Saint Teresa of Ávila summary

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Saint Teresa of Ávila, orig. Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada, (born March 28, 1515, Ávila, Spain—died Oct. 4, 1582, Alba de Tormes; canonized 1622; feast day October 15), Spanish Carmelite nun, mystic, and saint. After entering a convent around the age of 20, she fell seriously ill. She underwent a religious awakening in 1555 and, despite her frail health, initiated the Carmelite Reform, leading the order’s return to its original austere practices, including poverty and seclusion from the world. Against some opposition, she opened new convents (the first in 1562) under the reformed order throughout Spain. St. John of the Cross joined her in her efforts, establishing reformed Carmelite monasteries. Her doctrines have been accepted as the classical exposition of the contemplative life, and her spiritual writings are still widely read today, among them The Interior Castle (1588). In 1970 she became the first woman elevated to the position of Doctor of the Church.

Christianity Summary

Christianity, major religion stemming from the life, teachings, and death of Jesus of Nazareth (the Christ, or the Anointed One of God) in the 1st century ce. It has become the largest of the world’s religions and, geographically, the most widely diffused of all faiths. It has a constituency of

saint Summary

Saint, holy person, believed to have a special relationship to the sacred as well as moral perfection or exceptional teaching abilities. The phenomenon is widespread in the religions of the world, both ancient and contemporary. Various types of religious personages have been recognized as saints,

mysticism Summary

Mysticism, the practice of religious ecstasies (religious experiences during alternate states of consciousness), together with whatever ideologies, ethics, rites, myths, legends, and magic may be related to them. The term mystic is derived from the Greek noun mystes, which originally designated an