Saint Teresa of the Andes
Also known as
- Juanita Fernandez Solar
- Teresa de los Andes
- Teresa of Jesus of the Andes
Profile
Born to an upper class family. From her adolescence Teresa was devoted to Christ. Greatly influenced by the autobiography of Saint Thérèse de Lisieux. She entered the monastery of the Discalced Carmelite nuns at Los Andes on 7 May 1919, and was given the name Teresa of Jesus. A model for young people. The first Chilean and the first member of the Teresian Carmel in Latin America to be beatified.
Born
- 22 March 1986 by Pope John Paul II (decree on heroic virtues)
- 3 April 1987 at Santiago, Chile by Pope John Paul II
- her brother, Luis, attended the beatification
Readings
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 the three of us will continue our intimate conversations, the ones we’ll be carrying on there forever in eternity. Love is the fusion of two souls in one in order to bring about mutual perfection. Though I am absent from you, this changes nothing in our relationship. I am always with you, invisibly assisting you in all you do. And if my prayers are worth anything, you can count on them for the rest of my life; because every day I have you with me at Communion time. How much time has passed since we last saw each other, but our souls are always one in the Divine Jesus. A Carmelite sanctifies herself in order to make all the Church’s members holy. The goal she (a Carmelite) proposes to herself is very great: to pray and sanctify herself for sinners and priests. To sanctify herself for sinners and priests. To sanctify herself so that the divine sap may be communicated through the union that exists between the faithful and all members of the Church. She immolates herself on the cross, and her blood falls on sinners, pleading for mercy and repentance, for on the cross she is intimately united to Jesus Christ. Her blood, then, is mixed with His Divine Blood. A Carmelite is a sister to priests. Both priest and sister offer a host of holocaust for the salvation of the world. A Sister sanctifies herself, that by being more united to God, the blood of the Divine Prisoner which she receives in her soul might circulate through the other members of Christ’s Body. In a word, a Sister sanctifies herself to sanctify her brothers. This pains me greatly; to see that I’m sensibly experiencing feelings of great love. Sometimes it even reaches the point of taking my strength away or the desire to do anything but stretch out on the bed. Let’s live intimately united with Him, since one who loves tends to be united with the one loved. The fusing of two souls is done through love. It’s true, my dear little sister, we don’t live together; but you live in God and I do, too. There, in that abyss of love, we’ll live as one. Everything in God is indivisible; we, too, will be inseparable. Sometimes I felt such great love it seemed I could not go on living if these desires continued any longer…Once when the violence of love took hold of me, I grasped a needle and on my chest drew these letters: J.A.M., which means Jesus My Love. Despite the distance separating us, my soul will always be one with yours. We both form but a single soul, isn’t that so?
Join me in spirit at 11:30 and at 6. At those times I’m alone with Him, behind my beloved grills.
Why do you feel so alone? Aren’t we always really one in our Divine Master? Can you be thinking that your Carmelite sister has no room in her heart to love the one who is part of her very being…? You are with me always; we are still working together.
I hope that you are always joined with my Jesus and so joined with your Carmelite sister, too. When we’re there in His presence, if just gazing at Him is enough to make us love Him, and if we are so captivated by His beauty that we can’t say anything but that we love Him, why, little sister, should we be upset? How I would have loved, mother dear, to be by your side to console and weep with you. But our souls met by the tabernacle. He leaves His angels and millions of people, to come into your soul, to consummate in you the most intimate union, to transform you into God, to nourish in you the life of grace with which you will attain heaven. – from the letters of Saint Terese of the Andes
I am the happiest creature in the world. God is infinite joy. – Saint Teresa of the Andes
MLA Citation
- “Saint Teresa of the Andes“. CatholicSaints.Info. 12 April 2024. Web. 28 April 2024. <>