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The wooden pillow of St. Teresa of Avila

Are you also convinced that for Christian saints, the body is an enemy that needs to be tamed in various ways? And that the great saints are said to have been ascetics of the utmost austerity, deliberately hurting the body in order not to hinder the soul's ascent to the heights of the spirit? We realize how wrong we were only a little better when we look at three great Spanish mystics who profoundly transformed not only the Church of the 16th century but also the understanding of the life of the spirit. Saints Ignatius Loyola, John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila were well aware that the human person is also the body, and that in order to achieve perfection of the spirit it is necessary to take proper care of this part of the person.

So, in Avila, looking at St. The wooden pillow used for Teresa's penance raises a legitimate suspicion: didn't this tool also have a "secondary"... health-promoting function? It is not for nothing that it is said that in order to live a long life in good health, it is best to follow the old, time honoured traditions of monastic life. These include regular fasting, abstinence from certain foods, physical work, a steady rhythm of the day, early rising (before sunrise), free-falling clothing made of natural materials, living in low-heated rooms, a cool bed... Leaving aside the spiritual motivation, we are left with an almost literal description of the healthy life that is so fashionable nowadays.

Let's take a closer look at St. Look more closely at St Teresa's attitude towards the body. In the Avila, in the Convent of the Incarnation, where she spent half her life, there is a wooden pestle preserved as a relic, which the Teacher of Prayer (St Teresa's official title in the Catholic Church) used for her personal penance. It measures 35 x 15 cm and is 8 cm high. Similar wooden "pillows" are still used by the barefoot Carmelite Sisters of the community in their personal penance practices.

A similar piece of wood was placed in the chapel of the first barefoot Carmelite St. The first Carmelite monastery of St. Joseph is located in the relics hall. It recreates the cell of the foundress as it is still preserved in the cloister. A piece of wood is placed as a cushion on a simple Carmelite plank bed with a mattress stuffed with straw and covered with a woollen sheet, as the foundress had specified in the regulations.

No document has survived in which Teresa described her penitential methods. We can infer them from the very general mentions of eyewitnesses and from the few surviving instruments of bodily pain: for example, the whipping paddle and the straps of chains preserved in the monastery of Beas de Segura, the extremely rough axial strap in the monastery of Valladolid.... In the 16th century, such implements were considered to be an integral part of the perfection of the spirit: it was believed among the faithful that a person's sanctity was best evidenced by an emaciated body. Thus, the admiration of St. John of God was great. The presence of the flesh in the body was a source of great admiration. He was a friend and intercessor of Teresa when she was about to found the first reformed monastery. In her own words, he was "so thin that he appeared to be kneaded from the roots of trees" (Life 27:18). His strict asceticism was to blame: "He never lifted his eyes, so that when he had to go somewhere, he did not know the way and had to follow the other monks (...). He was accustomed to eat every third day (...), and sometimes he would go eight days without eating, and he would go into severe ecstasies. (...) I was told that for twenty years he wore a pewter shirt without ceasing" (V 27:17; 30:2).

St Therese realised that a person caught up in the desire of the spirit simply forgets to take care of herself: "What love drove her, that she did not worry about what she was going to eat, nor about the dangers that might befall her! (...) How intoxicated this holy soul must have been, immersed as she was in [the desire] to enjoy her Spouse without being disturbed, and how determined she was to desire the world no more, because she was running away from everything that gave her satisfaction!", he wrote of Catalina de Cardona, a famous ascetic of his time (Foundations 28, 24). He also spoke indirectly of himself when he wrote a teaching on the seventh, deepest abode, where he warned of the dangerous temptation of the soul to forget to take care of the bodily part of itself: "Do not understand, daughters, that she ceases to eat and sleep, although this causes her much suffering, as well as to do all that she is obliged to do in her position." (7B 3, 2). As an experienced warrior of the spirit, she knew that, as St. John of God so vividly put it, she could not be a warrior. "A horse that is exhausted in the first days of its journey does not finish its journey, but still needs to be cared for by others" (Letters, 2020, p. 85).

So, too, Teresa, wondering if she should marinate herself more radically, as Catalina Cardona had done, was rebuked by Jesus himself in a vision: 'Not so, daughter. You are on a good and safe path. Do you see all her repentance? But I value your obedience more" (Testimonies of the Spirit, 20). In one of the visions, the Lord even began to feed her with bread when the longing of the spirit took away her desire to eat. And He explained that He wanted her to be strong because she would be able to do more for souls.

Of course, the great mystic understood the importance of not neglecting to take care of the body. She began her most important work, "The Interior Castle of the Cupboard", with this warning: "We must look upon our soul as a castle, made of diamond or of the purest crystal, with many chambers, just as in heaven there are many mansions (Jn 14:2). That is why we try so little to preserve its beauty. All our concern is for the body, which is only the rough setting of a diamond, or the stonework surrounding this castle." (1B 1:1; emphasis mine). But the body belongs to the beautiful castle, an integral part of it, an instrument given by the Creator Himself to act in this world, to show and experience from others the divine love of neighbour. This is why St. Teresa places the works of charity before the "pure" practices of the spirit, even though she is well aware that these practices are the very source of these works, which would otherwise be nothing more than a hollow flourish. In the Fifth Abode, where the special mystical graces are already mentioned, she teaches: "If you see a sick person to whom you can give even a little relief, do not be the least bit concerned about losing this pious practice and have compassion on her. If she is in pain, let her be in pain, and if need be, fast so that she may eat, not so much for her sake as for the knowledge that your Lord wants her to. That is true unity with His will. "Needless to say, in order to do God's will, one must first know it, and this is done in prayer: activity and contemplation are complementary and nourishing. "Martha and Mary must work together", taught St. John of God. Teresa (7B 4:12).

Finally, she surprises us by testifying that the life of the spirit can "feed"... even the body. This is how St. This is how St. Teresa describes the ultimate mystical experience: "From that divine breast, with which God seems always to nourish the soul, a trickle of milk gushes out and strengthens all the inhabitants of the castle; The Lord seems to want them also to enjoy a little of the abundance in which the soul rejoices, so that from the watery river in which this little fountain has been poured out, a stream of water occasionally gushes forth to sustain those who must serve these two betrothed ones in the things of the flesh" (7B 2:6; emphasis added by J. M.). And one more eloquent quotation on the two-way relationship between spirit and body: "It is true that from the strength that is imparted to her there, a little is passed on to all those in the castle, and even to the body itself, which often seems not to feel it at all; and when the soul is strengthened by the drinking of the wine of the wine-cellar, to which the Spouse has brought her and from which he is no longer leaving her (Gal 2:4), the weak flesh is strengthened in the end, in the same way as the food put into the stomach on the other side of the room strengthens the head and the whole body." (7B 4:11; emphasis added by J. M.).

For St Teresa, the human being was also the body, and so her penitential habits could not have been intended for the negative purpose of taming the body and hurting it. What kind of a warrior will deliberately break down the outer wall of his castle, knowing how many enemies are hanging around? Rather, he will seek to strengthen that wall - for example, by using... a wooden pillow by Usually Usual.

Author of the text: Jūratė Micevičiūtė

Photo descriptions:

Wooden cushion of St Teresa of Avila in the relics hall of the Monastery of the Incarnation in Avila. Photo by Jūratė Micevičiūtė

St Teresa's cell, restored St Teresa's cell. The relic hall of St. Joseph's Monastery. Photo from Wikimedia commons, by. Zarateman

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