Research Paper on:
St. Teresa of Avila

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
the age of 64, Teresa of Avila wrote to Gracian, a friend and Carmelite priest, that she had heard in Gracians area some were referring to her as a saint.  She reflects the sentiment of St. Paul when he laments to the Romans that he is the "worst of sinners," that he often finds himself doing the very things  he hates (Romans 7:15) in saying, "they laugh when I tell them they had better canonize some other nun" (Teresa of Avila /Teresa de Ahumada).  It is suggested here that St. Teresa deserved canonization solely on the basis of her clear and unassuming instructions to and spiritual leadership of the nuns of reformist  medieval Spain. The work following, "The Spiritual Journey of The Soul to God through Teresian Spirituality," will seek to review the seven mansions that Teresa describes to her nuns.  As Dante led the reader through an awful descent through several layers of hell, Teresa leads her readers through a description of the journey through several layers of true  communion with God. She begins with the individuals awareness (the first mansion) and progresses to the final mansion, true union with God. Background and Context Timeline and Personal History  St. Teresa (1515-1582) was born in Avila as Teresa de Ahumada, the daughter of a prosperous family that likely would be middle class  by todays accepted standards. The family was Jewish by heritage on Teresas fathers side but had converted to Catholicism early on. Thus after Teresas mother died in 1528  when Teresa was only 13, Teresa later entered the Augustinian Convent of St. Mary of Grace, Avila, as a boarder in 1531. She entered the Carmelite Monastery of the