Quote of the day, 9 July: St. Teresa of Avila

I set out from Toledo the second day after Pentecost traveling by way of Madrid. There my companions and I went for lodging to a monastery of Franciscan nuns, with a lady, who had founded it and lived in it, named Doña Leonor Mascareñas.

This lady told me she was happy I had come at that time because a hermit was there who eagerly desired to meet me and that it seemed to her the life he and his companions were living was very similar to that of our rule…. He was there with another young brother named Fray Juan de la Miseria, a great servant of God and very simple with regard to the things of the world. While we were speaking together, this hermit told me that he wanted to go to Rome.

Before going on, I want to mention what I know about this Father, named [Ambrosio] Mariano de San Benito. He was Italian, a doctor, and very intelligent and talented. While he was living as the supervisor of the entire household of the queen of Poland, our Lord called him to leave all so as to better obtain his salvation. He had not been inclined to marry, but was a knight of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.

He had undergone some trials in which he had been falsely accused of being involved in a man’s death and thus put in prison for two years. While there, he didn’t want to be defended by any learned man or anyone else, but only by God and His justice, for there were witnesses who said that he had ordered them to kill the man.

Resembling the old men in the story about Saint Susanna, when each was asked where the accused was at the time, one said that he was seated on a bed; and the other, at a window. In the end they confessed to having calumniated him.

And he assured me that he had spent much money to free them so that they would not be punished, and that certain information had come into his possession against the one who had caused him the trouble and that he likewise did as much as he could not to do that one any harm.

Through these and other virtues—for he is a clean-living and chaste man, unwilling to have any dealings with women—he must have merited from our Lord knowledge of what the world is so that he would strive to withdraw from it. And thus he began to think about which religious order to join.

Great are God’s judgments.

Saint Teresa of Avila

The Foundations, ch. 17 (excerpts)

Note: Ambrosio Mariano de San Benito (1510-1594) was a nobleman from Bitonto, Italy, with doctorates in theology and canon law, who participated in the Council of Trent. After serving as major-domo to the Queen of Poland and working as an engineer for Philip II on major hydraulic projects, he spent eight years as a hermit in the Sierra Morena. His providential meeting with St. Teresa in June 1569 led to his taking the Carmelite habit the following month and helping inaugurate the Discalced Carmelite reform for men at Pastrana.

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: Susana acusada de adulterio (detail), by Antoine Coypel, created in oil on canvas in 1696-1697, from the collections of the Museo del Prado, Madrid. Image credit: Museo del Prado (Public domain).

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