Interpreting St Teresa of Avila (XIX)

Patrick Burke, O.Carm.

Becoming a Carmelite Nun

Many admirers of St. Teresa of Avila have little knowledge or appreciation of the actual real situation of the Carmelite Sisters in the Monastery of St. Mary’s of the Incarnation where our Saint became a novice in 1535. In fact, the Incarnation, where Teresa entered Carmel, was the newly built monastery outside the walls of old Avila to which the Carmelites had transferred on its completion in 1515. After the cramped conditions in the former old convent, the community now possessed a spacious residence which contained ample accommodation including a refectory and infirmary as well as proper dormitories and large garden and Chapel. At its inauguration, the Carmelites must have been very satisfied for it was a modern building, spacious but inevitably austere, that would enable the nuns to follow their spiritual programme in a quiet atmosphere of the Carmelite regular life. That was in 1515, the year in fact in which on March 28, Teresa de Ahumada was born in the old city of Avila. Nearly twenty years later it was to this monastery of the Incarnation that she applied to enter as a novice.

In 1535 religious life of the monastery had dramatically changed from that envisaged at its opening. From the outset, many women applied to join the community and despite the obvious pressure of increasing numbers, few were ever refused. When Teresa joined, there were as many as 180 women living there. Research has shown that while many Sisters remained faithful to the religious aspirations of the Carmelite Rule — and certainly some groups were models in the practice of Carmelite prayer and mortification, religious life on the whole must have been in disorder. For with the increase in numbers with many from Avila noble families, the problem of ‘fixing up daughters’ for life was solved by providing a prolonged sojourn in the monastery. Unbelievable as it may seem to people nowadays, the young ladies brought with them the trappings of their world, sometimes joined by some friends and even servants. The social standing of entrants enabled them to secure better accommodation and amenities in the convent. In addition, there were a great number of lay-sisters but reports do not give their number.

With the large increase in numbers, rules and discipline generally must have been affected through efforts of harmonising the needs and aspirations of so many women of differing cultures, ages, backgrounds and needs. Reports do not give the number of lay-sisters who were part of the community which also included old pious ladies who were committed to the Order, invalids of different years who were unable to follow the normal programme or time-table of the community as well as problem or odd people.

The inevitable decline in religious observance resulting from the differing expectations and practices of the members would have produced enormous difficulties for making any spiritual progress by the individuals. The overcrowding at the Incarnation Monastery must have inevitably caused friction; and bickering and other reactions are reported. Rules and discipline must have been generally affected and harmonising the demands of so many women of different ages, needs and backgrounds and the consequent demands of the religious life to which they were each consecrated, made for impossible personal demands in the spiritual life.

At the time that Teresa was thinking of entering such a “society” she describes her own antagonism toward becoming a nun (L 3, 1). She didn’t get much strength from her prayers. Then, she states “The Lord sent me a serious illness so that I had to return to my father’s house During this time, she began to worry about her salvation, about the nothingness of all things, the vanity of the world and how it would soon come to an end” (L.3, 5). She reasoned that “the trials of being a nun could not be greater than those of purgatory”. At this time, she developed a high fever, with great fainting spells. But with the support of her spiritual reading she decided “to tell my father about my decision to take the habit”, to become a nun. So great was his love for Teresa, she says, “in no way was I able to obtain permission from him, even through the support of other people that she asked to intercede with him for her. After his death, she could do whatever she wanted, was his regular reply. But she was determined to be a nun. With the help of her brother, she met as arranged with a friend, Juana Suarez, a nun at the Monastery of the Incarnation, to be admitted to the Carmelites. Teresa states that when she left her father’s house that morning, I felt the separation so keenly that the feeling will not be greater, I think, when I die.” (L.4, 1).

She received the habit and became a novice on 2 March, 1535. “As soon as I took the habit, the Lord gave me an understanding of how he favours those who use force with themselves to serve Him. He gave me such great happiness at being in the religious state of life that it never left me up to this day and God changed the dryness my soul experienced into the greatest tenderness” (L.4, 2). She would often say in after years “all the things of religious life delighted me” reflecting her love of the service of the Lord and the joy of her espousal to Jesus.

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