So great is this delight that frequently it seems that the least
thing would make it forsake the body for ever." "When the soul seeks God
in this way," the saint feels with supreme delight her strength ebbing
away and a trance stealing over her until, devoid of breath and all
physical strength she can only move her hand with great pain. The
delights experienced by her are described in great detail and very
sensuous language; hysterical conditions, such as painful convulsions,
and hallucinations, are represented as religious phenomena. "It is
dreadful what one has to suffer from confessors who do not understand
these things," she says in one of her writings with deep regret.
St. Teresa relates her life with the well-known long-winded
self-complacency of the hysterical subject. She frequently had visions
of Jesus, and again and again she emphasised the beauty of his hands.
"Standing by my side, he said to me: 'I have come to thee, my daughter,
I am here; it is I; show me thy hands.
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