Note: For the next several weeks, I’m featuring women with a connection to the Americas.
The Basics: Born July 13, 1900, in Chile; died April 12, 1920, in Chile; canonized March 21, 1993, by John Paul II; feast day, July 13; woman religious, mystic.
The Story: Chile’s first saint, born into a wealthy family, was regarded as somewhat of a willful child.
That said, it appears the farmers she met on her grandfather’s estate near Santiago and the 1906 Santiago earthquake that left nearly 4,000 people dead had strong influences on her. The girl, boarded at a school run by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart as a teenager, then became a Discalced Carmelite shortly before her nineteenth birthday and was given the name Teresa of the Andes. Teresa had long kept a diary, and her superior encouraged her to keep up the practice along with a letter-writing ministry.
Teresa, who had always been sickly, had been in the carmel just ten months when in March 1920 she told her confessor she would only live another month. It turned out she had contracted typhus. She went into a severe decline on Good Friday, and died less than two weeks later.
Teresa’s Wisdom: “Who can make me happier than God? In him I find everything.”
What We Can Learn from Teresa: Teresa may not have been well educated in the traditional sense, but her readings of Therese of Lisieux, Teresa of Avila, and Elizabeth of the Trinity helped her develop a spirituality that rings true and resonates today. Stop making excuses or apologies for what you may regard as gaps in your formation, and ask your pastor or spiritual adviser to recommend his or her favorite reading materials.
To Learn More About Teresa: Visit the beginnings of the web site for the Sanctuary of St. Teresa de Los Andes in Auco, Chile, where the saint is buried, or gain more insights into her life at a site maintained by a brother in the Community of St. John.
To Learn More About Other Women Saints and Blesseds: Come back next week, or consider buying my books, Blessed Are You: Finding Inspiration from Our Sisters in Faith or Sisterhood of Saints: Daily Guidance and Inspiration.
