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APPROBATION

of the Doctors.

The favors that Saint Teresa received from Heaven are so extraordinary and so elevated that one cannot easily understand them without having had the experience and feeling of them in the heart; and whatever idea one might conceive of them, it would be difficult to find words in common language to express them well. To recognize their truth, it was necessary for them to be examined by Saints, who shared in the same graces and who had the gift of discerning spirits This refers to the "discernment of spirits," a Christian practice of determining whether a person's spiritual impulses or visions come from God, the self, or a malevolent source.; and it was necessary that this Saint take up the pen, and that she herself write her history This refers to Saint Teresa’s autobiography, The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila by Herself. to make them known to the whole Church. She could have no interpreter in our language who could better sustain, in a translation, the greatness of her thoughts and the force of her words than Monsieur d'Andilly Robert Arnauld d'Andilly (1589–1674) was a prominent figure in the Jansenist movement and a celebrated translator of religious texts., who