A Message from Father Nathan

My dearest people who are all close to my heart!

Lots of love, blessings, and prayers to you all.

Saint Teresa of Avila

(born March 28, 1515)

October 15

This week we are going to celebrate the Feast of Saint Teresa of Avila. 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. After a 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 of Avila. Her father, however, was opposed, and Teresa fled home. Accepted by the nuns, she made her profession on November 3, 1537.

Visions and Ecstasies

The most mysterious and interesting parts of Saint Teresa of Avila’s life are her visions and ecstasies. In her autobiography (written on the order of the bishop), and in other texts and letters, Teresa describes the various stages of divine, visual and auditory manifestations.

She is seen levitating, falling into disarray, and laying still as death ( as Bernini depicts her around 1650, in the statue in the church of Our Lady of Victory in Rome).

“Ecstasy of Saint Teresa,” 1647–1652, Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome. (Public Domain)

Great Spiritual Growth

These events correspond to a great spiritual growth, which Teresa, who had a natural gift for the literary, would pour into her mystical texts, which are among the clearest, most powerful poetics ever written.

Her intense spirituality did not always meet with understanding. Some of her confessors would even consider her a victim of demonic illusions. She was supported by the Jesuit, St. Francis Borgia, and the Franciscan friar, St. Pietor d’Alcantara, who dissipated the doubts of her accusers.

In the end, Teresa would have the best of it: with the birth of the reformed Order of Carmelites and the Discalced Carmelites.

Teresa’s most famous work is certainly the Interior Castle, the soul’s journey in search of God through seven particular steps of elevation, alongside her Way of Perfection, and the Book of Her Foundations, as well as numerous maxims, poems, and prayers.

Tireless despite her constant health struggles, Saint Teresa of Avila died in Alba de Tormes in 1582, during one of her journeys.

“O my Lord, and my spouse, the desired hour is now come,” she stated. “The hour is at last come, wherein I shall pass out of this exile, and my soul shall enjoy in thy company what it hath so earnestly longed for.”

She was canonized on March 22, 1622, along with three of her greatest contemporaries: St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Francis Xavier, and St. Philip Neri.

In 1970, Pope St. Paul VI proclaimed St. Teresa as one of the first two woman Doctors of the Church, along with 14th-century Dominican St. Catherine of Siena.

God bless you all.

With lots of love and blessing.

Ever wanting to be faithful to your service.

—Fr. Sahayanathan Nathan