Teresa of Ávila

Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda Dávila y Ahumada was born at Ávila in Castile on 28 March 1515, daughter of the second marriage of Alonso Sánchez de Cepeda, a prosperous merchant of converso ancestry, and Beatriz de Ahumada. Her childhood among brothers and cousins was happy; she was captivated by the lives of the saints and by chivalric romances. At about seven she set out with her brother Rodrigo to seek martyrdom among the Moors, only to be brought home by an uncle. After her mother's death she turned more deeply to the Virgin Mary as spiritual mother and was sent to the Augustinian monastery of Our Lady of Grace in Ávila, where she experienced an early existential crisis.

A serious illness returned her to her father's house. She witnessed the departure of her beloved brother Rodrigo for the Spanish colonies overseas. In 1536 she resolved to enter the Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation at Ávila despite her father's opposition; she fled home, was received by the nuns, and made profession on 3 November 1537. Her health soon collapsed again. Judged beyond hope, she was brought back to the convent where the sisters prepared her funeral; inexplicably she recovered within days, attributing the cure in part to the intercession of Saint Joseph. During convalescence she formed many friendships, yet came to see them as distractions from prayer. A second conversion followed when her eyes fell upon an image of the wounded Christ: she threw herself at His feet in tears and begged strength never to offend Him again.

Visions and ecstasies marked the most mysterious chapter of her life. In her Autobiography, written under obedience, and in other works she described the stages of divine manifestation—visual and auditory. She was seen to levitate, fall into swoons, and lie as if dead. Spiritual growth poured into her mystical writings, among the clearest and most poetic ever composed. Some confessors feared diabolical illusion, yet she was sustained by the Jesuit Francis Borgia and the Franciscan Peter of Alcántara, who dispelled the doubts of her accusers. On the feast of Saint Peter in 1559 she became convinced that Christ presented Himself to her in bodily form. In another vision a seraph drove a fiery golden lance repeatedly through her heart, leaving her aflame with love of God—the famous transverberation later immortalized by Bernini.

Grieved by the laxity of enclosure and the worldly traffic of visitors at the Incarnation, Teresa resolved to restore the primitive Carmelite spirit of poverty, solitude, and contemplative prayer. In 1562 she founded the reformed convent of Saint Joseph in Ávila. In 1566 the Superior General authorized further foundations in Castile, including houses for Discalced friars. Convents rose at Medina, Malagón, Valladolid, Toledo, Pastrana, Salamanca, Alba de Tormes, Segovia, Beas, Seville, Soria, Burgos, and elsewhere. In 1567 she met the young priest who became Saint John of the Cross; he took the Discalced habit and accompanied her through bitter divisions within the Order and even accusations of heresy. Together they secured the birth of the reformed Order of Discalced Carmelites, confirmed by papal decree in 1580.

Her greatest works—The Interior Castle, mapping the soul's seven mansions toward God; The Way of Perfection; the Book of the Foundations; together with maxims, poems, and prayers—remain masterpieces of Christian mysticism. Tireless despite fragile health, she died at Alba de Tormes in 1582 during one of her journeys, her last words attested as "I die a daughter of the Church." Forty years later, in 1622, she was canonized by Pope Gregory XV. On 27 September 1970 Pope Paul VI proclaimed her the first woman Doctor of the Church.

May Saint Teresa of Ávila obtain for us a share in her fiery love of Christ and teach us today the virtue of persevering prayer amid every trial.