Teresa of Ávila by François Gérard (1770−1837), a French painte
St. Teresa of Jesus, honored by the Church as the “seraphic virgin,” virgo seraphica, and reformer of the Carmelite Order, ranks first among women for wisdom and learning. She is called doctrix mystica, doctor of mystical theology; in a report to Pope Paul V the Roman Rota declared: “Teresa has been given to the Church by God as a teacher of the spiritual life. The mysteries of the inner mystical life which the holy Fathers propounded unsystematically and without orderly sequence, she has presented with unparalleled clarity.” Her writings are still the classic works on mysticism, and from her all later teachers have drawn, e.g., Francis de Sales, Alphonsus Liguori. Characteristic of her mysticism is the subjective-individualistic approach; there is little integration with the liturgy and social piety, and thus she reflects the spirit of the sixteenth and following centuries.
Teresa was born at Avila, Spain, in the year 1515. At the age of seven she set out for Africa to die for Christ, but was brought back by her uncle. When she lost her mother at twelve, she implored Mary for her maternal protection. In 1533 she entered the Carmelite Order; for eighteen years she suffered physical pain and spiritual dryness. Under divine inspiration and with the approval of Pope Pius IV, she began the work of reforming the Carmelite Order. In spite of heavy opposition and constant difficulties, she founded thirty-two reformed convents.
Truly wonderful were the exterior and interior manifestations of her mystical union with God, especially during the last decade of her life. These graces reached a climax when her heart was transfixed (transverberatio cordis), an event that is commemorated in the Carmelite Order by a special feast on August 27. She practiced great devotion to the foster-father of Jesus, whose cult was greatly furthered throughout the Church through her efforts. When dying she often repeated the words: “Lord, I am a daughter of the Church!” Her holy body rests upon the high altar of the Carmelite church in Alba, Spain; her heart with its mysterious wound is reserved in a precious reliquary on the Epistle side of the altar.
St. Teresa composed the following well-known lines: Let nothing disturb you.
Let nothing make you afraid.
All things are passing.
God alone never changes.
Patience gains all things.
If you have God you will want for nothing.
God alone suffices.
~The bookmark of Teresa of Avila
Excerpted from The Church’s Year of Grace, Pius Parsch.
- “The Interior Castle – The Mansions,” TAN Books, 1997. ISBN 9780895556042
- “The Way of Perfection,” TAN Books, 1997. ISBN 9780895556028
- Teresa of Avila, “The Book of Her Life” (Translated, with Notes, by Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD and Otilio Rodriguez, OCD. Introduction by Jodi Bilinkoff). Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 2008. ISBN 978-0-87220-907-7
- “The Delighted Angel” drama about Teresa of Ávila and Rabija al-Adavija by Dževad Karahasan, Vienna-Salzburg-Klagenfurt, ARBOS 1995.
- “The Interior Castle (Edited by E. Allison Peers),” Doubleday, 1972. ISBN 978-0-385-03643-6
- “The Way of Perfection (Translated and Edited by E. Allison Peers),” Doubleday, 1991. ISBN 978-0-385-06539-9
- “The Life of Teresa of Jesus: The Autobiography of Teresa of Avila (Translated by E. Allison Peers),” Doubleday, 1991. ISBN 978-0-385-01109-9
- “Teresa of Avila: An Extraordinary Life”, Shirley du Boulay, Bluebridge, 1995 ISBN 978-09742-4052-7
- “Teresa: Outstanding Christian Thinkers,” Rowan Williams, Continuum, 1991. ISBN 0-8264-5081-4
- “The Eagle and the Dove” Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. by Vita Sackville-West. First published in 1943 by Michael Joseph LTD, 26 Bloomsbury Street, London, W.C.1
- “Castles in the Sand” fiction with cited sources about Teresa of Avila by Carolyn A. Greene, Lighthouse Trails Publishing, 2009. ISBN 978-0-9791315-4-7
- “15 Days of Prayer with Saint Teresa of Avila” by Jean Abiven, New City Press, 2011. ISBN 978-1-56548-366-8
- Bárbara Mujica, Teresa de Ávila: Lettered Woman (Nashville, Vanderbilt University Press, 2009).
