The Great Teresa, of Jewish descent, was born this day, 500 years ago. From
Nobility:
The third child of Don Alonso Sanchez de Cepeda by his second wife, Doña
Beatriz Davila y Ahumada, who died when the saint was in her fourteenth
year, Teresa was brought up by her saintly father, a lover of serious
books, and a tender and pious mother. After her death and the marriage
of her eldest sister, Teresa was sent for her education to the
Augustinian nuns at Avila, but owing to illness she left at the end of
eighteen months, and for some years remained with her father and
occasionally with other relatives, notably an uncle who made her
acquainted with the Letters of St. Jerome, which determined her to adopt
the religious life, not so much through any attraction towards it, as
through a desire of choosing the safest course. Unable to obtain her
father’s consent she left his house unknown to him on Nov., 1535, to
enter the Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation at Avila, which then
counted 140 nuns. The wrench from her family caused her a pain which she
ever afterwards compared to that of death. However, her father at once
yielded and Teresa took the habit. (Read more.)
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