Death of St. Teresa of Ávila

Death of St. Teresa of Ávila

St. Teresa of Ávila, a Spanish mystic and religious reformer, died on October 15, 1582. The Roman Catholic Church observes October 15 as her feast day.

Born Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada in Ávila, Spain, on March 28, 1515, she was attracted to the religious life from an early age. When she was seven, she set off with her brother Rodrigo for Moorish territory, where they hoped to be beheaded and thus become martyrs for the faith. Their plans were foiled when an uncle found them on their way out of the city and returned them to their home. Teresa entered the Carmelite convent of the Incarnation in Ávila on November 2, 1535, and was given the name Sister Teresa of Jesus.

Less than two years after receiving the Carmelite habit in 1536, Teresa first became ill, and on August 15, 1539, she fell into a coma so deep that she was feared dead. She revived after four days, but her legs were paralyzed for three years afterward. When Teresa was able to resume her religious life, she began to embrace mysticism. During the hours she spent at private, or mental, prayer, she began to have what she called “intellectual visions and locutions” that she experienced as taking place in her mind rather than in the surrounding environment. Although reports of her visions began to disturb the people of Ávila, she claimed that these experiences strengthened her during difficult times and chastised her for what she considered her lapses of faith.

After receiving a vision of the place she believed had been prepared for her in hell, Teresa decided to become a reformer, attempting to change what she saw as her lax lifestyle and that of her fellow nuns. Although there was nothing particularly scandalous or corrupt about convent life, Teresa felt that neither was there anything particularly religious about it. The convent was in some ways a boarding house with a religious overtone. The nuns could keep their property and material wealth, and they could come and go as they pleased. There were no restrictions on visitors, and the nuns went to their parents or relatives for their daily meals, since the convent itself supplied only bread. Instead of providing a well-ordered routine, the convent life of the time was disorganized and distracting.

Teresa set about her reforms of religious life in order to provide what she saw as the proper atmosphere for spiritual reflection. She advocated keeping the communities small, preferring about 21 nuns to each convent, and accordingly she favored the building of smaller convents rather than retaining the large ones that then accommodated 100 nuns or more. Other factors that she felt to be important were strict poverty, the cloistered life, many hours of daily solitude, and two hours a day of mental prayer in addition to communal prayers. Many of Teresa's reforms were merely a return to the austerities on which the Carmelite order had originally been based.

Teresa founded her first reformed convent on August 24, 1562, at Ávila. She dedicated it to St. Joseph, with whose help and intercession she believed she had partially recovered her health. Teresa went on to establish a total of 17 small religious communities, scattered throughout Spain. She also authored many books, letters, and other writings. Teresa's works earned her the admiration of popes, founders of religious orders, and other scholars and theologians who unofficially bestowed on her the title of Doctor of the Church long before the title was made official in 1970. This title is conferred on ecclesiastical writers who have attained great sanctity and whose writings or teachings have benefitted the whole Catholic Church. Teresa was one of the first two women to earn this honor, the other being St. Catherine of Siena. Some of Teresa's major works include an account of her spiritual experiences, Life (1562–65); The Way of Perfection (c. 1566), instructing her nuns in the technique of prayer; and The Interior Castle (c. 1577), describing the seven stages of mystical prayer. These three books are considered religious classics.

In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII, as part of his reform of the calendar, ordered the elimination of 10 days to rectify calendar errors. According to his plan, October 4, 1582, was to be followed by October 15, 1582. It was during the night of October 4–15, 1582, that Teresa died at Alba de Tormes, where her body was interred. On April 24, 1614, she was beatified by Pope Paul V. Three years after her beatification, the Spanish parliament proclaimed her patroness of Spain, bestowing an honor usually reserved for canonized saints. She became St. Teresa on March 12, 1622, when she was canonized by Pope Gregory XV.

Every year on October 15, Ávila holds an enormous celebration in honor of its famous saint, with religious services, parades, dances, games, feasts, colorful banners, flowers, and various decorations. The city of Ávila is in central Spain, about 65 miles from Madrid. Landmarks associated with St. Teresa include the Convent of the Incarnation and a church built on the site of the house where she was born.