History Continued

After the death of her mother, when Teresa was only thirteen, her father decided to place her in a convent of Augustinian nuns in Avila, where many young women were studying at the time. After a year and a half in the convent school, Teresa became ill and had to return home. It was during these days that she began to read the Letters of Saint Jerome and found in them a spirit akin to her own. She seriously began to consider entering a convent, but was disturbed by her father's reaction to such plans. He withheld his consent, saying that after his death she could do what she Pleased, but for the present she was to remain at home. Teresa loved her father dearly. She was also beginning to know herself and the world. Fearing that a delay might easily weaken her resolve to dedicate her life, she went secretly to enter the Carmelite convent of the Incarnation in a suburb of Avila. In her autobiography, Teresa describes this step as the most painful of her life, for the great love of God that was to permeate her later years did not yet have the first place in her soul. Her father at once yielded, and a year later, Teresa was professed.

Once again, however, Teresa was struck by illness, and suffered such unskilled medical treatment that her health became permanently impaired. She attributed her partial recovery to the intercession of Saint Joseph. The three years that she suffered were spent at home, and they were spiritually fruitful in the sense that Teresa developed her powers of mental prayer and contemplation to a remarkable degree.