Saint Teresa of Avila

Saint Teresa of Avila

Teresa of Avila was born on March 28, 1515, in Avila, in the Castillian region of Spain. She came from a large family, with three children by her father’s first marriage and nine by his second to Teresa’s mother whom he had married after the death of his first wife. St. Teresa spoke of her family in the following way, “I had parents who were virtuous and feared God....I never saw my parents favor anything but virtue.”

Teresa of Avila sets out to gain

Heaven Although she was close to all her family, her brother Rodrigo, near her own age, and she spent most of their time together. From the early age of seven, she studied the lives of the Saints, admiring them, wanting to live the life they had lived. She believed by doing so, she would one day know the Eternal Glory they had earned; “Forever they shall see God.”

One day Teresa of Avila and Rodrigo set out to gain Heaven by dying Martyrs’ deaths, believing the torment and torture would be all too cheap a price to pay for eternal life. Telling no one, they began their journey to the land of the Moors, to die for their Faith. They had not ventured far when, at the four posts, they were apprehended by an uncle who quickly returned them to their mother. Their mother found her panic turn into anger which then exploded into punishment. Facing his mother’s wrath, blame needing to be laid, Rodrigo did the normal thing; he pointed to Teresa of Avila.

This by no means stopped their quest for holiness. They gathered stones, starting hermitages of rocks, in their little garden, which they never quite finished. Teresa, from an early age, sought to be alone with Her Lord, so she made her room at home into a hermitage. She prayed and talked to a picture she had of our Savior conversing with the Samaritan woman at the well. Teresa of Avila pleaded over and over again, “Lord, give me of that water that I may not thirst.”

Teresa of Avila - Death in the family

When her mother died, Teresa of Avila, fourteen years of age, turned tearfully to the Mother of God asking Her to be her Mother. However, without the watchful eye of their earthly mother for supervision, Teresa and Rodrigo became fascinated with reading books on romances.

As Teresa writes in her autobiography, these books not only led her away from doing good things for the kingdom of God, but were leading her slowly, insidiously to small yes’es, that could have led her to big yes’es, that could have added up to some very serious sins. Although she later says she never committed serious sin, except for the grace of God in her life, she could have. In her own words, “I could not wait for the next tale (romance) to be in my hands.”

Teresa of Avila became enchanted by the latest styles, the newest perfumes, hair styles, anything and everything created to make herself more attractive. Her father became alarmed with this growing change in his daughter. At age fifteen, Teresa was sent away to a Convent of Augustinian Nuns in Avila where she would be educated with young women of her class. Although she got off to a bad start, Teresa began to enjoy the Convent, finding herself attracted to the Nuns and their way of life.

 But after a year and a half, Teresa of Avila became seriously ill and had to be taken home by her father. Sometimes, and I have seen it in our own lives, God has to knock you on your back to get your undivided attention. Teresa began to consider seriously a life as a Religious. She had a huge battle going on, as if two suitors were after her. Part of her was drawn to the life of a Nun and part of her was repulsed by the thought of it.

As books of the world had led her away from Her Lord, a book, the Letters of St. Jerome, was to lead her to understand and respond to His Call. Now came the task of presenting her wish to become a Nun to her father. “No, definitely no! Should you so desire after I am dead, so be it,” was his answer. Against her father’s wishes, afraid she might weaken in her resolve, she quickly ran to the Convent of the Incarnation of the Carmelite Nuns outside of Avila.

Teresa of Avila recalls, “while leaving my father’s house, I knew I would not, even at the very moment and agony of my death, feel the anguish of separation more painfully than at that point in time.” She went on to say, “not even the love of God I had inside me could make up for the love I felt for my father and friends.” Her father did not contest her action, as she was twenty years old by this time. The following year she was professed, only to be removed from the Convent because of an illness that had begun before her profession and had progressively worsened.

Teresa of Avila - Suffering

The countless doctors, failing to find a cure, diagnosed her illness as hopeless. Her father, refusing to give up hope, brought her to a place renowned for its cures. Instead of relief, her suffering grew worse. She had an interminable struggle with excruciating pain and inner turmoil, for almost a year.

Teresa of Avila had a feeling of uneasiness about the place, the methods, and the doctor. She puts it this way, “At this point, the devil began to trouble my soul.” She looked for the village Priest and asked him to hear her confession. Believing he was intelligent, she felt confident he would be able to direct her spiritually.

She had had struggles with Confessors who had little education. She soon discovered he lacked the wisdom she, at first, judged he had. But as he was kind, gentle, and compassionate, she continued to go to him. He encouraged her to come often and she started to have that uneasy feeling again.

Guardedly, she advised him she would never want to do anything to offend God. He assured her this was one of the reasons he liked her and that he, too, was committed to loving God. Teresa began to notice how strangely the local people would look when anyone brought up the Priest’s name. She could not put her finger on it, but she was

 troubled by something in his attitude toward her. When she spoke of the love she had for her God and He for her, Teresa’s face became radiant. In later years, the older Teresa of Avila writes in her autobiography she believed the Priest was attracted to this goodness. This brought about a reversal of roles, making Teresa the Confessor and the Priest the penitent. The Priest confessed that for almost seven years he had been having an affair with a woman.

To compound this serious sin, he had continued celebrating Mass with this sin on his soul. So, this was the reason for the townspeople’s strange behavior. He had created a scandal for himself and for his Sacrament. People stopped going to confession, and no longer attended Mass. Although the older Teresa, looking back, could see the naivet‚ and the harm that could have been done to her soul, by her lack of wisdom, the young Teresa was blinded by her desire to save his soul. “My intention was good, but the act was wrong; for to accomplish a good, however great it may be, even a small evil is not to be done.”

She learned from members of his household that the woman had given the Priest a copper idol to wear around his neck. And although she did not believe in magic, Teresa later writes of knowing people who had been deceived by subtle forms of witchcraft. She continued to speak to him of God. Finally, he turned the little copper idol over to Teresa. She believes change came about the day she threw the idol into the river. He ceased seeing the woman altogether; spending his last year of life before going to the Father, praising Him. “At the end of a year exactly from the first day I saw him, he died.”

This was a hard year for Teresa of Avila, one of pain, both physical and spiritual. But it had given her time to reflect on her vocation. She came to the conclusion that the Purgatory she would suffer on earth as a Nun, was nothing compared to the eternal hell she might know, otherwise. Her goal was to go straight to Heaven and she knew, for her, it was only through the Religious Life. After three months of the most excruciatingly painful, unorthodox medical treatment, almost killing her, Teresa’s father admitted the doctor was little more than a quack and brought her back to Avila. Teresa’s condition deteriorated, going from bad to worse, doctors diagnosing, now, she had tuberculosis as well as heart disease.

She lay in bed, her tortured body finding no relief for what seemed a never-ending April dragging into August. God, she felt, had refused to call her home to Him.

One day in August, Teresa of Avila asked her father to call a Priest to hear her confession, wishing to prepare herself for the Feast of the Assumption. Her father refused, judging instead, she had given up all hope of living. If he granted her wish, he feared this would be a sign to her she was dying and she would stop fighting to live. Teresa lost consciousness that evening.

Teresa of Avila - edge of death

All attempts to revive her were in vain. Every test of that time, including a mirror held up to her mouth and tickling her with a feather, showed no signs of life. Having proven to their satisfaction she was truly dead, the doctors left; the Priest anointed her with holy oils; people recited prayers for the dead; and her poor father was beside himself. Why hadn’t he listened to her plea for a Priest!

A grave was prepared; the Nuns were waiting to escort the body to the Convent.

There was only one stumbling block, Teresa’s father. He insisted he could feel a pulse! No one believed him, pitying what they thought was a half-crazed old man. This battle raged on for four days.

On the fourth night, Teresa of Avila’s body was almost consumed by fire; a lit candle having fallen, igniting her bed clothes. Thank God, her brother, who had been keeping watch over the body, awoke just in time to put out the flames.

During all the commotion, Teresa did not awaken. Then, as her father and brothers were crying by her bedside, she suddenly sat up and complained, “Why did you call me back?” While all had been judging Teresa dead, she was having a Vision, seeing her family and communities of Nuns in Heaven through the intercession of her prayers and suffering. Attempting to describe her Vision of Heaven, like St. Paul, she found its splendor too magnificent for words.

Teresa of Avila  - Recovery

Teresa recovered, if you can call being paralyzed, weak and disoriented, vomiting every morning, recovery. She felt as if her heart was being strangled by the pressure it had to endure. Her body was a pain-wracked network of crucified nerve-endings. She returned to the Incarnation Convent, her paralysis remaining with her for an additional three years. She turned to St. Joseph, trusting in his never-failing intercession with his Son Jesus; Teresa was completely cured of her paralysis at the end of the third year. For twenty years, from age twenty four to forty four, Teresa of Avila was to know Purgatory on Earth. Her physical pains were to be joined by spiritual and mental ones, in the metanoia from sinner (as she often called herself) into Saint. Teresa speaks of the need to walk through the “dark night of the soul,” turning your back on all the pleasures of this world, if you would know that oneness with our Lord.

Being put to the test, as our Lord is prone to do for those who ask for closer unity with Him, Teresa of Avila was to fail over and over again.

Crashaw, the English Protestant poet, who converted to Catholicism and later became a Priest, was just one of the many whose lives were changed as a result of her writings.

Saint Edith Stein, went from being born a Jewess, to a life of science with the exclusion of God, to conversion to the Roman Catholic Church after reading Saint Teresa’s autobiography.

She died a Carmelite Nun and Martyr in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

Macauley, a historian, said Teresa did more to block the spread of Protestantism, by her life and writings, than even St. Ignatius of Loyola. "If St. Ignatius of Loyola is the brain of the Catholic reaction, Teresa is its heart; if Ignatius is the head of a great band, Teresa of Jesus belongs to its humanity."

Saints like Francis de Sales and Alphonsus Liguori, both Doctors of the Church, not only greatly admired her, but turned to her works for enlightenment and inspiration. Her autobiography, written reluctantly out of obedience to her Spiritual Director, has become known as one of the most important books on the Christian Way of Life.

Minibook 40 pages Life of St. Teresa of Avila  - color pictures - $7.00 Includes shipping and handling Download ebook

Saint Teresa of Avila DVD Carmelite Reformer "At last, at last, a daughter of the Church." The life of St. Teresa of Avila - taped in Spain Scenes from  Avila, and  the Convent of the Incarnation where she had mystical experiences, including Transverberation of the Heart. Visit San José in Avila, Valladolid, and Alba de Tormes where she died. See her incorrupt arm and heart. ISBN 1-58002-033-X  Our Prices explained   For DVD click below Your price $19.95   Special DVD plus Minibook $24.95   For English Audio St. Teresa of Avila CD $4.95 Free Shipping download CD as mp3 audio file   For Spanish DVD click below

A powerful epic mini-series shot on location in Spain that tells the story of one of the most amazing women in history, St. Teresa of Avila. With meticulous attention to detail and historical accuracy, outstanding production values, and an incredible performance by actress Concha Velasco as Teresa, this acclaimed major film production is the definitive film on the life of this great saint.

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