SAINT TERESA OF AVILA [1515-1582]
FEAST: 15 OCTOBER
“I had a serious fault, which led me into great trouble. It was that if I began to realize that a person liked me, and I took to him myself, I would grow so fond of him that my memory would feel compelled to revert to him and I would always be thinking of him, without intentionally giving any offense to God…. This was such a harmful thing that it was ruining my soul. But when once I had seen the great beauty of the Lord (in a vision) I saw no one who by comparison with Him seemed acceptable to me on whom my thoughts wished to dwell…. And, unless for my sins the Lord allows this memory to fade, I consider it impossible for me to be so deeply absorbed in anything that I do not regain my freedom when I turn once more in thought, even for a moment, to this Lord.” (From the writings of St. Teresa of Avila)
ALONG with St. Catherine of Siena, St. Teresa of Avila is the other of two holy women proclaimed as doctors of the Church. The writings of this famous Carmelite nun are among the most seminal, in spite of the fact that she was not a highly educated woman, being taught more by the Holy Spirit than by the academy.
Teresa was the third daughter of a large upper class Spanish family. She had spurts of piety but was also rather wild. She was sent away to a convent school after the death of her mother, most likely because it was thought that her flirtatious tendencies could get her in trouble. In fact, this vivacious, charming, young woman was not at all inclined to religious life, but thought it to be at least better than being a wife and mother. The duties related to these latter vocations seemed burdensome to her, after watching the miseries of her own mother.
Once in the Carmelite convent, Teresa began a long double life. On the one hand, she was attracted to chatting with the guests in the parlor, and on the other, the Lord Himself was leading her into deep, contemplative prayer. Twenty years of visions, locutions, and raptures were necessary before she was willing to break with her desire for constant human fellowship and seek greater seclusion. At one point she was thought to be dying. They had already sealed her eyes with wax when she suddenly recovered. Asked what it was like to die, she replied with the famous words: “Death is ecstasy.”
Most of the convents and monasteries of her time suffered from worldliness, for many monastics joined them not because they were led so in prayer but because they didn’t wish to live within their families or start their own. With the help of St. John of the Cross, Teresa was led through supernatural visions and locutions to found a large number of more contemplatively-oriented, reformed Carmelite convents and monasteries. This entailed all sorts of vexatious journeys and business transactions, all of which she accomplished by means of constant direction from the Lord Himself, who appeared to her often. In the course of her life, she did not become a reclusive hermit but was able to minister to many nuns, priests, and lay people because they were attracted first by her lively personality.
We know best of the character of St. Teresa from her writings, especially her own autobiography, The Interior Castle, and The Way of Perfection. Her spiritual counsel is most helpful because of the utter naturalness and humor of her style, the open acknowledgment of her own difficulties, and the wisdom, not overladen with scholarship, which seemed to be spoken in her heart by the Holy Spirit.
Teresa died in 1582 after one of the longest and most fruitful lives in the history of spirituality. Because of the terrible headaches from which she suffered, Teresa is considered the patroness of sufferers from headaches.
For your life. Many women, like St. Teresa before her definitive conversion, enjoy chattering, gossiping, and being too much involved in the business of others. We admire women who seem more recollected and serious, but many of us easily find ourselves addicted to the emotional satisfactions of idle talk. The story of St. Teresa can make us realize that spending good parts of the day in silence and prayer will not destroy our natural vivaciousness, but only channel it so that our interest in others will be purified in the love of Christ.
Short Prayer: Heavenly Father, You sent Saint Teresa of Avila to be a witness in the Church to the way of perfection. Sustain us by her spiritual doctrine, and kindle in us the longing for true holiness. Amen.
Note: The text is taken from Ronda De Sola Chervin, Treasury of Women Saints, Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines: St. Pauls, 1994, pages 200-202.
