St. Teresa of Avila

October 15 is the feast day of St. Teresa of Avila, who also happens to be my patron saint and the confirmation name I chose at the Easter Vigil in 2001 when I was baptized & confirmed.  The latter is a story for another day, but I continue to be inspired by the story of Teresa, one of the early rebels of the Church.


Living in 16th-century Spain, Teresa was a Carmelite nun who enacted radical reforms within the Carmelite movement and opened numerous new convents and monasteries under a law of absolute poverty when she thought the monastics had become too lax in their practices.  She was often plagued by illness during her life, which she in turn used to commune further with God through deeper and deeper levels of meditation to the point of ecstatic experiences with God and visions from Jesus himself.  As you might imagine, her speaking out of these visions was suppressed by superiors as too radical and even diabolical rather than divine.  Posthumously however, she was declared one of the few female Doctors of the Church, and canonized as a saint.


One of the gifts of participating in RCIA as a young adult was the ability to choose a saint whom I was especially inspired by or identified with as my patron and name.  Teresa's unwillingness to stand down simply because of her gender or the unpopularity of her visions spoke to me as one who often disagrees with Church dogma, even in the 21st rather than 16th centuries.  I'm continually motivated by her deep faith and courage to speak out to the establishment despite her role.  May we all be so motivated!

Let nothing disturb you.
Let nothing make you afraid.
All things are passing.
God alone never changes.
Patience gains all things.
If you have God you will want for nothing.
God alone suffices.

-Prayer of St. Teresa