A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Theresa, Saint
THERESA, SAINT,
Was born at Avila, in Spain, in 1585. While reading the lives of the saints, when very young, she became possessed with a desire for martyrdom, and ran away from her parents, hoping to be taken by the Moors. But she was discovered, and was obliged to return, when she persuaded her father to build her a hermitage in his garden, where she might devote herself to her religious duties. In 1537, Theresa took the veil at the convent of the Carmelites at Avila, where her religious zeal led her to undertake the restoration of the original severity of the order. In pursuance of this object, in 1662, she founded a convent of reformed Carmelite nuns at Avila; and in 1568, a monastery of friars, or barefooted Carmelites, at Dorvello. She died at Alba, October, 1582, but before her death there were thirty convents founded for her followers. She was canonized by Pope Gregory the Fifteenth. She left an autobiography, and several other works.