Critical Edition of the Complete Works

of

Saint Therese of the Child Jesus

and of the Holy Face

Centenary Edition

(1873-1973)

of

Saint Therese of Lisieux

"Pious Recreations"

General Introduction by Guy Gaucher, O.C.D.

Translated by

Susan Conroy and David J. Dwyer

ICS Publications

Institute of Carmelite Studies

Washington, DC

2008

This edition was prepared by Sr. Cecile of the Carmel of Lisieux and Mgr Guy Gaucher, O.C.D., with the assistance of Frs. Bernard Bro, O.P., Pierre Descouvemont, Conrad De Meester, O.C.D, and Jeanne and Jacques Lonchampt.

THE PLAYS OF SAINTTHERESE OF LISIEUX: "PIOUS RECREATIONS" is a translation of Theatre au Carmel: "recreations pieuses" (Paris: Les Editions du Cerf/ Desclee de Brouwer, 1985). Photos used with permission of Office Central de Lisieux.

Contents

Preface to the ICS Edition ...................................................vii

Abbreviations ...................................................................... xiii

General Introduction ............................................................ 1

RP 1: The Mission of Joan of Arc or The Shepherdess of Domremy Listening to Her Voices ........................... 59

RP 2: The Angels at Jesus' Manger ................................... 101

RP 3: Joan of Arc Accomplishing Her Mission ................. 131

RP 4: Jesus at Bethany ..................................................... 199

RP 5: The Divine Little Beggar of Christmas .................. 221

RP 6: The Flight into Egypt .............................................. 247

RP 7: The Triumph of Humility ....................................... 295

RP 8: Saint Stanislaus Kostka ............................................ 323

Index of Biblical References ............................................. 355

Preface to the ICS Edition

Even those familiar with the other writings of St. Therese are often surprised to learn that, over a period of about three years toward the end of her life, she somehow managed to compose eight "theatrical pieces" for special occasions in her convent. Nor did she consider them mere trivial amusements. On the contrary, Therese invested herself wholeheartedly in the writing and performance of these little dramas, which offered a welcome opportunity to articulate her growing spiritual insights and share them with her religious community. Here we find echoes of her great themes, some developed at greater length than elsewhere: Mary of Nazareth and Joan of Arc, humility and the "little way," confidence and love. Not all of this material is previously unknown; a few verse passages were extracted and presented as independent poems in early editions of Therese's writings. But in the present volume, for the first time, all eight of her "plays" (or "pious recreations," as they are sometimes called in the French) are published together in their entirety for English-speaking readers. They provide a new window onto the message of the church's youngest "doctor."

1. ST. THERESE AND ICS PUBLICATIONS

The book you hold in your hands represents the culmination of a more-than-twenty-year labor of love by ICS Publications. Although St. Therese of Lisieux's classic Story of a Soul, in the version compiled by Mother Agnes (her sister Pauline), has been available in English for over a century, it was not until 1956 that a facsimile edition of the original manuscripts appeared. At last readers were able to encounter Therese's texts directly, without the numerous editorial "corrections" introduced by her sister. The renowned Ronald Knox soon brought forth an elegant translation of this critical edition, but once again seemed to be "correcting" Therese's prose, at least implicitly, by tending to make her sound rather like a proper English schoolgirl.

It was Fr. John Clarke, OCD, of the Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, already an established translator of French, who saw the need for a new English-language version of the "autobiographical manuscripts" more faithful to Therese's own distinctive voice, spelling, punctuation, and so on. His translation of Story of a Soul, which appeared in 1976, was only the second book released by ICS Publications and quickly became its all-time best seller. Today the vast majority of English-language authors writing on Therese rely on the Clarke translation.

Before his untimely death, John Clarke went on to translate for us Therese's Last Conversations (1977) and the two volumes of her General Correspondence (1982, 1988). In the meantime, the French publisher Editions du Cerf was gradually completing a new critical "centenary" edition of all of Therese's writings, and ICS Publications committed itself to finishing the project that Fr. John had so ably begun. Our translations of her Poetry and Prayers appeared in 1996 and 1997 respectively. Only the volume of the eight Plays still remained.

II. TOWARD AN ENGLISH-LANGUAGE EDITION OF THERESE'S PLAYS

By 1991, during my tenure as editor, we had already begun negotiations for translation rights to the Plays but were searching for a translator. So when the late David J. Dwyer contacted us in early 1992, asking precisely if he could translate the Plays, it seemed like an answer to prayers. Here was an award-winning and widely-published poet, author and translator, spontaneously offering his services just at the moment we most needed him. Best of all, he felt confident that he could finish the project within six months!

Unfortunately, as Therese once said of her own beginnings in Carmel, the "first steps met with more thorns than roses." Mr. Dwyer's health soon began to deteriorate and progress gradually slowed to a halt. Meanwhile we had turned our energies toward publishing the Poetry and Prayers in time for the 1997 centenary of Therese's death. By 1999 Mr. Dwyer had completed a first draft of the General Introduction and several of the plays (all but the fourth and fifth), but could go no further.

Once again providence intervened. Author Susan Conroy, who had translated other studies of Therese and had previously worked with us on St. Therese of Lisieux: Her Life, Times, and Teaching, agreed to bring the Plays to completion, incorporating the work already done by David J. Dwyer. Unfortunately, soon afterwards I was transferred to a new assignment in Nairobi, Kenya, and communications became more difficult. Slowly the translation was edited and given to Michael Litt for page layout on the computer, but further delays arose because of compatibility issues with the software and hardware we were using.

The present volume, then, owes its existence to the patience and sheer determination of many people. Grateful thanks are due to David J. Dwyer, his wife Kathleen Norris, Susan Conroy, Michael Litt, Fr. Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD, who prepared the biblical index from the French, and especially Fr. John Sullivan, OCD, the current publisher of ICS Publications. Despite the many different players and steps involved, we have all done our best to provide a clear, consistent, and readable English text.

III. FORMAT

The French critical "new centenary" edition of St. Therese's writings, published in eight large volumes by Cerf, includes thousands of pages of detailed scholarly notes, intended primarily for specialists and academicians. Translating them all would have added considerably to the bulk of the present book without appreciable benefit, we felt, to the average reader. Accordingly, we have chosen, as in our previous ICS volumes of Therese's works, to omit most of this technical material. What we have retained, then, are the fine General Introduction by Guy Gaucher and the texts of the eight plays themselves, each with its own brief introduction.

The French editors were able to establish an accurate text of the Plays using surviving autographs in Therese's own hand. We have retained their referencing system, which identifies citations by their location in the original manuscripts. Each of the "Recreations Pieuses" (or "pious recreations") has been assigned its own number, and each manuscript leaf has a "recto" (front) and "verso" (back) side. Thus a note directing the reader to "RP 1, 5r, 26" is referring to the manuscript text of the first play, line 26, on the "recto" or front side of the original fifth page. The reader can then find this passage by following the bracketed markers incorporated into our text. The larger bracketed numbers accompanied by an "r" or "v" give the manuscript pages, and a smaller bracketed superscript number marks the beginning of every fifth line of the original text, until one reaches the larger marker for the next page. In a few places Therese and the other cast members had slipped a loose page into the script with additional lines; such cases are indicated here with an asterisk following the page number. (Thus on page 115 of TheAngels atJesus'Manger, the bracketed number [3*r] indicates that the text immediately following is from a loose sheet and was meant to be inserted at this point in the play, that is, after the initial lines found on 3r, the recto side of the third manuscript page.)

Many of the plays include sections of rhymed verses or songs. Rather than attempting to preserve the meter and rhyme scheme, our translators worked instead to capture the meaning as accurately as possible. Ordinarily we have tried as well to follow Therese's idiosyncratic capitalization and punctuation. Some words seem to have been given an initial capital simply for greater emphasis. Again, ellipsis points appear to function as a kind of stage direction in the manuscript: the longer the series of points, the longer the pause indicated. Likewise, especially in the songs, some lines are repeated to fill out the verses. This is indicated by the notation "(2x)" or by simply repeating the lines. Material in square brackets is added either by the translators or the French editors.

IV. COMPLETING THE TASK

Therese came from a family and cultural milieu in which personal mementos of every kind were carefully preserved. Moreover, her early death and rapid trajectory toward canonization (and universal acclaim) meant that countless items associated with the saint of Lisieux were saved, and their significance recorded, while memories were still fresh.

Consequently, though she died virtually unknown outside of her Carmel and immediate family, more Therese materials have survived than for almost any comparable figure of her era. Even today, for example, the archives of the Carmel of Lisieux will occasionally publish some new documentation, such as a letter or testimony from someone who knew Therese, copies of her childhood drawings, school exercises, holy cards from her breviary, and so on. With a saint as popular as Therese, even the smallest details are of interest.

As a result, it seems that no edition of Therese's works can ever claim to be entirely "complete" in every sense. Nevertheless, with the present book, ICS Publications "completes" its own commitment to make all the writings of Therese, as found in the French critical edition, available in easily accessible English translations.

As you read the Plays, then, we invite you to imagine yourself seated among the members of Therese's community, witnessing the original performances. Notice how skillfully this young "doctor of the church" instructs her sisters as she entertains them! Through this volume, may she continue to do the same for readers today.

Abbreviations

These six abbreviations are frequently used in this volume. All refer to the ICS translations of St. Therese's works:

SS Story of a Soul, 3d ed., trans. John Clarke (1976, 1996)

HLC Her Last Conversations, trans. John Clarke (1977)

GCI General Correspondence, vol. I, John Clarke (1982)

GCII General Correspondence, vol. II, John Clarke (1988)

Poetry The Poetry of St. Therese of Lisieux, trans. Donald Kinney (1996)

Prayers The Prayers of St. Therese of Lisieux, trans. Aletheia Kane (1997)

The numbering of the letters, poems and prayers in these editions follow that of the critical French "New Centenary Edition" (cf. CG and GC, PN, and Pri below).

Other abbreviations used in this volume include:

ACL Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux.

Afd Autograph, double sheet (feuillet double).

Afs Autograph, single sheet (feuilletsimple).

AL Annales de sainte Therese de Liseux (journal).

BT La Bible avec Therese de Lisieux (Paris: Cerf / DDB, 1979).

CBC Biblical notebook (carnet biblique) of Celine.

CDT Center ofTh~r~sian documentation (Carmel of Lisieux).

CE I, etc. Copie des Ecrits [Copy of the Writings], 1910 (CE I, II, III, IV).

CG I, II Correspondance generale de Therese de Lisieux, 19721973, 2 volumes.

Chap. XIV Chapter XIV prepared for the first edition of l'Histoire dune Ame.

CJ "Carnetjaune" ["Yellow Notebook"] of Mother Agnes of Jesus.

CMG I, etc. Manuscript notebooks of Sister Genevieve (CMG I to IV).

CR "Carnet rouge" ["Red Notebook"] of the Poetry of Therese.

CRM "Carnet rouge" ["Red Notebook"] of Sister Marie of the Trinity; cf. VT, no. 74-75, April-May 1979.

CSG Conseils etsouvenirs, publies par soeur Genevieve. "Foi vivante," 1973. (Cf. Memoir.)

CSM Conseils et souvenirs relates par soeur Marie de la Trinity and published in VT 73 and 77. [A memoir by Sister Marie of the Trinity].

CV Cinq Cahiers verts de Mere Agnes de Jesus, 1909, publies en DE II. [The Five Green Notebooks of Mother Agnes of Jesus, published in DE II].

DCL Documentation of the Carmel of Lisieux.

DE DerniersEntretiens [Last Conversations], 1971.

DE II Volume of Appendices to Derniers Entretiens, 1971.

Ft Feuillet [sheet].

HA 98, etc. Histoire dune ame, 1898 edition (07 = 1907, etc.).

HW Jeanne d'Arc, by Henri Wallon, cf. p. 134.

Im Imitation of Christ.

K-RJ Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, translated by Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D. and Otilio Rodriguez, O.C.D., rev. ed., (Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 1991).

LC Letters ofTherese's correspondents addressed to her (in CG and GC).

LD Diverse letters of correspondents among themselves (in CG, GC, and LT).

LT Therese's letters (in CG and GC).

Memoir A Memoir of my Sister St. Therese, by Sister Genevieve of the Holy Face, translated by the Carmelite Sisters of New York (New York: P. J. Kenedy and Sons, 1959). (Translation of earlier edition of CSG.)

Ms A Manuscrit autobiographique [autobiographical manuscript] dedicated to Mother Agnes ofJesus (1895).

Ms B Manuscrit autobiographique [autobiographical manuscript], letter to Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart (1896).

Ms C Manuscrit autobiographique [autobiographical manuscript] dedicated to Mother Marie de Gonzague (1897).

Mss I, etc. Three volumes of P. Francois de Sainte-Marie, accompanying the facsimile edition (1956) of the Manuscrits autobiographiques (Mss I, II, III).

MesArmes MesArmes (Paris: Cerf/DDB, 1975). C£ PN 48.

NPPA Notes preparatoirespourleProcesApostolique [Preparatory notes for the Apostolic Process].

NPPO Notes pr~paratoires pour le Proc~s de 1'Ordinaire [Preparatory notes for the Ordinary Process].

NV Novissima Verba (1927).

PN 1, etc. The 54 poems of St. Therese as numbered in the Centenary Edition of the Poesies, 1979. (Original French edition of PST above).

PO Proces de l'Ordinaire [Ordinary Process], 19 101911 (Rome, 1973).

Poesies Poesies. New Centenary Edition. 2 vols. (Paris: Cerf/ DDB, 1979).

Pri Prieres: l'offrande a l'Amour Misericordieux (Paris: Cerf/DDB, 1988).

Pri 1, etc. The 21 "Prayers" of St. Therese included in Pri (Pri 1, Pri 2, etc.).

PS 1, etc. Supplementary poems included in the Poesies and PST.

RP Theatre an Carmel: Recreations pieuses de Sainte Therese de l'Enfant Jesus, 1985 (the work here translated).

RP 1, etc. The eight "Pious Recreations" or Plays of St. Therese (RP 1, RP 2, etc.).

TH Le Triomphe de l'Humilite (RP 7) (Paris: Cerf/DDB, 1975).

VSK Vie de Saint Stanislas Kotska (sic), by A. de Blanche.

VT Vie theresienne, Lisieux (quarterly review)

VTL Visage de Therese de Lisieux (1961), in two volumes. Translated by Peter-Thomas Rohrbach, under the title The Photo Album of St. Therese of Lisieux (New York: P. J. Kenedy & Sons, 1962).

AJ Mother Agnes ofJesus (Pauline Martin).

G Sister Genevieve (Celine Martin).

MB Maurice Belliere.

MEu Sister Marie of the Eucharist (Marie Guerin).

MSC Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart (Marie Martin).

MTr Sister Marie of the Trinity, Therese's novice.

Th Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face.

General Introduction

Guy GAUCHER, O.C.D.

AUXILIARY BISHOP OF BAYEUX AND LISIEUX

This seventh volume of the Centenary Edition [of St. Therese's works] presents an almost unknown part of the writings of St. Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face: the eight theatrical "recreations" which she composed between January 1894 and February 1897 for various liturgical and community feastclays at her Carmel. They are minor works, long considered a mere supplement to the Poetry, which the 1979 critical edition has shown to be irreplaceable for our understanding of Therese.'

"Minor" works need not mean "negligible" ones. "In the case of a saint, nothing is trite.... [Her] whole life has exemplary value, and in order to be assured of understanding her whole life, we must be acquainted with all its details. Hence the necessity of all these publications of the complete works," wrote Andre Combes to Sr. Genevieve, to convince her that everything her little sister wrote was of importance to historians, to theologians, to anyone who is a friend of the saints.2

Just as St. Therese's poems have not revolutionized the art of poetry, but have revealed that therein she expressed the depth of her being as much as in her manuscripts and letters, so likewise her plays cause no commotion as dramatic art. Still, how can we now speak of Therese without considering her two plays on Joan of Arc, or The Triumph of Humility, which reveals the importance of the Leo Taxil/Diana Vaughan imposture,' or St. Stanislaus Kostka, where she is already at work on the great themes she was to take on four months later in Manuscript C? As for Angels at the Manger, as early as 1953, without even having seen an integral text (more on this later), Marcel More was moved by his reading of a work by Abbe Combes to point out "the exceptional importance of these few pages."4 More did not hesitate to assert that this play "announced, perhaps accomplished, the Theresian revolution."5

Once again, these simple occasional writings, inspired solely by obedience 6 and the wish to "please" her sisters, to entertain them while edifying them, in countless original touches complete our portrait of the young Carmelite, define her itinerary, and enrich the doctrinal contribution she brings us.

Even today, many may be surprised by the existence of this "theater at Carmel." Thus, we will need a brief historical summary to demonstrate how naturally the plays fit into a long tradition of Carmelite life.

1. RECREATION IN CARMEL

SAINT TERESA OF Av'II.A

To understand the significance of these theatrical recreations in the Carmelite monasteries of the [Teresian] reform, we must look all the way back to the Spanish foundress of the Reform herself, Teresa of Jesus (1515 - 1582). But Carmel itself is situated in a much older tradition of monastic life in general.

Thus, for example, the Saxon nun Hrotswitha of Gandersheim (ca. 935 - ca. 1000) "wrote for her religious legends in prose which were react in the refectory, as well as comedies which were performed in the convent and which imitated those of Terence, but in a Christian spirit; this, by the way, sheds some light on the role of theatre in the convents: in Gandersheim-as in England, where the Venerable Bede alludes to theatrical paraliturgies on Easter Night-theater was considered a means of both education and entertainment."

St. Teresa of Avila, blessed as she was with good sense and a healthy realism, knew how austere the life she proposed for her daughters was and did not want them going to extremes and becoming "melancholic."8 A life of continual prayer, solitary and silent, in a cloistered community of twenty women or so, is possible given God's grace and a true vocation, but only under such conditions of equilibrium as the Teresian Constitutions prescribe with an art born of experience. Simplicity and beauty of surroundings, a large enough flower garden, regular manual labor, daily communal recreation, feasts at various times of the year, must all contribute to assure that the rigors of the seclusion, the austerities of the penances and fastings, are freely lived in a joyful atmosphere.

"The bowstring cannot always be drawn taut and it is necessary... to give to the cares of the soul and the struggles of the mind some respite, a kind of truce, a rest and a repose," wrote Teresa's dear disciple, Fr. Jeronimo Gracian, in 1608.9 Joy, smiling, and even laughter appear quite often in the Spanish saint's writings.10 She couldn't bear the thought that her sisters might "cloak themselves"i' in a rigid piety. Her letters abound in flashes of humor that reveal an interior good cheer in the midst of turmoil and worries which were never lacking. There is no shortage of choice anecdotes on this subject: "Once, while visiting a convent, the Foundress heard that the Mother Superior had forbidden the telling of jokes or comic stories at recreation, on account of the vanity this might lead to. `My God!' she cried out, `what have we come to? As if we weren't stupid enough by nature! Here we are wanting to become that way by grace!"'''

Daily recreation is an integral part of Carmelite life. It is not pure relaxation, in the sense of "letting loose" to compensate for habitual restraint. At recreation with her sisters, the Carmelite does not set aside that union with God which is the heart of her life. Every day, for an hour at midday and an hour after the evening meal, there is time for a sisterly exchange, a joyous sharing.

La Madre herself expressed her joy in these recreations, and like a good Castillian she wanted them to involve singing and dancing. 13

But, in addition to the everyday, there come liturgical and community feastclays to break the monotony of the clays. Christmas, which celebrates the Mystery of the Incarnation, is especially emphasized. What we would now call "paraliturgies"14 are drafted. Thus, Teresa of Avila praises Sr. Isabella of Jesus15: "It's extraordinary the talent this child has, for with some drab little shepherds and some little nuns and a a statue of our Lady belonging to her, there isn't a feast in which she doesn't create something with these in her hermitage or at recreation, along with some verses for which she provides a lovely tune, all of which leave us amazed." In the same letter, she continues: "Most pleasing to me were the verses that came from down there [i.e., Seville]. I sent the first ones to my brother and some of the others, for they were not all of equal merit. I think you could show them to the old saint," telling him that this is how you spend your recreation, always speaking the language of perfection, and it is right to provide some diversion for the one to whom you owe so much."18

The process of using popular Spanish melodies and changing their lyrics in order to sing of the soul's relationship with God,19 was in great vogue during Spain's "Golden Century." Teresa and John of the Cross both used it,20 and the custom has spread to Carmels everywhere, even clown to our own time.21

A kind of theater arose from the merging of this style with another tradition: representations of the lives of the saints-especially the martyrs-when the community celebrated their feasts. St. John of the Cross, himself a great poet, was introduced to the customs of his discalced Carmelite sisters during the time of his stay at Valladolid.22 Once he had become prior at the Granada monastery (1582-1585), he arranged to have the lives of the saints and "the Virgin Mary's entrance into Bethlehem" presented for his students beneath the galleries of the cloister. Then, later, at recreation, he would ask the novices to put together a dramatic improvisation on whatever mystery had been presented to them.23

They were "a draft of very elementary pastoral drama," wrote Fr. Tomas Alvarez of these Teresian theatricals .24 Garcia de la Concha and Alvarez Pellitero feel free to speak of a "convent theater, 1125 in the sense that the novices would act such parts as Mary, Joseph, a shepherd or a choir of shepherds to celebrate the Nativity. These authors add that two surviving Festecicas del Nacimiento written by Mother Maria of St Albert prove that the nuns of the Valladolid convent had produced other Christmas plays "on a larger theatrical scale"26-sort of like pastoral plays.

These remarks will provide a context for the following anecdote:

A highly prejudiced visitor asked our Mother to see him in the parlor. She went out to him, accompanied by Sr. Anne of St. Bartholomew. There, this honest fellow confessed being frightened by the penitent life of the Discalced sisters. He pitied them, he said, and begged God to help them endure. As he saw it, there could be nothing but scenes of desolation and torture behind the monastery grille. "Tell me, Mother Teresa," he asked, "what are the nuns you keep locked up here doing at the moment?" "To tell the truth, sir," the saint answered with a smile, in her ordinary tone of voice, "you have good reason to pity them. They're all absolutely disconsolate. Here Christmas is right around the corner and they don't yet know their parts for the comedy they're going to put on!" "But what are you saying, Mother Teresa!" the startled visitor exclaimed. "Do you mean that you put on plays in here?" "But of course," our Mother sweetly replied. The conversation came to an end and the visitor departed. Sr. Anne of St. Bartholomew nevertheless allowed herself then to remark, "To be honest, my mother, I was quite pained to hear you tell that gentleman that we organize performances and entertainment inside the cloister!"27

Thus there developed a tradition of Carmelite recreations28 which flourished in all the Carmels of the Teresian reform and which is attested by the book, Papier d'exaction, still in use at the Lisieux Carmel in the late 19th century. Here is an excerpt from that book:

A sense of gaiety seemed to them to be one of the requisites of a perfect Carmelite. They themselves went to the expense of arranging little celebrations and composed canticles according to the spirit of the solemn feastclays. The Sisters insisted that the recreations should consist of representations of the holy mysteries and acts from the life stories of the saints. To this end, the novices had to carefully react the life of the saint whose feast was to be celebrated, and each would then speak out of the fullness of her heart all that was fitting for whichever role she had been assigned. Like anything that might detract from their regular duties, these festivities and performances never took place on ordinary working clays. The intention of our holy foundresses in establishing these pious activities (which so clearly reflect their Spanish origin) was, above all, to sanctify the hours of relaxation and to impress more vividly the holy mysteries on heart and soul.29

This text, which Sr. Therese of the Child Jesus had react, joins the two essential elements of Carmelite recreation in fidelity to the spirit of the Foundress: relaxation and edification.

Every French Carmel '31 then, inherited these traditions of recreation and, over time, each developed its own characteristic ways of implementing the tradition, so that we naturally find some variations from one monastery to another.31 But the spirit-and very often the outward form-was faithfully handed down through four centuries. Everywhere, allowing for a few nuances, one finds a kind of hierarchy of recreation pieces. Among the liturgical feasts, Christmas is the dominant one.32 Then came the community's feasts: the prioress's own feastclay; the feastclay of the lay sisters (July 29, for St. Martha); the novices' feastclay (December 28, for the Holy Innocents), when relaxation was more apparent.

But let us turn to the Lisieux Carmel, toward the end of the last century.

II. RECREATIONAL FEASTS AT LISIEUX CARMEL IN THE TIME OF THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS

The Carmel of Lisieux was founded on 15 March 1838 and its chapel was consecrated in 1852. It was not until 1876 that the prioress, Mother Marie de Gonzague, undertook the construction of the monastery's second wing. Two Carmelites from Poitiers"-Sr. Elizabeth of St. Louis and Sr. Genevieve of St. Teresa-had formed the basis of the new foundation and it was through them that the Carmelite traditions took root in this simple Normandy convent.

In the time of Therese of Lisieux, the most important community feast was that of the prioress, which lasted for over two clays.

On the clay before, after the 2:00 p.m. Vespers and the Litanies of the Blessed Virgin, with the sisters dressed in their white mantles _link_ to mark the solemnity of the occasion, the community would gather in the chauffoir/warming-room34 and sing a song composed for the occasion. Then each Carmelite would give her prioress some little present. On the next clay, beginning at 2:30 p.m., the novices, sometimes with the help of some other sisters, would perform a serious and carefully prepared play. The refectory would also have been decorated and the clay's menu would be richer than usual.

The prioress-whose role and rank in the community were, at that time, very high indeed-would again be honored on the Feast of the Good Shepherd (the second Sunday after Easter). Wherever she went that clay, the youngest sister (whether postulant or novice) would follow, bearing a flowerbedecked crosier.35 The sub-prioress had to compose a special chant. No one seems to know, however, whether plays were performed on this particular feast at the Lisieux Carmel.

Things were much less elaborate on the feast of the Lay Sisters (each July 29). To honor those who ordinarily did the heaviest work of the community (in the kitchen, garden, sandal-shop, farmyard, etc.) was only sisterly, but the novice class could hardly have performed any long and complicated play, since on that clay they took over, among other things, all of the kitchen work.36

The Feast of the Holy Innocents, three days after Christmas, had a style all its own. After being elected "prioress-for-a-day," the most recently entered sister would take the chair and do the reading in the refectory. If she were still a postulant, she'd be clothed in the full habit while she presided over the convent. Her challenge was to know how far she could go, yet not go too far, by combining relaxation, fun and tact."

Obviously, the celebration of a golden jubilee was rather rare-that is, a feast honoring a Carmelite who had lived fifty years of religious life since her profession. In 1897, Sr. St. Stanislaus of the Sacred Hearts reached this jubilee.''

Mother Marie de Gonzague put herself wholeheartedly on the side of the Spanish reformer when she wrote, in a July 1895 note to Sr. Therese of the Child Jesus: "How blessed we are to prefer the gaity, the simplicity, of our Holy Mother to all these devotions which tire us, even when hearing about them. See how she was able to join to her grand ways the aimiability that charms the heart; she knew how to love and make herself loved! Long live her drum and her flute [turlututu].!"3°

SR. AGNES OF JESUS (FROM 1882 TO 1893)

It was a customary responsibility of the sub-prioress to compose the verses or plays that gave all these feasts an added charm. Still, that sister had to possess some talent in this domain. So, for example, a Sr. Philomene of Mercy, who had died at 29 in 1849, was still remembered for a talent that "made beautiful the feasts and recreations of the community."

When Therese Martin entered the Lisieux Carmel (on 9 April 1888), the "official" impresario of these recreational feasts was her own sister Pauline, Sr. Agnes of Jesus, then 27 years old. The subprioress, Sr. Marie of the Angels, had voluntarily delegated this role to her, being "manifestly without the requisite gifts."41

We ought to dwell a little on the "plays" of the first Martin sister to join the convent, who had entered Carmel on 2 October 1882 at the age of 21, since some of them had a lasting influence on her youngest sister and her compositions. In this area, again, Pauline-Therese's "ideal" (Ms A, 6r)-was an important role model.

Already, even at Les Buissonnets, she had put into verse the compliments that little Therese would address to her father for New Year's Day and the feast of St. Louis.42 She organized the clay of the distribution of prizes for her one and only pupilTherese's first taste of theater, with starring roles for the "little Queen." She would have to make a quick change from her white dress into costume in order to "take part in the grand pageant!" (Ms A, 19v). Sometimes there would be a playlet written by Pauline.. .who complained when her actresses forgot their lines!43

Celine preserved some bitter memories of these theatricals at Les Buissonets. Beyond her personal feelings, what is of interest to us here is the ambiance she evokes:

Every year, during the distribution of prizes "for Therese," a spectacle was put on, a whole afternoon of pleasure! Our little cousins, our cousins' cousins and all of us had roles to play before an audience of our friends. The garden shed was adorned for the occasion, scenery set up and seats arranged for the spectators.... But alas! the childish play was always one with a moral, with good characters and wicked ones. Vice was called upon to throw virtue into high relief and ... it was always inc in the nasty role! Naturally, we couldn't give such a part to one of our guests. Therese was too gentle and kind, since she was queen of the feast, so it was me, always me.44

What sort of theatrical experience had Pauline had? As a child, she had attended and taken part in feasts at the convent school of the Visitation in Le Mans45 and had been a member of the Catholic Club, first in Alencon, then later, with her Guerin cousins, in Lisieux. At the time of her June 1878 trip to Paris with her father and Marie, she had been to the theater. To a good provincial Catholic family, a Parisian theater would have seemed a somewhat dubious place, so her uncle Isidore had carefully selected the play for her to see.46 The Martin family would have been far more inclined to attend the Opera but, alas, that was sold out, and far in advance.47

The archives of the Carmel contain six recreations by Sr. Agnes of Jesus, written between 1884 and 1889.

• The Magi at the Lisieux Carmel is a simple chant for the Feast of the Epiphany, 1884, with each stanza corresponding to a (symbolic) gift for one of the Carmelites .48

• For Christmas 1884 Sr. Agnes composed The Virtues at Jesus' Cradle'49 a short play which may have influenced TheAngels at the Manger (RP 2) and The Divine Little Beggar of Christmas (RP 5), which were written by Sr. Therese some ten years later.

• In October 1886, a brief composition, The Feast of the Rosary, presents a debate among three angels: those of Justice, Charity and Prayer.50 Traces of this piece appear in plays of Therese's: The Angels at the Manger, 51 again, and The Triumph of Humility.

• A more unusual work, The Feast of the Kings at the Lisieux Carmel, performed on Epiphany 1887, was written for Sr. Marie of the Sacred Heart, the oldest Martin girl, who had become a postulant the previous October 15.52

• The fifth sketch is of particular interest to us here. For the feastday of the prioress, Mother Marie de Gonzague (21 June, 1888), Sr. Agnes of Jesus wrote a play about ... St. Agnes. This was the first contact that Therese, then a postulant, had with theater at Carmel. A mere ten weeks after entering, she found herself assigned the leading role.' Pauline had spontaneously created it for her, her way of highlighting for the community the unusual circumstances of her sister's admittance. "In a white tunic, her glorious golden tresses falling on her shoulders, the postulant incarnates in the freshness of her 15 years an Agnes radiant with love for Christ, her Betrothed.' 54 "It is Jesus Christ whom I love!" What a shame that Celine's camera hadn't yet been brought into the cloister!

Learning this text by heart profoundly affected the young "actress." At the end of her life, in a note to her three Carmelite sisters, she would quote from St. Agnes: "I see what I believed. I possess what I hoped for. I am united to Him whom I loved with all my powers of loving."55

• The last of Sr. Agnes's plays that we have is part of a Christmas cycle: The First Dream of the ChildJesus.56 On 25 December 1889, Therese, then a novice, again played the leadthe difficult role of the Virgin Mary. She did it so well that "the Community was profoundly moved and tears poured from every eye. The sisters spoke as one: `Can the Holy Virgin be more beautiful and more heavenly than this?' And this feastclay never faded from their memory.' 5'

Once again, Therese remained deeply impressed by this role and this text. The theme of the play is not an unusual one in nineteenth century religious literature, and it was rooted in an older tradition: the Child Jesus "dreams" of his future Passion .51 Therese will recall this when she comes to write The Angels at the Manger for Christmas of 1894 .9

So, as postulant, then as novice, she was quite rapidly initiated into this genre of theatrical recreation and began to take an important part in it. These two roles, St. Agnes and Mary, were not "amusements" for her; rather, they constituted a profound spiritual experience to which her future writings would bear witness. Later, she will play Joan of Arc with the same intensity, the same inner sense of identification.

Here we meet in the flesh, so to speak, the underlying meaning of these "recreations" ordained by St. Teresa of Avila. In these enactments of the lives of the saints there reigns a pervasive atmosphere of prayer that makes them far more closely akin to the mystery-plays of the Middle Ages than to mere recreational theater.

Once Sr. Agnes of Jesus was elected prioress, on 20 February 1893, there could be no further question of her organizing the community's festivals, even less so since the theme was directed at herself. Sr. Marie of the Angels, who had raved about the poetic talents of the new prioress,60 was, as we have noted, quite incapable of taking on this work, so Mother Agnes handed it on to Sr. Therese of the Child Jesus.

III. SR. THERESE: AUTHOR,

PRODUCER, AND ACTOR (1893-1897)

Up until the beginning of 1893,61 the youngest member of the community had made only timid attempts at writing poetry. From infancy, she had always admired such talents in her sister Pauline, to whom she wrote in 1895: "As I have always looked upon you, clear Mother, as my ideal, I desired to be like you in everything; when I saw you do beautiful paintings and delightful poems, I said to myself: How happy I would be if I were able to paint and to know how to express my thoughts in verse and thus do good to souls. I would not have wanted to ask for these natural gifts and my desires remained hidden at the bottom of my heart" (Ms A, 81 r).

But, once again, Sr. Therese's hidden desires were to be fulfilled. In February of 1893, the new prioress put her little sister to work at painting; it would be awhile longer before she recognized Therese's gifts in the area of poetry. Reticent at first,62 she would end up admitting that her young sister could write "delightful" poems, all the while maintaining her proofreading role.63 As for the community recreations themselves, she naturally put Therese in charge of them, since Sr. Therese was then living in the novitiate64 and could provide a very good influence there as "assistant" to Mother Marie de Gonzague, the novice mistress.

Thus it was that Therese came to undertake the new task of "author" by composing her first recreation, The Mission of Joan of Arc, for the prioress's feastclay (21 January 1894).

Like "producer" and "actor," the word "author" is perhaps a bit tongue-in-cheek, when we consider the conditions under which Therese composed her recreations.

As always, she had very little free time .65 Prayer, manual work, monastic duties, and novice conferences together left hardly any leisure in a life marked by the sound of the bell. At the very most, she would have had at her disposal two free periods of an hour each,66 on clays when no other urgent duties intervened.61

Sr. Therese would laugh, of course, if considered a "writer."68 She was just a Carmelite who wrote "through obedience" and not "to produce a literary work" (Ms C, 6r). Whether she wrote a letter, a poem, a recreation or a page of childhood memories at her prioress's order, she sought only to express herself honestly and to "please." For her, there were no "literary genres"!

Her only goal, as we have already stated, was "to do good to souls" (Ms A, 81r). If she gave herself "a great deal of trouble" in composing her recreations, this was in order to "bring joy to the community."69

THE CHOICE OF SUBJECTS

The importance of the feastclay itself, and sometimes other circumstances, would determine the amount of work she devoted to the composition of any one play.

There is a noticeable difference, for example, between the two Joan ofArc pieces on the one hand and The Divine Little Beggar of Christmas on the other. For the first ones, on Joan of Arc, she had to spend a good deal of time consulting such sources as Henri Wallon's vast work70; for RP 5, she had mainly to clash off 26 little stanzas, one for each of the Carmelite sisters.

This work of composition, however absorbing and disjointed in the course of the community's daily life, had to begin with the choice of a subject.

This choice was debated among the novices (RP 6, RP 7). Sr. Marie of the Eucharist, for example, wrote her parents that "Diana Vaughan gave us the idea of composing this piece."71 Still, though others were free to offer suggestions, Sr. Marie of the Sacred Heart makes it very clear that we are dealing with "the work of Sr. Therese of the Child Jesus." Further, she says: "It came out of the current news. Asmodeus was there, speaking of Diana Vaughan. 1112 Hot news, it became clear later.

The two works onJoan ofArc, of course, were inspired from current events in the sense that 1894 was, in France, a time ofwide- spread interest in the heroine of Lorraine, who was not to be beatified until 1909.73

In fact, very little of Therese's recreations is far removed from current events, at least in this sense: Carmelites are called to live their vocation intensely in this troubled world.

Sr. Therese, however, did not by any means abandon the older traditions. RP 2, RP 5, and RP 6 fit into the Christmas-cycle genre that was, as we have seen, so important in the Spanish Carmels. Likewise, the pieces on Joan ofArc (RP 1, RP 3), Jesus at Bethany (RP 4), The Flight into Egypt (RP 6) and St. Stanislaus Kostka (RP 8) fall into the pattern of "lives of the saints."74

Six of the eight plays combine prose and sung verse. The work of adapting words to the melodies chosen by Therese was in itself no little thing; 26 different tunes are involved. In general, the sung parts of the recreations are better writing than many of the poems .15 For one thing, the 15 August 1895 entry into Carmel of Marie Guerin, a skilled singer and pianist, helped expand her cousin's repertoire, especially in secular music. Those who heard Marie, at Christmas 1895 (RP 5) and in January 1896 (RP 6), confirm this.76 But the musical boldness of The Flight into Egypt (RP 6) was not to the liking of Mother Agnes of Jesus. "The author" will mellow in RP 7 and RP 8.

STAGING

The plays were ordinarily performed in the chauJfoir, the only heated room, in the southern corner of the ground floor of the cloister.77 This room has four large windows and three doorways78 that allow offstage wings to be arranged, with curtains or folding screens. In this space, at least six of the recreations were put on.

It seems possible that RP 5 and RP 6 may have been performed in the chapterhouse,79 on the second floor, where a large creche was displayed at Christmastime. Since the ideal setting was already in place, this room seems a likely stage for the two Nativity-cycle plays.

COSTUMES

The need for preparatory work would depend on the play in question. RP 4, for example, has only three parts; RP 3 has 15-plus the offstage voices of Jesus and the Bishop of Beauvais-with Joan's role requiring four changes of costume.

In the attic of the Carmel there was a trunk full of clothes and props: dresses, wigs, odds and ends adaptable to the needs of different productions.80 Joan of Arc's sword (RP 1, RP 3) also armed Abramin, the chief robber in RP 6. For that recreation, they needed "jewels, gorgeous candelabra ... weapons, wild animal skins ... hung on the walls of the cave." Family and friends, especially the Guerins, could be counted on to loan such things. Let us not forget that Celine had photographed some quite astonishing and amazingly realistic live scenes at the Chateau de la Musse.81 Like Marie Guerin, she was familiar with such settings. RP 3 called for charcoal braziers or alcohol lamps to light (in more ways than one!) Joan's pyre, RP 7 for "firecrackers ... chains and pitchforks"-the paraphernalia of the devils writhing in the wings that represented Hell.

Evidently, the novices loved all these preparations (building scenery, sewing costumes, fashioning Joan of Arc's battlestandard, painting backdrops, etc.82) and threw themselves into the work in a holiday spirit. As Sr. Marie of the Sacred Heart tells it, there reigned over the whole business a sense of "sweet gaiety" (RP 7, lr) and more: "Sr. Marie of the Eucharist has been quite beside herself with all this all week. It was strange to watch her. She went about as if she were bearing the whole universe in her arms" (cited in TH, p. 40).

ROLES

What can we say of the performance-day itself? It was always a pleasant surprise to discover well-known companions beneath their stage getups.

Ideally, the "actors" would have learned their parts by heart, but they could also have recourse to the scripts they carried, since the text was very legibly written out along with its appropriate cue-lines.

The novices were supposed to play all the parts, though they felt free to call on the talents of other sisters as needed, especially for the singing roles. Thus, Sr. Marie of St. Joseph's lovely voice led to her being drafted more than once.

Here is another lifelike sketch by Sr. Marie of the Sacred Heart:

Yesterday and today, two short plays were put on by the novices. Yesterday, our newest member [Marie Guerin] dressed up as a gardener in smock and wig, playing the little innocent to perfection.8' Today, she became transformed into St. Michael, battling Satan and his devils, who cast a red glow behind a screen, complete with pitchforks, chains, and peals of thunder.... St. Michael, it must be said, was as beautiful as an angel. One sister whispered to me: "Look how nice she is!" I had no need to have this pointed out, since I was already all too proud of her.84 ...Such are the amusements of Carmelites, and we find more pleasure in these little festivals of ours than there could be in any worldly distraction. (Letter to the Guerin family, 21 June 1896)

There was no lack of gaiety in the novitiate of Therese's time, especially after the end of 1895 when Marie Guerin, then 25, began to add to the liveliness of the place,85 along with the 21year old "Parisian," Sr. Marie of the Trinity.81,

In January of 1894, swept off her feet by the celebrations for St. Agnes, the prioress exclaimed:

Ah! What a feast clay in Carmel! It was made up of all colors; I no longer knew where I was.... It would take too long to describe the clays of the 20th and 21st. I say only that Sister Therese of the Child Jesus decided to play the role of Joan of Arc listening to her voices.... It was DELIGHTFUL! Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart played the role of St. Catherine, and she was ravishingly beautiful and spoke heavenly things, as well as her companion St. Margaret and the great Archangel Michael.87

Depending on the genre of the plays, many of the parts could be highly serious. Sr. Therese took the lead role in five of the eight pieces,88 successively playing Joan of Arc (RP 1, RP 3), Jesus (RP 4), Mary (RP 6), and her real-life role of "mistress of novices" (RP 7). In RP 2, she also did "the Angel of the Child Jesus."

Sr. Marie-Madeleine testifies that "in our little shows in the novitiate [Therese] always asked for the least important roles, on the grounds that they were appropriate to her hoarse speaking voice, but we saw to it that she would take the leads that she performed so well."89

At the age of four, Therese had already exhibited a gift for performance and a talent as a mimic90-inherited from her father. At school in Lisieux, her interpretation of Le Pain de chez nous (Homemade Bread) had moved the audience.91

We know that as soon as she appeared at Carmel, she made a strong impression as St. Agnes, in June 1888, and even more at Christmas in 1889 in her role as the Virgin Mary. But thanks to the remarkable photographs Sr. Genevieve (Celine)92 took in 1895, we can see for ourselves how intensely Therese identified herself with her sister, Joan of Arc. Whether clutching her sword and battle flag or chained to the prison wall in contemplation of imminent death, she is living the part, in close communion with her heroine. So much so that, when a misadventure with the prop braziers caused "an outbreak of fire," she did as the prioress ordered and did not budge, "ready to sacrifice her life."9' In such a scene, we are far beyond "mere theater."

IV. THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE RECREATIONS TO OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THERESE

THERESE IN HER COMMUNITY

In a cloistered community, these feastclays served the very important purpose of allowing the members to freely express their personalities, to share their talents and to work together in unaccustomed ways to accomplish an out-of-the-ordinary communal project.

The dual aspect associated with theater performance also encourages a purification,94 truly necessary in such a closed environment. The humorous elements permit one to take a step back from the things of everyday life. Truths may be spoken on stage during such celebrations that otherwise go unsaid in community life. The theater allows a kind of sisterly examination of conscience. Laughing together is in no way opposed to reflecting together.

Consider, for example, The Triumph of Humility, where Therese had the nerve to portray herself before her whole community as a "novice mistress," speaking with two real novices. What we have there is, in the best sense, a game played with the truth. Sr. Marie-Madeleine and Sr. Marie of the Holy Spirit speak with a freedom that reflects the true ambiance of novitiate life. These "Carmelite dialogues" exemplify the atmosphere of liberty and truth Therese sought to create for her little group of sisters-in-formation. As she explained the following year: "Everything is permitted to the novices; ... they must be able to say what they think, the good and the bad. This is all the easier with me, since they don't owe inc the respect one renders a Novice Mistress" (Ms C, 26r-v).

We are dealing then with far more than simple entertainment. This activity also builds up the community as Teresa of Avila wished. Teresa's daughter, Therese of Lisieux, understood, as an excellent teacher, that she had at her disposal a very special means of helping her sisters to grow in their vocation.

Theater, as we have seen, was not for her in any sense a career and, moreover, she nurtured no pretensions in that direction.'-' Her only aim, let us say it again, was to obey, to please and "to do good." Due to its particular style of expression, theater had, for the time being, a broader influence on her surrounding than her other writings. When she drafted her first manuscript for her "little Mother," it was really as yet only a longer version of an ordinary private letter. When a few verses of hers were sung for the community, then circulated among family, friends, and other Carmels, she was "exposed" in a larger sense.96

With the composition of plays, she became more engaged-not only by acting out those lead roles wherein she invested so much of herself, but by the writing itself, the making of texts which would force her to step out of her long obscurity into the light.

Nothing would have been more out of character for Sr. Therese than to want to profit from the playwright's privileged position as a chance to "teach her sisters a lesson." Still, she had the floor,97 so to speak, and she only loved the truth.98 Her special position in the novitiate extended to the stage. After the discovery of the way of love and confidence, she would have more and more to say and even a personal mission. Never would she profit from her situation to propagate "her ideas," but never again would she pass up a chance to reveal God's Mercy.

She took sadly to heart whatever conflicts arose among her sisters-as, for example, the strife between Mother Marie de Gonzague's supporters and the "Martin faction" during the elections of the prioress in 1893 and 1896.99

She never alludes to these petty squabbles. Always, she moves the discussion to a higher plane, recalling the essentials of the Carmelite vocation: the love of Christ the Well-Beloved, love of neighbor, prayer for sinners and for priests, and the missionary spirit.

When she has come upon what seem to her fundamental truths, she does not hesitate to announce them from the stage, even when they sometimes nzn counter to the views of much of her audience.

Thus, in her second play, The Angels at the Creche (Christmas 1894), the Avenging Angel of the Last Judgment-a favorite, no doubt, with those of the sisters who dwelt on God's Justice-must kneel finally to the merciful voice of the Child Jesus: He alone will judge the world.

Are there buried tensions between the choir nuns and the lay sisters, tempted now and then to compare one calling with the other? Well, in Jesus at Bethany, Therese reassures Martha and Mary Magdalene, who stand for the two vocations: the Savior does not choose one over the other, he loves both sisters.10° What counts is love.

In The Divine Little Beggar of Christmas, Jesus asks of each Carmelite not that she store up good works and merits, but that she give him the gift of her heart. In the course of the 26 stanzas of this paraliturgy, every aspect of the Carmelite life is shown as worthy.101

Is the community worried by the threat to its existence which the anticlerical laws may pose, and does it follow passionately the fight of the ex-Freemason Diana Vaughan? Therese does not evade these current issues, but she makes it very clear that the struggle is foremost a spiritual one: the true triumph over the forces of evil will be the triumph of humility. This is the weight of her most fundamental insight: "For His sake, remain always little" (RP 7, 5v, 33).

We should note that in three of the eight recreations we are presented with a change of heart, a "conversion" from fear to love: so it was with Joan at Domremy (RP 1), the Angel of Judgment (RP 2) and Martha (RP 4), who all make this turnabout.102 A constant concern for Therese was her burning desire that certain of her sisters be set free from the vestiges of the fearful Jansenism which were still poisoning their lives.

In the [French edition's] notes to the individual plays are found numerous allusions to the community's life-some of them very likely to escape the notice of a present-day readerand Sr. Therese's pleas that the sisters dare to launch themselves "upon the waves of confidence and love" (Ms A, 80v), to walk on those waters that perfectly sustained her.

It is not certain that these appeals of hers always fell on attentive ears. If we focus, in fact, on "that most Carmelite of Theresian plays" (RP 7),103 we find reason to doubt it. It seems that this Satanic folklore greatly amused the spectators, at the expense of the spiritual teaching. They were even less able to perceive that, in the course of these recreations, "the greatest saint of modern times" (Pius X) was expressing before them her most cherished convictions. Only with the benefit of hindsight can the attentive reader find in the plays those numerous hidden confidences that complete the picture of her manuscripts, letters, and poems.

The most fascinating example of this is obviously the two plays on Joan of Arc. Without them, we could not grasp the young Maid of Lorraine's profound influence on the Carmelite104 and we would have missed the mysterious presentiment that dwelled within her as she described the agony and death of her "clear sister" (Ms B, 3r). She herself only realized this on her deathbed, when she confided in Mother Agnes of Jesus: "I have read over again the play that I composed on Joan of Arc. You will see there my sentiments about death-they are all expressed" (CJ June 5.2).

These "premonitions" are found again in her final recreation, where the promise made to Stanislaus Kostka of a posthumous mission ushers in Therese's own prophetic hope: she, too, believed that her great desire to "return to earth" would be fulfilled.

This phenomenon of premonition in a writer's work is hardly unique. Albert Beguin offers a fine analysis of it in a namesake of Therese's, Marietta Martin: "So it happens, only with things written from the soul's depths, that personal or historical events of a much later date make clear the work's tnie meaning."105

In Therese's case, however, there seems to have been a very special inspiration, far surpassing the literary level. We do not ordinarily see "a saint play a saint." Her contemporary, Charles Peguy, could not have known that what he wrote in 1911 had already come to pass in a simple Normandy Carmel a few kilometers from the town where Joan of Arc was burnt: "the mystical representation of a saint by a saint, by a saint of Jesus."106

Quite soon after the death of Sr. Therese, the eyes of the Carmelites of Lisieux began to open. All that they had seen and heard during these recreations took on a new meaning. Numerous phrases became literally tnie. What they had thought fiction became reality.

The publication of The Triumph of Humility added a major element to Therese's biographical outline: the important place of that unfortunate bit of late nineteenth century history, the Leo Taxil affair, in the final two years of the Carmelite's life. Thereafter, it became impossible to discuss the trial of her faith and hope without referring to the work of that hoaxer from Marseilles, the inventor of Diana Vaughan. Can we ignore the fact that a photo of Therese as Joan of Arc "presided" over that raucous public meeting at Paris on 19 April 1897 where Leo Taxil revealed his imposture? The implications of such events for Therese's inner life will require deeper inquiry.

For the contribution of these recreations is not limited to a biographical complement to the historical outline. It is the spiritual biography-"the story of a soul" which is enriched with new data, sharpened and made clear in new ways. The notes [in the French edition] on each individual recreation will elucidate this point.

These plays cannot be isolated from her other writings. We have noted that they complete each other. If we are to make a synthesis, we must include every piece of the puzzle provided by the saint's various works.

By reading these eight short playlets in a row, however, several far from negligible aspects of her deepest convictions can be underlined. Indeed, she was undoubtedly aware of this herself when she confided to Sr. Marie of the Trinity: "What gave inc the most pleasure in composing this piece (St. Stanislaus Kostka) is that I've expressed my certainty that, after death, we can still work for the salvation of souls on earth. St. Stanislaus, who died so young, has given me a way to speak my thoughts and my aspirations about this."107

"To SPEAK MY THOUGHTS"

The Christology of the Joan of Arc pieces harmonizes perfectly with that of the letters and poems. For the imprisoned young woman, Jesus is the Spouse to whom she has desired to return, from her shepherd clays on, "love for love" (RP 1, 1Ov) and whom she hopes to see face to Face, now that she has accepted her martyrdom by fire:

Everything concerning the Child Jesus108 confirms that Therese's concept of the Incarnation owes nothing to any lukewarm sentimentality, romancing on the frailty of the newborn in his crib. From the time of her "conversion" at Christmas in 1886-the story of which she wrote down during 1895-she knew the Infant Jesus was "that strong and powerful God" who had freed her from her "defects of childhood" and let her find her "strength of soul" (Ms A, 45r--,7) .

She never ceased to contemplate with delight this mystery of the redemptive Incarnation. This lowering of the Word absorbed her: "the nature of love is to humble oneself," she wrote at the beginning of her first manuscript.109 She marvels at the successive stages of this "kenosis" of Jesus:

o Reference to Phillipians 2:7-8. See the comment on "kenosis" on p. 227. Even if Therese did not use the technical term "kenosis," used readily today, she well understood the "annihilation" of Christ in his Incarnation.

After the Nativity, the death at Calvary is another stage of this self-abasement. Therese of the Child Jesus and Therese of the Holy Face are one and the same person. The Angel of the Holy Face shows the Child the instrument of his coming Passion, quoting at length from a text that had been a favorite of Therese's since 1890, Isaiah 53, on the Suffering Servant: "He appeared to its as an object of scorn, the least of men, a man of sorrow who knows what it is to suffer!..." (RP 2, 3r).

And the newborn Christ child of the "recreations" is resolutely turned toward the sufferings of his Passion:

"' We noted (above, n. 58) that here Therese was part of a long tradition. A certain iconography of her time went in the same direction (see Poesies, 2: 282). Also, Therese as a student had written in 1887, in an exercise on style, "The first step of Jesus towards a Cross": "0 Jesus! You are barely leaving the cradle and already you think of redeeming the world; your first step reveals your desires, and the angels who contemplate you are filled with admiration of it" (published in Carmel, 1957, 2: 89).

The Eucharist, Therese said to Jesus, "is the ultimate extent of your love; having made visible to poor weak creatures that adorable Face, ...You want to hide it behind a veil even thicker than human nature.... But, Jesus, in the host I see the splendor of Your face shine forth." (RP 2, 5v).

All these self-abasements reveal how extreme is the love of our humble, "hidden" God112:

In these lowerings, it is the Trinitarian Mercy which is expressed as in an unsurpassable limit.

Ever since her discovery of Merciful Love-to which she offered herself on the Feast of the Trinity, 9 June 1895-Therese never ceased to sing this "wonder of God's Mercy, which hides itself from the learned and the wise, in order to reveal itself to the little She meditated on "the immense love that made You descend to earth" (RP 2, 3r).

The Angels at the Manger and The Flight into Egypt could also have been entitled "the triumph of Mercy." The fate of the Holy Innocents (RP 6, 9r) and that of the Good Thief, Dismas (RP 6, 1 Or), each, in its own way, confirms this notion.

All the saints in the "recreations" utter cries of love in words which we are used to hearing from Therese (especially in her poems): "Jesus, my only love," "Jesus, my unique love," "Jesus, my Well-Beloved," "Jesus, supreme beauty"-said Joan, Mary Magdalen, Martha and Stanislaus. 114

"Must it be that so much love will remain unknown?" the Angel of the Child Jesus asks himself (RP 2, 3r). In this, alas, the All-Powerful must become a "beggar":

Mary is presented or evoked in all the recreations (except RP 4)-the mother, inseparable from the Child. She is the principal figure of The Flight into Egypt. And it is through her that the apocalyptic stnzggle in RP 7 ends victoriously.

Here again, this Marian love of Joan and Stanislaus expresses that of Therese. Their prayers to Mary are her own as the young Pole's cry is hers: "She is my Mother!" (RP 8, 5v; and see p. 407 [in the French edition]).

The Virgin's humility-an image of the humility of her Son-is made especially to stand out:

This is one of the keys to understanding "the little way."

Still, there remains the enigma of the conventional Mariology of The Flight into Egypt. There we have a Mary who is constantly predicting the future very different from, indeed opposed to, the Mary Therese will celebrate in her canticle-testament of May 1897 (PN 54). Does the play, then, present what Therese really thought in January of 1896, on the eve of entering the "night of faith"? Or, has Therese merely adopted the theatrical conventions inspired by the apocryphal gospels?116

The reader cannot help but be struck by the plenitude of angels in the recreations. Visible or not, they intervene in all but one of the plays, and even that one (RP 4) makes mention of them: the archangels Michael and Gabriel, the angels of the Child Jesus, of the Holy Face, of the Resurrection, of the Eucharist and of the Last Judgment, not to mention the Guardian Angels"" and those who appear to Stanislaus Kostka (RP 8, 5r).

Granted, their frequent apparitions allow for easy transitions from one scene to another. But that cannot be their whole justification. The angels are as much a part of Therese's spiritual universe as they were of Joan of Arc's."'

On several occasions, throughout the recreations, the angels exhibit a certain "jealousy" with regard to humankind-whose final destiny, on account of the Incarnation, will exceed theirs. 1'9

They "complain" that they cannot suffer to give witness of their love for their Creator (RP 2, 3v). To die of love, which Sr. Therese desired so much,120 must always be the privilege of human beings, the ones whom Christ's blood has redeemed.

Nor can we forget the damned angels of The Triumph of Humility, those who follow Satan, "the one deprived of love," (RP 7, 1r) and who have already appeared in RP 1 and RP 6.121 This struggle between good and evil angels puts the Carmelite life into its tnie context: spiritual combat."'

Therese was struck by the permanent division in the demonic world. Lucifer, Beelzebub, andAsmodeus quarrel among themselves, as devils ought to; likewise Abramin, Torcol, and Izarn, in their cave counting up the spoils of their thievery. The fruit of the spirit of evil is discord. That is why Therese repeatedly asks her community to try to find "a union of hearts" (RP 7, 1r).

Saints have nearly the same sort of presence in the Theresian spiritual universe as do the angels, whether they occupy center stage (the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, Mary Magdalen, Martha, Joan of Arc, Stanislaus, Francis Borgia) or whether apparitions of them are essential to the action (St. Catherine, St. Margaret, St. Barbara).

Here again these texts take on a special force, when we consider the future apparitions of St. Therese of the Child Jesus after 30 September 1897:

All of these saints, whatever their origin and history, are united in a Carmelite spirituality-that is, Therese's spirituality-which drives them to imitate the hidden life of Jesus, his humility, his poverty.

It is not only in The Triumph of Humility that Therese insists on the fundamental virtue of humility. Joan of Domremy also wants to live ""very little and very humble, so that I will be like Jesus" (RP 1, 12v). According to the Master himself, Mary Magdalen "has humility" (RP 4, stanza 31)-which leads her sister Martha say to Jesus: "Humility pleases you. I want to practice it" (stanza 32).

Sr. Therese had good reason to emphasize this virtue so often as essential to the contemplative life: she very much feared the pride that may come with consecrated virginity (RP 7, 4v/ 5r).

Likewise, in keeping with her desires as a postulant and a novice, she would praise the hidden life. Joan says that, once she has fulfilled her mission, she will desire one thing only, to hide herself away (RP 1, 14v). She is astonished by all that happens to her: "My life is poor and hidden, and I never thought that I could do anything for my clear God" (12r). Perhaps this is the great temptation of the cloister: to think of one's life as useless. Therese encourages her cloistered sisters to resist such a notion, by saying to Jesus:

In unity with the hidden life of Jesus, the contemplative life is a prayer for sinners:

123 RP 4, stanza 14; see also RP 5, 1 and 4.

Not to forget the other facet of the traditional Carmelite vocation: to pray for priests, 124 who are not always "worthy of their sublime calling" (RP 2, 7v):

This prayer for priests sometimes leads to a desire for priestly office, however impossible she knew that to he. 125 Therese found the notion all the more entrancing when she learned that Stanislaus had received "the Sacred Host" from the "virginal hands" of St. Barbara126: "A Saint who holds in her hands the Divine Eucharist, what a mystery!" cries Br. Augusti (Therese, in the play). Stanislaus asks himself whether "perhaps, she had desired here on earth to share in the sublime functions of priests, and the Lord wanted to fulfill that desire" (RP 8, 5r). From that point on, in any case, Sr. Therese could ever after maintain a solid hope, since "God cannot inspire unrealizable desires" (Ms C, 2v) and "Jesus... answers all [my] requests!" (Ms A, 82v).

It would also be of interest to study the contribution of The Flight into Egypt to a reflection on faith, on "unbelievers," and on work. We should analyze in detail all the prayers that are layered into the "recreations"-prayers to God the Father, to Jesus, to Mary, to the angels and the saints. The introductions and notes to these eight little plays will attempt all this.

Finally, this theater confirms-in a striking way-what we already know from studying La Bible avec Therese de Lisieux:127 how more and more deeply this young Carmelite was imbued with the Scriptures as she went to her end. In these eight little plays, made in her last few years, she cites the Bible at least 270 times. Such numbers speak for themselves. 128

Particularly illuminating are the passages of RP 3 where Therese quotes at length129 from the book of Wisdom (4:7-17) on the early death of the just, a point that vividly caught her attention. Or, consider her late introduction of Isaiah 53 and 63 and various Gospel quotations on "mercy" in RP 2, in the discourse of the Angel of the Holy Face. The draft that survives shows that these texts were close to her heart, and she very much wished to make them an integral part of RP 2.1'0 It was also a way of creating an atmosphere of biblical meditation, almost a liturgical atmosphere. We will admire in RP 6 the skill with which she "interweaves" Scriptural passages drawn from the most diverse books.

But, to get to the crux, what did Therese herself think of her "theater"? All we have by way of a direct answer to this question is a brief passage in Manuscript A. Towards the end of 1895, she confessed to Mother Agnes her longstanding desire-then fulfilled-to paint and make verses as her superior did: "To the great astonishment of the Sisters, I was told to paint, and God permitted that I profit by the lessons my dear Mother gave me. He willed also that I write poems and compose little pieces which were considered beautiful" (Ms A, 81r v).

It is true that this composition work, especially the great success of her second Joan of Arc play (RP 3) in January of 1895, let Therese acquire a certain amount of prestige in her community. This is clearly connected to her work in the novitiate, especially after March of 1896 when, without any official title, she "assisted" the Novice Mistress, Mother Marie de Gonzague. The great majority of the theatrical troupe she had to work with essentially consisted of these same novices.

Thus, in June 1897, Therese will be able to write that she has been "showered with praises" (see Ms C, 2r); that "in the eyes of creatures, I succeed in everything. I travel the road of honors insofar as this is possible in religious life" (Ms C, 26v).

Still, she remained quite clearheaded. Speaking of her poems and "plays" [pieces], she adds:

And just as Solomon, when he considered all the works of his hands in which he had placed so much useless toil, saw that all is vanity and affliction of spirit, in the same way I recognized from EXPERIENCE that happiness consists in hiding oneself, in remaining ignorant of created things. I understood that without love all works are nothing, even the most dazzling, such as raising the dead to life and converting peoples.""

We may conclude from these lines that, as usual with her, Sr. Therese of the Child Jesus had above all put a great deal of love into the composition of her recreations, for the glory of God and the enjoyment of her sisters. Did she not say to one of those sisters: "The feasts of Carmel have a special charm, the family spirit gives them a distinctive character and that is what delights me" (RP 7, lr)?

V. PUBLICATION

A reader who came upon Story of a Soul at its first appearance in late 1898 would have had no way of knowing the young Carmelite had written plays or recreations. The fifth part of the "Poems" section gave only six "fragments" of the "Pious Recreations," 132 all inverse. How was anyone to guess that these isolated passages formed part of a larger convent-theater? A similar difficulty would have arisen with the poem "Invitation to Humility" in section three133 and with the six canticles in section four.134

These thirteen fragments, like the poems, had been edited and corrected by Mother Agnes of Jesus, as was her custom.135

The new edition of Story of a Soul in 1907 included only three sections under the heading "Poems." It was mostly a reorganization of the classification, however. The phrase "pious recreations" had disappeared. 136

The separate edition of the Poems issued in April 1908137 continued this usage.138 Fr. Jubaru, SJ, makes no allusion in his preface to any kind of "theater." He speaks only of the "songs," "couplets," "stanzas," and "poems" which "adorn the various events of life in the Carmel."'"

Undoubtedly, the Carmelites of Lisieux lacked the free spirit of their Spanish foundress14o and hesitated to reveal the existence of their innocent recreations to the public; similarly, many years later, Sr. Genevieve still opposed the publication of photographs of her already canonized sister "disguised" as Joan of Arc.141

As soon as the prospect for the process of beatification emerged in 1909 and all the writings of the young Carmelite had to be gathered together, Mother Agnes at first believed she ought to hold back out of the dossier certain poems and recreations she thought trivial and unworthy of the notice of the judges. Then, on 4 Febnzary 1909, Msgr. de Tell, named Postulator of the Cause, began his researches at the Carmel of Lisieux.142

Mother Marie-Ange of the Child Jesus, who had been prioress since 8 May 1908, began an intensive correspondence with him and sought his advice. The very success of the Poems was problematic for her:

The English, too, are enchanted by the "poems"; it's touching to hear them, in The Tablet, praising the merits of the ones in honor of Joan of Arc and asking whether "the editors could perhaps find an artist worthy of the work and issue a separate, illustrated edition of the Joan of Arc poems as a memento of her Beatification."14' But we have not only these poems to deal with. They are extracts from a sort of Life of Joan of Arc that Sr. Therese wrote as a play to be performed in the novitiate. That English journal has made us consider publishing it. I believe this would be a most opportune time to publish. This morning, I asked Msgr. Lemonnier144 to give us permission. And you, Monsignor, do you think there would be any difficulties involved? (Letter of 3 March, 1909)

So this twenty-eight-year-old 145 prioress began to envision the publication of the plays on Joan of Arc. However, the prelate's cautious response, swamped as he was in the difficulties of the canonization process,146 put an immediate end to the project:

While I was reading the poems on Joan of Arc, I doubted that they were parts of an overall plan, and you tell inc that such a plan was indeed fulfilled and that you would like to publish the play, with the acquiescence of Monsignor.

I quite understand the enthusiasm of your correspondents, their ardent and pious curiosity. From a literary point of view, however, is it an accomplished piece of dramatic art? Publish it and you will give all the professional critics every right to lay into it, not a group known for their kindly intentions. They won't hesitate to discuss the history and changes of Carmel, and talk about the little Carmelite in modern style, etc. Then all such discussions would have to be brought up at the process, since every witness will have to answer, upon oath: Are you aware of any criticisms brought against this maiden? Who raised them? What are they? The beatification ought now to be inspiring all your efforts, and this [publication] would thus be imprudent. If you want it to go through expeditiously, don't complicate the process on the writings or add to the difficulties inherent in the Cause.

The published poems make clear St. Therese's enthusiasm for Joan of Arc and the mission she under took at eighteen. Don't go any farther than that. Please pardon my speaking so directly and attribute this to my knowledge of the exigencies of a process. (4 March 1909).

Mother Marie-Ange obeyed him.147

In May of 1910, however, during the "Short Process on the Writings of Sr. Therese of the Child Jesus,"148 M. Dubosq, the Vicar General who had been named Promoter of the Faith ("Devil's advocate"), demanded that copies be made of "absolutely everything, even the poems."149

On May 12, Mother Agnes of Jesus (who had been reelected Prioress in November 1909) updated Msgr. de Tell oil the progress of this copying work: "These gentlemen have gone on with their writing and will have finished the manuscripts by this evening.... It remains for them to turn to the pious recreations and the poems, since they want to get everything copied" (Letter of 12 May 1910).

So it happened that an integral text of all eight "pious recreations" was incorporated in the Copy of the Writings (Vol. III) in 1910.150 The Flight into Egypt raised problems for the Censor at Rome: Sr. Therese had mistakenly shown the Holy Family fleeing into exile from Nazareth (rather than Bethlehem) and, worse, the whole piece drew its inspiration from apocryphal gospels! A. Toeschi, Therese's advocate, had no great trouble in silencing this objection, however.151

The Poems were a great success. It appears that the edition of 1908 was quickly sold out. Then, in 1912, a separate edition of the poems included in Story of a Soul was 152

In 1914, a tiny volume came out with some poems on illuminated sheets and six fragments of the recreations.153

These same six fragments reappeared in a booklet with a full-color cover reprinted many times between 1919 and 1951.14

It was only in 1929, though, that the public was made aware for the first time of three actual "theatrical pieces" by St. Therese of Lisieux, who had been canonized in 1925. After sainthood, her fame throughout the world was such that it is now conceivable that some of her players could be performed "in the boarding schools." In February, the Annales of Lisieux published St. Stanislaus Kostka (pp. 39-45); in April, The Mission of Joan of Arc (pp. 111-119); and, in May, Joan of Arc Completes Her Mission (pp. 140-153). Shortly thereafter, these three pieces came out in a separate volume.155

Still, it took until 1956 before the real place of the recreations in the life of Sr. Therese could be estimated. In that year, Fr. Francois of St. Mary, in his photographic facsimile of the Autobiographical Manuscripts, first applied the current (RP) nomenclature to the eight plays and offered some brief notes on the texts (Ms I, pp. 18-20, 28ff.).

In 1975, the critical edition of The Triumph of Humility appeared (see note 3), an important unpublished work which cast some light on the Leo Taxil affair. Research conducted at the Bibliotheque Nationale and at the Centre Culturel des Fontaines (Chantilly) had already demonstrated the impact of this hoax on Sr. Therese's life. The book, however, did not attract much attention.

In 1979, La Bible avec Therese de Lisieux made frequent reference to unpublished recreations (see note 127).

Now, 88 years [in 1985] after Therese's death, the present volume puts in print an integral critical text of what she called her "little pieces" (Ms A, 8lv).

The now traditional title "pious recreations" is not Therese's.156 We have noted that it came into use after the original (1898) publication of Story of a Soul. Mother Agnes of Jesus uses the phrase in 1910, in correspondence with Msgr. de Tell. But the terminology was not yet fixed. The Copy of the Writings refers to RP 6 as a "religious recreation" (CE III, 61r); the "Short Process on the Writings" mentions "pious recreations or playets" (PA, 601); Sr. Marie of the Trinity, in 1911, calls RP 8 a "recreational composition" (PO, 469).

It is far from certain that Sr. Therese would have approved of the name "pious recreation." Nowhere in her writings does she use the term "recreation" to mean a theatrical piece, only to designate the daily community rest periods at Carmel. 151 As for the adjective "pious," it is not part of her ordinary vocabulary. 158 It was her sister Marie who referred to the ten-year-old Therese as "pious" (Ms A, 33v). As far as the saint herself is concerned, she declared that "pious conversations fatigued [her] soul."159

VI. THIS EDITION

THE DOCUMENTS

A. The Manuscripts

The establishment of the text of the Pious Recreations is simplified by the limited number of existing manuscripts: a single "notebook" for each RP , except RP 1 (two notebooks) and RP 4, of which the original has been lost since before 1910.

The rough drafts are rare: a single page related to RP 2; a short poetic fragment from RP 3; a fragment of prose from RP 8. Their chief interest is what they reveal of Therese's method of composition.

In July 1896, Therese included the "Prayer of Joan of Arc in Prison" in a selection of her poems put together for Fr. Roulland.160 In March 1897, she copied a few verses from The Triumph of Humility for the Abbe Belliere.161

All of these manuscripts are described [in the French edition] in the separate sections of notes on each play.

Photographic reproductions of the manuscripts, along with synopses of RP 1 A and RP 1 B, can be examined at the Centre cle Documentation of the Lisieux Carmel.

B. The Copies

During Therese's Lifetime

Each "actress" had to copy out her own lines, along with her cues, 112 to help her learn as much as possible of her role by heart. None of these copies has survived, with the exception of an integral text of Jesus at Bethany (RP 4) in Sr. Marie of the Trinity's hand. This text will serve as the source for this play.163

In 1894, before she herself entered Carmel (11 September 1894), Celine transcribed RP 1 in a green school notebook.' After she became Sr. Genevieve, between 1895 and 1897, she copied RP 3 and part of RP 2 into that same notebook. Then, during 1896 and 1897, she wrote out on separate sheets a total of 74 stanzas of brief poetic fragments from RP 1 and RP 3.

After the Death of Therese

Soon after her little sister's death, Mother Agnes prepared the text of what would become Story of a Soul and planned out a "fourteenth chapter" consisting entirely of poems. She included in that copy The Little Beggar of Christmas (RP 5) and four stanzas of the song "Joan of Arc in Prison" (RP 3).166

In 1908 (?), Mother Marie-Ange copied out in a school notebook a retouched text of RP 1.

The "Copy of the Writings"

At the beginning of Vol. III of the Copy of the Writings166 there is a note, in red ink, in Sr. Madeleine of Jesus' hand: "All these `pious recreations' were composed by the Servant of God Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face for feastdays of our Mother Prioress, Christmas feasts, jubilees, etc." 167

The eight pieces are there given in the following order, under the following titles:

16s See PN 4, not copied in CE IV; see Poesies, 2: 18.

Most of these folios were marked by Canon Deslandes with the rubber-stamp "Diocese of Bayeux," and they are paginated continuously, from page 1 to 183, in Sr. Madeleine of Jesus' hand. 169

Stenographic Copies

At the request of Mother Marie of Jesus, a Lisieux Carmelite sister prepared fair copies of RP 1, RP 3, and RP 8 during 1925-1928, with a view to publishing them. These texts already differed from the originals and they were further modified by Mother Agnes before they appeared in the Annales in 1929.170 At last, in 1947-1948, perhaps at the suggestion of the Abbe Combes, who had been working at Lisieux since 30 September 1946, the archivist of the Carmel produced a stenographic copy of RP 2 and RP 7-the first, it seems, for publication and the second only for private circulation. Both were then edited by Mother Agnes of Jesus. 171

STYLISTICS

The manuscripts of the Pious Recreations are, in general, carefully written efforts, with relatively few erasures, with the exception of RP 2 and, even more, of RP 7, which shows a great many alterations. As a matter of "textual criticism," we refer in the notes [to the French edition] only to those annotations or variants that directly affect the main texts. Complete notes on these matters have been placed on file at the Centre de Documentation in Lisieux.

Errors of spelling are fairly rare, but the punctuation is often incorrect. We have corrected the first type of errors and have improved the second, while keeping as close as possible to the original text. A further file on "The Establishment of the Text" has been deposited at CDT. It has not seemed worthwhile to publish this technical work here, as was done in Vol. II of the Poesies.

As to the division of the plays into acts and scenes, Therese was not rigorous-often, she omits these directions entirely. Any such markings inserted into this text are shown in brackets.

The names of the roles are given here in upper case, though this was hardly ever Therese's practice; stage directions, on the other hand, are in italics, in token of the differently slanted hand the author used to mark them off.

To facilitate a close textual study, the folio numbers of the original texts are indicated and the lines are numbered by fives; likewise, the stanzas of RP 4 and RP 5 have been numbered.

FOR FURTHER STUDY

As was done in the case of the Poesies (see Vol. II, p. 39ff.), documentation more extensive than the present volume's has been placed at the disposition of researchers at CDT. This apparatus includes notes on the works consulted by Therese, herein referred to as "Sources" in the headnotes for each RP; a full dossier on the music of the plays; etc.

The return to God (10 May 1980) of an exceptional collaborator, Sr. Genevieve, O.P., unfortunately left the final review of the Concordance Complete of the writings of St. Therese of the Child Jesus unfinished-a most precious tool for an indepth study of the Saint's thought."'

Close-up of Therese in her role as Joan of Arc

Therese in her role ofJoan of Arc

RP 1

THE MISSION OFJOAN OF ARC

or

THE SHEPHERDESS OF DOMREMY

LISTENING TO HER VOICES

DATE: 21 January 1894

OCCASION: The first feastclay of Mother Agnes of Jesus as prioress.

VERSIONS:

A) Two autograph versions:

1. A group A of six double-sided leaflets, from December 1893 to January 1894;

2. A notebook B of eleven double-sided leaflets, sewn together, from 1894.

B) Copies:

1. An authentic copy of version A, clone by Celine during the first half of 1894, in a green note book;

2. A copy of sixteen verses from version A, by Sr. Genevieve, 1897;

3. A copy by Mother Marie-Ange, with changes, 19081909 (?);

4. The Copy of the Writings, CE III, 1r-13v - version B, 1910;

5. A typewritten copy, by a Lisieux Carmelite (19251928 ?), of a text intermediate between the original and copy no. 3, with further changes by Mother Agnes, clone for AL 1929.

PUBLICATION:

HA 98, p. 463-469, fragments of 161 verses, of which 36 are changed;

Annales de Sainte Therese de Lisieux, April 1929, p. 111119, omitting four stanzas of eight verses each and adding numerous changes to the prose text;

a separate printing of this same text, along with RP 3 and RP 8, in 1929.

STYLE: dialogues in prose and 381 verses.

MUSIC: the poetic sections are sung to the following tunes: 1. "`C'est moi que 1'on appelle la blonde Ietela"' or "`Un jour une bergere appelee Isabeau"' or also "Paquita"; 2. "Chant du depart des missionaires"; 3. "L'Ange et l'ame"; 4. "Tombe du nid"; 5. "`Seigneur, quand de ma froide couche"'; 6. "`Ferme, ferme tes jolis yeux"'; 7. "Glose de Sainte Therese"; 8. "La plainte du mousse"; 9. "Les Rameaux"; 10. "Les regrets de Mignon."

PRESENT TEXT: Notebook B.

FOREWORD

When Therese chose Joan of Arc as the subject of her first dramatic work, she chose a topic of current interest. The Mission ofJoan ofArc was performed at Carmel on 21 January 1894 (the first feastday of Mother Agnes of Jesus as prioress) in the same week in which Leo XIII declared the liberator of France "Venerable" (27 January 1894).

To create the role of Joan, which she herself would bring to life, Therese naturally made reference to various authorized sources. But, more than that, she drew on an inspiration that had been latent in her from early childhood, one which her past spiritual experience would now help to reassess and explain.

She was eight or nine years old when she first discovered the heroine of France. She felt illuminated, filled with enthusiasm; the discovery of Joan affected her deeply: "a grace which I have always looked upon as one of the greatest in my life," she would recall in 1895 (Ms. A, 32r). There were both similarities and differences, but the little girl began to grasp her own destiny.

Similarities: "the same burning zeal... the same heavenly inspiration inspiration," "the desire and the courage to imitate her"; summoned her also "to great things," in a word, "born for glory" (see Ms. A, 32r and LT 224).

Differences: While Joan had need of "exploits" and "striking works" to "have a mortal king crowned," no such things were required of Therese. She had to "become a great saint," but to do that she had to "hide herself' (Ms. A, 32r and LT 224).

Twelve years went by. And how did she stand at the end of 1893? Her "bold confidence of becoming a great saint" remained intact (ibid.). But, after five years in Carmel, she was certain that "it is impossible for inc to grow up" (Ms C, 2v). However, "God always asks of us only what is possible" (CG I, p.251). How to reconcile these irreconcilables?

Therese had arrived at that impasse when circumstances led her back to that inspirational figure from her past. Unconsciously - for the writing in RP1 is of a complete naivete - she projected her own personal history into the true story of Joan of Arc, as it had been handed down in popular tales. By conaturality, more than by acquired knowledge, she rediscovered a more profoundly tnze Joan than what an erudite approach alone would reveal.

For example, when, after her own image, she attributes to the peasant girl of Domremy the traits of a "weak and timid little child," drawn to solitude, to a poor and hidden life, to assiduous prayer and Marian spirituality (all very Carmelite values) she is also faithful to the historical facts. The sources confirm that, from thirteen to sixteen, Joan was immersed in silence, not at all adventurous or warlike.

But then the Maid of Lorraine came to enter the larger world ("to go away... to leave"), and to do it on account of an almost unimaginable mission: "to take up the sword and save the Fatherland." Troubles and terrors: Joan reveals herself - again, in the image of Therese herself - as "one of such a nature that fear made her recoil; but, with love, not only did she advance, but she actually flew" (see Ms A, 80v). The back-and-forth between St. Michael (the herald of battle and glory) and St. Catherine (Joan's "sister and friend," by age andvocation) brings to life this struggle between fear and love.

In this little play, confidence is not mentioned, but its dynamics sustain the action, makes Joan cross the great threshold from fear to obedience, and sets free her generosity. So Joan will not aim at anything but "returning love for love" to Jesus, even if she must "go to the ends of the earth and there pour out all her blood" (These words are like a trace of Ms B).

Thus, a plethora of Theresian themes crystallizes, all expressed with much freshness, even though her inexperience at dramatic writing is obvious and her poetic meter stammering. We must not forget that, before this piece, Therese had written only one poem, on February 2, 1893. It took all the boldness - and all the intuition - of the new prioress to order her young sister to create, with no previous experience, "theatrical pieces." Yet again, Mother Agnes had shown herself an instrument of Providence ("God willed that I write... little pieces," Therese emphatically said in Ms A, 81r-v). For the opportunity thus offered to "the author," she knew, far exceeds the literary domain: it can be found on the existential level.

This movement back and forth between Joan and Therese is, in effect, upon prolonged reflection, an opportunity for the young Carmelite to achieve a personal integration, a call to reach beyond herself. If, just short of 21 years, she feels that the community still looks at her as "a child," and apart from the canonical time limit, still a "novice" (see CG II, p. 1176 and 725), Joan's example showed that such matters presented no obstacle to "the Almighty." Quite the contrary, though with one condition: she must make her way with determination. For Therese as much as for Joan, even though "it is necessary to go away... to leave" the familial (and spiritual?) world of childhood, the "mission" is still cloaked in obscurity.

As a matter of fact, Therese was feeling her way through the dark throughout 1894 (and hardly for a moment without Joan beside her: on May 8, for example, she wrote the poem PN 4, and all summer long she was thinking out her other Joan of Arc play, RP 3.) But only in the autumn did a biblical eureka ignite the fuse, so to speak, of her final breakthrough. Even before that, though, as she wrote down and visualized Joan's response to her voices, she was primed - as if she experienced again the "conversion" she had undergone at Christmas in 1886.

Various other autobiographical elements deserve attention - how, for example, Joan's dialogues with her little sister Catherine (scenes 2 and 12) echo the confidences between Pauline and Therese at Les Buissonnets in the summer of 1882. Likewise, we can recognize a trace of the counsel of Sr. Agnes of Jesus in the resolve of the heroine Joan "to remain always very little," even in the course of a glorious mission.

Mother Agnes, for her part, was enchanted by this celebration of her feastday (see her letter of 29 January 1894, cited above).

Aside from the objective merits of this first "recreation," which is to present true characters, its main point is that, by creating it, the author took a decisive step into her true destiny: the making of this little piece gave her an increase of the light she needed to recount her life in Story of a Soul.

THE MISSION OF JOAN OF ARC

or

THE SHEPHERDESS OF DOMREMY

LISTENING TO HER VOICES

CHARACTERS

Joan of Arc - Saint Michael the Archangel - Saint Catherine - Saint Margaret - Catherine of Arc, Joan's sister - Germaine, [5] a young shepherdess of Domremy

[Scene 1]

Alone in the pasture, Joan watches over her flock and sings as she weaves a garland of flowers. - Her small spindle and her shepherd's staff lie beside her.

X101 Melody: "C'est mot que l'on appelle la blonde Ietala" ["It's Me They Call Blonde Ietala'] or "Un jour une bergere appelee Isabeau" ["One Day, a Shepherdess Named Isabel']

[Scene 2]

Once Joan has finished singing, Catherine softly approaches her. Joan seems astonished to see her.

[10]JOAN

Catherine, my little sister, what are you doing here? Why aren't you watching your flock?

CATHERINE

[15] My flock's already back in the fold. Have you forgotten that today's a feastday, Joan?... Our friends are waiting for us to dance around the big tree with them.

[201 JOAN

My garland of flowers is finished, and I haven't forgotten the feastday. But it's still too early to bring in my little lambs. I'll meet you in an hour [25] under the big tree.

Joan, I have a great favor to ask of you, and I beg you, don't be cross with Inc... Just now, I heard you singing, [5I from over there behind those trees... You said that the angels came to speak to you.....

JOAN, with deep emotion.

Oh, you heard me!.... 0 Catherine! please don't ever repeat what you heard. And ask inc [10] no questions, because I cannot answer you.

CATHERINE, sitting down by Joan and embracing her.

Joan, I'm your little sister. Don't keep your secret from me, I promise I'll [15] never tell it.

JOAN

Ah, well, Catherine I'll tell my secret, but only to you. You love inc and I know you will not tell a soul. [20] The truth is, since I was thirteen, I have been hearing unknown voices very often; they are beautiful and melodious voices... Sweet as it is, the nightingale's song is nothing compared to them....

[251 CATHERINE

0 Joan, they must truly be angels! [3r] You are so good that I'm not surprised if God and Our Lady have showered you with their blessings.

JOAN

[5] But I don't know if these voices are those of angels - I have never seen any of them. And I'm not as good as you think I am. One of the things my voices say is that I must be good. And they promise me that Our Lord [10] will always watch over me, if I keep my heart for Him alone.

CATHERINE

Joan, what does it mean, to keep your heart for God alone? [15] Must you love only Him?... How difficult that would be....

Why, I love you more than words can say. Do you think that the tenderness I feel for you displeases God?...

JOAN

[20 No, my little Catherine, I don't believe that at all. I, too, love you very clearly, and God smiles on our love. But to keep one's heart for Him alone means to take Jesus for one's Spouse...... For a long time [25] now, my voices have told me to consecrate my virginity to Our Lord, with the help [3v] of Our Lady. 0 Catherine, if you only knew the loving tenderness Jesus shows those souls whom He chooses as His spouses!...

CATHERINE, getting up.

X51 I want to consecrate myself to Jesus, too!... Quick, Joan, bring me to Our Lady's altar, I want to be like you, to be good like you.

JOAN, smiling.

[10[ My little sister, you are too young still, you must wait and pray to Our Lord that someday He will give you the grace to give yourself to Him. I, too, will ask this of Him for you. Now, be always good and obedient, for that is the way [151 to attract God's favor.

[Scene 3]

GERMAINE enters, adorned with flowers.

What are you doing? The feast begins in half an hour and Joan is not dressed for it yet..... (She picks up the garland which Joan has woven. [20) Your garland is very beautiful - but surely you mean it for Our Lady's chapel.

I've never seen you weave a single crown of flowers for yourself... Catherine, at least, loves to adorn herself. [25]

JOAN

It's true that all my flowers [4r] are for Mary, but that doesn't mean I won't take part in the feast. It won't take me long to get ready, I'll be there almost as soon as you are. Go on, Germaine, take [5] Catherine with you, and I'll join you in a moment.

GERMAINE

Just don't miss it, Joan; without you, it wouldn't be a feast at all.

[101 CATHERINE, to Joan.

I don't want to go without you, I'll wait for you.

JOAN

Now, do as I say, Catherine. You know what [15] we agreed... I need a few minutes to myself.

GERMAINE

Why is it you want to be alone so often?... Don't you miss hearing all [201 the latest gossip?... As for me, I've learned some very interesting things... Do you know what's been going on at Orleans?...

JOAN

No, I don't know a thing about it. My older brothers [25] Jacques and jean have both gone off with the army and I pray for them every clay. But [4v] I don't want to know what's going on at Orleans or anywhere else.

GERMAINE, astonished.

But, Joan, have you no love for France?...

[5] JOAN

Of course, I do, but I'm just a little shepherdess, and I know it does our country more good for me to live a humble, hidden life than to go searching after knowledge {10] of things which don't concern me.

CATHERINE, getting up.

All right, Joan, since you want inc to leave, I'm off to the feast. If Germaine were to start to tell you everything she knows, [151 we'd still be here when the feast was over. And I definitely don't want to miss it, it's going to be so beautiful.

Germaine and Catherine hug Joan ]2Q and leave for the feast.

[Scene 4]

JOAN

It's already getting late, and still I haven't heard my voices today... Well, I must go to the feast, anyway. [25] (She kneels down.) Our Lady, watch over me, I am your little servant. [5r] Give me the grace to do only what is pleasing to you.

SAINT MICHAEL

unseen, sings to the tune of "Partez, herauts ["Go, Heralds'J.

JOAN, frightened.

0 my God! I do not understand! ........ The voice I heard was [20 usually so sweet........ It can't be to inc that this voice today is speaking. But then, who is this child who must do such great things?..... Maybe I'm the one who's to make known to her [i.e., France] God's will.... [25] But she'll never believe me! 0 Most Holy Virgin Mary, and you my dear Guardian Angel, deign to make it clear to me and tell me what I must do!.....

[5v] SAINT CATHERINE and SAINT MARGARET,

unseen, sing to the tune of "L'ange et l'ame"

["The Angel and the Soul'J.

[15] JOAN, more and more frightened.

Save the Homeland!!... Take up the sword!... Me, a poor country girl ... I must be dreaming! (She gets up and looks around her.) No, I'm wide awake!... 0 my God! [20... Come help inc!.. .I am distraught. I am afraid!!! ... (She hides her face in her hands and cries.)

SAINT CATHERINE and SAINT MARGARET, unseen.

SAINT MICHAEL, still invisible.

Throughout these chants, Joan has lifted her head up, trying to see the invisible beings who are speaking to her. Then she stands as if in ecstasy. [6v] Saint Michael's voice frightens her and she begins to cry again. When he has finished singing, she speaks.

JOAN

[51 Who are you to speak to inc this way? Oh! I beg you, show yourself to me. If your voice is so beautiful and so frightening, how beautiful your face must be!...

[Scene 5]

Saint Michael appears, suspended in the midst of a luminous [10] cloud. Joan seems very frightened at the sight of him.

SAINT MICHAEL

JOAN, trembling.

Can it be God has destined me for such great things?..... But, I feel none of the [20] courage of which you speak.... I am only a weak and timid child.... Alas! must I leave this countryside where all my childhood has flowed by so gently?...

JOAN, in a shaky voice.

Oh, no! Not yet..... Saint Michael, my lord, [i0] keep your sword....... I am only a child, how can I go into combat, then?.........

Saint Michael disappears. Joan sits down on a rock.

[Scene 6]

[15] JOAN, alone.

Ali! if God had asked inc to retire from the world and live in solitude, far away, I would not hesitate to leave my dear parents behind to obey Him. But it is to the war [20] that I must go!... I must fight at the head of an army!..... Oh no - it cannot beat......

[Scene 7]

She hides her face in her hands [8r] and cries. After a few moments of silence, Saint Catherine enters and stands by the little shepherdess. She looks tenderly on the girl, touches her gently and 151 murmurs: Joan... " Joan raises her head, sees the radiant face of the virgin, and falls to her knees, crying:

0 Lady! how beautiful you are!... Even just the sight of you comforts me... But who are you? [10] I have never seen a vision so sweet, so luminous...

SAINT CATHERINE, to the tune of "Tombe du nid... La blonde enfant de la colline" [`Fallen From the Nest... The Blonde Girl From the Hill']

What a change has come over me!... 0 sweet Virgin, your voice has dissipated all my fears, now [5] I'm not afraid anymore.... Saint Michael the Archangel came, he too, to visit me, his voice just terrified Inc. But your sweet singing gives me so much joy that I will fearlessly obey God's will!

[Scene 8]

[10] SAINT MARGARET enters and greets Saint Catherine. Melody: "Seigneur, quand de ma froide couche... "["Lord, When from my Chilly Bed.. 'J

[5] SAINT CATHERINE, to Saint Margaret

Melody: "Tombe du nid" ["Fallen From the Nest'J

The two saints sit down on the rock. Joan [20] stays on her knees before them.

SAINT MARGARET, to Joan.

Melody. "Seigneur, quand de ma froide couche... "

[5] JOAN

This is too much consolation for one day!... (Clasping her hands together.) Lady, I can hardly understand such kindnesses, but since you are so good to me, please [10] do not keep your name a secret.

SAINT MARGARET

Melody: "Seigneur,..." (same as above).

JOAN

0010, beautiful Queen, it is true! The only honor and glory I want is Our Lord's. I care nothing for earthly grandeur, but I would wish to be of the royalty of Heaven, whatever it costs. [15] Even if I must go to the ends of the earth and there pour out all my blood, I hope that, with the grace of Our Lord, I will never hesitate for even a moment.

[201 SAINT CATHERINE

Melody: "Tombe du nid" [`Fallen From the Nest'].

JOAN

If Jesus looks on me with His Holy Face, [i0] then I understand that I must suffer, but I am only His little spouse, and I want to try to return to Him love for love. Tell me, I beg you, what I should do to have Our Lord look down on me with favor.

[151 SAINT MARGARET

Melody: "L'ange a f ni sa melodie" ["The Angel Has Finished Her Song'J.

JOAN

And my parents..... The Dear God will take care of them, too, no doubt? ... The sorrow that my leaving will bring to them is more painful to me ]25] than all these other sacrifices.......

JOAN

God is so generous to me, I, too, want to be generous to Him. (Firmly) Yes, I shall leave this place and go [151 chase the foreigners out of France!... All I need is the benediction of my Lord Jesus Christ, and Our Lady's protection.

JOAN, looking up to Heaven.

But when will I get to see her, [101 that sweet and luminous star?... 0, all you beautiful Saints in Paradise! You who have already seen Mary's virginal white splendor, lead me soon near to her..... (Pause)

{15] Oh! Tell me, I beg you, what brings a Virgin Martyr and a great Queen clown from Heaven to comfort a poor little shepherd girl, and show her the joys of Paradise?...

[5] JOAN

My life is poor and hidden, and I never thought that I could do anything for my clear God. Now, I understand why Our Lord chose to be born in poverty, [10] since humility is so clear to Him.

[5] JOAN

I, too, want to remain always very little and very humble, so that I will be like Jesus, and He will dwell in me.... 0 beautiful Saints! you who have 00] deigned to call inc your sister, watch over inc always. With you on my side, I'll fear no danger, but if you abandon me, I'll again become weak and timid like before.

SAINT CATHERINE

She walks up to Joan, [15] kisses her on the forehead and chants:

['0 The saints leave. Joan gazes after them, still on her knees.

[Scene 9]

JOAN, alone.

Oh, my God, how powerful You are!... As you order inc to save my Fatherland, [15] You have given inc a burning love for France. Now my heart has wholly changed and it seems to be on fire!.....

I know Your will, Lord, and wish to do it, but I do not grasp the details [20] of my mission....... 0 Saint Michael! let inc hear your voice again, now I no longer fear the sword or the war, and I can bear the vision of your shining face.

[25] Tell me, I beg you, to whom must I turn to learn the art of combat?

[Scene 10]

[13v] Saint Michael appears floating in the air, like the first time. Joan seems overwhelmed with joy at seeing him.

SAINT MICHAEL

JOAN

But where will I find the king? I do not know him, [20] nor the city where he lives.

SAINT MICHAEL

JOAN

[i0] Will the king want to believe me? How can he entrust an army to a little shepherd girl?...

SAINT MICHAEL

JOAN

00] Oh, yes, Domremy will always be the place which is dear to my heart! Once I have done God's will, I'll return here. When my mission is complete, my only wish will be to hide myself away and leave to God alone [15] the glory of the triumph.

But I fear that the King won't want me to leave his army..... I beg you, glorious Archangel, tell me what to do then? ...

[201 SAINT MICHAEL

[Scene 11]

[25] Saint Michael disappears. Joan remains perfectly still, as if in ecstasy. Soon the little shepherd girls approach her, looking disturbed.

Joan, the feast is about to begin, we kept hoping you'd come along, but we began to fear that something might have happened to you [51...Why do you make us worry so, don't you know how much we love you?...

CATHERINE

Ojoan! why didn't you come? [10] Ifyou knew how scared I was! You promised you'd join me, and this is the first time you've ever broken your word!...

JOAN

Something serious made me forget my promise, X15] but nothing bad has happened to me. Don't be afraid, go back to the feast without worrying.

CATHERINE, softly.

No Joan, I can't go back, I [20 can see quite clearly that you've heard something extraordinary, and I want to stay with you. (She begins to weep.)

JOAN

Germaine, go on back to the feast, people will notice you're not there. I'll stay with [25] Catherine, since she is not reasonable enough to be without me.

I can tell you have a secret.... I hope you'll let me share it some other clay. Goodbye Joan, I'll be back tomorrow.

[Scene 12]

JOAN, after Germaine is gone, sits down by her sister on a rock and says:

Catherine, my clear little sister, rejoice, 00] God has chosen me to save France. Saint Michael appeared to me and ordered me to go rescue the city of Orleans and let the king be crowned at Reims.

[15] CATHERINE, dumbfounded.

Joan, you're leaving! you're going to leave me! I don't know what Orleans and Reims are, but I know you're going to leave..... well, take inc with you!

[201 JOAN

No, Catherine, you cannot follow inc to war, but don't be distressed, I will come back after I've accomplished God's will.

So, you don't love me anymore, since you want to leave me?... I'll die of sorrow... And our poor parents, they'll never [51 be able to bear such pain.

JOAN, sadly.

Now I am sorry I've told you my secret, since it made you cry. I cried myself, when the Archangel told me to leave, 1101 but Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret came to comfort me. They've promised to protect me and they said that God will greatly reward my dear parents, if I faithfully obey [15] the Lord's voice.

CATHERINE

I won't cry anymore, since it troubles you.... I see quite clearly God has visited you, I see something in your face f20] that inspires respect.

JOAN

Now, Catherine, you must go home to our dear Mother, but don't say a word about my secret. I will tell her [25] when my voices order me to. [16v]

CATHERINE

Joan, will your voices come back? I'd love to hear them, and see the Saints [5] who sing so beautifully.

JOAN

They will not sing in your presence. And it's no more for me that they let themselves be heard, it is to save France. [10] I'm just a feeble instrument chosen by God who will lead me by His mighty hand in order to complete His work.

CATHERINE

[15] So, Joan, must I leave you?... I cannot get used to the idea!... At least, don't go without telling me.

JOAN

No, Catherine, I promise you that, and I hope [201 I'll soon be back in my clear village of Domremy.

CATHERINE

Oh! I'm so afraid the king won't let you come back!...

My clear little sister, we must leave the future in God's hands; if we should never meet again here below, [5] we'll see each other above in the Heavenly Homeland where nothing will ever separate us. Then you'll rejoice with inc about this beautiful mission the Lord has given me today, [10 to preserve the Faith in our dear France and bring crowds of the chosen ones to Heaven!

CATHERINE embraces her and says:

How very blessed you are to have been chosen by God, and I am proud to be your little sister. [h] But what about me, can't I do something for God?...

JOAN

Always stay pure and constantly in union with God and you will be doing great [211 things for Him; that's how you can help me bring about victories over the heretics, and in Heaven you'll share in the glory, and in a happiness like my own, different paths will lead us both to [25] the same end...... [17v] (She kisses her little sister.) Goodbye, Catherine, pray for me and pray for France while I fight for her.

[Scene 13]

[51 Catherine leaves in tears. Once she is gone, JOAN kneels and chants to the tune of Pourquoi m'avoir livre l'autre jour, o ma Mere? "["Why Did You Deliver Me the Other Day, Mother?'7.

[Scene 14]

[5 Saint Michael appears with the other two saints. He carries a sword, Saint Catherine a palm and Saint Margaret a crown. (Melody: "Les Rameaux" ["The Branches'7.)

SAINT MICHAEL

SAINT MARGARET

SAINT CATHERINE

THE TWO SAINTS together.

THE TWO SAINTS together.

A martyr's palm

SAINT MARGARET

The Saints advance to giveJoan X15] the palm and the crown, but Saint Michael stops them, lifting his sword and chanting:

SAINT MICHAEL

Kneeling, Joan takes the sword, then {5l stands. She looks on it with happiness and love, pressing it to her heart.

THE TWO SAINTS together.

JOAN

Melody: "Mignon sur la rive etrangere" ["Sweetheart on the Foreign Shore']

Joan kneels down to be blessed by Saint Michael, then she steps back.

[Epilogue]

Once Joan has left, Saint Michael looks up to Heaven and sings [101 (Melody: "Les Rameaux" ["The Branches'].)

SAINT MICHAEL

ALL THREE together.

RP 2

THE ANGELS AT JESUS' MANGER

DATE: 25 December 1894

OCCASION: Community recreation on Christmas evening.

VERSIONS:

A) Autograph:

A notebook of four folded sheets, sewn together, from the end of 1894; a complementary scratch sheet (3r & 7r).

B) Copies

1. An unfinished copy (lr-3r) by Sr. Genevieve, between 1895 and 1897, in the same green note book where RP 1 was written;

2. CE III, 40r-47v, 1910;

3. A typewritten copy by Sr. Marie-Henriette (1948?), annotated by Mother Agnes of Jesus; an intermediate text between the original and HA 98, incorporating the complementary scratch sheet; done with a view to publication?

PUBLICATION:

HA 98, pp. 447-456, fragments of poetry: 261 verses, of which 69 are corrected.

STYLE: Dialogues in prose and verse (296).

MUSIC: 1. "Tombe du nid"; 2. "L'encens divin"; 3. "Au sang qu'un Dieu"; 4. "Je suis du ciel le joyeux messager; 5. Sur terre tout n'est pas rose"'; 6. "Minuit, chretiens"; 7. "O Coeur de notre aimable Mere"; 8. "Ou vas-tu, petit oiseau?"; 9. "Hymne a l'Eucharistie" ("Dieu de paix et d'amour")

PRESENT TEXT: Autograph.

FOREWORD

Sister Therese of the Child Jesus had experienced six Christmases at Carmel already, in the festive atmosphere of which we have spoken (see above, pp. 5, 21, 34). At least twice, in 1889 and certainly in 1893, she had played a part in a Christmas play.' In 1894, we find her asked to celebrate, for the whole community, the Nativity of Our Savior, in her own words. That will result in the first text she will write on the subject.'

A GOD WHO LOWERS HIMSELF OUT OF LOVE

The Angels atJesus'Manger has nothing folklorish or dainty about it. It is rather a wonder-filled contemplation that encompasses the entire mystery of the Incarnation, the mystery of abasement for love's sake.

Mere human intelligence cannot "comprehend" this, so Therese gives to the angels the mission of exalting the "ineffable mystery" with a lyric fervor not seen in any of her other plays. They stand amazed before the "beauty" of their Lord, "the Word God, glory of the Father," "hidden" beneath a veil that grows thicker as the divine design unfolds. It is the veil of human nature, the features of a poor Child in swaddling clothes; soon after come the blood and tears of the Holy Face. (It is not common to cite Isaiah 53 in a Christmas composition.) Then the stone at the tomb and, at last, "the ultimate limit of love.. .the Eucharist."

A shadow, however, hangs over the adoring contemplation of the four singers of "the Word made Child": "the ingratitude of mortals." "Quite often [His] love is misunderstood..."

This ingratitude seems to justify the entry of the fifth arrival, the Angel of the Last Judgment. Like an out-of-key in- stnzment in a symphony, he introduces a menacing kind of Dies irae tone. Let its be on our guard: the "features of a child" give its "today a God of Love." But on the "last clay" will come the "Vengeful God"!

In keeping with the merciful intentions of Jesus, who came "to redeem His brothers on earth," the four "faithful angels" appeal to him against their angry colleague. They are just as Therese will one clay describe: "continually occupied with us without their ever ceasing to see the divine Face" (LT 254).

The Infant Jesus then breaks his silence. He reassures and confirms: to all - innocent little children, priests (even lukewarm ones), the just and the sinful, to everyone without exception - he extends his "great love." Such prodigality pushes the Angel of Judgment, whose whole purpose is "to punish," "to exterminate," "to avenge," to the utmost indignation. To this sword which is already lifted, Jesus opposes only one weapon, the ultimate revelation of his plan of love: not only to "redeem" human beings but, "by offering them His life," to make them "like unto gods."

This excess of mercy wins over the exterminator; he collapses ("kneels down"), "lost" in admiration. He not only joins his companions in their impossible desire "to die" for Jesus, as he dies, out of love, but he also joins with them in the way of littleness, of childhood, that Christ has opened. At his example, "the seraphim" no longer wish for anything but the most vulnerable, poor, weak and dependent condition of "a humble creature": "to become children!..."

AT THE THRESHOLD OF THE "LITTLE WAY"

Thus mercy leads the Word of the Father to childhood in the reality of the redemptive Incarnation, and the angel himself, in the fiction' of this "recreation." The same will come to pass in Therese's case, at the end of 1894.

Two family events the previous summer had touched her heart and revealed to her "the immensity of love [God] has for me" (see CJ 16.7.2; LC, 100). First, she had received an indubitable "sign" that her beloved father, who died on July 29, "went straight to Heaven" (Ms A, 82v). On top of this, "the most intimate of [her] desires, the greatest of them all" was fulfilled, "[her] clear Celine's entrance into the same Carmel" (Ms A, 81v-82r).4 God surpassed even her desire, willing that her sister be "given to [Therese] completely to be instructed in all things" (CJ 16.7.2; LC, 100). Then little Therese's heart was filled with admiration, submerged in mercy (even though the word "mercy" does not appear in her writing at that time).

Thus, she was ready to welcome the invitation of "the Eternal Wisdom: whoever is very little, let him come to Me" (Pr 9: 4). "Then I came," she says quite simply (Ms C, 3r).5

There is reason to believe that the discovery of the biblical verse in Celine's scriptural notebook and the composition of RP 2 are contemporaneous, or at least quite close in time (October 1894).6 This points to the importance of Angels at the Manger as witness to a major stage in the spiritual journey of Sister Therese of the Child Jesus.

This may not yet have been fully taken into account, for want of knowledge of "the prose pieces which greatly aid in the comprehension of the author's intention."' Even if the "conversion" of the Angel of Judgment is an essential dramatic gesture, one cannot reduce this work to the alternative "God of anger or God of Love?" In this sort of "cantata for six voices," Therese shares with her community the realities which animated her at the time: the contemplation of the hidden beauty of Jesus, the desire for daily Eucharist, the dignity of the priesthood, the vastness of mercy, etc., but also the prize of "the littlest soul" that loves God.... This intuition of the "very little" Therese (LT 175) before long inspired by her "the boldness of offering [herself] as VICTIM of...Love" (Ms B, 3r; cf. Ms A, 84r), since littleness is the most "suited... for the workings of this consuming and transforming Love" (LT 197).

Certainly it is not explicitly a question of either spiritual childhood or of merciful love here, yet one brushes against one and the other in this mystical meditation, more theological than dramatic, where apparently very different visions arise and are juxtaposed.

In the spring of 1894, Therese gave Celine an illumination of a phrase she very much loved: "Jesus, what has made You so little? Love" (LT 162, quoting St. Bernard). At the end of her life, she loved writing out this sentence: "A God who makes Himself so little can only be love and mercy."8

The Angels at Jesus' Manger gives witness to the inseparable lines of force in the bursting forth of the "little way": childhood and mercy, which Therese's Carmelite way of life will renew in her.

THE ANGELS AT JESUS' MANGER

THE CHARACTERS

The Child Jesus - The Angel of the Child Jesus - The Angel of the Holy Face - The Angel of the Resurrection - The Angel of the Eucharist - The Angel of the Last Judgment

[Scene 1]

THE ANGEL OF THE CHILD JESUS

He carries a vessel of incense and some flowers and sings [s> to the tune of "La blonde Enfant de la colline" ["The Blonde Child from the Hill'J:

Refrain

The Angel pauses a moment, leans over the Child Jesus and says to Him:

0 Divine Jesus! why does this charming smile answer my song, X15] even though I tell you of tears?... 0 sweet Child!... I understand Your look.... Already You would like to leave Your cradle to begin to gather the flowers that have charmed You...... Alas! soon You will have to go away from this poor stable, the only shelter your earthly homeland has to offer You..... You'll leave to flee [20] before a mortal prince who will tremble on his throne at Your divine kingship....... But, fleeing to the land of Egypt, You will bring in an abundant harvest of spring flowers..... All the happy children of your age will receive the white crowns your brief stay here has already earned for them, these innocent [25] lambs will sacrifice their clays-long lives, for You, Jesus, the very author of life, but in return You will place in their infant hands the palm of the victorious and throughout all eternity this gracious army will rejoice at the foot of Your throne, 0 Divine Lamb!...

Thus will Herod's cruelty be outwitted; wishing to wipe out Your empire, ['0 he will send before You a legion of martyrs destined to form Your court ..................................

0 Jesus! how sweet it will be for inc to contemplate Your triumphs!... How eagerly I will announce to the faithful Joseph when the time has come for You to return to your country..... It is I who will support Your holy Mother through the fatigues of the trip...... When she lays You to sleep at evening, in the shade of the palms, I will be there, watching over You, fending off night's fears and dangers........... I will sweetly sing canticles of Heaven and as soon as I see that the Eternal Word and His holy Mother are asleep, I [401 will wrap them in my wings to shield them from the desert's chill!...

The angel pauses a moment, then goes on:

[2v] 0 Sweet Jesus! why talk of the future?... You are still only a day-old child..... Ali, let me sing of Your charm and sweetness........

The angel sings to the tune of "L'encens divin" ["The Divine Incense' J:

[Scene 2]

An angel enters carrying the instruments of the Passion. He shows the Guardian Angel a veil imprinted with the Holy Face [15] which that angel contemplates with delight.

THE ANGEL OF THE CHILD JESUS

0 my Brother! what is this ravishing image? Having contemplated the ineffable face of the Divine Child, I believed I could no longer find other beauty on earth, but the mysterious impact of this veil shows inc [201 the same beauty as that of Jesus, with fresh charms!!!......

THE ANGEL OF THE HOLY FACE

sings to the tune of "L'encens divin":

The angel kneels before the Infant Jesus and leans over Him.

THE ANGEL OF THE CHILD JESUS

Divine Jesus, yes, the brightness of Your august face surpasses the splendor [20 of the Heavens!.... Oh! As soon as human beings will have contemplated Your beauty, they will hasten to give You their hearts, they will live only for You....

THE ANGEL OF THE HOLY FACE

Alas, my brother! don't you know of the ingratitude of mortals?... [25] Don't you know what Isaiah predicted, the prophet whose inspired eye already saw the hidden charms of Jesus?... "He is without beauty, without splendor (he said), we have seen Him; He had nothing about Him that attracted attention and we did not know Him...... He appeared to its as an object of scorn, the least of men, a man of sorrow who knows what it is to suffer!... His face was as hidden.... He appeared contemptible and we did not recognize Him... We considered Him as a leper, as a man struck by God and humiliated!..." [Isaiah 53:2-4]

[3*r]

"Who is this who comes from Edom and from Basra with his robe tainted red?... Who is this whose beauty is shown forth by his clothing and who walks with all-powerful strength?...

It is I, the one whose word is a word of justice, who comes to defend and to save..... Why then is your robe all red and why is your clothing like the garments of those who stamp out wine in the winepress?... I was alone as I pressed out the wine with no one from among all the peoples with me. I looked around me and there was no one to help me... I sought and I found no help! [Isaiah 63:1-3, 5]..."

[3r cont'd.] THE ANGEL OF THE CHILD JESUS

X351 0 Jesus! Must it be that so much love will remain unknown? (He leans over the Infant Jesus. After a fairly long silence, he goes on, looking at the instruments of the Passion which the Angel of the Holy Face is holding.) 0 Divine Child! why does Your sweet glance fall on this cross? Why do You smile on this cruel crown?...... Ah! let me ]4Q take You to Heaven, since earth has nothing but sorrows for You ........................

But no... I see in your infant's look that the cross has more charms for You than the eternal throne of the Heavens..... 0 Jesus!... I cannot comprehend the immense love that made You descend to earth!..... (He weeps.)

sings to the tune of The Passion.

THE ANGEL OF THE CHILD JESUS

0 Jesus! Must I then see You die?........ After having protected You in childhood, saving You from Herod's 1151 rage, can I not snatch You from death?... (He leans towards Jesus.) Divine Child, I will know well how to shield You with my wings...... I will know how to crown You with roses when the ungrateful want to ring Your brow with thorns! ........ (The angel places a kiss on Jesus' forehead.) [20]

THE ANGEL OF THE HOLY FACE displaying Veronica's veil.

My brother, look at this image which struck you as so beautiful..... Consider that it was not roses that crowned Jesus in this splendor!....... Don't you know that the King of Heaven [25] has a thousand legions of angels who could defend Him and cover Him with their wings?..... But Jesus wishes to suffer, He wishes to weep to redeem His brothers on earth!!!.....

THE ANGEL OF THE CHILD JESUS, sadly.

Alas! must it be that Jesus, the lovely Lily of the valley, [4r] should be wounded by those cruel thorns?.... Must it be that the sweet fragrance of my ravishing Flower be wasted on ungrateful souls who do not want to receive it?..... (He weeps.)

THE ANGEL OF THE HOLY FACE, after a pause.

[5] Console yourself, beautiful angel, the fragrance of our Lily will not be spread in vain. A great number of pure souls will hasten to receive it. With their Well-Beloved, they will climb the mountain of myrrh, with Him they will suffer, they will wipe the Divine Face and, contemplating His precious tears, they will cry out:

THE ANGEL OF THE CHILD JESUS

Yes, the tears of Jesus glisten more than the splendor of the Heavens and are more beautiful than morning dew......... But the height of my sorrow is the thought [20] that one clay the gracious face of this divine Child will be buried in a tomb........ . Who will see Him then?... Who will be there to wipe away His tears?.... Even Mary herself will no longer be able to contemplate the dear features of her adored Child! ... (He weeps again.)

[Scene 3]

[25] AN ANGEL enters carrying a banner of the Resurrection. Melody: 'je suis du Ciel le joyeux messager" ["I am the Joyous Messenger from Heaven'7:

[Scene 4]

[25] THE ANGEL OF THE EUCHARIST enters, holding a chalice with a shining host on top of it. He sings to the tune of "Sur terre tout n'est pas rose" (`It's Not All Rosy Here on Earth' ):

Divine Jesus, here is the ultimate extent of your love; having made visible to poor weak creatures that adorable Face of which even the seraphim cannot sustain the brilliance, [0] You want to hide it behind a veil even thicker than human nature.... But, Jesus, in the host I see the splendor of Your face shine forth. (He kneels before the host.) Your ravishing charms are not at all hidden from me..... I see Your ineffable look penetrating pure souls, [10] inviting them to receive You...... Like the clove that hides in the hollow of a rock, so shall Your spouses seek Your Face. I see their hearts turning toward You, coming to take refuge by the tabernacle of Your love!

THE ANGEL OF THE CHILD JESUS

[15] 0 Divine Child! do You want to make Your stay clown here?... (He looks at the Angel of the Resurrection.) An angel has just sung that soon You will rise again to the right hand of Your Father, to reign eternally in Heaven .... When will I see You on your throne of glory?...

[201 Jesus, I would like Your reign to come, I want all the elect to appear soon in the air, flying before You, when an angel has said : "Time is no more."........

[Scene 5]

THE ANGEL OF THE LAST JUDGMENT enters [25] carrying a sword and a set of scales. He sings to the tune of "Minuit, chretiens" ["Midnight, Christians'7:

9

(Second stanza of the Angel of Judgment.)

THE ANGEL turns towards the image of the Holy Face to sing:

3

[25] ALL THE ANGELS kneel (except the Angel of Judgment) and sing to the tune of "0 Coeur de notre aimable Mere" ["0 Heart of our Lovable Mother'J:

Refrain

[6v] The voice of THE CHILD JESUS is heard and immediately theAngelofJudgmentkneels. (Melody: Reve,parfum"[`Dream,Per- fume' J):

1

3

4

[20 THE ANGEL OF THE CHILD JESUS

Divine Jesus, how delightful and sweet is the sound of Your childish voice!... All the music of the Heavens could not compare to a single word of Yours!... 0 beautiful Child! hear my prayer. Raise from the land of exile [25] a great number of innocent souls who resemble You. Deign to gather, before they open, the flowers that would wither if they remained down here.... As soon as the clew of Baptism has put in their hearts a seed of immortality, Jesus, may Your tiny hand hasten to transplant them into the gardens of 1301 Heaven.

JESUS

5

6

THE ANGEL OF THE HOLY FACE

[3*r] Divine Child, hear my prayer also...... I see in the future a vast number of souls who will be consecrated to You and who will, by ineffable bonds, become Your beloved spouses..... But these earthly angels will be clothed in mortal flesh and sometimes their sublime soaring toward You will be slowed; often their white robes will be stained with the dust of the earth.

Jesus, I also see even more numerous souls who will turn away from You; like the Prodigal Son, they will go searching for happiness very far from their Father!... Instead of remaining at peace under your staff, 0 Divine Shepherd, these poor ewes will be lost in thorns... But the ordeal will bring them closer to You; they will remember that the Son of God came to call not the just but the sinful, and that there is more joy in Heaven for one sinner who repents than for ninety-nine of the just who need no repentance... Like Magdalene, after having greatly offended You, they will greatly love You... When these souls seek out Your Face, as soon as they have come to hide themselves in the secret of Your Holy Face, invoking Your holy name, grant, 0 Jesus! that a single glance of Yours will make them shine more brightly than the stars of the Heavens!....

8

9

10

11

Living bread descended from Heaven!.... Golden grape cluster from which will spring forth virgins, deign that I too might hear the sweet sound of Your voice, I who will adore You in the sanctuary [5] until the end of time. 0 Divine Word! that love must reduce to silence, the ministers at your altars ought to handle You with that same delicacy with which Mary wraps You in your swaddling clothes..... But alas! very often your love will be misunderstood and your priests will be unworthy of their sublime calling..... 0 hidden God!... tell me, what [10] can I do to console You?.....

JESUS

13

14

15

THE ANGEL OF THE RESURRECTION

Soon, divine Child, I shall watch You ascend in glory [30] to the right hand of the Father...... Then all the angels will rejoice, they will hasten to open the eternal gates to welcome You, 0 King of Glory!.....

But what will become of the poor exiles on earth?... Will they be orphans forever?.....

16

17

[10] THE ANGEL OF THE LAST JUDGMENT gets up.

(Melody: Minuit, chretiens" [Midnight, Christians'])

[20 THE CHILD JESUS

18

19

20

21

THE ANGEL OF THE LAST JUDGMENT kneels and sings to the tune of "Dieu de Paix et d'amour"

["God of Peace and Love'J

]51 ALL THE ANGELS sing the refrain.

RP 3

JOAN OF ARC

ACCOMPLISHING

HER MISSION

Therese playing the role ofJoan in prison.

DATE: 21 January 21 1895

OCCASION: The feastday of the prioress, Mother Agnes of Jesus

VERSIONS:

A) Autographs

A notebook of 28 folios of which 51 pages are written on; 1894-1895.

- A fragment of notepaper (14v 8-15).

B) Copies

1. A copy in a green notebook by Sr. Genevieve, 1895-1897 (?);

2. A copy of 26 verses (12v) by the same hand, 18961897;

3. A copy of 32 verses (14v and 20v) by the same hand, 1897;

4. Chapter XIV, p. 164, 32 verses (see #3 above), end of 1897;

5. CE III, 14r-39v, 1910;

6. A copy typed by a Carmelite of Lisieux (1925-1928 ?), an already changed text, further corrected by Mother Agnes of Jesus for AL, 1929

PUBLICATION:

HA 98, pp. 395-406, fragments of 171 verses of which 39 are corrected;

Annales de Sainte Therese de Lisieux, May 1929, pp. 140151, with numerous omissions and changes;

partial printing of the same text, with RPI & RP8, 1929.

FORM: dialogues in prose and verse (301).

MUSIC: 1. "Les roses"; 2. "Les regrets de Mignon"; 3. "Le fil de la Vierge"; 4. "La plainte du mousse"; 5. "Toujours seul" or "Le masque de fer"; 6. "Hymne a l'Eucharistie" ("Dieu de paix et d'amour"); 7. "Les adieux du martyr"; 8. "Choeurs d'Athalie" ("Partez, enfants d'Aron"): 9. "Au sein de 1'heureuse patrie"; 10. "Mignon egrettant sa patrie"; 11. "Out, je le crois, elle est immaculee"; 12. "Rappelle- toi"; 13. "L'enfant egare"; 14. "Les Rameaux."

PRESENT TEXT: autograph.

FOREWORD

Therese rarely had to invest as much in a "pious recreation" as she did in the second part of her Joan ofArc. This piece, her longest play, calls for precise historical information,' major costuming and stage decoration, multiple rehersals. Such things are not to be done in a day, especially not under so regulated a life as that of a Carmelite. But from the beginning the author conceived of her Joan ofArc as a diptych, containing material for two presentations. One might even call the work "a kind of life of Joan of Arc in the form of a play."2 Therese then had the whole of 1894 to develop her project, to study her sources (essentially the work of H. Wallon, the same reference Peguy consulted), to write her other books," all before composing The Angels at the Manger (RP 2).

Beneath its apparent banality, the title "Joan of Arc Accomplishing Her Mission" suggests a dynamic unity, crossing space and time, of a mission that is always real. Yesterday: Chinon, Orleans, Reims, Rouen. Today: the whole of France, quite simply. It is a unique epic that unfolds broadly before our eyes. And through the lens of faith, which is Therese's point of view, it is in heaven that the destiny of her fatherland is decided, today as yesterday. In effect, the climax of the third part - which may seem weak on first reading - serves not to conclude but to rekindle the action. For a moment, the spectator can have the impression of assisting at Joan's entry into heaven on 30 May 1431. But like one freed from bondage, the saint of "the Eternal today" (PN 5) telescopes the centuries and brings us into the reality of 21 January 1895. The earthly victories of the Liberator of France, as real today as in the past, in spite of their hidden aspect, are only a shadow of her celestial triumphs.

"Divine" in its origin - and this argument is central to RP 3 -Joan's mission is divine in its achievement as well. From beginning to end, it is a matter of a great battle for the faith (see 9v). The military successes renew, in the 15th century, God's "marvels" for his chosen people in the time of David and Goliath. But by the logic of a Christian redemption, the salvation of the fatherland, like that of the world, can only be realized through a "passion." Therein, above all, does Therese's religious genius bring her to join the great History, quite beyond the documentary precision which she nevertheless honors.

"To understand a life, as to understand a landscape, one must choose a viewpoint, and there is no better one than the summit" (Claudel). For Therese, the highest point of the epic of Joan of Arc was neither Orleans nor Reims, but the bonfire at Rouen. From historical science, she borrowed the facts. From the Word of God, she asks the meaning of this humanly incomprehensible fate. That is the point of the dialogue of the archangel Gabriel with the prisoner. Tradition considers him the angel of Gethsemane, sent to raise the heroine to the level of martyrdom by revealing to her how she images our Savior in his Passion. Also, the long meditation on the book of Wisdom illuminates for this young girl the mystery of her premature death. Here we have our finger on the internal cohesiveness of Therese who, in July of 1894, made much of "the Word" in a very rich letter to her sister Celine (LT 165), and who, three months later, discovered in "holy books" the secret of her "little way."

Although less numerous than in the first part (RP 1), autobiographical touches are not absent from this work. The notes [to the French edition] point out a few of them: the image of M. Martin behind that of Joan's father; the refusal of Joan to seek her own honor; a vivid sense of being only an instrument in God's hands; a fondness for the title "daughter of the Church;" a poignant sense of dying "in the springtime of life" (in July 1894, Therese knew that she was sick) ; the desire for the Eucharist and the Marian context of the last communion; etc. Above all else, Joan's prayers (9r, 12v, 21r) are the most pure reflection of Therese's soul. Truly, in them "Therese does not so much take on Joan's personality as place Joan in her own `way"' Jean Guitton, VT 1 [January 1961]: 36).

Important in and of itself, this work is even more so for its effect in Therese's life.

First of all, it makes "the author" a star in the eyes of her community. She is admired: "there was a general enthusiasm." On the evening of 21 January 1895, during the great silence, Therese felt herself "at the height of her glory in her circle." Then she received "an ineffable light on the vanity of all things here below," which she confided the next day to Sr. Marie of the Trinity' and, at the end of the year, to her notebook of memoirs (Ms A, 81v).

An accident averted just in time - the bonfire very nearly flared up during the production - made an impression on Therese. Even though she was spared, the flame of the bonfire led her unknowingly into a spiritual "holocaust" no less consuming and fierce. An inspiration on 9 June 1895 will find the Carmelite ready to offer herself as "victim" like her sister at Rouen. And the theme of fire will take on an added importance in her writing.

But it is especially in May through July of 1897 that the prophetic value of this second Joan of Arc for the destiny of its author shows most clearly. Therese herself was aware of this: "I have read over again the play on Joan of Arc which I composed. You will see there my sentiments on death; they are all expressed" (CJ 5.6.2; LC, 57). When her sisters plagued her with questions in the infirmary, she remembered Joan "before her judges" and laid claim to the same "sincerity" (20.7.6; LC, 104). It is in reference to Joan's "mission" that she speaks of her own: the posthumous mission that is soon to begin (CJ 17.7; LC, 102; cf. the note on p. 321 [of the French edition] ), to thwart "the envy of men" (CJ 27.7.6; LC, 113). "In the chains" of her sickness, her courage revivified at the sight of a photo ofJoan in prison (her own picture, playing the role): "after your death, this will be the time for your works and your conquests" (CJ 10.8.4; LC 144).

The modern reader ought to keep in mind that, the day after the canonization of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Pius XI presented her to a group of French pilgrims as "a new Joan of Arc"" (18 May 1925) and that, in the dark days of the Second World War, Pius XII declared her "the secondary patron of all of France"" on equal footing with St. Joan of Arc (3 May 1944).

"A mysterious and mystical assimilation, wrote. "There can sometimes exist certain saints, far apart in history, who form pairs or couples. Many of the stars in the sky are double stars...."' Altogether, this "recreation" is better written, more solid, and less naive than the first two. The language is simple and concise, the continuity harmonious enough, at least at the beginning. The theatrical conception is more ambitious and reveals a real sense for staging on Therese's part. The "chant" style plays a minor part among the fourteen melodies employed in the sung parts. In the context of an evocation of Therese, this Joan of Arc is undoubtedly the one of the "recreations" that would have the best chance in a present day staging. In any case, it is in this role that Therese the actress has come down to us, thanks to five photos taken sometime after the performance. s

JOAN OF ARC

ACCOMPLISHING HER MISSION

or

THE VICTORIES - THE CAPTIVITY -

THE MARTYRDOM

AND THE HEAVENLY TRIUMPHS

OF THE

VENERABLE JOAN OF FRANCE

THE CAST

Joan of Arc - Saint Gabriel - Saint Michael - Saint Catherine - Saint Margaret - King Charles VII - La Tremouille, Baron de Sully, 1`1 the king's favorite - Regnault de Chartres, Archbishop of Reims and Chancellor of France - Robert le Macon, lord of Treves and Anjou - Raoul de Gaucourt, magistrate of Orleans - The Duke d'Alencon, the king's cousin - Jean d'Aulon, Joan's squire -Jean Massieu, a priest in the service of the bishop of Beauvais - "0J Br. Martin l'Advenu, Joan of Arc's confessor - France

[lv blank]

THE VICTORIES

[Scene 1]

The scene takes place at Chinon, in Charles VII's royal apartment. He is surrounded by his favorites and simply dressed as one of them, without his royal crown. 151 La Tremouille is at his right.

LA TREMOUILLE

Sire, your orders have been punctually executed. The shepherdess from Domremy hasjust undergone several interrogations.

THE DAUPHIN

[10] Very well, La Tremouille, what's your advice? Should I admit her into my presence?

LA TREMOUILLE

Since your Highness permits it, I dare say thatJoan seems to me a madwoman, a [151 visionary, capable of bringing ridicule to the Armagnac party. If we're to give credence to her words, the army must be handed over to her..... What a lovely spectacle! a shepherdess made Grand Marshall of France! Better to surrender today [201 than be beaten while following a young girl!....

CHARLES VII, turning to Regnault de Chartres.

I'm curious as to your judgment, too. No counsel is to be disregarded when it's a matter of [2v] saving the kingdom, and yours is all the more important, being that of an archbishop. You can readily resolve the question now before us. Do you frankly believe that [51 Joan who is called the Maid is inspired by Heaven?...

REGNAULT DE CHARTRES

Sire, in order that Your Royal Highness be persuaded of the truth of what La Tremouille has just said: I absolutely agree with him and I am not afraid to say that a young girl who has such things said of her can only be hallucinatory, worthy of prison or at least of being sent back to her village and ~''1 forbidden ever to leave it.

ROBERT LE MA(;ON

Does Your Highness permit that I say a word in turn?....

CHARLES VII

1201 Speak.

ROBERT LE MAQON

Sire, it seems to me that our Lords judge the shepherdess of Domremy too severely. Since Robert de Baudricourt (despite his somewhat 1251 sullen attitude) has agreed to let her leave [3r] Vaucouleurs with a selected escort, doesn't it seem right at least to grant the girl the audience she's requested with such insistence and so many tears? That in no way obliges Your Highness, and if Joan ~51 is only an adventuress, it will always be easy to dismiss her.

LA TREMOUILLE, coldly.

Listening to Robert le Macon, who would recognize the Lord of Treves and Anjou?... Isn't he saying [101 he's ready to put himself under the leadership ofJoan, that keeper of sheep?...

RAOUL DE GAUCOURT, to La Tremouille.

The advice of the Lord of Treves is not to be despised. I don't understand your opposition and that of [15] My Lord the Chancellor of France. Let the shepherdess come in; if nothing else, she'll serve to amuse us.

THE DUKE OF ALEN:ON enters, magnificently clothed, and salutes the Dauphin.

«01 Sire, I've just heard an astonishing piece of news. It seems that a shepherdess from Lorraine was at Chinon a few days ago and she claimed to be sent by Heaven to save Orleans and reestablish the kingdom of France. I'm curious to see her. Everything I hear of her [25] leads me to believe that she's truly [3v] been given a mission to save us. As soon as I heard the talk about this girl, I left off the quail hunt on which I'd been enjoying myself and came before Your Highness to ask [5] an audience for Joan the Maid.

CHARLES VII

Dear cousin, I can satisfy your curiosity. Joan has been waiting in the antechamber of the palace since this morning for the favor of being admitted into my presence. [10] I am going to give the order to have her brought in, though I'm sorry to be so simply dressed. My royal garments would have quite intimidated the poor shepherdess.

THE DUKE OF ALENQON

[15] Sire, permit me to point out that there is a simple way to see ifJoan is truly inspired by Heaven. Descend from your throne and I will take your place; if the girl offers me royal honors and does «0[ not recognize you among a crowd of courtiers, then clearly she does not have the spirit of God in her and she's worthy only of our disdain.

LA TREMOUILLE

Duke, your idea is excellent and E151 I pray your Highness to let me have the shepherdess [4r] brought in.

THE DAUPHIN

Yes, I wish it. Have her enter right away.

LA TREMOUILLE, softly, turning towards Regnault.

X57 Soon we'll be rid of this maid who's so annoyed us. I'm tired of hearing her spoken of.

He exits, then reenters almost imediately, having issued his orders. The King descends from the throne and the Duke of Alencon takes his place.

[10] LA TREMOUILLE, to the Duke of Alencon.

I've given the order to have her come in by herself, with no instruction on the ceremonies in use at royal courts. Is she going to be embarrassed in front of your supposed highness!...

[15] Joan of Arc enters alone, with her sword and her unfurled banner. Coming forward with assurance, she makes all the proper obeisances before the King, whom she recognizes without ever having seen him.

CHARLES VII

«0I I am not the king, why do you salute me thus?

THE DUKE OF ALEN(~,ON

I am the king and you must render honors to me. But first, what is your name?

JOAN, with assurance.

«51 Duke of Alencon, you are not the king, and it is to him that I have a mission to speak. (She turns to Charles VII.) [4v] By my God, gentle Prince, it is you and no other I have come to succor. I am called Joan the Maid. I assure you, on the part of the King of Heaven, that you will be consecrated and crowned at [51 Reims, and you will be the lieutenant of the King of Heaven who is also King of France!...

CHARLES VII

I cannot give credence to your words. If God wished to save the kingdom, He would not have left it so [ 10] long in this extremity where we find it.

JOAN

Gentle Dauphin, why do you not believe me? I tell you God has had pity on you, your kingdom, your people, because Saint Louis and Charlemagne [15] are kneeling before Him and praying for you.

CHARLES VII

But how do you know these things of which you speak?

JOAN

1201 By my voices.

LA TREMOUILLE

Would you not like to explain, here in the presence of the King, how these voices speak to you?

JOAN, to Charles VII.

1251 Gentle Prince, if you wish it, I am ready to speak.

[5r] CHARLES VII

Yes, I wish it. Tell us in detail how the voices came to teach you when you were at Domremy.

[5] JOAN, to an inspired tune.

(Poetry ofAlexand)-e Somizet, 1846.)

CHARLES VII

Is this the only Heavenly visitation you have received? I see nothing in this of your mission to save «0] the kingdom.

JOAN

By my God, gentle Prince, I assure you that, since this first visit, I have received others every day. Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret have appeared to me «'] and have comforted me, for I often wept after [6r] Saint Michael ordered me to go and command the army.

THE DUKE OF ALEN4~,ON

You say your voices have revealed to you that God wants 15[ to deliver the people of France from the misery into which they have fallen. If that's the case, God, who is All-Powerful, does not need the help of soldiers.

JOAN

With my God, the soldiers will fight, and God will give them [10] victory.

THE DUKE OF ALEN~,ON

But what gives you such assurance, after the rejections you have already endured?

JOAN

When something torments me, for example when people will not believe what I say, I retire apart and I pray...... When I have prayed, I hear a voice say to me: - "Daughter of God!... go, go.... I will come to your aid.... go........ «0] and when this voice comes to me I am so comforted, so joyful, it is marvelous!...

Joan gazes fixedly at Heaven as if lost in ecstasy.

THE DUKE OF ALENcON, to the Dauphin.

This girl moves me, to the bottom of my [251 soul..... Truly, I believe in her mission... How inspired the tone when she speaks of her voices, would not [6v] one say she was hearing them still?... And what depth is in her gaze!... I can hardly bear it......

CHARLES VII

ICI I am not so easily convinced. I still have my doubts.... There is a thing no one knows... And I tremble.... (After a pause) No, this doubt will never disappear from my soul.

JOAN, whom the King's voice has brought around.

1"'1 Gentle Dauphin, if I were alone with you, I would tell you the secret no one knows and make your doubts disappear.

CHARLES VII, very moved.

What? You know?... No, it's impossible... [151 However, I am willing to have my courtiers stand off to the side for a moment.

He makes a gesture with his hand and the courtiers retire to the back of the apartment, where they watch from afar the touching scene that takes place before their eyes.

THE DUKE OF ALEN(,ON says to the other courtiers as they retire:

What a sight! A trembling monarch, threatened with the loss of his crown, and a shepherdess who comes with assurance to reaffirm that crown and give him back his power!....

'`''I JOAN approaches the Prince and says to him softly:

[7r] By my God, gentle Prince, I know the prayer you made this morning after Communion, in your private oratory, with no one but God as witness. "Lord, if I am the rightful 151 heir of the noble house of France and if this kingdom ought legitimately to belong to me, grant, I beg You, that I may preserve it and defend it against the attacks of the English. If that is not the case, I ask for the grace to escape death or captivity and ["I let me escape to Scotland or Spain where I hope to find refuge." ( The king seems very moved. He weeps. Joan, in a louder voice:) And I tell you, on God's part, that you are the true heir of the kingdom of France and the King's son. I was sent [151 to bring you to Reims that you might there receive the consecration and the crown.

THE KING, pressing Joan s hand between his own and speaking softly.

0 Joan! you are truly the envoy of «0] Heaven. From now on you have only to speak and I will carry out your orders. (Raising his voice, he says to the courtiers:) You may approach!... (The courtiers approach in silence and take up their places.)

THE KING

[15] I now have great confidence in this girl, for she has told me secrets that [7v] only God could have revealed to her.

LA TREMOUILLE, containing his discontent.

Sire, what must be done to compensate her? Do you wish her to be heaped with honors?...

I5] CHARLES VII

I wish that she be obeyed.... Speak, Joan. What do you want?

JOAN

Gentle Dauphin, I wish.....

REGNAULT, interrupting her.

1"'I Why do you call the king dauphin instead of king?...

JOAN

I shall not call him king until after he has been consecrated and crowned at Reims, where I have a mission to lead him. First, the army must hold itself ready for [151 me to lead it very soon to Orleans, since by me the English must be driven out of all of France.

THE DUKE OF ALEN(~,ON

Joan, do you want arms, horses?... I offer to furnish you with whatever you'll need.

[201 JOAN

Gentle Duke, I am very much obliged and I accept a white horse. As for arms, the sword of Saint Catherine will be enough, though I do not count on using it. It's with my banner I'll bring home the victory.

[25] REGNAULT, sarcastically.

[8r] Why, then, don't you fight alone? Since you are sure of victory, it's useless to raise a whole army, and the glory that came to you would be even greater...

[5] JOAN

I do not seek my own honor, but that of God. On the other hand, given only a handful of soldiers, I will win as well as with a vast army. But the attack must not begin [10] without me! ...

CHARLES V

Joan, I want the entire army to obey you and I promise you that the attack will begin only on your orders. Now let us retire and make your [15] arrangements; I want you to choose the people who will make up your company. I grant you the rights and the following of a count, with all the equipment of a general of the army.

JOAN, leaning towards the King.

«0I Gentle Dauphin, God Himself will reward you; soon you X511 see your glorious reign and your kingdom free of foreign tyranny.

All exit.

Scene 2

[251 JOAN and JEAN D'AULON, her squire.

Joan, victory seems assured to me; in a matter of clays you have known how to transform the army. There was no one, not even the old La Hire, who did not want to go to Confession [5] and receive Communion before the battle.

JOAN

Jean d'Aulon, it is not I who has worked these wonders. God alone could thus change the hearts of these brave soldiers, and my venerable confessor, Br. [10] Jean Pasquerel, has done much to convert them. Right now I fear nothing; I have only brave men to command, since God Himself lives in them.

JEAN D'AULON

However, much patience is required of you, for if [15] all the great men of the court fear and respect you, there is a great number of others who harbor a secret jealousy. You've already had very painful proofs of that.... It seems to them so hard to obey a girl!...

[201 JOAN

That's true. Count Dunois deceived me in passing with the army by the Sologne region and not, as I had ordered him, directly to the front where the English are.... But I have no fear, the counsel [25] of my God is more certain than that of the great ones of the world. He has a book in which no cleric reads, however [9r] skilled in his craft, and the will of the King of Heaven will be clone, in spite of the jealousy of men... Everyone will be forced to see that victory belongs only to the God of armies.

[5] JEAN D'AULON

Noble Knight, won't you rest tonight, since the attack must not begin until tomorrow?...

JOAN

[101 Yes, but we must take our rest in armor, since I fear the enemy may surprise us. Above all, don't fail to warn me at the first sign of an alarm.

JEAN D'AULON

[15] You can count on me, but I'm convinced that nothing will trouble our sleep.

He exits. JOAN kneels and offers this prayer:

Lord, God of armies, deign to bless the repose of your servant. Don't allow the English to come ]20] surprise city of Orleans while I sleep. Continue, Lord, the marvels You have begun to work for your people and, as in other times You destroyed the Philistines by your servant, the little shepherd David, who slew the giant Goliath, ]25] so today make known your power in the person of your servant Joan, the timid [9v] shepherdess who, in Your Name, will chase the English out of France and destroy the power of Satan, that other Goliath who would like to wipe out the faith of the oldest daughter of the Church.

Joan lays down her sword and sits on the floor ~51 without removing her armor. She takes her rest with an arm and her head simply leaning on a chair. - After a few moments of silence, she hears her voices and gets up again.

THE VOICES

[10] (Melody: "Viens avec moi pour aimer le printemps. "

[ "Come with Me to Admire the Spring 7)

[51 JOAN, forcefully.

Jean d'Aulon! Jean d'Aulon!...

THE SQUIRE rushes in, rubbing his eyes.

What's happening?... What do you want?...

JOAN, sharply.

«01 Ah! my voices warn me that French blood is flowing and you haven't told me!... Quick, my weapons, my horse!... (She picks up her sword.)

JEAN D'AULON

I'm going for your horse. «51 (Sound of a horse galloping.)

JOAN

No, it's useless; it will take too long... I hear the sound [I Or] of a horseman. I'll make him dismount and take his place.

She exits. JEAN D'AULON tries to stop her, saying:

Joan, you've forgotten your banner!...

JOAN, already gone, calls to him:

'l Pass it out through the window!

Jean d Aulon exits.

Scene 3 is offstage.

After a few moments, we hear the clash of arms, explosions, andJOAN's voice crying:

1101 Duke of Alencon, tell me when the tail of my banner touches the rampart!... Charge!... My friends, my friends, Our Lord has condemned the English; this moment, they are ours!...

DUKE OFALEN4~,ON

11'j Joan, it is touching!...

JOAN

Jesus, Mary! Forward, all is Yours!... Go through there. (We hear the cries of the English and, over them, JOAN shouting:) 1201 Victory! Victory! (The French take up the shout:) Victory! Victory!... Long live Joan of Arc!... Long live the liberator of Orleans! ... - (JOAN responds:) Long live Christ! Long live Charles VII! (All the French cry out together:) Long live Christ! Long live Joan the Maid! Long live the King [25] and the Kingdom of the French!

THE KING, at Reims, after his coronation.

The King enters, magnificently dressed, with the royal crown on his head. Joan is on his right, carrying 151 her standard unfurled, and dressed in full armor. The Lords of the court follow. The King ascends his throne. Joan takes her place beside him.

THE KING

"'' Joan, you have been the worthy instrument by which it has pleased God to save the kingdom of France. I wish to recognize your services.... Tell me, what do you desire? I am prepared to fulfill your every wish..

[15] JOAN, falling at the King 's feet.

Gentle King, now God's good pleasure has been served, that let me lift the siege of Orleans and bring you to this city of Reims to be anointed and crowned, to show that 1`1 you are the true king, the one to whom the kingdom belongs. Now that my mission is accomplished, I beg that you let me go back immediately to my parents at Domremy.

THE KING, very moved.

1251 Never will I consent to see you removed from my presence. From now on, the kingdom will not know how to go on without [ 11 r] its liberator. The English must still be expelled, and you alone are capable of intimidating them.

THE DUKE OF ALEN(~ON

Yes, Joan, now we can truly rephrase for you the 151 words once spoken to Judith: "You are the glory of Orleans, the joy of the French, the honor of your people. You have acted with manly courage and your heart is firm. Because you have loved chastity, the hand of the Lord has strengthened [10] you and you will be blessed forever!..."

LA TREMOUILLE, wishing to change the subject.

Joan, who was that old man, dressed like a simple peasant, who forced us, all the lords of the court,~'51 to let him through to get close to you in the Reims cathedral this morning? It seems to me I saw him press you to his heart.

JOAN, in an emotional voice.

Oh! that old man was my Father!... my Father who never hesitated, despite his age, to come see [201 his daughter's triumph.... He could not speak to me.... but he blessed me and I could read in his face that he'd come to ask me to go back with him to the peaceful hamlet that saw my birth. I saw that my mission was finished, that now I must be content to pray for my 1251 king as I guard my sheep, after having fought for him [llv] at the head of the army....

THE KING

No, Joan, this is not the will of God. I want to obey the orders of the Lord, but I feel that [5] your mission is not yet finished. Don't you want to give God even up to the last day of your life? Well, I say to you on His behalf, I over whose forehead the Sacred Chrism was poured this morning, I say to you that you must remain at court and dream "'I no more of going back to your village. I promise you your good parents will be heaped with honors. I'm going to give them titles of nobility. They will lack nothing, and they will rejoice in you who have earned such good things for them.

JOAN, wiping her eyes.

1151 Gentle King, your servant must bow and obey.... I thank you for all the honors you wish to grant my parents, but I dare to tell you that all the grandeurs of this world would not console them for being apart from their daughter. I can assure, however, 1201 that they will always be your devoted subjects, and they will submit to the orders of their king.

THE KING, turning to La Tremonille.

Let someone bring me the parchments and the coat of arms I have prepared.

La Tremouille makes a sign to Jean d'Aulon who exits «', and returns carrying these things and some writing materials. He bows deeply and presents them to the king.

Noble Maid, these titles will serve for you and your parents. As a special privilege, I desire that they should descend in your family in the female as well as the E51 male line.

(The king affixes his signature and passes the pen to La Tremouille who also signs.)

What's more, I myself drew up this coat of arms which will tell future ages what the kingdom owes you. Since your sword saved the crown, I have wished to link 1101 it with the arms of France itself to do you homage. I desire you to wear it into combat from now on.

JOAN, receiving the King's gifts.

Gentle King, my gratitude to you will never cease; I will obey you and hold these arms precious. 1151 Permit me, however, not to abandon my standard and always to carry it in battle, since this alone has given me victory by the precious names I have inscribed on it.

THE KING

1201 You shall do as you intend, and I will see that you are always obeyed.... Now I am going to retire to my rooms; tomorrow you will give your orders.

[Scene 5]

The King descends the throne and exits, followed by the other courtiers and JOAN herself, but she «'] reenters and, kneeling down, chants this prayer to the tune of "Mignon sur la rive etrangere " [ "Darling on the Foreign Shore "].

After a fairly long moment of silence, THE VOICES are heard, to the tune of Fit de la Vierge" ["The Virgin's Thread"].

Joan hears these voices on her knees. An expression of terror crosses [101 her face when she hears of her captivity. At the end, she covers her face in her hands. - The Duke of Alencon enters a moment later and finds her in this state. Joan seems unaware of his presence.

[Scene 6]

THE DUKE OF ALENcON, talking to himself.

1151 What is happening?... Have her voices told her of some defeat?... This is not how she usually receives visits from Heaven.... (He approaches her and, touching her, he says:) Joan, what's wrong?.... You appear not to have noticed me here!

[20] JOAN, rising.

There's nothing wrong... My voices were speaking to me...

THE DUKE

Did they give you some bad news?... You seemed crestfallen when I came in!....

[251 JOAN

No, gentle Duke, the news is not bad, since it is God's good pleasure. It is just that the time of my glory is over, and soon I'll be taken by the English.

130 THE DUKE, sha3ply.

[ 13v] What are you saying, Joan?... It's impossible!... Haven't your guides assured you of the complete deliverance of the kingdom, saved by you from English tyranny?... Have you been 1'1 deceived?...

JOAN

No, my voices haven't deceived me and my mission is Divine. It's just that I must suffer for awhile, and then I'll be delivered with great I"I glory and honor. My voices have promised me and they have always kept their word.

THE DUKE

Are you going to continue fighting?... Might it be better to go into hiding for awhile?...

[151 JOAN

No, the Counsel of my Lord must come to pass... I'm going to lead the troops on to Paris, because it's very important that city belong to the king.

THE DUKE

1201 Will you be captured at Paris?...

JOAN

I don't know. If I knew the city where I'd be taken prisoner, I wouldn't go there, but I don't know.

[251 THE DUKE

If Paris refuses to surrender, where will you take the army?

JOAN

[ 14r] I hope it will surrender. But if that city refuses to surrender, I'll lead the army towards the walls of Compiegne. I am counting on you, Duke of Alencon. You've always been faithful to me, and I hope you will accompany me [51 again, in the new campaigns that I'm going to undertake. (After a pause.) I will confide in you, I fear only one thing: treason!...

THE DUKE

Oh Joan! who could be such an enemy of the Fatherland as to betray you?... you are innocence, gallantry itself... Count on my devotion. I will give you faithful companionship, at the risk of my life, if need be...

JOAN

La Tremouille knows how attached you are to me; in fact, I wouldn't be 1151 surprised to see him using all his strength to separate us.... After all, nothing can happen that God has not foreseen for all eternity; this thought gives me great courage when I think about the future.

THE DUKE

1201 It's late, you must be tired. Go take a rest. Tomorrow, as the king has told you, you'll give your orders.

They exit.

[14v] Second Part

THE CAPTIVITY, THE MARTYRDOM

[Scene 1]

The stage shows the prison. Joan is chained and alone, sitting on a rock. Some straw is visible on the ground ~51, with a jug and some black bread.

JOAN, singing

(Melody: "Pourquoi m'avoir livre l'autre jour, o ma Mere?" ["Why Was I Handed Over the Other Day, 0 My Mother?'7)

[Scene 2]

Saint Margaret appears; seeing her, JOAN cries out:

[15r] 0 Saint Margaret! how long you have been..... Saint Catherine told me that my captivity would last three months, and those three months have gone by... At last you have come to save me!... Break my chains and let me [5] return to my dear village of Domremy.

SAINT MARGARET sings to the tune of "Masque defer" [`Iron Mask'7:

She goes to Joan, caresses her and, wipes her tears with her goldspangled veil.

JOAN

115] Then you have not come to save me?... Must I die before seeing the total triumph of France? But you have promised me that the kingdom of Saint Louis would preserve the Faith, you have assured my deliverance, and, see, I am in irons...... I can no longer ['O] do anything to save my country!....

SAINT MARGARET, to the same tune.

JOAN

How mysterious your words are! I cannot grasp their meaning..... Saint Catherine spoke to me in the same way after E"I a mistake of mine, when I leapt from the towers of Beaurevoir, [15v] to go to the help of the good people of Compiegne.... The bishop of Beauvais reproached me about this disobedience to my voices when he questioned me, but I have confessed and Saint Catherine [5] told me that God has forgiven me. She also promised to come back, but I haven't seen her since I got here. I don't remember disobeying her... Oh! I beg you, ask her to come deliver me....

[101 SAINT MARGARET, to the tune of "Dieu de paix et d'amour" ["God of Peace and Love'J.

[Scene 3]

Saint Margaret exits.

Jean Massieu enters, carrying some scrolls of Parchment. Seeing this, JOAN gets up and says softly:

Ah! here's Jean Massieu.

JEAN MASSIEU]

Joan, what were you doing when I came in?

[901 JOAN

I was listening to the voice of Saint Margaret.

JEAN MASSIEU

How do your voices address you? Isn't it "daughter of God, great-hearted daughter, daughter of the Church"?...

X25] JOAN

Yes, every day they speak to me they call me daughter of God, daughter of the Church.

JEAN MASSIEU

Since you are a daughter of the Church, why do you refuse [16r] to say the Pater Noster?

JOAN

I'll say it willingly. And, if I refused to say it the other day, it was just so Monsieur de Beauvais would hear my confession.

[5]JEAN MASSIEU

Why, then, after the King's coronation, were you so eager to be a godmother, and why did you let all the people kiss your clothes and your hands?... You've even let it be said that by your virtue a child I" I has been raised from the dead.

JOAN

I let my hands and clothes be kissed as little as possible, but it's true that I very much liked being a godmother and naming boys Charles and girlsJoan.[L5] As for the resurrection of the child, I didn't know his return to life had been credited to me and I'm convinced that God alone worked this great miracle.

JEAN MASSIEU

[A loose page, 16*r-v, is slipped into the manuscript at this point.- Trans. ]

[ 16*r] Don't you recognize that God has often worked wonders for you?... Jean d'Aulon, your squire, says that at Saint- Pierre-le-Moutier you said you had in your company fifty 151 thousand men, though you really had only four or five... The victory you reported that day seems miraculous to me.

JOAN

It's true God has often chosen me to be the instrument of His marvels, but it is to save France that He has worked these wonders... as for me, He has willed that I suffer much. How many tears have I not wept at seeing the contradictions among the [ 101 great ones of the court?... Now my blood must mix with my tears.... At the assault on Tournelles, an arrow struck me and I fell, and if I hadn't been rescued by my Saints, I'd have been taken prisoner right there, since the English were already thronged around me. But the hour set by God had not yet come... I didn't know then the trials that awaited me.... In my letters to the 1'51 English, I always talked about peace, and I dreamt of a crusade, if they'd ally themselves with us... In response I got nothing but threats and insults, which I treated as they deserved.... Now I am in their power, but I hope for the deliverance [16*v] that my voices have promised me. As for myself, I give witness to a clear conscience, and I am a good Christian, submissive to the Church, whatever my enemies may say.

JEAN MASSIEU

The bishop of Beauvais is the representative of the Church and you promised him to stop wearing men's clothes. Why have you put them on again?...

JOAN

I fully intended to keep my promise, ['] but yesterday the jailer took away my women's clothes and absolutely refused to give them back, despite my requests and my tears... I had no choice but to put on my warrior's outfit. I don't believe I have broken my vow. Besides, the bishop of Beauvais has not kept faith himself. Didn't he promise me that from now on I'd be guarded by Church people and not by the English?... It was only this promise that made me [101 say I'd stop wearing men's clothing, for I'm convinced that in this prison where I find myself, I ought to wear it. My voices have told me so, and everyone who believes in my mission approves...

12111 Are those who believe that you come on God's behalf deceiving themselves?

JOAN

No, they are not deceiving themselves, and I have offended God by telling the people that my voices do not come 1151 from Heaven. The false preacher who urged me in the name of the Church is more guilty than I; however, I'm willing to make amends for my fault by publicly confessing that [ 16v] my mission is from God... Even if the bonfire were there and I felt the flames, I would never say anything contrary to that.

JEAN MASSIEU, in an emotional voice.

151 Alas! you may soon doubt the reality of your mission.... If you know the news I bring you!...

JOAN

Has the army of the king suffered a defeat?... Should 1101 that happen, it would not make me doubt, for I have been assured that, before seven years have passed, the English will be chased from France....

JEAN MASSIEU

It's not about the French army, it's about you. 1151 0 Joan! how it costs me to tell you this terrible news... I, who have always been so devoted to you... but I must, at the peril of my life... Besides, if I hide the truth from you someone else will tell you. (After a pause, jean Massieu, who seems more and more [201 moved, unrolls the scroll and says:) Joan, your sentence has been pronounced: you are condemned to be publicly burnt this very day.

JOAN

To be burnt!!!... 0 my God, is it possible.... 1251 I'd rather be beheaded seven times over!... But what crime have I committed?...

You are accused of being a Heretic, Relapsed, Apostate, Idolater, and Sorceress.

JOAN

151 Alas! if I'd been taken to Rome, as I so often asked, the Holy Father would have recognized that I was innocent... Oh! I appeal to God, the great judge of the universe, against the unjust death my enemies are going to make me suffer.... (She I'°I hides her face in her hands to weep.)

JEAN MASSIEU

Have you not strong courage, Joan? Don't you believe that you will be saved?....

JOAN, lifting up her head with a noble pride.

[15] I firmly believe, as my voices have told me, that I shall be saved; I believe as firmly as if it were already so...

JEAN MASSIEU

I'm going to leave you alone so you can more freely [20] prepare to go before God..... (He gets up; as he crosses the doorstep, he turns and says in an emotional voice:) Joan, when you are in Heaven, pray for me!

[Scene 4]

JOAN, alone.

Is it true I'm to be burned?... Oh no! I still hope for deliverance.... my voices have promised me! Saint Michael, I put [17v] my confidence in you. Oh! come and break my bonds....

[Scene 5]

THE ARCHANGEL GABRIEL enters and chants to the tune of Adieux du martyr" ["The Martyr's Farewells'].

[20] JOAN

0 beautiful angel! how sweet is your voice! I feel hope reborn in my heart when you speak to me of the sufferings of Jesus..... Alas! I am almost revolted to think of the treason of which I'm the victim, since I [251 know I have been sold to the English.... and now all the French have abandoned me... even my King seems not to be disturbed by my death!...

THE ARCHANGEL GABRIEL continues

to the tune of Adieux du martyr" ["The Martyr's Farewells')

JOAN

E'°' Jesus is near me!... Why then has He allowed the priests to condemn me?... If I had been judged by the English, I wouldn't have suffered so much by my sentence... But it is a bishop of my own country who says I'm worthy of death!....

[15] THE ARCHANGEL

JOAN

[25] Oh! how it consoles me to see that my agony is like that of my Savior.... But I do not feel His Divine presence, and death still makes me afraid!...

THE ARCHANGEL

[Scene 6]

The archangel exits. Left alone, Joan holds her head in her hands. Her stance reveals a Profound sadness mixed [151 with resignation. After a few moments, jean Massieu enters.

JEAN MASSIEU

Poor Joan! everything is ready. In half an hour you will leave this place to go to death, or rather to the end of your troubles.... But perhaps you have some last«0I wish? Speak without fear - I promise to do the impossible to satisfy you....

JOAN

Oh! yes, I have one wish, and if you can procure this grace I desire I will remember you forever. «'] Before I die, I want to receive Holy Communion one last time... Jesus hidden under the veils of the white host is all that will give me the strength to walk to my death... When I feel His Divine Heart beating next to mine, it seems to me that the fire of His E" I love will help me bear with courage the flames of the bonfire...

Though I fear I might be refused, I'll go at once to ask this favor of My Lord [the Bishop] of Beauvais. With your having been excommunicated, I believe he won't ~51 be able to allow you Communion..... But pray... God can grant this miracle for you!...

JOAN

Oh, thank you!... The Lord will give you the consolation that you are giving me!...

[Scene 7]

Jean Massieu exits. After he's gone, Joan kneels down.

JOAN

Oh my God! now I understand the deliverance my voices told me of.... It wasn't at all what [15] I'd dreamt..... Rather it was death!... death at twenty!.... Oh! how insignificant is human glory. It has passed for me like smoke that vanishes in a moment!... Under lovely laurels, my enemies have dug my grave!... I 1201 am going to die!... Within the hour there'll be nothing left of me but ashes.... But no, 0 my God, I am wrong! my soul will fly to You. I am going to live to never die again.... One day my body will rise from the dust and be reunited with my soul. t251 It will see You and possess You Yourself, Lord!... Why then am I still sad, why does the bonfire make me afraid?...

[Scene 8]

[19v] Saint Catherine enters, clothed in a white robe, crowned with roses and carrying a martyr's palm. She goes to sit by Joan who smiles at seeing her.

SAINT CATHERINE, taking Joan's chained hands ['] and pressing them to her heart.

0 my dear Sister, I come to you! I come to console you and to show you the glory the Lord plans for His elect. Hear the words of eternal Wisdom and you will understand why the God of love has willed that your time X10[ here below should be brief like the flight of a dove... Hear..... and may your heart leap for joy...

"The souls of the just are in the hand of God and the torment of death will not touch them. To unsensing eyes, they have appeared to die and their departure from earth has seemed an 151 affliction.... however, they are in peace!... If they have suffered torments before men, their hope is full of the immortality they have been promised... Their affliction was light and their reward will be great, because the Lord has tested them and found them worthy of Him. He has tried «`1 them like gold in a furnace... He has received them as a holocaust... The just will shine, they will glitter like flames among reeds... they will judge the nations and hold dominion over the peoples, and their Lord will reign eternally." [See Wis 3:1-8.-Trans.]

JOAN

'251 Oh! How the words of the Eternal Wisdom spread peace in my soul!... Is it really true that I will have the happiness of seeing God and sharing the delights of the Saints?... But I am only in the springtime of my life; what reward can I expect after so little time on earth?...

SAINT CATHERINE

Joan, listen again to the words of Uncreated Wisdom; that is what will teach you what you [20r] wish to know: "When one of the just," it says, "dies a premature death, he finds himself at peace, because what makes age venerable is not the length of life or the number of years. Rather, the prudence of the just will take the place of white hair, [51 and a spotless life will count as a happy old age.... As the just one has been pleasing to God, God has loved him and the Lord has taken him away from the sinners he lived among, lifted him up from fear that the world's malice might corrupt his spirit and false appearances seduce his soul...... Having lived only a little, he's run ["'I the course of a long life, because his soul was pleasing to God; that is why He has hastened to snatch this one from the midst of iniquity...... People see this removal without understanding it and it does not occur to them that the grace and the mercy of God are for His Saints and that He looks with favor on His elect..... But [151 youth ended so soon condemns the long lives of sinners - they will see the end of the wise one and will not understand God's plan for him and why the Lord has kept him safe....." [See Wis 4:7-17.-Trans.]

JOAN

On earth, they will not understand, but on the last 1201 day they will; how great their sorrow will be to see the just in glory!... Alas! what will those who now persecute me say when they see these magnificent promises fulfilled in me?...

SAINT CATHERINE, continuing to quote the words of [25] Wisdom.

"On the last day, the just will rise up against those who have heaped afflictions on them.The wicked will be seized with fear and a horrible fright. They will say to themselves: `These are those who once were the object of our mockery and whom we branded as 1%)l deserving of all sorts of disgrace!... How foolish we were! their life seemed folly to us and their deaths shameful; but see them raised among the children of God and of the company of the Saints.... How has our pride served us?... What have we gained from our riches?... All these things have passed like a shadow, like 135 1 a ship that ploughs through the turbulent waters and leaves no trace of its passage.... Thus we are no sooner born than we cease to be, and we have shown no trace of virtue within ourselves.' Thus will the wicked speak, because their hope is like smoke that the wind blows away or like the memory of a traveler [}0] that passes by, not spending a day in one place..... But the just will live forever; the Lord holds their reward for them. That is why they will receive a wonderful kingdom from His hands and a crown [20v] glittering with glory. He will cover them with His right hand and guard them with His Holy arm!..." [See Wis 5:1-16. -Trans.]

JOAN, with a look of unspeakable happiness.

Oh! how happy I am!... Now death no longer [5] makes me afraid, I desire it as the dawn of my eternal happiness. Holy Martyr, this evening I shall be your sister, with you I'll be able to follow the Divine Lamb and chant the canticle that only virgins are permitted!...

SAINT CATHERINE, getting up.

[10] I'll see you soon again, my dear Sister, in a few moments you will leave this place of exile. Like the dove flying from the ark and finding no place to rest on earth, you are going to fly to the Holy ark and the gates of Heaven are going to open to let you in!...

X15] JOAN

0 Sweet Virgin! do not forget your promise. Come to me, sustain my courage during the martyrdom that I'm going to suffer.

SAINT CATHERINE

Yes, I'm going to accompany you and sing of the beauty of Heaven that «01 is going to open before your eyes!... I'm going to sing of the palm and the immortal crowns the angels of Heaven have made ready to give you. (She kisses Joan on the forehead and exits.)

[Scene 9]

JOAN, alone, sings this stanza to the tune of Pourquoi m'avoir livre" ["Why Have You Set Me Free"]:

[Scene 10]

[5] JEAN MASSIEU enters.

Joan, the time of sacrifice is here!... but before leaving the prison, you're going to have the consolation of receiving the Divine Eucharist. The bishop of Beauvais has told me to refuse you nothing.

[10] JOAN

I thank you for obtaining this priceless favor for me; with Jesus in my heart, I will walk fearlessly to death. (Raising her eyes to Heaven.) 0 my God! I'm going to receive You in my prison, hidden under the appearance of a bit of bread, and my [15] thanksgiving is going to end in Heaven where I'm going to contemplate You in an eternal Face to face!

JEAN MASSIEU

You won't receive Holy Communion here, but in the prison next door. Before you leave, «0] do you want to put back on the white dress you asked for, to wear to your death?... (He holds out a dress he's been holding rolled up under his arm.)

JOAN

Yes, I would like that very much. It seems to me that in this dress I will be more like my beloved Savior, who was clothed in white in Herod's palace.... I don't want to go to martyrdom dressed as a warrior, since peace is assured to me for all eternity. [21v] I want to dress in the gown of a Virgin who is going to her spouse....

Jean Massieu unchains her so she can put on the dress. Then in the distance voices are heard, chanting the litany of E51 the Blessed Virgin.

JEAN MASSIEU

Do you hear the voices of the faithful, coming along with the Holy Sacrament?... The procession is already at the prison walls, but we still have some time, there are many stairs [10[ to get up here....

We distinctly hear the invocations: 'Regina Martyrum ora pro ea - Regina Virginum," then the voices seem to dissipate in the dark halls of the prison. Now that Joan has put on her white gown, jean Massieu chains her again and they exit.

[Scene 11]

We cannot see the judges; except for the priest with her, Joan is alone on the woodpile. The scene is disguised with screens or lamps, and stoves are ready to create the effect of afire.

We hear the voice of the BISHOP OF BEAUVAIS.

[25] Joan, you know the numerous reasons for your condemnation: you are a Heretic, Relapsed, Apostate, and Idolator. By your sorceries, you've had a heretical king crowned, waving your enchanted banner over his head during the consecration... now you can go in peace. The Church to which you refused to submit cannot defend you... Every dead branch must ["I be separated from the vine and thrown into the fire.

Bishop, it is at your hand I die!... I am not a heretic, I am a daughter of the Church, and the king for whom I fought is a most Christian king.... As for my banner, E51 is it not just that, having been in hardship, it should also be in glory?... Oh! if I'd been sent to Rome, the Holy Father would have recognized that I am innocent, but I am content to die for my country, and I pray to God that He will not punish my enemies. I ask pardon 1"'I from all those I have unknowingly injured, and I myself pardon all those who have brought about my death... Most Holy Trinity, have pity on me!... Saint Michael, Saint Gabriel... Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret, pray for me.

THE BISHOP OF BEAUVAIS, angrily.

Finished at last?.... Let the fire be lit!...

[l5] JOAN

Oh! I beg you, don't let me die without kissing the cross of my Redeemer one last time. (Br. Martin gives her a small wooden cross which she clutches to her heart, but she adds:) 1201 I would like to have a cross of the Church before me.

BROTHER MARTIN

I'll go look for one. (In a moment, he goes and brings one in.)

JOAN

1251 Oh thank you! hold it high, until my death. Now I can fly to Heaven.... yes, I shall certainly be there before this evening.

BROTHER MARTIN speaks the following verses. composed by d'Avrigny.

He descends; only the top of the Cross is in sight and Joan fixes her eyes on it.

We hear THE VOICES chanting to the tune of Au sein de l'heureuse Pat rie" [ In the Bosom of the Happy Homeland'J.

Refrain

[251 JOAN looks up to Heaven and says:

I hear my voices inviting me to fly up to Heaven... My voices have never deceived me and my mission was from God!... (The fire and smoke envelop her more and more; then she cries out.-) Oh! the fire rises... I am burning!... water, blessed water!... [30] Jesus, come to my aid!!!....

THE VOICES

151 Refrain

[15] JOAN sings this refrain.

[An additional loose page, 23*r-v, is slipped into the manuscript at this point.- Trans.]

Joan bows her head and seems to sink onto the bonfire. Then she casts off her white robe and [23*r] dons one spangled with golden stars; meanwhile, the voice of OUR LORD can be heard. - To the tune of Mignon: "Votre Ciel est d'azur, votre terre est fleurie. Et vous les contemplez dun regard plein d'amour" ["Your Heaven is Blue, Your Earth is Flowered. And You Contemplate Them with a Loving Look"].

They again sing the preceding verses, beginning with: Joan, your angel, etc.

Third Part

[THE TRIUMPHS IN HEAVEN]

[Scene 1]

[23r cont'd] With the screens removed, we see a magnificent throne. Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret support Joan, and Saint Michael is also beside her. They sing to the tune: "Oui, je le crois, elle est immaculee" ["Yes, I Believe It, She is Immaculate'].

[25] SAINT MARGARET, crowning Joan with roses.

SAINT CATHERINE, placing a palm in her hand.

Martyr for the Lord, this palm is yours.

SAINT MICHAEL, seating her on the throne.

THE SAINTS together.

[15] JOAN sings to the tune of

"C'etait Bans un bois solitaire" ["It Was in a Solitary Wood'].

[Scene 2]

FRANCE enters slowly; she is draped in chains and carries her crown in her hands.

Joan comes down from her throne, advances towards France, breaks her chains, places the royal crown on her head and holds her to her heart.

[25] JOAN

Oh! my dear France! I happily obey my voices, which ask me to fly again to your rescue!... From now on, you won't be weighed down with chains, since your heart has turned towards Heaven... If you had called [30] on me sooner, I would already have come to you.

[25r] France, her hands unchained, wants to place her diadem on Joan's forehead, but Joan takes the crown and says to her:

No, I don't want to circle my brow with the diadem of France... let me place it on yours, since ~51 from now on you will be worthy of wearing it!....

The virgins' crown is enough for me and I want no scepter other than my palm, for if I am honored in Heaven, it's not for having been a famous warrior, but because I have united [10l virginity and martyrdom!...

Now I want my standard to be yours. (Saint Michael hands it to Joan, who hands it to France.)

Isn't it Jesus and Mary who have saved you?... Has not the august Queen of Heaven thrice [151 descended from her throne to call you to penitence, and is it not the splendid monument which was raised over one of your hills to the glory of the Sacred Heart that has earned you the grace you have received today?...

FRANCE rises and sings to the tune of Rameaux" ["The Palms'J.

JOAN and THE SAINTS sing the refrain.

Joan reascends her throne, after kissing FRANCE; then France joins with Joan's VOICES E51 to sing:

The 21st of January in the year of grace 1895.

Therese and her sister Genevieve in roles ofJoan and St. Catherine

RP 4

JESUS AT BETHANY

DATE: 29 July 1895

OCCASION: Feast of the lay sisters (Feast of St. Martha).

VERSIONS:

A) Autograph: none.

B) Copies:

1. A copy by Sr. Marie of the Trinity, annotated by Therese, previous to 29 July 1895;

2. CE III, 56r-60r, 1910.

PUBLICATION:

HA 98, pp. 425-433; 5 stanzas are missing, 3 others have been added, and 58 verses are changed.

STYLE: 1st part: 15 octosyllablic stanzas; 2nd part: 13 stanzas of 4 alexandrines, alternating with 13 stanzas of 4 octosyllables each, for a total of 41 stanzas (204 verses).

MUSIC: 1st part: "L'Ange et 1'Aveugle"; 2nd part: "Moine et Bandit."

PRESENT TEXT: The copy by Sr. Marie of the Trinity.

FOREWORD

ST. MARTHA'S, THE FEAST OF THE LAY SISTERS

The 29th of July, the feast of St. Martha, who was Jesus' host at Bethany, was in Therese's time the traditional feastday of the lay sisters. On this clay, they were to be served by the choir nuns and, in particular, they weren't to set foot in the kitchen, which became the domain of the novices on that occasion (see pp. 11-12, n. 36). Even so, this relative and even festive vacation clay had a penitential aspect. The "sisters of the white veil" were also offered gifts, along with a joyful song; Therese herself composed one in 1896 (Poesies, vol. 2, pp. 325 ff.). The novices would also perform a little play, comical or edifying, depending on how they were inspired.

In 1895, the task of providing the recreation for the "Marthas" was entrusted to Sr. Therese of the Child Jesus. She herself composed the text, which she presented along with two novice choir nuns, Marie of the Trinity and Genevieve (Celine).

At that time, there were five lay sisters at the Lisieux Carmel: three old ones (Sr. Marie of the Incarnation, Sr. Saint Vincent de Paul and Sr. Saint Pierre, who was to die within four months), and two young ones, still novices although professed (Sr. Martha of Jesus and Sr. Marie-Madeleine of the Blessed Sacrament). Sr. Therese, as assistant to Mother Marie of Gonzaga, the novice mistress, felt particularly responsible for these last two.

THE SUBJECT OF THE RECREATION

The subject of the play is clearly spelled out: the Gospel of the feast (Luke 10:38-42) of "Jesus at Bethany," welcomed by Martha and Mary. The stage action is reduced to a minimum: the "Master" engages in dialogue with the two sisters, a dialogue that's entirely sung, in the manner of a "canticle" consisting of 41 stanzas using four different melodies.

According to an ancient exegesis which was common in her day, Therese confuses the various Marys of the Gospels: Mary Magdalen (Lk 8:2), usually identified with the sinner of Luke 7:36-50, and Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, and also the one who did the anointing "at Simon the Leper's house" (Mk 14:3-9). Such an assimilation gives to this one character a very diverse spiritual dimension. Therese takes advantage of this to shift the emphasis of the Bethany scene. Without neglecting the traditional problem of action versus contemplation, she mutes it to emphasize a theme that she holds clear to her heart: the rivalry between the love of the "pure soul" and the love of the "repentant soul" (see Ms. A, 39r). And it is by design that the name "Mary" (mentioned in stanzas 2, 12, 19, 26, 34) takes second place to that of "Magdalene."

Thus, Jesus converses with the two sisters. To Magdalen, who remains apprehensive by reason of her past life, he explains that his forgiveness has entirely renewed her. To Martha, who complains about her sister's idleness, he points out the value of pure love even in the midst of the active life; above all, while she prides herself on her purity, he shows her the value of the humility that lies at the very heart of innocence. To the two sisters, he speaks of his love and of the importance of their apostolic missions.

It is noteworthy that Therese's Jesus leaves out "the better portion" chosen by Mary (Lk 10:42), undoubtedly so as not to hurt the "Marthas" of the Carmel who would be included in that distinction. The "author" is not the least concerned about lecturing anybody. Once again, Therese says on stage what she lives at this moment in her own life, as she is immersed in the kind mercy of her "Savior." We must mention the passage of Ms. A that explains this spiritual experience and is the true "source" of RP 4:

"I have no merit at all, then, in not having given myself up to the love of creatures, since I was preserved from it only through God's mercy! I know that, without Him, I could have fallen as low as St. Mary Magdalene, and the profound words Our Lord to Simon resound with a great sweetness in my soul. I know that "he to whom less is forgiven, LOVES less," but I also know that Jesus has forgiven me more than St. Mary Magdalene, since He forgave inc in advance by preventing inc from falling. Ali! I wish I could explain what I feel! Here is an example which will express my thoughts at least a little. Suppose a clever physician's child meets with a stone in his path which causes him to fall and break a limb. His father comes to him immediately, picks him up lovingly, takes care of this hurt, using all the resources of his profession for this. His child, completely cured, shows his gratitude. This child is no doubt right in loving his father! But I am going to make another comparison. The father, knowing there is a stone in his child's way, hastens ahead of him and removes it but without anyone's seeing him do it. Certainly, this child, the object of his father's tender foresight, but UNAWARE of the misfortune from which he was delivered by him, will not thank him and will love him less than if he had been cured by him. But if he should come to learn the danger from which he escaped, will he not love his father more?i Well, I am this child, the object of the foreseeing love of a Father who has not sent His Word to save the just, but sinners. He wants me to love Him, because He has forgiven me not much, but ALL. He has not expected inc to love Him much like Mary Magdalene, but He has willed that I KNOW how He has loved me with a love of unspeakable foresight in order that now I may love Him unto folly! I have heard it said that one cannot meet a pure soul who loves more than a repentant soul; ah! how I would wish to give the lie to this statement!" (Ms. A, 38v-39r).

This is this debate over love that Jesus at Bethany puts on stage, without any fanfare.

THE COMMUNITY CONTEXT

From such a height as this, of God's own heart from which "waves of infinite tenderness" ("Act of Oblation to Merciful Love") overflow onto every soul, to heal or to preserve but always to consume, we are very far from all possible rivalries or resentments between two types of Carmelites of different backgrounds. Day to clay activities are of little importance, "it is love alone that counts," as Therese said just before her death (DE, p.584; LC, 262). She constantly reminded her novices of this, and Sr. Genevieve as well, a choir sister (PN 13, 15; CSG, p. 77), and the lay sister Martha: "Pay more attention to Jesus, even in the midst of your ordinary work" (PA, p. 413). There is no condescension on her part with regard to the "little whiteveiled sister" when she claims to envy her status, her "humble and hidden life" (PA, p. 417).

But on this 29 July 1895, a recent event gave her double cause to be tactful. On the June 2, Pentecost Sunday, the prioress Mother Agnes of Jesus had received an "inspiration," which she immediately passed on to Sr. Genevieve: "I thought that God would like one of us [Martins] to become a lay sister, and since you haven't yet made your profession, you're a natural choice. Is that all right with you?"' As a docile novice, Celine acquiesced at once. "This news became known quickly and they spoke of it at recreation.... The whole clay was spent in doing what had to be clone to accomplish this change, while Mother Marie de Gonzague, seeing it as a serious matter, opposed it with all her strength." Thus things remained as they had been, but how can we doubt that the aftereffects were not prolonged in hearts and in conversations, in the kitchen and, most of all, in the novitiate?

As an instrument of peace in the heart of the community, Therese took care to approach the evangelical text while avoiding anything controversial. Playing Jesus herself,3 with Marie of the Trinity (Magdalene) and Sr. Genevieve (Martha), she played her part as "teacher" with much gentleness and tact.

SISTER THERESE IN JULY 1895

This pacifying attitude and this teaching with tenderness have their source in Therese's spiritual life, now reaching a fullness it had never attained before.

She had just offered herself to Merciful Love (June 9-11) and, a few days later, this Love had answered with "fire" while she was beginning the Stations of the Cross (CJ 7.7.2; LC, 77). Therese had then fallen back into her habitual state of dryness; nonetheless, she confessed: "Since that happy clay, it seems to me that Love penetrates and surrounds me, that at each moment this Merciful Love renews me, purifying my soul and leaving no trace of sin within it" (Ms. A, 84r). This merciful Love can and must sweep away all fears, those of Magdalene and those of Martha.

Though this recreation coincides with the first anniversary of her father's death, Therese is not saddened by it, for she knows that, since the previous August, he has entered into the Peace of God (Ms. A, 82r).

At this time she was writing profusely. We know she wrote her recollections, of which certain themes and expressions peek through in the present text. She was also in "the second period" of her poetic work (see Poesies, v. 1, pp. 21ff.), a full and fruitful time. Jesus at Bethany comes between "The Canticle of Celine" (PN 18) which is comprised of 55 stanzas, and the canticle to the Holy Face, "My Heaven On Earth" (PN 20).4 All the same, apart from some lovely verses in the first part - where she seems more inspired by Magdalene than by Martha - RP 4 remains a minor effort in her poetic program: She hardly uses anything but quite banal expressions.

The affectionate tone of the merciful Jesus - "You always know how to teach inc with gentleness" (stanza 32, 2) - is not without autobiographical significance. With Martha especially, instruction proceeds in a subtle dialectic much like the "tactics" she was then employing with Marie of the Trinity and Celine. The latter recalls the enduring patience of her sister: "At the beginning of her office as novice-mistress, our clear little Sister sought to calm our interior struggles, either by reasoning or by clearly demonstrating that our companions were not at fault. This opened up long discussions" (CSG, p. 10). Jesus did likewise at Bethany.

A LONG TRADITION

Since 1891 until her time in the infirmary, Therese often returned, in her writings, to the person of Mary Magdalene.5 She was fascinated by the love that united this passionate woman with Jesus. Would she herself love "her only Love"' less? Above all, she was "seduced" by Mary Magdalene's "loving audacity" (Ms. C, 36v).

There is nothing in all this, however, that one can compare with Therese's personal and youthful friendship with her favorite young saints: Cecilia, Agnes, Joan of Arc, Theophane Venard. Rather, she seems to be gathering in a heritage, filling herself with a tradition.

The figure of Mary Magdalene has always imposed itself upon spiritual people, who see in her the sinner redeemed by the love of Jesus or the disciple who cannot get enough of the Word of the Master. Therese's Carmel was not free of this attitude. "The glorious Magdalene" has an important place in the devotions and writings of St. Teresa of Jesus. Counting herself a great sinner for having long delayed in totally abandoning herself to Jesus, the Spanish Carmelite loved this penitent who became a great contemplative. John of the Cross emphasized the irreplaceable worth of the "pure love" of Mary of Bethany. Carmel in France, under the influence of Benzlle, that admirer of "the apostle of the apostles," added its own touch to this heritage. At the Lisieux Carmel, the "grotto of St. Mary Magdalene" became a place of grace for the novice Therese of the Child Jesus.' And the "ceremony of perfumes" was joyfully observed there on Monday of Holy Week, in memory of the anointing at Bethany (a paraliturgy brought in by Sr. Marie of the Trinity from her previous Parisian Carmel).

As for St. Martha, often ill-treated by commentators on the events at Bethany, she found in Teresa of Avila a thoroughgoing advocate. Particularly from the perspective that Therese here makes her own, a passage from The Way of Perfection brought forcefully home to the first Carmelites of the Reform that Martha and Mary are complementary, each "saintly" in her own way and equally loved by Jesus: "St. Martha was a saint, even though they do not say she was contemplative.... Think of this congregation as the home of St. Martha and that there must be people for every task. And those who are led by the active life shouldn't complain about those who are very much absorbed in contemplation, for these active ones know that the Lord will defend the contemplatives, even though these latter are silent since for the most part pure contemplation makes one forgetful of self and of all things" (Way of Perfection, trans. Kavanaugh and Rodriguez, rev. ed., 17.5).

THE FIRST EDITION: HA 98

Ever since 1898 (see Mss I, p. 28), one could have mistakenly imagined that we possessed "the fourth Recreation in its entirety." In reality, important textual modifications (the suppression of 5 stanzas, the addition of 3 apocryphal ones, changes to 58 verses) sometimes shift Therese's emphasis and even alter her thought. Many examples of this are given in the notes [to the French edition], in reference to stanzas 12 and 24 and, above all, to the finale.

St. Mary Magdalene is seated at the feet of Our Lord, looking up at Him with love. In the back of the room, we can see St. Martha busy setting the table for the Divine Master's meal.

[5I Our Lord and St. Mary Magdalene sing to the tune of "l'Ange et l'aveugle" ["The Angel and the Blind Man ' J.

Then, Saint Martha advances earnestly. She looks at her sister with astonishment and sings the following, to the tune of "Moine et Bandit" ["Monk and Bandit' J.

RP 5

THE DIVINE LITTLE BEGGAR

OF CHRISTMAS

DATE: 25 December 1895.

OCCASION: Community recreation on Christmas evening.

VERSIONS:

A) Autograph:

A notebook of 2 double sheets, sewn together, December 1895.

B) Copies:

1. Twenty-five colored notes, copied by the novices (Marie of the Trinity, Genevieve, Marie of the Eucharist), December 1895;

2. Chap. XIV, pp. 176-180, end of 1897;

3. CE III, 48r-55v, May 1910.

PUBLICATION:

- HA 98, pp. 434-446, 45 verses retouched.

STYLE: A prologue of 36 verses; 10 stanzas of 14 verses (8 octosyllables + 6 irregular verses); 8 stanzas of 12 octosyllables; 8 stanzas of 12 heptasyllables; conclusion of 16 verses; in total: 384 verses; and some comments in prose.

MUSIC: Prologue: "Sancta Maria"; 1st group of stanzas: "Noel... `Trois anges"'; 2nd group: "Au Rossignol"; 3rd group: "Serenade du Passant"; conclusion: "Ainsi soit-il!"

PRESENT TEXT: autograph.

FOREWORD

This fifth "recreation" is set apart in the theatrical compositions of Sister Therese of the Child Jesus. More than Jesus at Bethany, it seems to fall into the "poetry" genre, with its 26 independent stanzas which the preface and conclusion frame.

In fact, it is a sort of "paraliturgy" of which Therese has planned the ceremonial in detail (see lr). After the Christmas dinner, the community reassembles before "a manger prepared in advance."' Every sister presents herself "by rank of religion," starting with the prioress. Kneeling before the Child Jesus, she pulls out a little piece of paper at random from a basket and gives it to an "angel" who sings the verse. Every sister thus receives, in the presence of all, a personal word that will be able to affect her, to influence her behavior, her prayer.... Therese for her part will never forget that she received as her share "the cluster of grapes" (stanza 9).

It is therefore not a matter of a game, but rather an intimate and contemplative celebration which replaces, on this 25 December 1895, the short piece from previous years and the custom of drawing the "offices at the manger."'

Why such a simple composition at the end of a year which was particularly rich in various graces for "the author"? Perhaps because the novices save their effort for the "great performance" of 28 December, with the wolf of Gubbio (see pp. 21-22, n. 4)? In any case, Therese then has little time at hand. Her literary works are mounting. A deadline approaches: On 21 January, the community will celebrate the feast of the Mother Prioress, Mother Agnes. For this date, Therese must hand in her notebook of childhood memories (Manuscript A), write an important theatrical piece (this will be The Flight into Egypt), and compose a poem ("The Responses of Saint Agnes", PN 26).

In addition, she supports Mother Marie de Gonzague with the five novices, while continuing to paint and keep the office of second portress (next to Sister Saint Raphael).

Consequently, although she still holds the feast of Christmas very clear to her heart - nine years, on this date, since her "conversion" of 1886 - she limits herself to a composition which is modest in every respect. She nevertheless imprints it with her personal mark.

On 6 January 1884, Sister Agnes of Jesus, still a novice, had imagined a small production: the Three Wise Men from the East distributed to every sister, by name, a symbolic present on behalf of the "the newborn King. Reversing the perspective, Therese instead comes closer to the "Legend of the Little Pauper,"4 where Jesus, "the little Prince," confesses: "I am hungry and thirsty for your love." Therein lies a very suitable theme to seduce her. She had already passed on the message in Jesus at Bethany: what Jesus wants from Carmelites is not their "works" or their merits, but rather their hearts, their love, themselves. She had fully committed herself in this way while offering herself to merciful Love (9-11 June 1895) to be completely "consumed" (see stanza 5, 14). She drew along Sister Genevieve, then Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart. On November 30, the young Marie of the Trinity is being asked to offer herself in her turn (CG II, p. 809). Today, it is the whole community that she wishes to bring to a similar offering.

THE HUMILITY OF GOD: JESUS AS BEGGAR

In this paraliturgy with the fragrance of a Provencal pastoral, it is therefore no longer the visitors at the manger who bring presents of their choice, it is the "King of Heaven" who becomes a beggar, "asking for alms from the Carmelites" (see subtitle):

From these verses, Marcel More wrote in 1949, in the magazine Dieu vivant, a resounding article: "Crime and Holiness." He noticed to what degree Sister Therese of the Child Jesus marveled at this hidden mystery: "This Word reduced to the state of a beggar in the heart of the Christian."6

Since her entrance into Carmel, it is true, the young postulant had been struck by this begging God.' And some months after RP 5, Therese will take up this idea in "Jesus Alone" (PN 36, 15 August 1896):

More doesn't hesitate to write that "texts such as these represent a real revolution at the very heart of the Church, which situates us at the center of a new spirituality, and completely turns our backs on the piety of the nineteenth century."8

Instead of the Judging God threatening human beings with his lightning, which frightened more than one Carmelite of Lisieux in 1895, Therese recognizes "the kenosis of the Word stripping himself completely in order to descend into the night of our souls, as he took the form of a slave to descend into the darkness of history." For Sister Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, this is the real meaning of Christmas.

Ever since his Incarnation, Jesus retains human feelings, and he wants to communicate his love. He is "a God for you" (Ir 19), a God Who "lowers himself toward you" (stanza 10). If he asks for our collaboration (the offering of ourselves), it is above all to give us his divine life.

Stanzas 10 and 16, probably the richest theologically speaking, express this reality well:

A PROGRAM OF LIFE

It is regrettable that throughout the twenty-six verses of RP 5 (this is the number of sisters in the community), the inspiration wasn't maintained at the height of such a theology of the Incarnation. In the stanzas where the theme is about a reality which stirs Therese (lyre, roses, cluster of grapes, host, smile...), some beautiful verses emerge that recall felicitous poetry.

But in striving to reach the necessary whole, the author runs out of breath. Therese returns to themes not long ago proposed to Sister Marie-Madeleine to help her practice virtue.9

It is not necessary to look for internal logic in the order according to which she recopies the twenty-six sheets (except for stanza 7, 8, 9). Drawn at random, it does not matter in what order they will be sung.

And yet, when the entire work is read without interruption, the purpose of Carmelite life appears in its consistency and under its essential aspects. Here is the "program of life" that is revealed: continual prayer (5); fraternal charity (11, 22); apostolic zeal (23) for sinners (1, 4, 6), for priests (8), for children (3), for sisters (20); forgetfulness of self: austerity (19), death to oneself (9); religious vows: poverty (17 and 19), virginity (1, 6, 18), obedience (24); virtues of the "little way," simplicity (2, 14 and 22), gentleness and humility (13), abandonment (7, 12, 26), confident faith (21).

While living these values, one "gathers love" (stanza 25). And one offsets "the profound indifference" (lr 11) that Jesus meets "in the world" (10). At Carmel, the "Adorable Word" (st. 3, 8,16) must receive only "tenderness... caresses... praises" (lr 13-15).

We understand that, under the appearance of a poor poem which risks turning off an unsuspecting reader, the Carmelites could have received with faith the message that was addressed to them personally.

THE DIVINE LITTLE BEGGAR OF

CHRISTMAS

ASKING FOR ALMS FROM THE CARMELITES.

While the community is united for recreation in the evening, an angel appears carrying in his arms the little Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes. - He sings the following to the tune of "Sancta Maria, J'ai vu les seraphins en songe, " etc. ["Holy Mary, I Have Seen the Seraphim in a Dream"]

The Mother Prioress comes forward first to adore the InfantJesus whom the angel sets down in a manger prepared in advance; then he presents to the Mother Prioress a small basket filled with little pieces of paper; she takes one from it at random, then without opening it she gives it to the angel who sings [45] about the alms for which the Little Jesus asks. - The Mother Prioress goes back after having kissed and caressed the Divine Child. All of the sisters come in turn by rank of religion and follow this same routine.

[ Iv] The following verses are sung to the Christmas tune by Holmes: "Trois anges sont venus cc soil-, " etc. ["Three Angels Have Come This Night'].

The following verses are sung to the tune of Au Rossignol - Quand to voix celeste prelude, " etc.

My spouse (repeat) in you I gently fall asleep.

The Little Flower (repeat) of your Spouse, the King of Heaven.

The pure soul (repeat) is His daily Bread.

His Face (repeat) He wants to contemplate in you.

It is you yourself (repeat) that Jesus wants for His Palace.

His Crown (repeat) form it with beautiful brilliant Lilies.

The following verses are sung to the tune of Mignonne, voici l°Avril," etc.

[4r] After all the nuns have returned to their places, the angel takes Little Jesus again in his arms and sings the to o following verses to the tune of Ainsi soit-il. - Chaque matin dans sa priere" ["So Be It. Each Morning in Her Prayer's etc.

RP 6

THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT

DATE: 21 January 1896.

OCCASION: Feastday of the prioress, Mother Agnes of Jesus.

VERSIONS:

A) Autograph:

A notebook of six sheets, folded and sewn together, January 1896.

B) Copy:

CE III, 61r-77v, 1910.

PUBLICATION:

HA 98, 457-460, poetic fragments: 100 verses, of which 26 are retouched.

FORM: dialogues in prose and 133 verses.

MUSIC: 1. "La folle de la plage"; 2. "Les Gondolieres venitiennes"; 3. "Romance du Trouvere"; 4. "Estudiantina"; 5. "Choeur des soldats" from [the opera] Faust; 6. "Credo" from [the opera] Herculanum.

PRESENT VERSION: autograph.

FOREWORD

For the third time in the course of three years, Sr. Therese found herself entrusted with preparing the "recreation" for the feastclay of the prioress, Mother Agnes of Jesus. On 21 January in 1894 and 1895, she presented herJoan ofArc. This year again she did not hold back her efforts. In terms of length, this play ranks second out of eight. It is possible that she had been at work on it since the fall of 1895, even before she began RP 5.

To the woman who was "doubly her mother" (Ms. A, 2r), Therese also offered a notebook of one hundred and seventy pages, and a poem. During that same month of January, she had in fact finished writing her childhood memories that Mother Agnes, upon suggestion of Sr. Marie of the Sacred Heart, had ordered her to write the preceding year. On 20 January, the eve of the feastday, as she went into the choir for evening prayer, she knelt before her prioress and gave her the notebook which would come to be called "Manuscript A."' The deadline had been met.

More unexpected was the poem "The Responses of St. Agnes" (PN 26) which versified some passages from the Office of the young martyr. It has a genuine poetic quality.'

The very quantity of these texts expressed a sisterly affection that seemed intended to prepare Mother Agnes for the upcoming trials of the election and the incidents associated with the profession of Sr. Genevieve (Celine).3

Therese always worked for Jesus alone.4 This was fortunate, since her effort of composition was hardly rewarded at the time. Mother Agnes set Manuscript A away in a drawer without even opening it; there it sat for several months. This recreation, as we shall see, did not meet with her approval. We can only hope that she at least appreciated the poem.

Therese, though, did not need human rewards. She had just completed "a year of peace, love and light" 15 undoubtedly the most beautiful since 1887. The completion of Manuscript A, like that of the "Responses," attests to this: praise sang in her heart. "No, nothing can trouble my ineffable peace" (PN 26, 9).

She never ceases to celebrate this merciful Love that, from the time of her offering on 9 June 1895, "penetrates" her, "surrounds" her, and "renews" her.' "How sweet is the way of Love!" she wrote on the last page of her notebook (Ms. A, 84v). She was then enjoying "such a living faith, such a clear faith, that the thought of Heaven made up all my happiness" (see Ms. C, 5r-5v).

THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT

The choice of the subject-matter for this sixth recreation is somewhat surprising. The Gospel story of "the flight into Egypt" was undoubtedly familiar to Therese,' but what could it mean for the community on that particular day? In fact, the political climate in 1896 seemed as though the story might become all too real again. As the Holy Family had fled the rage of Herod, would the Carmelites also be forced to take the road of exile, in the footsteps of other congregations already affected by anticlerical decrees? The final chant of RP 6 evokes this threat. But even if the threat might become reality, the Carmelites were not frightened: nothing could prevent them from loving Jesus and making Him loved by others, since the power of merciful Love could turn exile into mission, persecution into Redemption. This is the central message of The Flight into Egypt (though not the only one), regardless of a strange plot of which we need to remember the source.

In an isolated departure from her usual style, Sister Therese drew her inspiration directly from an episode of the apocryphal gospels recounted by Fr. Faber in his book, The Foot of the Cross, or the Sorrows of Mary:

An old tradition has it that they (the Holy Family) stopped one evening in a den of thieves; there they were received with rough but benevolent hospitality by the wife of the gang's leader.... She had a beautiful child, the very life of her soul, the only sweet and innocent being in the midst of the guilty and savage life around her, and this child was white as snow. Only too much so, alas! since this pallor was that of leprosy.... Mary and Jesus, the thiefs wife and the leprous child, all together in the cave at nightfall! What a suitable place for the Redeemer!... Mary asked for some water to bathe Our Lord; the thiefs wife brought it to her and Jesus was cleansed. This kindness, this opening of the heart, also opened the eyes of the spirit. The thief s wife saw that there was something remarkable about her guests.... Her mother's heart discerned this; the whole world knows this ability that the maternal heart possesses. She took the water Mary had used to wash Jesus and with it she washed her little leprous Dismas, whose skin at once became as rosy and beautiful as a mother's eye could wish.'

The legend says further that Disinas would one clay become the Good Thief....

All the same, the long and amusing development of the life of the thieves is not to be found in Faber or in any of the other writers whom Therese may have consulted.9 Therese allowed herself to indulge in humor - led on, no doubt, by the contagious gaiety of Sr. Marie of the Trinity and, even more, Marie of the Eucharist.10 It was, after all, a "recreation" into which the novices could throw themselves with joyous hearts. The contrast between these amusing scenes and the serious ones of conversation of Mary and Joseph with Susanna and the thieves allows for dramatic surprise.

THE PERFORMANCE

Here, then, we see the whole novitiate, on 21 January 1896, mobilized to perform the seven roles of The Flight into Egypt. One thing is certain: wrapped in a cloak of blue tulle with white dots (preserved in the Lisieux archives), Sr. Therese played the Virgin Mary. The Infant Jesus, a wax figure, had already "performed" a month earlier in The Divine Little Beggar of Christmas.

As for the other roles, it seems likely that Sr. Genevieve, who so loved St. Joseph (see the postscript to LT 182), played him. Marie of the Trinity and Marie of the Eucharist would have been able to play Abramin and Susanna.

There is ample reason to believe that the performance took place, not in the warming-room, but in the chapterhouse. There a large creche (see RP 5, p. 224, n. 1) was displayed from Christmas until February 2, the feast of the Purification of Mary. That huge grotto of paper rocks may have given our author the idea to turn it into a thieves' den. With the stage decoration already in place, there would have been a savings of time and labor - an advantage after the Joan ofArc of the previous year (RP 3) which had required so much effort. A curtain would suffice to create the side-scenes.

After the triumph of the two Joan of Arc plays, The Flight into Egypt was a fiasco. Mother Agnes of Jesus interrupted the performance. Later, she explained her action with contrition: "One feastday evening, I caused her pain after she had gone to much trouble to please us, when I told her very bluntly that her pious recreations were too long and that they wearied the community."11

It is not known at what point the play was interrupted. According to Sr. Genevieve, it was only at the last chant of the Angel.12 Even if this is the case, the interruption was most unfortunate, since these eight stanzas complete the play and give it its meaning.

"The author" was hurt. "I happened to come upon her in one of the alcoves," wrote Sr. Genevieve, "secretly wiping away some tears; then regaining her self control, she remained peaceful and sweet in spite of the humiliation."1'

The Reverend Mother Agnes of Jesus had not appreciated the drinking bout of the thieves, their low language (so unlike Therese), and the chant: "We are the rich and famous bandits / of the cavern," to the modern tune of "Estudiantina"! Such things would have been better suited to a feast of the Holy Innocents than to one for the prioress. Responsible as she was to the community, Mother Agnes may have feared the criticism of some of the more rigid sisters. This concern for respectability did not affect Mother Marie de Gonzague, who was more open-minded. As mistress of novices, she had necessarily read the text before the performance and perhaps witnessed the rehearsals, but had found nothing requiring a rewrite in the doings and sayings of these rather sympathetic bandits, all of whom were to become believers.

But Therese took to heart the lesson she had learned from her sister and prioress: from that point on, she would compose only two brief recreations.

THE CONTRIBUTION OF THIS "PIOUS RECREATION" TO AN UNDERSTANDING OF THERESE

The Flight into Egypt reveals certain aspects of the concerns of Sr. Therese of the Child Jesus that are nowhere else apparent.

First, let us note that she makes great use of gaiety and humor. This is the only such instance in these recreations; and, as we have seen, this was not a success for her! Still, her out-ofthe-ordinary vocabulary, her (deliberate?) anachronisms and her use of contemporary music make her bandits appear sympathetic and lively.

She also promotes a reflection on the inequality of the rich and the poor. This was a crucial question at the end of the 19th century, and Therese was not unaware of it, in the depths of her Carmel. In the difficulties of Joseph the carpenter, we can see the insecurity of the working class. But he rejects the uprising and anarchy which Susanna advocates. The blessedness of poverty does not constitute a social program, but it determines a lifestyle ultimately of protest, that of Yahweh's poor.

Therese also shows us some pagans of good faith who are journeying towards the light. Susanna symbolizes those who, having "nothing but natural law to guide them" (Ms. A, 3r), present valid questions about God, evil, and the meaning of life. Prodded by her suffering as a mother, she attains a revelation of a God Who "lowers Himself" even unto her (Ms. A, 2v). And like the Samaritan woman of the Gospel, she becomes a missionary to her husband and his companions. The miracle of the healing of the leprous child meets with open hearts, even among the morally impaired.

The dialogue between the two mothers, Mary and Susanna, takes up several scenes. As a woman, Therese felt that faith penetrates more easily into the "heart of a mother" than into those of coarse men. But those men, such as they are, are influenced by the women.

It is a Marian play: Joseph the just, frequently quoting Scripture, effaces himself before his wife. Mary occupies the forefront. It is she who leads the infidels to Jesus, the silent Child, the Word of God.

But a troubling question arises from the very start of our reading. This Mary seems opposed to the one Therese described in 1897, in her Marian testament, "Why I Love You, 0 Mary," and in the Last Conversations. 14 There we see an entirely simple Mary, who does not foretell the future, who makes no theological declarations, but who "lived by faith" (see DE, 390; LC, 161).

Here, on the contrary, Therese seems unreservedly to follow Fr. Faber clown the path of the apocrypha. In RP 6, everything is extraordinary, not as she would say the following year: "It's by the ordinary way, incomparable Mother, / That you like to walk..." (PN 54, 17). Would Therese's Mariology have changed to such a degree in fifteen months?

If so, the only apparent "explanation" for so radical a turnabout is the influence of her "trial of faith." Having entered into the shadows, Therese would have learned from her own experience that Mary "lived by faith," that she was not allknowing, did not constantly prophesy the future, but that her Son wanted her to be the example "of the soul searching for Him in the night of faith" (PN 54, 15). Happy are not those who know everything in advance, but "those who believed."

Or perhaps Therese did not change from 1896 to 1897, but simply yielded to theatrical conventions by adapting the apocryphal scenario passed on by Fr. Faber, and thus implicitly indulging in the conventional Mariology of her time, with its miracles and prophesies, without herself embracing it. We simply pose the question, without pretending to answer it here.

What seems beyond doubt, however, is that her trial will deeply change the conception of faith that Therese had when she composed The Flight into Egypt.

She would soon discover that the world of unbelievers does not consist only of such people as Susanna, Abramin, and Torcol. It also consists of beings who live in the darkness, who think they are advancing towards "the night of nothingness" (Ms. C, 6v), souls who truly "have no faith" (Ms. C, 5v) or who abuse the graces given them, like Leo Taxil (see RP 7).

Therese was going to experience this herself a few months later, in the course of a fierce struggle. "I believe I have made more acts of faith in this past year than all through my whole life" (Ms. C, 7r). It is undeniable that RP 6 casts light on Therese's conception of faith at the time she was going to enter "the fog."

Above all, The Flight into Egypt celebrates the mercy's of the hidden God, whom even persecution sends as a Redeemer for all humanity. He saves the little ones, the poor, but also the penitent thieves. "Jesus does not desire the death of the sinner, but that he should convert and live forever" (I Or, 22). The way of childhood is offered as much to the good thief as to the Holy Innocents. Mary knew quite well that Abramin and his son Dismas "will [again] offend God who has showered them with blessings" (10r, 16). But Mary (Therese), the true Mother of mercy, understood the divided hearts of human beings: "Have confidence, however, in the infinite mercy of the Good God; it is great enough to wipe away the worst crimes when it finds a mother's heart with complete trust in it" (10r, 18-21).

The main point of the little way that Therese will forcefully express at the time of her death and which concludes her last manuscript: "Yes, I feel it; even though I had on my conscience all the sins that can be committed, I would go, my heart broken with sorrow, and throw myself into Jesus' arms, for I know how much He loves the prodigal child who returns to Him." 16

Finally, as is no surprise since the appearance of La Bible avec Therese de Lisieux," The Flight into Egypt is a biblical play, which includes about seventy quotations or allusions to Scripture. Obviously the subject-matter itself was taken from Scripture. But once again, we immediately notice the ease with which Therese "weaves" the words borrowed from the most diverse biblical authors. Her familiarity with the Word of God, unceasingly read, meditated upon, and prayed, is manifest at each moment. These quotations do not sound like they were just copied from a book, but rather reveal an assurance which astonishes the first reader, critic, and prefacer of the Story of a Soul. 18 For all these reasons, The Flight into Egypt is much richer than a first reading might lead one to believe.

THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT

[Act 1]

[Scene 1]

The setting is the little house in Nazareth. Mary is alone in Joseph's workshop, with the Child Jesus on her knees. By her side is a basket of linen, her wheel, and her spindle.

[51 THE BLESSED VIRGIN

Divine Child! How sweet it is for me to rock You to sleep in this clear little house in Nazareth!... Here, as in Bethlehem, the poverty is very great, but this refuge is more worthy of You than that abandoned stable. (The Blessed Virgin [1Q looks around her tenderly). 0 blessed abode! What ineffable memories you bring to mind! Here the angel of the Lord visited the littlest, the last of all His creatures and asked for the unique grace of being able to serve the happy Mother of God. Here the Divine Word, the second Person of the Adorable Trinity, was made flesh 1151 by the workings of the Holy Spirit, and remained for nine months hidden from mortal eyes. (Looking at the baby Jesus). Then the world was unaware of Your Presence, 0 Divine Savior! Now I carry You in my arms, like a light burden, and Your creatures still do not recognize You... Since [901 the shepherds and the Magi went away, no one thinks to come and adore You. Soon the springtime will be adorned with a thousand flowers, but none of them will equal the beauty of the Flower that blooms in Nazareth, far from human sight. 0 divinely fragrant Flower! How does Your sweet perfume [25] not reveal Your Presence?...

[Scene 2]

Saint Joseph enters, carrying his tools.

THE BLESSED VIRGIN, with a tone of gentle reproach.

Joseph, you've been away a long time, why do you work such long clays?

1301 SAINT JOSEPH

Mary! Let inc spend my energy in the service of Jesus. It is for Him and for you that I work; this thought gives inc courage and helps me to bear fatigue. And then, when I return [Iv] in the evening, one caress from Jesus, a single glance from you, make me forget the clay's labors.

He wipes the sweat from his brow, then sits down by Mary and looks at the Child Jesus. The Blessed Virgin puts Him on Saint Joseph's knees; [5] then his face takes on an expression of Celestial joy; he presses the Divine Child to his heart, kisses Him lovingly and says to Him:

Little Child! How sweet Your smile is!... Is it really true that I, the poor carpenter Joseph, have the happiness of holding in my arms the King of Heaven, the Savior of humanity?... [10] Is it true that I have the sublime mission of being the foster father to Him whose presence satisfies the ardent seraphim and who nourishes every creature? Is it true that I am the spouse of the Mother of God, the guardian of her virginity?...

[15] 0 Mary! Tell me, what is this profound mystery?... The Desired of the eternal hills, the Emmanuel for whom all the patriarchs have sighed, sits on my knees and He looks at me, His poor, unworthy servant.

THE BLESSED VIRGIN

[20] Like you, Joseph, I am astonished to be able to press to my heart the Divine Child whose mother I am; I am astonished that a little milk is needful to Him who gives life to the world. (After a long, contemplative silence, Mary continues:) Soon Jesus will grow up and [25] you will have to teach the Creator of the universe how to work.... With you, He will earn His bread by the sweat of His adorable brow....

SAINT JOSEPH

What are you saying, Mary? Must Jesus become a [301 poor workman like me? Ah! I'll never have the courage to see Him bear the reproaches I receive!...

Even today, the rich lord for whom I was working was not happy with my work and sent inc away, telling inc to seek my fortune elsewhere. After much searching and [351 many rebuffs, I finally found enough work to last a whole month; I'll be able to do it here at home, a happiness for which I didn't dare to hope. Not to go away from Jesus and from you, what a consolation!... (Realizing that little Jesus is asleep, he lowers his voice:) [40] The Divine Child is sleeping; take up your Treasure, His bedtime has come. (He kisses Jesus on the forehead, then gives Him to Mary who takes Him respectfully.)

Joseph, may God bless your sleep, rest in peace beneath the gaze of Him whose heart is always watching.

[Scene 3]

When Mary exits, Joseph goes to sleep; after a few moments ~51 of silence, the angel of the Lord appears to him in a dream; he sings to the tune of "La folle de la plage. - Flots bleus, vagues plaintives," etc.

[Scene 4]

Saint Joseph gets up at once and taps lightly at the door of the little room where Mary is at rest.

[20 SAINT JOSEPH

Mary, wake up, for the life of Jesus is in danger.

THE BLESSED VIRGIN, entering with little Jesus.

Joseph, sleep in peace, no danger threatens the Divine Child. See how He is resting peacefully in my arms.

[25] SAINT JOSEPH

Yes, in His sweet sleep, the King of the Heavens seems to be unaware of the message of one of His angels.... Still, He knows everything... 0 Mary! Why doesn't Jesus speak to you Himself? Why am I charged with delivering Heaven's orders to the ['0 Mother of my God?...

THE BLESSED VIRGIN

Don't be afraid. Speak. You are God's representative, the head of the family; tell inc what the angel ordered you on behalf of the Lord. I am entirely ready to obey.

He is ordering us to flee into Egypt, because Herod is determined to put the Child to death. We must leave within the hour; tomorrow may be [5] too late.... (He looks at Mary with a sad expression.)

THE BLESSED VIRGIN

Don't be troubled, Joseph. Since the day of the presentation of Jesus in the temple, I've been continually prepared to be put to the test, for the words of the holy elder Simeon pierced my soul with a [`] sword of sorrow. Already his prophesy is coming true; Jesus is suffering persecution before He is even old enough to defend Himself. I know that if He willed it, a single word from His infant lips would suffice to wipe out all His enemies; however, He chooses to flee from a weak mortal, since He is the Prince of [151 peace.... The Word made Child will not crush the half-broken reed, He will not extinguish a wick that is still burning. If He is rejected by those of His own heritage, that will not stop Him from giving His life for poor sinners who fail to recognize the tune of His visit..... [20] Let us leave without fear, let us go sanctify an infidel shore with the presence of the Savior.

SAINT JOSEPH

Alas, how it costs inc to expose you to the weariness and danger of so long and difficult a journey. [251 How happy I'd be if I were permitted to take all the pain on myself... But I must resign myself to seeing you soon deprived of everything. Here we have the necessities; in Egypt, we will be reduced to the most extreme poverty.

THE BLESSED VIRGIN

X30] The poverty we'll find in exile doesn't frighten me, since we will always have the Treasure that makes up the wealth of Heaven. His Divine Providence, which feeds the little birds without forgetting a single one, will give us our daily bread.

[Scene 5]

After picking up his tools, Joseph exits with [35l Jesus and Mary; then the ANGELS sing to the tune of "Gondolieres Venitiennes":

[Act II]

THE CAVE OF THE THIEVES

[Scene 1]

[20] On the walls of the cavern hang weapons and the skins of wild beasts. On the floor are spread out a strange mix of jewels and rich candelabra, along with other objects of no value. A young woman, SUSANNA, rocks her son Dismas while singing to the tune of "Trouvere".

[Scene 2]

The sound of a whistle alerts Susanna that the bandit troop is approaching. She lays her sleeping child in a little cradle with great care, then she opens the door. ABRAMIN, the chief, enters first, X401 followed by his companions, the old man TORCOL and the young IZARN. The three sing to the tune of Estudiantina."

ABRAMIN throws rich objects at the feet of his wife, mainly children's clothes and toys, then he sits down beside her and says:

Well, then! Are you pleased, Susanna? Disinas will be dressed like a prince and you won't have to go to any trouble to amuse him. (Susanna looks at the [25] things with a sad expression.) You don't look satisfied! It's just too much! If I'd known, I wouldn't have carried away all these trinkets.

SUSANNA

How can you ask me to rejoice, while Dismas is sick? [30~ Cure my child and you will see me smile.

ABRAMIN

I have done what I could: how many times have I taken Dismas to Jerusalem to have him cared for by the most skillful doctors? All their remedies have been useless; so leave me in peace [35] and don't talk to me of a sickness that causes me as much despair as it does you... (He leaps to his feet and leans over the cradle.) Must I have a leprous son!... Ah! I who based such hopes on him!...

TORCOL, sneering.

[40] There's no reason to upset yourself, don't you have good helpers? Izarn and I both know how to give you a hand without your son's interfering. If you don't recognize the services we render you in your crimes, it's pure ingratitude.

IZARN, patting his companion on the shoulder.

[45] Comrade, don't be in a had mood, the chief isn't saying [4r] anything against us. I, too, am sorry that Dismas is leprous; he's well-formed otherwise. I'm sure there's not another who'd have been his equal at scaling walls or cracking locks, and above all at using his sword to get obedience from the rebellious.

[5] ABRAMIN

Shut up, you peasants, my son is none of your business. I forbid you to speak insultingly of him, to his mother's grief.

SUSANNA

Abramin, how is it that you, who understand my sorrow, have brought 110 tears to so many poor mothers? You haven't gotten away with all these things without shedding blood. There was a time I would have smiled at hearing of your transgressions, but now that I suffer myself, I can't take pleasure in the sufferings of others.

[15] ABRAMIN

It's a lucky thing you didn't come into the town of Bethlehem today, your heart would have been stirred with compassion; even my own, hardened as it is, trembled with indignation to witness such barbarity, for I don't spill blood except to defend my life. [201

Those who are willing to sleep peacefully while I loot their coffers have nothing to fear from me. I am the most peaceable of men and my sword has never wounded an innocent.

TORCOL, in a lively tone.

[251 Except for me, that clay, or night rather, when you whacked inc on the shoulder because I wasn't getting away fast enough from a turret where I'd found a hoard of treasure. There, you who call yourself the most peaceable of men, I regret ever putting my white hair at your service, since you hardly [30] respect it.

ABRAMIN, sarcastically.

This blow of my sword was well deserved. I'm quite ready to do the same again if you fail to obey inc at the first command. I could care less about your white wig; I didn't know [35] that you had put it at my service. You can keep it for your own, since I have no use for it. My superb head of black hair, which gives me some resemblance to the Olympian gods, is quite enough for me. As for yours, which looks like a little girl's, it's no good for anything but to be thrown into the fire.

TORCOL, in a rage.

[401 This is too much. I am going to avenge myself for this insult.

He reaches out to a pile of empty bottles, picks up one of them, and starts to throw it at the chiefs head. Izarn rushes to defend him.

ABRAMIN, grabbing Torcol's arm hard.

[4v] Move if you can!....

Tai-col cries out and struggles while Izarn takes the bottle from his hand.

SUSANNA hurries to the cradle.

X51 Please, be quiet. You woke up Disinas. (She takes him in her arms.)

IZARN, to Torcol.

Torcol, you're wrong to rebel against the chief. He's a brave fellow who's heaped goods on you. Consider this: it's to him that we owe these rich costumes that might cause us to be taken for descendents [10] of King Solomon; it's also to him that we owe all these bottles that have had us bending our elbows so often. And you, in a fit of ingratitude, you'd use one of them to avenge yourself against the author of our good fortune.

TORCOL

X15] Keep your sermons to yourself and leave me be. I know perfectly well what I have to do. I agree to forego vengeance, but it's through greatness of soul, not through force.

He goes and sits down with Izarn in a corner of the cave where they both begin to smoke their pipes.

[2Q ABRAMIN, going to Susanna.

You don't know how to get my son to sleep. Give him to me; I'm going to chant a little song for him that will make him dream of glory and bravery.

He takes the child and, walking jerkily, he sings:

[20 Returning Dismas to his mother, ABRAMIN says:

See, he's asleep already. I recognize in him a brave man worthy of me. How sad that Dismas is a leper!!!... (He strikes his head with his fist.)

SUSANNA

Don't think about it anymore; you just now forbade inc to talk to you about it. [5r] Tell me, instead, what happened in Bethlehem today.

ABRAMIN

What happened is something fit to make you detest Herod, for, on his orders, all the children aged two or younger were [51 pitilessly massacred before their mothers' eyes and in their arms.

SUSANNA, holding Dismas with terror.

Is it possible? Ah! I can't believe such barbarity! Poor mothers, they will die of sorrow.... As for me, I'd already [10] be dead if my treasure had been snatched from me.....

ABRAMIN

I'm telling you the truth; besides, all these things I've brought ought to prove it. I was able to carry them off with no trouble, since no one was paying any attention to me.

[15] SUSANNA

But what motive did the king have to do something so low, so criminal? Why has he struck dead all these innocents?

ABRAMIN

[201 No one knows for sure the reason for this hideous act; everyone has his own explanation. There are those who say that some foreign kings were the cause of it, when they came to ask Herod where to find the newborn king of the Jews, because having seen his star, they wanted to worship him. [25] Sensing a rival and wanting to be rid of him at all cost, Herod made useless searches for him, then decided to put all these children to death, as a sure way of exterminating David's descendant.

SUSANNA, in thought.

E301 What an astonishing story! An infant who receives the adoration of foreign kings, who makes Herod tremble on his throne.... Wouldn't this be the Messiah awaited by the Jews?

ABRAMIN

I don't know; in any case, his empire will never exist, Esau since he's just been massacred. The god who protects me is Mercury and I recognize no other; in his name and in his honor, I'm going to undertake new exploits. (Getting up, he takes his weapons and says to his companions:) Let's go, my friends, let's leave!.... (They exit.)

[Scene 3]

[5v] SUSANNA, looking over the things scattered on the floor.

What riches! What profusion! Truly, I am the happiest of women! (She puts on a bracelet of fine pearls, then, looking at her child, she takes off the jewels and, pushing the heap of treasure aside with her foot, X51 she cries out:) No, I am not happy!... The sight of these riches dazzled me for a moment, but I despise these treasures that cannot bring health to my son.

What have I clone to Heaven to be so plunged in grief? Perhaps Abramin's crimes have brought divine [10] vengeance upon us.... Ali! If I knew where God lives, I would go, even across the seas, and throw myself at His feet to ask Him for the life of my child and pardon for Abramin's crimes. God would not deny the prayer of a mother's heart that trusts in Him....

[15] I feel that He must be infinitely good, the unknown Being who created me, and I would like to know Him. I would like to deliver Dismas to Him, so He might make him a valiant warrior in His kingdom. For I desire the happiness of my son more than my own and, to see him happy, I'd give my life a thousand times over.

[20] But my spirit is wandering.... I'll never leave this desert cave, the God I seek will never hear my prayer... He would have to lower Himself to me in order for my desire to be any more than a chimera.... Only a mother could conceive such a dream. Alas, why can it not [25] come true!... (She weeps).

[Scene 4]

There is a gentle knock at the door. SUSANNA abruptly raises her head and says in a firm voice:

Who's there?

SAINT JOSEPH

We are poor, worn-out travelers who ask hospitality of you [30] for the night.

SUSANNA

This cavern is not an inn. Take to the road; we don't have lodgings for travelers.

THE BLESSED VIRGIN

[ 51 In the name of your child, if you are a mother, don't refuse us the shelter we ask.

SUSANNA half-opens the door. When she sees Mary holding the Child Jesus, she says in a gentle voice:

In the name of my son, I can refuse nothing. One can see that you, too, are a mother, since you know so well the weakness of a mother's heart.

[6r] The Holy Family enters the cavern.

SUSANNA

You're lucky that I'm alone. If my husband were here with his companions, he might have done you wrong, but [5] he shouldn't be back until daybreak. Till then, no one will disturb you.

SAINT JOSEPH

Thank you. You're a good woman. God will reward you for your charity.

SUSANNA

['°] Who is He, the God of whom you speak to me? For a long time, I have wanted to know Him.

SAINT JOSEPH

0 woman! If you knew the name of the one who has just come into your cavern! If you knew the Child whom Mary presses to [15] her heart!...

SUSANNA approaches Mary.

How beautiful your child is! Why, then, have you exposed yourselves to the inclemency of the season in the desert?

THE BLESSED VIRGIN

[201 An important event has forced its to leave Nazareth to go live in Egypt. You understand what I suffer when I see my Son without shelter and trembling with cold, while the glacial winds at night whip up the desert sands. Or when I cannot even find a single palm tree to shield Him from the burning ardor of the midday Sun.

[25] SUSANNA

The occasion for which you're making such a difficultjour- ney must be important indeed. If it's to seek your fortune in Egypt, I wouldn't encourage you to keep going. It seems that poor people are even worse off in that country than in ours. Besides, [301 you ought to know that misery always follows those born under its star. The only way to elude it is to rebel against the rich and to seize from them by force the wealth that is unjustly divided.

SAINT JOSEPH

[35] It is not poverty that we flee. Happiness does not consist in having wealth, but in humbly submitting your will to that of God, who gives each person what He knows to be necessary for the salvation of his soul.

THE BLESSED VIRGIN

[6v] Poor woman, how can you attach your soul to all these riches gained unjustly? How is it that you don't find all your j oy in forming the heart of this beautiful child whom the good God has entrusted to you?

[51 SUSANNA, sadly.

Far from being my joy, this child is the cause of my sorrow. It is he who keeps inc from enjoying the immense riches that surround Inc... How speedily I'd give you all I possess [10] if you could save my son's life.

SAINT JOSEPH, going to the child.

What's wrong with your child, then? He's as lovely as an angel and he seems to be sleeping peacefully.

SUSANNA

[15] Yes, Dismas is beautiful, but don't you see that the snowy whiteness spread across his brow is leprosy? (She weeps.)

THE BLESSED VIRGIN, gently pulling away the hand that Susanna has raised to her face.

[20 Don't cry, poor mother. The good God is powerful enough to heal [your] son. He will repay the hospitality you've shown us tonight.

SUSANNA

I don't know where He lives, this God whom you call good. [251 You who know Him oh!, I beg you, beseech Him to cure my child and I will give you all that you may desire.

THE BLESSED VIRGIN

I promise you I shall pray for your child, and all I ask in return is a little water with which to wash Jesus. See how His little face ['0] is covered with sweat and dust.

SUSANNA

I ought to have thought of offering what you ask. (She steps to the back of the cavern and points out a small basin of water carved out of the rock.) Here is the little bathtub I use for Disinas; it should [35] serve for you to bathe your child. But aren't you afraid He'll get the terrible sickness that my son has?

THE BLESSED VIRGIN

No, I am not afraid. I know that Jesus has come to earth [7r] to heal your son by taking upon Himself the boy's weakness and infirmity. Right now, He is a fugitive, like a traveler who doesn't even have a rock He can call His own on which to rest His head, because [5] the Jews do not recognize their king!... Later, they will treat Him like a leper and his face will be hidden from them. (Mary says these words in a prophetic voice. Sorrow and joy are mixed in the gaze she casts on Jesus. Then, looking at Susanna, she adds:) [10] But also your child will be clothed in the charms that my Son will have given up for him. He'll take his place with Him in His eternal kingdom.

SUSANNA, deeply moved.

I can't understand what you're saying. How can your Child [15] bring Dismas to health? Isn't He as weak as mine?... It's true that I see in your face and His a radiance I've never known, but what can you do for me, you poor travelers who've had to seek refuge in a den of thieves?...

[20] Ah! I am beginning to believe that you are mysterious people. Your noble demeanor, your air of grandeur reveal an illustrious origin. Aren't you the descendants of some monarch, since you've just spoken of a kingdom where my son might take his place with Yours?

THE BLESSED VIRGIN

The kingdom of Jesus is not of this world; if His kingdom were of this world, He would have palaces like those of earthly kings, and valiant warriors would fight for Him. Right now, you can't understand the meaning of what I say, ['0 but one clay you'll understand.

Mary, having poured water into the basin, washes Little Jesus.

SAINT JOSEPH, to Susanna.

Consider well what Mary is doing. Imitate her, believing firmly that God can cure your son, and this bountiful God will repay your faith.

[35] SUSANNA

Yes, I believe that the true God has sent you to me to console me, for I sense in my soul something I can't define... But how can a little water bring about my son's good health?

Had you ever opened the Holy Scriptures, you would have react there that the leper Nahaman was cured when, obeying the prophet Elisha, he washed himself seven times in the waters of the Jordan, even thought that water [5] had not yet been sanctified by the presence of the Word made Flesh.

SUSANNA

I don't know what you mean by the Holy Scriptures, but my mother's heart urges inc to obey your words. (She dips her child into the basin that has just been used for Jesus, ad then, when she has taken him out, she gives a joyous cry and says in a voice trembling with emotion:) Ah! My child, my Dismas is healed!... Is this not a dream?... No, it's the truth, his ruby lips are smiling at me... his face is aglow and full of life... Only a God could have worked this miracle!... X15] (Turning towards Mary.) Ah! Now I believe it, this Child you carry pressed to your heart is God Himself, Who has lowered Himself to me.... I do not understand this mystery, but I believe it because I sense its truth.

[Scene 5]

The sound of a whistle is heard and the bandits enter their [20J den.

ABRAMIN, in a transport of fury, lifts his sword at the sight of Mary and Joseph.

Who are these audacious people who've had the temerity to break into my domain? They'll pay more clearly than they think.

[25] SUSANNA throws herself at his feet, holding up Dismas.

Abramin, don't touch our benefactors, they've come to put an end to our sorrow. Look! Dismas is cured of his leprosy.

ABRAMIN, dropping his sword.

What are you saying? Dismas is cured... (He looks closely at the E301 child.) It's absolutely true, no doubt about it. (Wiping his tears away roughly with the back of his hand.) I didn't think I had any more tears left but, hard as my heart is, it feels moved by a miracle that confounds all human expectations. X35] Who, then, are these strangers who have the marvelous knowledge of how to make the terrible disease of leprosy disappear so quickly?

SUSANNA

I don't know their names, but I am sure that the Child they [401 carry is the true God, hidden in the appearance of weakness.

A God in the form of a child! Susanna, joy has led you astray... (Turning towards St. Joseph.) Tell me your name, I beg you, and what recompense you'd have for the [5] healing you've just performed.

SAINT JOSEPH

I am the poor carpenter, Joseph. I'm not the one who's just restored health to your son; it was the Child whom Mary holds in her arms.

[log TORCOL

Truly, we're in another world! I don't know, but I feel like I've been moved at the bottom of this thing. (He points to his heart.) I've been on this ball of a world long enough to be a judge of men, and [15] well, I swear, these strangers are no ordinary people.

IZARN

I've never seen such a thing and, right now, the life we've been leading no longer seems as attractive as it did before.

ABRAMIN, with a commanding gesture.

[20] Sit back down there and.... Be quiet!.... (To St. Joseph.) I beg you to explain, how could your child heal my son?

SUSANNA, enthusiastically.

Listen to how things happened. This woman, [25] who is incomparably more beautiful and sweeter than any I've ever seen, asked inc for water to wash her Child; I gave it to her in Dismas's bathtub, while I told her of my fear that her son might get my son's disease. Instead of sharing my fears, she answered [30] me in mysterious words which I didn't understand, though I felt something extraordinary within myself. As soon as her child was out of the water, I took the advice her husband had given me and plunged Dismas in, hoping he'd be healed. And you see what has happened.... [35] How can anyone doubt, then, that little Jesus is God.... What's more, his mother spoke to me of a kingdom where Dismas must take his place with Him.

ABRAMIN

[8v] A kingdom! Ah! I have it... This marvelous Child is the One Herod thinks he has wiped out... He is the King of the Jews, the Messiah they've been awaiting for so long.

THE BLESSED VIRGIN

[5] Oh! The wonder of God's mercy that hides itself from the learned and the wise to make itself known to little ones, to lost sheep and unbelievers!....

ABRAMIN

Have I not spoken the tnzth? Don't hide from me anymore [10] where you come from, you have nothing to fear from me. Far from betraying you, I'm ready to defend you against those who'd like to attack you, and my men will stand with me at a sign from me.

THE TWO BANDITS get up together.

Yes, yes, we're ready.

[151 TORCOL

Never have we worked for so noble a cause.

SAINT JOSEPH

My friends, thank you. But this is not the time for combat: Jesus is the God of Peace, He comes to defend and to [20] save.

ABRAMIN

Since your Son is God, why hasn't He shown His power by saving from death so many poor infants who've just been massacred on His account? [25] This miracle He's just performed for Dismas He could have done for the children of Bethlehem even more easily, since all He had to do was strike cruel Herod dead.

SAINT JOSEPH

God's thoughts are not like human thoughts; ['0 otherwise Jesus would have acted as you have just said. But His ways are high above human ways, as far as Heaven is above the earth. I cannot sound the depths of Divine thoughts and I adore them without understanding them.... ['s1 Mary is more illuminated than I am by the light of the Holy Spirit and she can undoubtedly explain to you why her Divine Son preferred to let those innocents be cut down, rather than strike Herod dead.

THE BLESSED VIRGIN

The Son of God did not come to earth to take away life [9r] but to give it. I have told you that His kingdom is not of this world. If He has left the brilliant palace of the Heavens, it was not to conquer an earthly empire; what He wants, what He has come to earth to find, is friends, [5] brothers, whom He might bring with Him into His Celestial Kingdom. If Jesus has let the happy infants of His own age be cut down in their innocence, it is to give them salvation and make them His court of honor.

Even the longest life is no more than a dream in which - very[10 often, alas! - people let themselves be led astray by an attachment to the vanities of this world and they forget that they have souls created in the image of God. So it was a great mercy of Jesus' to take from this world that legion of infants who now enjoy eternal rest.

[151 ABRAMIN, thoughtfully.

A soul created in the image of God! ... Deceased infants who rejoice in eternal rest! ... What unheard of depths to me!.... So everything is not finished after life?... Ah! I'm all overwhelmed, I think I'm dreaming.

[201 SAINT JOSEPH

You are not dreaming. The sublime mysteries Mary has just revealed to you are the simple truth: if you knew how to grasp them, far from unjustly amassing perishable riches, you would esteem poverty as the greatest of treasures. You would seek [251 only what would make your soul pleasing to God.

ABRAMIN

And why do you want me to seek to please God? How will He know? You say that poverty is more to be prized than treasures; ['0] explain this strange mystery to me.

SAINT JOSEPH

If this present life should last forever, you'd have some reason to accumulate wealth. But this life that flashes by like a bolt of lightning must be followed by an eternity of happiness for those who ['5] have served God faithfully during their passing exile.

Then, this God of goodness and mercy will magnificently reward not only the striking things done for Him, but also the simple desires to serve Him and love Him, because He sees everything; His eye pierces to the depths of hearts, the most secret thoughts are not [4Q hidden from Him and, as the prophet Isaiah says: "The Lord shall not judge by what His eyes see, or condemn [9v] by what His ears hear; but He will judge the poor with justice, and He will set Himself up as the just avenger of the humble oppressed on earth. God will Himself come and He will save them." [Cf. 1 Ch 28:9; Is 11:3-4; 35:4.-Trans.]

[5] ABRAMIN, getting up.

Ah! This is too much for me. I'm beside myself, I don't know myself anymore.... Friends, let's leave this place; we are not worthy to remain in the presence of these mysterious guests.

SUSANNA

[101 Abramin, when truth shines into your eyes, don't flee from its light. I beg you, by Dismas whom the Savior has restored to life, don't go back to that criminal life where you would lose your soul. Display the gratitude you owe our benefactors by [h] guiding them across the desert, so they can take the road to Egypt tomorrow.

ABRAMIN

If I leave, it's not to go back to looting, but I need to breathe the night air; the atmosphere around here [20 is too pure for me. Rest easy, though. At dawn's first light, I'll show our guests a safe route, so they can continue their journey without any worry.

He starts toward the door, and the two other thieves get uu

[251 TORCOL, approaching Mary.

Speak of me sometimes to your Child that one clay He may remember old Torcol, when He's come into His kingdom.

THE BLESSED VIRGIN

If you want to enter into my Son's kingdom, never forget X301 this blessed night when God took rest in your home. Then you may hope to see Him after this life, no longer as a weak little baby, but in all the magnificence of His glory.

IZARN, falling to his knees.

Ah! May He bless us, this Child who shall make us happy X351 for eternity.

Together, the three bandits bow their heads. St. Joseph and Susanna also kneel down.

THE BLESSED VIRGIN, blessing them with Little Jesus.

[I Or] Jesus blesses you and thanks you. In exchange for the hospitality He has received in your cavern, He will bring you into His Paradise.

ABRAMIN gets up, furtively wiping his eyes.

Who would have believed that Abramin, the chief of the bandits, would [5] ever kneel before a child?... He must be God for inc to do such a thing!...

The thieves cast a parting glance on Jesus and then exit.

[Scene 6]

SUSANNA, still kneeling, lifts her tearful eyes to Mary and says in a beseeching voice:

[101 0 Mary! How good you are to have promised an immortal kingdom to my husband. But, alas, don't you realize that his bandit life has become second nature to him, and I shiver at the thought of his going back to his criminal ways. I tremble at the thought that my Dismas might follow his father's example. Then, what [15] will become of them?...

THE BLESSED VIRGIN

No doubt, these people you love will offend God who has showered them with blessings, but have confidence in the infinite mercy of the Good God; it is great enough to wipe away the worst [20] crimes when it finds a mother's heart with complete trust in it.

Jesus does not desire the death of the sinner, but that he should convert and live forever. This child who has just cured your son of leprosy, effortlessly, will one clay cure him of a far [25] more dangerous leprosy... Then, a simple bath won't be enough; Dismas will have to be washed in the blood of the Redeemer.... Jesus will die to give Dismas life and, on the same day as the Son of God, your son will enter into the Celestial kingdom.

SUSANNA

[301 Your words are very comforting; I've never felt so deep a peace come into my soul. Without really understanding the meaning of what you say, I do understand the glory you have reserved for my child. Also, I will often tell my boy what he owes to your Son; I will teach him to know Him and love Him. I will say to him [35] that one clay he will have to take his place in the honor guard of this great King.

Alas! How sad that your Jesus is so poor He has not even one servant who might come to us with news of Him, from time to time, and teach Dismas what he must do [401 to be worthy one clay to serve your Son.

It isn't just from time to time that a servant of Jesus' will come to guide the steps of your child. From birth, Dismas has always had with him a [51 Celestial messenger and this messenger will never leave him. Like him, you, too, have an angel assigned to guard you night and clay. He's the one who inspires your good thoughts and the virtuous deeds you do.

SUSANNA

[10] I assure you that no one but you yourself has ever inspired good thoughts in me and that I've never seen the messenger of whom you speak.

THE BLESSED VIRGIN

I know you've never seen him, because the angel [15] by your side is invisible; nonetheless, he is as real as I am. It is by grace of these celestial inspirations that you've felt the desire to know God and to see Him come to you. Through all your earthly exile, these things will be mysteries to you, but at the end of time you will see the Son of God [20] come in His majesty on the clouds of Heaven, accompanied by all the legions of His angels.

SUSANNA

Ah! If I can't see an angel, at least I would like to hear one s voice.

[25] THE BLESSED VIRGIN seems to be hearing a melody; she says in a soft voice:

Listen.... It seems that one of the angels has undoubtedly heard your prayer. A rustling of wings tells me of his presence.

[Scene 7]

RP 7

THE TRIUMPH OF HUMILITY

DATE: 21 June 1896

OCCASION: feastday of the prioress, Mother Marie de Gonzague.

VERSIONS:

A) Autographs:

A notebook of three folded sheets, sewn together, June 1896; now in poor condition;

- Rough draft of a supplementary verse;

A fragment of 24 and 16 verses, in a notebook of poetry prepared for M. Belliere, p. 21, March 1897.

B) Copies:

Copy A, for the Process on the Writings, 154-167; March-May 1910; preserved in part;

A copy by Mother Agnes of Jesus, a fragment of 3v, after 12 May 1910;

Copy B in CE III, 78r-86r, 13-23 May 1910; the passage from 3v follows copy AJ;

A typed copy by Sr. Marie-Henriette (1948?) in two sets, one of which is annotated by Mother Agnes of Jesus.

PUBLICATION:

- HA 98, p. 379, Invitation a l'humilite, 6 verses;

Le Triomphe de l'Humilite ... le manuscript B, Paris: Cerf/DDB, 1975, 144 pp. (abbreviation: TH).

FORM: dialogues in prose and verses (50).

MUSIC: 1. "Les menaces maternelles"; 2. "Quand l'etranger"; 3. "La patrie des hirondelles."

PRESENT TEXT: the autograph text, completed by the first copy of the Process for 3v and copy MB for the last stanza.

FOREWORD'

1 More detailed information can be found in the little book, The Triumph ofHumility (TH), Cerf/DDB, 1975, ofwhich these pages offer only a quick summary.

On 21 June 1896, exactly 5 months after the feast of St. Agnes, the Carmelites of Lisieux encountered the feastclay of their "new" prioress, Mother Marie de Gonzague.

She was not new to her office. She had exercised it through several terms for a total of 16 years. Still, this time "the burden seemed heavier to her than in the past" (CG II, 862). Her 62 years and her declining health were not the only reason. In fact, the election of 21 March had been difficult: no less than seven rounds of voting. The bitterness was great for this woman who "believed she was loved by her clear flock" (LT 190). She felt herself betrayed. The feast of St. Louis of Gonzaga (21 June), then, came as an opportunity to dissipate a persistent uneasiness and to restore "the union of hearts" (RP 7, lr) to a disturbed community.

Nothing was spared to make this clay a success. "For this feast, we must turn everything upside down. You understand, don't you? We'd rather have less at other feasts and too much at this one" (Sr. Marie of the Eucharist to her mother, 17 June 1896). Hence there was a profusion of gifts (Therese was put to task by the sisters to embellish theirs with a touch of her paintbrush), special meals, and two theatricals instead of one!

The festivities began in the warming-room on Saturday, June 20, at three o'clock in the afternoon. After the presentation of gifts, "a short comic piece" (by an unknown author) was presented by a lively trio from the novitiate. "I played the simpleton Baptiste, my sister Genevieve played Fr. Jerome and my sister Marie of the Trinity played the teacher. We were all quite good in our roles" (Sr. Marie of the Eucharist to Mme. Guerin, 15 August 1896).

And on Sunday the 21st, "another, more serious piece.... Diana Vaughan gave us the idea of composing this piece" (from the same sister, 17 June 1896). The reference is to The Triumph of Humility.

"IT WAS A CURRENT EVENT"

"St. Michael fighting with Satan and his devils who roared behind a screen with pitchforks and chains and thunder. It was a current event. Asmodeus was there, speaking of Diana Vaughan etc., etc. Composed by Sr. Therese of the Child Jesus" (Sr. Marie of the Sacred Heart to the Guerin family, 21 June 1896). The writer had no need to explain further: her correspondents knew all about Diana. As for the spectators, they knew enough to catch the allusions to the heroine in this "recreation." The modern reader, on the other hand, will want a brief introduction.

Miss Vaughan was the daughter of an American man and a French woman. One of her ancestors once made a pact with Lucifer. She herself was initiated at the age of 20 into Palladism, a Masonic and Luciferian form of spiritualism (1884). "The dear daughter" of Lucifer, she was "betrothed" by him to the demon Asmodeus (1889). Especially after the end of 1893, Paris became her chosen home. There she formed a friendship with Dr. Bataille and Leo Taxil,2 even though they had notoriously deserted Freemasonry. Of fine character, she attracted the sympathy of many of the Catholics even as far as the battle she was waging against them. People vowed to convert her. La Croix asked the Venerable Joan of Arc to pray for this intention (May 8, 1895). Success unhoped for: as of June 6th, Joan freed Diana from the devil's hold. And her "extraordinary conversion" was confirmed on 13 June.

Vaughan then launched herself with abandon into the anti-Masonic struggle. She published prolifically, especially her Memoirs of an Ex-Palladist. The conservative journal Le Normand informed the Lisieux people of it as of July 1895. But the real breakthrough did not occur until the spring of 1896. A brilliant article in L'Univers (27 April 1896) gave the work credibility. It is undoubtedly then that Uncle Guerin sent the Carmel the first numbers of the Memoirs.

The novitiate rejoiced. Diana's conversion, embellished with a little "mischief," would make a golden subject for the prioress's next feastday! Therese played along, but to direct the project in her own way, by going to the heart of the events. For she had perceived in an instant that there would be "grave things to communicate" (RP7, 2v) to her sisters. This piece is going to provide the opportunity to do so, without hurting anyone and without depriving her exuberant companions of the "pleasure of hearing their cries and the sound of their chains (ibid.). (Mother Marie de Gonzague would not be offended.)

Faithful to her concern for historical accuracy, Therese consulted Uncle Guerin's documents at the beginning of May 1896. She soon sensed the high stakes in this "current event." It is no less than the great struggle for God that unfolds from Genesis to the Apocalypse. The church of her time had seen a clear example of this, one directly concerning every Carmelite of Lisieux, first of all Therese herself.

"GRAVE THINGS"

Five months separate The Triumph of Humility from The Flight into Egypt. But in this interval Therese's universe had changed.

On May 21, as we have seen, the community gave itself a new prioress. Therese, who had anticipated the reelection of Mother Agnes, was briefly disconcerted but soon regained her self-control (see TH, 66). On the 2nd and 3rd of April, Holy Thursday and Good Friday, she coughed up blood. There were no illusions: at 23 she would soon have to confront death face to face. Graver still: since "the radiant feast of Easter ... the storm was raging very strongly in [her] soul" (Ms B, 2r). She was suddenly "invaded by the thickest darkness." "The thought of heaven, up until then so sweet" to her, became no longer anything but "the cause of struggle and torment" (Ms C, 5v). It's true that, on the night of May 9 to 10, a "sweet dream" came to comfort her (Ms B, 2r) like the mysterious dream that had saved Diana from her last doubts about the faith (see TH, 99 to. But the testing did not cease for all that. It is then an "author" in the midst of human and spiritual combat who wrote the little piece we are about to read.

Furthermore, the atmosphere of the community was not at its most peaceful. Without seeking them out, Therese received the confidences of Mother Marie de Gonzague, still hurt by the humiliation of 21 March. She herself also had knowledge of some "mundane reasonings" among her elders which were creating a climate of "falsehood" around the prioress (LT 190).

Confirmed in her position as novice mistress without the title, she felt more than ever "like the watchman" among the young. At whatever cost, she had to "observe the faults and slightest imperfections and to wage a war to the death on these" (see Ms C, 23r) without regard to her popularity. Here again, war!

Last, she arrived at the conclusion that "all souls have very much the same straggles" (Ms C, 23v), whatever their age or position, from the prioress down to the last novice. And hidden in them, in many forms, is "self-love" (RP 7, 3v). One will limit her horizon to her "personal interests" (2v); another will pass her time "occupied with herself' (3v) even in the spiritual realm. This one will submit herself with bad grace to the new prioress "while keeping her own will in the depth of her heart" (4v) or seek a diversion in "the noise of the world" (3v), in great or little bits of news. That one will seek help in "extraordinary consolations and graces" (Iv) to the detriment of pure faith. Therese's perspicacity in astonishing, as she already had "the experience of years" (Ms C, 4r). Her Mother [Teresa] of Avila could not have said it better.

These are "grave things" for a Carmelite, whose vocation is "to love Jesus greatly" (RP 7, 2r) and, in so doing, "to draw along in her wake great numbers of souls" (3v). To give in to self love is to furnish "proud Satan" "the surest weapon to lessen the love in hearts" (3v). It is urgently necessary to return to humility, to enter "the little way": "remain always little" (5v)... or become so again.

Without playing "justice of the peace" (CSG, 106), Therese once again thinks out loud on stage. Half humorous, half serious, she displays to her sisters their own image. She has divided her disciples, who have become her accomplices, into two groups: the "novices," of whom she wishes only to be the "oldest member," and the devils (Lucifer, Beelzebub, Asmodeus). For aboundary, they use a simple screen. And each spectator must choose her camp!

Thus, in the guise of entertainment, The Triumph of Humility recalls a grave truth: all spiritual struggle is struggle within the church, for the church. The antagonist is the Prince of Darkness. It matters little that the obscure Lisieux Carmel represents only a tiny sector of an immense battlefield. It matters a great deal, for the good of all, that this sector be held. To conquer Satan on this modest terrain is to contribute to his defeat in the world. And Carmel, an essentially Marian Order, will only will this victory by following and imitating its Queen, "the humble Virgin Mary."'

THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES

Distracted by the picturesque, will the spectators have absorbed the strong lesson offered by their little Sister Therese, calmly seated in the first scene (cf. TH, 40)? In any case, they seem to have appreciated this "amusement" which brought them "more pleasure than anything they could invent in the world for an amusement" (Sr. Marie of the Sacred Heart, TH, 40). The "author," for her part, surely did not foresee to what degree The Triumph ofHumility would predict more than it said.

The "mission" of D. Vaughan was not, in fact, "finished" (RP 7, lv). Much bothered by this affair, Mother Agnes soon suggested to Therese that she "compose a few verses to send to the convert" (TH, 106). A surprising failure, [she experienced] "complete powerlessness." Therese had to content herself with writing to Diana, enclosing the photo of herself as Joan [of Arc] consoled in prison by St. Catherine (V TL, no. 14). The recipient, "a new Joan of Arc," would understand the connection. Miss Vaughan thanked the Carmelite for this "symbolic picture."

It was during this same summer of 1896 that Therese received a copy of Diana's Eucharistic Novena. Leo XIII himself had read it "with great pleasure" (Msgr. R. Verzichi, 27 May 1896). She copied out long extracts of it (TH, 57, 108-111). In September, Manuscript B shows undeniable traces of a reading of the Memoirs (cf. TH, 103ff.).

In December, Mother Agnes again questioned Uncle Guerin: "Have you any new documents on D. Vaughan?" (6 December 1896). However, many doubts as to this "conversion" arose in the Catholic community. Rome opened an inquiry. Diana responded with virulence to the president of this Commission, Msgr. Lazzareschi. This rebellious attitude alarmed Therese: "That cannot possibly come from God" (PO, 166). She kept her distance.

But, behold, Miss Vaughan has announced a decisive press conference for 19 April 1897, Easter Monday, in Paris. A packed room: more than four hundred people of all opinions. An operator set up his equipment to project on a screen an image of Joan of Arc in prison (the same photo Therese had sent the previous summer). And the star of the conference? "A bald man, a little heavy, from whose chin grew a long, almost white beard," Leo Taxil! The long, tumultuous meeting could be summed up "in this cynical declaration of the false convert: that he had completed on that clay, April 19, a hoax which had begun on 19 April 1885" (Le Normand, 21 April 1897). Diana had never existed. He had invented the whole piece about Palladism. It was he who had composed the Eucharistic Novena. For twelve years, he had fooled everyone and laughed at them. The room erupted in indignation. Taxil was forced to flee the howls of the crowd. The press did not have strong enough terns to express its disgust. One can imagine the consternation in the Guerin house and at Carmel, when they read the long piece in Le Normand for April 24. Indeed, on that clay, Therese could "practice humility" (RP 7, 5v)...

The blow struck at full force when she was already very ill (the Last Conversations begin on April 6) and knew she was on the way into "the dark tunnel" (Ms C, 5v). She threw the letter she had received not long before from Diana-Taxil into the manure heap. In May and June, revising her writings, she suppressed from her play and her "letter to Sr. Marie of the Sacred Heart" (Ms B) the passages that refer to this mythical person (cf. TH, 36, 93, 102f.).

On 9 June, she wrote one of the most moving pages of her autobiography: "It seems to me that the darkness, borrowing the voices of sinners, says mockingly to me:... `Advance, advance; rejoice in death which will give you not what you hope for, but a night still more profound, the night of nothingness"' (Ms. C, 6v). Her hand trembled. Evoking the "impious" who have lost the faith "through the abuse of grace," how could she not have had in mind the hoaxer who had thrown aside his mask?

Four more months of spiritual struggle, while the tuberculosis carried out its work of clestnzction. Therese made herself more and more humble and little. On 30 September 1897, several hours before she died, she confided to Mother Marie de Gonzague: "Yes, it seems to inc I have never sought anything but the tnith: yes, I have understood humility of the heart" (DE, 382; LC, 205). It is her "victory for eternity" (the last words of the final refrain in RP 7).

In June of 1896, the Carmelite could not have foreseen the effect of the Diana Vaughan affair on her own spiritual journey. It would be eighty years before the full measure of the story was known. Pranzini, Leo Taxil: two names, henceforth inseparable, which frame her life like two indicators, one of her redemptive vocation, the other of the most radical stripping of her Passion.

THE TRIUMPH OF HUMILITY

[Scene 1]

The scene takes place in the recreation room where three novices are gathered for some free time. - Sr. Therese of the Child Jesus, oldest member of the novitiate - Sr. Marie-Madeleine, professed with the white veil - Sr. Marie of the Holy Spirit, a choir postulant.

SR. THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS

[5] What happiness to find ourselves together to have a fine free clay... Let's see - my Sr. Marie of the Holy Spirit, what do you think of the feast of Our Mother? Have you ever seen anything in the world so charming as this union of hearts, this sweet gaiety?

SR. MARIE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

[10] No, I've never seen anything that pleases inc so much... The feasts of Carmel have a special charm, the family spirit gives them a distinctive character and that is what delights inc..... Oh! how happy I am here, I feel so close to Heaven and I have only one desire, to unite myself intimately with Jesus by becoming His fiancee.

X15] SR. MARIE-MADELEINE

Oh! we have all that same happiness of having been chosen by the Good God... Of you, my sisters, I understand this, you are so good!.. but me, a poor little shepherdess, how could He lower Himself to take inc for His spouse? He knows so well that [20 I have neither learning nor virtue.

SR. THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS

Our Lord did not lower Himself any more in coming to you than He did in coming to us; on the contrary, in His eyes, the most humble state is the grandest; but, like you, it moves inc to contemplate His love. [25] I love to meditate on those words our holy Mother Genevieve heard in one of her ecstasies: "To be the spouse of a God... What a title! What a privilege!....." It is Jesus Himself, in fact, who becomes the spouse of our souls and no archangel, one of the glorious princes of His court. Far from acting like Him, Satan (the one deprived of love, as our mother Saint Teresa [30 called him), is content to betroth the souls that belong to him to [some of] his demons. This thought touched inc [vividly] when I read the story of the extraordinary conversion of Diana Vaughan. What a beautiful lady Oh! how now [Iv] that she has become a new Joan of Arc...'

But my greatest desire will he, when her mission is fulfilled, to [see her] united with Jesus in our little Carmel.

SR. MARIE-MADELEINE

[5] She's one who would get from it ecstasies and revelations, for the Good Lord [now] fewer privileges than the devil who called her his clear daughter. Regardless, some people have to be so lucky!

SR. THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS, smiling.

[101 My sister Marie-Madeleine, are you envious, then, of consolations and extraordinary graces?... I'd thought that you were more perfect than that...

SR. MARIE-MADELEINE

My prayers are offered in an aridity worse than a garden where no drop of rain has fallen, and, well, I would not be [io] upset at seeing a little of what goes on in the other world.

SR. THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS

Don't you know that Our Father St. John of the Cross has said that it is a venial sin to ask for ecstasies and revelations?

SR. MARIE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, astonished.

[20] It's a fault.... I knew nothing of this... Well! I still desire them... What's to be clone?...

SR. MARIE-MADELEINE

What's to be clone, my sister? Ah well, like me, to accept it when you don't have them.

{25] SR. THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS

You'd be better off, it seems to me, if you'd recall the words of Our Lord: "Happy are those who have not seen and have believed." That would do you more good.

SR. MARIE-MADELEINE

130 Listen, you enlighten me... The Good God said: "Happy are those who have not seen and have believed," but He did not say: "Happy are those who have not heard." As for myself, I'd be quite happy to hear without seeing; and you, my Sister Marie of the Holy Spirit?

SR. MARIE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

[2r] I agree with you, but I don't dare hope to hear echoes from Heaven.

SR. MARIE-MADELEINE

One could just as easily hear the voices of Hell; those would be less agreeable,['] but I'd still rather them than nothing at all, and I'd very much like to hear what is said down there. It seems to inc that I'd be better off knowing what the devil thinks about us.

SR. THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS

[10] I myself know that well; he thinks of us as his most mortal enemies, especially when we love Jesus very much. Therefore the vicious demon won't take the trouble to let us hear his awful voice.

SR. MARIE-MADELEINE

[15] I can't disagree, my sister Therese of the Child Jesus. [But] I'd very much like to put my ear up to the gate of Hell, especially if there were a few of us together. And you, my sister Marie of the Holy Spirit?

SR. MARIE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Me, too... but I believe I'd be afraid.

[90 SR. THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS

There is no reason to be afraid, since Our Holy Mother assures us that the demons are no more to be feared than flies.

SR. MARIE-MADELEINE, clapping her hands

[25] What happiness! I see that you are beginning to think as I do.

SR. THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS

Even were I to think as you do, that wouldn't allow us to hear the devil's conversation... (Laughing.) Ah! what a strange free clay we are having!... Luckily, no one can hear us.

[30 SR. MARIE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

You laugh about it, but what would you say if our dream came true?

SR. THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS

I would say that the Good God was willing to fulfill the desires of x'51 simple and innocent souls, and I'd profit from the experience to strengthen my faith. I don't feel I have the courage to do as St. Louis did and refuse to go see Our Lord appearing in the Host, but I would not want to ask [2v] anything that seemed indiscreet to Inc.

SR. MARIE-MADELEINE

God is more condescending than you are. Perhaps He's going to ask St. Michael to push open the [5] gates of Hell a little, and then we'll hear something.

SR. MARIE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Listen..... I hear singing... our wish is granted.

[Scene 2]

SAINT MICHAEL is heard, singing to the tune of "Menaces maternelles."

[Scene 3]

Behind the screen, we hear some explosions, a [25] heavy chain dragging, demons crying out and waving their pitchforks, but the novices see nothing, since they are seated with their backs to the screen.

LUCIFER, in a thunderous voice.

Shut up, I didn't gather you together for the pleasure [30 of hearing your cries and the racket of your chains. I have serious things to tell you.

BEELZEBUB

Speak, Lucifer, but hurry, I am unhappy here; I'd rather suffer my hell on earth; there, at least, [35] I could soothe my rage by damning souls which Adonai has redeemed.

LUCIFER

Beelzebub, I am annoyed at you. You don't do your job well. Why have you let Michael seize from its several of our most faithful followers? Why do you fuss over your personal [40 business, instead of plotting to establish my reign over all the earth?...

Non serviam!... you're the one who gave inc that motto - can you believe I'll obey you, when I've refused to abase myself before God?... No, never, never!... each is his own master here; [5] that's why the union is so great, why our legions are so well policed, why our worshipers never cease to argue the fine points of our sacred rites..... You know better then anyone, wily old serpent, that discord is the distinctive [1Q mark of your kingdom... Our only point of agreement is the implacable hatred we've sworn against the mortals. It's true that doesn't stop its from calling them our clearest friends, even as we hate them to death. (He laughs mockingly.) Is it my fault if a few, more slippery than the others, escape our nets?.. [r"] After all, what we take in is still not bad... Few have a taste for the sayings of Christ, especially when He says to His disciples: "If you want to walk with Me, renounce yourself and take up your cross." At!... how it hurts inc to say those words......

But listen, Lucifer, if you want to spill the rage that devours you [20] when you consider the friends who've escaped us, pick on Asmodeus; he's the one who's just failed our cause in the most lamentable way by losing his fiancee, Diana Vaughan.

ASMODEUS

[Here again the lines indicate gaps in the surviving manuscript. -Trans.]

BEELZEBUB

LUCIFER, in a rage.

[3v] You insult me when you mock Asmodeus, don't you know that his fiancee was long my own clear daughter? The virgins are not all our enemies; many of them serve me without knowing it. I recommend that you invade their communities, [5] that, above all, is where you ought to direct your weapons of war.

I don't ignore the harm one perfect Adonai follower does to me, she brings in her train a great number of souls that ought to be ours. Well, then, direct all your efforts to distracting them with the noise of the world; above all, suggest to them that they absorb themselves E10I in their own affairs; all humans have the weakness of self-love; you will find it even in cloistered communities, and I assure you, my friends, it's my surest weapon for diminishing the love of Adonai in the hearts of all His nuns.... Ah!... how they make inc suffer, when they love their God!!!...... [15] In order to prevent even one of these acts of love, I happily send my most powerful legions, for even if I don't succeed in damning the souls which Adonai possesses, at least I am proud of making them lose a little of their glory. (Despairingly.) Ah! As for me, no love, no throne, no glory!! never!!! never!

[20 ASMODEUS

If you want its to assault the convents, I'd advise you to form special legions from among the bravest of its. You, Lucifer, will be at its head; then me, Moloch, Astaroth, Hermes, Ariel, Astarte, Beelzebub, etc., etc.

[25] BEELZEBUB

No, I will not go; you mentioned me last, and that hurts me; besides, as I've told you, I detest the company of virgins... It's not that I fear them individually, but united with their God, they are as terrible as He, and then they have [501 weapons to make me suffer; willingly or not, one must flee conquered by a woman with a few drops of holy water on the tips of her fingers (ai! how that water burns...) or one who holds out her cross (that instrument whose name it hurts me so to pronounce and that pierces me like a lance of fire.....). How shameful [55] for its, angels of light whose knowledge far exceeds all that humans have learned since the creation of the world!... Go, if you will, on an expedition against the virgins, but I predict you'll be defeated... Rather than abolishing the reign of Adonai, you'll increase it with martyrs that ['0 our enemies will place in triumph on their altars......

Go, go. As for me, I will not take the shame of a defeat. I'll stay with my friends, the Freemasons.

If you don't take part in our glorious expedition, you'll have no part in our victory.... I tell you I am the prince of this world; I must reign over everything. Christ [5] has declared that the gates of Hell will never prevail against His Church, and already my power holds prisoner Peter's successor; but that is not enough, I need a complete triumph; I will only obtain this triumph by destroying the convents.... Forward! Be strong, my friends.... [10] To war... To war!!!....

ASMODEUS

With whom must we begin our expedition?

LUCIFER

Adonai's mother, Lilith, is my most mortal enemy; let's avenge [15] ourselves on her by attacking her favorite order - Carmel, which the maleahks call the most perfect in the Church.'

ALL THE DEMONS, with shouts and howls of laughter.

Bravo ... Bravo ... forward, forward, let's destroy the Church of Adonai.

THE NOVICES, terrified and falling to their knees.

[20] 0 St. Michael! St. Michael, defend us, chain up the demons who want to destroy the Church and drive us from Carmel....

[Scene 4]

Saint Michael appears, hovering in a cloud; at the sight of him the demons scream cries of rage and despair.

LUCIFER

[25] Ali! woe to us, woe to us!... What are you doing here, Michael? Stay with your maleahks. Hell is not your kingdom but mine; I'm prince of Hell, as of the world, where you have no rights.

Saint Michael plunges his lance into the pit, Lucifer screams twice as much,f301 then THE ARCHANGEL sings what follows, to [the tune] of the canticle for the Sacred Heait: "Quand l'etranger," etc.

LUCIFER

No, the Church will not triumph... and, how could it resist my power?... I know thatAdonai is stronger [10] than I am, and that is the source of my eternal rage. But look at how little He cares for His own glory, how He leaves His friends in humiliation and sorrow... And too, count His own and you will see that their number is small... So, with my powerful legions, I am going to attack this despicable handful of people, [h] and shortly I'll be proven right. Then the evil my faithful servants already worship throughout the globe will become the sole law of the universe.

Then, I'll be the conqueror and you will flee shamefully with your maleahks.

SAINT MICHAEL

LUCIFER

I get a good laugh out of this virginal army of yours... don't you know that I also have some rights over it?... I am the prince of pride; [30 for if the virgins are chaste and poor, what have they over me? I'm a virgin, too, and though I heap riches upon human beings, I despise them for myself as so much smoke... You're going to reply to me: and obedience, do you practice that, too?... Ah, Mikael, I'm as clever as you are... No, I don't obey willingly,~35 but I do submit to God's orders against my will; the virgins may obey, all the while keeping their own will in the bottom of their hearts, they may obey and desire to command; what then makes them more than I?.. I know how to slip pride in everywhere and, if you don't want to believe me, look [5r] how much weightier it is than the virtues of your virgins... (In a triumphant tone.) Look... Look!!!....

Lucifer hangs a scale from the end of his pitchfork,; on one side of the balance are three white cylinders inscribed [5J Poverty, Chastity, Obedience" and on the other side, which outweighs the first, we see three large black cylinders inscribed in letters of fire: "Pride, Independence, Self-will."

SAINT MICHAEL, taking the scales.

While saying these words, St. Michael places a little cylinder inscribed "Humility" on the balance with the vows and immediately the other side rises.

THE DEMON cries out in despair

I am vanquished... I am~L0 vanquished!... Enough, enough, Michael, torment inc no more! I am vanquished!....

ALL THE OTHER DEMONS also cry out.

We are vanquished!...

We hear a rumble of thunder. St. Michael goes off and silence returns.

[Scene 5]

[251SR. THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS

0 my sisters! What a grace the Good God has just granted us!... We must go quickly and tell Our Mother what we have heard, we must tell her that now we know how to conquer the demon and, from now on, we'll have but one desir0301 to practice humility... behold our weapons and our shield; with this almighty power we will know, like new Joans of Arc, how to chase the stranger from the kingdom, that is, to prevent proud Satan from entering our monasteries.

SR. MARIE-MADELEINE

[351 Yes, let's go to our Mother right away, but you are going to do the talking, [5v] Sr. Therese of the Child Jesus, since I'm still trembling, and I'm afraid she may not believe us; she'll say we've been dreaming....

SR. MARIE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

[5] That's true, after all, how upset we'll be if our Mother makes fun of us!..

SR. THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS

On the contrary, we'd have to rejoice, since that would be a way to practice humility... but she will believe us.

[101 After receiving so great a favor, I feel moved to pray to the Holy Angels to come with us and sing to our dear Mother one of their celestial songs.

My little sisters, just now you were heard, it's my turn to he [heard]...

[151 0 Holy Angels, I beg of you, don't deny my request. Let us hear your voices, but don't show yourselves, so as to leave us with the merit of our faith.

The novices get up and go to seek our Mother.

[Scene 6]

THE ANGELS sing to the tune of

"la Patrie des [20] hirondelles - Hirondelles legeres," etc.

[351 The refrain is repeated.

RP 8

SAINT STANISLA US KOSTKA

DATE: 8 February 1897.

OCCASION: golden jubilee of Sr. Saint-Stanislaus (fifty years of profession).

VERSIONS:

A) Autographs

A notebook of three folded sheets plus one folded sheet ("Letter"), February 1897;

a fragment of a rough draft including 6r-v, January (?) 1897.

B) Copies

1. CE III, 87r-94v, 1910.

2. A typed copy by a Lisieux Carmelite (1925-1928 ?), annotated by Mother Agnes of Jesus.

PUBLICATION:

HA 98, pp. 461f., 12 + 24 verses, of which 5 are corrected;

Annales de Sainte Therese de Lisieux, February 1929, pp. 39-45, with changes;

A separate printing of the same text (with RP 1 and RP 3), March 1929.

FORM: dialogues in prose and 36 verses.

MUSIC: 1. "L'Ange et fame"; 2. "Le soar."

PRESENT TEXT: autograph.

FOREWORD

A GOLDEN JUBILEE

It is not the habit at Carmel to write a recreation for a sister, except for the prioress on her feast clay. But neither is it common to celebrate a golden jubilee: fifty years of religious profession.

Here is the account in the chronicle of the Lisieux Carmel: "1897. On 8 February, the community joyfully celebrated the golden anniversary of our clear Sr. Saint-Stanislaus. The feast was charming. After the blessing of the scepter and the crown, our Fr. Superior [M. Maupas] said some very touching words to the dear jubilarian. In the evening ... the novices performed an episode from the life of St. Stanislaus written by their young Mistress Sr. Therese of the Child Jesus."1

Sr. Saint-Stanislaus of the Sacred Hearts (Marie Rosalie Gueret, born 4 May 1824) entered the Carmel at Lisieux, her birthplace, on 6 April 1845, following her sister Caroline.2 She made her profession on 8 February 1847. She was, then, "one of the foundation stones."' Small in stature, always active, devoted, and charitable, she held the positions of sacristan, bursar, and infirmarian and was several times third counselor to the prioress. In the sacristy, Sr. Therese of the Child Jesus was her assistant from 10 February 1891 to 20 February 1893. It was in the course of this companionship that the lively Sr. SaintStanislaus nicknamed her helper "little Sister So-be-it" [or "Amen": "Ainsi soft-11"] because she found her slow at scraping the candles and the incense holder. There was nothing unpleasant intended, since their affection was mutual. This friendship continued up to the death of the one Sr. Stanislaus called her "little daughter," and even after.

At the request of the prioress, Mother Marie de Gonzague, Therese set herself to writing a recreation for the jubilarian, the oldest member of the community at 73 years of age. For her fiftieth year since taking the veil (15 January 1896), Therese had already written some verses in praise of her "inexhaustible goodness":

"For Fifty Years" (PS 3), in The Poetry of Saint Therese of Lisieux, 225; sixteen rather poor verses, to the time of "Je suis chretien..."

The jubilarian's name suggested the choice of subject, an episode in the life of the young Polish saint, Stanislaus Kostka: his entering the novitiate of the Society of Jesus in 1567.

On February 8, no one could doubt that this eighth recreation composed by Sr. Therese would be her last and that, within a couple of months, the elder would be caring for her 24-year-old companion who was very gravely 111.6

We don't know whether Sr. Saint-Stanislaus was able to enjoy the performance; she was "a little deaf."7

THE YOUNG STANISLAUS

On her entry into Carmel on 9 April 1888, Therese was assigned the cell dedicated to St. Stanislaus Kostka. The name, then, was with her every clay for about five years. It's not known whether she conceived a special devotion for the young saint. A picture of the young Jesuit novice in death was found in her breviary.8 She may perhaps have put it there only after writing her play.

To better understand her hero, she read - or reread - at the end of 1896 a Life of Saint Stanislaus Kotska (sic): "Letters of a brother to his sisters, " by A. de Blanche.9 This biography seems to have been her only source.10 She often cites it, sometimes wordfor-word, as can be seen in the notes [to the French edition].

With St. Jean Berchmans and St. Louis of Gonzaga (the prioress's patron), St. Stanislaus forms the best-known trio of canonized young Jesuits.

Born on 28 October 1550 at Rostkow to a noble and wealthy Polish family, he had to stnzggle to follow his vocation. His father sent him and his brother Paul to the Jesuit College at Vienna in 1564. But the ascent of Maximilian II deprived the Jesuits of their houses. The two brothers boarded in the home of a Lutheran senator, whom Paul became fond of. He and the teacher Bilinski tormented Stanislaus and mocked his piety. After two years of this treatment, the young man fell sick. Deprived of the sacraments, he received Communion from an angel, in the presence of St. Barbara. Considered to be dying, he saw an apparition of the Virgin Mary who handed him the Child Jesus. She enjoined him to enter the Jesuits. Stanislaus fled Vienna, disguised as a peasant. He took refuge with Peter Canisius, the German Provincial, who sent him to Rome, to the Superior General, Francis Borgia. In October 1567, he began his novitiate at Rome, but he was to be a novice for only nine months. Sick (undoubtedly with lung disease), he received the Last Sacraments on 14 August 1568. He died the following night, on the feast of the Assumption, saying over and over: "Jesus! Mary!" He was not quite eighteen.11 Clement X beatified him in 1670. Benedict XIII canonized him in 1726. He was to be declared Patron of Poland, along with St. Casimir. 12

THERESE AT THE BEGINNING OF 1897

By a happy coincidence, the story of Stanislaus, his spirituality (and that of his biographer)" aligned at certain points with Sr. Therese of the Child Jesus' own most profound preoccupations as she entered her twenty-fifth year.

A saint dying so young, while still a novice, without having clone anything to make his mark... A humble person, healed by the Virgin, who entnisted her Son to him and whom he thought of as his Mother... who had received the Eucharist from the hands of a virgin... a young man, joyful, amiable and engaged in deep friendships....

Pointing out these few traits will suffice to make us understand how Therese was able to respond to a reading of his life. How could she help but think of her own youth, her vocation, her novitiate, and her secret desires?

After November of 1896, her health went into a serious decline, and she could no longer conceal it from those around her. 14 In fact, on 10 January 1897, Sr. Genevieve wrote to Br. Simeon to ask for Leo XIII's blessing on the jubilarian, Sr. Saint-Stanislaus. In passing, she mentions Sr. Therese, who knew her correspondent: "Her delicate chest gives us serious worries" (DE, 31). She would bear witness likewise, in the Ordinary Process: she [Therese] told me "that she fully expected to die that year" (PO, 305).

Shortly before the performance, Therese thanked Br. Simeon for the papal blessing he had obtained. He was himself 83 years old: "I know the divine Master must be eager to crown you in heaven, but I trust He will leave you still in this exile so that, working for His glory as you have done since your youth, the immense weight of your merits may supply for other souls who will present themselves before God with empty hands. I dare to hope, very clear Brother, that I shall be of the number of those happy souls who will share in your merits. I believe my course here below will not be long..."15

Like Stanislaus, she thought that she was going to die having accomplished nothing, "with empty hands." From then on, her desire to do good after her death intensified. Between March 4 and 12, she made the "novena of grace" to the Jesuit St. Francis Xavier with this intention, asking "to spend her Heaven doing good on earth." She made the same request to St. Joseph on March 19 (CG II, 966, note k).

THE PERFORMANCE

On Monday, 8 February, at evening recreation, the play was performed in the warming room. It required only four "actresses": St. Francis Borgia, Br. Augusti, St. Stanislaus and, in the last scene, the Virgin Mary.

As to the distribution of roles, we must be content with hypotheses. It seems likely that the sickly Therese was in no condition to perform. Thus for the first time she would be missing from one of her productions.16 Celine, authoritative and severe at times, could have played Francis Borgia. In certain ways, the role evokes Mother Marie de Gonzague. One can envision Marie of the Trinity, the youngest member of the community who had entered the novitiate at seventeen, playing Stanislaus. There remains Br. Augusti, whom Sr. Marie of the Eucharist could have brought to life," before taking on the (sung) role of the Virgin. The role ofAugusti, a confidant of the Superior General, reminds us of certain aspects of Therese in her relationship with the prioress. The conversation of Stanislaus with his "angel" is reminiscent of the free times of the novices at Carmel - as in the first scene of RP 7.

Once again, a superficial reading can only emphasize the weakness of this little play, all in conversations. Perhaps the episode, unpleasant to us, of the Jesuit Superior General using deception to test the postulant18 is meant to liven up the action. As for Stanislaus's expressions of humility, they rise to an excessive level. But many (young) saints have committed or spoken such excesses, as Therese well knew.19

This last recreation is interesting from another point of view: it reveals to us the state of Therese's spirit as she entered her last illness. Saint Stanislaus Kostka signals indeed the confidences that will be taken up, in June of 1897, in Ms C, and in the Last Conversations: the maturity of youth'21 conversations among novices, fraternal charity; prayer and sacrifices, apostolic weapons; love of the Virgin Mary, our Mother; and, above all, to do good after death. In speaking to Sr. Marie of the Trinity, it is this point the "author" most wished to emphasize. "What pleased inc in composing this play," Therese confided to her, "is that I explained my certitude that, after death, one can still work for the salvation of souls on earth. St. Stanislaus, who died so young, has served inc very well to express my thoughts and hopes on this subject" (PO, 469f.; cf. CRM, 92).

The character of Stanislaus, then, allowed a crystalization, in Stendhal's sense, of Therese's fundamental attitudes at the time. He was himself among those young saints who died prematurely - almost all martyrs - who fascinated the one who was burning to give her life very quickly to Jesus, "her only Love". the Holy Innocents, Cecilia, Agnes, Joan of Arc, Theophane Venard...

The posthumous glory of this 18-year-old saint, patron of Poland, is also prophetic of the posthumous history of Therese who, with Joan of Arc, would soon become patron of France.

Finally, an attentive reading of RP 8 brings to light diverse elements which will soon cohere in the doctrinal synthesis - always at the tip of her pen - of Ms C, where Therese will reach her highest point.

Once again, in a little player, she explained, unawares, all she had truly lived.

[SAINT STANISLAUS KOSTKA]

CAST

The Blessed Virgin and the Child Jesus - Saint Stanislaus Kostka - Saint Francis Borgia, Duke of Gandia, lord of the court of Charles V, Superior General of the Jesuits - Brother Stephen [5] Augusti, a young novice

[Scene 1]

The scene takes place at Rome, in the room of Saint Francis Borgia. - He is alone, carefully reading a letter. - There is a timid knock at the door.

SAINT FRANCIS BORGIA

[10] Come in. (A novice appears.) Ah, Brother Augusti, I was waiting for you. (The novice kneels respectfully before Saint Francis, who offers him a chair.) Sit down, my child. It's not as a novice I wish to speak with you, but as a confidant, a friend.

{15] BROTHER AUGUSTI, still on his knees.

My Reverend Father, your goodness confuses me; how can I treat you as a mere friend, you, the General of the Society of Jesus, you whom Spain and Italy are already calling a saint? Oh! leave inc at your feet; I don't want to speak to you except on bended knee [201; your humility can't make inc forget that, as the Duke of Ganclia, you despised the grancleurs of the court of Charles V to come ..............

SAINT FRANCIS, interrupting in a severe tone.

Hush, my brother, and never let such words come [25] from your lips. Had I not understood your simplicity, I would impose a harsh penance on you; but I know that you judge and speak like a child. From now on, treat as nothing what glitters in the eyes of human beings; it is God who must judge us; before Him, the shepherd and the king are equal, true greatness is in virtue and not in noble origins. Know that Francis of Borgia is no saint, but a great sinner, unworthy to be a disciple of the Glorious Ignatius. Pray to God, my son, that He deign to have mercy and make me less unworthy of the new mission He has entrusted to Inc.

A new mission!... 0 my Father, will Your Reverence then be leaving Rome?....

SAINT FRANCIS

[5] It's not a matter of leaving Rome, but of receiving a novice who should become the glory of the Society of Jesus. To make you acquainted with him, I'm going to read you a few passages from a letter from the Provincial of Northern Germany.

BROTHER AUGUSTI

00] My Father, I'm beginning to believe that you are putting inc to a test. I can't understand how your Reverence would deign to choose me, a poor little novice, as confidant....

SAINT FRANCIS, smiling.

No, my child, it's not a test; I know you [15] well enough to know that my confidences won't make you feel superior to your fellow students. Here's the reason I must speak with you intimately: I want you to be the angel of Brother Stanislaus, the novice Fr. Canisius is sending Inc.

Picking up the letter, he reads the following passages.

[20] "The angelic child I'm presenting to you, Your Reverence, is the son of John Kostka, lord of Rostkow in the Kingdom of Poland. Young Stanislaus's family is among the most illustrious of the royalty, but they are even more remarkable for their piety. However, despite the examples of virtue John Kostka [25] has had the honor of giving his sons, this good nobleman does not understand at all the practice of the evangelical counsels and [Stanislaus] will never obtain his consent to enter the Society of Jesus. I believed that, on account of the distance, I'd be able to admit him to our novitiate at Dillingen. Some letters of Fr. Antonio, the child's spiritual director, ['0] have already convinced me of his sanctity, but what enchants me most of all is to see the angelic piety that shines from young Stanislaus's face and reveals his soul's maturity. I have been able to recognize that Sanctity knows no distinction between blond hair and white. Nonetheless, I still wanted to test this vocation; x'51 the lengthy fatigues of a journey on foot of two hundred leagues by a child of noble upbringing did not satisfy me. So, I ordered the young novice to perform the most menial duties in the house; I had him serve at table in the lowly clothes he'd worn on his trip (to avoid recognition, he'd abandoned [40] the garments of a gentleman and dressed like a poor pilgrim). No humiliation shocked the fervent novice, the most contradictory orders never seemed to upset him; his only response was to do immediately what he'd been told to do and to do it so promptly that his fellow students, in a charming [2r] joke, nicknamed him: the All-Powerful.

"I have never encountered such amiable simplicity; if someone spoke of his birth and his admirable virtues in front of him, he wouldn't contradict or, with false [5] humility, deny the obvious, but, smiling as if someone else had been mentioned, he never seemed to take any notice. Several of the Fathers were astonished by what they took to be a lack of the virtue of humility; as for myself, I must avow to Your Reverence that the simplicity of little Brother Stanislaus has taught me more than [10] many dissertations I've long meditated upon which discuss humility. Since this virtue is nothing more than truth, I find that our simple novice has an abundance of it. Furthermore, he exhibits a great disdain for himself; he's often said to inc that all his brethren seem like angels to him and that he is unworthy to live in such [15] company. I would have been very happy to confer the Jesuit habit on this holy child, but it seemed to me more prudent to send him to Rome to receive our holy habit from the hands of Your Reverence." (Saint Francis of Borgia lays the letter on the table.) The rest of this letter deals with business of the province; it X20 doesn't concern you. Now, my son, go look for our new brother, who should arrive today; I think he's already in our church.

BROTHER AUGUSTI

0 my Father! how will I dare to speak to him?... What position [251 are you going to give him in our house?... We will never be able to treat him with enough honor! ....

SAINT FRANCIS

God save me from treating him with honor! In doing so I'd ruin the beautiful edifice of his perfection; on the contrary, I want to put him to the test ['0] again and convince myself of the virtues his superiors have seen in him. I order you, Brother Augusti, to give no sign at all that you have heard his nobility and his virtues spoken of.

BROTHER AUGUSTI, getting up.

My Father, I shall obey you; I'm going right now to seek out Brother [35] Stanislaus.

SAINT FRANCIS

Bring him here; I'm going to hide myself in the next room to observe his speech and his manner. After a few moments of conversation with him, find some pretext for leaving; then I'll come out.

[Scene 2]

[40] Saint Francis of Borgia leaves with Brother Augusti; shortly thereafter, the latter returns. - After knocking to no purpose on the door, he enters [2v] along with Saint Stanislaus, dressed as a poor pilgrim.

BROTHER AUGUSTI

Our Reverend Father General is not here, though he did tell me to bring you to him.... Have you been waiting in the church a long time, my brother? [5]

SAINT STANISLAUS

No, my brother, no more than five or six hours, I think. And, if you'll permit it, I'll go back there, since Father General's not here.

[10] BROTHER AUGUSTI

Better you should wait here, I don't think he'll be long. But, doubtless, you've had nothing to eat since your arrival in Rome; you should have let the porter know you were there.

SAINT STANISLAUS

[151 My superior, Fr. Canisius, told inc to wait in the church until the Reverend Fr. Francis Borgia sent someone to find me. I would have felt I was failing in obedience if I'd spoken to brother porter.

BROTHER AUGUSTI

You've clone well to be obedient, but I'm going to find the [201 refectorian right away, so he can get you something to eat.

He exits without hearing SAINT STANISLAUS, who says to him:

Oh! I beg you, my brother, don't go. I assure you I need nothing.

[Scene 3]

SAINT FRANCIS BORGIA enters; he acts surprised to see [25] Saint Stanislaus, who has knelt down after the exit of Brother Augusti. Pretending to take him for a beggar, he says to him harshly:

How dare you come in here? If you're in need of alms, you must ask the porter, though at your age you should be ashamed to beg. There's no lack of jobs in the workshops [30 of Rome.

SAINT STANISLAUS

Pardon me, Reverend Father, and don't deny me the alms I seek, to take the lowest place in your holy society.

[35] SAINT FRANCIS

That's not a new line; do you think you're the first adventurer I've ever met? (Pointing to the door.) Get out right now; we don't take novices like you in the Society of Jesus.

0 my Father! have pity on me, I promise you.......

[Scene 4]

SAINT FRANCIS to BrotherAugusti, who has knocked on the door and entered:

[5[ 1 can't get rid of this beggar, take him outside.

BROTHER AUGUSTI, quite astonished.

My Reverend Father, this young man is no beggar. He's the novice Fr. Canisius has sent you.

1101 SAINT FRANCIS, to Saint Stanislaus.

So, by coming into your superior's room in his absence you were trying to get to the novitiate?

BROTHER AUGUSTI

My Father, I'm the one who brought him to your room; I left him here to go run [151 an errand. I beg Your Reverence that you do not punish him.

SAINT STANISLAUS

My Reverend Father, I can see that I deserve to be severely punished and I implore you not to spare me (putting his hands together), but,1201 out of pity, little as I deserve it, please let me stay in your house.

SAINT FRANCIS

Since it's the Reverend Father Canisius who's sent you, I'll admit you to the novitiate. But I warn you that I will be on your case. [251 The fathers at our house in Vienna have written me that, when you were their student, they rarely saw you studying. Rather than pay serious attention to the lessons of your masters, you'd prefer, under a pretext of piety, to read or meditate on pious books. If you hope to continue your extreme devotions, it's pointless to remain at Rome. Here one must work seriously [30 and be content with community prayer.

SAINT STANISLAUS

0 my Father, how good you are to be willing to keep me; I promise to obey you in all things, and I will study as much as you wish. It's true that when I was a student with the Jesuits in Vienna, [35] I wasn't very assiduous in my work and, more, I was lacking in talent. But, by the end of my studies, I'd outdone my fellow students; I could never give myself credit for these small successes, since I'm well aware of my own inferiority.

SAINT FRANCIS

[401 It's pointless to speak about your success. Tell me, rather, what your reason is for asking to join the Society of Jesus.

My Reverend Father, it is because I want to become a saint.

SAINT FRANCIS

Don't you know, my child, that one can become a saint anywhere; [5] it's not the habit or the title of the Jesuits that works this marvel.

SAINT STANISLAUS

How then is it, My Father, that all Jesuits are saints?

[101 SAINT FRANCIS

All are not saints, and the proof is that I, their General, am a mere sinner.

SAINT STANISLAUS

How can you say such a thing without lying, my Reverend Father? The whole [15] world says you are a saint who performs miracles.

SAINT FRANCIS

The world is mistaken, my child, no need to make much of its judgment. If ever that liar comes murmuring such flatteries in your ears, humble yourself and consider what you [201 are in God's eyes.

SAINT STANISLAUS

0 my Father! even if I could work miracles, it doesn't seem to me that I'd be able to be proud; the memory of my earlier life would not be erased from my memory. Ah! I am a miserable person, unworthy [25] of the graces of the Good God!... (He weeps.)

SAINT FRANCIS

The Lord pardons even the greatest faults, but I wouldn't believe you guilty of crimes. To unburden yourself of your sins, if you're willing to confess them to me, Brother Augusti will leave the room.

['0] SAINT STANISLAUS, stopping BrotherAugusti.

No, my brother, stay; since I'm going to be living with you, I want you to know the reasons for my repentance, so you will treat inc as I deserve. (He kneels before Saint Francis.) My Father, in His mercy, the Good God has deigned to call me to Him, from the dawn [35] of my life; but, rather than telling my director of this calling, I resisted the grace that summoned me for eighteen months. (He lays his head on Saint Francis' knees and weeps bitterly.)

SAINT FRANCIS, very moved.

My poor child, console yourself; your fault is atoned for by the sincere [40] repentance you have shown. The memory of this failing in faith, far from [4r] nagging at your soul, will keep it humble, and you know it: there is no sacrifice more pleasing to God than that of a contrite and humbled heart.

SAINT STANISLAUS

[5] My Father, what unspeakable consolation you pour over my soul!... Oh! I beg that you'll now teach inc how I may become a saint and make up for the time I've lost.

SAINT FRANCIS

I think the only way will be for you to despise yourself sincerely, [10] to think the best of others, and to prove to them by every means possible the love that consumes your heart. If you make obedience the rule and the guardian of your charity, you'll be able to do much good in a short time.

There's a knock at the door. Brother Augusti goes to answer [15] and comes back carrying a letter which he gives, on bended knee, to Saint Francis, whispering a few words to him.

SAINT FRANCIS, opening the envelope.

Brother Stanislaus, here's a letter from Poland; your father's writing you. (He hands him the lette)-.) React it right now.

[201 Saint Stanislaus reads the letter, then he begins to cry again.

SAINT FRANCIS

What's upsetting you, my child? Do you regret having joined the Society of Jesus?

SAINT STANISLAUS

[25] Oh no, my Father! I weep at seeing that my parents do not understand the Gift of God. They say I am unworthy of my ancestors and that I have dishonored their family. There is more honor, however, more nobility and glory for our house from my being here as the least among the great servants of God [30] than if I were to become, in the world, more famous than any of my ancestors.

SAINT FRANCIS

You're right, my son; I hope that one clay your parents will approve of your vocation, but as to that, did not Our Lord Jesus [35] say: "I did not come to bring peace, but the sword. Who loves his father and mother more than me is unworthy of me."

SAINT STANISLAUS, raising his eye to Heaven.

Now I can say, with the psalmist: "My father X40 and my mother have abandoned me, but the Lord has cared for me. I have chosen to be among the least in the house of my God, rather than live in the tents of the worldly."

My clear child, I can see that God Himself brought you here and wants you to stay here. In a few days, I shall give you the sacred habit; prepare yourself for this grace in silence and reflection. [5] Thank the Lord who's granted you the great favor of living in His house. (He puts his hand on BrotherAugusti's head.) I give you Brother Augusti as your angel; he'll instruct you in your external duties. I know your souls resemble each other; further, I grant you permission to share your thoughts and the graces [10] the Lord has been pleased to heap upon His children. (He stands up.) I'll leave you; the duties of my post require that I be elsewhere.

BROTHER AUGUSTI, kneeling down next to Saint Stanislaus.

My Father, may Your Reverence deign to give us a blessing.

SAINT FRANCIS

[15] Dear children, may the Most Holy Trinity bless you both, as I myself bless you with all my heart. (He exits.)

[Scene 5]

BROTHER AUGUSTI, sits down and offers a chair to Saint Stanislaus.

My brother, soon I'll take you to your cell, and the master of novices will assign you whatever job he thinks suitable, but if [201 you'd like, we could profit from our Father General's permission and get to know each other. First, let inc introduce myself: my name is Stephen Augusti, I have neither talents nor virtues, but all of our fathers love me very much, since their charity blinds them to my faults. You'll have to act like them, Brother Stanislaus, and like me, too; only, I hope [25] you'll keep me in mind of my faults, it's such a benefit to have someone who will point it out when you act wrongly.

SAINT STANISLAUS

It's your job, my brother, to intervene in my failings, and I implore you to be faithful in that. I'm convinced that we're made [30 for each other; more, it will be easy for inc to love you, since I already do.

BROTHER AUGUSTI

How you please me!... I'm very happy to have you for a brother. But, it occurs to me, you must be a little sad; the memory of your [35] parents must disturb your joy.

SAINT STANISLAUS

No, my brother, my joy can't be disturbed by the memory of any earthly affection; I know my parents are weeping over my departure more bitterly than they would weep for my death, but I have [40] powerful weapons with which to comfort them: prayer and sacrifice. I'm [5r] quite young, but the Lord has already shown me several times that He will never abandon those who seek only Him.

BROTHER AUGUSTI

Brother Stanislaus, would you be willing to confide in inc your sweet experiences? I promise [5] you, I'd never say a word about them to anyone else.

SAINT STANISLAUS

I couldn't tell you everything, it would take too long. But I want, at least, to tell you one story.

Two years ago, I was at the school of the fathers of the Society with [10] my brother Paul. He'd chosen our lodgings in a heretic's house, since he wanted to live in the town's most beautiful house. Poor Paul had not seen the light from on high. As he was the elder, I felt obliged to submit to his wishes, and jean Bilinski, who was in charge of us, took his side in matters of taste and of ideas. Think, my brother, about what [15] I have suffered; shortly thereafter, I fell severely ill. Paul could not bring himself to send for a priest, on account of our heretical landlord, who would never have let one into the house. As I found no comfort on earth, I turned to Heaven. Since my childhood, I had especially venerated the Virgin Saint Barbara, so, with my heart full of confidence, [201 I begged of her that she would not let inc die without receiving the holy Viaticum.

BROTHER AUGUSTI

Ah! I perceive that she fulfilled your wishes; doubtless, the nasty heretic was converted?

[25] SAINT STANISLAUS

No, unfortunately, but the inhabitants of Heaven don't need the permission of heretics to go where they will. I saw Saint Barbara come into my room, shining in glory and accompanied by two beautiful angels. She held the sacred Host in her ['0 virginal hands, and I had the ineffable consolation of receiving from her the God of the Eucharist, the Well-Beloved Lord Jesus.

BROTHER AUGUSTI

A Saint who holds in her hands the Divine Eucharist, what a mystery!.... Why was it not rather the angels who E35] gave you Holy Communion?

SAINT STANISLAUS

During my trip to Rome, an angel gave me Holy Communion, but Saint Barbara was not there. In God's kingdom, her glory is greater than that of the heavenly spirits; that's [401 why that sweet Virgin gave me the Bread of Angels in front of them; also, perhaps, she had desired here on earth to share in the sublime functions of priests, and the Lord wanted to fulfill that desire.

My brother, you speak like an angel; I would not stop listening to you.

SAINT STANISLAUS

[5] I'm glad to be in your company, too, but I reproach myself for dominating the conversation; I could learn so many things, if you'd be willing to teach me..... Still, I believe it would be best for us to part; our conversation has gone on long enough. If it's all right with you, I'm going to stay by myself a few moments to thank Mary, the [10] Queen of Heaven, for the favor of being accepted into the holy Society of her Divine Son.

BROTHER AUGUSTI

You love Mary very much, then? Oh! I beg you, speak to me about her.

1151 SAINT STANISLAUS, in an unspeakably tender tone.

The Holy Virgin!.... Ah! what can I tell you?... She is my Mother!!! ...........

He kneels down and seems profoundly collected. - Brother Augusti looks at him with respect and exits silently.

[Scene 6]

[201 SAINT STANISLAUS, joining his hands and looking up to Heaven.

0 Mary, my sweet and tender Mother, have pity on your poor child; sustained by divine grace, he has overcome the obstacles the world put in his way. Since he's given up everything for love of your Divine Son Jesus, don't leave him long in the land of exile.

[251 0 My Holy Guardian Angel! and you, Saint Barbara, my clear patron, ask of my well-loved Mother, the Queen of Heaven, that she will come to seek me and bring me into the virginal assembly of her court.

[Scene 7]

We hear celestial voices singing to the tune of "L'Ange et l'ame" ["The Angel and the Soul'J.

[301 THE ANGEL

]35] SAINT BARBARA

[401 TOGETHER

[Scene 8]

THE BLESSED VIRGIN enters carrying the Baby Jesus.

She sings to the tune "Le Soir" ["The Evening'J.

She places the Divine Child in the arms of Saint Stanislaus, who receives [101 Him, overwhelmed with joy.

SAINT STANISLAUS

0 Jesus! my only Love, can it be true that you have deigned to rest on my heart?... 0 Mary! support my weakness, cover inc in your merits that I might be less unworthy to carry your Treasure in my arms X151

THE BLESSED VIRGIN covers Saint Stanislaus with her veil and sings:

[20 SAINT STANISLAUS

0 my Mother!... I hoped you would take me to Heaven, and now you say that I must shine in the Society of Jesus.....

THE BLESSED VIRGIN

ST. STANISLAUS

Oh! how happy I am... soon I will contemplate Jesus, not [30] under the appearance of a weak little child, but in all the brilliance of His glory.... My Well-Beloved Mother, soon I shall see you on your immortal throne!.... (After a Pause.) I regret nothing on earth, still I have one desire... a desire so great that I'm not sure I could be happy in Heaven if it were not [35] fulfilled.... Ah! my clear Mother, tell me that the blessed can still work for the salvation of souls.... If I can't work for the glory of Jesus when I'm in Heaven, I'd prefer to stay in exile, still fighting for Him!....

[101 SAINT STANISLAUS

Oh! how happy I am... Sweet Queen of Heaven, I beg you, when I am with you in the Fatherland, let inc come back to earth, to watch over holy souls, souls whose long time here will complete my own; [15] then, through them, I'll be able to bring the Lord an abundant harvest of merit.

THE BLESSED VIRIGN

Index of Biblical References

The column on the left indicates the biblical chapter and verse. The column on the right indicates the number of the Play, the folio and line of the manuscript. Exceptions are made for the 41 stanzas of RP 4 and the 26 stanzas of RP 5. There the folio number is omitted and replaced by the number of the stanza. [For example, the first entry below indicates that the comment in lines 11 and 16 of manuscript page 9r of the sixth play, The Flight into Egypt, about souls being "created in the image of God," is an echo of verses 26 and 27 in the first chapter of Genesis. - Trans.]

Many quotations are implied. Biblical scholars will perhaps find others. This is always a "delicate task" (BT, 299), demanding that one also be a Therese specialist in order not to become arbitrary. What matters more than the number of quotes, is that we notice "how more and more deeply this young Carmelite was imbued with the Scriptures" (pp. 41-42).

See Poesies,1, 34, translated in The Poetry of Saint Therese ofLisieux, trans. Donald Kinney (Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 1996), 30-31. Maxence Van der Meersch speaks of a "true poet" and a "humble poetry, nurtured by sanctity, strengthened in the flame of an immense silent suffering, and written, so to speak, in blood" in his La petite Sainte Therese (Paris: Albin Michel, 1947), 212.

2 A letter of September 11, 1947, CG I, 46 [see Saint Therese of Lisieux, General Correspondence, vol. 1: 1877-1890 (Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 1982), 49-51].

Published as Therese de Lisieux, Le Triomphe de l'Humilite - Therese mystifiee (1896-1897), l'affaire Leo Taxil et le manuscrit B (Paris: Cerf/ DDB, 1975).

4 Dieu vivant 24: 35.

s "I am not writing to produce a literary work, but only through obedience" (Ms. C, 6r).

Sainte Therese de l'Enfant Jesus, Contemplation et Apostolat (Paris: Bonne Presse, 1949), 163.

7 Regine Pernoud, La femme an temps des cathedrales (Paris: Stock, 1980), 47.

$ Compare what she says of such "melancholics" in chapter 7 of the Foundations.

° "At Avila, our holy Mother herself once had to console a sister who had been deeply scandalized when she heard another sister laugh out loud right by the porteria [front door of the convent]: Would such behavior not risk giving bad example to the laity? St. Teresa, who despised every sort of hypocrisy, said this to her: `Keep in mind, my child, that, even if laymen happened to hear that peal of laughter, they would have no reason to find it scandalous. As far as I'm concerned, I'd much rather they saw us laughing than weeping."' Dichos y hechos de N. M. Teresa de Jesus, conservados en las MM. Carmelitas de Guadalajara [Sayings and Deeds of Our Mother Teresa, as recorded in the Carmelite manuscripts of Guadalajara], as quoted by J. Gicquel, OCD in Les fioretti de sainte Therese d'Avila (Paris: Cerf, 1977), 93f.

14 Gicquel, 90.

"Concerning holy recreations," an extract from Dilucidario de verdadero spiritu, the only chapter translated and published in the Papier d'Exaction (pp. 137 ff.) which Therese used. See note 29.

Teresa's original Spanish is encapotadas [translated as "sullen" in the Kavanaugh/Rodriguez edition]. See The Interior Castle, 5.3.11.

13 "Sometimes, when she arrived at a convent, she would summon the lay sisters and ask them to sing" (Ibid., 90). ["Lay sisters" were those who lived outside the cloistered section of the convent and were entrusted with the heavy domestic chores; they were also called "externs."]

14 " `Let us go, Ladies, let us all go to the manger, to give thanks to the Child Jesus for the favors he has bestowed on us by becoming human and coming to live with us.' By way of celebration, she ordered dancing and had little songs composed, among other things" (Ibid., 92f.). In reference to Christmas, see the Saint's letter of 2 January 1577, to her brother Lorenzo.

15 Fr. Gracian's younger sister.

1s Letter 175, to Madre Maria de San Jose, 9 January 1577, in The Collected Letters of St. Teresa ofAvila, vol. 1: 1546-1577 (Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 2001), 467.

19 Called, in untranslatable Spanish, a to divino.

20 See "Oh Exceeding Beauty," in The Collected Works of St. Teresa ofAvila, trans. Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez, vol. 3 (Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 1985), 381-382, and Letter 172 in Collected Letters of St. Teresa of Avila, 457-458. [This poem seems to be based on cancioneros of that time, understood a to di-vino.] See also "I went out seeking love," "A lone young shepherd," "Without support and with support," "Not for all of beauty," in The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, trans. Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez, rev. ed. (Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 1991), 56-58, 70-73.

21 For example, see Libro de romances y coplas del Carmelo de Valladolid (1590-1609) by V. Garcia de la Concha and A. M. Alvarez Pellitero (Consejo general de Castilla y Leon: Servicios de publicaciones, 1982) and the poems of Mother Cecilia del Nacimiento (1570-1646) in the Obras Completas (Editorial de Espiritualidad, Madrid, 1971), 538-716.

17 Fr. Fernando Pantoja.

18 Ibid., 468.

22 Consult the Book of Foundations [in The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, trans. Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez, vol. 3 (Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 1985), especially 13.5: "There was an opportunity to teach Father Fray John of the Cross about our way of life so that he would have clear understanding of everything, whether it concerned mortification or the style of both our community life and the recreation we have together. The recreation is taken with such moderation that it only serves to reveal the Sisters' faults and to provide a little relief so that the rule may be kept in all its strictness."

23 Crisogono de Jesus, The Life of St. John ofthe Cross, trans. Kathleen Pond (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958), 197. See also E. Orozco, Poesia y mistica: Introduccion a la lima de San Juan de la Cruz (Madrid: Guadarrama, 1959), 201.

24 In a personal letter from Fr. Tomas Alvarez, a Spanish Carmelite and an expert on Saint Teresa, to the author of these pages (30 September 1983).

25 See note 21 and Garcia de la Concha and Alvarez Pellitero, Libro de romances y coplas, xvi.

26 Ibid., xxxvii.

='' Gicquel, Dichos y hechos, 94.

ss Note the double meaning of the word "recreation"-either the two daily hours of community relaxation, or the sung, spoken and danced performances in honor of a feastday.

21 "Le Papier d'Exaction apporte en France par nos Meres espagnoles suivi de quelques instructions et avis de ces venerables Meres [brought into France by our Spanish Mothers followed by advice and instruction from these venerable Mothers]" (Paris: J. Mersch, 1889). For the passage cited above, see 46f.

30 The first of these were founded at Paris, Pontoise, Dijon and elsewhere, by those companions of St. Teresa who were sent from Spain in 16041605.

31 There were also exchanges of material. "From convent to convent, copies of songs went back and forth" (ibid., x, n. 21).

32 See the poems of Teresa of Avila herself, Collected Works, vol. 3, 375410.

33 The Poitiers Carmel had itself been founded on 15 September 1630 by Mothers Madeleine of the Holy Spirit and Madeleine of St. Joseph. They came from the convent of the Incarnation in Paris, the first Carmel founded in 1604 by four companions of St. Teresa of Avila: Anne of St. Bartholomew, Isabelle of the Angels, Beatrix of the Conception and Anne of Jesus.

S4 See below, 22.

Sr. Marie of the Eucharist wrote to her father: "Today is a great feast, the Feast of the Good Shepherd, and I am the one to carry the shepherd's staff, following our Mother all clay, wherever she goes. The little lambs-who are the young novices-will cluster around the venerable shepherdess all clay. You see, my clear father, how feasts at Carmel always have something familial and maternal about them" (19 April 1896). See also photographs 21, 22, and 23, taken the year before, in The Photo Album of St. Therese ofLisieux, commentary by Francois de Sainte-Marie, trans. Peter-Thomas Rohrbach (New York: P. J. Kenedy & Sons, 1962).

36 From another letter of Marie of the Eucharist to her father: "Only on this special clay of the year are we permitted to make cakes and candies at the Carmel. From sundown to the following noon, the novices take over the kitchen and they're given permission to speak with one another.... These poor little novices put themselves to great pains, but still they terrify the regular kitchen workers-women who have to walk into their familiar kitchen, the day after the feast, and find everything upside-down, find themselves unable to locate their kettles and cauldrons. It seems to me that this feast of St. Martha is just as much a festival of the novices, perhaps even more so, as it is of our Marthas" (either 31 July or 1 August 1898).

37 Every novitiate in the religious life would be familiar with this custom for the Feast of the Holy Innocents. It dates back deep in their history.

39 See LC 162 in General Correspondence, vol. 2, 906. "Turlututu" is meant to represent the sound of a flute or a recorder.

38 During her time at Carmel, Therese witnessed the golden jubilee of Sr. St. Joseph of Jesus (a lay sister who died in 1892) and the diamond jubilee (sixty years of profession) of Mother Genevieve of Saint Teresa, which occurred on 22 July 2 1891 (see LT 130 in General Correspondence, vol. 2, 731$). The Fondation, however, makes no mention of performances on these occasionsmost likely, the advanced age of the sisters prevented this.

42 The archives of the Lisieux Carmel contain eleven texts; see VT 58 (April 1975): 138-156.

40 Circulaire necrologique [death notice] of 26 March 1849. Volume II of the Fondation refers to several poems of Sr. Misericorde.

41 In spite of what is noted in the Circulaire necrologique of 25 December 1924 (p. 15), she composed some community chants full of "delicate sentiments," though of an "amusing mediocrity" (Poesies, 2: 28, n. 34).

43 A letter of 9 August 1880, from Pauline to Madame Guerin, printed in VT 61 (January 1976): 67.

44 From the Souvenirs autobiographiques of Sr. Genevieve (pp. 25f.), as cited in VT 61 (January 1976): 67, n. 21.

45 Thus, in December 1876, she appeared in La Chaumiere Bretonne on La Malediction d'une Mere [The Breton Cottage, or A Mother's Curse]; see VT 49 (January 1973): 74. In another piece, she played the part of "the brightest star in the sky: Sirius," dressed in velvet "like a little pageboy." After that performance, she went to kiss the Mother Superior, expecting "some little compliment" from her aunt Marie-Dosithee. What she heard instead, in a firm tone of voice, was: "My poor child, you had such a pretty little part, but you delivered it like a chatterbox [moulin]! What a shame!" (Mother Agnes of Jesus, Souvenirs intimes, 97ff.).

46 "Very respectable, but of hardly any interest to us," Mother Agnes would later note (ibid., 50; cited in VT 60 [October 1965]: 297, n. 8).

47 LD 392, from Pauline to Mme. Guerin, 18 June 1878; see VT 60, noted above.

48 An unpublished text of 224 lines of verse. The Three Magi, following a star (four sisters in costume) sing twenty stanzas with a refrain (ACL).

40 An unpublished dialogue in prose and 102 lines of verse. Therese had recopied it. Several fragments of this copy survive and, judging by the handwriting, they would seem to date from 1893. Perhaps this playet was performed again at Christmas that year.

'0 An unpublished text of 81 lines of sung verse.

51 Seep. 312 [in the French edition].

52 One hundred and eight lines of verse entirely sung by the Three Kings, a Queen (Sr. Marie of the Sacred Heart, who asks to be clothed in the Carmelite habit) and a Servant.

53 See LT 53, 17 June 1888, where Therese asks Celine for a Scotch cincture and some ribbons: "All of this for representing Saint Agnes."

5' DCL, VT 71 (July 1978): 231. The complete text with notes can be found there on 232ff.

55 LT 245. The reference is to the antiphon of the Benedictus canticle in Lauds for "the second feast of St. Agnes," on January 28. The only text of this piece now available to us is a copy Therese made in 1894. She herself would later write "The Responses of Saint Agnes," PN 26, for her sister's feastday (21 January 1896). See Poetry, 136-138.

66 Published in full in VT 69 (January 1978): 67ff.

'' A note by Mother Agnes in copy B. She adds: "After the death of Sr. Therese of the Child Jesus, the novices spoke often of performing the piece again some Christmas night; the older sisters, however, were firmly opposed to this, since they preferred to cherish their whole lives the enchantment of that first feast, when they had felt they could see the Blessed Virgin herself in the form of the angelic novice of 1889" (ibid., 67).

ss In the Libro de romances y coplas (see above, n. 21), for example, there are five poems about the Child Jesus carrying his cross on his back. Likewise: "Before the manger, the Carmelites sang of the poverty and the sacred weakness of the All-Powerful who had become a little baby; they gathered his first tears; with great sorrow they heard as from afar the strokes of the lash he would one clay bear for our salvation, etc." (Histoire de Sainte Therese, by the Bollanclists, 3d ed. [Paris: Retaux- Bray, 1885], 1: 336). This is a biography of Teresa of Avila by a Carmelite sister from Caen, a copy of which had been given to Therese when she was still at home at Les Buissonnets.

59 A theme which provided the inspiration for a small painting as early as January 1894. See LT 156.

so "Enchanting poet, to whom the Angels have lent their lyre, that we might hear echoes of Heaven" (CG 2: 1172).

su 'The Divine Dew," PN 1 (2 February 1893).

62 See Poesies, 2: 28. We obviously point to this introduction, since the poetry and the recreations are closely linked.

63 Ibid., 29.

61 On 8 September 1893, Therese was scheduled to leave the novitiate. She asked to remain there. The planning of feastday celebrations generally fell to the novices.

65 This is reflected in her letters: LT 62, 88, 93, 99, 135, etc.

66 [For the daily schedule of the Lisieux Carmel in Therese's time, see Genevieve Devergnies, "A Day in Carmel," in Saint Therese of Lisieux: Her Life, Times, and Teaching, ed. Conrad De Meester (Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 1991), 131.-Ed.]

67 These are often the favors requested by other sisters to whom Therese always responds positively.

68 A note to that effect: "I was unable to refrain from laughing when reading the end of your letter. Ali! this is how you make fun of me? And who, then, has spoken to you about my writings? To which folios are you making reference?" (LT 242, to Sr. Marie of the Trinity).

69 See p. 254 below, citing Mother Agnes of Jesus (NPPA/Force).

" 70 Described on pp. 289ff [of the French edition].

" See below, p. 299.

72 Ibid.

73 See Poet?y, 46-47. La Semaine Religieuse of Bayeux (the religious weekly journal) carried a number of articles about Joan of Arc during 1894.

74 A transcript in Therese's hand has been found (apparently dating from late 1895) about St. Francis of Assisi conversing with Br. Leo, Br. Juniper and the Wolf of Gubbio. Therese copied out only the Saint's part, along with a total of seven cue-lines from the other characters, which suggests she may have been given the role of Saint Francis. The motto on the last page-"DSB" for "Dieu soil beni" [God be blessed]-is typical of the Order of the Visitation and led to the discovery of the full text of this composition at their monastery in Chartres (though older sisters from Caen and Le Mans recall it too). The Trois petites scenes de la vie de St. Francois d'Assise et du Frere Junipere was written by a Visitation sister and fills 33 pages of a school notebook in the Chartres copy. Therese's transcript consists of three sheets of blue paper, letterhead from the Martin family's lace-making business (approximately 7 x 8 inches), written on both sides and paginated 1 through 6. Other evidence suggests the piece was performed on the evening of 28 December 1895. For that Feast of the Holy Innocents, the novitiate put on a "great production!" (Mother Agnes to M. Guerin, 28 December 1895, in « 63 [July 1976]: 233).

75 For information on the musical settings, see the Appendix [to the French edition], 411-418.

76 "Her beautiful voice is the joy and delight of our recreations" (LT 180, 14-17 October 1895).

77 An area of 6 m by 5.5 m with a 3.35 m ceiling [approximately 19 ft. 8 in. by 18 ft. by 11 ft.].

78 One opened into the cloister, another (which has since been walled over) into the kitchen and the third into "la Sainte Baume," a small closet used for storing stockings; see the plan in DE, 817.

79 An area of 8 m by 5.5 m with a ceiling 3.35 m high [approximately 26 ft. 3 in. by 18 ft. by 10 ft. 4 in.], with three windows and one large door.

"A listing on 419ff. [of the French edition of this work] shows everything the Carmel still possesses of the costumes and props used in the recreations.

81 Voyage excentrique aux Cordilleres des Andes [Far Away Travels in the Cordilleres of the Andes]; see LC 159 in General Correspondence, 869.

82 With the collaboration of Sr, Genevieve; see her Recueil de travaux artistiques, vol. 1 (dedicated to Mother Agnes in 1941).

83 The text of this comical skit (20 June 1896) has not survived, but we do know the characters and the players: "The Fool of Baptiste" was Sr. Marie of the Eucharist, "Fr. Jerome" was Sr. Genevieve, and "the Teacher" was Sr. Marie of the Trinity. See below, p. 298.

84 The reference is to her first cousin.

85 After the entry into Carmel of Marie Guerin, "the whole novitiate is stricken by the contagion," an "attack of gaiety," wrote Therese. "It rejuvinates me and, in spite of my seven and a half years of religious life, my gravity often breaks clown in the presence of the charming rascal who delights the whole Community" (LT 180). Sister Marie of the Eucharist would later be involved in producing RP 6 and RP 7, that is, the two recreations with comic elements. See also the humorous piece "Heaven's the Reward" (PS 4, Summer 1896?), which Therese copied out as "rimes unfolding a clay in the life of a Carmelite in 1896, in a style of a student review" (Poetry, 226-228). Later, Therese would try to channel this "wild gaiety" with appropriate advice at the times of recreation (CG 2: 921, n. e).

86 Although she was born at Saint-Pierre-stir-Dives in Calvados, MarieLouise Castel had lived in Paris or its suburbs long enough to have kept some of the style of a fashionable young woman of that town.

87 A letter from Mother Agnes to Sr. M. Aloysia Vallee, 29-30 January 1894 (General Cor espondence, 2: 1257-1258).

88 It also seems that, if she took no part in Saint Stanislaus Kostka, this was only because she was already too fatigued by her illness.

89 Sr. Marie-Madeleine of the Holy Sacrament, NPPO, 6 March 1910, 14. A "hoarse voice" because, by the Summer of 1894, Therese's illness had begun to affect her throat.

90 Mrs. Martin to Pauline: "She gets the exact expression and tone all by herself' (4 March 1877; cited in Ms A, 1 ir); or she imitates a gentleman who repeats: Tu m'nabres, ma bonne femme, to m'nabres (12 March 1876, in General Correspondence, 2: 1222).

91 See La Petite Therese a l'Abbaye, 2nd edition, 16. At Les Buissonnets, Therese gave proof of a "special aptitude for mimicking the voice and mannerisms of others" (Sr. Francoise- Therese, PO 347). At Carmel, she would often mimic "the guide in Rome" (General Correspondence, 1: 422). See also Sr. Marie of the Angels "Mystic, comic, anything fits" (CG 2: 1176).

9=' Photo Album of St. Therese, nos. 11 to 15.

93 See the notes on RP 3 [in the French edition], p. 338.

94 It is Aristotle's catharsis, "purification of the soul brought on by the performance of a play."

95 She no longer worried about learning the rules of versification in order to write her poems. See Poesies, 1: 15f.

96 See Poetry, 17-18.

97 At the time, there were no meetings for interpersonal sharing among the Carmelites. At the chapter meetings the prioress alone addressed her community.

9s See St. Therese of Lisieux, Last Conversations, trans. John Clarke (Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 1977), 134 (5 August, n. 4) and 105 (21 July).

99 See PA, XXI.

10o It is not impossible that this play was written when Mother Agnes asked Sr. Genevieve to become a lay sister. See foreword to RP 4, pp. 205-206.

102 Not to mention the conversion of Susanna and the thieves in The Flight into Egypt.

10 See foreword to RP 5, p. 228.

103 See TH, 48.

104 See our study, in R. Pernoud, G. Bailac, and G. Gaucher, L'influence de Jeanne d'Arc sur la vie de Therese de Lisieux, in Jeanne et Therese (Paris: Seuil, 1984), 99-142.

105 "Language poetique et pressentiment" in Creation et Destinee (Paris: Seuil, 1973), 157. Since 1927, Marietta Martin had described her death in a German prison on November 11, 1944. Let us note what she had written: "Destiny: to live like a child and to die like a child. My destiny is childhood" (p. 162). Likewise, Georges Bernanos, re-reading his novel La Joie, wrote: "If I knew how to really read my books, I would probably find therein the prefiguration of all that happens to me or will happen to me" (Lettres retrouvees [Paris: Plon, 1983], 238).

106 "Un nouveau theologien, M. Fernand Laudet," in Charles Peguy, Oeuvres en prose, vol. II (Paris: la Pleiade, 1959), 984.

107 CRM, 92 (VT 75 [July 1979]: 229f.); see PO, 469f.

108 RP 2, RP 5, and RP 6 form a Christmas cycle of plays.

109 Ms. A, 2v. The verb s'abaisser (to lower oneself) is used seven times in the plays in this sense of the word, but the word abaissement (lowering) is totally absent from her writings.

112 The verb cacher (to hide) is applied 24 times, in the Pious Recreations, to God or to Jesus.

113 RP 6, 8v, quoting Luke 10:21. The word misericorde (mercy) is used 7 times in the Pious Recreations.

"'See RP 4, lr 1-2, note; RP 8, 6r 12, note; RP 2, lr 23, note; RP 1, 18r 4, etc. [These references are to notes in the French edition.-Ed.]

115 See RP 1, 4v-5r; RP 8, 5v-6r.

"'See below, RP 6, pp. 256-257.

117 See RP 1, 5r 26; and RP 6, 1 Ov.

"'See Francois Lethel, Jeanne d'Arc et l'Ange (typewritten text, 15 pgs.) and E. Delaruelle, L'Archange saint Michel dans la spiritualite de Jeanne d'Arc, in La piete populaire an Moyen Age (Turin, 1975), 389ff.

"'See RP 4, 14: "Much higher than the angels/you will rise" (Jesus to Mary Magdalene); or RP 8, 5r, concerning Saint Barbara: "In God's Kingdom, her glory is greater than that of the celestial spirits." This notion is very classic with the Fathers. For example, Saint Leo the Great, Homelies pour l'Ascension, Sources chretiennes, 74 (Paris: Cerf), 136-138. Therese had read the Conferences theologigues et spirituelles sur les Grandeurs de Dieu, by Father d'Argentan (Paris, Haton, nd). One finds in vol. II, 204-207 a beautiful passage comparing the dignity of man to that of angels; it concludes by asserting the superiority of human nature called to the divinization of the flesh by virtue of the Incarnation of the Word: "the human body raises us up to a better condition in some ways than that of the angels who have no body."

120 See DE, 432ff.; Poesies, 2: 114ff., 165ff., 283.

'" RP 1, 6v; RP 6, 11 r.

122 This is a new original contribution from the pious recreations, for Therese speaks little of the devil in her other writings; see TH, 128ff., "Concerning the devil."

121,11 had declared at the feet ofJesus-Victim, in the examination preceding my Profession, what I had come to Carmel for: `I came to save souls and especially to pray for priests"' (Ms. A, 69v). This took place on 2 September 1890.

125 "I feel in me the vocation of the PRIEST" (Ms. B, 2v). See Last Conversations, 132 and 137 (4 August nos. 5 and 6 August no. 6); Last Conversations, 260, etc.

126 Never mind that her source document contained an historical error; see p. 307 [in the French edition].

117 La Bible avec Therese de Lisieux: Textes de Sainte Therese de l'Enfant Jesus et de la Sainte-Face (Paris: Cerf-DDB, 1979). The present edition will allow us to make up for some omissions in that earlier work. See the index of biblical references [at the end of this volume].

198Therese's written work contains approximately a thousand biblical quotations. The pious recreations contain approximately a quarter of these.

'29These long passages are hardly suited for theatre, but that didn't matter to Therese! Her sisters must not lose anything from the insight she received from these texts.

'30With regard to this, see pp. 303 and 314 [in the French edition].

131 Ms. A, 81v, quoting Ecclesiastes 2:11. We also recall, on p. 136 below, what Therese confided to Sr. Marie of the Trinity on 22 January 1895 (complete text in BT, 99).

132 Pp. 425-469. This is the first appearance of this title which, as we shall see, did not come from Therese. The pieces are: Jesus at Bethany (425433), The Divine Little Beggar of Christmas (434-446), The Angels at the Manger (447-456) The Flight into Egypt (457-460), The Vision of St. Stanislaus (46 if.), and The Shepherdess of Domremy Listening to Her Voices (463-469). We note that RP 4 and RP 5 are published almost in full; RP 2 is also developed but without passages in prose and sometimes summarized in one or two phrases. On the details of each piece published in HA 98, see [in the French edition] the dossiers of each "pious recreation" (and the document study).

133 P. 379.

134 On pp. 395-406. All in honor of Joan of Arc; see RP 3, p. 317 [in the French edition].

135 We refer to the Introduction to the Poesies, 2: 9-41, since the Poems and Pious Recreations often were treated similarly.

136 Pp 369-502. Only eleven fragments are left, The Invitation to Humility and The Vision of St. Stanislaus having been omitted from HA 1899.

137 See Poesies, 2: 36. Extensive research since 1979 leads us to believe that there had not been a separate edition in 1907, although the printing had been scheduled and announced for that year, and the preface by Fr. Jubaru was also of 1907. Mother Agnes's letter (cited in Poesies, 36, n. 49), is an insufficient argument. And Sr. Genevieve was right to speak of "new publications" (n. 50). The separate edition of 1908 was entitled Poesies of Soeur Therese de L'Enfant Jesus et de la Sainte Face (25.3 x 16 cm.; VIII + 160 pp.; drawings by Jouvenot and 5 inserts).

138 Eight "Poesies faites en l'honneur de Soeur Therese de l'Enfant Jesus" [poems written in honor of Sr. Therese of the Child Jesus] (135-151) were added to these. Notice the sonnet by A. Jeanniard du Dot: "Jeanne d'Arc et soeur Therese de l'Enfant Jesus," 137, of 9 December 1900.

139 p Ill.

141 "Never give or show these photos under any circumstance to anyone on the outside, because no one would understand that a religious can 'disguise' herself so completely. Actually, to play the role ofJoan of Arc, St. Therese had kept her toque and her veil under her wig and a sleeveless Carmelite robe under her fleurs-de-lis costume and her

149 See the anecdote recalled above, on p. 8.

breastplate.-Sr. Genevieve of the Holy Face and of St. Therese, 8 February 1943" (handwritten note on loose sheet, ACL).

142 See DE, 68ff.

145 She died prematurely on 11 November 1909.

146 He simultaneously directed the causes of Mme. Louise of France (1737-1787, Carmelite at Saint- Denis), of the Martyrs of September,

143 Joan of Arc was beatified on 18 April 1909, by Pope Pius X.

144 Bishop of Bayeux since 13 July 1906.

of Pius IX, after handling the cause of the 16 Carmelites of Compiegne, who were guillotined on 17 July 1794.

147 Letter of 5 March 1909 (ACL).

"'See the historical summary in PA, 573-576; see also General Correspondence, 1: 30-36 with this correction, that the president of the Tribunal was M. Quirie and not M. Dubosq).

150 The transcribers made some minor errors, and twice they had to recommence their work of copying RP 7 which caused a problem; see below, p. 380f [in the French edition].

151 Summarium II, 1920, 8-9 and 78-80. The advocate saw therein a simple material error and dispelled the idea that Therese had had direct access to the Apocrypha.

152 Still in three parts, as in HA 07. But with regard to the pious recreation, TheAngels at the Manger, it is noted, regarding the Angel of the Child Jesus: "Role performed by Sr. Therese of the Child Jesus" (104). It is the first time that a glimpse of a "theatre at Carmel" was allowed. As to the appearance or the disappearance of the poems and pious recreations, according to the editions of Story of a Soul, refer to the Chronologie et Concordance theresiennes by Fr. Cyrille of the Mother of God, O.C.D. (Ephemerides

"9 Letter from Mother Agnes to Msgr. De Teil, 11 May 1910 (ACL).

Garmeliticae [Rome 1958]: 133-136). From HA 1946 on, there only remain two fragments of RP 3 in the "Poetry" section.

153 Poesies de Soeur Therese de l'Enfant Jesus, 158 pages, with a preface by Fr. Jubaru, S.J., of 1907. "Priere de Jeanne cl'Arc clans sa Prison" [Prayer of Joan of Arc in her Prison], 119; "Les Voix de Jeanne pendant son martyre" [Joan's Voices during her Martyrdom], 121; "Priere de la France a la Bse. Jeanne d'Arc" [Prayer of France to Blessed Joan ofArc], 123; "The Little Beggar of Christmas," 125; "The Angels at the Manger," 141; "Jesus at Bethany," 145.

154We were able to consult the editions of 1919, 1923, 1925, 1928, 1937, 1946, and 1951.

155 The year 1929 marks the 500th anniversary of the deliverance of Orleans. The three texts (RP 8, RP 1, and RP 3) are touched up, moderately for the first, more for the second, and much more for the third. The separate edition (1,608 copies) was announced in Annales de saint Therese de Lisieux as early as February 1929, 39, n. 1. It was ready for March 1, in the format of the Annales, under the title: "Sainte Jeanne d'Arc-Saint Stanislaus Kostka, Pieuses Recreations composees par Ste. Therese de l'Enfant Jesus," 34 pp., illustrated by Jouvenot; printing by E. Morriere of Lisieux.

156 Sr. Marie of the Sacred Heart testified that "she wrote...poetry on pious subjects and dialogues that we call `pious recreations"' (PO, 244).

15' For example, Ms A, 70v; Ms C, 13r, 14r, 19r, 27v, 28r; LT 180, 192, 221, etc.

158 LT 140; RP 1, 19v; RP 8, 3r.

159 Ms A, 40v. These are the only two uses of the word "pious" in her manuscripts.

160 See Poesies, 2: 11. This page was not returned to the archives of Carmel.

161 Ibid., 12.

"'See [in the French edition] notes for RP 1, p. 288 and those for RP 2, p. 304 (which correct Poesies, 2: 13, n. 8).

165 On the subject of this "Chapter XIV," see Poesies, 2: 15-17.

162 As Therese had clone for her role as St. Francis. See n. 74 above.

"'See p. 342 [in the French edition].

166One 21.5 x 27.5 cm. volume, bound parchment under the title: Baiocen. Beatificationis et Canonizationis Servae Dei Theresiae a Puerojesu et Sacro Vultu. Exemplar scriptorum Servae Dei. III. Recreations pieuses. The only copy in the world, exceptionally presented to Mother Agnes of Jesus on 14 June 1928. The copyists are Sr. Madeline of Jesus (died 1940) for RP 1, 2, 3, and 8; and Sr. Marie of the Child Jesus (died 1974 in India) for RP 4, 5, 6, and 7. They totally omitted indications of the melodies as they must have been instructed to do.

167 Based on the note concerning the Poesies, published in 2: 20.

169The first copy of RP 7 had indeed its corresponding pagination in ink (154-167); the second, bound in CE III, is paginated in pencil, with the addition of 165a, 166a, and 167a.

170 See above, p. 49, n. 155.

171 The archivist at that time was Sr. Marie-Henrietta (died 1968). Let us also mention for the record that the copies of RP 2, 6, and 7 were created under a private initiative (around 1946) in separate school notebooks, by Marie-Angel of the Child Jesus, who collaborated on "l'Edition du Centenaire" until her death in 1974.

172 [Her work has since been incorporated into Les mots de Sainte Therese de l'Enfant Jesus: concordance ghs vale, ed. Sr. Genevieve, Sr. Cecile, and Jacques Lonchampt (Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1996).-Trans.]

1 The First Dream ofthe Infant Jesus and The Virtues atJesus' Cradle, two compositions of Sr. Agnes of Jesus; see pp. 15-17 above.

2 Except for a stylistic exercise of December 1886, cited in CG I, 225. Her first poetry speaks of the Infant Jesus, though from a very particular angle. As to PN 13, dated Christmas 1894, this was most likely composed after RP 2.

It is evident that, for Therese, these "angels" are Carmelites and represent Carmelite "sentiments" (see LT 220). We can avoid some false problems by not seeking a treatise on angelology in RP 2, particularly not in the angels' "envy" of humanity, redeemed by Jesus and sanctified in him.

4 Note thatwhen Celine entered (14 September 1894), Therese changed her sleeping quarters. After August 1894, to get to her new cell (St. Elisee) she passed several times a day by a sentence painted on the wall: "O wonderful Commerce of God with men!!... The Creator of men took on flesh and deigned to be born of a virgin; He clothed Himself in our humanity and made us participants in His divinity. Office of the Church." (Antiphon for the Circumcision)

[Note that the phrase "Alors je suis venue" is rendered "and so I succeeded" in the Clarke ICS translation. - Trans.]

6 Recall that RP 3 had to have been composed during the summer of 1894, thus before RP 2: this is a chronological detail which is important for the study of the vocabulary of the writings.

7 A. Combes, letter of 20 February 1949.

$ A saying of her own, transcribed by Mother Agnes in a copybook of notes, shortly after Therese's death, along with one other: "O Jesus, You are so little that I cannot fear You; I love You with all my power to love, with all the tenderness of my heart."

The Annals of 1929 point out in this regard: "It is remarkable that St. Therese of the Child Jesus is fond of putting into the mouth of St. Joan of Arc words that she actually spoke."

2 Mother Marie-Ange to Mgr de Teil, in a letter of 3 March 1909, cited on p. 46 above.

Not without certain occasional distractions. It is said that, during a moment of intense composition, Mother Agnes saw her smile and said to herself: "She is thinking of her Joan of Arc." She later told this story herself.

4 In the terms quoted here; for a complete text see BT, p. 99.

6 Ibid., pp. 320f.

6 See V T, # 92, October 1983, p. 314.

Problenae et mystere de Jeanne d'Arc, Fayard, 1961, p. 209. Pages 207214 develop a parallel between the two saints, concluding that "Joan helps us better understand the heroism of Therese, and Therese the simplicity ofJoan."

8 VTL, photos 11-15.

1 A seed of this parable is found in Saint Augustine's Confessions, II, 7; but we have no proof that Therese could have had knowledge of it.

2 Autobiographical memories of Sister Genevieve, pp. 266-269. Her only regret was that the Divine Office was commuted to the recitation of the Our Father for the lay sisters. She had not even missed the title of "chapter member": due to the fact that two older sisters were present, she would have neither a voice nor a seat at the chapter meetings (she will recover these in 1916). Therese was never a chapter member, as we know.

The "halo" that Therese wore in this role is preserved in the Lisieux archives.

4 Let us also recall that the "Canticle to the Sacred Heart" (PN 23), which evokes Mary Magdalene at the tomb, could date from 21 June 1895.

Here are the references in chronological order: 1891: LT 130. 1894: LT 169; Pri 5; PN 10,7; RP 2, 3rbis, p. 303. 1895: PN 17, 12; Ms A, 38v-39r; PN 23; RP 4; Ms A, 60v, 67v. 1896: Ms B, 3r. 1897: LT 247; Ms C, 36r-v; LT 259 (mention of her feastday). CJ 6.4.1; 11.7.2; 22.8.5.

s The words "Jesus is my only love" were written above the door of her last cell in the Lisieux monastery.

7 See DE, p. 466; LC, 88. There are four other statues of St. Mary Magdalene; she is represented seated in meditation close to a cross, with a book or a skull, except for one of them where she is carrying an amphora: the vase of anointing or that of the embalming of Easter morning

2 27 little pieces of paper from these "offices at the manger" have been preserved, dating to the time of Therese (not composed by her), recopied by Sister Madeleine of Jesus.

Either it was a small manger (cradle) prepared in the warming room for the occasion, or it was the very important set built by the novices in the chapter room: a vast grotto made of paper rock, with a roof of oat straw, bushes, small paths of moss, statues of shepherds, decoration canvases painted by Sister Genevieve, with the effects of ice, etc. (See Recueil des traveaux artistiques de soeur Genevieve, I, 26-29.)

} In the manual Pres du Tabernacle, author unknown; 3rd series, Caen, Domin Printing, 1889. The "Legend" is on pp. 1-4.

s Les Mages an Carmel de Lisieux, see p. 15, n. 48.

s Dieu vivant, n. 14 (4th ed.1949) reprinted in La foudre de Dieu, NRF, 1969, 21-58.

"He is begging this sorrow, this agony from us" (LT 57); "He is begging souls from us" (LT 96); "He made Himself poor so that we might be able to give Him love. He holds out His hand to us like a beggar.... It is He who wants our love, who begs for it" (LT 145); see LT 172, 191.

This offering corresponds, in fact, to what the Second Vatican Council will ask all the baptized exercising their common priesthood: "All the disciples of Christ, persevering in prayer and praising God (cf. Acts 2:42- 47), should present themselves as a sacrifice, living, holy, and pleasing to God (cf. Rom. 12:1)" (Lumen Gentium, 10).

$ Op. cit., 25. More mentions two texts of Leon Bloy, very consonant with those of the Carmelite.

9 She had prepared two sheets for her:

a) In December 1893, "to prepare the Trousseau of the Divine Child Jesus," the novice was invited to practice: "good will - sweetness - simplicity - humility - patience - charity - love of Jesus." Thus she prepared "the little Cradle, the little mattress and the feather bed... sheets... swaddling clothes... caps... covers... pillow and quilt" of the Child Jesus. We recognize in RP 5 the cradle (21), pillow (13), and swaddling clothes (22).

b) In January 1894, the sister will bring to the Child Jesus "all the little provisions that He is missing in the manger": "Fire (love of Jesus)... Milk (simplicity)... Sugar (charity)... Baby food (humility)... warm bread (good will)... Honey (sweetness)... Candies (mortification)" We recognize in RP 5 the fire (23), milk (2), bread (15), honey (25), and candies (19).

1 See Mss. I, 45. After having painted her coat of arms on the last page, Therese sewed together the six little school notebooks within coarser wrapping paper.

2 See Poesies, pp. 22 and 50.

s See CG, 1181-1185.

See her testimony to Abbe Belliere: "There is only one thing necessary, that is, to work solely for Him and to do nothing for self or for creatures" (LT 244, 9 June 1897).

6 Ms A, 84r; see also pp. 206-207 above.

7 She refers to it in RP 2, 2r and in a poem written on 21 October 1895: "Jesus, My Beloved, Remember" (PN 24). She returned to this subject again in her last poem, PN 54, stanzas 12-13. In 1896, she made herself a picture for her breviary from the "Holy Family" by Muller, framing it with biblical quotations; see VT n. 77, January 1980, 75.

Cf. Poesies, 1, 149.

$ A French translation of the book by F.W. Faber, the English Oratonan and a teacher of Newman (Paris: Bray et Retaux, 10th edition, 1877), 125f.

On this legendary story, see Daniel-Rops, Evangiles apociyphes, by F. Amiot (Fayard, 1952), 94f.; the healing of the leprous child is taken from Evangile arabe de l'enfance (taken from P. Peeters, Bollandist, Evangiles apoc)yphes, Picard, 1914, vol. III, XVIII, 1, 3). It is not a question ofban- dits but of a king who had a leprous child. A young girl, healed of leprosy by water used to bathe Jesus, advises the queen to do as she has clone. After the miracle, the Holy Family is showered with honors. In another version, she meets two bandits, Titus and Dumachus. Titus leaves her alone. He will become the good thief, while his companion will become the bad one (98). In still another version, the good thief was named Demas (147).

10 Marie Guerin (who entered Carmel on 15 August 1895) exhibited an exuberant cheerfulness at the beginning of her postulancy. "The whole novitiate is stricken by the contagion," wrote Therese. "It is a great consolation for me, the old senior of the novitiate, to see so much gaiety surrounding my last clays; it rejuvenates me and ... my gravity often breaks down" (LT 180, 14-17 October 1895). This atmosphere greatly influenced the composition of RP 6 (scenes 1 and 2 of the second act).

13 Ibid.

11 NPPA/Force; text cited in TH, 48.

12 CSG, 19.

14 CJ 21.8.3 (DE, 389; LC, 161-162); CJ 20.8.14 (LC, 159).

15 The word is used four times in RP 6 (8r, 5; 9r, 12; 9r, 37; 10r, 18).

18 Fr. Godefroid Madelaine, HA 98, x.

16 Ms. C, 36v; also see CJ 11.7.6 (LC, 89).

17 Seep. 41, n. 127.

2 His real name was Gabriel Jogand. He was born in Marseille on 21 March 1854, and died in Sceaux on 27 March 1907; see TH 94-97.

See the final couplet on 394 of Theatre an Carmel: "recreations pienses," the French edition of the present work.

' [The lines indicate gaps in the damaged text. -Trans.]

s [`Maleahk," a term found in the writings of Diana Vaughn, is from the Hebrew mal'ah, used in the Bible to refer to angels.-Trans.]

Fondation du Carmel de Lisieux, III, 245f. On 11 February 1897, Sr. Genevieve wrote to Br. Simeon: "On the evening [of the 8th], the novices acted out a little play composed by Sr. Therese of the Child Jesus: St. Stanislaus's entry into the Society of Jesus" (cited in CG II, 1160). The Fondation also quotes seventeen octosyllabic quatrains, with three different refrains, which were composed by Mother Agnes of Jesus and sung that evening, before the performance of RP 8.

2 Sr. St. John of the Cross (1817-1892), one of the three first Carmelites of Lisieux, later sent to Saigon. She died at the Carmel of Caen.

Sr. Genevieve, note of 1947-48.

' See Sr. Marie of the Angels, CG II, 1172.

s On the role of Sr. Saint-Stanislaus in Therese's last illness, see the index entries in DE, 907.

7 See DE, 32 and 520. This did not help her work in the infirmary - see CJ 6.8.7 and 4.9.1 (LC, 138 and 182) and their notes. Sr. Saint-Stanislaus died, in a wasted condition, at 90 on May 23, 1914. On account of her age, she could not testify at the Process in 1910. She had written a brief deposition in 1906, showing in what esteem she held Therese.

$ Therein we see the saint stretched out on the ground, on a mat, between two candelabra. A priest bows toward him and another kisses his naked feet. On his stone it says: "S. Stanislaus Kostka Soc. Jesu. Senatoria gente ortus in Polonia, obiit in Quirinali domo Probationis. Romae die 15 Aug. An. Dom. 1568. Aet. 18" (painted by Nic. Pomerancius). The painting agrees with the text of A. de Blanche, 129 and 228. After 1896, Therese also kept in her breviary the Van Oer picture: Maly and the Saints of the Society of Jesus, which includes Stanislaus. But, did she know he was there?

9 See pp. 398f. [in the French edition].

10 Unless she also consulted some other, unidentified work? Seep. 399 [in the French edition].

"On the verge of his nineteenth year, the most beautiful age of adolescence," says a biographer (VSK, 111). "At the most beautiful age of .. life., at eighteen," Therese emphasizes in writing to the Abbe Belliere (LT 247).

12 In Therese's time, his liturgical feast was celebrated on 13 November. Sources: U. Ubaldini, Vita et miracula S. St. Kostkae, ed. A. Arndt, inAnal. boll., vol. IN, 1980, 360-378; vol. XI, 416-467; vol. XIII, p. 122-156; vol. XIV, 295-318; vol. XV, 285-315; vol. XVI, 253-296.

13 A. de Blanche's "Theresian" orientation is quite remarkable. One could say, somewhat paradoxically, that there's more of Therese to be found in his biography than there is of Stanislaus in RP 8.

14 Is this why she was not asked to write a recreation for Christmas of 1896? She did, all the same, compose two poems (PN 43 and PN 44) that were sung by the community on December 25 and 28.

15 LT 218, 27 January 1897; see, in the same sense, LT 220, to the Abbe Belliere, 24 February 1897.

1s Which would confirm the distinction between "played" and "composed," as much as does Sr. Genevieve's letter in the account in the Fondation; see note 1.

17 She had very much wanted to be "the angel" of the long-awaited, neverarriving postulant. Would taking this role make up for this? Or, perhaps it would have been more simply a matter of her replacing Therese, forced by her health to abandon a role for which she had been intended?

1$ It is possible that these methods were less shocking in 1897 than they are today. At that time, for example, a "third party" was present, in hiding, at all parlor visits (as was known to the visitors) and every sister's mail, incoming and outgoing, was read by the prioress.

10 See the "thousand follies" in Ms A, 52v. But the excessive humility of Stanislaus also resembles, even in its expression, that of Br. Juniper - frankly humorous - in the St. Francis scene mentioned above on pp. 21-22, n. 74.

20 The biographer cites two passages of the liturgical Office where Stanislaus is called "elderly" at the same time he's called a "child" (229f.). This calls to mind Therese's reflection on herself: "a child who is an old person" (DE 443).

Table of Contents

Preface to the ICS Edition ...................................................vii

Abbreviations

General Introduction

RP 1: The Mission of Joan of Arc or The Shepherdess of Domremy Listening to Her Voices

RP 2: The Angels at Jesus' Manger

RP 3: Joan of Arc Accomplishing Her Mission

RP 4: Jesus at Bethany

RP 5: The Divine Little Beggar of Christmas

RP 6: The Flight into Egypt

RP 7: The Triumph of Humility

RP 8: Saint Stanislaus Kostka

Index of Biblical References

This seventh volume of the Centenary Edition [of St. Therese's works] presents an almost unknown par

"Minor" works need not mean "negligible" ones. "In the case of a saint, nothing is trite.... [Her] w

Just as St. Therese's poems have not revolutionized the art of poetry, but have revealed that therei

or St. Stanislaus Kostka, where she is already at work on the great themes she was to take on four

More did not hesitate to assert that this play "announced, perhaps accomplished, the Theresian rev

Once again, these simple occasional writings, inspired solely by obedience

Thus, for example, the Saxon nun Hrotswitha of Gandersheim (ca. 935 - ca. 1000) "wrote for her relig

St. Teresa of Avila, blessed as she was with good sense and a healthy realism, knew how austere the

"The bowstring cannot always be drawn taut and it is necessary... to give to the cares of the soul a

Joy, smiling, and even laughter appear quite often in the Spanish saint's writings.10

She couldn't bear the thought that her sisters might "cloak themselves"i'

in a rigid piety. Her letters abound in flashes of humor that reveal an interior good cheer in the

La Madre herself expressed her joy in these recreations, and like a good Castillian she wanted them

But, in addition to the everyday, there come liturgical and community feastclays to break the monoto

are drafted. Thus, Teresa of Avila praises Sr. Isabella of Jesus15:

of the others, for they were not all of equal merit. I think you could show them to the old saint,"

telling him that this is how you spend your recreation, always speaking the language of perfection

The process of using popular Spanish melodies and changing their lyrics in order to sing of the soul

was in great vogue during Spain's "Golden Century." Teresa and John of the Cross both used it,20

and the custom has spread to Carmels everywhere, even clown to our own time.21

of his stay at Valladolid.22

Once he had become prior at the Granada monastery (1582-1585), he arranged to have the lives of th

They were "a draft of very elementary pastoral drama," wrote Fr. Tomas Alvarez of these Teresian the

.24 Garcia de la Concha and Alvarez Pellitero feel free to speak of a "convent theater,

1125 in the sense that the novices would act such parts as Mary, Joseph, a shepherd or a choir of

A highly prejudiced visitor asked our Mother to see him in the parlor. She went out to him, accompan

Thus there developed a tradition of Carmelite recreations28

A sense of gaiety seemed to them to be one of the requisites of a perfect Carmelite. They themselves

Every French Carmel

'31 then, inherited these traditions of recreation and, over time, each developed its own characte

spirit-and very often the outward form-was faithfully handed down through four centuries. Everywhere

The Carmel of Lisieux was founded on 15 March 1838 and its chapel was consecrated in 1852. It was no

white mantles _link_ to mark the solemnity of the occasion, the community would gather in the chauff

The prioress-whose role and rank in the community were, at that time, very high indeed-would again b

Things were much less elaborate on the feast of the Lay Sisters (each July 29). To honor those who o

The Feast of the Holy Innocents, three days after Christmas, had a style all its own. After being el

Obviously, the celebration of a golden jubilee was rather rare-that is, a feast honoring a Carmelite

Mother Marie de Gonzague put herself wholeheartedly on the side of the Spanish reformer when she wro