Blessed Anne of Saint Bartholomew

Blessed Anne of Saint Bartholomew was a Spanish Discalced Carmelite, a disciple and the closest helper of Saint Teresa of Jesus, known as Teresa of Ávila, who died in her arms. After Teresa’s death Anne carried her reform of Carmel to France and to present-day Belgium. The Church commemorates her on June 7.

She was born on October 1, 1549, in Almendral de la Cañada, a village then belonging to the diocese of Ávila, into a poor peasant family. At about the age of ten she lost both her parents and came under the care of her brothers, who gave her the task of tending sheep. Her brothers wanted to marry her off, but she longed for religious life, and after years of opposition from her family she entered the Monastery of Saint Joseph in Ávila, Teresa’s first foundation, in 1570.

She was received as a lay sister; she was the first lay sister in the Carmel reformed by Teresa. She made her religious profession on August 15, 1572. She cared for the sick sisters, and in time she also nursed Teresa herself. She learned to write only in the monastery and from then on helped Teresa as her secretary. In the last years of Teresa’s life she accompanied her on her journeys and in founding new monasteries. Teresa died in her arms at Alba de Tormes in October 1582. Anne later wrote an account of her last years.

After Teresa’s death she returned to Ávila, and in 1595 she moved to the monastery in the small town of Ocaña. In 1604 she went to France with a group of Spanish Carmelite nuns led by Anne of Jesus, to plant the Teresian reform there. Her superiors wanted to entrust her with the leadership of a community, so they ordered her to pass to the choir sisters and take the black veil; she accepted this against her own will. She shared in the beginnings of the monastery in Paris, and as prioress she led the communities in Pontoise and in Tours.

In 1611 she moved to present-day Belgium. After a year spent in Mons, in 1612 she founded a monastery of Discalced Carmelite nuns in Antwerp and governed it as prioress until the end of her life. People of every station sought her advice, among them the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia, daughter of King Philip II of Spain. According to tradition, the rescue of Antwerp from capture by enemy troops was attributed to her prayers. At the command of her superiors she wrote an autobiography; her letters and spiritual writings have also survived.

She died in Antwerp on June 7, 1626. Efforts toward her beatification began in Rome soon after her death, under Pope Urban VIII, but the process came to a halt for a long time. In 1735 Pope Clement XII recognized her heroic virtues, and Benedict XV beatified her on May 6, 1917, in Saint Peter’s Basilica. The Roman Martyrology commemorates her as a disciple and secretary of Saint Teresa, endowed with mystical gifts, who spread and strengthened the Order in France.