Feast day: October 15

St. Teresa of Ávila

Virgin & Doctor of the Church · 1515–1582

Patron of Spain, headache sufferers, writers

Spanish mystic who reformed the Carmelite order against fierce opposition, wrote spiritual classics, and combined the deepest prayer with formidable practicality and wit.

Teresa was born in 1515 at Ávila in Spain, a lively, charming, strong-willed girl, and entered the Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation there at about twenty. For many years she lived a comfortable, lukewarm religious life, until a 'second conversion' in her late thirties drew her into profound prayer and a series of mystical experiences — visions, raptures, and the famous 'transverberation,' in which she felt an angel pierce her heart with a fiery dart of divine love.

Convinced that the relaxed convents of her day needed renewal, she set out, against fierce opposition, to found small communities of nuns living the original strict Carmelite life of poverty, enclosure, and deep prayer. Her first reformed convent, St. Joseph's at Ávila, opened in 1562, and despite illness, travel over terrible roads, and constant resistance, she founded many more across Spain — the 'Discalced' (barefoot) Carmelites.

With the young friar St. John of the Cross she extended the reform to the men's branch of the order. Through it all she remained intensely practical and humorous as well as deeply contemplative — a woman who could counsel mystics and also haggle over the price of a house, who once told God, amid her trials, that no wonder he had so few friends if this was how he treated them.

At the command of her superiors she wrote of her inner life in works like the 'Autobiography,' the 'Way of Perfection,' and 'The Interior Castle,' which rank among the greatest treasures of Christian mysticism. She died in 1582, was canonized in 1622, and in 1970 became the first woman ever declared a Doctor of the Church.

Dumped from a cart into a river, she heard God say, 'This is how I treat my friends.' Her reply: 'Then it's no wonder You have so few!'

“Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. All things pass. God does not change. Patience obtains all things.”
— St. Teresa of Ávila

Image: Eduardo Balaca (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons.

Source: newadvent.org/cathen/14515b.htm