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 Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes 100th Anniversary of Death Scott 1741 (2020) Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes (1900-1920) was a Discalced Carmelite nun and is one of South America’s most popular saints. Juana Fernández Solar was a pious daughter of a wealthy family in Santiago, Chile. However, she also displayed an unpredictable angry temperament, a character trait which changed when she dedicated her life to God. She also had foreknowledge that she would die at a young age. At age six she felt that Jesus had a claim on her heart and at age fifteen she made a private vow of celibacy. She taught catechism and provided help to poor children. After reading the lives of St. Teresa of Avila and Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, at the age of nineteen she joined the Carmel in Los Andes, Chile, a poor foundation which lacked electricity and basic sanitation. Historian David Farmer states, “She dedicated her life to love, suffering, prayer, and service. She dedicated herself as a ‘victim’ for sanctifying priests and sinners and wrote: ‘I wish to be holy, therefore I will give myself to love...whoever loves has no will except that of the Beloved.’” Her life was enveloped in deep contemplative prayer and bears a resemblance to that of St. Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-1897). Just prior to Easter 1920 she caught typhus (or perhaps the Spanish Flu), made her final vows on 7 April "in periculo mortis" (“in danger of death”), and died on 12 April. She was beatified in 1987 and canonized in 1993 by St. John Paul II. She was Chile’s first saint. Her shrine is located in Rinconada in the Los Andes Province of Chile. It is an unfinished church. The Carmel at Los Andes, Chile, is too small to receive the 100,000 pilgrims who flock to her shrine annually. Issued in 2020, the stamp’s value is €2.40, the fee for a priority mail letter to South America. It was issued in sheets of ten stamps. Milan artist Marco Ventura designed the portrait for the St. Teresa. REFERENCES: |
