On July 13, 1900, Teresa of Los Andes was born in Santiago, Chile. She was baptized Juana Enriqueta Josefina of the Sacred Hearts Fernandez Solar. Her close friends referred to her as Juanita, which is the name she is most often recognized today.
Surrounded by her family, which included her maternal grandfather, uncles, aunts, cousins, siblings (three brothers and two sisters) and her parents Miguel Fernandez and Lucia Solar, she enjoyed a typical childhood. Her family was wealthy and led a devoted, consistent, and faith-filled Christian life.
Juana received her education at the Sacred Heart College run by French nuns. Her family and college experience shaped her short but eventful existence. God inspired her to dedicate herself to him as a religious in the Discalced Carmelite Nuns when she was fourteen years old. On May 7, 1919, this wish came true for her when she entered the small monastery of the Holy Spirit in Los Andes, which is located about 90 kilometers outside of Santiago.
On October 14 of the same year, she was given the Carmelite habit and given the name Teresa of Jesus as she started her novitiate. She had always known that she would die early. Furthermore, the Lord made this known to her. She told her confessor this a month before she was to leave this life.
She took all of this with joy, composure, and assurance. She felt confident that she would carry on throughout eternity with her purpose to make God known and loved.
On the evening of April 12, 1920, Teresa departed this life and went to be with her heavenly Father after enduring numerous internal struggles and unbearable physical agony brought on by a severe typhus attack that ended her life. With great fervor, she received the final sacraments. On April 7, facing imminent death, she made her religious profession. She was three months short of her twentieth birthday, with another six months to complete her canonical novitiate and become legally entitled to make her religious profession. As a novice Discalced Carmelite, she passed away.
On April 3, 1987, Pope John Paul II beatified her in Santiago, Chile. In the Andean Sanctuary of Auco-Rinconada, her remains are held in high regard. She is the first person to be declared a saint from Chile. Outside of Europe, she is the first Discalced Carmelite Nun to be declared a saint.
Other Saints of the Day
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Saint Erkemboden
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