15/10/2021
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA
Virgin & Doctor of the Church
October 15 | Memorial
St. Teresa of Avila, original name Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada, was born on March 28, 1515, Avila, Spain. She is a Spanish nun, one of the great mystics and religious women of the Roman Catholic Church, and author of spiritual classics. She was the originator of the Carmelite Reform, which restored and emphasized the austerity and contemplative character of primitive Carmelite life. St. Teresa was elevated to a doctor of the church in 1970 by Pope Paul VI, the first woman to be so honored.
Her mother died in 1529, and despite her father’s opposition, Teresa entered the Carmelite convent of the Incarnation at Avila, Spain. Within two years her health collapsed, and she was an invalid for three years, during which time she developed a love for mental prayer. After her recovery, however, she stopped praying. She continued for 15 years in a state divided between a worldly and a divine spirit, until, in 1555, she underwent a religious awakening.
In 1558 Teresa began to consider the restoration of Carmelite life to its original observance of austerity, which had relaxed in the 14th and 15th centuries. Her reform required utter withdrawal so that the nuns could meditate on divine law and, through a prayerful life of penance, exercise what she termed “our vocation of reparation” for the sins of humankind. In 1562, with Pope Pius IV’s authorization, she opened the first convent (St. Joseph’s) of the Carmelite Reform. A storm of hostility came from municipal and religious personages, especially because the convent existed without endowment, but she staunchly insisted on poverty and subsistence only through public alms.
Despite frail health and great difficulties, Teresa spent the rest of her life establishing and nurturing 16 more convents throughout Spain.
ST. TERESA OF AVILA
PRAY FOR US!
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Source:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Teresa-of-Avila
