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Teresa Sanchez Cepeda Davila y Ahumada, was born at Avila, Old Castile on 28th. March, 1515; the third child of Don Alonso Sanchez de Cepeda by his second wife, Doña Beatriz Davila y Ahumada. Teresa was brought up by her book-loving father and tender, pious mother. Teresa was only 13 years old when her mother died, and after her death and the marriage of her eldest sister, Teresa's father sent her to be educated by the Augustinian nuns at Avila. Unfortunately she became ill after just eighteen months, so she returned home, and for some years remained with her father, occasionally staying with other relatives. One of these relatives, an uncle, introduced her to the Letters of St. Jerome. Having read these letters she became determined to adopt the religious life, not because she felt that it was particularly attractive but through a desire of choosing the safest course. Her father, however, was not in favour of this and would not give his consent to this, so, in November 1535, she left his house unknown to him and entered the Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation at Avila which had 140 nuns. Her father, realising that her mind was made up, at once relented and gave his consent, and Teresa took the habit. The following year she again became very seriously ill, and Her recovery was not helped by the unskilled medical treatment that she received, so that she was reduced to a most pitiful state. Even after partial recovery through the intercession of St. Joseph, her health remained permanently impaired. In 1555, after many years marked by serious illness and increasingly rigorous religious exercises, she experienced a profound awakening involving visions of Jesus Christ, hell, angels and demons. At times she felt sharp pains that she claimed were caused by the tip of an angel's lance piercing her heart. She was disappointed by the slack discipline into which the Carmelites had relapsed, and she determined to devote herself to the reform of the order. But it wasn't until 1562 that, with papal intervention on her behalf, she overcame the bitter opposition of her immediate superiors and succeeded in founding at Avila the Convent of Discalced Carmelite Nuns of the Primitive Rule of St. Joseph, the first community of reformed, or Discalced, Carmelite nuns, although it was another six months before she obtained permission to take up her residence there. She enforced strict observance of the original, severe Carmelite rules at the convent, and her reforms won the sanction and approval of the head of the order. Four years later she was visited by the General of the Carmelites, John-Baptist Rubedo, who not only approved of what she had done but granted leave for the foundation of other religious houses for friars as well as nuns. Teresa organized the new branch of the old order with the aid of St. John of the Cross, the Spanish mystic and Doctor of the Church. Although she was harassed at every step by powerful and hostile church officials, she helped to establish 16 foundations for women and 14 for men, though it was not until the 22nd. June, 1580 that the Discalced Carmelites finally received papal recognition as an independent monastic body. Teresa then set out on a journey around her newly founded religious houses, reaching Alba de Tormes in September. Here, old and broken in health, she took to her bed, never to leave it alive. She died on the 4th. October. It so happened that it was in this year that the calendar was reformed by removing ten days - the 5th to the 14th. of October. And so the day following her death became the 15th. October.
After some years her body was taken to Avila, but later on transferred to Alba, where it is still preserved incorrupt. Her heart, showing marks supposed to be caused by the tip of the angel's lance, is exposed there to the veneration of the faithful. She was beatified in 1614, and canonized in 1622 by Gregory XV, her feast being fixed on 15th. October. BILL HUTCHINGS |
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page last updated 12 OCTOBER 2002 |
