by

Roman Catholic Church

Meditations. Devotional readings. Spiritual exercises, etc.

Table of Contents

p. 1 Title Page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 2 The Way of Perfection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 2 Presentation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 2 Contents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 5 Principal abbreviations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 5 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 10 Translator's note. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 13 General argument, protestations and prologue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 14 Protestations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 14 Prologue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 15

Of the reason which moved me to found this convent in such strict

observance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 17

Treats of how the necessities of the body should be disregarded and of

the good that comes from poverty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 19

Continues the subject begun in the first chapter and persuades the sisters

to busy themselves constantly in beseeching God to help those who work

for the Church. Ends with an exclamatory prayer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 22

Exhorts the nuns to keep their Rule and names three things which are

important for the spiritual life. Describes the first of these three things, which

is love of one's neighbour, and speaks of the harm which can be done by

individual friendships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 26 Appendix to chapter 4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 27

Continues speaking of confessors. Explains why it is important that they

should be learned men. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 29 Returns to the subject of perfect love, already begun. . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 31

Treats of the same subject of spiritual love and gives certain counsels for

gaining it. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 35

Treats of the great benefit of self-detachment, both interior and exterior,

from all things created. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 36

Treats of the great blessing that shunning their relatives brings to those

who have left the world and shows how by doing so they will find truer

friends. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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St. Teresa of Avila The Way of Perfection

p. 37

Teaches that detachment from the things aforementioned is insufficient if

we are not detached from our own selves and that this virtue and humility

go together. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 40

Continues to treat of mortification and describes how it may be attained in

times of sickness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 41 Teaches that the true lover of God must care little for life and honour. . . .

p. 44

Continues to treat of mortification and explains how one must renounce

the world's standards of wisdom in order to attain to true wisdom. . . . .

p. 47

Treats of the great importance of not professing anyone whose spirit is

contrary to the things aforementioned. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 48

Treats of the great advantage which comes from our not excusing ourselves,

even though we find we are unjustly condemned. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 50

Describes the difference between perfection in the lives of contemplatives

and in the lives of those who are content with mental prayer. Explains how

it is sometimes possible for God to raise a distracted soul to perfect

contemplation and the reason for this. This chapter and that which comes

next are to be noted carefully. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 53

How not all souls are fitted for contemplation and how some take long to

attain it. True humility will walk happily along the road by which the Lord

leads it. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 56

Continues the same subject and shows how much greater are the trials of

contemplatives than those of actives. This chapter offers great consolation

to actives.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 58

Begins to treat of prayer. Addresses souls who cannot reason with the

understanding.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 63

Describes how, in one way or another, we never lack consolation on the

road of prayer. Counsels the sisters to include this subject continually in

their conversation.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 65

Describes the great importance of setting out upon the practice of prayer

with firm resolution and of heeding no difficulties put in the way by the

devil. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 68 Explains the meaning of mental prayer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 71

Describes the importance of not turning back when one has set out upon

the way of prayer. Repeats how necessary it is to be resolute.. . . . . . .

p. 72

Describes how vocal prayer may be practised with perfection and how

closely allied it is to mental prayer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 74

Describes the great gain which comes to a soul when it practises vocal

prayer perfectly. Shows how God may raise it thence to things

supernatural.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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St. Teresa of Avila The Way of Perfection

p. 76

Continues the description of a method for recollecting the thoughts.

Describes means of doing this. This chapter is very profitable for those

who are beginning prayer.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 78

Describes the great love shown us by the Lord in the first words of the

Paternoster and the great importance of our making no account of good

birth if we truly desire to be the daughters of God.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 80

Describes the nature of the Prayer of Recollection and sets down some of

the means by which we can make it a habit.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 83

Continues to describe methods for achieving this Prayer of Recollection.

Says what little account we should make of being favoured by our

superiors.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 86

Describes the importance of understanding what we ask for in prayer.

Treats of these words in the Paternoster: 'Sanctificetur nomen tuum,

adveniat regnum tuum.' Applies them to the Prayer of Quiet, and begins

the explanation of them.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 88

Continues the same subject. Explains what is meant by the Prayer of Quiet.

Gives several counsels to those who experience it. This chapter is very

noteworthy.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 92

Expounds these words of the Paternoster: 'Fiat voluntas tua sicut in coelo

et in terra.' Describes how much is accomplished by those who repeat

these words with full resolution and how well the Lord rewards them for

it.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 96

Treats of our great need that the Lord should give us what we ask in these

words of the Paternoster: 'Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis

hodie.'. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 98

Continues the same subject. This is very suitable for reading after the

reception of the Most Holy Sacrament.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 102

Describes the recollection which should be practised after Communion.

Concludes this subject with an exclamatory prayer to the Eternal

Father.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 104

Treats of these words in the Paternoster: 'Dimitte nobis debita

nostra.'. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 107

Describes the excellence of this prayer called the Paternoster, and the

many ways in which we shall find consolation in it.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 109

Treats of the great need which we have to beseech the Eternal Father to

grant us what we ask in these words: 'Et ne nos inducas in tentationem,

sed libera nos a malo.'. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 113

Continues the same subject and gives counsels concerning different kinds

of temptation. Suggests two remedies by which we may be freed from

temptations.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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St. Teresa of Avila The Way of Perfection

p. 115

Describes how, by striving always to walk in the love and fear of God, we

shall travel safely amid all these temptations.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 117

Speaks of the fear of God and of how we must keep ourselves from venial

sins.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 120

Treats of these last words of the Paternoster: 'Sed libera nos a malo. Amen.'

'But deliver us from evil. Amen.'. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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St. Teresa of Avila The Way of Perfection

Scanned by Harry Plantinga, 1995

From the Image Books edition, 1964, ISBN 0-385-06539-6

This etext is in the public domain

Only a few of the nearly 1200 footnotes of the image book edition have been reproduced. Most

of those that were not reproduced concern differences between the manuscripts. The reader is

referred to the print edition.

St. Teresa of Avila The Way of Perfection

Although St. Teresa of Avila lived and wrote almost four centuries ago, her superbly inspiring

classic on the practice of prayer is as fresh and meaningful today as it was when she first wrote it.

The Way of Perfection is a practical guide to prayer setting forth the Saint’s counsels and directives

for the attainment of spiritual perfection.

Through the entire work there runs the author’s desire to teach a deep and lasting love of prayer

beginning with a treatment of the three essentials of the prayer-filled life —fraternal love, detachment

from created things, and true humility. St. Teresa’s counsels on these are not only the fruit of lofty

mental speculation, but of mature practical experience. The next section develops these ideas and

brings the reader directly to the subjects of prayer and contemplation. St. Teresa then gives various

maxims for the practice of prayer and leads up to the topic which occupies the balance of the

book—a detailed and inspiring commentary on the Lord’s Prayer.

Of all St. Teresa’s writings, The Way of Perfection is the most easily understood. Although it

is a work of sublime mystical beauty, its outstanding hallmark is its simplicity which instructs,

exhorts, and inspires all those who are seeking a more perfect way of life.

"I shall speak of nothing of which I have no experience, either in my own life or in observation

Almost four centuries have passed since St. Teresa of Avila, the great Spanish mystic and

reformer, committed to writing the experiences which brought her to the highest degree of sanctity.

Her search for, and eventual union with, God have been recorded in her own world-renowned

Perfection— as well as in the other numerous works which flowed from her pen while she lived.

The Way of Perfection was written during the height of controversy which raged over the reforms

St. Teresa enacted within the Carmelite Order. Its specific purpose was to serve as a guide in the

practice of prayer and it sets forth her counsels and directives for the attainment of spiritual perfection

through prayer. It was composed by St. Teresa at the express command of her superiors, and was

written during the late hours in order not to interfere with the day’s already crowded schedule.

Without doubt it fulfills the tribute given all St. Teresa’s works by E. Allison Peers, the

outstanding authority on her writings: "Work of a sublime beauty bearing the ineffaceable hallmark

of genius."

Introduction

Translator’s Note:

General Argument

Protestation

Prologue

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St. Teresa of Avila The Way of Perfection

Chapter 1—Of the reason which moved me to found this convent in such strict observance

Chapter 2—Treats of how the necessities of the body should be disregarded and of the good

that comes from poverty

Chapter 3—Continues the subject begun in the first chapter and persuades the sisters to busy

themselves constantly in beseeching God to help those who work for the Church. Ends with an

exclamatory prayer

Chapter 4—Exhorts the nuns to keep their Rule and names three things which are important

for the spiritual life. Describes the first of these three things, which is love of one’s neighbour, and

speaks of the harm which can be done by individual friendships

Appendix To Chapter 4

Chapter 5—Continues speaking of confessors. Explains why it is important that they should

be learned men

Chapter 6—Returns to the subject of perfect love, already begun

Chapter 7—Treats of the same subject of spiritual love and gives certain counsels for gaining

it

Chapter 8—Treats of the great benefit of self-detachment, both interior and exterior, from all

things created

Chapter 9—Treats of the great blessing that shunning their relatives brings to those who have

left the world and shows how by doing so they will find truer friends

Chapter 10—Teaches that detachment from the things aforementioned is insufficient if we are

not detached from our own selves and that this virtue and humility go together

Chapter 11—Continues to treat of mortification and describes how it may be attained in times

of sickness

Chapter 12—Teaches that the true lover of God must care little for life and honour

Chapter 13—Continues to treat of mortification and explains how one must renounce the world’s

standards of wisdom in order to attain to true wisdom

Chapter 14—Treats of the great importance of not professing anyone whose spirit is contrary

to the things aforementioned

Chapter 15—Treats of the great advantage which comes from our not excusing ourselves, even

though we find we are unjustly condemned

Chapter 16—Describes the difference between perfection in the lives of contemplatives and in

the lives of those who are content with mental prayer. Explains how it is sometimes possible for

God to raise a distracted soul to perfect contemplation and the reason for this. This chapter and that

which comes next are to be noted carefully

Chapter 17—How not all souls are fitted for contemplation and how some take long to attain

it. True humility will walk happily along the road by which the Lord leads it

Chapter 18—Continues the same subject and shows how much greater are the trials of

contemplatives than those of actives. This chapter offers great consolation to actives

Chapter 19—Begins to treat of prayer. Addresses souls who cannot reason with the understanding

Chapter 20—Describes how, in one way or another, we never lack consolation on the road of

prayer. Counsels the sisters to include this subject continually in their conversation

Chapter 21—Describes the great importance of setting out upon the practice of prayer with

firm resolution and of heeding no difficulties put in the way by the devil

Chapter 22—Explains the meaning of mental prayer

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St. Teresa of Avila The Way of Perfection

Chapter 23—Describes the importance of not turning back when one has set out upon the way

of prayer. Repeats how necessary it is to be resolute

Chapter 24—Describes how vocal prayer may be practised with perfection and how closely

allied it is to mental prayer

Chapter 25—Describes the great gain which comes to a soul when it practises vocal prayer

perfectly. Shows how God may raise it thence to things supernatural

Chapter 26—Continues the description of a method for recollecting the thoughts. Describes

means of doing this. This chapter is very profitable for those who are beginning prayer

Chapter 27—Describes the great love shown us by the Lord in the first words of the Paternoster

and the great importance of our making no account of good birth if we truly desire to be the daughters

of God

Chapter 28—Describes the nature of the Prayer of Recollection and sets down some of the

means by which we can make it a habit

Chapter 29 - Continues to describe methods for achieving this Prayer of Recollection. Says

what little account we should make of being favoured by our superiors

Chapter 30—Describes the importance of understanding what we ask for in prayer. Treats of

these words in the Paternoster: "Sanctificetur nomen tuum, adveniat regnum tuum". Applies them

to the Prayer of Quiet, and begins the explanation of them

Chapter 31—Continues the same subject. Explains what is meant by the Prayer of Quiet. Gives

several counsels to those who experience it. This chapter is very noteworthy

Chapter 32—Expounds these words of the Paternoster: "Fiat voluntas tua sicut in coelo et in

terra." Describes how much is accomplished by those who repeat these words with full resolution

and how well the Lord rewards them for it

Chapter 33—Treats of our great need that the Lord should give us what we ask in these words

of the Paternoster: "Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie."

Chapter 34—Continues the same subject. This is very suitable for reading after the reception

of the Most Holy Sacrament

Chapter 35—Describes the recollection which should be practised after Communion. Concludes

this subject with an exclamatory prayer to the Eternal Father

Chapter 36—Treats of these words in the Paternoster: "Dimitte nobis debita nostra"

Chapter 37—Describes the excellence of this prayer called the Paternoster, and the many ways

in which we shall find consolation in it

Chapter 38—Treats of the great need which we have to beseech the Eternal Father to grant us

what we ask in these words: "Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo." Explains

certain temptations. This chapter is noteworthy

Chapter 39—Continues the same subject and gives counsels concerning different kinds of

temptation. Suggests two remedies by which we may be freed from temptations

Chapter 40—Describes how, by striving always to walk in the love and fear of God, we shall

travel safely amid all these temptations

Chapter 41—Speaks of the fear of God and of how we must keep ourselves from venial sins

Chapter 42—Treats of these last words of the Paternoster: "Sed libera nos a malo. Amen." "But

deliver us from evil. Amen."

4

St. Teresa of Avila The Way of Perfection

PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS

A.V.—Authorized Version of the Bible (1611).

D.V.—Douai Version of the Bible (1609) .

(London, 1919-24, 4 vols.).

introductions by the Very Rev. Benedict Zimmerman, O.C.D., London, 1916.

Teresa, C.D., Durgos, 1915-24, 9 vols.

introduction, etc., por el P. Jaime Pons, Barcelona, 1908.

translated from the critical edition of P. Silverio de Santa Teresa, C.D., and edited by E. Allison

Peers, London, 1934-35, 3 vols.

TO THE GRACIOUS MEMORY OF

P. EDMUND GURDON

SOMETIME PRIOR OF THE CARTHUSIAN MONASTERY

OF MIRAFLORES

A MAN OF GOD

We owe this book, first and foremost, to the affectionate importunities of the Carmelite nuns

of the Primitive Observance at Ávila, and, in the second place, to that outstanding Dominican who

was also St. Teresa’s confessor, Fray Domingo Bañez. The nuns of St. Joseph’s knew something

of their Mother Foundress’ autobiography, and, though in all probability none of them had actually

read it, they would have been aware that it contained valuable counsels to aspirants after religious

perfection, of which, had the book been accessible to them, they would have been glad to avail

themselves. Such intimate details did it contain, however, about St. Teresa’s spiritual life that her

superiors thought it should not be put into their hands; so the only way in which she could grant

their persistent requests was to write another book dealing expressly with the life of prayer. This

P. Bañez was very anxious that she should do.

love prayer, the most effective means of attaining virtue. This principle is responsible for the book’s

construction. St. Teresa begins by describing the reason which led her to found the first Reformed

Carmelite convent—viz., the desire to minimize the ravages being wrought, in France and elsewhere,

by Protestantism, and, within the limits of her capacity, to check the passion for a so-called

"freedom", which at that time was exceeding all measure. Knowing how effectively such inordinate

5

St. Teresa of Avila The Way of Perfection

desires can be restrained by a life of humility and poverty, St. Teresa extols the virtues of poverty

and exhorts her daughters to practise it in their own lives. Even the buildings in which they live

should be poor: on the Day of Judgment both majestic palaces and humble cottages will fall and

she has no desire that the convents of her nuns should do so with a resounding clamour.

In this preamble to her book, which comprises Chapters 1-3, the author also charges her daughters

very earnestly to commend to God those who have to defend the Church of Christ —particularly

theologians and preachers.

The next part of the book (Chaps. 4-15) stresses the importance of a strict observance of the

Rule and Constitutions, and before going on to its main subject— prayer—treats of three essentials

of the prayer-filled life —mutual love, detachment from created things and true humility, the last

of these being the most important and including all the rest. With the mutual love which nuns should

have for one another she deals most minutely, giving what might be termed homely prescriptions

for the domestic disorders of convents with the skill which we should expect of a writer with so

perfect a knowledge of the psychology of the cloister. Her counsels are the fruit, not of lofty mental

speculation, but of mature practical expedience. No less aptly does she speak of the relations between

nuns and their confessors, so frequently a source of danger.

Since excess is possible even in mutual love, she next turns to detachment. Her nuns must be

detached from relatives and friends, from the world, from worldly honour, and—the last and hardest

achievement—from themselves. To a large extent their efforts in this direction will involve humility,

for, so long as we have an exaggerated opinion of our own merits, detachment is impossible.

Humility, to St. Teresa, is nothing more nor less than truth, which will give us the precise estimate

of our own worth that we need. Fraternal love, detachment and humility: these three virtues, if they

are sought in the way these chapters direct, will make the soul mistress and sovereign over all

created things—a "royal soul", in the Saint’s happy phrase, the slave of none save of Him Who

bought it with His blood.

The next section (Chaps. 16-26) develops these ideas, and leads the reader directly to the themes

of prayer and contemplation. It begins with St. Teresa’s famous extended simile of the game of

chess, in which the soul gives check and mate to the King of love, Jesus. Many people are greatly

attracted by the life of contemplation because they have acquired imperfect and misleading notions

of the ineffable mystical joys which they believe almost synonymous with contemplation. The

Saint protests against such ideas as these and lays it down clearly that, as a general rule, there is

no way of attaining to union with the Beloved save by the practice of the "great virtues", which

can be acquired only at the cost of continual self-sacrifice and self-conquest. The favours which

God grants to contemplatives are only exceptional and of a transitory kind and they are intended

to incline them more closely to virtue and to inspire their lives with greater fervour.

And here the Saint propounds a difficult question which has occasioned no little debate among

writers on mystical theology. Can a soul in grave sin enjoy supernatural contemplation? At first

sight, and judging from what the author says in Chapter 16, the answer would seem to be that,

though but rarely and for brief periods, it can. In the original (or Escorial) autograph, however, she

expressly denies this, and states that contemplation is not possible for souls in mortal sin, though

it may be experienced by those who are so lukewarm, or lacking in fervour, that they fall into venial

sins with ease. It would seem that in this respect the Escorial manuscript reflects the Saint’s ideas,

as we know them, more clearly than the later one of Valladolid; if this be so, her opinions in no

6

St. Teresa of Avila The Way of Perfection

way differ from those of mystical theologians as a whole, who refuse to allow that souls in mortal

sin can experience contemplation at all.

St. Teresa then examines a number of other questions, on which opinion has also been divided

and even now is by no means unanimous. Can all souls attain to contemplation? Is it possible,

without experiencing contemplation, to reach the summit of Christian perfection? Have all the

servants of God who have been canonized by the Church necessarily been contemplatives? Does

the Church ever grant non-contemplatives beatification? On these questions and others often

discussed by the mystics much light is shed in the seventeenth and eighteenth chapters.

Then the author crosses swords once more with those who suppose that contemplatives know

nothing of suffering and that their lives are one continuous series of favours. On the contrary, she

asserts, they suffer more than actives: to imagine that God admits to this closest friendship people

whose lives are all favours and no trials is ridiculous. Recalling the doctrine expounded in the

the figures of water which she had employed in her first description of the Mystic Way. She consoles

those who cannot reason with the understanding, shows how vocal prayer may be combined with

mental, and ends by advising those who suffer from aridity in prayer to picture Jesus as within their

hearts and thus always beside them— one of her favourite themes.

This leads up to the subject which occupies her for the rest of the book (Chaps. 27-42)—the

Lord’s Prayer. These chapters, in fact, comprise a commentary on the Paternoster, taken petition

by petition, touching incidentally upon the themes of Recollection, Quiet and Union. Though

sublimity, profundity and fervour and in language of no less beauty. Consider, for example, the apt

and striking simile of the mother and the child (Chap. 31), used to describe the state of the soul in

the Prayer of Quiet, which forms one of the most beautiful and expressive expositions of this degree

of contemplation to be found in any book on the interior life whatsoever.

In Chapter 38, towards the end of the commentary on the Paternoster, St. Teresa gives a striking

synthetic description of the excellences of that Prayer and of its spiritual value. She enters at some

length into the temptations to which spiritual people are exposed when they lack humility and

discretion. Some of these are due to presumption: they believe they possess virtues which in fact

they do not—or, at least, not in sufficient degree to enable them to resist the snares of the enemy.

Others come from a mistaken scrupulousness and timidity inspired by a sense of the heinousness

of their sins, and may lead them into doubt and despair. There are souls, too, which make overmuch

account of spiritual favours: these she counsels to see to it that, however sublime their contemplation

may be, they begin and end every period of prayer with self-examination. While others whose

mistrust of themselves makes them restless, are exhorted to trust in the Divine mercy, which never

forsakes those who possess true humility.

Finally, St. Teresa writes of the love and fear of God—two mighty castles which the fiercest

of the soul’s enemies will storm in vain—and begs Him, in the last words of the Prayer to preserve

her daughters, and all other souls who practise the interior life, from the ills and perils which will

ever surround them, until they reach the next world, where all will be peace and joy in Jesus Christ.

Such, in briefest outline, is the argument of this book. Of all St. Teresa’s writings it is the most

easily comprehensible and it can be read with profit by a greater number of people than any of the

rest. It is also (if we use the word in its strictest and truest sense) the most ascetic of her treatises;

only a few chapters and passages in it, here and there, can be called definitely mystical. It takes up

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St. Teresa of Avila The Way of Perfection

way—objectively, too, with an eye not so much to herself as to her daughters of the Discalced

Reform. This last fact necessitates her descending to details which may seem to us trivial but were

not in the least so to the religious to whom they were addressed and with whose virtues and failing

she was so familiar. Skilfully, then, and in a way profitable to all, she intermingles her teaching on

the most rudimentary principles of the religious life, which has all the clarity of any classical treatise,

with instruction on the most sublime and elusive tenets of mystical theology.

the latter part of its content—was written twice. Both autographs have been preserved in excellent

condition, the older of them in the monastery of San Lorenzo el Real, El Escorial, and the other in

the convent of the Discalced Carmelite nuns at Valladolid. We have already seen how Philip II

of perfection. The Escorial manuscript bears the title "Treatise of the Way of Perfection", but this

is not in St. Teresa’s hand. It plunges straight into the prologue: both the title and the brief account

of the contents, which are found in most of the editions, are taken from the autograph of Valladolid,

and the humble protestation of faith and submission to the Holy Roman Church was dictated by

the Saint for the edition of the book made in Évora by Don Teutonio de Braganza - it is found in

the Toledo codex, which will be referred to again shortly.

The text, divided into seventy-three short chapters, has no chapter-divisions in the ordinary

sense of the phrase, though the author has left interlinear indications showing where each chapter

should begin. The chapter-headings form a table of contents at the end of the manuscript and only

two of them (55 and 56) are in St. Teresa’s own writing. As the remainder, however, are in a

feminine hand of the sixteenth century, they may have been dictated by her to one of her nuns: they

are almost identical with those which she herself wrote at a later date in the autograph of Valladolid.

There are a considerable number of emendations in this text, most of them made by the Saint

herself, whose practice was to obliterate any unwanted word so completely as to make it almost

illegible. None of such words or phrases was restored in the autograph of Valladolid—a sure

indication that it was she who erased them, or at least that she approved of their having been erased.

There are fewer annotations and additions in other hands than in the autographs of any of her

remaining works, and those few are of little importance. This may be due to the fact that a later

redaction of the work was made for the use of her convents and for publication: the Escorial

manuscript would have circulated very little and would never have been subjected to a minute

critical examination. Most of what annotations and corrections of this kind there are were made by

the Saint’s confessor, P. García de Toledo, whom, among others, she asked to examine the

manuscript.

There is no direct indication in the manuscript of the date of its composition. We know that it

was written at St. Joseph’s, Ávila, for the edification and instruction of the first nuns of the Reform,

some precision. [But even then there is no indication as to how long the composition took and when

it was completed.]

1 Cf. Vol. I, pp. 2-5, above

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St. Teresa of Avila The Way of Perfection

A complication occurs in the existence, at the end of a copy of the Way of perfection which

belongs to the Discalced Carmelite nuns of Salamanca, and contains corrections in St. Teresa’s

hand, of a note, in the writing of the copyist, which says: This book was written in the year

sixty-two—I mean fifteen hundred and sixty-two." There follow some lines in the writing of St.

Teresa, which make no allusion to this date; her silence might be taken as confirming it (though

she displays no great interest in chronological exactness) were it not absolutely impossible to

reconcile such a date with the early chapters of the book, which make it quite clear that the

community of thirteen nuns was fully established when they were written (Chap. 4, below). There

could not possibly have been so many nuns at St. Joseph’s before late in the year 1563, in which

Mar de San Jerónimo and Isabel de Santo Domingo took the habit, and it is doubtful if St. Teresa

could conceivably have begun the book before the end of that year. Even, therefore, if the reference

in the preface to the Way of perfection were to the first draft of the Life (1562), and not to that

book as we know it, there would still be the insuperable difficulty raised by this piece of internal

beginning of the Way of perfection the date 1565-6.

VALLADOLID AUTOGRAPH. In writing for her Ávila nuns, St. Teresa used language much

more simple, familiar and homely than in any of her other works. But when she began to establish

more foundations and her circle of readers widened, this language must have seemed to her too

affectionately intimate, and some of her figures and images may have struck her as too domestic

and trivial, for a more general and scattered public. So she conceived the idea of rewriting the book

in a more formal style; it is the autograph of this redaction which is in the possession of the Discalced

Carmelite nuns of Valladolid.

The additions, omissions and modifications in this new autograph are more considerable than

is generally realized. From the preface onwards, there is no chapter without its emendations and

in many there are additions of whole paragraphs. The Valladolid autograph, therefore, is in no sense

a copy, or even a recast, of the first draft, but a free and bold treatment of it. As a general rule, a

second draft, though often more correctly written and logically arranged than its original, is less

flexible, fluent and spontaneous. It is hard to say how far this is the case here. Undoubtedly some

of the charm of the author’s natural simplicity vanishes, but the corresponding gain in clarity and

precision is generally considered greater than the loss. Nearly every change she makes is an

improvement; and this not only in stylistic matters, for one of the greatest of her improvements is

the lengthening of the chapters and their reduction in number from 73 to 42, to the great advantage

of the book’s symmetry and unity.

It is clear that St. Teresa intended the Valladolid redaction to be the definitive form of her book

since she had so large a number of copies of it made for her friends and spiritual daughters: among

these were the copy which she sent for publication to Don Teutonio de Braganza and that used for

the first collected edition of her works by Fray Luis de León. For the same reason this redaction

has always been given preference over its predecessor by the Discalced Carmelites.

2 See also the reference, in the "General Argument" of the Valladolid redaction, to her being Prioress of St. Joseph’s when the

book was written. Presumably the original draft is meant.

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St. Teresa of Avila The Way of Perfection

In the text of each of the chapters, of the Valladolid autograph there are omissions—some

merely verbal, often illustrating the author’s aim in making the new redaction, others more

in the period of her fullest powers, the greater freshness and individuality of the Escorial manuscript

are engaging qualities, and there are many passages in it, omitted from the later version, which one

would be sorry to sacrifice.

In what form, then, should the book be presented to English readers? It is not surprising if this

question is difficult to answer, since varying procedures have been adopted for the presentation of

it in Spain. Most of them amount briefly to a re-editing of the Valladolid manuscript. The first

edition of the book, published at Évora in the year 1583, follows this manuscript, apparently using

a copy (the so-called "Toledo" copy) made by Ana de San Pedro and corrected by St. Teresa; it

contains a considerable number of errors, however, and omits one entire chapter—the thirty-first,

which deals with the Prayer of Quiet, a subject that was arousing some controversy at the time

when the edition was being prepared. In 1585, a second edition, edited by Fray Jerónimo Gracián,

was published at Salamanca: the text of this follows that of the Évora edition very closely, as

apparently does the text of a rare edition published at Valencia in 1586. When Fray Luis de Leon

used the Valladolid manuscript as the foundation of his text (1588) he inserted for the first time

paragraphs and phrases from that of El Escorial, as well as admitting variants from the copies

corrected by the author: he is not careful however, to indicate how and where his edition differs

from the manuscript.

Since 1588, most of the Spanish editions have followed Fray Luis de León with greater or less

exactness. The principal exception is the well-known "Biblioteca de Autores Españoles" edition,

in which La Fuente followed a copy of the then almost forgotten Escorial manuscript, indicating

in footnotes some of the variant readings in the codex of Valladolid. In the edition of 1883, the

work of a Canon of Valladolid Cathedral, Francisco Herrero Bayona, the texts of the two manuscripts

are reproduced in parallel columns. P. Silverio de Santa Teresa gives the place of honour to the

Valladolid codex, on which he bases his text, showing only the principal variants of the Escorial

manuscript but printing the Escorial text in full in an appendix as well as the text of the Toledo

copy referred to above.

The first translations of this book into English, by Woodhead (1675: reprinted 1901) and Dalton

(1852), were based, very naturally, on the text of Luis de León, which in less critical ages than our

own enjoyed great prestige and was considered quite authoritative. The edition published in 1911

by the Benedictines of Stanbrook, described on its title-page as "including all the variants" from

both the Escorial and the Valladolid manuscript, uses Herrero Bayona and gives an eclectic text

based on the two originals but with no indications as to which is which. The editors’ original idea

of using one text only, and showing variants in footnotes, was rejected in the belief that "such an

arrangement would prove bewildering for the generality of readers" and that anyone who could

claim the title of "student" would be able to read the original Spanish and would have access to the

Herrero Bayona edition. Father Zimmerman, in his introduction, claimed that while the divergences

between the manuscripts are sometimes "so great that the [Stanbrook] translation resembles a

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St. Teresa of Avila The Way of Perfection

mosaic composed of a large number of small bits, skilfully combined", "the work has been done

most conscientiously, and while nothing has been added to the text of the Saint, nothing has been

omitted, except, of course, what would have been mere repetition".

This first edition of the Benedictines’ translation furnished the general reader with an attractive

version of what many consider St. Teresa’s most attractive book, but soon after it was published a

much more intelligent and scholarly interest began to be taken in the Spanish mystics and that not

only by students with ready access to the Spanish original and ability to read it. So, when a new

edition of the Stanbrook translation was called for, the editors decided to indicate the passages from

the Escorial edition which had been embodied in the text by enclosing these in square brackets. In

1911, Father Zimmerman, suspecting that the procedure then adopted by the translators would not

"meet with the approval of scholars", had justified it by their desire "to benefit the souls of the

faithful rather than the intellect of the student"; but now, apparently, he thought it practicable to

achieve both these aims at once. This resolution would certainly have had the support of St. Teresa,

who in this very book describes intelligence as a useful staff to carry on the way of perfection. The

careful comparison of two separate versions of such a work of genius may benefit the soul of an

intelligent reader even more than the careful reading of a version compounded of both by someone

else.

When I began to consider the preparation of the present translation it seemed to me that an

attempt might be made to do a little more for the reader who combined intelligence with devoutness

than had been done already. I had no hesitation about basing my version on the Valladolid MS.,

which is far the better of the two, whether we consider the aptness of its illustrations, the clarity of

its expression, the logical development of its argument or its greater suitability for general reading.

At the same time, no Teresan who has studied the Escorial text can fail to have an affection for it:

its greater intimacy and spontaneity and its appeal to personal experience make it one of the most

Foundations, it reveals her better than any. Passages from the Escorial MS. must therefore be given:

thus far I followed the reasoning of the Stanbrook nuns.

Where this translation diverges from theirs is in the method of presentation. On the one hand

I desired, as St. Teresa must have desired, that it should be essentially her mature revision of the

book that should be read. For this reason I have been extremely conservative as to the interpolations

admitted into the text itself: I have rejected, for example, the innumerable phrases which St. Teresa

seems to have cut out in making her new redaction because they were trivial or repetitive, because

they weaken rather than reinforce her argument, because they say what is better said elsewhere,

the author’s flow of thought, and sometimes, indeed, are irrelevant to it. I hope it is not impertinent

to add that, in the close study which the adoption of this procedure has involved, I have acquired

a respect and admiration for St. Teresa as a reviser, to whom, as far as I know, no one who has

written upon her has done full justice. Her shrewdness, realism and complete lack of vanity make

her an admirable editor of her own work, and, in debating whether or no to incorporate some phrase

or passage in my text I have often asked myself: Would St. Teresa have included or omitted this if

she had been making a fresh revision for a world-wide public over a period of centuries?"

3 E.g., at places where a chapter ends in E. but not in V.

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St. Teresa of Avila The Way of Perfection

At the same time, though admitting only a minimum of interpolations into my text, I have given

the reader all the other important variants in footnotes. I cannot think, as Father Zimmerman

apparently thought, that anyone can find the presence of a few notes at the foot of each page

"bewildering". Those for whom they have no interest may ignore them; others, in studying them,

may rest assured that the only variants not included (and this applies to the variants from the Toledo

copy as well as from the Escorial MS.) are such as have no significance in a translation. I have

been rather less meticulous here than in my edition of St. John of the Cross, where textual problems

assumed greater importance. Thus, except where there has been some special reason for doing so,

I have not recorded alterations in the order of clauses or words; the almost regular use by E. of the

second person of the plural where V. has the first; the frequent and often apparently purposeless

changes of tense; such substitutions, in the Valladolid redaction, as those of "Dios" or "Señior mío"

for "Señior"; or merely verbal paraphrases as (to take an example at random) "Todo esto que he

dicho es para . . ." for "En todo esto que he dicho no trato . . ." Where I have given variants which

may seem trivial (such as "hermanas" for "hijas", or the insertion of an explanatory word, like

"digo") the reason is generally that there seems to me a possibility that some difference in tone is

intended, or that the alternative phrase gives some slight turn to the thought which the phrase in

the text does not.

The passages from the Escorial version which I have allowed into my text are printed in italics.

Thus, without their being given undue prominence (and readers of the Authorized Version of the

Bible will know how seldom they can recall what words are italicized even in the passages they

know best) it is clear at a glance how much of the book was intended by its author to be read by a

wider public than the nuns of St. Joseph’s. The interpolations may be as brief as a single expressive

word, or as long as a paragraph, or even a chapter: the original Chapter 17 of the Valladolid MS.,

for example, which contains the famous similitude of the Game of Chess, was torn out of the codex

by its author (presumably with the idea that so secular an illustration was out of place) and has been

restored from the Escorial MS. as part of Chapter 16 of this translation. No doubt the striking

bullfight metaphor at the end of Chapter 39 was suppressed in the Valladolid codex for the same

reason. With these omissions may be classed a number of minor ones—of words or phrases which

to the author may have seemed too intimate or colloquial but do not seem so to us. Other words

and phrases have apparently been suppressed because St. Teresa thought them redundant, whereas

a later reader finds that they make a definite contribution to the sense or give explicitness and detail

to pure oversight. For the omission of other passages it is difficult to find any reason, so good are

they: the conclusion of Chapter 38 and the opening of Chapter 41 are cases in point.

The numbering of the chapters, it should be noted, follows neither of the two texts, but is that

traditionally employed in the printed editions. The chapter headings are also drawn up on an eclectic

basis, though here the Valladolid text is generally followed.

The system I have adopted not only assures the reader that he will be reading everything that

St. Teresa wrote and nothing that she did not write, but that he can discern almost at a glance, what

she meant to be read by her little group of nuns at St. Joseph’s and also how she intended her work

4 One special case of this class is the suppression in V. of one out of two or three almost but not quite synonymous adjectives

referring to the same noun.

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St. Teresa of Avila The Way of Perfection

to appear in its more definitive form. Thus we can see her both as the companion and Mother and

as the writer and Foundress. In both roles she is equally the Saint.

But it should be made clear that, while incorporating in my text all important passages from

the Escorial draft omitted in that of Valladolid, I have thought it no part of my task to provide a

complete translation of the Escorial draft alone, and that, therefore, in order to avoid the

multiplication of footnotes, I have indicated only the principal places where some expression in

the later draft is not to be found in the earlier. In other words, although, by omitting the italicized

portions of my text, one will be able to have as exact a translation of the Valladolid version as it is

possible to get, the translation of the Escorial draft will be only approximate. This is the sole

concession I have made to the ordinary reader as opposed to the student, and it is hardly conceivable,

I think, that any student to whom this could matter would be unable to read the original Spanish.

One final note is necessary on the important Toledo copy, the text of which P. Silverio also

prints in full. This text I have collated with that of the Valladolid autograph, from which it derives.

In it both St. Teresa herself and others have made corrections and additions—more, in fact, than

in any of the other copies extant. No attempt has been made here either to show what the Toledo

copy omits or to include those of its corrections and additions—by far the largest number of

them—which are merely verbal and unimportant, and many of which, indeed, could not be embodied

in a translation at all. But the few additions which are really worth noting have been incorporated

in the text (in square brackets so as to distinguish them from the Escorial additions) and all

corrections which have seemed to me of any significance will be found in footnotes.

General Argument of this Book

J. H. S.

This book treats of maxims and counsels which Teresa of Jesus gives to her daughters and

sisters in religion, belonging to the Convents which, with the favour of Our Lord and of the glorious

Virgin, Mother of God, Our Lady, she has founded according to the First Rule of Our Lady of

Carmel. In particular she addresses it to the sisters of the Convent of Saint Joseph of Ávila, which

them from those of P. Silverio, as elsewhere. Ordinary brackets, in the footnote translations, are placed round words inserted to

complete the sense.

6 This title, in St. Teresa’s hand, appears on the first page of the Valladolid autograph (V.) which, as we have said in the Introduction,

is the basis of the text here used. The Escorial autograph (E.) has the words "Treatise of the Way of Perfection" in an unknown

hand, followed by the Prologue, in St. Teresa’s. The Toledo copy (T.) begins with the Protestation.

7 These lines, also in St. Teresa’s hand, follow the title in the Valladolid autograph. P. Bañez added, in his own writing, the words:

"I have seen this book and my opinion of it is written at the end and signed with my name." Cf. ch. 42, below.

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St. Teresa of Avila The Way of Perfection

In all that I shall say in this Book, I submit to what is taught by Our Mother, the Holy Roman

Church; if there is anything in it contrary to this, it will be without my knowledge. Therefore, for

the love of Our Lord, I beg the learned men who are to revise it to look at it very carefully and to

amend any faults of this nature which there may be in it and the many others which it will have of

other kinds. If there is anything good in it, let this be to the glory and honour of God and in the

service of His most sacred Mother, our Patroness and Lady, whose habit, though all unworthily, I

wear.

J. H. S.

The sisters of this Convent of Saint Joseph, knowing that I had had leave from Father Presentado

to write certain things about prayer, which it seems I may be able to succeed in doing since I have

had to do with many holy and spiritual persons, have, out of their great love for me, so earnestly

begged me to say something to them about this that I have resolved to obey them. I realize that the

great love which they have for me may render the imperfection and the poverty of my style in what

I shall say to them more acceptable than other books which are very ably written by those who

may be pleased to enable me to say something concerning the way and method of life which it is

fitting should be practised in this house. If I do not succeed in doing this, Father Presentado, who

will first read what I have written, will either put it right or burn it, so that I shall have lost nothing

by obeying these servants of God, and they will see how useless I am when His Majesty does not

help me.

My intent is to suggest a few remedies for a number of small temptations which come from the

devil, and which, because they are so slight, are apt to pass unnoticed. I shall also write of other

things, according as the Lord reveals them to me and as they come to my mind; since I do not know

what I am going to say I cannot set it down in suitable order; and I think it is better for me not to

do so, for it is quite unsuitable that I should be writing in this way at all. May the Lord lay His hand

by D. Teutonio de Braganza.

9 The words "Fray Domingo Bañes" are crossed out, probably by P. Bañez himself. T. has: "from the Father Master Fray Domingo

Bañez, Professor at Salamanca." Bañez was appointed to a Chair at Salamanca University in 1577.

of God, and trusting in their prayers, as he himself says."

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St. Teresa of Avila The Way of Perfection

on all that I do so that it may be in accordance with His holy will; this is always my desire, although

my actions may be as imperfect as I myself am.

I know that I am lacking neither in love nor in desire to do all I can to help the souls of my

sisters to make great progress in the service of the Lord. It may be that this love, together with my

years and the experience which I have of a number of convents, will make me more successful in

writing about small matters than learned men can be. For these, being themselves strong and handing

other and more important occupations, do not always pay such heed to things which in themselves

seem of no importance but which may do great harm to persons as weak as we women are. For the

snares laid by the devil for strictly cloistered nuns are numerous and he finds that he needs new

weapons if he is to do them harm. I, being a wicked woman, have defended myself but ill, and so

I should like my sisters to take warning by me. I shall speak of nothing of which I have no experience,

A few days ago I was commanded to write an account of my life in which I also dealt with

certain matters concerning prayer. It may be that my confessor will not wish you to see this, for

which reason I shall set down here some of the things which I said in that book and others which

may also seem to me necessary. May the Lord direct this, as I have begged Him to do, and order

it for His greater glory. Amen.

When this convent was originally founded, for the reasons set down in the book which, as I

say, I have already written, and also because of certain wonderful revelations by which the Lord

showed me how well He would be served in this house, it was not my intention that there should

be so much austerity in external matters, nor that it should have no regular income: on the contrary,

I should have liked there to be no possibility of want. I acted, in short, like the weak and wretched

woman that I am, although I did so with good intentions and not out of consideration for my own

comfort.

At about this time there came to my notice the harm and havoc that were being wrought in

me very much, and, as though I could do anything, or be of any help in the matter, I wept before

the Lord and entreated Him to remedy this great evil. I felt that I would have laid down a thousand

lives to save a single one of all the souls that were being lost there. And, seeing that I was a woman,

yearning was, and still is, that, as He has so many enemies and so few friends, these last should be

11 French Protestantism which had been repressed during the reigns of Francis I and Henry II, increased after the latter’s death in

1559, and was still doing so at the time of the foundation of St. Joseph’s.

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St. Teresa of Avila The Way of Perfection

trusty ones, I determined to do the little that was in me—namely, to follow the evangelical counsels

as perfectly as I could, and to see that these few nuns who are here should do the same, confiding

in the great goodness of God, Who never fails to help those who resolve to forsake everything for

His sake. As they are all that I have ever painted them as being in my desires, I hoped that their

virtues would more than counteract my defects, and I should thus be able to give the Lord some

pleasure, and all of us, by busying ourselves in prayer for those who are defenders of the Church,

and for the preachers and learned men who defend her, should do everything we could to aid this

Lord of mine Who is so much oppressed by those to whom He has shown so much good that it

seems as though these traitors would send Him to the Cross again and that He would have nowhere

to lay His head.

Oh, my Redeemer, my heart cannot conceive this without being sorely distressed! What has

become of Christians now? Must those who owe Thee most always be those who distress Thee?

Those to whom Thou doest the greatest kindnesses, whom Thou dost choose for Thy friends, among

whom Thou dost move, communicating Thyself to them through the Sacraments? Do they not

It is certain, my Lord, that in these days withdrawal from the world means no sacrifice at all.

Since worldly people have so little respect for Thee, what can we expect them to have for us? Can

it be that we deserve that they should treat us any better than they have treated Thee? Have we done

more for them than Thou hast done that they should be friendly to us? What then? What can we

expect—we who, through the goodness of the Lord, are free from that pestilential infection, and

do not, like those others, belong to the devil? They have won severe punishment at his hands and

none the less it breaks my heart to see so many souls travelling to perdition. I would the evil were

not so great and I did not see more being lost every day.

Oh, my sisters in Christ! Help me to entreat this of the Lord, Who has brought you together

here for that very purpose. This is your vocation; this must be your business; these must be your

desires; these your tears; these your petitions. Let us not pray for worldly things, my sisters. It

makes me laugh, and yet it makes me sad, when I hear of the things which people come here to

beg us to pray to God for; we are to ask His Majesty to give them money and to provide them with

incomes—I wish that some of these people would entreat God to enable them to trample all such

things beneath their feet. Their intentions are quite good, and I do as they ask because I see that

they are really devout people, though I do not myself believe that God ever hears me when I pray

for such things. The world is on fire. Men try to condemn Christ once again, as it were, for they

bring a thousand false witnesses against Him. They would raze His Church to the ground—and are

we to waste our time upon things which, if God were to grant them, would perhaps bring one soul

less to Heaven? No, my sisters, this is no time to treat with God for things of little importance.

Were it not necessary to consider human frailty, which finds satisfaction in every kind of

help—and it is always a good thing if we can be of any help to people—I should like it to be

understood that it is not for things like these that God should be importuned with such anxiety.

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St. Teresa of Avila The Way of Perfection

Do not think, my sisters, that because you do not go about trying to please people in the world

you will lack food. You will not, I assure you: never try to sustain yourselves by human artifices,

or you will die of hunger, and rightly so. Keep your eyes fixed upon your Spouse: it is for Him to

sustain you; and, if He is pleased with you, even those who like you least will give you food, if

unwillingly, as you have found by experience. If you should do as I say and yet die of hunger, then

happy are the nuns of Saint Joseph’s! For the love of the Lord, let us not forget this: you have

forgone a regular income; forgo worry about food as well, or thou will lose everything. Let those

whom the Lord wishes to live on an income do so: if that is their vocation, they are perfectly

justified; but for us to do so, sisters, would be inconsistent.

Worrying about getting money from other people seems to me like thinking about what other

people enjoy. However much you worry, you will not make them change their minds nor will they

become desirous of giving you alms. Leave these anxieties to Him Who can move everyone, Who

is the Lord of all money and of all who possess money. It is by His command that we have come

and let us have no fear that He will fail us; if He should ever do so it will be for our greater good,

just as the saints failed to keep their lives when they were slain for the Lord’s sake, and their bliss

was increased through their martyrdom. We should be making a good exchange if we could have

done with this life quickly and enjoy everlasting satiety.

Remember, sisters, that this will be important when I am dead; and that is why I am leaving it

by experience what a great help it will be to you. It is when I possess least that I have the fewest

worries and the Lord knows that, as far as I can tell, I am more afflicted when there is excess of

anything than when there is lack of it; I am not sure if that is the Lord’s doing, but I have noticed

that He provides for us immediately. To act otherwise would be to deceive the world by pretending

to be poor when we are not poor in spirit but only outwardly. My conscience would give me a bad

time. It seems to me it would be like stealing what was being given us, as one might say; for I

should feel as if we were rich people asking alms: please God this may never be so. Those who

worry too much about the alms that they are likely to be given will find that sooner or later this bad

habit will lead them to go and ask for something which they do not need, and perhaps from someone

who needs it more than they do. Such a person would gain rather than lose by giving it us but we

should certainly be the worse off for having it. God forbid this should ever happen, my daughters;

if it were likely to do so, I should prefer you to have a regular income.

I beg you, for the love of God, just as if I were begging alms for you, never to allow this to

occupy your thoughts. If the very least of you ever hears of such a thing happening in this house,

cry out about it to His Majesty and speak to your Superior. Tell her humbly that she is doing wrong;

14 An apparent reference to St. Mark xiii, 31.

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this is so serious a matter that it may cause true poverty gradually to disappear. I hope in the Lord

that this will not be so and that He will not forsake His servants; and for that reason, if for no other,

what you have told me to write may be useful to you as a reminder.

My daughters must believe that it is for their own good that the Lord has enabled me to realize

in some small degree what blessings are to be found in holy poverty. Those of them who practise

it will also realize this, though perhaps not as clearly as I do; for, although I had professed poverty,

I was not only without poverty of spirit, but my spirit was devoid of all restraint. Poverty is good

and contains within itself all the good things in the world. It is a great domain— I mean that he

who cares nothing for the good things of the world has dominion over them all. What do kings and

lords matter to me if I have no desire to possess their money, or to please them, if by so doing I

should cause the least displeasure to God? And what do their honours mean to me if I have realized

that the chief honour of a poor man consists in his being truly poor?

For my own part, I believe that honour and money nearly always go together, and that he who

desires honour never hates money, while he who hates money cares little for honour. Understand

may be, he is apt rather to be despised by it. With true poverty there goes a different kind of honour

to which nobody can take objection. I mean that, if poverty is embraced for God’s sake alone, no

one has to be pleased save God. It is certain that a man who has no need of anyone has many friends:

in my own experience I have found this to be very true.

A great deal has been written about this virtue which I cannot understand, still less express, and

I should only be making things worse if I were to eulogize it, so I will say no more about it now. I

have only spoken of what I have myself experienced and I confess that I have been so much absorbed

that until now I have hardly realized what I have been writing. However, it has been said now. Our

arms are holy poverty, which was so greatly esteemed and so strictly observed by our holy Fathers

at the beginning of the foundation of our Order. (Someone who knows about this tells me that they

never kept anything from one day to the next.) For the love of the Lord, then, [I beg you] now that

the rule of poverty is less perfectly observed as regards outward things, let us strive to observe it

inwardly. Our life lasts only for a couple of hours; our reward is boundless; and, if there were no

reward but to follow the counsels given us by the Lord, to imitate His Majesty in any degree would

bring us a great recompense.

These arms must appear on our banners and at all costs we must keep this rule—as regards our

house, our clothes, our speech, and (which is much more important) our thoughts. So long as this

is done, there need be no fear, with the help of God, that religious observances in this house will

decline, for, as Saint Clare said, the walls of poverty are very strong. It was with these walls, she

said, and with those of humility, that she wished to surround her convents; and assuredly, if the

rule of poverty is truly kept, both chastity and all the other virtues are fortified much better than

by the most sumptuous edifices. Have a care to this, for the love of God; and this I beg of you by

His blood. If I may say what my conscience bids me, I should wish that, on the day when you build

It seems very wrong, my daughters, that great houses should be built with the money of the

poor; may God forbid that this should be done; let our houses be small and poor in every way. Let

15 In the Spanish the subject is in the singular: P. Bañez inserted "the house", but crossed this out later.

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us to some extent resemble our King, Who had no house save the porch in Bethlehem where He

was born and the Cross on which He died. These were houses where little comfort could be found.

them: they are moved by various holy intentions. But any corner is sufficient for thirteen poor

women. If grounds should be thought necessary on account of the strictness of the enclosure, and

for a large ornate convent, with a lot of buildings—God preserve us from that! Always remember

that these things will all fall down on the Day of Judgment, and who knows how soon that will be?

It would hardly look well if the house of thirteen poor women made a great noise when it fell,

for those who are really poor must make no noise: unless they live a noiseless life people will never

take pity on them. And how happy my sisters will be if they see someone freed from hell by means

of the alms which he has given them; and this is quite possible, since they are strictly bound to

offer continual prayer for persons who give them food. It is also God’s will that, although the food

comes from Him, we should thank the persons by whose means He gives it to us: let there be no

neglect of this.

I do not remember what I had begun to say, for I have strayed from my subject. But I think this

must have been the Lord’s will, for I never intended to write what I have said here. May His Majesty

always keep us in His hand so that we may never fall. Amen.

Let us now return to the principal reason for which the Lord has brought us together in this

house, for which reason I am most desirous that we may be able to please His Majesty. Seeing how

great are the evils of the present day and how no human strength will suffice to quench the fire

kindled by these heretics (though attempts have been made to organize opposition to them, as

though such a great and rapidly spreading evil could be remedied by force of arms), it seems to me

that it is like a war in which the enemy has overrun the whole country, and the Lord of the country,

hard pressed, retires into a city, which he causes to be well fortified, and whence from time to time

he is able to attack. Those who are in the city are picked men who can do more by themselves than

they could do with the aid of many soldiers if they were cowards. Often this method gains the

victory; or, if the garrison does not conquer, it is at least not conquered; for, as it contains no traitors,

16 St. Teresa liked to have hermitages in the grounds of her convents to give the nuns opportunity for solitude.

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but picked men, it can be reduced only by hunger. In our own conflict, however, we cannot be

forced to surrender by hunger; we can die but we cannot be conquered.

Now why have I said this? So that you may understand, my sisters, that what we have to ask

of God is that, in this little castle of ours, inhabited as it is by good Christians, none of us may go

over to the enemy. We must ask God, too, to make the captains in this castle or city—that is, the

preachers and theologians—highly proficient in the way of the Lord. And as most of these are

religious, we must pray that they may advance in perfection, and in the fulfilment of their vocation,

for this is very needful. For, as I have already said, it is the ecclesiastical and not the secular arm

which must defend us. And as we can do nothing by either of these means to help our King, let us

strive to live in such a way that our prayers may be of avail to help these servants of God, who, at

the cost of so much toil, have fortified themselves with learning and virtuous living and have

laboured to help the Lord.

You may ask why I emphasize this so much and why I say we must help people who are better

than ourselves. I will tell you, for I am not sure if you properly understand as yet how much we

owe to the Lord for bringing us to a place where we are so free from business matters, occasions

of sin and the society of worldly people. This is a very great favour and one which is not granted

to the persons of whom I have been speaking, nor is it fitting that it should be granted to them; it

would be less so now, indeed, than at any other time, for it is they who must strengthen the weak

and give courage to God’s little ones. A fine thing it would be for soldiers if they lost their captains!

These preachers and theologians have to live among men and associate with men and stay in palaces

and sometimes even behave as people in palaces do in outward matters. Do you think, my daughters,

that it is an easy matter to have to do business with the world, to live in the world, to engage in the

affairs of the world, and, as I have said, to live as worldly men do, and yet inwardly to be strangers

to the world, and enemies of the world, like persons who are in exile—to be, in short, not men but

angels? Yet unless these persons act thus, they neither deserve to bear the title of captain nor to be

allowed by the Lord to leave their cells, for they would do more harm than good. This is no time

for imperfections in those whose duty it is to teach.

And if these teachers are not inwardly fortified by realizing the great importance of spurning

everything beneath their feet and by being detached from things which come to an end on earth,

and attached to things eternal, they will betray this defect in themselves, however much they may

try to hide it. For with whom are they dealing but with the world? They need not fear: the world

will not pardon them or fail to observe their imperfections. Of the good things they do many will

pass unnoticed, or will even not be considered good at all; but they need not fear that any evil or

imperfect thing they do will be overlooked. I am amazed when I wonder from whom they learned

about perfection, when, instead of practising it themselves (for they think they have no obligation

to do that and have done quite enough by a reasonable observance of the Commandments), they

condemn others, and at times mistake virtue for indulgence. Do not think, then, that they need but

little Divine favour in this great battle upon which they have entered; on the contrary, they need a

great deal.

I beg you to try to live in such a way as to be worthy to obtain two things from God. First, that

there may be many of these very learned and religious men who have the qualifications for their

task which I have described, and that the Lord may prepare those who are not completely prepared

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very heavy one, the Lord may have them in His hand so that they may be delivered from all the

dangers that are in the world, and, while sailing on this perilous sea, may shut their ears to the song

of the sirens. If we can prevail with God in the smallest degree about this, we shall be fighting His

battle even while living a cloistered life and I shall consider as well spent all the trouble to which

and Empress shall be kept in its original perfection.

Do not think that offering this petition continually is useless. Some people think it a hardship

not to be praying all the time for their own souls. Yet what better prayer could there be than this?

You may be worried because you think it will do nothing to lessen your pains in Purgatory, but

actually praying in this way will relieve you of some of them and anything else that is left—well,

let it remain. After all, what does it matter if I am in Purgatory until the Day of Judgment provided

a single soul should be saved through my prayer? And how much less does it matter if many souls

profit by it and the Lord is honoured! Make no account of any pain which has an end if by means

of it any greater service can be rendered to Him Who bore such pains for us. Always try to find out

wherein lies the greatest perfection. And for the love of the Lord I beg you to beseech His Majesty

to hear us in this; I, miserable creature though I am, beseech this of His Majesty, since it is for His

glory and the good of His Church, which are my only wishes.

It seems over-bold of me to think that I can do anything towards obtaining this. But I have

confidence, my Lord, in these servants of Thine who are here, knowing that they neither desire nor

strive after anything but to please Thee. For Thy sake they have left the little they possessed, wishing

they had more so that they might serve Thee with it. Since Thou, my Creator, art not ungrateful, I

do not think Thou wilt fail to do what they beseech of Thee, for when Thou wert in the world, Lord,

Hear us not when we ask Thee for honours, endowments, money, or anything that has to do

with the world; but why shouldst Thou not hear us, Eternal Father, when we ask only for the honour

of Thy Son, when we would forfeit a thousand honours and a thousand lives for Thy sake? Not for

ourselves, Lord, for we do not deserve to be heard, but for the blood of Thy Son and for His merits.

Oh, Eternal Father! Surely all these scourgings and insults and grievous tortures will not be

forgotten. How, then, my Creator, can a heart so [merciful and] loving as Thine endure that an act

18 The italicized lines which follow, and are in the nature of a digression, do not appear in V., and in E. they have been crossed

out.

19 Here follow two erased lines which are illegible but for the words "Thou didst honour the world". The exact sense of the following

words ("We can . . . in secret") is affected by these illegible lines and must be considered uncertain.

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which was performed by Thy Son in order to please Thee the more (for He loved Thee most deeply

and Thou didst command Him to love us) should be treated as lightly as those heretics treat the

Most Holy Sacrament today, in taking it from its resting-place when they destroy the churches?

Could it be that [Thy Son and our Redeemer] had failed to do something to please Thee? No: He

fulfilled everything. Was it not enough, Eternal Father, that while He lived He had no place to lay

which He can invite His friends, seeing how weak we are and knowing that those who have to

labour need such food to sustain them? Had He not already more than sufficiently paid for the sin

of Adam? Has this most loving Lamb to pay once more whenever we relapse into sin? Permit it

not, my Emperor; let Thy Majesty be appeased; look not upon our sins but upon our redemption

by Thy Most Sacred Son, upon His merits and upon those of His glorious Mother and of all the

saints and martyrs who have died for Thee.

Alas, Lord, who is it that has dared to make this petition in the name of all? What a poor mediator

am I, my daughters, to gain a hearing for you and to present your petition! When this Sovereign

Judge sees how bold I am it may well move Him to anger, as would be both right and just. But

behold, Lord, Thou art a God of mercy; have mercy upon this poor sinner, this miserable worm

who is so bold with Thee. Behold my desires, my God, and the tears with which I beg this of Thee;

forget my deeds, for Thy name’s sake, and have pity upon all these souls who are being lost, and

help Thy Church. Do not permit more harm to be wrought to Christendom, Lord; give light to this

darkness.

and to beseech Him to give her humility, as you are bound to do. I do not charge you to pray

particularly for kings and prelates of the Church, especially for our Bishop, for I know that those

of you now here are very careful about this and so I think it is needless for me to say more. Let

those who are to come remember that, if they have a prelate who is holy, those under him will be

holy too, and let them realize how important it is to bring him continually before the Lord. If your

prayers and desires and disciplines and fasts are not performed for the intentions of which I have

spoken, reflect [and believe] that you are not carrying out the work or fulfilling the object for which

the Lord has brought you here.

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Now, daughters, you have looked at the great enterprise which we are trying to carry out. What

kind of persons shall we have to be if we are not to be considered over-bold in the eyes of God and

of the world? It is clear that we need to labour hard and it will be a great help to us if we have

sublime thoughts so that we may strive to make our actions sublime also. If we endeavour to observe

our Rule and Constitutions in the fullest sense, and with great care, I hope in the Lord that He will

grant our requests. I am not asking anything new of you, my daughters—only that we should hold

to our profession, which, as it is our vocation, we are bound to do, although there are many ways

of holding to it.

Our Primitive Rules tells us to pray without ceasing. Provided we do this with all possible care

(and it is the most important thing of all) we shall not fail to observe the fasts, disciplines and

periods of silence which the Order commands; for, as you know, if prayer is to be genuine it must

be reinforced with these things—prayer cannot be accompanied by self-indulgence.

It is about prayer that you have asked me to say something to you. As an acknowledgment of

what I shall say, I beg you to read frequently and with a good will what I have said about it thus

far, and to put this into practice. Before speaking of the interior life—that is, of prayer—I shall

speak of certain things which those who attempt to walk along the way of prayer must of necessity

practise. So necessary are these that, even though not greatly given to contemplation, people who

have them can advance a long way in the Lord’s service, while, unless they have them, they cannot

possibly be great contemplatives, and, if they think they are, they are much mistaken. May the Lord

help me in this task and teach me what I must say, so that it may be to His glory. Amen.

Do not suppose, my friends and sisters, that I am going to charge you to do a great many things;

may it please the Lord that we do the things which our holy Fathers ordained and practised and by

doing which they merited that name. It would be wrong of us to look for any other way or to learn

from anyone else. There are only three things which I will explain at some length and which are

taken from our Constitution itself. It is essential that we should understand how very important

they are to us in helping us to preserve that peace, both inward and outward, which the Lord so

earnestly recommended to us. One of these is love for each other; the second, detachment from all

created things; the third, true humility, which, although I put it last, is the most important of the

three and embraces all the rest.

With regard to the first—namely, love for each other— this is of very great importance; for

there is nothing, however annoying, that cannot easily be borne by those who love each other, and

anything which causes annoyance must be quite exceptional. If this commandment were kept in

the world, as it should be, I believe it would take us a long way towards the keeping of the rest;

but, what with having too much love for each other or too little, we never manage to keep it perfectly.

It may seem that for us to have too much love for each other cannot be wrong, but I do not think

anyone who had not been an eye-witness of it would believe how much evil and how many

imperfections can result from this. The devil sets many snares here which the consciences of those

who aim only in a rough-and-ready way at pleasing God seldom observe— indeed, they think they

are acting virtuously—but those who are aiming at perfection understand what they are very well:

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little by little they deprive the will of the strength which it needs if it is to employ itself wholly in

the love of God.

This is even more applicable to women than to men and the harm which it does to community

life is very serious. One result of it is that all the nuns do not love each other equally: some injury

done to a friend is resented; a nun desires to have something to give to her friend or tries to make

time for talking to her, and often her object in doing this is to tell her how fond she is of her, and

other irrelevant things, rather than how much she loves God. These intimate friendships are seldom

so as to create factions within religious Orders. When a friendship has for its object the service of

His Majesty, it at once becomes clear that the will is devoid of passion and indeed is helping to

conquer other passions.

Where a convent is large I should like to see many friendships of that type; but in this house,

where there are not, and can never be, more than thirteen nuns, all must be friends with each other,

love each other, be fond of each other and help each other. For the love of the Lord, refrain from

making individual friendships, however holy, for even among brothers and sisters such things are

apt to be poisonous and I can see no advantage in them; when they are between other relatives,

extreme in this, great perfection and great peace come of doing what I say and many occasions of

sin may be avoided by those who are not very strong. If our will becomes inclined more to one

person than to another (this cannot be helped, because it is natural—it often leads us to love the

person who has the most faults if she is the most richly endowed by nature), we must exercise a

firm restraint on ourselves and not allow ourselves to be conquered by our affection. Let us love

the virtues and inward goodness, and let us always apply ourselves and take care to avoid attaching

importance to externals.

Let us not allow our will to be the slave of any, sisters, save of Him Who bought it with His

blood. Otherwise, before we know where we are, we shall find ourselves trapped, and unable to

move. God help me! The puerilities which result from this are innumerable. And, because they are

so trivial that only those who see how bad they are will realize and believe it, there is no point in

speaking of them here except to say that they are wrong in anyone, and, in a prioress, pestilential.

In checking these preferences we must be strictly on the alert from the moment that such a

friendship begins and we must proceed diligently and lovingly rather than severely. One effective

precaution against this is that the sisters should not be together except at the prescribed hours, and

that they should follow our present custom in not talking with one another, or being alone together,

as is laid down in the Rule: each one should be alone in her cell. There must be no workroom at

Saint Joseph’s; for, although it is a praiseworthy custom to have one, it is easier to keep silence if

one is alone, and getting used to solitude is a great help to prayer. Since prayer must be the foundation

on which this house is built, it is necessary for us to learn to like whatever gives us the greatest

help in it.

Returning to the question of our love for one another, it seems quite unnecessary to commend

this to you, for where are there people so brutish as not to love one another when they live together,

are continually in one another’s company, indulge in no conversation, association or recreation