St. Teresa of Avila

Saint Teresa…She was also known as Saint

Teresa of Jesus.Saint Teresa was born on March

28th 1515 in Avila Spain, and died, aged 67 on October the 4th 1582.

She was a Roman Catholic Saint and had many notable religious feats throughout her lifetime.

In 1622 she was named a saint, forty years after her death.

Also in 1970 Saint Teresa was named Doctor of the Church as she was regarded with great importance and because of her contribution to theology.

She was one of the first women to of gained the title.

Her Family and Early Life…Her Grandfather was originally Jewish

though converted to Christianity, however he was condemned for supposedly returning to the Jewish faith.

Both her mother and her father were Christian.

Teresa is said to of experienced religious ecstasy, this is probably a factor towards the inspirations of her theoretical work of expressing life through mental prayer.

Throughout her life she embodied mystical works such as ‘Third Spiritual Alphabet’ which focussed on examinations of principles and for spiritual self concentration and inner contemplation.

Various friends suggested her views were diabolical not revolutionary. So she began to inflict mortification of the flesh.

The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa by Bernini

Particular Inspirational Visions…During one of her visions Teresa

became convinces Jesus presented herself to him in bodily form, though invisible.

Another vision a seraph drove the point of a golden lance repeatedly through her heart causing spiritual bodily pain.

This initiated a motto which was related with her “Lord, either let me suffer or let me die.”

Reforming the Carmelites…Around 1560 she resolved to find a

reformed Carmelite convent, as throughout the 14th and 15th centuries the movement had severely relaxed.

Her reform required utter withdrawal so that the nuns could meditate on divine law and, through a prayerful life of penance.

In 1562, Pope Pius IV’s authorised St. Teresa to open the first convent of the Carmelite Reform.

In 1575 while she was at the Sevilla a dispute erupted between the reformed friars of the Carmelites, and the Calced Carmelites.

St Teresa’s attempts to prevent the dispute were unsuccessful.

This caused her t be ordered to retire to a convent and to stop founding more convents.

Her Death…St. Teresa died on October 4th

1582, after a lifetime of ill-health. A fellow sister describes the

hours just before the death of St Teresa.

Bibliography…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teres

a_of_%C3%81vila

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/587885/Saint-Teresa-of-Avila