There are two St. Teresa’s in the Calendar of the Catholic Church. Both were Carmelite nuns, both are canonized saints, and Doctors of the Church, as well as both have feast days in October.

One was born in Spain; the other was born in France. Their official names are St. Teresa of Jesus, and St. Teresa of the Child Jesus.

Ste. Thérèse of Lisieux died at the age of 24, seven years after St. Teresa’s Academy was founded. She was very popular in the Universal Church, especially during the middle of the 20^th Century. In one of her many letters, she wrote, “I will spend my Heaven doing good upon Earth… [and] let fall from Heaven a shower of roses.”

Consequently, she is popularly known as “The Little Flower.”

These two St. Teresa’s make for some confusion. One day, in the late 1930s, one of the students of St. Teresa’s Academy, Eileen Coughlin – later Smith, asked one of the Holy Cross Sisters, “Which Teresa is our school named after?” The Sister answered, “The Big One.” It is the Big One whose feast day we celebrate today.

Teresa de Ahumada y Cepeda was born in Ávila, Spain, 500 years ago in 1515. She was one of nine siblings. Her family was wealthy and respected. However, Teresa never mentioned her ancestry. We do know that her grandfather was a Jewish convert to Catholicism. This always brought Teresa under the suspicions of the powerful Spanish Inquisition, who never believed her family to be genuine Christians. Teresa, however, did not care.  She knew very well that she was a Catholic.

As a young girl, she was very happy and pious. However, she liked fine clothes, jewelry, and perfumes. Later in her life, she deeply regretted the frivolity of her childhood.

When Teresa was 13 years old, her mother died. Her father then sent her to a convent. The only other choice for girls in those days was to get married, even at the age of 13.

At the age of 21, thinking the convent she was in was too permissive, she joined a stricter Order, called the Carmelites. She would spend the rest of her life reforming this Order, along with her friend and confessor St. John of the Cross.

Because of her intense devotions, including long hours of prayer, severe fasts, and intense opposition to her reforms, her health was never very good. She died at the age of 67.

On many occasions St. Teresa experienced ecstasies, which mystics describe as the sacred entering into everyday life. She found these experiences annoying and embarrassing. She would often fall to the ground and remain frozen in position for hours, unable to speak. Most times, however, she talked simply and directly to God.

One of her more famous sayings was “From silly devotions and sour-faced saints, dear Lord deliver us.”

She was famous for her sense of humor. Once when she was traveling to another monastery on her donkey, she fell into the mud and injured her leg. “Lord”, she said, “you could not have picked a worse time for this to happen. Why did you let this happen?”

The response she heard was, “This is how I treat my friends.”

Teresa replied, “If this is how your treat your friends, no wonder you don’t have very many of them.”

Her many writings are difficult to understand. Since few of us go beyond the surface mechanics of prayers, our spiritual lives remain on a superficial level.

There are, however, thousands of people all over the world who do have a balance of prayer and activity and in a real sense keep this world from completely falling apart.

In an age when nuns, because they were women, Teresa was expected to behave in a submissive manner. Teresa ignored those expectations. Because of her ability to function in a male-dominated Church, she has become something of an icon for women in the Church of today.

Teresa, like St. John of the Cross, wrote many poems that are difficult to understand. But one in particular is quite easy to appreciate and most helpful, especially in our times.

“Nada te turne, nada te epante, todo se pasa. Dios no se muda, la paciencia todo alcanza; quien a Dios tiene nada le falta: sólo Dios basta.”

“Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you. Everything passes, God never changes. With patience, everything is achieved. Whoever has God lacks nothing. God alone is enough.”

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