St. Theresa of Ávila (October 15th)

 

Of the many saints and feasts days remembered this week:

Oct. 14th -- Saint Callistus I, Pope and Martyr

Oct. 15th -- Saint Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

Oct. 16th -- Saint Hedwig, Religious; 

Oct. 16th -- Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, Virgin

Oct. 17th -- Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr

Oct. 18th -- Saint Luke, Evangelist

Oct. 19th -- Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests and Companions, Martyrs

I’ve chosen to devote my reflection on St. Teresa of Jesus (aka St. Teresa of Avila).

Now St. Theresa of Avila (b. 1515 - d. 1582) has truly been a beloved saint in the Catholic Church.  Cloistered nun though she was, she’s been remembered as a powerful, hugely respected reformer within her Carmelite religious order, and beyond, especially within women’s religious communities of her time.  She was a prolific writer for her time.  Her works including Interior Castle, The Way of Perfection as well as her Autobiography have been considered at pinnacle of Catholic spiritual writing of the time, and indeed any time.  It is little wonder that in 1970 the future St. Pope Paul VI, declared her a Doctor of the Church, who along with St. Catherine of Siena were first women to be recognized by the Holy See as such.

So writing a reflection about her, even a short one, or perhaps especially a short one, is quite a challenge!  Yet, I do have a particular interest in my blog – I try to discern both how the future saint was a product of their time, and then how that saint’s experience could offer some assistance to us today.

And St. Theresa of Avila was certainly a product of her time.  She was born as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda Dávila y Ahumada on March 28, 1515, in either the city of Avila itself or the town of Gotarrendura in Avila Province in central Spain a little more than twenty years following the completion of the 700 year Christian “Reconquista” project in Spain. 

At the end of the Reconquista, all Muslim and Jewish residents of Spain had to either convert to Catholicism or were expelled from the country.  St. Theresa of Avila’s paternal grandfather Juan Sánchez de Toledo was Jewish and had to convert.   Her father, Alonso Sánchez de Cepeda, who was a successful wool merchant, used his money to buy a (Christian) knighthood and never looked back.  While in recent decades there has been a fair amount of scholarship devoted to possible Jewish influence in the future St. Theresa of Avila’s spirituality, it’s really hard to discern it, as she writes so much about the soul and the spiritual life, that it’s hard to see a connection between it and any Jewish influence.

So why make mention of this aspect of St. Theresa of Avila’s life?  Well, even absence leaves its mark.  To continue living in post-Reconquista Spain, the future St. Theresa of Avila’s father’s family had to walk away from its past.  Saint though she became, this hole in her past left a necessary diminishment – arguably a mark of crucifixion – in her life / legacy.

This is not to say that her life was not full.  It certainly was.  Again one thinks of her writings, of her mystical ecstasies (one of which became the subject of one of the most fascinating sculptures ever made – Bernini’s Ecstacy of St. Teresa, in which he made cold, hard rock “fluffy” like a cloud), even her mentorship of future saints like the future, also Carelite, spiritual giant  St. John of Cross (younger than she, he did serve as her confessor for a while, she his mentor.  Those who work in HIspanic ministry, would understand the two-way relationship well – he was her padrecito, both an authority and a pupil).  

There is so much that one could further write.  But perhaps it’s best here to invite readers to look her up on your own and read.  Definitely worth the time!