St. Teresa of Ávila

Their story

Teresa was born in Ávila, Spain, in 1515. As a little girl she was so taken with the stories of the martyrs that she and her brother ran away from home hoping to die for Christ; an uncle found them and brought them back. As a young woman she entered the Carmelite convent of the Incarnation in Ávila. For nearly twenty years, Teresa’s prayer was half-hearted. She enjoyed long conversations in the convent parlor and often felt torn between God and the world. Then, around the age of forty, she was deeply moved while praying before an image of the wounded Christ, and her life changed. She came to understand prayer as friendship with Jesus: spending time, heart to heart, with the One who loves us. Teresa set out to reform the Carmelite Order and call it back to simplicity and prayer. Despite poor health, opposition and constant travel over rough roads, she founded seventeen convents and, with St. John of the Cross, helped begin the reform for the friars. She was practical, determined and full of humor. Her books, including The Way of Perfection and The Interior Castle, are spiritual classics. She died in 1582, and in 1970 she was one of the first two women named Doctors of the Church.