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St. Teresa of Avila Three Book Treasury - Interior Castle, The Way of Perfection, and The Book of Her Life
Complete
unabridged edition of
The Way of Perfection
,
Interior Castle
, and
The Book of Her Life (her Autobiography)
by Saint Teresa of Avila. This treasury, with over 1,000 footnotes cross referencing all three, will give the reader a unified study of Avila's spiritual path to God's glorious peace.
It is accessible advice, written to friends, about practicing a spiritual life. For many, Avila's body of work is soul piercing and inspiring.
"Blessed and praised be the Lord, from Whom comes all the good that we speak and think and do."
The Way of Perfection was translated by E. Allison Peers, and includes over 100 footnotes.
Interior Castle was translated by the Benedictines of Stanbrook, and includes over 400 footnotes.
The Book of Her Life (her Autobiography) was translated by David Lewis, and includes over 500 footnotes.
No student of thought should be without these historic books. This compilation edition is provided in a slim volume with full text at an affordable price.
It is accessible advice, written to friends, about practicing a spiritual life. For many, Avila's body of work is soul piercing and inspiring.
"Blessed and praised be the Lord, from Whom comes all the good that we speak and think and do."
The Way of Perfection was translated by E. Allison Peers, and includes over 100 footnotes.
Interior Castle was translated by the Benedictines of Stanbrook, and includes over 400 footnotes.
The Book of Her Life (her Autobiography) was translated by David Lewis, and includes over 500 footnotes.
No student of thought should be without these historic books. This compilation edition is provided in a slim volume with full text at an affordable price.
374 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
7 people are currently reading
58 people want to read
About the author
Teresa de Ávila
573 books513 followersSaint Teresa of Jesús, also called Saint Teresa of Ávila, was a prominent Spanish mystic, Carmelite nun, and writer of the Counter Reformation. She was a reformer of the Carmelite Order and is considered to be, along with John of the Cross, a founder of the Discalced Carmelites. In 1970 she was named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI.
Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda Dávila y Ahumada Borned in Ávila, Spain, on March 28, 1515, St. Teresa was the daughter of a Toledo merchant and his second wife, who died when Teresa was 15, one of ten children. Shortly after this event, Teresa was entrusted to the care of the Augustinian nuns. After reading the letters of St. Jerome, Teresa resolved to enter a religious life. In 1535, she joined the Carmelite Order. She spent a number of relatively average years in the convent, punctuated by a severe illness that left her legs paralyzed for three years, but then experienced a vision of "the sorely wounded Christ" that changed her life forever.
From this point forward, Teresa moved into a period of increasingly ecstatic experiences in which she came to focus more and more sharply on Christ's passion. With these visions as her impetus, she set herself to the reformation of her order, beginning with her attempt to master herself and her adherence to the rule. Gathering a group of supporters, Teresa endeavored to create a more primitive type of Carmelite. From 1560 until her death, Teresa struggled to establish and broaden the movement of Discalced or shoeless Carmelites. During the mid-1560s, she wrote the Way of Perfection and the Meditations on the Canticle. In 1567, she met St. John of the Cross, who she enlisted to extend her reform into the male side of the Carmelite Order. Teresa died in 1582.
St. Teresa left to posterity many new convents, which she continued founding up to the year of her death. She also left a significant legacy of writings, which represent important benchmarks in the history of Christian mysticism. These works include the Way of Perfection and the Interior Castle. She also left an autobiography, the Life of St. Teresa of Ávila.
Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda Dávila y Ahumada Borned in Ávila, Spain, on March 28, 1515, St. Teresa was the daughter of a Toledo merchant and his second wife, who died when Teresa was 15, one of ten children. Shortly after this event, Teresa was entrusted to the care of the Augustinian nuns. After reading the letters of St. Jerome, Teresa resolved to enter a religious life. In 1535, she joined the Carmelite Order. She spent a number of relatively average years in the convent, punctuated by a severe illness that left her legs paralyzed for three years, but then experienced a vision of "the sorely wounded Christ" that changed her life forever.
From this point forward, Teresa moved into a period of increasingly ecstatic experiences in which she came to focus more and more sharply on Christ's passion. With these visions as her impetus, she set herself to the reformation of her order, beginning with her attempt to master herself and her adherence to the rule. Gathering a group of supporters, Teresa endeavored to create a more primitive type of Carmelite. From 1560 until her death, Teresa struggled to establish and broaden the movement of Discalced or shoeless Carmelites. During the mid-1560s, she wrote the Way of Perfection and the Meditations on the Canticle. In 1567, she met St. John of the Cross, who she enlisted to extend her reform into the male side of the Carmelite Order. Teresa died in 1582.
St. Teresa left to posterity many new convents, which she continued founding up to the year of her death. She also left a significant legacy of writings, which represent important benchmarks in the history of Christian mysticism. These works include the Way of Perfection and the Interior Castle. She also left an autobiography, the Life of St. Teresa of Ávila.
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January 9, 2024
This is the review for The Book of Her Life (Autobiography) and not all three of the books contained in this volume. I have read all three books, but not at this time. This is also the first time I have read the entire Teresa’s Life. I thought I’d read it before, but I recently learned that Mirabai Starr’s translation of the autobiography was woefully inadequate. It is a modern interpretation of the text which removes or softens Teresa’s language about sin, death, hell and purgatory. After reading the original, I cannot imagine the saint being at all pleased having her words ‘softened’ to make them easier to swallow. Rather she would want readers to know the whole Truth, as she knew Him.
Legitimate translations, such as this one by Edgar Allison Peers or by the Carmelite, Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodríguez, who frequently work together, are essential if you want to be sure you are reading the fullness and truth of what the Doctor of Prayer wrote.
I have finished listening to it for the first time and I am overwhelmed! I listened to it while I exercised and worked around the house. First of all, it is very long, much longer than I realized. By way of comparison, in this volume, The Way of Perfection is 264 pages, Interior Castle is 276 pages and Life is 591 pages—longer than both of the other books put together!
I found this version on Kindle for $2.99 and although I already had all three of these books, I did not have them in this translation. My sister, a Carmelite much longer than me, suggested E. Allison Peers an earlier translator of St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross. She finds him more accessible than Kieran Kavanaugh who is the preferred translator for most editions of the two Carmelites today. I will still continue to use Fr. Kavanaugh's works but I wanted to check out Peers for the sake of comparison. The Life of Saint Teresa of Ávila by Herself, was actually translated even earlier by David Lewis (1814-1895) and printed in 1870 and 1888. There is an excellent introduction to it (which gives some great history about this book from the saint's death up to the turn of 20th century) by the Carmelite prior of St. Luke's Priory, Wincanton, Somerset, Benedict Zimmerman, dated 16th July, 1904. If you are a history buff, the footnotes are amazing!
This edition also contains 11 ‘Relations’ at the end which I would equate to Appendixes. They are additional documents mostly by Teresa, but also one by a priest who knew her and evaluated her work.
I will need to reread this again and probably several times to truly take in all that is here. This is an amazing work and deserving of careful study. I can certainly see why it was withheld from her sisters. It is long, more meandering than her other two works and contains more information on her visions and locutions than it does on prayer, though there is some helpful information about that as well, but you have to sift through the more sensational parts to get to it. I am grateful to the sensors for suggesting that Teresa write another book as her The Way of Perfection is such a useful and practical book by comparison.
Still, I know I will return to this for the many extraordinary insights, quotes and profound wisdom it contains.
January 6, 2023: I asked at a small gathering of our long-time Secular Carmelites how many had read this and only one of the seven besides myself had and she wasn't sure she had finished it. It is LONG!
Legitimate translations, such as this one by Edgar Allison Peers or by the Carmelite, Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodríguez, who frequently work together, are essential if you want to be sure you are reading the fullness and truth of what the Doctor of Prayer wrote.
I have finished listening to it for the first time and I am overwhelmed! I listened to it while I exercised and worked around the house. First of all, it is very long, much longer than I realized. By way of comparison, in this volume, The Way of Perfection is 264 pages, Interior Castle is 276 pages and Life is 591 pages—longer than both of the other books put together!
I found this version on Kindle for $2.99 and although I already had all three of these books, I did not have them in this translation. My sister, a Carmelite much longer than me, suggested E. Allison Peers an earlier translator of St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross. She finds him more accessible than Kieran Kavanaugh who is the preferred translator for most editions of the two Carmelites today. I will still continue to use Fr. Kavanaugh's works but I wanted to check out Peers for the sake of comparison. The Life of Saint Teresa of Ávila by Herself, was actually translated even earlier by David Lewis (1814-1895) and printed in 1870 and 1888. There is an excellent introduction to it (which gives some great history about this book from the saint's death up to the turn of 20th century) by the Carmelite prior of St. Luke's Priory, Wincanton, Somerset, Benedict Zimmerman, dated 16th July, 1904. If you are a history buff, the footnotes are amazing!
This edition also contains 11 ‘Relations’ at the end which I would equate to Appendixes. They are additional documents mostly by Teresa, but also one by a priest who knew her and evaluated her work.
I will need to reread this again and probably several times to truly take in all that is here. This is an amazing work and deserving of careful study. I can certainly see why it was withheld from her sisters. It is long, more meandering than her other two works and contains more information on her visions and locutions than it does on prayer, though there is some helpful information about that as well, but you have to sift through the more sensational parts to get to it. I am grateful to the sensors for suggesting that Teresa write another book as her The Way of Perfection is such a useful and practical book by comparison.
Still, I know I will return to this for the many extraordinary insights, quotes and profound wisdom it contains.
January 6, 2023: I asked at a small gathering of our long-time Secular Carmelites how many had read this and only one of the seven besides myself had and she wasn't sure she had finished it. It is LONG!
Displaying 1 of 1 review