Framing Sainthood in 1622: Teresa of Ávila, Ignatius of Loyola, and Francis Xavier

Pope Gregory XV raised five holy persons to official sanctity in a grand ceremony in Saint Peter’s basilica in Rome on 12 March 1622. Three of the new saints were sixteenth-century Spanish contemporaries: the Discalced Carmelite Teresa of Ávila and the Jesuits Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier. The saints were celebrated according to personas that were rooted in the framework of sanctity inherent to the processes for official holiness, that is, the official character of their deeds, virtues, and miracles. Setting aside miracles, this paper centers on Teresa’s deeds and virtues, which have been less well understood than those of her Jesuit counterparts. The nature of her holy image emerges from a highly selective comparison with the Jesuits’ deeds and virtues as presented in word and image in Rome in March 1622. On the basis of written and visual documents tied to Teresa’s processes and the canonization ceremony, I reinterpret two aspects of her image as promulgated in 1622: the way in which her active and contemplative lives were inextricably linked to her reform of the Carmelite Order; and the role and character of her virtues.