Nowy nieznany list św. Teresy z Awili i jego polskie tłumaczenie

Abstract

This research includes a letter written by St Theresa of Jesus and published for the first time in Polish, after its first edition in 2015 in Basque and in Spanish. In the north of Spain, a family had this letter in their private collection; however, it was only recently that they decided to make the letter’s contents available to St Theresa’s already vast audience. So far, none of the editions of the complete works of St Theresa of Jesus included this letter in its full length; neither does the Polish edition of her letters (Listy, Wydawnictwo Karmelitów Bosych, Kraków 2008). Basically, the novelty and originality of this research lie in the presentation of this personal letter written by St Theresa of Jesus to the Malagón Community’s chaplain. Up to now, the contents of this letter remained unknown to the Polish reader. Additionally, the article offers a wide commentary on the text of the letter from different perspectives. By following its Spanish editors, this article presents a brief history of the manuscript, specifying the date and place of its composition since the author did not provide that information. Moving along, the article describes the addressee, the topics addressed in the document, and persons mentioned either explicitly or implicitly in the body of the letter. Also, it presents the analysis of both its historical characteristics and its linguistic style. Furthermore, this analysis includes new highlights and insights as well as the most recent contributions in the Teresian field of study, regarding Teresian vocabulary, expressions, abbreviations or the structure of the letter itself. In a similar manner, this article exposes some of the difficulties in translating the letter from its original Spanish into Polish. The research concerning this letter presents a new approach to St Theresa which both unveils and revives certain aspects of her personality as well as her spirituality. These new, revealing aspects are extracted from the letter’s contents. They are highlighted with particular emphasis and are presented toward the end of the research. The article is followed by the text of Teresa’s letter in Polish and photographic images of the original manuscript.