Chapter XX
Of the Foundation of the Convent of our Lady of the Annunciation at Alba de Tormes, in 1571.
Not two months after the All Saints' Day when we had taken possession of the house at Salamanca, I was entreated on behalf of the Duke of Alba's bursar and his wife to make a foundation and convent at Alba; and I was not much inclined to do it, because the place was so small that the convent would have to be endowed, and I would rather that no convent was endowed. The Father Master Fray Domingo Banez, my confessor, of whom I have spoken at the beginning of this book, who happened to be at Salamanca, chid me, and said that, since the Council [of Trent] had sanctioned endowments, it would be wrong to refrain from founding a convent on that account: and that I did not understand; for it would make no difference to the nuns' being poor and very perfect.
Before I go farther, I will say who the foundress was, and how the Lord led her to found it.1
Teresa de Layz, the foundress of the convent of the Assumption2 of our Lady at Alba de Tormes, was the daughter of noble parents, very aristocratic3 and of good descent. As they were not so wealthy as the position of their family required, they had taken up their abode in a village called Tordillos, two leagues from the said town of Alba. It is such a pity that, because worldly affairs are held in such vain estimation, people will rather endure the lack which there is in such small villages of good teaching and many other things which are means of giving light to the soul, than sacrifice one jot of the punctilios which what they call honour4 carries with it I
Well, as they already had four daughters, when Teresa de Layz came to be born, it was a great distress to her parents to find that she also was a girl. It is certainly much to be lamented that mortals, without understanding what is best for them, as though they were altogether ignorant of God's counsels, not knowing the great advantages which may come from daughters nor the great evils from sons, yet do not seem to be willing to leave these things to Him Who made all and knows all, but are dreadfully disappointed at what they should rejoice over. Like people whose faith is slumbering, they do not go on to consider nor remember that it is God who thus ordains it, so as to leave it all in His hands. And even if they are too blind to do this, it is great ignorance not to see how useless it is to make lamentations. Oh, my God, how differently we shall judge of these things in the day when the truth of all things shall be known! And how many fathers will find themselves going to hell because they have had sons, and how many mothers in like manner will find themselves in heaven through their daughters!
Well, to return to what I was saying, things came to such a pass that, as if the little girl's life were a thing which mattered little to them, on the third day from her birth she was left alone and without anyone's giving a thought to her from morning to night. In one thing they had done well, that they had had her baptized by an ecclesiastic directly she was born. At night, when a woman who had the care of her came, and heard what had happened, she went running to see whether she was dead, and with her some other people who had been to see the mother, who were witnesses of what I am about to relate. The woman took her up in her arms weeping, and said, "How is this, my child, are you not a Christian?" meaning, How cruel it had been! The baby lifted up her head and said, "Yes, I am5 ": and she spoke no more until the age when children usually speak. Those who heard her were left in astonishment; and from that time forth her mother began to care for her and make much of her, and she often said thus, That she would like to live to see what God would do with this child. She brought up the girls excellently, teaching them all that belongs to a good life.
When the time came for them to seek a marriage for her, she did not desire it, nor was she willing. But she came to hear that Francisco Velasquez, her present husband, who also is the founder of this convent, had proposed for her; and when she heard his name, she determined to marry, if they would marry her to him, although she had never seen him in her life. But the Lord saw this to be fitting, in order that the good work might be done which they both together have done to His Majesty's service. For besides being a good man, and wealthy, he loves his wife so much that he does her pleasure in everything: and with good reason; for everything which can be desired in a married woman the Lord bestowed on her in abundance.
She takes great care of her household; and her goodness is great. When her husband took her to Alba, his native place, and the billeting officers of the duke happened to billet a young gentleman in her house, she disliked it so much that she began to hate the place. For she being young and very good looking, the devil began to put evil thoughts into his mind: and if she had not been so good, some harm might have come of it. But when she perceived it, she begged her husband, without telling him anything, to take her away from Alba. He did so, and took her to Salamanca, where they lived very happily, and with many of the good things of this world, because he held an office which made everyone wish to please and entertain them. They had only one sorrow — that the Lord had given them no children: and great were the devotions and prayers which she offered that she might have them: and she never besought the Lord for anything else but to give her offspring in order that when she herself was dead they might continue praising His Majesty; for it seemed to her a grievous thing that His praises should end with her life, and there should be no one after her to praise His Majesty. And she herself told me that she never set before her any other reason for desiring it: and she is a w^oman of great truthfulness, and such a good Christian and so good that it often makes me praise our Lord to see what she does and to see a soul so desirous of pleasing Him continually. She never ceases to employ her time well.
Well, she went on desiring this for many years, and commending it to St Andrew, who, she was told, was an intercessor in such matters. After she had offered many prayers, one night when she was in bed, it was said to her, Do not seek to have children, for thou wouldst destroy thy soul. This left her astonished and afraid; yet for all this the desire did not leave her, because she thought, when her end was so good, why should she be destroying her soul? And so she went on imploring it of our Lord, and in particular making special prayers to St Andrew.
Once when she was desiring this same thing — she knows not whether awake or asleep: however it may have been, the vision is shewn to have been a true one by what followedshe thought she found herself in a house where in the patio, under the gallery, there was a well, and she saw in that place a meadow and green grass, with white flowers here and there in it, all so beautiful that she could not say enough of what it was to look at. Beside the well St Andrew appeared to her in the form of a very venerable and beautiful person, so that it gave her great delight to behold him: and he said to her, Other children are these than those whom thou desirest.
She wished that the great joy which she felt in that place might never come to an end; but it did not last long. And she understood clearly that that Saint was St Andrew, without anyone's telling her; and likewise that it was the will of our Lord that she should found a convent. By which we may know that it was an intellectual as well as an imaginary vision, and could not be a fancy nor an illusion of the devil. In the first place, it was not a fancy, because of its great effect; for from that moment she never again desired children; but she remained so convinced in her heart that this was the will of God that she neither asked for them nor wished for them any more. Likewise it is seen not to have been the devil, both by the effect which it caused, for nothing in which he is concerned can do good; and here is the convent established, in which our Lord is greatly served: and also because this was more than six years before the convent was founded; and he is not able to know the future.
Being deeply impressed by the vision, she said to her husband that, since God was not pleased to give them children, they had better found a convent of nuns. He, being so good and loving her so much, was well pleased with this, and began to consider where it should be. She wished it to be in the place where she was born: but he set before her certain real difficulties, that she might see it would not be wise to make it there.
While they were considering this, the Duchess of Alba sent for him; and when he came, she asked him to return to Alba to hold a certain office and position which she would give him in her household. He, when he had been to see why she had sent for him, and had been told about it, accepted it, although it was much less profitable than the office which he held at Salamanca. His wife, when she heard of it, was miserable, because, as I have said, she hated the place; but when he assured her that she would be given no more guests, she was a little comforted, though for all that she was very unhappy, because she liked living at Salamanca better. He bought a house and sent for her. She came very unhappy, and was more so when she saw the house, because although it was well situated and spacious, it had no outbuildings. So she spent that night very unhappy.
Next day early when she went into the patio, she saw the well in the very same place where she had seen St Andrew beside it, and everything else just exactly as she had seen it:
I mean the place, not the Saint, nor meadow or flowers, although in her imagination she retained them and retains them still. Having seen this, she was astonished, and she determined to found the convent there; and she was in great comfort and peace, no longer wishing to go elsewhere: and they began buying other houses adjoining until they had got ample space. She was very anxious as to what Order it should be of, because she wanted the nuns to be few in number and strictly enclosed. When she spoke of it to two monks of different Orders, very good and learned men, they both told her that it would be better to do some other good work, because nuns for the most part were discontented: arid plenty of other things they said; for as the devil disliked the foundation, he wished to prevent it, and he made them think the reasons they gave very reasonable. And, since they insisted so strongly on its not being a good thing, and the devil took still more pains to hinder it, it made her doubt and fear and decide not to do it: and so she told her husband. And they made up their minds, since men such as these had told them it was not a good thing, and their own intention was only to please our Lord, that they would let it alone. And so they agreed to marry a nephew of hers, the son of one of her sisters, whom she loved much, to a niece of her husband's, and to give them a great part of their property, and to leave the rest for the good of their own souls. They chose this nephew because he was very good and was young in years.
They were both quite resolved on this, and had altogether settled it. But since our Lord had ordained otherwise, their agreement availed little; for in less than a fortnight the nephew fell into an illness so severe that in a very few days our Lord took him to Himself. In this great extremity she was convinced that it was her determination to leave undone what God desired of her, in order to give money to her nephew, which had been the cause of his death; and so she was in great fear. She called to mind the prophet Jonah and what had befallen him for not being willing to obey God; and she thought God had punished her in like manner by taking from her that nephew whom she so dearly loved. From that day she determined that nothing should prevent her from founding the convent; and her husband the same: although they did not know how to carry it out. For it seems that God put into her heart that which now is actually done: but when she told it to other people and pictured to them what she wanted the convent to be like, they laughed at her, supposing that she could not find the kind of things she required. So in particular did a confessor of hers, a Franciscan, a man of learning and high character: and she was very disconsolate.
At that time this friar happened to go to a certain place where he was told of the convents of our Lady of Carmel which were in course of foundation. He inquired very carefully about them, and came back and told her that he had now discovered that she could found the convent, and just as she wished. He told her what was being done and that she had better arrange to discuss it with me; and so she did.
We had difficulty enough in coming to an agreement: because I have always maintained that convents which are founded with an endowment should have sufficient for the nuns not to be dependent on their relations or anyone else; but that they should be given in the house all that is needful for food and clothes and a very good provision for the sick: because many inconveniences arise from the lack of necessaries. For founding many convents in poverty without endowment, I have never lacked heart and confidence, being convinced that God will not fail them: but for founding them with an insufficient endowment, I do altogether lack it. I consider it better that they were not founded at all.
In the end they came to reason, and gave endowment enough for the numbers; and — what cost them much — they left their own house to give it to us, and went to another very bad one. The Blessed Sacrament was reserved and the foundation made on the day of the Conversion of St Paul, in the year 1571, to the honour and glory of God; and there, to my thinking, is His Majesty well served. May it please Him ever to carry it forward!
I had begun to narrate some particulars about some Sisters of these convents, thinking that, when these came to be read, those who are now living would no longer be alive, and that those who came after might be animated to carry forward such good beginnings. Afterwards I thought that there would be some one who would tell it better and more in detail, and without the fear which I have had, for I feel that I may be considered prejudiced in their favour; and so I have left out many things which anyone who has seen and heard them cannot but hold for miraculous, because they are supernatural. Of these I have not wished to tell any, nor of things which our Lord has clearly been seen to accomplish through their prayers.
I rather suspect that in my reckoning of the dates of these foundations there may be some error, although I have done my best to remember. As it is not very important, and can be corrected later, I give them from memory as well as I can; it makes little odds if there should be some mistake.
Footnotes
Chapter 21 of 32