Teresa the Great

Yesterday, October 15, was the feast day of Teresa of Avila (1515-1582). This most famous and revered Spanish saint — proclaimed “doctor of the Church” by Pope Paul VI in 1970 — brings up for me very contradictory feelings.

In some ways, she is recognized as the epitome of that intimist and unengaged spirituality which is in direct contradiction with the Vatican II surge of vitality in which I grew up. The famous marble statue by Bernini — from around 1650 — which depicts her ecstasies has attracted the interest of psychoanalysts resulting in the perception that her repressed sexuality is in fact the origin and explanation of her experience of the divine. On top of that, her prose — I tried to read her many times — has never looked to me perspicuous or even interesting.

But I dug deeper. A contemporary Carmelite nun — the same Order which Teresa vigorously reformed — says this: Teresa of Avila had that mysterious quality the Spanish call “duende” which is characteristic of gypsies, flamenco guitarists, and dancers. “Duende” is raw, primitive, tempestuous energy, a vulnerability to inspiration boiling in the blood.* Wait! What?

My deeper digging made me realize that I was misled and wrong. Teresa, like many other women mystics, designed a life path away from humilation and guilt toward wholeness and stability. She did it within conditions that most of us today would see as very limiting, but she did it with a vigour that we would do well to imitate. 

She claimed her divine soul. She could have easily be condemned by the Inquisition, as she had contacts with some alumbrados and their writings. One is alumbrado — which means enlightened —  when God is in direct contact with one’s soul, without intermediaries.

The village of Piedrahita, near Avila, had been home to Maria de Santo Domingo (1485-1524) who was accused to be a fake mystic, though she eventually was discharged and became a Dominican prioress. Much farther away, in the Italian city of Genova, Caterina Fieschi (1447-1510) experienced God’s visitations in ways that are very similar, quite in detail, to Maria’s and Teresa’s.

Teresa was not alone. These women experienced the ecstasy of love without the intervention of any men. And they proclaimed that not their minds alone, but their bodies were the place where God was visiting them, filling them with pleasure and eventually with a transcendent calm which, in turn, enabled them to live a fully active life of service and companionship. 

Teresa’s most famous work — being in itself remarkable that a woman in her time and age would write and publish notes of her personal experience — is titled The Interior Castle. In it, she treats the soul as a diamond palace with many hidden rooms to be discovered, and life as a journey of exploration and deeper intimacy with the divine. She questions at the very beginning of her book why don’t we recognize the beauty of such a castle. 

Mistakes are present along this journey, as well as feelings of desolation and abandonment, but they don’t prevail. In Teresa’s time, the notion of original sin was a way to control people’s consciences, the power-over of the ecclesiastical hierarchy was identified with God’s will, and reputable women lived locked inside a house or a convent. 

She played a quite different tune, travelling extensively through Spain and becoming — besides her other accomplishments — the only woman in the history of the Catholic Church to reform an order of men, the Discalced Carmelites. 

Duende makes us ready to be devoured in the heroic struggle for individuation and genuine freedom. Devoured by the love of God which consumes any residual ego. There is little to pity about Teresa’s life and much to admire.

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*Tessa Bielecki, Foreword to Teresa of Avila: The Book of My Life, translated by Mirabai Starr (Shambala, 2007).

See Matthew Fox: Christian Mystics: 365 Readings and Meditations

See also Fox, A New Reformation: Creation Spirituality & The Transformation of Christianity

And Fox, Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen

And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth

Banner image: ‘Saint Teresa of Ávila’ – the face of ecstasy. By Tamara de Lempick. Found at Museo Soumaya, Mexico. Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons.

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Queries for Contemplation

How often to you look at your soul as a diamond? And how can you reconcile this notion with that of utter lack of ego?

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Related Readings by Matthew Fox

Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations

As Matthew Fox notes, when an aging Albert Einstein was asked if he had any regrets, he replied, “I wish I had read more of the mystics earlier in my life.” The 365 writings in Christian Mystics represent a wide-ranging sampling of these readings for modern-day seekers of all faiths — or no faith. The visionaries quoted range from Julian of Norwich to Martin Luther King, Jr., from Thomas Merton to Dorothee Soelle and Thomas Berry.
“Our world is in crisis, and we need road maps that can ground us in wisdom, inspire us to action, and help us gather our talents in service of compassion and justice. This revolutionary book does just that. Matthew Fox takes some of the most profound spiritual teachings of the West and translates them into practical daily mediations. Study and practice these teachings. Take what’s in this book and teach it to the youth because the new generation cannot afford to suffer the spirit and ethical illiteracy of the past.” — Adam Bucko, spiritual activist and co-founder of the Reciprocity Foundation for Homeless Youth.

A New Reformation: Creation Spirituality & The Transformation of Christianity

A modern-day theologian’s call for the radical transformation of Christianity that will allow us to move once again from the hollow trappings of organized religion to genuine spirituality. A New Reformation echoes the Reformation initiated by Martin Luther in 1517 and offers a new vision of Christianity that values the Earth, honors the feminine, and respects science and deep ecumenism.
“This is a deep and forceful book….With prophetic insight, Matthew Fox reveals what has corrupted religion in the West and the therapy for its healing.” ~Bruce Chilton, author of Rabbi Jesus: An Intimate Biography

Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen

An introduction to the life and work of Hildegard of Bingen, Illuminations reveals the life and teachings of one of the greatest female artists and intellectuals of the Western Mystical Tradition.  At the age of 42, she began to have visions; these were captured as 36 illuminations–24 of which are recorded in this book along with her commentaries on them.
“If one person deserves credit for the great Hildegard renaissance in our time, it is Matthew Fox.”  – Dr Mary Ford-Grabowsky, author of Sacred Voices.

Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth

Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.
“I am reading Liberating Gifts for the People of the Earth by Matt Fox.  He is one that fills my heart and mind for new life in spite of so much that is violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.