Teresa de Cartagena facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Teresa de Cartegena
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| Born | circa 1425 |
| Died | after 1478 |
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Teresa de Cartagena was an important writer and nun who lived in Spain during the Middle Ages (around 1425 to after 1478). She is known as the first Spanish woman to write books and share deep spiritual thoughts.
Teresa became deaf sometime between 1453 and 1459. This experience greatly influenced her two famous books: Arboleda de los enfermos (meaning Grove of the Sick) and Admiraçión operum Dey (meaning Wonder at the Works of God). Many people believe her second book was the first text written by a Spanish woman that supported women's rights.
Not much is known about Teresa's life. She came from a family of conversos, which were Jewish people who had converted to Christianity. Her grandfather, Rabbi Shlomo ha-Levi, became a Christian around 1390. He was later known as Pablo de Santa María and became a bishop (a high-ranking church leader) in Burgos. Teresa was also the niece of Alonso de Cartagena, another important church leader.
Before she became deaf, Teresa joined a Franciscan convent (a place where nuns live) in Burgos around 1440. Later, in 1449, she moved to another convent, the Cistercian Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas, also in Burgos. It was there that she became deaf. Some historians believe her family arranged this move for political reasons, and because the Franciscan nuns did not like conversos.
Teresa wrote her first book, Arboleda de los enfermos, to share her feelings about being deaf and feeling alone. About a year or two later, she wrote Admiraçión operum Dey. She wrote this second book to defend her first one. This was because many male critics said that a woman could not have written such a smart and well-written book. Both of her books have survived to today thanks to a single copy made by a person named Pero López del Trigo in 1481.
Teresa is very important as Spain's first writer to support women's rights. She also contributed to a larger group of medieval women writers in Europe, like Hildegard von Bingen and Christine de Pizan. Both Arboleda and Admiraçión tell parts of her own life story. They give us a rare and real look into the thoughts of a woman from the Middle Ages. She passed away sometime after 1478.
Contents
Teresa's First Book: Arboleda de los enfermos
Teresa's first book talks about how her deafness affected her life and her spiritual journey. At first, she felt very sad and lost when she became deaf. But then, she started to think deeply in the quiet world of her deafness. She eventually decided that God had made her deaf to help her focus on spiritual things and not be distracted by the noise of everyday life.
After much thought, Teresa believed that her soul would have been purer if she had never heard speech at all. She felt that speech made people focus on the outside world and forget their inner spiritual world.
The person who copied her book, Pero López, said that Teresa wrote it for Juana de Mendoza. Juana was the wife of Gómez Manrique, a famous poet and important political figure of that time. However, in Arboleda, Teresa addresses a "virtuous lady," which suggests she was writing for a wider female audience.
The type of book Teresa wrote, called a "book of consolations," was usually written by men for men. To be humble and careful with her male readers, Teresa often mentioned how weak her mind was. She used phrases like "the lowliness and grossness of my womanly intellect."
Teresa's Second Book: Admiraçión operum Dey
Even though Teresa tried to be humble in Arboleda, some men still said she had copied her work. In response, she wrote Admiraçión operum Dey. In this book, she argued that if God could create men who could write, He could just as easily create women who could write. She pointed out that men had been writing for centuries, which made it seem normal for them to write. But this did not mean it was more natural for them than for women.
Teresa cleverly argued that if God gives a gift to men, He can give the same gift to women. She explained her connection with God and how she wrote her books:
People are amazed by what I wrote, but I am amazed by what I kept quiet. I am not amazed because I doubt, nor do I insist on my wonder. My experience makes me sure. The God of Truth knows that I had no other teacher. I did not ask any other learned person for help. I did not copy from other books, as some people wrongly say. The truth is this: God, who knows everything, Lord of all good things, Father of mercy, God of all comfort, He who comforts us in all our troubles, He alone comforted me. He alone taught me. He alone read to me. He listened to me when I was in great pain and lost in many troubles. I called out to Him with the Prophet, saying, "Save me, O God: for the waters have come in even to my soul" [Psalm 68:2].
Teresa concluded that her critics were questioning God's power to give gifts. She felt this was an offense to God. The "virtuous lady" mentioned in this second book, like the first, represents a female reader who understands Teresa's concerns. To make her points clearer, Teresa used images and stories from the Bible about women. For example, she mentioned the powerful Judith, who killed Holofernes when a whole army of men could not. Teresa also praised the quiet, spiritual life of a housewife.
Teresa believed that the peaceful and spiritual world of the home was a place for thinking and learning. This was very different from the warring world of men outside. While she noted that men and women are not equal in every way, Teresa also said that their different roles complement each other. This means their differences make them work well together.
Editions of Teresa's Works
- Cartagena, Teresa de. Arboleda de los enfermos. Admiración operum Dey. Edited by Lewis Joseph Hutton. Anejo 16 del Boletín de la Real Academia Española. Madrid: Real Academia Española, 1967.
- Cartagena, Teresa de. The Writings of Teresa de Cartagena: Translated with Introduction, Notes, and Interpretive Essay. Translated by Dayle Seidenspinner-Núñez. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1998.
- Castro Ponce, Clara Esther. "Teresa de Cartagena. Arboleda de Los Enfermos. Admiraçión Operum Dey. Edición Crítica Singular." Dissertation. Brown U, 2001.
- Gallego Fdez. de Aránguiz, Myriam: Teresa de Cartagena. Los tratados de una escritora burgalesa del siglo XV. Introducción y edición modernizada de Arboleda de los enfermos y Admiración de las obras de Dios, Burgos, Monte Carmelo, 2020, ISBN: 978-84-18303-38-8.
- Baury, Ghislain: Thérèse de Carthagène : Bosquet des malades. Admiration des œuvres de Dieu. Paroles et silence d'une femme dans la Castille du XVe siècle, París, e-Spania Books, 2021, ISBN: 9782919448418, read online.
See also
In Spanish: Teresa de Cartagena para niños
