Silvana Egidi
On March 21, 1993, a barefoot Carmelite from Chile – Teresa of Jesus – was canonized in Rome. In the following article, we introduce her in more detail.
Saint Teresa of Los Andes was born in Santiago, Chile, on July 13, 1900, as the fifth of seven children of Miguel Fernández Jaraquemada and Lucia Armstrong Solar. She was baptized on July 15 in the parish of Saint Anne; her name was Juana Enriqueta Josefina de los Sagrados Corazones (Joanna Henrietta Josephine of the Sacred Hearts), but she was always called Juanita.
Her family was very well-known and wealthy. “Jesus did not want me to be born poor like Him. I was born in the midst of wealth, pampered by all” (diary). From a young age, she was loved, especially by her grandfather Eulogio Solar, who owned a vast estate in Chacabuco. There, Juanita spent much time with her younger sister Rebekah, surrounded by her grandfather's warmth, receiving everything with “hugs and kisses”; both soon learned to ride horses.
In 1907, however, her grandfather passed away, which caused Juanita great pain. From early childhood, she was drawn to piety and often asked her mother or priests who visited Chacabuco questions about God, never tiring of listening to discussions about Him, helping to prepare missions, and accompanying priests on visits to the sick. She was everywhere where God was spoken of, even if she did not understand much of what she heard. Her devotion to the Virgin Mary was tender and devoted, and soon grew into intimate trust. “More or less since the age of seven, a great devotion to the Most Holy Virgin was born in my soul. I told Her everything that happened to me, and She answered me... I prayed the rosary with Ludwig…”
In her writings, Juanita often speaks of the Virgin Mary; many events in her life are illuminated by Mary’s presence, especially in the mystery of the Immaculate Conception: for four years, on this day, she experienced a critical period in her health. Even as a small child, she attended Mass with her mother and could not understand why she could not receive Jesus. They told her she was not ready and was not of sufficient age. But her desire grew. On October 22, 1909, she received the sacrament of confirmation in the school chapel; then her mother promised her that she would be able to receive her first holy communion, and she prepared for it with great care for a whole year.
The “cloudless day” finally came on September 11, 1910, and Juanita tasted Jesus for the first time: “... an unforgettable day of my entire life... What entered my soul in Jesus cannot be described. A thousand times I begged Him to accept me, and for the first time I heard a voice: – My daughter, give me your heart, for I want to make it my temple. – I asked Him for grace for all. I felt that the Virgin Mary was near me. For the first time, I felt delightful peace.” This loving intimacy with the Eucharistic Jesus continues with a deepening intensity of experience: “Daily I received and spoke long with Jesus…” “From that day” – she writes in her Diary – “the earth no longer attracted me…”
In the Collegium
At seven years old, Juanita entered the Terezian Collegium in Santiago at her mother's wish, but she stayed there only a month: she did not like this school and it left her with no good memories. Then she had to attend the College of the Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart in Alameda, from 1907 to 1915 as a student and from 1915 to 1918 as a boarder.
She became a boarder very reluctantly: sensitive and passionate Juanita needed the possibility to freely develop her feelings in a warm environment and to express her sociability outwardly. This could only happen in the family, where love united all. However, the college, with its rules, schedules, and discipline, was boring and unattractive to her with its constraints on freedom. From her lines, we feel sorrow and suffering. Once she lamented: “I would burn the dormitory to ashes.”
With nostalgia and love, she thinks of her family, but it seems that she matures for another path that God prepares for her: “But God's voice increasingly demands, and I must follow Jesus to the ends of the earth, if He wishes it. He Himself fills my mind, and everything outside of Him is shadow, suffering, and emptiness.” God's pleasure guides her over time, and grace opens up new horizons for her. It gives birth to a need within her to remove every flaw, unfaithfulness, and tendencies that stand in the way of her soul.
Juanita recognizes and shows her flaws. Vanity: “When I stopped being little, they told me I was nicer than my siblings. I accepted it with satisfaction... Only God knows how much it costs me to suppress this pride or vanity that took hold of me as I grew up.” Anger: “My character was fearful; by nature very sensitive... it would become angry because a wild rage would take over me... I was terrible... Obedience cost me a lot…” This anger sometimes manifested itself somewhat “loudly”, but then she writes: “I believe I perfectly regretted this guilt because I cried not knowing how many times…”
If the years spent in the Most Sacred Heart College were useful for her education, similarly they were in finding her vocation. The friendship with Mother Izquierdo and Mother Ríos refined her.
Juanita loved sports very much: tennis, swimming, all speed races, but especially horse riding. She was indeed skilled, and when she describes her riding, she feels great joy and pleasure that it brought her. A short quote suffices: “I traveled a lot and rode horseback and was fascinated by walking in the mountains... They told me I was a real amazon.”
She was very fond of nature, where she sought every shade and enthusiastically savored it. Even though she seriously devoted herself to studying at the collegium, she did not neglect her apostolic efforts as far as her abilities allowed. She cared for the poor, helped those in need, listened to them, and provided them with both material and spiritual comfort; she was an excellent catechist and collaborator with priests. Let us remember Juanita, a very poor boy to whom she always helped: “It is so rare to give,” she would say.
Beginnings of Vocation
When she permanently left the college in August 1918, she knew that there would be a test of another detachment. As she hoped, this would soon come after her entry into the Carmel. She returned home and took care of the house, as her sister had married some time ago. She feared that the new way of life would somewhat hinder her rhythm, which she had set for her spiritual life, but she joyfully discovered that life in the family did not prevent her from praying and thinking of Jesus.
She was a girl with a happy disposition: open to friendship and joy, experiencing the beauties of nature and art. In her view of the world, healthy freedom and gentle restraint intertwined in balance. The words that we read in the Diary and in the letters are full of this wisdom. It lies deep in her being, where God's grace works. In 1914, when Jesus’ voice was very strong and persuasive, she was struck by great fervor and felt a new need and longing for affection. “Our Lord told me and made me understand how He used to be in the tabernacle alone and abandoned. He told me to keep Him company. He then gave me a vocation and told me that He wanted my heart for Himself and for me to become a Carmelite. At that time, I did not live by myself, but Jesus lived in me… ”
On July 13, 1915, she turned fifteen. “Jesus took the helm of the little boat and pulled it away from the company of other boats; I was connected only with Him... and He imprisoned me within Himself. For Him, I leave everything to hide behind the bars of Carmel... what happiness, what joy! It is heaven on earth.” Another entry in her diary: “Today, December 8, 1915, at my fifteen years, I made a vow not to accept another bridegroom other than my Lord Jesus Christ, whom I love with all my heart and to whom I want to serve until the last moment of my life.”
With Mother Ríos, the head of the college, she spoke of her vocation to Carmel, and she advised her to read St. Teresa of Avila and Teresa of the Child Jesus. In little Teresa, Juanita discovers: “I told her that what I read benefited me in various ways because her soul resembles mine in some aspects. And because I, like her, received many benefits from Our Lord, for which I pay so poorly.”
If Teresa of the Child Jesus taught her childlike, unconditional trust in God’s love, another Carmelite figure – Elizabeth of the Most Holy Trinity – imparted to her an attractive contemplative interior: “I read Elizabeth of the Most Holy Trinity. She enchanted me. Her soul resembles mine so much; even though she was a saint. I will imitate her and become a saint. I want to live with Jesus in the depths of my soul. I want to live a life from heaven – as Elizabeth says – and become a praise of glory.”
Later reading The Way of Perfection, the main work of Teresian pedagogy, inspired her, as it opened wide horizons of prayer life and friendship with God. “Since then I have understood that Carmel is a piece of heaven and that the Lord called me to this mountain” (letters).
In Los Andes, there is a convent of Carmelites. On September 5, 1917, Juanita wrote her first letter to the prioress, Mother Angelica. With simplicity, she speaks of her desire for why she feels that the Lord calls her to Carmel; she speaks of difficulties with her health. She knows well the ideal of a Carmelite: “to suffer, to love, and to pray... and in that I find my entire ideal. My Jesus taught me these three things when I stopped being a child.” In September 1918, she received the most beautiful news: her request to enter the Carmel was accepted.
On January 11, 1919, she undertook a visit to Los Andes with her mother, without the knowledge of other relatives. When she saw how poor the Carmel was and yet the nuns were so full of humanity, joy, and the spirit of prayer, she understood that this convent would be her piece of heaven on earth. Telling her family about her vocation and her decision to enter Carmel is not a matter without suffering and difficulties. The first person to share her secret is her sister Rebekah; on March 25, 1919, she writes a warm letter to her father about her vocation and asks for his consent: which is ultimately granted to her.
However, the displeasure of her relatives is great. Juanita writes on April 25: “This entire period is terrible because wherever I set my gaze, I see nothing but tears. Yet within my inner self, I feel the resolution and courage that I cannot describe. God makes my heart insensitive to these tears when I am in their presence, but as soon as I am alone, I feel that my soul is breaking with pain and a terrible struggle unfolds within me.”
In the Carmel
On May 7, 1919, the Lord came to “take” her: she enters the Carmel. The next day she writes in a letter to her parents about her happiness, gratitude for their sacrifice, and all the love. In her letters, she maintains contact with her parents and friends; the fullness of her spiritual life shines through all her letters, which evokes amazement. She seems to be immersed in contemplation of God's things and completely dominated by God's love.
“How amazing! How happy, mommy, when we find ourselves immersed in the immense ocean of Love. How happy I feel with the One who is alive. He transformed me. He revealed the veil that had hidden Him. What increasingly ignites love for my vocation in me is that the Carmelite life appears to me similar to the life of the Virgin Mary, who only prayed, suffered, and loved. And all that in silence.”
There are days of purification and deep darkness, but everything prepares her for a more intense experience, a higher contemplation. A desire for atonement, reconciliation, participation in redemptive suffering according to the Church’s understanding ignites within her.
The Carmelite life reveals itself to her in all its beauty and apostolic fruitfulness; prayer leads her to experience God and continuously intercede for the Church. Thus, she becomes a little teacher for all with whom she is in written contact. “I am happy, indeed the happiest being in the world. I begin the life of heaven, permanent love... We have no other desire than to glorify God by fulfilling His Divine will at every moment. We live very joyfully. God is infinite joy.”
On October 14, 1919, she dons the Carmelite habit and receives the name Sister Teresa of Jesus, the saint of Avila. Later, as her own name becomes known due to the reputation of her virtues and the holiness of her life, she will be called Teresa of Los Andes.
After her profession, she spends her days working, always ready for fraternal service, living a balanced and active life in the community. Her heart, in love with Christ, radiates her beauty, the charm of her love, the attractiveness of the intimacy of her friendship: she has developed in a special way in her sense of the Church and spent long hours before the tabernacle.
It seems that Juanita had the premonition since childhood that she would die very young. In March 1920 – the Lent began on February 18 – Sister Teresa announces to Father Avertano, her confessor, that she will die within the month and asks him to strengthen her penance.
On April 1, Holy Thursday, Sister Teresa remains in the choir for a very long time after the common prayers; on Good Friday evening, the novice mistress notices, seeing her flushed face, that she has a high fever. A doctor is called, but no medicine helps against the severe typhus that has attacked her.
On Monday, April 5, a priest administers the sacramental anointing at her own request; on Tuesday, April 6, in one of the bright moments, she speaks with emotion the words of profession (vows) and becomes “officially” the bride of Christ. On April 7, she receives the Holy Communion for the last time. The following days are filled with great suffering: on Monday, April 12, 1920, at 7:15 PM, Teresa sweetly dies. She is nineteen years and nine months old and has been a Carmelite for eleven months.
This rose has developed into the full splendor and beauty of her grace perhaps so that she could more easily spread her fragrance in the Church. On April 14, a funeral Mass is celebrated with a large attendance of priests, already with the desire for the canonization of Sister Teresa, who lived and devoted herself in obscurity.
Magazines in Santiago, which is somewhat unusual in the case of a cloistered nun, speak of her death and virtues.
In 1947, the beatification process began, and on March 22, 1986, Pope John Paul II promulgated the decree on her heroic virtues; on April 3, 1987, he proceeded with her beatification in Santiago, Chile.
As a result of the recognition of a certain healing obtained through the intercession of Blessed Teresa, on March 21, 1993, the Church rejoiced in the celebration of this daughter in the majesty of St. Peter's Basilica, who accumulated so many natural gifts and graces in herself and can offer all Christians, especially today's youth, a model for admiration and following, according to her message: “God is infinite joy. Only in Him will you be fully happy.”
(From the magazine Il Messaggero del S. Bambino Gesú di Praga 3/1993
translated by Wojciech of St. Hedwig OCD)
