The Life of the Venerable Anne of Jesus

From the Preface

"The name of Venerable Anne of Jesus is probably familiar to all those who are well acquainted with the life, the work of foundation and the correspondence of St. Teresa of Avila; it also occupies a not unimportant place in the life-story of St. John of the Cross; she, moreover, took the most prominent part in the establishment of the Teresian nuns in France and afterwards in the Low countries.

It is, therefore, not too much to say that none of these subjects can be properly and fully understood unless one has a more than cursory knowledge of her own life and aims. Above all this she was endowed with talents not even second (according to the opinion of St. John of the Cross who was a good judge) to those of St. Teresa, and she reached a wonderful degree of sanctity even for a period which saw some of the greatest Saints of the Catholic church.

It was, then, a happy thought that one who in religion had received the same name should have spent many years in collecting all the facts of the life, and all the surviving writings, of her heavenly patroness. The present writer who was able to watch the inception and gradual growth of the biography can bear testimony to the scrupulous accuracy with which the biographer has fulfilled her task."

This is a story that cannot be found in print elsewhere, of the transplanting of the Teresian reform from Spain to France and the Netherlands, a remarkable fete given that all of those countries were at war and the populations of France and the Netherlands not especially amenable to Spaniards. Nevertheless, the roots of Carmel were well placed, and the order flourished in convents still there to this day.

This work has been carefully reproduced from the original, with the UK spelling and the original pictures retained.

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