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THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA Your Word Pierced My Heart, and I Fell in Love: Teresa of Avila’s Reading of Augustine of Hippo’s Confessions A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of the School of Theology and Religious Studies Of The Catholic University of America In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Ó Copyright All Rights Reserved By Kevin M. DePrinzio, O.S.A. Washington, D.C. 2017 Your Word Pierced My Heart, and I Fell in Love: Teresa of Avila’s Reading of Augustine of Hippo’s Confessions Kevin M. DePrinzio, O.S.A., Ph.D. Director: Regis J. Armstrong, O.F.M. Cap., Ph.D. In 1554, after twenty years as a Carmelite nun in the Monastery of the Encarnación in Avila and having begun to practice the Prayer of Recollection, as espoused in Francis of Osuna’s El Tercer Abecedario, Teresa of Avila noticed a shift in her prayer before an image of the suffering Christ. At that time, she was given a copy of Augustine’s Confessions, which had been newly translated into Spanish. She writes, “As I began to read the Confessions, it seemed to me that I saw myself in them. I began to commend myself very much to this glorious saint. When I came to the passage where he speaks about his conversion and read how he heard the voice in the garden, it only seemed to me, according to what I felt in my heart, that it was I the Lord called” (Vida 9.8). Teresian scholarship acknowledges a connection between Augustine and Teresa and recognizes the influence of his writings upon her. Much has been done in the way of paralleling Libro de la Vida with the Confessions, especially in its autobiographical rendering. However, this scholarship typically falls short in addressing just how the Confessions impacted her life. The Confessions speaks to various levels of conversion in Augustine’s life, all of which come together and culminate in the garden scene recorded in Book VIII. Interestingly, one of these levels is how Augustine approaches texts and comes to appreciate language. A gifted rhetorician, Augustine himself will notice a shift in how he experiences texts and is invited to “take up and read” Scripture and encounter the living Word. It is precisely this invitation that grabs Teresa’s attention and pulls her into the story of Augustine, and subsequently into her own story, that is worth exploring closely. The Confessions enabled Teresa to see, read, and understand her experience(s) differently and deeply, helping her to develop a new mystical language. In other words, Teresa’s reception of this text marks a conversion in itself, namely, in her relationship to books, in how she receives and reads them. In effect, the Confessions serves as a bridge to understanding her mysticism. Using the fourfold contemplative method of lectio divina, this dissertation examines Teresa’s reading of Augustine’s Confessions, which she describes as part of her own conversion experience, and, as a result, changes the ways in which Teresa reads, approaches, and reflectively writes of her own experience. This dissertation by Kevin M. DePrinzio, O.S.A., fulfills the dissertation requirement for the doctoral degree in Spirituality/Historical Theology approved by Regis J. Armstrong, O.F.M. Cap., Ph.D., as Director, and by Mark Clark, Ph.D., and Keith J. Egan, Ph.D., as Readers. _________________________________________ Regis J. Armstrong, O.F.M.Cap., Ph.D., Director _________________________________________ Mark Clark, Ph.D., Reader _________________________________________ Keith J. Egan, Ph.D., Reader ii Table of Contents Introduction ....................................................................................................................................1 Chapter One: Lectio – the Book ...................................................................................................6 The Book & Literacy: Lettered & Gendered ............................................................................12 The Book & Spanish Catholic Reform: Forbidden & Inquired .................................................32 The Book & Teresa: Romanced & Mystical .............................................................................50 Impressions ...............................................................................................................................63 Chapter Two: Meditatio – the Staff ...........................................................................................66 The Staff & Augustine: A Confessio of Grace .........................................................................74 The Staff & Mysticism: Confessions as Guide for the Journey ................................................95 The Staff through the Ages: Reception of Augustine’s Classic .............................................111 Impressions .............................................................................................................................121 Chapter Three: Oratio – the Heart ..........................................................................................126 The Heart of Prayer: Recollection ..........................................................................................136 The Heart of Conversion: Teresa meets Augustine ................................................................158 Impressions .............................................................................................................................183 Chapter Four: Contemplatio – the Fire ...................................................................................186 The Heart Pierced, on Fire with Love: Augustinian-Teresian Language of Interiority ..........196 The Fire Within: Interiority, Gender, & Voice .......................................................................223 Fanning the Flame: Teresa Takes to Pen ................................................................................237 Impressions .............................................................................................................................257 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................261 Bibliography ..............................................................................................................................266 iii San Agustín y Santa Teresa ofrecen sus corazones a la Virgen y San José (Antonio de Pereda, 1640) iv Introduction The walls of the Monasterio de las Carmelitas de San José in Toledo, Spain, frame a beautiful picture, one of quiet, of solitude, and of contemplation, yet matted and outlined by strength, resilience, and determination. Begun in 1569 as the fifth foundation of the mid- sixteenth century Carmelite Reform ushered in by Saint Teresa of Avila, the present-day edifice was completed almost one hundred years later, having relocated four times within its first thirty years alone.1 The public chapel, a later addition, is striking, with a single nave ornamented by statues and paintings of figures a visitor would expect to see in a Carmelite Church: Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Saint Joseph, Saint John of the Cross, and Saint Teresa of Avila, all in the baroque style characteristic of the Golden Age of Spain. One such adornment, however, a painting above the main altar in the sanctuary, is both surprising and curious, especially as it appears as the focus of the worship space. Entitled San Agustín y Santa Teresa ofrecen sus corazones a la Virgen y San José, this 1640 altarpiece by Antonio de Pereda clearly depicts what it says. At first glance, the saints seem like an odd pairing, especially in a Carmelite space. If Teresa is depicted with anyone, John of the Cross usually accompanies her. Instead, a fifth century North African bishop and a sixteenth century Spanish nun are seen here side by side in 1. See José Miguel Muñoz Jiménez, Arquitectura Carmelitana (1562-1800): Arquitectura de los Carmelitas Descalzos en España, Mexico y Portugal durante los Siglos XVI a XVII. (Avila: Institución Gran Duque de Avila, 1990): 90-91. Interestingly, Muñoz Jiménez refers to all of the foundations as conventos, not monasterios, which is misleading, given that convento in Spanish (i.e., “convent”) is the name given for the dwelling of men religious, and monasterio is that of women religious. However, it is clear throughout the text that he is referring to Teresa’s foundations of the Discalced women. 1 2 positions that mirror each other: both are kneeling firmly on the earth, gazing heavenward toward the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph, and holding out their hearts aflame. The objects often associated with them and found in their possession, namely, the bishop’s staff and the book, are placed – as if dropped suddenly – on the ground, further underscoring curiosity. Although the connection between these two figures may not be an obvious one initially, anyone familiar with Teresa’s writings could easily recall her fondness for Augustine and how she came to endear herself to him. Not only had she spent a few years as a teenage girl in a finishing school run by the Augustinian nuns of Nuestra Señora de Gracia in Avila, but even more telling was her reading of Augustine’s Confessions in 1554 when it was first translated into Spanish. Her reception of this classic text came at a key moment in her life when, after twenty years as a Carmelite nun in the Monastery of the Encarnación in Avila, she noticed a shift in her prayer before an image of the suffering Christ. She writes, “At this time they gave