No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Retrieving Teresa of Avila’s Resiliency in the Interior Castle
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 December 2025
Abstract
This article examines Teresa of Avila’s articulation of and response to spiritual suffering in the Interior Castle. It applies a feminist hermeneutic to the text in order to locate the resources that contribute to Teresa’s resiliency in the face of this suffering. This approach to the text reveals that Teresa’s use of contemplative prayer and interactions with her community facilitate a direct engagement with her suffering so as to make it manageable. Her successful navigation of the spiritual journey allows her the opportunity to share her insights toward resiliency with her community by speaking honestly about her experience in her writings. This article’s approach to reading the Interior Castle lifts up Teresa’s experience as a potential resource for women today who may have difficulty locating a sense of agency in their own experiences of suffering.
Keywords
Information
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- © College Theology Society 2025
References
1 For an example of such a study, see Marcella Biro Barton, “Saint Teresa of Avila: Did She Have Epilepsy?,” Catholic Historical Review 68, no. 4 (1982): 581–98.
2 See Slavomír Gálik, Sabína Gáliková Tolnaiová, and Arkadiusz Modrzejewski, “Mystical Death in the Spirituality of Saint Teresa of Ávila,” Sophia 59 (2020): 593–612.
3 Adjacent to this would be soteriologies that argue that God in some way willed the death of Jesus, such as Anselm of Canterbury’s Cur Deus Homo. For an ecofeminist retrieval of Anselm’s soteriology, see Elizabeth A. Johnson, Creation and the Cross: The Mercy of God for a Planet in Peril (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2018).
4 For a theological analysis as to why such justifications routinely constitute inadequate responses to the experience of human suffering, see Jessica Coblentz, Dust in the Blood: A Theology of Life with Depression (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2022), 49–111.
5 For example, see Astrid Lobo Gajiwala, “The Passion of the Womb: Women Re-living the Eucharist,” in The Strength of Her Witness: Jesus Christ in the Global Voices of Women, ed. Elizabeth A. Johnson (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2016), 323–34; Phyllis Trible, Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Reading of Biblical Narratives, 40th anniversary ed. (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2022), 65–91; M. Shawn Copeland, Enfleshing Freedom: Body, Race, and Being, Second Edition (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2023), 15–40.
6 “Whatever denies, diminishes, or distorts the full humanity of women [or any person] is, therefore, appraised as not redemptive.” Rosemary Radford Ruether, Sexism and God-Talk: Toward a Feminist Theology (Boston: Beacon Press, 1983), 18–19.
7 See Coblentz, Dust in the Blood, 199–217.
8 For the original Spanish version of the text, see Teresa de Avila, Castillo Interior, ed. Tomás Álvarez (Burgos, Spain: Editorial Monte Carmelo, 2011).
9 S. Vanistendael, “Clés pour devenir: la résilience,” in Les Cahiers du BICE (Les Vendredis de Châteauvallon, Geneva: Bureau Internatoinal Catholique de l’Enfance, 1998), 9; Found in Boris Cyrulnik, Resilience: How Your Inner Strength Can Set You Free from the Past, trans. David Macey (New York: Penguin, 2009), 5.
10 Teresa of Avila, Autobiography of Teresa of Avila, trans. E. Allison Peers (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc, 2010).
11 Vanistendael, “Clés pour devenir: la résilience,” 7.1.11.
12 Vanistendael, “Clés pour devenir: la résilience,” 6.1.2.
13 Dorothee Soelle, Suffering (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1984), 133, 178. This understanding is similar to what Catholic theologian and ethicist James Keenan will later define as “mercy”: the “willingness to enter into the chaos of others so as to answer them in their need.” For Keenan, this willingness is the defining attribute of Catholicism. James F. Keenan, Moral Wisdom: Lessons and Texts from Catholic Tradition, 3rd ed. (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), 91–92.
14 Alison Weber specifically refers to Teresa’s language as the “rhetoric of obfuscation,” which Weber argues Teresa uses, at least in part, to protect herself from additional scrutiny. Alison Weber, Teresa of Avila and the Rhetoric of Femininity (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990), 98–122.
15 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” in The Collected Works of Saint Teresa of Avila, trans. Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez, vol. 2 (Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 2017), 1.2.6, 1.2.7; Noelia Bueno-Gómez, “Self-management and Narrativity in Teresa of Avila’s Work,” Life Writing 15, no. 3 (2018): 305–20, at 308. There is primarily scholarly agreement that Teresa’s self-deprecating comments in her works function rhetorically, at least in part. Her position as a woman writing authoritatively about theological matters leaves her in a precarious position and subject to inquisitorial reprimand. Her references to her own lowliness and pitiful state help to alleviate these threats. André Brouillette takes the opposing position that these self-deprecating comments are not simply rhetorical devices but actually aid in the work of deshacer, a “being undone” by the Spirit. Gillian T. W. Ahlgren, meanwhile, argues that “For male and female readers alike, Teresa’s humility underscored her sincerity.” Her humility serves a rhetorical purpose in both dismissing her own authority and winning over her audience. André Brouillette, Teresa of Avila, the Holy Spirit, and the Place of Salvation (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2021), 137; Weber is cited in note 8. Gillian T. W. Ahlgren, Teresa of Avila and the Politics of Sanctity (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996), 69.
16 Antonio De San Joaquin, Anotaciones al P. Ribera, vol. 8 (Madrid, 1733), 149–50. Found in Kieran Kavanaugh, “The Interior Castle–Introduction,” in The Collected Works of Saint Teresa of Avila, trans. Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez, vol. 2 (Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 2017), 263.
17 For example, Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 1.2.2.
18 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 7.1.2.
19 “All these sufferings are meant to increase one’s desire to enjoy the Spouse [God].” Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 6.4.1.
20 Julia Feder, Incarnating Grace: A Theology of Healing from Sexual Trauma (New York: Fordham University Press, 2023), 53.
21 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 1.2.16, 4.3.11. For a treatment of penance and early modern piety, see Gretchen Starr-Lebeau, “Lay Piety and Community Identity in the Early Modern World,” in A New History of Penance, ed. Abigail Firey, Brill’s Companions to the Christian Tradition, vol. 14 (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2008), 395–417.
22 For a reflection on Teresa’s choice of castle imagery as being relevant to her historical location, see María M. Carrión, “Scent of a Mystic Woman: Teresa de Jesús and the Interior Castle,” Medieval Encounters 15, no. 1 (2009): 130–56.
23 André Brouillette associates Teresa’s use of dwelling places with the significant influence that the Gospel of John has upon the work, especially John 14. Brouillette, Teresa of Avila, the Holy Spirit, and the Place of Salvation, 191.
24 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 5.2.8.
25 In her Meditations on Song of Songs, Teresa acknowledges that she does not know Latin. However, it is also clear that she is nevertheless familiar with the works of Augustine, who famously begins his Confessions by writing that God “has made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” This section of the Interior Castle likely has Augustine in mind. Teresa of Avila, “Meditations on the Song of Songs,” in The Collected Works of Saint Teresa of Avila, trans. Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez, vol. 2 (Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 2017), 1.2. See Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 6.7.9, and Augustine, Confessions, trans. Henry Chadwick (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), I.I.
26 Bernard McGinn, “‘One Word Will Contain within Itself a Thousand Mysteries’: Teresa of Avila, the First Woman Commentator on the Song of Songs,” Spiritus 16, no. 1 (2016): 21–40, at 32.
27 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 6.6.1–2.
28 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 5.2.11.
29 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 6.1.3.
30 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 6.1.9.
31 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 5.1.8.
32 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 6.1.9.
33 For example, see Barton, “Saint Teresa of Avila”; Michael McGlynn, “Saints Who Make Themselves Sick: A Note on Teresa de Jesús and the So-Called Placebo Effect,” Bulletin of Spanish Studies 88, no. 3 (2011): 341–47.
34 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 6.1.6.
35 Teresa does, however, distinguish between the mind and the intellect. The intellect and other faculties of the soul can be occupied with God even when the mind is “distracted.” This insight gives her great comfort. Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 4.1.8.
36 Valerie Saiving Goldstein, “The Human Situation: A Feminine View,” The Journal of Religion 40, no. 2 (April 1960): 100–12, at 103–04.
37 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 5.2.14.
38 Vicarious or “proxy” suffering is not a new concept during this time but dates back at least to the High Middle Ages. See Gavin Fort, “Suffering Another’s Sin: Proxy Penance in the Thirteenth Century,” Journal of Medieval History 44, no. 2 (2018): 202–30.
39 The question of whether God suffers is beyond the scope of this article because it is a metaphysical question. Here, we are concerned with Teresa’s account of her own experience. Teresa’s spirituality is so deeply centered upon the humanity of Christ—and particularly Christ’s willingness to suffer with us in our humanity—that it is appropriate to discusses “offenses” against God using this language.
40 Bueno-Gómez, “Self-management and Narrativity in Teresa of Avila’s Work,” 393–96.
41 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 5.2.11.
42 This awareness finds its completion in the seventh mansion, wherein Teresa notes that “the soul’s pain lies in seeing that what it can now do by its own efforts amounts to nothing.” Teresa interprets this pain positively because God empowers the soul to do all that is required. Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 7.3.3.
43 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 5.2.10.
44 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 7.2.10, 5.2.9.
45 Bueno-Gómez locates this management primarily in Teresa’s expression of her desire to suffer. Noelia Bueno-Gómez, “‘I Desire to Suffer, Lord, Because Thou Didst Suffer’: Teresa of Avila on Suffering,” Hypatia 34, no. 4 (2019): 755–76, at 761.
46 Terrance G. Walsh, “Writing Anxiety in Teresa’s Interior Castle,” Theological Studies 56, no. 2 (1995): 251–72, at 262.
47 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 4.1.7, 7.3.16.
48 The latter is akin to the rather strange position that Paul finds himself arguing against in Romans 6.
49 “After all, God gives no more than what can be endured; and His Majesty gives patience first.” Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 6.1.6.
50 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 6.1.13.
51 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 6.1.6.
52 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” prologue, 1.
53 A strong parallel to Teresa’s obedience would be the character of Mrs. Joad, or “Ma,” in John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. As the family’s life falls to pieces in the wake of dire poverty during the Great Depression, it is Ma’s resolve that holds the family together. At each juncture, she makes specific choices not because they are what she would like to do but because she knows they are what is expected of her as the matriarch of the family. Her resolve gives her the strength to act when other members of the family feel powerless to do so. John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (London: Penguin Books, 2002).
54 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 5.3.2.
55 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 6.1.13.
56 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 4.1.1.
57 Jodi Bilinkoff, The Avila of Saint Teresa: Religious Reform in a Sixteenth Century City (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2014), 142.
58 Bilinkoff, The Avila of Saint Teresa, 143.
59 Although Teresa’s prayer practices would remain under suspicion for the remainder of her life, her relative independence may be attributed to the support of the Bishop of Avila, Alvaro de Mendoza, who interpreted Teresa’s reform movement as demonstrating Tridentine values. Bilinkoff, The Avila of Saint Teresa, 144, 148–51.
60 Martin Laird, An Ocean of Light: Contemplation, Transformation, and Liberation, vol. 3 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), 161.
61 Martin Laird, Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation, vol. 1 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 89.
62 Laird, An Ocean of Light, 3:217.
63 Laird, An Ocean of Light, 3:208–09.
64 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 6.5.6.
65 Soelle, Suffering, 70–74.
66 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 6.7.9.
67 “If it prays, it feels as though it hasn’t prayed—as far as consolation goes, I mean. For consolation is not admitted into the soul’s interior, nor is what one recites to oneself, even though vocal, understood. As for mental prayer, this definitely is not the time for that, because the faculties are incapable of the practice; rather, solitude causes greater harm—and also another torment for this soul is that it be with anyone or that others speak to it.” Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 6.1.13.
68 Bueno-Gómez, “I Desire to Suffer, Lord, Because Thou Didst Suffer,” 766.
69 Bueno-Gómez, “Self-management and Narrativity in Teresa of Avila’s Work,” 312. Lisa Fullam discusses humility in the Interior Castle as “responsive, self-transcendence [and] self-knowing.” Perhaps we can interpret Teresa’s humble allowance of the community’s help here as her growing in self-knowledge of the goodness of her own life and existence on earth. Such a revelation would be empowering rather than humiliating, in the more conventional sense. Lisa Fullam, “Teresa of Avila’s Liberative Humility,” Journal of Moral Theology 3, no. 1 (2014): 175–98, at 180.
70 “Let the prelates take care of our bodily needs; that’s their business. As for ourselves, we should care only about moving quickly so as to see this Lord.” Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 3.2.8.
71 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 6.8.8–9. Christopher Bellitto notes that even in this suggestion Teresa advises caution. An insecure or spiteful prioress can use humility as a weapon to belittle those whom she feels threaten her authority in some way. Humility can become an act of belittling (which should really be understood as false humility) rather than a pursuit of self-knowledge/self-understanding. One needs practical wisdom to be able to discern who is a worthy conversation partner. Christopher M. Bellitto, Humility: The Secret History of a Lost Virtue (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2023), 98–99.
72 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 4.3.13.
73 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 6.1.13.
74 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 7.3.6–8.
75 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 7.2.10.
76 In Meditations on the Song of Songs, Teresa comments that only a dead body is unaffected by a pinprick and uses this analogy to describe the soul who is dead to the effects of sin. Teresa of Avila, “Meditations on the Song of Songs,” 2.5.
77 Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” 7.3.5.
78 Indeed, she begins the work with this in mind: “The one who ordered me to write told me that the nuns in these monasteries of our Lady of Mt. Carmel need someone to answer their questions about prayer and that he thought they would better understand the language used between women, and that because of the love they bore me they would pay more attention to what I would tell them. I thus understood that it was important for me to manage to say something.” Teresa of Avila, “The Interior Castle,” prologue, 4.