Rule of Carmel and Constitutions

Primitive Rule and Constitutions

Primitive rule and constitutions of nuns
of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel - 1865
according to the reformation of SAINT THERESE
for the monasteries of his Order in France

POITIERS: PRINTING OF HENRI OUDIN - Rue de l'Éperon, 4. 1865

Edition that Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus had for her use, a pocket size measuring 11 cm by 7 cm. The pagination is followed by an asterisk.
Some minor corrections have been made to the transcription of verbs (when obsolete) and hyphens.

My Daughters, I conjure you in the Lord to observe in all integrity and perfection your Rules and primitive Constitutions.

Words of Saint Thérèse on her deathbed.

Extract from his life by Ribera, book. III, ch. 7. Act. holy BOLL.

APPROVAL OF THE BISHOP OF POITIERS.

On the report of Father Gay, theological canon of our Cathedral Church, one of our Vicars General and Superior of the Carmelites of Poitiers and Niort; assured that the present edition of the Rule and Constitutions of the Carmelites is the exact reproduction of all the editions published in France for more than two centuries; knowing moreover that this French translation is in conformity with the Spanish text which one republishes besides entirely at the same time as the French text; we have permitted and approved its printing.

Poitiers, March 26, 1865, Fourth Sunday of Lent.

+ THE ev. From Poitiers

DISCLAIMER ABOUT THIS NEW EDITION

By publishing this new Edition of the Rule and Constitutions of the Carmelites, we are responding to the repeated requests of most of the Monasteries of France. Previous editions are sold out. Not only are the newly founded houses unable to obtain this indispensable book, but several ancient Monasteries II* do not have the necessary number of copies.

I. Wanting to take the greatest care with this important work, we had to collate the successively published French translations with each other. The oldest we have is dated 1607 and was published by Rulger Velpius in Brussels. It is undoubtedly the one that the Venerable Mother Anne of Jesus had printed when, that very year, she went to found it in Flanders. The second is from 1616 and was published in Dôle in Franche-Comté. We read on the last page: “Printed by Antoine-III* Dominique on the copy printed in Brussels. The third was printed in Lyon in 1626. We have another which bears the date of 1643, without the name of place or printer; one from 1704, printed in Paris, and exactly reproduced by those from Toulouse in 1834, and that from Montpellier in 1854. It seems that before 1626, an edition was made for the use of the monasteries of France, but we have not been able to find a copy, nor even certainly note its existence.

The Convents of Flanders having always been under the government of the Carmelites, the IV* edition of Brussels naturally mentions them, although the steps taken by Anne of Jesus to obtain Fathers failed with the Spanish Carmelites, and did not reached those of Italy only through the intervention of Pope Paul V, three years after the printing of the Constitutions, that is to say in 1610.

As for Dôle, this foundation was not regularized until 1620 by a brief from the same Pope dated 25 January. Dôle being part of Franche-Comté, a province then foreign to France, to which it was only united towards the end of this century, the Pope provided this monastery with a particular government V*, which was neither that of ' Spain, nor that of France, but which held both.

Printed in 1616, the Constitutions of Dôle do not indicate this regime, but rather the one that was probably planned at the beginning of the foundation, and which was that of the PPs. Carmelites. But because to be foreign to France, Franche-Comté was nevertheless bordering; by the fact that French was spoken there and that the nuns who founded this new convent had come from France; lest in speaking of Frs. Carmelites as before governing it, one seemed to invalidate in any way the VI* particular regime to which, from 1603, Clement VIII had authentically subjected the Monasteries of France, the unknown editor of these Constitutions took it upon himself to insert in the first chapter a second article reads as follows: “The convents which are governed by Messrs. Jacques Gallemant and André du Val and Pierre de Bérulle, doctors of theology, are subject to them; and have (these Gentlemen) the same power over the said Monasteries of their government as the General of the Order has over those of Spain, which was given to them and to their successors, by the Bull of VII* NS P the Pope Clement, eighth of the name, the year of grace: one thousand six hundred and three, the thirteenth of the month of November”.

Apart from the differences which we point out and which we explain here, there is a perfect conformity between these first translations published abroad and those which have since been printed in France. For these, apart from the spelling changes that the movement of the language has naturally brought about, and the substitution made here and there of more modern words for a few terms that are too old, they are so similar to each other others, VIII* that they represent in reality only one and the same translation constantly reproduced. This is a certain sign that never, since the establishment of the Carmelites in France, has any modification been made to these Constitutions, and that they are thereby authentic and primitive.

But we did more than see the clarity of the stream, we went back to the source. We owe to the charitable kindness of the first monastery of Paris, the communication of the single copy which remains to them of the Rule and the Constitutions brought IX* by the first Spanish Mothers in 1604. This book was printed in Madrid in 1588, c that is to say, seven years after the chapter, held in Alcala and six years after the death of Saint Thérèse. Except for a slight change affecting the times of mental prayer, supper and Compline, it reproduces exactly the original edition printed in Salamanca in 1581, under the eyes of the Fathers of Alcala and during the Saint's lifetime. This is the unanimous testimony of the most trustworthy authors, Spanish or French, Carmelite, secular or even lay. Moreover, a copy of this precious edition is still to be found X*, it is said, in the Convent of the Discalced Carmelites in Brussels.

However, having compared sentence by sentence, this text of 1588 and our French translation, we have found that, apart from the point of government which we will discuss below, there is a perfect conformity between Spanish and French. The very rare differences that one encounters there relate only to details that one can call insignificant. Moreover, so that everyone can better understand them, we have indicated them all in a note.

The same spirit of fidelity and preservation has caused us to re-establish in their integrity the prologue and the conclusion of the Rule of Saint Albert, as well as a paragraph which ends the Constitutions. The first two are only of purely historical interest; the other only looks at countries where the Carmelites are regularly subject to the government of the PPs. Carmelites. We had therefore omitted them as superfluous so as not to enlarge too much a volume that above all we wanted to make small. We also thought it necessary to reproduce several very precious pieces which precede in Spanish the Rule and the Constitutions and which, if they have been translated into French XII*, which we do not know, do not appear at least in any of the editions that we have. could get us. We thought it necessary, it is true, to omit the first of these pieces which, apart from being very long, does not directly interest the Carmelites of France. It is the bull of Gregory XIII (June 22, 1580) separating the reformed Carmelites from the mixed ones, and attributing to the former the immediate government of the Carmelites of Spain. But we have had all the other documents translated and printed, namely the Apostolic Letters of Gregory XIII authorizing Chapter XIII* of Alcala, the Confirmation by Nuncio D. César Speciano of the Constitutions written in this Chapter and two letters from Fr. Jérôme Gratien addressed one to Saint Thérèse, the other to the Monasteries of the Carmelites of the reform, and both relating to their recent Constitutions.

Finally, considering that there is nothing more important nor sweeter to preserve in a family than the authentic titles of its origin; that the Spanish text of the Constitutions of Alcala has become so rare that to our knowledge only one copy exists in France and that in Spain itself the XIV* is no longer found outside the major libraries; that the need to reprint the Constitutions in French, and the facility that God gives us to do so, is a very favorable and perhaps unique opportunity to ensure the preservation of such a precious text; we have decided to have it reprinted following the French translation; not, it is true, in the common edition intended for nuns for whom this text would obviously be useless, but in the larger Edition of which we intend to pay homage to Our Lords the Bishops of France and of which XV* we We will send some copies to each monastery so that they can be kept there.

Apart from these additions, the Edition that we offer to the Carmelites of France is a simple reproduction of those that they received from their ancestors in Religion, and that they all have in their hands.

Although not only the persons designated in the first article of the first chapter to govern the Carmel of France have been dead for more than two centuries, but that the very mode of government of this Carmel is currently changed, we have not modified this beginning. of the XVIth Constitutions, contenting ourselves with referring to the present preface, so that it may be explained. Apart from the fact that we did not have the capacity to make this change, this ancient text has the advantage of noting the particular regime to which, from the outset, it pleased the Holy See to subject all of the French Carmel. Moreover, as the government of the Carmelites has not been the same at all times and in all countries, even outside of France, this first article has necessarily undergone numerous variations. This explains the different ways in which it is found written even in the XVII* Constitutions printed by the care of the RRs. PP. Carmelites for the Monasteries subject to their jurisdiction, either in Italy or in Spain.

II. We believe it necessary to say a word here about the Constitutions in use in these two countries so that we know in what and why, even apart from the point which concerns the government, they differ from the French text and therefore from the primitive Constitutions. Whatever the number of modifications that, at the request of the Carmelite Fathers, the Holy See has successively made to the Constitutions of Alcala, there are currently only two authentic texts and making XVIIIth law, one which is used in Italy and in all the provinces subject to the Carmelites of the Congregation of Saint Elias; the other which is customary in Spain. The first dates from the pontificate of Urban VII and was officially proposed to all the Monasteries belonging to the aforesaid Congregation by RP Ferdinand de Sainte-Marie who was then the Superior General. His circular letter is from 1, that is to say, twenty-six years after the establishment of the first monastery in France. This letter, reproduced in all the editions published since in Italy, especially in that dated 1630, is almost entirely used to prove that the differences, brought by the Holy See to the primitive Constitutions, relate to such secondary points that they don't change

no substance; so much so that these Constitutions remain substantially identical to those of Saint Teresa, that is to say, to those of Alcala. It is said there that “the present Constitutions have been observed in the Congregation of Saint-Elie since the year 1590, when four Mothers came from Spain to found in Genoa the first monastery in Italy; that they are the very ones that Saint Thérèse composed, taught and observed, since she began the work of reform; that she did not, it is true, propose them under her name and nor did she allow the Chapter of Alcala, where they were written, to make the slightest mention of her; but that it was out of humility and so that such important regulations appeared more obligatory and worthy of respect, being given by a Chapter which had apostolic authority; authority which moreover confirmed them, first in 1585, then in 1590.” From which he draws this conclusion that: “As God gave the ancient law XXI* to the Hebrews by the hand of Moses, he gave these rules to the Nuns of Carmel by the hands of the holy Reformer: so that these Nuns owe them to be held as a sacred thing, as a second Gospel and as the book which God will use to judge them.” And in fact, it is enough to read the Italian text to be convinced that by affirming. this identity of the Constitutions, Father Ferdinand is simply telling the truth.

As for the current Constitutions of the Carmelites of Spain, they differ very notably from those of Italy and France, XXII* and therefore from the primitive Spanish Constitutions. Among many very essential changes that occur there, we will limit ourselves to citing the articles where the communions of the Sisters are regulated. In Chapter V bearing this title: Confessors and Chaplains and Holy Communion, after recalling in article 4 that all the Sisters will ordinarily communicate on Sundays and Feasts of Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin and of several designated Saints, it is said in article 5 that they will also be able to communicate every Thursday if they are in spirit and devotion XXIII* to do so, and even though this communion is not obligatory, they are exhorted not to omit it. After which we add: "and because by not uniting itself with this Divine Sacrament the soul receives a lot of damage, and also others result for it if it receives it more often than prudence requires, we we declare that when there occurs in the week one of the feasts above designated for obligatory Communion, or other feasts, such as those of the Apostles or others similar, in this case the Sisters will omit Communion either XXIV* of Thursday, or of Sunday according to whether one or the other of these days is closer to that on which they will have communicated: so that in no case must they communicate more than twice a week, and that between each Communion, we keep at least an interval of two or three days. »

However, an exception is made for the anniversary of entry into Religion and Profession. After which we resume: art. 6: “If for very serious and urgent particular causes, it happens that a nun wishes to make XXV* one communion more than the two ordained or permitted, she will not do so without the express permission and ordinance of our Father General, whom we recommend to grant this very rarely. »

We translate this from the text printed in 1850 in Barcelona, ​​which reproduces exactly the edition of 1787 printed in Madrid.

No one can think of blaming this regime; for just as in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Holy See approved for the Congregation of Italy the Constitutions which are in use there, so in the eighteenth century it approved these for the Spain. This is what we read in the apostolic brief which precedes them and which Pius VI granted to the Carmelites on May 12, 1786.

For France, it is indisputable that the Spanish Mothers brought there, very voluntarily, not one of the texts revised from 1590 to 1592, but the primitive text of 1588. Did they do it unduly, that is to say without advice and against obedience, it is impossible to suppose from persons such as the Venerable Mothers Anne of Jesus, Anne of Saint-Barthélemy and Isabelle des Anges, XXVII* all three dead in the odor of sanctity; especially since when Anne of Jesus went to found in Flanders, it was again this text that she took there and had printed there: and such was the attachment that the Carmelites had there, that when, in 1610, the Saint‑ See entrusted those of Flanders to the Carmelites of Italy, these Fathers had all sorts of difficulty in having the revised Constitutions accepted there, although for the monasteries which were submitted to them these Constitutions were really obligatory. But furthermore, how could it have happened that the men so serious, so learned and truly so holy that the Holy See charged XXVIII* with providing for the laborious establishment of the Carmelites in France could not have discovered the alleged irregularity of this choice of Constitutions; or, what is worse still, would they have suffered it, if they had noticed it, thus giving as the basis of a work so important and so sacred a guilty and anti-canonical act? And if, by impossibility, they had done it, how to understand that the Holy See, in view and knowing of whom everything had been done from the beginning and who had taken such particular care to regulate everything that concerned the foundation of France, would not have made on a point of this consequence neither injunction, nor observation, nor complaint of any kind, keeping this silence for two centuries, even though so many bulls and briefs that he successively wrote during this long space of time for the various needs of the French monasteries have provided him with so many and so natural opportunities? How can we finally understand that this did not raise any difficulties in the process of Beatification of B. Marie de l'Incarnation who not only had lived under these Constitutions, but who had been involved so directly and in so many ways in the establishment of the Carmelites of France? Nothing therefore seems more legitimate than a possession so ancient, so general, and so peaceful; and there is no doubt that the substance of the Constitutions of the Carmel remaining the same everywhere, especially in Italy and France, the Holy See has no more claimed to submit our country to the few modifications which it granted to the Carmelites for govern the nuns of their Congregation of Saint Elijah in the way they thought best, that he did not want to subject the Monasteries belonging to this Congregation to the changes subsequently authorized by him for Spain. It follows that at present the XXXI* Carmelites of France are no more justified in leaving their Constitutions nearly three centuries old to take the Italians of 1630 which differ so little from them, than to adopt the Spanish ones of 1786 which, in certain places, are so unlike them.

III. It only remains for us to briefly summarize the history of the government of the Carmelites of France.

Everyone knows that, by his bull of November 13, 1603, Pope XXXII* Clement VIII ordered that they should be governed by MM. Gallemant, Du Val and de Bérulle, under the visit of the Commissioner General of the Carmelites and, while waiting for the Carmelites to be established in France, under that of Father General of the Carthusians. The office of the three Superiors was perpetual in the sense that the survivors always had to provide for the replacement of the one who died. .The General of the Carthusians having thought it necessary to decline this charge of visitor, Pope Paul V, first confirming the powers given by Clement VIII to the first three Superiors, provisionally regulated that, on XXXIII* presentation made by them, his Nuncio in France would appoint a Visitor General every three years and “this, moreover, that Frs. Carmelites had Convents in Paris, or in France, or even came to have them, which already implied the revocation of the right of visit attributed in principle by Clement VIII to the General Commissioner of the Carmelites, a right which in fact had no never been exercised. The brief of Paul V is dated September 8, 1606. By another brief of April 17, 1614, the same Pope establishes that instead of being elected every year, the Visitor General would henceforth be perpetual and revoking the XXXIV* commission previously given to the Nuncio, he definitively attributed this charge to Father de Bérulle, General of the recent Congregation of the Oratory and to his successors. This brief was confirmed by Gregory XV on March 21, 1621, and September 1622, XNUMX.

In 1630, the RP de Condren second superior of the Oratory, having renounced for him and for his successors the office of Visitor of the Carmelites of France, these again addressed themselves to the Holy See, and Pope Urban VIII then reigning, restored by a brief of April 11 the regulations of Paul V, again charging his Nuncio XXXV* to appoint every three years one or more visitors, according to the needs of the Order already very extensive in France. .

Some troubles stirred up in 1658 by two Superiors who wrongly assumed the right of visitation, led Pope Alexander VII to authorize each monastery in France to choose an immediate Superior every three years, with the option of re-electing him as needed. would be.

The Nuncio or the local ordinary as delegate of the Holy See, had to confirm this election. The brief of Alexander VII is dated September 28, 1661. In it the Pope again reserved the right of visitation to the two perpetual visitors then existing and to their successors; the surviving Visitor having to present one to the Nuncio, who was responsible for confirming it.

This regime lasted without interruption until the time of the French Revolution when all the monasteries were suppressed and the nuns dispersed.

All exemption for women's convents having ceased as a result of the general system canonically established in France by the Concordat, each Carmelite monastery has automatically come under the jurisdiction of the bishop of the diocese where it is established. From now on it is up to the Bishops to visit and govern these monasteries; what they do either by themselves or by the priests, whether secular or even regular, whom they please to delegate for this purpose. They appoint the Visitors ex officio; and as for the Superiors, the nuns who elected them after each triennium in the form prescribed by Pope Alexander VII, propose them for confirmation by the Ordinary on whom they depend. The Holy See can certainly change this mode of government, but only he can do it.

APOSTOLIC LETTERS OF OUR MOST HOLY FATHER GREGOIRE XIII ATTENDED IN THE FORM OF A BRIEF

under the ring of the fisherman, for the execution of other apostolic letters emanating from his Holiness, in order to erect the province of the Discalced Carmelite monks, and to separate it from the provinces of the mixed Order.

To Our Beloved Son Father Jean de las Cuevas, Prior of the Monastery of Saint-Gines de Talavera, Diocese of Toledo, of the Order of Saint Dominic

GREGOIRE PP. XIII

Dear Son, Greetings and Apostolic Blessing A few days ago, determined by just motives, we separated and 2* detached our beloved sons the Discalced Religious of the Order of the most glorious Virgin Mary of Carmel, residing in the kingdoms of Spain, as well as the Nuns of the same Order who also follow the same primitive Rule and their houses, convents, monasteries and other places, that we have them, I say, separated and detached from the provinces of the Religious of the same order who observe the Rule mitigated by our predecessor Eugene IV, of happy memory, who for this are called Mitigated Carmelites. We have exempted and delivered the said Discalced Religious from all jurisdiction, visitation, correction and superiority that the Priors, Provincials and other Superiors of the 3* mixed order had the right to exercise over them. We have erected and founded from all the houses, monasteries and all other places belonging to the Discalced Carmelites a separate province which will bear their name, and which includes both the foundations already existing and those which will be made in the future, so many Religious than Discalced Nuns. The said province will be directed and governed by a Provincial elected in the Provincial Chapter, as we have explained more fully in our previous letters. And, as it was reported to us that it was urgent to proceed as soon as possible with the holding of this Provincial Chapter and that there be discussed and deliberated on the state of the whole order, of the houses and monasteries of the Religious Released from the new Province, and that the election of the Provincial and the other Superiors proceed there, we, full of confidence in you, whose prudence, goodness and experience are known to us, we hope with the help of the Lord that you will be able to be very useful by salutary councils and timely help to the institution and to the government of this province and its houses. And wishing to condescend on this point to the prayers of our dear son in Jesus Christ, Philip, Catholic King of Spain, by the apostolic authority and according to the content of the presents, we constitute you and depute President of the Provincial Chapter which must be held , investing you with all the authority, jurisdiction and faculties necessary for you to be able to proceed promptly to the elections which will take place in this chapter, choosing suitable and capable subjects, according to the form determined in our preceding letters. Furthermore, we give you the power to convene the said chapter at the place and time that seem convenient to you, and to call there those religious of the said province whom you deem appropriate; enjoining each and every one of the discalced religious and all others to whom he belongs, that without any hesitation, they recognize you as President of the said Chapter, and that they submit with all the respect, obedience and humility appropriate to you and your 6* salutary prescriptions: that they go to the Provincial Chapter at the time and place that you have indicated to them: the election of the above-mentioned provincial having been made, you and the elected Provincial will preside over the Chapter, and you will be able to be present there and give the timely and necessary advice and assistance to make and promulgate the ordinances, reforms and statutes which the Chapter must proceed with if it seems convenient to both of you to do so. 'one for the good government of the province.

Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, under the Ring of the Fisherman, the twentieth of November, one thousand five hundred and eighty, the ninth year of our pontificate.

CAES. GLORIERIUS.

ACT OF CONFIRMATION

BY WHICH THE ILLUSTRISSIME AND REVERENDISSIME DON CAESAR SPECIANO, NUNCE OF HIS HOLINESS, APPROVES AND SANCTIONES THE CONSTITUTIONS OF THE DISCALCED CARMELITES.

Don César Speciano, by the grace of God and of the Holy See, Bishop of Novarre and Nuncio of His Holiness Sixtus V in the Kingdoms of Spain, with the powers of a legate in Latere : to our beloved daughters in Jesus Christ, the Abbesses, Prioresses and other Discalced Carmelite Nuns established in the Kingdoms of Spain, greetings in the name of the Lord.

The purity of the religious Order 9* in which you serve the Lord with a spirit of humility, devotion and fervor; the holiness and regularity of the life that you profess, scorning worldly pomp and voluntarily and wholeheartedly embracing the rigors and austerities of your Rule to arrive at the enjoyment of the celestial and eternal things which make up all your study, as well as excellence of your merits, lead us, in view of the concern imposed on us by the charge with which we are invested by the authority of the Holy See, to graciously grant you everything that can contribute to the exact and perfect observance of your Rule: moreover, we wish to free you from everything which could distract you from its goal or be an obstacle to its development, so that it becomes easier for you to devote yourself to the contemplation of celestial goods and to acquire them.

In a petition which was very recently presented to us on your part, you state that, in addition to the Rule given to your Order by Albert, of happy memory, Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Vicar or Apostolic Commissioner and the Provincial, as well as the Definitors of the Order of the Discalced Carmelites had ordered and published for the good government of your monasteries some particular Constitutions to the number of twenty chapters. The first :Obedience and Election of Superiors. - The second : Of the Reception of Novices, of their Profession, and of the number of Religious there should be in each convent- The third : From the Fence. - The fourth : Dinner and Refection. - The fifth : Canonical Hours and Spiritual Things. - The sixth : From the Fellowship. - The seventh : Of Poverty and the Temporal - The eighth : Fasts and Habits. - The ninth : Labor and toil of the hands. -The tenth : From Silence and Retreat to Cells. The eleventh : Humility and Penance. - The twelfth : Sick people. The thirteenth : Of the Departed. The fourteenth : Exhortation of what are obligated, both the Mother Prioress and the others in their Offices. The fifteenth : From the Chapter 12* Coulpes. Chapter Psalms. - The sixteenth : Light Coulpe. - The seventeenth: Average Coulpe. -The eighteenth: De la Coulpe grievously. - The nineteenth: De la Coulpe more serious. - The twentieth : De la Coulpe very serious.

These Constitutions, you observe them at present as it is your duty, and by the grace of the Lord, you desire to continue to observe them in a firm and stable manner, both for having been given to you by your Superiors and because they have been divinely inspired to the Foundress and Teacher of your Order, the late Thérèse of Jesus. As for the hours of compline, although they are marked in your 13* Constitutions, nevertheless because of the observation of silence, the custom has prevailed, both in your houses and in those of your brothers the Discalced Carmelites, to recite after supper or snack, and this custom should be continued as you desire. And although, as your request itself said, what is known to have been done by competent Superiors and provided with legitimate faculties has all the necessary force and value, however, the prescriptions in which the authority of the Apostolic See having even more force, you have begged us to approve and confirm the said Constitutions, in order to thus add to them a perpetual sanction. As for us, wanting your 14* desire to have its full effect, and to give full sanction to the things piously and holyly established for the integrity and honor of the said Order and its purity which is very close to our hearts (after having previously, by these Letters and only so that they have their effect, absolved and declared absolved, all of you in general, and each of you in particular, from all sentences of excommunication, censures, ecclesiastical penalties pronounced or inflicted on any occasion, or by any individual whatsoever, assuming that you have incurred them, provided that in defiance of them, you have not spent the year without being relieved of them): moved by your entreaties, and considering as 15* sufficiently explained the content of the said Constitutions inserted in these letters, we approve and confirm their content by virtue of the Apostolic authority which has been delegated to us for this purpose, and wish to give them the force of law in perpetuity. We also intend to make up for any defects or irregularities in law or in fact that may have crept in and oblige all members of the Order for the present and for the future to comply with them. And if it happened that the Discalced Carmelites had obtained in the past some concessions or privileges derogating from the said Constitutions, (this having been done against our intention), we break them and cancel them, declaring the Religious 16* bound to the observance of the Rule currently in force. Nevertheless, we do not intend to derogate from the use and custom of reciting Compline after supper or snack, just as we do not intend to derogate in any way from our letters of February thirteenth of the year one thousand five hundred and four‑ twenty-seven, by which we had ruled, that all that concerns the direction, the government and the administration of the monasteries of women depended solely on the Vicar General and the Councilors and that what they would have decided had its execution. (This previous decision retains all its force and effect). We further decree, as had been granted, that the Vicars and 17* Councilors retain the direction and government of the Religious in all that is not contrary to the observance of the Rule, refusing them the right to change anything. to the said Constitutions, nor to grant dispensation from them on any point, enjoining them on the contrary to have them observed completely and in all their integrity.

Given in Madrid, diocese of Toledo, in the year of grace one thousand five hundred and eighty-seven, the thirteenth day of October, the fourth year of the Pontificate of Our Most Holy Father Pope Sixtus V.

Signed: César, Bishop of Novarre, Apostolic Nuncio.

Félix NOVELLO, Abbreviator.

LETTERS FROM FATHER GRATIAN

TO THE REVEREND MOTHER THERESE OF JESUS, Foundress of the Monasteries of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns

Father Jérôme Gratien of the Mother of God, Provincial of the province of the same Order, grace and consolation in the Holy Spirit.

He who is the true light which illuminates every man coming into this world, whose divine heart contains all the treasures of science and wisdom, does not veil the sublime knowledge from the understanding of women, and he does not disdain their to give his light so that they 21* attain the perfection of the Christian life, and that they shine like stars in the firmament and the sky of the Catholic Church. It is thus that this sovereign Lord gave his spirit of prophecy (not to mention the ancient sibyls) to the prophetess Hulda, to Deborah and to the valiant Judith the science to judge and govern his people; caution to Abigail; sagacity to the woman of the city of Abela, from which was born the proverb "let him who does not know go to Abela to learn", finesse to the woman of Thécua, who by her industry, obtained from King David forgiveness for his son Absalon. This is what we read of all these women in Holy Scripture. It was he who gave the 22* glorious Saints Bridget, Gertrude, Angèle de Foligno, Mathilde, Catherine de Siena and Catherine de Genoa this spiritual, interior and fervent language found in their writings, and he gave it to them for them to write advice to their nuns; this is what he also did for the glorious Saint Melanie, former nun of our Order, and for Saint Hildegarde, nun of the Order of Saint Bernard, her contemporary: and finally, was it not he who , after His Majesty had ascended into heaven, gave as guide and mistress to the apostles his most holy Mother, the wisest and most prudent of all the creatures in the world: this is what Saint Denis, 23* the Aeropagite reports . Seeing therefore that this divine Lord, who wishes that all be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, has chosen Your Reverence to give light to his daughters of the monasteries of the Discalced Carmelites which you have founded, endowing you for this purpose with so many of intelligence, of spirit, of prudence, of discernment, of sagacity, all this added to fifty years of experience of religious life, during which you have conferred with the most learned men and the most versed in the science of the interior life which have existed in our day, taking them for guides, and keeping yourselves constantly under their obedience: from the concurrence of all these things, it has resulted that you have given your daughters such salutary advice and advice, that if they observe them and allow themselves to be guided by them, they will attain the complement of religious perfection which they earnestly desire, which you firmly desire and which I am obliged to procure in my capacity as Superior.

The principal and at the same time the most ordinary advice that I have known that you give them is that they never let the law of God, the Rule and the Constitutions of the Order fall from their hands; let them read them every day, keep them always in their minds to understand them, in their memory to meditate on them, and in their hearts to keep them and submit to them.

25* As most assuredly there is no clearer, more united, surer and more certain way to arrive at perfection than the observance of the law of God, obedience to the Rule, to the Constitutions and to the orders of Superiors; for this reason, my opinion was to have them printed, so that everyone could have them, and in this small format so that it would be easier to carry it with you and handle it.

The Rule goes back to that of Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem; it had first been written by the great Basil; it was a summary of the customs and way of life observed by the ancient Desert Monks. As for the Constitutions, they are divided into twenty Chapters which follow 26* the same Order as the Chapters of the Rule; in fact, the Constitutions are nothing more than an explanation of the Rule. Chapters are subdivided into paragraphs for clarity and to help articles stick in memory. These Constitutions were first drawn from the old Constitutions of the Order given by our Most Reverend Father Master Jean-Baptiste Rubeo of Ravenna, Prior General. Then the Very Reverend Father Pedro Fernandez, Apostolic Visitor of this Order for NSP Pope Pius V, added some clauses and clarifications to some of the Constitutions, and finally, I too made small additions, when I visited by apostolic commission 27* this Congregation of the Discalced Carmelites, and the province of the Discalced Carmelites of Andalusia. And finally in our Provincial Chapter which was held in Alcala, the Reverend Father Jean de las Cuevas who presided over it, the definitors and myself, we were of the opinion that it was appropriate to bring together all the acts and the Constitutions in the order where they are now, explaining, adding and subtracting a few things, albeit a few. In drafting the first Chapter in which, by apostolic commission, laws were passed for Religious, it was appropriate to also determine the laws for Religious; the province of the Discalced was therefore detached from that of the Carmelites 28* Chaussed, and the government of the monks and nuns was united in a single hand.

May Your Reverence pray to Our Lord and the Virgin Our Lady, that her daughters keep this Rule and these Constitutions as they are obliged to, and that I obtain the grace to be always useful and agreeable to you in all things; for my part, I will never neglect to beg His Divine Majesty to keep you with us as long and with as much health and vigor of mind as I desire and as we need. Amen.

TO THE DISCALCED CARMELITE MOTHERS AND SISTERS

Father Jérôme Gratien of the Mother of God, Provincial, grace and salvation in the Lord.

The glorious Saint Clement, disciple of the Prince of the Church, Saint Peter, explains what the Religious should be with the following words: "May the consecrated virgin be holy in soul and body, as being the temple of God, the house of Christ, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; that she shows by her works the sincerity of her 30th profession, by fulfilling it with dignity, for the sole purpose of the exercise of piety”. It would appear from these words that Saint Clement imposes a great obligation on the Religious, since he requires of them, not only that they observe in all truth in their actions the rule and the constitutions, but also that they reach the final perfection. , which is the exercise of piety, by which St. Clement means the desire for the glory and honor of God; but if we pay attention to the great advantages which he attributes to them, the price at which he puts this gain will appear insignificant.

It is great, Mothers and Sisters, the dignity of Religious. Saint Ignatius, disciple of Saint John the Evangelist, says that they 31* are the most precious jewels that Jesus Christ possesses in the treasury of his Church, formed from the gold of wisdom, in which are set the pearls and the precious stones of the virtues, and which is all enamelled with the good desires of a greater perfection. And the great Basil calls them Angels of the earth, because, although they are in this world, their conversation is in heaven, and their thoughts are heavenly. Blessed Saint John Chrysostom makes a long comparison between the Religious and the King, and he gives the superiority to the Religious. The glorious Jerome calls them doves without gall which follow in the network of different monasteries, the spotless dove the very 32nd Blessed Virgin, who (according to the words of Saint Bartholomew quoted by Abdias of Babylon) was the first who took a vow of chastity; and following this silvery dove, they fly into the holes in the rock, into the fissures in the wall, which are the wounds of Christ, from which issue the dew and the milk of devotion to feed the abundant waters of the streams of the divine wisdom. And because they persevere unceasingly in this entirely spiritual life and give themselves so sincerely to prayer: this same glorious Saint Clement calls them golden censers, and very sweet incense from the altar of the Lamb. who, placed on the embers of divine love, exhales his spirit like a mixture of smoke which rises 33* at the same time from myrrh, frankincense and all kinds of perfumes, namely from mortification, of devotion, and of all the different virtues. The glorious Saint Martial also calls the virgin Valerie, who had already pronounced the vows and taken the veil, the fiancée of the heavenly King, and the apostle Saint Matthew gives the same name to Iphigenia to whom he had given the veil and whom he had placed at the head of two hundred nuns as Prioress; this is what the same Obadiah recounts in the seventh book of his history. We also apply to the Religious these words of Saint John in the Apocalypse: “I saw the holy city of New Jerusalem coming down from heaven, like a bride 34* adorned for her husband. " He calls him city because of strength, and holy because of the purity of the soul, Jerusalem (which means vision of peace), because of prayer and quietude, news because every day the nun must renew her good intentions. He says coming down from the sky because she receives the divine inspirations from above, and he finally calls her bride adorned, dedicated, consecrated to her sweet husband Jesus.

Recognize then, religious mothers and sisters, the great dignity with which you are invested, and thank the Sovereign King your husband for the grace he has bestowed on you by drawing you to these monasteries; show him your gratitude by keeping 35* your Rule and your Constitutions with perfection. You are the temple, of God; sacrifice in the peristyle of sensuality your disordered passions; keep in the sanctuary of reason the table of good words and the golden candlestick of wisdom, and in the holiest of holies of your will the urn of manna of sweetness of spirit, the rod of righteousness , the book and the tables of the law, that is to say, knowledge and fidelity to the law of God, to your Rule and to your Constitutions. You are also the house of Christ; by faith he dwells in your hearts, since he dwells in humble souls who listen with trembling to his words and his ordinances. Finally, being the dwelling place of 36* the Holy Spirit, you must be continually ablaze with love and he loves who keeps the commandments. As precious jewels, never detach yourselves from Aaron's bosom, that is, from the will and orders of your superiors; and since you are the angels of the earth, serve him whom the Angels of heaven serve and adore, for it is not becoming that those who are more than kings should make themselves slaves of the devil by violating the laws of the King of kings. Since you are doves, reject the gall of your nature which would make your Constitutions insipid and bitter, and do not seek to distort their meaning by interpreting them: ; may the incense of prayer never fail you; meditate day and night on the law 37* of the Lord as the Rule commands. Betrothed to such a good husband, open the doors of your consent to him; go out to receive him with the lamps of law-keeping; that these lamps burn with the sacred fire of the Spirit; hold them in the hands of good works, and fulfill worthily all that you have dedicated. As you know, God is so attached to the exact observance of what has been promised, that if, in the old covenant, anyone had vowed chastity, he had to protect it against the slightest occasions; so that according to the law, he did not drink wine, did not eat grapes, neither fresh nor dry, and forbade himself even to eat the pip: which means that he fled, even the shadow of the Danger. Fulfill your vows 38* perfectly, because according to the Ecclesiastic, “it is better not to make a vow than not to fulfill it after having made it”. Do not turn back after having started, since he who looks back after putting his hand to the plow is not fit for the kingdom of God. Cursed be, says the Lord through a prophet, the deceiver who, having made a vow and having in his flock a good fat lamb fit to be offered, wants to acquit himself by giving to God a thin lamb. He rightly calls him a deceiver who, being able to observe the law with fervor, observes it with negligence. Always say with the royal prophet: “I will fulfill my vows in the presence of those 39* who fear him. Thus, I will sing and chant forever and ever. May I fulfill my wishes day by day.

And since the Constitutions are the most right way to perfectly fulfill the vows, here they are, I give them to you printed so that you read them, study them, observe them: so that when the Bridegroom comes, he will find you watching over them. guard and may he open the doors of his happiness to you, receiving you with him to the eternal wedding of his glory. Amen.

PRIMITIVE RULE

OF ALBERT PATRIARCH OF JERUSALEM in the year 1171 CONFIRMED, CORRECTED AND MODIFIED, BY OUR HOLY FATHER POPE INNOCENT IV IN THE YEAR 1248, FOR THE RELIGIOUS OF MOUNT CARMEL.

Innocent, bishop servant of the servants of God, to our beloved sons the Prior and the Religious hermits of Notre-Dame du Mont-Carmel, greetings and apostolic blessing. It is right that all things which relate to the honor of the Creator of the world and to the good of souls should be supported and strengthened by 41* constant protection; and particularly it must be so with regard to those whom the Holy See has always surrounded with special care and assistance. This is why adhering to your prayer and your entreaties, We have clarified some doubts, as well as correcting and benignly modifying some important points of your Rule, by means of our beloved son Hugues, cardinal of Sainte-Sabine and of our venerable brother Guillaume, bishop of Antera, as is explained at greater length in our letters given on this subject.

Now, wishing to condescend to your pious desires, We confirm by virtue of apostolic authority the said 42* statement, correction and modification and We strengthen it, in favor

of this writing. We further want the tenor of these letters to be incorporated into this writing verbatim as follows:

Brother HUGUES, by divine Mercy, Cardinal-Priest of the title of Saint Sabina, and GUILLAUME, by the same mercy, Bishop of Antera:

To our beloved Sons, the Prior General and the Definitors of the General Chapter of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, greetings in Him who is the true salvation of all!

Two religious of your Order, named Reynaud and Pedro, having presented themselves before the Apostolic See, and having humbly asked His Holiness on your behalf to deign to explain, correct and benignly modify the Rule which you have received from Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem, including the privileges annexed thereto, the Most Holy Father acceding to their devout supplications, has charged us to make, in his name, the said explanation, correction and modification, as we may think useful and suitable for the prosperity of the Order and the salvation of its members. Therefore, by the authority of the Holy See, we order that you devoutly receive and keep in perpetuity the said Rule, and that, according to its form and tenor, you correct the others: which Rule we have sealed by the 43* hand of the same Religious and whose text follows:

ALBERT, by the grace of God, Patriarch of the Church of Jerusalem: to our beloved sons in Jesus Christ, Brocade and other Hermits, who under his obedience dwell at Mount Carmel, near the fountain of Elijah; salvation in Our Lord, and the blessing of the Holy Spirit.

The holy Fathers have instituted variously and in several ways 45* what kind each one, in whatever Order he may be and whatever manner of religious life he has chosen, must live in the service of Jesus Christ and serve him faithfully a pure heart and a good conscience. But as much as you ask that we give you, according to your intention and design, a form of life which you must keep from now on, we give it to you in the following words.

46*

To have a Prior, and three Vows.

We first institute and ordain, that you have one of you as Prior, who will be elected for this office, by the common consent of all or of the greatest and healthiest part, to whom each of you others will promise Obedience, and after having promised it, will take care to keep it in truth by his works, with Chastity and Poverty.

47*

To receive Places or Houses.

You will be able to have places and houses in solitary places or other places where they will be given to you convenient and laid out for the observation of your Religion according to which it will seem suitable to the Prior and to the Brothers.

Religious Cells

Besides that, at the place that you have chosen or stated to reside, each one of you will have his separate Cell, according to whether it will be given to him by the disposition of the Prior and the consent of the other Brothers or the healthiest part of them.

That you have to eat in the Common Refectory.

What has been given to you in alms, you will eat in the common refectory, and however some book of the Holy Scriptures will be read where it can be conveniently done; and none of the Brothers will be able to change places, nor take another, except with the license of the Prior.

The Prior's Cell will be at the entrance to the Convent, so that he can be the first to receive those who come. And, all that there will be to do in the house is done by his advice and by his ordinance.

Let each one remain 50* in his cell, or near it, meditating day and night in the law of God, and watching in prayer, unless he is occupied in other just occupations.

Canonical Hours.

Those who know how to say the Canonical Hours with the Priests must say them according to the Rules

and Statutes of the Holy Fathers and the approved custom of the Church. And those who do not 51* know them will say instead of Matins twenty-five times the Father noster, except Sundays and solemn feasts, on which days we command that they say for Matins twice the said number of twenty-five Father noster; for Lauds seven times; and for all other Hours, each seven times, except at Vespers where. they will say fifteen.

That you don't have to have anything clean.

Let no Religious 52* say that he has anything of his own; but it is necessary that all things be common to them and that what they will need be distributed to each of them by means of the Prior or the Religious who will be for this by him deputy, taking into account the age and the needs of a each.

What they may have in common.

You may have donkeys or mules, as your necessity requires, and some cattle or fowl for your food.

From the Oratory and Divine Service.

That we make an Oratory in the middle of the Cells as best and most conveniently as possible, where you will assemble every day to hear Mass, where it can be done conveniently.

Of the Chapter and Correction of the culpes of the Brothers.

Every day of 54* Sunday, or other days, when it is necessary, you will deal with the observation of the Order, the salvation of souls: and there also will be made the correction with charity of the culpes and faults of the Brothers, if there are none.

From the Fasting of the Brothers.

From the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross until Easter Day, you shall fast every day except Sundays, unless sickness or weakness of the body or other just cause gives cause for leaving the fast, because necessity has no law.

Abstinence from flesh.

You shall not eat flesh except to cure some disease or weakness. And especially since you will have to beg a lot of times on the roads, you will be able to go out of your houses to be in charge of your hosts, eat soup and vegetables or other things cooked with flesh, and on the sea you can eat flesh.

Exhortations.

And especially since the life of man on earth is only temptation and those who wish to live religiously in Jesus Christ have to suffer persecution and the devil your adversary 57*

whirls like a roaring lion, seeking whom to devour, try with all your care to clothe yourself with the weapons of good, that you may resist the ambushes of the enemy. You will gird your loins with a chastity belt. Fortify your interior with good thoughts, because it is written: Holy thought will keep you. Put on the breastplate of righteousness, so that with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength you may love God your Lord and your neighbor as yourself. Arm yourself everywhere with the shield of faith, with which you can absorb all the arrows of fire that the enemy shoots at you: for without faith it is impossible to please God. Have in your head the helmet of salvation and grace, so that you wait for your salvation only from Jesus your Savior, 58* who saves his people from their sins. May the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, always abide and persevere abundantly in your mouth and in your hearts, so that everything you do will be in his name.

Hand work

You will do some work or work with your hands, so that the devil finds you always occupied and that he has no entry into your souls, using your idleness as a door. You have for this a good example and teaching of doctrine in the apostle Saint Paul, through whose mouth our Lord Jesus Christ spoke and, having been established to preach and teach the Gentiles in faith and truth, you cannot fail by following it. So he says thus: We have been among you in 60* labors and weariness, working day and night not to bore you, not that we have the power and permission to ask, but to give you form and example, so that you imitate us; for being among you others, we announced to you and preached every day that he who would not work should not eat. We have learned that there are some among you 61* who are worried and doing nothing: we admonish and pray in Our Lord Jesus Christ to these people that they eat their bread working in silence. - This path is good and holy, go through it.

Silence.

The Apostle recommends silence to us, when he recommends that we work in it, and as the Prophet says, 63* the adornment and finery of justice is silence. And in another place: Your strength will be in silence and in hope. For this we decree and order that we keep silence as soon as Compline is said until after Prime of the following day and the rest of the time, how much we do not keep silence with such great rigor, we must very diligently avoid talking too much; for as it is 64* written, and we also learn it well by experience, sin is not lacking in much talk; and in another place: He who speaks without consideration will receive many evils; and in another: He who uses many words damages his soul. And in the Gospel Our Lord says: Men will give an account on the day of judgment for every idle word they have spoken.

65* Let everyone therefore make for himself weights and scales for his words, and a bridle for his mouth, lest his tongue cause him to stagger and fall, and his fall not be incurable to death; and take heed, with the Prophet, to the path which you take, lest you sin with your tongue: and keep silence with great care and diligence, in which consists the observance of justice.

66*

Exhortation to the Prior to humility.

And you Brother Brocard, and whoever after you will be elected as Prior, always remember what Our Lord says in the Gospel: The one among you who wants to be the greatest will be the one who will serve you. : and whoever wants to be the first will be a servant of others.

67*

Exhortation to Religious to honor their Prior.

You Religious too, honor your Prior with complete humility, recognizing him for Jesus Christ more than for what he is in himself, since it is Jesus Christ who established him over you and told the prelates of the Church : Whoever hears you, he hears me: and he who despises you despises me; so that by this 68* means God will not judge you by this contempt, but that by the obedience that you will render, you deserve the reward of Beatitude.

We have written these things briefly, ordering the form and rule of your way of life: and if any man do more, God will reward him when he comes to the judgment of the world. Use discretion, however, which is the rule of virtues.

69* Done in the city of Leon, in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and forty-eight, the fifth year of the Pontificate of Innocent IV, the first of September.

Let no one in the world be permitted to infringe these letters confirmed by us, nor to oppose them with senseless boldness. Anyone who dares to do so knows that he incurs ipso facto the curse of Almighty God and of the blessed Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul.

Given in the city of Leon, the first of September, the fifth year of our Pontificate.

CONSTITUTIONS OF THE DISCALCED CARMELITE NUNS OF THE PRIMITIVE OBSERVANCE.

Made and published by virtue of the Apostolic Authority by the Reverend Father Brother Jean de las Cuevas of the Order of Saint Dominic, Prior of the convent of Saint-Ginès de Talavera and Apostolic Commissioner, by the Reverend Father Provincial of the province of Discalced Carmelite Religious, and by the Definitors of the Chapter of the said province, which was held in the city of Alcala de Henarès, the fourth Sunday of Lent, the year of the Lord MDLXXXI

Prologue of the constitutions

The presented Br. Jean de las Cuevas, Prior of the convent of Saint-Ginès de Talavera, of the order of Saint-Dominique, Apostolic commissioner and President at the Chapter of the PP. Discalced Carmelites celebrated in the town of Alcala de Henarès, at the College of Saint Cyril of the said Order, and began on the fourth Sunday of Lent in the present year 1581, Fr. Jérôme Gratien of the Mother of 73* God, elected Provincial to the said Chapter and Fathers Nicolas de Jésus-Maria, Brother Antoine de Jésus, Brother Jean de la Croix and Brother Gabriel de l’Assomption, elected Definitors to the said Chapter, [to] the very religious Mothers and Sisters of the Discalced Religious of our province of the primitive observance: Salvation and blessing of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us make it known, that by the Apostolic Bull of our most holy Father Pope Gregory XIII (of which by particular Brief of His Holiness, the execution was committed 74* to us F. Jean de las Cuevas aforesaid), this province, both of Religious as of Religious of Notre-Darne du Mont-Carmel was erected and founded in this kingdom of Spain; divided and separated from all the other provinces of the Fathers of the said Order, called Mitigés, remaining this said province, as in fact it remains under the subjection and obedience of the Reverend Master General of the Order, as is contained in the said Brief; and that through him the faculty and authority was given to us, said F. Jean 75* de las Cuevas, to, with the said Father F. Jérôme Gratien elected Provincial and the said Fathers Definitors, make in this present Chapter laws and Constitutions both for the Religious than for the Religious of the said province, which both are obliged to keep. This is why, satisfying the command of our most Holy Father, we have made and ordained laws and Constitutions for the Religious of the said province: and especially since your way of living is not in all 76* things consistent to that of the Religious and that you cannot in all things govern yourself by the same laws as them, it was necessary to provide you with the particular laws and Constitutions by which you conduct yourself and govern from now on.

But, because the laws and Constitutions which you have hitherto had are so holy and so religious, made and ordained by men so grave and of such great authority, those which we now give to you are no different from 77 * those; they are the same laws that you have hitherto had, to which we have only added, taken away or changed a few things, as we thought fit for the good of the Religion. However, since the particular laws and Constitutions must have as their foundation the general Rule under which all of you must live, you will first keep your Rule, which our very Holy Father Innocent IV gave as a primitive to this Religion of Our Lady of Mont- Caramel.

78* And to give more tranquility and rest to your consciences, we declare to you that what is ordained by the Rule, neither these Constitutions, nor the commandments of your Superiors never oblige you to commit wrongdoing (although in a few Chapters where it is treated of the sorrows, it is spoken about culpe light, or serious, or more serious, or very serious), if it is not in four cases: the first, when what one defends you is to sin oneself; the second, when one does or omits 79* something in defiance of the law; the third, when the Superiors order something in writing, electing these words: We command you in the virtue of the Holy Spirit and holy obedience, and under precept; the fourth, when the Superiors order something in writing, under penalty of major excommunication from the sentence pronounced; and in these last two cases, these commandments bind under penalty of mortal sin.

And so that Our Lord may receive more service from 80* our work and that your Religion and your virtue will always advance with profit, we pray to you and greatly exhort you in Our Lord Jesus Christ that you take great care of . to keep and observe these Constitutions, which we want and order to be kept universally in all your houses, as much in those which have income as in those which do not have any, and as much in those which are present in this our province, than in those which will be made and founded hereafter.

CONSTITUTIONS OF THE RELIGIOUS OF THE ORDER OF OUR LADY OF MONT-CARMEL                                 .

Of the first Rule according to the reformation of Saint Thérèse.

Drawn and extracted from what she said and wrote, and drawn up by the authority of NSP the Pope, at the first Chapter of her Order, held at Alcala in Spain, on the fourth Sunday of Lent 1581, eighteen months before her death; approved by the same Apostolic authority, and brought to France in the month of October 1601 by the Daughters of this Saint, sent to establish her Order there, 82* and observed since that time by all the monasteries and nuns of the said Order in this Kingdom , under the guidance and direction of the Superiors ordained for him, by our Holy Fathers Popes Clement VIII, Paul V and Gregory XV now seated.

CHAPTER 1. Of Obedience and Election of Superiors.

1/ The Religious of the Primitive Rule of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, according to the reformation of Saint Thérèse in France, are subjects 83* and subject to the government and superiority of MM. Masters Jacques Gallemant, Doctor in the Faculty of Theology of the University of Paris; André Duval, Doctor and Professor of the King in the same Faculty, and Reverend P. Pierre de Bérulle, General of the Congregation of the Oratory of Our Lord Jesus Christ in France, and to the superiority, visit and correction of the said Reverend Father de Bérulle, 84* as General of the said Congregation ( This first article having been modified for France by the authority of the Holy See, is naturally not in conformity with the original Spanish text. This difference is found in all the places in the Constitutions where government is mentioned. (See our Disclaimer for further explanation.)

2/ The elections will be carried out by secret votes, as the Holy Council orders: and after the election has been made, the tickets must be burned on the spot, in the presence of all, so that never the names of those who opine and give their votes are not published.

3/ You should know that the Visitor nor the Superiors have no vote in the elections of the Religious; but the one who presides over the election will present three or four people to the Convent, so that they can elect from them those they wish, remaining free to elect others. And to the one 86* who also presides to overturn or confirm the election as he sees fit.

4/ To receive the voices of the sick who will not be able to come to the Grid, the one who presides will appoint, in the presence of all those who are voting, two serious and unsuspecting Religious Sisters, to go and collect the voices, which they will bring without opening the tickets, nor change them, which we enjoin 87* to the said Nuns on the peril of their souls: and the election being made, we will burn the tickets in the presence of all the Nuns, as said is.

5/ Item, especially since the Monasteries of the first Rule are new and there are still not many suitable people to govern them, we allow the Prioresses to be re-elected and continued in the same Convent, provided that the one who 88 * will be re-elected with three-quarters of the votes, without which three-quarters the re-election will be void. Which permission to re-elect we give notwithstanding anything else to the contrary.

6/ No nun will be able to give or receive anything, nor ask for it, even if it is from her Father and Mother, without permission from the Prioress, to whom will be shown all the 89* alms which will be given and brought.

CHAPTER II. Of the Reception of Novices and their Profession, and of the number of Nuns that there must be at each Convent.

1/ Let us take great care that those we must receive are people of Prayer and who only seek perfection and contempt for the world: because if they do not come free from it, they will have difficulty keeping easily what we keep here: and it is better to consider it before than to put them outside afterwards: that they are not less than seventeen years old, that they are healthy, have good understanding and are fit for say the Divine Office and help in the Choir. And we must not receive them for Profession if we do not know during the year of the Novitiate 90* that they have the conditions and things required for what must be observed here: and if they lack any of them, let them we do not receive them, unless it is someone who is so servant of Our Lord and so useful to the House, that we know that there must be no worry on his occasion, and that we will do service to God to condescend to his holy desires and if his desires are not so great, 91* let them make it known that Our Lord calls him to this state, let it not be received in any way.

2/ Being satisfied with the person, if they have nothing to give alms to the House, let us not stop receiving them, as has been practiced until now; and if having the means to yawn, she wants it and then we do not give it for some occasion, even though we can ask for it in Justice, it must be done with moderation such that it does not happen of scandal.

3/ Take care that the Reception of Novices is not done for self-interest, because little by little covetousness could enter into it, so that we would finally consider alms rather than goodness and quality of the person. Let this not happen in any way: 94* because it would be a great evil. May they always have before their eyes poverty, which they make a profession of, to spread its smell everywhere. Let them take care that it is not good that must maintain them, but faith, perfection, and trust in God alone. We must take care of this Constitution and fulfill it, and we must read it to the Religious.

4/ The Superiors nor the 95* Visitor cannot receive any Religious to the Vestment or Profession without the votes of the majority of the convent; and will not allow Religious of another order to be received in these Monasteries, nor even those of the mixed Rule of this Order.

5/ The Lay Sisters that we must receive are strong and that we know that they want to serve God; and be a 96* year without the habit, unless their great virtue merits that it be given to them beforehand, in order to see if they are fit for what they undertake, and to see if they will be able to wear it: They will not wear the black veil, nor must they give it, but they will make profession one year after they have the habit.

(Here is the exact translation of this article from Spanish:

“... and spend a year without the habit in order to see if they are fit for what they undertake and that they themselves see if they will be able to sustain it; they will not wear the black veil, and it must not be given to them: otherwise" (that is to say if we give it to them by making them pass to the rank of choir sisters, as happened for Sr Anne de St Barthélémy, the friend of St. Thérèse) "let them make profession two years after having received the habit" (that is to say after a double novitiate, in addition to a one-year postulancy) unless their great virtue deserves to be given to them beforehand. They must be treated etc. etc. Moreover, this admission of the White Veil sisters to the rank of Choir sisters has always been regarded as such a fortunate and rewarding thing. disadvantages, that from the beginning we stopped mentioning it: this is why there is no mention of it neither in the French translations, nor in the constitutions of Italy, nor in those currently used in Spain .

They must be treated 97* with all charity and fraternity, and provided with food and clothing just as with all the others.

98*

6/ We order that Profession will henceforth not be made at the Grille, but at the Chapter, without there being any person other than the Religious of the House: and that either to receive a 99* Novice to the Vestment, or to receive her for Profession, this is done through the advice of the majority of those who have a voice in the Convent, giving their votes secretly in white and black beans.

7/ Item, we declare that the Religious who have founded some Monastery cannot be expelled from it, except for some very urgent cause, by the opinion of the Superiors.

100*

8/ Especially since the Holy Council of Trent forbids that there be in a Monastery, a greater number of Nuns than it can comfortably support, taking into account the income and alms on which one lives there , so that we can live in these Monasteries with more rest and less solicitude, we order that in Monasteries which are poor and unprofitable, there cannot be in 101* any kind more than thirteen or fourteen Sisters for the Choir; and of those who have returned, there cannot be more than twenty. This includes the lay Sisters who are received for the Offices of the House: and that in all the Monasteries, whether retired or not, there cannot be more than three lay Sisters.

9/ And when it happens that for some just occasion some Religious 102* goes to another Convent, if we know that she must stay there for a long time, we will be able to receive another in her place.

10/ Item, we declare that in Monasteries which will be founded to be rented, we will not be able to receive more than fourteen Religious Sisters until there is sufficient income to feed more: except that He receives someone with clothing who brings enough 103* to feed more than the fourteen mentioned above. And the Superior, or Prioress, will not be able to go to the contrary, on pain of being removed from her Office.

11/ Before receiving someone into the Vestment, one must inquire very diligently about the health and spirit they have to be able to carry out this holy observance; because it is difficult to remedy them after they are received: this 104* however does not require that after having provided the required diligence during the year of probation, one receives to the Profession, that of which we do not have the hope which is required for the observance and good of religion: with which we charge the conscience of the Prioress and Mistress of Novices and other Religious.

12/ If a Novice has once been thrown out of the Monastery, she will not be received 105* in another, except through the voices of all the Religious of the Monastery from which she was thrown out and will never be received in him.

CHAPTER III. From the Fence.

1/ Let no one be seen without a veil, except the Father, the Mother, or the Brothers, except in cases which for some purpose 106* will seem as just as the above-mentioned, and this with people who receive them rather edification and help us in our exercises of prayer and spiritual consolation, and not by recreation: and that it always be with a companion, provided that it is not for matters of the soul.

2/ The Prioress must have the key to the Gate and the Key to the Door. When the Doctor or Barber enters, or other necessary people, or the Confessor, it is always necessary to lead two Companions: and when some sick person confesses, there will always be a Companion at a distance, so that she can see the confessor, to whom however she will not speak, but only the sick person, except for a few words: and one of the Companions will ring the bell, so that the Convent will hear that there are 107* people from outside in the House.

3/ That the Nuns do not go out in any way to the Church, nor to the Tourières house and the first doors of the house: but there must be a Sacristan or a Tourière who closes the doors of the Church , and of the said dwelling; because it is necessary to do so in order to keep the Closure ordered by the Holy Council and the bulls of the Popes.

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4/ The Novices will not fail to be visited as well as the Professed, so that if they have any discontent, it will be known: because we are looking for nothing else other than that they remain there of their full will, and give them the means to manifest it, if they do not want to stay.

5/ Let them not worry about the affairs of the world, and do not deal with them, unless they are things that they can give remedy to those who say them, make them open their eyes and console them in some way. pain: and if they do not hope to draw fruit from it, let them keep it short, as has been said; because it is important that whoever visits us returns with profit and not with loss of time and that the profit also remains with us. Let the Companion take good care that this is observed, 110* and is obliged to warn the Prioress, if she is not careful: and, when she omits it, she will incur the same penalty as the one who made the fault: this is understood after having warned him twice; the third time, if she does not mend her ways, she will be in prison for nine days, and every third day she will be disciplined in the Refectory; because it is something that is of great importance to Religion.

6/ Let them withdraw as much as they can from dealing with their parents because, in addition to the fact that there is great affection for their affairs, it will be difficult for something from the world to be mixed into it. .

7/ Let us be very careful when speaking to those outside, even if they are very close relatives, if they are not people who take pleasure in discussing the things of God; let them see them 113* rarely and when they speak to them, let them hurry away quickly.

8/ Item, the Superiors and the Visitor will take care that the Holy Council of Trent forbids, under penalty of excommunication of the sentence pronounced, that no person, of whatever age, state, or quality, may enter the Monasteries of the Religious, if not in case of necessity, and with particular license, in writing, 114* from the Superior, and let him take particular care that the Holy Council of Trent orders that it be accomplished. Not taking as a necessary cause other than that which the Monastery cannot put into execution without the help of those from outside, such as tradespeople for works and similar things, the Doctor and the Barber.

9/ And especially since we Religious people are a spectacle to God, to all 115* Angels and to men, as the Apostle says, and there is nothing with which the world is more offended than of the ease he sees in communication with the nuns, and much more of the freedom to enter the Monasteries without necessity: we command that particular care be taken that the Religious do not go to the Monasteries of the Nuns and we forbid the Superiors or 116* Visitors that under no circumstances should they enter the said Monasteries of the Religious, except for something so necessary which cannot be done through the Gate. In everything that can be done through the Grid, such as admonitions and spiritual discourses, we declare that it is not necessary to enter the Monasteries, except by visiting the Chapter of Culpes, because it is There is no need to make someone's 117* correction and therefore enter into it. And when the Visitor enters for this purpose, he will be able to visit the enclosure of the Convent, and in this case the said Visitor will take with him a Companion and will not allow him to be outside of him during the time he remains in said monastery, neither allowing him, nor anyone else, to eat inside the said Monastery, nor at the Grille. And at the 118* Elections, the Superiors or visitors will take care that the Holy Council of Trent orders that the votes be taken at the gate; and because we forbid that, either before taking the votes, or after having taken them, for no effect whatsoever one enters the said monastery; but let all the election and what precedes and what follows, be by the Grid.

10/ In no case should confessors enter the said Monasteries of Religious Sisters, except to confess the sick when the doctor says it is necessary, and to give them the Most Blessed Sacrament and the Extreme Unction when it is time. And if the sick person, after having received the Sacraments, has any scruples, the confessor can enter to reconcile her, as well as to help her to die well. And if there were some 119* sick person who remained in bed for a long time and who could not in any way come to the Grille and to the Confessional, the Confessor, in this case, will be able to enter sometimes to confess her, even if she is not in danger of death.

11/ The Confessor who enters for this subject will come and go the right way without diverting himself in any place, nor stopping: which we enjoin by a 121* close obedience to the Prioress, and Superior that she makes him observe carefully. this kind and let us charge the conscience of the Religious who will accompany the said Confessor, that they lead him along the right path and that under no circumstances stop with him.

CHAPTER IV. Dinner and Renovation.

1/ There can be nothing 122* settled for dinner time, because that is when there will be any. The bell will ring for dinner at half past eleven when there is a Church fast, and at eleven o'clock when there is a Order fast. And in summer we will have dinner. at ten o'clock.

2/ And if before sitting down to dinner, Our Lord inspires one of the Sisters to do some mortification, she will ask for 123* leave to do it, and that this good devotion (from which we benefit) is not lost; but it must be brief, so that it does not prevent reading.

3/ Outside of dinner and supper time, no nun should eat or drink without permission.

4/ Being the Nuns who have just left dinner or supper, the Mother Prioress will be able to dispense and allow that all together 124* can talk about what will be most pleasant to them, provided that it is not something far removed from the speeches that a good Nun must give , and let them have there all their distaffs and works.

5/ That gambling of no kind is permitted. Our Lord will give grace to some to give recreation to others, and provided that it is with this intention, all this time is well spent. 125* Let them take care not to be annoying to each other, but let their words and cheerfulness be discreet. This hour of being together being completed, in Summer they will sleep for an hour and those who do not want to sleep will remain silent.

6/ Let none of the Sisters kiss the other, nor touch their face or hands, and have no friendship in particular, but let them all love each other in general, as Our Lord Jesus Christ did. often commands his Apostles; and since they are so few in number, it will be easy to do so, trying to imitate their Spouse who gave his life for all the rest of us. The point of loving one another in general is of great importance.

CHAPTER V. Canonical Hours and Spiritual Things.

1/ We will say Matins after nine o'clock and not before, nor until after we have (these being completed) a quarter of an hour to make the Examination of conscience of what we used the day for.

2/ The bell will ring for this Examination, and the one to whom the Mother Prioress orders it will read a little of the 128* Mystery which we must think about the following day. The time that we will use in this is so that at eleven o'clock, a little more or less, we give the sign with the bell, and they retire to sleep. During all this time of Examination and reading, they will all remain together in the Choir, and no Nun will leave the Choir after the Office has begun, without permission.

129*

3/ In summer, they will rise at five o'clock and be in prayer until six: and in winter, they will rise at six and remain in prayer until seven.

The prayer being finished, the Hours will be said, and if the Prioress sees fit, they will be said all at once. Otherwise we will leave one or two for before Mass so that before Mass they are all said.

130*

4/ On Sundays and Feast Days, Mass and Vespers will be sung; and Matins on the first days of Easter and Christmas; and other solemn days we can sing Lauds, especially on the day of glorious Saint Joseph (Faulty punctuation distorted the meaning of this article in previous editions. We restore it as it should be.)

The song will never be with note, but in tone, the voices equal; but at 131* usually everything is said quietly, and every day there is a Conventual Mass which is said in tones, at which the Sisters will be present, when it is convenient to do so. Let them try so that no one is missing from the choir for a light cause.

The Hours being over, let them go to their Offices.

Mass will be said at eight o'clock in Summer and at nine in Winter, and those who receive communion stop a little in the Choir.

5/ A little before dinner, we will ring for the Examination of what we have done so far and will propose to amend the greatest fault that they see in themselves, and will say a Father noster so that God may give them grace. Each one will kneel down in the place where she will be, when the bell rings for the said Examination, and will make her Examination briefly.

6/ For after-dinner graces, at all times we go to the choir with the psalm Wretched ; and after supper, we only go there from Easter until the Exaltation of the Cross.

7/ Vespers will be said at the stroke of two o'clock, and after Vespers, the reading will be done, so that only one hour is used for Vespers and Reading, whether the Vespers are solemn or not. This 134* does not apply in Lent where Vespers are said before dinner, and then the Reading will be done from two o'clock until three, taking up a whole hour. And if they find themselves with inspiration and spirit to use this hour in Prayer, let them do it according to what will best help them to meditate.

8/ Especially since according to the Rule, the Religious must remain silent 135* from Compline until after Prime the following day, we order that at all times we say Compline after supper or snack, so that we keep silence after Compline, as the Rule and the Constitutions command. And the time of Prayer which we do after five o'clock in the evening, will be before supper or snack, which is the most suitable time for it.

CHAPTER VI. Of Communion and Confession.

1/ We will receive communion every Sunday and Feast of Our Lord, and Our Lady, and of our Father Saint Albert, and of Saint Joseph, and of the name of the House, on Maundy Thursday, the feast of the Blessed Sacrament, the Ascension, and the other days that the Confessor will find good according to the devotion and spirit of the Sisters, 137* by the permission of the Mother Prioress, without whom the Sisters will not be able to receive communion, except on the above-mentioned Days, although the Confessor says so .(Ch.VI, n° 1. We will comply in the observance of this Constitution, with the Decree of December 17, 1890.)

2/ To avoid the trouble and distraction that the Religious have to come and go every day to say Mass at the Monasteries of the Religious, we forbid that any Religious of the Order of the Carmelites, nor of any other Religion, although he was a reformed Carmelite 138* of the first Rule, either Vicar or ordinary Chaplain of the said Monasteries.

The Prioress and the Superiors or Visitors will seek a Priest of whose life, age and morals they have the satisfaction that he belongs, and being such, he can also, with the opinion of the said Superiors, be the Confessor of the Religious: however, notwithstanding this ordinary Confessor, the Prioress 139* will be able, not only the three times that the Holy Council of Trent allows, but more, to admit to confession the said Religious some Religious of the said Order of Reformed Carmelites and other Religious of any Order whatsoever, provided that they are people of doctrine and virtue to whom it has the satisfaction that it belongs: which it can also do for sermons. 140*

Nor will the Superiors who are now, nor those who will be hereafter, take away this freedom; to which Confessors are reformed Carmelites or others, one can, for the reason of this office of Confessor, apply some alms or income from the Chapel.

CHAPTER VII. On Poverty and the Temporal.

1/ We must live 141* on alms without any income in the Convents which will be in the rich and abundant cities, where this can be done: and in places where they cannot feed on alms alone, they will be able to have of the common income: but in all the rest there must be no difference between the monasteries that have income and those that are poor.

2/ And as long as they can bear, let them not ask: the necessity which will force them to ask must be very great, and they must help themselves with the work of their hands as Saint Paul did: and Our Lord will provide them with what is necessary (We restore from the Spanish the punctuation of this passage which is faulty in the previous editions.) Provided that they desire nothing more and that they willingly do without what is superfluous, they will not lack what is necessary to live. If they try with all their strength to please Our Lord, His Divine Majesty will take care that the price of the labor of their hands does not fail them.

3/ That the Sisters do not possess anything in particular, and that no one suffers them, neither to eat it nor to clothe it, and that they have neither chest nor 144* cassette, nor cupboard, except those which have the offices of the community, nor any other thing in particular: but let everything be common. This matters greatly because in small things the devil can go about releasing the perfection of Poverty. For this reason, the Prioress must take great care, when she sees one of the Sisters fond of something, whether booked, Cell 145* or something else, to remove from her, and this is observed in all the Monasteries, whether they have returned or not, and whether a lot of rigor is taken into account. May the Superior fulfill it and not allow him to contravene it, and may the Superiors punish her very rigorously if he contravenes it.

4/ The alms that Our Lord will give in money will be put immediately in the chest with three keys, 146* if not nine or ten crowns and below: which will be given to that of the Depositaries that the Prioress finds good : and she will pay to the Procureur whatever the Prioress orders for the expense. And every evening, before the bell rings for Silence, she will report in detail to the Prioress or to the said Custodian, and the report will be written in full in the book which is at the Convent, 147* for report to the Visitor every year.

CHAPTER VIII. Fasts and Clothes

1/ It is necessary to fast from the day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in September until Easter, except on Sundays. We must never eat flesh, except for necessity, when 148* the rule commands it.

2/ On Church fasts and Fridays of the year, except those between Easter and Pentecost, the ordinary meal in the Refectory will be neither eggs nor dairy products: however the Prioress may exempt the sick and those from this commandment. who will need it, and who the fish hurts. (But we declare that it is not our intention to take away the Privilege 149* of the Bull of the Crusade from those who have said Bull.)

This last clause serves no purpose and has no use in France: but it was left, because it was in the Constitutions brought from Spain, to preserve the memory of their origin.

3/ Clothing must be Serge, Bure, or large smoky-colored cloth, without dye, called in Spanish Xerga ou Sayal, and that we use as little 150* cloth as we can for the coat.

Let the sleeve be narrow, and not wider at one end than at the other.

That the coat be without folds, round, no longer behind than in front, and that it falls to the feet.

The Scapular will be of the same cloth, four fingers shorter than the habit.

The mantle of the Choir be of the same material, and white, as long as the Scapular, and that we always use as little cloth as possible, having regard to what is necessary and avoiding superfluity.

The Headdress will be of hemp, or coarse linen, unfolded, and the Scapular above.

The Etamine or Serge Tunics, and the bed sheets of the same.

The Shoe will be string shoes that are called 152* Alpargates, and for honesty the stockings of heavy stuff like the Robe, or oakum, or something similar.

Bedside tables or pillows will be of the same Etamine or Serge, except if necessary that they may use linen.

The beds will be without mattress, but only with a mattress, and have been tested by weak and sickly people that 153* it can be supported. Let there be nothing hanging around, except in case of necessity, some mat, or some rough bure carpet, or similar thing which is poor.

4/ Let everyone have their own bed. Let there never be tapestry, except for the Church, nor carpet on the ground. This is all religion, and it should be that way. We notice this all the more because by 154* relaxation we sometimes forget what is of Religion and obligation.

5/ May there never be anything colored in clothes or in bed, even if it is no more than a band. We must never use fur-lined robes: and if there is someone sick, she can wear a nightgown made of the same cloth as the garment.

6/ They will have all 155* hair cut so they don't waste time combing it.

7/ They must never have a mirror or curious thing; but all self-contempt.

CHAPTER IX. Of Labor and Toil of the Hands.

1/ Let no curious work be done; the work is spinning, or other things which are not so delicate that they occupy the thought and prevent it from being in God. Let no one work with gold or silver. Let one not contest for what one would like to have by selling one's work, but let one simply take from it what one will give: and if they see that they do not gain by it, let they no longer work on this work.

2/ That we never give tasks to the Sisters, but that each one tries to work so that the others are fed.

Let us make a great deal of what is ordered by the Rule, that whoever wishes to eat must work; and so did Saint Paul. And if sometimes they want to undertake some task and tax themselves with the task they want to do each day, they can do it 158* but they don't have to give penance if they don't finish it.

CHAPTER X. From Silence and Retreat to the Cells.

1/ Silence will be kept from Compline until leaving Prime the next day; which must be observed very carefully: and in all, at other times a nun cannot speak to another without leave, except those who have the offices, who will be able to speak about necessary things. This leave is given by the Prioress, when a Religious, to become more inflamed in the love of her Husband, wants to talk about it with another; or console herself if she has any need or temptation. This does not mean a request or response, or a few words; because 159* can be done without leave.

2/ May the Prioress take care that there are good books, especially the Carthusians, the Lives of the Saints, Contempt for the World, the Oratory of the Religious, those of Brother Louis of Granada and Brother Pierre of Alcantara; for this food is partly as necessary for the soul, as eating is for the body.

161*

3/ As long as they are not in the Community, or in its Offices, each will remain apart in their Cell, or in the hermitage that the Prioress has allowed them. Finally, let them be at their place of retirement, doing some work, on days which will not be Feasts, and moving through this solitude to that for which the Rule commands that each remain apart from oneself.

162*

4/ No nun can enter another's cell without permission from the prioress.

5/ There must never be a place where people gather to work together, lest this give occasion to break the silence, being together.

CHAPTER XI. Of Humility and Penance.

1/ The table that we make 163* of those who will sweep, will begin with the Mother Prioress so that she sets a good example in everything. Great care must be taken that those who have the offices of the Community and Headmistresses provide with charity for the needs of the Sisters, both in terms of food and everything else.

Nothing more is needed from the Prioress, nor from the Elders, than from the others, as Rule 164* commands; but only to have regard to need and age, and more to need than to age; because many times those who are older have less need. Great consideration must be given to this being general, for what is appropriate for several things.

2/ Let us never use these words towards the Prioress or any of the others, Don, nor Madam, nor Lordship, but 165* let us use humble terms; the Prioress, Sub-prioress and those who have been Prioresses will be called Mothers and the other Sisters ( The Spaniard adds that the Mothers will also be called Reverence and that the sisters will name each other Your Charity. These designations have never been used in France, at least the last.)

3/ The house be built without any curiosity, except the Church there must be nothing curious, the fabric or wood 166* of it rough and coarse, the house small, the rooms low, so that necessity is satisfied and there is nothing superfluous; it is good that it be strong and last as long as possible. The high walls as for the enclosure, and that there be a field where we can make Hermitages, so that they can retire for Prayer as our holy Fathers did.

167*

4/ Let no one reproach the other for the faults she sees him making, and if these faults are great, let her warn him with charity, alone. And if she does not correct herself having been warned three times, let her tell the Mother Prioress, and not to any of the other Sisters. And especially since there are Zealots who are responsible for observing faults, the others must not worry about them and must let those they see pass by and take care of their own; and that they do not intermingle, if those who have the offices make a mistake, unless it is something of importance, of which they are obliged to warn them, as it is said: let them take great care not to do not apologize, unless it is necessary. For through this they will find great advancement in humility,

169*

5/ Especially since everything is ordered in accordance with our Rule, the correction of the sins and mistakes which will be committed in what has been said will be done by the penalties which will be put at the end of these Constitutions, of greater or lesser sin . The Mother Prioress can with discretion and charity order all this, according to what seems to her just, and will not force anyone to sin for the observation 170* of this, but with corporal punishment.

6/ In addition to the rod disciplines that we must take (because the Ceremonial orders some of them, as when we have a holiday in Lent, or in Advent, and in all other times, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays) , we will also take it every Friday of the year for the increase of the Faith, for the Life and States of our Princes 171* Sovereigns ( The Spaniard names the reigning king, who in 1581 was Philip II) for the benefactors for the souls in Purgatory, for the captives, for those who are in mortal sin, and this, during a psalm misere and prayers for the above-mentioned things and for the Church. This discipline will be taken by the Choir after Matins, and must not take more discipline, nor do any thing of 172* Penance, without the leave of the Prioress.

CHAPTER XII. Sick people

1/ The sick will be bandaged with much love, good treatment and compassion, in accordance with our poverty. Let them praise God when they have everything they need, and not be sorry if they lack something of what the rich have in their illnesses: they must come with this resolution. It is to be poor to be at fault in times of greatest need. The Mother Prioress must take great care that the healthy lack what is necessary rather than the sick lack any consolation, and that they are visited and consoled by the Sisters.

174*

2/ It is necessary to place a nurse who has the necessary charity in such Office, and the sick will then take care to show the perfection that they have won and acquired in health, having patience and care not to bother anyone when the harm is not great.

May they be obedient to the nurse, in order to benefit and edify the Sisters, and emerge from illness with advancement.

175* May they have linen, good beds with mattresses and shrouds, and be treated very clearly and charitably.

3/ That none of the Sisters speak if little or much food is given, well or poorly prepared. The Prioress and Headmistress will take care that what Our Lord has sent is well accommodated, so that they can pass each other (i.e. to be satisfied with it) of what 176* we give them, since they have nothing else.

4/ The Sisters are obliged to tell the Mother Prioress, and the Novices to their Mistress, the need they have either for clothing or for food: and if they need more than the ordinary, even if the need be very great, recommending it first to Our Lord: because our nature very often demands more than it needs, and sometimes the Devil puts his hand in it to make people afraid of Penance and Fasting .

CHAPTER XIII. Deaths

1/ The Sacraments must be administered, as stated in the Ceremonial, and the funerals and burials of those who die at the 178* convent will be held with a Vigil and a High Mass, and if possible, the Sacraments will be said. Masses of Saint Gregory, otherwise, as best we can, and let the whole Convent say an Office for the Dead.

2/ To all the Religious of the first Rule who will die (The Spaniard extends to the deceased brothers of the Order the obligation for the Sisters to say the Office for the Dead. Even where the Carmelite Fathers are able to govern the Carmelites, it can obviously only be a question of the Fathers of the same Province), each will say a 179* Office of the Dead, or all will say it together to the Choir, and if possible, they will be told a High Mass, and those who are not of the Choir will say thirty Father noster and as manyHail Mary. (The Spaniard says that the Religious do the same for each of the deceased Sisters).

CHAPTER XIV. Exhortation of what both the Mother Prioress and others are obliged to do in their Offices.

PRIORY.

1/ The Office of the Mother Prioress is to take great care that the Rule and the Constitutions are kept in everything, and to have great zeal for the honesty and closure of the House, and to take care when performing the offices, 181 * that whatever is needed be provided for, whether spiritual or temporal, and with maternal love, and that she tries to be loved in order to be obeyed.

2/ The Prioress will give the office of Doorkeeper and Sacristan to people in whom she trusts: and will be able to change them when it seems good to her, in order to avoid people becoming attached or committing themselves in any way to the 182* offices, and will also provide for all the others, except the Sub-Prioress and the Depositaries, who will be appointed by election, and they must know how to write and count at least two of them.

SUB‑PRIORY.

1/ The office of the Mother Sub-Prioress is to take care of the Choir, and that the Office is well said and sung calmly, to which 183* she must take care.

2/ When the Prioress is absent, she will preside in her place, and must always be in the Community, and correct the mistakes that will be made in the Choir and the Refectory, when the Prioress is not present.

DEPOSITORS.

1/ The Custodians must report to the Tourière every month, in the presence of the Prioress, and the Prioress must take their advice on matters of importance.

2/ There must be a chest with three keys to store the Registers, Scriptures and alms from the Convent. The Prioress will have one of the keys and the two older Custodians the other two.

SACRISTAN.

1/ The office of Sacristan 185* is to have all the things of the Church, and to take care that God is served there with great reverence and clarity.

2/ She must take care that we go to Confessions in order and not allow anyone to go to Confessional without leave, under penalty of serious guilt, except to confess to the one who is a deputy.

186*

RECEIVER AND TOURIER.

1/ The office of Receiver and Grand Tourière, which must be one, is to take care to buy everything needed in the House, if God gives what is needed, in His time.

2/ She must speak quietly to the Tour, and with edification, and have charitable regard for the needs of the Sisters.

3/ She must take care to write down the recipe and the 187* expenditure, not contest or argue when she buys something, but take it or leave it, after having said twice what she wants to yawn.

4/ She will not let any of the Sisters come to the Tower without leave, and will immediately call a Companion, if she goes to the Grid.

5/ She will not report to anyone what happens there, except to the Prioress alone.

6/ She will not give 188* letters to anyone except to the Prioress, who will read them first, and will not carry any message to one, without first saying it to the Prioress, nor will she report any to those of outside, under penalty of serious punishment.

ZELATOR.

1/ The Zealots are careful to observe the faults they see (because this is something that is important), and to tell them to the Superior.

189*

2/ Sometimes by his command, they will rebuke them in public, even if it is from the least to the greatest, so that they practice humility. And those who are reprimanded will not respond to anything, even if they are without fault.

MISTRESS OF NOVICES.

1/ The mistress of the Novices must be of great prudence, Prayer and 190* Spirit, and take great care to read the Constitutions to the Novices, and teach them everything they must do, whether ceremonies or mortifications. Let it stop more inside than outside, making them report every day how they benefit from Prayer and how they behave in the Mystery which they must meditate, and what benefit they benefit from it. pull: and teach them how they must govern in times of tastes and droughts, and break their will of their own accord, even in small things. May she who has this Office take care not to forget herself in anything, for her charge is to nourish souls in whom God can dwell. May she govern them with compassion and love, not being surprised at their faults, for what she must go little by little 191* mortifying each one as she sees that her spirit can bear it. And let her take greater account of the failure that there could be in the virtues than of the rigor of Penance. And the Prioress will order that we help her teach reading.

2/ When the Prioress sees that she has no one who can take on the role of Mistress of Novices, let her do it herself and take this job into such an important thing: nevertheless ordering one of the Sisters to help him.

3/ All the Sisters will report once a month to the Prioress on the benefit they have made in Prayer, and how Our Lord leads them. He will give her light to guide them if they are not well. And to do this is humility and mortification, and to make much profit.

194*

4/ However, what is said, that the Novices will report to their Mistress, and the other Religious to the Prioress, of the Prayer and the profit they make there, this must ensure that it comes from the will of those who have to return it, knowing the great spiritual benefit that they will receive from being forced to do so: for this we forbid the Prioresses and Mistresses of Novices to press their Nuns a lot on this point. And the religious know that both this and the surplus of the Constitutions do not force them to blame, as was said in the Prologue of the Constitutions.Ch. xiv, n°4. One will conform in the observance of this Constitution, to the Decree of December 17, 1890.)

5/ When those who have the offices spend one of the hours in which they are in Prayer, they must take another less busy time for themselves: this is understood, when they have 196* spent the whole hour or most of without being able to pray.

CHAPTER XV. From the Chapter of Guilts.

1/ The Chapter of sins must be held once a week, where according to the Rule the faults of the Sisters will be corrected with charity: and will be held at the most convenient time 197* and which will be more appropriate for them.

2/ Therefore the sign having sounded, and being all assembled in Chapter, at the signal given by the Superior or the one who will preside, the one of the Sisters who has the Office of Reader will read something from these Constitutions and the Rule, and before read, she will say: Jube, Domne, benedicere, (It is by mistake that in most French editions we printed domna : the rubric formally says that it must be said Domne) 198* And the one who presides will answer: “ Regularibus disciplinis nos instructer dignetur Magister Coelestis ". Resp. Amen.

So if the Mother Prioress wishes to say something about the reading, or correction of the sisters, before beginning she will say: blessing. And the Sisters will answer: Dominus, prostrating themselves until they are commanded to rise, and being raised, they will sit down again. The speech 199* finished, the Superior having given the sign, they will stand up to say their guilt, starting with the Novices, then the Lay Sisters, and then will follow the oldest. They will come in the middle of the Chapter, two by two and will tell the one who presides about their obvious sins. But first it is necessary to remove the Novices, the Lay Sisters and those who have no voice or session.

200*

3/ The sisters must not speak to the Chapter, except for two things, simply saying their faults or those of their Sisters: and responding to the Superior on what she asks of them. The one who will be accused is careful not to accuse another for the sole suspicion she has of her. And if she sometimes happens to do it, she will receive the same punishment for the crime she has been accused of. The same will be done towards someone who accuses another of a fault for which she has already satisfied. But so that vices and defects are not covered, the Nun can tell the Mother Prioress what she has seen or heard, and also to the Superior or Visitor.

4/ She also who says something falsely about another will receive the same punishment and will be similarly obliged to 202* restore (as much as she can) the reputation of the one she has defamed And the one who is accused will not respond if no one commands her, and then she will humbly say: blessing ; and if she responds impatiently, then she will be more severely chastised, according to the discretion of her who presides; but the punishment will be deferred to him until the passion is appeased

5/ May the Religious 203* refrain from divulging or publishing in any way the secrets of the Chapter.

6/ Whatever the Mother has chastised or resolved at the Chapter, no Religious will repeat it outside of it in the form of murmuring, because from there discord is born: this disturbs the peace of the Convent and produces partialities. And it is undertaking on the charge of the first,

204*

7/ The Mother Prioress, or the one who presides, will correct without dissimulation, with zeal of charity and love of justice, the faults which are clearly recognized, or of which the Sisters are accused, according to what will be declared below.

8/ The Mother will be able to soften or shorten the penalty due to the guilt when it has not been committed out of malice, at least the first, second or 205* third time; but to those whom she sees sinning through malice or vicious habituation, she must aggravate past punishments and neither remit them nor release them without the authority of a Superior or the Visitor.

9/ Those who are in the habit of committing light crimes, they will be given the penance of the greater crime: thus also the 206* past sentences will be increased for others, if it is through habit that they fail.

10/ The sins said and the correction made, they will say the Psalm Deus Misereatur nostri, with the surplus of what is ordered by the Ceremonial.

CHAPTER XV. Psalms for the chapter.

66. Deus misereatur nostri, et benedicat nobis...

209*

PSALM 122

Ad te levavi oculos meos...

210 *

PSALM 129. De profundis clamavi ad te

(212-217 several verses and five prayers)

CHAPTER XVI. From light guilt.

1/ Light guilt is if, after the bell has rung, a Nun delays 218* in getting ready to come to the Choir in good order and well accommodated.

2/ If someone enters after the office has begun, or reads, or sings badly, and if she must and does not immediately humiliate herself in the presence of all.

3/ If someone does not provide the reading at the appointed time.

4/ If someone, through negligence, does not have in the Choir the book with which she must say the Office.

219*

5/ If someone laughs in the Choir, or makes others laugh.

6/ If someone comes late to divine things or to work.

7/ If anyone despises and does not duly observe prostrations, inclinations and other ceremonies.

8/ If someone makes any noise, or worries others in the Choir, the Dormitory, or in the Cell.

220*

9/ If someone is late in coming to the chapter, the refectory or work at the appointed time.

10/ If someone says idle words.

11/ If she mishandles or breaks through negligence, or loses any of the things used in the Convent.

12/ If someone drinks or eats without leave.

13/ Those who accuse themselves of these faults, or other similar ones, will be imposed on them and given as penance a Prayer or prayers, according to the quality of the faults, or some humble work, or silence (especially for having broken the Silence of the Order, or abstinence from some meat (The Spaniard, says portion. : Moreover, the word Meat has never been understood to refer to the flesh of animals which the Carmelites do not use. It used to mean any kind of food ) or any repair or meal.

CHAPTER XVII. From the average Culpe.

1/ Average sin is if someone does not come to the choir in the first Psalm: and when she comes late, she must prostrate until the Mother Prioress or the one who presides commands her to stand up.

2/ If someone undertakes to read or sing in a way other than that which is usual.

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3/ If someone is not attentive to the divine office, by raising her eyes she shows the lightness of her spirit.

4/ If someone irreverently handles the ornaments of the Altar.

5/ If someone is missing from the Chapter, from the labor of hands, from the Sermon, or is not at the common Refection.

6/ Purposefully omit what is ordered in common.

224*

7/ If she is found negligent in the office entrusted to her.

8/ Speak to the Chapter without leave.

9/ If being accused, she apologizes by speaking loudly.

10/ If out of revenge she undertakes to accuse another of something of which she herself will have been accused by her on the same day.

11/ If someone wears their clothes or hairstyle disorderly.

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12/ If someone swears or speaks improperly, or (what is more grievous) if she makes a habit of it.

13/ If a Sister argues against another, or says something that causes the Sisters to be offended.

14/ If someone refuses to forgive the one who offended her, if she asks her.

15/ If someone enters the services of the Convent without leave.

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16/ The punishment of the above-mentioned faults and similar ones will be carried out by a discipline at the Chapter, which will be given by the Superior, or by the one to whom she will order it.

17/ The one who accuses will not give discipline to the one who has failed, nor the young to the oldest.

CHAPTER XVIII. Of the Grievous Guilt.

1/ Grievous guilt is, if someone is found insulting another, cursing her, or saying disorderly words of anger and not of Religious.

2/ If someone perjures herself or reproaches one of the Sisters, to shame her, for the 228* past fault for which she has satisfied, or reproaches her for her natural defects, or that of her Parents.

3/ If someone defends their fault, or that of another.

4/ If someone happens to have told a lie industriously.

5/ If someone is accustomed to breaking silence.

6/ Break without cause and without leave the fasts 229* of the Order, and especially those which are ordained by the Church.

7/ Take something from another, or from the Community, or change the Cell, or the clothing granted for its use, or exchange it with another.

8/ Enter at bedtime, or at another time, into the cell of a Sister without leave, or without obvious necessity.

9/ Finding yourself without the 230* leave of the Mother Prioress in the Tower, or Parlor, or where there are Seculars.

10/ If one of the Sisters threatens another with anger, if she raises her hand, or does something else to strike her, the penalty of the grievous guilt will be doubled.

11/ Those who ask for forgiveness for faults of this kind, or who have not been accused of them, will have two corrections at the Chapter, and will fast two days on bread and water and will eat in the presence of all or at the end of the tables , without tables and without apparatus: but to those who are accused of this, there will be added to them a correction, and a day of fasting on bread and water.

CHAPTER XIX. More serious guilt.

1/ More serious guilt 232* is if someone is so bold to argue irreverently against the Mother Prioress, or the one who presides, or to say something to her discourteously.

2/ If someone maliciously strikes one of the Sisters, she incurs the sentence of excommunication for this fact, and all must flee.

3/ Being found sowing discord between the Sisters, or with the habit of slandering them in their 233* absence, or murmuring about another.

4/ If someone undertakes to speak to those outside without leave from the Mother Prioress, or without a Companion who serves as a witness and hears her clearly. If she who is accused of such faults is convinced of it, she will immediately prostrate herself, devoutly asking for forgiveness, and baring her shoulders, will receive the sentence worthy of her 234* demerits with discipline, as much as it pleases the Mother Prioress. And after she has been ordered to get up, she will go to the Cell that the Mother Prioress will tell her, and no one will be so bold to go and speak to her, nor send her anything, so that by this means she knows that it is separated from the Convent and deprived of the company of Angels. And during. that she will do this 235* penance she will not take communion; no Office will be ordered to him; no obedience will be enjoined on him; nothing will be ordered from her: on the contrary, she will be deprived of the Office she had before. She will have no voice or session at the Chapter, except for her accusation: she will be the last of all, until full and complete satisfaction. She will not sit with the others, but she will sit in the middle of the Refectory, on the bare floor, covered in her cloak, and will have only bread and water: unless out of mercy she is given gives something by the command of the Mother Prioress, who will behave towards her with compassion and will send one of the Sisters to console her. If there is humility of heart in her, let us help her intention, to which also 236* the whole Convent will give favor and help, and the Mother Prioress will not make it difficult to show her mercy, early or later, more or less, depending on whether the fault requires it.

5/ If someone manifestly rises against the Mother Prioress, or against her Superiors, or if she invents or does something against them which is neither permitted nor honest, she will do the above penance, for forty days 238* during and will be deprived of voice and session at the Chapter, and of the Office that she had, whatever it may be.

That if, through some conspiracy of this kind or malicious plot, it happens that Seculars get involved in these things, causing confusion, defamation, damage to the Sisters or the Monastery, the Religious who have done so will be put in prison , and will be detained there according to the 239* magnitude of the scandal that has occurred. And if on the occasion of this there are divisions and partialities in the Monastery, those who make them and those who favor them will incur the sentence of excommunication and will be imprisoned.

6/ If someone wants to prevent the pacification or correction of faults, alleging that the Superiors proceed out of hatred or favor, or similar things, she will be 240* punished with the same penalty as those who conspired against the Mother Prioress.

7/ If someone takes the boldness to receive, give or read letters without the leave of the Mother Prioress, or send something outside, or receive for her what is given to her: similarly, if someone from the world is scandalized for the faults of this Sister. In addition to the penalties imposed by the Constitutions, when 241* we go to say the Canonial Hours and the Graces after dinner, she will remain prostrate in front of the Choir door, while the Sisters pass by.

CHAPTER XX. Very serious guilt.

1/ Very serious guilt is the incorrigibility of one who does not fear committing faults and refuses penance.

242*

2/ If someone is apostate, or leaves the boundaries of the Convent, they will incur the sentence of excommunication.

3/ If someone is disobedient, and through manifest rebellion does not obey the command that the Prioress or Superior has given to her in particular, or to everyone in general.

4/ If someone falls into the sin of sensuality (which God does not want to allow, he who is the strength of those who hope in him).

5/ If someone is an owner, or confesses to being one: and if at the time of their death they are found as such, they will not be given an ecclesiastical burial.

6/ If someone puts violent hands on the Mother Prioress or on any other sister, or, in any way, discovers to strangers some crime of 244* some Sister or of the Convent, including the Nun or the Convent may be defamed or discover the other secret actions of the Convent.

7/ If someone seeks for themselves or for others something of ambition or Offices, or something else against the Constitutions of Religion: such Religious will be put in prison with fasts and abstinence more or less according to the 245 * quantity or quality of the crime, and according to the discretion of the Mother Prioress, or the Superiors or Visitor. The Sisters will immediately take to prison as ordered by the Mother Prioress, on penalty of rebellion, regardless of the Nun who has committed such faults, and will not speak to her as long as she is in prison, if they are not those who keep her and none of them 246* will send her anything, on the same penalties. If the imprisoned Nun leaves prison, the one who will have custody of her, or the one who will have given cause for her release, being convinced of this, will be put in the same prison and will remain there as long as the crimes of the one who was prisoner deserve. .

8/ There must be an orderly prison where we can put those who commit these things, 247* and being prisoners for these scandalous faults, they can only be delivered by the Superiors or Visitor.

9/ The apostate will be put in prison, and those who fall into the sin of the flesh, and those who commit crimes which in the world would deserve death, and those who do not want to humiliate themselves and know their fault: and will not be never delivered, unless during this time, 248* their amendment and patience have been recognized such that by the advice of all those who pray for them, they deserve to be taken from the said prison by the Superiors, with the consent of the Mother Priory.

Each of those who will be in this prison will know that she has lost her active and passive voice and the session alike, and will be deprived of all legitimate acts and all 249* offices, and that even if she is delivered from the prison, she will not however be restored to the above-mentioned things, unless this benefit is expressly granted to her upon her release from prison. And if we give her back the session, for that we do not give her back her voice in Chapter: and if we give her back the active voice, she does not therefore have the passive, if, as it is said, that is not her expressly granted. 250* However, the one who has fallen into these faults cannot be restored until then, except by being elected to some Office, nor accompanying the Sisters on the Tour, nor elsewhere. If she falls into the sin of sensuality, even though she is displeased by it, she comes of her own free will to ask for mercy and forgiveness, she cannot in any way be received, except by the permission and advice of the Superiors, or if she does not 251* arises from some reasonable cause.

10/ If someone is convicted before the Prioress of having borne false witness, or is customary to defame others, she will do her penance at mealtime, being without a cloak, having only the Scapular on which there is will have two tongues of white cloth, sewn in front and behind of different kinds, and, being in the middle of the 252* Refectory, she will eat bread and drink water on the ground, to mark that this punishment is given to her for the great vice of her tongue, and from there she will be put in prison: and if some day she is delivered from it, she will have neither voice nor session.

If the Prioress (which God does not allow) falls into any of the above-mentioned faults, she will immediately be deposed to be 253* very seriously punished.

(we read in the Spanish: "We order that with regard to what these Constitutions have omitted to pronounce touching the recitation of the office or any other part of the divine worship, the said Monasteries are governed in accordance with the common rubrics and prescriptions to the entire Order of Carmel, and as regards government, culpability, or other similar points not defined in these Constitutions, the Religious, if any difficulty should arise, will follow the Constitutions of the Carmelites. Discalced from this Province, with the advice and consent of the Provincial in charge." This whole paragraph, which only regards the monasteries subject to the Carmelites of the Reformed Province established in Spain by Gregory XIII and later, by extension, to those of the Italian or Spanish Provinces, has naturally been suppressed in the French Constitutions. Everyone knows moreover that, by the authority of the old Visitors, it was filled by a particular ceremonial published in 1658 with the gaps indicated here. As for what is special to the Carmelites in the Roman Office which they recite, the Sacred Congregation, at the request of Mgr Pie, bishop of Poitiers, approved in 1858 a Proper which, having first become obligatory for all the Carmelites of the diocese of Poitiers, has since been approved at the request of the Ordinaries for almost all the Monasteries of France.)

There will be in each Convent a Book of these Constitutions, in the chest of three keys, and some others, so that they can be read once a week to all the Sisters together, at the time that the Mother Prioress orders, and that Each of the Sisters will keep them in mind, as this is what should help them move forward, and will try to read them often. This is why it is said that there must be several books of the said Constitutions in the Convent, so that each person can take them to her Cell whenever she wants.

(We reestablish from the Spanish this conclusion of the primitive Constitutions.)

Such are the Constitutions that We the Apostolic Commissioner, the Provincial and the Definitors have drawn up and ordained in our Chapter of the said province of the 258* Discalced Fathers of the Order of Our Lady of Carmel of the Primitive Rule. We want and order that all the Nuns of the said province of the primitive Rule called Discalced, receive for laws the present Constitutions in order to keep them and to conform their lives to them. And hereby we 259* revoke all other Rules and Constitutions given to these Religious by any Visitor or Prelate whatsoever; and we want these alone to be deemed valid and to have their effect. In witness whereof we have affixed our signature thereto, in our college of Saint Cyril in the city of Alcala de Hénarès, on the 260* thirteenth of the month of March of the year one thousand five hundred and eighty-one.

Follow signatures:

Brother JEAN DE LAS CUEVAS, Apostolic Commissioner; Brother JÉRÔME GRATIEN OF THE MOTHER OF GOD, Provincial; Brother NICOLAS OF JESUS ​​MARY; Brother ANTOINE DE JESUS; 261* Brother JOHN OF THE CROSS; Brother GABRIEL OF THE ASSUMPTION; Brother MARIANO DE ST‑BENOIT, secretary.

End