LYCOS RETRIEVER 
St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582): Catholic Church
built 236 days ago
Particularly representative of the spirit of the Counter Reformation is St. Teresa of Avila. In her childhood she was horrified at the Protestant Reformation. As she grew older, she became convinced that it was a judgement of God on the laxity of the Church, especially among the religious orders, and she therefore decided to do what she oculd to strengthen their discipline. For this purpose, though opposed by powerful ecclesiastical and political forces, she founded and administered the order of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns of the Primitive Rule of St. Joseph. In spite of the rigors of the Carmelite rule, she found many followers eager to
Source:
Teresa joined a Carmelite convent near Avila but, over time, she grew dissatisfied with the spirituality she found there. During the study of devotional books, she began to experience visions of Jesus. According to her reports, she entered into a "spiritual" marriage with him and, as a result, was encouraged to reform of the Carmelite order. In addition to causing them to become more strict, she even founded an additional, male Carmelite order - this made her the only woman to ever found a religious order for men in the Catholic Church.
Source:
St. Teresa of Avila is one of the greatest teachers of the spiritual life in the history of the church. She wrote four major books about prayer and left three volumes of letters.
Source:
Archbishop Périer recognized that Mother Teresa was in the lineage of her patron saints, the “Little Flower,” St. Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897), and the great mystic and doctor of the Church, St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582). They too experienced the dark night, in which God seemed more absent than present. For Mother Teresa, that darkness was the dominant character of her spiritual life.
Source:
Taken together, St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross have given the Church a spiritual doctrine that has never been surpassed. So great was their influence and so brilliant their exposition that they have far outshone all the other writers of the golden age of Spanish spirituality.
Source:
In this book William Thomas Walsh's chief sources have been St. Teresa's own letters, her treatises, her Life, The Way of Perfection, depositions of witnesses for her beatification and canonization, and the work of her contemporary biographers, especially Ribera and Yepes. Likely no hagiographer has ever had such command of the historical background of a saint. For altogether, William Thomas Walsh has presented her another masterpiece and what is undoubtedly the finest life of St. Teresa of Avila ever written in English- a picture of one of the greatest saints of the Church and one of the most appealing women of all time.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Catholic Church