Page 15 - Nada temas, dice ella

Saint Teresa of Jesus was born in Ávila on 28 March 1515. A devoted reader
of courtly literature, a follower of Friar Luis of Granada, of Francisco de Osuna and Saint Augustine, Teresa of Avila was a remarkable figure because of the challenges she faced throughout the course of her eventful life.
The extremely serious illness she suffered during her youth reinforced Teresa’s will to set out on a strict path of perfection that she would subsequently describe to her sister nuns in her writings, a path that involved a continuous and intimate spiritual dialogue through the prayer of retreat and a commitment to the ‘small heaven of our soul’.
She arrived at this teaching through readings that she knew were inacces- sible to the nuns, many of whom were illiterate or barely educated. Aware of these limitations, she turned to her knowledge and experiences as didactic tools to improve the spiritual formation of her vocational colleagues. Teresa of Avila would say that ‘I know there is no lack of love in me and of the desire to help
as much as I can that the souls of my Sisters may advance in the service of the Lord.’ And she did so in a colloquial and expressive language, in a style de- scribed by her biographers as ‘elegant and unaffected, simple and spontaneous, that delights all readers.’
Her writing is straightforward, true and efficient, and her own life, her experiences and the observation of nature become vehicles for sharing religious feeling that is in itself ineffable, giving rise to creations full of beauty and sen- timent: The Way of Perfection, Autobiography of Saint Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle, The Book of the Foundations of Saint Teresa of Jesus, Accounts of Conscience, Meditation on the Song of Songs, Exclamations of the Soul to God and Constitutions of the Secular Order of the Discalced Carmelites. These works, enhanced by the passage of time, constitute the spiritual legacy of an exceptional figure in Span- ish and universal literature, especially if we bear in mind that their pages were written by a woman at the height of the sixteenth century, a daughter of the church who was at once a reformer of the society of her age – in short, a woman ahead of her time.
The show entitled Fear Nothing, She Says organised by Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) and the Museo Nacional de Escultura in Valladolid is the last great official exhibition launched in 2015 by the National Committee for the Commemoration of the Fifth Centenary of the Birth of Saint Teresa of Avila to celebrate the event under the Presidency of Honour of Their Royal Highnesses the Kings of Spain.
Thanks to the institutions involved in the organisation and production of the show and to the entities and individuals who have loaned their works, we are