Letter 334. To the Community of St. Joseph’s Avila, Valladolid, October 7, 1580

Don Lorenzo's property.

Jesus be with your Reverences. Amen. M health is bad, but if it were good, I should not be justified in feeling sure of living, since life ends so quickly, so I think it well to send your Reverences direCtions as to what is to be done if God is pleased that Don Francisco should be professed.

The documents relating to the money left to your house are made perfectly secure: God knows what anxiety and labour it has cost me to bring this about. May He be praised that the matter is settled! They are as safe as the law can make them and are being kept in this convent in the case with three keys for the present. I do not send them now as I require them from time to time, With them is my brother’s will, (may he be in glory !) and other papers which required registering. They will be delivered to you: it is indispensable that they should be kept in the safe with three keys.

Supposing that Don Francisco is professed,” we must learn how che will dispose of his property,

Lorenzo’s revenues. I say this because I know that my brother wished to build an arch to the chancel, as you have all seen in the plan he drew. Therefore I declare, and sign my name to it, that it is my will that when the side chapel is built for my brother (may he be in glory)! an arch should be added to the chancel with an iron grille not of the most costly kind, but handsome and suitable.

If God is pleased that Don Lorenzo should die childless, the principal chapel is to be rebuilt according to the directions of the will. Take care not to trust too much to the administrator, but send one of your chaplains at frequent intervals to la Serna to examine whether everything is well looked after. The estate is valuable, but would soan become worthless if not well supervised, and you are bound iN conscience not to let it go to ruin.

O my daughters! what weariness and contentions worldly goods bring with them! I always thought so, and now I know it by experience. None of my foundations have so worried and tired me in certain ways as these affairs: perhaps my severe illness may have contributed to it. Your Reverences must ask God to make it tend to His Service, as it is chiefly on your account that I have taken it so much to heart. Pray much for me, for I never thought I loved you so dearly. May He dire& the matter as most tends to His glory and honour, and may temporal riches never deprive us of poverty of spirit.

To-day is O€tober 7 of the year 1580. The servant of your Reverences, Teresa de Jesus, Keep this memorandum in the safe with three keys,