Saint Teresa of Avila, Virgin (1962 Roman Calendar)

Q: When is the feast of Saint Teresa of Avila?

Her feast is kept on 15 October in the calendar of the 1962 Roman Missal, as a Third Class feast. The modern calendar likewise observes her on 15 October, as a memorial.

Saint Teresa was born in 1515 at Avila, in Castile, of a devout family, and from her childhood was drawn to the things of God. Entering the Carmelite Order as a young woman, she lived for many years as a religious; but it was after a long and gradual conversion of heart, and a deeper surrender to God, that she was led into those heights of prayer for which she is renowned. Through trial, sickness, and inward purification, our Lord drew her into an intimate union with himself, and made her a teacher of the ways of prayer for the whole Church.

Reformer of Carmel

Moved by zeal for a stricter and more fervent observance of the Carmelite life, Saint Teresa undertook, with great labour and amid much opposition, the reform of her Order. Beginning at Avila, she founded a series of convents of Discalced Carmelite nuns, marked by poverty, enclosure, silence, and devotion to prayer; and with the help of Saint John of the Cross she saw the reform extended also to the friars. Travelling tirelessly across Spain despite frail health, founding house after house, governing, counselling, and encouraging her daughters, she joined to a soul rapt in contemplation a wonderful practical wisdom and strength.

Her writings, composed in obedience to her directors, are among the treasures of Catholic spirituality. In works such as her Life, the Way of Perfection, and the Interior Castle, she set forth with rare clarity and warmth the stages of the soul’s ascent to God, the dangers and consolations of the way of prayer, and the supremacy of humility and charity. For the depth and soundness of this teaching she was, in later centuries, declared a Doctor of the Church — one of the first women to be so honoured.

Her death and veneration

Worn out by her labours, Saint Teresa died on the night between the fourth and the fifteenth of October, 1582 — the very days on which the reform of the calendar was then taking effect, so that her feast came to be fixed on the fifteenth. She was canonised within forty years of her death. The collect of her feast asks that, as we rejoice in her festival, we may be nourished by the food of her heavenly teaching and formed in the affection of devout piety.

In Saint Teresa of Avila the Church honours a virgin wholly given to God, a courageous reformer, and a sublime teacher of prayer, who showed that the soul is made for union with God and who left to the faithful a sure guidance along the path of the interior life.

The Collect

Graciously hear us, O God of our salvation: that as we rejoice in the festival of blessed Teresa thy Virgin, so we may be nourished by the food of her heavenly teaching, and be formed in the affection of devout piety.

Exáudi nos, Deus, salutáris noster: ut sicut de beátæ Terésiæ Vírginis tuæ festivitáte gaudémus; ita cæléstis eius doctrínæ pábulo nutriámur, et piæ devotiónis erudiámur afféctu.

Patronage

She is venerated as the reformer of the Carmelite Order and a great teacher of prayer, and is honoured as a patroness of Spain, of those who pray, and of those who suffer from illness and headaches; she was declared a Doctor of the Church.

In the Modern Calendar

In the modern calendar her memorial is observed on the same day, 15 October, as an obligatory memorial, under the title Saint Teresa of Jesus.

Common Questions

When is the feast of Saint Teresa of Avila?

Her feast is kept on 15 October in the calendar of the 1962 Roman Missal, as a Third Class feast. The modern calendar likewise observes her on 15 October, as a memorial.

Who was Saint Teresa of Avila?

She was a sixteenth-century Spanish Carmelite nun who reformed her Order, founding the Discalced Carmelites, and who became one of the greatest teachers of prayer in the history of the Church. Her spiritual writings are treasured throughout Christendom. She died in 1582 and was later declared a Doctor of the Church.

Is Saint Teresa of Avila a Doctor of the Church?

Yes. Though her feast in the 1962 Missal is kept under the title “Virgin,” she was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1970, one of the first women to be so honoured, in recognition of the depth and soundness of her teaching on the spiritual life.

See where this feast falls in the Church’s year on the liturgical calendar, or find a Traditional Latin Mass near you.

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