Insight offered into St. Teresa's 'The Book of Her Foundations'

SALT LAKE CITY – Life and work were difficult, sometimes hopeless and a trial to Saint Teresa of Avila, a woman who was almost constantly ill. Yet, to writers who have studied this 16th-century foundress of religious houses, she was also a historian, a great thinker and a builder of monasteries for discalced Carmelite women and of several monasteries for discalced friars.

In "the two strongest sections of Theresa’s thought – God and humans," she emphasized the importance of prayer and hard work in her writings and her relationships with her co-workers, writes Father Marc Foley, a Discalced Carmelite priest, in "St. Teresa of Avila: The Book of Her Foundations: A Study Guide."

Fr. Foley’s book is a translation of the "Book of her Foundations," known as one of Teresa of Avila’s most difficult to read and interpret. I would agree with these words, as the book reflects not only Teresa’s demanding methods of prayer, her monasteries, and her sisters and friars, but the difficult times she and her Carmelite sisters had in locating appropriate houses for monasteries.

The book includes summaries and background information for the translation. It also offers questions at the end of many sections to prompt meditation and prayer over the hardships Teresa and her sisters suffered. One of my favorite meditations, written as "necessary for prioresses," comes at the end of chapter seven: "How one must deal with the nuns who have melancholy." The book describes melancholy as "a bodily humor; it is subtle and [often] feigns death when it needs to, and thus we do not recognize it until the matter cannot be remedied."

This deep devotion to prayer and her dedication to instituting monasteries and carmels led to drastic change in the Carmelite order. There was prayer, yes, but St. Teresa also insisted on hard work and begging for alms.

Time after time, Teresa’s confessors ordered her to put into writing accounts of her foundations. But each time, she found more important work to do: more planning, more traveling and more establishing of monasteries and carmels. Teresa of Avila heard from God, but was not always able to take his advice. Instead, priests and bishops hindered her attempts to return home in time for her niece Teresita’s acceptance into the Carmelite order. Still, God remained with her, encouraging her and reminding her of His love.

"On her final journey home, [she found] former friends turned against her; she was treated with ingratitude and disrespect and she witnessed the growing laxity of her communities. These were her final sufferings and purifications," Fr. Foley writes. "Yet, she had one small prospect of joy in sight, to arrive home in Avila and celebrate Teresita’s profession. But Teresa was even deprived of this consolation."

On the back of the book, Fr. Foley writes: ‘"The Book of her Foundations’ is the least read, the least quoted, the least known of St. Teresa’s works. Why this is so is probably because people do not think it is a spiritual book. But as you read on, you find that St. Teresa grew in holiness, not in spite of obstacles such as being entangled in lawsuits, mired down in disputes over dowries, tied up in interminable bureaucratic red-tape and having to deal with unscrupulous businessmen, but because of these difficulties. None of these challenges impeded her spiritual growth. This study guide will help us see how Teresa grew in holiness in the marketplace as much as in the cloister, perhaps even more so. None of us has been called to found convents, but like Teresa all of us are called to practice virtue and grow in holiness within the fray of daily life."

"St. Teresa of Avila: The Book of Her Foundations," ICS Publications, Washington, D.C., $22.95, 546 pages, paperback.