Anamchara • The Website of Unknowing

One of the most colorful and beloved of mystics comes from sixteenth century Spain: Teresa of Jesus, who was born in Ávila in 1515. She lived during a time when Spain was a dominant political and military power in Europe (the Spanish Armada’s defeat did not occur until almost six years after Teresa’s death in 1582), but it was a time of tremendous religious anxiety as the Protestant Reformation transformed the continent (Luther’s 95 Theses were published when Teresa was only two years old). So it was the time of the Spanish inquisition, of persecution particularly against Jews and suspected heretics, and of suspicion against anything that could be viewed as flouting ecclesial authority. It hardly seems a congenial time to be a mystic — and yet, Spain at this time was a virtual petrie dish of contemplative activity, for not only did Teresa thrive during this time, but also Ignatius of Loyola (1495-1556), founder of the Jesuits, and Teresa’s own protegé, John of the Cross (1542-1591).

Part of Teresa’s towering genius lies in the fact that she exerted a profound influence not only on the inner life (as a spiritual director and teacher of prayer, particularly to the nuns in her order) but also as an administrator and monastic reformer. Born of a venerable Spanish family, she entered the Carmelite order in 1535 but for most of her youth led what she later criticized as a spiritually lax life. However, a vivid conversion experience at age 40 propelled her toward a life of devout prayer and devotion to her faith, and further ecstatic and mystical experiences kept the fires of her zeal alive. By 1562 she was chafing against the lukewarm culture of her community and so endeavored to establish a new convent where the sisters would lead a more rigorous and devoted life of prayer. Although she faced opposition within the Carmelite order as well as the church at large, the Convent of St. Joseph was founded in Ávila; it was the first of many convents founded by Teresa over the final twenty years of her life.

Teresa never saw herself as a writer; indeed, she thought writing was a frivolous activity when she could be doing more practical things like spinning wool. But her spiritual directors recognized her spiritual genius and also saw in her a gifted ability to teach others about the life of prayer. They directed her to write, and so she did so, as an act of obedience. Her collected writings fill three large volumes, but three of her works are particularly important to students of the contemplative life: her autobiography and two manuals of instruction, The Way of Perfection and The Interior Castle. All are written in her colorful, conversational style, full of digressions and opinionated pronouncements on various aspects of the cloistered life. Readers in the third millennium could find her work difficult for two reasons: her adamant insistence on complete and unquestioning submission to the authority of the church, and her near-constant self-denigration. I think both of these qualities have to be understood with an appreciation of her context; she lived in a time when failure to obey the church could have truly dire consequences, and when laypersons — particularly women — asserting their own spiritual authority by virtue of their mystical experience would have been met with considerable suspicion. By continually putting herself down and insisting on obedience, Teresa was effectively responding to those pressures proactively.

But the point behind reading Teresa today is not so much about understanding church politics of sixteenth-century Spain as about accessing the majesty of her wisdom as a contemplative. Although her writing is anything but systematic, Teresa provides a remarkably complete overview of the contours of spiritual development, emphasizing virtues such as humility and self-forgetfulness, the necessity of balancing outward religious forms (such as reciting memorized prayers like the Our Father) with inner heartfelt devotion, and perhaps most important of all, a clear understanding that the life of prayer involves growth and maturity, and that the more advanced forms of prayer require increasing willingness to let God take the lead in the deepening of the prayer experience. Teresa recognizes that prayer is about relationship, and that we are never alone, nor “in charge” when we pray.

Although Teresa struggled with opposition to her monastic reforms during her lifetime, recognition from the church followed after her death: she was canonized a saint of the Catholic Church in 1622 (a mere forty years after her death) and in 1970 Pope Paul VI declared her a “Doctor of the Church,” meaning that her writings are considered exemplary in their sanctity and exposition of Christian theology. Teresa is one of only three women to receive this honor.

This statue of Teresa, by the seventeenth century Baroque sculptor Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini, is found in the Vatican. The above image of Teresa in stained glass is found at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, Macon, GA, USA.