Saint Teresa was born in Avila, Spain, March 28, 1515. She died in Alba, October 4, 1582. Her family origins have been traced to Toledo and Olmedo. Her father, Alonso de Cepeda, was a son of a Toledan merchant, Juan Sanchez de Toledo and Ines de Cepeda, originally from Tordesillas. Juan transferred his business to Avila, where he succeeded in having his children marry into families of the nobility. In 1505 Alonso married Catalina del Peso, who bore him two children and died in 1507. Two years later Alonso married the 15-year-old Beatriz de Ahumada of whom Teresa was born.
Early Life. In 1528, when Teresa was 15, her mother died, leaving behind 10
children. Teresa was the "most beloved of them all." She was of medium height,
large rather than small, and generally well proportioned. In her youth she had the
reputation of being quite beautiful, and she retained her fine appearance until her last
years (Maria de S. Jose, Libro de recreaciones, 8). Her personality was extroverted, her
manner affectionately buoyant, and she had the ability to adapt herself easily to all
kinds of persons and circumstances. She was skillful in the use of the pen, in needlework,
and in household duties. Her courage and enthusiasm were readily kindled, an early example
of which trait occurred when at the age of 7 she left home with her brother Rodrigo with
the intention of going to Moorish territory to be beheaded for Christ, but they were
frustrated by their uncle, who met the children as they were leaving the city and brought
them home (Ephrem de la Madre de Dios, Tiempo y Vida de Sta. Teresa--hereafter abbrev.
TV--142-143).
At about 12 the fervor of her piety waned somewhat. She began to take an interest in the
development of her natural attractions and in books of chivalry. Her affections were
directed especially to her cousins, the Mejias, children of her aunt Dona Elvira, and she
gave some thought to marriage. Her father was disturbed by these fancies and opposed them.
While she was in this crisis, her mother died. Afflicted and lonely, Teresa appealed to
the Blessed Virgin to be her mother. Seeing his daughter's need of prudent guidance, her
father entrusted her to the Augustinian nuns at Santa Maria de Gracia in 1531.
Vocation. The influence of Dona Maria de Brinceno, who was in charge of the lay
students at the convent school, helped Teresa to recover her piety. She began to wonder
whether she had a vocation to be a nun. Toward the end of the year 1532 she returned home
to regain her health and stayed with her sister, who lived in Castellanos. Reading the
letters of St. Jerome led her to the decision to enter a convent, but her father refused
to give his consent. Her brother and confidant, Rodrigo, had just set sail for the war on
the Rio de la Plata. She decided to run away from home and persuaded another brother to
flee with her in order that both might receive the religious habit. On Nov. 2, 1535, she
entered the Carmelite Monastery of the Incarnation at Avila, where she had a friend, Juana
Suarez; and her father resigned himself to this development. The following year she
received the habit and began wholeheartedly to give herself to prayer and penance. Shortly
after her profession she became seriously ill and failed to respond to medical treatment.
As a last resort her father took her to Becedas, a small village, to seek the help of a
woman healer famous throughout Castile, but Teresa's health did not improve. Leaving
Becedas in the fall of 1538, she stayed in Hortigosa at the home of her uncle Pedro de
Cepeda, who gave her the Tercer Abecedario of Francis of Osuna to read.
"I did not know," she said, "how to proceed in prayer or how to become recollected, and so I took much pleasure in it and decided to follow that path with all my strength" (Libro de la Vida, the autobiography of St. Teresa--hereafter abbrev. V--4.6).
Instead of regaining her health, Teresa grew even more ill, and her father brought her
back to Avila in July 1539. On August 15 she fell into a coma so profound that she was
thought to be dead. After 4 days she revived, but she remained paralyzed in her legs for 3
years. After her cure, which she attributed to St. Joseph (V. 6.6-8), she entered a period
of mediocrity in her spiritual life, but she did not at any time give up praying. Her
trouble came of not understanding that the use of the imagination could be dispensed with
and that her soul could give itself directly to contemplation. During this stage, which
lasted 18 years, she had transitory mystical experiences. She was held back by a strong
desire to be appreciated by others, but this finally left her in an experience of
conversion in the presence of an image of "the sorely wounded Christ" (V
9.2). This conversion dislodged the egoism that had hindered her spiritual development.
Thus, at the age of 39, she began to enjoy a vivid experience of God's presence within
her.
However, the contrast between these favors and her conduct, which was more relaxed than
was thought proper according to the ascetical standards of the time, caused some
misunderstanding. Some of her friends, such as Francisco de Salcedo and Gaspar Daza,
thought her favors were the work of the devil (V 23.14). Diego de Cetina, SJ, brought her
comfort by encouraging her to continue in mental prayer and to think upon the humanity of
Christ. Francis Borgia in 1555 heard her confession and told her that the spirit of God
was working in her, that she should concentrate upon Christ's Passion and not resist the
ecstatic experience that came to her in prayer. Nevertheless she had to endure the
distrust even of her friends as the divine favors increased. When Pradanos left Avila in
1558 his place as Teresa's director was taken by Baltasar Alvarez, SJ, who, either from
caution or with the intention of probing her spirit, caused her great distress by telling
her that others were convinced that her raptures and visions were the work of the devil
and that she should not communicate so often (V 25.4). Another priest acting temporarily
as her confessor, on hearing her report of a vision she had repeatedly had of Christ, told
her it was clearly the devil and commanded her to make the sign of the cross and laugh at
the vision (V 29.5). But God did not fail to comfort her, and she received the favor of
the transverberation (V 29.13-14). In August 1560 St. Peter of Alcantara counseled her:
"Keep on as you are doing, daughter; we all suffer such trials."
Reformer. Her great work of reform began with herself. She made a vow always to
follow the more perfect course, and resolved to keep the rule as perfectly as she could (V
32.9). However, the atmosphere prevailing at the Incarnation monastery was less than
favorable to the more perfect type of life to which Teresa aspired. A group assembled in
her cell one September evening in 1560, taking their inspiration from the primitive
tradition of Carmel and the discalced reform of St. Peter of Alcantara, proposed the
foundation of a monastery of an eremitical type. At first her confessor, the provincial of
the Carmelites, and other advisers encouraged her in the plan (TV 478-482); but when the
proposal became known among the townsfolk, there was a great outcry against it. The
provincial changed his mind, her confessor dissociated himself from the project, and her
advisers ranged themselves with the opposition. Six months later, however, when there was
a change of rectors at the Jesuit college, her confessor, Father Alvarez, gave his
approval. Without delay Teresa had her sister Juana and her husband Juan de Ovalle buy a
house in Avila and occupy it as though it were for themselves (V 33.11). This stratagem
was necessary to obviate difficulties with nuns at the Incarnation while the building was
being adapted and made ready to serve as a convent. At Toledo, where she was sent by the
Carmelite provincial at the importunate request of a wealthy and noble lady, she received
a visit from St. Peter of Alcantara, who offered to act as mediator in obtaining from Rome
the permissions needed for the foundation. While there she also received a visit from the
holy Carmelite Maria de Yepes, who had just returned from Rome with permission to
establish a reformed convent and who provided Teresa with a new light on the question of
the type of poverty to be adopted by her own community. At Toledo she also completed in
reluctant obedience to her confessor the first version of her Vida.
She returned to Avila at the end of June 1562 (TV 506-507), and shortly thereafter the
apostolic rescript, dated Feb. 7, 1562, for the foundation of the new convent arrived. The
following August 24 the new monastery dedicated to S. Jose was founded; Maestro Daza, the
bishop's delegate, officiated at the ceremony. Four novices received the habit of the
Discalced Carmelites. There was strong opposition among the townspeople and at the
Incarnation. The prioress at the Incarnation summoned Teresa back to her monastery, where
the Carmelite provincial Angel de Salazar, indignant at her having put her new
establishment under the jurisdiction of the bishop, rebuked her, but after hearing her
account of things, was mollified and even promised to help quiet the popular disturbance
and to give her permission to return to S. Jose when calm had been restored. On August 25
the council at Avila met to discuss the matter of the new foundation, and on August 30 a
great assembly of the leading townspeople gathered. The only one in the assembly to raise
his voice against the popular indignation was Domingo Banez, OP. A lawsuit followed in the
royal court, but before the end of 1562 the foundress, as Teresa of Jesus, was authorized
by the provincial to return to the new convent. There followed the 5 most peaceful years
of her life, during which she wrote the Way of
Perfection and the Meditations on the Canticle.
Foundations. In April 1567 the Carmelite general, Giovanni Battista Rossi
(Rubeo), made a visitation, approved Teresa's work, and commanded her to establish other
convents with some of the nuns from the convent of the Incarnation at Avila. He also gave
her permission to establish two houses for men who wished to adopt the reform. The
extension of Teresa's work began with the foundation of a convent at Medina del Campo,
Aug. 15, 1567. Then followed other foundations: at Malagon in 1568; at Valladolid (Rio de
Olinos) in 1568; at Toledo and at Pastrana in 1569; at Salamanca in 1570; and at Alba de
Tormes in 1571. As she journeyed to Toledo in 1569 she passed through Duruelo, where John
of the Cross and Anthony of Jesus had established the first convent of Discalced Brethren
in November 1568, and in July 1569 she established the second monastery of Discalced
Brethren in Pastrana.
These foundations were followed by an interval during which Teresa served as prioress at
the Incarnation monastery in Avila, an office to which she was appointed by the apostolic
visitator, Pedro Fernandez, OP. This duty she was loath to assume, and she had much
opposition to face on the part of the community. However, with the help of St. John of the
Cross, who served as a confessor for the nuns, she was able to bring about a great
improvement in the spiritual condition of the community. On Nov. 18, 1572, while receiving
Communion from the hands of John of the Cross, she received the favor of the
"spiritual marriage." At the request of the Duchess of Alba she spent the first
days of 1573 in Alba, and then went to Salamanca to put things in order at the foundation
there. At the command of Jerome Ripalda, SJ, she started her Book of the Foundations the
following August. On March 19, 1574, she established a foundation at Segovia, where the
Pastrana nuns had been transferred because of conflicts with the Princess of Eboli. This
marked the beginning of a second series of fonndations. The next was made at Beas de
Segura in February 1575. There Teresa met Jerome Gratian, apostolic visitator of the order
in Andalucia, who ordered a foundation in Seville. The bishop objected, however, and
Teresa sent Ana de S. Alberto to Caravaca to make a foundation there in her name on Jan.
1, 1576, and that of the Seville convent was delayed until June 3 of the same year.
Crisis Between the Calced and Discalced. The entry of the Discalced Brethren
into Andalusia was forbidden by Rossi, the general of the order, who opposed Teresa and
Jerome Gratian in this matter. The general chapter at Piacenza in 1575 ordered the
Discalced Brethren to withdraw from Andalusia, and Teresa herself was ordered to retire to
a convent. The general put Jerome Tostado at the head of the Discalced Brethren. While the
conflict raged between the Calced and Discalced Brethren, Teresa wrote the Visitation of
the Discalced Nuns, a part of The Foundations, and her greatest book, The Interior Castle.
The nuncio Nicholas Ormaneto, a defender of the Discalced Brethren, died June 18, 1578,
and his successor, Felipe Sega, was less favorably disposed toward them. John of the Cross
was imprisoned in Toledo. Against Teresa's will the Discalced Brethren held a chapter in
Almodovar on Oct. 9, 1578. The nuncio annulled the chapter and by a decree put the
Discalced Brethren under the authority of the Calced provincials who subjected them to
some harassment. The King intervened, and four were named to advise the nuncio, among them
Pedro Fernandez, OP. Angel de Salazar was made vicar-general of the Discalced Brethren
while negotiations were afoot for the separation of the Discalced from the Calced Brethren
and the erection of a Discalced province.
Teresa then turned to visiting her convents and resumed the founding of new ones. On Feb.
25, 1580, she gave the habit to foundresses of the convent in Villaneuva de la Jara. The
brief Pia consideratione, dated June 22, 1580, ordered the erection of a distinct province
for the Discalced. On March 3, 1581, the chapter of the Discalced was held in Alcala, and
Jerome Gratian, who was favored by Teresa, was elected the first provincial. Teresa's last
foundations were: at Palencia and Soria in 1581, at Burgos in 1582; the most difficult of
all, Granada (1582), was entrusted to the Venerable Anne of Jesus.
Teresa's body was interred in Alba. Paul V declared her a blessed April 24, 1614, and in
1617 the Spanish parliament proclaimed her the Patroness of Spain. Gregory XV canonized
her in 1622 together with SS. Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier, Isidore, and Philip
Neri.
[O. STEGGINK]
Spiritual Doctrine. Among the writings of St. Teresa, three can be indicated as
the depositories of her spiritual teaching: her autobiography,
the Way of Perfection, and the Interior Castle.
Readers must exercise some caution, however, and resist the temptation to hastily
synthesize the doctrine in these books, because St. Teresa wrote from her personal
experience at different stages of the spiritual life. For example, the doctrine of prayer
found in the autobiography is not identical
with that in the Interior Castle; more than a decade had elapsed between their
composition, and Teresa had meanwhile attained a higher degree of spiritual maturity with
its simultaneous expansion of experience. The autobiography,
written primarily as a manifestation of her spiritual state for her directors, was later
enlarged in scope and in audience. Chapters 11 to 22 inclusive--a later addition--are
devoted exclusively to the discussion of prayer, although additional comments and examples
are scattered throughout the remaining 28 chapters. Teresa depicts different stages of the
life of prayer in metaphorical terms taken from the manner of securing water to irrigate a
garden. The "first water" is laboriously obtained from a well and carried in a
bucket to the garden; this is in reference to beginners who, liberated from the more
flagrant mortal sins, apply themselves to discursive prayer of meditation, although they
experience fatigue and aridity from time to time. After speaking at length of meditation
in its stricter meaning, Teresa made a brief reference to "acquired"
contemplation before beginning her discussion of the "second water." In this
second stage, the gardener secures water through use of a windlass and bucket; here Teresa
refers to the "prayef of quiet, a gift of God through which the individual begins to
have a passive experience of prayer. The third method of irrigation is the employment of
water from a stream or river; the application made by Teresa is to the "sleep of the
faculties." Although Teresa considered this an important stage in the evolution of
prayer when she wrote her autobiography, she
later relegated it to a simple intensification of the "prayer of quiet" in the
Interior Castle. The fourth method of irrigation is God given: the rain; Teresa employs
this metaphor to describe a state of union in prayer in which the soul is apparently
passive.
Her Way of Perfection Teresa addressed to her
nuns, teaching them therein the major virtues that demand their solicitude, casting
further light on the practice of prayer, and using the Pater Noster as a vehicle for
teaching prayer at greater depth. This book is sometimes referred to as the apex of
Teresa's ascetical doctrine. The Interior Castle is the principal source of mature
Teresian thought on the spiritual life in its integrity. Chief emphasis is laid on the
life of prayer, but other elements (the apostolate, for example) are also treated. The
interior castle is the soul, in the center of which dwells the Trinity. Growth in prayer
enables the individual to enter into deeper intimacy with God--signified by a progressive
journey through the apartments (or mansions) of the castle from the outermost to the
luminous center. When a man has attained union with God in the degree permitted to him in
this world, he is "at the center" of himself; in other words, he has integrity
as a child of God and as a human being. Each of the apartments of the castle is
distinguished by a different stage in the evolution of prayer, with its consequent effects
upon every other phase of the life of the individual.
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