Quote of the day, 3 October: The last days of St. Teresa

The last days of Saint Teresa

As told by Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew

The day after our arrival at Alba [i.e. 21 September 1582], she was so greatly exhausted that the physicians feared, for the moment, that she could not live: a great sacrifice for me, the greater because I must remain in this world.

For, aside from the love I bore her and that she had for me, I had another great consolation in her company: almost continually I saw Jesus Christ in her soul and the manner in which He was united to it, as if it was his heaven. This knowledge filled me with the deep reverence one should feel in the presence of God.

Truly it was heavenly to serve her, and the greatest torture was to see her suffer.

Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew writes about the final illness of St. Teresa: “Truly it was heavenly to serve her, and the greatest torture was to see her suffer.”

I fell sick with a fever the very eve of the day when she was to leave for the visitation of her monasteries. I was not at all in a condition to undertake the journey.

She said to me: “Do not be disturbed, my child! I shall leave orders here to send you to me as soon as the fever leaves you.”

But at midnight, when she sent a religious to ask how I was, I found that I was free from fever.

She rose from her bed, came to me, and said: “It is true, my daughter, you no longer have any fever; we can easily undertake the journey. I hope it may be so, and I will recommend the matter to God.”

And so it was; we left in the morning.

During the five days preceding her death at Alba, I was more dead than alive. Two days before her death, she said to me once when we were alone: “My child, the hour of my death has come.”

Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew remembers the death of St. Teresa: Two days before her death, she said to me once when we were alone, “My child, the hour of my death has come.”

This pierced my heart more and more. I did not leave her for a moment. I begged the religious to bring me what was necessary for her. I gave it to her. It was a consolation to her for me to do so.

Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew

Chapter X, Last Moments of Saint Teresa

In their translation for ICS Publications, Father Kieran Kavanagh and Otilio Rodriguez note that Fray Antonio de Jesús ordered St. Teresa to travel from Medina to Alba de Tormes to settle difficulties in the community. She and Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew arrived the evening of 20 September.

Biographer William Thomas Walsh offers further detail. The journey was exhausting with little food. Upon arrival, the prioress was so alarmed by Teresa’s condition that she ordered her own foundress to bed. Teresa obeyed.

Walsh continues: “Next morning she got up, walked about the convent, heard Mass, received Holy Communion with great devotion, and took a severe discipline. Thus she went on, getting up and resting in turn, attending Mass each day, until the Feast of Saint Michael, September 29. Then, after Mass, she had a hemorrhage which left her so weak that she had to be helped back into bed in the infirmary. She had asked to be placed there so that she could look through a certain window and see the priest saying Mass in the chapel beyond.”

Teresa spent the first night of October in prayer, and at dawn asked to have Fray Antonio of Jesus hear her confession.

On October 3, the eve of Saint Francis, at about five o’clock, she asked for Viaticum. The nuns dressed her in veil and white choir mantle and lighted tapers in the infirmary. While they waited for the priest, Teresa spoke:

“Hijas mías y señoras mías, for the love of God I beg that you will take great care with the keeping of the Rule and Constitutions, and pay no attention to the bad example that this wicked nun has given you, and pardon me for it.”

When the priest arrived with the Blessed Sacrament, she raised herself without help. Her face became beautiful and illuminated, much younger than her age. Ribera writes that “clasping her hands, full of joy, this swan of utter whiteness began to sing at the end of her life more sweetly than they had ever heard her sing and spoke lofty things, amorous and sweet.”

She said: “Oh my Lord and my Spouse, now the desired hour is come. Now it is time for us to go. Señor mío, now is the time to set forth, may it be very soon, and may Your most holy will be accomplished! Now the hour has come for me to leave this exile, and my soul rejoices at one with you for what I have so desired!”

Anne of St. Bartholomew, M; Bouix, M 1917,  Autobiography of the Blessed Mother Anne of Saint Bartholomew, inseparable companion of Saint Teresa, and foundress of the Carmels of Pontoise, Tours and Antwerp, translated from the French by Michael, M A, H. S. Collins Printing Co., Saint Louis.

Thomas Walsh. W 1987, St Teresa of Avila: A Biography, TAN Books, Charlotte.

Featured image: Giovanni Segala, The Death of St. Teresa of Avila, 1696, oil on canvas, Church of San Pietro in Oliveto, Brescia, Italy. One of six lunettes on Teresian themes, restored for the fifth centenary of St. Teresa’s birth in 2015. Photo by Renáta Sedmáková © Adobe Stock.

#AlbaDeTormes #biography #BlessedAnneOfStBartholomew #deathAndDying #StTeresaOfAvila

7 June: Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew

June 7
BLESSED ANNE OF SAINT BARTHOLOMEW
Virgin

Optional Memorial
In the houses in Spain: Memorial

Ana Garcia was born at Almendral, Castille, in 1549. In 1572 she made her profession as a Carmelite in the hands of St Teresa at Saint Joseph’s, Avila. The Saint later chose her as her companion and nurse, and she subsequently brought the Teresian spirit to France and Belgium, where she proved herself, like Teresa, a daughter of the Church in her great zeal for the salvation of souls. She died at Antwerp in 1626.

From the common of virgins

Office of Readings

Second Reading
From the Meditations on the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ by Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew
(Autog. MS monast. St. Teresa, Madrid)

Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart

According to Saint Bernard, it is the person who keeps silent and says nothing when things go wrong who is really humble. It is very virtuous, he says, to keep silent when people are talking about our true faults, but more perfect when we are slighted or accused without having committed any fault or sin. And though it is virtuous indeed to bear this in silence, it is more perfect still to want to be despised and thought mad and good-for-nothing, and to go on, as our Lord Jesus Christ did, wholeheartedly loving those who despise us.

If Jesus kept silent, it was not because he hated anyone. He was simply saying to his eternal Father what he said on the cross: Lord, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. What infinite love burned in that sacred heart of yours, Lord Jesus! Without uttering a single word you spoke to us; without a word you worked the mysteries you came to accomplish—teaching virtue to the ignorant and blind. What our Lord did was no small thing. Where should we get patience and humility and poverty and the other virtues, and how could we carry each other’s burdens and cross, if Christ had not taught us all this first, and given himself as a living model of all perfection?

Blessed silence! In it, you cry out and preach to the whole world by your example. Volumes could be written about your silence, Lord! There is more wisdom to be learned from it by those who love you than from books or study.

Our Lord became a spring of Living water for us so that we should not die of thirst among all the miseries that surround us. How truly he said in the Gospel that he came to serve and not to be served! What tremendous goodness! Can we fail to be shamed by your words and deeds, and the patience you show with us every day? How truly, again Lord, did you say: Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart. Where can we obtain this patience and humbleness of heart? Is there any way to achieve it except by taking it from Christ as he taught it to us with those other virtues we need—faith, hope, and charity? Without faith, we cannot follow that royal road of the divine mysteries. It is faith that opens our eyes and makes us see the truth; and where faith is wanting there is no light and no way leading to goodness.

Responsory
Proverbs 3:5, 6
R/. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own intelligence; * and he will make straight your paths (alleluia).
R/. Wherever you go be mindful of him, * and he will make straight your paths (alleluia).

Morning Prayer

Canticle of Zechariah
Ant. Where humility is, there is wisdom; the wisdom of the humble will protect them from defeat (alleluia).

Prayer

Father,
rewarder of the humble,
you blessed your servant Anne of Saint Bartholomew
with outstanding charity and patience.
May her prayers help us, and her example inspire us,
to carry our cross
and be faithful in loving you,
and others for your sake.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.

Evening Prayer

Canticle of Mary
Ant. God has chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him (alleluia).

Catholic Church 1993, Proper of the Liturgy of the Hours of the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and the Order of Discalced Carmelites (Rev. and augm.), Institutum Carmelitanum, Rome.

#Antwerp #BlessedAnneOfStBartholomew #DiscalcedCarmelite #foundress #LiturgyOfTheHours #optionalMemorial #virgin

Quote of the day, 21 January: St. Teresa of Avila

JESUS

The grace of the Holy Spirit be with your honor, mi padre, and may he give you health this Lent for the work I see that you have ahead of you. I am wondering if you will have to be moving from place to place. For the love of God watch out lest you have a fall along the way. For since my arm has been in the state it is, I am very careful in this regard. It is still swollen, as is also my hand, and covered with plaster, which looks like armor, and so I get little use out of it…

I don’t know when to stop when I write you. My brother always tells me to give you his best wishes. Accept these now all together and along with them those of all the sisters. May our Lord watch over you and bring you here soon, for your presence is very necessary, both for my sake and for other reasons…

May God also give you, padre mio, all the blessings I desire for you, amen.

It is the First Sunday of Lent…

Your paternity’s unworthy servant and daughter,

Teresa of Jesus

Saint Teresa of Avila

Letter 230 to Father Jerome Gracián
Avila, 16 February 1578

Note: In her autobiography, Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew describes Saint Teresa’s accident in St. Joseph’s monastery on Christmas Eve 1577: “She was on her way one evening to the Choir for Compline. It was already growing dark and she had a staircase to descend before entering the choir. The evil spirit threw her from the top of the staircase to the bottom. By the fall her arm was broken in the middle. The suffering she endured was great; all the Sisters sympathized deeply with her, and I more than the others because I loved her very much and endured with her her labors and pains.” Teresa was 62 years old.

With great solemnity, in the presence of the government authorities and the people, the relic of the incorrupt hand of Saint Teresa of Jesus, which had been stolen by the Marxists in Ronda was returned to the Discalced Carmelite nuns of Ronda on 14 December 1975. Generalissimo Francisco Franco kept it with great devotion during all of his rule as Head of State in Spain. According to accounts from the Discalced Carmelites, he even wore it during his travels. Doña Carmen Polo de Franco handed over the precious relic to the Primate of Spain, Cardinal Marcelo González Martín, and the latter in turn transferred custody of the relic to the Bishop of Málaga, Ramón Buxarrais Ventura. Mother María de Cristo, who was prioress in 1937 when she was forced to hand the relic over to the Communists, was 85 years old when the incorrupt hand was returned to the nuns in Ronda. In August 2024, the remains of Saint Teresa and her major reliquaries underwent a thorough scientific examination and cleaning to obtain new insights and relics.

Anne of St. Bartholomew, M; Bouix, M 1917,  Autobiography of the Blessed Mother Anne of Saint Bartholomew, inseparable companion of Saint Teresa, and foundress of the Carmels of Pontoise, Tours and Antwerp, translated from the French by Michael, M A, H. S. Collins Printing Co., Saint Louis.

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.

#BlessedAnneOfStBartholomew #fall #hand #handicapped #health #StTeresaOfAvila

Our Lord became a spring of Living water for us so that we should not die of thirst among all the miseries that surround us.

How truly he said in the Gospel that he came to serve and not to be served! [Mk 10:45] What tremendous goodness! Can we fail to be shamed by your words and deeds, and the patience you show with us every day?

How truly, again Lord, did you say: Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart. [Mt 11:29] Where can we obtain this patience and humbleness of heart? Is there any way to achieve it except by taking it from Christ as he taught it to us with those other virtues we need—faith, hope, and charity?

Without faith, we cannot follow that royal road of the divine mysteries. It is faith that opens our eyes and makes us see the truth; and where faith is wanting there is no light and no way leading to goodness.

Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew

Meditations on the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ (excerpt)

Catholic Church 1993, Proper of the Liturgy of the Hours of the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and the Order of Discalced Carmelites (Rev. and augm.), Institutum Carmelitanum, Rome.

Featured image: This Ethiopian icon on goat skin depicts Jesus washing the feet of St. Peter at the Last Supper. Image credit: abbeyprivate / Flickr (Public domain)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/10/19/bart-mk1045/

#BlessedAnneOfStBartholomew #faith #Gospel #humility #Jesus #patience #service #truth

Others must seek god
but you must find him.
others must serve God
but you must adhere to him[.]
others must believe in god[,]
know, love, & honour him,
but you must taste, understand,
know, & injoy him.

Mother Mary Margaret of the Angels Brent, O.C.D.

Carmel in America had its genesis only a few years after St. Teresa established the first monastery of the reform, San José in Avila, Spain.

In 1570, two remarkable women, [Venerable] Anne de Lobera and Anne Garcia, entered the Carmel of San José. They were destined to carry the Teresian heritage and spirit into France, then to Flanders in the Spanish Netherlands. From Flanders nearly two centuries later, a small group of Carmelites (three Americans, one Englishwoman) would set out for Maryland to found the first Carmel in the United States.

Anne of St. Bartholomew followed them to Flanders in 1611, taking up residence in Mons, a foundation of the Carmel at Brussels. At this time Venerable Anne of Jesus was making preparations to found in Antwerp. Anne of St. Bartholomew was sent there as the first prioress in 1612, taking with her Ann of the Ascension Worsley, the first Englishwoman to become a Teresian Carmelite. The religious persecution in their homeland had sent many English Catholics across the channel. A number of these settled in the Lowlands. From their ranks came numerous vocations to the Carmelite life.

In her turn, Ann of the Ascension was sent from Mechlin where she had gone to help establish a new monastery, to found the Carmel of Englishwomen at Hopland-Antwerp.

Another Ann, Ann of Our Lady Harcourt, became the first prioress of the English Carmel at Hoogstraeten founded from Hopland-Antwerp in 1678. Although her death followed only a few weeks after she took office, the final stepping stone to America had been put in place.

So it was that Mary Brent (1734–84) and Ann Matthews (1734–1800), like seven other Anglo-American women in the eighteenth century, left Southern Maryland and crossed the Atlantic Ocean to fulfill their desire of becoming Carmelites.

Discalced Carmelite Nuns, Association of Mary, Queen of Carmel

Introduction

Note: The Discalced Carmelite General Curia shares the following news item: “With immense joy, we share with you the official announcement that Pope Francis will preside at the ceremony of beatification of Venerable Anne of Jesus in the Archdiocese of Malines-Brussels on Sunday 29 September 2024. Anne of Jesus is one of the cornerstones of the entire successful history of the Teresian Reform. She was born on 25 November 1545 in Medina del Campo (Spain) and died on 4 March 1621 in Brussels (Belgium). Her 76 years of life are among the outstanding factors in the initial establishment and the later transmission of the Teresian charism to succeeding generations. The first period of her life is marked by the fact that she shared intimately in the final 12 years of St. Teresa’s life. Those years were decisive in establishing the spirit and identity of the Order. The later years of her life were characterized by some courageous decisions on her part and by a flourishing expansion of the Teresian Reform in France and Flanders” (Communicationes, no. 400, June 2024).

Dickinson, CJ & FitzGerald, C 1990, The Carmelite adventure: Clare Joseph Dickinson’s journal of a trip to America, and other documents, Carmelite Sisters, Baltimore MD.

Mary Queen of Carmel, A 1990, Carmel in the United States of America, 1790-1990, Queen’s Press, Eugene, Oregon.

Featured image: This AI image of a 1790 sailing vessel landing on the coast of Maryland was generated in Adobe Express, using Adobe Firefly technology. The Betsy Ross flag is seen in the background. Image credit: Carmelite Quotes / Adobe Express (All rights reserved)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/07/03/lobera-4july/

#AmericanHistory #AnaDeJesúsLobera #AnaGarcia #AnnMatthewsOCD #Antwerp #BlessedAnneOfStBartholomew #CarmelInAmerica #CarmelOfBaltimore #CarmelOfPortTobaccoo #MaryMargaretBrentOCD #VenerableAnneOfJesus

What infinite love burned in that sacred heart of yours, Lord Jesus! Without uttering a single word you spoke to us; without a word you worked the mysteries you came to accomplish—teaching virtue to the ignorant and blind.

Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew

Meditations on the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Office of Readings, Optional Memorial of Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew

Featured image:  Detail from the apse mosaic in the chapel of the Sisters of Mercy Convent in Albany, New York. Image credit: Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. / Flickr (Some rights reserved)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/06/06/anasanb-sacheart/

#BlessedAnneOfStBartholomew #blind #infinite #inspiration #Jesus #love #mysteries #SacredHeart #silence #teaching #virtues

For, aside from the love I bore [Saint Teresa] and that she had for me, I had another great consolation in her company: almost continually I saw Jesus Christ in her soul and the manner in which He was united to it, as if it was his heaven. This knowledge filled me with the deep reverence one should feel in the presence of God. Truly it was heavenly to serve her, and the greatest torture was to see her suffer.

I spent about fourteen years with her. Immediately, when I entered to receive the habit, she took me into her cell, and during the rest of her life I was always with her, except during her journey to Seville; for then, as has already been said, I was sick at Avila. And these fourteen years seemed to me less than one day.”

Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew

Book III, Chapter X

Born Ana García Manzanas on 10 October 1549 in Almendral de la Cañada, Spain, Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew was a close companion of St. Teresa of Avila and a significant figure in the Carmelite Reform. She entered the Discalced Carmelite Order as a lay sister in 1570 and made her profession on 15 August 1572.

Anne served as St. Teresa’s nurse and secretary during the last years of the saint’s life and was with her until her death on 4 October 1582. This date marked the last day of the Julian calendar in Spain, and the next day, 15 October 1582, introduced the Gregorian calendar. St. Teresa died in Anne’s arms.

After St. Teresa’s death, Anne continued her work within the Order, living in Avila, Madrid, and Ocana. In 1604, she traveled to Paris with Venerable Anne of Jesus and a group of Carmelite nuns to establish the first Discalced Carmelite monastery in France. She was later elected prioress of Pontoise and Tours.

In 1611, seeking to escape the influence of Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle, Anne moved to Flanders to be under the spiritual leadership of the Discalced Carmelite friars. In 1612, she founded the Discalced Carmelite monastery in Antwerp, where she became known as the Protectress of Antwerp.

Anne of St. Bartholomew passed away on 7 June 1626 in Antwerp. She was beatified by Pope Benedict XV on 6 May 1917. Her feast day, 7 June, gives way to the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart this year.

Listen to the full biography on our podcast above!

Additional Resources

You can find Blessed Anne’s autobiography in ePub format for download on archive.org. A magisterial biography of Blessed Anne by Sister Paqui Sellés, OCD was published in 2014 on the Spanish blog, Teresa, de la Rueca a la Pluma, edited by the Discalced Carmelite nuns of Puçol (Valencia). The Discalced Carmelite General Postulation website also has a biography published in Italian.

Join us to pray and reflect on the Liturgy of the Hours for the Optional Memorial of Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew.

Anne of St. Bartholomew, M; Bouix, M 1917,  Autobiography of the Blessed Mother Anne of Saint Bartholomew, inseparable companion of Saint Teresa, and foundress of the Carmels of Pontoise, Tours and Antwerp, translated from the French by Michael, M A, H. S. Collins Printing Co., Saint Louis.

Translation from the Italian text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: Y el almendro floreció (And the almond tree blossomed) is an oil on canvas painting by Sister Isabel Guerra, O.Cist., an artist from the monastery of Santa Lucia in Zaragoza, Spain. This artwork is found in one of the chapels in the Primatial Cathedral of St. Mary of Toledo, Spain. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/06/06/7jun24-podcast/

#Antwerp #biography #BlessedAnneOfStBartholomew #CarmelOfPontoise #PierreDeBérulle #Podcast #ProtectressOfAntwerp #StTeresaOfAvila

June 7
BLESSED ANNE OF SAINT BARTHOLOMEW
Virgin

Optional Memorial
In the houses in Spain: Memorial

Pastoral note: In the year 2024, this Optional Memorial gives way to the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Ana Garcia was born at Almendral, Castille, in 1549. In 1572 she made her profession as a Carmelite in the hands of St Teresa at Saint Joseph’s, Avila. The Saint later chose her as her companion and nurse, and she subsequently brought the Teresian spirit to France and Belgium, where she proved herself, like Teresa, a daughter of the Church in her great zeal for the salvation of souls. She died at Antwerp in 1626.

From the common of virgins

Office of Readings

Second Reading
From the Meditations on the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ by Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew
(Autog. MS monast. St. Teresa, Madrid)

Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart

According to Saint Bernard, it is the person who keeps silent and says nothing when things go wrong who is really humble. It is very virtuous, he says, to keep silent when people are talking about our true faults, but more perfect when we are slighted or accused without having committed any fault or sin. And though it is virtuous indeed to bear this in silence, it is more perfect still to want to be despised and thought mad and good-for-nothing, and to go on, as our Lord Jesus Christ did, wholeheartedly loving those who despise us.

If Jesus kept silent, it was not because he hated anyone. He was simply saying to his eternal Father what he said on the cross: Lord, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. What infinite love burned in that sacred heart of yours, Lord Jesus! Without uttering a single word you spoke to us; without a word you worked the mysteries you came to accomplish—teaching virtue to the ignorant and blind. What our Lord did was no small thing. Where should we get patience and humility and poverty and the other virtues, and how could we carry each other’s burdens and cross, if Christ had not taught us all this first, and given himself as a living model of all perfection?

Blessed silence! In it, you cry out and preach to the whole world by your example. Volumes could be written about your silence, Lord! There is more wisdom to be learned from it by those who love you than from books or study.

Our Lord became a spring of Living water for us so that we should not die of thirst among all the miseries that surround us. How truly he said in the Gospel that he came to serve and not to be served! What tremendous goodness! Can we fail to be shamed by your words and deeds, and the patience you show with us every day? How truly, again Lord, did you say: Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart. Where can we obtain this patience and humbleness of heart? Is there any way to achieve it except by taking it from Christ as he taught it to us with those other virtues we need—faith, hope, and charity? Without faith, we cannot follow that royal road of the divine mysteries. It is faith that opens our eyes and makes us see the truth; and where faith is wanting there is no light and no way leading to goodness.

Responsory
Proverbs 3:5, 6
R/. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own intelligence; * and he will make straight your paths (alleluia).
R/. Wherever you go be mindful of him, * and he will make straight your paths (alleluia).

Morning Prayer

Canticle of Zechariah
Ant. Where humility is, there is wisdom; the wisdom of the humble will protect them from defeat (alleluia).

Prayer

Father,
rewarder of the humble,
you blessed your servant Anne of Saint Bartholomew
with outstanding charity and patience.
May her prayers help us, and her example inspire us,
to carry our cross
and be faithful in loving you,
and others for your sake.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.

Evening Prayer

Canticle of Mary
Ant. God has chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him (alleluia).

Catholic Church 1993, Proper of the Liturgy of the Hours of the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and the Order of Discalced Carmelites (Rev. and augm.), Institutum Carmelitanum, Rome.

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/06/03/annebartlit24/

#Antwerp #BlessedAnneOfStBartholomew #DiscalcedCarmelite #foundress #LiturgyOfTheHours #optionalMemorial #virgin

I have desired, and I have been desired;
  But now the days are over of desire,
  Now dust and dying embers mock my fire;
Where is the hire for which my life was hired?
  Oh vanity of vanities, desire!

Longing and love, pangs of a perished pleasure,
  Longing and love, a disenkindled fire,
  And memory a bottomless gulf of mire,
And love a fount of tears outrunning measure;
  Oh vanity of vanities, desire!

Now from my heart, love’s deathbed, trickles, trickles,
  Drop by drop slowly, drop by drop of fire,
  The dross of life, of love, of spent desire;
Alas, my rose of life gone all to prickles,–
  Oh vanity of vanities, desire!

Oh vanity of vanities, desire;
  Stunting my hope which might have strained up higher,
  Turning my garden plot to barren mire;
Oh death-struck love, oh disenkindled fire,
  Oh vanity of vanities, desire!

Christina Rossetti

Soeur Louise De La Misericorde (1674)

Sr. Louise de la Miséricorde – Who are you?

Louise de La Vallière (1644 – 1710, Sister Louise of Mercy, O.C.D.)

Her Life

In some respects, we could say that the life of Louise de la Vallière, who lived in the 17th century, parallels that of many seekers of God in our own time. Living at the most brilliant court in French history, Versailles, she was loved and adored by the Sun King Louis XIV, whom she sincerely loved and who bore her four children out of wedlock.

Louise de la Baume le Blanc lost her beloved father at an early age and was soon abandoned by her mother, who sought only luxury and a third marriage to continue her worldly life. By nature, Louise was quite the opposite: reserved and modest, no doubt due to the religious upbringing of her childhood. But life at the court of Versailles had all the makings of a dazzling experience for the 15-year-old, who became maid of honor to the Duchess of Orléans, wife of Louis XIV’s brother. Her great reserve and frankness won the respect of many, who saw a radical contrast between the vanity of the courtiers and this woman who, despite being Louis XIV’s mistress for six years, commanded respect. The general public, not inclined to love the King’s favorites, spoke of Louise with indulgence.

Of her relationship with the King, it can be said that “Louise revealed her passionate nature. Beneath a gentle, peaceful exterior lurked an ardent flame that pushed her forward, recklessly disregarding the consequences.” But she was also a woman of indisputable qualities of mind, and the King would not have found her appealing had she lacked those qualities. “She had a lot of spirit. She had a big, steadfast, generous, tender, and compassionate heart, far removed from vanity and capable of strong commitment.” She loved the King for himself and not for what he represented, which is why the King, usually so fickle in his love affairs, remained deeply attached to her for six years.

Louise did not experience serenity in this love, as her conscience tormented her every day as she crossed paths with the King’s wife, Queen Marie-Thérèse. But life at court, with all its jealousies and scheming, quickly took its toll on this passionate love, at least on the King’s side, while Louise took more than fifteen years to detach herself from the King. It was now Madame de Montespan who, unsatisfied with merely taking her place in the King’s heart, used all her resources to humiliate Louise, who continued to love the King, for several years.

The Road to Conversion

Six years had passed since the King abandoned Louise for Madame de Montespan. Louise still lived at the court of Versailles, but now she had more free time and a renewed taste for reading. She regularly heard Bossuet’s sermons, and even the admonitions she received didn’t change her, as she still held out hope of winning back Louis XIV’s heart. But life took its toll. Following an illness that brought her to death’s door, Louise realized how short and fragile life was. She begged heaven not to die in sin. She remembered the faith of her childhood. She agreed to go to confession. She now saw more clearly the games the King played. She finally understood that she had been led astray. Only God deserved to be loved the way she had loved!

Although she realized that “a soul in the world, without prayer, reflection, and consulting God on its conduct, is like a rudderless vessel in the midst of a storm,” she didn’t yet renounce the world. She decided to stay at court, choosing to suffer humiliation in order to be like Jesus. It was the beginning of a journey of conversion. “How many abuses, jokes, and denigrations did she have to suffer during the two years she remained at court?”

Towards Carmel

Louise could have been bogged down in the penitential practices of the time, but fortunately for her, a priest told her: “I only ask you to look at Him.” Yes, look at Christ, rich in Mercy! Then came the providential arrival in Versailles of Bossuet, who became the Dauphin’s tutor, with whom Louise could meet as often as she needed to put her life in order. She led an increasingly secluded life, spending long hours in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.

As Bossuet got to know her during spiritual direction, he advised her to give herself completely to God and to choose an order such as Carmel. Louise was immersed in reading The Way of Perfection by Saint Teresa of Avila. This reading deeply moved her. So she accompanied a friend to the Carmel of Faubourg St. Jacques in Paris. She was immediately seduced by the Carmelites’ way of expressing themselves and their freedom of spirit. She was told that the rule was strict, but this only served to further attract this soul thirsting for the absolute. At first, the prioress was reluctant to take on a woman whose life and morals had been the subject of scandal. But Bossuet had no trouble convincing the prioress of Louise’s absolute sincerity and repentance, and of her desire to devote herself to God. All the more so as he appreciated her way of acting “gently, slowly.” The law of graduality!

She was given the name Sr. Louise de la Miséricorde (Louise of Mercy)

Her resolution to enter Carmel was strengthened. “The whole Court was edified and astonished by her tranquility and joy, which increased as the time approached.” On 16 April 1674, at the age of 30, she entered Carmel [her clothing followed on 2 June 1674]:

“Mother,” murmured Louise de la Vallière, “I have made such a poor use of my will all my life. I have come to place it in your hands, never to take it back again.”

“Enter, my daughter. From now on, your name will be Louise de la Miséricorde” [Louise of Mercy].

Beyond the gates, many did not believe in Louise’s vocation. But at the convent, she astonished the sisters with her regularity, gentleness, calm, and the ease with which she complied with the rule down to the smallest detail. There was an absolute humility about her! She loved the silence where God spoke to her soul, and she suffered when Queen Marie-Thérèse and other court nobility asked her to come to the parlor. Her earthly love was definitively dead; all she felt in her heart was divine love. It now enabled her to endure anything.

On the day of her profession (3 June 1675), as some of the guests wept, Louise could say:

“You must rejoice in my fate, for on this day I am only beginning to be happy.”

Surrendering herself totally to the One whom her heart loves more than anything else, she advanced along the mystical path.

“I am so tranquil about everything that can happen that I look at health, illness, rest, work, joy, and sorrow with the same equanimity. I close my eyes and let myself be led to obedience.”

She spent more than 30 years in Carmel, admired by all for her humility and detachment, but above all for the quality of her love for God.

“The souls who, after having had the misfortune of losing you, receive the grace of returning to you, and instead of encountering the rigor of a severe judge, find there the tenderness of a charitable father.”

Louise, now an elderly woman, underwent a daily martyrdom, her body nothing but sores and pain. Her migraines were throbbing.

On 6 June 1710, Louise de la Baume Le Blanc, Duchesse de la Vallière, died at the age of 65. As soon as news of her death spread, crowds began to gather behind the gate of the monastery. Many asked the nuns to allow objects to touch the Carmelite’s body. The word “saint” was increasingly murmured when people talked about Louise.

Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve wrote of her: “When we read the chapter of the Imitation of Christ where divine love is discussed, Madame de la Vallière is one of those living figures who explain it to us in her own person, and who best comment on it” [Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve was a prominent 19th-century French literary historian and critic, known for his biographical approach to literary criticism].

Our thanks to the Discalced Carmelites of Quebec for this marvelous biography, which was largely inspired by Monique de Huertas’ biography of the life of Sister Louise (Huertas, Monique de 1998, Louise de La Vallière: De Versailles Au Carmel, Pygmalion/G. Watelet, Paris).

If you first learned about Louise de la Vallière from reading Alexandre Dumas‘ d’Artagnan Romances, or as the inspiration for the English word lavalier, now you know the rest of her story.

Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: The 1865 oil on canvas painting by M. Schmitz after artist Pierre Mignard includes one key phrase engraved at the base of the column; it epitomizes the motivation of the Duchess of la Vallière to embrace the hidden life of Carmel: Sic transit gloria mundi (thus passes the glory of the world). Others would leave the court and join her at the Carmel of the Incarnation, as well. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

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In our #QuoteOfTheDay Blessed Anne of St Bartholomew recounts how she was “seized with great fear” and prayed throughout the night, her “arms extended towards heaven” to prevent Maurice of Nassau from capturing the city. For this, she gained the reputation of "Protectress of Antwerp."

Read her account on our #blog
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