— A Classic—Includes Active Table of Contents—Includes Religious Illustrations WHEN S. Teresa had taken possession and founded the first monastery of her nuns in Avila, 24th August 1562, she was summoned back to the monastery of the Incarnation, where she had made her profession, for that monastery was thrown into trouble by the act of the Saint, and the nuns were very angry with her. She was made to give an account of her conduct, and the provincial was sent for, before whom she had to make what defence she could: that defence she made in the presence of the nuns her sisters, and so successfully that no one was found to blame her. When she had appeased her sisters, she had to meet other troubles: the people of Avila had been also disturbed, and a new house of religion seemed for the moment to be an offence to them. The magistrates of the city resolved to suppress the monastery, but on finding that it was lawfully established with the consent of the bishop they had recourse to the courts of law. Aeterna Press
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Saint Teresa of Jesús, also called Saint Teresa of Ávila, was a prominent Spanish mystic, Carmelite nun, and writer of the Counter Reformation. She was a reformer of the Carmelite Order and is considered to be, along with John of the Cross, a founder of the Discalced Carmelites. In 1970 she was named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI. Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda Dávila y Ahumada Borned in Ávila, Spain, on March 28, 1515, St. Teresa was the daughter of a Toledo merchant and his second wife, who died when Teresa was 15, one of ten children. Shortly after this event, Teresa was entrusted to the care of the Augustinian nuns. After reading the letters of St. Jerome, Teresa resolved to enter a religious life. In 1535, she joined the Carmelite Order. She spent a number of relatively average years in the convent, punctuated by a severe illness that left her legs paralyzed for three years, but then experienced a vision of "the sorely wounded Christ" that changed her life forever. From this point forward, Teresa moved into a period of increasingly ecstatic experiences in which she came to focus more and more sharply on Christ's passion. With these visions as her impetus, she set herself to the reformation of her order, beginning with her attempt to master herself and her adherence to the rule. Gathering a group of supporters, Teresa endeavored to create a more primitive type of Carmelite. From 1560 until her death, Teresa struggled to establish and broaden the movement of Discalced or shoeless Carmelites. During the mid-1560s, she wrote the Way of Perfection and the Meditations on the Canticle. In 1567, she met St. John of the Cross, who she enlisted to extend her reform into the male side of the Carmelite Order. Teresa died in 1582. St. Teresa left to posterity many new convents, which she continued founding up to the year of her death. She also left a significant legacy of writings, which represent important benchmarks in the history of Christian mysticism. These works include the Way of Perfection and the Interior Castle. She also left an autobiography, the Life of St. Teresa of Ávila.
