Nada te turbe

Nada te turbe. St Teresa of Avila* (1515-1582). According to P. Silverio, the editor of the works of Saint Teresa (Obras de Sta. Teresa de Jesus, Burgos, 1915-24, VI. 190), these lines were found in the breviary that she used in prayer during the Divine Office when she was dying at Alba de Tormes (‘Guardaba Santa Teresa estas sentencias en el breviario que usaba para el rezo del oficio divino, cuando murió en Alba de Tormes’). They were: Nada te turbe, nada te espante, todo se pasa; Dios no se muda. La paciencia todo lo alcanza quien a Dios tiene, nada le falta; solo Dios basta. They were translated by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow*, in The Poets and Poetry of...