St. Teresa of Avila

St. Teresa of Avila, (1515-82). Spanish mystic. In 1533 she entered a Carmelite convent in Avila and in 1555 had an ecstatic vision of Christ. She founded a new convent in 1562, based on an austere rule of meditation and withdrawal from the world. She subsequently founded other convents, and, with St John of the Cross, new Carmelite monasteries. One of the most important figures of the Counter-Reformation, she was canonized in 1622. Her mystical writings include The Way of Perfection (1583).