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Carmelite Prior General Giovanni Battista Rossi\u2014who St. Teresa referred to as \u2018Juan Bautista Rubeo\u2019\u2014died on this date, 4 September 1578<\/strong> as a consequence of an accident in which he fell from his mule and broke his leg. Teresa was deeply saddened when she received the news:<\/p>\n Juan Bautista Rubeo (Giovanni Battista Rossi, 1507-1578) was an untiring apostle born in Ravenna who entered the Carmelites at the age of ten. He received his doctorate in Padua. In 1546 he was named procurator general of the order and began lecturing at the Sapienza in Rome. The Carmelite general chapter, under the presidency of St. Charles Borromeo, unanimously elected him general of the order on 21 May 1564. He lost no time in obtaining faculties from the Holy See to visit, reform, and correct the houses of the order. His cherished desires were to bring the order back to its origins, to stress solitude, affective prayer, devotion to Mary, and the apostolate. This appealed to him much more than merely promoting fulfillment of the laws newly set forth by the Council of Trent. In 1564 he began his visit to Spain, and on 10 June 1566, he had an audience with Philip II. Proceeding to Andalusia, where the Carmelites were torn by rival factions and resistance to reform, he convoked a provincial chapter for 22 September at which over 200 Carmelites took part. His efforts to correct abuses angered the guilty parties and caused them to make appeals to the king, complaining of Rossi and calling on the king himself to set up a visitation. As a result, Philip II lost confidence in Rossi and initiated his own plans for the reform of religious orders in Spain. Unaware of the king\u2019s attitude, Rossi began his visitation of Castile and on 27 April 1567 authorized Teresa to found other houses for her nuns, provided they be under the jurisdiction of the order, and the number in each community be restricted to no more than twenty-five nuns. A month later he limited the region where the new houses could be founded to Castile, but later he extended this to all parts. Because of the troubles among the friars in Andalusia, he did not want to grant permission for new foundations of discalced friars. But at Teresa\u2019s request on 10 August 1567, he wrote from Barcelona giving her permission to found two houses of \u201ccontemplative Carmelite friars\u201d in Castile. In 1569 in a letter to the prioress of Medina, Rossi wrote: \u201cShe [Teresa of Jesus] does more good for the order than all the Carmelite friars in Spain together.\u201d And Teresa esteemed him just as highly. But later because of the many jurisdictional complexities that arose from the king\u2019s desire to reform the Carmelites in Spain, passions were aroused and Rossi was so misinformed that he approved measures harmful to what Teresa was trying to bring about. She never lost her high esteem for Rossi and explained and appealed to him through her letters. Rossi died unexpectedly on 4 September 1578 as a consequence of an accident in which he fell from his mule and broke his leg. Teresa was deeply saddened when she received the news and always lamented the pain she thought she had caused the general because of the misunderstandings that had arisen and her inability to explain things to him personally or get her letters through to him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Carmelite Prior General Giovanni Battista Rossi\u2014who St. Teresa referred to as \u2018Juan Bautista Rubeo\u2019\u2014died on this date, 4 September 1578 as a consequence of an accident in which he fell from his mule and broke his leg. Teresa was deeply saddened when she received the news: Juan Bautista Rubeo (Giovanni Battista Rossi, 1507-1578) was an … <\/p>\n