Saint Teresa of the Andes

Yet that short life stirred the whole of South America. Millions of young people have caught from her a burning love for God. She is the first saint of Chile and the first Discalced Carmelite of Latin America to be raised to the honor of the altars.

With her radiant smile, her lively love of life and her deep mystical love, she showed young people that you can love sports, swimming, horseback riding, music and singing, and at the same time be a great saint, in love with Jesus with every breath.

Juanita grew up in luxury on the vast estates of Chacabuco. She was a pretty little girl with large, expressive eyes and jet-black hair. As a child she had faults like any other: she was stubborn, quick to sulk and somewhat proud because of her family’s wealth.

Later she wrote in her diary:

“The day of my First Communion was the most beautiful day of my life... From that day on, Jesus came to dwell in my heart and began to speak intimately with me every day!”

By God’s grace, Juanita made an extraordinary effort to master her pride, becoming an obedient, gentle daughter who always gave way to her brothers and sisters.

Juanita was sent as a boarder to the school of the Religious of the Sacred Heart, the Sacré-Coeur, in Santiago. She was a diligent, intelligent student who especially loved the outdoors: she was a fine swimmer, loved playing tennis and was a fearless horsewoman on the slopes of the Andes.

She played the piano beautifully, sang moving Chilean folk songs and was always at the heart of the fun when friends got together.

Yet beneath all those high spirits lay a burning love for the poor. During summer holidays, Juanita often went to the poor hamlets around the estate, bathing and combing the hair of grubby children with her own hands, teaching them catechism and bringing food and clothing to share with needy families. She even sponsored and helped raise a poor orphan boy named Juanito.

She went on to read Saint Teresa of Ávila and Saint John of the Cross. Carmel became the one place she dreamed of.

On December 8, 1915, Juanita made a vow of virginity of her own accord, giving her whole life to Jesus. She wrote in her diary:

“I belong entirely to Jesus... He is the only Bridegroom of my heart, and earthly love could never satisfy my heart!”

In 1917, Juanita’s family went through a serious financial crisis: her father’s business losses forced them to sell their beloved estate at Chacabuco. Juanita accepted the loss calmly. She comforted her parents and saw it as a blessed chance to be freed from the ties of material wealth.

After exchanging many spiritual letters with the Mother Prioress of the Carmel in the small town of Los Andes, about ninety kilometers from the capital, Santiago, Juanita recognized that this was where God wanted her to give herself.

The hardest battle was persuading her father. Miguel, who loved his beautiful daughter dearly, held her in his arms many times, sobbing and begging her not to leave her parents for the cold walls of a convent.

Her life in the Carmel lasted only eleven months, but they were eleven months filled with heavenly joy. She wrote to her mother:

“Mother, I am living in heaven! I could never have imagined that on this earth there could be a place so happy... Here there is only Jesus and love!”

She gladly did the humblest jobs: sweeping the leaf-strewn convent yard, helping in the kitchen, doing laundry at the freezing water trough in winter.

Her superior also gave her the task of answering the hundreds of letters people sent asking for prayers. Written with freshness, intelligence and love, the nineteen-year-old novice’s letters became living lessons in the faith, bringing many young people back to God, reconciling divided families and awakening priestly vocations in many young men.

Her spirituality is summed up in a simple motto:

“Jesus is my only joy!”

She said:

“A Carmelite must be someone who brings joy... If we live gloomy and sad, how can we bear witness to a God who is Love?”

On Good Friday 1920, April 2, Sister Teresa fell gravely ill with typhus. A raging fever ravaged her young body.

The joy of becoming a bride of Christ lit up her pale face. She whispered the words of profession through tears of thanksgiving.

For six days and nights afterwards, she bore wrenching pain and burning fevers with extraordinary patience, always smiling and constantly making the Sign of the Cross to bless her sisters.

From the 1940s, more and more of the faithful reported graces through her intercession, and the place where she was venerated was gradually moved to nearby Auco. On January 16, 1988, construction of the new shrine officially began, and it was dedicated that same year; on December 11, 1988, her body was solemnly brought from the Carmel of Los Andes to rest permanently in the crypt of the Auco shrine. Today that shrine welcomes more than two hundred and thirty thousand pilgrims each year, and especially on the third Saturday of October each year, tens of thousands of young people from all over Chile and beyond walk twenty-seven kilometers together in the pilgrimage called “From Chacabuco to Carmelo,” linking the estate of her childhood with the convent where she gave her life, praying and singing joyfully as they go.

On April 3, 1987, during his visit to Santiago de Chile, Pope Saint John Paul II beatified Sister Teresa of the Andes before more than a million Chileans.

And on March 21, 1993, the same Pope canonized Teresa of the Andes in Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The Church celebrates her on July 13 each year; the Carmelites keep April 12.