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Teresa of Ávila, also called Saint Teresa of Jesus, baptized as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada (28 March 15154 October 1582), was a prominent Spanish mystic, Roman Catholic saint, Carmelite nun, author during the Counter Reformation, and theologian of contemplative life through mental prayer. She was a reformer of the Carmelite Order and is considered to be a founder of the Discalced Carmelites along with John of the Cross. In 1622, forty years after her death, she was canonized by Pope Gregory XV, and on 27 September 1970 was named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI.〔 ()〕 Her books, which include her autobiography (''The Life of Teresa of Jesus'') and her seminal work ''El Castillo Interior'' (trans.: ''The Interior Castle''), are an integral part of Spanish Renaissance literature as well as Christian mysticism and Christian meditation practices. She also wrote ''Camino de Perfección'' (trans.: ''The Way of Perfection''). After her death, Saint Teresa's cult was known in Spain during the 1620s, and for a time she was considered a candidate to become a national patron saint. A Santero image of the Our Lady of the Conception, said to have been sent with one of her brothers to Nicaragua by the saint, is now venerated as the country's national patroness at the Shrine of El Viejo.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Inmaculada del Viejo )〕 Pious Catholic beliefs also associate Saint Teresa with the esteemed religious image called Infant Jesus of Prague with claims of former ownership and devotion. ==Early life== Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada was born in 1515 in Gotarrendura, in the province of Ávila, Spain. Her paternal grandfather, Juan Sánchez de Toledo, was a marrano (Jewish convert to Christianity) and was condemned by the Spanish Inquisition for allegedly returning to the Jewish faith. Her father, Alonso Sánchez de Cepeda, bought a knighthood and successfully assimilated into Christian society. Teresa's mother, Beatriz de Ahumada y Cuevas,〔(Zupeda, Reginald. ''From Spain to Texas'', ISBN 9781479770083 )〕 was especially keen to raise her daughter as a pious Christian. Teresa was fascinated by accounts of the lives of the saints, and ran away from home at age seven with her brother Rodrigo to find martyrdom among the Moors. Her uncle stopped them as he was returning to the town, having spotted the two outside the town walls.〔(Medwick, Cathleen, ''Teresa of Avila: The Progress of a Soul'', Knopf, 1999, ISBN 0-394-54794-2 )〕 When Teresa was 14 her mother died, this resulted in Teresa becoming grief-stricken. This prompted her to embrace a deeper devotion to the Virgin Mary as her spiritual mother. Along with this good resolution, however, she also developed immoderate interests in reading popular fiction (consisting, at that time, mostly of medieval tales of knighthood) and caring for her own appearance.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=ST. TERESA OF AVILA :: Catholic News Agency (CNA) )〕 Teresa was sent for her education to the Augustinian nuns at Ávila. In the monastery ("cloister" is an area where only monastics have access), she suffered greatly from illness. Early in her sickness, she experienced periods of religious ecstasy through the use of the devotional book ''Tercer abecedario espiritual'', translated as the ''Third Spiritual Alphabet'' (published in 1527 and written by Francisco de Osuna). This work, following the example of similar writings of medieval mystics, consisted of directions for examinations of conscience and for spiritual self-concentration and inner contemplation (known in mystical nomenclature as ''oratio recollectionis'' or ''oratio mentalis''). She also employed other mystical ascetic works such as the ''Tractatus de oratione et meditatione'' of Saint Peter of Alcantara, and perhaps many of those upon which Saint Ignatius of Loyola based his ''Spiritual Exercises'' and possibly the ''Spiritual Exercises'' themselves. She claimed that during her illness she rose from the lowest stage, "recollection", to the "devotions of silence" or even to the "devotions of ecstasy", which was one of perfect union with God (see below). During this final stage, she said she frequently experienced a rich "blessing of tears." As the Catholic distinction between mortal and venial sin became clear to her, she says she came to understand the awful terror of sin and the inherent nature of original sin. She also became conscious of her own natural impotence in confronting sin, and the necessity of absolute subjection to God. Around 1556, various friends suggested that her newfound knowledge was diabolical, not divine. She began to inflict various tortures and mortifications of the flesh upon herself. But her confessor, the Jesuit Saint Francis Borgia, reassured her of the divine inspiration of her thoughts. On St. Peter's Day in 1559, Teresa became firmly convinced that Jesus Christ presented himself to her in bodily form, though invisible. These visions lasted almost uninterrupted for more than two years. In another vision, a seraph〔Teresa wrote that it must be a cherub (''Deben ser los que llaman cherubines''), but Fr. Domingo Báñez wrote in the margin that it seemed more like a seraph (''mas parece de los que se llaman seraphis''), an identification that most editors have followed. 〕 drove the fiery point of a golden lance repeatedly through her heart, causing an ineffable spiritual-bodily pain. I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it... This vision was the inspiration for one of Bernini's most famous works, the ''Ecstasy of Saint Teresa'' at Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome. The memory of this episode served as an inspiration throughout the rest of her life, and motivated her lifelong imitation of the life and suffering of Jesus, epitomized in the motto usually associated with her: ''Lord, either let me suffer or let me die''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Teresa of Ávila」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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