St Teresa of the Andes (1900-1920) virgin and Discalced Carmelite
Chilean
born Saint Teresa of the Andes (1900–20) lived only twenty years, yet
in that time she showed an intense love of life and of God. She was
canonised by Pope John Paul II in 1993. She is the first Chilean saint.
Baptised "Juanita"
Born on 13 July 1900, the
fifth child of Don Miguel Fernández Jaraquemada and Doña Lucía Solar
Armstrong, a well-to-do family in Santiago, Chile, she was baptised
"Juanita".
Her paternal grandfather was a native of Spain. Her
grandfather on her mother's side, Don Eulogio, had a large estate in
Chacabuco, about forty miles north of Santiago, where he often used to
gather his family.
Love of horse-riding
Juanita loved going to
Chacabuco during vacations and very early learned to ride a horse.
Often
she would ride through the estate up to the beginning of the Andes
Cordillera.
Juanita's brothers and sisters were: Lucita, Miguel, Luis (Lucho),
Juana (who died a few hours after birth and whose name was given to
Juanita), Rebeca and Ignacio. Juanita was particularly close to her
brother Lucho and her younger sister Rebeca.
School days
From 1906 Juanita attended a school
run by the Sacred Heart Sisters of St. Madeleine-Sophie Barat in
Santiago. She was not an easy character. She was proud, self-centred,
stubborn, didn't like to obey, got angry easily (her brothers liked
winding her up!) and would cry for nothing.
She wanted to receive her first communion, but as she was too young
she learned how to make communions of desire. In preparation for her
first communion, she began to acquire extraordinary virtue expressing
her love for life and for God through her actions. Her brother
Lucho taught Juanita how to pray the Rosary.
Both made the promise to
pray it every day, a promise Juanita kept until her death (only one
time, she writes, being very small, she forgot).
"From that time on, one
can say that Our Lord took me by hand with the most holy Virgin."
Eventually Juanita received first communion on September 11, 1910, in
Santiago when she was ten.
The Story of a Soul
In 1914 Juanita read for the first time The Story of a Soul by
Thérèse of Lisieux (who was not yet beatified) and it made a lasting
impression on her.
For several years, approaching December 8, Juanita
becomes seriously ill.
At this time she had appendicitis surgery and at
the same time began to feel Christ was calling her to give herself
totally to him and become a Carmelite.
During the year 1915 she became a
boarding student with her sister Rebeca at Sacred Heart High School.
At boarding school
It was hard for her to leave
her family house since she was very attached to them.
She understood,
however, that the Lord was preparing her for the great separation when
she would enter the Carmel.
And she saw that school enabled her live a
fervent Christian life.
Although she was not an exceptional student, she dedicated herself
totally to her studies, including to topics she did not like (such as
physics and chemistry) in order to please Jesus and her parents.
She
liked also to help poor and less-gifted students.
Helping others
It was in this same year (1915)
that she met in the street a child in rags hungry and shivering with
cold.
She introduced him into her house, gave him to eat and asked him
where he lived.
She discovered that the child was living in a slum in
Santiago's suburb.
She visited his family and until her entrance into
Carmel in 1919, took care of him, calling him Juanito, having him eat in
her family house and giving him clothes from her brothers.
She even
organised a raffle giving her own watch as the prize so as to earn money
to buy shoes for Juanito.
At this time also she made a private vow of
chastity, promising not to have any other spouse than Jesus Christ.
During her holidays in Chacabuco, she carried on an apostolate among
the farmers' families, gathering people for the missions, teaching
catechism to the children, playing with them, organising a choir.
Loss of Chacabuco
In 1917 due to bad management
by Juanita's father, the Chacabuco estate was sold and the family had to
adopt a more modest way of life.
Juanita saw in this painful event a
providential call to detach herself from earthly goods.
At this time
also she became a Child of Mary with whom she developed a strong
spiritual bond.
Contact with Carmel
In September 1917 she contacted the Carmel of Los Andes for the first time and was convinced that was where God wanted her.
In August 1918 she left Sacred Heart School to substitute in the
family house her elder sister Lucia, who just got married.
She dedicated
herself to her task and accepted any sacrifice for her family's
happiness: "I did not believe that family life was a life of sacrifices.
This helped me to prepare myself for religious life."
Her brother Lucho
called her "the jewel of the house".
While having a very intense spiritual life, Juanita lived as a lively
young girl of her time. She liked to be with her family and friends.
She enjoyed sport, especially swimming (in which she excelled) and
tennis which she played with enthusiasm. She enjoyed the beauty of the
sea and of the mountains.
Although she had poor health, she was always
in good spirits and joking.
In January 1919 for the first time she visited the Carmel of Los
Andes and was sure that was where God was calling her.
She wrote to her
father asking his permission to enter Carmel.
He was deeply moved, and
in tears granted her wish.
Juanita then felt great joy in that she was
able to dedicate herself totally to Christ and at the same time great
suffering because she was leaving her family she loved so much.
Carmel of Los Andes (1919-1920)
On May 7,
1919, Juanita entered the Carmel of Los Andes and took the name Teresa
of Jesus.
Although she was not exempt from spiritual trials, temptations
and spiritual dryness, she received in her monastery many graces of
union with God.
She got on well with her prioress, but the novice
mistress's constant correcting caused her pain.
With the
permission of her prioress, who understood that the new postulant was an
exceptional soul, Teresa began intense letter-writing activity,
especially to her friends, many of whom later joined Carmel.
On October
14, 1919 she received the habit, in the presence of her family and of
many friends.
All were impressed by her radiating joy.
Approaching death
In the first days of March,
1920, Teresa told the confessor that she had only one month more to live
on earth.
She asked him for permission to do extraordinary penances.
The confessor wondered how she could know the time of her death and told
her to be satisfied with observing the Carmelite rule with perfection.
Teresa became severely ill and although she knew it would lead her to
death, she continued to take part in all the spiritual exercises of
Lent, including the rigorous fasting.
On Good Friday, April 2, 1920, she began her way of the cross
following Christ.
She spent many hours in prayer in the choir.
The
sisters noticed that she had a burning fever and told her to go to bed.
Several doctors examined her and diagnosed an advanced typhus, but
they could not bring about any lessening her fever.
On April 7, Teresa
made her profession, a custom allowed for a novice in danger of
death.
After great physical and spiritual sufferings, she died on April
12, 1920.
Burial, influence and canonisation
Teresa's
burial took place two days later.
The sisters and the family were
surprised to see the convent chapel flooded by people who, although
they did not know Teresa, came to venerate the little saint who had just
died.
Her younger sister Rebeca entered the Carmel of Los Andes in November
that year, convinced that God had called her to substitute for her
sister in the community and continued faithfully in her vocation until
death in 1942.
Pope John Paul II beatified Teresa in Santiago de
Chile in 1987 and canonised her in 1993.
She is the fourth Saint Teresa
in Carmel, along with Saints Teresa of Avila, of Florence and of
Lisieux.