Letter 421. To the Venerable Anne of Jesus and Her Community, Granada, Burgos, May 30, 1582

The Saint finds fault with what has been done at Granada. JESUS! May the Holy Spirit be with your Reverences.

[ AM amused at the outcry you are all making against our Father Provincial, while at the same time you have neglected to acquaint him with how things are going at Granada since the one letter in which you told him that the foundation had been made. You have treated me in the same way. His Paternity came here on the day of the Cross, and knew nothing except what he learnt from me to whom the news. came in a letter from the Prioress of Seville that you had bought a house costing twelve thousand ducats. As you are so prosperous, it does not matter much that your patents were so abolished, for our gain does not consist in the number of our convents but in the sanctity of those who live in them.

I do not know when the letters you send can be forwarded to our Father. I am afraid there will be six weeks delay, and even then, Iam not sure whether we can find a trusty messenger. Our Father left here for Soria and was to visit so many houses that I cannot tell for certain where he will be, nor when we shall hear from him. As far as I can reckon, he must have been at Villanueva when those poor sisters returned. I am deeply pained at thinking of his pain and humiliation, for in so small a place nothing can be kept secret. Such mismanagement will do us great harm. You might have sent them to Veas until you had consulted our Father for you had not permission to restore them to their former community, since by his order they belonged to your own. Yet you have put them back there under his very eyes! There must have been some way of arranging matters.

You ‘alone are to blame, as you did not tell our Father whom you were taking from Veas or whether you had any lay sisters, and made no more account of him than if he had not been your superior.

From what he told me of his engagements, he cannot possibly. go to Granada before the winter. God grant the Father Vicar Provincial ? may be able to do so, for I am sorry to say that both he and Fray Bartholomé de Jesus have the plague, which the Prioress tells me is raging at Seville although it is kept secret. Perhaps you may not know of it;

no case is it well to begin a new foundation with so large a community and there are other strong reasons in this instance. I have laid the matter before our Lord during the last few days as I did not wish to answer the letter at once, and I find that this course will render service to God, and the more in proportion to the pain it gives you all. Any kind of attachment, even for a prioress, is utterly foreign to the spirit of Discalced nuns, and would prevent their souls’ ever making progress. God wishes his brides to be detached, caring solely for Him. I do not wish this house to start on the same lines as Veas, for I shall never forget the Jetter one of the nuns there wrote to me when your Reverence ceased to be prioress—a Calced nun would not have written it. Such things are the beginning of party spirit and other evils, though we do not detect it at first. So I beg of you to be good enough to agree with me on this occasion; later on, when you are more settled and the sisters more detached, they may return if necessary.

To tell the truth, I do not know which nuns you have with you, as you kept the secret closely from our Father and me, nor did Texpect your Reverence to take so many from Veas. I suppose you chose the sisters who were fondest of you. Oh true spirit of obedience which feels no repugnance to lovin any one who stands in the place of God! I entreat your Reverence, for His sake, to remember that you are training souls as brides of the Crucified. Crucify them, then, so that they have no will of their own, or childishness. Remember, you are starting the Order in a new kingdom, and your

TO THE VEN. ANNE OF JESUS 323

Reverence and your daughters must behave like brave men, and not be womanish.

What does it matter, my Mother, whether the Father Provincial styles you President, Prioress, or Anne of Jesus? It is evident that unless you were superior you would have no right to any other title than the rest who have also been prioresses. So little notice has been given him that he does not know whether the elections have taken place or not. It really puts me to shame that, after all this time, the Discalced nuns are still taken up with such petty questions that they not only think but talk about them, and that Mother Maria de Cristo attributes such importance to them. Either troubles have turned your head or the devil is introducing infernal principles into the Order. Yet Mother Mariade Cristo praises you for your great ‘qualities’ —as if your ‘qualities’ would have suffered in this way. May God make my Discalced nuns very humble, and obedient, and submissive, for all such ‘qualities’ give rise to many imperfections without these virtues.

I have just called to mind that I was told in one of your letters that a nun from Veas had relations in Granada who had shown you much kindness in return for your having brought her there. If so, I leave it to the conscience of the Mother Prioress to decide whether she should be kept at Granada; but the rest must go back.

I can well believe that your Reverence will meet with great difficulties at first. Do not be astonished, for so eminent a work cannot be carried through without, but people say it is bringing a rich reward,

God forbid that the imperfections with which I am making this foundation may not deserve more punishment than reward, for the fear is always before my mind. I will write to the prioress of Veas asking her to contribute to the travelling expenses as you are very short of funds. I shall tell her that if Avila were as near Granada as Veas is, I should be very glad to take my nuns back. God willing, this may be done later on. You can say to your daughters that, when the foundation is made and novices are taken, they will no longer be wanted and can return to their own convents.

I wrote at length a short time ago to your Reverence and the other prioresses, as well as to Fray John, giving them an account of what had taken place at Burgos, thinking that the one letter would serve for all.

God grant that, seeing how things go now, you did not stand on your dignity about it as you did when our Father styled you ‘President’. Until the election took place here when our Father came we did not call the superior ‘prioress’ but ‘president’, and both titles mean the same thing.

I always forget to mention that I hear that ever since the Chapter, the nuns at Veas go out to clean the church. I cannot understand this,’ for the Provincial himself could not give leave for it, as not only has it been forbidden by the Pope’s motu proprio under penalty of excommunication, but also by a strié rule of our Constitutions. At first it was:

troublesome to us, but now we are very glad of it, St. John of the Cross, ° The autograph at Seville stops here.

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Neither must the nuns go out to shut the street door. The sisters at Avila know of this; I cannot think why your community have not been told. Will your Reverence have the kindness to explain it to them; God will provide some one to decorate the church: where there’s a will there’s a way.

It pains me whenever I think how those sefiores must be pressed for room. I wrote the other day saying that you should take a house, even though it were neither good nor cheap, for however uncomfortable you might be, you would not beso crowded. And even if you were, it would be better that you should suffer than those who have shown you such kindness. I am writing to dofa Ana and hope I shall find words to express my gratitude for the help she has rendered us. Our Lord will not let her lose by it, which is the important matter.

If you ask our Father for anything, remember that you have failed to write to him, for, as I said, it will be a long while before I can forward any letters to him. I have endeavoured to do so. He has to go from Villanueva to Daimiel to take possession of the priory there, then to Malagon and on to Toledo, which he will leave very shortly afterwards for Salamanca and Alba, and I do not know how many elections of priors he has to preside over. He told me that he did not expect to reach Toledo until August. I am very sorry that he is making these long journeys through such a hot country. You must all pray for him and must make arrangements for a place for him to stay at with your friends.

The nuns may remain at Granada until your

Reverence has explained matters to him, when he will know what had better be done. Nothing has been said to him about it and he has not been told why they should not be kept. May God give us light for we can do little without it, and may He protect your Reverence! Amen. To-day is May 30. The servant of your Reverence, Teresa de Jesus.

I am writing to the Prioress of Veas about the sisters’ departure, asking her to keep it secret if possible. However, it would not matter if it became known. Will your Reverence give this letter to the Mother Subprioress and her two companions, and to Father John of the Cross, for my head will not allow me to write more. .

CCECKLY.