He Is My Heaven
Jennifer Moorcroft
Run out, or over to ICS Publications right now and get this book! I have been blessed more and more by the publications of the Institute--first with Barbara Dent's My Only Friend Is Darkness and now with this wonderful, short, clear biography of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity.
The outlines of Blessed Elizabeth's life are already well-known to many. Her remarkable similarity to and enormously strong differences from her near-contemporary St. Thérèse well-known. Moreover, to fill you in on the details in large part takes away from the surprises and interest of the biography.
I suppose I should say that I am not generally a fan of biographies. And hagiographies bore me nearly to tears. There are remarkable exceptions. Chesterton's concise and moving biographies (more appreciations) of St. Thomas and St. Francis, and others that my feeble mind cannot properly cite at the moment. This book falls into the category of exceptions.
It is brief, but complete. What is particularly nice is that there are extensive excerpts from the writings of Blessed Elizabeth. She didn't leave us with a full-fledged autobiograph á la St. Thérèse, but an extensive batch of letters helps give all the details of her thought and much infomration about her interior life and formation. Moreover the writing is, while not top-notch, certainly workmanlike and serviceable. I was profoundly moved, over and over again as I read about Blessed Elizabeth's life and her painful death (at the age of 26. I must say that it has crossed my mind more than once that being a Carmelite is not conducive to long life--I suppose living in the living flame may tend to burn one out very quickly.)
But do yourself a favor and find out more about this remarkable woman and saint. You can start by knocking on the door of Christine whose site is named for one of Blessed Elizabeth's famous phrases, and Revolution of Love, the authors of which seem to have a special devotion to Blessed Elizabeth.
Thanks for the recommendation. E of the T is one of the Carmelite saints that I know I should know more about, but haven't gotten to yet.
This will help: I appreciate a good biography, especially one that provides excerpts from pertinent writings of the subject. Most important to me in a biography is understanding how the subject thinks!
Another really good biography of a Carmelite is Teresa of Avila : The Progress of a Soul, by Cathleen Medwick.
Dear KTC,
I had wondered about that one. There were two recent biographies of St. Teresa, one of them with a cover so lurid and suggestive, I wondered whether the contents were worth reading. It may have been Medwick's. Now I know. Thanks.
shalom,
Steven
I'll definitely have to be finding out more about Bl. Elizabeth. I know a bit about her already, but only a bit. I really need to find out more about a lot of saints. For a Catholic, I think I'm way undereducated.