“I write as I talk”

Undoubtedly Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada, Santa Teresa de Jesús (1515-1582) is the focal point for mysticism in Avila, together with San Juan de la Cruz (St John of the Cross). Through their writings, both faced the impossibility of expressing in words the experience of a union with God. St Teresa of Jesus wrote with great fluency and expressiveness, whilst maintaining a good-humoured, common sense approach. She took the Renaissance principle of “I write as I talk” to its very extreme; to such an extent that, although she had been a passionate reader of books on knighthood and learned religious books, her style is totally different.



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