Teresa of Ávila
Spanish Carmelite nun who founded the reformed convent of St Joseph at Ávila in 1562 and further houses of nuns and friars afterwards. She wrote the Life, the Foundations and the Interior Castle.
Teresa was a nun of the Carmelite convent at Ávila. In her own account she came to want a stricter life than her house offered, and, after what she describes as a command from the Lord, worked to found a small convent that would keep the order’s rule without its later relaxations (Teresa, Life 32.11–14). St Joseph’s was founded on St Bartholomew’s Day 1562, for no more than thirteen nuns living on alms (Teresa, Life 36.4, 27–31).
By 1573, when her confessor told her to write their history, seven more convents had been founded (Teresa, Foundations prologue 2 (p. 2)), and the general of the Carmelites had allowed her to begin houses of friars under the same rule (Teresa, Foundations 2.4–6 (pp. 16–17)). She wrote the Interior Castle in 1577, between Toledo and Ávila, for the nuns of these houses (Teresa, Interior Castle preface and epilogue). In its preface she submits her writings to the judgment of the learned men who had commanded them and declares herself faithful to the Roman Catholic Church (Teresa, Interior Castle preface and epilogue). See Teresa of Ávila Reforms Carmel.
In the timeline
- 24 August 1562, firm dateTeresa of Ávila Reforms Carmel
In 1562 the Carmelite nun Teresa founds the small, enclosed and unendowed convent of St Joseph at Ávila to keep her order’s rule in its early strictness. More houses follow, friars join the reform, among them John of the Cross, and both leave writings on prayer.