St. Teresa of Ávila

Reformer of Carmel

Mother Frances Alice Monica Forbes

• Publisher: TAN Books
• Year: 1999
• ISBN:
  9781505102482
• Topic: Théologie et religion
• Subtopic: Dénominations chrétiennes

A short biography of the Saint who reformed Carmelites and gave a host of Saints to the Church. She helped bring back the original strict observance of the Carmelite rule, founded numerous new convents, became a celebrated mystic, and was canonized only 40 years after her death. In 1970 she was declared a Doctor of the Church. Here is a popular biography for young and old of this spirited and colorful Saint. Impr. 119 pgs, 5 Illus.,

Chapter XXXIII

"ARISE, MAKE HASTE, MY LOVE, MY DOVE, MY BEAUTIFUL ONE, AND COME"

THE expedition left for Burgos as soon as Gracián returned from a hasty trip to Salamanca. Besides him and La Madre, there were Sister Ana de San Bartolomé and two nuns from Alba; four more were to be picked up at Palencia on the way. It was cold, and snow was beginning to fall dismally on roads still muddy from recent heavy rains. If Teresa turned in the squeaky cart to look back at the jagged sky line of Ávila, darkening against a gray sky, it was the last glimpse she had in this life of the city of her birth. She passed through Medina, stopped four days at Valladolid, was received by a great crowd at her beloved Palencia, and after sending a man ahead to see whether the roads were passable (for many of them were deep under water) she heard our Lord say, "Indeed you can go, and don't be afraid, for I shall be with you"; and she went.

The rest of the journey to Burgos was the most dangerous she had ever made. The rains that year were terrible. There were floods everywhere. Roads were washed out, or under water. Wagons sank in the mud up to the hubs. At one place they had to get out and walk along a riverbank. Then, going up a hill, Teresa saw the cart ahead turn over, and it looked as if the nuns were going to be spilled into the river, when a boy who was with the muleteers seized one of the wheels and held on — miraculously, as it seemed to her — until help came. Then she insisted that her cart go first; if anyone was going to be drowned, it must be she.

That night there was no bed to be had when they arrived at an inn.

As they approached Burgos, they had to cross the River Arlanzón on some pontoons which were almost submerged in the deep black icy water and so narrow that if the carts deviated but a trifle, they would slip off. The nuns all went to confession to Father Gracián or the other priest, and asked La Madre's blessing before making the perilous attempt. Teresa showed no sign of fear, in fact she seemed joyful as she said, "Hey, my daughters, what more could you ask than to be martyrs here, if need be, for the love of our Lord? Let me by, for I intend to be the first, and if I am drowned, you can return to the inn." So the valiant old lady took her place in the first cart, and passed safely across.¹

She had left Palencia with a quinsy sore throat which became so much worse with fatigue and exposure that she was unable to move her tongue, and had difficulty taking even liquid food. On the last day of the journey, as she opened her mouth for Holy Communion, her tongue was loosed. She still had a fever, however, when they approached the historic city where the Cid Compeador lies buried, and Alfonso V swore he was not his brother's murderer; the city whose inhabitants say of their climate, "Burgos has nine months of winter and three months of hell."

Father Gracián insisted that before looking for their lodgings they go to the celebrated Holy Crucifix, the Santo Cristo de Burgos in the convent of the Augustinian fathers, to give thanks for their journey and to ask a blessing for the foundation; besides, he explained, it would be better to enter after dark, unseen. It was well after nightfall when Teresa, more dead than alive, reached her destination in the house of Catalina de Tolosa, the benefactress who had suggested the foundation; and she was so wet and chilled that she sat up all night by the fire without being able to get warmed through. The smoke made her ill; her head grew dizzy, and she began to vomit and spit up blood with such violence that a wound opened in her throat. One of her most disgusting trials from then on was the frequent emergence of her voice, not through her half-paralyzed mouth, but through the gaping aperture in her neck.

The next day she was unable to get out of bed. When she learned that Doctor Manso and other important persons were coming to welcome her to Burgos, she had herself carried on a couch to a window opening on a corridor, and there through a curtain, she carried on her business as usual. Very little, apparently, had to be done. The house was fine and spacious, suitable in every way. The donor, Catalina de Tolosa, was a widow, a Viscayan of the middle ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Copyright Page
• ACKNOWLEDGMENT
• I FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF HOLY ÁVILA
• II A VAIN LITTLE GIRL AND HER FORBIDDEN BOOKS
• III ADOLESCENCE, AND THE AUGUSTINIAN CONVENT
• IV RUNNING AWAY TO JOIN THE CARMELITES
• V THE QUACK DOCTOR AND THE BEWITCHED PRIEST OF BECEDAS
• VI A DARK NIGHT OF DIVINE AND TERRIBLE ADVENTURE
• VII TWENTY YEARS OF CONFLICT
• VIII VICTORY IN SURRENDER
• IX THE DEVIL'S REVENGE — FEAR OF THE HOLY INQUISITION
• X THE ANGEL WITH THE FLAMING DART
• XI THROUGH A HELL OF TORMENT TO THE END OF FEAR
• XII PETER OF ALCÁNTARA — "TOWN CRIER OF THE LORD GOD"
• XIII BEGINNING OF THE REFORM, AND. FIRST DEFEAT
• XIV EXILE IN A PALACE AT TOLEDO
• XV STEALING A MARCH ON SLEEPY ÁVILA
• XVI PERSECUTION AND VICTORY
• XVII LIFE IN THE FIRST CONVENT OF THE REFORM
• XVIII "THE WAY OF PERFECTION"
• XIX "HAVE CONFIDENCE, I HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD"
• XX MIDNIGHT CONQUEST OF MEDINA
• XXI A FRIAR AND A HALF FOR THE REFORM
• XXII WARNING TO PHILIP II
• XXIII THE ONE-EYED PRINCESS OF ÉBOLI
• XXIV SALAMANCA AND ALBA DE TORMES
• XXV PRIORESS OF THE INCARNATION
• XXVI STRANGE VOCATION OF THE PRINCESS OF ÉBOLI
• XXVII A DREAM COMES TRUE AT BEAS — FIRST MEETING WITH GRACIÁN
• XXVIII THE DEVILS OF ANDALUCÍA
• XXIX TERESA IN "PRISON" AT TOLEDO
• XXX ANGUISH AND AFFLICTION AT TOLEDO
• XXXI DE PROFUNDIS
• XXXII TRIUMPH OF THE REFORM
• XXXIII "ARISE, MAKE HASTE, MY LOVE, MY DOVE, MY BEAUTIFUL ONE, AND COME"