The fact that two great Carmelite saints should both have been called Teresa has inevitably led to a constant comparison between ‘the great’ and ‘the little’ saint, according to the various points of view of the critics. Miss Sackville-West compared them, in her study published eight years ago, as eagle and dove, with a strong bias in favour of the ‘eagle'. We naturally feel uneasy about such a valuation since they are both canonised saints and are therefore both great in the eyes of the Church. But perhaps there is some justification for such a comparison of value even for the Catholic who fully acknowledges the heroic greatness of both in the order of supernatural virtue.

The appearance at this time of several studies of the one and of the other St Teresa, together with the translated Letters of ‘Avila’ herself, gives us the occasion to weigh Miss Sackville-West's title once again.