St. Teresa of Avila, also known as St. Teresa of Jesus, was born in Spain to a large, devout, and prominent Catholic family. Fascinated with the lives of the saints taught to her by her pious parents, as children she and a brother tried to run away from home to seek martyrdom among the Moors. After an uncle found them and returned them home, they built hermitages for themselves in the family garden. At the age of 14 Teresa was plunged into sorrow upon the death of her mother; to find consolation she asked the Virgin Mary to be her new mother. When she began to exhibit worldly vanities, her father placed her in a convent to be educated with other ladies of her social class. Determined to avoid marriage, and motivated more by the need for security than love for God, at the age of twenty Teresa entered religious life as a Carmelite nun. For two decades she led what she describes as a mediocre prayer life, hindered by too much socialization with visitors. However, an intense prayer experience in her forties helped her to renounce worldly attachments and enter deeper into a life of prayer. She advanced rapidly and taught others to do the same, being encouraged by a vision of the place reserved for her in hell if she was unfaithful to God’s graces. She had many profound mystical experiences for which she was often slandered and ridiculed. After the reform of her own life she worked hard to reform the laxity of many Carmelite convents, and was successful even while being greatly opposed in her efforts. She was a strong and important female figure of her era, and her great progress in the spiritual life led her to write the spiritual classics Interior Castle and The Way of Perfection. For these works St. Teresa of Avila was named the first female Doctor of the Church. Her feast day is October 15th.

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