From the Preface 'The name of Venerable Anne of Jesus is probably familiar to all those who are well acquainted with the life, the work of foundation and the correspondence of St. Teresa of Avila; it also occupies a not unimportant place in the life-story of St. John of the Cross; she, moreover, took the most prominent part in the establishment of the Teresian nuns in France and afterwards in the Low countries. It is, therefore, not too much to say that none of these subjects can be properly and fully understood unless one has a more than cursory knowledge of her own life and aims. Above all this she was endowed with talents not even second (according to the opinion of St. John of the Cross who was a good judge) to those of St. Teresa, and she reached a wonderful degree of sanctity even for a period which saw some of the greatest Saints of the Catholic church. It was, then, a happy thought that one who in religion had received the same name should have spent many years in collecting
