Teresa of Ávila

Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582) was a Spanish Carmelite nun, mystic and reformer of the Counter-Reformation. At seven she ran away to seek martyrdom among the Moors. In 1534 she entered the Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation; her zeal for mortification made her ill, and she spent almost a year in bed.

Raptures and visions followed; in the best known, a seraph drives a golden lance through her heart, a scene Bernini later carved in Rome. She founded the convent of Saint Joseph in Ávila in 1562 and won papal approval for absolute poverty. With John of the Cross she opened the first Discalced friary at Duruelo in 1568.

In 1580 a papal decree separated the Discalced Carmelites. She wrote The Interior Castle, whose seven mansions mark the soul's progress. She died in October 1582, was canonised in 1622, and in 1970 became the first woman Doctor of the Church.