Quote of the day, 4 September: St. Teresa of Avila
Giovanni Battista Rossi (1507–1578), prior general of the Carmelite Order, was known in Spain as Father General Rubeo. When he visited Avila in 1567, Teresa feared he would disapprove of her new foundation at St. Joseph’s Monastery and send her back to the Incarnation. Instead, he recognized her renewal of Carmel and authorized her to found other monasteries, opening the way for the Teresian reform.
How our Father General came to Avila and what followed from his visit.
Our generals always reside in Rome, and none ever came to Spain. So it seemed impossible that one should come now. But since nothing is impossible when our Lord wants it, His Majesty ordained that what had never happened before should come about now.
When I came to know of it, I felt grieved. For as was already mentioned concerning the foundation of St. Joseph’s, that house was not subject to the friars for the reason given. I feared two things: one, that our Father General would be displeased with me (and rightly so since he was unaware of how the things had come to pass); the other, that he would order me to return to the monastery of the Incarnation, where the mitigated rule is observed, which for me would have been an affliction for many reasons—there would be no point in going into them.
One reason should be enough: that in the Incarnation I wouldn’t be able to observe the austerity of the primitive rule, that the community numbers more than 150, and that where there are few there is more harmony and quiet.
Our Lord did better than I had imagined. For the general is such a servant of the Lord, and so discreet and learned, that he regarded the work as good; moreover, he showed no displeasure toward me. His name is Fray Juan Bautista Rubeo de Ravenna, a person very distinguished in the order, and rightly so.
Well then, when he arrived in Avila, I arranged that he come to St. Joseph’s. And the bishop thought it well that he be given all the welcome that the bishop himself would receive.
I gave our Father General an account in all truth and openness, for it is my inclination to speak thus with my superiors, whatever might happen, since they stand in the place of God—and with confessors, the same. If I didn’t do this, it wouldn’t seem to me that my soul was secure.
And so I gave him an account of my soul and of almost my whole life, although it is very wretched. He consoled me much and assured me that he wouldn’t order me to leave St. Joseph’s.
He rejoiced to see our manner of life, a portrait, although an imperfect one, of the beginnings of our order, and how the primitive rule was being kept in all its rigor, for it wasn’t being observed in any monastery in the entire order; only the mitigated rule was observed. And with the desire he had that this beginning go forward, he gave me very extensive patent letters, so that more monasteries could be founded, along with censures to prevent any provincial from restraining me. I did not ask for these, but he understood from my way of prayer that my desires to help some soul come closer to God were great.
Saint Teresa of Avila
The Foundations, ch. 2, nos. 1–3
Teresa of Avila, St 1985, The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, Kavanaugh, K & Rodriguez, O (trans.), ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Featured image: Flemish printmaker Arnold van Westerhout engraved this portrait for Gabriel Wessel’s Historia chronologica priorum generalium, edited by Mariano Ventimiglia and published in Naples in 1773. It appears with Giovanni Battista Rossi’s biography on page 188. The volume also includes van Westerhout’s portrait of Blessed John Soreth. Image credit: Carmelites (Public domain).
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