Mujeres en la Iglesia: cuatro voces sabias

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Women in the Church: Four Wise Voices

Saint Teresa of Jesus (1515–1582)

Also known as Teresa of Ávila, she was born on March 28, 1515, in Ávila, into a large family. From a young age, she showed deep inner sensitivity and a fondness for reading, especially lives of saints.

At twenty, she entered the Carmelite convent of the Incarnation, a decision marked by doubts and difficulties. Her early years of religious life were shaped by a serious illness and an inconsistent spiritual life, which she herself recounted with great sincerity.

Around age forty, Teresa experienced a profound conversion that transformed her understanding of faith and prayer. From then on, her life focused on interior prayer and a desire to live the Gospel more authentically.

Convinced of the need for spiritual renewal, she promoted Carmelite reform and founded the Discalced Carmelites, communities characterized by simple, fraternal living centered on prayer. This work took her across much of Spain, facing misunderstandings and conflicts, especially as a woman in a context unfavorable to female initiative.

Alongside her founding efforts, Teresa was a prolific writer. Her works stand out for accessible language, everyday imagery, and profound humanity, presenting prayer as a living friendship with God, available to anyone.

Key writings include The Book of Her Life, The Way of Perfection, and The Mansions or Interior Castle. In The Mansions, she uses the image of an interior castle with various rooms to describe the spiritual journey, from self-knowledge to union with God at the soul's depths.

Saint Teresa died on October 4, 1582, in Alba de Tormes. She was canonized in 1622 and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1970, recognizing her ongoing spiritual inspiration.

Saint Catherine of Siena (1347–1380)

Born in Siena in 1347 into a large family of prosperous artisans, she showed an intense prayer life and radical desire for consecration to God from a young age.

At sixteen, she joined as a Dominican tertiary, initially living in seclusion at home while serving the poor and sick. Lacking formal academic training—she couldn't read or write at first—she developed profound mystical experiences, later described in one of the medieval era's most influential spiritual works: The Dialogue of Divine Providence.

Her life was not solely contemplative. In the turbulent 14th century, amid Italian city wars and the Avignon Papacy, Catherine actively mediated in politics and Church affairs.

She corresponded extensively with kings, rulers, and Pope Gregory XI, firmly urging him to return to Rome, which happened in 1377.

Spiritually, Catherine offered a Christocentric and Trinitarian mysticism centered on "self-knowledge in God" and Christ's Blood as a source of mercy and new life. In The Dialogue, she develops a theology of grace, charity, and filial obedience to the Church, uniting contemplation with active worldly engagement. For her, holiness is heart and social transformation through love, not escape.

Catherine died in Rome on April 29, 1380, at age 33. The Catholic Church declared her a Doctor of the Church in 1970 alongside Teresa of Jesus, due to her theological depth, accessible yet demanding spirituality, and creative fidelity to the papacy, even in prophetic critique. She embodies a synthesis of inner experience and ecclesial responsibility, remaining a reference for contemporary Christian spirituality.

Saint Teresa of Lisieux (1873-1897)

Also known as Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, she was born in Alençon, Normandy, on January 2, 1873.

The youngest of nine children of the blessed Louis Martin and Zélie Guérin, four siblings died young, and the five surviving girls all entered religious life. After her mother's death when Teresa was four, the family moved to Lisieux, growing up in a deeply religious environment.

As a child, she suffered a strange illness, claiming cure by the Virgin Mary's smile. Her sensitive faith, marked by fragility, culminated in a profound "conversion" on Christmas 1886, overcoming hypersensitivity and turning toward love for others.

Eager to join the Carmel, she even traveled to Rome to seek permission from Pope Leo XIII due to her youth. She entered on April 9, 1888, taking the name Teresa of the Child Jesus.

In the Carmel, she delved into Scripture and St. John of the Cross's spirituality, enduring a dark night of faith: doubting eternal life. Her writings include letters, poems, prayers, sisters' notes from her illness, and her main work, Story of a Soul, which transformed Church spirituality through its "eminent doctrine" and the "Little Way"—a path of trust, love, and spiritual childhood, redefining holiness as accessible in daily life through small acts. Her theology emphasizes radical trust in God's love.

In 1896, she contracted tuberculosis, facing it with great trust and love. She died on September 30, 1897, in Lisieux at age 24. Canonized in 1925, she was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1997 by John Paul II.

Saint Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179)

Hildegard was born in 1098 in Bermersheim, Rhineland (modern Germany). Offered to religious life by her family as a child, she entered as a Benedictine oblate at Disibodenberg monastery under Jutta of Spanheim. Elected abbess in 1136, she later founded her own monastery at Rupertsberg (1150), becoming one of the 12th century's most influential intellectuals.

She claimed visions from childhood but began recording them systematically around age forty, after ecclesial approval.

Her main work, Scivias, offers a vast theological and symbolic synthesis on creation, the Church, and salvation history, followed by Liber Vitae Meritorum and Liber Divinorum Operum, exploring cosmos, humanity, and God.

Her thought features a harmonious, cosmic view of creation centered on viriditas—God's vivifying force permeating all. Body and soul form a dynamic unity; worldly beauty points to the Creator. She used rich feminine, maternal images for God and Church, expanding theological language without diluting divine transcendence.

Hildegard corresponded with popes, emperors, and bishops, preaching along the Rhine—an exceptional role for a woman then. Her spiritual authority was recognized in life, influencing theology, monastic spirituality, and medieval culture.

She died on September 17, 1179, buried in Rupertsberg convent church, where she was abbess until the end. Declared a Doctor of the Church in 2012 by Benedict XVI alongside St. John of Ávila.

The Catholic Church recognizes her integrative vision: blending mysticism, theology, liturgy, music, and nature; offering proto-ecological spirituality; showing contemplation's light on culture and science within Christian tradition.