St Teresa of Avila was one of the most significant women of 16th century Spain and the most influential figure in the whole order of Carmel. Nun, mystic, foundress-reformer, writer of spiritual classics and beautiful Spanish prose, canonised saint and first woman Doctor of the Church.
Teresa had many gifts of nature and grace, a rich and complex character. She was beautiful, charming, intelligent, determined and with a magnetic personality. Passionate and humorous, she had an outstanding gift for friendship, a real way with people. As a young child she was very pious. As she grew into adolescence, however, she became rather frivolous and vain. Her desire for holiness warred against her need to be popular with her many friends: this conflict persisted for years until God stepped in. One day Teresa walked past a statue of the Suffering Christ and, in a moment of profound grace, was transformed. As a result of this experience Teresa began praying in earnest and thus developed a strong sense of the abiding presence of God. Teresa gradually became the integrated, single-minded woman Carmelites would call ‘Holy Mother’. Her capacity for friendship became the core of her teaching on prayer, “Prayer for me was to be on terms of intimate friendship with God.”