Letter XV. To Sister Maria Vittoria Trievi, nun at San Pietro Martire, Florence

He shows her what a Messing God has given her in htr vocation to religion and makes many salutary suggestions to her.

Sister Maria Yittoria, mt dearest daughter in the Lord, — I haye been thinking of your name and the day that your letter was given to me: and I remembered that it was the same day on which in the year 1571 a great naval victory was by the grace of God gained over the Turks by our fleet. Your name is Maria, and the gathering together of the waters (those great reservoirs whence the rivers are supplied, and to which they return) are called in the holy scriptures in Latin, " Maria" which is a little shorter than saying Maria. Maria is that wonderful Virgin, that glorious Lady, who conceived in her womb and brought forth, without prejudice to her Virginity, Him whom the whole expanse of Heaven cannot contain within itself, Christ the Son of God and of Mary. This holy Mother of God is called the Star of the Sea (Mare) ; wherefore I conclude that not without great mystery was this name given you, because in leaving the world you were lifted by the hand of God from out of the waters of that sea, in crossing which so vast a number

LETTERS OF ST. PHILIP NEBI 387

of miserable souls perish, and so few comparatJTel; are saved: and you, like another Peter, have beeo taken by the hand and firmly held, so that you hare walked not through the waters, but on them. These holy fathers of the Old Testament walked through the midst of the waters, and were not drowned. Tou know how the Red Sea divided, and the river Jordan, and how by the grace of God the people passed uninjured through the midst of the waters; but the Christian Church, having loftier privileges than the synagogue, walks upon the waves of the sea without so much as wetting her feet, and is secure in her futh, following in the footsteps of her lawful Spouse and Guide. The walking of those ancient Patriarchs through the midst of the water signifies that possessing riches, and having wives and children, they walked without soiling their affections with these things although they possessed them, because they only took the use of them, and were prepared to leave them in whatever way the Majesty of God mht require them again at their hands ; just as did Abraham, who went forth from his house and left his property, his friends, and his relations, and at the word of God wandered a pilgrim upon the face of the earth. Job had wives and sons and daughters together with vast possessions, but he distributed them as a good minister of the providence of God, and brought up his children virtuously, considering them rather as the children of God than his own, and life and health and whatever he had, he

388 LETTERS OP ST. PHILIP NERI

to the earth, whence we sprang. Wherefore when God permitted the devil to tempt him, Job was not at all disquieted, because he had foreseen everything, and awaited the coming of that day, armed with faith and patience; and he said, ''If we have enjoyed these blessings for awhile, which God has provided us with, why shall we not receive fix)m the same hand poverty and tribulation, which are sent for a proof of our fidelity and virtue, in order to enrich us hereafter with truer and more lasting riches in heaven?'' David also, although he was a king, used to say he was poor and needy ; but St. Peter and the other apostles, and apostolic men after them, and all that primitive Church in Jerusalem, when they saw the Son of God born poor, and live without anything of His own, so that He had not even where to lay His head, and when they contemplated Him dead and naked on the cross, they too stripped themselves of everything, not wishing for more than might suffice to cover them decently and maintain them poorly in extreme necessity; and they embraced the path of the evangelical counsels, as at the present day by the grace of God do all religious men and women, who keep alive in themselves the image and example of that most wonderful foundation of Christian perfection, and have deprived themselves not only of the possession of property and everything else that they might have kept with a good conscience, but also of their own opinion and judgment and will, in order that they may have a perfect victory over themselves, and that the Kingdom of Christ may come and reign in their souls with His grace and charity ; and that the devil may be put to flight and reign no more by means of sin. Now, my daughter, you have approached with your boat to the shore of the Land of Promise, to that blessed country promised to the elect of God, in which good religious will have so high a place that they will be in the choir of th6 exalted hierarchy with the thrones; for those most happy spirits are called the seat of God : and when St. Peter asked Christ what reward they should receive for having left all things and followed Him, He answered that they should sit upon twelve seats with Him in that day, when He should judge the world. The religious, therefore, having left all and followed Christ, who has said that every one who leaves his property and follows Him should be raised to that throne, we must conclude that at that great spectacle when the world shall be consumed with fire, and the trumpets of the angels shall sound, and when Lucifer with all the other demons and the damned shall fall into hell, that then, secure amidst these ruins and miseries, good religious, both men and women, who have kept their vows and rules, will be clothed with glory, and will triumph under the wings of the protection of Jesus Christ; and that carnal and worldly men will say with confusion of face : " See, those are they whom we despised, and we laughed at them, and thought them unhappy and foolish persons; but now they are with the angels on lofty thrones and seats of glory, and we fools and madmen are burning everlastingly in the inextinguishable fire of the abyss of hell ? " Now since, my dearest daughter in Christ, you are within reach of so much happiness, do not turn back, do not strike your oar iainst the ground, do not get too near the shore, do not return in thought and affection to the world ; for the world is a wood, in which travellers are robbed and murdered ; or a forest full of wild beasts ; or a plain full of soldiers, full of rapine and violence and iiustice (speaking always with due respect and reserve of the good, of whom there are some, but few) ; for I would have you regard this world as a house set on fire from which you have scarcely escaped, being moreover soiled with the smoke, and scorched by the flames, so that you no longer have the courage to go near it, because it either soils or bums ; but keeping away from the occasions of falling, and attaching yourself to good practices, a lover of your cell and of choir and of prayer, and, above all, of obedience and holy poverty, seek to gain the victory. Since you have quitted the sea, that is to say, the world, unquiet and tempestuous as it is, and the love of the things you have left in the world, forget father, mother, brothers, and sisters, friends, relations, houses, and vineyards, and everything besides. And that this may not seem to be said against Christian piety, you have the authority of Holy Scripture, which says the same, and it is the Holy Spirit in the Psalms who speaks thus: Listen, daughter, and from My words receive light and the brightness of grace : and then by this light look around, and when you see the good and peaceful land which is shown to you, call to mind that other land, full of weariness, and which only brings forth briars and thorns, and forget your country and your father's house ; but incline the ear of obedience to my words, and put your shoulders to the cross of true mortification, both exterior and interior, crucifying all evil ways and bad thoughts and false loves ; and place your faith, yom: hopes, and all your affection upon Me, and so will I receive you for My Spouse, and will be enamomred of your modesty and humility, and will make you par-

LETTERS OP ST. PHILIP NERI 391

taker of the viands of My table which I am accustomed to give to those who serve and love Me faithfully, and consist of temptations which I permit, and tribulations which in the beginning will seem bitter to you, but will afterwards be sweet, when you shall have accustomed your taste to them. You will then know that this road, which I take with one I love, is a true espousal betwixt the soul and Me, wherefore since I have espoused you, you shall say with St. Agnes, when tribulations come upon you, " My Lord Jesus Christ has espoused me with His ring," and by suffering with patience and joy, you will worthily bear the name of Maria Yittoria. But it is not sufficient for you, daughter, to have come out of the sea, unless together with the body you have also left with the soul every worldly hope and affection : for those Hebrews, who passed through the desert after their Leader Moses, although they had the Bed Sea between Egypt and themselves, remembered, notwithstanding, the flesh which they used to eat to the full; and in thought and affection they went across the sea amongst the thick darkness of Egypt, which figures a man's ignorance of his happy lot, and the benefits he has received and is continually receiving, and those still greater blessings which the mercy of God has prepared in the blessed life to come. If you do not think upon this, love is not nourished, but becomes cold; nor is it enough unless we learn here to give God praise, which hereafter will be our employment for ever in heaven. Do not think that it will be wearisome to say for ever with the angels and all the other blessed, " Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus'' but from the superabundance of such felicity as we have, which from eternity God has prepared for us, shall we enjoy

392 LETTERS OF ST, PHILIP NERI

Him for ever, having the vision and possession together with the fruition of Him, not indeed being able to satisfy ourselves with that satiety, because our appetite and hunger will ever increase in proportion to the abundance and plenty of such great felicity as is communicated to us — and out of that abundance, I say, our heart and mouth and voice and all our powers and faculties are forced to cry out, " Benedicttts et Sanetus in SaectUa Saecvlorum, Amen** But in your mental prayers you must remember those who neither by boat nor by bridge are passing over this dangerous sea, but are fording it ; and you ought to recommend them to the powerful and merciful Hand that succours you, and to have the greatest compassion for them, and put them within your heart, just as they say that amongst other properties the pelican does when it wants to feed ; for standing by the seashore it swallows some of those shells which pilgrims wear on their hats, and which are shut together like hard stones, and within them is the oyster and the tellina, and in the warmth of the stomach, the shell relaxes its firm hold of them and gradually opens ; the pelican then vomits these shells, and so is nourished with the flesh of the oyster, which was at first so firmly closed. Do you place these hard and obstinate sinners in your heart, and cry to God in your charity, and take some disciplines for them, after you have asked leave to do so ; and God will send them compunction, and will open their hearts to the light of grace, and you will obtain such a liking for this exercise, and will bum with such zeal for the conversion of souls, that you will melt into tears of sweetness, while you think upon the joy there is in heaven to God and the angels in the conversion of a sinner; and you will so increase in charity and merit, and those souls converted by your prayers will be your glory and your crown, not that you have been the most powerful cause of their conversion, but God, who will give the fruit to you, reserving the honour only to Himself, since He has been the principal Author of their conversion. Keep in good health, and in the grace of God. — Yours, Philip Neri.

Rome, October 11, 1585.