Letter (number unidentified). To Don Juan de San Cristobal, at Avila, Avila, April 18, 1564

A bill for ground purchased by the Saint.

TO-DAY, Quasimodo Sunday of this year 1563, has been ratified between Juan de San Cristobal and Teresa de Jesus, the sale of ground near the dovecote for the sum of a hundred ducats, free from taxes and duties. Payment is to be made as follows — ten thousand marks immediately; ten thousand more on the feast of Pentecost, and the rest on the feast of St. John in the present year. In promise of which I sign. . .

May the Holy Spirit ever be with you! Amen.'

THERE would be no harm in my letting you know the full value of the service I have rendered you, so that you may feel bound to pray very earnestly for me. I may well do so, considering what I have suifered at seeing my life in writing and at recalling to memory all my miseries, although I can truly declare that it has pained me more to describe the mercies God has shown me than to relate my offences against His Majesty. I have followed your directions about giving details on the condition that you tear up whatever you do not like. I had not finished reading over what I had written when you sent for it. Some matters may be ill explained and others repeated, as I was pressed for time and could not revise the manuscript. Please correal it and have it copied if it is to be sent to the Father-Master Avila, as my handwriting might be recognised. I am very anxious that he should be asked to read it; in fad:, I wrote it with that intention, for it will be a great comfort to me if he thinks I am in the right path.

Now I have done all that lies with me. Will you do whatever you consider best and remember what obligations you are under to one who thus confides her soul to you. I shall pray to our Lord for your soul as long as 1 live, so will you hasten to serve His Majesty by helping me, for the book I send you will show how wise it is to give ourselves entirely, as you have begun to do, to Him Who gives Himself so completely to us. May He be for ever praised ! I trust in His mercy that you and I shall meet where we shall see more clearly what immense mercies He has shown us, and that we shall praise Him together for ever. Amen.

(A cross here stands for signature)

This book was finished in June, 1562.