PETER, THE POWERFUL SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR OF TERESA OF AVILA

I was astonished and taken aback when I learned the great Teresa of Avila had a most influential confessor and spiritual director, Peter of Alcantara, and the Lord gave Teresa a vision; no request begged in the name of Peter of Alcantara would be refused. All prayers asked through Peter would be heard. 

Still ignorant of Peter's life, I immediately asked his help overcoming my bad habits. Our Lord's promise to Teresa in the 1500s is still true for us today. 

My amazement at the confidence Teresa of Avila put in Peter, she treated him like a saint, and relied on his judgment when she was restoring the Carmelite Order, owed to my own ignorance. How had I never heard of Peter?

Peter was born in 1499, 7 years after Spain discovered America, and he was born into privilege, his family were affluent, his father was a governor, and his mother a noble. He could have had anything he wanted, but he entered the Friars Minor when he was 16. 

At the time, religious life in Spain, even among the Franciscans was so lax as to be laughable, they had servants and the monasteries and friaries attracted lazy types who wanted to have the esteem of the faithful and off wealthy donors. 

Lest we forget, Spain at the time was the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world. When Peter joined forces with Teresa, they were partners in reforming their orders - she for the White Friars -  the order of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel. And Peter for the brown robed followers of Saint Francis. 

This did not make Teresa or Peter popular with their fellow priests and nuns who resented being made aware of their lack of prayer and penance. Teresa slept with a jagged stone for a pillow. Peter disciplined his somnolence and only slept a maximum of 2 hours a night for 40 years. 

Both Teresa and Peter became mystics, and while their own folds held them in contempt, they were sought out by those with supreme authority. 

Teresa was sought out by Saint Francis Borgia who was utterly convinced she was an inspired mouthpiece of the Lord. Peter had the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, beating a path to his humble, tiny cell so he could ask the gaunt Franciscan friar to be his confessor. Peter refused.

Peter was in his life a miracle worker; during famine he caused the multiplication of food like Our Lord multiplied the loaves and fish, and once Peter planted his walking stick in the ground which instantly transformed into a fig tree with ripe fruit hanging from it. 

Saint John of Capistrano, after whom the town where swallows return in Orange County is named, appeared to him. 

Bodily phenomena was apparent, his love toward God and his fellow man smoldered so greatly in his heart that he had to leave his minute cell and seek cool air outside. 

Peter is the patron saint of nocturnal adoration, owing to the long nights, at least 14,600 of them when he prayed in the wee hours. 

When he died, Teresa saw his soul enter Heaven, and he appeared to her and said, "O happy penances which won for me such blessedness!"  

A very happy feast of Saint Peter of Alcantara, let us pray in union for all our intentions with the same confidence of Teresa, that we might know his intercession as she did. 

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The classic painting of St Peter of Alcantara hearing Teresa of Avila's confession was executed by Jose Garcia Hidalgo. The Apparition of St John of Capistrano was executed by Luca Giordano.