When, as I mentioned, the Father Maestro Fray Jerónimo Gracián came to see me at Beas, we had never previously met although I had very much desired to meet him. (Yes, at times, we had corresponded.) I was extremely delighted when I learned he was there, for I greatly desired to meet him on account of the good reports given me concerning him.
But much greater was my happiness when I began speaking with him, for it seemed from the way he pleased me that those who had praised him had hardly known him at all.
Since at that time I had so many difficulties, it seems that when I saw him the Lord showed me the good that was going to come to us through him.
So during those days I went about with such excessive consolation and happiness that indeed I was surprised at myself. At that time he did not have authority outside Andalusia.
It was when he was in Beas that the nuncio [Nicolás Ormaneto] sent to see him and then gave him authority over the discalced friars and nuns of Castile.
Saint Teresa of Avila
The Foundations, chap. 24, nos. 1–2
Nicolás Ormaneto (in Italian, Nicolò Ormanetto) was the “holy nuncio” who greatly favored and encouraged the work of St. Teresa. He died in Madrid on 18 June 1577.
Teresa of Avila, St. 1985, The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K; Rodriguez, O, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Featured image: This image of Fray Jerónimo Gracián and Saint Teresa of Avila comes to us courtesy of the outstanding WordPress blog Teresa, de la rueca a la pluma maintained by the nuns of the Discalced Carmelite monastery of Puçol, Spain.
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