Saint Teresa of Avila- Marcelle Auclair

Marcelle Auclair’s Teresa of Avila is a biography that makes us fall in love with the great Spanish saint in the most natural way.

With a gift for storytelling, Auclair shows us Teresa not as a distant, marble figure, but as a flesh-and-blood woman: quick-witted, full of warmth, courageous, and deeply human. She lets us see Teresa’s struggles, her laughter, her sharp Spanish humor, and her boundless heart—all of which only make her radical pursuit of holiness shine the brighter.

In these pages we discover not just the reformer of Carmel, but the teacher of prayer whose writings—The Way of Perfection and The Interior Castle—remain cornerstones of Catholic spirituality. Teresa shows us how to enter the depths of the soul, where God dwells, and how to surrender everything in order to live fully for Him. Her insistence on mental prayer, on interior recollection, and on absolute fidelity to the Gospel has shaped the spiritual life of countless souls through the centuries.

Auclair introduces us to Teresa as her daughters must have known her: lively, warm, and very much alive. And as we come to know her, we can’t help but see in her both a friend and a guide—someone who reminds us that holiness is not far away, but found in the abandonment of the world, and life in the presence of God.