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Workshop of Peter Paul Rubens, St. Teresa of Avila Interceding for Souls in Purgatory Flemish, 1630-1633 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
“Nada te turbe.
Nada te espante.
Dios no se muda.
Todo se pasa.
La paciencia todo lo alcanza.
Quien a Dios tiene, nada le falta.
Sólo Dios basta.”
"Let nothing disturb thee;
Let nothing dismay thee:
All things pass;
God never changes.
Patience attains
All that it strives for.
He who has God
Finds he lacks nothing:
God alone suffices."
Saint Teresa of Avila, "Poem IX".1
October 15 is the feastday of Saint Teresa de Jesus, also known as Teresa of Avila.
Teresa Sanchez de Cepeda y Alhumada was born in the Spanish town of Avila in 1515. In 1582 she died in one of the convents she had founded. Between these two dates she lived a life of intense prayer, intense work, frequent illness and some controversy.
She was canonized within a short period of her death (in 1622) and, in 1970, she was named a Doctor of the Church (one of four women Doctors of the 33 saints that have been honored with this title since 1298, when it was first used). A Doctor of the Church is a saint whose personal holiness and writings have contributed greatly to Catholic theological understanding.
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Anonymous Nineteenth Century Copy of the Only Known Portrait of St. Teresa Done from Life by the Carmelite friar Juan de la Miseria Spanish, 1877 Madrid, Museo del Prado |
Like her three female colleagues among the Doctors, Teresa’s contribution is mainly to the understanding of prayer and of the mystical life.2 She is one of the classic guides and sources for those seeking a deeper personal union with Christ. Her description of the stages through which the soul passes as it moves to greater and greater union with God is based on her own deep personal experiences, which began when she was still quite a young woman.
Iconography of Saint Teresa of Avila
Much of her iconography focuses on her visionary relationship to Jesus Christ and his redemptive suffering. It also includes references to her reforming zeal, to her human life story and to her other visionary experiences. Finally, it includes specific images of her most famous visionary experience, what is known as the transverberation, and of her reception in heaven. One of the most well-known images of this major saint is located in the chapel in her honor in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome and is one of the great masterpieces of the master of the Baroque, Gianlorenzo Bernini.
Adoring Christ
She is frequently shown in adoration of either the crucified or the risen Christ.
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| Attributed to Gerard van Honthorst, Christ Crowning St. Theresa Dutch, c.1614-1616 Genoa, Church of Saint Anne |
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Alonso Cano, The Apparition of Christ Crucified to Saint Teresa de Jesus Spanish, 1629 Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado |
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Guercino, The Apparition of Christ to Saint Teresa Italian, c.1630-40 Aix-en-Provence, Musée Granet |
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Daniel Seghers, Garland with Jesus Appearing to Saint Teresa Flemish, c. 1630 Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado |
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Antonio Guerra the Elder, Saint Teresa of Avila Offering Her Heart Spanish, 1667 Perpignan, Musée Hyacinthe Rigaud |
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Bartolome Perez, Garland of Flowers with Saint Teresa de Jesus Spanish, ca. 1676 Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado |
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Francois Pascal Simon Gerard, Saint Teresa French, 1827 Paris, Maison Marie-Therese |
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Charles Henri Michel, Vision of Saint Teresa of Avila French, Second half of 19th Century Peronne, Musée Alfred Danicourt |
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| Charles-Henri Michel, Vision of Saint Teresa of Avila French, First Half of 20th Century Charenton-le-Pont, Parish Church |
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| Luis Berdejo Elipe, Saint Teresa Crowned by an Angel Spanish, Mid-20th Century Madrid, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando |
The Inspired Reformer
Teresa was not just a contemplative visionary, she was also a woman of action. Based on the insights she had gained from her prayer and mystical experiences, she undertook a reform of the Carmelite order, eventually establishing the branch order of the Discalced (Unshod) Carmelites. Consequently, she is often shown at her desk, working under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
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Peter Paul Rubens, Saint Teresa's Vision of the Dove Flemish, c. 1614 Cambridge (UK), Fitzwilliam Museum |
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Workshop of Jose de Ribera, Saint Teresa of Avila Spanish, 1644 Private Collection |
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Anonymous, Saint Teresa de Jesus Spanish, c. 1650-1700 Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado |
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Anonymous Copy of Jose de Ribera, Santa Teresa de Jesús Spanish, 17th Century Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado |
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| Anonymous, Saint Teresa Spanish, Second Half of 17th Century Madrid, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando |
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| Francisco de Herrera el Mozo, Santa Teresa de Jesús Spanish, c. 1667-1670 Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado |
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Miguel Jadraque y Sanchez Ocanya, Saint Teresa de Jesus Spanish, 1882 Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado |
Her reform affected not only the women’s branch of the Carmelites, but, with the help of the Carmelite monk, her friend, fellow mystic and fellow doctor of the church, St. John of the Cross, and others, it extended to the men’s branch as well. The goal of the reform was to return to a more primitive, even stern, interpretation of the Carmelite monastic rule.
The work of reform and the consequent work of establishing daughter houses for her nuns involved Teresa in much travel and practical work, not easy for a woman who was often in poor health and who would have preferred to spend most of her time in prayer.
The work of reform and the consequent work of establishing daughter houses for her nuns involved Teresa in much travel and practical work, not easy for a woman who was often in poor health and who would have preferred to spend most of her time in prayer.
Devotion to Saint Joseph
Among the works of art inspired by Saint Teresa are a group that illustrate the idea that the Virgin Mary entrusted Saint Teresa to the care and protection of Saint Joseph, Mary's husband. Saint Teresa was very devoted to Saint Joseph and attributed her cure from a serious illness to his intercession. She encouraged her spiritual sons and daughters to honor him and seek his intercession as well.
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Andrea Vaccaro, Saint Teresa with the Virgin and Saint Joseph Italian, 1642 Madrid, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando |
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Vincenzo Fato, Saint Joseph and the Christ Child Appearing to Saint Teresa Italian, c. 1751-1800 Nardo, Church of Santa Teresa |
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Giuseppe Bottani, Mary and Joseph Appearing to Saint Teresa Italian, 1780 Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Palazzo Barberini |
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Francois Guillaume Menageot, The Virgin Placing Saint Teresa of Avila Under the Protection of Saint Joseph French, c. 1787 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
Biographical Paintings From the Life of Saint Teresa
In addition to the many works of art that highlight her sanctity and the visionary experiences that helped shape her life, some works focus on her active life, as founder and defender of the reform, or as a humble daughter of the Church or as a miraculous healer.
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Anonymous, Communion of Saint Teresa Spanish, 17th Century Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado |
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Jose Garcia Hidalgo, Saint Peter of Alcantara Hearing the Confession of Saint Teresa Spanish, c. 1650-1700 Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado |
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Juan Garcia de Miranda, Saint Teresa and Her Brother, Rodrigo, Building a Hermitage Spanish, 1735 Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado |
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Juan Garcia de Miranda, The Education of St. Teresa Spanish, 1735 Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado |
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Luis de Madrazo y Kuntz, The First Miracle of Saint Teresa de Avila, The Resurrection of Her Nephew, Don Gonzalo Ovalle, Son of her Sister Dona Juana de Ahumada Spanish, 1855 Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado |
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| Benito Mercade y Fabregas, Saint Teresa Defending Her Reform Before Gratian Spanish, 1868 Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado |
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| Pablo Pardo Gonzalez, The Viaticum of Saint Teresa Spanish, 1870 Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado |
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Jose Alcazar Tejedor, Santa Teresa Spanish, 1884 Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado |
The Transverberation of Saint Teresa of Avila
Saint Teresa is a highly respected saint, owing to her writings, her holy and hard-working life, her many convent foundations, the inspiration she has been to the daughters and sons (nuns, brothers and priests) who continue to follow in her footsteps and her own visionary experiences. One of her mystical experiences has, above all others, been attractive to artists. This is the so-called Transverberation.
This experience was described by Saint Teresa herself in her autobiography Libro de mi vida, thus:
“Our Lord was pleased that I should have at times a vision of this kind: I saw an angel close to me, on my left side, in bodily form…. He was not large, but small of stature, and most beautiful–-his face burning, as if he were one of the highest angels, who seem to be all of fire….I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron’s point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it. The soul is satisfied now with nothing less than God. The pain is not bodily, but spiritual; though the body has its share in it, even a large one. It is a caressing of love so sweet which now takes place between the soul and God, that I pray God of His goodness to make him experience it who may think that I am lying." 3
A number of artists attempted to capture this scene in their imaginations and translate it to canvas and paint.
“Our Lord was pleased that I should have at times a vision of this kind: I saw an angel close to me, on my left side, in bodily form…. He was not large, but small of stature, and most beautiful–-his face burning, as if he were one of the highest angels, who seem to be all of fire….I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron’s point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it. The soul is satisfied now with nothing less than God. The pain is not bodily, but spiritual; though the body has its share in it, even a large one. It is a caressing of love so sweet which now takes place between the soul and God, that I pray God of His goodness to make him experience it who may think that I am lying." 3
A number of artists attempted to capture this scene in their imaginations and translate it to canvas and paint.
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Jacopo Palma the Younger, The Transverberation of Saint Teresa of Avila Italian, 1615 Rome, Church of San Pancrazio |
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Attributed to Jean-Baptiste de Champaigne, Saint Teresa in Ecxtasy Flemish, c. 1650 Tourcoing, MUba Eugene Leroy |
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Circle of Pietro da Cortona, The Transverberation of Saint Teresa Italian, c. 1650-1700 Cortona, Museo dell'Accademia Etrusca |
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Jacob Van Oost the Elder, The Transverberation of St. Theresa Flemish, c.1650 Lille, Church of Saint Maurice |
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Giovanni Segala, The Transverberation of Saint Teresa Italian, c. 1675-1725 Douai, Musée de la Chartreuse |
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| Jean-Baptiste Santerre, The Transverberation of Saint Teresa of Avila French, 1710 Versailles, Chateaux de Versailles et de Trianon, Chapel |
However, none of these pictures hold anything like the imaginative power brought to the subject by one of the greatest artists of his own or any other age, the great Gianlorenzo Bernini.
Bernini, Saint Teresa and the Cornaro Chapel
Gianlorenzo Bernini was the pre-eminent artist of the Italian Baroque. Indeed, he has often been credited with the creation of the Baroque style. Born in 1598, the son of the successful late-sixteenth-century sculptor, Pietro Bernini, he exhibited an unusually precocious talent in that difficult field (marble sculpture), while still a young boy. Very few people have ever handled marble with greater sensitivity or virtuosity.
But Gianlorenzo’s talent was not limited to marble alone, or even to sculpture alone. He was also a superlative architect, painter and creator of stunningly memorable, highly intellectual, decorative schemes. While the structure of St. Peter’s Basilica is largely the product of the great Michelangelo Buonnaroti, the interior is primarily the work of Gianlorenzo Bernini. As Maffeo Barberini (Pope Urban VIII) is reputed to have told Bernini shortly after his election as Pope “It is your great good luck, Cavaliere, to see Maffeo Barberini Pope; but We are even luckier in that the Cavaliere Bernini lives in the time of Our Pontificate”. 4 Urban’s statement would be echoed by several of his successors as Pope.
One of Bernini’s greatest works, recognized as such in his own lifetime, was inspired by the experience of her transverberation described by Saint Teresa.
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Gianlorenzo Bernini, The Cornaro Chapel Italian, c. 1647-1652 Rome, Santa Maria della Vittoria |
Bernini’s interpretation of the scene reveals him at the height of his creative powers; using architecture, painting, stucco work, marble, stained glass and bronze to create a great illusion that, like all the best Baroque work, draws the spectator into the “reality” of the scene before him or her. This work is the famous Cornaro Chapel, in the Roman church of Santa Marie della Vittoria (named in honor of Our Lady of Victory, a relatively new title for the Blessed Virgin in Bernini’s time). The chapel was executed between 1647 and 1652 at the behest of the Cornaro family (whose burial vault lies beneath the floor).
The chapel is relatively shallow and is situated to the right of the main altar of the church, which stands on the slopes of the Quirinal Hill in Rome. Rather than describing it myself I’m going to quote the elegant description penned by Rudolf Wittkower, the classic art historian of the Roman Baroque, in his book Gianlorenzo Bernini, The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque.
Along the side walls of the chapel, above the doors, eight members of the Cornaro family appear behind prie-deus which have been compared with theatre boxes. The portraits stand out almost three-dimensionally before a colored and gilded stucco perspective in flat relief representing the interior of a church. Since the two sides are made to look like parts of the same interior, the fictitious architecture and the architecture of the real chapel seem to interpenetrate. This creates the illusion that the Cornaro family is sitting in an extension of the space in which we move.
It is the suggestive characterization, within one integrated whole, of the different realms of Man, Saint and Godhead that substantiates the belief in the existence of this mystic hierarchy of things. Like the Cornaro family, the worshipper participates in the supra-human mystery shown on the altar, and if he yields entirely to the ingenious and elaborate directives given by the artist, he will step beyond the narrow limits of his own existence and be entranced with the causality of an enchanted world. “5
The chapel is relatively shallow and is situated to the right of the main altar of the church, which stands on the slopes of the Quirinal Hill in Rome. Rather than describing it myself I’m going to quote the elegant description penned by Rudolf Wittkower, the classic art historian of the Roman Baroque, in his book Gianlorenzo Bernini, The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque.
“The Cappella Cornaro, which cannot be photographed in its entirety, is an indivisible unit from floor to ceiling. On its vaulting the painted sky opens, angels have peeled aside the clouds, so that the heavenly light falling from the Holy Dove can reach the zone in which the mortals live.
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Gianlorenzo Bernini, The Cornaro Chapel Ceiling Italian, c. 1647-1652 Rome, Santa Maria della Vittoria |
Rays of this heavenly light fall on to the group of Saint Teresa, and with the light has descended the seraph whose companions appear in the clouds. In the sculptured group Bernini represented the most important–the canonical–vision of the Carmelite Saint corresponding exactly with her own account of it. She described how the angel pierced her heart repeatedly with a floating golden arrow, whereupon, she continued, ‘the pain was so great that I screamed aloud; but simultaneously I felt such infinite sweetness that I wished the pain to last eternally. It was not bodily, but physical pain, although it affected to a certain extent also the body. It was sweetest caressing of the soul by God.’ With consummate skill Bernini made this scene real and visionary at the same time. The seraph, a figure of heavenly beauty, is about to pierce the heart of the Saint with the fiery arrow of love and thus effect her mystical union with Christ, the heavenly bridegroom.
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Gianlorenzo Bernini, The Cornaro Chapel, The Arrow of Divine Love Italian, c. 1647-1652 Rome, Santa Maria della Vittoria |
The Saint is swooning in an ecstatic trance, her limbs hang inert and numb, her head has sunk back, her eyes are half closed and the mouth opens in an almost audible moan. The vision takes place in an imaginary realm on a large cloud magically suspended in mid-air.
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Gianlorenzo Bernini, The Transverberation of Saint Teresa of Avila Italian, c. 1647-1652 Rome, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Cornaro Chapel, Central Group |
Sheltered by the large canopy of greenish, grey-blue and reddish marble and placed against an iridescent alabaster background, the group is bathed in a warm and mysterious light, falling from above through a window of yellow glass hidden behind the pediment and playing on the highly polished marble surface of the two figures.
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Gianlorenzo Bernini, The Transverberation of Saint Teresa of Avila Italian, c. 1647-1652 Rome, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Cornaro Chapel |
Along the side walls of the chapel, above the doors, eight members of the Cornaro family appear behind prie-deus which have been compared with theatre boxes. The portraits stand out almost three-dimensionally before a colored and gilded stucco perspective in flat relief representing the interior of a church. Since the two sides are made to look like parts of the same interior, the fictitious architecture and the architecture of the real chapel seem to interpenetrate. This creates the illusion that the Cornaro family is sitting in an extension of the space in which we move.
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| Gianlorenzo Bernini, Combined view of the central group of Saint Teresa and the Angel with the members of the Cornaro family. This view cannot be seen in real life because the Cornaro family members are depicted on the side walls of the chapel and so perpendicular to the central group. |
When standing on the central axis opposite the group of Saint Teresa, it becomes apparent that the chapel is too shallow for the members of the Cornaro family to see the miracle on the altar. For that reason Bernini has shown them arguing, reading and pondering, certainly about what they know is happening on the altar, but which is hidden from their eyes.
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| Gianlorenzo Bernini, Members of the Cornaro Family Italian, 1647-1652 Rome, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Cornaro Chapel |
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| Gianlorenzo Bernini, Members of the Cornaro Family Italian, c. 1647-1652 Rome, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Cornaro Chapel |
Under the pavement of the chapel is the family tomb chamber, and on the cover of the vault two inlaid skeletons seem to express their surprise at the miracle with lively gesticulation. Thus not only the ceiling and the walls but even the pavement forms part of the grand dynamic unit.
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It is the suggestive characterization, within one integrated whole, of the different realms of Man, Saint and Godhead that substantiates the belief in the existence of this mystic hierarchy of things. Like the Cornaro family, the worshipper participates in the supra-human mystery shown on the altar, and if he yields entirely to the ingenious and elaborate directives given by the artist, he will step beyond the narrow limits of his own existence and be entranced with the causality of an enchanted world. “5
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| Gianlorenzo Bernini, The Cornaro Chapel Italian, c. 1647-1652 Rome, Santa Maria della Vittoria |
Saint Teresa Entering Heaven
A number of artists produced their imagined depictions of the entry of Saint Teresa into heaven, welcomed by the hosts of heaven and the Person to whom she had devoted her life.
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Pietro Novelli, Saint Teresa in Glory Italian, c. 1635-1637 Madrid, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando |
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| Anonymous, Saint Teresa in Glory Austrian, 1748 Vienna, Saint Elizabeth Hospital |
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Francisco Bayeu y Subias, Saint Teresa in Glory Spanish, c. 1760-1770 Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado |
If she had done no other work in her life than through her mystical prayers and visions she would have been justly famous. That she accomplished so much in the practical level makes her life not only edifying, but downright amazing.
Saint Teresa of Jesus, pray for us!
© M. Duffy, 2011. Revised, with additional text and pictures, 2023.
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1. From Complete Works St. Teresa of Avila (1963) edited by E. Allison Peers, Vol. 3, p. 288.
2. The other three female doctors of the church are: Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Therese of Lisieux and Saint Hildegard of Bingen.
3. Teresa of Avila. The Life of St. Teresa de Jesus, Teddington, Middelsex, The Echo Library, 2006, Chapter XXIX, Section 16-17, p. 197. Accessible at http://books.google.com/books?id=RmgiSHaOUVAC&lpg=PA1&dq=related%3AISBN1420933965&pg=PA2#v=onepage&q&f=false
4. Wittkower, Rudolf. Gianlorenzo Bernini, The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque, London, The Phaidon Press, Second edition, 1966, p.7.
5. Wittkower, Rudolf. op cit., pp. 25-26.
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1. From Complete Works St. Teresa of Avila (1963) edited by E. Allison Peers, Vol. 3, p. 288.
2. The other three female doctors of the church are: Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Therese of Lisieux and Saint Hildegard of Bingen.
3. Teresa of Avila. The Life of St. Teresa de Jesus, Teddington, Middelsex, The Echo Library, 2006, Chapter XXIX, Section 16-17, p. 197. Accessible at http://books.google.com/books?id=RmgiSHaOUVAC&lpg=PA1&dq=related%3AISBN1420933965&pg=PA2#v=onepage&q&f=false
4. Wittkower, Rudolf. Gianlorenzo Bernini, The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque, London, The Phaidon Press, Second edition, 1966, p.7.
5. Wittkower, Rudolf. op cit., pp. 25-26.