SAINT TERESA OF JESUS OF LOS ANDES
(Juanita Fernández Solar) is the
first Chilean woman and the first American Discalced Carmelite Nun to be raised
to the honors of the altar. She was born in Santiago de Chile into the heart of
a very Catholic, well-off family, on 13th July 1900. Her parents were Miguel
Fernández and Lucía Solar.
From the age of 6
years, she assisted at holy Mass almost daily with her mother, and longed for
the day when she would receive her first Holy Communion, which came about on
September 11, 1910. From then on she managed to communicate daily spending quite
some time in friendly conversation with Jesus.
From her childhood she also had an intense Marian devotion which was one of the
key pins holding together her spirituality. Knowledge and love of the Mother of
God sustained and gave life to every moment of her journey following Christ.
She did her studies at Sacred Heart College (1907 - 1918). Full of affection,
she believed herself incapable of living away from her own. Without doubt she
accepted the discipline of becoming a boarder for the last three years of her
schooling, in order to train herself for the final parting, which was to take
place on 7 May 1919, when she entered the Discalced Carmelite Nuns in Los Andes.
From the age of 14 she had felt called to Carmel. She prepared herself by
reading the Carmelite Saints and frequent correspondence with the Prioress of
Los Andes, who was
amazed at the clarity with which the 17 year old Teresa could explain the
Carmelite ideal and the fire with which she defended her contemplative life,
which the world "rejected as worthless." She embraced her contemplative life
with the hope and expectation that a true love of the world gives: for herself
to become more useful as a witness to the spiritual dimension of mankind, and
through her sacrifice to call the blood of Christ down upon humanity to purify
it.
As a Carmelite she was called Teresa of Jesus, and did not manage to live even
one year in the convent, dying on 12 April 1920. The religious of her convent
declared that she was already a saint when she entered. For this reason she was
able to complete her climb to sanctity in such a short time, having begun in
earnest a long time before her first Communion.
"Christ so foolish in his love, has
driven me madly in love", she used to say. Her passionate desire and constant
endeavor was to resemble him, to mould herself to Christ's image.
She
was always ready to serve others and give up things for them so that there would
be gaiety and happiness, and to make virtue lovable and attractive.
Her life was entirely normal and balanced. She attained an unenviable maturity,
integrating with admirable harmony the human and the divine: prayer, study, the
small things about the house... her beloved sport in which she distinguished
herself in swimming and horse riding.
Being a lovely, very beautiful young girl, interested in sport, happy, well
balanced, obliging and responsible, Teresa of Los Andes is an unbeatable model
to attract youth in search of Christ, and as a reminder to all, that in
fulfilling the Gospel call to love, we realize ourselves as persons.
Through her intercession, the Lord is releasing a copious flood of graces and
favors of all kinds drawing uncountable prodigal children to himself. Her
sanctuary, visited by more than one hundred thousand pilgrims each month, has
been converted into the spiritual center of Chile. In this way Teresa of Los
Andes is fulfilling her mission that was already recognized a short time after
her death: to create a hunger and a thirst for God in our materialized world.
She was beatified in Santiago de Chile on 3 April 1987 by Pope John Paul II, who solemnly canonized her in Rome on 21 March 1993.