Teresa of Avila

by Michael Shackleton · June 7, 2005

Few saints were more human than Teresa of Avila. Few saints were more closely intimate with God than she was.

Described by the papal nuncio of her time as “a restless, gad-about, disobedient and contumacious woman who invented wicked doctrines and called them devotion”, Teresa seemed to spend her life either attracting or repelling her fellow Christians. Her attraction, however, far outweighed her reputation among her critics, although not at once.

She was born in 1515, just four years before Martin Luther’s break with Rome. In the 67 years of her life, Europe was rocked by the Reformation, an air of suspicion hung over Catholic Spain as the rigours of the Inquisition stifled its soul and the Council of Trent’s decisions began to be implemented.

In these times of Catholicism’s counter-reform agenda, Teresa’s efforts to reform the Carmelite Order were sure to have an uphill struggle.

Shirley du Boulay provides a really readable narrative. She describes Teresa’s strong emotions and a tendency to vacillate between bossiness and humility. This is a very personal glimpse of her fiery personality and her embarrassment about her frequent mystical raptures and visions, which she had to conceal from inquisitorial attention.

What I liked was the author’s way of striding through the story without pausing to theorise or explain apparently miraculous occurrences or Teresa’s conviction that God spoke to her, and her determination to do what he told her.

Teresa joined the Second Order Carmelites in 1536 at their convent of the Incarnation. After a number of years there she became disappointed with the nuns’ lifestyle, which failed to live up to the primitive Rule of the Order, which was said to have continuity with the hermits who had lived on Mount Carmel from the time of the prophet Elijah.

In 1432 this Rule had been mitigated. The nuns still observed their religious exercises, but they could wear jewellery, were lax in their daily spiritual duties and could go out more or less when they liked. The place was much too comfortable for Teresa who was searching for a more contemplative regime. Although she was not unhappy in the convent of the Incarnation, she yearned for a return to the observance of the Primitive Rule.

Du Boulay’s descriptions and selections of telling extracts from Teresa’s prolific writings carry the story forward successfully, especially in Teresa’s enthralling imagery in explaining the soul’s progress towards its Maker and her descriptions of mystical experiences. Teresa was declared a doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI in 1970, the first woman to receive this honour.

Teresa’s determination to carry on with the reform, to found convents of nuns (she founded 16 altogether for women and men) following the Carmelites Primitive Rule of the Discalced (unshod) instead of the Mitigated Rule of the Calced (shod), her skirmishes with authority, her forthright appeals to King Philip II, her frightful hardships and her ultimate victory and death are masterfully told. The narrator makes Teresa’s life a fascinating cliff-hanger.

I think the reader will find that by shunning any pious reflections or morals to be drawn, Shirley du Boulay has vividly presented Teresa as truly a saint and truly a woman who walked at once with God and her own weak humanity.