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  • Published: 1 January 1964
  • ISBN: 9780140440737
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 320
  • RRP: $30.00
Categories:

The Life of St Teresa of Avila by Herself



One of the most influential - and best loved - spiritual autobiographies

Born in the Castilian town of Ávila in 1515, Teresa entered the Carmelite convent of the Incarnation when she was twenty-one. Tormented by illness, doubts and self-recrimination, she gradually came to recognize the power of prayer and contemplation - her spiritual enlightenment was intensified by many visions and mystical experiences, including the piercing of her heart by a spear of divine love. She went on to found seventeen Carmelite monasteries throughout Spain. Teresa always denied her own saintliness, however, saying in a letter: 'There is no suggestion of that nonsense about my supposed sanctity.' This frank account is one of the great stories of a religious life and a literary masterpiece - after Don Quixote, it is Spain's most widely read prose classic.

  • Published: 1 January 1964
  • ISBN: 9780140440737
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 320
  • RRP: $30.00
Categories:

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About the authors

Teresa Of Avila

TERESA OF ÁVILA (1515-82), also called St. Teresa of Jesus, was a Spanish nun and one of the great mystics and religious women of the Roman Catholic Church. She was the leader of the Carmelite Reform, which restored and emphasized the austerity and contemplative character of this religious order. Canonized in 1622, she was elevated to Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI in 1970, the first woman to be so honored. E. ALLISON PEERS is the translator of many great works of Spanish verse and mysticism.