Teresa of Ávila

Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada was born in Ávila in 1515 and entered the Carmelite convent of the Incarnation there around 1535. For nearly twenty years she struggled in prayer, until a conversion in front of an image of the wounded Christ in 1554 marked the beginning of a life of deep prayer, visions and raptures, which drew both admiration and suspicion.

In 1562 she founded the convent of St Joseph in Ávila, the first house of the Discalced Carmelite reform, dedicated to a stricter, simpler life of prayer. Over the next twenty years she founded sixteen more convents across Spain, often against great opposition, and enlisted the young friar John of the Cross in a parallel reform of the friars. She died at Alba de Tormes in 1582.

Her writings include her Life, The Way of Perfection, The Book of Foundations and The Interior Castle (1577). Written at the order of her confessors, in a lively, conversational Spanish, they are among the classics of Spanish literature. She was canonized in 1622 and in 1970 became the first woman declared a Doctor of the Church.