April 12
St. Teresa of Los Andes (1900-1920)
As a young girl growing up in Santiago, Chile, in the early 1900s, she read an autobiography of a French-born saint—Thérèse, popularly known as the Little Flower. The experience deepened her desire to serve God and clarified the path she would follow. At age 19 she became a Carmelite nun,
taking the name of Teresa.
The convent offered the simple lifestyle Teresa desired and the joy of living in a community of women completely devoted to God. She focused her days on prayer and sacrifice. “I am God’s,” she wrote in her diary.
“He created me and is my beginning and my end.”
Toward the end of her short life, Teresa began an apostolate of letter-writing, sharing her thoughts on the spiritual life with many people. At age 20 she contracted typhus and quickly took her final vows.
She died a short time later, during Holy Week.
Teresa remains popular with the estimated 100,000 pilgrims who visit her shrine in Los Andes each year.
She is Chile’s first saint.
