Teresa of Ávila
Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda Dávila y Ahumada was born on the 28th of March 1515. Her birthplace remains a matter of historical debate between the cities of Ávila and Gotarrendura in Spain. The family history carried a heavy weight from her paternal grandfather, Juan Sánchez de Toledo. He was a Jew who had been forced to convert to Christianity or leave his homeland. When Teresa's father was still a child, the Spanish Inquisition condemned Juan for allegedly returning to Judaism. He eventually managed to assume a Catholic identity again.
Her father, Alonso Sánchez de Cepeda, became one of the wealthiest men in Ávila as a successful wool merchant. He purchased a knighthood and assimilated successfully into Christian society. Teresa's mother raised her as a dedicated Christian with strict devotion. At age seven, young Teresa ran away from home with her brother Rodrigo. They intended to travel to Africa to seek martyrdom in the fight against the Moors. An uncle spotted them just outside the town walls and brought them back home.
When she was fourteen years old, her mother died, leaving Teresa grief-stricken. This loss prompted her to embrace a deeper devotion to the Virgin Mary as her spiritual mother. She also became enamored with popular fiction at that time. These works consisted primarily of medieval tales of knighthood and books about fashion, gardens, and flowers.
Around 1556, friends suggested that her newfound knowledge could be of diabolical rather than divine origin. She had begun to inflict mortifications of the flesh upon herself. Her confessor, the Jesuit Francis Borgia, reassured her of the divine inspiration of her thoughts. On St. Peter's Day in 1559, Teresa became firmly convinced that Jesus Christ had presented himself to her in bodily form though invisible. These visions lasted almost uninterruptedly for more than two years.
In another vision known as the transverberation, a seraph drove the fiery point of a golden lance repeatedly through her heart. The event caused her an ineffable spiritual and bodily pain. The account of this vision later inspired one of Bernini's most famous works, the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa at Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome. Although based on her description, some consider his depiction highly eroticized compared to earlier art.
The memory of this episode served as an inspiration throughout the rest of her life. It motivated her lifelong imitation of the life and suffering of Jesus. This sentiment is epitomized in the adage often associated with her: Lord, either let me suffer or let me die. Historians, neurologists, and psychiatrists like Peter Fenwick and Javier Álvarez-Rodríguez have taken interest in her symptomatology.
Over time, Teresa found herself increasingly at odds with the spiritual malaise prevailing in her convent of the Incarnation. Among the 150 nuns living there, the observance of cloister became so lax that it appeared to lose its purpose. The daily invasion of visitors disturbed the atmosphere with frivolous concerns and vacuous conversation. Such intrusions in the solitude essential to develop contemplative prayer grieved her deeply.
The Franciscan priest, Peter of Alcantara, met her early in 1560 and became her spiritual adviser. She resolved to found a reformed Carmelite convent correcting the laxity she had found elsewhere. Doña Guiomar of Ulloa was granted permission for the project. The new convent established in 1562 was named St. Joseph's. At first, this caused a scandal among citizens and authorities due to abject poverty. However, powerful patrons including the local bishop turned animosity into approval.
In March 1563, after moving to the new house, she received papal sanction for her primary principles. Her plan included absolute poverty and renunciation of ownership of property. For the first five years, she remained in seclusion mostly engaged in prayer and writing.
Teresa wrote The Interior Castle in 1577 and published it in 1588. It contained the basis for what she felt should be the ideal journey of faith. She compared the contemplative soul to a castle with seven successive interior courts or chambers known as mansions. The work was inspired by her vision of the soul as a diamond in the shape of a castle containing these seven mansions.
She interpreted the structure as the journey of faith through seven stages ending with union with God. Fray Diego, one of her former confessors, wrote that God revealed specific truths to Teresa about this path. Christia Mercer claims that René Descartes lifted some influential ideas from Teresa fifty years before his own Meditations on First Philosophy. She describes striking similarities between their works regarding philosophical reflection in intellectual growth.
The autobiography La Vida de la Santa Madre Teresa de Jesús was written at Ávila between 1562 and 1565 but published posthumously. In it she discerns four stages in the ascent of the soul to God: mental prayer and meditation; the prayer of quiet; absorption-in-God; ecstatic consciousness. Her writings describe ways of attaining spiritual perfection through prayer.
Teresa died in 1582 just as Catholic Europe made the switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. This required the excision of the dates of 5, the 14th of October from the calendar. She died either before midnight of the 4th of October or early in the morning of the 15th of October which is celebrated as her feast day. Her last words were My Lord, it is time to move on. Well then may your will be done.
Nine months after her death the coffin was opened and her body was found intact though clothing had rotted. Before re-interment one of her hands was cut off wrapped in a scarf and sent to Ávila. The body was exhumed again on the 25th of November 1585 to be moved to Ávila and found incorrupt. An arm was removed and left in Alba de Tormes at the nuns request. A grander tomb was raised on the original site in 1598 and the body moved to a new chapel in 1616.
On the 28th of August 2024, it was announced that those present could see the body remained in the same condition as when last opened in 1914. Parts of her remains are distributed across Rome Lisbon Ronda Paris and other locations. When the body was publicly exposed in May 2025 netizens questioned its incorrupted state given its apparent condition.
Forty years after her death in 1622 she was canonized by Pope Gregory XV. On the 27th of September 1970 Pope Paul VI proclaimed Teresa the first female Doctor of the Church. This honor recognized her centuries-long spiritual legacy to Catholicism. She is revered as Doctor orationis meaning Doctor of Prayer. Her mysticism exerted a formative influence upon many theologians of following centuries such as Francis of Sales and Fénelon.
In 1626 at the request of Philip IV of Spain the Castilian parliament elected Teresa without lacking one vote as copatron saint of Castile. The status was affirmed by Pope Urban VIII in a brief issued on the 21st of July 1627. More broadly the 1620s saw the entirety of Spain debate who should be the country's patron saint. Choices included James Matamoros or a pairing with the newly canonised Saint Teresa of Ávila.
Teresa's promoters said Spain faced newer challenges especially the threat of Protestantism and societal decline at home. Santiago supporters fought back and eventually won the argument but Teresa remained far more popular at the local level. James the Great kept the title of patron saint for the Spanish people.
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Common questions
When was Teresa of Ávila born and where?
Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda Dávila y Ahumada was born on the 28th of March 1515. Her birthplace remains a matter of historical debate between the cities of Ávila and Gotarrendura in Spain.
What happened to Teresa of Ávila's father during her childhood?
Her paternal grandfather Juan Sánchez de Toledo was condemned by the Spanish Inquisition for allegedly returning to Judaism after being forced to convert to Christianity. Her father Alonso Sánchez de Cepeda eventually managed to assume a Catholic identity again and became one of the wealthiest men in Ávila as a successful wool merchant.
How did Teresa of Ávila die and when was she canonized?
Teresa of Ávila died in 1582 either before midnight of the 4th of October or early in the morning of the 15th of October which is celebrated as her feast day. She was canonized forty years after her death in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV.
Why did Teresa of Ávila found reformed Carmelite convents?
She resolved to found a reformed Carmelite convent correcting the laxity she had found elsewhere where observance of cloister appeared to lose its purpose due to daily invasions of visitors. The new convent established in 1562 was named St. Joseph's and included absolute poverty and renunciation of ownership of property.
What major work did Teresa of Ávila write about spiritual stages?
Teresa wrote The Interior Castle in 1577 and published it in 1588 containing the basis for what she felt should be the ideal journey of faith through seven successive interior courts or chambers known as mansions. Her autobiography La Vida de la Santa Madre Teresa de Jesús describes four stages in the ascent of the soul to God including mental prayer meditation and ecstatic consciousness.