St. Teresa of Jesus as a mystic
One of a series of five stained glass windows in the Basilica that recall incidents in the life of St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), this window portrays the saint as a mystic. We see an angel piercing her heart, which St. Teresa relates in both her autobiography, Life of Teresa of Jesus (before 1567), and The Interior Castle (1577).
In 1559, while Teresa was praying, an angel appeared. “In his hands, I saw a golden spear, with an iron tip at the end that appeared to be on fire,” Teresa recalls. “He plunged it into my heart several times, all the way to my entrails. When he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out as well, leaving me all on fire with love for God." Teresa is left in both severe pain and exquisite bliss.
“The sweetness of the pain was so surpassing that I couldn't possibly wish to be rid of it,” she relates. “My soul couldn't be content with anything but God.”
The series of rings on the left side of the window refers to Teresa’s metaphor for the ascent of the soul toward God, as explained in The Interior Castle.
"I thought of our souls as a castle, in which there are many rooms, in the innermost of which dwells the king," Teresa explains. The seven circles in the window are the seven rooms of the castle. Each circle represents a distinct stage of the soul’s journey.
Written in Spanish on the book in the lower right corner of the window is: “I thought of the soul as resembling a castle . . . containing many rooms, just as in heaven there are many mansions.”
St. Teresa, like St. Thérèse after her, wrote in obedience at the request of her superiors. Also like St. Thérèse, Teresa wrote her biography primarily to benefit the other nuns. Named a Doctor of the Church in 1970, Teresa also wrote The Way of Perfection (before 1567).
In The Interior Castle, Teresa depicts the movement of the soul, starting in the Mansion of Humility. She describes the soul’s transformation: entering the first door through prayer and meditation, under grace yet still ittoxicated by sin. The journey through humility and self-knowledge leads the soul to the Mansion of the Practice of Prayer, where the soul continues to gain resistance to evil.
In the Third Mansion, the Exemplary Life, the soul continues through self-denial and prayer to attain discipline and charity. Still lacking vision and total immersion in God’s love, the soul must persist through aridity to reach full submission.
In the Fourth Mansion, the Prayer of the Quiet, the soul becomes fully dependent on God, free from attachment to the world, and stalwart in the face of trials. Love flows from the source of living water as the soul attains deep prayer.
The Fifth Mansion, the Prayer of Union, brings the soul into an advanced level of contemplation in the presence of God and submits fully to possession by God. The Sixth Mansion brings Bride and Groom together. As the soul receives increasing blessings here, it also endures more afflictions.
The soul eventually reaches Spiritual Marriage as the Bride of Christ in the Seventh Mansion, the Mansion of the King, depicted in the window by the Holy Trinity in the highest circle. The soul’s transformation is complete and the highest state attained.
“It may be called another Heaven,” Teresa explains. “The two lighted candles join and become one; the falling rain becomes merged in the river.”
The series of windows were installed by the Emil Frei Company of St. Louis in 1955. They were designed by Rodney Winfield, who 53 years later created the Gothic-style windows depicting five scenes from the life of St. Elijah for the new St. Elias adoration chapel in the Basilica, and The Stella Maris window, over an exterior entry to the Basilica’s undercroft. Mr. Winfield passed away in 2017 at age 92.
Article first published in the Apostolate of the Little Flower Vol. 87, No. 1