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2.2.7 Spanish Mystics of the 16^th Century

An important development in Spanish spirituality took place in the sixteenth century, a time of great change, exploration, and conflict. (For critical accounts of the general historical context of the 16^th century, with particular reference to Spain, see de Las Casas,1992; Castro, 2007 [reviewed in Rubiés, 2007]; Tarver, 2017;

Rivera, 1992.) A new form of spirituality, called Devotio Moderna, had its origins earlier in Italy and the Rhineland. It was “an intense and creatively imaginative mode of reaching out to God … [which] tended to introspection” (MacCulloch, 2009, 566). This was one element forming the context for Spanish mysticism.

Another element was the emerging humanism which found expression within the arts and scholarship, within medicine and science. There was a new fascination with, and appreciation of, the human that was celebrated in poetry, painting, politics and literature. In this context, mystics of a very high order, notably, Ignatius of Loyola and Teresa of Avilla emerged to shed great light on human union with God (Woods, 2006, 180).

Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) lived during the era of kings and queens, nobles and lords, knights and chivalry. He was drenched in the secular values of his time wanting to be great and glorious (Conroy, 1993, 4) He began his “worldly” career as a courtier, a gentleman, and a soldier (Egan, 1987, 18). His life was turned around, however, after a profound religious conversion which happened during the time of recovery from a leg injury at his home in Loyola. “One night, as he lay sleepless, he clearly saw the likeness of our Lady with the holy Child Jesus,

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and because of this vision he enjoyed an excess of consolation for a remarkably long time” (Ignatius of Loyola, 1991, 16). Ignatius knew this vision came from God because of its lasting effects. This vision transformed Ignatius decisively and permanently, as would his many other future visions recorded in his autobiography A Pilgrim’s Journey. One of his great contributions was his well-known Spiritual Exercises which have greatly influenced spirituality from the 16^th century until the present. While living as a hermit at Manresa, and receiving spiritual guidance at the monastery at Montserrat, he experienced mystical insights. The basic framework for the Spiritual Exercises was established at this time; it would be refined later as he engaged in the spiritual direction of others.

“In addition to his seven hours of prayer, he is helping other souls who came there to see him about spiritual matters, and the rest of the day he gave to thinking about the things of God that he had read or meditated on that day.” (Ignatius of Loyola, 1991, 34).

The Spiritual Exercises (Ignatius, 2011) are a series of practical guidelines that offer advice on how to direct individual retreatants. Much of the advice refers to the structure and content of the five prayer periods per day, and spiritual discernment. The specific contribution of the Exercises, which lasts over a period of four weeks, is to encounter God in all aspects of life; the life and death of Jesus is presented as the fundamental pattern for the Christian life; that God, revealing himself in the healing Christ, becomes the source of liberation and hope; and, finally, the Exercises are about deepening one’s desire for God. This process is meant to foster the integration of contemplation and action, and inspire the desire for an active sharing in God’s mission to the world (Sheldrake, 2013, 127). At the heart of this process is spiritual discernment. Ignatian discernment seeks to discover the will of God (Endean, 2009, 154), which is about deciding how to act socially in a responsible manner. Such discernment is communal in nature rather than a merely individual decision-making process. Such discernment is needed when faced with our often-contradictory desires. Since desire shapes our decisions, the discernment process enables a person to be aware of the full range of desires that we experience. Being aware of our desires allows for an honest and moral

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way of choosing. The Rules for Discernment continue to be widely known and used in supporting the journey towards contemplation and action.

Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) is one of the most remarkable Spanish mystics of the Golden Age. She was able to “combine the practice of the most profound mystical prayer with a dynamic involvement in the world, seen particularly in her reform of her own Carmelite order and the foundation of seventeen new convents”

(Harpur, 2005, 154). She is another good example of a contemplative in action.

Besides her active involvement in the reform and establishing new foundations for the Carmelite order, Teresa was also a spiritual and mystical writer. Her works include The Book of Her Life, The Way of Perfection, The Foundations, The Interior Castle and a number of poems and letters. In the second section of The Book of Her Life, Teresa offers a magnificent insight on mental prayer. She compares the life of prayer to watering a garden:

It seems to me the garden can be watered in four ways. You may draw water from a well (which is for us a lot of work). Or you may get it by means of a water wheel and aqueducts in such a way that it is obtained by turning the crank of the water wheel. (…the method involves less work than the other, and you get more water).

Or it may flow from a river or a stream. (The garden is watered much better by this means because the ground is more fully soaked, and there is no need to water so frequently – and much less work for the gardener). Or the water may be provided by a great deal of rain. (For the Lord waters the garden without any work on our part – and this way is incomparably better than all the other mentioned) (Teresa of Avila, 1976, 81).

Similarly, the beginner in prayer has to make great efforts and endure many difficulties, but these eventually diminish until the Lord freely bestows the greatest gifts on the soul (King, 2004, 152).

Teresa’s great contribution to mysticism is her account of an insider’s guide to contemplation, to the journey of the soul from the outside world to its innermost depths and union with God (Harpur, 2005, 154). In her masterpiece, The Interior Castle, Teresa depicts the stages of the soul’s inner spiritual quest for divine union in terms of a journey through seven sets of rooms located within a castle made of crystal or diamond. “The soul’s destination is the innermost room, where it will find ultimate union with God” (Harpur, 2005, 157). This castle is entered by way of prayer and meditation (Egan, 1991, 438). For Teresa, “mental prayer …is

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nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us” (Teresa of Avila, 1976, 67).

From the castle’s outer courtyard, the soul passes through the castle gate, representing prayer and meditation, to the first three sets of rooms, where it learns the importance of virtues such as humility, prayer, and perseverance. It then moves on to the fourth lot of rooms, where it begins to learn the prayer of recollection and of quiet. The fifth rooms concern the prayer of union and spiritual betrothal.

At this point, Teresa introduces the memorable image of the soul as a silkworm that eats mulberry leaves until, when it is fully grown, it spins a silk cocoon from which it emerges as a white butterfly. Similarly, the soul feeds on outer nourishment provided by the church, such as sermons, confessions, and holy books, until it, too, becomes fully grown. It then begins to spin its cocoon – that is, Christ – in which it can hide itself. And just as the silkworm has to die to become a butterfly, so the soul must die to its attachment to the world and emerge transformed by its proximity to God. In the sixth set of rooms, the soul, seeking to progress from betrothal to marriage, has to undergo further physical and spiritual suffering. But when it finally arrives at the seventh rooms it experiences union with God and receives a wondrous vision of the Trinity. The very last room – the centre of the soul itself – is the locus of the spiritual marriage between the soul and God (Harpur, 2005, 157-158).

Spiritual marriage and the union that is experienced, according to Teresa, “is like rain falling into a river, when the river’s water is impossible to distinguish from the rain; or it is like a stream entering the sea or a room in which light pours in through two large windows – it enters in different places but it all becomes one”

(Harpur, 2005, 158). Teresa’s understanding of the inner spiritual journey will be looked at in detail in section 2.4 of this thesis.

If the sixteenth century can be described as the age of Spanish mysticism, the seventeenth century belongs to the mystics of France. For example, Francis de Sales (1567-1622), Marie of the Incarnation (1599-1672) and Brother Lawrence (1614-1691). By the beginning of the eighteenth century, mysticism was equated

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with the condemned heresy of Quietism by secular and ecclesiastical officials in France. As a result of the suppression of mysticism in Spain and France, the nineteenth century was not favourable to mysticism among Catholics, but the twentieth century sees a revival of mysticism in Europe.