St Teresa of Lisieux and Her 'Truly Excessive Sensitiveness'

Extract

In her autobiography, St Teresa of Lisieux has entered accurately, sometimes forcibly, a number of her peculiarities of disposition and character. They are so striking that no attentive reader can miss them. Most of her biographers however explain them away without realizing their true significance or dismiss them as of being of no importance. One well-known Teresian, for instance, speaks of St Teresa's ‘truly excessive sensitiveness’ and leaves it at that. ‘Excessive’ is the right word, ‘sensitiveness’ is not, and we believe that after considering the facts of the case, we shall come to the conclusion that this ‘sensitiveness’ of St Teresa has a medical signification and deserves another name. Why should we be reticent about any element of her personality? Every saint must build up his sanctity with the materials at hand, with, or in spite of, his temperament and constitution, his physical and mental gifts or deficiencies.

Taken one by one, the idiosyncrasies of St Teresa may seem obscure. Take them together and you soon perceive a logical link between them all. They are in fact extremely important since her personality is inexplicable unless you give them due consideration.