Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.
CECILIA della NATIVITÀ. - Discalced Carmelite, in secular life Cecilia Sobrino y Morillas, born in 1570 at
(fol. Alinari) CECILIA, santa - Marble bas-relief attributed to Donatello. London, National Gallery.Valladolid, where (January 17, 1588) she took the Carmelite habit among the Daughters of St. Teresa, and died there on April 6, 1646. Except for the years 1602-12, during which she served as mistress of novices and prioress in Calahorra, she lived always in Valladolid. Guided by the doctrine of St. John of the Cross and favored by the highest charisms, she ascended to mystical contemplation, the effects of which she described in various treatises as an itinerary of the soul toward divine union, interpreting, with notes of personal experience, the synthesis of the doctrine of St. John of the Cross in a vivid and attractive manner.
Two of her principal treatises, namely the Tratado de la transformación del alma en Dios and the Tratado de la unión del alma con Dios, were published by Fr. Gerardo, a Discalced Carmelite, in the edition of the works of St. John of the Cross, III, Toledo 1912, pp. 349-438 and pp. 441-58 respectively. She also left us spiritual canticles with commentaries (which are preserved in the Carmel of Burgos).
BIBL.: Crisógono de Jesús Sacramentado, La escuela mística carmelitana, II, Madrid-Avila 1930, pp. 179-80; Gabriel de Ste-Marie-Madeleine, Cécile de la Nativité, in DSP, II, coll. 374-375; Silverio de S. Teresa, Hist. del Carm. desc. en España, IX, Burgos 1940, pp. 894, 910. Ambrogio di Santa Teresa
Cite this article
“CECILIA DELLA NATIVITÀ.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. III (1949), p. 717. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/cecilia-della-nativita.
