Teresa de Ahumada was born at Ávila in 1515 and in 1535 entered the Carmelite convent of the Incarnation there. For nearly twenty years she struggled in prayer, often ill and divided between God and the world, until in 1554 an image of the wounded Christ moved her to a decisive conversion. She began to receive graces in prayer that she later described with great frankness, and spiritual guides such as Peter of Alcántara reassured her that they came from God.
In 1562 she founded the small convent of St Joseph at Ávila, the first house of the reformed, or Discalced, Carmelites, who lived in poverty, enclosure and prayer. Despite fierce opposition she founded some sixteen more convents across Castile and Andalusia and, with John of the Cross, brought the reform to the friars. Along the way she wrote her Life, The Way of Perfection, The Foundations and, in 1577, The Interior Castle.
Teresa of Ávila in the library (6 works)
- Libro de la vida — c. 1565; edición de Vicente de la Fuente · en español
La autobiografía espiritual de santa Teresa de Ávila: su conversión, su vida de oración y las gracias que recibió, escrita por obediencia a sus confesores. - Las moradas (Castillo interior) — 1577; edición de c. 1912 · en español
La obra maestra de santa Teresa: el alma como un castillo de siete moradas, por las que se avanza en la oración hacia la unión con Dios. - Camino de perfección — 1566; edición de 1915 · en español
El libro que santa Teresa escribió para sus monjas de San José de Ávila: la oración, la humildad, el desasimiento y el comentario al Padrenuestro. - Libro de las fundaciones — 1573–1582; edición de 1915 · en español
La historia, contada por ella misma, de los conventos de carmelitas descalzas que santa Teresa fundó por toda Castilla y Andalucía. - The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus — c. 1565; translation 1870, 1904 edition
Teresa's own account of her life, her years of struggle in prayer and the graces God gave her, written at her confessors' command. - The Interior Castle — 1577; translation 1921 edition
Teresa's masterpiece: the soul as a castle of seven mansions, through which prayer leads to union with God.