Saint Teresa of Jesus (of Avila)

Saint Teresa of Jesus (1515-1582) is the fountain of inspiration and orientation and the Mother Foundress of Teresian Carmel. She was born in Avila to the Family of Cepeda y Ahumada, March 28, 1515.

She became a Carmelite nun at the age of 20 in the Monastery of the Incarnaton in the city where she was born. She remained there 27 years until August 24, 1562 when she inaugurated her own new Carmel. Through new and strong ecclesial experiences, she continued by order of the Superior General, Juan Bautista Rubeo, to found 17 foundations in Spain beginning in 1567. One year later, November 28, 1568, she organized with St. John of the Cross the beginning of the new life the Discalced Carmelites in Duruelo, in the province of Avila. At the age of 67 she died "a daughter of the Church" in the Monastery of Alba de Tormes in the afternoon of October 4, 1582.

Her communities were to be "little colleges of Christ", aspiring to live faithfully the evangelic councels, founded on prayer "as a friendship with one whom we know loves us," and a community of equals and friends, giving themselves completely for the good of the Church. The friars were to have the same contemplative heart and dedicate themselves generously to activity in the service of the Church.

A lover of reading since her childhood, she wrote a few books to clarify her conscience before her confessors and spiritual directors or in order to help others on the spiritual path at the request of superiors and her own Carmelite siters. The Book of Life of Autobiography is an x-ray of her interior life in search of God. In this search she clings with cordial apssion to Christ the man, who becomes for her a "living book." The way of Perfection is a book of formation for the first generation of Carmelite nuns, above all in regard to the life of prayer and fraternal life in community according to the new ideals of Carmel. The Interior Castle or The Book of the Mansions is a narration of the process of her mystical experience, centered on Christ and the mystery of the Trinity. In the Book of Foundations she recounts anecdotal history, external and personal, of the monasteries she forunded until Burgos in 1582.

Along with her major works her minor writings, always rich in spiritual content and literary value, should be taken into account. Teresa of Jesus is a write who gives witness to her convictions, her experience and the work of God in her soul. A captivating sincerity runs through all her writings.

An exceptional collection of 500 letters have been conserved. There is manifested a diverse world of addressees with whom she dealt in the Iberian Peninsula, in Rome and in America. Above all, the humanity of daily life spontaneously appears and grand ideals for her soul, the loving entrustment to the divine, to Christ and His Church, embodied with the total naturalness of her relations, her preoccupations and her state of mind.

St. Teresa of Jesus has her own place in the history of Christian mysticism and Spanish literature. She was beatified April 24, 1614 and canonized March 12, 1622. On September 18, 1965, Pope Paul VI named her "Principal Patron of Spanish Catholic Writers of Spain." The same Pope declared her the first woman Doctor of the Church on September 27, 1970.

Saint John of the Cross

Juan de Yepes was born in Fontiveros (Avila) in the year 1542. He entered the Carmel Order in Medina del Campo and in 1567 he was ordained a priest in Salamanca. The summer of that year he met Mother Teresa of Jesus in Medina del Campo. At that time of that fortunate encounter the Foundress was 52 and the "santico" fray Juan was 25.

The intuition of St. Teresa was accurate and undeniable. From then on these two great mystic authors of Christianity walked together in the history of Carmel and Christian spirituality. Won over by her for the new ideal of Carmel, John of the Cross initiated the new experience of the Carmelite life with Fr. Antonio de Jesus and others in Duruelo, Avila, on November 28, 1568.

He shines with his own light in Carmel and the Church. He was the formator of the first Teresian Carmelites in various houses of formation and the director and spiritual master of Carmelite nuns and the laity in Castile and Andalusia. He instructed and encouraged by his preaching but his special charism was manifested more in his spiritual direction. He had responsibility for government in the houses and in the religious Provinces. A lack of comprehension within the Order cause him to be imprisoned for almost nine months in the monastery jail of Toledo. This cramped environment without light favored him with an interior introspection which he sang about in his first poems and which were the first beginnings of his future books.

His books reflect the teachings of his spiritual direction and instructions. At the beginning is the poem, almost beyond analysis for its inspiration, its allegory and its symbolism. The analytical commentary follows with liberty, but which can be so inspired for the profound theology and for the astoninshing poetic revelation. Standing out in all his teachings and commentaries is the image of the living Christ. As the foundation and reason for all the asceticism and spirituality he recommends having "an habitual desire to imitate Christ in all your deeds, conforming you self to his life which you must study in order to know how to imitate it" (Asc. BK. I, 13,3)

In the standard classification, which is imperfect since it does not take into account the unity and the profundity of his thought, his books: Ascent of Mount Carmel and the Dark Night are considered ascetical works. Writings of the mystical level are the Spiritual Cantle (also called "Songs that treat of the exercise of love between the soul and Christ the Spouse") and the Living Flame of Love. Other minor writings follow, such as the Cautions, the Sayings of Light and Love and the Letters and various Poems.

Because of his subtle analysis of the human soul with its destiny and tendencies, the written works of St. John of the Cross give rise to interest by Psychology, Mysticism and literature. His own total longing is for union of pure love with God: there the impassable and mysterious divine transcendence leaves a glimmer and at the same time makes it closeness felt to the point of being the same center of the human person. For the serene and captivating tensions of this intimate transcendence his writings are, surely, read today more than ever, inside and outside the Christian faith.

He died in Ubeda, on the night of December 13 towards midnight in 1591. His body rests in Segovia. Beatified on January 25, 1675 and canonized in 1726, two centuries later on August 24, 1926. Pius XI declared him a Doctor of the Church for his teachings in domain of mysticism.

Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face

Cheerfulness and transparency together with an original wisdom and strength are some traits of this young and popular saint of Carmel. Therese Martin was born on January 2, 1873 in Aleócon, France. A few years later the family moved to Lisieux upon the death of the mother when Therese was on four years old.

In April of 1888 she entered the Carmel of Lisieux "only for Jesus." Her two older sisters had already entered there. The Franciscan priest Alexis Prou launched her "full sail on the waves of confidence of love." At eighteen years of age she discovered the fascinating teachings of St. John of the Cross. But above all, her spiritual nourishment was the Word of God, especially the Gospels. The malady of her father around this time was a cause of great moral sufferings.

Always mindful of the missions, the collection of her letters with her two spiritual brothers who were missionaries, Maurice Bullière and Adolphe Roulland, put her in contact with the exceptional dimension of the evangelizing Church. The missionary awareness was strengthened by the knowledge of the possibility that she might be sent to the Carmel in Saigon and Hanoi in Vietnam, a prospect that was never realized due to her illness. From her own interior life and as the assistant to the Novice Mistress she acquired an admirable experience of how Jesus communicates directly to souls. Feeling the attraction of various vocations, charity gave to her the key to her contemplative vocation in the Church: "In the heart of the Church, my Mother, I shall be Love... and thus I shall be everything." (Ms B v3)

The great discovery of her life was that God is merciful love and that He is approached by confidence and simplicity while remaining always in humility and spiritual poverty.

By Easter of 1896 a grave and mortal illness was manifested. At the same time, she entered into a devastating spiritual night which lasted until her death. Learning from her own experience, sshe comprehended the antheists for whom she now felt doubtly a sister. In the infirmary of the convent of her Sister Agnes of Jesus began to write down the words and observations of the sick and dying Therese. These constitute the Last Convfersations. In the afternoon of September 30, 1897 she dies with the words: "My God, I love you."

The Story of a Soul or Autobiographical Manuscripts is the most read religious book after the Bible in the 20th century. It was the origin of numerous religious and priestly vocations and many conversions. Also important are the letters, poems, plays for convent recreations and prayers. Authentic photographs of her are also printed.

She was called the "greatest saint of modern times" by Pope Pius XI considered her "the star of my pontificate,"and he canonized her on May 25, 1925. On Deccember 14, 1927 he proclaimed her the universal patron of the Missions. With the Papal Bull "Divini Amoris Scientia" on October 19, 1997 Pope John Paul II proclaimed her a Doctor of the Church.