Teresa entered the Carmelite convent in Ávila when she was a teenager, and lived quietly until she was in her late thirties, when she began to have profound mystical experiences — visions and voices in which Christ chastised her for her worldly concerns. She responded with great energy, eventually traveling throughout Spain to form reformed convents, writing hundreds of letters seeking support for her plans, and writing a number of works. The following selection is from The Life, a long spiritual autobiography in which Teresa describes many of her visions.

It pleased the Lord that I should sometimes see the following vision. I would see beside me, on my left hand, an angel in bodily form…. In his hands I saw a long golden spear and at the end of the iron tip I seemed to see a point of fire. With this he seemed to pierce my heart several times so that it penetrated to my entrails. When he drew it out, I thought he was drawing them out with it and he left me completely afire with a great love of God….

One night, when I was so unwell that I meant to excuse myself from mental prayer, I took a rosary, so as to occupy myself in vocal prayer…. I had been in that condition only a very short time when there came to me a spiritual impulse of such vehemence that resistance to it was impossible. I thought I was being carried up to Heaven: the first persons I saw there were my father and mother….

With the great progress of time, the Lord continued to show me further great secrets: sometimes He does so still. The soul may wish to see more than is pictured to it, but there is no way in which it may do so, nor is it possible that it should; and so I never on any occasion saw more than the Lord was pleased to show me. What I saw was so great that the smallest part of it was sufficient to leave my soul amazed and to do it so much good that it esteemed and considered all the things of this life as of little worth….

Once, when I had been for more than an hour in this state, and the Lord had shown me wonderful things, and it seemed as if He were not going to leave me, He said to me: “See, daughter, what those who are against Me lose: do not fail to tell them of it.” Ah, my Lord, how little will my words profit those who are blinded by their own actions unless Thy Majesty gives them light! …

The soul that feels like this has great dominion over itself — so great that I do not know if it can be understood by anyone who does not possess it, for it is a real, natural detachment, achieved without labour of our own. It is all effected by God, for, when His Majesty reveals these truths, they are so deeply impressed upon our souls as to show us clearly that we could not in so short a time acquire them ourselves.

Source: The Complete Works of St. Teresa of Jesus, vol. 1, ed. and trans. E. Allison Peers (London: Sheed & Ward, 1972), pp. 192–193, 267–268, 269. Used by permission of Sheed & Ward.

EVALUATE THE EVIDENCE