Teresa of Ávila: Nun, Mystic, Theologian

Teresa of Ávila (feast day, 15 October)

Born on 28 March 1515, Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada would become one of the most well-known and revered of early-modern religious figures: she was beatified in 1614, some thirty years after her death, and canonized just a few years later, on 12 March 1622. On 27 September 1970, Pope Paul VI named her as a Doctor of the Church.* 

Teresa of Ávila, age sixty-one,

a copy of a portrait painted from life in 1576

Although she was the pious daughter of pious parents, the young Teresa was also drawn to romantic tales of knightly adventure, the pleasures of spending time with her friends, and caring for her appearance.

But after the death of her mother, when Teresa was fifteen, and then of her eldest sister, she was sent to an Augustinian convent. She spent eighteen months there, but as a result of an illness, she returned home.

She eventually decided to return to a religious life--as the safest kind of life--and joined the Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation in Ávila on 2 November 1535. 

Once again she suffered a severe illness (probably malaria), but she also began experiencing a series of ecstatic visions, the most famous of which she would later describe in her Autobiography:

I saw in [an angel's] hand a long spear of gold, and at the point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it.

Like many of the religious women we've encountered this year, Teresa found life in the convent not rigorous enough. In addition to her role as a visionary, she became a reformer, founding a new, more rigorous Carmelite rule, one focused on absolute poverty, self-flagellation, and rigid asceticism. The Discalced (or shoeless) Carmelite Nuns of the Primitive Rule of St. Joseph was founded in Ávila in 1562. 

Then the visionary and reformer became a builder: traveling throughout Spain, she established convents in Medina del Campo (1567), Malagon and Valladolid (1568), Toledo and Pastrana (1569), Salamanca (1570), Alba de Tormes (1571), Segovia (1574), Veas and Seville (1575), and Caravaca (1576). She describes this frenetic activity--as well as the opposition she encountered everywhere--in her Book of Foundations.

In addition to her autobiography, El Libro de su vida (Life Written by Herself), completed before 1567, Teresa wrote a series of works for the women who wished to live a religious life. El camino de perfección (The Way of Perfection), written about 1566, was intended to show her readers the way to achieve their spiritual goals.

Her most well-known work, El castillo interior or Las moradas (The Interior Castle or The Mansions) was probably completed between 1577 and 1580--in this work, she instructs her readers in contemplative prayer, leading them through stages of an interior exploration. Libro de las Fundaciones (The Book of Foundations), begun in 1573 and completed in 1582, was written as a history of the order and of its growing number of established institutions. She also composed poems and prayers. More than 400 letters, whole and fragmentary, survive.

Teresa died at the age of sixty-seven on 4 October 1582 in Salamanca.

You can access all of her works online--you might start with what's available at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library by clicking here.

While Teresa does tell the story of her own life in her autobiography, for a good scholarly introduction to the woman and her work, neither a hagiographical view or a romanticized one, I recommend Cathleen Medwick's Teresa of Avila: The Progress of a Soul.

*She was recognized along with Catherine of Siena, the two becoming the first two women to be named as Doctors of the Church. Thérèse of Lisieux, recognized in 1997, and Hildegard of Bingen, in 2012, are the only two other women so identified.

Thérèse of Lisieux, the "Little Flower of Jesus"

Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin (feast day, 3 October)

On 2 July 1873, Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin was born in Alençon, France, the daughter of two devout parents. Her father, Louis Martin, was a skilled watchmaker, her mother, Zelie Guerin, a successful lacemaker in a region known for its point d' Alençon. Before they married, both of Marie-Françoise-Thérèse's parents had sought a religious life, but both had been discouraged.

Thérèse of Lisieux, 1896

Married in 1858, Louis and Zelie Martin produced nine children over the course of the next fifteen years, but within three years, between 1867 and 1870, four of their small children had died. A final baby, Marie-Françoise-Thérèse, was born in 1873. Unfortunately, Zelie Martin died just four years later, in August 1877.

In 1882, when Marie-Françoise-Thérèse was eight years old, her sister Pauline (born in 1861) entered the Carmelite convent of Lisieux, followed in 1886 by the eldest sister, Marie (born in 1860); Léonie (born in 1863), joined a community of Poor Clares in the same year (since the rigors of the Poor Clares proved too much for her, in 1887 Léonie joined an order of Visitation sisters at a monastery in Caen; she would leave briefly, but from 1893 she was a permanent member of the Visitation order). In 1894, the fourth Martin sister, Céline joined her sisters at the Carmelite convent of Lisieux.

Although Marie-Françoise-Thérèse had first sought to join the convent in Lisieux when she was only nine, she experienced what she later regarded as a conversion on Christmas in 1886. By 1887, she again approached the sisters at the Carmelite convent, asking for entrance, and again was refused. But later in the year, she traveled with her father to Rome; there, in a general audience with Pope Leo XIII, on 20 November 1887, she approached the pope, kneeled at his feet, and asked him directly for permission to enter the convent at Carmel. Although he blessed Marie-Françoise-Thérèse, his answer was that she had to follow the advice of the convent superiors--but, he added, "You will enter if it is God's will."

On New Year's Day of 1888, having returned to Lisieux, Marie-Françoise-Thérèse was informed by the prioress of the Lisieux convent that she would be allowed to enter. She joined the community on 9 April 1888. She remained in the convent until her death, at the age of twenty-four, on 30 September 1897.

Thérèse of Lisieux's spiritual memoir, L'histoire d'une âme (The Story of a Soul), exists in three parts: the first, written between 1895 and 1896 and dedicated to her sister Pauline, recounts her childhood memories; the second, in the form of a letter written to her elder sister, Marie, was composed in September of 1896 and preserves her spiritual discovery, the "little way of love and trust"; the third, addressed to the prioress of the convent and written in 1897, focuses on her life as a nun. The autobiography was first published on 30 September 1898, on the anniversary of Thérèse of Lisieux's death.

Thérèse of Lisieux was beatified on 29 April 1923 and canonized on 17 May 1925. On 19 October 1997, Pope John Paul II declared her a Doctor of the Church, one of only four women (the others are Teresa of Ávila, founder of the Discalced Carmelites, the order to which Thérèse belonged and Catherine of Siena, both made Doctors of the Church in 1970, and Hildegard of Bingen, named as Doctor of the Church in 2012).  

Her feast day was established as 3 October (it was later moved, in 1969, to 1 October.)

Thérèse of Lisieux's parents were beatified in 1994, and there is some effort now underway to canonize them. 

For an excellent introduction to Thérèse of Lisieux's life and thought, the Society of the Little Flower website offers ample information. 

Hildegard of Bingen: "A Feather on the Breath of God"

Hildegard of Bingen (canonized 10 May 2012)

More than 800 years after her death, on 10 May 2012, the incomparable Hildegard of Bingen was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI. Five months later, on 7 October 2012, she was named as a Doctor of the Church, one of thirty-five to have been awarded that title, but only the fourth woman to have gained that recognition.*

Hildegard receiving one of her visions,
from a manuscript of Scivias
(Rupertsberg Codes, 

Hildegard of Bingen was a remarkable woman in one of the most remarkable periods of western European history, a period of social and political change and of the flourishing of art and architecture, science, theology, philosophy, and education. 

Born in 1098 to a wealthy family of minor nobility, Hildegard was placed under the care of Jutta von Sponheim at the Benedictine monastery of Disibodenberg.

The circumstances of her placement with Jutta are widely discussed--Hildegard may have been the tenth child, and thus offered as a kind of "tithe" by her parents; she may have been placed with Jutta, the daughter of an influential count, as a political maneuver by her parents; she may have been placed in the convent because of the visions that had begun to manifest themselves when she was very young.

The age at which she joined Jutta is also unclear--Hildegard would later say that she was placed with Jutta when she was eight, though she may have been older, perhaps twelve or fourteen. 

As her spiritual director, Jutta provided Hildegard with a rudimentary education--she taught her how to read and write, play music, pray and meditate. (Jutta was, like her young charge, a visionary.)

But Hildegard would later say that she had been instructed by an "unlearned woman" (indocta mulier)--whatever the extent of Hildegard’s theological and philosophical insights, her intellectual achievements, and her artistic and political accomplishments, they came to Hildegard directly from God. Or so she claimed.

And whatever their source, her theological insights, intellectual achievements, and artistic and political accomplishments were manifold. 

Her theology was conveyed in three comprehensive visionary works: Scivias (Know the Ways), composed between 1142 and 1151; the Liber vitae meritorum (The Book of Life's Merits), composed between 1158 and 1163; and the Liber divinorum operum (The Book of the Divine Works), composed between 1163 and 1173. About the revelations in her visions, Hildegard asserts that she was commanded to write them by God--she describes herself as being a mere "feather on the breath of God." Manuscripts of these visionary works are vividly illustrated, and their programs of illustration may well have been designed by Hildegard herself. 

Shorter theological treatises include her Solutiones triginta octo quaestionum (Answers to Thirty-Eight Questions), Explanatio regulae Sancti Benedicti (Explanation of the Rule of St. Benedict), and Explanatio symboli sancti Anthanasii (Explanation of the Symbol of St. Athanasius)

Centuries before Leonardo's Vetruvian Man
is Hildegard's "universal man,"
from The Book of  Divine Works
(13th century manuscript, 
Biblioteca Statale, Lucca)

In addition to her theological books and treatises, she wrote two scientific works, probably between 1151 and 1158, the Liber simplicis medicinae (Book of Simple Medicine), and the Causae et Curae (Causes and Cures).

She also composed two saints lives, the Vita Sancti Disibodi (Life of Saint Disibod), written about 1170, and the Vita Sancti Ruperti (Life of Saint Rupert), probably written between about 1173.

She invented an alphabet and a language, recorded in her Litterae ignotae (Unknown Writing) and Lingua ignota (Unknown Language).

In addition, she composed a cycle of liturgical songs, Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum (Symphony of the Harmony of Celestial Revelations), for which she wrote both the music and the lyrics, and the Ordo virtutum (Order of the virtues), an allegorical drama filled with more musical compositions. Both were written in the 1150s. 

Her political accomplishments are equally impressive. She negotiated with religious authorities as she became, first, the head of her convent and, then, as she broke away from the community at Disibodenberg and built monasteries at Rupertsberg and then Eibingen. Hildegard wrote to Pope Eugene III and Pope Anastasius IV, she wrote to the French Abbot Suger and to the influential theologian and reformer Bernard of Clairvaux, she wrote to the Emperor Frederick I, to Henry II of England, to Eleanor of Aquitaine. She argued, she heckled, she offered unsolicited advice. She also wrote to relatives, and she wrote to strangers who addressed her, offering them prayers, encouragement, and consolation. More than three hundred of her letters survive

She undertook four separate preaching tours of Germany between 1158 and 1173, speaking publicly to clerical audiences as well as to groups of lay men and women.

Hildegard of Bingen died at the age of eighty-one on 17 September 1179. 

There is so much out there about Hildegard that it is difficult to know where to begin--I suggest just browsing at your favorite online book site. I will also provide a link to the International Society of Hildegard von Bingen Studies--where you'll find many resources. You can read some of her letters at Epistolae: Medieval Women's Latin Letters. Here's a link to Hildegard's place setting in Judy Chicago's multi-media installation, The Dinner Party. And you may want to listen to an excellent podcast on Hildegard of Bingen, from the BBC's In Our Time.

Finally, a couple of personal notes. Several years ago, in a course on medieval women writers, a student just about hopped out of her seat one day when we turned our attention to Hildegard of Bingen. As I passed out a big, fat handout, filled with various selections of Hildegard's texts, my student grew more and more excited. When she finally stuck her hand up in the air, she said that a long-forgotten memory had just emerged--she recalled being a kid, the daughter of a G.I. stationed in Germany, and her mom had dragged her along on some kind of pilgrimage. My student had just realized that her mom had taken her to Eibingen Abbey. She made a quick trip home that weekend, after our class discussion, and returned the next week with all the brochures her mom had picked up and the photos she had taken on that trip. Her mom was thrilled.

And now, another note: back when Borders was still a place you could go to buy books and music, I had a sudden craving for some music by Big Mama Thornton, so I found myself one day on the second-floor music department at my local Borders. Sure, there was a section for Big Mama Thornton, but it was absolutely empty. However, when I looked a little further, I found three entire rows full of different CDs of Hildegard's music . . . So there you go. Nothing from an American rhythm-and-blues singer born in 1926, but dozens of recordings of music composed by a woman born in 1098. Go figure. (By the way, here's a link to Big Mama Thornton's 1952 recording of "Hound Dog." Entirely inappropriate here, of course, but . . . Think of it as a bonus for reading this long post.) 

Update, 19 July 2025: For a wonderful piece on Hildegard of Bingen's music, here is Jennifer Lucy Allan's "'The Perfect Accompaniment to Life': Why is a 12h-Century Nun the Hottest Name in Experimental Music?" (from The Guardian). 

Update, 10 April 2026: A great new piece on Bib Mama Thornton is in today’s Guardian. To read Garth Cartwright’s “‘The Biggest, Baddest, Saltiest Chick You Would Ever See’: Why No One Sang the Blues Like Big Mama Thornton,” click here.

*The other three are Catherine of Siena and Teresa of Ávila, both named Doctors of the Church in 1970, and St. Thérèse of Lisieux, in 1997. 

Catherine of Siena, Doctor of the Church

Catherine of Siena (died 29 April 1380)

Catherine of Siena,
Chapel of Catherine of Siena,
Basilica San Domenico

One of the most active and acclaimed women in Christianity, Catherine di Benincasa was born in the Tuscan city of Siena in 1347, during the midst of the plague. Her father was a tradesman, a cloth dyer, while her mother, Lapa Piagenti, may have been the daughter of a local poet.

As one of twenty-five children, Catherine was described by her first biographer as both a delightful, merry child and one who experienced visions that would transform her life. By the age of five, six, or seven (accounts vary), she had decided to devote herself to a life of perpetual virginity and to give her life to God.

Although her parents wished her to live a more "normal" life for a girl of her class--they wanted her to marry--by age sixteen Catherine was allowed to join the third order of the Dominicans (for a discussion of tertiary orders, click here).

Throughout her short life (she died at the age of thirty-three), Catherine of Siena continued to experience visions, including a "mystical espousal" (the infant Jesus offers her a wedding band) and a vision of hell, purgatory, and heaven.

She left the cell in which she had, at first, isolated herself in order to devote herself to caring for the sick and the poor; she eventually undertook a more public role, advocating clerical reform, urging the return of the papacy to Rome, and taking up her pen to write a series of letters to a wide range of men and women, from kings to poor, troubled souls who wrote to her with their questions and requests for help. 

Catherine of Siena is a complex, sometimes off-putting character. Despite pleas for peace in Europe, she called for a new crusade to the Holy Land. She practiced extremes of self-denial and penance--her refusal to eat led to her early death, for example, and she was disappointed that she escaped assassination during the Ciompi riots in Florence in 1377 because she was denied martyrdom. She "received" the stigmata, and she is said to have levitated. She practiced flagellation, endured extended periods of ecstatic rigidity, put sticks in her throat to make herself throw up, and drank the puss of her patients' sores.

She also wrote: over 400 letters, a treatise, The Dialogue of Divine Providence, and a group of prayers composed during the final year of her life. 

The sarcophagus of Catherine of Siena,
Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome

Catherine of Siena was buried in Rome, where she died--today you can see her remains in a remarkable tomb in Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome. Her head and thumb, however, were removed to Siena, to the Basilica San Domenico. She was canonized on 19 June 1461.

In 1970, Catherine of Siena was declared one of the Doctors of the Church--by that date, some thirty men had been recognized as significant theologians by the Catholic Church, but in 1970, two women were added to that number, Catherine of Siena and Theresa of Ávila, (Saint Thérèse of Lisieux was named a Doctor of the Church in 1997, Hildegard of Bingen in 2012.)

Relics of Catherine of Siena,
Basilica San Domenico, Siena

All of her letters are available online in an English translation (you can access them by clicking here or here). They are also available in print, of course, in numerous editions, as is her Dialogue. Editions of the first biography of Catherine of Siena, written by Raymond of Capua, are also widely available. (Capua was her spiritual director--he completed his life of Catherine in the mid-1380s.)

Some of the most interesting work on Catherine of Siena analyzes the meaning of her extreme physical deprivation. Jennifer Egan's 1999 essay, "Power Suffering," is a good place to start. I also recommend Rudolph Bell's 1985 Holy Anorexia and Caroline Walker Bynum's 1988 classic, Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women.