"Sainte Thérèse" by Louis Bertrand is a religious biography and critical essay written in the early 20th century. The work presents Teresa of Ávila as a rigorous, lucid witness to the supernatural, countering rationalist and medical reductions, and invites general readers to encounter her voice directly. Blending spiritual portraiture with cultural and historical context, it argues that Teresa’s testimony matters profoundly for an age tempted to forget transcendence.
The opening of the book frames a contemporary crisis of meaning with a scene at Notre-Dame, then proposes Teresa’s confessions as the most compelling answer to modern doubt about the supernatural. The author rejects pseudo-medical explanations of mysticism, insists on preparation and tact in approaching such subjects, and sets his aim: not a scholarly life, but an examination of Teresa’s testimony as “messenger of the supernatural.” He situates her within Spain’s intense sixteenth‑century religious culture, notes affinities with Saint Augustine, and highlights the vast psychological riches of mystical literature. The narrative then turns to place and character: Avila’s austere stone city contrasts with Teresa’s warm, clear, practical genius, while Toledo better fits her stylistic “distinction.” Her family is sketched as devout and vigorous—an exemplary father, a gentle mother, and brothers who sailed to the New World—within a city shaped by Dominicans, early Jesuits, and notable lay piety. Childhood episodes signal vocation: a thwarted attempt to seek martyrdom with her brother, makeshift hermitages, early charity, and a filial entrusting to Our Lady. Finally, the author evokes her presence—beauty, robust bearing, later illnesses, cherished relics—and her lively mind, avid for books yet anchored in a concrete, unsentimental realism that will mark her spiritual witness. (This is an automatically generated summary.)