Description
St. Teresa recounts her childhood and education in sixteenth-century Spain, her physical afflictions and non secular crises, her many visions and mystical encounters, and her determination to embrace the contemplative life. In describing the ascent of the soul, she explains the core of her theology as a four-stage process that progresses from mental prayer to divine rapture. Next to Don Quixote, this undying work constitutes Spain’s most well liked prose classic. It forms a very good introduction to the saint’s different writings and to the Christian tradition of mystical literature.