Feast Day-St. Teresa of Jesus of the Andes

St. Teresa of Jesus of the Andes

Discalced Carmelite

Feast Day: July 13

Her motto: God is my joy!

(click on photo for official Andes website)

It seemed that from the time Juanita was young she had the presentiment or a certain interior illumination that she would die young...One day she pressed Fr. Blanch to tell her where she could be sanctified more quickly, because "Our Lord had made me understand that I would only live a short while."

In March of 1920, when Lent had already begun, Sister Teresa told her confessor--Father Avertano, a Discalced Carmelite--that she would die within a month...

But on the evening of Good Friday she was taken ill. It was discovered she had a violent form of typhus. On April 5 she requested the Sacrament of the sick which were administered that day and on the following one. On April 7, when her delirium ceased, thirty minutes after midnight, she was granted permission to make her religious profession because she was in danger of death. She did so with the greatest joy and gratitude.
On Monday, April 12, 1920 she died very sweetly , at seven fifteen at night.

St. Teresa told her family who were saddened that she was entering Carmel:

Don't be afraid. There will never be any separation between our souls. I will live in Him. Search for Jesus and in Him you'll find me, and there we three will carry on these intimate conversations that we must always carry on there for all eternity.

Excerpts from A New Hymn To God, compiled by Fr. Michael D. Griffin, OCD


Peace be with you!
Rosemarie