St. John of Avila and His Approval of the Life of St. Teresa of Avila

May 10 is the feast day of St. John of Avila, a sixteenth century Spanish mystic who was canonized in 1970.

On the Inquisitor's recommendation, St. Teresa of Avila asked him to review her second draft of The Book of Her Life, which he approved, allowing its wider distribution.  A mystical author, his best known work is Listen, O Daughter, which is available in English through the Paulist Press Classics of Western Spirituality series.  The 1917 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia says that "the spread of the Jesuits in Spain is attributed to his friendship for that body."

French author Jean-Jacques Antier's book on the life of St. Teresa of Avila has a good, short description of the review of The Life from the time Teresa first wrote it until St. John of Avila's approval several years later.  Antier has written more than 50 books (see the Amazon France page of books by Jean-Jacques Antier).  Only one of them, to my knowledge, has ever been translated and published in English, which is his Charles de Foucauld, published by Ignatius Press.  Here is his description of the process of approval of The Book of the Life of St. Teresa of Avila, and St. John of Avila's role in it (my translation):

"In 1561, in Avila, Teresa, on the order of her Dominican confessor Pedro Ibañez, and especially upon divine injunction, wrote a first version of that autobiography that she completed in 1562 during a stay with her friend Doña Luisa de La Cerda, in Toledo.  At the end of 1562, she submitted the text to the Dominican Garcia de Toledo who asked her to revise it and to complete it, which she did between 1563 and 1565.  Only the second version is preserved. . . . That intimate text was not destined to be published.  Teresa called it mi alma ("my soul"), a sort of general confession enriched with anecdotes.  Recognizing that the manuscript could get away from her, Teresa, hardly sure of herself, submitted it to the Inquisitor Francisco de Soto "so that he would approve it or burn it."  He approved it overall, while suggesting corrections and advising her to then submit the text to St. John of Avila, the Apostle of Andalusia, the uncontested master in matters of mystical theology.  "He has so much experience and authority that, if he approves it, you may always live in peace." 

"Corrections made, in 1568, Teresa entrusted the manuscript to Luis de La Cerda, who, during a trip to Andalusia, was to place it in the saint's own  hands.  But she kept it to read, which irritated Teresa: "Hurry to give it to him.  I would not want the holy man to die without reading it. While waiting, hide it.  That is my own soul that I am placing in your hands."  Like her advisers, Teresa feared the fires of the Inquisition, for it cautioned women against making silent prayer, and especially against teaching it. 

"It was only in September 1568 that John of Avila received the book and approved it without reservation, to Teresa's great relief: "The master of Avila wrote to me at length.  He is satisfied with everything."  The saint died the following year.  In the meantime, many copies were circulated.  The book was read and appreciated by various specialists who became Teresa's disciples."

Jean-Jacques Antier, Thérèse d'Avila: De la crainte à l'amour