CHAPTER III.
THE ENGLISH CARMELITE NUNS. The daughters of St. Teresa crossed the Pyrenees and were introduced into France in the year 1604. Madame Acarie, a French lady, had for some time cherished the desire of seeing the Carmelite sisters in her native land, and the Princess Catherine of Orleans de Longueville having offered to found the first monastery, negotiations were entered into with the preposito-general of Spain, which lasted two years. He finally consented to send some of the sisters to France. Mother Ann of Jesus and five other religious were chosen for that purpose; they were sisters Isabella of the Angels, Beatrix of the Conception, Isabella of St. Paul, Eleonora of St. Bernard and the Venerable Ann of St. Bartholomew, who at that period was a lay sister. They arrived at Paris on the 15th of October and two days after began their foundation.
Their second convent was founded at Pontoise, having venerable Ann of St. Bartholomew as its superior. She had now by exception become a choir-religious. Shortly afterwards the convent of Dijon was established, and in 1606 it was followed by that of Amiens. Madame Acarie, who had lost her husband, retired into the convent of Amiens and took in religion the name of Mary of the Incarnation. She led a holy life which was ended by a saintly death, and she was beatified by Pius VI, May 24th, 1791.
The Infanta Isabella who, with her consort Albert, ruled over the Netherlands, took steps in 1606 to have the Carmelites in her dominions. Mother Ann of Jesus, being desirous
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to return to the jurisdiction of the Carmelite Fathers, from which the sisters in France were exempt, readily acceded to the wishes of the Infanta and left France for Belgium. She arrived at Brussels January 22, 1607, accompanied by mothers Beatrix of the Conception, Elenora of St. Bernard, and sisters Mary of St. Albert, Claudina of the Holy Ghost, Amata of Jesus and Ann of Jesus. On the 18th of March they took possession of their convent.
The second convent of Belgium was established at Louvain in the same year. This was followed by the foundation of Mons in 1608. Mother Ann of St. Bartholomew having completed her triennial at Tours in France, went also to the Netherlands, and spent a whole year at Mons. During this time negotiations were carried on with her for the establishment of a convent at Antwerp. In 1612 she left Mons for that city, where she arrived on the 29th of October and began the foundation. In this city of Antwerp the Venerable Ann of St. Bartholomew, one of the early companions of St. Teresa, in whose arms the Saint had breathed her last, spent the remaining years of her life, and died the death of the Saints on the 7th of June, 1626.
In this same city the first convent of English Carmelite nuns was founded. Whilst the children of St. Teresa were gaining a foothold in Belgium, Europe was still in the throes of political and religious agitation brought about by the Protestant Reformation. A great part of Germany had fallen away from the Church, the northern portion of the Netherlands had separated itself from Spain, and England was still reeking with the blood of its martyrs. In the last-named country almost the last vestige of Catholic worship had disappeared, though many of its best sons and daughters still adhered to the ancient faith. Of this number was the Lady Mary Lovel. She was the daughter of Right Honorable Lord Roper,1 Baron of Teynham, and the widow of Sir Robert Lovel.
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1The family of Roper was connected with that of William Roper, son-in-law of Bl. Thomas More. The grandfather of the Lady Mary was Sir
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She had been chosen by God to be the foundress of the English Teresians. She desired to establish a monastery of an Order most devoted to our Blessed Lady. The Fathers of the Society of Jesus directed her. Father Thomas Hunter, of the same Society, in his life of Catherine Burton, or Mary Xaveria of the Angels, tells us that Lady Lovel understood by revelation that this foundation was desired by the Queen of Heaven. Her Jesuit director advised her to address herself to the Rev. Father Thomas of Jesus, provincial of the Belgian Carmelites. This Father, however, would not accede to the conditions proposed by Lady Lovel, and thus the affair was dropped for a whole year. One morning, while the provincial was in prayer, the Blessed Virgin appeared to him, and reprimanded him for neglecting to undertake the foundation of a house where, she said, God would be much honored, and she most faithfully served. She also told him to select for the new foundation the most convenient place, and to accomplish everything belonging to it in the most perfect manner. Upon this he immediately agreed to what the Lady Lovel had proposed; he then asked and obtained leave of the Infanta Clara Isabella Eugenia to found a monastery in any part of her dominions. He selected a place in the city of Antwerp, that had been marked out in a vision to the venerable Mother Ann of the Ascension.1 Having obtained license of the town, he said the first Mass in the new convent on the 12th of May, 1619. Two or three weeks after, the Blessed Sacrament was brought into it, and, by means of Father Scribanus of the Society of Jesus, permission was obtained to recite the Divine Office in public.
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John Roper, Knt., who was elevated to the peerage on July 9th, 1616, in the dignity of Baron of Teynham. His son Christopher, second Baron of Teynham, was the father of the Lady Mary who married Sir Robert Lovel. Her mother was Catherine, daughter of John L. Brown, Esq., of Sutton, St. Michael, County Hereford. Christopher, Lord Roper, died in 1622.
1Hunter's Life of Mrs. Burton, ch. ii.
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This foundation was begun by five religious:—Mother Ann of the Ascension, Prioress; Mother Margaret of St. Francis, Sub-Prioress; Mother Ann of Jesus, Sister Clare of Jesus and Mother Teresa of Jesus. Mother Ann of the Ascension was a professed religious of the convent of Mons, from which she came with the venerable Ann of St. Bartholomew to begin the foundation of the convent of St. Joseph and St. Teresa in Antwerp. She was most tenderly beloved by the Venerable Mother, who sent her to found a convent at Mechlin with Mother Eleonora of St. Bernard. There she became SubPrioress and Mistress of Novices. She was an English lady of noble birth; her family name was Worsley. She was the first English woman who became a Discalced Carmelite. The fame of her great abilities and eminent virtues caused her to be the first person asked by the foundress for the new convent at Antwerp; but her humility and the reluctance of her prioress to part with her, were the reasons why she came last, delaying until she received an express command from her Provincial. Soon after she was chosen first Prioress of the new Monastery, and continued in that office twenty-five years to the spiritual and temporal advantage of the community. She had made her profession under and lived with the Spanish Mothers and first daughters of St. Teresa, and from there had imbibed the primitive spirit of the Order. She was much favored by the Divine Majesty, and received many celestial visions and revelations. She established her community in true observance of the rule.
Mother Margaret of St. Francis, and Mother Ann of Jesus, not to be confounded with Blessed Ann of Jesus, were both from the convent of Brussels. Mother Teresa of Jesus came from the convent of Mons, and Sister Clare of Jesus, from that of Louvain. All these had lived with and received their instructions from companions of St. Teresa, and were of such tried virtue and ability as to be entrusted with the office of superior in different monasteries. Mother Margaret of St. Francis and Mother Ann of Jesus, not being English,
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had come only to assist the new community for a time, and within a few months they left it. Mother Margaret was sent to found at Lisle, and Mother Ann was made prioress of the Carmelite monastery of Bois-le-Duc in North Brabant. Mother Teresa of Jesus, a professed ,sister of the convent of Mons, had been sent to assist at a foundation in Poland, where she was sub-prioress before she came to Antwerp.
The Lady Lovell gave £1,900 to this foundation, besides many rich ornaments for the church, and the Infanta Isabella also made it the object of her liberality. The Pope expressed great satisfaction when he heard of this monastery.
The first novice admitted into the new community at Antwerp was Elizabeth Worsley, sister to Mother Ann of the Ascension. Her father was an English nobleman who came over to the Low Countries with King Philip of Spain. Elizabeth Worsley took in religion the name of Sister Teresa of Jesus-Mary; she died first prioress of the monastery of Alost.
In the beginning the means of the community were small but Divine Providence never permitted them to want. Assistance was often sent to them in the most wonderful manner. It frequently happened that pieces of gold were laid in the turn without anyone ever knowing how they came there. Once, when wanting bread for dinner, they found in the turn as much as was necessary without ever discovering who had put it there.
In the year 1621 the Rev. Father Mathias of St. Francis, General of the Order, visited the community and expressed his pleasure at seeing the great regularity that reigned in the convent. Some months afterwards the monastery passed from the jurisdiction of the Order to that of the diocesan bishop, who at that period was the Rt. Rev. John Malderus.
We copy from the chronicle of the convent:—"As the number increased so did the regular observance, the Divine Majesty being pleased to conduct hither many noble ladies of the most ancient families of England, who, in the flower of
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their youth, hearkening to the inspirations of the Divine Spirit, became forgetful of the house of their father, forsaking their friends and native land, and came to Carmel which He had shewn them; wherein they lived in such great perfection and union of minds, that it might be truly said of them with the primitive Christians: 'This happy multitude had but one heart and one soul, each one liking or disliking as the others did."' Thus far the manuscript. It adds that, besides the virtues of sincerity, zeal for religious observance, love of poverty and esteem for their vocation, their obedience was such that it was sufficient for them to know the inclinations of 'their superiors in order to obey. They lived in complete forgetfulness and contempt of the world; to be obliged to treat with seculars was painful to them. The preceding account is taken from the papers of the first superior, Mother Ann of the Ascension, who also tells us that the spirit of silence and recollection of her religious was so great, that in many years not one word had been spoken by anybody in times appointed for silence.
Mother Ann of the Ascension founded several monasteries during the years of her administration. One of these was at Bois-le-Duc in North Brabant; but this city having been taken by the Dutch Protestants, she removed one part of the community to Cologne and the other to Alost. She also founded the monastery of Dusseldorf. During her career she admitted no less than fifty English ladies to profession according to the reformed rule of Carmel. Extraordinary signs preceded her death: a full choir of voices from invisible beings was once heard chanting the words, " Vidi turbam magnam, etc. I saw a great multitude," Apoc. VII, 9. At other times the sounds of musical instruments were heard, which could not have been produced by any natural means. After much suffering, many labors and languishing desires to be with God, she went to enjoy the reward of her fidelity on the 23d of December, 1644. Her last words were: "Come Lord, and tarry not." The Bishop of Antwerp, Caspar Nimius,
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sang the Mass of Requiem, preached the funeral sermon and performed her obsequies.
She was succeeded by Motber Ann of St. Austin, of the family name of Wright, a woman of great virtue and extraordinary gifts. Her vocation to the Carmelite Order was very wonderful, she having been brought into it, as it were, in spite of her own inclinations. Among other remarkable occurrences we must mention this, that she was unable to swallow the Blessed Sacrament until she had vowed to become a religious. The difficulties she encountered continued until she made her profession, but ever after she possessed perfect peace and tranquillity of mind amidst all her sufferings. During her government she was most zealous and a vigorous observer of the rule. She died in the third year of her office, in 1647.
Some time after her death it was revealed to Mother Margaret of Jesus that she had a very high place in heaven, and had suffered no other purgatory but the time of her office as Superior.
The next election fell upon Mother Teresa of Jesus, whose family name was Ward, a religious of eminent virtue who discharged her office with great fidelity. She founded, during the time of her administration, the monastery at Lierre. Among the first religious sent from Antwerp to Lierre we mention the two Mostyns, sisters in religion and by blood; namely, Margaret of Jesus and Ursula of All Saints. The Convent of Lierre was founded in 1648. The following year Mother Teresa died. During this period Father Andrew White, of the Society of Jesus, was confessor of the monastery of Antwerp.
Mother Teresa of Jesus was succeeded by Mother Lucy of St. Ignatius, Catharine Bedingfield, daughter of Francis Bedingfield, of Redingfield, Suffolk. She and her sister, Magdalen of St. Joseph, were both professed at the English Convent of Antwerp. At the time of her election she was sub-prioress of the Convent at Dusseldorf, whence the votes
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of the Antwerp community recalled her. She distinguished herself by her spirit of prayer and prudence, and by the spirit of recollection that animated her. A few months after her election the smallpox broke out in the community, and she herself became its first victim. She died in 1650, aged thirty-six, after nineteen years of religious profession.
Her successor and the fifth prioress was Catharine Keynes, or Mother Ann of the Ascension, the second of that name. During her administration the convent possessed for some time a distinguished guest in the person of Princess Louisa, daughter of the queen of Bohemia, and niece of Charles the First of England. She had lately been converted to the Catholic Faith by a Father of the Society of Jesus, and leaving the court of the queen, her mother, had sought refuge with the bishop of Antwerp, Mgr. Ambrosius Capello, who placed her in the Carmelite convent.
Mother Ann of the Ascension remained prioress for nine years, when she resigned her office, and was succeeded by Mother Ann of St. Mary, Ann Haircourt, who remained in office six years. At the expiration of this term she placed the keys of the monastery in the hands of an image of the Blessed Virgin expressing in a beautiful hymn her earnest petition to God to be released. Her prayer was heard.
The seventh superior was Mother Margaret of the Angels, who was elected in 1665 and remained prioress for six years. She belonged to the ancient family of the Wakes, of Northamptonshire. Her father, Mr. Leonard Wake, was a son of Sir Isaac Wake, Bart., Ambassador to Savoy and Venice. The parents of Margaret Wake were converted to the true Faith in Antwerp, where they spent most of their lives. Margaret was born on the 12th of November, 1617. From. her childhood she was remarkable for her piety. She entered the community at Antwerp in 1633, and the year following made her profession in the hands of Mother Ann of the Ascension. She distinguished herself in religion by her charity, her devotion to the passion of our Lord and a
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constant exactness in complying with all the various points of her Rule. Having been superior for the space of six years, she was succeeded by Mother Mary Margaret of the Holy Ghost, Mary Wigmore, who continued in office for the same length of time.
In the year 1677 Mother Margaret of the Angels was again elected superior; but she did not live to finish her term of office. She died most piously, as she had lived, the 21st of June, 1678, in the sixty-third year of her age and the forty-fifth of her religious life. Thirty-eight years after her death, her body was found incorrupt, and medical authority declared the fact to be preternatural.1
Mother Margaret was succeeded by Mother Frances Teresa of the Passion, Frances Turner, who remained six years in office. Mother Mary of the Holy Ghost, Mary Sonias, who succeeded Mother Teresa, having died in office, Mother Francis Teresa was again elected. She died on March 22nd, 1693, and was succeeded by Mother Mary of the Blessed Sacrament, Catherine Gonnins, who after three years was followed by Mother Josepha of Jesus Mary, Julia Wigmore. She died in 1697, a little more than a year after her election. About four months after her death she appeared to Mother Mary Xaveria, and told her that she had been ten days in Purgatory.2
Her successor was Mother Mary Xaveria of the Angels. This saintly religious was born in St. Edmund's Bury, Suffolk, on the 4th of November, 1668, of Thomas Burton, a gentleman belonging to a Yorkshire family, and Mary Suttler, of a family in Norfolk. Her grandfather, Mr. Henry Burton, died in prison, into which be had been cast on account of his religion. She entered the Antwerp community in 1693, and made her profession on the 9th of December, 1694. She was
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1Cf. Diercxsens, Maria Margareta ab Angelis Teresiana angla Antverpia Chisti crescens, t. VII, p. 415, anno 1678.
2Consult Life of Mrs. Burton, by Father Hunter.
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distinguished for her eminent virtue and the extraordinary ways by which Divine Providence led her. She was superior in 1700, in which office she continued six years. Her successor being incapacitated by sickness, the community was committed to Mother Xaveria, then sub-prioress, till she was chosen superior again in the year 1707, in which employment she remained until her death, which occurred on February 9th, 1714. Her manuscript autobiography, compiled by Father Thomas Hunter, of the Society of Jesus, apparently a short time before the year 1725, was edited by the well-known Jesuit author, Father Coleridge, in 1883.
Mother Xaveria was followed by Mother Mary Frances of St. Teresa, Mary Birchbeck. Mother Delphina of St. Joseph, Catharine Smythe, was the fourteenth prioress, but did not live much over a year after her election. Mother Teresa Joseph of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Penelope Chapman, was prioress five years and died before the expiration of her term of office. The sixteenth prioress was Mother Mary Joseph of' St. Teresa, Mary Howard; she filled the office during fifteen consecutive years. Her sister, Mother Teresa of Jesus, Howard, was thirteen years superior. The eighteenth and nineteenth superiors were Mother Ann Joseph of the Ascension, Catherine Howard, and Mother Teresa Joseph Maria of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Ursula Short. The latter was superior ten years and ten months. Her successor was Mother Frances Xaverius of Divine Providence, Frances Maddocks. The twenty-first superior was Mother Mary Margaret of the Angels, Mary Brent, elected in 1778. She was six years in office, and was again succeeded by Mother Francis Xaveria in 1784. Mother Mary Margaret of the Angels, Brent, was an American by birth, she died October 18th, 1784. She was a cousin of the Jesuit Father Charles Neale, who, as we shall see hereafter, brought the Carmelites to America.