Teresa of Ávila
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Teresa of Ávila, also called Saint Teresa of Jesus, baptized as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada, (March 28, 1515 – early or mid October 1582) was a well known Spanish mystic, Roman Catholic saint, Carmelite nun, writer of the Counter Reformation, and theologian of contemplative life through mental prayer. She was a reformer of the Carmelite Order and is considered to be a founder of the Discalced Carmelites along with John of the Cross.
In 1622, forty years after her death, she was canonized by Pope Gregory XV and was in 1970 named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI. Her books, which include her autobiography (The Life of Teresa of Jesus) and her seminal work El Castillo Interior (The Interior Castle) are an integral part of Spanish Renaissance literature as well as Christian mysticism and Christian meditation practices as she entails in her other important work, Camino de Perfección (The Way of Perfection).
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'Would it not be gross ignorance, my daughters, if, when a man was questioned about his name, or country, or parents, he could not answer? Stupid as this would be, it is unspeakably more foolish to care to learn nothing of our nature except that we possess bodies, and only to realise vaguely that we have souls... (Interior Castle, chapter one)
Teresa Of Ávila Media
- TeresaAvila.jpg
Church window at the Convent of St Teresa
- Avila SaintTheresa1.jpg
The Saint Teresa of Ávila, Ávila de los Caballeros, Spain. Born 1515 in Ávila, dead in Alba de Tormes 1582 The picture was taken the 12 of April 2004 by Håkan Svensson (Xauxa).
- Ecstasy of Saint Teresa September 2015-2a.jpg
The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome
- Palau de Mafra - Estàtua - 1.jpg
Statue of Saint Teresa of Ávila in Mafra National Palace, Mafra
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"It is love alone that gives worth to all things."
- François Gérard - St Theresa (detail).jpg
Detail of St. Theresa, 1827, by French painter François Gérard
- Georges Jules Victor Clairin (1843-1919), Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) in ''Sainte Therese d'Avila''.jpg
Portrait of Sarah Bernhardt as Thérèse in La Vierge d'Avila by Catulle Mendès (1906)