John of the Cross was ordained in the spring of 1567, and met Teresa in September when he sang his first Mass in Medina, and she was establishing her second convent of Reformed Carmelites there. At the time, Teresa was thinking of founding a reform for the Carmelite Friars and was looking for someone to lead it.

At their first meeting, John told Teresa that he was thinking of entering the Carthusian Order, which would give him more time for solitude and prayer. Naturally, Teresa encouraged him to wait and join her.

One day, Teresa was ordered to return to the convent she had left to begin restoring order to the Convent of the Incarnation, and was able to arrange for John of the Cross to become the confessor for the 130 nuns there.

Teresa had no intention of forcing the Reform on the nuns. Her mission was to bring order out of chaos, for the Sisters were so poor they had little to eat, and many would leave the cloister to take their meals with the laity, or would spend much time in the parlors speaking with benefactors who brought them food, as no common meals were served in the convent.

Nevertheless, the Sisters were terribly upset over being compelled to accept Teresa, rather than being given the freedom to vote for their own prioress. When, on October 6, 1571, the Provincial, Angel de Salazar, a Carmelite of the Mitigation, began the induction ceremony by reading the formal letter, the Sisters shouted him down. He called out, "In short, you won't have Mother Teresa of Jesus?"

Amid the shouts of, "No!" a lone voice was heard, that of Dona Catalina de Castro, "We want her and we love her." One by one, other nuns came to Teresa's side, but the two factions came to blows, and the police were called in to restore peace.

With wisdom and compassion, Teresa sympathized with the nuns, and said to Provincial Angel Salazar, "It is not surprising. It is very hard to force anyone no matter who it is."

With the restoration of order, the "Te Deum" was sung, and Teresa was able to enter the choir, followed by the Sisters.

When the first chapter was convened, Teresa left the choir for a few moments and returned with a statue of Mary, which she placed in the prioress's stall, announcing, "Ladies, here is your prioress, Our Lady of Mercy."

She went on to say, "I am here to serve you and to make things as pleasant as I can. I hope our Lord will help me to do this. As to the rest, any single one among you can help me to reform myself.

"Don't be afraid of my rule, for although it is true I'm living with the Discalced, I think I know, by the grace of God, how one should live among those who are not of that condition. My desire is that we should all serve our Lord in sweetness..."

Teresa's first task was to provide food for the nuns, which wealthy land owners provided. In the Reformed Carmelites, Teresa insisted hat the Sisters earn their way through some type of work, such as weaving, but those at the Incarnation Convent did nothing to earn their bread. To the 80 nuns who had no financial resources, Teresa gave one real a week to give them dignity and make them independent.

For Lent, she closed the convent to all visitors, an unprecedented move, but one she was convinced was needed to create a a prayerful spirit of recollection.

Once the convent was on an even keel, Teresa had a small hut built for John of the Cross outside the enclosure, and he took over his duties as confessor to the nuns. He treated each woman as an individual, saying, "Our Lord gives each soul its own grace, in that I do not interfere."

Eventually, Teresa and John of the Cross were able to leave the Sisters at the Convent of the Incarnation and to resume their work for the Reformed Carmelites.

All was not unrelieved peace, however. The Inquisition accused the Sisters in Teresa's convent of carrying out superstitious activities, turning their faces to the wall during thanksgiving after Holy Communion, and passing their veils around. The nuns turned their faces to the wall to seek relief from the hot sun, and passed their veils one to another when approaching the grill for Holy Communion because they were so poor not all the nuns owned suitable veils.

Service, not power, was Teresa's way. She made it a rule in her constitutions that the prioress should go to the head of the list for sweeping the floors, and should create an atmosphere of trust in the convent, so that the Sisters might work and pray with peaceful minds and hearts.

No matter how busy, she would take her week for cooking meals, and went out of her way to present something special for the Sisters. She also insisted that recreation be a time of laughter, sometimes with music and dancing.

By December of 1581, Teresa was in Avila when John of the Cross showed up with mules packed for a journey to establish a convent in Granada. Teresa was ill, more ill than anyone knew, and was unable to make the trip. At dawn, John left her for the last time and returned to Granada.

While experiencing a constant sore throat, Teresa was unable to eat solid food, or to speak without difficulty. Yet, she set out on a journey to Burgos in sleet and through flooded roads. When she reached Burgos, she was vomiting blood and had to be put to bed. Later, she took a coach to Alba, where the daughter-in-law of the duchess was going into labor and wanted the saint to be near her to bless the occasion. The child was born before Teresa arrived, so she was able to return to the convent, where the nuns put clean sheets on the bed and did whatever they could to make her comfortable. For a few days, she helped with problems in the convent, but then collapsed and was taken to her room to die.

When Antonio of Jesus asked if she wanted her body to be taken to Avila for burial, she answered, "Padre, what kind of a question is that? Do I have anything at all of my own? Can't they be kind enough to give me a bit of earth here?"

She kept repeating words from the psalm: "A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit .. A humble and contrite heart O God, thou wilt not despise." Cathleen Medwick reports that Teresa's face became smooth and radiant, and that the fragrance in the room was overpowering. She died on the night of October 4, 1582, in Sister Ana's arms, possibly of uterine cancer, judging from the blood on the sheets. She was 67 years old.

.. After burial, her coffin was piled high with stones, lest anyone come to take away the body. Nine months later, the coffin, smashed and half rotten, was opened, and Teresa's body was just as it had been buried, though her clothes had fallen to pieces. The Sisters washed the body, clothed it in a fresh habit and buried it again.

Two-and-a-half years later, the coffin was carried to Avila, where three doctors examined he body and declared that without any embalming, it was in almost perfect condition, though the face had been a little flattened by the weight of the stones.

Teresa was canonized in 1622. She has been declared a Doctor of the church, and reminds us that it is love, not power or wealth that builds the Kingdom on earth.

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