Page 19 - Nada temas, dice ella

Ahead of her times, Teresa of Avila was a reformer, an essential voice in the Golden Age of Spanish literature and one of the most complex personalities of the era, whose writings challenged all existing canons. Centuries later, works such as The Dwelling Places, The Way of Perfection and The Book of the Foundations of Saint Teresa of Jesus continue to be read and interpreted, and page after page they shape their author’s mystical personality. As a result of the richness of ex- pression and the plurality of opinions and perspectives attained by Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada, studying her figure and her context, her life and her circum- stances we feel the wonder only experienced before the greatest.
The list of creators in all the arts – painters, sculptors, writers, poets, play- wrights and film makers – who have been inspired by the saint’s life, her per- sonality and her oeuvre is very long, and goes to prove the magnitude and the current relevance of a figure who continues to influence those who approach her rich spiritual and cultural legacy.
The personality of Saint Teresa was determined by the fact of being a woman, which also explains why we find some of her writings particularly commendable: ‘I see that times are so bad that it is not right to reject virtuous and strong spirits, even if they be women.’1
In the framework of the fifth centenary of the birth of Teresa of Jesus, the exhibition Fear Nothing, She Says, organised by Acción Cultural Española in col- laboration with the Museo Nacional de Escultura in Valladolid, intends to reveal the significance of Saint Teresa of Avila as a writer, a reformer and a mystic, there- by confirming the pertinence of her spiritual experience in today’s society as it is reflected in the various contemporary artistic proposals the show presents.
íñigo méndez de vigo y montojo Minister for Education, Culture and Sport
Note
1. Teresa of Avila, quoted in Alison Weber, Teresa of Avila and the Rhetoric of Femininity, chapter 3, ‘The Way of Perfection and the Rhetoric of Irony,’ Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1990, p. 82.