Thomas
of Jesus (1564-1627)
(Thomas
á Jesu, Diaz
Sanchez de Avila).
Thomas is
the last of the series of great men in the vanguard of the Italian
Congregation's expansion throughout Europe.
Born Tomás
Sanchez Dávila in 1564, Thomas went to university in his native Baeza from an
unusually early age, and had studied arts and theology by the time he was
nineteen. Then, in 1583, he moved to Salamanca for further studies in the
humanities and jurisprudence. While engrossed in his studies, one day in 1586
one of his professors recommended the writings of a certain nun for the
excellence of their style... It was Mother Teresa's writings he was talking
about. Thomas went to the Discalced college and asked if they had them. He
returned home with a manuscript copy of the Life (the first edition was
not until 1588), full of anticipation of the literary delights in store for
him. But there was also a surprise in store for him. He opened the manuscript
at chapter 18. The long explanatory title ran: "Discusses the fourth
degree of prayer. Begins to offer an excellent explanation of the great dignity
the Lord bestows upon the soul in this state. Gives much encouragement to those
who engage in prayer that they might strive to attain so high a stage, since it
can be reached on earth, although not by merit but through God's goodness. This
should be read attentively, for the explanation is presented in a very subtle
way and there are many noteworthy things". Such was the impression which
Teresa's description of the fourth water made on him that before long he felt
transformed and began to weep. Referring to himself in the third person, Thomas
later wrote: "He felt he had discovered a new kingdom, a new horizon of
light and truth, and though he had never in his life thought of becoming a religious,
bur rather abhorred the idea, such was the effect of this reading that within a
fortnight he had joined the Order"(2).
Thomas did
his novitiate at Valladolid and made his profession in the hands of Fr.Gracián
on 4 April 1587. (Gracián happened to be there for the intermediate chapter).
Two years later, he was ordained and sent to teach theology at the recently
founded College of the Holy Angel in Seville.
The facts
we possess about Fr.Thomas's first years as a Discalced Carmelite are few, but
even they are enough to provide us with the key to understand this somewhat
puzzling and apparently contradictory character. Note the three quite different
elements which surface in his training. First, there is the direct contact with
St.Teresa, who, through her writings, won him over. Then there is his eager
study of the history and spirituality of Carmel, about which he published a
book in 1599. And, finally, there is the new orientation which Fr.Doria was
giving the Order in those days, directly, through circulars and through local
superiors. Thomas of Jesus is perhaps the clearest example of the effect which
Doria's pedagogy could have on an enthusiastic young religious who had
undergone no previous influence. Gracián did everything he could for the
Teresian ideal, and it cost him his habit. John of the Cross was ultimately
removed to a safe distance. The first generation prioresses never tired of
opposing Doria's innovations in the name of Teresa's heritage. But what
reaction to the new style of formation would a young man without previous
orientation have?
Thomas
himself has told was what they were, in the autobiographical information which
he included in the Foundations he wrote at Fr.Fernando's behest in 1615(3). Speaking of himself in the third person, he
says: "After his profession he felt particularly called to a life of
solitude and quiet. Refelcting that all those who professed the first Rule were
hermits, he longed to found some monasteries in these times modelled on those
of our forerunners of Mount Carmel, where men would live in individual
hermitages, devoted to continual prayer and contemplation, under obedience to a
superior, for it is in this that the fruit and security of the eremitical life
consists". He goes on to tell us that on the occasion of Fr.Doria's
visitation of the Seville monastery (mid-1589) he availed of the opportunity
"and wrote a paper in which he set forth some reasons why it would be good
for the Order to have desert houses: that it would be in keeping with our Rule
and initial way of life; that there were many who would welcome such a step,
and it would keep them from going to the Carthusians; that it would be a means
of producing prayerful, spiritual men; that since it combined the best elements
of the cenobitical life (obedience and closeness to a superior) with the
benefits of solitude, but without the danger of being alone and going their own
way, it was a most sublime and perfect way of life -flowers without thorns, in
fact. These and many other arguments he set forth in that paper. Fr.Nicholas
read them and his answer was that to do so would ruin the Order; the better
friars would all go there and the Order would be lost without their
protection". This answer made him drop the project for a while.
Two years
later, Thomas was transferred to the Alcalá college as vicerector and
professor. One day, while rummaging through his papers, he came across the
desert project again. He mentioned it to his Rector Juan Aravalles, and to his
two colleagues Francisco de Santa María (the future chronicler) and Alonso de
Jesús María (the future general). All of them thought it was a great idea and
urged him to put it to Fr.Nicholas again. During the Summer vacation of 1592,
Thomas was in Madrid and this time Fr.Doria had no objection. In fact, he fully
supported the idea and complained that they should think him so lax as not to
trust him. The first Desert of the Discalced Carmelites was inaugurated at
Bolarque on 24 June 1593. It was the first link in a chain of 28 Deserts
founded between then and 1973.
The reader
who wants a detailed account of all the Deserts can consult a book such as
Felipe de la Virgen del Carmen's La soledad fecunda (Madrid 1961), in
which he will also find further bibliography on the subject. Here we have
confined ourselves to the few facts given above, because they are significant
in the interpretation of an important aspect of the Order's history, an aspect
which has not always been treated as accurately as it ought to be. Indeed, some
have so far ignored the laws of logic as to draw false conclusions from valid
premises.
Obviously, Mother Teresa wanted her daughters to be hermits, and Thonas of Jesus wanted those who dwellt in his desert to be hermits, just as the first community to settle on Mount Carmel were hermits; and all of these were devoted to seeking the precious pearl of contemplation. The difference between them is to be found in the way they organised their lives, in the way they went about reaching their goal of union with God. The three types of community -Mount Carmel, St.Joseph's Avila, and Bolarque- really differed from one another in their approach. A comparative study would bring out the details of this, no doubt, but here it is sufficient to point out that the communities of "Teresian hermits" were formed after Teresa herself had 27 years experience and tried out the idea for five years at St.Joseph's, whereas the Desert which the friars had was the brain-child of Thomas of Jesus, a logical deduction from the training he had received as a novice and what he had read about the hermits of old. He had found a formula and had to try it out in practise. Is it not symptomatic that a similar venture for the nuns (Alcalá 20.5.1599) failed after a very short time?(4).
Obviously, Mother Teresa wanted her daughters to be hermits, and Thonas of Jesus wanted those who dwellt in his desert to be hermits, just as the first community to settle on Mount Carmel were hermits; and all of these were devoted to seeking the precious pearl of contemplation. The difference between them is to be found in the way they organised their lives, in the way they went about reaching their goal of union with God. The three types of community -Mount Carmel, St.Joseph's Avila, and Bolarque- really differed from one another in their approach. A comparative study would bring out the details of this, no doubt, but here it is sufficient to point out that the communities of "Teresian hermits" were formed after Teresa herself had 27 years experience and tried out the idea for five years at St.Joseph's, whereas the Desert which the friars had was the brain-child of Thomas of Jesus, a logical deduction from the training he had received as a novice and what he had read about the hermits of old. He had found a formula and had to try it out in practise. Is it not symptomatic that a similar venture for the nuns (Alcalá 20.5.1599) failed after a very short time?(4).
Once the
project had been outlined, the man chosen to make it a reality was Fr.Alonso.
Thomas moved from Alcalá to Zaragoza as prior in 1594. In 1597, at 33 years of
age, he became provincial of Old Castille. As provincial he founded the Desert
of Las Batuecas, and at the end of his triennium in office he retired there to
live out and perfect his ideal of eremitical life. Early, in 1607, however, he
received a disturbing letter; the prior of Genoa, Francisco del SS.Sacramento,
wrote to him saying "it was selfish of him to remain in that solitude
looking only to his own spiritual comfort while so many souls perished
throughout the world for the want of somebody to help them"(5). The seed of his missionary vocation had been
planted.
Having
discovered this new ideal, Thomas took it so seriously that he broke with the
superiors in Spain, and, thanks to a Brief from Pope Paul V, was in Rome by the
end of 1607, throwing himself heart and soul into missionary projects.
Just as in
1592 he convinced Fr.Doria that the best way yo create contemplatives was to
establish "Deserts", so now he convinved Fr.Pedro de la Madre de Dios
and the Pope that the best way to provide missionaries for the Church was to
found a new Congregation devoted exclusively to that purpose. On 22 July 1608
Pope Paul V established the Congregation of St.Paul with his Brief Onus
pastoralis officii. Thomas was appointed Commissary to see it through its
first experimental years, and it was envisaged that thereafter superiors would
be elected regularly every three years. The Congregation consisted initially of
Thomas of Jesus and Diego de la Encarnación (an ex-missionary to the Congo who
had accompanied Thomas to Rome) from the Spanish Congregation, and ten fathers
and two brothers from the Italian Congregation.
Fr.Pedro
died in office and was succeeded by Fernando, who quickly had the execution of
the Brief quashed and successfully channelled Thomas's enthusiasm within the
framework already established by the Italian Congregation.
At first
Thomas withdrew to Santa María della Scala in Rome, and wrote his missionary
treatises, Stimulus missionum and the far larger De conversione
omnium gentium procuranda. Then, in 1610, he set out for Flanders -his
launching pad for missions to England, Ireland, Holland, and Germany.
summary of stimulus missionum of fr. thomas of jesus
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