HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER PAUL VI
Sunday, 27 September 1970
We have conferred, or rather: We have recognised the title of Doctor of the Church upon Saint Teresa of Jesus.
The very fact of pronouncing the name of this most singular and greatest Saint, in this place and on this occasion, raises in our souls a tumult of thoughts: the first would be to recall the figure of Teresa: we see her appear before us, as an exceptional woman, as a religious, who, entirely veiled in humility, penance and simplicity, radiates around her the flame of her human vitality and her spiritual vivacity, and then as reformer and founder of a historic and distinguished Religious Order, and as a most ingenious and prolific writer, teacher of spiritual life, incomparable contemplative and indefatigably active; … how great she is! how unique! how human! how attractive this figure is! Before speaking of anything else, we would be tempted to speak of her, of this Saint, under so many fascinating aspects. But do not expect from Us, at this moment, that We speak to you of the person and work of Teresa of Jesus: the dual bibliography gathered in the volume prepared with such care by our Sacred Congregation for the Causes of Saints would suffice to discourage anyone wishing to condense into brief words the historical and biographical image of this Saint, which seems to overflow the descriptive outlines in which one would seek to contain it. Moreover, it is not precisely upon her that We wish now to fix, for a moment, our attention. But it is upon the act which We have just performed; upon the fact that We mark a moment in the history of the Church and entrust to the piety and reflection of the People of God, upon the conferring, as We said, of the doctoral title upon Teresa of Ávila, Saint Teresa of Jesus, the great Carmelite.
RAYS OF WISDOM IN HOLINESS
And the meaning of this act is very clear; an act which intentionally wishes to be luminous, which could have a symbolic image in a lamp lit before the humble and majestic figure of the Saint: luminous for the beam of rays that the lamp of the doctoral title projects upon her; and luminous for another beam of rays which this same doctoral title projects upon us.
Upon her, Teresa: the light of the title highlights indisputable values which were already widely recognised in her: the holiness of life, first of all, a value already officially proclaimed, as early as 12 March 1622 – Saint Teresa had died thirty years before – by our Predecessor Gregory XV, in the celebrated canonisation which, with our Carmelite, enrolled in the catalogue of Saints Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier, Isidore Agricola, all glories of Catholic Spain, and with them Philip Neri, a Florentine – the latter Roman; and it also highlights “the eminence of doctrine”, in the second place, but this especially (Cf. PROSPERO LAMBERTINI, later Pope Benedict XIV, De Servorum Dei beatificatione, IV, 2, c. 11, n. 13).
The doctrine therefore of Saint Teresa of Ávila shines with the charisms of truth, of conformity with the Catholic faith, of usefulness for the instruction of souls; and another we can particularly note, the charism of wisdom, which makes us think of the most attractive and at the same time most mysterious aspect of Saint Teresa’s doctorate, that is, the influence of divine inspiration in this prodigious and mystical writer. From whence did Teresa receive the treasure of her doctrine? Undoubtedly from her intelligence and her cultural and spiritual formation, from her readings, from conversations with great masters of theology and spirituality, from her singular sensitivity, from her habitual and intense ascetic discipline, from her contemplative meditation, in a word from her correspondence to grace, received in a soul extraordinarily rich and prepared for the practice and experience of prayer. But was this the only source of her “eminent doctrine”? Or should we not find in Saint Teresa acts, facts, states, which do not come from her, but which she underwent, which are in other words so endured and passive, mystical in the true sense of the word, as to have to be attributed to an extraordinary action of the Holy Spirit? We are undoubtedly faced with a soul in which the extraordinary divine initiative is manifest, and from which it is perceived and therefore described by Teresa, in a literary language all her own, simply, faithfully, wonderfully.
TO ASCEND TO GOD WITH ALL ONE’S STRENGTH
Here the questions multiply. The originality of mystical action is among the most delicate and complex psychological phenomena, in which many factors can intervene and oblige the observer to the strictest caution; yet in which the marvels of the human soul manifest in a surprising way, and one above all more comprehensive: love, which celebrates in the depth of the heart its most varied and fullest expressions; a love which we must ultimately call a union, because it is the encounter of the overflowing divine love descending to meet the human love, which strives to ascend with all its strength; it is the most intimate and strongest union with God that a living soul on this earth can experience; and it becomes light, it becomes wisdom; wisdom of divine things, wisdom of human things.
And it is of these secrets that the doctrine of Teresa speaks to us; they are the secrets of prayer. Her doctrine is here. She had the privilege and merit of knowing these secrets through experience, lived in the holiness of a life consecrated to contemplation and simultaneously engaged in action, and through experience both endured and enjoyed in the outpouring of extraordinary spiritual charisms. Teresa had the art of explaining these very secrets, so much so that she ranks among the supreme masters of spiritual life. Not in vain does the statue, which places Teresa’s figure here in this Basilica as Founder, bear the inscription that aptly defines the Saint: Mater Spiritualium.
This prerogative of Saint Teresa, of being a mother, of being a teacher of spiritual persons, was already acknowledged, one may say by unanimous consent. A mother full of enchanting simplicity, a teacher full of admirable depth. The approval of the tradition of the Saints, of Theologians, of the Faithful, of scholars was already assured to her; we have now confirmed it, ensuring that, adorned with this magistral title, she has an even more authoritative mission to carry out, in her Religious Family, in the praying Church, and in the world, with her enduring and present message: the message of prayer.
THE MESSAGE OF PRAYER
It is this light, made today more vivid and penetrating, that the title of Doctor, conferred upon Saint Teresa, reflects upon us. The message of prayer!
It comes to us, children of the Church, at a time marked by a great effort of reform and renewal of liturgical prayer; it comes to us, tempted by the great noise and great engagement of the external world, to succumb to the strain of modern life and to lose the true treasures of our soul in the pursuit of the seductive treasures of the earth. It comes to us, children of our time, as not only the custom of conversing with God is being lost, but also the sense of the need and duty to adore and invoke Him. It comes to us, the message of prayer, song and music of the spirit imbued with grace and open to the conversation of faith, hope and charity, while psychoanalytic exploration dissects the fragile and complicated instrument that we are, no longer to draw from it the voices of suffering and redeemed humanity, but to hear the murky murmur of its animal subconscious and the cries of its unbridled passions and desperate anguish.
Comes the sublime and simple message of the prayer of the wise Teresa, which exhorts us to understand “the great good that God does to a soul when He disposes it to practise mental prayer with desire; … because mental prayer, in my opinion, is nothing other than a friendly way of treating, in which we often find ourselves speaking, alone with Alone, with Him whom we know loves us” (Vida, 8, 4-5).
In summary, this is the message for us from Saint Teresa of Jesus, Doctor of the Holy Church: let us listen to it and make it our own. We must add two observations which seem important. The first is that Saint Teresa of Ávila is the first woman to whom the Church has conferred this title of Doctor; and this fact is not without the recollection of the severe word of Saint Paul: Mulieres in Ecclesiis taceant (1 Cor. 14, 34): which still today means that women are not intended to hold hierarchical functions of teaching or ministry in the Church. Would the apostolic precept now be violated? We can respond with clarity: no. In reality, this is not a title that entails hierarchical functions of teaching, but at the same time we must note that this in no way implies a lesser regard for the sublime mission that women have among the People of God.
On the contrary, by entering the Church through Baptism, a woman participates in the common priesthood of the faithful, which enables her and obliges her to “profess before men the faith received from God through the Church” (Lumen gentium, c. 2, 11). And in this profession of faith many women have reached the highest summits, to the point that their words and writings have been light and guidance for their brothers. Light nourished each day in intimate contact with God, even in the noblest forms of mystical prayer, for which Saint Francis de Sales does not hesitate to say that they possess a special capacity. Light made life in a sublime manner for the good and service of men.
ABOVE ALL OBSTACLES: TO FEEL WITH THE CHURCH
For this reason, the Council wished to recognise the high collaboration with divine grace that women are called to exercise, in order to establish the Kingdom of God on earth, and in exalting the greatness of their mission, it does not hesitate to invite them equally to cooperate “so that humanity may not decline,” to “reconcile men with life,” “to save peace in the world” (Vatican II, Message to Women).
Secondly, we do not wish to omit the fact that Saint Teresa was Spanish, and Spain rightly considers her one of its greatest glories. In her personality the characteristics of her homeland are evident: strength of spirit, depth of feeling, sincerity of heart, love of the Church. Her figure is placed in a glorious era of saints and masters who distinguished their time through the development of spirituality. She listened to them with the humility of a disciple, while at the same time she knew how to judge them with the insight of a great teacher of spiritual life, and as such they regarded her.
Moreover, both within and beyond her native borders, the violent storm of the Reformation was raging, opposing the children of the Church to one another. For her love of truth and intimacy with the Master, she had to confront bitterness and misunderstandings of every kind, and she could not find peace of spirit in the face of the breaking of unity: “I suffered much,” she writes, “and as if I could do anything or were anything, I wept with the Lord and begged Him to remedy so much evil” (Camino de perfección, c. 1, n. 2; BAC, 1962, 185).
This sense of being in sympathy with the Church, tested in pain at the sight of the dispersal of forces, led her to react with all her strong Castilian spirit in the anxiety to build the kingdom of God; she resolved to penetrate the world around her with a reforming vision to give it meaning, harmony, a Christian soul. Five centuries later, Saint Teresa of Ávila continues to leave the marks of her spiritual mission, of the nobility of her heart thirsty for catholicity, of her love stripped of all earthly attachment so as to give herself entirely to the Church. Before her last breath, she could well say, as a summary of her life: “Finally, I am a daughter of the Church!”
In this expression, a welcome foretaste of the glory of the blessed for Teresa of Jesus, we wish to see the spiritual heritage linked to all of Spain. We also wish to see an invitation to all of us to echo her voice, to transform it into a programme for our own lives, so that we may repeat with her: we are children of the Church.
With Our Apostolic Blessing.
APOSTOLIC LETTER
MULTIFORMIS SAPIENTIA DEI
SAINT TERESA OF JESUS, VIRGIN OF AVILA,
IS PROCLAIMED DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH
PAUL VI
IN PERPETUAL MEMORY
The manifold Wisdom of God sometimes reveals itself more manifestly to certain beloved disciples of Christ and to them, by arcane design and singular liberality, it is granted to understand “the breadth and the length, and height and the depth… knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge” (Eph 3:18). In fact, “the Holy Spirit sanctifies and leads the people of God and enriches it with virtues, but, “allotting his gifts to everyone according as He wills, (1 Cor 12:11) He distributes special graces among the faithful of every rank. By these gifts He makes them fit and ready to undertake the various tasks and offices which contribute toward the renewal and greater expansion of the Church” (LG 12).
Teresa of Jesus, great and noble virgin, and also reformer of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, was enriched by profusion of this divine abundance of sacred charisms. A woman of simple customs and ignorant of literary culture, she excelled so much in words and writings that these words can be referred to her: “in the full assembly she opened her mouth” (Sir 15:5), and she was rightly proclaimed a saint by holy men and also was venerated as a very sure guide and teacher by doctors of sacred sciences. Although she was involved in a great deal of business related to her duties, it was nevertheless seen that she constantly aspired to a better homeland, that is to say, to a heavenly homeland; almost always suffering in her body and laden with tribulations, she fearlessly faced any undertaking for the glory of God and for the benefit of Christ’s Church.
Therefore, since this servant of God always has been exalted, whether for the extraordinary facts of her life, the rare virtues of her soul, or for the acumen of her spirit, we consider with certainty this fact a just and noble reason wherefore, as our predecessor Gregory XV’s decree bestowed upon her the honours of the saints so that all the faithful of Christ might understand with what abundance God had filled his servant with the Holy Spirit (cf. Lett. Decr. Omnipotens sermo), so should we proclaim her — we do not doubt — a Doctor of the Church, first among women, especially for her knowledge and doctrine of divine things. In fact, we have faith and trust that Teresa of Jesus, declared by solemn decree a teacher of Christian life, strongly will encourage the men of our time as well to cultivate above all that which favours the soul’s love towards contemplation and the attainment of heavenly things.
Teresa was born in Avila, Spain, on 28 March 1515. Even as a child she gave a glimpse of what she one day would become because she tried to lead a hidden life in the gardens of her house, as she was willing to observe until death that which she often read about the martyrs of the early Church. After her mother’s death at a young age, she procured help and protection from the Mother of God herself. It was therefore natural for her that from her childhood she wanted to consecrate herself totally to God and that, at the age of twenty, she went to the Carmelite monastery. Although she applied herself assiduously, by many sure indications, to the exercise of the virtues, she nevertheless began to relax her soul’s early fervour and to move away from her purpose. Fortunately, she then was drawn with intensity to the consideration of heavenly realities and to doing the most perfect and greatly accepted works for God, following the exhortations of Peter of Alcantara, Louis Bertrand, Francis Borgia, John of Avila, and other saints. And she cultivated and completed this decision with magnanimity, as witnessed both by her confessors and by those who were useful to her in her life and works.
She seemed, however, to be called upon to sustain extraordinary tasks, to which her ingenuity and a certain natural inclination of her will led her. In fact, she was motivated by the constant and resolute intention to ensure that the monastery of her Order was governed according to the more ancient rule, which had fallen into disuse; and, with the approval of the Holy See, she brought this to a successful conclusion at the age of 47, after having consulted learned men and saints. When difficulties arose on all sides, she overcame them so courageously and persisted so firmly along the way that in a few years she founded many more monasteries in Spain. In addition, in order to provide the reformed monasteries of the nuns in a more appropriate way and to help the growth of the Church with apostolic works, she decided to call male religious subject to the Order of Carmel to a higher discipline of life as well, and she carried out her plan with the support and help of Saint John of the Cross.
After having thus founded and increased the order, she dedicated herself to training the pious women in the method of a holy life, whom she had welcomed daily in greater numbers so that they might live hidden and alone with God, address to him assiduous prayers for the Church, mortify their bodies with frequent and voluntary sufferings, be united with each other by affectionate kindness and charity in order to obey the special commandment of Christ. She was also an excellent incitement and example in the exercise of all the virtues. In fact, she was distinguished by prudence and evangelical simplicity, humility of spirit, obedience to superiors even in difficult things, contempt for herself, and a particular inclination for the good of others and, in order to help them, she did not hesitate to sacrifice herself and her things. She also led an austere and hard life, patient in adverse events, very grateful to God in happy ones. She also shone with ardent piety towards God, intimately moved by his love. Filled, in turn, by God with countless graces, nevertheless, she fully embraced the Church’s counsels, valuing much more faithful and humble obedience to God’s ministers than visions, revelations, and ecstasies. Because of this assiduous familiarity with God, it is said that something radiant seemed to shine on her face that caused wonder and joy in everyone.
It was necessary to add to this the human virtues, which Teresa is said to have cultivated, because she made a strong effort to tell the truth, to keep her word, to fulfill her promises, to have a manner of speech, even a familiar one, that was full of joy and kindness. She truly excelled in what she had to do or sustain, in her greatness of mind, as well as in her equal esteem and respect for everyone. It should not be forgotten that among her commitments and continuous efforts she also found the time and strength to write excellent works, which seemed totally to demand and occupy the entire existence of a very active person, an acute and penetrating seeker of profound questions concerning God and heavenly things.
At Alba, a brief, fatal illness finally struck her, who had exhausted herself for so long and so actively, and it forced her to desist from other initiatives. The magnanimous mother died piously on 4 October 1582, repeatedly testifying to her obsequy as a most loving daughter for Christ’s Church.
She, who during her life had been praised everywhere for her singular virtues, came after her death to the fore and was venerated with greater splendour. And it was rightly so that she should be given the honours of the blessed who dwell in heaven by Paul V, and the honours of the saints by Gregory XV, and that she should be proposed as an example of Christian and religious life, to whom everyone could turn their eyes. If we are attracted to imitate the holiness of this servant of God, we are taken with great admiration by the excellence of her teaching. In fact, although she had repeatedly declared her inability to understand and teach, she was nevertheless able to understand, teach and write, inspired by God, on very profound subjects, considering Christ the only source of her doctrine and almost a living book. With regard to this, it is above all a marvellous thing that Saint Teresa should have penetrated the mystery of Christ and the knowledge of the human soul with such acuity and sagacity so that her doctrine clearly indicates the certain presence and strength of a singular charism of the Spirit. For in this doctrine excels a very deep sense of reality, an intimate understanding of the mystery of the living God, of Christ the Saviour and the Church, a living experience of grace, which raises and develops nature, adorned with so many gifts. Hence, the supreme effectiveness and perennial authority of her doctrine, which extends beyond the confines of the Catholic Church and reaches even those who do not believe.
The writings – The humanity of Christ – Prayer
Her magisterium was important not only for the life of the faithful but also, and in an active way, for that chosen and highly valuable section of theological knowledge that today is called spiritual theology. In fact, Teresa’s writings are an abundant source of manifold experience, witness, spiritual penetration, from which all the scholars of this theology have widely drawn. These writings, although they have been created for different reasons and circumstances or according to a pre-established method, nevertheless form a harmonious and compact body of spiritual doctrine. Thus in the volume entitled Libro de su vida, Teresa narrates the complex of deeds that the merciful God accomplished in her, explains their meaning, and holds them up before the eyes of her readers as an admirable “story of salvation”. On the other hand, in the book called Camino de Perfección, she exposes the ascetic foundations of the theological life, that is, the principal virtues, as well as the necessity and degrees of prayer, including contemplative prayer, with excellent educational ability. Furthermore, in the book Castillo Interior, she examines the full and perfect development of divine life in man, who can become a sharer in the mystery of the Trinity and of Christ to the highest degrees of mystical experience. In the work commonly called Libro de las Fundaciones, Teresa recounts her apostolic undertakings and the labours she endured for the reform of her Order in favour of Christ’s Church. In addition to this, her Letters, full of humanity, show the versatility of her intellect and soul as she strives to live actively the contemplative life destined for her and at the same time to participate in the religious and earthly affairs of the people of her time. Finally, in the notebook called Relaciones, her holy desire to submit her divine gifts completely to the authority of the Church shines forth. Since the centre of Teresa’s spiritual doctrine is Christ who reveals the Father, unites us to him, and associates us with himself, the best foundations of this doctrine are Christian prayer as a life of love, and the Church, through which the kingdom of God is realised in us. Our union with Christ prepares us for the table of the Word of God, in the unceasing meditation on the Gospel, and for the table of His Body and Blood, through the sacrificial feast of the Eucharist. At both of these tables the humanity of Christ intimately engages the man who entrusts himself entirely to him, in the mystery of his death, resurrection, and glorious life with the Father. This is why Christ’s most sacred humanity includes all our good and salvation. Teresa expresses this doctrine in the Book of Her Life in these words: “it is God’s will, if we are to please Him and He is to grant us great favours, that this should be done through His most sacred Humanity” (22:6). For man will reach perfection only then, when he can say with Paul: My life is Christ (cf. Interior Castle, VII, 2:5). On the other hand, the life of prayer which Teresa teaches in the same Book of Her Life (8:5), can be valued as a life of love, since prayer is that necessity of friendship, for which we speak at length alone with God by whom we know we are loved. God invites man and never ceases to urge him to embrace his friendship and have closer communion with him every day. Man strives to correspond to this friendship with the Father, through Christ, in the Holy Spirit, and to be found worthy of it. Now, so much less does greatness of prayer and contemplation alienate mankind from as much as regards the kingdom of God and the Church, but rather impels him to it with greater sympathy and ardent desire. This is shown both by the wonderful life and works that Teresa accomplished for the good of the Church, driven precisely by the fullness of contemplation, and by the witness that she enunciated as the foundation of her doctrine and that, dying, she repeated with full truth and joy of heart: “I thank You, Lord, because I die a daughter of the Church”.
Since these things are so, as early as 15 October 1967, we publicly declared our intention to include Saint Teresa of Jesus in the catalogue of the Doctors of the Church. And this intention was based not only on Our familiarity with the doctrine of this holy woman but also on the great esteem that our predecessors in the Roman Pontificate, who seemed to anticipate without doubt Our solemn proclamation, expressed with their words over and over again on the excellence of her doctrine. Among these is Gregory XV, who in the Bull of Canonisation gave the doctrine of Saint Teresa this testimony: “The Almighty . . . filled her so much with the spirit of intelligence that . . . he irrigated her with the rain of heavenly wisdom”. The comparison that Benedict XIII made in the Bull of Canonisation of Saint John of the Cross, between the same saint and Teresa is also very important: “. . . . . in explaining with his writings the mysterious secrets of mystical theology, he was divinely instructed, not differing from Teresa”; with this comparison, one doctor approaches another doctor. Moreover, the declaration of Saint Pius X is very famous: “This woman was so great and so useful to the salutary education of Christians that she seems to be either not much or not at all inferior to those great fathers and doctors of the Church, whom we have remembered (i.e., Gregory the Great, John Chrysostom, Anselm of Aosta)”. And the Supreme Pontiff himself, in his Apostolic Letter Ex quo Nostrae of 7 March 1914, did not hesitate to say: “Therefore, the Church is rightly accustomed to attribute to this virgin the honours proper to doctors”. Benedict XV then, speaking to the Cardinals on 24 December 1921, said that Teresa had united to the crown of holiness the wreath of doctrine. Pius XI in the Apostolic Constitution Summorum Pontificum of 25 July 1922 called her “sapientissimam matrem” (mother most wise) and “altissimam contemplationis magistra” (supreme teacher of contemplation). Pius XII, in his speech on 23 November 1951, declared that the Holy Spirit had provided the whole Church with the treasury of a spiritual doctrine through the work of Saint Teresa. Finally, John XXIII, Our immediate predecessor, precisely in his Apostolic Letter of 16 July 1962, called her the singular light of the Church.
And the saints who, by the heavenly counsel of God’s providence, had friendships with Teresa, never separated veneration of her holiness from her divinely inspired doctrine. And they were certainly men of great fame, such as Peter of Alcantara, Francis Borgia, John of the Cross, Juan de Ribera, John of Avila. All of them had her as a teacher of contemplation, enlightened by God, or to express ourselves more exactly, teacher of teachers of the spirit. Later there were saints who were Doctors of the Church who venerated her with equal esteem, such as Francis de Sales and Alphonsus de Liguori and other saints, such as Anthony Mary Claret, Charles of Sezze, Vincent Pallotti.
The thought that the Virgin of Avila could be esteemed a Doctor never ceased to exist in the Church. Suffice it to mention the opinion of the theologians of Salamanca who, since there was a controversy on the subject, wrote openly in 1657: “Now our blessed Mother Teresa has the halo of a doctor and the Church receives and approves her singular doctrine . . . as coming from heaven”. So with the great desire that the holiness and doctrine of such a great woman may be of greater use to all, it seemed good to us that we can attribute to her the cult of doctor of the Church which until now has been attributed only to holy men. However, we have entrusted to the Sacred Congregation for Rites the task of discussing the matter with the greatest diligence. And [this Congregation] after having previously made use of the work and the opinion of the learned, in the ordinary assembly of 20 December 1967 proposed that the point on which it was undecided should be examined, whether the title and the cult of Doctor of the Church could be attributed not only to men but also to women who had contributed to the common good of the faithful for holiness and excellent doctrine, according to the norms and decrees of Pope Benedict XIV. On 21 March 1968, we ratified and confirmed the thought of the Cardinals, Prelates, and Officials present, who assured that this was possible. Since the beloved son Michelangelo of Saint Joseph, General Superior of the Discalced Carmelite Order, expressing his own desire and that of his Order, had asked that we proclaim Teresa of Jesus Doctor of the Church and since many Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Superiors of Religious Orders, and of Secular Congregations and Institutes had also asked the same thing, and other very learned people from Universities and Higher Institutes, we sent these prayers and wishes to the Sacred Congregation of Rites to evaluate them, and it prepared the so-called special “positio”, of great importance, which examined the whole matter with care and diligence. When the Cardinals in charge of the Sacred Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which had been established in the meantime, examined the matter with great care, they expressed their opinion in the Ordinary Assembly of the same Congregation held in the Vatican Basilica on 15 July 1969, after hearing both the report of our Venerable Brother Cardinal Arcadio Larraona, Promoter of this cause and the opinion of the Official Prelates; they all agreed that Saint Teresa of Jesus was certainly worthy of being inscribed in the catalogue of the Doctors of the Church. Finally, after having been informed on 21 July of last year and after having carefully examined everything, we approved and confirmed the deliberation of the same Congregation, establishing that it should be brought to completion with solemn rites.
And this happened today, with the help of God and with the approval of the whole Church. In fact, in Saint Peter’s Basilica, with the participation of legions of faithful from all nations and above all from Spain, in the presence of many Cardinals and Sacred Prelates of the Roman Curia and of the Catholic Church, who ratify all the decrees, who adhere to the requests of the members of the Discalced Carmelite Order and who willingly and graciously hear the wishes of the other supplicants, during the divine sacrifice we pronounced these words: “WITH TRUE KNOWLEDGE AND THOUGHTFUL DECISION AND FOR THE FULLNESS OF OUR APOSTOLIC AUTHORITY WE DECLARE SAINT TERESA OF JESUS, VIRGIN OF AVILA, DOCTOR OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH”.
After saying these words and thanking God together with those present, we gave a speech about the marvellous holiness and doctrine of this doctor of the Church, and we sacrificed the divine victim at the high altar of the basilica.
We now decide in this regard that Our Letter should be preserved devoutly and that it should have its full completion in the future, and that it should be judged and defined as such in the proper way and that it should be vain and without foundation that which is different surrounding this by anyone who might be involved, with whatever authority, consciously or out of ignorance.
Given in Rome, at St. Peter’s, under the ring of the Fisherman, on 27 September of the year of the Lord 1970, the eighth of our Pontificate.
PAULUS VI