TERESA OF ÁVILA (1515–1582), epithet of Teresa de Ahumeda y Cepeda, Christian saint, Spanish mystic, religious reformer, and author of religious classics. Teresa was born at Ávila in the Castilian region of Spain on March 28, 1515, the third child of Don Alonso Cepeda, a moderately wealthy merchant. She was a spirited child, and early in life she began to manifest deep religious feelings. When she was seven she and her eleven-year-old brother ran away from home, intending to go to the country of the Moors and offer themselves for martyrdom. Later, writing about the episode in her Life, she said that she had done this because she "wanted to see God." However, the adventure ended abruptly a few meters outside the walled city of Ávila when the two children met their uncle, who promptly took them home.

In her early teens Teresa...