Return to the index of "Other Women's Voices."
Updated 05-07-08
Teresa of Avila
/Teresa de Ahumada /Teresa de Jesus (1515-1582)
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"WHEN THEY SAY... THAT SOMEONE IS A SAINT, IT'S BOUND TO
BE NONSENSE."
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Teresa de Ahumada was born in Avila to a prosperous but not aristocratic family, on her father's side a family of conversos (converts from Judaism to Christianity). When Teresa was 13, her mother died. In 1535, she entered the Carmelite Monastery of the Incarnation, in Avila, where she took vows two years later, as Teresa of Jesus.
Life at the Incarnation was by no means decadent, but the original Carmelite ideal of enclosure was impossible to maintain: there were too many nuns and the monastery was too poor. Visitors had to be welcomed because benefactors were needed; the nuns had to leave to make home visits in order to get medical care, and sometimes even for food. Teresa left three times: to get treatment for an illness, to care for her father when he was dying, to make a pilgrimage to a Spanish shrine. When she was at the monastery, she, like the other nuns, met frequently with visitors.
When Teresa was 40, she began to have visionary experiences; after several years of these, she started to think of a new monastery in which the original Carmelite ideal could be followed. She began to discuss her idea with others, and, at the instruction of her confessor, she began to write about her spiritual life and how it had led her to a goal of reform.
In 1562, Teresa founded her first monastery, St. Joseph, in Avila, and completed Libro de la vida (Book of the life). At 47, she thought she would spend the rest of her life at St. Joseph and write no more. She was wrong: for the next 20 years, she traveled throughout Spain, establishing foundations both for nuns and for friars, and writing.
As the monasteries got farther apart, Teresa began to write down those spiritual directions that she would have given orally if all of her nuns were in one place. She wrote Camino de perfeccion (Way of perfection) in about 1566, to tell the nuns how to reach their goal; she wrote Castillo interior/ Las moradas (Interior castle/ The mansions) by 1580, to tell them about contemplative prayer; she wrote Las Fundaciones (Foundations) from 1573 to 1582, so they would remember the early history of their order. She also wrote for her nuns meditations, prayers, and hymns. To them, as well as to Carmelite friars and to the clerics and laity who were her benefactors, she wrote thousands of letters; of these, over 450 are extant.
Because she was a visionary and a reformer during the time of the Inquisition, all of these writings were carefully read by others (as they had surely been carefully written by Teresa). The result was that, even in her lifetime, her work became known far beyond the world of her monasteries.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from translations in print:
Works (excluding letters)
Letters
Poetry
Information about secondary sources
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1. The most reliable online translations of three of the major works are these, published in 1946 by Edgar Allison Peers:
(a) Libro de la vida (Book of the life): Here you can link to Peers' "Translator's Preface," followed by a useful chronology of Teresa's life, and a "General Introduction"; and to individual chapters of the work. At the end is a letter to the Dominican Garcia de Toledo (to whom the vida is addressed) sent with the work's first draft (now lost) in1562. If you wish to sample Teresa's style, in Chapter 10 use your browser's search function to go to "experiences" for Teresa's reasons for writing; in Chapter 20 go to "woman" for reactions to woman's prayer; then look at all of Chapters 33 & 34, on the problems of establishing the first monastery.
(b) Camino de perfeccion (Way of perfection): As above, you can link to Peers' introductions and to individual chapters. Look at these brief chapters: Chapters 8 & 15 on the self; Chapters 38 & 39 on psychology; Chapters 22, 26 & 31 on the world and marriage.
(c) Castillo interior (Interior castle): Again, links to the introductions and to individual chapters. Peers' introduction explains the seven sections of the text. In "First Mansions" see Teresa's prologue and opening chapter, and in the last chapter see her final thoughts and her epilogue.
2. Older translations:
(a) David Lewis' 1870 translation of Libro de la vida is based on an older, less authoritative edition, but here you will find near the bottom of the page links to 11 brief sections of the Relaciones Espirituale (or Spiritual Testimonies). Also, from the index you may link to relevant passages in both the Vida and Relaciones: see, for example, "learning" or "women."
(b) Castillo interior, translated by The Benedictines of Stanbrook, is useful for its link to a 1911 "Introduction" by Benedict Zimmerman which describes the work's manuscript history and the reactions of its early readers.
3. Links to hypertext versions of the three Peers' translations and the Lewis' Vida given above. Here you can look for all of the uses of individual words and phrases.
4. Other complete works (you can also download both of these works as PDF files):
(a) A link to the text of John Milner's 1790 translation of the 1569 Las Exclamaciones del Alma a Dios, The exclamations of the soul to God (sometimes called Soliloquies).
(b) A link to the text of Volume 1 of Peers' Complete Works of Saint Teresa of Jesus, where besides the Book of the Life, you will also find (about four-fifths of the way down the page), Peers' translation of the complete Relaciones Espirituales, Spiritual Relations (or Spiritual Testimonies), written for Teresa's confessors between1560 and 1581.
5. From the "Celebration of Women Writers" site, an 1853 translation by John Dalton of 60 letters written by Teresa. Although some of the dates are inaccurate, and Dalton worked from an edition that omitted some passages, there are good things here. Note the following:
(a) Letter XXI: At the end of 1575, Teresa was denounced to the Inquisition; she was ordered to write and submit to the Inquisitors a response concerning her visionary experiences (because this is a legal deposition, the third person is used throughout).
(b) Letter VI, from 1577, written to a young Carmelite friar while Teresa was confined in Avila, tells of being labeled "a troublesome woman, and a roving disposition."
(c) Letter XL, written a few weeks before her death, shows Teresa still concerned with the daily affairs of her monasteries.
(d) Dalton's appendices include Teresa's words to the nuns of the Incarnation in 1571 when she was installed as prioress over the objections of many of her former sisters (Advice 2 of Appendix I), and a translation by Abraham Woodhead of a poem sent to her brother in 1577 (Appendix V).
6. This fourth chapter of Ildefonso Moriones' 1978 Teresian Carmel: Pages of History, translated by S.C. O'Mahony, presents quotations and paraphrases of the earliest extant Constituciones, written by Teresa by 1578 for the nuns in her foundations. Moriones discusses several of the items in relation to the original Carmelite rule of the 1200s; linking to Chapter 1 will take you to a summary of that rule. You can also link to other chapters on Teresa and on the history of the order shortly after her death.
7. From other (or various) prose works:
(a) After a preface and a translator's note, Chapter 3 of Las Fundaciones, (written 1573 to 1582) on the 1567 foundation of the monastery at Medina del Campo; the translation is by Agnes Mason. (The page also shows the only portrait of Teresa made in her lifetime, painted by the friar Juan de la Miseria in 1576.)
(b) At two pages of the same site, use your browser's search function to go to "Teresa" for passages from Meditaciones sobre los Cantares, (Meditations on the Song of Songs, written before 1580), translated by Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez: from Chapter 1, on the difficulty of speaking of the love of God; and the opening of Chapter 3, on the results of loving God.
(c) About one-third of the way down the page of Alexander Whyte's 1898 Santa Teresa: An Appreciation With Some of the Best Passages of the Saint's Writings, excerpts from various works and letters arranged by theme.
8. Teresa's poetry:
(a) Four poems (the third is part of a longer poem), translated by Arthur Symons.
(b) Two translations by Adrian J. Cooney: "I am Yours and born of You" ("Vuestra soy"), and "Oh Beauty exceeding" ("Oh, Hermosura que excedeis").
(c) Another version of the first poem given just above, this by Alan D. Corre, "For you I live and come to be."
(d) About halfway down the way down the page of an essay by Alvin Joaquin Figueroa on the relation between early Quakers and Spanish religious writers, all but the opening of Teresa's "Dilectus meus mihi": "When the sweet Hunter shot and wounded me," in Spanish and in Figueroa's translation.
(e) Two versions of "Nada te turbe," Teresa's most frequently anthologized poem: "Let nothing trouble you," translated by Cooney; and "Let nothing disturb thee," translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (here you can also link to the original). For a third version, see "In print."
9. For the Spanish originals:
(a) Links to most of Teresa's prose works. All of the works are complete, except that "Relationes espirituales" gives only the four longest of Teresa's "testimonies," and "Escritos menores" includes only seven of her letters, among other brief writings.
(b) In this volume of an 1851 edition of the Obras, links to 65 letters.
(c) The autograph of the last part of a 1577 letter written from Toledo to one of the discalced friars in Madrid, Ambrosio Mariano, advising the sometimes over-enthusiastic Mariano to be gentle but firm in his dealings with the Carmelite authorities.
10. Link to individual chapters of Carole Slade's 1995 book, St. Teresa of Avila: Author of a Heroic Life. Slade analyses Teresa's "self-interpretation," making use of the Vida, Castillo interior, and (to a lesser extent) Las Fundaciones; from the index you can link directly to relevant pages. You will also find a brief chronology of Teresa's life and a bibliography of studies through 1993. At another site, a review of Slade's book by Maria Mercedes Carrion.
11. Essays, etc.:
(a) A 1934 biography of Teresa, "Love for Love: The Life and Works of St. Teresa of Jesus," by the German philosopher Edith Stein (1891-1942); the translation is by Waltraut Stein.
(b) Two 2004 works from the Superior General of the Discalced Carmelites: (1) "The Teresian Constitutions" describes in detail the development of the Constituciones that Teresa wrote from before 1567 to 1581 (and tells what happened to them after her death); (2) "The 'Apostolic Poverty' of Carmelite Nuns in the Thought of Teresa of Jesus" describes, with passages translated from Kavanaugh and Rodriguez, Teresa's vision of the poverty she wished for her monasteries.
(c) "The Saving Role of the Human Christ for St. Teresa" (1999), by Eamon R. Carroll, provides a useful summary of Castillo interior and of Teresa's reading of the "Our Father" in Camino de perfeccion; quoted passages are given in Carroll's own translation.
(d) In "Craving Credibility: Teresa de Avila's Shifting Discourse in Meditaciones sobre los Cantares" (1999), Teresa Boucher analyzes that work's use of rhetorical devices to justify a woman's commenting on Scripture.
(e) In this 2005 issue of Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality, a link to "Contemplative Ethics: Intimacy, Amor Mundi and Dignification in Julian of Norwich and Teresa of Avila," by Beverly Lanzetta, which discusses how the two women's visionary experiences led them to develop their own ethical positions. Passages cited from Teresa's writing are given in translations by Kavanaugh and Rodriguez.
(f) "'How few mad people there are now': Thoughts of Teresa and Catherine" (2002), by Joel Giallanza, quotes the words of Teresa (from the Vida and Meditaciones sobre los Cantares, translated by Kavanaugh and Rodriguez) and of Catherine of Siena on the madness of loving God and God's madness in loving humanity.
(g) "Reading St. Teresa of Avila's Life Today" (1984), by Joseph F. Chorpenning, discusses the organization of the Vida and the influence on it of Augustine's Confessions.
(h) A brief 2003 essay on Teresa by Pat Morrison, "Multi-taskers Have a Heavenly Mentor."
12. Reviews (for excerpts from and information on the translations, see "In print"; for more on the other books' treatment of Teresa, see "Secondary sources"):
(a) E. Springs Steele on Kieran Kavanaugh's translation of the 2001 first volume of The Collected Letters of St. Teresa of Avila.
(b) Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat on Mirabai Starr' s 2007 translation of Libro de la vida, Teresa of Avila: The Book of My Life.
(c) J. Mary Luti on Cathleen Medwick's 1999 biography, Teresa of Avila: The Progress of a Soul.
(d) Teresa Soufas on Gillian T. W. Ahlgren's 1996 study, Teresa of Avila and the Politics of Sanctity.
(e) Ellen Moody on the 2005 essay collection, Women's Letters Across Europe, 1400-1700: Form and Persuasion.
(f) Anne J. Cruz on the 2003 collection, Women in the Discourse of Early Modern Spain.
13. A map of Spain showing the 15 foundations for nuns made by Teresa in person (two --- Caravaca and Granada --- were made by her representatives).
14. Gian Lorenzo Bernini's 1652 marble sculpture "The Ecstasy of St. Teresa" (which Teresa's own writings suggest she would have found amusing); also given is a translation of the brief passage from Libro de la vida that inspired the sculpture.
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[The most recent complete translation of the works is by Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez, in three volumes. Volume 1 contains the Life; the "Spiritual Testimonies," accounts Teresa wrote for confessors and others; and a series of prayers, "Soliloquies." Volume 2 contains Way of Perfection, Meditations on the Song of Songs, and Interior Castle. Volume 3 has Foundations, and minor works: Teresa's part of the "Constitutions of the Discalced Nuns"; a set of rules on how visitations to the various monasteries were to be conducted; parts of two verbal games sent by mail between the nuns and the friars; and 31 poems, both the Spanish originals and verse translations by Adrian J. Cooney. For each volume the introductions and notes are detailed:]
The collected works of St. Teresa of Avila / translated by
Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez. Washington: Institute
of Carmelite Studies, 1976-1987. (3v.)
LC#: BX890 .T353 1976; ISBN: 0960087621 [v.1], 0960087664
[v.2]; 0935216065 [v.3]
Includes bibliographical references and index.
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"The good or evil does not lie in the vision."
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[The excerpts below are from works not found online. First, on visions:]
Some persons seen to become frightened just in hearing the words "visions" and "revelations." I don't understand why they consider this path along which God leads a soul such a dangerous one, or from where this dread comes.
[And on what to do if a vision of Christ is sent by the devil; this is what Teresa had been told by a "learned" Dominican:]
...[W]herever we see the image of our Lord, it is good to pay it reverence, even if the devil may have painted it. The devil is a great painter, and in wanting to do us an evil deed, he rather does us a good one if he paints a crucifix or other image so lifelike that he leaves it engraved in our heart.
This reasoning pleased me much, for when we see a very good painting, even though we might know that a bad man did it, we wouldn't fail to esteem the image that was painted nor would we pay attention to the painter and lose our devotion. For the good or evil does not lie in the vision but in the one who sees it and in whether or not she profits by it with humility; for if humility is present, no harm can be done even by the devil. [Foundations, ch.8, pp.139-40]
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"We won't... have to go about looking at the walls."
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[In 1568, Teresa founded the first monastery for her friars; it sounds as if some of them were not happy with her choice of houses:]
What benefit is it to us that the house be large since it is only one small room that each one habitually uses? That it be well designed---what help is that to us? Indeed, if it isn't well designed, we won't then have to go about looking at the walls. By considering that the house will not be ours forever, but ours only for as short a time as this life lasts, even though that may be long, everything will be easy for us. [Foundations, ch.14, p.165]
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"I said to the Lord, almost complaining...."
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[In 1573, making a foundation of nuns at Salamanca; Teresa assumes, or at least tries to assume, that problems are a favor from God:]
We moved on the eve of St. Michael, a little before dawn. The news had already been spread that... on the feast of St. Michael a sermon would be preached [and therefore the town leaders would come]. Out Lord was pleased that on the afternoon of the day we moved it rained so hard that is was most difficult to bring the things we needed. The chapel had bee newly fixed up, but the roof was so poorly tiled the rain came through most of it.
I tell you, daughters, I felt very imperfect that day. Since the news had already been spread about, I didn't know what to do. I became so distressed that I said to the Lord, almost complaining, that either He not order me to get involved in repair works or He help me in this need. [Foundations, ch.19, p.195]
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"You would think that a herd of bulls had come into the
church."
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[In 1575, on the way to make a foundation in Cordoba, Teresa
and her nuns are mobbed by curious people:]
We got out near the church, and although no one was able to see our faces, since we always wore large veils in front of them, it was enough for the people to see us with the veils, the white, coarse woolen mantles we wore, and our sandals of hemp for them to get all stirred up; and that's what happened. The shock was certainly a great one for me and for all....
I tell you, daughters, although it may seem to you to be nothing, this incident was for me one of the really bad moments I went through. From the uproar of the people you would think that a herd of bulls had come into the church. [Foundations, ch.24, pp.226-27]
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"Now I laugh to myself as though someone crazy were speaking."
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[Written at about the same time as the above; Teresa was not only a novelty, but her fame as a holy woman was spreading:]
What can do you great harm is praise---for once it starts it never ends---if you are not careful so as to humble yourself more afterward. The most common way will be by telling you that you are saints....
I have a lot of experience of this. It used to afflict me to see so much blindness in these praises, and now I laugh to myself as though someone crazy were speaking. Remember your sins, and if in some matters people speak the truth in praising you, note that the virtue is not yours and that you are obliged to serve more. [Meditations on the Song of Songs, ch.2, p.227]
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"He wants someone as blind as I to do something...."
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[In 1580, under pressure from a bishop and the superior of the Carmelite friars, Teresa made one of her last foundations, in Palencia. She didn't think the foundation was a good idea, she didn't like the house that was chosen, everything seemed to go wrong. But the foundation was made and it turned out to be a good one; later, looking back:]
...[E]ach day I am more amazed at the little talent I have for anything. And don't think that what I'm saying comes from humility, for each day I see it more clearly.
It seems our Lord desires me and all others to know that it is only His Majesty who does these works, and that as He gave sight with mud to the blind man, He wants someone as blind as I to do something worth more than mud. Certainly, in this whole matter there were things... involving great blindness, and each time I recall it, I would like to praise our Lord again for it. [Foundations, ch.29, p.276]
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[The older translation of the complete works is by Edgar Allison Peers. Volume 1 contains the Life, and "Spiritual Relations" (cf. the "Testimonies" of Kavenaugh & Rodriguez). Volume 2 includes Way of Perfection, Interior Castle, "Conceptions of the love of God" (cf. "Meditations on the Song of Songs"), and "Exclamations of the soul to God" (cf. "Soliloquies"). Volume 3 contains Foundations, minor prose works, and the poems. Peers' introductions are insightful; you can see his introductions to the three major works (as well as the texts themselves) online]
The complete works of Saint Teresa of Jesus. Peers, Edgar
Allison, ed. and tr. London, Sheed & Ward, 1946. (3 v.)
LC#: BX890 .T353
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[An easily available translation of the Vida, by J. M. Cohen. The introduction is useful, but the notes are quite sketchy. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
The life of Saint Teresa of Avila by herself / translated
with an introduction by J.M. Cohen (Penguin classics). London:
Penguin Books; New York, N.Y.: Viking Penguin, 1957. (316 p.)
LC#:BX4700 .T4 A3; ISBN: 0140440739
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[Mirabai Starr's new version of Castillo interior is perhaps more of an adaptation than a translation: she has take the "liberty... to soften some of [Teresa's] more loaded religious vocabulary" (p.18): "sin" becomes "limitation," a "prioress" becomes "a spiritual advisor," etc. Also, since the book includes no notes, the reader is never aware of changes that Teresa made in her manuscript. However, for the general reader, the book may be an easy introduction to Teresa's thought:]
The interior castle / Saint Teresa of
Avila; new translation and introduction by Mirabai Starr. New
York : Riverhead Books, 2003. (ix, 299 p.)
LC#: BX2179.T4 C4413 2003; ISBN: 1573222488, 1594480058
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[Like the above, Starr's version of Libro de la vida "takes a few liberties with the translation" (p. xxxi), and like it, her colloquial language may be helpful to new readers of Teresa:]
Teresa of Avila: the book of my life / translated by Mirabai
Starr; foreword by Tessa Bielecki. Boston: New Seeds Books, 2007.
(xxxii, 346 p.)
LC#: BX4700.T4 A15 2007; ISBN: 9781590303658, 9781590303652
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[Kieran Kavanaugh's 2-volume translation of 468 of Teresa's letters is based on a 1997 Spanish edition and includes letters and information not available to earlier translators. Kavanaugh's introductions, notes and indexes are useful. Especially helpful is that each volume provides a group of biographical sketches of people frequently mentioned (the second volume gives only sketches of those first mentioned there):]
The collected letters of St. Teresa of Avila / translated,
with an introduction by Kieran Kavanaugh. Washington, D.C.: ICS
Publications, 2001, 2007. (2 v.)
LC#: BX4700.T4 A31 2001; ISBN: 0935216278, 9780935216431
Includes bibliographical references and index. Contents v. 1.
1546-1577; v.2. 1578-1582.
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" I am obliged not to be cowardly."
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[In 1561, Teresa wrote to her brother in Ecuador about her planned foundation. This is the first extant description of her plans; the earlier "long letter" is lost:]
I have already written you a long letter about a matter that for many reasons I could not escape doing, since God's inspirations are the source. Because these things are hard to speak of in a letter, I mention only the fact that saintly and learned persons think I am obliged not to be cowardly but do all I can for this project---a monastery of nuns. There will be no more than fifteen nuns in it, who will practice very strict enclosure, never going out or allowing themselves to be seen without veils covering their faces. Their life will be one of prayer and mortification.... [Vol. 1: p.32]
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"When I have come to abhor money and business affairs...."
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[Ten years, much traveling, and nine foundations later (seven monasteries for nuns and two for friars), in a letter to the same brother, Teresa laughed ruefully at what a financial expert she had become. Speaking of her handling some affairs for her brother, who is planning to return to Spain:]
I did no small thing in managing these affairs. I have become so adept at bargaining and managing business affairs for these houses of God and of the order that I am abreast of everything. [p.83]
[And on those who are helping her with the foundations:]
They are so blind in trusting me that I don't how this trust could have come about, and there are people who will go so far as to lend me one or two thousand ducats. So, just at a time when I have come to abhor money and business affairs, the Lord desires that I deal with nothing else, which is no small cross. May it please His Majesty that I serve him in this manner, for all things will pass away. [p.85]
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"Everything amounts to seeking God."
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[From a 1574 letter to a Jesuit who was concerned about his reluctance to pray for any length of time:]
...[A]t times relax outdoors where you can walk and see the sky; your prayer will suffer no loss because of this; it's necessary that we bear our weakness and not try to constrain our nature. Everything amounts to seeking God, since it is for him that we search out every kind of means, and the soul must be led gently. [p.172]
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"...that farce about my sanctity."
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[A year later, writing from a new foundation in the southern city of Seville, Teresa speaks to a cousin of her relief to be away from her increasing reputation "up there" in northern Spain:]
One of the things that make me happy to be here and willing to remain longer is that nobody has any idea of that farce about my sanctity which I was subjected to up there. This allows me to live and move about without the fear that that tower of wind is about to fall on top of me. [p.225]
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"We women are not so easy to get to know."
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[For a woman to be accepted in one of Teresa's foundations of nuns, the others in the house had to meet her and agree to accept her. Some of her friars thought that they could make the decision. To one, she wrote in 1576:]
I am amused by your saying that just by seeing her you will be able to recognize the kind of person she is. We women are not so easy to get to know. After many years of hearing confessions, confessors themselves are amazed at how little they have understood. And it is because women cannot express their faults clearly, and the confessors judge by what they are told. [p.361]
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"When they have passed... get beyond them."
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[From a letter of March 1578, to Maria de San Jose Salazar, the prioress in Seville, on whether nuns should write down their visionary experiences to later tell their confessor:]
You should know that even doing this amounts to nothing but a waste of time, it impedes freedom of soul and allows one to imagine all kinds of things.... Important graces are never forgotten; and if they are forgotten, there is no reason to mention them. ...[I]f something can do them harm, it would be for them to give importance to what they see and hear....
I insist so much on this because I understand the trouble they will run into from thinking about what they should write and from what the devil can put into their heads.... Believe me, it is better to praise the Lord, who gives these graces, and when they have passed to get beyond them, for it is the soul that will experience the benefit. [Vol 2: p.46]
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"Let each one consider what she would like done if this
had happened to her."
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[From a letter of May, 1579, to Maria de San Jose and all the nuns of Seville, on how to treat two nuns who had told lies that had caused scandal in the city:]
Do not manifest toward them any kind of dislike... Try to forget the things that took place and let each one consider what she would like done if this had happened to her....
I fear that now again the devil will stir up in them other temptations --- that you wish them harm and treat them badly --- and it would make me very angry if you gave them any occasion for so thinking. [p.181]
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"I am not the same when it comes to governing."
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[A surviving fragment of a letter to the prioress in Valladolid, perhaps written in June 1579:]
You should know that I am not the same when it comes to governing. Everything is done with love. I don't know whether this is because I have no reason for acting otherwise, or because I have come to understand that things are better dealt with this way. [p.252]
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"...the noise that the name Teresa of Jesus makes."
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[December, 1579; from a letter to Gracian, a Carmelite priest who would become leader of the Reformed Friars and who was probably Teresa's closest friend. After having spent some time at a new foundation in Valladolid, where everyone had treated her with adulation, Teresa was now staying at an older foundation where no one made a fuss over her:]
I tell you that I find here a wonderful leisure that I have
desired for many years.... And the reason is that there is no
more thought of Teresa of Jesus than if she were not in the world.
And this will be the cause for my not making any attempt to leave
here, unless I am ordered to do so. I was disheartened at times
to hear so my foolishness; for when they say there [Valladolid]
that someone is a saint, it's bound to be nonsense. They laugh
because I say that should declare someone else in that place
to be one, for it doesn't cost them any more than words. [p.251]
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[And from a January 1581 letter to another priest, telling
why most of the dealing with the public in order to establish
a foundation at Palencia has been done by another nun:]
I am no help now with anything except for the noise that the name Teresa of Jesus makes. [p.370]
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"Souls that are restrained cannot serve God well."
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[In February 1581, after Teresa's reformed nuns and friars had been granted a province of their own, Teresa sent Gracian several letters in which she explains what she want to be in the new Constitutions, which would govern both the friars and the nuns. First, on the nuns being allowed to have preachers who are not Reformed Carmelite friars:]
The prioress of Segovia has reminded me of the freedom we have to invite preachers from outside the order. I had omitted this, thinking it was already a given. But... at a later time some persons could come along who in being made superiors will oppose such freedom and many other things....
I understand the great importance this has for these nuns and their consolation, and how disconsolate they become in other monasteries when held spiritually bound. Souls that are restrained cannot serve God well, and the devil uses this restraint to tempt them. But when they have some freedom, they often pay no attention to it and make no use of it. [pp.392-93]
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"They become scrupulous and it does them harm.
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[On abstinence:]
And if you think it appropriate, remove the decree made by Padre Frey Pedro Fernandez where he says that they should not eat eggs or have bread for collation. I could never succeed in getting him not to do this. It's enough for the nuns to satisfy the obligation of the church without adding anything, for they become scrupulous and it does them harm. For some don't think they have a need when they do. [p.393]
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"...without thinking they are doing anything wrong."
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[And on the need to have the official Constitutions promulgated:]
I would like to have these constitutions put into print, for different renderings are going about. There are prioresses who are copying them --- and without thinking they are doing anything wrong --- add or delete whatever they like.
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"Serve without charge, as the grandees do the king."
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[Finally, from a letter written in May 1582 (less than five months before Teresa's death) to a nun concerned with feelings of spiritual dryness after a period of spiritual delight:]
God is leading you as though you were someone he already has within his palace, who he knows will never leave and to whom he desires to give more and more bay which you can merit....
Prize being able to help God carry the cross and don't be clinging to delights. for it is the trait of mercenary soldiers to want their daily pay at once. Serve without charge, as the grandees do the king. [pp.539-40]
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[Although Edgar Allison Peers' 1950 translation of the letters was based on an older edition, it is still useful (and is widely available). Peers' introduction and notes are detailed; there are three helpful indexes: to letter recipients, to persons, and to places:]
The letters of Saint Teresa of Jesus; translated and edited
by E. Allison Peers from the critical edition of P. Silverio
de Santa Teresa. London, Burns, Oates & Washbourne [1950]
(2 v.: xii, 1006 p.)
LC#: BX4700.T4 A31
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[ Although translations of Teresa's 31 extant poems can be found in the translations of the complete works by Kavenaugh & Rodriguez and by Peers, this treatment of the poems by Eric Vogt is interesting for its analysis of Teresa's prosody, the notes, and the annotated bibliography:]
The complete poetry of St. Teresa of Avila: a bilingual edition
/ Eric W. Vogt; foreword by Jaime L. Sin. New Orleans: University
Press of the South, 1996. (xxxix, 114 p.)
LC#: BX2179 .T4 C66 1996; ISBN:1889431036
Includes bibliographical references (p. [xxxiii]-xxxix).
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"God alone is enough."
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[Teresa's most frequently anthologized poem, "Nada te turbe." You can see the original and other translations online:]
Let nothing upset you,
let nothing startle you.
All things pass;
God does not change.
Patience wins
all it seeks.
Whoever has God
lacks nothing:
God alone is enough. [p.33]
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Secondary sources
[The first part of Elena Carrera-Marcen's study describes the devotional works which influenced Teresa and, as importantly, the reaction of the Spanish ecclesiastical world to those works. The second part analyzes Libro de la vida and the other early documents that Teresa wrote for the authorities, showing her creation of a role for herself in which she could teach her teachers. Passages from the Vida and other Spanish works are not translated, but their meaning is usually made clear in the discussion:]
Carrera-Marcen, Elena. Teresa of Avila's autobiography: authority,
power and the self in mid-sixteenth-century Spain. London: Legenda,
2005. (211 p.)
LC#: BX4700.T4 C37 2005; ISBN: 1900755963
Includes bibliographical references (p. [195]-206) and index
--------------------
[Shirley du Boulay's biography (a revision of a 1995 book) is a useful introduction to Teresa for the general reader, focusing on her humanity rather than on her sanctity, and quoting extensively from Peers' translations of the works and the letters. The book includes a chronology and a map of the foyundations for women. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Du Boulay, Shirley. Teresa of Avila: an extraordinary life.
New York: BlueBridge, c2004. [Rev. ed.]. (x, 292 p.: map)
LC#: BX4700.T4 D82 2004: ISBN: 0974240524
Includes bibliographical references (p. 282-284) and index.
------------------------
[Cathleen Medwick's biography of Teresa is anather useful
introduction. Medwick gives her own translation of passages from
the works; she provides brief notes (unsignaled in the text)
and a bibliographic essay:]
Medwick, Cathleen. Teresa of Avila: the progress of a soul.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf: Distributed by Random House, 1999,
(xvii, 282 p.: ill.)
LC#: BX4700.T4 M38 1999; ISBN: 0394547942
Includes bibliographical references (p. [255]-265) and index
-------------------
[Gillian Ahlgren's study places Teresa within the Europe-wide
Counter-Reformation. The bibliography will lead you to earlier
critical studies:]
Ahlgren, Gillian T. W. Teresa of Avila and the politics of
sanctity. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996. (ix, 188
p.)
lC#: BX4700.T4 A45 1996; ISBN: 0801432324
Includes bibliographical references (p. 175-185) and index.
------------------
[Alison Weber's essay in this collection, "'Dear Daughter': Reform and Persuasion in St. Teresa's Letters to Her Prioresses," discusses the structure and style of the letters sent to the women leading her monasteries. Weber emphasizes the differences between these and Teresa's other letters, illustrating their informality and humor. All quoted passages are given in Weber's translation, with the original given in the notes. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Women's letters across Europe, 1400-1700: form and persuasion
/ edited by Jane Couchman, Ann Crabb (Women and gender in the
early modern world). Aldershot, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate,
c2005. (xv, 336 p.: ill.)
LC#: PN4400 .W66 2005; ISBN: 075465107X
Includes bibliographical references (p. [315]-327) and index
-------------------
[This earlier article by Weber discusses the innovations Teresa
made when she designed the Constituciones for her nun's
monasteries---and what happened to those innovations after her
death. (See
the issue's table of contents online.):]
Weber, Alison. Spiritual administration: Gender and discernment
in the Carmelite reform. Sixteenth Century Journal, 31
(2000), 127-50.
LC#: D220 .S57; ISSN: 0361-0160
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[Using Las Fundaciones and the letters as well as other
contemporary sources, another of Weber's articles studies Teresa's
relationship over the years with three of the aristocratic laywomen
who helped her establish some of her monasteries. (Halfway
down the page, see the volume's table of contents online.):]
Weber, Alison. Saint Teresa's problematic patrons. Journal
of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 99 (1999), 357-79.
LC#: CB351 .J78; ISSN:1082-9636
------------------
[Barbara Mujica's essay in this collection, "Skepticism
and Mysticism in Early Modern Spain: The Combative Stance of
Teresa de Avila," describes the "Christian skepticism"
prevalent in Western Europe in the 1500s. Mujica then discusses
the use in Teresa's works of cautious phrases ("It seems
to me,""In my opinion"), certainly as defense
against Inquisitors, but also as expression of a belief that
God could best be known through experience, rather than reason.
(See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Women in the discourse of early modern Spain / edited by Joan
F. Cammarata. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, c2003.
(303 p.)
LC#: PQ6066 .W56 2003; ISBN: 0813025788
Includes bibliographical references and index
------------------
[This collection includes two useful essays. Elizabeth Rhodes'
"What's in a Name: On Teresa of Avila's Book" discusses
Libro de la vida as a defense of Teresa's authority as
she began her public career. Jane Ackerman's "Teresa and
Her Sisters" analyses Teresa's relationship with women ---
Jesus' mother, Mary; a lay supporter; and the other nuns of her
first monastery. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
The mystical gesture: essays on medieval and early modern
spiritual culture in honor of Mary E. Giles / edited by Robert
Boenig. Aldershot, Hampshire, England; Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate,
c2000. (ix, 226 p.: ill.)
LC#: BV5075 .M86 2000; ISBN: 0754601234
Includes bibliographical references and index
------------------
[The focus of Ronald Surtz' study is on writers earlier than
Teresa, but his "Epilogue" contains an interesting
discussion of her Meditaciones sobre los Cantares:]
Surtz, Ronald E. Writing women in late Medieval and early
modern Spain: the mothers of Saint Teresa of Avila (Middle Ages
series). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, c1995.
(223 p.)
LC#: BX1584 .S87 1995; ISBN: 0812232925
Includes bibliographical references and index.
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Updated 05-07-08