Teresa of Avila: The Progress of a Soul by Cathleen Medwick. (Section 3 B). This bio donated by Pastor Andrea, is readable and interesting, even witty in some places. Born in Avila, Spain in 1515, Teresa came from a well-to-do merchant family one of whose ancestors may have been a “converso”, a Jew who converted to Christianity so as not to be murdered during the Spanish Inquisition. When she was a teen she ran away from home to enter a convent. Over the decades she became a prioress (convent leader) and eventually began to found new convents on a wide swath across central Spain from north to south. To do this she had to get permission from the religious powers of a particular area, learn how to repair derelict buildings, attract nuns who were pious and willing to live very simply, how to raise alms, keep an eye on all her prioresses, and much more. While she would have preferred a life of solitude and prayer, she became a traveler to all these different convents and their chief administrator and religious leader.
Besides all this worldly business and a huge correspondence that went with it, she wrote down most of what she experienced, including an autobiography as well as many other books. She was considered a mystic. She found convent life lax – too much food, possessions, visitors, conversation. She whipped them into shape, instituting times of silence, no gossip, very few possessions, no visitors.
She loved nothing more than feeling at one with God during prayer, but she also needed a dependable confessor, always male, of course.
Her health was poor and she had periods where her body went rigid – one day a helper found her leaning like a board against a wall. She also had raptures, and so it is said, levitations that became so embarrassing to her that she asked her sister nuns to grab her habit hem and pull her back down. A mental image of this is pretty funny especially if there were guests at mass that day..... Since she wrote down nearly every bout of illness or unusual feeling, she provides a rare medical record for neurologists who suggest that she may have had epilepsy which could have caused her bodily rigidity and perception difficulties – hallucinations, visions, and the like.
Upon her death she was buried at one of her convents. She was disinterred now and then, with a body part being removed every time! Crikey! What about resting in peace? Wikipedia tells where these various body parts are located – her left hand in Lisbon, a finger at a church in Paris, etc. Welcome to the world of holy relics!
This is the first book about a saint I have ever read. She did so much in an era where women had NO power unless through a wealthy husband. She was pious, smart and businesslike. She had to tread softly in a world where the Inquisition still had the power imprison or kill anyone they felt too powerful or who broke rules. She lived with a big target on her back, yet she fought back with skill – her letters could cajole, threaten, order, or be kind. An example of such skill: when opening a new convent she and her few nuns would enter the town during the night so they would be set up and firmly ensconced by morning. She was a crafty one, Teresa of Avila! ( )

I always thought it was a shame that Teresa, the brilliant, beautiful, and charismatic founder of the Discalced Carmelites, was mostly known for the famous Bernini sculpture of her that looks like she's doing very un-nunlike things with an angel. Medwick's biography goes a long way towards correcting that. ( )