Santa teresa de jesus biography discipleship

St. Theresa of Jesus, Virgin, Doctor of the Church, discalced Carmelite  (Joachim Schäfer - Ökumenisches Heiligenlexikon)

From novels to hard reality

The daughter of a Jewish convert and his second wife, Saint Teresa of Avila, was born on March 28, 1515.

She had a happy childhood with her brothers and cousins, and was fascinated by novels that told tales of chivalry. After the death of her elder brother, John, in 1524 and the loss of her mother, Beatrice, the young woman was sent to study at the Augustinian Monastery of Our Lady of Grace, where she was struck by a first existential crisis.

Santa teresa de jesus biografia

After serious illness, she returned to her father’s home, and witnessed the departure of her beloved brother Rodrigo for the Spanish colonies overseas. In 1536, she was hit by the so-called “great crisis” and came to the firm decision to enter the Carmelite monastery of the Incarnation at Avila.

Her father, however, wa