time, but the apostolic commissary. When the vicar general heard the foundation had been made he was very angry. He forbade the Mass and wanted to imprison Fr. John of the Cross, who was there. He even placed a guard at the door of the church, but St. Teresa assure us that she was not frightened.
St. Teresa sent some people to speak with the vicar general and to tell him that they had the bishop’s permission, although not in writing. He told them afterward that he had known this, but he had wanted them to inform him first before coming. Interestingly, St. Teresa writes, “I believe that had we done so, things would have been much worse (Foundations 22:8).” He agreed to let them stay, but removed the Blessed Sacrament. After several months, the Sisters bought a different house, but here, also, they had a lawsuits with the Mercedarians (a religious community) and with the cathedral chapel, and even with some Franciscan friars, because they thought the house was too close to their own. St. Teresa wrote, “When the litigation seemed to be over, it would begin anew because it wasn’t enough to give them what they asked for; there was at once some other difficulty (Foundations 22:9).” After giving large sums of money, providentially all of the lawsuits ended just before her return to the Incarnation Monastery in Avila for an election after her three-year term as prioress.
St. Teresa mentions a man named Antonio Gaytan from Alba, a layman who helped the nuns and who came with her to Segovia. Also, the nephew of the bishop, and the licentiate, a man named Herrera, did what they could during this difficult foundation.
Three Franciscas, Conflicts of Obedience and Melancholy: The Foundation in Caravaca
The foundations at Beas and Seville followed the foundation in Segovia. Another foundation, at Caravaca in far southeastern Spain, was in the works while St. Teresa was still in Beas. Three young ladies who had heard a sermon by a Father Leiva, one of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) and had heard through him of the new Carmelites of the primitive Rule, began living an enclosed life in the house of a lady in Caravaca. They wrote to St. Teresa, begging her to establish a foundation there. She was not enthused about the project because of the great distance and bad roads required to get to that town and also because the young women were already enclosed although they were not yet nuns. However, in obedience to Fr. Gracián, who was her superior at that time, she sent her reliable friends Fr. Julian of Avila and Antonio Gaytán to Caravaca to inspect the situation. They were so impressed by the devotion of these three, all with the name Francisca, that they agreed to the license and wanted to begin the foundation immediately.
However there was, as usual, a snag. The license had been obtained under the jurisdiction of the Knights of Santiago (St. James), who had ecclesiastical authority in that area. St. Teresa could not accept this since, as she wrote, they belonged to the Carmelites of the Blessed Virgin of the Primitive Rule. She wrote to the king himself, Philip II, to obtain a license, which was granted, and several nuns were brought from Malagon to Seville for the foundation in Caravaca.
It is worth quoting here St. Teresa’s own words in praise of King Philip II: “The king is so fond of favoring religious who he knows are faithful to their profession that once he had learned of the manner of life in these monasteries and that we follow the primitive rule, he favored us in everything. And thus, daughters, I beg you that special prayer be always offered for his majesty, as is done by us now (Foundations 27:6).”
St. Teresa was ordered by Fr. Gracián to go to Seville. The foundation in Seville, with its many trials, took all her attention for the next several months, despite the many letters sent to her by the distressed women in Caravaca. She did, however, send Antonio Gaytán to “put up the turn and the grille in the house where the nuns were to live until finding another suitable one. This was the house of Rodrigo de Moya who … was the father of one of these ladies, and very willingly allowed them to use a part of his house (Foundations 27:5).”
Finally, almost a year later, Fr. Gracián ordered the nuns still waiting in Seville to go to Caravaca. They were received with great joy by the town and especially by the enclosed women. They reserved the Blessed Sacrament and established the foundation on January 1st of 1576, the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. Two of the three enclosed women took the habit immediately, but Francisca de Saojosa, who was suffering from melancholy, did not join them until over two years later.
The problem of melancholy, or depression, in the enclosed life is a subject on which St. Teresa offers much advice. Possibly due to the nature of the discipline, the extreme enclosure with its emphasis on the “death” of all natural joys, separation from the activity of family and friends, intensive self-introspection, repentance and penance, the women who are called to this life are particularly subject to the darkness of spiritual aridity and long periods of trial, and may be victims of melancholia. It could also be caused by an unresolved psychological conflict. A true calling is characterized by inner joy and fortitude, both fruits of the Holy Spirit, and a closeness to Jesus that permeates their days and nights with prayer and transformation through suffering. It is a Cross-centered spirituality.
However, at the same time, melancholia is a natural disorder that can attack even the strongest soul during times of intensive trial, even if she is not naturally disposed to sadness. In both The Way of Perfection and Interior Castle, St. Teresa counsels the prioresses to deal firmly with melancholics who are disruptive to the community, whereas others who are gentle and harmless souls she says should be treated with patience and kindness.
In May and June of 1575, a general chapter of the Order, led by Father General Rubeo, was held in Italy. St. Teresa was ordered to retire to a monastery in Castile and to cease her work of foundations. Exactly who commanded this is unclear, but the Saint herself writes that these were both joyful and very painful circumstances for her because, as she writes, “And what was worse and made me sad was that our Father General was displeased with me, without any reason at all, because of information given by biased persons (Foundations 27:20).” She writes that two other “serious calumnies” were raised against her. Although the displeasure of her superior Father Rubeo caused her much anguish, because she loved him very much as a daughter and servant who had carried out his command to make as many foundations as possible, and had always rejoiced in his letters of approval, nevertheless she writes that “these calumnies not only failed to make me sad but gave me so great an accidental joy that I could not restrain myself. … I don’t know the reason, for this has never happened to me in all the great criticism and opposition I have received. Moreover, one of the two calumnies spoken against me was most serious. But the command not to make foundations – aside from the displeasure of our Most Reverend Father General – brought me great tranquility and was what I was often desiring: to end my days in quiet. But this was not what those who had devised this were intending. They wanted to inflict on me the greatest sorrow in the world, and perhaps they may have had other good intentions (Foundations 27:20).”
Because of the command to stop making foundations, St. Teresa thought that the foundation at Caravaca would be the last. It also marks the beginning of a great persecution on the part of the calced Fathers in their attempt to stop the reform. She finished what she thought was her last writing on the foundations in November of 1576 while residing in the monastery of Toledo. In her final paragraphs, she expounds on the need to be faithful to the good beginnings of the Order, asking for God’s blessing: “May He protect and favor us so that this excellent beginning, which He was pleased to initiate in women as miserable as we, may not be lost through our weakness. In His name I beg you, my daughters and Sisters, that you always ask for this and that each one who enters in the future bear in mind that with her the observance of the primitive rule of the Order of the Virgin, our Lady, begins again and that she must in no way consent to any mitigation. Consider that through very little things the door is opened to very big things, and that without your realizing it the world will start entering your lives. Remember the poverty and hardship that was undergone in obtaining what you now quietly enjoy. If you note carefully you will see that in part these houses, most of them, have not been founded by men but by the powerful hand of God and that His Majesty is very fond of advancing the work He accomplishes provided we cooperate. From where do you think a useless woman like me, subject to obedience, without even a penny, with no-one to help me in any way, could get the power for such great works (Foundations 27:11)?”