Letter 277. To Mother Mary Baptist, Prioress of Valladolid, Avila, June 9, 1579

Thanks for money for the cause of the Reform at Rome. The Saint's intended visit to Valladolid and Salamanca and the foundation at Villanueva. Casildas relatives refuse to pay her dowry.

JESUS!

MAY the Holy Ghost be with your Reverence and repay you and all the sisters for the happy feast [buenas Pascuas) you have given me by sending the quittance so willingly. It came just in time, for the messenger from Madrid had not started to return there, which, as the fathers had written urging me to be prompt, 1 look upon as the greatest good fortune. 1 assure you that had the money been sent for my own food, I should not have felt more grateful. You have behaved like generous souls and done a signal favour. May the Holy Ghost reward you! 1 can promise you that God will give you far more in return. Read this part ot my letter to the community: I send the kindest messages to all of them. I told those at Madrid what you said, so that they might know what they possess in you. I have written much to-day, and it is so late that I can say little more. In the first place, for charity's sake take care of your health, so that I may find you well if God lets me visit you, as the Father Vicar, Fray Angel, hints in his letter that I may hope to do. It would be for so short a time that I should not like it as I should be going many leagues out of the way only to have the pain of leaving immediately. He writes: I think that you would deserve well if you called at Malagon, where I would confirm in writing the patent I have given for the convent, by which you would gain more merits than if you founded it. On your way, you could call on those senores to console them as they ask of you.' He encloses the bishop's letter and requests me to start for Salamanca diredlly afterwards to buy the house for the nuns there.

You must know, my daughter, that they stand in the greatest need of it, yet they are as silent as the dead, which lays a still stricter obligation on me. See what a poor old crone I am, yet I am to start at once for Malagon! I assure you it makes me laugh, yet I have courage for more than that. May God prosper the plan! Perhaps our despatches may arrive before I have done with Salamanca, in which case I could stay with you a little longer, as some one else could settle affairs at Malagon.

Many persons susped: that perhaps the Calced friars would be glad to have me at such a distance, and grounds for the idea are not wanting. No doubt his Paternity would not be sorry at my removal from the neighbourhood of the Incarnation. Indeed time is needed for the affairs of the difierent convents, and people will have no chance of finding

" Fra- Angel de Salazar.

TO MOTHER MARY BAPTIST fault with my journey as though there were no genuine reason for making it. May the Master diredl matters in the way in which I can serve Him best !

Father Angel bids me look on this as merely the preliminary sketch, because he must consult Fray Pedro Hernandez before anything can be done. He will explain matters more fully on writing to the Bishop. He wishes to please those senores in every way and is so exceedingly kind-hearted that he really cannot tell when to say no.

He has approved of the college for Discalced friars' but not of the convent for nuns. The decision was not his own — Fray Antonio de Jesus and the Prior of la Roda thought the convent undesirable, much to my delight, for I have refused it several times on account of the eight beatas there, as I should prefer making four foundations.

Fray Pedro Hernandez strongly insists on our founding no more houses, even though we should obtain the authorization, until we have a separate province. For this he gives strong reasons, as people have written to tell me. As the Nuncio is so irritated, and others are prejudicing him against us, it might do harm : we must consider well before we aft.

I am vexed at all this commotion about Casilda's dowry: it will result in her getting nothing at all. In my opinion they ought merely to have given you the two thousand five hundred ducats they promised, or at least two thousand. What is the use of such a disturbance ! So small a sum should never cause such disputes. . . "