Famous Renaissance Figures
By Room 108
Early Life:
Her full name is Teresa Sanchez de Cepeda y Ahumada; she was born in Gotarrnendura in the province of Avila, Spain. She was the daughter of a Toledo Merchant and his second wife. Her parental godfather Juan de Toledo was a” Murrano”, which means that he was Jewish, and then converted into a Christian. Her mother was determined to raise her as a pious Christian. She was fascinated by the lives of saints and ran away with her brother at the age seven to find martyrdom among the Moors. They were stopped at the walls of the city by their uncle.
When she was 14 her mother had passed away. After that traumatic incident, she made The Virgin Mary her spiritual mother. That may have been a good resolution, but she also had enjoyed reading fictional books of the time which mainly consisted of tales about knights, and tales from the Middle Ages. After her mother's death, she was entrusted to the care of the Augustinian nuns. She later on read the words of St. Jerome she devoted her life to a religious life. She spent several years in the convent, punctuated by a severe illness that left her legs paralyzed for 3 years
Teresa de Avila
By: Alina and Nabeeha
Accomplishments:
Teresa had many great achievements in her life; she went around reforming the world around her. There are many things that stood out in what she did. In 1562 she opened a new monastery in Avila, a place for prayer and peace, which got lots of opposition from the town around her. Afterwards, she was given permission to travel all around Spain to establish seventeen houses of Carmelites of the strict observance.
Teresa had a simple life of faith and giving. The books she had written can portray this. Let’s talk about her most famous book, “The interior castle”. In The interior Castle, she has to explain gods’ intimacy with her, but instead writes it in an analogy using a castle as she explained the depths of intimacy with god. She explained that the human spirit is created through a lifetime of dedication to pray and to contemplate.
What worldview describes the Reneissance?
Knowledge, for Teresa knowledge only came from the wisest. It came from the ones most sincere to god and the ones who have lived long enough to do so. During the renaissance, religion really affected knowledge. Sometimes the way the people thought about the world had a more logical meaning than they thought it did. Yet, people looked up to the wisest people in religion more than the logical way because their hearts are still obedient to god.
Interview:
:Sources
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Du Boulay, Shirley (2004). Teresa of Avila: An Extraordinary Life. Katonah, New York: BlueBridge.ISBN 0-974-24052-4; ISBN 978-0-97424-052-7.
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Williams, Rowan (2004). Teresa of Avila. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.ISBN 978-0-8264-7341-7.
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Bielecki, Tessa; tr. by Mirabai Starr (2008). Teresa of Avila: The Book of My Life. Boston, Massachusetts: Shambhala Publications. ISBN 978-1-59030-573-7.
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This article was originally based on the text in the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge.
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Obras completas. Edición manual, edited by Efrén de la Madre de Dios and Otger Steggink, Madrid: Catolica, 1997.
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The Complete Works of Saint Teresa of Jesus. Trans. E. Allison Peers. 3 vols. London: Sheed, 1946. Rpt. s The Complete Works of St. Teresa of Avila. London: Continuum, 2002.
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The Collected Works. trans. Keiran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodríguez, 3 vols. Washington: Inst. of Carmelite Studies, 1976-87.
Analyzation:
This book she had written played an important part in society around Teresa. The Interior Castle was an important book to the people around her with a Christian faith. It was an important guide too many as well. It taught many about spiritual development, and prayer using a metaphorical “castle.” In the castle contained seven mansions, which were the seven stages, at the end was union with god. It impacted what was around her, because through this book the Christian faith was enhanced in a way, and people themselves could learn more. This could be seen as knowledge for the worldview around Teresa.
Today we will be talking about the great Teresa of Ávila, who is also called Saint Teresa of Jesus, baptized as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada, was a prominent Spanish mystic, a Roman Catholic saint, a Carmelite nun, and the author of the Counter Reformation and theologian of contemplative life through mental prayer. She was a reformer of the Carmelite Order. You will learn more about her throughout this webpage.