Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) was a Spanish Carmelite nun, writer, mystic, and reformer.
Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) was a Spanish Carmelite nun, writer, mystic, and reformer.
In honor of the spookiest month, we’re revisiting our favorite Womanica episodes featuring villains, troublemakers, magic, and mystery all October. Join host Jenny Kaplan — with a few special introductions — as she takes you back in time, highlighting women like Sadie the Goat, Marie Laveau, Patricia Krenwinkel and more who were ruthless, vengeful, and mystical. The riveting stories of these women are sure to keep you up at night.
History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.
Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Ale Tejeda, Sara Schleede, and Alex Jhamb Burns. Special thanks to Shira Atkins.
Original theme music composed by Miles Moran.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Alesandra Tejeda, and I'm a junior producer here at WMN, which means I write and produce episodes for Womanica. I’m so excited to be introducing this “best of” episode of Womanica.
This episode was originally part of our October 2019 theme, “Witches and Saints.”
Today we’re traveling back to 16th century Spain to talk about one of the great mystics of the Roman Catholic Church. She founded a religious movement, started convents, and contributed to the literary canon of Christian mysticism.
I really liked this episode because it is a tiny window into a time period we don’t often hear about on this show. It also delves into the life of a woman whose experience is so different from mine. It’s incredible to see that enduring legacy in the studies in all that she left behind.
Now here’s host Jenny Kaplan to talk about Saint Teresa of Avila.
Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada was born in 1515 in Avila, Spain. Her father, a wool merchant who bought a knighthood, was one of the wealthiest men in the city. Teresa’s mother was a devout Christian who emphasized the importance of her faith to her young daughter. She died when Teresa was eleven.
Around 1535, after finishing her schooling, Teresa joined the local Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation against her father’s wishes. He was a strictly devout and austere man who was not impressed with an Order known for being fairly liberal in its devotional practices.
After entering the convent, Teresa began an intense study of works on contemplative prayer written mostly by medieval mystics. She was especially interested in the spiritual inner contemplation known as mental prayer. She believed that was integral to spiritual life.
During this period, Teresa became seriously ill and spent nearly three years as an invalid. She had become somewhat of a local celebrity by that point and her confinement caused significant worry throughout the community. While ill, Teresa maintained intense practical study of mental prayer and self-reflection.
In 1555, Teresa underwent a spiritual awakening and began having ecstatic religious experiences. In 1559, she reported that Jesus had come to her in bodily form, but invisible. In another ecstatic vision made famous by Bernini’s sculpture the Ecstasy of St. Teresa, she claimed to have experienced an angel repeatedly driving a fiery spear into her heart, causing incredible physical and spiritual pain. Teresa wrote down nearly everything that happened to her during her adult life so these many episodes were meticulously documented. They are fascinating today for students of theology and modern medicine.
Teresa’s visions coupled with her brilliant mind and strong knowledge of and interest in Christian mysticism soon made her a well-known figure far beyond Avila. With her star on the rise, and vexed by what she saw in her own convent, Teresa decided it was time to restore the Carmelite Order to its original focus on austerity and a strictly contemplative life. Over the prior two centuries, the Carmelites, like many orders, had become more spiritually lax and disinterested in austerity. In the vein of the Counter-Reformation occurring throughout Europe, Teresa found this highly problematic. She decided to take action and founded the “reformed” Carmelite movement.
In 1562, with the Pope’s authorization, Teresa opened the first convent of the Carmelite Reform. Nuns there withdrew completely from the world to focus exclusively on prayer and divine law, as well as complete austerity and a total reliance on charity for survival.
In 1567, the head of the entire Carmelite Order travelled from Rome to Avila to visit Teresa and officially approved her reforms. He then directed her to found more convents and also to establish monasteries. Teresa recruited a young Carmelite priest to start the Carmelite Reform for men. Later known as St. John of the Cross, this young priest would become a famous mystic and poet in his own right.
Though Teresa was almost always in ill health, she spent the rest of her life establishing and nurturing 16 more convents throughout Spain. A schism in the Carmelite Order sidelined Teresa for a bit, but her great admirer King Phillip II of Spain advocated for a solution in the Reform movement’s favor, and soon she was again travelling hundreds of miles on journeys to found new convents and check in on her established ones.
Perhaps her greatest gift to posterity is her writings. These include her autobiography, “The Life of Teresa of Jesus”, and her seminal works, “The Interior Castle” and “The Way of Perfection.” These, along with with a number of her other writings, poems, and letters form a vital part of the literary canon of Christian mysticism. They are also considered classics of Spanish Renaissance literature.
Teresa died on October 4, 1582 while travelling to Burgos. She was canonized 40 years later by Pope Gregory XV. In 1970, Pope Paul VI named Teresa the first female Doctor of the Church in recognition of her centuries-long spiritual legacy to Catholicism.
We’re taking a break for the weekend, but join us again on Monday for another of our favorite episodes featuring villainy, magic, and mystery.
Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator.
Talk to you Monday!