ON March 28, 2015, Carmelites the world over will celebrate the fifth birth centenary of Saint Teresa of Avila, the first woman Doctor of the Church.
The three-year campaign of the Philippines’s National Commission for the Celebration of the Fifth Birth Centenary of Saint Teresa of Avila, launched on March 28, 2012, aims to promote the saint’s teaching on prayer among the Filipinos.
There are only eight parishes in the whole country named after Saint Teresa of Avila (a.k.a. Saint Teresa of Jesus). Although a number of Catholic schools for girls are named after Saint Teresa, Filipinos are more familiar with her “daughter,” Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, the third woman doctor of the Church, and whose relics have visited the Philippines three times (2000, 2008 and 2013).
It would, therefore, be appropriate to begin this series with something to establish the identity of the two Carmelite Doctors of the Church. In the succeeding issues we will feature highlights from the teachings of Saint Teresa of Avila, reformer of Carmel and founder of the Order of Discalced Carmelites.