Film explores spiritual life and sexuality of 'sassy' Saint Teresa

Timos Online (UK) ^ | August 25, 2006 | Dalya Alberge

[Mrs. Don-o]

THE Church is facing another onslaught from film-makers. After the furore over The Da Vinci Code, it is now contending with an allegedly blasphemous account of the life of St Teresa of Ávila.

Geraldine Chaplin heads the cast of Teresa: Death and Life, a feature film about one of the great Christian figures.

The writings of the saint — a mystic who said that Christ conversed with her — are revered as spiritual masterpieces four centuries after her death.

But film-makers don’t do spirituality as easily as sexuality and, in exploring the saint’s sex life, they find themselves accused of treading sacrilegiously.

On being told about the film’s content, [Benedicta Ward, nun and Oxford University Historian] said: “The stress on her virginity and her sexuality are entirely modern interests — as if she were living now. That’s not fair. She is the greatest of the mystics. She has visions and writes about them and analyses them in an extraordinary way.”

[Diurector Ray Loriga] was prepared for a possible controversy, but said: “The vision we have been offered of St Teresa is very close to a holy image."

He added: “This is the 21st century and I think certain opinions about St Teresa, such as the question of her virginity, could change.”

Loriga said: “I’m convinced she’ll be the sexiest Saint Teresa ever seen on screen. ...”

“So far, [the Catholic Church has]only offered two models to women — The Virgin Mother, which, in my opinion, is an aberration and quite harmful to women, and the redeemed whore symbolised by Mary Magdalene. These role models worry me. The Church hasn’t been able to find a better explanation for women within the context of our relationship with God.”

[Mrs. Don-o]

“So far, they’ve only offered two models to women — The Virgin Mother, which, in my opinion, is an aberration and quite harmful to women, and the redeemed whore symbolised by Mary Magdalene... The Church hasn’t been able to find a better explanation for women ..."

If I were as ignorant as the person responsible for the above quote, I hope to God I'd never open my mouth in public.

The Catholic Church has canonized over 1,500 women as examples of heroic holiness and raised them "to the honor of the altar." Four of them (Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, Terese of Lisieux, and Edith Stein of Auschwitz) have been proclaimed Doctors of the Church, who teach the Church --and the human race--- what it means to be holy!

Catholics admire St. Elizabeth Seton, teacher; Zelie Martin (St. Therese of Lisieux’s mom),lacemaker; Elizabeth Anscombe, Cambridge University professor; Maisie Ward, publisher/writer/lecturer; Dorothy Day, mother and journalist and servant of the poor; Gianna Beretta Molla, mother, physician, and martyr.

The Catholic Church urges us to recognize many outstanding women and to imitate their virtues: women writers, nuns, physicians, servants, mystics, philosophers, University presidents, foundresses of hospitals and schools, missionaries, poets, servants and queens.

This list could extend from here to heaven—and does.

[Mrs. Don-o]

ping

[linda_22003]

I read the headline too fast, and read it as "Mother" rather than "Saint" Theresa..... how do I get that picture out of my head?!?!?!?

[Larry Lucido]

LOL! Me too.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I suppose she's next...

[Larry Lucido]

While I don't trust moviemakers generally, I would aver that sainthood and sex aren't mutually exclusive.

[NYer]

"sassy" St. Teresa of Avila

Saint Teresa was born in Avila, Spain, March 28, 1515. She died in Alba, October 4, 1582. Her family origins have been traced to Toledo and Olmedo. Her father, Alonso de Cepeda, was a son of a Toledan merchant, Juan Sanchez de Toledo and Ines de Cepeda, originally from Tordesillas. Juan transferred his business to Avila, where he succeeded in having his children marry into families of the nobility. In 1505 Alonso married Catalina del Peso, who bore him two children and died in 1507. Two years later Alonso married the 15-year-old Beatriz de Ahumada of whom Teresa was born.

FULL TEXT

[Yo-Yo]

Somebody's looking pretty

SASSY!

[Pyro7480]

While I don't trust moviemakers generally, I would aver that sainthood and sex aren't mutually exclusive.

Sure. One of the more famous examples is St. Thomas More. He had children. But St. Teresa was a nun. She took a vow of celibacy. She wouldn't be a saint if she broke it.

[Mrs. Don-o]

"While I don't trust moviemakers generally, I would aver that sainthood and sex aren't mutually exclusive."

You're quite right. God made all of us sexed, and thought it was "very good." It's a constitutive element of a sacrament, and a sacred image of the relationship of Christ to theChurch, and of the soul to God.

And St. Teresa of Avila was reputed to be beautiful and also vivacious and charming and attractive, as well as being a virgin and mystic who had what you could call an unblushingly passionate love of God.

What sets off the warning signals is the filmmaker's apparent abysmal ignorance. Anyone who thinks the Catholic Church has "suppressed" examples of feminine holiness, or confined women only to virgin-or-whore images, or -- as the director remarks elesewhere in the article --- that the Church would have burned Teresa at the stake if she weren't so pretty (!)(!), is clearly turkey-stupid about Catholicism.

So is it surprising that I have misgivings about the his portrayal of Teresa's God-given sexuality?

[Pyro7480]

If the Church still had that supposed attitude, St. Gianna Molla wouldn't be a saint today!!!

[wideawake]

There is not even a hint of a shred of a notion of a crumb of a scrap of a stitch of a snippet of a sliver of evidence that Saint Teresa was not a virgin.

Anyone who has read her very frank and colloquially-written autobiography would know that.

St. Teresa was a brilliant, funny, no-nonsense lady who loved Jesus more than life itself.

And it is so amusing that people continue recycling this "madonna/whore" image.

Something less than 1% of Catholic women have been either consecrated virgins or reformed prostitutes.

99% have been wives and mothers.

The primary image of women among Catholic men is that of mother - either his mother or the mother of his children.

The secularist trash who are making this m,ovie despise motherhood, and it's telling that they don't mention what St. teresa of Avila was called before she was a saint: Mother Teresa.

[Larry Lucido]

I see now. :-) http://www.karmel.at/eng/teresa.htm

I guess any such speculation would have to be surrounding a time when she considered marriage, but there is nothing I can see to suggest she was unchaste before her vows or that she ever broke them afterward.

[Larry Lucido]

What sets off the warning signals is the filmmaker's apparent abysmal ignorance.

True.

[Rutles4Ever]

“So far, [the Catholic Church has]only offered two models to women — The Virgin Mother, which, in my opinion, is an aberration and quite harmful to women

[Salvation]

Thanks for the ping!

[Salvation]

Saint Teresa of Avila[Doctor of the Church]

St. Teresa of Avila

[RexBeach]

How does this meathead think that the Virgin Mother is harmful to women? That is insane.

[Miss Marple]

The questioning of St. Theresa's virginity is simply astoundingly ignorant. This person apparently doesn't understand history or social customs of the time.

It would have been absolutely unthinkable for Theresa to have not been a virgin...daughters were chaperoned and protected from male influence before marriage. Does no one know anything anymore?

Besides that, we have a pretty frank and clear description of St. Theresa's life.

Grrr.

[frogjerk]

God,

You raised up St. Teresa by Your Spirit so that she could manifest to the Church the way to perfection. Nourish us with the food of heaven, and fire us with a desire for holiness.

Amen.

[COBOL2Java]

Here's this gentleman's prior work:

Color me singularly unimpressed by his stewardship of a movie on St. Teresa of Avila...

[Peach]

This is really outrageous. The left and non-religious among us just cannot stand that we have anyone we look up to.

My confirmation name is Theresa and so named because of this particular saint and I am taking this quite personally.

[Claud]

“So far, [the Catholic Church has]only offered two models to women — The Virgin Mother, which, in my opinion, is an aberration and quite harmful to women

One need read no further.

Loriga, I don't have words for your monumental stupidity...so I pray instead that when you leave this world, your insides don't turn to charcoal when you catch a furtive glimpse of the Holy Virgin of Virgins in all her God-given beauty.

[ichabod1]

I'm a man and my confirmation name is Therese, for the other one. I think it wonderful that a Catholic man can take the name of a female saint and nobody bats an eye. I think it's telling regarding how women are perceived in the Catholic Church. If anything, we put them on a bit of a pedestal and ascribe to them virtues that they could never live up to -- regular women that is.

[Pyro7480]

So far, [the Catholic Church has]only offered two models to women — The Virgin Mother, which, in my opinion, is an aberration and quite harmful to women

There is one creature who thinks the Virgin Mother is an "abberation" - the one who is often depicted lying underneath her heel. So I know where this character is getting his notions from.

[Juana la Loca]

I agree. The Church has given us many holy women to emulate. Loriga is clearly a moron.

One small correction to your post, Edith Stein is not a Doctor of the Church, though many believe she eventually will be.

[ELS]

Perhaps the "filmmaker" is confused by Bernini's statue of St. Teresa in spiritual ecstasy.

[Pyro7480]

You're more charitable than I am, ELS. But if that's part of it, he's apparently not the only one.

From Ecstasy of St. Theresa

Some modern critics dismiss the semi-syncopal religious experiences as orgasmic psychologic phenomena rather than spiritual encounters. In particular, the body posture and facial expression of St. Teresa have caused some to assign her experience as one of climactic moment.

Titillating as such theory may be, however, most serious scholars of Baroque scholars doubt that Bernini, a follower of the mystical exercises of followers of St. Ignatius of Loyola consciously intended to depict an episode of lust fulfilled. Bernini here matures his attempt to express the facial and body expressions of a neurologic state of divine joy, and the results are a transfiguring coma, the so-called Sleep of God, common to the mystics. It would have not been unusual for devout daily church-goers like Bernini to spend hours at prayer each day. Mystics like Theresa would affect days, often unfed, to achieve such visions. The expression here is more like that of the joy of heavenly encounter found in Bernini's Blessed Ludovica Albertoni in her deathbed.

It just goes to show that modern society is obsessed and addicted to sex and all the perversions of it.

[wagglebee]

“So far, they’ve only offered two models to women — The Virgin Mother, which, in my opinion, is an aberration and quite harmful to women, and the redeemed whore symbolised by Mary Magdalene... The Church hasn’t been able to find a better explanation for women ..."

This is almost too pathetic to even comment on.

Scripture portrays Mary Magdalene as a devout follower of our Lord. Nowhere does it indicate that she was a whore and there is certainly nothing that would lead to the conclusion that she was the wife of Jesus which seems to be the newest blasphemy.

The feminazi left seeks to destroy the Church. All of their attempts thus far have been soundly rejected, so now they are simply fabricating nonsense to further their agenda.

I do not know nearly as much as I should about St. Teresa, but it sounds to me as if they are trying to impose modern perceptions on an historical figure. She was a very charismatic and fascinating woman in her time, so they try to extrapolate from this that it must have been a result of her sexuality. What the left cannot seem to comprehend is that when a person experiences a true relationship with God, it changes them and others will see this in their outward appearance. St. Teresa's relationship with our Lord was beyond anything most of us can ever imagine and to try to diminish this by perverting her life on film is an insult to all Christians.

[Mrs. Don-o]

You're right: Edith Stein has been proposed as Doctor of the Church, but not yet so proclaimed.

St. Bridget of Sweden, St. Catherine of Siena and St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein of Auschwitz) were proclaimed by John Paul II as Co-Patronesses of Europe.

BTW, St. Bridget was the mother of 8, widow, visionary, and religious foundress. And Patroness of Europe. Pretty good for a Church that says women are all either virgins or whores. [sarc/, if anybody out there doesn't get it..]

[Biggirl]

Also do not forget the women who got the devotion to the Divine Mercy started, St. Maria Faustina. She is a great female saint.

[Biggirl]

Also for American saints, there is a saint that was a member of a rich Philadepha family, St. Katherine Drexel. She had used her inherited money to start up an order to educate African and Native Americans.

[technochick99]

You could also question just what is wrong with a redeemed sinner as well? The Lord knows that this cradle Catholic sinned in my 25 years wandering in the desert of atheism before coming back home. Forgiveness, the prodigal son/daughter, and redemption are all very good things for people to reflect on...

[Nihil Obstat]

Blessed be God in His angels and in His saints. Saint Teresa pray for us. Sacred Heart of Jesus have mercy on us. Ray Loriga and Geraldine Chaplin, go soak your heads.

[RexBeach]

I agree...did somewhat the same thing, but I always went to mass on Christmas and Easter.

The guy who made the film is still a meathead.

Yours thoughts are well taken.

[mrs. a]

“So far, they’ve only offered two models to women — The Virgin Mother, which, in my opinion, is an aberration and quite harmful to women, and the redeemed whore symbolised by Mary Magdalene... The Church hasn’t been able to find a better explanation for women ..."

I was always taught that the Virgin Mary was a model of prayerful acceptance to women AND MEN. None of the boys or girls in my religion classes had any problem with that!

[escapefromboston]

HAHAHAHA. This was the first thing I thought of when I read the word "Sassy".

[LadyDoc]

Actually, if you read her autobiography, St. Teresa liked men (i.e. a virgin, but not a prissy man hating virgin or a clueless asexual virgin nor a man hating lesbian).

She was probably what we call a "tom boy"...tried to run away to be a martyr with her brother as a kid...and when she was a teenager, got in trouble with her strict father over an incident which probably was just meeting a boyfriend outside of her home, which in those days was a no no.

So her father shipped her off to a convent school, where she became religious...but not too religious.

She decided to be a nun because she was worried she'd succumb to temptations to sin and go to hell...but she didn't chose the strict Augustinian nuns who taught her, but the liberal Carmelites...

Her reason was that they weren't strict, but there might have been another reason: The Augustinians required "blood lines" and her grandfather was Jewish...

While in the Carmelite training period (novitiate) she had an episode of illness where people thought she was dead. In today's psychiatry, she was catatonic from a dissociation reaction, something usually associated with sexual tension. She recovered and became a nun who enjoyed visiting outside the convent and with visitors, both men and women, in the convent parlour.

Even her "visions" might have been imagination or perhaps real visions with a lot of egotism... in those days when lots of people had "visions"

By today's standards, all this was innocent: One doubts she did more than flirt.

But at age 30 she was "born again" and the visions probably became a genuine voice of God...

She went on to become a reformer of the Carmelite orders, and continued to have friendships with men...but she no longer had visits in the parlor nor visited relatives. She spent most of her time in prayer, and used her friendships with others to promote love of God and reform of the very lax religious life in Convents and monasteries (you think Pedophilia is new? Read Catholic reformers about the bad monasteries back then)...
And she reminded an increasingly rigid intolerant Spanish church that God is love..

.and was investigated by the inquisition for such a radical thought. Her writing of her life was an "answer" to the Inquisition...luckily, they didn't find her "tainted" Jewish heritage, or she probably would have been killed as a heretic...

Will her "sexiness" ruin the film? depends how they present it. Sounds like the filmmakers are clueless, so I worry about the film...

[Running On Empty]

Would you please explain to me how it can be a definitive diagnosis, over 400 years later, that Teresa suffered from "dissociation reaction"?

[ladyinred]

The quote you highlighted in your post is so offensive that I am nearly speechless. These reprobates have many loose women to do movies about in their own neighborhood, why insult the beliefs of others to indulge in their raunchy lifestyles and fantasies? (okay, I did say nearly speechless!) :-)

[DesignerChick]

"Loriga said: “I’m convinced she’ll be the sexiest Saint Teresa ever seen on screen. Teresa was also a very pretty woman. In my opinion, her pleasing aspect helped to save her from the stake. Very likely, plainer and less sassy women were burnt alive for less.”

He said he had taken care not to portray the Church as the “bad guy”, but added: “I think that the conflict between the Catholic Church and women hasn’t been resolved. "

He is an ignorant, anti-Catholic, sex obsessed, ignorant, completely clueless ....did I mention ignorant?
He apparently gets his in depth History of the Catholic Church from what ever gossip is passed around liberal cocktail parties and how ever many 'raised Catholic' people he's slept with.

[Mrs. Don-o]

You must be quite a fan of our Teresita! I enjoyed your post.

I have a favorite icon of her with her castanets. Not your typical Carmelite!

Her enemies wanted to do her in because she opposed the laxity, luxury and scandal of 16th century monastic life; which opened her up to the suspicion, not that she was secretly Jewish, but that she was secretly Protestant. (No good deed goes unpunished, as we know.)

Nade te turbe!

[Mrs. Don-o]

That's "Nada" te turbe (this brain needs more caffeine...)

And BTW, I just read an article that said Teresa's early malady was caused, not by "sexual tension," but good ol' boring malaria, plus the nearly-fatal "cure" given her by a quack medico.

http://www.helpfellowship.org/Articles%20of%20Interest/teresa_of_avila_by_raymond_helmick_SJ.htm

[Running On Empty]

You are correct. :-)

It does make a difference to know that.

Here are some gems from her writings:

"Let your desire be the vision of God
Your fear the loss of Him
Your joy in that which may take you to Him
And your life shall be in great peace."

"Never is His hand weary of giving...and the source of His mercies can never be exhausted."

"This is not a time for believing in everyone. Believe only those whom you see modeling their lives on Christ."

"You know, I no longer govern (here she means her convent) in the way I used to. Love does everything. And I am not sure if that is because no one gives me cause to reprove, or because I have discovered that things go better that way."

"Even with these desires that God gives us to help others, we may make many mistakes, and thus it is better to do what our Rule tells us...to try to live ever in silence and hope, and the Lord will take care of his own."

And, of course, this one you which posted partially in Spanish:

"Let nothing disturb you
Let nothing frighten you
All things are passing
God only is changeless
Patience gains all things
Who has God wants nothing
God alone suffices"

[Running On Empty]

you which = which you

[pray4liberty]

If the Church still had that supposed attitude, St. Gianna Molla wouldn't be a saint today!!!

St. Jane Frances de Chantal or St. Elizabeth Seton wouldn't be either.

[LadyDoc]

Actually, since I have seen cerebral malaria, I agree with you.

However, the "psychiatric" discussions of Teresa's illness says it's hysterical conversion reaction, and I was quoting these experts, who had probably never seen a case...

And I agree with the expert on Teresa who says their stress on sexuality is not consistent with the culture back then.

But I still say that Teresa was not a wilting virgin, but a woman who sublimated her sexuality into friendship and reform of the church. In well balanced people, that's what celibacy is about: sublimating, not suppressing or ignoring one's innate sexuality.

[Mrs. Don-o]

"Wilting" virgin?! Ha ha!

No, our Teresa was a passionate person. She had her seasons of struggle.

The early theologian Origen, in a moment of extremely bad judgment, castrated himself. This is one (big) reason he is not a canonized saint: the Church considers castration --- in fact, any sort of deliberate self-mutilaion --- a sin. And I'd say that would include emotional as well as physical castration.

"Celibate" doesn't mean "a frozen meat-locker dedicated unto the Lord." It means that the heat of your temperament (like Teresa's) is cultivated for a specialized and surprisingly beautiful use.

Hasve you read "The Interior Castle"?

[Aquinasfan]

Every year EWTN airs a Granada-TV, Spanish language mini-series from the early '80s about the life of Theresa of Avila. It's absolutely wonderful. It's the best treatment of religious life that I've ever seen on film. I consider it to be as good a mini-series as "Brideshead Revisited." These are the two mini-series that I would take to a desert island.