Teresa of Jesus "of the Andes" (1900-1920)

Biography

He had six brothers and always friends. Her charity towards others was manifested since she was a child in the help she gave to children, the elderly and the needy, as well as to the domestic service staff of her family or the farms of family and friends, where she spent her vacation seasons. At fifteen years of age it was Jesus Christ who called her and she began to prepare, taking communion daily and intensifying her life of piety. A year after getting married, his older sister received an affirmative response to her request to enter the Carmelite Monastery of Los Andes. Now his apostolate is carried out through prayer and personal sanctification in favor of his neighbor, especially for priests and sinners throughout the world. He also writes letters to everyone, friends and family. In them he demonstrates the quality of his spirit and the many gifts he received from God. In one of her writings we find this thought: "The true Carmelite, as I understand it, does not live: God is the one who lives in her. That is what I try to do, to incessantly contemplate the divine Being, losing my criminal nothingness in his ocean of charity. This is what Jesus wants from me: renunciation and death of my being so that He lives in me." In March 1920 he assured that it had been revealed to him by God in prayer that he would die soon. And indeed, a month later she fell seriously ill with typhus. He died during Easter time, a month and a half after announcing it. He had previously made his religious profession on his deathbed, achieving in such a short time the consummation of his life and its perfection.