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The Autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila: The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus

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The Life of St. Teresa of Avila is one of the world's greatest spiritual creations. Written at the command of her superiors, it is the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila, a Spanish Carmelite nun, mystic, and religious reformer, in an age where women, mysticism, and political activism were considered bold and rare. I found it, at first, to be a difficult book - difficult because of its intensity, and difficult because of the level on which it is written - it comes out of the highest levels of communion and friendship with God. I could only read it in increments (it was too overwhelming). Later, I was able to reread it freely, because I had assimilated her language (a spiritual one) and point of view, and was familiar with it. Its greatness lies in her enthusiastic, attractive personality, her original and very holy spiritual insights, her adventurous path in her relationship with God, and the clear and amazing articulation of very high levels of prayer and action stemming from constant communion with God. Mysticism is very hard to articulate - THIS is why this book is great. It DOES articulate it. I think, of all her writings, it is the most amazing, clearest, and most insightful. Her nougats of wisdom on the spiritual life and life in the world have stayed with me, and I often think back to her - or to her preface - for both guidance and sustenance. It is not without cause that she was declared a doctor of the Catholic Church, and is looked upon as a very great saint in the Church. As she says, "Let nothing distress you, Let nothing disturb you, All things pass but God, Who alone is all. Patience will get thee, All that thou hast striven for. Cleave to God, and naught else will fail thee, for God alone is all."

St. Teresa's autobiography records her life up to the age of fifty. She is a simple woman, her writing not being anything more that the thoughts that come to her mind. She states in the letter that accompanied this work to Friar Garcia De Toledo that "Some things...may be badly expressed, and others put down twice, for I have had so little time for the task that I have not been able to reread what I have written." In spite of this, St. Teresa reveals mystical and spiritual wonders in beautiful description. Rather than a history of her works and the events that determine her worldly life, this book is more of a spiritual autobiography. She recounts her childhood desires and the early yearning of her soul to be with God. She talks of her illnesses and how she came closer to God through them. St. Teresa gives her description of different levels of prayer, which appear in both the Way of Perfection and the Interior Castle. She tells of the ways in which God spoke to her, at first in subtle manners to more salient ones later in her life. She received an increased number of visions as she advanced spiritually. God also begins to speak to her more directly. All this comforted her and guided her as she established the convent of St. Joseph's at Avila. In the convent's establishment, St. Teresa describes the opposition that she faced and her financial worries. Endowed with a will to reject the things of this world, she pressed on, setting a rule of poverty for her Avilan sisters. Throughout The Life, she wanders from her main point to give her understanding of several spiritual matters. The book is also permeated with her humility and self-abasement. Reading through this autobiography will benefit anyone wishing to read the Way of Perfection or the Interior Castle, her two other most notable works.

Let me say right off that this was my first experience reading any of the writings of Teresa de Jesus (her chosen name) so I can't compare it to others.

Teresa's writing style was a mixture of the style of the time (full of disclaimers and self-deprecation) and the romantic language of the books of chivalry she loved as a child (she referred to God as "His Majesty", and used images such as castles and jewels). The result, flowing from her pen in an often (I should say usually) disorganized fashion, is fresh and touching. I particularly enjoyed her description of the soul as a garden: the Lord plants it, but we are to cultivate it in order that our Lord may take His delight in walking in it. She describes prayer as the water that nourishes that garden: first through great labor drawn from a well, but later as a free gift from God showering down from heaven. Her more developed description, covering four stages of prayer, is remarkable. HOWEVER, this does not make it the best starting place for beginners who want to learn how to approach contemplative prayer (they might do better with Brother Lawrence, Thomas Keating, or some of Thomas Merton's work).

I respect this translator, who included an excellent description on the decision-making process used in producing the translation, along with many footnotes referring to alternate interpretations and original Spanish text for concepts difficult to translate.

A personal quirk of mine which should influence no one (but I have to say it) -- I hated the cover art. While it communicates Teresa's vivacious personality, it is frankly ugly, and all who knew Teresa agreed that she was in fact physically beautiful. I know we shouldn't judge by physical appearance, but if God gives someone the gift of physical beauty why portray them as ugly? Again, my personal quirk meaning nothing.

Approach this read less as an educational experience and more as an opportunity to draw inspiration, hope and solace from the heart of Teresa: a woman who, weak and human as we all are, allowed God to transform her because of her hunger for communion with Him.

I found St. Teresa's book hard at first to read. Being more used to reading the fiction of today that is largely without depth, I was at first stymied. However, the material about what she writes soon hits home to the heart, and more importantly, to the soul. If you are in any way trying to plumb the depths of your existence here in our exile, this book will go a long way in helping you find your way. Without ever going into the fantastical, (she was too humble to detail the marvels that God gave her), she describes how you can get closer to God here on earth, and how that can change you forever.

She guides the beginner as well as the advanced through the trials and triumphs of her life towards union with God. This book is an excellent source for those wanting more out of their prayer life. Thru prayer, as she so wonderfully describes, you will know God.

I am a very fast reader, however with this book you will want to read a chapter or two then put it down so your brain can "chew" on what it just read.

Happy Reading and God Bless!

I've always marvelled at Bernini's statue, Ecstasy of St. Teresa, which seems to precede art deco by centuries. Since this Penguin edition shows it on the cover, I was naturally drawn to this book. Having cracked the cover, however, I couldn't put it down; it's gripping, amusing and eminently readable--everything we know so-called devotional literature is not.

Post-moderns will find in this sixteenth century nun a like-minded comrade, as unlikely as that may seem. We, or at least, I could relate far more to her failures than successes, and there's an almost slapstick, which is to say light-heartedness running through these memoirs that has more in common with I Love Lucy than sentimental religious literature. The best known incident is when a horse threw her and she landed in a mud puddle. She looked up to heaven and said, "if that's the way you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few of them."

If that doesn't make you want to read this book, what would? Completely against the tenet of modernism that everything is always progressing and "every day in every way we're getting better and better," here's a kindred soul from the sixteenth century who many readers will instantly relate to. Another way to view this book is as an exercise in journaling, which many people find more difficult than it sounds. Teresa was ordered to write her memoirs, not unlike students in an English class who find it so difficult to think of anything to write about.

This book may not be to everyone's taste. But I would recommend it to readers who, like myself, are absolutely allergic to sentimental and devotional literature. I found it delightfully different and would group it with the few "classics" in this genre I have enjoyed, including Pascal's Pensees, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and St. Augustine's Confessions.

This book will introduce you to St. Teresa through passages such as her visions of angels, her vision of Christ, and the stages of contemplative prayer. Her writing is simple and easy to follow, but has great depth to it. The person beginning a life of prayer is presented as a gardener who must care for his or her garden so that it will bloom with flowers and good scents. Once the garden is well cared for, God will come to enjoy the garden. Eventually, a life of contemplative prayer, she writes, will climax to union and then ecstasy . Of remarkable beauty is her first vision of Christ, which is a vision of just His hands. The next vision is of His face. Even if you do not believe in such things or want to follow a path as intense as hers, her story is still incredible and worth the read. It is also an exhilarating read if you enjoy autobiographies.

No doubt about it, Teresa of Avila was a force to be reckoned with. Staggeringly intelligent, talented as a leader, reformist, and writer, powerful as a personality, this is the type of woman who was born to make history no matter what era she would have been born in. There has never been anyone else like her. She posessed wit and great common sense. She was also one of the greatest mystics who ever lived. Her life is more enlightening than imitable as no one else could ever hope to aspire to the heights that she reached in the many areas that she excelled in. I don't see how the average person not living in a cloister could use this as a spiritual guide. It is on too high a plane. Her life is a real page turner-and an odd one at times as she describes in detail her ecstatic swoons and transports that to modern readers have something unmistakably erotic about them. But there is no doubting her veracity on these matters, there just is a certain embarassment at times at reading her completely artless way of relating these matters where she does not seem to be aware at all of what she is saying and how she is saying it. I don't recommend this as a spiritual guide for the general public but I do think that it is a very unusual and worthwhile autobiography which is unlike any other you will ever read. Those just reading this for her life story can skip the long detailed spirtual sections. I am full of admiration for Teresa of Avila and think she is a very good writer.

The previous review for this book was obviously misplaced here, as this is the version by E. Allison Peers! I also noticed this same review listed under another translation of this work, where it was clearly intended to be. So unless I am missing something here, I suggest people ignore this mistaken review.

I had bought St. Teresa's other two books before this one. They were good, but I couldn't really get everything she was saying. Boy am I happy that I decided to by her autobiography! Shes totally relatable, and her words are like butter to my heart! I highly suggest anyone at first looking into this Saint to read her autobiography first!

When I first read this book, I raced through, attempting to finish it in a timely manner and when I was done I placed it back on the shelf and left it there for quite a while.

Just recently I picked it up again and reread a part. And then another. And another. There are at least three reasons to read this book: her explanation of the spiritual life using water for a garden as a metaphor, the description of the Transverberation of the Heart, and the chapter on the Humanity of Christ. For those three things alone is this book worth reading.