CHAPTER II.
THE DISCALCED CARMELITES.
The child of grace, destined by Divine Providence to perform such wondrous works in the Church, and to bring about a most important revolution in the ancient Order of Carmel, was of a noble Castilian family. Teresa de Ahumada was born at Avila, in Spain, on the 28th of March, 1515, of Alfonso Sanchez de Cepeda and Beatrix de Ahumada. Her name in the language of scripture signifies: "beautiful beyond all."
At an early age she already gave proofs of her future sanctity. By reading the acts of the martyrs she felt her heart filled with the desire of suffering martyrdom. She fled from her father's house with her brother Rodrigo, with the intention of going to Africa in order to die for Christ. Fortunately one of their uncles intercepted them on the road to Salamanca and brought them back to their parents. Rodrigo led a very Christian life and died in America in the service of the King of Spain.
At the age of twelve, Teresa lost her mother; she then threw herself into the arms of Mary, the Mother of God, and besought the Blessed Virgin to be a mother to her. Mary received under her protection the one who was destined to become herself, one day, the mother of her Order of Carmel.
But the devil who is ever on the alert to ruin the soul of man and crush every good work in its infancy, and who, perhaps, foresaw what an instrument in God's hands this child was destined to be, attempted to draw her into his snares.
13
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The reading of certain romances and the keeping of dangerous company estranged her heart from God and fostered her natural vanity. God, however, did not abandon her and she preserved in her heart the greatest horror of sin and a strong sense of honor. Thus was she prevented from offending her God by a grievous sin. Having entered the convent of the Augustinian nuns, as a pupil, when she was sixteen, her first fervor returned, and she made rapid progress in virtue. The year following illness forced her to leave this asylum of virtue. Gradually her heart became weaned from the world, and she finally resolved to give herself to God by embracing the religious life. At the age of eighteen she bade a last farewell to the world and entered the Carmelite Monastery of the Incarnation at Avila.
Although the primitive rule of Carmel was not in vigor in this monastery, the religious were, nevertheless, renowned for their mortification, their obedience and their charity. There was a prophecy current in this convent to the effect, that a great saint should spring from their midst, who should be called Teresa. Did the novice then realize that she was this predestined one? She pronounced her vows on the 3rd of November, 1534.
The thirty years spent in this convent, were for Teresa a preparation for the great work she was destined to accomplish. The hand of the divine sculptor gradually moulded the heart, that was to be so much like his own. Struggles with grace, afflictions of every kind and various temptations: such was the life of Teresa during this period. But the great moment had arrived. Teresa felt in her soul a desire for greater perfection ; the mitigated rule of Carmel was insufficient for her ardent heart. Her niece, Maria de Ocampo, having offered a part of her fortune to build a monastery, Teresa decided to found a convent in which the primitive rule should be observed. Her resolution was strengthened by a vision in which our Divine Lord bade her use all her efforts to secure the establishment of this house. Moreover, a friend of hers, Doña
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Guiomar de Ulloa promised to furnish revenues for the support of the convent.
The Saint consulted her director, Father Balthasar Alvarez, of the Society of Jesus, and he referred her to the provincial of the Carmelites, Father Angelo de Salazar. This zealous man immediately gave his consent. Her plan also met with the approbation of St. Peter de Alcantara. As soon as her intention became known, a storm of opposition was raised against her, both in the city and in her monastery. A Dominican Father, Peter Ibañez, being consulted by Doña Guiomar, likewise approved of the work. God's will being thus made manifest, Teresa could no longer hesitate.
But God wished to try the constancy of his servant. As they were about to purchase a house to execute their project, the Provincial, unwilling to contend alone against the general opinion, withdrew his consent, and Father Alvarez ordered his penitent to think no more of the matter. Teresa obeyed ; but our Lord having urged her anew, and enlightened men having again approved her plan, she wrote to Rome. At the expiration of some months the answer came. It was a letter from the Pope, authorizing the foundation of the monastery under the direct control of the Bishop. Meanwhile a house had been purchased by her sister, Joanna de Ahumada, and this lady's husband, John de Ovalle. After much trouble and fatigue, Teresa took possession of it, accompanied by four young ladies of the place, to whom she gave the habit that same day. These first companions of St. Teresa were Antoinette of the Holy Ghost, Ursula of the Saints, Mary of St. Joseph, and Mary of the Cross. They were poor orphans, but possessed of good minds, of amiable characters, and gave much promise for the future. On the 24th of August, 1562, the Blessed Sacrament was placed in the new monastery of Avila, dedicated to St. Joseph, to whom St. Teresa always had the greatest devotion. This happened during the pontificate of Pius IV and in the reign of Philip II of Spain. Father John Baptist Rubeo, or Rossi, was then general of the Order.
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A few years before the establishment of the house at Avila, the last convent of Carmelite friars in which the primitive observance was kept, had been destroyed by the Turks on the island of Cyprus. Thus the interruption of the observance in the Order was only of short duration.
The Holy Mother Teresa introduced the primitive rule of St. Albert into her monastery of Avila, and, moreover, added several other regulations that would enable her religious to observe the rule with greater perfection. In her treatise on the "Way of Perfection," ch. I, she tells us why this was done. Her first intention, she says, was not to lead such an austere life; but, having heard of the ravages heresy was then making in France, she felt her heart pierced with sorrow. And in order to make some amends to our Divine Lord for all the offences committed against Him, she determined to embrace the practice of the evangelical counsels with all possible perfection and to lead her sisters to do the same. A visit she had at that time from a Franciscan missionary of the Indies, Father Alfonso Maldonado, who related to her how many souls were being lost in those distant countries, increased her zeal for the salvation of souls. One day our Lord said to her: "Wait a little, my daughter, and thou shalt see great things." These words greatly consoled her, though she did not understand their meaning. About six months after, the Father-general Rubeo, or Rossi, came over to Spain and approved of the monastery of St. Joseph of Avila, and authorized the Saint to found other convents.
About this time the Carmelite Order had to pass through the crucible of afflictions in France. The convents at Orleans, Loudun, La Rochelle and a great many other places had been demolished, while most of the religious had perished at the hands of the Calvinists.
Father Rubeo permitted Teresa to found also some monasteries of Carmelite friars, following the reformed rule. She prayed to God to raise up a man capable of helping her to accomplish this design, nor did she have long to wait. Whilst
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she was at Medina del Campo, whither she had gone to found the second house of the Order, she met the first two men whom God had destined to be the corner-stones of the new edifice. Father Antonio de Heredia was prior of the Carmelites of Medina; to him she confided her plans. This fervent religious immediately entered into her views and promised to embrace the reform. The other chosen soul was Father John de Yepez, a young religious of great virtue, now known in the Church as St. John of the Cross.
Father Antonio de Heredia was a native of New-Castile, where he was born about the year 1510 of the illustrious family of de Heredia. His mother was of the family of St. Vincent Ferrer. At an early age he entered into the Carmelite Order and when twenty-six years old became prior of the convent of Moralegia, and afterwards held important offices in his Order.
Father John de Yepez, youngest son of Gonzales de Yepez, was born in 1542 at Fontiberos, a small town between Avila and Salamanca, in Old-Castile. From his earliest childhood he had a particular inclination to piety, and several times experienced a special protection of Divine Providence. At the age of twenty-two he entered the Carmelite monastery at Medina del Campo, where he practised the greatest austerities. He studied theology at Salamanca, and was ordained Priest at the age of twenty-five. As we have already stated, he met St. Teresa at Medina del Campo. She immediately recognized the treasures of grace his heart possessed, and unfolded her plans to him. He understood her and promised to join in the good work, if he might do so promptly.
Having obtained the permission of the provincial, as well as of the diocesan Bishop, the Holy Mother founded her first monastery of friars in a poor house of the village of Duruelo. Father John de Yepez, henceforward John of the Cross, was its first religious. The first habit of the discalced Carmelite friars, worn by the first member of the institution, was cut and made by St. Teresa herself. Father Antonio, having
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resigned his office of prior, went soon after to Duruelo with Brother Joseph. They renewed their profession on the 28th of November, 1568, renounced the mitigated rule and promised to live until death according to the primitive one. Sometime afterwards they were visited by the provincial, who appointed Father Antonio of Jesus prior, and Father John of the Cross sub-prior. Brother Joseph was made sacristan and porter. This was the origin of the Discalced Carmelite Friars.
Here we may say a word concerning the rule of the Discalced Carmelites. The religious are divided into choir- and lay-religious. The nuns have moreover a third class called outdoor-sisters, who attend to the exterior affairs of the convent. Among the nuns the choir-sisters are distinguished from the lay-sisters by the color of their veil, the former wearing black, the latter, white.
Among the friars there are different kinds of monasteries. The Noviceship takes place in a monastery designated for the purpose and lasts a year, at the expiration of which, the simple vows are taken. The newly professed Brother afterwards spends three years in a house of his Order, and is then admitted to the solemn vows. The sisters have no special house for their novitiate, each convent having its own mistress of novices.
After the noviceship the young monks spend three years in the study of philosophy and four in theology. The duties of the Carmelite Fathers consist of prayer, mortification, the recitation of the Divine Office, preaching, the hearing of Confessions and writing. Each monastery is governed by a prior. Certain monasteries are devoted to preparing those who have the vocation for foreign missions. Each province has a house called the " desert," set apart for those who feel especially attracted to the contemplative life. Each monastery has a church attached to it.
To the original rule of St. Albert, the Discalced Carmelites have added the following points: they wear no linen, nor shoes, but sandals. They sleep on planks. They rise at
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midnight to sing Matins. The sisters wear coarse stockings and sleep on a straw bed; they do not rise at midnight, but sing the Office at nine o'clock in the night. Every day the Carmelite religious make two meditations, each of an hour, one in the morning, and the other in the evening. They take the discipline three times a week. During the day they never speak without permission, except during recreation.
The habit consists of a brown tunic and scapular, and a white mantle. The sisters wear veils, and cover their faces with a veil in the presence of strangers.
This was the austere life that St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross embraced when, bidding farewell to the mitigated rule of Carmel, they entered upon the work of reform. Many were the trials, the sufferings, the persecutions they had to endure for the sake of the primitive rule they had adopted, but with the assistance of God they came victorious out of the combat, and purified out of the crucible of affliction. St. Teresa continued to found houses of her Order throughout Spain, and had the satisfaction of seeing her spiritual children multiply around her.
Twelve years after the foundation of the house of Duruelo, the first province of Discalced Carmelites was erected in Spain by a brief of Gregory XIII. All the houses of the reform were hereby exempted from the jurisdiction of the provincial of the mitigated Carmelites, and subjected to a provincial of their own. They remained, however, subject to the general of the whole Order.
A chapter was convoked at Alcala for the 3rd of March, 1581. Eleven priors were present. Four definitors were elected, namely: Fathers Nicolas of Jesus-Mary, Antony of Jesus, St. John of the Cross, and Gabriel of the Assumption. Father Jerome Gracian of the Mother of God, was elected first provincial.
St. Teresa meanwhile was approaching the end of her career. Her soul, impatient to be with God, could scarcely endure the martyrdom of her earthly life; it was about to break its fetters
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and soar towards a better and a purer world. Her work was accomplished ; the little mustard seed planted in the soil of Avila had grown to be a great tree, the branches whereof spread over the whole of Spain. Thirty-two monasteries of the reformed rule had been founded, of which seventeen were convents of nuns. The Discalced Carmelite sisters had foundations at Avila, Medina del Campo, Malagon, Valladolid, Toledo, Pastrana, Salamanca, Alba de Tormes, Segovia,Veas, Sevilla, Caravaca, Villanuova de Xara, Palencia, Loria, Burgos and Granada. All these the Saint had founded herself. The Reformer of Carmel could now truly exclaim with the aged Simeon: " Now let thy servant, Lord, depart in peace."
Teresa of Jesus departed this life on the 4th of October, 1582. She was 67 years old, and in the 48th year of her religious profession and the 21st since the commencement of the reformation of Carmel. The year of her death being the one in which the Calendar was reformed by order of Pope Gregory XIII, the 4th of October became the 15th, and for this reason her feast is celebrated on the last named date.
St. Teresa is one of the most remarkable saints who have edified the Church by the holiness of their lives. A woman with a masculine soul, endowed with extraordinary courage, she undertook works from which many would have shrunk in terror. Her mind, enlightened by the Holy Ghost, has placed her on a level with the Doctors of the Church, whose title would certainly have been given also to her, had she been a man. Her writings are still a subject of admiration for all, and cause her to be acknowledged as the mistress of Mystical Theology. They have been translated into Latin, Flemish, German, French, Polish, English and Italian. At least eighty large editions of them have been published. She was singularly privileged by God in the mystical life, and was raised to an extraordinary degree of contemplation, for she enjoyed the most intimate familiarity with her Divine Spouse, Jesus Christ.
Five years after the death of the Saint, in 1587, the Carmelite friars of the reformed rule had already penetrated to
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the New World. Pope Sixtus V authorized, in the same year, the erection of a Congregation of Discalced Carmelites under a vicar-general, subject to the general of the entire Order. In the following year the general vicariate was divided into six provinces: Old-Castile, New-Castile, Grenada, Sevilla, Catalonia and New-Spain.
St. John of the Cross, whose name was verified during his life, especially in its latter years, by the many sufferings and contradictions he had to endure, even from his own brethren, survived St. Teresa nine years. He died in the convent of Ubeda, on the 14th of December, 1591, at the age of 49 years, having spent 29 in the religious life. He was canonized by Pope Benedict XIII on the 27th of December, 1728. His feast is celebrated on the 24th of November.
A little more than two years after the death of St. John of the Cross, a general chapter was convened at Cremona to elect a new general of the whole Order. The Discalced Carmelites were also represented. Father John Stephen Chizzola being chosen, became the thirty-third general since St. Berthold. At the same chapter it was decided by common consent that the Discalced Carmelites should henceforward be entirely separated from the jurisdiction of the general of the Order. This took place on the 10th of June, 1573. Clement VIII confirmed this decision. The title of vicar-general was now changed into that of preposito-general.
In 1583 the Discalced Carmelite friars founded a house in Genoa. Their second monastery in Italy was established at Rome in 1597. These two houses were subject to the immediate jurisdiction of the Apostolic See, by order of the Pope. In 1600 Clement VIII erected a separate congregation of Discalced Carmelites in Italy. The Carmelites possessed at this time missions in foreign countries, namely, in Guinea and in the New World. Pope Clement VIII sent them to Persia. The congregation of Spain has had establishments at Mexico, Valladolid de Mechoacan, Salvatierra, Guatemala, Lima and
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other places. The Italian congregation possessed houses in Persia, in Syria, the Holy Land and in India.
During the reign of Henry IV the Carmelite nuns were introduced into France. Madam Acarie, now known as Blessed Mary of the Incarnation, interested herself in the affair and afterwards entered the Order. She was beatified by Pius VI and the Order of Carmel celebrates her feast on the 18th of April.
In 1608 France had also the happiness of receiving the Carmelite friars. They belonged to the Italian Congregation. The nuns in France, with the exception of a few convents, were not subject to the jurisdiction of the Order.
In the year 1607 the Venerable Ann of Jesus introduced the Carmelites into Belgium and founded a convent at Brussels. They were followed in 1610 by the Fathers of the Italian congregation.
In 1617 the Italian congregation was divided into six provinces: Genoa, Rome, Lombardy, Poland, France, and Belgium.
The Venerable Ann of Jesus departed this life at her convent of Brussels on the 4th of March, 1621, at the age of 75; 51 years having been spent in religion. A few years later, on the 7th of June, 1626, another of the first companions of St. Teresa, the one in whose arms the Saint had rendered her soul to God, Venerable Ann of St. Bartholomew, died in her convent at Antwerp. Her autobiography has been published in French by Father Bouix of the Society of Jesus. The original manuscript of the Venerable Mother is still preserved at the Carmelite convent of Antwerp, together with her mantle, her sandals and one of her fingers, which has remained incorrupt.
In the seventeenth century the Carmelite Order made great progress in France and Belgium; manv convents of friars and nuns were founded. In 1631 the constitutions of the Order were confirmed by Urban VIII. One of the principal glories of the Discalced Carmelite Order in that century was the theological work known as the Salmanticenses. It is an
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explanation of the theological doctrine of St. Thomas Aquinas and was composed at Salamanca, in Spain, by the Carmelite Fathers. Most of its authors have remained unknown. Those whose names have come down to us are: Francis Anthony of the Mother of God, Francis of Jesus-Mary, John of the Annunciation, Andrew of the Mother of God, Sebastian of St. Joachim, and Ildephonsus of the Angels. Seventy years were spent in the erection of this intellectual edifice.
As we saw in the preceding chapter, the Carmelite monastery situated on Mount Carmel, in Palestine, had been destroyed by the Saracens in 1291. It was not reestablished until 1634. In 1627 Father Prosper of the Holy Ghost, Father Thomas of St. Joseph, and the lay brother Joachim, left Rome for the Holy Land to found a hospice at Aleppo in Syria, and another on Mount Carmel. Urban VIII appointed in 1633 Father Paul Simon of Jesus-Mary, Prior of Mount Carmel. On the 27th of February, 1634, the first Mass was said in one of the three grottoes of Elias. The Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the monastery of the religious and a hospice for strangers were afterwards built. In the latter part of the eighteenth century the convent of Mount Carmel was once more plundered by the Turks under Mohammed Bey, but his death, which took place soon after, gave the friars rest. Some time later the monastery was on the point of being sold for debt, and only the kindly intervention of the Austrian consul saved it. In 1797 the Fathers were dispersed by the Turks, and Mount Carmel remained uninhabited until 1827, when the monastery was again rebuilt. Since that time it has remained in the hands of the Discalced Carmelite friars.
In the eighteenth century the world witnessed a sublime example of virtue. Madame Louise de France, daughter of Louis XV, bade an eternal farewell to all earthly vanities and took the veil in a Carmelite convent, where she led a holy life and died the death of the saints. She was declared Venerable by Pius IX in 1873.
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The French revolution was a period of severe trial for the Italian Congregation of Carmelites; their convents were sold, destroyed or employed for other purposes. During the course of the present century the Order has shared amply in the persecutions of the Church, especially in Spain and Italy. Its members continue, however, to do the work of God, walking in the footsteps of Elias and of their Holy Mother, St. Teresa.
The Spanish and Italian congregations are now united in one, under the same general, who resides at Rome.1
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1The history of the Order of Mount Carmel I have taken principally from the work of Father Brocard of St. Teresa, Recueil d'instructions sur la devotion au Saint Scapulaire.