In this episode of pplpod, we step inside the walls of 16th-century Spain to explore the life of Saint Teresa of Ávila, a powerhouse of the Catholic Reformation who blended intense mysticism with gritty institutional reform. Born Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda Dávila y Ahumada to a family with Jewish converso roots, she entered a Carmelite convent at age twenty, initially finding the atmosphere too lax and social for true spiritual growth.

Join us as we discuss:

• The Reformer: How Teresa, alongside Saint John of the Cross, fought opposition and persecution to establish the Discalced Carmelites, founding seventeen new convents dedicated to poverty and prayer.

• The Mystic: Her vivid accounts of religious ecstasy, including the famous "transverberation"—a vision where an angel pierced ...