St. Teresa was a Carmelite nun also called Saint Teresa of Jesus ,
original name Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada , born in Avila, Spain.
St. Teresa was one of the great mystics and religious women of
the Roman Catholic church, and author of spiritual classics.
Teresa felt dissatisfied with the earthly trappings of her
congregation sisters, including their focus on external, social, and
monetary matters. She went on to form her own branch of the
order, known as the Discalced Carmelites.
St. Teresa of Avila is a very much-loved contemplative Catholic
saint. She was Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada, a child of a noble
family, born on March 28, 1515 at Avila in Castileist.
St. Teresa of Avila was often called “La Madre” which meant The
Mother. She was a woman who was firm yet gentle, holy yet with a
temper, a woman who knew what she wanted. St. Teresa had a love
for God, which reached out to the whole of the Carmelite Order
and brought about a reform that effected and renewed Carmel
down through the ages. If St. Teresa were living in the twenty-first
century she would take initiative to bring about reform and renewal
in the Church today. She would first start with herself, and then
bring the love and Gospel of Jesus Christ, to her fellow brothers
and sisters. Reform always starts from the bottom up. It is
“grassroots”.
This grassroots movement always starts with personal conversion,
which means a radical embracing of the Gospel. Before St. Teresa
started her reform of the Carmelite order she began to fall more
deeply in love with Jesus Christ her spouse. It was this love that
enflamed her to set out on the venture of founding a new
Carmelite monastery called St. Joseph’s in the city of Avila, Spain.
This new monastery was to be, as she said, a “College of Christ”
or as we would say a school of charity. She realized that the
convent that she was presently living in, had too many nuns, about
one hundred and eighty in all. She found it very hard to find time
for silence and solitude in the monastery of the Incarnation. She
was also concerned about the state of the Church. She knew that
if she would respond to the call to personal holiness, which
involved a life of deep prayer and service to the people she came
into contact with, she would affect the whole Church and help
build it up. Teresa was able to creatively respond to the ‘signs of
the times’ of the fifteenth century. Her followers who joined her at
St. Joseph’s monastery became woman of faith and outstanding
holiness and virtue. From this one nun, who responded generously
to her vocation, the Church and the Carmelite family were
renewed. In fact when she was in her last days she said, ‘I am a
daughter of the Church and in her I die’.
After founding her last convent at Burgos, in 1582, St. Teresa
returned in very poor health to Avila. The difficult journey proved
to have been too much for her frail condition. She took to her
deathbed upon her arrival at the convent and died three days later
on October 4, 1582. The next day the Gregorian Calendar went into
effect, thus dropping ten days and making her death on October
14. Her feast day is October 15. St. Teresa was canonized in 1662
by Pope Gregory XV and was declared doctor of the Church, the
first woman so honored, in 1970 by Pope Paul VI.
St. Teresa was one of the great mystics and religious women of
the Roman Catholic Church and author of spiritual classics.
original name Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada , born in Avila, Spain.
St. Teresa was one of the great mystics and religious women of
the Roman Catholic church, and author of spiritual classics.
Teresa felt dissatisfied with the earthly trappings of her
congregation sisters, including their focus on external, social, and
monetary matters. She went on to form her own branch of the
order, known as the Discalced Carmelites.
St. Teresa of Avila is a very much-loved contemplative Catholic
saint. She was Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada, a child of a noble
family, born on March 28, 1515 at Avila in Castileist.
St. Teresa of Avila was often called “La Madre” which meant The
Mother. She was a woman who was firm yet gentle, holy yet with a
temper, a woman who knew what she wanted. St. Teresa had a love
for God, which reached out to the whole of the Carmelite Order
and brought about a reform that effected and renewed Carmel
down through the ages. If St. Teresa were living in the twenty-first
century she would take initiative to bring about reform and renewal
in the Church today. She would first start with herself, and then
bring the love and Gospel of Jesus Christ, to her fellow brothers
and sisters. Reform always starts from the bottom up. It is
“grassroots”.
This grassroots movement always starts with personal conversion,
which means a radical embracing of the Gospel. Before St. Teresa
started her reform of the Carmelite order she began to fall more
deeply in love with Jesus Christ her spouse. It was this love that
enflamed her to set out on the venture of founding a new
Carmelite monastery called St. Joseph’s in the city of Avila, Spain.
This new monastery was to be, as she said, a “College of Christ”
or as we would say a school of charity. She realized that the
convent that she was presently living in, had too many nuns, about
one hundred and eighty in all. She found it very hard to find time
for silence and solitude in the monastery of the Incarnation. She
was also concerned about the state of the Church. She knew that
if she would respond to the call to personal holiness, which
involved a life of deep prayer and service to the people she came
into contact with, she would affect the whole Church and help
build it up. Teresa was able to creatively respond to the ‘signs of
the times’ of the fifteenth century. Her followers who joined her at
St. Joseph’s monastery became woman of faith and outstanding
holiness and virtue. From this one nun, who responded generously
to her vocation, the Church and the Carmelite family were
renewed. In fact when she was in her last days she said, ‘I am a
daughter of the Church and in her I die’.
After founding her last convent at Burgos, in 1582, St. Teresa
returned in very poor health to Avila. The difficult journey proved
to have been too much for her frail condition. She took to her
deathbed upon her arrival at the convent and died three days later
on October 4, 1582. The next day the Gregorian Calendar went into
effect, thus dropping ten days and making her death on October
14. Her feast day is October 15. St. Teresa was canonized in 1662
by Pope Gregory XV and was declared doctor of the Church, the
first woman so honored, in 1970 by Pope Paul VI.
St. Teresa was one of the great mystics and religious women of
the Roman Catholic Church and author of spiritual classics.
| Virgin, Doctor of the Church Feast Day: October 15 Patron of: Head-ache sufferers Symbol: Heart, arrow, book. |
Santa Teresa Church
| Santa Teresa Avila |
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| I do not fear Satan half so much as I fear those who fear him |
| Pain is never permanent. |
| The feeling remains that God is on the journey, too |
| To reach something good it is very useful to have gone astray, and thus acquire experience. |
| We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can - namely, surrender our will and fulfill God's will in us. |
| O My God, what must a soul be like when it is in this state! It longs to be all one tongue with which to praise the Lord. It utters a thousand pious follies, in a continuous endeavor to please Him who thus possesses it. |