FERNÁNDEZ SOLAR, TERESA DE LOS ANDES, ST.

Baptized Juana Enriquita Josefina de la Corazón Sagrada, known in religion as Teresa of Jesus, Discalced Carmelite mystic, victim soul; b. July 13, 1900, Santiago, Chile; d. April 12, 1920, Los Andes Carmel, Chile. Juana was one of seven children of Miguel Fernández Jaraquemada and Lucía Solar Armstrong. She vowed perpetual virginity at age 15 (1915). Although she was often sick, upon completing her education at the finest schools in Santiago, Juana entered the Carmel of Los Andes and received the name Teresa of Jesus (May 7, 1919) and began her novitiate five months later. At the beginning of March 1920, she predicted her impending death. After she fell gravely ill with typhus on Good Friday, April 2, 1920, arrangements were made for her to make her profession in articulo mortis on April 6. She died six days later. She left behind numerous letters and a diary (Historia de la vida de una de sus hijas, 1917–20) filled with spiritual wisdom, the fruit of her intense prayer life and mystical gifts. Miracles began to occur at her tomb in Los Andes soon after her death. Teresa, Chile's first saint, was both beatified (April 3, 1987, Santiago) and canonized (March 21, 1993, Rome) by Pope John Paul II. She is a patroness of the sick.

Feast: July 13.

Bibliography: L'Osservatore Romano, Eng. ed., no. 18 (1987): 8–9. e. t. gil de muro, Cada vez que mire el mar (Burgos 1992). m. d. griffin, ed., Testimonies to Blessed Teresa of the Andes (Washington, D.C. 1991); God, the Joy of My Life (Hubertus, Wisc. 1994), includes the saint's spiritual diary. m. ortega riquelme, Teresa de los Andes: testimonio y desafío (Santiago, Chile1993). a. m. risopatrÓn l., Teresa de los Andes, Teresa de Chile (Santiago 1988).

[k. i. rabenstein]