Letter (number unidentified). To Father Gracian, Alcala, Malagon, after December 8, 1579

The nuns of Malagon move into another house. State of the community. Responsibility of the Saint and Father Gracian, The new prioress,

JESUS!

May the grace of the Holy Spirit be with your

Paternity!

1MUST tell you that as I had already reached Malagon when Paul's letter came, I did not stay longer at Toledo as he bade me. It has been for the best, because the nuns entered their new house on the feast of the Conception. I had spent a week here which was quite as tiring as my journey, for there was much to do and I wore myself out with my efforts to manage the move on so auspicious a day. Yet after all, my health is better than usual. I am very sorry for your trouble: I can do no more. The change of houses was a very joyful ceremony, as we walked in procession with the Blessed Sacrament which was transferred to the new convent. The nuns were delighted: they seemed just like little lizards coming out into the sun in summer time. They certainly have suffered in their former dwelling, and though nothing here is finished except eleven cells, they could live in the house very comfortably for several years even if no more were built.

0 my Father! how urgently my visit was needed, not only on this account — though their move would probably have been deferred otherwise — but for the other matters. God could have remedied them, but, for the moment, I can see no other way in which the spell could have been broken. The nuns realize now how they have been mistaken. The more I learn of the government of the Vice Prioress, the better I understand the rashness of entrusting any office to her.

The poor Licentiate/ seems a very religious man and I think is less to blame than the person who dragged them all with her into sedition and love of change. He is very willing to follow my advice about affairs here and shows a humility and sorrow for having given any occasion for what happened which edify me deeply. Paul and I are much at fault: tell him to take it to confession as I have done, for we gave too much licence in some ways and ought not to have put such trust, in fa(ft any trust at all, in persons so young, however saintly they might be, for being inexperienced, thev do great harm in spite of a good intention. We must know better how to ad: in future, my Father.

1 trust in our Lord that all will remain settled and in good order. The prioress we brought here is full of the fear of God, prudent, and so skilful in governing that the sisters all love her dearly. She begs earnestly for your Paternity's pravers and is your very loyal daughter. I think we could have chosen no one else so suitable for that convent. God grant it may always be so. The other prioress seems to have done her work extremely well.

The harm a prioress can do to a house is terrible, for though the sisters witness things that scandalize them (of which there have been many here) they think it would be against obedience to consider them wrong. I assure you, my Father, that the Visitor ought to be very vigilant lest the devil should evolve great evils from small ones.

May God have Fray German in heaven ! He had good qualities, but lacked the light to understand perfection in a higher sense. From the way in which our Lord conducfts matters. He seems resolved that certain things should not remain hidden. God grant I may not have been to blame for having insisted on taking Fray Felipe to the nuns as their confessor ! And God grant, too, that he was not to blame in defending the sisters, for the Father Vicar, who did as I wished, must have suffered severely in consequence, as he told some one who visited him when he was ill that it was I who had made him take to his bed. But it seemed to me that nothing would suffice except to bring the sisters another confessor, and there was no one else but Fray Felipe :

her in i 590 to Genoa to make a foundation : from this convents were founded throughout the country. Four years later she returned to Spain, was made prioress at Madrid, and died at Arrenas in 1599. {(Euvres iii. 467.)

yet I felt misgivings about the whole affair. If I have done wrong, write and tell me your opinion, for I have no satisfactory adviser here.

A few days ago I gave Fray Gabriel a letter for the Father Redor, at Alcala, so that you might have news of me, as I did not dare to write to you diredly, though I believe I might have done so safely. That father came here and not . . .

CCCI

Prefatory note.

On Nov. iij the Nuncio had transmitted the sentence of the assessors that the Discalced should be separated from the Caked and erected as a separate province with his good will and approval to the Secretary of State of His Holiness. On the fifteenth of the same month, a Chapter of the province of Castile was held at Moralejar, in which a share and voice were assigned to the Discalced priors and their socii and provision was made for their houses. When the Chapter was over, (on the twentieth of the month,) Angelo de Salazar forwarded a minute account of it to Juan Baptista Caffardo, the Vicar General. (yAEla Capit. General. Vol. i, p. 562). Fray Angelo secretly opposed the separation of provinces. St. Teresa never trusted him entirely, as although he was learned and conscientious, he halted between the two parties and never frankly took her part. At the Chapter, Fray Gabriel de la Asuncion, Prior of la Roda, had been named definitor. The despatches from the king, the Nuncio, and the four assessors had already been sent to Rome. ''The end of the letter is missing.