Saint Teresa of Avila and the Inquisition
Teresa and the Inquisition
As Teresa got deeper and deeper into her journey with the Lord, she went about her daily life, fully living her commitment to her vocation as a nun, as well as to her immediate family. But this would become a time of struggle of the worst kind, a time when she would suffer one of her most painful temptations. Doubts assailed her that she had never had before: that her mystical experiences could be the work and trick of the devil.
It was a scary time! The Inquisition, established under King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella but long dormant under Charles V, was suddenly revived by an incident that was to start fires best left extinguished. There was a Nun whose reputation for holiness extended even to the Crown. People, faithful to the Church, came on pilgrimage from far and near, to ask for her prayers, taking with them objects that she had touched, such as relics. Members of the royal family held her sanctity in such high esteem that they asked her to pray and intercede with our Lord Jesus for them. Her reputation for intense fasting and sacrifice was accompanied by the claim that she had received the Stigmata8 of Our Lord Jesus. The Nun Magdalena de la Cruz also made it known that she lived strictly on the Consecrated Host, without requiring any other food to sustain life.
The Inquisition, suspicious, arrested and interrogated Magdalena, whereupon she made a confession so diabolical that it landed her in jail. She told the inquisitors in Córdoba that she was not a Catholic, but an alumbrada, a secret sect exposed a generation earlier by the Inquisition. It was an anti-Christian secret society that had been crippling Europe by undermining the teachings of Christ and his Call to unity under the one true Cross.
Today, as we are being insidiously attacked from within and without by a pervasive and dangerous heresy, which has been given the name New Age, the characteristics of the Alumbrados sound suspiciously familiar.
The sect of the Alumbrados was also of oriental origin, derived from Buddhism. Like current sects, it advocated that the soul escape from all reality and involvement, delving into itself to the exclusion of everyone and everything around it, seeking and reaching a state of nothingness, the mind completely blank. Today, people who have escaped modern cults speak of the many who lost their minds as a result of this mind-blowing type of meditation. Psychiatrists say that completely relinquishing control of the mind is quite possibly flirting with madness. The result is the annihilation of one’s individual consciousness and individual personality, and ultimately death. Many of the heresies throughout the ages, although they claimed to be Christian, were influenced by Eastern philosophy, in the sense that some denied the True Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, others His Divinity, others the Holy Trinity, advocating by trusting feelings and intuition, instead of the true teachings of the Catholic Church.
The Alumbrados, close allies of the devil, used his devious tactics; they took Christian expressions and truths and distorted them using them against Christ and his followers. Following the pattern of other heretics, they taught that only God is to be obeyed, that Jesus had not delegated others to guide and lead the Church to Him and His Father. They advocated the mistrust and fear of anyone who did not believe in his false doctrines. They promoted disobedience and infidelity. If an Alumbrada was married, she must detest the Sacrament of Matrimony. If she was a Religious, she was to avoid other Religious who would not embrace the Alumbrado doctrine, lest they try to lead her back to Jesus and his Church.
Magdalena de la Cruz confessed to being a devil worshiper. She had been induced by the devil, at the age of seven, to feign holiness and the wounds of the Stigmata. At the age of eleven, with the help of two demons who visited her periodically, she had administered the wounds on her hands, feet and side, imitating the Wounds of Our Beloved Lord Jesus9. she became impervious to needle sticks and other forms of evidence. She had been able to fool everyone into believing that she lived only on the Sacred Host for twelve years, until one day food was discovered hidden in her cell at the Convent.
Unbelievable as it may seem, though it was clear to everyone who ever knew Teresa that she was humble and sincere, she soon fell under suspicion. The townspeople began to whisper that she was like Magdalena de la Cruz. The problem with false mystics like Magdalena is that they could very cleverly imitate the outward signs of a true mystic like Teresa. Although Teresa was long free from any need for the world’s approval, she began to doubt her gifts, to believe that the townspeople might be right. Suppose she had been let down by the evil one! She brought this fear to a priest that she highly respected. This questioning of herself alone should have been proof that she was not an Enlightened One, as she was hardly known for any kind of humility or sincerity.
Her friends, who loved her, began to wonder if Teresa’s gifts were from God or from the devil. A person whose opinions she valued suggested that she seek the spiritual counsel of an exemplary Priest known for her love of the Blessed Sacrament and for bringing many back to the Church. She was reputed to be a truly trustworthy and holy priest. Because of his humility, and always seeking perfection, she confessed what she called her terrible imperfections. The Priest, concluding that the Lord would not give favors, as she said, to someone with all her faults, ordered her to abandon all forms of Mental Prayer.