Saint Teresa of Jesus (1515-1582), also known as Teresa de Ávila, was a religious and very prolific Spanish writer who lived during the 16th century. She is considered one of the most important theorists of Christian mysticism in Spain.
De Ávila founded the Order of Discalced Carmelites (OCD), which at first was an offshoot of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, but which advocates prayer in recollection and a simple life in poverty, in the manner of the hermits who paid devotion to the Virgin of Mount Carmel.
He instituted a total of 17 convents throughout Spain. Her written works and her religious doctrine are inspired by mystical visions that she had during a good part of her life as a religious..
She was canonized in 1622 and named a Doctor of the Universal Church by Pope Paul VI in 1970, being the first woman to receive this distinction together with Catherine of Siena..
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He was born in Gotarrendura, province of Ávila, Spain, on March 28, 1515. He was baptized on April 4 of that same year with the name of Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda Dávila y Ahumada.
His parents were Don Alonso Sánchez de Cepeda and Doña Beatriz Dávila de Ahumada, both Catholic noblemen converted from Judaism. He had ten siblings and two half-siblings, children of his father in a previous marriage.
Since he was just six or seven years old, he became fond of reading in the family library, where he found books on chivalry, romanceros and other popular poetry, as well as the lives of saints and pious works..
According to Teresa herself in Life of Saint Teresa of Jesus, These readings left their mark on her imagination and led her to escape with her brother Rodrigo to the land of the Moors, in order to become Christian martyrs..
Such a wild attempt was thwarted by their uncle, who brought them back to the family home. After that they built a cabin on the family's land and set out to live as hermits..
In 1528, when he was 13 years old, his mother passed away. From then on she considered herself the adoptive daughter of the Virgin Mary. Three years later, in 1531, her father sent her to the school of Santa María de Gracia, directed by the Augustinian sisters of Ávila..
She spent a year and a half as an intern at that school, but had to return suffering from an illness of which not many details are known. Upon his return, he spent a time at the residence of his uncle Pedro Sánchez de Cepeda, a character of great religious devotion, who was very close to Teresa in her youth..
Later he lived for some time more with his sister María de Cepeda, already married, after which he returned to his father's house in Ávila. During these years of youth he made the decision to enter the convent of the Incarnation, even against his father's will..
In 1535 he fled his home to enter religious life. Two years later, on November 3, 1537, he professed his vows. During these two years in the convent, he continued to suffer from health problems.
It is believed that he suffered continuously from heart disease and some mental imbalance. A few months after professing, her father took her back to the family home for medical care..
A few months after her return she suffered seizures and fell into a deep coma in which she remained submerged for four days. Several of her relatives and religious sisters gave her up for dead.
After these events, she was very weakened and with reduced mobility for the next two years. This experience left him with physical consequences for life and was also the beginning of his visions and mystical trances..
In 1539 he regained mobility in his legs almost miraculously. Having entrusted his health to Saint Joseph, he thanked this saint with devotion for life, proof of this was the dedication of the various monasteries that he would found years later..
That same year she returned to the convent of the Incarnation, where she received frequent visits and was also able to go out to see her relatives when she wished, as was the custom of the life of the religious at that time.
During his illness, he began to practice prayer in recollection and in a personal way, by way of meditation. Throughout her life she had approaches and departures from prayer, something fundamental in the life of religious women. He enjoyed listening to sermons and reading and led an active social life..
In 1541 his father died, and the Dominican Vicente Barón, close to the family, assisted him during his last moments. This priest later became Teresa's mentor and was the one who made her resume contemplative life and prayer, never to abandon them again..
During those years he relied on the readings of Confessions of San Agustín and Third spiritual alphabet, by Francisco de Osuna.
In addition to these readings, he received divine messages in sudden trances or in dreams. According to his own accounts, Jesus Christ advised him to put aside his worldly talks in the hall of the convent and put more effort in communicating with God and the Holy Spirit.
These visions continued throughout his life and grew more intense. In another of her trances she felt pierced by a golden sword held by an angel, and since then she abandoned the fear of death that had haunted her from the days in a coma during her youth..
All these experiences strengthened her faith and made her dedicate herself to God with much more fervor. In addition, everything he experienced led him to write numerous lyrical-religious poems and didactic works..
In these texts, he expressed his supernatural visions and also his ideas about the need for a return to meditation in convents..
It is during these years that she reflected on the lax life that was detached from spirituality led by the sisters of the Carmelite Order and began to wish for a reform..
At that time the communities and groups of religious were very numerous and not very demanding with the participants. This permissive behavior gave rise to a lack of firmness in terms of the closure or in terms of following the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience..
The fervor and constant communication with God of Saint Teresa did not go unnoticed by her confessors, among whom the Jesuit Father Baltasar Álvarez, the Dominicans Pedro Ibañez and Fray García de Toledo stood out..
Also an important part of the group were the Franciscan San Pedro de Alcántara and Fray Luis Beltrán, who supported her in her first attempts to reform the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel..
In 1562 he received the bull from Pope Pius IV authorizing the foundation of a new monastery. With this credential he inaugurated the convent of San José in Ávila on August 24 of the same year. It had only four religious, but with stricter rules and a requirement of fervor in prayers, solitude and silence.
For this project he had the financial help of his brothers, who moved to America in search of riches. The construction of the building was commissioned by Teresa's sister, Doña Juana de Ahumada, and her husband.
Teresa and her novices resided in this convent for four years in austerity conditions. They always wore sandals instead of shoes, which is why they called themselves Discalced Carmelites.
There, in the convent, they fasted for long months. In 1567 he received the benevolence of Father Juan Bautista Rubio Rossi, General del Carmen, and decided to travel through Spain to ensure the establishment of other similar monasteries in various cities..
In the next two years he founded convents in Medina del Campo, Malagón, Valladolid, Toledo, Duruelo and Pastrana.
During those trips he met two influential friars of the Carmelite Order, who sympathized with the reform proposed by Teresa and extended it with the founding of new monasteries of friars. They were Antonio de Jesús Heredia and Juan Yépez, who later became known as San Juan de la Cruz..
Shortly after, in 1571, he continued founding new convents of Barefoot and Barefoot in Alcalá, Salamanca and Alba de Tormes. Later he founded others in Segovia, Beas de Segura, Seville and other cities in Spain..
In the course of these foundations he had to face both financial difficulties and resistance from unreformed brothers and sisters. The latter preferred to continue the monastic life in the way they had led it until then..
The uproar caused by the extension of Teresa's reform caused much tension between the Calzados Carmelitas and los Descalzos, as well as various conflicts that were not resolved until 1580, when Pope Gregory XVIII ordered the official separation between the two orders, with which the Barefoot no longer had to comply with the Footwear guidelines.
Teresa, in addition, was appointed director of the Convent of the Incarnation for some years. She spent the rest of her life traveling through Spanish territory and founding convents and monasteries, both for nuns and for friars. In this work he had the support of San Juan de la Cruz and many other religious.
He died at the age of 67, in Alba de Tormes (Salamanca), on October 4, 1582. His last sigh was in the arms of Blessed Ana de San Bartolomé, another Discalced Carmelite of great historical importance. His body was buried in the Convent of the Annunciation of Alba de Tormes, where it remains incorrupt and guarded.
She was named Blessed in 1614 by Pope Paul V, and her canonization was in 1622 by Gregory XV. He obtained an honorary doctorate from the University of Salamanca and the Catholic University of Ávila. In 1970 she was appointed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI. Its festivities are celebrated in Ávila on October 15.
Currently the Order of Discalced Carmelites has approximately 14,000 sisters distributed in 835 convents around the world and 3,800 brothers in 490 convents.
In addition to her legacy as the founder of the Order of the Discalced Carmelites, Teresa left behind various literary works, considered referents of Hispanic literature. These writings deserved mention in the catalog of authorities of the Royal Spanish Academy. Among the most important are:
- Path of Perfection (1564), meditation on poverty, humility and prayer, written for her novices at the convent of San José in Ávila.
- Life of Saint Teresa of Jesus (1562-1565), compendium of autobiographical notes and personal reflections on the faith and its visions.
- Book of constitutions (1563).
- Concepts of God's love (1577).
- The dwellings or the inner castle (1577), a kind of manual for the growth of the soul through prayer.
- Foundations book (1582), which tells the story of the founding of the Discalced Carmelite Order.
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