Thus was
founded the Order of Barefooted Carmelites, a body of priests and
nuns, who have in their peculiar way accomplished very much for
charity, gentleness, and self-help in the world, and whose
schools and convents have been instituted in all parts of the
earth.
Theresa de Cepeda died in 1582, greatly beloved and revered for
her strict but gentle life, her great and helpful charities, and
her sincere desire to benefit her fellow-men. After her death, so
great was the respect paid her that she was canonized, as it is
called: that is, lifted up as an example of great goodness to the
world; and she is to-day known and honored among devout Roman
Catholics as St. Theresa of Avila.
Whatever we may think of the peculiar way in which her life was
spent; however we may regard the story of her troubles with her
conscience, her understanding of what she deemed her duty, and
her sinking of what might have been a happy and joyous life in
the solitude and severity of a convent, we cannot but think of
her as one who wished to do right, and who desired above all else
to benefit the world in which she lived and labored. Her story is
that of a most extraordinary and remarkable woman, who devoted
her life to what she deemed the thing demanded of her.
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