#discalcedcarmelite — Public Fediverse posts

Jesus be with your reverence, my padre.

I don’t know why you neglected to write to me through this muleteer and acknowledge that you have received the answer from the Council which I sent you last Thursday.

I would like to know how you can be in that city without living with the friars, I mean in the Carmelite monastery, since the nuncio [Nicolás Ormaneto] has insisted so much on this. It’s only right that we not displease him in anything; it would not be fitting for us to do so. I would very much like to speak with you because there are things that can be spoken but not written.

Up until now with the expectation of having a house there, any arrangement seemed acceptable. But believe me, padre, so prolonged a stay, and with four discalced friars, doesn’t seem right to anyone, and it attracts attention, and not just the attention of the friars of the cloth [the O.Carm. friars], which we don’t have to be concerned about.

But I would not want us to provide the slightest occasion for criticism by doing anything that would give the appearance of non-compliance. Pay no attention to the fact that the marquis [the Marquis of Mondejar, Luis Hurtado de Mendoza, a friend of Padre Mariano] tells you the nuncio would not be displeased.

I also beg you to speak with great caution, whether you have any complaints about the nuncio or not. Because of your frankness—with which I am familiar—I fear that you are careless about this; please God nothing will reach his ears.

You must realize that all the devils are waging war against us, and that it is necessary to look for support only from God. This we do by obeying and suffering, and then He will take over.

I would think it very fitting that when Passion Sunday comes you and the other discalced friars go to your monastery in Pastrana or Alcalá, for it isn’t the appropriate time for carrying on business. If there is some business to be attended to, it’s enough that the licentiate [Juan Calvo de Padilla] be there to take care of it as he has always been.

Days such as these are not the time for religious to be outside their monasteries. It wouldn’t look good to anyone, much less to the nuncio who is so retiring. It would be very consoling to me if you did this.

Think it over carefully and realize that it is the appropriate thing to do. Otherwise, you will have to live with the friars of the cloth, which I think would be worse.

Saint Teresa of Avila

Letter 189 to Padre Ambrosio Mariano de San Benito (excerpt)
15 March 1577

Note: Nicolás Ormaneto (in Italian, Nicolò Ormanetto) was the “holy nuncio” who favored St. Teresa’s work. He died in Madrid on 18 June 1577.

Teresa of Avila, St. 1985, The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K; Rodriguez, O, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: This detailed image of the Illumination of Saint Teresa is a mural painting by an unknown artist of the Quito School, ca. 1653, located in the upper cloister of the Carmen Alto museum in Quito, Ecuador. Image credit: Project for the Engraved Sources of Spanish Colonial Art, PESSCA 2129B (Some rights reserved)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/06/17/teresa-ltr189/

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