Episode Details

In this episode of pplpod, we step inside the walls of 16th-century Spain to explore the life of Saint Teresa of Ávila, a powerhouse of the Catholic Reformation who blended intense mysticism with gritty institutional reform. Born Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda Dávila y Ahumada to a family with Jewish converso roots, she entered a Carmelite convent at age twenty, initially finding the atmosphere too lax and social for true spiritual growth.

Join us as we discuss:

• The Reformer: How Teresa, alongside Saint John of the Cross, fought opposition and persecution to establish the Discalced Carmelites, founding seventeen new convents dedicated to poverty and prayer.

• The Mystic: Her vivid accounts of religious ecstasy, including the famous "transverberation"—a vision where an angel pierced her heart with a golden spear—and reports that she would involuntarily levitate during raptures.

• The Writer: A look at her groundbreaking literary works, including her autobiography and The Interior Castle, which maps the soul’s journey through "seven mansions" to reach union with God.

• The Legacy: Her posthumous recognition as the first female Doctor of the Church and her enduring influence on theology, art, and pop culture.

From her run-in with the Inquisition to her canonization as the patron saint of Spain, this is the story of a woman whose "spiritual marriage" changed history.