(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
St. Teresa of Avila describes prayer in its sublimity as “an intimate
friendship, a frequent conversation held alone with the Beloved.” St.
Teresa of Ávila was a 16th-century Spanish mystic. Teresa of Ávila was
born in 1515 in the kingdom of Castile in Spain. She was the youngest
child in her family and born into a noble family. When she was seven
years old, Teresa fled from her home with one of her young brothers, in
the hope of going to Africa and receiving the palm of martyrdom. When
brought back she said; “I want to see God, and I must die before I can
see Him.” She then began, with her same brother, Rodriguez, to build a
hermitage in the garden, and was often heard repeating, “Forever,
forever!” Teresa lost her mother at the age of twelve years. Her father
placed her in a boarding convent. The Sisters encouraged her to enter
the Carmelite monastery of the Incarnation at Avila.
From reading about her life we learn that at the age of thirty-one, she
gave herself to God. Teresa experienced a vision that showed her the
very place in hell to which her very minor faults would take her. She
was told by Our Lord that all her conversation must be with heaven.
This was unsettling for Teresa and she lived in distrust of her vision.
Nonetheless, she was named Prioress at the monastery of the
Incarnation. She had a calming influence on even the most hostile
hearts and placed a statue of Our Lady in the seat she would ordinarily
have occupied, to preside over the Community.
The Superior General gave Teresa her full permission to found as many
houses as might be practical. She founded seventeen convents for the
Sisters. Fifteen others for the Fathers of the Reform were established
with the aid of her friend Saint John of the Cross. Journeying in those
days was perilous, but nothing could stop Teresa from accomplishing the
holy Will of God. When the cart she was traveling in was overturned one
day and she had a broken leg, she is reported to have said, “Dear Lord,
if this is how You treat Your friends, it is no wonder You have so
few!” She died October 4, 1582, and was canonized in 1622.
After nine months in a wooden coffin her body was perfectly preserved
though the clothing had rotted. A fine perfume spread throughout the
entire monastery of the nuns as they changed her clothing. Parts of the
body were used as relics, including the heart and her left arm. At the
last exhumation in 1914, the body was found to remain in the same
condition as when it was seen previously, still recognizable and very
fragrant with the same intense perfume. This is a sign of a very divine
human being.