Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1236122 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Synopsis
This is a modern biography of Saint Teresa of Avila, one of the greatest mystics and reformers to emerge within the Sixteenth Century Catholic Church. Her writings are considered a keystone to modern mystical thought. Cathleen Medwick reveals Teresa as both a powerful daughter of the Church and her times who was a very human mass of contradictions: a practical and no-nonsense manager, and yet a flamboyant and intrepid presence who bent the rules of monastic life to accomplish her work while managing to stay one step ahead of the Inquisition. She exhibited a very personal brand of spirituality, often experiencing raptures of an unorthodox, arguably erotic nature that left her locked in one position for hours, unable to speak. Out of concern for her soul and her reputation, her superiors insisted that she describe every voice and vision as well as the sins that might have engendered them. An account, which is now considered a literary masterpiece. Teresa's major work was the reform of the Carmelites, an enterprise which required all her considerable persuasiveness and talent for administration.

In an era when women were seldom taken seriously, she sought and received permission to found two religious houses for men. In this account, Teresa is revealed as both more complex and comprehensible than she has seemed in the past.

Customer Reviews

Turning the key to the Interior Castle
In my opinion, the great Spanish mystics of the sixteenth century are not easy subjects to tackle for the general reader. But they are well worth the effort because in their personalities, their writing and in the depth of their spirituality, they are such attractive characters. How then to get make the first step? Cathleen Medwick's achievement is to have made perhaps the most attractive of the mystics, St Teresa of Avila, accessible in such a way as to paint a satisfying portrait and to send the reader to saint's own words. This is not to say that her book is light: Medwick knows her subject. But she wears her scholarship lightly, distributing knowledge with wit and occasionally a misleading levity for this is a solid book. She is not providing the last word on Teresa; those authoritative studies already exist. Nor does this feel like merely a distillation of bigger, better books. Instead it is a really practical, well-researched narrative in a relaxed, lively but no-frills style that makes good use of quotations rendered in modern (American) English. This is appropriate to its subject. Teresa emerges as a remarkable organiser, reformer and woman, extraordinarily effective. And yet also modest and down-to-earth - "God is found among the pots and pans". An excellent tactician when it came to dealing with questionable motives among the male Church superiors, Teresa was exemplary in many ways. This generous, aimiable book warms to her and easily gets four stars in my estimation. It makes the reader hungry for more because the foundations have been so well laid. It relegates information about Teresa's poetry to a brief footnote, which is a shame, and the procession of names is sometimes a little hard to handle. But the telling is so fluent that these are hardly major criticisms.

An Intimate Look at a Controversial Mystic
I gave this book five stars because it's intelligent, witty and extremely well-written. A joy to read. The author makes us feel as though we knew Teresa personally. I've read other books about St. Teresa and I've also read Teresa's own works. I was impressed, really in awe. Medwick made me realize what I should have known all along: Teresa was both beautiful and brilliant, and had she been a 20th century woman she would have found many outlets for her boundless energy, enthusiasm and imagination. Living in the circumscribed world of 16th century Spain, however, Teresa's imagination worked against her; although possessing great business acumen, the woman was crazy as a loon. This book, however, is well worth the money and the time and is extremely enjoyable, myth-shattering though it may be. I'll no doubt read it again some day.