Early Life & Escapades
As a child, she convinced her brother to run away with her to this country to seek martyrdom from the Moors.
What is Spain?
Teresa founded this reformed branch of the Carmelite Order, known for going without shoes.
What are the Discalced Carmelites?
Written under obedience to her confessor, this autobiography is her most famous and widely read book.
What is The Life of Teresa of Jesus?
Bernini famously sculpted her in this state, where an angel pierces her heart with a golden arrow.
What is the Ecstasy (or Transverberation)?
"Let nothing disturb you; let nothing frighten you. All things are passing; this entity never changes."
What is God?
Fascinated by romance novels and knights, she loved reading these popular historical fiction books in her youth.
What are chivalric romances?
Because her nuns traveled light and built simple homes, they were given this mobile, wheeled nickname.
What are the "gadabout" nuns?
This masterpiece uses a crystal castle with seven rooms as a metaphor for the soul's journey to God.
What is The Interior Castle?
To her deep embarrassment, she occasionally experienced this physical phenomenon during prayer.
What is levitation?
Saint Teresa noted that "there are more tears shed over these than over unanswered ones."
What are answered prayers?
At age 16, her father sent her to an Augustinian convent school because she had become too much of this type of teenager.
What is a flirt (or socialite)?
St. Teresa teamed up with this younger Spanish mystic, a male saint who helped reform the friars.
Who is Saint John of the Cross?
St. Teresa wrote this instructional book to guide her sisters through the depths of prayer and community life.
What is The Way of Perfection?
Because of her intense visions, this fearsome church tribunal investigated her multiple times for heresy.
What is the Spanish Inquisition?
She famously warned to "just deliver me from these kinds of saints" who lack joy.
What are sour-faced (or sad) saints?
She was born in 1515 in this walled, medieval Spanish city.
What is Avila?
Despite intense opposition and political drama, St. Teresa successfully founded this many convents during her life.
What is 17?
She is famous for this short, comforting poem that begins with the lines: "Let nothing disturb you, nothing affright you."
What is Teresa's Bookmark?
She famously prayed, "From silly devotions and sour-faced saints, good Lord, deliver us," showing her love for this trait.
What is good humor (or joy)?
"If it is a matter of doing penance, this physical entity is the instrument."
What is the body?
Though she was raised Catholic, her paternal grandfather was a converso, meaning he had converted from another religion.
What is Judaism?
The traditional Carmelites were so angry with her reforms that they once placed her under this type of house arrest.
What is monastic confinement?
Unlike many academic theologians of her time, Teresa wrote her books using this everyday, casual language.
What is vernacular Spanish (or colloquial prose)?
When her carriage broke down in the mud, she complained to God, who told her that's how He treats friends. She replied, "No wonder you have so few of".
What is "them"?
"To have courage for whatever comes in life—everything lies in this single action."
What is prayer?