Teresa of Avila by Peter Paul Rubens

Saint Teresa of Avila (known in religion as Teresa de Jesús, baptised as Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada) was a Spanish Roman Catholic mystic and monastic reformer; born at Avila (53 miles north-west of Madrid), Old Castile, March 28, 1515; died at Alba de Tormes October 4, 1582. Her feast day is October 15. Download high resolution version (1813x1734, 483 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (1813x1734, 483 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Pieter Pauwel (Peter Paul) Rubens (June 28, 1577 – May 30, 1640) is considered one of the greatest painters in European art history (together with Dutchman Rembrandt van Rijn), and the most important Flemish (Netherlands, nowadays Belgium) painter of the sixteenth century. ... The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... Mysticism (ancient Greek mysticon = secret) is meditation, prayer, or theology focused on the direct experience of union with divinity, God, or Ultimate Reality, or the belief that such experience is a genuine and important source of knowledge. ... vila is a town in the south of Castile, the capital of the province of the same name, now part of the autonomous community of Castile-Leon, Spain. ... Coat of arms Plaza de España (Spain square) Madrid, the capital of Spain, is located in the center of the country at 40°25′ N 3°45′ W. Population of the city of Madrid proper was 3,093,000 (Madrilenes, madrileños) as of 2003 estimates. ... A former kingdom of Spain, Castile comprises the two regions of Old Castile in north-western Spain, and New Castile in the centre of the country. ... March 28 is the 87th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (88th in Leap years). ... Events June - Invasion of Persia by Sultan Selim I of the Ottoman Empire. ... October 4 is the 277th day of the year (278th in Leap years). ... Events January 15 - Russia cedes Livonia and Estonia to Poland February 24 - Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian Calendar. ... October 15 is the 288th day of the year (289th in Leap years). ...

Detail of the Ecstasy of St Teresa, by Bernini, Cornaro Chapel, Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome. One of Bernini's most famous sculptures, this work depicts a scene described in Teresa's mystical writings, in which an angel has pierced her heart with a dart of divine love and withdrawn it.

The deeply pious and ascetic ideal after the example of saints and martyrs was early instilled in her by her father, the knight Alonso Sánchez de Cloister Cepeda, and especially by her mother, Beatriz d'Ávila y Ahumada. Their family were Jewish converts. Teresa was fascinated by accounts of the lives of the saints, and ran away from home several times as a girl to find martyrdom. Leaving her parental home secretly one morning in 1534, she entered the monastery of the Incarnation of the Carmelite nuns at Avila. Download high resolution version (565x815, 87 KB)Bernini, Ecstasy of St Theresa, Cornaro Chapel This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Download high resolution version (565x815, 87 KB)Bernini, Ecstasy of St Theresa, Cornaro Chapel This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... A self portrait: Bernini is said to have used his own features in the David (below, left) Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini) (December 7, 1598 - November 28, 1680), who worked chiefly in Rome, was the pre-eminent baroque artist. ... City motto: Senatus Populusque Romanus – SPQR (The Senate and the People of Rome) Founded 21 April 753 BC mythical, 1st millennium BC Region Latium Mayor Walter Veltroni (Democratici di Sinistra) Area  - City Proper  1290 km² Population  - City (2004)  - Metropolitan  - Density (city proper) 2,546,807 almost 4,000,000 1... In general, the term Saint refers to someone who is exceptionally virtuous and holy. ... Historically, a martyr is a person who dies for his or her religious faith. ... A silver statue of an armoured knight, created as a trophy in 1850 For the chess piece, see knight (chess). ... WARNING: Much of the material in this article is inconsistent with the source material from which it purports to derive. ... Historically, a martyr is a person who dies for his or her religious faith. ... Events May 10 - Jacques Cartier explores Newfoundland while searching for the Northwest Passage. ... Buddhist monastery near Tibet A monastery is the habitation of monks. ... The Order of Our Lady of Mt. ... vila is a town in the south of Castile, the capital of the province of the same name, now part of the autonomous community of Castile-Leon, Spain. ...

In the cloister, she suffered much from illness. Early in her sickness, she experienced periods of spiritual ecstasy through the use of the devotional book, Abecedario espiritual, commonly known as the "third" or the "spiritual alphabet" (published, six parts, 1537-1554). This work, following the example of similar writings of the medieval mystics, consisted of directions for tests of conscience and for spiritual self concentration and inner contemplation, known in mystical nomenclature as oratio recollectionis or oratio mentalis. Besides this, she employed other mystical ascetic works; such as the Tractatus de oratione et meditatione of Peter of Alcantara, and perhaps many of those upon which Ignatius Loyola based his Exercitia, and not improbably this Exercitia itself. Cloister of Saint Trophimus, in Arles, France A cloister (from latin claustrum) is part of cathedrals and abbeys architecture. ... Religious ecstasy is a trance-like state characterized by expanded mental and spiritual awareness and is frequently accompanied by visions, hallucinations, and physical euphoria. ... Events January 6 - Alessandro de Medici assassinated August 25 - The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, was formed. ... Events February 12 - After claiming the throne of England the previous year, Lady Jane Grey is beheaded for treason alongside her husband. ... Conscience is generally thought of as a moral faculty, sense, or feeling that impels individuals to believe that particular activities are morally right or wrong. ... Ignatius of Loyola Saint Ignatius of Loyola (December 24, 1491? – July 31, 1556), baptized Íñigo López de Loyola, was the founder of the Society of Jesus, a Roman Catholic religious order commonly known as the Jesuits that was established to strengthen the Church, initially against Protestantism. ...

She professed, in her illness, to rise from the lowest stage, "recollection", to the "devotions of peace" or even to the "devotions of union", which was one of perfect ecstasy. With this was frequently joined a rich "blessing of tears". As the merely outer and void Roman Catholic distinction between mortal and venial sin dawned upon her, she came upon the secret of the awful terror of sinful iniquity, and the inherent nature of original sin. With this was correlated the consciousness of utter natural impotence and the necessity of absolute subjection to God. The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... According to Catholicism, a venial sin is a temporary loss of grace from God. ... Original sin is the doctrine, shared in one form or another by most Christian churches, that the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (called the Fall), changed or damaged human nature, such that all human beings since then are innately predisposed to sin, and are powerless... Consciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and ones environment. ... The term God, capitalized in English language as a proper noun, is often used to refer vaguely to a Supreme Being. ...

The intimation on the part of various of her friends (c. 1556) of a diabolical, not divine, element in her supernatural experiences led her to the most horrible self-inflicted tortures and mortifications, far in excess of her ordinary asceticism, until Francis Borgia, to whom she had made confession, reassured her. On St. Peter's Day of 1559 she became firmly convinced that Christ was present to her in bodily form, though invisible. This vision lasted almost uninterruptedly for more than two years. In another vision, a seraphim drove the fiery point of a golden lance repeatedly through her heart, causing an unexampled, as it were, spiritual-bodily pain. The memory of this episode served as an inspiration in determining her long struggle of love and suffering, from which emanated her life-long passion for conformation to the life and endurance of Jesus, to be epitomized in the cry usually inscribed as a motto upon her images: "Lord, either let me suffer or let me die." Gustave Dores depiction of Satan from John Miltons Paradise Lost Satan (שָׂטָן Standard Hebrew Satan, Latin Sátanas, Tiberian Hebrew Śāṭān; Aramaic שִׂטְנָא Åšiá¹­nâ: both words mean Adversary; accuser) is an angel, demon, or minor god in many religions. ... Flagellants mortifying the flesh, at the time of the Black Death Mortification of the flesh literally means putting the flesh to death. The term is primarily used in religious contexts, and is practiced in a variety of ways. ... Saint Francis Borgia, depicted performing an exorcism, served as the third Superior General. ... According to tradition, Peter was crucified upside-down, as shown in this painting by Caravaggio. ... Events January 15 - Elizabeth I of England is crowned in Westminster Abbey. ... A seraph (Hebrew שרף, SRF; in the plural seraphim, שרפים, SRFYM) is one of a class of angels mentioned in the Old Testament (Tanakh). ...

Activities as Reformer

The incentive to give outward practical expression to her inward motive was inspired in Teresa by Peter of Alcantara. Incidentally, he became acquainted with as Founder her early in 1560, and became her spiritual guide and counselor. She now resolved to found a Carmelite monastery for nuns, and to reform the laxity which she had found in the Cloister of the Incarnation and others. Guimara de Ullon, a woman of wealth and a friend, supplied the funds. Events February 27 - The Treaty of Berhick, which would expel the French from Scotland, is signed by England and the Congregation of Scotland The first tulip bulb was brought from Turkey to the Netherlands. ...

The absolute poverty of the new monastery, established in 1562 and named St. Joseph's, at first excited a scandal among the citizens and authorities of Avila, and the little house with its chapel was in peril of suppression; but powerful patrons like the bishop himself, as well as the impression of well-secured subsistence and prosperity, turned animosity into applause. Events Earliest English slave-trading expedition under John Hawkins. ... A bishop is an ordained member of the Christian clergy who, in certain Christian churches, holds a position of authority. ...

In March of 1563, when Teresa removed to the new cloister, she received the papal sanction to her prime principle of absolute poverty and renunciation of property, which she proceeded to formulate into a "Constitution." Her plan was the revival of the earlier stricter rules, supplemented by new regulations like the three disciplines of ceremonial flagellation prescribed for the divine service every week, and the discalceation of the none, or the substitution of leather or wooden sandals for shoes. For the first five years, Theresa remained in pious seclusion, engaged in writing. Events February 1 - Sarsa Dengel succeeds his father Menas as Emperor of Ethiopia February 18 - The Duke of Guise is assassinated while besieging Orléans March - Peace of Amboise. ... The Pope is the Catholic Bishop and patriarch of Rome, and head of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches. ... Whipping on a post Flagellation is the act of whipping (Latin flagellum, whip) the human body. ...

In 1567, she received a patent from the Carmelite general, Rubeo de Ravenna, to establish new houses of her order, and in this effort and later visitations she made long journeys through nearly all the provinces of Spain. Of these she gives a description in her Libro de las Fundaciones (a late ed., Madrid, 1880; Eng. transl., Book of the Foundations, London, 1871). Between 1567 and 1571, reform convents were established at Medina del Campo, Malagon, Valladolid, Toledo, Pastrana, Salamanca, and Alba de Tormes. Events The Duke of Alva arrives in the Netherlands with Spanish forces to suppress unrest there. ... Valladolid is an industrial city in central Spain, upon the Rio Pisuerga. ... The façade of Toledo cathedral Toledo is a city located in central Spain, the capital of the province of Toledo and of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. ... Pastranas coat of arms. ... Salamanca: Plaza Mayor Salamanca (population 156,006 (2002)) is a city in central Spain, the capital of the province of Salamanca in the autonomous community of Castile-Leon. ...

After her sprit and example, a similar movement for men was begun by Juan de la Cruz. Another friend, Geronimo Grecian, Carmelite visitator of the older observance of Andalusia and apostolic commissioner, and later provincial of the Teresian reforms, gave her powerful support in founding convents at Segovia (1571), Vegas de Segura (1574), Seville (1575), and Caravaca in Murcia (1576), while the deeply mystical Juan, by his power as teacher and preacher, promoted the inner life of the movement. Saint John of the Cross (Juan de la Cruz) was a Spanish Carmelite friar, born on June 24, 1542 at Fontiveros, a small village near Avila. ... Motto: Dominator Hercules Fundator Andalucía por sí, para España y la humanidad (Andalusia for herself, for Spain, and for humanity) Capital Seville Area  â€“ Total  â€“ % of Spain Ranked 2nd  87 268 km²  17,2% Population  â€“ Total (2003)  â€“ % of Spain  â€“ Density Ranked 1st  7 478 432  17,9%  85,70... The Alcázar of Segovia For the Spanish classical guitarist, see Andrés Segovia. ... The Giralda Tower Seville (Spanish: Sevilla, see also different names) is the artistic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain, crossed by the river Guadalquivir (37° 22′ 38″ N 5° 59′ 13″ W). ...

In 1576 began a series of persecutions on the part of the older observant Carmelite order against Teresa, her friends, and her reforms. Pursuant to a body of resolutions adopted at the general chapter at Piacenza, the "definitors" of the order forbade all further founding of convents. The general condemned her to voluntary retirement to one of her institutions. She obeyed and chose St. Joseph's at Toledo. Her friends and subordinates were subjected to greater trials. Events May 5 - Peace of Beaulieu or Peace of Monsieur (after Monsieur, the Duc dAnjou, brother of the King, who negotiated it). ... Piacenza is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, of approximately 104,000 inhabitants. ...

Finally, after several years her pleadings by letter with King Philip II of Spain secured relief. As a result, in 1579, the processes before the Inquisition against her, Grecián, and others were dropped, and the extension of the reform was at least negatively permuted. A brief of Pope Gregory XIII allowed a special provincial for the younger branch of the discalceate nuns, and a royal rescript created a protective board of four assessors for the reform. Philip II of Spain (Spanish: Felipe II) - (May 21, 1527 – September 13, 1598), the first King of Spain understood as the whole peninsula of Hispania (r. ... Pedro Berruguete. ... Gregory XIII, né Ugo Buoncampagno (January 7, 1502 – April 10, 1585) was pope from 1572 to 1585. ...

During the last three years of her life Theresa founded convents at Villanueva de la Jara in northern Andalusia (1580), Palencia (1580), Soria (1581), Burgos, and at Granada (1582). In all seventeen nunneries, all but one founded by her, and as many men's cloisters were due to her reform activity of twenty years. Her final illness overtook her on one of her journeys from Burgos to Alba de Tormes. Motto: Dominator Hercules Fundator Andalucía por sí, para España y la humanidad (Andalusia for herself, for Spain, and for humanity) Capital Seville Area  â€“ Total  â€“ % of Spain Ranked 2nd  87 268 km²  17,2% Population  â€“ Total (2003)  â€“ % of Spain  â€“ Density Ranked 1st  7 478 432  17,9%  85,70... Palencia is a city in the northwest of the Tierra de Campos of central Spain, the capital of the province of Palencia in the autonomous community of Castile-Leon. ... Soria is a city in north-central Spain, the capital of the province of Soria in the autonomous community of Castile-Leon. ... Burgos coat of arms A city of northernwestern Spain, at the edge of the central plateau, Burgos has 166,000 inhabitants in the city proper and another 10,000 in its suburbs. ... // The City of Granada Alhambra, Courtyard of the Lions Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the community of Andalucía, Spain. ...

Anecdotally, she died the night from 4th of October to the 15th of October of 1582, while Spain and the Catholic world switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. Forty years after her death, she was canonized, and her church reveres her as the "seraphic virgin". The Cortes exalted her to patroness of Spain in 1814, and the university previously conferred the title Doctor ecclesiae with a diploma. The title is Latin for Doctor of the Church, but is distinct from the honor of Doctor of the Church conferred posthumously by the Holy See, which she received in 1970. The mysticism in her works exerted a formative influence upon many theologians of the following centuries, such as Francis of Sales, Fénelon, and the Port-Royalists. The Julian calendar was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, taking force in 45 BC or 709 ab urbe condita. ... The Gregorian calendar is the calendar widely used in the Western world. ... The Cortes Generales (English: General Courts) is the Spanish legislature. ... 1814 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... In Roman Catholicism, a Doctor of the Church is a theologian from whose teachings the whole Christian church is held to have derived great advantage and to whom eminent learning and great sanctity have been attributed by a proclamation of the Pope or of an ecumenical council. ... Latin is the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... In Roman Catholicism, a Doctor of the Church is a theologian from whose teachings the whole Christian church is held to have derived great advantage and to whom eminent learning and great sanctity have been attributed by a proclamation of the Pope or of an ecumenical council. ... 1970 was a common year starting on Thursday. ... St. ... Port Royal was the center of shipping and commerce in Jamaica until an earthquake on June 7, 1692 largely destroyed it, causing two thirds of the city to sink into the Caribbean Sea. ...

Her Mysticism

The kernel of Theresa's mystical thought throughout all her writings is the ascent of the soul in four stages ("Autobiography," chap. x.-xxii.). The first, or "heart's devotion", is that of devout contemplation or concentration, the withdrawal of the soul from without and specially the devout observance of the passion of Christ and penitence. The soul according to many religious and philosophical traditions, is the ethereal substance — spirit (Hebrew:rooah or nefesh) — particular to a unique living being. ...

The second is the "devotion of peace", in which at least the human will is lost in that of God by virtue of a charismatic, supernatural state given of God, while the other faculties, as memory, reason, and imagination, are not yet secure from worldly distraction. While a partial distraction is due to outer performances such as repetition of prayers and writing down spiritual things, yet the prevailing state is one of quietude.

The "devotion of union" is not only a supernatural but an essentially ecstatic state. Here there is also an absorption of the reason in God, and only the memory and imagination are left to ramble. This state is characterized by a blissful peace, a sweet slumber of at least the higher soul faculties, a conscious rapture in the love of God. Religious ecstasy is a trance-like state characterized by expanded mental and spiritual awareness and is frequently accompanied by visions, hallucinations, and physical euphoria. ...

The fourth is the "devotion of ecstasy or rapture", a passive state, in which the consciousness of being in the body disappears (II Cor. xii. 2-3). Sense activity ceases; memory and imagination are also absorbed in God or intoxicated. Body and spirit are in the throes of a sweet, happy pain, alternating between a fearful fiery glow, a complete impotence and unconsciousness, and a spell of strangulation, intermitted sometimes by such an ecstatic flight that the body is literally lifted into space. This after half an hour is followed by a reactionary relaxation of a few hours in a swoon-like weakness, attended by a negation of all the faculties in the union with God. From this the subject awakens in tears; it is the climax of mystical experience, productive of the trance.

Writings

Theresa's writings, produced for didactic purposes, stand among the most remarkable in the mystical literature of the Roman Catholic Church:

• The "Autobiography", written before 1567, under the direction of her confessor, Pedro Ibanez (La Vida de la Santa Madre Teresa de Jesús, Madrid, 1882; Eng. transl., The Life of S. Teresa of Jesus, London, 1888);
• Camino de Perfección, written also before 1567, at the direction of her confessor (Salamanca, 1589; Eng. transl., The Way of Perfection., London, 1852);
• El Castillo Interior, written in 1577 (Eng. transl., The Interior Castle, London, 1852), comparing the contemplative soul to a castle with seven successive interior courts, or chambers, analogous to the seven heavens;
• Relaciones, an extension of the autobiography giving her inner and outer experiences in epistolary form.

Two smaller works are Conceptos del Amor and Exclamaciones. Besides, there are the Cartas (Saragossa, 1671), or correspondence, of which there are 342 letters and 87 fragments of others. Theresa's prose is marked by an unaffected grace, an ornate neatness, and charming power of expression, together placing her in the front rank of Spanish prose writers; and her rare poems (Todas las poesías, Munster, 1854) are distinguished for tenderness of feeling and rhythm of thought.

Portrayals

One of the most beautiful paintings of a young Teresa is "St.Theresa", painted in 1819-20 by François Gérard, a french neoclassical painter.

Saint Teresa was the inspiration for one of Bernini's most famous works, The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa A self portrait: Bernini is said to have used his own features in the David (below, left) Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini) (December 7, 1598 - November 28, 1680), who worked chiefly in Rome, was the pre-eminent baroque artist. ... Berninis Ecstasy of St Teresa, (c)Don Edgar, 2003 The interior of this tiny church follows all of the rules of the Baroque period--sumptuousness, gold everywhere and lots of colour. ...

She is also a principal character of the opera Four Saints in Three Acts by composer Virgil Thomson and librettist Gertrude Stein. Four Saints in Three Acts was an Opera by American composer Virgil Thomson and with a libretto by Gertrude Stein. ... Virgil Thomson, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1947 Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 - September 30, 1989) was an American composer from Missouri, whose rural background gave a sense of place in his compositions. ... Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 - July 27, 1946) was an American writer, poet, feminist, playwright, and catalyst in the development of modern art and literature, who spent most of her life in France. ...

External links

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Teresa of Avila

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Teresa of Avila

• Works by Teresa of Avila at Project Gutenberg
• St Teresa of Avila - Prayers and Poems
• Convent of St. Teresa in Avila - includes summary of life and works

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