Feast 15 October
Carmelite reformer. Doctor of the Church. The Interior Castle.
Sacred art
The portrait kept with St. Teresa of Ávila is the image this library has of Teresa. The honour goes to the person, and through the person to God. It is not a machine, and it is not a substitute for the life written below.
Died 1582. A woman who argued with priests, founded convents, and wrote the map of prayer the West still uses.
If it belongs to Teresa, it is here, with a door back into the story.
Basilica of Bom Jesus, Old GoaDied 1552; body in Goa
The Jesuit missionary dies on Shangchuan Island. Lime is poured in the coffin to speed decay for a later transfer. Months later the body is found fresh. It has lain in Goa for centuries, reduced by relic-taking, still exposed on feast days.
ÁvilaReform from 1562; died 1582
Carmelite reformer, Doctor of the Church, whose Interior Castle maps prayer, and whose friends saw her lifted from the ground against her embarrassment. She told them to hold her down.
Florence, Discalced CarmelDied 1770; found intact
A Florentine Carmelite who died at twenty-two. The body remained flexible and incorrupt, the face beautiful in death, and has been shown in the Carmel of Florence.
Knock, County Mayo1879
On a wet evening, fifteen villagers see Mary, St. Joseph, St. John the Evangelist, and a Lamb on an altar against the parish gable. No word is spoken. The rain does not touch the vision.
