P. Salvador Ros García, OCD1
Among the first and best readers of Saint Teresa, both concerning her writings – even before they were published – and regarding her soul – that other book, which her inner teacher2 wrote in, until it transformed into a living text: 'Many things that I write here are not from my head, but this my heavenly Teacher told me' (Life 39,8; 14,8; 23,1)3 – should be mentioned Saint John of the Cross, the first discalced Carmelite; the one who lived in her proximity the longest; the only one who experienced her teaching; the one who truly came to know the hidden secrets of her soul; the one who could guide her to the highest experiences of her mystical journey; the one who later systematized these experiences and who – generally speaking – cared the most about her and fully identified with the flight of her spirit.
And it is precisely this type of reading, which is not merely superficial or driven by curiosity (like the reading of a mere spectator who reads things from the outside), but rather perceiving from within, involving oneself in an empathetic manner, where the reader becomes a genuine participant and co-author of the text, that we aim to demonstrate in this lecture. We will present it to you in a narrative form, as if it were a film, following the usual tripartite structure (setup, conflict, and resolution), even using the technique of flash-back, meaning that we will start with the conclusion, anticipating the final shot, so that we may be able to take a retrospective look right from the start.
The shot we will present to our sight, and with which we will begin this virtual film, is the view of Brother John of the Cross, reading the first edition of Mother Teresa's works, prepared by Brother Louis of León and published in Salamanca in the mid-year 1588, six years after the saint's death. This beautiful volume was dedicated by the superiors of the Order to Empress Maria Austria "as the most precious gem we possess" and became a true bestseller, as it was published three times in less than sixteen months.4
As is known, the famous first edition of Teresa's writings was formally presented as a trilogy: The Book of Life, The Way of Perfection, and The Interior Castle, each of these works supplemented with a series of short texts. As additions to The Book of Life, the editor attached about twenty excerpts from Spiritual Relations, including the description of the spiritual marriage, that is, the event that took place in Ávila on November 18, 1572, after the saint received the Eucharist from the hands of Brother John of the Cross (compare R 34).5
Let us now imagine the surprise of John of the Cross when he reads this Teresian passage and sees his name printed in the text, the name of the only discalced Carmelite explicitly mentioned in the first edition!6 Even though there are other, more hidden references to John of the Cross in the first edition, we can now return to this explicit and significant one and begin the chronological sequence of the film.
1. Setup: The First Years (1567–1572)
Everything began with a meeting, a providential meeting in Medina del Campo at the end of August 1567, when “it happened that a young father, who was studying in Salamanca, arrived there” (Life 3,17). She, Mother Teresa, was then fifty-two years old; he, Brother John, twenty-five (that is, the same digits, just in reversed order). Besides arriving in Medina to establish her second convent and thus to spread the Reform, she was also searching for young candidates willing to start a project among the brothers similar to that which was spreading among the nuns, and she had written permissions for founding from General Rubea.7 Brother John, recently ordained a priest, arrived in Medina to celebrate his first Mass, but in a state of unrest regarding his vocation, as he was tempted to escape to the Carthusians.
It was precisely at this providential meeting with the young first-mass priest that Mother Teresa learned of his Carthusian decision: “I learned that he wanted to go to the Carthusians.” She herself describes how she persuaded John for her project: “When I spoke with him, I was very pleased. I told him what I intended to do, and I earnestly asked him to wait until the Lord gave us a convent, and how great a good it would be if he could perfect himself and remain in his own Order, and how much more he would serve the Lord by this” (Life 3,17). Brother John agreed, “He gave me his word that he would do so, just as long as it wouldn't take too long. When I saw that I had at least two brothers for a start, it seemed to me as if the whole matter was already settled, even though I was still not completely satisfied with the prior, so I waited a while, just to have a place to start” (ibidem).8 In the meantime, Brother John returned to Salamanca and enrolled at the university as a theology student, well aware that he would not complete this ecclesiastical career.
At the end of this first theology course, the only one he completed in Salamanca (the future teacher of the Church left Salamanca without having achieved the lowest title of bachelor!), Brother John returned to Medina to discuss matters of the Reform with Mother Teresa. She wanted to introduce him to “our way of behaving”, and therefore on August 9, 1568, she took him with her to the foundation in Valladolid, so that he could closely see the new lifestyle, at that time still without enclosure, as the house was being adjusted, and “to know well all things, both in terms of mortification and in terms of the style of sisterhood and recreation that we have in common;9 so that everything is with such moderation that it only serves to understand what the sisters lack, and that we might allow ourselves a little relief, and then be able to endure the strictness of the Rule” (Life 13,5).10 Not the medieval solitude and severity of the Carthusians that Brother John sought, but a more human style of life, of sisterhood/brotherhood, recreation, and sharing.
For several months, Brother John remained in this unique novitiate in Valladolid and, as the only discalced Carmelite, was able to experience the guidance and shared life with the Founder, who nonetheless also impressed him with her human and spiritual greatness even though he was of such small stature: “He was so good that at least I myself could learn much more from him than he from me; yet this was not what I was doing, for I wanted to pass on to him the style of behavior of the sisters” (Life 13,5).11 And it is very likely that it was also there, (back then) in Valladolid, that Brother John began to read Teresian writings, exactly at the time when the saint was revising, correcting, and supplementing the second manuscript of The Way of Perfection, even adding several new pages, which she wrote for the third time.
At the end of September, Brother John departed from Valladolid to prepare the house in Duruel, the first male convent of the Teresian reform. The preparations (for the establishment of this convent) and (its) beginnings are well known thanks to the extraordinary chronicle created by Saint Teresa herself in her Book of Foundations,12 when she herself visited this place at the beginning of March 1569. Half enchanted, half ironically, she did not hide certain disappointment when she saw that Father Antonio Heredia seemed to be fascinated by the strictness, and she had to moderate his excesses:
“After we spoke with those fathers and I discussed a few things with them, especially how weak and miserable I am, I begged them very much not to proceed with such strictness in matters of penance, for they had very great strictness; and since the desire and prayer that the Lord gave me for someone to begin cost me so much, and I saw such a good beginning, I feared that the devil would seek a way to end this before it was accomplished, which I had longed for” (Life 14,12).
Even more painful was the experience in the convent in Pastrana, to which the saint would later have to send Brother John of the Cross in the spring of 1572, to moderate “the penances of beasts” (which is his own expression)13 and the inappropriate displays of strictness that took hold in the aforementioned novitiate led by the novice master Angel of Saint Gabriel, whom Saint Teresa herself in one of her exceptional negative evaluations describes as “very young, uneducated, minimally gifted for leadership and lacking foresight” (Life 23,9). The young novice master was removed thanks to Brother John's caution, but the rigorist current that he embodied did not dry up and prevailed at the foundations that surprisingly spread towards the south: Altomira (1571), La Roda (1572), Granada (1573), La Penuela (1573), Amodóvar del Campo (1575), etc.
Translated from Spanish by Father Wojciech of St. Hedwig OCD,
edited.
Depiction of the holy Carmelites in the pilgrimage church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Kostelní Vydří. Teresa of Ávila stands in the middle, with a pen and a book in her hands symbolizing her spiritual writings. Kneeling before her is her collaborator, Anna of Jesus (†1621), and to the right with a crown on her veil, Blessed Francesca d’Amboise (†1485). To the right of Teresa is Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi (†1607) holding a large cross and the instruments of Christ's passion. On the far left holds the martyr's palm Blessed Teresa of St. Augustine (†1794), prioress in Compiègne, executed along with the community of sisters during the French revolution. In the background is depicted Blessed Mary of Angels (†1717) from Turin.
