Saint Teresa was born in 1515 near Ávila, Spain, partly of Jewish descent, and grew up in a large, upper middle-class family. When her mother died in 1528, she became a boarder in a convent school in Ávila and in 1536 entered the Carmelites there. After some years of mediocre living in the convent, she was favored with a spiritual conversion and received excellent guidance from her uncle and from Dominican and Jesuit priests. In 1562 she founded the first of her reformed convents, Saint Joseph at Ávila. She spent the next 20 years of her life in this reform movement, which included the Carmelite Friars with the help of Saint John of the Cross. Her spiritual writings, especially The Interior Castle, and her autobiography won for her the title of Doctor of the Church in 1970. (MTR) Music from Soundcloud.com and Photo from Photo by Hu Chen on Unsplash
