St. Teresa of Ávila: Feast Day, Patronage & Prayers
Feast day: October 15 (Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church)
Patron of: Spain, those in religious life, and people suffering from headaches.
About St. Teresa of Ávila
St. Teresa of Jesus was born in Ávila, Spain, in 1515. As a child she set out with her brother to seek martyrdom among the Moors, and as a young woman she entered the Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation in Ávila. For nearly twenty years her prayer life was lukewarm and divided, until, before an image of the wounded Christ, she experienced a deep conversion. From then on she grew rapidly in prayer and received extraordinary graces.
Teresa longed for a more faithful Carmelite life, and in 1562 she founded the small, poor Convent of St. Joseph in Ávila, the first house of the Discalced Carmelites. Despite illness, opposition, and constant travel over rough Spanish roads, she founded some seventeen convents and, with St. John of the Cross, began the reform of the friars. Her writings, including her Life, The Way of Perfection, and The Interior Castle, are classics of prayer, full of humor and common sense. She died in 1582, was canonized in 1622, and in 1970 became one of the first women named a Doctor of the Church. Her bookmark prayer begins, "Let nothing disturb thee."
Prayers to St. Teresa of Ávila on Daily Catholic Prayers
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