ABSTRACT

In Book Four of the Book of the Life Teresa describes the crucial encounter she had with her uncle Pedro during a time of physical, emotional and spiritual crisis:

When I was on my way, that uncle of mine I mentioned who lived along the road gave me a book. It is called The Third Spiritual Alphabet1 and endeavours to teach the prayer of recollection. … And so I was very happy with this book and resolved to follow that path with all my strength… . For during the twenty years after this period of which I am speaking, I did not nd a master, I mean a confessor, who understood me, even though I looked for one. (V: 4.7)

Her uncle Pedro was clearly a wise spiritual director. In giving the young woman Osuna’s text he was effectively placing in her hands a primer of late medieval theologia mystica/ ‘mystical theology’ and by studying it Teresa was thus able to gain a grounding in that tradition denied her by her inability (unlike John of the Cross) to study theology at university.