Quote of the day, 21 March: St. Teresa of the Andes

Pray, Rev. Mother, for this poor exile that she may become a holy Carmelite soon.

Saint Teresa of the Andes

Teresa of the Andes—Teresa of Jesus, a Discalced Carmelite and the first flowering of holiness from the Teresian Carmel in Latin America—is a light of Christ for the whole Church in Chile. Today she is inscribed among the saints of the universal Church.

As in the first reading we have heard from the book of Samuel, Teresa’s greatness does not lie in “her appearance or her stature.” “The Lord’s gaze,” Sacred Scripture tells us, “is not like that of man: man looks at appearances, but the Lord looks at the heart.” Thus, in her young life of just over nineteen years, and in her eleven months as a Carmelite, God caused the light of His Son Jesus Christ to shine forth in her in a remarkable way, so that she might serve as a beacon and guide for a world that seems to be blinded by what only appears to be divine.

To a secularized society that lives turned away from God, this Chilean Carmelite—whom I present with great joy as a model of the perennial youth of the Gospel—offers the clear witness of a life that proclaims to the men and women of today that in loving, adoring, and serving God are found the greatness and joy, the freedom and the full realization of the human person. From within the cloister, the life of the blessed Teresa cries out in silence: “God alone suffices!”

And she proclaims this especially to the young, who hunger for truth and seek a light that gives meaning to their lives. To a youth surrounded by the constant messages and stimuli of an eroticized culture, and to a society that confuses genuine love—which is self-gift—with the hedonistic use of others, this young virgin of the Andes proclaims today the beauty and blessedness that radiate from pure hearts.

In her tender love for Christ, Teresa discovers the very essence of the Christian message: to love, to suffer, to pray, to serve. Within her family she learned to love God above all things. And in recognizing herself as the exclusive possession of her Creator, her love for neighbor became all the more intense and definitive. As she writes in one of her letters: “When I love, it’s forever. Especially, a Carmelite never forgets. From her cell, she accompanies souls she loved in the world.”

Saint John Paul II

Homily, Canonization of Claudine Thévenet and Teresa of Jesus of the Andes
Sunday, 21 March 1993

Note: On 21 March 1993, St. John Paul II presided at the canonization of Teresa of the Andes in St. Peter’s Basilica

Canonization of Claudine Thévenet and Teresa de Jesús “de los Andes”
21 March 1993, St. Peter’s Basilica
The Discalced Carmelite delegation can be seen at top left
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Griffin, M D & Teresa of the Andes, S 2023, The Letters of Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

John Paul II, 1993. Canonizzazione di Claudine Thévenet e di Teresa de Jesús de los Andes. Omelia di Giovanni Paolo II, Domenica, 21 marzo 1993. Vatican.va. Available at: https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/it/homilies/1993/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_19930321_thevenet.html (Accessed: 19 March 2026).

Translation from the Spanish text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: Detail from a photo of Saint Teresa that was taken a few months before she entered the Carmel of Los Andes. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites (by permission).

#canonization #DiscalcedCarmelite #StJohnPaulII #StTeresaOfTheAndes #vocation