110-627: (Redirected from St Teresa ) Saints named Theresa include: Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582), or Teresa of Jesus, Spaniard, founder of the Discalced Carmelites , and Doctor of the Church Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart (1747–1770), an Italian Discalced Carmelite Theresa of Saint Augustine (1752–1794), Discalced Carmelite and martyr Thérèse Couderc (1805–1885), co-founder of
220-423: A Jiva is either samsari (mundane, caught in cycle of rebirths) or mukta (liberated). According to this belief until the time the soul is liberated from the saṃsāra (cycle of repeated birth and death), it gets attached to one of these bodies based on the karma (actions) of the individual soul. Irrespective of which state the soul is in, it has got the same attributes and qualities. The difference between
330-534: A resurrection . The oldest existing branches of Christianity, the Catholic Church and the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, adhere to this view, as well as many Protestant denominations. Some Protestant Christians understand the soul as life, and believe that the dead have no conscious existence until after the resurrection (this is known as Christian conditionalism ). Some Protestant Christians believe that
440-458: A "constitution". Her plan was the revival of the earlier, stricter monastic rules, supplemented by new regulations including the three disciplines of ceremonial flagellation prescribed for the Divine Office every week, and the discalceation of the religious. For the first five years, Teresa remained in seclusion, mostly engaged in prayer and writing. In 1567, Teresa received a patent from
550-456: A "reformed" Carmelite convent, correcting the laxity which she had found at the Incarnation convent and elsewhere besides. Doña Guiomar of Ulloa, a friend, was granted permission for the project. The abject poverty of the new convent, established in 1562 and named St. Joseph's (San José) , at first caused a scandal among the citizens and authorities of Ávila, and the small house with its chapel
660-754: A Jew forced to convert to Christianity or emigrate. When Teresa's father was a child, Juan was condemned by the Spanish Inquisition for allegedly returning to Judaism , but he was later able to assume a Catholic identity. Her father, Alonso Sánchez de Cepeda , was a successful wool merchant and one of the wealthiest men in Ávila. He bought a knighthood and assimilated successfully into Christian society. Previously married to Catalina del Peso y Henao, with whom he had three children, in 1509, Sánchez de Cepeda married Teresa's mother, Beatriz de Ahumada y Cuevas, in Gotarrendura. A brother, Lorenzo de Cepeda y Ahumada,
770-418: A body and a soul. Paul said that the "body wars against" the soul, "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit" (Heb 4:12 NASB), and that "I buffet my body", to keep it under control. According to Thomas Aquinas , the soul is tota in toto corpore . This means that the soul is entirely contained in every single part of
880-570: A celebrity in her town dispensing wisdom from behind the convent grille, was known for her raptures, which sometimes involved levitation . It was a source of embarrassment to her and she bade her sisters hold her down when this occurred. Subsequently, historians, neurologists and psychiatrists like Peter Fenwick and Javier Álvarez-Rodríguez, among others, have taken an interest in her symptomatology. The fact that she wrote down virtually everything that happened to her during her religious life means that an invaluable and exceedingly rare medical record from
990-580: A deeper devotion to the Virgin Mary as her spiritual mother. Teresa was also enamored of popular fiction, which at the time consisted primarily of medieval tales of knighthood and works about fashion, gardens and flowers. Teresa was sent to the Augustinian nuns' school in Ávila. After completing her education, she initially resisted the idea of a religious vocation, but after a stay with her uncle and other relatives, she relented. In 1534, aged 20, much to
1100-467: A defense of her ecstatic mystical experiences, she discerns four stages in the ascent of the soul to God: mental prayer and meditation; the prayer of quiet; absorption-in-God; ecstatic consciousness. The Interior Castle , written as a spiritual guide for her Carmelite sisters, uses the illustration of seven mansions within the castle of the soul to describe the different states one's soul can be in during life. Forty years after her death, in 1622, Teresa
1210-658: A formative influence upon many theologians of the following centuries, such as Francis of Sales , Fénelon , and the Port-Royalists . In 1670, her coffin was plated in silver. Teresa of Avila is honored in the Church of England and in the Episcopal Church on 15 October. In 1626, at the request of Philip IV of Spain , the Castilian parliament elected Teresa "without lacking one vote" as copatron saint of Castile. This status
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#17333169069211320-562: A great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it ... The account of this vision was the inspiration for one of Bernini 's most famous works, the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa at Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome. Although based in part on Teresa's description of her mystical transverberation in her autobiography, Bernini's depiction of
1430-409: A heavenly gem whose reality the most learned of men hath failed to grasp, and whose mystery no mind, however acute, can ever hope to unravel". Bahá'u'lláh stated that the soul not only continues to live after the physical death of the human body but is in fact immortal. Heaven can be seen partly as the soul's state of nearness to God, and hell as a state of remoteness from God. Each state follows as
1540-506: A life force. The concept of jiva in Jainism is similar to ātman in Hinduism; however, some Hindu traditions differentiate between the two concepts, with jiva considered as individual self, while atman as that which is universal unchanging self that is present in all living beings and everything else as the metaphysical Brahman . The latter is sometimes referred to as jiva-ātman (a soul in
1650-530: A living body). The Quran , the holy book of Islam , uses two words to refer to the soul: rūḥ (translated as spirit, consciousness, pneuma, or soul) and nafs (translated as self, ego, psyche, or soul), cognates of the Hebrew ruach and nefesh . The two terms are frequently used interchangeably, although rūḥ is more often used to denote the divine spirit or "the breath of life", while nafs designates one's disposition or characteristics. In Islamic philosophy,
1760-411: A metaphor for mystical prayer: The Interior Castle is divided into seven mansions (also called dwelling places), each level describing a step to get closer to God. In her work, Teresa already assumed entrance into the first mansions by prayer and meditation . The purgative stage, involving active prayer and asceticism : Soul (spirit) In many religious and philosophical traditions,
1870-613: A more contemporary patron who understood those issues and could guide the Spanish nation. Santiago's supporters ( Santiaguistas ) fought back and eventually won the argument, but Teresa of Ávila remained far more popular at the local level. James the Great kept the title of patron saint for the Spanish people , and the most Blessed Virgin Mary under the title Immaculate Conception as the sole patroness for
1980-517: A most beautiful crystal globe, made in the shape of a castle, and containing seven mansions, in the seventh and innermost of which was the King of Glory, in the greatest splendour, illumining and beautifying them all. The nearer one got to the centre, the stronger was the light; outside the palace limits everything was foul, dark and infested with toads, vipers and other venomous creatures." Christia Mercer , Columbia University philosophy professor, claims that
2090-483: A natural consequence of individual efforts, or the lack thereof, to develop spiritually. Bahá'u'lláh taught that individuals have no existence prior to their life here on earth and the soul's evolution is always towards God and away from the material world. The traditional doctrine in Buddhism regarding the soul, self, or ego is that it is non-existent as a separate, permanent entity. The non-existence of self ( anatman ),
2200-464: A number of resolutions adopted at the general chapter at Piacenza , the governing body of the order forbade all further founding of reformed convents. The general chapter instructed her to go into "voluntary" retirement at one of her institutions. She obeyed and chose St. Joseph's at Toledo. Meanwhile, her friends and associates were subjected to further attacks. Several years later, her appeals by letter to King Philip II of Spain secured relief. As
2310-860: A result, in 1579, the cases before the inquisition against her, Gracián and others, were dropped. This allowed the reform to resume. An edict from Pope Gregory XIII allowed the appointment of a special provincial for the newer branch of the Carmelite religious, and a royal decree created a "protective" board of four assessors for the reform. During the last three years of her life, Teresa founded convents at Villanueva de la Jara in northern Andalusia (1580), Palencia (1580), Soria (1581), Burgos , and Granada (1582). In total, seventeen convents, all but one founded by her, and as many men's monasteries, were owed to her reforms over twenty years. Her final illness overtook her on one of her journeys from Burgos to Alba de Tormes. She died in 1582, just as Catholic Europe
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#17333169069212420-428: A role in judgments on the morality of abortion . Some Christians espouse a trichotomic view of humans, which characterizes humans as consisting of a body ( soma ), soul ( psyche ), and spirit ( pneuma ); however, the majority of modern Bible scholars point out how the concepts of "spirit" and of "soul" are used interchangeably in many biblical passages, and so hold to dichotomy: the view that each human comprises
2530-432: A shadow. In some cases, it is connected to shamanistic beliefs among the various Inuit groups . Caribou Inuit groups also believed in several types of souls. Shinto distinguishes between the souls of living persons ( tamashii ) and those of dead persons ( mitama ), each of which may have different aspects or sub-souls. Sikhism considers soul ( atma ) to be part of God ( Waheguru ). Various hymns are cited from
2640-473: A spiritual soul with a corporeal soul. Ātman is a Sanskrit word that means inner self or soul. In Hindu philosophy , especially in the Vedanta school of Hinduism , ātman is the first principle , the true self of an individual beyond identification with phenomena, the essence of an individual. In order to attain liberation ( moksha ) , a human being must acquire self-knowledge ( atma jnana ), which
2750-546: A typical human concept of lifespan and time. According to Louis Ginzberg , the soul of Adam is the image of God . Every soul of human also escapes from the body every night, rises up to heaven, and fetches new life thence for the body of man. In Brahma Kumaris , human souls are believed to be incorporeal and eternal . God is considered to be the Supreme Soul, with maximum degrees of spiritual qualities, such as peace, love and purity. In Helena Blavatsky 's Theosophy ,
2860-454: Is an entity or "spiritual spark" or "light" in the human body - because of which the body can sustain life. On the departure of this entity from the body, the body becomes lifeless – no amount of manipulations to the body can make the person make any physical actions. The soul is the "driver" in the body. It is the roohu or spirit or atma , the presence of which makes the physical body alive. Many religious and philosophical traditions support
2970-546: Is attributed to Teresa, having been found within her breviary: Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing make you afraid. All things are passing. God alone never changes. Patience gains all things. If you have God you will want for nothing. God alone suffices. The ultimate preoccupation of Teresa's mystical thought, as consistently reflected in her writings, is the ascent of the soul to God. Aumann notes that, "the grades of prayer described in The Life do not correspond to
3080-438: Is called animism . In the ancient Egyptian religion , an individual was believed to be made up of various elements, some physical and some spiritual. Similar ideas are found in ancient Assyrian and Babylonian religion. The Kuttamuwa stele , a funeral stele for an 8th-century BCE royal official from Sam'al , describes Kuttamuwa requesting that his mourners commemorate his life and his afterlife with feasts "for my soul that
3190-432: Is called a tzadik . Therefore, Judaism embraces the commemoration of the day of one's death, nahala / Yahrtzeit , and not the birthday , as a festivity of remembrance, for only toward the end of life's struggles, tests and challenges could human souls be judged and credited for righteousness. Judaism places great importance on the study of the souls. Kabbalah and other mystic traditions go into greater detail into
3300-401: Is called good—happiness, wisdom, love, compassion, harmony, peace, and so on. While the spirit is eternal and incorruptible, the soul is not. The soul acts as a link between the material body and the spiritual self, and therefore shares some characteristics of both. The soul can be attracted either towards the spiritual or towards the material realm, being thus the battlefield of good and evil. It
3410-427: Is cognate with other historical Germanic terms for the same idea, including Old Frisian sēle, sēl (which could also mean "salvation", or "solemn oath"), Gothic saiwala , Old High German sēula, sēla , Old Saxon sēola , and Old Norse sāla . Present-day cognates include Dutch ziel and German Seele . In Judaism and in some Christian denominations, only human beings have immortal souls. Immortality
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3520-464: Is created immediately by God." Protestants generally believe in the soul's existence and immortality, but fall into two major camps about what this means in terms of an afterlife . Some, following John Calvin , believe that the soul persists as consciousness after death. Others, following Martin Luther , believe that the soul dies with the body , and is unconscious ("sleeps") until the resurrection of
3630-560: Is derived from Old English sāwol, sāwel . The earliest attestations reported in the Oxford English Dictionary are from the 8th century. In King Alfred 's translation of De Consolatione Philosophiae , it is used to refer to the immaterial, spiritual, or thinking aspect of a person, as contrasted with the person's physical body; in the Vespasian Psalter 77.50, it means "life" or "animate existence". The Old English word
3740-507: Is different from Wikidata Teresa of %C3%81vila Teresa of Ávila , OCD ( Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda Dávila y Ahumada ; 28 March 1515 – 4 or 15 October 1582), also called Saint Teresa of Jesus , was a Carmelite nun and prominent Spanish mystic and religious reformer . Active during the Counter-Reformation , Teresa became the central figure of a movement of spiritual and monastic renewal, reforming
3850-522: Is disputed within Judaism and the concept of immortality was most likely influenced by Plato . For example, Thomas Aquinas , borrowing directly from Aristotle 's On the Soul , attributed "soul" ( anima ) to all organisms but argued that only human souls are immortal. Other religions (most notably Hinduism and Jainism ) believe that all living things from the smallest bacterium to the largest of mammals are
3960-431: Is immortal, and eternal, and capable of receiving a fulness of joy. Latter-day Saint cosmology also describes "intelligences" as the essence of consciousness or agency. These are co-eternal with God, and animate the spirits. The union of a newly-created spirit body with an eternally-existing intelligence constitutes a "spirit birth", and justifies God's title "Father of our spirits". Some Confucian traditions contrast
4070-574: Is in this stele". It is one of the earliest references to a soul as a separate entity from the body. The 800-pound (360 kg) basalt stele is 3 ft (0.91 m) tall and 2 ft (0.61 m) wide. It was uncovered in the third season of excavations by the Neubauer Expedition of the Oriental Institute in Chicago, Illinois. The Baháʼí Faith affirms that "the soul is a sign of God,
4180-407: Is no beginning or end to the existence of soul. It is eternal in nature and changes its form until it attains liberation. In Jainism, jiva is the immortal essence or soul of a living organism, such as human, animal, fish, or plant, which survives physical death. The concept of Ajiva in Jainism means "not soul", and represents matter (including body), time, space, non-motion and motion. In Jainism,
4290-464: Is of greatest value in [them], that by which [they are] most especially in God's image: 'soul' signifies the spiritual principle in [humanity]." All souls living and dead will be judged by Jesus Christ when he comes back to earth . The Catholic Church teaches that the existence of each individual soul is dependent wholly upon God, stating: "The doctrine of the faith affirms that the spiritual and immortal soul
4400-618: Is only when the soul is attracted towards the spiritual and merges with the Self that it becomes eternal and divine. Rudolf Steiner claimed classical trichotomic stages of soul development, which interpenetrated one another in consciousness: In Surat Shabda Yoga , the soul is considered to be an exact replica and spark of the Divine. The purpose of Surat Shabd Yoga is to realize one's True Self as soul (Self-Realisation), True Essence (Spirit-Realisation) and True Divinity (God-Realisation) while living in
4510-664: Is reputed to have given it to a noblewoman travelling to Prague . The age of the statue dates to approximately the same time as Teresa. It has been thought that Teresa carried a portable statue of the Child Jesus wherever she went; the idea circulated by the early 1700s. The autobiography La Vida de la Santa Madre Teresa de Jesús ( The Life of the Holy Mother Teresa of Jesus ) was written at Avila between 1562 and 1565, but published posthumously. Editions include: The Way of Perfection ( Spanish : Camino de Perfección )
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4620-409: Is said to be one whose souls are in harmony with each other, while an evil person is one whose souls are in conflict. The "free soul" is said to leave the body and journey to the spirit world during sleep, trance-like states , delirium , insanity , and death. The duality is also seen in the healing traditions of Austronesian shamans, where illnesses are regarded as a " soul loss " and thus to heal
4730-399: Is said to have mental illness or unconsciousness , while a dead soul may reincarnate to a disability , lower desire realms , or may even be unable to reincarnate. In theological reference to the soul, the terms "life" and "death" are viewed as emphatically more definitive than the common concepts of " biological life " and "biological death". Because the soul is said to be transcendent of
4840-422: Is the belief that humans have two or more souls, generally termed the "body soul", or "life soul", and the "free soul". The former is linked to bodily functions and awareness when awake, while the latter can freely wander during sleep or trance states. In some cases, there are a plethora of soul types with different functions. Soul dualism and multiple souls are prominent in the traditional animistic beliefs of
4950-438: Is to realize that one's true self ( ātman ) is identical with the transcendent self Brahman according to Advaita Vedanta . The six orthodox schools of Hinduism believe that there is ātman (self, essence) in every being. In Hinduism and Jainism , a jiva ( Sanskrit : जीव , jīva , alternative spelling jiwa ; Hindi : जीव , jīv , alternative spelling jeev ) is a living being, or any entity imbued with
5060-490: The Tractatus de oratione et meditatione of Peter of Alcantara . Her zeal for mortification caused her to become ill again and she spent almost a year in bed, causing huge worry to her community and family. She nearly died but she recovered, attributing her recovery to the miraculous intercession of Saint Joseph. She began to experience bouts of religious ecstasy . She reported that, during her illness, she had progressed from
5170-443: The material existence, and is said to have (potentially) eternal life , the death of the soul is likewise said to be an eternal death . Thus, in the concept of divine judgment , God is commonly said to have options with regard to the dispensation of souls, ranging from Heaven (i.e., angels ) to hell (i.e., demons ), with various concepts in between. Typically both Heaven and hell are said to be eternal, or at least far beyond
5280-620: The Austronesian peoples , the Chinese people ( hún and pò ), the Tibetan people , most African peoples, most Native North Americans , ancient South Asian peoples, Northern Eurasian peoples, and in Ancient Egyptians (the ka and ba ). The belief in soul dualism is found throughout most Austronesian shamanistic traditions. The reconstructed Proto-Austronesian word for
5390-551: The German Dominican Mystics . She is intensely personal, her system going exactly as far as her experiences, but not a step further." Teresa describes in the Interior Castle that the treasure of heaven lies buried within our hearts, and that there is an interior part of the heart which is the centre of the soul. In her autobiography she describes four stages, in which she uses the image of watering one's garden as
5500-412: The soul is the non-material essence of a person, which includes one's identity , personality , and memories , an immaterial aspect or essence of a living being that is believed to be able to survive physical death . The concept of the soul is generally applied to humans, although it can also be applied to other living or even non-living entities, as in animism . The Modern English noun soul
5610-522: The "body soul" is *nawa ("breath", "life", or "vital spirit"). It is located somewhere in the abdominal cavity , often in the liver or the heart (Proto-Austronesian *qaCay ). The "free soul" is located in the head. Its names are usually derived from Proto-Austronesian *qaNiCu ("ghost", "spirit [of the dead]"), which also apply to other non-human nature spirits. The "free soul" is also referred to in names that literally mean "twin" or "double", from Proto-Austronesian *duSa ("two"). A virtuous person
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#17333169069215720-552: The 16th century has been preserved. Examination of this record has led to the speculative conclusion that she may have suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy . Over time, Teresa found herself increasingly at odds with the spiritual malaise prevailing in her convent of the Incarnation. Among the 150 nuns living there, the observance of cloister , designed to protect and strengthen spiritual practice and prayer, became so lax that it appeared to lose its purpose. The daily invasion of visitors, many of high social and political rank, disturbed
5830-499: The Carmelite General, Rubeo de Ravenna, to establish further houses of the new order . This process required many visitations and long journeys across nearly all the provinces of Spain. She left a record of the arduous project in her Libro de las Fundaciones . Between 1567 and 1571, reformed convents were established at Medina del Campo , Malagón , Valladolid , Toledo , Pastrana , Salamanca , and Alba de Tormes . As part of
5940-620: The Carmelite Orders of both women and men. The movement was later joined by the younger Carmelite friar and mystic Saint John of the Cross , with whom she established the Discalced Carmelites . A formal papal decree adopting the split from the old order was issued in 1580. Her autobiography, The Life of Teresa of Jesus , and her books The Interior Castle and The Way of Perfection are prominent works on Christian mysticism and Christian meditation practice. In her autobiography, written as
6050-512: The Church") with a diploma in her lifetime, but that title is distinct from the papal honour of Doctor of the Church , which is always conferred posthumously. The latter was finally bestowed upon her by Pope Paul VI on 27 September 1970, along with Catherine of Siena , making them the first women to be awarded the distinction. Teresa is revered as the Doctor of Prayer. The mysticism in her works exerted
6160-736: The Jewish notions of nephesh (נפש) and ruah (רוח), meaning spirit, (also in the Septuagint, e.g. Genesis 1:2 רוּחַ אֱלֹהִים = πνεῦμα θεοῦ = spiritus Dei = "the Spirit of God"). Christians generally believe in the existence and eternal, infinite nature of the soul. The "origin of the soul" has provided a vexing question in Christianity. The major theories put forward include soul creationism , traducianism , and pre-existence . According to soul creationism, God creates each individual soul directly, either at
6270-609: The Missionaries of Charity See also [ edit ] Saint Teresa (disambiguation) Santa Teresa (disambiguation) Sainte Thérèse (disambiguation) Teresa , the feminine given name All pages beginning with Saint Teresa , St Teresa or St. Teresa Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_saints_named_Teresa&oldid=1196777181 " Categories : Lists of saints by name Set index articles Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description
6380-477: The Order of Discalced Carmelites, Father Marco Chiesa, announced that those present at the scene were able to see that "it is in the same condition as when it was last opened in 1914." In 1622, forty years after her death, she was canonized by Pope Gregory XV . The Cortes exalted her to patroness of Spain in 1627. The University of Salamanca had granted her the title Doctor ecclesiae ( Latin for "Doctor of
6490-900: The Sisters of the Cenacle Maria Teresa of St. Joseph (1855–1938), founder of the Carmelite Daughters of the Divine Heart of Jesus Therese of Lisieux (1873–1897), or Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, French Discalced Carmelite nun, and Doctor of the Church Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (1891–1942), German Discalced Carmelite Teresa of Jesus of Los Andes (1900–1920), Chilean Discalced Carmelite Mother Teresa , ("Teresa of Calcutta") (1910–1997), founder of
6600-465: The Teresian order, gave her powerful support in founding monasteries at Segovia (1571), Beas de Segura (1574), Seville (1575), and Caravaca de la Cruz ( Murcia , 1576). Meanwhile, John of the Cross promoted the inner life of the movement through his power as a teacher and preacher. In 1576, unreformed members of the Carmelite order began to persecute Teresa, her supporters and her reforms. Following
6710-488: The approval of the Holy Apostolic See . More broadly, the 1620s, the entirety of Spain (Castile and beyond) debated who should be the country's patron saint ; the choices were either the current patron, James Matamoros , or a pairing of him and the newly canonised Saint Teresa of Ávila. Teresa's promoters said Spain faced newer challenges, especially the threat of Protestantism and societal decline at home, thus needing
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#17333169069216820-477: The atmosphere with frivolous concerns and vacuous conversation. Such intrusions in the solitude essential to develop and sustain contemplative prayer so grieved Teresa that she longed to intervene. The incentive to take the practical steps inspired by her inward motivation was supported by the Franciscan priest, Peter of Alcantara , who met her early in 1560 and became her spiritual adviser . She resolved to found
6930-416: The body are the soul of man." Latter-day Saints believe that the soul is the union of a pre-existing, God-made spirit, and a temporal body, which is formed by physical conception on earth. After death, the spirit continues to live and progress in the spirit world until the resurrection , when it is reunited with the body that once housed it. This reuniting of body and spirit results in a perfect soul that
7040-445: The body is a collection of elements and the soul is the essence. Soul or psyche ( Ancient Greek : ψυχή psykhḗ , of ψύχειν psýkhein , "to breathe", cf. Latin anima ) comprises the mental abilities of a living being: reason, character, free will , feeling, consciousness , qualia , memory, perception, thinking, and so on. Depending on the philosophical system, a soul can either be mortal or immortal . The ancient Greeks used
7150-440: The dead . Various new religious movements deriving from Adventism including Christadelphians , Seventh-day Adventists , and Jehovah's Witnesses , similarly believe that the dead do not possess a soul separate from the body and are unconscious until the resurrection. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that the spirit and body together constitute the Soul of Man (Mankind), stating: "The spirit and
7260-587: The disappointment of her pious and austere father, she decided to enter the local easy-going Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation , significantly built on top of land that had been used previously as a burial ground for Jews. She took up religious reading on contemplative prayer, especially Osuna 's Abecedario espiritual ("Third Spiritual Alphabet," 1527), a guide on examination of conscience and "spiritual self-concentration and inner contemplation, known in mystical nomenclature as oratio recollectionis ". She also dipped into other mystical ascetical works such as
7370-586: The division of prayer commonly given in the manuals of spiritual life", due to the fact that "St. Teresa did not write a systematic theology of prayer". According to Zimmerman, "In all her writings on this subject she deals with her personal experiences [...] there is no vestige in her writings of any influence of the Areopagite , the Patristic , or the Scholastic Mystical schools, as represented among others, by
7480-503: The entire Spanish Kingdom . The Spanish nuns who established Carmel in France brought a devotion to the Infant Jesus with them, and it became widespread in France. Though there are no written historical accounts establishing that Teresa of Ávila ever owned the famous Infant Jesus of Prague statue, according to tradition, such a statue is said to have been in her possession and Teresa
7590-412: The event is considered by some to be highly eroticized, especially when compared to the entire preceding artistic Teresian tradition. The memory of this episode served as an inspiration throughout the rest of her life, and motivated her lifelong imitation of the life and suffering of Jesus, epitomized in the adage often associated with her: "Lord, either let me suffer or let me die" Teresa, who became
7700-436: The famous transverberation , a seraph drove the fiery point of a golden lance repeatedly through her heart, causing her an ineffable spiritual and bodily pain: I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with
7810-548: The holy book Guru Granth Sahib (SGGS) that suggests this belief. "God is in the Soul and the Soul is in the God." The same concept is repeated at various pages of the SGGS. Example include that "The soul is divine; divine is the soul. Worship Him with love", and "The soul is the Lord, and the Lord is the soul; contemplating the Shabad, the Lord is found." The atma or soul according to Sikhism
7920-566: The hour that I have longed for has come. It is time to meet one another." She was buried at the Convento de la Anunciación in Alba de Tormes . Nine months after her death the coffin was opened and her body was found to be intact but the clothing had rotted. Before the body was re-interred one of her hands was cut off, wrapped in a scarf and sent to Ávila. Gracián cut the little finger off the hand and – according to his own account – kept it with him until it
8030-501: The human body, and therefore ubiquitous and cannot be placed in a single organ, such as heart or brain, nor it is separable from the body (except after the body's death). In the fourth book of De Trinitate , Augustine of Hippo states that the soul is all in the whole body and all in any part of it. The present Catechism of the Catholic Church states that "[The term 'soul'] refers to the innermost aspect of [persons], that which
8140-533: The immortal rūḥ "drives" the mortal nafs, which comprises temporal desires and perceptions necessary for living. Several verses of the Quran that mention the rûh occur in chapters 17 ("The Night Journey") and 39 ("The Troops"). And they ask you, [O Muhammad], about the Rûh. Say, "The Rûh is of the affair of my Lord. And mankind has not been given of knowledge except a little. And remember your Rabb inside your-self Allah takes
8250-566: The impermanence of all things ( anitya ), and the suffering ( dukkha ) experienced by living beings due to attachment to ideas of self and permanence are central concepts in almost all Buddhist schools . The doctrine of Buddha-nature , while sometimes misinterpreted as referring to a "true self" or "soul" of some kind, actually depends upon acceptance of the concept of anatman to be properly understood. According to some Christian eschatology , when people die, their souls will be judged by God and determined to go to Heaven or to Hades awaiting
8360-502: The inherent nature of original sin . Around the same time, she received a copy of the full Spanish translation of Augustine of Hippo 's autobiographical work Confessions , which helped her resolve and to tend to her own bouts of religious scruples . The text helped her realize that holiness was indeed possible and she found solace in the idea that such a great saint was once an inveterate sinner. In her autobiography, she wrote that she "was very fond of St. Augustine [...] for he
8470-455: The liberated and non-liberated souls is that the qualities and attributes are manifested completely in case of siddha (liberated soul) as they have overcome all the karmic bondages whereas in case of non-liberated souls they are partially exhibited. Souls who rise victorious over wicked emotions while still remaining within physical bodies are referred to as arihants . Concerning the Jain view of
8580-484: The limbs are active, but when one is sleeping, the soul is active and reveals "an award of joy or sorrow drawing near" in dreams. Erwin Rohde writes that an early pre- Pythagorean belief presented the soul as lifeless when it departed the body, and that it retired into Hades with no hope of returning to a body. Plato was the first thinker in antiquity to combine the various functions of the soul into one coherent conception:
8690-464: The lowest stage of "recollection", to the "devotions of silence" and even to the "devotions of ecstasy", in which was one of perceived in "perfect union with God" (see § Mysticism ). She said she frequently experienced the rich "blessing of tears" during this final stage. As the Catholic distinction between mortal and venial sin became clear to her, she came to understand the awful horror of sin and
8800-477: The moment of conception or at some later time. According to traducianism, the soul comes from the parents by natural generation. According to the preexistence theory, the soul exists before the moment of conception. There have been differing thoughts regarding whether human embryos have souls from conception, or whether there is a point between conception and birth where the fetus acquires a soul , consciousness , and / or personhood . Stances in this question play
8910-405: The nature of the soul. Kabbalah separates the soul into five elements, corresponding to the five worlds : Kabbalah proposed a concept of reincarnation, the gilgul ( nefesh habehamit – the "animal soul"). Some Jewish traditions assert that the soul is housed in the luz bone, though traditions disagree as to whether it is the atlas at the top of the spine, or the sacrum at bottom of
9020-571: The original patent, Teresa was given permission to set up two houses for men who wished to adopt the reforms. She convinced two Carmelite friars, John of the Cross and Anthony of Jesus to help with this. They founded the first monastery of Discalced Carmelite brothers in November 1568 at Duruelo . Another friend of Teresa, Jerónimo Gracián , the Carmelite visitator of the older observance of Andalusia and apostolic commissioner, and later provincial of
9130-681: The physical body. Similarly, the spiritual teacher Meher Baba held that "Atman, or the soul, is in reality identical with Paramatma the Oversoul – which is one, infinite, and eternal ... [and] [t]he sole purpose of creation is for the soul to enjoy the infinite state of the Oversoul consciously." Eckankar , founded by Paul Twitchell in 1965, defines Soul as the true self; the inner, most sacred part of each person. George Gurdjieff taught that humans are not born with immortal souls but could develop them through certain efforts. Greek philosophers, such as Socrates , Plato , and Aristotle , understood that
9240-594: The seventeenth-century Frenchman René Descartes lifted some of his most influential ideas from Teresa of Ávila, who, fifty years before Descartes, wrote popular books about the role of philosophical reflection in intellectual growth. She describes a number of striking similarities between Descartes's seminal work Meditations on First Philosophy and Teresa's Interior Castle . St. Teresa's mystical experiences have inspired several authors in modern times, but not necessarily from Teresa's Christian theological perspective. The prayer Nada te turbe (Let nothing disturb you)
9350-434: The sick, one must "return" the "free soul" (which may have been stolen by an evil spirit or got lost in the spirit world) into the body. If the "free soul" can not be returned, the afflicted person dies or goes permanently insane. The shaman heals within the spiritual dimension by returning 'lost' parts of the human soul from wherever they have gone. The shaman also cleanses excess negative energies, which confuse or pollute
9460-436: The soul (ψυχή, psykhḗ ) must have a logical faculty, the exercise of which was the most divine of human actions. At his defense trial, Socrates even summarized his teachings as nothing other than an exhortation for his fellow Athenians to excel in matters of the psyche since all bodily goods are dependent on such excellence ( Apology 30a–b). Aristotle reasoned that a man's body and soul were his matter and form respectively:
9570-550: The soul after death. Many within these religions and philosophies see the soul as immaterial, while others consider it possibly material. According to Chinese traditions, every person has two types of soul called hun and po ( Chinese : 魂and 魄 ; pinyin : Hún and Pò ), which are respectively yang and yin . Taoism believes in Ten souls, Sanhunqipo ( Chinese : 三魂七魄 ; pinyin : Sān hún qī pò ) ( 三魂七魄 ) "three hun and seven po ". A living being that loses any of them
9680-610: The soul is "thetan", derived from the Greek word theta , symbolizing thought. Scientologists practice a form of counselling (called auditing ) which aims to address the soul to improve abilities, both worldly and spiritual. Soul dualism, also called "multiple souls" or "dualistic pluralism", is a common belief in Shamanism , and is essential in the universal and central concept of "soul flight" (also called "soul journey", " out-of-body experience ", " ecstasy ", or " astral projection "). It
9790-446: The soul is that which moves things (i.e., that which gives life, on the view that life is self-motion) by means of its thoughts, requiring that it be both a mover and a thinker. Drawing on the words of his teacher Socrates, Plato considered the psyche to be the essence of a person, being that which decides how humans behave. He considered this essence to be an incorporeal, eternal occupant of our being. Plato said that even after death,
9900-399: The soul is the field of our psychological activity (thinking, emotions, memory, desires, will, and so on) as well as of the paranormal or psychic phenomena, such as extrasensory perception or out-of-body experiences; however, the soul is not the highest, but a middle dimension of human beings. Higher than the soul is the spirit, which is considered to be the real self; the source of everything
10010-550: The soul or spirit. In Judaism , there was originally little to no concept of a soul. As seen in the Genesis , the divine breath simply animated bodies. Then Yahweh God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and so the man became a living being. Judaism relates the quality of one's soul to one's performance of the commandments ( mitzvot ) and reaching higher levels of understanding, and thus closeness to God. A person with such closeness
10120-529: The soul, Virchand Gandhi said that "the soul lives its own life, not for the purpose of the body, but the body lives for the purpose of the soul. If we believe that the soul is to be controlled by the body then soul misses its power." The Hebrew terms נפש nefesh (literally "living being"), רוח ruach (literally "wind"), נשמה neshamah (literally "breath"), חיה chayah (literally "life") and יחידה yechidah (literally "singularity") are used to describe
10230-452: The soul. In some ethnic groups, there can also be more than two souls. Like among the Tagbanwa people , where a person is said to have six souls – the "free soul" (which is regarded as the "true" soul) and five secondary souls with various functions. Several Inuit groups believe that a person has more than one type of soul. One is associated with respiration, the other can accompany the body as
10340-552: The souls and bodies of the unrighteous will be destroyed in Hell rather than suffering eternally ( annihilationism ). Believers will inherit eternal life either in Heaven, or in a Kingdom of God on earth, and enjoy eternal fellowship with God. Other Christians reject the punishment of the soul. Paul the Apostle used psychē ( ψυχή ) and pneuma ( πνεῦμα ) specifically to distinguish between
10450-403: The souls at the time of their death, and those that do not die [He takes] during their sleep. Then He keeps those for which He has decreed death and releases the others for a specified term. Indeed in that are signs for a people who give thought.. In Jainism, every living being, from plant or bacterium to human, has a soul and the concept forms the very basis of Jainism. According to Jainism, there
10560-509: The souls themselves ( Atman and jiva ) and have their physical representative (the body) in the world. The actual self is the soul, while the body is only a mechanism to experience the karma of that life. Thus, if one sees a tiger then there is a self-conscious identity residing in it (the soul), and a physical representative (the whole body of the tiger, which is observable) in the world. Many people believe that non-biological things, such as rivers and mountains, also possess souls. This belief
10670-448: The spine. The Scientology view is that a person does not have a soul, it is a soul. It is the belief of the religion that they do not have the power to force adherents' conclusions. Therefore, a person is immortal, and may be reincarnated if they wish. Scientologists view that one's future happiness and immortality, as guided by their spirituality, is influenced by how they live and act during their time on earth. Scientology's term for
10780-450: The term " ensouled " to represent the concept of being alive, indicating that the earliest surviving Western philosophical view believed that the soul was that which gave the body life. The soul was considered the incorporeal or spiritual "breath" that animates (from the Latin anima , cf. "animal") the living organism. Francis M. Cornford quotes Pindar by saying that the soul sleeps while
10890-430: The view that the soul is the ethereal substance – a spirit; a non-material spark – particular to a unique living being. Such traditions often consider the soul both immortal and innately aware of its immortal nature, as well as the true basis for sentience in each living being. The concept of the soul has strong links with notions of an afterlife, but opinions may vary wildly even within a given religion as to what happens to
11000-424: Was canonized by Pope Gregory XV . On 27 September 1970 Pope Paul VI proclaimed Teresa the first female Doctor of the Church in recognition of her centuries-long spiritual legacy to Catholicism . Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda Dávila y Ahumada was born on 28 March 1515. Her birthplace was either Ávila or Gotarrendura . Her paternal grandfather, Juan Sánchez de Toledo, was a marrano or converso ,
11110-601: Was a sinner too". Around 1556, friends suggested that her newfound knowledge could be of diabolical rather than divine origin. She had begun to inflict mortifications of the flesh upon herself. But her confessor , the Jesuit Francis Borgia , reassured her of the divine inspiration of her thoughts. On St. Peter's Day in 1559, Teresa became firmly convinced that Jesus Christ had presented himself to her in bodily form, though invisible. These visions lasted almost uninterruptedly for more than two years. In another vision,
11220-511: Was affirmed by Pope Urban VIII in a brief issued on 21 July 1627 in which he stated: For these reasons [the king's and Cortes's elections] and for the great devotion which they have for Teresa, they elected her for patron and advocate of these kingdoms in the last Cortes of the aforementioned kingdoms ... And because ... the representatives in the Cortes desired it so greatly that their vote be firm and perpetual, we grant it our patronage and
11330-553: Was done without the approval of the Duke of Alba de Tormes and he brought the body back in 1586, with Pope Sixtus V ordering that it remain in Alba de Tormes on pain of excommunication. A grander tomb on the original site was raised in 1598 and the body was moved to a new chapel in 1616. The body still remains there, except for the following parts: On August 28, 2024, it was made the canonical recognition of Teresa's body. The postulator general of
11440-409: Was in peril of suppression. However, powerful patrons, including the local bishop, coupled with the impression of well ordered subsistence and purpose, turned animosity into approval. In March 1563, after Teresa had moved to the new convent house, she received papal sanction for her primary principles of absolute poverty and renunciation of ownership of property, which she proceeded to formulate into
11550-550: Was making the switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar , which required the excision of the dates of 5–14 October from the calendar. She died either before midnight of 4 October or early in the morning of 15 October, which is celebrated as her feast day. According to the liturgical calendar then in use, she died on the 15th. Her last words were: "My Lord, it is time to move on. Well then, may your will be done. O my Lord and my Spouse,
11660-571: Was published in 1566. Teresa called this a "living book" and in it set out to teach her nuns how to progress through prayer and Christian meditation . She discusses the rationale for being a Carmelite, and the rest deals with the purpose of and approaches to spiritual life. The title was inspired by the devotional book The Imitation of Christ (1418) which had become a favourite expression of Teresa much before she wrote this work, as it appeared at several places in her autobiography, The Life of Teresa of Jesus . Like her other books, The Way of Perfection
11770-482: Was taken by the occupying Ottoman Turks , from whom he had to redeem it with a few rings and 20 reales. The body was exhumed again on 25 November 1585 to be moved to Ávila and found to be incorrupt. An arm was removed and left in Alba de Tormes at the nuns' request, to compensate for losing the main relic of Teresa, but the rest of the body was reburied in the Discalced Carmelite chapter house in Ávila. The removal
11880-504: Was the father of Teresa de Ahumada . Teresa's mother brought her up as a dedicated Christian. Fascinated by accounts of the lives of the saints, she ran away from home at age seven, with her brother Rodrigo, to seek martyrdom in the fight against the Moors . Her uncle brought them home, when he spotted them just outside the town walls. When Teresa was eleven years old, her mother died, leaving her grief-stricken. This prompted her to embrace
11990-559: Was written in 1577, and published in 1588. It contained the basis for what she felt should be the ideal journey of faith , comparing the contemplative soul to a castle with seven successive interior courts, or chambers, analogous to the seven mansions. The work was inspired by her vision of the soul as a diamond in the shape of a castle containing seven mansions, which she interpreted as the journey of faith through seven stages, ending with union with God. Fray Diego, one of Teresa's former confessors wrote that God revealed to Teresa: ...
12100-519: Was written on the advice of her counsellors to describe her experiences in prayer during the period when the Reformation was spreading through Europe. Herein she describes ways of attaining spiritual perfection through prayer and its four stages, as in meditation , quiet , repose of soul and finally perfect union with God , which she equates with rapture. The Interior Castle , or The Mansions , ( Spanish : El Castillo Interior or Las Moradas )
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